Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Urinary tract abnormalities in Chinese rural children who consumed melamine-contaminated dairy products: a population-based screening and follow-up study

Background: Kidney damage related to consumption of melamine-contaminated dairy products by young children in China has been described. However, no studies have reported on the population-based prevalence of kidney damage among exposed children or on the condition of affected children after follow-up. Methods: We conducted an ultrasound-based screening in September 2008 of 7933 children younger than 36 months of age who lived in a rural area in China where the dairy products most highly contaminated with melamine were sold. We monitored children who had evidence of nephrolithiasis or hydronephrosis at screening using renal ultrasonography after one, three and six months. We also collected information from the mothers of affected children about consumption of melamine-contaminated products between June and August 2008. Results: The overall prevalence of urinary tract abnormalities among screened children was 0.61% (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.45%–0.80%). The mean exposure dose of melamine was estimated to be 116 (range 36–220) mg per day. Of the 48 affected children, 43 (89.6%) were asymptomatic, 2 had symptoms and were hospitalized, and 3 had symptoms but treatment had been not sought for them. Of the 46 children for whom six-month follow-up information was available, renal abnormalities persisted in 5 children and resolved in the remaining 41. Interpretation: Among children who underwent screening, 0.61% showed ultrasonographic evidence of nephrolithiasis or hydronephrosis. Most of the affected children were asymptomatic. The majority of the affected children recovered from the toxic effects of melamine over time without specific treatment. Renal abnormalities remained in 12% of the affected children.
A continuous extension of the LuGre friction model with application to the control of a pneumatic servo positioner

This work presents a novel continuous approximation of the LuGre model, with the aim of improving its applicability in the control of a class of systems that include fluid-driven servo positioners. The main attractive of the proposed approximation is the preservation of the properties of boundedness and passivity that are inherent to the original LuGre model, a feature that is not guaranteed in the approximate models that are usually encountered in the specialized literature. The most relevant properties of the proposed approximation are demonstrated analytically, and its applicability is illustrated both analytically and experimentally in the case of a pneumatic servo positioner.
Fatness, fitness, and cardiometabolic risk factors among sixth-grade youth.

PURPOSE Examine whether cardiometabolic risk factors are predicted by fitness or fatness among adolescents. METHODS Participants are 4955 (2614 female) sixth-grade students with complete data from 42 US middle schools. Fasting blood samples were analyzed for total cholesterol, HDL- and LDL-cholesterol, triglyceride, glucose, and insulin concentrations. Waist circumference and blood pressure were assessed. Body mass index (BMI) was categorized as normal weight, overweight, or obese as a measure of fatness. Fitness was assessed using the multistage shuttle test and was converted into gender-specific quintiles. Gender-specific regression models, adjusted for race, pubertal status, and household education, were run to identify whether BMI group predicted risk factors. Models were repeated with fitness group and both fitness and fatness groups as predictors. RESULTS Means for each risk factor (except HDL, which was the reverse) were significantly higher (P < 0.0001) with increased fatness and differed across all BMI groups (P < 0.001). Waist circumference, LDL-cholesterol, triglycerides, diastolic blood pressure, and insulin were inversely associated with fitness (P < 0.001). When both fatness and fitness were included in the model, BMI was associated (P < 0.001) with almost all cardiometabolic risk factors; fitness was only associated with waist circumference (both genders), LDL-cholesterol (males), and insulin (both genders). Other associations between fitness and cardiometabolic risk factors were attenuated after adjustment for BMI group. CONCLUSIONS Both fatness and fitness are associated with cardiometabolic risk factors among sixth-grade youth, but stronger associations were observed for fatness. Although maintaining high levels of fitness and preventing obesity may positively affect cardiometabolic risk factors, greater benefit may be obtained from obesity prevention.
Serine Dephosphorylation of Receptor Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase α in Mitosis Induces Src Binding and Activation

ABSTRACT Receptor protein tyrosine phosphatase α (RPTPα) is the mitotic activator of the protein tyrosine kinase Src. RPTPα serine hyperphosphorylation was proposed to mediate mitotic activation of Src. We raised phosphospecific antibodies to the two main serine phosphorylation sites, and we discovered that RPTPα Ser204 was almost completely dephosphorylated in mitotic NIH 3T3 and HeLa cells, whereas Ser180 and Tyr789 phosphorylation were only marginally reduced in mitosis. Concomitantly, Src pTyr527 and pTyr416 were dephosphorylated, resulting in 2.3-fold activation of Src in mitosis. Using inhibitors and knockdown experiments, we demonstrated that dephosphorylation of RPTPα pSer204 in mitosis was mediated by PP2A. Mutation of Ser204 to Ala did not activate RPTPα, and intrinsic catalytic activity of RPTPα was not affected in mitosis. Interestingly, binding of endogenous Src to RPTPα was induced in mitosis. GRB2 binding to RPTPα, which was proposed to compete with Src binding to RPTPα, was only modestly reduced in mitosis, which could not account for enhanced Src binding. Moreover, we demonstrate that Src bound to mutant RPTPα-Y789F, lacking the GRB2 binding site, and mutant Src with an impaired Src homology 2 (SH2) domain bound to RPTPα, illustrating that Src binding to RPTPα is not mediated by a pTyr-SH2 interaction. Mutation of RPTPα Ser204 to Asp, mimicking phosphorylation, reduced coimmunoprecipitation with Src, suggesting that phosphorylation of Ser204 prohibits binding to Src. Based on our results, we propose a new model for mitotic activation of Src in which PP2A-mediated dephosphorylation of RPTPα pSer204 facilitates Src binding, leading to RPTPα-mediated dephosphorylation of Src pTyr527 and pTyr416 and hence modest activation of Src.
Orphan Nuclear Receptors as eLiXiRs and FiXeRs of Sterol Metabolism*

The recent explosion of research on orphan nuclear receptors has provided new insights into the regulation of lipid metabolism. A recurring theme that continues to emerge is the evolution of an elaborate, autoregulated system for sensing and metabolizing biologically active lipids. One branch of this system includes the oxysterol and bile acid receptors, which serve as sensors for sterol metabolism that regulate the transport and metabolism of choles- terol and bile acids. This review will focus on the five orphan nuclear receptors that thus far are known to govern cholesterol and bile acid homeostasis. These receptors include: the liver X receptors (LXR (cid:1) 1 and LXR (cid:2) ); farnesoid X receptor (FXR); liver receptor homologue-1 (LRH-1); and small heterodimer partner (SHP). Be-low we will summarize the discovery and molecular biology of these orphan receptors, their roles in regulating cholesterol and bile acid homeostasis, and their potential use as therapeutic targets for the treatment of lipid metabolism disorders.
Institutional Distance in International Business Research

Understanding institutional distance – i.e., the difference in institutional context between countries – is critical for firms whose operations span national boundaries. Institutional distance impacts the relative attractiveness of country markets, trade-offs among foreign market entry strategies, the management of subsidiaries abroad, and ultimately, firm performance. Although scholars in various disciplines have made great advances in defining and measuring the institutional characteristics of nations, we contend that many of these advances have occurred in a parallel fashion. Moreover, extant empirical studies focus disproportionately on the impact of different subsets of the identified institutional characteristics. We suggest that it is time to find common ground across the disparate literatures. Doing so would allow us to view differences in institutional contexts more holistically, and refine our understanding of their implications for multinational corporations.
Managing Financial Reports of Commercial Banks

This paper investigates the extent to which banks alter the timing and magnitude of transactions such as asset sales, loan loss accruals, pension settlements and securities issues in response to primary capital, tax, and earnings goals. The authors hypothesize that each year bank managers face a cost minimization problem that encompasses the costs of deviating from primary capital, tax, and earnings goals, as well as the costs of exercising discretion over loan loss accruals, transactions such as asset sales, and securi-ties issues. The authors construct a system of five equations, one for the optimal level of each of the items over which the manager can exercise discretions to achieve the three goals. The authors find that loan charge-offs, loan loss provisions, and the decision to issue securities are jointly determined, apparently to manage primary capital ratios. The research suggests that pension settlement gains are determined independently of the other four decisions, and appear to be used to manage end-of-period earnings. Miscellaneous gains (losses) are used primarily to manage earnings; but weaker evidences suggests that they are also used to manage capital. The authors find broad support for the hypotheses that deviating from capital and earnings goals is costly, and that bank managers trade-off costly accrual and financing discretion to meet these goals. The policy implications of this recent research are intriguing. For example, mark-to-market rules that limit the manager's ability to strategically time gains from sales of securities may simply induce the manager to substitute an alternative form of discretion - delaying or accelerating charge-offs and loan loss provisions. The framework and evidence support the notion that accrual, investment, and financing decisions are not independent. In the context of contracting and monitoring motivations for accounting choices, this means that focusing solely on the accounting systems's role in mitigating these costs potentially omits important correlated factors.
Is there a 'Quid Pro Quo' between Hedge Funds and Sell-Side Equity Analysts?

Two large financial institutions recently settled allegations of selective disclosure of private information from supply-side analysts to hedge fund clients. These allegations lead us to explore two research questions: How widespread is this transfer of private information between analysts and hedge funds? Is there evidence that hedge funds trade advantageously on this private information? Using quarterly hedge funds holdings, we find evidence consistent with the view that large hedge funds traded profitably on upcoming analysts’ recommendation changes. First, we find a positive correlation between hedge fund trades and future changes in analysts’ stock recommendations (issued up to 2 days ahead of trades). However, we do not find a similar trading pattern for other institutions, such as banks, insurances companies and growth-oriented mutual funds. Second, individual hedge funds tend to trade prior to recommendation changes issued by a small number of brokers only, suggesting a favored hedge fund-brokerage house relationship. Third, hedge funds act as transient investors on trades made prior to recommendation changes, but act as longer-term investors for their other trades. Lastly, we provide evidence that hedge fund trades are profitable only when they are accompanied by a recommendation change. When hedge funds trade in equity with recommendation changes, they earn an annualized abnormal return of 9.96% for upgrades and avoid an annualized abnormal loss of 11.28% for downgrades. In contrast, abnormal returns on other stocks are not significantly different from zero.
Impact of an early-life intervention on the nutrition behaviors of 2-y-old children: a randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND Despite an extensive well-child health service, 30% of New Zealand's 2- to 4-y old children are overweight or obese. This suggests that additional intervention is necessary to establish healthy nutrition behaviors. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to assess the effect of intervention from 0 to 18 mo of age on food and nutrient intake, eating behaviors, and parental feeding practices in 18- to 24-mo-old children. DESIGN In total, 802 families with healthy infants were randomly allocated to 1 of 4 groups: Usual Care (UC); Food, Activity, and Breastfeeding (FAB); Sleep; or FAB and Sleep (Combination). All groups received standard "well-child" care. The FAB intervention comprised 7-8 additional contacts for education and support around breastfeeding, food, and activity. The Sleep intervention comprised 2 additional contacts for guidance about sleeping habits. Combination families received both interventions. A validated food-frequency questionnaire assessed food intake at 2 y. A questionnaire assessed eating behaviors and parental feeding practices at 18 and 24 mo. RESULTS At 2 y, there were no statistically significant differences in food and nutrient intake or eating behaviors in the groups receiving the FAB intervention (FAB, Combination; 325 children) compared with the groups who did not (Sleep, UC; 341 children). With the use of a 5-point scale, small but statistically significant differences in parental feeding practices were observed in the groups receiving the FAB intervention: greater child control over eating (difference: 0.14; 95% CI: 0.02, 0.26) and less pressure to eat (difference: 0.18; 95% CI: 0.04, 0.32) at 18 mo, as well as greater encouragement of nutrient-dense foods at 24 mo (difference: 0.16; 95% CI: 0.03, 0.30). No statistically significant differences were observed between the groups who received the Sleep intervention (Sleep, Combination; 313 children) and those who did not, except higher meat intake in the former (11 g/d). CONCLUSION Additional education and support for parents from birth did not improve nutrition behaviors in this population at 2 y of age. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT00892983.
Incorporating Safety into Long-Range Transportation Planning

This report describes the transportation planning process and discusses where and how safety can be effectively addressed and integrated into long-range planning at the state and metropolitan levels. This guidance manual should be especially useful to federal, state department of transportation, metropolitan planning organization, and local transportation planners, as well as other practitioners and stakeholders concerned with addressing safety within transportation systems planning, priority programming, and project development planning.
BKK the EZ Way. International Long-Run Growth News and Capital Flows

We study the response of international investment flows to shortand long-run growth news. Among developed G7 countries, positive long-run news for domestic productivity induces a net outflow of investments, in contrast to the effects of short-run growth shocks. We document that a standard Backus, Keho, and Kydland (1994) (BKK) model fails to reproduce this novel empirical evidence. We augment this model with Epstein and Zin (1989) preferences (EZ-BKK) and characterize the resulting recursive risk-sharing scheme. The response of international capital flows in the EZ-BKK model is consistent with the data. (JEL F14, F32, F43, G12)
Subcutaneous fungal infections

ABSTRACT: Subcutaneous mycoses are caused by a variety of mostly tropical organisms, usually when they are implanted into the dermis or the subcutaneous tissue. They rarely disseminate or become systemic. Sporotrichosis, mycetoma, and chromoblastomycosis are more common subcutaneous mycoses than are rhinosporidiosis, zygomycosis, pheohyphomycosis, and lobomycosis.
Flood protection and risk management: the case of Tescio River basin.

This paper presents a definition of the hydrological engineering requirements for formulating and evaluating economically efficient flood damage reduction plans aimed to meet performance and environmental-protection standards. Most of the research efforts have been devoted to the technical factors of risk assessment, providing quantitative and qualitative estimates of possible alternatives, containing measures of the risk associated with those alternatives. Moreover, the issues of risk management are analysed, in particular with respect to the role of decision making when risk information is available. The present study highlights that plans should also be evaluated in terms of many factors, such as contribution to local economic development, impact on the quality of the total environment, impact on the population's well-being, prevention of loss of life, and preservation of cultural and historical values. In order to prove the reliability of the proposed methodology and to show how risk-based information can be incorporated into a flood analysis process, an application is also presented. This application concerns a first set of results of the flood risk assessment in the Tescio River basin.
Palladium 103 (103Pd) plaque radiation therapy for circumscribed choroidal hemangioma with retinal detachment.

OBJECTIVE To describe clinical experience with palladium 103 ((103)Pd) ophthalmic plaque radiotherapy for choroidal hemangioma. METHODS One course of (103)Pd ophthalmic plaque radiotherapy was used in each of 5 patients with circumscribed choroidal hemangioma who had progressive loss of vision due to subretinal exudation. A mean apex dose of 2900 cGy (2900 rad) was delivered. Functional tests of outcome included best-corrected visual acuity. Anatomic results included changes in tumor height and subretinal fluid documented by ophthalmoscopy, fluorescein angiography, and ultrasonography. RESULTS All patients had complete resolution of subretinal fluid with reattachment of the retina. All tumors decreased in height (mean, 50%) after treatment. Three patients (60%) demonstrated improvement in visual acuity at the last follow-up, and in 1 patient vision remained stable with resolution of metamorphopsia. Twenty-four months after treatment, 1 patient whose visual acuity had recovered from 20/160 to 20/32 had a loss of vision to 20/160 because of radiation maculopathy. For all patients, a mean visual acuity improvement of 2 lines was documented (95% confidence interval, 0.23-0.88). Mean follow-up was 18.6 months (range, 6-29 months). CONCLUSIONS A single (103)Pd plaque radiation treatment was effective in decreasing tumor height, eliminating subretinal fluid, and improving visual acuity in patients with symptomatic circumscribed choroidal hemangiomas.
Distinct CpG island methylation profiles and BRAF mutation status in serrated and adenomatous colorectal polyps

A subset of colorectal cancers with CpG island methylator phenotype‐high (CIMP‐H) is frequently associated with MSI and BRAF V600E mutation. Since limited data are available on different histological types of colorectal polyps, we compared the pattern and the frequency of promoter methylation, CIMP‐H, MSI, KRAS and BRAF V600E mutations and the relationship among these molecular parameters and the clinicopathologic characteristics in 110 serrated polyps (48 hyperplastic polyps, 32 sessile serrated adenomas and 30 serrated adenomas) and 32 tubular adenomas using 7 commonly used tumor‐associated gene loci. No significant difference in the frequency of overall methylation frequency (86% vs. 100%) and CIMP‐H (39% vs. 28%) between serrated polyps and tubular adenomas was observed, but proximally located serrated polyps showed more frequent methylation at 5 of 7 loci examined, and were more likely to be CIMP‐H (62% vs. 22%). MGMT methylation was more common in tubular adenomas while MLH1 and HIC1 were more frequently methylated in serrated polyps. BRAF mutation was frequently present in all types of serrated polyps (80%), but was absent in tubular adenomas and was not associated with CIMP or MSI status. These results show comparable frequencies of promoter methylation of tumor‐associated genes and CIMP‐H, but distinct differences in gene‐specific or colonic site‐specific methylation profiles occur in serrated polyps and tubular adenomas. BRAF mutation occurs independently of CIMP and MSI in all types of serrated polyps and may serve as a marker of serrated pathway of colorectal carcinogenesis. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The Guardianship Dilemma: Regime Security through and from the Armed Forces

Armed forces strong enough to protect the state also pose a threat to the state. We develop a model that distills this “Guardianship Dilemma” to its barest essentials, and show that the seemingly ironclad logic underlying our existing understanding of civil-military relations is flawed. Militaries contemplating disloyalty must worry about both successfully overthrowing the government and defeating the state’s opponent. This twin challenge induces loyalty as the state faces increasingly strong external threats, and can be managed effectively by rulers using a number of policy levers. Disloyalty can still occur when political and military elites hold divergent beliefs about the threat environment facing the state, since militaries will sometimes have less incentive to remain loyal than the ruler suspects. Consequently, it is not the need to respond to external threats that raises the risk of disloyalty—as conventional wisdom suggests—but rather uncertainty about the severity of these threats.