Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Relationship between adiposity and cardiovascular risk factors in prevalent hemodialysis patients.

OBJECTIVE Increased body mass index (BMI) is associated with reduced all-cause and cardiovascular (CV) mortality in hemodialysis (HD) patients, whereas CV risk increases with BMI in the general population. In the general population, obesity is associated with inflammation, decreased high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, increased low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, and triglycerides (TGs), all risk factors for CV disease. Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol does not predict CV risk in HD, whereas increased C-reactive protein and interleukin-6 (IL-6), low HDL and apolipoprotein (apo) AI, and increased fasting TGs do predict risk. Renal failure is associated with dyslipidemia and inflammation in normal-weight patients. We hypothesized that the effects of obesity may be obscured by renal failure in HD. METHODS We explored the relationship between adipose tissue pools and distribution, i.e., subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) and visceral adipose tissue (VAT) (measured by magnetic resonance imaging) and measures of inflammation (C-reactive protein, IL-6, ceruloplasmin, and alpha1 acid glycoprotein), HDL and LDL cholesterol, total TGs, apo AI, apo B, apo CII (an activator of lipoprotein lipase), apo CIII (an inhibitor of lipoprotein lipase), and the adipokines, leptin and adiponectin, in 48 patients with prevalent HD. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS Total TG concentrations were positively correlated with VAT controlled for age, sex, and weight. Both apo CII and apo CIII were correlated only with VAT. Adiponectin was inversely correlated with VAT, and leptin was positively associated with SAT. C-reactive protein and alpha1 acid glycoprotein were weakly associated with SAT, whereas ceruloplasmin was strongly associated with VAT according to multiple regression analysis. In contrast, apo B, LDL, apo AI, HDL, and IL-6 were not correlated with any measure of body composition, potentially mitigating the effects of obesity in HD.
Changes in Chemoreflex Characteristics Following Acute Carbonic Anhydrase Inhibition in Humans a Rest

The effect of carbonic anhydrase (CA) inhibition with acetazolamide (ACZ, 10 mg kg‐1 I.V.) on the peripheral and central chemosensitivity and breathing pattern was investigated in four women and three men aged 25 ± 3 years using a modified version of Read's rebreathing technique. Subjects were exposed to dynamic increases in CO2 in hypoxic and hyperoxic backgrounds during control conditions and following acute CA inhibition. All manoeuvres were repeated twice and averaged for data analysis. The central chemoreflex sensitivities, estimated from the slopes of the ventilatory response to CO2 during hyperoxic rebreathing, increased following acute CA inhibition (control vs. ACZ treatment: 1.87 ± 0.66 vs. 4.07 ± 1.03 l min‐1 (mmHg CO2)‐1, P < 0.05). The increased slope was reflected by an increase in the rate of rise of tidal volume and breathing frequency. Furthermore with ACZ, there was a left‐ward shift of the ventilation vs. end‐tidal PCO2 curve during hyperoxic hypercapnia but not hypoxic hypercapnia. The peripheral chemoreflex sensitivity was isolated by subtracting the hyperoxic slope (central only) from the hypoxic slope (central and peripheral). Following ACZ administration, the peripheral chemosensitivity was blunted (control vs. ACZ treatment: 3.66 ± 0.92 vs. 1.33 ± 0.46 l min‐1 (mmHg CO2)‐1, P < 0.05). In conclusion, acute CA inhibition enhanced the central chemosensitivity to CO2 but diminished the peripheral chemosensitivity.
Is semen quality related to the year of birth among Danish infertility clients?

BACKGROUND There is circumstantial evidence that human sperm count may have declined during past decades. The purpose of this study was to identify the association between semen quality and year of birth. METHODS The study comprised 8608 men consulting four Danish medical centres from 1968 to 1992 because of infertility. Data on semen quality and urogenital disorders were obtained from medical records while lifestyle data were collected from a subset of the population by a postal questionnaire (response 80%). Semen characteristics were analysed as a linear function of year of birth, centre, season and calendar year at time of semen examination, sexual abstinence and lifestyle factors. Effects of age were accounted for by restriction and stratified analysis. RESULTS The sperm count declined with increasing year of birth at two of the four centres, but this association disappeared when confounders were adjusted for. Within the subset of men born 1950-1970 we revealed a decrease in the average sperm count by 1.9 mill/ml (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.45, 2.27) per one advancing year of birth. This finding was consistent across centres even after adjustment for effects of covariates. The proportion of morphologically normal sperm cells changed in parallel with the sperm count, while semen volume did not decline in any time periods. CONCLUSIONS We found a birth cohort effect on sperm count and morphology among Danish infertile men born after 1950 but not in men born in the first part of the century. The findings are compatible with an environmental impact during prenatal life but the evidence is far from unequivocal.
Perceived Barriers to Rural Elderly Women’s Health-Promoting Behaviors: An Ecological Perspective

This study multidimensionally examines rural elderly women’s subjective barriers to practicing health-promoting behaviors. Twenty-six rural elderly women participated in three focus group interviews. Content analysis and a qualitative research method were used. The results, based on an ecological model, show that the implementation of health-promoting behaviors in rural elderly women was comprehensively related to intrapersonal (functional decline, passive attitude, and lack of implementation), interpersonal (lack of social support), community (restrictive conditions, accessibility issues, and lack of infrastructure), and public policy (lack of policy support) factors. Interventions addressing each factor can help reduce or eliminate the perceived barriers to health-promoting behaviors through interactions. Our findings can contribute to the development of health-promoting programs focused specifically on the socialization of rural elderly women and community-centered health policies in the future.
Older inpatients' room preference: single versus shared accommodation.

INTRODUCTION The Royal Victoria Hospital, a geriatric medicine assessment and rehabilitation hospital in Edinburgh, was re-provided into a new 130 bed purpose-built unit on the Western General Hospital site in June 2012. All patient rooms in the new unit are single occupancy with en-suite facilities. METHODS We surveyed inpatients on their room preference in 2008 and repeated the survey with inpatients in the new unit in 2013. Patients were asked whether they would prefer to be in a shared room or a single room and to explain the reason behind their choice. They were also asked whether they would prefer to eat their meals in a day/dining room or by their bed. The patients in the 2013 survey were also questioned as to whether they felt lonely in their single room. Forty-three inpatients agreed to participate in the 2008 survey and 46 in the 2013 survey. All had an abbreviated mental test score≥8/10. In 2008, those surveyed had a mean age of 78. In 2013, the mean age was 83. RESULTS In 2008, 37.2% of patients expressed a preference for single room accommodation, whereas in 2013, 84.8% said that they preferred a single room. The majority of patients, 60.5% in 2008 and 76.1% in 2013, preferred to eat their meal at their bedside. Only 8.7% of patients in 2013 would consider eating in a day/dining room compared with 34.9% in 2008. In the 2013 survey, 60.9% of patients reported that they never felt lonely in a single room. DISCUSSION The benefits of single room versus multi-occupancy room hospital accommodation has been recently debated. The results from our survey indicate a marked difference in the preference for a single room between 2008 and 2013. The introduction of open visiting and care rounding has reduced the risk of isolation in single rooms. Our survey introduces new discussion about social isolation, privacy, noise levels and patient well-being and recovery.
Source of Sex Education in Relation to Self-Esteem and Attitudes towards AIDS Precautions among College Students

84 college students responded to Coopersmith's self-esteem scale, Moore and Barling's AIDS Questionnaire, and a background survey querying them as to their sex, race, religion, frequency of church attendance, marital status, college classification, and sources of their sex education. The results indicated that self-esteem scores correlated positively with having received sex education from the parents and negatively with not having received sex education from any of the listed sources. More frequent church attenders were more likely to have received sex education from their parents and to score higher in foreclosure status with regard to attitudes towards AIDS. Persons who scored higher on moratorium status for attitudes towards AIDS were less likely to have received sex education in high school, were more likely not to have received sex education from formal sources, and reported being less likely to use condoms.
Optokinetic responses of the crab, Carinus to a single moving light.

1. A crab in an otherwise dark room will stabilize its eye position by reference to a single small light, so long as the illumination at the eye exceeds about 0.0003 lux. 2. The eye movements follow the movements of the light. 3. Responses to a light moving in a horizontal plane resemble those to a striped drum, but at lower percentage following. 4. Apparent motion is an effective stimulus; with intermittent light the response is reduced. If there is a period of complete darkness after the first light the subsequent movement, when the second light comes on, is slower for longer dark periods. 5. The crab learns, after some repetitions, to discriminate between a continuous light and an intermittent one, as shown by its eventually stabilizing them at different points on its retina.
A Penny Saved Is Not a Penny Earned: When Decisions to Earn and Save Compete for Consumer Resources

Policy makers, practitioners, and researchers emphasize the importance of consumers developing capabilities to improve their financial well-being. Key principles concern the management of two integral resources: earnings and savings. Although prior research has examined factors influencing those resources independently, less is known about how earn-save decisions are made in conjunction: for example, how people allocate hours in a day to activities aimed at learning how to increase earnings or savings. Thus, we examine how people think about and decide between opportunities to earn and save. In addition, we study whether perceived financial deprivation interacts with preferences for earning and saving opportunities. Four experiments show that (1) people prefer options to earn over options to save, despite believing that increases in earnings may not increase savings, (2) perceived financial deprivation heightens preferences for earning over saving, and (3) reframing saving options as earning options enhances preferences for saving among the financially deprived.
The physiological response to aldosterone in adrenalectomized and intact rats and its sex dependence.

Evidence is presented confirming previous observations in the dog that the physiological response to aldosterone of adrenalectomized rats is both an antinatriuretic and kaliuretic effect, while in intact rats the response to aldosterone is only a kaliuretic effect. Therefore, the antinatriuretic and kaliuretic components of the response to aldosterone may be separable. Both components of the physiological responses in both adrenalectomized and intact rats were greater in males than in females. (Endocrinology 92: 989, 1973)
Nuclear androgen receptors recur in the epithelial and stromal compartments of malignant and non‐malignant human prostate tissue several months after castration therapy

As changed paracrine support from androgen receptor (AR)‐positive cells in the prostate stroma contribute to castration‐induced glandular involution, we examined if the subsequent relapse to androgen‐independent epithelial cell growth could be related to reactivation of AR signaling in the stroma.
Functional and topographical properties of field potentials evoked in rat dorsal horn by cutaneous C‐fibre stimulation.

Extracellular field potentials in the lumbosacral dorsal horn evoked by stimulation of cutaneous C fibres in the sural nerve were explored in the halothane‐anaesthetized rat. C‐fibre‐evoked field potentials were prominent in lamina II and lamina V of the dorsal horn. These potentials had a latency of 80‐130 ms and a duration of more than 200 ms. A peak in the C‐fibre‐evoked field potential, termed the CI potential, with a median latency of 120 ms, range 105‐150 ms, was distinguished in lamina II. The time from onset to peak of the CI potential was, on average, 13 ms when all C fibres were activated. The amplitude of the CI potential in lamina II was directly proportional to the amplitude of the C‐fibre‐evoked nerve volley, whereas the relation between the C‐fibre nerve volley and the C‐fibre‐evoked field potential in lamina V was non‐linear. A selective block of A fibres did not influence the amplitude of these field potentials. Following stimulation of C afferent fibres in the medial sural nerve, at frequencies higher than 0.1 Hz, the CI potential in lamina II, but not the C‐fibre‐evoked field potential in lamina V, was increased. There was no concomitant change of the A‐fibre‐evoked field potentials. The magnitude of the potentiation of the CI potential was dependent both on the frequency and the number of stimuli. Mean percentage potentiation was 200%, range 150‐300%, after seventy stimulations at a frequency of 1.0 Hz. During the stimulation the CI potential increased monotonically. The decay of the potentiation of the CI potential was well described by two exponentially declining phases. There was a positive correlation between the size of the time constants of the decay and the number of stimuli during conditioning. Following noxious radiant heat (temperature 50‐55 degrees C) applied to a restricted part of the skin (area 20‐30 mm2) within the receptive field of the medial sural nerve for 10‐20 s, the CI potential was potentiated by 50‐130%. The duration of this potentiation was 3‐15 min. This potentiation was somatotopically organized. By contrast, there was no effect on the amplitude of the CI potential following innocuous skin stimulation (slowly moving contact, brushing the skin, warmth 40 degrees C). (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Is This Opinion Leader's Review Useful? Peripheral Cues for Online Review Helpfulness

With the growing popularity of online user-generated reviews, research has emerged to understand the mechanism of how a review is voted helpful, focusing on the central-route influences of review content and quality, yet little research has studied the roles of peripheral cues such as reviewer credibility and contextual factors. Drawing on the theories of elaboration likelihood model and source credibility model, this study developed an integrative model of online review helpfulness, focusing on the direct influence of reviewer credibility and the moderating effects of service price and rating extremity. An econometrics regression analysis of 16,265 hotel reviews on Yelp showed that reviewer expertise in terms of the number of “Elite” badges, and reviewer online attractiveness in terms of the number of friends both helped a review receive helpfulness votes. The findings further revealed that a review written by an opinion leader (i.e., a reviewer with more Elite badges and more online friends) did not necessarily receive more helpfulness votes. Hotel price weakened the enhancing effect of reviewer expertise. Rating extremity also diluted the influence of reviewer credibility. These findings contribute to the knowledge of online review helpfulness, and offer practical implications on how to position valuable reviews.
Rituximab as first-line and maintenance therapy for patients with indolent non-Hodgkin's lymphoma: Interim follow-up of a multicenter phase II trial.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the activity of rituximab (Rituxan; Genentech, Inc, South San Francisco, CA, and IDEC Pharmaceuticals, San Diego, CA) in the first-line treatment of patients with indolent non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and to evaluate the role of scheduled maintenance courses of rituximab in prolonging duration of remission. Sixty-two patients with stages II to IV indolent non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (follicular or small lymphocytic) who had received no previous systemic therapy entered this multicenter, community-based trial. All patients received rituximab 375 mg/m2 weekly for 4 consecutive weeks, and were evaluated for response at week 6. Patients who had an objective response or stable disease continued treatment every 6 months with repeat 4-week courses of rituximab for a total of four treatment courses. Interim results of this ongoing trial are available. When evaluated at week 6, 28 of 60 evaluable patients (47%) had objective response and 27 patients (45%) had minor response or stable disease. With further follow-up and repeat courses of rituximab, the major response rate increased from 47% to 65% and the complete response rate increased from 7% to 27%. Response rates were similar in patients with follicular lymphoma and small lymphocytic lymphoma (63% and 66%, respectively). Median progression-free survival has not been reached, but will be greater than 24 months. There has been no cumulative toxicity observed with repeat courses of rituximab. Rituximab is highly effective as a first-line single agent for the treatment of indolent non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The initial response rate can be improved by using scheduled maintenance courses of rituximab administered every 6 months. Final information regarding duration of response and time to progression awaits further follow-up. Semin Oncol 29 (suppl 2):25-29. Copyright © 2002 by W.B. Saunders Company.
Trends in Suicide (1983–1987)

From over 20,000 autopsies performed by the Department of Forensic Medicine of The London Hospital Medical College over a period of 5 years from 1983 to 1987, 7.4 per cent were classified as unnatural deaths, and from these 659 (3.2 per cent) were suicides. The object of this paper is to study the different methods of self-destruction, the incidence of these methods by sex and age, and evidence left by the deceased.
Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) gene polymorphisms in giant cell arteritis.

OBJECTIVE To investigate potential associations between toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) gene polymorphisms and susceptibility to, and clinical features of giant cell arteritis (GCA). METHODS A total of 155 patients with biopsy-proven GCA who were residents of Reggio Emilia, Italy, and 210 population-based controls from the same geographical area were genotyped for two coding single nucleotide polymorphisms of TLR4 (Asp299Gly and Thr399Ile) by molecular methods. The patients were subgrouped according to the presence or absence of polymyalgia rheumatica and severe ischemic complications (visual loss and/or cerebrovascular accidents). RESULTS The distribution of allele and genotype frequencies did not differ significantly between GCA patients and healthy controls. Carriers of the -299 G allele (G/A+ G/G) [odds ratio (OR) 1.78, 95% confidence intervals (CI) 0.90-3.50)] were more frequent among GCA patients than among the controls, but the difference was not statistically significant. No significant associations were found when GCA patients with and without PMR or with and without severe ischemic complications were compared. CONCLUSION Our data suggest that the TLR4 gene polymorphisms are not associated with susceptibility to, and clinical expression of, GCA in Italian patients.
From face‐to‐face to distance LMS‐mediated collaborative learning situations with GLUE!

GLUE! is an integration architecture that allows teachers to easily set up an LMS environment with several external tools to carry out complex collaborative learning situations in distance settings. Though its effectiveness in alleviating the burden on teachers of deploying and enacting such situations has been studied elsewhere, there are no studies in the literature analyzing the impact, in terms of learning achievement, of turning traditional face‐to‐face collaborative learning situations into distance LMS‐mediated ones with the support of integration approaches such as the GLUE! architecture. This paper compares the learning achievement in a distance LMS‐mediated collaborative learning situation supported by GLUE! and in the equivalent face‐to‐face in a non‐technological setting. The conclusions of this comparison, along with the fact that GLUE! significantly reduces the set up effort, suggest that GLUE! is a good choice for turning traditional face‐to‐face collaborative learning situations into distance LMS‐mediated ones without significant negative effects in the learning achievement. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 23:527–536, 2015; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/cae; DOI 10.1002/cae.21623
1 IN VITRO AND IN VIVO CHARACTERISATION OF ISOLATES OF CRYPTOCOCCUS 1 NEOFORMANS CAUSING MENINGITIS IN HIV INFECTED AND UNINFECTED PATIENTS 2 IN VIETNAM 3 4

27 Most cryptococcal meningitis cases occur in immunocompromised individuals and are caused 28 by Cryptococcus neoformans var.grubii. We previously reported cryptococcal meningitis in 29 Vietnam arising atypically in HIV-uninfected, apparently immunocompetent patients, caused by 30 a single amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) cluster of C. neoformans (VNI-γ). This 31 variant was less common in HIV-infected individuals. It is unclear why this lineage is associated 32 with HIV-uninfected, apparently immunocompetent patients. To better delineate the 33 phenotypic characteristics of C. neoformans VNI-γ in comparison with other C. neoformans 34 lineages we selected 30 representative isolates and compared their genotype-specific in vitro 35 pathogenic potential and in vivo virulence, and ability to induce inflammatory response in the 36 A/J mouse model. All isolates were genotyped using multi-locus sequence typing. All previously 37 AFLP-defined VNI-γ isolates were identified as sequence type (ST) 5. Compared with non-ST5 38 strains, ST5 isolates had significantly increased variability in cell and capsule size (p<0.001). ST5 39 and non-ST5 strains exhibited similar characteristics in relation to previously defined virulence 40 factors including melanization, growth at 37C, and growth in cerebrospinal fluid. However, A/J 41 . CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license peer-reviewed) is the author/funder. It is made available under a The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not . http://dx.doi. org/10.1101/189274 doi: bioRxiv preprint first posted online Sep. 15, 2017;