Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A mortality survey of employees engaged in the development or manufacture of styrene-based products.

The authors examined the mortality experience of employees whose work assignments involved development or production of styrene-based products. To investigate potential relationships between mortality and work exposure in the diverse chemical operations under study, a multiple agent approach to exposure categorization was adopted. Mortality was less than that of the corresponding U.S. white male population and was consistent with that of an industrial comparison group. Although deaths due to malignant neoplasms were fewer than expected for the total cohort, an increase in lymphatic leukemia was observed among a subgroup of employees who had exposure to polymer extrusion fumes, solvents, and colorants. However, no relationship was found with duration or intensity of exposures experiences by these employees, and the etiology of the lymphatic leukemias was not established. The approach used to characterize exposure in this study may have application in other epidemiologic investigations involving complex work environments.
The Validity and Reliability of Noninvasive Methods for Measuring Kyphosis

Study Design: This is a cross-sectional study. Objective: To examine the interrater and intrarater reliability and validity of tools for measuring thoracic kyphosis, namely the digital inclinometer and the flexicurve. Summary of Background Data: Various methods are used to measure kyphosis, and each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Radiography is common, highly reliable, and valid but unsuitable for regular use because of radiation exposure and cost. Other clinical methods allow safe and rapid assessment of spinal curvature. The validity and reliability of some nclinometers have been confirmed; however, there are no data that compare inclinometers and flexicurves using radiography for measuring thoracic kyphosis. Methods: We enrolled 105 patients with hyperkyphosis, aged between 10 and 80 years. The Cobb angle was measured radiographically by a spine specialist. Two other examiners, blinded to the Cobb angles, measured thoracic kyphosis using the flexicurve and digital inclinometer. Results: Comparing the kyphosis angle with the radiographic Cobb angle, as a gold standard, revealed that the digital inclinometer was reasonably valid for patients aged below 30 and above 50 years, whereas the validity of the flexicurve in both age ranges was poor. On the intrarater evaluation, the digital inclinometer provided a high reliability in patients aged below 30 and above 50 years; however, the flexicurve was also acceptable in this regard. In contrast, on the interrater evaluation, the digital inclinometer provided a high reliability in subjects aged below 30 and above 50 years. The flexicurve provided a poor interrater reliability in subjects aged below 30 years and an acceptable level of reliability in those aged above 50 years. Conclusions: The digital inclinometer is a valid and reliable instrument for measuring thoracic kyphosis and can be used for regular screening. In contrast, the flexicurve has poor interrater and intrarater reliability.
The Evolution of Catholic-Protestant Labour Market Inequality in Northern Ireland, 1983-2014

Ethnic and religious differentials in labour market outcomes within many countries have been remarkably persistent. Yet one very well-known differential â€“ the Catholic/Protestant unemployment differential in Northern Ireland â€“ has largely (although not completely) disappeared. This paper charts its decline since the mid-1980s and examines potential explanations using Census data from 1991, 2001 and 2011 together with annual survey data. These data span the ending of The Troubles, the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, the introduction of fair employment legislation, growth in hidden unemployment, and major structural changes in Northern Ireland. We assess the relative contributions of these changes.
A prospective study of X-ray imaging combined with skin stimulation potential-guided percutaneous radiofrequency thermocoagulation of the Gasserian ganglion for treatment of trigeminal neuralgia.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the clinical efficacy of X-ray imaging combined with skin stimulation potential-guided percutaneous radiofrequency thermocoagulation of the Gasserian ganglion for treatment of primary trigeminal neuralgia. DESIGN This is a prospective, randomized study. Sixty patients with primary trigeminal neuralgia were randomly assigned to a study group or control group. In the study group, the patients underwent X-ray imaging combined with skin stimulation potential-guided percutaneous radiofrequency thermocoagulation of the Gasserian ganglion. The patients in the control group underwent C-arm X-ray-guided puncture through the foramen ovale, and then the puncture needle was microscopically adjusted according to the intensity of the masticatory muscle response and the patients' reactions. Puncture success, postoperative adverse reactions, and short- and middle-term analgesic efficacies were statistically compared between the two surgical approaches. RESULTS The incidence of postoperative side effects was significantly reduced, and immediate and mid-term analgesic efficacy was better in patients in the study group comparing with those in the control group (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION Using skin stimulation potential-guided puncture may enable more accurate microscopic adjustment of the targets localization damaged by radiofrequency and significantly enhanced clinical efficacy in this study.
Treatment of allergic asthma with monoclonal anti-IgE antibody. rhuMAb-E25 Study Group.

BACKGROUND Immune responses mediated by IgE are important in the pathogenesis of allergic asthma. A recombinant humanized monoclonal antibody (rhuMAb-E25) forms complexes with free IgE and blocks its interaction with mast cells and basophils. We studied the efficacy of rhuMab-E25 as a treatment for moderate-to-severe allergic asthma. METHODS After a 4-week run-in period, we randomly assigned 317 subjects (age range, 11 to 50 years) who required inhaled or oral corticosteroids (or both) to receive either placebo or one of two regimens of rhuMAB-E25: high-dose rhuMAb-E25 (5.8 microg per kilogram of body weight per nanogram of IgE per milliliter or low-dose rhuMAb-E25 (2.5 microg per kilogram per nanogram of IgE per milliliter) intravenously on days 0 (half a dose), 4 (half a dose), and 7 (full dose) and then once every 2 weeks thereafter for 20 weeks. For the first 12 weeks of the study, the subjects continued the regimen of corticosteroids they had received before enrollment. During the following eight weeks, the doses of corticosteroids were tapered in an effort to discontinue this therapy. The primary outcome measure was an improvement in the asthma symptom score at 12 weeks, according to a 7-point scale, in which a score of 1 indicated no symptoms and a score of 7 the most severe symptoms. RESULTS A total of 106 subjects were assigned to receive a high dose of rhuMAb-E25, 106 were assigned to receive a low dose, and 105 were assigned to receive placebo. At base line, the mean asthma symptom score was 4.0. After 12 weeks of therapy, the mean (+/-SE) scores were 2.8+/-0.1 in the high-dose group (P=0.008) and 2.8+/-0.1 in the low-dose group (P=0.005), as compared with 3.8+/-0.1 in the placebo group. At 20 weeks, the mean scores were 2.7+/-0.1 in both the high-dose group (P=0.048) and the low-dose group (P=0.14), as compared with 2.9+/-0.1 in the placebo group. More subjects in the two rhuMAb-E25 groups were able to decrease or discontinue their use of corticosteroids than in the placebo group, but only some of the differences were significant. After 20 weeks, serum free IgE concentrations decreased by a mean of more than 95 percent in both rhuMAb-E25 groups. The therapy was well tolerated. After 20 weeks, none of the subjects had antibodies against rhuMAb-E25. CONCLUSIONS A recombinant humanized monoclonal antibody directed against IgE has potential as a treatment for subjects with moderate or severe allergic asthma.
Roll-Call Votes in the German Bundestag: A New Dataset, 1949–2013

This letter introduces a comprehensive data collection on roll-call votes (RCVs) in the German Bundestag between 1949 and 2013. RCVs are one of the most important data sources on parliamentary behavior. Beyond producing legislative output, RCVs put the positions of Members of Parliament (MPs) and party groups on the public record, serve party leaders as an instrument with which to monitor backbench behavior, and enable opposition parties to obstruct parliamentary business (Saalfeld 1995a). RCVs from various parliaments have been used to investigate, among others, party competition and legislative coalition formation, the strategic behavior of individual MPs and legislative parties, party unity and intraparty politics, and MP responsiveness to voters and other outside interests (for example, Carey 2007; Carrubba, Gabel and Hug 2008; Eggers and Spirling 2016; Hix 2004; Hix and Noury 2016; Poole and Rosenthal 1997). Empirical research can rely on comprehensive longitudinal roll-call data for a number of countries, most notably the US Congress (for example, Lewis et al. 2017; Poole and Rosenthal 1997),1 the European Parliament (Hix, Noury and Roland 2005), and the British House of Commons (for example, Eggers and Spirling 2016; Norton 1975); on some cross-country comparative datasets for shorter periods of time (Carey 2007; Coman 2015; Hix and Noury 2016; Sieberer 2006); and on numerous contemporary and historical single-country datasets.2 For the German Bundestag, RCV data has thus far only been available for limited periods of time (Ohmura 2014b; Saalfeld 1995b; Sieberer 2010; Stratmann 2006). At the same time, the Bundestag is an attractive parliament to study. It is one of the most powerful legislatures in a parliamentary democracy (Sieberer 2011); its internal organization is rather elaborate (Saalfeld 2000); and its mixed electoral system offers attractive opportunities to analyze one of the most fundamental aspects of legislative behavior: the effect of electoral rules on legislative voting (for example, Manow 2015; Sieberer 2010; Sieberer 2015). The datasets described here contain information on individual voting behavior and a wide array of variables that characterize the MPs and RCVs they voted on. The data are freely available to the academic community at Harvard Dataverse.3 In this letter, we describe the structure of the datasets, present descriptive information on key variables and discuss potential research questions to be addressed with the data.
Explaining Changing Trends in Political Participation in Britain between 1983 and 2015

The way in which citizens choose to express themselves in the political realm has changed dramatically in recent decades and clear trends have developed whereby voter turnout, party membership and other forms of institutionalised political engagement are caught in a downward spiral compared to innovative ways of civic engagement appearing to be on the rise across most liberal democracies (Dalton, 2008; Inglehart & Catterberg, 2002; Klingeman & Fuchs, 1995; Norris, 2002; Pattie et al., 2004). This thesis will therefore use the three theories of Social Capital, Cognitive Mobility and General Incentives in an attempt to assess the causes of, and ultimately explain, these aforementioned trends. The three theories each take a very different approach and will therefore offer a broad spectrum of potential explanations.
Open sesame: Analysing Public Library of Science as a site of production and distribution for open access scientific information and knowledge

This article explores the Public Library of Science as a site that produces and disseminates open access scientific information and knowledge for the public good. Through this case study, issues of property ownership, the nature and political economy of biological information, scientific expertise and accessibility of information and scientific knowledge as a public good are considered. Drawing on a cultural industries perspective, I examine the various intermediaries and institutional arrangements that continue to impact and shape the production and dissemination of this open access knowledge. I suggest that Public Library of Science embodies a new mode for the social production of scholarly knowledge and its dissemination, with important implications for how scientific knowledge and expertise are created, certified and circulated.
SOVEREIGN DEBT IN THE UNITED STATES AND GROWTH EXPECTATIONS

This paper shows empirical evidence and theory consistent with the US government using debt optimally to adjust the federal budget to news about long-term growth. First, using historical forecasts from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) since 1984, I find that government purchases and deficits are positively correlated with expectations about long-term productivity, real gross domestic product, and tax revenue growth, whereas tax receipts are negatively correlated. A structural vector autoregression estimated with US quarterly data in 1955–2015 identifies permanent and transitory productivity shocks and points to “trend” shocks as the source of these correlations. Second, I present an open economy real business-cycle model with stochastic productivity trend and optimal public purchases and taxes. Calibrating the model to the US economy, the Ramsey planners' allocation yields moments aligned with those observed in the data.
Association of four new candidate genetic variants with Parkinson's disease in a Han Chinese population

Large‐scale meta‐analysis of genome‐wide association data has identified six new risk loci (SIPA1L2, INPP5F, MIR4697, GCH1, VPS13C, and DDRGK1) for Parkinson's disease (PD). However, the characteristics of those loci in a Han Chinese population from mainland China are unknown. We examined genetic associations of VPS13C rs2414739, MIR4697 rs329648, GCH1 rs11158026, and SIPA1L2 rs10797576 with PD susceptibility in a Han Chinese population of 1028 sporadic PD patients and 1109 healthy controls. All subjects were genotyped for these loci using the Sequenom iPLEX Assay. We also conducted further stratified analysis according to age at onset and compared the clinical characteristics between minor allele carriers and non‐carriers for each locus. However, we did not observe any significant difference in genotype distribution between PD patients and controls for the four loci, even after being stratified by age at onset. Besides, minor allele carriers cannot be distinguished from non‐carriers based on their clinical features. Our findings first demonstrated that VPS13C rs2414739, MIR4697 rs329648, GCH1 rs11158026, and SIPA1L2 rs10797576 do not confer a significant risk for PD in Chinese population. Additional replication studies in other populations and functional studies are warranted to better validate the role of the four new loci in PD risk. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Coordination of fingertip forces during precision grip in premanifest Huntington's disease

Precision grip control is important for accurate object manipulation and requires coordination between horizontal (grip) and vertical (load) fingertip forces. Manifest Huntington's disease (HD) subjects demonstrate excessive and highly variable grip force and delayed coordination between grip and load forces. Because the onset of these impairments is unknown, we examined precision grip control in premanifest HD (pre‐HD) subjects. Fifteen pre‐HD and 15 age‐ and sex‐matched controls performed the precision grip task in a seated position. Subjects grasped and lifted an object instrumented with a force transducer that measured horizontal grip and vertical load forces. Outcomes were preload time, loading time, maximum grip force, mean static grip force, and variability for all measures. We compared outcomes across groups and correlated grip measures with the Unified Huntington's Disease Rating Scale and predicted age of onset. Variability of maximum grip force (P < .0001) and variability of static grip force (P < .00001) were higher for pre‐HD subjects. Preload time (P < .007) and variability of preload time (P < .006) were higher in pre‐HD subjects. No differences were seen in loading time across groups. Variability of static grip force (r2 = 0.23) and variability of preload time (r2 = 0.59) increased with predicted onset and were correlated with tests of cognitive function. Our results indicate that pre‐HD patients have poor regulation of the transition between reach and grasp and higher variability in force application and temporal coordination during the precision grip task. Force and temporal variability may be good markers of disease severity because they were correlated with predicted onset of disease. © 2011 Movement Disorder Society
Evidence from the ‘Frontline’? An Ethnographic Problematisation of Welfare-to-Work Administrator Opinions

Researchers both supportive and critical of welfare schemes regularly explore the influence, legitimacy and effects of welfare administrator opinions. However, the ‘origins’ of those opinions are generally less well considered. This article explores and problematises the use of welfare-to-work administrator testimony in social science and social policy research. Rejecting both Foucauldian models of ‘elite conceptual download’, and approaches that take administrator views at face value, it argues that the material circumstances of day-to-day working may constitute the most significant influence on administrator views. This both supports a more materialist, less idealist and/or positivistic approach, and also suggests the pressing need for more contextualised, ethnographic analysis of data in welfare-to-work debates.
Induction of DNA synthesis in dog thyrocytes in primary culture: Synergistic effects of thyrotropin and cyclic AMP with epidermal growth factor and insulin

We have investigated the growth effects of thyrotropin (TSH) (mimicked by forskolin and acting through cyclic AMP), epidermal growth factor (EGF), serum (10%) and insulin on quiescent dog thyroid epithelial cells in primary culture in a serum‐free defined medium. These cells were previously shown to retain the capacity to express major thyroid differentiation markers. In the presence of insulin and after a similar prepreplicative phase of 18 ± 2h, TSH, EGF, and serum promoted DNA synthesis in such quiescent cells only a minority of which had proliferated in vitro before stimulation. The combination of these factors induced more than 90% of the cells to enter S phase within 48 h and near exponetial proliferation. Analysis of the cell cycle parameters of the stimulated cells revealed that the G1 period duration was similar to the length of the prepreplicative phase of quiescent thyroid cells; this might indicate that they were in fact in an early G1 stage rather than in G0 prior to stimulation. TSH and EGF action depended on or was potentiated by insulin. Strikingly, nanomolar concentrations of insulin were sufficient to support stimulation of DNA synthesis by TSH, while micromolar concentrations of insulin were required for the action of EGF. This suggests that insulin supported the action of TSH by acting on its own high affinity receptors, whereas its effect on EGF action would be related to its somatomedinike effects at high supraphysiological concentrations. Insulin stimulated the progression in the prepreplicative phase initiated by TSH or forskolin. In addition, in some primary cultures TSH must act together with insulin to stimulate early events of the prereplicative phase. In the presence of insulin, EGF, and forskolin, an adenylate cylase activator, markedly synergized to induce DNA synthesis. Addition of forskolin 24 h after EGF or EGF 24 h after forskolin also resulted in amplification of the growth response but with a lag equal to the prepreplicative period observed with the single compound. This indicates that events induced by the second factor can no longer be integrated during the prereplicative phase set by the first factor. These finding demonstrate the importance of synergistic cooperation between hormones and growth factors for the induction of DNA synthesis in epithelial thyroid cells and support the proposal that essentially different mitogenic pathways‐cyclic AMP‐dependent or independent‐may coexist in one cell.
Prevention of murine collagen-induced arthritis in the knee and ipsilateral paw by local expression of human interleukin-1 receptor antagonist protein in the knee.

OBJECTIVE To determine the efficacy of local human interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (HuIL-1Ra) gene therapy in murine collagen-induced arthritis (CIA). METHODS DBA/1 mice were immunized against bovine type II collagen. Before the onset of arthritis, NIH/3T3 fibroblasts transfected with pMFG-IRAP were transplanted into the knee cavity. Normal NIH/3T3 cells served as controls. Paws were evaluated macroscopically for redness, swelling, and deformities during the course of arthritis. Swelling of the knee joints was measured by external gamma counting of 99mtechnetium accumulation in the joint. Paws and knee joints were dissected and processed for histologic studies to evaluate inflammation and cartilage destruction. RESULTS The NIH/3T3 fibroblasts survived in the joint cavity of DBA mice for at least 7 days. The transduced cells expressed immunoreactive and bioactive HuIL-1Ra in the knee joint, and produced sufficient amounts to block the effect of 1 ng of recombinant murine IL-1alpha on chondrocyte proteoglycan synthesis. The onset of CIA was almost completely prevented in knee joints containing HuIL-1Ra-producing cells, whereas joints containing normal cells showed severe inflammation and destruction of cartilage. Moreover, onset of CIA in the draining joints (ipsilateral paws) of the HuIL-1Ra gene-bearing knees was also prevented. CONCLUSION Local production of HuIL-1Ra in the knee was able to ameliorate the effects of IL-1 on cartilage and could prevent the onset of CIA not only in that knee, but also in the "draining" paw. This indicates the feasibility of gene transfer as a therapeutic approach to modulating arthritis.
A Doctor Looks at Health Economics

Inequality in health is back on the political agenda in the UK. Three factors have made inequality an issue - firstly, concern that the internal market will enable some, notably patients of GP Fundholders, to get better treatment than other NHS patients, secondly, a revival of interest in community values, bringing with it a recognition of the impact of poverty on life expectancy, and thirdly, greater awareness that health care is being rationed, and will increasingly be so, irrespective of which political party is in Government. These factors require a more explicit debate about entitlement to healthcare, and about how we decide how much to spend on healthcare. It was therefore a particular privilege to have Sir Douglas Black give the inaugural O H E annual lecture, which was held on 8 March 1994. The 1980 'Black Report' was the first to document the extent of health inequality in the UK, proposing measures to tackle some of the social roots of poor health, as well as to ensure that the NHS helped to reduce inequality in health. In his lecture Douglas Black discusses the factors determining health, how healthcare should be financed and organised to minimise inequality and the role that cost-effectiveness analysis and public consultation can play in taking difficult decisions about rationing healthcare.