Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of Microecological Preparations on Obese Patients after Bariatric Surgery: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Vitamin deficiency, bacterial overgrowth, and gastrointestinal symptoms can be detected in obese patients after bariatric surgery that influences their quality of life (QoL) and weight. It is unclear if microecological preparations benefit obese patients following bariatric surgery. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of microecological preparations on QoL, excess weight loss (EWL), and levels of vitamin B12 and inflammatory markers. We searched seven databases to identify reports published till December 1, 2019, and included randomized controlled trials investigating the effects of microecological preparations in obese adults undergoing bariatric surgery. The primary outcomes included QoL and EWL, while secondary outcomes comprised serum levels of vitamin B12, interleukin 6, TNF-α, and C-reactive protein (CRP). Study bias was analyzed using the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool. Statistical analyses were performed using Review Manager. The mean difference in outcomes was calculated using standardized mean difference (SMD) with a confidence interval (CI) of 95%. A majority of the studies showed a low or moderate risk of bias. Meta-analysis showed significantly higher levels of vitamin B12 in postoperative patients administered with microecological preparations (SMD = 0.52; 95% CI = 0.08–0.95; P = 0.02). There were no significant differences in QoL (SMD = −0.14; 95% CI = −0.45–0.17; P = 0.38), EWL (SMD = 0.45; 95% CI = −0.16–1.05; P = 0.15), and levels of TNF-α (SMD = −0.29; 95% CI = −0.64–0.05; P = 0.09), interleukin 6 (SMD = −0.1; 95% CI = −0.81–0.61; P = 0.78]), and CRP (SMD = 0.02; 95% CI = −0.32–0.36; P = 0.93). The trials examined indicated that microecological preparations had limited efficacy in improving QoL, EWL, and inflammatory response, but they stimulated the synthesis of vitamin B12. This may help in designing efficient microecological preparations to supplement bariatric surgery in obese individuals.
Determinants of gestational diabetes in overweight and obese women : body composition and intervention with fish oil and probiotics

Every fifth pregnant woman is diagnosed with gestational diabetes in Finland. It predisposes both the mother and the child to several adverse shortand long-term consequences. The presence of obesity is one of the strongest risk factors for gestational diabetes. Nutritional factors mainly account for the obesity, and the ability to influence these factors could help to prevent gestational diabetes. Previous studies suggest that fish oil and probiotic supplements could improve insulin sensitivity of the body by decreasing low-grade inflammation and thereby prevent gestational diabetes. The aim of this study was to determine whether these food supplements could improve glucose levels and reduce the risk of gestational diabetes in overweight and obese women. Further, the associations of diet, physical activity, and gestational diabetes with maternal body composition were evaluated. In the trial, 439 overweight and obese pregnant women were randomized to consume probiotics and/or fish oil daily from 15 gestational weeks onwards. Weight, body composition, glucose and insulin concentrations were determined in early and in late pregnancy. Gestational diabetes was diagnosed with an oral glucose tolerance test. Information on diet and physical activity were collected. As compared to placebo, intervention with fish oil and probiotics did not reduce the risk for gestational diabetes or affect weight or body composition. Three out of four women gained weight in excess of recommendations, which was related to increased fat mass accrual as compared to women with an ideal weight gain. Protein intake and the good quality of diet were positively correlated with fat free mass. Body composition in early pregnancy did not differ between healthy women and women developing gestational diabetes. Women with gestational diabetes gained weight and fat mass less than healthy women. In conclusion, according to this study, supplementation with fish oil and/or probiotics does not prevent gestational diabetes or affect body fat mass in overweight and obese pregnant women. Body adiposity is reduced in women with gestational diabetes as compared with healthy overweight or obese women; adiposity increased in women with an excess weight gain in comparison with women with an ideal gestational weight gain.
OP-CZOO190027 437..446

Animals have evolved foraging strategies to acquire blends of nutrients that maximize fitness traits. In social insects, nutrient regulation is complicated by the fact that few individuals, the foragers, must address the divergent nutritional needs of all colony members simultaneously, including other workers, the reproductives, and the brood. Here we used 3D nutritional geometry design to examine how bumblebee workers regulate their collection of 3 major macronutrients in the presence and absence of brood. We provided small colonies artificial nectars (liquid diets) and pollens (solid diets) varying in their compositions of proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates during 2 weeks. Colonies given a choice between nutritionally complementary diets self-selected foods to reach a target ratio of 71% proteins, 6% carbohydrates, and 23% lipids, irrespective of the presence of brood. When confined to a single nutritionally imbalanced solid diet, colonies without brood regulated lipid collection and over-collected protein relative to this target ratio, whereas colonies with brood regulated both lipid and protein collection. This brood effect on the regulation of nutrient collection by workers suggests that protein levels are critical for larval development. Our results highlight the importance of considering bee nutrition as a multidimensional phenomenon to better assess the effects of environmental impoverishment and malnutrition on population declines.
Conditional overexpression of TGF beta 1 promotes pulmonary inflammation, apoptosis and mortality via TGF beta R2 in the developing mouse lung

Background: Earlier studies have reported that transforming growth factor beta 1(TGFβ1) is a critical mediator of hyperoxia-induced acute lung injury (HALI) in developing lungs, leading to impaired alveolarization and a pulmonary phenotype of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). However, the mechanisms responsible for the TGFβ1-induced inflammatory signals that lead to cell death and abnormal alveolarization are poorly understood. We hypothesized that TGFβ1 signaling via TGFβR2 is necessary for the pathogenesis of the BPD pulmonary phenotype resulting from HALI. Methods: We utilized lung epithelial cell-specific TGFβ1 overexpressing transgenic and TGFβR2 null mutant mice to evaluate the effects on neonatal mortality as well as pulmonary inflammation and apoptosis in developing lungs. Lung morphometry was performed to determine the impaired alveolarization and multicolor flow cytometry studies were performed to detect inflammatory macrophages and monocytes in lungs. Apoptotic cell death was measured with TUNEL assay, immunohistochemistry and western blotting and protein expression of angiogenic mediators were also analyzed. Results: Our data reveals that increased TGFβ1 expression in newborn mice lungs leads to increased mortality, macrophage and immature monocyte infiltration, apoptotic cell death specifically in Type II alveolar epithelial cells (AECs), impaired alveolarization, and dysregulated angiogenic molecular markers. Conclusions: Our study has demonstrated the potential role of inhibition of TGFβ1 signaling via TGFβR2 for improved survival, reduced inflammation and apoptosis that may provide insights for the development of potential therapeutic strategies targeted against HALI and BPD.
International Integration and National Corruption

Abstract We argue that greater degrees of international integration lead to lower levels of corruption, which we define as the misuse of public office for private gain. We theorize that international factors affect a country's level of corruption through two principal channels. One acts through economic incentives, altering for various actors the costs and benefits of engaging in corrupt acts. The second mode is normative. Prevailing norms in international society delegitimate and stigmatize corruption. Countries that are more integrated into international society are more exposed to economic and normative pressures against corruption. We therefore test the following hypothesis: the more a country is tied into international networks of exchange, communication, and organization, the lower its level of corruption is likely to be. The analysis of data from approximately 150 countries strongly confirms our expectation.
Repurchase intention and word of mouth factors in the millennial generation against various brands of Boba drinks during the Covid 19 pandemic

The purpose of this research was to find out whether 1) Price promotion, 2) Brand image, 3) Food quality and 4) Perceived value of several Taiwanese boba beverage brands in Jakarta affect the satisfaction of millennial generation customers. 5) Does Customer Satisfaction affect the Repurchase Intention of Taiwan boba drinks and 6) Does Customer Satisfaction affect the Word of Mouth in various Taiwan boba beverage brands. A Survey method was used in this research. Data was collected using online instrumentation with a millennial generation target population between the ages of 18 to 38 years in Jakarta and surrounding areas. Data collection was carried out, when the world first faced the COVID 19 pandemic. The sample used in this study amounted to 285 respondents, and the data collection techniques used convenience sampling. Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modelling with PLS plus 3.0 program was used as an approach in testing the data collected. The findings of the study stated that price promotion on several brands of boba drinks did not affect the satisfaction of millennials in consuming them, while brand image, food quality, perceived value all affected the satisfaction of millennials in consuming various brands of boba drinks. Millennial generation satisfaction was found to influences repurchase intention and word of mouth.
Strategic Organizational Innovation Capability and Sustainable Competitiveness: Evidence from Packaging Businesses in Thailand

Organizational innovation has been considered as an important capability which influences on organizational competitiveness. The purpose of this research was to investigate the relationships among strategic organizational innovation capability and sustainable competitiveness. The data were gathered towards the mailed questionnaire from 228 packaging businesses in Thailand. The results of the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression analysis revealed that strategic organizational innovation capability had the positive effect on new product development, continuous organizational improvement and sustainable competitiveness. The results provided the deeper understanding of the role of strategic innovation capabilities for organizations. This study also offered the suggestions for the future research
Hunger Project credit facility and maize productivity in Ghana

Dadson AwunyoVitor c  Department of Agriculture, Kwahu West Municipality, Nkawkaw, Ghana b Department of Banking and Finance, University of Professional Studies, Accra, Ghana c Department of Agricultural Economics, Agribusiness and Extension, of Agriculture, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana  tweneasante@yahoo.com (Corresponding author)
A Query-Theory Perspective of Privacy Decision Making

Long-standing policy approaches to privacy protection are centered on consumer notice and control and assume that privacy decision making is a deliberative process of comparison between costs and benefits from information disclosure. An emerging body of work, however, documents the powerful effects of factors unrelated to objective trade-offs in privacy settings. In this paper, we investigate how focusing on the process by which individuals make privacy choices can help explain the impact of rational and behavioral factors on privacy decision making. In an online experiment, we borrow from query-theory literature and measure individuals’ considerations (that is, queries) across manipulations of rational and behavioral factors. We find that effects of rational and behavioral factors are associated with differences in the order and valence of queries considered in privacy settings. Our results confirm that understanding how differences in privacy choice emerge can help harmonize disparate perspectives on privacy decision making.
INTESTINAL PARASITES AND MALARIA IN SUKOMENANTI PASAMAN REGENCY, WEST SUMATRA

Survey parasit darah dan usus telah diselenggarakan di Kecamatan Sukomenanti, Kabupaten Pasaman, Sumatra Barat. Bahan pemeriksaan berasal dari 168 penduduk lakidaki dan 196 wanita umur antara 2-87 tahun. Di Sumatra Barat cacing yang umumnya terdapat ialah pertama Ascaris lumbricoides, kedua cacing tambang dan ketiga Trichuris trichiura. Survey didaerah Boyolali dan Kresek, Jawa, menemukan lebih banyak T. trichiura daripada cacing tambang. Di daerah Yogyakarta T. trichiura menduduki tempat yang pertama. Angka infeksi yang rendah untuk desa Pasir Tampang (11 percent) dan Tongar (3 percent) adalah tidak umum untuk Indonesia, tetapi keadaan demikian juga dilaporkan di lembah Lindu dan Napu, Sulawesi Tengah. Enterobius vermicularis terdapat hanya pada 2 per cent diantara penduduk yang diperiksa, sesuai dengan keadaan di daerah2 lain di Indonesia. Species dari cacing tambang pada survey ini belum dapat ditentukan. Infeksi Ascaris lumbricoides terdapat lebih banyak pada penduduk golongan muda, sesuai dengan hasil autopsi oleh Liedan Tan di Jakarta. Di Jawa Tengah dan Jawa Barat infeksi A. lumbricoides tampak merata pada semua umur. Entamoeba coli selalu terdapat pada survey di desa2 di pulau Jawa. Tetapi, infeksi E. histolytica (24 percent) adalah berlainan dengan keadaan di Kresek, Boyolali dan Yogyakarta yang menunjukkan ■ infeksi 12 per cent atau kurang. Infeksi malaria di Sukomenanti adalah sangat rendah sebagaimana terdapat di Kresek dan Yogya­karta. Keadaan demikian sangat berlainan dengan daerah Margolimbo di Sulawesi Selatan dimana angka dnfeksi malarianya tinggi.
Choosing Here and Now vs. There and Later: The Moderating Role of Psychological Distance on Assortment Size Preferences

Consumers prefer larger assortments, despite the negative consequences associated with choosing from these sets. This article examines the role of psychological distance (temporal and geographical) in consumers' assortment size decisions and rectifies contradicting hypotheses produced by construal level theory. Six studies demonstrate that while consumers prefer larger assortments when the choice takes place in the here and now, they are more likely to prefer small assortments when choices pertain to distant locations and times. This decrease in preference for large assortments is due to psychological distance increasing the similarity of the options in a category, making them appear more substitutable. This effect of psychological distance reverses when consumers consider desirability/feasibility trade-off information inherent in the assortment size decision. These findings point to important outcomes of psychological distance, resolving opposing predictions of construal level theory, and identify boundary conditions for the well-established notion that consumers are attracted to large assortments.
Determinants of credit access of cocoa farmers

Access to credit is one of the critical areas that are of prime interest to development practitioners, agribusiness entrepreneurs and agricultural economists, mainly access to credit by farmers in order to increase their production and also reduce poverty. This study sought to analyze the determinants of credit access among cocoa farmers in the Asunafo North of the Ahafo Region of Ghana. The multistage sampling procedure was used to collect data from 100 cocoa farmers with the aid of a questionnaire. Sources of credit, factors influencing access to credit, and constraints to credit were analyzed with the aid of descriptive statistics, multiple linear regression, and Kendall’s coefficient of concordance respectively. The results of multiple linear regression revealed that, age, marital status, education, experience, and family size were significant factors that influenced access to credit. The constraints analysis with the aid of Kendall’s coefficient of concordance showed that, high interest rate was highly ranked with a mean score of 1.93 whilst the need for a guarantor was least ranked with a mean score of 7.40. Based on the results, the study recommended that a policy aimed at expanding formal and semi-formal financial institutions credit portfolio to embrace cocoa farmers by finding alternative to collaterals and also reducing the interest rate will improve credit access with a positive externality effect of poverty reduction among cocoa farmers in the study area. JEL Classification: Q14
Why is Inflation so Low in the Euro Area?

Inflation in the euro area has been falling steadily since early 2013 and at the end of 2014 turned negative. Part of the decline has been due to oil prices, but the weakness of aggregate demand has also played a significant role. This paper uses a VAR model to quantify the contribution of oil supply, aggregate demand and monetary policy shocks (identified by means of sign restrictions) on inflation in the euro area. The analysis suggests that in the last two years inflation has been driven down by all three factors, as the effective lower bound to policy rates has prevented the European Central Bank from reducing the short-term rates to support economic activity and align inflation with the definition of price stability. Remarkably, the joint contribution of monetary and demand shocks is at least as important as that of oil price developments to the deviation of inflation from its baseline. Country-by-country analysis shows that both aggregate demand and oil supply shocks have driven inflation down everywhere, albeit with varying intensity. The findings stand confirmed after a series of robustness checks.
Location of palatally impacted canine and its effect on root resorption using CBCT

Background: Maxillary canines are important aesthetically and functionally, but impacted canines are more difficult and time consuming to treat. Moreover, impacted canines vary greatly in the inclination and location and can lead to resorption of neighboring incisors. Aim: To locate the impacted canine and compare resorption cases with non-resorption cases. Methods: Thirty -five 3 D CBCT scans were evaluated 17 presented with bilateral palatal impactions and 18 with unilateral impactions. Fifty –two canines were divided in two groups: group A: included impacted canines causing resorption to neighboring teeth and group B: impacted canines not causing resorption. Canine axis inclination, horizontal cusp location and distance to nearest adjacent tooth were recorded. T-tests (paired, student) determined the significance (P≤0.05) performed to evaluate the effect of resorption within and between each group. Results: Twenty–one canines caused resorption (40%) of the lateral incisor while there were 31 canines not causing resorption. Palatally impacted canines causing resorption to the adjacent teeth showed higher inclination of their axis to the midsagittal plane. Conclusions: Palatally impacted canines have high chance of causing resorption to adjacent teeth. As the canine is more medially located there is an increased chance of resorption especially when the cusp of the maxillary canine was positioned medially to the long axis of the lateral incisor. Highly significant correlation between palatally impacted canines in contact with neighboring teeth and resorption was found.
Monotonicity of the collateralized debt obligations term structure model

The problem of existence of arbitrage-free and monotone collateralized debt obligations term structure models is studied. Conditions for positivity and monotonicity of the corresponding Heath–Jarrow–Morton–Musiela equation for the -forward rates with the use of the Milian-type result are formulated. Two state spaces are taken into account – of square integrable functions and a Sobolev space. For the first the regularity results concerning pointwise monotonicity are proven. Arbitrage-free and monotone models are characterized in terms of the volatility of the model and characteristics of the driving Lévy process.
12: Hydrodynamics and Roughness of Irregular Boundaries

The research goals of the ongoing work target accurate parameterization and modeling of nearshore waves, currents and turbulence in complex reef environments. A central theme of this work is the response of steady and oscillating flow to highly irregular, broad-banded roughness. Previous ONR supported study by the PI’s group have quantified reef roughness, examined the hydrodynamic response to a variable roughness at small scales and explored the relationship between hydrodynamic and physical roughness.
Gender voting gap in the dawn of urbanization: evidence from a quasi-experiment with Greek special elections

The electoral law of 31 May 1952 extended the voting rights to all adult women in Greece. This paper examines the impact of women’s enfranchisement on party vote shares by employing a unique dataset of 385 communities located in seven prefectures in Greece where by-elections took place in 1953 and 1954 (for strictly exogenous reasons). To estimate causal effects, we exploit the observed heterogeneity in the proportion of women in the electorate across communities as the identifying source of variation, and employ a difference-in-differences design that holds unobserved local characteristics fixed. Our results provide strong evidence in favour of the “traditional gender voting gap” (women voting more conservatively compared to men) in the urban prefecture of Thessaloniki, and no evidence of gender voting differences in the remaining (six) predominantly rural prefectures of our sample. Our results also reveal that the existence of a gender voting gap is highly conditional upon the proportion of economically inactive women; that is, women tend to vote for right parties when they are outside of the labour force. Interestingly, when we account for this conditionality, a suffrage-induced pro-right shift can also be observed in communities outside Thessaloniki. Building on the economic bargaining models of the family, we argue that, in an economic environment characterized by limited demand for female labour force participation, women support more vigorously the sanctity and the strength of family values and tend to vote more conservatively compared to men.
CAMA Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis Commodity Prices and BRIC and G 3 Liquidity : A SFAVEC Approach CAMA Working Paper 13 / 2014 February 2014

This paper investigates the influence of liquidity in the major developed and major developing economies on commodity prices. Liquidity is taken to be M2. A novel finding is that unanticipated increases in the BRIC countries’ liquidity is associated with significant and persistent increases in commodity prices that are much larger than the effect of unanticipated increases in G3 liquidity, and the difference increases over time. Over 1999-2012 BRIC liquidity is strongly linked with global energy prices and global real activity whereas G3 liquidity is not. The impact of BRIC liquidity on mineral and metal prices is twice as large as that of G3 liquidity. Granger casualty goes from liquidity to commodity prices. BRIC and G3 liquidity and commodity prices are cointegrated. BRIC and G3 liquidity and global output and global prices are cointegrated. We construct a structural factor-augmented error correction (SFAVEC) model. T H E A U S T R A L I A N N A T I O N A L U N I V E R S I T Y