Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Anticitrullinated protein antibodies and rheumatoid factor are associated with increased mortality but with different causes of death in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a longitudinal study in three European cohorts

Objective Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA)-related autoantibodies have an increased mortality rate. Different autoantibodies are frequently co-occurring and it is unclear which autoantibodies associate with increased mortality. In addition, association with different causes of death is thus far unexplored. Both questions were addressed in three early RA populations. Methods 2331 patients with early RA included in Better Anti-Rheumatic Farmaco-Therapy cohort (BARFOT) (n=805), Norfolk Arthritis Register (NOAR) (n=678) and Leiden Early Arthritis Clinic cohort (EAC) (n=848) were studied. The presence of anticitrullinated protein antibodies (ACPA), rheumatoid factor (RF) and anticarbamylated protein (anti-CarP) antibodies was studied in relation to all-cause and cause-specific mortality, obtained from national death registers. Cox proportional hazards regression models (adjusted for age, sex, smoking and inclusion year) were constructed per cohort; data were combined in inverse-weighted meta-analyses. Results During 26 300 person-years of observation, 29% of BARFOT patients, 30% of NOAR and 18% of EAC patients died, corresponding to mortality rates of 24.9, 21.0 and 20.8 per 1000 person-years. The HR for all-cause mortality (95% CI) was 1.48 (1.22 to 1.79) for ACPA, 1.47 (1.22 to 1.78) for RF and 1.33 (1.11 to 1.60) for anti-CarP. When including all three antibodies in one model, RF was associated with all-cause mortality independent of other autoantibodies, HR 1.30 (1.04 to 1.63). When subsequently stratifying for death cause, ACPA positivity associated with increased cardiovascular death, HR 1.52 (1.04 to 2.21), and RF with increased neoplasm-related death, HR 1.64 (1.02 to 2.62), and respiratory disease-related death, HR 1.71 (1.01 to 2.88). Conclusions The presence of RF in patients with RA associates with an increased overall mortality rate. Cause-specific mortality rates differed between autoantibodies: ACPA associates with increased cardiovascular death and RF with death related to neoplasm and respiratory disease.
Impact of Human Resource Development and Organizational Commitment on Financial Sector Employees in Nigeria

Abstract Studies have shown that for any organization to achieve enhanced service delivery and profitability; competent employees are required. In this regard, human resource development (HRD) of an organization could be seen as strategy to improve the capacity of employees, bring about organizational commitment (OC) and promote performance. The paper empirically examines the impact of HRD and OC on financial sector employees in Nigeria. Findings show a strong impact of HRD and OC on performance of employees. In addition, literature reveals the need to tackle the issue of unethical behaviour (corruption) amongst banks’ staff at all levels as basis to eliminate failure and bring about enhanced performance in the Nigerian banking sector. The paper therefore recommend among others the enforcement of stiffer penalty for bank employees found engaging in unethical practices as a way of overcoming the challenge of unethical behaviour of staff for sustainable growth in Nigeria.
Nonoperative Treatment for Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis: A 10- to 60-Year Follow-up With Special Reference to Health-Related Quality of Life

Study Design. Retrospective study on patients 10 to 60 years of age after nonoperative treatment for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS). Objectives. To investigate long-term outcome with regard to pain, disability, psychological disturbance, and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in nonoperatively treated patients with AIS. Summary of Background Data. Only little is known on the long-term quality of life and disability in patients nonoperatively treated for AIS. A detailed knowledge of the nonoperative treatment results is important when advising patients for surgery. Methods. A total of 135 nonoperatively treated AIS patients with a minimum follow-up of 10 years were included in this investigation, 121 of whom responded to a questionnaire containing questions on pain, disability (Oswestry Disability Index [ODI], Hannover Functional Ability Questionnaire [HFAQ], psychological general well-being [PGWB], and health-related quality of life [WHOQOLBREF]). Eighty-one patients participated in a clinical/radiologic follow-up examination. Nonoperative treatment consisted of bracing (n = 60), physiotherapy (n = 59), and electrical stimulation (n = 2). The overall follow-up rate was 89.6%. The mean age at follow-up was 38.0 years (range, 20–73 years.). Results. In general, patients achieved a satisfactory outcome 10 to 60 years (mean, 23 years) after nonoperative treatment with regard to pain, disability, and HRQOL. The average curve at first diagnosis measured 29.5° (range, 15°–59°) for the thoracic spine, 21.3° (range, 15°–28°) for the thoracolumbar spine, and 26.8° (10°–44°) for the lumbar spine. Thirteen patients showed a substantial change in curve size (±10°) between first diagnosis and end of growth: 11 curves progressed more than 10° showing an average increase of 19.0° (range, 12°–30°) and 2 patients presented with less severe curves at follow-up (−10° and −13°). After end of growth, 7 patients showed a substantial average increase of 16.3° (range, 10°–31°). Five of eight patients with thoracic curves greater than 80° had restrictive pulmonary disease. Patients with curves greater than 45° reported significantly higher pain levels than those with smaller curves. Patients only showed a minimal absolute disability (Oswestry and HFAQ), and no significant correlation was found between curve size and curve type, respectively. Compared with a healthy control group that was matched for age and gender, no significant differences were found in terms of HRQOL as assessed by the WHOQOLBREF questionnaire. No significant differences in pain, disability, or HRQOL were found between patients with and without brace treatment. Conclusions. Although pain, disability, HRQOL, and psychological general well-being are quite satisfactory on an absolute level, curve size was found to be a significant predictor for pain in a long-term follow-up.
Epstein-Barr virus LMP 1 blocks p 16 INK 4 a – RB pathway by promoting nuclear export of E 2 F 4 / 5

1 Paterson Institute for Cancer Research, Christie Hospital NHS Trust, Manchester M20 4BX, UK 2 Section of Infection and Immunity, University of Wales College of Medicine, Cardiff CF4 4XX, UK 3 Institute for Molecular Biology and Tumor Research, Philipps-University Marburg, 35037 Marburg, Germany 4 Centre for Functional Genomics and Human Disease, Monash Institute of Reproduction and Development, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia 5 CNRS UMR 146, Institut Curie Centre Universitaire, bat 110 91405 Orsay, France 6 Division of Protein Information, Institute for Genome Research, University of Tokushima, Tokushima 770-8503, Japan
Deinstitutionalisation for Long-Term Mental Illness: A 2-Year Clinical Evaluation

Objective: The closure of a long-stay psychiatric hospital in Sydney caused the transfer of an initial 40 very long-term patients to four community residences, each with 10 beds, for a continuing process of deinstitutionalisation. Community psychiatric service support and 24-h supervision were provided. This paper describes the residents' clinical progress which was assessed over a 2-year period. Method: This study employed a quasi-experimental longitudinal design. Evaluation commenced prior to discharge and continued for 2 years following community relocation using the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale, Life Skills Profile, Social Behaviour Scale, Montgomery Asberg Depression Rating Scale and Quality Of Life measures. Readmission, demographic, case history and medication data were also collected. Results: Of the 40 patients initially transferred to the community, seven required long-term readmission to hospital (either prior to or after amalgamation) and one patient died of medical causes. Additional patients transferred from the hospital to the community following the readmissions. Three of these additional patients had achieved a 2-year community tenure during the study period and were included in the clinical evaluation. The 35 residents in total who remained in the community for 2 years, demonstrated a significant improvement in psychotic symptoms, without significant change in the level of neuroleptic medication. Importantly, the 2 years of community living resulted in a significant increase in the residents' life satisfaction. There were no statistically significant changes in residents' living skills, depressive symptoms or social behaviour problems over the 2 years, indicative of the need for supervision and community service support following deinstitutionalisation. Over the 2-year period, some 37% of the residents required temporary readmission. Conclusion: This study demonstrates the clinical effectiveness of deinstitutionalisation, when planned within a mental health system with adequate community resources.
Influence of Social and Work Exchange Relationships on Organizational Citizenship Behavior

Previous studies explain situational antecedents of OCB using social exchange theory. However, the effects of factors such as perceptions of job characteristics on OCB seem to require a different explanatory mechanism. We propose that these effects can be explained through a new exchange relationship that we call work exchange. We develop a theory for the situational antecedents of OCB that includes economic, work, and social exchange relationships. The theory is tested using structural equations.
Donor cell persistence and activation‐induced unresponsiveness of peripheral CD8+ T cells

We studied the impact of the duration of donor cell persistence on CD8+ T cell responsiveness after adoptive transfer of antigen‐expressing lymphoid cells. Naive or immunized female mice were treated by adoptive transfer of spleen cells from mice ubiquitously expressing a lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus‐derived cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) epitope (gp33 – 41) either alone or in combination with the male H‐Y antigen providing additional antigenic CTL and T helper cell determinants. Low doses of male spleen cells (or sorted B cells) primed CTL, while high doses of the same cells rendered them unresponsive. CTL unresponsiveness induced by high numbers of male spleen cells was dependent upon prolonged persistence of antigen‐expressing donor cells. Unresponsive CTL reverted to a state of activation when the duration of donor cell chimerism was limited. Memory CTL could be rendered unresponsive if antigen‐expressing donor cells were allowed to persist. These results suggest that, irrespective of the type of antigen‐presenting cell and the functional state of the responding T cell, activation and unresponsiveness can represent two different outcomes critically determined by quantitative and kinetic differences of antigen persistence.
Intraparadigmatic effects on the perception of voice

In Dutch, all morpheme-final obstruents are voiceless in word-final position. As a consequence, the distinction between obstruents that are voiced before vowel-initial suffixes and those that are always voiceless is neutralized. This study adds to the existing evidence that the neutralization is incomplete: neutralized, alternating plosives tend to have shorter bursts than non-alternating plosives. Furthermore, in a rating study, listeners scored the alternating plosives as more voiced than the nonalternating plosives, showing sensitivity to the subtle subphonemic cues in the acoustic signal. Importantly, the participants who were presented with the complete words, instead of just the final rhymes, scored the alternating plosives as even more voiced. This shows that listeners’ perception of voice is affected by their knowledge of the obstruent’s realization in the word’s morphological paradigm. Apparently, subphonemic paradigmatic levelling is a characteristic of both production and perception. We explain the effects within an analogy-based approach.
Decomposing tournaments into paths

We consider a generalisation of Kelly's conjecture which is due to Alspach, Mason, and Pullman from 1976. Kelly's conjecture states that every regular tournament has an edge decomposition into Hamilton cycles, and this was proved by Kühn and Osthus for large tournaments. The conjecture of Alspach, Mason, and Pullman asks for the minimum number of paths needed in a path decomposition of a general tournament T . There is a natural lower bound for this number in terms of the degree sequence of T and it is conjectured that this bound is correct for tournaments of even order. Almost all cases of the conjecture are open and we prove many of them.
Influence of User Grasping Position on Haptic Rendering

This paper investigates the effect of user grasping position on the performance of haptic rendering. Two dynamic models, with seven and eleven parameters, respectively, have been used to characterize the PHANToM haptic interface and the user. The parameter variability analysis shows that user grasping position significantly affects system dynamics. This variation also influences the phase margin of the system, leading to different damping factors in response to contacts with rigid virtual objects. To compensate this effect, an adaptive haptic rendering has been developed and successfully implemented, imposing a similar damping factor in the transient responses for all grip positions.
Effect of cryotherapy on arteriovenous fistula puncture-related pain in hemodialysis patients

Pain during areteriovenous fistula (AVF) cannulation remains a common problem in hemodialysis (HD) patients. This study was undertaken to assess the effect of cryotherapy on pain due to arteriovenous fistula puncture in hemodialysis patients. A convenience sample of 60 patients (30 each in experimental and control groups) who were undergoing hemodialysis by using AVF, was assessed in a randomized control trial. Hemodialysis patients who met the inclusion criteria, were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups using a randomization table. Objective and subjective pain scoring was done on two consecutive days of HD treatment (with cryotherapy for the experimental and without cryotherapy for the control group). The tools used were a questionnaire examining demographic and clinical characteristics, an observation checklist for assessing objective pain behavior, and a numerical rating scale for subjective pain assessment. Descriptive statistics were used as deemed appropriate. Chi square, two-sample and paired t-tests, the Mann Whitney test, Wilcoxon's signed rank test, the Kruskal Wallis test, and Spearman's and Pearson's correlations were used for inferential statistics. We found that the objective and subjective pain scores were found to be significantly (P = 0.001) reduced within the experimental group with the application of cryotherapy. This study highlights the need for adopting alternative therapies such as cryotherapy for effective pain management in hospital settings.
Improvements on Deep Bottleneck Network based I-Vector Representation for Spoken Language Identification

Recently, the i-vector representation based on deep bottleneck networks (DBN) pre-trained for automatic speech recognition has received significant interest for both speaker verification (SV) and language identification (LID). In particular, a recent unified DBN based i-vector framework, referred to as DBN-pGMM i-vector, has performed well. In this paper, we replace the pGMM with a phonetic mixture of factor analyzers (pMFA), and propose a new DBN-pMFA i-vector. The DBN-pMFA i-vector includes the following improvements: (i) a pMFA model is derived from the DBN, which can jointly perform feature dimension reduction and de-correlation in a single linear transformation, (ii) a shifted DBF, termed SDBF, is proposed to exploit the temporal contextual information, (iii) a senone selection scheme is proposed to improve the i-vector extraction efficiently. We evaluate the proposed DBN-pMFA i-vector on the most confused six languages selected from NIST LRE 2009. The experimental results demonstrate that DBN-pMFA can consistently outperform the previous DBN based framework. The computational complexity can be significantly reduced by applying a simple senone selection scheme.
An Assessment of Different Filter Systems for Extracorporeal Elimination of Bivalirudin: An In Vitro Study

IMPLICATIONS Bivalirudin is a new, direct thrombin inhibitor. We investigated the extracorporeal elimination rate of different hemofilters and one plasmapheresis filter for bivalirudin. Our data show that bivalirudin can be effectively eliminated via hemofiltration and plasmapheresis, although there were significant differences in the elimination rates among the filter systems investigated.
Cyanotic Congenital Heart Disease in Children: Hemostatic Disorders and Relevance of Molecular Markers of Hemostasis

Bleeding disorders and abnormal hemostasis in patients with cyanotic congenital heart disease (CCHD) are well known and have been previously described. 14,15,17,18,23 The exact mechanisms and pathophysiologic processes are not entirely known; however, the importance of such understanding and knowledge could be of extreme help in the manage­ ment and care of such patients. The hemostatic disorders reported do appear to be related to the degree of hypoxia and hypervisco­ sity 6 ' 19 present in these patients. Furthermore, Leachman et al
Pharmacokinetics of galanthamine (a long-acting anticholinesterase drug) in anaesthetized patients.

The pharmacokinetics of the long-acting anticholinesterase drug, galanthamine, were investigated in eight patients. After i.v. injection of 0.3 mg kg-1, the decrease in the serum concentration of galanthamine followed a biexponential curve. The serum concentration decreased rapidly from 543 +/- 47 ng ml-1 to 128 +/- 14 ng ml-1 between 2 and 30 min with a T1/2 alpha of 6.42 +/- 2.15 min, and then declined more slowly with a T1/2 beta of 264 +/- 28 min. Total serum clearance of galanthamine amounted to 5.37 +/- 0.87 ml min-1 kg-1, and the renal clearance was 1.36 +/- 0.10 ml min-1 kg-1. The cumulative urinary excretion of galanthamine between 0 and 48 h after injection amounted to 28.0 +/- 5.4% of the administered dose. The biliary excretion of galanthamine during 24 h amounted to 0.2 +/- 0.1% of the dose. There was no evidence of glucuronide or sulphate conjugation of galanthamine.
RETRACTED ARTICLE: Preparation and characterization of surface-modified PLGA-polymeric nanoparticles used to target treatment of intestinal cancer

Abstract We, the Editors and Publishers of Artificial Cells, Nanomedicine, and Biotechnology have retracted the following article: Niyaz Ahmad, Md Aftab Alam, Rizwan Ahmad, Atta Abbas Naqvi & Farhan Jalees Ahmad (2018) Preparation and characterisation of surface-modified PLGA-polymeric nanoparticles used to target treatment of intestinal cancer. Artificial Cells, Nanomedicine, and Biotechnology, 46:2, 432–446, DOI: 10.1080/21691401.2017. 1324466 This article is retracted due to reuse of images from other articles by the same authors, representing results of different experiments. This includes Figure 2(b), which can also be found in: Ahmad et al. (2017) Isolation, characterisation, and quantification of curcuminoids and their comparative effects in cerebral ischaemia. Journal of Liquid Chromatography & Related Technologies, https://doi.org/10.1080/10826076.2017. 1293549 In addition, Figure 11, overlaps with Figure 7 of the following article, by different authors: Akash Chaurasiya, Ajeet K. Singh, Gaurav K. Jain, Musarrat H. Warsi, Emmanuelle Sublet, Farhan J. Ahmad, Gerrit Borchard & Roop K. Khar (2012) Dual approach utilising self microemulsifying technique and novel P-gp inhibitor for effective delivery of taxanes. Journal of Microencapsulation, https://doi.org/10.3109/02652048.2012. 668959 When asked for an explanation, the authors were unable to provide raw data that would support the integrity of their research. As the authors were unable to provide the original images, the Editors agreed the findings of the study are no longer valid and advised for the article to be retracted. The authors have agreed to retraction of this article. We have been informed in our decision-making by our policy on publishing ethics and integrity and the COPE guidelines on retractions. The retracted article will remain online to maintain the scholarly record, but it will be digitally watermarked on each page as “Retracted”.
Mitochondrial F0F1‐ATP synthase is a molecular target of 3‐iodothyronamine, an endogenous metabolite of thyroid hormone

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 3‐iodothyronamine (T1AM) is a metabolite of thyroid hormone acting as a signalling molecule via non‐genomic effectors and can reach intracellular targets. Because of the importance of mitochondrial F0F1‐ATP synthase as a drug target, here we evaluated interactions of T1AM with this enzyme.
Fossil preservation and the stratigraphic ranges of taxa

The incompleteness of the fossil record hinders the inference of evolutionary rates and patterns. Here, we derive relationships among true taxonomic durations, preservation probability, and observed taxonomic ranges. We use these relationships to estimate original distributions of taxonomic durations, preservation probability, and completeness (proportion of taxa preserved), given only the observed ranges. No data on occurrences within the ranges of taxa are required. When preservation is random and the original distribution of durations is exponential, the inference of durations, preservability, and completeness is exact. However, reasonable approximations are possible given non-exponential duration distributions and temporal and taxonomic variation in preservability. Thus, the approaches we describe have great potential in studies of taphonomy, evolutionary rates and patterns, and genealogy. Analyses of Upper Cambrian-Lower Ordovician trilobite species, Paleozoic crinoid genera, Jurassic bivalve species, and Cenozoic mammal species yield the following results: (1) The preservation probability inferred from stratigraphic ranges alone agrees with that inferred from the analysis of stratigraphic gaps when data on the latter are available. (2) Whereas median durations based on simple tabulations of observed ranges are biased by stratigraphic resolution, our estimates of median duration, extinction rate, and completeness are not biased. (3) The shorter geologic ranges of mammalian species relative to those of bivalves cannot be attributed to a difference in preservation potential. However, we cannot rule out the contribution of taxonomic practice to this difference. (4) In the groups studied, completeness (proportion of species [trilobites, bivalves, mammals] or genera [crinoids] preserved) ranges from 60% to 90%. The higher estimates of completeness at smaller geographic scales support previous suggestions that the incompleteness of the fossil record reflects loss of fossiliferous rock more than failure of species to enter the fossil record in the first place.
Effective Retirement Savings Programs: Design Features and Financial Education

This article provides an overview of the literature on best practices for retirement savings plan design and financial education in the workplace. Without a successful plan design, financial education will not be effective and even a well-structured plan can fail to achieve retirement savings goals without financial education. The main components of a retirement savings program that employers must consider include options for enrollment, investment choices, employer matching of contributions, and distributions over the working career and at retirement. In addition, employers control the core aspects of financial education, such as the topics covered, the delivery methods used, the frequency with which it is offered, and its general availability.