Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Vitamin d deficiency in psoriatic patients -A case control study

Abstract Introduction: Many studies have shown that vitamin D deficiency have been associated with multiple autoimmune conditions like psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes mellitus. Objective: The main purpose of this study was to analyze vitamin D status of psoriasis patients in comparison to healthy controls. Materials and Methods: The study comprised of 50 (30 male & 20 female) clinically confirmed cases of chronic plaque psoriasis of age group (20-60 years) attending outpatient department of Dermatology, venereology, leprosy, Vinayaka Mission’s Medical College & Hospital, Karaikal from 2012 to 2014.At the same time 50 healthy individuals without psoriasis were also investigated (age & sex matched). Results: The mean serum 25-OHD levels in psoriatic patients and controls were 22.308+_2. 974 and 33.726 +_2. 688 ng/ml respectively. The difference was statistically significant (P= Limitations: Additional studies with bigger numbers of patients are essential to evaluate the pathogenic mechanisms associated with psoriasis and vitamin D. Keywords: Psoriasis, Autoimmunity, Psoriasis Area and severity index, 25-hydroxy vitamin D. Introduction Psoriasis is a chronic, non-contagious skin disease characterized by red, inflamed cutaneous lesions covered with silvery-white scale. It involves the innate immunologic system (keratinocytes, dendritic cells, histiocytes, mastocytes and endothelial cells) and acquired immunologic system (T lymphocytes). [1]Psoriatic plaques are defined histologically by epidermal hyperplasia, epidermal and dermal infiltration by leukocytes and changes in dermal microvasculature. [2] Psoriasis affects both genders equally and can occur at any age, although it most commonly appears for the first time between the ages of 15 and 25. The disease affects the skin and potentially the joints. The prevalence of psoriatic arthritis in psoriasis patients is estimated to be between 25-31%. Vitami
DEMOGRAPHY AND MOVEMENTS OF THE

We studied populations of the endangered Akepa (Loxops coccineus coccineus) and Hawaii Creeper (Oreomystis mana) at four sites on the island of Hawaii. Mean monthly density (+SE) of Akepa was 5.74 + 0.87, 1.35 + 0.41, 0.96 + 0.13, and 0.76 + 0.12 Akepa/ha at Kau Forest, Hamakua, Keauhou Ranch, and Kilauea Forest study areas, respec- tively. Hawaii Creepers were found at densities of 1.68 + 0.53, 1.79 + 0.42, 0.48 ± 0.06, and 0.54 + 0.08 birds/ha, respectively, at the four study areas. Highest capture rates and numbers of birds counted from stations occurred from August through November and February through March. Hatching-year birds were captured from May through December for Akepa and April through December for Hawaii Creeper. Annual survival for adults at Keauhou Ranch was 0.70 + 0.27 SE for 61 Akepa and 0.73 + 0.12 SE for 49 Hawaii Creepers. Lowest rates of mortality and emigration occurred between May and August. Both species appeared to defend Type-B territories typical of cardueline finches, retained mates for more than one year, and showed strong philopatry. Home ranges for Hawaii Creepers (x = 7.48 ha) were larger than those for Akepa (x = 3.94 ha). No difference was found between home range sizes of
A new Late Cretaceous (Campanian–Maastrichtian) amiid (Halecomorphi: Actinopterygii) from the Fruitland Formation, San Juan Basin, New Mexico

Amia? chauliodeia, a new amiid fish from the Late Cretaceous Fruitland Formation of the San Juan Basin, New Mexico, is described from material that includes vertebral centra, elements of the mandibular arch, dermal skull roof, palatal complex, hyoid arch, pectoral girdle, branchial apparatus, ribs, and both pelvic basipterygia. The new form differs from previously described amiiforms in the length of the dentary tooth row, in the anterior thickness of the dentary, and in the apparent lack of internal sensory canals in the dentary and angular. The New Mexico amiid also retains a primitive metapterygoid. Although the new form shares several features in common with the Late Cretaceous amiid Melvius thomasi described by Bryant (1987), it is unquestionably distinct from this form. Material from the Fruitland and Kirtland Formations of New Mexico referred by Bryant (1987) to M. thomasi is now included within Amia? chauliodeia.
The Carolina Terrane in northwestern South Carolina: Insights into the development of an evolving island arc

We present petrologic and whole rock geochemical data from metaigneous rocks in the northwestern Carolina terrane in South Carolina. Metaplutonic rocks form zoned intrusive complexes ~10 km in diameter that range from dioritic rims to clinopyroxenite-hornblendite-serpentinite cores. The complexes intrude metavolcanic rocks that include ankaramites and pyroxene porphyries as well as more common laminated amphibolites and greenstones. This rock association is not restricted to this area, but is also recognized in other parts of the western Carolina terrane including central Georgia, along the Georgia–South Carolina border, in north-central South Carolina, and central North Carolina. Whole rock data indicate a wide range in SiO2 content, fractionation trends that are transitional between tholeiitic and calc-alkaline, enrichments in large ion lithophile elements (LILE) and depletions in high field strength elements (HFSE), and Ti/V ratios between 10–20. Regional metamorphism and deformation accompanied arc magmatism ca. 570–535 Ma. We interpret the association to indicate rifting of a pre-existing volcanic arc. Deep seated fracturing accompanying arc-rifting is interpreted to be the mechanism by which highly magnesian magmas ascend to high crustal levels without appreciable fractionation. The maficultramafic zoned intrusive complexes and associated volcanic rocks formed at the same time or slightly after the Persimmon Fork Formation in the well-characterized eastern portions of the Carolina terrane. Strong lithologic and temporal similarities between the Cadomian orogeny (Brittany, France) and the Carolina terrane suggest that Cadomia may be a better candidate for comparison with Carolina than the Avalon terrane of New England or Maritime Canada. Dennis, A. J., and Shervais, J. W. , 1996, The Carolina terrane in northwestern South Carolina: Insights into the development of an evolving island arc, in Nance, R. D. , and Thompson, M. D. , eds., Avalonian and Related Peri-Gondwanan Terranes of the Circum–North Atlantic: Boulder, Colorado, Geological Society of America Special Paper 304. 237 SP304-15.QXD 5•16•96 10:18 am Page 237
The role of alexithymia in the development of functional motor symptoms (conversion disorder)

Background The mechanisms leading to the development of functional motor symptoms (FMS) are of pathophysiological and clinical relevance, yet are poorly understood. Aim The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether impaired emotional processing at the cognitive level (alexithymia) is present in patients affected by FMS. We conducted a cross-sectional study in a population of patients with FMS and in two control groups (patients with organic movement disorders (OMD) and healthy volunteers). Methods 55 patients with FMS, 33 patients affected by OMD and 34 healthy volunteers were recruited. The assessment included the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale, the Reading the Mind in the Eyes’ Test and the Structured Clinical Interview for Personality Disorders. Results Alexithymia was present in 34.5% of patients with FMS, 9.1% with OMD and 5.9% of the healthy volunteers, which was significantly higher in the FMS group (χ2 (2)=14.129, p<0.001), even after controlling for the severity of symptoms of depression. Group differences in mean scores were observed on both the difficulty identifying feelings and difficulty describing feelings dimensions of the TAS-20, whereas the externally orientated thinking subscale score was similar across the three groups. Regarding personality disorder, χ2 analysis showed a significantly higher prominence of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) in the FMS group (χ2 (2)=16.217, p<0.001) and 71.4% of those with OCPD also reached threshold criteria for alexithymia. Conclusions Because alexithymia is a mental state denoting the inability to identify emotions at a cognitive level, one hypothesis is that some patients misattribute autonomic symptoms of anxiety, for example, tremor, paraesthesiae, paralysis, to that of a physical illness. Further work is required to understand the contribution of OCPD to the development of FMS.
OBSERVATIONS OF CANE (ARUNDINARIA) FLOWERS, SEED, AND SEEDLINGS IN THE NORTH CAROLINA

Cane, Arutndtnarta, is a true grass, with a perennial woody stem that sets it apart from all other grasses in this country. It is a member of the bamboo tribe. Most botanical manuals list two species of cane or reed: Arundinarta gigantea (Walt) Chap. , large cane or southern cane; and Arundinarta tecta (Walt) Muhl. , small cane or switch cane. This tall woody grass, which forms thickets or brakes is widely distributed in the Southern and Southeastern states. Early settlers had a high opinion of the canebrakes as natural pastures, and the experience of grazers ever since has confirmed the forage values of cane. Recent tests in North Carolina show that cane is possibly the highest yielding native range in the U. S. ' Thus, where canebrakes are extensive, their use for grazing makes them an important local resource. This is particularly true in the North Carolina Coastal Plain, where the survey (Biswell and Foster, 1942) of forest grazing in 1940-41 showed that "The reed forage type is the most important for grazing and can be used nearly all the year. " Cane provided 46 percent of the forest grazing in the forage types on the North Carolina Coastal Plain farms surveyed. This is in spite of the destruction of large canebrakes by cultivation, fire, and overgrazing. Most everywhere throughout its range the area of canbrakes is decreas
Tectonically induced Quaternary drainage diversion in the northeastern Aegean

The Maritsa River in the Balkans, over 500 km long, flows at present into the northern Aegean Sea. Geological and geomorphological data indicate that it was flowing into the Marmara Sea until about 1.5 Ma, and was diverted into the Aegean Sea following coseismic uplift along the North Anatolian Fault. Seismic reflection sections in the Marmara Sea indicate the presence of up to 2.5 km thick fluviatile to limnic Upper Miocene-Quaternary sediments, probably supplied by a Palaeo-Maritsa river. The drainage diversion cut off the sediment supply, with the result that the terrigeneous sediments of the Marmara Sea were depressed to a water depth of 1150 m.
The Regulation and Health Effects of Air Pollution

This dissertation focuses on the relationship between air pollution and human activity. The first chapter examines whether firms are better incentivized to clean up their atmospheric emissions via a regulatory scheme based on an absolute or relative standard. The second chapter examines intercollegiate track & field outcomes to identify an adaptation effect of training in higher ambient ozone levels. The third chapter looks at the efficacy of short term government interventions in Santiago, Chile, which sought to reduce the severity and health effects of spikes in urban air pollution through a series of government protocols enacted to address poor air quality
Generalized Policy Updates for Policy Optimization

In reinforcement learning, policy gradient methods follow the gradients of well-deﬁned objective functions. While the standard on-policy policy gradient maximizes the expected return objective, recent work has shown that it suffers from accumulation points. By contrast, other policy search methods have demonstrated better sample efﬁciency and stability. In this paper, we introduce a family of generalized policy updates that are not in general the gradients of an objective function. We establish theoretical requirements under which members of this family are guaranteed to converge to an optimal policy. We study two natural instances of this family, expected actor-critic (EAC) and argmax actor-critic (AAC), and relate them to existing successful methods. We apply both EAC and AAC in experiments on synthetic gridworld domains and Atari 2600 games to demonstrate that they are both sample efﬁcient and stable, and outperform both on-policy policy gradient and a value-based baseline. Our results provide further evidence that following the gradient of the expected return is not necessarily the most efﬁcient way to obtain an optimal policy.
Decision making regarding employee access to training and development in medium-sized enterprises: A proposed study employing the Critical Incident Technique

Abstract This paper outlines a proposed study employing the critical incident technique aimed at uncovering factors influencing owner-managers’ decisions when employees in medium-sized enterprises request access to external training and development opportunities. Employees in these enterprises form part of a ‘disadvantaged’ group within the workforce that receives less access to formal training and development than employees in large firms. The owner-manager’s decisional role is critical when considering employee access to training and development. Unfortunately, there is scant research into factors affecting owner-managers’ decisions regarding employee access to a requested development opportunity in medium-sized enterprises. To address this research gap, we intend to conduct semistructured interviews incorporating critical incidents with a sample of 20 owner-managers. We anticipate that the interviews will provide rich, nuanced and contextualized information on the decision-making role of owner-managers that can be analysed for key themes.1
Success of lymphatic filariasis control in Benin: Effects of Ivermectin and Abendazole on microfilaraemia

Lymphatic filariasis (LF) is a parasitic disease that is endemic throughout sub-Saharan Africa, infecting approximately 40 million people. The aim of this study was to determine effect of Ivermectine and Albendazole on microfilaraemia in 10 communes that have completed 5 rounds of MDA in Benin. The study was both retrospective and prospective. The retrospective part consisted of collecting the information in the registers of the National Communicable Diseases Control Program (NCDCP) in order to determine the geographical and therapeutic coverage during the period of MDA. The prospective part, which consisted in the realization of a nocturnal microfilaraemia, took place with the participants of 5 years and more. Data were analysed using EpiInfo (USD, Inc., Stone Mountain, GA) version 6. Differences in proportions were calculated by Chi-square, with significance level at 0.05. The average geographical and therapeutic coverage was in line with WHO recommendations in several communes. A total of 3121 people were clinically examined and sampled. Chronic manifestations were found in approximately 1% of the total population while only one person had a positive thick drop of W. bancrofti. Since microfilaraemia is <1% in the study communes, the standard recommended by the WHO for the success of MDA, our results confirm the effectiveness of Ivermectin and Albendazole on microfilaraemia and can therefore contribute to the control of LF in Benin. Key words: Lymphatic filariasis and mass drug administration, microfilaremia, Benin.
Children’s Resources and Poverty: A Collective Consumption Evidence from Ethiopia

We estimate a collective complete demand system model to recover children’s resource shares and analyze their poverty. Identification of the sharing rule between children and adults relies on private assignable goods and distribution factors. Based on Ethiopian LSMS-ISA data for two sub-samples of families with children (married male-headed and single female-headed), we observe inequalities in intrahousehold resource allocation and well-being. We find that children command fewer household resources and are poorer than adults, worsening with the number of children. Resource allocation is affected by parental differences in education and age, child education, proportions of female children and women, and the number of non-biological children. Single mothers not only are more altruistic to their children but also avoid higher child poverty than married male heads. However, this seems to disappear when the number of children increases. Unlike the general belief that poor children live only with poor adults and households, our estimates show non-poor families and adults also host poor children. Regional and rural-urban disparities exist. Further, traditional poverty measures, which ignore intrahousehold resource allocation, understate child (and adult) poverty. Findings have implications for fertility, gender, targeting, and spatial redistribution issues.
EFFECT OF CAMEL MODEL ON BANK PERFORMANCE: WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO LISTED COMMERCIAL BANKS IN SRI LANKA

The banking sector has become a rapidly growing sector in the world recently and its financial soundness and performance are essential to the stable and sustainable economic growth of a country. This study investigated the effect of CAMEL parameters on both market-based performance and accounting-based performance of eight listed commercial banks in Sri Lanka for the period 2014-2019. This study has used secondary data from audited annual financial statements of the listed commercial banks. CAMEL model is the most popular method that calculates and evaluates a bank's performance and it includes Capital Adequacy, Assets Quality, Management Efficiency, Earning ability, and Liquidity status. Return on Equity (ROE) is used as an accounting-based performance indicator and Tobin's Q ratio is used as a market-based performance indicator. The finding reveals that Capital adequacy, Assets quality, and Liquidity status have a positive significant impact on market-based performance while other CAMEL indicators have an insignificant impact on market-based performance. Furthermore, Management efficiency is negatively related to accounting-based performance, and earning ability is positively related to accounting-based performance at a significant level while other CAMEL indicators have an insignificant impact on the accounting-based performance of commercial banks in Sri Lanka. The finding of this study is helpful to the stakeholders of the commercial banks in making appropriate managerial decisions efficiently and effectively.
Mechanisms and Functions of the RNA Polymerase II General Transcription Machinery during the Transcription Cycle

Central to the development and survival of all organisms is the regulation of gene expression, which begins with the process of transcription catalyzed by RNA polymerases. During transcription of protein-coding genes, the general transcription factors (GTFs) work alongside RNA polymerase II (Pol II) to assemble the preinitiation complex at the transcription start site, open the promoter DNA, initiate synthesis of the nascent messenger RNA, transition to productive elongation, and ultimately terminate transcription. Through these different stages of transcription, Pol II is dynamically phosphorylated at the C-terminal tail of its largest subunit, serving as a control mechanism for Pol II elongation and a signaling/binding platform for co-transcriptional factors. The large number of core protein factors participating in the fundamental steps of transcription add dense layers of regulation that contribute to the complexity of temporal and spatial control of gene expression within any given cell type. The Pol II transcription system is highly conserved across different levels of eukaryotes; however, most of the information here will focus on the human Pol II system. This review walks through various stages of transcription, from preinitiation complex assembly to termination, highlighting the functions and mechanisms of the core machinery that participates in each stage.
THE INFLUENCE OF ACCRUAL EARNINGS MANAGEMENT, REAL EARNINGS MANAGEMENT AND AUDITOR'S REPUTATION ON COMPANY VALUE WITH MODERATION OF CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

Urgency of this research is because there is still a gap in previous research regarding earnings management and auditor reputation on company value. Novelty in the research by adding the corporate governance mechanism factor as a moderating variable which was not investigated in previous research. This research aims to test the effectaccrualsearnings management, real earnings management,and auditor's reputation on firm value with corporate governance as moderator. The research sample used was 133 manufacturing companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) for the 2019-2021 period. The method of determining the sample using a purposive technique with reference to several established criteria. The data analysis method uses panel data regression through the approachGeneralizedMoment of Methode(GMM). The results showed that accruals and real earnings management had a negative effect on firm value, while auditor reputation had a positive effect on firm value. Apart from that, research also shows that corporate governance is able to weaken the influence of accrual and real earnings management on company value, and strengthen the influence of auditor reputation on company value. This research raises managerial contributions for companies to further improve corporate governance through the implementation of the ACGS scorecard in providing transparency and accountability to stakeholders. Keywords: accrualsearnings management, real earnings management, auditor reputation corporate governance, company values.
Mitigating Machine Learning Bias Between High Income and Low-Middle Income Countries for Enhanced Model Fairness and Generalizability

Collaborative efforts in artificial intelligence (AI) are increasingly common between high-income countries (HICs) and low- to middle-income countries (LMICs). Given the resource limitations often encountered by LMICs, collaboration becomes crucial for pooling resources, expertise, and knowledge. Despite the apparent advantages, ensuring the fairness and equity of these collaborative models is essential, especially considering the distinct differences between LMIC and HIC hospitals. In this study, we show that collaborative AI approaches can lead to divergent performance outcomes across HIC and LMIC settings, particularly in the presence of data imbalances. Through a real-world COVID-19 screening case study, we demonstrate that implementing algorithmic-level bias mitigation methods significantly improves outcome fairness between HIC and LMIC sites while maintaining high diagnostic sensitivity. We compare our results against previous benchmarks, utilizing datasets from four independent United Kingdom Hospitals and one Vietnamese hospital, representing HIC and LMIC settings, respectively.