Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Amnestic‐confabulatory syndrome in hydrocephalic dementia and Korsakoff's psychosis in alcoholism

The clinical course of six alcoholics with Korsakoff's psychosis was compared with 23 patients with hydrocephalic dementia before and after shunt operation. The initial clinical state as well as the symptom improvement showed important similarities between the Korsakoff group and the hydrocephalic dementia group, who improved after shunt operation. Fantastic confabulation and apraxia were only observed in the hydrocephalic dementia group. Psychometrically, both groups showed a similar degree of improvement of the initially impaired verbal memory while only the hydrocephalic dementia group showed impairment of spatial abilities indicating a constructional apraxia. It is suggested that the similarities of the two conditions are related to dysfunction of diencephalic and temporal‐limbic structures. The constructional and general apraxia as well as the fantastic confabulation in hydrocephalic dementia indicate a cortical, especially frontal cortical, dysfunction in this disorder.
Starving counties, squeezing cities: tax and expenditure limits in the US

Policy Highlights We create a 50 state Tax and Expenditure Limits (TEL) severity index by government type. Counties and municipalities differ in their revenue structure and economic functions. TELs constrict counties’ ability to raise revenue. Municipalities broaden revenue sources and debt in response to TEL severity. State aid needs to increase for counties to offset TEL’s restrictive effect. State-imposed local Tax and Expenditure Limits (TELS) are restricting revenue raising ability of local governments across the U.S. We create a 50-state index to measure the severity of TELS by type of tax limitation (rate limit, tax ceilings, etc.) for each type of local government: county, municipality and school district. We find in states with more restrictive TELs, counties are more restricted, while cities reduce their property tax dependence and shift to alternative revenue sources and incur more debt. State aid does not make up the difference. TELs increase stress for all local governments but are most severe for counties.
Phenotypic and functional similarities between 5-azacytidine-treated T cells and a T cell subset in patients with active systemic lupus erythematosus.

OBJECTIVE Antigen-specific CD4+ T cells treated with DNA methylation inhibitors become autoreactive, suggesting a novel mechanism for autoimmunity. To test whether this mechanism might be involved in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), phenotypic markers for the autoreactive cells were sought. METHODS Cloned normal T cells were treated with the DNA methylation inhibitor 5-azacytidine (5-azaC) and studied for altered gene expression. T cells from patients with active SLE were then studied for a similar change in gene expression, and cells expressing the marker were tested for autoreactivity. RESULTS 5-azaC-treated normal T cells had increased CD11a (leukocyte function-associated antigen 1 alpha) expression relative to other membrane molecules. A T cell subset with similar CD11a expression was found in patients with active SLE. This subset contained cells that spontaneously lysed autologous macrophages, with a specificity similar to that of 5-azaC-treated cells.
The predictors of surgical procedure and the effects on functional recovery in elderly with subcapital fractures.

BACKGROUND It has been demonstrated that the majority of hip fracture patients do not regain their prefracture level of functioning and usually decline in function following fracture. Little is known about the effectiveness of surgical procedure performed (hemiarthroplasty vs internal fixation) on functional recovery of subcapital fracture patients. This study examines the factors related to the type of the surgical procedure chosen and the effect of this selection on physical activities of daily living (PADL) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL). METHODS The sample consists of 312 patients with subcapital fractures age 65 and older admitted from the community to one of seven Baltimore area hospitals between 1984 and 1986. Baseline information was obtained during hospitalization through structured interviews with both patients and their significant others (proxy). The follow-up interviews were administered to proxies at two months, six months, and one year after discharge from hospital. Information on disease diagnoses, fracture severity, and surgical procedures performed was obtained from medical charts. RESULTS Patients with a displaced fracture were seven times more likely to receive a hemiarthroplasty (OR = 7.0, 95% CI 3.7-13.1). During the short-term recovery (2 months after surgery), patients who received hemiarthroplasty were doing better in transferring, meal preparation, and shopping than those who received internal fixation. For the long-term functional recovery (one year), the overall PADL and IADL functions were not statistically significantly different between the two surgical procedures performed. CONCLUSIONS The severity of fracture was found to be the most important determinant of surgical procedure. Patients with a subcapital fracture who received hemiarthroplasty tended to have a better functional recovery in the short term. Further study of other benefits of using as hemiarthroplasty is needed.
A prospective randomised controlled trial comparing tracheal intubation plus manual in‐line stabilisation of the cervical spine using the Macintosh laryngoscope vs the McGrath® Series 5 videolaryngoscope

Cervical spine immobilisation can make direct laryngoscopy difficult, which might lead to airway complications. This randomised control trial compared the time to successful intubation using either the Macintosh laryngoscope or the McGrath® Series 5 videolaryngoscope in 128 patients who had cervical immobilisation applied. Intubation difficulty score, Cormack & Lehane laryngoscopic view, intubation failures, changes in cardiovascular variables and the incidence of any complications were recorded. The mean (SD) successful intubation time with the Macintosh laryngoscope was significantly shorter compared with the McGrath laryngoscope, 50.0 (32.6) s vs 82.7 (80.0) s, respectively (p = 0.0003), despite the McGrath laryngoscope's having a lower intubation difficulty score and a superior glottic view. There were five McGrath laryngoscope intubation failures, three owing to difficulty in passing the tracheal tube and two to equipment malfunction. Equipment malfunction is a major concern as a reliable intubating device is vital when faced with an airway crisis.
Understanding low sensitivity of community-based HIV rapid testing: experiences from the HPTN 071 (PopART) trial in Zambia and South Africa

Introduction: Population‐wide HIV testing services (HTS) must be delivered in order to achieve universal antiretroviral treatment (ART) coverage. To accurately deliver HTS at such scale, non‐facility‐based HIV point‐of‐care testing (HIV‐POCT) is necessary but requires rigorous quality assurance (QA). This study assessed the performance of community‐wide HTS in Zambia and South Africa (SA) as part of the HPTN 071 (PopART) study and explores the impact of quality improvement interventions on HTS performance.
A Posterior-Stabilized Total Knee Arthroplasty Shows Condylar Lift-off during Deep Knee Bends

This prospective randomized study was done to examine whether any difference in presentation of condyler lift-off exists between posterior cruciate-retaining and posterior-stabilized total knee arthroplasties. Fluoroscopic analysis of flexion kinematics under weightbearing condition was done for 18 patients who had bilateral paired total knee arthroplasties. The posterior cruciate-retaining and posterior-stabilized prostheses were from the same total knee arthroplasty series with comparable surface geometries and were implanted by one surgeon. At evaluation, five of 18 patients (28%) with posterior cruciate-retaining total knee arthroplasties had condylar lift-off, compared with 12 of 18 patients (67%) with posterior-stabilized total knee arthroplasties. Consequently, a significant difference in its incidence was seen between the groups. Condylar lift-off in posterior-stabilized knees was observed at various flexion angles, and one knee in this group had lift-off laterally and medially at different flexion angles. These findings raise concern that the higher incidence of condylar lift-off in posterior-stabilized total knee arthroplasty may lead to an increased wear rate of polyethylene associated with long-term prosthetic loosening.
Relationship Between Domestic Production in Agricultural and Industrial Sectors and Purchasing Power by Controlling for International Trade Variables (Iran)

Foreign trade is one of the important subjects in any economy. Due to the close relationship between economy, technology, culture, and governance, business has a significant effect on economies. This study analyses the relationship between domestic production and purchasing power which is proxied by inflation rate by considering certain indexes of intranational trade. Our targeted country is Iran and data are between1973 and2013. Because of limited access to data our sample size was small which motivate us to use Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) technique that is appropriate for the small sample size analysis. The estimated coefficient of GDP, value-added agriculture and industry were negative and significant. Therefore, it was claimed that there is a negative and significant relationship between domestic production and purchasing power which is proxied by inflation rate by controlling for certain variables of international trade.
On load disaggregation using discrete events

Load disaggregation involves identification of the operating appliances and their respective power consumption using only total building power consumption data. Load disaggregation also called as non-intrusive load monitoring can offer consumers greater visibility about their individual appliance power consumption. This information will help customers (i) to optimize the use of appliances, resulting in energy savings and (ii) in knowing the health condition of the various appliances based on the power consumption patterns. Load disaggregation also provides utility companies the opportunity to gain new insights about their customers energy profile which helps them to come up with efficient demand response plans for peak load shaving. In this paper, discrete events based load disaggregation is discussed which is developed and implemented using apparent power data collected from actual residential building. Discrete events like switching ON/OFF of appliances, appliance operational time and some portion of the raw signal are considered for achieving load disaggregation. The proposed load disaggregation approach consists of event detection, pairing of the events, extraction of feature vector and learning & appliance identification using artificial neural network. The load disaggregation solution is developed and tested using the apparent power data sampled at 0.1 Hz, collected from a actual residential building in Bangalore, India using “Eyedro” power sensor and the results are very promising.
Moxifloxacin (BAY12-8039), a New 8-Methoxyquinolone, Is Active in a Mouse Model of Tuberculosis

ABSTRACT Moxifloxacin (BAY12-8039) is a new 8-methoxyquinolone shown to be active against Mycobacterium tuberculosis in vitro. We tested moxifloxacin for activity in mice against M. tuberculosis CSU93, a highly virulent, recently isolated clinical strain. The MIC of moxifloxacin for the CSU93 strain was 0.25 μg/ml. The serum moxifloxacin concentration after oral administration in mice peaked within 0.25 h, reaching 7.8 μg/ml with doses of 100 mg/kg of body weight; the maximum concentration and the analysis of the area under the concentration-time curve revealed dose dependency. When mice were infected with a sublethal inoculum of mycobacteria and then treated with moxifloxacin at 100 mg/kg per day for 8 weeks, the log10 CFU counts in the organs of treated mice were significantly lower than those for the control group (0.6 ± 0.2 versus 5.6 ± 0.3 in the lungs and 1.5 ± 0.7 versus 4.9 ± 0.5 in the spleens, respectively;P < 0.001 in both organs). The effectiveness of moxifloxacin monotherapy was comparable to that seen in mice receiving isoniazid alone. Combination therapy with moxifloxacin plus isoniazid was superior to that with moxifloxacin or with isoniazid alone in reducing bacillary counts in the organs studied. Using a sensitive broth-passage subculture method, we demonstrated that 8 weeks of treatment with moxifloxacin (100 mg/kg per day) or with moxifloxacin plus isoniazid (100 mg/kg and 25 mg/kg, respectively, per day) sterilized the lungs in seven of eight and in eight of eight mice, respectively. Among surviving bacilli isolated from animals infected with a high-titer inoculum and treated for 7 weeks with low-dose moxifloxacin (20 mg/kg per day), breakthrough resistance to moxifloxacin was not observed. These results indicate that moxifloxacin is highly effective in reducing M. tuberculosis infection in mice and has activity comparable to that of isoniazid. Combination therapy with moxifloxacin and isoniazid was highly effective, suggesting that moxifloxacin may be useful in multiple-drug regimens for human tuberculosis.
PUTTING THEORY INTO PRACTICE: GAMIFICATION FOR STUDENT ENGAGEMENT

Gamification is the use of game design elements in a non-game contexts [1]. It is an intervention that has been used in a business setting for a number of years and is now becoming more and more applied in higher education [2]. We present the practical implications of our Gamification for Student Engagement framework developed for Higher Education. Landers [3] suggests that gamification is the process of identifying, extracting, and embedding game attributes into learning, in order to affect the behaviours and attitudes that support the achievement of learning outcomes. His theory describes how this works in a successfully gamified learning situation. By employing gamification, the relationship between instructional content and the achievement of learning outcomes becomes explicit and can be altered in specific ways to affect student attitudes and behaviours oriented towards a particular learning goal. In addition to this, Bedwell’s taxonomy of game attributes [4] makes it theoretically possible to narrow down the game attributes that have an evidence base for supporting any given learning outcome. Student engagement can be explained using learning theories (e.g. see [5]). This framework can be used to understand player engagement and open up the door for learning theories to explain the effect of game attributes on players and thus on students. This allows us to define the aspects and functions of the behaviours/attitudes concept that underpins the theory of gamified learning. Now that the behaviour/attitudes that can be affected by gamification are better defined, we can start to consider exactly what gamification is affecting in engagement, how this happens, and what to look for to see if its works. This allows us to fill in the blanks between learning outcome and instructional content. Building on the work of Landers, Bedwell and Kahu we will explore ways in which our new consolidated framework of Gamification for Student Engagement may be used in practice
Beneficial effects of oats in the gluten-free diet of adults with special reference to nutrient status, symptoms and subjective experiences

In several studies oats have been reported to be tolerated by coeliac patients. The aim of the present study was to investigate the nutritional and symptomatic effects of including oats in the gluten-free diet, as well as the patients' subjective experiences. Twenty adult coeliac patients included large amounts of oats in their diet. Food intake, gastrointestinal symptoms, blood samples and body weight were examined and compared with examination at baseline. Diet compliance was checked monthly. The results are based on fifteen patients eating oats for 2 years plus three with only 6-months consumption. The median daily intake of oats was 93 (range 27–137) g/d, and the compliance was good. The mean intakes of Fe and dietary fibre increased (P<0·001) with the oat diet, as well as the intakes of thiamin and Zn (P<0·02). The bioavailability of Fe tended to decrease; this seems not to have influenced the Fe status. Temporary increased flatulence was experienced the first few weeks, as well as improved bowel function with oats in the diet. All patients who carried out the whole study period wanted to continue eating oats after the study, as they found that addition of oats in the gluten-free diet gave more variation, better taste and satiety. Oats improved the nutritional value of the gluten-free diet, had no negative effects on nutritional status and were appreciated by the subjects. Including oats can help coeliac patients following a strict gluten-free diet.
An Analysis of Technologically Radical Innovation and Breakthrough Patents

Abstract Breakthrough innovations – commonly defined by innovations with patents surpassing a critical threshold of forward citations – generate benefits for innovators, businesses, and society. Analyzing more than five million patents and citations from 1976 to 2017, this paper adds to the existing literature by examining whether the radicalness of a patented good – that is, the more technology classes cited as contributing prior arts not identified in the patent’s own technology identity – impacts the likelihood an innovation is a breakthrough. In essence, the paper tests the common belief that it is beneficial to “think outside the box” when innovating. The results show that increased radicalness increases the likelihood of a breakthrough up to a certain threshold, after which increased radicalness decreases the likelihood of a breakthrough. Additionally, established innovators and university ownership of a patent each extend the range for which increased radicalness increases the probability of a breakthrough, while joint patent ownership decreases the range.
Closed-form expansions for option prices with respect to the mixing solution

We consider closed-form expansions for European put option prices within several stochastic volatility frameworks with time-dependent parameters. Our methodology involves writing the put option price as an expectation of a Black-Scholes formula and performing a second-order Taylor expansion around the mean of its argument. The difficulties then faced are computing a number of expectations induced by the Taylor expansion in a closed-form manner. We establish a fast calibration scheme under the assumption that the parameters are piecewise-constant. Furthermore, we perform a sensitivity analysis to investigate the quality of our approximation and show that the errors are well within the acceptable range for application purposes. Lastly, we derive bounds on the remainder term due to the Taylor expansion.
Virtual currencies in real economy: Bitcoin

This paper examines the relationship between virtual currency, the Bitcoin, and the real economy. In the first part the description of the term virtual currency is provided with special focus on Bitcoin. Also the legal and taxation issues are discussed. In the main part the volatility of Bitcoin is inspected using various models from Autoregressive heteroskedasticity models family. We found that the volatility of Bitcoin differs significantly through time and that this relation is captured best by T-GARCH (1,1) model. Finally the relationship between Bitcoin and real economy indicators is observed to be inconsistent and mostly insignificant in time. Thus we conclude that the independency of Bitcoin cannot be rejected. JEL Classification C22, E42, K34, L17
Twelve weeks’ treatment with diazoxide without insulin supplementation in Type 2 diabetes is feasible but does not improve insulin secretion

Aims Treatment with K‐ATP channel openers, such as diazoxide, can have beneficial effects on insulin secretion in both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. However, the precise conditions for obtaining beneficial effects without untoward events have not been determined. We tested the hypothesis that intermittent administration of diazoxide at bedtime for 12 weeks could produce beneficial effects in the absence of side‐effects in Type 2 diabetic patients who were not taking insulin.
New VAR evidence on monetary transmission channels: temporary interest rate versus inflation target shocks

We augment a standard monetary VAR on output growth, inflation and the nominal interest rate with the central bank's inflation target, which we estimate from a New Keynesian DSGE model. Inflation target shocks give rise to a simultaneous increase in inflation and the nominal interest rate in the short run, at no output expense, which stands at the center of an active current debate on the Neo-Fisher effect. In addition, accounting for persistent monetary policy changes reflected in inflation target changes improves identification of a standard temporary nominal interest rate shock in that it strongly alleviates the price puzzle.
The Fly as a Model for Neurodegenerative Diseases: Is It Worth the Jump?

Neurodegenerative diseases are responsible for agonizing symptoms that take their toll on the fragile human life. Aberrant protein processing and accumulation are considered to be the culprits of many classical neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, tauopathies, Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, hereditary spastic paraplegia and various polyglutamine diseases. However, recently it has been shown that toxic RNA species or disruption of RNA processing and metabolism may be partly to blame as clearly illustrated in spinal muscular atrophy, spinocerebellar ataxia 8 and fragile X-associated tremor/ataxia syndrome. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, the fruit fly or Drosophila melanogaster has taken its place at the forefront of an uphill struggle to unveil the molecular and cellular pathophysiology of both protein- and RNA-induced neurodegeneration, as well as discovery of novel drug targets. We review here the various fly models of neurodegenerative conditions, and summarise the novel insights that the fly has contributed to the field of neuroprotection and neurodegeneration.