Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of oleic acid on the high threshold barium current in seabass Dicentrarchus labrax ventricular myocytes

SUMMARY The present study employed a patch clamp technique in isolated seabass ventricular myocytes to investigate the hypothesis that oleic acid (OA), a mono-unsaturated fatty acid, can exert direct effects upon whole-cell barium currents. Acute application of free OA caused a dose-dependent depression of the whole-cell barium current that was evoked by a voltage step to 0 mV from a holding potential of –80 mV. The derived 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) was 12.49±0.27 μmol l–1. At a concentration of 30 μmol l–1, OA significantly reduced the current density to about 45% of control values, but did not modify either the shape of the current-density voltage relationship or the apparent reversal potential. In addition, OA did not modify the voltage dependence of either steady state inactivation or activation curves. Taken together, these results indicate that physiological concentrations of free OA decrease the conductance of the L-type inward current, without altering its properties of selectivity and its voltage dependence. The inhibitory effect of OA upon the L-type calcium channel may translate, in vivo, into a protective effect against arrhythmias induced by Ca2+ overload.
Correction for the metabolic exchange of 14C for 12C atoms in the pathway of gluconeogenesis in vivo.

Methods designed for estimation of the synthesis of plasma glucose are based on the transfer of 14C atoms from a selected precursor (substrate) such as lactate or alanine. This approach was shown to lead to an underestimation of the true synthesis of glucose because of the metabolic exchange of 14C atoms for 12C atoms in the hepatic oxaloacetate pool. From the incorporation of 14C atoms from intravenously infused [2-14C]acetate into plasma glucose, the extent of the metabolic exchange has been estimated. In normal dogs, metabolic exchange leads to an underestimation of plasma glucose synthesis from plasma lactate or alanine by a factor of 2.2 +/- 0.07, i.e., by 55%. In insulin-deprived diabetic dogs, the factor was found to be 1.8 +/- 0.05. In long-term fasted dogs, the factor may be higher than in the postabsorptive state, whereas treatment with methylprednisolone has no effect. The assumptions and sources of possible errors in the estimation of the extent of metabolic exchange are reviewed.
Cutaneous barrier repair and pathophysiology following barrier disruption in IL‐1 and TNF type I receptor deficient mice

Disruption of the permeability barrier elicits a homeostatic repair response which rapidly restores barrier function while repeated barrier perturbation results in cutaneous pathology. In response to barrier disruption there is a marked increase in epidermal TNF‐α and IL‐1 production. To determine the potential role of TNF and IL‐1 in mediating the cutaneous changes that occur following barrier disruption we compared the kinetics of barrier recovery and the degree of epidermal hyperplasia and cutaneous inflammation in TNF type I (p55) receptor and IL‐1 receptor type I (p80) deficient mice. No abnormalities in epidermal morphology were observed with light or electron microscopy in receptor deficient mice. Under baseline conditions epidermal barrier function was unchanged in receptor deficient mice. Following barrier disruption the kinetics of barrier recovery were similar in control vs TNF receptor deficient mice regardless if the barrier was disrupted by acetone treatment, SDS treatment, or tape stripping. In contrast, barrier recovery was slightly but significantly accelerated regardless of the method of barrier disruption in IL‐1 receptor deficient mice. The degree of epidermal hyperplasia and cutaneous inflammation following repeated barrier disruption was similar in control, TNF receptor, and IL‐1 receptor deficient mice. The present study demonstrates that barrier recovery is not delayed and the degree of epidermal hyperplasia and inflammation are not altered in either TNF receptor or IL‐1 receptor deficient mice, indicating that neither TNF nor IL‐1 alone are essential for either barrier repair or the cutaneous pathology induced by barrier perturbation. Whereas the increase in IL‐1 following barrier disruption may delay components of the repair response, whether either TNF‐α or IL‐1 regulate aspects of the homeostatic response remains unresolved.
PCR-Based Pooling of Dried Blood Spots for Detection of Malaria Parasites: Optimization and Application to a Cohort of Ugandan Children

ABSTRACT Sensitive, high-throughput methods to detect malaria parasites in low-transmission settings are needed. PCR-based pooling strategies may offer a solution. We first used laboratory-prepared samples to compare 2 DNA extraction and 4 PCR detection methods across a range of pool sizes and parasite densities. Pooled Chelex extraction of DNA, followed by nested PCR of cytochrome b, was the optimal strategy, allowing reliable detection of a single low-parasitemic sample (100 parasites/μl) in pool sizes up to 50. This PCR-based pooling strategy was then compared with microscopy using 891 dried blood spots from a cohort of 77 Ugandan children followed for 2 years in an urban setting of low endemicity. Among 419 febrile episodes, 35 cases of malaria were detected using the PCR-based pooling strategy and 40 cases using microscopy. All five cases of malaria not detected by PCR were from samples stored for >2 years with parasitemia of <6,000/μl, highlighting the issue of possible DNA degradation with long-term storage of samples. Among 472 samples collected from asymptomatic children as part of routine surveillance, 15 (3.2%) were positive by PCR-based pooling compared to 4 (0.8%) by microscopy (P = 0.01). Thus, this PCR-based pooling strategy for detection of malaria parasites using dried blood spots offers a sensitive and efficient approach for malaria surveillance in low-transmission settings, enabling improved detection of asymptomatic submicroscopic infections and dramatic savings in labor and costs.
The Determinants of Price Inflation in the United States: A Multivariate Dynamic Cointegration and Causal Analysis

ABSTRACT:Although Classical theory postulates that there is a short-run trade-off between inflation and unemployment rates, numerous studies have shown that the relation between inflation and unemployment rates vary greatly across different sample periods, countries, estimation techniques and data sources. Due to the contrasting results obtained in previous studies, in this paper we investigate the short-run and long-run effects of unemployment rate, long-term interest rate, trade openness, budget deficit, money supply, economic growth rate and exchange rate on U.S. inflation rate over the period 1978-2014. The Augmented Dickey Fuller unit root test is performed. The variables are found to be integrated of order one. We apply the bounds testing approach proposed by Pesaran et. al (2001). The Johansen and Juselius (1990) and the Engle-Granger (1987) tests show that the variables are cointegrated. The Granger F-test is applied to the vector error correction model to investigate causal relationships between different pairs of variables. Results indicate short-run unidirectional causalities from interest rate, trade openness, economic growth rate and exchange rate to inflation rate, from interest rate to unemployment rate, from economic growth rate to trade openness, and from unemployment rate, trade openness, budget deficit, economic growth rate and exchange rate to money supply. Long-run causality is observed when inflation rate is an endogenous variable. In cointegration analysis, the adjustment coefficient is found to be statistically insignificant; thus, the results are considered plausible only in the short-run. Long-term interest rate and trade openness are found to have significant positive short-run effects on inflation rate. No significant short-run trade-off is observed between inflation and unemployment rates. The results of the cumulative sum (CUSUM) and cumulative sum of squares (CUSUMSQ) tests proposed by Borensztein et. al (1998) are within the critical bounds; thus all the coefficients in the error correction model are found to be stable. The diagnostic tests indicate that there is no evidence of serial correlation, and no problem of heteroscedasticity. The autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity is not present in the short-run model. The test results also indicate that there is no problem of normality in error distribution. Based on the cointegration and causal analysis, we find no evidence to support a short-run Phillips curve for the U.S. economy for the period 1978-2014. A rise in inflation rate, due to a monetary expansion, is not found to have any significant short-run impact on unemployment rate in the U.S. economy for the sample period under study.
Oil Revenues, Government Spending Policy, and Growth

This study argues that government spending composition determines how oil abundance ultimately impacts growth. Using dynamic panel-data GMM and PMG techniques on a panel of oil exporters, we find that the negative growth effect of oil price volatility is channeled through fiscal policy. In particular, revenue windfalls may impede growth through at least three channels: (i) weakening the domestic tax base, (ii) lowering the social return on new public capital, and (iii) intensifying political spending pressures resulting from the accumulation of surpluses. The main policy implication for oil-exporting countries is that it is imperative to use strict fiscal rules, backed by the appropriate political incentives, to insulate public spending from oil cycles. Investing the surplus (in sovereign wealth funds) or retiring public debt amid oil windfalls would alleviate competitive rent-seeking pressures and enhance the social gains from revenue booms.
Structural Architecture of the Social Network of a Non-Human Primate (Macaca sylvanus): A Study of Its Topology in La Forêt des Singes, Rocamadour

For a decade, technological or natural networks have appeared to have a common mathematical architecture. This type of architecture has a node connectivity which follows a power law distribution. This architecture confers to these networks a resistance property to the loss of nodes. Such properties are advantageous for evolutional networks through time. Thus, this architecture can be expected in animal social networks. Another characteristic commonly met concerns the structuration of the network into communities by the mechanism of assortative mixing by vertex degree (i.e. by the number of ties individuals have). Such a structure is a reflection of evolutional mechanisms: the preferential attachment and the triadic closure processes. Using recent analytical techniques on an affiliative social network in a non-human primate species (Macaca sylvanus), we analysed the mathematical architecture and its properties. We demonstrate that in spite of the use of a recent protocol supposed to permit this type of analysis, the type of distribution cannot be clearly determined, encouraging us to carefully interpret the results obtained until then. Nevertheless, we observed interesting properties of the network at an ecological and evolutional level with network resilience that allows a cohesive society to be maintained even when faced with a catastrophe (high predation, epidemic).
An Information Ecology Approach to Sustainable E-Government among Small Island Developing States in the Pacific

Regional and global strategies to bring the benefits of e-government to Pacific Island Countries (PICs) have been less successful than anticipated despite large amounts of aid expenditure. National policies and projects likewise struggle to overcome the barriers of geography, isolation, climate, education, language and economic resources that face all Small Island Developing States (SIDs) when implementing ICT infrastructure and applications. In addition, cultural factors specific to each PIC must be taken into account when developing e-government applications, including cultural attitudes to knowledge and the dissemination of information. The paper proposes a new framework, based on the concept of an `information ecology' that will acknowledge the way in which information ecologies influence behaviors at several levels, including regional, national, sub-national and local. We believe that this framework will better support the development of locally grounded, culturally relevant, sustainable and effective e-government policies in the region. The paper outlines some of the background to this project and progress to date.
Rates of Psychotropic Medication Use Reported by Borderline Patients and Axis II Comparison Subjects Over 16 Years of Prospective Follow-Up

Abstract The purpose of this study was to assess the classes and types of psychotropic medication reported by borderline patients and axis II comparison subjects over 16 years of prospective follow-up. Medication use was assessed at baseline using a semistructured interview of proven reliability and validity as well as its follow-up analog at 8 contiguous 2-year follow-up periods. A significantly higher percentage of borderline patients than axis II comparison subjects reported taking an antidepressant, an anxiolytic, an antipsychotic, and a mood stabilizer over time. They also reported more commonly taking 7 of the 10 more specific types of medication studied (ie, all but tricyclic antidepressants, monoamine oxidase inhibitor antidepressants, and atypical antipsychotics). The rates over time of taking antipsychotics and mood stabilizers were stable, whereas there was a significant decline in the rates of antidepressants and anxiolytics from baseline to 8-year follow-up (but not from 8- to 16-year follow-up) reported by those in both study groups. In terms of specific medications, rates of atypical antidepressants and anticonvulsants were the most stable. In contrast, nonbenzodiazepine anxiolytics declined the most steadily over time, whereas rates of atypical antipsychotics increased significantly over the 16 years of prospective follow-up. Taken together, the results of this study suggest that a substantial percentage of borderline patients continue to use the major classes of medication over time. They also suggest that the declining rates of use tend to stabilize less than a decade after index admission.
Design of ultra-low-leakage logic gates and flip-flops in high-performance FinFET technology

Multi-gate CMOS devices promise to usher an era of transistors with good electrostatic integrity at the sub-22nm nodes, which makes it essential to rethink traditional approaches to designing low-leakage digital logic and sequential elements formerly used in high-performance planar single-gate technologies. In the current work, we explore the design space of symmetric (Symm-ΦG) and asymmetric gate workfunction (Asymm-ΦG) FinFET logic gates, latches, and flip-flops for optimal trade-offs in leakage vs. delay and temperature in a high-performance FinFET technology. We demonstrate, using mixed-mode Sentaurus technology computer-aided design (TCAD) device simulations, that Asymm-ΦG shorted-gate n/p-FinFETs, which use both workfunctions corresponding to typical high-performance n/p-FinFETs, yield over two orders of magnitude lower leakage without excessive degradation in on-state current, in comparison to Symm-ΦG shorted-gate (SG) FinFETs, placing them in a better position than back-gate biased independent-gate (IG) FinFETs for leakage reduction. Results for elementary logic gates like INV, NAND2, NOR2, XOR2, and XNOR2 using Asymm-ΦG SG-mode FinFETs indicate that they are more optimally located in the leakage-delay spectrum in comparison to the most versatile configurations possible by mixing corresponding Symm-ΦG SG- and IG-mode FinFETs. Latches and flip-flops, however, require an astute combination of Symm-ΦG and Asymm-ΦG FinFETs to optimize leakage, delay, and setup time simultaneously.
HLA antigens in Omanis with blinding trachoma: markers for disease susceptibility and resistance

AIM To determine the presence of HLA antigens in people with blinding trachoma. METHODS Fifty Omanis with blinding trachoma were serologically typed for HLA A, B, C, DR, and DQ antigens and DNA typed for class II DRβ and DQβ alleles and compared with a population of 100 healthy controls. RESULTS χ2 analysis of serological reactions did not reveal any significant differences in HLA antigen frequencies after correction of probability, although DR4, DR7, and DR53 were completely absent in the patients and all of the patients were HLA DQ1 positive. In the case of DQ1 the relative risk was 22.6 (95% confidence interval of 20.7–24.7). Class II DNA low resolution DRβ typing showed a significant increase in HLA DR16 (pc= 0.036, relative risk = 3.8) and a significant decrease in HLA DR53 (pc = 0.018, relative risk = 0.05 ). CONCLUSION The finding that HLA DR16 (a DR2 subtype) is associated with susceptibility to blinding trachoma, a disease that is caused by an intracellular micro-organism, is consistent with reports of an HLA DR2 association with leprosy and tuberculosis, diseases also caused by an intracellular micro-organism. Similarly, resistance to leprosy is associated with HLA DR53 as is the case with blinding trachoma described here. It is postulated that HLA DR2 or subtypes in association with HLA DQ 1 may enable an intracellular micro-organism to enter the cell or are involved in presentation of peptides derived from intracellular micro-organisms to T lymphocytes initiating a delayed hypersensitivity or autoimmune reaction. These findings are the first report that genetic factors are of major importance in the development and protection against blinding trachoma.
A MIXED CONTROL PROBLEM OF THE MANAGEMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES

In this paper, we study the optimal solutions of a model of natural resource management which allows for both impulse and continuous harvesting policies. This type of model is known in the literature as mixed optimal control problem. In the resource management context, each type of control represents a different harvesting technology, which has a different cost. In particular, we want to know when the following conjecture made by Clark is an optimal solution to this mixed optimal control problem: if the harvesting capacity is unlimited, it is optimal to jump immediately to the steady state of the continuous time problem and then to stay there. We show that under a particular relationship between the continuous and the impulse profit function, the conjecture made by Clark is true. In other cases, however, it is either better to use only continuous control variables or to jump to resource levels which are smaller than the steady state and then let the resource grow back to the steady state. These results emphasize the importance of the cost functions in the modeling of natural resource management.
Differential patterns of interhemispheric functional disconnection in mild and advanced multiple sclerosis

Background: Patients with multiple sclerosis may present altered patterns of connectivity between the two brain hemispheres. To date, only transcallosal connectivity between the two primary motor cortices (M1) has been investigated functionally in patients with multiple sclerosis. Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate whether connectivity between the dorsal premotor cortex and the contralateral M1 was altered in patients with multiple sclerosis, and to see whether clinical progression is accompanied by exacerbated dorsal premotor cortex—M1 disconnectivity. Methods: A twin-coil transcranial magnetic stimulation approach was used to investigate both excitatory and inhibitory interhemispheric connections between the left dorsal premotor cortex and the contralateral M1 in 18 multiple sclerosis patients without disability, in 18 multiple sclerosis patients with advanced disease and in 12 age-matched healthy subjects. To activate distinct inhibitory and facilitatory transcallosal pathways, the intensity of dorsal premotor cortex stimulation was adjusted to be either suprathreshold (110% of resting motor threshold) or subthreshold (80% of active motor threshold). Results: Our sample of patients with multiple sclerosis showed altered patterns of interhemispheric dorsal premotor cortex—M1 functional connectivity even in the absence of clinical deficits. Facilitatory connections originating from dorsal premotor cortex were reduced in multiple sclerosis patients with or without disability, while inhibitory dorsal premotor cortex—M1 connections were altered only in disabled patients. Conclusions: The current study demonstrates that functional excitatory connectivity originating from non-primary motor areas is compromised in multiple sclerosis patients even in the absence of clinical disability. Clinical disease progression leads to an impairment of both excitatory and inhibitory transcallosal connections.
Career development for women in maritime industry: organisation and socialisation perspectives

ABSTRACT For centuries, the maritime industry has been a recognised place in society dominated solely by men, and even though there were women involved, they were mostly on the periphery. This research aims to fill the gap of women’s career development in this field, by investigating the relationships among the degree of organisational socialisation, women’s workplace culture, and the career development of women in the maritime workplace. The analyses are conducted with the structural equation model with 202 valid questionnaires. The results indicated that women’s workplace culture has a significantly negative relationship with the degree of organisational socialisation, and then in turn, it has a significantly positive relationship with women’s career development in the maritime industry. Finally, the results also indicate that the mediating effect of organisational socialisation existed between women’s workplace culture and women’s career development. According to the empirical analysis, this study makes conclusions as well as suggestions for the maritime enterprises as the reference for human resource management.
Determinant factors of TFP convergence: Evidence from Vietnamese manufacturing firms from 2000-2012

The paper finds an evidence for a beta-convergence in TFP of Vietnamese manufacturing firms during the period 2000-2012. It appears that an unconditional convergence shows a lower speed than conditional one. In addition, the firms' TFP convergence is rather related to their characteristics than their geographic location and/or industrial characteristics.
The Combined ASTER MODIS Emissivity over Land (CAMEL) Part 1: Methodology and High Spectral Resolution Application

As part of a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) MEaSUREs (Making Earth System Data Records for Use in Research Environments) Land Surface Temperature and Emissivity project, the Space Science and Engineering Center (UW-Madison) and the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) developed a global monthly mean emissivity Earth System Data Record (ESDR). This new Combined ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) and MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) Emissivity over Land (CAMEL) ESDR was produced by merging two current state-of-the-art emissivity datasets: the UW-Madison MODIS Infrared emissivity dataset (UW BF) and the JPL ASTER Global Emissivity Dataset Version 4 (GEDv4). The dataset includes monthly global records of emissivity and related uncertainties at 13 hinge points between 3.6–14.3 µm, as well as principal component analysis (PCA) coefficients at 5-km resolution for the years 2000 through 2016. A high spectral resolution (HSR) algorithm is provided for HSR applications. This paper describes the 13 hinge-points combination methodology and the high spectral resolutions algorithm, as well as reports the current status of the dataset.