Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Screening Patients with Stroke for Rehabilitation Needs: Validation of the Post-Stroke Rehabilitation Guidelines

Background. The authors assessed patients with acute stroke to determine whether the systematic use of brief screening measures would more efficiently detect cognitive and sensory impairment than standard clinical practice. Methods. Fifty-three patients admitted to an acute stroke unit were assessed within 10 days of stroke onset. Performance on the screening measures was compared to information obtained from review of the patient’s chart at discharge. Cognition, language, visual acuity, visual-spatial neglect, hearing, and depression were evaluated. Results. Formal screening detected significantly more impairments than were noted in patient charts in every domain. Only 3 patients had no impairments identified on screening; all remaining patients had at least 1 impairment detected by screening that was not documented in the chart. Thirty-five percent had 3 or more undetected impairments. Memory impairment was most likely to be noted in the chart; for all other domains tested, undocumented impairment ranged from 61% (neglect) to 97% (anomia). Conclusion. Many acute stroke patients had cognitive and perceptual deficits that were not documented in their charts. These data support the Post-Stroke Rehabilitation Guidelines for systematic assessment even when deficits are not immediately apparent. Systematic screening may improve discharge planning, rehabilitation treatment, and long-term outcome of persons with stroke.
NADPH Oxidase-dependent Generation of Lysophosphatidylserine Enhances Clearance of Activated and Dying Neutrophils via G2A*

Exofacial phosphatidylserine (PS) is an important ligand mediating apoptotic cell clearance by phagocytes. Oxidation of PS fatty acyl groups (oxPS) during apoptosis reportedly mediates recognition through scavenger receptors. Given the oxidative capacity of the neutrophil NADPH oxidase, we sought to identify oxPS signaling species in stimulated neutrophils. Using mass spectrometry analysis, only trace amounts of previously characterized oxPS species were found. Conversely, 18:1 and 18:0 lysophosphatidylserine (lyso-PS), known bioactive signaling phospholipids, were identified as abundant modified PS species following activation of the neutrophil oxidase. NADPH oxidase inhibitors blocked the production of lyso-PS in vitro, and accordingly, its generation in vivo by activated, murine neutrophils during zymosan-induced peritonitis was absent in mice lacking a functional NADPH oxidase (gp91phox-/-). Treatment of macrophages with lyso-PS enhanced the uptake of apoptotic cells in vitro, an effect that was dependent on signaling via the macrophage G2A receptor. Similarly, endogenously produced lyso-PS also enhanced the G2A-mediated uptake of activated PS-exposing (but non-apoptotic) neutrophils, raising the possibility of non-apoptotic mechanisms for removal of inflammatory cells during resolution. Finally, antibody blockade of G2A signaling in vivo prolonged zymosan-induced neutrophilia in wild-type mice, whereas having no effect in gp91phox-/- mice where lyso-PS are not generated. Taken together, we show that lyso-PS are modified PS species generated following activation of the NADPH oxidase and lyso-PS signaling through the macrophage G2A functions to enhance existing receptor/ligand systems for optimal resolution of neutrophilic inflammation.
Disentangling the Effects of the School Year from the School Day: Evidence from the TIMSS Assessments

Schools often have to decide between extending the length of the school year or the school day. This paper examines the effects of changes in the distribution of instructional time on eighth-grade student achievement through a methodological framework that disaggregates total yearly instructional time into separate inputs for days per year and hours per day. This study's dataset brings together nearly 900,000 student observations across eighty countries and four quadrennial testing cycles of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) Assessments (1995–2007). I find that the positive effects of instructional time on student achievement are driven largely by the length of the school day and not by the length of the school year, with diminishing marginal returns to the former. Socioeconomically underprivileged students are most likely to realize gains from a longer school day. Furthermore, isolating the amount of instructional time spent on TIMSS-tested subjects from the rest of the school day reveals spillover effects from time spent in non-tested subjects that are especially meaningful for underprivileged students. In contrast, the effects of time spent in tested subjects are more homogeneous across student groups.
Foreign aid, human capital and economic growth nexus: Evidence from Nigeria

This study investigates the link between aid and human capital in promoting economic growth of Nigeria. The study used two models; the first model was used to test the validity of the medicine model in Nigeria; while the extended model was used to investigate the effect of aid and human capital shocks on growth using Engle-Granger and Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) estimation techniques respectively. The findings from the first model suggest that persistent increase in foreign aid flows beyond a particular point (the optimal point) may adversely affect growth thus confirming the proposition of the Medicine Model. Evidence from the study’s extended model indicates that growth in Nigeria is sensitive to human capital shock via education while the response from aid shock is trivial in the long run. The mechanism through which aid impacts economies is influenced by many heterogeneous factors, notably; the role played by the recipient governments is often not considered. Our implication from the obtained results is that government expenditures on education with additional inflows of aid can promote economic growth in Nigeria. However, there is also an indication that attainment of economic growth might be challenging for this aid-dependent country.
FARMERS’ SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE PERCEPTION IN TURKEY: THE CASE OF MERSIN PROVINCE

The main purpose of this study was to measure farmers’ sustainable agriculture perception and its determinants in Turkey based on a case study in Mersin Province. The data were collected from randomly selected 239 farmers in June 2017. The data set were gathered by using a structured questionnaire with Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.946. According to the result, farmers had favorable perception in issues related to sustainable agricultural practices such as protection of agricultural resources, negative effects of agrochemicals on human health and the environment, input application, crop rotation, minimum tillage etc. In addition, the study revealed that agricultural programs on TV and radio, credit use and cooperative partnership were factors that affected farmers’ sustainable agriculture perceptions. The study investigated farmers’ sustainable agriculture perception, not predict whether farmers will adopt sustainable agriculture practices or whether they did them. Hence, it is necessary that further research should be conducted to find out whether farmers are likely to do so or whether really they did them.
The Effect of Age on Listening Effort.

PURPOSE The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of age on listening effort. METHOD A dual-task paradigm was used to evaluate listening effort in different conditions of background noise. Sixty adults ranging in age from 20 to 77 years were included. A primary speech-recognition task and a secondary memory task were performed both separately and simultaneously. Multiple regression analyses were used to evaluate how age and hearing thresholds affect speech recognition and listening effort scores. RESULTS Results of the multiple regression analyses showed that age is a significant determinant of listening effort, whereby listening effort increases with increasing age even when age-related variance in speech recognition is partialled out. On the basis of the regression equations and the median score for listening effort, it was found that listening effort started to increase in the fourth decade of life. CONCLUSIONS This study was a first exploration of listening effort from young to older adults and showed that, independent of hearing sensitivity, listening effort increases with age. To be more specific, there is a need to further investigate the cognitive functions important for speech communication while exploring their possible relationship with listening effort.
Towards Profit Maximization for Online Social Network Providers

Online Social Networks (OSNs) attract billions of users to share information and communicate where viral marketing has emerged as a new way to promote the sales of products. An OSN provider is often hired by an advertiser to conduct viral marketing campaigns. The OSN provider generates revenue from the commission paid by the advertiser which is determined by the spread of its product information. Meanwhile, to propagate influence, the activities performed by users such as viewing video ads normally induce diffusion cost to the OSN provider. In this paper, we aim to find a seed set to optimize a new profit metric that combines the benefit of influence spread with the cost of influence propagation for the OSN provider. Under many diffusion models, our profit metric is the difference between two submodular functions which is challenging to optimize as it is neither submodular nor monotone. We design a general two-phase framework to select seeds for profit maximization and develop several bounds to measure the quality of the seed set constructed. Experimental results with real OSN datasets show that our approach can achieve high approximation guarantees and significantly outperform the baseline algorithms, including state-of-the-art influence maximization algorithms.
Isometric force production in high Gz: mechanical effects, proprioception, and central motor commands.

BACKGROUND We have shown in the past that human subjects produce exaggerated isometric responses when exposed to high +Gz. The present study investigated the role played by different factors in this phenomenon. METHODS There were 12 healthy non-pilot volunteers who were seated in the gondola of a centrifuge and were exposed to a +1, +1.5, and +3 Gz environment. During each exposure, they produced forces of prescribed magnitudes and directions in their frontal plane using an isometric joystick. From the registered data, we determined initial (100 ms after onset), peak, and end (70 ms before trial end) force. RESULTS For a given target magnitude, initial, peak, and end force were each smallest in 1 G, higher in 1.5 G, and higher still in 3 G. This G-related exaggeration was most pronounced for initial, and less for peak and end force. We further found that responses in high G were biased downwards for end force, but not for initial and peak force. CONCLUSIONS The G-related excesses of produced force are probably due to less appropriate central commands, since it manifests before proprioception becomes effective. The amelioration of this deficit for peak and end force is probably achieved by partial corrections based on proprioceptive feedback, or by direct mechanical effects. Our findings are relevant for the safe operation of high-performance aircraft during high-G maneuvers.
Action Not Words: Obama’s Opportunity to Transform U.S.-Muslim Relations

Newly inaugurated President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Barack Obama made his diplomatic debut promoting conflict transformation between the United States and the international Muslim community following eight years of U.S. militarized intervention in the Middle East. Since Obama demonstrated an acute knowledge of its necessity and the mechanisms for transforming the quality of relations, we evaluate whether his actions were consistent with his message. This article first maps the conflict relationship by examining public opinion to identify the roots of the bilateral conflict relationship. It then identifies mechanisms and policies implemented by Barack Obama to determine when and if they aligned with his conciliatory rhetoric. We determine that Obama’s legacy among the international Muslim community will be one of opportunity lost, as his administration ultimately failed to operationalize and institutionalize the promised program likely due to domestic and regional influences.
Antitumor Activity of Novel Indirubin Derivatives in Rat Tumor Model

Purpose: The novel indirubin derivatives 5′-nitro-indirubinoxime, 5′-fluoro-indirubinoxime, and 5′-trimethylacetamino-indirubinoxime were designed and tested for antitumor activity both in vitro and in vivo using rat tumor model. Experimental Design: Three-week-old male Sprague-Dawley rats were inoculated s.c. on the left flank with 107 RK3E-ras rat kidney epithelial cells harboring k-ras gene. Alternatively, 5 × 106 RK3E-ras cells were injected into the oral mucosa. Indirubin derivative treatment began on the 3rd or 6th day after oral or s.c. cell injection, respectively. Indirubin derivatives were directly injected into the tumor every other day for a total of five times. Animals were monitored daily and tumor volume was measured by caliper. Results: Indirubin derivatives showed potent antiproliferative activity on various human cancer cells and oncogenic RK3E-ras rat kidney cells, with IC50 ranging from 1 to 12 μmol/L. Treatment with indirubin derivatives induced the activation of caspase-7 followed by apoptosis in RK3E-ras cells. Indirubin derivatives showed strong antitumor activity in rat solid and oral tumor models. Direct injection of indirubin derivatives every other day for 10 days induced significant inhibition of tumor growth in Sprague-Dawley rats bearing RK3E-ras-induced tumors. Histologically, treatment with indirubin derivatives caused significant inhibition of tumor formation with increased apoptosis and decreased tumor cell proliferation. Conclusions: Our data showed that novel indirubin derivatives 5′-nitro-indirubinoxime, 5′-fluoro-indirubinoxime, and 5′-trimethylacetamino-indirubinoxime effectively arrested the tumor growth by inhibiting cell proliferation and inducing apoptosis. These findings provide the potential value of indirubin derivatives as novel candidates for antitumor agents.
Interaction with Type IV Pili Induces Structural Changes in the Bacterial Outer Membrane Secretin PilQ*

Type IV pili are cell surface organelles found on many Gram-negative bacteria. They mediate a variety of functions, including adhesion, twitching motility, and competence for DNA uptake. The type IV pilus is a helical polymer of pilin protein subunits and is capable of rapid polymerization or depolymerization, generating large motor forces in the process. Here we show that a specific interaction between the outer membrane secretin PilQ and the type IV pilus fiber can be detected by far-Western analysis and sucrose density gradient centrifugation. Transmission electron microscopy of preparations of purified pili, to which the purified PilQ oligomer had been added, showed that PilQ was uniquely located at one end of the pilus fiber, effectively forming a “mallet-type” structure. Determination of the three-dimensional structure of the PilQ-type IV pilus complex at 26-Å resolution showed that the cavity within the protein complex was filled. Comparison with a previously determined structure of PilQ at 12-Å resolution indicated that binding of the pilus fiber induced a dissociation of the “cap” feature and lateral movement of the “arms” of the PilQ oligomer. The results demonstrate that the PilQ structure exhibits a dynamic response to the binding of its transported substrate and suggest that the secretin could play an active role in type IV pilus assembly as well as secretion.
Secular trends in cranial morphological traits: a socioeconomic perspective of change and sexual dimorphism in North Americans 1849–1960

Abstract Background: The human body has undergone significant changes in stature and other areas, which reflect secular trends associated with socioeconomics. Aim: To analyse cranial morphological traits for deciphering if they are subject to secular trends. Subjects and methods: Two documented skeletal collections were sampled for a total of 525 individuals from 1849–1960. Cranial morphological traits were scored and input into time series statistics (logistic regression). Results: In females, nuchal crests have enlarged, while glabella has decreased. In males, supraorbital margins have dulled, while glabella decreased. Sexual dimorphism increased in supraorbital margins. Conclusion: The patterns in the data here reflect those found in other areas of the skeleton, namely height, as regards to secular trends. These findings can be extended to stature and cranial changes that parallel socioeconomic trends during the Industrial Revolution, antebellum period and after.
Legal Creativity in EU External Relations: The Stabilization and Association Agreement Between the EU and Kosovo

This article puts the specific features of the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) between the EU and Kosovo in perspective. In particular, it analyses how the unsolved issue of Kosovo ’ s recognition affects the scope and content of the agreement. For this purpose, the SAA with Kosovo is compared to the SAA with Serbia. Despite the at first sight comparable structure of both agreements, the absence of mixity in the SAA with Kosovo as well as the reservations regarding its international legal status lead to a number of noticeable differences, in particular as far as the rules regarding entry and residence of Kosovo nationals are concerned.
Administration of GnRH at estrus influences pregnancy rates, serum concentrations of LH, FSH, estradiol-17 beta, pregnancy-specific protein B, and progesterone, proportion of luteal cell types, and in vitro production of progesterone in dairy cows.

Four experiments were conducted to examine effects of GnRH administered at estrus on various reproductive characteristics in repeat-breeding dairy cows (eligible for third service). In Exp. 1, cows (n = 8 per group) received (i.m.) either saline or 50, 100, or 250 micrograms of GnRH at 12 h after onset of estrus. There was a positive linear (P < .05) effect of dose on concentrations of LH, but not of FSH, in serum at 2 h after the injection. Concentrations of progesterone (P4) were higher (P = .10) through 16 d after estrus in nonpregnant cows that returned to estrus 18 to 24 d after GnRH treatment than in nonpregnant cows given saline. Likewise, among cows with elevated concentrations of P4 through 30 d after estrus (diagnosed pregnant by increased concentrations of pregnancy-specific protein B; PSPB), P4 was higher (P = .10) in those given GnRH than in those given saline. In Exp. 2, concentrations of LH, FSH, and estradiol-17 beta (E2) were similar among 12 cows during the periestrual period before they received (i.m.) 100 micrograms of GnRH or saline at estrus. Concentrations of P4 after estrus were increased 2 d earlier (P < .05) in GnRH- than in saline-treated cows. Among cows with elevated concentrations of P4 and PSPB through 40 d after AI, P4 was higher (P < .05) in those given GnRH than in those given saline. In Exp. 1 and 2, a greater proportion (43 vs 14%; P = .07) of cows given GnRH was pregnant 42 to 56 d after estrus than of those given saline, but calving rate was similar (27 vs 14%). In Exp. 3, average number of LH pulses per 8 h was similar between saline- and GnRH-treated cows on d 1, 3, and 8, but overall concentrations of LH were reduced (P < .05) in GnRH-treated cows. Concentrations and number of pulses of FSH were increased (P < .05) on d 8 after treatment with GnRH. Concentrations of P4 were increased earlier (P < .05) after estrus in GnRH-treated (69 +/- 12 h) than in saline-treated cows (126 +/- 12 h), with higher (P < .05) concentrations of P4 on d 4 to 8. In Exp. 4, eight cows received either 100 micrograms of GnRH or saline at 12 h after onset of estrus (d 0) in a cross-over design. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Seroprevalence of rubella infection after national immunization program in Taiwan: Vaccination status and immigration impact

Rubella vaccination was implemented nationwide in 1992 in Taiwan. A cross‐sectional survey was conducted to determine the age‐specific seroprevalence of anti‐rubella in female students aged 7–22 years old and women of reproductive age in Taipei County. Seropositivity of anti‐rubella antibodies was defined as a serum IgG level ≥10 IU/ml tested by enzyme immunoassay. Information on possible predictors of anti‐rubella seronegativity was obtained from structured questionnaire interview. Multivariate‐adjusted odds ratios (ORm) with their 95% confidence interval (CI) were derived for each predictor using multiple logistic regression analysis. A total of 826 female students and 318 women were recruited. Anti‐rubella seropositive rates were 98.3% (282/287), 99.6% (234/235), 96.8% (179/185), 92.4% (110/119), 81.4% (197/242), and 89.5% (68/76) for the age groups of 7–9, 11–13, 15–17, 19–22, 25–33, and 34–44 years old, respectively. Among female students, negative serology for rubella antibodies was associated significantly with the age group and foreign nationality of mother, showing ORm (95% CI) of 1.2 (1.06–1.27) for each year increase in age, and 20.9 (6.31–68.97), respectively. Among women at the reproductive age, low maternal education level 91.6 (9.12–920.74), unmarried status 21.2 (6.16–72.89), and no rubella vaccination 98.9 (11.64–840.25) were associated significantly with an increased evidence of seronegativity to rubella. The National Rubella Vaccination Program has led to herd immunity of school girls. However, in order to eradicate the Rubella syndrome, greater effort is required to vaccinate foreign brides in Taiwan. J. Med. Virol. 79:97–103, 2007. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Pannexin- and Connexin-Mediated Intercellular Communication in Platelet Function

The three major blood cell types, i.e., platelets, erythrocytes and leukocytes, are all produced in the bone marrow. While red blood cells are the most numerous and white cells are the largest, platelets are small fragments and account for a minor part of blood volume. However, platelets display a crucial function by preventing bleeding. Upon vessel wall injury, platelets adhere to exposed extracellular matrix, become activated, and form a platelet plug preventing hemorrhagic events. However, when platelet activation is exacerbated, as in rupture of an atherosclerotic plaque, the same mechanism may lead to acute thrombosis causing major ischemic events such as myocardial infarction or stroke. In the past few years, major progress has been made in understanding of platelet function modulation. In this respect, membrane channels formed by connexins and/or pannexins are of particular interest. While it is still not completely understood whether connexins function as hemichannels or gap junction channels to inhibit platelet aggregation, there is clear-cut evidence for a specific implication of pannexin1 channels in collagen-induced aggregation. The focus of this review is to summarize current knowledge of the role of connexins and pannexins in platelet aggregation and to discuss possible pharmacological approaches along with their limitations and future perspectives for new potential therapies.