Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Linear automatic detection of eye movements during the transition between wake and sleep

Slow eye movement (SEM) are a sensitive indicator of lowered consciousness or drowsiness in man. A new computerized method for detection of SEM was introduced. A linear regression analysis was applied in each moving window for approximation to the tangent line on the electro‐oculogram curve. The results revealed that SEM were more frequent and their duration was shorter at stage wake than at sleep stages 1 and 2. The method was practically suitable for objective detection and measurement of SEM.
Evaluation of body fat composition after linagliptin treatment in a rat model of diet‐induced obesity: a magnetic resonance spectroscopy study in comparison with sibutramine

The effects of linagliptin on fat content in diet‐induced obese rats were compared with those of the appetite suppressant sibutramine. Female Wistar rats fed a high‐fat diet (HFD) for 3 months received vehicle, linagliptin (10 mg/kg) or sibutramine (5 mg/kg) treatment orally, once daily for 6 additional weeks, while continuing the HFD. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy analysis of fat content was performed at baseline and at the end of the 6‐week treatment period. Linagliptin treatment profoundly reduced hepatic fat compared with vehicle, with an effect comparable to that of sibutramine. The vehicle‐corrected mean change (95% CI) from baseline in hepatic fat and intramyocellular lipid was −59.0% (−104.3%, −13.6%; p = 0.015) and −62.1% (−131.6%, 7.4%; p = 0.073), respectively, for linagliptin compared with −54.3% (−101.5%, −7.1%; p = 0.027) and −72.4% (−142.4%, −2.4%; p = 0.044), respectively, for sibutramine.
Cross-Border Banking and Macroeconomic Determinants

This paper studies the bilateral determinants of the international asset positions of banks, and subsequent bilateral adjustment during the global financial crisis and ensuing recovery phase. We find empirical support for traditional gravity-type variables. Exploiting a comprehensive dataset of bilateral bank assets, combined with a cross-country database on capital controls and macroeconomic policies, empirical evidence is provided for the effects of macroeconomic tools on the portfolio reallocation of internationally active banks. Specifically, higher current account balances in recipient countries are associated with higher inflows in debt assets, while restrictions on asset inflows and higher central bank reserves are related to lower cross-border flows of bank investment during the crisis and post-crisis periods, with heterogeneous effects across asset type. Finally, stronger institutions in recipient countries are positively associated with the international investment of banks, with inflows to debt assets being the most sensitive asset category across the financial cycle.
Antioxidants: how good are they?

Oxidation processes are essential in normal cell metabolism. Free radicals, i.e. reactive oxygen and nitrogen compounds, are formed continuously. They participate in metabolic and cell signalling pathways, in spite of their potentially deleterious effects. A system of endogenous antioxidative compounds and systems operates to control strictly the concentrations and actions of free radicals. Deleterious effects of free radicals in disease and ageing processes, referred to as oxidative stress, are related to their ability to initiate oxidation of, in particular, unsaturated fatty acids and proteins, interfering with essential functions of cell membranes, for example. Inflammatory processes, increasingly implicated in various chronic diseases, are characterized by surplus formation of free radicals. The possibility of decreasing oxidative stress with dietary antioxidants is the basis for hypotheses on the health-promoting effects of antioxidants in foods. Protective effects against cardiovascular disease and some cancers of fruit and vegetables are strongly supported by a host of observational studies. It is generally assumed that antioxidants in these foods are an important factor, even the most important factor behind their health-promoting effects. However, intervention studies with increased intake of fruit and vegetables so far have failed to show substantial effects on markers of oxidative stress, and studies with supplementation of single antioxidants have generally been negative. The increased frequency of lung cancer in smokers supplemented with β-carotene drew attention to potentially deleterious effects of single antioxidants, possibly related to their pro-oxidative effects in high doses. Fruits and vegetables contain a host of components with antioxidative effects in addition to the well-known antioxidative vitamins C and E. These include carotenoids, notably β-carotene, flavanoids, lutein and hundreds of other more or less characterized potentially bioactive compounds. One hypothesis is that a balanced battery of different antioxidants from foods is needed for optimal protection. To increase our understanding of the effects of dietary antioxidants for health, it is essential to have methods for measurement of oxidative stress, i.e. markers for evaluation of physiological effects, both positive and negative, of dietary antioxidants. In this issue, the usefulness of one newly discovered and documented type of such a marker, isoprostanes, is reviewed by a pioneer in this field, Samar Basu. Equally important is substantiation of methods for measuring antioxidants in foods. Owing to the many antioxidant compounds present in foods, methods for determination of total antioxidative capacity (TAC) have been developed and such estimates have been published for a large number of foods. The extent to which TAC estimates in foods indicate in vivo protective effects remains to be substantiated, and in this context it is necessary to have validated markers for measuring oxidative stress in vivo.
Patterns of Memory Dysfunction in Current and 2-year Abstinent MDMA Users

The popular recreational drug MDMA or “ecstasy” is a selective serotonin neurotoxin in many species and has been found to be associated with memory dysfunction in human beings. Recent studies suggest that this impairment persists after cessation of use for periods up to at least one year. However, there is no clear indication as yet concerning which stage of memory processing is impaired as a result of MDMA use. In the current study, 31 current MDMA users and 30 MDMA users who had been abstinent for more than two years were compared with 30 controls on the WMS-III. The results suggest that MDMA use is associated with memory dysfunction and that this dysfunction persists for up to two years after cessation of use. Importantly, the findings suggest that this memory dysfunction may be due to interference at the encoding stage of memory processing.
Effectiveness of nursing-led inpatient care for patients with post-acute health care needs: secondary data analysis from a programme of randomized controlled trials.

OBJECTIVES To determine whether transfer to a nursing-led inpatient unit (NLIU) prior to discharge from hospital can improve clinical outcome and reduce length of stay and readmission rate for medically stable post-acute patients assessed as requiring inpatient care. METHOD Retrospective secondary data analysis of individual patient data (n=471) from a programme of three, purposefully replicated, pragmatic randomized controlled trials. Patients were referred to the NLIU by their consultant (attending doctor/surgeon) for nursing-led subacute/post-acute care and randomly allocated to a treatment group for planned transfer to the NLIU for the remainder of their hospital stay or to a control group for traditional consultant-led care in acute wards. Outcome measures were physical function (Barthel Index), length of stay, discharge destination, mortality, psychological well-being (General Health Questionnaire-12), health-related distress (Nottingham Health Profile Distress Index), incidence of complications and readmission within 7, 28, 90 and 180 days. RESULTS Patients allocated to the NLIU showed greater improvement in physical function (P<0.001) and were more likely to be discharged to live independently in the community than controls [odds ratio (OR)=0.42, P=0.001] although they spent longer in hospital (P= 0.003). They showed greater improvement in psychological well-being (P = 0.001) and health-related distress (P =0.025) and a lower incidence of pressure ulcers (OR=0.33, P=0.011). CONCLUSION Transfer to a NLIU can have a beneficial effect on outcomes of care for post-acute patients with complex health and social needs although length of stay is longer. This study strengthens the evidence of effectiveness of the NLIU model of care and provides evidence of effectiveness of post-acute and subacute models of care.
Caregiving and Institutionization: Perceptions of Family Conflict and Socioemotional Support

This study examines the impact of family conflict and socioemotional support among caregivers who institutionize their relatives. Fifty-two wives, forty-three husbands, and sixty-seven daughters were interviewed before and after the placement of a cognitively impaired relative. A repeated measures ANOVA was performed to examine differences in reports of family conflict and socioemotional support among caregivers. Husbands reported greater increases in family conflict than wives or daughters during the institutionization process. Conversely, wives and daughters indicated higher levels of socioemotional support than husbands. Hierarchical regression equations were then calculated to assess the independent contributions of family conflict and socioemotional support to postplacement adaptation. Decreases in socioemotional support during institutionalization significantly predicted postplacement anger among husbands and increases in family conflict significantly predicted postplacement depression among wives. Overall, family conflict and socioemotional support have important implications among caregivers who institutionalize their relatives.
'In Every Rank, or Great or Small, 'Tis Industry Supports Us All': Romanians and Ethnic Hungarians, and Their Wages, in Transition

Legally binding treaties or memorandums have been used over time to regulate the issue of national borders of many European countries. As a result, relatively large groups of people have become ethnic minorities in other countries. They may conserve their ethnic identities, and therefore their children may accumulate ethnic human capital (e.g., language, culture, and religion) in addition to the general human capital of the country. Therefore, they can get access to an appropriate occupation linked by tradition or other factors to their ethnic group. This paper uses estimates from a selection model with an endogenous switch among three broad types of occupational groups to analyze the composition of the wage gap between Romanians and ethnic Hungarians in Romania before and during the transition from a planned to a market economy. The results suggest that the institutional settings of the controlled economy allowed Romanians to work in occupations that gave them the best returns, while the changes during the transition years allowed ethnic Hungarians to work in occupations that gave them the best returns.
THE INFLUENCE OF WORKPLACE FUN ON JOB OUTCOMES: A STUDY AMONG DIFFERENT GENERATIONS OF ACADEMICIANS

Workplace fun can have positive individual and organizational implications. Academic studies have linked workplace fun with job satisfaction. The changing in workforce, as well as the flattening of organizations and a more casual work environment have led to a simplistic assumption that more fun is always better. Different generational cohorts namely Baby Boomers, Generation X and Millennials might have different views of workplace fun which affect their work outcome. This paper investigates how workplace fun of academicians in UiTM Kedah influences their job outcomes, which include job satisfaction, organizational commitment and task performance, and how different generations respond to workplace fun which in the end affects their job outcome. The Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) 21 was used to analyse the results.The findings revealed that all generational cohorts tested agreed that workplace fun did affect job outcome in general. However, Generation Y showed a slight difference where workplace fun does not have a significant relationship with job satisfaction. These results, their implications, and directions for future research are discussed.
Designing distributed systems for heterogeneity

Modern distributed and networked systems are highly heterogeneous in many dimensions, including available bandwidth, processor speed, disk capacity, security, failure rate, and pattern of failures. The theme of this dissertation is that this heterogeneity can not only be handled, but rather should generally be viewed as an asset. We begin by introducing a framework, the price of heterogeneity, to model the effect of heterogeneity in parallel and distributed systems. Our results in this framework show broad classes of systems in which heterogeneity cannot be a disadvantage. We then develop practical methods for distributed systems to adapt to and take advantage of heterogeneity. The U0 distributed hash table achieves improved load balance, route length, and congestion with low overhead in environments with heterogeneous node capacities, such as bandwidth or processing speed. Addressing heterogeneity in reliability, we show that randomization in node selection strategies typically reduces failure rates—a property that permits better understanding of subtle properties of existing systems, as well as the design of new systems. Finally, we study how to improve stability in the Internet's inter-domain routing protocol, while carefully managing tradeoffs with network operators' perferred routes. These results show how both performance and reliability can be improved in heterogeneous environments.
Breast cancer resistance protein (ABCG2) and drug disposition: intestinal expression, polymorphisms and sulfasalazine as an in vivo probe

Breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP) is an efflux transporter expressed in tissues that act as barriers to drug entry. Given that single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the ABCG2 gene encoding BCRP are common, the possibility exists that these genetic variants may be a determinant of interindividual variability in drug response. The objective of this study is to confirm the human BCRP-mediated transport of sulfasalazine in vitro, evaluate interindividual variation in BCRP expression in human intestine and to determine the role of ABCG2 SNPs to drug disposition in healthy patients using sulfasalazine as a novel in vivo probe. To evaluate these objectives, pinch biopsies were obtained from 18 patients undergoing esophagogastro–duodenoscopy or colonoscopy for determination of BCRP expression in relation to genotype. Wild-type and variant BCRP were expressed in a heterologous expression system to evaluate the effect of SNPs on cell-surface trafficking. A total of 17 healthy individuals participated in a clinical investigation to determine the effect of BCRP SNPs on sulfasalazine pharmacokinetics. In vitro, the cell surface protein expression of the common BCRP 421 C>A variant was reduced in comparison with the wild-type control. Intestinal biopsy samples revealed that BCRP protein and mRNA expression did not significantly differ between patients with 34GG/421CC versus patients with 34GG/421CA genotypes. Remarkably, in subjects with 34GG/421CA genotype, sulfasalazine area under the concentration–time curve was 2.4-fold greater compared with 34GG/421CC subjects (P<0.05). This study links commonly occurring SNPs in BCRP with significantly increased oral sulfasalazine plasma exposure in humans. Accordingly, sulfasalazine may prove to have utility as in vivo probe for assessing the clinical impact of BCRP for the disposition and efficacy of drugs.
Differences in juvenile trophic niche for two coastal fish species that use marine and estuarine nursery habitats

In coastal regions, age-0 juveniles of many fish species are capable of recruiting to either marine or estuarine nursery habitats, yet the ecological consequences for cohorts that use marine versus estuarine nurseries is poorly understood. In the present study, stable isotope (δ13C, δ15N) and stomach contents data were used to compare trophic ecology associated with differential habitat use for age-0 bluefish Pomatomus saltatrix and bay anchovy Anchoa mitchilli from 2 habitats: Maryland’s (USA) inner continental shelf (shelf) and lower Chesapeake Bay (estuary). Bluefish occupied equivalent trophic positions (approx. 4.0 to 4.2; δ15Nand diet-based estimates) as tertiary consumers in the shelf and estuary. In contrast, bay anchovy were secondary-tertiary consumers with trophic position estimates of 3.5 to 3.8 in the shelf and 3.5 in the estuary. A C:N ratio proxy for lipid content was higher in the shelf cohorts for both species, and weight-at-length was also higher for shelf bay anchovy than estuarine bay anchovy. Estuarine cohorts of both species occupied a larger isotopic niche (i.e. convex hull area), yet 2-source mixing model results indicated that estuarine cohorts derived >80% of their biomass from pelagic food webs alone. Conversely, shelf cohorts more equitably integrated pelagic (bluefish: 45 ± 7% [SD], bay anchovy: 46 ± 12%) and benthic food webs. The present study indicates that the juvenile trophic niche of these species can vary significantly across habitats and provides initial evidence that cohorts recruiting to Maryland’s shelf can realize more diverse (i.e. utilization of multiple food webs) or superior (i.e. increased condition — bay anchovy only) foraging conditions than cohorts recruiting to proximal estuaries.
Salvage surgery after failure of nonsurgical therapy for carcinoma of the larynx and hypopharynx.

BACKGROUND For larynx preservation, radiotherapy is gaining popularity for primary treatment of laryngeal and hypopharyngeal cancer, reserving surgery for salvage. OBJECTIVE To analyze the outcome of salvage surgery after failure of primary radiotherapy. DESIGN Nine-year retrospective outcome analysis. SETTING University referral center. PATIENTS Fifty-four patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the larynx (n = 39) or hypopharynx (n = 15). RESULTS For laryngeal cancer, mean interval from radiation to detection of recurrence was 14.5 months (range, 2-66 months). Twenty-three patients (59%) presented with a more advanced tumor stage after radiation than at the initial evaluation. Total laryngectomy was needed in 36 patients (92%). Disease-specific 5-year survival rate was 63%. Survival of patients with small recurrent tumors was statistically significantly better than those with advanced tumors (P =.004). For hypopharyngeal cancer, mean interval from radiation to detection of the recurrence was 10.6 months (range, 3-40 months). Total laryngopharyngectomy was needed in 8 of 9 patients with local recurrrence; neck dissection, in 6 patients with regional recurrence. Disease-specific 5-year survival rate was only 20%. Recurrent tumor and node stages did not influence the outcome. Patients with regional recurrences did no better than those with local ones. CONCLUSIONS Salvage surgery in laryngeal cancer achieves good results, especially for small recurrences. Because of tumor progression, larynx preservation is seldom possible at the time of salvage. Salvage surgery in hypopharyngeal cancer shows poor survival regardless of tumor stage and despite radical surgical procedures, and can be recommended only for carefully selected patients. Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2000;126:1473-1477
Comments on "Corporate leverage in emerging Asia"

This paper empirically examines the determinants of capital structure of Asian firms and investigates whether those determinants change over time. Understanding the determinants of capital structure is of paramount importance to corporate finance and policymakers. An efficient capital market that provides proper funding to productive firms is critical to economic growth and social welfare. Whether such capital should be equity or debt will depend on the particular macroeconomic and market conditions. Therefore, I applaud the authors for doing this useful research.
Allozyme diversity in Leavenworthia populations with different inbreeding levels

Levels of allozyme diversity were studied in five species of the annual plant genus Leavenworthia. The breeding systems of the populations were also characterized in terms of measures of autogamous seed-set and self-fertility. The populations that appeared more inbreeding by these criteria also tended to have lower within-population gene diversity (HS) values, but there was nevertheless considerable allozyme variability in two of the four sets of inbred populations studied. Comparing the outcrosser L. stylosa and the related inbreeders L. uniflora and L. torulosa the reduction in diversity associated with inbreeding was very high, as no variants were seen within populations of the inbreeders. In L. crassa and L. alabamica, the reduction was lower, but correcting for the fact that this comparison is over less extreme selfing rate differences, it is estimated that the difference between extreme inbreeding and outcrossing populations of L. crassa considerably exceeds twofold. These results are compared with published studies within closely related taxa with different inbreeding levels. The effect of inbreeding on allozyme diversity is consistently larger than has been estimated from comparisons of unrelated species.
The Importance of G1m and 2 Allotypes for the IgG2 Antibody Levels and Avidity Against Pneumococcal Polysaccharide Type 1 Within Mono‐ and Dizygotic Twin‐Pairs

Eighty‐two mono‐or dizygotic Caucasian twins vaccinated with a 23‐valent pneumococcal vaccine, who had previously had their IgG2 antibody levels to pneumococcus type 1 determined before and after vaccination, were included in this study. Their IgG2 antibody levels were related to their G1m and G2m allotypes/phenotypes and their Gm amounts.
Signaling Legitimacy to Foreign Investors: Evidence from Chinese IPOs on U.S. Markets

From 1999-2010 120 Chinese emerging growth firms undertook initial public stock offerings on U.S. markets. This provided a remarkable natural experiment for exploring how this class of organizations from a radically different political economy established their legitimacy and how, once established, this legitimacy permitted organizational and personnel flexibility for later firms. The increased legitimacy allowed changes in the backgrounds of the members of the IPO top management team (TMT) and independent members of the board of directors (BoD). We find that overall composition of both the TMT and BoD in terms of experience in the U.S. decreased and “Chinese-ness” increased, but at different rates. For the operational TMT members, U.S. experience decreased dramatically over time, except for the CFO who is the representative of investors within the TMT. Similarly, on the BoD, the venture capitalists continued to have high levels of US experience, while the other independent members tracked the TMT in having less US experience. In this increased legitimacy allows the acceptance of “foreign” operational management, but investors are less lenient in terms of ensuring that their “monitors,” the CFO and venture capitalists, should show evidence, i.e., U.S. experience and background, that they adhere to the investor’s values.