Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Autogenic training for stress and anxiety: a systematic review.

OBJECTIVE The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate all controlled trials of autogenic training (AT) as a means of reducing stress and anxiety levels in human subjects. METHOD A search for all published and unpublished controlled trials was carried out in the four major databases, specifically CISCOM, Medline, PsychLit and CINAHL. RESULTS Eight such trials were located, all of which are included here. The majority of trials were methodologically flawed. A range of outcome measures were used, with Spielberger's State-Trait Anxiety Inventory being the most popular. Deviations from the accepted technique of AT were conspicuous and trials using the classical AT were in the minority. Seven trials reported positive effects of AT in reducing stress. One study showed no such benefit. Since one trial had used AT in combination with another technique, visual imagery, no conclusion can be drawn about the effect of AT in this case. CONCLUSION No firm conclusions could be drawn from this systematic review. AT, properly applied, remains to be tested in controlled trials that are appropriately planned and executed.
Genetically obese mice: resistance to metastasis of B16 melanoma and enhanced T-lymphocyte mitogenic responses.

The metastasis of B16 melanoma cells differed significantly in obese (ob/ob) and lean (+/? ) female mice of strain C57BL/6J. When the mice were inoculated subcutaneously with melanoma cells at 10 to 11 months of age, the primary tumor grew more slowly in obese than in lean littermates and the frequency of lung metastasis was greatly reduced. When the mice were injected with the cells at 4 to 7 months, the primary tumor grew at the same rate in obese and lean mice, but the obese mice again showed a significantly reduced frequency of lung metastasis. That this effect was related to an enhanced immunocompetence in obese mice was supported by the finding that splenic lymphocytes of ob/ob mice showed three times the proliferative response to the T-cell mitogen concanavalin A compared with the proliferative response of lean control mice. The ob/ob mouse may provide a model for the study of enhanced immunocompetence in obese individuals.
RE: Fine Particle Pollution, Alanine Transaminase, and Liver Cancer: A Taiwanese Prospective Cohort Study (REVEAL-HBV).

I read with interest the article by Pan and colleagues on the relationship of long-term exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) based on the data from Taiwanese Prospective Cohort Study (REVEAL-HBV) (1). The authors separately compared the incident rates of HCC between the subpopulations with the low and high exposure levels in two geographically different areas, the Main Island and Penghu Islets, and concluded that long-term PM2.5 exposure may increase the risk for HCC. However, I considered that the results should be cautiously interpreted because of the following reasons. First, the authors enrolled all HCC cases that occurred during the follow-up period of nearly 17 years (1992–2009), but used the PM2.5 exposure levels during the last four years (2006–2009) only. Obviously, the PM2.5 exposure levels were unknown before 2006. From this viewpoint, the authors used the PM2.5 levels in the four years to represent those in 17 years, which may be a fundamental flaw, although they mentioned this limitation. I considered that the analysis of the association between the newly developed HCC cases between 2006 and 2009 and the PM2.5 exposure levels would be more accurate to reflect the association between HCC and PM2.5 exposure. Second, the median PM2.5 exposure level on the Main Island was higher than that on the Penghu Islets (36.0 vs 24.1 mg/m, P < .001). However, Table 1 in the article (1) shows that, during the 17 years, the overall HCC incident rate on the Main Island (1.54%, 203/13 174) was lower than that on the Penghu Islets (2.94%, 261/ 8888). Furthermore, the incident rate (1.8%) in the high-exposure ( 36.0 mg/m) group on the Main Island was similar to that (2.0%) of the low-exposure (<24.1 mg/m) group on the Penghu Islets, while other risk factors were similar in these two groups. These data were contrary to the conclusion that PM2.5 exposure was positively associated with HCC risks. Third, Table 3 in the article (1) shows that after adjustment for some other potential risk factors, such as ages and hepatitis B and C, the b coefficient for HCC associated with a greater increment (13.1 mg/m) of PM2.5 exposure on the Main Island was 0.19, with no statistical significance (P 1⁄4 .12), while the b coefficient with a much smaller increment (0.73 mg/m) of PM2.5 exposure on the Penghu Islets was 0.21, with statistical significance (P 1⁄4 .03). These results were also contrary to the conclusion. Furthermore, the REVEAL-HBV study from Taiwan has demonstrated that many other risk factors are associated with the development of HCC, such as positive hepatitis B e antigen, higher HBV DNA levels, HBV genotype C, and core promoter mutation (2), obesity and diabetes (3), elevated adiponectin levels (4), and some human gene variants (5). Additionally, metabolic syndrome and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease are also considered the risk factors for HCC (6). However, all these factors were not adjusted in the analysis of the article (1).
Education, Rent Seeking and Growth

This paper studies the role of education as a way of reducing private rent seeking activities and increasing output. In many underdeveloped economies, for most individuals, there is no private return to education. Nonetheless, according to this paper, governments are better off by investing in public education. We view education as a means to build personal character, thereby affecting macroeconomic long run equilibrium by reducing the number of individuals who are engaged in private rentseeking activities. We show that education is more efficient than ordinary law enforcement because it has a long-run effect. The policy implication of this result is that even when education does not increase human capital, compulsory schooling will be beneficial in pulling underdeveloped economies out of poverty.
China in the Twenty-First Century, its Effect on Industrial Metals Markets and the Implications for Latin America (In Spanish)

In the last 15 years, China has been showing growing rates which are very superior to the rest of the countries. Its growth has come along with an opening of its economy abroad and a process of rapid industrialization and urbanization. All this has encouraged the world demand of basic goods. In particular, the consumption of industrial metals has increased. In this scenario, Latin America has been benefited by increasing its exports. However, based on the last months figures in which the prices of the basic goods are falling rapidly, it is expected that the group of Latin American economies is severely affected. The future challenge of the countries in the region is to diversify its exports to products with higher added value, and in this way to reduce the dependence on basic goods whose prices are out of their control.
Fetal roots of cardiac disease

In western countries, cardiovascular disease is the leading killer of men and women. In the past decade, it has become increasingly clear that women are just as vulnerable to heart disease as men. In 2004, the number of women with some form of the disease will exceed the number of such men in the USA (www.americanheart.org). While new medical treatments are prolonging the lives of people with cardiovascular disease, an increasing number of men and women are living with cardiovascular limitations or outright heart failure. The total estimated cost of cardiovascular disease in the USA will exceed $300 billion in 2004. In the coming decades, the disease burden that is directly attributable to cardiovascular disease is expected to increase dramatically in developing countries. The American Heart Association (AHA) has identified risk factors that were derived from statistical associations with the incidence of coronary disease (www.americanheart.org). Some factors not under the control of an individual include age, hereditary factors, and diabetes mellitus. Other risk factors are influenced by lifestyle choices and include smoking tobacco, sedentary lifestyle, hypertension, and blood lipid profile. These risk factors have been enormously valuable in emphasising prevention as a way to reduce the morbidity and mortality of coronary atherosclerosis. Nevertheless, many cases of heart disease remain unexplained. Every cardiologist sees cases of coronary artery disease in patients with none of the AHA risk factors, and it is well known that many individuals who have multiple risk factors never get disease. Thus, it is not known why some individuals are much more vulnerable for cardiovascular diseases than others. While this uncertainty is usually attributed to differences in genetic background, recent population studies shed new light on …
David Cameron's Transparency Revolution? The Impact of Open Data in the UK

This article examines the impact of the UK Government’s Transparency agenda, focusing on the publication of spending data at local government level. It measures the democratic impact in terms of creating transparency and accountability, public participation and everyday information. The study uses a survey of local authorities, interviews and FOI requests to build a picture of use and impact. It argues that the spending data has led to some accountability, though from those already monitoring government rather than citizens. It has not led to increased participation, as it lacks the narrative or accountability instruments to fully bring such effects. Nor has it created a new stream of information to underpin citizen choice, though new innovations offer this possibility. The evidence points to third party innovations as the key. They can contextualise and ‘localise’ information as a first step in more effective accountability.The superficially simple and neutral reforms conceal complex political dynamics. The very design lends itself to certain framing effects, further compounded by assumptions and blurred concepts and a lack of accountability instruments to resolve problems raised by the data.
Towards Proxemic Mobile Collocated Interactions

Research on mobile collocated interactions has been exploring situations where collocated users engage in collaborative activities using their personal mobile devices (e.g., smartphones and tablets), thus going from personal/individual toward shared/multiuser experiences and interactions. The proliferation of ever-smaller computers that can be worn on our wrists (e.g., Apple Watch) and other parts of the body (e.g., Google Glass), have expanded the possibilities and increased the complexity of interaction in what we term mobile collocated situations. Research on F-formations (or facing formations) has been conducted in traditional settings (e.g., home, office, parties) where the context and the presence of physical elements (e.g., furniture) can strongly influence the way people socially interact with each other. While we may be aware of how people arrange themselves spatially and interact with each other at a dinner table, in a classroom, or at a waiting room in a hospital, there are other less-structured, dynamic, and larger-scale spaces that present different types of challenges and opportunities for technology to enrich how people experience these (semi-) public spaces. In this article, the authors explore proxemic mobile collocated interactions by looking at F-formations in the wild. They discuss recent efforts to observe how people socially interact in dynamic, unstructured, non-traditional settings. The authors also report the results of exploratory F-formation observations conducted in the wild (i.e., tourist attraction).
Neural network model using interpattern association.

This paper investigates a neural network model-interpattern association (IPA) model-in which the basic logical operations are used to determine the interpattern association (i.e., association between the reference patterns), and simple logical rules are applied to construct tristate interconnections in the network. Computer simulations for the reconstruction of similar English letters embedded in the random noise by the IPA model have shown improved performance compared with the Hopfield model. A 2-D hybrid optical neural network is used to demonstrate the usefulness of the IPA model. Since there are only three gray levels used in the interconnection weight matrix for the IPA model, the dynamic range imposed on a spatial light modulator is rather relaxed, and the interconnections are much simpler than the Hopfield model.
Cannabis Use as Described by People with Multiple Sclerosis

ABSTRACT: Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is one of the most common neurological diseases affecting young adults. The prevalence of MS in Alberta has been described as among the highest reported in the world, estimated at 217 per 100,000. Numerous anecdotal reports, and a few small empirical investigations have suggested that cannabis use may relieve the symptom experience of those with MS. The present study was undertaken to describe cannabis use by this patient group. Information on peoples’beliefs, practices and experiences related to use were investigated. Methods: Aquestionnaire was mailed to a sample of 780 adults with MS in southern Alberta, Canada. Results: Completed questionnaires were returned by 420/673 eligible subjects (response rate 62%). Mean sample age was 48 years and 75% were women. Respondents ranged from mildly to severely impaired. The majority of respondents (96%) was aware cannabis was potentially therapeutically useful for MS and most (72%) supported legalization for medicinal purposes. Forty-three percent had tried cannabis at some point in their lives, 16% for medicinal purposes. Symptoms reported to be ameliorated included anxiety/depression, spasticity and chronic pain. Reasons given for not trying cannabis were the fact that it is an illegal substance, concern about side effects and lack of knowledge on how to obtain it. Conclusions: Subjective improvements in symptom experience were reported by the majority of people with MS who currently use cannabis. Further evaluation of this substance is warranted.
Private Transfers and College Students’ Decision to Work

We estimate the impact of external financial support on the labor supply of students during their tertiary education. Using a dynamic labor supply model and accounting for the endogeneity of income from private transfers, we find a significantly lower likelihood of being employed for transfer recipients. Our results suggest that private transfers lead to a shift in students’ time allocation, lowering their hours devoted to working and increasing their time devoted to studying. We find evidence for a psychological component of receiving transfers through an increase in the perceived risk of failure in academic studies.
Attenuation of oxidative stress and artificial wound closure in C2C12 myoblasts induced by sequential extracts of Boerhavia diffusa

Whole plants of Boerhavia diffusa L. are widely used medicine in Ghana and other tropical countries, for the treatment of wounds and other ailments. The aim of the study was to determine the ability of sequential extracts of B. diffusa to influence oxidation and wound closure in myoblast cells in vitro.
Use of Intravenous Methylprednisolone in Acute Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura

Twenty newly diagnosed children with acute idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) with a platelet count (PC) of <20,000 were treated with intravenous methyl prednisolone (IVMP) 5 mg/kg/day in four divided doses until the platelet count increased to 50,000/mm3. They were then placed on oral prednisone at conventional doses for a total of three weeks of steroid therapy. The platelet counts increased by an average of 55,000/mm3 within 48 h of treatment. Within 72 h (day 3) of treatment all patients achieved a PC of >20,000/mm3. By day 5, all 20 patients achieved a PC of >50,000. IVMP is highly effective in rapidly raising the PC in acute ITP above the critical level of 20,000, thereby reducing the duration of risk for intracranial hemorrhage (ICH).
2-Benzoylpyridine thiosemicarbazone as a novel reagent for the single pot synthesis of dinuclear Cu(I)-Cu(II) complexes: formation of stable copper(II)-iodide bonds.

2-Benzoylpyridine thiosemicarbazone {R(1)R(2)C(2)=N(2)·N(3)H-C(1)(=S)-N(4)H(2), R(1) = py-N(1), R(2) = Ph; Hbpytsc} with copper(I) iodide in acetonitrile-dichloromethane mixture has formed stable Cu(II)-I bonds in a dark green Cu(II) iodo-bridged dimer, [Cu(2)(II)(μ-I)(2)(η(3)-N(1),N(2),S-bpytsc)(2)] 1. Copper(I) bromide also formed similar Cu(II)-Br bonds in a dark green Cu(II) bromo-bridged dimer, [Cu(2)(II)(μ-Br)(2)(η(3)-N(1),N(2),S-bpytsc)(2)] 3. The formation of dimers 1 and 3 appears to be due to a proton coupled electron transfer (PCET) process wherein copper(I) loses an electron to form copper(II), and this is accompanied by a loss of -N(3)H proton of Hbpytsc ligand resulting in the formation of anionic bpytsc(-). When copper(I) iodide was reacted with triphenylphosphine (PPh(3)) in acetonitrile followed by the addition of 2-benzoylpyridine thiosemicarbazone in dichloromethane (Cu : PPh(3) : Hbpytsc in the molar ratio 1:1:1), both Cu(II) dimer 1 and an orange Cu(I) sulfur-bridged dimer, [Cu(2)(I)I(2)(μ-S-Hbpytsc)(2)(PPh(3))(2)] 2 were formed. Copper(I) bromide with PPh(3) and Hbpytsc also formed Cu(II) dimer 3 and an orange Cu(I) sulfur-bridged dimer, [Cu(2)(I)Br(2)(μ-S-Hbpytsc)(2)(PPh(3))(2)] 4. While complexes 2 and 4 exist as sulfur-bridged Cu(I) dimers, 1 and 3 are halogen-bridged. The central Cu(2)S(2) cores of 2 and 4 as well as Cu(2)X(2) of 1 (X = I) and 3 (X = Br) are parallelograms. One set of Cu(II)-I and Cu(II)-Br bonds are short, while the second set is very long {1, Cu-I, 2.565(1), 3.313(1) Å; 3, Cu-Br, 2.391(1), 3.111(1) Å}. The Cu···Cu separations are long in all four complexes {1, 4.126(1); 2, 3.857(1); 3, 3.227(1); 4, 3.285(1) Å}, more than twice the van der Waals radius of a Cu atom, 2.80 Å. The pyridyl group appears to be necessary for stabilizing the Cu(II)-I bond, as this group can accept π-electrons from the metal.
Services as Experience Goods: An Empirical Examination of Consumer Learning in Automobile Insurance

accurate is information at initial purchase? How rapidly do consumers learn from product experiences? And how much impact does learning have on purchase decisions? I answer these questions for the case of automobile insurance, using a panel of 18,595 consumers from one firm. My principal findings are: patterns of consumer departures following claims point to learning; consumers enter the firm overly optimistic about its quality and are generally disappointed by experience; and the impact of learning is mitigated by the slow arrival of claims and the development of lock-in. (JEL D12, D83, G22, L15)
Nominal Contracting and Monetary Targets - Drifting into Indexation

We look for a theoretical justification of nominal wage contracts in household diversification of risk. In a calibrated general equilibrium model we find from stochastic simulation that if both productivity and monetary shocks are temporary then optimal wage contracts are overwhelmingly nominal. The model suggests that the persistence in monetary shocks not only raises wage protection but also reduces welfare in a world where productivity shocks are persistent, as both theory and our empirical results for the OCED suggest they are. This suggests that this central bank practice is due for review.
Clinical practice guidelines for communicating prognosis and end‐of‐life issues with adults in the advanced stages of a life‐limiting illness, and their caregivers

Prognostic and end-of-life communication is a vital skill for health care professionals caring for patients with progressive life-limiting illnesses, and their families. Expert opinion varies, and high-quality evidence on how best to discuss these issues with such patients and their caregivers is limited. These guidelines were developed to address these issues. The guidelines were developed through the following methods: - Systematic literature review of the best available evidence on discussion of prognosis and end-of-life issues; - Review of previous relevant guidelines and expert opinions in the literature; and - Refining of draft guidelines by an expert advisory panel. The key recommendations of these guidelines are for health professionals to consider the recommendations conveyed by the acronym PREPARED.
Price Competition in Multimarket Duopolies

In this article, we analyze the pricing strategies of firms that compete for the demand of an assortment of goods in a complete information static framework. In particular, we model the competition between two symmetric firms in a market that consists of two types of consumers, each of which may buy one unit of both goods sold by the two firms. We show that all Nash equilibria are such that neither firm charges the same price for both goods. Interestingly, under certain conditions, the firms jointly price discriminate between the two types of consumers and may even achieve the same level of profits as if they maximized joint profits; for another set of conditions, the unique equilibrium is such that the price for one of the goods and the price for the bundle are the same as the price of the good in a standard Hotelling model with one good. Finally, we show that if these equilibria exist, both firms prefer to sell both goods rather than specialize in either one of them. These results are a direct consequence of the interplay between the multimarket rivalry and the existence of more than one market segment, as modelled in this article.
UvA-DARE ( Digital Academic Repository ) Volatility proxies and GARCH models

Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva. nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible.