Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Luxury, Necessity, and Anachronistic Workers

This article assesses the labor market implications of less-skilled migration to the United States. It emphasizes how recent social, demographic, and economic trends have reduced the availability of less-skilled native workers, while new low-education immigrant workers compete with other less-skilled immigrants for available low-skilled jobs. Declines in native fertility to substantially below replacement levels, together with native educational upgrading, have substantially reduced the size of the less-skilled native-born labor pool in the past 30 years, even below the level of need. This trend cannot be explained by declines in low-skilled manufacturing employment. Other factors also serve to exacerbate the size of the shortfall in the availability of less-skilled natives, including mismatches in the locations of low-education natives and less-skilled jobs. Nativity differences in health, physical disability, and substance abuse also operate to widen the gap. The resulting void has largely been filled by increasing numbers of less-skilled immigrant workers. These patterns underscore the need for public policies that provide both less-skilled labor and reductions in social and economic inequalities in the United States.
Contact of high‐invasive, but not low‐invasive, melanoma cells to native collagen I induces the release of mature cathepsin B

Metastasis of malignant tumor cells involves cell–cell and cell–matrix interactions, which regulate the expression and localization of proteolytic enzymes. In the present study, we investigated the expression and localization of the lysosomal cysteine proteinase cathepsin B and its natural inhibitors cystatin A, B and C in high‐ (MV3), intermediate‐ (SKmel28) and low‐invasive (SKmel23, WM164) human melanoma cell lines grown on plastic or in contact with monomeric or fibrillar collagen type I. Neither the transcript levels of cathepsin B nor those of the natural inhibitors, cystatin B and C, were altered by the interaction of melanoma cells with collagen type I. However, protein expression and cellular localization of cathepsin B and its inhibitors were markedly affected. In contrast to low‐invasive cells, high‐invasive cells constitutively released procathepsin B when cultured on plastic. In addition, contact of invasive cells with fibrillar collagen type I resulted in the release of both mature forms of the protease. Perturbation studies using inhibitory antibodies against the β1 subunit of the integrin receptor indicated a role for the β1 integrin receptor family in the regulation of cathepsin B release. Cystatin B protein expression was much lower in high‐invasive cells in both culture conditions, when compared to low‐invasive cells. Cystatin C expression was comparable in all cells, but cell contact to fibrillar collagen type I induced its expression. These results strongly implicate a pivotal role of cell–matrix interactions for the regulation of cathepsin B localization and activity in melanoma cells. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Interenterprise Arrears in Post-Communist Economies

The reasons for the growth of interenterprise debt are analyzed. It is suggested that it results mainly from the appearance of normal trade credit in a liberalized economy, and when a monetary squeeze is part of a stabilization attempt that is not credible. In the latter case, the result can be a sharp fall in output. Non-market and market solutions to this problem are analyzed, and the advantages of the latter over the former are stressed.
Preventable medication-related events in hospitalised children in New Zealand.

AIMS To evaluate the frequency and characteristics of preventable medication-related events in hospitalised children, to determine the yield of several methods for identifying them and to recommend priorities for prevention. METHODS A prospective observational cohort study was conducted over a 12-week period on the paediatric wards at a university-affiliated urban general hospital in New Zealand. For all admissions of greater than 24 hours, medication-related events were identified using a multifaceted approach and subsequently classified independently by three reviewers (using a standardised reviewer form) by event type, type of error, stage of the medication process, and preventability. RESULTS There were 495 eligible study patients, who had 520 admissions and 3037 patient days of admission, during which 3160 medication orders were written. Of 761 medication-related events reported during the study period, 630 (83.3%) were identified by chart review; 111 (14.6%) by a voluntary staff quality improvement reporting system; 16 (2.1%) by interview of parents; and 4 (0.53%) events via the concurrent routine hospital-incident reporting system. Excluding duplicate reports and practice-related issues, a total of 696 study patient-specific events were included in the analysis. Excluding the inconsequential events (trivial rule violation and 'other' categories), the majority [368/399 (92.2%)] of events were found to be preventable; comprising 38/67 (56.7%) ADEs, 75/77 (97.4%) potential ADEs, and all 255 (100%) harmless medication errors. Most commonly implicated in preventable ADEs and potential ADEs were, event rate (95%CI): improper dose and the prescribing stage-35 (29 to 42) and 74 (64 to 84) respectively per 1000 patient days; and antibacterial agents and the intravenous route of administration 21 (17 to 25) and 11 (10 to 13) respectively per 100 medication orders. CONCLUSIONS Preventable medication-related events occur commonly in the paediatric inpatient setting, and importantly over half of the events that caused patient harm were deemed preventable. Voluntary staff reporting in a quality improvement environment was found to be inferior to chart review for identifying events, but a vast improvement on the conventional incident reporting system. Most commonly implicated in the harmful or potentially harmful preventable events, and hence the best targets for prevention are dosing errors, particularly during the prescribing stage of the medication use process, and use of antibacterial agents, particularly when administered by the intravenous route.
Structure, function, and genetics of lipoprotein (a)

Lipoprotein (a) [Lp(a)] has attracted the interest of researchers and physicians due to its intriguing properties, including an intragenic multiallelic copy number variation in the LPA gene and the strong association with coronary heart disease (CHD). This review summarizes present knowledge of the structure, function, and genetics of Lp(a) with emphasis on the molecular and population genetics of the Lp(a)/LPA trait, as well as aspects of genetic epidemiology. It highlights the role of genetics in establishing Lp(a) as a risk factor for CHD, but also discusses uncertainties, controversies, and lack of knowledge on several aspects of the genetic Lp(a) trait, not least its function.
Differential regulation of somatostatin receptor type 2 (sst 2) expression in AR4-2J tumor cells implanted into mice during octreotide treatment.

Octreotide is a somatostatin analogue that is widely used for cancer therapy and tumor imaging. Its efficacy in tumors depends mainly on the expression of the somatostatin receptor type 2 (sst 2). Desensitization and down-regulation of sst 2 after agonist exposure can have important consequences for patients under ongoing octreotide therapy because it may induce temporary tumor unresponsiveness and impair sst 2-based tumor scintigraphy. Therefore, we have investigated the effect of octreotide on sst 2 expression in vitro, as well as in a tumor mouse model. In vitro, short exposure to octreotide induced rapid dose-dependent down-regulation of sst 2 in the rat pancreatic AR4-2J cell line. Within 0.5 h, 80% of sst 2 had disappeared from the cell surface. A total recovery required 24 h and was shown to depend on protein synthesis, but not on new sst 2 mRNA transcription, indicating that sst 2 was probably degraded during the down-regulation process. Similar results were obtained in vivo. On the other hand, long-term continuous release of octreotide for 7 days, as achieved with octreotide-containing osmotic minipumps, caused sst 2 up-regulation in vivo, but not in vitro. Furthermore, this up-regulation of sst 2 in tumor-bearing scid mice was shown to depend on constant exposure of the animals to octreotide, as it was not observed when octreotide was given discontinuously in two s.c. daily injections. These results demonstrate that the continuous release of a small amount of octreotide, which in cancer therapy may be achieved with long-acting release formulations of the peptide, can induce sst 2 up-regulation on cancer cells. This may improve the efficacy of both tumor imaging and long-term octreotide therapy.
Obstructive lung disease in acute medical patients.

OBJECTIVES To determine the proportion of adult medical patients who have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), using the Global initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease guidelines (GOLD), and its relation to vascular disease. METHODS This is a prospective cross-sectional study of adult patients admitted to acute medical wards. Interviewer administered questionnaire, anthropometric and spirometric measurements were done. RESULTS Spirometry was performed in 720 acute admissions [Mean (SD) age 50.0 (18.9) years, FEV1: 1.98 L (0.83), FEV1/FVC%: 75.1 (11.9)%; males 332 (46.1%), smokers 318 (44%); 43.2% had vascular disease]. Sixty-seven per cent of patients (480) had no airway disease including 35 (4.5%) with chronic cough and sputum with normal spirometry; 89 (12.4%) had asthma and 151 (20.9%) had COPD. Patients with COPD were significantly older [60.3 (16.6) years] than non-COPD patients [47.3 (18.5) years], p < 0.001 and had a greater number of pack years of smoking. A greater percentage of patients with COPD had vascular disease (52%) than the non-COPD patients (40.1%), p = 0.017). Multivariate analysis with vascular disease as outcome variable revealed relationships with older age (p < 0.001) and Indo-Trinidadian ethnicity (p = 0.015), but not with gender (p = 0.321) and smoking (p = 0.442). FEV1% as well as FEV1 showed a significant inverse relationship with vascular disease (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS The prevalence of COPD using GOLD guidelines in acute hospital admissions is 20.9%; 11.7% of admissions have chronic sputum or cough with normal spirometry. Vascular disease is more prevalent in those with COPD. Patients admitted to acute medical care with vascular disease may also have COPD.
Unique Phylogenetic Distributions of the Ska and Dam1 Complexes Support Functional Analogy and Suggest Multiple Parallel Displacements of Ska by Dam1

Faithful chromosome segregation relies on kinetochores, the large protein complexes that connect chromatin to spindle microtubules. Although human and yeast kinetochores are largely homologous, they track microtubules with the unrelated protein complexes Ska (Ska-C, human) and Dam1 (Dam1-C, yeast). We here uncovered that Ska-C and Dam1-C are both widespread among eukaryotes, but in an exceptionally inverse manner, supporting their functional analogy. Within the complexes, all Ska-C and various Dam1-C subunits are ancient paralogs, showing that gene duplication shaped these complexes. We examined various evolutionary scenarios to explain the nearly mutually exclusive patterns of Ska-C and Dam1-C in present-day species. We propose that Ska-C was present in the last eukaryotic common ancestor, that subsequently Dam1-C displaced Ska-C in an early fungus and was horizontally transferred to diverse non-fungal lineages, displacing Ska-C in these lineages too.
99th Dahlem Conference on Infection, Inflammation and Chronic Inflammatory Disorders: Lifestyle changes affecting the host–environment interface

In industrialized nations and high‐income regions of the world, the decline of infectious diseases is paralleled by an increase in allergic, autoimmune and chronic inflammatory diseases (AACID). Changes in lifestyle in westernized societies, which impact individually and collectively on intestinal microbiota, may – at least in part – account for the AACID pandemic. Many disease genes that contribute to AACID encode pattern recognition and signalling molecules in barrier‐associated cells. Interactions between gene products and environmental factors depend highly upon the host's state of maturation, the composition of the skin and gut microflora, and exposure to pollutants, antibiotics and nutrients. Inflammatory stress responses, if regulated appropriately, ensure immunity, health and relative longevity; when they are dysregulated, they can no longer be terminated appropriately and thus precipitate AACID. The 99th Dahlem Conference brought together experts of various disciplines (genetics, evolution biology, molecular biology, structural biology, cell biology, immunology, microbiology, nutrition science, epidemiology and clinical medicine) to discuss the multi‐faceted relationships between infection, immunity and inflammation in barrier organs and the development of AACID. In Clinical and Experimental Immunology we are presenting a compilation of background papers that formed the basis of discussions. Controversial viewpoints and gaps in current knowledge were examined and new concepts for prevention and treatment of CID were formulated.
Inter-industry Wage Differentials in Great Britain

The paper considers the determination of earnings of private sector employees in Great Britain, focusing upon the importance of industry affiliation in this process. Whilst cross-sectional estimates, using waves 1 to 4 of the British Household Panel Survey, suggest industry status is of considerable importance, much of this variation is removed by estimating earnings equations by fixed effects methods. Estimated differentials are not inversely related to the steepness of age-earnings profiles in an industry, do not appear to vary over time and are positively related to industry profitability. Copyright 2000 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd
The Functional Brain Connectivity Workshop: report and commentary

This report summarizes the presentations and discussions at a recent workshop entitled ‘Functional Brain Connectivity’, held in Düsseldorf, Germany. The aims of the workshop were to bring together researchers using different approaches to study connectivity in the brain, to enable them to share conceptual, mathematical and experimental ideas and to develop strategies for future work on functional integration. The main themes that emerged included: (1) the importance of anatomical knowledge in understanding functional interactions the brain; (2) the need to establish common definitions for terms used across disciplines; (3) the need to develop a satisfactory framework for inferring causality from functional imaging and electroencephalographic/magneto-encephalographic data; (4) the importance of analytic tools that capture the dynamics of neural interactions; and (5) the role of experimental paradigms that exploit the functional imaging of perturbations to cortical interactions.
Do Fundamentals Explain the Behavior of the Real Effective Exchange Rate

In this study, we make use of time series analysis to calculate a real effective equilibrium exchange rate for Sweden. The results indicate that the krona was severely overvalued in late 1992, when the fixed exchange rate regime finally was abandoned. Furthermore, the results indicate that the real effective equilibrium exchange rate has depreciated substantially since the mid-1990s, primarily due to deteriorating terms of trade. The results indicate that the krona was undervalued by some 4 to 5 percent at the end of 2000, given the prevailing economic conditions. We also provide some arithmetical examples of SEK/EUR conversion rates, under various assumptions, to provide some guideline if Sweden is to adopt the common currency in the near future.
Country and Industry Importance in European Returns

The authors examine country and industry influences on company returns in 15 European markets between June 1989 and December 2000. Over the whole period, country effects are more important than industry effects. During the last two years, the research shows that country effects are decreasing while industry effects are increasing, especially for global commodity, telecommunication services, media, and technology industries. The results also suggest that the industry effect is more important for large-cap than small-cap companies.
Uniform Working Hours: A Culprit of Structural Unemployment

In this paper, we construct a simple model based on heterogeneity in workers' productivity and homogeneity in their working schedules. This simple model can generate unemployment, even if wages adjust instantaneously, firms are perfectly competitive and can perfectly observe workers' productivity and effort. Unemployment in our model falls upon low-skilled workers, because firms do not find it optimal to hire low-skilled workers when working time across heterogeneous workers must be synchronized, and low-skilled workers on the other hand do not find it attractive working for hours the same length as of high-skilled workers at competitive wages. Our model can also explain the stylized fact that both the number of employees and the number of hours comove with the business cycle.
IN VITRO STUDY OF BIOMECHANICAL BEHAVIOR OF ANTERIOR AND TRANSFORAMINAL LUMBAR INTERBODY INSTRUMENTATION TECHNIQUES

OBJECTIVETo study the biomechanical behavior of lumbar interbody instrumentation techniques using titanium cages as either transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF) or anterior lumbar interbody fusion (ALIF), with and without posterior pedicle fixation. METHODSSix fresh-frozen lumbar spines (L1–L5) were loaded with pure moments of ±7.5 Nm in unconstrained flexion-extension, lateral bending, and axial rotation. Specimen were tested intact, after implantation of an ALIF or TLIF cage “stand-alone” in L2–L3 or L3–L4, and after additional posterior pedicle screw fixation. RESULTSIn all loading directions, the range of motion (ROM) of the segments instrumented with cage and pedicle screw fixation was below the ROM of the intact lumbar specimen for both instrumentation techniques. A significant difference was found between the TLIF cage and the ALIF cage with posterior pedicle screw fixation for the ROM in flexion-extension and axial rotation (P < 0.05). Without pedicle screw fixation, the TLIF cage showed a significantly increased ROM and neutral zone compared with an ALIF cage “stand-alone” in two of the three loading directions (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONWith pedicle screw fixation, the ALIF cage provides a higher segmental stability than the TLIF cage in flexion-extension and axial rotation, but the absolute biomechanical differences are minor. The different cage design and approach show only minor differences of segmental stability when combined with posterior pedicle screw fixation.
Dynamics of spontaneous transitions between global brain states

Phase patterns of human scalp alpha EEG activity show spontaneous transitions between different globally phase‐synchronized states. We studied the dynamical properties of these transitions using the method of symbolic dynamics. We found greater predictability (deterministicity) and heterogeneity in the dynamics than what was expected from corresponding surrogate series in which linear correlations are retained. A possible explanation of these observations within the framework of chaotic itinerancy is discussed. Hum Brain Mapp, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Lyme Disease: A Review for the Otolaryngologist

Lyme disease is an important consideration in the differential diagnosis of patients seen by the otolaryngologist. Facial paralysis is the most common sign. The otolaryngologist may also see patients with temporal mandibular joint pain, cervical lymphadenopathy, facial pain, headache, tinnitis, vertigo, decreased hearing, otalgia and sore throat. The incidence is increasing and known to be endemic to certain areas of the United States and abroad. This paper reviews the various ways Lyme disease appears to the otolaryngologist. Three cases along with a discussion including epidemiology, vector, animal host relationship, clinical manifestations and pathophysiology are included. The literature is reviewed and the treatment discussed.
Prerequisites for decision aid in socially responsible investment appraisals

This paper explores investment appraisals restrained by various sources of uncertainty and influenced by socially responsible investment (SRI) thinking. Of particular interest in this paper is to assess the additional aspects of investment appraisals that derive from SRI thinking together with the multiple sources of uncertainty arising in such decision problems. We assess characteristics of how managers' try to account for corporate social responsibility, how they cope with evaluating upon objectives beyond monetary return on investment and how they manage uncertainty and the source of the uncertainties they emphasise. We conclude that organisations are generally exposed to and also consider both aleatory and epistemic uncertainty. There is a mix of macro and micro variables creating a diversified environment where valuation methods such as real options in combination with decision analysis modelling could help in structuring the problem and provide informed decision making.
Segmentation of the Nordic winter sun seekers market.

Abstract This research, based on 617 residents of Ottawa, was carried out to segment the Canadian winter sun travellers market. Six segments were identified on the basis of sought product benefits. They were named Entertainment, Active Sun and Fun, Culture Patron, Value for the Money, Sun and Comfort and Achievers. The segments were described using demographic and psychographic data and their destination choice and media usage behavior were examined to provide insights into the managerial actions that tourism marketers may undertake to attract them to specific sun destinations.
Option valuation of Philippine forest plantation leases

The Philippine forest plantation lease is modelled as an option whose value arises from market uncertainty and the irreversibility inherent in sunk costs required to establish plantations. The value of this option could be a significant factor in the planting decisions of leaseholders. Real options theory could help explain why in spite of the prospects of adequate financial returns, Filipino leaseholders are slow to establish plantations. The opportunity cost of investing is demonstrated to be highly sensitive to uncertainty of the future value of the plantation. Real options analysis is also utilized to evaluate policies intended by the Philippine government to promote plantation development.
In vitro Blood Compatibility Evaluation of Hollow Fibre Membrane Using a Controlled Flow System: A Comparative Study

A procedure has been established for the in vitro assessment of hollow fibre haemodialysis membranes. A 30 ml syringe containing 20 ml of fresh non-anticoagulated blood was mounted onto a non-pulsatile syringe pump and blood was perfused through minimodules constructed from 80 fibres retrieved from Cuprophan (Baxter ST15), cellulose acetate (M57-12, JMS Co Ltd, Hiroshima, Japan), and AN69HF (Filtral 20, Hospal, France) dialysers. Samples were collected before perfusion, 3, 6, 9 and 12 minutes. The modules were clamped vertically to minimise the effect of red cell pooling and the dialysate compartment was filled with 0.9% saline to minimise ultrafiltration. After sample processing, complement C3a, thrombin-antithrombin III complexes, prothrombin F1 + 2, and factor XII-like activity were evaluated. The results indicated that the system could discriminate between the membranes evaluated and therefore was a relevant procedure for the assessment of hollow fibre haemodialysis membranes.