Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Oral Zinc Sulphate in Treatment of Alopecia Areata (Double Blind; Cross- Over Study)

Background: Alopecia areata is a common autoimmune disease that encountered world-wide. Many modalities have been used but no one was universally effective. Zinc sulphate has been used in the treatment of many skin diseases. Objective: To establish the effectiveness of oral zinc sulphate in the treatment of patchy alopecia areata Patients and Methods: Patients with alopecia areata who attended the Department of Dermatology-Baghdad Teaching Hospital was recruited into randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind cross- over trial between February 2008 and September 2009. Patients were randomly allocated to receive either zinc sulphate 5mg /kg/day in three divided doses (Group A) or identical placebo capsules (Group B). Zinc sulphate and placebo capsules were given in a double-blind manner, following 3 months of starting the treatment, the patients crossed over, i.e. patients on zinc sulphate shifted to placebo and vice versa. Results: One hundred patients (60 males and 40 females) with patchy AA met the inclusion criteria and enrolled for the study. Sixty-seven patients completed the study, 41(61%) males and 26 (39%) females, their ages ranged from 1.6 - 68 (22.031 ± 14.8505) years. Duration of the disease ranged from 1 - 48 (14.4 ±14.8875) weeks. In group A, at the end of third month, complete hair re-growth with terminal hairs have been obtained in 22 (59.45%) patients. After shifting to placebo treatment the hair continued to grow without relapse and at the end of sixth month, the complete hair re-growth was occurred in 23(62.16%) patients. In group B, at the end of third month, complete hair re-growth had been obtained in 3 (10%) patients. While, after shifting to zinc sulphate the complete hair re-growth obtained in 20 (66.67%) patients. No important side effects were reported apart from mild gastric upset in 8 (11.9%) patients. Conclusion: Oral zinc sulphate is one of the effective treatment options for AA with low relapse rate after stopping of the treatment.
Mobile information seeking and political participation: A differential gains approach with offline and online discussion attributes

This study, derived from a differential gains model, examines how mobile-based political information seeking is associated with offline and online political participation in interaction with three political discussion features: frequency, size, and heterogeneity. Data from a Web survey of an online panel indicate that the link between mobile information seeking and offline and online political participation is greater for respondents who discuss politics with others face to face and online more frequently and a greater diversity of others face to face and online.
The mechanism of miR-143 inducing apoptosis of liver carcinoma cells through regulation of the NF-κB pathway

Primary hepatic carcinoma is a common malignant tumor with poor treatment efficacy. The effect and mechanism of miR-143 in apoptosis of liver carcinoma cells were investigated in the present study. In vitro transfection of liver carcinoma SMMC-7721 cells was performed using artificially synthesized miR-143 mimics. The proliferation of liver carcinoma cells that were treated was detected by MTT assay. Liver carcinoma cells were then stained using the Annexin V-FITC/PI method, and the apoptosis of stained liver carcinoma cells was measured using a flow cytometer. The relative mRNA expression of NF-κB p65 in the intervention and control groups was assayed using reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction, and the protein expression of NF-κB p65 was detected using western blot analysis. The results showed that, in the intervention group, the proliferation rate of cells transfected using miR-143 mimics was significantly lower than that in the control group, the number of apoptotic SMMC-7721 cells in the intervention group increased, and the protein expression of NF-κB p65 was decreased. Thus, miR-143 may downregulate the protein expression of NF-κB p65, thereby triggering the NF-κB signaling transduction pathway inducing apoptosis of liver carcinoma cells.
Topic Modeling based on Keywords and Context

Current topic models often suffer from discovering topics not matching human intuition, unnatural switching of topics within documents and high computational demands. We address these concerns by proposing a topic model and an inference algorithm based on automatically identifying characteristic keywords for topics. Keywords influence topic-assignments of nearby words. Our algorithm learns (key)word-topic scores and it self-regulates the number of topics. Inference is simple and easily parallelizable. Qualitative analysis yields comparable results to state-of-the-art models (eg. LDA), but with different strengths and weaknesses. Quantitative analysis using 9 datasets shows gains in terms of classification accuracy, PMI score, computational performance and consistency of topic assignments within documents, while most often using less topics.
Effects of aspirin on proliferation, invasion and apoptosis of Hep-2 cells via the PTEN/AKT/NF-κB/survivin signaling pathway

Aspirin may exhibit antitumor activities, as it is able to inhibit cell proliferation. However, the ability of aspirin to inhibit cellular proliferation in Hep-2 cells and its underlying molecular mechanisms have been poorly determined. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether aspirin may induce cell apoptosis in the neoplastic cell line Hep-2. The effects of aspirin on the migratory and invasive abilities of Hep-2 cells were also investigated using Transwell assays. In the present study, it was demonstrated that aspirin induced apoptosis and inhibited proliferation, migration and invasion in Hep-2 cells. Aspirin also significantly decreased the expression of B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) and caspase-3, and increased the expression of Bcl-2-associated X protein, suggesting that aspirin induced apoptosis through the intrinsic apoptotic pathway. Hep-2 cells treated with aspirin exhibited a significant upregulation of phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) and decreased levels of phosphorylated protein kinase B (AKT). However, the total amount of AKT protein was not altered in response to aspirin treatment. Furthermore, the expression of nuclear factor (NF)-κB and survivin, which are the downstream targets of the PTEN/AKT signaling pathway, was inhibited. These results indicated that the molecular mechanism underlying the antitumor effects of aspirin may be associated with the inhibition of tumor invasion and induction of apoptosis by regulating the activity of the PTEN/AKT/NF-κB/survivin signaling pathway.
The Determinants of Public Expenditures in Jordan

This paper aims at analysing the factors that affect the Jordanian total government expenditures. This study also employs a specific methodology to assess the nature of the relationship between Jordanian public spending and its determinants. A main result of this research is that population, unemployment and inflation rates are significantly related to the public expenditures.
Hydrogen peroxide-induced oxidative stress responses in Desulfovibrio vulgaris Hildenboroughemi_2234 1..13

Aifen Zhou,1,2 Zhili He,1,2 Alyssa M. Redding-Johanson,1,3 Aindrila Mukhopadhyay,1,3 Christopher L. Hemme,1,2 Marcin P. Joachimiak,1,4 Feng Luo,5 Ye Deng,1,2 Kelly S. Bender,1,6 Qiang He,1,7 Jay D. Keasling,1,3 David A. Stahl,1,8 Matthew W. Fields,1,9 Terry C. Hazen,1,4 Adam P. Arkin,1,4 Judy D. Wall1,10 and Jizhong Zhou1,2,4* Virtual Institute of Microbial Stress and Survival and Institute for Environmental Genomics, Department of Botany and Microbiology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019, USA. Physical Biosciences Division and Earth Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. Department of Computer Science, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634, USA. Department of Microbiology, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL 62901, USA. Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-2700, USA. Center for Biofilm Engineering, Department of Microbiology, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717, USA. Biochemistry and Molecular Microbiology & Immunology Departments, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA.
Debt Structure as an Indicator of Central Bank Independence

Kydland and Prescott [8] demonstrated that as a government with discretion often has an incentive to deviate from previously announced policy, the optimal policy under commitment is not time-consistent under discretion. Moreover, as the optimal time-consistent policy under discretion usually leads to a welfare loss relative to the optimal policy under commitment, social welfare can be increased by adopting a credible policy commitment. Since that finding, many authors have examined how a carefully designed debt management strategy can serve as an effective means of commitment to low inflation. For example, Persson, Persson and Svensson [12] and Calvo and Guidotti [3] illustrate that by trading in nominal and indexed debt, the government can eliminate its incentive to engineer inflationary surprises and thus increase social welfare in a rational-discretion world. ' In a somewhat related paper, Missale and Blanchard [10] demonstrate how "effective" debt maturity can serve as a credible means of committing to no inflation.2 The above models of debt management as commitment to low inflation implicitly assume that the fiscal authority has access to the process of money creation. When that is the case, the optimal structure of government debt depends crucially on how that structure affects expectations of inflation. However, when the central bank is independent of the central government in the sense that money growth targets are set by the central bank and independently of the federal debt and deficits, the expected rate of inflation will be unaffected by the debt management decision. Thus, unlike a government with close ties to its central bank, a government that does not control inflation will be able to choose the structure of its debt without affecting the expected rate of inflation. This implies that the optimal debt management strategies for governments with and without independent central banks will differ and suggests that one can look at the particular structure of a given government's debt in order to obtain inferences about the state of its central bank's independence.
The effectiveness of physical exercise as an intervention to reduce depressive symptoms following traumatic brain injury: A meta-analysis and systematic review

ABSTRACT Alongside the obvious health benefits, physical exercise has been shown to have a modest anti-depressant effect for people in the general population. To the authors’ knowledge, there are no current literature reviews or meta-analyses available exploring this effect for people with a traumatic brain injury (TBI). A systematic review of intervention studies utilising physical exercise and mood outcome measures for a TBI population was performed in November 2016. Baseline and outcome data were extracted for the nine studies which met the inclusion criteria. Effect sizes were calculated for the three controlled trials and six uncontrolled trials and entered into the meta-analysis. Consistent with research in non-brain injury populations, the current meta-analysis identified a small to medium effect size of physical exercise on reducing depressive symptoms in people with a TBI. This would support further rigorous trials to provide additional evidence for the efficacy of physical exercise interventions for people with TBI. Limitations of the current meta-analysis and clinical implications are discussed.
Life training for aging and migration VIEWPOINT

Immigrants tend to have better mental health than their host country-born counterparts, despite disadvantaged socioeconomic status—the so-called immigrant paradox. The acculturation hypothesis suggests a decline in their mental health over time in the host country. Increased perceived discrimination and family cultural conflict are pathways by which acculturation might relate to deterioration of mental health for immigrants. In this paper we will present an intervention approach, which proposes that a strategy for ensuring maintenance of mental health for immigrants is changing lifestyle. This approach called “Life Training: My 7 Core Areas of Health” is based on the theoretical model of Ralf Schwarzer—The Health Action Process Approach and works on psychological processes that are under behavioral change in seven areas of health: physical, psychological, social, spiritual, financial, family and leisure. This is a discussion paper in which two claims are made. First, that some migrants’ health can worsen as they age which is associated with their migrant status. Second, that there may be, as yet untested in this respect, models of health behavioral change, which can mitigate these risks.
A Measure of Risk Appetite for the Macroeconomy

We document a strong and robust positive relationship between real rates and the contemporaneous valuation of volatile stocks, which we contend measures the economy’s risk appetite. Our novel proxy for risk appetite explains 41% of the variation in the one-year real rate since 1970, while the valuation of the aggregate stock market explains just 1%. In addition, the real rate forecasts returns on volatile stocks, confirming our interpretation that changes in risk appetite drive the real rate. Increases in our measure of risk appetite are followed by a boom in investment and output.
Switch rates do not influence weighting of rare events in decisions from experience, but optional stopping does

J Behav Dec Making. 2018;1–18. Abstract The current research investigates how people decide which of two options produces a better reward by repeatedly sampling from the options. In particular, it investigates the roles of two features of search, optional stopping and switch rate, on participants' final judgments of which option is better. First, in two studies, we found evidence for a new optional stopping effect; when participants stopped sampling right after experiencing a rare outcome, they made decisions as if they overweighted the rare outcome. Second, we investigated an effect proposed by Hills and Hertwig (2010) that people who frequently switch between options when sampling are more likely to make decisions consistent with underweighting rare outcomes. We conducted a theoretical analysis examining how switch rate can influence underweighting and how the type of decision problem moderates this effect. Informed by the theoretical analysis, we conducted four studies designed to test this effect with high power. None of the studies produced significant effects of switch rate. Lastly, the studies replicated a prior finding that optional stopping and switch rate are negatively correlated. In sum, this research elaborates a fuller understanding of the relation between search strategies (switch rate and optional stopping) on how people decide which option is better and their tendency to overweight versus underweight rare outcomes.
Investigation of Efflux-Mediated Tetracycline Resistance in Shigella Isolates Using the Inhibitor and Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction Method

Background: Shigella spp. are gram negative bacteria, which are of global public health importance. The growing of multidrug-resistant Shigella isolates are a major problem around the world. Methods: Overall, 50 isolates of Shigella spp. from children diarrheic stools were studied. The isolates were identified and confirmed using biochemical, serological and molecular methods (ipaH, wbgZ and rfc genes). Antimicrobial susceptibility test was done according to the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) guidelines against minocycline, tetracycline, doxycycline, ampicillin, streptomycin, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, nalidixic acid, norfloxacin, ciprofloxacin and levofloxacin. Also, the role of efflux pump in defense of Shigella against tetracycline was investigated by Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) with and without an efflux pump inhibitor. Detection of tetA, tetB, tetC and tetD genes in Shigella was evaluated by conventional Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and real time PCR. Results: Molecular identification revealed a prevalence of 14% for Shigella flexneri and 86% for Shigella sonnei. Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) of 90% of resistant isolates was changed in the presence CCCP. Results of conventional PCR exhibited that 66% of isolates were positive for tetA, while according to real time PCR method, 90% of isolates carried tetA. Positive results for tetB were 12% and 18% by conventional and real time PCR methods, respectively. No positive results were detected for tetC and tetD. Also, tetB was detected only in S. flexneri while tetA was detected in both S. flexneri and S. sonnei. Conclusion: It seems that efflux-mediated tetracycline resistance to tetracycline in S. flexneri can be related to tetB, however resistance in S. sonnei can be related to the expression of tetA.
Recollection versus strength as the primary determinant of hippocampal engagement at retrieval

We examined whether hippocampal activity in recognition relates to the strength of the memory or to recollective experience, a subject of considerable current debate. Participants studied word pairs and then made two successive recognition decisions on each item: first on the uncued target and then on the target presented with the studied cue word. We compared recollection and familiarity patterns of activation in fMRI for these decisions. Critically, our analyses attempted in two ways to equate perceived memory strength while varying the associative information available. First, activity for targets judged familiar before cueing was contrasted with activity for the same items in the second decision as a function of whether the targets converted to recollection or remained familiar when the context cues were provided. We found increased hippocampal activity following cueing only with recollective conversion. Second, we investigated whether hippocampal activity was modulated by the rated familiarity strength of cued items or whether it increased uniquely in recollection. Hippocampal activation was not modulated parametrically by familiarity strength and recollected items were associated with greater activity relative to highly familiar items. Together, our results support the notion that it is recollection of context, rather than memory strength, that underlies hippocampal engagement at retrieval.
Development and validation of the workplace hazing scale

What is workplace hazing and how does it affect newcomers? Although most people associate hazing behaviors with university life, sports teams, or military organizations, hazing has been reported in a wide variety of workplace settings as a means of socializing newcomers into their new work environments. However, hazing is seldom researched in the organizational context. Consequently, we contribute to research on workgroup socialization by examining workplace hazing as one particular form of socialization. We first draw on management research on socialization, anthropology research on hazing, and anecdotal evidence to define and conceptualize the construct of workplace hazing. Then, we use a multi-study scale development process to create and validate a five-dimensional workplace hazing scale (WHS). The resulting 15-item WHS captures a range of hazing behaviors across organizational settings, and includes the dimensions of segregation, verbal abuse, task-related hazing, physical abuse, and testing. Overall, our research suggests that the WHS is a valid, reliable scale that can be used to assess this complex phenomenon and that workplace hazing has detrimental effects on newcomers.
FEPR

We propose a novel projection scheme that corrects energy fluctuations in simulations of deformable objects, thereby removing unwanted numerical dissipation and numerical "explosions". The key idea of our method is to first take a step using a conventional integrator, then project the result back to the constant energy-momentum manifold. We implement this strategy using fast projection, which only adds a small amount of overhead to existing physics-based solvers. We test our method with several implicit integration rules and demonstrate its benefits when used in conjunction with Position Based Dynamics and Projective Dynamics. When added to a dissipative integrator such as backward Euler, our method corrects the artificial damping and thus produces more vivid motion. Our projection scheme also effectively prevents instabilities that can arise due to approximate solves or large time steps. Our method is fast, stable, and easy to implement---traits that make it well-suited for real-time physics applications such as games or training simulators.
Determinants of First-Year Student Identity and Satisfaction in Higher Education: A Quantitative Case Study

First-year undergraduates’ expectations and experience of university and student engagement variables were investigated to determine how these perceptions influence their student identity and overall course satisfaction. Data collected from 554 first-year undergraduates at a large private university were analyzed. Participants were given the adapted version of the Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher Education Survey to self-report their learning experience and engagement in the university community. The results showed that, in general, the students’ reasons of pursuing tertiary education were to open the door to career opportunities and skill development. Moreover, students’ views on their learning and university engagement were at the moderate level. In relation to student identity and overall student satisfaction, it is encouraging to state that their perceptions of studentship and course satisfaction were rather positive. After controlling for demographics, student engagement appeared to explain more variance in student identity, whereas students’ expectations and experience explained greater variance in students’ overall course satisfaction. Implications for practice, limitations, and recommendation of this study are addressed.