Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Too Few Women? - or Too Many Men? The Gender Imbalance in Undergraduate Economics

There is a gender imbalance in undergraduate economics departments with most departments educating a strong majority of young men. This imbalance has led many economists to ponder the question of why relatively few women choose to take courses and major in economics. Our hypothesis is that the gender imbalance in undergraduate economics, particularly at institutions with traditional liberal arts curriculums, is as much the result of too many men choosing economics as it is too few women. Students choose their majors based on both their interests and their abilities. The literature indicates that the grade a student receives in an introductory class relative to grades received in other departments is one of the strongest predictors of whether or not the student chooses to enroll in more courses in the discipline. However, our hypothesis is that men who take economics courses are less responsive to this signal than are women. As a result, men who do poorly in economics are more likely to continue in the major. Women who do poorly, in contrast, are more likely to abandon economics and pursue a different major. Our results, generated from 16 years of data from a liberal arts college where economics is one of the most popular majors, support this hypothesis. The overall economics GPA for female majors is significantly higher than that for males. In addition, histograms show that male students dominate the bottom of the grade distribution. Finally, results from estimation of a series of selection models of the decision to take more economics courses indicate that, holding other characteristics constant, women are more responsive to the relative grade received in the second semester of economics than are men.
Balancing learning and adaptive curves in service encounters to manage critical incidents

ABSTRACT This study explores the interface between service receivers’ learning and service providers’ adaptive curves in service encounters after critical incidents have occurred. Learning curve refers to a service receiver being repeatedly exposed to the same or similar critical incident. Adaptive curve refers to service providers possibly needing to act more flexibly each time a service receiver is exposed to the same or similar critical incident. The objective is to describe the interface between service receivers’ teleological actions and their perceptions of service providers’ teleological actions in complaint handling when critical incidents have occurred. Teleological actions may be either ad hoc and present-based, predetermined and past-based; or goal-directed and future-based. This study is based on two phases of qualitative research. The results indicate that there is a need for service providers to balance their actions in relation to the service receivers’ actions when critical incidents occur. The study provides a foundation for enhancing complaint handling in service encounters after critical incidents have occurred.
Monitoring of cerebral autoregulation in head-injured patients.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Disturbed cerebral autoregulation has been reported to correlate with an unfavorable outcome after head injury. Using transcranial Doppler ultrasonography, we investigated whether hemodynamic responses to spontaneous variations of cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP) provide reliable information on cerebral autoregulatory reserve. METHODS We studied 82 patients with head injury daily. Waveforms of intracranial pressure (ICP), arterial pressure, and transcranial Doppler flow velocity (FV) were captured during 2-hour periods. Time-averaged mean FV (FVm) and the FV during cardiac systole (FVs) were resolved. The correlation coefficient indices between FVm and CPP (Mx) and between FVs and CPP (Sx) during spontaneous fluctuations of CPP were calculated during 3-minute epochs and averaged for each investigation. RESULTS Mx and Sx correlated with CPP (r = -.34, P = < .002; r = -.2, P = NS. respectively), with ICP (r = .46, P < .0001; r = .34, P < .003, respectively), with admission Glasgow Coma Scale score (r = -.34, P < .0025; r = -.38, P < .0008, respectively), and with outcome after head injury (r = .41, P < .0002; r = .48, P < .00009, respectively). In patients who died, cerebral autoregulation was severely disturbed during the first 2 days after injury. CONCLUSIONS Indices derived from spontaneous fluctuations of FV waveform and CPP describe cerebral vascular pressure reactivity. They correlate with outcome after head injury and therefore may be used to guide autoregulation-oriented intensive therapy.
Lipid peroxidation in the first trimester of pregnancy

Aim: To determine the existence and level of oxidative stress caused by lipid peroxidation in pregnancy. Methods: The research was conducted as prospective examination that included 60 healthy women (age 18–45). The women included in the examination were divided into two groups. The group I (N-31) included women in the first trimester of normal, healthy pregnancy. The group II included healthy nongravid women (N-29). Concentrations of markers of lipid peroxidation malondialdehyde (MDA) and thiobarbituric acid (TBARS) were determined using commercial ELISA tests OxiSelect™ TBARS Assay Kit and OxiSelect™ MDA ELISA Kit. Results: The results of this research indicate that the concentrations of the markers of lipid peroxidation TBARS and MDA are detectable in both groups. Higher mean values of MDA (>20 pmol/mg) were measured in the group of pregnant women, than in the group of nongravid women. The results indicate that mean values of TBARS markers are lower in pregnant women (≤50 µM) than in nongravid women (>100 µM). Conclusion: The marker of lipid peroxidation MDA proved to be a sensitive marker for following lipid peroxidation during pregnancy, therefore it can be considered as a good predictor of possible complications during pregnancy.
Sedentary behaviour and health: mapping environmental and social contexts to underpin chronic disease prevention

The time that children and adults spend sedentary–put simply, doing too much sitting as distinct from doing too little physical activity—has recently been proposed as a population-wide, ubiquitous influence on health outcomes. It has been argued that sedentary time is likely to be additional to the risks associated with insufficient moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. New evidence identifies relationships of too much sitting with overweight and obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, some cancers and other adverse health outcomes. There is a need for a broader base of evidence on the likely health benefits of changing the relevant sedentary behaviours, particularly gathering evidence on underlying mechanisms and dose–response relationships. However, as remains the case for physical activity, there is a research agenda to be pursued in order to identify the potentially modifiable environmental and social determinants of sedentary behaviour. Such evidence is required so as to understand what might need to be changed in order to influence sedentary behaviours and to work towards population-wide impacts on prolonged sitting time. In this context, the research agenda needs to focus particularly on what can inform broad, evidence-based environmental and policy initiatives. We consider what has been learned from research on relationships of environmental and social attributes and physical activity; provide an overview of recent-emerging evidence on relationships of environmental attributes with sedentary behaviour; argue for the importance of conducting international comparative studies and addressing life-stage issues and socioeconomic inequalities and we propose a conceptual model within which this research agenda may be addressed.
Histological Pattern Of Endometrial Samples In Postmenopausal Women With Abnormal Uterine Bleeding.

BACKGROUND Abnormal uterine bleeding is one of the most common clinical problems in gynaecological practice and is an indicator of various underlying disorders. An endometrial biopsy should be done in all women over 35 years with AUB to rule out endometrial cancer or pre-malignant lesion and to initiate treatment. However, wide range of histological patterns on endometrial biopsy offer a diagnostic challenge to practicing pathologists. The objective of this study was to determine histological patterns of endometrium in postmenopausal women with abnormal uterine bleeding. METHODS This cross-sectional study was conducted in the department of obstetrics and gynaecology, Benazir Bhutto Shaheed women and children teaching hospital, Abbottabad from 15/11/2014 to 14/05/2015. This study involved 110 postmenopausal women presenting with abnormal uterine bleeding. A written informed consent was obtained from every patient. RESULTS The mean age of the patients was 61.60±6.17 years and the mean duration of AUB was 5.20±2.80 years. Most of the patients were para 6 (28.2%) and para 5 (28.2%) followed by para 4 (18.2%) and para 3 (17.3%) while only 8.2% were para 1. The most common histological pattern observed was complex hyperplasia without atypia (30.9%) followed by atrophic endometrium (24.5%), simple hyperplasia (23.6%), malignancy (12.7%), complex hyperplasia with atypia (4.5%) and benign endometrial polyp (3.6%). When stratified the data, there was no significant difference of histological patterns across various age groups (p=.673), duration of AUB (p=.064) and parity (p=.242). CONCLUSIONS The most common histological pattern observed in postmenopausal women with AUB was complex hyperplasia without atypia (30.9%) followed by atrophic endometrium (24.5%), simple hyperplasia (23.6%), malignancy (12.7%), complex hyperplasia with atypia (4.5%) and benign endometrial polyp (3.6%).
Density constraints for crowd simulation

Virtual worlds are nowadays commonly used in interactive applications, like computer games and simulations. Typically, such worlds are populated by a large number of virtual characters. On one hand, these characters have global goals with respect to the environment and thus, they must be able to plan their paths toward their desired locations. On the other hand, they should try to avoid collisions with each other and with the environment. In this paper, we present a new technique to improve the global routes that characters prefer to follow by taking into account the crowd density. Consequently, in our simulations, characters can intelligently plan their paths around congested areas, favoring less dense regions. This leads to an efficient flow of characters, reducing at the same time the amount of energy and time consuming avoidance maneuvers that the characters have to perform. The technique is fast and can plan paths for thousands of characters in real-time.
Muramic acid as a measure of microbial biomass in estuarine and marine samples

Muramic acid, a component of the muramyl peptide found only in the cell walls of bacteria and blue-green algae, furnishes a measure of detrital or sedimentary procaryotic biomass. A reproducible assay involving acid hydrolysis, preparative thin-layer chromatographic purification, and colorimetric analysis of lactate released from muramic acid by alkaline hydrolysis is described. Comparison of semitropical estuarine detritus, estuarine muds, and sediments from anaerobic Black Sea cores showed muramic acid levels of 100 to 700 microng/g (dry weight), 34 microng/g, and 1.5 to 14.9 microng/g, respectively. Enzymatic assays of lactate from muramic acid gave results 10- to 20-fold higher. Radioactive pulse-labeling studies showed that [14C]acetate is rapidly incorporated into muramic acid by the detrital microflora. Subsequent loss of 14C, accompanied by nearly constant levels of total muramic acid, indicated active metabolism in procaryotic cell walls.
Dynamic traversal of large gaps by insects and legged robots reveals a template

It is well known that animals can use neural and sensory feedback via vision, tactile sensing, and echolocation to negotiate obstacles. Similarly, most robots use deliberate or reactive planning to avoid obstacles, which relies on prior knowledge or high-fidelity sensing of the environment. However, during dynamic locomotion in complex, novel, 3D terrains, such as a forest floor and building rubble, sensing and planning suffer bandwidth limitation and large noise and are sometimes even impossible. Here, we study rapid locomotion over a large gap—a simple, ubiquitous obstacle—to begin to discover the general principles of the dynamic traversal of large 3D obstacles. We challenged the discoid cockroach and an open-loop six-legged robot to traverse a large gap of varying length. Both the animal and the robot could dynamically traverse a gap as large as one body length by bridging the gap with its head, but traversal probability decreased with gap length. Based on these observations, we developed a template that accurately captured body dynamics and quantitatively predicted traversal performance. Our template revealed that a high approach speed, initial body pitch, and initial body pitch angular velocity facilitated dynamic traversal, and successfully predicted a new strategy for using body pitch control that increased the robot’s maximal traversal gap length by 50%. Our study established the first template of dynamic locomotion beyond planar surfaces, and is an important step in expanding terradynamics into complex 3D terrains.
IgG Subclass Deficiency in Patients with Down's Syndrome and Aberrant Hepatitis B Vaccine Response

Seventeen adult patients with Down's syndrome (DS) and 19 adult healthy references were vaccinated with a hepatitis B vaccine in order to study the IgG subclass response. An enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using monoclonal antibodies specific for IgG subclasses was employed. In spite of normal levels of total IgG1 and normal or even high levels of IgG3 in the DS patients, a significantly lower IgG1 response to the vaccine was observed in trisomic patients than in the references.
Directivity‐enhanced planar slot antenna backed by substrate integrated waveguide cavity

In this paper, a directivity‐enhanced planar slot antenna (PSA) backed by substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) cavity is proposed to solve the problem of maximum gain direction bias. According to the radiation principle of slot antenna, the reason for maximum gain direction bias is explained and the solution has been given. Ulteriorly, the problem of frequency bias caused by changing the directivity is also explained by resonance modes and solved by introducing the metal via. An example with 5.8 GHz which has the maximum gain of 5.28 dBi and the total thickness less than λ/4 is given. After structural optimization and measurement, the maximum radiation direction of improved antenna is 0° from the normal direction of antenna surface, and it maintains the good radiation performance and small size of the traditional PSA backed by SIW cavity.
Optimal Protein Structure Alignment Using Maximum Cliques

In biology, the protein structure alignment problem answers the question of how similar two proteins are. Proteins with strong physical similarities in their tertiary (folded) structure often have similar functions, so understanding physical similarity could be a key to developing protein-based medical treatments. One of the models for protein structure alignment is the maximum contact map overlap (CMO) model. The CMO model of protein structure alignment can be cast as a maximum clique problem on an appropriately defined graph. We exploit properties of these protein-based maximum clique problems to develop specialized preprocessing techniques and show how they can be used to more quickly solve contact map overlap instances to optimality.
Client Security Price Reactions To The Laventhol And Horwath Bankruptcy

On November 21, 1990, Laventhol and Horwath (henceforth LH), then the nation's seventh-largest public accounting firm, filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Federal Bankruptcy Code. A portfolio of 75 LH client common stocks earned statistically significant risk-adjusted returns of -1.91% during the two-day trading period around the LH bankruptcy disclosure. We propose and investigate two explanations for these security price reactions. The insurance explanation presumes investor reliance on auditors to recover future investment losses (Kellogg [1984] and Stice [1991]). Recovery is conditioned on the auditor's ability to pay; therefore, the LH
In their own words: CIO visions about the future of in-house IT organizations

This research investigated CIOs'view of the changes driving and occurring in their in-house IT organizations. Results of interviews with 50 CIOs and IT leaders from 22 organizations in Canada and the U.S. suggest three main drivers of change for in-house IT organizations: rapid strategic business change, pervasive IT with an experienced user community, and e-business and technology complexity. These drivers are creating changes in all parts of the IT organization: structure and roles, application development, technology architectures, and skills and knowledge of IT practitioners. According to CIOs, their virtual, global IT organizations need to move even closer towards the strategic centre of the company, requiring increased business knowledge, improved ability to influence and negotiate, and a renewed focus on standardized architectures, metrics, and value creation.
Adenovirus‐mediated CD40 ligand gene therapy in a rat model of orthotopic hepatocellular carcinoma

Unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) lacks effective therapy and entails very poor prognosis. In this study, we have explored a gene‐therapeutic approach to stimulate antitumor immunity by adenoviral‐mediated transfer of CD40 ligand to treat HCC in rats. In vitro infection of a rat HCC cell line (McA‐RH7777) with adenoviral vector expressing CD40 ligand (AdCMVmCD40L) induced CD40L expression in a dose‐dependent manner. Expression of CD40L in McA‐RH7777 cells did not alter their growth rate in vitro, but it abrogated their tumorigenicity when CD40L‐expressing cells were implanted into the liver of syngenic Buffalo rats. In vivo gene therapy of established orthotopic HCC nodules (6.5 mm in diameter) in Buffalo rats by intratumor injection of AdCMVmCD40L vector led to complete tumor eradication and long‐term survival in 69.5% of treated animals. Therapy with AdCMVmCD40L induced strong lymphocytic infiltration of the tumoral tissue and increased apoptosis of malignant cells. The observed antitumoral effect was mediated by CD8+ T cells and was associated with increased interleukin (IL)‐12 serum levels and enhanced natural killer (NK) activity. Animals that eliminated the tumor after in vivo gene therapy developed protective antitumor immunity being resistant to rechallenge with neoplastic cells. Toxicity of the therapy with AdCMVmCD40L was slight, with only a transient increase in the level of serum transaminases and minor lymphocyte infiltration of normal liver tissue. These data demonstrate that intratumoral administration of AdCMVmCD40L may provide an efficient and safe treatment for HCC.
A Conceptual and Clinical Model of Youth Violence in America*

This work is based on the assumption that youth violence continues to be a serious problem in American society. It is exacerbated by the history of violence, cultural factors, and the nature and quality of interpersonal relations encountered by youth in their daily lives. The metaphor of “a nation at war with itself” is used to highlight the fact that more Americans are regularly killed by other Americans at home than those killed in foreign wars. These conditions set the stage for the development of a psycho-social model of youth violence in America today. The model is a take-off from the author's earlier hypothesis that all violence may be construed as a powerful reaction to overcome powerlessness. It identifies four correlates of powerlessness: disconnection, anonymity, selfishness, and lack of adult-youth communication about violence. These variables are subsequently integrated into an explanatory and predictive device for one category of violence only, homicides committed by youth. The model may, however, apply to other categories of interpersonal violence as well. It is dedicated to the urgent task of curbing youth violence in America, and by implication, in other similar cultural contexts.
Patients' ideas about medicines: a qualitative study in a general practice population.

BACKGROUND Little attention has been paid to patients' ideas about medicines and such ideas might well have relevance for understanding non-adherence to medication. AIM This qualitative study set out to describe the ideas about medicines and the self-reported adherence to medication of a general practice population. METHOD Semistructured interviews were conducted with 30 adult patients (attenders and non-attenders) from two general practices. RESULTS The main themes emerging from the analysis were: perceived properties of medicines; orientation towards medicines, that is, patients' general preference for taking or not taking medication; and actual usage of medicines. The data revealed that on the one hand much medicine taking was taken for granted and on the other hand that patients had many fears and powerful negative images of medicines. CONCLUSION Any assessment of the appropriateness of a proposed treatment for an individual patient should include an exploration of his or her preferences, orientation towards medicines and social context.
Altered superficial amygdala–cortical functional link in resting state after 36 hours of total sleep deprivation

The superficial amygdala (SFA) is important in human emotion/affective processing via its strong connection with other limbic and cerebral cortex for receptive and expressive emotion processing. Few studies have investigated the functional connectivity changes of the SFA under extreme conditions, such as prolonged sleep loss, although the SFA showed a distinct functional connectivity pattern throughout the brain. In this study, resting‐state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs‐fMRI) was employed to investigate the changes of SFA–cortical functional connectivity after 36 hr of total sleep deprivation (TSD). Fourteen healthy male volunteers aged 25.9 ± 2.3 years (range 18–28 years) enrolled in this within‐subject crossover study. We found that the right SFA showed increased functional connectivity with the right medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and decreased functional connectivity with the right dorsal posterior cingulate cortex (dPCC) in the resting brain after TSD compared with that during rested wakefulness. For the left SFA, decreased connectivity with the right dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and right dPCC was found. Further regression analysis indicated that the functional link between mPFC and SFA significantly correlated with the Profile of Mood State scores. Our results suggest that the amygdala cannot be treated as a single unit in human neuroimaging studies and that TSD may alter the functional connectivity pattern of the SFA, which in turn disrupts emotional regulation. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Carbohydrates and the human gut microbiota

Purpose of reviewDue to its scale and its important role in maintaining health, the gut microbiota can be considered as a ‘new organ’ inside the human body. Many complex carbohydrates are degraded and fermented by the human gut microbiota in the large intestine to both yield basic energy salvage and impact gut health through produced metabolites. Recent findingsThis review will focus on the gut microbes and microbial mechanisms responsible for polysaccharides degradation and fermentation in the large intestine. Gut microbes and bacterial metabolites impact the host at many levels, including modulation of inflammation, and glucose and lipid metabolisms. SummaryA complex relationship occurs in the intestine between the human gut microbiota, diet and the host. Research on carbohydrates and gut microbiota composition and functionality is fast developing and will open opportunities for prevention and treatment of obesity, diabetes and other related metabolic disorders through manipulation of the gut ecosystem.