Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lentivirus Vector Can Be Readministered to Nasal Epithelia without Blocking Immune Responses

ABSTRACT For many envisioned applications of lentivirus vectors as tools in respiratory biology and therapeutic gene delivery, the efficiency of gene transfer must be improved. We previously demonstrated stable, persistent (>11 months) in vivo expression following a single application of a feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV)-based lentivirus vector (GP64-FIV) to murine nasal epithelia. Here we investigate the efficacy of repeated administration of lentivirus vectors to the airways. Using quantitative bioluminescent imaging, we found that consecutive daily dosing achieved a linear increase in gene expression and greatly increased the number of epithelial cells targeted. Surprisingly, reporter gene expression also increased additively following each of seven doses of FIV delivered over consecutive weeks (1 dose/week), without the development of systemic or local neutralizing antibodies. This approach enhanced expression of both reporter and therapeutic transgenes. Transduction efficiency achieved following a single dose of FIV expressing mouse erythropoietin was insufficient to increase hematocrit, whereas seven consecutive daily doses significantly increased hematocrit. These unexpected results contrast strikingly with findings reported for adenovirus vectors. Prolonged gene expression has been observed in vivo following a single dose of virus vector; however, depending on the application, repeated administration of vector may be necessary to achieve stable, therapeutic gene expression.
Novel and recurrent p14ARF mutations in Italian familial melanoma

Binni F, Antigoni I, De Simone P, Majore S, Silipo V, Crisi A, Amantea A, Pacchiarini D, Castori M, De Bernardo C, Catricalà C, Grammatico P. Novel and recurrent p14ARF mutations in Italian familial melanoma.
Barriers to healthcare for American Indians experiencing homelessness

ABSTRACT Members of American Indian (AI) communities face many barriers to receiving both mental and physical healthcare. These barriers can have a negative effect on overall health. Barriers are compounded for AIs who are also experiencing homelessness, and AI make up a disproportionate percentage of the homeless population nationwide. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 service providers and 16 homeless participants in a mid-size Midwestern city to identify barriers to care for homeless participants. Key barriers identified in this study for homeless participants were: transportation, phone accessibility, discrimination, and cold and bureaucratic cultures of healthcare systems. Major barriers identified by service providers were: access to care, discrimination and mistrust, and restrictive policies. Given generally higher disease prevalence within the homeless population and health disparities within the AI community, steps should be taken to reduce barriers to healthcare.
Design and development of a five-fingered master-slave robotic hand by using solenoid and pressure sensors comparator technology solenoid actuation system

Robotics technology, especially in the robotic hand development, is very important to perform various tasks that are considered too risky or fatal to be performed by a human being. This technology is also important to assist human being physiological rehabilitation. There are numerous designs of robotic hand, but the five-fingered robotic hand design is the most dexterous robotic hand design due to its similar appearance with a human hand. In general, the fingers' motions are driven or actuated by geared motors or other types of emerging technologies and controlled by microcontrollers or computers that received instructions from sensors or user inputs. However, the motions are yet to be driven or actuated by solenoids and controlled by using pressure sensor comparator method due to the solenoid technology limited applications and the controller novelty approach. Nevertheless, solenoids are known for their fast reaction time and strong holding force that are useful to perform high speed motions and strong grasping actions. The controller novelty approach is also expected to provide good motions' accuracy and response. Therefore, the synergy of this idea can introduce a new master-slave robotic hand design called SPCT (Solenoid-Pressure-Comparator-Technology) Robotic Hand. For this particular paper, the focus will be on the slave component design and solenoid actuation system. It can be seen that the design has potential for further developments.
Entrepreneurial Management and its Place in the Competition Economy

Like any other type of company, the performances of the Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) depend on the effective appeal and implementation of concepts, approaches, methods, techniques and other elements which are provided by the management science. Moreover, being given the pronounced, constructive and functional specificity of the SMEs, they require a specific management, being named entrepreneurial management. Relatively young branch of the management, the entrepreneurial management, still ongoing crystallization, is desired increasingly conditioned for the performances of the SMEs. The typical entrepreneurial activities, to which there are devoted 99% of the researches and studies, are the economic activities. The entrepreneurial activity is in the centre of economic innovation spirit, productivity growth, economic competitiveness and generating the jobs, this being associated with the personal success. The entrepreneurial activity synthetically consists in the identification and capitalization of an economic opportunity. The entrepreneurial environment consists of all the exogenous company elements of economic, managerial, technical, demographic, cultural, scientific, psychological, educational, political, ecological and legal nature which marks significantly the activities performance and the results achievement.
A self-managed single exercise programme versus usual physiotherapy treatment for rotator cuff tendinopathy: a randomised controlled trial (the SELF study)

Objectives: To evaluate the clinical effectiveness of a self-managed single exercise programme versus usual physiotherapy treatment for rotator cuff tendinopathy. Design: Multi-centre pragmatic unblinded parallel group randomised controlled trial. Setting: UK National Health Service. Participants: Patients with a clinical diagnosis of rotator cuff tendinopathy. Interventions: The intervention was a programme of self-managed exercise prescribed by a physiotherapist in relation to the most symptomatic shoulder movement. The control group received usual physiotherapy treatment. Main outcome measures: The primary outcome measure was the Shoulder Pain & Disability Index (SPADI) at three months. Secondary outcomes included the SPADI at six and twelve months. Results: A total of 86 patients (self-managed loaded exercise n=42; usual physiotherapy n=44) were randomised. Twenty-six patients were excluded from the analysis because of lack of primary outcome data at the 3 months follow-up, leaving 60 (n=27; n=33) patients for intention to treat analysis. For the primary outcome, the mean SPADI score at three months was 32.4 (SD 20.2) for the self-managed group, and 30.7 (SD 19.7) for the usual physiotherapy treatment group; mean difference adjusted for baseline score: 3.2 (95% Confidence interval -6.0 to +12.4 P = 0.49). By six and twelve months there remained no significant difference between the groups. Conclusions: This study does not provide sufficient evidence of superiority of one intervention over the other in the short-, mid- or long-term and hence a self-management programme based around a single exercise appears comparable to usual physiotherapy treatment.
Longevity and Companionship in an Overlapping-Generations Model

We derive a golden rule for the level of life-extending health care when the utility of the old depends not only their level of consumption but also on the number of old people alive. While previous work has emphasized the negative pecuniary externality from longevity, we derive the effect of the positive non-pecuniary externality of being able to consume with other members of one’s cohort.
The High-Volume Return Premium and Changes in Investor Recognition

The phenomenon of high-volume return premium is generally attributed to the visibility hypothesis proposed by Gervais et al. (2001) based on the theoretical framework of Miller (1977) and Merton's (1987) investor recognition hypothesis. However, no existing empirical study has directly tested the visibility hypothesis due to the lack of high-frequency shareholding data. In this paper, we utilize the unique daily shareholding data for stocks listed on the Australian Stock Exchange to directly test this hypothesis by examining the relationship between the high-volume return premium and changes in investor recognition. We find that high-volume shocks do attract more investor attention and increase the investor base on the date of, and following, the shocks. This provides direct empirical evidence in support of the visibility explanation for the high-volume return premium. We also find that institutional and individual investors attend to different kinds of stocks; stocks attracting more institutional (individual) investors outperform (underperform) subsequent the volume shocks and exhibit a higher (lower) high-volume return premium. Our findings shed new light on the visibility hypothesis by showing that recognition/attention from institutional or individual investor is also crucial in determining the extent of the high-volume return premium and may help to reconcile the existing mixed empirical evidence across international markets.
Estimations of genetic correlations between energy balance and days open in Holsteins in Japan

It is important to improve the energy balance (EB) of dairy cows in lactation to prevent the deterioration of health and fertility. Here, we estimate the genetic correlations between EB and days open (DO) in Holsteins in Japan. The data consisted of test-day milk records for the first lactations of Holstein cows calving in 2010-2013. The data set for analysis consisted of 2,279,906 records of 247,487 cows. EBs were estimated by using the multiple regression equations of Friggens et al. (2007) and Løvendahl et al. (2010). Genetic parameters of EBs and DO were estimated by using a random regression model. Estimated EBs were negative soon after parturition and changed to positive at about 50 days in milk (DIM). The phenotypic values of DO were greater in lower Friggens EB classes or lower Løvendahl EB classes from 36 to 65 DIM. The heritability estimates of EBs were about 0.2 and almost constant throughout lactation. The heritability estimate of DO was 0.07. The genetic correlations between EBs and DO were strongest soon after parturition, at about -0.3, and then weakened to -0.1 to 0 after 200 DIM. In conclusion, it should be possible to decrease DO—that is, to improve reproductive performance—by improving EB.
Low cost microwave X-band generator

A low cost microwave X-band generator for educational purposes was designed and built. Its simple construction and user's interface makes it suitable for student laboratory. The generator is based on single frequency conversion concept. It uses a digitally tunable PLL chip for intermediate frequency generation and active frequency multiplier for frequency conversion. The generator covers 9,7 – 11 GHz part of X frequency band. The frequency tuning may also be done automatically in a slow frequency sweep mode, which saves a lot of manual work. The output signal is amplitude modulated in order to match with VSWR meters used in microwave laboratory. The signal level is stabilized by the automatic gain control unit comprising a dedicated MCU, digitally controlled attenuator and power detector, which reduces power fluctuations over whole frequency band.
Ultrasonographic aspect of subcutaneous tissue dystrophies as a result of insulin injections.

AIMS The aim of the study was to evaluate by ultrasonography the local dystrophies caused by insulin subcutaneous injections. The insulin treated diabetic patients must inject their long life insulin into normal tissue. The objective was to add ultrasonographic arguments to the clinic examination in order to periodically reconsider the available area to be used. PATIENTS AND METHODS Forty insulin treated patients (14 male, 26 female) were clinically diagnosed with hypertrophic, atrophic, nodular, or inflammatory-like tissue dystrophies as a consequence of injections. These local dystrophies are not always conspicuous, barely suggesting a subdermal pathology. US evaluation, mainly subcutis, was used for assessing them. RESULTS Besides the clinical signs, ultrasonography offers some distinct appearances: a simple subcutis hypertrophy, a variety of nodular-shaped or diffuse hyperechogenity, subcutis atrophy, complex multilayer changes or possible inflammatory reactions. These abnormal entities have led to erratic insulin absorption and glucose control deterioration, if the patients have continued to inject into the same areas. CONCLUSIONS Ultrasound interrogation should be used as a non-invasive measure for diagnosing insulin injections local dystrophies. Once diagnosed, their future evolution should be observed. By making a real ultrasonographic map of the injected areas a functional insulin treatment could be obtained and preserved.
Beyond Early Warning Indicators: High School Dropout and Machine Learning

This paper provides an algorithm to predict which students are going to drop out of high schools relying only on information from 9th grade. It verifies that using a parsimonious early warning system - as implemented in many schools - leads to poor results. It shows that schools can obtain more precise predictions by exploiting the available high-dimensional data jointly with machine learning tools such as Support Vector Machine, Boosted Regression and Post-LASSO. It carefully selects goodness-of-fit criteria based on the context and the underlying theoretical framework: model parameters are calibrated by taking into account policy goals and budget constraints. Finally, it uses unsupervised machine learning to divide students at risk of dropping out into different clusters.
Intersection and Union Types: Syntax and Semantics

Type assignment systems with intersection and union types are introduced. Although the subject reduction property with respect to s-reduction does not hold for a natural deduction-like system, we manage to overcome this problem in two, different ways. The first is to adopt a notion of parallel reduction, which is a refinement of Gross-Knuth reduction. The second is to introduce type theories to refine the system, among which is the theory called ? that induces an assignment system preserving s-reduction. This type assignment system further clarifies the relation with the intersection discipline through the decomposition, first, of a disjunctive type into a set of conjunctive types and, second, of a derivation in the new type assignment system into a set of derivations in the intersection type assignment system. For this system we propose three semantics and prove soundness and completeness theorems.
Outcome Assessment in Randomized Controlled Trials of Stroke Rehabilitation

Salter KL, Teasell RW, Foley NC, Jutai JW: Outcome assessment in randomized controlled trials of stroke rehabilitation. Am J Phys Med Rehabil 2007;86:1007–1012.The lack of a unified approach to outcome assessment in stroke rehabilitation limits our ability to interpret evidence provided by randomized controlled trials (RCTs). The purpose of this review was to identify outcomes and assessment tools reported in RCTs of stroke rehabilitation interventions as a first step toward consistent assessment of outcomes. Given that the validity of research is linked to reliability and validity of measurement, the relationship between the use of previously developed outcome measures and the methodological quality of RCTs was explored.Electronic literature searches identified RCTs examining stroke rehabilitation therapies from 1968 to 2005. The Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) scale was used to assess methodological quality. Cited outcomes were recorded and assessment tools identified as previously published or study specific. Four hundred ninety-one RCTs cited the assessment of 1447 outcomes using 489 measurement tools. Two hundred fifty-four of these were previously published, and 235 were study specific. A core of 30 frequently cited tools was identified. The use of previously published assessment tools to evaluate primary study outcomes was associated with higher PEDro scores.Significant heterogeneity in outcome assessment was demonstrated, although a core of 30 frequently cited tools could be identified. Appropriate evaluation and selection of outcome measures would enhance the methodological quality of randomized controlled trials.
Incidence and Contributing Factors of Persistent Hyperglycemia at 6–12 Weeks Postpartum in Iranian Women with Gestational Diabetes: Results from LAGA Cohort Study

Background. A history of gestational diabetes is an important predictor of many metabolic disturbances later in life. Method. Life after gestational diabetes Ahvaz Study (LAGAs) is an ongoing population-based cohort study. Up to February 2016, 176 women with gestational diabetes underwent a 75 g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) at 6–12 weeks postpartum in Ahvaz (southwestern of Iran). Gestational diabetes was diagnosed according to the International Association of Diabetes and Pregnancy Study Groups (IADPSG) criteria and the American Diabetes Association (ADA) criteria applied for diagnosis of postpartum prediabetes and diabetes. Univariate and multivariate regression analysis were done. Results. Overall incidence of early postpartum glucose intolerance was 22.2% (95% CI, 16.3–29.0), 17.6% prediabetes (95% CI, 12.3–24.1) and 4.5% diabetes (95% CI, 2.0–8.8%). Independent risk factors for glucose intolerance were FPG ≥ 100 at the time of OGTT (OR 3.86; 95% CI; 1.60–9.32), earlier diagnosis of GDM (OR 0.92; 95% CI; 0.88–0.97), systolic blood pressure (OR 1.02; 95% CI; 1.002–1.04), and insulin or metformin therapy (OR 3.14; 95% CI; 1.20–8.21). Conclusion. Results determined a relatively high rate of glucose intolerance at 6–12 weeks after GDM pregnancy. Early postpartum screening of type 2 diabetes is needed particularly in women at high risk of type 2 diabetes.
Research and development of Cloud manufacturing process system

To manufacture a product, the CAD drawing of the product must be made first. The CAD drawing must contain different shape component items, and the school machine tools have different machining functions, it is necessary to generate an appropriate manufacturing procedure automatically according to the shape component items in the CAD drawing and the machining functions of machinery equipments. This “Cloud manufacturing process system” is built by using VB.Net and MySQL languages. The shape component items in the product AutoCAD drawing are analyzed according to the product CAD drawing, considering the coincidence relation between shape components and applicable processing machinery equipments, the appropriate manufacturing process is generated automatically. The validation of manufacturing process confirms that the manufacturing process recommended by this system can complete the manufacturing of products effectively.
Institutional distance, establishment mode choice and international experience: the case of Indian MNCs

Focusing on the growing importance of Indian multinational corporations in the past decades, this paper aims to understand how establishment mode decisions in a foreign market can differ depending on a series of factors. Specifically, the authors examine how institutional distance, including cultural distance and political risk, could affect these decisions, and how international acquisition experience could moderate this relationship. ,The authors test their hypotheses using data from 114 outward foreign direct investments between 2000 and 2010. ,The findings suggest that experience in international acquisitions increases the likelihood of subsequent acquisitions in high-risk and culturally distant countries. ,By considering that the country of origin also matters, some differences among emerging-market multinational corporations (MNCs) may arise. Besides, since empirical research focusing on emerging-market MNCs is scarce, more empirical studies are needed to analyze the influence of cultural distance and political risk on some decisions. In the case of India, there are also additional motivations for analyzing those institutional factors. First, since this is a country with significant linkages to Western countries, it is interesting to know if the influence of cultural distance is similar or not. Second, there is a lack of empirical evidence on the relationship between political risk and establishment mode choice in the case of Indian MNCs. To fill this gap, the first aim of this paper is to analyze how cultural distance and political risk affect the establishment mode choice of Indian MNCs. Moreover, recognizing international experience to be an important factor in explaining international expansion, we focus on international experience interactions with sources of uncertainty inherent in the host market.
Cooperation, not cost savings: explaining duration of shared service agreements

ABSTRACT Among local governments, inter-municipal cooperation is the growing reform; but the literature is silent regarding the determinants of longer-term shared service agreements. We conducted a survey of all local governments in New York State in 2013 to assess the level of sharing across 29 public services. The duration of shared service agreements varies from 1 to 80 years. What explains this difference? Our hierarchical linear model shows that service sharing agreements fall along a cooperation continuum, where cost savings are a determinant of shorter agreements, while the public values of service quality and cross-jurisdictional coordination explain longer-term agreements. We also find that positive past experience with sharing partners increases the duration of sharing agreements. Our analysis lays the foundation for new theories of shared services that build directly from the benefits of improved regional coordination, inter-municipal reciprocity and service quality, not from theories based solely on competition and costs.
Modeling of Nonlinear Signal Distortion in Fiber-Optic Networks

A low-complexity model for signal quality prediction in a nonlinear fiber-optic network is developed. The model, which builds on the Gaussian noise model, takes into account the signal degradation caused by a combination of chromatic dispersion, nonlinear signal distortion, and amplifier noise. The center frequencies, bandwidths, and transmit powers can be chosen independently for each channel, which makes the model suitable for analysis and optimization of resource allocation and routing in large-scale optical networks applying flexible-grid wavelength-division multiplexing.