Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Role of dexamethasone and oral glycerol in reducing hearing and neurological sequelae in children with bacterial meningitis.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the efficacy of dexamethasone and oral glycerol in reducing hearing and neurological sequelae in children with acute bacterial meningitis (ABM). DESIGN Prospective double blind, placebo controlled randomized study. SETTING Pediatric services of a tertiary care teaching and referral hospital. SUBJECTS Children 2 months to 12 years with a diagnosis of acute bacterial meningitis admitted between June 2002 to September 2003. INTERVENTION Subjects were assigned randomly to receive dexamethasone, glycerol, dexamethasone+glycerol or placebo. Neurological and hearing impairment was assessed at discharge and after 1 month. RESULTS 58 children (48 boys, 10 girls), mean age 50.2 +/- 41.0 months, were studied. Twelve patients received dexamethasone, 13 glycerol, 20 dexamethasone + glycerol and 13 placebo. Bacterial etiology was ascertained in 24 patients: Streptococcus pneumoniae-10, H influenzae b-7, Staph. aureus-5 and others-2. Three (5.2%) children died during hospital stay and 55 survived. Seven (12%) patients had neurological sequelae (3 in glycerol, 3 in dexamethasone+glycerol, 1 in placebo group, P = 0.29), and 10 patients (17%) had hearing sequelae (2 in glycerol, 3 in dexamethasone, 2 dexamethasone + glycerol and 3 in placebo group, P = 0.68). CONCLUSION No significant difference was seen in neurological or hearing outcome with use of either glycerol or dexamethasone in children with acute bacterial meningitis.
Filter Bank Regularized Common Spatial Pattern Ensemble for Small Sample Motor Imagery Classification

For the last few years, many feature extraction methods have been proposed based on biological signals. Among these, the brain signals have the advantage that they can be obtained, even by people with peripheral nervous system damage. Motor imagery electroencephalograms (EEG) are inexpensive to measure, offer a high temporal resolution, and are intuitive. Therefore, these have received a significant amount of attention in various fields, including signal processing, cognitive science, and medicine. The common spatial pattern (CSP) algorithm is a useful method for feature extraction from motor imagery EEG. However, performance degradation occurs in a small-sample setting (SSS), because the CSP depends on sample-based covariance. Since the active frequency range is different for each subject, it is also inconvenient to set the frequency range to be different every time. In this paper, we propose the feature extraction method based on a filter bank to solve these problems. The proposed method consists of five steps. First, motor imagery EEG is divided by a using filter bank. Second, the regularized CSP (R-CSP) is applied to the divided EEG. Third, we select the features according to mutual information based on the individual feature algorithm. Fourth, parameter sets are selected for the ensemble. Finally, we classify using ensemble based on features. The brain–computer interface competition III data set IVa is used to evaluate the performance of the proposed method. The proposed method improves the mean classification accuracy by 12.34%, 11.57%, 9%, 4.95%, and 4.47% compared with CSP, SR-CSP, R-CSP, filter bank CSP (FBCSP), and SR-FBCSP. Compared with the filter bank R-CSP ( $\beta $ , $\gamma $ ), which is a parameter selection version of the proposed method, the classification accuracy is improved by 3.49%. In particular, the proposed method shows a large improvement in performance in the SSS.
Effect of Postactivation Potentiation on Fifty-Meter Freestyle in National Swimmers

Abstract Sarramian, VG, Turner, AN, and Greenhalgh, AK. Effect of postactivation potentiation on fifty-meter freestyle in national swimmers. J Strength Cond Res 29(4): 1003–1009, 2015—The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of PAP on 50-m freestyle in national-level swimmers. Four warm-ups were compared: a traditional race-specific warm-up (RSWU), upper-body PAP (UBPAP), lower-body PAP (LBPAP), and combined PAP warm-up (CPAP). Eighteen (10 men, 8 women) national-level swimmers participated in this study, which included 7 separate testing sessions. Participants' 3 repetition maximum (3RM) of the pull-up (PU) was established in session 1. In session 2, rest periods for muscle enhancement of the upper body were determined using a medicine ball throw test 4, 8, and 12 minutes after UBPAP stimulus (1 × 3RM of the PU). In session 3, swimmers performed a countermovement jump 4, 8, and 12 minutes after LBPAP stimulus (1 × 5 jumps to a box while carrying 10% of the participants' body weight). The 50-m freestyle tests were performed on sessions 4–7, preceded by each warm-up protocol and corresponding rest periods. A repeated-measures analysis of variance (p ⩽ 0.05) and Bonferroni post hoc test revealed that RSWU elicited faster swimming times than UBPAP (29.00 ± 2.05 vs. 29.36 ± 1.88 seconds, p = 0.046). Additionally, when data were split into gender, in the male group, the UBPAP elicited significantly slower times than RSWU (27.51 ± 1.06 vs. 28.01 ± 1.17 seconds, p = 0.047) and CPAP (27.49 ± 1.12 vs. 28.01 ± 1.17 seconds, p = 0.02). These findings suggest individualized PAP warm-up may be a valuable tool to enhance performance in sprint events, particularly in male swimmers. However, the PU may not be an appropriate PAP stimulus on its own.
Donor Liver Small Droplet Macrovesicular Steatosis Is Associated With Increased Risk for Recipient Allograft Rejection

Although donor livers with <30% large droplet macrovesicular steatosis (MaS) and/or small droplet MaS (irrespective of percentage) are considered safe to use, this consensus is based on variable definitions of MaS subtypes and/or without a reproducible scoring system. We analyzed 134 donor liver biopsies from allografts transplanted at University of California at San Francisco between 2000 and 2015 to determine whether large and/or small droplet MaS is a risk factor for poor outcomes. Large droplet MaS was defined as a fat droplet occupying greater than one half of an individual hepatocyte, with nuclear displacement, and scored as the percentage of total parenchymal area replaced by large fat droplets on ×40 magnification. Small droplet MaS was defined as 1 to several discrete fat droplets, each occupying less than one half of an individual hepatocyte, and scored as the percentage of remaining hepatocytes (ie, hepatocytes not occupied by large fat droplets) containing small fat droplets on ×200 magnification (ie, small droplet MaS is the percentage of “remaining hepatocytes” with small fat droplets, and “remaining hepatocytes” is defined as 100% minus percent large droplet MaS). Thus, total MaS equals the sum of large and small droplet MaS, which cannot exceed 100%. Electronic medical records were reviewed to determine outcomes. There was an increased risk for acute cellular rejection (hazard ratio=2.5, P=0.0108) and bile duct loss suggestive of chronic ductopenic rejection (hazard ratio=2.4, P=0.0130) in donor livers with ≥30% small droplet MaS. Large droplet MaS (up to 60%) was not associated with adverse outcomes. Patient survival was not adversely affected by steatosis. Excellent agreement on the estimation of large (weighted &kgr;=0.682) and small droplet MaS (weighted &kgr;=0.780) was achieved. Our approach to donor steatosis scoring can identify liver allograft recipients at increased risk for rejection and highlights the importance of distinguishing between small and large droplet MaS in this evaluation.
IQ of Neural Networks

IQ tests are an accepted method for assessing human intelligence. The tests consist of several parts that must be solved under a time constraint. Of all the tested abilities, pattern recognition has been found to have the highest correlation with general intelligence. This is primarily because pattern recognition is the ability to find order in a noisy environment, a necessary skill for intelligent agents. In this paper, we propose a convolutional neural network (CNN) model for solving geometric pattern recognition problems. The CNN receives as input multiple ordered input images and outputs the next image according to the pattern. Our CNN is able to solve problems involving rotation, reflection, color, size and shape patterns and score within the top 5% of human performance.
Explaining Increases in Higher Education Costs

Abstract:This article presents new evidence on the conflict between two competing explanations of the increase in college costs, the cost disease theory of William Baumol and William Bowen and the revenue theory of cost of Howard Bowen. Using cross-section data, the article demonstrates that the cost disease explanation is more important than the revenue theory.
National Sovereignty vs. International Cooperation: Policy Choices in Trade‐Off Situations

The trade‐off between international cooperation gains and national sovereignty has become increasingly salient in recent years. This paper examines how voters assess this trade‐off in Switzerland, focusing on the choice between the economic benefits of EU integration versus sovereign immigration control. Using survey data, we identify voters for whom this choice is not clear, either because they are cross‐pressured (favouring Swiss‐EU bilateral treaties, while opposing increased immigration) or because they do not have clear preferences. We show that these are sizeable groups within the Swiss electorate and that in particular the potentially cross‐pressured mainly consist of politically mobilized, high‐income voters, supportive of right‐wing parties. Among the potentially cross‐pressured and voters with indistinct preferences, leaning towards the SVP strongly predicts a preference for immigration control over sustaining cooperation with the EU. Beyond this, our findings suggest that political variables have stronger explanatory power than individual‐level economic vulnerabilities in predicting choice.
Cerebral Neuroblastoma and Pituitary Adenocarcinoma in Two Budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus)

SUMMARY. Case 1: A tumor mass involving the rostral part of left cerebrum was found in a two-year-old female budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus) at necropsy. Histologically, the neoplastic cells were arranged in sheets or cords and occasionally showed nest growth patterns. These uniform tumor cells had a little cytoplasm and ovoid or round basophilic nuclei with clearly distinct cytoplasmic membranes. The tumor cells were strong diffusely immunostained with both neuron-specific enolase (NSE) and neurofilament protein and partially for synaptophysin. They lacked chromogranin A, glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), vimentin, S-100, and cytokeratin antigen expression. Moreover, they had no reaction to antibodies against pituitary hormones, such as adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH), growth hormone, and prolactin. The histological and immunohistochemical examination determined the tumor as neuroblastoma. Case 2: An extremely enlarged pituitary mass was found above the sella turcica of a male budgerigar. It was soft and well delineated from the adjacent structures. On histological examination, this tumor consisted of a sheet of large closely packed polyhedral cells that had scant to a large amount of pale to strongly eosinophilic cytoplasm. The pleomorphic nuclei were apparently variable in shape, from small round hyperchromatic to very large vesicular forms. The cell boundaries were not clearly distinct. The multifocal immunolabelling of neoplastic cells for NSE, synaptophysin, GFAP, and ACTH appeared, whereas a few cells reacted with vimentin and S-100 and stained negative for other markers, which were also utilized for case 1. Histological and immunohistochemical findings led to identification of corticotroph adenocarcinoma in the pituitary gland.
Effects of 6 months glucagon‐like peptide‐1 receptor agonist treatment on endothelial function in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients

Glucagon‐like peptide‐1 receptor agonists (GLP‐1 RA) are used for treatment in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Little is known about their cardiovascular (CV) impact. We sought to determine the effects of chronic treatment on vascular function in T2DM. Brachial artery endothelial‐dependent flow‐mediated dilation (FMD) and endothelial‐independent glyceryl trinitrate (GTN) function and carotid intima‐medial thickness (cIMT) were assessed in 11 severely obese T2DMs (4 females, 7 males: 55 ± 8 years, diabetes duration 8.3 ± 4.7 years mean ± s.d.) before and after 6 months GLP‐1 RA. Body weight (5.3 ± 1.2 kg; p < 0.05) and magnetic resonance imaging determined total and subcutaneous fat, but not visceral fat, decreased. Glycaemic control improved. There were no significant changes in FMD, GTN and cIMT (−1.1 ± 0.4%, 0.3 ± 3.0% and 0.00 ± 0.04 mm, respectively). Despite significant improvements in body composition and glycaemic control, 6 months GLP‐1 RA treatment did not modulate vascular function. Alternative strategies may therefore be needed to reduce the burden of CV risk in severely obese patients with long‐standing T2DM.
Effects of the K+ channel activators, RP 52891, cromakalim and diazoxide, on the plasma insulin level, plasma renin activity and blood pressure in rats.

In normo- or hyperglycemic (i.v. infusion of 50 mg/kg/min glucose over 30 min) pithed rats, diazoxide (1 mg/kg/min i.v. over 20 min) significantly reduced plasma insulin content. By contrast, cromakalim, nicorandil or RP 52891 even at doses 40-fold higher than those producing the same hypotensive effect as diazoxide in intact anesthetized normotensive rats, failed to change insulin plasma levels. Glibenclamide (0.01-0.3 mg/kg i.v.) pretreatment antagonized dose-dependently the hypoinsulinemic activity of diazoxide with an i.v. ED50 value of 49 +/- 1 microgram/kg. In pithed rats, diazoxide increased markedly plasma renin activity. This effect was almost inhibited completely by 20 mg/kg i.v. , but not at all by a 1-mg/kg i.v. dose of glibenclamide. In pentobarbital-anesthetized rats, diazoxide (0.5-2 mg/kg/min i.v. over 20 min) produced decreases in mean carotid artery blood pressure which were antagonized dose-dependently by glibenclamide (5-20 mg/kg i.v.). This sulfonylurea (20 mg/kg i.v.) also prevented the hypotensive effects of several i.v. administered K+ channel activators (cromakalim, RP 52891 and nicorandil) but not those of numerous hypotensive agents such as acetylcholine, adenosine, bradykinin, clonidine, histamine, salbutamol, dihydralazine, papaverine, platelet aggregating factor, nitroglycerin, nitroprusside, nitrendipine and diltiazem. Although glibenclamide lowered plasma glucose levels, its blocking activity vis-à-vis the hypotension evoked by cromakalim was not affected when its hypoglycemic effects were reversed with an i.v. injection of glucose. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Business Cycle Synchronisation in a Currency Union: Taking Stock of the Evidence

This paper offers a first systematic evaluation of the evidence on the effects of currency unions on the synchronisation of economic activity. Focusing on Europe, we construct a database of about 3,000 business cycles synchronisation coefficients and their design and estimation characteristics. We find that: (1) synchronisation increased from about 0.4 before the introduction of the euro in 1999 to 0.6 afterwards; (2) this increase occurred in both euro and non-euro countries (larger in former); (3) there is evidence of country-specific publication bias; (4) our differences-in-differences estimates suggest the euro accounted for approximately half of the observed increase in synchronisation.
Renal Epithelial Neoplasms: Diagnostic Applications of Gene Expression Profiling

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is the most common form of kidney cancer in adults. RCC is a significant challenge for pathologic diagnosis and clinical management. The primary approach to diagnosis is by light microscopy, using the World Health Organization (WHO) classification system, which defines histopathologic tumor subtypes with distinct clinical behavior and underlying genetic mutations. However, light microscopic diagnosis of RCC subtypes can be difficult due to variable histology, morphologic features shared by tumor subtypes, and a growing frequency of small tumor biopsies with limited morphologic information. In addition to these diagnostic problems, the clinical behavior of RCC is highly variable, and therapeutic response rates are poor. Few clinical assays are available to predict outcome in RCC or correlate behavior with histology. Therefore, novel RCC classification systems based on gene expression should be useful for diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment. Recent microarray studies have shown that renal tumors are characterized by distinct gene expression profiles, which can be used to discover novel diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers. Here, we review clinical features of kidney cancer, the WHO classification system, and the growing role of molecular classification for diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy of this disease.
Real‐time PCR‐based determination of gene copy numbers in Pichia pastoris

Pichia pastoris is a preferred host for heterologous protein production. Expression cassettes are usually integrated into the genome of this methylotrophic yeast. This manuscript describes a method for fast and reliable gene copy number determinations for P. pastoris expression strains. We believe that gene copy number determinations are important for all researchers working with P. pastoris and also many other research groups using similar gene integration techniques for the transformation of other yeasts. The described method uses real‐time PCR to quantify the integrated expression cassettes. Similar methods were employed previously for other host systems such as animal and plant cells but no such method comparing different detection methods and describing details for yeast analysis by quantitative PCR is known to us, especially for methylotrophic yeasts such as P. pastoris. Neglecting gene copy numbers can easily lead to false interpretations of experimental results from codon optimization or promoter studies and co‐expression of helper proteins as demonstrated in an application example, which is also described here.
Engaging Phronesis: religious education with primary initial teacher education students

This thesis considers the initial teacher education of non-specialist primary undergraduate student teachers in teaching Religious Education. The focus of the research is a short module taught in the second year of the students’ degree course, which prepares students to teach in predominantly multicultural classrooms in London. The module adopts an Interpretive Approach to Religious Education, which contributes to a realignment of the students’ conceptualisation of knowledge through examination of the concepts of episteme and phronesis. Findings show that overt acknowledgement of the student teachers’ developing professional understandings, situated in decisions which reference values as well as subject knowledge, can alter their understanding and confidence about teaching Religious Education and indicates wider benefit in their appreciation of their developing teacher personae. The Structure of the Research Chapter 1 is a contextual introduction which presents a series of lenses through which to view the Religious Education module. Chapter 2 is an exploration of three main ideas which influenced the research: the Interpretive Approach to RE, the concept of phronesis, and the benefits to understanding pedagogy through self-study in teacher education. Chapter 3 explains the methodological thinking behind the research, ethical considerations and the methods employed. These include practitioner research, use of ethnographic and reflexive lenses and analysis of data from both students and personal reflection through self-study. Chapter 4 reports the findings from the research carried out with students, exploring the ideas which emerge from their responses to the module and my observations and interviews which illuminate ideas which emerge from the analysis. Chapter 5 is a discussion of the content and development of the module itself, exploring the impact and development of activities which influence the students’ understanding of RE. Chapter 6 draws together the threads of the research to explore the vision of a transformative ITE RE module, which recognises the value of acknowledging and developing phronesis in primary non-specialist student teacher education and concludes with recommendations to improve the current situation in RE in primary ITE.
Developing a Prototype of REST-Based Database Application for Shipbuilding Industry: A Case Study

This paper presents a case study of an application prototype for shipbuilding industry using RESTful web service. Majority of database applications for traditional enterprises are based on the two-tier with simple client-server or the three-tier with additional RPC middleware. Because the outdated old configuration is not extensible, an alternative is required to link the database to the Web or mobile platform. This type of modification on the legacy system causes large maintenance cost since the modified architecture can affect other parts of legacy system. Motivated by these issues, this paper proposes a simple and flexible application prototype utilizing open source frameworks and the RESTful web service. The prototype utilizes Groovy and Grails framework which is an open source web application framework on the Java platform. The major benefits of the proposed prototype are simply able to extend to heterogeneous client platforms such as mobile and . NET, and maintain by using high-productive web application framework. As a case study, the proposed prototype is applied to the management task of BOMs (Bill of materials) for shipbuilding.
Food imports and exchange rate: the application of dynamic cointegration framework

This paper studies how exchange rate policy influences households’ consumption styles represented by food imports. We provide an empirical analysis based on the Malaysian annual data from 1980-2012. An autoregressive distributed lag model (ARDL) was utilized in interpreting long-run elasticities of food import demand as a cointegrating relation, and short-run dynamics was interpreted using ECM based on cointegrating regression of the ARDL technique. The robustness of ARDL results are verified using Dynamic OLS (DOLS) estimation technique. Our results, while providing evidence that food import demand in the country is fairly inelastic to both income growth and relative prices of food imports, also raise some important policy issues, particularly on the competitiveness of the country’s agricultural and food exports.