Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Success with lifestyle monotherapy in youth with new-onset type 2 diabetes.

BACKGROUND Evidence is lacking to support the efficacy of lifestyle modification as first-line therapy in the clinical management of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in adolescents. METHODS A retrospective chart review of youth diagnosed with T2DM between 1999 and 2008 was conducted. The authors describe the percentage of youth presenting with glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) of <9% who achieved/maintained target glycemic control (HbA1c ≤7.0%) with lifestyle monotherapy during the year following diagnosis. RESULTS Among the 275 youth with T2DM, 38% (n=104) presented with an HbA1c <9% and were prescribed lifestyle monotherapy at diagnosis. Of the 80 youth who had sufficient follow-up data over 12 months, 54% successfully maintained target glycemic control solely with lifestyle management. The mean HbA1c score at diagnosis was lower in youth who where successful on lifestlye monotherapy compared with those who were not successful. CONCLUSIONS A significant proportion of youth newly diagnosed with T2DM presenting with an HbA1c <9% effectively achieved/maintained target glycemic control with lifestyle recommendations alone for 12 months. BACKGROUND Evidence is lacking to support the efficacy of lifestyle modification as first-line therapy in the clinical management of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in adolescents. METHODS A retrospective chart review of youth diagnosed with T2DM between 1999 and 2008 was conducted. The authors describe the percentage of youth presenting with glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) of <9% who achieved/maintained target glycemic control (HbA1c ≤7.0%) with lifestyle monotherapy during the year following diagnosis. RESULTS Among the 275 youth with T2DM, 38% (n=104) presented with an HbA1c <9% and were prescribed lifestyle monotherapy at diagnosis. Of the 80 youth who had sufficient follow-up data over 12 months, 54% successfully maintained target glycemic control solely with lifestyle management. The mean HbA1c score at diagnosis was lower in youth who where successful on lifestlye monotherapy compared with those who were not successful. CONCLUSIONS A significant proportion of youth newly diagnosed with T2DM presenting with an HbA1c <9% effectively achieved/maintained target glycemic control with lifestyle recommendations alone for 12 months.
Determinants of Corporate Philanthropy in Pakistan

The importance of corporate philanthropy and its related philosophy of corporate social responsibility have captured the attention of researchers and humanitarian groups in WTO era. Corporate donations have been considered as a critical tool to improve corporate image in a highly competitive environment. This paper explores the determinants of corporate donations based on LSE-25 index companies over the five year period 2002-06. Multiple regression techniques have been used for gauging the determinants of corporate philanthropy after collecting data from audited financial reports of companies. The study is a pioneering attempt in measuring the determinants of philanthropy in corporate sector of Pakistan.
Numerical Studies of Galerkin-type Time-discretizations Applied to Transient Convection-diffusion-reaction Equations

We deal with the numerical solution of time-dependent convection-diffusion-reaction equations. We combine the local projection stabilization method for the space discretization with two different time discretization schemes: the continuous Galerkin-Petrov (cGP) method and the discontinuous Galerkin (dG) method of polynomial of degree k. We establish the optimal error estimates and present numerical results which shows that the cGP(k) and dG(k)methods are accurate of order k+ 1, respectively, in the whole time interval. Moreover, the cGP(k)-method is superconvergent of order 2k and dG(k)-method is of order 2k+ 1 at the discrete time points. Furthermore, the dependence of the results on the choice of the stabilization parameter are discussed and compared. Keywords—convection-diffusion-reaction equations, stabilized finite elements, discontinuous Galerkin, continuous Galerkin-Petrov
An assessment of management systems and business performance in the UK food and drinks industry

The findings of a study investigating the performance of the UK food and drinks industry against the European Business Excellence Model are presented. The study involved 50 food companies assessing themselves (by questionnaire) against the nine criteria of the model. The major finding of the study was that, on average, food and drinks companies have less well developed management systems than other industries. Its main areas of strength are in resource and process management and its main areas of weakness are in policy and strategy, customer satisfaction, people satisfaction and impact on society. For the food industry to move forward, more companies should consider using self‐assessment as a method for identifying improvement opportunities and assessing their progress towards business excellence.
Role of low exposure to metals as male reproductive toxicants

The objective of the study was to examine the associations between environmentally relevant low metal concentrations and semen quality parameters in men. The concentrations of zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), cadmium (Cd), arsenic (As), selenium (Se), and lead (Pb) in the seminal plasma and urine were measured from 196 male human subjects in Taiwan. Urinary Cd concentrations were negatively associated with sperm viability (p = 0.006). Seminal plasma Cu concentrations of the normal group (≥ 15 × 106/ml) were significantly lower than those of the abnormal group (p = 0.023). However, the linear regression analysis showed a weak association between Cu concentration and sperm concentration, along with other semen parameters. No significant relationship between other metals (As, Pb, Zn, and Se) and semen quality was observed.
Effect of CSN1S1 genotype and its interaction with diet energy level on milk production and quality in Girgentana goats fed ad libitum

A study was carried out to evaluate how the energy level of the diet can affect milk production and quality in Girgentana lactating goats in relation to polymorphism at the αs1-casein (CSN1S1) genotype locus. Twenty-seven goats, homogeneous for milk production (1·5±0·3 kg/d), days of lactation (90±10 d) and body weight (35·8±5·5 kg) were selected on the basis of their CSN1S1 genotype, as follows: nine goats homozygous for strong (AA) alleles, nine goats homozygous for weak alleles (FF) and nine goats heterozygous (AF). The goats were used in a 3×3 factorial arrangement of treatments, with three genotypes (AA, FF, AF) and three diets at different energy levels (100%, 65% and 30% of hay inclusion). The experiment consisted of three simultaneous 3×3 Latin squares for the three genotypes, with one square for each level of hay inclusion in the diet. All the animals were housed in individual pens. Each experimental period lasted 23 d and consisted of 15 d for adaptation and 8 d for data and sample collection, during which the goats received the scheduled diet ad libitum. The animals were fed three different diets designed to have the same crude protein content (about 15%) but different energy levels: a pelleted alfalfa hay (H100) and two feeds including 65% (H65) and 30% (H30) of alfalfa hay (respectively 1099, 1386 and 1590 kcal NE for lactation/kg DM). All the diets were ground and pelleted (6 mm diameter). AA goats were more productive than AF and FF goats (respectively: 1419 v. 1145 and 1014 g/d; P=0·002). Indeed the interaction energy level×genotype was significant (P=0·018): in fact AA goats showed their milk increase only when fed with concentrates. Differences in protein and in casein levels between the three genotypes were in line with results expected from the different allele contribution to αs1-casein synthesis. Milk urea levels were significantly lower in AA goats compared with AF and FF genotypes (respectively 32·7 v. 40·4 and 40·4 mg/dl; P=0·049) and significantly lower when goats were fed with 65H and 30H diets than with 100H diet (respectively 37·4 and 34·3 v. 41·7 mg/dl; P<0·001). Indeed, a significant interaction genotype×diet (P=0·043) occurred for milk urea, which was significantly lower in AA goats but only when fed with concentrates (65H and 30H). Blood concentrations of energy indicators (glucose, non-esterified fatty acids and beta-hydroxybutyric acid) were not influenced by genotype. The results confirm that strong alleles are associated with a greater efficiency of feed utilization and seem to show that a high energy level of the diet can further improve this efficiency.
International Firm Activities and Innovation: Evidence from Knowledge Production Functions for German Firms

Using a knowledge production framework and a rich set of plant level data this study demonstrates that in Germany firms that are active on international markets as exporters or foreign direct investors do generate more new knowledge than firms which sell on the national market only. These differences are not only due to a larger firm size, or different industries, or the use of more researchers in these firms, but due to the fact these globally engaged firms learn more from external sources, too. The importance of these knowledge sources varies with the type of innovation. These results, which are broadly in line with the findings of a recent study using UK firm level data, can help to explain the strong positive correlation between productivity and international activities of firms. Firms that are active on markets beyond the national borders generate higher levels of new knowledge that feed into higher productivity.
Study on the Influence of Traffic Integration of Yangtze River Delta on the Potential of Local Economic Development

The improvement of traffic can influence the change of the potential of local economic development.Economic potential model can vividly show how traffic' improvement influence the potential of local economic development.Based on introducing economic potential model,this paper chooses Jiaxing,Suzhou,Wuxi,Changzhou and Zhenjiang as research objects,and selects ordinary trains and bullet trains as research conditions.And this paper gets a conclusion which is traffic integration of Yangtze River Delta pushes the improvement of the potential of local economic development.
An empirical assessment of service quality in the context of travel agencies in the Republic of Macedonia

This paper investigates the service quality of travel agencies in the Republic of Macedonia from a customer perspective. Its authors applied a modified version of the SERVQUAL instrument for measuring service quality. The results of the performed paired sample t-testing indicated significant differences between expectations and perceptions, with two exceptions. A positive correlation was identified between expectation means and perception means as well as between perception means and gap score means, with a negative correlation identified between expectation means and gap means. Furthermore, factor analysis of the gap score means was performed, revealing the existence of 3 dimensions: customer orientation, reliability and tangibles. Data analysis showed negative gaps between expectations and perception on all three dimensions. Finally, by using the ANOVA test, significant differences among the gap scores of the three different classes of travel agencies (with “A”, “B” and “C” licenses) were determined, both in total and with regard to the identified dimensions. There are a number of areas of the travel agencies’ service quality where enhancements are needed in order to satisfy the customers more fully.
Screening for HCV infection in jails.

Jails are an ideal setting for routine hepatitis C virus (HCV) screening. At the turn of this century, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that 16% to 41% of US inmates had serological evidence of prior HCV exposure and 12% to 35% had chronic infection.1 This high prevalence of hepatitis C, coupled with the fact that more than 7 million individuals passed through jails and prisons each year in the late 1990s, suggested that persons released from the criminal justice system may account for up to 29% to 43% of the 2.7 million to 3.9 million persons infected with hepatitis C in the United States.1, 2
Local Variants of Staphylococcal Cassette Chromosome mec in Sporadic Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Methicillin-Resistant Coagulase-Negative Staphylococci: Evidence of Horizontal Gene Transfer?

ABSTRACT The mecA gene in Staphylococcus aureus is located on the genetic element staphylococcal cassette chromosome (SCC). Different SCCmecs have been classified according to their putative recombinase genes (ccrA and ccrB) and overall genetic composition. Clinical isolates of coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS; n = 39) and S. aureus (n = 20) from Norway, India, Italy, Finland, the United States, and the United Kingdom were analyzed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, which showed that most isolates were genetically unrelated. Cluster analyses of 16S rRNA gene and pta sequences confirmed the traditional biochemical species identification. The mecI, mecR1, mecA, and ccrAB genes were detected by PCRs, identifying 19 out of 20 S. aureus and 17 out of 39 CoNS isolates as carriers of one of the three published ccrAB pairs. New variants of SCCmec were identified, as well as CoNS isolates containing ccrAB genes without the mec locus. ccrAB and mec PCRs were verified by hybridization. Sequence alignments of ccrAB genes showed a high level of diversity between the ccrAB alleles from different isolates, i.e., 94 to 100% and 95 to 100% homology for ccrAB1 and ccrAB2, respectively. All of the ccrAB3 genes identified were identical. Genetically unique and sporadic methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) contained local variants of ccrAB gene pairs identical to those found in MR-CoNS but different from those in MRSA from other regions. Allelic variants of ccrAB in isolates from the same geographic region showed sequence conservation independent of species. The species-independent sequence conservation found suggests that there is a closer genetic relationship between ccrAB2 in Norwegian staphylococci than between ccrAB2 sequences in international MRSA and Norwegian MRSA. This might indicate that different staphylococcal species acquire these genes locally by horizontal gene transfer.
Indian Consumer Attitudes Toward Food Safety: An Exploratory Study

The aim of this research is to segment Indian consumers based on their attitudes toward food safety and to demographically characterize each segment with sound risk communication strategies and outreach program may be developed to target vulnerable groups. This article uses exploratory factor analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis to find the factors that accentuate consumers’ attitude toward food safety and generalizes the heterogeneity of consumer attitudes based on five factors: apprehension, trust, appetence for a high degree of regulation, acknowledgment from foodborne illness, and propensity for the right to purchase foods that are not guaranteed to be safe.
O‐Linked glycans control glycoprotein processing by antigen‐presenting cells: a biochemical approach to the molecular aspects of MUC1 processing by dendritic cells

MUC1 is a glycoprotein overexpressed in breast cancer and other adenocarcinomas, and is known to elicit cellular and humoral immunity directed against unglycosylated peptide epitopes in the repeat domain. Based on immunological evidence that O‐linked glycans on repeat peptides remain intact during processing by dendritic cells (DC), we used MUC1 as a model to address the question which role O‐linked glycans play in this process. We were able to identify the sites of proteolysis in MUC1 repeats and the enzyme(s) involved, and elucidated the site‐specific effects of O‐glycosylation on MUC1 processing by human and mouse DC. Peptides generated by the cellular processing machinery from native mucin or (glyco)peptides suggest specific cleavage at Gly13‐Ser14, His20‐Gly1 and Thr3‐Ser4 peptide bonds in the tandem repeat GVTSAPDTRPAPGSTAPPAH resulting in the initial formation of STA27 or GVT20 and SAP17 as the final product with intact O‐glycosylation. Human cathepsin L and the corresponding mouse enzyme in low‐density endosomes were identified in vitro to catalyze this site‐specific MUC1 proteolysis. O‐Glycosylation controls the processing by preventing proteolysis of the Thr3‐Ser4 peptide bond if either amino acid is glycosylated, and is responsible for the inertness of tumor‐associated MUC1 glycoforms to effective DC processing by masking this cleavage site.
An Empirical Analysis of the Perceived Importance Attached to Destination and Accommodation Attributes

ABSTRACT Studies of national culture have shown that national stereotypes of tourists have been constructed and used by hospitality, tourism and other organisations in tourist destination countries. Personal experience and opinion have tended to be key influences in these constructions rather than empiricism. As competition strengthens and the meeting of specific tourist's needs gathers momentum such approaches become increasingly anachronistic and inappropriate. This paper presents and analyses the findings of a survey of the views of 167 English and 328 German tourist guests staying in 11 luxury AA and category A hotels in Rhodes, Greece when identifying the perceived importance attached to 42 destination and 22 accommodation attributes. The views of these two national groups are compared and contrasted. The impact of national culture on any differences in attitudes is explored and marketing implications for tourism policy makers and hoteliers are considered.
Rapid Prefrontal-Hippocampal Habituation to Novel Events

Unexpected novel events generate an orienting response that plays an important role in some forms of learning and memory. The orienting response involuntarily captures attention and rapidly habituates as events become familiarized. Although evidence from patients with focal lesions and scalp and intracranial event-related brain potential recordings supports the involvement of a distributed neural network involving association cortex and the limbic system in novelty detection, the key neural substrates and temporal dynamics have not been defined. While subjects performed a bi-field visual-selective attention task with random novel stimuli embedded in either attended or unattended visual fields, we measured rapid changes of regional blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signal to target and novel stimuli using single-trial analysis of event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging with a 4T scanner. Habituation was quantified by serial BOLD signal changes during the first 10 novel stimuli for each subject. Novel stimuli activated the bilateral superior/middle frontal gyrus, temporal-parietal junction, superior parietal lobe, cingulate gyrus, hippocampus, and fusiform gyrus. The superior/middle frontal gyrus and hippocampus showed significant reduction of BOLD signal during the first few novel stimuli, whereas the signals in the fusiform and cingulate gyrus were constant. Prefrontal and hippocampal responses to attended and unattended novel stimuli were comparably habituated. These results, and previous data from lesion studies, support the view that prefrontal and hippocampal regions are involved in rapid automatic detection and habituation to unexpected environmental events and are key elements of the orienting response in humans.
Performance measures of implant antennas

Modern electronic medical implants have reached a high degree of complexity. This has increased the demands on the communication link with the implant, both regarding the bandwidth and the communication distance. A medical communication system at RF frequencies has been standardised, the Medical Implant Communication System (MICS), which use a frequency allocation of 402 ¿ 405 MHz. This frequency band is allocated for implant use both and the US and in the EU. The EIRP is limited to ¿16 dBm in order to reduce the interference to existing users of the same frequency band. This low EIRP makes it necessary to have reasonable effective antennas in the implants in order to get a benefit form the switch from the classical inductive link to RF.
A Cross-sectional Study of Common Psychiatric Morbidity in Children Aged 5 to 14 Years in an Urban Slum

Aim: Study of the prevalence of common psychiatric disorders in children aged 5 to 14 years in a health post area of an urban slum. Objectives: (1) To study frequency of specific psychiatric disorders in the study population, (2) To study the relationship between sociodemographic variables and psychiatric morbidity. Settings and Design: The present study was conducted in one of the five health posts of an urban slum, which is a field practice area of the teaching medical institute. It was a cross-sectional study. Materials and Methods: Sample size was estimated by using 20% as a prevalence of psychiatric morbidity which was obtained from previous studies done in developing countries. Household was used as a sampling unit and systematic random sampling method was used for selecting household. Total 257 children aged 5 to 14 years were included in the study. A pre-designed, semi-structured diagnostic interview schedule based on DSM-IV criteria was used for data collection. Statistical Analysis Used: The tests of significance used were Chi-square and Logistic regression analysis. Results: The prevalence of psychiatric morbidity in this study was 14.8%. Non-organic enuresis, Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Conduct disorder, and Mental retardation were identified as the common mental health problems. Conclusions: Factors like nuclear family, parents not living together, large family size, and positive family history of psychiatric disorder were associated with psychiatric morbidity in children.
Organizational constraints on Ste12 cis‐elements for a pheromone response in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Ste12 of Saccharomyces cerevisiae binds to pheromone‐response cis‐elements (PREs) to regulate several classes of genes. Genes induced by pheromones require multimerization of Ste12 for binding of at least two PREs on responsive promoters. We have systematically examined nucleotides of the consensus PRE for binding of wild‐type Ste12 to DNA in vitro, as well as the organizational requirements of PREs to produce a pheromone response in vivo. Ste12 binds as a monomer to a single PRE in vitro, and two PREs upstream of a minimal core promoter cause induction that is proportional to their relative affinity for Ste12 in vitro. Although consensus PREs are arranged in a variety of configurations in the promoters of responsive genes, we find that there are severe constraints with respect to how they can be positioned in an artificial promoter to cause induction. Two closely‐spaced PREs can induce transcription in a directly‐repeated or tail‐to‐tail orientation, although PREs separated by at least 40 nucleotides are capable of inducing transcription when oriented in a head‐to‐head or tail‐to‐tail configuration. We characterize several examples of promoters that bear multiple consensus PREs or a single PRE in combination with a PRE‐like sequence that match these requirements. A significant number of responsive genes appear to possess only a single PRE, or PREs in configurations that would not be expected to enable induction, and we suggest that, for many pheromone‐responsive genes, Ste12 must activate transcription by binding to cryptic or sub‐optimal sites on DNA, or may require interaction with additional uncharacterized DNA bound factors.