Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Implications of World Health Organization classification for body mass index on the correlations between common electrocardiographic indexes for left ventricular hypertrophy and left ventricular mass

ABSTRACT Background: Some electrocardiographic indexes such as Cornell index, Cornell product index, or Sokolow–Lyon index remain to be used in the clinical setting. We assessed the effects of body mass index (BMI) on the correlations between these ECG indexes and left ventricular mass (LVM). Methods: One hundred ninety-six outpatients who underwent both ECG and echocardiography on the same day were included in this study. In accordance with the World Health Organization (WHO) classification of BMI, the patients were classified into the four groups: underweight (<18.5 kg/m2, n = 30), normal weight (18.5–24.9 kg/m2, n = 83), overweight (25–29.9 kg/m2, n = 43), and obese (≥30 kg/m2, n = 40). Results: With increasing WHO classification of BMI, Cornell index (RaVL+SV3), Cornell product index [(RaVL+SV3)RQRS duration], and LVM increased. On the other hand, Sokolow–Lyon index (SV1+RV5) decreased. Cornell index correlated with LVM in normal weight group (r = 0.27, p = 0.015), but did not in the other groups. Cornell product index also correlated with LVM in normal weight group (r = 0.30, p = 0.006), but did not in the other groups. Sokolow–Lyon index correlated with LVM well in normal weight group (r = 0.32, p = 0.004) and better in underweight group (r = 0.61, p = 0.0004). However, no correlations were found in overweight and obese groups. Conclusions: Our results suggest that BMI influences the correlations between these ECG indexes and LVM, and should be taken into consideration when assessing LVH.
UBE2S drives elongation of K11-linked ubiquitin chains by the Anaphase-Promoting Complex

The Anaphase-Promoting Complex (APC) is an E3 ubiquitin ligase that regulates mitosis and G1 by sequentially targeting cell-cycle regulators for ubiquitination and proteasomal degradation. The mechanism of ubiquitin chain formation by APC and the resultant chain topology remains controversial. By using a single-lysine APC substrate to dissect the topology of ubiquitinated substrates, we find that APC-catalyzed ubiquitination has an intrinsic preference for the K11 linkage of ubiquitin that is essential for substrate degradation. K11 specificity is determined by an E2 enzyme, UBE2S/E2-EPF, that elongates ubiquitin chains after the substrates are pre-ubiquitinated by UbcH10 or UbcH5. UBE2S copurifies with APC; dominant-negative Ube2S slows down APC substrate degradation in functional cell-cycle extracts. We propose that Ube2S is a critical, unique component of the APC ubiquitination pathway.
Political and social incorporation of public housing residents: challenges in HOPE VI community development

The purpose of this paper is to examine the implementation process of Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere (HOPE) VI for two developments in the Southwest and to explore its impact on the rights of dispersed residents. Drawing on the concept, “right to the city,” this paper describes the participation of residents and their right to appropriate space and the role of Community and Supportive Services (CSS) in facilitating those rights. As a measure of residents’ right to participation, this paper examines whether the residents played a significant role during the redevelopment phases. Next, it looks at the residents’ potential for place making. This paper concludes that the residents’’ right to participation and place making were not inherent in HOPE VI implementation, but that CSS could enhance both rights in future programs.
Monoclonal antibodies and antibody fragments: state of the art and future perspectives in the treatment of non-haematological tumors

Introduction: The use of monoclonal antibodies is one of the strategies for targeting the specific key points of the main pathways of cancer growth and survival, but only a few antibodies have offered a clear clinical benefit in the treatment of non-haematological malignancies. Areas covered: This review summarizes the general properties of monoclonal antibodies, including structure, nomenclature and production techniques. The antibodies approved for use in clinical practice for the treatment of non-haematological tumors and those antibodies still being developed in this setting are briefly described. The types of antibody fragments are also reported. Expert opinion: Monoclonal antibodies were initially developed in order to avoid the cytotoxic effects of chemotherapy on healthy tissues. However antibodies have not yet replaced chemotherapy agents, since the combination of both kinds of drugs have usually appeared to achieve higher benefit compared with chemotherapy alone. The research for the development of new monoclonal antibodies aims to identify further targets and to provide innovative antibody constructs.
High Dimensional American Options

Pricing single asset American options is a hard problem in mathematical finance. There are no closed form solutions available (apart from in the case of the perpetual option), so many approximations and numerical techniques have been developed. Pricing multi–asset (high dimensional) American options is still more difficult. We extend the method proposed theoretically by Glasserman and Yu (2004) by employing regression basis functions that are martingales under geometric Brownian motion. This results in more accurate Monte Carlo simulations, and computationally cheap lower and upper bounds to the American option price. We have implemented these models in QuantLib, the open–source derivatives pricing library. The code for many of the models discussed in this thesis can be downloaded from quantlib.org as part of a practical pricing and risk management library. We propose a new type of multi–asset option, the “Radial Barrier Option” for which we find analytic solutions. This is a barrier style option that pays out when a barrier, which is a function of the assets and their correlations, is hit. This is a useful benchmark test case for Monte Carlo simulations and may be of use in approximating multi–asset American options. We use Laplace transforms in this analysis which can be applied to give analytic results for the hitting times of Bessel processes. We investigate the asymptotic solution of the single asset Black–Scholes–Merton equation in the case of low volatility. This analysis explains the success of some American option approximations, and has the potential to be extended to basket options.
Do Output Contractions Trigger Democratic Change?

Does faster economic growth increase pressure for democratic change, or reduce it? Using data for 154 countries for the period 1963-2007, we examine the short-run relationship between economic growth and moves toward and away from greater democracy. To address the potential endogeneity of economic growth, we use variation in precipitation, temperatures, and commodity prices as instruments for a country’s rate of economic growth. Our results indicate that more rapid economic growth reduces the short-run likelihood of institutional change toward democracy. Output contractions due to adverse weather shocks appear to have a particularly important impact on the timing of democratic change.
Construction automatique de ressources lexicales pour la fouille d'opinion

De nombreuses methodes automatiques de fouille d'opinion s'appuient sur un lexique dans lequel a chaque entree est associe un degre de polarite. La construction de telles ressources linguistiques est donc devenue un champ de recherche important en linguistique computationnelle. Des techniques automatiques, basees sur les similarites semantiques entre les mots dont on veut estimer la polarite et des mots dont la polarite est connue, ont ete developpees ces dix dernieres annees et leur efficacite a ete confirmee. La presente recherche propose d'etendre de telles procedures a l'analyse de n-grammes de mots et de determiner les eventuels benefices apportes par cette extension. Une experience menee sur la base d'un vaste corpus de critiques de films indique non seulement que les n-grammes semblent etre des indicateurs plus fiables de polarite que les mots simples, mais aussi que leur combinaison avec ces memes mots simples permet une meilleure prediction de la polarite de textes. Soulignant le caractere exploratoire et les limitations de la presente etude, la conclusion propose quelques pistes pour des recherches futures.
The effect of orally administered diazepam and midazolam on plasma beta‐endorphin, ACTH and preoperative anxiety

Ninety‐five women undergoing induced abortion were randomly premedicated with oral diazepam, 5 or 10 mg, midazolam 15 mg, or intramuscular placebo, 40–60 min before the induction of anesthesia. Prior to premedication and again prior to the procedure, the women completed the questionnaire sheet for the Profile of Mood States (POMS), and plasma samples for immunoreactive β‐endorphin (ir β‐E) and ACTH were taken. The Oblique Tension‐Anxiety (T‐A) Factor scores derived from POMS correlated with plasma concentrations of ir β‐E and ACTH after premedication. The T‐A scores decreased in women premedicated with diazepam, 5 and 10 mg, or midazolam, 15 mg, but not in women treated with placebo. The women premedicated with midazolam, 15 mg, became more fatigued after premedication. The changes in blood pressure after premedication correlated with T‐A scores. A positive correlation was found between heart rate and plasma β‐endorphin concentration. The changes in ir β‐E and ACTH did not correlate with the changes in T‐A scores. We conclude that POMS T‐A scores are useful for assessment of preoperative anxiety and the effect of premedication. The present study did not provide any reliable proof to confirm the hypothesis of a relationship between plasma concentrations of ir β‐E or ACTH and preoperative anxiety. Since many factors modulate endorphin and ACTH secretion prior to operation, the measurement of endogenous opiates may be of limited value in assessment of the effects of preanesthetic medication.
Relevance of blockade of cardiac and circulatory angiotensin-converting enzyme for the prevention of volume overload-induced cardiac hypertrophy.

BACKGROUND Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors show major differences in their affinity for cardiac and other tissue ACEs, and their effects on tissue ACE range from minimal to nearly complete blockade. Angiotensin II taken up from the circulation or generated in the heart may mediate the cardiac hypertrophic response to increased cardiac load. Thus, differences between the ACE inhibitors regarding their effects on cardiac ACE may determine their effects on prevention or regression of cardiac hypertrophy. METHODS AND RESULTS In the present study, we assessed the effects of ACE inhibitors with low (enalapril) and high (quinapril) affinity for cardiac tissue ACE on prevention of volume overload-induced cardiac hypertrophy in relation to their hemodynamic effects. Both blockers were equipotent for circulatory ACE as assessed from the pressure response curve to angiotensin I. Both blockers partially (and similarly) prevented the increase in left ventricular end-diastolic pressure by aortocaval shunt. However, only quinapril prevented or attenuated the development of right ventricular hypertrophy and left ventricular hypertrophy and dilation. CONCLUSIONS The present findings further stress the involvement of the renin-angiotensin system as a trophic stimulus in the development of cardiac hypertrophy in this model. Moreover, the low affinity of enalapril for cardiac ACE appears to lead to continuous angiotensin II generation in the heart and can thus explain the failure of enalapril to attenuate hypertrophic response of the heart induced by shunt despite decreasing cardiac volume overload.
Differences in aggregation properties of three site‐specific mutants of recombinant human stefin B

We describe expression, purification, and characterization of three site‐specific mutants of recombinant human stefin B: H75W, P36G, and P79S. The far‐ and near‐UV CD spectra have shown that they have similar secondary and tertiary structures to the parent protein. The elution on gel‐filtration suggests that recombinant human stefin B and the P36G variant are predominantly monomers, whereas the P79S variant is a dimer. ANS dye binding, reflecting exposed hydrophobic patches, is highest for the P36G variant, both at pH 5 and 3. ANS dye binding also is increased for stefin B and the other two variants at pH 3. Under the chosen conditions the highest tendency to form amyloid fibrils has been shown for the recombinant human stefin B. The P79S variant demonstrates a longer lag phase and a lower rate of fibril formation, while the P36G variant is most prone to amorphous aggregation. This was demonstrated by ThT fluorescence as a function of time and by transmission electron microscopy.
Traditional view or revisionist view? The effects of monetary policy on exchange rates in Asia

This article investigates the channels through which the short-term interest rate is used as an instrument to stabilize the exchange rates in Asia during the financial crisis in the 1990s. A time-varying-parameter model with Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity (GARCH) disturbances is employed to estimate the dynamic effect of the interest rate on the exchange rate. We distinguish the direct effect from the indirect effect. The direct effect exists so that a contractionary monetary policy can have an appreciation impact (the traditional view). The indirect effect refers to the higher default risk induced by a monetary policy tightening, which on the contrary generates a depreciation pressure (the revisionist view). Using weekly data from Indonesia, South Korea and Thailand from 1997:07 to 1998:12, we find that there is no significant evidence in favour of the traditional view. The revisionist view is clearly in effect in Thailand at the very beginning of the crisis.
The Impact of Year-Round Education on Fifth Grade African American Reading Achievement Scores in an Urban Illinois School

The purpose of this quantitative, causal-comparative study was to determine the impact of the year-round education school calendar on the standardized test performance of fifth grade African American students, as measured by the Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) in reading. The ISAT reading scores from two year-round education (YRE) schools (School A and School B) were compared with two traditional calendar education (TCE) schools (School C and School D). The selection of schools was based on numerous factors in order to ensure that the year-round education schools and traditional calendar education schools were similar in socioeconomic status and in the number of African American students attending the schools. Descriptive and inferential analyses were conducted. Descriptive analyses consisted of determining means and standard deviations of study variables. Inferential statistics consisted of a 2 (school type) x 3 (lunch status) between subjects factorial ANOVA to demonstrate main effects of each independent variable, as well as the interaction effect of both variables together on the dependent variable. Results of this study concluded that there was not a significant difference between the year-round and traditional school groups on ISAT reading scores. There were no significant differences between the free lunch, reduced lunch, and paid lunch groups on ISAT reading scores. The interaction effect for school type x lunch status was not significant. Although the current research did not support the previous literature that indicates year-round education might mitigate some of the risks associated with low-socioeconomic status, further research should be conducted on this topic. The present research indicates that within classrooms, educational quality and student outcomes may depend on several factors. Future research on the particular qualities and
The impact of a minimum pension on old age poverty and its budgetary cost. Evidence from Latin America

This paper examines the impact on old age poverty and the fiscal cost of universal minimum old age pensions in Latin America using recent household survey data for 18 countries. Alleviating old age poverty requires different approach from other age groups and a minimum pension is likely to be the only alternative available. First we measure old age poverty rates for all countries. Second we discuss the design of minimum pensions schemes, means-tested or not, as well as the disincentive effects that they are expected to have on the economic and social behavior of households including labor supply, saving and family solidarity. Third we use the household surveys to simulate the fiscal cost and the impact on poverty rates of alternative minimum pension schemes in the 18 countries. We show that a universal minimum pension would substantially reduce poverty among the elderly except in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay where minimum pension systems already exist and poverty rates are low. Such schemes have much to be commended in terms of incentives, spillover effects and administrative simplicity but have a high fiscal cost. The latter is a function of the age at which benefits are awarded, the prevailing longevity, the generosity of benefits, the efficacy of means testing, and naturally the fiscal capacity of the country.
The long term inflation hedging characteristics of UK commercial property

Based on a multivariate analysis of long‐term total returns and inflation data over the period 1963‐1993, shows that commercial property total returns reflect both expected and unexpected components of inflation in the long term. There is no evidence that property returns systematically provide, on an annual basis, hedging characteristics against either of these components.
How to enhance new product creativity in the online brand community?

Abstract An online brand community (OBC) is one of the most important sources of creativity in modern times. While there is substantial evidence concerning both OBCs and creativity, there remains little understanding of how new product creativity is enhanced in an OBC. The results of a survey of 208 paired usable questionnaires (from each fir m’s NPD executive and OBC member), reveal that before interacting with creativity capabilities, a creative climate of OBCs can only impact meaningfulness of new product creativity. However, the interaction of a creative climate of OBCs and creativity capabilities has direct impact on both novelty and meaningfulness of new product creativity. Our findings suggest that firms’ creativity capabilities can act as an enhancer of the creative climate of OBCs.
Numerical predictions and experimental results of a dry bay fire environment.

The primary objective of the Safety and Survivability of Aircraft Initiative is to improve the safety and survivability of systems by using validated computational models to predict the hazard posed by a fire. To meet this need, computational model predictions and experimental data have been obtained to provide insight into the thermal environment inside an aircraft dry bay. The calculations were performed using the Vulcan fire code, and the experiments were completed using a specially designed full-scale fixture. The focus of this report is to present comparisons of the Vulcan results with experimental data for a selected test scenario and to assess the capability of the Vulcan fire field model to accurately predict dry bay fire scenarios. Also included is an assessment of the sensitivity of the fire model predictions to boundary condition distribution and grid resolution. To facilitate the comparison with experimental results, a brief description of the dry bay fire test fixture and a detailed specification of the geometry and boundary conditions are included. Overall, the Vulcan fire field model has shown the capability to predict the thermal hazard posed by a sustained pool fire within a dry bay compartment of an aircraft; although, more extensive experimental data and rigorous comparison are required for model validation.
Combined Probability Approach and Indirect Data-Driven Method for Bearing Degradation Prognostics

This study proposes an application of relevance vector machine (RVM), logistic regression (LR), and autoregressive moving average/generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (ARMA/GARCH) models to assess failure degradation based on run-to-failure bearing simulating data. Failure degradation is calculated by using an LR model, and then regarded as the target vectors of the failure probability for training the RVM model. A multi-step-ahead method-based ARMA/GARCH is used to predict censored data, and its prediction performance is compared with one of Dempster-Shafer regression (DSR) method. Furthermore, RVM is selected as an intelligent system, and trained by run-to-failure bearing data and the target vectors of failure probability obtained from the LR model. After training, RVM is employed to predict the failure probability of individual units of bearing samples. In addition, statistical process control is used to analyze the variance of the failure probability. The result shows the novelty of the proposed method, which can be considered as a valid machine degradation prognostic model.
Key factors influencing foreign direct investment in the tourism industry in South Africa

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the key factors influencing foreign direct investment (FDI) in the South African tourism industry. This is done in order to successfully attract and sustain FDI as well as to remain competitive.Design/methodology/approach – A survey was conducted by means of questionnaires that were completed by various estate agents in South Africa that specialise in dealing with foreign direct investors. The descriptive statistical analyses were performed by using the Statistical Programme for Social Sciences (SPSS 15.0). A factor analysis with Promax rotation was performed and five key factors were identified.Findings – The findings indicated the following key factors: namely perception and infrastructure, government and policy, economy, competitiveness, and nature. The results also indicated which type of product is preferred by which international market.Practical implications – The results can be used to assist government policy on FDI as well as to assist marketers.
Research of Parameters and Antidemagnetization of Rare-Earth-Less Permanent Magnet-Assisted Synchronous Reluctance Motor

The parameters and antidemagnetization ability of permanent magnet-assisted synchronous reluctance motor (PMaSynRM), with concentrated and distributed windings, was analyzed by the finite-element analysis. The reason that concentrated winding PMaSynRM has worse performance in the utilization of reluctance torque and antidemagnetization ability was pointed out, compared with the distributed one. A method was proposed to further improve the antidemagnetization ability of distributed winding PMaSynRM. The magnetic circuit model of multilayer PM structure, in demagnetization case, was established. The operating point formulation, which can reach the consistency of PM layers, was deduced by solving this model. The main optimal parameters were obtained, and a prototype was made according to this method. Finally, the experimental verification of this proposed method was given.