Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Euro area sovereign bond market liquidity since the start of the PSPP

The liquidity of euro area sovereign bond markets is important for the transmission of the ECB’s monetary policy. In particular, a high degree of liquidity fosters the link between the ECB’s monetary policy decisions, the yield curve, financial asset prices in general, and the overall cost and flow of finance in the economy. The liquidity of sovereign bond markets needs to be monitored more closely since the implementation of the ECB’s public sector purchase programme (PSPP), under which a significant share of outstanding euro area sovereign bonds has been bought. Against this background, this box presents some of the market liquidity indicators that the ECB monitors regularly. Overall, the indicators suggest that liquidity conditions in sovereign bond markets have not deteriorated since the start of the PSPP (on 9 March 2015).
Semiempirical analysis of materials' elemental composition to formulate tissue-equivalent materials: a preliminary study

Tissue-equivalent materials are used for simplifying quality control and quality assurance procedures, both in diagnostic and therapeutic radiology. Important information to formulate a tissue-equivalent material is elemental composition of its base materials. However, this information is not easily obtained. Therefore we propose a stoichiometric analysis method to investigate the elemental composition of the base materials that can potentially be used for manufacturing tissue-equivalent materials. In this technique, we combined the stoichiometric calibration and the basic data method to obtain the elemental composition of materials from measured computer tomography (CT) numbers. The elemental composition, with the maximum number of the elements of the material in question up to the available number of different tube voltages at the CT scanner, was analysed using the proposed approach. We tested eight different cylinders in this study. The estimated elemental compositions of unspecified materials in the cylinders were evaluated by comparing the calculated and the simulated CT numbers to the measured ones; the results showed good correlation with maximum absolute differences of 1.9 and 3.7 HU, respectively. The accuracy of the stoichiometric analysis method to estimate the elemental composition was influenced by the accuracy of the measured CT numbers. The method proposed allows for determining the elemental composition of the base materials which can then be applied further to formulate tissue-equivalent materials.
Utilities mapping via Linear Sampling Method

The Linear Sampling Method (LSM) is a microwave imaging approach that allows to image, almost in real-time, the shape of hidden objects by processing single frequency data, without neglecting multiple interactions and without requiring assumptions on the (metallic or dielectric) nature of the targets. Since the LSM requires to collect data under a multiview-multistatic measurement configuration, it is not viable to process GPR data collected with standard, monostatic or bistatic, systems, but is definitely a suitable tool for GPR systems of new generation, which instead exploit array of antennas. Accordingly, with respect to the specific problem of buried utilities mapping, in this communication we discuss the capability of the LSM to image the subsurface, by processing data gathered by means of array based GPR systems. A performance assessment is given against synthetic data.
Dynorphins directly inhibit neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in PC12 cells

The authors have previously reported that dynorphin A (1–17), an endogenous kappa opioid agonist, inhibits the current mediated through neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) without the involvement of opioid receptors or G‐proteins. We have further characterized this action to elucidate the mechanisms. The nicotine‐induced current was studied in PC12 cells using patch‐clamp techniques. In the whole‐cell configuration, four kinds of dynorphins with different lengths, dynorphin A (1–17) (1–13) (2–13) and (1–8), similarly inhibited the nicotine‐induced inward current at 1 μm and accelerated the current decay. The inhibition by dynorphin A (1–17) was not antagonized by the increasing concentrations of nicotine. The current–voltage relationship revealed that dynorphin's inhibition was voltage independent at the membrane potentials from −30 to −70 mV. The inhibition was not affected by pretreatment with pertussis toxin (PTX) or inclusion of staurosporine into the pipette solution. The inhibitory effect of dynorphin A (1–17) was well preserved in the outside‐out patch configuration. Analysis of the nicotine‐induced noise and single‐channel kinetics revealed that dynorphin A(1–17) reduced open time without changing the amplitude of the unitary current. We found that the inhibitory effect on neuronal nAChRs is shared by all four dynorphins studied. The inhibition appears to be non‐competitive and voltage independent. The outside‐out recording together with other experiments indicated that a major part of this inhibition is not mediated through cytoplasmic messengers, but based on the direct action of dynorphins on neuronal nAChRs leading to the reduction of open time.
State of the Art: Newer biomarkers in heart failure

Since natriuretic peptides were successfully integrated into the clinical practice of heart failure (HF), the possibility of using new biomarkers to advance the management of affected patients has been explored. While a huge number of candidate HF biomarkers have been described recently, very few have made the difficult translation from initial promise to clinical application. These markers mirror the complex pathophysiology of heart failure at various levels: cell loss (troponin), fibrosis (ST2 and galectin‐3), infection (procalcitonin), and renal disease (several renal markers). In this review, we examine the best emerging candidates for clinical assessment and management of patients with HF.
Enteric Viruses Detected by Molecular Methods in Commercial Chicken and Turkey Flocks in the United States Between 2005 and 2006

Abstract Intestinal samples collected from 43 commercial broiler and 33 commercial turkey flocks from all regions of the United States during 2005 and 2006 were examined for the presence of astrovirus, rotavirus, reovirus, and coronavirus by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and for the presence of groups 1 and 2 adenovirus by PCR. Phylogenetic analysis was performed to further characterize the viruses and to evaluate species association and geographic patterns. Astroviruses were identified in samples from 86% of the chicken flocks and from 100% of the turkey flocks. Both chicken astrovirus and avian nephritis virus (ANV) were identified in chicken samples, and often both viruses were detected in the same flock. Turkey astrovirus type-2 and turkey astrovirus type-1 were found in 100% and 15.4% of the turkey flocks, respectively. In addition, 12.5% of turkey flocks were positive for ANV. Rotaviruses were present in 46.5% of the chicken flocks tested and in 69.7% of the turkey flocks tested. Based upon the rotavirus NSP4 gene sequence, the chicken and turkey origin rotaviruses assorted in a species-specific manner. The turkey origin rotaviruses also assorted based upon geographical location. Reoviruses were identified in 62.8% and 45.5% of chicken and turkey flocks, respectively. Based on the reovirus S4 gene segment, the chicken and turkey origin viruses assorted separately, and they were distinct from all previously reported avian reoviruses. Coronaviruses were detected in the intestinal contents of chickens, but not turkeys. Adenoviruses were not detected in any chicken or turkeys flocks. Of the 76 total chicken and turkey flocks tested, only three chicken flocks were negative for all viruses targeted by this study. Most flocks were positive for two or more of the viruses, and overall no clear pattern of virus geographic distribution was evident. This study provides updated enteric virus prevalence data for the United States using molecular methods, and it reinforces that enteric viruses are widespread in poultry throughout the United States, although the clinical importance of most of these viruses remains unclear.
Examination of levels pentraxin-3, interleukin-6, and C-reactive protein in rat model acute and chronic exercise

Different types of exercise occurs damage at the cellular level in the muscles. Muscle damage caused by exercise is determined creatine kinase, myoglobin, and increase in levels of acute phase protein and interleukin in blood. The purpose of this study was investigated the levels of pentraxin-3 (PTX-3), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and C-reactive protein (CRP) following acute and chronic exercising in rats. Twenty-six Wistar Albino male rats were divided in to three groups. A treadmill exercise was performed 3 days/week, 10 min/day for 1 week in acute groups. In chronic group, exercise performed 7 days/week, 60 min/day for 4 weeks. At the end of the experiment, plasma PTX-3, IL-6, and CRP levels were measured. In current study, the PTX-3, IL-6, and CRP levels not observed statistically significant difference among control, acute, and chronic groups. The levels IL-6 and CRP were not significantly different between acute and chronic exercise groups (P>0.05). However, the level of PTX-3 was found to be higher in the chronic group compared to the acute group (P<0.05). The PTX-3 level increase on chronic exercise-induced muscle damage. Accorting to our results, we think that PTX-3 may have a protect role on muscle damage during chronic exercises.
Dynamic performance of double fed induction generator for wind turbines

The dynamic performance of a vector controlled DFIG power conversion system is studied and the power quality improvement of the grid is investigated. The system model proposed in this paper is developed in the dedicated power electronics and system simulation tool, PSCAD/EMTDC. The model also includes dynamic wind speed fluctuations and control of a soft starter, enabling simulation of the power quality characteristics of the wind turbine. Based on the simulation results, it is proved that the DFIG is capable of simultaneous capturing maximum power of wind energy with fluctuating wind speed and improving power quality, that are achieved by cancelling the most significant and troublesome harmonics of the utility grid. Dynamic power factor correction and reactive power control are the other two significant features of this technology
The Management of Retention:A Case Study Examining Retention Strategy in a Private Lebanese University Business School

The retention of students in higher education has received great attention from scholars. Understanding the determinants of students’ decision to continue their studies would be essential for university managers and professors as well as future students. The aim of the present thesis is to investigate the factors that might affect student retention behaviour in the Lebanese International University. A survey was conducted to explore the characteristics of first-year and third-year students. The data collected is based on an extensive questionnaire that covers students’ background information, peer-group and faculty interactions, academic performance, and their perception of the University. Overall, the findings support the Tinto’s model of student integration. Furthermore, the results strongly suggest that students’ proficiency in English may affect their retention decision directly. The main findings of the study are on the role of academic and social integration in the students’ decision to continue their education. Grade performance and intellectual development are observed to affect students’ goal and institutional commitment. Similarly, commitment is found to be influenced by social interactions with peers and faculty members. The results agree with the Tinto’s theory of student integration and suggest that background factors might have a direct impact on retention. This reflects the thesis’s contribution to the existing theoretical literature which can be important in identifying the key factors behind student retention more accurately in the future research. The study may also be useful in improving management practices in Lebanese universities as it is based on the analysis of the current state of the Lebanese International University. In particular, it supports the role of academic and social integration in the retention of students. This could be useful for developing practices that improve the experience of first-year students. Most notably, the findings indicate that Lebanese universities should focus on developing appropriate English courses.
Manipulation of Backscattering From a Dielectric Cylinder of Triangular Cross-Section Using the Interplay of GO-Like Ray Effects and Resonances

A triangular dielectric cylinder (dielectric prism) of the size, in cross-section, comparable to or moderately larger than the wavelength is a scatterer, which blends together two different types of electromagnetic behavior: geometrical optics (GO) and resonance. As shown in this paper, the first is responsible, for instance, for enhanced reflection from an isosceles 90° prism, if illuminated from the base. The second is responsible for the peaks in the total scattering and absorption cross-sections (ACSs) at the natural-mode frequencies. The numerical analysis is performed by solving the well-conditioned Muller-type boundary integral equation (IE) discretized using an algorithm with controlled accuracy.
Rapid B Cell Receptor-induced Unfolded Protein Response in Nonsecretory B Cells Correlates with Pro- Versus Antiapoptotic Cell Fate*

The adaptive unfolded protein response (UPR) is essential for the development of antibody-secreting plasma cells. B cells induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to differentiate into plasma cells exhibit a nonclassical UPR reported to anticipate endoplasmic reticulum stress prior to immunoglobulin production. Here we demonstrate that activation of a physiologic UPR is not limited to cells undergoing secretory cell differentiation. We identify B cell receptor (BCR) signaling as an unexpected physiologic UPR trigger and demonstrate that in mature B cells, BCR stimulation induces a short lived UPR similar to the LPS-triggered nonclassical UPR. However, unlike LPS, BCR stimulation does not induce plasma cell differentiation. Furthermore, the BCR-induced UPR is not limited to cells in which BCR induces activation, since a UPR is also induced in transitional immature B cells that respond to BCR stimulation with a rapid apoptotic fate. This response involves sustained up-regulation of Chop mRNA indicative of a terminal UPR. Whereas sustained Chop expression correlates with the ultimate fate of the BCR-triggered B cell and not its developmental stage, Chop–/– B cells undergo apoptosis, indicating that CHOP is not required for this process. These studies establish a system whereby a terminal or adaptive UPR can be alternatively triggered by physiologic stimuli.
Distinguishing disease impacts from larval supply effects in a lobster fishery collapse

We describe a time series analysis that differentiates the effects of variable larval sup- ply and the mortality impact of shell disease on cohorts of the American lobster Homarus americanus in a southern New England, USA, coastal population. Prior to the onset of a shell disease epizootic in 1997, larval settlement alone fully explained 82% of the variation in the numbers of pre-recruit lob- sters about to enter the Rhode Island lobster fishery. With the onset of shell disease, however, the model required an additional term for disease prevalence to provide a sufficient statistical fit to the observed data. Neither time trends in bottom temperature nor predatory fish provided significant additional explanatory power for variability in pre-recruit abundance. To our knowledge, this analy- sis constitutes the first demonstration in which cohorts of a benthic marine invertebrate have been successfully tracked from settlement to the threshold of a fishery by accounting for the joint effects of variable supply of new recruits and subsequent disease during post-settlement years. As such, it illustrates how factors altering the rate of post-settlement mortality over time can obscure predictive relationships between settlement and subsequent recruitment. A tight spawner-to-recruit linkage is therefore unlikely in coastal Rhode Island. The analysis underscores the value of maintaining parallel time series of different life stages, as well as the need to better quantify both pre- and post-settlement mechanisms that influence cohort success in marine populations.
Impact of Poverty

Developmental-Begins before birth: quality of mother nutrition and prenatal care; Parent-child interactions; less access to learning-oriented toys; less access to developmentally appropriate activities. AsthmaEnvironmental; Access to preventive health care. ObesityLack of opportunities for physical activity; Lack of access to nutritionally dense foods.
Perception of Postpalatoplasty Speech Differences in School‐Age Children by Parents, Teachers, and Professional Speech Pathologists

&NA; The aims of this study were twofold: (1) to test the ability of parents and teachers to discriminate the speech of children with repaired cleft palate from that of their unaffected peers and (2) to compare these lay assessments of speech acceptability with the critical perceptual assessments of expert clinicians. The subjects for this study were 20 children of school age (age range, 8 to 12 years) who were drawn from a large population (n = 1282) of patients. All subjects had been referred for palatoplasty to the same tertiary cleft center between 1978 and 1991. There were 16 matched controls. The listening team included parents of subjects (n = 32) and teachers of age‐matched school children (n = 12). Randomized master audiotape recordings of the study group were presented in blinded fashion to both groups of the adult raters, who were inexperienced in the evaluation of patients with speech dysfunction. An experienced panel of three extramural speech pathologists evaluated the same recordings. In all parameters rated, both parents and teachers showed a consistent tendency to give the subject children more negative ratings than the control children. Expert raters were sensitive to differences in resonance and intelligibility in the control and cleft palate groups. Results of this study differ from similar previous research, indicating that naive peer raters (similar‐age children) were insensitive to speech differences in the cleft palate and control groups. (Plast. Reconstr. Surg. 100: 1655, 1997.)
The dynamics of infinitesimally rare alleles, applied to the evolution of mutation rates and the expression of deleterious mutations.

A new method is presented for analysing the dynamics of a classical model where infinitesimally rare alleles segregate at an infinite number of unlinked loci, and where the alleles at different loci have equivalent effects. The dynamics of the distribution of the number of rare alleles per individual (the "phenotypic distribution") can be followed without knowing the frequencies of individual genotypes. Meiosis and random union of gametes have a very simple effect on the factorial cumulants of the phenotypic distribution which are consequently the natural set of variables to follow. An exact solution is presented for the dynamics of rare alleles under mutation and multiplicative selection. This solution has a simple representation in terms of the factorial cumulants. Unlike the QLE (quasi-linkage equilibrium) solution, this solution applies even when the population is far from linkage equilibrium. This approach is extended to analyse the joint dynamics of infinitesimally rare alleles at an infinite number of unlinked loci, together with a locus (with arbitrary allele frequencies) with which they interact. This more general method is used to investigate (1) the joint dynamics of a modifier of the mutation rate, together with deleterious alleles under mutation and multiplicative selection, and (2) the fate of an allele that ameliorates or exacerbates the fitness effects of deleterious alleles. When a new modifier allele causes a large change in the mutation rate, strong linkage disequilibrium is generated during its progress. However, using this new approach based on factorial cumulants, it is found that a remarkably simple invasion condition applies to alleles at the modifier locus, even when strong linkage disequilibrium is generated.
A glossary for big data in population and public health: discussion and commentary on terminology and research methods

The volume and velocity of data are growing rapidly and big data analytics are being applied to these data in many fields. Population and public health researchers may be unfamiliar with the terminology and statistical methods used in big data. This creates a barrier to the application of big data analytics. The purpose of this glossary is to define terms used in big data and big data analytics and to contextualise these terms. We define the five Vs of big data and provide definitions and distinctions for data mining, machine learning and deep learning, among other terms. We provide key distinctions between big data and statistical analysis methods applied to big data. We contextualise the glossary by providing examples where big data analysis methods have been applied to population and public health research problems and provide brief guidance on how to learn big data analysis methods.
MORE HARM THAN GOOD: WHEN INVADER VULNERABILITY TO PREDATORS ENHANCES IMPACT ON NATIVE SPECIES

Invasion biologists typically regard susceptibility of an invasive species to native predators as a fortuitous condition that increases biotic resistance to the invasion. The line of reasoning is that predation weakens the net impact of the invader and reduces its ability to displace native competitors. However, predation on invasives is a coupled interaction; every invader consumed also enhances the predator population. If these predators also consume native species, then the invader's indirect effect via predators (i.e., apparent competition) could be more harmful to natives than the effect of resource competition from the exotic. We apply general community ecology theory to determine the conditions under which the net effect of predation on the exotic species is to extirpate the native competitor. An approximation to these conditions provides a simple metric to estimate the threat of native species extinction due to apparent competition posed by an invader.