Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Feasibility of using a novel non-invasive ambulatory tibial nerve stimulation device for the home-based treatment of overactive bladder symptoms

Background To evaluate safety, acceptability and pilot efficacy of transcutaneous low-frequency tibial nerve stimulation (TNS) using a novel device as home-based neuromodulation. Methods In this single-centre pilot study, 48 patients with overactive bladder (OAB) (24 with neurogenic and 24 with idiopathic OAB) were randomized to use a self-applicating ambulatory skin-adhering device stimulating transcutaneously the tibial nerve at 1 Hz for 30 minutes, either once daily or once weekly, for 12 weeks. Changes in OAB symptoms and QoL were measured at baseline, weeks 4, 8, and 12 using validated scoring instruments (ICIQ-OAB and ICIQ-LUTSqol), 3-day bladder diary and a Global Response Assessment (GRA) at week 12. Results Thirty-four patients completed the study (idiopathic n=15, neurogenic n=19). No significant adverse effects were noted. Patients found the device acceptable. Eighteen patients (53%) reported a moderate or marked improvement in symptoms from the GRA. Between baseline and week-12, ICIQ-OAB part A sub-scores improved from mean (SD) 9.3 (2.5) to 7.5 (3.1), and from 9.1 (1.9) to 5.9 (1.7) in the daily and the weekly arms, respectively. ICIQ-LUTSqol part A sub-scores improved from mean (SD) 51 (12.8) to 44.2 (13.1) and 44.9 (9.0) to 35.9 (8.8) in the daily and the weekly arms, respectively. Bladder diary mean 24-hour frequency episodes improved from 11.5 to 8.8 at week 12 for both arms. Conclusions This novel ambulatory transcutaneous TNS (TTNS) device is safe and acceptable for use in patients reporting OAB symptoms as a form of home-based neuromodulation. A larger study however is required to confirm clinical efficacy.
The Retinoblastoma Protein in Osteogenesis and Osteosarcoma Formation

The retinoblastoma tumor suppressor protein (pRb) is a 928 amino acids nuclear phosphoprotein that functions predominantly as a transcriptional regulator (Knudsen and Knudsen, 2006). It possesses a weak, non-specific DNA binding capacity, therefore, its role as a transcriptional regulator requires that it forms part of protein complexes in which its binding partners provide the capacity to interact with cis regulatory elements in the promoters of particular target genes. Evidence supporting its predominantly tumor suppressive function rapidly accumulated since its discovery. First, its deletion in humans was found to be an important causative agent in the genesis of malignant tumors of the retina, or retinoblastomas (Cavenee et al., 1983; Friend et al., 1986; Godbout et al., 1983; Lee et al., 1987), hence its name. This was followed by studies with oncogenic viruses such as some strains of the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), Adenovirus, and the Simian Vacuolating Virus 40 (SV40). These viruses were found to engender an oncogenic programme in their host cells in which virus-encoded oncoproteins inactivate pRb and other important host tumor suppressors (Ludlow et al., 1989). These studies reinforced the conception of pRb as a tumor suppressor by directly showing that abrogation of pRb function is a necessary step in the chain of events resulting in oncogenic transformation. Further research efforts were aimed at elucidating the precise cellular and molecular mechanisms by which pRb exerts its tumor suppressive function. The generation of the first mice in which the gene encoding pRb, RB1, was genetically deleted was very informative in regards to pRb function. These studies showed that mice deficient for pRb in a homozygous manner are non-viable and show a host of defects in neurogenesis and hematopoiesis. These homozygous mutants showed an increased pool of immature nucleated erythrocyte progenitors, together with ectopic mitoses in the nervous system. On the other hand, heterozygous mice, while viable, were prone to develop pituitary and thyroid tumors, strictly dependent on the loss of wild type allele of the RB1 gene (Lee et al., 1992). These early studies suggested that pRb may be essential for the irreversible cell cycle arrest that is now considered to be a precondition of the fully differentiated post-mitotic state. Therefore, absence of pRb loss could result in an enrichment of proliferative cells with a restricted capacity to withdraw from the cell cycle and subsequently engage in a differentiation programme. These studies led to the early suspicion that these pools of undifferentiated
Adopting Cost Transparency as a Marketing Strategy: Analytical and Experimental Exploration

Should sellers disclose their cost information to potential buyers? If yes, under what conditions should firms adopt this cost transparent strategy? We examine these questions by using an analytical approach followed by an experimental analysis. To begin, we develop a monopolistic model to show that the transparent strategy is optimum if and only if products are of low perceived quality and relatively high unit cost. This result implies that luxury goods firms (with high perceived quality and relatively low unit cost) should not disclose their cost information. Next, our analytical result reveals that the quality differentiation between firms in a duopoly is a key driver for predicting whether different firms should adopt the transparent strategy or not. Specifically, no firm should adopt the transparent strategy when the quality differentiation is high because different firms can set different selling price to segment the market. However, when the quality differentiation becomes less prominent, competitive pricing alone is not sufficient and the transparent strategy becomes the additional lever for firms to segment the market. Using a laboratory experiment, we validate our analytical results to show that as quality differentiation decreases, the adoption of the transparent strategy increases but the selling price decreases.
Tag Thunder: Web Page Skimming in Non Visual Environment Using Concurrent Speech

Skimming and scanning are two strategies generally used for speed reading . Skimming allows a reader to get a ﬁrst glance of a document; scanning is the process of searching for a speciﬁc piece of information in a document. While both techniques are available in visual reading mode, it is rather difﬁcult to use them in non visual environments. In this paper, we introduce the concept of tag thunder , which provides speed reading non-visual techniques similar to skimming and scanning. A tag thun-der is the oral transposition of the tag cloud concept. Tag cloud key terms are presented using typographic effects which reﬂect their relevance and number of occurrences. Within a tag thunder, the relevance of a given key term is translated into speciﬁc speech effects and its position on the page is reﬂected in the position of the corresponding sound on a 2D stereo space. All key terms of a tag thun-der are output according to a concurrent speech strategy, which exploits the cocktail party effect . In this paper, we present our implementation of the tag thunder concept. The results of the evaluation cam-paign show that tag thunders present a viable non-visual alternative to visual speed reading strategies.
Effects of Two Probiotics, Lactobacillus Plantarum and Lactobacillus Bulgaricus on Growth Performance and Intestinal Lactic Acid Bacteria of Cyprinus Carpio

Background: The application of probiotics to aquaculture is rather new. Probiotics affect the intestinal microbial flora of fish and subsequently modulate its immune response and growth performance. OBJECTIVES: This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of food supplementation with L.plantarum and L.bulgaricus on growth performance and gut microbiota of Cyprinus carpio. METHODS: For this purpose, 480 juveniles of C. carpio (40.2 ±6.3 gr Mean ±SD) were randomly divided into three equal groups (each group in three replicates) and fed with diet containing 5×107 cfu g_1 of Lactobacillus plantarum (group A), Lactobacillus bulgaricus (group B) and control diet (group C) for 60 days. To evaluate the persistent presence of the bacteria and their effects on the microbiota of the digestive system, remained fish of each group were fed with free probiotic diet from day 60 to 75. RESULTS: Results showed that most growth indices of probiotic treated groups were increased compared to control group in all sampling points. Although FCR decreased significantly in Groups A (2.9±0.43) and B (2.75±0.37) compared to control (3.88±0.52), SGR, WGP and DWG increased only in Group B compared to control group (P 0.05). Intestinal lactobacillus ratio at days 30 and 60 was significantly higher than the control group (P<0.05). Group B showed the highest lactobacillus rate among the groups at day 30. Total intestinal bacteria count on day 30 and 60 were significantly higher in probiotic-treated fish compared to the control group (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: It can be concluded that L.bulgaricus can promote growth indices and intestinal Lactic acid bacterial proportion in common carp. Then it can be a proper candidate for a probiotic in common carp after more trials in farm scale.
Environmental, Energetic, and Economic Comparisons of Organic and Conventional Farming Systems

Abstract Various organic technologies have been utilized for about 6000 years to make agriculture sustainable while conserving soil, water, energy, and biological resources. Among the benefits of organic technologies are higher soil organic matter and nitrogen, lower fossil energy inputs, yields similar to those of conventional systems, and conservation of soil moisture and water resources (especially advantageous under drought conditions). Conventional agriculture can be made more sustainable and ecologically sound by adopting some traditional organic farming technologies.
Yield and irrigation water use of vegetables grown with plastic and straw mulch in the U.S. Virgin Islands

A major factor limiting increased vegetable production in the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) is water availability. The climate of the USVI is semi-arid with moderate rainfall (1100 mm/yr) and high evapotranspiration (ET) of about 1500 mm/yr. The University of the Virgin Islands Agricultural Experiment Station has been conducting studies to increase water use efficiency of vegetable crops under limited water availability. Field experiments were conducted from 1995 to 2000 to determine yield and irrigation water use of fruits vegetables including bell peppers (Capsicum annuum L.), cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.), and tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum L.). Except for tomato all crops were drip-irrigated at three soil moisture regimes (-20, -40, -60 kPa ) based on soil tensiometers. Irrigation regime for tomato was based on U.S. Weather Service Class A pan evaporation rates equivalent to 40, 60 and 80%. Crops were planted in plots with polyethylene mulch, straw mulch and no mulch (bare). For each crop, trials were conducted over two seasons. Data on marketable yield, total water use and efficiency were collected from each trial. Results in general indicate no significant yield differences (P>0.05) between irrigation regimes. Water use was highest at -20 kPa or 80% ET and lowest at -60 kPa or 40% ET. Since water use efficiency was highest at the lowest irrigation rate, fruit vegetables can be grown with minimum irrigation water without sacrificing yield. Furthermore, the use of mulch conserves water and increases yield of vegetables.
Trisections of 4-manifolds via Lefschetz fibrations

We develop a technique for gluing relative trisection diagrams of $4$-manifolds with nonempty connected boundary to obtain trisection diagrams for closed $4$-manifolds. As an application, we describe a trisection of any closed $4$-manifold which admits a Lefschetz fibration over $S^2$ equipped with a section of square $-1$, by an explicit diagram determined by the vanishing cycles of the Lefschetz fibration. In particular, we obtain a trisection diagram for some simply connected minimal complex surface of general type. As a consequence, we obtain explicit trisection diagrams for a pair of closed $4$-manifolds which are homeomorphic but not diffeomorphic. Moreover, we describe a trisection for any oriented $S^2$-bundle over any closed surface and in particular we draw the corresponding diagrams for $T^2 \times S^2$ and $T^2 \tilde{\times} S^2$ using our gluing technique. Furthermore, we provide an alternate proof of a recent result of Gay and Kirby which says that every closed $4$-manifold admits a trisection. The key feature of our proof is that Cerf theory takes a back seat to contact geometry.
Evaporation of water: evaporation rate and collective effects

We study the evaporation rate from single drops as well as collections of drops on a solid substrate, both experimentally and theoretically. For a single isolated drop of water, in general the evaporative flux is limited by diffusion of water through the air, leading to an evaporation rate that is proportional to the linear dimension of the drop. Here, we test the limitations of this scaling law for several small drops and for very large drops. We find that both for simple arrangements of drops, as well as for complex drop size distributions found in sprays, cooperative effects between drops are significant. For large drops, we find that the onset of convection introduces a length scale of approximately 20 mm in radius, below which linear scaling is found. Above this length scale, the evaporation rate is proportional to the surface area.
EFFECTIVENESS OF THE NATIONAL CREDIT ACT OF SOUTH AFRICA IN REDUCING HOUSEHOLD DEBT: A JOHANSEN COINTEGRATION AND VECM ANALYSIS

The rise in unsecured lending has cast doubt on the effectiveness of the National Credit Act in South Africa. Reckless lending was seen rising since 2006 and plateauing in 2009. Could this be evidence of the effectiveness of the National Credit Act (NCA) curbing reckless lending household debts? This study embarks on finding whether reckless lending was present in the Pre-NCA period running from 1994 to the end of 2nd quarter of 2007 when the NCA was enacted. Further in this study, the effectiveness of NCA in curbing reckless lending in the Post-NCA period starting from the 3rd quarter of 2007 to the 2nd quarter of 2014. Using the Johansen Cointegration analysis and Vector Error Correction Model, long run and short run Granger causality tests are done with the household debt as a dependent and debt service coverage ratio, household debt to disposable income ratio and disposable income as independents. The results from the tests done provide convincing evidence that reckless lending indeed was present in the Pre-NCA period and there is evidence showing the curbing of reckless lending in the Post-NCA period.
Comparison between the statistical cues in BSS techniques and Binaural cues in CASA approaches for reverberant speech separation

Reverberant speech source separation has been of great interest for over a decade, leading to two major approaches. One of them is based on statistical properties of the signals and mixing process known as blind source separation (BSS). The other approach named as computational auditory scene analysis (CASA) is inspired by human auditory system and exploits monaural and binaural cues. In this paper these two approaches are studied and compared in more depth.
Microzooplankton grazing on phytoplankton in Rhode River, Maryland: noninear feeding kinetics

The ddution technique estimates microzooplankton grazing on phytoplankton by reducing encounter rates between the microzooplankton predators and their phytoplankton prey. The technique was extended to the case in which grazing is a nonlinear function of phytoplankton concentration. By allowing microzooplankton clearance rates to vary between, but not within, dilut~on fractions, and assuming microzooplankton density remains constant, it was shown that the grazing impact on apparent phytoplankton growth rate bears a simple relationship to the funchonal response of the microzooplankton. Experiments in the Rhode River. Maryland (USA) demonstrated saturated feeding kinetics. Half-saturation chlorophyll concentrations occurred within a relatively small fraction (0.1 to 0.2) of initial concentrations, despite a 4-fold range in the latter, suggesting tight coupling between microzooplankton communities and their phytoplankton prey. Simulations with time-dependent equations coupling phytoplankton and microzooplankton growth laws indicated that inferences about the shape of the microzooplankton functional response from measurements of phytoplankton apparent growth rate are insensitive to change in microzooplankton density and to changes in clearance rates along the functional response. However, estimates of specific grazing coefficient, g, are very sensitive to these changes Equations were solved for the case when the specific ingestion rate of the microzooplankton is food-saturated. The solution allows for proper estimation of g i n eutrophic systems whenever microzooplankton growth rate is observed.
Density of aqueous solutions of CO2

In this report, we present a numerical representation for the partial molar volume of CO2 in water and the calculation of the corresponding aqueous solution density. The motivation behind this work is related to the importance of having accurate representations for aqueous phase properties in the numerical simulation of carbon dioxide disposal into aquifers as well as in geothermal applications. According to reported experimental data the density of aqueous solutions of CO2 can be as much as 2-3% higher than pure water density. This density variation might produce an influence on the groundwater flow regime. For instance, in geologic sequestration of CO2, convective transport mixing might occur when, several years after injection of carbon dioxide has stopped, the CO2-rich gas phase is concentrated at the top of the formation, just below an overlaying caprock. In this particular case the heavier CO2 saturated water will flow downward and will be replaced by water with a lesser CO2 content.
Labour market effects of wage inequality and skill-biased technical change

ABSTRACT This paper analyses the effects of wage inequality on labour market development. Relevant theories are ambiguous, just as public debates. We measure the effects of inequality, skill-biased and skill-neutral technical change on hours, productivity and wages in a novel structural vector error correction framework identified by economically motivated long-run restrictions. The results show that structural inequality shocks have a negative impact on hours, productivity and wages. These effects are particularly pronounced at high inequality levels and for inequality below the median wage. Skill-biased technology shocks reduce – unlike skill-neutral ones – hours but increase inequality, productivity and wages.
Carnitine and Liver Functions Assessment in Children Treated with Anticonvulsant Drugs

This study was conducted to evaluate the impact of antiepileptic drugs on the liver function and L-carnitine levels in children suffering from ep- ilepsy. Sixty epileptic children aged from 1 to 15 years, together with 20 healthy controls were studied. Among them twenty-five children were treated with phenytoin (group I), 25 were treated with carbamazepine (group II) and 10 patients were treated with phenobarbital (group III). In each of the three groups, serum free carnitine levels were significantly decreased after one month of therapy compared with pretherapy levels (p<0.01, p<0.01, p<0.01 re- spectively). Meanwhile, the levels of L-carnitine in treated children collective- ly were significantly decreased in comparison with healthy children (p<0.01). Hypocarnitinemia was detected in 28% of group I, 56% of group II , and 30% of group III. Serum SGOT was significantly increased in patients treated with phenytoin and phenobarbital (p<0.01, p<0.05 respectively) compared with pre- therapy levels. Whereas serum lactate and total bilirubin were significantly in- creased after therapy in patients treated with carbamazepine in comparison to that before significantly increased (p<0.05 for each) in comparison with con- trols. Moreover, a significant negative correlation was found between values of carnitine and both lactate (p<0.01) and lactate/pyruvate ratio (p<0.05) after therapy in carbamazepine treated group. It should be taken into account that carnitine rich food in the form of milk and milk products must be taken as a supplement to the antiepileptic drugs especially carbamazepine.
Grafting of polypeptides on solid substrates by initiation of N-carboxyanhydride polymerization by amino-terminated self-assembled monolayers

A series of mixed self-assembled monolayers of functionalized (Br(CH2)11SiCl3) and unfunctionalized (CH3(CH2)10SiCl3) alkyltrichlorosilanes of different compositions have been prepared on bulk silicon substrates. By in situ modification of these monolayers the bromo end groups were transformed to amino end groups as shown by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements. The change of hydrophilicity was monitored by water contact angle measurements, showing the expected decrease of contact angles with increase amino group content on the surface. These substrates were used to initiate N-carboxyanhydrides in dioxane to yield α-helical polypeptides grafted from the surface. The thicknesses of the obtained polymer layers were measured with ellipsometry and X-ray reflectometry. Fourier transform infrared measurements confirm that the grafted polymers are in the α-helical conformation.
Refugees in Diaspora: From Durable Solutions to Transnational Relations

When people flee conflict or persecution, a common pattern is for most to seek safety in other parts of their country, for a substantial number to look for refuge in a neighbouring country or countries, and for a smaller number to seek asylum in countries further afield, perhaps on other continents. If displacement persists and people consolidate themselves in their territories of refuge, complex relations will develop among these different domains of what we may call the “refugee diaspora”: that is, among those at home, those in neighbouring territories, and those spread further afield. Each of these domains corresponds to some extent to one of the sites associated with the three “durable solutions” that UNHCR is charged with pursuing for refugees: integration in the country of first asylum, resettlement in a third country, or return to the homeland. Taking its cue from the burgeoning literature on diasporas and transnationalism, this paper explores whether the notion of “durable solutions” can be squared with the transnational character of refugees. It offers a simple schema for considering diaspora and transnational relations, and suggests that transnationalism might be considered in itself as an “enduring” if not a “durable” solution to displacement.