Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Utility of Total Desmosine as Biomarker for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Patients

Matrix degradation is a key feature of COPD, leading to lung destruction, emphysema and impaired pulmonary function. Desmosine and isodesmosine are elastin-derived cross linked amino acids whose urine levels are considered representative of elastin breakdown. However, there is a lack of biomarkers to measure disease activity and disease progression in COPD. Aim: This study was done to determine the utility of urine and blood desmosine as a biomarker in diagnosis of COPD patients and to evaluate their relationship with lung function parameters. Methods: The urine and blood desmosine levels were measured using validated isotope dilution liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry methods in 151 subjects including 101 COPD patients and 50 healthy control subjects. Results: The COPD patients had higher levels of u-desmosine and b-desmosine compared with healthy smokers and non-smokers. There was statistically significant difference in the mean levels of u-desmosine and b-desmosine between the different severity groups of the COPD patients. After adjustments for age, sex, and BMI; the concentrations of u-desmosine and b-desmosine were significantly correlated with FEV1s% and DLCO% (p<0.05) among the COPD patients. The elevation of b-desmosine levels above cutoff of 0.30 ng/ml was not specific for COPD and was found in 69% of all COPD patients. This cutoff value had a diagnostic sensitivity of 71% and specificity of 53%. Conclusions: This study has demonstrated that both u-DES and b-DES levels were significantly elevated among COPD patients. Also, u-DES or b-DES levels are correlated with COPD severity and some lung function parameters.
Expert testimony in child sexual abuse cases : the effects of evidence, coherence and credentials on juror decision making

Psychological experts have been used increasingly to testify in child sexual abuse cases, yet little research has investigated what specific factors make experts effective. This study examined the potential effects that credentials, evidence strength and coherence may have on juror decision making. Sixty-four mock jurors read cases of child sexual abuse, followed by experts' testimony and rated guilt of the defendant, effectiveness of the expert testimony and credibility of the victim. Evidence strength and coherence of the testimony affected all dependent variables, and the interaction was significant. Guilt ratings of the defendant were lower and the victim was rated as less credible when both evidence strength and coherence were low. The credentials of the expert, however, had negligible impact. These findings indicate that experts can be effective and impact jurors when testimony is either high in coherence or high in evidence. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Evaluation of External Genital Anomalies and the Underlying Factors in Male Newborns

Background: External genital anomalies are the most common congenital disorders in male infants with unknown etiology in the majority of cases. According to recent reports, incidence rate of these anomalies is rising in different countries. This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of external genital anomalies and possible underlying factors in male newborns. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on all the male neonates born in Motahari Hospital of Urmia during October 2009-June 2010. Neonatal screening results and demographic data were recorded separately in a questionnaire for each neonate. Data analysis was performed in SPSS V. 20 using descriptive statistics (mean, frequency, percentage, and standard deviation) and Chi-square test to evaluate the correlations between quantitative variables. Results: In this study, external genital anomalies were identified in 83 male neonates (8.3). Moreover, 59 infants (5.9) had cryptorchidism, 18 (1.8) had hypospadias and 12 infants (1.2) had microphallus. Moreover, a significant correlation was observed between the incidence of cryptorchidism and maternal comorbidities, low birth weight, prematurity, maternal gestational hypertension, and diabetes mellitus. Conclusion: According to the results of this study, cryptorchidism is the most prevalent external genital anomaly in male newborns, followed by hypospadias. Occurrence of these anomalies is associated with several risk factors, such as prematurity, low birth weight, maternal diseases (e. g., diabetes and hypertension), and use of medications during pregnancy. In addition, cryptorchidism had a significant correlation with smoking habits, and further studies with larger sample sizes are required in this regard.
The nature of V39: an LBV candidate or LBV impostor in the very low metallicity galaxy IC 1613?

Context. Very few examples of luminous blue variable (LBV) stars or LBV candidates (LBVc) are known, particularly at metallicities below that of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). The LBV phase is known to be crucial for the evolution of massive stars, and its behavior with metallicity is very poorly known. Variable star V39 in IC 1613 is a well-known photometric variable, with changes in the B-band by more than one magnitude over a period of 14 or 28 days, and with amplitudes decreasing with wavelength. The star, which has also been proposed to be a peculiar system consisting of a Galactic W Virginis and an IC 1613 red supergiant, displays characteristics that render it a possible LBVc. Aims. We explore the nature of V39 and obtain an estimate of its physical parameters. Methods. We investigate the behaviour of intermediate resolution blue and red spectra obtained with VIMOS at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) covering a time span of 40 days in the frame of our spectroscopic studies of massive stars in IC 1613, and perform a quantitative analysis of the combined spectrum by means of the model atmosphere code CMFGEN. Results. We identify strong P-Cygni profiles in Balmer and Fe II lines of V39, and also a hybrid absorption spectrum that resembles an early type supergiant (B-A) in the blue and a late type star (G) in the red. No significant radial velocity variations are detected, and the spectral changes are moderate although our individual spectra cover more than a photometric period. The model atmosphere analysis under the assumption of an individual star places V39 in the low-luminosity part of the LBV and LBVc region, although it would be also consistent with a sgB[e] star. From this analysis and the data in the literature we find evidence that the [α/Fe] ratio in IC 1613 is slightly lower than solar. Conclusions. The radial velocities of individual spectra indicate that V39 belongs to IC 1613. The lack of significant radial velocity changes and spectroscopic variations excludes binary scenarios, particularly those with close companions. The features observed are not consistent with a W Virginis star, and this possibility is also discarded. We propose a scenario in which the star is a B-A LBVc or sgB[e] star surrounded by a thick disk precessing around it and producing the composite spectral appearance. If confirmed, V39 would be the lowest metallicity resolved LBV candidate known to date. Alternatively, it could represent a new transient phase of massive star evolution, an LBV impostor.
The Economic Effects of Counterfeiting and Piracy: A Review and Implications for Developing Countries

Policy makers around the world recognize the potentially harmful consequences of trademark counterfeiting and copyright piracy. Indeed, many countries have recently initiated policy reforms to strengthen the enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPR). Further, minimum standards of enforcement have been incorporated in many international treaties, especially trade agreements. This emphasis on enforcement raises basic questions about the actual impacts of IP rights infringement, which differ across the types of IPR and economic sectors. The authors review the academic literature and other studies in the public domain to evaluate what has been learned about these socioeconomic effects, with an emphasis on developing countries where possible. They also identify important gaps in our understanding of the consequences of counterfeiting and piracy and develop recommendations on how governments might collect data and conduct studies to better inform IPR enforcement policy.
Skilled and Unskilled Japanese EFL Student Writers' Narrative Story Production.

A study was conducted to examine the differences in narrative essays produced by skilled and unskilled EFL student writers. Twenty-six Japanese university students participated in the study. They were told to write a narrative story based on six-frame pictures. The students were classified into two groups, skilled and unskilled, according to the holistic scores assigned to their compositions. Each student’s composition was analyzed at both the sentence and discourse levels. The results of analysis revealed several differences between the two groups of writers at the sentence level. Namely, compared with the unskilled writers, the skilled writers tended to produce longer essays where a larger number of adjective and adverb subordinate clauses were used and where fewer errors were found. At the discourse level, the skilled writers tended to incorporate all the components of the story grammar, whereas several unskilled writers failed to include such components as Setting and Reaction. The skilled writers also used a variety of discourse styles to delineate characters’ actions and psychology, but their unskilled counterparts employed only a few discourse types for describing characters’ inner states of mind. The paper concludes by suggesting the importance of developing students’ knowledge of narrative writing and providing them with opportunities to translate that knowledge into actual production of narrative writing.
Analysis of the Security and Memorability of the Password Card

Choosing and remembering secure passwords poses a problem to users. The password card is a proposal intended to help users to cope with this problem. It is a paper card with a grid of random letters, numbers, and symbols, on which users choose a starting point and a walk of adjacent cells. The characters on the traversed cells form the new password. We analyze the security and memorability of passwords created this way. We find that users mostly choose predictable walks and starting points. At the same time, memorability of the passwords seems low. Thus, the password card seems to fail in helping users to choose and remember secure passwords.
Equity Trading in the 21 st Century : An Update 06 . 21 . 2013

This report updates our previous study, “Equity Trading in the 21 Century,” which presented results about U.S. equity market quality. Despite many complaints in the national media, various measures of market quality indicate that U.S. markets continue to be very healthy. Trade transaction cost estimates have stayed low and market depth and execution speeds remain high. New findings that measure the total transaction cost of executing very large block orders indicate that improvements in market quality also have benefited large institutional traders. While still high, both the number of quotes per trade and per minute have declined substantially from their peaks in 2008. Intraday volatility is below the levels of the pre-electronic 1990s. Although market quality is quite good, it could be enhanced. We discuss some current concerns about maker/taker pricing, dark pools, high frequency trading, tick sizes, designated dealers, transaction taxes, IPOs, and market stability. 1 This research project was supported by funding from Knight Capital Group, which also provided under our direction some of the data presented in this study. This article presents our analyses and opinions only and does not necessarily represent the opinions of the sponsor of this project. The authors retained full editorial control over the content and conclusions of this report. The conclusions and opinions expressed in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of Knight Capital Group or its employees. Equity Trading in the 21st Century: An Update 06.21. 2013 3
Need for Cognition as an Antecedent of Individual Innovation Behavior

The authors propose that need for cognition, an individual’s tendency to engage in and enjoy thinking, is associated with individual innovation behavior. Moreover, drawing on an interactionist perspective, the authors suggest that need for cognition becomes more important when individuals face lower job autonomy and time pressure in their work. This is because, when these job characteristics are low, there is no contextual driving force for individual innovation, so personality has a stronger influence. In a multisource study of 179 employees working in a Dutch research and consultancy organization, the authors’ expectations were largely supported. They found that need for cognition was positively associated with peer-rated innovation behavior, as were job autonomy and time pressure, even when controlling for openness to experience and proactive personality. Furthermore, the relationship between need for cognition and innovation behavior was strongest for individuals with low job autonomy and low time pressure and indeed was nonexistent at high levels of these contextual variables. This study, therefore, suggests that context can substitute for an individual’s need for cognition when it comes to individual innovation.
Angling-induced hook avoidance and the importance of social learning

3 Introduction . 4 Methods . 7 Pre-treatments . 10 Angling . 11 Data handling and statistical analysis . 12 Results . 14 Effects of private and social catch-and-release exposure . 16 Discussion . 17 Acknowledgements . 22 References . 22 Supplementary material . 28 Sample size variation . 28 Cox proportional hazard regression – full model . 30 Effects of private and social catch-and-release exposure – alternative analysis . 30 Individual variation in activity and initial mass . 32
Household Finances and Social Interaction

In this paper, we investigate the relationship between social interaction and household finances using data from the British Household Panel Survey. We explore how social interaction influences the probability of holding different types of unsecured debt and assets, as well as how social interaction influences the levels of unsecured debt, financial assets and net worth held. Our findings suggest that social interaction has a positive influence upon the types of financial assets held, which is particularly pronounced for the holding of stocks and shares. Social interaction is also found to influence the amount of financial assets held as well as the level of household net worth. In contrast, there appears to be no clear relationship between social interaction and the holding of unsecured debt, suggesting that social interaction has distinct effects across different parts of the household balance sheet. When we instrument the measure of social interaction, our results once again endorse the finding that social interaction impacts differently on debt and asset holding. Interestingly, in this case, our findings support an inverse association between debt and social interaction.
Is Local Infiltration Analgesia (LIA) a Safe and Effective Method for Post-Operative Pain Management After a Unilateral Total Knee Arthroplasty (TKA)?

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this systematic review is to determine whether or not local infiltration analgesia (LIA) is a safe and effective method for post-operative pain management after a unilateral total knee arthroplasty (TKA). STUDY DESIGN: Review of three English language primary studies published in 2010 and 2011. DATA SOURCES: Three randomized controlled trials comparing local infiltration analgesia to three separate controls: epidural analgesia, placebo infiltration and femoral nerve block found using PubMed. OUTCOMES MEASURED: Clinical outcome was measured by total morphine use postoperatively and average knee pain intensity at rest and upon movement postoperatively. Total morphine use in milligrams used postoperatively was determined by amount used via IV PCA pump; each study differed upon postoperative follow-up periods. Average knee pain intensity at rest and upon movement was measured by subjective average VAS/NRS scores (0100 mm visual analog scale; 0 = no pain, 100 = worst pain imaginable). Studies varied among postoperative time periods when VAS score was recorded from each patient. Data was analyzed with Mann-Whitney U-test. RESULTS: In the study by Affas et al, LIA was found to have similar analgesic effects measured by average pain intensity and average total morphine use during first post-operative 24 hours, as the control femoral nerve block technique, but not to the point of statistical significance. In the study by Essving et al, the LIA group had a median morphine consumption during the first 48 hours postoperatively statistically significantly less than the placebo group. LIA also proved to have statistically significantly lower median VAS pain scores than the placebo group postoperatively. In the study by Andersen et al, morphine consumption and average VAS scores at rest and during mobilization were statistically significantly lower in group A (LIA) versus the control group (epidural analgesia). CONCLUSIONS: The results of two of the RCTs show local infiltration analgesia to be an effective method for post-operative pain management after a unilateral TKA (Essving and Andersen). One RCT does not reach statistical significance (Affas). Safety of LIA was demonstrated with minimal ADR’s in all RCTs.
The Sources of Wage Variation: A Three-Way High-Dimensional Fixed Effects Regression Model

This paper estimates a wage equation with three high-dimensional fixed effects, using a longitudinal matched employer-employee dataset covering virtually all Portuguese wage earners over a little more than two decades. The variation in log real hourly wages is decomposed into different components related to worker, firm, and job title characteristics (both observed and unobserved) and a residual component.It is found that worker permanent heterogeneity is the most important source of wage variation (36.0 percent) and that the unobserved component plays a more important role (21.0 percent) than the observed component (15.0 percent) in explaining wage differentials. Firm permanent effects are less important overall (28.7 percent) and are due in almost equal parts to the unobserved component and the observed component. Job title effects emerge as the least important dimension but they still explain close to 10 percent of wage variation. We found definitive evidence of positive assortative matching.
Effect of cooling rate on hardness and microstructure of AISI 1020 , AISI 1040 and AISI 1060 Steels

The object of the present work is to investigate the effect of cooling rate on microstructure and mechanical properties of AISI 1020, AISI 1040 and AISI 1060 steels. The samples were heated and treated at 1250°K for 4 h and subsequently were cooled by three different methods. For this purpose, the microhardness and microstructure of these steels after heat treatment were examined by optical microscopy and hardness tests, respectively. Experimental results have shown that the microstructure of these steels can be changed and significantly improved by varying the cooling rate. Thus, heat treatment (heating and cooling) is used to obtain desired properties of steels such as improving the toughness, ductility or removing the residual stresses, etc.
Gender gaps in higher education participation: An analysis of the relationship between prior attainment and young participation by gender, socio-economic class and ethnicity

In this paper, we use two new datasets to explore the extent to which the gender gap in higher education participation amongst young people in England is related to prior attainment. We find no conclusive evidence of a gender difference in the likelihood of participating in higher education once prior attainment is controlled for. We do find, however, that young people from ethnic minority backgrounds are overwhelmingly more likely to enter higher education compared to White people with the same prior attainment. In the case of young people who were eligible for free school meals, we find that prior attainment explains the vast majority of the gap in participation compared to non-FSM pupils, however we still find a small, negative (and statistically significant) effect, which we could not eliminate entirely in any of our models.
Intellectual Capital (IC) Determinants: Impact on Productivity of Islamic Banks

This research aimed to investigate the relationship between the Intellectual Capital (IC) efficiency empirically. It consisted of human capital, structural capital, capital employed, and relational capital with the impact on the productivity of Islamic banks in Malaysia. The Pulic’s Value-Added Intellectual Coefficient (VAIC) method with the extended and modified version introduced by former scholars was used to measure IC, whereas bank productivity was measured through Assets Turnover Ratio (ATO). Three internal factors that might have determinants effect on VAIC, namely bank size, bank risks, and leverage were further tested to find their relationship. Structural stability tests and dynamic regression models for panel data were also used for the data of 16 Islamic banks in Malaysia from 2009 to 2016. The panel-corrected standard errors estimation technique was used to estimate a panel regression model with bank productivity and VAIC as the dependent variables. The regression analysis suggests that Malaysian Islamic banks are depending heavily on the capital employed component of intellectual capital, followed by human capital, structural capital, and relational capital. The results also suggest that bank’s risks and leverage play a major role in determining intellectual capital. The findings may serve as a useful input for Islamic bankers to indicate whether the contribution of intellectual capital and its components needs further improvement which it has produced the best results, and internal factor might affect IC.