Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Changes of cardiac troponin I and operative mortality of coronary artery bypass

Background Recently, cardiac troponin I has been used to detect myocardial injury because of its superior cardiac specificity. However, there has been debate about the appropriate timing and cutoff level of cardiac troponin I to detect perioperative myocardial injury after coronary artery bypass grafting. The objective of this study was to define the relationship between operative mortality and changes in cardiac troponin I after isolated coronary artery bypass. Patients and methods A retrospective analysis was carried out on data of 218 isolated coronary artery bypass patients who were operated on between June 2009 and February 2012. All patients followed an institutional perioperative management protocol that included 6 cardiac troponin I measurements (preoperatively and 0, 12, 24, 36, and 48 h after coronary artery bypass). According to the patterns of cardiac troponin I, the patient cohort was divided into 2 groups. Group 1 was patients in whom cardiac troponin I levels decreased 24 h after the operation, and group 2 comprised the patients with cardiac troponin I levels that did not decrease or even increased after 24 h. Results The operative mortality was 4.1% (9/218). Group 2 showed significantly higher mortality (5/25, 20%) than group 1 (4/193, 2.1%). Conclusion An elevated cardiac troponin I level is common after coronary artery bypass. A persistently high level of cardiac troponin I after 24 h is an important predictor of operative mortality after coronary artery bypass surgery.
Research Note - On Vendor Preferences for Contract Types in Offshore Software Projects: The Case of Fixed Price vs. Time and Materials Contracts

Prior research has indicated that, on average, offshore vendors have higher profits associated with time and materials (T&M) contracts than fixed price (FP) contracts. This research raises two questions. First, Is the relative importance of various profit drivers different across two contractual regimes? Second, Does it follow that vendors unconditionally prefer T&M contracts for all projects? We address these questions by using data on 93 offshore projects completed by a leading Indian vendor. We use an endogenous switching regression framework and the program evaluation methodology to show that profit equations are distinctly different for the two contractual regimes. Using these two profit equations, we also identify contingencies under which the vendor prefers an FP contract to a T&M contract. We hypothesize that the vendor's ability leverage information asymmetry about capabilities and experiences translates into the vendor preferring FP contract to secure larger information rents. Our results support this hypothesis and suggest that the vendor would prefer the FP contract for larger and longer projects with larger teams. However, vendors would prefer a T&M contract when the risk of employee attrition from the project team is high. In addition, we discuss managerial implications of these results in the paper.
Interleukin 6 Induces the Expression of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (*)

Angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels, is induced by various growth factors and cytokines that act either directly or indirectly. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a specific mitogen for vascular endothelial cells and therefore has a central role in physiological events of angiogenesis. Interleukin-6 (IL-6) expression on the other hand is elevated in tissues that undergo active angiogenesis but does not induce proliferation of endothelial cells. We demonstrate using Northern analysis that treatment of various cell lines with IL-6 for 6-48 h results in a significant induction of VEGF mRNA. The level of induction is comparable to the documented induction of VEGF mRNA by hypoxia or cobalt chloride, an activator of hypoxia-induced genes. In addition, it is demonstrated by transient transfection assays that the effect of IL-6 is mediated not only by DNA elements at the promoter region but also through specific motif(s) located in the 5′-untranslated region (5′-UTR) of VEGF mRNA. Our results imply that IL-6 may induce angiogenesis indirectly by inducing VEGF expression. It is also shown that the 5′-UTR is important for the expression of VEGF. The 5′-UTR of VEGF is exceptionally long (1038 base pairs) and very rich in G + C. This suggests that secondary structures in the 5′-UTR might be essential for VEGF expression through transcriptional and post-transcriptional control mechanisms.
HEART score performance in Asian and Caucasian patients presenting to the emergency department with suspected acute coronary syndrome

Background: The HEART score is a simple and effective tool to predict short-term major adverse cardiovascular events in patients suspected of acute coronary syndrome. Patients are assigned to three risk categories using History, ECG, Age, Risk factors and Troponin (HEART). The purpose is early rule out and discharge is considered safe for patients in the low risk category. Its performance in patients of Asian ethnicity is unknown. We evaluated the performance of the HEART score in patients of Caucasian, Chinese, Indian and Malay ethnicity. Methods: The HEART score was assessed retrospectively in 3456 patients presenting to the emergency department with suspected acute coronary syndrome (1791 Caucasians, 1059 Chinese, 344 Indians, 262 Malays), assigning them into three risk categories. Results: The incidence of major adverse cardiovascular events within six weeks after presentation was similar between the ethnic groups. A smaller proportion of Caucasians was in the low risk category compared with Asians (Caucasians 35.8%, Chinese 43.5%, Indians 45.3%, Malays 44.7%, p<0.001). The negative predictive value of a low HEART score was comparable across the ethnic groups, but lower than previously reported (Caucasians 95.3%, Chinese 95.0%, Indians 96.2%, Malays 96.6%). Also the c-statistic for the HEART score was not significantly different between the groups. Conclusions: These results show that the overall performance of the HEART score is equal among Caucasian and Asian ethnic groups. The event rate in the low risk group, however, was higher than reported in previous studies, which queries the safety of early discharge of patients in the low risk category.
Health Locus of Control, Self-Concept, and Anxiety in Pediatric Cancer Patients

In a study of 38 pediatric cancer patients, standardized measures of health locus of control achieved only modest to unsatisfactory reliability. Correlations between health locus of control and measures of self-concept and anxiety were low. Some of the items from the scales, however, were significantly related to the patients' feelings of well-being, positive self-concept, and reduced levels of anxiety. An examination of these item correlations and information from a qualitative interview suggest that hopefulness may be more salient for pediatric cancer patients than locus of control. Further research on children's health locus of control should distinguish between clinical and healthy populations.
Comment on "Climate-Driven Ecosystem Succession in the Sahara: The Past 6000 Years"

Kröpelin et al. (Research Articles, 9 May 2008, p. 765) interpreted a sediment record from Lake Yoa in the east-central part of North Africa as support for a weak biogeophysical climate-vegetation feedback in the Sahara during the mid-Holocene. We argue that the new data do not invalidate earlier modeling results on strong land-atmosphere coupling in the Western Sahara for which the Lake Yoa record is far less representative.
Vulnerability of Mountain Communities to Climate Change And Adaptation Strategies

Climate Change, one of the most important global environmental challenges facing humanity, has implications on food production, natural eco-systems, fresh water supply and health in Nepal. It is contributing mostly to the rise in air temperature leading to rapid melting of glaciers and increment of glacier lakes. Exploitation of natural resources associated with growing population has led to increasing pollution, declining water quality, land degradation, etc. Extreme climate events including flooding, heavy rainfall, droughts, heat wave and cold stream etc. are also the consequences of climate change in Nepal. Moreover, Nepal is largely dependent on climate-sensitive sectors, such as rain-fed agriculture; its fragile mountain ecosystems and dramatic topography make the country prone to flooding. Due to such events, agricultural productivity is declining with increasing problem of food security in mountainous regions. In recent years, the signs of such changes are being observed and may become more prominent over next couple of decades. Many rural communities are struggling through different adaptation measures as an attempt to reduce the risk of climate change vulnerability. The Journal of Agriculture and Environment Vol:10, Jun.2009 Page: 76-83
Lugendam Formae Sine Virginitate Reliquit : Reading Pyrene and the Transformation of Landscape in Silius' Punica 3

In Punica3, the poet manipulates the complexities of traditional representations of Hercules to illustrate how Hannibal imitates the demigod's conduct as it is portrayed in the aetiological tale of Pyrene's rape and death. Just as Pyrene's blood stains the homonymous mountains in Spain, Hannibal's army is afflicted with much woe and suffering when crossing the Alps. Verbal echoes from Pyrene's dismemberment throughout the book confirm that the female is not viewed as an object of pathos but rather as a sign "posted" in the narrative in order to foreshadow, but not avert, the disasters that await the male protagonist.
Efficient identification of nationally mandated reportable cancer cases using natural language processing and machine learning

OBJECTIVE To help cancer registrars efficiently and accurately identify reportable cancer cases. MATERIAL AND METHODS The Cancer Registry Control Panel (CRCP) was developed to detect mentions of reportable cancer cases using a pipeline built on the Unstructured Information Management Architecture - Asynchronous Scaleout (UIMA-AS) architecture containing the National Library of Medicine's UIMA MetaMap annotator as well as a variety of rule-based UIMA annotators that primarily act to filter out concepts referring to nonreportable cancers. CRCP inspects pathology reports nightly to identify pathology records containing relevant cancer concepts and combines this with diagnosis codes from the Clinical Electronic Data Warehouse to identify candidate cancer patients using supervised machine learning. Cancer mentions are highlighted in all candidate clinical notes and then sorted in CRCP's web interface for faster validation by cancer registrars. RESULTS CRCP achieved an accuracy of 0.872 and detected reportable cancer cases with a precision of 0.843 and a recall of 0.848. CRCP increases throughput by 22.6% over a baseline (manual review) pathology report inspection system while achieving a higher precision and recall. Depending on registrar time constraints, CRCP can increase recall to 0.939 at the expense of precision by incorporating a data source information feature. CONCLUSION CRCP demonstrates accurate results when applying natural language processing features to the problem of detecting patients with cases of reportable cancer from clinical notes. We show that implementing only a portion of cancer reporting rules in the form of regular expressions is sufficient to increase the precision, recall, and speed of the detection of reportable cancer cases when combined with off-the-shelf information extraction software and machine learning.
A new catechin derivative from the fruits of Rosa sterilis S. D. Shi

Abstract A new catechin derivative named as sterilin A (1), and three known compounds, (+)-catechin (2), kaji-ichigoside F1 (3) and 2α,3α,19α-trihydroxyurs-12-en-28-oic acid-28-O-β-D-xylopyranosyl-(1 → 2)-β-D-glucopyranoside (4), was isolated from the fresh fruits of Rosa sterilis. Their structures were elucidated by means of extensive spectroscopic analysis and by comparison with data reported in the literatures.
Conceptual Analysis: The Charcoal-Agriculture Nexus to Understand the Socio-Ecological Contexts Underlying Varied Sustainability Outcomes in African Landscapes

The production of charcoal is an important socio-economic activity in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Charcoal production is one of the leading drivers of rural land-use changes in SSA, although the intensity of impacts on the multi-functionality of landscapes varies considerably. Within a given landscape, charcoal production is closely interconnected to agriculture production both as major livelihoods, while both critically depend on the same ecosystem services. The interactions between charcoal and agricultural production systems can lead to positive synergies of impacts, but will more often than not result in trade-offs and even vicious cycles. Such sustainability outcomes vary from one site to another due to the heterogeneity of contexts, including agricultural production systems that affect the adoption of technologies and practices. Trade-offs or cases of vicious cycles occur when one-off resource exploitation of natural trees for charcoal production for short-term economic gains permanently impairs ecosystem functions. Given the fact that charcoal, as an important energy source for the growing urban populations and an essential livelihood for the rural populations, cannot be readily substituted in SSA, there must be policies to support charcoal production. Policies should encourage sustainable technologies and practices, either by establishing plantations or by encouraging regeneration, whichever is more suitable for the local environment. To guide context-specific interventions, this paper presents a new perspective - the charcoal-agriculture nexus - aimed at facilitating the understanding of the socio-economic and ecological interactions of charcoal and agriculture production. The nexus especially highlights two dimensions of the socio-ecological contexts: charcoal value chains and tenure systems. Combinations of the two are assumed to underlie varied socio-economic and ecological sustainability outcomes by conditioning incentive mechanisms to affect the adoption of technologies and practices in charcoal and agriculture productions. Contrasting sustainability outcomes from East Africa are presented and discussed through the lens of the charcoal-agriculture nexus. The paper then concludes by emphasizing the importance of taking into account the two-dimensional socio-ecological contexts into effective policy interventions to turn charcoal-agriculture interactions into synergies.
In the absence of IGF-1 signaling, IFN-γ suppresses human malignant T-cell growth

Several approaches to target insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) signaling have resulted in the inhibition of the growth of a broad range of tumor cells. Malignant T cells are insensitive to the antiproliferative effects of the interferon-γ (IFN-γ)/signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 (STAT1) pathway because of the IGF-1–dependent internalization of the IFN-γR2 signaling chain. Here we show that human malignant T cells are also resistant to the growth inhibitory effect of both the IGF-1 receptor–specific inhibitor picropodophyllin (PPP) and retrovirus-mediated gene transfer of a dominant negative IGF-1 receptor. However, blockade of IGF-1 receptor perturbs IFN-γR2 internalization and induces its cell surface accumulation in malignant T cells. This allows the reinstatement of the IFN-γ–induced STAT1 activation, a high expression of proapoptotic molecules, and the suppression of malignant T-cell growth both in vitro and in vivo in a severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) mouse model. These data indicate that the inhibition of IGF-1 signaling combined with IFN-γ administration could be a promising approach to suppress the growth of neoplastic T cells resistant to each treatment on its own.
TÜRK TOPLUMUNDA AD VERME GELENEĞİ

OZET Bu calismada Turk toplumundaki ad verme gelenegi yani kisilere ad verilirken etkilenilen faktorler uzerinde durulmaktadir. ABSTRACT In this study, the Iradition of giving name in Turkish society and the words used as person's name in our society were studied on.
Parent–child attachment, academic performance and the process of high-school dropout: a narrative review

Poor academic performance is a strong predictor of school dropout. Researchers have tried to disentangle variables influencing academic performance. However, studies on preschool and early care variables are seldom examined when explaining the school dropout process. We reviewed the literature on the relationship between caregiver–child attachment and academic performance, including attachment studies from preschool years, seeking out potential contributions to academic performance and the dropout process. The review was organized according to a model of four main mediating hypotheses: the attachment-teaching hypothesis, the social network hypothesis, the attachment-cooperation hypothesis, and the attachment self-regulation hypothesis. The results of the review are summed up in a model. There is some support for all four hypotheses. The review indicates that attachment and early care contribute substantially to dropout and graduation processes. Mediation effects should be given far more attention in future research.
Deleterious effects of obesity on physical fitness in pre-pubertal children

Abstract The prevalence of obesity in children has increased dramatically during the past decades in Europe and understanding physical fitness and its components in children is critical to design and implement effective interventions. The objective of the present study was to analyse the association between physical fitness (aerobic, speed, agility, power, flexibility and balance) and body mass index (BMI) in pre-pubertal children. A total of 2411 healthy schoolchildren (7–11 years) participated in this study. Anthropometric characteristics and body composition were assessed by skinfold thickness. Physical fitness was measured by nine physical fitness tests: endurance running, 20 m running speed, agility, handgrip strength, standing long jump and squat jump, sit and reach, medicine ball forward throw and static balance. No relevant differences were observed between boys and girls regarding anthropometric characteristics, body composition and physical fitness. However, overweight and obese children showed significantly lower physical fitness levels in endurance running, speed and agility (mean: +18.8, +5.5 and +14.5% of time to complete tasks, respectively), lower limb power normalised to body mass (−23.3%) and balance tests (number of falls: +165.5%) than their normal weight counterparts. On the other hand, obesity did not affect handgrip, throwing and flexibility. In conclusion, increased BMI was associated with lower performance capabilities limiting proper motor skill development, which directly affects the ability of children to take on sports skills. Actions undertaken to promote children's wellness and fitness should be prioritised and introduced early in life with the aim of enhancing physical fitness as well as preventing overweight and obesity.
Determination of metronidazole and its two major metabolites in biological fluids by high pressure liquid chromatography.

Metronidazole [ 1-(2-hydroxyethyl)-2-methyl-5-nitroimidazole; Flagyl®] is an antibacterial agent which has been widely used in the treatment of a variety of anaerobic infections (Templeton, 1977). The major urinary metabolites which have been reported for man are 1-(2-hydroxyethyl)-2-hydroxymethyl-5-nitroimidazole and 2-methyl-5-nitroimidazole-1-acetic acid (Stambaugh, Feo & Manthei, 1968). The analytical methods which are most commonly used to determine this drug in biological fluids are polarography (Kane, 1961), microbiological assay (Levison, 1974) or gas chromatography (Midha, McGilveray & Cooper, 1973; Wood, 1975). The first two methods are nonspecific, and the gas chromatographic methods, although specific, are designed for the assay of metronidazole alone, and have a sensitivity which is more appropriate for the measurement of therapeutic levels than for pharmacokinetic studies of metronidazole. The specific and sensitive high pressure liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method described herein was devised for the simultaneous determination of metronidazole and its two major human oxidative metabolites in pharmacokinetic studies. During the final stages in the preparation of this letter, it was noted that an HPLC method for the quantification of metronidazole and its metabolites in plasma was published by Wheeler, DeMeo, Halula, George & Heseltine (1978). This method is similar in some regards to that described here. However, our method has a considerably lower limit of sensitivity for compounds in plasma, may be used to quantify metronidazole and its metabolites in urine, employs an internal standard for greater accuracy, and has a different sample work-up procedure which is likely to lead to a longer HPLC column life. The extraction and chromatographic procedures used in the assay method are described below. An aliquot (100 gl) of the HPLC mobile phase (a mixture of 0.1 M diammonium hydrogen phosphate and methanol, 5 :1 v/v) containing a known concentration (0.1 to 40 gg/ml) of internal standard [ 1-(2hydroxyethyl)-2-ethyl-5-nitroimidazole] was added to heparinized human plasma (5 ml). Ammonium sulphate (3.3 g; prewashed with methyl ethyl ketone) was added and the mixture shaken for 5 min. The pH of the mixture was adjusted to 3.5 with 2M hydrochloric acid. Methyl ethyl ketone (25 ml) was added and the mixture shaken for a further 5 min, centrifuged and the organic layer removed and retained. This was dried over anhydrous sodium sulphate (5 g; prewashed with methyl ethyl ketone), filtered and evaporated to dryness under vacuum. The residue was dissolved in anhydrous methanol (3 ml), transferred to a vial and evaporated to dryness under a stream of oxygen-free-nitrogen. The residue was dissolved in mobile phase (100 pl) and an aliquot (10 to 25 ,ul) injected onto the HPLC column. The extraction method described above was also used for the quantification of the three compounds of interest in urine, except that the quantity of internal standard was increased to a known concentration in
Genetics of Genome-Wide Recombination Rate Evolution in Mice from an Isolated Island

Recombination rate is a heritable quantitative trait that evolves despite the fundamentally conserved role that recombination plays in meiosis. Differences in recombination rate can alter the landscape of the genome and the genetic diversity of populations. Yet our understanding of the genetic basis of recombination rate evolution in nature remains limited. We used wild house mice (Mus musculus domesticus) from Gough Island (GI), which diverged recently from their mainland counterparts, to characterize the genetics of recombination rate evolution. We quantified genome-wide autosomal recombination rates by immunofluorescence cytology in spermatocytes from 240 F2 males generated from intercrosses between GI-derived mice and the wild-derived inbred strain WSB/EiJ. We identified four quantitative trait loci (QTL) responsible for inter-F2 variation in this trait, the strongest of which had effects that opposed the direction of the parental trait differences. Candidate genes and mutations for these QTL were identified by overlapping the detected intervals with whole-genome sequencing data and publicly available transcriptomic profiles from spermatocytes. Combined with existing studies, our findings suggest that genome-wide recombination rate divergence is not directional and its evolution within and between subspecies proceeds from distinct genetic loci.