Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Semi-classical Universe Near Initial Singularity

The properties of the quantum universe on extremely small spacetime scales are studied in the semi-classical approach to the well-defined quantum model. It is shown that near the initial cosmological singularity point quantum gravity effects ~ h exhibit themselves in the form of additional matter source with the negative pressure and the equation of state as for ultrastiff matter. The analytical solution of the equations of theory of gravity, in which matter is represented by the radiation and additional matter source of quantum nature, is found. It is shown that in the stage of the evolution of the universe, when quantum corrections ~ h dominate over the radiation, the geometry of the universe is described by the metric which is conformal to a metric of a unit four-sphere in a five-dimensional Euclidean flat space. In the radiation dominated era the metric is found to be conformal to a unit hyperboloid embedded in a five-dimensional Lorentz-signatured flat space. The origin of the universe can be interpreted as a quantum transition of the system from the region in a phase space with a trajectory in imaginary time into the region, where the equations of motion have the solution in real time. Near the boundary between two regions the universe undergoes almost an exponential expansion which passes smoothly into the expansion under the action of radiation dominating over matter. As a result of such a quantum transition the geometry of the universe changes. This agrees with the hypothesis about the possible change of geometry after the nucleation of expanding universe from `nothing'.
Direct demonstration of persistent Na+ channel activity in dendritic processes of mammalian cortical neurones

1 Single Na+ channel activity was recorded in patch‐clamp, cell‐attached experiments performed on dendritic processes of acutely isolated principal neurones from rat entorhinal‐cortex layer II. The distances of the recording sites from the soma ranged from ≈20 to ≈100 μm. 2 Step depolarisations from holding potentials of −120 to −100 mV to test potentials of −60 to +10 mV elicited Na+ channel openings in all of the recorded patches (n= 16). 3 In 10 patches, besides transient Na+ channel openings clustered within the first few milliseconds of the depolarising pulses, prolonged and/or late Na+ channel openings were also regularly observed. This ‘persistent’ Na+ channel activity produced net inward, persistent currents in ensemble‐average traces, and remained stable over the entire duration of the experiments (≈9 to 30 min). 4 Two of these patches contained <= 3 channels. In these cases, persistent Na+ channel openings could be attributed to the activity of one single channel. 5 The voltage dependence of persistent‐current amplitude in ensemble‐average traces closely resembled that of whole‐cell, persistent Na+ current expressed by the same neurones, and displayed the same characteristic low threshold of activation. 6 Dendritic, persistent Na+ channel openings had relatively high single‐channel conductance (≈20 pS), similar to what is observed for somatic, persistent Na+ channels. 7 We conclude that a stable, persistent Na+ channel activity is expressed by proximal dendrites of entorhinal‐cortex layer II principal neurones, and can contribute a significant low‐threshold, persistent Na+ current to the dendritic processing of excitatory synaptic inputs.
Macrophage Overexpressing NGAL Ameliorated Kidney Fibrosis in the UUO Mice Model

Background/Aims: Alternatively activated macrophages (AAM) have regenerative and anti-inflammatory characteristics. Here, we sought to evaluate whether AAM cell therapy reduces renal inflammation and fibrosis in the unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO) mice model. Methods: We stabilized macrophages by adenoviral vector NGAL (Neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin-2) and infused them into UUO mice. To ascertain whether macrophages were capable of reaching the obstructed kidney, macrophages were stained and detected by in vivo cell tracking. Results: We demonstrated that some infused macrophages reached the obstructed kidney and that infusion of macrophages overexpressing NGAL was associated with reduced kidney interstitial fibrosis and inflammation. This therapeutic effect was mainly associated with the phenotype and function preservation of the transferred macrophages isolated from the obstructed kidney Conclusions: Macrophage plasticity is a major hurdle for achieving macrophage therapy success in chronic nephropathies and could be overcome by transferring lipocalin-2.
Exploring the Direction on the Environmental and Business Performance Relationship at the Firm Level. Lessons from a Literature Review

The interest of scientists and companies in understanding the business implications of environmental investment is timely; however, a dilemma remains at the firm level: is the environment a “strategic competitive factor”, as in the “Porter point of view”, or is it a “luxury good”, as in the “Wagner point of view”? Our research contributes to this debate through a review of the papers published in scientific journals between 2000 and 2015 that discussed the direction of the relationship between the environmental and business performances of enterprises. The objectives of the research are: (a) to verify if there is an agreement in the scientific literature of the last 15 years about the “Porter–Wagner dilemma” when focusing at the firm level; (b) to underline the prevalent cause and effect directions of the relationship between environmental and business performance; and (c) to investigate the reasons for any disagreements in this topic among the scientists. The results show that the main agreement regards the positive bi-directional relationship, as a virtuous cyclic approach with mutual effects between business and environmental performance; nevertheless, more complex hypotheses emerge, such as nonlinear and/or conditional relationship, that need to be further explored. On the other hand, the Porter–Wagner dilemma remains, and the main reason for the non-agreement among scientists can be due to the several non-homogeneous variables considered in the analyses. Thereafter, as lesson for scientists, the priority is to share univocal methods to measure firms’ environmental and business performances.
Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen–Targeted Radiohalogenated PET and Therapeutic Agents for Prostate Cancer

Radiohalogenated agents are often the first line of pursuit in the development of new radiopharmaceuticals—whether antibodies, peptides, or small molecules—because of their ease of synthesis, lack of substantial steric perturbation of the original affinity agent (in some cases, providing enhanced affinity), and capacity to be transformed into therapeutics (in some cases, with a mere switch of an isotope). They often provide proof of a principle before optimization for pharmacokinetics or generation of radiometallated agents, when the latter are necessary. In particular, 18F has been well integrated into normal clinical work flow in the form of 18F-FDG for oncologic imaging, with reliable daily production and distribution to sites for immediate use, without the need for on-site preparation. Here we discuss radiohalogenated versions of imaging and therapeutic agents targeting the prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA); these were among the first such agents to be synthesized and used clinically. PSMA is highly expressed on prostate cancer epithelial cells and is currently being extensively investigated around the world as a target for imaging and therapy of prostate cancer. Additionally, the presence of PSMA on nonprostate tumor neovasculature has opened the possibility of PSMA-targeted molecules as generalizable cancer imaging and therapy agents. We focus on 18F-labeled agents for PET, as they begin to redefine—along with the corresponding 68Ga-labeled agents discussed elsewhere in this supplement to The Journal of Nuclear Medicine—the management of prostate cancer across a variety of clinical contexts.
Portfolio Rebalancing and the Transmission of Large-Scale Asset Programmes: Evidence from the Euro Area

Large-scale asset programmes aim to impact the real economy through the financial system. The ECB has focused much of its policies on safe assets. An intended channel of transmission of this type of programme is the “portfolio rebalancing channel”, whereby investors are influenced to shift their investments away from such safe assets towards assets with higher expected returns, including lending to households and firms. We examine the portfolio rebalancing channel around the ECB’s asset purchase program (APP). We exploit cross-sectional heterogeneity in the impact of APP on the valuation of the financial portfolio held by different sectors of the European economy. Overall, our results provide evidence of an active portfolio rebalancing channel. In more vulnerable countries, where macroeconomic unbalances and relatively high risk premia remain, APP was mostly reflected into a rebalancing towards riskier securities. In less vulnerable countries, where constraints on loan demand and supply are less significant, the rebalancing was observed mostly in terms of bank loans. Examining large European banks, we confirm similar geographical differences. JEL Classification: E44, E51, G21
An estimate of the survival benefit of improving vitamin D status in the adult German population

Background: Inadequate vitamin D status is a worldwide problem. Evidence is accumulating that individuals with low vitamin D status have excess mortality rates. We calculated to which extent annual mortality rates can be reduced in the German population by optimizing vitamin D status. Methods: Our calculations are based on (i) an annual mortality rate of 1.34% in the adult German population as provided by the Statistical Yearbook, (ii) the actual vitamin D status in German adults with a high mortality risk as assessed in 1,343 individuals from 264 general practitioners in different German regions (DEVID study), and (iii) data from two very large prospective cohorts (Dobnig et al., 2008; Melamed et al, 2008) about the excess mortality in individuals with inadequate vitamin D status. Results: Mean serum concentrations of 25-hydroxyvitamin D in the DEVID study cohort were 41 nmol/l (SD: 22 nmol/l). More than 90% of individuals had 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations below the threshold that was associated with lowest mortality risk in the two aforementioned trials (75 nmol/l). According to conservative estimations, at least 2.2% of all deaths or 18,300 lives annually can be saved by achieving 25(OH)D concentrations of at least 75 nmol/l in the entire adult German population. Available data provide evidence for an exponential increase in total mortality with deficient 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations. Conclusion: Improving vitamin D status in a population with inadequate vitamin D status might be an effective strategy to reduce annual mortality rates.
Incidence of age-related cataract: the Beaver Dam Eye Study.

OBJECTIVE To estimate the incidence of nuclear, cortical, and posterior subcapsular cataract in the Beaver Dam Eye Study cohort. DESIGN A population-based study of the prevalence of age-related eye diseases was conducted between 1988 and 1990 (n=4926), and a follow-up study was conducted between 1993 and 1995 (n=3684). The evaluations included photographic documentation of the lens. Slitlamp photographs were taken to assess nuclear opacity, and retroillumination photographs were taken to assess cortical and posterior subcapsular cataract. The grading of photographs was done in a masked manner by trained graders using the same protocols for baseline and follow-up photographs. The graders were the same for both evaluations. PARTICIPANTS Persons aged 43 to 86 years who were identified through a private census conducted from 1987 to 1988 of the population of Beaver Dam, Wis, were invited for a baseline examination held between 1988-1990 and again for a follow-up examination held between 1993-1995. RESULTS Incident nuclear cataract occurred in 13.1%, cortical cataract in 8.0%, and posterior subcapsular cataract in 3.4% of right eyes. The cumulative incidence of nuclear cataract in right eyes increased from 2.9% in persons aged 43 to 54 years at baseline to 40.0% in those aged 75 years or older. For cortical and posterior subcapsular cataract, the corresponding values were 1.9% and 21.8% and 1.4% and 7.3%, respectively. Women were more likely than men to have nuclear cataract even after adjusting for age. CONCLUSIONS Incident cataracts are common age-related problems, and incidence increases with increasing age at baseline. These data will help in planning for future care (eg, cataract surgery and change in spectacle correction) and in investigating the importance of risk factors.
Epidemiology of cerebral palsy in England and Scotland, 1984–9

AIMS To report on the epidemiology of cerebral palsy in England and Scotland, to provide information on the prevalence of cerebral palsy and the severity of the disability or any co-morbidity. METHODS Cerebral palsy registers were compiled from multiple sources of ascertainment covering all of Scotland and the counties of Merseyside, Cheshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire in England. All cases of cerebral palsy born in 1984 to 1989, to mothers resident in the area, were included. Denominator number of live births and neonatal deaths for determining birthweight specific prevalence were obtained from birth and death registrations. Learning, manual, and ambulatory disabilities were graded for severity. Any co-existing sensory (hearing or visual) morbidity was also graded for severity. RESULTS There were 789 411 live births in 1984–9, with 3651 neonatal deaths (neonatal mortality 4.6 per 1000 live births) and 1649 cases of cerebral palsy—a cerebral palsy prevalence of 2.1 per 1000 neonatal survivors. The birthweight specific cerebral palsy prevalence ranged from 1.1 per 1000 neonatal survivors in infants weighing ⩾2500 g to 78.1 in infants weighing <1000 g. There was no significant time trend in prevalence of cerebral palsy in any of the birthweight groups, in contrast to the fall in neonatal mortality observed in all birthweight groups. Of the 1649 cases of cerebral palsy, 550 (33.4%) had severe ambulatory disability (no independent walking), 390 (23.7%) had severe manual disability (incapable of feeding or dressing unaided), 381 (23.1%) had severe learning disability (IQ <50), 146 (8.9%) had severe visual disability (vision <6/60 in the better eye) and 12 had severe hearing disability (>70 dB loss). CONCLUSIONS Registers fill an important gap left by the lack of routine data on the prevalence of disability in children. The ability to record trends in the prevalence and the severity of the disability should inform those who have responsibility for providing services for children with disabilities.
Do weight categories prevent athletes from relative age effect?

Abstract The aim of this study was to investigate whether weight categories prevent young athletes from being exposed to a relative age effect. The dates of birth of all French female (n = 727) and male (n = 5440) amateur boxers who participated in the 2010–2011 season were collected from the federation database. The dates of birth of all French male professional boxers (n = 354) were also collected. The results show an absence of a relative age effect among French female and male amateur boxers. The results also show an absence of this phenomenon among French male professional boxers. The male 18–18+ age category reveal an inverse relative age effect. This inverse relative age effect might be interpreted as the result of a strategic adaptation from relatively younger children who shift from one sport to another where there are weight categories in order to ensure fair competition. The results of this study suggest that the weight category system is a possible solution within the relative age effect phenomenon.
The Impact of CRM on Firm- andRelationship-Level Performance in Distributed Networks

This paper develops and empirically tests a model to evaluate a manufacturer’s strategy which provides customer relationship management (CRM) technology to its exclusive retailers. The impact of the strategy on manufacturer-retailer relationship quality is also examined. The research objectives are (1) to identify and test factors that promote active implementation of CRM technology among small retail organizations; (2) to determine whether our expanded concept of CRM implementation that integrates customer information management activities and relationship marketing activities explains CRM performance better; and (3) to investigate whether a manufacturer’s support contributes to manufacturer-retailer relationship quality. Statistical analysis shows that the model provides an adequate fit to the data. The retailer’s perception of the importance of customer information, manufacturer support, and trade area competitiveness significantly impacts the intensity of CRM implementation by small retailers. CRM implementation intensity positively influences the performance outcomes of CRM, which in turn greatly improves the quality of the manufacturer-retailer relationship. Different from our expectation, supporting retailers with CRM technology did not directly impact the manufacturerretailer relationship quality. The ease of use of the CRM system also did not influence CRM implementation intensity significantly. The implications of these results and their importance for successful CRM implementation are discussed.
Aging, bioavailability, and overestimation of risk from environmental pollutants

As they persist, or age, in soil, organic compounds become progressively less available for uptake by organisms, for exerting toxic effects, and for biodegradation and bioremediation by microorganisms. This declining bioavailability is not reflected by currently used methods for the chemical analysis of soils for determining concentrations of organic pollutants. As a result, such methods overestimate exposure, and thus risk, from toxic chemicals in contaminated sites.
Shifting to outpatient care? Mental health care use and cost under private insurance.

OBJECTIVE Concern over rising health care costs has put pressure on providers to reduce costs, purportedly by reducing inpatient care and increasing outpatient care. METHOD Inpatient and outpatient claims were analyzed for adult users of mental health services (180,000/year on average) from a national study group of 3.9 million privately insured individuals per year from 1993 to 1995. Costs and treatment days per patient were compared across diagnostic groups and stratified by whether patients were hospitalized. RESULTS Inpatient mental health costs fell $2,507 (30.4%) over the period, driven primarily by decreases in hospital days per patient per year (19.9%), with smaller changes in the proportion of enrollees who received inpatient care (increase of 0.8%) and a decrease in per diem costs (9.1%). Outpatient mental health costs also declined over the period, falling 13.6% for patients also using inpatient services and 14.6% for patients receiving only outpatient care. Patients whose primary diagnosis was mild to moderate depression saw the largest decreases in inpatient cost per patient (42.8%); those diagnosed with schizophrenia experienced the smallest decrease (23.5%). For patients using outpatient services only, those diagnosed with substance abuse experienced the largest decrease in costs (23.5%); those diagnosed with schizophrenia experienced the smallest decrease (8.6%). CONCLUSIONS Substantial cost reductions for mental health services are primarily a result of reductions in inpatient and outpatient treatment days. Declines in inpatient service use were not accompanied by increases in outpatient service use, even for severely ill patients requiring hospitalization. Managed care has not caused a shift in the pattern of care but an overall reduction of care.
The Life Cycle Model with Recursive Utility: Defined ben- efit vs defined contribution

We analyze optimal consumption and portfolio choice when the agent takes the market as given, with applications to pension insurance. First, we recall the results for the conventional additive and separable expected utility model. We demonstrate that this model is not viable in a temporal context. As a consequence, when confronted with real data this theory meets with several conflicting implications. Second, we consider recursive utility, which in contrast has an axiomatic underpinning in a temporal context. All the anomalies of the expected utility approach that we are aware of, disappear with recursive utility. This we find striking, as it calls for a shift in paradigm. The alternative theory explains why people prefer stable pension plans, like defined benefit, to a mere mutual fund, it removes anomalies in the conventional, optimal portfolio choice theory when confronted with market data, and it solves the celebrated equity premium puzzle. Since the recursive model fits market data much more convincingly than the conventional model, this leaves more credibility to the former representation, and more weight to recommendations based on it.
Delayed–Execute Prospective Memory Performance: The Effects of Age and Working Memory

This study follows the novel delayed-execute prospective memory paradigm, which involves briefly delaying the execution of an intended action, a task that has been shown to produce substantial age effects. During the ongoing task, sentences were presented, and participants had to answer reading-comprehension questions and general knowledge questions. In the prospective memory task, the participant was to press a key after the presentation of a specific cue in the sentences—but not before a subsequent phase of the ongoing task was reached. In contrast to previous studies using older participants taken from very broadly defined age ranges, this study examines development of delayed-execute prospective memory more precisely by examining a total of 4 age groups: a younger age group (age range = 22–31; n = 27), a young-old age group (age range = 60–69; n = 34), a middle-old age group (age range = 70–79; n = 31), and an old-old age group (age range = 80–91; n = 35). This study investigates the dependence of (age-related) delayed-execute prospective memory performance on working memory capacity by disrupting the phonological loop during the delay period as well as its dependence on neuropsychological processes such as inhibitory control and processing speed. The results show that (a) delayed-execute prospective memory particularly declines within the group of older participants, (b) delayed-execute prospective memory is diminished when working memory load is high during the delay period, and (c) age-related performance in delayed-execute prospective memory may be mediated by inhibitory control. The findings are discussed in the context of the frontal lobe hypothesis of cognitive aging.
Ethnic Differences in the Incidence of Seizure Disorders in Children from Bradford, United Kingdom

Summary: We sought to determine if there are differences in the incidence of seizure disorders between the children of the indigenous and immigrant (predominantly Pakistani) populations of Bradford, United Kingdom. Annual incidence rates per 100,000 for new onset seizures were calculated along with Townsend deprivation scores. The incidence of seizures (including febrile and single) was 153 (95%CI 104–139). The rate was significantly higher in south Asians (SA) (220; 184–255) compared to non–south Asians (non‐SA) (121; 104–139), mainly because of febrile seizures whose incidence was 87 (136–169) overall and 142 (114–170) and 61 (49–74) in SA and non‐SA, respectively. There were no significant differences in the rates of nonfebrile seizures (non‐FebSz) overall and of idiopathic non‐FebSz between racial groups but the rate for symptomatic/cryptogenic non‐FebSz was significantly higher in SA (22; 10–34) compared to non‐SA (6; 2–10). The occurrence of seizure disorders correlated with social deprivation.