Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Novel chemiluminescence assay for serum periostin levels in women with preeclampsia and in normotensive pregnant women.

OBJECTIVE We recently developed a novel sandwich chemiluminescence assay to determine serum concentrations of periostin. Periostin has high amino acid homology with transforming growth factor-beta-induced protein beta igh3, a molecule induced by transforming growth factor-beta(1), which promotes the adhesion and spreading of fibroblasts. It is also homologous with the insect cell adhesion molecule fasciclin I. We determined serum periostin concentrations in women with preeclampsia and in normotensive pregnant women. STUDY DESIGN The study groups included 30 women with preeclampsia and 30 normotensive pregnant women at Magee-Womens Hospital. Blood samples collected from these women were assayed for periostin by use of newly developed monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies. We studied periostin messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) expression in human tissues by using reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction and in situ hybridization. RESULTS Serum periostin concentrations were elevated in patients with preeclampsia (mean +/- SD, 311.8 +/- 56.3 ng/mL) compared with normotensive pregnant women (218.8 +/- 37.3 ng/mL). No correlation was found between serum concentrations of periostin and concentrations of TGF-beta(1), vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1), E-selectin, and interleukin-6. Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction analysis demonstrated human periostin expression in lung, kidney, and placenta but not in the heart, liver, brain, or skeletal muscle. For periostin complementary deoxyribonucleic acid cloned from placenta, there was a splicing deletion within the C-terminal domain. In situ hybridization data showed that the periostin gene was expressed in the stroma cells of placenta. CONCLUSION Our study suggests that human periostin may play a role in the pathogenesis of preeclampsia. Although its function remains unclear, the expression of periostin as an adhesion molecule could suggest novel mechanisms in preeclampsia.
Accuracy and reproducibility of blood lead testing in commercial laboratories.

OBJECTIVE To assess the proficiency of commercial laboratories in analyzing lead in clinical blood samples from subjects without overt lead exposure. DESIGN We submitted masked duplicate blood lead specimens to 8 masked laboratories. Each laboratory received blood aliquots immediately following drawing (time 1) and 2 weeks later (time 2) from 7 human subjects and 3 bovine blood samples with known lead levels of 0.26, 0.57, and 0.79 micromol/L (5.4, 11.8, and 16.4 microg/dL). Of the 8 laboratories, 5 were commercial laboratories, 1 was a state laboratory, 1 was a research laboratory, and 1 was the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reference laboratory. OUTCOME MEASURES Correlation coefficients were calculated, and differences within and between laboratories were assessed by analysis of variance. RESULTS Results were obtained for all specimens, with all the human subjects' overall mean lead levels being less than 0.48 micromol/L (<10 microg/dL). Each laboratory reported all human blood specimens appropriately, as having lead levels less than 0.48 micromol/L (<10 microg/dL) and within 0.14 micromol/L (3 microg/dL) of the overall mean for that subject. All internal reproducibilities were very high (range, 0.92-1.00) except for one (0.60), possibly lower because of 1 pair of specimens. Mean differences between blood samples analyzed at time 1 and time 2 ranged from -1.4 to 1.2, with only 2 laboratories having significant differences (P<.01). CONCLUSIONS Overall, there was strong reproducibility within and among laboratories, with no overall time trend or interlaboratory or intralaboratory variance. The storage conditions did not seem to affect the aggregate results. The data suggest that through implementation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Wisconsin Blood Lead Proficiency Testing Program, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Blood Lead Laboratory Reference System, and mandated federal and state proficiency programs, laboratories in this geographic region have improved their performance as compared with previous published studies and an unpublished study.
Advance directives and physicians’ orders in nursing home residents with dementia in Flanders, Belgium: prevalence and associated outcomes

ABSTRACT Background: Advance care planning (ACP) is an important element of high-quality care in nursing homes, especially for residents having dementia who are often incompetent in decision-making toward the end of life. The aim of this study was describe the prevalence of documented ACP among nursing home residents with dementia in Flanders, Belgium, and associated clinical characteristics and outcomes. Methods: All 594 nursing homes in Flanders were asked to participate in a retrospective cross-sectional postmortem survey in 2006. Participating homes identified all residents who had died over the last two months. A structured questionnaire was mailed to the nurses closely involved in the deceased resident's care regarding the diagnosis of dementia and documented care planning, i.e. advance patient directives, authorization of a legal representative, and general practitioners’ treatment orders (GP orders). Results: In 345 nursing homes (58% response rate), nurses identified 764 deceased residents with dementia of whom 62% had some type of documented care plan, i.e. advance patient directives in 3%, a legal representative in 8%, and GP orders in 59%. Multivariate logistic regression showed that the presence of GP orders was positively associated with receiving specialist palliative care in the nursing home (OR 3.10; CI, 2.07–4.65). Chances of dying in a hospital were lower if there was a GP order (OR 0.38; CI, 0.21–0.70). Conclusions: Whereas GP orders are relatively common among residents with dementia, advance patient directives and a legal representative are relatively uncommon. Nursing home residents receiving palliative care are more likely to have a GP order. GP orders may affect place of death.
Predicting FTSE 100 Returns and Volatility Using Sentiment Analysis

We investigate the statistical and economic effect of positive and negative sentiment on daily excess returns and volatility in the FTSE 100 index, using business news articles published by the Guardian Media Group between 01/01/2000 and 01/06/2016. The analysis indicates that while business news sentiment derived from articles aimed at retail traders does not influence excess returns in the FTSE 100 index, it does affect volatility, with negative sentiment increasing volatility and positive sentiment reducing it. Further, an ETF‐based trading strategy based on these findings is found to outperform the naive buy‐and‐hold approach.
Effects Analysis of Archetecture Changes to Convolutional Neural Networks

A Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) is a type of Deep Learning architecture that has gained in popularity for classification problems. The performance of a CNN is not only tied closely with the data that it is trained with, but also the CNN's own architecture. It is the purpose of this study to analyze how architecture changes to the feature extraction portion of a CNN affects its performance for a given image classification problem. This study resulted in concluding that the number of layers is not an indicator of a CNN's performance; the number of trainable parameters in a CNN are not an indicator of performance; singleton convolutional layer groups can have similar or better performance than groups consisting of multiple convolutional layers; and proving that utilizing input data that minimizes noise while maximizing features of interest to train and test a CNN results in improved model performance.
Livelihoods, Poverty and Development of Adivasis: Reflections from a Village in South India

The terms ‘livelihoods’, ‘poverty’ and ‘development’ have different meanings in different societies and people. Development implies a better quality of life and enahancement of opportunities, and better access to assets and services to marginal communities: particularly the Adivasis, women and other marginalized communities. Developing its theoretical framework around the existing literature on the issues, this article argues that prevailing factional politics and apathy on the part of the governing agency are preventing the marginalized groups from adequately benefitting from the developmental interventions. Keeping in view the aforementioned argument, an empirical study was conducted in a tribal settlement in South India in order to understand the implications of different developmental interventions initiated both by the state and NGOs to improve the lives and livelihoods of marginalized groups. On the basis of this argument, this article has sought to raise policy questions pertinent to both the policymakers and practitioners on the efficacy of policies related to vulnerable groups.
Yb-Doped Pedestal Silica Fiber Through Vapor Phase Doping for Pulsed Laser Applications

This letter describes successful fabrication and detail characterization of ytterbium (Yb)-doped pedestal aluminosilicate fibers through vapor phase doping technique using modified chemical vapor deposition system (MCVD). Fabricated preforms have uniform step-index profiles devoid of any profile ripples, central dip, and/or core-clad interface defects, which are very common to the preforms made by a solution doping method. Fibers with a pedestal design exhibit good optical properties, low photodarkening-induced losses, high SNR values, and higher efficiencies making them suitable for high-power pulsed laser applications as compared with normal Yb-doped fibers. One of the pedestal fibers has demonstrated the output energy of 186 μJ with the 1.86-W average power. The pulse has a width of 100 ns at a 10-kHz repetition rate, which provides a peak power of 1.86 kW.
Isolation, Characterization and Bioactivities of an Extracellular Polysaccharide Produced from Streptomyces sp. MOE6

A Streptomyces strain was isolated from soil and the sequence of 1471 nucleotides of its 16S rDNA showed 99% identity to Streptomyces sp. HV10. This newly isolated Streptomyces strain produced an extracellular polysaccharide (EPS) composed mainly of glucose and mannose in a ratio of 1:4.1, as was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), HPLC and 1H-NMR. The antioxidant activities of the partially purified MOE6-EPS were determined by measuring the hydroxyl free radical scavenging activity and the scavenging of 2,2-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) radicals. In addition, the partially purified MOE6-EPS showed high ferrous ion (Fe2+) chelation activity which is another antioxidant activity. Interestingly, 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assays that were colorimetric assays for NAD(P)H-dependent cellular oxidoreductases and a proxy of the number of viable cells, showed that the partially purified MOE6-EPS inhibited the proliferation of the human breast cancer cells (MDA-MB-231). The scratch wound assay showed that MOE6-EPS reduced the migration of mouse breast cancer cells (4T1). This study reports the production of EPS from Streptomyces species with promising antioxidant, metal chelating and mammalian cell inhibitory activities.
Generalised spatial modulation

In this paper, a generalised technique for spatial modulation (SM) is presented. Generalised spatial modulation (GSM) overcomes in a novel fashion the constraint in SM that the number of transmit antennas has to be a power of two. In GSM, a block of information bits is mapped to a constellation symbol and a spatial symbol. The spatial symbol is a combination of transmit antennas activated at each instance. The actual combination of active transmit antennas depends on the random incoming data stream. This is unlike SM where only a single transmit antenna is activated at each instance. GSM increases the overall spectral efficiency by base-two logarithm of the number of antenna combinations. This reduces the number of transmit antennas needed for the same spectral efficiency. The performance of GSM is analysed in this paper, and an upper bound on the bit-error-ratio (BER) performance is derived. In addition, an algorithm to optimise the antenna combination selection is proposed. Finally, the performance of GSM is validated through Monte Carlo simulations. The results are compared with traditional SM. It is shown that for the same spectral efficiency GSM performs nearly the same as SM, but with a significant reduction in the number of transmit antennas.
Enhancement of treatment completion for latent tuberculosis infection with 4 months of rifampin.

BACKGROUND Isoniazid is the standard medication used to treat latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI). The lengthy treatment with isoniazid, its perceived hepatotoxicity, and the increasing influx of foreign-born persons from countries with a higher prevalence of isoniazid resistance have compromised this regimen. In 2000, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines recommended 4 months of rifampin (4R) as an acceptable alternative regimen to 9 months of isoniazid (9H). In a county chest clinic in northern New Jersey, a self-administered 9H regimen for patients with LTBI was generally prescribed until the year 2002. After recognizing poor completion rates, LTBI treatment was shifted predominantly to the alternative 4R regimen. METHODS Medical records of patients placed on LTBI treatment during 2000 (predominantly a 9H regimen) and 2003 (predominantly a 4R regimen) were reviewed. A total of 474 patients were included in the study. chi(2), Fishers exact, two-sample t, and Wilcoxon rank-sum tests and logistic regression were used to analyze the data. The main outcome variable was treatment completion. RESULTS A total of 80.5% of patients receiving 4R and 53.1% receiving 9H completed treatment (p < 0.0001); 34.7% of patients receiving 9H were unavailable for follow-up, compared to 12.6% receiving 4R (p = <0.0001). Fewer drug reactions were observed in the group receiving 4R compared to the group receiving 9H (3.1% vs 5.8%), although this was not statistically significant. Logistic regression analysis identified treatment regimen as a significant predictor for treatment completion (odds ratio [OR], 5.1; 95% confidence interval [CI], 3.3 to 8.1). Employment was negatively associated with treatment completion in the same model (OR, 0.54; 95% CI, 0.34 to 0.94). CONCLUSIONS Patients receiving 4R were significantly more likely to complete therapy than those receiving 9H.
Interactions Between the Microbiota and the Immune System

The large numbers of microorganisms that inhabit mammalian body surfaces have a highly coevolved relationship with the immune system. Although many of these microbes carry out functions that are critical for host physiology, they nevertheless pose the threat of breach with ensuing pathologies. The mammalian immune system plays an essential role in maintaining homeostasis with resident microbial communities, thus ensuring that the mutualistic nature of the host-microbial relationship is maintained. At the same time, resident bacteria profoundly shape mammalian immunity. Here, we review advances in our understanding of the interactions between resident microbes and the immune system and the implications of these findings for human health.
Step-by-step computation of corrected asymptotic variance-covariance matrices of two-stage estimators in a simultaneous equations model with a mixture of four continuous and binary dependent variables

ABSTRACT The current study presents easily computable formulas for asymptotic variance-covariance matrices of the two-stage estimators in a simultaneous equation model with a mixture of four continuous and binary dependent variables. For the sake of econometrics practitioners, the study uses an illustrative example from the current literature and demonstrates step-by-step computation of these variance-covariance matrices by using the matrix routine of a popular econometric software.
Basal Forebrain Gating by Somatostatin Neurons Drives Prefrontal Cortical Activity

The basal forebrain provides modulatory input to the cortex regulating brain states and cognitive processing. Somatostatin-expressing neurons constitute a heterogeneous GABAergic population known to functionally inhibit basal forebrain cortically projecting cells thus favoring sleep and cortical synchronization. However, it remains unclear if somatostatin cells can regulate population activity patterns in the basal forebrain and modulate cortical dynamics. Here, we demonstrate that somatostatin neurons regulate the corticopetal synaptic output of the basal forebrain impinging on cortical activity and behavior. Optogenetic inactivation of somatostatin neurons in vivo rapidly modified neural activity in the basal forebrain, with the consequent enhancement and desynchronization of activity in the prefrontal cortex, reflected in both neuronal spiking and network oscillations. Cortical activation was partially dependent on cholinergic transmission, suppressing slow waves and potentiating gamma oscillations. In addition, recruitment dynamics was cell type-specific, with interneurons showing similar temporal profiles, but stronger responses than pyramidal cells. Finally, optogenetic stimulation of quiescent animals during resting periods prompted locomotor activity, suggesting generalized cortical activation and increased arousal. Altogether, we provide physiological and behavioral evidence indicating that somatostatin neurons are pivotal in gating the synaptic output of the basal forebrain, thus indirectly controlling cortical operations via both cholinergic and non-cholinergic mechanisms.
Defibrotide: An endothelium protecting and stabilizing drug, has an anti-angiogenic potential in vitro and in vivo

Defibrotide (DF) is a polydisperse mixture of 90% single-stranded oligonucleotides with anti-thrombotic and anti-apoptotic functions. DF is used in the treatment of endothelial complications in the course of allogeneic stem cell transplantation. Recent preclinical evidence suggests that DF might also have anti-neoplastic properties. In the present study we hypothesized that DF might inhibit tumors via an anti-angiogenic effect. The anti-angiogenic potential of DF was tested in vitro using human microvascular endothelial cells forming vessel structures across a layer of dermal fibroblasts. Our results show that pharmacologic DF concentrations (100µg/ml) significantly reduced vessel formation in this assay. Similarly, DF blocked sprouting from cultured rat aortic rings. In vivo, angiogenesis in a human gastric tumor (TMK1) implanted in dorsal skin-fold chambers (in nude mice) was inhibited by i.v. application of 450 mg/kg DF. Notably, due to its short half-life, DF was most effective when given on a daily basis. Although the precise mechanism of DF remains to be elucidated, initial Western blots show that DF reduces phosphorylation-activation of p70S6 kinase, which is a key target in the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway linked to endothelial cell and pericyte proliferation and activation. However, in vitro data suggest that DF acts independently of vascular endothelial growth factor. Taken together, our data suggest that while DF is known for its endothelium-protecting function in SCT, it also inhibits formation of new blood vessels, and thus should be considered for further testing as an adjuvant anti-cancer agent, either alone, or in combination with other drugs.
Hemispheric specialization using SPECT and stimulation tasks in children with dysphasia and dystrophia

Developmental dysphasia, a severe childhood learning disorder, is thought to result from problems in hemispheric specialization involving both left and right cerebral hemispheres. Regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) was measured at rest and during stimulation of both hemispheres independently: dichotic listening for the left, dichaptic palpation for the right. Eight right‐handed boys with expressive dysphasia, aged 8 to 12 years, were investigated using SPECT and compared with eight right‐handed age‐matched boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy with reading disorders but normal speech. rCBF values at rest were also compared with those of five right‐handed age‐matched normal boys. In the dichotic task, children with dysphasia differed from children with dystrophia by failure to increase rCBF in the left hemisphere, in Broca's area, but rCBF increased in the right hemisphere, in the region homologous to Broca's area. In the dichaptic task, rCBF increased bilaterally for children with dysphasia whereas in children with dystrophia rCBF increased only in the right hemisphere. At rest the physiological asymmetry was reversed in favor of the right hemisphere in all areas except Broca's area. Surprisingly, the same applied at rest and for all areas in children with dystrophia. These results confirm that functional specialization of both hemispheres is impaired in developmental dysphasia. Moreover, they suggest that learning disabilities associated with Duchenne muscular dystrophy could also be related to abnormal hemispheric specialization.
Internship-Related Learning Outcomes and Their Influential Factors: The Case of Vietnamese Tourism and Hospitality Students.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the experiences of Tourism and Hospitality interns in Vietnam to identify dimensions of internship-related learning outcomes and factors influencing these learning outcomes. ,In total, 12 in-depth interviews were conducted with 12 interns to identify the dimensions of internship-related learning outcomes. Following the interview, an online survey, which was designed based on the results of content analysis of the interviews, was used to collect data from 319 interns from ten Vietnamese universities. Exploratory factor analysis, descriptive statistical analysis, independent samples t-tests, and one-way ANOVA tests were used to find answers to the research issues. ,Qualitative and quantitative analysis showed that from the students’ perspective, internships helped them consolidate the existing knowledge and skills, further develop relevant professional skills, shape their career paths, and change their learning attitudes and behaviors. The analysis also indicated that student engagement and the extent to which they are involved in tasks during the internships could influence the learning outcomes they gained from the internships. ,This study completely relied on students’ perceptions and ratings. ,The study findings indicate that universities need to pay greater attention to student engagement. By encouraging collaboration between interns and their mentors and organizing activities for interns to utilize their knowledge, universities will improve students’ learning experience during the internship. ,This mixed-method study expands our understanding about internship-related learning outcomes and influential factors using the perspectives of interns in a developing country. It has important implications for higher education institutions and students to improve the effectiveness of internships.
The Public and Private Marginal Product of Capital

Why does capital not flow to developing countries as predicted by the neoclassical model? What are the direction and degree of capital misallocation across nations? We revisit these questions by removing public capital from total capital to achieve a more accurate estimate of the marginal productivity of private capital. We calculate marginal product of capital schedules in a large sample of advanced and developing countries. Our main result is that, in terms of the Lucas Paradox, private capital is allocated remarkably efficiently across nations. Tentative estimates of the marginal productivity of public capital suggest that the deadweight loss from public capital misallocation across countries can be much larger than that from private capital.