Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Skills, Not Just Diplomas: Managing Education for Results in Eastern Europe and Central Asia

The countries of Europe and Central Asia (ECA) are currently emerging from the deepest recession suffered by any developing region. Post-crisis conditions are very different from those of preceding years. Financial resources are more limited and more expensive, and export growth is restrained by potentially slower growth in destination countries. Restoring and sustaining growth in this context require reforms that boost competitiveness and increase labor productivity. Such reforms are all the more important given the shrinking of the working-age population in many countries of the region. This book uses a range of different data sources to argue that the skills problem in the ECA region relates more to the quality and relevance of the education provided in ECA countries than to problems of access. A central argument of the book is that ministries of education are constrained in a number of ways from effectively managing their education and training sectors. The three most important and interrelated impediments to improving quality and relevance are the lack of systematic data on key skills-related performance issues (i.e., how much students are learning and whether they are finding jobs after they graduate), the legacy of central planning, and inefficient use of resources. Lack of data on student learning and employment outcomes makes it difficult for education ministries to address the legacy of central planning, which emphasizes centralized management based on inputs. Ministries of education in the region continue to micromanage the sector using detailed norms and regulations. This input-oriented style of management leads to the inefficient use of resources and results in a rigid education sector not the type of flexible sector needed by ECA to create modern, skilled workforces. This book highlights how these constraints manifest themselves and then presents ways of overcoming them, relying on the experience of ECA countries that have successfully addressed them, together with international experience. Recommendations are presented in separate chapters for pre-university, tertiary, and adult education.
Quantitative Analysis of Total Flavonoids and Total Phenolic Acids in Thirty Hypericum Taxa

The content of total flavonoids and total phenolic acids in the aerial parts of thirty Hypericum taxa collected over two consecutive seasons was investigated by spectrophotometric methods. All taxa examined contained flavonoids and phenolic acids in different quantities, although the differences between species and year's harvest were not found to be significant. The quantity of total flavonoids ranged from 0.1 to 1.6%. The highest content of flavonoids was found in the samples of H. japonicum (1.6%) and H. perforatum (1.5%), while the samples of H. androsaemum and H. balearicum comprised the lowest flavonoid amount (0.13%). The content of total phenolic acids in the investigated samples was found to be between 1.1–10.4%. The samples of H. perforatum were found to contain the highest quantity of phenolic acids (10.4% and 10.2%), whereas the sample of H. linarifolium showed the lowest amount of phenolic acids (1.1%).
Cerebral Vasomotor Changes in the Transient Syndrome of Headache With Neurologic Deficits and CSF Lymphocytosis (HaNDL)

We report two patients with the recently described transient syndrome of headache with neurologic deficits and CSF lymphocytosis (HaNDL). Transcranial Doppler sonography performed during and after attacks of HaNDL showed asymmetrical decreases or increases in blood flow velocity of the middle cerebral artery, accompanied by increases or decreases in pulsatility suggesting fluctuations of arteriolar tone. The findings demonstrate focal vasomotor disturbances that link the transient headaches and deficits of HaNDL with attacks of migraine.
The Relationship Between Oral Lichen Planus and Blood Group Antigens

The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between oral lichen planus and ABO blood group and Rh system in patients referred to Shiraz dental school. This study was a cross sectional-descriptive study. 50 patients with oral lichen planus that knew their type of blood groups and Rh system participated in this study. The disease was diagnosed by clinical trial in Reticulo-Popular form and both clinical and histopathology exam in erythematose and atrophic forms to diagnose the lesions. Finally, the type of oral lichen planus, type of blood groups and the type of Rh system were recorded for each subject. Results revealed that there is no statistically significant relationship between ABO blood groups and oral lichen planus disease, also no significant relationship is seen between Rh system and this disease. In conclusions, according to the results, ABO blood groups and Rh system are not risk factor for oral lichen planus.
A census study of mental illness in Samsø

Synopsis Census data from the Danish island of Samsø have provided information on all but 20% of the population. Fifty per cent of the population with past or present mental illness had been referred to the psychiatric service during the 18-year-period 1957–74; the proportion varied from 85 % for patients with psychoses (100 % for schizophrenic patients, and 90% for manic-depressive patients) to 43 % with non-psychotic disorders. The frequency of past and present mental illness was 24 %, higher for women with manic-depressive disorders, psychogenic (reactive) psychoses, and neuroses. The possible reasons for these and other findings are discussed.
A weighted random forests approach to improve predictive performance

Identifying genetic variants associated with complex disease in high‐dimensional data is a challenging problem, and complicated etiologies such as gene–gene interactions are often ignored in analyses. The data‐mining method random forests (RF) can handle high dimensions; however, in high‐dimensional data, RF is not an effective filter for identifying risk factors associated with the disease trait via complex genetic models such as gene–gene interactions without strong marginal components. In this article we propose an extension called weighted random forests (wRF), which incorporates tree‐level weights to emphasize more accurate trees in prediction and calculation of variable importance. We demonstrate through simulation and application to data from a genetic study of addiction that wRF can outperform RF in high‐dimensional data, although the improvements are modest and limited to situations with effect sizes that are larger than what is realistic in genetics of complex disease. Thus, the current implementation of wRF is unlikely to improve detection of relevant predictors in high‐dimensional genetic data, but may be applicable in other situations where larger effect sizes are anticipated. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Statistical Analysis and Data Mining, 2013
Low-Dose Imipramine for Treatment of Panic Disorder During Pregnancy: A Retrospective Chart Review

Abstract Although imipramine is one of the antidepressants that could be effective in the treatment of panic disorder, data on its usage for this diagnosis in the pregnancy period are limited. This report presents the results of 16 pregnant women with panic disorder without comorbid diagnosis who underwent low-dose imipramine (10–40 mg/d) treatment. According to the Clinical Global Impression-Improvement Scale, 12 (75%) of 16 women responded to the treatment. The results suggest that low-dose imipramine may be useful for the treatment of panic disorder during pregnancy.
The Influence of Corporate Governance in Chinese Companies on Discretionary Accruals and Real Earnings Management

This study investigates the influence of ownership structure and board characteristics on discretionary accruals and real earnings management using the data of A-shares in Chinese Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchange Securities Market from 2002 to 2012. The empirical results show that institutions with high shareholding proportion or great shareholding concentration give managers incentives to manipulate discretionary accruals for short-term profitability. The more substantial insider holdings can effectively regulate managers and forbid them to manipulate real earnings and to cause the detriment of firm value. Regarding the board structure, establishing independent directors is ineffective in monitoring the earnings management behavior of the managers. With the duality of the board chairman and CEO, the company would manipulate discretionary accruals to meet its goal because of entrenchment effect. The larger the board size, the more ability for the board to monitor whether the managers conduct earnings management behavior or not.
Gymnema sylvestre: An Alternative Therapeutic Agent for Management of Diabetes.

Gymnema sylvestre (Asclepiadaceae) also known as ‘gurmar’ or ‘sugar destroyer’ is a woody, climbing traditional medicinal herb which has many therapeutic applications in Ayurvedic system of medicine. It is used for lowering serum cholesterol, triglycerides and blood glucose level (hypoglycemic or antihyperglycemic), hypolipidaemic, weight loss, stomach ailments, constipation, water retention and liver diseases, either high or low blood pressure, tachycardia or arrhythmias, and used as aperitive, purgative, in eye troubles, antiinflammatory, smooth muscle relaxant, prevention of dental caries, cataract and as anticancer-cytotoxic agent. Its flowers, leaves, and fruits contains alkaloids, flavones, saponins, sapogenins, anthraquinones, hentri-acontane, pentatriacontane, α and β-chlorophylls, phytin, resins, d-quercitol, tartaric acid, formic acid, butyric acid, lupeol, β-amyrin related glycosides and stigmasterol having main principle bioactive compunds viz. gymnemic acids, gymnemasides, gymnemagenin, gurmarin, gymnemosides, gymnemanol, gymnemasins, gypenoside, and conduritol which act as therapeutic agent and play vital role in many therapeutic applications. Gymnemic acids are thought to be responsible for its antidiabetic activity and it is the major component of an extract shown to stimulate insulin release from the pancreas. Another anti-sweet agent gumarin is utilized as a pharmacological tool in the study of sweet-taste transduction. The commercial exploitation of this plant and their secondary metabolites are some of the major prospective of this rare medicinal herb. The focus of the present review is to achieve the potential of therapeutic value of this herb and mechanism and action of their secondary metabolites.
ON THE MODULI SPACE OF CALABI-YAU MANIFOLDS

Let X be a simply connected compact Kähler manifold with zero first Chern class, and let L be an ample line bundle over X. The pair (X,L) is called a polarized Calabi-Yau manifold. By a theorem of Mumford, the moduli space of the pair (X,L) (CY moduli) exists and is a complex variety. Locally, up to a finite cover, the moduli space is smooth (see [20, 21]). There is a natural Kähler metric, called the Weil-Petersson metric, on M. In this paper, we summarize and discuss the differential geometry of the couple (M, ωWP ), where ωWP is the Kähler form of the Weil-Petersson metric.
TENSOR PRODUCTS OF OPERATOR SYSTEMS VIA FACTORIZATION

In this dissertation, we start by studying the operator system maximal tensor product, called max, in [17] from different perspectives. One approach is by the factorization technique used in Banach spaces [11] and operator spaces [5, 31]. Although in [14] it was used in establishing the operator system version of complete positive approximation property, it was not fully utilized in terms of tensor products. From this point of view, we are able to characterize max via approximate completely positive factorization through the matrix algebras. Motivated by the significant role of self-duality in factorization, we progress to operator systems that are self-dual as matrix-ordered spaces, or in finite-dimensional case, as operator systems. We construct the self-dual operator Hilbert system SOH based on Pisier’s operator Hilbert space OH [29] and prove analogous structural results of SOH. This leads us to create a tensor product of finite-dimensional operator systems via factorization through SOH, denoted by γsoh. We prove various tensorial and nuclearity properties of γsoh, which distinguish γsoh from other known tensor products found in [8, 17, 18]. Then we extend such construction to the infinite-dimensional case and conclude that γsoh indeed defines a new tensor product of operator systems. The construction of SOH also motivates us to visit the Paulsen system SV of an operator space V (see [26]). We examine some structural questions about SV including the states, matrix-ordered dual, and operator system quotient. We characterize the states on SV , hence lead to proving that the matrix-ordered dual of SV is again an operator system regardless of the operator space V . Finally, we end this dissertation with an exposition to an interesting quotient of SV .
Is There a Relationship between Acoustic Vowel Space Size and Fundamental Frequency?

Differences in vowel formants in bass and tenor singers, as well as the perception of vowels synthesised at different fundamental frequencies predict that in a group of male or female speakers exhibiting a sufficiently wide range of average fundamental frequencies, there will be a positive correlation between the speakers’ average f0 and the dimensions of their acoustic vowel spaces. This hypothesis is tested using a group of 61 female German speakers producing the corner vowels in same-vowel sequences designed to elicit maximally peripheral vowels with intervocalic junctural glottalisation, in turn facilitating formant estimation. Significant weak positive correlations are found between different measures of average speaker f0 and acoustic vowel space dimensions suggesting that there is a relationship between speaker f0 and acoustic vowel space size. However, the linear component of the relationship accounts for only 10 % of the variance suggesting a number of other factors are at work.
Functional, Persistent, and Extended Liver to Pancreas Transdifferentiation*

Pancreatic and duodenal homeobox gene-1 (PDX-1) regulates pancreas development during embryogenesis, whereas in the adult it controls β-cell function. Here we analyze whether PDX-1 functions as a pancreatic differentiation factor and a bona fide master regulator when ectopically expressed in mature fully differentiated liver in vivo. By ectopic and transient PDX-1 expression in liver in vivo, using the first generation recombinant adenoviruses, we demonstrate that PDX-1 induces in liver a wide repertoire of both exocrine and endocrine pancreatic gene expression. Moreover, PDX-1 induces its own expression (auto-induction), which in turn may explain the long lasting nature of the “liver to pancreas” transdifferentiation. Insulin as well glucagon-producing cells are mainly located in the proximity of hepatic central veins, possibly allowing direct hormone release into the bloodstream, without affecting normal hepatic function. Importantly, we demonstrate that hepatic insulin production triggered by Ad-CMV-PDX-1 recombinant adenovirus administration is functional and prevents streptozotocin-induced hyperglycemia in Balb/c mice even 8 months after the initial treatment. We conclude that PDX-1 plays an important instructive role in pancreas differentiation, not only from primitive gut endoderm but also from mature liver. Transconversion of liver to pancreas may serve as a novel approach for generating endocrine-pancreatic tissue that can replace malfunctioning β-cells in diabetics.
P300 in response to the subject's own face

The P300 event‐related potentials in response to self‐relevant stimuli has been reported to be different from those to non‐target stimuli under a passive attention condition. In the present study the P300 in response to the subject's own face was examined. Twelve right‐handed volunteers served as subjects. In two separate conditions, deviant (subject's own face and red square; 30%), non‐target (two unfamiliar faces; 30% each), and target (famous face; 10%) stimuli were randomly presented on a computer screen. P300 amplitudes in response to the red square were larger than those to the unfamiliar faces, but were significantly lower than those to the subject's own face. The subject's own face in normal population may have an intense relevance to the subjects which has an additional effect over the simple orienting response.
Serum granulysin is a marker for Th1 type immunity in pre‐eclampsia

Recent studies suggest that pre‐eclampsia is associated with a Th1 predominant state and may be considered a failure of tolerance. Granulysin is a cytotoxic granule protein of natural killer (NK) cells and cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs). Recently, we developed an enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) system for detecting serum granulysin, and reported that serum granulysin is a useful marker to evaluate the cell‐mediated immunity. In this study, we show that the serum levels of granulysin were significantly elevated in pre‐eclamptic patients compared with those in normal pregnancy subjects. In addition, the serum granulysin levels in pre‐eclamptic patients were well associated with mean blood pressure, percentage of peripheral blood Th1 cells and Th1/Th2 ratios. The present results suggest that the serum granulysin levels would be a useful and novel serum marker to evaluate the Th1/Th2 balance, especially Th1 type immunity in pre‐eclampsia.
Technical prerequisites for in vivo microdialysis determination of interleukin‐6 in human dermis

Summary Background Cutaneous microdialysis in vivo in human skin is demonstrably of use in the study of skin metabolism, percutaneous absorption and skin inflammation. A promising area for cutaneous microdialysis is the measurement of cytokines. This requires catheters equipped with membranes permeable to molecules of high molecular weight.
Poly-Victimization in Polish Adolescents: Risk Factors and the Moderating Role of Coping

This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of poly-victimization in Polish adolescents and assess factors associated with poly-victimization risk across different ecological levels. This study further examined whether coping styles could moderate the impact of poly-victimization on emotional well-being. Participants were 454 adolescents, aged between 13 and 19 years, from an urban region of Poland. Adolescents completed self-report measures assessing community, school, and family risks, along with a peer nomination task measuring social preference. Teachers also completed a measure assessing adolescent problem behaviors. Findings revealed that the majority of the sample (70%) experienced more than one type of victimization in the past year, and 35.7% were classified as poly-victims (≥ 6 victimizations). As hypothesized, community disorganization, low commitment to school, poor family management, family conflict, peer social preference, and teacher-rated withdrawn and disruptive behavioral problems were predictive of poly-victimization. In addition, the relationship between poly-victimization and emotional well-being was moderated by problem-solving coping, in that greater use of problem-solving strategies lessened the negative impact of poly-victimization on positive affect and life satisfaction. Other investigated coping strategies (social support-seeking, internalizing, externalizing, and distraction) failed to demonstrate any moderation effect. Findings highlight the high rate of victimization experienced by adolescents in Poland and have implications for the identification of those at risk of poly-victimization, suggesting that there is a need to consider factors related to the adolescent themselves, their relationships with family and peers, and school and community factors. Results also indicate that there may be value in training victims in the use of problem-solving coping styles as a source of resilience.
Microstructure and thermal fatigue life of BGAs with eutectic Sn-Ag-Cu balls assembled at 210/spl deg/C with eutectic Sn-Pb solder paste

Conventionally, it has been understood that in order to assemble BGAs with eutectic Sn-Ag-Cu solder balls in eutectic Sn-Pb solder paste, a reflow profile having a peak temperature higher than 217degC, which is the melting point of eutectic Sn-Ag-Cu, would be required to achieve complete mixing of the Sn-Pb paste and the Sn-Ag-Cu ball. Nevertheless, it was observed in this study that solder joints with uniform microstructure may be achieved with a peak reflow temperature of about 210degC. For further understanding of this phenomenon, DSC testing was performed on eutectic Sn-Ag-Cu spheres (of 0.406-0.76 mm diameters) placed over eutectic Sn-Pb solder paste of different volumes. It has been observed that the mixing of the Sn-Pb and Sn-Ag-Cu was accomplished in about 15 to 25 sees at a peak temperature of 210degC. Thermodynamic calculations published in the literature indicate that the liquidus temperature of completely mixed Sn-Pb and Sn-Ag-Cu is above 210degC. However, above 205degC the volume ratio of solid phase to liquid phase is very small, or practically negligible. The metallograph of Sn-Pb/Sn-Ag-Cu solder joints reflowed at 210degC peak temperature shows uniform microstructure. However, the distribution of Pb-rich phase inside the alpha Sn for the 210degC reflowed Sn-Pb/Sn-Ag-Cu solder joints was somewhat different from those of the 240degC reflowed Sn-Pb/Sn-Ag-Cu solder joints. Accelerated thermal cycling tests (0-100degC and -40-125degC) have been conducted on CSPs with eutectic Sn-Ag-Cu balls assembled on PCBs (of 0.093" and 0.125" thick) with eutectic Sn-Pb solder paste. SnPb and Pb-free control samples were also included. These parts were assembled in both single and double-sided board configurations and were reflowed with peak temperatures of 210degC and 227deg C. The ATC test results showed that the fatigue life of CSP assemblies reflowed at 210deg C and 227degC had no significant difference
Overview of simulation studies on the enzymatic activity and conformational dynamics of the GTPase Ras

Over the last 40 years, we have learnt a great deal about the Ras onco-proteins. These intracellular molecular switches are essential for the function of a variety of physiological processes, including signal transduction cascades responsible for cell growth and proliferation. Molecular simulations and free energy calculations have played an essential role in elucidating the conformational dynamics and energetics underlying the GTP hydrolysis reaction catalysed by Ras. Here we present an overview of the main lessons from molecular simulations on the GTPase reaction and conformational dynamics of this important anti-cancer drug target. In the first part, we summarise insights from quantum mechanical and combined quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical simulations as well as other free energy methods and highlight consensus viewpoints as well as remaining controversies. The second part provides a very brief overview of new insights emerging from large-scale molecular dynamics simulations. We conclude with a perspective regarding future studies of Ras where computational approaches will likely play an active role.