Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Does More Consumption Promote Real GDP Growth?

This paper employs Hansen's (1999) panel threshold regression model [Journal of Econometrics 39 (1999) 345&#8211;68] based on a time series dataset of 109 countries from 1960 to 2007 to investigate the threshold relationship between the change in real GDP per capita and the consumption size (consumption&#8208;income ratio, APC). The results show that the consumption level should not exceed the 49.68% threshold of real GDP per capita for each country regardless of the income level. Also, the relationship between the change in real GDP per capita and the consumption size seems to have &#8216;Armey curve&#8217; or &#8216;inverted&#8208;U shape&#8217; characteristic. In order to promote real GDP growth, our results suggest that the high&#8208;income, low&#8208;APC countries should encourage more consumption while the low&#8208;income, high&#8208;APC countries should encourage more saving.
Emerging influenza viruses and the prospect of a universal influenza virus vaccine

Influenza viruses cause annual seasonal epidemics and pandemics at irregular intervals. Several cases of human infections with avian and swine influenza viruses have been detected recently, warranting enhanced surveillance and the development of more effective countermeasures to address the pandemic potential of these viruses. The most effective countermeasure against influenza virus infection is the use of prophylactic vaccines. However, vaccines that are currently in use for seasonal influenza viruses have to be re‐formulated and re‐administered in a cumbersome process every year due to the antigenic drift of the virus. Furthermore, current seasonal vaccines are ineffective against novel pandemic strains. This paper reviews zoonotic influenza viruses with pandemic potential and technological advances towards better vaccines that induce broad and long lasting protection from influenza virus infection. Recent efforts have focused on the development of broadly protective/universal influenza virus vaccines that can provide immunity against drifted seasonal influenza virus strains but also against potential pandemic viruses.
Quasi-3D Model of Edge-emitting Lasers Accounting for Coherent and Incoherent Coupling of Lateral Modes

We present a quasi-three dimensional (3D) simulation model for edge-emitting lasers based on the propagation of a guess initial field forward and backward along the cavity until an stable solution is found. The bipolar complete semiconductor and the thermal equations are solved in 3D. The electro-thermal solver is coupled to a 2D beam propagation method that makes use of the effective index approximation. The model is applied to the simulation of ridge waveguide lasers. Two different approaches regarding the symmetry of the photon density are presented and discussed in what concerns their relationship with the coherent and incoherent coupling of lateral modes in real devices.
Interferon‐β Is a Potent Promoter of Nerve Growth Factor Production by Astrocytes

Abstract: Recent clinical evidence has suggested that interferon‐β is efficacious in the treatment of the demyelinating disease, multiple sclerosis. The mechanism of its efficacy remains unclear, and suggested modes of action have focused on immune modulation. Nonimmune effects of interferon‐β may also contribute to its efficacy. Given that astrocytes produce a range of neurotrophic factors, we examined the possibility that interferon‐β could increase the astrocytic production of nerve growth factor (NGF), which has been reported to cause oligodendrocytes to proliferate and to extend their processes; these phenotypes can impact favorably on remyelination. When the recombinant form of mouse interferon‐β was added to mouse astrocyte cultures, a dose‐dependent increase in NGF mRNA was obtained. The 40‐fold increase in NGF mRNA elicited by 1,000 U/ml interferon‐β was far more potent than that produced by other NGF‐elevating agents in this study. In concordance, the protein for NGF was elevated by interferon‐β. The production of NGF by interferon‐β may be relevant to its clinical efficacy in multiple sclerosis. Furthermore, we suggest the potential utility of interferon‐β in Alzheimer's disease.
Health, Equity and the Narrative of Place

Racism affects health through both direct means (for example, the chronic activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and associated stress hormones, which increases susceptibility to several chronic conditions [1]) and indirect means (for example, the segregation of people of color into lowresource, low-opportunity neighborhoods [2]). In recent years, public health has embraced the promotion of health equity as a core component of the sector’s mission, goals, and strategies, recognizing that achieving the highest possible level of health for everyone requires dismantling racial inequities [3]. Since there is no one defined pathway to health equity, local public health professionals, community-based organizations and other allies must develop their own locally sensitive blueprints for replacing social, economic and environmental structures that reinforce inequity with ones that promote equality. COMMENTARY
Central and Peripheral Corneal Thickness in Keratoconus and Normal Patient Groups

Central and peripheral (superior, inferior, nasal, and temporal) corneal thickness was measured in patients with and without keratoconus using ultrasonic pachometry. In 28 normal eyes (14 patients) mean central corneal thickness (CCT) was 0.56 ± 0.02 mm and the mean difference in thickness between the mean peripheral corneal thickness (PCT) and CCT was 0.24 mm. In 28 keratoconic eyes (14 patients) CCT was 0.52 ± 0.04 mm, and PCT - CCT was 0.29 mm. For keratoconic right eyes, CCT and PCT-CCT were significantly different from normals (p = 0.01). Additional studies within the normal patient group showed no diurnal or day-to-day variations in CCT; they also confirmed the repeatability of the measurements.
Work related risk factors for musculoskeletal complaints in the nursing profession: results of a questionnaire survey.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the prevalence of musculoskeletal complaints of the back, arms or neck, and legs among nurses, and to investigate the relation between these complaints and various work related and personal variables. METHODS: A questionnaire survey was carried out in four nursing homes in The Netherlands. RESULTS: The response was 95% and resulted in 846 completed questionnaires. It was found that a large proportion of the subjects regularly had back complaints (36%) but also had arm or neck (30%) and leg complaints (16%). Almost all respondents (89%) considered nursing work as physically strenuous. Most of them complained of working under time pressure (69%), increased work pressure (70%), and having no opportunity to take a break from the work (70%). The physical variables which seem to trouble the subjects most were lifting (65%), working in awkward postures (47%), and stooping (34%). Moreover, 53% of the subjects responded that the ergonomic lay out of the ward was disagreeable. Most of the work related variables under study seemed to be associated with musculoskeletal complaints. For all types of complaints the strongest associations were found with having to lift heavy loads. Apart from physical stress various aspects of work pressure showed strong associations with the occurrence of musculoskeletal complaints. The variables on the ergonomy of the ward showed less clear associations with musculoskeletal complaints than were found for physical stress and work pressure. CONCLUSIONS: From these results it may be concluded that future research of health risks of nursing work should have a wider focus than the relation between physical workload and low back pain.
Analysis of solar irradiance variations as a source of flicker associated with PV systems

Power quality issues are one of the challenges associated with increasing utilization of photovoltaic power. In this study, the effect of solar irradiance variations on flicker is investigated by simulations. Measured irradiance and PV module temperature data are used as input to simulate the power output of PV generators. Voltage and flicker indices are computed using realistic models of Finnish low-voltage distribution feeders. The simulation results indicate that solar irradiance variations alone do not seem to be a significant source of flicker.
Synaptic and nonsynaptic localization of GABAA receptors containing the α5 subunit in the rat brain

The α5 subunit of the GABAA receptors (GABAARs) has a restricted expression in the brain. Maximum expression of this subunit occurs in the hippocampus, cerebral cortex, and olfactory bulb. Hippocampal pyramidal cells show high expression of α5 subunit‐containing GABAARs (α5‐GABAARs) both in culture and in the intact brain. A large pool of α5‐GABAARs is extrasynaptic and it has been proposed to be involved in the tonic GABAergic inhibition of the hippocampus. Nevertheless, there are no studies on the localization of the α5‐GABAARs at the electron microscope (EM) level. By using both immunofluorescence of cultured hippocampal pyramidal cells and EM postembedding immunogold of the intact hippocampus we show that, in addition to the extrasynaptic pool, there is a pool of α5‐GABAARs that concentrates at the GABAergic synapses in dendrites of hippocampal pyramidal cells. The results suggest that the synaptic α5‐GABAARs might play a role in the phasic GABAergic inhibition of pyramidal neurons in hippocampus and cerebral cortex. J. Comp. Neurol. 499:458–470, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Transcatheter closure of coronary artery fistula in children.

BACKGROUND Transcatheter closure of coronary artery fistula (CAF) has emerged as a successful alternative to surgery. We described our experiences in 10 children patients who were accepted for transcatheter closure of CAF. METHODS Ten children were 3 - 10 years old (seven males) with CAF who underwent percutaneous transcatheter closure between October 1995 and April 2008. Sites of origin of these fistulas were: right coronary artery in seven, left anterior descending coronary artery in two, and left circumflex coronary artery in one patient. Drainage sites of these fistulas were: right atrium in seven, right ventricle in two and left ventricle in one patient. All of these fistulas were congenital and had only one orificium fistula. RESULTS A Cook coil was used in four patients and an Amplatzer patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) occluder was used in six patients. Checking the angiogram after the procedure revealed complete occlusion in nine patients (90%) and minimal residual flow in one (10%) patient. Technical success was achieved in all patients. Follow-up studies at short term showed complete abolition of shunt in all patients with no evidence of recanalization leading to recurrence of shunt. CONCLUSIONS Transcatheter therapy using either Cook coil or Amplatzer PDA occluder is suggested to be a safe and effective method of occlusion. The midterm outcome of the intervention for CAF is satisfactory.
Serum Level of Lactate Dehydrogenase is a Useful Clinical Marker to Monitor Progressive Multiple Myeloma Diseases: A Case Report

To follow the progression of multiple myeloma (MM) disease, serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels are as useful markers as beta-2 microglobulin and monoclonal immunoglobulin. With this study, we have presented a case of a patient with a multiple myeloma which was fulminant course, whose LDH levels were normal at the onset of diagnosis increasing as 27 times more than normal as the disease progressed and who showed the development of extramedullary plasmacytomas. The patient, an 80-year-old female, was diagnosed with stage IIIA IgA type multiple myeloma and melphalan-prednisolon (MP) treatment was started. Although the LDH levels were low during the diagnosis and chemotherapy, the LDH levels increased up to 7557 U/L following the progression and occurrence of extramedullary plasmacytomas and the patient died. During the observation of the patient with MM, if the LDH levels are abnormally high, the progression of the disease should be considered after eliminating the other causes. Bone marrow aspiration and biopsy should be examined and the progression or relapse should be shown. On the other hand, the patients with LDH levels are high should be considered to have added plasmacytomas, the whole body should be examined at an early stage before the development of clinical symptoms and early treatment should be started.
Developmental modifications of olivocerebellar topography: The granuloprival cerebellum reveals multiple routes from the inferior olive

Correct function of neural circuits depends on highly organized neuronal connections, refined from less precise projections through synaptic elimination, collateral regression, or neuronal death. We examined regressive phenomena that define olivocerebellar topography during maturation from Purkinje cell polyinnervation to monoinnervation. We used bilateral retrograde tracing to determine the source of olivocerebellar afferents to posterior vermis lobules VII–VIII in a model of retained immature Purkinje cell polyinnervation, the granuloprival cerebellum. In controls, labelled neurons were found only in the contralateral inferior olive (ION) clustered in a small ventromedial locus that is congruent with known olivocerebellar topography. In granuloprival animals, olivary labelling appeared more dispersed and was present in homologous ipsilateral regions. Double‐labelled neurons were never seen. Retrograde tracing following unilateral olivocerebellar transection in adult granuloprival rats revealed: 1) the origin of the normal (remaining) path projecting through the contralateral inferior peduncle was more localized than in irradiated nonpedunculotomized rats, 2) a small double‐crossed path, and 3) a projection that ascends the peduncle ipsilateral to the ION of origin, part of which crosses the midline within the cerebellum. Electrophysiological and immunohistochemical assessment in the neonatal cerebellum revealed that transcommissural paths are not present during development but sprout within the irradiated cerebellum. Therefore, the olivocerebellar projection in the granuloprival rat, as a model of the immature path, shows parasagittal organization similar to that of controls in its normally crossed path but possesses additional abnormal projections. Thus, maturation of olivocerebellar topography involves removal of whole developmental paths to define laterality plus synapse elimination within largely predefined parasagittal zones. J. Comp. Neurol. 490:85–97, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Design considerations for case series models with exposure onset measurement error

The case series model allows for estimation of the relative incidence of events, such as cardiovascular events, within a pre‐specified time window after an exposure, such as an infection. The method requires only cases (individuals with events) and controls for all fixed/time‐invariant confounders. The measurement error case series model extends the original case series model to handle imperfect data, where the timing of an infection (exposure) is not known precisely. In this work, we propose a method for power/sample size determination for the measurement error case series model. Extensive simulation studies are used to assess the accuracy of the proposed sample size formulas. We also examine the magnitude of the relative loss of power due to exposure onset measurement error, compared with the ideal situation where the time of exposure is measured precisely. To facilitate the design of case series studies, we provide publicly available web‐based tools for determining power/sample size for both the measurement error case series model as well as the standard case series model. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Compact 0.92/2.45-GH Dual-Band Directional Circularly Polarized Microstrip Antenna for Handheld RFID Reader Applications

This paper presents a compact 0.92/2.45-GHz dual-band directional circularly polarized (CP) microstrip antenna for handheld radio-frequency identification (RFID) reader applications. The proposed antenna comprises a wideband dual-feed network and two stacked concentric patches assembled by two orthogonally placed vertical probes. The dual-feed network feeds quadrature signals across the RFID bands between 0.92 and 2.45 GHz. The two stacked concentric patches provide resonance frequencies in fundamental mode for lower band and higher band, respectively. Additionally, the antenna features only one connection port and same sense CP radiation at two bands, beneficial to cost and complexity reductions of the dual-band front end of RFID readers. The measurement results show the performances of return loss (RL) >10 dB, 3-dB gain variation, and axial ratio (AR) <;3 dB are achieved on the bands 0.911-0.933 GHz and 2.40- 2.57 GHz. The measured peak gains are 3.8 dBic at 0.926 GHz and 8.9 dBic at 2.48 GHz. In addition, the antenna provides symmetrical patterns with wide-angle half-power beamwidths and wide-angle 3-dB AR beamwidths. The size of the antenna 110 × 110 × 6.6 mm3 is much smaller than reported dual-band one port RFID directional CP reader antennas. The antenna appropriates to both ultra-high frequency (UHF) and industrial scientific and medical (ISM) bands in handheld RFID reader applications.
Folie à deux homicide and the two-factor model of delusions

Introduction Cases of folie à deux resulting in homicide challenge traditional definitions of delusions. Secondaries who abandon their beliefs soon after separation from a primary raise doubts about the status of their delusional beliefs at the time of the offence. In this paper, we apply the “two-factor” model of delusions to a series of cases of folie à deux resulting in homicide. Method A retrospective analysis of five cases. Results The primary affected person appeared to be the source of the delusional content in each of the cases. Impairment of belief evaluation was evident to some degree in all patients. There appeared to be a range of underlying causes of impaired belief evaluation. The transitory nature of the reported beliefs in some secondary cases suggested that they were due to motivational rather than neuropathological mechanisms. Social isolation contributed to the inability to critically appraise beliefs in most cases. Conclusion The two-factor model is a useful method to contrast the emergence of a shared delusional belief in primary and secondary patients with folie à deux. Folie à deux demonstrates the need to consider the exogenous source of delusional content in many patients.
Model-driven online capacity management for component-based software systems

Capacity management is a core activity when designing and operating distributed software systems. It comprises the provisioning of data center resources and the deployment of software components to these resources. The goal is to continuously provide adequate capacity, i.e., service level agreements should be satisfied while keeping investment and operating costs reasonably low. Traditional capacity management strategies are rather static and pessimistic: resources are provisioned for anticipated peak workload levels. Particularly, enterprise application systems are exposed to highly varying workloads, leading to unnecessarily high total cost of ownership due to poor resource usage efficiency caused by the aforementioned static capacity management approach. During the past years, technologies emerged that enable dynamic data center infrastructures—e. g. , leveraged by cloud computing products. These technologies build the foundation for elastic online capacity management, i.e., adapting the provided capacity to workload demands based on a short-term horizon. Because manual online capacity management is not an option, automatic control approaches have been proposed. However, most of these approaches focus on coarse-grained adaptation actions and adaptation decisions are based on aggregated system-level measures. Architectural information about the controlled software system is rarely considered. This thesis introduces a model-driven online capacity management approach for distributed component-based software systems, called SLAstic. The core contributions of this approach are a) modeling languages to capture relevant architectural information about a controlled software system, b) an architecture-based online capacity management framework based on the common MAPE-K control loop architecture, c) model-driven techniques supporting the automation of the approach, d) architectural runtime reconfiguration operations for controlling a system’s capacity, e) as well as an integration of the Palladio Component Model. A qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the approach is performed by case studies, lab experiments, and simulation.
Gidakiimanaanawigamig’s Circle of Learning: A Model for Partnership between Tribal Community and Research University

Since 2002, the National Center for Earth-Surface dynamics has collaborated with the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, the Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College, the University of Minnesota, and other partner institutions to develop programs aimed at supporting Native American participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, and especially in the Earth and Environmental Sciences. These include the gidakiimanaaniwigamig math and science camps for students in kindergarten through 12th grade, the Research Experience for Undergraduates on Sustainable Land and Water Resources, which takes place on two native reservations, and support for new majors at tribal colleges. All of these programs have a common focus on collaboration with communities, place-based education, community-inspired research projects, a focus on traditional culture and language, and resource management on reservations. Strong partnerships between university, tribal college, and Native American reservation were a foundation for success, but took time and effort to develop. This paper explores steps towards effective partnerships that support student success in STEM via environmental education.
Mediterranean diet and cancer risk

Various aspects of the Mediterranean diet are considered favourable with regard to cancer risk. These aspects were analysed using data from a series of case–control studies conducted in northern Italy between 1983 and 2001 on over 12 000 cases of 20 cancer sites and 10 000 controls. For most epithelial cancers, the risk decreased with increasing vegetable and fruit consumption, with odds ratios (OR) between 0.3 and 0.7 for the highest versus the lowest tertile. Subjects reporting frequent red meat intake showed ORs above unity for several common neoplasms. Conversely, fish (and consequently, n-3 fatty acids) tended to be another favourable dietary indicator. Wholegrain food intake was related to reduced risk of several types of cancer, particularly of the upper digestive tract, probably on account of its high fibre content. Fibres were in fact found to be protective with regard to colorectal and other selected cancers. In contrast to wholegrain, refined grain intake, and consequently glycaemic load, was associated with an increased risk of different types of cancer, including those of the upper digestive tract, colorectum, breast and endometrium. These results thus suggest that a low-risk diet for cancer entails increasing vegetables and fruit, reducing meat, but also refined carbohydrate consumption. Furthermore, olive oil and other unsaturated fats, which may be a unique common characteristic of the Mediterranean diet, should be preferred to animal and saturated fats. A score summarizing the major characteristics of the Mediterranean diet was inversely and consistently related to the risk of selected cancer sites. Regular consumption of pizza, one of the most typical Italian foods, showed a reduced risk of digestive tract cancers. Pizza could however simply be an indicator of a typical Italian diet.