Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Radiography for low back pain: a randomised controlled trial and observational study in primary care.

BACKGROUND Lumbar spine radiography has limited use in diagnosing the cause of acute low back pain. Consensus-based guidelines recommend that lumbar spine x-rays are not used routinely. However there have been no studies of the effect of referral for radiography at first presentation with low back pain in primary care. AIM To compare short and long-term physical, social, and psychiatric outcomes for patients with low back pain who are referred or not referred for lumbar spine x-ray at first presentation in general practice. DESIGN OF STUDY A randomised unblinded controlled trial with an observational arm to enable comparisons to be made with patients not recruited to the trial. SETTING Ninety-four general practices in south London and the South Thames region. METHOD Patients consulting their general practitioner (GP) with low back pain at first presentation were recruited to a randomised controlled trial (RCT) or to an observational group. Patients in the trial were randomly allocated to immediate referral for x-ray or to no referral. All patients were asked to complete questionnaires initially, and then at six weeks and one year after recruitment. RESULTS Six hundred and fifty-nine patients were recruited over 26 months: 153 to the randomised trial and 506 to the observational arm. In the RCT referral for x-ray had no effect on physical functioning, pain or disability, but was associated with a small improvement in psychological wellbeing at six weeks and one year. These findings were supported by the observational study in which there were no differences between the groups in physical outcomes after adjusting for length of episode at presentation; however, those referred for x-ray had lower depression scores. CONCLUSIONS Referral for lumbar spine radiography for first presentation of low back pain in primary care is not associated with improved physical functioning, pain or disability. The possibility of minor psychological improvement should be balanced against the high radiation dose involved.
The Conservatism Principle and the Asymmetric Timeliness of Earnings: An Event-Based Approach

In this paper, we test the conservatism and asymmetric timeliness hypothesis by using information in extreme events as a measure of good/bad news. The methodology we develop provides a more powerful test of asymmetric timeliness by focusing on major events that occur in short event windows and whose accounting is likely to receive special attention from managers. Our approach has several other advantages over that used by prior studies: (i) we provide complete evidence on conservatism by testing both implications of asymmetric timeliness: higher correlation of bad news with concurrent earnings as tested by prior studies and delayed earnings recognition of good news; (ii) our event-based research design is not subject to inferential concerns that may apply to some prior research; and (iii) our analysis based on components of earnings provides a stronger test of asymmetric timeliness by eliminating the effect of differential persistence of good news versus bad news. Our evidence is consistent with the conservatism and asymmetric timeliness hypothesis.
Ca2+-sensitive Inactivation and Facilitation of L-type Ca2+ Channels Both Depend on Specific Amino Acid Residues in a Consensus Calmodulin-binding Motif in theα1C subunit*

L-type Ca2+ channels are unusual in displaying two opposing forms of autoregulatory feedback, Ca2+-dependent inactivation and facilitation. Previous studies suggest that both involve direct interactions between calmodulin (CaM) and a consensus CaM-binding sequence (IQ motif) in the C terminus of the channel's α1C subunit. Here we report the functional effects of an extensive series of modifications of the IQ motif aimed at dissecting the structural determinants of the different forms of modulation. Although the combined substitution by alanine at five key positions (Ile1624, Gln1625, Phe1628, Arg1629, and Lys1630) abolished all Ca2+ dependence, corresponding single alanine replacements behaved similarly to the wild-type channel (77wt) in four of five cases. The mutant I1624A stood out in displaying little or no Ca2+-dependent inactivation, but clear Ca2+- and frequency-dependent facilitation. An even more pronounced tilt in favor of facilitation was seen with the double mutant I1624A/Q1625A: overt facilitation was observed even during a single depolarizing pulse, as confirmed by two-pulse experiments. Replacement of Ile1624 by 13 other amino acids produced graded and distinct patterns of change in the two forms of modulation. The extent of Ca2+-dependent facilitation was monotonically correlated with the affinity of CaM for the mutant IQ motif, determined in peptide binding experiments in vitro. Ca2+-dependent inactivation also depended on strong CaM binding to the IQ motif, but showed an additional requirement for a bulky, hydrophobic side chain at position 1624. Abolition of Ca2+-dependent modulation by IQ motif modifications mimicked and occluded the effects of overexpressing a dominant-negative CaM mutant.
Democracy and Accession to GATT/WTO

In this paper we argue that the level of democracy of an applicant country affects the time it takes to gain General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade/World Trade Organization (GATT/WTO) accession. An extensive empirical search suggests that the GATT/WTO accession duration is likely to be shorter for an applicant whose political regime is more democratic. Meanwhile, countries that initiated applications before 1995 took longer to accede to GATT than those that initiated applications after 1995 to accede to the WTO. The GATT/WTO accession is shortened if the applicant country's economy is large. Such findings are robust to the choice of different econometric methods, data sets and model specifications.
The Output Effects of Labor Income Taxes in OECD Countries

This article considers the relationship between labor income taxes and output. An illustrative model indicates that the sign of the output effect of labor taxation policies is ambiguous and depends not only on the technology parameters but also on the taxation level. The empirical evidence for fifteen Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries over the period 1974—97 shows that the effect is heterogeneous across countries both in the short run and in the long run when considering the average tax rate. We also find a common positive and significant long-run relationship for the marginal tax rate.
Female employment and fertility trajectories in Spain: an Optimal Matching Analysis

This article describes the evolution of labour market participation and fertility patterns in Spain among women born between 1956 and 1970. Trajectories are captured by combining partnership, employment and motherhood over a 20-year span (from the age of 16 to the age of 35). Using Optimal Matching Analysis, four different patterns in female trajectories are identified: (1) early marriage/non-working mother/high fertility; (2) late marriage/working mother/low fertility; (3) early marriage/working mother/high fertility; and (4) late marriage/low participation/low fertility. A multinomial probit model contrasts whether or not the patterns found are compatible with the human capital approach to female labour market participation and fertility and/or Hakim’s preference theory. Results show that both theoretical frameworks partly explain the observed trajectories although neither of them, not even both together, suffices to determine female employment and family careers.
Novel Tetracycline Resistance Determinant from the Oral Metagenome

ABSTRACT A major drawback of most studies on how bacteria become resistant to antibiotics is that they concentrate mainly on bacteria that can be cultivated in the laboratory. In the present study, we cloned part of the oral metagenome and isolated a novel tetracycline resistance gene, tet(37), which inactivates tetracycline.
Effect of &bgr;-Blockers on Cardiac and Pulmonary Events and Death in Older Adults With Cardiovascular Disease and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Context:In older adults with multiple conditions, medications may not impart the same benefits seen in patients who are younger or without multimorbidity. Furthermore, medications given for one condition may adversely affect other outcomes. &bgr;-Blocker use with coexisting cardiovascular disease (CVD) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is such a situation. Objective:To determine the effect of &bgr;-blocker use on cardiac and pulmonary outcomes and mortality in older adults with coexisting COPD and CVD. Design, Setting, Participants:The study included 1062 participants who were members of the 2004–2007 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey cohorts, a nationally representative sample of Medicare beneficiaries. Study criteria included age over 65 years plus coexisting CVD and COPD/asthma. Follow-up occurred through 2009. We determined the association between &bgr;-blocker use and the outcomes with propensity score-adjusted and covariate-adjusted Cox proportional hazards. Main Outcome Measures:The 3 outcomes were major cardiac events, pulmonary events, and all-cause mortality. Results:Half of the participants used &bgr;-blockers. During follow-up, 179 participants experienced a major cardiac event; 389 participants experienced a major pulmonary event; and 255 participants died. Each participant could have experienced any ≥1 of these events. The hazard ratio for &bgr;-blocker use was 1.18 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.85–1.62] for cardiac events, 0.91 (95% CI, 0.73–1.12) for pulmonary events, and 0.87 (95% CI, 0.67–1.13) for death. Conclusion:In this population of older adults, &bgr;-blockers did not seem to affect occurrence of cardiac or pulmonary events or death in those with CVD and COPD.
Interpartner Legitimacy Effects on Cluster Initiative Formation and Development Processes

Abstract In spite of the growing interest in cluster initiatives (CIs) as a means of regional development, there are still few studies of CIs that offer an inside perspective. This article takes such an inside perspective, focusing on the internal legitimacy aspects of the formation and evolving processes of CIs. We propose the inclusion of interpartner legitimacy effects in order to better understand the formation and development of CIs. A case study method is applied on a Swedish CI in the tourism industry. Faced with the situation that their region was lagging behind other Swedish regions in the development of tourism, the actors were spurred to promote a CI. Its central purposes were to consolidate the regional tourism industry, strengthen the regional brand and to establish the entire region as a single coherent destination. This paper contributes to the research body of regional development and CIs by showing how different types of interpartner legitimacies hinder and facilitate the CI process.
A 2-Bit, 24 dBm, Millimeter-Wave SOI CMOS Power-DAC Cell for Watt-Level High-Efficiency, Fully Digital m-ary QAM Transmitters

A high-efficiency, large output-power, mm-wave digital transmitter architecture is proposed for high data rate m-ary QAM transmission. Because it operates entirely in digital mode, without any matching networks, it is scalable in frequency up to at least 50 GHz and portable to future generations of CMOS technologies. It consists of n broadband mm-wave IQ power-DAC pairs directly modulated in amplitude and phase by 4 x n independent digital data streams. The output signals combine in free space to form a programmable ASK, BPSK, QPSK, and m-ary QAM mm-wave transmitter. Several proof-of-concept circuits with one DAC cell, and with one and two IQ pairs of DAC cells were fabricated in 45-nm SOI CMOS. Using a series-stacked differential output stage with four cascoded n-MOSFETs driven in saturation by a CMOS-inverter chain, each power-DAC cell demonstrates a 24.3 dBm output power with 21.3% drain efficiency and 14.6% PAE, at 45 GHz directly into 50-Ω loads. The peak drain efficiency is 30% at 22.5 dBm output power and 19.4% PAE. Experiments show 5-Gb/s BPSK, and simultaneous 2-Gb/s BPSK and 2-Gb/s ASK modulation per DAC cell in the 44–48 GHz range. Eye diagrams at 28 Gb/s further demonstrate the broadband operation of the DAC cell and its suitability as a large-swing NRZ modulator driver in fiberoptic links.
Diterpenoids from the roots of Euphorbia fischeriana and their inhibitory effects on α-glucosidase

Abstract Chemical investigation has been performed on the roots of Euphorbia fischeriana, a traditional Chinese medicine. Three diterpenoids were obtained using various chromatographic techniques, and their structures were determined by spectroscopic data including HRESIMS, 1D NMR, 2D NMR, ECD, and calculated ECD, which gave two new diterpenoids, daphnane type (1) and ent-pimarene type (3). Additionally, the isolated compounds (1–3) displayed moderate inhibitory effects against α-glucosidase in an in vitro bioassay.
Why are Migrants' Not Participating in Welfare Programs? Evidence from Shanghai, China

In recent years, Chinese cities have attempted to extend urban welfare provisions to migrants, but migrants' participation in such programs is relatively low. This paper examines migrant welfare participation in Shanghai and its association with personal characteristics, institutional factors, the labor market, attitudes about welfare programs and settlement intention. Except for hukou status, knowledge about policies and settlement intention, all the other factors help explain migrant nonparticipation in welfare programs. Comparing welfare participation among three subroups of migrants — the included, partially included and the transition group — explains the selection mechanisms for integrating migrants in welfare programs. Shanghai appears to be more welcoming of migrants who are female, with higher education, have better employment and greater trust in government impartiality.
Murine Fibroblastic Reticular Cells From Lymph Node Interact With CD4+ T Cells Through CD40-CD40L

Background Costimulatory blockade with anti-CD40L monoclonal antibody (mAb) plus donor-specific splenocyte transfusion (DST) induces alloantigen-specific tolerance. We previously showed that lymphotoxin signaling in the fibroblastic reticular cell (FRC) stromal subset was required for proper lymph node structure and function during tolerization in murine cardiac transplantation. Here we focused on FRC functions and hypothesized that DST and anti-CD40L mAb-modulated FRC interactions with CD4+ T cells in mice. Methods Mice were immunized or tolerized by DST or DST plus anti-CD40L mAb. Fibroblastic reticular cells were flow-sorted at different timepoints for characterization and in vitro proliferation and activation assays. Results Fibroblastic reticular cells responded rapidly to DST by transcribing inflammatory cytokine and chemokine messenger RNAs, such as CXCL2, CXCL9, CXCL10, and CCL21. Conversely, anti-CD40L mAb inhibited FRC inflammatory responses. CD40 was expressed on FRC and agonistic anti-CD40 mAb activated FRC, which supported CD4+ T-cell proliferation, whereas unstimulated FRC did not. Anti-CD3 mAb-activated CD4+ T cells induced inflammatory cytokine and chemokine expressions by FRC, which were inhibited by anti-CD40L mAb. Thus, FRC phenotype was altered by interaction with CD4+ T cells through CD40-CD40L, and activated FRC interacted directly with CD4+ T cells to support T cell activation and proliferation in vitro. Conclusions Taken together, these results demonstrated that CD40 on FRC facilitated bidirectional communication between FRC and CD4+ T cells via CD40-CD40L, thereby altering FRC gene expression of immune regulatory molecules. Because blockade of CD40-CD40L interactions results in tolerance in mice, identification of FRC-T cell interactions provides a new research target for tolerance induction.
Severe Versus Lenient Internal Promotion: An Analysis of the Optimal Promotion Mechanism in Organizations

This paper analyses the interaction between work incentives and talent selection in the framework of internal promotion, and investigates the kinds of promotion structures that are adopted in organizations. We compare the benefits of promoting a deserving agent with the costs of providing work incentives to him. It is shown that whether the principal intends to punish even the talented worker (severe promotion) or to reward even the untalented worker (lenient promotion) depends upon whether the benefits of promoting the former worker or the costs of promoting the latter worker are relatively large.
Aldosterone blunts the baroreflex response in man.

1. Recent animal evidence suggests that aldosterone, like angiotensin II, may possess detrimental autonomic modulating properties. Aldosterone has been shown to impair the baroreflex response in animal models. This study is designed to test the hypothesis that aldosterone directly attenuates the baroreflex in vivo in man.2. Fourteen healthy male volunteers [mean age (S.D.) 25 (9) years] received intravenous d-aldosterone (12 pmol.min-1.kg-1) and 5% dextrose (vehicle) in a double-blind crossover fashion, co-infused with incremental doses of intravenous phenylephrine and sodium nitroprusside. Aldosterone had no significant effect on resting blood pressure, heart rate or baroreflex response to sodium nitroprusside. However, reflex responses to phenylephrine were impaired with aldosterone (P<0.01) while blood pressure responses were unaltered. Baroreflex sensitivity was significantly blunted in the aldosterone group [8.36+/-2.19 versus 10.12+/-2.27 ms/mmHg; P<0. 04]. 3. This study confirms previous observations from animal models that aldosterone impairs the baroreflex response. High aldosterone levels may contribute to the baroreflex dysfunction in cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension and heart failure.
Recommender Systems with Random Walks: A Survey

Recommender engines have become an integral component in today's e-commerce systems. From recommending books in Amazon to finding friends in social networks such as Facebook, they have become omnipresent. Generally, recommender systems can be classified into two main categories: content based and collaborative filtering based models. Both these models build relationships between users and items to provide recommendations. Content based systems achieve this task by utilizing features extracted from the context available, whereas collaborative systems use shared interests between user-item subsets. There is another relatively unexplored approach for providing recommendations that utilizes a stochastic process named random walks. This study is a survey exploring use cases of random walks in recommender systems and an attempt at classifying them.
ARED-CK: an Automated Requirements Elicitation Approach Based on Decision-making with Complete Knowledge

Requirements elicitation, as the first phase of the software life cycle, its importance is becoming more and more prominent. How fast and accurate user requirements can be elicited, is a problem that people wants to solve for a long time. This paper proposes to establish an automated elicitation system based on domain knowledge on user requirements. By gradually perfecting and refining the original requirements description, we can acquire requirements effectively and ultimately improve the quality of requirements and the efficiency of the elicitation process. The decision-making based approach for automated requirements elicitation, ARED-CK, assumes that a fairly complete domain knowledge base is in place, based on which inquiry cycles for eliciting requirements is formulated into a decision-making problem. Through continuous interactions with the user, the requirements decision-making process use requirements models in the domain knowledge base matching with specific instances of requirements model, and ultimately identify a requirements model fit the specific purpose of the target user. Moreover, the paper put forward the proposed decision process for optimization, so that within least steps of user interaction an optimal precise requirements model can be identified.
Rank-based unit root testing in the presence of structural change under the null: simulation results and an application to US inflation

The size distortion of the Dickey-Fuller (Journal of the American Statistical Association, 74, pp. 427–31, 1979) unit root test is examined in the presence of structural changes in both the level and variance of integrated time series. In contrast to previous studies, the empirically relevant situation in which such breaks occur simultaneously is examined. It is shown that the severe distortion observed for the Dickey-Fuller test can be dramatically reduced via application of a simple rank-based method. The simulation results presented are supported by an empirical examination of the integrated nature of US inflation where differing inferences are drawn using the Dickey-Fuller test and the rank-based Dickey-Fuller test.
Suppression of melanoma cell proliferation by histidine decarboxylase specific antisense oligonucleotides.

Histidine decarboxylase (HDC) is expressed by the cells of melanoma, in which the histamine content tends to be relatively high. This study shows that elevated expression of HDC was found by western blot analysis of primary and metastatic melanoma tissue using a polyclonal HDC specific antibody. The specificity of anti-HDC antibody was confirmed by inhibition of HDC translation (i.e., immunopositivity) in melanoma cells by HDC-specific antisense oligonucleotide. Moreover, the decrease in proliferation caused by HDC antisense oligonucleotides indicates considerable functional relevance of histamine synthesis in melanoma growth and suggests a possible in situ application of specific antisense oligonucleotides for HDC in melanoma therapy.
Valuation smoothing without temporal aggregation

This paper addresses the question of valuation smoothing at the individual property level. Using a sample of 30 properties with monthly valuations over the period December 1986 to October 1995, the average profile of monthly smoothing parameters is found to be non-constant. Comparing the average of the individual smoothing parameters with those obtained from an aggregate index, consisting of all 30 properties, considerable differences in value are found to result from temporal aggregation. When implied market prices for the 30 properties are aggregated into an index, the volatility of the index is seen to be influenced by a small number of properties with smoothing parameters close to zero. By removing the small number of outliers from the sample the volatility of the implied market price index reduces by approximately 60%. The results of this analysis have important implications for constant parameter 'desmoothing' models. It is possible that the volatility of returns of the implied price series could be overstated and the serial correlation value understated. However, as practical matter, if the average of the individual smoothing parameters, each month, is in excess 0.5, the use of a fixed parameter deserializing model may be valid if the estimated regression coefficient in an AR(1) model is less than 0.5. The results reported in this paper are particularly relevant for monthly indices but may also impact on quarterly and possibly other lower frequency indices.