Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Restructuring a basic science course for core competencies: An example from anatomy teaching

Medical schools revise their curricula in order to develop physicians best skilled to serve the public's needs. To ensure a smooth transition to residency programs, undergraduate medical education is often driven by the six core competencies endorsed by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME): patient care, medical knowledge, practice-based learning, interpersonal skills, professionalism, and systems-based practice. Recent curricular redesign at Mayo Medical School provided an opportunity to restructure anatomy education and integrate radiology with first-year gross and developmental anatomy. The resulting 6-week (120-contact-hour) human structure block provides students with opportunities to learn gross anatomy through dissection, radiologic imaging, and embryologic correlation. We report more than 20 educational interventions from the human structure block that may serve as a model for incorporating the ACGME core competencies into basic science and early medical education. The block emphasizes clinically-oriented anatomy, invites self- and peer-evaluation, provides daily formative feedback through an audience response system, and employs team-based learning. The course includes didactic briefing sessions and roles for students as teachers, leaders, and collaborators. Third-year medical students serve as teaching assistants. With its clinical focus and competency-based design, the human structure block connects basic science with best-practice clinical medicine.
Calcium‐activated transient membrane currents are carried mainly by chloride ions in isolated atrial, ventricular and Purkinje cells of rabbit heart

Under physiological conditions, calcium‐dependent ([Ca2+]i‐dependent) Cl‐ currents (ICl(Ca)) have been suggested to participate in the repolarizing processes. In this paper, the possible contribution of ICl(Ca) to transient inward currents and, hence to arrhythmias, has been studied in myocytes from the working myocardium and from the conductive system. Single atrial, ventricular and Purkinje cells, isolated enzymatically from rabbit heart, have been studied under whole‐cell voltage‐clamp and were internally perfused with the fluorescent Ca2+ indicator, fura‐2 (100 microM). Ca2+ release from the sarcoplasmic reticulum was either induced by external application of caffeine or occurred spontaneously in Ca(2+)‐overloaded cells. Membrane currents accompanying Ca2+ transients showed linear current‐voltage characteristics between ‐60 and +80 mV as evidenced from fast voltage ramps. When intra‐ and extracellular Cl‐ concentrations were kept symmetrical in the absence of the Na(+)‐Ca2+ exchange mechanism, transient currents had a reversal potential close to 0 mV. Reduction of external Cl‐ concentration shifted this reversal potential towards the new Cl‐ equilibrium potential. Neither the time course of the transient currents nor the shift in their reversal potentials was significantly affected by the presence of Na+. Approximately 90% of this current was blocked by the application of the Cl‐ channel blocker, anthracene‐9‐carboxylic acid (0.5 mM) at +80 mV. It is concluded, that [Ca2+]i‐activated transient membrane currents in atrial, ventricular and Purkinje cells of rabbit heart are mainly due to the activation of a [Ca2+]i‐dependent Cl‐ current.
Arterial blood acid-base regulation during exercise in rats.

For the first time in the rat, we described the effects of exercise on arterial acid-base status and examined the role of chemical stimuli as determinants of the hyperventilatory response in this species. O2 consumption (VO2), CO2 production (VCO2), arterial blood gases, arterial lactate concentration ([LA-]a), and rectal temperature (Tre) were measured in non-trained male rats at rest and during 10 min of treadmill exercise at various intensities. During mild exercise (2.5-fold increase in VCO2), PaCO2 fell 5.5 +/- 0.6 Torr, and despite a small but significant increase in [LA-]a, respiratory alkalosis prevailed [change in arterial pH (delta pHa) = 0.034 +/- 0.006]. Arterial PO2 (PaO2) increased 4.1 +/- 1.5 Torr and Tre increased 0.6 +/- 0.1 degrees C. A progressive hyperventilation occurred from mild to heavy exercise. This response was not attributable to arterial hypoxemia or acidosis and it was not affected by preventing the exercise-induced increase in body temperature. During maximal exercise, VO2 increased 3.4-fold (72 +/- 1.50 ml X kg-1 X min-1) and VCO2 increased 4.5-fold (74 +/- 1.90 ml X kg-1 X min-1), resulting in a 9-fold increase in [LA-]a and a severe metabolic acidosis (pHa 7.31 +/- 0.02). A marked hyperventilation [arterial PCO2 (PaCO2) 28.5 +/- 1.4 Torr] resulted in partial compensation of pHa, but almost all of this hyperventilation occurred before the onset of metabolic acidosis, [i.e., at less than 65% maximum VO2 (VO2max)], and the increased [H+]a with further elevations in VO2 produced no further hypocapnia. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
When Rationality Meets Passion: On the Financial Performance of Collectibles

This article examines prior evidence and proposes an empirical study of the performance of passion investments in comparison with financial and real assets over the past 20 years. Over this period, classic cars and fine wines (but not visual art) display better returns than U.S. equity, fixed income, and real estate. Volatilities are, overall, low but increase once returns are adjusted for the inherent illiquidity on collectible markets. In a CAPM framework, only classic cars yield significant risk-adjusted returns with an annualized alpha of 5%. At the same time, correlations and systematic risk are low for all collectibles. This diversification benefit is confirmed by a 7% portfolio risk reduction following the inclusion of collectibles in a traditional financial portfolio. The authors further document that the inherent segmentation of collectible classes extends the benefits of cross-asset to intra-asset class diversification. Finally, they find that collectibles have performed slightly less well since the Global Financial Crisis.
Soluble V Domain of Nectin-1/HveC Enables Entry of Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 (HSV-1) into HSV-Resistant Cells by Binding to Viral Glycoprotein D

ABSTRACT Interaction of herpes simplex virus (HSV) glycoprotein D (gD) with specific cellular receptors is essential for HSV infection of susceptible cells. Virus mutants that lack gD can bind to the cell surface (attachment) but do not enter, implying that interaction of gD with its receptor(s) initiates the postattachment (entry) phase of HSV infection. In this report, we have studied HSV entry in the presence of the gD-binding variable (V) domain of the common gD receptor nectin-1/HveC to determine whether cell association of the gD receptor is required for HSV infection. In the presence of increasing amounts of the soluble nectin-1 V domain (sNec1123), increasing viral entry into HSV-resistant CHO-K1 cells was observed. At a multiplicity of 3 in the presence of optimal amounts of sNec1123, approximately 90% of the cells were infected. The soluble V domain of nectin-2, a strain-specific HSV entry receptor, promoted entry of the HSV type 1 (HSV-1) Rid-1 mutant strain, but not of wild-type HSV-1. Preincubation and immunofluorescence studies indicated that free or gD-bound sNec1123 did not associate with the cell surface. sNec1123-mediated entry was highly impaired by interference with the cell-binding activities of viral glycoproteins B and C. While gD has at least two functions, virus attachment to the cell and initiation of the virus entry process, our results demonstrate that the attachment function of gD is dispensable for entry provided that other means of attachment are available, such as gB and gC binding to cell surface glycosaminoglycans.
Econometric Analysis of Bitcoin and its 2013 Bubbles

This thesis examines Bitcoin in 2012-2015 period along with the two Bitcoin bubbles — April 2013 and November 2013 — using ARIMA, GARCH and LPPL models. First, we perform standard GARCH analysis along with GARCH rolling estimation and find that the volatility of Bitcoin differs substantially over time and that this relation is best captured by GARCH(1,1) in all studied periods. We also conclude that during the November bubble the number of irrational traders entering the market was much higher than in the April bubble which probably caused greater instability on the Bitcoin market. However, based on Ljung-box test we find these results to be questionable. For that reason, we present LPPL model and study its key parameters — power law growth rate β, frequency of log oscillation ω and its scaling ratio λ — in more detail using standard methodology and “loop analysis”. We find that the November bubble experiences much faster oscillation and lower acceleration rate of power law in comparison with the April bubble. By the end we propose hypothesis that ∆λ serves as a better indicator of the upcoming bubble crash than simple scaling ratio which we concluded to be true in our analysis of the two Bitcoin bubbles. However, further examination of other financial bubbles is needed, in order to support this hypothesis. JEL Classification C22, C53, C58, E47, G17
Structure and expression of the Chinese hamster thymidine kinase gene

My colleagues and I have cloned a nearly full-length Chinese hamster thymidine kinase (TK) cDNA in a lambda gt10 vector and characterized this cDNA by nucleotide sequencing. The hamster TK protein is encoded in this cDNA by a 702-base-pair open reading frame which specifies a 25,625-dalton protein closely homologous to the previously described human and chicken TK proteins. Using cDNA nucleotide sequence data in conjunction with sequence data derived from selected subclones of the hamster TK gene recombinant phage lambda HaTK.5, we have resolved the structure of the TK gene, finding the 1,219 base pairs of the cDNA sequence to be distributed through 11.2 kilobases of genomic DNA in at least seven exon segments. In addition, we have constructed a variety of Chinese hamster TK minigenes and exonuclease III-S1 derivatives of these genes which have permitted us to define the limits of the Chinese hamster TK gene promoter and demonstrate that efficient TK transformation of Ltk- cells by TK minigenes depends on the presence of both TK intervening sequences and sequences 3' to the site of mRNA polyadenylation.
An Empirical Evaluation of Hedge Fund Managerial Skills using Bayesian Techniques

This paper makes use of the Bayesian method to evaluate hedge fund managersâ€™ selectivity, market timing and outperformance skills separately, and investigates their persistence from January 1995 to June 2010. We divide this sample period into four overlapping sub-sample periods that contain different economic cycles. We define a skilled manager as a manager who can outperform the market in two consecutive sub-sample periods. We employ Bayesian linear CAPM and Bayesian quadratic CAPM to generate skill coefficients during each sub-sample period. We found that fund managers who possess selectivity skills can outperform the market at 7.5% significant level if and only if the economic conditions that governed the financial market during the period between sub-sample period2 and sub-sample period3 remain the same.
New-Style Campaigns in State Supreme Court Retention Elections

Scholarly research finds that partisan, hard-fought, expensive, and churlish state supreme court campaigns increase voter participation and their support for challenger candidates. These insights, however, are drawn nearly exclusively from competitive state supreme court elections. Little is known about voter behavior in uncompetitive retention elections. Traditionally, these races are not salient to the public given that incumbents raise and spend little-to-no money, and campaigns, parties, and political action committees air few (if any) advertisements. Since 2010, however, such behavior has become more commonplace. I assess voter participation and incumbent performance in 178 state supreme court retention elections from 2002 to 2014. I find that expensive, churlish retention elections are likely to increase voter turnout and to hurt incumbents’ efforts to win retention.
Chinese Outbound Tourist Preferences for All-Inclusive Group Package Tours: A Latent Class Choice Model

Extensive studies were conducted to understand package tour participants, but little is known about the selection and trade-off for a specific tour versus another. A stated choice experiment was conducted in this study with 270 prospective mainland Chinese outbound tourists, aiming to identify their heterogeneous preferences for package tours that involved eight attributes, each with varying levels. To identify the sources of preference heterogeneity, a latent class choice model was estimated to segment each of the three predetermined budget groups into two subgroups, and profile these subgroups by sociodemographic characteristics and consumption values. Different preference patterns for tour attributes were revealed among the subgroups, whereas majority of the respondents reported common preferences for fewer designated shops and direct flights. The results provide researchers and practitioners with innovative insights into the preferences and trade-offs of mainland Chinese package tour participants, as well as practical guidance for package tour design and pricing.
Design of a cascaded H-bridge converter for insulation testing

This paper describes a design of a cascaded H-bridge converter for insulation testing of the crosslinked polyethylene (XLPE) cable. This high voltage generator produces a sinusoidal waveform at a very low frequency (VLF) of 0.1 Hz. The design of the cascaded H-bridge converter consists of two main parts, a modulation unit and a switching unit. The modulation unit compares the 0.1 Hz reference sinusoidal waveform with the 10 kHz of carrier waveform. The switching unit consists of 6 H-bridge modules using phase disposition (PD) multicarrier modulation scheme to generate 13 levels of PWM signals. The cascaded H-bridge converter can covert the high voltage direct current (HVDC) to multilevel step-pulse signals and change to the sinusoidal waveform at 0.1 Hz by the low-pass filter. The use of multilevel H-bridge converter helps reduce the total harmonic distortion (THD) from single level H-bridge converters. The experimental results show that the THD value is less than 5% complied to the IEEE 400.2 standards.
Lipophilic statins prevent matrix metalloproteinase-mediated cartilage collagen breakdown by inhibiting protein geranylgeranylation

Objective To investigate if statins prevent cartilage degradation and the production of collagenases and gelatinases in bovine nasal and human articular cartilage after proinflammatory cytokine stimulation. Methods In a cartilage degradation model, the effects of several statins were assessed by measuring proteoglycan degradation and collagen degradation, while collagenolytic and gelatinolytic activity in culture supernatants were determined by collagen bioassay and gelatin zymography. The production of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) in cartilage and chondrocytes were analysed by real-time reverse transcriptase PCR and immunoassay. Cytokine-induced signalling pathway activation was studied by immunoblotting. Results Simvastatin and mevastatin significantly inhibited interleukin 1 (IL-1)+oncostatin M (OSM)-induced collagen degradation; this was accompanied with a marked decrease in collagenase and gelatinase activity from bovine nasal cartilage. The cholesterol pathway intermediate mevalonic acid reversed the simvastatin-mediated protection of cartilage degradation, and the expression and production of collagenase (MMP-1 and MMP-13) and gelatinase (MMP-2 and MMP-9). Statins also significantly decreased MMP-1 and MMP-13 expression in human articular cartilage and chondrocytes stimulated with IL-1+OSM, and blocked the activation of critical proinflammatory signalling pathways required for MMP expression. The loss of the isoprenoid intermediate geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate due to statin treatment accounted for the inhibition of MMP expression and signalling pathway activation. Conclusions This study shows, for the first time, that lipophilic statins are able to block cartilage collagen breakdown induced by proinflammatory cytokines, by downregulating key cartilage-degrading enzymes. This demonstrates a possible therapeutic role for statins in acting as anti-inflammatory agents and in protecting cartilage from damage in joint diseases.
Influence of Toxocara canis infection during pregnancy on offspring resistance towards re-infection

The impact of Toxocara canis infection of Balb/c mice mothers on the future immune response of their offspring towards reinfection with the same parasite was studied. Two groups of offspring, the first originating from the mothers infected with a single dose of 1000 Toxocara canis eggs and the second from non-infected mothers, were both challenged with 500 T. canis eggs per animal at 6 weeks of age. The proportions of spleen CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes, the level of serum cytokines IFN-γ and IL-5, eosinophilia in peripheral blood, the production of specific antibodies and the number of migrating larvae were monitored. In both groups of offspring, the challenge infection resulted in an increase in CD4+ T-cell subtype in comparison with the non-infected healthy control, although after an initial decline a subsequent increase in CD8+ was observed. The immunoregulation index (CD4+/CD8+) was lower in the group of mice originating from infected mothers throughout the whole experiment compared to the offspring of non-infected mothers as well as in healthy control mice of the same age. In the offspring of infected mothers mainly, a reduced production of IFN-γ and of IL-5, suppressed eosinophilia and a higher level of protective antibodies was detected, compared to the control second group, in which the INF-γ concentration significantly increased after day 42 p.i. In the first group of offspring before challenge, 12·7±2·5 larvae in the brains and 32±2·1 larvae in the muscles transmitted from the infected mothers were detected. There was a significant reduction in larval recovery from brain on days 42 and 49 p.i. (56·7 and 56·8%, respectively), while from muscles in the same time there was a reduction of 46·7 and 39%, respectively, compared to the offspring of non-infected mothers. These results indicate a significant protective memory of immune mechanisms against T. canis induced in offspring of Toxocara-infected mother mice.
Neurolysis for the treatment of sciatic nerve palsy associated with total hip arthroplasty.

Sciatic nerve palsy following total hip arthroplasty (THA) is a relatively rare yet potentially devastating complication. The purpose of this case series was to report the results of patients with a sciatic nerve palsy who presented between 2000 and 2010, following primary and revision THA and were treated with neurolysis. A retrospective review was made of 12 patients (eight women and four men), with sciatic nerve palsy following THA. The mean age of the patients was 62.7 years (50 to 72; standard deviation 6.9). They underwent interfascicular neurolysis for sciatic nerve palsy, after failing a trial of non-operative treatment for a minimum of six months. Following surgery, a statistically and clinically significant improvement in motor function was seen in all patients. The mean peroneal nerve score function improved from 0.42 (0 to 3) to 3 (1 to 5) (p < 0.001). The mean tibial nerve motor function score improved from 1.75 (1 to 4) to 3.92 (3 to 5) (p = 0.02). The mean improvement in sensory function was a clinically negligible 1 out of 5 in all patients. In total, 11 patients reported improvement in their pain following surgery. We conclude that neurolysis of the sciatic nerve has a favourable prognosis in patients with a sciatic nerve palsy following THA. Our findings suggest that surgery should not be delayed for > 12 months following injury.
The Belt & Road Initiative and China’s influence in Southeast Asia

Abstract The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), since its inception in late 2013, has drawn tremendous global attention. The views of political leaders, business people, the media, and analysts on the prospect of the BRI are ostensibly polarized. One group asserts that the BRI will dramatically increase Beijing’s global influence, particularly in China’s neighborhood. Another group surmises that the BRI is expected to fail because of insurmountable challenges and is expected to fail. This article joins the debate by exploring the impact of the BRI on Southeast Asia’s regional order. The author holds a middle-ground position and argues that the actual impact of the BRI should neither be easily dismissed nor overestimated. More likely, through the BRI, China’s influence in Southeast Asia will increase but not to the extent of forging a Sinocentric order in the region. This can be explained by three major factors: (a) the responses of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its member states toward the BRI, (b) the effects of alternative infrastructure initiatives proposed by other major powers in Southeast Asia, and (c) China’s questionable ability to deliver its BRI promises.
Does taking vacations make people happy? A regional disparity perspective

ABSTRACT This study examines happiness determinants from a regional disparity perspective. Data from a national leisure survey conducted in South Korea was used. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression was performed. Findings indicate that leisure satisfaction, vacationing, participation in club activities, participation in volunteer activities, gender, marital status, household income, and education level were significantly related to respondents’ happiness. These determinants were further investigated by regional segmentation. In tests to determine the strength of vacationing and self-rating of leisure satisfaction on happiness, leisure satisfaction was found to be significantly and positively related to happiness levels after controlling for respondents’ characteristics.
Room occupancy rate forecasting: a neural network approach

In recent years, neural networks have become popular in the scientific and business fields. In the hotel industry, researchers have recently devoted attention to the application of neural networks to the classification of tourist segments and the prediction of visitor behaviour. However, no previous attempt has been made to incorporate neural networks into hotel occupancy rate forecasting. This paper reports on a study about applying neural networks to the forecasting of room occupancy rates. The significance of this approach was tested with actual data from the Hong Kong hotel industry. Estimated room occupancy rates were compared with actual room occupancy rates. Experimental results indicate that using neural networks to forecast room occupancy rates outperforms multiple regression and naive extrapolation, two commonly used forecasting approaches.