Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Shiga toxin-associated hemolytic uremic syndrome: effect of sodium butyrate on sensitivity of human umbilical vein endothelial cells to Shiga toxin

Escherichia coli O157:H7-related vascular damage such as hemolytic uremic syndrome is believed to require the Shiga-like toxins. This study demonstrated that sodium butyrate sensitized human umbilical vein endothelial cells to Shiga toxin and increased the expression of Shiga toxin receptor, globotriaosylceramide (Gb3), on human umbilical vein endothelial cells.
Corruption, governments’ debts, trade, and global growth

The purpose of the study is to examine interdependence between national growth, global growth, income and wealth distributions between workers and officials and between countries, government’s debts, and corruption. We are especially concerned with how corruption in any economy can affect global trade pattern and global economic growth. The model is constructed within a dynamic general equilibrium framework on the basis of the Solow growth model, the Oniki- Uzawa-two-country global growth model, Diamond’s growth model with government’s debt, and Zhang’s model with corruption. The dynamic interdependence between endogenous labor supply, government’s debt, and corruption for a-country world economy is described by nonlinear differential equations. We simulate the model and conduct comparative dynamic analyses conducted for a 3-country global economy. We get many insights from comparative dynamic analyses. For instance, if they become more corrupt, the officials in the world become richer, consume more, and get more corrupt incomes. All the workers have less wealth, consume less, and work almost the same hours. The output levels are slightly affected and each country employs more capital as global wealth is increased. Each government has slightly less debt and spends more.
Three essays on monetary and international economics

This thesis comprises three essays on monetary and international economics. The first essay studies two issues of countries’ exchange rate regime (ERR) choices: why countries peg and, if they peg, how they choose their anchor currency. Using spatial analysis, I found that countries are likely to follow the ERR of “neighbouring” countries, and countries’ ERR are jointly determined by network e↵ects and country-specific factors. The findings indicate that countries may achieve higher welfare by jointly choosing their ERRs with their major partners through cooperation and negotiation. In the second essay, I am trying to answer the question why countries target the particular variables they target by studying the determinants of countries’ monetary policy regimes (MPRs). The study focuses on original OECD member countries, and I develop a chronology of countries’ de jure MPRs for early OECD member countries for the post-Bretton Woods period. I also study the determinants of countries’ monetary policy arrangements based on de facto analysis with Cobham’s (2015) classification as the cross-reference. The results suggest that economic size, trade openness, financial development and political environment all have a role in determining the MPR. The third essay studies two main by-products of financial integration: contagion and risk sharing. I set up a Huggett (1993) type heterogeneous agent model with di↵erent types of countries, and try to fill the gap in the literature by exploring the impact of financial integration on consumers with di↵erent wealth status. The main findings indicate that lenders and borrowers in countries with current account surpluses and deficits respond to the financial crisis asymmetrically. Moreover, the relationship between financial integration and consumption smoothing is not monotonic, indicating that there is a trade-o↵ between the benefits of international risk sharing and the costs of financial contagion induced by unexpected negative shocks as observed in recent history.
Treatment of osteopenia and osteoporosis in renal transplant children and adolescents

Abstract: Successful renal transplantation corrects many of the metabolic abnormalities associated with the development of renal osteodystrophy, but despite a well‐functioning graft osteopenia, growth failure, spontaneous fractures, and avascular necrosis remain prevalent in adult and pediatric kidney recipients. A paucity of information exists regarding the effects of different therapies to prevent and treat bone loss in the renal transplant recipients. We constructed a design to study the effect of different modalities of treatment on bone mass in our renal transplant children. Among 93 patients who underwent renal transplantation at the age of 17 yr or less and were subjected to dual‐energy X‐ray absorptiometry (DEXA), we blindly randomized 60 patients who had osteopenia or osteoporosis (T‐score = −1 by DEXA) in a prospective study. Their mean age at time of transplantation was 13.4 ± 4.3 yr. The mean duration after transplantation was 48 ± 34 months. The patients were classified randomly into four groups. Each group consisted of 15 patients: group 1 was the control group, group 2 received oral alfacalcidol 0.25 μg daily, group 3 received oral alendronate 5 mg daily, and group 4 received 200 IU/day nasal spray calcitonin. Parameters of bone turnover, calcium metabolism, and DEXA were measured before and after 12 months of treatment duration. The characteristics of all groups were comparable at the beginning of the study. At the lumber spine, bone mass density decreased from −2.4 to −2.8 in group 1, increased from −2.3 to −0.5 in group 2, from −2.3 to −1.9 in group 3, and from −2.3 to −1.0 in group 4. The four groups had similar patient profiles, serum creatinine, intact parathyroid hormone, osteocalcin, and deoxypyridinoline. This study confirmed the value of alfacalcidol and antiresorptive agents in the treatment of osteopenia and osteoporosis in young renal transplant recipients . These therapies were safe, tolerable, simple to administer and potentially applicable to other renal transplant patients.
Cardiovascular effects of beta-agonists in patients with asthma and COPD: a meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND beta-Adrenergic agonists exert physiologic effects that are the opposite of those of beta-blockers. beta-Blockers are known to reduce morbidity and mortality in patients with cardiac disease. beta(2)-Agonist use in patients with obstructive airway disease has been associated with an increased risk for myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, cardiac arrest, and acute cardiac death. OBJECTIVES To assess the cardiovascular safety of beta(2)-agonist use in patients with obstructive airway disease, defined as asthma or COPD. METHODS A meta-analysis of randomized placebo-controlled trials of beta(2)-agonist treatment in patients with obstructive airway disease was performed, to evaluate the short-term effect on heart rate and potassium concentrations, and the long-term effect on adverse cardiovascular events. Longer duration trials were included in the analysis if they reported at least one adverse event. Adverse events included sinus and ventricular tachycardia, syncope, atrial fibrillation, congestive heart failure, myocardial infarction, cardiac arrest, or sudden death. RESULTS Thirteen single-dose trials and 20 longer duration trials were included in the study. A single dose of beta(2)-agonist increased the heart rate by 9.12 beats/min (95% confidence interval [CI], 5.32 to 12.92) and reduced the potassium concentration by 0.36 mmol/L (95% CI, 0.18 to 0.54), compared to placebo. For trials lasting from 3 days to 1 year, beta(2)-agonist treatment significantly increased the risk for a cardiovascular event (relative risk [RR], 2.54; 95% CI, 1.59 to 4.05) compared to placebo. The RR for sinus tachycardia alone was 3.06 (95% CI, 1.70 to 5.50), and for all other events it was 1.66 (95% CI, 0.76 to 3.6). CONCLUSION beta(2)-Agonist use in patients with obstructive airway disease increases the risk for adverse cardiovascular events. The initiation of treatment increases heart rate and reduces potassium concentrations compared to placebo. It could be through these mechanisms, and other effects of beta-adrenergic stimulation, that beta(2)-agonists may precipitate ischemia, congestive heart failure, arrhythmias, and sudden death.
Bilirubin is negatively associated with hemoglobin a(1c) independently of other cardiovascular risk factors in apparently healthy Japanese men and women.

BACKGROUND Serum total bilirubin (TB) is a potent antioxidant and may be a negative risk factor of cardiovascular disease. In non-diabetic adults, hemoglobin A(1c) (HbA(1c)), but not fasting plasma glucose, is an independent risk factor of cardiovascular disease. METHODS AND RESULTS Linear regression using TB as a dependent variable and cardiovascular risk factors, including HbA(1c), as independent variables, linear regression using HbA(1c) as a dependent variable and other cardiovascular risk factors, including TB, as independent variables, and logistic regression using the highest decile (≥ 5.4%) of HbA(1c) as a dependent variable and TB and other cardiovascular risk factors as independent variables were performed for 893 apparently healthy male smokers, 1,607 male nonsmokers, and 1,680 women. The standardized regression coefficient of HbA(1c) for TB and that of TB for HbA(1c) was -0.12 (P = 0.007) and -0.06 (P = 0.02), respectively, in the smokers, -0.20 (P < 0.0001) and -0.07 (P < 0.0001), respectively, in the nonsmokers, and -0.21 (P < 0.0001) and -0.14 (P < 0.0001), respectively, in the women. The odds ratio of 1 SD increment in TB for HbA(1c) ≥ 5.4% was not significant in the smokers, 0.67 (P = 0.002) in the nonsmokers, and 0.55 (P<0.0001) in the women. CONCLUSIONS Bilirubin was negatively associated with HbA(1c) independently of other cardiovascular risk factors in apparently healthy Japanese men and women. The association was weak in male smokers.
UvA-DARE ( Digital Academic Repository ) Simulation to analyse planning difficulties at the preoperative assessment clinic

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Amikacin levels in human aqueous humor.

Amikacin is one of the newer aminoglycoside antibiotics. The penetration of amikacin into the human primary aqueous humor after intramuscular application was investigated. Comparing our results with reports concerning the blood aqueous permeability of gentamicin and tobramycin we could not find any significantly better penetration of amikacin into the human aqueous humor after i.m. injection. The advantage of amikacin lies in its effectiveness against bacteria resistant to other aminoglycosides.
Subjective quality of life of outpatients with diabetes: comparison with family caregivers' impressions and control group.

BACKGROUND There is a paucity of studies on comparison of quality of life (QOL) of type-1 and type-2 diabetes patients, and the impact of family caregivers' impressions on the QOL of patients. OBJECTIVES To assess the subjective QOL of Sudanese diabetics using the WHOQOL-Bref, compared with a general population sample; examine caregiver-patient concordance; and assess the variables that impact on QOL. METHOD The responses of 105 outpatients with type-1 diabetes and 136 with type-2 diabetes were compared with their family caregivers' impressions and 139 general population subjects. RESULTS Patients were predominantly dissatisfied with their life circumstances. Type-1 diabetics had significantly lowest QOL scores, while the control group had highest scores. Having additional medical problems; having diminished sexual desire; and being young, unemployed and single were associated with poor QOL, but illness duration was not. Type-2 diabetics had lesser concordance with caregivers. The only predictor of patients' QOL was the caregivers' impression of patients' QOL. CONCLUSIONS Caregivers' impression of patients' QOL impacted on outcome. Caregiver education is, therefore, important. The factors associated with QOL indicate a group that needs focused attention. The good QOL for type-2 and nonsignificance of illness duration encourage therapeutic optimism.
Fuzzy Logic for Adaptive Instruction in an E-learning Environment for Computer Programming

In this paper, a novel approach to web-based education that performs individualized instruction on the domain of programming languages is presented. This approach is fully implemented and evaluated in an educational application module, called fuzzy knowledge state definer (FuzKSD). In particular, FuzKSD performs user modeling by dynamically identifying and updating a student's knowledge level of all the concepts of the domain knowledge. The operation of FuzKSD is based on fuzzy cognitive maps (FCMs) that are used to represent the dependences among the domain concepts. FuzKSD uses fuzzy sets to represent a student's knowledge level as a subset of the domain knowledge. Thus, it combines fuzzy theory with the overlay model. Moreover, it employs a novel inference mechanism that dynamically updates user stereotypes using fuzzy sets. It should be noted that the overlay model and stereotypes constitute two widely used methods for user modeling. However, they have not been combined with fuzzy sets thus far in the literature. The gain from this novel combination is significant as a student level of knowledge is represented in a more realistic way by automatically modeling the learning or forgetting process of a student with respect to the FCMs and thus the system can provide individualized adaptive advice. The application of this approach is not limited to adaptive instruction. It can also be used in other systems with changeable user states, such as e-shops, where consumers' preferences change over time and affect one another. Therefore, the particular module constitutes a novel generic fuzzy tool, which offers dynamic adaptation to users' needs and preferences of adaptive systems.
Do Co-Opted Directors Influence Dividend Policy?

We explore how coâ€ opted directors affect dividend policy. Coâ€ opted directors are those appointed after the incumbent chief executive officer (CEO) assumes office. Our results show that coâ€ opted directors lead to a weaker propensity to pay dividends and, for dividendâ€ paying firms, significantly lower dividend payouts. We also show that board coâ€ option has more explanatory power for dividend policy than does the traditional measure of board effectiveness, that is, board independence. Exploiting the passage of the Sarbanesâ€ Oxley Act as a natural experiment, we show that the effect of board coâ€ option on dividend policy is more likely causal, rather than merely an association.
Corpus Callosum Atrophy and Cognitive Decline in Early Alzheimer's Disease: Longitudinal MRI Study

Background: We investigated the rate of corpus callosum (CC) atrophy and its association with cognitive decline in early Alzheimer's disease (AD). Methods: We used publicly available longitudinal MRI data corresponding to 2 or more visits from 137 subjects characterized using the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) score. We classified these subjects into 3 groups according to the progression of their cognitive status: a healthy control group (CDR 0→0, n = 72), a decliner group (CDR 0→0.5, n = 14) and an AD group (CDR 0.5→0.5/1, n = 51). We measured the CC area on the midsagittal plane and calculated the atrophy rate between 2 or more visits. The correlation between the CC atrophy rate and annualized Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) change was also analyzed. Results: The results indicated that the baseline CC area was larger in the healthy control group compared to the AD group, whereas the CC atrophy rate was higher in the AD group relative to the control and decliner groups. The CC atrophy rate was also correlated with the annualized MMSE change in AD patients (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Callosal atrophy is present even in early AD and subsequently accelerates, such that the rate of CC atrophy is associated with cognitive decline in AD patients.
Frequency and loss dependence of the protective effects of the olivocochlear pathways in cats.

1. In the previous manuscript I suggested a frequency dependency to olivocochlear bundle (OCB)-mediated protection from loud sound by showing protection for binaural compared with monaural 11-kHz exposures but not 3-kHz exposures of the same intensity and duration. To determine whether this was the case, experiments were carried out in barbiturate-anesthetized cats using the paradigm of a unilateral brain stem incision to deefferent one cochlea in each animal before presentation of a binaural loud sound exposure. With equal-intensity, equal-duration binaural exposures, in different groups protection in OCB-intact compared with OCB-cut ears was seen only for exposures at 11, 15, or 20 kHz, but not at 3 or 7 kHz, suggesting that OCB-mediated protection was found only for higher-frequency exposures. This would be consistent with the OCB-mediated protection in guinea pig studies where 10-kHz exposures were used and its absence in a study in cats where 6-kHz exposures were used. However, this conclusion had to be qualified by the fact that the lower-frequency exposures resulted in smaller threshold losses than did the higher-frequency exposures. 2. To determine whether OCB-mediated protection could be obtained for lower-frequency exposures that were made as damaging as or more damaging than the high-frequency exposures, longer-duration, lower-frequency exposures were used. OCB-mediated protection could then be obtained for exposure at 7 kHz, 100 dB SPL for 15 min but not at 3 or 5 kHz, 100 dB SPL for 20 min or at 3 kHz, 100 dB SPL for 40 min or 106 dB SPL for 20 min. Finally, when large threshold losses were produced with exposure at 3 kHz, 106 dB SPL for 40 min, OCB-mediated protection could be obtained for this low-frequency exposure too. These effects suggested that there were different "activation threshold" for OCB-mediated protection as a function of exposure frequency. To determine whether this also applied for the higher-frequency exposures (11, 15, and 20 kHz), all of which had elicited OCB-mediated protection when presented at 100 dB SPL for 10 min, these exposure frequencies were presented at 100 dB SPL for 7 min to produce low threshold losses. Now protection was found for the 11- and 15-kHz exposures but not for the 20-kHz exposure. 3. Thus the activation threshold for OCB-mediated protection varied in a frequency-dependent manner. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in Obstructive Sleep Apnea Patients.

Introduction Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is the most common entrapment neuropathy of the upper extremity. It is usually associated with the compression of the median nerve in the median groove. Because the main symptoms of CTS pain and numbness worsen at night, sleep disorders in CTS patients and the impact of preferred sleeping position on CTS development have been formerly studied. However, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study assessing the frequency of CTS in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) patients. This study aimed to determine the frequency of CTS in OSA patients and evaluate the causative relation between the two diseases. Methods Records of individuals who were admitted to our sleep laboratory were retrospectively scanned. Eighty patients who were diagnosed with OSA and did not have comorbidities that might cause OSA (e.g., diabetes mellitus, hypothyroiditis, rheumatic diseases, and cervical radiculopathy) were included in the study along with 80 healthy controls who matched for age, sex, and BMI of OSA patients. To maintain observer blindness, patients were not questioned regarding their symptoms or the clinical data that would be used in the study. All participants underwent nerve conduction studies. Those who were diagnosed with CTS were questioned regarding CTS symptoms and the preferred sleeping position. Subsequently, patients were given the Boston CTS questionnaire. Results CTS frequency in OSA patients was found to be 27.5%. There was no significant relation between preferred sleeping position or being a manual worker and having CTS. Conclusion CTS frequency in OSA patients is significantly higher than that in healthy individuals. In contrast to previous studies that have been performed in the absence of polysomnographic and electrophysiological data, in our study biomechanical factors were not associated with CTS presence. Therefore, we conclude that intermittent hypoxemia is the main etiological factor for CTS in OSA patients. Inflammation may be a common factor for etiopathogenesis for both diseases, but this hypothesis needs further investigation.
Can closeness, conflict, and dependency be used to characterize students' perceptions of the affective relationship with their teacher? Testing a new child measure in middle childhood.

BACKGROUND The constructs of closeness, conflict, and dependency, which are derived from attachment theory, are widely used to qualify teachers' perceptions of relationships with individual children. AIMS Our main aim was to reveal whether similar and reliable dimensions could be identified in middle childhood with a newly developed student measure Student Perception of Affective Relationship with Teacher Scale (SPARTS). Additional validity support was sought by examining gender differences and associations with (1) teacher relationship perceptions and (2) problem and prosocial behaviours in children. SAMPLE(S) Factor structure was determined in a sample of 586 children (46.5% boys) from 26 regular elementary Dutch classrooms (grade 4-6). Associations with teacher relationship reports (n = 82) and child behaviours (n = 64) were analysed in random subsamples. METHODS Students' relationship perceptions were assessed with the SPARTS; teachers' relationship perceptions with the Student-Teacher Relationship Scale (STRS; closeness, conflict, and dependency); and problem and prosocial behaviours in children with the teacher-reported Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. RESULTS Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis supported a 3-factor model of conflict, closeness, and a third factor, unexpectedly reflecting negative expectations of the student instead of dependency. Satisfactory internal consistency was found for all three scales. Additional validity evidence included the following: Substantial student-teacher agreement for conflict and closeness; meaningful associations with problem and prosocial behaviours in children; and expected gender differences showing that, compared to boys, girls share more favourable relationships (more closeness and less conflict) with teachers. CONCLUSIONS The 3-dimensional SPARTS comes close to the attachment-derived teacher STRS, as far as conflict and closeness are concerned. The third dimension, negative expectations, represents a new and relevant attachment-related dimension reflecting a lack of confidence of students in the relationship with their teacher.