Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Relationship of Bone Mineral Density in Men with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Classified According to the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) Combined Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Assessment System

Objective Osteoporosis, which is now recognized as a major comorbidity of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), must be diagnosed by appropriate methods. The aims of this study were to clarify the relationships between bone mineral density (BMD) and COPD-related clinical variables and to explore the association of BMD with the updated Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) classification in men. Methods We enrolled 50 Japanese men with clinically stable COPD who underwent dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA), pulmonary function testing, and computerized tomography (CT) and who had completed a questionnaire (COPD assessment test [CAT]). We determined the association between the T-score and other tested parameters and compared the BMD of patients in each GOLD category. Results Twenty-three of the 50 patients (46.0%) were diagnosed with osteopenia, and 7 (14.0%) were diagnosed with osteoporosis. The BMD findings were significantly correlated with the CAT score, forced expiratory volume in 1 second percentage predicted (FEV1% predicted), low attenuation volume percentage (LAV%), and percentage of cross-sectional area of small pulmonary vessels (%CSA) on CT images. Notably, the median T-score of the GOLD category D participants was significantly lower than that of the participants in each of the other categories (A [-0.98], B [-1.06], C [-1.05], and D [-2.19], p<0.05). Conclusion Reduced BMD was associated with airflow limitation, extent of radiographic findings, and a poor quality of life (QOL) in patients with COPD. The BMD of GOLD category D patients was the lowest of all of the patients evaluated, and category D patients may benefit from active intervention for osteoporosis.
Financial Management and Profitability: A Multifaceted Study of Business Units from 1971 to 2012

This paper summarizes a series of research papers and investigations interrogating financial decision-makings and their impacts on profitability during 1971 to 2012. Scholars have identified the commonality of financial problems of firms in India and abroad, addressing various aspects of financial management viz. working capital, investment policy and dividend policy etc. While these aspects control and influence the financial performance of business units, the objectives and nature of ownership are other ruling factors. The aim of this paper is to highlight the vital attributes of working capital, debt-equity ratio, dividend payout policy (and its magnitude) and their impact on financial performance of the business units. To serve this purpose, a study of the financial decision-makings of all firms of varying capital sizes and ownership with their specific and general problems have been invariably accommodated in this paper.
Association between passive jobs and low levels of leisure-time physical activity: the Whitehall II cohort study

Background: There is mixed evidence on the association between psychosocial work exposures (ie, passive jobs) and physical activity, but previous studies did not take into account the effect of cumulative exposures nor did they examine different trajectories in exposure. We investigated whether exposure to passive jobs, measured three times over an average of 5 years, is associated with leisure-time physical activity (LTPA). Methods: Data were from working men (n = 4291) and women (n = 1794) aged 35–55 years who participated in the first three phases of the Whitehall II prospective cohort. Exposure to passive jobs was measured at each phase and LTPA at phases 1 and 3. Participants were categorised according to whether or not they worked in a passive job at each phase, leading to a scale ranging from 0 (non-passive job at all three phases) to 3 (passive job at all three phases). Poisson regression with robust variance estimates were used to assess the prevalence ratios of low LTPA. Results: An association was found in men between exposure to passive jobs over 5 years and low LTPA at follow-up, independently of other relevant risk factors. The prevalence ratio for low LTPA in men was 1.16 (95% CI 1.01 to 1.33) times greater for employees with three reports of passive job than for those who had never worked in passive jobs. No association was observed in women. Conclusion: This study provides evidence that working in passive jobs may encourage a passive lifestyle in men.
Parental Involvement in School in a Double Minority Context: The Case of Racial Francophones

This study explored the involvement in school of racial Francophones in a large city in Canada. Specifically, the study investigated the involvement of Black francophone parents in two of Ontario’s publicly funded elementary schools. This study was guided by one main research question: How are Black francophone parents of African origin involved in their children’s formal education in the French-language schools? Five sub-questions stem from the main research question: How do Black francophone parents of African origin understand parental involvement in school? What strategies do these parents employ to become involved in their children’s formal education? What is the nature (i.e., extent, depth) of Black francophone parents’ involvement in their children’s formal education? What inhibits or facilitates the participation of these parents in the school? How is the double-minoritized positioning of these parents implicated in their participation and strategies? Using an anti-racist lens, the study revealed that Black francophone parents of African origin hold differing views regarding involvement in their children’s education. Although these parents treasure education and strive to instill personal values in their children, they express their understanding of involvement in school primarily in terms of cumulative negative experiences they have experienced and in some cases continue to experience with the French-language schools. Understanding of parents’ involvement in school was also encapsulated in terms of the
The impact of stroke-related dysarthria on social participation and implications for rehabilitation

Introduction. Each year an estimated 30,000–45,000 UK individuals experience stroke-related dysarthria (impairment of movements required to produce speech). Many will experience persistent dysarthria long after discharge from stroke services. Although we have some insight into the impact of other communication impairments, we have very limited information on the impact of dysarthria on social participation. Purpose. To explore the impact of dysarthria on social participation following stroke. Methods. We report data from in-depth semi-structured interviews with 24 individuals with stroke-related dysarthria. Results. Our findings suggest a complex association between the severity of an individual's dysarthria and the impact on their social participation. Participants' descriptions highlighted their experiences of social participation and isolation. We further suggest that, in some cases, the coping strategies adopted by the participants could be seen to further exacerbate this isolation. These results have important implications for the prioritisation, planning and delivery of therapeutic interventions for people with dysarthria. Conclusions. The impact of stroke-related dysarthria transcends the physiological impairment to impact upon individuals' social participation, which is key to the process of rehabilitation. The development and evaluation of the effectiveness of an intervention that addresses these impacts is the next challenge for therapists and researchers working in this area.
The pharmacology of cilostazol

Cilostazol (6‐[4‐(1‐cyclohexyl‐1H‐tetrazol‐5‐yl)butoxy]‐3,4‐dihydro‐2(1H)‐quinolinone; OPC‐13013) is a 2‐oxo‐quinoline derivative with antithrombotic, vasodilator, antimitogenic and cardiotonic properties. The compound is a potent inhibitor of phosphodiesterase (PDE) 3A, the isoform of PDE 3 in the cardiovascular system (IC50: 0.2 µm). In addition, there is inhibition of adenosine uptake, eventually resulting in changes in cAMP levels, dependent on the type of adenosine receptors (A1 or A2). Cilostazol inhibits platelet aggregation and has considerable antithrombotic effects in vivo. The compound relaxes vascular smooth muscle and inhibits mitogenesis and migration of vascular smooth muscle cells. In the heart, cilostazol causes positive inotropic and chronotropic effects. Most, if not all, of these actions are cAMP‐mediated, including the modification of cAMP‐controlled gene expression. Cilostazol decreases levels of serum triglycerides and causes some increase in HDL‐cholesterol levels. The compound has a number of additional effects which might contribute to its overall clinical efficacy. Cilostazol undergoes intensive and finally complete hepatic metabolism via the cytochrome P450 systems. This might result in some drug interaction, i.e. with erythromycin and omeprazole. The half‐life is approximately 10 h, resulting in about 2‐fold accumulation of the drug during repeated administration.
ExoU contributes to late killing of Pseudomonas aeruginosa - infected endothelial cells

To ascertain the role of ExoU in late P. aeruginosa cytotoxicity, endothelial cells (EC) were exposed to wild type PA103, PA103DexoU and PA103::exsA for 1h and to gentamicin in culture medium. After 24h, the viability of PA103-infected cells (33.7 ± 14.3%) was significantly lower than the viability of PA103DexoU- (77.7 ± 6.3%) or PA103::exsA- (79.5 ± 23.3%) infected EC. P. aeruginosa cytotoxicity did not depend on the bacterial ability to interact with EC because the percentage of cells with associated PA103 (35.9 ± 15.8%) was similar to the percentage in PA103DexoU- (34.2 ± 16.0%) and lower than the percentage in PA103::exsA-infected cultures (82.9 ± 18.9%). Cell treatment with cytochalasin D reduced the PA103 internalization by EC but did not interfere with its ability to kill host cells.
Professional dignity in nursing in clinical and community workplaces

The purpose of this qualitative study was to analyse nurses’ professional dignity in their everyday working lives. We explored the factors that affect nursing professional dignity in practice that emerge in relationships with health professionals, among clinical nurses working in hospitals and in community settings in central Italy. The main themes identified were: (i) nursing professional dignity perceived as an achievement; (ii) recognition of dignity beyond professional roles. These two concepts are interconnected. This study provides insights into professional dignity in nursing being perceived as an achievement linked to the intrinsic dignity of every human being. The ‘nursing professional dignity perceived as an achievement’ was perceived as having declined in different social factors. Some factors of nursing professional dignity perceived as an achievement were attained more easily in community settings. ‘Recognition of dignity beyond professional roles’ underpins the intrinsic dignity as an expression of humanity, embedded in persons regardless of any profession, and values, such as: respect, moral integrity, humility, working conscientiously and kindness.
Economic Aspects and Issues Along an Urban-Rural Gradient

Economics as often defined is “the allocation of scarce resources. ” Because resources are scarce, in differing measure, they must be allocated efficiently. When people move and landscapes become altered, so too does the allocation of resources change, and thus economic concepts come into play. In this chapter, we explore some economic aspects of relevance to urban–rural gradients, paying specific attention to: (i) the changing structure of economies; (ii) shifts in land, labor, and capital as rural areas become urbanized; (iii) taxation and the scope of public sector activities; (iv) the distribution of income and wealth; and (v) shifts in the environment and in the provision of ecosystem services. While these facets by no means exhaust the set of worthy topics, the discussions are compelling because each one is, in the words of the late Nobel Prizewinning economist, George Stigler, “encompassing and of great moment. ” That is, the economic topics presented in this chapter touch a lot of peoples’ lives and touch those lives in a meaningful manner.
Bioactivity of Luteinizing Hormone during Normal Puberty in Girls and Boys

In order to evaluate the in vitro bioactivity of LH during normal puberty compared to LH immunoactivity measured in a highly sensitive immunoassay, blood plasma samples from healthy children were analyzed in a mouse Leydig cell assay (MLCA). Blood samples were obtained from 60 healthy girls and boys during normal pubertal development. Samples were taken on two occasions with a 1-year interval. Three daytime samples and three nighttime samples were analyzed. The correlation of the LH immunoradiometric assay (IRMA) activity with the LH activity in the MLCA varied from 0.60 to 0.96 in the different pubertal stages. During pubertal development, a gradually increase in the activity of LH in both the IRMA and MLCA was found. The ratio of the in vitro bioactivity compared to the immunoreactivity (B/I ratio) did not change significantly during puberty: it was 0.84 (SD 0.58) and 0.66 (SD 0.40) during the first and second sampling period in girls and 0.88 (SD 0.38) and 0.91 (SD 0.46, NS) in the boys. The B/I ratio of LH does not change during puberty. With a high sensitivity and specificity, measurement of LH by IRMA gives representative measurements of the LH in vitro bioactivity in children during pubertal development.
Full mode substrate integrated waveguide type high power amplifier with second harmonic suppression

This article presents a 10 W full-mode substrate integrated waveguide-type high power amplifier. The matching circuit was designed with microstrip-to-SIW transition and SIW bandpass filter. To realize the matching network at the fundamental frequency 2.18 GHz, we used in the SIW bandpass filter an inductive metallized post. A full mode SIW band pass filter is applied to suppress the 2nd harmonic of 2.18 GHz as input and output of the matching circuits. The insertion-loss measurement of the SIW bandpass filter at the frequency 2.18 GHz and 4.36 GHz are 0.86 dB and 34.58 dB respectively. The SIW HPA was designed and fabricated at the frequency of 2.18 GHz using GaN transistor. This measurement of power-added-efficiency at output of 40.02 dBm is 60.7% with a gain of 13.0 dB at the 2.18 GHz. For 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) and 5G system in millimeter wave, this can be used with other SIW-type of passive circuits by integrating in same substrate.
Extraction for metabolomics: access to the metabolome.

INTRODUCTION The value of information obtained from a metabolomic study depends on how much of the metabolome is present in analysed samples. Thus, only a comprehensive and reproducible extraction method will provide reliable data because the metabolites that will be measured are those that were extracted and all conclusions will be built around this information. OBJECTIVE To discuss the efficiency and reliability of available sample pre-treatment methods and their application in different fields of metabolomics. METHODS The review has three sections: the first deals with pre-extraction techniques, the second discusses the choice of extraction solvents and their main features and the third includes a brief description of the most used extraction techniques: microwave-assisted extraction, solid-phase extraction, supercritical fluid extraction, Soxhlet and a new method developed in our laboratory--the comprehensive extraction method. RESULTS Examination of over 200 studies showed that sample collection, homogenisation, grinding and storage could affect the yield and reproducibility of results. They also revealed that apart from the solvent used for extraction, the extraction techniques have a decisive role on the metabolites available for analysis. CONCLUSION It is essential to evaluate efficacy and reproducibility of sample pre-treatment as a first step to ensure the reliability of a metabolomic study. Among the reviewed methods, the comprehensive extraction method appears to provide a promising approach for extracting diverse types of metabolites.
Effective arcing contact gap of a 126 kV horseshoe type axial magnetic field vacuum interrupter

The objective of this paper is to determine the arcing contact gap for a 126 kV horseshoe type bipolar axial magnetic field (AMF) vacuum interrupter. A pair of contacts with contact material of CuCr50 was arranged in a demountable vacuum chamber. Movable contact was driven by a spring driven permanent magnetic actuator. The full contact gap was 60 mm. Arc current reached up to 40 kA rms, and arc duration was set as 9ms. Evolution of vacuum arc behaviors was observed by a high-speed digital camera. A long arcing contact gap is the maximum gap above which vacuum arcs cannot be controlled by the bipolar AMF. A short arcing contact gap is the minimum gap below which vacuum arcs are constrict. Experimental results show that the long arcing contact gap of the horseshoe type AMF contact is determined as 35 mm, in which the vacuum arc can be controlled by the AMF effectively. The short arcing contact gap is determined as 14 mm. In addition, a recommended arcing contact gap without arc distorting outside is determined as 27 mm. The long arcing contact gap and short arcing contact gap can be used to determine opening speed curve of the 126 kV horseshoe type bipolar AMF vacuum interrupter.
Quantum Low Entropy based Associative Reasoning or QLEAR Learning

In this paper, we propose the classification method based on a learning paradigm we are going to call Quantum Low Entropy based Associative Reasoning or QLEAR learning. The approach is based on the idea that classification can be understood as supervised clustering, where a quantum entropy in the context of the quantum probabilistic model, will be used as a "capturer" (measure, or external index), of the "natural structure" of the data. By using quantum entropy we do not make any assumption about linear separability of the data that are going to be classified. The basic idea is to find close neighbors to a query sample and then use relative change in the quantum entropy as a measure of similarity of the newly arrived sample with the representatives of interest. In other words, method is based on calculation of quantum entropy of the referent system and its relative change with the addition of the newly arrived sample. Referent system consists of vectors that represent individual classes and that are the most similar, in Euclidean distance sense, to the vector that is analyzed. Here, we analyze the classification problem in the context of measuring similarities to prototype examples of categories. While nearest neighbor classifiers are natural in this setting, they suffer from the problem of high variance (in bias-variance decomposition) in the case of limited sampling. Alternatively, one could use machine learning techniques (like support vector machines) but they involve time-consuming optimization. Here we propose a hybrid of nearest neighbor and machine learning technique which deals naturally with the multi-class setting, has reasonable computational complexity both in training and at run time, and yields excellent results in practice.
Using speed and credit limits to address the procyclicality of initial margin at central counterparties

This paper proposes a practical approach to address the procyclicality of initial margin at central counterparties (CCPs) that can work even in periods of extreme stress. The approach allows CCPs to limit the speed of margin increases resulting from spikes in market volatility. To maintain the desired level of risk protection, the model covers, through loss-sharing arrangements, a chosen number of the largest shares of the margin increases that are deemed procyclical. To facilitate adoption of this approach, we allow loss sharing to be capped through the allocation of bilateral credit limits. We undertake an empirical exercise to demonstrate that, even with conservative assumptions, the proposed approach can generate significant margin relief without generating losses that cannot be absorbed by clearing members.
Strategic recruitment of an ethnically diverse cohort of overweight survivors of breast cancer with lymphedema

Black women are more likely to experience adverse effects from cancer treatment such as lymphedema. Thus, black women may particularly benefit from research regarding interventions to improve lymphedema. Herein, the authors report the challenges and strategies related to the recruitment of minority survivors of breast cancer and to the recruitment of survivors of breast cancer with lymphedema into the Women In Steady Exercise Research (WISER) Survivor Clinical Trial.
Exchange rate fluctuations and macroeconomic performance: evidence from four fast-growing emerging economies

Purpose - Recent turbulence in global financial markets implies that emerging economies are likely to soon enter a new era with greater pressure for currency depreciation and capital outflows. This will likely bring challenges, including macroeconomic instability and inflationary pressures due to potential rapid depreciation. In this context, certain key questions about emerging economies have become focal points of discussion in political and academic spheres: What are the effects of exchange rate depreciation on economic activity? Does exchange rate depreciation create inflationary pressure? Finding answers to these questions is critical for policymakers and financial market participants. As such, this paper aims to shed light on these questions and thus provides guidance on mitigating the negative impacts of shocks in four fast-growing emerging economies. Design/methodology/approach - We use a VAR model with sign restrictions to examine the dynamic effects of exchange rate movements on fundamental macroeconomic indicators for four fast-growing countries, namely Brazil, Turkey, Russia, and South Africa. Following Berument et al. (2012-a), Ncube and Ndou (2013), Bjornland and Halvorsen (2013), and An et al., (2014), we adopt the sign-restriction methodology to identify exchange rate shocks alongside other macroeconomic shocks (monetary policy and productivity shocks) leading to exchange rate fluctuations. Findings - The results show that exchange rate depreciation typically generates a deep recession and high inflation while improving the trade balance in the four emerging economies. This indicates that depreciation has strong stagflationary effects, which are transmitted to the macroeconomy primarily via supply-side channels, especially through the cost of import. Furthermore, we find that monetary policy reacts immediately to a domestic currency depreciation in all four emerging countries. Practical implications - The results imply that these countries’ monetary policies are not and cannot be neutral to exchange rate shocks. However, in these import-dependent countries, monetary tightening (i.e., rate hikes in response to an exchange rate shock) plays a limited role in mitigating the negative effects of depreciation on inflation and economic activity due to the presence of a dominant supply-side channel. In this framework, policymakers should pay greater attention to structural reforms that aim to reduce import dependency. These reforms may increase the effectiveness of domestic monetary policy in mitigating the negative effects of external shocks. Originality/value - This paper provides a useful perspective for policymakers designing economic interventions to mitigate the adverse effects of exchange rate depreciation and to those who borrow or lend in domestic or international financial markets.