Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modeling Geospatial Patterns of Late-Stage Diagnosis of Breast Cancer in the US

In the US, about one-third of new breast cancers (BCs) are diagnosed at a late stage, where morbidity and mortality burdens are higher. Health outcomes research has focused on the contribution of measures of social support, particularly the residential isolation or segregation index, on propensity to utilize mammography and rates of late-stage diagnoses. Although inconsistent, studies have used various approaches and shown that residential segregation may play an important role in cancer morbidities and mortality. Some have focused on any individuals living in residentially segregated places (place-centered), while others have focused on persons of specific races or ethnicities living in places with high segregation of their own race or ethnicity (person-centered). This paper compares and contrasts these two approaches in the study of predictors of late-stage BC diagnoses in a cross-national study. We use 100% of U.S. Cancer Statistics (USCS) Registry data pooled together from 40 states to identify late-stage diagnoses among ~1 million new BC cases diagnosed during 2004–2009. We estimate a multilevel model with person-, county-, and state-level predictors and a random intercept specification to help ensure robust effect estimates. Person-level variables in both models suggest that non-White races or ethnicities have higher odds of late-stage diagnosis, and the odds of late-stage diagnosis decline with age, being highest among the <age 50 group. After controlling statistically for all other factors, we examine place-centered isolation and find for anyone living in an isolated Asian community there is a large beneficial association (suggesting lower odds of late-stage diagnosis) while for anyone living in an isolated White community there is a large detrimental association (suggesting greater odds of late-stage diagnosis). By contrast, living in neighborhoods among others of one’s own race or ethnicity (person-centered isolation) is associated with greater odds of late-stage diagnosis, as this measure is dominated by Whites (the majority). At the state level, living in a state that allows unfettered access to a specialist is associated with a somewhat lower likelihood of being diagnosed at a late stage of BC. Geographic factors help explain the likelihood of late-stage BC diagnosis, which varies considerably across the U.S. as heterogeneous compositional and contextual factors portray very different places and potential for improving information and outcomes. The USCS database is expanding to cover more states and is expected to be a valuable resource for ongoing and future place-based cancer outcomes research.
Lateral ligament division during rectopexy causes constipation but prevents recurrence: Results of a prospective randomized study

Denervation of the rectum during rectopexy has been suggested as a reason for postoperative constipation. Bowel symptoms and anorectal function have been examined in a prospective randomized study of rectopexy with (n = 14) or without (n = 12) division of the lateral ligaments. Incontinence improved in both groups of patients. Division of the lateral ligaments increased the number of patients with constipation (three before operation, ten after operation, P<0.01). Mean anal canal pressures were higher after operation in all patients. Rectal electrical sensory threshold increased significantly in those in whom the ligaments had been divided (preoperative 27.6 mA versus postoperative 56.7mA; P<0.01) but not in those in whom they were preserved (39.0 versus 34.9 mA; P>0.05). Prolapse recurred in six patients who did not undergo division of the lateral ligaments, but in none of the group in whom the ligaments were divided.
NSP4, an elastase-related protease in human neutrophils with arginine specificity

Neutrophil serine proteases (NSPs) in cytoplasmic granules of neutrophils are regarded as important antimicrobial defense weapons after engulfment and exposure of pathogens to the content of primary granules. Despite intensive studies on neutrophils during the last three decades, only three active serine proteases, neutrophil elastase (NE), cathepsin G (CG), and proteinase 3 (PR3) have been identified in these short-lived cells. Here, we report on the identification of a fourth serine protease (NSP4) with 39% identity to NE and PR3, but arginine specificity, yet sharing features like propeptide processing by dipeptidyl peptidase I, storage, and release as an active enzyme with the three active proteases. We established monoclonal antibodies against NSP4, excluded cross-reactivity to human granzymes, NE, CG, PR3, and azurocidin, and screened for NSP4 protein expression in various human tissues and blood leukocyte populations. Only granulocyte precursors and neutrophil populations from peripheral blood were positive. The content of NSP4 in neutrophil lysates, however, was about 20-fold lower compared with CG. Upon neutrophil activation, NSP4 was released into the supernatant. Profiling its specificity with peptide libraries from Escherichia coli revealed a preference for arginine in P1; it cleaved Tyr-Arg-Phe-Arg-AMC and Ala-Pro-Nva-thiobenzyl esters. NSP4 was inhibited by α1-proteinase inhibitor (α1–antitrypsin), C1 inhibitor, and most efficiently by antithrombin-heparin, but not by elafin, secretory leukocyte protease inhibitor, α1–antichymotrypsin, and monocyte-neutrophil elastase inhibitor. Functional specialization and preferred natural substrates of NSP4 remain to be determined to understand the biological interplay of all four NSPs during neutrophil responses.
Sedation in the intensive care unit

Objective: To describe the goals of sedative use in the intensive care unit and review the pharmacology of commonly used sedative drugs as well as to review pertinent publications in the literature concerning the comparative pharmacology of these drugs, with emphasis on outcomes related to sedation and comparative pharmacoeconomics. Data Sources: Publications in the scientific literature. Data Extraction: Computer search of the literature with selection of representative articles. Synthesis: Proper choice and use of sedative drugs is based on knowledge of the pharmacology of commonly used agents and is an essential component of caring for patients in the intensive care unit. The large variability in pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics in the critically ill make it difficult to directly compare agents. Midazolam provides rapid and reliable amnesia, even when administered for low levels of sedation. Propofol may be useful when deeper levels of sedation and more rapid awakening are required. Lorazepam can be used for long‐term sedation in more stable patients if rapidity of effect is not required. Further investigation in assessment of depth of sedation in the critically ill is needed. Continued study of costs, side effects, and appropriate dosing strategies of all sedative agents is needed to answer questions not sufficiently addressed in the current literature. Conclusion: An individualized approach to sedation based on knowledge of drug pharmacology is needed because of confounding variables including concurrent patient illness, depth of sedation, and concomitant use of analgesic agents.
Public Mood, Previous Electoral Experience, and Responsiveness Among Federal Circuit Court Judges

Whether public opinion influences federal judges is a question that has long motivated—but often eluded—scholars. In this article, we examine two related questions: First, whether federal circuit court judges respond to circuit-level public opinion and, second, whether judges with extensive past elected political experience are even more responsive. The data show that circuit judges indeed respond to public opinion. The results also suggest that judges with greater past elected political experience may be more responsive. The results have implications for democratic control of the unelected judiciary, and suggest that appointing judges with electoral experience could, for better or worse, lead to a more majoritarian judiciary.
INCREASED EXPRESSION OF PHOSPHOLIPASE D1 IN THE SCIATIC NERVE OF RATS WITH EXPERIMENTAL AUTOIMMUNE NEURITIS

Phospholipase D1 (PLD1) expression in the sciatic nerve was studied in induced experimental autoimmune neuritis (EAN) in Lewis rats. PLD1 immunoreactivity was seen in some Schwann cells in the sciatic nerves of normal rats. In parallel with the progression of EAN, PLD1-positive Schwann cells significantly increased in number and showed intense immunoreactivity. PLD1 was also detected in some ED1+ macrophages in EAN lesions. These results suggest that PLD1 in macrophages and Schwann cells plays an important role in the activation of these cells in the pathogenesis of EAN, an animal model of human peripheral demyelinating disease.
Annals of Economics and Finance

Critics of privatization argue that poor labor force restructuring is a key concern and that governments should establish better retrenchment programs. Using new data from a random sample of 400 companies in the world, we test competing theories about the wisdom of retrenchment programs and their effect on prices paid by buyers and re-hiring policies by private owners after privatization. Our results show that adverse selection plagues retrenchment programs carried out by governments before privatization. Controlling for endogeneity, several labor retrenchment policies yield a negative impact on net privatization prices. In confirmation of the adverse selection argument, various types of voluntary downsizing lead to a higher frequency of re-hiring of the same workers by the new private owners. Compulsory skill-based programs are the only type of program that is marginally associated with higher prices and lower re-hiring rates after privatization, but the political and economic costs of this policy may make it somewhat impractical. A qualified “do not intervene” appears to be the safest bet with respect to labor retrenchment before privatization. JEL Classification: G32, H10, J45, O1
Effect of green tea supplementation on blood pressure among overweight and obese adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Emerging randomized controlled trials (RCTs) investigating the effect of green tea or green tea extract (GTE) supplementation on blood pressure (BP) among overweight and obese adults reported inconsistent findings. Objective: To conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to clarify the efficacy of green tea or GTE on BP among overweight and obese adults. Methods: Electronic databases, conference proceedings and gray literature were searched systematically to include parallel and cross-over RCTs examining the efficacy of green tea or GTE on BP compared with placebo. Data were meta-analyzed using a random-effects model, to compare the mean difference of the change in BP from baseline in the intervention and the placebo groups. Results: Fourteen RCTs with 971 participants (47% women) were pooled for analysis. Green tea or GTE produced a significant effect on both SBP (mean difference −1.42 mmHg, 95% confidence interval −2.47 to −0.36, P = 0.008; I2 = 52%, P = 0.01 for heterogeneity) and DBP (mean difference −1.25 mmHg, 95% confidence interval −2.32 to −0.19, P = 0.02; I2 = 74%, P < 0.001 for heterogeneity), compared with placebo. The quality of evidence across studies was low. Similar results were found in subgroup and sensitivity analyses. Conclusion: Among overweight and obese adults, green tea or GTE supplementation is found to cause a small but significant reduction in BP. More high-quality RCTs with large sample sizes are needed to further confirm the efficacy on BP and make strong recommendations for green tea or GTE supplementation among the overweight and obese adults.
Patterns of orthostatic blood pressure change and their clinical correlates in a frail, elderly population.

OBJECTIVES To determine patterns of within-day orthostatic blood pressure (BP) changes and clinical factors correlated with them in frail, elderly nursing home residents. DESIGN Prevalence study of orthostatic BP change. SETTING Sample of 45 nursing homes. PARTICIPANTS A total of 911 long-stay residents, aged 60 years or older, able to stand for at least 1 minute. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Supine and 1-minute and 3-minute standing BP measurements and heart rates, taken by a random-zero sphygmomanometer before and after breakfast and before and after lunch, symptoms upon standing, medication use, and clinical and functional assessments. RESULTS Four orthostatic hypotension (OH) groups were defined based on the frequency of a 20 mm Hg or greater orthostatic BP decline during any of 8 postural change measures: no OH group (48.5%); isolated OH group (only once, 18.3%); variable OH group (2-3 times, 19.9%); and persistent OH group (> or =4 times, 13.3%). Orthostatic hypotension was most prevalent before breakfast, especially 1 minute after standing (21.3%), and least prevalent after lunch after 3 minutes of standing (4.9%) (P=.001). A regression approach to repeated measures analysis (method of general estimating equations) showed the following to be significantly associated with OH (P< or =.05): elevated supine systolic BP before breakfast, dizziness/light-headedness on standing, male sex, medication for Parkinson disease, time of day (particularly before breakfast), greater independence in activities of daily living, and low body mass index. CONCLUSIONS Orthostatic hypotension occurs in more than half of frail, elderly nursing home residents, but is highly variable over time. It is most prevalent in the morning when subjects first arise and when supine BP is highest. The relationship of OH with elevated BP, but not antihypertensive medication use, suggests that the treatment of hypertension may improve postural BP regulation.
Modulation Optimization for Achieving Energy Efficient Communications over Fading Channels

It is commonly assumed that the energy consumption of wireless communications is minimized when low-order modulations such as BPSK are used. Nevertheless, the literature provides some evidence that low-order modulations are suboptimal for short transmission distances. A thorough analysis on how the modulation scheme and transmission power must be chosen as a function of distance in order to achieve energy-efficient communications over fading channels has not been reported yet. In this paper we provide this analysis by presenting a model that determines the energy consumed per payload bit transferred without error over correlated or uncorrelated random channels. We find that each modulation scheme has a single optimal signal- to-noise ratio (SNR) at which the energy consumption is minimized. We also find that if all modulations are operated at their optimal SNR, BPSK and QPSK are the optimal choices for long transmission distances, but as the transmission distance shortens the optimal modulation size grows to 16-QAM and even to 64- QAM. This result leads to showing that for short-range communications the lifetime of a typical low-power transceiver can be increased by up to 600% by selecting the optimal constellation rather than BPSK.
Computer Detection of Cognitive Impairment and Associated Neuropsychiatric Dimensions from the Content Analysis of Verbal Samples

This is a report of a study testing the capacity of a computerized measure of the content analysis of five minute verbal samples to detect and measure cognitive impairment and comorbid neuropsychiatric dimensions in 117 drug-abusing inpatients. The cognitive impairment scores obtained from the computerized procedure correlated significantly with independent scores from the Trails B and Stroop Color and Word test as well as with ANAM (Automated Neuropsychiatric Assessment Metric) neuropsychological tests, including the Matching to Sample Efficiency and Accuracy, the Code Substitution Efficiency, the Continuous Performance Task Efficiency and Accuracy, the Code Substitution Delayed Recall Accuracy, and the Simple Reaction Time Efficiency. When the computerized verbal-content-analysis-derived cognitive impairment scores were combined with scores of selected other ANAM measures, more and higher intercorrelations occurred with Trails A, Trails B, the Stroop Color and Word test, and the Wisconsin Card Sort test. In addition, validated measures of a broad range of associated neuropsychiatric dimensions can be obtained simultaneously from the same five minute verbal samples providing the cognitive impairment scores. No significant effects were found on the cognitive impairment scores of age, education, gender, race, and duration of drug-abuse abstinence.
Cadmium Risk Assessment in Relation to Background Risk of Chronic Kidney Disease

Cadmium's noncancer effects on the kidney represent a useful case study of the unified approach to toxicity assessment described in a recent National Academy of Science report. Cadmium (Cd) is recognized to exert toxic effects on the kidney at low dose without a demonstrable threshold. The implications of current dietary exposure and regulatory limits can be understood in terms of risk for chronic kidney disease (CKD) since both Cd adverse effects and CKD are defined by the same continous parameter (loss in glomerular filtration rate [GFR]). The Cd dose response on GFR derived from a study of Swedish women was applied to the baseline population distribution of GFR to determine the effect of Cd on CKD risk. The baseline population of 47.8-yr-old women was estimated to carry a 10% rate of Stage 3 CKD, similar to national statistics in the United States. A chronic daily dose of Cd at 1 μg/kg/d produced a left shift in this distribution and increased the population risk of CKD by an estimated 25%. A 10-fold lower Cd dose was associated with an increase in population risk of 2.7%, and this rose to 3.4% in 75-yr-olds. These estimates (1) provide additional perspective to the traditional risk/no risk approaches used in setting U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reference doses (RfD) and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) minimum risk levels (MRL) and (2) demonstrate the utility of considering chemical additivity to background disease in assessing human risk.
Low Current and Nadir CD4+ T-Cell Counts are Associated with Higher Hepatitis C virus RNA Levels in the Swiss HIV Cohort Study

Background The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of CD4+ T-cell counts and other characteristics of HIV-infected individuals on hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA levels. Methods All HIV–HCV-coinfected Swiss HIV Cohort Study participants with available HCV RNA levels and concurrent CD4+ T-cell counts before starting HCV therapy were included. Potential predictors of HCV RNA levels were assessed by multivariate censored linear regression models that adjust for censored values. Results The study included 1,031 individuals. Low current and nadir CD4+ T-cell counts were significantly associated with higher HCV RNA levels (P=0.004 and 0.001, respectively). In individuals with current CD4+ T-cell counts <200/μl, median HCV RNA levels (6.22 log10 IU/ml) were +0.14 and +0.24 log10 IU/ml higher than those with CD4+ T-cell counts of 200-500/μ l and >500/μl. Based on nadir CD4+ T-cell counts, median HCV RNA levels (6.12 log10 IU/ml) in individuals with <200/μl CD4+ T-cells were +0.06 and +0.44 log10 IU/ml higher than those with nadir T-cell counts of 200-500/μ l and >500/μ l. Median HCV RNA levels were also significantly associated with HCV genotype: lower values were associated with genotype 4 and higher values with genotype 2, as compared with genotype 1. Additional significant predictors of lower HCV RNA levels were female gender and HIV transmission through male homosexual contacts. In multivariate analyses, only CD4+ T-cell counts and HCV genotype remained significant predictors of HCV RNA levels. Conclusions Higher HCV RNA levels were associated with CD4+ T-cell depletion. This finding is in line with the crucial role of CD4+ T-cells in the control of HCV infection.
Yield, product quality and energy use in organic vegetable living mulch cropping systems: research evidence and farmers’ perception

Abstract The effects of living mulch (LM) introduction and management strategies on cash crop yield, product quality and energy use were studied in a wide range of European vegetable cropping systems, climatic and soil conditions, as well as species of LM grown as agro-ecological service crops. Nine field experiments were carried out in research stations and commercial farms located in Denmark, Germany, Italy and Slovenia. Farmers’ perception of the feasibility and applicability of the LM technique was also assessed. The results demonstrated that the LM systems with a substitutive design can be effectively implemented in vegetable production if the value of the ecological services (positive externalities) delivered by LM can counterbalance the yield loss due to the cash crop density reduction. The crop density of the system and the length of the period in which the LM and cash crop coexist are oppositely related both for competition and yield. Moreover, if an additive design is used, the LM should be sown several weeks after the cash crop planting. Overall, different cash crop genotypes (i.e., open pollinated/local cultivars in comparison with the hybrids) performed similarly. Use of human labor (HL) and fossil fuel (FF) energy slightly increased in LM systems (7%), and there was a shift in the proportion of FF and human energy consumption. The farmers’ acceptance of the LM techniques was quite high (75% of the interviewed sample), even though their critical considerations about yield quality and quantity need consideration in future research and practical implementation of LM systems.
The use of doxycycline as a protectant against sulphur mustard in HaCaT cells

As part of an ongoing programme on medical countermeasures against the chemical warfare agent sulphur mustard (HD) and set against the background of the involvement of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) in the pathology of HD‐induced vesication processes, the potentially beneficial effects of doxycycline on cell attachment was determined in confluent HaCaT cell cultures exposed to HD. Doxycycline was found to inhibit to a significant extent the tendency of HD‐exposed cells to detach from the growth substrate, however, analysis of the metabolic activity of the adherent cells indicated that doxycycline treatment did not maintain cell viability. It was confirmed that apoptosis was the predominant mode of HD‐induced cell death. The results suggested that doxycycline and other MMP inhibitors may have a role to play in therapeutic intervention against HD exposure, but only as part of a combination therapy. The specific value of protease inhibitors in this capacity remains to be determined. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., and © Crown Copyright 2007, reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO.
Wagnerâ€™s law in Brunei: new findings

Despite numerous research efforts to examine the Wagnerâ€™s Law, there is still lacking of systematically analysis on this important topic in Asia. Thus, the current paper aims to fill this research gap and chooses Brunei as a case study to examine the validity of the Wagnerâ€™s Law. It is a well-known fact that the Bruneian government has been playing an important role to simulate economic development in the country. It means that Brunei could be interesting example of Asian country where the government expenditure would stimulate economic development. The empirical findings indicate that there is a long-run relationship between economic development, population and government expenditure and there exists a short-run causality between population and government expenditure. These findings seem to empirical evidence to support the Wagnerâ€™s Law in Brunei.