Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ribosomal DNA sequences in the differentiation of pathogenic and non-pathogenic isolates of Entamoeba histolytica

SUMMARY Recombinant ribosomal DNA sequences were amplified by PCR and used as probes to perform a fingerprint analysis of total DNA from different Entamoeba histolytica isolates. RFLPs obtained with one of the probes, R-1, support previous proposals that pathogenic and non-pathogenic E. histolytica are closely related, yet genotypically distinct. Another probe, R-2, while not distinguishing between the two forms of E. hystolytica, was able to differentiate between them and E. moshkovskii, which has morphologically identical cysts and trophozoites. A third probe, BR-1, identified strain-specific RFLPs.
Enid Mumford: a tribute

In this edited article, we look at the many contributions of Enid Mumford: as a worker, teacher, colleague, researcher, but most of all as a human being, written by those who have been influenced by her, many of whom knowing her personally. Andrew Pettigrew first encountered Enid as an undergraduate, later becoming her first Research Fellow and then Enid supervised his PhD. His tribute introduces us to both her work and humanity. Frank Land is often associated with the work of Enid and in his tribute he discusses the roots of Enid's views in socio-technical design, her influence on the National Computing Centre and through her many roles in practice where she acted as facilitator for humanistic as well as successful change using technology. Michael Earl first met Enid as a lecturer at Manchester Business School in 1974. His contribution recognizes her special personal qualities as a teacher as well as her impact on practice. Like many authors of this paper, Gor-don Davis will be well known to readers and it says much for Enid's standing in the field that he writes of her impact on himself and his understanding of information systems (IS) and IS research. In his article, Niels Bjørn-Andersen refers to Enid as the 'Florence Nightingale' of IT and he suggests that 'no other researcher has contributed so much towards influencing the practice of systems design in the direction of giving higher priority to humanistic values and democratization'. This very worthy achievement of Enid is also highlighted by other writers in this article. Trevor Wood-Harper and Bob Wood suggest that Enid, like Frank Sinatra, did it 'my way', but perhaps unlike Frank Sinatra, Enid's way is also a humanistic way to the future. They provide a useful overview of Enid's contribution to the literature. Bob Galliers refers to Enid's vision as well as her humanity, suggesting that her vision was much broader than most, much more heroic. For her, IS had to speak of societal problems as well as organizational and technical ones. David Avison describes how Enid changed his life and reflects on how her friendliness , openness and kindness that she showed in personal relationships are evidenced in her work that remains with us. Heinz K. Klein suggests that Enid was a leader in the 'informal col-lege' of paradigm change and advocates her as a role model for junior faculty. Indeed he shows us how …
DCT-Compressive sampling applied to speech signals

Compressive sampling (CS)is a emerging technique with many applications on signal processing field. It states that it is possible to reconstruct a signal from a number of samples below the well-known Nyquist limit. The success of the reconstruction depends on the capability of a frontend transform to represent the signal in a sparse way. In this paper, we propose the use of the discrete cosine transform (DCT) to preprocess a speech signal in order to obtain a sparse representation in the frequency domain, and thus, we show that the subsequent application of compressive sampling can represent vowels with less information than the Nyquist sampling theorem. The reader will find that the presented material differs from other speech processing techniques, as our results could be the basis for developing compression methods using the discrete cosine transform and compressive sampling. Both techniques, traditionally used for image compression, are now proposed for speech compression.
Motivation and financial literacy

This paper examities the hypothesis that low financial literacy scores among young adults, even after they have taken a course in personal finance, is related to a lack of motivation to learn or retain these skills. The research is based upon the latest national Jump$tart survey of high school seniors and uses financial literacy scores after controlling for socioeconomic, demographic, and aspirational characteristics that have historically predicted these scores. We analyze the relation of financial literacy scores to responses to three questions designed to measure motivation to be financially literate. We found that the motivational variables significantly increased our ability to explain differences in financial literacy, © 2007 Academy of Financial Services, All rights reserved,
Cognitive Impairment and Critical Illness: A Chicken and an Egg.

Critical Care Medicine www.ccmjournal. org 2115 17. Sandroni C, Cariou A, Cavallaro F, et al: Prognostication in comatose survivors of cardiac arrest: An advisory statement from the European Resuscitation Council and the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine. Intensive Care Med 2014; 40:1816–1831 18. Callaway CW, Donnino MW, Fink EL, et al: Part 8: Post-Cardiac Arrest Care: 2015 American Heart Association Guidelines Update for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiovascular Care. Circulation 2015; 132:S465–S482 19. Elmer J, Torres C, Aufderheide TP, et al: Association of early withdrawal of life-sustaining therapy for perceived neurological prognosis with mortality after cardiac arrest. Resuscitation 2016; 102:127–135 20. Sasson C, Rogers MA, Dahl J, et al: Predictors of survival from out-ofhospital cardiac arrest: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Circ Cardiovasc Qual Outcomes 2010; 3:63–81 21. Sanna T, La Torre G, de Waure C, et al: Cardiopulmonary resuscitation alone vs. cardiopulmonary resuscitation plus automated external defibrillator use by non-healthcare professionals: A meta-analysis on 1583 cases of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Resuscitation 2008; 76:226–232
Modeling and Forecasting the Stock Market Volatility of S&P 500 Index Using GARCH Models

Volatility forecasting is an important area of research in financial markets and immense effort has been expended in improving volatility models, since better forecasts translate themselves into better pricing of options and better risk management. In this direction, the present paper attempts at modelling and forecasting the volatility (conditional variance) of the S&P 500 Index returns of United States stock market, using daily data covering a period from January 1, 1996 to January 29, 2010. The forecasting models that are considered in this study range from the relative simple GARCH (1,1) model to relatively complex GARCH models, including Exponential GARCH (1,1) and Threshold GARCH (1,1) models. Based on out-of-sample forecasts and a majority of evaluation measures, our result shows that the symmetric GARCH model does perform better in forecasting conditional variance of the S&P 500 Index return rather than the asymmetric GARCH models, despite the presence of leverage effect. Our findings are consistent with the evidence of Gokcan (2000) that relatively parsimonious symmetric GARCH model is superior in forecasting the conditional variance of emerging stock market return series to the asymmetric GARCH model.
“Look and feel your best”: representations of artificial limb users in prosthetic company advertisements

Abstract Purpose: Artificial limbs (prosthetics) are considered important for keeping the person physically active and avoiding an array of negative health outcomes associated with non-use. Increasingly, the potential users of these limbs are the focus of commercial prosthetic company advertisements. It has been argued that it is important to examine such media representations, not least because people’s beliefs regarding health and illness are often forged from the discourses and constructions available to them in such material, but because these representations mediate individual lived experience. Method: This article provides a thematic analysis, drawing upon discourse analysis and semiotics, of textual–pictorial representations of artificial limb users in the advertisements of prosthetic companies. The data set was comprised of advertisements that appeared over a 2-year period in inMotion, an international magazine produced and distributed by a major amputee advocacy group. Results: The findings indicate that dominant societal constructions of work, gender and family are drawn on in depicting artificial limb users. These offer generally positive representations that draw on socially pervasive stereotypes. Conclusions: The findings are discussed in relation to literature concerning the experience and meaning of prosthesis use, and the implications for health professionals working with this group are set out. Implications for Rehabilitation People who lose a limb are increasingly being exposed to advertisements from prosthetic companies. Such advertisements have the potential to foster unrealistic expectations regarding rehabilitation following amputation. Healthcare professionals need to be mindful of how these advertisements mediate lived experience and impact on rehabilitation when planning personal care plans.
Ion microanalysis of cells.

The application of ion microanalysis (IMA) to the chemical characterization of freeze-fixed, freeze-dried cells is reviewed. Particular emphasis is given to pathological studies involving the determination of the chemical composition of isolated cells (e.g. rabbit alveolar macrophages--RAMs) exposed in vitro to toxic species (e.g. Pb3O4 particles). Ion microscopic results indicated that lead from Pb3O4 migrated into the RAMs and subsequently formed phosphorous-containing compounds. Quantitative comparisons of the relative concentrations of physiologic elements in Pb3O4-treated versus control RAMs also were made using ion microanalytical techniques. The Pb3O4 results illustrate that the three-dimensional analysis capabilities of the IMA may be exploited for the in situ observation of the penetration of xenobiotic agents into cell interiors and their subsequent intracellular chemistry. The potential advantages of ion microanalysis for the characterization of cells include high elemental sensitivity (including low atomic number elements and diffusible ions), broad elemental coverage, three dimensional analysis, and isotopic information. The major limitations include non-idealities of the ion sputtering process, the constraints on the lateral resolution available to identify subcellular features, and the difficulties inherent in the determination of absolute elemental concentrations.
Modeling Disease Progression and Rosiglitazone Intervention in Type 2 Diabetic Goto-Kakizaki Rats

The pharmacokinetics (PK) and pharmacodynamics (PD) of rosiglitazone were studied in type 2 diabetic (T2D) Goto-Kakizaki (GK) rats that received daily doses of 0, 5, or 10 mg/kg for 23 days followed by 60 days of washout. Blood glucose, plasma insulin, and hemoglobin A1c were determined over time. Oral glucose tolerance tests were performed before and at the end of treatment and after 20 days of washout to determine insulin sensitivity and β-cell function. Rosiglitazone effectively lowered glucose by inhibiting hepatic glucose production and enhancing insulin sensitivity. The glucose-insulin inter-regulation was characterized by a feedback model: glucose and insulin have their own production (kin) and elimination (kout) rate constants, whereas glucose stimulates insulin production (kinI) and insulin, in turn, promotes glucose utilization (koutG). Animal handling and placebo treatment affected glucose turnover with kpl = 0.388 kg/mg/day. The PK of rosiglitazone was fitted with a one-compartment model with first-order absorption. The effect of rosiglitazone was described as inhibition of kinG with Imax = 0.296 and IC50 = 1.97 μg/ml. Rosiglitazone also stimulated glucose utilization by improving insulin sensitivity with a linear factor SR = 0.0796 kg/mg. In GK rats, 23 days of treatment increased body weight but did not cause hemodilution. Weight gain was characterized with body weight input (ksw) and output (kdw), and rosiglitazone inhibited kdw with ID50 = 96.8 mg/kg. The mechanistic PK/PD model quantitatively described the glucose-insulin system and body weights under chronic rosiglitazone treatment in T2D rats.
Molecular analysis of the inhibitory effect of N-acetyl-L-cysteine on the proliferation and invasiveness of pancreatic cancer cells

Preliminary studies have suggested that the reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenger N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC) may be effective in inhibiting the growth of pancreatic cancer cells. In-depth cellular and molecular analyses were carried out to determine NAC’s mode of action in inhibiting the growth of a well-characterized pancreatic cancer cell line (AsPC-1). Standardized assays were used to monitor cellular growth, apoptosis, levels of ROS, cellular senescence, migration, and invasiveness. Cell stiffness was measured using atomic force microscopy. Gene expression was monitored by quantitative PCR. NAC significantly inhibits the growth and metastatic potential of AsPC-1 cells by inducing cell-cycle arrest in G1 and subsequent cellular senescence and decreased invasiveness. These anticancer properties are associated with an unexpected increase in the intracellular concentrations of ROS. NAC does not decrease the susceptibility of AsPC-1 cells to the anticancer drugs gemcitabine, mitomycin C, and doxorubicin. NAC-induced changes in gene expression are consistent with the onset of mesenchymal-to-epithelial transition. In conclusion, our findings indicate that NAC induces an integrated series of responses in AsPC-1 cells that make it a highly promising candidate for development as a pancreatic cancer therapeutic.
Opportunities and pitfalls of Chinese agricultural businesses to become international brands

This study investigates the differences in implementing the five stages of the marketing concept by Chinese agricultural businesses with the aim to internationally brand their products. Interviews were held with 13 Chinese CEOs and marketing managers from different product groups. The results show a negative picture of Chinese organisations that attempt to implement the marketing concept. Of the five stages of the concept, only the fifth stage – controlling the marketing programme – was implemented in a positive way (by 77% of the organisations surveyed). This pioneering study provides useful knowledge for any agri-business firm in China and in other emerging country firms in order to improve their international marketing and branding capabilities.
Fiscal Deficits, Exchange Rate Crises and Inflation

The analysis focuses on the government budget constraint and the resolution of inconsistent implications of different policy instruments under that constraint. We show how, under floating exchange rates, external shocks or internal structural reforms may cause jumps in inflation and the exchange rate through their impact on the government budget. In order to achieve a sustainable reduction in inflation an exchange rate freeze or crawling peg is shown to require restrictions not only on domestic credit, but also on the rate of increase in interest-bearing public debt. We endogenize regime collapse by introducing rational speculation against the central bank, and show that if an exchange rate freeze collapses, post-collapse inflation will exceed the rate prevailing before the freeze started.
Political Regimes and the Cost of Disinflation

This study investigates, using data from 1960 to 1998, whether the nature of political regimes can help explain cross-national and intertemporal variations in the cost of disinflationary policies, as measured by the sacrifice ratio. We show that, "ceteris paribus", right-wing governments have lower costs of disinflations than left-wing governments. We argue this is due to a superior credibility, resulting from their stronger anti-inflation reputations. In addition (and in marked contrast to previous studies), we find that when we control for political regimes, trade openness, and other standard factors in this literature, central bank independence has no significant effect on the sacrifice ratio. Copyright (c) 2008 The Ohio State University.
Introduction to 'Exchange Rates in Europe and Australasia: Fundamental Determinants, Adjustments and Policy Implications'

The papers in this issue are concerned with the behaviour of exchange rates - their fundamental determinants, adjustment processes and policy implications. The authors combine theory with empirical evidence, test hypotheses as well as show the relevance of their analysis for policy. This Introduction addresses several questions. What are the contributions of the articles to the economics of exchange rates? Are they significant in increasing our understanding of the current issues and in addressing questions of policy? How can one explain the movements in the European and the Asian currencies? What can we expect to happen to the euro with the enlargement of the euro area? Do the papers provide frameworks to guide empirical research? In this Introduction, we highlight aspects of each paper that addresses these issues.
Beta Instability of Firms: The Case of the Taiwan Stock Market During Its Financial Development

In this paper, we find evidence of the intra- and inter-period beta instability of firms in the Taiwan stock market during its financial development from 1982 to 1998. Particularly noteworthy is the result that the proportions of firms exhibiting beta instability, in the full sample and two well-known export-oriented industries, the textile and the electronics industries, are lower in the sub-period January 1987-December 1992 than in the other two sub-periods, January 1982- December 1986 and January 1993-December 1998. The result may be attributable to non-fundamental-driven optimism or pessimism about the market induced by speculative capital flows during the sub-period January 1987- December 1992.
Feasibility of a Day-Camp Model of Modified Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy With and Without Botulinum Toxin A Injection for Children With Hemiplegia

The objective of the study was to investigate the feasibility of modified constraint-induced (CI) therapy provided in a 2-week day-camp model with and without intramuscular botulinum toxin type A (BoNT-A) injections for children with congenital cerebral palsy. Sixteen children with congenital hemiplegia, Manual Ability Classification System (MACS) level I and II, aged 8–17 years, participated in a CI therapy day camp; of whom five participants (aged 11–16 years) received intramuscular BoNT-A prior to CI therapy. Assessments were conducted 4 months and 2 weeks before (baselines 1 and 2), immediately after, and 6 months after the day camp. For the children who received BoNT-A, no statistical analyses were conducted due to the small size of the sample. In this group, consistent improvement was only found according to the Melbourne Unilateral Limb Assessment. The children who received only the CI therapy demonstrated improvements in the Jebsen–Taylor Hand Function Test (p =. 04) at posttest, but improvements were not sustained at 6-month follow-up. No significant improvement was obtained for the Melbourne Assessment or the Assisting Hand Assessment. Children in both groups improved on specially trained tasks: frisbee golf, stacking blocks, and in-hand manipulation. Feedback from the participants suggests that the day-camp model is a feasible intervention following intramuscular BoNT-A injections. The results suggest that children with congenital hemiplegia with varying severity of impairment in hand function may benefit from CI therapy, but not every child demonstrates improvements in hand function. The characteristics of children who respond the best to CI therapy are not clear.
Antiapoptotic and Oncogenic Potentials of Hepatitis C Virus Are Linked to Interferon Resistance by Viral Repression of the PKR Protein Kinase

ABSTRACT Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is prevalent worldwide and has become a major cause of liver dysfunction and hepatocellular carcinoma. The high prevalence of HCV reflects the persistent nature of infection and the large frequency of cases that resist the current interferon (IFN)-based anti-HCV therapeutic regimens. HCV resistance to IFN has been attributed, in part, to the function of the viral nonstructural 5A (NS5A) protein. NS5A from IFN-resistant strains of HCV can repress the PKR protein kinase, a mediator of the IFN-induced antiviral and apoptotic responses of the host cell and a tumor suppressor. Here we examined the relationship between HCV persistence and resistance to IFN therapy. When expressed in mammalian cells, NS5A from IFN-resistant HCV conferred IFN resistance to vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), which normally is sensitive to the antiviral actions of IFN. NS5A blocked viral double-stranded RNA (dsRNA)-induced PKR activation and phosphorylation of eIF-2α in IFN-treated cells, resulting in high levels of VSV mRNA translation. Mutations within the PKR-binding domain of NS5A restored PKR function and the IFN-induced block to viral mRNA translation. The effects due to NS5A inhibition of PKR were not limited to the rescue of viral mRNA translation but also included a block in PKR-dependent host signaling pathways. Cells expressing NS5A exhibited defective PKR signaling and were refractory to apoptosis induced by exogenous dsRNA. Resistance to apoptosis was attributed to an NS5A-mediated block in eIF-2α phosphorylation. Moreover, cells expressing NS5A exhibited a transformed phenotype and formed solid tumors in vivo. Disruption of apoptosis and tumorogenesis required the PKR-binding function of NS5A, demonstrating that these properties may be linked to the IFN-resistant phenotype of HCV.
Crop genetic diversity, farm productivity and the management of environmental risk in rainfed agriculture

This paper presents an assessment of the linkages between crop genetic diversity, farm productivity and risk management. A flexible moment-based approach is used to analyse the impact of crop genetic diversity on the mean, variance and skewness of yield. Using farm-level data from Sicily (Italy), econometric evidence shows how crop genetic diversity can increase farm productivity and reduce risk exposure. The empirical results indicate that crop genetic diversity can reduce variance, but only if pesticide use is low. Furthermore, high diversity levels can reduce downside risk exposure (e.g. the risk of crop failure). This provides useful insights on the linkages between resilience and crop genetic diversity.