Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Productive Government Spending, Welfare and Exchange Rate Dynamics

This study analyses the consequences of productive government spending on the international transmission of fiscal policy. A standard result in the new open economy macroeconomics literature is that a fiscal shock depreciates the exchange rate. I demonstrate that the response of the exchange rate depends on the productivity of government spending. If productivity is sufficiently high, a fiscal shock appreciates the exchange rate. It is also shown that the introduction of productive government spending increases both domestic and foreign welfare, when compared with the case where government spending is wasted. This is because productive government spending has a positive effect on private consumption in both countries in a two country NOEM model.
Aliidiomarina shirensis sp. nov., a halophilic bacterium isolated from Shira Lake in Khakasia, southern Siberia, and a proposal to transfer Idiomarina maris to the genus Aliidiomarina.

Strain AIS(T), an aerobic halophilic, Gram-reaction-negative, heterotrophic bacterium isolated from the water of Shira Lake in Khakasia, southern Siberia, was characterized using a polyphasic approach. Our analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that 'Aliidiomarina haloalkalitolerans', 'Aliidiomarina sanyensis', Idiomarina maris and AIS(T) formed a distinct lineage. The sequence similarities between AIS(T) and the type strains of species of the genera Idiomarina and Aliidiomarina were 91.6-95.1 % and 94.0-96.9 %, respectively. The major isoprenoid quinone of AIS(T) was ubiquinone 8 (Q-8). Predominant cellular fatty acids were iso-C17 : 0, iso-C15 : 0 and summed feature 9. The genomic DNA G+C content was 45.8 mol%. It is concluded that AIS(T) represents a novel species of the genus Aliidiomarina, and the name Aliidiomarina shirensis sp. nov. is herein proposed for it. The type strain is AIS(T) ( = JCM 17761(T) = BCRC 80327(T)). Based on its fatty acid profile and our phylogenetic analysis, we propose that Idiomarina maris be transferred to the genus Aliidiomarina.
A Formal Approach to Optimized Parallel Protocol Implementation

We propose a formalized method that allows to automatically derive an optimized implementation from the formal speci cation of a protocol. Our method starts with the SDL speci cation of a protocol stack. We rst derive a data and control ow dependence graph from each SDL process. Then, in order to perform crosslayer optimizations we combine the dependence graphs of di erent SDL processes. Next, we determine the common path through the multi-layer dependence graph. We then parallelize this graph wherever possible which yields a relaxed dependence graph. Based on this relaxed dependence graph we interpret di erent optimization concepts that have been suggested in the literature, in particular lazy messages and combination of data manipulation operations. Together with these interpretations the relaxed dependence graph can be be used as a foundation for a compile-time schedule on a sequential or parallel machine architecture. The formalization we provide allows our method to be embedded in a more comprehensive protocol engineering methodology. Correspondence and o print requests to: S. Leue, e-mail: leue@iam.unibe. ch, or Ph. Oechslin, e-mail: oechslin@di.ep . ch 2 S. Leue and Ph. Oechslin
Design alternatives for scalable Web server accelerators

We study design alternatives for, and describe implementations and performance of, a scalable and highly available Web server accelerator. The accelerator runs under an embedded operating system and improves Web server performance by caching data. The basic design alternatives include a content router or a TCP router (without content routing) in front of a set of Web cache accelerator nodes, with the cache memory distributed across the accelerator nodes. Content based routing reduces cache node CPU cycles but can make the front-end router a bottleneck. With the TCP router, a request for a cached object may initially be sent to the wrong cache node; this results in larger cache node CPU cycles, but can provide a higher aggregate throughput, because the TCP router becomes a bottleneck at a higher throughput than the content router. Based on measurement of implementations, we quantify the throughput ranges in which different designs are preferable. We also examine a combination of content based and TCP routing techniques. We examine optimizations, such as different communication and data delivery methods, replication of hot objects, and cache replacement policies that take into account the fact that there might be different bottlenecks in the system at different times; depending upon which resource is likely to become a bottleneck, a different cache replacement algorithm is applied.
Variations in high‐density lipoprotein cholesterol in relation to physical activity and Taq 1B polymorphism of the cholesteryl ester transfer protein gene

The aim of the study was to determine any association of physical activity and Taq 1B polymorphism in the cholesteryl ester transfer protein gene on high‐density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. Five hundred and four subjects, 390 males and 114 females consisting of an equal number of age‐ and sex‐matched healthy controls and patients with coronary artery disease, were included. The mean age (±SD) of the patients and controls were 57.5 ± 10.6 years and 56.8 ± 11.0 years, respectively. All the patients underwent coronary angiography; 33, 58, 63, and 98 patients had normal coronaries, single‐, two‐, or triple‐vessel disease, respectively. A third of the patients had suffered from a myocardial infarction. The genotype distribution conforming to Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium was similar for cases and controls. The mean HDL cholesterol increased from B1B1 through B2B2 genotype in controls and sedentary male patients. Self‐reported leisure time physical activity, consisting mostly of an hour of morning walk daily, was associated with a rise in mean HDL cholesterol in male controls (33.6 ± 7.9 mg/dl to 36.2 ± 8.9 mg/dl, p = 0.037) and patients (32.4 ± 7.9 mg/dl to 35.7 ± 11.0 mg/dl; p = 0.018). The exercise‐associated rise in HDL cholesterol was most pronounced in controls (32.1 ± 9.1 mg/dl to 36.8 ± 9.3 mg/dl, p = 0.05) and male patients (30.5 ± 7.4 mg/dl to 37.2 ± 9.7 mg/dl, p = 0.007) with B1B1 rather than B1B2 or B2B2 genotype. The results suggest a possible gene‐environment interaction in the regulation of HDL cholesterol that needs to be confirmed in other populations and larger samples to rule out a chance occurrence.
A new and fast coupled method in hybric orthogonal curvilinear coordinates

At present, coupled method is time-consuming because of its large calculated amount for sound field computation problems with rapidly changing topography, which limits its application of the method in practice. In the paper, taking a seamount problem with a line source for example, we proposed a new and fast coupled method in hybrid orthogonal curvilinear coordinates. We give theoretical analysis and compare our method to other coupled methods in some concrete examples. The results show that our method has higher efficiency and wider application range for such problems.
Balanced-to-balanced rat-race coupler with bandpass response

This paper presents a balanced-to-balanced rat-race coupler with bandpass response. In the differential mode, good frequency selectivity is obtained with the integration of second-order Chebyshev bandpass filters. Common-mode signals are rejected within a wide frequency range. The proposed design has been supported by measurement and simulation. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first balanced-to-balanced filtering rat-race coupler in literature.
Cross-cultural validation of the London Handicap Scale and comparison of handicap perception between Chinese and UK populations.

OBJECTIVE To validate the London Handicap Scale on populations from diverse cultures by comparing handicap perceptions in Mainland (Sichuan) Chinese, Hong Kong Chinese and UK subjects. METHOD Utility ratings of 10 real life health scenarios were given by a group of healthy and disabled Sichuan Chinese subjects. The ratings were then correlated with published scale scores of HK and UK subjects on the same scenarios. SETTING A university for older persons in Sichuan and the 4th Hospital of Sichuan University. SUBJECTS Two hundred and one Sichuan Chinese (mean age: 63.3 years) comprising of healthy (31.8%) and disabled individuals with stroke, fracture, cancer or other chronic conditions (69.2%) were recruited in the study. RESULTS Overall ratings for health scenarios were found to be highly correlated between Sichuan Chinese and UK subjects (r = 0.85; P < 0.0005), and between Sichuan and HK Chinese subjects (r = 0.98; P < 0.0005), with the exception of scenario J. Interesting differences in valuation were also observed between Sichuan subgroups in three scenarios. Self-perceived health status of the Sichuan Chinese can be accurately reflected by the severity of their handicap as measured by the London Handicap Scale LHS (r = -0.39, P = 0.000). For Sichuan Chinese, the economic domain of handicap was rated with poorer scores compared with the other domains. CONCLUSION The international notion of handicap, or limitation in participation, applies across different cultures and is also valid in mainland Chinese. UK, HK, and Sichuan subjects share similar perception on selected handicap scenarios. The London Handicap Scale is useful for health evaluation and outcome assessment for elderly of different cultures.
MicroRNA Expression Profile of Dexamethasone‐Induced Human Bone Marrow‐Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells During Osteogenic Differentiation

MiRNAs have been identified in various plants and animals where they function in post‐transcriptional regulation. Although studies revealed that dexamethasone play a pivotal role in the osteogenic differentiation of human bone marrow‐derived mesenchymal stem cells (hBMSCs), the identification of specific miRNAs and their regulatory roles in this process remain poorly defined. In this study, microarrays were used to analyze the miRNA expression profile of dexamethasone‐induced hBMSCs derived from three donors, and RT‐PCRs were used to confirm the microarray results. Nine upregulated miRNAs and seven downregulated miRNAs were identified. The putative target genes of these miRNAs were predicted using bioinformatics analysis. Subsequently, we focused our attention on the functional analysis of an upregulated miRNA, miR‐23a. Overexpression of miR‐23a inhibited osteogenic differentiation of hBMSCs at the cellular, mRNA, and protein levels. The results of our study provide an experimental basis for further research on miRNAs functions during osteogenic differentiation of dexamethasone‐induced hBMSCs. J. Cell. Biochem. 115: 1683–1691, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Pharmacokinetics of gentamicin in 957 patients with varying renal function dosed once daily.

AIMS 1. To determine the population pharmacokinetics of gentamicin in 957 patients with varying renal function dosed once daily. 2. To see if current starting doses for once daily aminoglycoside dosing are appropriate. 3. To test whether calculating creatinine clearance using an adjusted Cockcroft and Gault method (CLCr,adjusted ) was a better predictor of gentamicin clearance than the standard Cockcroft and Gault method (CLCr,unadjusted ). METHODS Nine hundred and fifty-seven patients were dose-individualized for gentamicin using SeBA-GEN, a Bayesian dosing method. This method returns estimates of the values of gentamicin CL and V d from which the 24 h AUC can be estimated. The goal of therapy was to attain an AUC of 70-100 mg l-1 h depending on the severity of the infection. The population was divided into four groups of differing renal function. Linear regression analysis was performed to determine the relationship between V d and various indices of weight, and gentamicin CL and either CLCr,adjusted or CLCr,unadjusted. RESULTS The mean V d (+/-s. d.) and CL (+/-s.d.) of gentamicin in our total population were 17.4 (+/-4.1) l and 4.0 (+/-1.8) l h-1, respectively. There was a decrease in V d with reducing renal function when comparing patients with normal renal function and patients with poor renal function. The lower of total body weight (TBW) and lean body weight (LBW), termed dosing weight (DWT), was a slightly better predictor of V d (r2=0.28) than either TBW (r2=0.21) or LBW (r2=0.21). CLCr,adjusted (r2=0.80) was a better predictor of gentamicin CL than CLCr, unadjusted (r2=0.57). CONCLUSIONS The mean population values of V d and CL of gentamicin dosed once daily are similar to those described by others in relation to multiple daily dosing. Given that previous methods have been based on population values of V d and CL from multiple daily dosing, the currently recommended starting doses for once daily aminoglycoside dosing would seem appropriate. The V d reduced with decreasing renal function, with a maximum of 23% difference between patients with normal and poor renal function. The Cockcroft and Gault method of calculating creatinine clearance does not appear to perform well at low values of serum creatinine concentration. An adjustment of the Cockcroft and Gault method is proposed to allow for this.
Study on various excitation voltage effects to the transient responses of a single long horizontal ground conductor

This study is carried out to determine a suitable excitation source that can be used to model the lightning return stroke on a single long horizontal ground conductor. It is used to determine the fastest results obtained for the transient response of a single long horizontal ground conductor and for computation efficiency purposes. In this study, three various excitation sources are used and been compared to each other; that are derivative Gaussian, double exponential and one-cycle sinusoidal functions. The transient node voltages and transient node currents due to the lightning strike are obtained using TLM method. It is found that the derivative Gaussian excitation source demonstrates the fastest results compared to the other two. However, if a study is for observing the behaviour of lightning return stroke, a double exponential excitation source is more suitable.
DESENVOLVIMENTO E REPRODUTIBILIDADE DE UM INSTRUMENTO DE AVALIAÇÃO OBJETIVA DO AMBIENTE PARA APLICAÇÃO EM ESTUDOS DE ATIVIDADE FÍSICA

Introducao: O objetivo deste estudo foi desenvolver e verificar a reprodutibilidade intra e interavaliadores de um instrumento de avaliacao objetiva do ambiente para aplicacao em estudos de atividade fisica. Metodos: Foi desenvolvido um instrumento com base nas recomendacoes do IPEN e na realidade cultural brasileira baseando-se no Distrito de Ermelino Matarazzo, localizado no extremo leste do municipio de Sao Paulo. O instrumento foi composto por itens do ambiente construido, natural, estetico, de seguranca/trânsito e poluicao e foi aplicado por dois avaliadores em um intervalo de 15 a 30 dias dentro de quatro setores censitarios do distrito de Ermelino Matarazzo. Foi feita analise de concordância para as variaveis categoricas ou dicotomicas e teste de diferencas de medias para as variaveis categoricas e quantitativas para os setores agrupados. Resultados: A maioria das variaveis categoricas ou dicotomicas do instrumento apresentaram concordância acima de 75% e as variaveis quantitativas nao tiveram diferencas significativas entre as medias, tanto nas avaliacoes intra como interavaliadores. Conclusao: O instrumento apresentou bons indicadores de reprodutibilidade. Portanto, sugere-se que este instrumento seja testado e utilizado em outros estudos quando o objetivo for avaliar o ambiente para a pratica de atividades fisicas em regioes similares a Ermelino Matarazzo.
Two different factors bind to the alpha‐domain of the polyoma virus enhancer, one of which also interacts with the SV40 and c‐fos enhancers.

Two nuclear factors from mouse 3T6 cells bind to a 22‐bp segment constituting the alpha‐domain of the polyoma virus enhancer. Binding of each factor can be competed out selectively by the appropriate double‐stranded oligonucleotide, indicating that this binding is not strictly cooperative. Sequence homology between the two binding sites and the similar size of the protected regions may indicate that both factors, PEA1 and PEA2, are closely related. The binding site of PEA1 is centered on a sequence showing strong homology to the SV40 enhancer, the binding site of PEA2 is located immediately adjacent to it and shows a strong homology to the c‐fos enhancer. Surprisingly, both SV40 and c‐fos enhancers interact with PEA1, probably due to the presence of an extra base pair relative to c‐fos in the PEA2 site. Factor PEA1 is probably identical to the recently described activator protein 1 (AP1).
Proprioceptive, visual and vestibular thresholds for the perception of sway during standing in humans.

1. Thresholds for the perception of postural sway induced by gentle perturbations were determined for five normal standing subjects. In this context we understand ‘perception’ to mean ‘able to give a subjective report’. The thresholds for the perception of movements that were equivalent to sway in velocity and amplitude were determined when the available sensory input was limited to only one, or a pair, of the vestibular, visual, and proprioceptive systems. To examine vestibular inputs alone, vision was excluded and the whole body was moved with the ankles in a fixed position. To examine visual inputs alone, the body was kept stationary and a ‘room’ was moved around the subjects to simulate the relative visual‐field movement that occurs during standing. To limit the available sensory input to proprioception from the legs, subjects were held stationary and balanced a load that was equivalent to their own body using their ankles. In this situation, perturbations were applied to the ‘equivalent body’ and these could only be perceived from the resulting ankle movements. Thresholds for perceiving ankle movements were also determined in the same posture, but with the leg muscles bearing no load. 2. The thresholds for the perception of sway during standing were very small, typically 0.003 rad at a velocity of 0.001 rad s‐1, and even smaller movements were perceived as the mean velocity of the sway increased up to 0.003 rad s‐1. No difference was found between the thresholds for perceiving forward sway and backward sway. Eye closure during standing did not affect the threshold for perceiving sway. 3. When sensory input was limited to proprioception from the legs, the thresholds for the perception of passive ankle movements were equivalent to the thresholds for the perception of sway during standing with all sensory inputs available. When the leg muscles were relaxed, the thresholds for perceiving ankle movements increased approximately twofold. 4. The visual thresholds for perceiving movement were higher than the proprioceptive thresholds at slower velocities of movement, but there was no difference at higher velocities. 5. Both the proprioceptive and visual thresholds were sufficiently small to allow perception of the sway that was recorded when the subjects stood normally in a relaxed manner. In contrast, the vestibular thresholds were an order of magnitude greater than the visual or proprioceptive thresholds and above the largest sway movements that were recorded during normal standing. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Zebrafish genetic map with 2000 microsatellite markers.

The zebrafish is the first vertebrate organism used for large-scale genetic screens seeking genes critical to development. These screens have been quite successful, with more than 1800 recessive mutations discovered that speak to morphogenesis of the vertebrate embryo. The cloning of the mutant genes depends on a dense genetic map. The 2000 markers we present here, using microsatellite (CA) repeats, provides 1.2-cM average resolution. One centimorgan in zebrafish is about 0. 74 megabase, so, for many mutations, these markers are close enough to begin positional cloning by YAC walks.
Motion Capture Data Completion and Denoising by Singular Value Thresholding

Human motion is of high articulation and correlation.When a human motion sequence is represented by a matrix, the matrix will be approximately low-rank. This low-rank property has been used by previous manifold-based approaches such as PCA and GPLVM. Encouraging results yielded by those approaches show that the low-rank property is of interest and importance for animating human motion. However, none of those approaches explicitly exploits it for motion capture data processing. In this paper, we propose to deal with motion capture data based on recently developed low-rank matrix completion theory and algorithms. Unlike previous approaches, the proposed method relies on low-rank prior instead of motion prior. To verify it effectiveness for dealing with motion capture data, we show that incomplete human motion can be effectively reconstructed. We also demonstrate that a noisecorrupted motion can be nicely recovered.
Comparison of SUT H∞ - and UKF in Cartesian and Modified Polar Coordinates for bearings-only tracking

The H<inf>∞</inf> filtering problem is considered for a class of nonlinear discrete-time systems for which a novel solution is developed by embedding the unscented transform technique into the extended H<inf>∞</inf> filter structure. This article compares a Scale Unscented Transform H<inf>∞</inf> filter (SUT H<inf>∞</inf> - ) and UKF for the bearings-only tracking problem in Modified Polar Coordinates (MPC) and Cartesian coordinates (CC). Its objective is to track the kinematics (position, velocity) of a moving target using noise-corrupted bearing measurements. The SUT H<inf>∞</inf> - filter achieves higher accuracy and robustness against model uncertainty. Simulation results for the bearings-only tracking (BOT) are presented to illustrate that the MPC is better than CC in long distance.
Helmet Therapy for Positional Cranial Deformities in Children

Positional cranial deformities are a group of disorders that result in asymmetrical cranial vault due to the application of prolonged exterior pressure on the skull. These can be classified as deformational plagiocephaly, deformational brachycephaly and deformational scaphocephaly, in order of frequency. Clinical awareness of the condition has increased due to its increased incidence resulting from sleep practices advocated by the American Academy of Pediatrics to reduce sudden infant death syndrome. Therapy is directed towards cosmetic concerns, and treatment options include observation, active head repositioning, physical therapy, cranial orthoses and surgical treatment in a few very severe cases. In this paper, the efficacy of helmet use to treat positional cranial deformities is reviewed.
Protective effect of α-mangostin on cardiac reperfusion damage by attenuation of oxidative stress.

This study was designed to investigate if α-mangostin (α-M), a xanthone present in the pericarp of Garcinia mangostana L. , was able to protect against reperfusion injury in Langendorff-reperfused hearts. It was observed that α-M maintains the cardiac mechanical work, diminishes the area of infarct, and prevents the decrease in cardiac ATP and phosphocreatine levels in the reperfused myocardium. The protective effect of this xanthone was associated with reduction of oxidative stress. α-M treatment prevented reperfusion injury-induced protein oxidation (protein carbonyl content), lipid peroxidation (malondialdehyde and 4-hydroxynonenal content), and diminution of glutathione content. In fact, after α-M treatment, the values in these parameters were comparable to those obtained in nonreperfused hearts. In summary, α-M induces a protective effect in postischemic heart associated to the prevention of oxidative stress secondary to reperfusion injury.