Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Does Bad Economic News Play a Greater Role in Shaping Investors’ Expectations than Good Economic News?

Using consistency in monthly returns as a proxy for good and bad economic news, I show that investors overreact to a series of favourable and unfavourable news. However, bad economic news plays a greater role in shaping investors’ expectations than good news. Consistent losers exhibit stronger price momentum in Year 1 followed by a more pronounced and persistent price reversal in Years 2 through 5 relative to their consistent winner counterparts. This evidence is robust to the three-factor Fama-French model and momentum factor. Results reported in this study provide general support to the psychology-based theories, but none of the existing models fully captures the weighting differential that negative and positive information signals play in shaping investors’ expectations.
An Examination of Teachers’ Perceptions of the Implementation of Democratic Principles in Alabama’s High-Poverty Schools

ii Acknowledgments iii List of Tables x List of Figures xii CHAPTER ONE. INTRODUCTION 1 Purpose of the Study 3 Statement of the Research Problem 5 Population 6 Research Questions 8 Research Design 8 Data Collection Processes 9 Instrument 9 Data Analysis 10 Significance of the Study 10 Assumptions and Limitations 11 Definition of Terms 12 Summary 14 CHAPTER TWO. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE 15 Introduction 15
Binary Tissue Classification on Wound Images With Neural Networks and Bayesian Classifiers

A pressure ulcer is a clinical pathology of localized damage to the skin and underlying tissue caused by pressure, shear, or friction. Diagnosis, treatment, and care of pressure ulcers are costly for health services. Accurate wound evaluation is a critical task for optimizing the efficacy of treatment and care. Clinicians usually evaluate each pressure ulcer by visual inspection of the damaged tissues, which is an imprecise manner of assessing the wound state. Current computer vision approaches do not offer a global solution to this particular problem. In this paper, a hybrid approach based on neural networks and Bayesian classifiers is used in the design of a computational system for automatic tissue identification in wound images. A mean shift procedure and a region-growing strategy are implemented for effective region segmentation. Color and texture features are extracted from these segmented regions. A set of k multilayer perceptrons is trained with inputs consisting of color and texture patterns, and outputs consisting of categorical tissue classes which are determined by clinical experts. This training procedure is driven by a k-fold cross-validation method. Finally, a Bayesian committee machine is formed by training a Bayesian classifier to combine the classifications of the k neural networks. Specific heuristics based on the wound topology are designed to significantly improve the results of the classification. We obtain high efficiency rates from a binary cascade approach for tissue identification. Results are compared with other similar machine-learning approaches, including multiclass Bayesian committee machine classifiers and support vector machines. The different techniques analyzed in this paper show high global classification accuracy rates. Our binary cascade approach gives high global performance rates (average sensitivity =78.7% , specificity =94.7% , and accuracy =91.5% ) and shows the highest average sensitivity score ( =86.3%) when detecting necrotic tissue in the wound.
Trends of CD4 cell count levels at the initiation of antiretroviral therapy over time and factors associated with late initiation of antiretroviral therapy among Asian HIV-positive patients

Although antiretroviral therapy (ART) has been rapidly scaled up in Asia, most HIV‐positive patients in the region still present with late‐stage HIV disease. We aimed to determine trends of pre‐ART CD4 levels over time in Asian HIV‐positive patients and to determine factors associated with late ART initiation.
A PATHOLOGICAL STUDY ON COLORECTAL CANCER

The development and progression of colorectal cancer were studied by examining the mode of proliferation of cancer and adenoma in 806 cases (857 lesions) of colorectal cancers and 12 cases of familial polyposis coll. Colorectal cancer was classified into two groups: those accompanied by intramucosal growth or with polypoid growth and those without polypoid growth. Early cancer in the group without polypoid growth was considered to originate from de novo carcinoma of about 5 mm, showing vascular invasion when reaching the size of about 10 mm and then exhibiting massive submucosal invasion. Their cut‐surface closely simulated cancer of ulcerative type without polypoid growth which occupied the greater portion of advanced cancer of the large bowel. In other words, ulcerative type cancer without polypoid growth is considered to arise from de novo carcinoma and this type occupies 70–90% of all colorectal cancers. Since the lesions originating from de novo carcinoma develops from an extremely small intramucosal carcinoma and then leads to a massive submucosal growth, immediate partial resection is recommended.
A longitudinal analysis of t-cell epitope-coding regions of hepatitis C virus after liver transplantation1

Background. Hepatitis C virus (HCV)-related liver failure is the single leading indication for orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) worldwide. The mechanisms that underlie the observed differences in natural history of HCV recurrence remain poorly understood. We have previously demonstrated that differential T-cell responses correlate with histologic severity after OLT. We hypothesized that amino acid substitutions within critical T-cell epitopes could lead to increased severity of HCV disease. Methods. We determined the peptide sequences from sequential serum-derived viral RNA by reverse transcription and direct polymerase chain reaction sequence analysis from 32 HCV genotype 1-infected patients with well-characterized outcomes after liver transplantation. Serum samples were analyzed for HCV sequence the day of OLT and at least one time point post-OLT. To construct evolutionary relationships among the different patient samples, phylogenetic analyses of core and NS3 sequences were performed using a matrix fed into a neighbor-joining tree algorithm. Results. The phylogenetic analyses revealed remarkable conservation within a given individual and no significant differences when comparing patients with severe versus mild recurrence. Accordingly, the synonymous mutation rate was consistently greater than the nonsynonymous substitution rate. The nine epitopic regions analyzed were also preserved so that, with the exception of one patient with mild recurrence, none of the patients demonstrated a shift in viral peptide sequence. Conclusions. HCV core and NS3 viral peptide sequences are identical before and after OLT in most patients, suggesting that the prevalent sequence is preserved in most cases, and viral variants are competent to establish infection after OLT. Although these results do not support viral mutation as a dominant pathogenic mechanism after OLT, other viral regions need to be analyzed.
Domain Specific Automatic Question Generation from Text

The goal of my doctoral thesis is to automatically generate interrogative sentences from descriptive sentences of Turkish biology text. We employ syntactic and semantic approaches to parse descriptive sentences. Syntactic and semantic approaches utilize syntactic (constituent or dependency) parsing and semantic role labeling systems respectively. After parsing step, question statements whose answers are embedded in the descriptive sentences are going to be formulated by using some predefined rules and templates. Syntactic parsing is done using an open source dependency parser called MaltParser (Nivre et al. 2007). Whereas to accomplish semantic parsing, we will construct a biological proposition bank (BioPropBank) and a corpus annotated with semantic roles. Then we will employ supervised methods to automatic label the semantic roles of a sentence.
(+)-Borneol is neuroprotective against permanent cerebral ischemia in rats by suppressing production of proinflammatory cytokines

Stroke is one of the leading causes of disability and death globally. It occurs when a major artery is occluded in the brain and leads to death of cells within the injured tissue. (+)-Borneol, a simple bicyclic monoterpene extracted from traditional Chinese medicine, is widely used in various types of diseases. However, no study has proved the effects of (+)-borneol on functional recovery from permanent ischemic stroke and the mechanism is still unknown. Here, we report that in the rat model of permanent cerebral ischemia, we found that (+)-borneol (1.0 mg/kg) significantly ameliorated infarct size and neurological scoresvia reducing the expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) in a dose dependent manner. Notably, (+)-borneol showed long-term effects on the improvement of sensorimotor functions in the photothrombotic model of stroke, which decreased the number of foot faults in the grid-walking task and forelimb asymmetry scores in the cylinder task, at least in part through reducing loss of dendritic spines in the length, brunch number and density. These findings suggest that (+)-borneol could serve as a therapeutic target for ischemic stroke.
Hepatitis C virus RNA replication is regulated by FKBP 8 and Hsp 90

Toru Okamoto, Yorihiro Nishimura, Tohru Ichimura, Kensuke Suzuki, Tatsuo Miyamura, Tetsuro Suzuki, Kohji Moriishi and Yoshiharu Matsuura* Department of Molecular Virology, Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan, Department of Virology II, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, Japan and Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Sciences and Engineering, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Tokyo, Japan
Negative Regulation of MEKK1-induced Signaling by Glutathione S-Transferase Mu*

Mitogen-activated protein kinase/extracellular signal-regulated kinase kinase kinase 1 (MEKK1) is an important component in the stress-activated protein kinase pathway. Glutathione S-transferase Mu 1-1 (GST M1-1) has now been shown to inhibit the stimulation of MEKK1 activity induced by cellular stresses such as UV and hydrogen peroxide. GST M1-1 inhibited MEKK1 activation in a manner independent of its glutathione-conjugating catalytic activity. In vitro binding and kinase assays revealed that GST M1-1 directly bound MEKK1 and inhibited its kinase activity. Co-immunoprecipitation analysis showed a physical association between endogenous GST M1-1 and endogenous MEKK1 in L929 cells. Overexpressed GST M1-1 interfered with the binding of MEKK1 to SEK1 in transfected HEK293 cells. Furthermore, GST M1-1 suppressed MEKK1-mediated apoptosis. Taken together, our results suggest that GST M1-1 functions as a negative regulator of MEKK1.
Associations of built environment attributes with bicycle use for transport

An increasing number of studies have examined neighbourhood built environment attributes associated with cycling. Some of them suggest non-linear relationships between built environment attributes and cycling. This study examined the strength and shape of associations of cycling for transport with objectively measured built environment attributes. Data were from 9146 Australian adults who took part in the 2009 South-East Queensland Travel Survey. Participants (aged 18–64 years) completed a 24-hour travel survey, in which they reported modes of travel. Residential density, Walk Score and a Space Syntax measure of street integration were calculated at a neighbourhood level using geographic information systems. Multilevel logistic regression analyses examined associations of bicycle use with each built environment attribute, which was modelled continuously and categorically. All continuous measures of the built environment attributes were associated with bicycle use. Each one-decile increment in residential density, Walk Score, and street integration was associated with 13%, 16%, and 10% higher odds of bicycle use, respectively. However, the associations appeared to be non-linear, with significant odds ratios observed only for the higher categories of each built environment attribute relative to the middle category. This study found that adults living in high-density neighbourhoods with more destinations nearby and well-connected streets were more likely to cycle for transport. However, medium-level density, access to destinations and street connectivity may not be enough to facilitate bicycle use. Further studies are needed to investigate urban design threshold values above which cycling can be promoted.
Refractive-Index Sensing With Inline Core-Cladding Intermodal Interferometer Based on Silicon Nitride Nano-Coated Photonic Crystal Fiber

This paper presents a modification of the refractive-index (RI) response of an intermodal interferometer based on photonic crystal fiber (PCF) using a thin plasma-deposited silicon nitride (SiNx) overlay with a high refractive index. We show that the film overlay can effectively change the distribution of the cladding modes and thus tune the RI sensitivity of the interferometer. Thanks to the nano-coating we were able to increase the RI sensitivity eightfold in the range required for biosensors (nD ~ 1.33). Due to the extreme hardness of SiNx films and their excellent adhesion to the fiber surface, we believe that after the film deposition the device will still maintain its advantages, i.e., lack of degradation over time or with temperature.
Blue-Light Therapy following Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: Effects on White Matter Water Diffusion in the Brain

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is a common and often inconspicuous wound that is frequently associated with chronic low-grade symptoms and cognitive dysfunction. Previous evidence suggests that daily blue wavelength light therapy may be effective at reducing fatigue and improving sleep in patients recovering from mTBI. However, the effects of light therapy on recovering brain structure remain unexplored. In this study, we analyzed white matter diffusion properties, including generalized fractional anisotropy, and the quantity of water diffusion in isotropic (i.e., isotropic diffusion) and anisotropic fashion (i.e., quantitative anisotropy, QA) for fibers crossing 11 brain areas known to be significantly affected following mTBI. Specifically, we investigated how 6 weeks of daily morning blue light exposure therapy (compared to an amber-light placebo condition) impacted changes in white matter diffusion in individuals with mTBI. We observed a significant impact of the blue light treatment (relative to the placebo) on the amount of water diffusion (QA) for multiple brain areas, including the corpus callosum, anterior corona radiata, and thalamus. Moreover, many of these changes were associated with improvements in sleep latency and delayed memory. These findings suggest that blue wavelength light exposure may serve as one of the potential non-pharmacological treatments for facilitating structural and functional recovery following mTBI; they also support the use of QA as a reliable neuro-biomarker for mTBI therapies.
Changes in extracellular Ca2+ can affect the pattern of discharge in rat thalamic neurons

1 The aim of this study was to investigate some of the cellular mechanisms involved in the effects caused by changes in extracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]o). 2 Current‐ and voltage‐clamp experiments were carried out on acutely isolated thalamic neurons of rats. 3 Increasing [Ca2+]o alone induced a transition of the discharge from single spike to burst mode in isolated current‐clamped neurons. 4 Increasing [Ca2+]o caused the voltage‐dependent characteristics of the low voltage‐activated (LVA) transient Ca2+ currents to shift towards positive values on the voltage axis. Changing [Ca2+]o from 0.5 to 5 mM caused the inactivation curve to shift by 21 mV. 5 Extracellular Ca2+ blocked a steady cationic current. This current reversed at ‐35 mV, was scarcely affected by Mg2+ and was completely blocked by the non‐selective cation channel inhibitor gadolinium (10 μM). The effect of [Ca2+]o was mimicked by 500 μM spermine, a polyamine which acts as an agonist for the Ca2+‐sensing receptor, and was modulated by intracellular GTP‐γ‐S. 6 At the resting potential, both the voltage shift and the block of the inward current removed the inactivation of LVA calcium channels and, together with the increase in the Ca2+ driving force, favoured a rise in the low threshold Ca2+ spikes, causing the thalamic firing to change to the oscillatory mode. 7 Our data indicate that [Ca2+]o is involved in multiple mechanisms of control of the thalamic relay and pacemaker activity. These findings shed light on the correlation between hypercalcaemia, low frequency EEG activity and symptoms such as sleepiness and lethargy described in many clinical papers.
Comparative Study of Trigeminocardiac Reflex After Trigeminal Ganglion Compression During Total Intravenous Anesthesia

Background: Percutaneous compression of the trigeminal ganglion (PCTG) is an alternative surgical treatment for trigeminal neuralgia (TN). Manipulation of PCTG can lead to significant hemodynamic changes, which may increase the risk of cardiovascular complications. However, to our knowledge, few studies have focused on anesthesia experience during PCTG as treatment for TN so far. It was our primary focus on how to ensure the stability of hemodynamics during our clinical anesthesia experience. This study aimed to compare the study group (using sodium nitroprusside [SNP] as soon as the puncture began) with the control group (without using SNP as soon as the puncture began) to investigate cardiovascular parameters (systolic blood pressure [SBP], diastolic blood pressure [DBP], and heart rate [HR]) at 5 periods during total intravenous anesthesia. Methods: A total of 256 patients who underwent PTCG were enrolled and randomly assigned into the study group (n=137) (using SNP as soon as the puncture began) and the control group (n=119) (without using SNP as soon as puncture began); the relationship between the hemodynamic changes and using SNP or without using SNP was compared. Blood pressure and HR were measured at 5 periods: preoperative (T1), before puncture (T2), during compression (T3), 1 minute after compression ended (T4), and 1 minute after the procedure ended (T5). Multivariate analysis of variance and the Pearson &khgr;2 test were used, and a value of P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The mean values of SBP were higher in the control group at the evaluation during T3 (P<0.001 vs. control), T4 (P<0.05 and P=0.040 vs. control), and T5 (P<0.05 and P=0.037 vs. control) and DBP was the only observed significant difference during T3 (P<0.001 vs. control), when compared with the study group. Meanwhile, means of SBP, DBP, and HR comparison in the same group were observed between T2 and T3. In the control group, means of SBP (P<0.001 vs. T2), DBP (P<0.001 vs. T2), and HR (P<0.001 vs. T2) showed significant differences in comparison with control group; means of HR (P<0.001 vs. T2) was the only observed significant difference between T2 and T3 in the study group. However, PTCG elicited significant abrupt bradycardia during T3 in almost all patients. Conclusions: The control group and the study group were not able to prevent bradycardia elicited during PTCG. Compared with control group, dramatic elevations of the systemic blood pressure can be prevented using intravenous drip SNP as soon as the puncture began during total intravenous anesthesia in the study group. Our findings verify that intravenous drip SNP is an effective method to control abrupt rise of blood pressure.
Atmospheric Photolysis of Methyl Ethyl, Diethyl, and Propyl Ethyl Ketones: Temperature‐Dependent UV Absorption Cross Sections

Ketone photolysis is a potentially important source of HOx radicals in the upper troposphere. To represent this photolysis, models need to include actinic flux, quantum yield, and absorption cross sections over a range of atmospherically relevant conditions. This work seeks to improve the representation of ketone ultraviolet (UV) absorption by quantifying it as a function of temperature. We present observations of 1‐nm resolution absorption cross sections from 200 to 335 nm of methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) and diethyl ketone (DEK) at temperatures between 242 and 320 K, as well as propyl ethyl ketone (PEK) cross sections at 296 K. Our measured room temperature absorption cross sections agree to within 2%, 2%, and 5% with previous studies for MEK, DEK, and PEK spectra, respectively. We parameterize the temperature dependence of the cross sections of MEK and DEK using a two‐state model, which reproduces our experimental results well. With additional assumptions, this model can be applied to the temperature dependence of PEK in the absence of experimental data. This model is appropriate for atmospherically relevant temperatures both inside and outside the temperatures used in this study and is suitable for incorporation into model atmospheric photolysis schemes. R programs to facilitate usage of these data are included in the supporting information . Inclusion of temperature‐dependent absorption cross sections in atmospheric photolysis calculations decreased the rate coefficients of MEK, DEK, and PEK photolysis in the upper troposphere when compared to those calculated using only the room temperature cross sections; the decrease can be as large as 20–25%.
Analysis of the psychometric properties of the Multiple Sclerosis Impact Scale-29 (MSIS-29) in relapsing–remitting multiple sclerosis using classical and modern test theory

Background Investigations using classical test theory support the psychometric properties of the original version of the Multiple Sclerosis Impact Scale (MSIS-29v1), a disease-specific measure of multiple sclerosis (MS) impact (physical and psychological subscales). Later, assessments of the MSIS-29v1 in an MS community-based sample using Rasch analysis led to revisions of the instrument’s response options (MSIS-29v2). Objective The objective of this paper is to evaluate the psychometric properties of the MSIS-29v1 in a clinical trial cohort of relapsing–remitting MS patients (RRMS). Methods Data from 600 patients with RRMS enrolled in the SELECT clinical trial were used. Assessments were performed at baseline and at Weeks 12, 24, and 52. In addition to traditional psychometric analyses, Item Response Theory (IRT) and Rasch analysis were used to evaluate the measurement properties of the MSIS-29v1. Results Both MSIS-29v1 subscales demonstrated strong reliability, construct validity, and responsiveness. The IRT and Rasch analysis showed overall support for response category threshold ordering, person-item fit, and item fit for both subscales. Conclusions Both MSIS-29v1 subscales demonstrated robust measurement properties using classical, IRT, and Rasch techniques. Unlike previous research using a community-based sample, the MSIS-29v1 was found to be psychometrically sound to assess physical and psychological impairments in a clinical trial sample of patients with RRMS.