Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Influence of the Sympathetic System on the Pacemaker Suppression Which Follows Overdrive

When ventricular pacemakers are electrically stimulated at a fast rate, the cessation of the drive is followed by a temporary suppression of automaticity (“overdrive suppression”). The role of the sympathetic system in the regulation of this overdrive suppression was studied and the following results obtained: 1) Hypotension induced during overdrive by amyl nitrite inhalation caused a shortening of the pause which follows the drive. 2) Bilateral resection of the stellate ganglia led to the opposite effect. 3) Maximal stellate ganglion stimulation halved the pause duration. 4) Norepinephrine infusion accelerated the idioventricular rate and shortened the pause. 5) Beta adrenergic blockade decreased the idioventricular rate and prolonged the pause.It is concluded that the tonic sympathetic discharge not only controls the basal idioventricular rate but also plays a regulatory role in the suppression of idioventricular automaticity which follows overdrive. This regulatory role can be dissociated from changes in idioventricular rate prior to overdrive.
Education Spending and Income Inequality - An Empirical Analysis for Western Europe (1995-2006)

In the present paper an effort will be made to show empirically that education spending reduces inequality of income distribution. Author supports the view of (José De Gregorio and Jong-Wha Lee, 2002) using a different model for the period 1995-2006. Panel data are elaborated by means of Eviews software package.
Linguistic validation of cystic fibrosis quality of life questionnaires.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to validate the Portuguese translations of four cystic fibrosis quality of life questionnaires (CFQ). The first three were developed for patients with cystic fibrosis aged from 6 to 11 years, from 12 to 13 years and 14 years or more, while the fourth was developed for the parents of patients aged 6 to 13 years. MATERIAL AND METHODS The four CFQ translations contained from 35 to 50 questions covering nine domains and were validated as follows: translation from English to Portuguese, pilot application, back translation and then approval by the author of the English versions. The four translations were applied to 90 stable patients (30 from each age group) and the parents of patients aged 6-13 years (n = 60), on two occasions with a 13 to 17 day interval. Intraclass Correlation Coefficients (ICC) were used to measure reproducibility. This study was approved by the Commission for Ethics in Research at the institution. RESULTS Reproducibility was good (ICC = 0.62 to 0.99) for the four translations in all domains, with the exceptions of the Digestion domain for the 6 to 11 and 12 to 13 years age groups with ICC = 0.59 and 0.47, respectively and the Social Role domain for the 14 and over age group (ICC = -0.19 ). CONCLUSION The translation and cultural adaptation for Brazil resulted in four CFQ versions that are easy to understand and offer good reproducibility.
SISCAPA Peptide Enrichment on Magnetic Beads Using an In-line Bead Trap Device*S

A SISCAPA (stable isotope standards and capture by anti-peptide antibodies) method for specific antibody-based capture of individual tryptic peptides from a digest of whole human plasma was developed using a simplified magnetic bead protocol and a novel rotary magnetic bead trap device. Following off-line equilibrium binding of peptides by antibodies and subsequent capture of the antibodies on magnetic beads, the bead trap permitted washing of the beads and elution of bound peptides inside a 150-μm-inner diameter capillary that forms part of a nanoflow LC-MS/MS system. The bead trap sweeps beads against the direction of liquid flow using a continuous succession of moving high magnetic field-gradient trap regions while mixing the beads with the flowing liquid. This approach prevents loss of low abundance captured peptides and allows automated processing of a series of SISCAPA reactions. Selected tryptic peptides of α1-antichymotrypsin and lipopolysaccharide-binding protein were enriched relative to a high abundance serum albumin peptide by 1,800 and 18,000-fold, respectively, as measured by multiple reaction monitoring. A large majority of the peptides that are bound nonspecifically in SISCAPA reactions were shown to bind to components other than the antibody (e.g. the magnetic beads), suggesting that substantial improvement in enrichment could be achieved by development of improved inert bead surfaces.
Predictive value of plasma neutrophil gelatinase‐associated lipocalin for acute kidney injury in intensive care unit patients after major non‐cardiac surgery

The performance of plasma neutrophil gelatinase‐associated lipocalin (pNGAL) for prediction of acute kidney injury (AKI) in non‐cardiac surgical patients has not been well described. This study investigates the use of pNGAL for early detection of AKI in patients admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) after major or ultra‐major non‐cardiac surgery.
The Price-Concentration Relationship in Banking

The commonly observed positive correlation between market concentration and profitability may be explained by noncompetitive pricing behavior, as argued by the structure-performance hypothesis, or by the greater efficiency of firms with dominant market shares, as argued by the efficient-structure hypothesis. By examining the price-concentration relationship instead of the profit-concentration relationship, this paper tests the structure-performance hypothesis in a manner that excludes the efficient-structure hypothesis as an alternative explanation of the results. The results strongly support the structure-performance hypothesis and are robust with respect to model specification, measurement of concentration, and econometric technique. Copyright 1989 by MIT Press.
Earnings Losses of Displaced Workers in the 1990s

The large-scale downsizings of the 1990s has renewed interest in the earnings losses of displaced workers. This study uses administrative data to follow 833,004 workers in California between 1989 and 1994, providing estimates of the extent of losses in quarterly earnings associated with the recent downsizings. Patterns of earnings loss that are similar to those found in studies using different data for different regions and periods are documented. However, we do not find that earnings decline substantially prior to displacement, which has been found in previous research. The study also finds that earnings losses: (1) vary substantially among workers, (2) differ by the period of displacement, (3) are related to the economic conditions at the time of displacement, (4) vary by firm size, industry of new employment, and the number of subsequent separations, (5) are similar within versus across firms, and (6) in the long-run are 17 to 25 percent. The effects on quarterly earnings versus hourly wages are also explored.
Therapeutics , Targets , and Chemical Biology 6-Thioguanine Reactivates Epigenetically Silenced Genes in Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Cells by Facilitating Proteasome-mediated Degradation of DNMT 1

Thiopurines including 6-thioguanine (G), 6-mercaptopurine, and azathioprine are effective anticancer agents with remarkable success in clinical practice, especially in effective treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). G is understood to act as a DNA hypomethylating agent in ALL cells, however, the underlying mechanism leading to global cytosine demethylation remains unclear. Here we report that G treatment results in reactivation of epigenetically silenced genes in T leukemia cells. Bisulfite genomic sequencing revealed that G treatment universally elicited demethylation in the promoters and/or first exons of the genes that were reactivated. G treatment also attenuated the expression of histone lysine-specific demethylase 1 (LSD1), thereby stimulating lysine methylation of the DNA methylase DNMT1 and triggering its degradation via the ubiquitin-proteasomal pathway. Taken together, our findings reveal a previously uncharacterized but vital mechanistic link between G treatment and DNA hypomethylation. Cancer Res; 71(5); 1904–11. 2011 AACR.
Temperature-Controlled Growth of Silicon-Based Nanostructures by Thermal Evaporation of SiO Powders

Silicon-based nanostructures with different morphologies, sizes, compositions, and microstructures were grown on Si wafers by thermal evaporation of SiO powders at 1350 °C for 5 h under 300 Torr of a flowing gas mixture of 5% H2-Ar at a flow rate of 50 standard cubic centimeters per minute (sccm). The SiO powders and Si wafers were placed inside an alumina tube, which was heated by a tube furnace. The local temperature inside the tube was carefully calibrated by a thermal couple. After evaporation, Si-containing products with different colors and appearances were formed on the surfaces of the Si wafers over a wide temperature range of 890-1320 °C and a long distance of 85 mm. Basing on the colors and appearances of the products, five distinct zones, which corresponding to different temperature ranges, were clearly identified from the highest temperature of 1320 °C to the lowest temperature of 890 °C. They are zone I (1250-1320 °C), zone II (1230-1250 °C), zone III (1180-1230 °C), zone IV (930-1180 °C), and zone V (890-930 °C). The deposited products were systematically studied by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and X-ray diffraction. The results show that, besides Si nanowires, many other kinds of Si-based nanostructures such as octopuslike, pinlike, tadpolelike, and chainlike structures were also formed. The temperature distribution inside the alumina tube was found to play a dominant role on the formation of these structures. It is demonstrated that a control over the growth temperature can precisely control the morphologies and intrinsic structures of the silicon-based nanomaterials. This is an important step toward design and control of nanostructures. The growth mechanisms of these products were briefly discussed.
Quality Upgrading and its Welfare Cost in U.S. Steel Imports, 1969-74

In this paper we measure the quality change which has occurred in U.S. steel imports during the 1969-74 VRA, using an index number method. Under this approach, the yearly changes in unit values is broken into three components: a quality-adjusted or pure price index; a quality index, which measures changes in the product mix; and a supplier index, which measures changes in the source of supply. We also derive a measure of welfare cost, which equals the inverse of a Paasche price index minus the inverse of an exact price index. Over the 1969-74 VRA period we find quality upgrading of 7.4 percent in U.S. steel imports, which occurs most strongly in the first year. The welfare cost of quality change varies around one percent of import expenditure during 1970-73. This cost is at least as large as the conventional deadweight loss triangle, but smaller than the transfer of quota rents.
Measuring Effective Monetary Policy Conservatism

According to the game-theoretic model of monetary policy, inflation is the consequence of time-inconsistent behavior of the monetary authority. The inflation bias can be eased by handing over the responsibility for monetary policy to an independent central bank and appointing a weight-conservative central banker. Countries around the world chose different combinations of central bank independence and conservatism. Most of the existing empirical studies concentrate on measuring legal or factual central bank independence thereby neglecting the degree of conservatism of the monetary authorities. In this paper we show how a joint empirical measure of central bank independence and conservatism can be derived from factual central bank behavior. Based on a panel logit approach we estimate measures of effective monetary policy conservatism for a sample of 11 OECD countries.
Augmented real-time virtual environment of the church of the holy trinity in mostar

Digital storytelling significantly improves the immersion of the users into virtual environments. The perception of the information contained in the digital story is better perceived if the story is told by a real avatar, rather than the animated character. The paper describes how we improved the approach of inserting the real avatar recorded against a green screen using a sequence of images with an alpha channel in an X3D real time virtual environment.
Seasonal Behaviour Of The Volatility OnEuropean Stock Markets

The existence of seasonal behaviour in return and volatility of different international stock exchanges may be considered as an indication of nonintegrated financial markets. A type of this abnormal behaviour is the day of the week effect, which implies investment opportunities. This type of opportunity is studied in this paper, focused on the analysis of the day of the week effect on the major European stock markets using GARCH and T-ARCH models. Results show evidence in favour of day of the week effect in the volatility in the most of the studied countries.
Heligmosmoides polygyrus fourth stages induce protection against DSS‐induced colitis and change opioid expression in the intestine

Primary exposure of mice to the nematode Heligmosomoides polygyrus infection reduces inflammation in an experimental model of colitis. The aim of the present investigation was to evaluate whether the reduced inflammation provoked by H. polygyrus L4 larvae in BALB/c mice treated with dextran sulphate sodium is associated with changed expression of opioids in the small intestine and colon. Colitis was induced by 5% Dextran sulphate sodium (DSS) oral administration for 3 days before oral infection with 200 infective larvae (L3) H. polygyrus until the end of the experiment, 6 days post‐infection. Clinical disease symptoms were monitored daily. The expressions of proopiomelanocortin POMC1, MOR1 (Oprm1) – opioid receptor and β‐endorphin were determined by RT‐PCR, Western blot and immunoassay, respectively, in the colon and small intestine of mice. RT‐PCR analysis of colon tissues showed up‐regulation of the expression of POMC and MOR1 opioid‐dependent genes in mice with DSS‐induced colitis. H. polygyrus L4 larvae inhibited DSS‐induced colitis symptoms that were correlated with increased IL‐1β, TNF‐α, IL‐6, myeloperoxidase (MPO) concentration, macrophages infiltration and MOR1, POMC and β‐endorphin increased expression in the small intestine and inhibition of those in the colon.
The political economy of intergovernmental grants: The Norwegian case

The centralization of local public finance is commonly justified in terms of equal- ity. The welfare state regulates local government and allocates grants in a way that sacri- fices efficiency to achieve equality. The political economy model suggests that democratically elected national politicians may pursue policies that diverge from this. This article outlines a version of the political economy model based on seat-maximizing politicians in central and local government. Both parliamentary policy making and local government lobbying may generate disparities in grant allocation. On the basis of data on central grant distribu- tion in Norway, we observe persistent disparities in local government revenues that cannot be accounted for by regional policy aims or egalitarian objectives. Extensive data on local governments, the lobbying activities of local council members and the Storting (the Norwegian Parliament) allows us to test the political economy hypotheses. Disparities in the number of seats allocated to the national election districts, and differences in the local lobbying activities, influence the distribution of grants between municipalities and counties.
An efficient priority packet scheduling algorithm for Wireless Sensor Network

Scheduling real-time and non-real time packets at the sensor nodes is significantly important to reduce processing overhead, energy consumptions, communications bandwidth, and end-to-end data transmission delay of Wireless Sensor Network (WSN). Most of the existing packet scheduling algorithms of WSN use assignments based on First-Come First-Served (FCFS), non-preemptive priority, and preemptive priority scheduling. However, these algorithms incur a large processing overhead and data transmission delay and are not dynamic to the data traffic changes. In this paper, we propose three-class priority packet scheduling scheme. Emergency real-time packets are placed into the highest priority queue and can preempt the processing of packets at other queues. Other packets are prioritized based on the location of sensor nodes and are placed into two other queues. Lowest priority packets can preempt the processing of their immediate higher priority packets after waiting for a certain number of timeslots. Simulation results show that the proposed three-class priority packet scheduling scheme outperforms FCFS and multi-level queue schedulers in terms of end-to-end data transmission delay.
Expression of monocyte chemotactic and activating factor in rheumatoid arthritis. Regulation of its production in synovial cells by interleukin-1 and tumor necrosis factor.

OBJECTIVE To investigate whether monocyte chemotactic and activating factor (MCAF) contributes to the accumulation of macrophages in the joints of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS MCAF was measured by radioimmunoassay. MCAF gene expression was determined by Northern blotting and reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. Recombinant human MCAF was injected into rabbit joints to evaluate the effect of MCAF on infiltration of macrophages. RESULTS High levels of MCAF were detected in synovial fluid from patients with RA. Cells freshly isolated from synovial fluid expressed MCAF messenger RNA (mRNA). Fibroblast-like synoviocytes were found to express MCAF mRNA and to secrete MCAF in response to interleukin-1 (IL-1) and tumor necrosis factor in vitro. IL-1 also promoted MCAF gene expression in rabbit synovial tissue in vivo. MCAF caused marked infiltration of macrophages in rabbit synovial tissue. CONCLUSION Our findings suggest that MCAF may contribute to the accumulation of macrophages in inflamed rheumatoid joints.
Severity of X‐linked recessive bulbospinal neuronopathy correlates with size of the tandem cag repeat in androgen receptor gene

The genetic mutation of X‐linked recessive bulbospinal neuronopathy is amplification of a polymorphic tandem CAG repeat in the androgen receptor gene. We studied this CAG repeat in 26 Japanese patients from 21 families with X‐linked recessive bulbospinal neuronopathy. The number of CAG repeats was significantly correlated with the age at onset of limb muscular weakness (r = −0.596, p < 0.001) and age‐adjusted scored disability (r = 0.446, p < 0.03). The length of the CAG repeat therefore seems to be a determinant factor of clinical severity.
Positive selection driving the evolution of a gene of male reproduction, Acp26Aa, of Drosophila: II. Divergence versus polymorphism.

The evolution of the gene for a male ejaculatory protein, Acp26Aa, has been shown to be driven by positive selection when nonsibling species in the Drosophila melanogaster subgroup are compared. To know if selection has been operating in the recent past and to understand the details of its dynamics, we obtained DNA sequences of Acp26Aa and the nearby Acp26Ab gene from 39 D. melanogaster chromosomes. Together with the 10 published sequences, we analyzed 49 sequences from five populations in four continents. The southern African population is somewhat differentiated from all other populations, but its nucleotide diversity is lower at these two loci. We find the following results for Acp26Aa: (1) The R: S (replacement : silent changes) ratio is significantly higher in the between-species comparisons than in the within-species data by the McDonald and Kreitman test. Positive selection is probably responsible for the excess of amino acid replacements between species. (2) However, within-species nucleotide diversity is high. Neither the Tajima test nor the Fu and Li test indicates a reduction in nucleotide diversity due to positive selection in the recent past. (3) The newly derived nucleotides in D. melanogaster are at high frequency significantly more often than predicted by the neutral equilibrium. Since the nearby Acp26Ab gene does not show these patterns, these observations cannot be attributed to the characteristics of this chromosomal region. We suggest that positive selection is active, but may be weak, for each amino acid change in the Acp26Aa gene.
Reclaiming Our Teaching Profession: The Power of Educators Learning in Community

Drawing from a wealth of research and experience, this book shows educators how to use the transformative power of professional learning in community to raise the professional stature of educators. The authors, experts in their field, provide clear steps and real-school examples with a focus on collaborative adult learning for student gains, community respect, professional satisfaction, and collegial support. They examine pitfalls and distractions, and show clear images of what empowered Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) look like for teachers, administrators, and leaders at the school and district level. The authors also provide practical tools for advancing and measuring progress. This resource will help educators move from a climate of sanctions to one of mutual trust and support committed to students and dedicated to working and learning together.
PRELIMINARY AND INCOMPLETE: Please do not cite without authors' permission. Yield-Spreads as Predictors of Economic Activity: A Real-Time VAR Analysis

We undertake a real-time VAR analysis of the usefulness of the term spread, the junk-bond spread, the ISM’s New Orders Index, and broker/dealer equity for predicting growth in non-farm employment. To get around the “apples and oranges” problem described by Koenig, Dolmas and Piger (2003), we augment each VAR we consider with a flexible state-space model of employment revisions. This methodology produces jobs forecasts consistently superior to those obtained using conventional VAR analysis. They are also superior to Federal Reserve Greenbook forecasts and to median forecasts from the Survey of Professional Forecasters. The junk-bond spread is by far the best single predictor of future jobs growth. However, the term spread has some incremental predictive power at medium-to-long horizons. The incremental predictive power of broker/dealer equity, while small, exceeds that of the ISM index at every horizon.
Consolidation and Merger Activity in the United States Banking Industry from 2000 Through 2010

This study investigates trends in consolidation and merger activity in the United States banking industry from 2000 through 2010. Over this period, the U.S. banking industry has consistently experienced over 150 mergers annually, with the largest banking organizations holding an increasing share of banking assets. While the industry has undergone considerable consolidation at the national level, local banking markets have not experienced significant increases in concentration. The dynamics of consolidation raise concerns about competition, output, efficiency, and financial stability. This study uses a comprehensive proprietary data set to examine mergers and acquisitions involving banks and thrifts. The methodology in this paper expands the definition of mergers to include more types of transactions than previous studies on bank mergers.