Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Maternal Attitudes and Attachment Styles in Mothers of Obese Children

This study evaluated categories of attachment style and the maternal attitude toward educational role in a sample of 30 mothers of obese children and a control group of 80 mothers of children of normal weight. All mothers completed the 1994 Attachment Style Questionnaire and the 1958 Parental Attitude Research Instrument. 30 mothers (M age 37.4 yr., range 31 to 54 years; M yr. of education 11.6, range 5 to 18 years) of obese children (range 30 to 60% above normal weight) and a control group of 80 mothers (M age 37.1 yr., range 29 to 52 years; M yr. of schooling 11.4, range 5 to 18 years) of children with normal weight were contacted at the primary school attended by their children and joined the project voluntarily. Age and number of years of education were not significantly different between the two groups of women. There was a significant prevalence of the Insecure Attachment Style in the group of mothers with obese children (66.6%) as compared to the control group of mothers of children of normal weight (38.5%) and significantly higher scores on 6 subscales of the Parental Attitude Research Instrument of Obese compared to Nonobese children. These data indicate that obese children's mothers tend to make the family their exclusive centre of interest. They also tend to dedicate themselves to their children with possessiveness and hyperprotection. They seem to have an insistent requirement of idealisation of their own role as parent and reward expectations that confirm the efficiency of the care they provide their children. Consequently, these findings suggest that in addition to dietetic treatment, it may be important to include a psychological intervention, which involves the mother and aims to modify the relational dynamics between the mother and her obese child.
Disease severity of 100 patients with systemic sclerosis over a period of 14 years: using a modified Medsger scale

OBJECTIVE To assess organ involvement according to a modified Medsger severity scale and its relation to outcome and prognosis in patients with systemic sclerosis. METHODS One hundred consecutive patients observed in Lund with systemic sclerosis were followed up for a period of 14 years. The mean follow up time was 7.7 years. Initial assessment and an annual evaluation was performed for each patient, with a mean visit frequency of 5.6 per patient. RESULTS Age at referral, high total skin score, truncal skin involvement, low vital capacity, low static lung compliance, low Cr-EDTA clearance, and ECG abnormalities at the initial assessment predict poor outcome. A severity scoring system for five organ systems indicates a slow progression of organ dysfunction after recruitment into the study. The female: male ratio was 2:1, the mean age at onset of symptoms was 42.3 (range 3–82), and the mean age at recruitment was 47.2 years (range 17–82). Thirty patients died during the follow up period at the mean age of 61.3 years (range 33–85). The causes of death were directly related to systemic sclerosis in at least 10 patients, infections in six, cancers in nine, and other causes in four patients. The standardised mortality ratio was 3.5 and 3.7 for men and women, respectively. CONCLUSION A high severity score for function of vital organs was shown to predict shortened survival. In this study a severity score based on simple clinical assessment variables was able to predict poor outcome from extensive skin changes, ECG changes, and compromised lung and renal function. Organ dysfunction mainly became manifest during the first five years of the disease, whereafter organ function remained largely stable.
Structural and functional consequences of neonatal deafferentation in the superficial layers of the hamster's superior colliculus

Intracellular recording and horseradish peroxidase (HRP) injection techniques were used to evaluate the effects of neonatal enucleation upon the structural and functional properties of cells in the superficial retinorecipient laminae of the hamster's superior colliculus (SC). The physiological recordings confirmed previous results that normally visual superficial layer neurons develop somatosensory receptive fields in the enucleated animals. This study further showed that all of the physiological subclasses of somatosensory neurons normally encountered in the deep layers were present in the superficial laminae. With the exception of marginal cells, all of the morphological classes of neurons in the superficial SC laminae of sighted hamsters (narrowfield vertical cells, widen eld vertical cells, stellate cells, horizontal cells, and giant stellate cells) were recovered from the blinded animals. Quantitative comparison of neurons within a given morphological class demonstrated only slight differences between cells from blind and sighted hamsters. However, there was a significant reduction in the percentage of neurons with dorsally directed dendrites in the neonatally enucleated animals. Additional experiments with the Golgi technique also demonstrated that neonatal enucleation altered the distribution of morphological cell types in the superficial SC laminae. These results suggest that enucleation in the hamster may result in relative reductions in specific cell types in the superficial SC laminae rather than dendritic changes in all of the cell classes present in these layers.
Yeast populations associated with Ghanaian cocoa fermentations analysed using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE)

The yeast populations associated with the fermentation of Ghanaian cocoa were investigated using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE). Samples were collected at 12–24 h intervals from heap and tray fermentations, at three different fermentation sites and different periods during the season. Eukaryotic universal primers were used to amplify a fragment of the 26S rRNA gene. The DGGE profiles were relatively complex, underlining that the fermentation of cocoa is a complex microbial process. The identities of selected fragments in the denaturing gels were revealed by sequencing. Hanseniaspora guilliermondii, Candida krusei and Pichia membranifaciens were detected from most fermentations, indicating their possible important role in the fermentation of Ghanaian cocoa. Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Candida zemplinina were almost exclusively detected during tray fermentations. The developed DGGE protocol was compared with traditional culture‐based isolations. The results were comparable but slightly different, as one yeast species (C. zemplinina) was only detected using DGGE. On the other hand, Trichosporon asahii yielded only faint bands in the denaturing gels, despite the fact that it was detected using culture‐based methods. Analysis of pure cultures showed that the targeted region of the 26S rRNA gene was poorly amplified in T. asahii, whereas all other investigated isolates were amplified efficiently using the chosen PCR approach. Cluster analysis revealed that the DGGE profiles clustered according to fermentation method and fermentation site. Furthermore, clustering according to progress in the fermentation was observed. The DGGE technique therefore seems to offer a relatively fast and reliable method for studying yeast population dynamics during cocoa fermentations. The nucleotide sequences determined in this study have been assigned Genbank Accession Nos AY762330–AY762349. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Opinion Shopping to Avoid a Going Concern Audit Opinion and Subsequent Audit Quality

Despite regulatory concerns over opinion shopping (OS) behavior, there exists little systematic evidence on the prevalence and consequences of OS to avoid a going concern opinion (GCO). Using Lennox's (2000) framework to identify OS, we find that distressed firms successfully engage in OS to avoid a GCO. Moreover, clients engaging in OS exhibit a higher ex post Type II error rate in audit opinions than clients that do not, and the higher Type II error rate is salient for clients switching auditors for OS but not for clients retaining auditors for OS. We continue to find this asymmetric effect of the two types of OS on audit quality measured by restatements. These results indicate that auditor switching for OS not only results in a higher likelihood of audit reporting failures but also impairs other dimensions of audit quality, while auditor retaining for OS has little adverse effect on audit quality.
Identification of Endogenous SsrA-tagged Proteins Reveals Tagging at Positions Corresponding to Stop Codons*

The SsrA·SmpB quality control system adds a C-terminal degradation peptide (AANDENYALAA) to nascent chains on stalled ribosomes, thereby freeing the ribosome and ensuring proteolysis of the tagged protein. An SsrA mutant with the tag sequence AANDEHHHHHH was used to slow degradation and facilitate Ni2+-nitrilotriacetic acid affinity purification. Display of affinity-purified Escherichia coliproteins on two-dimensional gels revealed small quantities of a diverse set of SsrA-H6-tagged proteins, and mass spectroscopy identified LacI repressor, λ cI repressor, YbeL, GalE, RbsK, and a SlyD-kanR fusion protein as members of this set. For λ repressor and YbeL, the SsrA-H6 tag was added after the natural C terminus of the protein, suggesting that tagging occurred while the ribosome idled at the termination codon of these genes. Potential causes of tagging for the other proteins include interference from translation of downstream reading frames, rare codons, and gene disruption. These and previous results support a broad role for the SsrA·SmpB system in freeing stalled ribosomes and in directing degradation of the products of these frustrated protein synthesis reactions.
The Extent to Which the Corporate Governance Characteristics Has Affected the Audit Report Lag in Jordanian Banks

The business environment has experienced rapid changes with critical implications on organizations in different countries, companies have responded to compete by improving their business management practices and enforcement instructions for the organization of its work and the methods of administration applied there in and work to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of accounting methods and auditing, from while supporting the internal audit departments of the monitoring and follow-up committees for accounting and auditing procedures to achieve transparency and credibility financial statements within their financial reports. There is an urgent need in presently the application of corporate governance on one hand and standards Accounting, Conduct and Ethics Auditing profession on the other hand. Because of the impact on the independence of auditors and increase effectiveness of their performance, as well as their role in evaluating the performance of management in the strengths of companies are through their organization of business and their appearance and weak performance (Al-Beshtawi, 2014). This study seeks to discuss the extent of association between corporate governance characteristics and the audit report lag ARLAG for the listed Jordanian Banks during the period from 2014 to 2016. The study used statistics measurements and tools to clarify the relations and hypotheses. The results found a significant relation between the corporate governance characteristics and audit report lag ARLAG jointly and separately with the board size BORSIZE, board diligence BORDEL, audit committee size ACSIZE and audit committee diligence ACDEL, and the relation was controlled by two variables: return on equity ROE and company size COMSIZE.
First-degree relatives of patients with advanced colorectal adenomas have an increased prevalence of colorectal cancer.

BACKGROUND & AIMS The risk of colorectal cancer in relatives of patients with adenomatous colonic polyps is not well defined. This study assessed whether finding colonic neoplasia during screening colonoscopy was related to the family history of colorectal cancer among the participants' parents and siblings. METHODS Self-reported family history of colorectal cancer was recorded for all participants in a screening colonoscopy study. The size and location of all polyps were recorded before their removal and histologic examination. Participants were grouped according to the most advanced lesion detected. RESULTS Three thousand one hundred twenty-one patients underwent complete colonoscopic examination. Subjects with adenomas were more likely to have a family history of colorectal cancer than were subjects without polyps (odds ratio [OR], 1.36; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.09-1.70). The finding of a small (<1 cm) tubular adenoma as the most advanced lesion was associated with only a modest increase in the OR of colorectal cancer in family members (OR, 1.26; 95% CI, 0.99-1.61), but the presence of an advanced adenoma was associated with a higher OR (OR, 1.62;5% CI, 1.16-2.26). Younger age of adenoma diagnosis was not related to a higher prevalence of a family history of colorectal cancer. CONCLUSIONS Relatives patients with advanced colorectal adenomas have an increased risk of colorectal cancer. Individuals with advanced colorectal adenomas should be counseled about the increased risk of colorectal cancer among their relatives.
Conditions associated with the cystic fibrosis defect promote chronic Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection.

RATIONALE Progress has been made in understanding how the cystic fibrosis (CF) basic defect produces lung infection susceptibility. However, it remains unclear why CF exclusively leads to chronic infections that are noninvasive and highly resistant to eradication. Although biofilm formation has been suggested as a mechanism, recent work raises questions about the role of biofilms in CF. OBJECTIVES To learn how airway conditions attributed to CF transmembrane regulator dysfunction could lead to chronic infection, and to determine if biofilm-inhibiting genetic adaptations that are common in CF isolates affect the capacity of Pseudomonas aeruginosa to develop chronic infection phenotypes. METHODS We studied P. aeruginosa isolates grown in agar and mucus gels containing sputum from patients with CF and measured their susceptibility to killing by antibiotics and host defenses. We also measured the invasive virulence of P. aeruginosa grown in sputum gels using airway epithelial cells and a murine infection model. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS We found that conditions likely to result from increased mucus density, hyperinflammation, and defective bacterial killing could all cause P. aeruginosa to grow in bacterial aggregates. Aggregated growth markedly increased the resistance of bacteria to killing by host defenses and antibiotics, and reduced their invasiveness. In addition, we found that biofilm-inhibiting mutations do not impede aggregate formation in gel growth environments. CONCLUSIONS Our findings suggest that conditions associated with several CF pathogenesis hypotheses could cause the noninvasive and resistant infection phenotype, independently of the bacterial functions needed for biofilm formation.
Frequency Dependent Effects of d‐Sotalol and Amiodarone on the Action Potential Duration of the Human Right Ventricle

Frequency dependent effects of d‐Sotalol (2.0 mg/kg IV, n = 6) and amiodarone (400 mg/day for 3 months, n = 9) were studied on the action potential duration (APD) in 14 patients who underwent electrophysiological testing. Monophasic action potentials were recorded from the right ventricle at five different steady‐state paced cycle lengths (700 msec, 600 msec, 500 msec, 400 msec, and 350 msec), and during ventricular extra stimuli with coupling intervals between 300 msec and 1000 msec, before and after d‐sotalol and amiodarone, respectively. D‐sotalol caused a prolongation of the APD at slow steady‐state stimulation rates (11 ± 5% at cycle length of 700 msec), which became attenuated at faster cycle lengths (5 ± 3% at cycle length of 350 msec). Prolongation of APD after amiodarone was independent of pacing rate, e.g., 12 ± 9% at cycle length of 700 msec, and 11 ± 6% at cycle length of 350 msec. Similar frequency dependent prolongation of the APD was observed during abrupt changes of cycle lengths after d‐sotalol, whereas amiodarone caused uniform prolongation of the APD at different extrasfimulus intervals. Thus, d‐sotalol, a nonselective potassium channel blacker, has reverse use‐dependent effects on the human ventricular APD, while amiodarone with greater potassium channel selectivity, has equal ability to prolong the ventricular APD at fast and slow heart rates.
Cardiac Concomitants of Feedback and Prediction Error Processing in Reinforcement Learning

Successful learning hinges on the evaluation of positive and negative feedback. We assessed differential learning from reward and punishment in a monetary reinforcement learning paradigm, together with cardiac concomitants of positive and negative feedback processing. On the behavioral level, learning from reward resulted in more advantageous behavior than learning from punishment, suggesting a differential impact of reward and punishment on successful feedback-based learning. On the autonomic level, learning and feedback processing were closely mirrored by phasic cardiac responses on a trial-by-trial basis: (1) Negative feedback was accompanied by faster and prolonged heart rate deceleration compared to positive feedback. (2) Cardiac responses shifted from feedback presentation at the beginning of learning to stimulus presentation later on. (3) Most importantly, the strength of phasic cardiac responses to the presentation of feedback correlated with the strength of prediction error signals that alert the learner to the necessity for behavioral adaptation. Considering participants' weight status and gender revealed obesity-related deficits in learning to avoid negative consequences and less consistent behavioral adaptation in women compared to men. In sum, our results provide strong new evidence for the notion that during learning phasic cardiac responses reflect an internal value and feedback monitoring system that is sensitive to the violation of performance-based expectations. Moreover, inter-individual differences in weight status and gender may affect both behavioral and autonomic responses in reinforcement-based learning.
The disposition of saquinavir in normal and P-glycoprotein deficient mice, rats, and in cultured cells.

Protease inhibitors are very effective in treating patients infected with HIV. However, many drugs in this class penetrate poorly into the central nervous system (CNS) and may permit this site to be a sanctuary from which resistant virus can emerge. Previous studies have shown that the protease inhibitor saquinavir (SQV) interacts with the multidrug transport system, P-glycoprotein (P-gp), expressed in epithelial cells in the gut mucosa and at the blood-brain barrier, and thus might affect both the oral absorption and the penetration of SQV into the CNS. To determine whether SQV is a substrate for P-gp, its uptake was determined in cancer cells, which do (Dx5) and do not (MES-SA) express P-gp. The distribution of SQV between brain tissue and plasma was also investigated in rats and in normal and P-gp-deficient mdr1a(-/-) mice. The distribution ratio of SQV in plasma:brain:cerebrospinal fluid was approximately 100:10:0.2 in rats. The accumulation of SQV was enhanced in MES-SA cells (P-gp-negative) versus Dx5 cells (P-gp-positive). Bolus i.v. injection of [(14)C]SQV (2 and 5 mg/kg) into mdr1a(-/-) and normal mice (n = 3 or 4) resulted in 3-fold higher radioactivity in brains from mdr1a(-/-) mice. Similarly, oral administration of [(14)C]SQV (500 mg/kg) resulted in a 5-fold increase in systemic exposure and a 10-fold increase in brain levels in mdr1a(-/-) mice. These data demonstrate that saquinavir is a substrate for P-gp and that this transport system may play a role in limiting oral absorption and CNS exposure to this protease inhibitor.
Lower Extremity Neuropathies Associated with Lithotomy Positions

BackgroundThe goal of this project was to study the frequency and natural history of perioperative lower extremity neuropathies. MethodsA prospective evaluation of lower extremity neuropathies in 991 adult patients undergoing general anesthetics and surgical procedures while positioned in lithotomy was performed. Patients were assessed with use of a standard questionnaire and neurologic examination before surgery, daily during hospital stay in the first week after surgery, and by phone if discharged before 1 postoperative week. Patients in whom lower extremity neuropathies developed were observed for 6 months. ResultsLower extremity neuropathies developed in 15 patients (1.5%; 95% confidence interval, 0.8–2.5%). Unilateral or bilateral nerves were affected in patients as follows: obturator (five patients), lateral femoral cutaneous (four patients), sciatic (three patients), and peroneal (three patients). Paresthesia occurred in 14 of 15 patients, and 4 patients had burning or aching pain. No patient had weakness. Symptoms were noted within 4 h of completion of the anesthetic in all 15 patients. These symptoms resolved within 6 months in 14 of 15 patients. Prolonged positioning in a lithotomy position, especially for more than 2 h, was a major risk factor for this complication (P = 0.006). ConclusionsIn this surgical population, lower extremity neuropathies were infrequent complications that were noted very soon after surgery and anesthesia. None resulted in prolonged disability. The longer patients were positioned in lithotomy positions, the greater the chance of development of a neuropathy. These findings suggest that a reduction of duration of time in lithotomy positions may reduce the risk of lower extremity neuropathies.
Iron deficiency and fatigue in adolescent females with heavy menstrual bleeding

Iron deficiency and fatigue are common problems in adolescent females. Heavy menstrual bleeding (HMB) is associated with both iron deficiency and fatigue. The aim of this study was to define baseline ferritin values and fatigue symptoms in a population of young females with excessive menstrual blood loss, as compared to healthy controls. The study population included 11 to 17‐year‐old menstruating females presenting to an Adolescent Gynaecology Clinic, Menorrhagia Clinic or Sports Medicine clinic. To evaluate the degree and effects of menstrual blood loss, we utilized the Ruta Menorrhagia Severity Score. We investigated the symptoms of fatigue using the Fatigue Severity Scale. We evaluated possible predictors of ferritin level (age, body mass index, fatigue scores and Menorrhagia Severity Score) using generalized linear models. A total of 48 adolescents with HMB and 102 healthy adolescents completed the study. Iron deficiency and elevated fatigue scores were common findings in young women with HMB. Both fatigue severity scores and menorrhagia severity scores were significantly higher in young women with HMB as compared to healthy controls. In adolescents with HMB, 87.5% had ferritin levels ≤40 ng mL−1, and 29.2% had ferritin levels ≤15 ng mL−1. Our generalized linear models did not identify any significant univariate relationships between ferritin levels and patient age, body mass index, fatigue score or menorrhagia score. Iron deficiency and symptoms of fatigue are common findings in young women with HMB. Fatigue severity scores are significantly higher in young women with HMB as compared to healthy controls.