Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Association between ambient carbon monoxide and secondary hyperparathyroidism in nondiabetic patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis

Background Secondary hyperparathyroidism (SHPT) is a major disorder in patients with chronic renal disease with or without dialysis. Air pollution has been confirmed as being associated with increased incidence of human morbidity and mortality. To our knowledge, investigating air pollution as a dialysis-unrelated factor for SHPT in patients undergoing dialysis is limited. We developed this study to assess the effect of air pollution and other important risk factors on SHPT in patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis (PD). Materials and methods We recruited a total of 141 patients who did not have diabetes mellitus, were nonsmokers, and were undergoing PD in this cross-sectional study. We analyzed the difference in air quality based on the patients’ living areas. We estimated demographic, hematological, nutritional, inflammatory, biochemical, air pollutant, and dialysis-related data based on this cross-sectional study. Subgroup analysis of the relationship between air pollutants and the clinical variables and having or not having hyperparathyroidism (HPT) (intact parathyroid hormone level ≥180 pg/dL) was also performed. Results A total of 141 patients undergoing PD (30 men and 111 women) were enrolled in the study. Sixty-eight patients had SHPT. In a binary logistic regression, high environmental CO exposure (odds ratio [OR] 3.22, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.42–7.28; P=0.005), serum phosphate levels (OR 1.66, 95% CI 1.17–2.37; P=0.005), hypoalbuminemia (OR 3.76, 95% CI 1.29–10.94; P=0.015), and use of calcitriol (OR 8.25, 95% CI 3.43–19.85; P<0.001) were positively associated with SHPT. Conclusion The findings of this cross-sectional study indicated the presence of an association between environmental CO exposure and SHPT in patients undergoing PD who did not have diabetes mellitus. Therefore, poor environmental air quality may be a risk factor for deterioration of SHPT in patients undergoing PD.
Aging Increases Cytochrome P450 4A Modulation of α1-Adrenergic Vasoconstriction in Mesenteric Arteries

Aging is associated with peripheral vascular dysfunction. In vascular smooth muscle, cytochrome P450 4A (CYP4A) enzymes form the vasoconstrictor 20-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (20-HETE). 20-HETE acts as an intracellular messenger to modulate vasoconstriction induced by various agonists, including the α1-adrenergic agonist phenylephrine (PE) and endothelin-1 (ET-1). Eicosanoids produced by CYP4A contribute to the elevated vascular tone in hypertension, but the effects of advanced age on CYP4A modulation of vasoconstriction are unknown. Mesenteric arteries were isolated from young (3 to 4 months) and aged (17 to 18 months) Sprague-Dawley rats. Vasoconstriction was induced with PE or ET-1 in the absence or presence of the CYP4A inhibitor DDMS and/or the ETA inhibitor BQ123. CYP4A inhibition with DDMS significantly reduced PE sensitivity in aged rats, but it had no effect in young. Furthermore, in aged rats only, ETA inhibition reduced PE sensitivity while combined inhibition of CYP4A and ETA had no additional effect, suggesting that the pathways work in concert in aging. Exogenous ET-1 constriction was not altered by DDMS in young or aged rats. Overall, our data indicate that aging increases the contribution of CYP4A to α1-adrenergic vasoconstriction in systemic arteries. Understanding aging-related changes in vascular function is important for development of novel targets for the prevention of cardiovascular disease.
Are women more emotionally skilled when it comes to expression of emotions in the foreign language? Gender, emotional intelligence and personality traits in relation to emotional expression in the L2

ABSTRACT The present study investigates the link between gender, emotional intelligence (EI), personality traits and self-reported emotional expression in the second language (L2). Data analysis suggests that gender might not influence self-perceived emotional expression in the L2, as the results of the t-test show that both males and females declare similar frequency of expressing emotions in their L2. However, statistical analysis reports significant differences between males and females as far as personality traits of Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability/Neuroticism and EI trait of Emotional Regulation are concerned. At the same time, correlation analysis shows that personality traits of Extraversion, Openness and Agreeableness together with the EI trait of Empathy are strongly linked to emotional expression in the L2, suggesting that there might be some indirect relationship between gender and emotional expression in the L2. The results of this study highlight the complexity of the relationship between gender, language, personality, culture and emotions, suggesting that both EI and personality should be incorporated into further research on gender and various aspects of bilingualism.
The effects of price framing on buying behaviour : does ego depletion play a moderating role here?

Price strategies and the situation consumers encounter in a shopping context influence information and consumer behavior in quite different ways. Numerous price strategies can be seen everywhere in the modern society. Whenever we turn on the TV, look through a newspaper, or listen to the radio advertisements with different price strategies immediately jump into our sight. Price is undoubtedly one of the most important market variables. It becomes apparent from the literature that there are numerous ways of price framing. Specifically, price framing is defined as how the offered price is communicated to the consumer (Briesch, Krishna, Lehman &Yuan, 2002). Framing the same information in different ways can have a great impact on consumer decision making and choice behavior. Studies have lately begun to explore the link between self-regulation failure and buying behavior. Lately, Faber and Vohs (2007) found out that when participants’ resources were depleted they were prone to spend more money and felt stronger urges to buy. Until recently, no link has been made between resource depletion and price framing. In the current studies, we test the hypothesis that exerting regulatory resources leaves people less able to resist sales promotions. We suggest that depleted consumers are less able to function effectively and will accept the price strategy, because they fall back to use habits, routine behavior, and automatic processes. The current research investigated whether the manipulation of the atmospheric variables of volume of music and crowding in the store environment, can induce a state of self-regulatory resource depletion and whether this in turn leads to different consumer responses. A 2 (depletion vs. no depletion) x 3 (40% percent-off vs. 10% percent-off vs. control) between subject design is used where crowding and music are the independent variables. In the present study, we give evidences that exerting regulatory resources leaves people less able to resist sales promotions. Furthermore it is shown that depleted consumers are less able to function effectively and will accept the price strategy, even if they are unreasonable (no price information included and a 40 percent-off discount),because they fall back to use habits, routine behavior, and automatic processes. In contrast, when self-regulatory resources remain intact due to a calm store environment, buying rates are significantly lower and consumers think more critically about their buying behavior. In summary, the results assume that self-regulatory resource depletion plays a moderating role in price strategies. Depletion obviously does influence consumer responses in that it leads to higher buying rates.
Radio space and industrial time: music formats, local narratives and technological mediation

Radio is commonly referred to as a ‘secondary medium’ in the broadcasting industry. The phrase conveys the industry's pragmatic view that no one cares whether you listen to radio so long as you do not turn it off. Since it has been displaced by television, radio is expected to accommodate itself technologically and discursively to every situation. Are you brushing your teeth, turning the corner, buying or selling jeans or entering inventory into the computer? So much the better. Your broadcaster respects the fact that these important activities must come first. Radio is humble and friendly, it follows you everywhere. In any event, television makes more money.
Colloquium: Femtosecond optical frequency combs

Recently there has been a remarkable synergy between the technologies of precision laser stabilization and mode-locked ultrafast lasers. This has resulted in control of the frequency spectrum produced by mode-locked lasers, which consists of a regular comb of sharp lines. Thus such a controlled mode-locked laser is a ``femtosecond optical frequency comb generator. '' For a sufficiently broad comb, it is possible to determine the absolute frequencies of all of the comb lines. This ability has revolutionized optical frequency metrology and synthesis. It has also served as the basis for the recent demonstrations of atomic clocks that utilize an optical frequency transition. In addition, it is having an impact on time-domain applications, including synthesis of a single pulse from two independent lasers. In this Colloquium, we first review the frequency-domain description of a mode-locked laser and the connection between the pulse phase and the frequency spectrum in order to provide a basis for understanding how the absolute frequencies can be determined and controlled. Using this understanding, applications in optical frequency metrology and synthesis and optical atomic clocks are discussed. This is followed by a brief overview of how the comb technology is affecting and will affect time-domain experiments.
Hypothermic Machine Preservation Reduces Molecular Markers of Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury in Human Liver Transplantation

Hypothermic machine perfusion (HMP) is in its infancy in clinical liver transplantation. Potential benefits include diminished preservation injury (PI) and improved graft function. Molecular data to date has been limited to extrapolation of animal studies. We analyzed liver tissue and serum collected during our Phase 1 trial of liver HMP. Grafts preserved with HMP were compared to static cold stored (SCS) transplant controls. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR), immunohistochemistry and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were performed on liver biopsies. Expression of inflammatory cytokines, adhesion molecules and chemokines, oxidation markers, apoptosis and acute phase proteins and the levels of CD68 positive macrophages in tissue sections were evaluated. RT‐PCR of reperfusion biopsy samples in the SCS group showed high expression of inflammatory cytokines, adhesion molecules and chemokines, oxidative markers and acute phase proteins. This upregulation was significantly attenuated in livers that were preserved by HMP. Immunofluorescence showed larger numbers of CD68 positive macrophages in the SCS group when compared to the HMP group. TEM samples also revealed ultrastructural damage in the SCS group that was not seen in the HMP group. HMP significantly reduced proinflammatory cytokine expression, relieving the downstream activation of adhesion molecules and migration of leukocytes, including neutrophils and macrophages when compared to SCS controls.
Topologically-constrained latent variable models

In dimensionality reduction approaches, the data are typically embedded in a Euclidean latent space. However for some data sets this is inappropriate. For example, in human motion data we expect latent spaces that are cylindrical or a toroidal, that are poorly captured with a Euclidean space. In this paper, we present a range of approaches for embedding data in a non-Euclidean latent space. Our focus is the Gaussian Process latent variable model. In the context of human motion modeling this allows us to (a) learn models with interpretable latent directions enabling, for example, style/content separation, and (b) generalise beyond the data set enabling us to learn transitions between motion styles even though such transitions are not present in the data.
Lipid Peroxidation and Antioxidant Status in Breast Cancer Patients before and after Therapy

Breast cancer, the third most common cancer worldwide, accounts for the highest morbidity and mortality. Oxidative stress has been implicated in playing a crucial role in the pathogeneses of a number of diseases, including breast cancer. Oxidative stress occurs due to an imbalance in prooxidant and antioxidant levels. The aim of this study is to examine oxidative stress and antioxidant status in patients with breast cancer and to investigate the changes of the lipid peroxidation and antioxidant status in the blood of breast cancer patients before and after therapy. The level of malondialdehyde (MDA), as an index of lipid peroxidation, was measured. Also, the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) enzymes, as well as the level of reduced glutathione (GSH) was measured in groups of preoperative breast cancer patients (n=40), 3 weeks after surgery (n=30), 3 weeks after chemotherapy (n=30) and healthy female controls (n=35). The level of malondialdehyde (MDA) was significantly higher in all groups of breast cancer patients compared to controls (p <0.05). Similarly, antioxidant SOD in preoperative group significantly was increased (p<0.05). However, the levels of GSH and CAT activities were found significantly decreased in the all groups of breast cancer patients compared to control subjects (p<0.05). In addition, there was no significant difference between preoperative, postoperative and after chemotherapy patients. In Conclusions, a poor antioxidant status and high oxidative stress are associated with breast cancer risk. There no difference in the lipid peroxidation and antioxidant status in the blood of breast cancer patients before and after therapy. Prospective studies in a larger population should be carried out to demonstrate our present findings.
Predictive Biomarkers and Personalized Medicine Comprehensive Biomarker Analysis and Final Ef fi cacy Results of Sorafenib in the BATTLE Trial

Purpose: To report the clinical efficacy of sorafenib and to evaluate biomarkers associated with sorafenib clinical benefit in the BATTLE (Biomarker-Integrated Approaches of Targeted Therapy for Lung Cancer Elimination) program. Patients and Methods: Patients with previously treated non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) received sorafenib until progression or unacceptable toxicity. Eight-week disease control rate (DCR), progressionfree survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS) were assessed. Prespecified biomarkers included K-RAS, EGFR, and B-RAF mutations, and EGFR gene copy number. Gene expression profiles from NSCLC cell lines and patient tumor biopsies with wild-type EGFR were used to develop a sorafenib sensitivity signature (SSS). Results: A total of 105 patients were eligible and randomized to receive sorafenib. Among 98 patients evaluable for eight-week DCR, the observed DCR was 58.2%. The median PFS and OS were 2.83 [95% confidence interval (CI), 2.04–3.58] and 8.48months (95%CI, 5.78–10.97), respectively. Eight-week DCR was higher in patients with wild-type EGFR than patients with EGFRmutation (P1⁄4 0.012), and in patients with EGFR gene copy number gain (FISH-positive) versus patients FISH-negative (P1⁄4 0.048). In wild-type EGFR tumors, the SSS was associated with improved PFS (median PFS 3.61 months in high SSS vs. 1.84 months in low SSS; P 1⁄4 0.026) but not with eight-week DCR. Increased expression of fibroblast growth factor-1, NF-kB, and hypoxia pathways were identified potential drivers of sorafenib resistance. Conclusion: Sorafenib demonstrates clinical activity in NSCLC, especially with wild-type EGFR. SSS was associated with improved PFS. These data identify subgroups thatmay derive clinical benefit from sorafenib and merit investigation in future trials. Clin Cancer Res; 1–9. 2013 AACR.
Stress in Academe

This study of the sources and patterns of occupational stress experienced by Israeli faculty members is a partial replication of a study of faculty stress in American universities reported by Gmelch, Lorvich, and Wilke (1983, 1984). A total of 100 faculty members drawn from all Israeli universities were sampled. They were asked to fill out a Hebrew version of the questionnaire developed by Gmelch et al. to measure the degree of stress resulting from various sources and the overall intensity of stress experienced on the job. Comparison of the responses to the questionnaire revealed a high degree of similarity between the two cultures in the patterns of the results. Both the Americans and the Israelis ranked the sources of stress similarly. The intensity of stress experienced by Israelis, however, was reportedly lower than that of their American colleagues. Possible explanations for this difference are offered.
Interweaving Youth Development, Community Development, and Social Change Through Youth Organizing

Community organizing groups that have built coalitions for local change over the past few decades are now involving young people as leaders in efforts to improve quality of life. The current study explores a particularly effective youth organizing initiative through review of organizational documents and collection and analysis of qualitative data. The study finds that this model for youth organizing is effective at producing impacts at multiple levels because it weaves together youth development, community development, and social change into a unified organizing cycle. The initiative encourages participants by promoting psychological empowerment, leadership development, and sociopolitical development. Simultaneously, youth organizing produces community-level impacts, including new program implementation, policy change, and institution building. Social changes include intergenerational and multicultural collaboration in the exercise of power. This interplay between youth development, community development, and social change is discussed in relation to the growing field of youth organizing and other efforts to engage youth in civil society.
Organizational Change Readiness Sentiments: Understanding Middle Manager Sensemaking and Sensegiving

Much has been written about managing change in the workplace, including how to develop change readiness in the organization. However, little is known about how middle managers form their change readiness sentiments, and subsequently influence their subordinates’ readiness beliefs. Drawing on an inductive analysis of interview responses of 80 Indian and American middle managers, three related qualitative studies were conducted to better understand the change readiness sentiments’ sensemaking and sensegiving behaviors of middle managers. In the first paper, a qualitative examination of the initial thoughts and concerns of the middle managers about recently announced organizational changes was conducted. Content analysis of interview responses revealed the soundness of the five change readiness sentiments as proposed by Armenakis and colleagues (1993, 1999). Differences in the change sentiments of Indian and American managers were noted and explained in the light of differences in cultural dimensions. In the second paper, I identified the various readiness cues that middle managers attend to. Additionally, I found that middle managers’ sensemaking occurred in two stages – anticipatory and confirmatory, and that the managers depended on change readiness schemas based on both tacit and explicit cues. Finally, a temporal model of the change readiness sensemaking process is developed based upon the data. In the third paper, I examined how middle managers consciously framed their change readiness sentiments. I found that middle managers employed three readiness framing strategies: (1) diagnostic framing centered on change discrepancy; (2) prognostic framing focused on change appropriateness; and (3) motivational framing concentrated on efficacy, support, and personal valence. Additionally, middle managers were found to perform episodic and everyday actions to reinforce their change readiness frames.
A Study Of Value Orientation And Styles Of Learning As Moderators of Social Behaviour and Academic Achievement Among Adolescents

THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE Of JBottor of $l)ilostopIip IN EDUCATION BY FAKHRUDDIN ALI AHMAD Under the Supervision of Prof. (Mrs.) Roquiya Zainuddin DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY ALIGARH (INDIA) 2008
Approach of RSOR Algorithm Using HSV Color Model for Nude Detection in Digital Images

This paper analyzes the application of pixel segmentation techniques, the recognition and selection of image regions, as well as the performing of operations on the regions found within the digital images in order to detect nudity. The research aims to develop a software tool capable of nudity detection on digital images. The segmentation in the HSV color model (Hue, Saturation, and Value) to locate and remove the pixels corresponding to human skin is used. The algorithm in Recognition, Selection and Operations in Regions (RSOR), to recognize and separate the region with the highest number of skin pixels within the segmented image (largest region), is proposed. Once selected the largest region, the RSOR algorithm calculates the percentage on the segmented image taken from the original one, and then it calculates the percentage on the largest region, in order to identify whether there is a nude in the image. The criteria for appraising if an image depicts a nude is the following: If the percentage of skin pixels in the segmented image, in comparison to the original image, is less than 25% it is not considered a nude, but if it exceeds this percentage, then, the image is a nude. However, when the percentage of the largest region has been estimated and it amounts to less than 35%, the image is definitely not a nude. The final result is a message that informs the user whether or not the image is a nude. The RSOR algorithm obtains a 4.7% false positive, compared to other systems, and it has shown to possess optimum performance for nudity detection.
Prevalence of allergy and anaphylactic symptoms in 210 adult and pediatric patients with mastocytosis in Spain: a study of the Spanish network on mastocytosis (REMA)

Background Mast cells (MCs) play a key role in allergic diseases through the release of inflammatory mediators, which are responsible of allergic symptoms. Mastocytosis is characterized by an abnormal proliferation and accumulation of mast cells, in which mediators are released intermittingly or continuously. Despite these clinical similarities, few studies have addressed the presence of allergic symptoms in mastocytosis patients, including anaphylaxis.