Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Trends in the epidemiology of asthma in England: a national study of 333,294 patients

Summary Background Observations in the UK at the end of the last century found increasing trends of asthma prevalence over time. However, it has been reported that the number of new cases of asthma presenting to general practice has declined, especially among younger children. Aim To study national trends in the epidemiology of asthma. Methods A cross-sectional observation analysis was performed using the QRESEARCH database, which is one of the world's largest national aggregated health databases containing records from 422 English practices yielding 30 million patient-years of observation. Data was extracted on 333,294 individuals with a recorded diagnosis of asthma and calculated annual age–sex standardized incidence, lifetime period prevalence and asthma-related prescribing rates for each year from 2001–2005. Results The incidence rate of asthma decreased in all patients (2001: 6.9 (95% confidence intervals [CI] 6.8–7.0); 2005: 5.2 (95% CI 5.1–5.3) per 1000 patient-years, p<0.001), but most particularly in children under 5 years of age (–38.4%) where a decrease in the lifetime prevalence of asthma (–34.3%) was also found. However, the lifetime prevalence rate of asthma for adults increased (15–44 years: 23.3%; 45–64 years: 27.7%; >65 years: 21.5%) with an estimated 5,658,900 (95% CI 5,639,700–5,678,200) or approximately one person in nine having being diagnosed with asthma in England. The number of asthma-related prescriptions also increased over the study period (17.1%), such that in 2005 an estimated 32,577,300 (95%CI 32,531,600–32,623,000) prescriptions were issued. Conclusions This large national study reveals that the rate of new diagnoses of asthma appears to have passed its peak; however, the number of adults with a lifetime asthma diagnosis continues to rise. Whether these trends are genuine or are a result of the introduction of incentives and guidelines to improve identification and recording of asthma or changing diagnostic trends is a question with important public health implications and one, therefore, that warrants detailed further enquiry.
Functional analyses of natural killer cells in macaques infected with neurovirulent simian immunodeficiency virus

Clearance of HIV and SIV from the peripheral blood by the cellular immune system lessens the viral burden in infected individuals and may have an impact on virus infection of the CNS and the development of CNS lesions. However, the role of immune responses in preventing or limiting CNS infection has not been clearly defined. We investigated the role of natural killer cells in the outcome of SIV infection of macaques as a model for humans with AIDS and HIV encephalitis. In our study, six pig-tailed macaques were infected with the neurovirulent virus, SIV/17E-Fr, and the immunosuppressive virus, SIV/ DeltaB670, in a model system that causes rapid progression to AIDS and a high frequency of CNS lesions. NK lytic activity in each macaque was monitored longitudinally. In addition, we enumerated NK cells and tested macaque PBMC for the ability to lyse SIV-infected target cells. We found that there was a significant inverse correlation (P=0.02) between the robustness of NK response and the development of CNS lesions. Animals lacking strong NK cell responses developed more severe CNS lesions than those with robust NK responses did. Furthermore, pre-infection levels of NK activity were predictive of CNS lesion severity. The macaque with the most robust pre-infection NK activity developed no CNS lesions. In these infected macaques, NK activity was shown to be directed against SIV-infected cells. We extended these in vivo findings to delineate precisely which cell type was mediating this SIV-directed lysis. We used both macaque and human cells to demonstrate that the population that mediated anti-SIV and anti-HIV cytolytic effects was NK cells. Furthermore, we showed that this anti-SIV and anti-HIV cytolytic effect was directed at the envelope protein and not gag proteins. Thus, NK cells have the capacity to recognize and lyse cells expressing SIV and HIV antigens. These data support a role for NK cells in the modulation of CNS disease.
Morality judgments: tests of an averaging model.

Pairs of items describing objectionable behaviors were rated for their overall morality. Contrary to additive or constant-weig ht averaging models, the ratings were demonstrated to depend upon the range as well as the average scale value of the component behaviors. A range model accounted for more than half of the variance left unexplained by the additive models. One interpretation of the range effect postulates that each component stimulus produces a distribution of values. The value of the stimulus combination is assumed to be the mean value in the overlap of the component distributions, which is closer to the item with the narrower dispersion. How immoral is it to both "pocket the tip the previous customer left for the waitress" and "poison your neighbor's dog whose barking bothers you? " Anderson (1968b) has suggested that 5s combine information by averaging psychological values associated with each component stimulus. Thus, 5 independently assesses the morality of pocketing the tip and the morality of poisoning the dog and then averages his two assessments to arrive at an overall rating. According to this view, the psychological value of the whole is simply an average of the psychological values of the parts. The theory is a special case of a general additive model (Rosenberg, 1968), which can be written:
Novel Features of Cryptochrome-Mediated Photoreception in the Brain Circadian Clock of Drosophila

In Drosophila, light affects circadian behavioral rhythms via at least two distinct mechanisms. One of them relies on the visual phototransduction cascade. The other involves a presumptive photopigment, cryptochrome (cry), expressed in lateral brain neurons that control behavioral rhythms. We show here that cry is expressed in most, if not all, larval and adult neuronal groups expressing the PERIOD (PER) protein, with the notable exception of larval dorsal neurons (DN2s) in which PER cycles in antiphase to all other known cells. Forcing cry expression in the larval DN2s gave them a normal phase of PER cycling, indicating that their unique antiphase rhythm is related to their lack of cry expression. We were able to directly monitor CRY protein in Drosophila brains in situ. It appeared highly unstable in the light, whereas in the dark, it accumulated in both the nucleus and the cytoplasm, including some neuritic projections. We also show that dorsal PER-expressing brain neurons, the adult DN1s, are the only brain neurons to coexpress the CRY protein and the photoreceptor differentiation factor GLASS. Studies of various visual system mutants and their combination with the cryb mutation indicated that the adult DN1s contribute significantly to the light sensitivity of the clock controlling activity rhythms, and that this contribution depends on CRY. Moreover, all CRY-independent light inputs into this central behavioral clock were found to require the visual system. Finally, we show that the photoreceptive DN1 neurons do not behave as autonomous oscillators, because their PER oscillations in constant darkness rapidly damp out in the absence of pigment-dispersing-factor signaling from the ventral lateral neurons.
Caffeine ingestion is associated with reductions in glucose uptake independent of obesity and type 2 diabetes before and after exercise training.

OBJECTIVE We investigated the effect of caffeine ingestion on insulin sensitivity in sedentary lean men (n = 8) and obese men with (n = 7) and without (n = 8) type 2 diabetes. We also examined whether chronic exercise influences the relationship between caffeine and insulin sensitivity in these individuals. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Subjects underwent two hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp procedures, caffeine (5 mg/kg body wt) and placebo, in a double-blind, randomized manner before and after a 3-month aerobic exercise program. Body composition was measured by magnetic resonance imaging. RESULTS At baseline, caffeine ingestion was associated with a significant reduction (P < 0.05) in insulin sensitivity by a similar magnitude in the lean (33%), obese (33%), and type 2 diabetic (37%) groups in comparison with placebo. After exercise training, caffeine ingestion was still associated with a reduction (P < 0.05) in insulin sensitivity by a similar magnitude in the lean (23%), obese (26%), and type 2 diabetic (36%) groups in comparison with placebo. Exercise was not associated with a significant increase in insulin sensitivity in either the caffeine or placebo trials, independent of group (P > 0.10). CONCLUSIONS Caffeine consumption is associated with a substantial reduction in insulin-mediated glucose uptake independent of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and chronic exercise.
Vagotomy Blocks the Induction of Interleukin-1β (IL-1β) mRNA in the Brain of Rats in Response to Systemic IL-1β

There is considerable interest in the mechanisms by which systemic cytokines signal the CNS to elicit centrally controlled biological actions. This study determined the effects of intraperitoneal injections of interleukin-1β (IL-1β) on IL-1β mRNA and IL-1 receptor accessory protein (IL-1RAP) mRNA production in rat liver and brain using the reverse transcription-PCR. Saline or IL-1β (0.5 μg/kg) was injected intraperitoneally in subdiaphragmatically vagotomized and sham-operated (SHAM) rats. All injections were performed at dark onset, and rats were killed 2 hr after the injection. In SHAM rats, IL-1β increased IL-1β mRNA levels in the liver, hypothalamus, hippocampus, and brainstem. Subdiaphragmatic vagotomy blocked the IL-1β-induced increase in IL-1β mRNA in the brainstem and hippocampus and significantly attenuated the increase in the hypothalamus. Vagotomy did not affect IL-1β-induced IL-1β mRNA production in the liver. IL-1RAP mRNA was highly expressed in each region examined; however, no significant differences in IL-1RAP mRNA production were found in any region after IL-1β injection. The current results indicate that the vagus nerve is involved in transmitting cytokine signals to the brain and suggest that the induction of brain cytokines is a critical step in the pathway by which vagal-mediated signals result in centrally controlled symptoms of the acute phase response.
Quantitative study of multiple biomarkers of colorectal tumor with diagnostic discrimination model

AIM: To evaluate the multiple biomarkers of colorectal tumor and their potential usage in early diagnosis of colorectal cancers. METHODS: Multiple biomarkers (DNA contents, AgNOR, PCNA, p53, c-erbB-2) in 10 normal colorectal mucosae, 37 colorectal adenomas and 55 colorectal cancers were analyzed quantitatively in the computed processing imaging system. Discrimination patterns were employed to evaluate the significance of single and multiple indices in diagnosis of colorectal cancers. RESULTS: The mean values of the analyzed parameters increased in order of the normal mucosa, adenoma and adenocarcinoma, and this tendency reflected the progression of colorectal malignancy. The parameters including DNA index, positive rates, densities of AgNOR, c-erbB-2, and p53, shape and density of nucleus were relatively valuable for diagnoses. Then a diagnostic discrimination model was established. The samples were confirmed with the model, the sensitivity rates in cancer group and adenoma group were 96.36% and 89.19%, respectively. The value of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) in early diagnosis of colorectal cancers was uncertain. CONCLUSION: The quantitative evaluation of some parameters for colorectal tumor can provide reproducible data for differential diagnosis. The established diagnostic discrimination model may be of clinicopathological value, and can make the early diagnosis of colorectal cancer possible.
Discussions on Driven Cavity Flow and Steady Solutions at High Reynolds Numbers

The numerical solutions of 2-D steady incompressible flow in a driven cavity are presented. The Navier-Stokes equations in streamfunction and vorticity variables are solved simply with Successive Over Relaxation (SOR) method. Using a very fine grid mesh with 1025×1025 points, the steady driven cavity flow is solved for Re 20,000. For accuracy, the iterations are carried out on the streamfunction and vorticity variables until the steady streamfunction and vorticity equations are satisfied with a residual that were less than 10−10. Interesting features of the flow are presented in detail. The driven cavity flow at high Reynolds numbers is discussed in detail in terms of physical and mathematical and also numerical aspects.
Institutional and individual labor market discrimination based on hukou status : an artefactual field experiment

We study discrimination based on the hukou system that segregates citizens in groups of migrants and locals in urban China. We use an artefactual field experiment with a labor market framing. We recruit workers on their real labor market as experimental participants and investigate if official discrimination motivates individual discrimination based on hukou status. In our experimental results we observe discrimination based on the hukou characteristic: however, statistical discrimination does not seem to be the source of this, as status is exogeneous for our participants and migrants and locals behave similarly. Furthermore, discrimination increases between two experimental frameworks when motives for statistical discrimination are removed.
Does Financial Deregulation Cause a Consumption Boom

According to a growing number of critics, the process of financial liberalization in the 1980s is to blame for the volatile macroeconomic development in a number of countries, including the United Kingdom and the Nordic countries. The authors examine how financial deregulation affected one important component of aggregate demand, private consumption. A main finding is that the Swedish consumption boom of the late 1980s can be explained along other lines than financial deregulation. The mid-1980s also constituted a period when real wage growth picked up and the authors' data are consistent with the simple idea that permanent income dynamics was an important factor. Copyright 1996 by The editors of the Scandinavian Journal of Economics.
Discounted Stocks and Excess Analyst Coverage

In this paper we examine whether the negative excess value of stocks (stock discounts in the Berger and Ofek (1995) spirit) is associated with low excess analyst coverage over the 1979-1997 period. We define excess analyst coverage as the difference between a firm's actual analyst following and its imputed coverage. We hypothesize that firms with high excess (low) analyst coverage are exposed to less (more) information asymmetry between managers and investors, managerial misconduct and uncertainty about future earnings than do other firms. Therefore, stocks with low excess analyst coverage profile are expected to trade at low prices as they would be more difficult for investors to value. Our findings provide evidence in support of the view that excess analyst coverage explains a significant portion of stocks discount, indicating that higher (lower) excess analyst coverage leads to more (less) informative stock prices and offers an information-based explanation on why stocks trade at a premium (discount). Our empirical results are also consistent with the notion that stocks of firms with high managerial power (i.e., low investor rights/weak corporate governance) trade at a discount. Finally, our analysis indicates that the information inherent in the dispersion of analyst forecasts, a surrogate for investor uncertainty, plays an important role in the determination of asset prices.
Markets for carbon and power pricing in Europe : theoretical issues and empirical analyses

Contents: 1. Introduction Francesco Gulli PART I: OVERVIEW AND THEORETICAL ISSUES 2. The European Emissions Trading Scheme: Overview, Lessons and Perspectives Liliya Chernyavs'ka 3. Modelling the Short-run Impact of `Carbon Trading' on the Electricity Sector Francesco Gulli 4. From Electricity Prices to Electricity Costs: Impact of Emissions Trading on Industry's Electricity Purchasing Strategies Julia Reinaud PART II: EMPIRICAL ANALYSES 5. Options to Address Concerns Regarding EU ETS-Induced Increases in Power Prices and Generators' Profits: The Case of Carbon Cost Pass-through in Germany and the Netherlands Jos Sijm, Sebastiaan Hers and Bas Wetzelaer 6. A Vector Error Correction Model of the Interactions Among Gas, Electricity and Carbon Prices: An Application to the Cases of Germany and the United Kingdom Derek W. Bunn and Carlo Fezzi 7. Impacts of the European Emissions Trading Scheme on Finnish Wholesale Electricity Prices Juha Honkatukia, Ville Malkoenen and Adriaan Perrels 8. The Impact of the European Emissions Trading Scheme on Power Prices in Italy: The `Load Duration Curve Approach' Liliya Chernyavs'ka and Francesco Gulli 9. The Joint Impact of Carbon Emissions Trading and Tradable Green Certificates on the Evolution of Liberalized Electricity Markets: The Spanish Case Pedro Linares and Francisco J. Santos Index
Efficient Inference and Learning for Computer Vision Labelling Problems

Discrete energy minimization has recently emerged as an indispensable tool for computer vision problems. It enables inference of the maximum a posteriori solutions of Markov and conditional random fields, which can be used to model labelling problems in vision. When formulating such problems in an energy minimization framework, there are three main issues that need to be addressed: (i) How to perform efficient inference to compute the optimal solution; (ii) How to incorporate prior knowledge into the model; and (iii) How to learn the parameter values. This thesis focusses on these aspects and presents novel solutions to address them. As computer vision moves towards the era of large videos and gigapixel images, computational efficiency is becoming increasingly important. We present two novel methods to improve the efficiency of energy minimization algorithms. The first method works by “recycling” results from previous problem instances. The second simplifies the energy minimization problem by “reducing” the number of variables in the energy function. We demonstrate a substantial improvement in the running time of various labelling problems such as, interactive image and video segmentation, object recognition, stereo matching. In the second part of the thesis we explore the use of natural image statistics for the single view reconstruction problem, where the task is to recover a theatre-stage representation (containing planar surfaces and their geometrical relationships to each other) from a single 2D image. To this end, we introduce a class of multi-label higher order functions to model these statistics based on the distribution of geometrical features of planar surfaces. We also show that this new class of functions can be solved exactly with efficient graph cut methods. The third part of the thesis addresses the problem of learning the parameters of the energy function. Although several methods have been proposed to learn the model parameters from training data, they suffer from various drawbacks, such as limited applicability or noisy estimates due to poor approximations. We present an accurate and efficient learning method, and demonstrate that it is widely applicable.
Analysis of Freight Tours in a Congested Urban Area Using Disaggregated Data: Characteristics and Data Collection Challenges

Confidentiality issues are usually an insurmountable barrier that precludes the collection of detailed and complete freight data. However, when detailed disaggregated truck activity data is available, the analysis of commercial vehicle routes and trip chain structures can provide insightful information about urban commercial vehicle tours, travel patterns, and congestion levels. Where truck data is usually aggregated and cross-sectional, this research analyzes several months of detailed truck activity records in a congested urban area and thus contributes a level of investigation unavailable with aggregated data. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is no published research regarding the analysis of disaggregated truck data in congested areas. Data corresponds to the daily activity of less than truckload (LTL) delivery tours in the city of Sydney. The analysis of the data provides insightful information about urban truck tours and congestion levels. This paper identifies route patterns and analyzes their relationship to trip and tour length distribution. Travel between different industrial suburbs explains the shape of multimodal trip length distributions. Variations in daily demand explain the normal-like shape of the tour trip distribution. Tour data indicates that there is no clear relationship between tour distance, percentage of empty trips, and percentage of empty distance. Congestion data indicates that the standard deviation of travel speed is significant. In addition, correlations between travel times are positive and they should be used as an additional congestion measure for trip-chains or urban freight tours. Despite the availability of complete tour data, tour congestion analysis proved challenging due to the large number of customers visited and links traveled during the period of study.
The Impact of Intraday Timing of Earnings Announcements on the Bid-Ask Spread and Depth

Libby, Mathieu, and Robb (2002) investigate, among other things, the impact of intraday timing of earnings announcements on the bid-ask spread and depth for a sample of firms listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. They document, in a univariate setting, that the spread is relatively wider and the depth lower after announcements declared during nontrading hours than after announcements released during trading hours. This study extends their research by (1) investigating earnings announcements declared by firms traded on the NYSE or AMEX, (2) addressing this issue in a multivariate setting, (3) exploring before-open and after-close announcements separately, and (4) analyzing the impact by half-hour interval. Interestingly, my results indicate, opposite to the findings by Libby, Mathieu, and Robb (2002), that the spread is relatively smaller and the depth higher after overnight announcements than after daytime announcements. These findings are robust to firm-specific factors, cross-listings, differences in the content of daytime and overnight releases, and intraday timing consistency. In addition, this effect occurs after before-open and after after-close announcements, and the analysis by half-hour interval reveals that the impact on the spread (depth) lasts for four (seven) trading half hours.
Returns to Skills Around the World

Existing estimates of the labor-market returns to human capital give a distorted picture of the role of skills across different economies. International comparisons of earnings analyses rely almost exclusively on school attainment measures of human capital, and evidence incorporating direct measures of cognitive skills is mostly restricted to early-career workers in the United States. Analysis of the new PIAAC survey of adult skills over the full lifecycle in 22 countries shows that the focus on early-career earnings leads to underestimating the lifetime returns to skills by about one quarter. On average, a one-standard-deviation increase in numeracy skills is associated with an 18 percent wage increase among prime-age workers. But this masks considerable heterogeneity across countries. Eight countries, including all Nordic countries, have returns between 12 and 15 percent, while six are above 21 percent with the largest return being 28 percent in the United States. Estimates are remarkably robust to different earnings and skill measures, additional controls, and various subgroups. Intriguingly, returns to skills are systematically lower in countries with higher union density, stricter employment protection, and larger public-sector shares.