Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Wage Growth Due to Human Capital Accumulation and Job Search: A Comparison between the United States and Germany

This paper compares the sources of wage growth of young male workers in two countries with very different labor market institutions, the United States and Germany. The author first develops a simple method for decomposing wage growth into components due to general human capital accumulation, firm-specific human capital accumulation, and job search. The empirical analysis uses data from administrative records (Germany) and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (United States) for cohorts entering the labor market in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Although the two countries differed substantially in mobility rates, they were similar in the sources of wage growth, with general human capital accumulation being the most important single source and job search accounting for an additional 25% or more of total wage growth. There is no evidence that returns to firm-specific human capital accumulation were higher for German apprentices than for U.S. high school dropouts or graduates.
State-space Structure of Finite Horizon Optimal

We show that in contrast to the innnite horizon case, the nite horizon optimal mixed H 2 =H 1 estimation problem has a bounded order solution. Moreover, when the underlying systems have state-space models of order n, the optimal nite horizon mixed H 2 =H 1 lter has state-space model of order no greater than 2n + 1. Similar results hold for mixed H 2 =H 1 control, though for brevity we shall only consider estimation problem here.
Personalized medicine for pathological circadian dysfunctions

The recent approval of a therapeutic for a circadian disorder has increased interest in developing additional medicines for disorders characterized by circadian disruption. However, previous experience demonstrates that drug development for central nervous system (CNS) disorders has a high failure rate. Personalized medicine, or the approach to identifying the right treatment for the right patient, has recently become the standard for drug development in the oncology field. In addition to utilizing Companion Diagnostics (CDx) that identify specific genetic biomarkers to prescribe certain targeted therapies, patient profiling is regularly used to enrich for a responsive patient population during clinical trials, resulting in fewer patients required for statistical significance and a higher rate of success for demonstrating efficacy and hence receiving approval for the drug. This personalized medicine approach may be one mechanism that could reduce the high clinical trial failure rate in the development of CNS drugs. This review will discuss current circadian trials, the history of personalized medicine in oncology, lessons learned from a recently approved circadian therapeutic, and how personalized medicine can be tailored for use in future clinical trials for circadian disorders to ultimately lead to the approval of more therapeutics for patients suffering from circadian abnormalities.
‘I wanted to be Darcey Bussell’: Motivations and experiences of female dance teachers

Dance, analogous to professional sport, constitutes an interesting occupation in that there are relatively few vocations in which the athleticism of the body is inextricably linked to the ability to perform and teach. Dance teachers could pursue teaching as a career as a way to remain involved in the physicality of dance to maintain a sense of self as a dancer. Dance teachers make up a large proportion of the professional dance world in the United Kingdom and yet little is known about their role, training, continuing professional development and motivations to engage in a dance teaching career. To address this lacuna, research was undertaken with ten female dance-teachers (24 to 71 years). Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data, from which two key themes emerged as salient: (i) staying in dance; (ii) dance teaching as a career: challenges and skills. Pursuing a career in dance teaching was viewed as a way to maintain a sense of self as a dancer. Participants who had been dance performers appeared to view teaching as a natural career progression. The complex skills required of a dance teacher were highlighted and participants positioned dance teaching as a highly specialist career.
‘How’ we do social work, not ‘what’ we do

Abstract This article explores how Norwegian social workers at municipal social services offices experience and explain social work as professional knowledge and theory, and examines examples from their experience working in new, multi-professional settings. It draws on a qualitative multi-method study focused on professional knowledge in social work practice during and after the reform merging state offices for employment, social insurance and components of municipal social services into ‘one-stop shops’ – called Nav offices. The study found social workers articulating their professional ethical perspectives as social work while defining themselves as ‘us’ distinct from their new colleagues. Paradoxically, they found themselves facing challenges in articulating social work theoretically. Their focus was not necessarily on what they did as social workers – but on how they did it. In de-emphasizing the theoretical in favour of the principles and practical benefits of their profession, they took on roles of pragmatic and non-protectionist professionals. They became pragmatic in their efforts to safeguard the best interests of clients while being nonprotective of their professional knowledge in claiming everyone can practice social work if what one does is ‘good’. One possible consequence of this is that the expert knowledge involved in social work may become degraded to ordinary and everyday knowledge.
Risk Factor Associated with Negative Spouse HIV Seroconversion among Sero-Different Couples: A Nested Case-Control Retrospective Survey Study in 30 Counties in Rural China

Background Antiretroviral therapy (ART) and condom use have been proven to reduce the risk of sexual transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) among HIV sero-different couples, but its full implementation remains a challenge. This study aims to assess HIV seroconversion rate of HIV-negative spouse and its associated risk factors among HIV sero-different couples in rural China. Methods An open cohort of HIV sero-different couples enrolled in 30 counties in China between October 1, 2010, and September 30, 2012, and followed-up to December 31, 2012, was constructed retrospectively. A nested case-control study of risk factors of HIV seroconversion among sero-different couples was conducted in April and May of 2013, based on the open cohort. Sero-different couples with the HIV-negative spouse seroconverting at least 3 months after the previous negative diagnosis during cohort observation period were labeled as “case couples”. The “control couples” were selected randomly from the same cohort that did not have the HIV-negative spouse seroconversion during the same period. The “case couples” and “control couples” were matched on gender, age, and region of residence. Sexual behaviors among HIV sero-different couples before and after the index spouses notifying their HIV infection status to their HIV-negative spouses were collected via face-to-face interview. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were used to assess factors associated with HIV seroconversion among HIV sero-different couples. Results Of 4481 HIV sero-different couples, a total of 53 seroconversions were observed within 5218 person-years of follow-up. The incidence rate was 1.02 (95%CI: 0.76–1.33) per 100 person-years. Forty “case couples” confirmed HIV-negative spouse seroconversions infected via marital sexual transmission, were matched to 80 “control couples”. Of the 120 couples, 81(67.5%) were receiving ART, and 70 (58.3%) reported consistently used condoms during intercourse after the index spouse was diagnosed HIV infection. Multivariate conditional logistic regression analysis showed that the desire to conceive a child (OR = 5.18, 95% CI: 1.19–22.58) significantly increased the odds of HIV seroconversion. Protective factors of spousal HIV seroconversion were currently receiving ART (OR = 0.09, 95% CI: 0.01–0.67) and consistent condom use (OR = 0.05, 95% CI: 0.01–0.28). Conclusions Intention to conceive a child is the most important risk factor for HIV seroconversion among sero-different couples. Specific efforts on scientific use of ART to assist sero-different couples to achieve their wish to conceive a healthy child are needed to minimize the risk of HIV transmission.
The Knowledge Strategy Within a Business Context

The recognition of knowledge as the key to competitive advantage is raising many issues for corporate organisations and their managers. Each are accustomed to assembling tangible physical, financial and human resources, and competing on price, quality and customer service. The competitive dynamics of current markets are imposing upon management a demand for ongoing strategizing and to follow-up on changing market structures and competitor behaviour. Knowledge management within this business environment is emerging as a strategic challenge but in practice is rarely considered in a strategic context. A number of companies have introduced the role of a chief knowledge officer, virtual universities, best practice replication and a large number of technology-based initiatives e.g. Intranets. Managers and consultants generally do not treat knowledge management as a strategic endeavour. Furthermore, contributions from an academic point of view are scarce in the field of the strategic issues of knowledge management. In fact it is only in the last few years researchers have introduced the concept of a knowledge strategy and placed it in the context of a firm's business strategy. The author states that for knowledge to make a difference within such a competitive environment, it must be grounded within the company's strategic context. To achieve this there must be an association between the knowledge assets, resources, the core capabilities and the business strategy the firm pursues. The resource and knowledge based view of the firm will be used within this paper, to create a strategic framework for defining the knowledge within firms. The author will then from a literary perspective examine the association of these knowledge assets, resources and six organisational capabilities (creation, destruction, integration, absorption, replication and protection) to the intellectual resources of the business strategy. 3 An empirical survey of international best practice in knowledge management within thirty-seven leading international corporations will then be used to present specific examples. Based on these case studies a series of knowledge strategies will be defined. Ranging from firms who illustrate no association between the knowledge and organisational capabilities and the business strategy. To companies that pursue the strategy that knowledge management is a core competency and critical to the health of the business as a whole. In this case the knowledge, resources and capabilities are tightly aligned and integrated with the company's global business framework and strategies. This has been described as the 'second level' in a knowledge strategy, connecting the knowledge and the …
Effect of haptic guidance and error amplification robotic training interventions on the immediate improvement of timing among individuals that had a stroke

Purpose: Timing deficits can have a negative impact on the lives of survivors post chronic stroke. Studies evaluating ways to improve timing post stroke are scarce. The goal of the study was to evaluate the impact of a single session of haptic guidance (HG) and error amplification (EA) robotic training interventions on the improvement of post stroke timing accuracy. Materials and Methods: Thirty-four survivors post chronic stroke were randomly assigned to HG or EA. Participants played a computerized pinball-like game with their affected hand positioned in a robot that either helped them perform better (HG) or worse (EA) during the task. A baseline and retention phase preceded and followed HG and EA, respectively, in order to assess their efficiency at improving absolute timing errors. The impact of the side of the stroke lesion on the participants’ performance during the timing task was also explored for each training group. Results: An improvement in timing performance was only noted following HG (8.9 ± 4.9 ms versus 7.8 ± 5.3 ms, p = 0.032). Moreover, for the EA group only, participants with a leftsided stroke lesion showed a worsening in performance as compared to those with a right-sided stroke lesion (p = 0.001). Conclusion: Helping survivors post chronic stroke perform a timingbased task is beneficial to learning. Future studies should explore longer and more frequent HG training sessions in order to further promote post stroke motor recovery.
Inferring the residual waiting time for binary stationary time series

For a binary stationary time series define σn to be the number of consecutive ones up to the first zero encountered after time n, and consider the problem of estimating the conditional distribution and conditional expectation of σn after one has observed the first n outputs. We present a sequence of stopping times and universal estimators for these quantities which are pointwise consistent for all ergodic binary stationary processes. In case the process is a renewal process with zero the renewal state the stopping times along which we estimate have density one.
Genome-Wide Bovine H3K27me3 Modifications and the Regulatory Effects on Genes Expressions in Peripheral Blood Lymphocytes

Background Gene expression of lymphocytes was found to be influenced by histone methylation in mammals and trimethylation of lysine 27 on histone H3 (H3K27me3) normally represses genes expressions. Peripheral blood lymphocytes are the main source of somatic cells in the milk of dairy cows that vary frequently in response to the infection or injury of mammary gland and number of parities. Methods The genome-wide status of H3K27me3 modifications on blood lymphocytes in lactating Holsteins was performed via ChIP-Seq approach. Combined with digital gene expression (DGE) technique, the regulation effects of H3K27me3 on genes expressions were analyzed. Results The ChIP-seq results showed that the peaks of H3K27me3 in cows lymphocytes were mainly enriched in the regions of up20K (∼50%), down20K (∼30%) and intron (∼28%) of the genes. Only ∼3% peaks were enriched in exon regions. Moreover, the highest H3K27me3 modification levels were mainly around the 2 Kb upstream of transcriptional start sites (TSS) of the genes. Using conjoint analysis with DGE data, we found that H3K27me3 marks tended to repress target genes expressions throughout whole gene regions especially acting on the promoter region. A total of 53 differential expressed genes were detected in third parity cows compared to first parity, and the 25 down-regulated genes (PSEN2 etc.) were negatively correlated with H3K27me3 levels on up2Kb to up1Kb of the genes, while the up-regulated genes were not showed in this relationship. Conclusions The first blueprint of bovine H3K27me3 marks that mediates gene silencing was generated. H3K27me3 plays its repressed role mainly in the regulatory region in bovine lymphocytes. The up2Kb to up1Kb region of the down-regulated genes in third parity cows could be potential target of H3K27me3 regulation. Further studies are warranted to understand the regulation mechanisms of H3K27me3 on somatic cell count increases and milk losses in latter parities of cows.
Words and facts: children's fast mapping, retention and extension

Fast mapping describes the cognitive skill of mapping new information onto its appropriate referent, from minimal exposure. It has been researched primarily in the field of word learning and evidence suggests that a pre-school child can link a novel word with its referent and retain this link up to 1 month later (e.g. Markson & Bloom, 1997). In 4 experiments, I investigated the retention of fast mapped novel words and facts after 1 week in 3- and 4-year-old children. In the fifth and final study, I investigated extension of object labels and facts. In study 1, participants demonstrated an impressive rate of retention of a link between a novel object label and its referent novel object after one week. In contrast, retention of colour labels, shape labels, texture labels and linguistic facts was no better than chance, despite good short-term performance. These data suggested that object labels are retained more easily than other word types and facts. Studies 2, 3 and 4 investigated why facts were not retained after one week in Study 1. Studies 2 and 3 explored whether fast-mapped facts are only retained in the long term if they are associated with novel rather than familiar objects. Neither study found any significant differences between conditions suggesting that the familiarity of the referent object has limited effect on the long-term retention of fast mapped facts. Study 2 evidenced poor retention whereas, Study 3 found good long-term retention in all conditions. Study 4 examined whether the experimenter’s naming of familiar objects and the participant selecting the target object, during exposure to a novel fact, affects retention. Retention of facts was weak and no different from chance in all conditions. These results indicated that long-term retention of fast-mapped words and facts was much more difficult than the early literature suggested. A thorough analysis suggested several factors may have affected retention e.g. repeat testing and gestural cues. A final study examined extension of object labels and facts to other similar-shaped novel objects. Children spontaneously extended a newly learned novel object label, but not a specific fact ("my uncle gave this to me"). However, they extended a more generalisable fact, ("it comes from a place called Modi") to other members of the same object category, to the same extent as object labels. This indicated that facts can be as extendable as words and supports the conclusion that learning words and facts utilize similar cognitive mechanisms.
Examining Older Adults’ Perceptions of Usability and Acceptability of Remote Monitoring Systems to Manage Chronic Heart Failure

Objective: This study was conducted to evaluate the feasibility, usability, and acceptability of using remote monitoring systems (RMS) in monitoring health status (e.g., vital signs, symptom distress) in older adults (≥55) with chronic heart failure (HF). Method: Twenty-one patients (52.4% women, mean age 73.1 ± 9.3) were trained to measure and transmit health data with an RMS. Data transmissions were tracked for 12 weeks. Results: All participants initiated use of RMS within 1 week; 71%, 14%, and 14% of patients transmitted daily health data 100%, ≥75%, and <75% of the time, respectively, for 12 weeks. Overall usability and acceptability of the RMS were 4.08 ± 0.634 and 4.10 ± 0.563, respectively (when scored on a range of 1-5, where 1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree). Discussion: Findings show that an RMS-based intervention can be successfully implemented in a group of older patients with chronic HF.
Molecular Pathways Molecular Pathways : VCAM-1 as a Potential Therapeutic Target in Metastasis

Interactions between disseminated tumor cells (DTC) and stromal cells in the microenvironment are critical for tumor colonization of distal organs. Recent studies have shown that vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) is aberrantly expressed in breast cancer cells and mediates prometastatic tumorstromal interactions.Moreover, the usefulness of VCAM-1 toDTCs in 2different organs—lung andbone—is based on distinct mechanisms. In the lungs, VCAM-1 on the surface of cancer cells binds to its counterreceptor, thea4b1 integrin (also knownas very-late antigen, VLA-4), onmetastasis-associatedmacrophages, triggering VCAM-1–mediated activation of the phosphoinositide 3-kinase growth and survival pathway in the cancer cells. In the bone marrow, cancer cell VCAM-1 attracts and tethers a4 integrin–expressing osteoclast progenitors to facilitate their maturation into multinucleated osteoclasts that mediate osteolytic metastasis. These findings highlight the importance of direct interactions between DTCs and stromal cells during tumor dissemination and draw attention to the possibility of targeting the a4 integrin–VCAM-1 interactions in metastatic breast cancer. Anti-a4 integrin inhibitors have been developed to treat various diseases driven by massive leukocyte infiltrates and have gained U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval or are undergoing clinical trials. Testing these drugs against tumor-stromal leukocyte interactions may provide a new strategy to suppress lung and bone relapse of breast cancer.Clin Cancer Res; 18(20); 1–6.
Commensal Bacteria-Dependent Indole Production Enhances Epithelial Barrier Function in the Colon

Microbiota have been shown to have a great influence on functions of intestinal epithelial cells (ECs). The role of indole as a quorum-sensing (QS) molecule mediating intercellular signals in bacteria has been well appreciated. However, it remains unknown whether indole has beneficial effects on maintaining intestinal barriers in vivo. In this study, we analyzed the effect of indole on ECs using a germ free (GF) mouse model. GF mice showed decreased expression of junctional complex molecules in colonic ECs. The feces of specific pathogen-free (SPF) mice contained a high amount of indole; however the amount was significantly decreased in the feces of GF mice by 27-fold. Oral administration of indole-containing capsules resulted in increased expression of both tight junction (TJ)- and adherens junction (AJ)-associated molecules in colonic ECs in GF mice. In accordance with the increased expression of these junctional complex molecules, GF mice given indole-containing capsules showed higher resistance to dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)-induced colitis. A similar protective effect of indole on DSS-induced epithelial damage was also observed in mice bred in SPF conditions. These findings highlight the beneficial role of indole in establishing an epithelial barrier in vivo.
Role of Neurokinin B in the Control of Female Puberty and Its Modulation by Metabolic Status

Human genetic studies have revealed that neurokinin B (NKB) and its receptor, neurokinin-3 receptor (NK3R), are essential elements for normal reproduction; however, the precise role of NKB–NK3R signaling in the initiation of puberty remains unknown. We investigated here the regulation of Tac2 and Tacr3 mRNAs (encoding NKB and NK3R, respectively) in female rats and demonstrated that their hypothalamic expression is increased along postnatal maturation. At puberty, both genes were widely expressed throughout the brain, including the lateral hypothalamic area and the arcuate nucleus (ARC)/medial basal hypothalamus, where the expression of Tacr3 increased across pubertal transition. We showed that central administration of senktide (NK3R agonist) induced luteinizing hormone (LH) secretion in prepubertal and peripubertal females. Conversely, chronic infusion of an NK3R antagonist during puberty moderately delayed the timing of vaginal opening (VO) and tended to decrease LH levels. The expression of NKB and its receptor was sensitive to changes in metabolic status during puberty, as reflected by a reduction in Tacr3 (and, to a lesser extent, Tac2) expression in the ARC after a 48 h fast. Yet, acute LH responses to senktide in pubertal females were preserved, if not augmented, under fasting conditions, suggesting sensitization of the NKB–NK3R–gonadotropin-releasing hormone signaling pathway under metabolic distress. Moreover, repeated administration of senktide to female rats with pubertal arrest due to chronic undernutrition rescued VO (in ∼50% of animals) and potently elicited LH release. Altogether, our observations suggest that NKB–NK3R signaling plays a role in pubertal maturation and that its alterations may contribute to pubertal disorders linked to metabolic stress and negative energy balance.