Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Multicenter, randomized, placebo‐controlled, double‐blind clinical trial of escitalopram on the progression‐delaying effects in Alzheimer's disease

A series of preclinical studies have suggested that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressants not only stimulate neurogenesis but also have neuroprotective effects. The present study primarily aimed to investigate whether escitalopram would decelerate the brain atrophy of patients with mild‐to‐moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD). We also assessed the effects of escitalopram on the cognitive function and neuropsychiatric symptoms of these participants.
Dual-mode routing in IP over ATM networks

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how to design an integrated routing architecture for IP and ATM meeting the requirements for a large scale Internet based on IP and ATM. Integration of IP and ATM at the routing level leads us to consider two separate aspects: using a common routing architecture for IP and ATM on one hand (layer integration) and, on the other hand, integrating best-effort and QoS traffic support in the same routing architecture (service integration). The first level of integration is, for obvious reasons, highly recommended. In contrast, we show that the second level of integration is not desirable because best- effort and QoS traffic flows have, in terms of routing contradictory requirements. To conduct this analysis, we feel that, because of the inherent complexity of the problem, confronting the existing proposals is too restrictive. Instead, we propose to go one step back in the design process and identify the basic design options to be considered when designing a routing architecture. We identify three options, namely, route updating vs. route pinning, hop by hop vs. explicit routing and pre-computed routes vs. on-demand route computation. A fourth option is whether or not to integrate in the routing architecture the capability to compute shortcut paths, that is, bypassing layer 3 (L3) nodes and using only layer 2 (L2) devices. Using this framework, we conclude that best-effort traffic flows are well served by a combination of route updating, hop by hop routing and pre-computed routes while QoS flow routing is built on route pinning, explicit routing and on-demand route computation. We also observe that the capability to compute L2 shortcuts in an L2/L3 integrated routing architecture is an added value simplifying the overall network design and optimizing the efficiency of the forwarding path.
Long term follow-up of a large cohort of inactive HBsAg (+)/ HBeAg (-)/ anti-HBe (+) carriers in Greece.

AIM To investigate the long-term outcome and the risk of progression to chronic hepatitis B in inactive hepatitis B surface antigen carriers. MATERIAL AND METHODS A total of 307 HBsAg (+)/HBeAg (-)/antiHBe (+) subjects with initially normal alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels and undetectable/ low serum HBVDNA with hybridization assay and later with PCR (10(5) copies/ml), were followed-up every 6 months for a period of 3 to 21 years (7.45 +/- 3.75 years). RESULTS 234 out of the 307 HBsAg (+) patients (76.2%) had persistently normal ALT and undetectable / low (10(5) copies/ml) HBVDNA during follow-up. In 73 patients (23.8%), a reactivation of the disease with elevated ALT and positive HBVDNA (> (10(5)copies/ml) was recorded during the follow up. Thirty-five out of 73 patients underwent liver biopsy, while 22 of them received treatment. Twenty-four patients (7.8%) lost HBsAg after a mean of 7.4 +/- 3.6 years. Regarding the complications of chronic hepatitis B, only one patient developed compensated cirrhosis and no one developed HCC. CONCLUSIONS Our results show that in almost 24% of inactive chronic hepatitis B carriers reactivation of the disease may occur even after many years. However the risk of liver-related complications is very low in these subjects.
Customer satisfaction and bid-ask spreads in stock markets

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Une approche unifiante pour programmer sûrement avec de la syntaxe du premier ordre contenant des lieurs

Cette these decrit une nouvelle approche pour la rneta-prograrnmation sure. Un meta-programme est un programme qui manipule des programmes ou assimiles. Les compilateurs et systemes de preuves sont de bous exemples de meta-programmes qui beneficieraient de cette approche. Dans ce but, ce travail se concentre sur la representation des noms et des lieurs dans les structures de donnees. Les erreurs de programmation etant courantes avec les techniques usuelles, nous proposons une interface abstraite pour les noms et les lieurs qui elimine ces erreurs. Cette interface est implementee sous forme d'une bibliotheque en Agda. Elle permet de definir et manipuler des representations de termes dans le style nominal. Grâce a l'abstraction, d'autres styles sont aussi disponibles : le style de De Bruijn, les combinaisons de ces styles, et d'autres encore. Nous indicons les noms et les termes par des mondes. Les mondes sont en rreme temps precis et abstraits. Via les relations logiques et la parametricite, nous pouvons demontrer dans quel sens notre bibliotheque est sure, et obtenir des "theoremes gratuits" a propos des fonctions rnonde-polymorphiques. Ainsi une fonction monde-polymorphique de transformation de termes doit commuter avec n'importe quel renommage de variables libres. La preuve est entierement conduite en Agda. Notre technique se montre utile sur plusieurs exemples, dont la normalisation par evaluation qui est connue pour etre un defi. Nous montrons que notre approche indicee par des mondes permet d'exprimer un large panel de type de donrees grâce a des langages de definition embarques.
Business Exits and Reentry: Demand and Supply Explanations of Entrepreneur Career Choices

This dissertation is a compilation thesis consisting of three research studies on the normative and personal expectations that influence entrepreneurial engagement subsequent to business exits. Collectively, the three studies provide insights into how and when variances between performance expectations and actual business outcomes shift the demand and supply of different groups of experienced entrepreneurs. On the demand side, I theorize and empirically examine variances in acts and modes of entrepreneurial engagement that correlate to informal (stigma of business failure, masculine norms) and formal (regulatory environment) institutional contexts. On the supply side, I develop propositions about cognitive aspects of business exits that influence the motivation of experienced entrepreneurs to engage in serial entrepreneurship. I ask the following three questions in my dissertation research: When and how do the fit or non-fit of exits from successful and unsuccessful businesses influence future engagement in entrepreneurship activity (Study 1)? How are the future career decisions of entrepreneurs who close failed businesses influenced by formal, i.e., the regulatory environment for doing business, and informal, i.e., the stigma of business failure, institutional contexts (Study 2)? Do differences in normative expectations influence the re-entry of male and female entrepreneurs differently following the closure of a failed business (Study 3)? The extant studies in the entrepreneurship literature often emphasize the characteristics of the entrepreneur or the institutional context. This dissertation highlights the fact that social realities, in concert with the cognitive processing of business exits, shape the acts and modes of entrepreneurial engagement subsequent to business exits. The implications for entrepreneurship theory, policy and practice that arise from this duality are discussed. BUSINESS EXITS AND REENTRY: DEMAND AND SUPPLY EXPLANATIONS OF ENTREPRENEUR CAREER CHOICES
Imperatives and Guidelines for Bamboo Development Policy in Nigeria

Nigeria’s industrial policy has always hinged on the development and utilization of its locally available raw materials. The current industrial policy which came into operation in 1988 aimed at increasing private sector participation in the manufacturing sector and accelerated development and utilization of local raw materials by the manufacturing sector. Studies carried out on the wood and wood products sector of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria showed that total wood available down to 30cm cutting diameter in national forests is approximately 293,775,500m3. When this is juxtaposed with annual requirement estimated at 59,955,000m3 for 2010, extreme wood shortages are expected in the near future. As a result of this, the nation has to develop a substitute or complementary raw material to wood. One of the most recognized substitutes is bamboo. Bamboo has been used as substitute to wood in most applications and new uses are emerging. As Nigeria is blessed with abundant bamboo resources, efforts should be made to develop the nation’s bamboo resource. The imperatives that will lead to sustainable development of bamboo as an industrial raw material in Nigeria are its role in biodiversity conservation, impending wood deficit, bamboos high industrial potentials and its abundant availability in the southern and central parts of the country. To foster bamboo development, there is need for a comprehensive and long term support that only a policy can provide. The goals of such a policy and its approaches and strategies to be adopted must be clearly highlighted in the policy document. The guidelines for the development of such a policy are outlined in this paper. Keywords : Imperatives, bamboo, industrial policy
The internationalization of British and Indian small and medium-sized enterprises: a comparative study

The objective of this research is to address the need for empirical evidence on how and why British and Indian SMEs engage in and sustain mutual business relationships, and to contribute to theory development. It focuses on their internationalization strategies, and the potential relevance of psychic distance, social capital and learning. A mixed qualitative and quantitative methodology is employed to study the internationalization of British companies to India and vice-versa. The views of both British and Indian SME entrepreneurs were obtained for this purpose. The empirical investigation proceeded through two stages. The first stage consisted of qualitative exploratory research among the managers of 30 British companies and their partners in India. The second stage of the study involved a survey of 100 British SMEs and 100 Indian SMEs. The findings show that SMEs entrepreneurs tend to rely heavily on network support. However, despite their personal networks and use of advanced communication technologies, some entrepreneurs could not cope with the complex institutional features of foreign markets. We also observed that national differences are of considerable relevance for SME internationalization. We conclude that a distinct theory of SME internationalization is required and offer some suggestions to that end based on the research findings.
Myeloid leukemia factor is a conserved regulator of RUNX transcription factor activity involved in hematopoiesis

Defining the function of the genes that, like RUNX1, are deregulated in blood cell malignancies represents an important challenge. Myeloid leukemia factors (MLFs) constitute a poorly characterized family of conserved proteins whose founding member, MLF1, has been associated with acute myeloid leukemia in humans. To gain insight into the functions of this family, we investigated the role of the Drosophila MLF homolog during blood cell development. Here we report that mlf controls the homeostasis of the Drosophila hematopoietic system. Notably, mlf participates in a positive feedback loop to fine tune the activity of the RUNX transcription factor Lozenge (LZ) during development of the crystal cells, one of the two main blood cell lineages in Drosophila. At the molecular level, our data in cell cultures and in vivo strongly suggest that MLF controls the number of crystal cells by protecting LZ from degradation. Remarkably, it appears that the human MLF1 protein can substitute for MLF in the crystal cell lineage. In addition, MLF stabilizes the human oncogenic fusion protein RUNX1-ETO and is required for RUNX1-ETO–induced blood cell disorders in a Drosophila model of leukemia. Finally, using the human leukemic blood cell line Kasumi-1, we show that MLF1 depletion impairs RUNX1-ETO accumulation and reduces RUNX1-ETO–dependent proliferation. Thus, we propose that the regulation of RUNX protein levels is a conserved feature of MLF family members that could be critical for normal and pathological blood cell development.
Sequence of quinolone resistance-determining region of gyrA gene for clinical isolates and for an in vitro-selected quinolone-resistant strain of Coxiella burnetii

We report the sequence of the quinolone resistance-determining region of the gyrA genes of either susceptible or low-level-resistant clinical isolates of Coxiella burnetii. The sequences of low-level (MICs, 4 micrograms/ml) and high-level (MICs, 8 and 16 micrograms/ml) resistant strains stepwise selected in vitro were also determined. The gene sequences of all of the clinical isolates and that of the in vitro-selected low-level-resistant strain were identical. Sequence analysis of the in vitro-selected high-level-resistant strain revealed a nucleotide mutation leading to an amino acid substitution of Gly in place of Glu at position 87 of the GyrA amino acid sequence. These results indicate that high-level resistance to ciprofloxacin is associated with a nucleotide mutation in gyrA, whereas low-level resistance to quinolones is not.
Design Optimization of SIMO Receivers with Compact Uniform Linear Arrays and Limited Precision A/D Conversion

Antenna arrays can be made compact when the spacing between adjacent antennas is reduced to less than half of the wavelength. This facilitates the deployment of multiple antennas to communication devices that are limited in their physical dimensions, yet introduces significant spatial correlation between the channels as well as antenna mutual coupling. With careful design of a matching network at the receiver front-end, the antennas can be decoupled and superior performance can be achieved as compared to half-wavelength arrays. In this work, we investigate the design optimization of a multi-antenna receiver with a compact uniform linear array, where we try to find the optimal antenna spacing and the number of antennas that lead to the maximal channel capacity and energy efficiency of the system. Moreover, we take into account the impact of A/D conversion with limited precision, which results in a trade-off between quantization error and power consumption. Simulation results accentuate the advantage of using small compact antenna arrays and low bit resolutions for the A/D converters.
Battle between influenza A virus and a newly identified antiviral activity of the PARP-containing ZAPL protein

Significance Influenza A viruses cause a contagious human respiratory disease that can result in high mortality rates. Here we identify a new antiviral activity of the cellular ZAPL protein. This activity involves its C-terminal PARP domain and is directed against influenza A virus. The ZAPL PARP domain binds the viral PA and PB2 proteins, leading to their degradation by the proteasome. This degradation pathway involves two posttranslational modifications of PA and PB2, poly(ADP-ribosylation) and ubiquitination. The viral PB1 protein counteracts ZAPL antiviral activity by binding close to the PARP domain, causing PA and PB2 to dissociate from ZAPL and escape degradation, indicating that the PB1 interface with ZAPL is a potential target for antiviral development. Previous studies showed that ZAPL (PARP-13.1) exerts its antiviral activity via its N-terminal zinc fingers that bind the mRNAs of some viruses, leading to mRNA degradation. Here we identify a different antiviral activity of ZAPL that is directed against influenza A virus. This ZAPL antiviral activity involves its C-terminal PARP domain, which binds the viral PB2 and PA polymerase proteins, leading to their proteasomal degradation. After the PB2 and PA proteins are poly(ADP-ribosylated), they are associated with the region of ZAPL that includes both the PARP domain and the adjacent WWE domain that is known to bind poly(ADP-ribose) chains. These ZAPL-associated PB2 and PA proteins are then ubiquitinated, followed by proteasomal degradation. This antiviral activity is counteracted by the viral PB1 polymerase protein, which binds close to the PARP domain and causes PB2 and PA to dissociate from ZAPL and escape degradation, explaining why ZAPL only moderately inhibits influenza A virus replication. Hence influenza A virus has partially won the battle against this newly identified ZAPL antiviral activity. Eliminating PB1 binding to ZAPL would be expected to substantially increase the inhibition of influenza A virus replication, so that the PB1 interface with ZAPL is a potential target for antiviral development.
Recruitment of Distinct Chromatin-modifying Complexes by Tamoxifen-complexed Estrogen Receptor at Natural Target Gene Promoters in Vivo*

Tamoxifen, a breast cancer therapeutic, is a tissue-selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM), which acts as an antiestrogen in the mammary tissue and displays estrogenic activity in other tissues such as bone and uterus. In order to understand the mechanisms underlying the antiestrogenic effect of this prototype SERM, we performed an analysis of the cofactors that interact with ER complexed with 4-hydroxytamoxifen (OHT) at natural target genes in a human breast tumor cell line MCF-7. Employing chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP), we observed that treatment with OHT rapidly induces the binding of ERα to the E-responsive promoter regions of pS2 and c-myc genes. Promoter-bound OHT-complexed ERa coordinately recruited the components of a multiprotein complex containing the corepressor NCoR, histone deacetylase 3 (HDAC3), and a WD40-repeat protein TBL1. Surprisingly, the OHT-complexed ERα also recruited a chromatin-remodeling NuRD complex in which histone deacetylase 1 (HDAC1) is associated with several polypeptides including metastasis-associated protein 1/2 (MTA1/2), and SWI2/SNF2-related ATPase Mi2. Kinetic studies revealed that following OHT addition the recruitment of these HDAC complexes to pS2 or the c-myc promoter occurs in a sequential manner; the NCoR-HDAC3 complex is recruited earlier than the NuRD complex. Serial ChIP experiments indicated that the ER-NCoR-HDAC3 and ER-NuRD complexes are distinct, and they do not occupy the target gene promoter simultaneously. We also established a close temporal link between the appearance of the HDAC complexes at the E-responsive regions of pS2 and c-myc promoters, local hypoacetylation of specific lysine residues in N-terminal tails of histones H3 and H4, and disappearance of RNA polymerase II from the target gene loci. Collectively, our studies indicated that transcriptional repression by tamoxifen-bound ER at E-regulated gene promoters involves a dynamic interplay of multiple distinct chromatin-modifying/remodeling complexes.
Antipredator defences of young are independently determined by genetic inheritance, maternal effects and own early experience in mouthbrooding cichlids.

1. Predation is a prime force of natural selection. Vulnerability to predation is typically highest early in life, hence effective antipredator defences should work already shortly after birth. Such early defences may be innate, transmitted through non-genetic parental effects or acquired by own early experience. 2. To understand potential joint effects of these sources of antipredator defences on pheno- typic expression, they should be manipulated within the same experiment. We investigated innate, parental and individual experience effects within a single experiment. Females of the African cichlid Simochromis pleurospilus were exposed to the offspring predator Ctenochromis horei or a benign species until spawning. Eggs and larvae were hand-reared, and larvae were then exposed to odour cues signalling the presence or absence of predators in a split-brood design. 3. Shortly after independence of maternal care, S. pleurospilus undergo a habitat shift from a deeper, adult habitat to a shallow juvenile habitat, a phase where young are thought to be par- ticularly exposed to predation risk. Thus, maternal effects induced by offspring predators pres- ent in the adult habitat should take effect mainly shortly after independence, whereas own experience and innate antipredator responses should shape behaviour and life history of S. pleurospilus during the later juvenile period. 4. We found that the manipulated environmental components independently affected different offspring traits. (i) Offspring of predator-exposed mothers grew faster during the first month of life and were thus larger at termination of maternal care, when the young migrate from the adult to the juvenile habitat. (ii) The offspring’s own experience shortly after hatching exerted lasting effects on predator avoidance behaviour. (iii) Finally, our results suggest that S. pleuro- spilus possess a genetically inherited ability to distinguish dangerous from benign species. 5. In S. pleurospilus, maternal effects were limited to a short but critical time window, when young undergo a niche shift. Instead, own environmental sampling of predation risk combined with an innate predisposition to correctly identify predators appears to prepare the young best for the environment, in which they grow up as juveniles.
Evaluating the Effects of Deposit Dollarization in Bank Profitability

Dollar-denominated deposits constitute a large proportion of deposits in many developing economies. This may result in currency mismatches on banks' balance sheets as is suggested by recent literature. In general, having dollar-denominated deposit and loans could increase financial fragility, create balance sheet problems and affect bank profitability. In particular, this currency mismatch does not only increase banks' currency risk when the proportion of dollar-denominated loans with respect to local-denominated loans increases but also it increases their clients' default risk if depreciation occurs. This paper investigates the profitability of 36 dollarized banking systems. Our results suggest that after controlling for some macroeconomic and institutional variables, dollarization, as currency mismatch hypothesis suggests, depresses bank performance and lowers bank profitability.