Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cognitive correlates of under-ambiguity and under-risk decision making in high-functioning patients with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis

Introduction: Impairment of decision making in relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis is still controversial, and its neuropsychological correlates have never been explored thoroughly, especially in patients with minimal physical and cognitive deficits. In the present study we investigated the cognitive underpinnings of decision making under ambiguous and explicit conditions in patients with very mild relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis, using a dice and a card gambling game. Method: The study sample included 60 patients and 35 healthy subjects. In the Game of Dice Task, winning and losing probabilities are obvious to the subject, while in the Iowa Gambling Task they are initially ambiguous and have to be gradually identified. Performance at the two tasks was correlated with scores obtained at tests investigating cognitive processing speed, memory, language and executive functions. Results: Patients’ performance did not differ from that of controls at either gambling task. There was only a trend for them to be significantly slower than healthy subjects in progressively recognizing advantageous decks in the Iowa Gambling Task. While the Game of Dice was unrelated to neuropsychological tests, predictors of performance at the Iowa task were Letter Fluency and the Symbol Digit Modalities Test for the initial, under-ambiguity, trials and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test for the last, purely under-risk, trials. Conclusions: Our results suggest that high-functioning patients with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis are substantially capable of making advantageous decisions, even if they may be slower in processing options and shifting strategy when selection criteria are not explicit.
Genetic susceptibility to breast cancer in French‐Canadians: Role of carcinogen‐metabolizing enzymes and gene–environment interactions

Breast cancer is the most frequent malignancy among women. Since genetic factors such as BRCA1 and BRCA2 as well as reproductive history constitute only 30% of the cause, environmental exposure may play a significant role in the development of breast cancer. Likewise, the relevant enzymes involved in the biotransformation of xenobiotics (from tobacco smoke, diet or other environmental sources) might play a role in breast carcinogenesis. Since individuals with modified ability to metabolize these carcinogens could have a different risk for breast cancer, we investigated the role of cytochromes P‐450 (CYP1A1, CYP2D6), glutathione‐S‐transferases (GSTM1, GSTT1, GSTP1) and N‐acetyltransferases (NAT1, NAT2) gene variants in breast carcinogenesis. A case‐control study was conducted on 149 women with breast carcinoma and 207 healthy controls, both of French‐Canadian origin. The CYP1A1*4 allele was found to be a significant risk determinant of breast carcinoma (OR = 3.3, 95% CI 1.1–9.7), particularly among post‐menopausal women (OR = 4.0, 95% CI 1.2–13.8). The frequency of NAT2 rapid acetylators was increased among smokers (OR = 2.6, 95% CI 0.8–8.2), while the NAT1*10 allele conferred a 4‐fold increase in risk among women who consumed well‐done meat (OR = 4.4, 95% CI 1.0–18.9). These data suggest that CYP1A1*4, NAT1 and NAT2 variants are involved in the susceptibility to breast carcinoma by modifying the impact of exogenous and/or endogenous exposures. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Competing with Experience Goods

In several markets consumers can only gain further information regarding about how well a product fits their preferences by experiencing it after the purchase. Furthermore, while some consumers may have a better fit with one given product, other consumers may end up appreciating more another product. In addition, firms may not have any significant private information regarding which consumers value more or less their own product. In such markets, consumers then try products and only keep on buying them if they provide a good fit. Furthermore, after trying a product a product a consumer has more information about that product than about the untried products. These features generate, in general, dynamic effects because the market shares in one period affect demands in the next period. The paper finds that if the distribution of valuations for each product is negatively (positively) skewed a firm benefits (is hurt) in the future from having a greater market share today. The negativity of the skewness of the distribution of valuations is then shown to be related to consumer risk aversion with respect to the physical performance of the good. With negative skewness it is shown in a two-period model that, as expected, firms compete more aggressively in the first period, and charge higher prices in the last period. The analysis of the infinite-horizon case with overlapping generations of consumers shows that these two effects average out in higher prices. In this later case, I also characterize oscillating market share dynamics, and comparative statics of the equilibrium with respect to degree of skewness, consumer and firm patience, and importance of the experience in the ex-post valuation of the product.
Effect of physician profiling on utilization. Meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials.

OBJECTIVES An American Medical Association survey reported that more than half of physicians are subjects of either clinical or economic profiling. This multilevel meta-analysis was designed to assess the clinical effect of peer-comparison feedback intervention (profiles) in changing practice patterns. METHODS Systematic computerized and manual searches were combined to retrieve articles on randomized controlled clinical trials testing profiling reports. Eligible studies were randomized, controlled clinical trials that tested peer-comparison feedback intervention and measured utilization of clinical procedures. To use all available information, data were abstracted and analyzed on three levels: (1) direction of effects, (2) p value fro the statistical comparison, and (3) odds ratio (OR). MAIN RESULTS In the 12 eligible trials, 553 physicians were profiled. The test result was p < . 05 for the vote-counting sign test of 12 studies (level 1) and p < . 05 for the z-transformation test of 8 studies (level 2). There were 5 trials included in the OR analysis (level 3). The primary effect variable in two of the 5 trials had a nonsignificant OR. However, the overall OR calculated by the Mantel-Haenszel method was significant (1.091, confidence interval: 1.045 to 1.136). CONCLUSIONS Profiling has a statistically significant, but minimal effect on the utilization of clinical procedures. The results of this study indicate a need for controlled clinical evaluations before subjecting large numbers of physicians to utilization management interventions.
A Simple Econometric Approach for Utility‐Based Asset Pricing Models

Utility-based models of asset pricing may be estimated with or without assuming a distribution for security returns; both approaches are developed and compared here. The chief strength of a parametric estimator lies in its computational simplicity and statistical efficiency when the added distributional assumption is true. In contrast, the nonparametric estimator is robust to departures from any particular distribution, and it is more consistent with the spirit underlying utility-based asset pricing models since the distribution of asset returns remains unspecified even in the empirical work. The nonparametric approach turns out to be easy to implement with precision nearly indistinguishable from its parametric counterpart in this particular application. The application shows that log utility is consistent with the data over the period 1926-1981. THE DISTRIBUTION OF ASSET returns is a fundamental quantity to be explained by financial economics. Consequently, utility-based models of asset pricing are of special interest since they allow the distributions of returns to be explained rather than assumed as in distribution-based models.
Survey article - British Business History: A Review of the Periodical Literature for 2001

Judging from the quality of the periodical literature, 2001 was a very productive year for scholars dealing with the history of business in Great Britain. Grappling with a broad range of issues, scholars ploughed fertile new ground and reworked well-established fields. Several trends stand out. Scholars dealt with topics well beyond the range of industrial developments, with many issues in agriculture, trade, and the service industries attracting attention. Then, too, they continued to question and modify paradigms put forward by the historian Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. Finally, government–business relations came under increased scrutiny, with the state often pictured as an independent actor. My essay proceeds in chronological order to examine first how scholars portrayed economic and business developments in medieval and early modern Britain, and then goes on to look in more detail at how they viewed manufacturing and marketing developments during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It next investigates how scholars pictured the evolution of agriculture, transportation, and the service industries in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and concludes by examining how they viewed recent business and economic developments.
Governing global finance

This paper examines the regulation of global finance. It first identifies the forms and extents of contemporary financial globalization: that is, how monetarily denominated savings and investments now increasingly move in transworld spaces. A range of evidence is cited to indicate that finance has acquired a very substantial global character. The second section of the paper reviews the various institutional mechanisms that currently serve to govern global finance. This regulation is shown to be multilayered and diffuse: across local, national, regional and global levels; and across public and private sectors. The third section considers the effectiveness of present regulatory arrangements, with reference to criteria of efficiency, stability, social equity, ecological integrity and democracy. Current frameworks are found to be seriously wanting on all of these counts. Finally, the paper assesses future challenges and prospects in the governance of global finance. It is argued here that considerably more proactive and socially progressive public regulation of global finance is possible and desirable.
Prenatal diagnosis of fragile x syndrome: (cgg)n expansion and methylation of chorionic villus samples

Fragile X syndrome is the most common form of inherited mental retardation, due to an expansion of the (CGG)n trinucleotide repeat in the FMR‐1 gene and hypermethylation of its 5′ upstream CpG island. Two major problems remain to be resolved for fragile X prenatal diagnosis: the abnormal methylation patterns of chorionic villus samples (CVS) and the inability to predict the mental status of females with the full mutation. We present here the results of ten prenatal diagnoses of fragile X syndrome using Southern blotting and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification, and the analysis of 50 further CVS to test the methylation status of the CpG island of the FMR‐1 gene. In the ten ‘at‐risk’ CVS, eight normal (five males and three females) and two affected male fetuses were detected. Absence of methylation in the CVS was observed in two cases, which was not found upon subsequent examination of the newborn or of fetal tissues. In the 50 CVS not ‘at risk’ for fragile X syndrome, abnormal fragment patterns for probe StB12.3 were detected in 32 per cent for female and 24 per cent for male fetuses. This abnormal pattern could be due to absent or partial methylation of the CpG island of the FMR‐1 gene in chorionic villus tissues.
Viral persistence during the developmental phase of Coxsackievirus B1-induced murine polymyositis

Mice infected with coxsackievirus B1 (CVB1) develop a chronic hindquarter muscle weakness which resembles human polymyositis. In this study, we used in situ hybridization to screen for persistent viral RNA in hamstring and quadriceps muscles from mice that displayed various degrees of clinical weakness. At 28 to 31 days postinfection, when chronic myositis is well developed but infectious virus can no longer be recovered, persistent CVB1 RNA was found in hindquarter skeletal muscle of all 12 infected animals examined. Persistent CVB1 showed a multifocal distribution within muscle and was associated with three different histopathology patterns (HPPs). These three HPPs (HPP-1, HPP-2, and HPP-3) represent potentially different stages in the mechanism of persistence. They are based on the pattern of grains, the location of hybridization signal within the muscle, and the accompanying histopathology. In HPP-1, virus persisted in nonnecrotic muscle fibers and was not directly associated with foci of inflammatory cells. HPP-2 consisted of virus contained within necrotic myocytes that were surrounded by inflammatory cells. HPP-3 was rare and showed virus inside infiltrating mononuclear cells in a region where muscle tissue had been extensively destroyed. Persistent CVB1 occurred more frequently in severely diseased animals and in tissue sections displaying intense inflammation. Moreover, HPP-2 showed a stronger association with tissue inflammation and hindquarter weakness than did HPP-1. These data demonstrate that CVB1 persists in skeletal muscle for at least 28 to 31 days postinfection and support the concept that this persistence plays a role in the development of murine polymyositis.
Activated microglia cause reversible apoptosis of pheochromocytoma cells, inducing their cell death by phagocytosis

ABSTRACT Some apoptotic processes, such as phosphatidylserine exposure, are potentially reversible and do not necessarily lead to cell death. However, phosphatidylserine exposure can induce phagocytosis of a cell, resulting in cell death by phagocytosis: phagoptosis. Phagoptosis of neurons by microglia might contribute to neuropathology, whereas phagoptosis of tumour cells by macrophages might limit cancer. Here, we examined the mechanisms by which BV-2 microglia killed co-cultured pheochromocytoma (PC12) cells that were either undifferentiated or differentiated into neuronal cells. We found that microglia activated by lipopolysaccharide rapidly phagocytosed PC12 cells. Activated microglia caused reversible phosphatidylserine exposure on and reversible caspase activation in PC12 cells, and caspase inhibition prevented phosphatidylserine exposur and decreased subsequent phagocytosis. Nitric oxide was necessary and sufficient to induce the reversible phosphatidylserine exposure and phagocytosis. The PC12 cells were not dead at the time they were phagocytised, and inhibition of their phagocytosis left viable cells. Cell loss was inhibited by blocking phagocytosis mediated by phosphatidylserine, MFG-E8, vitronectin receptors or P2Y6 receptors. Thus, activated microglia can induce reversible apoptosis of target cells, which is insufficient to cause apoptotic cell death, but sufficient to induce their phagocytosis and therefore cell death by phagoptosis. Summary: NO from microglia causes reversible caspase activation and phosphatidylserine exposure by PC12 cells, resulting in their cell death by phagocytosis.
Correction: Studholme et al., Draft Genome Sequences of Xanthomonas sacchari and Two Banana-Associated Xanthomonads Reveal Insights into the Xanthomonas Group 1 clade. Genes 2011, 2, 1050–1065

Following publication of our article [1], we found errors in analyses performed by the corresponding author (DJS) related to the phylogenetic relationship between Xylella species and the other xanthomonads. These errors do not make any difference to the main findings and conclusions reported in our paper. For example, the phylogenetic positions of NCPPB1131, NCPPB1132 and NCPPB4393 within the Group 1 Xanthomonas species are unaffected. However, we wish to apologize to the authors of a previous work [2] for creating any negative impression on the quality of their phylogenetic analyses and to take this opportunity to rectify the errors. [. ].
A Wireless Mobile Sensor Platform for Structural Health Monitoring

Modern system identification (SID) procedures rely on fixed sensor networks for data collection. Ideally, sensors are fixed at locations and contain profitable structural responses, however, such sensing areas are often limited by the accessibility of the structure and environmental hazards. Not only are fixed sensor placements limited, the data contains restricted spatial information. Mobile sensors simultaneously record data in time while moving in space, so that few sensors collect data containing dense, less-restricted spatial information, providing a more cost-effective solution than a dense array of static sensors. Mobile sensor data contain fundamentally different attributes than fixed sensor data. Such data can be classified as dynamic sensor network (DSN) data, which inherently include spatial discontinuities whenever sensors change position. Despite this challenge, such data can be processed for identification using an iterative machine learning technique Structural Identification using Expectation Maximization (STRIDE). Furthermore, the preservation of spatial information in mobile sensor networks has been quantified throughout simulations: given the same number of sensors, a mobile sensor network produces superior spatial information when compared to a static sensor network. In this paper, ambient vibrations of a simple beam test-bed are measured by a wireless mobile sensor network which includes four parallel lines of motor-driven belts that tow an array of sensor carts along the span of the beam. Feedback between the step motor and a computer was established to achieve a precise spatial grid for the mobile sensors. Modal identification results are presented, documenting the accuracy and feasibility of a realworld mobile sensor network for SID.
Effects of Nitric Oxide on Blood-Brain Barrier Disruption Caused by Intracarotid Injection of Hyperosmolar Mannitol in Rats

We performed this study to evaluate the effects of changing the level of nitric oxide (NO) on disruption of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) by hyperosmolar mannitol. Under isoflurane anesthesia, control rats (control group, n = 6) were given infusions with 25% mannitol into the internal carotid artery before measuring the transfer coefficient (Ki) of14 C-alpha-aminoisobutyric acid (14) C-AIB). In the CAS group (n = 6), [3-(cis-2,6-dimethyl piperidino)-sydnonimine] (CAS 754), a NO donor, was injected to decrease the mean arterial pressure (MAP) to 55 mm Hg and in the L-NAME group (n = 6), NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME), a NO synthase inhibitor, was injected before administering mannitol. In additional control animals (control + P group, n = 6) and additional CAS 754-treated animals (CAS + P group, n = 6), phenylephrine was infused to keep MAP at 130 mm Hg during the experimental period. In the control group, with mannitol injection, the Ki of the ipsilateral cortex (IC) where mannitol was injected increased to 4.3 times that of the contralateral cortex (CC) (17.2 +/- 2.9 vs 4.0 +/- 2.6 micro l [center dot] g-1 [centered dot] min-1). Without blood pressure control, the Ki of the IC of the CAS group (7.0 +/- 4.5) was lower and that of the L-NAME group (26.2 +/- 12.7) was higher than that of the control animals. At the same MAP, the Ki of the IC of the CAS + P group (9.6 +/- 3.1) was significantly lower than that of the control + P group (21.3 +/- 14.5) or that of the L-NAME group. There was no significant difference in the Ki of the IC between the control + P and the L-NAME groups. In conclusion, L-NAME worsened BBB disruption induced by hyperosmolar solution, which may be due to the pressure effect of L-NAME. CAS 754 was effective in attenuating disruption of the BBB caused by hyperosmolar mannitol. This effect is apparently not due to decreased MAP. (Anesth Analg 1997;84:370-5)
A highly visible scientist - Jack Meadows

The results of a bibliometric study of the publications of Meadows are reported; in particular, the cumulative growth in the number of publications and citations received over a 40-year period is documented. Citations made to two articles and a monograph are examined in detail, particularly the ‘context’ of citations, in order to explain the reasons authors appear to have for citing his work. There is a brief discussion of the methodology of identifying and categorising ‘context’ of citations, as this is an area of bibliometrics relatively unexplored.
The link between resource problems and interorganisational relationships: a quantitative study of Western European sport clubs

According to the resource dependence theory, organisations draw upon interorganisational relationships to address the need for additional resources. The purpose of this study was to analyse whether sport clubs with serious resource problems regarding members, human resources (volunteers and coaches), infrastructure resources (sport facilities), or financial resources would be more likely to have a relationship with another non-profit sport club, a school, or a commercial sport provider. As previous research on interorganisational relationships has been mainly based on qualitative approaches, this study used quantitative data from sport club surveys in two Western European countries, Germany and Belgium (Flanders). The results of the correlation analyses showed that sport clubs in both countries experiencing serious problems regarding the availability of sport facilities were significantly more likely to have relationships with a school or a commercial sport provider. The study provided quantitative evidence that serious resource problems are correlated with interorganisational relationships.
Primary Progressive Aphasia: A 25-year Retrospective

The diagnosis of primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is made in any patient in whom a language impairment (aphasia), caused by a neurodegenerative disease (progressive), constitutes the most salient aspect of the clinical picture (primary). The language impairment can be fluent or nonfluent and may or may not interfere with word comprehension. Memory for recent events is relatively preserved although memory scores obtained in verbally mediated tests may be abnormal. Lesser changes in behavior and object recognition may be present but are not the leading factors that bring the patient to medical attention. This selective clinical pattern is most conspicuous in the initial stages of the disease. Progressive nonfluent aphasia and some types of semantic dementia can be considered subtypes of PPA. Initially brought to the attention of contemporary literature 25 years ago, PPA has recently witnessed substantial progress related to its neurolinguistic features, neuroanatomy, imaging, neuropathology, genetics, and risk factors.