Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inverse Association between Metformin and Amiodarone-Associated Extracardiac Adverse Events

Background: The association between metformin and amiodarone-induced adverse events was examined using spontaneous adverse event database. Additionally, the association between other antidiabetic drugs and amiodarone-induced adverse events were also examined. Methods: A total of 6,153,696 reports from the first quarter of 2004 through the fourth quarter of 2015 were downloaded from the US Food and Drug Administration adverse event reporting system. Reporting odds ratio (ROR) and information component (IC) were used to detect associations between antidiabetic drugs and amiodarone-associated adverse events. Additionally, subset data analysis was performed to investigate whether the use of antidiabetic drugs further increased or decreased the risk of adverse events in patients receiving amiodarone therapy. Next, the RORs were adjusted for coadministered antidiabetic drugs using logistic regression analysis. Results: By whole dataset analysis, significant inverse associations were found between metformin and interstitial lung disease (ROR 0.84, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.79-0.90; IC -0.24, 95% CI -0.33 to -0.15). In the subset data analysis, metformin (ROR 0.62, 95%CI 0.43-0.89; IC -0.63, 95%CI -1.14 to -0.11), sulfonylureas (ROR 0.53, 95%CI 0.32-0.85; IC -0.85, 95%CI -1.53 to -0.17), and dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors (ROR 0.25, 95%CI 0.08-0.78; IC -1.66, 95%CI -3.08 to -0.23) were inversely associated with hyperthyroidism. Additionally, metformin (ROR 0.43, 95%CI 0.33-0.57; IC -1.09, 95%CI -1.49 to -0.69), sulfonylureas (ROR 0.64, 95%CI 0.48-0.86; IC -0.59, 95%CI -1.00 to -0.17), and DPP-4 inhibitors (ROR 0.47, 95%CI 0.27-0.81; IC -0.99, 95%CI -1.76 to -0.22) were inversely associated with interstitial lung disease. In the logistic regression analyses, DPP-4 inhibitors (adjusted ROR 0.32, 95% CI 0.10-1.00) and metformin (adjusted ROR 0.46, 95% CI 0.34-0.62) were inversely associated with amiodarone-associated hyperthyroidism and interstitial lung disease, respectively. Conclusion: Metformin is a candidate drug to reduce the risk of amiodarone-induced hyperthyroidism and interstitial lung disease.
Labiobaetis Novikova & Kluge in Borneo (Ephemeroptera, Baetidae)

Abstract Material collected between 2000 and 2014 on the island Borneo, including the Indonesian province of Kalimantan, the Malaysian province of Sabah and Brunei Darussalam, substantially increased our knowledge of Labiobaetis on this island. The total number of Labiobaetis species in Borneo increased to five, as only one species, L. borneoensis (Müller-Liebenau, 1984), was previously reported. Three new species were identified by morphology and partly by using genetic distance (COI, Kimura 2-parameter). They are described and illustrated based on their larvae (Labiobaetis bakerae sp. nov., L. penan sp. nov. and L. dayakorum sp. nov.); in one case, the imago is described as well. New reports of L. borneoensis are presented and the imago of this species is described for the first time. Labiobaetis moriharai (Müller-Liebenau, 1984), originally described from mainland Malaysia (Province Selangor), is reported from Borneo for the first time. The interspecific K2P distances in Borneo are between 19% and 25%, the intraspecific distances are usually between 0% and 1%. The total number of Labiobaetis species worldwide is augmented to 126.
Multi-parametric Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) in Prostate Cancer

Prostate cancer is extremely prevalent, with shifting patient demographics leading to an increasing number of men balancing treatment efficacy with associated side-effects. Non-invasive characterization of disease – useful for guiding biopsy, to monitor disease progression during active surveillance, or for treatment planning of focal therapies – could have a significant impact on patient management. Through its excellent anatomic imaging capabilities and its ability to characterize physiologic properties, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has the potential to fulfill clinical goals; however, further improvements are necessary to maximize accuracy and impact. Thus, this thesis presents: 1) the development of a multi-parametric model to combine parameters derived from measurement of T2 relaxation, diffusion weighted imaging, and dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI to improve the discrimination between normal and malignant peripheral zone tissue; 2) determination of the impact that the
Noninvasive evaluation of respiratory muscles in pre-clinical model of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

Since respiratory insufficiency is the main cause of death in patients affected by Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), the present study aims at establishing a new non-invasive method to evaluate the clinical parameters of respiratory conditions of experimental models affected by DMD. With this purpose in mind, we evaluated the cardiorespiratory clinical conditions, the changes in the intercostal muscles, the diaphragmatic mobility, and the respiratory cycles in Golden Retriever Muscular Dystrophy (GRMD) employing ultrasonography (US). A control group consisting of dogs of the same race, but not affected by muscular dystrophy, were used in this study. The results showed that inspiration, expiration and plateau movements (diaphragm mobility) were lower in the affected group. Plateau phase in the affected group was practically non-existent and showed that the diaphragm remained in constant motion. Respiratory rate reached 15.5 per minute for affected group and 26.93 per minute for the control group. Expiration and inspiration movements of intercostal muscles reached 8.99mm and 8.79mm, respectively, for control group and 7.42mm and 7.40mm, respectively, for affected group. Methodology used in the present analysis proved to be viable for the follow-up and evaluation of the respiratory model in GRMD and may be adapted to other muscular dystrophy experimental models.
ADAPTATION VS. STANDARDIZATION IN INTERNATIONAL MARKETING- THE COUNTRY-OF-ORIGIN EFFECT

The literature on international marketing presents a confrontation between two mainstream schools of thought regarding international marketing. The one supports the standardization approach and argues that multinational companies’ behavior should be uniform to minimize total costs and promote a global corporate image. The other argues for the need for adaptation to fit the unique dimensions of each local market. This research investigates companies’ practical level of adaptation and standardization in international markets. It identifies the two approaches as coexisting and sub-sequently distils the findings of an extended literature review to determine the degree and nature of the country-of-origin effect in the process. The conclusions are that the effect has a universal and diachronic existence, though its manifestation into actual consumer attitudes and preferences varies considerably. The dissimilarity of consumer behavior both between and within individual markets is a result of specific combinations of collective and personal parame-ters. The findings are extrapolated and ultimately integrated in the Internationalization Factors Model to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the internationalization process.
Home visits in general practice: an exploration by focus groups

Objectives: To determine in depth the added value, the disadvantage and/or benefit of a home visit versus an office encounter and to study the factors which determine the request and performance of home visits. Method: Focus group research was conducted with general practitioners (GPs), patients and representatives of health insurance companies in Antwerp, Belgium. The major themes in the topic guide were value and/or disadvantages of a home visit, the patient's request for the home visit, the influence of health care and practice organisation, and the doctor him/herself. The discussions were tape-recorded, transcribed and systematically analysed. Results: Content analysis of transcribed texts was undertaken and 77 items, related to the number and performance of home visits by GPs, were identified. These different codes were then classified into the 8 categories of a theoretical framework: different patient groups/illnesses, patient related factors, doctor related factors, practice organisation, context and intimacy, medical technical factors, health care organisation and economic factors. Conclusion: Many factors influence the request and performance of home visits by GPs in Belgium. The practice organisation, the contextual information and patient related factors were the most frequently mentioned reasons to perform home visits, whereas doctor related factors, in this research, seemed less important.
Giant Mesenteric Cyst: A Case Report And Review Of The Literature

We present a case of a giant mesenteric cyst successfully removed surgically. The rarity of such mesenteric cysts makes them difficult to diagnose clinically and pathologically. Simple mesenteric cysts need to be distinguished from lymphangiomas, hemangiomas, pancreatic pseudocysts, endometriomas, loculated ascites, peritoneal inclusion cysts (cystic mesothelioma), cystic mesenteric panniculitis, hydatid cysts, cystic teratomas and urogenital cysts of the mesentery. Complete enucleation of these cysts is considered the procedure of choice, to prevent complications, recurrence and possible malignant transformation.
Research Practice in Public Universities of Ethiopia the Case of Mekelle University

III ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . IV List of Tables . VI List of Figures . VI Acronyms . VII Chapter 1: GENERAL OVERVEIW . 2 Background of the Study . 2 1.1 Statement of the Problem . 3 1.2 Purpose of the Study . 4 1.3 Scope of the Study . 4 1.4 Limitation of the study . 5 1.5 Organization of the study . 5 1.6 Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW . 6 2.1 Classification of Research . 6 2.2 Importance of Conducting Research in Universities . 7 2.3 Factors that Affect Research . 8 2.3.1 Factors affect research at the national level . 8 2.3.2 Factors affect research at institutional level . 10 2.3.3 Factors affect research at a department or faculty level . 14 2.4 Research Productivity, and Relevance to Society . 16 2.4.1 Benefits of research and scholarship . 17 2.4.2 Research productivity . 19 Chapter3: CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK . 21 3.1 The Essential of Research in Universities . 21 3.2 Building Blocks of Research Productivity . 22 3.2.1 Research productivity at faculty level . 23 3.3 Measures of Faculty Research Productivities . 25 Chapter4: RESEARCH DESIGN . 28 4.1 Introduction . 28 4.2 Research Design . 28 4.2.1 Validity and reliability . 29 4.3 Research Participants . 31 4.4 Instrument Used for Data Collection . 32 4.4.1 Semi structured Interview . 32 4.4.2 Document analysis . 34 4.5 Ethical Issue . 34 4.5.1 Ethical Issues Regarding the Primary and Secondary data . 34 4.6 Data Analysis . 35 Chapter 5: RESEARCH CONTEXT . 37 5.1 Introduction . 37 5.2 Background . 37 5.3 Ethiopia Higher Education System . 38 5.4 HEP Framework . 40 5.5 Ethiopian HEI Budgets and Efficiency . 41
Survival Analysis of Duration of Breastfeeding and Associated Factors of Early Cessation of Breastfeeding in Ethiopia

The purpose of this study was to assess the duration of breastfeeding among women of reproductive age in Ethiopia and to identify determinants associated with early cessation of breastfeeding. Data for the study were drawn from the Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey 2005. The study included mothers of 9,066 children from nine regional states and two city administrations. The Kaplan-Meier and stratified Cox’s hazard model were employed for the analysis of breastfeeding-related data. The Kaplan-Meier survival estimate showed that the probability of mothers who continue to breastfeeding was high (97.3%) for the first month. The breastfeeding rates then declined to 92.5% at 6 months, 78.4% at 12 months, 37% at 24 months and 8.3% at 48 months. The mean and median duration of breastfeeding in Ethiopia were 25.64 and 24.00 months respectively. The stratified Cox regression analysis revealed that younger mothers, mothers who had lived in urban area, mothers having higher education, higher maternal parity, early pregnant and being a Muslim and protestant were significant determinants of early cessation of breastfeeding in Ethiopia. Then, we recommend that the breastfeeding-promotion programs in Ethiopia should give special attention to young mothers, those who lived in urban areas, mothers with higher education, those who have higher parity, those who have early pregnancy and who are Muslims and Protestants since these mothers tend to breastfeed their child for a relatively shorter period of time.
Rapid Sequence Induction Practices In The United States And The United Kingdom: A Comparative Survey Study.

Purpose: We aimed to survey the members of anesthesia departments in two large university hospitals, University of Washington (Seattle, USA) (UW-US) and University of Nottingham (Nottingham, UK) (UN-UK) to compare differences in their current approach to rapid sequence induction (RSI). Methods: The survey was distributed in electronic and paper format in 2009. Overall response rate was 48.6% (146/300). Participants were asked to indicate their practice for a RSI technique for emergency appendectomy in a previously healthy adult. Data were summarized descriptively using frequency distribution. Chi square statistic was used to compare frequency of responses. Results: There were several differences in the practice of RSI: 1. Aspiration prophylaxis was preferred in UW-US (40%) versus UN-UK (12%); 2. Preferred patient position was with a head support in UW-US versus 30 head of the bed elevation in UN-UK; 3. UWUS reported not to use mask ventilation prior to intubation (55%) versus UN-UK (78%); 4. The preferred opioid was fentanyl (93%) for UW-US and alfentanil (74%) for UN-UK; 5. Adjuvant drugs were used by 68% of UW-US versus 8% of UN-UK providers; 6. Commonly used induction agents were propofol in UW-US (94%) and thiopental in UN-UK (51%). Both centers preferred succinylcholine for muscle relaxation to rocuronium (UW-US 80% versus UN-UK 90%). Conclusions: RSI practice differed significantly across continents. Due to disagreement and a lack of scientific evidence regarding the standards of RSI, it appears that traditional RSI practice has already been abolished. Revised evidence based guidance statement is due and has the potential to reduce practice variability.
Probiotics Based Approaches to Target Mucosal Compartments: PotentialNovel Approaches to HIV Vaccine Development

Copyright: © 2016 Chamcha V. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. It’s been 35 years since the first cases of AIDS were reported. Since then, we have witnessed tremendous advances in prevention, testing, and treatment. Although, biomedical interventions to reduce HIV-1 acquisition have favorably influenced the trajectory of HIV1 infections in several populations throughout the worldwide, the key to ending the HIV epidemic is a protective, affordable vaccine that prevents the virus from establishing infection and the need for a globally effective HIV-1 prophylactic vaccine is more compelling than ever. The RV144 study using a poxvirus vector prime and envelope protein boost strategy demonstrated a modest but statistically significant level of efficacy and established the concept that a vaccine could prevent HIV infection [1]. The beauty of a vaccine is that once a person has been vaccinated, the body automatically responds to protect itself against infectionit does not require a conscious action on the part of the potentially exposed person. Indeed, history teaches us that a protective vaccine, as opposed to treatment alone, is the only way to eradicate a pathogen-the vaccines for polio or smallpox is great examples of this. Because HIV attacks and can lay dormant in cells of the immune system, developing a vaccine against it is one of the more difficult scientific problems of our time. Progress is being made, and many vaccine concepts or approaches to boost the durability and efficacy of HIV vaccines underdevelopment.
A systematic review of health economic evaluations in occupational therapy

Introduction There is a growing need for health professions to demonstrate cost-effectiveness in an increasingly financially constrained climate. High quality health economic evaluations are recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. This systematic review examines the quality of health economic evaluations of occupational therapy interventions. Method A systematic search was conducted, and 262 potential review papers were screened, with nine being selected for review. The consolidated health economic evaluation reporting standards statement alongside a devised scoring frame was used to appraise the quality of the review papers. Results The nine papers appraised varied considerably in quality. The main concerns were: quality of the original clinical study; statement of cost-perspective and time horizon, choice of outcome units; presentation of included costs; use and reporting of uncertainty analyses. Conclusion The current low number and variable quality of health economic evaluations are largely insufficient to inform resource allocation decisions. If occupational therapy as a profession is to flourish, as financial challenges continue to increase, it must engage more strongly with health economic evaluations and produce good quality research that incorporates health economic evaluations at a much higher quality and volume than currently. We are part of a fast evolving healthcare world, and we need to evolve with it.
Phase II Study with Iododoxorubicin in Measurable Advanced Colorectal Adenocarcinoma. Effective Rescue Using Weekly High-Dose 5-Fluorouracil (WFU)

Aims and background To evaluate a new anthracycline 4′-iodo-4′-deoxydoxorubicin (I-DOX) in patients with measurable advanced colorectal adenocarcinoma in a phase II study. Methods We investigated therapeutic activity and toxicities associated with repeated courses of I-DOX 80 mg/m2 administered every 3 weeks. Eighteen patients entered the trial, all of them evaluable for response and toxicity. Results A total of 47 courses were administered. The median cumulative I-DOX dose was 238 mg/m2 (80-320). Myelosuppression, particularly leukopenia, was the most frequent and serious side effect associated with I-DOX treatment; World Health Organization (WHO) grade 3-4 leukopenia occurred in 4 patients (22%). No thrombocytopenia was observed except in 1 patient who presented WHO grade 4. Only 1 patient developed febrile neutropenia but recovered uneventfully. Overall, the I-DOX treatment was well tolerated. Grade 3-4 nausea/vomiting was observed in 2% of the cycles and no other severe toxicities were recorded. Echocardiography or multiple gated scan was performed before treatment and during follow-up in 14 patients to measure left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), and a decrease > 15% was detected in 3, including 1 whose LVEF fell below normal values (48%) (normal range > 49%). There were no cases of congestive heart failure or treatment-related deaths. No complete or partial response (PR) was observed. Twelve patients received weekly high-dose 5-fluorouracil (WFU) as rescue. Four patenties had PR, 5 no change and 3 progressive disease (PD). The median time to PD of the whole group from study entry to failure after WFU was 30 weeks and the overall median survival was 11 months. Conclusions As reported for other anthracyclines, I-DOX showed no activity in colorectal adenocarcinoma; however, the use of an investigational agent as front-line chemotherapy for colorectal adenocarcinoma does not compromise further response to 5-FU.
A generalized approach to the phase-amplitude method

A generalized formulation of the phase-amplitude method is given for scattering by a complex nonlocal potential. It is shown that the constraint on the derivative of the wavefunction introduced by earlier workers is redundant to the development of the approach. The cases of real local and nonlocal potentials as well as a complex local potential can be obtained in a straightforward manner.
An analysis of sampling designs and sampling errors of the demographic and health surveys

The Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) program conducts nationally representative household surveys in developing countries in Africa Asia and South America. The first part of this technical report reviews the sampling designs of 48 surveys completed during the first 2 phases (1984-89 and 1988-93) of the DHS program. Most samples use a 2-stage stratified design to yield about 30 female respondents per area unit for an average of 300 units. The second part of this report analyzes sampling errors and design effects from the same 48 surveys. 37 variables related to family planning fertility fertility intentions child health and child mortality are analyzed for the national sample rural-urban domains subnational regions and demographic and socioeconomic groupings. At the country level the design effect averaged over all 37 survey variables and 48 countries is about 1.5. The effect of clustering of children in a sample of women can be isolated. These design effects are increased by 20-25% for variables such as the proportion of births during which the mother received tetanus toxoid or medical attention and by 10% for infant mortality estimates based on aggregation of births over time. Appendices to this report present data on sample designs and sampling errors in tabular form.
Left ventricular bypass.

: The removal of the patient's own diseased heart in order to perform a total cardiac transplantation has several disadvantages. A new technique for bypassing the patient's diseased left ventricle by using a cardiac allograft has been developed in our laboratory and applied clinically in 2 patients. This technique carried no direct surgical mortality, and no complications resulting from the patient's own heart being left in situ have been observed thus far. The presence of a second heart lying partly in the anterior mediastinum and partly in the right pleural space appeared to have no deleterious effects. Several advantages over the conventional transplant have been noted and are discussed.
Model reference adaptive fuzzy controller and fuzzy estimator for high performance induction motor drives

This paper presents the adaptive speed controller and rotor resistance estimator based on the fuzzy logic approach for a high-performance indirect vector-controlled induction motor drive. In the proposed system, fuzzy logic principle is first utilized for the control of rotor flux and speed. A model-reference adaptive scheme is then proposed in which the adaptation mechanism is executed using fuzzy logic. In order to achieve the decoupling control of flux and torque, a fuzzy logic rotor resistance estimator is designed. Key information used for this estimator is a function of stator frequency, stator currents and derivation of rotor flux. The error between its estimated value and actual value as well as error derivation are employed as fuzzy estimator's inputs. The performance of proposed fuzzy logic control system is evaluated by computer simulation for various operating conditions using the parameters of a laboratory 2.2 kVA induction motor drive. The implementation of this control system is considered and discussed.