Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Valuing urban wetlands: A review of non-market valuation studies

Wetlands provide a range of valuable ecosystem services from water purification and nutrient retention to recreation and aesthetics. The value of these services is often difficult to quantify and document to policy makers and the general public. Economists have developed non-market approaches to address difficult issues related to valuation of the environment. This paper reviews recent literature on non-market valuation as applied to wetlands, with a particular focus on the value of urban wetlands. Wetland valuation studies have generated a wide range of values, in part due to differences in what is valued and in part due to differences in methodology. Several studies have shown that property owners value proximity to wetlands in urban areas. In addition, studies have found positive values for recreation (fishing and hunting), commercial fishing, water purification, and other ecosystem services provided by wetlands, although little of this work has been done on urban wetlands. Valuation studies can provide useful information about relative rankings of value, showing, for example, that certain types of wetlands or certain services are more highly valued than others. Whether the absolute magnitude of valuation estimates is correct is less clear.
Regeneration of the MPTP-Lesioned Dopaminergic System after Convection-Enhanced Delivery of AAV2-GDNF

Clinical studies to date have failed to establish therapeutic benefit of glial cell-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) in Parkinson's disease (PD). In contrast to previous nonclinical neuroprotective reports, this study shows clinically relevant and long-lasting regeneration of the dopaminergic system in rhesus macaques lesioned with 1-methy-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine 3–6 months before GDNF gene delivery (AAV2-GDNF). The observed progressive amelioration of functional deficits, recovery of dopamine, and regrowth of fibers to the striatal neuropil demonstrate that high GDNF expression in the putamen promotes restoration of the dopaminergic system in a primate model of advanced PD. Extensive distribution of GDNF within the putamen and transport to the severely lesioned substantia nigra, after convection-enhanced delivery of AAV2-GDNF into the putamen, indicates anterograde transport via striatonigral connections and is anticipated to occur in PD patients. Overall, these data demonstrate nonclinical neurorestoration after putaminal infusion of AAV2-GDNF and suggest that clinical investigation in PD patients is warranted.
Fractional order PD controller design for non-monotonic phase systems

This paper presents a novel technique for the analytical design of the fractional order controller for non-monotonic phase systems. The PD controller is designed for non-monotonic system based on gain crossover frequency and phase margin specifications. The method provides a minimum phase margin in the desired bandwidth. The proposed method redefines the concept of phase margin for non-monotonic system with decreasing phase. Introduction of the fractional power parameters offers some advantage in terms of robust performance. For comparison, the proposed non-monotonic method and the conventional method are chosen for the same set of tuning constraints.
Outsourcing Business Service and the Scope of Local Markets

This paper examines outsourcing to test whether productivity-enhancing specialization is facilitated in bigger cities. First, the paper provides a theoretical model which shows that greater local demand for a given input promotes the entry of suppliers into a city; the increased number of suppliers then results in lower outsourcing prices and a higher use of outsourcing by final producers, therefore reducing the final producers' production costs. I then test the predictions of the model by examining manufacturing plants' practices of outsourcing business services, by using plant-level data from the 1992 Annual Survey of Manufactures. The empirical results show that an exogenous increase in local demand promotes the entry of service suppliers and increases a firm's probability of outsourcing for white-collar services. In particular, I found that doubling the intensity of the use of a service in a U.S. county, which can be attributed to the industrial composition of the county, results in a 7% to 25% increase in the probability of outsourcing.
Charge gain, NBTI recovery and random telegraph noise in localized-trapping NVM devices

Three different physical reliability processes - charge gain (CG) in EEPROM nonvolatile memory devices, the recovery of negative bias temperature instability (NBTI-R) and random telegraph noise (RTN) are linked together to interpret the CG effect. CG in nitride trapping devices is shown to exhibit discrete detrapping steps similar to NBTI recovery in MOS devices. The height of the RTN-like steps of the CG process can be tuned by modulating the electric field that controls the point of hole injection during the negative erase bias of the device.
A Comparison of Budesonide and Prednisone for the Treatment of Active Pediatric Crohn Disease

Objectives Budesonide has been found effective in patients with mild and moderate Crohn disease and has been found to cause fewer side effects than prednisone. The use of oral budesonide has not been prospectively evaluated in children with Crohn disease. Therefore, the authors initiated a trial to compare remission and tolerance to budesonide and prednisone in children with mild or moderately active Crohn disease. Methods A prospective randomized open controlled 12-week trial was carried out comparing pH modified release budesonide, 9 mg, versus prednisone, 40 mg, in children with active mild to moderate pediatric Crohn disease. Results Thirty-three patients (20 boys and 13 girls; mean age, 14.3 years) enrolled and completed the study. The groups treated with budesonide and prednisone did not differ by age, onset of disease, location of disease, or disease activity. The remission rate at 12 weeks was 47% in the budesonide treatment group and 50% in the prednisone treatment group. Side effects occurred in 32% and 71% of patients treated with budesonide and prednisone, respectively (P < 0.05). Severity of cosmetic side effects was significantly lower in patients treated with budesonide (P < 0.01). Conclusions Remission rates for Crohn disease with budesonide and prednisone treatment in this study were similar. Pediatric patients treated with budesonide had significantly fewer side effects than patients treated with prednisone. Budesonide should be considered an alternative to prednisone in pediatric patients with mild to moderate disease activity.
Irritable bowel syndrome: physicians' awareness and patients' experience.

AIM To study if and how physicians use the irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) diagnostic criteria and to assess treatment strategies in IBS patients. METHODS A questionnaire was sent to 191 physicians regarding IBS criteria, diagnostic methods and treatment. Furthermore, 94 patients who were diagnosed with IBS underwent telephone interview. RESULTS A total of 80/191 (41.9%) physicians responded to the survey. Overall, 13 patients were diagnosed monthly with IBS by specialists in gastroenterology (SGs) and 2.5 patients by general practitioners (GPs). All the SGs knew of the criteria to diagnose IBS, as did 46/70 (65.7%) GPs. Seventy-nine percent used the patient's history, 38% used a physical examination, and 38% exclusion of other diseases to diagnose IBS. Only 18/80 (22.5%) physicians used specific IBS criteria. Of the patients interviewed, 59/94 (62.8%) knew they had experienced IBS. Two out of five patients knew IBS and had seen a physician because of IBS symptoms. Half of those received a diagnosis of IBS. A total of 13% were satisfied with treatment. IBS affected daily activities in 43% of cases. CONCLUSION Half of the patients with IBS who consulted a physician received a diagnosis. Awareness and knowledge of diagnostic criteria for IBS differ between SGs and GPs.
CYP2D6 polymorphisms and the risk of tardive dyskinesia in schizophrenia: a meta-analysis

The present study aimed to evaluate whether there is any association between CYP2D6 alleles and susceptibility to tardive dyskinesia in patients with schizophrenia under treatment. A meta-analysis considered case–control studies determining the distribution of genotypes for any CYP2D6 polymorphism in unrelated tardive dyskinesia cases and controls without tardive dyskinesia among patients with schizophrenia who were treated with antipsychotic agents. Loss of function alleles were grouped together in a single comparison, whereas other alleles (*2 and *10) were examined separately. Data were available for eight (n=569 patients), three (n=325 patients) and four (n=556) studies evaluating the effect of the loss of function alleles, the *2 allele and the *10 allele, respectively. Summary odds ratios (ORs) suggested that loss of function alleles increased the risk of tardive dyskinesia significantly [OR=1.43, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.06–1.93, P=0.021], whereas there was no effect for *2 and inconclusive evidence for *10 (OR=0.82, 95% CI 0.50–1.32, P=0.41 and OR=1.19, 95% CI, 0.89–1.60, P=0.24, respectively). Patients who were homozygotes for loss of function alleles (poor metabolizers) had 1.64-fold greater odds of suffering tardive dyskinesia compared to other patients with schizophrenia, but the effect was not formally significant (95% CI 0.79–3.43). For the risk conferred by loss of function alleles, large studies provided more conservative estimates of a genetic effect than smaller studies (P=0.003). CYP2D6 loss of function alleles may predispose to tardive dyskinesia in patients with schizophrenia under treatment, but bias cannot be excluded.
Bayesian Pursuit algorithm for sparse representation

In this paper, we propose a Bayesian Pursuit algorithm for sparse representation. It uses both the simplicity of the pursuit algorithms and optimal Bayesian framework to determine active atoms in sparse representation of a signal. We show that using Bayesian Hypothesis testing to determine the active atoms from the correlations leads to an efficient activity measure. Simulation results show that our suggested algorithm has better performance among the algorithms which have been implemented in our simulations in most of the cases.
Intestinal Microbial Ecology and Environmental Factors Affecting Necrotizing Enterocolitis

Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is the most devastating intestinal disease affecting preterm infants. In addition to being associated with short term mortality and morbidity, survivors are left with significant long term sequelae. The cost of caring for these infants is high. Epidemiologic evidence suggests that use of antibiotics and type of feeding may cause an intestinal dysbiosis important in the pathogenesis of NEC, but the contribution of specific infectious agents is poorly understood. Fecal samples from preterm infants ≤32 weeks gestation were analyzed using 16S rRNA based methods at 2, 1, and 0 weeks, prior to diagnosis of NEC in 18 NEC cases and 35 controls. Environmental factors such as antibiotic usage, feeding type (human milk versus formula) and location of neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) were also evaluated. Microbiota composition differed between the three neonatal units where we observed differences in antibiotic usage. In NEC cases we observed a higher proportion of Proteobacteria (61%) two weeks and of Actinobacteria (3%) 1 week before diagnosis of NEC compared to controls (19% and 0.4%, respectively) and lower numbers of Bifidobacteria counts and Bacteroidetes proportions in the weeks before NEC diagnosis. In the first fecal samples obtained during week one of life we detected a novel signature sequence, distinct from but matching closest to Klebsiella pneumoniae, that was strongly associated with NEC development later in life. Infants who develop NEC exhibit a different pattern of microbial colonization compared to controls. Antibiotic usage correlated with these differences and combined with type of feeding likely plays a critical role in the development of NEC.
Musical preference as an indicator of adolescent drug use.

AIMS This paper aims to demonstrate whether a relationship exists between adolescent drug use and identification with styles of music linked to specific youth culture. DESIGN Survey data were collected by researchers, under exam conditions, from two contrasting samples of Scottish secondary schoolchildren. SETTING Fieldwork was conducted in five comprehensive schools in the city of Dundee in 1994 and five comprehensive schools in the rural area of Perth and Kinross District in 1996. PARTICIPANTS Questionnaires were administered to two randomly selected mixed ability classes in each of the four compulsory school years (S1 to S4), at each participating school. The eventual sample (n = 1523) was approximately 10% of all children in these school years from the geographical areas surveyed. MEASUREMENTS Comparisons were made between life-time measures of legal and illegal drug use and current favourite style of music. FINDINGS Although few children in this study had ever taken the drug ecstasy (MDMA), 'fans' of rave music were more likely to have used drugs than those who preferred other styles of music. This relationship held true across a range of drugs used, across two geographical areas, over time and controlling for age, gender and parental social class. CONCLUSIONS The paper is one of the first to quantify a possible relationship between drug use and music style. On the basis of the evidence presented, a significant relationship was found between identification with rave music and life-time drug use.
Why the terms 'current mode' and 'voltage mode' neither divide nor qualify circuits

It is often stated in papers that there may be a fundamental difference between current-mode and voltage-mode circuits. In this discussion paper, we show that there is no definition that would clearly divide all circuits into current-mode and voltage-mode. Then we provide evidence that a voltage-mode Gm-C filter and its current-mode counterpart have the same performance. The reason why current-mode circuits often perform differently from voltage-mode circuits is that current-mode circuits often use less loop gain and are less complex. Because one can also build voltage-mode circuits in that way, and current-mode circuits with more gain and complexity, the actual difference between current mode and voltage mode comes from the different preferences of the research groups. We conclude that conscious efforts should be made to re-integrate the knowledge produced by the current-mode research groups into main-stream analog IC design.
[Skin and mucous membrane manifestations of coccidioidomycosis: a study of thirty cases in the Brazilian states of Piauí and Maranhão].

BACKGROUND Coccidioidomycosis is a systemic mycosis that usually presents as a benign infection. Patients generally recover spontaneously; however, a small proportion of infected individuals develop progressive complications that may affect the skin in the form of disseminated pleomorphic lesions and may become fatal. OBJECTIVES To identify and describe skin and mucous membrane manifestations of coccidioidomycosis, to identify occupational hazards associated with the disease and to determine its associated clinical presentation. METHODS A study conducted between 2003 and 2006 involving 30 patients from the Brazilian states of Piauí and Maranhão with coccidioidomycosis diagnosed by direct microscopy, sputum culture or screening serology using agar gel double immunodiffusion, in association with anamnesis and physical examination. RESULTS Extrapulmonary lesions were found in 13 cases (43.3%), consisting predominantly of dermatological manifestations of hypersensitivity: erythema nodosum (26.6%), exanthema with erythematosquamous lesions (26.6%) and erythema multiforme (23.3%), as well as ulcerations of the tongue (13.3%), lip ulcers (6.6%) and subcutaneous abscess (3.3%). These manifestations were seen during the acute phase of the disease. CONCLUSIONS Skin manifestations associated with an acute respiratory infection reinforce the hypothesis of a diagnosis of coccidioidomycosis, particularly in individuals who hunt armadillos or in those exposed to soil excavation.
Co-morbidity of depression and epilepsy in Jimma University specialized hospital, Southwest Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND Depression is a serious and frequent co-morbid illness among people with epilepsy (PWE) and the risk for depression in PWE is higher than the general population. However, depression among PWE is often under diagnosed and treated by physicians other than psychiatrists in resource-limited settings like Ethiopia. OBJECTIVE This study aimed at assessing the prevalence and factors associated with depression and its implication for treatment among PWE in Southwest Ethiopia. MATERIALS AND METHODS A hospital-based cross-sectional study design was facilitated among 300 adult subjects diagnosed with epilepsy at the Jimma University Specialized Hospital (JUSH) from August to October 2012. Depression was assessed using the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) scale which was found to have Cronbach's Alpha of 0.82 for this study. RESULTS A total of 300 adult subjects with epilepsy were interviewed making a response rate of 100%. The prevalence of depressive disorder among patient with epilepsy was 49.3%. Of these, 39.9%, 38.5%, and 21.6% of the patient were found to have mild, moderate, and severe depression, respectively. Epilepsy-related perceived stigma, high seizure frequency, and low educational status were found to be independent predictors of depression among subjects with epilepsy. CONCLUSION In this study, depression was found to be highly prevalent. Early recognition and treatment of depression through routine screening and assessment of PWE should become an essential part of diagnosis and treatment protocol.
Factors influencing insulin sensitivity during hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp in healthy Korean male subjects

Background and objective: The effects of age and related factors on insulin sensitivity have not been definitively evaluated in East Asian populations. We proposed a reference range for the glucose disposal rate (M-value) on hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic study and its association with other parameters. Methods: Healthy, non-diabetic young (n=10) and elderly (n=13) male subjects with normal body mass index were eligible for this study. Subjects who passed the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) underwent hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp with high-dose (80 mU/m2·min) insulin infusion. Results: M-values were normalized to body weight (MBW) and fat-free mass (MFFM). Neither M-value was significantly different between age groups (P=0.458 and P=0.900, respectively). An inverse correlation was observed between MFFM and baseline insulin (r=−0.418; P=0.047), baseline C-peptide (r=−0.426; P=0.043) and OGTT 2-hour glucose (r=−0.452; P=0.030). Regarding correlations with other insulin sensitivity indices, M-values were positively associated with the Matsuda index but not with homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance. Conclusion: Our results suggest that age is not a critical determinant of insulin sensitivity, while fasting insulin and C-peptide levels, OGTT 2-hour glucose level, and Matsuda index are predictable markers of insulin sensitivity in healthy Koreans.
Different Regions of the Malaria Merozoite Surface Protein 1 of Plasmodium chabaudi Elicit Distinct T-Cell and Antibody Isotype Responses

ABSTRACT In this study we have investigated the antibody and CD4 T-cell responses to the well-characterized malaria vaccine candidate MSP-1 during the course of a primary Plasmodium chabaudi chabaudi(AS) infection. Specific antibody responses can be detected within the first week of infection, and CD4 T cells can be detected after 3 weeks of infection. The magnitude of the CD4 T-cell response elicited during a primary infection depended upon the region of MSP-1. In general, the highest precursor frequencies were obtained when a recombinant MSP-1 fragment corresponding to amino acids 900 to 1507 was used as the antigen in vitro. By contrast, proliferative and cytokine responses against amino acids 1508 to 1766 containing the C-terminal 21-kDa region of the molecule were low. The characteristic interleukin 4 (IL-4) switch that occurs in the CD4 T-cell population after an acute blood stage P. c. chabaudi infection was only consistently observed in the response to the amino acid 900 to 1507 MSP1 fragment. A lower frequency of IL-4-producing cells was seen in response to other regions. Although the magnitudes of the immunoglobulin G antibody responses to the different regions of MSP-1 were similar, the isotype composition of each response was distinct, and there was no obvious relationship with the type of T helper cells generated. Interestingly, a relatively high antibody response to the C-terminal region of MSP-1 was observed, suggesting that T-cell epitopes outside of this region may provide the necessary cognate help for specific antibody production.
Overall Lack of Regulated Secretion in a PC12 Variant Cell Clone*

A stable clone of PC12 neuroendocrine cells, named 27, known from previous studies to exhibit a defect of regulated secretion (lack of regulated secretory proteins, of synaptophysin, of dense granules and of catecholamine uptake and release; Clementi, E., Racchetti, G., Zacchetti, D., Panzeri, M. C., and Meldolesi, J. (1992) Eur. J. Neurosci. 4, 944-953) was characterized in detail to clarify the nature of its phenotype and the mechanisms of its establishment. The neuroendocrine nature of the PC12-27 phenotype was documented by specific markers: synapsins, neurofilament subunit H, neuronal kinesin, and α-latrotoxin receptor. Moreover, various intracellular membrane systems of PC12-27, including the endoplasmic reticulum and the Golgi complex, appeared similar to control PC12 in both morphology and marker expression. In contrast, all the investigated markers located either in dense granules (dopamine-β-hydroxylase), in synaptic-like microvesicles (the acetylcholine transporter) or in both these regulated secretory organelles (VAMP2/synaptobrevin-2, synaptotagmin) were missing in PC12-27 cells, and the same was true also for the cytosolic and plasmalemma proteins involved in regulated exocytosis (Rab3, SNAP25, syntaxin). Pulse labeling and in vitro translation experiments revealed the defect to consist in a protein synthesis blockade that mRNA studies (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, Northern blotting, and actinomycin D experiments) revealed to take place primarily at the transcriptional level. The secretion defect of PC12-27 cells was modified neither by various types of long term stimulation nor by nerve growth factor treatment. Moreover, when one of the missing regulated secretory proteins, chromogranin B, was expressed by cDNA transfection, it was secreted, however via the constitutive pathway. Our results demonstrate that PC12-27 cells are fully incompetent for both branches of regulated secretion, those of dense granules and synaptic-like microvesicles, possibly because of the impairment of a general expression control system that appears to operate independently of neuroendocrine cell differentiation.