Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Evaluation of Simultaneous Openness Hypothesis in the Context of Stock Market Development: Evidence from a Panel of Fifty Three Countries Based a GMM Study

This paper focuses on the impact of the concurrent liberalization of current and capital accounts and quality institutions on stock market development. Using annual data from 1996-2013 for a panel of fifty three (53) developed and developing countries and utilizing dynamic GMM estimators, the results show that banking sector development, economic growth, and the interaction term affect stock market development positively. The paper finds that capital account liberalization affects market development negatively, but the effect of capital account liberalization on market development is contingent on the level of economic growth and development. Further, the results revealed that the impact of trade openness on stock market development is mixed. The research finds negative impact of institutional factors on market development. Finally, the paper does not find support in favour of simultaneous openness hypothesis.
Effects of Eimeria tenella infection on chicken caecal microbiome diversity, exploring variation associated with severity of pathology

Eimeria species cause the intestinal disease coccidiosis, most notably in poultry. While the direct impact of coccidiosis on animal health and welfare is clear, its influence on the enteric microbiota and by-stander effects on chicken health and production remains largely unknown, with the possible exception of Clostridium perfringens (necrotic enteritis). This study evaluated the composition and structure of the caecal microbiome in the presence or absence of a defined Eimeria tenella challenge infection in Cobb500 broiler chickens using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. The severity of clinical coccidiosis in individual chickens was quantified by caecal lesion scoring and microbial changes associated with different lesion scores identified. Following E. tenella infection the diversity of taxa within the caecal microbiome remained largely stable. However, infection induced significant changes in the abundance of some microbial taxa. The greatest changes were detected in birds displaying severe caecal pathology; taxa belonging to the order Enterobacteriaceae were increased, while taxa from Bacillales and Lactobacillales were decreased with the changes correlated with lesion severity. Significantly different profiles were also detected in infected birds which remained asymptomatic (lesion score 0), with taxa belonging to the genera Bacteroides decreased and Lactobacillus increased. Many differential taxa from the order Clostridiales were identified, with some increasing and others decreasing in abundance in Eimeria-infected animals. The results support the view that caecal microbiome dysbiosis associated with Eimeria infection contributes to disease pathology, and could be a target for intervention to mitigate the impact of coccidiosis on poultry productivity and welfare. This work highlights that E. tenella infection has a significant impact on the abundance of some caecal bacteria with notable differences detected between lesion score categories emphasising the importance of accounting for differences in caecal lesions when investigating the relationship between E. tenella and the poultry intestinal microbiome.
"Impending ruin" or "remarkable wealth"? The role of private credit markets in a settler colony

Credit markets develop hand in hand with a market economy. Pre-industrial credit markets, like credit (and capital) markets today, developed in order to smooth consumption, ease trade, and enable long-term investment. Yet in the eighteenth century Cape Colony, a Dutch settlement at the southern tip of Africa, commentators of the day were skeptical about what an active credit market could contribute to the economy: for them, borrowing was a sure sign of poverty. Historians have expressed the same view. We present a different picture of the Cape Colony. We use 4,160 probate inventories, listing 12,637 credit transactions and 12,580 debt transactions, to show that the main reason for borrowing was long-term capital investment in property through bonds, and that a particular driver of the Colony's extensive use of credit was slave ownership. We also show that those who benefited from the Colony's thriving credit market were rich, not poor.
Inhibitory effect of erythromycin on interleukin 8 production by 1 alpha,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3-stimulated THP-1 cells

We have recently reported that long-term administration of erythromycin at a low dose reduced the number of neutrophils and concentrations of interleukin 8 (IL-8) in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid in patients with chronic lower respiratory tract disease. To investigate the mechanism of action of erythromycin, we evaluated its effect on IL-8 production in the 1 alpha,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3-stimulated human monocytic cell line THP-1. Erythromycin at a concentration of 10 micrograms/ml significantly reduced IL-8 production by THP-1 cells stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (10 ng/ml) and 1% normal human serum compared with the amount produced by untreated cells (untreated cells, 2,448 pg/ml; erythromycin-treated cells, 872 pg/ml). Our results suggest that erythromycin may impair IL-8 production by alveolar macrophages, ultimately reducing neutrophil accumulation in the airspace.
Social work, cancer survivorship and liminality: meeting the needs of young women diagnosed with early stage breast cancer

ABSTRACT A diagnosis of cancer has a profound effect on an individual, as well as their family and friends. Whilst the period of time surrounding diagnosis and treatment is well recognised as a time of stress and upheaval, the impact of the transition into survivorship can often be underestimated. This article discusses the experiences of young women who had been diagnosed with early stage breast cancer, and were traversing the liminal space between cancer treatment and cancer survivorship. The women were interviewed as part of my doctoral research, and the themes that emerged from that research, such as the needs for identity reconstruction and fear of the unknown, are discussed. The implications for social work practice are discussed and the use of a narrative therapeutic approach is suggested as a method to assist social workers to meet the needs of those who are living with cancer.
Contribution of hepatitis E virus in acute sporadic hepatitis in north western India

Background & objectives: Hepatitis E virus (HEV) causes acute viral hepatitis. Majority of the documented studies on hepatitis E have been focused on the incidence of this disease in northern and south central India. Limited data are available on HEV infection among acute sporadic hepatitis cases in north western India. The present study was undertaken to investigate the contribution of hepatitis E virus infection in sporadic hepatitis cases in Rajasthan and neighbouring States. Methods: Seven hundred and thirty six patients suspected to have viral hepatitis were screened for the hepatotropic viral markers, hepatitis A, B, C and E by using commercial enzyme immunoassay kits with a high sensitivity and specificity. The acute nature of HEV infection was also confirmed by the detection of HEV RNA by nested RT-PCR. Results: Hepatitis E was found to be the major cause of acute sporadic viral hepatitis (49.7%) in this region of India. Mixed infections of HEV-HAV (1.2%), HEV-HBV (6.1%), and HEV-HCV (1.7%) were also detected. No viral marker was detected in 32 per cent cases. Interpretation & conclusion: HEV was found as the major aetiological agent of acute sporadic viral hepatitis in Rajasthan (north western India). It is important to screen primarily for all the common enterically and parenterally transmitted hepatotropic viral markers in acute sporadic viral hepatitis. There is a need to do additional serological and molecular tests to identify the aetiological agent in the cases of acute hepatitis.
Erythropoietic action of dexamethasone on the anemia associated with an experimental chronic renal failure.

Partially nephrectomized anemic uremic rats were injected with dexamethasone phosphate (10, 50 and 500 micrograms/kg/day), i.p., and erythropoietin (5 U/day), s.c. , for 10 days. A marked and usually significant stimulatory effect on erythropoiesis was seen in all uremic animals treated. Administration of erythropoietin and dexamethasone produced a pronounced increment in hemoglobin, hematocrit and circulating reticulocytes. The increase in red blood cell production was also evident through the generally increased absolute numbers of nucleated erythroid cell precursors per milligram of bone marrow. The highest increases were seen in the erythropoietin treated uremic rats. A dose effect correlation was apparent in uremic rats receiving 3 different doses of dexamethasone. Dexamethasone may stimulate erythropoiesis in our anemic uremic rats through a previous augmentation of erythropoietin production in the residual renal mass. A synergistic permissive effect of dexamethasone increasing the sensitivity of the erythropoietin-responsive cells to erythropoietin in bone marrow is also quite possible.
An Investigation on the Aggregation and Rheodynamics of Human Red Blood Cells Using High Performance Computations

Studies on the haemodynamics of human circulation are clinically and scientifically important. In order to investigate the effect of deformation and aggregation of red blood cells (RBCs) in blood flow, a computational technique has been developed by coupling the interaction between the fluid and the deformable RBCs. Parallelization was carried out for the coupled code and a high speedup was achieved based on a spatial decomposition. In order to verify the code's capability of simulating RBC deformation and transport, simulations were carried out for a spherical capsule in a microchannel and multiple RBC transport in a Poiseuille flow. RBC transport in a confined tube was also carried out to simulate the peristaltic effects of microvessels. Relatively large-scale simulations were carried out of the motion of 49,512 RBCs in shear flows, which yielded a hematocrit of 45%. The large-scale feature of the simulation has enabled a macroscale verification and investigation of the overall characteristics of RBC aggregations to be carried out. The results are in excellent agreement with experimental studies and, more specifically, both the experimental and simulation results show uniform RBC distributions under high shear rates (60–100/s) whereas large aggregations were observed under a lower shear rate of 10/s.
The Trick Behind the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions

On the eve of the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) a shared optimism is registered among policy-makers, academics and key stakeholders. Six years after Copenhagen a new international agreement on climate change appears now at hand. The institution of the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) as a means of implementing mitigation strategies at a Party level has played a key role in the progression towards an agreement. With 123 Intended Contributions already submitted, a natural question arises: are these contributions aligned with the global carbon budget embedded in the 2°C target addressed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change? The (un)expected answer is no.
An analysis of determinants of going concern audit opinion: Evidence from Spain stock exchange

Purpose: The main objective of this article is to go in-depth into the relationship between going concern audit opinion and certain characteristics of the company and auditor, including financial decline. Design/methodology/approach: A Logit analysis was carried out in order to enable us to discover the probability of receiving a going concern audit opinion. Findings: Characteristics of the company and characteristics of the auditor are discussed, and the analysis indicates that it is not financial decline, but rather registering losses and being audited by a small-scale auditor, that increase the likelihood of a company receiving a going concern audit opinion. Practical implications: The results obtained are interesting for the profession and users because they provide evidence of the reasons that converge in the cases where a going concern audit opinion is included in the auditing reports of companies characterised by being immersed in a financial crisis. Originality/value: This article considers the circumstances of both the company and the auditing process, which influence the fact that the auditing report includes a going concern audit opinion. In addition, the article includes the financial decline, and let us to analyze if the decline of the company’s financial position between t-1 and t causes the auditor to include a going concern audit opinion.
Learn How to Choose: Independent Detectors Versus Composite Visual Phrases

Most approaches for scene parsing, recognition or retrieval use detectors that are either (i) independently trained or (ii) jointly trained for conjunctions of object-object or object-attribute phrases. We posit that neither of these two extremes is uniformly optimal, in terms of performance, across all categories and conjunctions. The choice of whether one should train an independent or composite detector should be made for each possible conjunction separately, and depends on the statistics of the dataset as well. For example, person holding phone may be more accurately modeled using a single composite detector, while tall person may be more accurately modeled as combination of two detectors. We extensively study this issue in the context of multiple problems and datasets. Further, for e ciency, we propose a predictor that is based on a number of category speci c features (e.g., sample size, entropy, etc.) for whether independent or joint composite detector may be more accurate for a given conjunction. We show that our prediction and selection mechanism generalizes and leads to improved performance on a number of large-scale datasets and vision tasks.
Endogenous immune response to glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD67) in NOD mice is modulated by adjuvant immunotherapy.

We have shown that immunization of non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice with adjuvants (CFA or BCG) prevents the onset of diabetes by induction of regulatory cells. Since autoimmune responses to glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) are up-regulated in insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM), in this study GAD67-specific antibody, T cell proliferation and lymphokine production patterns were analysed in the adjuvant-treated mice to characterize the regulatory mechanisms underlying the protection. We used both spontaneous diabetes and syngeneic islet transplantation models in NOD mice. Protection against spontaneous diabetes and prevention of syngeneic islet graft rejection by CFA or BCG treatment was found to be accompanied by the production of long lasting and high titre anti-GAD67 antibody of IgG1 isotype in the sera. Upon in vitro stimulation with GAD67, draining lymph node and spleen cells from CFA-immunized NOD mice or syngeneic islet-grafted and BCG-protected NOD mice produced much more IL-4, whereas there was no significant change in IFN-gamma production. The strong early T cell proliferative response to GAD67 in CFA or BCG-immunized NOD mice was followed by a low or unresponsiveness state. Taken together, these results suggest a shift in Th1/Th2 balance in the GAD67-specific endogenous immune response to a change in Th2 levels after adjuvant treatment. We postulate that the protective effect of CFA or BCG is due to the diversion of GAD-specific endogenous cellular immune response to a non-pathogenic humoral response.
[The importance of flies (Diptera-Brachycera) in the dissemination of helminth eggs from sewage treatment plants].

Screenings were carried out in four mechanico-biological municipal wastewater treatment plants in two climatico-geographic regions of Slovakia (submontane region: Levoca, Poprad and Tatranská Lomnica, lowland region: Michalovce). Ovoscopical studies traced the occurrence of helminth eggs in stabilized sludges in sludge beds. The flies (Diptera-Brachycera) are considered as potential biological vectors of helminth eggs. The stabilized sludges in sludge beds showed the presence of a wide range of helminth eggs Ascaris sp. 0-184 spec. Hymenolepis sp. 0-5 spec. Toxocara sp. 0-17 spec. Taenia sp. 0-2 spec. Trichuris sp. 0-17 spec. a Capillaria sp. 0-4 spec. /100 g of sample dry matter. In the areas of four sewage treatment plants 461 fly specimens (358 females, 103 males) were captured, belonging to 31 species. On three specimens of Protophormia terraenovae ectoparasites (mites) were detected. No eggs were found on the body surface of the flies.
Dissection of human tropoelastin: exon-by-exon chemical synthesis and related conformational studies.

Polypeptide sequences encoding the single exons of human tropoelastin were synthesized and their conformations were studied in different solvents and at different temperatures by CD and (1)H NMR. The results demonstrated the presence of labile conformations such as poly-proline II helix (PPII) and beta-turns whose stability is strongly dependent on the microenvironment. Stable, periodic structures, such as alpha-helices, are only present in the poly-alanine cross-linking domains. These findings give a strong experimental basis to the understanding of the molecular mechanism of elasticity of elastin. In particular, they strongly support the description of the native relaxed state of the protein in terms of trans-conformational equilibria between extended and folded structures as previously proposed [Debelle, L. , and Tamburro, A. M. (1999) Int. J. Biochem. Cell. Biol. 31, 261-272].
The effects of acute hyperglycemia and hyperinsulinemia on plasma leptin levels: its relationships with body fat, visceral adiposity, and age in women.

The acute effects of hyperglycemia and hyperinsulinemia on plasma leptin levels were determined in 42 highly trained women athletes (18-69 yr) and 14 sedentary control women (18-50 yr, body mass index < 25 kg/m2), using the glucose clamp technique. The relationships of body composition, physical fitness, age, and plasma leptin levels were examined in all participants. In addition, the effect of weight loss and aerobic exercise and plasma leptin levels were examined in 4 Newly diagnosed untreated noninsulin-dependent diabetes mellitus patients. The time course of plasma leptin levels changed little from basal during hyperglycemic (approximately 10 mmol/L) or hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic (400-3000 pmol/L) clamp studies in either athletes, controls, or noninsulin-dependent diabetes mellitus patients. A strong correlation between plasma leptin levels and fasting insulin was present (r = 0.60, P < 0.001). Plasma leptin and percent fat were higher in controls than athletes (12.6 vs. 4.0 ng/mL and 33.2 vs. 20.8%; both P < 0.001). The relationships between percent fat (dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry) or intraabdominal adipose tissue (computed tomography) and leptin for the entire group were highly significant (r = 0.70, r = 0.52; P < 0.001). When percent fat was controlled, the relationship between fasting insulin and leptin remained (P < 0.002). There was not a significant association between age and plasma leptin levels in a univariate analysis in this population. However, after adjustment for percent fat, a significant inverse relationship between age and leptin appeared (P < 0.05). The weight loss and aerobic exercise program resulted in an average 6 +/- 0.8 kg wt loss. Leptin levels decreased > 28% in each patient (P < 0.01). In conclusion, neither acute hyperglycemia or hyperinsulinemia affects plasma leptin levels. Percent fat is the strongest predictor of leptin levels, even in lean, highly trained women athletes.
A Comparative Analysis of Economic Efficiency Between Traditional and Improved Rice Varieties Farmers in Oriade Local Government Area of Osun State

There is a well established and growing demand for rice in Nigeria as a major staple. Only about half of that demand is met by domestic production, the availability and prices of rice directly impact on the welfare of the poorest Nigerian consumers due to the fact that consumption runs ahead of local production. The study examines and compares the technical, allocative and economic efficiency between improved and traditional rice farmers in Oriade local government area of Osun state. Primary data were collected from 60 traditional and 60 improved rice farmers. Data obtained was analyzed using Cobb-Douglas production and cost function. The result revealed that farm size and agrochemical were significant factors which influence both rice technologies in the area. The return to scale (RTS) reveals that both improved and traditional rice production were in stage II of production surface. The result of the cost frontier shows that labour, agrochemical and output were significant for both for both rice technologies while fertilizer and seed were significant for improved and traditional rice production, respectively. The mean technical efficiency for improved rice production is 0.84 and 0.329 for traditional rice production while allocative and economic efficiencies mean values for both improved and traditional rice are 0.931, 0.773, 0.861 and 0.278, respectively. Conclusively, there is existence of inefficiency in cost for both the traditional and improved rice technologies.
Toll-like Receptors 2 and 4 Activate STAT1 Serine Phosphorylation by Distinct Mechanisms in Macrophages*

Engagement of Toll-like receptor (TLR) proteins activates multiple signal transduction pathways. These studies show that engagement of TLR2 and TLR4 leads to rapid phosphorylation of the transcription factor STAT1 at serine 727 (Ser-727 STAT1) in murine macrophages. Only TLR4 engagement induced STAT1 phosphorylation at tyrosine 701, although this response was delayed compared with Ser-727 STAT1 phosphorylation. Inhibition of phosphatidylinositol 3′-kinase using LY294002 blocked TLR4-induced STAT1 tyrosine phosphorylation, but this inhibitor had no effect on STAT1 serine phosphorylation. TLR-induced phosphorylation of Ser-727 STAT1 could be blocked by the selective p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase inhibitor SB203580. However, activation of p38 was not sufficient to induce Ser-727 STAT1 phosphorylation in macrophages. TLR2-induced activation of Ser-727 STAT1 phosphorylation required the adapter protein MyD88, whereas TLR4-induced activation of Ser-727 STAT1 phosphorylation was not solely dependent on MyD88. Lastly, TLR4-induced activation of Ser-727 STAT1 phosphorylation could be blocked by rottlerin, a specific inhibitor of protein kinase C-δ. In contrast, rottlerin had no effect on STAT1 phosphorylation induced via TLR2. Together, these data demonstrate that activation STAT1 tyrosine and serine phosphorylation are distinct consequences of TLR engagement in murine macrophages. Furthermore, p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase, protein kinase C-δ, and a novel TLR2-specific signaling pathway appear to be necessary to induce Ser-727 STAT1 phosphorylation.
Extraction of Spelling Variations from Language Structure for Noisy Text Correction

We describe a novel approach for the extraction of spelling variations from a list of instances. It relates distinctive infixes to distinctive infixes of referenced words. The distinctive infixes are extracted automatically from a (multi)set of instances and a referenced dictionary without any additional expert knowledge. Based on the spelling variations retrieved during a learning(training) phase we develop a correction algorithm which suggests and ranks candidates for a particular noisy word. The main advantage of our approach is that it provides good corrections for the unobserved noisy words while it is almost perfect on words observed during the learning. Our experimental results of the normalisation of a typical reference corpus of Early Modern English letters, [1], significantly improve over previous results of VARD2, [2]. We also achieve better results than those reported in [3] and [4] on the OCR-correction of the TREC-5 Confusion Track corpus,[5].