Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Firms Heterogeneity, Contract Enforcement and the Industry Dynamics of Offshoring

We develop an endogenous growth model to study the long run consequences of offshoring with firm heterogeneity and incomplete contracts. In so doing, we model offshoring as the geographical fragmentation of a firm’s production chain between a home upstream division and a foreign downstream one. On the positive side, we show that, when contracts are incomplete, the possibility of offshoring has favorable implications for economic growth. Yet, offshoring induced by a higher bargaining power of the upstream division can hamper growth: while there is always a positive correlation between upstream bargaining weight and offshoring activities, there is a non-monotonic relationship between these and growth. Whether offshoring with incomplete contracts also increases consumption depends on firm heterogeneity. On the normative side, we show that, whereas with complete contract efficiency is restored through a subsidy to R&D only, with incomplete contracts a production subsidy to offshored upstream divisions is needed too.
Further evidence for the involvement of cardiac β-adrenergic receptors in right ventricle hypertrophy and ascites in broiler chickens

The present study was carried out to determine, first, the cardiac β -adrenergic receptor characteristics of broiler chick embryos exposed to two different CO 2 levels during the last stage of embryonic development, and second, the prophylactic effect of β 1 -adrenoceptor blocker on right ventricular hypertrophy in broiler chickens. High CO 2 embryos showed significantly higher haematocrit values, higher partial pressure of CO 2 levels and lower partial pressure of O 2 levels than those of normal CO 2 embryos. Exposure of chick embryos to high CO 2 levels reduced the binding capacity of myocardial β -adrenergic receptors compared with those embryos incubated at the normal CO 2 level. Atenolol-supplemented diet numerically reduced ascites incidence in broiler chickens (7%) compared with birds fed the control diet (15%). In conclusion, these data support the important role of the β -adrenergic receptor in the cardiovascular system for cardiac output, and secondary to pulmonary hypertension syndrome.
A Study of Vertical Thin Poly-Si Channel Transfer Gate Structured CMOS Image Sensors

In this letter, the image characteristics of CMOS image sensor (CIS) pixels using a vertical thin poly-Si channel (VTPC) transfer gate (TG) are established for the first time. The study of three-dimensional (3D) structures in the image sensor field has been started by 3D Flash memories. By adopting the poly-Si channel fabrication concept of 3D NAND flash memories—appropriately modified to fit the requirements of a TG in CIS pixel applications—the VTPC structure effectively suppresses the grain boundary effect. The VTPC-TG performance improves as the poly-Si channel becomes thinner. The possibility of implementing 3D pixel-based CIS is confirmed by applying the fabricated VTPC-TG to a mass-produced 1.12- $\mu \text{m}$ BSI product, and using it to capture 5-Mpixel images.
Skin tumor area extraction using an improved dynamic programming approach

Background/purpose: Border (B) description of melanoma and other pigmented skin lesions is one of the most important tasks for the clinical diagnosis of dermoscopy images using the ABCD rule. For an accurate description of the border, there must be an effective skin tumor area extraction (STAE) method. However, this task is complicated due to uneven illumination, artifacts present in the lesions and smooth areas or fuzzy borders of the desired regions.
Optimal Image Fusion

In this paper a saras-type image-fusion technique using hybrid SPIHT and SOMA. This method shows fusion of images and can be used for fusion of multi model image. It is concluded that fusion with advanced single levels offers better fusion quality. This method provides a comparative study between proposed & literature techniques and validation of the projected algorithm as Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR), Root Mean Square Error (RMSE).
Antidepressant Medications and Their Association with Invasive Breast Cancer and Carcinoma in situ of the Breast

Background. Experimental studies in animals have suggested that antidepressants may promote the growth of mammary tumors, but epidemiologic data have not shown consistent associations between antidepressant use and breast cancer. Methods. We analyzed data from a population-based, case-control study conducted in North Carolina from 1996 to 2000 to examine the association between antidepressant use and breast cancer. Logistic regression models were used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) separately for invasive breast cancer and carcinoma in situ. Results. Over 20% of both cases and controls reported having ever used antidepressants. Overall, women with invasive breast cancer did not report antidepressant use more frequently than controls (OR = 1.0; CI = 0.7–1.2). There was a suggestion that use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressants for 36 months or more was more common among the breast cancer cases (OR = 2.7; CI = 0.9–7.9). Carcinoma in situ cases reported antidepressant use less frequently than controls (OR = 0.6; CI = 0.4–0.8). No consistent relation was observed between duration of use and carcinoma in situ. Conclusions. Antidepressant use in general was not related to an increased risk of breast cancer. There may be increased risk associated with long-term use of SSRIs. Continued monitoring of this relation is warranted, given the high prevalence of use of these drugs in the general population.
Repeated Administrations of Human Umbilical Cord Blood Cells Improve Disease Outcomes in a Mouse Model of Sanfilippo Syndrome Type III B

*Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair, Morsani College of Medicine, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA †Department of Neurosurgery and Brain Repair, Morsani College of Medicine, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA ‡Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology, Morsani College of Medicine, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA §Department of Pathology and Cell Biology, Morsani College of Medicine, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA ¶Saneron CCEL Therapeutics, Inc., Tampa, FL, USA #Department of Psychiatry, Morsani College of Medicine, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA
Studies on the biosynthesis of fosfomycin. 3. Detection of phosphoenol-pyruvate phosphomutase activity in a fosfomycin high-producing strain of Streptomyces wedmorensis and characterization of its blocked mutant NP-7.

Fosfomycin (FM) is an antibiotic produced by various species of Streptomyces2^\ and is characterized by possessing both a unique C-P bond and an epoxide. It has a broad antibacterial spectrum effective against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, and is now in clinical use. In a previous paper, we reported that 2-hydroxyethylphosphonic acid (HEP) and 2-aminoethylphosphonic acid (AEP) were transformed to FM by a FM non-producing mutant NP-7 obtained by NTG treatment of the parent strain, Streptomyces wedmorensis ATCC 212394). HEP had been
Is there a reverse J-shaped association between 25-hydroxyvitamin D and all-cause mortality? Results from the U.S. nationally representative NHANES.

CONTEXT A reverse J-shaped association between serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) concentration and all-cause mortality was suggested in a 9-year follow-up (1991-2000) analysis of the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III, 1988-1994). OBJECTIVE Our objective was to repeat the analyses with 6 years additional follow-up to evaluate whether the association persists through 15 years of follow-up. PARTICIPANTS The study included 15 099 participants aged ≥ 20 years with 3784 deaths. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Relative risk (RR) of death from all causes was adjusted for age, sex, race/ethnicity, and season using 2 Poisson regression approaches: traditional categorical and cubic splines. Results were given for 9 25(OH)D levels: <20, 20 to 29, 30 to 39, 40 to 49, 50 to 59, 60 to 74, 75 to 99 (reference), 100 to 119, and ≥ 120 nmol/L. RESULTS The reverse J-shaped association became stronger with longer follow-up and was not affected by excluding deaths within the first 3 years of follow-up. Similar results were found from both statistical approaches for levels <20 through 119 nmol/L. Adjusted RR (95% confidence interval [CI]) estimates for all levels <60 nmol/L were significantly >1 compared with the reference group. The nadir of risk was 81 nmol/L (95% CI, 73-90 nmol/L). For 25(OH)D ≥ 120 nmol/L, results (RR, 95% CI) were slightly different using traditional categorical (1.5, 1.02-2.3) and cubic splines approaches (1.2, 0.9-1.4). The association appeared in men, women, adults ages 20 to 64 years, and non-Hispanic whites but was weaker in older adults. The study was too small to evaluate the association in non-Hispanic black and Mexican-American adults. CONCLUSIONS A reverse J-shaped association between serum 25(OH)D and all-cause mortality appears to be real. It is uncertain whether the association is causal.
Myristoylation Is Required for Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Gag-Gag Multimerization in Mammalian Cells

ABSTRACT The Gag protein of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 directs the virion assembly process. Gag proteins must extensively multimerize during the formation of the spherical immature virion shell. In vitro, virus-like particles can be generated from Gag proteins that lack the N-terminal myristic acid modification or the nucleocapsid (NC) protein. The precise requirements for Gag-Gag multimerization under conditions present in mammalian cells, however, have not been fully elucidated. In this study, a Gag-Gag multimerization assay measuring fluorescence resonance energy transfer was employed to define the Gag domains that are essential for homomultimerization. Three essential components were identified: protein-protein interactions contributed by residues within both the N- and C-terminal domains of capsid (CA), basic residues in NC, and the presence of myristic acid. The requirement of myristic acid for multimerization was reproduced using the heterologous myristoylation sequence from v-src. Only when a leucine zipper dimerization motif was placed in the position of NC was a nonmyristoylated Gag protein able to multimerize. These results support a three-component model for Gag-Gag multimerization that includes membrane interactions mediated by the myristoylated N terminus of Gag, protein-protein interactions between CA domains, and NC-RNA interactions.
Tough-Adjectives are Easy to Learn *

A long-standing puzzle in linguistic theory is how children come to figure out the structure of sentences in which the semantic relations among the words do not “line up” with their syntactic relations (N. Chomsky 1965, p. 22, C. Chomsky 1969, p. 6). For example, how does a child figure out that the syntactic subject of a sentence is not in fact its “semantic” subject? Such a situation arises in so-called tough-constructions, illustrated in (1).
A C-terminal motif contributes to the plasma membrane localization of Arabidopsis STP transporters

Membrane trafficking is highly organized to maintain cellular homeostasis in any organisms. Membrane-embedded transporters are targeted to various organelles to execute appropriate partition and allocation of their substrates, such as ions or sugars. To ensure the fidelity of targeting and sorting, membrane proteins including transporters have sorting signals that specify the subcellular destination and the trafficking pathway by which the destination is to be reached. Here, we have identified a novel sorting signal (called the tri-aromatic motif) which contains three aromatic residues, two tryptophans and one histidine, for the plasma membrane localization of sugar transporters in the STP family in Arabidopsis. We firstly found that a C-terminal deletion disrupted the sugar uptake activity of STP1 in yeast cells. Additional deletion and mutation analyses demonstrated that the three aromatic residues in the C-terminus, conserved among all Arabidopsis STP transporters, were critical for sugar uptake by not only STP1 but also another STP transporter STP13. We observed that, when the tri-aromatic motif was mutated, STP1 was largely localized at the endomembrane compartments in yeast cells, indicating that this improper subcellular localization led to the loss of sugar absorption. Importantly, our further analyses uncovered that mutations of the tri-aromatic motif resulted in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) retention of STP1 and STP13 in plant cells, suggesting that this motif is involved at the step of ER exit of STP transporters to facilitate their plasma membrane localization. Together, we here identified a novel ER export signal, and showed that appropriate sorting via the tri-aromatic motif is important for sugar absorption by STP transporters.
Prevalence of Hepatitis B Infection among Schoolchildren in Southeast Turkey

Aim: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a worldwide health problem. The objectives of this study were to determine the impact of the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) on the prevalence of HBsAg carrier rate and immunity developed against HBV infection among schoolchildren in southeast Turkey. Materials and Methods: The study population consisted of 147,200 healthy schoolchildren between 6 to 17 years of age living in the Mardin area. A total of 802 children were randomly selected by systematic sampling method. Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), antibody to HBsAg (anti-HBs), and antibody to hepatitis B core antigen (anti-HBc) were analyzed in blood samples by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA General Biological Corp., Taiwan). Results: This study involved 420 (52.4%) male and 382 female (47.6%) schoolchildren with a mean age of 10.4 ± 2.3 years. The overall anti-HBs, anti-HBc, and HBsAg were positive in 724 (90.2%), 56 (7%), and 22 (2.7%) children, respectively. The overall HBV seroprevalence rate was 2.7% . Conclusions: The introduction of the national EPI has successfully decreased the HBV seropositivity possibly by preventing perinatal and horizontal HBV transmission among schoolchildren in southeast Turkey.
Accent Identification by Combining Deep Neural Networks and Recurrent Neural Networks Trained on Long and Short Term Features

Automatic identiﬁcation of foreign accents is valuable for many speech systems, such as speech recognition, speaker identiﬁcation, voice conversion, etc. The INTERSPEECH 2016 Native Language Sub-Challenge is to identify the native languages of non-native English speakers from eleven countries. Since differences in accent are due to both prosodic and articulation characteristics, a combination of long-term and short-term training is proposed in this paper. Each speech sample is processed into multiple speech segments with equal length. For each segment, deep neural networks (DNNs) are used to train on long-term statistical features, while recurrent neural networks (RNNs) are used to train on short-term acoustic features. The result for each speech sample is calculated by linearly fusing the results from the two sets of networks on all segments. The performance of the proposed system greatly surpasses the provided baseline system. Moreover, by fusing the results with the baseline sys-tem, the performance can be further improved.
Healing after standardized clinical probing of the perlimplant soft tissue seal: a histomorphometric study in dogs.

BACKGROUND/AIMS Clinical probing of the soft tissues around oral implants has become a frequently used parameter for clinical monitoring. However, the healing of the disruption of the soft tissue seal as a result of probing has not yet been studied. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the healing events in the periimplant mucosal tissues following standardized clinical probing. MATERIALS AND METHODS In three foxhounds the mandibular premolars were extracted and, after 3 months of healing, TPS screw-shaped implants (ITO Dental Implant System) were installed. A plaque control regimen was performed throughout the duration of the experiment. After 3 months of healing of the transmucosal implants, clinical implant stability and healthy periimplant mucosal tissues with mostly absence of bleeding on probing were obtained. Clinical probing of the mesial and distal implant sites was performed immediately before 1, 2, 3, 5 and 7 days prior to the sacrifice of the animals. A specially manufactured titanium cylinder with a mesial and distal groove was fixed to the implants to standardize the insertion geometry of a pressure-sensitive probe (0.2-0.25 N, tip diameter 0.45 mm). The distances from the alveolar crest to the coronal border of the connective tissue adaptation to the implant and the length of the epithelial attachment were measured histomorphometrically in nondecalcified ground sections. The buccal and lingual aspects of the implants were used to determine the components of the biological width in unprobed control sites. RESULTS The probe caused a separation between the surface of the implant and the junctional epithelium, but not within the connective tissue adaptation. In general, the probe tip was located at the most coronal level of the supracrestal connective tissue as determined histologically. By 1 day after separation of the periimplant mucosal tissue by probing, an epithelial attachment of approximately 0.5 mm in the apico-coronal direction was observed. The length of the epithelial adaptation showed a tendency to increase over time (day 2: 1.15 mm, day 3: 1.52 mm), and was complete at day 5 (1.92 mm). At the unprobed sites the epithelial attachment showed a mean length of 1.69 mm. Inflammatory infiltrates were practically nonexistent, indicating the absence of tissue trauma or infection as a result of probing. CONCLUSIONS Clinical probing around osseointegrated implants does not appear to have detrimental effects on the soft tissue seal and, hence, does not seem to jeopardize the longevity of oral implants. The 'healing of the epithelial attachment' seems to be complete 5 days after clinical probing.
A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CERULEOPLASMIN OXIDASE WITH COPPER AND RENAL FUNCTION TESTS IN SERA OF LEUKEMIA AND MULTIPLE MYELOMA PATIENTS DURING THE TREATMENT

Ceruloplasmin oxidase (CP) activity, Copper concentration (Cu) and renal function was measured in sera of 87 patients with blood cancer (leukemia and multiple myeloma) ,34 patients with acute myeloblastic leukemia (AML),20 patients with acute lympholastic leukemia(ALL),13 patients with chronic myeloblastic leukemia (CML), 20 patients with multiple myeloma aged (5-62) years. In addition to 87 healthy individuals of match age and sex were utilized as control throughout this study. The first part of this study was devoted to measure of CP activities in sera of control and patients group before and after the first course of chemotherapy treatment (about 6 weeks). It was found that CP activities significantly higher than control groups (P 0.05) than that of control group, the levels of both parameters before chemotherapy were significantly higher (P 0.5) while a non -significant positive correlation between CP and Cr, U (r<0.35). Conclusion of over all results in the present study enable the one to use serum CP, Cu and U.A rather than U and Cr as a biochemical marker to aid in the prognosis the blood cancer throughout treatment. Another conclusion is patients with blood cancer should evaluate their renal function through out taking their chemotherapy (especially first does) by measuring CP, Cu and U.A in their sera.
EVIDÊNCIAS SOROLÓGICAS DA EXPOSIÇÃO DE GATOS A Ehrlichia canis

The aim of the present study was to estimate the occurrence of Ehrlichia canis in cats from the semiarid region of Northeast of Brazil. Sera of 101 healthy cats were submitted by Indirect Immunofluorescence Assay (IFA), and considered positive when antibody titers ≥ 40 were obtained. Seroprevalence of 35.6% (36/101) was found, with the following titers: 40 (15 animals); 160 (6); 320 (1); 640 (3), and 2,560 (11). No statistical differences were observed when comparing county of origin, gender, age, breed, and modus vivendi (pet and stray cats), and no ticks were observed in any of the cats. This study revealed exposure to E. canis in cats of the Semiarid Northeast of Brazil.
Andrology: Disordered acrosome reaction of spermatozoa bound to the zona pellucida: a newly discovered sperm defect causing infertility with reduced sperm-zona pellucida penetration and reduced fertilization in vitro

It is believed that during the process of human fertilization, acrosome-intact spermatozoa bind to the surface of the zona pellucida which triggers the acrosome reaction and the enzymes released facilitate sperm penetration through the zona pellucida. We describe here reduced frequency of the acrosome reaction on the zona pellucida as a cause of infertility in 10 couples with long durations of infertility (average 6 years) and low (< 15%, n = 3) or zero (n = 7) fertilization rates in vitro. Sperm concentration, motility, velocity (Hamilton-Thorn), morphology and DNA normality were within the normal range in all the patients. Electron microscopy of spermatozoa did not reveal any specific ultrastructural defects. All couples were negative for antisperm antibodies by immunobead tests. Oocytes from other patients which failed to fertilize in in-vitro fertilization and normal donor spermatozoa were used as controls for sperm-zona pellucida binding and penetration experiments. Acrosome status of spermatozoa bound to the zona pellucida was assessed with a fluorescent lectin and electron microscopy. The mean number of spermatozoa bound to the zona pellucida was not significantly different between patients and controls. However, the acrosome reaction of spermatozoa bound to the zona pellucida after 2 h incubation was significantly lower (P < 0.001) in the patients (mean 5%, range 0-16) than in the controls (mean 68%, range 44-96). No zona pellucida (out of 40) was penetrated by patient spermatozoa whereas most (39/40) zonae were penetrated by control spermatozoa (average 27 spermatozoa/four zonae pellucidae). (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Ten‐year survival in ursodeoxycholic acid–treated patients with primary biliary cirrhosis

Ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) treatment has been shown to increase survival without orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) at 4 years. Whether this beneficial effect was maintained over the long term remained to be established. In a large cohort of UDCA‐treated patients with PBC, we aimed to determine the 10‐year outcome of these patients using two endpoints: (1) survival without OLT, and (2) survival. The cohort was comprised of 225 patients with PBC treated with UDCA (13‐15 mg/kg/d) monitored from the beginning of treatment until time of last follow‐up, OLT, or death. Because of the absence of a control group, survival without OLT was compared with survival predicted by the Mayo model (first 7 years), and observed 10‐year survival with an estimation of survival of a standardized control cohort of the French population. Observed survival without OLT of UDCA‐treated patients was significantly higher (P < .04) than survival predicted by the Mayo model. Observed survival was significantly lower (P < .01) than survival predicted from the French population. Observed survival of noncirrhotic patients was not different (P > .9) from that of the French control population but survival of cirrhotic patients was significantly lower (P < .0001). Twenty‐two patients died; 13 patients died of hepatic causes and 4 patients died after OLT. In conclusion, survival without OLT among patients treated with UDCA for PBC is higher than that of untreated patients, as predicted by the Mayo model. Ten‐year survival among UDCA‐treated patients is slightly lower than that of an age‐ and sex‐matched general population, the difference mainly being explained by mortality among cirrhotic patients