Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inhalation with Fucose and Galactose for Treatment of Pseudomonas Aeruginosa in Cystic Fibrosis Patients

Background: Colonisation of cystic fibrosis (CF) lungs with Pseudomonas aeruginosa is facilitated by two lectins, which bind to the sugar coat of the surface lining epithelia and stop the cilia beating. Objectives: We hypothesized that P. aeruginosa lung infection should be cleared by inhalation of fucose and galactose, which compete for the sugar binding site of the two lectins and thus inhibit the binding of P. aeruginosa. Methods: 11 adult CF patients with chronic infection with P. aeruginosa were treated twice daily with inhalation of a fucose/galactose solution for 21 days (4 patients only received inhalation, 7 patients received inhalation and intravenous antibiotics). Microbial counts of P. aeruginosa, lung function measurements, and inflammatory markers were determined before and after treatment. Results: The sugar inhalation was well tolerated and no adverse side effects were observed. Inhalation alone as well as combined therapy (inhalation and antibiotics) significantly decreased P. aeruginosa in sputum (P < 0.05). Both therapies also significantly reduced TNFα expression in sputum and peripheral blood cells (P < 0.05). No change in lung function measurements was observed. Conclusions: Inhalation of simple sugars is a safe and effective measure to reduce the P. aeruginosa counts in CF patients. This may provide an alternative therapeutical approach to treat infection with P. aeruginosa.
Outcome of Teenage Pregnancy in the Niger Delta of Nigeria

Background Young maternal age at delivery has been proposed as risk factor for adverse pregnancy outcome, it occurs in all races, faiths, socioeconomic statuses, and regions. Teenage pregnancy can have serious physical consequences and teenage mothers are likely to be unmarried, poor and remain uneducated. The objective of the study was to evaluate risk factors associated with teenage pregnancy and compare the obstetric and fetal outcome to older parturient. Methods This is a retrospective study performed over a period of 4 Years (January 1, 2007 to December 31, 2010) in Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital Bayelsa State, Nigeria where data was retrieved from the hospital records. All teenage mothers (aged 13–19) who had delivery within the period were compared with 180 randomly selected deliveries in the older age group (20–32 years) over the same period. Variables of interest were the demographic characteristics of the women, their obstetric complications and the outcome. Results There were a total of 1341 deliveries during the study period, out which 83(6.2%) were teenagers. Teenage mothers were significantly more likely to be unbooked, (p = 0.000) Unmarried, (χ=26.2; p = 0.000) had significantly more preterm labor, (P=0.000) and Caesarean sections (P= 0.014). However, there was no difference in both the perinatal and maternal mortality rates between the two groups. Conclusion Teenage pregnancy in the Niger Delta is concentrated among women with less formal education, who are unemployed, unmarried and with inadequate antenatal care and obstetric risks for poor pregnancy outcome. The provision an appropriate contraceptive method and to look with priority after any pregnancy occurring among this age group cannot be overemphasized.
LIFESTYLE AND CONSUMER PREFERENCES IN CHOOSING LOCAL OR FOREIGN BRANDS: A STUDY OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOR IN SURAKARTA – INDONESIA

This study discusses the relationship between lifestyle and individual preferences in choosing local or foreign brands. The sample consisted of 250 people, taken randomly through surveys in several public places in Surakarta - Indonesia, including the department stores, traditional markets, or other public areas, where many people were there and were willing to become research participants. Fur­thermore, the collected data is processed using factor analysis to reduce lifestyle dimensions, and logistic regression analysis is used to explain the relationship between lifestyle dimensions and pre­ferences in choosing a local brand or foreign brand, in this case represented by Wong Solo Grilled Chicken (WSGC) or Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC). The test results indicate 13 dimensions of lifestyle, and only 5 dimensions are significantly related to brand preference: (1) individuals who have a fashion consciousness lifestyle tend to choose KFC rather than WSGC, (2) individuals with health consciousness lifestyles tend to choose WSGC rather than KFC, (3) individuals with leadership lifestyles tend choosing KFC rather than WSGC, (4) individuals with attentiveness lifestyle tend to choose WSGC rather than KFC, and (5) individuals with extroversion lifestyles tend to choose KFC rather than WSGC. This study also discusses the implications of studies related to the contribution of theory, practitioners, and possibilities for future studies
Evaluation of Mobile Agent-Based Service Dissemination Schemes in MANETs

We have proposed service discovery scheme using mobile agents for mobile ad hoc networks where nodes and the network topology are frequently changing. Mobile agents autonomously migrate among nodes and then perform a given task at a node. In the service discovery scheme using mobile agents, mobile agents collect and disseminate services in the network. In this paper, we define imbalance measure of service information. We conducted simulation experiments to show the performance of the mobile agents migration mechanism with respect to the dissemination time of service information.
Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Fracture Strength and Morphology of Defective Graphene

Different types of defects can be introduced into graphene during material synthesis, and significantly influence the properties of graphene. In this work, we investigated the effects of structural defects, edge functionalisation and reconstruction on the fracture strength and morphology of graphene by molecular dynamics simulations. The minimum energy path analysis was conducted to investigate the formation of Stone-Wales defects. We also employed out-of-plane perturbation and energy minimization principle to study the possible morphology of graphene nanoribbons with edge-termination. Our numerical results show that the fracture strength of graphene is dependent on defects and environmental temperature. However, pre-existing defects may be healed, resulting in strength recovery. Edge functionalization can induce compressive stress and ripples in the edge areas of graphene nanoribbons. On the other hand, edge reconstruction contributed to the tensile stress and curved shape in the graphene nanoribbons.
Smoking and renal function in people living with human immunodeficiency virus: a Danish nationwide cohort study

Introduction Smoking is a main risk factor for morbidity and mortality in people living with human immunodeficiency virus (PLHIV), but its potential association with renal impairment remains to be established. Methods We did a nationwide population-based cohort study in Danish PLHIV to evaluate the association between smoking status and 1) overall renal function and risk of chronic kidney disease (CKD), 2) risk of any renal replacement therapy (aRRT), and 3) mortality following aRRT. We calculated estimated creatinine clearance using the Cockcroft–Gault equation (CG-CrCl), and evaluated renal function graphically. We calculated cumulative incidence of CKD (defined as two consecutive CG-CrCls of ≤60 mL/min, ≥3 months apart) and aRRT and used Cox regression models to calculate incidence rate ratios (IRRs) for risk of CKD, aRRT, and mortality rate ratios (MRRs) following aRRT. Results From the Danish HIV Cohort Study, we identified 1,475 never smokers, 768 previous smokers, and 2,272 current smokers. During study period, we observed no association of smoking status with overall renal function. Previous and current smoking was not associated with increased risk of CKD (adjusted IRR: 1.1, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.7–1.7; adjusted IRR: 1.3, 95% CI: 0.9–1.8) or aRRT (adjusted IRR: 0.8, 95% CI: 0.4–1.7; adjusted IRR: 0.9, 95% CI: 0.5–1.7). Mortality following aRRT was high in PLHIV and increased in smokers vs never smokers (adjusted MRR: 3.8, 95% CI: 1.3–11.2). Conclusion In Danish PLHIV, we observed no strong association between smoking status and renal function, risk of CKD, or risk of aRRT, but mortality was increased in smokers following aRRT.
TCP-probing: towards an error control schema with energy and throughput performance gains

Today's universal communications increasingly involve mobile and battery-powered devices (e.g. hand-held, laptop) over wired and wireless networks. Energy efficiency as well as throughput, are becoming service characteristics of dominant importance in communication protocols. Although standard TCP versions lack the functionality to efficiently adjust their error-control strategies to distinct characteristics of network environments and to specific constraints of communicating devices, the wide range of TCP-based applications have rendered TCP the de facto standard for reliable end-to-end communications. In this work we propose "grafting" two components of strategic significance onto standard TCP: a probing mechanism and an immediate recovery strategy. Our results show that these enhancements yield higher throughput while maintaining lower levels of energy expenditure, and thus have the potential of promoting TCP's congestion control to a universal error control schema for heterogeneous wired/wireless channels. Furthermore, the enhancements do not damage the end-to-end characteristics of the TCP, nor do they require changes to its semantics: the mechanism are implemented as option extensions to the TCP header. We compare "TCP-probing" with Tahoe, Reno, and New Reno, and show that is can be a protocol of choice for heterogeneous wired/wireless communications with respect to energy and throughput performance.
A Functional Classification of Government Spending and Economic Growth in Latin American Countries

The objective of this article is to determine the effects of different components of government spending on the per capita economic growth rate in a set of Latin American countries over the period 1975-2000. Within the neoclassical framework (Solow, 1956; Swan, 1956), government spending, and public policy in general, has no role in determining the long-run economic growth rate, since this is determined by the exogenous population growth and technological progress rates. On the other hand, in some endogenous growth models developed mainly since the early 1990s, such as Easterly (1990), Barro (1990), Barro and Sala-i-Martin (1992, and 2004), Cashin (1995), Bajo-Rubio (2001), and Milbourne et al. (2003), fiscal policy affects the long-term growth rate through decisions on either taxes or expenditures. The empirical literature tends to reject the prediction of the neoclassical model of no role of fiscal policy in determining the growth rate in the long term. However, results are far from conclusive. As long as theoretical models about the influence of public spending on growth is concerned, some of them such as Barro (1990), Cashin (1995), Bajo-Rubio (2000), and Milbourne et al. (2003) predict that a positive effect is expected to be found in countries where the size of government is smaller than a certain threshold, and a negative one in countries where the size of government is bigger than that. Therefore, since generally speaking, with few exceptions, one finds very large public sectors only in developed countries (DCs), studies evaluating the impact of public expenditure on growth should analyze DCs and less developed countries (LDCs) separately. Within the recent growth literature framework, the study uses a generalized method of moments, as suggested by Arellano and Bond (1991), to obtain consistent and efficient estimates for a dynamic model, such as an economic growth model. Some literature finds growth promoting effects of government spending on education and health, which have been associated with spending on human capital. Nevertheless, these effects were not found in this study. The findings suggest that the only component of government spending significantly correlated with growth is that on transport and communications. Therefore, it is possible to conclude that the composition of government spending does matter for growth in the set of Latin American countries considered here.
N4WBP5A (Ndfip2), a Nedd4-interacting protein, localizes to multivesicular bodies and the Golgi, and has a potential role in protein trafficking

N4WBP5A (Ndfip2) belongs to an evolutionarily conserved group of Nedd4-interacting proteins with two homologues in mammalian species. We have previously shown that N4WBP5A expression in Xenopus oocytes results in increased cell-surface expression of the epithelial sodium channel. N4WBPs are characterized by one or two amino terminal PPxY motifs and three transmembrane domains. Here we show that both PPxY motifs of N4WBP5A mediate interaction with WW domains of Nedd4 and that N4WBP5A can physically interact with the WW domains of several Nedd4-family proteins. N4WBP5A is ubiquitinated and ubiquitination does not significantly affect the turnover of N4WBP5A protein. Ubiquitination of N4WBP5A is enhanced by Nedd4 and Nedd4-2 expression. N4WBP5A localizes to the Golgi, vesicles associated with the Golgi complex and to multivesicular bodies. We show that the ectopic expression of N4WBP5A inhibits receptor-mediated endocytosis of labelled epidermal growth factor. N4WBP5A overexpression inhibits accumulation of EGF in large endocytic/lysosomal vesicles suggestive of a role for N4WBP5A in protein trafficking. We propose that N4WBP5A acts as an adaptor to recruit Nedd4 family ubiquitin-protein ligases to the protein trafficking machinery.
Learning Parametric Models for Context-Aware Query Auto-Completion via Hawkes Processes

Query auto completion (QAC) is a prominent feature in modern search engines. High quality QAC substantially improves search experiences by helping users in typing less while submitting the queries. Many studies have been proposed to improve quality and relevance of the QAC methods from different perspectives, including leveraging contexts in long term and short term query histories, investigating the temporal information for time-sensitive QAC, and analyzing user behaviors. Although these studies have shown the context, temporal, and user behavior data carry valuable information, most existing QAC approaches do not fully exploit or even completely ignore these information. We propose a novel Hawkes process based QAC algorithm, comprehensively taking into account the context, temporal, and position of the clicked recommended query completions (a type of user behavior data), for reliable query completion prediction. Our understanding of ranking query completions is consistent with the mathematical rationale of Hawke process; such a coincidence in turn validates our motivation of using Hawkes process for QAC. We also develop an efficient inference algorithm to compute the optimal solutions of the proposed QAC algorithm. The proposed method is evaluated on two real-world benchmark data in comparison with state-of-art methods, and the obtained experiments clearly demonstrate their effectiveness.
The Predictive Ability of Statistically-Based Cash-Flow Models: Working Paper Series--09-02

We assess the inter-temporal predictive ability of statistically-based, cash-flow prediction models by extending extant work on annual cash-flow prediction models. Our empirical results consistently underscore the superiority of quarterly cash-flow prediction models estimated on a time-series basis versus cross-sectional models. The superiority of relatively parsimonious, time-series models is consistent with the need to incorporate the firm-specific variability of parameters into expectations rather than restricting such parameters to be constant across firms and time when models are estimated cross-sectionally. Additionally, parsimonious models that employ aggregate earnings data are superior to more complex, disaggregated accrual models. The above results are similar regardless of whether models are estimated using undeflated or deflated variables. These results are particularly salient to researchers and users interested in generating accurate multi-step ahead cash-flow forecasts.
Formal Verification of PKMv3 Protocol Using DT-Spin

WiMax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, IEEE 802.16) is a standard-based wireless technology, which uses Privacy Key Management (PKM) protocol to provide authentication and key management. Three versions of PKM protocol have been released and the third version (PKMv3) strengthens the security by enhancing the message management. In this paper, a formal analysis of PKMv3 protocol is presented. Both the subscriber station (SS) and the base station (BS) are modeled as processes in our framework. Discrete time describes the lifetime of the Authorization Key (AK) and the Transmission Encryption Key (TEK), which are produced by BS. Moreover, the PKMv3 model is constructed through the discrete-time PROMELA (DT-PROMELA) language and the tool DT-Spin implements the PKMv3 model with lifetime. Finally, we simulate communications between SS and BS and some properties are verified, i.e. liveness, succession and message consistency, which are extracted from PKMv3 and specified using Linear Temporal Logic (LTL) formulae and assertions. Our model provides a basis for further verification of PKMv3 protocol with time characteristic.
MAP-ing glioma invasion: Mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase 3 and p38 drive glioma invasion and progression and predict patient survival

Although astrocytic brain tumors do not metastasize systemically, during tumorigenesis glioma cells adopt an invasive phenotype that is poorly targeted by conventional therapies; hence, glioma patients die of recurrence from the locally invasive tumor population. Our work is aimed at identifying and validating novel therapeutic targets and biomarkers in invasive human gliomas. Transcriptomes of invasive glioma cells relative to stationary cognates were produced from a three-dimensional spheroid in vitro invasion assay by laser capture microdissection and whole human genome expression microarrays. Qualitative differential expression of candidate invasion genes was confirmed by quantitative reverse transcription-PCR, clinically by immunohistochemistry on tissue microarray, by immunoblotting on surgical specimens, and on two independent gene expression data sets of glial tumors. Cell-based assays and ex vivo brain slice invasion studies were used for functional validation. We identify mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) kinase 3 (MKK3) as a key activator of p38 MAPK in glioma; MKK3 activation is strongly correlated with p38 activation in vitro and in vivo. We further report that these members of the MAPK family are strong promoters of tumor invasion, progression, and poor patient survival. Inhibition of either candidate leads to significantly reduced glioma invasiveness in vitro. Consistent with the concept of synthetic lethality, we show that inhibition of invasion by interference with these genes greatly sensitizes arrested glioma cells to cytotoxic therapies. Our findings therefore argue that interference with MKK3 signaling through a novel treatment combination of p38 inhibitor plus temozolomide heightens the vulnerability of glioma to chemotherapy. [Mol Cancer Ther 2007;6(4):1212–22]
Suzaku Observation of Group of Galaxies NGC 507: Temperature and Metal Distributions in the Intra-Cluster Medium

Temperature and abundance distributions of the intra-cluster medium (ICM) in the NGC 507 group of galaxies were studied with Suzaku. Observed concentric annular spectra were well-represented by a two temperature model for ICM, and we found steeper abundance gradients for Mg, Si, S, and Fe compared with O in the central region. Abundance ratios of alpha-elements to iron were found to be similar to those in other groups and poor clusters. We calculated metal mass-to-light ratios for Fe, O and Mg (IMLR, OMLR, MMLR) for NGC 507, and values for different systems were compared. Hotter and richer systems tend to show higher values of IMLR, OMLR, and MMLR. OMLR and MMLR were measured to an outer region for the first time with Suzaku, while IMLR was consistent with that with ASCA. We also looked into 2-dimensional map of the hardness ratio, but found no significant deviation from the circular symmetry.
Productive Versus Unproductive Labor and Rent Seeking: Lessons from History

Smith's distinction between productive and unproductive labor, according to Blaug [1985, 54], is "probably the most maligned concept in the history of economic doctrines". The distinction Smith introduced generated much confusion, and was ultimately abandoned by the marginalist forerunners of modern neoclassical value theory. However, the old Smithian distinction between productive and unproductive labor has reappeared in a new guise in the literature on rent seeking. Theorists of rent seeking and "directly unproductive" expenditure (DUP) argue that the competitive pursuit of monopoly profits or regulatory transfers is necessarily wasteful because it uses real resources without creating wealth. This is analogous to the classical view that certain types of labor, especially in the service or public sectors, are "unproductive". In section 2, we examine the classical Smithian definition of productive and unproductive labor. We then proceed to discuss three "lessons" that can be gleaned from the classical analysis of productive and unproductive labor. We argue that these lessons are important for the modern rent seeking literature, and that many conceptual and theoretical problems with rent seeking are a direct result of failure to incorporate the insights of classical political economy. The first lesson from this history, discussed in section 3, is that the notion of unproductive labor only makes sense in the context of a labor theory of value, and that it loses much of its meaning in a subjective (utility based) theory of value. Likewise, the notion that rent seeking expenditures are inherently wasteful is extremely problematic if value is viewed as being determined subjectively by individual preferences. The second lesson, dealt with in section 4, is that the classical analysis of productive and unproductive labor is concerned primarily with the determinants of growth. A dynamic framework, rather than a static preoccupation with resource allocation, is necessary to address this issue. Likewise, the notion
Multirate output functional filter design and control

The Kalman filter is a recursive estimator for a linear dynamic system with uncorrelated white process and measurement noises. In this paper, we consider the problem of unbiased minimum-variance functional estimation for linear discrete-time stochastic systems. The proposed method is based on multirate sampling of plant output. The necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of the functional filter are given and the stability of the filter is discussed. A numerical example is considered to demonstrate the procedure and efficacy of the approach.