Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of very low‐intensity resistance training with slow movement on muscle size and strength in healthy older adults

We previously reported that low‐intensity [50% of one repetition maximum (1RM)] resistance training with slow movement and tonic force generation (LST) causes muscle hypertrophy and strength gain in older participants. The aim of this study was to determine whether resistance training with slow movement and much more reduced intensity (30%1RM) increases muscle size and strength in older adults. Eighteen participants (60–77 years) were randomly assigned to two groups. One group performed very low‐intensity (30% 1RM) knee extension exercise with continuous muscle contraction (LST: 3‐s eccentric, 3‐s concentric, and 1‐s isometric actions with no rest between each repetition) twice a week for 12 weeks. The other group underwent intermitted muscle contraction (CON: 1‐s concentric and 1‐s eccentric actions with 1‐s rest between each repetition) for the same time period. The 1RM, isometric and isokinetic strengths, and cross‐sectional image of the mid‐thigh obtained by magnetic resonance imaging were examined before and after the intervention. LST significantly increased the cross‐sectional area of the quadriceps muscle (5·0%, P<0·001) and isometric and isokinetic knee extension strengths (P<0·05). CON failed to increase muscle size (1·1%, P = 0·12), but significantly improved its strength (P<0·05). These results indicate that even if the intensity is as low as 30% 1RM, LST can increase muscle size and strength in healthy older adults. The large total contraction time may be related to muscle hypertrophy and strength gain. LST would be useful for preventing sarcopenia in older individuals.
Late effects in long-term survivors of high-grade non-Hodgkin's lymphomas.

PURPOSE To evaluate long-term survivors of high-grade non-Hodgkin's lymphomas (NHLs) for late effects and to attempt to assess the relative contributions of the primary treatment modalities to these late effects. PATIENTS AND METHODS Of 103 young survivors followed up for 1 to 20 years, 74 patients were interviewed and underwent various investigations, and an additional 12 patients were interviewed only. Of the 86 patients, 65 had previously suffered from small non-cleaved-cell lymphoma, 16 from lymphoblastic lymphoma, and five from large-cell lymphoma. RESULTS Left ventricular dysfunction was identified in eight of 57 (14.0%) patients who had received doxorubicin (DOX) in doses greater than 200 mg/m2, of whom four were symptomatic and four were asymptomatic. A ninth patient required a pacemaker. Of the 86 patients, 23 (26.7%) reported pregnancies, 18 of whom had 30 children. Two of the 86 (2.3%) patients developed second cancers. Other major late effects included posttransfusion viral hepatitis, eight patients; CNS toxicity, two patients; endocrine impairment, 14 patients; vitamin B12 deficiency, two patients; esophageal stricture, one patient; urinary tract problems, two patients; and musculoskeletal defects, three patients. Major late effects occurred in 11 of 21 (52.4%) patients who had received radiation as well as chemotherapy, eight of 22 (36.4%) patients who had surgical resections as well as chemotherapy, and 17 of 74 (23.0%) patients who had received chemotherapy alone. CONCLUSION The predominant major late effects observed were late cardiac toxicity related to DOX therapy and hepatitis C virus infection that presumably resulted from blood product transfusions administered before the introduction of screening for the hepatitis C virus. Fertility was not greatly impaired, and second malignancies were uncommon. No patient had clinically significant impairment of growth. Radiation appeared to increase the likelihood of late effects.
Patient reported outcome measures in neurogenic bladder

Many interventions for neurogenic bladder patients are directed towards improving quality of life (QOL). Patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) are the primary method of evaluating QOL, and they provide an important quantification of symptoms which can’t be measured objectively. Our goal was to review general measurement principles, and identify and discuss PROMs relevant to neurogenic bladder patients. We identify two recent reviews of the state of the literature and updated the results with an additional Medline search up to September 1, 2015. Using the previous identified reviews, and our updated literature review, we identified 16 PROMs which are used for the assessment of QOL and symptoms in neurogenic bladder patients. Several are specifically designed for neurogenic bladder patients, such as the Qualiveen (for neurogenic bladder related QOL), and the Neurogenic Bladder Symptom Score (NBSS) (for neurogenic bladder symptoms). We also highlight general QOL measures for patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and spinal cord injury (SCI) which include questions about bladder symptoms, and incontinence PROMs which are commonly used, but not specifically designed for neurogenic bladder patients. It is essential for clinicians and researchers with an interest in neurogenic bladder to be aware of the current PROMs, and to have a basic understanding of the principals of measurement in order to select the most appropriate one for their purpose.
[Evaluation of the isothermal RNA amplification assay for Mycobacterium tuberculosis in sputum samples].

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the use of isothermal RNA amplification assay for detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (SAT-TB) in sputum samples. METHODS A total of 244 sputum samples from patients with pulmonary tuberculosis and those with other lung diseases were detected by SAT-TB and Lowenstein-Jensen (L-J) culture. The samples with different results between SAT-TB and L-J culture were tested by Mycobacterium tuberculosis PCR fluorescence diagnostic kits. The sensitivity and specificity of SAT-TB were calculated according to the results of L-J culture. The detection rates of SAT-TB and L-J culture were analyzed according to the clinical diagnosis and the difference of the 2 methods were analyzed by chi-square test. RESULTS With the result of L-J culture as the reference, the sensitivity and the specificity of SAT-TB were 92% (71/77) and 86% (143/167), respectively. The accordance rate of SAT-TB and L-J culture was 88% (214/244). For tuberculosis patients, the detection rate of L-J culture and SAT-TB was 42% (75/177) and 54% (95/177) respectively. The difference between the detection rates of SAT-TB and L-J was significant by chi-square test (χ² = 4.527, P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS SAT-TB is a rapid, sensitive and specific method for detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in clinical sputum samples.
Digitonin‐Permeabilized Cells Are Exocytosis Competent

Release of norepinephrine from PC12 cells can be stimulated by free Ca2+ in micromolar concentrations after permeabilization with 10 μg/ml of digitonin. This release is time and temperature dependent, half‐maximal at 0.3 μM Ca2+, and, after washing out of endogenous ATP, half‐ maximal at about 0.5 mA/ MgATP when exogenously added. Similar results were obtained with bovine adrenal chromaffin cells using the same protocol. Support for the idea that the mechanism of release from both permeabilized cell types is still exocytosis is demonstrated at the electron microscopic level by immunolabeling chromaffin granule membrane antigens that were introduced into the plasma membrane following stimulation. Electron micrographs furthermore demonstrate that chromaffin granules retain typical dense cores after permeabilization, indicating that leakiness of catecholamines from the granules was not major factor. Pores, formed by digitonin in the plasma membranes, were utilized to introduce antibodies into such exocytosis‐competent cells. Anti‐actin and anti‐chromaffin granule membrane antibodies show a staining pattern similar to conventionally fixed and stained preparations. Our results demonstrate that pores formed by digitonin do not impair the process of exocytosis although they are big enough to allow macromolecules to pass in both directions. The digitonin‐permeabilized cell is therefore an ideal in vitro system with which to study the fusion process between chromaffin granules and the plasma membrane.
Automatic refinement of vascular tracking in retinal images: False vessels detection

A reliable vessel extraction is often a prerequisite for any retinal image analysis. A postprocessing step for the automatic detection offalse vessels is then necessary, mainly in bad quality or "difficult" images (e.g. because of lesions or hemorrhages). The proposed method considers the vessels as described by their centerline pixels and for each transversal section it classifies pixels as vessel or no-vessel using the fuzzy C-means technique. A vessel is classified as true if the distances between the edges and the centerline follow a monomodal gaussian distribution with a small standard deviation, i.e. if the they are parallel and symmetrical in respect to the centerline. Otherwise, if the distribution is monomodal but with a large standard deviation or bimodal, the vessel is recognized as false. The algorithm showed good performance both in the training and testing dataset, containing both good and bad quality images, with Auc of ROC curves always larger than 0.9.
Does Gender Matter? The Association between Gender and the Use of Management Control Systems and Performance Measures

Literature shows that female (male) managers are more likely to adopt a transformational (transactional) leadership style, as well as make greater (lesser) use of information for decision‐making. We draw on this research to investigate whether gender is related to a manager's use of management control systems (MCS) and performance measures. We surveyed the head of school of all schools across all Australian public universities. Our results indicate that females use MCS in an interactive manner to a greater extent than their male counterparts and make greater use of non‐financial performance measures. We conclude with contributions to theory and practice.
Geopolitical Risks and the Predictability of Regional Oil Returns and Volatility

This paper hypothesizes that global geopolitical risks (GPRs) can predict oil market return and volatility. For our purpose, we use a k-th order nonparametric causality-inquantiles test, applied to a daily data set covering the period of 15th May, 1996 to 31st May, 2018 of six oil prices (the Nigerian Bonny Light, Brent, Dubai, OPEC, Tapis, and WTI). Our results indicate that the relationship between oil returns and GPRs is highly nonlinear and hence, linear tests of Granger causality cannot be relied upon. Based on the data-driven econometric method, we observe that GPRs have predictability for oil returns of the West African Bonny Light, OPEC and Tapis, while in terms of volatility, causality is observed for all oil prices barring the case of Dubai. In sum, the impact of GPRs is primarily on volatility of oil markets, but more importantly, the impact of GPRs is not uniform across the oil markets.
Four essays on modelling asset returns in the Chinese financial market

Firstly, we employ a three-state hidden semi-Markov model (HSMM) to explain the time-varying distribution of the Chinese stock market returns. Our results indicate that the time-varying distribution depends on the hidden states, represented by three market conditions, namely the bear, sidewalk, and bull markets. Secondly, we further employ the three-state HSMM to the daily returns of the Chinese stock market and seven developed markets. Through the comparison, three unique characteristics of the Chinese stock market are found, namely “Crazy Bull”, “Frequent and Quick Bear”, and “No Buffer Zone”. Thirdly, we propose a new diffusion process referred to as the ``camel process'' to model the cumulative return of a financial asset. Its steady state probability density function could be unimodal or bimodal, depending on the sign of the market condition parameter. The overreaction correction is realised through the non-linear drift term. Lastly, we take the tools in functional data analysis to understand the term structure of Chinese commodity futures and forecast their log returns at both short and long horizons. The FANOVA has been applied to examine the calendar effect of the term structure. An h-step functional autoregressive model is employed to forecast the log return of the term structure.
Do Medical Homes Increase Medication Adherence for Persons With Multiple Chronic Conditions?

Background:Medications are an integral component of management for many chronic conditions, and suboptimal adherence limits medication effectiveness among persons with multiple chronic conditions (MCC). Medical homes may provide a mechanism for increasing adherence among persons with MCC, thereby enhancing management of chronic conditions. Objective:To examine the association between medical home enrollment and adherence to newly initiated medications among Medicaid enrollees with MCC. Research Design:Retrospective cohort study comparing Community Care of North Carolina medical home enrollees to nonenrollees using merged North Carolina Medicaid claims data (fiscal years 2008–2010). Subjects:Among North Carolina Medicaid-enrolled adults with MCC, we created separate longitudinal cohorts of new users of antidepressants (N=9303), antihypertensive agents (N=12,595), oral diabetic agents (N=6409), and statins (N=9263). Measures:Outcomes were the proportion of days covered (PDC) on treatment medication each month for 12 months and a dichotomous measure of adherence (PDC>0.80). Our primary analysis utilized person-level fixed effects models. Sensitivity analyses included propensity score and person-level random-effect models. Results:Compared with nonenrollees, medical home enrollees exhibited higher PDC by 4.7, 6.0, 4.8, and 5.1 percentage points for depression, hypertension, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia, respectively (P’s<0.001). The dichotomous adherence measure showed similar increases, with absolute differences of 4.1, 4.5, 3.5, and 4.6 percentage points, respectively (P’s<0.001). Conclusions:Among Medicaid enrollees with MCC, adherence to new medications is greater for those enrolled in medical homes.
Low-density lipoprotein receptor genotyping enhances the predictive value of IL28B genotype in HIV/hepatitis C virus-coinfected patients

Objective:The aims of this study were to appraise the predictive value of variations in a single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) gene for sustained virological response (SVR) to pegylated interferon (Peg-IFN) and ribavirin (RBV), as well as to analyze the relationship between LDLR genotype and other predictors of SVR, particularly IL28B genotype, in patients coinfected with HIV and hepatitis C virus (HCV). Methods:One hundred and eighty-four HIV/HCV-coinfected, treatment-naive patients with chronic HCV infection, who received Peg-IFN and RBV, were included. Variations in the SNP rs14158 and rs12979860 were tested by Taqman PCR assay. Results:Twenty-eight (38%) patients with rs14158 TT/TC and 61 (55%) with CC (P = 0.028) achieved SVR. The rates of SVR in patients with rs14158 TT/TC and with CC harboring HCV 1–4 were 20 and 41% (P = 0.020), respectively, and, in those with HCV genotype 2–3, 75 and 84% (P = 0.513), respectively. Patients with rs14158 CC showed less commonly plasma HCV-RNA load at least 600000 IU/ml (57 vs. 71%, P = 0.047) and lower likelihood of relapse (13 vs. 30%, P = 0.023). In patients with HCV genotype 1–4, the rates of SVR according to the combination of IL28B/LDLR genotypes were: CC/CC = 69%; CC/non-CC: 30%; non-CC/CC: 25%; non-CC/non-CC: 14% (P < 0.001). Conclusion:Variations in rs14158 are associated with SVR to Peg-IFN and RBV in HIV/HCV-coinfected patients harboring HCV genotype 1–4. LDLR and IL28B genotypes seem to have a synergistic effect on SVR. The combined use of LDLR and IL28B genotypes in routine clinical practice could enhance the predictive value of IL28B genotype alone.
Age of Crime Onset and Psychopathic Traits in Female Juvenile Delinquents

The aim of this study was to analyze the role of psychopathic traits in the age of crime onset of female juvenile delinquents. Using a sample of 132 young females from the Juvenile Detention Centers of the Portuguese Ministry of Justice and from schools in the Lisbon region, a group of early crime onset (n = 44), a group of late crime onset (n = 44), and a nondelinquent school group (n = 44) were formed. Results showed that early crime onset participants score higher on psychopathy measures, self-reported delinquency, and crime seriousness than late crime onset participants and school participants. Psychopathic-traits scores were significantly associated with age of crime onset, age at first trouble with the law, and frequency and seriousness of crime.
Targeting sarcomas by proteomic approaches

Sarcomas are a group of rare and heterogeneous tumors of mesenchymal origin. From the molecular point of view, they are grouped into two main types: (i) simple karyotypes and specific chromosomal translocations, which originate gene and protein fusions; (ii) unspecific gene alterations and complex karyotypes, with numerous gains and losses. When present, chimeric proteins provide specificity in pathogenesis and sarcoma maintenance, acting either as an aberrant transcription factor or altering RNA processing. The descriptions of numerous targets, direct and indirect, emphasize the pivotal role of the fusion over the intervention of secondary events. Accordingly, the elucidation of the cell of origin becomes critical for discovering the early molecular mechanisms involved in sarcomagenesis, as well as the identification of reliable molecular markers and possible therapeutic targets. This review describes the contribution of proteomics to sarcoma research. It reflects how the elucidation of chimeric protein target networks and differential protein expression studies can play a role in identifying the mechanisms of development and progression of sarcomas, as these proteins seem to be involved in tumor metastasis, apoptosis, and other oncogenic processes. Moreover, it may be beneficial in the diagnostic clinical domain, as it may lead to biology‐based therapeutic strategies for sarcomas.
Risk Arbitrage Opportunities for Stock Index Options

Research about equity index options has shown that option prices systematically violate rational pricing bounds for the risk-averse representative investor. These results raise the question of whether profitable trading possibilities exist in this market. Standard portfolio optimization does not apply because of the large bid-ask spreads and low quote sizes in this market. Motivated by these complications, a system of linear inequalities is developed that completely characterizes all risk arbitrage opportunities in the presence of transaction costs and portfolio restrictions. The practical use of this system is illustrated with an application to front-month S&P500 stock index options. Small-scale portfolios seem to produce surprisingly large abnormal returns out of sample; outperformance, however, seems elusive for institutional investors because of the limited quote size, possibly reflecting data limitations.
Survival in Critically Ill Patients with Acute Kidney Injury Treated with Early Hemodiafiltration

Purpose Early renal replacement therapy (RRT) initiation should theoretically influence many physiological disorders related to acute kidney injury (AKI). Currently, there is no consensus about RRT timing in intensive care unit (ICU) patients. Methods We performed a retrospective analysis of all critically ill patients who received RRT in our ICU during a 3 year-period. Our goal was to identify mortality risk factors and if RRT initiation timing had an impact on survival. RRT timing was calculated from the moment the patient was classified as having acute kidney injury in the RIFLE classification. Results A hundred and ten patients received RRT. We identified four independent mortality risk factors: need for mechanical ventilation (OR = 12.82 (1.305 - 125.868, p = 0.0286); RRT initiation timing >16 h (OR = 5.66 (1.954 - 16.351), p = 0.0014); urine output on admission <500 ml/day (OR = 4.52 (1.666 - 12.251), p = 0.003); and SAPS II on admission >70 (OR = 3.45 (1.216 - 9.815), p = 0.02). The RRT initiation <16 h and RRT initiation >16 h groups presented the same baseline characteristics, except for more severe gravity scores and kidney failure in the early RRT group. Conclusions Early RRT in ICU patients with acute kidney injury or failure was associated with increased survival.
Lymphomas of mucosal‐associated lymphoid tissue in common variable immunodeficiency

Common variable immunodeficiency (CVID) is a primary immunodeficiency disease characterized by low serum immunoglobulins IgG, IgA, and usually IgM. The central immune deficiency is impaired secretion of immunoglobulins and lack of antibody production; however, T cell dysfunction and a variety of inflammatory complications suggest global immune dysregulation. A number of reports have documented the association of primary immunodeficiency diseases with the development of non‐Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). In CVID, the risk has been estimated to lie between 1.4% and 7%. As for NHL arising in other immunodeficiency states, the lymphomas in CVID are extranodal and are usually B cell in type. Of 22 B cell lymphomas that have appeared over a period of 25 years in a cohort of subjects with CVID, five lymphomas, appearing in more recently studied subjects, that arose in mucosal sites would be classified as mucosa‐associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphomas. MALT lymphomas are low‐grade B cell lymphomas that result from a proliferation of neoplastic marginal‐zone related cells of lymphoid tissue and tend to occur in organs that have acquired lymphoid tissue due to long‐term infectious or autoimmune stimulation. Lymphomas of this kind have not been described in patients with congenital immunodeficiency, although chronic mucosal antigen stimulation is an integral part of these immune deficiency states. Am. J. Hematol. 69:171–178, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.