Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Functional MR imaging during odor stimulation: preliminary data.

PURPOSE To determine the locations and extent of activation in areas of the brain at functional magnetic resonance (MR) imaging with olfactory stimulation and to determine whether accommodation or amplification of brain activation occurs with sequential olfactory stimulation. MATERIALS AND METHODS Five adult men with normal senses of smell underwent multisection, gradient-echo, echo-planar imaging according to a blood-oxygen-level-dependent experimental paradigm. Odorants that nearly exclusively stimulate the olfactory system and odorants that stimulate the olfactory and trigeminal nerves were compared by using repetitive imaging procedures. RESULTS Activation with olfactory nerve-mediated odorants was demonstrated in the orbitofrontal cortex (Brodmann area 11) with a right-sided predominance. Mild cerebellar stimulation was also observed. With repeated testing, overall activation with olfactory nerve-mediated odorants declined. Odorants that also stimulated the trigeminal nerve produced additional cingulate, temporal, cerebellar, and occipital activation. Activation with combined trigeminal and olfactory system odors increased more than sixfold with repeated testing. CONCLUSION Olfactory nerve-mediated and combined olfactory and trigeminal nerve-mediated odorants activate different regions of the brain. Orbitofrontal stimulation spreads to all parts of the brain when a trigeminal component is added. Habituation (deactivation) occurs with repeated testing of olfactory nerve-mediated odorants, while, paradoxically, activation increases with repeated exposure to odors that also stimulate the trigeminal nerve.
The relative efficiency of various fluids in the rapid freezing of protozoa

The cooling efficiencies of various fluids at low temperature were compared by measuring the temperature decay in 3 μl water samples plunged into them. A simple model of cooling was used in order to discuss the results. Liquid ethane was found to produce a cooling rate of 660 K s−1, about twice that of liquid propane, while ethanol was almost as effective as ethane between 273 to 223 K. The heat‐transfer coefficient of liquid ethane was estimated to be between 1500 and 5000 W m−2 K−1, depending on the physical state assumed for the water sample. Samples of flagellated organisms, after being frozen rapidly in the above way, were freeze‐substituted by the method of Barlow & Sleigh (1979). Although this fixation did not give good definition of the microtubules of the flagellar axoneme, it exhibited reasonable tissue preservation in thin sections of the cell body. The fixation method resulted in preserved flagellar wave shapes, which were observed under the light microscope and in critical‐point dried cells examined by scanning and conventional electron microscopy. It was concluded (a) that methods for preserving the wave shape of the flagellum and for preserving its internal structure may not be compatible, and (b) that although the present cooling method (with ethane) approaches the speed required to arrest a flagellar wave, further improvements in the speed of the method are desirable.
Bank interest rate pass-through in the eurozone : monetary policy transmission during the boom and since the financial crash

The aim of this paper is to understand how the financial crisis has affected the interest rate pass-through in the eurozone between market rates and bank interest rates. We applied a SUR-ECM model. This methodology allows testing for the homogeneity of the pass-through of the euro area countries. The main results of this investigation are the following. First, not surprisingly, we show that the financial turmoil since august 2007 has affected drastically the interest rate passe-through in the eurozone. Second, the pass-through since the crisis is less complete that in the previous period studied. Third, the heterogeneity between the eurozone members has increased.
Does adult education at upper secondary level influence annual wage earnings

Adult education at upper secondary level (AE) is an integral part of the Swedish educational system. Of the cohort born in 1970, about one third has at some point been registered in AE. This evaluation of AE is the first to use register data on the course credits actually attained. The results indicate that credits equal to one year of AE yield point estimates that range from 5 per cent for individuals with prior two-year upper secondary school to 15 per cent for those with prior compulsory school. The positive effects are mainly driven by courses in health related subjects and computer science. Of the participants in AE, more than 40 per cent continue to university. The returns to years in higher education are not found to be different between individuals with and without a prior AE registration except for those with one year or less at university.
Stationary clutter- and linear-trend suppression in impulse-radar-based respiratory motion detection

Radar-based respiratory motion detection, implemented in the case of e.g. detection of buried victims in post-disaster scenarios, requires removal of radar returns from motionless objects. However, time-domain radar, which is considered herein, often shows linear amplitude instability in the time base. This can lower the probability of detection. This paper investigates the performance of three stationary-clutter subtraction methods: range profile subtraction (RPS), mean subtraction (MS) and linear-trend subtraction (LTS) method. The performance evaluation is performed on measured data containing respiratory-motion response and linear amplitude instability. It has been shown that the RPS method should be avoided since it increases the noise power and acts as a differentiator, thereby resulting in frequency-dependent noise floor. The MS and LTS method show identical performance in the absence of any amplitude instability. However, in the presence of it, the LTS method performs better and is therefore the preferred method for use in impulse-radar-based respiratory motion detection.
Disinflation and Interest-Bearing Money

In high inflation countries, policymakers often end up paying interest on part of the money supply. Higher interest rates on money have been used as a disinflationary policy. This paper analyzes the effectiveness of such a policy in the context of a closed-economy, staggered-prices model. Both a permanent and a temporary rise in the interest rate on money provoke an inflation at the expense of a recession. When the rise is temporary, however, the initial inflation slowdown is eventually followed by an upsurge of inflation over the level prevailing before the policy was implemented. Copyright 1996 by Royal Economic Society.
Detection of cerebral embolic signals in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus

Background: Involvement of the CNS in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is caused by several pathogenic mechanisms including cerebral embolism. Aim: To measure the frequency of microembolic signals (MES) by using transcranial Doppler (TCD) ultrasound and to assess their association with cerebral infarction, neuropsychological dysfunction, and biochemical, sonographic and clinical variables in an unselected group of patients with SLE. Methods: A 1-h TCD recording from the middle cerebral artery was carried out in 55 patients with SLE having a mean age of 46 (SD 13) years. MRI of the brain, carotid artery ultrasonography with intima–media thickness and atherosclerotic plaque assessments were carried out in addition to a broad biochemical and clinical assessment. All patients underwent a neuropsychological assessment. Results: Of the 55 patients, MES were detected in 5 (9%) and cerebral infarcts were found in 9 (18%). A significant association was found between MES and cerebral infarcts and considerably more neuropsychological deficits were found in MES-positive patients compared with the negative group. MES were not associated with other clinical, sonographic and biochemical factors believed to be associated with cerebral embolism. Conclusions: Cerebral embolism may be one of the important mechanisms responsible for the high prevalence of cerebrovascular events and the neuropsychological deficits observed in patients with SLE. Although the number of MES-positive patients was small, the lack of a significant association between MES and other known risk factors for MES suggests a complex pathogenesis for the embolisation in these patients.
Do Social Policies Harm Employment and Growth

In economies with competitive labour markets social policies harm employment and output. In Europe, in particular, non-competitive labour markets with trade unions, efficiency wages and/or costly search and mismatch seem more realistic. Social policies such as progressive taxation or facilitating corporatism may well induce wage moderation and boost employment and output. Although unconditional unemployment benefits destroy jobs, conditional benefits may spur job growth. In a second-best world usual effects of social policies are thus overturned. In addition, the incidence of taxation and the effects of tax progressivity depend crucially on the specific features of the welfare state, e.g., whether benefits are indexed to wages or not. In a full political-economic equilibrium a more equitable distribution of income and assets leads to a median voter who is better off and thus votes for less 'populist' policies. Hence, employment and economic growth will be higher and inflation lower. In general the supremacy of 'laisser faire' is questioned also by international comparisons.
Power-aware NoC router using central forecasting-based dynamic virtual channel allocation

In this paper, we propose a high performance central dynamic virtual channel allocation mechanism for on-chip routers. This central management unit devotes each input port a number of virtual channels (VC) among a shared VC bank based on a traffic forecasting technique. The forecasting technique exploits the link and VC utilizations in predicting the traffic. Based on the predicted traffic, for each input port, the number of active virtual channels may be increased, decreased, or kept unchanged. The clock-gating power management technique is used to activate/deactivate the VCs. Simulation results using uniform and Negative Exponential Distribution (NED) traffic profiles show that a considerable power savings in the virtual channels and overall router power consumption may be achieved especially in low traffic loads. The area overhead of the technique is negligible.
The S&P 500 Effect

This is an analysis of the effect on a company's stock price of adding it to the S&P 500 index. A simple theoretical model is developed to show how trading effects and changes to fundamentals should affect the price of S&P 500 additions upon announcement and in the long run. The model predicts a company added to the S&P 500 should experience an initial price increase and then a reversal of this price increase, owing to the predicted increased stock price volatility of companies post-addition. All these effects should strengthen over time with the increasing importance of S&P 500 indexed mutual funds. Tests of the model using a sample of 303 S&P 500 index additions between 1978 and 1998 produce generally consistent with predictions, particularly in the most recent period, when it appears that a post-addition increase in stock price volatility reverses almost all the initial price increase.
Electro-immobilisation of sheep may not reduce the aversiveness of a painful treatment

Sheep were repeatedly chased down a race and were then either subjected to the noise of a shearing handpiece or had wool shaved off. An increase in the time that had to be spent pushing the sheep down the race indicated that the latter treatment was aversive. Similar results were obtained when the sheep were subjected to the same two treatments while electro-immobilised. This throws doubt on the analgesic effectiveness of electro-immobilisation.
GPU-Accelerated Dynamic Wavelet Thresholding Algorithm for X-Ray CT Metal Artifact Reduction

The computed tomography (CT) imaging technique has been used to diagnose widespread disease for many years; however, severe streaking artifacts have been observed to appear in the reconstructed images of examinate contains metal objects. In this paper, we propose a dynamic wavelet thresholding metal artifact reduction (MAR) algorithm based on a statistic iterative reconstruction (SIR) model for 2-D fan beam CT. Cubic spline interpolation is utilized to remove blocky black artifacts caused by incomplete projections, and it also makes the solution closer to the optimum. The dynamic wavelet thresholding method contains the benefits of both wavelet soft and hard thresholding methods and promotes the sparsity of the image, which is used to erase residual streaking artifacts and accelerate the convergence of the SIR. The algorithm is accelerated by graphics processing unit programming and costs 14.44s with 40 iterations, meeting the demand of clinical practice. The performance of the proposed algorithm is compared with two classical MAR algorithms: the total variation (TV) constraint SIR algorithm and the reweighted TV constraint SIR algorithm. The experimental datasets include nine artificial datasets. Both qualitative and quantitative evaluation results show the outstanding performance of the proposed algorithm in suppressing the metal artifacts and preserving the image details.
Human Papillomavirus Deoxyribonucleic Acid in Adenocarcinoma and Adenosquamous Carcinoma of the Uterine Cervix

This report describes the detection of human papillomavirus type 16 or 18 deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) in nine of 15 invasive tumors of the cervix, including three squamous carcinomas, four adenosquamous carcinomas, one glassy cell carcinoma, and one adenocarcinoma. The viral DNA was identified by Southern blotting and DNA hybridization. Human papillomaviruses may play an etiologic role in the development of at least some adenocarcinomas and adenosquamous carcinomas as well as most squamous tumors of the cervix.
Trends in Racial Disparities Among the Elderly for Selected Procedures

The authors examine trends over 1997-2001 in racial or ethnic disparities in the utilization of three costly, referral-sensitive procedures among the elderly—coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA), and hip/joint replacement. Using a multivariate framework, they undertake a simultaneous examination of the relationships between patient, local area context, and health systems on these admission types after comparing them to a control group. This period spans the implementation of the Balanced Budget Act and a major Department of Health and Human Services initiative to reduce disparities in cardiovascular and other diseases. Findings suggest increasing disparities for African Americans relative to Whites in their lower utilization of CABG and PTCA over time, and increasing disparities in the utilization of hip/joint replacement among other races' relative to Whites. The authors find that racial or ethnic disparities in use of referral-sensitive procedures did not narrow over 1997-2001.
Euro Commentary: Towards the Sustainability of Historical Centres: a Case-Study of León, Spain

Many historical city centres are currently undergoing major transformation thanks to projects financed by a range of institutions. In general, they have suffered a loss of habitability, functionality and social life as they have become seen as museum pieces and places of leisure and culture.They are, then, inhabited by one group, the residents, and used and enjoyed by others for the purposes of leisure and cultural tourism.This article examines the characteristics, problems presented and solutions offered for the historical centres of medium-sized cities in Southern Europe. It offers a study of the historical centre of the city of León, in Spain, in order to make suggestions for the sustainable development of such places.
In vivo confocal microscopy of the human cornea

Aims: To describe the optics of in vivo confocal microscopy, its advantages over previous methods, and to summarise the literature that arose from its use for the observation of the human cornea. A critical review of the clinical usefulness of this new technology for the corneal examination is undertaken. Methods: Confocal microscopes obtain increased resolution by limiting the illumination and observation systems to a single point. Rapid scanning is used to reconstruct a full field of view and allows for “real time” viewing. Results: Coronal sections of the in situ epithelium, Bowman’s membrane, stroma, and endothelium can be visualised at a resolution of 1–2 μm. A backscattered light intensity curve allows objective measurements of sublayer thickness and corneal haze to be taken. In vivo confocal microscopy is therefore particularly useful in the areas of infective keratitis, corneal dystrophies, refractive surgery, and contact lens wear, where it aids in differential diagnosis and detection of subtle short and long term changes. Real time endothelial cell assessment can also be performed. Conclusion: Because of their ability to visualise living tissue at cellular levels, confocal microscopes have proved useful additions to the current clinical tools.
The role of relaxation times in monitoring proteoglycan depletion in articular cartilage

Various proton relaxation times (T2, T1ρ, and gadolinium‐diethylene triamine pentaacetic acid [Gd‐DTPA]‐enhanced T1) were measured in articular cartilage in vitro at 3 T to assess their role in visualizing proteoglycan depletion. Cartilage‐bone specimens were obtained from patients who underwent total joint replacement and got a double dose of Gd‐DTPA 2 hours prior surgery. In these specimens, regions of mechanically undamaged cartilage having a decreased content of proteoglycans showed about 15% lower T1 values compared with apparently normal cartilaginous tissue. The expected increase of the T2 relaxation time was not observed in these regions. On the other hand, the T2 and, to a lower degree, T1 relaxation times were found to be increased in regions of cartilage fibrillation. The T1ρ relaxation times obtained were slightly longer than the corresponding T2 values, but both parameters showed almost identical spatial distributions. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 1999;10:497–502. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Exosome nanotechnology: An emerging paradigm shift in drug delivery

The demonstration that dendritic cell (DC)‐derived exosomes can be exploited for targeted RNAi delivery to the brain after systemic injection provides the first proof‐of‐concept for the potential of these naturally occurring vesicles as vehicles of drug delivery. As well as being amenable to existing in vivo targeting strategies already in use for viruses and liposomes, this novel approach offers the added advantages of in vivo safety and low immunogenicity. Fulfilment of the potential of exosome delivery methods warrants a better understanding of their biology, as well as the development of novel production, characterisation, targeting and cargo‐loading nanotechnologies. Ultimately, exosome‐mediated drug delivery promises to overcome important challenges in the field of therapeutics, such as delivery of drugs across otherwise impermeable biological barriers, such as the blood brain barrier, and using patient‐derived tissue as a source of individualised and biocompatible therapeutic drug delivery vehicles.
An Fx options model that incorporates 25-delta strangles and 25-delta risk reversals

The paper suggests a new class of models (Q-Phi) to capture the information that the foreign exchange options market provides through the 25-delta strangles and 25-delta risk reversals. The model is able to capture the stochastic movements of a full strike structure of implied volatilities. We argue that extracting information through this model and pricing path-dependent and non-benchmark strike options is a better methodology than using a constant implied volatility. The model can be used to price exotic options and hedge them robustly with benchmark European options. It is easy to calibrate and the model parameters lend themselves to intuitive interpretation by a trader managing an Fx options book.
A method for constructing a confidence bound for the actual error rate of a prediction rule in high dimensions.

Constructing a confidence interval for the actual, conditional error rate of a prediction rule from multivariate data is problematic because this error rate is not a population parameter in the traditional sense--it is a functional of the training set. When the training set changes, so does this "parameter. " A valid method for constructing confidence intervals for the actual error rate had been previously developed by McLachlan. However, McLachlan's method cannot be applied in many cancer research settings because it requires the number of samples to be much larger than the number of dimensions (n >> p), and it assumes that no dimension-reducing feature selection step is performed. Here, an alternative to McLachlan's method is presented that can be applied when p >> n, with an additional adjustment in the presence of feature selection. Coverage probabilities of the new method are shown to be nominal or conservative over a wide range of scenarios. The new method is relatively simple to implement and not computationally burdensome.
Weight loss has an independent beneficial effect on symptoms of gastro-oesophageal reflux in patients who are overweight.

BACKGROUND Weight loss is commonly recommended as part of first-line management of gastrooesophageal reflux disease (GORD) despite the paucity of published clinical trials. The aim of this study was to prospectively assess the independent effect of weight loss on reflux symptoms in overweight individuals with either normal endoscopic findings or grade-I oesophagitis. METHODS Thirty-four patients were recruited on the basis of a body mass index (BMI) of greater than 23 and symptoms of GORD for at least 6 months. All patients were advised to lose weight. Symptoms of gastro-oesophageal reflux (GOR) were scored, using a modified DeMeester questionnaire at 0, 6, and 26 weeks. Patients who were unable to stop taking all medication for control of symptoms were excluded from the study. Changes in weight and symptom score were analysed by using a paired t test. Correlation between change in weight and symptom score was assessed with the Pearson correlation test. RESULTS Thirty-four patients were studied (18 men and 16 women) with a mean age of 65 years (range, 24-70 years). The mean weight at recruitment was 83.4 kg (standard deviation (s), 4.5 kg; BMI, 23.5 kg/m2 (s, 2.3 kg/m2). Twenty-seven patients (80% of the total) lost weight with a mean of 4.0 kg (P < 0.01) and improved by a mean reduction of 75% from the initial symptom score (P < 0.001). In nine patients the symptoms disappeared completely. Three patients gained weight and had a deterioration of their symptoms, whereas four patients gained weight but still improved their symptom score. There was a significant direct correlation between weight loss and symptom score (R = 0.548, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS This study has shown a significant association between weight loss and improvement in symptoms of GOR. Patients who are overweight should be encouraged to lose weight as part of the first-line management.
Distortionary Taxation and Optimal Public Spending on Productive Activities

Using a general-equilibrium model with endogenous factor supplies, this article investigates the provision of factor-augmenting public inputs. Such inputs are intermediate goods that affect production functions in a collective manner and give rise to increasing returns. Unlike with collective consumption goods, deviation from the first-best condition for a public input is inappropriate if taxes are set optimally. When taxes are not optimal, a second-best rule must include a feedback effect on revenue as well as the deadweight cost of taxes. Implications for benefit-cost analysis and for interpretation of estimates of the social returns to public capital are explored. Copyright 2002, Oxford University Press.