Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Who's calling for weight loss? A systematic review of mobile phone weight loss programs for adolescents.

CONTEXT Adolescent overweight and obesity are ongoing public health concerns, and innovative weight loss interventions are needed to reach this age group. OBJECTIVE The objective of this systematic review was to assess and synthesize the literature on adolescent weight loss programs that utilize cell phones as an intervention component to reduce weight, as measured by body mass index or body mass index z-score. DATA SOURCES A systematic review of the literature, consistent with PRISMA guidelines, was undertaken using 11 databases. STUDY SELECTION Studies of weight loss interventions published in peer-reviewed journals in English during the last 10 years were eligible for inclusion if they examined an adolescent population, used validated measures for pre- and post-test weight, identified weight loss as a primary or secondary outcome, and specified use of cell phones to deliver a component of the program. DATA SYNTHESIS While within-group weight loss results were noted, no significant between-group differences were found across the majority of studies reviewed. Cell phone components were embedded within larger weight loss programs, making it difficult to determine their true effect. CONCLUSIONS Cell phone use is ubiquitous and, as such, may offer an interesting addition or alternative to current weight loss programs, particularly for adolescents who are considered digital natives. Future research in this area should be systematic in design so that the true effect of the individual components (i.e., cell phones) can be detected.
Another body project: The thin ideal, motherhood, and body dissatisfaction among Mexican women

In this article, we examine the bodily experiences of Mexican women, to investigate their acceptance of the thin ideal and resulting body dissatisfaction. We conducted semi-structured individual interviews with 30 adult participants in Mexico City. Interviewees accepted the thin body ideal, but experiencing their bodies as signifiers of motherhood protected them from body dissatisfaction. Instead of a personal body project, they engaged in a project of caring for their children’s bodies. We suggest that health campaigns directed to adult women should consider the relational aspects of their lives.
Prediction models in cancer care

Prediction is ubiquitous across the spectrum of cancer care from screening to hospice. Indeed, oncology is often primarily a prediction problem; many of the early stage cancers cause no symptoms, and treatment is recommended because of a prediction that tumor progression would ultimately threaten a patient's quality of life or survival. Recent years have seen attempts to formalize risk prediction in cancer care. In place of qualitative and implicit prediction algorithms, such as cancer stage, researchers have developed statistical prediction tools that provide a quantitative estimate of the probability of a specific event for an individual patient. Prediction models generally have greater accuracy than reliance on stage or risk groupings, can incorporate novel predictors such as genomic data, and can be used more rationally to make treatment decisions. Several prediction models are now widely used in clinical practice, including the Gail model for breast cancer incidence or the Adjuvant! Online prediction model for breast cancer recurrence. Given the burgeoning complexity of diagnostic and prognostic information, there is simply no realistic alternative to incorporating multiple variables into a single prediction model. As such, the question should not be whether but how prediction models should be used to aid decision‐making. Key issues will be integration of models into the electronic health record and more careful evaluation of models, particularly with respect to their effects on clinical outcomes. CA Cancer J Clin 2011. © 2011 American Cancer Society, Inc.
"Pigtail" catheter drainage in thoracic surgery.

Small-bore percutaneous drainage catheters have been used extensively in the management of abdominal disorders and are gaining acceptance in thoracic problems. The records have been reviewed in 44 consecutive patients in whom 53 small-bore catheters were placed for thoracic disease, including empyema, 20; effusion, 9; pneumothorax, 10; lung abscess, 4; and mediastinal cyst, 1. Insertion was performed under fluoroscopy in 88%, computed tomography in 6%, and ultrasonography in 6%. Catheters ranged in size from 6.5F to 12F, but catheter size did not seem to influence outcome (p = 0.6). There was complete resolution of the problem in 75% (33 of 44) of the patients, although 20% of them required more than one catheter. Treatment was successful in all cases of lung abscess. These patients had been previously treated with standard medical therapy for 12 to 53 days without significant improvement in their clinical condition. Patients with empyema composed the largest group treated. Eighty percent (16 of 20) of them had a loculated (LOC) process. The LOC group appeared to have a slightly better success rate than did the non-LOC group (75 versus 50%, p = 0.33). When the catheters failed to resolve the problem (empyema, 6; chylous effusion, 1; malignant effusion, 3; and spontaneous pneumothorax, 1, either operation (9.1%) or a standard thoracostomy tube (13.6%) was required. The complications rate was 20%, but most of these were minor problems including pneumothorax, 5; catheter occlusion 3; fractured catheter, 1; infection, 1; and significant subcutaneous emphysema, 1. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
The P25 Protein of Potato Virus X (PVX) Is the Main Pathogenicity Determinant Responsible for Systemic Necrosis in PVX-Associated Synergisms

ABSTRACT Most plant viruses counter the RNA silencing-based antiviral defense by expressing viral suppressors of RNA silencing (VSRs). In this sense, VSRs may be regarded as virulence effectors that can be recognized by the host as avirulence (avr) factors to induce R-mediated resistance. We made use of Agrobacterium-mediated transient coexpression of VSRs in combination with Potato virus X (PVX) to recapitulate in local tissues the systemic necrosis (SN) caused by PVX-potyvirus synergistic infections in Nicotiana benthamiana. The hypersensitive response (HR)-like response was associated with an enhanced accumulation of PVX subgenomic RNAs. We further show that expression of P25, the VSR of PVX, in the presence of VSR from different viruses elicited an HR-like response in Nicotiana spp. Furthermore, the expression of P25 by a Plum pox virus (PPV) vector was sufficient to induce an increase of PPV pathogenicity that led to necrotic mottling. A frameshift mutation in the P25 open reading frame (ORF) of PVX did not lead to necrosis when coexpressed with VSRs. These findings indicate that P25 is the main PVX determinant involved in eliciting a systemic HR-like response in PVX-associated synergisms. Moreover, we show that silencing of SGT1 and RAR1 attenuated cell death in both PVX-potyvirus synergistic infection and the HR-like response elicited by P25. Our study underscores that P25 variants that have impaired ability to suppress RNA silencing cannot act as elicitors when synergized by the presence of other VSRs. These findings highlight the importance of RNA silencing suppression activity in the HR-like response elicited by VSRs in certain hosts. IMPORTANCE The work presented here describes how the activity of the PVX suppressor P25 elicits an HR-like response in Nicotiana spp. when overexpressed with other VSR proteins. This finding suggests that the SN response caused by PVX-associated synergisms is a delayed immune response triggered by P25, once it reaches a threshold level by the action of other VSRs. Moreover, this work supports the contention that the silencing suppressor activity of PVX P25 protein is a prerequisite for HR elicitation. We propose that unidentified avr determinants could be involved in other cases of viral synergisms in which heterologous “helper” viruses encoding strong VSRs exacerbate the accumulation of the avr-encoding virus.
Redundancy effect on the performance of digitally-assisted SAR ADCs

This paper presents a thorough assessment of the impact redundancy has on background calibration performance in SAR ADCs with static and dynamic non-idealities. A configurable model that is capable of implementing different SAR architectures is used to inject various implementation impairments and and analyze the impact redundancy has on them. The effects of a redundant capacitor array on calibration are first analyzed in the presence of static non-idealities, after which then incomplete settling effects and noise are added. The effect of redundancy in the spread of the calibrated ENOB of multiple simulations is assessed. A tradeoff between increased tolerance to settling errors and calibration performance is shown, allowing to optimize the amount of redundancy and number of SAR cycles for minimum energy consumption for a given target ENOB.
An Assessment of Commercial Advertisement’s Effects on Consumer Buying Behaviour

Consumer buying behaviour is the study of individuals, groups, or organizations and all the activities associated with the purchase. This study aims to investigate the influence of commercial advertisement on consumer buying behaviour regarding internet companies in Erbil. The objectives of the study are multi fold, first To adumbrate the profile of the consumers in Erbil for future advertisement campaign, second to critically examine the perception of the consumer about advertisements, third to analyses and explain the new medium of advertisement and its impact, fourth to assess the role of advertisement in case of internet companies to promote their brands. Three internet companies are selected as sample size including Fast link, Newroz and Tishkent data collected via questionnaire by using 5 likers scale. A structured questionnaire was developed and distributed among 80 users of three internet service provider in Erbil, whereas 60 employees answered rightly. Most of the employees showed positive answers that they have influence of advertisement on their buying behavior toward internet services. This thing leads toward rejection of our Ho and acceptance of H1. Those who left behind with less positive answers main reason were found during survey that was they are with less education and most of them they are not aware with usage of smartphone. Related to future research other authors can consider other variables that are not coved under this study.
Regulation of mTOR Complex 2 Signaling in Neurofibromatosis 2–Deficient Target Cell Types

Inactivating mutations in the neurofibromatosis 2 (NF2) tumor suppressor gene results in the development of schwannomas and meningiomas. Using NF2-deficient meningioma cells and tumors, together with the normal cellular counterparts that meningiomas derive, arachnoid cells, we identified merlin as a novel negative regulator of mTOR complex 1 (mTORC1). We now show that merlin positively regulates the kinase activity of mTORC2, a second functionally distinct mTOR complex, and that downstream phosphorylation of mTORC2 substrates, including Akt, is reduced upon acute merlin deficiency in cells. In response to general growth factor stimulation, Akt signaling is attenuated in merlin RNA interference-suppressed human arachnoid and Schwann cells by mechanisms mediated by hyperactive mTORC1 and impaired mTORC2. Moreover, Akt signaling is impaired differentially in a cell type–dependent manner in response to distinct growth factor stimuli. However, contrary to activation of mTORC1, the attenuated mTORC2 signaling profiles exhibited by normal arachnoid and Schwann cells in response to acute merlin loss were not consistently reflected in NF2-deficient meningiomas and schwannomas, suggesting additional genetic events may have been acquired in tumors after initial merlin loss. This finding contrasts with another benign tumor disorder, tuberous sclerosis complex, which exhibits attenuated mTORC2 signaling profiles in both cells and tumors. Finally, we examined rapamycin, as well as the mTOR kinase inhibitor, Torin1, targeting both mTOR complexes to identify the most efficacious class of compounds for blocking mTOR-mediated signaling and proliferation in merlin-deficient meningioma cells. These studies may ultimately aid in the development of suitable therapeutics for NF2-associated tumors. Mol Cancer Res; 10(5); 649–59. ©2012 AACR.
An energy-efficient 1MSps 7µW 11.9fJ/conversion step 7pJ/sample 10-bit SAR ADC in 90nm

Current trends constantly increase the need for ultra-low power solutions for the embedded and portable hardware. One circuit component required in wide range of devices is the analog-to-digital converter (ADC). In this paper we propose an extremely energy-efficient successive approximation register (SAR) ADC, in which we have overcome the limitations of conventional approaches through topological improvements. Further, advances include a novel bootstrapped track and hold (T/H) circuitry. Statistical simulations indicate an ADC with a figure of merit (FOM) of 11.9 fJ per conversion step, and an effective number of bits (ENOB) of 9.2, operating close to Nyquist frequency, sampling at 1 Msps. To put it into perspective, consuming only 7 pJ/sample, this ADC is able to work at its maximum speed for more than 40 years with the total energy of a single alkaline AA battery.
Prior esophageal variceal bleeding does not adversely affect survival after orthotopic liver transplantation

Prior variceal bleeding may adversely affect the prognosis of orthotopic liver transplantation. We studied this question by evaluating all 175 adult patients undergoing orthotopic liver transplantation at our institution to determine risk factors associated with mortality after transplantation. Seventy patients demonstrated prior variceal bleeding, and of those, 32 had a course of sclerotherapy. Thirteen also had portal systemic shunts. Compared with the 105 transplant patients who had no prior bleeding, patients who bled were more likely to have parenchymal liver disease (74% vs. 50%), equally likely to have cholestatic liver disease (19%), and less likely to have malignancy (6% vs. 19%) or fulminant liver failure (1% vs. 12%). Bleeding patients also were more likely to be Child‐Pugh class C (46% vs. 35%). By the common closing date of December 31, 1990, 26 patients (37%) with prior bleeding and 48 patients (46%) without bleeding died after transplantation. From survival curves, patients with prior bleeding had improved survival rates at 1 yr (65% vs. 54%), at 3 yr (60% vs. 47%) and at 5 yr (55% vs. 43%), although the differences were not statistically significant. With a proportional hazards model to adjust for confounding effects, the relative risk of mortality among patients with prior bleeding was 0.60 (95% confidence interval, 0.27 to 1.30). Sclerotherapy or portal systemic shunts did not alter survival. Important adverse risk factors for mortality included older age at transplantation, black race, malignant disease and more advanced Child‐Pugh class. This study suggests that prior esophageal variceal bleeding did not adversely affect the mortality of patients undergoing orthotopic liver transplantation. (HEPATOLOGY 1993;18:66–72).
The Amino and Carboxyl Termini of Perilipin A Facilitate the Storage of Triacylglycerols*

Perilipin A is the most abundant lipid droplet-associated protein in adipocytes and serves important functions in regulating triacylglycerol levels by reducing rates of basal lipolysis and facilitating hormonally stimulated lipolysis. We have previously shown that the central region of perilipin A targets and anchors it to lipid droplets, at least in part via three moderately hydrophobic sequences that embed the protein into the hydrophobic core of the droplet. The current study examines the roles of the amino and carboxyl termini of perilipin A in facilitating triacylglycerol storage. Amino- and carboxyl-terminal truncation mutations of mouse perilipin A were stably expressed in 3T3-L1 preadipocytes, which lack perilipins. Triacylglycerol content of the cells was quantified as a measure of perilipin function and was compared with that of cells expressing full-length perilipin A or control cells lacking perilipins. The amino-terminal sequence between amino acids 122 and 222, including four 10-11-amino acid sequences predicted to form amphipathic β-strands and a consensus site for cAMP-dependent protein kinase, and the carboxyl terminus of 112 amino acids that is unique to perilipin A were critical to facilitate triacylglycerol storage. The precocious expression of full-length perilipin A in 3T3-L1 preadipocytes aided more rapid storage of triacylglycerol during adipose differentiation. By contrast, the expression of highly truncated amino- or carboxyl-terminal mutations of perilipin failed to serve a dominant negative function in lowering triacylglycerol storage during adipose differentiation. We conclude that the amino and carboxyl termini are critical to the function of perilipin A in facilitating triacylglycerol storage.
The Modern Hyperinflation Cycle: Some New Empirical Regularities

Using a database of up to 62 variables for 196 countries over 57 years, a hyperinflation cycle has been characterized to propose a broader setting of stylized facts. Beyond the usual facts, the findings in this paper contribute to the literature of modern hyperinflations in that these cycles occur in contexts where there are (i) depressed economic freedoms, (ii) deteriorated socioeconomic conditions and rule of law, as well as (iii) high levels of domestic conflictivity and government instability. Despite social infraestructure factors improve during stabilization, they keep being substantially lower than the respresentative non-hyperinflation country, suggesting an important role for them in the occurrence of modern hypeinflations. Finally, the role of international financial assistance in stabilization was studied, noting that (i) a clear majority of hyperinflation countries used it, further improving their (ii) economic freedoms, and allowing themselves (iii) greater fiscal flexibility and (iv) more exchange rate stability.
[Genetic polymorphisms in X-ray repair cross-complementing gene 1 and susceptibility to papillary thyroid carcinoma].

OBJECTIVE To study the association of polymorphisms in the X-ray repair cross-complementing gene 1 (XRCC1) and papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). METHODS A hospital based, matched case-control study was carried out. The polymorphisms in XRCC1 for 105 pairs of cases with PTC and controls were identified by PCR-RFLP. RESULTS The frequencies of Arg/Arg, Arg/Trp and Trp/Trp genotypes at XRCC1 Arg194Trp site were 47.6%, 49.5% and 2.9% among cases compared to 45.7%, 48.6% and 5.7% among controls. There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups (chi(2) = 1.07, P = 0.59). The frequencies of Arg/Arg, Arg/Gln and Gln/Gln genotypes at XRCC1 Arg399Gln site were 46.7%, 41.9% and 11.4% among cases, while 54.2%, 42.9% and 2.9% among controls respectively. There was statistically significant difference between the two groups (chi(2) = 6.40, P = 0.04). Individuals with Gln/Gln genotype had a 3.65-fold increased risk of developing PTC compared to Arg/Arg genotype (OR = 4.65, 95% CI: 1.24 - 17.45). The multivariate conditional logistic regression analysis showed that the XRCC1 Arg399Gln polymorphism, negative life events and X-irradiation history were associated with PTC, with odds ratios of 2.71 (95% CI: 1.22 - 6.05), 5.34 (95% CI: 1.40 - 20.38) and 0.38 (95% CI: 0.12 - 0.72) respectively. However, XRCC1 Arg194Trp polymorphism, drinking tea, fruit and economic levels did not show statistically significant associations with PTC. CONCLUSION The Gln/Gln genotype at XRCC1 Arg399Gln site and negative life events significantly increased while X-irradiation history decreased the risk of developing PTC.
Accuracy of MDCT in predicting site of gastrointestinal tract perforation.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to prospectively evaluate the accuracy of MDCT for preoperative determination of the site of surgically proven gastrointestinal tract perforations and to determine the most predictive findings in this diagnosis. SUBJECTS AND METHODS We prospectively studied 85 consecutive patients with extraluminal air on MDCT who had surgically proven gastrointestinal tract perforations. All patients underwent surgery within 12 hours after MDCT was performed. Two experienced radiologists, blinded to the surgical diagnosis, reached a consensus prediction of the site of the perforation using the following eight MDCT findings: concentration of extraluminal air bubbles adjacent to the bowel wall, free air in supramesocolic or inframesocolic compartments, extraluminal air in both abdomen and pelvis, focal defect in the bowel wall, segmental bowel-wall thickening, perivisceral fat stranding, abscess, and extraluminal fluid. MDCT imaging results were compared with surgical and pathologic findings. Logistic regression analyses were performed to assess the significance of the different radiologic criteria. RESULTS Analysis of MDCT images was predictive of the site of gastrointestinal tract perforation in 73 (86%) of 85 patients. Logistic regression showed that concentration of extraluminal air bubbles (p < 0.001), segmental bowel wall thickening (p < 0.001), and focal defect of the bowel wall (p = 0.007) were strong predictors of the site of bowel perforation. CONCLUSION MDCT is highly accurate for predicting the site of gastrointestinal tract perforations. Three of eight CT findings significantly correlate with surgical diagnosis.
Do generations differ when it comes to green values and products?

Author(s): Squires, Scot | Abstract: Purpose: This study investigates the environmental beliefs of three generations to discover whether their stated beliefs match their actions in regards to green purchases.Design/methodology/approach: 1,215 participants across three generations (Millennials, Generation Xers, and Baby Boomers) answered survey questions regarding their environmental beliefs and were assigned a "Green" score. They also answered questions regarding the types and quantities of past green purchases. Analyses were performed to determine if there were statically significant differences among the generations.Findings: Baby Boomers were the most environmentally friendly generation. However, there was no statistically significant difference in the types of items purchased by the three generations, and Baby Boomers only slightly outpaced the other two generations in the quantity of green items purchased.Research limitations/implications:Marketers can use this research to market environmentally friendly products differently to the three generations.Originality/value:This research expands on existing work in the areas of generational cohorts and green products.Keywords: generational cohorts, green products, GREEN Consumer Values Scale Paper type: Research paper