Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of oral clonidine premedication on perioperative haemodynamic response and postoperative analgesic requirement for patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy

Clonidine has anti-hypertensive properties and augments the effects of anaesthesia, hence we considered it to be an ideal agent to contain the stress response to pneumoperitoneum. We studied the clinical efficacy of oral clonidine premedication in patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomies. Fifty patients scheduled for elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy under general anaesthesia were randomly allocated to receive premedication with either oral clonidine 150 μg (Group I, n = 25) or placebo (Group II, n = 25) 90 minutes prior to induction. The patients were managed with a standard general anaesthetic. The two groups were compared with respect to haemodynamic parameters, isoflurane concentration, pain and sedation scores, time to request of analgesic and cumulative analgesic requirements. Oral clonidine was found to be significantly better in terms of maintaining stable haemodynamics, having an isoflurane sparing effect and having a prolonged time interval to the first request of analgesia postoperatively compared to the control group. Administration of oral clonidine 150 μg as a pre-medicant in patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy results in improved perioperative haemodynamic stability and a reduction in the intra-operative anaesthetic and post-operative analgesic requirements.
Real Exchange Rates under the Gold Standard

Purchasing power parity is one of the most important equilibrium conditions in international macroeconomics. Empirically, it is also one of the most hotly contested. Numerous recent studies, for example, have sought to determine the validity of purchasing power parity using data from the post-Bretton Woods float and have reached different conclusions. We assert that most such studies are flawed for two reasons. First, the post-1973 data contain, by definition, only a very limited amount of the low-frequency information relevant for examination of long-run parity. Second, the dynamic econometric techniques used to model deviations from parity are typically quite crude with respect to admissible low-frequency dynamics. Both deficiencies are rectified in the present paper, with dramatic results. We construct a new data set of 16 real exchange rates covering more than a century of the classic gold standard period, and we study deviations from parity using long-memory models that allow for subtle forms of mean reversion. For each real exchange rate, we find that purchasing power parity holds in the long run.
SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL CHARACTERISTICS OF OUTGOING LONGWAVE RADIATION (OLR): AN UPDATE

A study of the Outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) values (Unit, W/m) observed by various satellites during 1979-2002 revealed that the OLR values varied considerably from one geographical region to another ( ~ 100-300 units). The climatology was latitude dependent. At middle and high latitudes, the range (minimum to maximum) was ~ 40-60 units, with maximum in local summer and minimum in local winter, but at lower latitudes, the range reduced considerably and was uncertain near equator. Near equator, the long-term changes (as seen in 12-month moving averages) were: OLR decreases during ENSO events in the eastern Pacific up to the dateline, and OLR increases during ENSO events in the Australasian region. Outside the equatorial region, the OLR changes were small during ENSO events and negligible in other years. In some longitudes at middle and high latitudes, the OLR changes occurred several months after the El Nino events, coinciding with La Nina (cold water events, opposite of warm water El Nino events).
Essays on Experimental Investigation of Lottery Contests

A contest is a situation in which individuals or groups expend costly resources while competing to win a specific prize. The variety of economic situations that can be described as contests has attracted enormous attention from economic theorists. Despite the extensive theoretical research of contests, very little empirical research has been done to evaluate the theory. This dissertation uses experimental methods to provide empirical investigation of different aspects of contest theory. The dissertation consists of four independent essays. The first essay experimentally compares the performance of four simultaneous lottery contests: a grand contest, two multiple prize settings (equal and unequal prizes), and a contest which consists of two sub-contests. Consistent with the theory, the grand contest generates the highest effort levels among all simultaneous contests. In multi-prize settings, equal prizes produce lower efforts than unequal prizes. The results also support the argument that joint contests generate higher efforts than an equivalent number of sub-contests. The second essay experimentally studies a two-stage elimination contest and compares its performance with a one-stage contest. Contrary to the theory, the two-stage contest generates higher total effort expenditures than the equivalent one-stage contest. The third essay investigates the performance of a two-stage elimination contest with effort carryover. Experimental results support all major theoretical predictions: the first stage effort and the total effort expenditures increase in the carryover rate, and the second stage effort decreases in the carryover rate. Consistent with other experimental studies, there is significant over-dissipation of efforts relative to the equilibrium prediction in all contests. The first essay argues that this over-dissipation can be partially explained by strong endowment size effects. Subjects who receive bigger endowments tend to over-dissipate, while subjects who receive smaller endowments tend to under-dissipate. This behavior is consistent with the predictions of a quantal response equilibrium. The second and third essays provide evidence that winning is a component in a subject’s utility and that non-monetary utility of winning is an important factor to explain over-dissipation in contests. The final essay investigates contests between groups. Each group has one strong player, with a higher valuation for the prize, and two weak players, with lower valuations. In contests where individual efforts are perfect substitutes, both strong and weak players expend significantly higher efforts than predicted by theory. In best-shot contests, where group performance depends on the best performer within the group, most of the effort is expended by strong players while weak players free-ride. In weakest-link contests, where group performance depends on the worst performer within the group, there is almost no free-riding and all players expend similar positive efforts.
Women, Informal Employment, and Social Protection in Latin America

The paper presents an overview of the situation of women in informal employment in Latin America and their access to social protection, and examines key public policy issues in extending social protection to this group. Informal employment has risen in Latin America in the last two decades. This is a product of economic crises, labour market liberalisation, and welfare reforms. There is an important gender dimension to informality. Women are over-represented in informal employment, and they are also over-represented in lower paid and precarious occupational groups within informal employment. As social protection entitlements in the region are largely dependent on employment status, women in informal employment are often excluded from formal social protection programmes. Reform of labour market institutions and social protection programmes is needed to extend social protection to this group. Integrated policy interventions aimed at supporting women's life course decisions could have an important effect in reducing their over-representation in informal employment.
Optimal investment under multi-factor stochastic volatility

We consider a model for multivariate intertemporal portfolio choice in complete and incomplete markets with a multi-factor stochastic covariance matrix of asset returns. The optimal investment strategies are derived in closed form. We estimate the model parameters and illustrate the optimal investment based on two stock indices: S&P500 and DAX. It is also shown that the model satisfies several stylized facts well known in the literature. We analyse the welfare losses due to suboptimal investment strategies and we find that investors who invest myopically, ignore derivative assets, model volatility by one factor and ignore stochastic covariance between asset returns can incur significant welfare losses.
A Study of Nurses ' Job Satisfaction : The Relationship to Organizational Commitment , Perceived Organizational Support , Transactional Leadership , Transformational Leadership , and Level of Education

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship of nurses' job satisfaction to organizational commitment, perceived organizational support, transactional leadership, transformational leadership, and level of education. Whereas previous research had explored these constructs separately, this study investigated two distinct paths to job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and perceived organizational support. The analytical procedure of multiple regression was utilized to determine the predicting strength among job satisfaction and the independent variables: organizational commitment, perceived organizational support, transactional and transformational leadership behavior, and nurses’ level of education. The researcher chose randomly four nursing homes from a total of 53 Medicare/Medicaid certified nursing homes located in Miami-Dade County. The participants were randomly chosen from a list of nursing staff provided by each facility. Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient revealed that positive correlation existed between the dependent variable and the following independent variables. Of the five independent variables, a multiple regression analysis indicated that organizational support was most strongly related to job satisfaction. This study provides new support to previous research about the importance of nurses’ commitment and satisfaction for organizational effectiveness and performance.
Cloning and characterization of herpes simplex virus type 1 oriL: comparison of replication and protein-DNA complex formation by oriL and oriS

The herpes simplex virus type 1 genome contains three origins of DNA replication: two copies of oriS and one copy of oriL. Although oriS has been characterized extensively, characterization of oriL has been severely limited by the inability to amplify oriL sequences in an undeleted form in Escherichia coli. We report the successful cloning of intact oriL sequences in an E. coli strain, SURE, which contains mutations in a series of genes involved in independent DNA repair pathways shown to be important in the rearrangement and deletion of DNA containing irregular structures such as palindromes. The oriL-containing clones propagated in SURE cells contained no deletions, as determined by Southern blot hybridization and DNA sequence analysis, and were replication competent in transient DNA replication assays. Deletion of 400 bp of flanking sequences decreased the replication efficiency of oriL twofold in transient assays, demonstrating a role for flanking sequences in enhancing replication efficiency. Comparison of the replication efficiencies of an 822-bp oriS-containing plasmid and an 833-bp oriL-containing plasmid demonstrated that the kinetics of replication of the two plasmids were similar but that the oriL-containing plasmid replicated 60 to 70% as efficiently as the oriS-containing plasmid at both early and late times after infection with herpes simplex virus type 1. The virus-specified origin-binding protein (OBP) and a cellular factor(s) (OF-1) have been shown in gel mobility shift experiments to bind specific sequences in oriS (C.E. Dabrowski, P. Carmillo, and P.A. Schaffer, Mol. Cell. Biol. 14:2545-2555, 1994; C.E. Dabrowski and P.A. Schaffer, J. Virol. 65:3140-3150, 1991). Although the nucleotides required for the binding of OBP to OBP binding site I in oriL and oriS are the same, a single nucleotide difference distinguishes OBP binding site III in the two origins. The nucleotides adjacent to oriS sites I and III have been shown to be important for the binding of OF-1 to oriS site I. Several nucleotide differences exist in these sequences in oriL and oriS. Despite these minor nucleotide differences, the protein-DNA complexes that formed with oriL and oriS sites I and III were indistinguishable when extracts of infected and uninfected cells were used as the source of protein. Furthermore, the results of competition analysis suggest that the proteins involved in protein-DNA complex formation with sites I and III of the two origins are likely the same.
The Antiretroviral Regimen Complexity Index: A Novel Method of Quantifying Regimen Complexity

Background:Individuals with HIV disease often must adhere to complex medication regimens. To date, regimen complexity has not been examined in the literature using standardized procedures incorporating all important elements of antiretroviral (ARV) regimens. Objective:This article presents a novel method of quantifying regimen complexity using objective criteria addressing the factors that may complicate adherence to ARV regimens. Methods:Part 1 of this article describes the development of the Antiretroviral Regimen Complexity (ARC) Index scoring system. Based on input from pediatric and adult patients, caregivers of pediatric patients, and health care professionals, this comprehensive system includes the number of medications, dosing schedules, administration methods, special instructions, and required preparations associated with ARV regimens. Weights are applied for each of these factors to produce an overall score representing the regimen's level of complexity. Part 2 of this article presents reliability and validity data for the system. Results:The ARC Index demonstrates excellent test-retest and interrater reliability as well as strong construct and discriminant validity. An on-line version of this system minimizes computation errors. Conclusions:Although modifications may be necessary for patients requiring nonstandard dosing instructions, preliminary evidence supports the utility of this measure as a reliable and valid indicator of the complexity of antiretroviral treatment regimens.
Impact of time interval between donor brain death and cold preservation on long-term outcome in lung transplantation.

OBJECTIVES Brain death (BD) is associated with various systemic responses and a cascade of inflammatory reactions. It is still unknown how the time interval from BD to cold preservation (CP) affects outcome after lung transplantation (LTx). This report investigates the impact of the time interval from BD to CP on long-term outcome in LTx. METHODS We reviewed 250 consecutive recipients who underwent LTx at our institution between January 2000 and December 2011. In Group I (n = 212), the time interval from BD to CP was <24 h, and in Group II (n = 38) >24 h. Cox proportional hazard regression analysis was performed to determine the risk factors affecting survival. RESULTS The median time from BD to CP was 18.6 h (range 9-65). The rate of postoperative complications was comparable (P = 0.8). The 30-day mortality rate was 7.5% in Group I and 0% in Group II. The 5-year survival rate was better in Group II [70% (95% CI: 48.5-83.8%)] than in Group I [66% (95% CI: 58.3-72.5%)] without statistical significance (P = 0.3). Intraoperative extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) use was identified as a significant risk factor for survival [HR = 1.7, (95% CI: 1.1-2.6), P = 0.01]. CONCLUSION In our cohort, the time interval from BD to CP had no impact on long-term outcome after LTx.
Uncovered interest parity and the FX carry trade

Uncovered interest parity (UIP), the cornerstone of many open economy models, has been a popular topic in the last three decades. Although the concepts of covered and uncovered interest parities can be traced back to Keynes’ theories from the 1920s (Isard 2006), interest in the topic surged after the breakdown of Bretton Woods as the liberalization of global exchange rates provided new opportunities for empirical work. Signs of disappointments, which have dominated the UIP literature since the early 1980s, manifested themselves early. For example, Shafer et al. (1983) wrote ‘‘evidence began to accumulate as early as late 1976 that the uncovered interest parity condition might not hold or that the expectations for which it held were not rational. ’’
A new low-complexity demapper for high-performance iterative MIMO: information-theoretic and BER analyses

Space-time bit interleaved coded modulation with iterative detection has been recognized as a method for achieving near-capacity performance using multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. However, the maximum-likelihood/joint-detection, required for this method, exhibits prohibitive implementation complexity at high rates (/spl ges/15 bps/Hz). With a view to enabling practical implementations of high spectral-efficiency wireless communications, this paper introduces a new single-stream detection approach using spatial-filtering and soft-cancellation. This method also exhibits superior performance relative to the conventional multi-stream detection approach as long as there are as many receive elements as there are transmit streams. The proposed method is evaluated in terms of bit error rate performance and information-theoretic considerations using an EXIT (extrinsic information transfer) chart method.
Ecological compensation for natural resource utilisation in China

In China, the ecological compensation mechanism (ECM) was initiated in the 1990s solely to address compensation for forest ecological benefits. For nearly 20 years, the ECM has been gradually applied to other areas. This study evaluates the current status, implementation procedures and existing problems of ECMs in China. Several large-scale ecological engineering projects are summarised, and eight ECM pilot cases are examined. There are some major issues concerning ECMs: policy, institution, administration, management, finance and capital allocation. Suggestions are proposed to improve current conditions and resolve existing problems. Finally, several key topics for future research are also discussed.
Anti-Inflammatory Activity of Natural Products

This article presents highlights of the published literature regarding the anti-inflammatory activities of natural products. Many review articles were published in this regard, however, most of them have presented this important issue from a regional, limited perspective. This paper summarizes the vast range of review and research articles that have reported on the anti-inflammatory effects of extracts and/or pure compounds derived from natural products. Moreover, this review pinpoints some interesting traditionally used medicinal plants that were not investigated yet.
l‐Carnitine May Attenuate Free Fatty Acid‐Induced Endothelial Dysfunction

Abstract: We have recently shown that elevated levels of free fatty acid (FFA) seen in insulin‐resistant obese subjects are associated with endothelial dysfunction. l‐Carnitine, which is required for mitochondrial FFA transport/oxidation, has been reported to improve vascular function in subjects with diabetes and heart disease. Here, we tested the hypothesis that l‐carnitine attenuates FFA‐induced endothelial dysfunction. We studied leg blood flow (LBF) responses and leg vascular resistance (LVR) to graded intrafemoral artery infusions of the endothelium‐dependent vasodilator, methacholine chloride (MCh). A group (n= 7) of normal lean subjects was studied under basal conditions (saline), after 2 h of FFA elevation (FFA), and then after 2 h of superimposing l‐carnitine on FFA elevation. FFA elevation caused the maximal LBF increment in response to MCh to decrease from 0.388 ± 0.08 to 0.212 ± 0.071 L/min (P= 0.05). Similarly, FFA blunted the maximum decrease in LVR in response to MCh from −315 ± 41 U to −105 ± 46 U (P= 0.05). The superimposed l‐carnitine restored the LBF increment in response to MCh to 0.488 ± 0.088 L/min (P= 0.05 vs. FFA) and the maximum fall in LVR to −287 ± 75 U (P= 0.05 vs. FFA), indicating that l‐carnitine elevation may attenuate FFA‐induced endothelial dysfunction. In conclusion, our data suggest that increasing l‐carnitine levels may improve FFA‐induced and obesity‐associated endothelial dysfunction. This improved endothelial function may delay or prevent the development of excess cardiovascular disease.
Hs‐CRP is associated with weight, BMI, and female sex but not with endothelial function in children with type 1 diabetes

Background: Atherosclerosis is an inflammatory process, and high‐sensitivity C‐reactive protein (Hs‐CRP), a marker of inflammation, predicts cardiovascular events in adults. Vascular endothelial and smooth muscle dysfunction, measurable precursors of atherosclerosis, begin in childhood. Therefore, we sought to determine if Hs‐CRP is associated with vascular endothelial and smooth muscle dysfunction in children with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) and healthy control subjects.
Testing financial liberalization hypothesis with ARDL modelling approach

It is a stylised fact that financial ‘repression’ retards economic growth. Hence, financial liberalization is advocated to remove the stranglehold on the economy. Financial liberalization policy argues that deregulation of interest rate would result in a higher real interest rate which would lead to increased savings, increased investment and achieve efficiency in financial resource allocation. Past studies have reported inconclusive results regarding the interest rate effects on savings and investment. This examines the financial liberalization hypothesis by employing autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) modelling approach on Nepalese data. Results show that the real interest rate affects both savings and investment positively.
The Serum Factors Gm (a), Gm (b), Gm (x) and Gm‐like in Patients with Chronic Rheumatic Affections

The serum factors Gm (a), Gm (b), Gm (x), and Gm‐like have been determined in 477 adults with Rheumatoid Arthritis, 168 with Ankylosing Spondylitis, and 118 with other chronic rheumatic diseases. The incidence of Gm (a+) in R.A. and the miscellaneous group does not differ from that in a normal population, but is lower than normal in A.S. Gm (b) frequencies are similar in all three groups to those of normal subjects. Gm (x+) is markedly higher in R.A. patients with a positive Waaler‐Rose test.