Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Combined effect of chronic kidney disease and peripheral arterial disease on all-cause mortality in a high-risk population.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Chronic kidney disease (estimated glomerular filtration rate <60 ml/min per 1.73 m(2)) and peripheral arterial disease (ankle-brachial index <0.9) independently predict mortality. It was hypothesized that the risk for death is higher in patients with both chronic kidney disease and peripheral arterial disease compared with those with chronic kidney disease or peripheral arterial disease alone. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS A total of 1079 patients who had an ankle-brachial index and serum creatinine recorded within 90 d of each other in 1999 were studied retrospectively. Glomerular filtration rate was estimated using the Modification of Diet in Renal Disease equation. Patients were categorized into four groups: Chronic kidney disease and peripheral arterial disease, chronic kidney disease alone, peripheral arterial disease alone, or no chronic kidney disease or peripheral arterial disease. RESULTS The overall 6-yr mortality rate was 28% (n = 284). Patients with both chronic kidney disease and peripheral arterial disease had the highest mortality rate (45%) compared with patients with chronic kidney disease alone (28%), peripheral arterial disease alone (26%), and neither condition (18%). After adjustment for clinical and demographic variables, the chronic kidney disease and peripheral arterial disease group had an increased odds for death when compared with the no chronic kidney disease or peripheral arterial disease group or the single disease groups. CONCLUSIONS These findings indicate that patients with both chronic kidney disease and peripheral arterial disease have a significantly higher risk for death than patients with either disease alone.
International competition and rent sharing in french manufacturing

The paper investigates the impact of import competition on rent-sharing between firms and employees. First, by applying recent advances in the estimation of price-costs margins to a large panel of French manufacturing firms for the period 1993â€“2007, we are able to classify each firm into labor- and product-market regimes based on the presence/absence of market power. Second, we concentrate on firms that operate in an e cient bargaining framework to study the eâ†µect of import penetration on workersâ€™ bargaining power. We find that French imports from other OECD countries have a negative eâ†µect on bargaining power, whereas the impact of imports from low wage countries is more muted. By providing firm-level evidence on the relationship between international trade and rent sharing, the paper sheds new light on the eâ†µect of trade liberalization on the labor market.
Macroeconomic Implications of Production Bunching

The literature on inventory holdings stresses their role in smoothing production when costs are convex. Existing empirical evidence suggests that output is more variable than consumption so that production smoothing is not apparently present. One way of explaining this finding is to allow for nonconvex technologies. In this paper, we investigate some macroeconomic implications of the proposition that at least some firms in the economy produce with non-convex technologies. We begin our analysis by studying a simple Robinson Crusoe economy with a single, storable good which is produced from a non-convex technology. The single agent can produce a finite amount of output simply by incurring a fixed production cost. We demonstrate that the efficient solution to this problem will entail periods of production followed by periods of inactivity: i.e. production will be bunched rather than smoothed. More importantly, inventories will be used to smooth consumption relative to this production path. Still, as long as the agent discounts the future or inventories depreciate over time, consumption will not be totally smooth. Instead, consumption will be highest in periods of production. Thus the non-convex technology will induce fluctuations in both production and consumption. Using this analysis as a starting point, we then consider the implications of a non -convex technology in one sector of the economy for the behavior of other sectors through intersectoral technological linkages for both centralized and decentralized economies. For the centralized setting, the extent to which non- convexities spillover to other sectors depends on the degree to which intermediate and final goods can be inventoried and the nature of the technological interaction between factors. For the decentralized economy, the production of inputs which are strategic complements (substitutes) will be synchronized (staggered). Thus the presence of strategic complementarities (as in imperfectly competitive markets) will imply that non-convexities will have aggregate implications.
Leveraging Multiactions to Improve Medical Personalized Ranking for Collaborative Filtering

Nowadays, providing high-quality recommendation services to users is an essential component in web applications, including shopping, making friends, and healthcare. This can be regarded either as a problem of estimating users' preference by exploiting explicit feedbacks (numerical ratings), or as a problem of collaborative ranking with implicit feedback (e.g., purchases, views, and clicks). Previous works for solving this issue include pointwise regression methods and pairwise ranking methods. The emerging healthcare websites and online medical databases impose a new challenge for medical service recommendation. In this paper, we develop a model, MBPR (Medical Bayesian Personalized Ranking over multiple users' actions), based on the simple observation that users tend to assign higher ranks to some kind of healthcare services that are meanwhile preferred in users' other actions. Experimental results on the real-world datasets demonstrate that MBPR achieves more accurate recommendations than several state-of-the-art methods and shows its generality and scalability via experiments on the datasets from one mobile shopping app.
Fenofibrate Simultaneously Induces Hepatic Fatty Acid Oxidation, Synthesis, and Elongation in Mice*

A growing body of evidence indicates that peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor α (PPARα) not merely serves as a transcriptional regulator of fatty acid catabolism but also exerts a much broader role in hepatic lipid metabolism. We determined adaptations in hepatic lipid metabolism and related aspects of carbohydrate metabolism upon treatment of C57Bl/6 mice with the PPARα agonist fenofibrate. Stable isotope procedures were applied to assess hepatic fatty acid synthesis, fatty acid elongation, and carbohydrate metabolism. Fenofibrate treatment strongly induced hepatic de novo lipogenesis and chain elongation (±300, 150, and 600% for C16:0, C18:0, and C18:1 synthesis, respectively) in parallel with an increased expression of lipogenic genes. The lipogenic induction in fenofibrate-treated mice was found to depend on sterol regulatory element-binding protein 1c (SREBP-1c) but not carbohydrate response element-binding protein (ChREBP). Fenofibrate treatment resulted in a reduced contribution of glycolysis to acetyl-CoA production, whereas the cycling of glucose 6-phosphate through the pentose phosphate pathway presumably was enhanced. Altogether, our data indicate that β-oxidation and lipogenesis are induced simultaneously upon fenofibrate treatment. These observations may reflect a physiological mechanism by which PPARα and SREBP-1c collectively ensure proper handling of fatty acids to protect the liver against cytotoxic damage.
Cognitive-Processing Bias in Chinese Student Teachers with Strong and Weak Professional Identity

Professional identity plays an important role in career development. Although many studies have examined professional identity, differences in cognitive-processing biases between Chinese student teachers with strong and weak professional identity are poorly understood. The current study adopted Tversky’s social-cognitive experimental paradigm to explore cognitive-processing biases in Chinese student teachers with strong and weak professional identity. Experiment 1 showed that participants with strong professional identity exhibited stronger positive-coding bias toward positive profession-related life events, relative to that observed in those with weak professional identity. Experiment 2 showed that participants with strong professional identity exhibited greater recognition bias for previously read items, relative to that observed in those with weak professional identity. Overall, the results suggested that participants with strong professional identity exhibited greater positive cognitive-processing bias relative to that observed in those with weak professional identity.
Guanylin and uroguanylin induce natriuresis in mice lacking guanylyl cyclase-C receptor.

BACKGROUND Guanylin (GN) and uroguanylin (UGN) are intestinally derived peptide hormones that are similar in structure and activity to the diarrhea-causing Escherichia coli heat-stable enterotoxins (STa). These secretagogues have been shown to affect fluid, Na+, K+, and Cl- transport in both the intestine and kidney, presumably by intracellular cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP)-dependent signal transduction. However, the in vivo consequences of GN, UGN, and STa on renal function and their mechanism of action have yet to be rigorously tested. METHODS We hypothesized that intravenous administration of GN, UGN, or STa would cause an increase in natriuresis in wild-type mice via cGMP and guanylyl cyclase-C (GC-C, Gucy2c), the only known receptor for these peptide-hormones, and that the peptide-induced natriuresis would be blunted in genetically altered mice devoid of GC-C receptors (GC-C(-/-) null). RESULTS In wild-type mice using a modified renal clearance model, GN, UGN, and STa elicited significant natriuresis, kaliuresis, and diuresis as well as increased urinary cGMP levels in a time- and dose-dependent fashion. Absolute and fractional urinary sodium excretion levels were greatest approximately 40 minutes following a bolus infusion with pharmacologic doses of these peptides. Unexpectedly, GC-C(-/-) null mice also responded to the GN peptides similarly to that observed in wild-type mice. Glomerular filtration rate (GFR), blood pressure, and plasma cGMP in the mice (wild-type or GC-C(-/-) null) did not significantly vary between the vehicle- and peptide-treatment groups. The effects of UGN may also influence long-term renal function due to down-regulation of the Na+/K+ ATPase gamma-subunit and the Cl- channel ClC-K2 by 60% and 75%, respectively, as assessed by differential display polymerase chain reaction (PCR) (DD-PCR) and Northern blot analysis of kidney mRNA from mice treated with UGN. CONCLUSION GN, UGN, and STa act on the mouse kidney, in part, through a cGMP-dependent, GC-C-independent mechanism, causing significant natriuresis by renal tubular processes. UGN may have further long-term effects on the kidney by altering the expression of such transport-associated proteins as Na+/K+ ATPase and ClC-K2.
Comparative Evaluation of Bone Suture Anchor to Bone Tunnel Fixation of Tibialis Anterior Tendon in Cadaveric Cuboid Bone: A Biomechanical Investigation

A multiphase biomechanical study was performed using human tibialis anterior tendons and cuboid bones, comparing the fixation of the tendon to the bone using bone anchors and bone tunnels. Twenty-six specimens were tested for ultimate load to failure comparing Mitek Superanchor fixation with no. 1 and no. 5 braided polyethelyne suture to bone tunnel fixation. Mitek Superanchor with no. 5 suture failed at 223 N, compared with Mitek Superanchor with no. 1 suture at 134 N and bone tunnel at 143 N (P = 0.033). Mitek with no. 1 suture versus bone tunnel was not significantly different. The Mitek with no. 5 suture failed at the tendon/suture interface (75%), the Mitek with no. 1 suture failed at the suture/anchor interface (56%), and bone tunnel fixation failed most commonly by fracture of the tunnel (76%). This study is the first biomechanical analysis of the pullout strengths of bone tunnels or suture anchors in the cuboid bone. We have shown that the suture anchor has a pullout strength comparable or superior to a conventional bone tunnel in an in vitro situation. We believe it is a viable alternative to fixation of the tibialis anterior tendon to the cuboid when there is insufficient tendon length or failure of the bone tunnel.
Effects of supplementation with a phytobiotics-rich herbal mixture on performance, udder health, and metabolic status of Holstein cows with various levels of milk somatic cell counts.

This study evaluated the effects of dietary supplementation of a novel phytobiotics-rich herbal mixture (PRHM) on feed intake, performance, udder health, ruminal fermentation, and plasma metabolites in cows with moderate or high somatic cell counts (SCC) in the milk. Twenty-four Holstein dairy cows (117 ± 26 d in milk and 46.3 ± 4.7 kg of milk/d at the start of the experiment) were blocked by parity and days in milk and split into 2 groups, based on SCC in the milk; 12 cows were with moderate SCC (260,000500,000 cells/mL) in the milk. Within each SCC group, cows were blocked by milk yield and parity, and were randomly assigned to 2 different feeding regimens. Half of the cows in each SCC group (n=6) were supplemented with PRHM (185 g/cow per day, providing 12.4 g of phenolic compounds per day), and the other half (n=6) were not supplemented in their diets. The experiment lasted 36 d, whereby the first 24 d were used for adaptation to the diets and the last 12 d for sampling. Data showed that supplementation of PRHM decreased somatic cell score in the milk, indicating improved udder health of cows with high initial SCC, but not in cows with moderate SCC. Also, cows supplemented with PRHM consumed more feed DM, produced greater amounts of milk, and showed an improvement of feed utilization efficiency. However, these cows also lost more back-fat thickness during the experiment. Supplementation of PRHM increased fat- and energy-corrected milk yields in cows with high initial SCC, but not in cows with moderate SCC. Supplementation of PRHM decreased milk fat content, whereas other milk components were not affected by PRHM feeding. The PRHM supplementation decreased the acetate-to-propionate ratio in the rumen fluid, but increased β-hydroxybutyrate and cholesterol concentration in the plasma, irrespective of the initial SCC level in the milk. Other plasma metabolites and liver enzymes were not affected by PRHM supplementation. Apparent nutrient digestibility did not differ among treatments. Overall, supplementation of PRHM seems to be an effective strategy to enhance performance and lower SCC, particularly in cows having high SCC levels in the milk. Further research is warranted to evaluate long-term effects of PRHM supplementation, especially with regard to metabolic health status and reproduction.
Venous thromboembolism in patients with esophageal or gastric cancer undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

There is a well-established link between cancer and venous thromboembolism (VTE), and patients receiving chemotherapy for esophageal or gastric cancer appear at high risk of developing VTE. The incidence of VTE in the neoadjuvant setting in these patients is poorly understood, as is the role for thromboprophylaxis during neoadjuvant chemotherapy. A PubMed search was conducted using a combination of terms including; esophageal & gastric cancer, deep venous thrombosis (DVT), VTE, neoadjuvant, chemotherapy and chemoradiotherapy. One hundred and fifty-four articles were retrieved and a narrative review was conducted. For patients with esophageal and gastric cancer the incidence of VTE ranged from 4 to 19%. Gastric cancer (Odds Ratio [OR] 6.38, [95% CI: 1.96-20.80]) and Stage III/IV disease, (OR 5.16 [95% CI: 1.29-20.73]) were identified as risk factors for developing VTE. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy was identified as an independent risk factor for developing VTE. Symptomatic and asymptomatic VTE have a similar effect on mortality. Median overall survival for asymptomatic VTE was 13.9 months (95% CI: 5.0-∞) versus 12.8 months (95% CI: 4.7-30.3) if the VTE was symptomatic. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy is a significant risk factor for VTE in patients with esophageal and gastric cancer. Intervention to minimize the risk using pharmacological and mechanical thromboprophylaxis should be considered, and this should start in the neoadjuvant period.
Change in self-reported outcomes and objective physical function over 7 years in middle-aged subjects with or at high risk of knee osteoarthritis

Objective: In the present work, we describe the clinical course and predictors of change in self-reported outcomes and objectively assessed physical function over time in middle-aged subjects at high risk of, or with knee osteoarthritis (OA). Methods: We examined 259 subjects (mean (SD) age 52.6 (10.4)) at mean 18 and 25 years after previous meniscectomy and 50 population-based age- and sex-matched reference subjects with the Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS), one-leg hop for distance and number of knee-bendings in 30 s. Radiographic OA was defined as equivalent to Kellgren and Lawrence grade 2 or worse. Results: At first assessment, meniscectomised subjects reported worse pain, function and quality of life compared with the reference group (p<0.001). They also performed fewer knee-bendings per 30 s (27 vs 31, p = 0.02). The meniscectomised patients worsened over the 4–10-year observation time in all measured outcomes (p<0.001), and to a greater extent than the reference group in pain (−5, 95% CI −10 to 0) and one-leg hop (−11, 95% CI −18 to −3). Being a woman, or having radiographic knee OA, enhanced the worsening in self-reported and objectively assessed outcomes. Older age and a higher body mass index (BMI) influenced objectively assessed physical function, but not self-reported outcomes. Conclusion: Worsening over time in knee-related pain and function is greater in meniscectomised subjects compared with reference subjects. Rehabilitative efforts may be warranted in middle-aged meniscectomised patients, especially in women and those who have developed radiographic knee OA, who are at greater risk of worsening.
Can Firms See into the Future? Survey Evidence from Germany

This paper presents new evidence on the expectation formation process of firms from a survey of the German manufacturing sector. First, firms become too optimistic after their business has improved, consistent with the over-extrapolation of their experience. Second, firms extrapolate improvements in their business more than deteriorations. Third, firms are more optimistic (pessimistic) than usual during business cycle peaks (troughs), suggesting that they do not anticipate reversals. Fourth, the German reunification provided a positive exogenous shock to the business of West German products. The industries most positively affected by the shock initially over-extrapolated the past downward trend just as much as the less affected industries, and thus failed to anticipate the reversal. Fifth, more overoptimistic firms subsequently report larger inventories and lower profits, suggesting that expectation errors entail (opportunity) costs. Sixth, older and larger firms show a smaller extrapolation bias, indicating that time and resources can alleviate the extrapolation bias. Seventh, firms that expect their business to improve tend to also expect their prices to increase, suggesting that firms mostly try to forecast demand shocks as opposed to supply shocks. Overall, these observations suggest that firms have a limited ability to anticipate changes in their activity and extrapolate their experience too much.
Serial Analysis of Gene Expression in Turkey Sperm Storage Tubules in the Presence and Absence of Resident Sperm

Abstract Turkey sperm lose viability within 8–18 h when stored as liquid semen using current methods and extenders. In contrast, turkey hens maintain viable, fertile sperm in their sperm storage tubules (SST) for 45 or more days following a single insemination. Our long-term objectives are to identify and characterize differentially expressed genes that may underlie this prolonged sperm storage and then use this information to develop improved methods for storing liquid turkey semen. We employed serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) to compare gene expression patterns in turkey SST recovered from hens after artificial insemination (AI) with extended semen (sperm AI) or extender alone (control AI). We constructed two separate SAGE libraries with SST RNA obtained from sperm and control AI hens. We used these libraries to generate 95 325 ten-base pair SAGE tags. These 95 325 tags represented 27 430 unique genes. The sperm and control AI libraries contained 47 663 and 47 662 tags representing 18 030 and 19 101 putative unique transcripts, respectively. Approximately 1% of these putative unique genes were differentially expressed (P < 0.05) between treatments. Tentative annotations were ascribed to the SAGE tag nucleotide sequences by comparing them against publicly available SAGE tag and cDNA sequence databases. Based on its SAGE tag nucleotide sequence, we cloned a partial turkey avidin cDNA and confirmed its up-regulation in the sperm AI SST. The bioinformatics and experimental procedures employed to clone turkey avidin and confirm its differential expression represent a useful paradigm for analyzing SAGE tag data from relatively uncharacterized model systems.
RELIABILITY OF THE LODE EXCALIBUR SPORT ERGOMETER AND APPLICABILITY TO COMPUTRAINER ELECTROMAGNETICALLY BRAKED CYCLING TRAINING DEVICE

New technology allows cyclists to train via power output (PO) in addition to heart rate (HR). For those athletes undertaking seasonal laboratory testing (e.g., VO2, lactate threshold), it is imperative that athletes be able to directly apply this information to their training device. We examined the reliability of a standardized laboratory ergometer (Lode Excalibur Sport) and its applicability to an electromagnetically braked ergometer (Computrainer) in 2 phases. Phase I (n = 12) examined the reliability of the Lode. Phase II (n = 14) compared the Lode to the Computrainer using a randomized, counterbalance assignment. Following warm-up, each trial started at 100 W, progressing 50 W every 3 minutes to exhaustion. Outcomes were time-to-exhaustion (TTE), peak PO (W) (POpeak), peak HR (HRpeak), and ventilatory (VT) and respiratory compensation (RCP) thresholds. We used a repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA), Tukey post hoc analysis, regression analysis, Bland-Altman plots, and coefficient of variation (CV) analysis for each variable. During phase I, we found no significant difference for any variable, minimal dispersion of VO2 during Bland-Altman analysis, and a low CV at each test stage (≤ 5%). During phase II, significant differences and higher CV for most parameters (all data; p < 0.001) were observed for Lode versus Computrainer: TTE (21 minutes, 12 seconds ± 3 minutes, 12 seconds vs. 19 minutes, 9 seconds ± 2 minutes, 36 seconds; CV 5 16%), POpeak (335 ± 57.8 W vs. 295 ± 47.1 W, CV = 17%), as well as PO at VT (CV = 51%) and RCP (CV = 24%; p < 0.01). We conclude that coaches and cyclists may need to use some caution when directly transferring results obtained from laboratory testing to the Computrainer training device.