Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Omitting fentanyl reduces nausea and vomiting, without increasing pain, after sevoflurane for day surgery*

Background and objective: Despite advantages of induction and maintenance of anaesthesia with sevoflurane, postoperative nausea and vomiting occurs frequently. Fentanyl is a commonly used supplement that may contribute to this, although it may alrove analgesia. Methods: This double‐blind study examined the incidence and severity of postoperative nausea and vomiting and pain in the first 24 h after sevoflurane anaesthesia in 216 adult day surgery patients. Patients were randomly allocated to either receive or not receive 1 &mgr;g kg−1 fentanyl, while a third group received dexamethasone in addition to fentanyl. Results: Omission of fentanyl did not reduce the overall incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting, but did reduce the incidence of vomiting and/or moderate to severe nausea prior to discharge from 20% and 17% with fentanyl and fentanyl‐dexamethasone, respectively, to 5% (P = 0.013). Antiemetic requirements were reduced from 24% and 31% to 7% (P = 0.0012). Dexamethasone had no significant effect on the incidence or severity of postoperative nausea and vomiting. Combining the two fentanyl groups revealed further significant benefits from the avoidance of opioids, reducing postoperative nausea and vomiting and nausea prior to discharge from 35% and 33% to 22% and 19% (P = 0.049 and P = 0.035), respectively, while nausea in the first 24 h was decreased from 42% to 27% (P = 0.034). Pain severity and analgesic requirements were unaffected by the omission of fentanyl. Fentanyl did reduce minor intraoperative movement but had no sevoflurane‐sparing effect and increased respiratory depression, hypotension and bradycardia. Conclusion: As fentanyl exacerbated postoperative nausea and vomiting without an improvement in postoperative pain and also had adverse cardiorespiratory effects, it appears to be an unnecessary and possibly detrimental supplement to sevoflurane in day surgery.
Absence of regional hemispheric volume asymmetries in first-episode schizophrenia.

OBJECTIVE The goal of this study was to determine whether patients experiencing their first episode of schizophrenia differ from healthy subjects in regional cerebral hemispheric volumes or asymmetries. METHOD Regional volumes corresponding to prefrontal, premotor, sensorimotor, occipitoparietal, and temporal lobes in each hemisphere were measured on contiguous coronal magnetic resonance images in 70 patients experiencing their first episode of schizophrenia and in 51 healthy comparison subjects. RESULTS Patients did not differ from the comparison subjects in regional or total hemispheric volumes, but they had abnormal hemispheric asymmetries. Subjects in the comparison group had significant lateral asymmetries in each region: their occipitoparietal and sensorimotor regions were larger on the left, and their premotor, prefrontal, and temporal regions were larger on the right. Patients lacked lateral asymmetries and showed significantly less asymmetry than healthy subjects in occipitoparietal, premotor, and prefrontal regions. Absence of the normal asymmetry was more common among patients initially diagnosed with the undifferentiated than with the paranoid subtype of schizophrenia and was associated with more severe negative symptoms among men. Asymmetries were related to sex and handedness regardless of diagnosis; specifically, dextral men showed more asymmetry than nondextral men or dextral women. CONCLUSIONS The absence of normal hemispheric asymmetries suggests an anomaly in the development of laterally specialized cerebral systems in schizophrenia, and this may be associated with an initial presentation of nonparanoid psychosis.
The Need For Transformational Leaders In Education During Times of Change in British Columbia

The aims of education have evolved to include a focus on educating the whole student, in order to develop responsible citizens who are able to contribute to their community and the world at large in the 21 century. In order to accomplish these aims, education in British Columbia has begun to change. Change of this magnitude requires principals and leadership teams who are skilled at change and reform. In order to change the curriculum, instructional strategies, assessment practices, and the pedagogy, the leadership teams in schools need to be prepared to challenge the status quo. This paper provides a review of the literature on Transformational Leadership as a proposed leadership model for education, especially in schools undergoing reform like the schools in British Columbia. Specifically, it proposes eight dimensions of a transformational leader, including the characteristics found in this type of leader. It looks at the effects of Transformational Leadership on the stakeholders, provides suggestions for school districts with respect to their hiring processes and provides recommendations for principal preparation programs in an attempt to better the teacher’s who are to become the leaders of tomorrow.
Thyroid “Atypia of undetermined significance” with nuclear atypia has high rates of malignancy and BRAF mutation

“Atypia of undetermined significance” (AUS) in the Bethesda System for Reporting Thyroid Cytopathology is a heterogeneous category for cases that cannot be easily classified into benign, suspicious, or malignant. This study evaluated whether cytomorphology‐based subcategorization could better predict the malignancy risk in cases designated as AUS, and how the subcategories correlated with BRAF mutation status in thyroid fine‐needle aspirates (FNA).
Canine herpesvirus-1 ocular diseases of mature dogs

Canine herpesvirus-1 (CHV-1) is an alphaherpesvirus with a host range restricted to canids. Latent CHV-1 infection is endemic in domestic dog populations worldwide. The role of CHV-1 in severe systemic neonatal infections and as an aetiology of infectious infertility and abortion has been appreciated for decades; however, ocular diseases of mature dogs conclusively associated with CHV-1 infection were only recently described. Clinically, CHV-1 infection may produce a diverse range of adnexal and ocular surface lesions in mature dogs, including blepharitis, conjunctivitis, ulcerative keratitis, and nonulcerative keratitis. These conditions can develop during primary or recurrent ocular CHV-1 infection. Recurrent CHV-1 infections associated with reactivation of latent virus may be observed during a variety of situations and in association with numerous different viral reactivation stimuli, including the administration of immunosuppressive pharmaceuticals. The understanding of CHV-1 pathophysiology and ocular infections in mature dogs has expanded rapidly during the past few years, but much remains to be elucidated. As the number of dogs living with chronic immunomodulatory systemic diseases and receiving immunosuppressive therapeutics continues to grow, the clinical importance of CHV-1 ocular infections is also likely to increase.
The real effects of regulatory enforcement actions:evidence from U.S. counties

We highlight an important macro-financial linkage: Severe regulatory enforcement actions such as Formal agreements, Prompt corrective actions, and Cease and desist orders on banks trigger temporarily adverse effects for the macroeconomy. We use instrumental variables regressions to show that such actions imposed on single-market banks reduce personal income growth, the number of establishments, and increase unemployment in U.S. counties. These effects are related to contractions in bank lending and liquidity creation. Our identification is sharpened by a series of tests based on falsification tests and placebo enforcement actions. We can rule out several alternative explanations that may confound our results.
Optimal Control of the Gearshift Command for Hybrid Electric Vehicles

This paper proposes a design method for the energy management strategy to explore the potential fuel saving of a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) equipped with an automated manual transmission. The control algorithm is developed based on the combination of dynamic programming (DP) and Pontryagin's minimum principle (PMP) to optimally control the discrete gearshift command, in addition to the continuous power split between the internal combustion engine and the electric machine. The proposed method outperforms DP in terms of computational efficiency, being 171 times faster, without loss of accuracy. Simulation results for a middle-sized HEV on the New European Drive Cycle show that, to further optimize the gearshift strategy, an additional fuel saving of 20.3% can be reached. Furthermore, with the start-stop functionality available, it is shown that the two-point boundary-value problem following from PMP cannot be solved with sufficient accuracy without loss of optimality. This means that the finding of a constant value for the Lagrange multiplier while satisfying the battery state-of-energy (SOE) at the terminal time is not always guaranteed. Therefore, an alternative approach of SOE feedback control to adapt the Lagrange multiplier is adopted. The obtained results are very close to the globally optimal solution from DP. Simulation results, including the start-stop functionality, show that the relative fuel saving can be up to 26.8% compared with the case of a standard gearshift strategy.
Evidence of Chikungunya virus seroprevalence in Myanmar among dengue-suspected patients and healthy volunteers in 2013, 2015, and 2018

Introduction Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a mosquito-borne virus known to cause acute febrile illness associated with debilitating polyarthritis. In 2019, several institutions in Myanmar reported a CHIKV outbreak. There are no official reports of CHIKV cases between 2011 and 2018. Therefore, this study sought to determine the seroprevalence of CHIKV infection before the 2019 outbreak. Methods A total of 1,544 serum samples were collected from healthy volunteers and patients with febrile illnesses in Yangon, Mandalay, and the Myeik district in 2013, 2015, and 2018. Participants ranged from one month to 65 years of age. Antibody screening was performed with in-house anti-CHIKV IgG and IgM ELISA. A neutralization assay was used as a confirmatory test. Results The seroprevalence of anti-CHIKV IgM and anti-CHIKV IgG was 8.9% and 28.6%, respectively, with an overall seropositivity rate of 34.5%. A focus reduction neutralization assay confirmed 32.5% seroprevalence of CHIKV in the study population. Age, health status, and region were significantly associated with neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) and CHIKV seropositivity (p < 0.05), while gender was not (p = 0.9). Seroprevalence in 2013, 2015, and 2018 was 32.1%, 28.8%, and 37.3%, respectively. Of the clinical symptoms observed in participants with fevers, arthralgia was mainly noted in CHIKV-seropositive patients. Conclusion The findings in this study reveal the circulation of CHIKV in Myanmar’s Mandalay, Yangon, and Myeik regions before the 2019 CHIKV outbreak. As no treatment or vaccine for CHIKV exists, the virus must be monitored through systematic surveillance in Myanmar.
Heterogeneidade na qualidade do lucro contábil entre diferentes classes de empresas com a adoção de IFRS: evidências do Brasil

This paper aims to investigate the existence of heterogeneity in earnings quality between different classes of companies after the adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). IFRS adoption is generally associated with an increase in the quality of financial statements. However, companies within the same country are likely to have different economic incentives regarding the disclosure of information. Thus, treating companies equally, without considering the related economic incentives, could contaminate earnings quality investigations. The case of Brazil is analyzed, which is a country classified as code-law, in which tax laws determined accounting practice and in which IFRS adoption is mandatory. First, Brazilian companies listed on the Sao Paulo Stock, Commodities, and Futures Exchange (BM&FBOVESPA) were separated into two classes: companies issuing American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) before IFRS adoption and companies that did not issue ADRs until the adoption of IFRS. Then, this second class of companies was grouped, using cluster analysis, into two different subclasses according to economic incentives. Based on the groups identified, the quality of accounting earnings is tested for each class of the companies before and after IFRS adoption. This paper uses timely recognition of economic events, value relevance of net income, and earnings management as proxies for the quality of accounting earnings. The results indicate that a particular class of companies began showing conditional conservatism, value relevance of net income, and lower earnings management after IFRS adoption. On the other hand, these results were not found for the two other classes of companies.
Insulin resistance in spontaneously hypertensive rats but not in deoxycorticosterone-salt or renal vascular hypertension

Objective: To investigate whether the reported association between insulin resistance and hypertension in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) is a primary defect or a secondary phenomenon in hypertension. Design: Comparisons of glucose metabolism between three groups of hypertensive rats: deoxycorticosterone (DOCA)-salt hypertensive rats; two-kidney, one clip renovascular hypertensive (RVH) rats; SHR; and their respective control groups. There was also an additional group of weight-matched SHR and respective Wistar—Kyoto (WKY) controls. Methods: A trace amount of 3H-deoxyglucose (3H-DOG) was administered in vivo to evaluate its plasma half-life and tissue uptake. In vitro adipose tissue segments were incubated with 14C-glucose and increasing doses of insulin. Results: Compared with age-matched WKY rats, SHR had significantly higher insulin levels, longer plasma half-life and lower 3H-DOC uptake by heart and striated muscle. Plasma glucose levels and incorporation of 14C-glucose into CO2, triglycerides and glycogen by adipose tissue in response to increasing insulin concentrations was similar for both groups of SHR and WKY rats. No differences were found between hypertensive rats and controls in either the DOCA or RVH groups. Conclusion: Evidence of insulin resistance in spontaneous, but not secondary, rat hypertension indicates that the resistance is a primary rather than a secondary event in hypertension.
β-Secretase Cleavage of the Fly Amyloid Precursor Protein Is Required for Glial Survival

β-secretase (or BACE1) is the key enzyme in the production of β-amyloid (Aβ), which accumulates in the senile plaques characteristic for Alzheimer's disease. Consequently, the lack of BACE1 prevents β-processing of the amyloid precursor protein and Aβ production, which made it a promising target for drug development. However, the loss of BACE1 is also detrimental, leading to myelination defects and altered neuronal activity, functions that have been associated with the cleavage of Neuregulin and a voltage-gated sodium channel subunit. Here we show that the Drosophila ortholog of BACE, dBACE, is required for glial survival. Cell-specific knockdown experiments reveal that this is a non-cell autonomous function, as a knockdown of dBACE in photoreceptor neurons leads to progressive degeneration of glia in their target zone, the lamina. Interestingly, this phenotype is suppressed by the loss of the fly amyloid precursor protein (APPL), whereas a secretion-deficient form of APPL enhances the degeneration. This shows that full-length APPL in neurons promotes the death of neighboring glial cells and that β-processing of APPL is needed to prevent glial death. These results therefore not only demonstrate a novel function for an APP protein in glia, but they also show this function specifically requires regulation by β-cleavage.
The Discovery of Novel Actions Is Affected by Very Brief Reinforcement Delays and Reinforcement Modality

ABSTRACT The authors investigated the ability of human participants to discover novel actions under conditions of delayed reinforcement. Participants used a joystick to search for a target indicated by visual or auditory reinforcement. Reinforcement delays of 75–150 ms were found to significantly impair action acquisition. They also found an effect of modality, with acquisition superior with auditory feedback. The duration at which delay was found to impede action discovery is, to the authors’ knowledge, shorter than that previously reported from work with operant and causal learning paradigms. The sensitivity to delay reported, and the difference between modalities, is consistent with accounts of action discovery that emphasize the importance of a time stamp in the motor record for solving the credit assignment problem.
Clinical, Laboratory, and Molecular Findings for 63 Patients With Severe Combined Immunodeficiency: A Decade´s Experience.

BACKGROUND Severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) is a life-threatening pediatric disease. We report on the clinical evaluation, immunological assessment, molecular analysis, and outcomes of SCID patients in a tertiary referral center in Iran. METHODS From January 2006 to December 2015, we performed a prospective cohort study in which initial screening and advanced immunological tests were carried out on patients suspected of having SCID. Genetic analysis was also performed to confirm the diagnosis. RESULTS A total of 63 patients were diagnosed with SCID (43 male [68.3%]). The median age at onset and diagnosis and diagnostic delay were 40 and 110 and 60 days respectively. A total of 49 patients (77.8%) had a history of BCG vaccination, and of these, one-third experienced BCG-associated complications. The most common clinical manifestations were pneumonia, recurrent oral candidiasis, chronic diarrhea, and failure to thrive. Of the thirteen patients who underwent hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, 8 survived and 5 died before they could receive the transplant. Most patients (34.9%) were classified as having T-B-NK+ SCID and had a mutation in the RAG2 or RAG1 gene. CONCLUSIONS Autosomal recessive SCID is the most common type in Iranian patients. Providing high-quality training to physicians and patients' families to reduce the diagnostic delay should be prioritized. It is also important to raise awareness of live vaccination and to expand stem cell donor registries to speed up the transplantation process.
Increased oxidative damage in nuclear and mitochondrial DNA in mild cognitive impairment

Increasing evidence suggests that oxidative damage is associated with normal aging and several neurodegenerative diseases. Mild cognitive impairment (MCI), the phase between normal aging and early dementia, is a common problem in the elderly with many subjects going on to develop Alzheimer's disease (AD). Although increased DNA oxidation is observed in the AD brain, it is unclear when the oxidative damage begins. To determine if DNA oxidation occurs in the brain of subjects with MCI, we quantified multiple oxidized bases in nuclear and mitochondrial DNA isolated from frontal, parietal and temporal lobes and cerebellum of short post‐mortem interval autopsies of eight amnestic patients with MCI and six age‐matched control subjects using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry with selective ion monitoring. We found statistically significant elevations (p < 0.05) of 8‐hydroxyguanine, a widely studied biomarker of DNA damage, in MCI nuclear DNA from frontal and temporal lobe and in mitochondrial DNA from the temporal lobe compared with age‐matched control subjects. Levels of 8‐hydroxyadenine and 4,6‐diamino‐5‐formamidopyrimidine were significantly elevated in nuclear DNA from all three neocortical regions in MCI. Statistically significant elevations of 4,6‐diamino‐5‐formamidopyrimidine were also observed in mitochondrial DNA of MCI temporal, frontal and parietal lobes. These results suggest that oxidative damage to nuclear and mitochondrial DNA occurs in the earliest detectable phase of AD and may play a meaningful role in the pathogenesis of this disease.
Pulmonary Artery Vasoconstriction but not [Ca2+]i Signal Stimulated by Thromboxane A2 Is Partially Resistant to NO

To characterize the thromboxane A2 (TXA2) -induced resistance to the vasodilator effects of the nitric oxide (NO)/cGMP pathway in pulmonary arteries, we have studied the effects of the NO donor sodium nitroprusside on intracellular calcium concentration ([Ca2+]i) and contractile force recorded simultaneously in isolated piglet pulmonary arteries loaded with fura-2 and contracted with norepinephrine or the TXA2 mimetic U46619 and by activation of protein kinase C (PKC) with phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate. In the TXA2 mimetic- and phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate plus norepinephrine-stimulated arteries, nitroprusside exhibited lower vasodilator efficacy (and lower potency in the TXA2 mimetic-stimulated arteries) but similar reductions in [Ca2+]i compared with arteries activated by norepinephrine. The nonselective serine/threonine kinase inhibitor staurosporine, but not the selective inhibitor of PKC bisindolylmaleimide, potentiated the relaxation of nitroprusside in the TXA2 mimetic-stimulated arteries. In conclusion, the resistance to NO/cGMP-induced vasodilation in arteries stimulated by TXA2 and PKC involves a reduced ability of the Ca2+-independent mechanisms for smooth muscle vasodilation. The resistance to NO in arteries stimulated by TXA2 is sensitive to staurosporine but not to bisindolylmaleimide, suggesting the involvement of an activation of a serine/threonine kinase distinct from PKC.
The Politics of Security Deployment of Security Operatives to Jos Metropolis, Plateau State, Nigeria 2001-2014

Abstract The paper examines the politics of security deployment by the Federal Government of Nigeria to Jos, metropolis. A cross-sectional study was conducted and Public Opinion Theory adopted. Methodologically, mixed methods of data collection were conducted that involved the administration of 377 questionnaires to adult respondents, six In-Depth Interviews with religious and community leaders while three Key Informant Interviews with security personnel working with Special Task Force. The survey reveals that, the deployment of Mobile Police from 2001-2010 and the formation of Special Task Force in 2010 has generated mixed reactions and divergent perceptions among the residents of Jos metropolis. Majority of the ethnic groups that are predominantly Christians were more contented with the deployment of the Mobile Police whereas ethnic groups that are dominantly Muslims questioned the neutrality, capability, performance and strength of the Nigerian Police Force in managing the crises. The study recommends that, security personnel should display high degree of neutrality in order to earn the confidence of the residents and change their perceptions.