Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Renin–Angiotensin System Blocking Drugs

The two major classes of drugs that target the RAS are the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and the selective AT1 receptor blockers (ARBs). Although both of these drug classes target angiotensin II, the differences in their mechanisms of action have implications for their effects on other pathways and receptors that may have therapeutic implications. Both ACEIs and ARBs are effective antihypertensive agents that have been shown to reduce the risk of cardiovascular and renal events. Direct inhibition of renin –the most proximal aspect of the RAS –became clinically feasible from 2007 with the introduction of aliskiren. This latter drug has been shown to be efficacious for the management of hypertension. Combined therapy of direct renin-inhibitors with ACEIs or ARBs has been tested in some clinical situations as congestive HF and proteinuria with diverse results. This article tries to offer an updated review of current knowledge on the use of RAS blocking drugs in clinical settings.
Vive la Différence: A Comparison of Male-Female Academic Performance

The increase in female participation in University education is a trend that has been obvious for some time. On the basis of the literature on intelligence and achievement testing some of which shows males to be superior in mathematical and scientific areas and females to be superior in humanities and social science areas, it might be expected that performance at the university level would reflect these differential strengths. This expectation should be reinforced as the numbers of males and females in given areas of study become more equal and the effects of selection of the "cream of the crop" are reduced, particularly for women in math-sciences. An examination of data on performance at the University of Alberta gives no support for the expectation of superior performance by males in math-science areas of study.
Assessment of physical fitness in military and security forces: a systematic review

The aim of this systematic review was to comprehensively study the physical fitness test and batteries used by military and security forces. Our ultimate goal was to propose a physical fitness test battery to be used in military and security forces based on the currently available evidence. A literature search was conducted using four electronic databases; MEDLINE, SCOPUS, SPORTDISCUS and PUBMED and two search platform; OVID and EBSCOhot. Four categories of search terms were identified: assessment, tool, fitness and organization. Titles and abstracts were reviewed to determine whether the studies met the inclusion criteria. The electronic search strategy produced 5,492 studies. After applying the inclusion criteria, we identified a total of 193 studies. One hundred fifty-six studies (80.83%) assessed cardiorespiratory fitness, 133 studies (68.91%) assessed muscle skeletal fitness, 16 studies (8.29%) assessed motor fitness and 124 studies (64.25%) assessed body composition. The test that has been used the most included the 2.4 km run, sit-ups and pull-ups tests as well as body mass index, percentage of body fat measured by skinfold thickness and body weight and fat free mass. Meanwhile more evidence is accumulated in military and security forces, these tests should be included when assessing physical fitness in this population setting.
Negotiating identity in English-medium settings: Agency, resistance and appropriation among speakers of other languages in an international school

This article reports on a qualitative investigation into the ways that speakers of other languages negotiate their identities in an English-medium international school. As elective-bilinguals, it is generally assumed that such individuals are exempt from unfavourable positioning. As beginning speakers of English, however, older participants in this study find that they are marginalized. This article offers an account of the ways that the student participants resist this positioning and how they individually and in groups exhibit agency in negotiating more empowering identity positions.
Factors Influencing the Ethnic Identity Development of Latino Fraternity Members at a Hispanic Serving Institution

Higher education scholars have examined Latino/a student experiences and ethnic identity, yet there is no research describing the ethnic identity development of Latino fraternity members at a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI). The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand how membership in a Latino fraternity at an HSI enhanced members' ethnic identity development. Using Bronfenbrenner's (2005a) bioecological theory of human development as the guiding framework, six themes emerged that enhanced members' ethnic identity development. Implications for student affairs and higher education administrators at HSIs and non-HSIs are discussed.
The effects of dual n-back training on the components of working memory and fluid intelligence: An individual differences approach

Measures of working memory capacity are associated with performance on a variety of cognitive tasks, and reliably predict academic achievement, fluid intelligence, controlled attention, problem solving, the ability to follow directions, and a number of other cognitive abilities. A number of recent studies have provided evidence that training working memory can lead to improvements in fluid intelligence, working memory span, and performance on other untrained tasks. However, in addition to a number of mixed results, many of these studies suffer from design limitations. The aim of the present study was to experimentally investigate the effects of a dual n-back working memory training task on a variety of measures of fluid intelligence, reasoning, working memory span, and attentional control. The present study compared a training group with an active control group (a placebo group), using appropriate methods that overcame the limitations of previous studies. The dual n-back training group improved more than the active control group on some, but not all outcome measures. Differential improvement for the training group was observed on fluid intelligence, working memory capacity, and response times on conflict trials in the Stroop task. In addition, individual differences in pre-training fluid intelligence scores and initial performance on the training task explain some of the variance in outcome measure improvements. We discuss these results in the context of previous studies, and suggest that additional work is needed in order to further understand the variables responsible for transfer from training.
A Fast Algorithm for Edge-Preserving Variational Multichannel Image Restoration

Variational models with $\ell_1$-norm based regularization, in particular total variation (TV) and its variants, have long been known to offer superior image restoration quality, but processing speed remained a bottleneck, preventing their widespread use in the practice of color image processing. In this paper, by extending the grayscale image deblurring algorithm proposed in [Y. Wang, J. Yang, W. Yin, and Y. Zhang, SIAM J. Imaging Sci., 1 (2008), pp. 248-272], we construct a simple and efficient algorithm for multichannel image deblurring and denoising, applicable to both within-channel and cross-channel blurs in the presence of additive Gaussian noise. The algorithm restores an image by minimizing an energy function consisting of an $\ell_2$-norm fidelity term and a regularization term that can be either TV, weighted TV, or regularization functions based on higher-order derivatives. Specifically, we use a multichannel extension of the classic TV regularizer (MTV) and derive our algorithm from an extended half-quadratic transform of Geman and Yang [IEEE Trans. Image Process. , 4 (1995), pp. 932-946]. For three-channel color images, the per-iteration computation of this algorithm is dominated by six fast Fourier transforms. The convergence results in [Y. Wang, J. Yang, W. Yin, and Y. Zhang, SIAM J. Imaging Sci., 1 (2008), pp. 248-272] for single-channel images, including global convergence with a strong $q$-linear rate and finite convergence for some quantities, are extended to this algorithm. We present numerical results including images recovered from various types of blurs, comparisons between our results and those obtained from the deblurring functions in MATLAB's Image Processing Toolbox, as well as images recovered by our algorithm using weighted MTV and higher-order regularization. Our numerical results indicate that the processing speed, as attained by the proposed algorithm, of variational models with TV-like regularization can be made comparable to that of less sophisticated but widely used methods for color image restoration.
Children's Understanding of Social Rules and Social Status

Children's understanding of social rules and authority was investigated by asking 4-9 year-olds (N = 129) about stories in which the status (adult or child) of rule inventors, transgressors, and changers was varied. The rules were conventions invented by adults and by children, cultural conventions, and morals. Judgments of transgressions and, in particular, alterations, were influenced by status as well as domain: Children considered transgressions and alterations by children less permissible than by adults, and adult-invented conventions less alterable than child-invented conventions. Alterations of adults' rules by children were thought almost as illegitimate as alterations of morals. Other influences on judgments included children's age, story content, and whether a convention was cultural or newly invented. These findings suggest an explanation of Piaget's findings that differs from his own.
Motherhood, sport leadership, and domain theory: experiences from New Zealand.

Mothers’ voices are often silent in leisure and sport literature. This research used domain theory (Layder, 1997, 2006) to highlight the varied social domains that influence the experiences of nine women as mothers and sport leaders in New Zealand. Semistructured interviews were conducted and analyzed for themes using Hyper-RESEARCH. The findings suggest that potential constraints regarding sport leadership included guilt, exhaustion and stress, social disapproval and organizational resistance to the presence of children in sport settings. These women negotiate these potential constraints and manage their multiple identities with passion for sport and leadership, strong support networks, and specific integrating/compartmentalizing strategies to create work-family-leisure balance. The participants accentuated the mutual benefits of motherhood and sport leadership for themselves and for those they influence, while focusing on changes they can bring about at the personal and interpersonal level. Organization.
Users' classification and usage-pattern identification in academic social networks

Academic social networking sites are becoming increasingly popular. Several groups of academic people at different level of their career and from different disciplines are utilizing them for their benefit. This paper aims to explore usage patterns of an academic Social Networking Site (SNS) (namely Academia.edu) by different groups of academic users. It gains its importance because of the lack of academic social networking sites studies especially those concerning different user types and usage patterns of academic social networking sites.
Clearing a Path for Success: Deconstructing Borders Through Undergraduate Mentoring

This research examines students' interpretations of their experiences with mentoring in federal TRIO programs. Drawing on interviews with 20 student participants in Student Support Services, Educational Opportunity Center, and Veterans Upward Bound programs, analysis of the data suggests that formal mentoring relationships have the potential to impact students' decisions to attend, satisfaction with, and motivation to persist in postsecondary education. A critical analysis considers the roles mentoring can play in helping underrepresented students negotiate higher education environments.
Speech Perception, Metalinguistic Awareness, Reading, and Vocabulary in Chinese-English Bilingual Children

In this study, we examined the intercorrelations among speech perception, metalinguistic (i.e., phonological and morphological) awareness, word reading, and vocabulary in a 1st language (L1) and a 2nd language (L2). Results from 3 age groups of Chinese-English bilingual children showed that speech perception was more predictive of reading and vocabulary in the L1 than L2. While morphological awareness uniquely predicted reading and vocabulary in both languages, phonological awareness played such a role after we controlled for morphological awareness only in the L2, which was alphabetic. L1 speech perception and metalinguistic awareness predicted L2 word reading but not vocabulary, after we controlled for the corresponding L2 variables. Hence, there are both similarities and differences between the 2 languages in how the constructs are related. The differences are attributable to variations in language properties and learning contexts. Implications of the present results for an effective L2 learning program are discussed.
Culture and Facial Expression: Open-ended Methods Find More Expressions and a Gradient of Recognition

We used multiple methods to examine two questions about emotion and culture: (1) Which facial expressions are recognised cross-culturally; and (2) does the “forced-choice” method lead to spurious findings of universality? Forty participants in the US and 40 in India were shown 14 facial expressions and asked to say what had happened to cause the person to make the face. Analyses of the social situations given and of the affect words spontaneously used showed high levels of recognition for most of the expressions. A subsequent forced-choice task using the same faces confirmed these findings. Analysis of the pattern of magnitude, discreteness, and similarity of responses across cultures and expressions led to the conclusion that there is no neat distinction between cross-culturally recognisable and nonrecognisable expressions. Results are better described as a gradient of recognition.
Stimulant psychosis: systematic review

Background Psychosis associated with stimulant use is an increasing problem, but there is little research evidence about the nature of the problem and its management. Aims To critically review the literature on stimulant psychosis and sensitisation. Method Systematic review of studies that have investigated stimulant use and psychosis in humans. The main outcome measures were increases in psychosis with stimulant use, and differences between stimulant users and non-users. Results Fifty-four studies met the inclusion criteria. Experimental studies show that a single dose of a stimulant drug can produce a brief increase in psychosis ratings (a ‘response’) in 50–70% of participants with schizophrenia and preexisting acute psychotic symptoms, unaffected by the presence of antipsychotic medication. Those with schizophrenia who do not have acute psychotic symptoms respond, but less frequently (30%). There has been little research into the longer-term effects of use. Conclusions Compliance with antipsychotic medication by someone with schizophrenia will not prevent a relapse or worsening of psychotic symptoms if stimulants are used. Low-dose antipsychotic treatment may be beneficial in stimulant users, to prevent sensitisation.
Psoriatic spondyloarthropathy: a comparative study between HLA-B27 positive and HLA-B27 negative disease.

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the relative contribution of the human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-B27 to psoriatic spondyloarthropathy (PsSpA) susceptibility and to analyze whether this antigen contributes to disease expression. METHODS This cross-sectional study included 70 patients (mean age 48 +/- 14.5 years; 44 men and 26 women). PsSpA was defined according to radiological findings (grade 2 or more sacroiliitis), and patients were classified into 3 main subtypes: isolated axial disease (n = 16), axial plus oligoarthritis (n = 29) and axial plus polyarthritis (n = 25). All patients were studied following a standard protocol that included the collection of demographic and epidemiological data, clinical history, radiographs, complementary tests, physical examination, and HLA-B27 testing (serological method). For functional evaluation, the Health Assessment Questionnaire-Specific for spondyloarthropathy (HAQ-S) was used. Patients with and without HLA-B27 antigen were compared on the basis of the data. RESULTS Twenty-four patients (34%) carried the HLA-B27 antigen (RR 6.4, P <.0004). Fifty-six percent of those patients with the isolated axial pattern had this antigen, compared with 24% in the poly-arthritis axial pattern and 31% of those in the oligo-arthritis axial group (P =.016). Univariate analysis demonstrated correlations between HLA-B27 and an earlier age of onset for both psoriasis (P =.028) and arthritis (P =.006), male gender (P =.002), bilateral sacroiliitis (P =.002), and uveitis (P =.026). HLA-B27 negative patients developed more peripheral erosions than HLA-B27 positive patients (P =.05). No correlation was found between B27 and clinical symptoms of back involvement, syndesmophytes, or functional impairment. CONCLUSIONS The HLA-B27 antigen is not only important for PsSpA susceptibility, but also determines some clinical features. This antigen was associated with earlier age of psoriasis and arthritis onset, bilateral sacroiliitis, and male gender. However, it was not associated with either the severity or extension of the spondylitic process or with functional impairment.
Longitudinal Analysis of the Use of Etanercept Versus Infliximab Determined From Medical Chart Audit

OBJECTIVES: To describe the dosing of etanercept and infliximab for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS: Adult patients with a diagnosis of RA who were treated with either etanercept or infliximab between 1999 and 2002 were selected from 16 rheumatology practices in the western and southeastern United States. Patients with a terminal illness or those receiving a tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-± inhibitor for an indication other than RA were excluded. Data were collected through a review of the patient medical records. Data collected on each patient included demographics, concurrent disease-modifying antirheumatic drug therapy, TNF-± inhibitor dose, frequency, duration of TNF-± inhibitor therapy, and discontinuation of TNF-± inhibitor therapy. RESULTS: A total of 244 patients were included in the evaluation (etanercept only [n=128; 52%], infliximab only [n=89; 36%], both [n=27; 11%]). The mean age of these patients was 55.1±13.3 years, 54.9±13.5 years, and 52.8±14.0 years, respectively; the mean duration of RA was 13.3 ± 8.8 years, 13.4±8.0 years, and 14.0 ± 9.9 years, respectively. Female patients constituted 70% of the sample. Health maintenance organization insurance was the most common form of medical insurance (45.8%), followed by Medicare (22.3%). The mean duration of follow-up for etanercept and infliximab treatment was 29.3±14.1 months and 14.8±6.9 months, respectively. Among patients who were still receiving therapy at the time of review, the mean initial and last etanercept doses were 25.0 mg versus 25.8 mg (P=0.16); the mean initial and last infliximab doses were 3.38 mg/kg versus 4.51 mg/kg (Pless than0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The dosing of etanercept and infliximab therapy was consistent with the approved labeling of both medications.
Corneal biomechanical changes after collagen cross-linking from porcine eye inflation experiments.

PURPOSE Understanding corneal biomechanics is important to refractive or therapeutic corneal treatments. The authors studied the corneal response to variable intraocular pressure (IOP) in porcines eyes after UV collagen cross-linking (CXL), in comparison with untreated eyes. METHODS Twenty-three enucleated eyes were treated with standard CXL conditions (365 nm, 3 mW, 30 minutes), and 15 contralateral eyes served as control. Eyes (within a humidity- and temperature-monitored wet chamber) were measured by Scheimpflug corneal three-dimensional topographer. Images were obtained automatically while IOP either remained constant (14 eyes) or increased (24 eyes) by 40 mm Hg and then decreased (4-mm Hg steps). Measurements were performed immediately after treatment and 24 hours later. Corneal geometry was analyzed as a function of IOP, and whole globe stress-strain curves were calculated. RESULTS Instillation of riboflavin-dextran solution reduced corneal thickness (by 281 +/- 5 microm). Cross-linking produced a 1.54x reduction in corneal thinning and 2.8x reduction in corneal apical rise with increased IOP. Anterior and posterior cornea flattened with increased IOP (less flattening in CXL eyes) and became steeper with decreased IOP. The horizontal meridian flattened significantly (P < 0.01) more than the vertical meridian. Young's modulus was higher in cross-linked eyes (1.096 +/- 0.30 kN/m(2)) than in non-cross-linked eyes (0.692 +/- 0.30 kN/m(2)). Hysteresis in nontreated eyes was also larger than in cross-linked eyes. CONCLUSIONS Cross-linking stiffened porcine corneas significantly. Both experimental data and stress-strain analysis are valuable for finite element models to improve understanding of CXL and its predictability. Although differences are expected between human corneas in vivo and porcine corneas ex vivo, the results are consistent with clinical data found in patients. The apparent biomechanical anisotropy of pig corneas must be confirmed in humans.
Differences and similarities in the explanation of ethnic minority groups’ trust in the police

Little is yet known about which factors influence the trust in the police of different ethnic minorities in European countries. This article is a step towards filling in that gap. To assess differences and similarities in the explanation of minority groups’ trust, we replicated a recent study on Turkish and Moroccan minority group members’ trust in the Belgian police (Van Craen, 2013). The study on which we report here shifted the focus from traditional minority groups in Belgium to a new immigrant group: Polish immigrants. We anticipated that our findings would depart in two ways. We hypothesized that social capital and perceptions of discrimination would not play an important role in the explanation of Polish immigrants’ trust in the Belgian police. Regression analyses on data gathered in the city of Antwerp (N = 418) suggest that there is no correlation between Polish immigrants’ social capital and their trust in law enforcement. However, perceptions of discrimination are a key explanatory factor for this minority group too. Implications for theorization and research are discussed.
Interacting cognitive subsystems: A systemic approach to cognitive-affective interaction and change

Abstract Interacting Cognitive Subsytems (ICS) is a comprehensive systemic model of the organisation and function of the resources underlying human cognition. in this paper we use ICS to provide a conceptual framework for understanding normal and dysfunctional cognitive-affective relationships, and their modification. ICS proposes nine interacting cognitive subsystems, each specialised for handling a specific type of information. We describe the operations of ICS and its account of emotion development and production. ICS emphasises the importance, as part of the total cognitive configuration producing emotion, of a schematic synthetic level of processing that integrates both propositional meaning and direct sensory contributions. Processing at this level corresponds, subjectively, to holisitc “sense” or “feeling” rather than to thoughts or images. We illustrate this emphasis by comparison of ICS with the model underlying cognitive therapy. By applying ICS to the maintenance of depression, we illustrate th.