Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Economic Dynamics of an Ageing Population: The Case of Four OECD Countries

Demographic changes, such as those anticipated in most OECD countries, have many economic effects that impinge on a country's fiscal viability. Evaluation of the effects of associated changes in capital-labour ratios and the welfare and behaviour of different generations requires the use of a dynamic general equilibrium model. This paper uses an overlapping generations demographic simulation model, which incorporates bequest behaviour, technological change, the possibility that the economy is open to international trade, and government consumption expenditures that depend on the age composition of the population. The model has been further adapted to study the effects of anticipated demographic changes in Japan, the Federal Republic of Germany, Sweden and the United States. The simulation results indicate that these changes could have a major impact on rates of national saving, real wage rate and current accounts. One of this paper's fundamental lessons is that allowing for general . Des variations demographiques comme celles anticipees dans la plupart des pays de la zone de l'OCDE ont de multiples effets economiques qui influent sur la viabilite de la politique budgetaire d'un pays. En evaluer les consequences sur le rapport capital-travail, le bien-etre, et le comportement des differentes generations exige l'utilisation d'un modele dynamique d'equilibre general. Dans cette etude on utilise un modele de simulation demographique de generations chevauchees incorporant les legs, le progres technologique, l'ouverture de l'economie a l'echange international, et les depenses publiques liees a la structure par âge de la population. Le modele a ete egalement modifie afin d'etudier les effets de la transition demographique au Japon, en Republique Federale d'Allemagne, en Suede, et aux Etats-Unis. Les resultats des simulations indiquent qu'elle pourrait avoir un impact profond sur les taux d'epargne nationaux, les salaires reels et les balances courantes. Une des lecons .
Attire, an Influence on Perceptions of Counselors' Characteristics

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the initial impressions formed by 86 clients of counselors based on the counselors' attire. Clients' perceptions of counselors' selected characteristics of caring, authenticity, competentness, and trustworthiness were assessed. In addition, clients reported their willingness to see a counselor based on their initial impression of the counselor's attire. Analysis showed that most of the clients preferred a moderate style of dress (neither too formal nor too casual) for both male and female counselors. A strong positive association was found between the counselors' attire and the clients' perception of the four selected characteristics of counselors.
Clinical development of farnesyltransferase inhibitors in leukemias and myelodysplastic syndrome.

Farnesyltransferase inhibitors (FTIs) target multiple pathways including the Ras pathway implicated in the pathogenesis of some hematologic malignancies. R115777 and BMS-214662, selective FTIs in clinical development, exhibit preclinical activity against cell lines and tumor xenografts with or without ras mutations. Phase I dose-escalating trials at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center have explored the potential of these agents as monotherapy for leukemias and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). In 20 patients with MDS, two cycles of oral R115777 for 3 consecutive weeks followed by a 1-week rest produced an overall response rate of 30%, consistent with 29% reported in poor-prognosis acute leukemia or blast-phase chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). Administration of BMS-214662 as a weekly intravenous infusion produced a decrease in bone marrow blasts of greater than 50% in 23% of patients with acute leukemia or MDS; 18% achieved normalization of blast counts to less than 5%. In both studies, most responding patients did not have ras mutations. The most common side effects at maximum tolerated doses of R115777 (400 mg twice daily) and BMS-214662 (118 mg/m(2) weekly) were myelosuppression and nausea, respectively. Further evaluation of FTIs for hematologic malignancies clearly is warranted. Future research should address whether molecular techniques can identify patients most likely to respond to an FTI, optimal administration schedules for these agents, and the value of incorporating an FTI into combination regimens for difficult-to-treat hematologic malignancies.
Effects of antibiotic treatment of nonlactating dairy cows on antibiotic resistance patterns of bovine mastitis pathogens

Antibiotic resistance patterns of the major groups of bovine mastitis pathogens (Streptococcus agalactiae, other streptococci, Staphylococcus aureus, and Staphylococcus epidermidis) were examined by determining the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 13 different antibiotics against bacterial isolates from dairy cattle. The bacterial strains were obtained from milk samples from each cow in 21 New York state dairy herd surveys. In 12 herd surveys (high antibiotic-use group), all 365 cows received antibiotic infusions into the udder at the cessation of each lactation cycle. The 324 animals in the other nine herd surveys (low antibiotic-use group) did not routinely receive antibiotics during the nonlactation period. The MICs from the two groups were compared by calculating for each bacterial group the average MIC, the antibiotic concentration necessary to inhibit 90% of the isolates, and the antibiotic concentration necessary to inhibit 50% of the isolates. Increased resistance to all 13 antibiotics was observed with Streptococcus agalactiae isolates from the high antibiotic use herds. However, there was relatively little difference between the two groups in the resistance patterns of the other bacterial species examined. The most important finding of the study was the identification of a multiple beta-lactam resistance phenotype in Streptococcus agalactiae.
Comparison of resting energy equations and total energy expenditure in haemodialysis patients and body composition measured by multi‐frequency bioimpedance

Waste products of metabolism are retained in haemodialysis (HD) patients. Cellular metabolism generates energy, and patients with greater energy expenditure may therefore require more dialysis. The aim of the present study was to determine the amount of dialysis required, to determine equations estimating the required resting and total energy expenditure (REE, TEE).
Status Epilepticus After Stroke

Background and Purpose The main objective of our study was to determine the risk and predictive factors of status epilepticus (SE) after stroke. Methods From 1988 to 2000, 1174 patients were admitted to the Department of Neurology at the Karadeniz Technical University Farabi Hospital with first-time strokes. Of these, 180 patients had poststroke first-time seizures (PFSs). We followed these 180 PFS patients for an average of 3.7 years or until death to determine the occurrence rate of SE. By comparing these data with those of PFS patients without SE, we investigated whether there were significant differences. Results A total of 17 of the 180 PFS patients (9%) had SE. There was no relationship between the occurrence of SE and stroke risk factors, stroke type (ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke), stroke topography and cause, cortical involvement, size of lesion, seizure type, or electroencephalographic findings. SE occurred more frequently among patients with a higher disability rating (Rankin scale >3; odds ratio, 4.36). Recurrent SE was identified in 5 of 17 patients with SE. In all 5 of these patients, the first episode of SE occurred within the first 7 days after stroke (early-onset SE). Statistical analysis demonstrated that early-onset SE was associated with a higher risk for SE recurrence (P =0.003) and a higher mortality rate (P =0.04). Conclusions SE was not associated with a higher mortality rate but with higher functional disability. We also found that early-onset SE (within the first 7 days after stroke) was associated with a higher risk for SE recurrence and a higher mortality rate than late-onset SE (after 7 days after stroke).
Click-Through Rate Estimation for Rare Events in Online Advertising

In online advertising campaigns, to measure purchase propensity, click-through rate (CTR), defined as a ratio of number of clicks to number of impressions, is one of the most informative metrics used in business activities such as performance evaluation and budget planning. No matter what channel an ad goes through (display ads, sponsored search or contextual advertising), CTR estimation for rare events is essential but challenging, often incurring with huge variance, due to the sparsity in data. In this chapter, to alleviate this sparsity, we develop models and methods to smoothen CTR estimation by taking advantage of the data hierarchy in nature or by clustering and data continuity in time to leverage information from data close to the events of interest. In a contextual advertising system running at Yahoo! , we demonstrate that our methods lead to significantly more accurate estimation of CTRs.
Electronic Medical Record Cancer Incidence over Six Years Comparing New Users of Glargine with New Users of NPH Insulin

Background Recent studies suggested that insulin glargine use could be associated with increased risk of cancer. We compared the incidence of cancer in new users of glargine versus new users of NPH in a longitudinal clinical cohort with diabetes for up to 6 years. Methods and Findings From all patients who had been regularly followed at Massachusetts General Hospital from 1/01/2005 to 12/31/2010, 3,680 patients who had a medication record for glargine or NPH usage were obtained from the electronic medical record (EMR). From those we selected 539 new glargine users (age: 60.1±13.6 years, BMI: 32.7±7.5 kg/m2) and 343 new NPH users (61.5±14.1 years, 32.7±8.3 kg/m2) who had no prevalent cancer during 19 months prior to glargine or NPH initiation. All incident cancer cases were ascertained from the EMR requiring at least 2 ICD-9 codes within a 2 month period. Insulin exposure time and cumulative dose were validated. The statistical analysis compared the rates of cancer in new glargine vs. new NPH users while on treatment, adjusted for the propensity to receive one or the other insulin. There were 26 and 28 new cancer cases in new glargine and new NPH users for 1559 and 1126 person-years follow-up, respectively. There were no differences in the propensity-adjusted clinical characteristics between groups. The adjusted hazard ratio for the cancer incidence comparing glargine vs. NPH use was 0.65 (95% CI: 0.36–1.19). Conclusions Insulin glargine is not associated with development of cancers when compared with NPH in this longitudinal and carefully retrieved EMR data.
Syllable congruency and word frequency effects on brain activation

This article investigates the neural representation of the processes involved in recognizing multisyllabic words in Spanish asking whether lexical and sublexical processes are reflected in a different neuronal activation pattern. High and low frequency words were presented for lexical decision in two different colors. In the congruent condition the color boundaries matched the limit of the first syllable, whereas in the incongruent condition color boundaries and syllable boundaries did not match. The results revealed robust and dissociable brain activations for lexical frequency and syllable‐color congruency, but no interaction between the two. We interpreted the greater activation for low relative to high frequency words in the left pre/SMA region, and in the insula/inferior frontal cortex bilaterally to reflect a differential recruitment of lexico‐phonological and/or semantic processes. In contrast, we considered two interpretations for the greater deactivation in the precuneus for both lexical frequency and syllable‐color congruency words, and in the thalami and a frontal area for syllable‐color congruency words only. The deactivations may reflect the differential engagement of semantic processing or may result from the differential allocation of attentional resources. Importantly, while a differential deactivation pattern was observed in the precuneus region for lexicality and syllable‐color congruency, BOLD deconvolution revealed a remarkable difference in timing of the two effects with a much earlier deactivation peak for the syllable‐color congruency factor. Thus, effects of lexical frequency and syllable‐color congruency on brain activation show an important dissociation between lexical and sublexical processes during visual word recognition of multisyllabic words. Hum Brain Mapp 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
New Horizons of Acute Myocardial Infarction: From the Korea Acute Myocardial Infarction Registry

As the first nationwide Korean prospective multicenter data collection registry, the Korea Acute Myocardial Infarction Registry (KAMIR) launched in November 2005. Through a number of innovative approaches, KAMIR suggested new horizons about acute myocardial infarction (AMI) which contains unique features of Asian patients from baseline characteristics to treatment strategy. Obesity paradox was existed in Korean AMI patients, whereas no gender differences among them. KAMIR score suggested new risk stratifying method with increased convenience and an enhanced accuracy for the prediction of adverse outcomes. Standard loading dose of clopidogrel was enough for Asian AMI patients. Triple antiplatelet therapy with aspirin, clopidogrel and cilostazol could improve clinical outcomes than dual antiplatelet therapy with aspirin and clopidogrel. Statin improved clinical outcomes even in AMI patients with very low LDL-C levels. The rate of percutaneous coronary intervention was higher and door-to-balloon time was shorter than the previous reports. Zotarolimus eluting stents as the 2nd generation drug-eluting stent (DES) was not superior to the 1st generation DES, in contrast to the western AMI studies. KAMIR made a cornerstone in the study of Korean AMI and expected to be new standards of care for AMI with the renewal of KAMIR design to overcome its pitfalls.
Effect of simulated commercial flight on oxygenation in patients with interstitial lung disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Background: Commercial aircraft cabins provide a hostile environment for patients with underlying respiratory disease. Although there are algorithms and guidelines for predicting in-flight hypoxaemia, these relate to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and data for interstitial lung disease (ILD) are lacking. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of simulated cabin altitude on subjects with ILD at rest and during a limited walking task. Methods: Fifteen subjects with ILD and 10 subjects with COPD were recruited. All subjects had resting arterial oxygen pressure (Pao2) of >9.3 kPa. Subjects breathed a hypoxic gas mixture containing 15% oxygen with balance nitrogen for 20 minutes at rest followed by a 50 metre walking task. Pulse oximetry (Spo2) was monitored continuously with testing terminated if levels fell below 80%. Arterial blood gas tensions were taken on room air at rest and after the resting and exercise phases of breathing the gas mixture. Results: In both groups there was a statistically significant decrease in arterial oxygen saturation (Sao2) and Pao2 from room air to 15% oxygen at rest and from 15% oxygen at rest to the completion of the walking task. The ILD group differed significantly from the COPD group in resting 15% oxygen Sao2, Pao2, and room air pH. Means for both groups fell below recommended levels at both resting and when walking on 15% oxygen. Conclusion: Even in the presence of acceptable arterial blood gas tensions at sea level, subjects with both ILD and COPD fall below recommended levels of oxygenation when cabin altitude is simulated. This is exacerbated by minimal exercise. Resting sea level arterial blood gas tensions are similarly poor in both COPD and ILD for predicting the response to simulated cabin altitude.
Reversal of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis by a soluble peptide variant of a myelin basic protein epitope: T cell receptor antagonism and reduction of interferon gamma and tumor necrosis factor alpha production

An immunodominant epitope of myelin basic protein (MBP), VHFFKNIVTPRTP (p87-99), is a major target of T cells in lesions of multiple sclerosis (MS) and in experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE). T cells found in EAE lesions bear the same amino acids in the third complementary determining region of the T cell receptor (TCR) as those found in MS lesions. We analyzed the trimolecular interactions between MBP p87-99, class II major histocompatibility complex (MHC), and TCR, and designed soluble inhibitors for therapy. F, N, I, and V at positions 90, 92, 93, and 94 interact with MHC, whereas K, T, and P at positions 91, 95, and 96 interact with TCR. The peptides, p87-99[95T > A] and p87-99[96P > A] could compete more effectively with p87-99 for binding to MHC and could antagonize the in vitro response to T cells to p87-99 more effectively than p87-99[91K > A]. However, only p87-99[91K > A] prevented and reversed EAE, indicating that the extent of MHC or TCR competition does not predict success in treating EAE. To elucidate the mechanism of inhibition of EAE, draining lymph node cells from rats immunized with the native peptide alone or together with each of the three TCR antagonists were challenged in vitro with p87-99. Administration of p87-99[91K > A], but not p87-99 [95T > A] or p87- 99[96P > A], reduced the production of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)- alpha and interferon (IFN) gamma. IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha are two cytokines that are critical in the pathogenesis of EAE and MS.
A comparative study of tactile representation techniques for landmarks on a wearable device

Wearable tactile navigation displays may provide an alternative or complement to mobile visual navigation displays. Landmark information may provide a useful complement to directional information for navigation, however, there has been no reported use of landmark information in tactile navigation displays. We report a study that compared two tactile display techniques for landmark representation using one or two actuators respectively. The single-actuator technique generated different vibration patterns on a single actuator to represent different landmarks. The dual-actuator technique generated a single vibration pattern using two simultaneous actuators and different pairs of actuators around the body represented different landmarks. We compared the two techniques on four measures: distinguishability, learnability, short term memorability and user preference. Results showed that users performed equally well when either technique was used to represent landmarks alone. However, when landmark representations were presented together with directional signals, performance with the single-actuator technique was significantly reduced while performance with the dual-actuator technique remained unchanged.
Teacher behavior directed toward individual students in physical education classes : perceived student skill and personality as variables.

Teacher Behavior Directed Toward Individual Students in Physical Education Classes: Perceived Student Skill and Personaltiy as Variables (May, 1979) Fred M. Oien, B.S., South Dakota State University M.S., South Dakota State University Ed.D. , University of Massachusetts Directed by: Horace Reed, Ed.D. The purpose of this study was to describe the quality and quantity of individualized teacher behaviors (ITBs) that junior high school physical education teachers direct toward their students and to determine the degree to which those behaviors were related: (1) teacher peception of student skill performance and (2) teacher perception of student in-class personality. Subjects consisted of five teachers and 316 seventh, eighth, and ninth grade students from ten different classes (two classes for each teacher) .
Estimating Soil Organic Carbon Using VIS/NIR Spectroscopy with SVMR and SPA Methods

Abstract: With 298 heterogeneous soil samples from Yixing (Jiangsu Province), Zhongxiang and Honghu (Hubei Province), this study aimed to combine a successive projections algorithm (SPA) with a support vector machine regression (SVMR) model (SPA-SVMR model) to improve the estimation accuracy of soil organic carbon (SOC) contents using the laboratory-based visible and near-infrared (VIS/NIR, 350−2500 nm) spectroscopy of soils. The effects of eight spectra pre-processing methods, i.e. , Log (1/R), Log (1/R) coupled with Savitzky-Golay (SG) smoothing (Log (1/R) + SG), first derivative with SG smoothing (FD), second derivative with SG smoothing (SD), SG, standard normal variate (SNV), mean center (MC) and multiplicative scatter correction (MSC), on SPA-based informative wavelength selection were explored. The SVMR model ( i.e. , SVMR without SPA) and SPA-PLSR model ( i.e. , SPA combined with partial least squares regression (PLSR)) were developed and compared with the SPA-SVMR model in order to evaluate the performance of SPA-SVMR. The results indicated that the variables selected by SPA and their distributions were strongly affected by different pre-processing methods, and SG was the optimal pre-processing method for SPA-SVMR model development; the SPA-SVMR model using SG pre-processing and 28 SPA-selected wavelengths obtained a better result (R
Sequential Management of Commercial Rosewood (Aniba rosaeodora Ducke) Plantations in Central Amazonia: Seeking Sustainable Models for Essential Oil Production

Rosewood (Aniba rosaeodora Ducke) is an endangered tree that produces essential oil of high commercial value. However, technical-scientific knowledge about cultivation is scarce and studies are needed to examine the management viability. The current study evaluated rosewood aboveground biomass management, measuring the export of nutrients resulting from harvesting and testing sustainable management models. The crown of 36 rosewood trees were pruned and 108 trees cut at 50 cm above the soil in two regions in Central Amazonia. Post-harvest performance of sprouting shoots was evaluated and after, sprouting shoots were pruned so that the development of two, three and all shoots was permitted. Nutrient stock estimation was calculated as the product of mass and nutrient concentration, which allowed nutritional replacement to be estimated. The pruning facilitates regrowth by 40.11% of the initial mass while by cut regrow 1.45%. Chemical attributes of regrowth biomass differed significantly prior to management and regrowth had a significant correlation with the reserves in root tissues and with the pre -management status of the individual tree. Driving sprouts resulted in significantly larger growth increments and may provide a form of management that can viably be adopted. Biomass sequential management resulted in high nutrient exports and the amount of fertilizer needed for replenishment depended on the intensity and frequency of cropping. Compared with the cut of the tree, pruning the canopy reduces fertilizers that are required to replenish amount by 44%, decreasing to 26.37% in the second rotation. The generated knowledge contributes to this silvicultural practice as it becomes ecologically and economically viable.
Synchronization of Kuramoto oscillators in scale-free networks

In this work, we study the synchronization of coupled phase oscillators on the underlying topology of scale-free networks. In particular, we assume that each network's component is an oscillator and that each interacts with the others following the Kuramoto model. We then study the onset of global phase synchronization and fully characterize the system's dynamics. We also found that the resynchronization time of a perturbed node decays as a power law of its connectivity, providing a simple analytical explanation to this interesting behavior.