Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The influence of scopolamine on motor control and attentional processes

Background: Motion sickness may be caused by a sensory conflict between the visual and the vestibular systems. Scopolamine, known to be the most effective therapy to control the vegetative symptoms of motion sickness, acts on the vestibular nucleus and potentially the vestibulospinal pathway, which may affect balance and motor tasks requiring both attentional process and motor balance. The aim of this study was to explore the effect of scopolamine on motor control and attentional processes. Methods: Seven subjects were evaluated on four different tasks before and after a subcutaneous injection of scopolamine (0.2 mg): a one-minute balance test, a subjective visual vertical test, a pointing task and a galvanic vestibular stimulation with EMG recordings. Results: The results showed that the reaction time and the movement duration were not modified after the injection of scopolamine. However, there was an increase in the center of pressure displacement during the balance test, a decrease in EMG muscle response after galvanic vestibular stimulation and an alteration in the perception of verticality. Discussion: These results confirm that low doses of scopolamine such as those prescribed to avoid motion sickness have no effect on attentional processes, but that it is essential to consider the responsiveness of each subject. However, scopolamine did affect postural control and the perception of verticality. In conclusion, the use of scopolamine to prevent motion sickness must be considered carefully because it could increase imbalances in situations when individuals are already at risk of falling (e.g., sailing, parabolic flight).
Internationalisation, growth and pay inequality: a cointegration analysis for Turkey, 1970–2007

The nature of the internationalisation-growth-inequality nexus is very complex; and therefore, not surprisingly, there is no consensus on whether increasing openness to trade leads to higher inequality or not – in fact, there is even no full understanding on the impact of the openness on the economic growth. In the case of Turkey it is observed that there is relatively little empirical work that addresses the issue of inequality. Considering this fact, the study aims to provide some more evidence on the complex relationship between trade openness, foreign direct investment, economic growth and pay inequality by utilising a combination of different Theil Indices of pay inequality. The paper utilises the Johansen Cointegration and Granger Causality methods. Our findings yield that higher economic growth resulting from trade openness comes with higher pay inequality.
Lecture 18: Peer-to-Peer applications

In this lecture, we’ll talk about peer-to-peer (P2P) applications. These are applications in which all end hosts are treated equally: there is no dichotomy between designated servers that are responsible for hosting the content and designated clients that sporadically access this content. Instead, every end host functions as both a client and a server in the sense that it is responsible for both hosting the content and may also choose to access it. The rationale behind these P2P applications is that you do not have to rely on a few dedicated servers, which may be costly to own and operate. Instead, the costs of running an application could be, in principle, shared equally across all end hosts. As the application grows to include more hosts, the application could scale naturally as these hosts could be put to use in running the application itself. In contrast, in a traditional client-server setup, the number of clients far exceeds the number of servers, and increasing the clients results in an increased load only on the small number of servers—as opposed to spreading out the increased load over the entire system. Another motivation for the P2P architecture was the democratization and decentralization of content creation and publishing. A group of users could get together and use their desktops or laptops to voluntarily and cooperatively host content for all these users for free without relying on a costly hosting service. Examples of P2P applications are P2P versions of hash tables [8, 6, 7, 11], file systems [10, 5], citation databases [9], file sharing services [3], and music search services [2]. More generally, there was an active area of research in the early to mid 2000s in taking any application that was traditionally implemented using the client-server model and figuring out how to implement it in the P2P model without dedicated clients and servers. Many of these research ideas have not made it into practice in a big way—at least not for a long period of time. One reason is that while volunteer-run applications are an enticing idea in theory, the incentives typically aren’t there in practice. This is in contrast to the client-server model where there is an obvious incentive: profit motive. That said, some of these ideas have made it into distributed applications that run within the server farms of large web-scale companies partly because these server farms start looking a bit like a tightly integrated low-latency network for running P2P applications. For instance, the Amazon Dynamo system [4] employs a distributed hash table, which was first considered by Chord [8], CAN [6], Pastry [7], and Tapestry [11]. In this lecture, we’ll start with the history of P2P applications and then talk about BitTorrent, one of the most popular P2P applications of the 2000s. This decade, however, BitTorrent has faded in popularity particularly in the developed world due to the rise of other client-server alternatives; we’ll explain why that happened. We’ll also briefly touch on one of the most popular P2P applications of the 2010s: Bitcoin.
Idiosyncratic Volatility of Small Public Firms and Entrepreneurial Risk

The average idiosyncratic volatility of small public firms is a positive predictor of future stock returns. This is true for returns of both large and small firms. We consider several economic arguments for this result, including a liquidity premium, and we rule out all but one of them. Our evidence supports the entrepreneurial risk hypothesis, which states that small firms’ idiosyncratic risk is a proxy for risk faced by private business owners, who also happen to be significant shareholders of stock. Expected returns are increasing functions of entrepreneurial risk, and therefore returns are predictable using proxies for this risk, which include small-firm idiosyncratic volatility.
Information About Multiple Risks: The Case of Building and Content Insurance

Insurers traditionally use risk-specific characteristics of insureds to classify them according to risk. In this article, the practical relevance of information about multiple risks is demonstrated for the case of content insurance of a Swiss company. Two types of such information prove important: information about "spillover moral hazard" caused by mandated prevention affecting preventive effort in an unregulated line, and information about "common impulses" reflected in the loss experience of related lines. Both contribute to an improved prediction of loss probability.
Trade Liberalization and Gender Inequality

We consider a model where firms differ in their productivity and workers are differentiated by skill and gender. A reduction in tariffs induces more productive firms to modernize their technology and enter the export market. New technologies involve computerized production processes and lower the need for physically demanding skills. As a result, the relative wage and employment of women improves in blue-collar tasks, but not in white-collar tasks. We empirically confirm these theoretical predictions using a panel of Mexican establishments and the tariff reductions associated with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
Fifty Years of Research in ARDS. Respiratory Mechanics in Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome

Abstract Acute respiratory distress syndrome is a multifactorial lung injury that continues to be associated with high levels of morbidity and mortality. Mechanical ventilation, although lifesaving, is associated with new iatrogenic injury. Current best practice involves the use of small Vt, low plateau and driving pressures, and high levels of positive end‐expiratory pressure. Collectively, these interventions are termed “lung‐protective ventilation. ” Recent investigations suggest that individualized measurements of pulmonary mechanical variables rather than population‐based ventilation prescriptions may be used to set the ventilator with the potential to improve outcomes beyond those achieved with standard lung protective ventilation. This review outlines the measurement and application of clinically applicable pulmonary mechanical concepts, such as plateau pressures, driving pressure, transpulmonary pressures, stress index, and measurement of strain. In addition, the concept of the “baby lung” and the utility of dynamic in addition to static measures of pulmonary mechanical variables are discussed.
Effects of Oxygen Concentration on the Expression of Cytochrome c and Cytochrome c Oxidase Genes in Yeast*

Oxygen is an important environmental regulator for the transcription of several genes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, but it is not yet clear how this yeast or other eukaryotes actually sense oxygen. To begin to address this we have examined the effects of oxygen concentration on the expression of several nuclear genes (CYC1, CYC7,COX4, COX5a, COX5b,COX6, COX7, COX8, andCOX9) for proteins of the terminal portion of the respiratory chain. COX5b and CYC7 are hypoxic genes; the rest are aerobic genes. We have found that the level of expression of these genes is determined by oxygen concentrationper se and not merely the presence or absence of oxygen and that each of these genes has a low oxygen threshold (0.5–1 μm O2) for expression. For some aerobic genes (COX4, COX5a, COX7,COX8, and COX9) there is a gradual decline in expression between 200 μm O2 (air) and their oxygen threshold. Below this threshold expression drops precipitously. For others (COX5a and CYC1) the level of expression is nearly constant between 200 μmO2 and their threshold and then drops off. The hypoxic genes COX5b and CYC7 are not expressed until the oxygen concentration is below 0.5 μm O2. These studies have also revealed that COX5a andCYC1, the genes for the aerobic isoforms of cytochromec oxidase subunit V and cytochrome c, andCOX5b and CYC7, the genes for the hypoxic isoforms of cytochrome c oxidase subunit V and cytochromec, are coexpressed at a variety of oxygen concentrations and switch on or off at extremely low oxygen concentrations. By shifting cells from one oxygen concentration to another we have found that aerobic genes are induced faster than hypoxic genes and that transcripts from both types of gene are turned over quickly. These findings have important implications for cytochrome coxidase function and biogenesis and for models of oxygen sensing in yeast.
Regional Monetary Policy: An Australian Perspective

Fraser P., MacDonald G. A. and Mullineux A. W. Regional monetary policy: an Australian perspective, Regional Studies. A structural vector autoregressive (SVAR) model for Australia is utilized to identify the domestic impacts of common monetary policy shocks on national and state business cycles and to consider the role of state diversification disparities for observed differences in responses to monetary policy innovations. Western Australia and Queensland differ to other states in their response to common shocks and evidence suggests this may be due to differences in their economic geographies. Overall, the Australian monetary union has become increasingly reliant on fiscal transfers particularly from Western Australia in the past two decades. This emphasizes the importance of a political union underpinning a successful monetary union.
Mitigating climate change at sub-national scales: the Yorkshire & Humber experience

In the 1990s, regionalisation in England held out the promise that regions could forge their own unique policies to address climate change. This paper considers the Yorkshire & Humber region's climate change action plan. The study uses critical discourse to analyse the plan and a series of interviews with those who helped develop the initiative. It shows that in the case of Yorkshire & Humber, the Regional Development Agency was a key player in shaping the policies. This resulted in a focus on un-proven large-scale technological projects to mitigate climate change and create significant economic development for the region. Little came of this. The need to maintain economic growth seriously undermined the drive to reduce carbon emissions. The findings suggest that the proposed new sub-national governance arrangements will face similar problems in which short-term economic drivers outweigh efforts to reduce carbon emissions.
Outbreak of Enterobacter cloacae Related to Understaffing, Overcrowding, and Poor Hygiene Practices

Abstract Objective: To determine the cause and mode of transmission of a cluster of infections due to Enterobacter cloacae. Design and Setting: Retrospective cohort study in a neonatal intensive-care unit (NICU) from December 1996 to January 1997; environmental and laboratory investigations. Subjects: 60 infants hospitalized in the NICU during the outbreak period. Main Outcome Measures: Odds ratios (OR) linking E cloacae colonization or infection and various exposures. All available E cloacae isolates were typed and characterized by contour-clamped homogenous electric-field electrophoresis to confirm possible cross-transmission. Results: Of eight case-patients, two had bacteremia; one, pneumonia; one, soft-tissue infection; and four, respiratory colonization. Infants weighing <2,000 g and born before week 33 of gestation were more likely to become cases (P<.001). Multivariate analysis indicated that the use of multidose vials was independently associated with E cloacae carriage (OR, 16.3; 95% confidence interval [CI95], 1.8-∞ P=011). Molecular studies demonstrated three epidemic clones. Cross-transmission was facilitated by understaffing and overcrowding (up to 25 neonates in a unit designed for 15), with an increased risk of E cloacae carriage during the outbreak compared to periods without understaffing and overcrowding (relative risk, 5.97; CI95, 2.2-16.4). Concurrent observation of healthcare worker (HCW) handwashing practices indicated poor compliance. The outbreak was terminated after decrease of work load, increase of hand antisepsis, and reinforcement of single-dose medication. Conclusions: Several factors caused and aggravated this outbreak: (1) introduction of E cloacae into the NICU, likely by two previously colonized infants; (2) further transmission by HCWs' hands, facilitated by substantial overcrowding and understaffing in the unit; (3) possible contamination of multidose vials with E cloacae. Overcrowding and understaffing in periods of increased work load may result in outbreaks of nosocomial infections and should be avoided.
Cloning of glyceraldehyde‐3‐phosphate dehydrogenase from an Antarctic psychrophilic bacterium by inverse and splinkerette PCR

Psychrophiles are organisms that thrive in cold environments. One of the strategies for their cold adaptation is the ability to synthesize cold‐adapted enzymes. These enzymes usually display higher catalytic efficiency and thermolability at lower temperatures compared to their mesophilic and thermophilic counterparts. In this work, a psychrophilic bacterium codenamed π9 was selected for the cloning of the gene encoding glyceraldehyde‐3‐phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), an enzyme in the glycolytic pathway. Here, the cloning of an 1113 bp fragment of GAPDH gene which covers the 1002 bp open reading frame by using multiple PCR steps is described. The partial sequence of this gene was PCR amplified by using degenerate primers followed by the cloning of the flanking sequences by inverse and splinkerette PCR techniques. The success in cloning the GAPDH gene by PCR has bypassed the more time consuming genomic library construction and screening method. The full length GAPDH protein was subsequently expressed in E. coli, purified as His‐tag protein and confirmed to be catalytically active. This work demonstrated the use of multiple PCR techniques to clone a gene based solely on sequence comparison. It also laid the foundation for further biochemical and structural characterizations of GAPDH from a psychrophilic bacterium by providing a highly purified recombinant protein sample. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
Risk Perception in Psychology and Economics

Abstract : The concept of rationality has been basic to most economic analysis. Its content has been successively refined over the generations. As applied to the static world of certainty, it has turned out to be a weak hypothesis, not easily refuted and therefore not very useful as an explanation, though not literally a tautology. But recent decades have seen the development of stronger versions applied to a world in which time and uncertainty are real. Among its most important manifestations have been criteria for consistency in allocation over time, the expected-utility hypothesis of behavior under uncertainty, and what may be termed the Bayesian hypothesis for learning, that is the consistent use of conditional probabilities for changing beliefs on the basis of new information. These hypotheses have been used widely in offering explanations of empirically-observed behavior, though as not infrequently in economics, the theoretical development has gone much further than the empirical implementation. These hypotheses have also been used increasingly in normative analysis, as a component of benefit-cost studies (therefore frequently referred to as benefit-risk studies). The value of reducing mortality rates from diseases, for example, has been studied by assuming that choice of occupations is made inter alia by comparing wage differences with mortality differences.
Development of High Torque Low Speed Fractional-Slot Concentrated Windings PMSM for Traction Application

This paper investigates fractional slot concentrated windings surface-mounted permanent magnet synchronous motor for low speed high torque traction application. The proposed machine is designed with the combination of equivalent magnetic circuit and finite element analysis for the consideration of calculation efficiency and accuracy. Attention is focused on the electromagnetic design, parameter optimization, thermal performance calculation and heat dissipation sensitivity analysis, which is essential for this kind of machine and corresponding application. Concentrated windings offer many advantages, such as reducing end turns length, improving thermal performance and torque output capability. Parameter sensitivity analysis of heat dissipation is also covered in this paper. Predicted performance characteristics of the prototype machine are listed and general optimization process are shown for reducing cogging torque and improving the machine efficiency especially at high torque operating point.
Left Atrial Size and Risk of Major Cardiovascular Events During Antihypertensive Treatment: Losartan Intervention for Endpoint Reduction in Hypertension Trial

The influence of left atrial size on cardiovascular events during antihypertensive treatment has not been reported previously from a long-term, prospective, randomized hypertension treatment trial. We recorded left atrial diameter by annual echocardiography and cardiovascular events in 881 hypertensive patients (41% women) with electrocardiographic left ventricular hypertrophy aged 55 to 80 (mean: 66) years during a mean of 4.8 years of randomized losartan- or atenolol-based treatment in the Losartan Intervention for Endpoint Reduction in Hypertension Study. During follow-up, a total of 88 primary end points (combined cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke) occurred. In Cox regression, baseline left atrial diameter/height predicted incidence of cardiovascular events (hazard ratio: 1.98 per cm/m [95% CI: 1.02 to 3.83 per cm/m]; P=0.042) adjusted for significant effects of Framingham risk score and history of atrial fibrillation. Greater left atrial diameter reduction during follow-up was associated with greater reduction in left ventricular hypertrophy, absence of new-onset atrial fibrillation or mitral regurgitation during follow-up, and losartan-based treatment (B=−0.13±0.03 cm/m; P<0.001) in multiple linear regression, adjusting for baseline left atrial diameter/height. However, in time-varying Cox regression analysis, left atrial diameter reduction was not independent of left ventricular hypertrophy regression in predicting cardiovascular events during follow-up. In conclusion, left atrial diameter/height predicts risk of cardiovascular events independent of other clinical risk factors in hypertensive patients with left ventricular hypertrophy and may be useful in pretreatment clinical assessment of cardiovascular risk in these patients.
Understanding Business Process Management: Implications for Theory and Practice

This paper presents an empirically validated framework of business process management (BPM) to enable the pursuit of BPM theory. Phase 1 of the research focused on the development of an initial framework of BPM, derived from a synthesis of current literature. This comprised five key themes, subsequently categorized as ‘application components’ of BPM. The empirical validation of the framework was approached through case-based research, utilizing semi-structured interviews with managers of a large financial services organization, to explore the dimensions of the framework. The results suggest that, in addition to confirming the five ‘application components’ of the initial framework, three additional ‘conceptual components’ are important. These concepts differentiate BPM from other process management activities, and suggest that developing a prerequisite ‘process mindset’ is a fundamental component of a BPM approach.
Meeting the Cool Neighbors. IX. The Luminosity Function of M7-L8 Ultracool Dwarfs in the Field

We present a 20 pc, volume-limited sample of M7-L8 dwarfs created through spectroscopic follow-up of sources selected from the Two Micron All Sky Survey Second Incremental Release Point Source Catalog. In this paper we present optical spectroscopy of 198 candidate nearby ultracool dwarfs, including 12 late-M and L dwarfs likely to be within 20 pc of the Sun and 94 more distant late-type dwarfs. We have also identified five ultracool dwarfs with spectral signatures of low gravity. Combining these data with previous results, we define a sample of 99 ultracool dwarfs in 91 systems within 20 pc. These are used to estimate the J- and K-band luminosity functions for dwarfs with optical spectral types between M7 and L8 (10.5 < MJ < 15, 9.5 < M < 13). We find a space density of 4.9 × 10-3 pc-3 for late-M dwarfs (M7-M9.5) and a lower limit of 3.8 × 10-3 pc-3 for L dwarfs.
Learning the Dynamics of Articulated Tracked Vehicles

—In this work, we present a Bayesian non-parametric approach to model the motion control of ATVs. The motion control model is based on a Dirichlet Process-Gaussian Process (DP-GP) mixture model. The DP-GP mixture model provides a ﬂexible representation of patterns of control manoeuvres along trajectories of different lengths and discretizations. The model also estimates the number of patterns, sufﬁcient for modeling the dynamics of the ATV.
The Diffusion of Support for Same-Sex Marriage in the US Senate

ABSTRACT Advocates for same-sex marriage have had much to celebrate. The last few years have shown that state after state and senator after senator have declared their support for full marriage equality. Such momentum suggests that their goals will be realized sooner rather than later. In this article, we analyze when senators announce their support for same-sex marriage. Contrary to the popularly held belief that their decisions will quickly snowball into filibuster-proof numbers, we find that most of the easy successes have already been achieved. The difficulty of securing the last few votes may take much longer.