Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
End-systolic pressure length relations of stunned right and left ventricles after inotropic stimulation.

Regional end-systolic pressure-segment length relationships (ESPSLR) were used to compare the degree of right and left ventricular stunning induced by a 10-min occlusion of the left anterior descending coronary artery and the response to subsequent atrial pacing (50 beats/min above intrinsic heart rate) without and with dobutamine (2 micrograms.kg-1.min-1) in nine anesthetized open-chest pigs. From the ESPSLR, the slope (Ees) (at 100 mmHg for the left and 25 mmHg for the right ventricle) and the total area of the pressure-length relationship (PLA) were determined. From the latter, the distribution into external work (EW) and potential energy (PE) as well as the efficiency of energy transfer (EET = EW/PLA) were calculated. In both the stunned left and right ventricular myocardium Ees and EW were reduced according to the same linear regression equations (delta Ees = 0.7 Ees,baseline - 11.4, r2 = 0.86 and delta EW = 0.4 EWbaseline + 2.3, r2 = 0.67), where Ees,baseline and EWbaseline are Ees and EW at baseline, respectively. EET of the stunned left and right ventricular segments decreased as PLA remained unchanged, due to an increase in PE. EET decreased from 0.84 +/- 0.02 to 0.71 +/- 0.03 (P < 0.05) in the stunned right ventricular segment and from 0.71 +/- 0.02 to 0.44 +/- 0.03 (P < 0.05) in the stunned left ventricular segment. Atrial pacing did not affect EET with respect to stunning levels, whereas the additional infusion of dobutamine restored Ees, EW, and PE and consequently EET to baseline values. In conclusion, the right ventricle is susceptible to stunning. During atrial pacing the EET was lower than expected from the Ees, which could, in agreement with the time-varying elastance concept, be explained by an increase in afterload (a consequence of the decrease in stroke volume). Dobutamine not only increased Ees, EW, and EET but also restored the relationship between Ees and EET in both ventricular stunned segments.
Are all customers really the same? Comparing service quality and satisfaction between residential and business telecommunications customers

Orientation: The study focused on the moderating role of the type of customer on the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction. Research purpose : The study sought to examine differences in the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction because of the type of customer. Motivation for the study: Previous studies have not examined the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction between residential and business customers. Research design, approach and method: The study used a cross-section of 203 customers (108 residential and 95 business) in the fixed-line telecommunications sector in Zimbabwe. Moderated regression analysis was performed to test the research hypotheses. Main findings: It was established that the customer category (residential versus business) does not moderate the effect of service quality on customer satisfaction. Practical/managerial implications are, generally, that it is not necessary to segment customers by customer category (residential versus business) when managing service quality to achieve customer satisfaction. Contribution/value add: The main theoretical contribution of the study is the comparison of the effect of service quality on customer satisfaction between residential and business customers.
Towards Understanding Global Imbalances: Are Chinese Households "Special"?

Global imbalances have been and continue to be an important destabilizing force in the world economy. Global imbalances are the result of a very complex set of factors, and researchers are far from having a complete understanding of how they can be addressed. One particularly relevant component is the extraordinarily high household saving rate in China. The Chinese saving rate dwarfs almost all other countries, and as the world’s second largest economy this makes China’s household savings a major piece on the surplus side of global imbalances. This feature is made yet more interesting by the fact that economists have proposed a number of theories suggesting that China is in some way “special”. That is, despite a fairly extensive literature on the determinants of household saving rates across countries, many researchers believe that unusual features of China’s structure and policies make the Chinese saving rate higher than the typical determinants would imply. The main goal of this paper is to evaluate if China is indeed special or if China’s high saving rate can actually be explained by relationships that are true for the average country. The results show two sides to the story. First, there is evidence that China-specific factors do play a role in raising China’s saving rate. On the other hand, my model predictions show that even without the “special” Chinese features, the Chinese saving rate would still be considerably higher than other countries. Main reasons for this may include demographic shifts, a weak healthcare and insurance system, slow-moving consumption habits, and liquidity constraints on households.
Ribonuclease P-mediated inhibition of human cytomegalovirus gene expression and replication induced by engineered external guide sequences

External guide sequences (EGSs) are RNA molecules that can bind to a target mRNA and direct ribonuclease P (RNase P), a tRNA processing enzyme, for specific cleavage of the target mRNA. Using an in vitro selection procedure, we have previously generated EGS variants that efficiently direct human RNase P to cleave a target mRNA in vitro. In this study, we constructed EGSs from a variant to target the overlapping region of the mRNAs coding for human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) capsid scaffolding protein (CSP) and assemblin, which are essential for viral capsid formation. The EGS variant was about 40-fold more active in directing human RNase P to cleave the mRNA in vitro than the EGS derived from a natural tRNA. Moreover, a reduction of about 98% and 75% in CSP/assemblin gene expression and a reduction of 7000- and 250-fold in viral growth were observed in HCMV-infected cells that expressed the variant and the tRNA-derived EGS, respectively. Our study shows that the EGS variant is more effective in blocking HCMV gene expression and growth than the tRNA-derived EGS. Moreover, these results demonstrate the utility of highly active EGS RNA variants in gene targeting applications including anti-HCMV therapy.
An Entropy (Shannon) Based Approach for Determining Importance Weights of Influencing Factors in Selecting Medical Tourism Destinations

Introduction: Medical tourism is currently accepted as a developing industry. It describes the act of leaving home for treatment and care abroad. There are several factors that influence choice of destination for patients in medical tourism. Identification of these factors and prioritization according to importance weights could help international healthcare providers develop their marketing strategy.Methods: In the first stage of this research, an extensive review was done on recently published studies in medical tourism to identify influential factors on selecting a destination for medical tourism. The review yielded fourteen factors. In the second stage, 40 related papers were selected and the content analysis method was used to calculate frequency of repetition for each factor in the 40 papers. Furthermore, by using the Shannon entropy formula, marginal entropy and importance weight were analyzed for each factor.Results: Results indicated that the most influential factors on selection of a destination for medical tourism were “quality of care,” “cost” and “promotional programs,” results that indicate common sense. The least influential factor was “employer encouragement programs,” an indication that most medical tourists make a personal choice to embark on medical tourism and employer encouragement programs had lower priority in the decision making process.Conclusion: This study highlights the most important influential factors on choice of destination among patients, internationally. According to these findings, hospitals providing a service internationally must provide a high quality service at affordable cost. Consideration of travelers’ priorities can be applied to develop performance and promotional activities that will attract more patients and increase medical treatment revenue in a country.
Phosphatidylserine-Specific Phospholipase A1 Involved in Hepatitis C Virus Assembly through NS2 Complex Formation

ABSTRACT Several members of the phospholipase family have been reported to be involved in hepatitis C virus (HCV) replication. Here, we identified another phospholipase, phosphatidylserine-specific phospholipase A1 (PLA1A), as a host factor involved in HCV assembly. PLA1A was upregulated by HCV infection, and PLA1A knockdown significantly reduced J399EM (genotype 2a) HCV propagation at the assembly step but not the entry, RNA replication, and protein translation steps of the life cycle. Protein localization and interaction analysis further revealed a role of PLA1A in the interaction of NS2-E2 and NS2-NS5A, as the formation of the NS2-E2 and NS2-NS5A complexes was weakened in the absence of PLA1A. In addition, PLA1A stabilized the NS2/NS5A dotted structure during infection. These data suggest that PLA1A plays an important role in bridging the membrane-associated NS2-E2 complex and the NS5A-associated replication complex via its interaction with E2, NS2, and NS5A, which leads to a coordinating interaction between the structural and nonstructural proteins and facilitates viral assembly. IMPORTANCE Hepatitis C virus (HCV) genomic replication is driven by the replication complex and occurs at the membranous web, while the lipid droplet is the organelle in which virion assembly is initiated. In this study, we identified phosphatidylserine-specific phospholipase A1 (PLA1A), a member of phospholipase A 1 family, as a novel host factor involved in the assembly process of HCV. PLA1A, which is induced by HCV infection at a late infection stage, interacts with HCV E2, NS2, and NS5A proteins and enhances and stabilizes the NS2-E2 and NS2-NS5A complex formation, which is essential for viral assembly. Thus, PLA1A is an important host factor which is involved in the initiation of the viral assembly in close proximity to Core-decorated lipid droplets through bringing together the HCV replication complex and envelope complex.
Rigidity of Wedge Loop in PACSIN 3 Protein Is a Key Factor in Dictating Diameters of Tubules*

Background: PACSINs participate in cellular membrane remodeling. Results: PACSIN 3 F-BAR induces different tubules compared with PACSIN 1 and 2. Structures of PACSINs reveal a novel wedge loop-mediated lateral interaction and different packing mode in PACSIN 3. Conclusion: The rigidity of the wedge loop determines the angles between neighboring dimers and further dictates tubule diameters. Significance: The study provides novel insights into F-BAR domain-induced membrane deformation. BAR (Bin/amphiphysin/Rvs) domain-containing proteins participate in cellular membrane remodeling. The F-BAR proteins normally generate low curvature tubules. However, in the PACSIN subfamily, the F-BAR domain from PACSIN 1 and 2 can induce both high and low curvature tubules. We found that unlike PACSIN 1 and 2, PACSIN 3 could only induce low curvature tubules. To elucidate the key factors that dictate the tubule curvature, crystal structures of all three PACSIN F-BAR domains were determined. A novel type of lateral interaction mediated by a wedge loop is observed between the F-BAR neighboring dimers. Comparisons of the structures of PACSIN 3 with PACSIN 1 and 2 indicate that the wedge loop of PACSIN 3 is more rigid, which influences the lateral interactions between assembled dimers. We further identified the residues that affect the rigidity of the loop by mutagenesis and determined the structures of two PACSIN 3 wedge loop mutants. Our results suggest that the rigidity-mediated conformations of the wedge loop correlate well with the various crystal packing modes and membrane tubulations. Thus, the rigidity of the wedge loop is a key factor in dictating tubule diameters.
Liquidity, Distress Risk and Asset Pricing Implications

This paper aims to reconcile and shed new light on the “distress premium puzzle” by employing a carefully refined measure that captures company distress levels more accurately. It is found that liquidity, proxied by a trading noise parameter, can distort asset pricing results through distress risk estimation, and that the existing academic debate between Vassalou and Xing (2004) and Da and Gao (2010) is somewhat artificial, being largely driven by the use of inaccurate distance-to-default measures. When our new liability and liquidity adjusted measure is used, a clearer picture of distress premium emerges. Our results, based on (i) raw and risk-adjusted portfolio returns, (ii) characteristic sorted portfolio returns, and (iii) cross-sectional regression of individual stock returns, in fact suggest conclusively that financially distressed stocks do realize higher returns, and that this relationship cannot be simply dismissed by any short-term return reversal effect or other firm characteristics. The higher returns associated with financially distressed stocks are in fact absolute, when stocks are held for a period of one year. They remain significant when stocks are held over a shorter time frame, but the impact is channeled through cross-effect with other stock characteristics.
Analyzing resident life cycle based on short-time cross-correlation

The main purpose of smart environment (SE) is to assist human daily lives by analyzing and recognizing related information. Usually, equipments such as video cameras and voice recorders are useful to capture the information. However, the data often contain unnecessary information related to privacy. To solve this problem, it is important to construct SE by using simple sensors like motion sensor, pressure sensor, and so on. To validate the potentiality of simple sensors for analyzing and recognizing activities, in this paper, we focus on infrared sensors. We try to inspect the resident's activity regularity based on sensor data obtained in several ordinary Japanese houses. To obtain more concrete results, we introduce the concept short-time cross-correlation (STCC). Similar to short-time Fourier transform, STCC calculates the cross-correlation in a sliding window. From the results we can see “when” and “how” a resident's activity is regular or irregular. Thus, STCC can be a useful tool for analyzing the resident life styles and for constructing privacy preserving SE in general.
Accuracy of several implant bite registration techniques: an in-vitro pilot study

PURPOSE This study evaluated the accuracies of different bite registration techniques for implant-fixed prostheses using three dimensional file analysis. MATERIALS AND METHODS Implant fixtures were placed on the mandibular right second premolar, and the first and second molar in a polyurethane model. Aluwax (A), Pattern Resin (P), and Blu-Mousse (B) were used as the bite registration materials on the healing abutments (H) or temporary abutments (T). The groups were classified into HA, HP, HB, TA, TP, and TB according to each combination. The group using the bite impression coping was the BC group; impression taking and bite registration were performed simultaneously. After impression and bite taking, the scan bodies were connected to the lab analogs of the casts. These casts were scanned using a model scanner. The distances between two reference points in three-dimensional files were measured in each group. One-way ANOVA and Duncan's test were used at the 5% significance level. RESULTS The smallest distance discrepancy was observed in the TB group using the temporary abutments. The Blu-Mousse and HP groups showed the largest distance discrepancy. The TB and BC groups showed a lower distance discrepancy than the HP group (P=.001), and there was no significant difference between the groups using the temporary abutments and healing abutments (P>.05). CONCLUSION Although this study has limitations as an in-vitro investigation, the groups using the temporary abutments to hold the Blu-Mousse record and bite impression coping showed greater accuracy than the group using the healing abutments to hold the pattern resin record.
Resistance Issues With New Nucleoside/Nucleotide Backbone Options

The nucleoside and nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs/NtRTIs) remain an enduring feature of combination therapy. As NRTI/NtRTI options continue to expand, questions arise about how best to combine these agents to create effective dual NRTI/NtRTI backbones in antiretroviral regimens while avoiding treatment-emergent drug resistance. Clinicians must consider how NRTIs/NtRTIs such as tenofovir DF (TDF), abacavir (ABC), and emtricitabine (FTC), as well as new once-daily and coformulated NRTIs/NtRTIs, interact with older agents when combined in novel regimens and how sequencing the new NRTIs can preserve future treatment options. Resistance data from clinical trials have revealed important information on the patterns, prevalence, and effects of resistance seen among patients experiencing virologic failure. In recent years, the prevalence of some mutations such as M184V and Q151M has remained relatively constant, while the L74V mutation, the 69 insertions, and thymidine analogue mutations have decreased in prevalence. Other mutations such as K65R and Y115F, while still relatively uncommon, are increasing in prevalence. This increase may be due to the use of new treatment combinations that select for these mutations at a higher rate. Clinical trials suggest that new regimens containing TDF or ABC select for K65R and that this mutation is observed more frequently with TDF; in contrast, L74V is observed more frequently in ABC-containing regimens but is not commonly selected by TDF-containing regimens. Several lines of evidence are converging to suggest that the presence of zidovudine may decrease the risk of L74V and K65R in ABC- or TDF-containing regimens. This review summarizes the clinical implications of resistance profiles associated with new NRTI/NtRTI regimens in current use and in advanced clinical studies.
Broadside Beam-Steerable Planar Parasitic Pixel Patch Antenna

A design for a beam-steerable planar parasitic pixel patch antenna without using phase shifters is presented. The design consists of a planar patch driven element with a rectangular grid of parasitic pixels adjacent to and surrounding the planar patch. The adjacent surrounding pixels can be connected together appropriately by means of switches or hardwires, resulting in a reconfigurable pattern suitable for beam steering. A feature of the design is its thin planar structure. The antenna has been prototyped and demonstrated with an aperture-fed planar patch design operating at 5.7 GHz with 2-mm thickness, providing a bandwidth of 200 MHz (4%). It has peak gains of ~9.5 dBi throughout a steerable range of over ±40° in both the azimuth and elevation planes without using phase shifters. A 2 × 1 linear array without the need for phase shifters, offering a gain over the steerable range of 12.5 dBi, is also proposed.
The Impact of the Affordable Care Act: Evidence from California’s Hospital Sector

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) authorized the largest expansion of public health insurance coverage in decades. Evidence on the effects of the ACA on utilization of medical care, patient health and on health care providers is still emerging. We deploy administrative data from hospitals and emergency rooms in California over 2008-15 and present new empirical evidence on these outcomes. Our identification strategy exploits sharp discontinuities in Medicaid coverage at ages 21 and 65, where a large share of individuals historically became ineligible for the program. These discontinuities were significantly affected by the implementation of the ACA, creating additional exogenous variation in Medicaid eligibility. We find evidence of substantial crowd-out of county insurance programs – implying a large transfer from federal taxpayers to local governments. We estimate a large increase in the rate of hospital and ER use due to insurance coverage among the near-elderly – at least two times greater than that predicted by individual Medicaid access changes. Insurance coverage leads to patient sorting toward privately owned and better quality hospitals, creating a gain in utility equivalent to cutting travel distance by 4 miles. However, we find only suggestive improvements in patient health. Financial benefits for hospitals are more readily apparent. Hospitals previously serving a high share of uninsured patients benefit disproportionately with a 10% increase in total revenue relative to remaining hospitals. Acknowledgements: We would like to thank Mark Shepard and several seminar participants at Stanford, UC-Berkeley, and the AEA 2017 meetings for helpful comments. We are also grateful to Betty HendersonSparks, Amy Peterson and Jon Teague of the California Office of Statewide Planning & Health Development for their assistance in providing the Hospital/ER discharge data and to Jack Coolbaugh for excellent research assistance. All remaining errors are our own.
Mr 25 000 protein, a substrate for protein serine/threonine kinases, is identified as a part of Xenopus laevis vitellogenin B1

A phosphorylated protein with a molecular mass of 25 000 (pp25) previously purified from the cytosolic fraction of Xenopus laevis oocytes is an effective phosphate acceptor for casein kinases and protein kinase C. In this study, based on the partial amino acid sequence of pp25, a cDNA was isolated that encodes a new yolk precursor protein, Xenopus vitellogenin B1, which contained the sequence encoding pp25. Both mRNA and protein of vitellogenin B1 were expressed in all of the female organs examined. In agreement with a previous report, the amount of vitellogenin B1 protein in the liver increased after stimulation with estrogen. These results suggest that pp25 is a cytosolic non‐crystallized yolk protein nutrient source, but it might also play a role in rapid development.
Mass media effects on trading activities: television broadcasting evidence from Japan

ABSTRACT This study examines how information broadcasting through television (TV) media influences stock market activities. Consistent with the effect of TV information to attract investor attention, we find that increased information flow through TV is significantly associated with greater trading volume and larger price change. For information type, hard news from business-oriented programmes and earnings-related news strongly contributes to the attention effect, while the effect of soft news is weaker. Bid–ask spread widens for more TV information flows, suggesting that new information arrival in the market expands information asymmetry. Finally, the impact of TV is more influential for stocks with more individual shareholders than those with institutional shareholders.