Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Association between mutations in the CARD15 (NOD2) gene and Crohn's disease in Israeli Jewish patients

Ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD) are heterogeneous disorders characterized by chronic intestinal inflammation. Genetic predisposition is a major risk factor in both diseases. The CARD15 (NOD2) gene has been implied as a candidate gene in the pathogenesis CD. Our aim was to delineate the frequency of three missense and one frameshift variant of CARD15 in Israeli Jewish CD and UC patients. DNA was extracted from blood samples from 238 unrelated inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients, 68 with UC and 170 with CD. The DNA was genotyped for two missense mutations, R675W and G881R, and one frameshift mutation, 980FS981X. Mutations in CARD15 were observed with significantly greater frequency in CD patients (46/170, 27%) than in UC patients (7/68, 10%) (P = 0.005). Homozygous and compound heterozygous carriers were restricted to seven (4%) patients with CD as compared to none of the UC patients (P = 0.01). Similar rates in Ashkenazi and non‐Ashkenazi Jewish patients were observed. Age‐of‐onset of disease was lower in Ashkenazi mutation carriers as compared to non‐carriers of Ashkenazi origin (18.7 ± 8.6 years vs. 25.8 ± 13.4 years, respectively, P = 0.03). No other phenotypic characteristics could distinguish mutation carriers from non‐carriers. We conclude that germline mutations in the CARD15 gene are more frequently found in CD than UC patients and appear to predict an earlier age‐of‐onset in Ashkenazi Jewish patients. No association could be demonstrated between CARD15 mutations and specific disease course or behavior. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
In vitro propagation of endangered Lippia filifolia mart. and schauer ex schauer

SummaryThis work describes an efficient micropropagation protocol of Lippia filifolia. Nodal segments cultivation in MS medium supplemented with 6-benzylaminopurine (4.5 μM)/α-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA; 54nM) induced multiple shoots (in average 27 shoots per explant). Elongated shoots were rooted with NAA (0.11 μM) and they maintained ploidy level of the in vitro produced explants. The basic chromosome number were 2n=2x=24. Regenerated rooted shoots were successfully acclimatized under shading house conditions. This is the first report involving the establishment of a protocol for shoot multiplication and rooting for endangered L. filifolia, contributing for germplasm preservation of this species.
Inhibition of bone resorption by inorganic phosphate is mediated by both reduced osteoclast formation and decreased activity of mature osteoclasts

High concentrations of inorganic phosphate (Pi) are known to inhibit bone resorption, although the mechanism(s) underlying this effect is unclear. To investigate whether Pi can inhibit the formation of osteoclasts we studied the effects of changes in Pi concentration between 1 and 4 mM on osteoclast‐like cell formation in 1 week cultures of mouse bone marrow. Osteoclast‐like cells were identified by multinuclearity, positive staining for tartrate‐resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP), and contraction in response to calcitonin. Increasing concentrations of Pi inhibited formation of these cells in a dose‐dependent manner. To study effects of Pi on the bone‐resorbing activity of mature osteoclasts we isolated osteoclasts from calcium‐deficient egg‐laying hens or rat pups and incubated them on sperm whale dentine slices. High Pi concentrations markedly reduced both the number of resorption pits formed per dentine slice and the mean area of each pit in both avian and mammalian systems. These data indicate that high concentrations of Pi act on bone directly, both to inhibit generation of new osteoclasts from their precursor cells and to inhibit bone resorption by mature osteoclasts. These effects of extracellular Pi concentration may play an important modulatory role on bone turnover in vivo and have potential importance in several disease states in which Pi metabolism is perturbed.
The Saccharomyces cerevisiae ATP22 Gene Codes for the Mitochondrial ATPase Subunit 6-Specific Translation Factor

Mutations in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae ATP22 gene were previously shown to block assembly of the F0 component of the mitochondrial proton-translocating ATPase. Further inquiries into the function of Atp22p have revealed that it is essential for translation of subunit 6 of the mitochondrial ATPase. The mutant phenotype can be partially rescued by the presence in the same cell of wild-type mitochondrial DNA and a ρ− deletion genome in which the 5′-UTR, first exon, and first intron of COX1 are fused to the fourth codon of ATP6. The COX1/ATP6 gene is transcribed and processed to the mature mRNA by splicing of the COX1 intron from the precursor. The hybrid protein translated from the novel mRNA is proteolytically cleaved at the normal site between residues 10 and 11 of the subunit 6 precursor, causing the release of the polypeptide encoded by the COX1 exon. The ability of the ρ− suppressor genome to express subunit 6 in an atp22 null mutant constitutes strong evidence that translation of subunit 6 depends on the interaction of Atp22p with the 5′-UTR of the ATP6 mRNA.
A Compact HTS Duplexer for Communication Application

A compact L-band high temperature superconducting (HTS) microstrip input duplexer for satellite communication application has been developed. The duplexer has two output channels with center frequencies at 1200 and 1250 MHz, respectively. It was fabricated on a single piece of 2-in double-sided YBCO thin film on LaAlO3 substrate with a dimension of 26 × 42 mm. The duplexer consists of a T-junction and two bandpass filters, i.e., a ten-pole filter and an eight-pole filter for the two transmission channels, respectively. Both of the two HTS bandpass filters were specially designed to suppress the second-harmonic spurious passband. Moreover, an HTS bandstop filter is added to the duplexer to improve the out-of-band rejection at a special frequency band. As a result of the preceding special designs, in addition to a very low insertion loss (0.2 dB), considerably sharp band edge (21 dB/MHz), and good voltage standing wave ratio (better than 1.4:1), much deeper out-of-band rejection (more than 75 dB) can be realized in a much wider frequency range, i.e., up to 3 GHz, which is almost three times above the center frequency of the passbands. Although all the elements of the duplexer are integrated within a single-piece YBCO film and the layout is compact, excellent isolation (higher than 80 dB) between the two channels has still been achieved.
Formation control based on adaptive NN with time-varying interaction among robots

This paper addresses a formation control issue for a group of robots with dynamic interaction topology. Normally given a formation shape (pattern), if interaction topology changes from time to time, formation control developed for continuous systems may fail to keep formation, because the system may be not continuous any longer. This paper introduces a decentralized formation control to realize formation. Moreover based on analysis of switched systems, the sufficient conditions on formation pattern and interaction topology are fingered out to ensure the feasibility of this formation control, even if the interaction topology often changes suddenly. The simulation illustrates that within a field with obstacles, which may interrupt interaction between robots, a leader-following formation must reach the destination by using this formation control.
Do social support interventions (“buddy systems”) aid smoking cessation? A review

OBJECTIVE To provide an overview of the role of social support in smoking cessation and to critically review evidence regarding the use of “buddy systems” (where smokers are specifically provided with someone to support them) to aid smoking cessation. DATA SOURCES Studies were located by searching Medline and Psyclit using the key words “smoking”, “smoking cessation”, “social support”, and “buddy”. Additional studies were identified through reference lists. Only studies reported in English and published since 1980 were included. STUDY SELECTION Studies were selected on four criteria: publication in a peer reviewed journal; randomised controlled trial using smokers who wanted to stop; the use of a social support intervention, including a “buddy”; dependent variable of smoking abstinence. Most research in this area does not use a randomised design so only a small proportion of the originally identified studies were included. DATA SYNTHESIS In view of the diverse nature of the studies, a meta-analysis was not attempted. Ten studies were identified: nine were clinic based smoking trials, eight used a group format, and nine used buddies from among smokers' existing relationships. Support training varied from role play and rehearsal to a simple instruction to call each other regularly. Intervention and follow up periods varied between studies. Two studies showed a significant benefit of the intervention in the short term. CONCLUSIONS Research methodology in many cases was poor. The evidence would suggest that in the context of a smokers clinic the use of buddies may be of some benefit. There is a lack of evidence regarding the efficacy of the use of buddies in community interventions. This is an important area for future research.
A MULTI-COUNTRY LINK VECTOR AUTOREGRESSIVE MODEL THEORY AND EVIDENCE

Vector Autoregression (VAR) is an alternative to structural econometric model building, specifically in forecasting. The challenge of the VAR technique has been, however, limited to models of national and regional economies. This dissertation extends the scope of the VAR technique with the construction of a multi-country Link Vector Autoregressive (LIN-VAR) model based on eighteen OECD economies. It offers a unique way of combining the linkage specifications of global structural econometric models with the VAR technique. Each national economy in the LINK-VAR model is specified by four macroeconomic variables: output, nominal money supply, prices, and a short-term interest rate. Linkages among countries are formulated through link variables created from IMF's multilateral trade weighting scheme. The dissertation empirically investigates the extent to which an international VAR model can improve forecasting over VAR models which are limited to domestic influences. Two alternative linkage mechanisms were developed. The first mechanism links the four domestic variables of the typical country model to the other countries with a different link variable: an output link, a money supply link, a price link, and an effective exchange rate link. The second linkage mechanism includes both a foreign demand variable using the output link and an economic/financial price variable using the effective exchange rate link in each equation of the domestic model. Using monthly data for the period July 1972-June 1984, the two versions of the LINK-VAR model and individual country closed economy VAR models are estimated to generate twelve period ahead ex-post forecasts for statistical evaluation. The results from both linkage experiments emphatically suggest that forecasts of domestic variables improve substantially when a linkage mechanism is added to domestic VAR models. This argument is more forceful when the forecast evaluation focuses on country-by-country comparisons.
Verbal Fluency Deficits Co-Occur with Memory Deficits in Geriatric Patients at Risk for Dementia: Implications for the Concept of Mild Cognitive Impairment

We tested the notion that patients at high risk for progression to Alzheimer's disease (AD) display relatively isolated memory deficits by assessing the relationship between memory and fluency performances in a sample of 92 geriatric subjects with cognitive complaints and normal to mild clinical presentations. Patient groups were formed on the basis of memory test scores. Patients with normal memory scores also performed normally on fluency tests, and their fluency scores were significantly higher than those of patients with low memory performances. Patients falling between these two groups in memory abilities also displayed intermediate level fluency performances. Whereas the normal memory group performed at equivalent levels on semantic and phonemic fluency tasks, both the impaired memory group and the intermediate group displayed relatively greater weaknesses in semantic fluency. This pattern is similar to that seen in AD. Since the impaired memory patients meet criteria for Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment, these findings suggest that memory deficits in “pre-clinical” AD are likely to be accompanied by fluency weaknesses, with semantic fluency weaknesses predominating.
Population Dynamics, Longer Life Expectancy, and Child-Rearing Policies in an R&D-based Growth Model with Overlapping Generations

This study constructs an overlapping generations model with R&D activities and endogenous fertility. We demonstrate that there is a trap region where the economy cannot achieve sustainable growth. Moreover, this study shows that an increase in life expectancy expands the region where R&D is conducted, but shrinks the region where population increases. We consider the effects of child-rearing policies to expand the region where population increases. We show that these policies have the opposite effect of increasing life expectancy if the tax burden effect is small. However, a strengthening of child-rearing policies can reduce both regions where R&D is conducted and where population increases if the tax burden effect is large. JEL Codes：J13, O30, O41 Keywords：R&D, Fertility, Increasing life expectancy, Child-rearing policies
Taxes, Transfers and Income Distribution in Chile: Incorporating Undistributed Profits

This paper seeks to measure the distributive impact of fiscal interventions in Chile, applying the “Commitment to Equity” (CEQ) methodology, a standardized fiscal incidence analysis. As a methodological innovation, we incorporated income accrued and not received by Chilean taxpayers through their companies and corporations into the distribution of pre-fiscal income. We find that the difference between the distribution of accrued and received income turns out to be important, around 6 Gini percentage points for each main concept of income. In addition, when moving from the distribution of market income to the distribution of final income (after taxes and transfers) the distribution of income improves by 7 Gini percentage points. To assign the improvement in the distribution of income between the different fiscal interventions, we apply the Shapley value and it is observed that half of the improvement in the distribution of income is due to transfers in education, while direct taxes only explain 20% of the reduction of the Gini coefficient. Finally, based on the simulation of the impact of the 2014 tax reform carried out by the World Bank, we estimate that the reform would produce an additional reduction of 2.4 Gini percentage points when going from market income to final income.
A New Similarity Measure for Generalized Web Session Clustering

A new similarity measure for generalized web session clustering is defined on the common paths of users' navigation patterns (SMCP) in this paper. It divides the similarity of common paths between two sessions into the inner part and the outer part. The traditional k-means is employed to test the performance of similarity measure and by comparing with the visiting order Based (VOB) similarity measure and the path angles Based (PAB) similarity measure, the experiments on both real and synthetic datasets show that clustering using the proposed similarity measure SMCP can yield more than 10% higher accuracy than the VOB and PAB similarity measure in terms of Silhouette value.
Teachers' understandings of projects and portfolios at Hacettepe University School of Foreign Languages Basic English Division

Thesis Title: Teachers Understandings of Projects and Portfolios at Hacettepe University School of Foreign Languages Basic English Division Author: M. Petek Subaşı Thesis Chairperson: Julie Mathews-Aydınlı Bilkent University, MA TEFL Program Committee Members: Dr. Bill Snyder Bilkent University, MA TEFL Program Dr. Elif Uzel Bilkent University School of English Language In the last 40 years, traditional approaches in writing instruction and assessment have moved towards alternative instruction and assessment. Many institutions are going through changes to keep up with the developments in the field of ELT. Changes are generally undertaken to improve the quality of teaching both for the teachers and the students. Teachers play an important role in the changes proposed by institutions. These changes may require a change in the teachers’ practices. Teachers’ understandings of these practices play a vital role in the innovations proposed to be undertaken. The purpose of this study was to investigate teachers’ understandings of using projects and portfolios during the implementation of the new writing program at Hacettepe University School of Foreign Languages Basic English Division. By finding out the understandings of teachers towards the new writing program, its instruction and assessment tools, necessary improvements and changes can be prepared for the future of the program.
Ferroelectric–carbon nanotube memory devices

One-dimensional ferroelectric nanostructures, carbon nanotubes (CNT) and CNT–inorganic oxides have recently been studied due to their potential applications for microelectronics. Here, we report coating of a registered array of aligned multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) grown on silicon substrates by functional ferroelectric Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 (PZT) which produces structures suitable for commercial prototype memories. Microstructural analysis reveals the crystalline nature of PZT with small nanocrystals aligned in different directions. First-order Raman modes of MWCNT and PZT/MWCNT/n-Si show the high structural quality of CNT before and after PZT deposition at elevated temperature. PZT exists mostly in the monoclinic Cc/Cm phase, which is the origin of the high piezoelectric response in the system. Low–loss square piezoelectric hysteresis obtained for the 3D bottom-up structure confirms the switchability of the device. Current–voltage mapping of the device by conducting atomic force microscopy (c-AFM) indicates very low transient current. Fabrication and functional properties of these hybrid ferroelectric–carbon nanotubes is the first step towards miniaturization for future nanotechnology sensors, actuators, transducers and memory devices.
Comparison of plates versus intramedullary nails for fixation of displaced midshaft clavicular fractures.

BACKGROUND We compare the use of plate and screws versus intramedullary nails in the operative management of patients with displaced midclavicular fractures. METHODS Between March 2006 and June 2007, we performed a retrospective comparison of a demographically balanced sample of 110 patients (aged 16-65 years) who had received either plates or nails for completely displaced midshaft clavicular fractures. RESULTS We selected 59 plate-fixed and 51 nail-fixed patients. There was no significant difference between the groups with respect to age, gender, height, dominant arm, fracture angulation, fracture shortening, total fracture displacement, or mechanism of injury. Outcomes were significantly higher in the plate group compared with the nail group for the length of hospital stay (4.6 days ± 2.1 days vs. 5.9 days ± 2.6 days, p = 0.006), operative blood loss (67.5 mL ± 36.2 mL vs. 127.9 mL ± 48.8 mL, p < 0.0001), and size of surgical wound (11.9 cm ± 4.4 cm vs. 22.3 cm ± 4.5 cm, p < 0.0001). There was no significant difference in operative time, time to union, restoration of mobility (forward flexion, abduction, external rotation, and internal rotation), number of nonunions, number of malunions, infection, need for hardware removal, early mechanical failure, time to return to work, and Constant Shoulder and Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand functional scores. CONCLUSION Our results demonstrate no significant differences in functional outcome and nonunion rates between nails and plates fixation for displaced midshaft clavicular fractures.
Organizational identification as perceived by merger and acquisition employees

This study examined the influence of two organizational factors, namely organizational justice and organizational culture factors on organizational identification following merger and acquisitions (M&A) in Malaysia. This correlational study used the Social Identity Theory as its underpinning theory. Data were obtained from 219 respondents and were analysed using structural equation modelling. It is shown that rather organizational culture than organizational justice factors influence significantly on organizational identification with 62% explanatory power. Specifically, developmental, rational and group cultures were the significant predictors of organizational identification. The study gives practical significance to human resource managers in strengthening organizational identification as perceived by employees after an M&A by considering the crucial role of organizational culture factors. This is among the earliest study conducted that jointly links organizational factors of justice and culture in the context of employees' post-merger integration. It theorises on human issues at M&A and enriches the Western literature on organizational identification by providing insights of firms in a South East Asian country. The research was limited in terms of respondents who were employed in M&A organizations in the Klang Valley area of Malaysia.
Cyst(e)ine Requirements in Enterally Fed Very Low Birth Weight Preterm Infants

OBJECTIVE. Optimal nutrition is of utmost importance for the preterm infant's later health and developmental outcome. Amino acid requirements for preterm infants differ from those for term and older infants, because growth rates differ. Some nonessential amino acids, however, cannot be sufficiently synthesized endogenously. Cyst(e)ine is supposed to be such a conditionally essential amino acid in preterm infants. The objective of this study was to determine, at 32 and 35 weeks’ postmenstrual age, cyst(e)ine requirements in fully enterally fed very low birth weight preterm infants with gestational ages of <29 weeks. METHODS. Infants were randomly assigned to 1 of the 5 graded cystine test diets that contained generous amounts of methionine. Cyst(e)ine requirement was determined with the indicator amino acid oxidation technique ([1-13C]phenylalanine) after 24-hour adaptation. RESULTS. Fractional [1-13C]phenylalanine oxidation was established in 47 very low birth weight preterm infants (mean gestational age: 28 weeks ± 1 week SD; birth weight: 1.07 kg ± 0.21 kg SD). Increase in dietary cyst(e)ine intake did not result in a decrease in fractional [1-13C]phenylalanine oxidation. CONCLUSIONS. These data do not support the hypothesis that endogenous cyst(e)ine synthesis is limited in very low birth weight preterm infants with gestational ages of <29 weeks, both at 32 and 35 weeks postmenstrual age. It is safe to conclude that cyst(e)ine requirement is <18 mg/kg per day in enterally fed very low birth weight preterm infants who are older than 32 weeks’ postmenstrual age and whose methionine intake is adequate. Therefore, cyst(e)ine is probably not a conditionally essential amino acid in these infants.