Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Seasonal size variation in females of the Simulium damnosum complex in the Ivory Coast.

The thorax lengths of monthly samples of female S. damnosum s.l. caught between August 1975 and February 1977 at Danagoro in the Ivory Coast were measured. The blackflies could be separated into three species groups according to their external characters. Flies attributable to S. damnosum/S. sirbanum and S. soubrense/S. sanctipauli were common. S. yahense was occasionally found. The flies of the S. soubrense/S. sanctipauli group were on average consistently larger than those of the S. damnosum/S. sirbanum group within any one month. The mean sizes of these two groups varied in parallel from month to month and this variation was related to the rainfall in and around the drainage basin. This relation is discussed with respect to possible changes in the discharges of local rivers and their effects on larval development.
Treatment algorithm for dens fractures: non-halo immobilization, anterior screw fixation, or posterior transarticular C1-C2 fixation.

BACKGROUND The appropriate treatment of dens fractures is unclear. We established a staged treatment protocol for dens fractures and conducted a prospective study to evaluate the outcome of treatment based on this protocol. METHODS We prospectively evaluated sixty-nine consecutive patients who presented to our institution with a dens fracture. The mean duration of follow-up was 9.7 months (range, six to fifty-eight months). Fractures were categorized as stable or unstable. Stable fractures were treated by immobilization in a rigid collar. Patients seventy-five years or older with unstable fractures, patients with a neurological deficit, and patients with Anderson and D'Alonzo type-III fractures underwent posterior transarticular C1-C2 stabilization. Unstable fractures in patients younger than seventy-five years were stabilized with direct anterior screw fixation. Thirty-one patients were treated with a Philadelphia collar, twenty-five with posterior transarticular fixation, and thirteen with direct anterior screw fixation. RESULTS Fracture-healing or solid fusion of C1-C2 was documented in sixty-eight of sixty-nine treated patients at final follow-up. The remaining patient had a stable nonunion of the dens. Secondary procedures were performed in five patients. CONCLUSIONS Our treatment algorithm based on dens fracture type, fracture stability, and patient age was associated with a high success rate. Evaluating fracture stability is crucial when considering nonoperative treatment. External stabilization with a rigid cervical collar was adequate for stable fractures of the dens and was associated with a high healing rate. Posterior transarticular screw fixation of C1-C2 was associated with a high success rate, including in elderly patients. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Therapeutic Level III. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.
[Validation of the French translation and factorial structure of the Tiffany and Drobes Smoking Urge Questionnaire].

UNLABELLED Over the past 10 years researches and clinicians have made substantial progress in understanding and treating nicotine dependence. To demonstrate the effectiveness of these treatments, reliable and sensitive measures of change and outcome must be used. In the nicotine dependence treatment literature numerous outcome have been used: frequencies drug use, problems associated with substance use, psychiatric comorbidity, withdrawal severity, and craving. The term craving reflects the subjective reports of addicts regarding their attempts to abstain from drug use and the state of their minds at the point at which they attempt to fail. Exposure to cues previously associated with nicotine play a role in precipitating relapse in eliciting a conditioned craving/withdrawal response and can be measures by the Questionnaire of Smoking Urge (QSU). OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY Validation in a French translated version of the QSU published in 1991 by Tiffany and Drobes. METHODOLOGY 42 male and 62 female participated in the study with the translated questionnaire: mean age was 36.7 years, mean age at starting and mean duration of tobacco consumption was respectively 20.2 years old and 16.5 years, daily consumption was 16.6 cigarettes per day. The French translation of the QSU was administered to smokers instructed to abstain from smoking one hour and a half to three hours. RESULTS The back translation has been accepted by Tiffany because more than 85% of the items are similar to the original questionnaire. We founded the same factor analysis with two factors, "desire to smoke" and "intention to smoke" accounting for 34% and 11% of the items variance, respectively. These two factors were the same than those of the original questionnaire. CONCLUSION The validation of the French translation of the QSU gives the opportunity to use a sensitive instrument to assess craving.
Superquadric artificial potentials for obstacle avoidance and approach

An obstacle-avoidance potential based on superquadrics is discussed. The superquadric formulation is a generalization of the elliptical potential function method and therefore is viable for a much larger class of object shapes. As with elliptical potentials, a modified form of the superquadric potential provides safe approach objects. The avoidance and approach potentials are implemented in simulations and the results exhibit an improvement over existing potential schemes. The simulations also use an algorithm that eliminates collisions with obstacles by calculating the repulsive forces exerted on links, based on the shortest distance to an object. <<ETX>>
Temporal Organization of Sound Information in Auditory Memory

Memory is a constructive and organizational process. Instead of being stored with all the fine details, external information is reorganized and structured at certain spatiotemporal scales. It is well acknowledged that time plays a central role in audition by segmenting sound inputs into temporal chunks of appropriate length. However, it remains largely unknown whether critical temporal structures exist to mediate sound representation in auditory memory. To address the issue, here we designed an auditory memory transferring study, by combining a previously developed unsupervised white noise memory paradigm with a reversed sound manipulation method. Specifically, we systematically measured the memory transferring from a random white noise sound to its locally temporal reversed version on various temporal scales in seven experiments. We demonstrate a U-shape memory-transferring pattern with the minimum value around temporal scale of 200 ms. Furthermore, neither auditory perceptual similarity nor physical similarity as a function of the manipulating temporal scale can account for the memory-transferring results. Our results suggest that sounds are not stored with all the fine spectrotemporal details but are organized and structured at discrete temporal chunks in long-term auditory memory representation.
Essays on Optimal Portfolio and Resource Allocation

ESSAYS ON OPTIMAL PORTFOLIO AND RESOURCE ALLOCATION Sergiy Pysarenko Advisors: University of Guelph, 2018 Vitali Alexeev, Kurt Annen, Francis Tapon The first paper proposes a micro-foundation for Contest-Success Functions (CSF) in a setting where a principal allocates a valuable resource among competing agents. We characterize the properties of the principal’s utility function so that the Ratio Form CSF results as the unique optimal allocation rule. This micro-foundation is important as CSFs are widely used in the literature such as the search for promotion in labour markets, gaining government influence through lobbying, competing for foreign aid provided by donors, etc. Most of the literature assumes a particular CSF without considering that the principal has her own preferences and that the optimal allocation, after having observed efforts, may differ from the allocation stipulated by the CSF. In this case, the CSF is not the principal’s best response strategy; thus, the contest is not strongly credible. To ensure strong credibility, we consider sufficient conditions for a non-monotonic utility function, as well as for a larger family of monotonic utility functions compared to the literature. The second paper proposes a novel approach of portfolio allocation. constructing a portfolio of stocks, do you turn a blind eye to the firms’ future outlooks based on careful consideration of companies’ fundamentals, or do you ignore the stocks’ correlation structures which ensure the best diversification? The fundamental indexing (FI) and Markowitz
Discrimination of Mammalian GPI-Anchored Proteins by Hydropathy and Amino Acid Propensities

The glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) attachment is a most important post-translational modification of proteins that plays essential roles in promoting the biochemical activities of eukaryotic cells. Described here is an analysis of the amino acid properties of mammalian GPI-anchored proteins (GPI-APs) and the development of an innovative method of detecting them. GPI-APs are characterized by two high-hydropathy regions: the signal peptide, located inside the Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER), and the GPI attachment signal, a sequence adjacent to the GPI-anchoring site (the ω-site). Especially in sequence analysis of known GPI-APs, there were some distinct aspects of the amino acid propensities around the ω-sites. Therefore, a method of detecting GPI-APs was developed based on hydropathy profiles and a position-specific scoring matrix (PSSM) calculated by position-specific amino acid propensities. First, sequences of GPI-APs and negative controls, determined by screening based on hydropathy and residue volume profiles, were aligned based on residue volume profiles in the C-terminal region, and the position-specific amino acid propensities of each group were calculated according to their alignment positions. Then, a PSSM was devised using the amino acid propensities of GPI-APs and negative controls, and discrimination scores were estimated for each dataset. Based on these scores at a threshold was fixed for each dataset. GPI-APs were detected with 81.1% sensitivity and a 0.818 success rate in an optimized calculation region determined by adjusting the window size of this region using a 5-fold dataset. The results indicate that a PSSM around the ω-site can effectively discriminate GPI-APs.
Fibronectin levels in chronic viral hepatitis and response of this protein to interferon therapy.

BACKGROUND/AIMS In this study, the plasma fibronectin levels in the cases of chronic hepatitis B and C infection and this protein's response to the interferon therapy were examined. METHODOLOGY Totally, 38 patients with chronic hepatitis, 21 of them being hepatitis B, 17 of them being hepatitis C; and 24 healthy blood donors, as the control group, took part in this study. The quantitative determinations of fibronectin in plasma samples were performed with the Bohring Nephelometer BN 100 (N Antiserum to Human Fibronectin, code no OUND, Dade Behring Marburg GmbH, Marburg Germany). RESULTS It was observed that the fibronectin plasma levels of the control group were significantly higher than those of the patient group before the therapy (p=0.043). After the interferon therapy of six months, the difference between the fibronectin levels of 16 examined patients before and after the treatment was found to be significant (p=0.001). A negative correlation was detected between the fibronectin levels before the therapy and the inflammatory grade as far as the histopathology of the illness was concerned (r=-0.49), which is a statically significant value (p=0.002). The correlation between the levels of fibronectin and the stage of the fibrosis was found to be insignificant statistically (p=0.225). When comparing the levels before and after the therapy, as far as ALT and AST values were concerned, it was observed that both parameters fell significantly after the therapy (p=0.002). However, no correlation was observed between the fibronectin levels and ALT, AST before and after the therapy. CONCLUSIONS Fibronectin can be a useful marker for showing the hepatic inflammation and damage in the cases of chronic hepatitis, and can also be used in the evaluation of the response to the interferon therapy like other biochemical parameters (ALT, prothrombin activity etc.).
The scaling and temperature dependence of vertebrate metabolism

Body size and temperature are primary determinants of metabolic rate, and the standard metabolic rate (SMR) of animals ranging in size from unicells to mammals has been thought to be proportional to body mass (M) raised to the power of three-quarters for over 40 years. However, recent evidence from rigorously selected datasets suggests that this is not the case for birds and mammals. To determine whether the influence of body mass on the metabolic rate of vertebrates is indeed universal, we compiled SMR measurements for 938 species spanning six orders of magnitude variation in mass. When normalized to a common temperature of 38 °C, the SMR scaling exponents of fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals are significantly heterogeneous. This suggests both that there is no universal metabolic allometry and that models that attempt to explain only quarter-power scaling of metabolic rate are unlikely to succeed.
Assessing the Acceptance of e-Government in Local Service Delivery in Ghana: A Case of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA)

The commitment of political leaders to the usage of Information Communication Technology in enhancing public service delivery has been demonstrated through introduction ofe-Marriage Application at the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA). However, the success of this strategy partly depends on its acceptance by public servants at AMA, and its residents.The main aim of the study was to examine the key issues in the acceptance of e-Marriage Application at AMA through the spectacle of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The research used primary data obtained through semi- structured interviews conducted with 15 clients and public servants purposively selected for the study. Primary data wastriangulated with secondary data from books, articles from peer-reviewed journals, and other relevant academic documents. The study arrived at the conclusion that, apart fromPerceived Usefulness (PU) and Perceived Ease of Use (PEU): User Characteristics, Trust, Culture, Political Leadership and Awareness were the key determinants in the acceptance ofe-Marriage Application at AMA.
Using the Interpersonal Theory of Suicide to Inform Interpersonal Psychotherapy With a Suicidal Older Adult

Older adults in the United States and many countries around the world die by suicide at elevated rates compared with younger adults. However, relatively little is known about psychotherapeutic approaches to managing and treating suicide risk among older adults. The patient in this case presented with elevated suicide risk and was treated with interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) informed by the Interpersonal Theory of Suicide. This theoretical model proposes that thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness are causes of suicide ideation. IPT guides therapists to look for one of four interpersonal stressors that may be present in a client’s life—grief, role transitions, interpersonal disputes, and interpersonal sensitivity (i.e., skills deficits). The Interpersonal Theory provides a rationale for choosing one problem focus over another. Specifically, the problem area that allows the therapist and patient to target and ameliorate thwarted belongingness and/or perceived burdensomeness is selected. The positive outcome of reduced suicide risk in this case illustrates how targeting the constructs of thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness with IPT may help older adults resolve suicide ideation and prevent recurrences of suicidal crises.
Usefulness of ventricular endocardial electric reconstruction from body surface potential maps to noninvasively localize ventricular ectopic activity in patients

As radio frequency (RF) catheter ablation becomes increasingly prevalent in the management of ventricular arrhythmia in patients, an accurate and rapid determination of the arrhythmogenic site is of important clinical interest. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that the inversely reconstructed ventricular endocardial current density distribution from body surface potential maps (BSPMs) can localize the regions critical for maintenance of a ventricular ectopic activity. Patients with isolated and monomorphic premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) were investigated by noninvasive BSPMs and subsequent invasive catheter mapping and ablation. Equivalent current density (CD) reconstruction (CDR) during symptomatic PVCs was obtained on the endocardial ventricular surface in six patients (four men, two women, years 23–77), and the origin of the spontaneous ectopic activity was localized at the location of the maximum CD value. Compared with the last (successful) ablation site (LAS), the mean and standard deviation of localization error of the CDR approach were 13.8 and 1.3 mm, respectively. In comparison, the distance between the LASs and the estimated locations of an equivalent single moving dipole in the heart was 25.5 ± 5.5 mm. The obtained CD distribution of activated sources extending from the catheter ablation site also showed a high consistency with the invasively recorded electroanatomical maps. The noninvasively reconstructed endocardial CD distribution is suitable to predict a region of interest containing or close to arrhythmia source, which may have the potential to guide RF catheter ablation.
Does corporate governance influence earnings management in listed companies in Bahrain Bourse?

PurposeThis paper aims to consider data for listed companies in Bahrain Bourse to determine whether companies practice earnings management (EM). Further, the effect of a set of corporate governance characteristics on EM practices is examined.Design/methodology/approachThe EM level was measured using discretionary accruals (DA) [calculated using the Modified Jones (1995) Model]. The study sample consisted of 20 companies listed during the period 2011-2015. Panel regression model was used to test the study hypotheses and achieve the study aims.FindingsEM is negatively correlated with board size, confirming that a larger board is associated with a lower level of EM practices. Further, board independence is positively correlated with EM, suggesting that the larger the number of independent directors, the higher the level of EM practices. In addition, internal ownership is positively related to EM, confirming that the higher level of internal ownership increases EM practices. CEO duality does not appear to have any effect on EM in Bahrain Bourse. More interestingly, the findings reveal that companies practice EM through income-increasing DA.Research limitations/implicationsFinancial data and data related to other corporate governance characteristics are lacking.Practical implicationsThe results of this study provide empirical support for the development of new regulations and amendments and necessary corrective decisions regarding the effectiveness of applying corporate governance code in Bahrain Bourse. More specifically, this study reveals an urgent need for new amendments to restrict EM practices in Bahrain Bourse.Originality/valueThis study enriches the EM literature by covering Bahrain as an Asian country, which has not been sufficiently examined in relation to this topic. Further, this study provides a clear picture of the level of EM practices in Bahrain Bourse to multiple parties.
IMAGING STUDY: Reduced fMRI activation of an occipital area in recently detoxified alcohol‐dependent patients in a visual and acoustic stimulation paradigm

Chronic alcohol consumption is associated with neural damage that manifests in deficits in information processing. Previous studies evaluated higher cognitive functions such as working memory, but basic sensory information processing circuits have never been investigated before. Therefore, we applied a simple visual and acoustic stimulation paradigm in this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) pilot study. Nine recently detoxified male alcohol‐dependent patients and nine healthy volunteers were presented a well‐established 6‐Hz checkerboard and auditory stimuli in the form of drumbeats in a block‐design fMRI paradigm. During visual and acoustic stimulation, alcoholics and controls activated widespread occipital and temporal brain areas, as well as parts of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and thalamus. In a comparison of the stimulation‐induced activation of alcoholics and controls, the alcoholics showed a significantly lower blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal in an extended bilateral occipital area (P < 0.001) as compared with healthy controls. In no region was the BOLD signal significantly higher in the alcohol‐dependent subjects compared with controls. The reason for the new finding of a highly significant lower activation of the occipital cortex is unclear. It is in line with studies of neuropsychological tests in recently detoxified alcohol‐dependent patients that also reported deficits in visual abilities. Attention deficits or a persisting neuronal alteration in the first weeks of alcohol abstinence may have contributed to this result.
Tertiary interactions between transmembrane segments 3 and 5 near the cytoplasmic side of rhodopsin.

Previous studies [Yu, H. , Kono, M. , and Oprian, D. D. (1999) Biochemistry 38, xxxx-xxxx] using split receptors and disulfide cross-linking have shown that native cysteines 140 and 222 on the cytoplasmic side of transmembrane segments (TM) 3 and 5 of rhodopsin, respectively, can cross-link to each other upon treatment with the oxidant Cu(phen)3(2+). In this paper we show that although the 140-222 cross-link does not affect the spectral properties of rhodopsin, it completely and reversibly inactivates the ability of the receptor to activate transducin. Following on this lead we further investigate the cytoplasmic region of TM3 and TM5 and identify three additional pairs of residues that when changed to Cys are capable of forming disulfide cross-links in the protein: 140/225, 136/222, and 136/225. These disulfides are able to form without addition of the Cu(phen)3(2+) oxidant. Similar to the 140-222 cross-link, none of the additional disulfides affect the spectral properties of rhodopsin. Also like the 140-222 bond, the 136-222 disulfide completely and reversibly inactivates the light-dependent activation of transducin by the receptor. In contrast, the 140-225 and 136-225 disulfides have no effect on the ability of rhodopsin to activate transducin. The pattern of cross-linking observed in Cys and disulfide scans of the protein is consistent with helical secondary structure in TM3 from 130 to 142 and in TM5 from 218 to 225.