Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of obesity and erect/supine posture on lateral cephalometry: relationship to sleep-disordered breathing.

Craniofacial and upper airway anatomy, obesity and posture may all play a role in compromising upper airway patency in patients with the sleep apnoea/hypopnoea syndrome. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between obesity, facial structure and severity of sleep-disordered breathing using lateral cephalometric measurements and to assess the effect of body posture on cephalometric measurements of upper airway calibre variables in obese and non-obese subjects. Lateral cephalometry was carried out in erect and supine postures in 73 awake male subjects randomly selected from patients referred for polysomnography who had a wide range of apnoea/hypopnoea frequencies (1-131 events x h sleep(-1)). Subjects were divided into non-obese (body mass index (BMI) < 30 kg x m(-2); n=42) and obese (BMI > or = 30 kg x m(-2); n=31) groups. Significant but weak correlations were found between apnoea/hypopnoea index (AHI) and measurements reflecting upper airway dimensions: uvular protrusion-posterior pharyngeal wall (r=-0.26, p<0.05) and hyoid-posterior pharyngeal wall (r=0.26, p<0.05). Multiple regression using both upper airway dimensions improved the correlation to AHI (r=0.34, p=0.01). Obese subjects had greater hyoid-posterior pharyngeal wall distances than non-obese subjects, both erect (42+/-5 versus 39+/-4 mm, respectively (mean+/-SD) p<0.01) and supine (43+/-5 versus 40+/-4 mm, p<0.05). Skeletal craniofacial structure was similar in obese and non-obese subjects. In conclusion, measurements reflecting upper airway size were correlated with the severity of sleep-disordered breathing. Differences in upper airway size measurements between obese and non-obese subjects were independent of bony craniofacial structure.
Practice based education to improve delivery systems for prevention in primary care: randomised trial

Abstract Objective To examine the effectiveness of an intervention that combined continuing medical education with process improvement methods to implement “office systems” to improve the delivery of preventive care to children. Design Randomised trial in primary care practices. Setting Private paediatric and family practices in two areas of North Carolina. Participants Random sample of 44 practices allocated to intervention and control groups. Intervention Practice based continuing medical education in which project staff coached practice staff in reviewing performance and identifying, testing, and implementing new care processes (such as chart screening) to improve delivery of preventive care. Main outcome measure Change over time in the proportion of children aged 24-30 months who received age appropriate care for four preventive services (immunisations, and screening for tuberculosis, anaemia, and lead). Results The proportion of children per practice with age appropriate delivery of all four preventive services changed, after a one year period of implementation, from 7% to 34% in intervention practices and from 9% to 10% in control practices. After adjustment for baseline differences in the groups, the change in the prevalence of all four services between the beginning and the end of the study was 4.6-fold greater (95% confidence interval 1.6 to 13.2) in intervention practices. Thirty months after baseline, the proportion of children who were up to date with preventive services was higher in intervention than in control practices; results for screening for tuberculosis (54% v 32%), lead (68% v 30%), and anaemia (79% v 71%) were statistically significant (P < 0.05). Conclusion Continuing education combined with process improvement methods is effective in increasing rates of delivery of preventive care to children.
Examining Infertility Treatment and Early Childhood Development in the Upstate KIDS Study.

IMPORTANCE An increasing percentage of births are conceived with assisted reproductive technology (ART) and other infertility treatment. Despite findings that such treatments may be associated with diminished gestation and birth size, scarce data exist regarding infertility treatments and children's development in the United States. OBJECTIVE To assess the use and type of infertility treatment in relation to children's development through age 36 months. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Prospective cohort study (conducted 2008-2014) that sampled based on infertility treatment and plurality. Included in the study were infants born between 2008 and 2010 in New York state (excluding New York City) whose parents completed developmental screening instruments through 36 months of age. A total of 4824 mothers (97% of 4989) completed 1 or more developmental screening instruments for 5841 children, including 1830 conceived with infertility treatment and 2074 twins. EXPOSURES Maternal self-report of any infertility treatment was further categorized into ART and ovulation induction/intrauterine insemination. Assisted reproductive technology use was previously validated by linkage with the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology-Clinical Outcome Reporting System. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Five developmental domains (fine motor, gross motor, communication, personal-social functioning, and problem-solving ability), as measured by the parental completion of the Ages and Stages Questionnaires at 4, 8, 12, 18, 24, 30, and 36 months of age. Generalized linear mixed modeling techniques estimated adjusted odds ratios (aORs) and 95% CIs for use and type of infertility treatment in relation to failing a developmental domain. Data were stratified by plurality and weighted for the sampling scheme. RESULTS There were 1422 mothers (29.5%; mean [SD], age, 34.1 [5.2] years) who underwent infertility treatment. Infertility treatment was not associated with risk of their children failing any developmental domain (aOR, 1.33; 95% CI, 0.94-1.89). Assisted reproductive technology was associated with increased risk for failing any developmental domain but only when singletons and twins were evaluated together (aOR, 1.81; 95% CI, 1.21-2.72). Adjustment for birth weight further attenuated this estimate (aOR, 1.26; 95% CI, 0.82-1.93). After stratifying by plurality, type of treatment also was not significantly associated with failing any developmental domain for ovulation induction/intrauterine insemination (aOR, 1.00; 95% CI, 0.57-1.77 for singletons and aOR, 1.30; 95% CI, 0.76-2.21 for twins) or ART (aOR, 1.38; 95% CI, 0.78-2.43 for singletons and aOR, 1.58; 95% CI, 0.94-2.65 for twins). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE After considering plurality, children's development through age 3 years was similar irrespective of infertility treatment or specific type. To our knowledge, these findings are among the first to focus on non-ART treatments in the United States.
LNS with Co-Transformation Competes with Floating-Point

The logarithmic number system has been proposed as an alternative to floating-point arithmetic. Multiplication, division and square-root operations are accomplished with inexpensive fixed-point methods, but addition and subtraction are considerably more challenging. Recent work has demonstrated that these operations too can be done with similar speed and accuracy to their FP equivalents, but the necessary circuitry is complex. In particular, it is dominated by the need for large ROM tables for the storage and interpolation of non-linear functions. We describe a new co-transformation procedure that eliminates much of the ROM space and allows the easy synthesis of the remainder in logic, and we then evaluate several interpolation methods that might benefit from it. Synthesised 32-bit implementations are compared with floating-point units, and show substantial reductions in delay, with equivalent accuracy and area.
Immunohistochemical Method Identifies Lymphovascular Invasion in a Majority of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinomas and Discriminates between Blood and Lymphatic Vessel Invasion

Tumor invasion into blood and/or lymphatic channels is an important component of cancer staging and prognosis. Standard pathological methods do not provide sufficient contrast to discriminate between invasion into each type of vessel and are complicated by tissue retraction artifacts. We evaluated the ability of a triple-stain immunohistochemical method, combining cytokeratin, CD34, and podoplanin stains in a single section, to distinguish blood from lymphatic vascular invasion in oral squamous cell carcinoma and confirmed its results using multispectral analysis. The triple-stain method was significantly more sensitive in detecting invasive events than the standard hematoxylin and eosin staining method and easily discriminated between blood and lymphatic vessel invasion. Invasive events were present in blood and/or lymphatic vessels in the majority of patients with and without presentation of lymph node metastasis, indicating that vessel invasion in this cancer model is common and is not a rate-limiting step for lymph node metastasis.
Nasolacrimal Duct Obstruction Nasolacrimal Duct Obstruction

The eye has two sets of structures that produce tears. Smaller tear glands help maintain a baseline level of moisture on the surface of the eye. Unfortunately, inflammatory conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, Sjogrens disease as well as aging and menopause lead to decreased tear production. As tear production diminishes, the surface of the eye starts to dry out. Further, inflammation of the oil glands along the edge of the eyelid, common in patients with roseacea, also causes early breakdown and evaporation of the tear film. The brain senses the eye is both dry and irritated and in turn signals the main tear gland to flush the eye. As a result, the dry eye paradoxically tears and becomes watery. Patients with dry eyes note intermittent tearing of the eyes during activities like reading, driving, watching TV, using a computer or going outside on a windy day. These all cause the eye to dry out because the eye blinks less during these activities. The treatment for dry eyes includes 1) replacing tears with artificial lubricants which can be bought over the counter, 2) medications like Restasis that decrease inflammation in tear glands and encourages natural tear production to resume and finally 3) plugging of the tear drain system, so that even when scarce tears can stay longer in and around the eye surface.
Digital Altruists: Resolving Key Questions About the Empathy–Altruism Hypothesis in an Internet Sample

Researchers have identified the capacity to take the perspective of others as a precursor to empathy-induced altruistic motivation. Consequently, investigators frequently use so-called perspective-taking instructions to manipulate empathic concern. However, most experiments using perspective-taking instructions have had modest sample sizes, undermining confidence in the replicability of results. In addition, it is unknown whether perspective-taking instructions work because they increase empathic concern or because comparison conditions reduce empathic concern (or both). Finally, some researchers have found that egoistic factors that do not involve empathic concern, including self-oriented emotions and self–other overlap, mediate the relationship between perspective-taking instructions and helping. The present investigation was a high-powered, preregistered effort that addressed methodological shortcomings of previous experiments to clarify how and when perspective-taking manipulations affect emotional arousal and prosocial motivation in a prototypical experimental paradigm administered over the Internet. Perspective-taking instructions did not clearly increase empathic concern; this null finding was not due to ceiling effects. Instructions to remain objective, on the other hand, unequivocally reduced empathic concern relative to a no-instructions control condition. Empathic concern was the most strongly felt emotion in all conditions, suggesting that distressed targets primarily elicit other-oriented concern. Empathic concern uniquely predicted the quality of social support provided to the target, which supports the empathy–altruism hypothesis and contradicts the role of self-oriented emotions and self–other overlap in explaining helping behavior. Empathy-induced altruism may be responsible for many prosocial acts that occur in everyday settings, including the increasing number of prosocial acts that occur online.
Reproducibility of proximal probe pH parameters in 24-hour ambulatory esophageal pH monitoring.

OBJECTIVES To assess the reproducibility and reliability of the proximal pH probe in detecting acid reflux into the proximal esophagus. METHODS Using dual probe ambulatory esophageal pH monitoring, we studied 32 subjects (11 healthy control subjects, 10 patients with distal esophageal acid reflux, and 11 patients with both distal and proximal esophageal acid exposure) on two separate days within a 20-day period. The distal pH probe was placed 5 cm above the manometrically determined lower esophageal sphincter, and the proximal probe was positioned immediately distal to the upper esophageal sphincter. Patients were categorized on the basis of the esophageal pH data obtained during the first study. Reflux parameters assessed were the percentages of time in which pH was <4 in the total, upright, and supine positions. To be considered reproducible, all three of the above parameters had to remain in the same category as the first day's results. RESULTS Intrasubject reproducibility of the proximal probe was 91-100% in healthy subjects, 70-90% in patients with distal esophageal acid reflux, and 45-73% in patients with proximal esophageal acid reflux. The proximal probe reproducibility for the overall diagnosis of gastroesophageal reflux disease was 91% in healthy subjects, 70% in patients with distal esophageal acid reflux, and only 55% in those with proximal esophageal acid reflux. Statistical analysis demonstrated only a fair index of concordance (kappa = 0.40) for the proximal probe. CONCLUSIONS The proximal pH probe has excellent specificity (91%) but poorer sensitivity and reproducibility (55%) for identifying abnormal amounts of proximal esophageal acid reflux. Therefore, a negative test result does not exclude proximal reflux with microaspiration as a cause of atypical reflux symptoms.
What Is on the Horizon?

Half a century ago, the prevalent attitude of doctors towards their patients was still based on the Hippocratic principle of “Do not tell the patient anything. ” Not only were patients never told if they had cancer; they were not even supposed to know their own medical details, such as blood pressure. If a patient asked about …
Multilevel modeling of longitudinal data for psychotherapy researchers: I. The basics

Abstract Psychotherapy researchers are often interested in change or development over time (i.e., pre- to posttreatment to follow-up or the development of process variables across multiple sessions). Traditional methods of assessing change and development are often unsatisfactory because of violations of statistical assumptions and because they do not model individual change. Modern longitudinal data analysis methods, including multilevel models (MLMs), provide an opportunity to model dynamic fluctuations in individual data across time. The objective of this article is to focus on the fundamentals of MLMs for longitudinal data analysis in psychotherapy research. To do so, the authors illustrate basic equations of MLMs and a strategy for developing increasingly complex models. They also present data from a psychotherapy research as an example of the application of MLMs. Finally, they offer some caveats and advice for conducting and presenting MLMs.
THE GENERATION OF TRUST IN THE ONLINE SERVICES AND PRODUCT DISTRIBUTION: THE CASE OF SPANISH ELECTRONIC COMMERCE

Not all countries have the same level of e-commerce penetration. This could be due to the influence of cultural factors on consumer trust with regard to online purchasing. This may also explain why countries like Spain, with similar economic and technological levels to its neighbours’, have a lower level of e-commerce usage. This paper examines the antecedents of trust, and, the relationship between trust and consumer commitment in Spain. The results obtained show that the factors governing the development of online trust are similar to those detected in other countries. Specifically, the results show that consumer trust is influenced by perceived website usability and reputation, by the consumer satisfaction and by the perceived privacy and security policy of the website. This paper also verifies that consumer trust has a positive effect on consumer commitment. Besides, no significant differences are observed in the research model between online services and product distribution. Finally, managerial recommendations and future research lines are suggested.
How to use the innovative potential of online communities? Netnography - an unobtrusive research method to absorb the knowledge and creativity of online communities

This article investigates how the enormous knowledge-pool of online communities can be used for new product development. Except for a few examples provided in the literature, little is known about how to best absorb the knowledge of online communities and incorporate it systematically into a company's innovation process. In this article, we introduce a modified form of the netnography method, an unobtrusive, qualitative research method, to access consumers' experiences, thoughts, unsatisfied needs and ideas for new product development. The netnographic approach we propose in this paper is adapted to new product development. Two introduced cases prove its practical applicability for innovation. The quantity and quality of consumer contributions impressively demonstrate the potential of online communities for new product development. Although netnography is very valuable for new product development, it is quite time consuming. Until now, no adequate software tools exist which satisfactorily enable automated data collection and analysis.
Determinants of Perceived Sexism and Their Role on the Association of Sexism with Mental Health

The authors of this study sought to compare the socioeconomic factors related to perceived sexism in employed and non-employed Spanish women and to examine whether the relationship of perceived sexism with mental health outcomes is reduced when such factors are taken into account. Data were taken from the 2006 Spanish Health Survey, including women aged 20–64 years (n = 10,927). Multivariate logistic regression models were used to analyze the independent relationships between socioeconomic variables and perceived sexism and also between perceived sexism and poor mental health. In this latter case, socioeconomic variables were included by blocks in the logistic models. Perceived sexism was higher among employed women (3.9% vs. 2.8% among non-employed) and mainly among those in a managerial position (11.35%; adjusted OR: 2.71, 95% CI: 1.30–5.67) and having irregular working hours (5.5%; adjusted OR: 1.60, 95% CI: 1.10–2.34). Socioeconomic and family characteristics were associated with perceived sexism among women. Perceived sexism was associated with poor mental health, and this remained the case when different independent variables were taken into account. These results highlight the importance of taking into account gender discrimination in different aspects of our society, such as work and family organization, and in planning mental health interventions.
Remembering Gay/Lesbian Media Characters

Abstract The purpose of the current research was twofold. First, a pilot study was conducted in which participants were asked to recall any memorable gay or lesbian television or film character and complete a survey about their perceptions of the character. Results indicated that over two-thirds of heterosexual participants recalled either Ellen or Will, and evaluative ratings for these characters were generally positive. The second purpose of this research was to examine the priming effects of remembering portrayals of homosexual characters in the media. Therefore, an experiment was conducted to directly assess the effects of thinking about either a positive or negative homosexual character on general heterosexuals' attitudes toward gay men and lesbians. Results indicated that those recalling a positive portrayal later showed a more positive attitude toward gay men than those recalling a negative portrayal, and women had a more positive attitude overall than men toward gay men and lesbians. Such findings illustrate the importance of positive role models in entertainment media as potential primes of social attitudes.
A cost-effective method for obtaining standard platelet-rich plasma.

INTRODUCTION Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is used in several different areas of surgery to enhance natural healing and the regenerative process by delivering increased concentrations of autologous platelets. However, there are controversies in the literature regarding the potential benefits of PRP, due partly to the lack of optimized and standardized preparation protocols. The aim of this study was to develop a standardized PRP preparation protocol. MATERIAL AND METHODS Whole blood was drawn from 18 healthy participants. Double centrifugation protocol was applied. The blood from each person was divided into 6 tubes according to second stage centrifugation force applied, varying from 300 g to 2000 g. Platelet counts and platelet concentration factors were determined and the data obtained were submitted to statistical analysis (repeated measures ANOVA, Bonferroni, P < 0.05). RESULTS When compared to whole blood, the mean platelet counts increased significantly in all centrifugation groups, and this increase is common with centrifugation force increase. While there was no significant difference between the 300 g and 500 g groups (P = 0.051), there were differences between the 500 g and 750 g groups (P < 0.001), and the 750 g and 1000 g groups (P < 0.001). The mean platelet counts were not different between upper g groups (1000g, 1500g, 2000g, P = 0.114). The platelet concentration factor varied from 1.92-fold to 3.76-fold. There were differences between the 500 g and 750 g groups (P < 0.001), and between the 750 g and 1000 g groups (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION The present study indicates it may be possible to get a standard platelet concentration by adjusting centrifugation force individually according to each baseline value.
The Na / H exchanger isoform 2 is the predominant NHE isoform in murine colonic crypts and its lack causes NHE 3 upregulation

O. Bachmann, B. Riederer, H. Rossmann, S. Groos, P. J. Schultheis, G. E. Shull, M. Gregor, M. P. Manns, and U. Seidler Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Endocrinology and Department of Anatomy I, Hannover Medical School, 30623 Hannover; and Department of Internal Medicine I, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany; and Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio
Helicobacter pylori and the relation to other risk factors in patients with acute bleeding peptic ulcer.

BACKGROUND The influence of ulcer risk factors is well known in chronic peptic ulcer disease. In this study the risk factors were investigated in patients with peptic ulcer complicated by an acute bleeding episode. METHOD In 106 consecutive patients with acute bleeding peptic ulcer, age, previous history of ulcer disease, presence of dyspeptic symptoms, smoking habits, consumption of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), and haemoglobin concentration at admission were recorded. Helicobacter pylori infection was detected by means of two serologic tests in samples obtained at admission for the acute bleeding episode. RESULTS Three-quarters of both gastric ulcer and duodenal ulcer patients were shown to have H. pylori antibodies. NSAID use and smoking habits were similar in patients with and without H. pylori antibodies. CONCLUSIONS The results indicate that H. pylori infection, NSAID use, and smoking habits act as largely independent risk factors in patients with acute bleeding peptic ulcer.