Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bee Venom Phospholipase A2: Yesterday’s Enemy Becomes Today’s Friend

Bee venom therapy has been used to treat immune-related diseases such as arthritis for a long time. Recently, it has revealed that group III secretory phospholipase A2 from bee venom (bee venom group III sPLA2) has in vitro and in vivo immunomodulatory effects. A growing number of reports have demonstrated the therapeutic effects of bee venom group III sPLA2. Notably, new experimental data have shown protective immune responses of bee venom group III sPLA2 against a wide range of diseases including asthma, Parkinson’s disease, and drug-induced organ inflammation. It is critical to evaluate the beneficial and adverse effects of bee venom group III sPLA2 because this enzyme is known to be the major allergen of bee venom that can cause anaphylactic shock. For many decades, efforts have been made to avoid its adverse effects. At high concentrations, exposure to bee venom group III sPLA2 can result in damage to cellular membranes and necrotic cell death. In this review, we summarized the current knowledge about the therapeutic effects of bee venom group III sPLA2 on several immunological diseases and described the detailed mechanisms of bee venom group III sPLA2 in regulating various immune responses and physiopathological changes.
Unveiling investor-induced channels of financial contagion in the 2008 financial crisis using copulas

Understanding how financial crises spread is important for policy-makers and regulators in order to take adequate measures to prevent or contain the spread of these crises. This paper will test whether there was contagion of the subprime financial crisis to the European stock markets of the NYSE Euronext group (Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Portugal) and, if evidence of contagion is found, it will determine the investor-induced channels through which the crisis propagated. We will use copula models for this purpose. After assessing whether there is evidence of financial contagion in the stock markets, we will examine whether the ‘wealth constraints’ transmission mechanism prevails over the ‘portfolio rebalancing’ channel. An additional test looks at the interaction between stock and bond markets during the crisis and allows us to determine if the transmission occurred due to the ‘cross market rebalancing’ channel or the ‘flying to quality’ phenomenon. The tests suggest that (i) financial contagion is present in all analyzed stock markets, (ii) a ‘portfolio rebalancing’ channel is the most important crisis transmission mechanism, (iii) and the ‘flight-to-quality’ phenomenon is also present in all analyzed stock markets.
Experience-Dependent Activation Patterns in Human Brain during Visual-Motor Associative Learning

Multiple brain regions, including parietal and frontal cortical areas, seem to participate in learning and rehearsing associations between spatially defined visual cues and appropriate motor responses. However, because most previous studies have related learning to changes in brain activation according to elapsed time or number of trials but not categories based on performance, it remains unclear how and when areas implicated in learning sensory-motor associations actually participate in the process. The current experiment used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine changes in brain activation when participants learned to associate an arbitrarily located visual cue with a finger movement. Associative trials were categorized as incorrect, first correct, or subsequent correct. Participants also performed a spatially compatible visual-motor control task. A group analysis revealed four major findings addressing the behavioral processes occurring during forming and rehearsing visual-motor rules. First, brain networks related to processing associative information, through initial learning to rehearsal, yielded more activation in a myriad of neocortical structures than did a simple motor task. Second, we revealed frontal and parietal areas that differentially processed errors and correct responses. Third, we found frontal-parietal networks that seemed to mediate the transition of learning to rehearsing arbitrary visual-motor associations and that this activation exhibited dynamic characteristics. Last, we found a frontal-parietal network that appeared to have a key role in expressing the learned sensory-motor association. The current results provide a foundation for understanding how neocortical structures participate in the various behavioral processes that combine to form and consolidate novel and arbitrary sensory-motor associations.
Novel atherosclerotic risk factors and angiographic profile of young Gujarati patients with acute coronary syndrome.

OBJECTIVES In this study we aimed to analyse the frequency of atherosclerotic risk factors with focus to novel risk factors for coronary artery disease and angiographic profile in young (≤ 40 years) acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patient with healthy controls in Gujarat, India. METHODS Between January 2008 and December 2012, 109 consecutive young patients aged ≤ 40 years old, diagnosed to have ACS were included in the study. All ACS patients underwent diagnostic coronary angiography. An equivalent age and sex matched population without coronary disease with similar risk factors without tobacco considered a control group. All angiographic patients were evaluated for conventional risk factors for coronary artery disease like diabetes mellitus, hypertension, smoking, obesity as well as novel atherogenic risk factors like high sensitivity C-reactive protein (Hs-CRP), Lipoprotein(a) [LP(a)], homocysteine, apolipoprotein A1 (ApoA1) and B (ApoB). RESULT In a study group, out of 109 young patients, 90 (82.6%) patients were presented to our hospital as ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), 10 (9.2%) presented as known non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) and 9 (8.3%) presented as unstable angina (UA). Serum cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL, LP(a) and lipid tetrad index were significantly higher in the study group whereas the HDL levels significantly lower as compared to the control group. CONCLUSION A quite common risk factors of premature CAD are smoking, high Hs-CRP, high LP(a), hyperhomocysteinaemia and positive family history in the young ACS. Most common presentation of ACS in young was STEMI. On angiography, single vessel involvement was the most common finding.
Bacteria and Methanogens Differ along the Gastrointestinal Tract of Chinese Roe Deer (Capreolus pygargus)

The current study provides the insight into the bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) and methanogens presented in the rumen and cecum of the Chinese roe deer (Capreolus pygargus). The ruminal, ileal, cecal, and colonic contents, as well as feces, were obtained from each of the three, free-range, roe deer ingesting natural pasture after euthanasia. For the bacterial community, a total of 697,031 high-quality 16S rRNA gene sequences were generated using high-throughput sequencing, and assigned to 2,223 core operational taxonomic units (OTUs) (12 bacterial phyla and 87 genera). The phyla Firmicutes (51.2%) and Bacteroidetes (39.4%) were the dominant bacteria in the GIT of roe deer. However, the bacterial community in the rumen was significantly (P<0.01) different from the other sampled regions along the GIT. Secondly, Prevotella spp. , Anaerovibrio spp. , and unidentified bacteria within the families Veillonellaceae and Paraprevotellaceae were more abundant in the rumen than in the other regions. Unidentified bacteria within the family Enterobacteriaceae, Succinivibrio spp. , and Desulfovibrio spp. were more predominant in the colon than in other regions. Unidentified bacteria within the family Ruminococcaceae, and Bacteroides spp. were more prevalent in the ileum, cecum and fecal pellets. For methanogens in the rumen and cecum, a total of 375,647 high quality 16S rRNA gene sequences were obtained and assigned to 113 core OTUs. Methanobrevibacter millerae was the dominant species accounting for 77.3±7.4 (S.E) % and 68.9±4.4 (S.E) % of total sequences in the rumen and cecum of roe deer, respectively. However, the abundance of Methanobrevibacter smithii was higher in the rumen than in the cecum (P = 0.004). These results revealed that there was intra variation in the bacterial community composition across the GIT of roe deer, and also showed that the methanogen community in the rumen differed from that in the cecum.
Why Are Criminals Less Educated than Non-Criminals? Evidence from a Cohort of Young Australian Twins

Many studies find a strong negative association between crime and education. This raises the question whether crime reduces investment in human capital or whether education reduces criminal activity. This article investigates posed question by using fixed-effect estimation on data of Australian twins. We find early arrests (before the age of 18) both to have a strong effect on human capital accumulation, as well as strong detrimental effects on adult crime. Schooling does not have an effect on adult crime if there is variation in early arrests. However, schooling reduces crime if there is little variation in early crime. (JEL code: I2, K42).
Regularization Parameter Selection in Discrete Ill-Posed Problems — The Use of the U-Curve

Regularization Parameter Selection in Discrete Ill-Posed Problems — The Use of the U-Curve To obtain smooth solutions to ill-posed problems, the standard Tikhonov regularization method is most often used. For the practical choice of the regularization parameter α we can then employ the well-known L-curve criterion, based on the L-curve which is a plot of the norm of the regularized solution versus the norm of the corresponding residual for all valid regularization parameters. This paper proposes a new criterion for choosing the regularization parameter α, based on the so-called U-curve. A comparison of the two methods made on numerical examples is additionally included.
Elections, Parties, Democracy: Conferring the Median Mandate

PART 1: THE MANDATE PROCESS 1. Choosing Governments or Identifying Preferences? The Role of Elections in Democracy 2. Mandate Theories: Government and Median 3. Communicating Preferences: The Public Policy Space 4. Research Questions for Comparative Investigation PART 2: THE ELECTORAL PROCESS 5. Choices Parties Offer 6. Mandates Without Obvious Majorities 7. Representing the Meidan Voter PART 3: THE GOVERNING PROCESS 8. Who Controls Short-Term Policy Making? 9. From Declared to Actual Policy: Short-Term Influences on Government Policies PART 4: THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS 10. Long Term Policy Regimes: Incrementalism Put in Context 11. Fluctuating Political Forces 12. Politics and Policy Regimes: Setting a Long Term Equilibrium 13. Unifying Theories of Democracy Through the Median Mandate
A guide to synthesising qualitative research for researchers undertaking health technology assessments and systematic reviews

NHS Quality Improvement Scotland (NHS QIS) is committed to equality and diversity. This document, and the research on which it is based, have been assessed for any likely impact on the six equality groups defined by age, gender, race/ethnicity, religion/faith, disability and sexual orientation. For a summary of the equality and diversity impact assessment, please see www.nhshealthquality. org NHS QIS consents to the photocopying, electronic reproduction by 'uploading' or 'downloading' from the website, retransmission, or other copying of this document for the purpose of implementation in NHSScotland and educational and 'not-for-profit' purposes. No reproduction by or for commercial organisations is permitted without the express written permission of NHS QIS. A guide to synthesising qualitative research for researchers undertaking health technology assessments and systematic reviews. 2010.
The Paradox of Power

In power struggles, the strong might be expected to grow ever stronger and the weak weaker still. But in actuality, poorer or smaller combatants often end up improving their position relative to richer or larger ones. This is the paradox of power. The explanation is that initially poorer contenders are rationally motivated to fight harder, to invest relatively more in conflictual activity. Only when the decisiveness of conflict is sufficiently high does the richer side gain relatively in terms of achieved income. Among other things, the paradox of power explains political redistributions of income from the rich to the poor. Copyright 1991 Blackwell Publishers Ltd. (This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
A novel approach to the manipulation of body-parts ownership using a bilateral master-slave system

This paper introduces a novel approach to the manipulation of body-parts ownership, using the tactile rubber hand illusion (RHI) paradigm. In the conventional studies on the RHI, participant's invisible hand and the visible rubber hand are manually tapped or stroked by an experimenter. Differently, in our approach, a bilateral master-slave system is applied to provide tactile stimulations in a novel interactive manner—active self-touch. Here, we present a 3-DOF master-slave system based on human self-touch characteristics and a validation experiment using an arranged version of the conventional RHI paradigm. In this new version, participants can contact with the rubber hand by manipulating the master device with their right hand and actively touch their own left hand through the slave device. The results demonstrate that the master-slave system can be successfully used to manipulate body-parts ownership, opening up the way to new studies concerning self-touch and body representation.
The Effect of Initial Margin on Long-Run and Short-Run Volatilities in Japan

This paper examines the effect of initial margin requirements on long-run and short-run volatilities in the Japanese stock market using the Component GARCH model. Our empirical results show that when we do not divide the margin requirement into positive and negative changes, increasing margin requirement is effective for reducing long-run volatility, while not effective in short-run volatility. However, separating the positive and negative changes in margin requirements reveals the fact that the negative changes in margin requirements decrease long-run volatilities, while the higher margin requirements increase short-run volatilities in the Japanese stock market. This suggests that if the Japanese financial authorities intend to increase margin level to reduce volatility, unexpectedly, short-run volatility would be even higher.
Assimilation of marine extracellular polymeric substances by deep-sea prokaryotes in the NW Mediterranean Sea.

This study examined total uptake of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) and glucose and the percentage of prokaryotic cells (Bacteria, Crenarchaea and Euryarchaea) consuming these compounds in the major water masses at the DYFAMED site (NW Mediterranean Sea). The potential assimilation rates of EPS at 10 m depth were higher but on the same order of magnitude as those at 2000 m depth (from 43.4 to 29.0 pmol l(-1) h(-1) ). In contrast, glucose assimilation rates decreased with depth from 49.4 to 0.07 pmol l(-1) h(-1) at 10 and 2000 m depth respectively. Microautoradiography analyses indicated similar percentages of active cells assimilating EPS at 10 and 2000 m depth (13% and 10% of the total-cells). The combination of microautoradiography and catalysed reporter deposition fluorescence in situ hybridization (MICRO-CARD-FISH) analyses revealed that the percentages of Bacteria assimilating (3) H-carbohydrates decreased with depth by twofold for EPS. In contrast, the contribution by Euryarchaea to EPS consumption increased with depth by sixfold. At 2000 m, 50% of active cells consuming (3) H-carbohydrates were Euryarchaea. These data highlight potential differences in the roles of Bacteria and Archaea in the deep sea biogeochemical cycles and shed light on the importance of deep-sea Euryarchaea in the degradation of dissolved organic matter.
Coverage area maximization by heterogeneous sensor nodes with minimum displacement in mobile networks

Given a random deployment of heterogeneous mobile nodes having different sensing ranges, this paper addresses the problem of covering a region using minimum number of nodes with minimum displacement. We propose an energy-efficient and light-weight self-organized distributed greedy heuristic to maximize area coverage such that the amount of computation, rounds of communication, and the distance traversed by a node, can be reduced utilizing minimal number of nodes. Extensive simulation studies on random deployment of nodes with sufficient node density over a 2-D area, show that our proposed technique results hole free area coverage with small number of nodes with minimum possible displacement, both in turn help to prolong the network lifetime.
Fair Bananas!: Farmers, Workers, and Consumers Strive to Change an Industry

Bananas are the most-consumed fruit in the world. In the United States alone, the public eats about twenty-eight pounds of bananas per person every year. The total value of the international banana trade is nearly five billion dollars annually, with 80 percent of all exported bananas originating in Latin America. There are as many as ten million people involved in growing, packing, and shipping bananas, but American consumers have only recently begun to think about them and about their working conditions. Although European nations have helped create a fair trade system for bananas grown in Mediterranean and Caribbean regions, the United States as a country has not developed a similar system for bananas grown in Latin America, where large corporations have dominated trade for more than a century. Fair Bananas! is one of the first books to examine the issue of fair-trade bananas. Specifically, Henry Frundt analyzes whether a farmer-worker-consumer alliance can collaborate to promote a fair-trade label for bananas much like those for fair-trade coffee and chocolate that will appeal to North American shoppers. Researching the issue for more than ten years, Henry Frundt has elicited surprising and nuanced insights from banana workers, Latin American labor officials, company representatives, and fair-trade advocates. Frundt writes with admirable clarity throughout the book, which he has designed for college students who are being introduced to the subject of international trade and for consumers who are interested in issues of development. Frankly, though, Fair Bananas! will appeal to anyone who wants to know more about bananas, including where they come from and how they get from there to here.
Quantifying and comparing phylogenetic evolutionary rates for shape and other high-dimensional phenotypic data.

Many questions in evolutionary biology require the quantification and comparison of rates of phenotypic evolution. Recently, phylogenetic comparative methods have been developed for comparing evolutionary rates on a phylogeny for single, univariate traits (σ(2)), and evolutionary rate matrices (R) for sets of traits treated simultaneously. However, high-dimensional traits like shape remain under-examined with this framework, because methods suited for such data have not been fully developed. In this article, I describe a method to quantify phylogenetic evolutionary rates for high-dimensional multivariate data (σ2 mult), found from the equivalency between statistical methods based on covariance matrices and those based on distance matrices (R-mode and Q-mode methods). I then use simulations to evaluate the statistical performance of hypothesis-testing procedures that compare σ2 mult for two or more groups of species on a phylogeny. Under both isotropic and non-isotropic conditions, and for differing numbers of trait dimensions, the proposed method displays appropriate Type I error and high statistical power for detecting known differences in σ2 mult among groups. In contrast, the Type I error rate of likelihood tests based on the evolutionary rate matrix (R) increases as the number of trait dimensions (p) increases, and becomes unacceptably large when only a few trait dimensions are considered. Further, likelihood tests based on R cannot be computed when the number of trait dimensions equals or exceeds the number of taxa in the phylogeny (i.e., when p ≥ N). These results demonstrate that tests based on σ2 mult provide a useful means of comparing evolutionary rates for high-dimensional data that are otherwise not analytically accessible to methods based on the evolutionary rate matrix. This advance thus expands the phylogenetic comparative toolkit for high-dimensional phenotypic traits like shape. Finally, I illustrate the utility of the new approach by evaluating rates of head shape evolution in a lineage of Plethodon salamanders.
Radar and Lightning Observations of the 3 June 2000 Electrically Inverted Storm from STEPS

Abstract This study addresses the kinematic, microphysical, and electrical evolution of an isolated convective storm observed on 3 June 2000 during the Severe Thunderstorm Electrification and Precipitation Study field campaign. Doppler-derived vertical velocities, radar reflectivity, hydrometeor classifications from polarimetric radar, and Lightning Mapping Array (LMA) charge structures are examined over a nearly 3-h period. This storm, characterized as a low-precipitation supercell, produced modest amounts of hail, determined by fuzzy-logic hydrometeor classification as mostly small (<2 cm) hail, with one surface report of large (≥2 cm) hail. Doppler-derived updraft speeds peaked between 20 and 25 m s−1, and reflectivity was never greater than 60 dBZ. The most striking feature of this storm was its total lack of cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning. Though this storm was electrically active, with maximum flash rates near 30 per minute, no CG flashes of either polarity were detected. The charge structure inferr.
Evaluation of Cell Morphology and Introduction to Platelet and White Blood Cell Morphology

OBJECTIVES At the end of the chapter, the learner should be able to: 1. Define the terms flagged and reflex test as they pertain to automated hematology results. 2. Describe the importance of maintaining competency in morphological identification. 3. List justifications for performing a manual morphology review. 4. List the steps in the performance of a peripheral blood smear examination. 5. Identify normal red blood cell morphology on a peripheral smear. 6. List the terms referring to abnormal red cell distribution, variation in red cell size, and variations in red cell color/hemoglobin content, being able to identify each abnormality on a peripheral smear and specify the particular clinical conditions associated with these abnormalities. 7. Define anisocytosis and poikilocytosis and list clinical conditions in which they may be reported. 8. Define the terms normochromic, hypochromic, microcytic, and macrocytic as they relate to red cell indices. 9. Correlate red cell indices with red cell morphology and the diagnosis of anemia. 10. Define the following terms: target cells, spherocytes, ovalocytes, elliptocytes, stoma-tocytes, and be able to identify these cells on a peripheral smear. 11. List diseases that may show fragmented red cells and describe their pathophysiology. 12. Describe the most common red blood cell inclusions and their composition, relating each inclusion to clinical conditions in which they may be found. 13. Correlate pathophysiology of clinical conditions associated with abnormal appearance of red cells noted on the peripheral blood smear. 14. Describe normal platelet morphology and specify some platelet abnormalities seen in pathologic conditions. 15. List conditions showing leukocyte cytoplasmic as well as nuclear changes.