Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Effects of family planning programs on fertility in the developing world

These 3 papers represent an analysis of the impact of family planning programs on fertility in developing countries and the comparative effects of family planning program effort contraceptive availability and female education and income on fertility. The 1st paper consists of an index of family planning progrm effort from 1972 - 1982 in many countries based on each countrys performance on many different criteria such as availability and accessibility of contraceptive methods official policy towards contraception and record keeping and evaluation of family planning programs. Results show a general trend for family planning efforts to increase in the developing world: countries with strong program effort scores give considerable attention to provision of sevices and accessibility. However there are a large number of countries whre very little effort directed at fertility control exists. The 2nd paper describes an economic model of the demand for contraception and the demand for children and demonstrates how reduction in cost of contraception can increase use and therefore decrease fertility. Data demonstrates that a fertility decline occurring in 1960-1965 is an important indicator for the 1972 index reported in the 1st paper. Revieweds are studies done within various countries on effects of organized family planning programs on fertility; evidence is presented that accessibility to family planning services has a large impact on contraceptive use. The 3rd paper studies effects of several factors on fertility and determines that the combination of family planning with female education should be stressed as having a large impact on fertility changes. These yield greater payoffs in income productivity and population control than an equivalent investment in physical capital. Also slow delcines in fertility appear to stimulate government effort while rapid declines seem to retard it.
Oxidative damage to RNA but not DNA in the hippocampus of patients with major mental illness.

BACKGROUND Oxidative damage in the central nervous system is increasingly recognized as an important pathological process in many diseases. Previously, our laboratory found that oxidative damage to lipids and proteins was increased in postmortem brain tissue from patients with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. In the current study, we analyzed oxidative damage to nucleic acids in the CA1, CA3 and dentate gyrus regions of postmortem hippocampus tissue from patients with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and major depression. METHODS We examined oxidative damage to nucleic acids by performing immunohistochemistry with a monoclonal antibody that recognizes both 8-hydroxy-guanosine in RNA and 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine in DNA. RESULTS We found that the amount of oxidative damage to nucleic acids was elevated in the CA1, CA3 and dentate gyrus regions of the hippocampus among patients with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and major depressive disorder. This damage was predominantly in the cytoplasm, suggesting that the damage was primarily to RNA. Compared with oxidative damage in control samples, the magnitude of damage was high in patients with schizophrenia, modest in patients with bipolar disorder and lower in patients with major depression. LIMITATIONS The interpretation of our results is limited by a number of factors, including the retrospective review of patient history, the relatively small sample size and the inclusion of patients who had substance abuse and were undergoing various drug treatments at the time of death. CONCLUSION Our results suggest that oxidative damage to RNA, rather than to DNA, occurs in vulnerable neurons of the brain in patients with major mental illness and may contribute to the pathology of these disorders. The magnitude of RNA oxidative damage may be associated with the severity of mental illness.
An adaptive multiscale AM-FM texture analysis system with application to hysteroscopy imaging

The use of multiscale AM-FM analysis systems has been recently demonstrated in a variety of applications in medical image analysis. In all of these applications, a fixed filter-bank is used as a preprocessing step for estimating different AM-FM components from different scales. In this paper, for the first time, we introduce the use of an adaptive, multiscale AM-FM approach that searches for the optimal filter-bank specification for use in image classification. We demonstrate an example application in hysteroscopy imaging, for identification of gynaecological cancer, where the optimal filter-bank turns out to be circularly symmetric.
Expenditure and Earnings Targets

This paper examines whether firms cut R&D spending in response to shortterm earnings pressures and how equity markets interpret such behaviour. Failure to report positive earnings and earnings growth increases the probability of a subsequent cut in R&D spending, while pressure to report positive earnings and earnings growth in the current period leads to contemporaneous cuts in R&D investment. On average, investors place less weight on earnings increases accompanied by unexpected cuts in R&D spending. However, the magnitude of the valuation discount varies according to the perceived reason for the cut and the importance of R&D investment as a driver of firm value.
Macroeconomics, Income Distribution, and Poverty

This paper investigates the impacts of macroeconomic activity and policy on the poverty population. It is shown that both the poverty count and the income share of the lowest quintile of income recipients move significantly with the business cycle. The differential impact of inflation versus unemployment on low income groups is analyzed at length.The evidence indicates that unemployment has very large and negative effects on the poor, while inflation appears to have few effects at all. In addition, changes in tax policy since 1950 have led to decreasing progressivity in the overall tax structure. Special attention is given to changes in the poverty rate over the past decade and to prospective changes in the remainder of the 1980s.
Anti-platelet agents and surgical delay in elderly patients with hip fractures

We agree that patients on the combination of clopidogrel and aspirin have greater increases in bleeding times than those on either aspirin or clopidogrel alone.1 All our patients on clopidogrel had their surgery delayed for 7 days, based on advice from our anaesthetic colleagues.2 Based on the manufacturer’s recommendations and the life-span of a platelet, the delay to surgery was to ensure that the effects of clopidogrel (with or without aspirin) were eliminated. Therefore, our patients on the combination Letters to the Editor Anti-platelet agents and surgical delay in elderly patients with hip fractures
Folate deficiency facilitates recruitment of upstream binding factor to hot spots of DNA double-strand breaks of rRNA genes and promotes its transcription

Abstract The biogenesis of ribosomes in vivo is an essential process for cellular functions. Transcription of ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes is the rate-limiting step in ribosome biogenesis controlled by environmental conditions. Here, we investigated the role of folate antagonist on changes of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) landscape in mouse embryonic stem cells. A significant DSB enhancement was detected in the genome of these cells and a large majority of these DSBs were found in rRNA genes. Furthermore, spontaneous DSBs in cells under folate deficiency conditions were located exclusively within the rRNA gene units, representing a H3K4me1 hallmark. Enrichment H3K4me1 at the hot spots of DSB regions enhanced the recruitment of upstream binding factor (UBF) to rRNA genes, resulting in the increment of rRNA genes transcription. Supplement of folate resulted in a restored UBF binding across DNA breakage sites of rRNA genes, and normal rRNA gene transcription. In samples from neural tube defects (NTDs) with low folate level, up-regulation of rRNA gene transcription was observed, along with aberrant UBF level. Our results present a new view by which alterations in folate levels affects DNA breakage through epigenetic control leading to the regulation of rRNA gene transcription during the early stage of development.
Dominant-Negative Mutants of c-Jun Ornithine Decarboxylase-and Ras-Overexpressing Cells by Reversible Regulation of the Transformed Phenotype of Updated

c-Jun is an oncogenic transcription factor involved in the regulation of cell proliferation, apoptosis and transformation. We have previously reported that cell transformations induced by ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) and c-Ha-ras oncogene, commonly activated in various cancer cells, are associated with constitutively increased phosphorylation of c-Jun on Ser residues 63 and 73. In the present study, we examined the significance of c-Jun phosphorylation and activation on the phenotype of the ODCand ras-transformants, by using specific inhibitors and dominantnegative (DN) mutants to c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase (JNK) and its upstream kinase, SEK1/MKK4 (mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase 4), and to c-Jun. The transformed morphology of both the ODCand rasexpressing cells was reversed partially by JNK inhibitors and DN JNK1, more effectively by DN SEK1/MKK4 and phosphorylation-deficient c-Jun mutants (c-Jun, c-Jun) and most potently by a transactivation domain deletion mutant of c-Jun (TAM67). Moreover, tetracycline-inducible TAM67 expression in ODCand ras-transformed cells showed that the transformed phenotype of the cells is reversibly regulatable. TAM67 also inhibited the tumorigenicity of the cells in nude mice. These inducible cell lines, together with their parental cell lines, provide good models to identify the genes and proteins relevant to cellular transformation.
Emission Reduction, Interstate Equity, and the Price of Carbon

The fate of the earth may depend on U.S. success in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. And the fate of U.S. climate policy may depend on its success in addressing the fears that it will cause economic harm. Resistance to new initiatives has been based on geography as much as on party lines, with the greatest concerns about economic impacts of climate policy coming from states with carbon-intensive economies and coal-dependent electricity systems. This report examines the underlying differences between states that will determine how they are affected by climate policy. It models the effects of carbon prices on households by income level and by state, including the net economic effect under a system that returns most of the carbon revenues to households. It also looks at policy choices that could reduce the impact on each state's residents and ease their transition to a lower-emissions lifestyle. Any U.S. climate policy will have to be designed both to protect the earth's climate by reducing emissions, and to protect American households from undue economic losses. Our model shows that these two objectives can almost be separated from each other. Roughly speaking, emission reduction depends on the price of carbon, while the economic impact on households depends on the uses of carbon revenues. These two policy levers can be adjusted independently, to achieve the desired environmental and economic outcomes. Our model finds that the policies considered in current legislative proposals are not ambitious enough to achieve either goal. None of the bills currently under serious discussion would impose a high enough price to achieve the 17-to 20-percent reductions in greenhouse gas emissions (from 2005 levels) that they seek by 2020. Likewise, none of the leading bills return enough of the carbon revenues to households to ensure desirable distributional outcomes. It is not difficult to build a better proposal: A carbon price that rises to $75 per metric ton of carbon dioxide (mT CO2) by 2020, with 85 percent of the revenues returned on a per capita basis, would do the trick. (The price can be achieved either through a cap-and-trade system or a carbon tax; the distinction between these two policy approaches does not matter for our analysis.) To keep the carbon price lower and still meet the announced emission targets, it would be necessary to step up the efforts to reduce carbon emissions through non-market mechanisms. Expanded energy efficiency programs and accelerated investment …
Amplitude and Kinetics of Action Potential-Evoked Ca2+ Current and Its Efficacy in Triggering Transmitter Release at the Developing Calyx of Held Synapse

Action potentials (APs) play a crucial role in evoking Ca2+ currents (ICa) through voltage-gated calcium channels (VGCCs) and transmitter release. During development and neuromodulation, both depolarization and repolarization phases of APs change, but how such changes affect the characteristics of ICa and its efficacy at central synapses is not clear. By paired voltage-clamp recordings of ICa and excitatory postsynaptic currents (IEPSC) with pseudo-APs and real APs, we examined these issues in the developing calyx of Held synapse of postnatal mice. We found that speeding the AP depolarization rate primarily reduces the number of activated VGCCs, whereas shortening the AP repolarization phase decreases the number of activated VGCCs and accelerates their kinetics. The ICa–IESPC relationships are well predicted by the integral but not the amplitude of ICa, and exhibit development- and temperature-dependent shifts toward left, indicating an enhancement in downstream Ca2+ coupling efficacy. Cross-correlation analyses of ICa and IEPSC evoked by real APs and pseudo-APs demonstrated that AP shortening in the half-width from 0.4 ms at postnatal day 8 (P8)–P12 to 0.27 ms at P16–P18 decreases ICa integral by 36%, but increases IEPSC by 72% as a result of developmental upregulation in coupling efficacy. These counteracting actions maintain the release fraction evoked by an AP at ∼10% of the maximal quantal output. We suggest that AP narrowing is a critical adaptation for the calyx of Held synapse to control the quantal output per AP and is likely important for the efficient use of the readily releasable pool of synaptic vesicles during high-frequency neurotransmission.
An Elasticity Perspective to the Newsvendor with Price Sensitive Demand

We introduce a measure of elasticity of stochastic demand, called the elasticity of the lost sales rate, which offers a unifying perspective on the well-known newsvendor with pricing problem. This new concept provides a framework to characterize structural results for coordinated and uncoordinated pricing and inventory strategies. Concavity and submodularity of the profit function, as well as sensitivity properties of the optimal inventory and price policies are characterized by monotonicity conditions, or bounds, on the elasticity of the lost sales rate. These elasticity conditions are satisfied by most relevant demand models in the marketing and operations literature. Our results unify and complement previous work on price-setting newsvendor models, and provide a new tool for researchers modeling stochastic price-sensitive demand in other contexts.
Oscillator representation of the BCFT construction of D-branes in vacuum string field theory

Starting from the boundary CFT definition for the D-branes in vacuum string field theory (VSFT) given in hep-th/0105168, we derive the oscillator expression for the D24-brane solution in the VSFT on D25-brane. We show that the state takes the form of a squeezed state, similar to the one found directly in terms of the oscillators and reported in hep-th/0102112. Both the solutions are actually one parameter families of solutions. We also find numerical evidence that at least for moderately large values of the parameter (b) in the oscillator construction the two families of solutions are same under a suitable redefinition of the parameter. Finally we generalize the method to computing the oscillator expression for a D-brane solution with constant gauge field strength turned on along the world volume.
Numerical evaluation of an ultra high-speed X-ray camera with respect to gated image simultaneity

A high-speed camera with electric field based shuttering can be capable of framing with precision of nanosecond or picosecond range. The shutter mechanism is controlled by an electric pulse on a photo-cathode, through which the incoming X-ray light is converted to an electron density distribution via photoelectric effect. The purpose of this study is to compensate for the simultaneity of the pulse-gated image by spatially controlling the transit time of photoelectrons. Control of the transit time is achieved by slightly inclining the photocathode. However, the configuration of the Micro Channel Plate (MCP) is different from that of conventional MCP gated cameras. Therefore, it is necessary to perform a time-domain analysis of the amplification characteristics of the MCP when the gating pulse is applied to the electrodes on the MCP.
Educational Expectations and Attainment

This paper examines the role of educational expectations in the educational attainment process. We utilize data from a variety of datasets to document and analyze the trends in educational expectations between the mid-1970s and the early 2000s. We focus on differences across racial/ethnic and socioeconomic groups and examine how young people update their expectations during high school and beyond. The results indicate that expectations rose for all students with the greatest increases among young women. Expectations have become somewhat less predictive of attainment over the past several decades but expectations remain strong predictors of attainment above and beyond other standard determinants of schooling. Interestingly, the data demonstrate that the majority (about 60 percent) of students update their expectations at least once between eighth grade and eight years post-high school. Updating appears to be based, in part, on the acquisition of new information about academic ability.
Effects of enzyme replacement therapy on pain and health related quality of life in patients with Fabry disease: data from FOS (Fabry Outcome Survey)

Background: Fabry disease is an X linked lysosomal storage disease caused by deficiency of the lysosomal enzyme α-galactosidase A. This leads to accumulation of globotriaosylceramide in nearly all tissues, including the blood vessels, kidney, myocardium, and nervous system. Symptoms often begin in childhood and include acroparaesthesia, with burning or tingling pain that spreads from the extremities to more proximal sites. Aims: This study set out to evaluate pain and its influence on quality of life in patients with Fabry disease receiving enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) with agalsidase alfa. Methods: Data were obtained from the Fabry Outcome Survey. Pain was measured using the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI), and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) was documented with the European Quality of Life Questionnaire (EQ-5D). Results: The mean (SD) score for “pain at its worst” on the BPI prior to ERT was 5.1 (2.7). One year after commencement of ERT, this had improved by 0.5, and improved by a further 0.6 after 2 years (p<0.05). Similar statistically significant improvements were seen for “pain on average” and “pain now” after 2 years of ERT. The mean HRQoL utility score prior to ERT was 0.66 (0.32). After 12 months of treatment with agalsidase alfa, this had improved to 0.74 (0.26; p<0.05); this improvement was maintained after 2 years. Conclusions: ERT with agalsidase alfa significantly reduces pain and improves quality of life in patients with Fabry disease.
Are complex decisions better left to the unconscious? Further failed replications of the deliberation-without-attention effect

The deliberation-without-attention effect occurs when better decisions are made when people experience a period of distraction before a decision than when they make decisions immediately or when they spend time reflecting on the alternatives. This effect has been explained (e.g., Dijksterhuis, 2004) by the claim that people engage in unconscious deliberation when distracted and that unconscious thought is better suited for complex decisions than conscious thought. Experiments 1, 2A, and 2B in this study included a dominant alternative and failed to find evidence for this effect. Experiment 3 removed the dominant alternative and manipulated mode of thought within-subjects to eliminate alternative explanations for the failed replication. In all experiments participants did not make better decisions after unconscious thought; decisions were consistently better than chance when made immediately after the encoding of information. Encouraging people not to think about complex decisions appears to be unwarranted.
The political economy of world heritage

The paper explores the main determinants a ecting the nomination and selection process of World Heritage Sites. While World Heritage represents the most relevant cultural and natural assets for the humankind, little re- search has been conducted to understand the conditions in uencing the process of sites inscription. Using panel data, we provide evidence on the institutional and economic conditions of countries which a ect the compo- sition of the World Heritage List. In particular, we test whether political factors, such as the involvement of countries in the World Heritage Com- mittee, in uence inscription of national heritage sites in the List. The paper contributes to the cultural economics literature by providing new insights on the political economy of conservation and promotion of heritage at the international level.
Spry 2 does not directly modulate Raf-1 kinase activity in v-Haras-transformed NIH 3 T 3 fibroblasts

Sprouty (Spry) proteins have previously been suggested as negative regulators of the MAPK pathway through interaction with Raf-1. However, the molecular basis of this inhibition has not been elucidated. In this study, we used cells expressing FLAGtagged Raf-1 with point mutations at known phosphorylation sites to reveal that activation of Raf-1 mutants does not correlate with their degree of interaction with Spry2. The association of Raf-1 with Spry2 in intact cells was further corroborated by immunofluorescence colocalization. Additionally, there was no significant change observed in the strength of interaction between Raf-1 mutants and Spry2 after paclitaxel treatment despite differences in the activation levels of these mutants. Thus, our study provides the evidence that Spry2 does not directly regulate Raf-1 kinase activity, but instead acts as a scaffolding protein that assists interactions between Raf-1 kinase and its direct regulators. [BMB reports 2010; 43(3): 205-211]
Body size and laryngeal cancer risk.

BACKGROUND A few studies have analyzed the role of lifetime anthropometric measures on laryngeal cancer risk. PATIENT AND METHODS This relation was investigated using a multicentre case-control study from Italy, conducted between 1992 and 2000, and including 460 incident, histologically confirmed laryngeal cancer cases, and 1088 controls admitted to the same network of hospitals as cases for acute, non neoplastic condition. Odds ratios (OR) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI) were obtained from multiple logistic regression, including terms for major confounding factors, such as physical activity and energy intake. RESULTS An inverse association with laryngeal cancer risk was found for body mass index (BMI) in both sexes (OR for the lowest compared to the highest quintile was 1.47, 95% CI 0.93-2.33 in men and 8.11, 95% CI 1.38-47.66 in women) and for BMI at age 50 years (OR=1.65, 95% CI 0.88-3.11) in men and 7.84, 95% CI 0.69-88.58 in women). An inverse association was also observed with waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) at diagnosis in men only (OR=4.56, 95% CI 2.62-7.95 for the lowest compared to the highest quintile). CONCLUSIONS This study supports the existence of a relation between leanness and laryngeal cancer risk. In particular, men with less abdominal fat (characterized by a lower WHR) had an increased risk of laryngeal cancer.