Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The interaction of labor markets and inflation: analysis of micro data from the International Wage Flexibility Project

Inflation can “grease” the wheels of economic adjustment in the labor market by relieving the constraint imposed by downward nominal wage rigidity, but not if there is also substantial downward real wage rigidity. At the same time, inflation can throw “sand” in the wheels of economic adjustment by degrading the value of price signals. A number of recent studies suggest that wage rigidity is much more important for business cycles and monetary policy than previously believed (see Erceg, Henderson and Levin, 2000, Smets and Wouters, 2003, and Hall, 2005). Thus, our results on how wage rigidity and other labor market imperfections vary between countries and how they are affected by the rate of inflation should be of considerable value in formulating monetary policy and conducting related research.
Relationship Between Musculoskeletal Disorders, Job Demands, and Burnout Among Emergency Nurses

Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) represent one of the most common occupational problems in nursing. MSDs can negatively impact one's quality of life. The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between MSDs, job demands, and burnout among emergency nurses. The researchers hypothesized that increased job demands were associated with more MSDs and consequently higher levels of burnout. The study was conducted on a convenience sample of 58 nurses working in the emergency departments of Zagazig University Hospital and Al-Ahrar, Hospital Egypt from October to December 2010, using a cross-sectional analytic design. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire that included the Standardized Nordic Questionnaire, the Job Content Questionnaire, and the Maslach Burnout Inventory. The results revealed that 32.8% of the nurses were overweight and 17.2% were obese. The most common sites of pain were the neck (67.2%), shoulder (65.5%), and lower back (63.8%). Lower back pain was the most common site affected (72.4%) with a mean 5.1 on a scale ranging from 0 to 13. A positive correlation existed between the scores of job demand and burnout (r = 0.340, p < 0.01), and the number of reported MSDs with the score of job demand (r = 0.33, p < 0.05). Multiple linear stepwise regression analysis identified the score of job demand and the severity of lower back pain as positive independent predictors of the burnout whereas the job demand score was the independent predictor of the number of MSDs. This study documents an increased prevalence of MSDs among emergency nurses, as predicted by increased job demand and associated with a higher level of burnout. Hence, it is important for hospital and nursing administrators to address the factors contributing to job stress and burnout, with emphasis on job satisfaction and work organization to alleviate the burden of psychosocial factors in this setting.
Apolipoprotein E and Alzheimer disease

Apolipoprotein (apo) E, a multifunctional protein with central roles in lipid metabolism and neurobiology, has three common isoforms (apoE2, apoE3, and apoE4) with different effects on lipid homeostasis and neurobiology. Unlike apoE3, the most common isoform, apoE4, is associated with increased risk of developing Alzheimer disease (AD) and other neurodegenerative disorders. Although the mechanisms underlying apoE4's action in AD pathogenesis are still poorly understood, emerging data strongly suggest that apoE4 contributes to this disease by interacting with different factors through various pathways. Thus, multiple molecular and cellular mechanisms should be considered when anti-AD drugs are developed based on apoE studies.
Resveratrol-Mediated Gamma Interferon Reduction Prevents Airway Inflammation and Airway Hyperresponsiveness in Respiratory Syncytial Virus-Infected Immunocompromised Mice

ABSTRACT Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the most important cause of severe, lower respiratory tract infections in infants, and RSV infections have been associated with chronic wheezing and asthma during childhood. However, the mechanism of RSV-induced airway inflammation and airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) is poorly understood. Furthermore, there are presently neither effective vaccines nor drugs available for the prevention or treatment of RSV infections. In this study, we investigated the effect of the plant extract resveratrol as a means of preventing airway inflammation and attenuating RSV-induced AHR. Our data showed that resveratrol reduced RSV lung titers and the number of infiltrating lymphocytes present in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and reduced inflammation. Furthermore, resveratrol attenuated airway responses to methacholine following RSV infection and significantly decreased gamma interferon (IFN-γ) levels in BALF of RSV-infected mice. Data presented in this report demonstrated that resveratrol controlled Toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3) expression, inhibited the TRIF signaling pathway, and induced M2 receptor expression following RSV infection. These data support a role for the use of resveratrol as a means of reducing IFN-γ levels associated with RSV-mediated airway inflammation and AHR, which may be mediated via TLR3 signaling.
Matrix Metalloproteinases in Inflammatory Bowel Disease: An Update

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are known to be upregulated in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and other inflammatory conditions, but while their involvement is clear, their role in many settings has yet to be determined. Studies of the involvement of MMPs in IBD since 2006 have revealed an array of immune and stromal cells which release the proteases in response to inflammatory cytokines and growth factors. Through digestion of the extracellular matrix and cleavage of bioactive proteins, a huge diversity of roles have been revealed for the MMPs in IBD, where they have been shown to regulate epithelial barrier function, immune response, angiogenesis, fibrosis, and wound healing. For this reason, MMPs have been recognised as potential biomarkers for disease activity in IBD and inhibition remains a huge area of interest. This review describes new roles of MMPs in the pathophysiology of IBD and suggests future directions for the development of treatment strategies in this condition.
Occupation of motherhood: challenges for mothers with scleroderma.

OBJECTIVE We sought to identify which aspects of motherhood are difficult for mothers who have scleroderma along with variables associated with mothering. METHOD Participants were 75 mothers with scleroderma with a child between birth and 18 years old living with them. They completed the Parent Disability Index (PDI); a demographic questionnaire; and measures of pain, fatigue, and activity limitations. RESULTS Mothers with children ages 5 or younger reported that getting up and down from the floor to play with their children was the most difficult task, and mothers with children between 6 and 18 years old reported that playing with their children outdoors, doing household chores, and shopping were the most difficult tasks. Significant correlations were found between PDI and pain, fatigue, and activity limitations. CONCLUSIONS Mothers with scleroderma have difficulty with aspects of motherhood. The findings that pain, fatigue, and activity limitations were related to mothering suggest areas for occupational therapy intervention.
Skeletal stem cells

Skeletal stem cells (SSCs) reside in the postnatal bone marrow and give rise to cartilage, bone, hematopoiesis-supportive stroma and marrow adipocytes in defined in vivo assays. These lineages emerge in a specific sequence during embryonic development and post natal growth, and together comprise a continuous anatomical system, the bone-bone marrow organ. SSCs conjoin skeletal and hematopoietic physiology, and are a tool for understanding and ameliorating skeletal and hematopoietic disorders. Here and in the accompanying poster, we concisely discuss the biology of SSCs in the context of the development and postnatal physiology of skeletal lineages, to which their use in medicine must remain anchored. Summary: This poster article provides an overview of skeletal stem cells, which reside in the bone marrow and give rise to cartilage, bone, hematopoiesis-supportive stroma and marrow adipocytes.
Pedunculopontine nucleus deep brain stimulation in Parkinson's disease: A clinical review

Pedunculopontine nucleus region deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a promising but experimental therapy for axial motor deficits in Parkinson's disease (PD), particularly gait freezing and falls. Here, we summarise the clinical application and outcomes reported during the past 10 years. The published dataset is limited, comprising fewer than 100 cases. Furthermore, there is great variability in clinical methodology between and within surgical centers. The most common indication has been severe medication refractory gait freezing (often associated with postural instability). Some patients received lone pedunculopontine nucleus DBS (unilateral or bilateral) and some received costimulation of the subthalamic nucleus or internal pallidum. Both rostral and caudal pedunculopontine nucleus subregions have been targeted. However, the spread of stimulation and variance in targeting means that neighboring brain stem regions may be implicated in any response. Low stimulation frequencies are typically employed (20‐80 Hertz). The fluctuating nature of gait freezing can confound programming and outcome assessments. Although firm conclusions cannot be drawn on therapeutic efficacy, the literature suggests that medication refractory gait freezing and falls can improve. The impact on postural instability is unclear. Most groups report a lack of benefit on gait or limb akinesia or dopaminergic medication requirements. The key question is whether pedunculopontine nucleus DBS can improve quality of life in PD. So far, the evidence supporting such an effect is minimal. Development of pedunculopontine nucleus DBS to become a reliable, established therapy would likely require a collaborative effort between experienced centres to clarify biomarkers predictive of response and the optimal clinical methodology. © 2017 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society
Giant Shells and Stellar Arcs as Relics of Gamma-Ray Burst Explosions

Gamma-ray burst (GRB) explosions are powerful and frequent enough to make kiloparsec-size shells and holes in the interstellar media of spiral and irregular galaxies. The observations of such remnants are summarized. Several observed shells contain no obvious central star clusters and could be GRB remnants, but sufficiently old clusters, which could have formed these shells by supernovae and winds, might be hard to detect.
Electrophysiological changes similar to those of myasthenia gravis in rats with experimental autoimmune thymitis.

Myasthenia gravis is a clinical disorder of neuromuscular conduction, the definitive study of which has been hampered by the lack of a suitable animal model. The exact nature of the defect is uncertain but there is typically a progressive reduction in the number of contracting muscle fibres during repetitive motor nerve stimulation and a less marked, but demonstrable, reduction in the response to even the first stimulus in some cases (Johns, Grob, and Harvey, 1956). In the whole muscle the abnormality is recognized by a progressive reduction in the size of successive integrated action potentials in a train of stimuli, and, at the single neuromuscular junction in vitro, there is often a subthreshold response to nerve stimulation and a reduction in the amplitude of depolarizations produced by individual 'units' of transmitter escaping at rest (Hofmann and Stemmer, 1963; Elmqvist, Hofmann, Kugelberg, and Quastel, 1964). The reductiop in the amount of depolarization produced by the transmitter is entirely adequate to account for all the features of neuromuscular block in the disease. An autoimmune aetiology has been suggested for myasthenia gravis (Nastuk, Plescia, and Osserman, 1960; Simpson, 1960). Most patients have pathological changes in the thymus (Castleman and Norris, 1949) and 30% have circulating autoantibodies reactive with the striations of skeletal muscle and with myoid cells in the thymic medulla (Strauss, van der Geld, Kemp, Exum, and Goodman, 1965). Goldstein (1966, 1967) suggested that the histological changes should be interpreted as chronic inflammation of the thymus and that autoimmune thymitis is the fundamental lesion in myasthenia gravis. This was supported by the discovery of a deficit in neuromuscular conduction in guinea-pigs in which autoimmune thymitis was experimentally induced by immunization with thymus in Freund's complete adjuvant (Goldstein and Whittingham, 1966, 1967). The electromyographic abnormalities consisted of a neostigmine reversible block to both single and tetanic nerve stimulation. The presence of an inflamed thymus was shown to be essential in the development of the experimental neuromuscular block, as thymectomized animals injected in exactly the same way with thymus and adjuvant showed no evidence of a deficit in neuromuscular conduction (Goldstein and Whittingham, 1966). The question remained whether the electromyographic changes present in the immunized thymus-intact animals were, in fact, indicative of the same abnormality as that described at single neuromuscular junctions in human myasthenics. The present study carries the analysis of neuromuscular block in the experimental animals to the level of the single neuromuscular junction in vitro and in vivo. Our investigations show that animals immunized with homologous thymus in Freund's complete adjuvant develop changes at single endplate regions qualitatively indistinguishable from those seen at the myasthenic neuromuscular junction.
Extracting the hierarchical organization of complex systems

Extracting understanding from the growing “sea” of biological and socioeconomic data is one of the most pressing scientific challenges facing us. Here, we introduce and validate an unsupervised method for extracting the hierarchical organization of complex biological, social, and technological networks. We define an ensemble of hierarchically nested random graphs, which we use to validate the method. We then apply our method to real-world networks, including the air-transportation network, an electronic circuit, an e-mail exchange network, and metabolic networks. Our analysis of model and real networks demonstrates that our method extracts an accurate multiscale representation of a complex system.
Dynamic power management in a mobile multimedia system with guaranteed quality-of-service

In this paper we address the problem of dynamic power management in a distributed multimedia system with a required quality of service (QoS). Using a generalized stochastic Petri net model where the non-exponential inter-arrival time distribution of the incoming requests is captured by the "stage method", we provide a detailed model of the power-managed multimedia system under general QoS constraints. Based on this mathematical model, the power-optimal policy is obtained by solving a linear programming problem. We compare the new problem formulation and solution technique to previous dynamic power management techniques that can only optimize power under delay constraints. We then demonstrate that these other techniques yield policies with higher power dissipation by over-constraining the delay target in an attempt to indirectly satisfy the QoS constraints. In contrast, our new method correctly formulates the power management problem under QoS constraints and obtains the optimal solution.
Context-based surface completion

Sampling complex, real-world geometry with range scanning devices almost always yields imperfect surface samplings. These "holes" in the surface are commonly filled with a smooth patch that conforms with the boundary. We introduce a context-based method: the characteristics of the given surface are analyzed, and the hole is iteratively filled by copying patches from valid regions of the given surface. In particular, the method needs to determine best matching patches, and then, fit imported patches by aligning them with the surrounding surface. The completion process works top down, where details refine intermediate coarser approximations. To align an imported patch with the existing surface, we apply a rigid transformation followed by an iterative closest point procedure with non-rigid transformations. The surface is essentially treated as a point set, and local implicit approximations aid in measuring the similarity between two point set patches. We demonstrate the method at several point-sampled surfaces, where the holes either result from imperfect sampling during range scanning or manual removal.
Processes and records of coastal sediment dispersal in contrasting deltaic systems

Rivers are responsible for most sediment delivery to the ocean, and at the river-ocean transition, a complex set of processes and pathways shape the ultimate fate of particulates. Conceptual and numerical models of fluvial-marine dispersal have become increasingly sophisticated through several decades of observational and modeling studies. However, many key processes remain poorly constrained, such as particle clearance from river plumes and episodic sediment-gravity flows, and connections between these types of discrete processes to subaqueous-delta evolution. This study investigates sediment-dispersal processes and their products in two deltaic systems: the small mountainous Elwha River delta (Washington State), and the large Mekong River delta (Vietnam). Sediment clearance from buoyant river plumes is complicated by flocculation dynamics, which remain difficult to quantify. One option for characterizing sediment-clearance rates is estimation of an “effective settling velocity” (we), i.e., a single settling velocity which describes the clearance rate of all flocculated and unflocculated sediment in a plume. This study tests the validity and key assumptions of a published 1D clearance model for we using measurements from the small Elwha River plume during and after a dam removal project. The difference between effective settling velocity (we) and total effective settling velocity (we’) is also explored, based on previous studies suggesting that we’ is the sum of we (representing gravitational settling) and an additional term representing enhanced removal at the base of a plume. Four variations of the 1D clearance model are applied, using both point and depth-integrated measurements of suspended sediment concentrations, as well as estimated and modeled plume-water residence times. For depth-integrated measurements and modeled residence times, we’ are ~0.13–3.5 mm/s, and are greater than we values obtained from point measurements (~0.041–0.33 mm/s). The depth-integrated results are interpreted to be a reasonable approximation of we’ based on measured grain-size distributions and the scale of the plume. The differences between we’ and we are attributed to concentration gradients and turbulence-induced removal of sediment at the base of the plume within a few kilometers of the river. During extreme sediment-loading events, near-bed sediment-gravity flows may dominate dispersal pathways, rather than buoyant surface plumes. These events occur episodically, and thus their mechanics are not well-constrained due to sparse in situ measurements. Instruments deployed near the Elwha River mouth for ~3.5 y during dam removal recorded a gravity flow associated with a river flood. The event lasted ~10 h and resulted in rapid deposition of >15 cm of sand within a few hundred meters of the mouth, and was interpreted to be a hyperpycnal plume or hyperpycnal flow. After a few hours, the flow deteriorated through rapid deposition of sand and vertical mixing of muddy water. The extinction dynamics were characteristic of a hydraulic jump…
Multiway Spectral Clustering with Out-of-Sample Extensions through Weighted Kernel PCA

A new formulation for multiway spectral clustering is proposed. This method corresponds to a weighted kernel principal component analysis (PCA) approach based on primal-dual least-squares support vector machine (LS-SVM) formulations. The formulation allows the extension to out-of-sample points. In this way, the proposed clustering model can be trained, validated, and tested. The clustering information is contained on the eigendecomposition of a modified similarity matrix derived from the data. This eigenvalue problem corresponds to the dual solution of a primal optimization problem formulated in a high-dimensional feature space. A model selection criterion called the balanced line fit (BLF) is also proposed. This criterion is based on the out-of-sample extension and exploits the structure of the eigenvectors and the corresponding projections when the clusters are well formed. The BLF criterion can be used to obtain clustering parameters in a learning framework. Experimental results with difficult toy problems and image segmentation show improved performance in terms of generalization to new samples and computation times.
Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Hilar Bile Duct

We herein report a rare case of squamous cell carcinoma of the hilar bile duct. A 66-year-old Japanese male patient was admitted to our hospital because of appetite loss and jaundice. Abdominal computed tomography revealed an enhanced mass measuring 10 × 30 mm in the hilar bile duct region. After undergoing biliary drainage, the patient underwent extended right hepatic lobectomy with regional lymph nodes dissection. The tumor had invaded the right portal vein. Therefore, we also performed resection and reconstruction of the portal vein. Histopathologically, the carcinoma cells exhibited a solid structure with differentiation to squamous cell carcinoma with keratinization and intercellular bridges. Immunohistochemical staining of the tumor cells revealed positive cytokeratin staining and negative CAM 5.2 staining. Based on these findings, a definitive diagnosis of well-differentiated squamous cell carcinoma of the hilar bile duct was made.
Electrical Coupling Promotes Fidelity of Responses in the Networks of Model Neurons

We consider an integrate-and-fire element subject to randomly perturbed synaptic input and an electrically coupled ensemble of such elements. The latter is interpreted as either a model of electrically coupled population of neurons or a multicompartment model of a dendrite. Random fluctuations blur the input signal and cause false responses in the system dynamics. For instance, under the influence of noise, the system may respond with an action potential to a subthreshold stimulus. We show that the responses of the elements within the network are more reliable than the responses of the same elements in isolation. Specifically, we show that the variances of the stochastic processes generated by the coupled model can be made arbitrarily small (i.e., the network responses can be made arbitrarily accurate) by increasing the number of elements in the network and the strength of electrical coupling. Our results suggest that the organization of cells in electrically coupled groups on the network level, or the dendritic morphology on the cellular level, may be involved in the filtering noise and therefore may play an important role in the information processing mechanisms operating on the network or cellular level respectively.