Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Investigating Caesarean Section Birth as a Risk Factor for Childhood Overweight.

BACKGROUND Caesarean section birth may be associated with overweight in childhood; however, findings to date have been inconsistent. This study explored the association of caesarean section vs. vaginal birth with childhood overweight in Vietnam. METHODS This longitudinal cohort study explored the association of delivery mode with overweight, obesity, and overweight/or obesity at 8 years of age in children (n = 1937) across 20 sites in Vietnam, using Young Lives longitudinal cohort study data. Categories were defined using BMI z-scores in relationship to the World Health Organization (WHO) reference median: overweight >1 and <2 standard deviations (SD) above WHO reference median, obese >2 SD, and overweight/or obese >1 SD. Individual questionnaire data collected sociodemographic information and pregnancy/birth information through face-to-face interviews with mothers/caregivers. Anthropometric measurements for mother and child were collected at baseline and at 8 years for children. RESULTS Adjusted multivariable logistic models revealed a twofold increase in odds at age 8 years of overweight [odds ratio (OR) = 1.8, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.03-3.2, p = 0.039], obese (OR = 2.2, 95% CI 1.2-4.0, p = 0.014), or overweight/or obese (OR = 2.1, 95% CI 1.3-3.3, p = 0.002) for children born through caesarean section compared with vaginal birth. Children born through planned caesarean section (adjusted OR = 2.3, 95% CI 1.2-4.1, p < 0.001) and unplanned caesarean section (adjusted OR = 1.9, 95% CI 1.1-3.5, p = 0.03) had similar increased odds of overweight/or obesity compared with children born through vaginal birth. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that there may be an association between caesarean section and childhood overweight even after adjustment for confounders. Further research is needed to explore the underlying mechanisms of this finding.
Vitamin D therapy and cardiac structure and function in patients with chronic kidney disease: the PRIMO randomized controlled trial.

CONTEXT Vitamin D is associated with decreased cardiovascular-related morbidity and mortality, possibly by modifying cardiac structure and function, yet firm evidence for either remains lacking. OBJECTIVE To determine the effects of an active vitamin D compound, paricalcitol, on left ventricular mass over 48 weeks in patients with an estimated glomerular filtration rate of 15 to 60 mL/min/1.73 m(2). DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Multinational, double-blind, randomized placebo-controlled trial among 227 patients with chronic kidney disease, mild to moderate left ventricular hypertrophy, and preserved left ventricular ejection fraction, conducted in 11 countries from July 2008 through September 2010. INTERVENTION Participants were randomly assigned to receive oral paricalcitol, 2 μg/d (n =115), or matching placebo (n = 112). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Change in left ventricular mass index over 48 weeks by cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging. Secondary end points included echocardiographic changes in left ventricular diastolic function. RESULTS Treatment with paricalcitol reduced parathyroid hormone levels within 4 weeks and maintained levels within the normal range throughout the study duration. At 48 weeks, the change in left ventricular mass index did not differ between treatment groups (paricalcitol group, 0.34 g/m(2.7) [95% CI, -0.14 to 0.83 g/m(2.7)] vs placebo group, -0.07 g/m(2.7) [95% CI, -0.55 to 0.42 g/m(2.7)]). Doppler measures of diastolic function including peak early diastolic lateral mitral annular tissue velocity (paricalcitol group, -0.01 cm/s [95% CI, -0.63 to 0.60 cm/s] vs placebo group, -0.30 cm/s [95% CI, -0.93 to 0.34 cm/s]) also did not differ. Episodes of hypercalcemia were more frequent in the paricalcitol group compared with the placebo group. CONCLUSION Forty-eight week therapy with paricalcitol did not alter left ventricular mass index or improve certain measures of diastolic dysfunction in patients with chronic kidney disease. TRIAL REGISTRATION clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00497146.
The Pathophysiological Basis of Weakness in Children With Cerebral Palsy

Purpose: To examine the evidence concerning the neurologic and muscular pathophysiology that contributes to clinically observed weakness in children and young people with cerebral palsy (CP). Method: Literature concerning the neural or muscular changes in subjects with CP was found by searching 6 databases plus supplementary searching. Results: A final set of 51 articles was identified by 2 independent reviewers. Summary of Key Points: Muscle weakness is due to reduced central drive, possible abnormal neural maturation, insufficient and disorganized motor recruitment, impaired voluntary control, impaired reciprocal inhibition, altered setting of muscle spindles, and reinforcement of abnormal neural circuits. Muscle tissue is altered, with selective atrophy of fast fibers and altered myosin expression, changes in fiber length and cross-sectional area, changes in the length-tension curve, reduced elasticity, and impoverished muscle tissue development. Conclusion: Children with CP are weak because of both neurologic and muscular changes.
Delay in Bargaining with Outside Options

A seller negotiates price with a buyer who has an outside option that arrives at a random time during the negotiation. Both the buyer’s valuation of the good and the value of the outside option are unknown to the seller. We show that the interplay between information asymmetry and outside options is a source of delay in bargaining. In the seller-optimal bargaining mechanism, the seller and the buyer delay in reaching an agreement with positive probability. A delay occurs even in the limit as the arrival rate of the outside option goes to infinity. If the seller cannot commit to the seller-optimal bargaining mechanism, the same outcome is approximately achieved in a perfect Bayesian equilibrium of the bargaining game in which the seller makes all offers.
Informed consent in clinical training – patient experiences and motives for participating

The purpose of this study was to assess patients' attitudes to and experiences of participating in the clinical training of medical students. Samples of patients (n = 582) selected at random from six different departments (gynaecology, psychiatry, internal medicine, paediatrics, urology and a health care centre with general practitioners) were interviewed by means of a questionnaire. The patients were selected from those who had consulted the actual departments in the last six months of 1995. Four hundred and forty‐one patients (76%) answered the questionnaire. Seventy‐one per cent of all patients had experience of participating; of these 41% had estimated that they had once or several times participated without being informed. Eighty per cent felt aggrieved if they were not informed. On average 88% were, in principle, positive to participating. Of those who were, in principle, negative a majority had negative experiences of participating. Elderly patients tended to accept participating more often without being informed. Almost all patients seemed to be positive to participating in the education of medical students, although a silent precondition might be that patients should be informed and given the opportunity to abstain.
Specificity of steroid hormone-induced sex determination in a turtle.

The specificity of steroid hormone-induced sex determination was investigated in the red-eared slider, Trachemys scripta, a turtle with temperature-dependent sex determination. All eggs were incubated at either a female-producing temperature (31 degrees C) or a male-producing temperature (26 degrees C) and received control or experimental treatments at stage 17-18 of embryonic development. A variety of treatments induced female sex determination at the male-producing temperature. Oestradiol-17 beta, diethylstilboestrol (DES) (an oestrogen agonist) and norethindrone (NET) (a progestin with reputed oestrogenic as well as anti-oestrogenic properties) were the most effective in inducing female sex determination. Other reputed oestrogen antagonists/partial agonists (i.e. tamoxifen, nafoxidine and clomiphene citrate) were also capable of inducing female sex determination, but to a lesser extent. A high dosage of testosterone resulted in the production of some females (7 of 15 hatchlings) whereas dihydrotestosterone had no detectable effect on sex determination. This latter finding suggests that testosterone could be acting via aromatization to oestradiol-17 beta. A few females resulted from eggs that had been treated with aromatase inhibitor, 1,4,6-androstatrien-3,17-dione (ATD) (3 of 97), the antiandrogen hydroxyflutamide (1 of 55) and progesterone (3 of 36), suggesting the possibilities of non-specific effects of these compounds when used in large dosages. Alternatively, metabolites of these compounds may be oestrogenic. Collectively, the results at the male-producing temperature are consistent with the hypothesis that steroid-induced female sex determination is mediated via an oestrogen-specific receptor. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Role of lateral hypothalamus in two aspects of attention in associative learning

Orexin (hypocretin) and melanin‐concentrating hormone (MCH) neurons are unique to the lateral hypothalamic (LH) region, but project throughout the brain. These cell groups have been implicated in a variety of functions, including reward learning, responses to stimulants, and the modulation of attention, arousal and the sleep/wakefulness cycle. Here, we examined roles for LH in two aspects of attention in associative learning shown previously to depend on intact function in major targets of orexin and MCH neurons. In experiments 1 and 2, unilateral orexin‐saporin lesions of LH impaired the acquisition of conditioned orienting responses (ORs) and bilaterally suppressed FOS expression in the amygdala central nucleus (CeA) normally observed in response to food cues that provoke conditioned ORs. Those cues also induced greater FOS expression than control cues in LH orexin neurons, but not in MCH neurons. In experiment 3, unilateral orexin‐saporin lesions of LH eliminated the cue associability enhancements normally produced by the surprising omission of an expected event. The magnitude of that impairment was positively correlated with the amount of LH damage and with the loss of orexin neurons in particular, but not with the loss of MCH neurons. We suggest that the effects of the LH orexin‐saporin lesions were mediated by their effect on information processing in the CeA, known to be critical to both behavioral phenomena examined here. The results imply close relations between LH motivational amplification functions and attention, and may inform our understanding of disorders in which motivational and attentional impairments co‐occur.
Malawi Engaging the Private Sector in Education: SABER Country Report 2015

3. Empowering All Parents, Students, and Communities Examination results are published in terms of pass and fail percentages. There is no systematic way of reviewing the whole school such as school report cards. Parents and students participate in focus groups as part of the inspection process. The government does not provide tax subsidies or cash transfers to parents for their child to attend private independent schools.
Predicting the intention to quit smoking and quitting behaviour: extending the theory of planned behaviour.

OBJECTIVES The present study examined the ability of the TPB to predict the intention to quit smoking and quitting behaviour. In addition, the predictive power of future orientation, number of cigarettes smoked, planning, past behaviour and the interactions between intention and other predictors was examined. MATERIAL AND METHODS The data were derived from a longitudinal survey among 103 daily smoking students at the University of Oslo (mean age 24.6 years, mean number of years of smoking = 8 years). These data were collected by means of self-administered questionnaires at T1 (October 2003) and at T2 (February 2004) in terms of recording actual quitting. RESULTS The TPB components accounted for 30% of the variance in quitting intentions, and affective attitude and descriptive norm emerged as the strongest predictors of quitting intention. Ordinal regression analysis showed that intention was a borderline significant predictor of subsequent quitting behaviour, while the impact of PBC was non-significant (model 1). The inclusion of the additional variables improved the fit of the model, with number of cigarettes and planning appearing as significant predictors of behaviour (model 2). As predicted, there was a significant interaction between perceived control and intentions on quitting (model 3). Nagelkerke R(2) increased from . 07 in model 1 to . 54 in model 2, and finally to . 58 in model 3. CONCLUSIONS The results indicate that affective attitude and descriptive norm play a more crucial role than the other TPB predictors in motivating smokers to quit. The results also indicate that self-regulatory strategies are important in relation to addictive behaviours.
Teaching What We Know: Describing and Challenging the Neglect of Management Science Methods in MPA Programs

Abstract This paper examines typical patterns of instruction in quantitative methods in master of public administration programs. Based on a large-scale survey, it finds a strong preference for social statistics methods over management science ones. Instructors’ training and experience, lack of familiarity with management science methods, and the accommodation of competing programmatic goals may help explain the difference in emphasis. Management science methods are suitable aids for administrative decisions, including ones based on little data or subjective judgment, and ones that must be made quickly. Consequently, the 78 percent of instructors who want their students to “gain skills useful for day-to-day administrative decision making” may find management science methods to be a valuable complement to conventional social statistics.
Developmental Regulation of Tyrosine Phosphorylation of the NR2D NMDA Glutamate Receptor Subunit in Rat Central Nervous System

Abstract: A subunit‐specific antibody against the N‐methyl‐d‐aspartate (NMDA) receptor NR2D protein along with an antiphosphotyrosine antibody were employed to examine the developmental profile of the tyrosine phosphorylation of NR2D and its regulation by a protein phosphatase inhibitor in rat brain. NMDA receptor proteins from the thalamus at postnatal days 1, 7, 21, and 49 were solubilized under denaturing conditions and used in immunoprecipitations with these antibodies followed by quantitative immunoblot analysis of NR2D protein in the resulting immunopellets. The results indicate that the NR2D subunit is tyrosine phosphorylated in the brain. The quantified data examining the developmental profile of tyrosine phosphorylation of NR2D in the thalamus show that the level of tyrosine phosphorylation of NR2D protein increases five‐ to sixfold during development. In addition, the protein phosphatase inhibitor pervanadate (vanadyl hydroperoxide) was found to increase tyrosine phosphorylation of NR2D subunit threefold in brain slices, implying an active cycle of phosphorylation and dephosphorylation in situ. These studies demonstrate developmentally regulated tyrosine phosphorylation of NR2D protein in vivo, suggesting that tyrosine phosphorylation may be important for regulating the functions of this NMDA receptor subunit in the mammalian central nervous system.
Phosphorylated Human Lectin Galectin‐3: Analysis of Ligand Binding by Histochemical Monitoring of Normal/Malignant Squamous Epithelia and by Isothermal Titration Calorimetry

The human lectin galectin‐3 is a multifunctional effector with special functions in regulation of adhesion and apoptosis. Its unique trimodular organization includes the 12‐residue N‐terminal sequence, a substrate for protein kinase CK1‐dependent phosphorylation. As a step towards elucidating its significance, we prepared phosphorylated galectin‐3, labelled it and used it as a tool in histochemistry. We monitored normal and malignant squamous epithelia. Binding was suprabasal with obvious positive correlation to the degree of differentiation and negative correlation to proliferation. The staining pattern resembled that obtained with the unmodified lectin. Basal cell carcinomas were invariably negative. The epidermal positivity profile was akin to distribution of the desmosomal protein desmoglein, as also seen with keratinocytes in vitro. In all cases, binding was inhibitable by the presence of lactose, prompting further investigation of the activity of the lectin site by a sensitive biochemical method, i.e. isothermal titration calorimetry. The overall affinity and the individual enthalpic and entropic contributions were determined. No effect of phosphorylation was revealed. This strategic combination of histo‐ and biochemical techniques applied to an endogenous effector after its processing by a protein kinase thus enabled a detailed monitoring of the binding properties of the post‐translationally modified lectin. It underscores the value of using endogenous lectins as a histochemical tool. The documented approach has merit for applications beyond lectinology.
Supervised Agricultural Experience Programs: An Examination of Committed Teachers and Student-Centered Programs.

SAE programs were designed as an integral component in SBAE. However, participation has continued to decline. This qualitative study examined exemplary SAE programs in rural SBAE to discover factors that were working in SAE development and implementation. Through focus groups, individual and informal interviews, and observations, two themes that include 11 factors emerged from the data. This study found the agriculture teacher was the most important program partner in the development of an SAE program. Further, student learning must occur to ensure students continue to engage in an SAE program. The researchers recommended agriculture teachers utilize instructional time for the establishment, maintenance, and showcase of student SAE programs.
Analysis of yellow fever vaccination practice in England.

BACKGROUND Prior to initiation of a program of registration, training, standards, and audit for yellow fever vaccination centers (YFVCs) in England, the National Travel Health Network and Centre (NaTHNaC) assessed the current practice and resource needs of these centers. METHODS A questionnaire was sent to all YFVCs on the English Department of Health (DH) database in November 2004. It surveyed type of practice, administration of travel vaccines, training and duties of staff, vaccine storage and record keeping, access to travel health information, and resource and training needs. RESULTS The questionnaire was completed by 69% (2,933 of 4,242) of YFVCs on the DH database. Nearly all (94%) YFVCs were part of general practice; centers were widely distributed throughout England. A median number of 35 doses of yellow fever vaccine (YFV) were given every year, with 75% of centers giving less than one dose per week. Nurses administered YFV more frequently than physicians (96% of nurses vs 49% of physicians, p < 0.0001). More nurses in YFVCs had received travel health training compared with physicians (95% vs 57%, p < 0.0001). Study days run by pharmaceutical companies were the most frequent source of training. Most YFVCs properly refrigerated vaccine and maintained vaccination records. Of the centers that reported using Internet resources for every patient, the Travax (Health Protection Scotland) (64%) and DH (England) (48%) Web sites were most frequently accessed. YFVCs cited training opportunities, information for travelers, and specific travel medicine advice as resources that would be most helpful to them. CONCLUSIONS The NaTHNaC program of registration, training, standards, and audit should help to meet important needs in practice settings and contribute to an improvement in travel health.
Surviving the innovation paradox. The case of megaproject X.

In this paper a European case study, called Mega Project X (MPX) is presented. It describes one of the major innovative transport infrastructural projects, which was developed in the Netherlands during the last decennium. The focus is on the internal competing values, tensions and contradictions within the organizational living environments of the project organization, which follows from a so called ‘innovation paradox’. The case is an example of the popular separation approach to handle this innovation paradox and learns us about the potential internal and external weaknesses which may result from this strategy of public sector innovation.
High Glucose Concentrations Induce Oxidative Damage to Mitochondrial DNA in Explanted Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells

Oxidative stress is considered to be one of the mechanisms leading to atherosclerosis. It occurs in response to injury or to altered metabolic state. Alterations in cell growth (proliferation or apoptosis) can also contribute to the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and is influenced by oxidative stress. Smooth muscle cells (SMC) from aortic explants of JCR:LA-cp homozygous cp/cp corpulent rats who are genetically predisposed to develop atherosclerosis exhibit increased SMC proliferation, which can be attenuated by exercise and food restriction. This study was conducted to characterize the effects fo oxidative stress and high glucose media on cell growth and its relationship to mitochondrial DNA integrity and gene expression in explanted aortic SMC from corpulent and lean JCR:LA-cp rats. The results show that SMC from the cp/cp rat appear to be resistant to oxidant-induced cell death and that they accumulate mitochondrial DNA mutations, probably as a result of a reduction in apoptosis. These data suggest that susceptibility to age- and glucose-related atherosclerosis may be related to alterations in redox signaling.
Health help seeking behaviour and health care services utilisation of Bruneian men : a grounded theory study

ABSTRACT Despite the growth in research on masculinities and health help seeking behaviour we have little idea of how gender and ethnicity intersect to inform health help seeking behaviour among men in multi-ethnic cultures. This paper presents findings from a PhD research project investigating how being a man in Brunei Darussalam, a country with a strong religious and diverse cultural society; influences men’s perceptions of and attitudes towards their health and health help seeking behaviour. Using Grounded Theory, this thesis reports a study that utilised semi structured interviews and focus group discussions with a total of 47 men and women from diverse ethnic backgrounds in Brunei Darussalam. Three key themes emerged from the analysis of interviews with men: 1) The physicality of health and its importance to masculinity; 2) “Ikhtiar” as a way of ‘doing masculinity’ in the context of experiences of ill-health; and 3) masculinity and legitimation of health help seeking. A core concept found in this study relates to the process by which men operate and re-negotiate their masculinity in relation to their engagement with health care services, particularly when their ability to perform masculine responsibilities are potentially jeopardised by ill-health. Themes emerging from interviews with women focused on the relationship between wives and husbands, and daughters and fathers, and the way caring responsibilities reinforced bonds within the family. Women saw men’s reluctance to use healthcare as ‘normal for men’, while men acknowledged that pressure from wives was a factor in their decision to seek help. This study contributes to the development of knowledge about masculinities and health in a geographical region where to date there has been no empirical research, despite the existence of epidemiological evidence indicating that men’s health needs are serious and appear to be unmet.