Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The ORlistat and CArdiovascular risk profile in patients with metabolic syndrome and type 2 DIAbetes (ORliCARDIA) study

SUMMARY Background: Metabolic syndrome (MetSyn) is associated with a marked increase in the risk of cardiovascular disease, especially in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM). Aim: To investigate the effect of orlistat plus hypocaloric diet (HCD) vs HCD alone on the cardiovascular risk profile in patients with both MetSyn (National Cholesterol Educational Program – NCEP – Adult Treatment Panel III definition) and type 2 DM. Methods: This was a prospective, multicentre, open-label, randomized, controlled study. One hundred and twenty-six patients, free of cardiovascular disease at baseline, were included in the final analysis. Ninety-four (73%) patients were treated with orlistat (360 mg/day) and HCD for a 6-month period, while 34 (27%) were on HCD alone. Analysis of covariance was used to assess differences between the treatment groups over time. Main outcome measures: Components of the MetSyn criteria assessed were: waist circumference; systolic and diastolic blood pressure; fasting glucose, triglycerides; high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) plus body mass index; glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1C); homeostasis model for assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA) index; and total and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C). Results: By protocol, all patients had MetSyn at baseline. After a 6 month treatment period there were significant differences between the orlistat plus HCD vs the HCD-alone groups in body weight ( p = 0.0001), waist circumference ( p < 0.0001), fasting glucose ( p < 0.0001), HbA1C ( p < 0.0001), systolic blood pressure ( p = 0.024), total cholesterol ( p < 0.0001), LDL-C ( p = 0.034), and HOMA index ( p = 0.022), while there were no significant differences in triglycerides and HDL-C. Orlistat was well tolerated. By the end of the study, 65% of the patients on orlistat plus HCD were still meeting the MetSyn criteria and 41% had four to five MetSyn components vs 91% ( p < 0.0001) and 53% ( p = 0.017), respectively, of those on HCD alone. Conclusions: Orlistat plus HCD favourably modified several cardiovascular risk factors in patients with both MetSyn and type 2 DM. These effects might partly offset the excess cardiovascular risk and improve outcome in this patient population.
Property Rights Formation and the Organization of Exchange and Production in Rural China

Most exchange of farm land in rural china is conducted by local governments rather than by decentralized land markets. We investigate the forces determining the reallocation behavior of village governments, and hence the formation of the right "security of tenure". We also examine the relationship between administrative reallocations and market reallocation. Thes amounts to an examination of the choice between centralized and decentralized organization of agricultural production.
Relation between DNA damage measured by comet assay and OGG1 Ser326Cys polymorphism in antineoplastic drugs biomonitoring

Abstract Antineoplastic drugs are hazardous chemical agents used mostly in the treatment of patients with cancer, however health professionals that handle and administer these drugs can become exposed and develop DNA damage. Comet assay is a standard method for assessing DNA damage in human biomonitoring and, combined with formamidopyrimidine DNA glycosylase (FPG) enzyme, it specifically detects DNA oxidative damage. The aim of this study was to investigate genotoxic effects in workers occupationally exposed to cytostatics (n = 46), as compared to a control group with no exposure (n = 46) at two Portuguese hospitals, by means of the alkaline comet assay. The potential of the OGG1 Ser326Cys polymorphism as a susceptibility biomarker was also investigated. Exposure was evaluated by investigating the contamination of surfaces and genotoxic assessment was done by alkaline comet assay in peripheral blood lymphocytes. OGG1 Ser326Cys (rs1052133) polymorphism was studied by Real Time PCR. As for exposure assessment, there were 121 (37%) positive samples out of a total of 327 samples analysed from both hospitals. No statistically significant differences (Mann-Whitney test, p > 0.05) were found between subjects with and without exposure, regarding DNA damage and oxidative DNA damage, nevertheless the exposed group exhibited higher values. Moreover, there was no consistent trend regarding the variation of both biomarkers as assessed by comet assay with OGG1 polymorphism. Our study was not statistically significant regarding occupational exposure to antineoplastic drugs and genetic damage assessed by comet assay. However, health professionals should be monitored for risk behaviour, in order to ensure that safety measures are applied and protection devices are used correctly.
Systems and Software Quality: The next step for industrialisation

Software and systems quality is playing an increasingly important role in the growth of almost all profit and non-profit organisations. Quality is vital to the success of enterprises in their markets. Most small trade and repair businesses use software systems in their administration and marketing processes. Every doctors surgery is managing its patients using software. Banking is no longer conceivable without software. Aircraft, trucks and cars use more and more software to handle their increasingly complex technical systems. Innovation, competition and cost pressure are always present in on-going business decisions. The question facing all these organisations is how to achieve the right quality of their software-based systems and products; how to get the required level of quality, a level that the market will reward, a level that mitigates the organisations risks, and a level that the organisation is willing to pay for. Although a number of good practices are in place, there is still room for huge improvements. Thus, let us take a look into the two worlds of Embedded systems and ICT systems and let us learn from both worlds, from overlaps and individual solutions. The next step for industrialisation in the software industry is required now. Hence, three pillars will be focused in this book: (1) a fundamental notion of right software and systems quality (RiSSQ); (2) portfolio management, quality governance, quality management, and quality engineering as holistic approach over the three layers of an enterprise, i.e. strategic, tactical, and operational layer; and (3) an industrialisation framework for implementing our approach.
The analysis of airline business models in the development of possible future business options

Innovations in the current interconnected world of organizations have lead to a focus on business models as a fundamental statement of direction and identity. Although industry transformations generally emanate from technological changes, recent examples suggest they may also be due to the introduction of new business models. In the past, different types of airline business models could be clearly separated from each other. However, this has changed in recent years partly due to the concentration process and partly to reaction caused by competitive pressure. At least it can be concluded that in future the distinction of different business models will remain less clear. To advance the use of business models as a concept, it is essential to be able to compare and perform analyses to identify the business models that may have the highest potential. This can essentially contribute to understanding the synergies and incompatibilities in the case of two airlines that are going in for a merger. This is illustrated by the example of Swiss Air-Lufthansa merger analysis.The idea is to develop quantitative methods and tools for comparing and analyzing Aeronautical/Airline business models. The paper identifies available methods of comparing airline business models and lays the ground work for a quantitative model of comparing airline business models. This can be a useful tool for business model analysis when two airlines are merged.
pigs . against Bacillus anthracis infection in guinea Passive protection by polyclonal antibodies

s of the 93rd General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology 1993. American Society for Microbiology, Washington, D.C. 13. Ivins, B. E. , P. F. Fellows, and G. O. Nelson. 1994. Efficacy of a standard human anthrax vaccine against Bacillus anthracis spore challenge in guineapigs. Vaccine 12:872–874. 14. Klein, F. , D. R. Hodges, B. G. Mahlandt, W. I. Jones, B. W. Haines, and R. E. Lincoln. 1962. Anthrax toxin: causative agent in the death of rhesus monkeys. Science 138:1331–1333. 15. Klimpel, K. R. , N. Arora, and S. H. Leppla. 1994. Anthrax toxin lethal factor contains a zinc metalloprotease consensus sequence which is required for lethal toxin activity. Mol. Microbiol. 13:1093–1100. 16. Kochi, S. K. , G. Schiavo, M. Mock, and C. Montecucco. 1994. Zinc content of the Bacillus anthracis lethal factor. FEMS Microbiol. Lett. 124:343–348. 17. Leppla, S. H. 1982. Anthrax toxin edema factor: a bacterial adenylate cyclase that increases cyclic AMP concentrations of eukaryotic cells. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 79:3162–3166. 18. Leppla, S. H. 1991. The anthrax toxin complex, p. 277–302. In J. E. Alouf and J. H. Freer (ed.), Sourcebook of bacterial protein toxins. Academic Press,
Evaluation of decision rules for referring women for bone densitometry by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry.

CONTEXT Identification of women with low bone mineral density (BMD) is an important strategy in reducing the incidence of osteoporotic fractures. However, screening all women is not recommended. OBJECTIVES To assess the diagnostic properties of 4 decision rules--Simple Calculated Osteoporosis Risk Estimation (SCORE), Osteoporosis Risk Assessment Instrument (ORAI), Age, Body Size, No Estrogen (ABONE), and body weight less than 70 kg (weight criterion)--for selecting women for dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) testing and to compare results with recommendations made in the National Osteoporosis Foundation (NOF) practice guidelines. DESIGN AND SETTING Analysis of data from the Canadian Multicentre Osteoporosis Study, a population-based community sample, collected from 9 study centers across Canada between February 1996 and September 1997. PARTICIPANTS Postmenopausal women aged 45 years or older (N = 2365) without bone disease who had DXA data for the femoral neck, data to apply selection criteria, and who were not currently taking estrogens or who had been taking hormone replacement therapy for 5 or more years. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Sensitivity, specificity, and area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) curve of each of the 4 decision rules and the NOF guidelines for identifying women with a BMD T score of less than -1.0 SD, less than -2.0 SD, and no more than -2.5 SD at the femoral neck, and percentages of women recommended for testing, stratified by BMD level and age. RESULTS The percent of women with a BMD T score less than -1, less than -2, and no more than -2.5 were 68.3%, 25.4%, and 10.0%, respectively. The AUROC curves were greatest using SCORE and ORAI. The sensitivity for identifying women with a BMD T score of less than -2.0 was 93.7% (95% confidence interval [CI], 91.8%-95.6%) using the NOF guidelines and was 97.5% (95% CI, 96.3%-98.8%), 94.2% (95% CI, 92.3%-96.1%), 79.1% (95% CI, 75.9%-82.3%), and 79.6% (95% CI, 76.4%-82.8%), respectively, using the SCORE, ORAI, ABONE, and weight criterion. However, the NOF guidelines also resulted in 74.4% (95% CI, 71.3%-77.6%) of women with a normal BMD (T score of -1.0 or higher) being tested compared with 69.2% (95% CI, 65.9%-72.5%), 56.3% (95% CI, 52.7%-59.8%), 35.8% (95% CI, 32.4%-39.2%), and 38.1% (95% CI, 34.6%-41.6%), respectively, using the 4 decision rules. Assessments suggest that ABONE and weight criterion are not useful case-finding approaches. CONCLUSION The SCORE and ORAI decision rules are better than the NOF guidelines at targeting BMD testing in high-risk patients. The acceptability of these rules in clinical practice merits further investigation given their potential effect on the use of densitometry services.
Exacerbation of Subclinical Myasthenia By Occupational Exposure to an Anesthetic

o PREVIOUS reference to exacerbation of N subclinical myasthenia gravis by occupational exposure to an anesthetic vapor with a curariform action has been found in the literature. Accordingly, we report the case of a nurse anesthetist in whom this phenomenon has apparently occurred, associated with the administration of methoxyflurane, a halogenated ethyl methyl ether with a muscle-relaxing capability less pronounced' than the well-known curarixnimetric action of diethyl ether.2 Methoxyflurane has been in use since 1961. It is surprising that such exacerbation has not been reported for diethyl ether, considering its widespread use for a century and a quarter.
Obstruction of the small intestine.

Obstruction of the small intestine comprises about 20% of all acute surgical admissions and is one of the most common surgical emergencies. Approximately 9,000 people die annually in the United States of bowel obstruction. 9 In the past four decades the mortality has progressively and markedly fallen. In the early part of the century mortalities of 30% to 50% were not uncommon. 1-3 More recent reports indicate that the rate has fallen to 15% and lower. 4-6 In the series under consideration a mortality of 4.6% was found. Factors responsible for this decrease in the mortality include better understanding of fluid and electrolyte disorders and their treatment; intelligent use of nasogastric and intestinal intubation; and the use of antibiotics. The importance of early diagnosis and treatment has been stressed for many years and all series show a marked increase in mortality associated with delay in treatment and particularly with the
Model predictive control for reduced structure multilevel converters in compact power conversion units

Recently, a branch of multilevel converters is emerged, in which their ‘reduced structure’ topologies use lower number of devices compared to the available topologies. To get a cost efficient converter, lower number of components as well as high quality waveforms, multilevel converters with a ‘reduced structure’ (MCRS) are suitable for low and compact power conversion units such as airplanes, military equipment, locomotives, and satellites. This paper proposes a model predictive control (MPC) for current regulation and DC-link capacitor voltage balancing for the MCRS, where the case study is a three-phase thirteen level packed U-cell (PUC) multilevel converter. The PUC, as a MCRS, can be formed by manipulating either a conventional capacitor-clamped or the cascaded H-bridge multilevel topologies. A discrete-time model of the system is derived and a predictive model-based control is developed according to this model in order to predict the future behavior of the system for all possible switching states; then, one switching state is singled out for the converter that minimizes the introduced cost function. Performance of the proposed MPC strategy for a three-phase thirteen level PUC is evaluated based on simulations with SIMULINK. While predictive control gets involved in huge calculations, simulation assessments confirm the ability of the proposed control scheme.
Qualified Audit Opinions and Auditor Switching

This study focuses on the influence of qualified opinions on auditor switches. Results from a random sample of SEC-registrants support the contention that firms switch auditors more frequently after receiving qualified opinions. However, it was not found that firms that have received qualified opinions switch systematically to audit firms with a history of rendering proportionally fewer qualified opinions. Also, limited results suggest that qualified firms which switch auditors do not tend subsequently to receive more clean opinions.
The relationship between brand perceptions and brand satisfaction on skin care products

Chapter 1 focuses on research problem, questions and objectives as well as significance of the study. This research project aims to study about the relationship between brand perceptions and brand satisfaction on skin care products. The explicit details of brand perceptions and brand satisfaction on skin care products will be discussed on research background. This research that has been conducted consists of four types of variables which are brand perception on quality, brand perception on promotion, brand perception on image, and brand perception on preference.
Characterization of Loosely Associated Material from the Cell Surface of Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris E8 and Its Phage-Resistant Variant Strain 398

Loosely associated material (LAM) was isolated by gentle extraction procedures from the cell surface of Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris E8 and its phage-resistant variant strain 398. LAM from both strains was chemically characterized, and its role in the adsorption of three small isometric bacteriophages, φ 618, φ 833, and φ 852, to the cell surface of the two strains was investigated. The phage-resistant strain (strain 398) produced LAM which differed significantly from the material produced by the parent strain. The total yield of LAM from strain 398 was two- to threefold higher than that from strain E8, and the material contained fivefold more rhamnose and twofold more galactose. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoretic analysis showed that LAM from strain 398 lacked a 21-kDa protein which was present in LAM from the parent strain. Inhibition studies of phage binding by using isolated LAM from two strains showed that although LAM from strain E8 reduced the titer of φ 618 and φ 852 by 53 and 82% respectively, LAM from strain 398 had no effect on the plaque-forming ability of any of the three phages tested. Treatment of LAM from strain E8 with sodium metaperiodate destroyed its ability to bind with φ 618 and φ 852. Phenotypically, strain 398 differed from its parent strain E8 in that it was more prone to cell lysis and required an osmotically adjusted buffer system for the extraction of LAM.
X-ray-based medical imaging and resolution.

What Is Resolution? Blur and Sharpness Most radiologists have an intuitive sense of what constitutes poor resolution and can easily recognize a blurred image. Resolution, however, is sometimes taken to mean the ability to see objects so that when lesions are seen, then the resolution must be good. Such statements are incorrect, as illustrated by considering a single-cell molecule labeled with a radionuclide and imaged with a PET system. The activity will be seen, but the blur associated with this point source will be several millimeters, resulting in a blurry image with poor resolution. This example can be expanded to illustrate what imaging scientists mean regarding spatial resolution performance. For two nearby cells with radioactively labeled DNA in their nuclei, a system that can resolve these two entities would show two hot spots as distinct entities (Fig. 1, upper panel). A PET system would show only one very large blurred object, and the activity in cell one would not be resolved from the activity depicted in the nearby cell two (Fig. 1, lower panel). A system with good resolution permits the detection (and characterization) of two small features, such as microcalcifications in mammograms, even when they are physically close to each other. There are several terms used to describe spatial resolution in imaging. Blur and sharpness are good descriptors that are universally understood, and they simply mean that a sharp edge will also appear as sharp (not blurred) in an image obtained with a system X-Ray-Based Medical Imaging and Resolution
On the Popularity of and a Comparison of Convertible Preferred and Participating Preferred Equities in Venture Financing

In this paper, we focus on two unique information/incentive problems in venture financing: the difficulty of screening out bad ventures before they are funded and venture capitalists' effort problem in helping new ventures to succeed. Five commonly used financing methods are analyzed in terms of their effectiveness in dealing with these two problems. We show that convertible preferred and participating preferred equities generally dominate any combination of preferred and common equities. That is because their optional and automatic (forced) conversion features essentially make contracts contingent on the quality (type) of ventures and allows them to solve the two problems simultaneously. When the venture is bad, these two securities retain liquidation preferences and extract much of the liquidation value. When the venture is good, they are converted into common equity. The optional conversion feature provides venture capitalists with incentives and the automatic (forced) conversion feature gives the key employees of good ventures needed compensation. Unlike most theories in the literature, we also compare the use of convertible preferred and participating preferred. We predict that participating preferred will be used when the liquidation value of the bad venture is relatively high.
Religion as a determinant of marital stability

Using data from the 1987–1988 National Survey of Families and Households, this paper studies the role of the religious composition of unions as a determinant of marital stability. With the exceptions of Mormons and individuals with no religious identification, stability is found to be remarkably similar across the various types of homogamous unions. Consistent with the notion that religion is a complementary marital trait, interfaith unions have generally higher rates of dissolution than intrafaith unions. The destabilizing effect of out-marriage varies inversely with the similarity in beliefs and practices of the two religions as well as with the mutual tolerance embodied in their respective doctrines. The results also suggest that religious compatibility between spouses at the time of marriage has a large influence on marital stability, rivaling in magnitude that of age at marriage and, at least for Protestants and Catholics, dominating any adverse effects of differences in religious background.
The Effect of the Internet on the Travel Industry.

The aim of this dissertation was to exemplify whether or not the Internet has depicted a leading role in the disintermediation of travel agencies, as well as to reveal its overall impact on the travel industry itself. The author used secondary data in order to; firstly to obtain a background on the Internet, its development and its many resources as well as become aware of its impact on the travel industry. Secondary data was also employed to gain auxiliary knowledge on the strategies, objectives and benefits of disintermediation. Finally, to establish how the travel industry on the Internet compares to the conventional bricks and mortar travel agencies. The author availed of primary data through the use of surveys to procure the opinions of both travel agents and their clients in Ireland. The results gathered from these surveys show the awareness of both of these sectors to the medium of the Internet as both a marketing tool and a purchasing method for travel services. The results also show both the positive and negative effects of the Internet on the conventional travel agency and whether or not it is a threat or an advantage to the industry as a whole.