Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Treatment of osteoporosis with eldecalcitol, a new vitamin D analog: a comprehensive review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials

Objective Eldecalcitol (ELD) is an active form of vitamin D analog that has been approved for the treatment of osteoporosis in Japan. Over recent years, a number of multicenter, randomized controlled clinical trials have been conducted. Our goal is to comprehensively summarize the results from these studies. Methods We searched the databases MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials up to February 28, 2015. Each database was searched using search terms “Eldecalcitol” and “ED-71” and the results were combined. The retrieved data from three independent clinical trials included a total of 1,332 patients with osteoporosis. After the data were pooled from three trials, RevMan software was used to conduct meta-analyses to determine the effects of ELD on bone mineral density (BMD) and bone turnover marker (BTM) type I collagen amino-terminal telopeptide (NTX). Effects of ELD on some of the bone formation and bone resorption parameters, incidence of vertebral fractures at the lower spine, and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in patients with osteoporosis were also summarized. Results With a test for overall effectZ=6.35, ELD could increase lumbar BMD (P<0.00001). In comparison with alphacalcidol, ELD suppressed the NTX level to a greater degree (test for overall effectZ=3.82,P<0.0001). ELD was also found to suppress bone alkaline phosphatase (BALP) by 19% (P<0.01) and osteocalcin by 19% (P<0.01) at the dose of 0.75 μg/day. Compared to alfacalcidol, ELD showed higher potency in suppressing serum BALP (26±9 vs 32±11 U/L,P<0.05) and amino-terminal propeptide of procollagen I (PINP) (42±15 vs 59±23 ng/mL,P<0.05). In addition, ELD was found to be more effective in reducing the incidence of vertebral fractures at the lower spine (P=0.029). Conclusion Our meta-analysis showed that ELD was more potent than alphacalcidol in reducing BTM (NTX). Clinical data together suggest that ELD is efficient in treating osteoporosis by increasing lumbar BMD; suppressing BTMs, including NTX, BALP, osteocalcin, and PINP; resulting in the reduction in the incidence of vertebral fractures at the lower spine; and increasing the HRQOL in patients with osteoporosis.
An assessment of factors affecting technology adoption by teachers: The case of Caribbean secondary schools

This study aims to identify institutional factors that act as barriers to technology adoption in Caribbean Secondary Schools. The research model combines two distinct bodies of research – literature on technology adoption from Information Systems, and studies on IT use in schools from Education literature. Data was collected primarily through surveys completed by secondary school teachers in eight (8) Eastern Caribbean islands, and supported by interviews with education administrators from the various islands. Results indicated the most significant factors were the non-availability of hardware, and lack of time.
Exosomes derived from human platelet-rich plasma prevent apoptosis induced by glucocorticoid-associated endoplasmic reticulum stress in rat osteonecrosis of the femoral head via the Akt/Bad/Bcl-2 signal pathway

An excess of glucocorticoids (GCs) is reported to be one of the most common causes of osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH). In addition, GCs can induce bone cell apoptosis through modulating endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. Among the three main signal pathways in ER stress, the PERK (protein kinase RNA-like ER kinase)/CHOP (CCAAT-enhancer-binding protein homologous protein) pathway has been considered to be closely associated with apoptosis. Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) has been referred to as a concentration of growth factors and the exosomes derived from PRP (PRP-Exos) have a similar effect to their parent material. The enriched growth factors can be encapsulated into PRP-Exos and activate Akt and Erk pathways to promote angiogenesis. Activation of the Akt pathway may promote the expression of anti-apoptotic proteins like Bcl-2, while CHOP can inhibit B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) expression to increase the level of cleaved caspase-3 and lead to cell death. Consequently, we hypothesized that PRP-Exos prevent apoptosis induced by glucocorticoid-associated ER stress in rat ONFH via the Akt/Bad/Bcl-2 signal pathway. To verify this hypothesis, a dexamethasone (DEX)-treated in vitro cell model and methylprednisolone (MPS)-treated in vivo rat model were adopted. Characterization of PRP-Exos, and effects of PRP-Exos on proliferation, apoptosis, angiogenesis, and osteogenesis of cells treated with GCs in vitro and in vivo were examined. Furthermore, the mechanism by which PRP-Exos rescue the GC-induced apoptosis through the Akt/Bad/Bcl-2 pathway was also investigated. The results indicate that PRP-Exos have the capability to prevent GC-induced apoptosis in a rat model of ONFH by promoting Bcl-2 expression via the Akt/Bad/Bcl-2 signal pathway under ER stress.
Research on the Technology for Improving Safe Awareness Based on Driving Simulator

Statistical data shows that a driver who was lack of the ability to discover potential risk situation and safe driving awareness was more probably to cause an accident. The safe driving awareness was considered as a factor in contributing to vehicle crashes. In this study, a creative method to improve safety awareness based on driving simulator was proposed. Firstly, the definition and classification of safety driving awareness was analyzed. Second, the procedure for drivers appropriately control vehicle to response to risk situation was discussed. The compositions, characteristic parameters, trigger condition and implements mode of risk situation were all designed and then implemented to generate a virtual driving scenario according to characteristic of simulation driving. Finally, one experimental group of 10 middle-aged participants were subject to driver training and driving skills were constantly assessed and corrected to ensure effective vehicle handling and control for evasive driving. The results indicated that the participants reduced their speed sooner when approaching hazards, and braked earlier than untrained drivers. Meanwhile the improvement of safe driving awareness is found for all the participants after hands-on practice in lifelike simulation scenarios. Therefore, the simulator is a valuable tool for drivers statewide to develop a conditioned response to a given risky situation and to improve the safety driving awareness.
Political Coase Theorem

AbstractThis article considers theapplicability of the Coase theorem (in bothits positive and normative formulations) tothe political market. The articleanalogizes the choice of decision rules inthe political market to the choice of legalrules in the traditional Coase theorem andfurther analogizes alternative initialcoalitions to the different initialallocations of entitlements considered byCoase (1960). On the basis of theseanalogies, the paper examines the relevance(or lack thereof) of alternative votingrules and initial coalitions on the finalpolitical outcome. The article furthershows that, if all voters are allowed toenter into Coasian bargaining over thepolicy outcome to be adopted by themajority coalition (i.e., if politicalbargains are possible and are enforceable),uniqueness and stability are obtained. Theanalysis of the axiomatic Nash bargainingequilibrium yields an interesting geometricintuition. If voters have similar utilityfunctions centered around different idealpolicy points, the Coasian bargaining willbe conducive to the ``center of mass'' of thepolicy space, which weighs the agents'preferences as revealed in the bargainingprocess. Such ideal equilibrium satisfiesmost criteria of social welfare. Thearticle concludes considering the variouspractical limits of this ideal politicalmarket, whenever collective action andagency problems affect the politicalbargaining in a representative or directdemocracy. With all side payments prohibited,there is no assurance that collectiveaction will be taken in the most productiveway. (James M. Buchanan and Gordon Tullock, 1962)
Online Least Squares Estimation with Self-Normalized Processes: An Application to Bandit Problems

The analysis of online least squares estimation is at the heart of many stochastic sequential decision-making problems. We employ tools from the self-normalized processes to provide a simple and self-contained proof of a tail bound of a vector-valued martingale. We use the bound to construct new tighter confidence sets for the least squares estimate. We apply the confidence sets to several online decision problems, such as the multi-armed and the linearly parametrized bandit problems. The confidence sets are potentially applicable to other problems such as sleeping bandits, generalized linear bandits, and other linear control problems. We improve the regret bound of the Upper Confidence Bound (UCB) algorithm of Auer et al. (2002) and show that its regret is with high-probability a problem dependent constant. In the case of linear bandits (Dani et al., 2008), we improve the problem dependent bound in the dimension and number of time steps. Furthermore, as opposed to the previous result, we prove that our bound holds for small sample sizes, and at the same time the worst case bound is improved by a logarithmic factor and the constant is improved.
A Potential Reduction Algorithm with User-Specified Phase I-Phase II Balance for Solving a Linear Program from an Infeasible Warm Start

This paper develops a potential reduction algorithm for solving a linear programming problem directly from a “warm start” initial point that is neither feasible nor optimal. The algorithm is an “interior point” variety that seeks to reduce a single potential function which simultaneously coerces feasibility improvement (Phase I) and objective value improvement (Phase II). The key feature of the algorithm is the ability to specify beforehand the desired balance between infeasibility and nonoptimality in the following sense. Given a prespecified balancing parameter $\beta > 0$, the algorithm maintains the following Phase I–Phase II “$\beta $-balancing constraint” throughout \[ \left( c^T x - z^* \right) < \beta \xi^T x, \] where $c^T x$ is the objective function, $z^ * $ is the (unknown) optimal objective value of the linear program, and $\xi^T x$ measures the infeasibility of the current iterate x. This balancing constraint can be used to either emphasize rapid attainment of feasibility (set $\beta $ large.
The Strength of Gradually Accruing Probabilistic Evidence Modulates Brain Activity during a Categorical Decision

The evolution of neural activity during a perceptual decision is well characterized by the evidence parameter in sequential sampling models. However, it is not known whether accumulating signals in human neuroimaging are related to the integration of evidence. Our aim was to determine whether activity accumulates in a nonperceptual task by identifying brain regions tracking the strength of probabilistic evidence. fMRI was used to measure whole-brain activity as choices were informed by integrating a series of learned prior probabilities. Participants first learned the predictive relationship between a set of shape stimuli and one of two choices. During scanned testing, they made binary choices informed by the sum of the predictive strengths of individual shapes. Sequences of shapes adhered to three distinct rates of evidence (RoEs): rapid, gradual, and switch. We predicted that activity in regions informing the decision would modulate as a function of RoE prior to the choice. Activity in some regions, including premotor areas, changed as a function of RoE and response hand, indicating a role in forming an intention to respond. Regions in occipital, temporal, and parietal lobes modulated as a function of RoE only, suggesting a preresponse stage of evidence processing. In all of these regions, activity was greatest on rapid trials and least on switch trials, which is consistent with an accumulation-to-boundary account. In contrast, activity in a set of frontal and parietal regions was greatest on switch and least on rapid trials, which is consistent with an effort or time-on-task account.
Pathways and penalties: Mothers’ employment trajectories and wage growth in the Families and Children Study

This paper uses panel data from the British Families and Children Study to analyse the employment patterns of women with children and the ways in which part-time work and interruptions in paid employment influence the wages of working mothers. It pays particular attention to how the relationship between employment trajectory and wage progression compares for higher-skilled and lower-skilled mothers and for mothers of younger and older children. We find that mothers follow a wide variety of employment pathways, the majority working part-time, moving between full-time and part-time employment or moving in and out of work as they combine motherhood with paid employment. In support of results from existing research on the “part-time” wage penalty and the “motherhood gap”, we find that there are wage penalties associated with unstable work trajectories. Our analysis also shows that such wage penalties are significantly smaller for lower-skilled than higher-skilled women and are experienced by mothers of children of all ages, although the impact appears larger for mothers of younger children. In the final sections, the paper discusses the policy implications that arise from these findings with reference to recent debates on maternal employment, wage progression and poverty reduction.
Self-Regulation of Mouse p45/NF-E2 during Murine Erythroleukemia Cell Differentiation

Tung-Liang Lee, Shau-Ching Wen, Wei-Yuan Hsiao, Che-Kun James Shen, and Yu-Chiau Shyu (2009) Self-regulation of mouse p45/NF-E2 during murine erythroleukemia cell differentiation. Zoological Studies 48(3): 362-369. The complicated process of murine erythroleukemia (MEL) cell differentiation is precisely controlled by a group of transcription factors. One of those transcription factors, p45/NF-E2, is important for globin gene expression. We analyzed the structure of the mouse p45 gene which contains a putative nuclear factor erythroid-derived 2 (NF-E2) which binds to the Maf recognition element (MARE) located upstream of the erythroid-specific p45 promoter. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assays showed that p45/NF-E2 bound to this MARE-like region during the period of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO)-induced MEL differentiation. Moreover, the ChIP analysis also showed that p45/NF-E2 binding to the GATA-1 binding region of the erythroid- specific p45 promoter was similar to the binding to the MARE-like region. Analysis of the p45 expression profile corresponded to the p45 promoter binding capacity of p45/NF-E2 during MEL cell differentiation. This evidence suggests that the MARE-like binding site might function as an enhancer that interacts with the GATA-1 binding motif within the p45 promoter to mediate the upregulation of p45 mRNA in erythroid differentiation. Furthermore, we also found that the MARE binding repressor, Bach1, did not bind to the p45 promoter, thus excluding any involvement of Bach1 in p45 gene regulation before MEL differentiation. Together these results suggest that p45/NF-E2 self-regulation is a positive enhancer regulatory mechanism, which differs from the MARE- dependent regulatory mechanism that contributes to the rapid upregulation of p45/NF-E2 required for erythroid differentiation. http://zoolstud.sinica. edu.tw/Journals/48.3/362.pdf
Cutoff Scores in Neurocognitive Testing and Symptom Clusters That Predict Protracted Recovery From Concussions in High School Athletes

BACKGROUND: Many studies address diagnosing concussions, but few look at predicting prognosis. A previous discriminant function analysis showed that symptom clusters derived from the Post-Concussion Symptom Scale and Immediate Postconcussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing composite scores used together improved predictions of protracted recovery after a sports-related concussion. OBJECTIVE: To determine cutoff scores in neurocognitive and Post-Concussion Symptom Scale symptom cluster scores when classifying protracted recovery in concussed athletes. METHODS: 108 male high school football athletes completed a computer-based neurocognitive test battery (Immediate Postconcussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing) within a median of 2 days after injury. Patients completed graded exertional protocols requiring athletes to be symptom free at rest and during increasing levels of activity and had recovery of neurocognitive scores before return to play. After return to play, athletes were classified as protracted recovery (>14 days, n = 58) or short-recovery (⩽14 days, n = 50). Receiver-operating characteristic curves analyzed each of the neurocognitive (verbal, visual, processing speed, and reaction time) and symptom cluster (migraine, cognitive, sleep, and neuropsychiatric) scores. RESULTS: Cutoffs for migraine cluster, cognitive cluster, visual memory, and processing speed were statistically significant. Cutoffs at 75%, 80%, and 85% sensitivity to predict protracted recovery for the migraine symptom cluster were 15 or greater, 18, 20; cognitive symptom cluster 18 or greater, 19, 22; visual memory 48 or less, 46, 44.5; and processing speed 24.5 or less, 23.46, 22.5, respectively. Eighty-percent sensitivity indicates that the corresponding cutoff correctly identify 80% of concussed athletes requiring protracted recovery. CONCLUSION: Specific cutoffs may help to set numerical thresholds for clinicians to predict which concussed athletes will have a protracted recovery.
Restructuring and Competitiveness

This paper explores the competitiveness of firms in transition economies. Using a large panel of firms from several Central and Eastern European countries, the paper identifies factors influencing the competitiveness of firms in conditions of transition. Competitiveness, measured by firms' market share, is defined as a function of several elements of firms' restructuring behavior (e.g., improvements in cost-efficiency and labor productivity and investment in new machinery and equipment) as well as characteristics of firms and their environment, such as location, experience, technological intensity of their industries, and intensity of competition. To control for the dynamic nature of competitiveness and the potential endogeneity of its determinants, and to distinguish between short- and long-run effects of firm behavior, a dynamic panel methodology is employed. Our results indicate that the competitiveness of firms in transition economies is enhanced by improvements in their cost efficiency and labor productivity, investment, and their previous business experience, but stronger competition has a negative effect on it.
Consolidation chwemotherapy after concurrent chemoradiotherapy vs. chemoradiotherapy alone for locally advanced unresectable stage III non-small-cell lung cancer: A meta-analysis

Concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) has been considered to be the standard of care for locally advanced unresectable stage III non-small-cell lung cancer (LA-NSCLC). Whether consolidation chemotherapy (CCT) following CCRT is able to further improve the clinical outcome remains unclear. We therefore undertook a meta-analysis to compare the two regimens for LA-NSCLC. A literature search was performed through PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library and Chinese Biology Medicine, from their inception to November, 2015. Irrelevant studies were excluded using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses standards. Our primary endpoint was overall survival (OS), which was defined as the time from randomisation until death from any cause; the secondary endpoint was progression-free survival (PFS). All analyses were by intention-to-treat. Five phase III randomized controlled trials with 958 patients were included in the present meta-analysis. The results were expressed as odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Compared with CCRT, CCT after CCRT was not associated with statistically significant differences in OS (OR=1.24; 95% CI: 0.89–1.72; P=0.21) or PFS (OR=1.16; 95% CI: 0.74–1.83; P=0.53), but increased the risk of toxicity, including infection (P=0.02), pneumonitis (P=0.003) and treatment-related death (P=0.04). There were no significant differences in terms of benefit according to particular patient characteristics, such as age, gender, performance status, tumor histology or clinical stage. Thus, the present study failed to support the use of CCT after CCRT over CCRT alone, as there was no significant OS and PFS benefit for LA-NSCLC patients, but the use of CCT after CCRT resulted in increased toxicity.
Changing social variations in self-assessed health in times of transition? The Baltic States 1994-1999.

BACKGROUND Dramatic social changes took place in the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) in the 1990s. This study investigates the extent to which social variations in self-assessed health changed during that period. METHODS Norbalt Living Conditions Survey I (1994) and II (1999) random population-based samples in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were analysed. Associations of self-assessed health with six social dimensions (education, economic activity, car ownership, number of rooms, ethnicity and residence) were studied for males and females aged 25-74 years (n = 16 970). RESULTS Substantial and significant associations with poor health were found for education, economic activity, car ownership and, to a lesser extent, number of rooms. Ethnic differences were found only among women in Estonia. By and large, social variations in health were comparable for most indicators between the three countries. Differences in self-assessed health were stable between 1994 and 1999, except for the relatively worse position of the economically non-active in 1999. CONCLUSIONS Substantial social inequalities in self-assessed poor health exist in the Baltic States. Despite dramatic social changes taking place, social variations in self-assessed health have been rather stable in the second half of the 1990s. The economically non-active seem to have become more disadvantaged.
Synaptic Properties of Thalamic Input to the Subgranular Layers of Primary Somatosensory and Auditory Cortices in the Mouse

The classification of synaptic inputs is an essential part of understanding brain circuitry. In the present study, we examined the synaptic properties of thalamic inputs to pyramidal neurons in layers 5a, 5b, and 6 of primary somatosensory (S1) and auditory (A1) cortices in mouse thalamocortical slices. Stimulation of the ventral posterior medial nucleus and the ventral division of the medial geniculate body resulted in three distinct response classes, two of which have never been described before in thalamocortical projections. Class 1A responses included synaptic depression and all-or-none responses, while Class 1B responses exhibited synaptic depression and graded responses. Class 1C responses are characterized by mixed facilitation and depression as well as graded responses. Activation of metabotropic glutamate receptors was not observed in any of the response classes. We conclude that Class 1 responses can be broken up into three distinct subclasses, and that thalamic inputs to the subgranular layers of cortex may combine with other, intracortical inputs to drive their postsynaptic target cells. We also integrate these results with our recent, analogous study of thalamocortical inputs to granular and supragranular layers (Viaene et al., 2011).