Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bronchial thermoplasty for asthma.

RATIONALE Bronchial thermoplasty (BT) reduces the potential for smooth muscle-mediated bronchoconstriction by reducing the mass of smooth muscle in the walls of conducting airways. OBJECTIVES This study was conducted to examine the safety and impact on lung function and airway responsiveness of BT over 2 yr. METHODS The safety of BT was studied in 16 subjects with mild to moderate asthma. Baseline and 12-wk post-treatment measurements included spirometry, methacholine challenge, daily diary recordings of peak flow, symptoms, and medication usage. Subjects completed follow-up evaluations at 12 wk, 1 yr, and 2 yr. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS The procedure was well tolerated; side effects were transient and typical of what is commonly observed after bronchoscopy. All subjects demonstrated improvement in airway responsiveness. The mean PC(20) increased by 2.37 +/- 1.72 (p < 0.001), 2.77 +/- 1.53 (p = 0.007), and 2.64 +/- 1.52 doublings (p < 0.001), at 12 wk, 1 yr, and 2 yr post-procedure, respectively. Data from daily diaries collected for 12 wk indicated significant improvements over baseline in symptom-free days (p = 0.015), morning peak flow (p = 0.01), and evening peak flow (p < or = 0.007). Spirometry measurements remained stable throughout the study period. CONCLUSIONS BT is well tolerated in patients with asthma and results in decreased airway hyperresponsiveness that persists for at least 2 yr.
Housing Intensification in Auckland, New Zealand: Implications for Children and Families

While commonplace throughout most of the world, inner-city apartments have often been perceived as unsuitable for children in countries such as Australia and New Zealand, where discourses of houses, gardens and open spaces as being desirable sites for children prevail. However, increasing awareness of the need for environmental sustainability has placed the viability of sprawling suburbs in question. As city centres intensify, more families are moving into inner-city apartments. In a study carried out in response to this change, in-depth interviews with parents living in Auckland's CBD found that key drivers were affordability, less reliance on cars and the convenience of the central location. Drawbacks included poor quality apartment design and lack of play space for children, both inside apartment complexes and outdoors. Fears about children's safety were strong. An assessment of the findings raises questions about the social sustainability of recent apartment developments in Auckland, particularly for families.
Grandparent-grandchild family capital and self-rated health of older rural Chinese adults: the role of the grandparent-parent relationship.

OBJECTIVES This study tested the relationship between grandparent-grandchild family capital and self-rated health of older rural Chinese adults and the mediating role of the grandparent-parent relationship in terms of grandparent-grandchild family capital and self-rated health. METHODS Data were derived from a random sample of 1,027 adults aged 60 and older who were interviewed in the rural Chaohu region in 2009. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the direct effect of grandparent-grandchild family capital in terms of relations with the first child's family on self-rated health among respondents, as well as the mediating effect of the grandparent-parent relationship. RESULTS The results showed the direct effect of grandparent-grandchild family capital on self-rated health of older rural Chinese adults. The grandparent-parent relationship had a partial mediation effect on the relationship between grandparent-grandchild family capital and self-rated health of respondents. DISCUSSION Grandparent-grandchild family capital had a unique direct effect on the self-rated health of older rural Chinese adults, enriching our theoretical understanding of sources of family capital and their impacts in a collectivist cultural context that emphasizes intergenerational interaction and exchange. The findings also highlighted the mediation effects of grandparent-parent relationships on the relationship between grandparent-grandchild family capital and self-rated health of older rural Chinese adults, supporting the "grandchild-as-linkage" hypothesis in understanding the social determination of self-rated health in China.
Self‐selection, endogeneity, and the relationship between CEO duality and firm performance

This study focuses explicitly on the methodological implications of the endogenous theory of governance as applied to firm performance. In particular, if firms choose their governance structures as part of a constrained performance maximization process, then application of an appropriate empirical methodology should reveal statistical evidence of such behavior. In this study we take advantage of the endogenous switching regression model framework to determine whether such predicted optimizing behavior can be corroborated by the data. The model allows us to test explicitly for selection behavior in accordance with comparative advantage and, concomitantly, the presence of selectivity bias, in estimating the impact of CEO duality on firm performance. The selection and performance equations are modeled in accordance with the extant accounting, economics, and management literature on the impact of the dual governance structure on firm performance. Overall, we tested four performance measures for the entire sample of firm‐year observations as well as for the largest three industries in terms of sample sizes. The major finding, robust in all cases, is that there is no evidence to support a contention that CEO duality is a structure purposefully chosen for optimizing performance. If firms are indeed choosing the dual leadership structure, they are doing so for reasons other than improving performance from what it would be otherwise. In fact, for performance measured as market return and earnings per share, there is evidence of a significant selectivity bias that acts to lower performance below what it would have been under random assignment. For performance measured by Tobin's q and return on assets, we found neither evidence of selectivity bias, nor any significant marginal performance impacts of CEO duality. Such findings are inconsistent with an endogenous governance theory, at least when applied to firm performance. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Development of interleukin 6 and tumor necrosis factor alpha activity in nasopharyngeal secretions of infants and children during infection with respiratory syncytial virus

Cytokine (interleukin 6 [IL-6] and tumor necrosis factor alpha [TNF-alpha]) activity in nasopharyngeal secretions of 21 infants and children (19 days to 16 months old) infected with primary respiratory syncytial virus was determined by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. IL-6 and TNF-alpha were detectable in 100% (21 of 21) and 67% (14 of 21) of cases during the course of infection, respectively. Generally, TNF-alpha activity was high in the acute phase and declined thereafter, sometimes to undetectable levels. IL-6 activity was also highest in the acute phase and declined thereafter in infants younger than 5 months, while in patients older than 5 months, it-increased during the course of the disease to peak in the early convalescent phase. These observations suggest that inflammatory cytokines are produced in vivo in infants and children in response to primary respiratory syncytial virus infection and may be involved in disease pathogenesis. However, the mechanism of induction of cytokines may be different for infants and children in different age groups.
The application of a developed moment method in solving 2D electromagnetic scattering problem

This paper is an attempt to do such a thing: for a scattering prism with square cross section, find out its basis functions by group transformation method according to the 2D symmetrical structure, and then solve the 2D scattering problem by Method of Moment (MoM). Compared with results of traditional MoM, this developed moment method has obvious advantage in reducing matrix's order, saving computer storage and shorting calculation time. Moreover, it provides a new way to solve electromagnetic scattering problems of symmetrical boundaries.
When and how to use bibliometrics as a screening tool for research performance

Scientific performance is often evaluated by bibliometric indicators such as publication counts or citations. But this may neglect other relevant outputs from research units. An optimal evaluation would measure each dimension separately, but this would be costly. Luckily, cluster analyses show that units which specialise in other types of research activities (such as knowledge transfer or education of doctoral students), do not completely ignore publication-related activities. Publication-related outputs can also be disaggregated into quality (measured by citations) and quantity (measured by counts) dimensions. Thus, the performance of research groups can be screened using the Integral Citation (a new bibliometric indicator) which combines the quality and quantity dimensions. Units at the extremes need to be studied in more detail, to avoid measurement biases. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.
A Telephone-Based Intervention to Promote Diabetes Management in Veterans With Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms

The primary objective of this pilot study was to develop and implement a telephone intervention for veterans with diabetes and posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). Additional objectives were to evaluate study feasibility and to conduct exploratory analyses of the influence of the intervention on diabetic self-care, quality of life, treatment adherence, and mental health functioning. Twenty-three veterans with PTSS and diabetes enrolled in the study and received an initial assessment interview and intervention session. Twenty participants completed the study protocol in its entirety and also received 7 weekly motivational telephone calls with a clinician and a final assessment. Results revealed high levels of compliance with telephone calls. Participants reported satisfaction with and benefit from the intervention that occurred during weekly telephone calls. Participants reported a statistically significant increase in exercise behaviors and healthy eating from pre- to postintervention. Results also revealed a decrease in psychological distress. Although these data are preliminary, they speak to the feasibility and benefits of a brief telephone intervention to address self-care behaviors critical to the management of diabetes for individuals with PTSS.
Filling the "Poverty Gap": Multiple Transfer Program Participation

ata from the 1979 Income Survey Development Program are used to describe multiple transfer program participation and its effect on the poverty rate and the poverty gap. Of 87.1 million U.S. families and unrelated individuals, 40 percent received some government transfer in April 1979. Further, more than 80 percent of pretransfer poor families received some transfer. The benefits received by the elderly succeeded in reducing their poverty rate from 68 to 10 percent and reducing their poverty gap by 96 percent. In contrast, government transfers reduced the poverty rate for single-parent families from a pretransfer rate of 48 percent to a posttransfer rate of 30 percent. An examination of target efficiency indicates that 82 percent of all income-conditioned transfers go to the pretransfer poor.
Leadership passages: Being part of an acquisition or merger

Having your company absorbed in a merger or acquisition is stressful, even traumatic, for most leaders, who fear the loss of job, staff, status, networks, career paths, and other fruits of a successful career. Despite such misgivings, however, the authors contend that leaders can use this passage to become a better leader—and perhaps find even greater opportunities with the new entity. They describe five ways a leader can grow and thrive, not simply survive, in an acquisition, and they offer practical suggestions for making the process less painful and more productive. © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Preserved learning and retention of pattern-analyzing skill in amnesia: dissociation of knowing how and knowing that.

Amnesic patients acquired a mirror-reading skill at a rate equivalent to that of matched control subjects and retained it for at least 3 months. The results indicate that the class of preserved learning skills in amnesia is broader than previously reported. Amnesia seems to spare information that is based on rules or procedures, as contrasted with information that is data-based or declarative--"knowing how rather than "knowing that. " The results support the hypothesis that such a distinction is honored by the nervous system.
Desempenho das capitais brasileiras como destinos turísticos

This article introduces the application of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) associated with factor analysis to evaluate the relative efficiency of tourism demand of 18 Brazilian capital cities within a three-year period. Such assessment includes data on factors that affect tourism demand as cities’ budgets allocated on health, transportation, security, infrastructure, tourism as well as the result of this investment on number of tourist arrivals and creation of employments in each destination. The results show the capitals that reached 100% efficiency and also the only three capitals that touched the maximum efficiency over the three years. Findings also revealed that factor analysis associated with DEA offers a potential tool for managers to provide themselves with a set of practical indicators that better assist in decision-making regarding investment on sectors that positively interfere the demand in tourism locations.
Total Net Benefit and the Quantity of Life: A Query

When it is expected that different population levels will be associated with alternative land uses, cost—benefit analysts could adopt three treatments of benefit. (1) Only the benefit of population common to all land uses is considered. (2) The potential Pareto improvement criterion is adopted, requiring that gainers from any change can compensate losers. (3) Utility weights are used to interpret willingness-to-pay in terms of benefit. Despite the apparent feeling of economists that treatment (1) avoids difficult value judgements, all three treatments raise problems of ascribing preferences to the yet-unborn, and of estimating the total utility of life.
The Costs of Taxation and the Marginal Efficiency Cost of Funds

It is argued that taxation causes deadweight losses--from substitution, evasion, and avoidance activities--and direct, administrative and compliance, costs. Some of these social costs tend to be discontinuous and/or nonconvex. Because most models of taxation ignore some components of the social costs of taxation, their conclusions cannot be considered all-encompassing. An alternative approach to policy evaluation is to rely on a marginal efficiency cost of funds rule that can indicate appropriate directions of reforms. The paper discusses the merits, applicability, and limitation of this rule, as well as its relationship to other concepts.
Uncovering nonlinear structure in real-time stock-market indexes: the S&P 500, the DAX, the Nikkei 225, and the FTSE-100

This article tests for nonlinear dependence and chaos in real-time returns on the world's four most important stock-market indexes. Both the Brock–Dechert–Scheinkman and the Lee, White, and Granger neural-network-based tests indicate persistent nonlinear structure in the series. Estimates of the Lyapunov exponents using the Nychka, Ellner, Gallant, and McCaffrey neural-net method and the Zeng, Pielke, and Eyckholt nearest-neighbor algorithm confirm the presence of nonlinear dependence in the returns on all indexes but provide no evidence of low-dimensional chaotic processes. Given the sensitivity of the results to the estimation parameters, we conclude that the data are dominated by a stochastic component.
Erosive Rheumatoid Arthritis Is Associated with Antibodies That Activate PAD4 by Increasing Calcium Sensitivity

Autoantibodies from rheumatoid arthritis patients augment the function of PAD4 by decreasing its calcium requirement. PADding the Calcium Response in Rheumatoid Arthritis One of the main challenges in translational medicine is ensuring physiological relevance. Just because you can make something happen in a dish or even a mouse doesn’t mean that that’s the way it really works. One example is the putative pathological role of PADs (peptidylarginine deiminases) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). PADs catalyze a reaction that results in production of citrulline, one of the primary autoantibody targets in RA patients. However, this reaction requires concentrations of calcium not found in physiological situations. Now, Darrah et al. show that an autoantibody to PADs found in a subset of severe RA patients actually changes the calcium sensitivity of PADs. The authors found that PAD4-specific autoantibodies that cross-react with PAD3 increased the enzyme’s ability to respond to lower physiological level of calciums. A subset of patients with more severe RA expressed these antibodies, which were absent in healthy individuals. It’s possible that these autoantibodies create a feed-forward loop: Anti-PAD autoantibodies activate PAD, which produces more citrulline and therefore more targets for anti-RA autoantibodies, worsening disease. If these data can be verified in additional human cohorts, these antibodies may serve as markers for patients who would benefit from treatments targeting PADs. Peptidylarginine deiminases (PADs) play a critical role in generating autoantigens in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), but the mechanisms underlying their dysregulation in this disease remain unknown. Although PADs require supraphysiologic concentrations of calcium for activity in vitro, the enzymes are active in vivo (for example, in RA synovial fluid) where calcium concentrations are much lower. We have discovered a subset of anti-PAD4 autoantibodies (identified by their cross-reactivity with PAD3) that markedly increase the catalytic efficiency of PAD4 by decreasing the enzyme’s requirement for calcium into the physiologic range. Patients with these PAD3/PAD4 cross-reactive autoantibodies had higher baseline radiographic damage scores and a higher likelihood of radiographic progression compared to individuals negative for these antibodies. The ability of autoantibodies to activate an enzyme that itself generates citrullinated autoantigens identifies an important feed-forward loop, which may drive the erosive outcome observed in RA patients with these autoantibodies. PAD3 autoantibodies may therefore identify RA patients who would benefit from early aggressive treatment or addition of PAD inhibitor therapy.
Comparison of edge analysis techniques for the determination of the MTF of digital radiographic systems

The modulation transfer function (MTF) is well established as a metric to characterize the resolution performance of a digital radiographic system. Implemented by various laboratories, the edge technique is currently the most widespread approach to measure the MTF. However, there can be differences in the results attributed to differences in the analysis technique employed. The objective of this study was to determine whether comparable results can be obtained from different algorithms processing identical images representative of those of current digital radiographic systems. Five laboratories participated in a round-robin evaluation of six different algorithms including one prescribed in the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 62220-1 standard. The algorithms were applied to two synthetic and 12 real edge images from different digital radiographic systems including CR, and direct- and indirect-conversion detector systems. The results were analysed in terms of variability as well as accuracy of the resulting presampled MTFs. The results indicated that differences between the individual MTFs and the mean MTF were largely below 0.02. In the case of the two simulated edge images, all algorithms yielded similar results within 0.01 of the expected true MTF. The findings indicated that all algorithms tested in this round-robin evaluation, including the IEC-prescribed algorithm, were suitable for accurate MTF determination from edge images, provided the images are not excessively noisy. The agreement of the MTF results was judged sufficient for the measurement of the MTF necessary for the determination of the DQE.
A Deflation Approach to Direction of Arrival Estimation for Symmetric Uniform Linear Array

A novel deflation approach to direction of arrival (DOA) estimation for symmetric uniform linear array is proposed in this letter to cope with the scenario where both uncorrelated sources and coherent sources are presented. The uncorrelated sources are first estimated using conventional subspace methods, and then their effect is eliminated by two deflation methods: one exploits the symmetric configuration of the array, and the other utilizes oblique projection. After deflation, a Toeplitz matrix is constructed for DOA estimation of the remaining coherent sources. The number of sources resolved by our approach can exceed the number of array elements. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of our proposed methods.
Microtubulin configuration and mitochondrial distribution after ultra‐rapid cooling of bovine oocytes

Considerable attention has been focused on the cryopreservation of mammalian oocytes, as a consequence of poor development of cryopreserved bovine oocytes in vitro, in order to enhance the application of genetic engineering. Experiments were carried out to evaluate the viability and ultra‐structural changes of bovine oocytes cryopreserved by ultra rapid cooling methods. Oocytes that had been allowed to mature for 22 hr were exposed to a mixture of cryoprotectants (3.2 M ethylene glycol, 2.36 M dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), 0.6 M sucrose), and were cryopreserved by very rapid cooling either within glass capillaries or as droplets on copper electron microscope grids. After being warmed, the oocytes were cultured in in vitro maturation (IVM) medium for an additional 2 hr. Viability was assessed by determining the development rate after fertilization with frozen–thawed semen from which motile sperm had been recovered using a Percoll density gradient, and by immunochemical evaluation of microtubule and mitochondrial morphology. Cleavage and development rates were significantly (P < 0.05) lower in oocytes cryopreserved by vitrification than in in vitro fertilization (IVF) control group, but did not differ in the open‐pulled glass (OPG) or copper grid (CG) groups. In most oocytes cryopreserved by vitrification, the microtubules were partially or completely broken. Similarly mitochondria appeared to be abnormal compared to that of unfrozen oocytes. Oocytes cultured in IVM medium supplemented with both cytochalasin B (a protein synthesis inhibitor) and 2‐mercaptoethanol (an antioxidant) showed less damage to microtubules, but not to mitochondria after cryopreservation. In conclusion, this study showed that bovine oocytes can be cryopreserved by vitrification within small droplets using CGs. While damage to microtubules and mitochondria may be involved in reduced viability, supplementation of IVM medium with cytochalasin B appears to enhance stabilization of microtubules during oocyte cryopreservation. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 63: 464–470, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.