Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Surgical management of symptomatic neonates with Ebstein’s anomaly: choice of operation

Abstract Objective: Symptomatic neonates with Ebstein’s anomaly pose significant challenge. Within this cohort, neonates with associated anatomical pulmonary atresia have higher mortality. We review our experience with this difficult subset. Methods: A total of 32 consecutive symptomatic neonates with Ebstein’s anomaly underwent surgical intervention between 1994 and 2013. Of them, 20 neonates (62%, 20/32) had associated pulmonary atresia. Patients’ weights ranged from 1.9 to 3.4 kg. All patients without pulmonary atresia had two-ventricle repair. Of the 20 neonates, 16 (80%, 16/20) with Ebstein’s anomaly and pulmonary atresia had two-ventricle repair and 4 had single-ventricle palliation, of which 2 underwent Starnes’ palliation and 2 Blalock–Taussig shunts. Six recent patients with Ebstein’s anomaly and pulmonary atresia had right ventricle to pulmonary artery valved conduit as part of their two-ventricle repair. Results: Overall early mortality was 28% (9/32). For those without pulmonary atresia, mortality was 8.3% (1/12). For the entire cohort of neonates with Ebstein’s anomaly and pulmonary atresia, mortality was 40% (8/20; p=0.05). Mortality for neonates with Ebstein’s anomaly and pulmonary atresia having two-ventricle repair was 44% (7/16). Mortality for neonates with Ebstein’s anomaly and pulmonary atresia having two-ventricle repair utilising right ventricle to pulmonary artery conduit was 16% (1/6). For those having one-ventricle repair, the mortality was 25% (1/4). Conclusions: Surgical management of neonates with Ebstein’s anomaly remains challenging. For neonates with Ebstein’s anomaly and anatomical pulmonary atresia, single-ventricle palliation is associated with lower early mortality compared with two-ventricle repair. This outcome advantage is negated by inclusion of right ventricle to pulmonary artery conduit as part of the two-ventricle repair.
Hepatitis B e antigen seroconversion: Effects of lamivudine alone or in combination with interferon alpha

Seroconversion of hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) is an important marker for resolution of active hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and for a long‐term positive response to treatment. Lamivudine, a nucleoside analogue, is the first effective oral treatment for chronic hepatitis B in patients with evidence of viral replication and liver disease. When appropriate patient groups are compared, treatment with lamivudine for 1 year leads to HBeAg seroconversion in a similar proportion of patients as a standard course of interferon (IFN) alpha therapy. Seroconversion increases during prolonged therapy (up to 3 years), and is sustained post‐treatment in more than three‐quarters of patients. Response rates are related to the pretreatment level of serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and reach 65% in those patients with serum ALT > 5 × upper limit of normal (ULN) after one year. For patients with pretreatment ALT > 2 × ULN, response was seen in 38% after one year, rising to 65% after 3 years. To date, combination with IFN and lamivudine has not been shown to confer additional benefit compared with lamivudine monotherapy. Lamivudine is effective and appropriate for use in a greater proportion of HBV infected patients than IFN alpha, particularly those infected at birth or in early childhood. Furthermore, because seroconversion after lamivudine is not normally associated with a severe flare of liver disease, as seen with IFN, it is more suitable for use in patients with active liver disease and cirrhosis. In conclusion, lamivudine is more suitable than IFN for a broad range of patients, including those with severe liver disease, recurrent flares, pre‐core mutant HBV and those who have failed previously IFN treatment or are immunosuppressed. Lamivudine is also better tolerated than IFN. J. Med. Virol. 61:374–379, 2000. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Adipokines are associated with lower extremity venous disease: the San Diego population study

Summary. Background: Obesity is a risk factor for venous disease. We tested the associations between adipokines and the presence and severity of venous disease. Methods: Participants for this analysis were drawn from a cohort of 2408 employees and retirees of a university in San Diego who were examined for venous disease using duplex ultrasonography. From this cohort, a case‐control study sample of all 352 subjects with venous disease and 352 age‐, sex‐ and race‐matched subjects without venous disease were included in this analysis. All subjects completed health history questionnaires, had a physical examination with anthropometric measurements and had venous blood analyzed for adipokines. Results: After adjustment for age, sex and race, those with venous disease had significantly higher levels of body mass index (BMI), leptin and interleukin‐6. Levels of resistin and tumor necrosis factor‐alpha were also higher but of borderline significance (0.05 < P < 0.10). Compared with the lowest tertile and with adjustment for age, sex, race and BMI, the 2nd and 3rd tertiles of resistin (odds ratios, 1.9 and 1.7, respectively), leptin (1.7 and 1.7) and tumor necrosis factor‐alpha (1.4 and 1.7) were associated with increasing severity of venous disease. Conversely, a 5 kg m−2 increment in BMI was associated with a higher odds ratio (1.5) for venous disease, which was independent of the adipokines included in this study. Conclusions: Both obesity and adipokines are significantly associated with venous disease. These associations appear to be independent of each other, suggesting potentially different pathways to venous disease.
ISOLATION BY DISTANCE AND VICARIANCE DRIVE GENETIC STRUCTURE OF A CORAL REEF FISH IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN

Abstract We studied the genetic diversity of a coral reef fish species to investigate the origin of the differentiation. A total of 727 Acanthurus triostegus collected from 15 locations throughout the Pacific were analyzed for 20 polymorphic loci. The genetic structure showed limited internal disequilibrium within each population; 3.7% of the loci showed significant Hardy-Weinberg disequilibrium, mostly associated with Adh*, and we subsequently removed this locus from further analysis of geographic pattern. The genetic structure of A. triostegus throughout the tropical Pacific Ocean revealed a strong geographic pattern. Overall, there was significant population differentiation (multilocus FST = 0.199), which was geographically structured according to bootstraps of neighbor-joining analysis on Nei's unbiased genetic distances and AMOVA analysis. The genetic structure revealed five geographic groups in the Pacific Ocean: western Pacific (Guam, Philippines, Palau, and Great Barrier Reef); central Pacific (Solomons, New Caledonia, and Fiji); and three groups made up of the eastern populations, namely Hawaiian Archipelago (north), Marquesas (equatorial), and southern French Polynesia (south) that incorporates Clipperton Island located in the northeastern Pacific. In addition, heterozygosity values were found to be geographically structured with higher values grouped within Polynesian and Clipperton populations, which exhibited lower population size. Finally, the genetic differentiation (FST) was significantly correlated with geographic distance when populations from the Hawaiian and Marquesas archipelagos were separated from all the other locations. These results show that patterns of differentiation vary within the same species according to the spatial scale, with one group probably issued from vicariance, whereas the other followed a pattern of isolation by distance. The geographic pattern for A. triostegus emphasizes the diversity of the evolutionary processes that lead to the present genetic structure with some being more influential in certain areas or according to a particular spatial scale. Corresponding Editor: L. Bernatchez
Syringomyelia secondary to cervical spondylosis: Case report and review of literature

Syringomyelia secondary to cervical spondylosis is a rare entity to encounter in clinical practice. We discuss the case of a 53-year-old lady who presented with a syringomyelic syndrome and was found to have cervical spondylosis on imaging. Cine-MRI revealed an obstruction of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) flow in the cervical spinal subarachnoid space. Decompression of the same led to clinical and radiological improvement. There is a potential causal association between cervical spondylosis and syringomyelia. MRI CSF flow studies may help in deciding the course of treatment in such cases. A subset of patients with cervical spondylosis and concurrent spinal cord signal intensity changes may show reversal of the same following intervention.
A Comparison of Reach-to-Grasp and Transport-to-Place Performance in Participants With Age-Related Macular Degeneration and Glaucoma.

Purpose To compare visually guided manual prehension in participants with primarily central field loss (CFL) due to age-related macular degeneration and peripheral visual field loss (PFL) due to glaucoma. This study extends current literature by comparing directly "reach-to-grasp" performance, and presents a new task of "transport-to-place" the object accurately to a new location. Data were compared to age-matched controls. Methods Three-dimensional motion data were collected from 17 glaucoma participants with PFL, 17 participants with age-related macular degeneration CFL and 10 age-matched control participants. Participants reached toward and grasped a cylindrical object (reach-to-grasp), and then transported and placed (transport-to-place) it at a different (predefined) peripheral location. Various kinematic indices were measured. Correlation analyses explored relationships between visual function and kinematic data. Results In the reach-to-grasp phase, CFL patients exhibited significantly longer movement and reaction times when compared to PFL participants and controls. Central field loss participants also took longer to complete the movement and made more online movements in the latter part of the reach. During the transport-to-place phase, CFL participants showed increased deceleration times, longer movement trajectory, and increased vertical wrist displacement. Central field loss also showed higher errors in placing the object at a predefined location. A number of kinematic indices correlated significantly to central visual function indices (P < 0.05). Conclusions Significant differences in performance exist between CFL and PFL participants. Various indices correlated significantly with loss in acuity and contrast sensitivity (CS), suggesting that performance is more dependent on central visual function irrespective of underlying pathology.
THE EFFECTS OF EMPLOYEE SKILL SET IN INTEGRATED FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM ON SERVICE DELIVERY IN THE MINISTRY OF INTERIOR AND COORDINATION OF NATIONAL GOVERNMENT IN KENYA

he introduction of the Integrated Financial Management system, Electronic Funds Transfer, the Pension system and the Public debt management systems among others, have been premised on the realization that government of Kenya can effectively leverage existing and emerging technology to enhance the pace of reforms. This research sought to determine the effects of employee skill set in IFMIS on service delivery. The target population for this study was the various staff in the ministry of interior and coordination of national government. The data collected was qualitative. Descriptive statistics was performed to provide simple summaries about the measures and represented in form of frequency tables. The study established that 44.1% of the respondents strongly agreed that the ministry employees lack proper training program on the use of IFMIS. The study concluded that IFMIS enables working to be interactive, extended, networked and autonomous. The study recommended that that the ministry of interior and coordination of national government should provide proper training program on the use of IFMIS and also recommended that the employees should be motivated on the use of IFMIS.
ANALISIS PERBANDINGAN TINGKAT KESEHATAN BANK SYARIAH DAN KONVENSIONAL DENGAN MENGGUNAKAN METODE RGEC (RISK PROFILE, GOOD CORPORATE GOVERNANCE, EARNINGS, DAN CAPITAL)

Banking sector faced a challenging economic circumstances change. External economic shocks (subprime mortgages) is the most instability during 2008. This study purpose to determine differences in bank rating performance between islamic banks and conventional banks listed on the Otoritas Jasa Keuangan (OJK) in 2012 and 2014. Bank rating performances is an assessment of the factors RGEC which is risk profile, good corporate governance, earnings, and capital. Sample of this analysis are 70 banks of 83 banks using purposive sampling method. Mann-Whitney test as a analysis technique in this research. The result of this research show that there is not difference between islamic banks rating performance and conventional banks. The founding of this research are significantly influence to risk profile and good corporate governance meanwhile capital and earnings are not. More various proxy and longer time period will provide better results in future research. Keywords : Bank Rating Performance, Risk, GCG, Earnings, Capital.
Gender differences in associations between parental problem drinking and early adolescents' internet addiction.

PURPOSE The purpose was to examine gender differences between parental problem drinking (PPD) and early adolescents' Internet addiction (IA). DESIGN AND METHODS This was a cross-sectional, correlational design with 519 (266 boys and 253 girls) early adolescents. RESULTS PPD had a significant direct effect on IA in boys but not in girls. Significant indirect effects of PPD on IA were evidenced via anxiety-depression and aggression for boys and via family function and aggression for girls. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS Findings suggest that tailored interventions for the prevention of IA should consider gender.
Meal frequency changes the basal and time-course profiles of plasma nutrient concentrations and affects feed efficiency in young growing pigs.

Ingested dietary nutrients and feed energy are partitioned among tissues to sustain body growth. Based on the respective costs of the various metabolic pathways allowing use and storage of feed energy into cells, it may be theorized that daily meal frequency could affect growth, body composition or feed efficiency. This study aimed to determine the effects of daily meal frequency on nutrient partitioning, tissue metabolism and composition, and performance. Young growing pigs (30 kg BW) were offered a same amount of feed either in 2 (M2, n = 15) or 12 (M12, n = 16) meals per day during a 3-wk interventional period. Animals fed twice a day had an accelerated weight gain (+6.4%, P < 0.05) and exhibited a greater G:F (+4%, P = 0.03) than animals fed 12 meals per day during this period. Basal plasma concentrations of glucose, lactate, triglyceride, urea, and leptin were lower (P < 0.001) in M2 pigs than in M12 pigs. Meal frequency also changed (P < 0.001) the time-course profiles of plasma concentrations of glucose, insulin, and lactate in response to meal ingestion. A greater rise and a sharper fall in plasma glucose and insulin levels were observed in M2 pigs compared with M12 pigs. In both groups, similarities were observed in the postprandial time courses of plasma concentrations of insulin and of α-amino nitrogen (used as a measure of total AA). Despite these metabolic responses, tissue lipids, glycogen content, and enzyme activities participating in energy metabolism in muscle and liver were similar (P > 0.10) in both groups at the end of the trial. Percentage of perirenal fat in the body and depth of dorsal subcutaneous fat tissue were not affected by meal frequency, but kidney weight was lower (-18%, P < 0.001) in M2 pigs than in M12 pigs. Altogether, the less frequent daily meal intake improves the conversion of feed into weight gain, without marked modifications of tissue composition in young pigs.
How firms can use psychology to create successful energy conservation interventions; A literature review

This working paper includes a large collection of psychological effects that may influence employees’ decisions to participate in corporate programs aimed at reducing energy consumption and CO2-emissions at their individual, household level. We find that companies are very much suitable to motivate individuals to save energy for the following four reasons Firms have a very close relationship to their employees and thus are able to reach out to a large number of households. Second, many firms operate on an international or even global level and can thus further scale up corporate energy saving programs. Third, firms offer an appealing social environment in which employees are embedded on a day-to-day basis. Based on this, social norms, the exchange of information and the general feeling of acting as a group rather than as an individual can all help to increase participation in energy saving activities. Fourth, companies can tackle both the uncertainty inherent to employees’ long term decisions, as well as the problem of high upfront costs for investments in long-term energy conservation through providing subsidies for energy conservation.
Quality of life of patients with atrial septal defect following percutaneous closure

Abstract Introduction Quality of life has become an important outcome measure in addition to mortality and morbidity in patients with congenital heart disease. Atrial septal defect is a common congenital heart disease, and transcatheter atrial septal defect closure has become an accepted treatment modality. The aim of this study is to assess the quality of life of patients with atrial septal defect who underwent percutaneous closure. Materials and methods We examined the quality of life of 69 patients with atrial septal defect and 69 healthy controls matched according to age, sex, educational level, and economic, marital, and employment status. Quality of life was investigated using the Turkish version of Short Form-36. Results The mean age of the patients was 39.7 ± 14.2 and 26% were male. The quality of life assessment was performed at a mean follow-up time of 18.0 ± 13.8 months after the intervention. The mean scores of the domains of the Short Form-36, namely, physical functioning, role functioning, social functioning, mental health, vitality, pain, and general health, were similar in patients with atrial septal defect who underwent percutaneous closure and the control group. Conclusion Adult patients who underwent percutaneous atrial septal defect closure perceive their quality of life to be as good as their healthy counterparts.
Neuropeptide Y and natural killer cell activity: findings in depression and Alzheimer caregiver stress

A reduction in immune function has been found in patients with a major depressive disorder and in persons undergoing severe life stress. This study investigated the association between increased sympathetic nervous system activity and reduced natural killer (NK) cytotoxicity in depression and Alzheimer caregiver stress. NK activity and plasma concentrations of epinephrine, norepinephrine, and neuropeptide Y were measured in depressed patients (n = 19) and age‐ and gender‐matched controls (n = 19), and in Alzheimer spousal caregivers (n = 48) and matched noncaregiver controls (n = 17). Plasma levels of neuropeptide Y, but not circulating basal levels of catecholamines, were significantly (P < 0.01) elevated in the depressed patients and in the caregivers compared with respective controls. NK activity was significantly (P < 0.001) lower in the depressed patients than in their controls, but not different between the caregivers and the noncaregiver controls. Circulating concentrations of neuropeptide Y, but not catecholamines, were inversely correlated (r = ‐0.31, P < 0.001) with NK activity. In addition, multiple regression analyses demonstrated that the significant (P < 0.01) association between neuropeptide Y and natural cytotoxicity was independent of the relative contribution of age and basal and dynamic levels of epinephrine and norepinephrine. These findings suggest that increased sympathetic nervous system activity and the release of neuropeptide Y may be associated with the modulation of NK cytotoxicity. —Irwin, M. ; Brown, M. ; Patterson, T. ; Hauger, R. ; Mascovich, A. ; Grant, I. Neuropeptide Y and natural killer cell activity: findings in depression and Alzheimer caregiver stress. FASEB J. 5: 3100‐3107; 1991.
Stance Classification with Target-specific Neural Attention

Stance classification, which aims at detecting the stance expressed in text towards a specific target, is an emerging problem in sentiment analysis. A major difference between stance classification and traditional aspect-level sentiment classification is that the identification of stance is dependent on target which might not be explicitly mentioned in text. This indicates that apart from text content, the target information is important to stance detection. To this end, we propose a neural network-based model, which incorporates target-specific information into stance classification by following a novel attention mechanism. In specific, the attention mechanism is expected to locate the critical parts of text which are related to target. Our evaluations on both the English and Chinese Stance Detection datasets show that the proposed model achieves the state-of-the-art performance.
Formal Languages and the Word Problem for Groups

The aim of this article is to survey some connections between formal language theory and group theory with particular emphasis on the word problem for groups and the consequence on the algebraic structure of a group of its word problem belonging to a certain class of formal languages. We define our terms in Section 2 and then consider the structure of groups whose word problem is regular or context-free in Section 3. In Section 4 we look at groups whose wordproblem is a one-counter language, and we move up the Chomsky hierarchy to briefly consider what happens above context-free in Section 5. In Section 6, we see what happens if we consider languages lying in certain complexity classes, and we summarize the situation in Section 7. For general background material on group theory we refer the reader to [25, 26], and for formal language theory to [7, 16, 20].