Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The overall computer/mobile devices usage time is related to newly diagnosed non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: a population-based study

Abstract Background: The computer/mobile devices usage time (CMD-UT) is closely related to a sedentary lifestyle, which is an important risk factor for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). But their direct relationship remains unclear. Aims: We aimed to examine the relationship between CMD-UT and newly diagnosed non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in Chinese adults. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 7516 adults in Tianjin, China. The CMD-UT was collected via a questionnaire included five categories. NAFLD [with normal or elevated alanine transaminase (ALT) levels] was diagnosed by at least twice liver ultrasonography examinations and serum ALT concentrations (>41 U/L in males and >33 U/L in females). Results: The prevalence of overall NAFLD, NAFLD with normal or elevated ALT levels was 18.2, 14.2, and 4.0%, respectively. After adjustments for potential confounding factors, the odds ratios (95% confidence interval) of having overall NAFLD by increasing CMD-UT levels were 1.00 for <1 h/d, 1.58 (1.22–2.05) for 1-3 h/d, 1.58 (1.18-2.11) for 3–5 h/d, 1.65 (1.21-2.27) for 5–10 h/d, and 1.99 (1.29-3.05) for ≥10h/d (P-trend for CMD-UT levels = 0.02), respectively. Similar relations were observed with the use of NAFLD with normal or elevated ALT levels. Conclusions: The present study is the first to find that CMD-UT levels are independently associated with NAFLD. Key Messages The computer/mobile devices usage time levels are independently associated with the prevalence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
Should the drinking water of Truro, Nova Scotia, be fluoridated? Water fluoridation in the 1990s.

An epidemiological assessment of differences in caries and fluorosis prevalences between children in Truro (< 0.1 ppm) and Kentville (fluoridated at 1.1 ppm in 1991), Nova Scotia, Canada, was completed in 1991. Out of a total of 429 children, in grades 5 and 6, in the two towns in 1991, 219 (51%) were examined. Parents answered a self-administered questionnaire investigating the sources of drinking water used by the children since birth, residence history, use of fluoride supplements, dentifrices, and other fluoride products during the first 6 yr of the life. The examination criteria differentiated between non-cavitated and cavitated carious lesions. Dental fluorosis was measured using the TSIF index. Examiner agreement was excellent. Of the children examined, 80 (36.5%) drank water (fluoridated or non-fluoridated) from municipal water systems during the first 6 yr of life. The children were assigned into five groups based upon residence history and exposure to fluoridated water during the first 6 yr of life. The percentage difference in mean DMFS scores between children in the fluoridated and non-fluoridated groups is 17% (delta DMFS1 = 0.7) when non-cavitated carious lesions are included and 39% (delta DMFS2 = 1.1) when they are excluded. The differences are not statistically significant. The significant risk factors associated with the DMFS1 and DMFS2 scores identified by a stepwise multiple regression analysis are: education level of the father, gender, and number of years of reported use of toothpaste during the first 6 yr of life. Dental fluorosis (mainly TSIF score of 1) was present in 41.5% and 69.2% of the children in the non-fluoridated and fluoridated groups, respectively. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Social and Physical Activity and Life Satisfaction among Turkish Elderly Women

World Health Organization points out that the world population is getting older along with the planet Earth. At the beginning of this century, the population of the elderly aged 80 and above was 14 million. By 2050, it is expected to reach 400 million. As a consequence, the number of studies focusing on the elderly, especially on elderly women, is steadily increasing around the world. Studies show that the elderly populations face various problems depending on how developed countries are.In Turkey, the population of elderly women aged 65 and above has risen 10 times since 1990. According to the 2011 data, more than half (53.92%) of women aged 65 and above have lost their husbands. This study aims to look at the problems of these women who have to spend the rest of their lives alone or with another member of the family, as well as to reveal their life satisfaction.For this purpose, surveys are carried out in districts where the elderly population rates are highest in Istanbul and socioeconomic development is most advanced. As old residential districts located in three major regions of the city, these districts will represent accurate samples for Istanbul. In this study, the demographic, socio-economic, physical and health conditions of the elderly women are examined in order to evaluate their willingness to participate in social and physical activities.The findings of this study are compared to the statistical data of other studies previously carried out in Turkey on the same subject, in order to examine the correlation between the degree of participation in social and physical activities among elderly women and their life satisfaction. A total of 410 people, 198 of whom consist of women, have responded to the survey. Findings suggest that there is a strong correlation between gender and age, employment, the number of people living in the house, time spent outside, the frequency of socializing with friends and satisfaction with living conditions. The most remarkable findings of the survey were that they were satisfied with their homes and its environmental conditions, that most suffered from health problems and that they were social and active.
Characterization of fluoxetine plus olanzapine treatment in rats: A behavior, endocrine, and immediate‐early gene expression analysis

A large number of individuals afflicted with psychiatric disorders, particularly depression with psychotic features, do not respond to conventional drug therapy. An option for this phenomenon is to augment a standard selective serotonin (5‐HT) reuptake inhibitor with an atypical antipsychotic agent. In this regard, fluoxetine and olanzapine have been used concomitantly for treatment‐resistant depression and bipolar depression. Although highly efficacious in terms of producing superior improvement of symptoms across a variety of psychological measures, the motor patterns, endocrine profiles, and intracellular signaling pathways affected by drug augmentation have not been determined. Here we show that fluoxetine (10 mg/kg) plus olanzapine (5 mg/kg) given to rats for 7 consecutive days (i.e., subchronic treatment) alters motor activity and diminishes spontaneous behaviors as measured by spatial position and angular path analyses. In addition, the same drug combination pattern sensitizes peak adrenal corticosterone secretion without altering serum glucose levels. We also show that subchronic fluoxetine and olanzapine exposure suppresses the induction of two immediate‐early gene transcription factors (e.g., pCREB and FOS) that are associated with long‐lasting changes in synaptic efficacy and structural modifications in the prefrontal cortex, piriform cortex, and hippocampus. These results suggest that fluoxetine plus olanzapine can interact in a fashion not predicted by the currently accepted model of fluoxetine monotherapy and provide insight into the synergistic actions of drug augmentation in patients with treatment‐resistant depression. Synapse 50:353–364, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Leader Traits, Leader Image and Vote Choice

Secular changes are taking place in the way how election campaigns are conducted (Mancini/Swanson 1996) and how politics is portrayed in the mass media of advanced democracies. Political communication is said to have become more personalized during the last years – at the expense of abstract institutions such as the political parties. In parliamentary democracies in particular the coverage of politics in the major mass media appears to have moved towards a more presidentialized direction (Mughan 2000). If such changes are in fact occuring, it seems likely that gradually the criteria voters utilize in arriving at their voting decision will shift towards the characteristics of political candidates. The more ‘personalized’ voters decide the more important will be the criteria on which their judgement of political leaders is based. Is this basis a superficial image of political candidates or do voters instead build their judgement of leaders according to more rational criteria such as leaders’ competence to solve a nation’s urgent political problems, or the candidates’ leadership qualities? Obviously, the recruitment of democratic political leaders and the quality of democratic government both are heavily dependent on how this question can be answered. For the presidential system of the United States it could be demonstrated that politically relevant, performance oriented criteria play an important role for the overall judgement of political candidates and for vote choice. Conversely, strictly personal, non-political candidate characteristics were of only minor importance (Miller et al. 1986). In analyzing the effect of individual leader traits on overall leader evaluations it emerged for the United States that performance relevant criteria had a much greater impact than the more superficial and apparent leader characteristics (Miller et al. 1986: 534). Competence, reliability, and honesty proved to be more important for a leader’s overall judgement than his appearance, with competence as the primary dimension used by citizens throughout the 1952-1984 period
Weather and supply chain performance in sport goods distribution

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study how variations in weather affect demand and supply chain performance in sport goods. The study includes several brands differing in supply chain structure, product variety and seasonality. Design/methodology/approach – Longitudinal data on supply chain transactions and customer weather conditions are analysed. The underlying hypothesis is that changes in weather affect demand, which in turn impacts supply chain performance. Findings – In general, an increase in temperature in winter and spring decreases order volumes in resorts, while for larger customers in urban locations order volumes increase. Further, an increase in volumes of non-seasonal products reduces delays in deliveries, but for seasonal products the effect is opposite. In all, weather affects demand, lower volumes do not generally improve supply chain performance, but larger volumes can make it worse. The analysis shows that the dependence structure between demand and delay is time varying and i.
A Meta-Analysis of Studies on the Determinants of Standardization and Localization of International Marketing and Advertising Strategies

Abstract We performed a systematic quantitative meta-analysis of international marketing/advertising research with regard to standardization versus localization or similar versus dissimilar marketing approach across national markets. The analysis used nine estimated moderators from 1268 statistical models in 152 studies published in 10 major marketing, advertising, and international business journals during the period 1960-2004. The study was framed in an extended conceptual model which utilized 10 advertising and marketing moderators. The study findings provided support for standardization approaches with regard to marketing mix (e.g., product, price distribution, promotion) and organization factors. There was slight or little support for localization approaches with target market, market position, environmental factors, and information ad appeals. The conceptual advertising moderators, which include sender (agency/company), affective ad appeals and ad executions, and receiver (attitudes toward advertising and beliefs, values/custom/psychographics) are strongly influenced by the localization approach. Regional differences are also analyzed.
Pengaruh good governance dan standar akuntansi pemerintahan terhadap akuntabilitas keuangan dengan komitmen organisasi sebagai pemoderasi

The purpose of this study are to analyze; the influence of implementation good governance, implementation accounting standards of government and the influence of financial account- ability with organization commitment as moderating variables. The research samples are se- lected by using purposive method. The research method used were desciptive and verificative, and analysis method used the multiple regression, multiple correlation and determination method. The results of study show that implementation good governance with organization commitment have significant influence financial accountability; implementation accounting standards of government with organization commitment have significant influence financial accountability; implementation good governance and accounting standards of government with organization commitment have significant influence financial accountability. Keywords: Good Governance, Standar accounting standards of government, Financial Ac- countability, Transparency, Organization Commitment.
Anti-windup-based dynamic controller synthesis for lipschitz systems under actuator saturation

This paper presents a new method for simultaneous synthesis of dynamic controller and static anti-windup compensator for saturated Lipschitz systems. Thanks to the reformulated Lipschitz property, the Lipschitz systems can be transformed into LPV (linear parameter-varying) systems whose system matrices are affine in a parameter matrix. Based on the modified sector condition dealing with saturation nonlinearity, the design of a nonlinear anti-windup-based controller leads to the solvability of a set of bilinear matrix inequalities (BMI) on the vertices of a bounded convex set which can be solved by the so-called iterative linear matrix inequality (ILMI) algorithm. A numerical example is presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Ryanodine receptors regulate arterial diameter and wall [Ca2+] in cerebral arteries of rat via Ca2+‐dependent K+ channels

1 The effects of inhibitors of ryanodine‐sensitive calcium release (RyR) channels in the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) and Ca2+‐dependent potassium (KCa) channels on the membrane potential, intracellular [Ca2+], and diameters of small pressurized (60 mmHg) cerebral arteries (100‐200 μm) were studied using digital fluorescence video imaging of arterial diameter and wall [Ca2+], combined with microelectrode measurements of arterial membrane potential. 2 Ryanodine (10 μM), an inhibitor of RyR channels, depolarized by 9 mV, increased intracellular [Ca2+] by 46 nM and constricted pressurized (to 60 mmHg) arteries with myogenic tone by 44 μm (≈22 %). Iberiotoxin (100 nM), a blocker of KCa channels, under the same conditions, depolarized the arteries by 10 mV, increased arterial wall calcium by 51 nM, and constricted by 37 μm (≈19 %). The effects of ryanodine and iberiotoxin were not additive and were blocked by inhibitors of voltage‐dependent Ca2+ channels. 3 Caffeine (10 mM), an activator of RyR channels, transiently increased arterial wall [Ca2+] by 136 ± 9 nM in control arteries and by 158 ± 12 nM in the presence of iberiotoxin. Caffeine was relatively ineffective in the presence of ryanodine, increasing [calcium] by 18 ± 5 nM. 4 In the presence of blockers of voltage‐dependent Ca2+ channels (nimodipine, diltiazem), ryanodine and inhibitors of the SR calcium ATPase (thapsigargin, cyclopiazonic acid) were without effect on arterial wall [Ca2+] and diameter. 5 These results suggest that local Ca2+ release originating from RyR channels (Ca2+ sparks) in the SR of arterial smooth muscle regulates myogenic tone in cerebral arteries solely through activation of KCa channels, which regulate membrane potential through tonic hyperpolarization, thus limiting Ca2+ entry through L‐type voltage‐dependent Ca2+ channels. KCa channels therefore act as a negative feedback control element regulating arterial diameter through a reduction in global intracellular free [Ca2+].
Adolescent sleep, school start times, and teen motor vehicle crashes.

STUDY OBJECTIVES To assess the effects of delayed high-school start times on sleep and motor vehicle crashes. METHODS The sleep habits and motor vehicle crash rates of adolescents from a single, large, county-wide, school district were assessed by questionnaire before and after a 1-hour delay in school start times. RESULTS Average hours of nightly sleep increased and catch-up sleep on weekends decreased. Average crash rates for teen drivers in the study county in the 2 years after the change in school start time dropped 16.5%, compared with the 2 years prior to the change, whereas teen crash rates for the rest of the state increased 7.8% over the same time period. CONCLUSIONS Later school start times may both increase the sleep of adolescents and decrease their risk of motor vehicle crashes.
Does Mandatory Adoption of IFRS Enhance Earnings Quality? Evidence from Closer to Home

The global accounting convergence and the often discussed probable adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) by U.S. regulators is a timely topic. We contribute to the literature by examining a more recent mandatory IFRS adoption by Canada. Canadian GAAP (CGAAP) is often considered a close substitute for U.S. GAAP. One key feature of this setting is that two earnings numbers are available for fiscal year 2010 since Canadian firms were required to reconcile earnings under CGAAP with earnings under IFRS. We run a “horse race” of earnings quality between earnings under CGAAP and IFRS. We find that on average, relative to IFRS-earnings, earnings under CGAAP have greater association with next period cash flows and higher degree of persistence. Further, when the difference between earnings under CGAAP and IFRS is large, IFRS-earnings are less value-relevant and less persistent. These results strongly support the notion that higher earnings quality is associated with CGAAP. Finally, the results also indicate that differences between CGAAP and IFRS with regard to accounting for financial instruments and investments significantly impair the quality of IFRS-earnings. Our findings are potentially informative to any revival of policy debates on the possible adoption of IFRS by U.S. firms.
Sidestepping the IT Artifact, Scrapping the IS Silo, and Laying Claim to "Systems in Organizations"

The “IT artifact” and debates about the core of the IS field received a lot of attention in the last several years. This paper is a response to Benbasat and Zmud’s June 2003 MISQ paper “The Identity Crisis within the IS Discipline: Defining and Communicating the Discipline’s Core Properties,” which argues that “the IT artifact and its immediate nomological net” constitutes “a natural ensemble of entities, structures, and processes” that “serves to bind together the IS subdisciplines and to communicate the distinctive nature of the IS discipline. ” This paper starts by examining the meaning of “IT artifact” and concluding that this term is too unclear to serve as a basic concept for delineating the field. Next it examines and disputes aspects of Benbasat and Zmud’s prescription for being more faithful to the discipline’s core. It suggests that their vision of tighter focus on variables intimately related to the “IT artifact” creates problems and provides few of the benefits of an alternative vision centered on “systems in organizations. ” This alternative vision provides an understandable umbrella for most existing IS research and treats the discipline’s diversity as a strength rather a weakness. It provides a rationale for building on current knowledge and expertise, exploiting the discipline’s areas of competitive advantage in academia and business, defusing the IS discipline’s identity crisis, and helping increase its longterm contributions to academia, business, and society.
Ca2+ store‐dependent potentiation of Ca2+‐activated non‐selective cation channels in rat hippocampal neurones in vitro

1 Potentiation of calcium‐activated non‐selective cation (CAN) channels was studied in rat hippocampal neurones. CAN channels were activated by IP3‐dependent Ca2+ release following metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluR) stimulation either by Schaffer collateral input to CA1 neurones in brain slices in which ionotropic glutamate and GABAA receptors, K+ channels, and the Na+‐Ca2+ exchanger were blocked or by application of the mGluR antagonist ACPD in cultured hippocampal neurones. 2 The CAN channel‐dependent depolarization (ΔVCAN) was potentiated when [Ca2+]i was increased in neurones impaled with Ca2+‐containing microelectrodes. 3 Fura‐2 measurements revealed a biphasic increase in [Ca2+]i when 200 μm ACPD was bath applied to cultured hippocampal neurones. This increase was greatly attenuated in the presence of Cd2+. 4 Thapsigargin (1 μm) caused marked potentiation of ΔVCAN in CA1 neurones in the slices and of the CAN current (ICAN) measured in whole cell‐clamped cultured hippocampal neurones. 5 Ryanodine (20 μm) also led to a potentiation of ΔVCAN while neurones pretreated with 100 μm dantrolene failed to show potentiation of ΔVCAN when impaled with Ca2+‐containing microelectrodes. 6 The mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation uncoupler carbonyl cyanide m‐chlorophenyl hydrazone (2 μm) also caused a potentiation of ΔVCAN. 7 CAN channels are subject to considerable potentiation following an increase in [Ca2+]i due to Ca2+ release from IP3‐sensitive, Ca2+‐sensitive, or mitochondrial Ca2+ stores. This ICAN potentiation may play a crucial role in the ‘amplification’ phase of excitotoxicity.