Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bone mineral density and importance of a gluten-free diet in patients with celiac disease in childhood.

OBJECTIVES Celiac disease (CD), a common cause of malabsorption, is known to be associated with disorders of the skeleton, but there are conflicting data about the effect of diet on bone metabolism. The aims of this study were to investigate the prevalence of osteopenia; to identify the relationship between bone mineral density (BMD), serum calcium, and parathyroid hormone levels; and to determine the effect of gluten-free diet on BMD in children with celiac disease. DESIGN The study included 32 patients with CD (group 1) and 82 healthy controls (group 2). The patients with CD were evaluated under 2 subgroups, ie, 16 patients with recent diagnosis (group 1a) and 16 patients who follow their diet strictly (group 1b). BMD values and concentrations of calcium, phosphorus, alkaline phosphatase, and intact parathyroid hormone were determined on entry to the study and at 12 months in celiac patients. These values were compared with those of healthy control participants. RESULTS BMD and bone mineral content values in patients with recent diagnosis were found to be significantly lower than the control group. The BMD values in patients with recent diagnosis were significantly increased after a gluten-free diet for 1 year. Osteopenia was found more commonly in patients with recent diagnosis than patients in whom a gluten-free diet had been instituted. At 1-year follow-up, osteopenia was not resolved with the gluten-free diet, and this was especially true in patients without gastrointestinal manifestation. In patients with recent diagnosis (group 1a), the mean calcium level was found to be lower than the patients who follow their diet strictly (group 1b). There was a positive correlation between calcium level and BMD and bone mineral content. CONCLUSIONS BMD is almost invariably low in newly diagnosed celiac patients in childhood. We therefore recommend that BMD should be evaluated in patients with CD. Strict gluten avoidance promoted a significant increase in BMD. However, values still remained markedly low after 1 year of follow-up in some patients. These patients should be followed for longer periods of time with yearly BMD evaluation, as 1 year of diet therapy was found to be insufficient for osteopenia to be resolved.
Psychological Capital, Work Engagement and Organizational Citizenship Behaviour

The purpose of the present investigation was to examine the influence of Psychological Capital and Work Engagement on Organizational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB) of executives. A cross sectional survey research design was used to collect the data. Statistical analysis of the data indicated that both psychological capital and work engagement have significant impact on the organizational citizenship behaviour of the employees. The meaning of this result and implications of this finding are discussed in this study.
Title of dissertation: ESSAYS IN LABOR ECONOMICS

Title of dissertation: ESSAYS IN LABOR ECONOMICS Ye Zhang, Doctor of Philosophy, 2007 Dissertation directed by: Professor Jeffrey Smith, Economics Professor Judith Hellerstein, Department of Economics My dissertation is composed of two essays in Labor Economics. The first chapter examines how employers learn about workers’ unobserved productivity when learning is asymmetric between incumbent and outside firms. I develop an asymmetric employer learning model in which endogenous job mobility is both a direct result of intensified adverse selection and a signal used by outside employers to update their expectations about workers’ productive ability. I derive, from the model, empirical implications regarding the relationship between wage rates, ability, schooling and overall measures of job separations that contrasts the public learning models and the two-period mover-stayer models. Testing the model with data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY-79), I find strong evidence supporting the three-period asymmetric employer learning model. The second chapter concerns economics of fertility and investigates to what extent the observed correlation between adolescent fertility and poor maternal educational attainment is causal. Semi-parametric kernel matching estimator is applied to estimate the effects of teenage childbearing on schooling outcomes. The matching method estimates the conditional moments without imposing any functional form restrictions and attends directly to the common support condition. Using data from the NLSY-79, kernel matching estimates suggest that half of the cross-sectional educational gaps remains after controlling for individual and family covariates. The difference between matching estimates and regression-based estimates implies that part of the conditional difference in parametric models is due to the functional assumption. The robustness check following Altonji, Elder, and Taber (2005) reveals that a substantial amount of correlation is required within a parametric framework to make the negative effect of teen motherhood on educational attainment go away. Further evidence obtained by simulation-based nonparametric sensitivity analysis suggests that the matching estimates are quite robust with regard to a wide range of specifications of the simulated unobservables. ESSAYS IN LABOR ECONOMICS
Korean Television Dramas in Japan

In this article, we explored how Japanese Korean drama readings have identified in resonance with their imaginations of spatial locality and postcolonial consciousness. Throughout the in-depth interviews, we discovered how to inscribe Korean dramas into the Japanese audience’s minds as well as what elements in reading Korean dramas particularly empowered the Japanese fans to re-imagine their belonging within the East Asian community. Korean dramas, reproduced by Japanese fans as the cultural text, provoked the imagined, culturally-mixed space in embracing subtly foreign but nostalgic East Asian sentiment. The Japanese audiences of Korean dramas, past and present, have preserved Korean dramas so to happily transport themselves to this dramatic reality. The imagined sense of East Asianness influences the dispersed audiences in Japan; often relating fans to the cultural output from Korea as part of their everyday lives.
Bipolar hip arthroplasty as salvage treatment for loosening of the acetabular cup with significant bone defects

Introduction: Revision arthroplasty of the hip is becoming increasingly important in recent years. Early primary arthroplasty and longer life expectancy of the patients increases the number of revision surgery. Revision surgery of hip arthroplasty is major surgery for the patients, especially the elderly, with significant risks concerning the general condition of the patient. The aim of this work is to evaluate the outcome of bipolar hip arthroplasty as a salvage procedure for treatment of loosening of the acetabular cup with significant acetabular bone defects after total hip replacement (THR) in multi-morbid patients. Patients and methods: During the period from January 1st 2007 to December 31st 2011 19 revision hip surgeries were performed in 19 patients, in which the loosened acetabular cup was replaced by a bipolar head. The examined patient group consisted exclusively of female patients with an average of 75 years. The predominant diagnosis was “aseptic loosening” (84.2%). All patients in our study were multi-morbid. We decided to resort to bipolar hip arthroplasty due to the compromised general condition of patients and the major acetabular bone defects, which were confirmed intraoperatively. The postoperative follow-up ranged from 0.5 to 67 months (average 19.1 months). Results: Evaluation of the modified Harris Hip Score showed an overall improvement of the function of the hip joint after surgery of approximately 45%. Surgery was less time consuming and thus adequate for patients with significantly poor general health condition. We noticed different complications in a significant amount of patients (68.4%). The most common complication encountered was the proximal migration of the bipolar head. The rate of revision following the use of bipolar hip arthroplasty in revision surgery of the hip in our patients was high (21%). Despite the high number of complications reported in our study, we have noticed significant improvement of hip joint function as well as subjective pain relief in the majority of patients. We clearly achieved clinically satisfactory results in 14 patients. Conclusion: Bipolar hip arthroplasty is by no means to be regarded as standard procedure in revision surgery of THR. It provides an option or salvage procedure for patients with poor general condition in whom the quickest possible surgical intervention preserving mobility is required. This is particularly true for multi-morbid patients in whom sufficient acetabular fixation is not possible.
Machine Learning in DNA Microarray Analysis for Cancer Classification

The development of microarray technology has supplied a large volume of data to many fields. In particular, it has been applied to prediction and diagnosis of cancer, so that it expectedly helps us to exactly predict and diagnose cancer. To precisely classify cancer we have to select genes related to cancer because extracted genes from microarray have many noises. In this paper, we attempt to explore many features and classifiers using three benchmark datasets to systematically evaluate the performances of the feature selection methods and machine learning classifiers. Three benchmark datasets are Leukemia cancer dataset, Colon cancer dataset and Lymphoma cancer data set. Pearson's and Spearman's correlation coefficients, Euclidean distance, cosine coefficient, information gain, mutual information and signal to noise ratio have been used for feature selection. Multi-layer perceptron, k-nearest neighbour, support vector machine and structure adaptive self-organizing map have been used for classification. Also, we have combined the classifiers to improve the performance of classification. Experimental results show that the ensemble with several basis classifiers produces the best recognition rate on the benchmark dataset.
Successful Learning with Hypermedia: The Role of Epistemological Beliefs and Metacognitive Awareness

This study examined the relationship between epistemological beliefs, meta-cognition, and student achievement in a hypermedia learning environment. Epistemological beliefs refer to beliefs about the nature of knowledge and knowing (see review by Hofer & Pintrich, 1997) and metacognition refers to the ability to reflect upon, understand, and control one's learning (Schraw & Dennison, 1994). We predicted that the epistemological beliefs and meta-cognitive awareness of 116 preservice teachers would be significantly related to achievement in a hypermedia tutorial. Achievement was measured by a posttest based on the tutorial content. Results from a forced-order, hierarchical regression analysis indicated that reading comprehension, GPA, and three of the five epistemological beliefs (i.e., fixed ability, omniscient authority, and quick learning) significantly predicted posttest performance. Belief in omniscient authority and fixed ability being related to lower achievement supports previous research. Contrary to our expectations, a belief in quick learning was positively correlated with achievement. Educational and instructional design implications are discussed.
Rethinking vocational education: a case study in care

The authors explain how development of employability and educational interest might be enhanced by a radically different division of labour between FECs (Further Education Colleges) and the institutions in which students live and work. They argue that, rather than looking for ways in which FECs could teach vocational knowledge in a more relevant way, the role of FECs might be to develop students’ educational interest through analytical reflection on their life and work. The authors tried out these ideas with 25 adult returners to formal education who hope to secure jobs as professional carers. The theoretical perspective known as situated learning is contrasted with one which implies that transfer of learning from classroom to workplaces is relatively unproblematic and that cognitive operations are relatively unaffected by culture.
Surface preparation and coating of metal coils by using a fully integrated manufacturing system

The current paper deals with the definition of a novel fully integrated system for cleaning, pre-treatment and powder coating of metal coils based upon two subsequent fluidized beds: the former employed in items surface preparation by peening with glass beads and the latter in coating process by electrostatic deposition. An approach based upon design of experiments was employed to find the best processing windows for each phase of coil coating processes. Besides, the experimental trends of operative parameters were also sought. Special attention was paid to the influence of leading process parameters on the performance of the starting surface as well as on the aesthetic aspect and some functional properties of the polymeric coatings. Finally, some useful aspects concerning the best way to lead the process were also discussed in detail.
Lung Ultrasound in Early Diagnosis of Neonatal Ventilator Associated Pneumonia before Any Radiographic or Laboratory Changes

Neonatal pneumonia is reported to be the primary cause of neonatal respiratory failure and one of the common causes of neonatal hospitalization and death in developing countries. Chest X-ray was considered the gold standard for diagnosis of neonatal pneumonia. Lung ultrasonography has been described as a valuable noninvasive tool for the diagnosis of many neonatal pulmonary diseases. We report a case of ventilation associated neonatal pneumonia with very early diagnosis using lung ultrasound before any significant radiographic changes in chest X-ray or laboratory findings suggestive of infection.
Friendship Security and Intimacy Moderate the Stability of Anxiety During Early Adolescence

The goal of this study was to identify whether friendship quality could serve as a protective factor for anxious preadolescents longitudinally. It was expected that by having high levels of intimacy and security within the friendships of anxious youth feelings of anxiety would decrease to a greater extent than those with low levels of said friendship factors. Preadolescents (N = 430) in grades 5 and 6 (ages 10-13) were tested within their classrooms. Two time points were used in this study, which were approximately six months apart. Measures of peer-rated anxiety, self-rated anxiety, and friendship quality (i.e., the Network of Relationships Inventory) were administered and analyzed via confirmatory factor analyses (CFA). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the hypotheses of this study. Results demonstrated that both intimacy and security within close relationships could predict a significant decrease in anxiety in the self-rated anxiety measures, with security having a stronger effect than intimacy. Conversely, preadolescents who were considered anxious by their peers were perceived as anxious at the second time point even if they possessed intimate and secure friendships. Gender differences were not found. The findings of this study suggest that anxious preadolescents benefit from having intimate and secure close friendships given that they are found to be significantly less anxious over time compared with their anxious peers without such relationships. In contrast, being anxious seems to have a lasting impression since peer-rated anxious individuals were not perceived as being less anxious over time, despite their reduced feelings of anxiety. A similar effect was discovered for both boys and girls.
The increased intestinal absorption rate is responsible for the reduced hepatic first‐pass extraction of propranolol in rats with cisplatin‐induced renal dysfunction

The mechanisms responsible for the increased bioavailability of propranolol in renal dysfunction were investigated in rats. Experimental acute renal failure (ARF) was induced by intraperitoneal injection of cisplatin (5 mg kg−1). ARF induced a significant increase in blood propranolol concentration after intra‐intestinal administration. The extent of bioavailability (F) of propranolol at an intestinal dose of 15 mg kg−1 was 16.4% and 26.9% in control and ARF rats, respectively, and the F value at a 37.5 mg kg−1 dose was 54.7% and 81.4% in control and ARF rats, respectively. In contrast, the blood propranolol concentration following intraportal infusion was not increased significantly in ARF rats. The hepatic first‐pass extraction (Eh) was dose‐dependent and saturable: Eh of propranolol in control rats was 58.0% and 18.3% at 8 and 20 mg kg−1, respectively, and Eh in ARF rats was 50.8% and 19.9% at 8 and 20 mg kg−1, respectively. The initial absorption rate of propranolol from the intestine in ARF rats was significantly greater compared with control rats. These results indicated that the increased bioavailability of propranolol in rats with cisplatin‐induced renal dysfunction was mainly a result of the increased absorption rate in the intestine followed by the partial saturation of hepatic first‐pass metabolism.
A controlled study of consumption of β-glucan-enriched soups for 2 months by type 2 diabetic free-living subjects

Type 2 diabetes is associated with a higher cardiovascular risk and there has been a growing interest in using dietary intervention to improve lipid profile and glucose control. The present work aims at analysing the effects of the enrichment of a normal diet with β-glucan (3·5 g/d) in free-living type 2 diabetic subjects for 2 months, using a palatable soup. This trial was a parallel, placebo-controlled, double-blinded randomised study performed in fifty-three type 2 diabetic subjects. During a 3-week run-in period, subjects daily consumed a ready meal control soup (without β-glucan). For the following 8 weeks, subjects were randomly assigned to consume daily either a control soup or a β-glucan soup. Changes in lipid profile (total cholesterol (TC), HDL- and LDL-cholesterol (HDLc and LDLc), apo B and TAG) and in glucose control (HbA1c and fasting glucose) were measured. There was no significant alteration in lipid profile in the two groups (TC, HDLc, LDLc and apo B). TAG decreased significantly in the β-glucan group compared with the control group ( − 0·12 (sd 0·38) v. 0·12 (sd 0·44) mmol/l, P = 0·03). HbA1c and fasting glucose were not reduced in any group. A single daily ingestion of 3·5 g β-glucan, as required by official dietary recommendations, for 8 weeks did not change the lipid profile and HbA1c in type 2 diabetic subjects. To improve the metabolic profile of type 2 diabetic subjects in the long term, the quantity, the food vectors and the tolerability of β-glucan products may be re-evaluated.
Mother's Education and her Knowledge about Home Accident Prevention among Preschool Children in Rural Area in Sharkia Governorate

Unintentional injury remains the leading cause of morbidity and mortality among children worldwide. The aim of this study was to describe the mother's education and her knowledge in relation to home accidents prevention in rural area in Sharkia Governorate. Study design, a cross-sectional descriptive study design was adopted in this study. The sample size was 150 mothers from Kafr Mohsen village, this number was drawn by a systematic random by visiting every 5 house in the village, those mother's were inter-viewed in their homes through home visits. Structured interview sheet was developed based on relevant literature ,it contained the following data: A) The first part included socio-demographic characteristics of the families as mother's age, educational level, occupation, family size and number of children . B) The second part included mother knowledge towards home accidents among children and its occurrence, types and mother's knowledge regarding causes of home accidents. C) The third part included mother's practice or first aid measures she followed towards her child in case of exposure to any type of home accidents. The study result indicated that, the mean age of the mothers was (34.1±9.6) years. Regarding educational level, 33.3% had completed university education, while 25.3% of them were illiterate. Occupational status showed that more than one half of the studied mothers (58%) didn't work, while 14% worked as health care personnel. 61.3% were of middle socio economic status. More than half of the injured children (59.3%) were aged 3years or less, over half of them (58.7%) were males. The majority of the mothers (84.7%) reported that the child had suffered an injury at home. Cut/wound represented the highest percentage of home injury (37.3%) followed by fall (29.3%), burn (12%), animal bite (3.3%) then poisoning (1.3%). The study revealed that the majority of mothers (80%) heard of the term of first aid and the main source of their knowledge was from "radio and television" (24%) then "doctors and nurses" (15.3%) , "part of curriculum" nearly(14%) and the lowest source was from "books" (6.7%). More than half of the studied mothers (55.3%) did not have any knowledge about the causes of home accidents. the relation between mother's age and her knowledge regarding causes of home accidents was proved to be statistically non significant (p>0.05). mother's knowledge regarding causes of home accidents increased with increasing educational level. The relation was proved to be statistically significant (p<0.001). The conclusion of this study revealed that, well educated mothers will use the proper first aid. So there is need for parent's educational programs especially mothers with preschool children about home accidents and how to manage.
Copysets: Reducing the Frequency of Data Loss in Cloud Storage

Random replication is widely used in data center storage systems to prevent data loss. However, random replication is almost guaranteed to lose data in the common scenario of simultaneous node failures due to cluster-wide power outages. Due to the high fixed cost of each incident of data loss, many data center operators prefer to minimize the frequency of such events at the expense of losing more data in each event. We present Copyset Replication, a novel general-purpose replication technique that significantly reduces the frequency of data loss events. We implemented and evaluated Copyset Replication on two open source data center storage systems, HDFS and RAMCloud, and show it incurs a low overhead on all operations. Such systems require that each node's data be scattered across several nodes for parallel data recovery and access. Copyset Replication presents a near optimal tradeoff between the number of nodes on which the data is scattered and the probability of data loss. For example, in a 5000-node RAMCloud cluster under a power outage, Copyset Replication reduces the probability of data loss from 99.99% to 0.15%. For Facebook's HDFS cluster, it reduces the probability from 22.8% to 0.78%.