Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Serum anticardiolipin antibodies in recurrent abortion

The present study was carried out to detect the serum anticardiolipin antibodies (ACA) in recurrent abortion. Fifty women with history of recurrent abortions (Group A) were selected with twenty normal women of childbearing age as controls (Group B). Routine haematological investigations like haemoglobin, TLC & Platelets were done by haematology autoanalyzer. PT, APTT and serum anti-cardiolipin antibodies (IgG & IgM) were done by commercially available kits. Serum anticardiolipin antibodies were raised in patients with recurrent abortion when comparing with controls. PT was prolonged in one patient and APTT was prolonged in four cases.
Removal of Pb(II) ions from solution using chemically modified Luffa cylindrica as a method of sustainable water treatment

Luffa cylindrica, readily available in parts of Asia, Africa and South America, when chemically treated with 4% NaOH shows an increased amount of ion exchange functionality, thereby enhancing the adsorption capacity. It is well known for loofa sponge production and it is regarded as a common waste material. Chemical modification of Luffa cylindrica also changes its structural characteristics by exposing its pores for enhanced adsorption and shows an increased BET surface area from 25.32 m2/g to 43.10m2/g. From the FT-IR spectra an increase in protonated hydroxyl and carboxyl functional groups was observed. The adsorption of Pb2+ onto alkali treated Luffa cylindrica (ATLC) was investigated in batch experiments as a function of pH, temperature, initial metal ion concentration and ionic strength. The ATLC was found to be the more effective in removing Pb2+ from aqueous solution as compared to the neutral treated Luffa cylindrica. Adsorption kinetic and isotherm models, pseudo second order, Langmuir, two-site Langmuir, Dubinin-Radushkevich and Sips were utilized in understanding the adsorption mechanism and the ability of the adsorption system evaluated. The maximum adsorption capacity is 24.9mg/g as described by the Langmuir isotherm and the maximum percentage uptake (efficiency) is 96.4%. The Sips model fits better than the Langmuir, two site Langmuir and Dubinin-Radushkevich model using GraphPad. The kinetics of the biosorption process was studied. A pseudo second order model shows a good correlation fit.
FACTORS AFFECTING ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION OF FARM ANIMALS MANURE

This experiment was designed to study the effect of animal species, bedding materials and storage periods on environmental pollution of farm animals’ manure. Manure samples of different animal species (buffaloes, Baladi cattle, sheep, goats, camels, horses and donkeys) collected from El-Raheb farm were used and mixed with different bedding materials (sand, straw, sawdust and newspaper) in wide plates and were left at room temperature for 28 days. The physical, chemical and biological analyses were determined at 1 st , 2 nd , 3 rd , 7 th , 14 th and 28 th day. All physical (color, odor, moisture and pH), chemical (N%, P% and K%) and biological characteristics (total coli forms count) were significantly affected by different types of bedding materials. Color was not affected by storage period. On the other hand, odor, moisture and pH were decreased significantly by storage period. Also, the same result was obtained for N%. However, P% and K% were not significantly affected by storage period. Total coli forms count were significantly affected by storage period. Manure had the highest (P<0.01) coli forms count during the first three days of storage then started in reduction from 7 th and 14 th days to touch bottom at day 28.
Iron Deficiency and Erythropoietin Excess: Two Sides of the Same Coin?

Iron deficiency (ID) is independently associated with an increased risk of death in renal transplant recipients (RTRs). ID promotes production and cleavage of intact fibroblast growth factor 23 (iFGF23) into C-terminal fibroblast growth factor 23 (cFGF23), elevated levels of which are also prospectively associated with adverse outcomes. We hypothesized that in RTRs, the relationship between ID and mortality is mediated by FGF23. We measured plasma iFGF23 and cFGF23 levels in 700 stable RTRs at a median of 5.4 years following transplantation. Median cFGF23 concentrations were higher in iron deficient compared to non-iron deficient RTRs (223 [131 – 361] vs. 124 [88 – 180] RU/mL; P<0.001), whereas iFGF23 concentrations were similar between groups. In multivariable-adjusted Cox regression analyses, ID was associated with increased mortality (81 events; hazard ratio [HR], 1.95; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.22-3.10; P=0.005). However, this association lost significance after additional adjustment for cFGF23 levels (HR, 1.45; 95%CI 0.87-2.51; P=0.15). In further mediation analysis, we found that cFGF23 explained 46% of the association between ID and mortality, whereas iFGF23 did not mediate this association. In conclusion, we found that cFGF23 levels are increased in iron-deficient RTRs and that most probably, the underlying biological process driving production and cleavage of iFGF23, or alternatively the increased level of cFGF23 fragments is an important mediator of the association between ID and mortality. Our results underline the strong relationship between iron and FGF23 physiology, and provide a potential mechanism explaining the relationship between ID and adverse outcome in RTRs. C-Terminal Fibroblast Growth Factor 23, Iron Deficiency, and Mortality in Renal Transplant Recipients 47
Technological Progress, “Money” in the Utility Function, and the “User Cost of Money”

Financial institutions provide their customers a variety of unpriced services and cover their costs through interest margins—the interest rates they receive on assets are generally higher than the rates they pay on liabilities. In particular, banks pay below-public-market interest rates on deposits while charging above-public-market rates on loans. Various authors have suggested that this situation allows one to measure the real quantity of financial services implicitly provided as proportional to the real stocks of financial assets held by consumers. We present a general-equilibrium Baumol-Tobin model where households need bank services to purchase consumption goods. Bank deposits are the single medium of exchange in the economy. The model shows that financial services are proportional to the stocks of assets only under restrictive conditions, including constant technologies in the financial sector. In contrast, measuring real financial output by directly counting the flow of actual services is a robust method that is unaffected by technological changes. JEL Classifications: D24, E41, O47, D91 First draft: May 19, 2006 This version: July 5, 2006 Basu: Department of Economics, Boston College and NBER; susanto.basu@bc.edu Wang: Research Department, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston; christina.wang@bos.frb. org We thank Erwin Diewert, Robert Inklaar, Marshall Reinsdorf, Jack Triplett and participants at the 2006 Ottawa Productivity Workshop for comments. The views expressed in this paper are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect official positions of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston or the Federal Reserve System.
Are Infants Sensitive to Informant Reliability in Word Learning?

Common wisdom among adults when listening to speech is to “consider the source. ” The identity of a speaker can provide a wealth of context in interpreting a speech act. Despite this, social reasoning about differences between sources has not heretofore been considered part of early word learning, and is not traditionally included in models of infant word learning (e.g. Pinker, 1979; Chater and Manning, 2006; Frank et al., 2009). Instead, these models assume learners trust data from all informants equally. However, there is significant evidence from non-linguistic domains that infants use epistemic trust (Zmyj et al., 2010; Poulin-Dubois et al., 2011; Tummeltshammer et al., 2014). Epistemic trust, the process of evaluating information sources for reliability, is robustly attested in the language processing of older children, who exhibit a clear bi-directional relationship between linguistic inference and inferences about reliability. In forced choice tasks, children’s perception of informant reliability is influenced by observation of labeling behavior, and their endorsement of object labels is influenced by the familiarity and reliability of the adults providing them (Koenig and Harris, 2005; Corriveau and Harris, 2009). There is also extensive evidence that infants’ linguistic perception predicts their attention to sources in nonlinguistic tasks (Kinzler et al., 2005). If the ability to discriminate between speech sources for reliability is present earlier in life, it may influence infant behavior on word learning tasks. One way to investigate the question of whether social inference influences early word learning is to begin with the existing empirical literature. A large body of work has used an audiovisual habituation experiment called the Switch Task to investigate early word learning. Results from Switch task experiments show that infants who can perform well on a task discriminating two lexical neighbors, or words which differ by a single phoneme (e.g., “buk” and “puk”), nevertheless do not consistently discriminate those same labels after being habituated to the presentation of these speech tokens as the labels of two different objects (Stager and Werker, 1997). This difficulty does not appear for pairs of words which differ by multiple phonemes (e.g., “lif” and “neem”) (Werker et al., 1998). Slightly
Relationship of P Terminal Force V1 on Electrocardiogram with Left Atrial Function in Chronic Kidney Failure Patients on Hemodialysis

Background: Chronic kidney failure is a worldwide public health problem.Cardiovascular disease is a common complication and the main cause of mortality in this population.Impaired left atrial function is an early marker of cardiovascular involvement and a prognostic factor that correlated with mortality in chronic kidney disease patients. We aim to investigate the relationship between P terminal force V1 (PTFV1), an ECG parameter, with left atrial function in chronic kidney failure patients on hemodialysis. Method: This cross sectional study was done in chronic kidney failure patients on hemodialysis in Dr. Sardjito General Hospital Jogjakarta. Electrocardiogram and echocardiography were done after hemodialysis procedure. P terminal force V1 was measured by multiplying amplitude and duration of negative deflection of terminal P wave in V1. Abnormal PTFV1 was defined as PTFV1 value ≥ 40 mm.msec. Left atrial function was measured using left atrial peak global longitudinal strain (LA PGLS). Results: This study was done in 71 patients with mean age 50 years old. Forty three subjects (61%) were men. Sixty four subjects (90%) had hypertension. Forty four subjects (62%) had abnormal PTFV1 on ECG. Mean LA PGLS was 24.89 ± 8.23%. No significant correlation was found between PTFV1 value with LA PGLS (r= -0.178; p=0.138). By multivariate analysis, left ventricular ejection fraction, left atrial diameter and hemodialysis duration (in months) were variables that independently correlated with LA PGLS. In subanalysis, amplitude of negative deflection of terminal P wave in V1 was significantly correlated with LA PGLS(r= -0.257, p= 0.031). Conclusions: This study reveals no correlation between P terminal force V1 and left atrial function in chronic kidney failure patients on routine hemodialysis. There is significant correlation between amplitude of negative deflection of terminal P wave in V1 with LA PGLS.
Analyzing the Direct and Indirect Impact of Budget Deficit and other Factors on GDP in Malaysia

The objective of this study is to analyze the impact of budget deficit and other factors on GDP in Malaysia. The data used in this study are yearly series data from 1987-2016. This study also uses Statistical Packages for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software for data analysis purposes. For the purpose of establishing a budgeting model, this study uses Ordinary Least Square (OLS). The findings suggest that there is a significant and positive relationship between all the variables used, namely budget deficit, investment, national saving, real effective exchange rate and real interest rate with gross domestic product (GDP). Therefore, based on the findings, this study hope the result can be imply into a policy to help the government to improve economic growth in Malaysia in the future. Thus, Malaysia will be able to achieve the status of a developed country and more efficiently by the year 2020.
A Modified Interference Approximation Scheme for Improving Preamble Based Channel Estimation Performance in FBMC System

Filter bank multi carrier (FBMC) is considered a competitive waveform candidate for 5G that can replace orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). However, channel estimation (CE) is a big challenge in FBMC because it suffers from intrinsic interference which is due to the orthogonality of the subcarrier functions in the real field only. In this paper, we investigate a proposed modified interference approximation scheme (M-IAM) by approximating the intrinsic interference from the neighboring pilots to accommodate the complex channel frequency and thus improving CE performance besides simplifying its processing. The M-IAM scheme has larger pseudo pilot magnitude than other conventional preamble schemes, namely the interference approximation method (IAM) with its versions (IAM-C) and (E-IAM-C); in addition to the novel preamble design (NPS). In addition, the proposed (M-IAM) scheme is characterized by the lower transmitted power needed. The CE performance of the M-IAM is investigated through 512 and 2048 subcarriers via different types of outdoor and indoor multipath fading channels that are time-invariant such as IEEE 802.22, IEEE 802.11, Rician, and additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN), as well as time varying channels such as Rayleigh and Vehicular A (Veh-A). Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed M-IAM scheme achieves a lower bit error rate (BER), lower normalized mean square error (NMSE) and lower peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) over the conventional preamble schemes under the aforementioned channel models. The proposed scheme has the advantage of saving the transmitted power, a requirement that could match 5G low power requirements.
Uncertainty, self-selection and the design of subsidies: Evidence from Zambia∗

Many technology adoption decisions are made under uncertainty about the costs or benefits of adoption. As shocks to the net benefits are realized, agents may prefer to abandon a technology that appeared profitable at the time of take up. Thus, uncertainty breaks the link between the decision to take up and to follow through with a technology. We use a field experiment to study the performance of two common incentive tools to promote adoption in a context characterized by uncertainty about the costs of follow through. Farmers in rural Zambia are offered input subsidies for tree seedlings and performance rewards for tree survival, both of which are effective at increasing the total number of trees. The incentive treatments identify a structural model of intertemporal decision making under uncertainty. Estimation results indicate that the farmers experience idiosyncratic shocks to net profits after take up, which increase participation but lower average per farmer tree survival. While input subsidies have a relatively small (positive) effect on social welfare, the level of performance reward that maximizes welfare is high, due to its combined effect on (a) the social value of increased tree survival, (b) direct farmer profits conditional on performance and (c) the farmer’s unconditional option value of postponing the decision to follow through. ∗Preliminary draft. Please do not cite without permission. Helpful comments were received from Jim Berry, Andrew Foster, Carlos Martin-Filho, Andrew Plantinga, Stephen Ryan, Kenneth Train and seminar participants at Harvard, CU Boulder, Cornell, Resources for the Future, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Cruz, University of Michigan, SITE 2013, AERE 2012, and NEUDC. The authors thank the IGC, CDKN and Musika for financial support, and the Center for Scientific Computing from the CNSI and MRL at UC Santa Barbara (NSF MRSEC DMR-1121053 and NSF CNS-0960316) for use of its computing cluster. Field work was facilitated by Innovations for Poverty Action, with specific thanks to Jonathan Green, Farinoz Daneshpay, Mwela Namonje and Monica Banda. The project was made possible by the collaboration and support of Shared Values Africa and Dunavant Cotton, Ltd.
AmpC β lactamases in Urinary Klebsiella pneumoniae Isolates: First Report of ACC Type AmpC β-lactamase Resistance in Iran

10.30699/jambs.27. 123.23 Background & Objective: The production of plasmid-mediated AmpC betalactamases (PMABLs) among urinary Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates causes a severe problem to the successful treatment of urinary tract infections (UTIs). This study was designed to evaluate antimicrobial resistance, the presence of AmpC beta-lactamase genes, and the genetic relatedness among K. pneumoniae strains separated from patients with UTI.
The science of red meat and its importance to New South Wales: A case study

Meat scientists are tasked to advance the red meat industry in New South Wales. This research has already provided valuable insights and measurable opportunities. Examples include investigations into Spirulina supplementation effects on lamb productivity and meat quality; optimisations to the precision and accuracy of laboratory-based meat science tools that reflect consumer experience; innovations in meat packaging technology; recommendations for long-term storage thresholds for frozen and chilled red meat; analyses of dark cutting and beef colour evaluations to predict carcass value; assessing the usefulness of novel colorimeters for meat colour appraisals; suggestions of novel forage-types that enhance red meat healthiness; and exploration of the means to accelerate the ageing process for beef. Each of these provides strong scientific foundations on which the New South Wales red meat sector can build to ensure meat quality and safety. This assurance is imperative to affirm market access, confidence and position; optimising production and processing efficiencies that mitigate economic and environmental cost; and boost the sector’s social licence and broader recognition as a comparatively clean and green industry. Meat research must be dynamic so that New South Wales can benefit from its unique capability to deliver meat to match market specifications.
Well-ordered nanoparticle arrays for floating gate memory applications

A non-volatile floating gate memory device containing well-ordered Au nanoparticles (NPs) is fabricated as a metal–oxide–semiconductor capacitor structure. With superior control on the size, shape and position of nanoparticles, the presented nano-floating gate memory (NFGM) device possesses almost perfect precision of device geometry. The well-ordered Au NPs embedded within the memory device exhibit large memory window at low operation voltages (8.8V @ ± 15V), fast operation time (<10−4 s) and good retention (up to 107 s). In this work, the structural properties of the NFGM device are correlated with the examined electrical properties. The current results are compared with the other studies in the literature to emphasis the advantages of the precise ordering and geometry of the NPs.
Posting Post-Blackout: A Qualitative Examination of the Positive and Negative Valence of Tweets Posted after “Blackout” Drinking

Alcohol-induced memory loss (i.e., blackout) is a consequence of drinking that is both common and associated with additional negative outcomes. The goal of the present study was to use publicly available Twitter data to better understand cognitions and emotions following blackouts. Tweets containing key terms (e.g., “black out”) were collected over 4 days in 2018. Using NVivo software, we coded all post-blackout Tweets for valence (positive, negative, neutral). Within each valence category, we reviewed Tweets to identify themes. Among Tweets coded with a positive valence, themes included pride in blacking out, pride in ability to function despite blackouts, blackouts as a shared social experience, and overall positive views of a drinking experience despite blackouts. Among Tweets coded with a negative valence, themes included the experience of other negative consequences on blackout nights, blackouts as unexpected/unplanned, blackouts as motivator of change, and blackout-related negative emotions. Additionally, Tweeters expressed pride in avoiding blackouts during drinking events. Findings provide insight into why not all individuals describe blackouts negatively, by analyzing specific statements made in a public forum following a blackout. Such insight may inform interventions targeting those who report this risky outcome of drinking, including those that could be delivered via social media.
Human Mucosal-Associated Invariant T Cells in Older Individuals Display Expanded TCRαβ Clonotypes with Potent Antimicrobial Responses

Key Points MAIT cells in older adults retain functional responses to MR1-mediated stimulation. Expanded MAIT cell TCRαβ clonotypes are apparent in older adults. MAIT cells in older adults have a hyperinflammatory cytokine profile at baseline. Mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells are important for immune responses against microbial infections. Although known to undergo marked numerical changes with age in humans, our understanding of how MAIT cells are altered during different phases across the human life span is largely unknown. Although also abundant in the tissues, our study focuses on MAIT cell analyses in blood. Across the human life span, we show that naive-like MAIT cells in umbilical cord blood switch to a central/effector memory-like profile that is sustained into older age. Whereas low-grade levels of plasma cytokine/chemokine were apparent in older donors (>65 y old), surprisingly, they did not correlate with the ex vivo MAIT hyperinflammatory cytokine profile observed in older adults. Removal of MAIT cells from older individuals and an aged environment resulted in the reversal of the baseline effector molecule profile comparable with MAIT cells from younger adults. An upregulated basal inflammatory profile accounted for reduced Escherichia coli–specific responses in aged MAIT cells compared with their young adult counterparts when fold change in expression levels of GzmB, CD107a, IFN-γ, and TNF was examined. However, the magnitude of antimicrobial MR1-dependent activation remained as potent and polyfunctional as with younger adults. Paired TCRαβ analyses of MAIT cells revealed large clonal expansions in older adults and tissues that rivalled, remarkably, the TCRαβ repertoire diversity of virus-specific CD8+ T cells. These data suggest that MAIT cells in older individuals, although associated with large clonal TCRαβ expansions and increased baseline inflammatory potential, demonstrate plasticity and provide potent antimicrobial immunity.