Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparative Analysis of Life Quality in Mothers after Cesarean Section and Normal Vaginal Delivery

BACKGROUND: Statistics indicate that the rate of cesarean section increased in recent years. As complications of hospitalizations and surgery would affect the life quality, the current study was carried out to evaluate the life quality of mothers after normal vaginal delivery (NVD) and cesareane. METHODS: This is an anterograde analytic study of cohort type. To fulfill the study, a specialized questionnaire was designed, and its validity and reliability was approved. The designed questionnaire accompanied with Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and Short-Form-36 (SF-36) was filled by 50 women underwent NVD and 50 underwent cesarean, 6 to 8 and 12 to 14 weeks, postpartum. Finally, the data was analyzed using chi square, independent t, paired t, Wilcoxon and Mann-Whitney tests. RESULTS: Comparing the scores of the two groups 6-8 and 12-14 weeks postpartum indicated that both groups got higher marks in all fields in second step of the study. Anyhow, the improvement of NVD group was higher which was significant in some areas. Comparing the EPDS scores of the groups showed that the cesarean group was more prone to depressive disorders. The difference was significant 6-8 weeks postpartum. Also, the results of SF-36 questionnaire indicate that quality of life in NVD group was better in some aspects and similar with the cesarean group in other aspects. CONCLUSIONS: Findings demonstrated that women undergoing NVD experience better quality of life post partum, comparing those undergoing cesarean. So, to terminate the pregnancy, the NVD is better to be considered as the first choice. KEY WORDS: Quality of life, postpartum, normal vaginal delivery, cesarea
Temporary Changes in Auditory Function Among College Marching Band Members

Title of dissertation: TEMPORARY CHANGES IN AUDITORY FUNCTION AMONG COLLEGE MARCHING BAND MEMBERS Barbara Iserson Libbin Doctor of Audiology, 2008 Dissertation directed by: Dr. Sandra Gordon-Salant Director, Audiology Graduate Program The purpose of this study was to evaluate temporary changes in auditory function associated with marching band practice among college-aged marching band participants. Each eligible musician was tested before and after two practices in the time span of one week. Sound level recordings at a location close to the center of the marching band were documented to be 85 – 105 dB(A), with peaks measured at 114 dB(A). Pure-tone thresholds and transient evoked (TEOAE) and distortion product (DPOAE) otoacoustic emissions were tested to evaluate if any changes occurred as a result of the marching band practices. If clinically significant changes were noted from preto post-practice testing, the band member returned the following morning to evaluate if any recovery had occurred. The principal finding was a significant effect of test time (pre versus postpractice), which was observed in the pure-tone data (3000, 4000, 6000 and 8000 Hz), DPOAE data (3000 Hz, left ear only) and TEOAE data (narrowband and broadband) in the marching band group. For those participants who showed clinically significant changes in auditory function, these changes were found to recover by the next morning. The results suggest that the measured changes in this study are temporary in nature; however, they might be an early indication of future permanent changes. Comparison of data from the marching band members and the control group participants revealed a significant difference between the groups in two measures: pure-tone thresholds at 8000 Hz and TEOAEs (broadband and narrowband). Overall, participation in the two-hour, outdoor marching band practice was not found to be more detrimental to auditory functioning than everyday noise exposure. However, there is evidence that exposure to marching band music produces subtle changes in auditory functioning, particularly as measured with pure-tone thresholds and TEOAEs. TEMPORARY CHANGES IN AUDITORY FUNCTION AMONG COLLEGE MARCHING BAND MEMBERS
Laparoscopic removal of a needle from the pancreas

Foreign bodies inside the pancreas are rare and usually occur after the ingestion of sharp objects like fish bone, sewing needle and toothpick. Most of the ingested foreign bodies pass spontaneously through the anus without being noticed but about 1% of them can perforate through the wall of stomach or duodenum to reach solid organs like pancreas or liver. Once inside the pancreas they can produce complications like abscess, pseudoaneurysm or pancreatits. Foreign bodies of pancreas should be removed by endoscopic or surgical methods. We hereby report our experience of successful removal one a sewing needle from pancreas.
Robotic right colectomy: A worthwhile procedure? Results of a meta-analysis of trials comparing robotic versus laparoscopic right colectomy

Background: Robotic right colectomy (RRC) is a complex procedure, offered to selected patients at institutions highly experienced with the procedure. It is still not clear if this approach is worthwhile in enhancing patient recovery and reducing post-operative complications, compared with laparoscopic right colectomy (LRC). Literature is still fragmented and no meta-analyses have been conducted to compare the two procedures. This work aims at reducing this gap in literature, in order to draw some preliminary conclusions on the differences and similarities between RRC and LRC, focusing on short-term outcomes. Materials and Methods: A systematic literature review was conducted to identify studies comparing RRC and LRC, and meta-analysis was performed using a random-effects model. Peri-operative outcomes (e.g., morbidity, mortality, anastomotic leakage rates, blood loss, operative time) constituted the study end points. Results: Six studies, including 168 patients undergoing RRC and 348 patients undergoing LRC were considered as suitable. The patients in the two groups were similar with respect to sex, body mass index, presence of malignant disease, previous abdominal surgery, and different with respect to age and American Society of Anesthesiologists score. There were no statistically significant differences between RRC and LRC regarding estimated blood loss, rate of conversion to open surgery, number of retrieved lymph nodes, development of anastomotic leakage and other complications, overall morbidity, rates of reoperation, overall mortality, hospital stays. RRC resulted in significantly longer operative time. Conclusions: The RRC procedure is feasible, safe, and effective in selected patients. However, operative times are longer comparing to LRC and no advantages in peri-operative and post-operative outcomes are demonstrated with the use of the robotic surgical system.
INTERVENTIONS TO PREVENT OR REDUCE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF REVIEWS

Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) is a pervasive global problem. It is a violation of basic human rights and a drag on development. Much of the research to-date on the topic-including a major recent World Health Organization study to produce global prevalence rates has focused on better understanding the scale and nature of the problem. The present study builds on this body or research while shifting focus to synthesizing global evidence on potential solutions. This paper, a systematic review of reviews, breaks new ground by synthesizing evidence on the effects of VAWG prevention interventions. It examines the diversity of geographical context, the types of violence addressed, and the numerous approaches that have been used to combat VAWG. Additionally the review summarizes the quality of evidence on efficacy and effectiveness in order to highlight strengths and gaps of interventions on a global scale and could serve as a point of reference for those intending to undertake future design, implementation, and evaluation of interventions. This paper finds that knowledge of intervention impacts on VAWG prevention is growing, but is still highly limited. Nonetheless, a small but growing body of rigorously tested interventions demonstrates that preventing VAWG is possible and can achieve large effect sizes. The interventions with the most positive findings used multiple, well-integrated approaches and engaged with multiple stakeholders over time. They also addressed underlying risk factors for violence, including social norms regarding gender dynamics and the acceptability of violence. These examples point to the imperative of greatly increasing investment both in innovative programming in primary prevention, as well as in high-quality experimental and quasi-experimental evaluations to guide international efforts to end VAWG.
The Circadian Clock Machinery During Early Development of Senegalese sole (Solea senegalensis): Effects of Constant Light and Dark Conditions

Circadian rhythms are established very early during vertebrate development. In fish, environmental cues can influence the initiation and synchronization of different rhythmic processes. Previous studies in zebrafish and rainbow trout have shown that circadian oscillation of clock genes represents one of the earliest detectable rhythms in the developing embryo, suggesting their significance in regulating the coordination of developmental processes. In this study, we analyzed the daily expression of the core clock components Per1, Per2, Per3, and Clock during the first several days of Senegalese sole development (0–4 d post fertilization or dpf) under different lighting regimes, with the aim of addressing when the molecular clock first emerges in this species and how it is affected by different photoperiods. Rhythmic expression of the above genes was detected from 0 to 1 dpf, being markedly affected in the next few days by both constant light (LL) and dark (DD) conditions. A gradual entrainment of the clock machinery was observed only under light-dark (LD) cycles, and robust rhythms with increased amplitudes were established by 4 dpf for all clock genes currently studied. Our results show the existence of an embryonic molecular clock from the 1st d of development in Senegalese sole and emphasize the significance of cycling LD conditions when raising embryos and early larvae. (Author correspondence: munoz.cueto@uca.es; carlos.pendon@uca.es)
Associations of Chronotype and Sleep With Cardiovascular Diseases and Type 2 Diabetes

In this study, the authors analyzed whether chronotypes, sleep duration, and sleep sufficiency are associated with cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes by using the National FINRISK Study 2007 data (N = 6258), being a representative sample of the population aged 25 to 74 living in five areas of Finland. Health status assessments and laboratory measurements from the participants (N = 4589) of the DILGOM substudy were used for the detailed analysis of chronotype. Evening types had a 2.5-fold odds ratio for type 2 diabetes (p < .01) as compared with morning types, the association being independent of sleep duration and sleep sufficiency. Evening types had a 1.3-fold odds ratio for arterial hypertension (p < .05 after controlling for sleep duration or sleep sufficiency), a faster resting heart rate and a lower systolic blood pressure (both p < .01), and lower levels of serum total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (both p < .0001) than morning types. There were significant 1.2- to 1.4-fold odds ratios for arterial hypertension among those with long or short sleep durations or reduced sleep sufficiency. To conclude, the behavioral trait towards eveningness is suggested to predispose individuals to type 2 diabetes in particular, whereas compromised sleep is robustly associated with arterial hypertension. (Author correspondence: ilona.merikanto@helsinki.fi)
Sleep timing is more important than sleep length or quality for medical school performance

Overwhelming evidence supports the importance of sleep for memory consolidation. Medical students are often deprived of sufficient sleep due to large amounts of clinical duties and university load, we therefore investigated how study and sleep habits influence university performance. We performed a questionnaire-based study with 31 medical students of the University of Munich (second and third clinical semesters; surgery and internal medicine). The students kept a diary (in 30-min bins) on their daily schedules (times when they studied by themselves, attended classes, slept, worked on their thesis, or worked to earn money). The project design involved three 2-wk periods (A: during the semester; B: directly before the exam period—pre-exam; C: during the subsequent semester break). Besides the diaries, students completed once questionnaires about their sleep quality (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index [PSQI]), their chronotype (Munich Chronotype Questionnaire [MCTQ]), and their academic history (previous grades, including the previously achieved preclinical board exam [PBE]). Analysis revealed significant correlations between the actual sleep behavior during the semester (MSdiary; mid-sleep point averaged from the sleep diaries) during the pre-exam period and the achieved grade (p = 0.002) as well as between the grades of the currently taken exam and the PBE (p = 0.002). A regression analysis with MSdiary pre-exam and PBE as predictors in a model explained 42.7% of the variance of the exam grade (effect size 0.745). Interestingly, MSdiary—especially during the pre-exam period—was the strongest predictor for the currently achieved grade, along with the preclinical board exam as a covariate, whereas the chronotype did not significantly influence the exam grade.
Body weight gain in rats by a high-fat diet produces chronodisruption in activity/inactivity circadian rhythm

In the last few decades, obesity has become one of the most important public health problems. Adipose tissue is an active endocrine tissue which follows a rhythmic pattern in its functions and may produce alterations in certain circadian rhythms. Our aim was to evaluate whether the locomotor activity circadian rhythm could be modified by a hypercaloric diet in rodents. Two groups were considered in the experiment: 16 rats were used as a control group and were fed standard chow; the other group comprised 16 rats fed a high-fat diet (35.8% fat, 35% glucides). The trial lasted 16 weeks. Body weight was measured every week, and a blood sample was extracted every two weeks to quantify triglyceride levels. The activity/inactivity circadian rhythm was logged through actimetry throughout the trial, and analysed using the DAS 24© software package. At the end of the experiment, the high-fat fed rats had obese-like body weights and high plasma triglyceride levels, and, compared with the control group, increased diurnal activity, decreased nocturnal activity, reductions in amplitude, midline estimating statistic of rhythm, acrophase and interdaily stability, and increases in intradaily variability of their activity rhythms. The results thus show how obesity can lead to symptoms of chronodisruption in the body similar to those of ageing.
Analysis of single nucleotide polymorphisms with opposite effects on serum iron parameters in South African patients with multiple sclerosis

There is growing interest in how genetic and environmental risk factors interact to confer risk for dysregulated iron homeostasis, which is considered a possible pathogenic mechanism in multiple sclerosis (MS). While iron deficiency has been associated with greater disability and disease progression, cerebral accumulation and overload of insoluble iron has also been reported in MS patients. Variation in the matriptase-2 (TMPRSS6) gene has recently been described that may lead to reduced iron levels, which raised the question of whether it may be involved in dysfunctional iron regulation as a pathogenic mechanism in MS. The aims of the study were as follows: 1)) comparison of the allele frequencies and genotype distribution for TMPRSS6 A736V (rs855791, c.2207C>T) and HFE C282Y (rs1800562, c.845G>A) between patients diagnosed with MS and unaffected controls; 2) determination of the effects of clinical characteristics, relevant lifestyle factors and genotype on serum iron parameters in MS patients compared to population matched controls; and 3) determination of clinical outcome in relation to age of onset and degree of disability in MS patients. The study population included 121 Caucasian MS patients and 286 population-matched controls. Serum iron, transferrin, ferritin and transferrin saturation levels were available from previous studies and lifestyle factors were subsequently documented in a subgroup of 68 MS patients and 143 controls using the study questionnaire. Genotyping of TMPRSS6 A736V and HFE C282Y were performed using allele-specific TaqMan technology. The genotype distribution and allele frequencies of TMPRSS6 A736V and HFE C282Y did not differ between MS patients and controls. MS patients homozygous for the iron-lowering minor T-allele of TMPRSS6 A736V had significantly lower serum iron levels (p=0.03) and transferrin saturation levels (p=0.03) compared to CC homozygotes. In MS patients the ironloading minor A-allele of HFE C282Y was also associated with a paradoxical decrease in serum ferritin (p<0.01) compared to GG homozygotes. When considering the combined effect of the minor alleles of TMPRSS6 A736V and HFE C282Y with opposite effects on iron levels, we found a significant reduction in serum ferritin levels (p<0.05), independent of age, sex, body mass index (BMI) or dietary red meat intake in MS patients. A similar effect was not observed in the populationand age-matched controls. Higher dietary red meat intake correlated significantly with increased ferritin only in controls (p=0.01 vs. 0.21 for MS patients). In the presence of the minor allele of HFE C282Y, the TMPRSS6 A736V CT and TT genotypes were associated with a significantly earlier age of onset of MS when the post hoc test was applied (p=0.04). Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za
The 2009 Schizophrenia PORT Psychopharmacological Treatment Recommendations and Summary Statements

In light of the large number of studies published since the 2004 update of Schizophrenia Patient Outcomes Research Team psychopharmacological treatment recommendations, we conducted an extensive literature review to determine whether the current psychopharmacological treatment recommendations required revision and whether there was sufficient evidence to warrant new treatment recommendations for prespecified outcomes of interest. We reviewed over 400 articles, which resulted in 16 treatment recommendations: the revision of 11 previous treatment recommendations and 5 new treatment recommendations. Three previous treatment recommendations were eliminated. There were 13 interventions and/or outcomes for which there was insufficient evidence for a treatment recommendation, and a statement was written to summarize the current level of evidence and identify important gaps in our knowledge that need to be addressed. In general, there was considerable consensus among the Psychopharmacology Evidence Review Group a.
Predictors of Perceived Risk of the Development of Diabetes

Abstract Objective. To describe predictors of perceived risk for the development of diabetes. Research design and methods. In 2006, the National Diabetes Education Program conducted a telephone survey of the U.S. population ≥ 45 years of age. The sample size for this study was 1,389 people who reported no previous diagnosis of diabetes. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to identify independent variables associated with the perception of risk for diabetes among people without a diagnosis of diabetes. Results. More than half (55%) of the U.S. population aged ≥ 45 years had one or more risk factors for diabetes, yet only about one-fourth (23%) felt they were at risk for the disease. In the multivariate analyses, feeling at risk for diabetes is associated with a younger age (45-64 vs. ≥ 65 years; odds ratio[OR] 2.50; 95% CI 1.56-4.01); being of a race or ethnicity other than white, African American, or Hispanic/Latino compared to non-Hispanic whites (OR 2.26; 95% CI 1.19-4.31); being obese (OR 3.23; 95% CI 1.90-5.50); having a family history of diabetes (OR 5.53; 95% CI 3.55-8.60); and having had a diagnosis of pre-diabetes (OR 5.80; 95% CI 3.31-10.16). African Americans are significantly less likely to feel at risk for diabetes compared to non-Hispanic whites (OR 0.53; 95% CI 0.29-0.96). Conclusions. Based on these findings, special attention needs to be placed on reaching older adults and African Americans who report significantly lower levels of self-perceived risk of diabetes. An emphasis on increased susceptibility due to a family history of diabetes, obesity, and a diagnosis of pre-diabetes appear to be meaningful cues to increasing perceived risk.
Job strain and vagal recovery during sleep in shift working health care professionals

Within sample female nurses/nurse assistants in three shift work, we explored the association of job strain with heart rate variability before and during sleep. The participants (n = 95) were recruited from the Finnish Public Sector Study, from hospital wards that belonged either to the top (high job strain [HJS], n = 42) or bottom quartiles on job strain (low job strain [LJS], n = 53) as rated by Job Content Questionnaire responses. A further inclusion criterion was that participants' own job strain was at least as high (HJS group) or low (LJS group) as their ward's average estimation. Three-week field measurements included sleep diary and actigraphy to study the participants' sleep patterns and sleep–wake rhythm. A subset of three pre-selected, circadian rhythm and recovery controlled measurement days, one morning shift, one night shift and a day off, included 24-h heart rate variability (HRV) measurements. The bootstrapped HRV parameters (HR, HF, LF, LF-to-HF-ratio and RMSSD) 30 min before and during 30 min of sleep with lowest average heart rate showed no statistically significant job strain group differences. No association of exposure to stressful work environment and HRV before and during sleep was found.
Shift work and diabetes – A systematic review

Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease, which has an increasing trend all over the world. Type 2 diabetes constitutes 90% of all diabetes. It is associated with weight gain and insulin resistance. Research during recent years has suggested that shift work could be a risk factor of type 2 diabetes. Since shift work is becoming more common, it could contribute to the increasing trend of diabetes. In this systematic review, we have studied the potential association between shift work and type 2 diabetes. We have also reviewed studies on control of diabetes in relation to shift work.