Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rituximab for the second- and third-line therapy of idiopathic membranous nephropathy: a prospective single center study using a new treatment strategy.

BACKGROUND Idiopathic membranous nephropathy (MN) is a major cause of nephrotic syndrome. Conventional treatment strategies induce remission but the relapse rates are high. Different doses of rituximab (RTX) appeared effective in reducing proteinuria in MN but long-term follow-up data are rare. METHODS Since 2006, a total of 14 patients (median age 51 (26 - 69) years, 4 women, 10 men) with biopsy-proven MN (1 - 4 relapses, MN since 4 (1 - 13) years) were treated with RTX (4 doses of RTX 375 mg/m2 on Days 0, 30, 60, 90). All patients had prior immunosuppressive therapy with Cyclosporin A, 7 with alkylating agents. In 11 patients, an additional renal biopsy was performed 2 (1 - 10) months before RTX. RESULTS Three months after the last RTX infusion, proteinuria decreased from a baseline of 5.5 (2.9 - 11.9) g/24 h to 1.8 (0.03 - 8.7) g/24 h (p = 0.012). Creatinine clearance remained stable (53 (29 - 160) ml/min at 3 months vs. 44 (29 - 159) at baseline). Until now, patients could be followed for a median of 3 (1 - 6) years. After 1 year, 21.4% (n = 3) had a complete response, 50.0% (n = 7) partial response. Two relapses occurred after 1 and 3.5 years. The presence of glomerulosclerosis before RTX was associated with a poorer outcome. CONCLUSIONS The 4 × 4-weekly infusion of RTX is a reasonable option for the second- and third line therapy of MN providing a better safety profile compared to other immunosuppressive treatments of MN.
DO ‘WRONG WINNER’ ELECTIONS TRIGGER ELECTORAL REFORM? LESSONS FROM NEW ZEALAND

This article asks whether, by what mechanisms, and with what strength ‘wrong winner’ elections—in which a party coming second in votes wins a majority of seats—trigger pressure for electoral reform. It does so through detailed process tracing of the New Zealand case, where wrong winner elections in 1978 and 1981 preceded reform in 1993. It argues that the wrong winner results did facilitate the reform process in New Zealand, but that they were far from sufficient to generate the reform outcome: other factors had to be present too. The additional factors that spurred reform in New Zealand were unusual, suggesting that reform following wrong winner elections is likely to be rare. But caution regarding this conclusion is required: it cannot be excluded that such elections might facilitate other reform paths too.
Scientific research evaluation: a review of methods and various contexts of their application

The author has conducted a critical review of methods for evaluating R and D, focussing on levels above the individual project or researcher. Methods are classified as peer review, interview and questionnaire, qualitative methods, and case studies. The author reviews their methodological strengths and weaknesses, the types of criteria applied (eg internal or external) in judging their values, and the uses to which the results of the evaluations are put, especially in policy-making. She concludes that at the level considered evaluations have come to stay, but she can find no accepted rationale guiding the choice of method for a particular purpose or circumstance. Caution is therefore needed in selecting methods. She points out the need for empirical study of the effects of such evaluations.
Pathophysiological activities of the kallikrein-kinin system with emphasis on the cardiovascular disorders

Recent evidence suggests an important role for the kallikrein-kinin system in the pathophysiology of hyperalgesia, arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, pancreatitis, asthma and endotoxemia. In fact, hyperactivity of kinins can be considered as pro-inflammatory because of their ability to cause all the cardinal signs of inflammation directly activating their B1 and B2 receptors. Kinins are also able to release other potent inflammatory mediators. In endotoxemia, excessive kinin release may account for inducing severe life threatening hypotension. Several specific kinin receptor antagonists are being developed with the major interest in treating these pathological conditions to block the activation of kinin receptors. Furthermore, kallikrein inhibitors may have a role in the treatment of arthritis and inflammatory gut diseases to block the excessive release of kallikrein. On the other side, all the components of the kallikrein-kinin system are located in the vascular smooth muscle as well as in the heart. From numerous observations obtained from clinical and experimental models of diabetes, hypertension, cardiac failure, ischemia, myocardial infarction and left ventricular hypertrophy, it can be assumed that the reduced activity of the local kallikrein-kinin system may be instrumental for the induction of cardiovascular related diseases. The ability of kallikrein gene delivery to produce a wide spectrum of beneficial effects makes it an excellent candidate in treating hypertension, cardiovascular and renal diseases. In addition, stable kinin agonists may also be available in the future as therapeutic agents for cardiovascular and renal disorders.
Changes in the Structure and Quality of Jobs in the United States: Effects by Race and Gender, 1973–1990

Using 17 measures of job quality from the 1980 Census, the Current Population Survey, and the Dictionary of Occupational Titles, the authors perform a cluster analysis that groups 621 jobs covering 94% of the work force into six job categories (termed “contours”), a job classification closely resembling those suggested by labor market segmentation theory. The distribution of employment over the period 1973–90 shifted sharply away from the two middle-quality contours toward the two highest-quality contours. The two lowest-quality contours show no decline in employment share in the 1980s. The declining relative position of employed black and Hispanic men stems from both a worsening job mix relative to white men and a sharp drop in the quality of low-skill jobs. Female workers experienced both a greater shift away from jobs in the lower-quality contours and higher real earnings growth within each job contour than male workers.
Type I IFN signature in primary Sjögren’s syndrome patients

Primary Sjögren’s syndrome (pSS) is a systemic autoimmune disease characterized by lymphocytic infiltrates in salivary and lacrimal glands. Clinical manifestations range from ocular and oral dryness to vasculitis and severe fatigue. pSS is a disease with heterogeneous symptoms and a variable response to the available treatment. Recently, a key role for Interferon (IFN) type I has been implicated in the pathogenesis of pSS. As type I IFN consists of 17 different subtypes, it cannot be easily assessed using a conventional ELISA. Therefore the expression of type I IFN inducible genes – the so-called type I IFN signature – is assessed in salivary gland tissue and blood from patients as a readout for type I IFN activity. In this review we discuss the potential of type I IFN as a novel biomarker for disease activity, subclassification of patients, prediction of therapy response and most importantly as a target for therapeutic intervention.
A Note on the Growth of Research in Service Operations Management

We present an empirical assessment of the productivity of individuals and institutions in terms of service operations management (SOM) research. We reviewed five mainstream operations management journals over a 17‐year time period to generate a sample of 463 articles related to service operations. The results indicate that SOM research has been growing and key contributions are being made by an array of researchers and institutions.
World Technology Shocks and the Real Euro-Dollar Exchange Rate

We extend the empirical SVAR literature on real exchange rates by extracting a common stochastic trend in productivity, interpreted as a permanent world technology shock. Overall, we find that innovations to world technology constitute an important, albeit not the dominant, source of movements in the real euro-dollar exchange rate. First, the dollar appreciates significantly in response to such an impulse. Second, the world technology shock accounts for approximately one-fifth of the variance of the forecast error in the real euro-dollar rate at business-cycle frequencies. Our results are in line with previous studies who find that demand or nominal shocks are the dominant sources of fluctuations in relative prices and provides limited support to productivity-based models of real exchange rate determination.
Activity theory and the practice of design: evaluation of a collaborative tangible user interface

BUILD-IT is a Tangible User Interface (TUI) developed to facilitate collaboration between a group of designers or planners seated around a table. We briefly describe a task analysis conducted to determine what the target users of the system do in the course of their work. The responses provided by 16 potential users are summarised as design insights. The system designed to facilitate dealing with these tasks, described in more detail by Rauterberg et al. (1) and Fjeld et al. (2), is then outlined. The remaining sections of the paper present an informal evaluation of BUILD-IT consisting of the first author's responses to questions selected from the Activity Checklist devised by Kaptelinin et al. (3). The relationship between BUILD-IT and activity theory is a theme throughout the paper since tangible bricks - physical objects which users manipulate - bring behavioural ('objective') elements of activity particularly close to the decision-making, cognitive ('subjective') elements of activity involved in planning and design.
PROFITABILITY OF PEPPER PRODUCTION IN DERIVED SAVANNAH ZONE OF OGUN STATE, NIGERIA

This study examined the profitability of pepper production in Ogun State, Nigeria. The study was based on primary data collected from 120 pepper farmers using a multistage sampling technique. Data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics and budgetary analysis. The results revealed that 85.0% of the sampled farmers were males with a mean age of 43 years and mean pepper farming experience of about 12 years. Majority (84%) of the respondents were married, 67% were natives, 48% had household size of 6 to 10 members and with mean household size of 8 persons. Majority (77%) of the respondents cultivated between 0.10ha and 1.54ha of land with a mean farm size of 1.23ha. This study also revealed that about 58% of the pepper farmers financed their production from personal savings. The major constraints to pepper production among the sampled farmers were inadequate viable and disease-resistant seeds (84%), inadequate transportation (91%) and inadequate access to finance/credit (91%). The budgetary analysis per hectare revealed that the sampled pepper farmers incurred N228,293.06 (US$1,521.95) and N9,765.49 (US$65.10) on variable and fixed cost items respectively and earned a revenue of N622,847.56 (US$4,152.32) as well as a profit of N251,496.09 (US$1,676.64) per ha/season. Pepper production had a return on investment of 2.62. Thus, pepper production was found to be a profitable enterprise considering the profit realised by the farmers in the study area. The study recommended that policies should be implemented by government to provide financial assistance to farmers in order to access adequate farm resources and expand the existing scale of production. Good and accessible roads should be constructed to facilitate movement of farm inputs and pepper produce.
Preprocessing and volume rendering of 3D ultrasonic data

The "noisy and blurry" nature of biomedical ultrasonic data makes the rendering of 3D models difficult. The volume rendering system described in this article generates high-quality images in seconds on desktop systems. Our work aims to develop techniques for 3D reconstruction of parts during routine examinations. We intend to improve the quality of the reconstruction, reduce the required manual input, and increase the computational speed as well as availability for a wide range of standard platforms in order to provide a system that is usable under clinical conditions. This case study focuses particularly on off-line filtering and semiautomatic segmentation methods. >
Is customized vestibular rehabilitation effective in patients with multiple sclerosis? A randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND Balance disorders are among the most common problems encountered by patients diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). AIM The purpose of this randomized, controlled trial was to investigate the effects of customized vestibular rehabilitation (VR) on balance, functional capacity, quality of life, and depression in patients with MS. DESIGN This study was designed as a prospective, randomized, controlled trial. SETTING The study was carried out in a single tertiary referral center. POPULATION Forty consecutive patients referred with a diagnosis of MS were randomized into two groups: an exercise group (N.=20) and a control group (N.=20). METHODS The experimental group underwent customized VR and the wait-listed control group received the usual medical care. All of the patients were assessed with objective balance tests (Romberg Test, Tandem Romberg Test, Foam Romberg Test, Static Posturography, Six-Meter Walk Test, Five Times Sit-to-Stand Test, Berg Balance Scale, Timed Up and Go Test, Functional Gait Assessment, and Dynamic Gait Index), subjective balance parameters (Activities-Specific Balance Confidence Scale and Dizziness Handicap Inventory), and functional capacity (Six-Minute Walking Test), quality of life (Multiple Sclerosis Quality of Life-54), and depression (Beck Depression Inventory) scales. RESULTS At the end of the trial, the exercise group exhibited significant changes in most of the evaluated parameters compared to the control group [except the Tandem Romberg with eyes closed and the Foam Romberg, standing with eyes open (P<0.05). No significant differences were observed in any of the parameters in the control group (P>0.05). The intergroup comparisons of differences indicated significant recoveries in favor of the exercise group in all of the evaluated parameters (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS This study confirms the effects of customized VR programs on balance, quality of life, and functional capacity in patients with MS. CLINICAL REHABILITATION IMPACT Customized VR is an effective method for treating balance disorders in patients with MS.
Vertical Equity Consequences of Very High Cigarette Tax Increases: If the Poor are the Ones Smoking, How Could Cigarette Tax Increases Be Progressive?

Cigarette smoking is concentrated among low income groups. Consequently, cigarette taxes are considered regressive. However, if poorer individuals are much more price sensitive than richer individuals, then tax increases would reduce smoking much more among the poor and their cigarette tax expenditures as a share of income would rise by much less than for the rich. Warner (2000) said this phenomenon would make cigarette tax increases progressive. We test this empirically. Among low-, middle-, and high-income, we estimate total price elasticities of -0.37, -0.35, and -0.20, respectively. We find that cigarette tax increases are not close to progressive using both tax expenditure-based and traditional welfare measures. This finding is robust to cross-border purchasing, generic cigarettes, and substantial external effects. However, we find that taxes can be progressive under some behavioral economic models (Gruber & Koszegi, 2004) but that these may only apply to a small share of smokers.
Renal Excretion of Calcium and Phosphorus in Premature Infants With Incipient Late Metabolic Acidosis

Background Premature infants receiving alimentation with cow milk–based formulas run a considerably high risk of incipient late metabolic acidosis, an early stage developing of manifest late metabolic acidosis. Is bone metabolism involved in pathophysiologic mechanisms characterizing this early stage of retention acidosis? Methods Urinary ionography was performed in 10 premature infants with spontaneous development of incipient late metabolic acidosis (indicated by urine pH < 5.4 on 2 consecutive days) and 10 pair-matched premature infants with normal values of urine pH; both groups were receiving full oral nutrition with the same standard formula. Moreover, in 37 premature infants with incipient late metabolic acidosis who were randomly allocated to oral therapy with 2 mmol · kg −1 · d −1 of either NaHCO 3 or NaCl over a period of 7 days, urinary excretion of calcium and phosphorus was assessed on day 1 and day 7. Results Incipient late metabolic acidosis was accompanied by increased phosphaturia in premature infants receiving full oral nutrition. Seventeen premature infants receiving NaCl therapy (19 treatment periods) showed increased calciuria from day 1 to day 7, whereas, in 20 premature infants receiving NaHCO 3 therapy (23 treatment periods), calcium or phosphorus excretion in urine did not increase. Conclusions The data of urinary calcium and phosphorus excretion in premature infants support the hypothesis that bone mineralization may already be impaired in the early stage of incipient late metabolic acidosis.
Assessment of rolling walkers used by older adults in senior‐living communities

Aim: Rolling walkers (RW) are among the most common ambulatory devices used in senior‐living communities. However, many observational studies have associated RW use with an increased risk of falling. Studies on how older RW users obtain and use their RW are lacking. Therefore, this study's purpose was to provide information about RW use that can aid clinical professionals in understanding how to educate RW users.
The Minimum Variance Hedge Ratio Under Stochastic Interest Rates

In an environment where interest rates are stochastic, we examine the case of a "pure" hedger endowed with a fixed position in a long term bond. In contrast to conventional wisdom according to which the difference between hedging through forward contracts and futures is immaterial, it turns out that the minimum variance hedge ratio using forwards comprises two terms instead of one only when using futures. The magnitude of the difference between the two hedge ratios may be important under some plausible assumptions. This result is due to the presence of additional interest rate risk that bears on the profit-and-loss statement associated with the forward position. This sheds some additional light on the respective features of forward and futures contracts written on interest rate-sensitive securities.
Série Scientifique Scientific Series N o 94 s22 ENVIRONMENTAL RISKS AND BANK LIABILITY

Many governments have introduced or are considering introducing laws to recover from the liable parties the cleanup costs caused by pollution damages. In particular, the banks who nance the rms causing environmental damages may be considered liable. In various court cases in the US and elsewhere, banks have been found liable, while they have been exempted in others. We develop a multiprincipal-agent model in which the insurance sector may insure the rm for the pollution risk and the bank may lend money for investment. Under complete information of the bank about the rm's activities, the limited liability of the rm induces excessive investment and insu cient care but full liability of the bank creates the appropriate internalization of the environmental risk. This rationalization of the laws on lender liability must be quali ed because in general the banks su er from agency problems (adverse selection and moral hazard) in their relationships with rms. In the adverse selection case, full liability of the bank leads to underinvestment. Partial liability is better but may fail to implement the optimal second best allocation. In the case of moral hazard, full responsibility is killing the project too often while still leading to low care too often. Partial responsibility may achieve the second best optimal allocation but in some cases the level of responsibility necessary to induce the proper level of care is too high for the project to be nanced by the bank. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of our results with regards to liability laws for environmental damages.
Is Empowerment Really A New Concept

While empowerment has been actively practised, the exact meaning of 'empowerment' or 'psychological empowerment' does not seem to be well considered. We tried to make the meaning of empowerment clear by distinguishing it from similar words like authority delegation, motivation, self-efficacy, job enrichment, employee ownership, autonomy, self-determination, self-management, self-control, self-influence, self-leadership, high-involvement and participative management. Based on our reasoning, we concluded that empowerment is not just a fad, but really a unique concept representing a new managerial approach and that the uniqueness denies substitution with any of the above nouns.
Life Estimation of HVDC Cables Under the Time-Varying Electrothermal Stress Associated With Load Cycles

In this paper, a new procedure is presented for life estimation of HVDC cables subjected to the time-varying electrothermal stress associated with load cycles and voltage. The electric-field inversion phenomenon in the insulation of dc cables is accounted for by updating the field profile as the temperature profile changes with the load. The thermal transients due to load cycles are modeled via the CIGRÉ transient thermal network adapted to dc cables. The life fractions lost during each cycle because of the cyclic variation of the electrothermal stress are computed via an adequate electrothermal life model for the insulation of HVDC cables. The Weibull hypothesis is made for relating cable life to failure probability. The procedure is applied to the load cycles of the prequalification test for HVDC extruded cables after CIGRÉ Technical Brochure 496 that does not consider the effect of thermal and synergistic electrothermal aging. It is thus shown that this test might be less severe than it should be.
The Relationship Between Coronary Artery Disease and Undiagnosed Glucose Metabolism Disorders in Patients who Have Undergone Angiography

Address for Correspondence/Yazisma Adresi: Halil Akbulut MD, Gulhane Military Medical Academy, Department of Family Medicine, Ankara, Turkey Phone: +90 312 304 31 43 E-posta: halilakbulut@live.com Received/Gelis Tarihi: 15/05/2013 Accepted/Kabul Tarihi: 19/10/2013 Halil Akbulut, Aydogan Aydogdu*, Umit Aydogan, Cem Barcin**, Serkan Tapan***, Yusuf Cetin Doganer, Turker Turker****, Tuncer Cayci***, Ersoy Isik**, Hurkan Kursatlioglu**, Kenan Saglam
An Analysis of Ontario Aboriginal Education Policy: Critical and interpretive perspectives

This paper provides an historical and contemporary interpretation of the developmental influences that have led to the Ontario Ministry of Education’s recent focus on Aboriginal educational policy in Ontario, Canada. It offers an interpretive and critical perspective on the rhetorical constructions, assumptions, and value-orientations implicit in two seminal documents. This discussion will assist Aboriginal Advisory Groups and communities, as well as policy-makers and practitioners, to think clearly about implementation strategies in the broader context of Aboriginal socio-educational development.