Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prevalence of renovascular disease in the elderly: a population-based study.

PURPOSE The purpose of this investigation was to estimate the population-based prevalence of renovascular disease (RVD), defined as > or = 60% diameter-reducing renal artery stenosis or occlusion, and to define its associations with age, gender, race, and other potential risk factors among participants in the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS). METHODS The CHS is a multicenter, longitudinal cohort study of cardiovascular disease risk factors, morbidity, and mortality among free-living adults of more than 65 years of age. As part of an ancillary investigation, participants in the Forsyth County cohort of the CHS were invited to undergo renal duplex sonography (RDS) to define the presence or absence of RVD. RVD was defined as stenosis with a focal renal artery peak systolic velocity exceeding 1.8 m/s in the main renal artery and defined as occlusion when an imaged renal artery lacked a Doppler signal. Demographic and atherosclerotic risk factor data were gathered as part of the baseline CHS examination. Univariable tests of association were performed with chi(2) and Student t tests and logistic regression analysis. Multivariate associations were examined with logistic regression analysis. RESULTS Eight hundred seventy CHS participants underwent RDS. Of these examinations, 834 (96%) were technically adequate to define the presence or absence of RVD. The RDS study cohort had a mean age of 77.2 +/- 4.9 years and consisted of 63% women and 37% men. Participant race was 76% white and 23% African American. The overall prevalence rate of RVD was 6.8%. Among the 57 patients with RVD, 50 (88%) had unilateral disease and seven (12%) had bilateral disease. Seven cases were seen of renal artery occlusion, including one case with contralateral renal artery stenosis. The mean ages of patients with and without RVD were 78.7 +/- 5.7 years and 77.1 +/- 4.9 years (P =.018). RVD was present in 5.5% of women and 9.1% of men (P =.053). RVD was present in 6.9% of white participants and 6.7% of African American participants (P =.933). Multivariate analysis revealed increasing participant age (P =.028; odds ratio, 1.34; 95% CI, 1.03, 1.73), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels of less than 40 mg/dL (P =.003; odds ratio, 2.63; 95% CI, 1.40, 4.93), and increasing systolic blood pressure (P =.007; odds ratio, 1.44; 95% CI, 1.10, 1.87) to be significantly and independently associated with the presence of RVD. CONCLUSION This investigation provides the first population-based estimate of the prevalence of RVD among free-living, elderly black and white Americans. RVD was present in 6.8% of the study cohort. RVD showed no association with ethnicity. However, its presence was significantly and independently associated with increasing age, low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, and increasing systolic blood pressure.
CROATIAN PARTICIPATION IN GLOBAL VALUE CHAIN OR THE CHARACTERISTICS OF CROATIAN VALUE-ADDED TRADE

Istraživanje je usmjereno segmentu globalnih lanaca vrijednosti koji nastaju i sire se zbog liberalizacija trgovine, sve vecih međunarodnih kretanja kapitala, razvoja tehnologije, integracijskih procesa. Proizvodnja postaje fragmentirana te u proizvodnom procesu (od pocetka proizvodnje do izlaska finalnog proizvoda na tržiste) sudjeluje vise proizvođaca iz razlicitih zemalja. Javlja se potreba mjerenja trgovine dodanom vrijednoscu radi realnog sagledavanja stvarnog doprinosa pojedinih zemalja izvozu. Cilj rada je istražiti obilježja i pokazatelje sudjelovanja Republike Hrvatske u GVC-ijima na razini ukupnog gospodarstva i na razini industrijskih sektora. Analizom je utvrđeno da Hrvatska ostvaruje losije rezultate od ostalih zemalja clanica Europske unije, s visokim udjelom domace dodane vrijednosti u ukupnom izvozu. Po indeksu GVC sudjelovanja Hrvatska nije doživjela znacajne promjene u razdoblju 1995. -2011. godine, te se u GVC poziciji nalazi u negativnom dijelu sto znaci da prevladava tzv. backward sudjelovanje (veci uvoz intermedijarnih proizvoda u odnosu na izvoz). Hrvatskom izvozu najvise doprinose sektori: kemijski proizvodi, elektricna i opticka oprema te transportna oprema, a najveci indeks GVC sudjelovanja imaju sektori kemijski proizvodi i transporna oprema. Prema podrijetlu dodane vrijednosti u izvozu i finalnoj potrosnji, izuzev domace dodane vrijednosti, dominira dodana vrijednost iz zemalja clanica EU-a, gdje se isticu Njemacka, Italija i Slovenija cime se potvrđuje sudjelovanje Hrvatske u regionalnom GVC-u.
Reliable Fault Diagnosis for Low-Speed Bearings Using Individually Trained Support Vector Machines With Kernel Discriminative Feature Analysis

This paper proposes a highly reliable fault diagnosis approach for low-speed bearings. The proposed approach first extracts wavelet-based fault features that represent diverse symptoms of multiple low-speed bearing defects. The most useful fault features for diagnosis are then selected by utilizing a genetic algorithm (GA)-based kernel discriminative feature analysis cooperating with one-against-all multicategory support vector machines (OAA MCSVMs). Finally, each support vector machine is individually trained with its own feature vector that includes the most discriminative fault features, offering the highest classification performance. In this study, the effectiveness of the proposed GA-based kernel discriminative feature analysis and the classification ability of individually trained OAA MCSVMs are addressed in terms of average classification accuracy. In addition, the proposed GA-based kernel discriminative feature analysis is compared with four other state-of-the-art feature analysis approaches. Experimental results indicate that the proposed approach is superior to other feature analysis methodologies, yielding an average classification accuracy of 98.06% and 94.49% under rotational speeds of 50 revolutions-per-minute (RPM) and 80 RPM, respectively. Furthermore, the individually trained MCSVMs with their own optimal fault features based on the proposed GA-based kernel discriminative feature analysis outperform the standard OAA MCSVMs, showing an average accuracy of 98.66% and 95.01% for bearings under rotational speeds of 50 RPM and 80 RPM, respectively.
[Effects of mifepristone on gene expression of epidermal growth factor in human uterine leiomyoma].

OBJECTIVES To study the effects of mifepristone on epidermal growth factor gene expression in human uterine leiomyoma. METHODS 20 patients with leiomyoma were divided into two groups. One was control group who underwent hysterectomy because of leiomyoma, the other was experimental group who underwent hysterectomy after pretreatment with mifepristone 10 mg/daily for 3 months. Epidermal growth factor (EGF) mRNA was semiquantified in samples of leiomyoma and adjacent normal myometrium from patients untreated in different phases of menostrual cycle and from those treated with mifepristone. Semiquantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, using beta-actin as internal standard, was applied to determine levels of EGF mRNA. RESULTS Leiomyoma untreated with mifepristone had significantly greater amounts of EGF mRNA than adjacent normal myometrium of uterus only in the luteal phase, but not in the follicular phase of cycle. Similarly, leiomyoma untreated with mifepristone also had significantly larger amount of EGF mRNA than treated leiomyoma in the luteal phase of the cycle, whereas, no difference in the follicular phase of the cycle. CONCLUSION These findings suggested that: (1) EGF mRNA levels in leiomyoma were increased only in the luteal phase, therefore, maybe mainly controlled by progesterone; (2) mifepristone inhibited EGF gene expression in leiomyoma. This may be one of regression mechanism of uterine leiomyoma in response to the antiprogesterone mifepristone.
Antibacterial resistance patterns and incidence of hospital-acquired Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia in a tertiary care educational hospital in Turkey: a perspective from 2001 to 2013

Background/aim: Staphylococcus aureus is an important nosocomial pathogen and a successful antimicrobial-resistance developer. In this study we retrospectively evaluated the resistance patterns and incidence of microbiologically confirmed nosocomial bacteremia (MCNB) related S. aureus strains between 2001 and 2013. Materials and methods: Any patient in whom S. aureus was isolated in at least one set of blood cultures (sent to the bacteriology laboratory 72 h after hospital admission) was considered to have MCNB. Results: The methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) rate in 2001 was 73.8% whereas it was 36.2% in 2013. When the 2001-2003 and 2011? 2013 periods were compared, resistance to oxacillin, levofloxacin, gentamicin, erythromycin, and clindamycin decreased significantly (P < 0.05). When we evaluated the total S. aureus, MRSA, and methicillin-sensitive S. aureus (MSSA) bacteremia rates per 1000 days and 1000 patients, there was an increase in the 2004? 2005 period, which was followed by a slight decrease until 2013 (P < 0.05). There was a plateau in MCNB-related S. aureus rates between 2008 and 2011. Conclusion: There was a decrease in overall S. aureus and MRSA bacteremia incidence as well as MRSA rates except for a plateau between 2008 and 2011. This steady decrease in the resistance rates is most probably due to the 2003 budget application and application of antimicrobial stewardship.
The role of country governance on value-added tax and inequality

Income inequality is a growing concern for regulators because it brings adverse consequences towards social stability, institutional stability and economic performance. One of the popular ways to reduce income inequality is through the implementation of Value Added Tax (VAT) despite of many criticisms on its regressive nature. Hence, using a wide data range from 1984 to 2014, we study the impact of VAT on income inequality in both developed and developing countries. Besides, this is the fi rst study that seeks to focus on the moderating role of country governance in enhancing the effect of VAT on income inequality. We use the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) to overcome the endogeneity, autocorrelation and heteroscedasticity issues. The results suggest that the VAT reduces income inequality but the positive effect is contingent upon the existence of a set of good country governance. Countries that have higher quality of bureaucracy, greater democratic accountability, high government stability, effective law and order, low political risk and favourable socioeconomic conditions stand to benefit more from the VAT system in terms of narrowing the income inequality. Therefore, we conclude that better institutions improve the tax collection and public service delivery, which is a crucial element in achieving the economic objective of narrowing the income gap between the wealthy and the poor. This is particularly true in developing countries. Further, the governments in developing countries need to effectively manage the degree of socioeconomic pressure that could distract them from implementing social and economic policies to eradicate poverty and raise the income level of the poor segment of society. © 2018, Technical University of Liberec. All rights reserved.
Homelessness and social control: a typology

Abstract The use of ‘social control’ interventions in housing and welfare policy often courts intense controversy, and never more so than when attempts are made to bring about change in the conduct of street homeless people. To date, academic scrutiny has focused on the so-called ‘regulation’ or ‘criminalisation’ of rough sleepers occupying public space, but a range of ‘softer’ control mechanisms are also now in evidence within homelessness support services. This paper explicates the relationship between the distinct forms of social control that have been used in this field – force, coercion, bargaining, influence and tolerance – and compares the perspectives of policy makers, frontline practitioners and homeless people regarding the appropriateness of their deployment in England. It emphasizes that the use of every one of these modes of social control, and indeed the absence of such controls, raises moral and practical dilemmas, the nuance of which is often unacknowledged in academic accounts.
Incidence of tooth loss and dental caries in 60-, 70- and 80-year-old Swedish individuals.

The retention of natural teeth among the elderly is increasing and, in recent studies, dental caries has been identified as the main reason for teeth being extracted. The 5-year incidence of tooth loss and dental caries and the most crucial dental factors for tooth extraction were studied in a random sample of 60-, 70- and 80-year-old inhabitants of Gothenburg. Of the 208 persons examined at baseline, 148 (71%) participated in the follow-up examination: 69, 51 and 28 respectively in the different age groups. In all, 110 teeth had been extracted during the period in 40% of the participants. Only 9 persons had lost three or more teeth. The mean numbers of remaining teeth were 22. 18 and 15 respectively in the 60-, 70- and 80-year age groups and the mean numbers of teeth lost during the 5-year period increased with age from 0.4 in the 60-year-olds to 0.8 and 1.4 in the 70- and 80-year-olds (P < 0.05). The major reason for tooth extraction was dental caries and it was found in 60% of all cases and at a higher rate of 77% in the oldest age group. Fifty-one per cent had developed new coronal carious lesions and 61% had new root carious lesions, while 27% had not developed caries during the period. The mean 5-year increment in decayed and filled coronal surfaces increased with age from 2.3 in the 60-year-olds to 3.7 and 5.3 in the 70- and 80-year-olds (N.S.I. The increment in decayed and filled root surfaces was higher in women than men, 3.4 compared with 1.8 (N.S.), which also increased with age from 1.4 in the 60-year-olds to 2.4 and 5.5 in the 70- and 80-year-olds (P < 0.0001). It was concluded from this study that few teeth had been lost during the 5-year period but that dental caries still appeared to be a serious problem among some very elderly people.
Regional Variations in Correlation between Photopic Negative Response of Focal Electoretinograms and Ganglion Cell Complex in Glaucoma

Abstract Purpose: To determine regional variations in a structure-function relationship, we correlated the the photopic negative response (PhNR) of the focal electoretinogram (ERG) with the ganglion cell complex (GCC) thickness in different retinal regions in patients with open angle glaucoma (OAG). Methods: Fifty-one eyes of 51 OAG patients (OAG group) and 17 eyes of 17 normal volunteers (control group) were studied. The OAG patients had different degrees of glaucoma ranging from early to advanced stages. The focal ERGs were elicited by a white, 15° hemispherical stimulus placed superior or inferior to the fovea. Focal ERGs were also elicited by a half annulus placed superior or inferior to the macular region. The diameter of the inner border of the annulus was 15° and that of the outer border was 30°. The average GCC thickness in areas corresponding to the location of the stimuli was measured in SD-OCT images. Results: The PhNR amplitude and PhNR/b-wave amplitude ratio were significantly correlated with the GCC thickness in the superior and inferior hemispherical areas (p < 0.0001). These ERG parameters were weakly correlated with the GCC thickness in the superior and inferior semi-annular areas (p < 0.05). There were significant differences in the slopes of the regression lines plotting the GCC thickness and the PhNR amplitude or the PhNR/b-wave amplitude ratio between the spherical and semi-annular areas (superior: p < 0.01, inferior: p < 0.0005). Conclusions: The thinning of the GCC affects the RGC function measured by the PhNR more strongly in the central retinal area than in the surrounding retinal areas.
Spontaneous progression of ligature induced peri-implantitis at implants with different surface roughness: an experimental study in dogs.

BACKGROUND Peri-implantitis is associated with the presence of submarginal plaque, soft-tissue inflammation and advanced breakdown of the supporting bone. The progression of peri-implantitis following varying periods of continuing plaque accumulation has been studied in animal models. OBJECTIVE The aim of the current experiment was to study the progression of peri-implantitis around implants with different surface roughness. MATERIAL AND METHODS In five beagle dogs, three implants with either a sandblasted acid-etched surface (SLA) or a polished surface (P) were installed bilaterally in the edentulous premolar regions. After 3 months on a plaque control regimen, experimental peri-implantitis was induced by ligature placement and plaque accumulation was allowed to progress until about 40% of the height of the supporting bone had been lost. After this 4-month period, ligatures were removed and plaque accumulation was continued for an additional 5 months. Radiographs of all implant sites were obtained before and after 'active' experimental peri-implantitis as well as at the end of the experiment. Biopsies were harvested and the tissue samples were prepared for light microscopy. The sections were used for histometric and morphometric examinations. RESULTS The radiographic examinations indicated that similar amounts of bone loss occurred at SLA and P sites during the active breakdown period, while the progression of bone loss was larger at SLA than at polished sites following ligature removal. The histological examination revealed that both bone loss and the size of the inflammatory lesion in the connective tissue were larger in SLA than in polished implant sites. The area of plaque was also larger at implants with an SLA surface than at implants with a polished surface. CONCLUSION It is suggested that the progression of peri-implantitis, if left untreated, is more pronounced at implants with a moderately rough surface than at implants with a polished surface.
Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) and EUS-guided fine-needle aspiration (FNA) of liver lesions.

BACKGROUND Endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) is not traditionally thought to be clinically applicable in liver imaging. EUS-guided fine-needle aspiration of the liver has not been well described. METHODS A prospective study was conducted in which 574 consecutive patients with a history or suspicion of gastrointestinal or pulmonary malignant tumor undergoing upper EUS examinations underwent EUS evaluation of the liver. Fourteen (2.4%) patients were found to have focal liver lesions and underwent EUS-guided fine-needle aspiration. RESULTS The median largest diameter of the liver lesions was 1.1 cm (range 0.8 to 5.2 cm). The mean number of passes was 2.0 (range 1 to 5 passes). All fine-needle passes yielded an adequate specimen. One of the 14 patients underwent EUS-guided fine-needle aspiration of 2 liver lesions. Fourteen of the 15 liver lesions sampled by means of EUS-guided fine-needle aspiration were malignant and one was benign. Before EUS, computed tomography (CT) depicted liver lesions in only 3 of 14 (21%) patients. Seven of 14 patients had a known cancer diagnosis. For the other 7, the initial diagnosis of cancer was made by means of EUS-guided fine-needle aspiration of the liver. There were no immediate or late complications. CONCLUSIONS EUS can detect small focal liver lesions that are not detected at CT. Findings of EUS-guided fine-needle aspiration can confirm a cytologic diagnosis of liver metastasis and establish a definitive M stage that may change clinical management.
Influence of prenatal and postnatal growth on intellectual functioning in school-aged children.

OBJECTIVE To assess the relative influence of size at birth, infant growth, and late postnatal growth on intellectual functioning at 9 years of age. DESIGN A follow-up, cross-sectional study. SETTING Three districts in Khon Kaen province, northeast Thailand. PARTICIPANTS A total of 560 children, or 92% of former participants of a trial of iron and/or zinc supplementation during infancy. MAIN EXPOSURES Prenatal (size at birth), early infancy (birth to 4 months), late infancy (4 months to 1 year), and late postnatal (1 to 9 years) growth. Multiple-stage least squares analyses were used to generate uncorrelated residuals of postnatal growth. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Intellectual functioning was measured at 9 years using the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children and the Raven's Colored Progressive Matrices (Pearson). Analyses included adjustment for maternal, household, and school characteristics. RESULTS Significant relationships were found between growth and IQ (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for children, third edition, Thai version), but only up to 1 year of age; overall, growth was not related to the Raven's Colored Progressive Matrices. The strongest and most consistent relationships were with length (birth, early infancy, and late infancy); for weight, only early infancy gain was consistently related to IQ. Head circumference at birth was not collected routinely; head circumference at 4 months (but not head circumference growth thereafter) was related to IQ. Late postnatal growth was not associated with any outcome. CONCLUSION Physical growth in early infancy (and, to a lesser extent, physical growth in late infancy and at birth) is associated with IQ at 9 years of age. Early infancy may be a critical window for human development.
A High Throughput Covert Overlay Network within a MANET

We present a method of establishing an obfuscated overlay network on an existing mobile ad hoc network (MANET). This overlay network is created and operated covertly, makes use of the AODV routing protocol, and utilizes a wide-band side-channel. The side-channel is manipulated so that its traffic appears as errors to the primary network, which uses the OLSR routing protocol. Only nodes privy to the knowledge that side-channel frames have been intentionally corrupted will refrain from dropping the frames as errors and are capable of processing their content. Because the overlay network uses a different routing protocol, it frequently establishes different routes than the primary network, effectively implementing dispersity routing. We then demonstrate that the obfuscated traffic of the overlay network cannot be readily discovered despite using a powerful detection method. We introduce a detection method that assumes the existence of an 'oracle' to perform traffic analysis and extract side-channel signatures in both time and frequency domains. The oracular traffic analysis assumes a priori knowledge of all covert traffic. Using signatures produced by an oracular detector, a non-oracular observer can attempt to detect the covert-channel. To evade this form of detection, we reduce the efficacy of the signatures by a traffic shaping technique that adds random delays to the scheduled transmission time of the side-traffic. We show that the signature reduction is most effective when the delays are statistically similar to the packet arrival time of the background traffic. With our proposed traffic shaping technique we reduce the potential discovery of the overlay network.