Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Initial effects of kinesio® taping in patients with patellofemoral pain syndrome: A randomized, double-blind study

The purpose of this randomized, double-blind study was to determine the acute effects of kinesio ® taping on pain. strength, joint position sense and balance in patients with patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS). Twenty-two subjects with PFPS participated in the study. Subjects were separated into two groups; kinesio ® taping (KT) and placebo kinesiotaping (PKT). All subjects were assessed before and 45-min after the applications. Muscle strength, joint position sense, static and dynamic balance and pain intensity were used as the main outcome measures. Among all outcome parameters significant differences were found between strength of quadriceps muscle at 60 and 180°/s, and static and dynamic balance scores before and 45-min after application of KT. There was also a significant difference between strength of quadriceps muscle at 60°/s and static balance scores before and 45 minutes after application of the PKT. Therefore KT application does not seem to be an effective treatment method for both decreasing pain and improving joint position sense for patients with PFPS.
A Vitamin B-6 Antagonist from Flaxseed Perturbs Amino Acid Metabolism in Moderately Vitamin B-6-Deficient Male Rats.

BACKGROUND Pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (PLP) plays a crucial role as a cofactor in amino acid metabolism. There is a prevalence of moderate vitamin B-6 deficiency in the population that may be exacerbated through the ingestion of 1-amino d-proline (1ADP), a vitamin B-6 antagonist found in flaxseed. OBJECTIVE Given prior evidence of the impact of synthetic 1ADP on indexes of pyridoxine metabolism, the current study was designed to investigate the effects of 1ADP derived from flaxseed on amino acid metabolism in moderately vitamin B-6-deficient rats. METHODS Male weanling rats (n = 8/treatment) consumed a semipurified diet containing either 7 mg pyridoxine hydrochloride/kg diet [optimum vitamin B-6 (OB)] or 0.7 mg pyridoxine hydrochloride/kg diet [moderately vitamin B-6 deficient (MB)], each with 0 or 10 mg vitamin B-6 antagonist/kg diet, in either a synthetic form (1ADP) or as a flaxseed extract (FE), for 5 wk. At the end of the experiment, plasma vitamin B-6 and amino acid concentrations and the activities of hepatic PLP-dependent enzymes were analyzed. RESULTS Compared with the MB control group, plasma PLP concentrations were 26% and 69% lower, respectively, in the MB+FE and MB+1ADP rats (P ≤ 0.001). In the MB+FE group, the plasma cystathionine concentration was 100% greater and the plasma α-aminobutyric acid and glutamic acid concentrations were 59% and 30% lower, respectively, than in the MB control group. Both synthetic 1ADP and FE significantly (P < 0.001) inhibited the in vitro hepatic activities of 2 PLP-dependent enzymes, cystathionine β-synthase (up to 44%) and cystathionine γ-lyase (up to 60%), irrespective of vitamin B-6 concentrations. Because of vitamin B-6 antagonist exposure, observed perturbations in plasma biomarkers and hepatic enzyme activities were not evident or of lesser magnitude in rats consuming adequate vitamin B-6. CONCLUSION The current data from a rat model provide evidence that a vitamin B-6 antagonist now prevalent in the human food supply may pose challenges to individuals of moderate vitamin B-6 status.
Empirical Bayes Estimation with Dynamic Portfolio Models

This paper considers the estimation of parameters in a dynamic stochastic model for securities prices, where the expected rate of return is a random variable. An empirical Bayes estimator is developed from the model structure. The estimator is an improvement on other popular estimators in terms of mean squared error. The effect of reduced estimation error on accumulated wealth is analyzed for the portfolio choice model with constant relative risk aversion utility.
Employment and education effects on HIV/AIDS prevalence rate and economic growth: empirical investigation in ECOWAS

We analyse the simultaneous effects of employment and education on GDP growth and HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in the long and short run across the 15 countries of ECOWAS. Our results suggest that employment and primary education are the main HIV/AIDS prevalence rate reduction drivers in the short run with primary education having a simultaneous effect on HIV/AIDS prevalence rate (reduction) and GDP growth (increase) while secondary education drives the HIV/AIDS prevalence rate reduction in the long term. Education and employment may therefore become the short-run policy targets in combatting HIV/AIDS prevalence rate among the active population and achieving economic growth. Our results equally suggest that GDP growth by itself may not be an HIV/AIDS reduction driver.
Creative Leadership: Does It Clash Across Cultures?

As international competition, technology advancement, and the knowledge-based economy increases, creativity is becoming increasingly critical for the success of organizations all around the world. While leadership or support of individuals’ immediate leaders is one of the most potent factors impacting individual creativity, the majority of previous studies examining the relationship between leadership and creativity were conducted in Western contexts and only few studies investigated the cross-cultural aspects of leadership and creativity. This study explores the connection between traditional creativity research and cross-cultural leadership research, building toward a conceptual framework proposed for further discussion and ultimately testing. Conceptual links between participative leader behaviors, individualism-collectivism, power distance, and creativity are examined. Implications for leadership development in order to enhance organizational creativity in an international HRD context bring this article to a close.
Ground-based SAR multistage mountain slope interferometric phase unwrapping

Phase unwrapping is an important part in the process of InSAR signal processing. When ground-based SAR is used for multistage mountain slope deformation monitoring, the mountain slopes are always separated by slope ladders. So the interferometric phase of every slope must be unwrapped by path-following methods respectively. In view of the multistage slope phase unwrapping, this paper proposed a mask branch-cut segmentation phase unwrapping algorithm through improving on the Goldstein's mask branch-cut algorithm. Then a deformation monitoring experiment for multistage mountain slope was carried out, which is to verify the validity and feasibility of the unwrapping algorithm.
Sugar Transporters in Plants: New Insights and Discoveries

Carbohydrate partitioning is the process of carbon assimilation and distribution from source tissues, such as leaves, to sink tissues, such as stems, roots and seeds. Sucrose, the primary carbohydrate transported long distance in many plant species, is loaded into the phloem and unloaded into distal sink tissues. However, many factors, both genetic and environmental, influence sucrose metabolism and transport. Therefore, understanding the function and regulation of sugar transporters and sucrose metabolic enzymes is key to improving agriculture. In this review, we highlight recent findings that (i) address the path of phloem loading of sucrose in rice and maize leaves; (ii) discuss the phloem unloading pathways in stems and roots and the sugar transporters putatively involved; (iii) describe how heat and drought stress impact carbohydrate partitioning and phloem transport; (iv) shed light on how plant pathogens hijack sugar transporters to obtain carbohydrates for pathogen survival, and how the plant employs sugar transporters to defend against pathogens; and (v) discuss novel roles for sugar transporters in plant biology. These exciting discoveries and insights provide valuable knowledge that will ultimately help mitigate the impending societal challenges due to global climate change and a growing population by improving crop yield and enhancing renewable energy production.
A mRNA for Membrane Form of Guanylyl Cyclase Is Expressed Exclusively in the Testis of the Sea Urchin Hemicentrotus pulcherrimus

Abstract A cDNA clone encoding the membrane form of guanylyl cyclase was isolated from a Hemicentrotus pulcherrimus testis cDNA library and its nucleotide sequence was determined. The cDNA was 4123 bp long and an open reading frame predicted a protein of 1125 amino acids including an apparent signal peptide of 21 residues; a single transmembrane domain of 25 amino acids which divides the mature protein into an amino-terminal, extracellular domain of 485 amino acids and a carboxyl-terminal, intracellular domain of 594 amino acids. Three potential N-linked glycosylation sites were present in the extracellular domain. Northern blot analysis of poly(A)+RNA from testes, ovaries, eggs and embryos at various developmental stages showed that the cDNA encoding guanylyl cyclase hybridized to a mRNA of 4.4 kb from the testes. We developed a large scale purification method of the phosphorylated (131 kDa) and dephosphory-lated (128 kDa) forms of the membrane-bound guanylyl cyclase from H. pulcherrimus spermatozoa. The purified 131 kDa and 128 kDa forms of the guanylyl cyclase contained 26.0 ± 1.3 and 4.3 ± 0.7 moles of phosphate per mol protein (mean ± S.D.; n=6), respectively. The amino-terminal amino acids of both the 131 kDa and 128 kDa forms of the guanylyl cyclase could not be detected, suggesting that they were blocked.
Labour Force Participation and the Business Cycle: A Comparative Analysis of Europe, Japan and the United States

Using OECD data from 1970 until 1995, we estimate systems of labour force participation equations, disaggregated by age and sex, for the United States, Japan, France and Sweden. We simulate the path of participation rates following shocks to GDP and also test for asymmetric responses to shocks occurring in upward and downward phases of the cycle. Our methodology is especially pertinent to the issue of hidden unemployment and the “discouraged worker effect”. We find that this effect is essentially a female phenomenon with a particular concentration among 45 to 54 year olds.
Managing the Delivery of Dialysis Therapy: A Multiclass Fluid Model Analysis

Motivatedby the exceptionally high mortality statistics of dialysis patients and the ongoing debate about the adequacy of the current reimbursement for dialysis in the United States, we pursue a detailed analysis of the dialysis delivery system. The analysis is based on a multiclass fluid model for the dialysis facility, which combines a pharmacokinetics model of dialysis and an empirically validated model of dialysis-specific mortality. Assuming that the facility operates under budget and capacity constraints, our analysis determines the main factors that affect the delivery of dialysis. Numerical results, which are representative of the dialysis environment in the US, demonstrate the accuracy of the model and provide concrete insights about the operations of the dialysis facility. A major finding is that an improvement in the technology of dialysis is likely to have a more substantial impact on the overall life expectancy of the dialysis population as compared to an increase in the dialysis reimbursement rate.
Inhibition of Gene Expression and Growth by Antisense Peptide Nucleic Acids in a Multiresistant β-Lactamase-Producing Klebsiella pneumoniae Strain

ABSTRACT Klebsiella pneumoniae causes common and severe hospital- and community-acquired infections with a high incidence of multidrug resistance. The emergence and spread of β-lactamase-producing K. pneumoniae strains highlight the need to develop new therapeutic strategies. In this study, we developed antisense peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) conjugated to the (KFF)3K peptide and investigated whether they could mediate gene-specific antisense effects in K. pneumoniae. No outer membrane permeabilization was observed with antisense PNAs when used alone. Antisense peptide-PNAs targeted at two essential genes, gyrA and ompA, were found to be growth inhibitory at concentrations of 20 μM and 40 μM, respectively. Mismatched antisense peptide-PNAs with sequence variations of the gyrA and ompA genes when used as controls were not growth inhibitory. Bactericidal effects exerted by peptide-anti-gyrA PNA and peptide-anti-ompA PNA on cells were observed within 6 h of treatment. The antisense peptide-PNAs specifically inhibited expression of DNA gyrase subunit A and OmpA from the respective targeted genes in a dose-dependent manner. Both antisense peptide-PNAs cured IMR90 cell cultures that were infected with K. pneumoniae (104 CFU) in a dose-dependent manner without any noticeable toxicity to the human cells.
Wage competition and the special-obligations challenge to more open borders

According to the special-obligations challenge to the justice argument for more open borders, immigration restrictions to wealthier polities are justified because of special obligations owed to disadvantaged compatriots negatively impacted by the immigration of low-skilled foreign workers. We refute the special-obligations challenge by refuting its empirical premise and draw out the normative implications of the empirical evidence for border policies. We show that immigration to wealthier polities has negligible impact on domestic wages and that only previous cohorts of immigrants are adversely affected. The special-obligations challenge therefore succeeds only if special obligations owed to previous immigrants justify closing borders to further immigration; we argue that they do not.
Generalized Taylor Rule and Determinacy of Growth Equilibrium

This paper re-examines equilibrium determinacy under the interest-rate control rules in a simple model of endogenous growth. We use a standard money-in-the-utility formulation with fixed labor supply and an Ak technology under which the balanced-growth path is unique and money is superneutral in the long run. We show that even in this environment the interest-rate feedback rule a la Taylor may produce indeterminacy of equilibrium if the monetary authority adjusts the nominal interest rate in response to the growth rate of real income as well as to the rate of inflation.
Dynamic electron–ion collisions and nuclear quantum effects in quantum simulation of warm dense matter

The structural, thermodynamic and transport properties of warm dense matter (WDM) are crucial to the fields of astrophysics and planet science, as well as inertial confinement fusion. WDM refers to the states of matter in a regime of temperature and density between cold condensed matter and hot ideal plasmas, where the density is from near-solid up to ten times solid density, and the temperature between 0.1 and 100 eV. In the WDM regime, matter exhibits moderately or strongly coupled, partially degenerate properties. Therefore, the methods used to deal with condensed matter and isolated atoms need to be properly validated for WDM. It is therefore a big challenge to understand WDM within a unified theoretical description with reliable accuracy. Here, we review the progress in the theoretical study of WDM with state-of-the-art simulations, i.e. quantum Langevin molecular dynamics and first principles path integral molecular dynamics. The related applications for WDM are also included.
Long‐Term Care in Central and South‐Eastern Europe: Challenges and Perspectives in Addressing a ‘New’ Social Risk

Long-term care in Central and South-Eastern Europe (CSEE) has to date been largely neglected in the social policy literature. This article provides an examination of the context and the sources of reform of long-term care in CSEE, particularly Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia. It focuses on studying developments in the light of the major principles underlying the transition process and discussing key features of current developments in terms of their potential for establishing a new paradigm in long-term care policies. The article argues that the realization of more comprehensive long-term care systems has been largely hindered by a failure of governments to set priorities in this sector, by the limitations civil society finds in bringing the issue into a broader public debate and by fears that new welfare schemes will substantially extend public expenditure obligations. The findings show that – similar to the situation in most other European countries – long-term care is a latecomer in welfare state development in CSEE. But ageing societies, growing care needs and broader socio-economic developments will also increasingly challenge traditional ways of organizing long-term care and create pressure to find new welfare approaches.
Evolutionary agent-based economics

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Self-Enforcing Intergenerational Transfers and the Provision of Education

Due to the presence of borrowing constraints in the market, the cost of educating the young members of a family is often borne by the adults. We consider intrafamily financing of human capital under the assumptions that individuals are selfish and binding contracts are not feasible. Cooperation among family members is possible through a family norm (a family ‘social capital’) which prescribes the obligations to be met at each stage in life and sanctions for those who deviate. We note that it is crucial that transfers to education are combined with intrafamily transfers to old-family members. We characterise the set of self-enforcing transfers and show that there is a downward bias in the family provision of education. This gives a rationale for public action as a remedy to the lack of commitment between selfish family members. The analysis also points to a number of potential effects of education policy and public pensions on human capital formation.
The potential mechanisms of Aβ-receptor for advanced glycation end-products interaction disrupting tight junctions of the blood-brain barrier in Alzheimer's disease

The receptor for advanced glycation end-products (RAGE) is a multiligand membrane receptor that has been implicated in the cytotoxicity effects of β-amyloid protein (Aβ) in AD. Positive feedback mechanism of RAGE within blood-brain barrier (BBB) and/or cells inside the brain is proposed, including interaction with Aβ stimulating activation of proinflammatory cytokines, release of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which leads to neuron damage and BBB dysfunction. RAGE is the main factor mediating Aβ cytotoxicity. Attenuation of RAGE activity may inhibit Aβ from accumulation in the cerebral blood vessels and prevent neurotoxicity. Furthermore, RAGE may serve as a therapeutic target for Alzheimer's disease by inhibiting pathophysiological consequences of Aβ-RAGE interaction. Tight junctions (TJ) are identified as the basic structure of the BBB and RAGE-mediated Aβ cytotoxicity to the brain microvascular endothelial cells (BMEC), resulting in damaged BBB structural integrity. However, the potential mechanism is poorly studied.
Electoral Democracy and Human Development

This study attempts to reconcile competing positions in the debate over whether democracy improves human development by showing that some aspects of democracy – but not others – affect human development. Specifically, we argue that the “electoral” aspect of democracy improves human development while aspects related to citizen empowerment do not (or scarcely so). Likewise, composite indices of democracy bear only a weak relationship to human development, especially if they do not take the mutual dependence between electoral components into account in their aggregation procedures. We argue, finally, that public policies serve as a key causal mechanism in this relationship. Electoral competition incentivizes politicians to provide public goods and services, and these, in turn, save lives. This set of hypotheses is tested in a more rigorous fashion than has hitherto been possible. First, we enlist a new dataset compiled by the CLIO Infra project that measures mortality – infant mortality, child mortality, and life expectancy – for most sovereign countries over the course of the twentieth century. Second, we draw on a new political institutions dataset – Varieties of Democracy (V- Dem) – that provides highly differentiated measures of democracy, measured annually for most sovereign countries from 1900 to the present. Third, we apply a diverse set of empirical tests including fixed effects, lagged dependent variables, first-difference, system GMM, and instrumental variables. Considered together, these tests mitigate concerns about causal identification.
2D Multimodality Image Registration Based on ITK by Mutual Information

The registration of multimodality images is a fundamental task in numerous applications in medical image processing. This paper presents recent work in registration of 2- D images using the Mutual Information. This work is part of developing a system for medical image processing. The registration uses methods from the Insight Software Toolkit (ITK), which provides a public domain and open source implementation of registration and segmentation algorithms.
The Optimal Entry Mode of the Multinational Firm under Network Externalities: Foreign Direct Investment and Tariff

In the generation of frequent interaction internationally and booming internet, the commodity with network externalities in international trade has been spotted all the time. In this paper, we analyze how the multinational firms producing goods with network externalities choose the optimal entry mode between foreign direct investment and exporting. We found out that the technical advantages are the key factors for multinational firms to choose the entry modes.