Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Effect of Static Stretching on Maximal Voluntary Contraction and Force-Time Curve Characteristics

Objective: To examine the effect of static stretching on maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) and isometric force-time curve characteristics of leg extensor muscles and EMG activity of rectus femoris (RF), biceps femoris (BF), and gastrocnemius (GA). Design: A within subjects experimental design. Participants: Ten healthy students were tested after a jogging and a jogging/stretch protocol. Intervention: The stretching protocol involved a 10 min jog and seven static stretching exercises. Main Outcomes: Measurements included MVC, time achieved to MVC (TMVC), force at 100ms (F100), index of relative force (IRF), index of rate of force development (IRFD), and average integrated EMG activity (AEMG). Results: There were slight but no significant changes in MVC (1%), TMVC (4.8%), F100 (7.8%), IRF (1%), and IRFD (3.5%) between measurement. A significant difference (21%; P < 0.05) in AEMG of RF was found. Conclusions: The present study indicated that a moderate volume of static stretching did not alter significantl.
The multidrug resistance modulator SDZ-PSC 833 potentiates the photodynamic activity of chlorin e6 independently of P-glycoprotein in multidrug resistant human breast adenocarcinoma cells.

Photodynamic therapy has clinical indications in treatment of localized cancers and could be interesting for eradication of local recurrence of chemoresistant tumors. In the present study, the intracellular accumulation and distribution of chlorin e6 was investigated in MCF-7 and in P-glycoprotein overexpressing, doxorubicin resistant MCF-7/DXR cell lines. After 3-h incubation with chlorin e6 (1.7 micro mol.l(-1)), no significant difference in accumulation was observed between MCF-7 and MCF-7/DXR cells. Chlorin e6 cellular efflux did not differ in the two cell lines. The lack of influence of P-glycoprotein was confirmed since SDZ-PSC833 (PSC) had no influence in chlorin e6 accumulation and efflux in MCF-7/DXR cells. The subcellular distribution of chlorin e6 appeared different in MCF-7/DXR than in MCF-7 cells. Double staining colocalization fluorescence microscopy studies were performed to identify the subcellular localization sites for chlorin e6 using organelle probes for endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi apparatus, mitochondria and lysosomes. In MCF-7, chlorin e6 was distributed in all cytoplasmic organelles including endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi. In MCF-7/DXR, a diffuse cytoplasmic distribution was observed excepted for the endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi area in which less chlorin e6 was distributed. In MCF-7/DXR, PSC was found to restore the distribution of chlorin e6 in the endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi area while in MCF-7, no effect on the subcellular distribution of chlorin e6 was observed. Although the photodynamic activity of chlorin e6 (1.7 micro mol.l(-1), 650 nm, 8 mW.cm(-2)) was found to be lower in MCF-7/DXR than in MCF-7 cells, PSC was found to potentiate the photodynamic activity of chlorin e6 to similar extent in both cell lines. These results clearly demonstrate that PSC potentiates the photodynamic activity of Chlorin e6 independently of the expression of P-glycoprotein and further suggest that the photodynamic activity of chlorin e6 could be related to its intracellular distribution in the endoplasmic reticulum and the Golgi.
The Auxin Transport Inhibitor N-(1-Naphthyl)phthalamic Acid Elicits Pseudonodules on Nonnodulating Mutants of White Sweetclover

The collection of symbiotic (sym) mutants of white sweetclover (Melilotus alba Desr.) provides a developmental sequence of mutants blocked early in infection or nodule organogenesis. Mutant phenotypes include non-nodulating mutants that exhibit root-hair deformations in response to Rhizobium meliloti, mutants that form ineffective nodules lacking infection threads, and mutants that form infection threads and ineffective nodules. Mutant alleles from both the sym-1 and the sym-3 loci exhibited a non-nodulating phenotype in response to R. meliloti, although one allele in the sym-1 locus formed ineffective nodules at a low frequency. Spot-inoculation experiments on a non-nodulating allele in the sym-3 locus indicated that this mutant lacked cortical cell divisions following inoculation with R. meliloti. The auxin transport inhibitor N-(1-naphthyl)phthalamic acid elicited development of pseudonodules at a high frequency on all of the sweetclover sym mutants, including the non-nodulating mutants, in which the early nodulin ENOD2 was expressed. This suggests that N-(1-naphthyl)phthalamic acid activates cortical cell divisions by circumventing a secondary signal transduction event that is lacking in the non-nodulating sweetclover mutants. The sym-3 locus and possibly the sym-1 locus appear to be essential to early host plant responses essential to nodule organogenesis.
Endothelial Dysfunction in Pediatric Renal Transplant Recipients

Background: Cardiovascular disease is a major cause of morbidity and mortality after kidney transplantation. Endothelial dysfunction was shown to constitute an independent predictor of cardiovascular events. This study aimed at detecting endothelial dysfunction in pediatric renal transplant recipients. Methods: This was a prospective cohort study of 36 pediatric renal transplant recipients during their first posttransplantation year (transplantation group), 30 patients with end stage renal disease (ESRD) on regular hemodialysis (HD) (dialysis group) and 30 normal subjects (control group). Doppler ultrasound was performed for assessment carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT) and brachial artery flow-mediated dilatation (FMD). Results: Carotid artery IMT measurements in the transplantation group (mean ± SD = 0.43 ± 0.08 mm) were significantly (p=0.001) lower than the dialysis group (0.5 ± 0.1mm) and insignificantly higher than the control group (0.41 ± 0.07mm). FMD was significantly impaired in the dialysis group. The median (IQR) FMD of the transplantation group, 8.7% (2.5-20.4), tended to be higher than that of the dialysis group, 4.4% (2.6-10.8) and lower than that of normal controls, 14% (8.5-19.7); p=0.055 and 0.12 respectively. Conclusion: Pediatric renal transplant recipients tend to show evidence of endothelial dysfunction at an apparently lesser extent than those on regular hemodialysis.
The Cross-Market Information Content of Stock and Bond Order Flow

In this paper I test the hypothesis that trading activity in the stock and bond markets contains important marketwide pricing information. Using a large sample of actively traded stocks and U.S. Treasury securities, I find that aggregate order imbalances play a strong role in explaining cross-market returns. I interpret this as evidence that aggregate order flow reveals information about the risk preferences, beliefs, and endowments of the investor population that is relevant for pricing securities in both markets. I also find evidence that cross-market hedging is an important source of linkages across the two markets, especially during periods of elevated equity volatility.
Educational Voucher Scheme in Lahore: Serving the Underserved

The primary education sector in Pakistan faces many challenges relating to access to education and quality of resources. This paper evaluates the Educational Voucher Scheme (EVS) in Lahore, Pakistan aimed at increasing access to primary schooling for low income families residing in the underdeveloped areas of Lahore by using the four criteria for evaluating privatization plans in education outlined by Levin (2002): Freedom of choice, equity, productive efficiency and social cohesion. The study finds that the EVS is associated with greater choice for families as they move from a situation of little or no schooling options to a situation of many schooling options. Similarly, the EVS increases equity by providing lower income families with access to private schools, and because, as studies of private schools in Pakistan have found, that on average, private schools are associated with better resources and academic outcomes particularly for girls. Student achievement data from the EVS is limited however, the sample shows that on the whole EVS students are doing no worse than their non-EVS peers. Furthermore, studies of private schools in Pakistan show they may have a cost advantage over public schools due to lower teacher wages in the private sector therefore, the EVS could potentially lead to increased productive efficiency in the form of higher student achievement and lower school costs by giving families the opportunity to send their children to private schools. Lastly, due to the lack of regulations on participating schools, social cohesion may not be achieved under the EVS as there is no way to ensure that students experience a common educational experience. However, if individuals in society are expected to possess some minimum level of literacy to participate in social and economic institutions, then it can be argued that the EVS could increase social cohesion by equipping children with basic literacy skills.
Projected health impacts of heat events in Washington State associated with climate change

Abstract Climate change is predicted to increase the frequency and duration of extreme-heat events and associated health outcomes. This study used data from the historical heat-health outcome relationship, and a unique prediction model, to estimate mortality for 2025 and 2045. For each one degree change in humidex above threshold, we find a corresponding 1.83% increase in mortality for all ages, all non-traumatic causes of death in King County, Washington. Mortality is projected to increase significantly in 2025 and 2045 for the 85 and older age group (2.3–8.0 and 4.0–22.3 times higher than baseline, respectively).
If Saddam is Hitler then who is George Bush? Analogical mapping between systems of social roles

The analogy between World War II and the 1991 Persian Gulf crisis led people to construct a coherent system of roles for the participants in the Gulf crisis. The Analogical Constraint Mapping Engine (ACME), a model of analogical mapping by constraint satisfaction (Holyoak & Thagard, 1989), makes predictions about the types of correspondences people are likely to draw between the people and countries in these analogs. Both a survey (Experiment 1) and an experimental study (Experiment 2) revealed clear evidence that people have a strong tendency to generate mappings that honor certain basic coherence constraints. In Experiment 3, with science-fiction materials, further evidence for the generality of these constraints was obtained. Computer simulations of Experiments 2 and 3 using ACME yielded mappings similar to those generated by Ss. General models of analogical reasoning may have implications for everyday understanding of complex systems of social roles. The importance of analogical reasoning in everyday life was dramatically illustrated in the context of events surrounding the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Indeed, from published reports of decision making by Western leaders, it would not be a great exaggeration to say that the United States went to war over an analogy. The prelude to the war engendered widespread use of analogy as a tool of argument and persuasion. As has been typical in all debates about American military intervention since the 1970s (Gilovich, 1981), two antithetical positions were advanced, each based on a historical analogy. Hawks insisted that Saddam Hussein was an emerging Hitler, who had to be stopped before he swallowed other countries, developed new weapons, and became yet more dangerous to Western interests; doves warned that the Persian Gulf was a trap like Vietnam, conjuring images of an unpopular and drawn-out war in which the United States did not belong. President George Bush was able to convince most of the American public, as well as members of Congress and leaders of other Western nations, that the World War II analogy was sound. The pragmatic impact of this analogical transfer was war. The intense public interest in the analogies to the Gulf situation afforded a unique research opportunity for a naturalistic
Lateralization of Event‐Related Potentials During Discontinuation of Antiepileptic Medication

Summary: The effect of short‐term withdrawal of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) on auditory event‐related potentials (ERPs) was studied in 16 patients undergoing preoperative evaluation for epilepsy surgery. ERPs were performed for all patients during treatment with full medication and after a l‐week period during ongoing tapering of AEDs. To clarify whether AED discontinuation would provide evidence of lateralizing for ERPs, we also studied the subgroup of 9 patients who had already undergone temporal lobectomies (TLE group). In the TLE group, if habitual seizures occurred <30 h before the ERP recording session, auditory N1 and P3 amplitudes across sphenoidal electrodes were markedly decreased on the side ipsilateral to the epileptic focus. If seizures did not occur, asymmetries in amplitudes were equivocal and not of lateralizing value. In the whole group, midline N1 latencies for standard responses decreased significantly during AED discontinuation. At baseline, long‐term habituation of the N1 component for standard responses was attenuated as compared with that of controls. During AED discontinuation, however, enhanced habituation of N1 was observed in TLE patients who did not exhibit seizures before ERP recording.
Polymorphisms of Helicobacter pylori signaling pathway genes and gastric cancer risk in the European prospective investigation into cancer‐eurgast cohort

Helicobacter pylori is a recognized causal factor of noncardia gastric cancer (GC). Lipopolysaccharide and peptidoglycan of this bacterium are recognized by CD14, TLR4 and NOD2 human proteins, while NFKB1 activates the transcription of pro‐inflammatory cytokines to elicit an immune response. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in these genes have been associated with GC in different populations. We genotyped 30 SNPs of these genes, in 365 gastric adenocarcinomas and 1,284 matched controls from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer cohort. The association with GC and its histological and anatomical subtypes was analyzed by logistic regression and corrected for multiple comparisons. Using a log‐additive model, we found a significant association between SNPs in CD14, NOD2 and TLR4 with GC risk. However, after applying the multiple comparisons tests only the NOD2 region remained significant (p = 0.009). Analysis according to anatomical subtypes revealed NOD2 and NFKB1 SNPs associated with noncardia GC and CD14 SNPs associated with cardia GC, while analysis according to histological subtypes showed that CD14 was associated with intestinal but not diffuse GC. The multiple comparisons tests confirmed the association of NOD2 with noncardia GC (p = 0.0003) and CD14 with cardia GC (p = 0.01). Haplotype analysis was in agreement with single SNP results for NOD2 and CD14 genes. From these results, we conclude that genetic variation in NOD2 associates with noncardia GC while variation in CD14 is associated with cardia GC.
Nipping an education myth in the bud: Poh’s brain activity during lectures

Abstract The debate around the value of lectures is raging strongly, and new empirical data arguing against the value of lectures comes from a chart showing student brain activity during lectures. The evidence from the chart, however, suffers from crucial problems. These include a small and unspecific sample, mislabeling of the student activities, and a misinterpretation of the type of measurement. This chart has appeared on the Internet, in education conferences and journals, and recently at a medical education conference. For medical education to be taken seriously, it is crucial that researchers apply the same standards that they would to clinical research. As a result, this chart should be avoided in the debate on the value of lectures before it has a chance to follow a pattern in medical education set by other myths.
Learning, Public Good Provision, and the Information Trap

We consider an economy where decision maker(s) do not know the true production function for a public good. By using Bayes rule they can learn from experience. We show that the economy may learn the truth, but that it may also converge to an inefficient policy where no further inference is possible so that the economy is stuck in an information trap. We also show that our results are robust with respect to experimentation.
The Use of Voluntary Public Disclosure and Patent Strategies to Capture Value from Product Innovation

Firms make tradeoffs in voluntarily and publicly disclosing R&D information. Disclosure can deter competition by signaling a technological advantage. However, such disclosures might signal technological opportunity and encourage competitors to develop competing innovations. This study investigates the effect of industry- and firm-specific advantages on the influence of voluntary public disclosure on competitors’ patenting in the same technology space. Theoretical predictions are tested on a sample of 322 publicly traded firms between 1991 and 2004. The results are consistent with industry and firm-specific advantages moderating the effectiveness of disclosure along with patents as a strategy for capturing value from product innovation.
Electro-thermal modeling of nano-scale devices

In this paper we present simulation results obtained with our electro-thermal device simulator when modeling different technology generations of FD-SOI devices. In particular, we stress out the importance of the temperature boundary conditions for digital and analog circuits and the use of the full model which takes into account both temperature and thickness dependence (which is particularly important for thin silicon films) of the thermal conductivity.
A Lexical Comparison of Sign Languages in the Arab World

More than two hundred million inhabitants of twenty-two countries across the Middle East and North Africa speak Arabic. However, should a Yemeni and a Tunisian meet, it is unlikely that their Arabic would be intelligible to the other. The Arab world is characterized by pervasive “diglossia,” a language situation in which regional dialects are spoken alongside a highly codified written language. Of the Arabic dialects, the Egyptian dialect is most widely understood by Arabs, since Arab cinema and other entertainment media is largely Egyptian-based and typically uses Egyptian actors. Should a Yemeni and a Tunisian meet, they can resort to the dialect of movie stars to understand each other or they could use the highly codified language of Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) which is used by newscasters and public officials in Arab countries. Although it is the mother tongue of no one, MSA is the official literary standard of Arab countries and is the form of Arabic taught in schools at all stages. Indeed, spoken colloquial Arabic, as the regional varieties are often called, is rarely found in a written form. It is commonly said that the Arabic language is what unites the different members of the Arab community, despite the different geographies and cultural traditions that can be found throughout the Middle East (Suleiman, 2003).
Treatment of diarrhea in malnourished infants and children. A double-blind study comparing ampicillin and placebo.

Rectal swabs and stool specimens for culture were collected from 2,236 infants and children hospitalized for severe diarrhea in Medellin, Colombia, during a two-year period. Salmonellae were identified in 280, enteropathogenicEscherichia coliin 117, and shigellae in 61 specimens. One hundred eighty-six patients with enteropathogens and 96 with acute diarrhea of unknown cause were assigned randomly to ampicillin or placebo treatment given parenterally or orally for five days. No adverse or beneficial effect of ampicillin was found in infants with enteropathogenicE colior with diarrhea of unknown cause. ForSalmonellainfection, orally given ampicillin was equivalent to placebo therapy; however, there was 100% bacteriologic cure without short-term relapse in those given ampicillin intramuscularly. This was a statistically significant difference from placebo or orally given ampicillin treatment. Ampicillin therapy for shigellosis substantially shortened the period of diarrhea, fever and, positive stool cultures compared with placebo treatment.
A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Study of Zonisamide to Prevent Olanzapine-Associated Weight Gain

Abstract Weight gain is commonly observed with olanzapine treatment. Zonisamide is an antiepileptic drug associated with weight loss. This study examined the effectiveness of zonisamide in preventing weight gain in 42 patients beginning olanzapine for bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. Each patient had a body mass index of 22 mg/kg2 or greater and was randomized to taking olanzapine with either zonisamide (n = 20) or placebo (n = 22) for 16 weeks. The primary outcome measure was change in body weight in kilograms from baseline. In the primary analysis using longitudinal regression, patients who received zonisamide had a significantly slower rate of weight gain and increase in body mass index than those who received placebo. The patients treated with zonisamide gained a mean (SD) of 0.9 (3.3) kg, whereas those treated with placebo gained a mean (SD) of 5.0 (5.5) kg; P = 0.01. None of the patients in the zonisamide group, compared with 7 patients (33%) in the placebo group, gained 7% of body weight or greater from baseline (Fisher exact test, P = 0.009). The zonisamide group, however, reported significantly more cognitive impairment as an adverse event than the placebo group (25% vs 0, respectively; P = 0.02). Zonisamide was effective for mitigating weight gain in patients with bipolar disorder or schizophrenia initiating treatment with olanzapine but was associated with cognitive impairment as an adverse event.
A Purified Capsular Polysaccharide Markedly Inhibits Inflammatory Response during Endotoxic Shock

ABSTRACT Capsular material of the opportunistic fungus Cryptococcus neoformans is composed mainly of a polysaccharide named glucuronoxylomannan (GXM). In this study, the effects of GXM were analyzed in an in vivo experimental system of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced shock. Endotoxic shock was induced in mice by a single intraperitoneal injection of LPS from Escherichia coli. GXM treatment reduced the mortality of mice at early stages. Mice treated with LPS alone showed markedly increased plasma levels of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), and IL-6, whereas mice that were also treated with GXM showed significantly lower plasma levels of these cytokines. This effect was related to a marked suppression of Akt and IκBα activation. Importantly, the inhibitory effect of GXM on proinflammatory cytokine secretion was reproduced by treatment with wortmannin, an inhibitor of the Akt transcription pathway. Our results indicate that GXM has a beneficial effect on endotoxic shock, resulting in a significant increase in the rate of survival by dampening the hyperinflammatory response.