Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Wage flexibility in the Chinese labour market, 1989–2009

ABSTRACT Wage flexibility in the Chinese labour market, 1989–2009. Regional Studies. China’s bureaucratic wage determination system is gradually being replaced by a market-based system, leading to a novel version of a dual labour market. This paper studies wage flexibility in this dual market. Its principal findings are as follows: wages in both sectors have become less responsive to changes in official registered unemployment, with an alternative market-based measure of unemployment becoming more relevant; there is evidence of convergence of flexibility between the two sectors; the wages of women exhibit greater flexibility than those of men; and there is evidence of differences in wage flexibility between workers who have urban residential rights and rural migrants.
Broad-spectrum biofilm inhibition by a secreted bacterial polysaccharide

The development of surface-attached biofilm bacterial communities is considered an important source of nosocomial infections. Recently, bacterial interference via signaling molecules and surface active compounds was shown to antagonize biofilm formation, suggesting that nonantibiotic molecules produced during competitive interactions between bacteria could be used for biofilm reduction. Hence, a better understanding of commensal/pathogen interactions within bacterial community could lead to an improved control of exogenous pathogens. To reveal adhesion or growth-related bacterial interference, we investigated interactions between uropathogenic and commensal Escherichia coli in mixed in vitro biofilms. We demonstrate here that the uropathogenic strain CFT073 and all E. coli expressing group II capsules release into their environment a soluble polysaccharide that induces physicochemical surface alterations, which prevent biofilm formation by a wide range of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. We show that the treatment of abiotic surfaces with group II capsular polysaccharides drastically reduces both initial adhesion and biofilm development by important nosocomial pathogens. These findings identify capsular polymers as antiadhesion bacterial interference molecules, which may prove to be of significance in the design of new strategies to limit biofilm formation on medical in dwelling devices.
Evaluation of the quality of life in adolescents with acne.

BACKGROUND/AIM Acne is well recognized condition that adversely affects quality of life (QoL) of the patients. The aim of this study was to determine the self-reported prevalence of acne and its main characteristics in high school pupils, and to assess their QoL. METHODS The cross-sectional study conducted in May 2011 comprised 440 pupils from Serbia (281 from Belgrade and 159 from Uzice). Participation in the study was voluntary and anonymous. Two questionnaires were administered: a short demographic questionnaire, and Children's Dermatology Life Quality Index (CDLQI). Internal consistency was assessed using the Cronbach's alpha while item-total score correlations were assessed using Spearman's correlation analysis. RESULTS The majority of the study population (84.3%) were girls, and 15.7% were boys. The total mean age of the pupils was 16.48 +/- 0.55 years. A total of 228 (51.8%) pupils self-reported their acne with significantly higher prevalence in Uzice (73.6%) than in Belgrade (39.5%). The mean CDLQI score was 3.55 with the similar quality of life impairment in adolescents from the two cities. The mean Cronbach's alpha was 0.83. There was a statistically significant positive correlation between the mean overall CDLQI score and CDLQI subscale scores that ranged from 0.401 to 0.841. CONCLUSION Our study confirmed that acne is associated with impairment in QoL that is in accordance with previous studies performed on teenagers. The CDLQI is a reliable and valid measure, and can be used as a practical tool for measuring the impact of acne on patients' QoL.
Intra‐arterial chemotherapy with mitomycin C in gallbladder cancer: A follow‐up study

There is only limited and somewhat controversial information available on hepatic artery infusion of cytotoxic agents in gallbladder cancer. We report the results of 5‐year follow‐up of all gallbladder cancer patients treated with surgery and intra‐arterial mitomycin C or mitomycin C alone in our hospital during 15 years.
Neurosurgical treatment of bipolar depression: defining treatment resistance and identifying surgical targets.

OBJECTIVES Bipolar disorder (BD) is a complex psychiatric disorder that is often underrecognized, misdiagnosed, and challenging to detect. During the past decade, substantial progress has been made in the development of pharmacotherapeutic and psychosocial interventions for various phases of BD. Notwithstanding these developments, the majority of BD individuals, and particularly patients with bipolar depression, receiving guideline concordant care do not experience syndromal or functional recovery, underscoring the need for novel treatments. Early success with deep brain stimulation (DBS) in the treatment of major depressive episodes as part of major depressive disorder (MDD) has provided the impetus to explore its application in other treatment-resistant psychiatric disorders, notably BD. Herein, we provide the rationale for employing DBS as an alternative treatment avenue in individuals with bipolar depression. METHODS We conducted a PubMed literature search, focusing on English language articles beginning in 1950 to the present day, and employed the following search terms: bipolar disorder, neurosurgery, deep brain stimulation, neuroimaging, and circuitry. Search results were then manually reviewed and relevant articles selected for analysis. Relevance was determined by author consensus and overall manuscript quality. We also reviewed articles on currently available treatment options for BD in order to develop a coherent and practical definition of treatment resistance with a focus on surgical intervention. RESULTS Several lines of evidence indicate that although mania is the defining feature of bipolar I disorder, depressive symptoms and episodes dominate the longitudinal course, account for most of the illness burden including premature mortality, and are least responsive to contemporary treatments. Disease models in bipolar depression implicate abnormalities in the structure and function of discrete neural circuits that subserve affective processing and cognitive function with the subgenual cingulate cortex occupying a central role. Modulation of the cingulate cortex with DBS in treatment-resistant MDD populations has proven to offer acute and sustained antidepressant effects, suggesting possible benefits for other mood disorder populations. CONCLUSIONS A surgical intervention for bipolar depression would not only be a proof of concept regarding disease modeling but also an important and novel treatment avenue for individuals affected by bipolar depression.
A viral protein suppresses RNA silencing and binds silencing‐generated, 21‐ to 25‐nucleotide double‐stranded RNAs

Posttranscriptional gene silencing (PTGS) processes double‐stranded (ds) RNAs into 21–25 nucleotide (nt) RNA fragments that direct ribonucleases to target cognate mRNAs. In higher plants, PTGS also generates mobile signals conferring sequence‐specific silencing in distant organs. Since PTGS acts as an antiviral system in plants, successful virus infection requires evasion or suppression of gene silencing. Here we report that the 19 kDa protein (p19) of tombusviruses is a potent silencing suppressor that prevents the spread of mobile silencing signal. In vitro, p19 binds PTGS‐generated, 21–25 nt dsRNAs and 21‐nt synthetic dsRNAs with 2‐nt 3′ overhanging end(s), while it barely interacts with single‐stranded (ss) RNAs, long dsRNAs or blunt‐ended 21‐nt dsRNAs. We propose that p19 mediates silencing suppression by sequestering the PTGS‐generated 21–25 nt dsRNAs, thus depleting the specificity determinants of PTGS effector complexes. Moreover, the observation that p19‐expressing transgenic plants show altered leaf morphology might indicate that the p19‐targeted PTGS pathway is also important in the regulation of plant development.
Contact sensitivity to standard series allergens in 1038 patients with contact dermatitis in Turkey

We planned to determine the frequency of sensitivity to European standard patch test allergens in 1038 patients with contact dermatitis. From 1992 to 2004, 1038 patients with the diagnosis of contact dermatitis were patch tested with the European standard series. Seven hundred and five patients were female (67.9%) and 333 patients were male (32.1%). A total of 336 patients (32.3%) had one or more positive patch test reactions. The most common allergens were nickel (17.6%), cobalt chloride (5.3%), potassium dichromate (4.6%), neomycin (2.4%), fragrance mix (2.1%) and balsam of Peru (2.1%). Contact sensitivity to potassium dichromate and thiuram was significantly more frequent in male patients, whereas nickel and primin sensitivity was significantly more frequent in female patients. Higher sensitivity rates for potassium dichromate, neomycin, balsam of Peru, wool alcohol, fragrance mix and primin were noted in patients over 40 years of age. Sensitivity rates of the standard series allergens were all similar in atopic patients and in non‐atopic patients. Metals, neomycin and fragrances are the leading allergens in Turkey. Although fragrances are among the most important sensitizers, sensitivity rates to fragrances and also to preservatives are much lower than the rates in Europe and the US.
Australia's Better Access Initiative: An Evaluation

Background: Australia's Better Access to Psychiatrists, Psychologists and General Practitioners through the Medicare Benefits Schedule (Better Access) initiative involves a series of Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) item numbers which offer a rebate for selected services delivered by eligible clinicians. There has been considerable debate about the appropriateness and effectiveness of Better Access, much of which has been based on limited evidence. The current paper contributes to this debate by presenting the findings of a study which profiled the clinical and treatment characteristics of Better Access patients and examined the outcomes of their care. Method: We approached a stratified random sample of providers who had billed for at least 100 occasions of service under the Better Access item numbers in 2008 (509 clinical psychologists, 640 registered psychologists, 1280 GPs) and invited them to participate. Those who agreed were asked to recruit 5–10 Better Access patients according to a specific protocol. We collected data that enabled us to profile providers, patients and sessions. We also collected pre- and post-treatment patient outcome data, using the Kessler-10 (K-10) and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21). Results: In total, 883 patients were recruited into the study (289 by 41 clinical psychologists, 317 by 49 registered psychologists and 277 by 39 GPs). More than 90% of participating patients had diagnoses of depression and/or anxiety (compared with 13% of the general population). More than 80% were experiencing high or very high levels of psychological distress (compared with 10% of the general population). Around half of all participating patients had no previous history of mental health care. Patients experienced statistically significant improvements in average K-10 and DASS-21 scores from pre- to post-treatment. Conclusions: The findings suggest that Better Access is playing an important part in meeting the community's previously unmet need for mental health care.
Interlinkage Between Economic, Financial, and Political Risks in the Balkan Countries: Evidence from a Panel Cointegration

This article explores the long-run and causal linkages among economic, financial, and political country risk indicators for seven Balkan countries. Panel cointegration, FMOLS, DOLS, and the Granger and Dumitrescu-Hurlin causality tests are implemented. The empirical findings reveal that (1) there is a positive linkage between financial stability and economic stability in the seven countries in the long run, while financial stability has significant and positive impacts on political stability; and (2) vulnerability in economic and financial stability significantly leads to changes in political stability.
The trajectory tracking problem for an unmanned four-rotor system: flatness-based approach

In this article we present a flatness-based controller that solves the trajectory tracking problem for an unmanned four-rotor aircraft. A simple version of the dynamical system obtained from a suitable coordinate transformation of the Euler–Lagrange model of the system is used. This model, combined with a suitable input saturation nonlinearity, also avoids the inconvenient system singularities. The corresponding tracking error is shown to be globally asymptotically stable but only locally exponentially stable, while the controller maintains the four-rotor system motions inside a feasible region. Numerical simulations are presented to assesses the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy.
Prezygotic resource-allocation dynamics and reproductive trade-offs in Calymperaceae (Bryophyta).

PREMISE OF THE STUDY Resource allocation is difficult to characterize in plants because of the challenges of quantifying gametes and propagules. We surveyed six sympatric, unisexual species in the family Calymperaceae (Bryophyta) to test for trade-offs in prezygotic sexual and asexual expression and density-dependent survivorship of female gametangia. METHODS We tallied gametangial and asexual propagule output for 1820 shoots from 17 populations of six species at monthly intervals during one year (2010-2011) in a central Amazonian forest. Generalized linear mixed models were used to test for trade-offs in sexual and asexual expression and density-dependent senescence probability of gametangia. Precipitation and microsite variables were also included in the model. KEY RESULTS For all species, sexual and asexual expression were positively correlated with mean monthly precipitation. Asexually expressing shoots produced significantly fewer gametangia than nonexpressing ones, and the probability of senescence increased with shoot density. Archegonium density per shoot was also consistently lower than the modeled optimum to maximize the number of receptive archegonia. CONCLUSIONS Trade-offs among reproductive strategies and positive density-dependent senescence of female gametangia suggest that prezygotic sexual and asexual expression come at a tangible investment. However, the apparently inefficient resource-allocation dynamics in the production of female gametangia makes the possible advantages of squandering such investments unclear. One possibility is that the study populations, like those of many dioicous mosses, are skewed toward expressing females with low sporophyte production, which would suggest that asexual reproduction predominates and upstages efficient resource allocation in prezygotic investment.
Learning style and teaching method preferences of Saudi students of physical therapy

Context: To the researchers’ knowledge, there are no published studies that have investigated the learning styles and preferred teaching methods of physical therapy students in Saudi Arabia. Aim: The study was conducted to determine the learning styles and preferred teaching methods of Saudi physical therapy students. Settings and Design: A cross-sectional study design. Materials and Methods: Fifty-three Saudis studying physical therapy (21 males and 32 females) participated in the study. The principal researcher gave an introductory lecture to explain the different learning styles and common teaching methods. Upon completion of the lecture, questionnaires were distributed, and were collected on completion. Statistical Analysis Used: Percentages were calculated for the learning styles and teaching methods. Pearson’s correlations were performed to investigate the relationship between them. Results: More than 45 (85%) of the students rated hands-on training as the most preferred teaching method. Approximately 30 (57%) students rated the following teaching methods as the most preferred methods: “Advanced organizers,” “demonstrations,” and “multimedia activities. ” Although 31 (59%) students rated the concrete-sequential learning style the most preferred, these students demonstrated mixed styles on the other style dimensions: Abstract-sequential, abstract-random, and concrete-random. Conclusions: The predominant concrete-sequential learning style is consistent with the most preferred teaching method (hands-on training). The high percentage of physical therapy students whose responses were indicative of mixed learning styles suggests that they can accommodate multiple teaching methods. It is recommended that educators consider the diverse learning styles of the students and utilize a variety of teaching methods in order to promote an optimal learning environment for the students.
Evaluating Ground Water–Sea Water Interactions via Resistivity and Seepage Meters

We investigated submarine ground water discharge and salt water–fresh water interactions at two locations along the shoreline of the Upper Gulf of Thailand to evaluate mechanisms of water and material transport into the coastal zone. Our data set illustrates the value of using a combined approach consisting of automatic seepage meters to monitor flow rates while assessing the conductivity (salinity) of the subterranean fluids via remote resistivity measurements. Negative correlations between electric conductivities of fluids measured directly inside seepage meter chambers and the remotely assessed resistivities of subsurface pore water show that such measurements may evaluate the spatial distribution of flow rates as well as the subterranean water quality in the coastal zone. Combined seepage and resistivity measurements may thus provide a more complete understanding of coastal ground water dynamics.
Neural Machine Translation for Low Resource Languages using Bilingual Lexicon Induced from Comparable Corpora

Resources for the non-English languages are scarce and this paper addresses this problem in the context of machine translation, by automatically extracting parallel sentence pairs from the multilingual articles available on the Internet. In this paper, we have used an end-to-end Siamese bidirectional recurrent neural network to generate parallel sentences from comparable multilingual articles in Wikipedia. Subsequently, we have showed that using the harvested dataset improved BLEU scores on both NMT and phrase-based SMT systems for the low-resource language pairs: English–Hindi and English–Tamil, when compared to training exclusively on the limited bilingual corpora collected for these language pairs.
Species boundaries and genetic diversity among Hawaiian crickets of the genus Laupala identified using amplified fragment length polymorphism

Crickets of the genus Laupala represent one of the many morphologically cryptic groups of insects, with the most closely related species distinguished only by the male calling song. Cryptic groups provide a challenge in determining the genetic boundaries between closely related populations and species. We have addressed the question of species boundaries in the Hawaiian cricket, Laupala, using nuclear DNA patterns sampled by the amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) technique. This method has been used widely by plant researchers to facilitate the rapid assessment of genetic diversity in very closely related species and varieties. The AFLP technique is simple and robust, can be applied to any organism, and overcomes problems associated with cost, development time, information content and reproducibility that can plague other marker systems. Our results support previously hypothesized taxonomic relationships among sympatric populations and suggest close genetic relationships among allopatric, conspecific populations.
Effect of using seaweed (eucheuma) powder on the quality of fish cutlet

Physico-chemical properties of Eucheuma, such as soluble solids (27.5±0.02%), water holding capacity (17.7±0.08g/g) and oil holding capacity (2.14±0.07g/g) were estimated as measures of its functionality. Eucheuma powder was used as an ingredient in the preparation of fish cutlet. Dried Eucheuma powder was added at levels of 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5 and 15% and physicochemical characteristics of fish cutlet were studied. Sensory evaluation showed that use of Eucheuma significantly (P≤0.05) influenced texture of fish cutlet. It was found that Eucheuma powder could be incorporated into fish cutlet upto 10% level without adversely affecting the appearance, texture and acceptability.
he utility of behavioral economics in expanding the free-feed model f obesity

Animal models of obesity are numerous and diverse in terms of identifying specific neural and peripheral mechanisms related to obesity; however, they are limited when it comes to behavior. The standard behavioral measure of food intake in most animal models occurs in a free-feeding environment. While easy and cost-effective for the researcher, the free-feeding environment omits some of the most important features of obesity-related food consumption—namely, properties of food availability, such as effort and delay to obtaining food. Behavior economics expands behavioral measures of obesity animal models by identifying such behavioral mechanisms. First, economic demand analysis allows researchers to
Quantra™ should be considered a tool for two-grade scale mammographic breast density classification.

OBJECTIVE To assess the agreement between Quantra™ (Hologic Inc., Bedford, MA) and Breast Imaging Reporting and Data Systems (BI-RADS(®)) and the performance of Quantra at reproducing BI-RADS mammographic breast density (MBD) assessment. METHODS MBD assessment was performed using Quantra and BI-RADS. BI-RADS assessment was performed in two phases (1314 and 292 cases, respectively). Kappa was used to assess the interreader agreement and the agreement between Quantra and BI-RADS, and receiver-operating characteristics analysis was used to assess the performance of Quantra at reproducing BI-RADS rating. RESULTS Agreement (weighted kappa) between BI-RADS and Quantra in Phase 1 was 0.75 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.73-0.78] and 0.85 (95% CI: 0.80-0.90) on four- and two-grade scales, respectively. The corresponding agreement in Phase 2 was 0.79 (95% CI: 0.75-0.84) and 0.84 (95% CI: 0.79-0.87) using the majority report. In Phase 1, Quantra demonstrated 93.2% sensitivity and 86.1% specificity for BI-RADS on a two-grade scale (1-2 vs 3-4). In Phase 2, it demonstrated 91.3% sensitivity and 83.6% specificity on a two-grade scale. CONCLUSION Quantra is limited in reproducing BI-RADS rating on a four-grade scale; however, it highly reproduces BI-RADS assessment on a two-grade scale. ADVANCES IN KNOWLEDGE Quantra (v. 2.0) is a poor predictor of BI-RADS assessment on a four-grade scale, but well reproduces BI-RADS rating on a two-grade scale. Therefore, it should be considered a tool for two-grade scale MBD classification.