Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Voice, Exit, and the Development of Urban Hierarchy: Evidence from Early Modern Europe

Recent research has emphasized the role of historical institutions in explaining variation in contemporary development. However, empirical research in this vein has assumed a geographically homogenous treatment of national institutions on sub national regions. Drawing on both contemporary and historical theory of urban systems, this paper argues there is in fact reason to believe that the effect of national institutions is likely to vary across space within a country. Specifically, the effect of de jure national representative institutions is likely to vary based on a region’s distance from its government or capital city. However, theory suggests that the direction of the effect of distance is ambiguous, as distance can lead to worse de facto institutions and thus growth by undermining the regions ‘voice’, or improve de facto institutions by facilitation ‘exit’. Heterogeneity in the effect of national representative institutions are tested on panel data set of European cities for the period 1500-1800. The results indicate that autocratic institutions were likely to have had a stronger negative association with city growth for those cities close to their polity’s capital in the early part of this period, but the direction of this association had reversed by the eve of the industrial revolution. This temporal heterogeneity may have been due to changes in transportation costs, and thus state capacity over this period.
Changes in human muscle oxygen saturation and mean fiber conduction velocity during intense dynamic exercise—effect of muscular training status

Introduction: In this study we investigated whether an association exists between muscle fiber conduction velocity (MFCV) and local muscle oxygen saturation (StO2) in the superficial part of the latissimus dorsi muscle of runners and swimmers during exhaustive dynamic exercise. Methods: Participants performed arm cranking with increasing intensity until exhaustion. Results: Runners' MFCV was unchanged with increasing arm‐cranking exercise intensity, but was higher (P < 0.05) than swimmers' MFCV at the same workload. Swimmers' MFCV increased (P < 0.05) with increasing exercise intensity and reached values at exhaustion similar to those of the runners. StO2 was similar in swimmers and runners at rest and decreased with increasing exercise intensity. StO2 was higher (P < 0.05) at the same workload in swimmers compared with runners. StO2 and MFCV were significantly but very weakly correlated in both swimmers and runners. Conclusion: No association exists between surface MFCV and StO2 in either trained or untrained human skeletal muscle during exhaustive intense dynamic exercise. Muscle Nerve, 2012
Vision, attention, and self-reported driving behaviors in community-dwelling stroke survivors.

OBJECTIVE To elucidate the relationships among vision, attention, driving status, and self-reported driving behaviors in community-dwelling stroke survivors. DESIGN A cross-sectional design to compare stroke survivors to older adults without stroke on visual measures, attentional measures, and self-reported driving behaviors. SETTING Rehabilitation center at a university hospital. PARTICIPANTS Fifty stroke survivors and 105 older adults without neurologic or visual impairment. INTERVENTIONS Not applicable. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, peripheral vision, useful field of view (UFOV), Behavioral Inattention Test, and a driving habits questionnaire. RESULTS Stroke survivors had impaired contrast sensitivity, peripheral vision, and UFOV compared with older adults in good visual and neurologic health. Driving stroke survivors typically had less attentional impairment than nondrivers. Stroke survivors who returned to driving reported difficulty in challenging driving conditions, drove less, and relied more on other people for transportation than older adults without stroke. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that vision and attention, both of which are important for driving, are often impaired in stroke survivors. The severity of these deficits could be an influence on driving status and driving behavior. Stroke survivors who return to driving strategically limit their driving exposure and rely on others for transportation, which suggests that they may deliberately self-regulate their driving behavior.
Randomized controlled trial of the effects of vitamin D–fortified milk and bread on serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations in families in Denmark during winter: the VitmaD study.

BACKGROUND Vitamin D intakes are lower than dietary recommendations in most populations, and thus, a low vitamin D status is widespread, especially during winter. OBJECTIVE We investigated the effects of increasing vitamin D intake to the recommended amount by fortification of milk and bread on serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] concentrations in families during winter in Denmark. DESIGN The study was a randomized controlled trial in 782 children and adults (4-60 y old) recruited as 201 families. Families were randomly assigned to vitamin D-fortified or nonfortified milk and bread for 6 mo starting in September. The milk and bread replaced the participants' usual consumptions of products. RESULTS Median (IQR) vitamin D intakes (habitual diet plus fortified products) were 9.4 mg/d (6.5, 12.3 mg/d) and 2.2 mg/d (1.5, 3.0 mg/d) in fortification and control groups, respectively. Geometric mean (IQR) serum 25(OH)D concentrations decreased from 73.1 nmol/L (61.9, 88.5 nmol/L) to 67.6 nmol/L (56.2, 79.4 nmol/L) in the fortification group and from 71.1 nmol/L (61.2, 85.9 nmol/L) to 41.7 nmol/L (29.5, 58.9 nmol/L) in the control group (both P , 0.001). The final 25(OH)D concentration was significantly higher in the fortification group than in the control group (P , 0.001). By the end of the study, ,1% of subjects in the fortification group and 25% of subjects in the control group had 25(OH)D concentrations ,30 nmol/L and 16% and 65% of subjects, respectively, had 25(OH)D concentrations ,50 nmol/L. CONCLUSION Vitamin D fortification of milk and bread reduces the decrease in serum 25(OH)D concentrations during winter and ensures 25(OH)D concentrations . 50 nmol/L in children and adults in Denmark.
Epidemiology of Competition Injuries in Elite European Judo Athletes: A Prospective Cohort Study.

OBJECTIVE To determine the injury incidence rate (IIR) and injury pattern, and to identify risk factors for injury, among elite adult European judo athletes. DESIGN Prospective cohort study. SETTING The 2015 Under 23 European Judo Championships, Bratislava, Slovakia. PARTICIPANTS All registered athletes (N = 295). INDEPENDENT VARIABLES Sex, weight division, and fight outcome. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Injury incidence rates were calculated per 1000 athlete-exposures (IIRAE) and per 1000 minutes of exposure (IIRME) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Subgroups were compared by calculating the injury incidence rate ratio (RR) with a 95% CI. RESULTS The overall IIRAE and IIRME were 35.6 (95% CI, 22.8-53.0) and 10.9 (95% CI, 7.0-16.2), respectively. The most frequently injured anatomical region was the head/neck (41%), whereas the most common type of injury was contusion (33%). The risk of injury was almost 4 times greater for defeated athletes compared with winners [RRME 3.80 (95% CI, 1.47-9.82)]. Athletes in middleweight divisions had a greater risk of injury compared with their lightweight [RRME 3.58 (95% CI, 1.24-10.35)] and heavyweight [RRME 2.34 (95% CI, 0.93-5.89)] counterparts. The risk of injury for women was not significantly different from their male counterparts [RRME 1.33 (95% CI, 0.61-2.90)]. CONCLUSIONS Weight division (middle) and fight outcome (losing) are significant risk factors for injury. The IIR in elite adult judo competition is lower than that in taekwondo and karate. Future research is encouraged to investigate the actual severity of judo injuries, and to investigate potentially modifiable risk factors to mitigate the risk of injury in judo.
Bonding of resin cements to post materials: influence of surface energy characteristics.

PURPOSE 1) To determine the surface energy characteristics of three variously treated post materials and two resin cements, and 2) to investigate if previously measured bond strengths between cements and treated posts could be related to the surface energy characteristics of the posts and cements. MATERIALS AND METHODS The post materials were those of ParaPost XH, ParaPost Fiber White, and Cerapost, and the resin cements were ParaPost Cement and Panavia F. The post materials were surface treated by grinding, sandblasting, CoJet, or with Alloy Primer. Droplets of four reference liquids were placed on the surfaces and the contact angles measured. On this basis the dispersive, acid, and base components of the surface free energy of the materials were calculated. Then the thermodynamic work of adhesion between resin cements and treated post surfaces was calculated, as well as its dispersive and polar components. RESULTS It was found that the surface energy characteristics varied significantly between the investigated surfaces. The previously measured bond strengths correlated statistically significantly (p < 0.02) to the dispersive component of the work of adhesion between posts and cements (r = 0.53), to the dispersive component of the surface free energy of the posts (r = 0.54), and to the contact angle determined with ethylene glycol as reference liquid (r = -0.52), but not to other surface energy characteristics. CONCLUSION In spite of the significant correlations, the "explained" part of the variation in bond strength did not surpass 30%. This means that factors other than surface energy characteristics of adherend and adhesive play a role in determining the strength of the bond.
‘Rusty, invisible and threatening’: ageing, capital and employability

Levels of mature-age unemployment and under-employment are increasing in Australia, with older jobseekers spending longer unemployed than younger jobseekers. This article focuses on two key explanations of the difficulties confronting older jobseekers: human capital theory, which focuses on the obsolescence of older workers’ job skills, and ageism in employment. Drawing upon narrative interviews with older Australians, it critically engages with both these understandings. Using a Bourdieusian analysis, it shows how ageing intersects with the deployment of different forms of capital that are valued within particular labour market fields to shape older workers’ ‘employability’. By examining how class, gender and age intersect to structure experiences of marginalization, it questions conventional analyses that see older workers as discriminated against simply because they are older.
Contrast-enhanced wideband harmonic imaging ultrasound (SonoVue®): A new technique for quantifying bowel wall vascularity in Crohn's disease

Objective. To assess the possibility of quantitative determination of bowel wall vascularity using contrast-enhanced (SonoVue®) wideband harmonic imaging ultrasound and the HDI-Lab software in patients with Crohn's disease. Material and methods. Twenty-one patients (13 F, 8 M, average age 33.8±12.7 years, range 21–60 years) with histologically confirmed Crohn's disease and bowel wall thickness ≥5 mm were recruited for the study. All ultrasound examinations were performed using a Philips HDI 5000 scanner. Bowel wall vascularity was determined at the site of maximum bowel wall thickness at baseline and at 30, 60, 90 and 120 s following application of the contrast enhancer SonoVue (1.2 ml) using the HDI-Lab software. Results. The mean length of bowel segments exhibiting increased wall thickness was 122.3 mm (range: 23–350±74.7 mm), with a mean wall thickness of 7.6±1.2 mm. Onset of echo enhancement secondary to contrast medium application was observed after an average 13.4 s (range 7–19±4.2 s). Echo intensity corresponding to maximum vascularity was measured 30 s after application of contrast medium. Maximum average contrast medium uptake was 217.5% (range 118–466±100.1%). Conclusions. It is possible to quantify bowel wall vascularity accurately in patients with Crohn's disease using contrast-enhanced pulse inversion ultrasound (low-MI).
A unique approach in text independent speaker recognition using MFCC feature sets and probabilistic neural network

This paper motivates the use of combination of mel frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC) and its delta derivatives (DMFCC and DDMFCC) calculated using mel spaced Gaussian filter banks for text independent speaker recognition. MFCC modeled on the human auditory system shows robustness against noise and session changes and hence has become synonymous with speaker recognition. Our main aim is to test the accuracy of our proposed feature set for different values of frame overlap and MFCC feature vector sizes to identify the system having highest accuracy. Principal component analysis (PCA) is applied before the training and testing stages for feature dimensionality reduction thereby increasing computing speed and puts low constraint on the memory required for processing. The use of probabilistic neural network (PNN) in the modeling domain provided the advantages of achieving lower operational times during the training stages. The experiments examined the percentage identification accuracy (PIA) of MFCC, combination of MFCC and DMFCC as well as combination of all three feature sets MFCC, DMFCC and DDMFCC. The proposed feature set attains an identification accuracy of 94% for frame overlap of 90% and MFCC feature size of 18 coefficients. It outperforms the identification rates of the other two feature sets. These speaker recognition experiments were tested using the Voxforge database.
Characterization of the AP‐1 μ1A and μ1B adaptins in zebrafish (Danio rerio)

Protein transport between the trans‐Golgi network and endosomes is mediated by transport vesicles formed by the adaptor‐protein complex AP‐1, consisting of the adaptins γ1, β1, μ1, σ1. Mammalia express μ1A ubiquitously and isoform μ1B in polarized epithelia. Mouse γ1 or μ1A 'knock out's revealed that AP‐1 is indispensable for embryonic development. We isolated μ1A and μ1B from Danio rerio. Analysis of μ1A and μ1B expression revealed tissue‐specific expression for either one during embryogenesis and in adult tissues in contrast to their expression in mammalia. μ1B transcript was detected in organs of endodermal derivation and “knock‐down” experiments gave rise to embryos defective in formation of intestine, liver, and pronephric ducts. Development ceased at 7–8 dpf. μ1B is not expressed in murine liver, indicating loss of μ1B expression and establishment of alternative sorting mechanisms during mammalian development. Developmental Dynamics 239:2404–2412, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Losing the Music: Aging Affects the Perception and Subcortical Neural Representation of Musical Harmony

When two musical notes with simple frequency ratios are played simultaneously, the resulting musical chord is pleasing and evokes a sense of resolution or “consonance”. Complex frequency ratios, on the other hand, evoke feelings of tension or “dissonance”. Consonance and dissonance form the basis of harmony, a central component of Western music. In earlier work, we provided evidence that consonance perception is based on neural temporal coding in the brainstem (Bones et al., 2014). Here, we show that for listeners with clinically normal hearing, aging is associated with a decline in both the perceptual distinction and the distinctiveness of the neural representations of different categories of two-note chords. Compared with younger listeners, older listeners rated consonant chords as less pleasant and dissonant chords as more pleasant. Older listeners also had less distinct neural representations of consonant and dissonant chords as measured using a Neural Consonance Index derived from the electrophysiological “frequency-following response. ” The results withstood a control for the effect of age on general affect, suggesting that different mechanisms are responsible for the perceived pleasantness of musical chords and affective voices and that, for listeners with clinically normal hearing, age-related differences in consonance perception are likely to be related to differences in neural temporal coding.
Location of port-wine stains and the likelihood of ophthalmic and/or central nervous system complications.

Of 310 patients with port-wine stains, 68% had more than one dermatome involved; 85% had unilateral and 15% had a bilateral distribution of their port-wine stain. At the time of examination, 8% of all patients with trigeminal port-wine stains had evidence of eye and/or central nervous system (CNS) involvement. Extensive involvement, with port-wine stain over the trunk and extremities as well as the head and neck, was observed in 12%. Patients who did not have port-wine stains on the areas served by branches V1 and V2 of the trigeminal nerve had no signs or symptoms of eye and/or CNS involvement. Port-wine stains of the eyelids, bilateral distribution of the birthmark, and unilateral port-wine stains involving all three branches of the trigeminal nerve were associated with a significantly higher likelihood of having eye and/or CNS complications. Twenty-four percent of those with bilateral trigeminal nerve port-wine stains had eye and/or CNS involvement compared with 6% of those with unilateral lesions. All those who had eye and/or CNS complications had port-wine stain involvement of the eyelids; in 91% both upper and lower eyelids were involved, whereas in 9% only the lower eyelid was involved. None of those with upper eyelid port-wine stains alone had eye and/or CNS complications. In addition, 3 (75%) of the 4 subjects with seizures alone had bilateral port-wine stain involvement. A third group, these with unilateral V1, V2, and V3 port-wine stains, had eye and/or CNS complications in 3 (19%) of 16 subjects. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Distinct microsatellite alterations in upper urinary tract tumors and subsequent bladder tumors.

PURPOSE Although synchronous and/or metachronous tumor development is common in urothelial cancer, genetic and biological differences in upper urinary tract and bladder tumors are unclear. We compared the genetic alteration pattern in multifocal disease in patients with upper urinary tract and subsequent bladder tumors, and those with recurrent bladder tumor. MATERIALS AND METHODS Using 21 microsatellite markers on the 8 chromosomal arms 2q, 4p, 4q, 8p, 9p, 9q, 11p and 17p we analyzed 34 tumors from 15 patients with upper urinary tract and subsequent bladder disease, and 70 tumors from 22 with recurrent bladder disease. RESULTS Judging from the patterns of genetic alterations multifocal tumors were considered to have derived from an identical progenitor cell in 7 of 13 evaluable patients (54%) with upper urinary tract and subsequent bladder tumors, and 16 of 19 (84%) who were evaluable with recurrent bladder tumor. These data confirm the view that seeding or intraepithelial spread is a major mechanism for the multifocal development of urothelial cancer in general. However, a discordant microsatellite alteration pattern in multifocal tumors was observed in 6 of 7 patients (86%) with upper urinary tract and subsequent bladder lesions but in 2 of 16 (13%) with recurrent bladder cancer (p <0.005). CONCLUSIONS Our results imply that upper urinary tract neoplasms may be genetically more unstable than bladder neoplasms. The implantation of tumor cells from upper urinary tract to bladder may involve additional and diverse genetic alterations. Furthermore, a considerable number of multifocal upper urinary tract and subsequent bladder lesions may arise independently via field cancerization mechanism. Our study indicates that the factors contributing to multifocal development are different in the 2 groups.
Field studies on efficacy of host odour baits for the biting midge Culicoides impunctatus in Scotland

The efficacy of some putative attractants for the biting midge Culicoides impunctatus (Goetghebuer) (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) was assessed using odour‐baited ‘delta traps’ and suction traps. 1‐octen‐3‐ol was confirmed as a potent olfactory attractant for C. impunctatus when released at 0.06 mg/h. Acetone (23 mg/h) and a mix of six phenolic compounds (phenol, 3‐ethylphenol, 4‐ethylphenol, 3‐methylphenol, 4‐methylphenol and 4‐propylphenol), at undetermined release rate, also significantly increased delta trap catches compared to unbaited controls. When tested in combination, there was evidence of synergism between CO2 (0.2 L/min) and acetone, 1‐octen‐3‐ol or cow urine, trap catches being, respectively, 4.7, 6.2 and 9.3‐fold greater than for CO2 alone. Highest catches were obtained with triple bait combinations comprising cow urine + acetone + CO2 or cow urine + 1‐octen‐3‐ol + CO2, which increased trap catches by × 22 and × 24, respectively, compared to CO2 alone. Culicoides impunctatus was found to be extremely sensitive to CO2 and responses, gauged over two field seasons, showed a significant dose‐dependent increase in catch across the entire range of release rates (0.2–2.5 L/min). Responses to these release rates, ranging from small to large mammal equivalents, emphasized the important role of CO2 in host location by C. impunctatus. Uses of olfactory attractants for monitoring and control of Culicoides are reviewed on the basis of these results.
Oral prednisone suppresses allergic but not irritant patch test reactions in individuals hypersensitive to nickel

A multicentre, randomized, double‐blind, crossover study was designed to investigate the effects of prednisone on allergic and irritant patch test reactions. 24 subjects with known allergy to nickel were recruited and patch tested with a nickel sulfate dilution series in aqueous solution, 5% nickel sulfate in petrolatum and 2 dilution series of the irritants nonanoic acid and sodium lauryl sulfate. The subjects were tested ×2, both during treatment with prednisone 20 mg oral daily and during placebo treatment. The total number of positive nickel patch test reactions decreased significantly in patients during prednisone treatment. The threshold concentration to elicit a patch test reaction increased and the overall degree of reactivity to nickel sulfate shifted towards weaker reactions. The effect of prednisone treatment on the response to irritants was divergent with both increased and decreased numbers of reactions, although there were no statistically significant differences compared with placebo. It is concluded that oral treatment with prednisone suppresses patch test reactivity to nickel, but not to the irritants tested.