Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Surgical treatment of systemic sclerosis—is it justified to offer peripheral sympathectomy earlier in the disease process?

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a rare connective tissue disease associated with significant digital vasculopathy. Peripheral sympathectomy is frequently offered late in the disease process after severe digital ischemia has already occurred with patients being symptomatic for numerous years. The purpose of the present study was to analyze the results of peripheral sympathectomy in patients with a confirmed diagnosis of SSc.
Real‐Time Data and Fiscal Policy Analysis: A Survey of the Literature

This paper surveys the empirical research on fiscal policy analysis based on real-time data. This literature can be broadly divided in three groups that focus on: (1) the statistical properties of revisions in fiscal data; (2) the political and institutional determinants of fiscal data revisions and of one-year-ahead projection errors by governments and (3) the reaction of fiscal policies to the business cycle. It emerges that, first, fiscal data revisions are large and initial releases are biased estimates of final values. Second, the presence of strong fiscal rules and institutions leads to relatively more accurate releases of fiscal data and small deviations of fiscal outcomes from government plans. Third, the cyclical stance of fiscal policies is estimated to be more ‘counter-cyclical’ when real-time data are used instead of ex-post data. Finally, more work is needed for the development of real-time datasets for fiscal policy analysis. In particular, a comprehensive real-time dataset including fiscal variables for industrialized (and possibly developing) countries, published and maintained by central banks or other institutions, is still missing.
Cellular immunity in healthy volunteers treated with an octavalent conjugate Pseudomonas aeruginosa vaccine

Humoral immunity in response to an octavalent O‐polysaccharide‐toxin A conjugate Pseudomonas aeruginosa vaccine is well studied, and a phase III clinical study in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients is currently ongoing. In contrast, little is known about cellular immunity induced by this vaccine. Fifteen healthy volunteers were immunized on days 1 and 60. Parameters of cellular immunity were studied before vaccination on day 1, and on day 74. Analyses included flow cytometry of whole blood and antigen‐induced proliferation of and cytokine production by lymphocyte cultures. The effects of immunization on the composition of peripheral blood lymphocytes as determined by flow cytometry were minor. In contrast, after immunization a highly significant increase of proliferation in response to stimulation with detoxified toxin A was noted: the stimulation index rose from 1·4 on day 1 to 42·2 on day 74 (restimulation with 0·4 µg/ml; P = 0·003). Immunization led to significant production of interferon (IFN)‐γ and tumour necrosis factor (TNF)‐α by antigen‐stimulated lymphocytes. In contrast, no significant induction of interleukin (IL)‐4 or IL‐10 was observed. In conclusion, immunization of healthy volunteers led to activation of cellular immunity including strong antigen‐specific proliferation and cytokine production. In CF patients priming of the cellular immune system towards a Th1‐like pattern would be of potential advantage. Therefore, confirmatory analyses in immunized CF patients with and without chronic infection with P. aeruginosa are foreseen.
Design of a 60-GHz down-converting dual-gate mixer in 130-nm CMOS technology

A 60-GHz down-converting dual-gate mixer, fabricated in the 0.13-μm CMOS process, for WPAN applications is presented. The mixer utilizes the dual-gate topology and adds a buffer to avoid loading effects. A good agreement between simulation and measurements is observed. The mixer exhibits a conversion loss of 2.7 dB, input 1-dB compression point of −8 dBm at RF of 60 GHz, IF of 5 GHz and LO power of 0 dBm. The total power consumption is 16.8 mW, 7.2 mW for the core mixer and 9.6 mW for the buffer.
THE IMPORTANCE OF HOME ENVIRONMENT AND PARENTAL ENCOURAGEMENT IN THE ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF AFRICAN‐ CANADIAN YOUTH

This article focuses on the educational experiences of African ‐ Canadian youth. Traditionally, researchers have tended to emphasize the poor academic performance of Black students, or issues and problems related to their academic failure, or to stereotype them as loud, lazy, criminal, athletic, deprived, dangerous, and deviant. In contrast, this article looks at Black students in Alberta who have achieved academic success in spite of considerable adversity. The data presented here show that factors such as the home environment and parental encouragement contribute to academic success. Key words: Black students, school success, family status, Alberta education Cet article porte sur les experiences scolaires de jeunes Africano ‐ Canadiens. D’habitude, les chercheurs ont tendance a souligner le pietre rendement scolaire des eleves noirs ou les problemes relies a leur echec scolaire ou encore a les presenter de facon stereotypee comme des personnes bruyantes, paresseuses, portees a commettre des crimes, athletiques, demunies, dangereuses ou ayant un comportement deviant. Cet article decrit plutot des eleves noirs albertains qui reussissent bien leurs etudes en depit de conditions tres difficiles. Les donnees presentees indiquent que les facteurs comme le milieu familial et les encouragements des parents contribuent au succes scolaire. Mots cles : eleves noirs, succes scolaire, milieu familial, education en Alberta
Macro Tree Translations of Linear Size Increase are MSO Definable

The first main result is that if a macro tree translation is of linear size increase, i.e., if the size of every output tree is linearly bounded by the size of the corresponding input tree, then the translation is MSO definable (i.e., definable in monadic second-order logic). This gives a new characterization of the MSO definable tree translations in terms of macro tree transducers: they are exactly the macro tree translations of linear size increase. The second main result is that given a macro tree transducer, it can be decided whether or not its translation is MSO definable, and if it is, then an equivalent MSO transducer can be constructed. Similar results hold for attribute grammars, which define a subclass of the macro tree translations.
Determination of the gas-to-dust ratio in nearby dense clouds using X-ray absorption measurements

We present a comparison of the gas and dust properties of the dense interstellar matter in six nearby star forming regions (d 2) than the galactic value, derived using the standard extinction curve (RV = 3:1). This result is consistent with the recent downwards revision of the metallicity of the Sun and stars in the solar vicinity. We find that the Oph dense cloud has the same metallicity than the local ISM when assuming that the galactic gas-to-dust ratio remains unchanged. The dierence between galactic and local values of the gas-to-dust ratio can thus be attributed entirely to a dierence in metallicity.
Estimation of Flashover Rates of Overhead Power Distribution Lines by Lightning Strokes to Nearby Ground

Most outages on overhead power distribution lines are caused by lightning strokes to nearby ground. The electrostatic and the magnetic fields of the return stroke of a lightning stroke interact with the overhead line to induce transient voltages on the line. This interacting process is complex. However, the designer of an electric distribution system needs to know the outage rate of an overhead power line for a selected BIL (basic impulse insulation level) to meet the reliability criteria set for the system. A method is proposed which will facilitate estimating the outage rate of an overhead power distribution line caused by lightning strokes to nearby ground. In the analysis, the return-stroke current is varied from 1 kA to 200 kA, and the time to crest from 0.5 ¿s to 10.5 ¿s. The least perpendicular distance from the line to cause a strike to nearby ground is then computed from the striking distance of the stroke for the given current. Starting at this distance, the voltage induced on the line is calculated for the given current and the time to crest. If the induced voltage exceeds the BIL of the line, the strike point is receded from the line in steps until the induced voltage is below the BIL. A bivariate lognormal statistical analysis is made for each current level and for each given front time to estimate the probability of occurrence of that combination.
Achieving stability in networks of input-queued switches

Recent research has generated many interesting results on scheduling input-queued switches. However, most of this work focuses on a single switch in isolation. In this paper we study the problem of scheduling a network of input-queued switches. We consider the longest-queue-first and longest-port-first protocols that are stable for a single switch and show that they can be unstable even for a fixed traffic pattern in a simple network of eight input-queued switches. Moreover, this result holds regardless of how the traffic sharing the same port-pair is scheduled at each switch. On the positive side we present a protocol, longest-in-network, that is stable in networks of input-queued switches. This result holds even if the traffic pattern is allowed to change over time.
Gender, Development, and Money

# Editorial Caroline Sweetman # Gender bias in finance Irene van Staveren # Rural women earning income in Indonesian factories: the impact on gender relations Peter Hancock # Just another job? Paying for domestic work Bridget Anderson # Conceptualising women's empowerment in societies in Cameroon: how does money fit in? Joyce B. Endeley # Pathways to empowerment? Reflections on microfinance and transformayion in gender relations in South Asia Juliet Hunt and Nalini Kasynathan # Mama Cash: investing in the future of women Lilianne Ploumen # Money that makes a change: community currencies, North and South Gill Seyfang # 'More and more technology, women have to go home': changing skill demands in manufacturing and Caribbean women's access to training Daphne Jayasinghe # An income of one's own: a radical vision of welfare policies in Europe and beyond Ingrid Robeyns # Resources Compiled by Erin Murphy Graham # Publications # Organisations # Electronic Resources # Videos
Species status and phylogeography of two closely related Coptolabrus species (Coleoptera: Carabidae) in South Korea inferred from mitochondrial and nuclear gene sequences

We investigated the species status and intraspecific phylogeography in South Korea of two ground beetle species, Coptolabrus jankowskii and Coptolabrus smaragdinus (Coleoptera: Carabidae), using statistical parsimony networks and nested clade analyses based on sequences from the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) and nuclear phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PepCK) and wingless (Wg) genes. Although traditional parsimony tree construction generally failed to resolve interspecific relationships and construct biologically meaningful genealogies, analysis using statistical parsimony networks yielded statistically significant inter‐ and intraspecific genealogical structures. We found that although these two species represent a notable case of trans‐species polymorphisms in both mitochondrial and nuclear gene sequences, their status as separate species was evidenced by the nonrandom association between species and nested clades at various nesting levels. The exceptional occurrence of shared identical or very similar COI sequences was considered to be the result of introgressive hybridization. In addition, range expansion and fragmentation events across the Korean Peninsula and adjacent islands were inferred from nested clade phylogeographical analyses. The COI gene revealed the geographical divergence of major eastern and western clades and historical biogeographical events within each major clade, whereas the nuclear PepCK gene, which did not reveal corresponding east–west clades, indicated past fragmentation and range expansion across wide areas that may have been the result of older biogeographical events. Thus, phylogeographical inferences drawn from analyses of mitochondrial and nuclear genes can reveal different and potentially complementary information about phylogeographical processes.
Bumpless switching control for switched systems with partial actuator failures

ABSTRACT This study is concerned with the bumpless transfer problem for switched systems with partial actuator failures, in order to obtain smooth system performance output transition. Taking into account that the system requires a controller switching from current sub-controller to a fault-tolerant sub-controller after actuator fault. And bumpless transfer for control input cannot be traditionally designed when the actuator fault occurs, while performance smoothing can be considered and it is actually the ultimate goal of bumpless transfer. Specifically, the actuator fault model is firstly established and partial actuator fault is considered. Then, the system performance output signal is deemed as the main design variable of bumpless transfer, and closed-loop control systems both previous and after controller switching are constructed. Moreover, by using model matching thought and the adaptive sliding mode control technique, a bumpless transfer compensator design strategy is given to drive the performance output variable (after controller switching) to track the one of reference model. At last, simulation results of numeric and application examples demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed bumpless transfer strategy.
The effect of volatile anaesthetics on the relative sensitivity of facial and distal thoracic limb muscles to vecuronium in dogs.

OBJECTIVE To compare n. facialis-m. nasolabialis (nF-mNL) and n. ulnar-mm. carpi flexorii (nU-mCF) sensitivity to vecuronium during halothane or isoflurane anaesthesia. STUDY DESIGN Randomized, prospective, experimental study. ANIMALS Forty-four client-owned dogs (19 male, 25 female) undergoing surgery; mean age: 5.0 years; mean body mass: 24.7 kg. METHODS Thirty minutes after acepromazine (0.05 mg kg-1) and morphine (0.5 mg kg-1), anaesthesia was induced with intravenous (IV) thiopental and maintained with either halothane (n = 22) or isoflurane (randomly allocated) in oxygen. The lungs were mechanically ventilated and end-tidal inhaled anaesthetic (Fe'IAA) maintained at 1.2 × MAC values. Neuromuscular transmission at nF-uNL and nU-mCF was monitored using the train of four count. Vecuronium (50 μg kg-1 IV) was injected (t = 0) after 15 trains, 50-60 minutes after inhalational anaesthesia began, when Fe'IAA had been constant for >15 minutes. Times of the disappearance (-) and reappearance (+) of the fourth (T4) and first twitch (T1) were recorded allowing the calculation of: latent (t = 0 to T4-) and manifest onset times (t = 0 to T1-) duration of blockade (T1- to T1+) and drug effect (T4- to T4+) and recovery time (T1+-T4+). Student's paired t-test was used to compare simultaneous responses at nF-uNL and nU-mCF. An unpaired t-test was used to compare anaesthetic effects. RESULTS Latent and manifest onset times were significantly (p < 0.05) briefer, blockade and drug effects were significantly longer and recovery from blockade were significantly slower in the nF-mNL unit in both halothane and isoflurane recipients. Profound block duration and drug action were significantly longer and recovery from blockade were significantly slower in halothane recipients at both nerve-muscle units. CONCLUSION AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE The nF-mNL was more sensitive than nU-mCF to vecuronium, particularly in halothane-anaesthetized dogs.
Tissue-Nonspecific Alkaline Phosphatase Acts Redundantly with PAP and NT5E to Generate Adenosine in the Dorsal Spinal Cord

Prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP) and ecto-5′-nucleotidase (NT5E) hydrolyze extracellular AMP to adenosine in dorsal root ganglia (DRG) neurons and in the dorsal spinal cord. Previously, we found that adenosine production was reduced, but not eliminated, in Pap−/−/Nt5e−/− double knock-out (dKO) mice, suggesting that a third AMP ectonucleotidase was present in these tissues. Here, we found that tissue-nonspecific alkaline phosphatase (TNAP, encoded by the Alpl gene) is expressed and functional in DRG neurons and spinal neurons. Using a cell-based assay, we found that TNAP rapidly hydrolyzed extracellular AMP and activated adenosine receptors. This activity was eliminated by MLS-0038949, a selective pharmacological inhibitor of TNAP. In addition, MLS-0038949 eliminated AMP hydrolysis in DRG and spinal lamina II of dKO mice. Using fast-scan-cyclic voltammetry, we found that adenosine was rapidly produced from AMP in spinal cord slices from dKO mice, but virtually no adenosine was produced in spinal cord slices from dKO mice treated with MLS-0038949. Last, we found that AMP inhibited excitatory neurotransmission via adenosine A1 receptor activation in spinal cord slices from wild-type, Pap−/−, Nt5e−/−, and dKO mice, but failed to inhibit neurotransmission in slices from dKO mice treated with MLS-0038949. These data suggest that triple elimination of TNAP, PAP, and NT5E is required to block AMP hydrolysis to adenosine in DRG neurons and dorsal spinal cord. Moreover, our data reveal that TNAP, PAP, and NT5E are the main AMP ectonucleotidases in primary somatosensory neurons and regulate physiology by metabolizing extracellular purine nucleotides.
Suicide risk in cancer patients from 1960 to 1999.

PURPOSE Suicide risk is reportedly higher for cancer patients than for the general population, but estimates vary and analyses of trends are few. The aim of the present study was to determine whether cancer patients had a higher suicide risk between 1960 and 1999. PATIENTS AND METHODS A cohort comprising patients from the Cancer Registry of Norway 1960 to 1997 was linked to suicide diagnosis in the Register of Deaths at Statistics Norway and observed during 1960 to 1999. The cohort consisted of all cancer patients registered in the Cancer Registry of Norway 1960 to 1997 (N = 490,245 patients with 520,823 cancer diagnoses). Suicide was defined according to death certificates based on the International Classification of Diseases (versions 7, 8, 9, and 10). RESULTS During the period, 589 cancer patients (407 males and 182 females) committed suicide. The relative risk was elevated for males and females, with standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) of 1.55 (95% CI, 1.41 to 1.71) and 1.35 (95% CI, 1.17 to 1.56), respectively. Risk was highest in the first months after diagnosis. For both sexes, there was a significant decrease in the relative suicide risk over decades. The risk was markedly increased among male patients with cancer of respiratory organs (SMR, 4.08; 95% CI, 2.96 to 5.47). Otherwise, the SMRs varied from 0.76 to 3.67 across cancer types. CONCLUSION Cancer may be a risk factor for suicide, particularly shortly after diagnosis. However, the relative risk gradually decreased during the period 1960 to 1999.
Students' perspective on knowledge quality in eLearning context: a qualitative assessment

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the unique d i mensions associated with knowledge quality (KQ) based on students’ perception in an educational institution. Design/methodology/approach – Purposive sampling was used to select students who were active users of the electronic-Learning (eLearning) system at two faculties in a single university. The qualitative data gathering employed an unstructured open-ended questionnaire distributed to the 52 selected participants. Findings – The qualitative findings unearth the students’ perspective about quality of knowledge gained from content used in online courses. In total, 34 underlying sub-dimensions of KQ emerged, which were categorized into five KQ dimensions: intrinsic KQ, contextual KQ, representational KQ, accessible KQ, and actionable KQ. Research limitations/implications – The findings provide an insight to educators to consider KQ dimensions in providing quality knowledge to students in an eLearning environment. Originality/value – Previou.
The time and duration of female meiosis in Lilium

The time and duration of meiosis in ovules and anthers was estimated in plants of two Lilium hybrids (cultivars ‘Sonata’ and ‘Black Beauty’) grown under controlled conditions. Within each flower bud meiosis did not start in the embryo sac mother cell (e.m.c.) until about the time when meiosis in pollen mother cells (p.m.cs) was ended. In both cultivars meiosis lasted about 50% longer in e.m. cs than in p.m. cs. Thus, at a mean temperature of 20 ± 1 °C meiosis in ‘Sonata’ took 7.5 days in p.m. cs and 10.5 days in e.m. cs, while in ‘Black Beauty’ it took 10.5 days in p.m. cs and 16.0 days in e.m. cs.
An Overlooked Dimension Of Diversity : The Career Effects of Chronic Illness

D ue to medical advances and increased life expectancy, the percentage of workers with chronic illness in the workforce has increased. Chronic illnesses are illnesses that last longer than one year, cause some limitations to what a person can do, and require ongoing medical care. Examples include asthma, multiple sclerosis, HIV, and arthritis. These conditions can occur at any age, and symptoms vary in their severity from mild to seriously debilitating. Further, they do not follow an expected pattern. Symptoms range from minimally to highly intrusive and vary in symptom visibility. Disease progression is also variable. Some people experience ‘‘flares’’ or peaks of symptoms, followed by remission periods, while others might live with constant symptoms. Since the symptoms are often invisible, organizations may be unaware of the presence of people with chronic illness in the workplace. The fact is that many people with chronic illness continue to work while managing their condition. A recent survey conducted by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality found that 48 percent of the population lives with some kind of chronic condition, and of these people, 60 percent of them work in some capacity. Often these people are too young to retire and are not sick enough to take disability leave. They work to maintain income and health insurance. They also want the self-esteem that comes from making ongoing contributions, and the social benefits that work relationships can offer. FLAWED ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT CHRONIC ILLNESS AND WORK
Towards Self-Service Business Intelligence

Self-service business intelligence is about enabling non-expert users to make well-informed decisions by enriching the decision process with situational data, i.e., data that have a narrow focus on a specific business problem and, typically, a short lifespan for a small group of users. Often, these data are not owned and controlled by the decision maker; their search, extraction, integration, and storage for reuse or sharing should be accomplished by decision makers without any intervention by designers or programmers. The goal of this paper is to present the framework we envision to support self-service business intelligence and the related research challenges; the underlying core idea is the notion of fusion cubes, i.e., multidimensional cubes that can be dynamically extended both in their schema and their instances, and in which situational data and metadata are associated with quality and provenance annotations.
Shift-Reduce CCG Parsing using Neural Network Models

We present a neural network based shift- reduce CCG parser, the first neural-network based parser for CCG. We also study the im- pact of neural network based tagging mod- els, and greedy versus beam-search parsing, by using a structured neural network model. Our greedy parser obtains a labeled F-score of 83.27%, the best reported result for greedy CCG parsing in the literature (an improve- ment of 2.5% over a perceptron based greedy parser) and is more than three times faster. With a beam, our structured neural network model gives a labeled F-score of 85.57% which is 0.6% better than the perceptron based counterpart.