Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation: The First Step in Training Cycle

If organizations (Financial Institution inclusive) intensify and invest a lot on the training of their personnel, this study contends that evaluation, “Integral Part of Training should be senses the “First Step” by Trainers in Training Cycle. The basic objective in evaluation is to assess the effectiveness of a training aid, a kind of feedback by which the trainer is informed about the areas of strength and weakness in the programme and most importantly is the question of investment and commitment to training on the part of government. Evaluation is simply the obtaining of selective information about the effects of training. The valve of such information is determined by the use to which it is put. If Evaluation is properly taken care of a more professional approach to training will mean that trainers will not be regarded as trainers unless among other things, they are themselves technically conversant with the methods and techniques of the evaluation of training. The knowledge and the resources committed to training will not then be seen as a waste but as an integral part of training, to deliver a training programme without evaluation is like standing on one foot.
Deflating Asset Price Bubbles with Leverage Constraints and Monetary Policy

This paper studies the interaction of labor, goods, and asset markets in experimental macroeconomies populated by household investors. We analyze the aggregate effects of two different policies intended to stabilize asset prices: leverage constraints and a `leaning against the wind' monetary policy that raises interest rates in response to asset price inflation. We find that introducing a leverage constraint significantly reduces asset prices when the constraint actually binds. Households often circumvent these constraints by excessively supplying labor and generating increased wealth which can be used for speculation. As a result, asset price deviations are significantly higher under a policy regime of leverage constraints. Raising interest rates according to a `leaning against the wind' policy effectively contracts asset prices with minimal impact on production. Our experimental findings suggest that asset inflation targeting is more effective than leverage constraints at stabilizing asset price.
Tax Collector or Tax Avoider? An Investigation of Intergovernmental Agency Conflicts

ABSTRACT: Local governments play dual, but conflicting, roles in China's tax system. That is, they are both tax collectors and controlling shareholders of firms subject to tax payments. We investigate how local governments balance their tax collection and tax avoidance incentives. We find that the conflicts between central and local governments arising from the 2002 tax sharing reform have led to more tax avoidance by local government-controlled firms, particularly when the local government's ownership percentage of the firms is higher than the tax sharing ratio. We also find evidence that the overall level of tax avoidance by local government-controlled firms in a region is positively associated with local fiscal deficits. As a high level of government ownership of corporations and intergovernmental tax sharing are common phenomena in many transitional economies, this study offers valuable insights into how the dual roles played by local governments affect tax policy enforcement in these economies. JEL C.
Neurodevelopmental outcome for extended cold water drowning: A longitudinal case study

There is little longitudinal data examining outcome of pediatric near-drowning. Most literature tracks status 5 years or less post insult, focusing primarily on gross neurologic status as opposed to more subtle neurocognitive deficits. The present case tracks the neuropsychological profile of a child who was submerged for 66 min, the longest time documented. Acute medical support was aggressive, and recovery was dramatic, being featured in multiple media reports. Although an article published 6 years after the near-drowning described the child as “recovering completely,” the longitudinal profile indicates a pronounced pattern of broad cognitive difficulties, particularly notable for global memory impairment. Neuropsychological test results were significant despite the fact that the patient's recent MRI and MEG were within normal limits. This case demonstrates the need for long-term neuropsychological follow-up of pediatric patients with histories of neurologic injury, as gross neurological examination and MRI and MEG scans may not reveal underlying brain dysfunction. (JINS, 2002, 8, 588–595.)
Fiscal Year 2011 Director's Strategic Initiative Final Report Heterogeneous Device Architectures Incorporating Nitride Semiconductors for Enhanced Functionality of Optoelectronic Devices

Abstract : Heterogeneous devices combine dissimilar materials with complementary device functionalities to achieve new functionalities that may provide revolutionary advances in technology. In these novel devices the physics and engineering of the interface of the dissimilar materials plays a critical role and requires considerable research. While nitride semiconductors have had great success as materials for sources and detectors of electromagnetic radiation across the spectrum from the ultraviolet (UV) to terahertz, heterogeneous integration of these materials with others having different spontaneous polarization, different crystal structure or a new functionality hold promise for devices with improved performance. This report discusses research efforts on two representative examples, III-Nitride/silicon carbide (SiC) avalanche photodetectors and compositionally inhomogeneous indium gallium nitride (InGaN) terahertz sources. Specifically, we demonstrate the efficacy of using III-Nitride semiconductors to improve the quantum efficiency (QE) of a photodetector employing a SiC-based gain region over a wide spectral range from 240 to 365 nm by overcoming surface states and weak absorption that limit the QE of homogenous SiC-based photodetectors in the deep UV and near UV regions, respectively. Furthermore, we have observed enhanced terahertz generation due to large internal in-plane electric fields in heteroepitaxially grown semi-polar and nonpolar GaN thin films due to the presence of self-assembled zincblende inclusions in an otherwise wurtzite crystal structure.
Mutations in genes required for T-cell development:IL7R, CD45, IL2RG, JAK3, RAG1, RAG2, ARTEMIS, and ADA and severe combined immunodeficiency: HuGE review

Severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) is an inherited immune disorder characterized by T-cell lymphopenia (TCLP), a profound lack of cellular (T-cell) and humoral (B-cell) immunity and, in some cases, decreased NK-cell number and function. Affected children develop severe bacterial and viral infections within the first 6 months of life and die before 1 year of age without treatment. Mutations in any of eight known genes:IL2RG, ARTEMIS, RAG1, RAG2, ADA, CD45, JAK3, and IL7R cause SCID. Mutations in unidentified genes may also cause SCID. Population-based genotype and allelic frequencies of these gene defects have not been measured. Some minimal estimates of SCID prevalence are presented. Currently, hematopoietic stem cell transplants are the standard treatment. In clinical trials, gene therapy has been used to reconstitute immune function in patients with IL2RG and ADA defects. The availability of effective therapies, plus the short asymptomatic period after birth, (when stem-cell transplantation is most effective), make SCID a potentially good candidate for newborn screening. Dried blood spots are currently collected from all infants at birth for newborn metabolic screening. Tests for TCLP on dried blood spots could be developed as a screen for SCID. Because SCID may be unrecognized, with infant deaths from infection attributed to other causes, newborn screening is the only way to ascertain true birth prevalence. Validated tests and pilot population studies are necessary to determine newborn screening’s potential for identifying infants with SCID.
Directed Information as Privacy Measure in Cloud-based Control

We consider cloud-based control scenarios in which clients with local control tasks outsource their computational or physical duties to a cloud service provider. In order to address privacy concerns in such a control architecture, we first investigate the issue of finding an appropriate privacy measure for clients who desire to keep local state information as private as possible during the control operation. Specifically, we justify the use of Kramer's notion of causally conditioned directed information as a measure of privacy loss based on an axiomatic argument. Then we propose a methodology to design an optimal "privacy filter" that minimizes privacy loss while a given level of control performance is guaranteed. We show in particular that the optimal privacy filter for cloud-based Linear-Quadratic-Gaussian (LQG) control can be synthesized by a Linear-Matrix-Inequality (LMI) algorithm. The trade-off in the design is illustrated by a numerical example.
Policy in the Public Eye : Agenda-setting and framing dynamics of traditional and social media in relation to immigration and integration policies

markdownabstractThe policy field of immigration and migrant integration is publicly and politically controversial. Consequently, issues related to immigration and migrant integration are regularly in the public eye of the media. This doctoral thesis analyzes how policy agendas in the domain of immigration and integration are shaped and how traditional and social media coverage of policy-related issues influence this. Based on six empirical studies, this thesis concludes that while direct effects of media on the policy agenda are relatively scarce and not always discernable, other forms of responsiveness to media coverage can be recognized.
The Impacts of Research and Development Expenses on Export and Economic Growth

The purpose of this study is to identify the effects of research and development expenses on export and economic growth. Within this scope, annual data of 28 European Union member countries for the periods between 1996 and 2014 was taken into the consideration. Additionally, Dumitrescu Hurlin panel causality analysis was used in this study to achieve this objective. First of all, Im, Pesaran and Shin and Levin, Lin & Chu panel unit root tests were used to understand whether the variables are stationary or not. As a result of these tests, it was defined that the variable of economic growth is stationary whereas other two variables (export and R&D) are not. According to the results of Dumitrescu Hurlin causality analysis, it was determined that there is not a significant relationship between economic growth and R&D. On the other hand, it was concluded that there is a causality relationship from export to R&D expenses. This situation shows that EU member countries, which have higher export amount, give more importance to R&D in order to improve themselves.
Disease Activity Does Not Explain It All: How Internalizing Symptoms and Caregiver Depressive Symptoms Relate to Health-related Quality of Life Among Youth with Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Background:Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is a multidimensional constructinfluenced by disease, individual, and environmental factors. Greater disease activity (DA) predicts poorer HRQoL, but disease status alone does not fully account for individual variability in HRQoL. This investigation tested the role of patient and caregiver internalizing symptoms in explaining the relationship between DA and patient HRQoL. Methods:Participants included 83 subjects aged 11 to 18 diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease and their caregiver. Patients reported on their HRQoL. Caregivers rated their own depressive symptoms and patients' internalizing symptoms (depression, anxiety, and somatization). Physicians rated DA. Results:Greater DA was positively associated with subjects' internalizing symptoms and negatively associated with HRQoL. Mediation analyses found support for significant indirect effects on the relationship between DA and HRQoL through the subjects' internalizing symptoms, through their internalizing symptoms and caregivers' depressive symptoms, sequentially. Conclusions:Greater DA independently relates to poorer HRQoL. In addition, DA relates to greater child internalizing problems which in turn relate to higher levels of caregiver depressive symptoms and poorer HRQoL. Providers may consider a family-based approach to screen for internalizing problems, especially in patients with active disease, because caregiver and child mood symptoms may partially explain worsening child HRQoL.
A randomized controlled trial to evaluate the slow-acting symptom modifying effects of a regimen containing colchicine in a subset of patients with osteoarthritis of the knee.

OBJECTIVE As crystals may contribute to inflammation in osteoarthritis (OA), it is hypothesized that colchicine may have symptom/disease modifying effects in OA. The objective of this study was to evaluate the symptomatic benefit of addition of colchicine to a regimen of intraarticular steroids and piroxicam in patients with knee OA with inflammation. DESIGN 39 patients with OA of the knee with persisting inflammation, despite at least 2 weeks of piroxicam, were subjected to intraarticular steroid injection and randomly assigned to receive colchicine 0.5 mg twice daily or placebo in a randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled trial over 5 months. RESULTS VAS for index knee pain (VAS-pain) and total KGMC score (a modified WOMAC index) at 16 and 20 weeks were significantly better in the colchicine group than the corresponding scores in controls. The benefit persisted on multivariate analysis at 16 weeks (Hotellings T(2)=18.6, F(5,33)=3.3154, P=0.015). The proportion of patients who had 30% or greater response at 16 weeks was significantly higher in the colchicine group in VAS-pain (69% vs 15%) and total KGMC scores (74% vs 45%) and the significance persisted on combined analysis using Mantel-Haenszel test (M-H Risk=5.9, 95% C.I.: 2.08 to 16.73). At 20 weeks, benefit of colchicine therapy was seen on pooled analysis only (M-H risk=3.71, 95% C.I.: 1.07=8.02). CONCLUSION The addition of colchicine produced significantly greater symptomatic benefit at 16 and 20 weeks than intraarticular steroid and piroxicam alone in patients with knee OA with inflammation.
Gαz Inhibits Serum Response Factor-Dependent Transcription by Inhibiting Rho Signaling

Gα12/13 or Gαq signals induce activation of Rho GTPase, leading to serum response factor (SRF)-mediated gene transcription and actin cytoskeletal organization; however, less is known regarding how Rho pathway signals are down-regulated. Here we report that Gαz signals inhibit serum response factor (SRF)-dependent transcription. Gαz expression inhibits Gα12/13-, Gαq-, and Rho guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF)-induced serum response element (SRE) reporter activation in human embryonic kidney 293T and PC-12 cells. Expression of Gαz mutants with defective fatty acylation has no inhibitory effect. Expression of Gαz, but not Gαi, attenuates serum-induced SRE reporter activation, suggesting that Gαz can down-regulate endogenous signals leading to SRF. Whereas Gαz also blocks SRE reporter induction by the activated mutant RhoAL63, it does not affect Gα12- or Rho GEF-induced RhoA activation or RhoAL63-GTP binding in vivo. Moreover, Gαz does not inhibit SRE reporter induction by an activated form of Rho kinase. Because Gαz inhibits RhoAL63/A188-induced reporter activation, phosphorylation of RhoA on serine 188 does not seem to be involved; furthermore, RhoA subcellular localization was not affected. Use of pharmacologic inhibitors implies that Gαz-induced reduction of SRE reporter activation occurs via a mechanism other than adenylate cyclase modulation. These findings suggest that Gαz signals may attenuate Rho-induced stimulation of SRF-mediated transcription.
Comparison of the effects of treatment of peri-implant infection in animal and human studies: systematic review and meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE The main objective of this systematic review is to compare the effects of treatment of peri-implant infection between animal and human studies. MATERIAL AND METHODS A literature search was conducted using the Medline, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature databases up to and including May 2008. In addition, bibliographies of systematic reviews on peri-implant diseases were searched manually. Non-surgical and surgical treatments of peri-implantitis/mucositis in animal models or human studies were compared. Meta-analysis was conducted to investigate the difference between the reported treatment effects in animal and human studies. Changes in probing pocket depth (PPD) and probing attachment level (PAL) from baseline measurements were used as measures of outcome. Single-level and multilevel meta-regression analysis was performed by taking into account the different follow-up times of the studies included. RESULTS The single-level and multilevel random-effects meta-analysis showed that the difference in PPD reduction [0.31 mm, 95% confidence interval (CI): -0.27, 0.88] and in PAL gain (0.21 mm, 95% CI: -0.47, 0.88) between animal and human studies was not statistically significant. The random-effects meta-regression suggested that studies with longer follow-up times revealed greater PPD reduction (0.25 mm per month, 95% CI: 0.14, 0.35). However, when the different follow-up times were taken into account, these differences became greater. Substantial heterogeneity between studies was found in the meta-analyses (I(2)=97.6% for animal studies and 99.9% for human studies). CONCLUSION There was great heterogeneity between human and animal studies in terms of study designs and treatment procedures. Therefore, the results from this meta-analysis should be interpreted with caution. Heterogeneity between studies and its causes merit further investigations.
Mechanisms of Plasmin-catalyzed Inactivation of Factor VIII

Plasmin not only functions as a key enzyme in the fibrinolytic system but also directly inactivates factor VIII and other clotting factors such as factor V. However, the mechanisms of plasmin-catalyzed factor VIII inactivation are poorly understood. In this study, levels of factor VIII activity increased ∼2-fold within 3 min in the presence of plasmin, and subsequently decreased to undetectable levels within 45 min. This time-dependent reaction was not affected by von Willebrand factor and phospholipid. The rate constant of plasmin-catalyzed factor VIIIa inactivation was ∼12- and ∼3.7-fold greater than those mediated by factor Xa and activated protein C, respectively. SDS-PAGE analysis showed that plasmin cleaved the heavy chain of factor VIII into two terminal products, A137–336 and A2 subunits, by limited proteolysis at Lys36, Arg336, Arg372, and Arg740. The 80-kDa light chain was converted into a 67-kDa subunit by cleavage at Arg1689 and Arg1721, identical to the pattern induced by factor Xa. Plasmin-catalyzed cleavage at Arg336 proceeded faster than that at Arg372, in contrast to proteolysis by factor Xa. Furthermore, breakdown was faster than that in the presence of activated protein C, consistent with rapid inactivation of factor VIII. The cleavages at Arg336 and Lys36 occurred rapidly in the presence of A2 and A3-C1-C2 subunits, respectively. These results strongly indicated that cleavage at Arg336 was a central mechanism of plasmin-catalyzed factor VIII inactivation. Furthermore, the cleavages at Arg336 and Lys36 appeared to be selectively regulated by the A2 and A3-C1-C2 domains, respectively, interacting with plasmin.
Sticky Consumption and Wealth Effects in Switzerland

When assessing the effect of changes in wealth on household expenditures, most empirical studies have used cointegration-based approaches. These approaches rely on the existence of a stable long-run relationship among consumption, wealth and income. However, in Switzerland no such relationship seems to be present after 2001. Motivated by this issue, this paper applies a recently suggested approach to estimating long-run wealth effects on consumption that does not rely on cointegration. This new approach relies on sticky consumption growth, which can be motivated by consumption habits or sticky expectations. In both cases, long-run wealth effects are the result of short-run reactions of households to changes in wealth which become long-lasting. Using this methodology, the estimated wealth effects on consumption in Switzerland are larger than suggested by cointegration-based estimates. Furthermore, the results show that there seems to be a remarkably high degree of consumption stickiness in Switzerland.
Iron stores in patients on haemodialysis after renal transplantation.

BACKGROUND Patients with chronic renal failure receive iron orally and parenterally which can lead to iron overload. However, iron deficiency is common among Indians and it is not known whether the Indian dialysis and transplant patient runs a similar risk of iron overload. The iron status is best quantified by measuring serum ferritin levels when there is no intercurrent inflammatory process. We used this method to assess the iron stores in a random sample of the Indian population on our dialysis and transplantation programme. METHODS Serum ferritin assay was done using ELISA on samples obtained from 24 patients at entry to dialysis, before renal transplant surgery and 3 to 6 months following the surgery. All patients received 120 mg of elemental iron orally and third party transfusions according to a fixed protocol. RESULTS None of the patients had iron deficiency despite low haemoglobin values. Fifteen patients at entry, 12 out of 16 pre-transplant and 10 out of 17 post-transplant patients had evidence of iron overload. Three patients developed iron overload during the period of observation and 6 of the 10 who entered the programme with evidence of iron overload continued to have iron overload. CONCLUSION Indian patients with chronic renal failure have evidence of iron overload similar to those in developed countries. Oral iron supplements in Indian patients are therefore unnecessary.
Power System Risk Assessment Using a Hybrid Method of Fuzzy Set and Monte Carlo Simulation

This paper presents fuzzy-probabilistic modeling techniques for system component outage parameters and load curves. The fuzzy membership functions of system component outage parameters are developed using statistical records, whereas the system load is modeled using a combined fuzzy and probabilistic representation. Based on the fuzzy-probabilistic models, a hybrid method of fuzzy set and Monte Carlo simulation for power system risk assessment is proposed to capture both randomness and fuzziness of loads and component outage parameters. An actual example using a regional system at the British Columbia Transmission Corpoation is given to demonstrate the application of the presented fuzzy-probabilistic models for system parameters and new system risk evaluation method.