Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Outbreak of sporotrichosis among tree nursery workers.

In spring 1994, an outbreak of sporotrichosis occurred at a tree nursery in Florida; 9 (14%) of 65 workers involved in production of sphagnum moss topiaries developed lymphocutaneous sporotrichosis. A cohort study of all 65 employees was conducted to identify risk factors for sporotrichosis, and an environmental investigation was done. The risk of sporotrichosis increased significantly with the duration of working with sphagnum moss (P < .05), in particular with filling topiaries (P < .05), and with having less gardening experience (P < .05). Wearing gloves was protective (P < .005). Sporothrix schenckii was cultured from patients and sphagnum moss used in topiary production. Use of restriction fragment length polymorphism revealed an identical pattern for patient isolates that was different from the patterns of environmental isolates. Physicians should be aware of sporotrichosis in patients with ulcerative skin lesions who have a history of occupational or recreational exposure to sphagnum moss.
Country-of-operation and brand images: evidence from the Chinese hotel industry

Purpose Building upon previous research on country-of-origin. This study aims to investigate whether the effects of country-of-origin extend to the hotel industry, based on associative network and signaling theories. Design/methodology/approach Based on a self-administered survey with tourists in China, this paper investigates antecedents and outcomes of hotel brand image and the moderating role of a hotel’s brand origin. Findings Results reveal country, city and industry images positively influence hotel brand image. Hotel brand image then influences price perception, quality perception and overall satisfaction. Practical implications Country-of-operation image remains a relevant, powerful predictor of brand image; thus, hotels need to carefully manage country-of-operation image. Originality/value This paper incorporates and establishes the role of country-of-operation image on hotel brand image.
Entertainment Television and Hearing Students' Attitudes Regarding the Pediatric Cochlear Implant

The cochlear implant, a bionic technology that restores sound sensation in some patients, has become ethically controversial in the 20 years since its introduction. This controversy recently has entered American entertainment culture, with the issue of pediatric implants emerging in episodes of popular TV programs. This pilot study examines the effects of one such TV episode on the attitudes of hearing college students with minimal prior exposure to the controversy, using a posttest-only control group design. The control group (N = 17) watched an unrelated entertainment video and filled out an original 10-item attitude scale. The treatment group (N = 18), which viewed an episode of the dramatic series Gideon's Crossing addressing the cochlear implant issue, also filled out the attitude scale. A t test was applied, and it was determined that no significant difference existed between the two groups' attitudes regarding pediatric cochlear implants. Although there was wide variability on individual items, overall scores indicated that both groups were neutral, or undecided, regarding cochlear implantation in children.
Determinants of Employee Participation in Physical Activity

The purpose of this article is to provide a review of research literature related to factors that influence employee participation in physical activity. Eleven published studies investigating physical activity in samples of adult employees were included in this review. Across these studies, self-efficacy, or belief in personal ability to perform this health behavior, was the best predictor of physical activity among employees. Perceived benefits of physical activity and perceived health status were also found to influence participation in physical activity. Occupational health nurses could offer self-care classes and intervention programs that assist employees in improving their perceptions of self-efficacy to perform physical activity. Additionally, occupational health nurses should continue to reinforce the benefits of physical activity in all health promotion venues.
The association between the p53/topoisomerase I and p53/ topoisomerase IIalpha immunophenotypes and the progression of ovarian carcinomas.

BACKGROUND In in vitro studies it has been revealed that p53 protein expression might regulate topoisomerase I (topo I) and topoisomerase IIalpha (topo IIalpha) levels in tumor cells. So far, the association between the p53 protein and topo I and topo IIalpha expression and its impact on ovarian carcinoma progression has not been analyzed. OBJECTIVES The aim of the study was to examine the association between topo I and topo IIalpha expression and p53 protein overexpression with respect to the morphological features and progressive growth of ovarian tumors. MATERIAL AND METHODS The expression of the studied biomarkers was estimated by immunohistochemical staining in tumor sections from 136 malignant and 30 benign ovarian neoplasms. RESULTS Significant differences for topo I, topo IIalpha and p53 expression between malignant and benign tumors were observed (p < 0.01). The expression of topo IIalpha and p53 protein was associated with advanced stages of ovarian carcinomas (p < 0.01). Differences between topo I-positive cases and low (G1) and high (G3) tumor grade had only borderline significance (p = 0.07). In ovarian carcinomas, positive correlations between topo I and topo IIalpha, topo I and p53 and topo Ilalpha and p53 protein expression were revealed (p = 0.001). No relationship between the studied biomarkers was found in benign ovarian tumors (p > 0.05). p53/topo I and p53/topo IIalpha immunophenotypes were associated with advanced stages of ovarian carcinoma (p = 0.045 and p = 0.009, respectively), p53/topo IIalpha positive ovarian carcinomas were more frequently observed in high than in low tumor grades and the differences were only of borderline significance (p = 0.07). CONCLUSIONS Current findings suggest that on the one hand, cooperation between topo I, topo IIalpha and p53 protein participates in the progressive growth of ovarian tumors. On the other hand, simultaneous expression of the studied proteins identifies the subgroup of ovarian cancers with aggressive biological features which might be considered in therapy.
Gasless Endoscopic Thyroidectomy via an Axillary Approach: Experience of 30 Cases

Surgery for thyroid disease requires skin incisions that can result in postsurgical problems such as prominent scars, adhesions, hypesthesia, and paresthesia in the neck. To overcome these problems we performed gasless endoscopic thyroidectomy via an axillary approach. Between May 2004 and April 2005, 30 patients underwent gasless endoscopic thyroidectomy via an axillary approach. The mean operating time was 126.8±32.4 minutes, and the mean length of hospital stay was 4.3±1.1 days. No cases required conversion to open surgery and none involved significant intraoperative complications. Three patients (10.0%) complained of slight hypesthesia or paresthesia in the anterior chest wall, and only 2 patients (6.7%) complained of discomfort while swallowing 4 months after surgery. All patients were satisfied with the cosmetic results. Gasless endoscopic thyroidectomy via an axillary approach is feasible and safe and provides excellent cosmetic results with a minimal degree of postoperative complaints.
The Impact of Chronic Wasting Disease on the Geographic Distribution of the U.S. Captive Cervid Industry

In 2007 there were approximately 7,600 captive cervid (e.g. elk and deer) operations in the US with a total inventory of 338,000 animals (USDA NASS 2007). Production occurs in all regions of the country, but is concentrated in Texas, Pennsylvania, and the north-central part of the US. Texas alone has more than 1,600 deer farms and 350 elk farms (USDA NASS 2007). Production systems are diverse and many operations market multiple products. Breeding operations focus on producing breeding stock that is marketed to trophy hunting preserves and other breeding stock producers. Other operations focus on venison production and will buy weaned stock and sell finished animals. Finally, some producers focus on velvet production or scent products (Burden 2012). Anderson et al. (2007) provide estimates of the size and composition of an average cervid farm in the United States that are useful in describing the industry. A typical operation has 82 animals and is split roughly evenly between females, males, and fawns or calves. Farm size appears to be related to the product being marketed with hunting preserves requiring more acreage than operations strictly intended for breeding. Breeding operations were 25 acres on average, operations that exclusively offered hunting had an average area of approximately 1,000 acres, and operations that featured hunting and breeding had an average area of 1,700 acres.
A New Design of the Asynchronous Brain Computer Interface Using the Knowledge of the Path of Features

The low-frequency asynchronous switch design (LF-ASD) was introduced as a direct brain computer interface (BCI) technology for asynchronous control applications. The LF-ASD has the advantage that it is operational at any time and not only at specific defined periods. It is activated only when a user intends control, otherwise it maintains an inactive state output. The intended control results from a certain movement attempt such as finger flexion. This paper presents the evaluation of a modified LF-ASD design with data collected from individuals with high-level spinal cord injuries and able-bodied subjects. The modifications are related to incorporating into the system more knowledge about the movement attempt. Specifically, the past values of the features extracted from the EEG signal related to the movement attempts are used. The error characteristics of this new asynchronous brain switch design are significantly better than the previous LF-ASD design, with true positive rate increases of approximately 8.5% for false positive rates in the range of 1-2%
Election Forecasts With Twitter

This study investigates whether microblogging messages on Twitter validly mirror the political landscape off-line and can be used to predict election results. In the context of the 2009 German federal election, we conducted a sentiment analysis of over 100,000 messages containing a reference to either a political party or a politician. Our results show that Twitter is used extensively for political deliberation and that the mere number of party mentions accurately reflects the election result. The tweets' sentiment (e.g., positive and negative emotions associated with a politician) corresponds closely to voters' political preferences. In addition, party sentiment profiles reflect the similarity of political positions between parties. We derive suggestions for further research and discuss the use of microblogging services to aggregate dispersed information.
The Evaluation of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Related Changes in Diastolic Dysfunction During Exercise Using Conventional and Tissue Doppler Echocardiography

Background The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between changes in diastolic functions during exercise and the exercising capacity in diabetic patients with diastolic dysfunction and to compare them with healthy individuals and diabetic patients without diastolic dysfunction. Methods Totally 70 patients prospectively were included in the study and three groups were formed. Forty-six diabetic patients were divided into two groups: those with (group 1) and without (group 2) diastolic dysfunction. The control group (group 3) consisted of 24 patients. All patients were subjected to treadmill exercising test. Echocardiographical assessment was made before exercise and immediately after peak exercise. Results Exercising time was dramatically decreased in group 1 compared to the other groups (group 1: 396 ± 125 second, group 2: 487 ± 66 second and group 3: 519 ± 102 second). In group 1, the diastolic mitral flow pattern at rest was transformed into pseudo-normal pattern at peak exercise from abnormal relaxation pattern (E/A ratio 0.70 ± 0.11 during rest, 1.02 ± 0.16; P < 0.0001 during peak exercise). Deceleration time (DT) and iso-volumetric relaxation time (IVRT) turned to normal values (DT 238.86 ± 39.48 millisecond during rest and 199.5 ± 23.57 millisecond during peak exercise; P = 0.001, IVRT 102.83 ± 16.22 millisecond during rest and 74.36 ± 8.67 millisecond during peak exercise; P = 0.001). In groups 2 and 3, the mitral flow pattern, DT and IVRT remained within normal limits during rest and exercise. E/Em ratio, which is one of the parameters of tissue Doppler, increased during peak exercise in the diabetic group with diastolic dysfunction (E/Em ratio 7.85 ± 3.31 during rest and 11.14 ± 3.40 after peak exercise; P < 0.0001). Conclusions Diabetic patients with diastolic dysfunction demonstrated a reduced exercise capacity, which may be due to aggravation of pre-existing left ventricular dysfunction.
Exploring residential mobility in Chinese cities: An empirical analysis of Guangzhou

In this article we aim to extend the literature on residential decisions and relocation in Chinese cities by explicitly incorporating cohort or generation differences in an event-history analysis of residential mobility in the City of Guangzhou over the period 2000–2012, using data from a survey conducted at the end of 2012. The results reveal not only substantially higher mobility propensities for young adults than middle-aged individuals and senior citizens, but significant differential effects of major determinants such as hukou, educational attainment, membership of the Chinese Communist Party and birth of a child and child rearing, on housing consumption and residential relocation across age cohorts. We argue that such differences in mobility behaviour are attributable, to a significant extent, to the vastly different life experiences of and housing opportunities available to different age cohorts.
Pharmacokinetics of mefloquine alone or in combination with artesunate.

A randomized comparative trial of the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of oral doses of mefloquine and of mefloquine in combination with artesunate was carried out on 20 Thai male patients with acute, uncomplicated falciparum malaria. The patients were randomized to receive either mefloquine alone (8 patients; 1250 mg of mefloquine--initial dose, 750 mg; followed 6 hours later by 500 mg), or in combination with oral artesunate (12 patients--initial dose, 200 mg of artesunate; followed by 750 mg and 500 mg of mefloquine 6 hours and 12 hours later, respectively). The patients who received mefloquine alone all showed initially good responses to the treatment, with mean +/- SD values for the fever clearance time (FCT) and parasite clearance time (PCT) of 44.7 +/- 43.1 hours and 82.3 +/- 52.3 hours, respectively. Two patients had recrudescences on day 20 and day 31 (RI response). The cure rate was 75%, and one patient had Plasmodium vivax in his peripheral blood on day 52. The patients who received the combination treatment were clinically markedly improved, with a relatively shorter FCT (31.2 +/- 12.4 hours) and significantly shorter PCT (47.5 +/- 19.6 hours). Four had recrudescences on days 12, 18, 26 and 33; the cure rate was 66%. Artesunate caused three significant changes in mefloquine pharmacokinetics: a decrease in the maximum concentration (Cmax: 1623 ng.ml-1 versus 2212 ng.ml-1); an increase in the clearance rate (Cl/f:2.9 ml.min-1.kg-1 versus 1.1 ml.min-1.kg-1); and an expansion of the volume of distribution (Vdz/f: 31.8 l.kg-1 versus 25.0 l.kg-1).
Small heat shock protein suppression of Vpr-induced cytoskeletal defects in budding yeast

Expression of the auxiliary human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) protein Vpr causes arrest of primate host cells in G2. Expression of this protein in budding yeast has been previously reported to cause growth arrest and a large-cell phenotype. Investigation of the effect of Vpr expression in budding yeast, reported here, showed that it causes disruption of the actin cytoskeleton. Expression of HSP42, the gene for a small heat shock protein (sHSP), from a high-copy-number plasmid reversed this effect. The sHSPs are induced by exposure of cells to thermal, osmotic, and oxidative stresses and to mitogens. In animal cells, overexpression of sHSPs causes increased resistance to stress and stabilization of actin stress fibers. Yeast cells subjected to mild stress, such as shifting from 23 to 39 degrees C, arrest growth and then resume cell division. Growth arrest is accompanied by transient disorganization of the cytoskeleton. Yeast in which the HSP42 gene was disrupted and which was subjected to moderate thermal stress reorganized the actin cytoskeleton more slowly than did wild-type control cells. These results demonstrate that in yeast, as in metazoan cells, sHSPs promote maintenance of the actin cytoskeleton.
White matter hyperintensities rather than lacunar infarcts are associated with depressive symptoms in older people: the LADIS study.

OBJECTIVE Both white matter hyperintensities (WMH) and lacunar infarcts have been associated with the development of depression in older subjects, although the relative importance of the two and the influence of lesion location and concomitant vascular disease are unclear. This study investigates the relationship between location and burden of WMH and lacunes on depressive features in older people. METHOD In a pan-European multicenter study of 626 older subjects, the authors examined the relationship between regional magnetic resonance imaging white matter hyperintensities, number of lacunar infarcts, depressive symptoms as assessed by the 15-item geriatric depression scale (GDS), cognitive status (Mini-Mental Status Examination), hypertension, and self-perceived health quality of life (QoL). RESULTS The authors found depressive symptoms to be correlated with WMH rating in the frontal (N=626; Spearman's rho=0.161, p <0.001) and temporal (rho=0.14, p <0.001) but not occipitoparietal region (rho=0.07, p=0.07). Basal ganglia lacunes were only weakly correlated with GDS (rho=0.09, p=0.03), and lacunes in other regions showed no association. In a ordinal logistic regression model (controlling for QoL, Mini-Mental Status Examination, age, and with an interaction between WMH and hypertension), temporal WMH in the absence of hypertension independently predicted GDS, whereas neither history of stroke nor number of lacunar infarcts did. The authors compared left- versus right-sided WMH and found no effect of laterality on depressive symptoms. CONCLUSIONS The results suggest that in this population of nondisabled older people, WMH have a greater influence on depressive symptoms than infarcts.
Sexual, habitat‐constrained and parasite‐induced dimorphism in the shell of a freshwater mussel (Anodonta anatina, Unionidae)

Intraspecific trends in freshwater mussel (unionoid) shells that are consistently associated with differences in the mussels' sex and/or parasitic infestation can potentially be used to reconstruct sex ratios or parasitic levels of modern and ancient unionoid populations. In contrast to morphological patterns within mammal species, such dimorphic trends within unionoid species are, however, poorly understood. This study investigates, for the first time, to what extent sex, trematode infection and indirect habitat effects determine shell morphology in the freshwater mussel Anodonta anatina. Three of the five study populations displayed significant sexual shell width dimorphism. Here, shells of females were significantly wider than males, probably as a result of altered shell growth to accommodate marsupial gills. In two of these populations, female shells were additionally significantly thinner than those of males, which could be a result of resource depletion by offspring production. Two other A. anatina populations showed no significant dimorphic patterns, and our results indicate that this interpopulational difference in the degree of sexual dimorphism may reflect the overarching effect of habitat on morphology. Thus, populations in the most favourable habitats exhibit faster growth rates, attain larger maximum sizes and produce more offspring, which results in more swollen gills and consequently more inflated shells of gravid females compared to less fecund populations. None of the populations showed any evidence for sexual dimorphism in overall size, growth rate, sagittal shape and density of shells. In addition to sexual dimorphisms, infestation by bucephalid trematode parasites (Rhipidocotyle sp.) significantly altered sagittal and lateral shell shape of A. anatina in one of the populations, with infected specimens growing wider and more elongated. J. Morphol. 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
[Etanercept--infliximab switch in rheumatoid arthritis 14 out of 131 patients treated with anti TNFalpha].

OBJECTIVE Patients with severe rheumatoid arthritis and resistant to at least three DMARDS can benefit from anti-TNFalpha (tumor necrosis factor) therapy. In some patients, because of inefficacy or adverse events, treatment with one of the two available TNFalpha drugs (etanercept and infliximab) must be stopped. In this study, we explored the results in efficacy and tolerance of switching from one anti-TNFalpha to the other. PATIENTS Between August 1999 and January 2002, we administered one of the two anti TNFalpha drugs to 131 patients: 67 patients received infiximab and 64 etanercept. RESULTS Among the 67 patients treated with infliximab, 17 patients had to stop treatment. In 8 of them (4 allergies, 2 infections and 2 non responders) the switch from infliximab to etanercept was beneficial for 5 patients, 2 patients did not respond and 1 patient withdrew for personal reasons. Among the 64 patients treated with etanercept, 13 had to stop treatment. In 6 of them (2 adverse events, 4 failures) the switch from etanercept to infliximab was beneficial for 3 patients, 2 did not respond and 1 withdrew because of adverse events. CONCLUSION In all, 14 patients with severe rheumatoid arthritis and treated by one of the two TNFalpha drugs (and in whom treatment was stopped because of adverse events or inefficacy) benefited from the switch to the other anti- TNFalpha, with excellent response in 8 out of 14 patients.
State Aid in the New EU Member States

In the early phase of transition, which began in the 1990s, Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) pursued economic restructuring that involved massive injections of state support. With reference to the history of state aid in centrally planned economies, we investigate state aid practices of CEECs since attaining full EU membership. We analyse whether their state aid policies during and after transition challenged European state aid legislation, and whether these fit into the EU strategy of ‘less but better targeted aid’. The data-based analysis is complemented with some indicative insights from state aid in the steel industry as well as the financial service sector to suggest that there is today no significant difference in state aid law application between East and West any more – the new EU members have further caught up by better aligning to the objectives of the State Aid Action Plan.