Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Asymmetric Exchange Rate Pass-Through in the Euro Area: New Evidence from Smooth Transition Models

Abstract This paper examines the presence of asymmetric behavior in exchange rate passthrough (ERPT) to CPI inflation in 12 euro area (EA) countries. Using a class of nonlinear smooth transition models, the author tests for asymmetry with respect to the direction and the magnitude of exchange rate changes. On the one hand, the author finds only 5 out of 12 EA countries showing asymmetric pass-through related to exchange rate appreciations and depreciations. Results are somewhat mixed with no clear evidence about the direction of asymmetry. On the other hand, the author reports strong evidence that ERPT responds asymmetrically to the size of exchange rate changes as a result of presence of menu costs. The degree of ERPT is found to be higher for large exchange rate changes than for small ones in 9 out of 12 EA countries.
Investigation into the Regular and Chaotic States of Microblogging Networks as Applied to Social Media Monitoring

The present paper is devoted to the investigation into the evolutionary dynamics of social microblogging networks. Different network states are considered. Regular and chaotic states of networks are described. A new model of a social microblogging network as a point dissipative system is suggested. Dynamic variables of such system are represented by the variations of tweet/retweet number around the equilibrium values. It is pointed out, that the system is in a condition of an asymptotically stable equilibrium when the intensity values of an external information are small (the number of tweets eventually tends to its equilibrium value). So far as the intensity values of external information do not exceed the critical value, the stable (almost harmonic) oscillations of tweets take place in the system. If the intensity values of external information exceed the critical value, then the chaotic oscillations of tweets are to be observed. A case of Twitter network is examined.
Oral squamous cell carcinoma: status of tight junction claudins in the different histopathological patterns and relationship with clinical parameters. A tissue-microarray-based study of 136 cases

Aims Claudins are integral transmembrane proteins of the tight junctions, critical for maintaining cell adhesion and polarity. Alterations in the expression of individual claudins have been detected in carcinomas and appear to correlate with tumour progression. Methods In this study, a panel of anti-claudin antibodies (anti-claudins 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7) was employed to map claudin expression in 136 cases of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) organised in a tissue microarray. Results Claudins were expressed in a reticular pattern up to the prickle layer in normal mucosal epithelium. In OSCC, claudins were strongly present in well-differentiated tumours, they presented mild and low expression in moderately differentiated OSCC, and were negative in poorly differentiated OSCC; the absences of claudin 1 (p=0.002) and claudin 4 (p<0.001) were associated with moderately/poorly differentiated tumours. Strong expression of claudin 4 was associated with decreased perineural infiltration (p=0.024). Claudins 5 and 7 were mostly negative or weakly expressed in all cases studied. Expression of claudin 7 was associated with the early clinical stages of the disease, whereas loss of claudin 7 tended to be more frequent in advanced stages of OSCC (p=0.054). Absence of claudin 7 was also associated with absent vascular infiltration (p=0.045) and with presence of recurrence (p=0.052). Conclusions Claudin expression patterns showed a strong correlation with histological type of OSCC; claudin expression was decreased in areas of invasion, and negative in poorly differentiated tumours. This pattern may be related to evolution and prognosis of these tumours, especially in the case of claudin 7, which seems to be associated with a poor prognosis in OSCC.
Behavioral responses to terrorist attacks: empirical evidence from professional football

ABSTRACT Despite a rich literature on the psychological responses to terrorist attacks, surprisingly little is known about the subsequent changes in citizen behavior. In this research note, we exploit a unique sequence of two rare events, the Paris attacks of 13 November 2015 and the cancelation of the international friendly between Germany and the Netherlands over terrorist threats only four days later, to compare the number of German football spectator no-shows, i.e., the number of ticket holders that have decided not to attend a particular football game, before and after these attacks. Although we observe a significant increase in the number of no-shows during the first two weeks after the incidents, this effect was not permanent.
MR‐based synthetic CT generation using a deep convolutional neural network method

Purpose Interests have been rapidly growing in the field of radiotherapy to replace CT with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), due to superior soft tissue contrast offered by MRI and the desire to reduce unnecessary radiation dose. MR‐only radiotherapy also simplifies clinical workflow and avoids uncertainties in aligning MR with CT. Methods, however, are needed to derive CT‐equivalent representations, often known as synthetic CT (sCT), from patient MR images for dose calculation and DRR‐based patient positioning. Synthetic CT estimation is also important for PET attenuation correction in hybrid PET‐MR systems. We propose in this work a novel deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) method for sCT generation and evaluate its performance on a set of brain tumor patient images. Methods The proposed method builds upon recent developments of deep learning and convolutional neural networks in the computer vision literature. The proposed DCNN model has 27 convolutional layers interleaved with pooling and unpooling layers and 35 million free parameters, which can be trained to learn a direct end‐to‐end mapping from MR images to their corresponding CTs. Training such a large model on our limited data is made possible through the principle of transfer learning and by initializing model weights from a pretrained model. Eighteen brain tumor patients with both CT and T1‐weighted MR images are used as experimental data and a sixfold cross‐validation study is performed. Each sCT generated is compared against the real CT image of the same patient on a voxel‐by‐voxel basis. Comparison is also made with respect to an atlas‐based approach that involves deformable atlas registration and patch‐based atlas fusion. Results The proposed DCNN method produced a mean absolute error (MAE) below 85 HU for 13 of the 18 test subjects. The overall average MAE was 84.8 ± 17.3 HU for all subjects, which was found to be significantly better than the average MAE of 94.5 ± 17.8 HU for the atlas‐based method. The DCNN method also provided significantly better accuracy when being evaluated using two other metrics: the mean squared error (188.6 ± 33.7 versus 198.3 ± 33.0) and the Pearson correlation coefficient(0.906 ± 0.03 versus 0.896 ± 0.03). Although training a DCNN model can be slow, training only need be done once. Applying a trained model to generate a complete sCT volume for each new patient MR image only took 9 s, which was much faster than the atlas‐based approach. Conclusions A DCNN model method was developed, and shown to be able to produce highly accurate sCT estimations from conventional, single‐sequence MR images in near real time. Quantitative results also showed that the proposed method competed favorably with an atlas‐based method, in terms of both accuracy and computation speed at test time. Further validation on dose computation accuracy and on a larger patient cohort is warranted. Extensions of the method are also possible to further improve accuracy or to handle multi‐sequence MR images.
The role of inorganic nitrate and nitrite in CVD

Abstract CVD is the leading cause of death worldwide, a consequence of mostly poor lifestyle and dietary behaviours. Although whole fruit and vegetable consumption has been consistently shown to reduce CVD risk, the exact protective constituents of these foods are yet to be clearly identified. A recent and biologically plausible hypothesis supporting the cardioprotective effects of vegetables has been linked to their inorganic nitrate content. Approximately 60–80 % inorganic nitrate exposure in the human diet is contributed by vegetable consumption. Although inorganic nitrate is a relatively stable molecule, under specific conditions it can be metabolised in the body to produce NO via the newly discovered nitrate–nitrite–NO pathway. NO is a major signalling molecule in the human body, and has a key role in maintaining vascular tone, smooth muscle cell proliferation, platelet activity and inflammation. Currently, there is accumulating evidence demonstrating that inorganic nitrate can lead to lower blood pressure and improved vascular compliance in humans. The aim of this review is to present an informative, balanced and critical review of the current evidence investigating the role of inorganic nitrate and nitrite in the development, prevention and/or treatment of CVD. Although there is evidence supporting short-term inorganic nitrate intakes for reduced blood pressure, there is a severe lack of research examining the role of long-term nitrate intakes in the treatment and/or prevention of hard CVD outcomes, such as myocardial infarction and cardiovascular mortality. Epidemiological evidence is needed in this field to justify continued research efforts.
Autosomal dominant progressive syndrome of motor-speech loss without dementia

This patient report describes a 68-year-old man with progressive dissolution in motor-speech without concomitant language or cognitive decline, with presumed autosomal dominant inheritance. Motor-speech impairments included marked difficulty in articulating words and in coordinating articulation, phonation, and respiration. Brain imaging results revealed severe focal atrophy of the posterior frontal region extending to the anterior parietal and superior temporal regions bilaterally on structural(MRI) and functional (single photon emission computed tomography) brain imaging studies. The involved neural substrate represented the primary motor cortex, premotor cortex (supplementary motor area), and the postcentral gyrus. Familial history included similar difficulties in his mother, her sister, and his own sister. The isolated involvement of the motor-speech processes alone indicated that this syndrome was distinguishable from progressive aphasia associated with prominent loss of language and from Alzheimer's disease.
Multistress resistance of Saccharomyces cerevisiae is generated by insertion of retrotransposon Ty into the 5' coding region of the adenylate cyclase gene

Heat shock-resistant mutants, which were isolated by their ability to withstand lethal heat treatment, were characterized. Resistance was demonstrated to be a consequence of insertion of retrotransposon Ty into either the 5' coding or noncoding region, close to the putative initiation codon of the adenylate cyclase gene CYR1 (or CDC35). These heat shock-resistant mutants contained about threefold lower adenylate cyclase activity than wild-type strains. The mutants were also observed to be resistant to other stresses such as UV light and ethanol. These results demonstrate that multistress resistance, which may confer a survival advantage to yeast cells, can be generated by transposition of a Ty element into CYR1.
Health changes among Swedish oldest old: prevalence rates from 1992 and 2002 show increasing health problems.

BACKGROUND The health of the elderly population is of utmost importance for planning policy and resources for care services. Most surveys of the health of the elderly population show improvement, suggesting support for the compression of morbidity hypothesis. This study examines changes in the health of the Swedish population (aged 77+) from 1992 to 2002. METHODS Two nationally representative surveys of the elderly population (n = 537 and 563, respectively), including both community-based and institutionalized persons were used. Outcomes include self-reported diseases, symptoms, and activities of daily living, as well as objective tests of physical capacity, lung function, vision, and cognition. RESULTS None of the indicators showed improvement. A number of health indicators showed significant worsening, with or without adjustment for changes in the age and sex distribution from 1992 to 2002. Among self-reported indicators, there were significant increases in several diseases and symptoms. The objective function tests also showed significantly worse results in 2002 compared to 1992 for physical capacity, lung function, and cognition. No significant differences in activities of daily living limitations were found. CONCLUSIONS In light of several recent studies, we expected to observe improvements in the health of the elderly population. However, this study showed no signs of improvement. On the contrary, we found a pattern of worsening health. The study included objective tests of function, implying that results are not due solely to raised expectations or changes in reporting. Possible explanations are discussed.
Assessment of the humoral immune response against Plasmodium falciparum rhoptry-associated proteins 1 and 2

Naturally occurring antibody responses to Plasmodium falciparum rhoptry-associated proteins 1 and 2 (RAP-1 and RAP-2) were measured with recombinant and parasite-derived forms of the antigens. For comparative purposes, responses to multiple forms of three other malarial antigens were also examined. The sera of 100 Papua New Guineans were screened for antibodies. Eighty-six and 82% of individuals over 30 years of age had antibodies that recognized parasite-derived RAP-1 and RAP-2, respectively. Importantly, we found that recombinant and native antigens share linear epitopes seen by the human immune system; thus, the recombinant proteins may be adequate human immunogens. However, antibodies affinity purified on recombinant RAP-1 reacted with other antigens in addition to parasite-derived RAP-1. Thus, the antigenicity of RAP-1 may have been overestimated previously. The recognition of RAP-1 and RAP-2 correlated with age and with the recognition of recombinant forms of the ring-infected erythrocyte surface antigen, merozoite surface protein 1, and merozoite surface antigen 2 (MSA2) antigens. Antibodies to these antigens appear to be generated in response to the total exposure to malaria of the host. Antibodies to conserved regions of MSA2 had stronger correlations with both age and the recognition of other antigens than did the full-length recombinant MSA2 molecule. In contrast to results with the other antigens, there was no significant difference in the ages of individuals with a certain antibody titer to the full-length recombinant or parasite-derived MSA2 molecule, but antibodies to these two antigens did correlate with parasitemia. For all antigens tested, antibody levels after two infections can approach the peak levels of antibodies obtained in immune individuals.
Urodynamic parameters evolution after artificial urinary sphincter implantation for post-radical prostatectomy incontinence with concomitant bladder dysfunction.

INTRODUCTION Urodynamic assessment is strongly recommended before artificial urinary sphincter (AUS) implantation. Detrusor overactivity (DO) and/or hypersensitivity and/or mild loss of compliance are frequently demonstrated in post prostatectomy incontinence. The aim of this study was to evaluate urodynamic parameter changes before and after AUS implantation in patients with urinary incontinence post-radical prostatectomy (RP) and concomitant urodynamic bladder abnormalities. MATERIALS AND METHODS We performed a retrospective review of charts pre- and post-AUS implantation. Sixteen out of a cohort of 52 patients met our inclusion criteria: stress urinary incontinence (SUI) due to RP and bladder dysfunction (early bladder sensation and/or low compliance and/or small bladder capacity and/or the presence of DO). RESULTS The mean age of these 16 patients was 68 ± 6.3 years, and the duration of incontinence was 3 ± 2.7 years. The number of pads/day was 5.7 ± 2.3 before AUS implantation, and 1 ± 0.7 after implantation. Average time for the last post-implantation UDS was 43 months (range 7 to 73 months). Comparison of pre- and post-AUS implantation urodynamic parameters revealed statistically significant improvement in bladder capacity from 271 ± 117 to 295.6 ± 151 mL (p = 0.05), bladder compliance from 7.6 ± 3.95 to 12.5 ± 10.3 mL/cmH2O (p = 0.03), and decrease in DO from 50% to 25% on cystometrograms. CONCLUSION Preoperative urodynamic abnormalities improved after AUS implantation. Thus, mild bladder dysfunction should not be a contraindication to AUS placement for SUI post-RP.
Fusion of Explicit Segmentation Based System and Segmentation-Free Based System for On-Line Arabic Handwritten Word Recognition

The complexity and viariability of the Arabic handwriting makes difficult the implementation of an efficient recognition system through the use of a unique recognition engine. In this paper, two handwriting word recognition systems are combined in order to take advantage of their complementarities. The first one is a segmentation free based system that uses the generative classifier HMM. The second system is discriminative based. Relying on analytical approach, it proceeds with explicit segmentation of words into graphemes. Different combination strategies are compared including sum, product, Borda count and Dempster-Shafer rules. The experimental results conducted on ADAB database demonstrate a significant improvement of recognition accuracy of 5% compared to the segmentation free based system and 9% compared to the analytical based system.
Persistent Legionella pneumophila colonization of a hospital water supply: efficacy of control methods and a molecular epidemiological analysis

After a nosocomial outbreak caused by Legionella pneumophila serogroup 5, the hospital water distribution system, which was found to be colonized by L. pneumophila serogroups 5 and 6, was decontaminated by the superheat and flush method and by installing an additional heat‐shock unit in one of the hot water circuits. This unit exposed the recirculated water to a temperature of 80 °C. The efficacy of the decontamination measures was evaluated by monitoring the temperatures and legionella concentrations at different parts of the hot water distribution system. The genetic diversity of the colonizing legionella flora was examined using two genotyping methods: amplified fragment length polymorphism analysis (AFLP) and random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis. Selected serogroup 6 strains were also analyzed by sequence‐based typing (SBT). The results indicated that long‐term eradication of serogroup 5 strains was never achieved. Only one serogroup 6 strain was never isolated after the superheat and flush. In all, according to genetic fingerprints, the diversity of Legionella strains in a hospital water system remains stable over the years regardless of the use of recommended disinfection procedures.
Fracture resistance and microleakage of endocrowns utilizing three CAD-CAM blocks.

This study assessed marginal leakage and fracture resistance of computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) fabricated ceramic crowns with intracoronal extensions into the pulp chambers of endodontically treated teeth (endocrowns) using either feldspathic porcelain (CEREC Blocks [CB], Sirona Dental Systems GmbH, Bensheim, Germany), lithium disilicate (e.max [EX], Ivoclar Vivadent, Schaan, Liechtenstein), or resin nanoceramic (Lava Ultimate [LU], 3M ESPE, St Paul, MN, USA). ). Thirty extracted human permanent maxillary molars were endodontically treated. Standardized preparations were done with 2-mm intracoronal extensions of the endocrowns into the pulp chamber. Teeth were divided into three groups (n=10); each group was restored with standardized CAD/CAM fabricated endocrowns using one of the three tested materials. After cementation with resin cement, specimens were stored in distilled water at 37°C for one week, subjected to thermocycling, and immersed in a 5% methylene-blue dye solution for 24 hours. A compressive load was applied at 35 degrees to long axis of the teeth using a universal testing machine until failure. Failure load was recorded, and specimens were examined under a stereomicroscope for modes of failure and microleakage. Results were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance and Bonferroni post hoc multiple comparison tests (α=0.05). LU showed significantly (p<0.05) higher fracture resistance and more favorable fracture mode (ie, fracture of the endocrown without fracture of tooth) as well as higher dye penetration than CB and EX. In conclusion, although using resin nanoceramic blocks for fabrication of endocrowns may result in better fracture resistance and a more favorable fracture mode than other investigated ceramic blocks, more microleakage may be expected with this material.
A Weighted Least‐Squares Technique for the Analysis of Kinetic Data and Its Application to the Study of Renal 133Xenon Washout in Dogs and Man

A computer program was written in PL/1 to successively fit the sum of two, three, and four exponential terms to data by an iterative least-squares technique, using a combination of the steepest-descent and the Newton-Raphson methods for convergence. Each data point was weighted by the reciprocal of its variance, assuming that the errors followed a Poisson distribution. A compartment, i.e., an exponential term, was declared nonsignificant if it did not significantly reduce the least-squares error about the fitted line as judged by an F test. Validity of the data was assessed by a “runs” test and by the frequency with which data points fell outside the 95% confidence range. Results of the analysis showed that (1) 9 of 12 normal human kidney 133Xe washout curves were best described by a four-compartment model, (2) 18 of 38 studies in patients with essential hypertension yielded a four-compartment curve with significant reduction in compartment-1 flow, (3) nine patients with congestive heart failure all had three-compartment washout curves, (4) two patients with oliguric renal failure had washout curves described best by a two-exponential equation (one of these patients responded to an injection of furosemide with the appearance of a third, more rapid compartment). Obviously, this form of analysis can be easily applied to other sets of data which are described by nonlinear equations.
OUT OF SYNC: A GENERATION OF FIRST-TIME MOTHERS OVER 30

Increasing numbers of women have delayed childbearing until after they reach their thirties. The researchers who studied early maternal role attainment in women over 30 failed to reflect on the challenges of raising a child to adulthood. The use of grounded theory helped us understand the extended mothering experience from the perspective of women over 30. Fifty-three women from Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, California, Connecticut, and Florida composed the total sample. Ages of the women ranged from 30 to 91; ages of the children ranged from 6 weeks to late sixties. We called the dominant category out of sync, with properties that included mortality, vitality, and social structural considerations. The pervasive quality of the central variable makes this account of interest to an international audience.