Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Variation in Lipid Profile Across Different Patterns of Obesity - Observations from Guwahati, Assam.

BACKGROUND Obesity adversely affects cardiovascular health is known. But, data is few in this regard from Assam, northeast India. The serum lipid profile is performed for cardio-metabolic status assessment. AIM The aim of the study was to investigate variation in serum lipids across different obesity patterns in an urban population from Assam. MATERIALS AND METHODS Two hundred subjects were classified by WC (waist circumference) and BMI (body mass index) values into four groups as follows: Group I (normal WC, normal BMI), Group II (normal WC, increased BMI), Group III (increased WC, normal BMI) and Group IV (increased WC, increased BMI). WC and BMI served as measures of central and generalized obesity respectively. Lipid profile was measured using VITROS 5600 Autoanalyser, and compared across these groups. Multivariate analyses were performed separately for males and females to confirm the results of univariate analyses. RESULTS WC and BMI exhibited significant correlations with different lipid parameters. Group IV individuals had the most abnormal lipid profile values, while, Group I individuals had the most normal values. Group II and Group III individuals had intermediate values. BMI was independently associated with serum triglycerides in both males and females. WC was independently associated with high density lipoprotein cholesterol in females. CONCLUSION The lipid values varied significantly across different obesity patterns. Serum lipid concentrations were strongly influenced by anthropometric indices of obesity in both sexes. Presence of both central and generalized obesity led to greater abnormalities in lipid profile than presence of central or generalized obesity alone.
Self-Assessment of Topic Development in Written Production among High School Students.

The present study mainly focuses on the topic development in student written production through the consistency between student selfassessment and teacher assessment. In the present study, topic development means “cohesion”, “overall organization”, and “coherence”. It proposes the next hypotheses: (i) Students could assess cohesive devices such as discourse markers as well as teachers do. (ii) Students could assess the overall organization pattern of their written production as well as teachers do. (iii) Students could assess the coherence of their written production as well as teachers do. 169 Japanese high school students whose ages ranged from 16 to 18 years old were asked to write an essay with about 150 words in 30 minutes. One American English teacher and one Japanese English teacher also participated in the study. Teachers and students used the same self-assessment sheet written in both English and Japanese. And then 82 students’ written production was chosen as the subject based on the number of the words. They were divided into three groups referring to teachers’ assessment. The results show that the writing patterns in terms of topic development are divided into eight patterns. The self-assessment of the students is not different from teacher assessment in the aspect of overall organization. However, the consistency between teacher assessment and student self-assessment was not found in the assessment of other cohesive devices and overall coherence.
Factors Affecting the Adoption of Open Systems: An Exploratory Study

Advocates of open systems believe that problems related to compatibility, interoperability, scalability, and efficient use of IT resources can be resolved by setting software and hardware standards and strictly adhering to these standards in systems development and management. Representing a major departure from the traditional way of running an IS operation, the adoption of open systems has major ramifications on the IT infrastructure with long-lasting effects. Unfortunately, little research has been done to study this ubiquitous phenomenon despite its impacts on organizational computing worldwide. To fill this research gap, a model that incorporates seven factors perceived to affect the adoption is developed and tested. In-depth interviews with senior executives responsible for managing corporate IS functions from 89 organizations were conducted to collect data for empirical analysis. The findings suggest that organizations tend to (1) focus more on their "ability to adopt" than on the "benefits from adoption," and (2) take a "reactive" rather than "proactive" attitude in adopting open systems technology. Managerial implications are also discussed.
THE EFFECT OF EXPERIENCE ON AUDITORS MEMORY ERRORS

This paper reports results from a study of the effects of audit experience on the frequency of two types of memory error: failure to integrate and reconstruction. Failure to integrate is defined here as failure to make mental connections between separately received pieces of information; reconstruction is defined here as altering the mental representation of information to make it consistent with existing knowledge (or memories). I asked auditors to review model work papers containing contradictions they would have discovered in the absence of reconstruction or failure to integrate. Subjects were able to refer freely to the experimental materials during their reviews, as they could do on actual audit engagements during the work paper review process. Since the work papers related to several audit tests and took about one hour to review, subjects had to use their memories to relate critical observations made earlier to later pieces of evidence when attempting to formulate an accurate representation of the meaning of all the evidence taken together, including detection of the contradictions. I found that subjects at all levels of experience made memory errors, and that both types of memory error were related to experience. Inex-
Uterine sarcoma: a report of 10 cases studied by transvaginal color and pulsed Doppler sonography.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the role of transvaginal color Doppler in differentiating uterine sarcoma from myoma. STUDY DESIGN A group of 2010 women were examined by transvaginal color Doppler ultrasonography 1 day before planned hysterectomy. Ten cases with uterine sarcoma were analyzed with respect to their color Doppler sonographic patterns and compared with 150 normal and 1850 myomatous uteri. Analysis of variance was used to test the significance among the subgroups. RESULTS All cases of uterine sarcoma (100%) revealed abnormal tumoral blood vessels. The mean resistance index (RI) of these vessels was 0.37 +/- 0.03, ranging from 0.32 to 0.42, which is statistically significantly lower than that of the normal and myomatous (P < 0.001) uteri. There was no significant difference between RI in the right and left uterine arteries in each separate group; however, there was a decline in these values from normal, through myomatous, to sarcomatous uteri. Using a cutoff point of 0.40 for RI we were able to distinguish between benign and malignant myometrial tumors with a sensitivity of 90.91%, specificity of 99.82%, positive predictive value of 71.43%, and negative predictive value of 99.96%. CONCLUSION Color Doppler sonography has the potential to distinguish uterine sarcoma from benign uterine lesions.
Testing an explanatory model of the development of depressive symptoms in young women during a life transition.

Factors to explain the rising incidence of depressive symptoms among young women making the transition from home to university life were investigated. A path analysis of data from 213 18- and 19-year-old women entering a large university indicated that negative life events, interpersonally derived social support, self-esteem, and depressive symptoms were significantly related. Negative life events that affected the women's self-esteem (drawn from the women's performance in interpersonal relationships) were most strongly associated with depressive symptoms, and self-esteem derived through efficacy (i.e., taking control and acting assertively) was not associated with negative events. The women in the sample appeared to derive efficacy self-esteem from relationships. An analysis of the data supported developing interventions to improve interpersonal relationships rather than focusing on competence in gaining access to resources.
Influence of Repeated Infestations with Pathogen-Free Ixodes scapularis (Acari: Ixodidae) on In Vitro Lymphocyte Proliferation Responses of C3H/HeN Mice

Abstract In the United States, Ixodes scapularis Say has been implicated as the vector of at least three human pathogens. Tick induced modulation of host immunity is increasingly recognized as an important factor in successful transmission or establishment of tick-borne pathogens. This study was conducted to determine the effects of repeated infestations with pathogen-free I. scapularis nymphs on in vitro proliferative responses of splenic lymphocytes from C3H/HeN mice. Lymphocytes from repeatedly infested and uninfested mice were exposed to concanavalin A (Con A), Escherichia coli Castellini & Chalmers lipopolysaccharide (LPS), or I. scapularis salivary gland soluble proteins (SGSP), to determine if lymphocyte responses differed between tick-exposed and nonexposed mice. Female C3H/HeN mice were infested one to four times with pathogen-free I. scapularis nymphs, with a 14-d tick-free period between each exposure. After each infestation, tick biology parameters were measured and lymphocyte proliferative responses assessed. Acquired resistance to I. scapularis was not evident in mice subjected to tick feeding. Significant differences in the responses of lymphocytes exposed to I. scapularis SGSP were observed between infested and noninfested mice. In contrast, few differences between infested and noninfested mice were evident for lymphocytes exposed to Con A or LPS. Our results suggest that repeated exposure to I. scapularis nymphs does not affect Con A or LPS-induced proliferation of splenic lymphocytes, but significantly effects lymphocyte responses to tick salivary gland antigens.
A systematic review of the utility of antidepressant pharmacotherapy in the treatment of vulvodynia pain.

INTRODUCTION Antidepressants have often been recommended as a potential treatment for the management of vulvodynia. However, review of the evidence supporting this recommendation has not been systematically assessed. AIM To evaluate the efficacy of antidepressant pharmacotherapy in the treatment of vulvodynia. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES An assessment of the methodological quality of published reports addressing the utility of antidepressants in the treatment of vulvodynia was undertaken. Several secondary outcomes generated in the existing literature were also examined. METHODS A comprehensive search of the available literature was conducted. RESULTS The search yielded 13 published reports, i.e., 2 randomized controlled trials, 1 quasi-experimental trial, 7 non-experimental studies, and 3 case reports. A number of methodological shortcomings were identified in several of the reports with respect to study design including lack of clear inclusion/exclusion criteria, small sample sizes, lack of comparison groups, insufficient blinding, among others. The vast majority of studies utilized tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs). Evidence supporting the benefits of TCAs studied to date was limited, i.e., based largely upon descriptive reports but unsubstantiated by randomized controlled trials. There were no systematic investigations into the comparative efficacy of different antidepressant classes in the treatment of vulvodynia. CONCLUSION There is insufficient evidence to support the recommendation of antidepressant pharmacotherapy in the treatment of vulvodynia. Although some vulvodynia-afflicted patients derive symptom relief from antidepressants, additional research is required to identify those characteristics that would predict those patients for whom antidepressants are more likely to be effective.
Motives and Barriers of Adults Learners in Initial Vocational Education in Greece

This paper examines motives and barriers of Adults Learners in Initial Vocational Education in Greece. The research involved 80 participants who attended educational programs at publics I.E.K. in Greece. The data collection was carried out by using the PRB Questionnaire (Participation-Reason-Barriers). The results of this study showed that participants attend education programs/seminars in order to become more efficient in their work, to obtain certificate of attendance and to satisfy their interest in learning. The efficiency at work was introduced as the most significant motive. On the other hand, barriers that prevent participation in a seminar/ program are the cost of participation, the lack of transport to the seminar venue, the lack of information and lack of awareness of seminars held; among these barriers the most important one, is the cost of participation.
Information Sharing and Financial Sector Development in Africa

ABSTRACT This study investigates the effect information sharing has on financial sector development in 53 African countries for the period 2004 to 2011. Information sharing is measured with private credit bureaus and public credit registries. Hitherto unexplored dimensions of financial sector development are employed, namely: financial sector dynamics of formalization, informalization, and non-formalization. The empirical evidence is based on Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and Generalized Method of Moments (GMM). The following findings are established. Information-sharing bureaus increase (reduce) formal (informal/non-formal) financial sector development. In order to ensure that information-sharing bureaus improve (decrease) formal (informal/non-formal) financial development, public credit registries should have between 45.45 and 50% coverage while private credit bureaus should have at least 26.25% coverage.
Determination of Current Within the Lightning Path in the Case of Lightning to a Tall Object

Four model types that could be used to theoretically approximate lightning events currently exist. These are namely gas dynamic (physical) models, electromagnetic models, distributed-circuit models, and “engineering” models. In this paper, a modified transmission line (TL) “engineering” modeling approach, which incorporates the presence of a tall object in the lightning path is adopted. The associated discontinuity at the lightning channel front is treated by introducing reflected and transmitted components, with constituents that are less influential omitted. All computations are performed in the time domain. The considered tall structure is the CN Tower and it is represented by either one, three, or five transmission line sections connected in series. The lightning channel is represented by two more transmission line sections of variable length. The models allow for calculation of current at any height of the CN Tower or the lightning channel and at any time, as needed for determination of the electric and magnetic fields at a distance. The approach is applicable to any other tall structure.
Lamotrigine in the treatment of binge-eating disorder with obesity: a randomized, placebo-controlled monotherapy trial

This study evaluated the efficacy and safety of lamotrigine in binge-eating disorder (BED) associated with obesity. Fifty-one outpatients with BED by Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition criteria, and obesity were randomized to receive either lamotrigine (N=26) or placebo (N=25) in a 16-week, double-blind, flexible-dose study. Lamotrigine (236±150 mg/day) and placebo had similar rates of reduction of weekly frequency of binge-eating episodes and binge days, weight and BMI, measures of eating pathology, obsessive–compulsive symptoms, impulsivity, and global severity of illness. However, lamotrigine was associated with a numerically greater amount of weight loss (1.17 vs. 0.15 kg) and significant reductions in fasting levels of glucose, insulin, and triglycerides. It was also well tolerated and associated with no serious adverse events. As a result of an exceptionally high placebo response, it is likely that for efficacy measures except for body weight and metabolic indices, the study was incapable of detecting potentially clinically important drug–placebo difference.
Role of the renin-angiotensin system in neointima formation after injury in rabbits.

We investigated the role of the renin-angiotensin system in neointima formation in a species in which converting enzyme inhibitors have been so far ineffective in suppressing abnormal vascular repair. The effects of converting enzyme inhibition by perindopril and selective blockade of angiotensin subtype 1 receptor by DuP 753 were assessed on neointima formation after balloon injury of rabbit carotid artery. Myointimal growth was measured by histomorphometric analysis. In rabbits treated 6 days before and for 14 days after injury, perindopril (2 mg/kg per day PO, n = 7) significantly reduced neointima formation (-51%, P < .01). DuP 753 (1 mg/d, n = 8) infused perivascularly for 14 days in the vicinity of injured carotid artery also markedly suppressed myointimal thickening (-60%, P < .01). To determine whether angiotensin subtype 2 receptor was implicated in this vascular response, we infused CGP 42112A, a specific subtype 2 receptor ligand, continuously for 14 days according to the same protocol of DuP 753 administration. CGP 42112A (1 mg/d) did not change the neointima-media ratio, indicating that angiotensin subtype 2 receptors were not involved in myointimal hyperplasia in rabbits. Thus in rabbits, the renin-angiotensin system plays a major role in neointima formation, and the protective effect of perindopril appears to be mediated mainly by inhibition of angiotensin II production, because blockade of the subtype 1 receptor reduced myointimal growth in a manner similar to that of converting enzyme inhibition and because intracarotid infusion of angiotensin II (500 ng/min) at the site of injury enhanced the vascular response (+39%, P < .05). Bradykinin (500 ng/min) administered in the same conditions as angiotensin II did not modify neointima formation.
Mycoplasma pneumoniae and Chlamydia pneumoniae in pediatric community-acquired pneumonia: comparative efficacy and safety of clarithromycin vs. erythromycin ethylsuccinate.

We evaluated 260 previously healthy children ages 3 through 12 years who had clinical signs and symptoms of pneumonia, radiographically confirmed. Patients were randomized 1:1 to a 10-day course of either clarithromycin suspension 15 mg/kg/day divided twice a day or erythromycin suspension 40 mg/kg/day divided twice a day or three times a day. Evidence of infection with Chlamydia pneumoniae was detected in 28% (74) of patients: 13% (34) by nasopharyngeal culture and 18% (48) by serology with the microimmunofluorescence assay. Evidence of infection with Mycoplasma pneumoniae was detected in 27% (69) of patients: 20% (53) by nasopharyngeal culture or polymerase chain reaction and 17% (44) by serology with the use of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Serologic confirmation of infection was observed in 23% (8) and 53% (28) of patients with bacteriologically detected C. pneumoniae and M. pneumoniae, respectively. Treatment with clarithromycin vs. erythromycin, respectively, yielded the following outcomes: clinical success 98% (121 of 124) vs. 95% (105 of 110); radiologic success 98% (109 of 111) vs. 94% (92 of 110); and eradication by pathogen, C. pneumoniae 79% (15 of 19) vs. 86% (12 of 14) and M. pneumoniae 100% (9 of 9) vs. 100% (4 of 4). Adverse events were primarily gastrointestinal occurring in almost one-fourth of patients in both groups, and were mild to moderate in severity. Clarithromycin and erythromycin were similarly effective and safe for the treatment of radiographically proved, community-acquired pneumonia in children older than 2 years old. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Leaving a legacy' and 'letting the legacy live': Using narrative practices while working with children and their families in a child palliative care program

This article provides an overview of narrative practices used with children who are dying and their families in a hospital palliative care setting. Narrative practices of subordinate storyline development, remembering conversations and definitional ceremony, living documents, and collective narrative practice, are used to allow children to 'leave a legacy', and for parents to 'let the legacy live'. This piece also includes reflections on working in bilingual contexts, as well as some ethical considerations of working with children in oncology settings.
Simplification to rilpivirine/emtricitabine/tenofovir disoproxil fumarate from ritonavir-boosted protease inhibitor antiretroviral therapy in a randomized trial of HIV-1 RNA-suppressed participants

Objective:To evaluate the efficacy and safety of antiretroviral simplification from a ritonavir-boosted protease inhibitor-based regimen [protease inhibitor+RTV+two nucleos(t)ide reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs); ≥6 months of exposure prior to study entry with no prior treatment failure] to the single-tablet regimen (STR) rilpivirine/emtricitabine/tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (RPV/FTC/TDF) in virologically suppressed, HIV-1-infected participants. Design:Phase 3b, randomized, open-label, international, 48-week switch study. Methods:Participants were randomized 2 : 1 to switch to RPV/FTC/TDF immediately or stay on their baseline protease inhibitor+RTV+2NRTIs regimen with a delayed switch to RPV/FTC/TDF at week 24. The primary endpoint was noninferiority (12% margin) of RPV/FTC/TDF compared with protease inhibitor+RTV+ two NRTIs in maintaining plasma HIV-1 RNA less than 50 copies/ml at week 24 by Snapshot analysis. Results:A total of 476 participants were randomized and received at least one dose of study drug. Demographics and baseline characteristics were similar between arms. The primary objective of noninferiority at week 24 was met: HIV-1 RNA less than 50 copies/ml by Snapshot analysis, 93.7% of RPV/FTC/TDF versus 89.9% of protease inhibitor+RTV+ two NRTIs (difference 3.8%, 95% confidence interval −1.6 to 9.1%). Through week 48, 89.3% of participants in the immediate switch group maintained virologic suppression. High rates of suppression were maintained with RPV/FTC/TDF regardless of participant's pre-antiretroviral HIV-1 RNA level. Overall development of resistance mutations after switching to RPV/FTC/TDF was low. Decreases in total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL), and triglycerides were significantly greater among RPV/FTC/TDF recipients than those in the protease inhibitor+RTV+ two NRTIs group. Conclusion:Switching to the STR RPV/FTC/TDF from an RTV-boosted protease inhibitor regimen in virologically suppressed, HIV-1-infected participants maintained virologic suppression with a low risk of virologic failure, while improving total cholesterol, LDL, and triglycerides.