Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Do Participation Rates Change when Active Consent Procedures Replace Passive Consent

Researchers face considerable ambiguity and controversy regarding the issue of informed consent. Decisions about consent procedures can affect study participation rates and prevalence estimates among specific populations. Changing from passive to active parental consent procedures was examined in a case study with an anonymous survey of sixth- through eighth-grade students' substance use. Four types of procedures for obtaining parental consent were examined. Results suggest that certain types of consent procedures can yield high levels of participation. This study also demonstrates that low participation rates with some active consent procedures can cause biases in sample characteristics and outcome data.
The Spiritual Senses: Perceiving God in Western Christianity

The Spintual Senses: Perceiving God in Western Christianity. Edited by Paul L. Gavrilyuk and Sarah Coakley. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. xix + 316 pp. $99.00 (cloth). This exceptional collection of essays will be of interest to a broad range of specialists, including systematic, historical, philosophical, and spiritual theologians, as well as church historians. Liturgists and liturgiologists will also find much to ponder here.As it is used in the collection, "spiritual senses" means the immediate, "non-physical perception" of God, which traditionally has been expressed by using the sensible (aesthetic) - indeed, even sensual - terms of the five senses (p. 2). Is there a meaningful spiritual analogy to physical sight, touch, taste, hearing, or smell, an immediate intellectual intuition of God? No other general study of this subject in Western theology exists, and the volume's outstanding scholarship goes well beyond any previous inquiries, covering topics ranging from Origen to contemporary analytic philosophy.The collection originated with a consultation formed by the editors in 2005. The result is an instructive, collaborative narrative of the development of the idea of the spiritual senses in Western theology. The editors are quick to underscore the diversity and even inconsistency of that story, recognizing its "lack of precise terminology" (p. 3) and suggesting that the more taxonomic analyses of previous treatments be replaced with a more pragmatic idea of "family resemblances" and "marriages of convenience" (p. 18). Nonetheless, despite these protestations, the collection leaves the impression of a linear development of the idea of the spiritual senses that followed two distinct paths.The first follows Origen's appropriation of the idea from the Neoplatonic tradition, which had a much more fluid connection between the intellect and desire and tended to appeal to "a special mode of perception" for spiritual realities. The essays by Mark J. Mclnroy (Origen), Sarah Coakley (Gregory of Nyssa), Paul L. Gavrilyuk (Pseudo-Dionysius), Boyd Taylor Coolman (Alexander of Hales and Thomas Gallus), Gregory F. LaNave (Bonaventure), and Mark T. Mealey (John Wesley) agree in pointing to direct, cognitive perception of God, and most concur with Pseudo-Dionysius in pointing to a dark, positive excess beyond the intellect where God and the soul "touch. "The second also begins with Origen but turns, with Augustine's interior self and Aristotle's inner senses, into analysis of self-consciousness. Though Franciscans (Alexander of Hales, Thomas Gallus, and Bonaventure) would develop this interior self in ways consistent with Origenism, the essays by Matthew R. Lootens (Augustine), Frederick D. Aquino (Maximus the Confessor), Richard Cross (Aquinas), Garth W. Green (Nicholas of Cusa), and William J. Wainwright (Puritans and Jonathan Edwards) show that the need met by the spiritual senses decreases in direct proportion to the subtlety of a thinkers psychology and the importance that thinker ascribes to empirical, material reality. …
Residual Sensory Capacities of the Deaf: A Signal Detection Analysis of a Visual Discrimination Task

This experiment compared the visual sensory sensitivity of deaf and hearing subjects in a signal detection paradigm. Subjects (ns:= 6) were required to give forced-choice responses to a brightness discrimination task under three stimulus probability conditions (0.25, 0.50, and 0.75). A total of 1,800 trials were given to each subject and utilized to construct isosensitivity functions and d' and Beta, indices for sensory sensitivity and response bias, respectively. The results showed that no enhanced sensory sensitivity is present for these deaf children and questions the classical sensory compensation hypothesis. Furthermore, the deaf subjects responded in a relatively bias-free manner to variations in stimulus probability.
Factors Shaping Exports of Cultural Goods from Pakistan

In the era of economic globalization, cultural goods trade has assumed a vital role in overall bilateral trade. It has become an emerging and transformative force behind socio-cultural-economic development and an important source of inclusive growth. Once virtually unlocked, trade in cultural goods is now fast growing with world-wide market openings. Trade liberalisation in cultural goods thus needs to be treated as a priority policy issue in multilateral and regional trade negotiations. Despite large potential of exports in cultural goods, Pakistan has been unsuccessful in realizing it. This is mainly because of lack of due attention given to it by the policymakers. In this regard, this paper makes a beginning to investigate the determinants of cultural goods exports from Pakistan for the period 2003-2012 with its 157 trading partner countries. The Gravity model is used to identify factors that determine exports of cultural goods. Six major categories of cultural goods are used for the purpose of estimation. Results indicate that size of Pakistan and its trading partner countries’ markets as well as distance among them are important determinants of exports in cultural goods. Specifically, cultural goods exports are strongly and positively influenced by the growth of the GDP in Pakistan, while the trading partner countries’ GDP growth negatively influence cultural goods’ exports. Distance, representing transaction costs and trade barriers, negatively affect exports of cultural goods; while colonial ties, common language, common border and land area of the trading partners positively influence the export of cultural goods. Exports of cultural goods to landlocked countries are lower than other trading partner countries.
Improving consent rates for organ donation: the effect of an inhouse coordinator program.

BACKGROUND The inability to obtain consent remains one of the major obstacles to organ donation. The presence of in-house coordinators (IHCs) from organ procurement organizations (OPOs) might substantially improve donation rates. OBJECTIVE To review the preliminary results of the effect of the presence of an IHC on organ donation rates at our center. METHODS This is a retrospective analysis of patients referred to the regional OPO for possible organ donation. An IHC program was started at our hospital in late 2001. Data regarding organ donation demographics and family consent rates were compared before (Pre-IHC, 1998-2001) and after (Post-IHC, 2002-2005) the institution of an IHC program. The conversion rate was calculated as the number of actual donors divided by the number of potential donors and is represented as a percentage. The function of the IHC was to assist in donor surveillance, ensure timely referral, provide hospital staff education, assist with family consent and donor management, and provide family support. RESULTS There were a total of 495 potential donors and 195 actual donors during the 8-year time period. Post-IHC was associated with a significantly higher consent rate (52% vs. 35%, p < 0.01), a significantly higher conversion rate (50% vs. 34%, p < 0.01), and a 17% increase in organs donated compared with Pre-IHC. CONCLUSION The presence of an IHC program significantly improves consent and conversion rates for organ donation. An IHC program should be considered as a viable option to bridge the gap between organ supply and organ demand.
Pregnancy outcome in immigrant women with gestational diabetes mellitus

Recent studies show adverse outcomes of pregnancy among immigrant women from countries with high diabetes rates. We compared maternal and fetal outcomes in immigrant and Italian women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) followed up at our center. Maternal characteristics considered were age, pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI), HbA1c, frequency of insulin treatment, timing and mode of delivery, and hypertensive disorders; and, for fetal outcome, infants large or small for gestational age, and fetal complications. Pre-pregnancy BMI and HbA1c were higher in immigrant GDM women than in Italians, and more of them were on insulin. No differences in maternal outcome emerged between the two groups. More large for gestational age (LGA) babies were born to immigrant women than to Italians, but no other differences emerged. Apart from newborn LGA, maternal and fetal outcomes were comparable in our immigrant and Italian GDM women. Immigrant GDM women have favourable outcomes if given access to health care and language and cultural barriers are removed.
White Blood Cell Count and Major Adverse Cardiovascular Events After Percutaneous Coronary Intervention in the Contemporary Era: Insights From the PARIS Study (Patterns of Non-Adherence to Anti-Platelet Regimens in Stented Patients Registry)

Background— Elevated white blood cell (WBC) count is associated with increased major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) in the setting of acute coronary syndrome. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether similar associations persist in an all-comers population of patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention in the contemporary era. Methods and Results— In the multicenter, prospective, observational PARIS study (Patterns of Non-Adherence to Anti-Platelet Regimens in Stented Patients Registry), 4222 patients who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention in the United States and Europe between July 1, 2009, and December 2, 2010, were evaluated. The associations between baseline WBC and MACE (composite of cardiac death, stent thrombosis, spontaneous myocardial infarction, or target lesion revascularization) at 24-month follow-up were analyzed using multivariable Cox regression. Patients with higher WBC were more often younger, smokers, and with less comorbid risk factors compared with those with lower WBC. After adjustment for baseline and procedural characteristics, WBC remained independently associated with MACE (hazard ratio [HR] per 103 cells/&mgr;L increase, 1.05 [95% confidence intervals (CI), 1.02–1.09]; P=0.001), cardiac death (HR, 1.10 [95% CI, 1.05–1.17]; P<0.001), and clinically indicated target revascularization (HR, 1.04 [95% CI, 1.00–1.09]; P=0.03) but not stent thrombosis (HR, 1.07 [95% CI, 0.99–1.16]; P=0.10) or spontaneous myocardial infarction (HR, 1.03 [95% CI, 0.97–1.09]; P=0.29). The association between WBC and MACE was consistent in acute coronary syndrome and non–acute coronary syndrome presentations (interaction P=0.15). Conclusions— Increased WBC is an independent predictor of MACE after percutaneous coronary intervention in a contemporary all-comers cohort. Further studies to delineate the underlying pathophysiologic role of elevated WBC across a spectrum of coronary artery disease presentations are warranted. Clinical Trial Registration— URL: http://www.clinicaltrials. gov. Unique identifier: NCT00998127.
The effect of videokeratoscope faceplate design on radius of curvature maps

A computer model using finite ray tracing methods was developed to simulate a videokeratoscope analysing an average cornea. Different faceplate designs were tested using five points on the faceplate subtending angles at the corneal vertex between 15° and 75° in 15° intervals. Image quality was assessed by adding the geometrical blurs of the five image points. Differences (error) between true sagittal radius of curvature, and sagittal radius of curvature calculated by the van Saarloos algorithm, were calculated for selected surfaces at the same corneal points. Differences equal to or bigger than 0.02 mm were regarded as clinically significant. The faceplate surface that provided the sharpest image for an average cornea was a cylinder with the base 120 mm away from the corneal vertex and a diameter of 26 mm. Changing the faceplate design results in clinically significant differences for an average cornea. Image quality is not proportional to corneal surface reconstruction accuracy.
How does c-view image quality compare with conventional 2D FFDM?

PURPOSE The FDA approved the use of digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) in 2011 as an adjunct to 2D full field digital mammography (FFDM) with the constraint that all DBT acquisitions must be paired with a 2D image to assure adequate interpretative information is provided. Recently manufacturers have developed methods to provide a synthesized 2D image generated from the DBT data with the hope of sparing patients the radiation exposure from the FFDM acquisition. While this much needed alternative effectively reduces the total radiation burden, differences in image quality must also be considered. The goal of this study was to compare the intrinsic image quality of synthesized 2D c-view and 2D FFDM images in terms of resolution, contrast, and noise. METHODS Two phantoms were utilized in this study: the American College of Radiology mammography accreditation phantom (ACR phantom) and a novel 3D printed anthropomorphic breast phantom. Both phantoms were imaged using a Hologic Selenia Dimensions 3D system. Analysis of the ACR phantom includes both visual inspection and objective automated analysis using in-house software. Analysis of the 3D anthropomorphic phantom includes visual assessment of resolution and Fourier analysis of the noise. RESULTS Using ACR-defined scoring criteria for the ACR phantom, the FFDM images scored statistically higher than c-view according to both the average observer and automated scores. In addition, between 50% and 70% of c-view images failed to meet the nominal minimum ACR accreditation requirements-primarily due to fiber breaks. Software analysis demonstrated that c-view provided enhanced visualization of medium and large microcalcification objects; however, the benefits diminished for smaller high contrast objects and all low contrast objects. Visual analysis of the anthropomorphic phantom showed a measureable loss of resolution in the c-view image (11 lp/mm FFDM, 5 lp/mm c-view) and loss in detection of small microcalcification objects. Spectral analysis of the anthropomorphic phantom showed higher total noise magnitude in the FFDM image compared with c-view. Whereas the FFDM image contained approximately white noise texture, the c-view image exhibited marked noise reduction at midfrequency and high frequency with far less noise suppression at low frequencies resulting in a mottled noise appearance. CONCLUSIONS Their analysis demonstrates many instances where the c-view image quality differs from FFDM. Compared to FFDM, c-view offers a better depiction of objects of certain size and contrast, but provides poorer overall resolution and noise properties. Based on these findings, the utilization of c-view images in the clinical setting requires careful consideration, especially if considering the discontinuation of FFDM imaging. Not explicitly explored in this study is how the combination of DBT + c-view performs relative to DBT + FFDM or FFDM alone.
Over‐expression of the ribosomal protein L36a gene is associated with cellular proliferation in hepatocellular carcinoma

Using messenger RNA (mRNA) differential display, we identified a single complementary DNA (cDNA) fragment (HG23T1) that was over‐expressed in a hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) specimen. We cloned the full‐length HG23T1 gene by the rapid amplification of cDNA end (RACE) polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method. It perfectly matched the gene encoding human ribosomal protein L36a (RPL36A also referred to as RPL44). RPL36A mRNA was preferentially over‐expressed in 34 of 40 HCC cases (85%, P < .001) and in all of 8 HCC cell lines. Ectopically over‐expressed L36a ribosomal protein localized in the nucleoli of cells, and this localization seemed to be controlled by the N‐terminal or the internal tetrapeptide consensus with its adjacent N‐terminal domain. Over‐expression of L36a led to enhanced colony formation and cell proliferation, which may have resulted from rapid cell cycling, and an antisense cDNA effectively reversed these alterations. In conclusion, RPL36A plays a role in tumor cell proliferation and may be a potential target for anticancer therapy of HCC. (HEPATOLOGY 2004;39:129–138.)
Development of stenoses in transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunts.

PURPOSE To evaluate the frequency and significance of stenoses or occlusions developing within transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunts (TIPS) and identify predictive factors. MATERIALS AND METHODS Medical records of 52 patients who underwent TIPS placement between September 1991 and October 1993 were reviewed. Various shunt parameters were correlated with the development of shunt abnormalities. Findings at follow-up portography and frequency of variceal bleeding and paracentesis were also noted. RESULTS Twenty-four patients were followed up for at least 6 months. In eight patients, stenoses developed within 6 months; one shunt occluded. No clear correlations were found between shunt parameters and development of shunt abnormalities. Two of four patients with recurrent variceal bleeding had associated shunt abnormalities. The frequency of stenosis of TIPS was high. CONCLUSION Early detection and prompt revision of stenotic shunts may decrease the frequency of recurrent variceal bleeding and ascites.
Interpreting the histopathology of chronic cough: a prospective, controlled, comparative study.

HYPOTHESIS Trauma from chronic coughing produces airway inflammation similar to diseases causing cough. DESIGN Prospective, cross-sectional, controlled, clinicopathologic correlation study in four groups: group 1, cough from intrapulmonary diseases; group 2, cough from extrapulmonary diseases; group 3, cough that was unexplained; and group 4, nonsmoking, asymptomatic control subjects. METHODS Patients with chronic cough underwent a standardized workup including endobronchial biopsies before treatment. Causes were determined by a favorable response to therapy. Bronchial biopsy samples from control subjects were obtained from surgical specimens. RESULTS There were 24 adult subjects (13 women and 11 men) with mean cough duration of 8.6 +/- 7.4 years (+/- SD). Thirteen patients had cough due to a specific disease: intrapulmonary diseases in 5 patients, and extrapulmonary diseases in 8 patients. Eleven patients had unexplained cough. Compared to control subjects, there was minimal-to-moderate chronic inflammation in all coughers (p < or = 0.0004), in group 1 (p < or = 0.039), group 2 (p = 0.061), and group 3 (p < or = 0.025) diseases that were not correlated with cough duration. There was no difference in type of inflammation, cough duration, or smoking history between groups, nor were there histologic differences between subjects with explained causes of cough compared with unexplained cough. CONCLUSIONS Our findings suggest that airway inflammation associated with chronic cough, assessed on morphologic appearance and inflammatory cell counting in hematoxylin-eosin-prepared samples, may be due to the trauma of coughing, and the inflammation may be similar to that seen with diseases putatively thought to cause chronic cough. Investigators must be cautious when attributing pathogenic importance to observed inflammatory changes in airways of coughing subjects.
Number of mutations within CTL‐defined epitopes of the hepatitis B Virus (HBV) core region is associated with HBV disease progression

The virologic determinants of progressive liver disease associated with hepatitis B virus (HBV) remain unclear. Previous investigations have associated HBV disease with specific mutations but this association may be confounded by HBV genotype, HLA haplotype of the infected individual or both. The association between non‐synonymous mutations located within putative cytotoxic T‐lymphocyte directed epitopes (CDE) of the HBV core region and disease states was investigated. Subjects infected with HBV were enrolled from a clinical cohort in Seoul, Korea, and HBV core gene sequences were analyzed for mutational patterns inside and outside of CDE with respect to subject demographics and HBV‐related disease states. No specific mutation or pattern of mutations were associated with progressive disease states; however, individuals with cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma had greater numbers of non‐synonymous mutations within CDE when compared to those with chronic HBV infection who were HBeAg positive (P = 0.007 and 0.026, respectively). In conclusion, this study demonstrates that HBV disease progression is associated with viral escape mutations that are a marker of CTL activity. These data suggest that the number of non‐synonymous mutations in the HBV core region may predict HBV disease progression better than any single mutation or pattern of mutations. J. Med. Virol. 83:2082–2087, 2011. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Expression of transient receptor potential channel mucolipin (TRPML) and polycystine (TRPP) in the mouse inner ear

Conclusions: TRPML3 may play distinct roles in the inner ear, such as stereociliar organization, sensory cell transduction, and inner ear fluid homeostasis, and TRPP3 may be important for fluid homeostasis in the inner ear. Objective: To study the expression of TRPML1–3 and TRPP2, 3, and 5 in the mouse inner ear. Materials and methods: Localization of TRPML1–3 and TRPP2, 3, and 5 in the inner ear of CBA/J mice was investigated by immunohistochemistry. Results: TRPML1–3 immunoreactivity was evident in the stria vascularis, spiral prominence, and spiral ligament. TRPML immunoreactivity was also observed in outer and inner hair cells, supporting cells, and spiral ganglion cells. The vestibular end organs, vestibular sensory cells, dark cells, and ganglion cells all showed immunoreactivity to TRPML. TRPP2 immunoreactivity was evident in the outer lining of the lateral wall of the cochlea, spiral ganglion cells, vestibular sensory cells, and ganglion cells. TRPP3 immunoreactivity was present in stria vascularis, spiral ganglion cells, vestibular sensory cells, dark cells, and ganglion cells. Faint TRPP5 immunoreactivity was observed in the spiral ganglion cells and vestibular ganglion cells.