Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Development of Cellulose Sulfate‐based Polyelectrolyte Complex Microcapsules for Medical Applications

ABSTRACT: Microencapsulation, as a tool for immunoisolation for allogenic or xenogenic implants, is a rapidly growing field. However most of the approaches are based on alginate/polylysine capsules, despite this system's obvious disadvantages such as its pyrogenicity. Here we report a different encapsulation system based on sodium cellulose sulfate and polydiallyldimethyl ammonium chloride for the encapsulation of mammalian cells. We have characterized this system regarding capsule formation, strength and size of the capsules as well as viability of the cells after encapsulation. In addition, we demonstrate the efficacy of these capsules as a “microfactory”in vitro and in vivo. Using encapsulated hybridoma cells we were able to demonstrate long‐term release of antibodies up to four months in vivo. In another application we could show the therapeutic relevance of encapsulated genetically modified cells as an in vivo activation center for cytostatic drugs during tumor therapy.
Design of a 50° Field-of-View Object for Head-Mounted Projective Displays and Investigation of Retro-Reflective Materials

A head-mounted projective display lens with a field-of-view of 50o for medical application is designed. The exit pupil diameter of the system is 8mm, while the maximum diameter of the lens is 10 mm. The total length of the designed system is 10 mm and the weight is only 5g . The maximum distortion of the system is less than 0.64％and the maximum field curvature is 0.35 D. The lens can satisfy the requirement of a 0.9 inch miniature display with a display model of SXGA. To know the imaging performance of the HMPDs different retro-reflective materials were investigated. It is shown in the experiments that the image power of the High Intensity Grade Reflective Sheeting is fairly constant for a tilted angle in a range of 40o. Therefore it can be used as retro-reflective screen. The influence of retro-reflective material's position on the imaging properties are also investigated.
Outcomes of Brachial Artery–Basilic Vein Fistula

Increasing the creation of arteriovenous fistulas in the maintenance of hemodialysis patients is of great importance to the nephrology community. The creation of the brachial artery–basilic vein fistula is an important option in patients with unsuccessful or failing forearm accesses for hemodialysis. The aim of this study is to review reported outcomes of brachial artery–basilic vein fistulas regarding patency and primary failure rates in comparison with other types of fistulas and grafts in the published literature. We have also described the variations in the surgical technique during creation and the potential influence on outcomes. Based on our review of the literature, the rate of primary failure is approximately 15–20% with a range of 0–40%. The mean 1‐year primary patency rate is approximately 72% with a range of 23–90%, and the 2‐year primary patency rate is approximately 62% with a range from 11% to 86%. The number of required interventions to maintain patency is lower with brachial artery–basilic vein fistula compared to arteriovenous grafts.
Analysis of pseudorabies virus glycoprotein gIII localization and modification by using novel infectious viral mutants carrying unique EcoRI sites

We have constructed two pseudorabies virus (PRV) mutants, each with a unique EcoRI restriction site in the nonessential gIII envelope glycoprotein gene. Since no natural PRV isolate has been reported to contain EcoRI sites, the isolation and single-step growth curve analysis of these mutants established that PRV can carry such a site with little ill effect in tissue culture. Virus carrying these defined mutations produced novel gIII proteins that enabled us to begin functional assignment of protein localization information within the gIII gene. Specifically, one viral mutant contained an in-frame synthetic EcoRI linker sequence that was flanked on one side by the first one-third of the gIII gene and on the other side by the last one-third of the gene. The resulting protein lacked the middle one-third of the parental species, including five of eight putative N-linked glycosylation signals, but was still glycosylated and found in enveloped virions; it was not secreted into the medium. A second viral mutant contained an in-frame synthetic EcoRI linker sequence that additionally specified a nonsense codon at position 158, producing a gIII protein that was glycosylated and secreted into the medium; the fragment was not found in enveloped virions. By endoglycosidase and pulse-chase analyses, we established a precursor-product relationship between the various forms of gIII expressed in the parental and mutant strains, and perhaps determined certain features of the gIII protein that are required for its efficient export within the cell.
Health and Development: A Neoclassical Perspective

Previous research establishes that the rise in life expectancy during the second half of the twentieth century led to larger, but not wealthier, populations. In terms of the neoclassical growth theory, these findings indicate that the potential positive effects of health on human capital and productivity (TFP) are limited. The current paper decomposes this corollary. Specifically, it demonstrates that life expectancy promotes human capital skills, which, according to the neoclassical theory, suggests that the TFP elasticity with respect to health is close to zero.
Earnings management and deferred tax

Abstract This study analyses the deferred tax provisions of firms during a period in which the firms' incentive to manage earnings may have been be particularly strong and in which firms made disclosures in relation to partial deferred tax provisions which revealed readily their under- or over-provision of deferred tax. Using a sample of 58 firms for the two years 1991 and 1992, the magnitude of the under- or over-provisions found is economically significant, amounting, on average, to around 20% of the maximum potential deferred tax liability and, more important, 9% of profit or loss before tax. This paper takes such under- and over-provision of deferred tax and investigates its relationship with a number of posited explanatory variables - as derived and developed from the earnings management literature. In a multivariate setting it is found that the level of under-/over-provision is related to the following characteristics: whether the firm is reporting a pre-tax loss or a pre-tax profit; the extent of adjustment to prior year tax; and the level of surplus advance corporation tax (ACT). These findings support a general profit- smoothing hypothesis, and the finding in relation to ACT suggests that firms take an overall view in determining the required level of provision in order to manage earnings, rather than concentrating upon particular line items. There is also weaker evidence of a relationship between the level of under-/over-provision and firms' levels of gearing and effective tax rates.
Survey of array out of bound access checkers for C code

Array index out of bound is a common but critical vulnerability, which may crash the software system at runtime and results in irreparable damage, particularly in safety-critical systems. Use of static analysis for checking this vulnerability is the common approach to prevent it from occurring. Numbers of tools based on static analysis technique are available. This paper presents an evaluation of five such static analysis tools used for detection of this vulnerability. Among them, two are commercial tools Polyspace, Coverity; one is an academic tool ARCHER and the other two are open source tools UNO and CBMC. These tools have been evaluated with respect to four factors, namely, precision, scalability, soundness and execution time. Main objective of this study is to understand the techniques used to check properties similar to array index out of bound access in C code and to share our findings on the pros and cons of the different approaches.
Women at the Top in British Retailing: A Longitudinal Analysis

The massive under-representation of women at the highest levels in British companies has been noted in retailing as elsewhere. But it has been difficult to set the current situation in perspective in the absence of longitudinal studies of recruitment patterns. This article examines the gender composition of the boards of directors of Britain's largest retail firms over the last 40 years. The results show that, following a lengthy period in which female retail directors were noticeable largely by their absence, a relatively small but significant breakthrough has recently taken place. The educational backgrounds, of the women members of today's retail boards, their length of board service, ages and the positions they hold both inside and outside retailing are also examined and compared with those of their male counterparts.
Prevention and treatment of implanted central venous catheter (CVC) - related sepsis: a report after six years of home parenteral nutrition (HPN).

Catheter-related sepsis is a serious and common complication in patients receiving home parenteral nutrition (HPN). Prevention measures, prevalence of infections, types of agents and implanted central venous catheters (CVC), effectiveness of antibiotic therapy have been evaluated in 221 patients consecutively followed in our unit from January 1995 to December 2000. The clinical diagnosis of catheter-related infection was made using well-defined criteria. Patients were divided into two groups: A and B, receiving instructions with different modalities: standard (A) and detailed (B), respectively. Sixty CVC-related sepsis occurred in 32 (14%) patients. A multivariate analysis showed that the duration of HPN (P<0.001; OR=0.9), type of catheter (P=0.009; OR=0.12) and type of disease (P=0.033; OR=4.92) significantly influence catheter infection. The type of implanted CVC (159 port-a-cath in 153 patients and 71 tunnelled in 68) seems to affect the infection rate, this being lower in tunnelled (P=0.03). Infection rate was lower in B vs A group (P<0.001) with all types of catheters, suggesting the preventive role of very careful training. In particular, the incidence of CVC-related sepsis was 6/1000 days of HPN (i.e. 6/1000 days of catheterization) in Group A and 3/1000 in Group B. Systemic and antibiotic lock therapy was performed with an 83% successful rate. Gram-positive bacteria were the most frequent CVC infection agents, which are usually eradicated by antibiotic therapy lasting 7 days.
Do Electoral Risks Moderate the Effect of Partisan and Electoral Cycles on Debt-Financed Local Spending?

Governments’ use of debt as a political instrument has been widely studied from the perspective of partisan and electoral cycles, mainly concerning central government. On the whole, previous studies have attempted to determine the effects of political ideology and the proximity of elections on the opportunistic use of public spending. The current study aims to broaden the scope of attention to the effect of partisan and electoral cycles on debt, by means of a broader consideration of the motives that lead politicians to take on a deficit and that are usually linked to the associated electoral risk. More particularly, we examine whether, during the electoral period, greater confidence in re-election can modify party behaviour concerning the use of public spending, and if so, whether the change is greater or smaller depending on the ruling party’s ideology. The results obtained show that local administrations need to incur debt, although politicians take on more liability than is appropriate to their demographic and economic characteristics, especially in an election year. It was also found that political stability favours a reduction in the public deficit, a pattern that is maintained in electoral periods. This effect was found to be independent of the partisan cycle.
Anisotropic exchange in frustrated pyrochlore Yb2Ti2O7

The local Yb3+ magnetic susceptibility tensor was recently measured in the frustrated pyrochlore compound Yb2Ti2O7 by means of in-field polarized neutron scattering in a single crystal. A very anisotropic effective exchange tensor was derived for the Yb3+ ion. Using this result, we reinterpret here the data for the powder susceptibility in Yb2Ti2O7. We show that, in the case of a well-isolated Kramers doublet with anisotropic g and exchange tensors, the inverse susceptibility for a powder sample does not strictly obey a Curie–Weiss law at low temperature. We discuss the consequences regarding the paramagnetic Curie temperature, usually taken as a measure of the exchange/dipolar interaction, and the exotic ‘slow fluctuation’ ground state of Yb2Ti2O7.
Growth, Dividend Policy and Capital Costs in the Electric Utility Industry

Because growth, dividend policy and capital costs are central to mach of modern valuation and regulatory theory, it is deemed important to examine them anew in light of existing criticism. The purpose of this paper is , therefore, threefold: to derive and test a finite-growth model for electric utility shares which accurately reflects the present value of future investment, to provide new evidence on the dividend policy-share price controversy, and to present estimates of the required rate of return, or cost of equity capital, to the electric utility industry over the period 1960-68.
Exchange Rate Pass-Through to Swedish Import Prices

Swedish import price determination is investigated using disaggregated monthly data from 1980:1 to 1995:05 for eight different industries. The cointegration analysis indicates two cointegrating relations, in all industries, between import prices, the exchange rate, world market prices and domestic prices. Two- equations systems involve an unclear definition of long-run exchange rate pass-through. Pass-through is defined as the total effect a nominal exchange-rate change has on the import price. The estimate thus includes the direct effect on import prices as well as the effect working through home market prices. Total pass-through estimates indicate a limited pass-through and thus pricing to market behaviour in the majority of industries. The estimates range from 27% to 160%. Tests of linear restrictions on the cointegrating vectors indicate a complete long-run pass-through in most industries. Short-run pass-through is limited to about 25%.
Circulating interferon-alpha levels and hypertriglyceridemia in the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.

PURPOSE The metabolic disturbances seen during infection are thought to be due to cytokines, modulators of the immune response. The acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is characterized by a high prevalence of hypertriglyceridemia and at times depletion of body cell mass (wasting). Elevated circulating levels of cytokines have also been reported in AIDS. Therefore, we determined the relationship between circulating cytokine levels and lipid levels and between circulating cytokine levels and wasting in AIDS and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. PATIENTS AND METHODS Serum samples from 45 patients with AIDS, 13 subjects with evidence of HIV infection by presence of antibody but without AIDS (HIV positive), and 17 seronegative control subjects who had previously undergone body composition analysis were analyzed for triglyceride, cholesterol, interferon, tumor necrosis factor (TNF), and interleukin-1 levels. Eleven subjects with AIDS or HIV infection had sequential measurements. Interferon was analyzed by bioassay with identification using specific antibodies. TNF and interleukin-1 were assayed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Lean body mass was assessed by total body potassium. RESULTS Serum interferon-alpha levels were significantly elevated in patients with AIDS (p less than 0.001 compared to controls), with detectable levels in 84% of AIDS patients. Interferon-alpha was not detectable in serum from controls, while three of 13 HIV-positive subjects had detectable interferon-alpha levels. There was a significant correlation between interferon-alpha levels and serum triglyceride levels in AIDS and HIV-positive patients (R = 0.446, p less than 0.002). There was no relationship between interferon-alpha and serum cholesterol levels (R = -0.039, NS). In contrast only 11% of AIDS patients had detectable circulating TNF levels; the mean value for and the prevalence of detectable serum TNF levels were not significantly different from those of control subjects. Interleukin-1 was not detected in the circulation. There was no correlation between the presence of circulating TNF and serum triglycerides. There was no relationship between circulating interferon-alpha or TNF levels and the presence of wasting as measured by total body potassium. CONCLUSION These studies suggest that interferon-alpha, which has previously been shown to modulate lipid metabolism in vivo and in vitro, may be responsible for the hypertriglyceridemia found in AIDS.
The pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and tolerability of dabigatran etexilate, a new oral direct thrombin inhibitor, in healthy male subjects.

AIMS The novel direct thrombin inhibitor (DTI), dabigatran etexilate (Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG), shows potential as an oral antithrombotic agent. Two double-blind, randomized trials were undertaken to investigate the pharmacokinetics (PK), pharmacodynamics (PD) and tolerability of orally administered dabigatran etexilate in healthy male subjects. METHODS Dabigatran etexilate or placebo was administered orally at single doses of 10-400 mg (n = 40) or at multiple doses of 50-400 mg three times daily for 6 days (n = 40). Plasma and urine samples were collected over time to determine the PK profile of dabigatran. PD activity was assessed by its effects on blood coagulation parameters: activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT), prothrombin time (PT), reported as international normalized ratio (INR), thrombin time (TT), and ecarin clotting time (ECT). All adverse events were recorded. RESULTS Dabigatran etexilate was rapidly absorbed with peak plasma concentrations of dabigatran reached within 2 h of administration. This was followed by a rapid distribution/elimination phase and a terminal phase, with associated estimated half-lives of 8-10 h and 14-17 h with single and multiple dose administrations, respectively. Dabigatran exhibited linear PK characteristics with dose-proportional increases observed in maximum plasma concentration and area under the curve. Steady-state conditions were reached within 3 days with multiple dosing. The mean apparent volume of distribution during the terminal phase (V(z)/F) of 1860 l (range 1430-2400 l) and the apparent total clearance after oral administration (CL(tot)/F) of 2031 ml min(-1) (range 1480-2430), were dose independent. Time curves for aPTT, INR, TT and ECT paralleled plasma concentration-time curves with values increasing rapidly and in a dose-dependent manner. At the highest dose of 400 mg administered three times daily, maximum prolongations over baseline of 3.1 (aPTT), 3.5 (INR), 29 (TT) and 9.5-fold (ECT) were observed. Dabigatran underwent conjugation with glucuronic acid to form pharmacologically active conjugates that accounted for approximately 20% of total dabigatran in plasma. Overall, variability in PK parameters was low to moderate, with an average interindividual coefficient of variation (CV) of approximately 30% and variability in PD parameters was low, with CV < 10%. Of the four assays, TT and ECT exhibited the greatest sensitivity and precision within the anticipated therapeutic dose range. Bleeding events were few and were mild-to-moderate in intensity, occurring only in the higher, multiple dose groups. CONCLUSIONS These data suggest that dabigatran etexilate is a promising novel oral DTI with predictable PK and PD characteristics and good tolerability. Further investigation of dabigatran etexilate for the treatment and prophylaxis of patients with arterial and venous thromboembolic disorders, acute coronary syndromes and other medical conditions is warranted.
Experimental Analysis on the Molten-Phase Dewetting Characteristics of AuPd Alloy Films on Topographically-Structured Substrates

AuPd nanoparticles are formed on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) by a nanosecond laser irradiation-induced dewetting process of deposited AuPd films. In particular, we analyze the effect of the surface topography of the substrate on the dewetting process and, so, on the final mean size of the formed nanoparticles. In fact, we used two supporting FTO substrates differing in the surface topography: we used a FTO layer which is un-intentionally patterned since it is formed by FTO pyramids randomly distributed on the glass slide as result of the deposition process of the same FTO layer, namely substrate A. We used, also, a further FTO substrate, namely substrate B, presenting, as a result of a chemical etching process, a higher roughness and higher mean distance between nearest-neighbor pyramids with respect to substrate A. The results concerning the size of the obtained AuPd NPs by the laser irradiations with the laser fluence fixed shows that the substrate topography impacts on the dewetting process. In particular, we found that below a critical thickness of the deposited AuPd film, the NPs formed on substrates A and B have similar size and a similar trend for the evolution of their size versus the film thickness (i.e., the dewetting process is not influenced by the substrate topography since the film does not interact with the substrate topography). On the other hand, however, above a critical thickness of the deposited AuPd film, the AuPd NPs show a higher mean size (versus the film thickness) on substrate B than on substrate A, indicating that the AuPd film interacts with the substrate topography during the dewetting process. These results are quantified and discussed by the description of the substrate topography effect on the excess of chemical potential driving the dewetting process.
The Contribution of Tourism to Micro and Small Enterprise Growth

Tourism is an increasingly important economic sector in many developing countries. In Kenya, it represents the second greatest contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) after agriculture. Data from a survey of 449 micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in coastal Kenya were used in a modified Evans growth model to examine the contribution of tourism to the growth of farm and non-farm MSEs. The authors also examined the influence of entrepreneur and business characteristics on the growth of farm and non-farm MSEs along the Kenyan Coast. The age of the business, business income, marital status, number of employees and form of business organization were found to influence MSE growth significantly. Tourist spending and activities were also found to have a significant effect on MSE growth. The results have implications for the role of tourism in economic development, small business growth and poverty alleviation.
Factors that promote innovation in shipping companies

This study seeks to identify factors that promote innovation in shipping companies. The study is based on an empirical investigation of 63 companies headquartered in Norway. The results imply that organizational and interorganizational variables are important to innovation. Three aspects of innovation are focused on: (1) service/product innovations, (2) market innovations, and (3) production method innovations. The explanatory variables that are applied in this study capture between 13–51% of the variability of the measures of innovation. The results indicate that an explicit strategy that promotes innovation is very important for the actual level of innovation within shipping companies. In management literature, it is often assumed that organic organizational features like decentralized decision-making promote innovation. The opposite features are assumed to restrain innovation. However, the results do not support these basic assumptions. For example, it seems to be important that managers make precise decisions in order to promote innovation.