Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Latent overproductive hyperuricemia increases in patients during the intermittent phase of gouty arthritis under long-term antihyperuricemic treatment

Abstract This work was undertaken to determine baseline urate metabolism in patients during the intermittent phase of gouty arthritis in order to decide on the best treatment for hyperuricemia. Parameters affecting serum urate levels, including uric acid clearance and urinary urate excretion, were re-evaluated in 30 patients who had shown normouricemia and no gouty attacks for at least 1 year and who were receiving urate-lowering drugs. The parameters determined at 2 weeks after discontinuation of the treatment (re-evaluation) were compared with those determined at initial diagnosis (initial evaluation). The discontinuation of urate-lowering drugs at re-evaluation led to a hyperuricemic state in all patients. The serum urate levels at re-evaluation were significantly higher than those at initial evaluation. The mean quantity of urinary urate excretion in patients showing increases in serum urate levels and the number of patients classified with overproductive hyperuricemia increased at re-evaluation. There was a significant increase in γ-glutamyl transpeptidase level, but no changes in body weight or creatinine and uric acid clearance. Asymptomatic patients at intermittent phases of gout may be in a latent, but progressing, hyperuricemic state as a result of urate overproduction. Physicians should assess latent hyperuricemia periodically, and choose a treatment with xanthine oxidase inhibitor when necessary.
Innovative mobile marketing via smartphones

Purpose – Smartphone adoption by consumers is increasing exponentially, and presents marketers with many new opportunites to reach and serve customers. However, are consumers ready for mobile marketing through their smartphones? This study aims to investigate consumers' willingness to accept marketing through their smartphones.Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on an online survey of 428 respondents. The data is analyzed through ANOVA and regression analysis.Findings – The results indicate that consumers' shopping style, brand trust, and value are key motivations for engaging in mobile marketing through their smartphones. Further research should focus on specific tactics marketers use to engage customers beyond marketing messages, that is, how they engage customers in dialogue to build relationships, encourage purchases and build loyalty. This could reveal how customers really want to engage in mobile marketing.Research limitations/implications – This research adds to the growing body of evi.
Expression of human liver arginase in Escherichia coli. Purification and properties of the product.

Arginase is an enzyme that catalyses the hydrolysis of arginine to urea and ornithine. It is abundantly present in the liver of ureotelic animals (i.e. those whose excretion is characterized by the excretion of uric acid as the chief end-product of nitrogen metabolism), but its purification has hitherto not been simple, and the yield not high. Starting with a partially truncated cDNA for human liver arginase recently made available, we constructed an expression plasmid that had tandemly linked tac promotors placed upstream of a full-length cDNA. By selecting Escherichia coli strain KY1436 as the host micro-organism, we established an efficient system for the production of human liver arginase protein. Chromatographies on CM-Sephadex G-150, DEAE-cellulose and Sephadex G-150, followed by preparative agar-gel electrophoresis, yielded 10 mg of apparently homogeneous enzyme protein from 1 g (wet wt.) of E. coli cells. E. coli-expressed human liver arginase had chemical, immunological and most catalytic properties indistinguishable from those of purified human erythrocyte arginase. However, E. coli-expressed arginase was a monomer of Mr 35,000, whereas the purified erythrocyte arginase was trimer of Mr 105,000. They differed also in pH- and temperature-stabilities. Gel-filtration experiments with these two purified arginases under various conditions, as well as with unfractionated human liver and erythrocyte cytosol preparations, indicated that the native form of human arginase should be of Mr 35,000, and that the trimeric appearance of human erythrocyte arginase after purification was an artifact of the purification procedures. It was thus concluded that, in Nature, the liver and erythrocyte arginases are identical proteins.
Integrated non-inverting buck-boost DC-DC converter with average-current-mode control

With the increasing use of electrical portable devices, an efficient power management solution is needed to extend the battery life. Generally, basic switching regulators, such as buck and boost converters, are not capable of using the entire battery output voltage range. In this work, a non-inverting buck-boost dc-dc converter which can use the full-range output voltage (i.e., 2.5-4.7 V) of a Li-ion battery is proposed. Moreover, average-current-mode control is adopted to improve noise immunity. The die area of this chip is 1.9×1.7mm2, and it was fabricated by using TSMC 0. 35μm 2P4M 5V mixed-signal polycide process. The input range of the converter is 2.5-5 V, and its output is set to 3.3V. It can supply up to 300 mA load current.
THE EFFECTS OF DIVERSITY INITIATIVES ON THE DISTORTION OF APPLICANT QUALIFICATIONS AND DECISION STANDARDS

Scott Highhouse, Advisor It is common practice for organizations to implement policies to encourage race and gender diversity in the workforce. Do these initiatives influence hiring managers’ selection decisions and motivate hiring managers to distort their assessments of applicant qualifications and their interpretations of selection standards? The current study investigated these questions with an employee selection scenario; manipulating hiring policy (Diversity Initiative vs. Equal Opportunity), applicant sex (female vs. male) and the timing (predecision vs. postdecision) of respondents’ ratings. Consistent with past research on dissonance reduction, respondents distorted their postdecision interpretations of the selection standard and their ratings of applicant qualifications for applicants that were not selected to align with their hiring decision. Contrary to expectations, among respondents who selected the applicant, those who rated qualifications prior to stating their hiring decision provided higher ratings than those who provided postdecision ratings. Contrary to expectations, the diversity initiative did not motivate respondents to distort qualifications or decision standards prior to stating their hiring decision for applicants targeted by the initiative. The sole impact of the diversity initiative was its effect on selection decisions for applicants not targeted by the policy. While the female applicant (i.e., the target of the diversity initiative) was no more likely to be hired in the context of the diversity initiative than under the equal opportunity policy, the male applicant was less likely to be hired under the diversity initiative.
Denoising of Noisy and Compressed Video Sequences

A novel denoising algorithm is presented for video sequences. The proposed approach takes advantage of the self similarity and redundancy of adjacent frames. The algorithm automatically estimates a signal dependent noise model for each level of a multi-scale pyramid. A variance stabilization transform is applied at each scale and a novel sequence denoising algorithm is used. Experiments show that the new algorithm is able to correctly remove highly correlated noise from dark and compressed movie sequences. Particularly, we illustrate the performance with indoor and lowlight scenes acquired with mobile phones.
A Diabetes Self-Management Education Class Taught by Pharmacy Students

Objective. To assess the impact of pharmacy students teaching a diabetes self-management education (DSME) class on their competence and confidence in providing diabetes education. Design. Pharmacy students enrolled in a service-learning elective first observed pharmacy faculty members teaching a DSME class and then 4 weeks later organized and taught a DSME class to a different group of patients at a student-run free medical clinic. Assessment. Student performance as assessed by faculty members using a rubric was above average, with a mean score of 3.3 on a 4.0 scale. Overall, student confidence after teaching the group DSME class was significantly higher than before teaching the class. Conclusion. Organizing and teaching a DSME class improved third-year pharmacy students’ confidence and diabetes knowledge and skills, as well as provided a valuable service to patients at a free medical clinic.
Power allocation for OFDM relaying systems with bit error ratio formula

This paper applies a power allocation (PA) strategy for OFDM relaying systems with bit error ratio (BER) formula. Transmission with relays can improve the system power efficiency and reduce the BER. Because the performance of relaying systems is influenced by power of the transmitter and the relay, optimization of power allocation is proposed to minimize BER and a simple sub-carrier pairing strategy is adopted to improve the system performance further. The simulation results show that efficient power allocation and sub-carrier pairing strategy will greatly reduce the BER.
Viability of Pathologic Cartilage Fragments as a Source for Autologous Chondrocyte Cultures

Objective To study if a culture of chondrocytes can be obtained from pathologic hyaline cartilage (PHC) fragments. Design Twenty-five men and 9 women with osteochondritis dissecans (OCD) in 11 cases, arthrosis in 13 patients, and trauma in the remaining 10 cases were included. The PHC fragments and a small sample of the next healthy cartilage were extracted by arthroscopy. According to the appearance, the PHC samples were divided into fixed (3 cases), flapped (6 patients), or loose bodies (25 cases), depending on the attachment degree of the cartilage to the subchondral bone. Approximately half of each pathologic sample and the whole healthy one were digested to isolate the cells trying to establish the cell culture. Results We were able to establish a cell culture in 7 out of 34 (20.6%) PHC samples (positive samples), whereas in the remaining 27 (79.4%) no cell growth was observed (negative samples). Most of the negative samples were loose bodies (P = 0.005) taken from patients with OCD or arthrosis (P = 0.001) with an evolution time of more than 1 year (P < 0.001). The best binary logistic regression model (P < 0.001) showed that the only factor affecting the establishment of cell culture was the evolution time (P = 0.044). Conclusion It is possible to culture chondrocytes from osteochondral fragments if they are traumatic, within a year of injury and not from fragments due to arthrosis or OCD.
Modified Cohen-Lee time-frequency distributions and instantaneous bandwidth of multicomponent signals

Cohen (1989, 1995) has introduced and extensively studied and developed the concept of the instantaneous bandwidth of a signal. Specifically, instantaneous bandwidth is interpreted as the spread in frequency about the instantaneous frequency, which is itself interpreted as the average frequency at each time. This view stems from a joint time-frequency distribution (TFD) analysis of the signal, where instantaneous frequency and instantaneous bandwidth are taken to be the first two conditional spectral moments, respectively, of the distribution. However, the traditional definition of instantaneous frequency, namely, as the derivative of the phase of the signal, is not consistent with this interpretation, and new definitions have therefore been proposed previously. We show that similar problems arise with the Cohen-Lee (1988, 1989) instantaneous bandwidth of a signal and propose a new formulation for the instantaneous bandwidth that is consistent with its interpretation as the conditional standard deviation in frequency of a TFD. We give the kernel constraints for a distribution to yield this new result, which is a modification of the kernel proposed by Cohen and Lee. These new kernel constraints yield a modified Cohen-Lee TFD whose first two conditional moments are interpretable as the average frequency and bandwidth at each time, respectively.
Stability Analysis of Time-Delay Neural Networks Subject to Stochastic Perturbations

This paper is concerned with the problem of mean-square exponential stability of uncertain neural networks with time-varying delay and stochastic perturbation. Both linear and nonlinear stochastic perturbations are considered. The main features of this paper are twofold: 1) Based on generalized Finsler lemma, some improved delay-dependent stability criteria are established, which are more efficient than the existing ones in terms of less conservatism and lower computational complexity; and 2) when the nonlinear stochastic perturbation acting on the system satisfies a class of Lipschitz linear growth conditions, the restrictive condition (or the similar ones) in the existing results can be relaxed under some assumptions. The usefulness of the proposed method is demonstrated by illustrative examples.
Duloxetine in the Treatment of Stress Urinary Incontinence

This manuscript reviews the pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics of duloxetine and its efficacy and safety in women with stress urinary incontinence. Duloxetine is a selective inhibitor of neuronal serotonin and norepinephrine uptake which increases urethral striated muscle activity and bladder capacity. Duloxetine is readily absorbed and extensively metabolized; cytochrome P450 1A2 (CYP1A2) inhibiting drugs can markedly increase duloxetine exposure. The clinical efficacy of duloxetine has consistently been demonstrated in several randomized, double-blind studies in women with moderate-to-severe stress urinary incontinence, but the additional benefit relative to placebo was moderate. Duloxetine treatment is frequently associated with adverse events such as nausea, dry mouth, fatigue, insomnia and constipation, but serious adverse events are rare. Therefore, duloxetine appears suitable for the treatment of stress urinary incontinence.
RNAs Extracted from Herpes Simplex Virus 1 Virions: Apparent Selectivity of Viral but Not Cellular RNAs Packaged in Virions

ABSTRACT Following the lead of recent studies on the presence of RNA in virions of human cytomegalovirus, we investigated the presence and identity of RNAs from purified virions of herpes simple virus 1. To facilitate these studies, we designed primers for all known open reading frames (ORFs) and also constructed cDNA arrays containing probes designed to detect all known transcripts. In the first series of experiments, labeled DNA made by reverse transcription of poly(A)+ RNA extracted from infected HEp-2 or rabbit skin cells hybridized to all but two of the probes in the cDNA array. A similar analysis of the RNA extracted from purified extracellular virions derived from infected HEp-2 cells hybridized to probes representing 24 of the ORFs. In the second series of analyses, we reverse transcribed and amplified by PCR RNAs from purified intracellular or extracellular virions derived from infected HEp-2 or Vero cell lines. The positive RNAs were retested by PCR with and without prior reverse transcription to ensure that the samples tested were free of contaminating DNA. The results were as follows. (i) Only a fraction of viral ORF transcripts were represented in virion RNA, and only nine RNAs (UL10, UL34/UL35, UL36, UL42, UL48, UL51, US1/US1.5, US8.5, and US10/US11) were positive in all RT PCR assays. Of these, seven were positive by hybridization to cDNA arrays. (ii) RNA extracted from cells infected with a mutant virus lacking the US8 to US12 genes yielded results similar to those described above, indicating that US11, a known RNA binding protein, does not play a role in packaging RNA in virions. (iii) Cellular RNAs detected in virions were representative of the abundant cellular RNAs. Last, RNA extracted from virions was translated in vitro and the translation products were reacted with antibody to αTIF (VIP16). The immune precipitate contained a labeled protein with the apparent molcular weight of αTIF, indicating that at least one mRNA packaged in virions was intact and capable of being translated. The basis for the apparent selectivity in the packaging of the viral RNAs packaged in virions is unknown.
The natural history of primary progressive multiple sclerosis

Background: Primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS) carries the worst prognosis of the multiple sclerosis (MS) subtypes and is currently untreatable. A previous analysis of the British Columbia MS database challenged the view that disability progression is rapid in PPMS, but identified few predictors of disease progression. Here, we extend previous analyses in an updated PPMS retrospective cohort study of prevalent cases. Methods: We used Kaplan-Meier survival analyses and Cox regression models to investigate the influence of gender, age at onset, and onset symptoms on time to and age at Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) 6.0 in patients with PPMS. Results: Of 5,779 patients with definite MS, 552 (10%) had PPMS. Median time to EDSS 6.0 was 14.0 years (95% confidence interval [CI] 11.3–16.7), reached at a median age of 58.6 years (95% CI 56.8–60.3). Sensory onset symptoms were associated with a longer time to and an older age at EDSS 6.0 (multivariable hazard ratios 0.55 [95% CI 0.35–0.87] and 0.54 [0.35–0.85]). Younger age at disease onset was associated with a longer time to but a younger age at EDSS 6.0. Gender and other onset symptoms were not associated with these outcomes. Fifty patients with PPMS (9%) fulfilled criteria for benign MS (EDSS ≤3.0 after 10 years' disease duration). Conclusions: We identified 2 predictors of a slower disease progression in primary progressive multiple sclerosis. Sensory onset symptoms were associated with both a longer time to and a higher age at Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) 6.0. A younger age at disease onset was associated with a longer time to EDSS 6.0, but patients with an early disease onset reached EDSS 6.0 at a younger age.
Draft Genome Sequence of Bacillus shackletonii LMG 18435T, Isolated from Volcanic Mossy Soil

ABSTRACT Bacillus shackletonii LMG 18435T is a Gram-positive, aerobic, and spore-forming bacterium. Here, we report the 5.30-Mb draft genome sequence of B. shackletonii LMG 18435T, which will promote its fundamental research and provide useful information for genomic taxonomy and phylogenomics of Bacillus-like bacteria.
The determinants of employees' affective commitment to the organisation under downsizing : the case of the banking industry in Korea

This thesis sets out to solve a paradox: maintaining a high level of employees' affective commitment to the organisation is assumed to be a critical factor for successful downsizing, but downsizing tends to reduce employees' affective commitment to the organisation. In seeking to resolve this paradox, the thesis aims to provide insights into how employees' affective commitment to the organisation under downsizing can be managed. The thesis first explores the mechanism through which downsizing exerts its influence on employees' affective commitment to the organisation, i.e. it examines whether downsizing affects employees' affective commitment to the organisation directly and/or indirectly through employees' daily work experiences, and seeks to determine which impact is stronger. Then, it examines whether employees' affective commitment to the organisation is really important in terms of organisational citizenship behaviour. Finally, the thesis identifies the determinants of employees' affective commitment to the organisation and investigates how and why these determinants have such effects. The results of the research show that the indirect impact of downsizing on employees' affective commitment to the organisation is much stronger than its direct impact. That is, employees' affective commitment to the organisation is slightly reduced by downsizing, but it can be maintained or enhanced if the change of employees' daily work experiences caused by downsizing is favourable to them. Moreover, employees' affective commitment to the organisation appears to be very important in terms of organisational citizenship behaviour. Finally, employees' daily work experiences affect employees' affective commitment to the organisation through their impacts on the three mediating variables (organisation-based self-esteem, perceived organisational support, and self efficacy). The results also show that organisation-based self-esteem is the key mediating variable.
The impact of team diversity on mutual fund performance

This paper investigates the impact of team diversity on mutual fund performance. Analyzing management teams from the U.S. mutual fund industry we show that the impact of diversity on fund performance depends on a trade off between information gains and communication costs. We find that information gains dominate in tenure and educational diverse teams which leads to higher fund performance. Communication costs dominate in gender diverse teams which leads to lower fund performance. Our results are consistent with the diversity theory developed in Lazear (1999).
A Selective Egocentric Topographical Working Memory Deficit in the Early Stages of Alzheimer’s Disease

The aim of this study was to determine whether an egocentric topographical working memory (WM) deficit is present in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD) with respect to other forms of visuospatial WM. Further, we would investigate whether this deficit could be present in patients having AD without topographical disorientation (TD) signs in everyday life assessed through an informal interview to caregivers. Seven patients with AD and 20 healthy participants performed the Walking Corsi Test and the Corsi Block-Tapping Test. The former test requires memorizing a sequence of places by following a path and the latter is a well-known visuospatial memory task. Patients with AD also performed a verbal WM test to exclude the presence of general WM impairments. Preliminary results suggest that egocentric topographical WM is selectively impaired, with respect to visuospatial and verbal WM, even without TD suggesting an important role of this memory in the early stages of AD.
Flexible UHF Resistive Humidity Sensors Based on Carbon Nanotubes

This paper presents the investigation of the resistive humidity-sensing properties of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). MWCNTs functionalized by acid treatment (f-MWCNTs) exhibit rather high sensitivity in resistance toward humidity, owing to the presence of carboxylic groups on the nanotube surface. By integrating the f-MWCNTs resistor into a wireless sensor platform, flexible humidity sensors for ultra-high frequency applications are investigated. The operating frequency range of the sensor is dramatically increased from 600 MHz to 2 GHz by adjusting the resistor-electrodes' configuration. This enhancement is predominately attributed to the variation in parasitic capacitance between the resistor-electrodes.