Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Association between a Vegetarian Diet and Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Risk Factors in India: The Indian Migration Study

Background Studies in the West have shown lower cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk among people taking a vegetarian diet, but these findings may be confounded and only a minority selects these diets. We evaluated the association between vegetarian diets (chosen by 35%) and CVD risk factors across four regions of India. Methods Study participants included urban migrants, their rural siblings and urban residents, of the Indian Migration Study from Lucknow, Nagpur, Hyderabad and Bangalore (n = 6555, mean age-40.9 yrs). Information on diet (validated interviewer-administered semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire), tobacco, alcohol, physical history, medical history, as well as blood pressure, fasting blood and anthropometric measurements were collected. Vegetarians ate no eggs, fish, poultry or meat. Using robust standard error multivariate linear regression models, we investigated the association of vegetarian diets with blood cholesterol, low density lipoprotein (LDL), high density lipoprotein (HDL), triglycerides, fasting blood glucose (FBG), systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP). Results Vegetarians (32.8% of the study population) did not differ from non-vegetarians with respect to age, use of smokeless tobacco, body mass index, and prevalence of diabetes or hypertension. Vegetarians had a higher standard of living and were less likely to smoke, drink alcohol (p<0.0001) and were less physically active (p = 0.04). In multivariate analysis, vegetarians had lower levels of total cholesterol (β = −0.1 mmol/L (95% CI: −0.03 to −0.2), p = 0.006), triglycerides (β = −0.05 mmol/L (95% CI: −0.007 to −0.01), p = 0.02), LDL (β = −0.06 mmol/L (95% CI: −0.005 to −0.1), p = 0.03) and lower DBP (β = −0.7 mmHg (95% CI: −1.2 to −0.07), p = 0.02). Vegetarians also had decreases in SBP (β = −0.9 mmHg (95% CI: −1.9 to 0.08), p = 0.07) and FBG level (β = −0.07 mmol/L (95% CI: −0.2 to 0.01), p = 0.09) when compared to non-vegetarians. Conclusion We found beneficial association of vegetarian diet with cardiovascular risk factors compared to non-vegetarian diet.
Basic fibroblast growth factor prolongs the proliferation of rat cortical progenitor cells in vitro without altering their cell cycle parameters.

Basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) has been shown to influence the survival, proliferation and differentiation of a variety of cell types in the nervous system. In this investigation we have examined the action of bFGF on: (i) the rate of proliferation; (ii) cell cycle parameters; (iii) the maintenance of cell division; (iv) the recruitment of quiescent cells; and (v) the degree of differentiation of cortical progenitor cells in cultures prepared from E16 rat embryos. The proliferation rate (labelling index) of cortical progenitor cells doubled in the presence of bFGF over 48 h. However, the lengths of the cell cycle phases were unchanged. Clones marked with a recombinant retrovirus on the first day in vitro (DIV) grew significantly larger in the presence of bFGF. Furthermore, many of the clones examined in control cultures had ceased to divide after a maximum of four cell cycles, whereas almost all clonally related cells were still dividing in the presence of bFGF 4 days later, i.e. for at least six cell cycles. Basic FGF also stimulated the division of quiescent progenitor cells, which otherwise would have differentiated or undergone cell death. The degree of neuronal and glial differentiation was studied after 5 DIV using MAP-2 and GFAP immunocytochemistry. In the presence of bFGF, the percentage of MAP-2-labelled cells was less than half that of control cultures, whereas the number of cells immunoreactive for nestin (a marker of progenitor cells) remained very high. Cells immunoreactive for GFAP were present in bFGF-treated cultures, yet were extremely rare in control conditions. These experiments show that bFGF, a potent mitogen for cortical progenitor cells, has no effects on the parameters of their cell cycle but extends their proliferative capability, promotes their survival and delays their differentiation into neurons.
Detection of K-ras Mutations in Predicting Efficacy of Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Tyrosine Kinase (EGFR-TK) Inhibitor in Patients with Metastatic Colorectal Cancer

Epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase (EGFR-TK) inhibitors are useful in treating different advanced human cancers; however, their clinical efficacy varies. This study detected K-ras mutations to predict the efficacy of EGFR-TK inhibitor cetuximab treatment on Chinese patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). A total of 87 patients with metastatic colorectal cancer were treated with cetuximab for 2-16 months, in combination with chemotherapy between August 2008 and July 2012, and tissue samples were used to detect K-ras mutations. The data showed that K-ras mutation occurred in 27/87 (31%). The objective response rates and disease control rate in K-ras wild type and mutant patients were 42% (25/60) versus 11% (3/27) (p<0.05) and 60% (36/60) versus 26% (7/27) (p<0.05), respectively. Patients with the wild-type K-ras had significantly higher median survival times and progression-free survival, than patients with mutated K-ras (21 months versus 17 months, p=0.017; 10 months versus 6 months, p=0.6). These findings suggest that a high frequency of K-ras mutations occurs in Chinese mCRC patients and that K-ras mutation is required to select patients for eligibility for cetuximab therapy. Further prospective studies using a large sample size are needed to confirm these preliminary findings.
Barriers to information technology governance adoption : a preliminary empirical investigation

The adoption of IT Governance (ITG) continues to be an important topic for research. Many researchers have focused their attention on how these practices are currently being implemented in the many diverse areas and industries. Literature shows that a majority of these studies have only been based on industries and organizations in developed countries. There exist very few researches that look specifically within the context of a developing country. Furthermore, there seems to be a lack of research on identifying the barriers or inhibitors to IT Governance adoption within the context of an emerging yet still developing Asian country. This research sets out to justify, substantiate and improve on a priori model developed to study the barriers to the adoption of ITG practice using qualitative data obtained through a series of semi-structured interviews conducted on organizations in Malaysia.
Purpose in life and use of preventive health care services

Significance Less than 50% of people over the age of 65 are up-to-date with core preventive services. Identifying modifiable factors linked with preventive services are important targets for research and practice. Purpose in life, recently the focus of multiple intervention studies, has been linked with better health (mental and physical) as well as improved health behaviors. However, its association with health care use has been understudied. We found that higher purpose was linked with greater use of several preventive health care services and also fewer nights spent hospitalized. These results may facilitate the development of new strategies to increase use of preventive health care services and improve health, thereby offsetting the burden of rising health care costs in our aging society. Purpose in life has been linked with better health (mental and physical) and health behaviors, but its link with patterns of health care use are understudied. We hypothesized that people with higher purpose would be more proactive in taking care of their health, as indicated by a higher likelihood of using preventive health care services. We also hypothesized that people with higher purpose would spend fewer nights in the hospital. Participants (n = 7,168) were drawn from the Health and Retirement Study, a nationally representative panel study of American adults over the age of 50, and tracked for 6 y. After adjusting for sociodemographic factors, each unit increase in purpose (on a six-point scale) was associated with a higher likelihood that people would obtain a cholesterol test [odds ratio (OR) = 1.18, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.08–1.29] or colonoscopy (OR = 1.06, 95% CI = 0.99–1.14). Furthermore, females were more likely to receive a mammogram/X-ray (OR = 1.27, 95% CI = 1.16–1.39) or pap smear (OR = 1.16, 95% CI = 1.06–1.28), and males were more likely to receive a prostate examination (OR = 1.31, 95% CI = 1.18–1.45). Each unit increase in purpose was also associated with 17% fewer nights spent in the hospital (rate ratio = 0.83, 95% CI = 0.77–0.89). An increasing number of randomized controlled trials show that purpose in life can be raised. Therefore, with additional research, findings from this study may inform the development of new strategies that increase the use of preventive health care services, offset the burden of rising health care costs, and enhance the quality of life among people moving into the ranks of our aging society.
Semiclassical quantization of spinning strings in AdS4 × ℂℙ3

We derive the one-loop correction to the space-time energy of a folded string in AdS4 × 3 carrying spin S in AdS4 and angular momentum J in 3 in the long string approximation. From this general result in the limit J << log S we obtain the one-loop correction to the cusp anomalous dimension which turns out to be −(5log 2)/(2π). This value appears to be in conflict with the prediction from the recently conjectured all-loop Bethe ansatz.
The Effects of Impact Vibration on Peripheral Blood Vessels and Nerves

Research regarding the risk of developing hand-arm vibration syndrome after exposure to impact vibration has produced conflicting results. This study used an established animal model of vibration-induced dysfunction to determine how exposure to impact vibration affects peripheral blood vessels and nerves. The tails of male rats were exposed to a single bout of impact vibration (15 min exposure, at a dominant frequency of 30 Hz and an unweighted acceleration of approximately 345 m/s2) generated by a riveting hammer. Responsiveness of the ventral tail artery to adrenoreceptor-mediated vasoconstriction and acetylcholine-mediated re-dilation was measured ex vivo. Ventral tail nerves and nerve endings in the skin were assessed using morphological and immunohistochemical techniques. Impact vibration did not alter vascular responsiveness to any factors or affect trunk nerves. However, 4 days following exposure there was an increase in protein-gene product (PGP) 9.5 staining around hair follicles. A single exposure to impact vibration, with the exposure characteristics described above, affects peripheral nerves but not blood vessels.
Detection of depression in adolescents based on statistical modeling of emotional influences in parent-adolescent conversations

The current benchmark speech-based depression detection techniques rely on acoustic speech parameters collected from large sets of representative speech recordings. This study for the first time investigates depression detection based on the higher order influence model (HOIM) coefficients and emotional transition parameters derived from a relatively small set of conversational speech recordings representing 63 different parent-adolescent conversations of time duration 20 minutes each. The adolescents included 29 (24 female and 5 male) individuals diagnosed with major depressive disorder and 34 (24 female and 8 male) healthy individuals. The mental state of parents was not assessed. The model-based depression diagnosis was compared with benchmark techniques based on acoustic speech parameters (mel frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC) and Teager energy operator (TEO)). The classification into depressed on non-depressed categories was performed using the Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) for the acoustic parameters and the support vector machine (SVM) for the HOIM features. The model based technique led to the highest average classification accuracy of 94% of for the HOIM of order 4, whereas the best benchmark techniques scored 70% for the optimized MFCCs and 71% for the optimized TEO features.
Post-nephrectomy development of renal function in living kidney donors: a cross-sectional retrospective study.

BACKGROUND Increasing numbers of living donor kidney transplantations calls for better knowledge about long-term donor outcomes and risks. METHODS To explore long-term kidney donor outcomes and risks, we conducted a cross sectional retrospective study. To this end, we analysed renal function using measured glomerular filtration rate (mGFR) and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) as well as microalbuminuria, blood pressure (BP), body mass index, haemoglobin, albumin and parathyroid hormone in kidney donors nephrectomized between 1965 and 2005. RESULTS A total number of 573 kidney donors agreed to undergo medical follow-up examinations. The mean age (standard deviation) at donation was 47 (11) years and the mean time since donation was 14 (9) years. Both mean mGFR [68 (15) mL/min/1.73 m(2) body surface; P = 0.028] and mean eGFR [71 (16) mL/min/1.73 m(2) body surface; P < 0.001], based on modified diet renal dysfunction and iohexol or Cr-EDTA clearance, respectively, were found to decrease with age and to increase with time since donation. Special multivariable regression analyses reveal that for 30-year old donors, the median eGFR typically increases during the first 17 years, then remains constant for ~8 years and slowly declines thereafter. For 50-year-old donors, the median eGFR is expected to increase during the first 15 years or so and then to enter a phase of slight progressive decline. In total, 23% (126/546) of the donors were on antihypertensive medication. An additional 22% (117/543) of the donors were found to suffer from hitherto undiagnosed hypertension (BP >140/90 mm Hg). CONCLUSION Renal function of the remaining kidney in living donors is expected to improve for many years but will show signs of slight deterioration in the longer run.
Turning WAT into BAT: a review on regulators controlling the browning of white adipocytes

Adipose tissue has a central role in the regulation of energy balance and homoeostasis. There are two main types of adipose tissue: WAT (white adipose tissue) and BAT (brown adipose tissue). WAT from certain depots, in response to appropriate stimuli, can undergo a process known as browning where it takes on characteristics of BAT, notably the induction of UCP1 (uncoupling protein 1) expression and the presence of multilocular lipid droplets and multiple mitochondria. How browning is regulated is an intense topic of investigation as it has the potential to tilt the energy balance from storage to expenditure, a strategy that holds promise to combat the growing epidemic of obesity and metabolic syndrome. This review focuses on the transcriptional regulators as well as various proteins and secreted mediators that have been shown to play a role in browning. Emphasis is on describing how many of these factors exert their effects by regulating the three main transcriptional regulators of classical BAT development, namely PRDM16 (PR domain containing 16), PPARγ (peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ) and PGC-1α (peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ coactivator 1α), which have been shown to be the key nodes in the regulation of inducible brown fat.
Consistency of a Method of Moments Estimator Based on Numerical Solutions to Asset Pricing Models

This paper considers the properties of estimators based on numerical solutions to a class of economic models. In particular, the numerical methods discussed are those applied in the solution of linear integral equations, specifically Fredholm equations of the second kind. These integral equations arise out of economic models in which endogenous variables appear linearly in the Euler equations, but for which easily characterized solutions do not exist. Tauchen and Hussey [24] have proposed the use of these methods in the solution of the consumption-based asset pricing model. In this paper, these methods are used to construct method of moments estimators where the population moments implied by a model are approximated by the population moments of numerical solutions. These estimators are shown to be consistent if the accuracy of the approximation is increased with the sample size. This result depends on the solution method having the property that the moments of the approximate solutions converge uniformly in the model parameters to the moments of the true solutions.
Musical Mnemonics to Facilitate Learning of Protein Synthesis: Translation

Malaysian students need to be skilful in both English and Malay in this global era. Matriculation students learn Biology in English; this is not their first language. As such students have difficulty in remembering the facts. Musical mnemonics were used to enable the students remember the facts of the process of Protein Synthesis: Translation correctly and in the right order. The medians for the experimental group and control group were 10.0 and 4.0 respectively. Mann-Whitney test showed a significant effect was produced by the teaching approach; W (58) = 465, Z = -7.076, p = . 0005. Based on the findings, the researcher suggests that musical mnemonics should be used to facilitate recall of other biological processes including DNA replication and the lac operon. As a learning tool, musical mnemonics must meet several criteria in order to be effective and the researcher has suggested the criteria. The results of this study imply that, with some innovations, Science may be successfully taught in English. In view of further research, a video CD of the mnemonics was created.
A NEW APPROACH OF INNOVATIVE DESIGN : AN INTRODUCTION TO C-K THEORY.

In this paper we introduce the main notions and first applications of a unified design theory. We call it “C-K theory” because it stands that a formal distinction between spaces of “Concepts” (C) and space of “Knowledge” (K) is a condition for design. This distinction has key properties: i) it identifies the oddness of “Design” when compared to problem solving approaches ; ii) it distinguishes C-K theory from existing design theories like German systematic as C-K theory offers a precise definition of design and builds creativity within such definition. It does not require the too restrictive assumptions of General Design Theory [1] or Universal Design Theory [2]. It establishes that design reasoning is linked to a fundamental issue in set theory: the “choice” axiom. It models the dynamics of design as a joint-expansion of a space of concepts and a space of Knowledge needing four operators C! K, K! C, C! C, K! K. They compose what can be imaged as a “design square”. These operators capture the variety of design situations and the dynamics of innovative design. Key worlds : design theory, innovation, creativity.
The parametric characteristic of frequency response functions for nonlinear systems

The characteristic of the frequency response functions of nonlinear systems can be revealed and analyzed by analyzing of the parametric characteristics of these functions. To achieve these objectives, a new operator is defined, and several fundamental and important results about the parametric characteristics of the frequency response functions of nonlinear systems are developed. These theoretical results provide a significant and novel insight into the frequency domain characteristics of nonlinear systems and circumvent a large amount of complicated integral and symbolic calculations which have previously been required to perform nonlinear system frequency domain analysis. Several new results for the analysis and synthesis of nonlinear systems are also developed. Examples are included to illustrate potential applications of the new results.
Musical Motion : Some Historical and Contemporary Perspectives *

The idea that music "moves" has a long and varied history. Some aspects of this notion are metaphorical (e.g., the "motions" between pitches, harmonies, or keys), whereas others are more literal. The latter derive from the performer's actions that bring the music to life. This gestural information is encoded in the expressive microstructure of the performance at several hierarchically nested levels. Some older demonstrations in support of this proposition have used the technique of "accompanying movements", devised and elaborated by authors such as Eduard Sievers, Gustav Becking, and Alexander Truslit. Contemporary approaches, most notably those of Manfred Clynes and Neil Todd, focus instead on performance analysis and synthesis. Todd has provided evidence that tempo modulations in expert performances obey a constraint of linear changes in velocity, suggesting that music is "set into motion" by some kind of force or impulse function. Clynes has proposed (following Becking) that the parameters of these underlying functions distinguish different composers. The notion of spatio-temporal coupling, illustrated by Paolo Viviani's work on drawing movements, suggests a theoretical basis for the recovery of spatial movement from temporal information. Physical laws of motion thus impose constraints on performance microstructure, constraints that are also reflected in listeners' perception and aesthetic judgments.