Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Random amplified polymorphic DNA analysis of southern brown bandicoot (Isoodon obesulus) populations in Western Australia reveals genetic differentiation related to environmental variables

Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers were used to analyse genetic variation within and between populations of Isoodon obesulus in Western Australia. Genetically controlled geographical variation in body size associated with habitat type and rainfall exists in this species, raising the question of whether local conditions may influence gene flow in I. obesulus. The RAPD markers displayed substantial genetic variation, with all animals possessing unique RAPD phenotypes over 39 polymorphic bands produced by three primers. Significant geographical subdivision was apparent (ΦST = 0.208) with southwest locations being divergent from all others, despite there being no physical barriers to gene flow. The pattern of subdivision was unrelated to physical distance between the locations, but was related to both annual rainfall and habitat type. Therefore, the most reasonable explanation for this pattern of subdivision appears to be that gene flow is restricted by selection against migrants between local populations with substantially different habitat type or rainfall. Restriction of gene flow through selection against migrants is rarely investigated, and the results of this study suggest that the importance of this process in the formation of population structure may be underestimated.
Fibrin glue sealing for the prevention of pancreatic fistulas following distal pancreatectomy.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the use of fibrin glue sealing of the pancreatic stump for the prevention of postoperative pancreatic fistulas. DESIGN A prospective, randomized clinical trial. PATIENTS AND METHODS Fibrin glue is a biologic adhesive consisting of highly concentrated human fibrinogen, thrombin, and factor VIII. Twenty-six of 56 patients who underwent distal pancreatectomy for gastric cancer or pancreatic disease were randomly assigned to the fibrin glue group. Fibrin glue was applied to the suture line of the pancreatic stump with the ligated main pancreatic duct. Pancreatic fistula was defined as a pancreatic fluid discharge for over 7 post-operative days diagnosed by local findings, with amylase concentration in the discharge fluid more than three times the serum amylase concentration, a level low enough that even a small pancreatic leakage could be diagnosed. RESULTS The overall incidence of pancreatic fistula was 28.6%. Postoperative pancreatic fistulas occurred in four patients (15.4%) in the fibrin glue group and 12 (40.0%) in the control group (P = .04). The lower pancreatic fistula rate was seen in the fibrin glue group also when analyzing patients with gastric cancer or pancreatic disease only, although there was no statistically significant difference. CONCLUSIONS Intraoperative use of fibrin glue following distal pancreatectomy could prevent pancreatic fistula formation. This method was feasible, safe, and reliable and will complement other prophylactic methods.
Seasonality of preterm births in Japan.

Seasonal variations in the proportion of preterm births in Japan from January 1979 to December 1983 are analysed using a traditional method of time-series analysis, which divides the variation in a series into trend, seasonal variation, other cyclic change, and remaining irregular fluctuations. It is shown that the proportion of preterm births in Japan have a clear seasonal periodicity with two peaks in summer and winter. Analysis of seasonality by period of gestation shows that interesting differences in kurtosis and skewness exist between summer and winter, i.e. the summer increase in preterm births was characterized by an increase of skewness which means an extension of the lower part of the distribution. On the other hand, the winter increase was characterized by a decrease of kurtosis which corresponds to a flat-topped distribution. This result suggests that causes of preterm births might be different between the two seasons. Theoretical simulations based on actual birth data in Japan over the period, are carried out to examine how season of conception could influence seasonal variations in the proportion of preterm births. Results show that, at least for first births, seasonality in conception rates could be one explanatory factor for the observed seasonal variation in proportions of preterm births. Another analysis reveals that conception in May and June are more likely to result in preterm births in Japan.
Dropping dead: causes and consequences of vulture population declines worldwide

Vultures are nature's most successful scavengers, and they provide an array of ecological, economic, and cultural services. As the only known obligate scavengers, vultures are uniquely adapted to a scavenging lifestyle. Vultures’ unique adaptations include soaring flight, keen eyesight, and extremely low pH levels in their stomachs. Presently, 14 of 23 (61%) vulture species worldwide are threatened with extinction, and the most rapid declines have occurred in the vulture‐rich regions of Asia and Africa. The reasons for the population declines are varied, but poisoning or human persecution, or both, feature in the list of nearly every declining species. Deliberate poisoning of carnivores is likely the most widespread cause of vulture poisoning. In Asia, Gyps vultures have declined by >95% due to poisoning by the veterinary drug diclofenac, which was banned by regional governments in 2006. Human persecution of vultures has occurred for centuries, and shooting and deliberate poisoning are the most widely practiced activities. Ecological consequences of vulture declines include changes in community composition of scavengers at carcasses and an increased potential for disease transmission between mammalian scavengers at carcasses. There have been cultural and economic costs of vulture declines as well, particularly in Asia. In the wake of catastrophic vulture declines in Asia, regional governments, the international scientific and donor communities, and the media have given the crisis substantial attention. Even though the Asian vulture crisis focused attention on the plight of vultures worldwide, the situation for African vultures has received relatively little attention especially given the similar levels of population decline. While the Asian crisis has been largely linked to poisoning by diclofenac, vulture population declines in Africa have numerous causes, which have made conserving existing populations more difficult. And in Africa there has been little government support to conserve vultures despite mounting evidence of the major threats. In other regions with successful vulture conservation programs, a common theme is a huge investment of financial resources and highly skilled personnel, as well as political will and community support.
Psychosocial study about the consequences of work in hospital nurses as human resource management.

OBJECTIVES To analyze the relation between psychosocial and sociodemographic variables in nursing professionals. To discover the levels of job satisfaction, psychosomatic symptoms and psychological well-being in nurses. METHOD The research was conducted in a sample of 476 nurses / as from nine hospitals in the region of Murcia (Spain). An occupational health protocol was distributed among the sample participants for completion, which contained tools for measuring and describing psychosocial and sociodemographic variables. RESULTS Although there is no high risk for psychological problems among the sample participants, psychosomatic symptoms, job dissatisfaction, and low psychological wellbeing are present. CONCLUSIONS The results contribute to research on the subject by identifying the presence of psychosocial disorders in nursing professionals, associated with job conditions and certain psychosocial and sociodemographic variables.
Cholinergic vesicular transporters in progressive supranuclear palsy

ObjectiveTo determine the status of cholinergic and monoaminergic vesicular transporter binding sites in progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). MethodsThe authors determined autoradiographically the regional expression of acetylcholine vesicular transporter (VAChT) and monoamine vesicular transporter type 2 (VMAT2) binding sites in postmortem basal ganglia samples from subjects with PSP. Comparison neurochemical measures included choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) enzyme activity and benzodiazepine (BZ) binding sites. ResultsVAChT expressions and ChAT activities in caudate nucleus and putamen were markedly decreased in PSP, whereas BZ binding was unaffected, consistent with selective losses of striatal cholinergic interneurons. VMAT2 density was reduced significantly in the caudate nucleus, putamen, and substantia nigra pars compacta, consistent with degeneration of dopaminergic nigrostriatal projection neurons in PSP. In the globus pallidus, BZ receptor binding sites were reduced, whereas VMAT2 and VAChT binding sites were unchanged, indicating losses of intrinsic pallidal neurons and synapses. ConclusionsThese results confirm selective and marked degenerations of basal ganglia cholinergic and dopaminergic terminals in PSP. Striatal VAChT reduction may provide a unique neurochemical imaging marker for distinction of PSP from other types of basal ganglia neurodegeneration.
Stakeholder pressure on carbon emissions: strategies and the use of management accounting

ABSTRACT Prior research finds corporate environmental behaviour to be a function of stakeholder pressure, which significantly impacts on organisational strategies and internal management practices relating to environmental issues. Applying Freeman’s propositions on stakeholder management and corporate strategies, this study explains the relationship among stakeholder pressure, companies’ climate change risk management strategies and management accounting practices. Evidence provided through interviews with 39 managers responsible for carbon emissions management within 18 large listed Australian companies is used to investigate these relationships. This study finds that the sample companies used different strategies in accordance with relative cooperative potential and the relative competitive threat posed by stakeholders in managing carbon emissions issues. It is also seen that companies use management accounting techniques as a risk management tool in supporting their climate change strategies.
Summary health statistics for the U.S. population: National Health Interview Survey, 2000.

OBJECTIVES This report presents health statistics from the 2000 National Health Interview Survey for the civilian noninstitutionalized population of the United States, classified by age, sex, race and Hispanic or Latino origin, family income, poverty status, education, place of residence, region of residence, and, where appropriate, health insurance coverage. The topics covered are health status and limitations in activities, special education or early intervention services, injuries and poisonings, health care access and utilization, and health insurance coverage. SOURCE OF DATA The NHIS is a household, multistage probability sample survey conducted annually by interviewers of the U.S. Census Bureau for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. Household interviews were completed for 100,618 persons living in 38,633 households, reflecting a household response rate of 89%. SELECTED HIGHLIGHTS Nearly 7 in 10 persons were in excellent or very good health in 2000, and fewer than 1 in 10 were in fair or poor health. About 31 million people (11%) were limited in their usual activities due to one or more chronic health conditions, and about 3 million people (2%) required the help of another person with activities of daily living such as bathing and dressing. Persons with the least education and the lowest incomes were the most likely to be limited in their ability to work. About 5% of children received special education or early intervention services. The three leading causes of medically attended injury and poisoning episodes were falls, being struck by a person or an object, and transportation. Among people under age 65 years, about 40 million (17%) did not have any health insurance coverage.
Volumetric CT with sparse detector arrays (and application to Si-strip photon counters)

Novel x-ray medical imaging sensors, such as photon counting detectors (PCDs) and large area CCD and CMOS cameras can involve irregular and/or sparse sampling of the detector plane. Application of such detectors to CT involves undersampling that is markedly different from the commonly considered case of sparse angular sampling. This work investigates volumetric sampling in CT systems incorporating sparsely sampled detectors with axial and helical scan orbits and evaluates performance of model-based image reconstruction (MBIR) with spatially varying regularization in mitigating artifacts due to sparse detector sampling. Volumetric metrics of sampling density and uniformity were introduced. Penalized-likelihood MBIR with a spatially varying penalty that homogenized resolution by accounting for variations in local sampling density (i.e. detector gaps) was evaluated. The proposed methodology was tested in simulations and on an imaging bench based on a Si-strip PCD (total area 5 cm × 25 cm) consisting of an arrangement of line sensors separated by gaps of up to 2.5 mm. The bench was equipped with translation/rotation stages allowing a variety of scanning trajectories, ranging from a simple axial acquisition to helical scans with variable pitch. Statistical (spherical clutter) and anthropomorphic (hand) phantoms were considered. Image quality was compared to that obtained with a conventional uniform penalty in terms of structural similarity index (SSIM), image uniformity, spatial resolution, contrast, and noise. Scan trajectories with intermediate helical width (~10 mm longitudinal distance per 360° rotation) demonstrated optimal tradeoff between the average sampling density and the homogeneity of sampling throughout the volume. For a scan trajectory with 10.8 mm helical width, the spatially varying penalty resulted in significant visual reduction of sampling artifacts, confirmed by a 10% reduction in minimum SSIM (from 0.88 to 0.8) and a 40% reduction in the dispersion of SSIM in the volume compared to the constant penalty (both penalties applied at optimal regularization strength). Images of the spherical clutter and wrist phantoms confirmed the advantages of the spatially varying penalty, showing a 25% improvement in image uniformity and 1.8 × higher CNR (at matched spatial resolution) compared to the constant penalty. The studies elucidate the relationship between sampling in the detector plane, acquisition orbit, sampling of the reconstructed volume, and the resulting image quality. They also demonstrate the benefit of spatially varying regularization in MBIR for scenarios with irregular sampling patterns. Such findings are important and integral to the incorporation of a sparsely sampled Si-strip PCD in CT imaging.
Effect on road traffic injuries of criminalizing road traffic offences: a time-series study.

OBJECTIVE To determine the effect of criminalizing some traffic behaviours, after the reform of the Spanish penal code in 2007, on the number of drivers involved in injury collisions and of people injured in traffic collisions in Spain. METHODS This study followed an interrupted times-series design in which the number of drivers involved in injury collisions and of people injured in traffic collisions in Spain before and after the criminalization of offences were compared. The data on road traffic injuries in 2000-2009 were obtained from the road traffic collision database of the General Traffic Directorate. The dependent variables were stratified by sex, age, injury severity, type of road user, road type and time of collision. Quasi-Poisson regression models were fitted with adjustments for time trend, seasonality, previous interventions and national fuel consumption. FINDINGS The overall number of male drivers involved in injury collisions dropped (relative risk, RR: 0.93; 95% confidence interval, CI: 0.89-0.97) after the reform of the penal code, but among women no change was observed (RR: 0.99; 95% CI: 0.95-1.03). In addition, 13 891 men (P < 0.01) were prevented from being injured. Larger reductions were observed among young male drivers and among male motorcycle or moped riders than among the drivers of other vehicles. CONCLUSION The findings suggest that criminalizing certain traffic behaviours can improve road safety by reducing both the number of drivers involved in injury collisions and the number of people injured in such collisions.
The Optimal Earned Income Tax Credit

In this paper we characterize the optimal linear and piecewise linear EITC schedule. In the linear framework we demonstrate that in the presence of unemployment, an increase of social inequality aversion and a decrease in labor aversion both derive in a lower optimal EITC. For the piecewise linear schedule, we show that in most cases the optimal schedule is a triangle, which is at odds with actual policy, that is based on a trapezoid. According to our simulation, the use of a trapezoid instead of a triangle implies a substantial loss in terms of Social Welfare. We show that a trapezoid is optimal only when the wage distribution among the working poor is even, with a discrete jump for higher wage groups. After mimicking the wage distribution in different countries, we show that changes in the share of the "very rich" have a lower impact on the optimal EITC compared to changes in the wage variance. Finally, we show that the main impact of an increased minimum wage on the optimal EITC schedule is a more pronounced phasing out.
Why has mortality in England and Wales been increasing? An iterative demographic analysis

Objectives To understand why mortality increased in England and Wales in 2015. Design Iterative demographic analysis. Setting England and Wales Participants Population of England and Wales. Main outcome measures Causes and ages at death contributing to life expectancy changes between 2013 and 2015. Results The long-term decline in age-standardised mortality in England and Wales was reversed in 2011. Although there was a small fall in mortality rates between 2013 and 2014, in 2015 we then saw one of the largest increases in deaths in the post-war period. Nonetheless, mortality in 2015 was higher than in any year since 2008. A small decline in life expectancy at birth between 2013 and 2015 was not significant but declines in life expectancy at ages over 60 were. The largest contributors to the observed changes in life expectancy were in those aged over 85 years, with dementias making the greatest contributions in both sexes. However, changes in coding practices and diagnosis of dementia demands caution in interpreting this finding. Conclusions The long-term decline in mortality in England and Wales has reversed, with approximately 30,000 extra deaths compared to what would be expected if the average age-specific death rates in 2006–2014 had continued. These excess deaths are largely in the older population, who are most dependent on health and social care. The major contributor, based on reported causes of death, was dementia but caution was advised in this interpretation. The role of the health and social care system is explored in an accompanying paper.
Cross-feature spread of global attentional modulation in human area MT+

Feature-based attention affects the processing of the selected feature throughout the visual field. Here, we show that such global attentional modulation is not restricted to the attended feature but spreads to task-irrelevant features that are bound to the attended one. Attention to a color in one of the visual hemifields affected the processing of task-irrelevant motion in the other hemifield when it was associated with a stimulus that shared the attended color. This cross-feature global attentional selection increased the duration of the motion aftereffect and the strength of functional magnetic resonance imaging responses in the motion-sensitive area MT+, evoked by the task-irrelevant motion. These findings imply that features belonging to the same object are bound and selected jointly even outside the focus of attention.
Hydrocortisone increases the rate of differentiation of cultured human osteoblasts

Reduced bone formation is the main finding in glucocorticoid‐induced osteoporosis. The aim of this study was to determine whether differentiation of cultured human osteoblasts is inhibited by high concentrations of hydrocortisone. We measured the levels of mRNAs for three markers of cellular differentiation, type 1 collagen (COL1), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and osteocalcin (OC), in four lines of human osteoblasts from female donors cultured with doses of hydrocortisone from 0 μM to 4 μM. The change in ALP/COL1 mRNA ratio over a given time was used to determine the average rate of differentiation of the cells in a culture. Although basal expression profiles and their changes with time were different for the different cell lines, all cell lines showed a dose‐dependent rise in the rate of increase of ALP mRNA relative to COL1 mRNA. However, increase in OC mRNA with time, seen here only in young donor hOBs, was significantly inhibited by 4 μM hydrocortisone, indicating that hydrocortisone can inhibit OC expression while promoting cellular differentiation. The data suggest that increasing concentrations of glucocorticoid, including concentrations similar to plasma levels in patients receiving oral glucocorticoid therapy, increase the rate of cellular differentiation. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A comparative study and investigation of different diode models incorporating the partial shading effects

The paper holistically discusses the analysis and simulation of simplified two diode model and its comparative analysis with the one and three diode models. The two diode model presented has been grounded on the interpretation of the output current equation. This model entails four parameters and condenses the complexity and the computational time considerably. I-V and P-V curves for two diode model are plotted taking into account the variation of the atmospheric irradiance and temperature. Furthermore the two diode model is analysed by taking into account the effect of partial shading which plays an extremely detrimental role in the Solar Array output. A grave issue with partly shaded PV arrays is detouring of the maximum output voltage which acts to preponderate due to the manoeuvre of the bypass diodes present alongside the affected cell. This might cause a sizeable power loss, subject to the frequency of shading manifestation and thus leading to substantial reduction in the energy output of module. Paper presented scrutinizes the effects of six different Shading schemes on 6 × 6 array. Additionally it peers effects of Partial Shading on the different diode models in consideration. The characteristics of the diode models are comprehensively affected due to the presence of the shading effect. All the diode models for the investigation have been primed using the MATLAB simulation software. The values of various parameters used for comparison are presented in tabular form. The conclusions are deduced and the best model for simulation purpose is suggested taking into account the partial shading effect. From the outcomes and conclusions of this paper, it can be established that there exists a momentous loss in the output power because of the irregular irradiation pattern visible on the series strings.