Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Phase II Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trial of Oral N-acetylcysteine for Protection of Melanocytic Nevi against UV-Induced Oxidative Stress In Vivo

Oxidative stress plays a role in UV-induced melanoma, which may arise from melanocytic nevi. We investigated whether oral administration of the antioxidant N-acetylcysteine (NAC) could protect nevi from oxidative stress in vivo in the setting of acute UV exposure. The minimal erythemal dose (MED) was determined for 100 patients at increased risk for melanoma. Patients were randomized to receive a single dose (1,200 mg) of NAC or placebo, in double-blind fashion, and then one nevus was irradiated (1–2 MED) using a solar simulator. One day later, the MED was redetermined and the irradiated nevus and a control unirradiated nevus were removed for histologic analysis and examination of biomarkers of NAC metabolism and UV-induced oxidative stress. Increased expression of 8-oxoguanine, thioredoxin reductase-1, and γ-glutamylcysteine synthase modifier subunit were consistently seen in UV-treated compared with unirradiated nevi. However, no significant differences were observed in these UV-induced changes or in the pre- and postintervention MED between those patients receiving NAC versus placebo. Similarly, no significant differences were observed in UV-induced changes between subjects with germline wild-type versus loss-of-function mutations in the melanocortin-1 receptor. Nevi showed similar changes of UV-induced oxidative stress in an open-label post-trial study in 10 patients who received NAC 3 hours before nevus irradiation. Thus, a single oral dose of NAC did not effectively protect nevi from UV-induced oxidative stress under the conditions examined. Cancer Prev Res; 10(1); 36–44. ©2016 AACR.
Political Science, Public Policy, and Drug Use Prevention

Increasingly, drug use prevention programs and research are being considered in the environmental contexts in which they occur. One context that is rarely considered is the political context. This article examines the reciprocal effects of policy and prevention programs from four perspectives representing different contexts, beginning with political science, and followed by social work and public health administration, psychology, and education. Four specific issues are considered. First is how current national policies on drug use shape our nation's prevention efforts, from a political science perspective. Second is how effective prevention programs can affect and shape policy change. This issue is considered from a social and public health administration perspective. Third is how policy change can act as an intervention to prevent drug use, from the perspective of psychology. The fourth issue is how dissemination of prevention programs and policies can impact drug use prevention. This question considers an educational perspective. The perspectives are integrated into a general conceptual model to improve our understanding of how drug use prevention occurs in a national political context. Finally, examples are given of how this model might inform the other perspectives represented in this special issue on transdisciplinary drug abuse prevention research.
Market with transaction costs: optimal shadow state-price densities and exponential utility maximization

This thesis discusses the financial market model with proportional transaction costs considered in Cvitanic and Karatzas (1996) (hereafter we use CK (1996)). For a modified dual problem introduced by Choulli (2009), I discuss solutions under weaker conditions than those of CK (1996), and furthermore the obtained solutions generalize the examples treated in CK (1996). Then, I consider the exponential utility which does not belong to the family of utility considered by CK (1996) due to the Inada condition. Finally, I elaborate the same results as in CK (1996) for the exponential utility, and I derive other related results using the specificity of the exponential utility function as well. These lead to a different method/approach than CK (1996) for our utility maximization problem, and different notion of admissibility for financial strategies as well.
Psychological Capital Research: A Meta-Analysis and Implications for Management Sustainability

The purpose of this study is to conduct a wide-ranging meta-analytic review of empirical psychological capital studies in the management field. We conducted a meta-analysis on papers collected from the EBSCOhost and ProQuest databases. For comprehensive and extensive literature coverage, we also searched and compared the Journal Citation Report for the journals that referenced the most-cited articles (e.g., Journal of Organizational Behavior, Academy of Management Journal, etc.). A total of 81 published types of research were thoroughly selected and analyzed. The results revealed that, with different weighting, the following influencing factors have significant associations with psychological capital: organizational climate, organizational justice, authentic leadership, leader–member exchange, and occupational stress. Also, with different influencing weighting, psychological capital is confirmed to have impacts on job satisfaction, attitude, performance, organizational citizenship behavior, and undesirable behaviors. Implications for managerial sustainability are discussed.
The impact of continuing professional development on EFL teachers

This thesis aims to explore the continuing professional development (CPD) of expatriate teachers employed in the foundation English as a Foreign Language (EFL) programme of federal universities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In order to understand the phenomenon of CPD from the perspective of experienced teachers in the context, this study explores their perceptions about CPD; along with their choice of CPD initiatives and the reasons and factors which impact on their choice. It also explores teachers’ suggestions about improving CPD in their context. The results of the study are expected to create awareness of these aspects among the community of experienced EFL teachers, their institutions and the local CPD organisations. Findings are also expected to raise implications to consider for improving the CPD experience of teachers in the context.
Resistance training to reduce the malnutrition-inflammation complex syndrome of chronic kidney disease.

BACKGROUND Systemic inflammation and protein-energy malnutrition may be associated with poor outcomes in kidney disease. METHODS We studied 26 adults (age, 65 +/- 10 [SD] years) with chronic kidney disease, not on dialysis therapy. Subjects were randomly assigned to resistance training (n = 14) or a control group (n = 12) for 12 weeks, while counseled to consume a low-protein diet (protein, approximately 0.6 g/kg/d). We determined whether resistance training reduces levels of inflammatory mediators (serum C-reactive protein [CRP] and interleukin-6 [IL-6]), in addition to previously reported improvements in nutritional and functional status in this same subject population. RESULTS Serum CRP levels were reduced in subjects undergoing resistance training (-1.7 mg/L) compared with controls (1.5 mg/L; P = 0.05). Similarly, IL-6 levels were reduced in the resistance-exercise group versus controls (-4.2 versus 2.3 pg/mL; P = 0.01). Resistance training lead to skeletal muscle hypertrophy, shown by increases in type I (24% +/- 31%) and type II (22% +/- 41%) muscle fiber cross-sectional areas, compared with control subjects (-14% +/- 34% and -13% +/- 18%, respectively; P < 0.05). Muscle strength also improved with resistance training (28% +/- 14%) compared with controls (-13% +/- 22%; P = 0.001). CONCLUSION Resistance training reduced inflammation and improved nutritional status in individuals with moderate chronic kidney disease consuming a low-protein diet. These results need to be investigated further in larger cohorts of patients with varying stages of kidney disease to determine whether resistance training can improve disease outcomes long term.
Information capacity of adaptive MIMO OFDM wireless communication systems

In this paper, the mathematical analysis supported by computer simulation is used to find the information capacity of adaptive MIMO OFDM in digital communication systems. Result shows that in additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel, the capacity performance of Least mean square (LMS) is poor while the recursive least square (RLS) shows an increase in capacity as the SNR increases. The joint channel parameters estimation in adaptive MIMO OFDM shows a 2dB SNR gain at BER of 10•5 when compared to individual parameter estimation.
Human-resources strategies for managing HIV/AIDS: the case of the South African forestry industry

Previous work has focused on HIV prevalence among forestry workers and the impact of HIV/AIDS on the sustainability of forest resources. Following a review of work examining the impacts of HIV/AIDS on the South African economy, this article presents original qualitative research examining the responses of company management to the HIV epidemic across a range of enterprises in the South African forestry industry, including large companies, contractors and cooperatives. At the level of the enterprise, management occupies a critical nexus, at which the intersecting requirements of complex government legislation, the wellbeing of workers and the demands of the business must be met. The research demonstrates that large forestry companies tend to provide only a small fraction of their workforces with HIV/AIDS education, prevention or treatment services, as they have essentially outsourced the requirement through the use of labour-supply contractors who, by and large, provide workers with scant HIV/AIDS-related programmes or benefits. Moreover, the extent to which the different types of forestry enterprises incorporate the management of HIV/AIDS in the workforce with the management of the business is highly variable, and in most instances falls short of legislative requirements that have been in place for over a decade. The implications of this for the forestry industry in South Africa are acute.
Extreme Learning Machine With Composite Kernels for Hyperspectral Image Classification

Due to its simple, fast, and good generalization ability, extreme learning machine (ELM) has recently drawn increasing attention in the pattern recognition and machine learning fields. To investigate the performance of ELM on the hyperspectral images (HSIs), this paper proposes two spatial-spectral composite kernel (CK) ELM classification methods. In the proposed CK framework, the single spatial or spectral kernel consists of activation-function-based kernel and general Gaussian kernel, respectively. The proposed methods inherit the advantages of ELM and have an analytic solution to directly implement the multiclass classification. Experimental results on three benchmark hyperspectral datasets demonstrate that the proposed ELM with CK methods outperform the general ELM, SVM, and SVM with CK methods.
Determination of sevoflurane alveolar concentration for tracheal intubation with remifentanil, and no muscle relaxant

The sevoflurane alveolar concentration needed for tracheal intubation with remifentanil was studied in 26 adult patients premedicated with 100 mg hydroxyzine. Anaesthesia was induced with sevoflurane in oxygen. The concentration was determined by Dixon's up‐and‐down method. The first patient was tested at 4.5%. One minute after obtaining the preselected value, remifentanil 1 µg. kg−1 was injected for 60 s followed by an infusion of 0.25 µg. kg−1.min−1. Ventilation was then manually assisted for 2 min and tracheal intubation was attempted. Tracheal intubation conditions and responses to intubation were noted. Heart rate and mean arterial pressure were recorded before induction, before remifentanil injection, and before and 3 min after tracheal intubation. The concentration for acceptable intubating conditions was 2.5 ± 0.7%. From logistic regression, ED50 and ED95 were 2.0% (95% CI 1.3–2.5) and 3.2% (95% CI 2.6–5.6), respectively. With sevoflurane 2.5%, heart rate and mean arterial pressure decreased by 18% and 15%, respectively, after remifentanil administration and increased slightly after tracheal intubation.
Sub-microsecond streamer breakdown in transformer oil-filled short gaps

A two dimensional axis-symmetric fluid model is developed to present the streamer discharge process in transformer oil under positive and negative sub-microsecond impulse voltage, which is based on the hydrodynamic drift-diffusion approximation to simulate the dynamics of discharge inception and propagation. The streamers' spatial evolution with time are obtained, i.e., the distribution of electric field and space charge density under different conditions such as the amplitude of applied voltage and rise time. Simulation results verify the breakdown voltage has a distinct polar effect: negative streamer requires more than 2 times voltage threshold than that of positive one. It is revealed that the negative streamer, which usually has a bushy profile, is much more diffusive than the positive one. The magnitude and rise time of the applied voltage have evident influences on the shape and speed of the streamer in oil. The formation of positive or negative streamers are both characterized by a self-generated field enhancement at the head, and space charges enhance the front field of ionization region to assist the growing discharge channel to propagate longer. In terms of the generation of charged particles, it is considered that field-dependent molecular ionization predominates the charge generation mechanism of streamer discharge processes in transformer oil.
Omalizumab in the management of oral corticosteroid-dependent IGE-mediated asthma patients

Abstract Background: Several studies have demonstrated the beneficial effects of omalizumab in asthma patients. Here we describe the drug’s tolerance and oral corticosteroid sparing capacity in a long-term observational study. Methods: Thirty-two patients aged ≥18 years with obstructive airway disease and FEV1 reversibility ≥12% and 200 mL, with an oral steroid requirement ≥7.5 mg per day of prednisolone during a period of ≥1 year, a positive prick test or in vitro reactivity (RAST) to at least one perennial aeroallergen and a baseline immunoglobulin E level ranking between 30–700 IU/mL were prospectively followed for 17.2 ± 8.5 months. Patients were visited once or twice a month, depending on their schedule for omalizumab administration. Intervention: blood analysis every six months; spirometry and nitric oxide measurement at every visit. Results: One patient who dropped out early was excluded. Follow-up period: the treatment benefited 83.9% (26/31) of the cohort; oral corticosteroids were reduced from 7.19 ± 11.1 to 3.29 ± 11.03 mg (p < 0.002) and withdrawn in 74.2% of patients. FEV1 (percent predicted) was 64.4 ± 22.7 at the beginning and 62.9 ± 24.3 at the end. IgE at entry was 322.2 ± 334.2 IU/mL and increased 2.34-fold. Respiratory function and NO did not present statistically significant changes. We identified three groups of patients: the first (n = 17) receiving oral steroid at entry in whom the accumulated dose of oral steroids progressively decreased; another (n = 10) including patients who had quit oral steroids before starting omalizumab although they had not been instructed to do so and whose oral steroid dose at the end of follow-up was zero; and a third group (n = 4) that did not benefit from omalizumab treatment. The only relevant side effect was a flu-like syndrome which required discontinuation of treatment in one patient. Conclusion: In our series, a substantial, safe decrease in oral corticosteroid requirements was observed due, at least to some extent, to omalizumab therapy. Oral corticosteroids were withdrawn in three-quarters of the patients. We were unable to identify a factor able to predict which patients would benefit most from omalizumab treatment.
The interaction between apparent diffusion coefficients and transverse relaxation rates of human brain metabolites and water studied by diffusion‐weighted spectroscopy at 7 T

The dependence of apparent diffusion coefficients (ADCs) of molecules in biological tissues on an acquisition‐specific timescale is a powerful mechanism for studying tissue microstructure. Unlike water, metabolites are confined mainly to intracellular compartments, thus providing higher specificity to tissue microstructure. Compartment‐specific structural and chemical properties may also affect molecule transverse relaxation times (T2). Here, we investigated the correlation between diffusion and relaxation for N‐acetylaspartate, creatine and choline compounds in human brain white matter in vivo at 7 T, and compared them with those of water under the same experimental conditions. Data were acquired in a volume of interest in parietal white matter at two different diffusion times, Δ = 44 and 246 ms, using a matrix of three echo times (TE) and five diffusion weighting values (up to 4575 s/mm2). Significant differences in the dependence of the ADCs on TE were found between water and metabolites, as well as among the different metabolites. A significant decrease in water ADC as a function of TE was observed only at the longest diffusion time (p < 0.001), supporting the hypothesis that at least part of the restricted water pool can be associated with longer T2, as suggested by previous studies in vitro. Metabolite data showed an increase of creatine (p < 0.05) and N‐acetylaspartate (p < 0.05) ADCs with TE at Δ = 44 ms, and a decrease of creatine (p < 0.05) and N‐acetylaspartate (p = 0.1) ADCs with TE at Δ = 246 ms. No dependence of choline ADC on TE was observed. The metabolite results suggest that diffusion and relaxation properties are dictated not only by metabolite distribution in different cell types, but also by other mechanisms, such as interactions with membranes, exchange between “free” and “bound” states or interactions with microsusceptibility gradients. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Modulation of MAPK Activities During Egg Activation in Drosophila

The mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) play essential roles during oocyte maturation and egg activation and are also active in somatic cell cycle regulation in many animals. In clams, starfish, ascidians, mice, and frogs, the species-specific timing of MAPK activity during oocyte maturation and egg activation correlates with the different meiotic arrest points of these various organisms. Furthermore, MAPKs have been shown to regulate the meiotic cell cycle in marine invertebrates and vertebrates. The initial trigger for egg activation in insects is different from that of marine invertebrates and vertebrates, and it was not previously known whether changes in MAPK activity accompany egg activation in insects. To examine the regulation of MAPKs during Drosophila egg activation and early embryogenesis, we quantified the levels of phosphorylated (active) forms of ERK, p38 kinase, and JNK by western blotting with antibodies specific to the phospho- forms of these kinases. Levels of phospho-ERK, phospho-p38 kinase, and phospho-JNK are high in Drosophila oocytes. Upon egg activation, levels of all these phospho- (active) forms of MAPKs decrease. Fertilization is not required for this decrease, consistent with the independence of egg activation from fertilization in Drosophila. The decrease in levels of phospho-MAPK occurs normally in embryos laid by sterile females mutant in the egg activation genes cortex, sarah, and prage. We present a model in which the decrease in MAPK activity is an intermediate step in the pathway leading from the calcium signal that initiates egg activation to the downstream events of activation.
An Analysis of the Impact of Supplier Strategies and Relationships on Small Retailer Actions, Perceptions, and Performance

Relationships between small hardware retailers and their wholesalers were examined. Retailers (n = 320) reported that closer relationships with wholesalers, characterized by greater formality and more frequent and intense communications, experienced less uncertainty, more autonomy, and made more frequent use of planning and advertising to control output markets. Supplier strategies had no systematic impact on small retailers’ financial performance.
Error rate of RSFQ circuits: theory

For the first time, the bit-error rate of an active SFQ experiment is compared to theoretical prediction. The theory of thermally induced errors is developed using the Fokker-Planck equation. The equivalent noise temperature of the experiment is found to be 11.0 K. The error rate vs. bias current follows an error function dependence and extrapolates to vanishingly small error rate at optimal bias.
The long-term immunity among health care workers vaccinated against hepatitis B virus in a large referral hospital in southern Iran.

BACKGROUND Health care workers are at increased risk of occupational exposure to hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Reassessment for revaccination of such high-risk persons after 10 years may be appropriate if anti-HBs antibody titers declined below 10 mlU/mL. This study was conducted to evaluate the long-term efficacy of HBV vaccine in health care workers and the need for their reassessment for revaccination. METHODS We interviewed 600 health care workers in a referral hospital in Shiraz, southern Iran. They were asked to complete a confidential questionnaire including information on their age, gender, vaccination date, number of doses of vaccine, their job description in hospital, previous history of needlestick injury, and educational level. Anti-HBs antibodies were determined by the ELISA method and titers of >10 mlU/mL were considered protective. Those with a positive HBsAg or anti-HBcAb were excluded from the study. RESULTS Among 600 health care workers interviewed, 339 subjects who accepted to participate in the study, were vaccinated with three doses of HBV vaccine. Anti-HBsAb titers were >100 mlU/mL in 211 subjects (62.2%), 10 - 100 mlU/mL in 85 (25.1%), and <10 mlU/mL in 43 (12.7%) persons. Among 339 subjects who received three doses of vaccine, 273 were vaccinated less than 5 years, 47 cases between 5 - 10 years, and 19 cases were vaccinated more than 10 years before the study. The majority of them had an antibody concentration above the protective level (88.1%, 88.9%, and 60.9%, respectively, P = 0.001). CONCLUSION Reassessment for revaccination in health care workers should be considered according to their anti-HBsAb levels 10 years after vaccination. In our health care workers, we think that due to the existence of low immunity against HBV, reassessment for revaccination after 10 years is mandatory.