Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Epidemiologic characteristics of 500 patients with inflammatory bowel disease in Iran studied from 2004 through 2007.

BACKGROUND Despite claims of rarity, some studies indicate that the prevalence of inflammatory bowel disease has increased in Iran during the past decades. Establishment of a registry and the clinical characteristics are presented in this study. METHODS Two hundred ninety-three patients with ulcerative colitis and 207 with Crohn's disease, referred to tertiary referral gastrointestinal centers in Tehran from 2004 through 2007, were assessed. Demographic and clinical features, intestinal and extraintestinal manifestations, inflammatory bowel disease in relatives, measles infection and vaccination, nutrition during infancy, and drugs and surgical interventions were assessed. RESULTS The mean+/-SD age at the diagnosis was 33.8+/-12.9 years in Crohn's disease and 37.1+/-13.7 years in ulcerative colitis. Male:female ratio was 0.9:1.0 for Crohn's disease and 0.7:1.0 for ulcerative colitis. A total of 177 (85.5%) patients with Crohn's disease, and 254 (86.7%) patients with ulcerative colitis had never smoked. Measles vaccination was mentioned in 150 (72.5%) of Crohn's disease and 214 (73%) of ulcerative colitis patients. Breastfeeding during infancy was reported in 178 (86%) and 257 (87.7%) of Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis patients, respectively. Appendectomy was reported in 37 (17.9%) of Crohn's disease and 16 (5.5%) of ulcerative colitis patients, whereas tonsillectomy was reported in 11.6% of each group. CONCLUSION Demographic and clinical characteristics of inflammatory bowel disease patients are similar to that of other developing countries, in this study, more inflammatory bowel disease cases have been assessed in comparison with previous studies, which may be due to different time scales of socioeconomic evolution and environmental factors in Iran.
Public Service Advertisements: Emotions and Empathy Guide Prosocial Behavior

The authors develop and test a theory of how public service advertisements function to induce helping responses. Building on Lazarus's general theory of emotion and adaptation, they hypothesize that public service ads designed to reduce the incidence of child abuse stimulate negative emotions; these, in turn, lead to empathic reactions and end with the decision to help. Two field experiments are conducted to test the theory.
The Myotonias and Susceptibility to Malignant Hyperthermia

Malignant hyperthermia (MH) is a pharmacogenetic disorder of skeletal muscle in which volatile anesthetics trigger a sustained increase in intramyoplasmic Ca2+ via release from sarcoplasmic reticulum and, possibly, entry from the extracellular milieu that leads to hypermetabolism, muscle rigidity, rhabdomyolysis, and death. Myotonias are a class of myopathies that result from gene mutations in various channels involved in skeletal muscle excitation-contraction coupling and sarcolemmal excitability, and unusual DNA sequence repeats that result in the inability of many proteins, including skeletal muscle channels that affect excitability, to undergo proper splicing. The suggestion has often been made that myotonic patients have an increased risk of developing MH. In this article, we review the physiology of muscle excitability and excitation-contraction coupling, the pathophysiology of MH and the myotonias, and review the clinical literature upon which the claims of MH susceptibility are based. We conclude that patients with these myopathies have a risk of developing MH that is equivalent to that of the general population with one potential exception, hypokalemic periodic paralysis. Despite the fact that there are no clinical reports of MH developing in patients with hypokalemic periodic paralysis, for theoretical reasons we cannot be as certain in estimating their risk of developing MH, even though we believe it is low.
What hemodialysis strategy affords the longest patient survival?

filtration in rhabdomyolysis with acute kidney injury: a case series. Injury, 2010, doi S0020-1383(10)00643-1 [pii] 10. Brown CV, et al.: Preventing renal failure in patients with rhabdomyolysis: do bicarbonate andmannitol make a difference? J Trauma 56(6):1191–1196, 2004 11. Naka T, et al.: Myoglobin clearance by super high-flux hemofiltration in a case of severe rhabdomyolysis: a case report. Crit Care 9(2):R90–R95, 2005 12. Heyne N, et al.: Rhabdomyolysis and acute kidney injury. N Engl J Med 361(14):1412, 2009 13. Basnayake K, et al.: Rhabdomyolysis and acute kidney injury. N Engl J Med 361(14):1411–1412, 2009 14. Mikkelsen TS, et al.: Prognostic value, kinetics and effect of CVVHDF on serum of the myoglobin and creatine kinase in critically ill patients with rhabdomyolysis. ActaAnaesthesiol Scand 49(6):859–864, 2005 15. Wakabayashi Y, et al.: Rapid fall in bloodmyoglobin inmassive rhabdomyolysis and acute renal failure. Intensive CareMed 20(2):109–112, 1994 16. Shigemoto T, et al.: Blood purification for crush syndrome. Ren Fail 19(5):711–719, 1997
A NEW APPROACH TO EXPATRIATE EFFECTIVENESS: A PERSPECTIVE-TAKING MODEL FOR GLOBAL ASSIGNMENTS

To perform exceptionally well in global assignments, expatriates must understand the importance of proactive cognitive processes such as perspective-taking. Perspective-taking refers to a cognitive process that involves seeing the world from another person’s viewpoint. We present a framework that delineates how the perspective-taking process leads to an expatriate’s overall effectiveness. We provide propositions about which factors motivate expatriates to engage in active perspective-taking, and which factors influence higher accuracy of understanding of the host country nationals (HCNs) perspective. Our model then incorporates contact theory as the link between perspective-taking and an expatriate’s overall effectiveness. One significant contribution our model makes to the expatriate literature is the integration of a new construct, perspective-taking. This extends the expatriate literature by examining a new construct that may explain expatriate effectiveness. Thus, we take a new approach and focus on e.
Urinary Schistosomiasis in Children—Still a Concern in Part of the Ghanaian Capital City

Schistosomiasis is a parasitic disease of the tropics which is estimated to affect up to 300 million people worldwide. While it is being successfully controlled in many countries, it remains a major public health problem, especially in developing countries including Ghana. Extensive work on schistosomiasis has been undertaken along theVoltaRiverbasin, leaving very little data and information on this infection in the urban and peri-urban areas inGhana. This study was aimed at determining the urinary schistosomiasis burden among children of school going age within Zenu, a suburb of the capital city. Urine samples were taken from 274 school children within the Zenu community and examined with urine chemistry dipsticks for detection and confirmation of haematuria, followed by microscopy for detection of Schistosoma haematobium ova. Prevalence of urinary schistosomiasis was 30.7% (95% CI: 25.2-36.2). 44 (52%) of the positive samples were collected from males whiles 40 (48%) were collected from females, but prevalence of the infection was not significantly associated with gender (χ2 = 0.041, DF = 1, P-Value = 0.839). Among the S. haematobium positive children, haematuria was detected by the dipstick in 88.1% (74/84, 95% CI: 81.2- 95.0), but it was not detected in 11.9% (10/84, 95% CI: 5.0-18.8). Meanwhile, the dipstick detected haematuria in 7.3% (20/274, 95% CI: 4.3-7.3) of the total population but microscopy could not detect the presence of Schistosoma ova in those children. An association was found between Schistosoma infection and haematuria detected by dipstick (χ2 = 84.715, DF = 1, P-Value
Application of the Balanced Scorecard Framework in Performance Measurement of E-Government Services: Case of Kenya Revenue Authority

Performance measurement is a prerequisite to e-Government efforts to audit services and assure citizens of the accountability of the government. This research sought to apply the Balanced Scorecard concept as a consistent tool in measuring and evaluating performance of an e-Government application by taking the case of Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA). An analysis was made on how this organization is developing performance measurement data, including customer satisfaction measures. A systematic study of the existing performance measurement tools was carried out in establishing the basis for conceptualizing the Information Systems Balanced Scorecard (IS-BSC framework). The researcher investigated various dimensions of e-Government services and proposed a performance measurement tool that will assess the quality and trust dimensions of the e-Government services from management‟s perspective. The proposed tool was validated by using the i-Tax service of KRA. The author then lists the indicators and metrics that can be used to measure the performance of e-Government services. This research suggests an adoption of an IS-BSC which measures and evaluates e-Government services from the following perspectives: business value, user orientation, internal process, and future readiness. The research concludes with recommendations to help the Kenyan government develop its own performance measurement mechanism to assess the impact of investing in e-Government. The findings of this study would be beneficial to various functional ministries adopting e-Government initiatives (G2G, G2C and G2B) as they would gain an understanding about the mixed method of using metrics in IT governance balanced scorecard. This will enhance strategic management of e-Government services. Similarly, the discussions and findings of the study would be important to conceptual development by other researchers and academicians while conducting future related studies. The results would be applied to draw an Information Systems Balanced Score Card as a tool for Strategic Management of e-Government services at KRA and evaluate its effects on performance. Keywords: Balanced Scorecard, Performance Measurement; e-Government, e-Government Service; IS Strategic Management; Kenya Revenue Authority
Cloud-based Trust Establishment Protocol towards Mobile Commerce

In an attempt to integrate automated trust negotiation (ATN) into mobile commerce environments to support an effective approach to establishing dynamic and bilateral trust between mobile customers and merchants, we propose a cloud-based trust negotiation (CBTN) protocol to efficiently and securely offload expensive trust negotiation operations to cloud servers, alleviating computational and com-munication overheads on mobile devices that have limited resources such as lim-ited computational power, battery life and bandwidth. CBTN protocol increases users’ trust to offload the trust negotiation process by keeping users’ control of their own credentials and providing negotiation feedbacks to enable the off-loaded trust negotiations are performed correctly.
Capacity building for public health using the Internet

The development of educational context around free and open-source materials available on the Internet has the ability to help build public health capacity in lowto middle-income countries. Inspiration to develop such a program comes from the Free and Open-Source Software movement, where many hundreds of individuals have collaborated in the development of high-quality software freely available on the Internet, and its education counterpart of Open Educational Resource development. These reflect societal developments, especially those associated with Web 2.0.
The Valuation Channel of International Adjustment

International financial integration has greatly increased the scope for changes in a country's net foreign asset position through the "valuation channel" of external adjustment, namely capital gains and losses on the country's external assets and liabilities. We examine this valuation channel theoretically in a dynamic equilibrium portfolio model with international trade in equity that encompasses complete and incomplete asset market scenarios. By separating asset prices and quantities in the definition of net foreign assets, we can characterize the first-order dynamics of both valuation effects and net foreign equity holdings. First-order excess returns are unanticipated and i.i. d. in our model, but capital gains and losses on equity positions feature persistent, anticipated dynamics in response to productivity shocks. The separation of prices and quantities in net foreign assets also enables us to characterize fully the role of capital gains and losses versus the current account in the dynamics of macroeconomic aggregates. Specifically, we disentangle the roles of excess returns, capital gains, and portfolio adjustment for consumption risk sharing when financial markets are incomplete, showing how these different channels contribute to dampening (or amplifying) the impact response of the cross-country consumption differential to shocks and to keeping it constant in subsequent periods.
A New Look Into Image Classification: Bootstrap Approach

Scene classification is performed on countless remote sensing images in support of operational activities. Automating this process is preferable since manual pixel-level classification is not feasible for large scenes. However, developing such an algorithmic solution is a challenging task due to both scene complexities and sensor limitations. The objective is to develop efficient and accurate unsupervised methods for classification (i.e., assigning each pixel to an appropriate generic class) and for labeling (i.e., properly assigning true labels to each class). Unique from traditional approaches, the proposed bootstrap approach achieves classification and labeling without training data. Here, the full image is partitioned into subimages and the true classes found in each subimage are provided by the user. After these steps, the rest of the process is automatic. Each subimage is individually classified into regions and then using the joint information from all subimages and regions the optimal configuration of labels is found based on an objective function based on a Markov random field (MRF) model. The bootstrap approach has been successfully demonstrated with SAR sea-ice and lake ice images which represent challenging scenes used operationally for ship navigation, climate study, and ice fraction estimation. Accuracy assessment is based on evaluation conducted by third party experts. The bootstrap method is also demonstrated using synthetic and natural images. The impact of this technique is a repeatable and accurate methodology that generates classified maps faster than the standard methodology.
Is physical activity a potential preventive factor for vascular dementia? A systematic review

Background: Physical exercise has several beneficial effects, including reduced risk for Alzheimer's disease. Although several studies of potential risk factors for vascular dementia (VaD) exist, including physical activity, the studies have usually included few participants and there are no meta-analyses addressing this key topic. Methods: The MEDLINE database was searched using the key words ‘physical exercise’ ‘activity’ or ‘walking’ in combination with ‘dementia’ and ‘vascular dementia’. Potentially relevant studies were assessed and summarised by two of the authors, and longitudinal studies with operationalised definition of physical activity providing risk for VaD in both groups were included in the meta-analysis using pooled estimates from a random effects model. Results: A total of 24 longitudinal studies, including 1378 patients with VaD, were included in the review. The majority of individual studies did not report significant associations. Five studies fulfilled criteria for meta-analysis, including 10,108 non-demented control subjects and 374 individuals with VaD. The meta-analysis demonstrated a significant association between physical exercise and a reduced risk of developing VaD: OR 0.62 (95% CI 0.42–0.92). Conclusions: We conclude that there is evidence supporting the hypothesis that physical activity is likely to prevent the development of VaD, and should be highlighted as part of secondary prevention programmes in people at risk for cerebrovascular disease.
Fluoroscopic Caudal Epidural Injections With or Without Steroids in Managing Pain of Lumbar Spinal Stenosis: One-Year Results of Randomized, Double-Blind, Active-Controlled Trial

Study Design A randomized, double-blind, active-controlled trial. Objective To evaluate the effectiveness of caudal epidural injections with or without steroids in providing effective and long-lasting pain relief in the management of chronic low back pain related to lumbar spinal stenosis. Summary of Background Data Multiple interventions including surgery and interventional techniques such as epidural injections and adhesiolysis are commonly performed in managing pain related to spinal stenosis. There is continuing debate on the effectiveness of all interventions, and a paucity of literature regarding effectiveness. Methods One-hundred participants were randomly assigned to 1 of the 2 groups, with Group I participants receiving caudal epidural injections of local anesthetic (lidocaine 0.5%), whereas Group II participants received caudal epidural injections with 0.5% lidocaine 9 mL mixed with 1 mL of steroid (nonparticulate Celestone). Outcomes Assessment Multiple outcome measures were used, including the Numeric Rating Scale (NRS), the Oswestry Disability Index 2.0 (ODI), employment status, and opioid intake with assessment at 3, 6, and 12 months posttreatment. Significant pain relief and improvement in disability were defined as 50% or more. Results Overall, significant pain relief and functional status improvement (≥50%) were demonstrated in 48% in Group I and 46% in Group II. However, significant pain relief and functional status improvement were seen in 60% of the participants in both groups in the successful category when the participants were separated into successful and failed categories. The overall number of procedures was 3.1±1.3 or 3.6±1.1 in the successful category in Group I, with overall 2.9±1.4 or 3.5±1.2 in the successful category in Group II. Conclusion Caudal epidural injections of local anesthetic with or without steroids may be an effective treatment for a select group of patients with chronic function-limiting low back and lower extremity pain secondary to spinal stenosis.
Efficient Infection by a Recombinant Kaposi's Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus Cloned in a Bacterial Artificial Chromosome: Application for Genetic Analysis

ABSTRACT Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is etiologically associated with Kaposi's sarcoma and several other malignancies. The lack of an efficient infection system has impeded the understanding of KSHV-related pathogenesis. A genetic approach was used to isolate infectious KSHV. Recombinant bacteria artificial chromosome (BAC) KSHV containing hygromycin resistance and green fluorescent protein (GFP) markers was generated by homologous recombination in KSHV-infected BCBL-1 cells. Recombinant KSHV genomes from cell clones that were resistant to hygromycin, expressed GFP, and produced infectious virions after induction with tetradecanoyl phorbol acetate (TPA) were rescued in Escherichia coli and reconstituted in 293 cells. Several 293 cell lines resulting from infection with recombinant virions induced from a full-length recombinant KSHV genome, named BAC36, were obtained. BAC36 virions established stable latent infection in 293 cells, harboring 1 to 2 copies of viral genome per cell and expressing viral latent proteins, with ≈0.5% of cells undergoing spontaneous lytic replication, which is reminiscent of KSHV infection in Kaposi's sarcoma tumors. TPA treatment induced BAC36-infected 293 cell lines into productive lytic replication, expressing lytic proteins and producing virions that efficiently infected normal 293 cells with a ≈50% primary infection rate. BAC36 virions were also infectious to HeLa and E6E7-immortalized human endothelial cells. Since BAC36 can be efficiently shuttled between bacteria and mammalian cells, it is useful for KSHV genetic analysis. The feasibility of the system was illustrated through the generation of a KSHV mutant with the vIRF gene deleted. This cellular model is useful for the investigation of KSHV infection and pathogenesis.
Robust extraction of fuzzy rules with artificial neural network based on fuzzy inference system

The paper presents a method of parameters estimation for artificial neural network based on fuzzy inference system (ANNBFIS). It is based on deterministic annealing, e-insensitive learning by solving a system of linear inequalities and robust fuzzy c-means clustering. The proposed algorithm allows to improve the neuro-fuzzy modelling quality by increasing the generalisation ability and outliers robustness. To find the unknown number of fuzzy rules we proposed the procedure of robust clusters merging. The performance of the learning method is demonstrated through the benchmark sunspot prediction problem.