Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Scholarly Communication in Social Media

Nutzungsbedingungen: Dieser Text wird unter einer Deposit-Lizenz (Keine Weiterverbreitung keine Bearbeitung) zur Verfügung gestellt. Gewährt wird ein nicht exklusives, nicht übertragbares, persönliches und beschränktes Recht auf Nutzung dieses Dokuments. Dieses Dokument ist ausschließlich für den persönlichen, nicht-kommerziellen Gebrauch bestimmt. Auf sämtlichen Kopien dieses Dokuments müssen alle Urheberrechtshinweise und sonstigen Hinweise auf gesetzlichen Schutz beibehalten werden. Sie dürfen dieses Dokument nicht in irgendeiner Weise abändern, noch dürfen Sie dieses Dokument für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, aufführen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. Mit der Verwendung dieses Dokuments erkennen Sie die Nutzungsbedingungen an. Terms of use: This document is made available under Deposit Licence (No Redistribution no modifications). We grant a non-exclusive, nontransferable, individual and limited right to using this document. This document is solely intended for your personal, noncommercial use. All of the copies of this documents must retain all copyright information and other information regarding legal protection. You are not allowed to alter this document in any way, to copy it for public or commercial purposes, to exhibit the document in public, to perform, distribute or otherwise use the document in public. By using this particular document, you accept the above-stated conditions of use.
Trends in African Migration to Europe: Drivers Beyond Economic Motivations

The current migration and refugee crisis in Europe requires an understanding of the different migration drivers beyond the well-known economic determinants. In this article, we view migration from a broader human security perspective and analyze the determinants of regular and asylum seeker migration flows from Africa to Europe for the period 1990 to 2014. Our results show that, in addition to economic determinants, a combination of push and pull factors influences migration decisions of individuals. In particular, rising political persecution, human rights violations, ethnic tensions, political instability, and civil conflicts in African source countries are all significantly associated with increased migration flows into European destination countries. Therefore, our results underscore the need for the European Union and European countries to collaborate with the source countries, not only in terms of supporting economic development in the source countries but also in promoting human security: human rights, democracy, peace, and social stability.
Do Independent Directors Improve Firm Value? Evidence from the Great Recession

The literature offers no clear evidence on the effect of independent directors on firm value. We argue that, during stressful times, firms may need more and better expert advice to navigate a crisis. Outside independent directors can provide such advice. So, the role of independent directors may be more pronounced during a stressful time. Consistent with this notion, we find that independent directors significantly improved firm value during the Great Recession of 2008. Specifically, a rise in the percentage of independent directors by one standard deviation would have improved firm value by 4.29% during the Great Recession. Outside the crisis period, however, our results do not show that independent directors increase firm value. Further analysis confirms the results, including random‐effects regressions, propensity score matching, instrumental‐variable regressions, as well as falsification tests. Our results are crucial as they demonstrate that the role of independent directors is different during stressful times than it is during normal times.
Processing of facial affect under social threat in socially anxious adults: mood matters

Background: An important function of the human face is to communicate approval or disapproval toward others. Because socially anxious individuals are overly concerned about disapproval by others, it has been hypothesized that those individuals are faster at processing negative, specifically angry facial expressions than nonanxious individuals, especially under conditions of social threat. Method: To test this hypothesis, 25 socially anxious individuals and 24 nonanxious controls were asked to classify facial expressions associated with anger, sadness, fear, disgust, happiness, and surprise. Half of the participants performed this task while being confronted with social threat. Results: High socially anxious participants were faster than controls at classifying angry, sad, and fearful faces when confronted with social threat. No group difference was observed under the no‐threat condition. Conclusions: The findings suggest that socially anxious individuals are more hypervigilant toward threat‐related social cues, and that the processing of facial affect is dependent on the person's emotional state. Depression and Anxiety, 2009. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Effects of fish and safflower oil feeding on subcellular glucose transporter distributions in rat adipocytes.

Effects of fish oil feeding on glucose transport systems and cell size in rat adipocytes were examined and compared with those of safflower oil or carbohydrate feeding under isoenergy intake conditions. Glucose transport activity was assessed by measuring 3-O-methyl-D-glucose transport. The concentration of erythrocyte type glucose transporter (GLUT-1) and muscle/fat type transporter (GLUT-4) was measured by immunoblotting. The amount of each transporter in intact cells was estimated by the amount of transporter and protein of each membrane fraction and by the recovery of marker enzymes. In cells from safflower-fed rats compared with those from carbohydrate-fed rats, insulin-stimulated glucose transport activity per cell decreased to 51% after a 1-wk feeding, and cell size increase became larger with these effects and continued for at least 4 wk. At 1 wk of feeding, GLUT-1 and GLUT-4 per cell in plasma membrane from insulin-treated cells decreased to 62 and 35%, respectively, with concomitant transporter decreases in the low-density microsome fraction. In cells from high-fish oil-fed rats in which two-thirds of safflower oil was replaced by fish oil, when compared with those from safflower oil-fed rats, insulin-stimulated glucose transport activity increased 1.7-fold after 1 wk of feeding with concomitant cellular GLUT-1 and GLUT-4 increases, but its effect declined thereafter. Parallel with this time course, cell size increase was smaller after 1 wk, but this effect also declined thereafter. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Brain Behavior Relationships Among African Americans, Whites, and Hispanics

There is an increasing racial and ethnic diversity within the elderly population of the United States. Although increased diversity offers unique opportunities to study novel influences on aging and dementia, some aspects of racial and ethnic research have been hampered by the lack of culturally and linguistically consistent testing protocols. Structural brain imaging is commonly used to study the biology of normal aging and cognitive impairment and may therefore serve to explore potential biologic differences of cognitive impairment among racially and ethnically diverse individuals. To test this hypothesis, we recruited a cohort of approximately 400 African American, white, and Hispanic subjects with various degrees of cognitive ability. Each subject was carefully evaluated using standardized diagnostic protocols that included clinical review of brain magnetic resonance image (MRI) to arrive at a clinical diagnosis of normal cognition, mild cognitive impairment or dementia. Each MRI was then independently quantified for measures of brain, white matter hyperintensities, and hippocampal volumes by a technician blind to subject age, sex, ethnicity, race, and diagnostic category. The appearance of infarction on MRI was also rated by examining neurologists. Regression analyses were used to assess associations with various MRI measures across clinical diagnostic categories in relation to racial and ethnic differences. Hispanic subjects were, on average, significantly younger and had less years of education than African Americans or whites. Whites with dementia were significantly older than both African American and Hispanic dementia patients. Highly significant differences in MRI measures were associated with clinical diagnoses for the group as a whole after adjusting for the effects of age, sex, education, race, and ethnicity. Subsequent independent analyses by racial and ethnic status revealed consistent relationships between diagnostic category and MRI measures. Clinical diagnoses were associated with consistent differences in brain structure among a group of racially and ethnically diverse individuals. We believe these results help to validate current diagnostic assessment of individuals across a broad range of racial, ethnic, linguistic, and educational backgrounds. Moreover, interesting and potentially biologically relevant differences were found that might stimulate further research related to the understanding of dementia etiology within an increasingly racially and ethnically diverse population.
On routing for extending satellite service life in LEO satellite networks

We address the problem of routing for extending the service life of satellites in Iridium-like LEO constellations. Satellites in LEO constellations can spend over 30% of their time under the earth's umbra, time during which they are powered by batteries. While the batteries are recharged by solar energy, the depth of discharge they reach during eclipse significantly affects their lifetime - and by extension, the service life of the satellites themselves. For batteries of the type that power Iridium satellites, a 15% increase to the depth of discharge can practically cut their service lives in half. We present two new routing metrics - LASER and SLIM - that try to strike a balance between performance and battery depth of discharge in LEO satellite constellations. Our basic approach is to leverage the deterministic movement of satellites for favoring routing traffic over satellites exposed to the sun as opposed to the eclipsed satellites, thereby decreasing the average battery depth of discharge - all without adversely affecting network performance. Simulations show that LASER and SLIM can reduce the depth of discharge by about 11% and 16%, respectively, which can lead to as much as 100% increase in the satellite batteries lifetime. This is accomplished by trading off very little in terms of end-to-end delay.
The quantification of structural reforms

This paper presents country-specific effects of structural reforms. It discusses how sizeable and interesting country-specific effects can be identified in a panel setting by conditioning the impact of individual policies on their own level or on the stance of other policies and institutions. This approach allows for the incorporation of a potentially large set of additional policy areas including institutions and policy areas with limited time-series availability (e.g. sub-components of the Product Market Regulation indicator, housing market regulations and policies, Doing Business indicators and the quality of institutions such as the rule of law indicator or the efficiency of the legal system). Results suggest that for instance, when more stringent product market regulation hurts more in more open economies. Better institutions amplify the positive effect of R&D spending. Tax wedge reduction leads to less employment gains when EPL is not very stringent.
Substance Use Attitudes and Behaviors at Three Pharmacy Colleges

The objective of this study was to profile and compare alcohol and other drug (AOD) use attitudes and behaviors in three pharmacy colleges. Student surveys of AOD use attitudes and behaviors were conducted at one southwestern and two midwestern pharmacy colleges. Response was 86.5% (566/654). Reported past-year use included alcohol 82.8%, tobacco 25.4%, and marijuana 6.9%. Past-year AOD-associated events included blackouts 18.2%, class or work under influence 7.8%, patient care under influence 1.4%, lowered grades or job evaluations 5.8%, legal charges 2.7%, and heavy drinking 29.0%. Family histories of alcohol or drug problems were reported by 35.5% and 13.1%, respectively. A number of significant differences in AOD use attitudes and behaviors between the three colleges were identified. Pharmacy students reported a number of risky drug-use attitudes and behaviors in this survey. Student AOD prevention, assistance, and education should be proactively addressed by pharmacy colleges.
Hawaiʻi Creole in the public domain

In light of a belief that Hawaiʻi Creole (HC) is mostly inappropriate in public domains of society, this study examines how it was employed in two university commencement speeches by a local politician in Hawaiʻi. The analysis adopts the perspective of heteroglossia (Bakhtin 1981) in order to describe how HC is used together in the speeches with English and also some Hawaiian words. By focusing on the contrastive indexical meanings attached to all three languages, the analysis describes how the speaker combined humor and serious advice in his speeches. In particular, a focus is given to a specific feature of the HC grammar, the negative imperative, that was used by the speaker to underscore his main points. Discussion of the analysis considers the potential of the perspective of heteroglossia to understand the usage of HC in the public domain in Hawaiʻi to construct formal speeches of a decidedly ʻlocal’ style.
Early Versus Late Drain Removal After Standard Pancreatic Resections: Results of a Prospective Randomized Trial

Summary of Background Data:The role of surgically placed intra-abdominal drainages after pancreatic resections has not been clearly established. In particular, their effect on morbidity rates and the optimal timing for their removal remains controversial. Methods:A total of 114 eligible patients who underwent standard pancreatic resections and at low risk of postoperative pancreatic fistula according to our institutional protocol (amylase value in drains ≤5000 U/L on postoperative day [POD] 1) were randomized on POD 3 to receive either early (POD 3) or standard drain removal (POD 5 or beyond). The primary end point of the study was the incidence of pancreatic fistula. Secondary endpoints included abdominal complications, pulmonary complications, in-hospital stay, and perioperative mortality. Cost-analysis between the 2 groups was also made. Results:Early drain removal was associated with a decreased rate of pancreatic fistula (P = 0.0001), abdominal complications (P = 0.002), and pulmonary complications (P = 0.007). Median in-hospital stay was shorter (P = 0.018), and hospital costs decreased (P = 0.02). Mortality was nil. A significant association with pancreatic fistula was found for timing of drain removal (P < 0.001), unintentional weight decrease before surgery (P = 0.022), type of pancreas texture (P = 0.015), serum amylase levels on POD 1 (P = 0.001), and albumin levels on POD 1 (P = 0.039). Multivariate analysis showed that timing of drain removal (P = 0.0003) and unintentional weight decrease before surgery (P = 0.02) were independent risk factors of pancreatic fistula. Conclusions:In patients at low risk of pancreatic fistula, intra-abdominal drains can be safely removed on POD 3 after standard pancreatic resections. A prolonged period of drain insertion is associated with a higher rate of postoperative complications with increased hospital stay and costs. The manuscript is a randomized trial, registered in the NLM database as NCT00931554.
On the Development and Comparative Evaluation of an Ultrasound B-Mode Probe Calibration Method

Objective: Precise transducer calibration is an essential prerequisite for reliable surface registration based on ultrasound B-mode imaging devices. The clinical usage of a novel B-mode transducer calibration technique was evaluated and its attainable calibration precision assessed. Materials and Methods: The Three Wire Method and the Cambridge Calibration Method were used as reference techniques to compare the efficiency, calibration precision and spatial requirements of the different techniques. A total of 20 calibration trials were performed using each technique and were statistically evaluated for accuracy and speed. Results: The mean error characterizing the calibration precision of the Three Wire Method was 3.2 mm, obtained in a phantom with a volume of 14 × 106 mm3 in 18.48 min. The Cambridge method resulted in a mean calibration error of 2.2 mm, but required a larger phantom with a volume of 35 × 106 mm3 to be used for a duration of 9.30 min. The proposed method yielded an average calibration error of 1.9 mm and was performed, on average, in 2 min using a phantom with a size smaller than 1 × 106 mm3. Conclusions: The suggested calibration method offers decreased time and space while retaining an equivalent calibration precision when compared to established reference methods.
Cryptocurrencies, Mainstream Asset Classes and Risk Factors: A Study of Connectedness

We investigate connectedness within and across two major groups or assets: i) five popular cryptocurrencies, and ii) six major asset classes plus two commonly employed risk factors. Granger-causality tests uncover six direct channels of causality from the elements of the mainstream assets/risk factors group to digital assets. On the other hand there are two statistically significant causal links going in the other direction. In order to provide some perspective on the magnitude of the uncovered linkages we supplement the analysis by estimating networks from forecast error variance decompositions. The estimated connectedness within the groups is relatively large, whereas the linkages across the two groups are small in comparison. Namely, less than 2.2 percent of future uncertainty of any cryptocurrency is sourced from all non-crypto assets combined, while the joint contribution of all digital assets to non-crypto uncertainty does not exceed 1.5 percent.
Effect of follicle cells and steroidogenesis on maturation and fertilization in vitro of pig oocytes.

Follicle cell numbers, steroidogenesis, and culture conditions were manipulated in a series of experiments designed to identify their effect during in vitro maturation of pig oocytes upon meiotic cycle progression, sperm penetration and male pronuclear formation. In Experiment 1 a static culture system was used to determine the effect of follicle cell numbers on maturation. When the follicle cell number was 3.5 x 10(3) cells per complex or less, cell cycle progression to metaphase II (M-II) and male pronuclear formation were both low (< 30%). Increasing follicle cell numbers to 15 x 10(3) per complex significantly enhanced both meiotic maturation (93%) and male pronuclear formation (83%). A further 10-fold increase in follicle cell numbers (150 x 10(3)), however, reduced subsequent male pronuclear formation (33%). The purpose of Experiment 2 was to determine whether the observed follicle cell effects were influenced by the type of culture system used for oocyte maturation. Comparisons were made between both static and non-static forms of culture. Meiotic progression was significantly depressed when non-static culture systems were used for the maturation of oocyte-cumulus complexes containing low numbers of somatic cells (< 15 x 10(3) cells). However, the addition of somatic cells (follicle shells) to non-static, but not static, culture systems significantly enhanced male pronuclear formation in all groups irrespective of the number of cumulus cells in the oocyte complex. Experiment 3 investigated the effects of the steroid environment on maturation and male pronuclear formation. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Vascular reactivity in patients with preeclampsia and HELLP (hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes, and low platelet count) syndrome.

OBJECTIVE Early structural and functional changes in the systemic vasculature have been proposed to play a major pathogenetic role in preeclampsia and HELLP (hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes, and low platelet count) syndrome. The aim of the study was to determine vascular reactivity in patients with preeclampsia with and without HELLP syndrome with respect to those in healthy pregnant control subjects. STUDY DESIGN Forearm blood flow was measured by strain gauge plethysmography with the venous occlusion technique in 12 hypertensive patients with HELLP syndrome, in 8 patients with preeclampsia without HELLP syndrome, and in 8 healthy normotensive pregnant control subjects. To determine vascular reactivity the forearm blood flow was measured at baseline and after forearm occlusion for a period of 5 minutes (reactive hyperemia). The investigations were repeated 4 to 6 months post partum. Forearm vascular resistance was calculated as the ratio of mean arterial pressure to forearm blood flow. RESULTS Mean arterial pressure at rest was elevated in patients with preeclampsia (116 +/- 20 mm Hg) and in patients with HELLP syndrome (110 +/- 16 mm Hg) with respect to healthy pregnant control subjects (86 +/- 10 mm Hg; P <.05). Forearm blood flow at rest was not statistically different in patients with preeclampsia (5.1 +/- 2.6 mL/min per 100 mL) and with HELLP syndrome (4.7 +/- 1.5 mL/min per 100 mL) with respect to pregnant control subjects (5.9 +/- 3.1 mL/min per 100 mL); however, forearm vascular resistance at rest was elevated in patients with preeclampsia (25.9 +/- 9.5 units; P <.05) and in patients with HELLP syndrome(24.6 +/- 6.9 units; P <.05) with respect to healthy control subjects (17.0 +/- 6.1 units). During reactive hyperemia the peak forearm blood flow, which is an indicator of maximal vasodilatory capacity, was impaired in patients with preeclampsia (21.9 +/- 8.2 mL/min per 100 mL; P <.05) but not in patients with HELLP syndrome (37.4 +/- 17.5 mL/min per 100 mL) and healthy control subjects (44.9 +/- 15.0 mL/min per 100 mL). Consequently, minimum forearm vascular resistance was higher in women with preeclampsia (6.1 +/- 1.9 units) than in both women with HELLP syndrome (3.5 +/- 1.6 units) and the control subjects (2.8 +/- 2.4 units). CONCLUSION Despite similarly elevated forearm vascular resistances at rest in patients with HELLP syndrome and in patients with preeclampsia, forearm vascular resistance during reactive hyperemia did not differ significantly from that in healthy control subjects in the women with HELLP syndrome but was increased in women with preeclampsia. Vasodilatory reactivity thus is reduced in preeclampsia but not in HELLP syndrome, which suggests different alterations of the vasculature.