Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Covariate unit root test under structural change and its application to the relation between income and consumption

This dissertation comprises four essays on unit root test under structural change. I propose a new unit root test under structural change which has gains in power over conventional tests and. using the new test, examine the implication of a structural change on the long run relationship between income and consumption. While a data set over a long time period is preferred for more reliable testing for a unit root, it is more likely to contain a structural change due to an event such as war, oil price shock, or monetary policy regime change. If there is a structural change, it should be allowed for in a unit root test. Otherwise, the unit root test will be biased toward false acceptance of a unit root. However, if a structural change is allowed for, there is loss of power. Indeed, the Perron test, a conventional unit root test under structural change, has a pitfall of low power in finite samples. The first essay of this dissertation proposes a new unit root test under structural change that utilizes the information in covariates, the variables related to the variable being tested. Asymptotic local power functions show that the power gains are sub­ stantial when the covariates are highly correlated with the variable being tested. In Monte Carlo experiments on finite samples, the new test (hereinafter, the covariatePerron test) outperforms the Perron test in terms of power, without sacrificing the accuracy of size.
Assessment of milk production competitiveness of the Slovak Republic within the EU-27 countries

Raw cow milk represents one of the most important commodity in the agricultural market. Th e Slovak agro-food foreign trade is characterized by a substantial increase in the commodity trade, monitoring of competitiveness is therefore very important. Th e aim of the article was to evaluate the current situation of breeding processes in the cattle production with focus to the raw cow milk production and dairy products; and to compare the competitiveness of the domestic supply with the EU-27 countries. To quantify the evaluation of competitiveness, mathematical and statistical methods were used. Indicators of the exposed comparative advantage (RCA); the competitiveness growth index (RCA 1); the net trade performance index (RCA 2); the indicator of relative import penetration (RMA); the indicator of relative export advantages (RXA); and the indicator of relative business advantages (RTA) were calculated. Th e research of the foreign trade competitiveness parameters of the aggregated group Milk (RCA, RCA 1, RCA 2, RMA, RXA; and RTA) showed that the Slovak Republic has a comparative advantage among the EU-27 countries in the commodity 0401 (milk and cream, not concentrated or containing added sugar or other sweeteners), in all other monitored commodities, a comparative disadvantage was determined. Based on the research, the ideas and recommendations for the agricultural policy and for the milk processors were formulated.
Short-term effects of inspiratory muscle training in coronary artery bypass graft surgery: A randomized controlled trial

Abstract Objective. To investigate the efficiency of inspiratory muscle training (IMT) on postoperative respiratory muscle strength, functional capacity, quality of life, and psychosocial status in patients with coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. Design. Forty-three patients undergoing CABG surgery were randomly assigned to the one of two groups. All subjects received usual care. In addition, subjects in the intervention group received IMT training pre- and postoperatively. Pulmonary function testing, six minute walk test (6MWT), quality of life and psychosocial parameters were assessed preoperatively and the fifth day after the surgery. Results. The mean inspiratory muscle strength increased from 82.64 cmH2O at baseline to 95.45 cmH2O five days postoperatively in the intervention group. The intervention group (319.55 ± 72.17 m before and 387.91 ± 65.69 m after surgery) covered further distance during the 6MWT than usual care (355.43 ± 56.08 m before and 357.69 ± 43.42 m after surgery). The improvement in quality of life was greater in the intervention group for the dimension of sleep. The anxiety scores were significantly lower in the intervention group than the usual care group. The length of intensive care unit stay was significantly shorter in the intervention group than the usual care group (p < 0.05). Conclusion. IMT results in faster recovery of inspiratory muscle strength, functional capacity, intensive care unit stay, quality of life and psychosocial status after CABG.
Transmission of 16.4-bit/s Capacity Over 2550 km Using PDM QPSK Modulation Format and Coherent Receiver

A record capacity distance product of 41.8 Petabit/s middotkm is demonstrated. A total of 164 channels are modulated at 100 Gbit/s with PDM-QPSK format, packed with 2 bit/s/Hz information spectral density and recovered by off-line processing in a coherent receiver after 2550 km distance.
Environmental health 2012: a key partner in delivering the public health agenda.

Describes a project carried out the the HDA, with the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH), to support the environmental health profession in developing a strategic vision for its contribution to health development and wellbeing. Captures the challenges, constraints and ideas from mixed groups of environmental health, public health and health improvement professionals from local authorities, the NHS, organisations, environment, voluntary, and community.
A Unifying Input Framework for Multi-Touch Tables

the uprise of multi-touch table systems, more and more applications which have to deal with multi-touch in put, sometimes even multi-user input, are being develope d. The development of such applications often introduces t he use of frameworks designed to deal with multi-touch input from a specific type of multi-touch table. In cases where no frameworks are available for a specific kind of mul ti-touch table, it might even be necessary to handle the tab le's input through a low level API. This, in turn, requires ad ditional layers to be implemented in order to be able to deal with the input in an abstract, usable way. In this paper an unifying input framework is presen ted which abstracts away from the hardware limitations of dif ferent kinds of touch tables and provides a general interface fo r handling multi-user, multi-tangible, multi-touch interaction . Keywordsmulti-user, gestures, DiamondTouch, in teraction design, single display groupware, framework, tangib le interaction
Diversity Analysis of Millimeter-Wave Massive MIMO Systems

This paper is concerned with asymptotic diversity analysis for millimeter-wave (mmWave) massive MIMO systems. First, for a single-user mmWave system employing distributed antenna subarray architecture in which the transmitter and receiver consist of Kt and Kr subarrays, respectively, a diversity gain theorem is established when the numbers of antennas at subarrays go to infinity. Specifically, assuming that all subchannels have the same number of propagation paths L, the theorem states that by employing such a distributed antenna-subarray architecture, a diversity gain of KrKtL-Ns+1 can be achieved, where Ns is the number of data streams. This result means that compared to the co-located antenna architecture, using the distributed antenna-subarray architecture can scale up the diversity gain or multiplexing gain proportionally to KrKt. The diversity gain analysis is then extended to the multiuser scenario as well as the scenario with conventional partially-connected RF structure in the literature. Simulation results obtained with the hybrid analog/digital processing corroborate the analysis results and show that the distributed subarray architecture indeed yields significantly better diversity performance than the co-located antenna architectures.
Changes in asthma control, work productivity, and impairment with omalizumab: 5-year EXCELS study results.

BACKGROUND Asthma poses a significant disease burden worldwide. Current guidelines emphasize achieving and maintaining asthma control. OBJECTIVE To describe longitudinal changes of asthma control and asthma-related work, school, and activity impairment for patients with moderate-to-severe asthma treated with omalizumab and those who did not receive omalizumab in a real-world setting. METHODS This study used 5 years of data from patients ages ≥12 years old with moderate-to-severe persistent allergic asthma who were enrolled in the Evaluating Clinical Effectiveness and Long-term Safety in Patients with Moderate-to-Severe Asthma observational study. Asthma control was assessed with the Asthma Control Test for 5 years, and asthma-related work, school, and activity impairment was measured with the Work Productivity/Activity Impairment-Asthma questionnaire for the first 2 years. RESULTS The percentage of patients treated with omalizumab (n = 4930) and with well-controlled asthma (Asthma Control Test score, >20) increased from 45% at baseline to 61% at month 60, and it was 49% (baseline) and 67% (month 60) for the non-omalizumab-treated cohort (n = 2779). For new starters to omalizumab (n = 576), the percentage with well-controlled asthma increased from 25% at baseline to 51% at month 6, and to 60% at month 60. Patients in the omalizumab-treated cohort and those in the non-omalizumab-treated cohort experienced a reduction in asthma-related work, school, and activity impairment. The amount of improvement in asthma control achieved and the reduction in asthma-related work, school, and activity impairment were similar, regardless of asthma severity. CONCLUSION On average, patients in the Evaluating Clinical Effectiveness and Long-term Safety in Patients with Moderate-to-Severe Asthma observational study who initiated omalizumab experienced clinically significant improvement in asthma control, which was observed within 6 months and persisted for 5 years.
A randomized controlled trial of an antibiotic discontinuation policy for clinically suspected ventilator-associated pneumonia.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate an antibiotic discontinuation policy for clinically suspected ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). DESIGN Prospective, randomized, controlled clinical trial. SETTING A medical ICU from a university-affiliated urban teaching hospital. PATIENTS Between April 2002 and July 2003, 290 patients completed the clinical trial. INTERVENTIONS Patients were assigned to have the duration of antibiotic treatment for VAP determined by an antibiotic discontinuation policy (discontinuation group) or their treating physician teams (conventional group). RESULTS Severity of illness using APACHE (acute physiology and chronic health evaluation) II score (22.8 +/- 9.0 vs 23.2 +/- 9.4, p = 0.683) [mean +/- SD] and the clinical pulmonary infection score (7.1 +/- 0.9 vs 7.2 +/- 0.9, p = 0.222) were similar for both patient groups. The duration of antibiotic treatment for VAP was statistically shorter among patients in the discontinuation group compared to patients in the conventional antibiotic management group (6.0 +/- 4.9 days vs 8.0 +/- 5.6 days, p = 0.001). The occurrence of a secondary episode of VAP was not statistically different between these two groups (17.3% vs 19.3%, p = 0.667). Hospital mortality (32.0% vs 37.1%, p = 0.357) and ICU length of stay (6.8 +/- 6.1 days vs 7.0 +/- 7.3 days, p = 0.798) were also statistically similar. CONCLUSIONS The application of an antibiotic discontinuation policy for clinically suspected VAP was associated with a decrease in the overall duration of antibiotic treatment. These findings suggest that shorter courses of empiric antibiotic therapy for patients treated for clinically suspected VAP can be safely achieved.
Identification of Poly(ADP-Ribose) Polymerase as a Transcriptional Coactivator of the Human T-Cell Leukemia Virus Type 1 Tax Protein

ABSTRACT Human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) encodes a transcriptional activator, Tax, whose activity is believed to contribute significantly to cellular transformation. Tax stimulates transcription from the proviral promoter as well as from promoters for a variety of cellular genes. The mechanism through which Tax communicates to the general transcription factors and RNA polymerase II has not been completely determined. We investigated whether Tax could function directly through the general transcription factors and RNA polymerase II or if other intermediary factors or coactivators were required. Our results show that a system consisting of purified recombinant TFIIA, TFIIB, TFIIE, TFIIF, CREB, and Tax, along with highly purified RNA polymerase II, affinity-purified epitope-tagged TFIID, and semipurified TFIIH, supports basal transcription of the HTLV-1 promoter but is not responsive to Tax. Two additional activities were required for Tax to stimulate transcription. We demonstrate that one of these activities is poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP), a molecule that has been previously identified to be the transcriptional coactivator PC1. PARP functions as a coactivator in our assays at molar concentrations approximately equal to those of the DNA and equal to or less than those of the transcription factors in the assay. We further demonstrate that PARP stimulates Tax-activated transcription in vivo, demonstrating that this biochemical approach has functionally identified a novel target for the retroviral transcriptional activator Tax.
Tetra-μ-acetato-bis[(pyridine N-oxide)copper(II)](Cu—Cu)

The molecule of the title binuclear copper(II) complex, [Cu2(CH3COO)4(C5H5NO)2], occupies a special position on a crystallographic inversion centre; the coordination environment of the CuII atom is slightly distorted square-pyramidal and is made up of four O atoms belonging to four acetate groups in the basal plane with the O atom of pyridine N-oxide ligand in the apical position. The Cu—Cu distance is 2.6376 (6) Å.
Digital Coherent Optical Receivers: Algorithms and Subsystems

Digital coherent receivers have caused a revolution in the design of optical transmission systems, due to the subsystems and algorithms embedded within such a receiver. After giving a high-level overview of the subsystems, the optical front end, the analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and the digital signal processing (DSP) algorithms, which relax the tolerances on these subsystems are discussed. Attention is then turned to the compensation of transmission impairments, both static and dynamic. The discussion of dynamic-channel equalization, which forms a significant part of the paper, includes a theoretical analysis of the dual-polarization constant modulus algorithm, where the control surfaces several different equalizer algorithms are derived, including the constant modulus, decision-directed, trained, and the radially directed equalizer for both polarization division multiplexed quadriphase shift keyed (PDM-QPSK) and 16 level quadrature amplitude modulation (PDM-16-QAM). Synchronization algorithms employed to recover the timing and carrier phase information are then examined, after which the data may be recovered. The paper concludes with a discussion of the challenges for future coherent optical transmission systems.
Propylthiouracil attenuates monocrotaline-induced pulmonary arterial hypertension in rats.

BACKGROUND Propylthiouracil (PTU) enhances nitric oxide production and inhibits smooth muscle cell proliferation, suggesting a possible role in the prevention of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). METHODS AND RESULTS The 30 male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomized to receive saline injection only (group 1), monocrotaline (MCT) (70 mg/kg) only (group 2) or MCT + 0.1% PTU in drinking water (group 3) given on day 5 after MCT administration. By day 35, western blot showed lower connexin43 (Cx43) and membranous protein kinase C-epsilon expressions in the right ventricle (RV) of group 2 animals than in the other groups (all P<0.05). Conversely, Cx43 expression in the lung was higher in group 2 than in other groups (all P<0.02). Additionally, mRNA expressions of matrix metalloproteinase-9, tissue necrotic factor-alpha, and caspase-3 were higher, whereas Bcl-2 and endothelial nitric oxide synthase were lower, in the lungs and RV of group 2 rats than in the other groups (all P<0.05). Moreover, the numbers of alveolar sacs and lung arterioles were also reduced in group 2 than in other groups (all P<0.05), and RV systolic pressure and RV weight were increased in group 2 compared with other groups (all P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS PTU effectively attenuates complications associated with MCT-induced PAH.
Mixed Integer Programming Revealed Preference Tests of Utility Maximization and Weak Separability of Consumption, Leisure, and Money

Swofford and Whitney (1987, 1988, 1994) investigated the validity of two key assumptions underlying representative agent models of macroeconomics. These assumptions are utility maximization and weak separability. Using mixed integer programming, we check revealed preference conditions for these assumptions. We find that M1, money defined by Friedman and Schwartz (1963), and a broad aggregate are weakly separable. We find that consumption goods and leisure and nondurables and services are weakly separable. We find that M2, M3, and MZM are not weakly separable. Finally, we find three categories of consumption, durables, nondurables and services, do not form an aggregate.
Role of the C-Terminal Lysine Residues of Streptococcal Surface Enolase in Glu- and Lys-Plasminogen-Binding Activities of Group A Streptococci

ABSTRACT Streptococcal surface enolase (SEN) is a major plasminogen-binding protein of group A streptococci. Our earlier biochemical studies have suggested that the region responsible for this property is likely located at the C-terminal end of the SEN molecule. In the present study, the gene encoding SEN was cloned from group A streptococci M6 isolate D471. A series of mutations in the sen gene corresponding to the C-terminal region (428KSFYNLKK435) of the SEN molecule were created by either deleting one or more terminal lysine residues or replacing them with leucine. All purified recombinant SEN proteins with altered C-terminal ends were found to be enzymatically active and were analyzed for their Glu- and Lys-plasminogen-binding activities. Wild-type SEN bound to Lys-plasminogen with almost three times more affinity than to Glu-plasminogen. However, the recombinant mutant SEN proteins with a deletion of Lys434-435 or with K435L and K434-435L replacements showed a significant decrease in Glu- and Lys-plasminogen-binding activities. Accordingly, a streptococcal mutant expressing SEN-K434-435L showed a significant decrease in Glu- and Lys-plasminogen-binding activities. Biochemical and functional analyses of the isogenic mutant strain revealed a significant decrease in its abilities to cleave a chromogenic tripeptide substrate, acquire plasminogen from human plasma, and penetrate the extracellular matrix. Together, these data indicate that the last two C-terminal lysine residues of surface-exposed SEN contribute significantly to the plasminogen-binding activity of intact group A streptococci and hence to their ability to exploit host properties to their own advantage in tissue invasion.
A hybrid simulation approach to planning in a VMI supply chain

In this paper, we propose an innovative approach of integrating the vendor managed inventory (VMI) strategy with a hierarchical approach to production planning (HPP) decisions within a supply chain environment. The proposed architecture is divided into three stages: plan optimisation (Stages I), schedule optimisation (Stage II) and decision evaluation (Stage III). To implement this architecture, we use system dynamics simulations, discrete-event simulations and the High Level Architecture (HLA) as a distributed infrastructure. We describe our approach for the analysis of supply chains in detail and discuss results from experiments that demonstrate the benefits of the proposed architecture.
Sex hormones affect bone marrow dysfunction after trauma and hemorrhagic shock

Objective:Bone marrow (BM) dysfunction after trauma and hemorrhagic shock (T/HS) results in a decrease in clonogenic growth of BM progenitors through a plasma-mediated process. Although sex hormones have been shown to modulate some end-organ injury after shock, post-T/HS BM dysfunction has only been studied in male animals. Therefore, the present study examines the effects of sex hormones on post-T/HS BM dysfunction by measuring clonogenic growth of BM progenitors in castrated male rats and in ovariectomized and proestrus female rats. Design:Laboratory experiment. Setting:University surgical research laboratory. Subject:Castrated and noncastrated male and ovariectomized and proestrus female Sprague–Dawley rats. Intervention:All rats were subjected to either T/HS or sham shock with laparotomy (n = 3–5 per group). At 3 hrs after resuscitation, the rats were killed and plasma and BM mononuclear cells from bilateral femurs were harvested. Measurements and Main Results:BM mononuclear cells were cultured for erythroid burst-forming unit and granulocyte-macrophage colony-forming unit colonies to assess the extent of progenitor BM dysfunction. BM from noncastrated male rats subjected to T/HS demonstrated a significant decrease in granulocyte-macrophage colony-forming unit and erythroid burst-forming unit colony formation compared with BM of all the sham-shock groups and with the castrated male and both female rat groups subjected to T/HS. In addition, plasma from noncastrated shocked male rats incubated in vitro with BM cells from unmanipulated male rats caused a significant suppression of BM granulocyte-macrophage colony-forming unit and erythroid burst-forming unit colonies compared with plasma from castrated rats subjected to either sham shock with laparotomy or T/HS. Conclusion:The profound BM dysfunction observed in noncastrated male rats after T/HS is not observed in proestrus female rats and castrated male rats. In addition, the in vitro plasma-mediated BM suppression present in male rats after T/HS is also lost in castrated male rats. Sex hormones seem to play a significant role in BM dysfunction after T/HS.