Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Intervention analysis with cointegrated time series: the case of the Hawaii hotel room tax.

Tourism taxes have become an important source of revenue or many tourist destinations in the USA. Among the most widely used is the hotel room tax, levied by 47 states and many localities. Room taxes are touted by proponents as a way to shift the local tax burden to non-residents, while the travel industry claims the levies significantly harm their competitiveness. Previous studies of room tax impacts have relied on ex ante estimates of demand and supply elasticities. In this study, we analyse the effect on hotel revenues of the Hawaii room tax using time series intervention analysis. We specify a time series model of revenue behaviour that captures the long-run cointegrating relationships among revenues and important income and relative price variables, as well as other short-run dynamic influences. We estimate the effect on Hawaii hotel room revenues of the 5% Hawaii hotel room tax introduced in January 1987. We find no evidence of statistically significant tax impacts.
ePREP: COMPUTER BASED PREVENTION OF RELATIONSHIP DYSFUNCTION, DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY

SCOTT R. BRAITHWAITE AND FRANK D. FINCHAMFlorida State UniversityThis study evaluated the efficacy of a computer–based relationship focused pre-ventive intervention (ePREP) relative to a depression and anxiety focused com-puter–based preventive intervention (CBASP) and a control group. Ninety–oneyoung adults in dating relationships were randomly assigned to one of the threeconditions. Assessments were conducted at baseline and at an eight week followup. Participants in the ePREP and CBASP interventions experienced significantlyreducedsymptomsofdepressionandanxietyandsignificantimprovementsinrela-tionship relevant variables relative to controls. The outcomes from the two treat-ment conditions did not significantly differ from one another. These findingssuggest that computer–based preventive interventions may be a viable andefficacious means for preventing depression, anxiety, and relationship distress.
Population Biology of Multihost Pathogens

The majority of pathogens, including many of medical and veterinary importance, can infect more than one species of host. Population biology has yet to explain why perceived evolutionary advantages of pathogen specialization are, in practice, outweighed by those of generalization. Factors that predispose pathogens to generalism include high levels of genetic diversity and abundant opportunities for cross-species transmission, and the taxonomic distributions of generalists and specialists appear to reflect these factors. Generalism also has consequences for the evolution of virulence and for pathogen epidemiology, making both much less predictable. The evolutionary advantages and disadvantages of generalism are so finely balanced that even closely related pathogens can have very different host range sizes.
A Meta-Synthesis of Qualitative Research

Increasing numbers of qualitative studies in maternal-child nursing are being published. However, clinical application and knowledge development based on those studies will be hampered unless the rich understandings gleaned from these individual studies can be synthesized. Meta-synthesis is one technique to help accumulate knowledge from qualitative research. The first section of this article explains the technique of meta-synthesis and reviews meta-syntheses published in nursing. The focus then becomes an illustration of a meta-synthesis in maternal-child nursing: Mothering multiples during the first year of life. Six qualitative studies comprised the sample for the meta-synthesis. The meta-synthesis revealed a shared set of five themes that help increase our understanding of mothering multiples: “bearing the burden,” “riding an emotional roller coaster,” “lifesaving support,” “striving for maternal justice,” and “acknowledging individuality. ” Implications for practice derived from this meta-synthesis are addressed.
On Gate Capacitance of Nanotube Networks

This letter presents a systematic investigation of the gate capacitance CG of thin-film transistors (TFTs) based on randomly distributed single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) in the channel. In order to reduce false counting of SWCNTs that do not contribute to current conduction, CG is directly measured on the TFTs using a well-established method for MOSFETs. Frequency dispersion of CG is observed, and it is found to depend on the percolation behavior in SWCNT networks. This dependence can be accounted for using an RC transmission line model. These results are of important implications for the determination of carrier mobility in nanoparticle-based TFTs.
Embryonic depletion of serotonin affects cortical development

Compelling evidence suggests that serotonin (5‐HT) is necessary for the refined organization of the cerebral cortex. Here we sought to analyse the short‐ and long‐term consequences of embryonic 5‐HT depletion on the development of the cerebral neocortex of the rat. We focused on the migration and differentiation of the pyramidal (projection) and nonpyramidal (interneuron) neuronal populations. Our paradigm used daily injection of DL‐P‐chlorophenylalanine (PCPA), a reversible inhibitor of 5‐HT synthesis, during the E12–17 stage of embryonic development, when major events in corticogenesis take place. We monitored the 5‐HT depletion induced by this treatment and showed that it led to subtle alterations in both the pyramidal and nonpyramidal neuronal populations. We found that E12–17 PCPA treatment altered the maturation of pyramidal neurons of layers III and V of the somatosensory cortex, with these cells displaying reduced dendritic arborization and complexity. These long‐lasting alterations were not associated with modification of cortical BDNF levels at postnatal stages. We also showed that PCPA treatment transiently altered the incorporation in the cortical plate of interneurons derived from the caudal ganglionic eminence, and persistently affected the differentiation of a subpopulation expressing calretinin and/or cholecystokinin.
Variation in the pattern of cranial venous sinuses and hominid phylogeny.

In 1967 Tobias noted that Australopithecus boisei cranium O.H. 5 exhibited a cranial venous sinus pattern in which the occipital sinus and the marginal sinuses of the foramen magnum appeared to have replaced the transverse-sigmoid sinuses as the major venous outflow track. Specimens of A. robustus and several more recently recovered A. boisei crania also show evidence of enlarged occipital-marginal sinuses. In contrast, A. africanus and H. habilis retain a dominant transverse-sigmoid system that characterizes the great majority of extant apes and modern human cadaver samples. Pliocene A. afarensis exhibits a high frequency of occipital-marginal drainage systems. An examination of several series of precontact North American Indian crania shows that the frequency distribution of the occipital-marginal sinus pattern is spatiotemporally disjunct , ranging from 7.5% to 28%. The Late Pleistocene sample from P redmost , Czechoslovakia, also shows a very high incidence of occipital-marginal sinus patterns (approximately 45%). These observations suggest that occipital-marginal and transverse-sigmoid sinus patterns are adaptively equivalent character states. This conclusion is supported by the fact that enlarged occipital-marginal and transverse-sigmoid sinus systems often coexist on the same and/or contralateral sides of the head. It is well known that the frequencies of such adaptively neutral traits are often heavily influenced by population-specific epistatic interactions. The utilization of such traits in phylogenetic reconstruction entails a substantial risk of mistaking parallelism for synapomorphy . It is concluded that using functional-adaptive criteria in the definition of morphologic characters is a more reliable method to guide phylogeny reconstruction. In light of this, the distribution of venous sinus variants in Plio -Pleistocene hominids gives little or no basis for revising the phylogenetic scheme of Johanson and White (1979), or the functional-adaptive interpretation offered by White et al. (1981).
Determinants of customer intentions for online shopping: A Study from Pakistan

Time and trend wait for none. We are in 2013 where time is money. In past people travels hundred miles for transactions, which was a time consuming activity. This courage’s people to shop online instead manual shopping. Online Shopping (OS) has totally changed the people perception about shopping. Generally the objective of this research is to discover the influence of different variables on online shopping intention. Specifically the aim of this study is to find the impact of Prior Online Shopping Experience (POSE) on Perceived Ease Of Use (PEOU) , Perceived Usefulness (PU) and Perceived Risk (PR) then PEOU, PU and PR influence on Attitude Towards Online Shopping Intention (ATOSI) and farther the influence of ATOS on Online Shopping Intention (OSI) . A questioner survey has been conducted to test the hypothesis. The sample of 200 respondents received through these questioners. The result shows that POS didn’t has any effect on PU, PEOU and PR while PU and PEOU has positive significant effect and PR has a negative effect on ATOSI. This study also found that ATOSI has a positive significant effect on online shopping intention.
A lower bound on the angles of triangles constructed by bisecting the longest side

Let AA A A be a triangle with vertices at A1, A2 and A3. The process of "bisecting AA A A is defined as follows. We first locate the longest edge, A'Ai+i of AA 1A2A3 where A'+3 = Al, set D = (A' + Ai+l)/2, and then define two new tri- angles, AA'DAi+2 and ADAi+1Ai+2.
Tmc gene therapy restores auditory function in deaf mice

Injection of AAV vectors that encoded wild-type Tmc1 or Tmc2 restores auditory function in mouse models of human deafnesses DFNB7/11 and DFNA36. Can you hear me now? Because genetics is a major cause of deafness, Askew and colleagues developed a therapeutic approach to replace mutant genes associated with the mechanotransduction machinery of the inner ear. The gene encoding transmembrane channel–like 1, Tmc1, or its ortholog, Tmc2, was packaged in adeno-associated viral vectors and delivered to mice with mutations in Tmc1 or Beethoven—models representative of autosomal recessive and dominant human deafness, respectively. Both vectors were able to transduce inner hair cells of the mouse cochlea, and partially restore hearing, as determined by auditory brainstem responses and startle reflexes. More than 30 TMC1 mutations have been implicated in recessive prelingual deafness, so it is hoped that this gene therapeutic approach will work long-term to maintain hearing recovery, perhaps supplementary existing technologies such as cochlear implants and hearing aids. Genetic hearing loss accounts for up to 50% of prelingual deafness worldwide, yet there are no biologic treatments currently available. To investigate gene therapy as a potential biologic strategy for restoration of auditory function in patients with genetic hearing loss, we tested a gene augmentation approach in mouse models of genetic deafness. We focused on DFNB7/11 and DFNA36, which are autosomal recessive and dominant deafnesses, respectively, caused by mutations in transmembrane channel–like 1 (TMC1). Mice that carry targeted deletion of Tmc1 or a dominant Tmc1 point mutation, known as Beethoven, are good models for human DFNB7/11 and DFNA36. We screened several adeno-associated viral (AAV) serotypes and promoters and identified AAV2/1 and the chicken β-actin (Cba) promoter as an efficient combination for driving the expression of exogenous Tmc1 in inner hair cells in vivo. Exogenous Tmc1 or its closely related ortholog, Tmc2, were capable of restoring sensory transduction, auditory brainstem responses, and acoustic startle reflexes in otherwise deaf mice, suggesting that gene augmentation with Tmc1 or Tmc2 is well suited for further development as a strategy for restoration of auditory function in deaf patients who carry TMC1 mutations.
Lanreotide autogel every 6 weeks compared with Lanreotide microparticles every 3 weeks in patients with well differentiated neuroendocrine tumors

The noninferiority of a 6‐week dosing schedule of lanreotide Autogel (Lan ATG) at a dose of 120 mg compared with a 3‐week dosing schedule of lanreotide microparticles (Lan MP) at a dose of 60 mg was investigated in patients with neuroendocrine tumors (NET).
Reliability of Secondary Central Coding of Medical Problems in Primary Care by Non-medical Coders, using the International Classification of Primary Care (ICPC)

Introduction: There are several ways to codify medical problems in primary care. ICPC was developed as an epidemiological tool for use by primary care provider during the consultation as a primary decentralized coding system. In practice however this is difficult to se up, so we apply ICPC in a secondary centralized coding system by a limited number of non medical coders. Objectives: To assess the reliability of secondary central coding of medical problems by trained medical students and nurses using ICPC. Material and Methods: All medical problems in our adult population recorded by primary care physicians in a electronic medical record system as narrative text are centralized coded by trained medical students and nurses. Use of the electronic medical record by physicians is not compulsive but is strongly encouraged. A random sample of 300 medical problems were selected for intra-coder reliability by asking coders to blindly re-code the free text and comparing it with the previous coding, and for intercoder reliability by comparison with a group of expert physicians. Percentage of agreement and Kappa statistic was calculated at chapter and rubric levels. The coding centre was treated as a single observer, as the objective was to assess the system reliability and not observers themselves. Results: In the last two years 164,745 medical problems were codified in 45,365 adult patients (mean 3.63 problems DS: 2.69). Intra-coder agreement at chapter level was: 97,7 % (Kappa: 0,97; p<0.0001) and at rubric level was 86,3 % (Kappa: 0,86; p<0.0001). Chapters with lower percents of agreement at rubric level for intra-coder reliability were female genital, social and ear problems. Inter-coder agreement at chapter level was: 95 % (Kappa: 0,94; p<0,0001) and at rubric level was 82,3 % (Kappa: 0,82; p<0,0001). Chapters with lower percents of agreement at rubric level for inter-coder reliability were female genital, neurological, general and social problems. Conclusion: Centralized secondary coding with the ICPC by non medical coders is reliable, and can be used for coding medical problems.
Seminar: Applied Methods in Transport Planning

The Copenhagen metro opened for operation on October 19th, 2002. Some three months later the counted traffic flow in the metro for an average working day was about 56,000 passengers. This is about 9% less than the official metro forecasts that origin from the operational traffic model for Copenhagen. The paper aims to provide a detailed validation of the model’s forecasting results relative to different types of external data, i.e. national and international travel surveys, and traffic counts, focusing at the structure of the passenger demand and passenger assignment models as parts of the Copenhagen model. The model is validated for forecast years 2000 and 2003. For year 2000, generation and distribution model may be compared with data from the 2000 Danish national travel survey and some available international travel surveys. The most important external data for the model validation in the year 2003 are traffic counts for the metro, bus, train and car traffic.
On the effectiveness of accelerating MapReduce functions using the Xilinx Vivado HLS tool

Programming FPGAs requires advanced hardware design skills which limits their adoption in data centres. FPGA vendors have provided high level synthesis HLS tools to build register transfer level RTL specifications from designs provided in high level languages. We present a suite of C and C++-based hardware accelerators for the Purdue MapReduce benchmark suite and use the Xilinx Vivado HLS tool to compare their performance and resource efficiency to hand-coded RTL code. We show that simple design changes in the high level language-based accelerators can improve results. Using Vivado HLS, five benchmarks match the performance of hand optimised RTL while sort, self join, adjacency list and word count algorithms are about 4.7×, 3×, 2× and 1.3× slower, respectively.
Immunodeficiency/anaemia syndrome in a Dales pony

THE syndrome of anaemia and immunodeficiency was first recognised in Fell pony foals in the UK in 1997 (Scholes and others 1998) and has since been reported in the same breed in the Netherlands (Butler and others 2006) and the USA (Gardner and others 2006); there have been no reports of the syndrome in any other horse breed. Affected foals are apparently normal at birth, but the disease first manifests at two to six weeks of age; the reported characteristic clinical signs include weakness, dyspnoea, nasal discharge, poor growth, reduced appetite, diarrhoea and pale gums. A profound and progressive fall in red blood cell count (packed cell value [PCV] <20 per cent) is a notable early feature. The number of circulating lymphocytes is reduced and there is an increase in the number of peripheral blood polymorphonuclear cells (Dixon and others 2000). Analyses of lymphocyte subpopulations show normal numbers of circulating T lymphocytes (Bell and others 2001) but severely reduced numbers of circulating B lymphocytes (Thomas and others 2003); there are also low concentrations of circulating immunoglobulins in affected foals (Thomas and others 2005). These changes coincide with episodes of opportunistic bacterial, viral and parasitic infections. Typically, these changes persist for three to six weeks, with the foal becoming progressively weaker due to systemic infections and profound anaemia; the PCV can decrease to as low as 3 per cent. Attempts at symptomatic treatment have been made; including rehydration, antibiotics, enteral/parenteral nutrition, analgesia, supplementation with vitamins and selenium, blood transfusions and injections of erythropoietin. None of these is reported to have had any effect apart from a short-term delay in the death or euthanasia of the affected foal. No foals have been recorded as surviving the syndrome. At postmortem examination, there are many distinctive changes associated with the disorder, including glossal hyperkeratosis and diphtheritic fungal glossitis (usually associated with Candida species), colitis, pneumonia, inactive or aplastic bone marrow, and a hypoplastic thymus and lymph nodes (Scholes and others 1998, Richards and others
Promoter-specific trans activation and repression by human cytomegalovirus immediate-early proteins involves common and unique protein domains

trans activation of promoters by viral regulatory proteins provides a useful tool to study coordinate control of gene expression. Immediate-early (IE) regions 1 and 2 of human cytomegalovirus (CMV) code for a series of proteins that originate from differentially spliced mRNAs. These IE proteins are proposed to regulate the temporal expression of the viral genome. To examine the structure and function of the IE proteins, we used linker insertion mutagenesis of the IE gene region as well as cDNA expression vector cloning of the abundant IE mRNAs. We showed that IE1 and IE2 proteins of CMV exhibit promoter-specific differences in their modes of action by either trans activating early and IE promoters or repressing the major IE promoter (MIEP). Transient cotransfection experiments with permissive human cells revealed a synergistic interaction between the 72- and the 86-kilodalton (kDa) IE proteins in trans activating an early promoter. In addition, transfection studies revealed that the 72-kDa protein was capable of trans activating the MIEP. In contrast, the 86-kDa protein specifically repressed the MIEP and this repression was suppressed by the 72-kDa protein. Furthermore, observations based on the primary sequence structure revealed a modular arrangement of putative regulatory motifs that could either potentiate or repress gene expression. These modular domains are either shared or unique among the IE proteins. From these data, we propose a model for IE protein function in the coordinate control of CMV gene expression.
Understanding of informed consent by demented individuals

Background: The informed consent process is central to the conduct of research but may be difficult for cognitively impaired participants to understand. The authors developed a brief test addressing the elements of informed consent for a specific minimum-risk nontreatment research protocol. Objective: To evaluate and document understanding of informed consent by elderly research participants across a range of dementia severity. Methods: The elements of informed consent regarding participation in a longitudinal study of healthy aging and dementia were reviewed with both demented (n = 250) and nondemented (n = 165) participants who then completed a short test requiring yes–no responses to assess understanding of these elements. Demented participants had very mild, mild, or moderate dementia as staged by the Clinical Dementia Rating. Results: After adjusting for education, performance on the test varied with dementia severity in mean differences and by correlation. All nondemented and very mildly demented participants and 92% of mildly demented participants provided correct answers for at least 8 of 10 true–false items, whereas only 67% of the moderately demented participants achieved this level of accuracy. Conclusions: Demented individuals, very mild and mild, understood informed consent information for this nontreatment research study. Understanding notably declined in the moderate stage of dementia. Brief tests may be useful as one method to assess understanding of the consent process for specific studies.
Distinct roles of different forms of vitamin E in DHA-induced apoptosis in triple-negative breast cancer cells.

SCOPE Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) has been shown to exhibit anticancer actions in vitro and in vivo in a variety of cancers. Here, we investigated the role for DHA in inducing apoptosis in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) and studied the mechanisms of action. METHODS AND RESULTS DHA induces apoptosis as detected by Annexin V-FITC/PI assay as well as induces cleavage of caspase-8 and -9, endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS), and elevated levels of death receptor-5 (DR5) protein expression as detected by western blot assays. Chemical inhibitors of caspase-8 and -9 and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) show DHA to induce ERS/CHOP/DR5-mediated caspase-8 and -9 dependent apoptosis. Furthermore, DHA induces elevated cellular levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and antioxidant; RRR-α-tocopherol (αT) blocked DHA-induced apoptotic events. In contrast to the antagonistic impact of αT, gamma-tocotrienol (γT3) was demonstrated to cooperate with DHA in inducing apoptotic events in TNBC cells. CONCLUSION Data, for the first time, demonstrate that DHA induces apoptosis in TNBC cells via activation of ERS/CHOP/DR5-mediated caspase-8 and -9 dependent pro-apoptotic events, and that different forms of vitamin E exhibit distinct effects on DHA-induced apoptosis; namely, inhibition by αT and enhancement by γT3.