Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Increased prevalence of human herpesvirus type 8 (HHV‐8) genome among blood donors from North‐Western Argentina

The prevalence of HHV‐8 infection varies widely in South American populations, displaying geographical variations in its distribution. The heterogeneous genetic contributions provided by the transatlantic parental populations that modified the Native American genomes may explain this epidemiological observation. Aiming to determine the prevalence of HHV‐8 genome among healthy South American blood donors and its potential association with genetic ancestry, 772 individuals were screened by a highly sensitive PCR protocol and ancestry was assessed in 414 samples. HHV‐8 DNA was significantly more prevalent among North‐western Argentines than among those from the metropolitan region (P = 0.001) and Bolivians (P = 0.0008), but no differences were found when compared with Peruvians and Paraguayans. Although significant differences were observed in the ancestry components of the studied populations, no association was found in the genetic admixture between HHV‐8 [+] and HHV‐8 [−] samples from the same place. These results support the hypothesis of the existence of geographical factors related to HHV‐8 prevalence which could be explained by the presence of specific risk factors, cultural characteristics or behaviors, probably related to contaminated saliva and/or sexual transmission. The presence of HHV‐8 in South American blood units available for transfusion and an increased risk of infection in some provinces of North‐western Argentina represent a hazard for immunosuppressed recipients. J. Med. Virol. 89:518–527, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Response‐guided and ‐unguided treatment of chronic hepatitis C

Over time, HCV therapy with pegylated interferon and ribavirin has evolved from a fixed duration strategy to one of response guided therapy and this has enabled us to optimize treatment duration. With the evolution of protease inhibitor based therapy, the paradigm of response guided therapy has further helped in decreasing treatment duration in greater number of patients and which then translates into shorter duration of adverse events. However, several population groups have done better with extended duration therapy as opposed to response guided therapy despite early viral clearance. These include the Black population, and those with cirrhosis, decreased interferon sensitivity, and unfavorable IL28B genotypes. The proper identification of those who might benefit from extended duration HCV therapy will undoubtedly lead to optimal care and outcomes.
Consumption of traditional food and adherence to nutrition recommendations in Greenland

Aims: The purpose was to study the composition of the Inuit diet, to assess the adherence to nutritional recommendations among the Inuit in Greenland, and to discuss the potential role of traditional food in improving dietary quality. Methods: Cross-sectional study of adult Inuit (18+ years) from Greenland (n=2752, 43% men). Data were collected by a food frequency questionnaire. Dietary contribution of nutrients was compared between quartiles of traditional food intake. A recommended macronutrient distribution range (RMDR) was constructed from the recommendations of Nordic Nutrition Recommendations (2004). The adherence to the RMDR was estimated and the food items’ contribution to energy, macronutrients, subclasses of fats, fibres, and refined sugar were calculated. Results: Consumption of refined sugar and saturated fat decreased by increasing consumption of traditional food whereas the fat profile improved due to increasing consumption of polyunsaturated fatty acids and monounsaturated fatty acids. Fibre intake decreased with increasing traditional food and 18% among both men and women complied to fibre recommendations. Compliance with polyunsaturated fatty acid recommendations was 27% for men and 36% for women. Compliance with n-3 fatty acids was 88% for men and 85% for women. Conclusions: Increasing consumption of traditional food could benefit the dietary fat profile but will result in low fibre intake. Promotion of healthy-fibre-dense and low-fat imported food will increase the compliance to the fibre recommendation while traditional food could stay an integrated part of the Inuit diet and provide less saturated fat.
Myopia, Liquidity Constraints, and Aggregate Consumption: A Simple Test

This note conducts a simple test for myopia and liquidity constraints in aggregate U.S. consumption. The test exploits the fact that, under myopia, consumption should be equally sensitive to predictable income declines and increases, while under liquidity constraints consumption should be more sensitive to predictable income increases than to declines. Using quarterly postwar data, the author shows that aggregate consumption is in fact more sensitive to predictable income declines than increases. This 'perverse asymmetry' is inconsistent with both myopia and liquidity constraints but is qualitatively consistent with recent theoretical work incorporating loss aversion into intertemporal preferences. Copyright 1995 by Ohio State University Press.
Enhancement of Oral Bioavailability of Cilostazol by Forming its Inclusion Complexes

The study was designed to investigate the effect of cyclodextrins (CDs) on the solubility, dissolution rate, and bioavailability of cilostazol by forming inclusion complexes. Natural CDs like β-CD, γ-CD, and the hydrophilic β-CD derivatives, DM-β-CD and HP-β-CD, were used to prepare inclusion complexes with cilostazol. Phase solubility study was carried out and the stability constants were calculated assuming a 1:1 stoichiometry. Solid cilostazol complexes were prepared by coprecipitation and kneading methods and compared with physical mixtures of cilostazol and cyclodextrins. Prepared inclusion complexes were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies. In vitro dissolution study was performed using phosphate buffer pH 6.4, distilled water, and HCl buffer pH 1.2 as dissolution medium. The optimized inclusion complex was studied for its bioavailability in rabbit and the results were compared with those of pure cilostazol and Pletoz-50. Phase solubility study showed dramatic improvement in the solubility of drug by formation of complexes, which was further increased by pH adjustment. The dissolution rate of cilostazol was markedly augmented by the complexation with DM-β-CD. DSC and XRD curves showed sharp endothermic peaks indicating the reduction in the microcrystallinity of cilostazol. Selected inclusion complex was also stable at ambient temperature up to 6 months. The in vivo study revealed that DM-β-CD increased the bioavailability of cilostazol with low variability in the absorption. Among all cilostazol–cyclodextrins complexes, cilostazol–DM-β-CD inclusion complex (1:3) prepared by coprecipitation method showed 1.53-fold and 4.11-fold increase in absorption along with 2.1-fold and 2.97-fold increase in dissolution rate in comparison with Pletoz-50 and pure cilostazol, respectively.
Diagnosing bipolar disorder in trauma exposed primary care patients.

OBJECTIVES Bipolar disorder (BD) is often under-recognized in non-psychiatric settings, especially in African Americans. The Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ) is a screening instrument proposed to show adequate sensitivity and specificity for bipolar spectrum disorders. The current study is an examination of the usefulness of this instrument in a trauma exposed subgroup of mainly African American patients attending primary care clinics. METHODS The sample is a part of a larger study exploring traumatic stress exposure and psychopathology. Consenting patients in 3 academically affiliated primary care clinics were asked to complete the MDQ. Ninety percent of the participants were African American. Diagnostic performance was determined in a trauma exposed subgroup by employing the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID) as a gold standard. RESULTS Of the total group of 579 participants, 178 (30.7%) screened positive for BD along with 77 (33.7%) of the 228 trauma exposed subjects who were SCID interviewed. Only 13 (27%) of the MDQ positives met SCID criteria for BD and were true positives. The sensitivity was 61.9% and the specificity was 69%, with a positive predictive value of 16.8% and a negative predictive value of 94.7%. CONCLUSIONS The MDQ was found to have low specificity in a predominately African American group of trauma exposed patients attending primary care.
Lifting the domestic cloak of silence: Resilient Australian women's reflected memories of their childhood experiences of witnessing domestic violence

Recognition is growing that childhood witnessing of domestic violence is tantamount to child abuse due to the damage the experience may have on the witnessing child’s long-term emotional and social wellbeing. This paper helps to lift the cloak of silence that surrounds the child witnessing phenomenon by presenting the recollected adult memories of six female former child witnesses. Utilising a mixed case-study and consensual qualitative research design, the study’s findings reveal that the potential threat to a child witness’s immediate and long-term wellbeing can be mediated through the progressive development of a range of adaptive coping strategies. Of these, the strategy of establishing a safe place and a supportive relationship outside of the abusive nuclear family home seems pivotal to the witnessing child’s resilient ability to move on and lead a ‘rewarding’ adult life. The paper closes with a discussion on how the research findings can be progressed.
Accommodative response in pre-presbyopes with visual impairment and its clinical implications.

PURPOSE There are isolated reports that accommodative response is reduced in some populations with low vision. The purpose of this study was to measure accommodative response in a wider range of pre-presbyopes with visual impairment and to examine what factors may affect accommodation among the low vision population. METHODS Accommodative responses for accommodative demands between 4 and 10 D were measured with dynamic retinoscopy in 21 subjects with low vision due to a variety of disorders and in 40 control subjects, aged 3 to 35 years. The control subjects were divided into age groups of 3 to 5, 6 to 10, 11 to 26, and 27 to 35 years, and the response of each subject with low vision was compared against the age-matched control group. The slope of the accommodative function and the mean error of the accommodative response were also calculated. RESULTS Eighty-six percent of the subjects with low vision showed responses that were outside the 95% range of normal. The deficit increased with increasing accommodative demand. Reduced accommodation was not predicted by age, visual acuity, presence of nystagmus, refractive error or time of onset of the disorder. The results show that the accommodation errors are often greater than predicted by increased depth of focus due to poor visual acuity. CONCLUSIONS It seems likely that accommodative response is based on many factors that may be present in an eye with low vision, which interact in a complex fashion.
Predictive value of angina to detect coronary artery disease in patients with severe aortic stenosis aged 50 years or older.

OBJECTIVE The objective of this study is to evaluate the value of angina pectoris as a predictor of CAD (coronary artery disease) in patients with AS (aortic stenosis) during and beyond the 5th decade of life. METHODS The study population consisted of 186 consecutive patients with AS and > or = 50 years of age, referred for surgical aortic valve replacement (AVR) between June 1989 and September 2004. Routine coronary angiography was performed for all patients. One hundred and one patients were males (54.3%) and 85 were females (45.7%), and the mean age was 66 +/- 8 years. One hundred and twenty-four patients (66.7%) had angina. The maximum transvalve gradient was 89.4 +/- 27.6 mmHg, and the aortic valve area measured 0.59 +/- 0.17 cm2. We calculated the sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, as well as the likelihood ratio of a positive test result for angina in predicting the presence of CAD. RESULTS Ninety-three patients (50%) had CAD. Of the 124 patients with angina, 68 (54.8%) had CAD, whereas of the 62 patients without angina, 25 had CAD (40.3%) (p=0.087). Therefore, the diagnostic sensitivity of angina to detect CAD was 73.1%, specificity was 39.7%, positive predictive value was 54.8%, negative predictive value was 59.6%, and the likelihood ratio of a positive test result was 1.6. CONCLUSION Angina pectoris is not a good predictor of CAD in patients with AS who are more than 50 years of age.
New Insights Gained on Mechanisms of Low-Energy Proton-Induced SEUs by Minimizing Energy Straggle

We present low-energy proton single-event upset (SEU) data on a 65 nm SOI SRAM whose substrate has been completely removed. Since the protons only had to penetrate a very thin buried oxide layer, these measurements were affected by far less energy loss, energy straggle, flux attrition, and angular scattering than previous datasets. The minimization of these common sources of experimental interference allows more direct interpretation of the data and deeper insight into SEU mechanisms. The results show a strong angular dependence, demonstrate that energy straggle, flux attrition, and angular scattering affect the measured SEU cross sections, and prove that proton direct ionization is the dominant mechanism for low-energy proton-induced SEUs in these circuits.
RUMOURS, RIOTS AND THE REJECTION OF MASS DRUG ADMINISTRATION FOR THE TREATMENT OF SCHISTOSOMIASIS IN MOROGORO, TANZANIA

Summary In 2008 in Morogoro region, Tanzania, mass drug administration (MDA) to school-aged children to treat two neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) – urinary schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminths – was suspended by the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare after riots broke out in schools where drugs were being administered. This article discusses why this biomedical intervention was so vehemently rejected, including an eyewitness account. As the protest spread to the village where I was conducting fieldwork, villagers accused me of bringing medicine into the village with which to ‘poison’ the children and it was necessary for me to leave immediately under the protection of the Tanzanian police. The article examines the considerable differences between biomedical and local understandings of one of these diseases, urinary schistosomiasis. Such a disjuncture was fuelled further by the apparent rapidity of rolling out MDA and subsequent failures in communication between programme staff and local people. Rumours of child fatalities as well as children’s fainting episodes and illnesses following treatment brought about considerable conjecture both locally and nationally that the drugs had been either faulty, counterfeit, hitherto untested on humans or part of a covert sterilization campaign. The compelling arguments by advocates of MDA for the treatment of NTDs rest on the assumption that people suffering from these diseases will be willing to swallow the medicine. However, as this article documents, this is not always the case. For treatment of NTDs to be successful it is not enough for programmes to focus on economic and biomedical aspects of treatment, rolling out ‘one size fits all’ programmes in resource-poor settings. It is imperative to develop a biosocial approach: to consider the local social, biological, historical, economic and political contexts in which these programmes are taking place and in which the intended recipients of treatment live their lives. If this is not done, the world’s poor will continue to be neglected.
Comparison of arthroscopy and arthrotomy for diagnosis of medial meniscal pathology: an ex vivo study.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of arthroscopy and arthrotomy for diagnosis of medial meniscal pathology and to evaluate the diagnostic value of medial meniscal probing. STUDY DESIGN Ex vivo study. ANIMALS Cadaveric canine stifle joints (n=30). METHODS Stifle joints were assigned to either a cranial cruciate ligament (CrCL) deficient or intact group. Within each stifle joint, no medial meniscal tear, a peripheral detachment, or 1 of 3 variants of vertical longitudinal tears of the medial meniscus were created. Each stifle joint had arthroscopy, craniomedial (CrMed), and caudomedial (CdMed) arthrotomy. Diagnoses were made by both observation and probing. Sensitivity, specificity, and correct classification rate (CCR) for diagnosing the state of the medial meniscus using both observation and probing with all diagnostic methods were calculated. Odds ratios were calculated to determine if probing increased diagnostic accuracy. RESULTS Arthroscopy with probing was the most sensitive and specific diagnostic method and had the highest CCR. For arthrotomy, CrMed was the most sensitive in CrCL-deficient and CdMed the most sensitive in stable, CrCL-intact stifle joints. For all methods, probing increased their diagnostic accuracy. CONCLUSIONS Arthroscopy is the most accurate diagnostic method; however, probing the medial meniscus enhances the diagnostic accuracy of all methods. CLINICAL RELEVANCE Accurate diagnosis of medial meniscal pathology is ideally achieved by means of arthroscopy; however, if arthrotomy is chosen, CrMed should be selected in unstable and CdMed in stable stifle joints. Regardless, medial meniscal probing should be performed to increase diagnostic accuracy.
Essays in dynamic behavior

Acknowledgements There are several people that were instrumental in writing this thesis. First, I want to thank my supervisor Georg Weizsäcker for his enduring support over the past years. I was blessed to have a supervisor like him who granted me the freedom and inspiration to develop my own ideas and to start this project on stopping behavior. While I was free to pursue my own ideas, Georg invested many hours in guiding, discussing and thus shaping and improving them throughout the past four years. The second person that was instrumental was my good friend Philipp Strack. Philipp and I know each other for more than a decade now, and I still remember that it was roughly in 2008 when I was working on a term project and Philipp first got me interested in Optimal Stopping by pointing me to the book Optimal Stopping with Applications by Thomas S. Ferguson. Reading this book taught me many important lessons on dynamic optimization and since then I have benefited from numerous discussions with Philipp, from his comments, remarks and suggestions on my own and our joint work. Third, I am indebted to Tobias Schmidt. Tobias is a great colleague and friend, but he certainly also is among the most critical discussants one can have when it comes to research ideas. I do not dare to estimate the number of times his rigor and his extensive overview over the existing literature saved me from wasting my time chasing some foolish idea. I also must mention that I substantially benefited from the whole structure and the resources provided by the DIW Berlin Graduate Center. The time I entered the program, it was still a very young program and many things were still at an early stage. Nonetheless, the support I experienced, be it in form of financing, or the many opportunities to go abroad, take internships at international institutions, or to attend conferences was invaluable and I have to thank the DIW Berlin for always being very generous in supporting me and its other students. Over the past five years, the tremendous efforts of our deans Georg Meran, Georg Weizsäcker and Helmut Lütkepohl as well as that of Yun Cao lead the entire program to make remarkable progress and it is safe to say that today it is a very ambitious program v vi which I am proud to be part of. I am …
Morphine infusions after pediatric cranial surgery: a retrospective analysis of safety and efficacy.

INTRODUCTION Morphine infusions are avoided after cranial surgery in children due to concerns of masking neurological deterioration and because cranial surgery is considered less painful than other surgical procedures. Studies indicate that up to 60% of patients experience moderate to severe pain after craniotomies. Morphine has demonstrated efficacy in the treatment of acute postoperative pain, yet codeine phosphate is commonly preferred as the standard treatment. We assessed the efficacy and safety of intravenous morphine use outside the intensive care unit (ICU) following cranial surgery in children. METHODS A retrospective case series analysis was conducted of medical records for 71 children. The patients underwent either cranial reconstruction (2002-2007) or supratentorial/infratentorial craniotomies (2005-2007) at British Columbia Children's Hospital. Comparison was made between patients receiving a continuous morphine infusion (CMI) and patients receiving acetaminophen and codeine. Patients were assessed for pain control and adverse events. RESULTS Thirty-seven children received CMI on the unit (30 cranial reconstruction and seven craniotomy), while 34 (10 cranial reconstruction and 24 craniotomy) received acetaminophen and codeine. There was no statistical difference in pain control. There was a statistically significant difference in nausea on postoperative day one (p = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that CMI is as safe a treatment option as acetaminophen and codeine. Careful observation enables nurses to safely administer a CMI for children following cranial surgery on a surgical unit setting.
Experimental Investigation to Calculate the Lightning Outage Rate of a Distribution System

A method was devised for estimating the lightning outage rate in distribution lines based on a field study. The observation has pointed out that direct lightning flashes to distribution systems were the main cause of line outages; however, a greater number of arresters reduced the number of distribution line faults due to direct lightning strokes. The observation also suggested that the number of direct lightning strike flashovers changes by two factors: 1) the installation rate of surge arresters and 2) the density of the lines. It is noted that this assumption can be applied to the distribution system that has a greater number of transformer-containing arresters. Based on these factors, a computer program was proposed to estimate the lightning outage rate due to lightning strokes, and the calculated results showed good agreement with the observed values in the actual lines. These results suggest that this method can contribute to the evaluation of lightning protection devices, and can lead to effective lightning protection practices.