Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Portion Size of Energy-Dense Foods among French and UK Adults by BMI Status

Evidence links consumed food portion size (FPS) and excess weight via increased energy intake. Policies to regulate on-pack serving sizes may be needed; determining consumed FPS of popular energy-dense foods for normal weight and overweight or obese (OWOB) adults, as reported here, may provide evidence to assist this. Data were analysed from national cross-sectional surveys, the French Étude Individuelle Nationale des Consommations Alimentaires2 2005–2007 (n = 2117), and UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey 2008–2014 (n = 3413). The impact of body mass index (BMI) on FPS is also investigated, adjusting for age, sex and under-reporting. Effects of under-reporting on relationships between FPS and BMI; and BMI on consumption frequency (UK only) were explored. OWOB reported larger FPS than normal-weight individuals in many, but not all food subgroups; however, there were only two significant FPS differences. In adjusted analyses, French individuals consumed 1.0 g (99% CI 0.01–2.1 p = 0.01) greater FPS in cakes for 1 point difference in BMI. ‘Other cakes’ and ‘dark chocolate’ were also significantly positively associated with BMI. High-fat bar snacks, but no UK main food groups, were positively associated with BMI. There was limited evidence of links between FPS and BMI in UK and French national cross-sectional data, possibly due to data limitations such as under-reporting. Future work should explore this and relationships between consumed FPS and on-pack suggested serving sizes to provide evidence to assist obesity-prevention policies.
Complexity, accuracy, fluency and lexis in task-based performance: a meta-analysis of the Ealing research

This chapter will present a research synthesis of a series of studies, termed here the Ealing research. The studies use the same general framework to conceptualise tasks and task performance, enabling easier comparability. The different studies, although each is self-contained, build into a wider picture of task performance. The major point of this research synthesis is to search for more powerful generalisations than are possible with separate individual studies. The generalisations concern the conditions under which tasks are done (particularly planning and post-task activities), and the influence of task characteristics, such as task structure, information organisation, and necessary elements. The findings then frame a discussion of two current theoretical accounts of tasks and task performance – the Trade-off Hypothesis and the Cognition Hypothesis, and it is argued that a more precise version of the Trade-off Hypothesis provides a better account of existing results.
Public health risk and transmission route of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS): MERS coronavirus in dromedary camel

Middle East respiratory syndrome corona virus (MERS-CoV) is a novel enzootic beta origin corona virus which was described in September 2012 for the first time. According to the reports of different researchers, the prevalence of MERS-CoV antibodies, during serological examination, is very high in dromedary camels of Eastern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. However, the infection in camel is mostly asymptomatic. In contrast to the camel case, the clinical signs and symptoms of MERS-CoV infection in humans ranges from an asymptomatic or mild respiratory illness to severe pneumonia and multi-organ failure with an overall mortality rate of about 35%. Therefore, the objective of this paper was to review the public health risk, transmission routes of Middle East respiratory syndrome and to recommend the disease for further research. The identification of MERS-CoV RNA and viable virus from dromedary camels, including samples with respiratory symptoms by different studies have been detected especially in isolation of identical strains of MERS-CoV from epidemiologically linked humans and camels are the suggestive evidence for inter-transmission of the virus, primarily from camels to humans and its public health risks. Though inter-human spread within health care settings is responsible for the majority of reported MERS-CoV human cases, the virus is currently incapable of causing sustained human-to-human transmission (pandemic occurrence). Phylogenetic studies and viral sequencing results strongly suggest that MERS-CoV originated from bat ancestors after evolutionary recombination process, primarily in dromedary camels in Africa, before its exportation to the Arabian Peninsula through the camel trading routes. Currently, there is no specific drug or vaccine available for treatment and prevention of infections due to MERS-CoV in patients. The important measures to control MERS-CoV spread are strict regulation of camel movement, regular herd screening and isolation of infected camels, use of personal protective equipment by camel handlers and awareness creation on the public, especially in African pastoralists where consumption of unpasteurized camel milk is common. Therefore, urgent global epidemiological studies are required, especially in the poor camel rearing African countries to understand the transmission patterns and the human cases of MERS-CoV and also for the proper implementation of the above mentioned control measures. Key words: Dromedary camel, epidemiology, MERS-CoV, public health, respiratory syndrome.
Municipal population size and the benefits of inter-municipal cooperation: panel data evidence from Japan

ABSTRACT Intermunicipal cooperation (IMC) facilitates efficient public service delivery. This study measures how the benefits municipalities gain through IMC differ according to municipal population size and service provision type. Focusing on public health and fire protection services, this study employs panel data regression for 1,706 Japanese municipalities over a five-year period, 2012–2017. This study has several major findings. First, an increase in the IMC spending ratio reduces public spending in both the studied services. Second, the marginal effect of IMC varies depending on the size of the municipal population. More specifically, the marginal effect of IMC on public health has a narrow confidence interval with a wide ranging population scale, while the marginal effect of IMC on fire protection produces negative values for only 151 municipalities due to extensive standard error. These findings can help municipalities take advantage of IMC to improve public service delivery.
The role of methadone in cancer pain treatment – Polish experience

Abstract Background: In an open, prospective, clinical study, analgesia and the side-effects of methadone were assessed. In addition, the authors' method for the calculation of equi-analgesic doses of oral morphine and methadone was appraised. Patients and Methods: Methadone was administered in 14 opioid-tolerant patients with severe cancer pain. Patients received methadone because of inadequate analgesia (NRS > 6) during treatment with morphine (4 patients), transdermal fentanyl [TF] (3), morphine and TF (1), morphine, ketamine and TF (1), tramadol (1), unsatisfactory analgesia with severe drowsiness during morphine with ketamine treatment (3) and very strong pain with nausea during morphine treatment (1). We used the following dose ratios while converting equivalent daily dose of oral morphine (EDDOM) to starting daily dose of oral methadone (SDDOMET) – 4:1 (up to 100 mg EDDOM); 6:1 (100–300 mg EDDOM); and 12:1 (EDDOM over 300 mg); however, in this study, because EDDOM was over 100 mg in all patients, we applied only the last two dose ratios. In 4 patients we used the ratio 25:1 instead of 12:1 because of the very high EDDOM before the switch to methadone (in 3 patients 1500 mg and in 1 patient 600 mg). The SDDOMET in the patient treated with tramadol was 9 mg. The single dose of oral methadone did not exceed 30 mg regardless of the EDDOM before the switch to methadone. After starting methadone, we withdrew previous opioid treatment completely in 12 patients and 2 patients were treated concomitantly with methadone and other opioids. The mean EDDOM before switching to methadone was 736.43 ± 495.42 mg (median, 700 mg). Methadone was administered 3 times a day and 13 patients were treated with oral methadone in water solution or syrup, 1 patient received the drug rectally in suppositories. Results: The mean time of the methadone treatment was 36.79 ± 25.37 days (range, 7–92 days; median, 29.5 days) and the starting doses were increased in 12 of 14 treated patients. The mean daily doses varied from 45.93 ± 19.26 mg at the beginning till maximal 138.14 ± 104.43 mg and 121.14 ± 105.19 mg at the end of methadone treatment. Good analgesia (NRS < 4) was achieved in 7 patients, partial effect (NRS 4–6) in 6 patients, and unsatisfactory analgesia (NRS > 6) was observed in 1 patient who stopped methadone after 7 days of treatment. The most frequent side effects were drowsiness (6 patients), constipation (6 patients), nausea and vomiting (2 patients) and sweating (2 patients). We did not observe serious adverse reactions especially respiratory depression, which would cause cessation of the treatment. Conclusions: Results of this preliminary study confirmed the high analgesic efficacy and good adverse event profile of methadone. Although the applied method of oral morphine to methadone dose calculation was safe and effective, it should be confirmed in a larger study.
Natural Farming Improves Soil Quality and Alters Microbial Diversity in a Cabbage Field in Japan

Natural farming (NF), an environmentally friendly agricultural practice similar to organic farming, was developed in Japan. Unlike conventional farming, little is known about the influence of NF on soil microbial communities, especially the surface soil. We therefore compared the effect of seven years’ conventional practice (CP), conventional practice without chemicals (CF), and NF on soil properties and microbial community structure at two soil depths (0–10, 10–20 cm) in an experimental cabbage field. Both soil depth and agricultural practice significantly influenced edaphic measures and microbial community structure. NF improved bulk density, pH, electrical conductivity, urease activity, and nitrate reductase activity in topsoil; similar trends were observed in deeper soil. Pyrosequencing demonstrated that the use of pesticides in conventional farming (CP) led to lower microbial abundance and diversity in topsoil than CF. Similarly, NF increased microbial abundance compared to CP. However, distinct taxa were present in the topsoil, but not deeper soil, in each treatment. CP-enriched microbial genera may be related to plant pathogens (e.g., Erwinia and Brenneria) and xenobiotic degraders (e.g., Sphingobacterium and Comamonas). The microbial community structure of NF was distinct to CP/CF, with enrichment of Pedomicrobium and Solirubrobacter, which may prefer stable soil conditions. Network analysis of dominant genera confirmed the more stable, complex microbial network structure of the 0–10 cm than 10–20 cm layer. Flavisolibacter/Candidatus Solibacter and Candidatus Nitrososphaera/Leuconostoc are potentially fundamental taxa in the 0–10 cm and 10–20 cm layer networks, respectively. Overall, we show that NF positively affects soil quality and microbial community composition within sustainable farming systems.
RELIABLE CLASSIFICATION OF VISUAL FIELD DEFECTS IN AUTOMATED PERIMETRY USING CLUSTERING

Automated perimetry allows examination of the visual field for diagnostic purposes. Location, shape and size of defects in the visual field detected during a perimetric examination are characteristic hints for the underlying disease of the visual system. Thus a reliable identification of defect types is essential for the proper treatment. We present a classifying system based on cluster analysis and Self-Organizing Maps for the automatic classification of visual field defects. The classifying system distinguishes between eight defect classes and was evaluated on over 8.800 perimetric examinations with a mean classification success of 78%. The classification algorithm is integrated into a software package that can be run on common computers using minor resources; its output can be considered as a suggestion for the physician. As the classification framework is decoupled from the perimetric hardware, it can also be used for the remote classification of perimetric examinations, e.g. in tele-medicine.
Inducing Discourse Resources Using Annotation Projection

An important aspect of natural language understanding and generation involves the recognition and processing of discourse relations. Building applications such as text summarization, question answering and natural language generation needs human language technology beyond the level of the sentence. To address this need, large scale discourse annotated corpora such as the Penn Discourse Treebank (PDTB; Prasad et al., 2008a) have been developed. Manually constructing discourse resources (e.g. discourse annotated corpora) is expensive, both in terms of time and expertise. As a consequence, such resources are only available for a few languages. In this thesis, we propose an approach that automatically creates two types of discourse resources from parallel texts: 1) PDTB-style discourse annotated corpora and 2) lexicons of discourse connectives. Our approach is based on annotation projection where linguistic annotations are projected from a source language to a target language in parallel texts. Our work has made several theoretical contributions as well as practical contributions to the field of discourse analysis. From a theoretical perspective, we have proposed a method to refine the naive method of discourse annotation projection by filtering annotations that are not supported by parallel texts. Our approach is based on the intersection between statistical word-alignment models and can automatically identify 65% of unsupported projected annotations. We have also proposed a novel approach for annotation projection that is independent of statistical word-alignment models. This approach is more robust to longer discourse connectives than approaches based on statistical word-alignment models. From a practical perspective, we have automatically created the Europarl ConcoDisco corpora from English-French parallel texts of the Europarl corpus (Koehn, 2009). In the Europarl ConcoDisco corpora, around 1 million occurrences of French discourse connectives are automatically aligned to their translation. From the French side of \parcorpus, we have extracted our first significant resource, the FrConcoDisco corpora. To our knowledge, the FrConcoDisco corpora are the first PDTB-style discourse annotated corpora for French where French discourse connectives are annotated with the discourse relations that they signaled. The FrConcoDisco corpora are significant in size as they contain more than 25 times more annotations than the PDTB. To evaluate the FrConcoDisco corpora, we showed how they can be used to train a classifier for the disambiguation of French discourse connectives with a high performance. The second significant resource that we automatically extracted from parallel texts is ConcoLeDisCo. ConcoLeDisCo is a lexicon of French discourse connectives mapped to PDTB discourse relations. While ConcoLeDisCo is useful by itself, as we showed in this thesis, it can be used to improve the coverage of manually constructed lexicons of discourse connectives such as LEXCONN (Roze et al., 2012).
AUTOSOMAL-DOMINANT INHERITANCE OF ISOLATED COMITANT EXOTROPIA

© 2009 by the Iranian Society of Ophthalmology Published by Otagh-e-Chap Inc. 57 Family studies suggest that there is a strong genetic component to the etiology of comitant strabismus. Seven cases of a family in three consecutive generations found to have isolated comitant exotropia. This pattern of inheritance is highly suggestive of an autosomal-dominant mode with complete penetrance which is an unreported finding in this entity.
Mycoplasma hominis–Associated Cystitis, Pyelonephritis, and Bacteremia in an Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Patient

Mycoplasma hominis, a commensal organism of the human genital tract of sexually active males and females, can be an atypical cause of both genitourinary tract and nongenital infections. We describe a case of M. hominis infection in a patient receiving oral immunosuppression after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for treatment of acute myeloid leukemia. The patient presented with complaints of chronic cystitis, suprapubic pain, bladder spasms, and an abnormal urinalysis. Mycoplasma hominis was cultured from both the urine and blood and was determined to be the source of infection in this patient. This organism is intrinsically resistant to several classes of antibiotics; however, it is largely susceptible to tetracyclines and clindamycin. Doxycycline is often the agent of choice for treatment ofM. hominis infections, because of its favorable pharmacokinetic profile. The patient was treated with a 3-week course of doxycycline and reported resolution of all urinary symptoms.
The stability of student ratings of teacher instructional practice: examining the one-year stability of the 7Cs composite

ABSTRACT In this study, we examine the year-to-year teacher-level stability of the Tripod 7Cs composite, a widely used measure of student perceptions of teaching effectiveness. We perform ordinary least squares regression on data collected in the classrooms of 12,707 teachers across 874 schools. Results demonstrate that the 7Cs composite exhibits year-to-year stability coefficients of . 46, . 48, and . 56, at the Kindergarten to 2nd, 3rd to 5th, and 6th to 12th grade levels, respectively. Controlling for changes in student and classroom characteristics across years does not substantively affect stability coefficients at any grade level. These findings demonstrate that the 7Cs composite is as stable or more stable than value-added and observational measures of teaching effectiveness, which offers additional evidence supporting its use in measuring instructional quality and tracking it over time.
Mechanisms of postsynaptic localization of AMPA-type glutamate receptors and their regulation during long-term potentiation

Postsynaptic anchoring of AMPA receptors determines synaptic strength as related to learning. Gloss Learning and memory are thought to be supported by experience-dependent neuronal plasticity, which on a cellular level is expressed as long-term changes (such as potentiation or depression) of synaptic responses. Glutamate-gated ion channels known as AMPA receptors mediate basal neurotransmission. Their postsynaptic functional availability can be selectively modulated in correlation with a given stimulus. This review discusses the molecular basis of AMPA receptor trafficking to and anchoring at excitatory postsynaptic sites and their regulation by protein kinases. l-Glutamate is the main excitatory neurotransmitter in the brain, with postsynaptic responses to its release predominantly mediated by AMPA-type glutamate receptors (AMPARs). A critical component of synaptic plasticity involves changes in the number of responding postsynaptic receptors, which are dynamically recruited to and anchored at postsynaptic sites. Emerging findings continue to shed new light on molecular mechanisms that mediate AMPAR postsynaptic trafficking and localization. Accordingly, unconventional secretory trafficking of AMPARs occurs in dendrites, from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) through the ER-Golgi intermediary compartment directly to recycling endosomes, independent of the Golgi apparatus. Upon exocytosis, AMPARs diffuse in the plasma membrane to reach the postsynaptic site, where they are trapped to contribute to transmission. This trapping occurs through a combination of both intracellular interactions, such as TARP (transmembrane AMPAR regulatory protein) binding to α-actinin–stabilized PSD-95, and extracellular interactions through the receptor amino-terminal domain. These anchoring mechanisms may facilitate precise receptor positioning with respect to glutamate release sites to enable efficient synaptic transmission.
Essays on banking risk and access to credit

Bankenfusies leiden tot betere toegang tot krediet voor bedrijven Diana Bonfim onderzocht verschillende dimensies van risico in de bankensector, en de gevolgen van risico voor de toegang van bedrijven tot krediet. Golven van bankfusies kunnen structurele veranderingen in het evenwicht van de kredietmarkten veroorzaken, met belangrijke gevolgen voor de concurrentie. Bonfim ontdekte dat bakenfusies leiden tot een betere toegang tot krediet voor bedrijven, maar dat ze een tegenovergesteld effect hebben op de toegang voor krediet van huishoudens. Daarnaast leiden fusies tot een algehele daling van de rente. Bonfim onderzocht eveneens wat er gebeurt met bedrijven nadat ze hun verplichtingen op bankleningen niet zijn nagekomen. Met behulp van een unieke dataset van Portugese bedrijven constateert Bonfim dat in de helft van de gevallen het faillissement wordt afgewikkeld binnen vijf kwartalen. De meeste bedrijven behouden toegang tot krediet onmiddellijk na het oplossen van de niet nagekomen verplichtingen. Daarnaast heeft slechts een minderheid van de bedrijven daarna toegang tot nieuwe leningen. Kleine bedrijven hebben meer problemen met het herstellen van de toegang tot krediet. Vooral wanneer het faillissement lang en zwaar is; indien zij lenen van slechts een bank; of als verplichtingen met de belangrijkste geldschieter niet worden nakomen. Bovendien is het waarschijnlijk dat de helft van de bedrijven met huidige betalingsproblemen in de toekomst opnieuw in gebreke zal blijven. Bonfim constateert dat bedrijven met herhaald verzuim van betaling gemiddeld genomen kleiner zijn en langer en heviger in gebreke blijven bij het betalen van crediteuren.
Pattern of Neonatal Admission and Outcome at a Nigerian tertiary Health Institution

Aim: To describe the pattern of neonatal admission in a tertiary health institution in a developing country and to identify factors associated with its outcome. Subjects and Methods: A retrospective review of 447 neonates admitted at Federal Medical Centre Abakaliki, Nigeria over a 3-year period (November 2000-October 2003). Results: A total of 447 newborn babies were admitted into the Newborn Special Care Unit (NBSCLJ) with the inborn and out born babies constituting 89.3% and 10.7% respectively. Neonatal sepsis (32.4%), prematurity (28.6%) and neonatal asphyxia (14.8%) were the commonest indication for admission. The overall mortality was 19.5% with majority of the deaths occurring in the first week of life. The identified risk factor for neonatal death included birth weight less than 1500g, place of birth, mode of delivery, certain maternal-related factors such as ignorance, low socioeconomic status, non-attendance to antenatal clinic and low parity. Conclusions: Improved access to antenatal care, maternal health education and upgrading existing infrastructure in tertiary institutions will significantly reduce neonatal mortality. Key Words: Neonatal admission pattern, outcome, tertiary institution, Nigeria. Orient Journal of Medicine Vol.16(3&4) 2004: 31-37
Towards a new audiovisual narrative: an analysis of videos published by five online Spanish newspapers

The objective of the research reported in this article was to analyse and quantify the narrative techniques employed in videos embedded in the home pages of five Spanish online newspapers. For the purpose of tracing the evolution of the approaches taken by these digital dailies away from the traditional narrative models used in television production, two separate study samples representing video reporting published online in 2011 and 2014 were examined. Findings show that material outsourced from agencies largely comprised short videos with voiceovers that conformed to the narrative structures of traditional journalism whereas those produced in-house by the five online dailies studied offered an innovative model that borrowed freely from other genres, involved longer stories supported by sound bites rather than voiceovers and were structured along lines other than those of the classic inverted pyramid.