Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MODELLING INFLATION IN SOUTH AFRICA: A MULTIVARIATE COINTEGRATION ANALYSIS

We employ an expectations augmented Phillips curve framework to investigate the link between inflation, unit labour costs, the output gap, the real exchange rate and inflation expectations. Using multivariate cointegration techniques, we find evidence consistent with mark-up behaviour of output prices over unit labour costs. Most importantly, we find that the mark-up in the South African economy is much higher than in the U.S. For South Africa we find a markup of about 30 per cent: three times as high as the 10 per cent markup found for the U.S. Copyright 2005 Economic Society of South Africa.
A low power millimetre-wave VCO in 0.18 µm SiGe BiCMOS technology

A 36 GHz low power voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) is proposed and designed in 0.18 μm SiGe BiCMOS process. The VCO core part adopts a triple coupled transformer to provide feedbacks and to decouple the base voltage from the collector of the bipolar transistors, such that the voltage swing and phase noise can be improved. Besides, a transformer-based buffer is used to reduce the total power consumption of the design and provide matching. From the simulation results, the proposed VCO achieves low phase noise from -95 to -102.2dBc/Hz at 1MHz offset from the oscillation frequency while consumes only 5.76 mW DC power for the whole chip.
Epidemiological profile of gastric cancer in the northwestern region of Algeria: about 116 cases.

BACKGROUND Gastric cancer (GC) remains a public health issue despite the global incidence decrease over the last decades. GC is the third leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide and stills of poor prognosis due to its late detection. The overall objective of our study was to describe the epidemiological, clinical, and histopathological aspects of stomach cancer. However, the specific purpose was to determine the gastric precancerous lesions among patients with histologically confirmed GC admitted at the gastroenterology department of the University Hospital of Sidi-Bel-Abbes city, Algeria. METHODS We retrospectively analyzed the patients' medical records admitted from 2010 to 2015. Intended for the statistical analysis of the enrolled data, we executed Student t-test and Chi-squared test, significance level was set at 5%. Histologic evidence objectified the biopsies performed during endoscopy; Hematoxylin and Eosin staining as well as the slides interpretation were executed at the level of the pathology department as a routine examination. RESULTS 116 cases of GC were recorded. The mean age of the whole studied cohort was 58.96±14.75 years. We reported a sex ratio of 1.36 with a peak frequency observed in male gender (57.76%). Gastric precancerous lesions, as well as tumor histology, and topography were revealed. In our context, adenocarcinoma was significantly higher among male patients and linitis plastica was expressively related to female gender (P=0.01). CONCLUSIONS Management of gastric precancerous lesions additionally to early diagnosis represent effective preventive and therapeutic methods of GC.
Specification Analysis of International Treasury Yield Curve Factors

We show how to compute patterns of variation over time, both among and within countries, that determine the international term structure of interest rates, using maximum likelihood within a linear Gaussian state-space framework. The simultaneous estimation of common factors (shared by all countries) and local factors (specific to one country) requires development of a normalization procedure beyond that of ordinary factor analysis. By jointly estimating common and local factors we avoid sequential estimation effects that may explain the lack of agreement in the multi-country term structure literature regarding not only the total number of latent factors required to explain the joint dynamics of yield curves, but also the number of common and of local factors. Using data on international yield curves of U.S., Germany, U.K. and Japan from January 1986 to December 2009, we generally find (analyzing yields in level and in difference) that a model with two common factors and three correlated local factors is preferred to a model (of similar complexity) that includes one common factor only or a model with only correlated local factors. In addition, each common factor closely mimics (or is similar to) a local factor extracted from a pure local factor model. We also reach the conclusion that dependence across international yield curves are driven, first, by the instantaneous correlation between local factors of different countries and, then, by the (full) autoregressive matrix of latent factors and by the matrix of common loadings.
The lactation cycle of the fur seal

The fur seal is a mammal with an unusual ability to turn its milk production on and off without significantly altering the gross morphology of the mammary gland. This atypical lactation cycle is due to the fact that maternal foraging and infant nursing are spatially and temporally separate (Bonner, 1984). Maternal care involves the suckling of offspring over a period of at least 4 months, but lactation can extend to more than 12 months. Following a perinatal fast of approximately 1 week, females depart the breeding colony to forage at sea and, for the remainder of lactation, alternate between short periods ashore suckling their young with longer periods of up to 4 weeks foraging at sea. Whilst foraging at sea, milk production in the fur seal mammary gland either ceases or is reduced (Arnould & Boyd, 1995b).
The January Effect and Aggregate Insider Trading

This study investigates the seasonal pattern of aggregate insider trading to help disti nguish between two competing explanations for the seasonal pattern of security returns. The first potential explanation examined is that t he January effect arises from predictable changes in turn-of-the-year demand for securities. The second potential explanation examined is that the January effect represents compensation for the higher risk of trading against informed traders at the turn of the year. Copyright 1988 by American Finance Association.
Recent Survey on Patents of Nanoemulsions.

BACKGROUND Colloidal systems are most prominent delivery systems mainly used as vehicles for the transportation, targeting the various types of biomolecules, proteins, peptides, synthetic medicinal agents. OBJECTIVE To provide concise information on patents that are directly or indirectly related to the nanoemulsions. METHODS The ample of research work going on with such system, in which small insoluble particle/droplets are dispersed within the immiscible secondary liquid referred to as continuous phase, is enormous. A highly praised colloidal system is nanoemulsion which possesses 'nano' sized droplets of one phase dispersed within second continuous phase. RESULTS The characteristic features of nanoemulsion are their optical clarity, clear or bluish tint appearance and small globule size (20-200 nm) which makes them insensitive to gravitational instability, dilution and temperature. Above of all, achieving said properties using lower surfactant concentration and by supplying external energy differentiate them from microemulsion, which uses higher amount of surfactant thereby making them toxic for human body. Due to such variable advantages, researchers are engaged in going for the protecting their ideas in nanoemulsions by filling various patents. CONCLUSION Patents in this review, covers various areas (types of drug delivery and applications) where nanoemulsion are used. Literature revealed that filing of patents on nanoemulsion increased tremendously during last 5 years and will increase in upcoming time as 21st century will be called as the century of nanomedicine.
Relapse prevention in bipolar disorder: a critical review of current guidelines

Bipolar disorder is an important and serious mental illness associated with significant morbidity and mortality. However, unfortunately, the evidence base regarding treatment is less than satisfactory. In such circumstances clinicians often resort to reputable sets of guidelines. A number of these currently exist; in the United Kingdom the most prominent being that produced by the British Association of Psychopharmacology (BAP). This paper reviews the methodology of this guideline and its recommendations regarding the long-term treatment of bipolar disorder and compares this with guidelines produced by the American Psychiatric Association (APA), the Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments (CANMAT) and the Texas Implementation of Medication Algorithms (TIMA) for bipolar I disorder. It is concluded that the BAP guidelines continue to be a reasonable set of recommendations, though there are new data available since their publication. All the guidelines reviewed place lithium and valproate at the top of the list of options for long-term treatment. There is a trend to increasingly recognize atypical antipsychotics, particularly olanzapine, as an additional alternative and an increasing prominence of lamotrigine for prevention of depressive relapses. All other treatment options currently have an extremely limited evidence base and do not feature consistently in the published guidelines.
In-service Learning in a Pre-service Teacher Training: The Dilemma of an Adult Learner in Botswana

Many universities across the world offer full time programmes not only to younger students directly from formal basic education programmes such as secondary schooling but also to in-service or adult learners. In-service learners are serving or non-serving but experienced and mature students who are afforded an opportunity to enrol in full-time or part-time programmes. As such, higher education institutions are inevitably challenged to service both younger and adult learners under one roof. Exploring challenges faced by adult learners in higher education institutions full-time programmes can therefore no longer be ignored in many developing countries. Some institutions may have taken a more transformative move to create an adult learners’ responsive academic environment, while others may have not. Based on the continuing professional development approach, this case study investigated the full-time in-service teachers’ experiences as adult learners in Botswana higher education institutions. It further sought the views of lecturers of adult learners and education officers regarding their experience with the learners. The key findings include institutions’ neglect of adult learners’ social needs, subjecting them to the dilemma of having to either drop out or continue under stressful learning environment. In the final analysis, support systems to mitigate challenges encountered by adult learners in the academic environment are recommended.
Inflation, Uncertainty, and Investment

This paper investigates the effect of inflation on a firm's investments in fixed assets. When future prices are certain, inflation affects the present value of depreciation tax shields, and the impact of inflation on the choice between different lived assets is nonmonotonic. Future asset price uncertainty creates a valuable switching option and benefits shorter-lived assets. INFLATION CAUSES PRICES to increase with a commensurate decrease in the value of money-fixed claims. In general, future inflation rates are uncertain and difficult to predict. Uncertainty about the inflation rate creates uncertainty about future relative goods prices. This paper investigates the effect of uncertain inflation on firms' investments in fixed assets. Classifying assets according to their durability, we consider firms' optimal investment rules and the impact of their investment decisions under different inflationary regimes. The analysis is divided into two parts. Section I describes the impact of a onetime change in the anticipated level of inflation on asset choices in a world of certainty. In this case, a change in the rate of inflation affects only the moneyfixed components of asset value, that is, the tax shields generated by an asset's taxable depreciation schedule. We show that when the analysis is limited in this fashion, the impact of inflation is non-monotonic. If asset prices are in equilibrium at relatively low rates of inflation and interest, then a small increase in inflation increases the relative breakeven price of a short-lived asset, which is the maximum price investors are willing to pay for the short-lived asset given a particular price of the long-lived asset. Conversely, if prices are initially in equilibrium at relatively high rates of inflation and interest, then a small increase in inflation decreases the breakeven price of a short-lived asset. The non-monotonic effect of inflation under certainty was initially discovered by Nelson [12] and subsequently analyzed by Auerbach [2], Abel [1], and Brenner and Venezia [6]. We show by numerical analysis using actual depreciation schedules applicable in the seventies and early eighties that this "tax shield effect" is most significant for inflation and interest rates in the range of 0% to 20%. Thus the levels of inflation and interest rates experienced in the U.S.
Legume Genomics: From Genomic Resources to Molecular Breeding

With an explosive growth rate, especially in developing countries, the world population of 7.2 billion is expected to reach 9.6 billion by 2050. There is a need to produce about 70% more food to feed this predicted population. Legumes form important constituents of a vegetarian diet and are rich sources of dietary protein (Duranti and Gius, 1997). Legumes comprise the third largest family of flowering plants and provide important sources of food, fodder, oil, and fiber products. Legume seeds typically contain 20 to 25% protein and are also a rich source of dietary fiber. In addition, legumes have the capability to fix atmospheric N2 with the help of symbiotic nitrogen fixing bacteria in root nodules, thereby reducing fertilizer use in agriculture, and the cost of nitrogen inputs by smallholder farmers in developing countries. Due to their higher protein content and other nutrients, legumes are considered important to confront malnutrition among resource-poor people in developing countries. In brief, legumes including beans (Phaseolus vulgaris), chickpea (Cicer arietinum), cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), lentils (Lens culinaris), pea (Pisum sativum), peanut (Arachis hypogaea), and soybean (Glycine max), etc. play an important role in ensuring food security, reducing poverty, improving human health and nutrition, and enhancing ecosystem resilience, especially in developing countries.
The Demand for Quality in Child Care

We estimate a model of demand for quality‐related attributes of child care: group size, staff/child ratio, and provider training. The model is estimated jointly with equations for mode, expenditure on and hours of care, and the mother's labor supply. The results show that a lower price of child care in a particular mode leads to substitution toward that mode and an increase in the use of paid child care. A decrease in the price of care causes an increase in hours of care demanded and a decrease in the demand for qualityrelated attributes. Income effects on demand for quality are small.
What's Different about How Volunteers Work? Relationship Building for Wellbeing and Change

This article looks at what happens when volunteering goes well. It provides a theoretical and empirical grounding for understanding how volunteers enable outcomes such as participation and cooperation in complex change environments. The findings point to three important qualities of volunteer relationships, which alter how people feel about themselves, others and their situation: informality, the act of doing together and networked reciprocity. When these relational styles foster three psychosocial experiences known to support human wellbeing – relatedness, competency and autonomy – they make it possible for marginalised and poor groups to participate, initiate and share ownership in the change process. When socially as well as personally rewarding, volunteer relationships can also strengthen solidarity, a knowledge of other's strengths and social commitment, strengthening the basis for social action to continue as a cooperative process with other people. Implications for how volunteering is utilised and strengthened as a strategy for community development are discussed.
Neuropeptide-Induced Androgen Independence in Prostate Cancer Cells: Roles of Nonreceptor Tyrosine Kinases Etk/Bmx, Src, and Focal Adhesion Kinase

ABSTRACT The bombesin/gastrin-releasing peptide (GRP) family of neuropeptides has been implicated in various in vitro and in vivo models of human malignancies including prostate cancers. It was previously shown that bombesin and/or neurotensin (NT) acts as a survival and migratory factor(s) for androgen-independent prostate cancers. However, a role in the transition from an androgen-dependent to -refractory state has not been addressed. In this study, we investigate the biological effects and signal pathways of bombesin and NT on LNCaP, a prostate cancer cell line which requires androgen for growth. We show that both neurotrophic factors can induce LNCaP growth in the absence of androgen. Concurrent transactivation of reporter genes driven by the prostate-specific antigen promoter or a promoter carrying an androgen-responsive element (ARE) indicate that growth stimulation is accompanied by androgen receptor (AR) activation. Furthermore, neurotrophic factor-induced gene activation was also present in PC3 cells transfected with the AR but not in the parental line which lacks the AR. Given that bombesin does not directly bind to the AR and is known to engage a G-protein-coupled receptor, we investigated downstream signaling events that could possibly interact with the AR pathway. We found that three nonreceptor tyrosine kinases, focal adhesion kinase (FAK), Src, and Etk/BMX play important parts in this process. Etk/Bmx activation requires FAK and Src and is critical for neurotrophic factor-induced growth, as LNCaP cells transfected with a dominant-negative Etk/BMX fail to respond to bombesin. Etk's activation requires FAK, Src, but not phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase. Likewise, bombesin-induced AR activation is inhibited by the dominant-negative mutant of either Src or FAK. Thus, in addition to defining a new G-protein pathway, this report makes the following points regarding prostate cancer. (i) Neurotrophic factors can activate the AR, thus circumventing the normal growth inhibition caused by androgen ablation. (ii) Tyrosine kinases are involved in neurotrophic factor-mediated AR activation and, as such, may serve as targets of future therapeutics, to be used in conjunction with current antihormone and antineuropeptide therapies.
Financial Asset-Pricing Theory and Stochastic Programming Models for Asset/ Liability Management: a Synthesis

Practical portfolio investment problems under uncertainty can be modeled well as multiperiod stochastic programs. However, the numerical optimization methods that need to be used to solve such models seriously limit the level of detail in the uncertainty about future asset rices and returns that can be incorporated. Somewhat surprisingly, the question how this necessarily approximate description of the uncertainty should be constructed has received relatively little attention in the stochastic programming literature. Moreover, many of the descriptions that have been used are not arbitrage-free, and therefore inconsistent with modern financial asset-pricing theory. In this paper we will present aggregation methods that can be used in combination with financial asset-pricing models to obtain a description of the uncertainty that is arbitrage-free, consistent with observed market prices as well as concise enough for a stochastic programming model. Furthermore, we will discuss how these aggregation methods can form the basis of an iterative solution approach.
Military Social Work: Opportunities and Challenges for Social Work Education

Military social work is a specialized field of practice spanning the micro–macro continuum and requiring advanced social work knowledge and skills. The complex behavioral health problems and service needs of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans highlight the need for highly trained social work professionals who can provide militarily relevant and culturally responsive evidence-informed services. Responding to the military behavioral health workforce and service needs of recently returned veterans presents both opportunities and challenges for military social work education. This article discusses the rationale for a military social work specialization, the need for military social work education, and opportunities and challenges for social work education. An integrated model of intellectual capital is proposed to guide strategic planning for future military social work education.
Discrimination of hepatitis C virus in liver tissues from different patients with hepatocellular carcinomas by direct nucleotide sequencing of amplified cDNA of the viral genome

We investigated the presence of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) genome in liver tissues of eight different patients with hepatocellular carcinoma by using the reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method. RNA was extracted separately from cancerous and peripheral noncancerous portions of the liver tissues of each patient. For reverse transcriptase PCR, we used sets of primers derived either from nonstructural region 3 (the NS3 region) or from the nucleocapsid-envelope (C/E) region of the HCV genome. The nucleotide sequences of the amplimers were directly determined without subcloning. Of 16 samples tested, cDNA of the HCV genome was detected in 2 cancerous tissues and in 4 noncancerous tissues by either pair of primers. Nucleotide sequences of HCV cDNA fragments amplified from cancerous and peripheral noncancerous tissues from the same patients were identical. However, 4.4 to 6.3% and 7.5 to 11.3% sequence variation was observed in NS3 and C/E regions, respectively, among cDNA fragments from different patients. The result indicated that the HCV genome detected in a given patient is distinguishable from that in others by a simple direct nucleotide sequencing of the reverse transcriptase PCR products.
The zonal distribution of megamitochondria with crystalline inclusions in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis

Megamitochondria with crystalline inclusions (MMC) have been previously described in nonalcoholic fatty liver; however, their distribution within hepatic zones is unknown. We sought to determine this distribution from the core liver biopsy specimens of 31 patients: 8 males and 23 females, age range 21 to 72 years. Twenty‐nine showed evidence of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) on biopsy with steatosis, inflammation, varying degree of fibrosis, ballooned hepatocytes, and Mallory hyaline, and two patients had cryptogenic cirrhosis thought to represent “burned out” NASH. Identified by transmission electron microscopy, the abundance of MMC was compared between low‐stage (fibrosis stages 1 and 2) and high‐stage (fibrosis stages 3 and 4) groups and between zones with or without difference in fibrosis stage. Regardless of stage, the MMC were distributed equally in all zones and were abundant similarly in low‐ and high‐stage groups. This abundance did not correlate with the degree of oxidative stress (4‐hydroxynonenal staining) or with the abundance of ballooned hepatocytes. Consistent with age as a risk factor for more severe disease, the median age for the low‐stage group was significantly lower than that of the high‐stage group (P = .003). In conclusion, in NASH, the MMC seem to be distributed randomly among zones and without variation in abundance, regardless of the fibrosis stage. The exact function of these structures remains to be defined. In this study, their presence did not seem to correlate with the light microscopic injury pattern represented by ballooned hepatocytes or degree of oxidative stress defined by immunostaining for 4‐hydroxynonenal. (HEPATOLOGY 2004;39:1423–1429.)