Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Diffusion tensor imaging in parkinsonian syndromes

Objectives: We performed a systematic review to assess alterations in measures of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in parkinsonian syndromes, exploring the potential role of DTI in diagnosis and as a candidate biomarker. Methods: We searched EMBASE and Medline databases for DTI studies comparing parkinsonian syndromes or related dementias with controls or another defined parkinsonian syndrome. Key details for each study regarding participants, imaging methods, and results were extracted. Estimates were pooled, where appropriate, by random-effects meta-analysis. Results: Of 333 results, we identified 43 studies suitable for inclusion (958 patients, 764 controls). DTI measures detected alterations in all parkinsonian syndromes, with distribution varying differentially with disease type. Nine studies were included in a meta-analysis of the substantia nigra in Parkinson disease. A notable effect size was found for lowered fractional anisotropy in the substantia nigra for patients with Parkinson disease vs controls (−0.639, 95% confidence interval −0.860 to −0.417, p < 0.0001). Conclusion: DTI may be a promising biomarker in parkinsonian syndromes and have a future role in differential diagnosis. Larger cohort studies are required to investigate some encouraging preliminary findings. Given the complexity of the parkinsonian syndromes, it is likely that any potential DTI biomarker would be used in combination with other relevant biomarkers.
Should Entrepreneurially Oriented Firms Have Narcissistic CEOs?

Extant research has shown that firms with high levels of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) outperform competitors. The present study sheds light on this performance relationship in large, publicly listed high-tech firms by examining whether the strength of this relationship depends upon the CEO’s narcissism, an executive personality trait recently debated controversially in both academic and practitioner publications. A theoretically derived research model is empirically validated by means of multisource secondary data for 41 S&P 500 firms from 2005 to 2007. Findings indicate that narcissistic CEOs usually weaken the EO-performance relationship, although the opposite is true under some conditions, such as in highly concentrated and dynamic markets.
Magnetische Eigenschaften von AB2X2-Verbindungen im CaAl2Si2-Typ / Magnetic Properties of AB2X2 Compounds with the CaAl2Si2 Structure

Abstract The magnetic susceptibilities of ternary rare earth compounds with the CaAl2Si2 structure were measured in the temperature range of 80 to 290 K. YbZn2Sb2 and the compounds YbZn2-x;CuxX2 (X = P, As) with x < 1 show intermediate valence behaviour, that is a nonintegral occupancy of the 4f shell. Of the compounds EuZn2X2 (X = P, As, Sb) the results for those with X = P or Sb show good agreement with the theoretical values for Eu(II). In LuZnCuAs2 and RELi2X2 (RE = Ce, Pr, Nd, Tb; X = P, As, Sb, Bi) the trivalent state of the rare earth atoms can be established. With the exception of LuZnCuAs2 the susceptibilities of all of the investigated compounds follow the CURIEWEISS law.
The segregated participation of women in the Canadian labour force, 1941‐71*

L'article examine les emplois des canadiennes principalement a partir des donnees du recensement. Malgre le changement des attitudes par rapport au travail feminin et l'accroissement considerable de la participation feminine dans la force du travail, la segregation professionnelle demeure virtuellement la meme entre 1941 et 1971. La plupart des femmes au travail continuent aetre concentrees dans quelques emplois, emplois a predominance feminine. Les femmes se joignent a la force du travail par necessiteeconomique et on peut etablir une relation entre l'accroissement de la participation feminine et de la dispariteeconomique par une analyse des mouvements dans la distribution du revenu au cours des annees et dans le nombre recevant un revenu dans chaque famille. Finalement, le bas salaire des femmes au travail et l'ecart grandissant entre les hauts et les bas revenus ont ete camoufles par l'enorme croissance du nombre de femmes mariees dans la force du travail. Using primarily census data, we examine the jobs held by Canadian women. Despite changing attitudes to women's work and despite the substantial growth in the labour force participation of women, occupational segregation stays virtually unchanged between 1941 and 1971. Most working women remain concentrated in a few jobs, jobs which are dominated by female workers. Economic need has been chiefly responsible for their joining the labour force, and a link can be established between increasing female participation and growing economic disparity by analysing shifts over the years in income distribution and in the number of income recipients per family. Finally, both the low pay for women workers and the growing disparity between high and low individual income recipients have been camouflaged by the tremendous growth in the number of married women in the labour force.
The Effect of Schema on Reading Comprehension of Literary and History Texts

The present study investigates the effects of schema on learners’ reading comprehension of literary and history texts. We try to explore whether schema accumulated by learners affects development in their reading skills in terns of culture and content-based text. This investigation is analyzed vis-a-vis data gathered from interviewing five students at Momo middle school in Gochang Jeonbuk province for one month. The results of the study reveal that prior schemata affect the reading comprehension skill positively. Five subjects were utilized in the investigation. The instruments used were six selected reading materials: one Korean folk tale and one counterpart Greek Myths, and one passage on Korean tradition and one counterpart Filipino tradition, and one passage on Korean history and one counterpart South African history. ¹
Platelet count and MPV, routinely measured but ignored parameters used in conjunction with the diagnosis of acute coronary syndrome: single study center in Iranian population, 2010

Background Myocardial infarction is the major cause of morbidity and mortality in industrialized countries. Platelet count and the mean platelet volume (MPV), a simple and reliable indicator of platelet size which correlates with platelet activation, might associate with troponin in acute chest pain. Methods We analyzed MPV of 851 patients who were admitted to Rasoul-e-Akram Hospital with acute chest pain during the year 2010. Two blood samples were taken from each patient within 4 hours of their arrival for routine hematology, including platelet count and MPV, and cardiac troponin T. Also, electrocardiograms of the patients were recorded. Association of MPV and platelet count with troponin was observed. Results The patients in troponin positive group, who had also ischemic electrocardiographic changes, had higher MPV values than non- acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients with normal cardiac troponin T levels (9.9 vs 9.5 fl with p< 0.001). In troponin negative group, the mean of platelet count was higher than that in the positive group (221683 vs 198814/µl with p< 0.001). Conclusion MPV and platelet count are inexpensive laboratory tests which can be measured in association with other laboratory biomarkers in patients presenting with acute chest pain. This could help to lower hospitalization rates and also avoid misdiagnosis and having complications of patients with ACS.
Thematic cartography and geovisualization, 3rd Edition

Preparing the books to read every day is enjoyable for many people. However, there are still many people who also don't like reading. This is a problem. But, when you can support others to start reading, it will be better. One of the books that can be recommended for new readers is thematic cartography and geovisualization 3rd edition. This book is not kind of difficult book to read. It can be read and understand by the new readers.
Monitoring neonicotinoid resistance in biotype B of Bemisia tabaci in Florida.

BACKGROUND Biotype B of the sweetpotato whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Genn.), is a worldwide pest that has developed resistance to many insecticides, including the neonicotinoid class. Florida field populations were monitored for susceptibility to the neonicotinoids imidacloprid and thiamethoxam using a cut leaf petiole bioassay method. RESULTS Average RR(50) values for imidacloprid increased from 3.7 in 2000 to 12.0 in 2003; decreased to 5.0 and 2.5 in 2004 and 2005, respectively; and then increased to 26.3 and 23.9 in 2006 and 2007, respectively. Populations with RR(50) values of about 50 to 60 during generation one reverted to RR(50) values of < or =4 in six generations, when reared without further exposure to imidacloprid. Average RR(50) values for thiamethoxam increased from 2.0 in 2003 to 24.7 in 2006 and decreased to 10.4 in 2007. Populations with RR(50) values of about 22, 32 and 53 during generation one declined to 8, 5 and 6, respectively, after being reared for five generations without exposure to thiamethoxam. The correlation coefficient from the 26 populations that were bioassayed both with imidacloprid and thiamethoxam showed a significant positive correlation (R(2) = 0.58) between these populations. CONCLUSION The high level of RR(50) values to imidacloprid and thiamethoxam suggest an unstable decline in the susceptibility of B. tabaci to imidacloprid and thiamethoxam, with possible cross-resistance or predisposition for dual resistance selection.
Genome-Wide Identification of Antimicrobial Intrinsic Resistance Determinants in Staphylococcus aureus

The emergence of antimicrobial resistance severely threatens our ability to treat bacterial infections. While acquired resistance has received considerable attention, relatively little is known of intrinsic resistance that allows bacteria to naturally withstand antimicrobials. Gene products that confer intrinsic resistance to antimicrobial agents may be explored for alternative antimicrobial therapies, by potentiating the efficacy of existing antimicrobials. In this study, we identified the intrinsic resistome to a broad spectrum of antimicrobials in the human pathogen, Staphylococcus aureus. We screened the Nebraska Transposon Mutant Library of 1920 single-gene inactivations in S. aureus strain JE2, for increased susceptibility to the anti-staphylococcal antimicrobials (ciprofloxacin, oxacillin, linezolid, fosfomycin, daptomycin, mupirocin, vancomycin, and gentamicin). Sixty-eight mutants were confirmed by E-test to display at least twofold increased susceptibility to one or more antimicrobial agents. The majority of the identified genes have not previously been associated with antimicrobial susceptibility in S. aureus. For example, inactivation of genes encoding for subunits of the ATP synthase, atpA, atpB, atpG and atpH, reduced the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of gentamicin 16-fold. To elucidate the potential of the screen, we examined treatment efficacy in the Galleria mellonella infection model. Gentamicin efficacy was significantly improved, when treating larvae infected with the atpA mutant compared to wild type cells with gentamicin at a clinically relevant concentration. Our results demonstrate that many gene products contribute to the intrinsic antimicrobial resistance of S. aureus. Knowledge of these intrinsic resistance determinants provides alternative targets for compounds that may potentiate the efficacy of existing antimicrobial agents against this important pathogen.
Determinants of College Major Choice: Identification Using an Information Experiment. Working Paper #02-11.

This article studies the determinants of college major choice using an experimentally generated panel of beliefs, obtained by providing students with information on the true population distribution of various major-specific characteristics. Students logically revise their beliefs in response to the information, and their subjective beliefs about future major choice are associated with beliefs about their own earnings and ability. We estimate a rich model of college major choice using the panel of beliefs data. While expected earnings and perceived ability are a significant determinant of major choice, heterogeneous tastes are the dominant factor in the choice of major. Analyses that ignore the correlation in tastes with earnings expectations inflate the role of earnings in college major choices. We conclude by computing the welfare gains from the information experiment and find positive average welfare gains.
(IN) SECURE TIMES

This article documents a moment in history when poor and working-class white boys and men are struggling in their schools, communities, and workplaces against the “Other” as a means of framing identities. Drawing on two independent qualitative studies, the authors investigate distinct locations where poor and working-class boys and men invent, relate to, and distance from marginalized groups in an effort to create self. First the authors look at an ethnography of “the Freeway boys,” a community of urban white working-class high school boys who must deal with the economic ravagement of their neighborhood and their insecure place in a world different than that of their fathers. Next, the authors draw from a large-scale survey of young adults to hear how a combined sample of urban poor and working-class white men narrate identities that are carved explicitly out of territory bordered by white women and African American men. Across sites, the authors theorize how high schools and workplaces both, in part, create white masculinities and interrupt them, at a time when white working-class boys and men feel under siege.
Specification of leading and trailing cell features during collective migration in the Drosophila trachea

ABSTRACT The role of tip and rear cells in collective migration is still a matter of debate and their differences at the cytoskeletal level are poorly understood. Here, we analysed these issues in the Drosophila trachea, an organ that develops from the collective migration of clusters of cells that respond to Branchless (Bnl), a fibroblast growth factor (FGF) homologue expressed in surrounding tissues. We track individual cells in the migratory cluster and characterise their features and unveil two prototypical types of cytoskeletal organisation that account for tip and rear cells respectively. Indeed, once the former are specified, they remain as such throughout migration. Furthermore, we show that FGF signalling in a single tip cell can trigger the migration of the cells in the branch. Finally, we found specific Rac activation at the tip cells and analysed how FGF-independent cell features, such as adhesion and motility, act on coupling the behaviour of trailing and tip cells. Thus, the combined effect of FGF promoting leading cell behaviour and the modulation of cell properties in a cluster can account for the wide range of migratory events driven by FGF.
Timeline of victim disclosures by juvenile sex offenders

This study examined the number of victims disclosed by 12- to 17-year-old male, adjudicated juvenile sex offenders over the course of their mandated sex offender treatment program. Records were reviewed to ascertain the number of unique victims disclosed at each of four time periods: Adjudication, Assessment/Education phase (first day of treatment until polygraph), at the Polygraph Examination, and Continued Treatment (from after the polygraph until discharge). Results indicated a statistically significant increase in victims disclosed over those periods, representing a mean of 2.39 additional victims (SD = 3.50), with the greatest number of additional victims being reported during the Assessment/Education phase (prior to the polygraph). Notably, not all of the juvenile sex offenders reported additional victims; during the period of the highest disclosure (Time 2), 58.11% reported additional victims whereas polygraph examination resulted in disclosure by only one offender. These findings are somewhat different from previous studies and the results are discussed with reference to previous findings.
Convergence of the Mean Shift Using the Infinity Norm in Image Segmentation

In this work a comparison between two algorithms for image segmentation via the mean shift is carried out. These algorithms apply recursively the mean shift filtering by using the euclidean and infinity norms in order to define pixel neighborhoods. In the conventional mean shift algorithm for image segmentation euclidean norm is used. Due to matrix representation of images and the rectangular windows used in the implementation of the algorithm, with the aim of evaluating pixels membership to neighborhoods, the use of euclidean norm always implies evaluate membership of pixels wich certainly cannot be inside each defined neighborhood. However, the use of the infinity norm ensures that each evaluated pixel could be inside the neighborhood. This fact avoids unnecessary calculations. In the work the convergence of the algorithm, by using the infinity norm, is proven. Additionaly, the runtimes of both algorithms were compared using different spatial and range bandwidth sizes. Through an extensive experimentation using standard images was evidenced that the use of the infinity norm, instead of the euclidean norm, decreases the runtime of the mean shift when the values of spatial and range bandwidths were increased.
Inactivation of Smad-Transforming Growth Factor β Signaling by Ca2+-Calmodulin-Dependent Protein Kinase II

ABSTRACT Members of the transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) family transduce signals through Smad proteins. Smad signaling can be regulated by the Ras/Erk/mitogen-activated protein pathway in response to receptor tyrosine kinase activation and the gamma interferon pathway and also by the functional interaction of Smad2 with Ca2+-calmodulin. Here we report that Smad–TGF-β-dependent transcriptional responses are prevented by expression of a constitutively activated Ca2+-calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (Cam kinase II). Smad2 is a target substrate for Cam kinase II in vitro at serine-110, -240, and -260. Cam kinase II induces in vivo phosphorylation of Smad2 and Smad4 and, to a lesser extent, Smad3. A phosphopeptide antiserum raised against Smad2 phosphoserine-240 reacted with Smad2 in vivo when coexpressed with Cam kinase II and by activation of the platelet-derived growth factor receptor, the epidermal growth factor receptor, HER2 (c-erbB2), and the TGF-β receptor. Furthermore, Cam kinase II blocked nuclear accumulation of a Smad2 and induced Smad2-Smad4 hetero-oligomerization independently of TGF-β receptor activation, while preventing TGF-β-dependent Smad2-Smad3 interactions. These findings provide a novel cross-talk mechanism by which Ca2+-dependent kinases activated downstream of multiple growth factor receptors antagonize cell responses to TGF-β.
Political Relationships, Global Financing and Corporate Transparency

This study examines the financing choices of firms operating in a weak institutional environment. We argue that in relationship-based systems, global financing and political connections are substitutes: Well-connected firms are less likely to access foreign capital markets because (state-owned) domestic banks provide capital at low cost. Moreover, the additional scrutiny that comes with foreign securities might be at odds with close political ties at home. Using data from Indonesia, we provide strong support for this hypothesis. Firms with close political ties to former President Soeharto are significantly less likely than non-connected firms to have publicly traded foreign securities. We also examine how returns before and during the Asian financial crisis differ between firms with and without foreign securities. The former performed significantly better during the crisis, and their performance advantage increases considerably once we control for a firm? s closeness to the Soeharto regime. We show that simple return regressions in earlier work are downward biased if domestic opportunities such as political connections are ignored.
Apparent Diffusion Coefficient (ADC) Value: A Potential Imaging Biomarker That Reflects the Biological Features of Rectal Cancer

Objective We elected to analyze the correlation between the pre-treatment apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and the clinical, histological, and immunohistochemical status of rectal cancers. Materials and Methods Forty-nine rectal cancer patients who received surgical resection without neoadjuvant therapy were selected that underwent primary MRI and diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI). Tumor ADC values were determined and analyzed to identify any correlations between these values and pre-treatment CEA or CA19-9 levels, and/or the histological and immunohistochemical properties of the tumor. Results Inter-observer agreement of confidence levels from two separate observers was suitable for ADC measurement (k = 0.775). The pre-treatment ADC values of different T stage tumors were not equal (p = 0.003). The overall trend was that higher T stage values correlated with lower ADC values. ADC values were also significantly lower for the following conditions: tumors with the presence of extranodal tumor deposits (p = 0.006) and tumors with CA19-9 levels ≥ 35 g/ml (p = 0.006). There was a negative correlation between Ki-67 LI and the ADC value (r = −0.318, p = 0.026) and between the AgNOR count and the ADC value (r = −0.310, p = 0.030). Conclusion Significant correlations were found between the pre-treatment ADC values and T stage, extranodal tumor deposits, CA19-9 levels, Ki-67 LI, and AgNOR counts in our study. Lower ADC values were associated with more aggressive tumor behavior. Therefore, the ADC value may represent a useful biomarker for assessing the biological features and possible relationship to the status of identified rectal cancers.
A Novel Method for Evaluating Future Power Distribution System Reliability

The reliability assessment of future distribution networks is an important subject due to the increasing demand for more reliable service with a lower frequency and duration of interruption. The connection of future distribution networks may not be simple radial circuits and analyzing the reliability of such a network is usually complicated and time consuming. In this paper, a technical approach for evaluating the reliability of a networked distribution system is described. The proposed algorithm is based on the identification of circuit minimal tie sets using the concept of Petri nets. Prime number encoding and unique prime factorization are then applied to classify the remaining combinations as tie sets, cut sets, or minimal cut sets. A Markov model is used to compute the availability and failure frequency of the network. A well-known test bed [the Roy Billinton Test System (RBTS)] is used to illustrate the analysis and calculate different load and system reliability indices, including SAIFI and SAIDI. The method shown is algorithmic and appears suitable for offline comparisons of alternative secondary distribution system designs on the basis of their reliability.
Typing of Mycobacterium avium isolates by PCR

A Mycobacterium avium typing method based on PCR amplification of genomic sequences located between the recently described repetitive elements IS1245 and IS1311 was developed. This method was applied to a set of epidemiologically related and unrelated strains and compared with restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis with IS1245 as the probe. This PCR typing consists of a rapid and simple technique, providing a reproducible M. avium characterization as discriminant as restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis.