Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Development of severe hyponatraemia in hospitalized patients: treatment-related risk factors and inadequate management.

BACKGROUND Although hyponatraemia [plasma sodium (PNa)<136 mmol/l] frequently develops in hospital, risk factors for hospital-acquired hyponatraemia remain unclear. METHODS Patients who presented with severe hyponatraemia (PNa<or=125 mmol/l) were compared with patients with hospital-acquired severe hyponatraemia in a 3 month hospital-wide cohort study. RESULTS Thirty-eight patients had severe hyponatraemia on admission (PNa 121+/-4 mmol/l), whereas 36 patients had hospital-acquired severe hyponatraemia (PNa 133+/-5-->122+/-4 mmol/l). In hospital-acquired hyponatraemia, treatment started significantly later (1.0+/-2.6 vs 9.8+/-10.6 days, P<0.001) and the duration of hospitalization was longer (18.2+/-11.5 vs 30.7+/-23.4 days, P=0.01). The correction of PNa in hospital-acquired hyponatraemia was slower after both 24 h (6+/-4 vs 4+/-4 mmol/l, P=0.009) and 48 h (10+/-6 mmol/l vs 6+/-5 mmol/l, P=0.001) of treatment. Nineteen patients (26%) from both groups were not treated for hyponatraemia and this was associated with a higher mortality rate (seven out of 19 vs seven out of 55, P=0.04). Factors that contributed to hospital-acquired hyponatraemia included: thiazide diuretics (none out of 38 vs eight out of 36, P=0.002), drugs stimulating antidiuretic hormone (two out of 38 vs eight out of 36, P=0.04), surgery (none out of 38 vs 10 out of 36, P<0.001) and hypotonic intravenous fluids (one out of 38 vs eight out of 36, P=0.01). Symptomatic hyponatraemia was present in 27 patients (36%), and 14 patients died (19%). CONCLUSIONS The development of severe hyponatraemia in hospitalized patients was associated with treatment-related factors and inadequate management. Early recognition of risk factors and expedited therapy may make hospital-acquired severe hyponatraemia more preventable.
MantaRay: A novel autonomous sampling instrument for in situ measurements of environmental microplastic particle concentrations

Presented here is the initial hardware and software design of a prototype autonomous microplastic sampling instrument. Microplastics are defined as particles of plastic <; 5 mm greatest dimension. They are becoming pervasive in the world ocean due to anthropogenic pollution. The ocean has spatially variable concentrations of surface microplastics, so attempting to identify trends in global dispersal patterns is difficult and expensive using current research techniques. Understanding the global dispersion patterns and degradation rates of microplastics will help to uncover the associated human and ecosystem impacts. A novel low-cost oceanographic sensor has been developed that can determine the concentration of marine microplastics over large spatial areas. This sensor can remove plastic particulates from seawater and archive them for later analysis, determine microplastic concentrations for 28 discrete samples recording GPS position, and simultaneously measure salinity and water temperature. This sensor has been designed around the open-source Arduino platform, allowing for maximum implementation of additional sensors and systems in future prototypes. The MantaRay sensor can be implemented on a drifter, mooring, or Autonomous Underwater Vehicle to gather diverse data on the dispersion of microplastics. This sensor could drastically cut research costs associated with studying deep-sea microplastic concentrations and increase our understanding of plastic dispersion and degradation rates in marine ecosystems.
An evaluation of how VfM can be achieved from a government’s perspective in relation to school building projects in Ireland

Children of primary school age in Ireland are expected to increase in number by at least 10 per cent, and possibly even higher, by 2025. This means that new schools will have to be built rapidly to keep up with the demand for school places. The Department of Education and Skills (DoE) has decided to use a generic repeat design (GRD) and design and build (D&B) procurement route for school building projects where appropriate to satisfy this rapid need for new schools. This GRD option aim is for the DoE to produce standard designs which design consultants, then use to design and construct a school building. The D&B option involves bundling a number of schools together and bringing a contractor in to design and manage the project. As the design and the cost limits are set by the DoE this means that other areas need to be investigated to ensure VfM is achieved. These areas include the construction and post occupancy stage of each of these procurement options. In order to achieve this a review of the literature is presented which begins with a definition of what value means and goes on to investigate how VfM can be achieved at the construction stage and post occupancy stage of a school project. This is followed by the constraints and procedures that need to be adhered to in the delivery of school accommodation which has been set out by the DoE. The fieldwork involved undertaking semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders at both stages on GRD projects and D&B projects to explore whether a more holistic interpretation of VfM can be achieved. From this the emerging themes are identified at construction stage, which include the area of stakeholder satisfaction and sustainability. At the post occupancy stage the themes that have emerged following the literature review and the data collection and analysis include the design, user requirements and any additional issues. The overarching finding implies that it is crucial to consult all stakeholders at the construction and post occupancy stage to ensure that VfM is achieved.
Cash for Women’s Empowerment?

The empowerment of women, broadly defined, is an often-cited objective and benefit of social cash transfer programmes in developing countries. Despite the promise and potential of cash transfers to empower women, the evidence supporting this outcome is mixed. In addition, there is little evidence from programmes that have gone to scale in sub-Saharan Africa. This paper reports findings from a mixed-methods evaluation of the Government of Zambia’s Child Grant Programme, a poverty-targeted, unconditional transfer given to mothers or primary caregivers of young children aged 0 to 5. The quantitative component was a four-year longitudinal clustered randomized control trial in three rural districts, and the qualitative component was a one-time data collection involving in-depth interviews with women and their partners, stratified on marital status and programme participation. Our study found that women in beneficiary households were making more sole and joint decisions (across five domains); however, impacts translated into relatively modest increases of an additional 0.34 of a decision made across nine domains on average. Qualitatively, we found that changes in intrahousehold relationships were limited by entrenched gender norms, which indicate men as heads of household and primary decision-makers. However, women’s narratives showed the transfer did increase overall household well-being because they felt increased financial empowerment and were able to retain control over transfers for household investment and savings for emergencies. The paper highlights methodological challenges in using intrahousehold decision-making as the primary indicator to measure empowerment. Despite this, the results show potential for national, poverty-targeted, unconditional, government-run programmes in Africa, to improve the well-being of female beneficiaries.
Influence of Spray Application Technique on Spray Deposition in Greenhouse Ivy Pot Plants Grown on Hanging Shelves

As a result of the decreasing availability of authorized plant protection products, adequate pest control becomes more difficult in many ornamental crops and almost no information is available about the optimization of spray application techniques in ornamental crops. Yet, spray boom systems—instead of the still predominantly used spray guns—might improve crop protection management in greenhouses considerably. Application rate, nozzle type, and configuration will influence the spray deposition and, as such, its efficiency. In this study, spray deposition in ivy pot plants (Hedera algeriensis cv. Montgomery, Hibb.), grown on hanging shelves in greenhouses, was compared with a traditional spray gun with a disc-core nozzle and a manually pulled trolley equipped with two vertical spray booms. The sprayings with the spray gun were performed at an application rate of 8500 Lha -1 . For the vertical spray boom system, two different reduced application rates (2500 and 5000 Lha -1 ) with five different combinations of nozzle type, size, and pressure for each application rate were investigated. This research underlined that, besides the application rate, also the spray application equipment used has an important effect on the spray depositions. Nozzle type, size, and pressure on the vertical spray boom system only had a minor effect on the spray deposition. Although the spray gun performed well on the easily accessible crop zone with the runners, its performance in the more dense main crop zone was inferior. With 240% more sprayed liquid (8500 Lha -1 ) and chemicals, the realized depositions in this crop zone were not significantly different from the ones obtained with the vertical spray boom system applying only 2500 Lha -1 . Spraying at 5000 Lha -1 , the vertical spray boom system achieved a 82.9% higher overall spray deposition in the main crop canopy zone compared with the spray gun at an application rate of 8500 Lha -1 . For the sprays applied with the vertical spray boom system, doubling the application rate resulted in equally higher spray depositions, except for the inner canopy deposition for which higher application rates were more effective.
MEASURING PERFORMANCE OF THE SERBIAN BANKING SECTOR USING CAMELS MODEL

Realization of the undeniable role of banks in the functioning of the economic system assumes their successful business, based on the achievement of key financial performance. Interrelatedness and interdependence of bank performance indicators, their dynamic relationship, and interaction, on the one hand, as well as differences and contradictions, on the other hand, require precise monitoring and harmonization by banks, in order to achieve adequate business results and minimize negative financial developments. In this sense, it is very important to choose appropriate ways to measure and manage bank performance. A key role in this process belongs to a banking rating system, measured by CAMELS model. Therefore, the paper attempts a comprehensive analysis of bank performance measurement, using CAMELS model. The aim is to examine the possibility of applying this model to effectively measure the performance of the banking sector in the Republic of Serbia.
Decreased expression and frequent allelic inactivation of the RUNX3 gene at 1p36 in human hepatocellular carcinoma

Background/aims: Alteration in transforming growth factor‐β signaling pathway is one of the main causes of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The human runt‐related transcription factor 3 gene (RUNX3) is an important component of this pathway. RUNX3 locus 1p36 is commonly deleted in a variety of human cancers, including HCC. Therefore, we examined genetic and epigenetic alterations of RUNX3 in human HCC.
Gender differences in the incidence of definite schizophrenia and atypical psychosis — focus on negative symptoms of schizophrenia

In a catchment area study of 101 first inceptions of schizophrenia, mania and atypical psychoses, women were significantly more likely to have atypical psychosis and men were more likely to have definite schizophrenia. Negative symptoms such as affective flattening and poverty of speech were already present in many cases, and were significantly increased in patients with definite schizophrenia (geometric mean 5.6) compared with those with atypical psychosis (geometric mean 3.2) and mania (geometric mean 1.5). Negative symptoms were also twice as severe in men (geometric mean 5.5) than women (geometric mean 2.6). There was a significant increase in negative symptom severity with longer illness and greater depression, but the diagnosis and the sex effects were not caused by these factors. We suggest that our findings are further support for the hypothesis that men have a greater biological vulnerability to negative symptoms and consequent social disability in the face of psychosis, particularly a schizophrenic psychosis, and that this may be one explanation for the apparently greater risk of definite schizophrenia and its poorer prognosis in men.
Open-label study of infliximab treatment for psoriatic arthritis: clinical and magnetic resonance imaging measurements of reduction of inflammation.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate infliximab efficacy and safety in disease-modifying antirheumatic drug-unresponsive psoriatic arthritis (PsA). METHODS In a 54-week, open-label, compassionate-use study, 10 patients received intravenous infliximab (5 mg/kg; weeks 0, 2, 6; individualized dosing after week 10). Patients continued their current therapy (stable dose) until week 10. Assessments were performed at weeks 2, 6, 10, and 54. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) objectively measured joint inflammation at weeks 0 and 10. RESULTS Patients achieved a 20% improvement according to the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria (ACR20) in all patients by week 2; 8 patients improved 70% (ACR70) at week 10; 6 patients maintained ACR70 after week 54. Week 10 MRI revealed an 82.5% mean reduction in inflammation from baseline, and psoriasis area and severity index scores were reduced by 71.3% +/- 16.7%. There were no significant adverse events, severe infections, or infusion reactions. CONCLUSION Infliximab was effective, safe, and well tolerated in PsA. Arthritis and psoriasis improved in all patients during the 54-week evaluation. Further investigation of the use of infliximab for PsA and psoriasis is warranted.
Inventory, Speculators and Initial Coin Offerings

Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) are an emerging form of fundraising for Blockchain-based startups. We propose a simple model of matching supply with demand with ICOs by companies involved in production of physical products. We examine how ICOs should be designed---including optimal token floating and pricing for both the utility tokens and the equity tokens (aka, security token offerings, STOs)---in the presence of product risk and demand uncertainty, make predictions on ICO failure, and discuss the implications on firm operational decisions and profits. We show that in the current unregulated environment, ICOs lead to risk-shifting incentives (moral hazard), and hence to underproduction, agency costs, and loss of firm value. These inefficiencies, however, fade as product margin increases and market conditions improve, and are less severe under equity (rather than utility) token issuance. Importantly, the advantage of equity tokens stems from their inherent ability to better align incentives, and hence continues to hold even in unregulated environments.
Tensa retraction cholesteatoma: treatment and long-term results

Abstract To obtain the best possible results of treatment of acquired cholesteatoma, we made a subdivision of cholesteatoma types into attic and pars tensa cholesteatomas, and subdivided the latter further into tensa retraction cholesteatoma and sinus cholesteatomas. Tensa retraction cholesteatoma is defined as arising from a retraction or perforation of the whole pars tensa, whereas sinus cholesteatoma is defined as arising from a retraction or perforation of the postero-superior part of the tensa. We present the long-term results obtained in tensa retraction cholesteatomas treated with one stage surgery from 1964 to 1980. Median observation time was 9 years, range 2 to 19 years. Sixty-one ears were treated without mastoidectomy, whereas 71 ears had canal wall-up mastoidectomy and 64 ears had canal wall-down mastoidectomy. The total recurrence rate was 13.3 per cent; 17 ears had residual cholesteatoma, and nine ears had recurrent cholesteatoma. The best results were obtained in ears with an intact ossicular chain where mastoidectomy was not performed. In 49 per cent of the cases, the cholesteatoma was confined to the tympanic cavity without reaching the aditus, antrum or mastoid process. About one-third to one-quarter of the ears had tympanoplasty only, with removal of the cholesteatoma through the ear canal.
Order effects and multi-city visits: tour guides’ perspectives

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of the order in which a set of cities are visited to ascertain the effects of position on group tourists’ recall and evaluations. ,Using a questionnaire, the views of highly experienced tour guides were analysed to provide preliminary insights about the likely occurrence of position effects. The topic was studied in Iran where a natural variation in the order of visiting cities on guided tours exists. ,Credible and consistent evidence was found for the perceived effects of recency when considering tourists’ recall and evaluations. In particular, the influence was seen as clearly enhancing the recall and positive evaluation for the most high profile cities in the set of visited locations. ,Replications of the position effect in other countries and for other kinds of tourism cities needs to be pursued, desirably by direct assessments of tourist’ views to buttress the present views held by guides. ,Designing itineraries by making imaginative use of the effects of order on the tourists’ sequence of city visits should facilitate the memorability of destinations for tourists and benefit businesses. ,Empirical evidence about order effects in multi-city tour itineraries has never been established. The study provides foundation evidence for such influences through a non-reactive and naturalistic assessment by tour guides who are in contact with varied itineraries and who regularly consider the experiences of diverse and large numbers of tourists.
Utility of Select Plasma MicroRNA for Disease and Cardiovascular Risk Assessment in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

Objective. MicroRNA (miRNA) are small noncoding RNA that posttranscriptionally regulate gene expression and serve as potential mediators and markers of disease. Recently, plasma miR-24-3p and miR-125a-5p concentrations were shown to be elevated in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and useful for RA diagnosis. We assessed the utility of 7 candidate plasma miRNA, selected for biological relevance, for RA diagnosis and use as markers of disease activity and subclinical atherosclerosis in RA. Methods. The cross-sectional study included 168 patients with RA and 91 control subjects of similar age, race, and sex. Plasma concentrations of miR-15a-5p, miR-24-3p, miR-26a-5p, miR-125a-5p, miR-146a-5p, miR-155-5p, and miR-223-3p were measured by quantitative PCR. Utility of plasma miRNA concentrations for RA diagnosis was assessed by area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUROC). Associations between plasma miRNA concentrations and RA disease activity and coronary artery calcium score were assessed by Spearman correlations. Results. Plasma concentrations of miR-15a-5p, miR-24-3p, miR-26a-5p, miR-125a-5p, miR-146a-5p, miR-155-5p, and miR-223-3p were significantly increased in patients with RA. The highest AUROC for diagnosis of RA (AUROC = 0.725) was found in miR-24-3p, including among rheumatoid factor–negative patients (AUROC = 0.772). Among all patients with RA, the combination of miR-24-3p, miR-26a-5p, and miR-125a-5p improved the model modestly (AUROC = 0.747). One miRNA, miR-155-5p, was weakly inversely associated with swollen joint count (p = 0.024), but no other miRNA were associated with disease activity or coronary artery calcium score. Conclusion. The combination of miR-24-3p, miR-26a-5p, and miR-125a-5p had the strongest diagnostic accuracy for RA. Candidate miRNA had little or no association with RA disease activity or subclinical atherosclerosis.
Apnea frequently persists beyond term gestation in infants delivered at 24 to 28 weeks.

BACKGROUND Apnea of prematurity remains among the most commonly diagnosed conditions in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit and may prolong hospital stays in some infants. Because survival of extremely premature infants has improved markedly, the natural history of apnea in this population needs to be reassessed. OBJECTIVE To document the natural history of recurrent apnea and/or bradycardia events in infants delivered at 24 to 28 weeks' gestation. METHODS Medical records of all infants delivered at 24 to 28 weeks' gestation admitted to the Brigham and Women's Hospital Newborn Intensive Care Unit between January 1989 and March 1994 were reviewed to document the clinical course of apnea of prematurity. Subjects were included in the study sample if they were discharged home from the Brigham and Women's Hospital or after transfer to an affiliated hospital. Recordings of apnea and/or bradycardia events were based on nursing observations of monitor alarms and assessment of the infant's condition. RESULTS Of 457 eligible infants, 226 were included in the study sample and stratified by gestational age at birth assigned by the attending neonatologist. The time to resolution of recurrent apnea/bradycardia events was longer with lower gestational age at birth. Apnea/bradycardia events were frequently observed beyond 36 weeks' postconceptional age in all gestational age groups. The incidence of apnea persisting beyond 38 weeks postconceptional age was significantly higher in the 24- to 27-week infants combined compared with the 28-week infants. CONCLUSIONS Apnea of prematurity frequently persists beyond term gestation in infants delivered at 24 to 28 weeks' gestational age. These persistent apnea and/or bradycardia events may contribute to prolonged hospitalization. Programs to promote earlier discharge of premature infants should take into account the variability in resolution of apnea and specifically address management of persistent apnea.
TITLE : Non-Invasive Methods for Diagnosis and Monitoring of Liver Fibrosis in Patients with Chronic Hepatitis

Canada. Rapid responses are based on a limited literature search and are not comprehensive, systematic reviews. The intent is to provide a list of sources of the best evidence on the topic that CADTH could identify using all reasonable efforts within the time allowed. Rapid responses should be considered along with other types of information and health care considerations. The information included in this response is not intended to replace professional medical advice, nor should it be construed as a recommendation for or against the use of a particular health technology. Readers are also cautioned that a lack of good quality evidence does not necessarily mean a lack of effectiveness particularly in the case of new and emerging health technologies, for which little information can be found, but which may in future prove to be effective. While CADTH has taken care in the preparation of the report to ensure that its contents are accurate, complete and up to date, CADTH does not make any guarantee to that effect. CADTH is not liable for any loss or damages resulting from use of the information in the report.