Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
FRI0395 Anti -N-Methyl-D-Aspartate Receptor Antibody is Associated with Fibromyalgia in Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Objectives The high concordance of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) with fibromyalgia (FM) suggests common underlying mechanisms related to pain and distress in both patient groups. This study was aimed to evaluate roles of NMDAR antibodies in development of FM in SLE patients Methods Sera from 104 SLE patients, 112 FM patients, and 110 healthy controls were analyzed to detect titers of antibodies to N-terminus of 2B subunit of NMDAR (GluN2B). Clinical, laboratory data and concomitant diseases were found by reviewing the patient charts. We underwent clinical examination and neuropsychiatric evaluation, and interviewed SLE patients using a structured questionnaire that included FM and neuropsychiatric symptoms. Results 18 patients (17.3%) of total 104 SLE patients were revealed having FM. The titer of anti-GluN2B antibodies was significantly higher in SLE patients than FM patients and healthy controls (P <0.001). In SLE patients, patients with concomitant FM showed higher titers of anti-GluN2B antibodies (P <0.05). The titers of anti-GluN2B antibodies were correlated with tender point count (Spearman's rho =0.238, P=0.016) and widespread pain index (Spearman's rho =0.276, P=0.005), but not with other symptom scales. Anti-GluN2B antibody-positive SLE patients were more likely to have NPSLE and concomitant FM (P<0.05). In multivariate analysis, Anti-GluN2B antibody was independent predictor of concomitant FM and NPSLE. Conclusions This is the first study to present that antibodies to NMDAR may be associated with pathogenesis of FM in SLE patients. Disclosure of Interest None declared
DSTEELNet: A Real-Time Parallel Dilated CNN with Atrous Spatial Pyramid Pooling for Detecting and Classifying Defects in Surface Steel Strips

Automatic defects inspection and classification demonstrate significant importance in improving quality in the steel industry. This paper proposed and developed DSTEELNet convolution neural network (CNN) architecture to improve detection accuracy and the required time to detect defects in surface steel strips. DSTEELNet includes three parallel stacks of convolution blocks with atrous spatial pyramid pooling. Each convolution block used a different dilation rate that expands the receptive fields, increases the feature resolutions and covers square regions of input 2D image without any holes or missing edges and without increases in computations. This work illustrates the performance of DSTEELNet with a different number of parallel stacks and a different order of dilation rates. The experimental results indicate significant improvements in accuracy and illustrate that the DSTEELNet achieves of 97% mAP in detecting defects in surface steel strips on the augmented dataset GNEU and Severstal datasets and is able to detect defects in a single image in 23ms.
Video Frame Interpolation via Pixel Polynomial Modeling

Video frame interpolation (VFI) is the practice of generating intermediate video frames given two consecutive frames. We propose a novel VFI algorithm that uses a polynomial to model the change in pixel values for each pixel with respect to time. We have use a neural network to predict the coefficients of each of the polynomials and use the nice mathematical properties of polynomials to generate a parametric generative model. We have created a novel parametric generative model that can quickly synthesize multiple video frames between two consecutive frames.
Catalpol Attenuates Oxidative Stress and Inflammation via Mechanisms Involving Sirtuin-1 Activation and NF-κB Inhibition in Experimentally-Induced Chronic Kidney Disease

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a stealthy disease, and its development is linked to mechanisms including inflammation and oxidative stress. Catalpol (CAT), an iridoid glucoside from the root of Rehmannia glutinosa, is reported to manifest anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antiapoptotic and antifibrotic properties. Hence, we studied the possible nephroprotective effects of CAT and its mechanisms in an adenine-induced (0.2% w/w in feed for 4 weeks) murine model of CKD by administering 5 mg/kg CAT to BALB/c mice for the duration of 4 weeks except during weekends. Upon sacrifice, the kidney, plasma and urine were collected and various physiological, biochemical and histological endpoints were assessed. CAT significantly ameliorated the adenine-induced altered body and kidney weight, water intake, urine volume, and concentrations of urea and creatinine in plasma, as well as the creatinine clearance and the albumin and creatinine ratio. Moreover, CAT significantly ameliorated the effect of adenine-induced kidney injury by reducing the kidney injury molecule-1, neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin, cystatin C and adiponectin. Similarly, the augmented concentrations of markers of inflammation and oxidative stress in the adenine-treated group were markedly reduced with CAT pretreatment. Furthermore, CAT prevented adenine-induced deoxyribonucleic acid damage and apoptotic activity in the kidneys. Histologically, CAT significantly reduced the formation of tubular necrosis and dilation, as well as interstitial fibrosis in the kidney. In addition to that, CAT significantly decreased the adenine-induced increase in the phosphorylated NF-κB and reversed the reduced expression of sirtuin-1 in the kidney. In conclusion, CAT exhibits salutary effects against adenine-induced CKD in mice by mitigating inflammation, oxidative stress and fibrosis via mechanisms involving sirtuin-1 activation and NF-κB inhibition. Confirmatory studies are warranted in order to consider CAT as a potent nephroprotective agent against CKD.
Smartphone Usage in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana: What are the Critical Drivers?

Smartphone usage has increased significantly in recent times across rural, peri-urban and urban locations. However, the key underlying factors that drive the increased demand and usage are unclear. This study analyses the factors that influence people? s choice for smartphones across different geographical settings in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana, using a sample of 305 respondents. Data was collected using programmable tablets through a case study survey that sampled individuals across different locations randomly. By employing probit regression analysis, the study established that geographical location matters in the choice of smartphone usage. Urban and peri-urban locations significantly influence smartphone use while rural location was found to be insignificant. Education, age, access to mobile applications and access to mobile money services are positive and significant drivers of smartphone usage. Besides, the number of registered Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards used and affordability, negatively and significantly impacts on smartphone use. These findings are relevant to electronic consumers and companies, regulators and policymakers.
How Complaining Behaviors Effect on Performance in Government Industries?

DOI: 10.21276/sjbms.2018. 3.6. 3 Abstract: This research aims to determine the effect of emotional intelligence, complaining behavior and job satisfaction on the performance of employees. The object of this research is the employee at the office of Dinas Penanaman Pelayanan Modal Terpadu Satu Pintu Kota Tangerang Selatan. This research was conducted on 86 respondents by using quantitative descriptive approach. So the data analysis used is statistical analysis in the form of multiple linear regression test. The results of this study indicate that partially and simultaneously, emotional intelligence, complaining and job satisfaction have significant effect on employee performance at the office of Dinas Penanaman Pelayanan Modal Terpadu Satu Pintu Kota Tangerang Selatan.
Default count-based network models for credit contagion

Abstract Interconnectedness between economic institution and sectors, already recognised as a trigger of the great financial crisis in 2008–2009, is assuming growing importance in financial systems. In this article, we study contagion effects between corporate sectors using financial network models, in which the significant links are identified through conditional independence testing. While the existing financial network literature is mostly focused on Gaussian processes, our approach is based on discrete data. We indeed test dependence in the conditional mean (and volatility) of default counts in different economic sector estimated from Poisson autoregressive models, and in their shocks. Our empirical application to Italian corporate defaults in the 1996–2018 period reveals evidence of a high inter-sector vulnerability, especially at the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008 and in the following years. Many contagion effects between corporate sectors are indeed found in the shock component of the default count dynamics.
Rethinking Regionalism in the 21st Century*

The basic motivation for this chapter is that often regionalism is too narrowly understood and needs to be rethought. The ‘rethinking’ offered here is built on four interacting perspectives: (i) rethinking regional history; (ii) rethinking regional comparison; (iii) rethinking regional space; and (iv) rethinking regions from a global perspective. This broad-ranging approach enables new and challenging answers to emerge as to how and why regionalism evolves and consolidates, how regionalism can be compared, and the significance of regionalism for a host of issues within global politics, from security and trade to development and the environment.
Effect of the university on the social entrepreneurial intention of students

The study aims to test the applicability of a variant of the model proposed by Hockerts (2017) for assessing the social entrepreneurial intention (SEI) of male and female students. It extends the model by incorporating the university's environment and support system (ESS) as an additional more distal construct. The university's ESS, coupled with the experience with social, cultural and environmental issues can affect SEI by influencing the more proximal precursors of empathy towards others, perceived self-efficacy, perceived community support and social, cultural and environmental responsibility. ,A structured non-disguised questionnaire was administered to students at a Canadian university. A sample of 485 usable responses was analysed by means of second-order structural equation modelling. ,The results provide confirmation that the proposed model is a multi-group invariant and appropriate for analysing the SEI of male and female students. They also show that the university's ESS helps predict SEI indirectly through the complete mediation of the more proximal antecedents. ,The questionnaire is limited to universities with social innovation and entrepreneurship initiatives. ,Outcomes of the study can help universities assess the efficacy of their social innovation and entrepreneurship initiatives for instilling a social entrepreneurial mind-set in students. Consequently, universities will be better equipped to raise the perceptions of venture feasibility and desirability, thus increasing students' perceptions of opportunity. ,The study advances the social entrepreneurial knowledge of the university's effect on the precursors of SEI.
Comparison of body mass index of a national cohort of Maltese children over a 3-year interval

Aims: To compare body mass index (BMI) at 7 years and at 9 years of age in a national cohort of children in Malta, born in 2001, and to compare the results with an earlier study carried out in 2007 in this same cohort. Methods: BMI measurement of all children in the second year of formal school and again in the fourth year. Results: In 2008, data was collected from a total of 3435 children (girls 48.9%, boys 51.1%) with a mean age of 6.8 years. The same procedure was carried out in 2010 on the same cohort of children. A total of 3090 children participated in the second round of data collection (girls 49.5%, boys 50.5%). Based on WHO criteria (using the 2007 WHO Child Growth Reference BMI-for-age 5-19 charts), over a quarter of Maltese children aged 7 years were found to be overweight or obese in 2008. This proportion rose to just over 40% when the same cohort was measured in 2010 at the age of 9 years. A significant prevalence of overweight and obese boys was found in Gozo for both studies. Children attending Independent (fee-paying) schools were the least overweight and obese. Discussion: Obesity in childhood in Malta is increasing despite efforts to curb this disease. More emphasis must be made on prevention strategy in childhood as this is a key factor in reducing the burden of morbidity and mortality of childhood disease.
Efectos sobre la fuerza muscular del tratamiento de puntos gatillo miofasciales mediante la técnica de punción seca

Antecedentes: La puncion seca es una terapia para el tratamiento de puntos gatillo miofasciales muy difundida entre los fisioterapeutas y ha despertado mucho interes investigador en los ultimos anos. Los efectos terapeuticos beneficiosos de la tecnica en el sindrome de dolor miofascial estan bien demostrados y reconocidos, pero sin embargo todavia existe una falta de conocimiento cientifico sobre algunos de los efectos fisiologicos de la misma y sus consecuencias en los pacientes en los que es aplicada. Objetivos: Conocer los efectos sobre la fuerza muscular del tratamiento invasivo de puntos gatillo miofasciales mediante la tecnica de puncion seca, evaluar las diferentes respuestas segun la masa muscular y valorar la seguridad de la tecnica. Material y metodo: Se realizo un ensayo clinico controlado, aleatorizado, en paralelo y a doble ciego. Ciento nueve voluntarios jovenes, sanos y con puntos gatillo miofasciales latentes en el musculo cuadriceps femoral, fueron divididos en dos grupos. El grupo experimental fue tratado con puncion seca y el grupo control con falsa puncion seca. Se midieron la composicion corporal, el grado de actividad fisica y la fuerza muscular en miembros inferiores mediante la realizacion de test de salto vertical, antes de la intervencion, inmediatamente despues y una vez transcurridas veinticuatro horas desde la misma. Resultados: El ANOVA de medidas repetidas mostro que el factor inter-sujetos grupo y el factor intra-sujetos tiempo, asi como la interaccion entre ambos, resultaron significativos. Se produjo una disminucion en la altura alcanzada en los saltos inmediatamente postpuncion, aunque esos valores se recuperaron hasta valores similares a los iniciales al cabo de veinticuatro horas en ambos grupos. No se evidenciaron respuestas diferentes en las alturas de salto alcanzadas ni en funcion del sexo ni en funcion del porcentaje de masa muscular en miembros inferiores. Como efecto adverso de la tecnica destaco la aparicion de dolor postpuncion de forma muy frecuente, que aumento de manera inmediata en ambos grupos, pero que solamente continuaba significativamente elevado al cabo de veinticuatro horas en el grupo experimental. Conclusiones: El tratamiento de puntos gatillo miofasciales mediante puncion seca produce una disminucion de la fuerza muscular de manera inmediata tras su aplicacion y no produce efectos beneficiosos sobre la misma a corto plazo. Los efectos son independientes del sexo y del porcentaje de masa muscular. El efecto adverso mas frecuente es el dolor postpuncion, aunque la puncion seca puede caracterizarse como una tecnica de fisioterapia segura. Deben tenerse en cuenta tanto el empeoramiento del desempeno muscular como la posible aparicion de dolor postpuncion, a la hora de valorar la idoneidad de la aplicacion de la tecnica en cada caso particular. Palabras clave: Puncion seca, fuerza muscular, puntos gatillo miofasciales, porcentaje de masa muscular, seguridad.
Selective Management of Typhoid Perforation of Bowel

Correspondence: Dr. Faisal G. Bhopal Rawalpindi Medical College and Benazir Bhutto Hospital Rawalpindi E mail: bhopalfg@hotmail.com studies. With emergence of effective medical therapy in the form of quinolone, showing a clinical response of 100% and bacterial clearance rate of 99.5%, there is decrease in the incidence of complications of typhoid fever and the resultant mortality rate. The socioeconomic impact of the disease is significant because most of the times, several months are necessary for a patient to recover completely and resume normal work again. 7 Postoperat ive complications include wound infection, fecal fistula, abscesses and wound dehiscence. The morbidity is approximately 67%. The most common modes of death in enteric perforation are complications like peritonitis, dehydration, electrolyte imbalance and over whelming sepsis.
The impact of direct observed therapy on daily living activities, quality of life and socioeconomic burden on patients with tuberculosis in primary care in Singapore

Introduction: The prevalence of tuberculosis (TB) is rising in Singapore. The affected patients are provided with free directly observed therapy (DOT) at local polyclinics. The impact of DOT on their daily living activities (DLA) and quality of life (QOL) may affect their treatment adherence. The study aimed to evaluate the effect of DOT on the DLA and QOL of patients with TB and to quantify their socioeconomic burden. Material and methods: This questionnaire survey recruited adult multi-ethnic Asian patients with TB who were on DOT at nine local polyclinics. The questionnaire collected data on their demographic characteristics and DLA, anti-TB medications, the validated WHOQOL-BREF instrument, and socioeconomic costs. The associations between DOT and independent variables were tested using Student’s t-test and ANOVA. Results: The 356 patients recruited comprised 63% males with mean age of 43 years; 73% of them were employed, 73% reported increased travel time (mean 41 minutes/DOT visit) and DOT-related cost (mean S$260–S$389 for 6–9 months’ treatment); 47% indicated reduced participation in social functions and 45% felt that DOT had caused disruptions to their work, especially among younger patients. The WHOQOL-BREF scores were 13.3/20 “Physical Health”, 12.6/20 “Psychological”, 13.4/20 “Social Relationships” and 12.3/20 “Environment” domains, respectively. Some 52% of them rated their QOL as “good” or “very good”, 47% reported satisfaction with their health but 74% experienced negative feelings such as despair, anxiety and depression. Conclusion: The DOT affected patients’ DLA, QOL and increased their socioeconomic burden, which should be addressed by appropriate mitigating measures in the community.
Brucellosis in the Asir Region of Saudi Arabia

Bacteriologic and serologic analysis of blood specimens from 1331 individuals from different areas of the region. The study group included randomly chosen healthy people as well as patients with prolonged fever or other symptoms. Significant brucella antibody titres were found in 58.7% of patients with prolonged fever compared with 0.9% among healthy individuals and 15% among patients with other symptoms. Close contact with goats, sheep, cows, and camels and raw milk consumption were the main risk factors identified in contracting the disease
Influence of Household Environment and Maternal Behaviors to Upper Respiratory Infection among Toddlers

Upper respiratory infection (URI) in developing countries causes high morbidity among toddlers. Indonesia Health Ministry reported that non-pneumonia acute respiratory infection (ARI) increased by 2.6% from 2007 to 2011. Risk factors which may contribute to URI include environment and behavior. This study aimed to investigate environmental and behavioral factors with URI among toddlers. This case control study was conducted on February – April 2015 among toddlers in Tamansari that is a slum area in Bandung City. Case was 55 mothers with toddlers suffering from URI who came to primary health care, meanwhile control was twice bigger than cases selected from the environment and matched for age, sex and nutritional status. Environmental factors were density, humidity, ventilation, temperature and smoke disposal. Meanwhile, behavioral factors were hand-washing, mother’s smoking behavior, the use of mask, vitamin A consumption and exclusive breastfeeding. Results of study showed that environmental factor related to URI was only density with p value = 0.021 and OR = 2.843 (CI 95% = 1.168 – 6.920). None of maternal behavior factor was related to URI. Reducing density is an important and challenging issue in slum area, same as similary health promotion and prevention concerning URI are still necessary to reduce the risk of this disease among toddlers in urban slum area. Abstrak Infeksi saluran pernapasan akut atas (ISPA atas) di negara berkembang menyebabkan morbiditas tinggi pada anak bawah usia lima tahun (balita). Kementerian Kesehatan Republik Indonesia melaporkan bahwa ISPAnonpneumonia meningkat 2,6% dari tahun 2007 ke 2011. Faktor risiko yang dapat berkontribusi termasuk lingkungan dan perilaku. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menyelidiki faktor perilaku dan lingkungan dengan ISPA atas pada balita. Studi kasus kontrol ini dilakukan dari Februari-April 2015 pada balita di Tamansari yang merupakan daerah kumuh di Kota Bandung. Kasus adalah 55 ibu dengan balita menderita ISPA atas yang datang ke puskesmas, sedangkan kontrol dua kali lebih besar dari kasus dipilih dari lingkungan dan cocok untuk usia, jenis kelamin, dan status gizi. Faktor lingkungan adalah kepadatan, kelembaban, ventilasi, suhu, dan pembuangan asap. Sedangkan perilaku adalah mencuci tangan, perilaku merokok ibu, pemakaian masker, konsumsi vitamin Adan ASI eksklusif. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa faktor lingkungan yang berkaitan dengan ISPA atas hanya kepadatan dengan nilai p = 0,021 dan OR = 2,843 (CI 95%: 1,168 – 6,920). Tidak terdapat faktor perilaku ibu yang berhubungan dengan ISPA atas. Pengurangan kepadatan merupakan masalah penting dan menantang di daerah kumuh, sama halnya dengan promosi kesehatan dan pencegahan tentang ISPA atas masih penting untuk mengurangi risiko penyakit ini pada balita di daerah kumuh perkotaan.
A Comparative Analysis of Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay and Rapid Card Test for Diagnosis of Rotavirus Antigen in Acute Diarrhea Below Five Years Children

Acute diarrheal disease is a major public health problem leading to high morbidity and significant mortality in both developed and developing countries like India. Rota virus infection is the third most common cause of severe diarrhea in young children Worldwide (Kapikian et al., 1996) Almost all kids have had a Rota virus infection by the time they are 5 years old. It is estimated that Rota Virus infection annually causes 111 million episodes of gastroenteritis requiring home care, 5 million clinic visits, million hospitalization and approximately 600,000 deaths in children less than 5 years of age Worldwide (Parashar et al., 2003). There are seven Rota virus groups known to infect the humans, among them the most dominant is group A (Parashar et al., 2001). WHO estimated that diarrhea is responsible for 18% deaths among children younger than 5 years of age (Bryce et al., 2005).
Connaissances, attitudes et pratiques des collégiens et lycéens d'abidjan face au VIH/SIDA

• Nous avons mene en mai 2001 une etude transversale, descriptive a passage unique dans 13 etablissements de la ville d'Abidjan. Cette etude avait pour objectif general de decrire les connaissances, attitudes et pratiques des adolescents en milieu scolaire face au VIH/sida. Les adolescents de sexe feminin etaient predominants (66,5 %). La moyenne d'âge etait de 16,3 ans avec des âges extremes de 13 ans et 19 ans. La majorite des adolescents, 99,3 %, avait deja entendu parler du sida et les connaissances sur le sida etaient bonnes. Le preservatif etait le moyen de prevention le plus cite (89,2 %). Ils etaient 338 soit 56,1 % a avoir deja eu des rapports sexuels. Cependant, l'utilisation irreguliere du preservatif a ete evoquee par la majorite des adolescents enquetes qui etaient en activite sexuelle.