Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hepatic Steatosis Index in Acromegaly: Correlation with Insulin Resistance Regardless of the Disease Control

Objective In acromegaly, both lipotoxicity secondary to GH excess and insulin resistance have a significant impact on the liver. Ultrasonography has shown poor sensitivity in detecting hepatic steatosis and noninvasive methods have been proposed. We evaluated the hepatic steatosis index (HSI), a validated surrogate index of hepatic steatosis, and we correlated it with disease activity and insulin resistance. Design Thirty-one patients with newly diagnosed acromegaly were studied at diagnosis and after 12 months of treatment with somatostatin receptor ligands. Methods Glucose and insulin levels, surrogate estimates of insulin sensitivity, and hepatic steatosis through ultrasonography and HSI were evaluated. Results At diagnosis, ultrasonography documented steatosis in 19 patients (61.2%) while 26 (83.8%) showed high HSI. After 12 months, both GH (p = 0.033) and IGF-1 (p < 0.001) significantly decreased and, overall, 58% of patients were classified as controlled. Ultrasonography documented steatosis in all the same initial 19 patients, while only 14 patients (45.1%) showed high HSI (p < 0.001). A significant reduction in HOMA-IR (p = 0.002) and HSI (p < 0.001) and increased ISI Matsuda (p < 0.001), was documented. The change of HSI from baseline to 12 months was found to be directly correlated with the change of ISI (Rho -0.611; p = 0.004) while no correlation was found with the change of GH or IGF-1 levels and other parameters. Conclusions In acromegaly, HSI is mainly related with insulin resistance and the reduction of GH and IGF-1 levels, and above all the improvement in insulin sensitivity leads to an improvement of this surrogate index of hepatic steatosis.
Identification of In Vivo Metabolites of Dictamnine in Mice Using HPLC-LTQ-Orbitrap Mass Spectrometry

Dictamnine (4-methoxyfuro[2,3-b]quinolone, DIC), a common furoquinoline alkaloid in the family of Rutaceae, showed diverse biological activities. To investigate the in vivo metabolic pathways of DIC, metabolism of DIC in mice was studied using a high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to electrospray ionization of hybrid linear trap quadrupole orbitrap (HPLC-LTQ-Orbitrap) mass spectrometer. Nine metabolites were identified in the DIC-treated mouse urine, plasma, and fecal samples, of which two were identified as new metabolites. The major metabolic pathways of DIC in animal and human liver microsomes were confirmed in the present study, including o-demethylation, monohydroxylation, N-oxidation, and 2,3-olefinic epoxidation pathways. For the first time, a mono-acetylcysteine conjugate of DIC (M9) was detected from DIC-treated mouse urine and plasma samples, and 4-methoxy-2-oxo-1,2-dihydroquinoline-3-carboxylic acid (M10) and 2-(2,8-dihydroxy-4-methoxyquinolin-3-yl)acetaldehyde (M11) were identified as new metabolites of DIC; furthermore, using an in vitro human fecal incubation model, furo[2,3-b]quinolin-4-ol (M1) was verified to be a microbial demethylated metabolite of DIC. Collectively, the present study provided new information on the in vivo metabolic fate of DIC.
Kernel methods and their application to structured data

Supervised Machine learning is concerned with the study of algorithms that take examples and their corresponding labels, and learn a general classification function that can predict the label of future examples. For example, an algorithm may take as input a set of molecules, each labeled "toxic" or "non-toxic" and try to predict the toxicity of new molecules based on the function learned from the input. In the astronomy domain, one might try to predict the type of a star given a series of measurements of the star's brightness, based on a set of known stars and measurements of their brightness. The thesis investigates three aspects of machine learning algorithms that use linear classification functions that work implicitly in feature spaces by using similarity functions known as kernels. The first aspect is robustness to noise, that is learning when some of the labels in the known examples are not reliable. An extensive experimental evaluation reveals a surprising result, that the Perceptron Algorithm with margin is an excellent algorithm in such contexts, and it is competitive or better than more sophisticated alternatives. The second aspect is producing estimates of the confidence of predictions from such classifiers, especially Support Vector Machines. We explore this topic by proposing new methods and comparing them experimentally to existing approaches to this challenge. Finally we investigate kernels for the two applications mentioned above, time series from astronomy and molecules from biochemistry, where the data are not initially expressed in Euclidean space. In each case we provide an efficiently computable kernel function that captures a natural similarity between pairs of examples. An experimental evaluation shows that our kernels lead to excellent performance when used with Perceptron variants or Support Vector Machines. The contribution for the astronomy application goes beyond machine learning, providing a complete system for classifying stars from raw data taken in astronomy surveys, a task that typically requires a large amount of domain expert time. In this context the thesis investigates and evaluates several statistical tests and mechanisms for filtering and processing time series data.
The Economics of Better Health: The Case of Cardiovascular Disease

The Economics of Better Health:The Case of Cardiovascular DiseaseDavid M. CutlerHarvard University and NBERFebruary 2001 Note: This paper is a chapter from a book I am writing this year. The book is for a lesstechnical audience, so the paper has the technical detail in an appendix. The seminar will focuson this chapter and the book as a whole.
Physician dual practice and the public health care provision. Review of the literature

Objectives: A combination of public and private clinical practice by physicians, referred to as physician dual practice, is present in numerous health care systems. The phenomenon has been receiving attention in connection with arguments about its negative impact for the public provision of health care. A ban or restrictions on dual practice is widely advocated. The aim of this paper is to review and critically discuss the empirical and theoretical findings on the subject of physician dual practice and its effects for the provision of public health care. Methods: A systematic literature review, using electronic and manual searches, identified 23 positions on the subject of physician dual practice consisting of peer-reviewed journal articles, including two review articles on selected aspects of dual practice, academic working papers, book chapters, and WHO publications. Results: The subject is short on hard evidence. Theoretical analyses of dual practice impact on public health care provision shows that dual practice might bring about both positive and negative effects. Some of the conclusions on the negative effects of dual practice, however, depend on assumptions, which are questioned in broader economic literature. Moreover, while it seems that dual practitioners take up private practice predominantly to increase their income, it does not automatically imply that dual practice as a whole is a profit-maximising combination. Physicians seem to face promising opportunities in the private market. Still, they spend relatively little time in the private practice and supply labour to the lower paid public sector job. Eventually, the potential costs and effectiveness of dual practice regulation are rarely considered. Conclusions: Further research is needed into why physicians engage in dual practice and whether potential costs of dual practice outweigh the costs of enforcing restrictions on dual practice. A promising direction appears to be an analysis comparing the behaviour of the public sector physicians with and without dual practice, respectively, in a given institutional settings and under uniform assumptions about the objectives of the physicians in these two groups. Moreover, it seems useful to employ the labour economics framework for multiple job holding in the analysis of the dual practice effects. This framework helps to recognise that physicians holding two jobs might be different from single job holding physicians with regard to the most preferred combination of income and leisure, which implies differences in labour market participation constraints and marginal costs of labour/effort between the two groups.
Antibacterial and Synergistic Activity of Different Tea Crude Extracts against Antibiotic Resistant S. Aureus, E. Coli and a Clinical Isolate of S. Typhi

The antibacterial and synergistic effects of black, green, white tea and other specialty teas such as purple tea extracts processed from Kenyan tea germplasm were evaluated and compared with extracts from processed teas of Chinese and Japanese cultivars using disc diffusion method. Methicillin and penicillinase resistant S. aureus ATCC 25923 was most susceptible to the tea extracts; showing the largest inhibition diameters. Extracts from processed black, black tea buds, green, purple coloured leaf (both aerated and nonaerated) and white teas weakly inhibited (p>0.05) E. coli ATCC 25922 and a clinical isolate of S. typhi at a concentration of 1mg/ml after 24 hours. Synergism was observed between all tea extracts and penicillin G against methicillin and penicillinase resistant S. aureus ATTC 25923. This suggests that the concomitant administration of tea and penicillin G may not impair the antibacterial activity of penicillin G.
Analysis of all-cause mortality and coronary events in the Turkish Adult Risk Factor Survey 2005

‹stanbul Üniversitesi Cerrahpafla T›p Fakültesi Kardiyoloji Anabilim Dal›, ‹stanbul; Dr. Siyami Ersek Gö¤üs Kalp ve Damar Cerrahisi E¤itim ve Araflt›rma Hastanesi Kardiyoloji Klini¤i, ‹stanbul; Kartal Kofluyolu Yüksek ‹htisas E¤itim ve Araflt›rma Hastanesi Kardiyoloji Klini¤i, ‹stanbul; Abant ‹zzet Baysal Üniversitesi T›p Fakültesi Kardiyoloji Anabilim Dal›, Düzce; ‹stanbul Üniversitesi Kardiyoloji Enstitüsü Kardiyoloji Anabilim Dal›, ‹stanbul 149 Türk Kardiyol Dern Arfl Arch Turk Soc Cardiol 2006;34(3):149-153
30 Years of Computational Autopoiesis: A Review

Computational Autopoiesis—the realisation of autopoietic entities in computational media—holds an important and distinctive role within the field of Artificial Life. Its earliest formulation by Francisco Varela, Humberto Maturana and Ricardo Uribe was seminal in demonstrating the use of an artificial, computational, medium to explore the most basic question of the abstract nature of living systems over a decade in advance of the first Santa Fe Workshop on Artificial Life. The research programme it originated has generated substantive demonstrations of progressively richer, life-like, phenomena. It has also sharply illuminated both conceptual and methodological problems in the field. This paper provides an integrative overview of the sometimes disparate work in this area, and argues that Computational Autopoiesis continues to provide an effective framework for addressing key open problems in Artificial
Developments in the management of esophageal dysfunction

In dit proefschrift worden twee ziektebeelden besproken, namelijk gastro-oesofageale refluxziekte en achalasie. Refluxziekte ontstaat wanneer reflux van maaginhoud leidt tot symptomen en/of complicaties. We hebben de associatie tussen symptomen en de doorlaatbaarheid van het slokdarmslijmvlies bestudeerd in refluxpatienten. Symptomen door zuur werden niet verklaard door verhoogde doorlaatbaarheid van het slijmvlies, maar waarschijnlijk door de oppervlakkigheid van de zenuwen in de slokdarmwand. In een tweede studie bleek het niet mogelijk om refluxziekte te diagnosticeren met hoge-resolutie manometrie. Patienten met refluxziekte hadden wel significant zwakkere peristaltiek, een lagere druk in de onderste slokdarmsfincter en vaker een hiatus hernia dan gezonde vrijwilligers. Achalasie is een ziekte waarbij de zenuwen in de slokdarmwand degenereren. Hierdoor is er geen slokdarmperistaltiek en opent de kringspier naar de maag onvolledig, waardoor eten blijft hangen. We hebben de incidentie en prevalentie van achalasie in Nederland vastgesteld op respectievelijk 2,2 en 15 per 100.000 personen. Daarnaast hebben we bevestigd dat botox-injecties in de slokdarm een zeer veilige behandeling voor achalasie zijn, ook in hoog-risico patienten. In een meta-analyse hebben we het meest effectieve behandelprotocol van pneumodilataties bij achalasie berekend: een gegradeerd dilatatieschema van een 30-mm ballon, zo nodig gevolgd door een 35-mm en 40-mm ballon. Perorale endoscopische myotomie (POEM) is een achalasiebehandeling waarbij de onderste slokdarmsfincter endoscopisch wordt gekliefd. We hebben een predictiemodel ontwikkeld voor reflux-oesofagitis na POEM. Risicofactoren voor reflux-oesofagitis na POEM zijn: type 3 achalasie, alcohol, hoog BMI en refluxsymptomen. Ook hebben we ontdekt dat achalasie patienten met blijvende of terugkerende achalasieklachten na POEM het beste herbehandeld kunnen worden met een her-POEM of een chirurgische myotomie.
Device Closure of Patent Foramen Ovale—Is it Time to Update the Guidelines?

ABSTRACT Background: The current American Association of Neurology guidelines do not recommend patent foramen ovale (PFO) closure for prevention of cryptogenic strokes, however recent findings from randomized control trials (RCT) have challenged this recommendation. We performed a comprehensive analysis of RCTs available to date to compare PFO closure to medical therapy in patients with cryptogenic stroke. Methods: Five databases were analyzed including EMBASE, PubMed, Cochrane, Scopus and Web-of-Science from January 2000 to September 2018. We included RCTs comparing device closure of PFO versus medical therapy in patients with cryptogenic stroke. Heterogeneity was determined using Cochrane’s Q statistics. A random effects model was used. Results: Six randomized controlled trials and 3,560 patients were included in the analysis. Mean follow-up was 47 ± 19 months. Device closure was associated with a 42% reduction in recurrent embolic strokes when compared to medical therapy (risk ratio (RR): 0.58, 95% CI: 0.39–0.88, p = 0.009). This occurred despite atrial fibrillation occurring at a higher rate with device closure when compared to medical therapy (RR: 4.75, 95% CI: 2.35–9.60, p < 0.001). There was no difference between the two groups with respect to all-cause mortality, transient ischemic attacks, major bleeding or adverse events. Conclusions: PFO device closure in appropriately selected patients with cryptogenic stroke is associated with a significant reduction in the risk of recurrent ischemic stroke. The increased incidence of atrial fibrillation associated with device closure appears to be transient. Long-term monitoring may be essential.
Mobile Payment Based on Transaction Certificate Using Cloud Self‐Proxy Server

Recently, mobile phones have been recognized as the most convenient type of mobile payment device. However, they have some security problems; therefore, mobile devices cannot be used for unauthorized transactions using anonymous data by unauthenticated users in a cloud environment. This paper suggests a mobile payment system that uses a certificate mode in which a user receives a paperless receipt of a product purchase in a cloud environment. To address mobile payment system security, we propose the transaction certificate mode (TCM), which supports mutual authentication and key management for transaction parties. TCM provides a software token, the transaction certificate token (TCT), which interacts with a cloud self‐proxy server (CSPS). The CSPS shares key management with the TCT and provides simple data authentication without complex encryption. The proposed self‐creating protocol supports TCM, which can interactively communicate with the transaction parties without accessing a user's personal information. Therefore, the system can support verification for anonymous data and transaction parties and provides user‐based mobile payments with a paperless receipt.
İlkokuma ve Yazma Öğretimi İçin Bir Model Önerisi: Dört Blok

Okuma yazmayi ogrenmek, karmasik bir set olarak tutum, anlayis ve davranis uygulamalarini icerir. Okuma ve yazmayi ogrenen cocuklar, ogrenmelerini baslatan ve sorumluluk ustlenen aktif bireylerdir. Yillar boyunca her biri farkli varsayim ve uygulamalara dayanan bircok yaklasim cocuklara okumayi ogretmek icin kullanilmistir. Iyi bilinen bir yaklasim olan "sistematik" ses bilgisi yontemi, ogrencilere alfabetik sesleri ve temel yazim kurallarini ogretir. "Tumdengelim" adi verilen baska bir yaklasimda, cocuk alfabe/ses iliskilerini ogrenmemektedir. Bunun yerine cocuk, kelimeleri diger kelimeler veya resimler baglaminda tanimayi ve anlamayi ogrenir. Bu calismada Amerika Birlesik Devletleri'nde kullanilan "Dort Blok" adli bir model, Milli Egitim Bakanligi tarafindan yayimlanan Turkce Programi Okuma-Yazma ogretimi dogrultusunda uyarlanmistir.
Statistical Analysis of Tuberculosis in Jigawa State, North- Western Nigeria

Studies on Tuberculosis (TB) in Jigawa, a Northwestern state in Nigeria, is very scarce as Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Center in the state started functioning properly only recently in 2009. Since then, there has been a hike in the number of TB patients visiting the center. This study is conducted to analyze the incidence of Tuberculosis in the state. Data used is obtained from Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Center, Ministry of Health, Jigawa State, Nigeria. Questioners are used for the collection of the available data for the period of six years (2009â€“2014). Linear regression is used to analyze the trend of the disease from the same period. Trends within various age groups were recorded. HIV coâ€“infection is analyzed and its trend is also recorded over the years. Gender parity is also analyzed using a t-test. There is an increase in the number of patients from 2009 to 2014. Out of the 9590 patients seen in the period, 6538 (68.18 %) are males and3052 (31.82%) are females. At-test is used to show the significance in the difference between the number of males and females. It is also found that, there is an increase in the number of HIV co-infection over the said years. The study shows the prevalence of TB is highest among the age group of 25 â€“ 34 (30.15%). The commonest type of TB in the population was smear positive pulmonary TB, with 5853 patients (61.03%). TB in Jigawa state was found to be significantly increasing. Out of all the 9590 patients seen at the center, 6538 (68.18 %) are males and3052 (31.82%) are females. HIV co - infection with Tuberculosis occurred in 9.94% of the patients considered. This study shows a high percentage of infection: 30.14% between the age group of 25-34.In general, Pulmonary TB has a higher prevalence of 95.69% compared to Extra Pulmonary TB that has 4.31%. Â Handle:Â http://hdl.handle. net/20.500. 11903/mjmbr.v2n3. 11 Â
Vasodepressor syncope and recurrent carcinoma of pharynx: a sign of malignant recurrence.

We present the case of a 66-year-old man under surveillance for oropharyngeal malignancy. The presentation was that of recent onset recurrent syncopal attacks associated with neck pain. Both bradycardia and hypotension were seen during the syncopal events. Although recurrence of malignancy had not been proven at the time of presentation, this was subsequently confirmed. In this case syncope was successfully managed with Midodrine, and permanent pacemaker implantation was avoided. A review of the literature identified similar cases, where the presumptive mechanism for syncope is mediated via the glossopharyngeal nerve. Such cases follow a similar clinical course, with an unpredictable response to standard therapies, including pacemaker implantation. Clinicians should be aware that syncope associated with head and neck cancer may herald recurrence of malignancy.
A study on the use of phrasal verbs by Malaysian learners of English

The aim of this study is to examine the level of understanding and use of English phrasal verbs (PVs) amongst Malaysian learners of English. It is generally agreed that idiomatic expressions, including phrasal verbs, present great difficulties for language learners. Various reasons have been highlighted, which include the nature of PVs themselves, as well as crosslinguistic factors. Two different types of methodology - survey and corpus work - are used to find answers to the research questions. In the survey component, the respondents include both teachers and learners in selected secondary schools in Malaysia. A PV test was given to the student respondents, while questionnaires were used to get teachers’ feedback regarding the common practice of vocabulary teaching particularly with respect to PVs, as well as their views on the vocabulary contents presented in school textbooks. The corpus work is based on the English of Malaysian Students (EMAS) and the Bank of English (BoE) corpus, and 24 PVs were selected for analysis. Drawing on findings from the survey and corpus work, an examination of school textbooks and learners’ dictionaries was then carried out. Results indicate that, in addition to learners’ proficiency level and gender, the nature of PVs and crosslinguistic factors, particularly the learners’ L1, play a significant role in Malaysian learners’ understanding and use of PVs. Their difficulties with PVs are further compounded as textbooks and dictionaries were also found to provide insufficient and inappropriate information with respect to PVs. This thesis makes a number of suggestions to further improve the present scenario of PVs teaching and learning. It is suggested that the teaching of PVs should also take into account learners’ L1, and that learners can learn and understand PVs better if they are made aware of the lexical and grammatical patterns of PVs. Instead of relying on intuition, perhaps it is time for Malaysian textbooks and dictionaries to consider integrating the use of corpus into their selection of PVs to be presented to learners.
Characterisation of Real-World Bus Acceleration and Deceleration Signals

Public transportation by bus is an essential part of mobility. Braking and starting, e.g., approaching a bus stop, are documented as the main reason for non-collision incidents. These situations are evoked by the acceleration forces leading to perturbations of the passenger’s base of support. In laboratory studies perturbations are applied to getting insight into the postural control system and neuromuscular responses. However, bus perturbations diverge from laboratory ones with respect to duration, maximum and shape, and it was shown recently that these characteristics influence the postural response. Thus, results from posturographic studies cannot be generalised and transferred to bus perturbations. In this study, acceleration (ACC) and deceleration (DEC) signals of real traffic situations were examined. A mathematical approach is proposed in order to identify characteristics of these signals and to quantify their similarity and complexity. Typical characteristics (duration, maximum, and shape) of real-world driving manoeuvres concerning start and stop situations could be identified. A mean duration of 13.6 s for ACC and 9.8 s for DEC signals was found which is clearly longer than laboratory perturbations. ACC and DEC signals are more complex than the used signals for platform displacements in the laboratory. The proposed method enables the reconstruction of bus ACC and DEC signals. The data can be used as input for studies on postural control with high ecological validity.