Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of combined spinal–epidural analgesia on first stage of labor: a cohort study

Abstract Background: Neuraxial anesthesia is considered as the gold standard in the control labor of pain. Its variants are epidural analgesia and combined spinal–epidural analgesia. Few studies, as yet, have investigated the duration of labor as a primary outcome. Some authors have suggested that combined spinal–epidural analgesia may reduce labor duration but at the moment the benefit of shortening labor is uncertain. The main aim of this study was to compare combined spinal–epidural with epidural analgesia in terms of their effect on duration of stage I labor, maternal, and neonatal outcomes. Methods: A prospective cohort study was conducted. Parturients who requested analgesia at cervical dilatation <6 cm were included. Analgesia was either epidural with low concentration levobupivacaine or combined spinal epidural with subarachnoid sufentanil. The primary outcome was the length of stage I labor. Onset and quality of analgesia, mode of delivery, effects on uterine activity and use of oxytocin, fetal heart rate abnormalities and uterine hyperkinesia, maternal, and neonatal complications were also considered. Results: We enrolled 400 patients: 176 in the combined spinal–epidural group and 224 in the epidural group. Patients in the two treatment groups were similar with regard to demographic characteristics, parity, and incidence of obstetric comorbidities, labor induction, oxytocin infusion, Bishop score, and Visual Analogue Score (VAS) at analgesia request. Duration of stage I labor did not differ, at 195 (120–300) minutes for both the groups (p = .7). Combined spinal–epidural was associated with less reduction in uterine contractility after initial administration: 15.34 versus 39.73%, (p < .001) and with delayed need for oxytocin, at dilations of 7 ± 2.5 cm versus 6. ± 2.7, (p = .002). Onset of analgesia was quicker for combined spinal–epidural analgesia: 31 versus 20%, with VAS <4 after 5 minutes, (p < .001); and lower VAS scores after initial analgesia administration. No differences were found in the other outcomes. Conclusions: Combined spinal–epidural with subarachnoid sufentanil may not reduce the duration of stage I labor, but in our study it appeared to affect uterine contractility less. It also had a more rapid onset and was more effective, without any concomitant increase in maternal or neonatal complications.
Long-Run Relatinship between Interest Rates and Inflation: An Error Correction Model

The extent to which movements in nominal interest rates change with anticipated inflation has been keenly researched ever since Fisher (1930) first pointed out that efficient capital markets should compensate for changes in the purchasing power of money. In the Indian context, this relationship was not given much focus until the beginning of 1990s due to the administered interest rate mechanism. Since the beginning of economic reforms and the liberalization of capital market, the interest rates were allowed to float, except the Bank Rate and the interest rate on savings deposits and the question of determining the interest rates became a big issue. Hence, this study examines the short-run and long run comovements of interest rates and inflation using cointegration analysis and error correction model. The results show that inflation causes 91-day Treasury bill yield and MIBOR indicating that the interest rates are now more market determined and there is evidence of Fisher's hypothesis.
Stylized Facts and Simulating Long Range Financial Data

We propose a new method (implemented in an R-program) to simulate long-range daily stock-price data. The program reproduces various stylized facts much better than various parametric models from the extended GARCH-family. In particular, the empirically observed changes in unconditional variance are truthfully mirrored in the simulated data.
Incorporating Submerged MBR in Conventional Activated Sludge Process for Municipal Wastewater Treatment: A Feasibility and Performance Assessment

A pilot-scale submerged membrane bioreactor (MBR) was incorporated in a conventional activated sludge (CAS) process for more than 100 days in order to assess the feasibility and performance on the municipal wastewater treatment. After a stabilization period of 50 days, the MBR unit was operated under various temperatures (21 ± 4°C), mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS) concentrations (14000 ± 1800 mg L-1 ), and different aeration intensities (3 to 6 m3 h-1). No significant deterioration in membrane flux was observed while operating with high biomass concentration. From the results, the removal of total suspended solids (TSS), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total phosphorus (TP) were enhanced using MBR. However, due to some limiting operational conditions, the total nitrogen (TN) removal was less efficient in MBR than in CAS. The MBR unit was 100% effective in removing E. coli and enterococcus, as well as noroviruses and adenovirus, making it more efficient than CAS. Also, the removal of most of the trace organic compounds (TrOCs) including personal care products, pharmaceuticals, steroid hormones and perfluorinated compounds were enhanced after the incorporation of MBR to CAS, as well as for many heavy metals in MBR.
Sustainable Development, Environmental Degradation and the Entrenchment of Poverty in the Niger Delta of Nigeria

Abstract This study sought to investigate how environmental degradation had impoverished the peoples of the Niger Delta and how this at the same hindered sustainable development. The study made use of both primary and secondary sources of data which include; the literature, observation and in-depth interviews. Data were analyzed using simple percentages. The findings of the study showed that environmental degradation destroyed the ecosystems of the Niger Delta and subsequently led to loss of farm lands, fishing sites and equipments, unemployment, diseases, inadequate reparation and deterioration in the quality of life of the people and also hindered sustainable development in the area.The study made several recommendations to redeem the situation. The study concluded on the note that the issues at stake in environmental degradation are interwoven and multi-dimensional and none can be treated in isolation of others.
Morningness-eveningness preferences, learning approach and academic achievement of undergraduate medical students

ABSTRACT Several studies have focused on determining the effect of chronotype and learning approach on academic achievement separately indicating that morning types have an academic advantage over the evening types and so have the deep learners over the surface learners. But, surprisingly none have assessed the possible relationship between chronotype and learning approach. So, the current study aimed to evaluate this association and their individual influence on academic performance as indicated by the Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) as well as the effect of their interaction on academic performance. The study included 345 undergraduate medical students who responded to reduced Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire and Biggs Revised Two-Factor Study Process Questionnaire. Morning types indulged in deep learning while evening types in surface learning. Morning and evening types did not differ on academic performance but deep learners had better academic outcomes than their counterparts. The interaction between chronotype and learning approach was significant on determining academic achievement. Our findings gave the impression that chronotype could have an impact on academic performance not directly but indirectly through learning approaches.
Towards Robust Neural Machine Translation

Small perturbations in the input can severely distort intermediate representations and thus impact translation quality of neural machine translation (NMT) models. In this paper, we propose to improve the robustness of NMT models with adversarial stability training. The basic idea is to make both the encoder and decoder in NMT models robust against input perturbations by enabling them to behave similarly for the original input and its perturbed counterpart. Experimental results on Chinese-English, English-German and English-French translation tasks show that our approaches can not only achieve significant improvements over strong NMT systems but also improve the robustness of NMT models.
Predicting Cancer‐Prevention Behavior: Disentangling the Effects of Risk Aversion and Risk Perceptions

Experimental and survey research spanning the last two decades concludes that people who are more risk tolerant are more likely to engage in risky health activities such as smoking and heavy alcohol consumption, and are more likely to be obese. Subjective perceptions of the risk associated with different activities have also been found to be associated with health behaviors. While there are numerous studies that link risk perceptions with risky behavior, it is notable that none of these controls for risk aversion. Similarly, studies that control for risk aversion fail to control for risk misperceptions. We use a survey of 474 men and women to investigate the influence of risk aversion, risk misperceptions, and cognitive ability on the choice to engage in behaviors that either increase or mitigate cancer risk. We measure optimism in two dimensions: baseline optimists are those who inaccurately believe their cancer risk to be below its expert‐assessed level, while control optimists are those who believe they can reduce their risk of cancer (by changing their lifestyle choices) to a greater extent than is actually the case. Our results indicate that baseline optimism is significantly and negatively correlated with subjects′ tendencies to engage in cancer‐risk‐reducing behaviors, and positively correlated with risky behaviors. Subjects’ control misperceptions also appear to play a role in their tendency to engage in risky and prevention behaviors. When controlling for both of these types of risk misperception, risk aversion plays a much smaller role in determining health behaviors than found in past studies.
The Relationship between Domestic Investment and Economic Growth in Nigeria

This study aims at investigating the relationship between domestic investment and economic growth in Nigeria using secondary time series data set sourced from Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Statistical Bulletin for the year 2010. The data set has been analysed using STATA Version 9.1. This data set covers the period of 30 years, 1981 to 2010. Non probability sampling method in the form of availability sampling technique has been used in selecting the number of years that constitutes the sample size of this study. This technique has been applied due to availability of the relevant data for the selected years only. From the cointegration results, it is clear that there is a significant long run positive relationship among domestic investment, exports and economic growth in Nigeria. For the short run relationship, the results of Granger causality test indicate a significant feedback causality running from domestic investment to economic growth and vice versa in the short run. In addition, in the short run, there is a significant negative bidirectional relationship between domestic investment and exports in Nigeria. Nonetheless, the findings indicate no short run causal relationship between exports and economic growth. The findings of this study therefore have the following implications: first, economic growth should be strengthened in order to achieve high level of domestic investment both in the short and long runs. Furthermore, although export does not have any significant influence on economic growth in the shot run, such influence exists in the long run. Therefore, measures that will ensure exports promotion should be adopted.
Do Corporate Annual Reports Communicate Corporate Strategy?

This paper studies communication of corporate strategy through annual reports to their stakeholders. Content analysis of MD&A sections of annual reports of large Indian firms was done to explore strategy content, positive nature of text (existence of Pollyanna effect), and presence of self-serving attributions. It was found that ftrms focus their communication on describing the external business environment, an analysis of their actions and strategies, and the resulting performance over the past year(s), rather than discuss the future. A relatively smaller proportion of text is devoted to discussing the mandated risks and concerns, and future outlook, and a much lesser proportion to the firm's planned course of action⁄ strategy for the future.
Index Effects: Evidence from Australia

This paper presents the findings of the first study of the index effects from changes in the composition of Australia’s tradeable benchmark index: the S&P/ASX 200. Prior to the introduction of the S&P/ASX200 changes to the composition of the market’s (then) benchmark index (the All Ordinaries Index) became evident before the formal announcement dates and the changes were made the following trading day. These announcement arrangements enabled profitable front-running trading. Along with the introduction of the new indices (including the S&P/ASX200) the arrangements for announcing changes to the composition of the index were changed to remove the opportunity for profitable frontrunning trading. While this objective was largely met for additions to the index the study found statistically significant evidence of price pressure between the announcement and implementation dates which were partially offset over the subsequent 20-day period. In relation to deletions the study found negative abnormal returns prior to announcement dates as well as between the announcement and implementation dates that were partially reversed over the subsequent 20-day period. The overall conclusion is that the event of changes in the composition of the S&P/ASX200 is on average associated with positive abnormal returns for additions and negative abnormal returns for deletions.
Glial Activation and Central Synapse Loss, but Not Motoneuron Degeneration, Are Prevented by the Sigma-1 Receptor Agonist PRE-084 in the Smn2B/− Mouse Model of Spinal Muscular Atrophy

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is characterized by the loss of α-motoneurons (MNs) with concomitant muscle denervation. MN excitability and vulnerability to disease are particularly regulated by cholinergic synaptic afferents (C-boutons), in which Sigma-1 receptor (Sig1R) is concentrated. Alterations in Sig1R have been associated with MN degeneration. Here, we investigated whether a chronic treatment with the Sig1R agonist PRE-084 was able to exert beneficial effects on SMA. We used a model of intermediate SMA, the Smn2B/- mouse, in which we performed a detailed characterization of the histopathological changes that occur throughout the disease. We report that Smn2B/- mice exhibited qualitative differences in major alterations found in mouse models of severe SMA: Smn2B/- animals showed more prominent MN degeneration, early motor axon alterations, marked changes in sensory neurons, and later MN deafferentation that correlated with conspicuous reactive gliosis and altered neuroinflammatory M1/M2 microglial balance. PRE-084 attenuated reactive gliosis, mitigated M1/M2 imbalance, and prevented MN deafferentation in Smn2B/- mice. These effects were also observed in a severe SMA model, the SMNΔ7 mouse. However, the prevention of gliosis and MN deafferentation promoted by PRE-084 were not accompanied by any improvements in clinical outcome or other major pathological changes found in SMA mice.
Roles of facilitative glucose transporter GLUT1 in ( 18 F)FDG positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of human diseases

The facilitative glucose transport protein GLUT1 has important roles in positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of human diseases. GLUT1 has widespread expression and catalyses the energyindependent facilitated diffusion of glucose down its concentration gradient across red blood cell membranes, blood-brain and blood-tissue barriers and membranes of some oragnelles. Import is usually the prevailing direction of transport for providing metabolic fuel, especially in proliferating cells. PET imaging using 2-deoxy-2-[ 18 F]fluoro-D-glucose ([ 18 F]FDG) measures the uptake of [ 18 F]FDG into cells and tissues as a marker of glucose transport and glycolytic activity. Diseases can alter glycolytic activity in localised regions of tissues or organs, which can be visualised using [ 18 F]FDG PET. Expression and/or activity levels of GLUT1 contribute to the pattern and intensity of [ 18 F]FDG. [ 18 F]FDG PET imaging is used in diagnosing and monitoring a range of human diseases and in analysing their response to treatments. Proliferating cancer cells display overexpression of GLUT1 and a vastly higher rate of glycolysis for satisfying their increased nutrient demands. Tumours therefore have significantly enhanced [ 18 F]FDG uptake compared with normal cells, so [ 18 F]FDG PET is routinely used in diagnosing and monitoring cancers. [ 18 F]FDG PET imaging of the brain allows identification of distinct patterns of hypometabolism and/or hypermetabolism associated with neurological disorders including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, epilespsy,
Depletion interactions in lyotropic nematics

A theoretical study of depletion interactions between pairs of small, globular colloids dispersed in a lyotropic nematic of hard, rodlike particles is presented. We find that both the strength and range of the interaction crucially depends on the configuration of the spheres relative to the nematic director, and on their size. The interaction is significantly stronger parallel than perpendicular to the director, explaining the emergence of stringlike aggregates observed in experiment.
Waves in Periodically Layered Media: A Comparison of Two Theories

Two distinct asymptotic theories for wave propagation in one-dimensional inhomogeneous media are compared in their common domain of validity. One theory, due to Santosa and Symes, applies to long wavelength propagation in periodic media with arbitrary contrast in material properties. The O’Doherty–Anstey theory, on the other hand, is explicitly intended to describe time-dependent wave propagation in media that are finely layered but characterized by relatively small reflectivity. The two theories are compared in detail in the doubly asymptotic limit of low-frequency wave propagation in periodic media with small contrasts. The equivalence is demonstrated by deriving the asymptotic limit of the dispersion curve of the fundamental Bloch wave according to each theory. The analysis for the O’Doherty–Anstey theory sheds some new light on its strengths and limitations, particularly in periodic media. It is shown that it correctly predicts the leading-order dispersion curve of the first branch for frequencies of .
High efficiency proton beam generation through target thickness control in femtosecond laser-plasma interactions

Bright proton beams with maximum energies of up to 30 MeV have been observed in an experiment investigating ion sheath acceleration driven by a short pulse (<50 fs) laser. The scaling of maximum proton energy and total beam energy content at ultra-high intensities of ∼1021 W cm−2 was investigated, with the interplay between target thickness and laser pre-pulse found to be a key factor. While the maximum proton energies observed were maximised for μm-thick targets, the total proton energy content was seen to peak for thinner, 500 nm, foils. The total proton beam energy reached up to 440 mJ (a conversion efficiency of 4%), marking a significant step forward for many laser-driven ion applications. The experimental results are supported by hydrodynamic and particle-in-cell simulations.
Community Participation in Community-based Prevention Programs; A Short Review of the Literature on Challenges to Breast Cancer Prevention Programs or Activities

This article reviews the potential of widely used psycho-social factors affecting community participation in community-based prevention programs among diverse communities. Besides, we specifically appraised the previous literature to look into the psycho-social, structural, and demographic factors which create latent challenges to community participation in breast cancer prevention programs. We believe communities with lack of behavioral and psycho-social change components are likely to have low motivations to participate in health programs against diseases such as breast cancer. Additionally, certain demographic characteristics and potential structural factors control a distinct participation in health programs. Clarification of participation in public health programs and its psycho-social, structural, and demographic attributes are keys to explicate why and how socio-cultural, behavioural, and multifaceted interventions should be main concern in the evaluation of community participation in health promotion programs. The idea here is rather to emphasize on community participation in breast cancer prevention activities for community development undertakings. [Maryam Ahmadian & Asnarulkhadi Abu Samah. Community Participation in Community-based Prevention Programs; A Short Review of the Literature on Challenges to Breast Cancer Prevention Programs or Activities Life Sci J 2012;9(3):685-694] (ISSN:1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite. com. 96
The vintage effect overcomes the terroir effect: a three year survey on the wine yeast biodiversity in Franciacorta and Oltrepò Pavese, two northern Italian vine-growing areas.

A three year survey on the dominant yeast populations in samples of air, must and wine in different vineyards and cellars of two northern Italian vine-growing territories (six sites in Franciacorta and eight sites in Oltrepò Pavese areas) was carried out. A total of 505 isolates were ascribed to 31 different species by RFLP analysis of the ITS1-5.8SrRNA-ITS2 region and partial sequence analysis of the 26S rRNA gene. The most commonly found species were Saccharomyces cerevisiae (frequency, F' = 58.7%; incidence, I' = 53.5%), Hanseniaspora uvarum (F' = 14.3%; I' = 5.3%), Metschnikowia fructicola (F' = 11.1%; I' = 5.0%) and Torulaspora delbrueckii (F' = 10.3%; I' = 3.8%). Among 270 S. cerevisiae new isolates, 156 (57.8%) revealed a different genetic pattern through polymorphism analysis of the interdelta regions by capillary electrophoresis, while 47 isolates (17.4 %) were clones of starter cultures. By considering the Shannon-Wiener index and results of principal component analysis (PCA) analyses, the year of isolation (vintage) proved to be a factor that significantly affected the biodiversity of the yeast species, whereas the geographical site (terroir) was not. Seventy-five per cent of S. cerevisiae isolates gathered in a unique cluster at a similarity level of 82%, while the remaining 25% were separated into minor groups without any evident relationship between δ-PCR profile and territory, year or source of isolation. However, in six cases a similar strain appeared at the harvesting time both in Franciacorta and Oltrepò Pavese areas, whereas surprisingly no strain was reisolated in the same vineyard or cellar for consecutive years.