Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The risk of developing end-stage renal disease in patients with type 2 diabetes and nephropathy: the RENAAL study.

BACKGROUND Diabetic nephropathy has become the single most important cause of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) worldwide. Strategies to slow the rate of loss of renal function in these patients have been developed. We examined the risk factors that predict loss of kidney function (doubling of serum creatinine) or ESRD (dialysis or transplantation) in patients with type 2 diabetes in whom blood pressure was controlled. METHODS We evaluated risk factors for doubling of serum creatinine or the development of ESRD in the Reduction of End Points in NIDDM with the Angiotensin II Receptor Antagonist Losartan (RENAAL) study, which included 1513 patients with type 2 diabetes and nephropathy. RESULTS Univariate analyses demonstrated a group of 23 risk factors that significantly predicted doubling of serum creatinine or ESRD. From these univariate analyses, a multivariate model was developed that demonstrated four independent risk factors: proteinuria, serum creatinine, serum albumin, and hemoglobin level. Proteinuria was the strongest and most consistent risk factor. The multivariate risk model was derived from only the placebo group and was similar to that derived for the total population, suggesting that the risk predictors for progression of kidney disease were independent of therapy. CONCLUSION After control of blood pressure in type 2 diabetic patients with nephropathy, proteinuria, degree of renal failure, serum albumin, and hemoglobin level are independent risk factors that predict renal outcomes. The level of proteinuria proved to be the most important risk for progressive kidney injury in these diabetic patients.
Quality of Root Vegetables during Prolonged Storage

The objective of this study was to develop postharvest techniques and technologies of the most important root vegetables: carrots, celeriac and parsnip. Investigations included the effect of harvest maturity (harvest at November or January) and postharvest washing treatments (hot water, H2O2 and NaOCl and non-washed-control) of carrots (Daucus carota ’Bolero F1’), parsnip (Pastinaca sativa ‘Banatski dugi’) and celeriac (Apium graveolens var. rapaceum ‘Mentor’) roots and effects on their quantitative and qualitative changes during different storage conditions (S-1; 0°C and 98% RH or S-2; 0-2°C and 85-92% RH). Water loss and quality changes in these vegetables roots were monitored after 120 and 180 days of storage period (SP). At the end of SP the percentage of water loss ranged from 3.20% (from first harvest inside the S-1 with H2O2 treatment) in carrot to 39.29% (from first harvest inside the S-2 in control) in celeriac root. The dry matter content (DM) increased during storage period. Total sugar content (TSC) in the roots depends on year and harvest time. During SP, total sugar content increased more in S-2 cooling room. The parsnip root was characterized by more hardness texture relative to the carrot and celeriac roots. During SP carrot root loses the flexibility. The most effective method of maintaining quality of root vegetables is optimal harvest time followed by prestorage washing treatments (H2O2 or NaOCl) and storage at optimum temperature (0 oC) with a high relative humidity 98%.
Anesthesia for the Patient with Cardiac Tamponade

OST patients with cardiac tamponade M are treated outside of the operating room with needle aspiration. ' Occasionally tamponade can be effectively treated only by open drainage, or repair and/or resection of the pericardium or its contents and anesthetic support is needed. "-l General anesthesia in these patients, however, is frequently associated with severe hypotension and cardiac arrest. ". "-D All general anesthetics are myocardial depressants1"-12 and most are peripheral vasodilators.13-18 Since cardiac tamponade is characterized by impaired cardiac filling and a reduced cardiac output , hemodynamic decom pensa t ion should not be unexpected with general anesthesia in these patients. To avoid this, we now use local infiltration anesthesia for all patients coming to the operating room for decompression of pericardial effusions. The following two cases document the speed, ease, and safety of using local anesthesia for these procedures. REPORT OF CASES
Telmisartan, a dual ARB/partial PPAR‐γ agonist, protects myocardium from ischaemic reperfusion injury in experimental diabetes

Aim: Apart from its angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) activity, telmisartan is also a partial agonist of peroxisome proliferator‐activated receptor gamma (PPAR‐γ). Therefore, we assessed whether telmisartan treatment attenuates myocardial ischaemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury in diabetic rats through PPAR‐γ pathway.
College Students’ Reactions to Participating in Relational Trauma Research: A Mixed Methodological Study

Using a mixed methodology, the present study compared men’s and women’s perceived benefits and emotional reactions with participating in research that inquired about child maltreatment and intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization and perpetration. Participants consisted of 703 college students (357 women, 346 men), ages 18 to 25 who reported on their childhood maltreatment, adolescent and adult IPV victimization and perpetration, and their reactions (perceived benefits and emotional effects) to participating. Participants’ reactions to participating were assessed using quantitative scales, as well as open-ended written responses that were content coded by researchers. Women reported more personal benefits from research, whereas men and women reported similar levels of emotional reactions to research participation. Furthermore, greater frequencies of child maltreatment and IPV victimization were related to higher levels of emotional reactions. Common self-identified reasons for emotional reactions (e.g., not liking to think about abuse in general, personal victimization experiences) and benefits (e.g., reflection and awareness about oneself, learning about IPV) were also presented and analyzed. These data underscore the importance of future research that examines the behavioral impact of research participation utilizing longitudinal and in-depth qualitative methodologies. Findings also highlight the potential psychoeducational value of research on understanding the reasons underlying participants’ benefits and emotional effects.
Increased bone mineral density in a subset of patients with relapsed multiple myeloma who received the combination of bortezomib, dexamethasone and zoledronic acid.

Bone disease is a major complication of multiple myeloma (MM) [1]. Bortezomib is the first-in-class proteasome inhibitor, with established anti-myeloma activity and beneficial effect on bone metabolism in preclinical studies [2]. In the clinical setting, bortezomib increases bone formation markers, reduces serum levels of osteoblast inhibitor dickkopf-1 [3], increases osteoblast counts in trephine biopsies [4] and inhibits osteoclast function [3, 5]. However, there are no data for bortezomib effect on bone mineral density (BMD) of myeloma patients. To evaluate this effect, we studied 27 consecutive patients (16 males/11 females; median age 69.5 years) with relapsed MM who received the combination of bortezomib plus dexamethasone (VD) and zoledronic acid (ZA): 17 had immunoglobulin G, 6 immunoglobulin A, 3 light-chain and 1 non-secretory MM. Seven patients had International Staging System-1 (ISS-1) MM at diagnosis, while 9 had ISS-2 and 11 ISS-3 MM. The median number of previous lines of therapies was 2 (range 1–5). Bortezomib was given at the standard dose of 1.3 mg/m on days 1, 4, 8 and 11 of a 21-day cycle, while dexamethasone was given at a dose of 20 mg, p.o. , the day of bortezomib administration and the following day. All patients received monthly ZA according to their renal function. BMD of the lumbar spine (L1–L4, anteroposterior view) and femoral neck (FN) was measured by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) using a Hologic QDR-1000 scanner at baseline (days 27 to day 1 of cycle 1) and then on day 21 of cycle 4 and 1 month after cycle 8. Evidence of myeloma bone disease at the time of relapse was documented by plain radiography. All patients had measurements of urinary Ntelopeptide of collagen type-I (NTX; a sensitive bone resorption marker) and serum bone-specific alkaline phosphatase (bALP) and osteocalcin (OC) (bone formation markers), pre-VD and every month post-VD, using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay methodology as previously described [3,5]. Differences between preand post-treatment values of the studied parameters were evaluated using the Wilcoxon rank sum test. The study was conducted with ethical committee approval and under the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki.
Novel Oral Anticoagulants in Development: Dabigatran, Rivaroxaban, and Apixaban

Venous thromboembolic disease, including deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism, is a cause of significant mortality and morbidity. For several decades, anticoagulant options for the treatment and prevention of thrombosis have been limited mainly to agents such as unfractionated heparin and oral vitamin K antagonists, such as warfarin. Although these therapies have proven benefits, they also have important limitations that result in their underuse in routine clinical practice. A variety of novel anticoagulants with improved pharmacologic and clinical profiles are in development, offering benefits over traditional therapies. Specifically, progress has been made in the development of small molecule factor Xa inhibitors and thrombin inhibitors. With their potentially consistent and predictable clinical profile, oral formulation, and decreased need for coagulation monitoring, these new agents will likely increase the use and duration of anticoagulation treatment in thromboembolic disorders and reduce the burden associated with long-term management.
In-vivo and in-vitro studies on the effects of maternal fasting during embryonic organogenesis in the rat.

Pregnant rats were fasted for periods of 6, 12, 24 or 36 h terminating at 10 1/2 days post coitum (p.c.); virgin rats were fasted concurrently. Both groups showed similar loss of body weight and fall in serum glucose levels. Embryos from rats which were fasted for 12 h or longer showed retarded growth and differentiation compared with embryos from non-fasted animals. Another group of rats, similarly fasted for periods before 10 1/2 days p.c. were then fed ad libitum until 15 1/2 days p.c. ; the fetuses were smaller than fetuses of similar age from non-fasted rats. Embryos from fed mothers were explanted at 9 1/2 days p.c. and cultured for 45 h in rat serum prepared from fed or fasted animals. Embryonic development was retarded in the serum from fasted rats unless glucose was added to raise the glucose level to that of normal serum.
Prevalence and patterns of alcohol consumption among Royal Thai Army personnel.

OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence and patterns of alcohol consumption among the army personnel. MATERIAL AND METHOD A cross-sectional study was carried out during the annual health examination between 2000 and 2001 in two army units located in the central region of Thailand. A total of 843 active duty army personnel participated in the present study. Data on demographic characteristics, smoking status and alcohol consumption were collected using a self-rating questionnaire. Drinking patterns during the past year were measured in the following aspects: frequency, quantity, binge drinking and beverage preference. RESULTS Eight hundred and thirty-one (98.6%) studied personnel provided complete information and were included in the analysis. All were males with the mean age of 37.2 +/- 7.7 years. Five hundred and ninety-three (71.4%) study personnel were current drinkers. The majority of 57.5% drank at least five drinks per drinking day. With regard to the frequency of drinking, 10.7% reported that they drank as often as daily or nearly every day. Additionally, 22.7% had five drinks or more per drinking day at least weekly. Up to 28.2% had binge drinking or episodic heavy drinking practices. The most common type of alcoholic beverage for drinkers was mixed spirit and beer (30.7%). Only three (0.4%) personnel reported drinking wine. CONCLUSION The results suggest that alcohol abuse becomes a significant problem among the army personnel. Most drinking patterns established among the army personnel are more likely to be harmful and unsafe to their health than beneficial effects. Thus, there is an urgent need to initiate appropriate action to prevent the harm from alcohol use and to protect the military performance and readiness.
Self-Regulation of Driving Behavior in People with Parkinson Disease

Objective:To determine the extent and nature of driving self-regulation in drivers with Parkinson disease (PD) and factors associated with self-regulatory practices. Background:Although people with PD have consistently been shown to have driving impairments, few studies have examined self-regulatory driving practices and their relationship to driving performance. Methods:We used a self-report driving questionnaire to examine driving self-regulation in 37 drivers with PD and 37 healthy age-matched controls. We also analyzed factors associated with self-regulatory practices, primarily demographic, disease-related, psychological, and simulated driving performance variables. Results:The drivers with PD reported significantly higher rates of self-perceived decline in their driving ability (P=0.008) and driving significantly shorter distances per week (P=0.004) than controls. Unfamiliar situations (P=0.009), in-car distractions (P<0.001), low visibility conditions (P=0.004), and long journeys (P=0.003) were particularly challenging for the drivers with PD, and their pattern of driving avoidance mirrored these difficulties. The use of self-regulatory strategies among drivers with PD was associated with female sex (rho=0.42, P=0.009) and perceived decline in driving ability (rho=−0.55, P<0.001), but not with age or objective measures of disease severity, cognition, or simulated driving performance. Conclusions:Drivers with PD reported driving less overall and restricting their driving to avoid particularly difficult circumstances. Further research is warranted on effective use of self-regulation strategies to improve driving performance in people with PD.
Teachers' Understanding and Practice towards Thematic Approach in Teaching Integrated Living Skills (ILS) in Malaysia

Thematic approach is one of the teaching strategy that uses themes towards creating an active, interesting and meaningful learning. The purpose of this research is to identify the teachers’ understanding and practice towards thematic approach in teaching Integrated Living Skills (ILS). A total of 132 Integrated Living Skills teachers were involved in this study. This research was conducted in the District of Kinta Utara, Perak, Malaysia and the instruments used were questionnaires. The finding indicated that the Integrated Living Skills teachers’ understanding level towards thematic approach is high. Findings also showed that ILS teacher were often using thematic approach in teaching Integrated Living Skills. There is a significant relationship between teachers’ understanding level towards thematic approach with teachers’ constant practice. The findings also shows teachers’ years of experience in teaching were not significantly different from their practices on thematic approach.
The Risk of Microbial Keratitis With Overnight Corneal Reshaping Lenses

Purpose To estimate the incidence of microbial keratitis (MK) associated with overnight corneal reshaping contact lenses and to compare rates in children and adults. Methods A retrospective study of randomly selected practitioners, stratified by order volume and lens company, was conducted. Practitioners were invited to participate and those agreeing were asked to provide deidentified patient information for up to 50 lens orders and to complete a comprehensive event form for any of these patients who have attended an unscheduled visit for a painful red eye. Duration of contact lens wear was calculated from the original fitting date or January 2005 (whichever was later) to when the patient was last seen by the practitioner wearing the lenses on a regular basis. Cases of MK were classified by majority decision of a 5-member expert panel. Results For the 191 practitioners who could be contacted, 119 (62%) agreed to participate. Subsequently, 11 withdrew, 22 did not respond, and 86 (43%) returned completed forms corresponding to 2202 lens orders and 1494 patients. Limiting the sample to those patients with at least 3 months of documented contact lens wear since 2005 resulted in a sample of 1317 patients; 640 adults (49%) and 677 children (51%) representing 2599 patient-years of wear (adults = 1164; children = 1435). Eight events of corneal infiltrates associated with a painful red eye were reported (six in children and two in adults). Two were classified as MK. Both occurred in children but neither resulted in a loss of visual acuity. The overall estimated incidence of MK is 7.7 per 10,000 years of wear (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.9 to 27.8). For children, the estimated incidence of MK is 13.9 per 10,000 patient-years (95% CI = 1.7 to 50.4). For adults, the estimated incidence of MK is 0 per 10,000 patient-years (95% CI = 0 to 31.7). Conclusions The risk of MK with overnight corneal reshaping contact lenses is similar to that with other overnight modalities. The fact that the CIs for the rates estimated overlap should not be interpreted as evidence of no difference. True differences fewer than 50 cases per 10,000 patient-years were beyond the study’s power of detection.
Effects of triamcinolone acetonide on human trabecular meshwork cells in vitro

Aim: To study the effects of triamcinolone acetonide (TA) on cultured human trabecular meshwork (HTM) cells. Materials and Methods: HTM cells were cultured and treated with 125, 250, 500 and 1000 μg/mL concentration of TA for 24 h. The cells were treated with both crystalline TA (TA-C) (commercial preparation) and solubilized TA (TA-S). Cell viability was measured by a trypan blue dye exclusion test. The activity of caspse-3/7 was measured by a fluorescence caspase kit and DNA laddering was evaluated by electrophoresis on 3% agarose gel. Levels of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) were assessed with LDH cytotoxicity assay kit-II. Results: Mean cell viabilities of HTM cells after 24 h exposure to TA-C 125, 250, 500, and 1000 μg/mL were 75.4 ±2.45% (P < 0.0001), 49.43 ± 1.85% (P < 0.0001), 17.07 ± 2.39% (P < 0.0001), and 3.7 ± 0.9% (P < 0.0001), respectively, compared with the untreated HTM cells 92.49 ± 1.21%. The mean cell viabilities with 125, 250, 500, and 1000 μg/mL of TA-S were 94.47 ± 1.60% (P > 0.05), 90.13 ± 0.40% (P < 0.01), 85.57 ± 0.47% (P < 0.001), and 71.67 ± 3.30% (P < 0.0001), respectively, compared to DMSO-equivalent cultures. Untreated HTM control had a cell viability of 96.57 ± 1.98%. DMSO-treated controls of 125, 250, 500, and 1000 μg/mL had a cell viability of 94.73 ± 0.57%, 96.97 ± 1.08%, 93.97 ± 1.85%, and 97.27 ± 1.15%, respectively. There was no increase of caspase-3/7 activity in cultures treated with either TA-C or TA-S. DNA laddering showed no bands in the TA-C or TA-S treated cultures. There were significantly higher LDH release rates at all concentrations of TA-C compared to TA-S. Conclusions: Results show that the effect of TA-C and TA-S on HTM cells is due to cell death by necrosis at all concentrations except 125 μg/mL of TA-S. Elevated levels of LDH confirmed necrotic cell death. Our study also infers the relative safety of TA-S over TA-C.
Dendritic spikes revisited.

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A Non-Uniform Filterbank for Speaker Recognition

It is known that speaker-specific information is distributed nonuniformly in the frequency domain. Current speaker recognition systems utilize auditory-motivated scales for extracting acoustic features. These scales, however, are not optimised to exploit the spectral distribution of speaker-specific information and hence may not be the optimal choice for speaker recognition. In this paper, the authors studied the distribution of speaker-specific information for Spectral Centroid Frequency feature, and a nonuniform filter bank is proposed to capture the information effectively for spectral centroid feature. The F-ratio and Kullback-Leibler (KL) distance were used to measure distribution of speaker-specific information and it was empirically shown that the KL distance is better than F-ratio in measuring discriminative ability. The proposed filterbank emphasises the high KL distance regions by allocating more filters in those regions. Experimental results showed a relative EER reduction of 8.8% over the Mel-scale filterbank on NIST2006 SRE database.
The relationship between community physical activity settings and race, ethnicity and socioeconomic status

Abstract: This study provides evidence on the association between the availability of community-level physical activity-related settingsand race, ethnicity and socioeconomic status (SES). We draw on outdoor observational data on community-level physical activity- relatedsettings (such as sports areas, parks and green space, public pools and beaches, and bike paths/lanes) from the ImpacTeen Project andCensus Bureau data. The results show that the availability of environmental factors that are conducive to physical activity suc h as sportsareas, parks and green spaces, public pools and beaches, and the presence of bike paths/lanes is significantly associated with racial, ethnicand SES factors. We find that higher median household income and lower poverty rates are associated with increasing levels of a vailablephysical activity-related settings. Communities with higher proportions of minority races such as African American and the race category‘other’ are associated with fewer physical activity settings. The results highlight the importance of targeting interventions in low SESareas and communities with minority populations where the associated barriers are relatively high and the levels of physical ac tivity areknown to be relatively low.
De novo malignancies after liver transplantation using tacrolimus‐based protocols or cyclosporine‐based quadruple immunosuppression with an interleukin‐2 receptor antibody or antithymocyte globulin

Although conventional immunosuppression after liver transplantation consists of cyclosporine A (CsA), steroids, and azathioprine, recently introduced protocols entail CsA‐based quadruple induction protocols or tacrolimus‐based combinations. These protocols aim to reduce the rejection rate and the considerable morbidity related to the side effects of additional immunosuppressive treatment, but have not yet been analyzed regarding their long term de novo neoplastic risk.
Environmental causes of asthma in children

Atopic diseases are common causes of childhood morbidity, and in recent decades the incidence of these disorders appears to be increasing. The expression of atopic disease may vary with age, and symptoms may disappear completely, eventually to be replaced by other symptoms. In the first years of life the main atopic manifestations are atopic dermatitis, gastrointestinal problems and recurrent wheezing, whereas bronchial asthma and allergic rhinitis are the main problems later in childhood. Adverse reactions to foods (mainly cow’s milk protein) are most common in the first years of life, whereas allergy to inhalant allergens mostly occur after this period.