Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Empowering Central Bank Asset Purchases: The Role of Financial Policies

This paper contributes to the debate on the macroeconomic effectiveness of expansionary non-standard monetary policy measures in a regulated banking environment. Based on an estimated DSGE model, we explore the interactions between central bank asset purchases and bank capital-based financial policies (regulatory, supervisory or macroprudential) through its influence on bank risk-shifting motives. We find that weakly-capitalised banks display excessive risk-taking which reinforces the credit easing channel of central bank asset purchases, at the cost of higher bank default probability and risks to financial stability. In such a case, adequate bank capital demand through higher minimum capital requirements curtails the excessive credit origination and restores a more efficient propagation of central bank asset purchases. As supervisors can formulate further capital demands, uncertainty about the supervisory oversight provokes precautionary motives for banks. They build-up extra capital buffer attenuating non-standard monetary policy. Finally, in a weakly-capitalised banking system, countercyclical macroprudential policy attenuates banks risk-taking and dampens the excessive persistence of the non-standard monetary policy impulse. On the contrary, in a well-capitalised banking system, macroprudential policy should look through the effects of central bank asset purchases on bank capital position, as the costs in terms of macroeconomic stabilisation seem to outweigh the marginal financial stability benefits. JEL Classification: E44, E52, F40
Retaining repatriates—the role of career derailment upon repatriation and how it can be mitigated

Abstract This study draws on relative deprivation theory to investigate the effect of career derailment upon return from an international assignment on repatriate retention, thereby also considering factors which can mitigate this relationship. The results from a hierarchical linear regression analysis of data from 292 repatriates indicate that career derailment upon repatriation decreases the former expatriates’ intent to stay. However, this effect is weaker when individuals perceived that they had promotion, autonomy and compensation advantages relative to colleagues who lack international assignment experience and when they were provided organizational repatriation support by their assigning organization. With these findings, this work lays the ground for strategies to improve the retention of former expatriates despite restricted career opportunities in the home organization. Thereby, it helps firms to realize the long-term benefits of international assignments.
Anxiety and low life satisfaction associate with high caregiver strain early after stroke.

OBJECTIVE Caregivers play an important role in the well-being of stroke patients, and are known to experience considerable strain 3 months or more after patient discharge. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and determinants of caregiver strain early after discharge. METHODS Six weeks after discharge from the hospital or rehabilitation setting stroke-surviving patients and their caregivers were seen by a specialized nurse. Several screening lists, including the Caregiver Strain Index (CSI), were completed. Step-wise logistic regression was used to analyse which determinants independently contribute to caregiver strain. RESULTS A total of 284 stroke-surviving patients were included in the study. Of the 179 caregivers who completed the CSI, 23 (12.8%) experienced considerable strain. A higher level of anxiety symptoms and lower life satisfaction in patients are independently associated with higher caregiver strain (p = 0.000007 and p = 0.0031, respectively). CONCLUSION High strain is experienced by 12.8% of caregivers shortly after discharge of a stroke-surviving patient. More anxiety symptoms and lower life satisfaction in patients are independently associated with a higher level of strain in caregivers. Treating patient anxiety at an early stage might therefore lead to a decrease in long-term caregiver strain.
A Novel Coordinative Resident Electric Vehicle Charging Mechanism

With advanced Electric Vehicles (EVs) techniques being introduced in these decades, EVs are expected to be widely adopted as resident vehicles due to their low greenhouse gas emission and low operating costs. Meanwhile, the resident EV charging activities will be a challenging problem for the power grid and will cause severe voltage fluctuations, high Peak-to-Average Ratio (PAR) and increasing the blackout possibility. Therefore the random and unpredictable resident EV charging activities calls for an efficient and coordinative mechanism. In this paper, the general scenario of resident EV charging activities is studied and the charging activity is analyzed by queuing theory. Based on that, the novel mechanism is proposed to coordinate the charging load and the grid peak load through wireless communication as well as to set EVs a proper charging moment. Through this mechanism, all arriving EVs can be fully charged before a specific time, and the grid peak load shall not be largely increased. A comparative study is carried out by simulating the uncontrolled charging mechanism with the proposed EV charging mechanism. And the result indicates that the proposed mechanism works efficiently on reducing the grid peak load as well as the grid PAR.
Flavonoids and antioxidant activity of Rosa agrestis leaves

In this work we report the isolation and characterisation of seven flavonoids, the levels of total phenolics, flavonoids and proanthocyanidins, and the antioxidant activity of the leaf extract of Rosa agrestis Savi (Rosaceae). The results showed that the R. agrestis leaf extract exhibited significant antioxidative activity as measured by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) (EC50 = 47.4 µg mL−1), inhibited both β-carotene bleaching and deoxyribose degradation, quenched a chemically generated superoxide anion in vitro and showed high ferrous ion chelating activity. Reactivity towards 2,2′-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) diammonium salt (ABTS) radical cation and ferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) values were equivalent to 2.30 mM L−1 Trolox, the water soluble α-tocopherol analogue, and 1.91 mM L−1 Fe2+, respectively. The high antioxidant activity of the extract appeared to be attributed to its high content of total phenolics, flavonoids and proanthocyanidins. The flavonoids isolated from R. agrestis leaves were diosmetin, kaempherol, quercetin, kaempherol 3-glucoside (astragalin), quercetin 3-rhamnoside (quercitrin), quercetin 3-xyloside and quercetin 3-galactoside (hyperoside). Diosmetin (5,7,3′-trihydroxy-4′-methoxyflavone) was isolated for the first time from Rosa species.
Viral agents of gastroenteritis. Public health importance and outbreak management.

Each year, infectious gastroenteritis causes greater than 210,000 children in the United States to be hospitalized and 4-10 million children to die worldwide. Since the mid-1970s, knowledge has increased dramatically concerning the viral agents that are responsible for much of this public health burden. Rotavirus, the most common cause of diarrhea among children, infects virtually every child in the United States by the age of 4 years and causes potentially lethal dehydration in 0.75% of children less than 2 years of age. Other recently identified pathogens include the enteric adenoviruses, calicivirus, astrovirus, and the Norwalk family of agents. Conclusive diagnosis of these viruses requires electron microscopic examination of stool specimens, a laboratory technique that is available only at a few large centers, including CDC. Stool samples from an outbreak that are submitted to CDC for detection of viral pathology should be collected in bulk from 10 ill persons during their first 48 hours of illness, while feces are still liquid, and should be stored at 4 C (not frozen). Acute- and convalescent-phase serum samples should be collected from the same persons, plus from an equal number of controls, during the first week of illness and 3 weeks thereafter. Control measures for outbreaks of viral gastroenteritis should focus on the removal of an ongoing common source of infection (e.g., an ill food handler or the contamination of a water supply) and on the interruption of person-to-person transmission that can perpetuate an outbreak in a population after the common source has been removed. Because improvements in environmental hygiene may not be accompanied by reductions of endemic diarrhea caused by viruses, immunization may play an important role in future control; vaccine trials for rotavirus are in progress. In anticipation of vaccine development and use, CDC recently began national surveillance for the viral agents of gastroenteritis. Health-care facilities involved in the detection of rotavirus or the other viral agents of diarrhea can participate.
Worst-case crosstalk noise analysis based on dual-exponential noise metrics

Based on the assumption that crosstalk noise is dual-exponential waveform, in this paper we present the closed-form crosstalk noise metrics including the peak noise amplitude V/sub p/, peak noise occurring time T/sub p/ and pulse width W/sub n/. Then using part of our metrics we study aggressors switching times alignment that leads to worst-case crosstalk noise for a quiet victim from the analysis of peak noise window (PNW). The SPICE simulation results confirm the accuracy of our metrics and our analysis.
Identification of mouse histone deacetylase 1 as a growth factor-inducible gene

Reversible acetylation of core histones plays an important role in transcriptional regulation, cell cycle progression, and developmental events. The acetylation state of histones is controlled by the activities of acetylating and deacetylating enzymes. By using differential mRNA display, we have identified a mouse histone deacetylase gene, HD1, as an interleukin-2-inducible gene in murine T cells. Sequence alignments revealed that murine HD1 is highly homologous to the yeast RPD3 pleiotropic transcriptional regulator. Indirect immunofluorescence microscopy proved that mouse HD1 is a nuclear protein. When expressed in yeast, murine HD1 was also detected in the nucleus, although it failed to complement the rpd3delta deletion phenotype. HD1 mRNA expression was low in G0 mouse cells but increased when the cells crossed the G1/S boundary after growth stimulation. Immunoprecipitation experiments and functional in vitro assays showed that HD1 protein is associated with histone deacetylase activity. Both HD1 protein levels and total histone deacetylase activity increased upon interleukin-2 stimulation of resting B6.1 cells. When coexpressed with a luciferase reporter construct, HD1 acted as a negative regulator of the Rous sarcoma virus enhancer/promoter. HD1 overexpression in stably transfected Swiss 3T3 cells caused a severe delay during the G2/M phases of the cell cycle. Our results indicate that balanced histone acetylation/deacetylation is crucial for normal cell cycle progression of mammalian cells.
Intonation abilities of children with Williams syndrome: a preliminary investigation.

PURPOSE The authors investigated expressive and receptive intonation abilities in children with Williams syndrome (WS) and the relation of these abilities to other linguistic abilities. METHOD Fourteen children with WS, 14 typically developing children matched to the WS group for receptive language (LA), and 15 typically developing children matched to the WS group for chronological age (CA) were compared on a range of receptive and expressive intonation tasks from the Profiling Elements of Prosodic Systems-Child version (PEPS-C) battery. RESULTS The WS group performed similarly to the LA group on all intonation tasks apart from the long-item imitation task, on which the WS group scored significantly lower than the LA group. When compared with the CA group, the WS group was significantly poorer on all aspects of intonation. Whereas there were a number of significant correlations between the intonation and language measures in the control groups, in the WS group, there was only 1 significant correlation between a PEPS-C task and one of the language measures. CONCLUSION As a result of this study, the authors concluded that children with WS have expressive and receptive intonation abilities as expected for their level of language comprehension and that intonation and other linguistic abilities in WS are not strongly related.
Discordance in the diagnosis of diabetes: Comparison between HbA1c and fasting plasma glucose

Objective HbA1c has been introduced as a complementary diagnostic test for diabetes, but its impact on disease prevalence is unknown. This study evaluated the concordance between HbA1c and fasting plasma glucose (FPG) in the diagnosis of diabetes in the general population. Materials and methods The study was designed as a population based investigation, with participants being sampled from the Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Blood samples were collected after overnight fasting and analyzed within 4 hours after collection. HbA1c was measured with high pressure liquid chromatography (Arkray Adams, Japan). FPG was measured by the hexokinase method (Advia Autoanalyzer; Bayer Diagnostics, Germany). Diabetes was defined as HbA1c ≥ 6.5% or FPG ≥ 7.0 mmol/L. Prediabetes was classified as HbA1c between 5.7% and 6.4%. Results The study included 3523 individuals (2356 women) aged 30 years and above. Based on the HbA1c test, the prevalence of diabetes and prediabetes was 9.7% (95%CI, 8.7–10.7%; n = 342) and 34.6% (33.0–36.2; n = 1219), respectively. Based on the FPG test, the prevalence of diabetes and prediabetes was 6.3% (95%CI, 5.5–7.2%; n = 223) and 12.1% (11.1–13.2; n = 427). Among the 427 individuals identified by FPG as "pre-diabetes", 28.6% were classified as diabetes by HbA1c test. The weighted kappa statistic of concordance between HbA1c and FPG was 0.55, with most of the discordance being in the prediabetes group. Conclusion These data indicate that there is a significant discordance in the diagnosis of diabetes between FPG and HbA1c measurements, and the discordance could have significant impact on clinical practice. FPG appears to underestimate the burden of undiagnosed diabetes.
Comparing the cognitive, personality and moral characteristics of high school and graduate medical entrants to the Tehran University of Medical Sciences in Iran

Background: Tehran University of Medical Sciences has two streams of medical student admission: an established high school entry (HSE) route and an experimental graduate entry (GE) route. Aim: To compare the cognitive skills, personality traits and moral characteristics of HSE and GE students admitted to this university. Methods: The personal qualities assessment tool (PQA; www.pqa.net.au) was translated from English to Persian and then back-translated. Afterwards 35 individuals from the GE and 109 individuals from the 2007 to 2008 HSE completed the test. The results were compared by t-test and Chi-square. Results: The HSE students showed significantly higher ability in the cognitive skills tests (p < 0.001). They were also more libertarian (p = 0.022), but had lower ability to confront stress and unpleasant events (p < 0.001), and had lower self-awareness and self-control (p < 0.001). Conclusion: On the basis of their personal qualities, the GE students had more self-control and strength when coping with stress than the HSE students, but the latter had superior cognitive abilities. Hence it may be useful to include cognitive tests in GE students’ entry exam and include tests of personal qualities to exclude those with unsuitable characteristics.
Epidermal Growth Factor Promotes Invasiveness of Pancreatic Cancer Cells Through NF-κB-Mediated Proteinase Productions

Objectives: Overexpression of epidermal growth factor (EGF) and EGF receptor has been associated with progression and invasive phenotype in pancreatic cancer. However, the underlying molecular mechanism by which EGF worked in pancreatic cancer cells has been poorly understood. In this study, we determined the effect of EGF on the invasiveness and the related regulatory mechanism in two pancreatic cancer cell lines NOR-P1 and KP4. Methods: Invasion assay was performed to examine the invasiveness of tumor cells induced by EGF, and the expression of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-9, MMP-2, and plasminogen activator (uPA) was determined by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and Western blot. Gelatin zymography was used to detect the activities of MMP-9 and MMP-2, and the nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) binding activity was determined by electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA). Results: EGF significantly increased the invasiveness of both cell lines but did not affect cell proliferation or adhesion. Increased invasiveness was associated with the induction of MMP-9 and uPA at both mRNA and protein levels. Furthermore, EGF stimulated NF-κB binding activity. Moreover, pretreatment of cells with NF-κB inhibitors, pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate or ibuprofen, markedly attenuated EGF-induced NF-κB activation. Subsequently, the EGF-induced MMP-9 and uPA expression and MMP-9 activity, as well as cell invasiveness, were also inhibited by these NF-κB inhibitors. Conclusions: Our findings indicated that NF-κB-mediated MMP-9 and uPA induction was responsible for EGF-induced invasiveness in these pancreatic cancer cell lines and implicate that such anti-NF-κB therapy as the use of NF-κB inhibitors may contribute to the reduction of invasiveness of pancreatic cancer.
Impacts and Policy Responses to a commodity price boom. The case of Malawi

This work analyzes the medium term effects of the recent commodity price spike in a typical Low-Income-Food-Deficit country, Malawi, as well as a set of possible policy responses. Simulations were performed with a single-country static Computable General Equilibrium model, based on the 2004 Malawi Social Accounting Matrix provided by IFPRI, modified with data from the 2004 household budget survey. Results indicate that the increase in agricultural domestic prices was mainly driven by the raise in the cost of imported oil and chemical products. Reductions in tariff and domestic taxes, as well as subsidies on chemicals inputs, appear capable of counteracting the terms of trade shocks to some extent. However, tackling structural constraints, such as those affecting the size of agricultural marketing margins, would produce wider benefits, and improve the resilience of the economy to external shocks.
Ankle Disk Training Influences Reaction Times of Selected Muscles in a Simulated Ankle Sprain

Ankle disk training has been used as an exercise in sports medicine clinics to help protect against ankle sprains. This study investigated the effects of ankle disk training on the contraction pattern of the anterior tibialis, posterior tibialis, peroneus longus, and flexor digitorum longus muscles in a simulated ankle sprain. Twenty adults were recruited and divided into a control group and an experimental group. A platform with a trapdoor was used to simulate a lateral ankle sprain. Electromyographic data were recorded from each sub ject in pretraining and posttraining tests. The experi mental group underwent ankle disk training for 8 weeks between the pretraining and posttraining tests. In the pretraining test, the four muscles started to contract simultaneously; in the posttraining test, the contrac tions of the anterior and posterior tibialis muscles were delayed. This delay favors the correction of excessive ankle inversion. This study examined the effects of one form of proprioceptive training on muscle reaction times, and its results may explain why such training can help protect against ankle sprains.
Smad7 Is an Activin-inducible Inhibitor of Activin-induced Growth Arrest and Apoptosis in Mouse B Cells*

Members of the transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) family, which includes the activins, relay signals from serine/threonine kinase receptors in membrane to nucleus via intracellular Sma- and Mad-related (Smad) proteins. Inhibitory Smad proteins were found to prevent the interaction between the serine/threonine kinase receptors and pathway-restricted Smad proteins. Smad7 was identified as a TGF-β-inducible antagonist of TGF-β signaling, and it may participate in a negative feedback loop to control TGF-β signaling. Here we demonstrate that the mRNA expression of Smad7 is induced by activin A in mouse B cell hybridoma HS-72 cells, which undergo growth arrest and apoptosis upon exposure to activin A. The ectopic expression of mouse Smad7 in HS-72 cells suppressed the activin A-induced cell cycle arrest in the G1 phase by abolishing the activin A-induced expression of p21CIP1/WAF1 and hypophosphorylation of retinoblastoma protein. Furthermore, Smad7 expression suppressed activin A-induced apoptosis in HS-72 cells. Thus, our data indicate that Smad7 is an activin A-inducible antagonist of activin A-induced growth arrest and apoptosis of B lineage cells.
Household Food Insecurity in Ontario during a Period of Poverty Reduction, 2005–2014

Abstract:A l'aide des donnees provenant de cinq cycles de l'Enquete sur la sante dans les collectivites canadiennes s'etendant de 2005 à 2014, les auteurs mesurent l'évolution de l'insecurite alimentaire en Ontario après l'instauration, en 2007, de la prestation ontarienne pour enfants et la mise en œuvre, en 2008, de la strategie de reduction de la pauvrete de la province. Bien que sa prévalence en Ontario soit demeurée relativement stable, l'insécurité alimentaire a sensiblement décliné chez les familles qui ont bénéficié de la prestation ontarienne pour enfants en 2009–2010 et 2011–2012, par rapport à 2005. Les constatations des auteurs donnent à penser que l'insécurité alimentaire des ménages peut être réduite grâce à de modestes suppléments de revenu, mais qu'une intervention mieux pensée s'impose pour que l'incidence des mesures prises sur l'insécurité alimentaire soit plus importante et davantage soutenue.Abstract:Using data from five cycles of the Canadian Community Health Survey spanning 2005 to 2014, we assessed changes in household food insecurity in Ontario after the 2007 introduction of the Ontario Child Benefit and the 2008 implementation of the province's poverty reduction strategy. Although the provincial prevalence of food insecurity remained relatively stable, food insecurity declined significantly among families who received the Ontario Child Benefit in 2009–2010 and 2011–2012 compared with 2005. Our findings suggest that household food insecurity can be reduced by modest income supplements, but more deliberate intervention is required to have a substantial, sustained impact on food insecurity.
Access and exclusion: case of transnational ‘land grabbing’ in Pakistan

Abstract In recent years, hundreds of thousands of hectares of land in developing countries is being granted to the governments and private investors of developed countries through leases, land purchase and contract farming. Based on the notion of ‘power of exclusion’ this paper explores the process and identifies which social class has more access to new income generating opportunities and who is excluded in the context of transnational land acquisition in Sindh province of Pakistan. Quantitative and qualitative data shows that poor segments of society such as previous land user, women, agricultural labor and landless farmers were the most excluded groups regarding TLA process and associated benefits while elite social groups such as land leaser/politicians and some irrigation department officials have increased access to positive outcomes of transnational land acquisition. Decreasing in the acreages under food crops also have a detrimental impact on local food security.