Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of commercial and green synthesized ZnO NPs in murine model of chloroquine-induced pruritus

Purpose: To investigate the effects of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) on chloroquine (CQ)-induced itching, and overall behavior of mice after oral administration of ZnO NPs of various sizes and doses. Background: With the wide-spread use of ZnO NPs in pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, concerns about their safety and toxicity are also increasing. Multiple aspects of ZnO NPs regarding cytotoxicity and tolerability are under investigation globally. Still, a clear conclusion about their safety has not been reached. Chloroquine phosphate is an antimalarial with known side effects of itching in humans and animals. In this study, CQ was used to induce itching in mice, and the effects of ZnO NPs on scratching and other neurological behavior of mice were observed. Methods: Female BALB/c mice were divided into eleven groups of six mice each. ZnO NPs of various sizes and doses were administered orally 1 hour before CQ (32 mg/kg body weight) was administered subcutaneously. The effect of ZnO NPs on CQ-induced pruritus was observed for the next 30 minutes. Simultaneously, overall behavioral changes (socialization and locomotion) were also recorded using a video camera. Results: A significant reduction (P˂0.001) in scratching bouts was observed at all three doses of ZnO NPs (particle sizes 100, 30 nm, and green synthesized 30 nm). Locomotion was reduced significantly (P˂0.001) in ZnO NPs-treated groups in comparison to normal saline and CQ group, additionally, a significant increase in socialization (P˂0.05) was observed in ZnO NP-treated groups as compared to CQ group. Conclusion: ZnO NPs, instead of aggravating the dermatological condition, ameliorated the pruritus. All sizes of ZnO NPs used significantly improved socialization among mice and reduced locomotion activity.
The Demand for Safe Assets in Emerging Economies and Global Imbalances: New Empirical Evidence

Recent economic theory has singled out mismatches between the supply and the demand of safe financial assets in emerging countries as drivers of international capital flows and, ultimately, global current account imbalances. This paper assesses empirically the contribution of such “search for safe assets” to the size and composition of emerging economies’ international asset portfolios. Excess demand for safe assets in financially less-developed countries would imply that these countries hold disproportionately high shares of their total portfolios in foreign assets. Moreover, financially less-developed countries would hold disproportionately high shares of their foreign portfolios in financially developed countries, which are the major producers of ostensibly safe assets. This paper finds little empirical support for these predictions. Financially less-developed countries allocate a larger proportion of their total holdings to domestic assets. Even when focusing on their foreign portfolios, there is no evidence of a general bias towards the assets of financially developed countries. Overall, asset mismatches do not appear to explain the asset allocation of financially less-developed countries.
Regional Trade Openness Index and Income Disparity - A New Methodology and the Indian Experiment

This study tries to look at how 'open' Indian states are with respect to international trade and then try to characterise the relationship between regional disparity and 'openness'. The major purpose of this work is to develop an openness index at the regional or state level. It is well recognised that international trade data are not easily available at the sub-national level. This is particularly a problem for countries that are large in size and have diverse heterogeneous regions. The methodology developed here is not only applicable to the Indian case but also for many such countries where state level trade data are not available. We try to devise a proxy, which allows us to rank states over time in terms of their exposure to trade. This index changes over time on a year-to-year basis and therefore is amenable to time series analytics. It is observed that the relative income of a region is closely related to the extent of openness and that such relationship gets stronger over time. We have evidence that openness is strongly correlated with rising income disparity across regions.
Management of Infectious Waste from Hospitals

Abstract In October 1980, 80% (120/150) of North Carolina (NC) hospitals responded to a comprehensive solid waste questionnaire intended to identify their solid waste disposal practices. NC hospitals generated an average of 13 lb. of solid waste/patient/day and infectious waste comprised 5% to 11% of the total hospital waste. Most hospitals (>66%) considered blood, isolation, laboratory (including microbiology), pathology, and autopsy waste as infectious, while other sources of solid waste were generally considered non-infectious. The infectious wastes were normally incinerated or steam sterilized before discarding. Nearly all hospitals (95%) used a Class A landfill to dispose of the non-infectious waste. Two-thirds of the NC hospitals are discarding blood, microbiological, pathological, and isolation waste in accordance with the CDC recommendations, while the compliance rates for the JCAH and EPA recommendations for these wastes were 94% and 24%, respectively. If the EPA modified its recommendations to include incineration of microbiological waste, which is practiced by 50 responding NC hospitals, the compliance rate would be 95.5% for these wastes and 61.7% overall.
Prediction of Full-Scale Propulsion Power using Artificial Neural Networks

Full scale measurements of the propulsion power, ship speed, wind speed and direction, sea and air temperature from four different loading conditions, together with hind cast data of wind and sea properties; and noon report data has been used to train an Artificial Neural Network for prediction of propulsion power. The model was optimized using a double cross validation procedure. The network was able to predict the propulsion power with accuracy between 0.8-1.7% using onboard measurement system data and 7% from manually acquired noon reports.
Cortical Mechanisms Involved in the Processing of Verbs: An fMRI Study

In this study, we investigated two aspects of verb processing: first, whether verbs are processed differently from nouns; and second, how verbal morphology is processed. For this purpose, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to compare three types of lexical processing in Japanese: the processing of nouns, unmarked active verbs, and inflected passive verbs. Twenty-eight healthy subjects were shown a lexical item and asked to judge whether the presented item was a legal word. Although all three conditions activated the bilateral inferior frontal, occipital, the left middle, and inferior temporal cortices, we found differences in the degree of activation for each condition. Verbs elicited greater activation in the left middle temporal gyrus than nouns, and inflected verbs showed greater activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus than unmarked verbs. This study demonstrates that although verbs are basically processed in the same cortical network as nouns, nouns and verbs elicit different degrees of activation due to the cognitive demands involved in lexical semantic processing. Furthermore, this study also shows that the left inferior frontal cortex is related to the processing of verbal inflectional morphology.
Handgrip strength among nonagenarians and centenarians in three European regions.

BACKGROUND Handgrip strength is an important predictor of disability and mortality among old people. The aim was to compare the grip strength among very old people in three regions of Europe. METHODS In this substudy of the European Challenge for Healthy Aging project, only the long-lived probands were included. The maximum value of three measurements of handgrip strength was selected for the analysis. Adjustment for factors known to be correlated with grip strength was made by linear regression. RESULTS Among 598 very old people (median age = 98 years) a clear North-South gradient was observed: For men, handgrip strength dropped from 24.2 kg in Southern Denmark to 20.8 kg in Languedoc-Roussillon, France and 14.2 kg in Calabria, Italy (p < .0001), whereas for women the drop was smaller (from 12.2 to 9.2 kg; p = .0021). The difference remains significant after adjustment for age, gender, housing, knee height, Activities of Daily Living (ADL) scale score, score on the Six-Item Mini-Mental State Examination, chair stand, and number of age-related diseases, although these factors explain two thirds of the variation in handgrip strength. CONCLUSIONS Among nonagenarians and centenarians in three different European regions, we found a significant North-South gradient in handgrip strength with substantially lower values in Calabria. This finding may be due both to population background differences (e.g., genetic variations, birth weight, childhood growth) and to sociocultural differences (e.g., lifestyle, health care).
The investigation and management of severe hyperandrogenism pre- and postmenopause: Non-tumor disease is strongly associated with metabolic syndrome and typically responds to insulin-sensitization with metformin

Background. An androgen-secreting tumor needs to be excluded in any woman with severe hyperandrogenism. We sought to characterize patients with biochemical hyperandrogenism in respect of tumor versus non-tumor etiologies, explore possible links between non-tumor hyperandrogenism and metabolic syndrome, and ascertain whether metformin therapy can elicit diagnostic reductions in serum testosterone (T). Patients and methods. Seven-year retrospective study of all women referred to a university hospital endocrinology service with baseline T >4.0 nmol/l. Dataset comprised age, menopausal status, body mass index (BMI), presence/absence of hypertension, diabetes, acanthosis or dyslipidemia, along with changes in BMI and serum T following intervention with metformin, oophorectomy or dexamethasone. Non-tumor hyperandrogenism was defined by normalization of serum T or >40% reduction from baseline. Results. Four out of 18 cases had adrenal carcinoma that was clinically obvious at initial presentation (one virilized, three Cushingoid). The remaining 14 were characterized by metabolic syndrome (BMI: 39.9 ± 8.1 kg/m2), serum T of 6.14 ± 1.6 nmol/l, and nadir serum T following intervention of 2.2 ± 1.04 nmol/l. Diagnostic reductions in serum T occurred in 11/12 patients treated with metformin. Conclusions. Non-tumor hyperandrogenism with markedly elevated serum T and associated metabolic syndrome is a defined clinical entity in postmenopause as well as in premenopausal women with polycystic ovary syndrome. This has hitherto been only sparsely documented in the published literature. A fall in serum T level in response to insulin-sensitizing therapy with metformin and lifestyle change may be a reassuring indicator that such women are highly unlikely to harbor an androgen-secreting tumor.
Popular Attitudes Towards Markets and Democracy: Russia and United States Compared 25 Years Later

We repeat a survey we did in the waning days of the Soviet Union (Shiller, Boycko and Korobov, AER 1991) comparing attitudes towards free markets between Moscow and New York. Additional survey questions, from Gibson Duch and Tedin (J. Politics 1992) are added to compare attitudes towards democracy. Two comparisons are made: between countries, and through time, to explore the existence of international differences in allegiance to democratic free-market institutions, and the stability of these differences. While we find some differences in attitudes towards markets across countries and through time, we do not find most of the differences large or significant. Our evidence does not support a common view that the Russian personality is fundamentally illiberal or non-democratic.
Comparison of turbulence model predictions in rod bundles with supercritical up-flow

ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . iii TABLE OF CONTENTS . iv LIST OF TABLES . ix LIST OF FIGURES . xviii NOMENCLATURE . xxxi Greek Letters . xxxvii Subscripts . xl Turbulence Equation Terms . xli Abbreviations . xlii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION . 1 1.1. Supercritical Water Cooled Reactors . 1 1.2. Properties of Supercritical Fluids . 3 1.3. SCWR Bundle Modelling . 7 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW . 9 2.1. Experimental Studies. 10 2.1.1. Heated Tube and Annulus . 10 2.1.2. Heated Rod Bundles . 12 v 2.2. Numerical Studies . 15 2.2.1. Heated Tube and Annulus . 15 2.2.2. Heated Rod Bundles . 21 2.3. Summary of Literature . 24 2.4. Objectives . 26 2.5. Scope of the Thesis . 27 2.6. Thesis Outline . 27 CHAPTER 3: NUMERICAL MODELS . 29 3.1. Governing Equations . 29 3.1.1. Continuity, Momentum, and Energy . 30 3.1.2. SST Turbulence Model . 34 3.1.3. Standard k-ε Turbulence Model . 44 3.1. 4. RNG k-ε Turbulence Model . 46 3.1. 5. Low Reynolds k-ε Turbulence Model . 48 3.1. 6. Turbulence Model Inlet Boundary Conditions . 51 3.2. Supercritical Fluid Properties . 53 3.2.1. Water CFX . 53 3.2.2. Water FLUENT . 53 3.2.3. R12 CFX . 54
Two essays on stock liquidity

Dedication To my parents v Acknowledgements I am grateful to my dissertation chair, Sheridan Titman, for his encouragement, guidance, and continuous support. I would like to thank my committee members, Laura This dissertation consists of two empirical essays on investor behavior and liquidity variation. The results demonstrate the important role of investors in affecting liquidity. The first essay examines how the fluctuation in the aggregate stock market liquidity is related to investor sentiment. I find that the stock market is more liquid when investor sentiment is higher. This evidence is consistent with the theoretical prediction that higher investor sentiment increases stock market liquidity. The second essay investigates whether the cross-sectional differences in liquidity are affected by institutional ownership. I document that stocks with larger increases in the number of institutional investors are more liquid than other stocks. This result is consistent with the prediction that information competition among institutional investors increases stock liquidity.
Functional outcomes and daily life activities of African-American elders after hospitalization.

OBJECTIVE African-American elders were recruited from a transitional unit after hospitalization and tracked for 6 months in the community after discharge to (a) examine functional outcomes on the unit and in the community and (b) identify patterns of participation in daily life activities. The International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities, and Handicaps (ICIDH-2) framework provided the structure to examine the connections among body systems, functional outcomes, and social participation for this population that has been underrepresented in past research. METHOD A mixed design combined qualitative and quantitative methods, including qualitative interviews to document personal adaptive experience, a standardized functional assessment to identify functional outcomes, and a structured format to record activity participation. RESULTS Findings revealed that 11 of the 17 participants improved their functional outcomes after discharge. Three patterns of activity participation identified were self-care, self-care and household management, and mixed activities. Contextual influences were diverse family support arrangements. CONCLUSION Complex relationships were identified among body systems, functional outcomes, and daily life activities that were influenced by individual values and support arrangements.
Speciation as a positive feedback loop between postzygotic and prezygotic barriers to gene flow

Speciation is intimately associated with the evolution of sex–and–reproduction–related traits, including those affecting hybrid incompatibility (postzygotic isolation) and species recognition (prezygotic isolation). Genes controlling such traits are not randomly distributed in the genome but are particularly abundant on the sex chromosomes. However, the evolutionary consequences of the sex linkage of genes involved in speciation have been little explored. Here, we present simulations of a continent–island diploid model that examines the effects of reduced recombination using both autosomal and sex–linked inheritance. We show first that linkage between genes affecting postzygotic and prezygotic isolation leads to a positive feedback loop in which both are strengthened. As species recognition evolves, genes causing hybrid incompatibility will hitchhike along with those improving premating isolation, leading to stronger hybrid incompatibility and thus increased pressure for further preference divergence. Second, we show that this loop effect is generally enhanced by sex linkage, because recombination is eliminated in the heterogametic sex, leading to tighter effective linkage between the two classes of genes and because natural selection is more efficient at sex–linked loci, as recessive alleles are not masked by dominance in the heterogametic sex. Accordingly, hitchhiking can be important in promoting speciation and can also lead to increased postzygotic isolation through adaptive evolution.
Regulation of V(D)J recombination by nucleosome positioning at recombination signal sequences

A key component in the regulation of V(D)J recombination is control of the accessibility of RAG proteins to recombination signal sequences (RSS). Nucleosomes are known to inhibit this accessibility. We show here that the signal sequence itself represses accessibility by causing nucleosome positioning over the RSS. This positioning is mediated, in vitro and in vivo, by the conserved nonamer of the RSS. Consistent with this strong positioning, nucleosomes at RSSs are resistant to remodelling by nucleosome sliding. In vivo we find that consensus RSSs are preferentially protected, whereas those that lack a consensus nonamer, including some cryptic RSSs, fail to position nucleosomes. Decreased protection of these non‐consensus RSSs correlates with their increased use in recombination assays. We therefore suggest that nucleosome positioning by RSSs provides a previously unanticipated level of protection and regulation of V(D)J recombination.
Californian Households - Willingness to Pay for Green PCs

Consumer electronic devices (CEDs) contain toxic materials including heavy metals and brominated flame retardants that can pose a threat to public and environmental health if improperly disposed. Recent legislation enacted in the European Union and introduced in California bans the sale of CEDs containing these toxics. As a result, manufacturers need to change the design of their products to reduce the environmental impact, yet little is known about consumer willingness to pay for these "green" products. We estimate willingness to pay higher prices for environmentally friendly desktop computers by California households and find that most are willing to pay only 1% higher retail prices for "green" PCs. Other key demographic characteristics include age, income, and education. Environmental attitudes and beliefs are also important
Modified Quantization Constraint Set for Deblocking Transform Coded Images

At low bit rates, the block discrete cosine transform (BDCT) compression methods often give rise to blocking artifacts. In both enhancement and restoration approaches to the problem, quantization constraint set (QCS) is widely used as a priori information about the coding process. In this paper, we propose a modified constraint set based on the statistical property of quantization errors. The experimental results show that the extension can be effective. While combined with other algorithms, the proposed QCS outperforms traditional QCS and produces results comparable with the state of the art in the literature.
Road to organ preservation in locally advanced rectal cancer

Introduction In the past 20 years there has been significant change in the treatment of rectal cancer, especially in terms of multimodal approach. Surgery is, at least for now, the mainstay treatment for resectable rectal cancer. Preoperative chemoradiotherapy is, regardless of its modality, short or long course, different chemotherapeutic regiments, widely recommended for locally advanced rectal cancer. After neoadjuvant treatment, 15–27% of patients experience pathological complete response (pCR). These patients could benefit from non-operative management, thus avoiding potential surgical complications and possible reduction in the quality of life. Unfortunately, one cannot precisely define, while omitting surgery, which patients have pCR. For this reason Habr-Gama, a pioneer in the “watch-and-wait” strategy, developed a new endpoint for non-operative management – clinical complete response. To measure the response, in the absence of pathological examination, same diagnostic tools are used as in initial staging, but none is reliable enough to be used alone. This article is focusing on critical points in the reassessment of response to preoperative chemoradiotherapy for advanced rectal cancer, which is mandatory for appropriate selection of patients who might benefit from non-operative management.
One-Year Follow-up Study of Elderly Group-Home Residents With Dementia

For the present research, a 1-year follow-up study was conducted on elderly group-home residents with dementia (n = 13). This research compared the cognitive function and behavioral disorders of the elderly group-home residents with dementia with a control group (n = 13) of elderly patients with dementia in a dementia care ward. Thirteen residents of a group home were observed for 1 year, following the establishment of the group home in January 2003. The subjects in the control group were matched for the sex and dementia type of the group-home residents. The present results suggest that cognitive function among elderly group-home residents was maintained in comparison with elderly patients in a dementia ward. In addition, behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia were not observed in either group. Furthermore, these findings suggest that behavioral disorders significantly improved in the group-home residents because of the incorporation of activities combining basic and instrumental activities of daily living.
Global campaign to eradicate malaria

Three years have passed since the launch of Roll Back Malaria, the global campaign to halve the burden of malaria by 2010, and one year since its high profile African summit in Abuja.1 The campaign has had two major successes. Firstly, it has built an impressive partnership of the United Nations and development agencies, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, governments, the private sector, researchers, and non-governmental organisations. Secondly, it has raised the visibility of this neglected disease—one that causes at least 3000 deaths a day and that slows economic growth by 1.3% per year in endemic areas.1 But it has not yet produced a major impact where it matters most—at the ground level in the world's poorest countries. Participants from these countries therefore showed understandable impatience at the campaign's fourth global partners meeting, hosted last month by the World Bank in Washington DC. Many complained that things were moving far too slowly. The partnership's credibility, they told the BMJ , now rests on its ability to translate its promises and pledges into malaria control programmes …