Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Testing sleepiness and vigilance in the sleep laboratory

Purpose of review Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) is common and a potentially devastating public health challenge. EDS has been implicated as a contributing factor to workplace injury, motor vehicle accidents, cardiovascular disease, and impaired quality of life. Subjective self-report measures have failed to sufficiently quantify EDS. The use of objective tools found in sleep laboratories is therefore fundamental in the management of patients with EDS. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of the current methods used to quantify sleepiness, and to highlight recent advances. Recent findings The Multiple Sleep Latency Test (MSLT), normally used for the diagnosis of narcolepsy, can be a useful tool in recognizing other forms of sleepiness. The Maintenance of Wakefulness Test (MWT) has also been confirmed as an important test to identify EDS, as well as to provide an indicator of future risk of accidents. Modifications and newer tests have been discussed with potential applications for the future. Summary Objective tests such as the MSLT and MWT are useful in the diagnosis and management of patients with EDS. However, the relatively high cost can restrict their overall usefulness in clinical medicine. Newer simple tests are under development.
Temporal prediction of retweet count

In recent years Twitter became the social network for information sharing and spreading. By retweeting, users spreading information and build cascades of information pathways. In this paper we investigate the possibility predicting the future popularity of emerging retweet cascades immediately after the message appears or in the very early stage of retweeting it. We evaluate our algorithms on four sets of tweets that include the text and the follower network.
State Power for Low-Carbon Development: A Comparative Investigation into the Effectiveness of Carbon Finance Projects in Tanzania, Uganda and Moldova

Empirical investigation into afforestation and bioenergy carbon finance projects in Tanzania, Uganda and Moldova demonstrates that effective projects—both in terms of sustainable development and the generation of genuine carbon credits—are more likely to result when the state is able to bring carbon finance initiatives into alignment with national development objectives. Amongst the countries investigated, the most important factor in such alignment was, paradoxically, commitment liberal economic reforms. Contrary to the expectation that the performance of projects under the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) would be the same in states with similar administrative capacities, carbon finance projects were more effective in Uganda and Moldova than Tanzania. Commitment to liberal economic reforms in Uganda functions as an animating set of ideas that allows the state apparatus to work in a more purposeful manner and establish institutions and organizations which allow it to generate state power for low-carbon development. For CDM forest and bioenergy projects, the risk of unsustainability is mitigated by a land tenure system and investment regime that (i) offer opportunities for individual smallholders to engage directly with the carbon market and create incentives for domestic investors while (ii) also accommodating historical land governance practices. Genuine carbon credits were associated with project developers who possessed a latent organizational capacity for implementation and were motivated to pursue market opportunities—state forest agencies in Uganda and Moldova. However, the ability of the state to retain latent organizational capacity was restricted to sectors such as forestry that are less sophisticated technically; in the energy sector, such capacity was ceded to the private sector in Uganda and Moldova during structural adjustment. More skeptical of liberal economic policy, Tanzania has retained capacity in the energy sector; however, for the same reasons, it has not treated the CDM as a genuine opportunity. At current carbon prices, CDM projects investigated were effective when the state was able to play a developmental role in the economy. Whether commitment to liberal economic reforms can have similar developmental effects in other parts of the developing world is questionable—a different animating set of ideas may be important. %%%%PhD
Portugal in Africa: The Last Hundred Years

Why should wait for some days to get or receive the portugal in africa the last hundred years book that you order? Why should you take it if you can get the faster one? You can find the same book that you order right here. This is it the book that you can receive directly after purchasing. This portugal in africa the last hundred years is well known book in the world, of course many people will try to own it. Why don't you become the first? Still confused with the way?
Coffee Consumption Is Not Associated with Ovarian Cancer Incidence

Coffee contains many substances that could conceivably influence the risk of ovarian cancer. In a meta-analysis of the crude data of seven case-control studies of coffee consumption and ovarian cancer published before 1990, the combined odds ratio was 1.3 [95% confidence interval (95% CI), 1.1-1.5]
Broadband penetration, financial development, and economic growth nexus: evidence from the Arab League countries

ABSTRACT This paper examines the mutual relationship between broadband penetration, financial development, and economic growth in the 22 Arab League countries for the period between 2001 and 2013. Financial development (represented by broad money supply, claims on the private sector, domestic credit to the private sector, domestic credit provided by the banking sector, market capitalization, turnover ratio, and traded stocks) is assessed both individually, and by a composite index. Our results reveal that there is a long-run equilibrium relationship between broadband penetration, financial development, and economic growth. Additionally, we use a panel vector autoregression model to reveal the nature of Granger causality between the covariates. The most important insight of this study is the presence of bidirectional causality from economic growth to broadband penetration in the long run. In addition, we find that financial development together with broadband penetration Granger-cause economic growth in the long run.
Three Essays on the Measurement of Productivity

This doctoral thesis consists of three essays. In the first essay I investigate the presence of productivity convergence in eight regional pulp and paper industries of U.S. and Canada over the period of 1971–2005. Expectation of productivity convergence in the pulp and paper industries of Canadian provinces and of the states of its southern neighbour is high since they are trading partners with fairly high level of exchanges in both pulp and paper products. Moreover, they share a common production technology that changed very little over the last century. I supplement the North-American regional data with national data for two Nordic countries, Finland and Sweden, which provides a scope to compare the productivity performances of four leading players in global pulp and paper industry. I find evidence in favour of the catch-up hypothesis among the regional pulp and paper industries of U.S. and Canada in my sample. The growth performance is at the advantage of Canadian provinces relative to their U.S. counterparts. However, it is not good enough to surpass the growth rates of this industry in the two Nordic countries. It is well-known that econometric productivity estimation using flexible functional forms often encounter violations of curvature conditions. However, the productivity literature does not provide any guidance on the selection of appropriate functional forms once they satisfy the theoretical regularity conditions. The second chapter of my thesis provides an empirical evidence that imposing local curvature conditions on the flexible functional forms affect total factor productiv-
Accelerated venovenous hemofiltration: early technical and clinical experience.

BACKGROUND Renal replacement therapies other than intermittent hemodialysis are often required in hemodynamically unstable patients. Continuous renal replacement therapies use a slow blood flow rate, necessitating anticoagulation and prolonged treatment times that may create difficulties with staffing and limit patient diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. We developed an alternative strategy based on a higher blood flow rate that allows increased rates of hemofiltration, no anticoagulation, and a shorter ("accelerated") treatment period. We report our technical and clinical experience with accelerated venovenous hemofiltration (AVVH). STUDY DESIGN Case series. SETTING & PARTICIPANTS Hemodynamically unstable patients requiring renal replacement therapy in the medical or surgical intensive care unit of an academic medial center. OUTCOMES & MEASUREMENTS Achieved dose, blood flow rate, mean arterial pressure, serum chemistry test results, patient weight, filter clotting, and patient survival. RESULTS 100 patients received 457 AVVH treatments (average, 4.1 treatments/patient during 5.6 days). Mean Acute Physiology, Age, and Chronic Health Evaluation II score was 24 +/- 7.1. Treatment consisted of 36 L of predilution hemofiltration during 9 hours. Mean blood flow was 362 mL/min, and net fluid removal was 2.5 L/treatment. Anticoagulation was not used and filter clotting was seen in only 3.3% of treatments. 86% of patients received the prescribed dose. Pre- and post-AVVH chemistry test results showed a significant decrease in blood urea nitrogen (from 69.6 +/- 24.8 to 50.7 +/- 22.0 mg/dL) and serum creatinine levels (from 4.3 +/- 2.0 to 2.9 +/- 1.3 mg/dL). Weight was decreased significantly (from 98.8 +/- 26.4 to 93.4 +/- 23.1 kg). Pre- and post-AVVH mean arterial pressure comparison showed an increase from 72.8 +/- 13.6 to 74.4 +/- 15.2 mm Hg. Patient survival rate was 53%. LIMITATIONS Retrospective analysis, absence of a comparison group. CONCLUSION AVVH is an alternate renal replacement therapy for patients in the intensive care unit and appears to provide adequate volume and solute control without the need for anticoagulation. The shorter treatment period offers flexibility for staffing and other patient diagnostic and therapeutic procedures.
Is health care racist?

Many health care inequalities seem to be racially based. Racism and racial conflict in America can be explained in the context of three historical time periods and the prevailing economic systems of those times. The problem of access to basic health care for the black underclass is enormous. Traditional solutions of health education, health promotion, and low-cost health care have done very little to change the outcomes of increased morbidity and mortality. Health care professionals need to confront the real problem of inadequate life chances and limited economic resources for the underclass through research and the restructuring of our health care delivery system.
Percutaneous Thermal Ablation of Spinal Metastases: Recent Advances and Review.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to review the available armamentarium and most recent advances in minimally invasive, image-guided percutaneous thermal ablation for treatment of spinal metastases. CONCLUSION Minimally invasive percutaneous spine thermal ablation technologies have proved safe and effective in management of selected patients with spinal metastases. Special attention to procedure techniques including choice of ablation modality, thermoprotection, adequacy of treatment, and postablation imaging is essential for improved patient outcomes.
Regulation of Dissimilatory Fe(III) Reduction Activity in Shewanella putrefaciens

Under anaerobic conditions, Shewanella putrefaciens is capable of respiratory-chain-linked, high-rate dissimilatory iron reduction via both a constitutive and inducible Fe(III)-reducing system. In the presence of low levels of dissolved oxygen, however, iron reduction by this microorganism is extremely slow. Fe(II)-trapping experiments in which Fe(III) and O2 were presented simultaneously to batch cultures of S. putrefaciens indicated that autoxidation of Fe(II) was not responsible for the absence of Fe(III) reduction. Inhibition of cytochrome oxidase with CN− resulted in a high rate of Fe(III) reduction in the presence of dissolved O2, which suggested that respiratory control mechanisms did not involve inhibition of Fe(III) reductase activities or Fe(III) transport by molecular oxygen. Decreasing the intracellular ATP concentrations by using an uncoupler, 2,4-dinitrophenol, did not increase Fe(III) reduction, indicating that the reduction rate was not controlled by the energy status of the cell. Control of electron transport at branch points could account for the observed pattern of respiration in the presence of the competing electron acceptors Fe(III) and O2.
Non‐radioactive measurement of telomerase activity in human bladder cancer, bladder washings, and in urine

Early diagnosis is still the most important prerequisite for successful cancer treatment and this holds true for bladder cancer. Urine cytology is commonly used as a non‐invasive screening procedure for the detection of bladder carcinoma, but this method is labour‐intensive and often generates false‐negative results. The ribonucleoprotein telomerase appears to be a promising new cancer marker, since its activity has been reported to correlate with indefinite growth. The aim of this study was to investigate whether telomerase activity can be detected in bladder cancer and in corresponding bladder washings. For this purpose, a sensitive non‐radioactive TRAP (telomeric repeat amplification protocol) detection system was developed. With this technique, telomerase activity was found in 95 per cent of the carcinomas (n=20), in 70 per cent of the corresponding bladder washings, but in none of the urine samples obtained from patients with bladder carcinoma. No telomerase activity was detectable in normal urothelium or in samples from dysplastic urothelium. The data obtained from bladder washings show that superficial carcinoma cells released into the bladder still harbour telomerase activity. The absence of telomerase activity in voided urine is thus most likely due to degradation or inactivation under these conditions. The high rate of telomerase activity in bladder carcinoma indicates that the activation of telomerase is a common step in the tumourigenesis of bladder cancer. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Evaluating the Benefits of Green Infrastructure for Coastal Areas: Location, Location, Location

ABSTRACT Coastal protection of communities and property using “green infrastructure” approaches is gaining popularity as the science and practice improve. Guidance is limited for decision makers interested in taking action to protect shorelines. Here, we offer practical guidance for decision makers interested in moving beyond generalities for coastal protection strategies. We present three case examples from the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and in Belize, each posing different questions, and thus using different approaches, to evaluate whether green infrastructure strategies could be useful. For basic questions about where habitat-based approaches are likely to add value, index-based models are useful in identifying priority areas for habitat protection or restoration. Process-based models are best used to examine strategies where the interest is in the likely magnitude of value from gray and green infrastructure approaches. Process-based models in coastal Texas demonstrate that marsh habitats are spatially variable in their ability to reduce the height and costs of levees necessary to protect property from storms and sea-level rise. Such spatial variation in the value of green infrastructure can be readily incorporated in a variety of decisions, allowing action now, before more science and lessons from applications emerge.
Novel mechanism of outer membrane targeting of proteins in Gram‐negative bacteria

In Gram‐negative bacteria, all the proteins destined for the outer membrane are synthesized with a signal sequence that is cleaved, either by the signal peptidase LepB for integral outer membrane proteins or by LspA for lipoproteins, when they cross the cytoplasmic membrane. The Dickeya dadantii protein PnlH does not possess a cleavable signal sequence but is anchored in the outer membrane by an N‐terminal targeting signal. Addition of the 41 N‐terminal amino acids of PnlH is sufficient for anchoring various hybrid proteins in the outer membrane. This targeting signal presents some of the characteristics of a Tat (twin arginine translocation) signal sequence but without an obvious cleavage site. We found that the Tat translocation pathway is required for the targeting process. This new mechanism of outer membrane protein targeting is probably widespread as PnlH was also addressed to the outer membrane when expressed in Escherichia coli. As PnlH was not detected as a substrate by Tat signal sequence prediction programmes, this would suggest that there may be many other unknown Tat‐dependent outer membrane proteins.
Efficacy of psychoanalysis for children with emotional disorders.

OBJECTIVE This is the second report from a chart review of 763 cases of child psychoanalysis and psychotherapy at the Anna Freud Centre. METHOD Three hundred fifty-two children and adolescents were identified who met DSM-III-R criteria for emotional disorders or who had sleep or somatoform symptoms with marked emotional disturbance. Two hundred fifty-four were treated in full psychoanalysis, the remainder one to three times per week, for an average of 2 years. Outcome was indicated by diagnostic change and by change in overall adaptation, measured by the Children's Global Assessment Scale (CGAS). RESULTS Of those treated for at least 6 months, 72% showed reliable improvement in adaptation, 24% still had some diagnosis at termination, and 15% still had an emotional disorder. Simple phobias were most likely to remit, and depressed children were least likely to return to normal CGAS levels. Children younger than 11 years were considerably more likely to be well at the end of treatment. Intensive treatment generally led to greater improvements, independently of age and treatment length. Certain disorders, and more severe pathology, required intensive treatment; 50% of severe cases showed no improvement in psychotherapy. Thirty-one percent of variance in CGAS change could be predicted, and greater than 50% when diagnostic groupings were examined separately. CONCLUSION Despite methodological limitations, the study identifies predictors of improvement (e.g., younger age, phobic symptoms, intensity and length of treatment) and shows that severe or pervasive pathology requires intensive analytic help.
Diabetes mellitus as a prothrombotic condition

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is characterized by fasting hyperglycaemia and a high risk of atherothrombotic disorders affecting the coronary, cerebral and peripheral arterial trees. The risk of myocardial infarction (MI) is 3‐5 fold higher in Type 2 DM and a DM subject with no history of MI has the same risk as a non‐DM subject with a past history of MI. In total around 70% of deaths are vascular with poorer outcomes to both acute events and cardiological interventions. It was proposed that clustering of vascular risk factors (hyperinsulinaemia, dysglycaemia, dyslipidaemia and hypertension) around insulin resistance (IR) accounted for the increase in risk with Type 2 DM. The importance of this became apparent with the recognition that risk clustering occurs in normoglycaemic and impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) subjects with IR, in total around 25% of the population in addition to long‐standing Type 1 subjects with renal disease. Evidence indicates that thrombotic risk clustering also occurs in association with IR, suppression of fibrinolysis due to elevated concentrations of the fibrinolytic inhibitor, plasminogen activator inhibitor‐1 (PAI‐1) is invariable with IR and there is evidence that this is regulated by the effects of triglyceride on the PAI‐1 gene promoter. Other studies indicated that prothrombotic risk (coagulation factors VII, XII and fibrinogen) also associates with the IR syndrome. The development of endothelial cell dysfunction with suppression of nitric oxide and prostacyclin synthesis, combined with platelet resistance to the anti‐aggregatory effects of these hormones leads to loss of control over platelet activation. In addition, hyperglycaemia and glycation have marked effects on fibrin structure function, generating a clot which has a denser structure, resistant to fibrinolysis. The combination of increased circulating coagulation zymogens, inhibition of fibrinolysis, changes in fibrin structure/function and alterations in platelet reactivity creates a thrombotic risk clustering which underpins the development of cardiovascular disease.
Maintaining Competition in Recurrent Procurement Contracts: A Case Study on the London Bus Market

Under recurrent procurement, the awarding of a contract to a firm may put it in an advantageous position in future tenders, which may reduce competition over time. The objective of this paper is to study the dynamics of competition for tendered contracts, focusing on factors that may generate incumbent advantage. Particular attention is given to learning economies, sunk costs of entry and switching costs for the procurer. The paper then applies these insights to analyse empirically the evolution of competition in the market for local bus services in London.
A randomized, double-blind, crossover clinical trial of diclofenac plus misoprostol versus acetaminophen in patients with osteoarthritis of the hip or knee.

OBJECTIVE To perform a randomized, double-blind, crossover clinical trial of diclofenac + misoprostol versus acetaminophen in ambulatory patients with osteoarthritis of the hip or knee. METHODS Patients in 12 ambulatory care settings were eligible if they were age >40 years and if they had Kellgren/Lawrence radiographic grade 2-4 osteoarthritis of the knee or hip and a score of > or =30 mm on a 100-mm visual analog pain scale. Patients were randomized to one of two groups, 75 mg diclofenac + 200 microg misoprostol twice daily or 1,000 mg acetaminophen 4 times daily (each for 6 weeks), and were then crossed over to the other treatment for 6 weeks. A placebo was included in each treatment regimen to enable double blinding. The primary outcome measures were the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index and the visual analog pain scale of the Multidimensional Health Assessment Questionnaire. Safety was assessed using a standard form to review adverse events. RESULTS We enrolled 227 patients, of whom 218 provided data for the first treatment period and 181 provided data for both treatment periods. Significantly higher levels of improvement in the primary outcomes were seen for diclofenac + misoprostol than for acetaminophen (P < 0.001). Adverse events were more common when patients took diclofenac + misoprostol (P = 0.046). Diclofenac + misoprostol was rated as "better" or "much better" by 57% of the 174 patients who provided such ratings for both treatment periods, while acetaminophen was rated as "better" or "much better" by 20% of these patients, and 22% reported no difference (P < 0.001). Differences favoring diclofenac + misoprostol over acetaminophen were greater in patients with more severe osteoarthritis according to baseline pain scores, radiographs, or number of involved joints. CONCLUSION Patients with osteoarthritis of the hip or knee had significantly greater improvements in pain scores over 6 weeks with diclofenac + misoprostol than with acetaminophen, although patients with mild osteoarthritis had similar improvements with both drugs. Acetaminophen was associated with fewer adverse events.