Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ethical issues in kidney transplantation – reflections from Nigeria

Correspondence: Joseph O Fadare Department of internal Medicine, Kogi State Specialist Hospital, Lokoja, Nigeria Tel +234 813 804 8127 email jofadare@gmail.com Abstract: Organ transplantation has become a life-saving procedure for many disease conditions hitherto considered incurable. Kidney transplantation, now the treatment of choice for end-stage renal disease, is the commonest solid organ transplantation carried out in the world at the moment and it is the only solid organ transplantation done in Nigeria. This procedure, in addition to prolonging lives, also provides better quality of life and is evaluated as cost-effective, because it makes more resources available to other sectors of the economy. Organ transplantation in general and kidney transplantation in particular are fraught with ethical issues and dilemmas worldwide. Some of the ethical issues arising in the setting of developing countries like Nigeria may differ from those in countries where this procedure is established. Informed consent of the donor and the recipient is a major requirement for both organ donation and transplantation. Regarding donation, the ethical issues may differ depending on the type of organ donation, ie, whether it is living-related, living-unrelated, cadaveric, or from brain-dead individuals. Commodification of organs is identified as an ethical dilemma, and arguments for and against this practice are put forward here. Confidentiality of donor information, fairness and equity in donor selection, and access to kidney transplantation when needed are also discussed. Finally, the issue of safety of organ harvesting for the donor and of the transplantation process itself, and the possible long-term consequences for both parties are investigated.
Estimation of the Relative Risk for Breast Cancer in Korean Women Using Gail Model

Eun Sil Lee, M.D., Ph.D., Jae-Seung Seo, M.D., Yeon-Pyo Hong, M.D., Ph.D., Hyoung Moo Park, M.D., Ph.D. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Soonchunhyang University Seoul Hospital, Soonchunhyang University College of Medicine; Departments of Preventive Medicine, Chung-Ang University College of Medicine; Departments of Radiology and Obstetrics and Gynecology, Chung-Ang University Hospital, Chung-Ang University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
Efecto del veneno del escorpión Tityus discrepans sobre las pruebas globales de la coagulación: Estudios preliminares

El veneno del escorpion Tityus discrepans (Td) altera los tiempos de coagulacion en humanos. En este trabajo se estudio el efecto in vitro de este veneno sobre el tiempo de tromboplastina parcial (TTP), el tiempo de protrombina (TP) y su actividad coagulante directa, utilizando como substrato plasma humano fresco y/o fibrinogeno purificado. El veneno completo (VC) fue fraccionado con una columna de exclusion molecular Pro tein Pak 125™ (0,5 mL/min, CH3COONH4 20 mM, pH 4,7). Seis fracciones (F1 a F6) eluyeron con tiempos de retencion en tre 12,8 y 31 minutos. El VC (78-625 μg/mL) y la fraccion F1 (10-42,5μg/mL), acortaron el TTP; el VC ( 700-1000 μg/mL) y la fraccion F6 (16,5-700 μg/mL), alargaron esta prueba. El VC ( 40-240μg/mL) y la fraccion F2 (5-40 μg/mL), prolongaron el TP. No se detecto actividad coagulan te parecida a trombina sobre plasma humano o fibrinogeno purificado. Estos resultados evidencian que en el veneno de Td existen componentes con accion procoagulante, que acortan el TTP. Ademas, presenta componentes anticoagulantes que inducen un alargamiento del TP y TTP.
Statistical POS tagging experiments on Persian text

Part-Of-Speech (POS) tagging is the process of marking-up the words in a text with their corresponding parts of speech. It is an essential part of text and natural language processing. There are many models and software for POS tagging in English and other European languages. Little work has been done on POS tagging of Persian language which uses Arabic script for writing. In these experiments we want to see how effective would be if we just applied a POS tagger from a language such as English to Persian. Although English and Persian are both Indo-European languages but they have subtle differences. This paper presents creation of a POS tagged corpus for evaluation purposes and evaluation of a statistical tagging method on Persian text. The results show that an overall tagging accuracy between 96.4% and 96.9% is achievable without the need to add any Persian linguistic knowledge to the tagging process. In This study we also looked at the effect of the size of training and test corpora on the accuracy of POS tagging.
Inherited copper toxicosis in the Bedlington terrier: the prevalence in asymptomatic dogs

Copper toxicosis in the Bedlington terrier is an inherited defect. This paper describes the investigation of 62 Bedlington terriers, none of which had shown any clinical signs of liver disease, in order to assess the prevalence of copper toxicosis in the breed in the United Kingdom. Twenty one (33·9 per cent) of the dogs investigated had abnormally high levels of copper in the liver. No reliable circulating haematological or biochemical parameters were found to identify those dogs with increased hepatic copper levels and the diagnosis could only be established by liver biopsy. Affected dogs had liver copper levels of between 257·5 and 2558·0 μpg per g of wet weight (1163·8 ± 164 μg/g, mean ± SEM) compared with normal dogs which had between 9·9 and 118·6 μg/g of wet weight (49·0 & 4·4 μg/g, mean ± SEM). Copper accumulation in the liver of affected dogs could also be detected on histological examination using special stains.
A Map-Reduce-Like System for Programming and Optimizing Data-Intensive Computations on Emerging Parallel Architectures

Parallel computing environments are ubiquitous nowadays, including traditional CPU clusters and the emergence of GPU clusters and CPU-GPU clusters because of their performance, cost and energy efficiency. With this trend, an important research issue is to effectively utilize the massive computing power in these architectures to accelerate dataintensive applications arising from commercial and scientific domains. Map-reduce and its Hadoop implementation have become popular for its high programming productivity but exhibits non-trivial performance losses for many classes of data-intensive applications. Also, there is no general map-reduce-like support up to date for programming heterogeneous systems like a CPU-GPU cluster. Besides, it is widely accepted that the existing fault tolerant techniques for high-end systems will not be feasible in the exascale era and novel solutions are clearly needed. Our overall goal is to solve these programmability and performance issues by providing a map-reduce-like API with better performance efficiency as well as efficient fault tolerance support, targeting data-intensive applications and various new emerging parallel architectures. We believe that a map-reduce-like API can ease the programming difficulty in these parallel architectures, and more importantly improve the performance efficiency of parallelizing these data-intensive applications. Also, the use of a high-level programming model can greatly simplify fault-tolerance support, resulting in low overhead checkpointing and recovery.
Neurocysticercosis in non-endemic Muslim areas: A report of seven cases from Kuwait

Abstract Neurocysticercosis is the most common parasitic central nervous system disease and the major cause of epilepsy in non-Muslim developing countries. Cases also occur in non-endemic regions reflecting pattern of immigration from highly endemic areas. Intending to increase awareness of cysticercosis even in countries where the religion doesn’t allow pork intake we report seven cases of autochtonous infection diagnosed in Kuwait in the period from 2000 to 2004. Six children presented with seizures, three of them also had headache and vomiting. None was given cysticidal treatment however all showed complete resolution of ring enhancing lesions on neuroimaging and a favorable outcome. In a family with two affected members, another asymptomatic sibling showed a ring lesion that resolved spontaneously.
Voltage Disturbances and Inrush Current of DC Power Supplies

The potential damaging effects of high inrush currents occurring after power quality disturbances on switch-mode dc power supplies (SMPS’) have been reported, but have not been studied in detail. This paper presents a new analytical model for the accurate representation and calculation of inrush currents of low-power SMPS devices. This model is verified against previously developed circuit-based simulation model and compared with the only other analytical model available in existing literature. The developed analytical model is also used to investigate device protection co-ordination, in order to demonstrate two important effects of high-inrush current: nuisance tripping of protection and damage of internal SMPS components.
Technology Integration Preparedness and Its Influence on Teacher-Efficacy

Recent inquiry has identified the establishment of positive self-efficacy beliefs as an important component in the overall process of successfully preparing new teachers for the classroom. Similarly, in-service teachers who reported high levels of efficacy for teaching confirmed feeling confident in their ability to design and implement enriching instructional experiences. This article presents findings from a quantitative, descriptive study regarding teacher-efficacy related to technology integration. Utilizing a six-point Likert-type survey with an open-ended question, the research instrument was administered to a sample of approximately 350 pre-service and in-service teachers within the Province of Nova Scotia, with a response rate of 48%. Analysis of quantitative research findings illustrated no statistically significant difference between the pre-service and in-service teachers’ perceptions regarding their preparedness to integrate technology into their teaching. However, responses to the open-ended questions revealed examples from practice where teachers from both segments of the sample experienced feelings of low self- efficacy related to technology integration.
Managerial Economics: Theory, Applications, and Cases

The seventh edition of Managerial Economics is the most current text available, encouraging students to see beyond the equations and graphs to the general precepts, such as marginal analysis and backward induction. Its new content draws on dozens of contemporary case studies, inviting students to apply problem-solving skills and to reflect on real-world economic decisions.
Fenotipo e historia natural de la enfermedad inflamatoria intestinal en un centro de referencia en Medellín-Colombia

Worldwide the frequencies of inflammatory bowel disease, ulcerative colitis and Crohns disease have all increased. In our own environment it has become necessary to establish the epidemiology of these entities and to determine their clinical and endoscopic behavior. Methodology: This is a descriptive observational study which systematically evaluated patients with inflammatory bowel disease at the Pablo Tobon Uribe Hospital between August 2001 and July 2009. Results: Of 202 patients with diagnoses of inflammatory bowel disease 80.7% had ulcerative colitis and 15.8% had Crohns disease. The ratio was 4.9 to 1 with similar distributions among male and female patients. Patients with ulcerative colitis presented more diarrhea and bleeding, but less abdominal pain and weight loss, than those with Crohns disease. This difference was significant (p <0.001). The percentage of our patients with extraintestinal manifestations (27.7%) was similar to other populations in which compromised articulation predominates. A significant association between smoking and Crohns disease was found. 19.5% of our patients had proctitis, 45% had left sided colitis, and 35.5% had extensive colitis. The most common location of Crohns disease was in the ileocolonic region (50%), while 18.8% were located in the terminal ileum, and 28.1% were in the colonic region. Only 3.1% had upper gastrointestinal tract involvement. Severity of symptoms ranged from asymptomatic or S0 (17.2%) to severe or S4 (23.1%) at study entry. 27.8% had mild activity (S1), and 32.0% had moderate activity (S2). Of the patients with Crohns disease, 34.4% presented inflammatory (INF) behavior, 31.3% had fibrostenotic (FS) behavior, 21.9% were perianal, 6.3% had fistulizing/perforating (FP) behavior and 6.3% had fibrostenotic (FS) behavior and were perianal. Biological therapy was only used for 7.4% of the patients with ulcerative colitis and 46.9% of the patients with Crohns disease. The colectomy rate for patients with ulcerative colitis was 6.0%. It was significantly related to severity (S3) and extension (extensive colitis). 50% of the patients with Crohns disease had surgical resections. INF patients had surgery less often than other patients. The mortality rate of our patients during follow-up was 2.4% for ulcerative colitis patients and 3.0% for Crohns disease patients. Conclusion: Despite finding a predominance of ulcerative colitis, there is a tendency to increased detection of Crohns disease similar to what has been reported in other centers. In our environment ulcerative colitis has relatively benign behavior with low surgery and low mortality rates. Crohns disease patients present more severe behavior, and have higher rates of hospitalization, surgery and use of biological therapy. This is probably associated with delays in patients treatment after the initial diagnosis has been made.
Temporal structure comparison of the new and conventional scoring systems for men's badminton singles in Taiwan

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that the temporal structure of the new “rally-point scoring system” for top-level male badminton players in Taiwan would be shorter than that of the conventional scoring system. In order to reflect real badminton conditions, we used high-speed cameras to record all second-round to finals men’s singles matches played during one of Taiwan’s national series of badminton tournaments in 2005 (the conventional system) and 2006 (the new system). After data collection, the temporal structure during each match was determined from video recordings. The results of this study showed that rally times and the number of shots per rally were significantly greater (p < 0.05) under the new scoring system than under the conventional system, while the rest of the measures (e.g. match duration) were significantly shorter (p < 0.05) in matches played under the new system than in those played under the conventional system. It was also found that under the new system, most of the measures (e.g. match and exercise durations) during the second and third innings showed greater increases (p < 0.05) than during the first inning. Likewise, under the conventional system, the exercise duration and number of serves during the second and third innings showed greater increases (p < 0.05) than during the first inning. These results suggest that the temporal structure of the new scoring system is significantly different from that of the conventional system, and may require coaches to modify current on-court training methods to maintain specificity with the demands of the new system.
Clinical Data Management and Remote Data Entry

This study examines the pharmaceutical industry clinical data management experience as of September 1985. It looks at data turnaround in Phase III clinical studies, data-handling systems used, and remote data entry experiences across 20 companies. Data were gathered through a Drug Information Association (DIA) Workshop Survey Form. Results: (1) It takes an average of 11 weeks to get clinical data from the patient to the company, through scrubbing, and entered into a clinical database in Phase III trials of 1 to 3 years; from entry through first analysis takes another 18 weeks; (2) there is no database standard for clinical studies; (3) there is a common analysis software; (4) there is no software standard for remote data entry (RDE); (5) a full 70% of the 20 companies intend to use RDE in future clinical studies within two years.
Locus of Control Measures among American Indians

To study locus of control (LOC) with American Indians, LOC scales were administered to 740 American Indian adults at five sites. Responses were analyzed by factor analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis. Both analyses substantiate previous findings with Blacks of a separation of personal control- the control an individual has in his own life-from ideological control, a generalized societal control that people in general possess. Clusters obtained with American Indians relate to trust, personal control, race ideology, ideological control, and a residual fate ideology.
Relative Performance Measurement of Researchers: The High Impact of Data Source Selection

We investigate the impact of choosing between four data sources on the relative performance measurement of scholars’ research output. Our results show that rankings can differ considerably and that the observed correlations are often even lower than those reported in previous studies. We show that data source selection generally has a higher effect than does measure selection and that performance measures based on Google Scholar might provide information that complements the more traditional data sources. We find greater differences for accounting, which suggests that decision makers must pay more careful attention when using rankings in this field.
Information Use in History Research: A Citation Analysis of Master's Level Theses

This article addresses the need for quantitative investigation into students' use of information resources in historical research. It reports the results of a citation analysis of more than 3,000 citations from master's level history theses submitted between 1998 and 2008 at a mid-sized public university. The study's results support the hypotheses that the predominant format in history research is the monograph and that history research entails use of older resources, and in greater proportions, than other disciplines. Results also support the conclusions that journal usage is comparatively low and that there is a high degree of citation dispersal across journal titles.
A study on epidemiological and clinical profile of acute paraqat poisoning and its consequences in tertiary care centre

Paraquat (1, 1' – dimethyl-4, 4'-bipyridinium) was introduced in 1962. It is a widely used contact herbicide with a good safety record when used properly [1]. It came into disrepute because of accidental or intentional ingestion leading to a high mortality. Paraquat toxicity can produce both local and systemic effects. The major acute effects are the ulceration of skin, lips, tongue, pharynx and esophagus. The acute systemic effects are usually pulmonary edema, cardiac, renal or hepatic failure and convulsions [2]. The main objective of the study is to study the epidemiological and clinical profile of acute paraquat (PQ) poisoning and to determine the outcome in acute paraquat poisoning patients in tertiary care centre in south India. The methodology adopted for this retrospective study describing the demographic characteristics, clinical features and outcomes of paraquat poisoning cases admitted to Hassan Institute of Medical Sciences, Hassan, Karnataka, India, from 1st march 2012 to 31 st march 2013. Medical records of 77 patients were reviewed. A total of 77 cases of acute paraquat poisoning were included in the study, who were admitted in the hospital during our study period. Recovery is 46.75%, mortality is 27.27% and 22% went against medical advice. This study concludes that, paraquat is a widely used weedicide by the farmers in the rural areas in and around the Hassan, suicidal ingestion is more common than occupational exposure in contrast to developed countries. Patient who has taken <20 ml and reported <6 hours shown better recovery in compared to their counter parts.
Design synthesis of 5.8 GHz octagonal AMC on a very thin substrate

This paper proposed a development of 5.8 GHz Artificial Magnetic Conductor, AMC using very thin substrate with thickness of 0.13 mm. Different shapes of PEC metallization are discussed in order to achieve the highest bandwidth of unit cell AMC. Another approaches for increasing the bandwidth is by applying the ring patch around the substrate as well as implementing the DGS ground plane. The proposed design produces 1.96 % bandwdith of unit cell. Applying the 2 x 4 unit cell arrangement gives the best result for directivity equal to 6.75 dBi, gain of 6.83 dB, efficiency = 98.41 % and return loss = -45.63 dB.
Headedness in Word Formation and Lexical Semantics: evidence from Italiot and Cypriot

Η παρούσα διατριβή eξeτάζeι την έννοια κeφαλή (head) στο eπίπeδο της Μορφολογίας και της Λeξικής Σημασιολογίας μe έμφαση στα eξής τρία eρωτήματα: (α) ορισμός, (β) θέση, και (γ) παρουσία και απουσία κeφαλής σe μορφολογικούς σχηματισμούς. Συνοπτικά οι βασικές προτάσeις σχeτικά μe την έννοια της κeφαλής eίναι οι eξής: (α) Αρκeτές από τις έννοιeς μe τις οποίeς έχeι ταυτιστeί η κeφαλή, όπως ο υποκατηγοριοποιητής, δeν eίναι σχeτικές μe την ασυμμeτρία κeφαλής-μη κeφαλής. (β) η κeφαλή πρέπeι να ταυτιστeί μe τον κατηγοριακό καθοριστή σe eπίπeδο μορφολογίας και μe τον οντολογικό καθοριστή σe eπίπeδο λeξικής σημασιολογίας. (γ) Η eφαρμογή της έννοιας κeφαλή στο σχηματισμό σημασιολογικά πολύπλοκων σχηματισμών δeίχνeι ότι η κλίση, η προθηματοποίηση, και η αξιολογική μορφολογία, οι οποίeς δeν φέρουν ορίσματα, πρέπeι να αναλυθούν μe βάση το μηχανισμό της υπόταξης λeιτουργιών χωρίς την προσθήκη eνδeίκτη. Η πρόταση αυτή έχeι eπιπτώσeις στον τρόπο μe τον οποίο ταξινομούνται τα μορφήματα σe eπίπeδο λeξικής σημασιολογίας. (δ) Όσον αφορά στη θέση της κeφαλής, το φαινόμeνο της ύπαρξης αριστeρόστροφων συνθέτων στην Κατωιταλική δeν πρέπeι να μeλeτάται ανeξάρτητα από το ίδιο φαινόμeνο το οποίο eμφανίζeται τόσο σe άλλeς διαλέκτους, όσο και σe προηγούμeνeς eξeλικτικές φάσeις. (e) Η μορφολογία δeν χeιρίζeται μόνο ασυμμeτρικές σχέσeις, καθώς η σeιρά των μορφημάτων υπόκeιται σe αλλαγές. (στ) Από διαχρονική σκοπιά, η σeιρά των συστατικών στα σύνθeτα μπορeί να μην eίναι απόλυτα eλeύθeρη, καθώς φαίνeται να eπηρeάζeται από τον τομέα της σύνταξης. (ζ) Σχeτικά μe την απουσία κeφαλής, η ανάλυση των eξωκeντρικών συνθέτων δeίχνeι ότι τέτοιοι σχηματισμοί eίναι δομικά παράδοξα τα οποία συνδυάζουν σύνθeση και παραγωγή.
Perda auditiva e hipertensão: achados em um grupo de idosos

As the age advances, the number of chronic diseases also grows, the systemic arterial hypertension (SAH) and hearing loss having a significant prevalence in aged people. OBJECTIVE: To compare and analyze anamnesis and threshold tonal audiometry results in both hypertensive and non-hypertensive patients. STUDY DESIGN: Transversal contemporany cohort study. MATERIAL AND METHOD: This study has been conducted at UNIFESP in the period from March to November 2003. Seventy people in the age group from 60 to 92 - 15 male and 54 female - were evaluated through anamnesis and threshold tonal audiometry. RESULTS: As to audiology findings of groups studied, a difference can be noted regarding "ramp-typed" audiometric configuration and buzz claim, both occurring most frequently in non-hypertensive aged people. CONCLUSION: Hypertensive aged people did not present a higher hearing deficit, the degree of hearing loss being similar in both groups. Prevailing audiometric configuration in hypertensive group was that of "full-type", while the non-hypertensive group presented a "ramp-typed" configuration. As to audiologic claims, the non-hypertensive group presented an increased occurrence of "buzz" claim.