Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Kidney Disease Is a Negative Predictor of 30-Day Survival after Acute Ischaemic Stroke

Background/Aims: Impaired renal function is a strong risk factor for cardiovascular diseases and worsens a patient’s prognosis. Renal dysfunction predicts mortality after acute stroke in the long term. On the other hand, in-hospital mortality after acute stroke is strongly associated with disorders of consciousness at the onset of stroke, severity of stroke, body temperature, blood sugar and some other comorbidities. The aim of the study was to analyze the possible role of renal dysfunction and/or signs of renal disease (proteinuria) on 30-day mortality after acute ischaemic stroke (AIS) based on the hospital medical records of one county. Methods: Medical records of 312 consecutive patients admitted to Ostrołęka County Hospital (Department of Neurology) between March 2000 and October 2002 for AIS were retrieved retrospectively to determine factors influencing 30-day survival. None of patients received thrombolytic therapy. Results: Among the patients analyzed, 74 (23.7%) died during the 30-day period. In a simple Cox proportional hazards regression model, negative predictive factors were: older age, higher pulse rate, lower estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), proteinuria, elevated plasma glucose level, diabetes mellitus, atrial fibrillation and chronic heart failure. In a multivariate analysis, independent negative predictors of 30-day morbidity were: age hazard ratio (HR) 1.05 (95% CI 1.02–1.08), eGFR <60 ml/min HR 1.75 (95% CI 1.21–2.19), dipstick proteinuria HR 2.28 (95% CI 1.74–2.82) and plasma glucose level >100 mg/dl HR 2.96 (95% CI 2.22–3.70). Conclusion: The results of this study identify decreased eGFR and presence of dipstick proteinuria as a strong negative predictor of 30-day survival after AIS in patients not treated with thrombolytic agents.
Metabolomics Approach to Risk Assessment: Methoxyclor Exposure in Rats

The primary objective of this study was to develop exposure biomarkers that “correlate with the endocrine-disrupting effects induced by methoxyclor (MTC), an organochlorine pesticide, using” urinary 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectral data. Exposure biomarkers play an important role in risk assessment. MTC is an environmental endocrine disruptor with estrogenic, anti-estrogenic, and anti-androgenic properties. A new approach of proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) urinalysis using pattern recognition was proposed for exposure biomarkers of MTC in female rats. The endocrine disruptor was expected to induce estrogenic effects in a dose dependent mamer which, was confirmed by the uterotrophic assay. MTC [50, 100, or 200 m g/kg/d, orally (po) or subcutaneously (sc)] was administered to ovarectomized female Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats for 3 d consecutively and urine was collected every 24 h. The animals were sacrificed 24 h after the last dose. All animals treated orally with MTC showed a significant increase in uterine and vaginal weight at all doses. However, in the sc route, only a high dose of 200 mg MTC/kg induced a significant increase in uterine and vaginal weight. 1H NMR spectroscopy revealed evident separate clustering between pre- and post-treatment groups using global metabolic profiling through principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least square (PLS) discrimination analysis (DA) after different exposure routes. With targeted profiling, the endogenous metabolites of acetate, alanine, benzoate, lactate, and glycine were selected as putative exposure biomarkers for MTC. Data suggest that the proposed putative exposure biomarkers may be useful in a risk assessment of the endocrine-disrupting effects produced by MTC.
Simulation of the last glacial cycle with a coupled climate ice-sheet model of intermediate complexity

Abstract. A new version of the Earth system model of intermediate complexity, CLIMBER-2, which includes the three-dimensional polythermal ice-sheet model SICOPOLIS, is used to simulate the last glacial cycle forced by variations of the Earth's orbital parameters and atmospheric concentration of major greenhouse gases. The climate and ice-sheet components of the model are coupled bi-directionally through a physically-based surface energy and mass balance interface. The model accounts for the time-dependent effect of aeolian dust on planetary and snow albedo. The model successfully simulates the temporal and spatial dynamics of the major Northern Hemisphere (NH) ice sheets, including rapid glacial inception and strong asymmetry between the ice-sheet growth phase and glacial termination. Spatial extent and elevation of the ice sheets during the last glacial maximum agree reasonably well with palaeoclimate reconstructions. A suite of sensitivity experiments demonstrates that simulated ice-sheet evolution during the last glacial cycle is very sensitive to some parameters of the surface energy and mass-balance interface and dust module. The possibility of a considerable acceleration of the climate ice-sheet model is discussed.
Resilience and Mental Health

Humans are remarkably resilient in the face of crises, traumas, disabilities, attachment losses and ongoing adversities. To date, most research in the field of traumatic stress has focused on neurobiological, psychological and social factors associated with trauma-related psychopathology and deficits in psychosocial functioning. Far less is known about resilience to stress and healthy adaptation to stress and trauma.
Modeling CMOS PIN photodiode using COMSOL

Modeling semiconductor devices has become mandatory in most challenging research activity. Finding a powerful tool that models these devices represents a goal of these users. In this work, Silicon PIN photodiode is designed using complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) Technology. COMSOL Multiphysics is the selected challenging tool for simulation and characterization of this design. The adjustment of the proposed model as well as the different outputs like Electric field and Electric potential distribution, I-V characteristics and other parameters are presented. The output current has shown an allure of a current that consists of three regions: TrapAssisted Tunneling, Band-to-Band Tunneling and avalanche. These current regions in addition to the high value (105 V/cm) of the obtained electric field are typical for Silicon Avalanche Photodiodes (SiAPD). The possibility to use this tool for SiAPD analysis and simulation is therefore discussed.
Attitudes towards retirement : a cross-cultural study between New Zealand and Brazilian executives

Retirement has been recognized as a challenging issue for developed and developing countries. World economical and actuarial projections have demonstrated a need for countries to keep older workers longer in the workforce. However, very little research has been conducted to cast light on the attitudes of the workers towards their jobs and retirement, and the predictors that influence their attitudes. This study examined the similarities and differences in the attitudes towards retirement among executives in New Zealand (individualistic orientation) and Brazil (collectivist orientation), countries that present strong differences in culture, size of population, socio-economical and environmental aspects. Top executives were selected because of their extraordinary involvement and satisfaction with their jobs and their decision-making power; and also because they belong to an extremely individualistic occupational category. As privileged workers they could have satisfactory health and adequate savings. These are important issues for us all. Over and above these matters, top executives could point to other issues that influence the decision to retire. Furthermore, as leaders of large organisations they could be sensitive to the benefit of counselling in what is a career transition, and may be in a position to implement education programs in their organisations. The research was conducted in 2001, targeting 4,200 executives, as the whole population of top executives in New Zealand from companies employing more than 100 staff (Kompass database); and in Brazil, from companies with more than 500 staff (DMS database). Thus, a total of 517 high-level executives 226 New Zealanders and 291 Brazilians leaders of government, quasi-government, and non-government organisations completed a questionnaire with 214 items. Six scales with 21 subscales were constructed. The scales of the perception of gains (EPGR) and losses (EPLR) measure attitudes towards retirement. In general, executives are optimistic about retirement and life after retirement. For executives of both nationalities, the most important losses‘ subscale is the benefits/compensation and the most important gains‘ subscale is more time for relationships. PCQL measures the executives‘ perception of their collective country‘s quality of life. Brazilian executives evaluate the Country‘s Quality of Life more negatively than New Zealanders. The most negative indicators for Brazilians are personal safety followed by wealth distribution, and the level
Important differences in components of the metabolic syndrome between HIV-patients with and without highly active antiretroviral therapy and healthy controls

The aim of this study was to compare the prevalence of metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance in HIV-positive patients with and without HAART and healthy HIV-negative controls. In total 357 subjects were examined: 56 HIV-positive HAART-naïve, 207 HIV-positive on HAART treatment and 94 HIV-negative controls. We measured blood pressure, abdominal circumference, weight and height, and fasting serum levels of glucose, insulin and lipids in all the subjects. The presence of lipodystrophy was assessed in the HAART-treated patients. In non-overweight subjects the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome was 15% (25 of 162) in HAART-treated patients, 2% (1 of 44) in HAART-naïve (p=0.019) and 2% (1 of 45) in controls (p=0.020). The prevalence of insulin resistance in non-overweight subjects was also higher in HAART-treated than in controls, 39% vs 18% (p=0.012) but similar to HAART-naive, 32% (p = 0.48 vs HAART, p = 0.22 vs controls). In non-overweight patients with lipodystrophy the metabolic syndrome was diagnosed in 21% and insulin resistance in 49%. In the entire HAART group 25% had the metabolic syndrome and/or insulin resistance without having lipodystrophy. We conclude that fasting glucose, HDL-cholesterol, triglycerides and blood pressure should be closely monitored in all HAART-treated patients, not only in overweighed or lipodystrophic individuals.
Developmental shifts in cortical loci for face and object recognition

Information on normal functional organization and development of the ventral processing stream in 5- to 11-year-old children is minimal. The present fMRI study identified neural correlates for face and object processing in children aged 5–8 and 9–11 years, with data from a similar adult study used for comparison. All age groups showed face-preferential activation in the ventral processing stream, but adults and children aged 9–11 years showed face-preferential loci near the classically defined fusiform face area, whereas children aged 5–8 years showed this activation in the posterior ventral processing stream. In addition, the degree of category-selectivity in other brain regions increased with age. Collectively, these developmental changes may reflect fine-tuning in visual recognition processes based on learning and experience.
Accelerated Generation of Selfed Pure Line Plants for Gene Identification and Crop Breeding

Production of pure lines is an important step in biological studies and breeding of many crop plants. The major types of pure lines for biological studies and breeding include doubled haploid (DH) lines, recombinant inbred lines (RILs), and near isogenic lines (NILs). DH lines can be produced through microspore and megaspore culture followed by chromosome doubling while RILs and NILs can be produced through introgressions or repeated selfing of hybrids. DH approach was developed as a quicker method than conventional method to produce pure lines. However, its drawbacks of genotype-dependency and only a single chance of recombination limited its wider application. A recently developed fast generation cycling system (FGCS) achieved similar times to those of DH for the production of selfed pure lines but is more versatile as it is much less genotype-dependent than DH technology and does not restrict recombination to a single event. The advantages and disadvantages of the technologies and their produced pure line populations for different purposes of biological research and breeding are discussed. The development of a concept of complete in vitro meiosis and mitosis system is also proposed. This could integrate with the recently developed technologies of single cell genomic sequencing and genome wide selection, leading to a complete laboratory based pre-breeding scheme.
Id2 suppression of p15 counters TGF‐β‐mediated growth inhibition of melanoma cells

Proliferative resistance to transforming growth factor β (TGF‐β) is regarded as a critical turning point in the malignant progression of many cancer types. In melanoma this resistance is associated with more aggressive metastatic behaviour. A recent study by our group identified proliferative and invasive subtypes of melanoma cultures and found that these are, respectively, susceptible and resistant to TGF‐β suppression of proliferation. Here, using previously characterised proliferative and invasive phenotype melanoma cultures, we explored molecular responses involved in modulating susceptibility to TGF‐β‐mediated inhibition of proliferation. The Id2 gene was identified as being expressed more strongly in invasive phenotype cells less susceptible to TGF‐β repression than in proliferative phenotype cells. We correlated TGF‐β repression of Id2 gene expression in proliferative phenotype cells with p15Ink4b induction and cell cycle arrest. Furthermore, ectopic Id2 expression in proliferative phenotype cells counteracted p15Ink4b induction and consequently protected them from TGF‐β‐mediated inhibition of proliferation. We conclude that transition to increased aggressiveness in melanoma cells requires Id2 upregulation to suppress TGF‐β induction of p15Ink4b and thus help to circumvent TGF‐β‐mediated inhibition of proliferation.
Emotional Stress, Psychosocial Variables and Coping Associated with Hepatitis C Virus and Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infections in Intravenous Drug Users

Background: The increasing health problem of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection has only recently attracted the attention of psychosocial research, especially among subjects at higher risk (e.g. intravenous drug users; IDUs). The aim of the present study was to compare emotional stress symptoms, psychosocial variables (i.e. social support, external locus of control and emotional repression) and coping strategies in HCV-seropositive, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-seropositive and HCV/HIV-noninfected IDUs. Methods: IDUs followed by the Infectious Diseases Outpatient clinic were enrolled in the study over a period of 1 year. HCV-positive (n = 62) and HIV-positive (n = 76) IDUs and HCV/HIV-seronegative IDUs (n = 152) completed the Brief Symptom Inventory, the Social Provision Scale, the Locus of Control scale and the affective inhibition scale of the Illness Behavior Questionnaire. Coping with illness among HCV-positive and HIV-positive subjects was assessed through a modified version of the Mental Adjustment to Cancer Scale. Results: No significant differences were found between the samples with respect to individual and interpersonal variables. HCV-positive subjects showed higher scores on several psychological stress dimensions (i.e. obsessive-compulsive, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation, psychoticism) and lower scores on fighting spirit, hopelessness and anxious preoccupation towards illness than HIV-positive patients. HCV-positive and HCV/HIV-seronegative IDUs reported comparable scores on most of the psychological measures. Conclusions: The findings indicate that routine assessment of psychosocial variables and coping mechanisms should be integrated into all HCV and HIV services, especially those dedicated to treatment of patients with substance abuse, as a vulnerable segment of the population at risk for life-threatening physical illness such as HCV and HIV infections.
Carefulness Matters: Consumer Responses to Short Message Service Advertising

ABSTRACT Short message service (SMS) has been widely used by consumers, and SMS advertising has emerged as a popular topic in advertising and mobile commerce areas. However, the literature has not sufficiently clarified the impact of consumers’ carefulness in reading SMS ad messages (the extent to which a consumer reads an ad thoroughly and thoughtfully) on their responses. Using the SMS reading behavior and the SMS advertising effectiveness models as overarching frameworks, this study developed a research model explaining the effect of consumers’ carefulness in reading SMS ad messages on their responses. The findings of this study indicate that if consumers give their explicit permission to receive SMS ad messages from a company, they are more likely to read such messages carefully, which further strengthens the effects of the messages’ content relevance, informativeness, entertainment, and interactivity on their attitudes toward the received messages. This study is new in introducing reading carefulness to explain consumers’ responses to SMS advertising. Moreover, it initiated the inclusion of two novel responses, that is, intention to forward SMS ad messages and intention to contact marketers for more information. The findings provide useful and practicable insights to marketers for effectively communicating with consumers via SMS.
Effect of losartan on early liver fibrosis development in a rat model of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis

Background and Aim: Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a metabolic disorder of the liver that may evolve into fibrosis or cirrhosis. Recent studies have shown reduction of experimental liver fibrosis with the use of angiotensin‐converting‐enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin‐receptor antagonists. The aim of this study was to determine whether losartan can influence the early phase of fibrogenesis in an animal model of NASH.
Serum YKL-40 levels in rheumatoid arthritis: correlations between clinical and laborarory parameters.

OBJECTIVE To clarify the significance of YKL-40, also called human cartilage glycoprotein-39, in the serum of patients with RA, we studied serum YKL-40 in relation to clinical and laboratory parameters. METHODS Seventy-two patients (16 men and 56 women) with RA and 40 age-matched healthy persons (14 men, 26 women) were included in this study. Serum levels of YKL-40, insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) were measured by ELISA. Radiological changes reflecting joint destruction and the joint score for pain or swelling were assessed by taking into account the joint surface area. Serum CRP levels and the functional disability of patients were also determined. RESULTS YKL-40 levels in the serum of patients with RA were significantly higher than those of controls (p < 0.0001), and showed positive correlations with serum levels of IL-6 (r = 0.301, p = 0.011) and CRP (r = 0.326, p = 0.006), but negative correlations with serum levels of IGF-I (r = -0.340, p = 0.004). The radiological score, but not joint pain, also correlated with YKL-40 levels (r = 0.364, p = 0.002). As the functional disability of patients became severe, the serum YKL levels increased. CONCLUSION Serum YKL-40 levels partially reflect the degree of inflammation and also reflect the joint destruction in patients with RA.
QT interval dispersion as a prognostic indicator in patients of acute coronary syndromes

Background: QT dispersion is a potential marker of arrhythmic risk, myocardial ischemia and myocardial viability. Measurement of QT interval dispersion has failed to establish its place in routine clinical practice. The study aims at predicting risk of life threatening ventricular arrhythmias in patients of acute coronary syndromes using rate adjusted QT interval dispersion (QTcd) as one of the cheapest modalities of investigation. Methods: Serial measurements (at admission, after 24 hours, 48 hours, and 7 th day) of rate adjusted QT interval dispersion (QTcd) was done in 107 cases of acute coronary syndromes (ACS) namely ST-segment elevated Myocardial infarction (STEMI), non-ST-segment elevated myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) and unstable angina (UA). Patients who reported within 12 hrs of onset of chest pain and typical ECG changes were thrombolysed using streptokinase (15 lack IU). Results: Mean QTcd following acute coronary syndrome was maximum at admission and then gradually falls till day-7 as the patients clinical condition improves but it remains high in case of development of various complications (viz. hypotension, congestive heart failure (CHF), PSVT, VPC, CHB, ventricular fibrillation and death). Patients with STEMI who were thrombolysed at admission showed significantly lower mean QTcd on day-1, as well as complications and death during in-hospital stay as compared to patients who were not thrombolysed (p <0.001). Conclusions: QTcd interval could be helpful as an earliest in-hospital bedside predictor of life-threatening arrhythmias and death. Timely reperfusion by thrombolysis decreases mean Qtcd and thus reduces post-MI mortality and morbidity.
Crestal bone changes around titanium implants. Part I: A retrospective radiographic evaluation in humans comparing two non-submerged implant designs with different machined collar lengths.

BACKGROUND Experimental studies demonstrated that peri-implant crestal hard and soft tissues are significantly influenced in their apico-coronal position by the rough/smooth implant border as well as the microgap/ interface between implant and abutment/restoration. The aim of this study was to evaluate radiographically the crestal bone level changes around two types of implants, one with a 2.8 mm smooth machined coronal length and the other with 1.8 mm collar. METHODS In 68 patients, a total of 201 non-submerged titanium implants (101 with a 1.8 mm, 100 with a 2.8 mm long smooth coronal collar) were placed with their rough/smooth implant border at the bone crest level. From the day of surgery up until 3 years after implant placement crestal bone levels were analyzed digitally using standardized radiographs. RESULTS Bone remodeling was most pronounced during the unloaded, initial healing phase and did not significantly differ between the two types of implants over the entire observation period (P >0.20). Crestal bone loss for implants placed in patients with poor oral hygiene was significantly higher than in patients with adequate or good plaque control (P <0.005). Furthermore, a tendency for additional crestal bone loss was detected in the group of patients who had been diagnosed with aggressive periodontitis prior to implant placement (P = 0.058). In both types of implants, sand-blasted, large grit, acid-etched (SLA) surfaced implants tended to have slightly less crestal bone loss compared to titanium plasma-sprayed (TPS) surfaced implants, but the difference was not significant (P >0.30). CONCLUSION The implant design with the shorter smooth coronal collar had no additional bone loss and may help to reduce the risk of an exposed metal implant margin in areas of esthetic concern.