Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hypertension as a persistent public health problem. A position paper from Alliance for a Healthy Heart, Mexico

Today, Mexico has more than 130 million inhabitants; 85 millions of them are adults of 20 or more years old. The population pyramid is still one of base wider and this base corresponds to adults younger than 54 years old. Despite predictions made 20 years ago, about a transformation of the population pyramid shape to a mushroom shape as a consequence of more life expected and adult population growth; this change has not been occurred. Hypertension has become the biggest challenge of noncommunicable chronic diseases to public health in Mexico. Around 30% of adult Mexican population has hypertension; 75% of them have less than 54 years old (in productive age); 40% of them are unaware but only 50% of aware hypertensive population takes drugs and, 50% of them are controlled (< 140/90 mmHg). Cardiovascular risk factors including hypertension, dyslipidemia, obesity, and diabetes often cohabit in the same person and are magnifi ed one to another in terms of common pathophysiological pathways. Atherosclerosis, arrhythmias, stroke and heart failure are common and are the fi nal pathologic end-points and explains why cardiovascular diseases occupy fi rst place in mortality in Mexico and worldwide. The costs of care for these diseases are billionaires and if we do not generate appropriate strategies, their global impact can become a high threat to social development of the country. The life style like nutrition, sports habits of the Mexicans must be emphasized; there is poor education about this crucial topic. This position paper is focused on the principal controversies and strategies to be developed by all, government, society, physicians, nurses, patients and all people related with healthcare of hypertension, in order to confront this huge public health problem in Mexico. Review Article
Reclaiming Suburbia: Differences in Local Identity and Public Perceptions of Potable Water Reuse

Urban water managers are increasingly interested in incorporating reclaimed water into drinking supplies, particularly in rapidly growing arid and semi-arid urban areas, such as the western United States. Northern Nevada is one location that is considering augmenting drinking water supplies with reclaimed water, a practice that is known as planned potable water reuse. Potable water reuse can expand water supply and reduce wastewater disposal. However, past studies have shown that the introduction of potable reclaimed water can be controversial and requires an understanding of public perceptions of the resource prior to implementation. This study explores the factors that influence whether or not respondents in northern Nevada express willingness to drink reclaimed water. We pay specific attention to the degree to which self-identification as an urban, suburban, or rural resident influences how people consider using treated wastewater for both potable and non-potable purposes. To address this, we conducted a survey to assess community perceptions of reclaimed water use and applications in northern Nevada in the spring of 2018. We find that years spent living in the home and a respondent being female are negative and significant predictors of being willing to drink reclaimed water, while having heard of reclaimed water before and self-identification as a suburban resident are positive and significant predictors. As the region becomes more developed, particularly in its growing suburbs, it is essential to understand the nature of the interests and concerns regarding water resources and the expanded use of reclaimed water.
Russian agriculture during Putin’s fourth term: a SWOT analysis

ABSTRACT Russian agriculture is coming off a successful period under Minister Alexander Tkachev. Despite his successes, new agricultural leaders were named in May 2018 to guide agriculture during Putin’s fourth term. The article analyses the condition of and prospects for the agricultural sector during 2018–2024, using a SWOT framework (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats). The analysis examines four strengths, six weaknesses, four opportunities and three threats.
Debate: Corporatization in local government— the need for a comparative and multi-disciplinary research approach

alternative delivery models are increasingly operating in more competitive markets where success is certainly not guaranteed. New delivery models often require different skillsets and there is a mixed picture across the sector. New models require commercial acumen often seen in the private sector but also public sector capabilities for working with a more complex landscape. Failure can derive from not getting the balance correct. New models often introduce new costs which need to be offset against additional income or increased productivity. Where this does not happen, then the new model will be more expensive than the one it replaced. Where governance is opaque, it can result in poor decision-making, weak governance, lack of accountability andpoor value formoneybeing achieved. There are well-meaning examples where alternative delivery models have been created but are struggling to deliver the services they were created to provide. In these scenarios, councils need to reconsider their choices. For example additional support to turnaround the business can transform the performance of a company, likewise if its now delivering then insourcing or a different delivery may be the better option.
La transparencia como variable reputacional de la comunicación de crisis en el contexto mediático del ciberataque WannaCry

This piece of research analyzes the media context of the WannaCry cyberattack in relation to the crisis communication carried out by Telefonica with respect to that exercised in the Telecommunications sector, applying, in two intervals of the cyberattack, the grounded theory to the media discourse of the press. Despite the improvable reputation of the corporate brands in the Telecommunications sector, the immediate reaction, the informative transparency exerted, the collaboration with public bodies and others affected and a quick solution to the cyberattack are the fundamental categories on which a stronger reputation than that of its direct competition has been built during the crisis communication, transferring the traditional official spokesperson to the social networks of one of its directors. The negative feeling of 14% that emerges from the media discourse during the first wave of cyberattack coincides with the 12% shown by citizens on Twitter, so the published opinion is consistent with the opinion of the public. Despite this, there is a greater incidence of the negative approach in the “confidential” digital newspapers, less exposed to the advertising pressure of the large corporate brands and more to the loss of journalistic values alluded to in the scientific literature.
Rapid increase in colorectal cancer rates in urban Shanghai, 1972-97, in relation to dietary changes.

BACKGROUND In urban Shanghai, the largest industrial and commercial city in China, the age-adjusted (to world standard) incidence rates for colorectal cancer increased from 14.8 to 24.1 per 10(5) man-years and from 11.7 to 20.7 per 10(5) woman-years between 1972-73 and 1996-97. These changes were even more pronounced for colon cancer. The reasons for the rapid increases in cancer rates are not fully understood, but may involve dietary habits that have changed substantially overthe past two decades. METHODS Based on incidence data on 37000 colorectal cancers from 1972-1997 and dietary information during the past 20 years, an ecologic correlation analysis was performed. RESULTS Available data indicate that per capita food consumption in Shanghai of vegetable oil, poultry, eggs, and pork rose rapidly during the period 1978-97, whereas consumption of seafood, grain, and fresh vegetables changed little or showed little consistent trends. Statistically significant positive associations were observed between colon cancer rates and per capita consumption of vegetable oil, poultry, fresh eggs and pork. DISCUSSION These findings suggest that increases in dietary fat and certain protein consumption may play a role in the rising colon cancer rates in Shanghai.
Optimal Device-to-Device cell association and load balancing

A key characteristic of the emerging and future wireless networks (aka 5G) is the enabling of direct Device-to-Device (D2D) communications between mobile nodes. D2D communication will not only provide ultra-low power, reduced latencies and increased spatial capacity in such networks but will also unlock a plethora of new location-aware applications. Since these D2D links will be mainly controlled by the network, it is crucially important to reduce the overall overhead and also allow for mitigated traffic imbalance by controlling a potentially large number of D2Ds. In this paper, an optimization framework is introduced to firstly reduce signalling load and latency in network control-based D2D links and secondly to balance the load among neighbouring cells. To this end, under the assumption of future small cell-based ecosystems, a set of integer linear programs is introduced for D2D links that fall within the coverage area of different neighbouring base stations (BSs) with the aim to equilibrate load across cells and reduce signalling overhead by associating D2D links with only one BS. Through a wide set of numerical investigations, the benefits of the proposed schemes are evaluated showing significant performance gains in terms of load balancing and cost-based resource block (RB) allocation for orchestrating D2D links.
Age- and therapy-related effects on morphine requirements and plasma concentrations of morphine and its metabolites in postoperative infants.

BACKGROUND To investigate clinical variables such as gestational age, sex, weight, the therapeutic regimens used and mechanical ventilation that might affect morphine requirements and plasma concentrations of morphine and its metabolites. METHODS In a double-blind study, neonates and infants stratified for age [group I 0-4 weeks (neonates), group II > or =4-26 weeks, group III > or =26-52 weeks, group IV > or =1-3 yr] admitted to the paediatric intensive care unit after abdominal or thoracic surgery received morphine 100 micro g kg(-1) after surgery, and were randomly assigned to either continuous morphine 10 micro g kg(-1) h(-1) or intermittent morphine boluses 30 micro g kg(-1) every 3 h. Pain was measured using the COMFORT behavioural scale and a visual analogue scale. Additional morphine was administered on guidance of the pain scores. Morphine, morphine-3-glucuronide (M3G) and morphine-6-glucuronide (M6G) plasma concentrations were measured before, directly after, and at 6, 12 and 24 h after surgery. RESULTS Multiple regression analysis of different variables revealed that age was the most important factor affecting morphine requirements and plasma morphine concentrations. Significantly fewer neonates required additional morphine doses compared with all other age groups (P<0.001). Method of morphine administration (intermittent vs continuous) had no significant influence on morphine requirements. Neonates had significantly higher plasma concentrations of morphine, M3G and M6G (all P<0.001), and significantly lower M6G/morphine ratio (P<0.03) than the older children. The M6G/M3G ratio was similar in all age groups. CONCLUSIONS Neonates have a narrower therapeutic window for postoperative morphine analgesia than older age groups, with no difference in the safety or effectiveness of intermittent doses compared with continuous infusions in any of these age groups. In infants >1 month of age, analgesia is achieved after morphine infusions ranging from 10.9 to 12.3 micro g kg(-1) h(-1) at plasma concentrations of <15 ng ml(-1).
Diagnosis of late onset neonatal sepsis with cytokines, adhesion molecule, and C-reactive protein in preterm very low birthweight infants

AIMS To evaluate the commonly used markers—namely IL-6, TNFα, IL-1β, C-reactive protein and E-selectin for identification of late onset neonatal sepsis; to define the optimal cutoff value for each marker in preterm neonates; to assess whether these markers could assist in early discontinuation of antibiotics in non-infected cases; and to delineate the profile of these markers during systemic infection and in relation to successful treatment. METHODS Very low birthweight infants in whom clinical sepsis was suspected when they were >72 hours of age were eligible for study. A full sepsis screen was performed in each episode. Cytokines, C-reactive protein, and E-selectin were serially measured on days 0 (at the time of sepsis evaluation), 1, 2, 4 and 7. The optimal cutoff value for each marker was calculated after minimising the number of misclassified episodes over all possible cutoff values for days 0 and 1. The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values for each test and combination of tests for predicting systemic infection were also determined. RESULTS One hundred and one episodes of suspected clinical sepsis were investigated in 68 infants. Forty five episodes were proved to be infections. The optimal cutoff values were IL-6 31 pg/ml, TNFα 17 pg/ml, IL-1β 1 pg/ml, C reactive protein 12 mg/l and E-selectin 174 ng/ml. IL-6 had the highest sensitivity (89%) and negative predictive value (91%) for detecting late onset infection on day 0. However, between 24 and 48 hours of onset, C-reactive protein was the best single marker, with an overall sensitivity and specificity of 84% and 96%, respectively. The use of serial and multiple markers in the first 48 hours further enhanced the sensitivity and specificity of these tests. Performing IL-6 and C-reactive protein on day 0, together with either TNFα on day 1 or C-reactive protein on day 2, showed the best overall sensitivity (98%) and specificity (91%) for the diagnosis of late onset infection. CONCLUSIONS Optimal cutoff values for these markers in detecting late onset systemic infection in very low birthweight infants have been defined. Withholding antibiotic treatment at the onset of infection could be fatal and is not recommended, but the concomitant use of IL-6 and C-reactive protein or TNFα should allow antimicrobial treatment to be discontinued at 48 hours without waiting for microbiological results, provided that the infants are in good clinical condition.
Multilevel modelling of clustered grouped survival data using Cox regression model: an application to ART dental restorations

In some controlled clinical trials in dental research, multiple failure time data from the same patient are frequently observed that result in clustered multiple failure time. Moreover, the treatments are often delivered by more than one operator and thus the multiple failure times are clustered according to a multilevel structure when the operator effects are assumed to be random. In practice, it is often too expensive or even impossible to monitor the study subjects continuously, but they are examined periodically at some regular pre‐scheduled visits. Hence, discrete or grouped clustered failure time data are collected. The aim of this paper is to illustrate the use of the Monte Carlo Markov chain (MCMC) approach and non‐informative prior in a Bayesian framework to mimic the maximum likelihood (ML) estimation in a frequentist approach in multilevel modelling of clustered grouped survival data. A three‐level model with additive variance components model for the random effects is considered in this paper. Both the grouped proportional hazards model and the dynamic logistic regression model are used. The approximate intra‐cluster correlation of the log failure times can be estimated when the grouped proportional hazards model is used. The statistical package WinBUGS is adopted to estimate the parameter of interest based on the MCMC method. The models and method are applied to a data set obtained from a prospective clinical study on a cohort of Chinese school children that atraumatic restorative treatment (ART) restorations were placed on permanent teeth with carious lesions. Altogether 284 ART restorations were placed by five dentists and clinical status of the ART restorations was evaluated annually for 6 years after placement, thus clustered grouped failure times of the restorations were recorded. Results based on the grouped proportional hazards model revealed that clustering effect among the log failure times of the different restorations from the same child was fairly strong (corrchild=0.55) but the effects attributed to the dentists could be regarded as negligible (corrdentist=0.03). Gender and the location of the restoration were found to have no effects on the failure times and no difference in failure times was found between small restorations placed on molars and non‐molars. Large restorations placed on molars were found to have shorter failure times compared to small restorations. The estimates of the baseline parameters were increasing indicating increasing hazard rates from interval 1 to 6. Results based on the logistic regression models were similar. In conclusion, the use of the MCMC approach and non‐informative prior in a Bayesian framework to mimic the ML estimation in a frequentist approach in multilevel modelling of clustered grouped survival data can be easily applied with the use of the software WinBUGS. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Web-Based Survey of Depression, Anxiety and Stress in First-Year Tertiary Education Students in Hong Kong

Objective: The mental health of tertiary education students is an area of increasing concern worldwide. The objective of this study is to examine the prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress in first-year tertiary education students in Hong Kong. Method: Depression, anxiety and stress were measured by the 42-item Depression Anxiety Stress Scales, completed on the web by participating students anonymously. Results: A total of 7915 students completed the survey, yielding a response rate of 27.5%. Depression, anxiety and stress levels of moderate severity or above were found in 21%, 41% and 27% of our respondents, respectively. Conclusions: The web-based survey methodology was well accepted by our sample group of tertiary education students. We found high rates of psychological morbidity in first-year tertiary education students in Hong Kong. The high prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress symptoms in the first year of college life is alarming. It illustrates the need for primary and secondary prevention measures, with development of adequate and appropriate support services for this group.
Activating protein-1 cooperates with phorbol ester activation signals to increase HIV-1 expression.

OBJECTIVE To determine whether Jun and Fos, components of the activating protein-1 (AP-1) transcription factor, transactivate HIV-1 proviral expression. DESIGN The effects of phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) and Jun or Fos transcription factors on HIV-1 expression were investigated using a provirus clone and long terminal repeat (LTR)-reporter gene constructs. The influence of PMA stimulation on AP-1 binding activity was determined with antibodies in gel mobility shift assays. METHODS Activation of HIV-1 provirus and transcription of HIV-1 LTR sequences in response to cotransfection of Jun or Fos expression plasmids into a permissive colon cancer cell line, SW480, were assessed by p24 core antigen capture and reporter gene assays, respectively. The effect of protein kinase C activation was evaluated by comparing cells grown in the presence or absence of PMA (20 ng/ml). RESULTS Cotransfection of HIV-1 provirus and expression plasmids for c-Jun or JunB into SW480 cells resulted in increased p24 core antigen and this response was markedly increased following PMA stimulation of cells. c-Fos or JunD alone did not increase p24 production but markedly increased p24 production in PMA-stimulated cells. PMA increased c-Fos and JunD binding activity on an AP-1 binding site within the U5 region of the LTR, as shown in gel mobility shift assays. Functional analysis of this site by transient transfections demonstrated it was required to mediate c-Fos and JunD transactivation of the HIV-1 LTR. CONCLUSIONS Specific Jun and Fos transcription factors can transactivate the HIV-1 provirus and this response is markedly increased in cooperation with cellular activation signals elicited by PMA. Taken together, the data indicate that AP-1 binding sites downstream of the transcriptional start site in the HIV-1 LTR are capable of binding c-Fos and JunD and may contribute to transactivation of HIV-1 provirus.
A high unemployment and labour market segmentation: A three-segment macroeconomic model

Background: South Africa suffers from an unusually high unemployment rate – officially averaging 25% since 1999Q3. In addition, depending on whether one uses the official or broad definitions of unemployment, since 2008 there are on average between 2 and 3.3 times as many unemployed people as there are people in the informal sector. Hence the question: why do the unemployed not enter the informal sector to create a livelihood? Aim: To fill this gap we propose a macro-economic framework that incorporates both formal (primary) and informal (secondary) sectors, as well as involuntary unemployment resulting from entry barriers to the labour market. We believe such a model provides a more suitable basis for macroeconomic policy analysis.Setting: Standard macroeconomic theories at best provide a partial explanation for the South African unemployment problem, focusing mostly on the formal sector.Methods: The article uses a theoretical analysis.Results: The article presents a macro-economic framework that incorporates both formal (primary) and informal (secondary) sectors, as well as involuntary unemployment resulting from entry barriers to the labour market.Conclusion: If the assumptions on which the model draws hold in the South African reality, then a solution to the unem-ployment problem involve policies addressing product and labour market structures and behaviour in the primary sector, as well as policies addressing the numerous barriers to entry, such as borrowing constraints, that poten-tial entrants into the secondary sector face.
Combinatorial regulation of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae CAR1 (arginase) promoter in response to multiple environmental signals

CAR1 (arginase) gene expression responds to multiple environmental signals; expression is induced in response to the intracellular accumulation of arginine and repressed when readily transported and catabolized nitrogen sources are available in the environment. Up to 14 cis-acting sites and 9 trans-acting factors have been implicated in regulated CAR1 transcription. In all but one case, the sites are redundant. To test whether these sites actually participate in CAR1 expression, each class of sites was inactivated by substitution mutations that retained the native spacing of the CAR1 cis-acting elements. Three types of sites function independently of the nitrogen source: two clusters of Abflp- and Rap1p-binding sites, and a GC-rich sequence. Two different sets of nitrogen source-dependent sites are also required: the first consists of two GATAA-containing UASNTR sites that mediate nitrogen catabolite repression-sensitive transcription, and the second is arginine dependent and consists of three UAS1 elements that activate transcription only when arginine is present. A single URS1 site mediates repression of CAR1 arginine-independent upstream activator site (UAS) activity in the absence of arginine and the presence of a poor nitrogen source (a condition under which the inducer-independent Gln3p can function in association with the UASNTR sites). When arginine is present, the combined activity of the UAS elements overcomes the negative effects mediated by URS1. Mutation of the classes of sites either singly or in combination markedly alters CAR1 promoter operation and control, supporting the idea that they function synergistically to regulate expression of the gene.