Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of the Vascular Pattern in Psoriatic Plaques in Children Using Videodermatoscopy: An Open Comparative Study

Psoriasis is a common erythematous desquamative dermatosis. The diagnosis may sometimes be troublesome in children, especially if clinical presentation is mild or atypical. Videodermatoscopy has been suggested as a new noninvasive aid for the diagnosis of psoriasis, prognostic evaluation, and treatment monitoring. An open comparative study in children aimed at assessing the correlation between the vascular pattern evaluated using videodermatoscopy and the clinical diagnosis of psoriasis and other erythematous desquamative disorders was designed and performed. Sixty Caucasian children were enrolled and subdivided into two groups: group A, 24 patients with multiple plaque psoriasis; group B, 36 patients with other erythematous desquamative disorders. At least two lesions were examined in each patient using videodermatoscopy at 150× magnification and the superficial vascular pattern of each lesion was evaluated in three different fields. In group A, the presence of dilated capillaries with a “bushy” aspect, homogeneously distributed in all examined fields, was seen in all considered plaques. In group B, videodermatoscopic findings were not specific, showing normal‐looking capillaries, slightly dilated vessels, or a few isolated “bushes. ” Videodermatoscopy may be considered an important adjunct diagnostic tool in clinically doubtful erythematous desquamative lesions in children, allowing a psoriatic vascular pattern to be confirmed or excluded, with some distinct advantages over skin biopsy.
Right Ventricular Volume Determinations in 18 Patients with Pulmonary Atresia and Intact Ventricular Septum: Analysis of Factors Influencing Right Ventricular Growth

SUMMARYRight ventricular growth was assessed angiocardiographically in 18 patients with pulmonary atresia, intact ventricular septum, and hypoplastic and hypertensive right ventricle. A variety of surgical procedures were performed. In only 12 patients (66.7%) was right ventricular-pulmonary artery continuity achieved (group 1). Nine of these 12 patients persisted with systemic or suprasystemic right ventricular pressures. Among the six patients in whom right ventricular-pulmonary artery continuity was not achieved (group 2), all maintained suprasystemic right ventricular pressures.Right ventricular growth was assessed in groups 1 and 2. The patients were also subdivided according to the qualitative degree of tricuspid regurgitation as determined angiocardiographically on right ventricular cineangiocardiograms at the preoperative catheter study. Right ventricular growth to normal levels as evidenced by change in right ventricular end-diastolic volume was rarely observed in group 2 patients. Among the four patients with severe tricuspid regurgitation and a large tricuspid valve, right ventricular growth to normal levels was achieved whether they were in group 1 or group 2. Right ventricular growth is thus predicated on numerous morphologic factors in these patients. However, reconstitution of right ventricular-pulmonary artery continuity and a nonobstructive tricuspid valve are probably two of the more important factors.
The use of option prices in order to evaluate the skewness risk premium

The objectives of this study are twofold. First, to determine the sign and to assess the magnitude of the skewness risk premium (SRP) in the Italian index option market using two methods: (i) skewness swap contracts, and (ii) option trading strategies. Second, to investigate the behavior of the skewness risk premium for short and medium-term maturities in order to provide investors with a proper time horizon for skewness trading strategies. Several results are obtained. First, the SRP, defined as the difference between the physical and the risk-neutral measure of skewness, is positive and it is both statistically and economically significant. This indicates that SRP does exists, it is positive in sign, and it can be quantified. Second, SRP is the highest in magnitude for the 30-day maturity (€35 on a €100 of notional) while it is lower for 60-day and 90-day maturity (both close to €27 on a €100 of notional). Third, skewness trading strategies confirm our finding of a positive and economically significant risk premium for skewness. In particular, the profitability of trading strategies is concentrated on the left tail of the distribution, suggesting a considerable overvaluation of out-of-the-money put options. Fourth, as regards the proper time horizon for skewness trading, we find that a strategy that sells out-of-the-money puts is more profitable, if options with maturity ranging from 30 to 70 days are used. On the other hand, a strategy that takes a long position in out-of-the-money calls, and a short position in out-of-the-money puts, yields a higher return, if options with short-term maturity are used. This suggests that investors are more averse to tail risk for short-term horizons than they are for medium-term horizons.
Electrotonic Clusters in the Dendritic Arborization of Abducens Motoneurons of the Rat

Following reconstruction with high spatial resolution of the 3‐D geometry of the dendritic arborizations of two abducens motoneurons, we simulated the distribution of electrotonic voltage over the whole dendritic tree. Here, we demonstrate that the complex stochastic electrotonic structure of both motoneurons can be reduced to a statistically significant small set of well discriminated clusters. These clusters are formed by dendritic branches belonging to different dendrites of the neuron but with similar electrotonic properties. A cluster analysis was performed to estimate quantitatively the partition of the branches between the dendritic clusters. The contents of the clusters were analysed in relation to their stability under different values of specific membrane resistivity (Rm), to their remoteness from the soma and their location in 3‐D space. The cluster analysis was executed in a 2‐D parameter space in which each dendritic branch was described by the mean electrotonic voltage and gradient. The number of clusters was found to be four for each motoneuron when computations were made with Rm= 3 kΩ. cm2. An analysis of the cluster composition under different Rm revealed that each cluster contained invariant and variant branches. Mapping the clusters upon the dendritic geometry of the arborizations allowed us to describe the cluster distribution in terms of the 3‐D space domain, the 2‐D path distance domain and the total surface area of the tree. As the cluster behaviour reflects both the geometry and the changes in the neuronal electrotonic structure, we conclude that cluster analysis provides a tool to handle the functional complexity of the arborizations without losing relevant information. In terms of synaptic activities, the stable dendritic branches in each cluster may process the synaptic inputs in a similar manner. The high percentage of stable branches indicates that geometry is a major factor of stability for the electrotonic clusters. Conversely, the variant branches introduce the conditions for mechanisms of functional postsynaptic plasticity.
Effects of monoamine oxidase A inhibition on barrel formation in the mouse somatosensory cortex: Determination of a sensitive developmental period

Genetic inactivation of monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) in C3H/HeJ mice causes a complete absence of barrels in the somatosensory cortex, and similar alterations are caused by pharmacological inhibition of MAOA in wild type mice. To determine when and how MAOA inhibition affects the development of the barrel field, the MAOA inhibitor clorgyline was administered to mice of the outbred strain OF1 for various time periods between embryonic day 15 (E15) and postnatal day 7 (P7), and the barrel fields were analyzed with cytochrome oxidase and Nissl stains in P10 and adult mice. High‐pressure liquid chromatography measures of brain serotonin (5‐HT) showed three‐ to eightfold increases during the periods of clorgyline administration. Perinatal mortality was increased and weight gain was slowed between P3 and P6. Clorgyline treatments from E15 to P7 or from P0 to P7 disrupted the formation of barrels in the anterior snout representation and in parts of the posteromedial barrel subfield (PMBSF). Treatments from P0 to P4 caused similar although less severe barrel field alterations. Clorgyline treatments only during embryonic life or starting on P4 caused no detectable abnormalities. In cases with barrel field alterations, a rostral‐to‐caudal gradient of changes was noted: Rostral barrels of the PMBSF were most frequently fused and displayed an increased size tangentially.
Real Estate Value and Growth Stocks - Evidence from Global Capital Markets

This dissertation provides comprehensive empirical evidence (three papers) on a global panel of real estate value and growth stocksfrom the most significant real estate operating companies (REOCs) and real estate investment trusts (REITs) in the world. The basic concept here is to categorize listed real estate stocks according to the deviations of their stock prices from their underlyingnet asset values (NAV spread). In this vein, the stocks are designated as either real estate value or growth stock. As a result, this dissertation empirically proves that these deviations can be exploited by investors to achieve a value premium over growth stocks (value investing strategy). Furthermore the dissertation provides evidence on the link between NAV spreadsand idiosyncratic as well as systematic (e.g. interest rates) factors.
Constructive Unilateral Threats in International Commercial Relations: The Limited Case for Section 301

Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 allows the United States to threaten, and if necessary to impose, trade sanctions against countries that engage in certain "unfair" international trade practices. This Article defends the use of Section 301 to induce other nations to fulfill their legal obligations to the United States under international trade agreements that lack effective third-party dispute resolution. It also develops a limited argument for the use of Section 301 against practices that do not violate any international agreement, principally when a foreign country increases its level of protection, when it takes inappropriate advantage of loopholes or ambiguities in existing trade agreements, or when (as with many developing countries) it maintains a high level of protection relative to the United States yet is the beneficiary of important trade preferences. Finally, the Article reviews the history of Section 301 cases to date and suggests tentatively that the statute has proven reasonably successful as promoting the national economic interest.
What Drives Conditional Cooperation in Public Goods Games?

Extensive experimental research on public goods games documents that many subjects are “conditional cooperators” in that they positively correlate their contributions with (their belief about) contributions of other subjects in their group. The goal of our study is to shed light on what preference and decision-making patterns drive this observed regularity. We consider four potential explanations, including reciprocity, conformity, inequality aversion, and residual factors such as confusing and anchoring, and aim to disentangle their effects. We find that, of the average conditionally cooperative behavior in the sample, about two thirds is accounted for by residual factors, a quarter by inequality aversion and a tenth by conformity, while reciprocity plays virtually no role. These findings carry important messages about how to interpret conditional cooperation as observed in the lab and ways it can be exploited for fundraising purposes.
Valuing Environmental Amenities in Peri-Urban Areas: Evidence from Poland

Ecosystems provide services that contribute to the well-being of people living within a city’s borders and on the urban–rural fringe. While benefits from green areas in urban settings are well investigated, peri-urban areas are significantly less addressed by researchers than cities. This study aims to evaluate the importance of environmental amenities in peri-urban areas using the hedonic pricing method to assess people’s willingness to pay for environmental goods and services. A local regression model (geographically weighted regression) and two global regression models (generalized spatial two-stage least squares and ordinary least square) are used to identify the spatial patterns and level of influence of protected areas, forests, rivers, trees, and landscape diversity. This paper includes the Central European case study example of a peri-urban area of the city of Wroclaw, Poland. The results from the three models show that out of all of the environmental amenities included in this study, proximity to protected areas—such as Natura 2000 sites and landscape parks—and the diversity of land-use patches within the 500-m radius around the sites exert the strongest influence on plot prices. The overall impact of environmental amenities on vacant plot prices in peri-urban areas is low or, as in the case of river and streams, not significant. The results of the analysis reveal the preferences of the new peri-urban inhabitants concerning green spaces that have an effect on the real estate market in Poland.
Valproate teratogenicity and epilepsy syndrome

Maternal valproate (VPA) use is associated with a significant risk for congenital malformations in the exposed fetus. Since VPA is commonly used in epilepsy syndromes with a presumed genetic cause (idiopathic epilepsies), it is possible that maternal genetic background contributes to this outcome. We reviewed responses to telephone questionnaires and medical records, when available, of enrollees in the North American Antiepileptic Drug Pregnancy Registry, classifying reason for treatment as idiopathic generalized epilepsy (IGE), partial epilepsy (PE), nonclassifiable epilepsy (NCE), or not epilepsy (NE). Of 284 VPA‐exposed pregnancies, 30 (11.0%) were associated with malformations: IGE = 15/126 (12%), PE = 4/28 (14%), NCE = 9/105 (9%), NE = 2/25 (8%) (p > 0.7 for all comparisons). There was a trend toward increased malformation risk with higher VPA doses (p = 0.07). VPA, and not the underlying genetic syndrome, seems to be associated with the elevated risk for malformations in the drug‐exposed fetus.
Protective effects of ellagic and chlorogenic acids against oxidative stress in PC12 cells

Following exposure of differentiated neuronal PC12 cells to either t-BHP, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) or FeSO4 various kinds of reactive oxygen species (ROS) are generated leading to oxidative injury. The protective effects of two plant polyphenols, ellagic (EC) and chlorogenic acid (CGA), as well as of two metabolites, caffeic acid (CA) and ferulic acid (FA), were investigated in preincubation and coincubation experiments with respect to the following parameters: prevention of cell death, GSH depletion, lipid peroxidation and ROS formation. The polyphenols more efficiently suppressed cytotoxicity and loss of GSH caused by peroxides than by iron, particularly in preincubation. Lipid peroxidation which increased much stronger in response to FeSO4 was counteracted completely by the polyphenols. In case of iron, however, only coincubation was effective. EA and CGA and the metabolites CA and FA showed excellent elimination of ROS induced by all stressors. These findings suggest that two dietary antioxidants, EA and CGA, may have protective properties against oxidative stress induced in CNS.
Domestic Linkages as a Condition for Gains from Free Trade Agreements: Welfare and Poverty implications of DR-CAFTA for Costa Rica and Nicaragua

The free trade agreement between the United States and the Central American countries plus the Dominican Republic (DR-CAFTA) signed in 2004 has spurred great controversy in all signatory countries about the expected economic and social gains and losses of the further trade opening. The debate has been particularly fierce in Costa Rica and Nicaragua. This paper contributes to this debate by providing an ex-ante impact assessment of the agreement through a dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) analysis for Costa Rica and Nicaragua. The CGE analysis is complemented by a microsimulation methodology using household survey data to capture the full distributive (and poverty) implications of the tariff and quota changes implied by the DR-CAFTA. A key finding of the study is that the agreement would potentially yield welfare gains for both countries but the source of the gains differ as a consequence of a difference in the degree of economic diversification of the two economies. Nicaragua’s main gains would come from newly acquired preferential access to textile markets in the United States, but in order to achieve such gains the production structure of the economy would have to become heavily specialized in the import-dependent maquila industry and producers in that sector would have to be able to withstand Asian competition. Costa Rica, in contrast, would benefit most from tariff reductions and gains would be spread throughout the economy as exports are more diversified and their production has relatively strong linkages with the domestic economy. Costa Rica thus stands to obtain more sustainable welfare gains from trade liberalisation than Nicaragua.
Three-year follow-up results of angiographic intervention trial using an HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor to evaluate retardation of obstructive multiple atheroma (ATHEROMA) study.

BACKGROUND The cardiovascular event rate in Japanese populations is strikingly lower than that in Caucasian populations and it has been postulated that this difference might be because of variations in atherosclerosis progression in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). However, the rate of angiographically assessed progression and its response to statins has not been well described in Japanese patients. METHODS AND RESULTS The angiographic intervention trial using an HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor to evaluate the retardation of obstructive multiple atheroma (ATHEROMA) study was a multicenter, randomized, controlled clinical trial investigating the effects of pravastatin on coronary atherosclerosis in Japanese patients with CAD using quantitative coronary angiography. In total, 361 patients with mild to moderate elevated serum total cholesterol concentrations (195-265 mg/dl) received diet only (n = 179) or diet plus pravastatin 10-20 mg/dl (n = 182). Over 3 years, low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol in the pravastatin group decreased by 19.5% (p < 0.0001). A per-patient analysis showed that minimum lumen diameter increased by 0.034+/-0.17 mm in the pravastatin group, but decreased by 0.006+/-0.16 mm in the diet only group (p = 0.04). The mean difference between the treatment groups was 0.040 mm (95% confidence interval 0.020, 0.070 mm). CONCLUSION The ATHEROMA study indicates that pravastatin 10-20 mg/day for 3 years improves hyperlipidemia, then suppresses progression and induces regression of focal coronary atherosclerosis in Japanese CAD patients with elevated serum cholesterol.
The Economic Legacy of Expulsion: Lessons from Postwar Czechoslovakia

This paper examines the long-run effects of forced migration on economic development in the origin economy, using Czechoslovakia's expulsion of 3 million Germans after WWII. For identification, I use the discontinuity at the border of the "Sudetenland" region where Germans lived. Since Germans had similar characteristics to Czechs, this bypasses factors that might drive effects elsewhere, such as differences in human capital and geography. The expulsion produced persistent disparities in population density, sector composition, and educational attainment. I trace effects to a selective initial resettlement and physical capital extraction after the expulsion, culminating in urban decay and human capital decline.
Breast and Cervical Cancer Mortality in the Mississippi Delta, 1979–1998

Background Historically, the Mississippi Delta region has been medically underserved. This may lead to lower cancer prevention efforts and higher breast or cervical cancer mortality rates. Methods Death rates for 1979 through 1998 were calculated for Mississippi Delta women and for women living elsewhere in the US. Results Breast cancer mortality in the Delta was similar to that elsewhere in the US in recent years for both black and white women, but rates were lower in the Delta in the early years of the study period. Overall, cervical cancer mortality was similar in the two areas but rates declined more rapidly elsewhere in the US than in the Delta. Breast and cervical cancer mortality was higher among black women than among white women in both areas. Cervical cancer mortality was higher among white rural and black urban women in the Delta than their counterparts elsewhere. Conclusion These results can guide prevention activities for reducing mortality from these diseases.
Comparison Study on Asset Pricing Model in Chinese Stock Market: CAPM and Fama-French Model

Harry Markowitz (1959) develops a mean-variance model for efficient portfolio management. Based on this model, Sharpe (1964), Lintner (1965) and Black (1972) build the CAPM. Merton (1973) then generalizes the CAPM and proposes the ICAPM. Afterwards, Fama and French (1996) take the idea of Ross’s (1976) arbitrage pricing theory and construct a three-factor model. The Fama-French three-factor model explains covariation in average returns around the capital market in the world. However, empirical findings are not in favour of the use of the CAPM that may arise from the features of Chinese capital market which are state-owned system and non-capitalization. The purpose of this research is to explore the explanatory power of asset pricing models in regards to investor behaviour in Chinese stock market. The findings of this study are that the Fama-French three-factor model better explains time-series variation in stock returns than the CAPM. Size effect exists in Shanghai and China (Shanghai and Shenzhen) stock market. However, value effect is found only in Shanghai stock market. Empirical results also show that, in Shanghai stock market, firms with low E/P ratios tend to have higher returns and firms with higher E/P ratios tend to have lower returns. Robustness tests show that the Fama-French three-factor model is better than CAPM to explain stock return variation in Chinese stock market.
Nonparametric Tree‐Based Predictive Modeling of Storm Outages on an Electric Distribution Network

This article compares two nonparametric tree‐based models, quantile regression forests (QRF) and Bayesian additive regression trees (BART), for predicting storm outages on an electric distribution network in Connecticut, USA. We evaluated point estimates and prediction intervals of outage predictions for both models using high‐resolution weather, infrastructure, and land use data for 89 storm events (including hurricanes, blizzards, and thunderstorms). We found that spatially BART predicted more accurate point estimates than QRF. However, QRF produced better prediction intervals for high spatial resolutions (2‐km grid cells and towns), while BART predictions aggregated to coarser resolutions (divisions and service territory) more effectively. We also found that the predictive accuracy was dependent on the season (e.g., tree‐leaf condition, storm characteristics), and that the predictions were most accurate for winter storms. Given the merits of each individual model, we suggest that BART and QRF be implemented together to show the complete picture of a storm's potential impact on the electric distribution network, which would allow for a utility to make better decisions about allocating prestorm resources.