Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Spatio-temporal variations and age effect on Toxoplasma gondii seroprevalence in seals from the Canadian Arctic

SUMMARY Toxoplasmosis is a significant public health threat for Inuit in the Canadian Arctic. This study aimed to investigate arctic seals as a possible food-borne source of infection. Blood samples collected from 828 seals in 7 Canadian Arctic communities from 1999 to 2006 were tested for Toxoplasma gondii antibodies using a direct agglutination test. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to detect T. gondii DNA in tissues of a subsample of seals. Associations between seal age, sex, species, diet, community and year of capture, and serological test results were investigated by logistic regression. Overall seroprevalence was 10·4% (86/828). All tissues tested were negative by PCR. In ringed seals, seroprevalence was significantly higher in juveniles than in adults (odds ratio=2·44). Overall, seroprevalence varied amongst communities (P=0·0119) and by capture year (P=0·0001). Our study supports the hypothesis that consumption of raw seal meat is a significant source of infection for Inuit. This work raises many questions about the mechanism of transfer of this terrestrial parasite to the marine environment, the preponderance of infection in younger animals and the natural course of infection in seals. Further studies to address these questions are essential to fully understand the health risks for Inuit communities.
Hometown Biased Acquisitions

We show that chief executive officers (CEOs) exhibit a hometown bias in acquisitions. Firms are over twice as likely to acquire targets located in the states of their CEOs’ childhood homes than similar targets domiciled elsewhere. Small, private home-state deals underperform other small, private deals, and the bias is stronger when acquirer governance is lax, suggesting that CEOs acquire private home-state targets for their own benefits. In contrast, large, public home-state acquisitions are value enhancing. CEOs create value in public home-state acquisitions by avoiding extremely poor deals and through deals with higher synergies. Thus, both agency issues and hometown advantages drive home-state acquisitions.
Cost-effectiveness of treatments for temporomandibular disorders: biopsychosocial intervention versus treatment as usual.

BACKGROUND The authors conducted a randomized clinical trial to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of a biopsychosocial intervention with patients who are at high risk (HR) of progressing from acute to chronic TMD-related pain. METHODS The authors classified 96 patients with acute TMD (less than six months' duration) as HR according to a predictive algorithm and randomized them into an early intervention (EI) or a nonintervention (NI) group. The NI group received a biopsychosocial treatment that included cognitive behavioral skills training and biofeedback. Both groups were followed up for one year. The authors collected TMD cost data throughout the year. RESULTS The authors found that the EI group spent significantly fewer jaw-related health care dollars, relative to the NI group, from intake to the one-year follow-up. CONCLUSION AND CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS The reduced jaw-related health care expenditures for patients in the EI group compared with expenditures for patients in the NI group at one year suggest that an early biopsychosocial intervention is a cost-effective measure in dealing with often unnecessarily costly TMD-related pain.
Are long-term care residents referred appropriately to hospital emergency departments?

OBJECTIVE To explore the rate of referrals of long-term care (LTC) residents to emergency departments (EDs) and to determine the appropriateness of the referrals. DESIGN Retrospective analysis of 2 administrative data sets, paramedic records and hospital records, for the year 2000. SETTING Catchment area of Hamilton, Ont. PARTICIPANTS Nineteen LTC facilities and 3 EDs of Hamilton Health Sciences. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Number and appropriateness of referrals were the main outcomes measured; we also examined the timing of and reasons for referrals, arrival status of patients, admissions to hospital, referrals to specialists, and treatments. Unit of analysis was the referral. As no evidence-based guidelines exist for appropriateness of referral, we defined appropriateness as a balance of issues with blinded physician judgment calls on anonymous random subsamples of patients admitted to hospital and those not admitted to determine appropriateness of referrals. Descriptive statistics were used, as well as chi and t tests. RESULTS Out of 2473 licensed LTC beds, 606 residents were referred to 1 of 3 EDs of the Hamilton Health Sciences hospitals, giving a referral rate of 24.5%. The average age of these LTC residents was 81.6 years, and 63.2% were women. Peak referral months were late winter; peak days were Tuesday and Friday. Time of arrival to the EDs was reported in 6-hour segments, with just over half (51.2%) of residents arriving during the day and one-third in the evening. Respiratory and cardiovascular problems comprised 48.6% of referrals. At arrival 67.3% of cases were deemed urgent or emergent. Wait times ranged from 0 to 60 hours, with 25% of residents seen within 1 hour, 44% within 2 hours, and 50% within 4 hours. Two-thirds (66.7%) of residents were admitted to hospital and of these 62% stayed 1 week. CONCLUSION Our results agree with previous studies that cast doubt on the idea that LTC residents are "dumped" on EDs. Most referrals appeared appropriate as defined by criteria established by the physician team and given the number of hospital admissions, diagnostic tests, and treatments provided. Potentially, more acute care could be provided in LTC facilities with enhancement of services. Prospective studies could tell us more.
Evidence-Based Medical Treatment in Peripheral Vestibular Diseases

Evidence-based medicine grades scientific research articles according to their structural specification. It represents an evidence value that we can count on for clinical applications. In this review, we evaluate our medical treatment algorithm in peripheral vestibular diseases according to evidence-based medicine rules. Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, vestibular paroxysmia, labyrinthitis, vestibular neuritis, otosclerosis, autoimmune inner ear disease, Meniere’s disease, and migraine-associated vertigo are discussed.
Retrospective: “culture shocks” in inter-cultural service encounters?

Purpose The article “Culture shocks” in inter-cultural service encounters was published in 1999. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how the scientific discussion about this issue has developed and which open research questions are still awaiting solutions. Design/methodology/approach The main contributions of the original article are evaluated in the light of the current state of research. Simultaneously, the scientific development is commented on the basis of the original theoretical and empirical insights. Findings The original article belongs to those that initiated an extraordinary development of the research field. Aspects of inter-cultural encounters have found increasing attention in service marketing research. However, some fundamental problems of inter-cultural studies are still unresolved, and some of the theoretical and management oriented stimuli of the 1999 paper still seem worthy of consideration. Originality/value The retrospective analysis gives insight into the scientific development of the research on inter-cultural service encounters. It identifies relevant development lines, new perspectives and open questions for future research.
Cow urine and Immunomodulation: An update on cowpathy

Indigenous cattle or zebu cattle is considered as sacred in Indian literature because its products like urine, dung, milk, curd and butter has many wonderful medicinal properties. Among these products cow urine has recently caught the attention of the researchers and a lot of work is going on its medicinal properties. Cow urine is found to have bioenhancing properties, i.e. it adds to the effect of antibiotics when used in combination. It is can be used as an alternative to the antibiotics in feed additives. Cow urine has antioxidant properties; it can prevent the damage to DNA caused by the environmental stress. It has been found to be a very good immunoenhancer. And interestingly these properties have been found only in the urine of indigenous cow not in the urine of other species like buffalo, goat or not even in cross bred cows. This review will provide an update on the various researches conducted in different institutes on the immunoenhancing properties cow urine.
Corporate Social Responsibility and Demand for New Equity Issues

Consistent with the hypothesis that equity demand is negatively (positively) affected by CSR concerns (strengths) of the issuer, we find that (1) issuers with greater CSR concerns are more likely to revise downwards the terms (offer price, number of shares offered, and total proceeds raised) of their stock offerings; (2) the probability of the over-allotment option being exercised is negatively related to CSR concerns in SEO issues, but is positively related to CSR strengths in IPO issues; and (3) the change in the percentage of institutional holdings around the issue date is positively (negatively) related to CSR strengths (concerns).
An integrated surveillance system of road traffic injuries in the Lazio region of Italy: results of a 5-year study (2001–2005)

Road traffic injuries represent a relevant public-health problem. In the Lazio region of Italy, a surveillance system was activated. The aim of this work is to describe the surveillance system and report the health information in terms of temporal trends for the 5-year period 2001–2005. We identified all emergency department (ED) visits in the emergency database and then linked them with hospital discharges and mortality registry. From the integrated database, we calculated the rates of emergency room visits, of hospital admissions, and of mortality, reporting the temporal trends. Between 2001 and 2005 the rate of ED visits was 3151 per 100,000 inhabitants. Hospitalisation rates showed a significant decreasing trend. The surveillance identified 22% more deaths in the study period than reported by the official statistics. The surveillance revealed a decreasing trend for hospital admissions and a decline in deaths in 2003 concurrent to the introduction of the driver's licence point system.
Proteolytic dissection of Sindbis virus core protein

Mild trypsin treatment of the Sindbis virus nucleocapsid protein yields a fragment with a molecular mass of approximately 18.5 kilodaltons with its N terminus at residue 105. The fragment, which is stable to further digestion, appears by gel exclusion chromatography to be monomeric. These data are consistent with a model for the alphavirus core proteins, consisting of an extended and flexible N-terminal arm (residues 1 to 103) and a compactly folded C-terminal domain (residues 104 to 274), as previously suggested on the basis of sequence characteristics.
102T/C SNP in the 5‐hydroxytryptamine receptor 2A (HTR2A) gene and schizophrenia in two southern han chinese populations: Lack of association

Serotonin (5‐hydroxytryptamine; 5‐HT) is a neurotransmitter that occupies a uniquely important place in neurobiology because of its role in many physiologic processes such as sleep, appetite, thermoregulation, pain perception, hormone secretion, and sexual behavior. Serotonin dysfunction has been implicated in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. Previous studies have shown an association between the T102C polymorphism of the 5‐hydroxytryptamine receptor 2A (HTR2A) gene and schizophrenia. However, many negative findings have also been reported. We analyzed the T102C polymorphism of HTR2A of schizophrenic patients in two southern Chinese populations (n = 291) and matched controls (n = 307). No significant positive association was observed between either of the polymorphisms and all schizophrenics, nor was the polymorphisms and any population of schizophrenia. These data did not provide evidence for a contribution of the 102T/C SNP of HTR2A gene to susceptibility to the southern Han Chinese schizophrenia. Copyright © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Detection of T-Wave Alternans Based on the Maximum of T Waves

T-wave alternans (TWA) is a variation in the amplitude or morphology of the T wave of the beat-to-beat ECG which provides a noninvasive and clinically useful marker for the risk of sudden cardiac death (SCD) caused by life threatening arrhythmias. Detection of beat-to-beat microvolt fluctuation of the T wave has been made possible with the use of advanced signal processing techniques and high-resolution electrodes to reduce ambient noise. Traditional spectral analysis of TWA needs precise positioning, in this paper, an algorithm based on the maximum of T waves is proposed. Using the method can reduce sample rate, which means the amount of calculation can be reduced, and can solve the problem that the fixed T-wave sampling points cann't change along with the change of heart rate. A time series of 128 amplitudes of corresponding points on the T wave are processed by fast fourier transformation (FFT) to yield the spectral display with the various peaks. The result shows that the proposed algorithm has a high detection quality and greatly reduces the amount of calculation.
Green Synthesis of Silver and Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles Using Euphorbia prostrata Extract Shows Shift from Apoptosis to G0/G1 Arrest followed by Necrotic Cell Death in Leishmania donovani

ABSTRACT The aim of the present study was to synthesize silver (Ag) and titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles (NPs) using green synthesis from aqueous leaf extract of Euphorbia prostrata as antileishmanial agents and to explore the underlying molecular mechanism of induced cell death. In vitro antileishmanial activity of synthesized NPs was tested against promastigotes of Leishmania donovani by alamarBlue and propidium iodide uptake assays. Antileishmanial activity of synthesized NPs on intracellular amastigotes was assessed by Giemsa staining. The leishmanicidal effect of synthesized Ag NPs was further confirmed by DNA fragmentation assay and by cell cycle progression and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) of the treated parasites. TEM analysis of the synthesized Ag NPs showed a spherical shape with an average size of 12.82 ± 2.50 nm, and in comparison to synthesized TiO2 NPs, synthesized Ag NPs were found to be most active against Leishmania parasites after 24 h exposure, with 50% inhibitory concentrations (IC50) of 14.94 μg/ml and 3.89 μg/ml in promastigotes and intracellular amastigotes, respectively. A significant increase in G0/G1 phase of the cell cycle with a subsequent decrease in S (synthesis) and G2/M phases compared to controls was observed. The growth-inhibitory effect of synthesized Ag NPs was attributed to increased length of S phase. A decreased reactive oxygen species level was also observed, which could be responsible for the caspase-independent shift from apoptosis (G0/G1 arrest) to massive necrosis. High-molecular-weight DNA fragmentation as a positive consequence of necrotic cell death was also visualized. We also report that the unique trypanothione/trypanothione reductase (TR) system of Leishmania cells was significantly inhibited by synthesized Ag NPs. The green-synthesized Ag NPs may provide promising leads for the development of cost-effective and safer alternative treatment against visceral leishmaniasis.
The Impacts of Interest Rate on Stock Market: Empirical Evidence from Dhaka Stock Exchange

Stock exchange and interest rate are two crucial factor of economic growth of a country. The impacts of interest rate on stock exchange provide important implications for monitory policy, risk management practices, financial securities valuation and government policy towards financial markets. This study seeks evidence supporting the existence of market efficiency on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) based on the daily general price index 1994 to 2005 and also shows empirical relationship between stock index and interest rate in Bangladesh based on monthly data from May 1992 to June 2004. Stationary of market return is tested and found DSE Index does not follow random walk model indicate DSE is not efficient in week form. The linear relationship between share price and interest rate, share price and growth of interest rate, growth of share price and interest rate, and growth of share price and growth of interest rate were determined through ordinary least-square (OLS) regression. For all of the cases, included and excluded outlier, it is found that Interest Rate has significant negative relationship with Share Price and Growth of Interest Rate also has significant negative relationship with Growth of Share Price. So if the interest rate is considerably controlled in Bangladesh than it will be the great benefit of Dhaka Stock Exchange through demand pull way of more investor in share market and supply pull way of more extensional investment of companies.
Gender Differences Among Online Shopping Factors In Pakistan

Pakistan is a huge consumer market, where very little is known about the aspects of consumers in online shopping environment. Consumer demographics such as gender are important factors in determining behaviour of individuals towards online shopping. This study finds relationships between gender and online shopping factors in Pakistan. With a survey sample of 286 respondents from various disciplines, exploratory factor analysis was used as an extraction method on the items of the proposed latent variables. MANOVA was then conducted to find gender differences among online shopping factors. Findings showed that shopping patterns differed between genders due to the influence of online shopping factors. This research may facilitate national and multinational organisations to streamline e-tailing strategies in order to gain business opportunities in emerging markets such as Pakistan.
New implant for drainage in glaucoma. Animal trial.

The implant described in this communication is the direct descendent of a long series of artificial drainage devices which began when Zorab (I9I2) inserted a silk thread through the limbus in order to drain aqueous into the subconjunctival space in cases of glaucoma (see also Mayou, I9I2). Among the more recently described devices are teflon drainage tubes in man (Richards, I955; Epstein, 1959; Ellis, I960) and gel film strips in rabbits (Laval, I955; Barsky and Schimek, I958). While short-term results with these implants have been promising, long-term results have been uniformly disappointing. The translimbal tubes of Ellis and Epstein have certainly maintained a patent fistula yet drainage has ceased. This failure of drainage has been ascribed to fibrosis in the bleb wall, the fibrosis itself being caused by a hypothetical action of the draining aqueous on the tissues (Stanworth, 1958; Tribin-Piedrahita, I965). To prevent any reduction in area of the bleb by fibrosis, an implant has been designed consisting of a translimbal tube rigidly attached to and opening onto the external surface of a thin acrylic plate. This plate, curved to fit the sclera lies under the conjunctival and episcleral tissues. The tube guarantees patency of the fistula while the plate, sutured to the sclera, forms the floor of a bleb which cannot shrink to an area less than that of the plate. In order to develop a mechanically satisfactory implant experimental work has been carried out on rabbits.
Informativeness of structured diagnostic interviews in the identification of Tourette's disorder in referred youth.

Although specialized programs have greatly advanced the treatment of youth with Tourette's disorder (TD), not all children with TD reach such programs, raising questions as to whether TD is adequately identified outside specialized settings. There is thus a need for evidence that cases identified in the nonspecialty setting are "true cases. " Because structured diagnostic interview methodology can reduce errors of omission, this approach can facilitate the identification of TD in referred youth outside specialized programs. Similarities between cases ascertained in specialty and nonspecialty settings would suggest that those identified in the nonspecialty setting were indeed "true cases. " Comparisons were made between youth with TD ascertained through a specialized TD program who had both a structured diagnostic interview-derived diagnosis of TD plus an expert evaluation of TD (N = 103), with youth ascertained through a non-TD specialized pediatric psychopharmacology program who had a structured diagnostic interview-derived diagnosis of TD (N = 92). Irrespective of ascertainment source, children with structured interview-derived diagnosis of TD shared similar correlates in terms of tic severity, mean age of onset and duration of tics, as well as patterns of comorbidity well known to be associated with TD in clinical samples. Children meeting diagnostic criteria for TD on structured diagnostic interviews share similarities and patterns of clinical correlates, irrespective of ascertainment through a specialized TD or non-TD specialized clinic. These findings support the usefulness of structured diagnostic interview methodology as a diagnostic aid for the identification of TD in non-TD specialized settings and facilitate delineation of patterns of comorbidity.
Role of Fungi in Biodegradation of Petroleum Hydrocarbons in Drill Waste

Petroleum substances are the main source of pollutants stored in old waste pits. They cause degradation of biological life in the area of storage. The aim of this article is to present laboratory research on petroleum pollutant biodegradation. The hydrocarbon contaminants in old drilling wastes came from the Graby-19 waste pit. The tests included basic bioremediation and inoculation with a biopreparation based on non-pathogenic species of bacteria and fungi, which were identified in molecular research. Multicriteria effectiveness estimation of petroleum pollutant biodegradation in the tested wastes enabled determination of a role of fungi in this process. Biopreparation enrichment was done in the final phase with non-pathogenic fungi isolated from the waste during purification. As a result, an increase in long-chain n-alkanes and aromatic hydrocarbon (BTEX and PAH) biodegradation was observed. Biodegradation rate constants for petroleum hydrocarbons, calculated on the basis of a mathematical model, can serve as proof of fungi usage in the bioremediation process.