Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Impacts of Microfinance: Evidence from Joint-Liability Lending in Mongolia

We present evidence from a randomized field experiment in rural Mongolia to assess the poverty impacts of a joint-liability microcredit program targeted at women. We find a positive impact of access to group loans on female entrepreneurship and household food consumption but not on total working hours or income in the household. A simultaneously introduced individual-liability microcredit program delivers no significant poverty impacts. Additional results on informal transfers to families and friends suggest that joint liability may deter borrowers from using loans for noninvestment purposes with stronger impacts as a result. We find no difference in repayment rates between both types of microcredit. (JEL G21, I32, I38, J16, L26, O15, O16)
Small-Signal Modeling and Dynamic Analysis of a Novel ZVZCS Three-Level Converter

The cyclically switching operation of a novel zero-voltage-zero-current-switching three-level converter is briefly presented. Based on a steady-state time-domain analysis of each equivalent switching topology, an average model is obtained. Small-signal open-loop ac line-to-output, control-to-output, and output-current-to-output-voltage transfer functions are deducted. The stability, gain margin, and phase margin of the open-loop transfer functions are studied. After designing the closed loop, the study of the audiosusceptibility and closed-loop output impedance allows for a dynamic analysis: the transient responses to changes in the input voltage and load current are obtained. The results got from the small-signal modeling are compared and confirmed by those obtained by PSPICE simulation and those measured in the laboratory, on an experimental converter of 4.5 kW
CÓMO AFECTA LA CONCILIACIÓN LABORAL Y PERSONAL EN LA INNOVACIÓN DE LA PYME INDUSTRIAL.ESTUDIO EN EL SECTOR DEL METAL DE LA REGIÓN DE MURCIA

RESUMEN: La situacion de crisis economica que sacude a la economia internacional y particularmente nacional asfixia al tejido industrial espanol, compuesto mayoritariamente por PYMEs y que busca en la innovacion empresarial una de las unicas salidas a la supervivencia en el mercado. Este trabajo analiza como una determinada cultura organizativa, en concreto la cultura de conciliacion, puede favorecer la innovacion en la empresa y como, en consecuencia se mejoran los resultados organizativos. El estudio se ha realizado con una muestra de 229 PYMEs del sector del Metal de la Region de Murcia. Los resultados demuestran que la cultura de conciliacion favorece la innovacion empresarial. Los resultados obtenidos se discuten y se destacan las principales las principales contribuciones del trabajo en la parte final del documento donde se ofrecen unas recomendaciones a empresarios e investigadores. Finalmente, el trabajo enumera las limitaciones en la metodologia del trabajo y las principales lineas de investigacion que se derivan de esta aportacion Palabras clave: Innovacion, PYME, conciliacion, fundador, sector metal
Electromagnetic Near Fields as a Function of Electrical Size

The near fields of a radiating rectangular plate placed over and normal to an infinite horizontal ground plane have been analyzed as a function of the electrical size of the plate. Both vertical and horizontal currents are taken into account. Two different methods are used to compute the near fields. The variation of the electric field along the normal to the plate is studied in detail as a function of the electrical length L/? of the plate. The electric-field magnitude decreases as distance r increases until an oscillatory region is encountered about one wavelength from the plate. Oscillations continue until distance is equal to L2 /4? , or one-eighth of the usual far-field distance. The location of various minima and maxima can be predicted by a consideration of Fresnel theory. Comparison is made with the near fields of a circular aperture.
EVI1 modulates oncogenic role of GPC1 in pancreatic carcinogenesis

Glypican-1 (GPC1) protein in exosomes was recently identified as a biomarker for the early detection of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Immunohistochemical analyses and in vitro assays were conducted to assess the usefulness of GPC1 as a PDAC biomarker, to reveal the biological role of GPC1 in pancreatic carcinogenesis, and to ascertain the regulation mechanism of GPC1. An aberrant overexpression of GPC1 protein which is usually absent in normal pancreatic duct, was a widespread marker across the full spectrum of human PDAC precursors, PDAC, and pancreatic cancerous stroma. In intraductal papillary-mucinous neoplasms (IPMNs), GPC1 tended to be positive in gastric-type IPMN. KRAS mutations were found in all GPC1-positive IPMN cases and in one-third of GPC1-negative IPMN cases. In pancreatic cell lines, GPC1 depletion caused remarkable inhibition of cell growth and migration, suggesting its oncogenic roles. GPC1 depletion upregulated the molecules associated with cell cycle arrest in pancreatic cell lines. Furthermore, KRAS and ecotropic viral integration site 1 (EVI1) oncoprotein upregulated GPC1 expression. In a clinical cohort, GPC1 overexpression was not correlated with pancreatic cancer prognosis. Taken together, these findings suggest the necessity of establishing a threshold of GPC1 value for detecting pancreatic malignancy because GPC1 is overexpressed even in low-grade PDAC precursors which do not always become malignant. Our study also reveals a new aspect of pancreatic carcinogenesis: KRAS and EVI1, two important molecules in early phases of pancreatic carcinogenesis, positively regulate GPC1 expression and likely promote pancreatic carcinogenesis.
Characteristics of an alpha-galactosidase associated with grape flesh.

alpha-galactosidase activity in grape flesh (Vitis venifera L. Muscat of Alexandria) was characterized by a marked increase in its activity 4 weeks after fruit bearing. After 12 weeks the specific activity of the enzyme had increased 15-fold. Several other glycosidases were measured at different stages of fruit development but none showed the increased levels of activity displayed by this alpha-galactosidase. alpha-Galactosidase activity (unit/g.fresh wt) increased by 52% during postharvest storage, whereas the unripe grape showed a "stagnancy" for 10-15 days prior to the increase. An alpha-galactosidase was partially purified ca. 103-fold from grape flesh of Vitis labruscana Honey black, by a procedure involving ammonium sulfate fractionation, Biogel P-60, melibiose-agarose, and Sephacryl S-200 chromatographic separations. The enzyme was effectively separated by affinity chromatography on melibiose-agarose, and was a monomer of 40-45 kDa as determined by SDS-PAGE and Sephacryl S-200 chromatographic analysis. The hydrolysis rate of p-nitrophenyl-alpha-D-Gal (PNP-alpha-D-Gal) was 4.2 times higher than that of PNP-beta-D-Gal, implying an apparent alpha-anomer specificity, and natural oligosaccharides such as melibiose, stachyose, and raffinose were also considerably hydrolyzed. The enzyme was active over a narrow pH range with an optimal hydrolysis of stachyose and PNP-alpha-D-Gal at pH 6.0 and 7.0, respectively. EDTA or 1,10-phenanthroline did not substantially affect enzyme activity.
Data access aggregation for context-aware services on CE portable devices

With the promising development of user assist services on consumer electronics portable devices, service applications must continuously monitor dynamically changeable data and status, and judge whether their service actions should be activated. These operations, performed in real-time, result in heavy resource consumption on the portable devices. This paper proposes an innovative way to reduce the consumption by aggregating data access timings requested from multiple applications. Simulation shows that the proposed method can provide the highest precision data while reducing resource consumption. This mechanism can be installed into an operation system on a mobile device, or can operate as a middleware on the device. This must be one of key technologies to reduce battery power consumption of CE devices.
Evaluation of ear rot (Fusarium verticillioides) resistance and fumonisin accumulation in Italian maize inbred lines.

Mycotoxin contamination of maize ( Zea mays L.) grain is a global threat to the safety of both human food and animal feed. Hence, the development of maize genotypes with reduced mycotoxin accumulation in grain is of major importance. In order to find maize germplasm sources of resistance to Fusarium ear rot, 34 Italian and six public inbred lines were evaluated by means of artificial inoculation in field experiments during 2009 and 2010. Relationships between ear rot and fumonisin concentration in the ears were investigated. Primary ears were challenged with a mixture of two Fusarium verticillioides isolates from Northern Italy, through kernel inoculation, and ear rot severity was assessed.The average number of visibly infected kernels per ear, after inoculation, ranged from 2 to 68 in 2009 and from 0 to 120 in 2010. Fumonisin concentrations in the inoculated ears were greater than in the experimental controls for both years. Variability was found between the inbred lines: fumonisin accumulation ranged from 0.56 to 240.83 mg kg-1 in 2009 and from 1.09 to 190.60 mg kg-1 in 2010. In both years, six inbred lines showed high fumonisin content (≥100 mg kg-1), while the other genotypes were almost equally split into two groups, low (≤10 mg kg-1) and medium (from 11 to 100 mg kg-1) fumonisin content. The number of infected kernels after artificial inoculation correlated with fumonisin concentration both in 2009 (r = 0.94; P≤0.01) and 2010 (r = 0.67; P≤0.01). Additionally, the percentage of internally infected kernels correlated positively with fumonisin concentration (r = 0.37; P≤0.01) and with the number of infected kernels (r = 0.29; P≤0.05). This research has demonstrated that Italian maize germplasm is a valid source of resistance to Fusarium ear rot. Furthermore, there is a strong association of visible Fusarium symptoms with fumonisin concentration, suggesting that selection in maize for reduced visible moulds should reduce the risk of mycotoxin contamination.
Intratympanic Injection of Dexamethasone and Electrocochleographic Data in Cases of Definite One Sided Refractory Meniere’s Disease

Introduction: Meniere’s disease (MD) is a disease of the inner ear that presents itself with repeated episodes of vertigo (96.2%), tinnitus (91.1%), and sensorineural hearing loss (87.7 %). In this article we sought to assess the effects of intratympanic (IT) injections of dexamethasone on definite cases of MD using electrocochleography (ECOG). Materials and Methods: In this hospital-based case series in 36 patients, we measured audiometric values and ECOG in all patients before, 1 month and 6 months after 4-mg/mL IT injections of dexamethasone. Results: Four patients (11%) had improved hearing following the intervention. No difference in pure tone audiometry (PTA) was observed following IT injections (P=0.492), while speech discrimination score (SDS) was significantly improved (P=0.008). There was a significant improvement in vertigo 1 month after IT injections (P<0.001), although this effect did not last for 6 months. No significant change in ECOG was observed between before and after treatment (P=0.052). Conclusion: IT dexamethasone injections can improve vertigo in definite cases of MD, although it seems that the effect is only temporary.
A spatial data partitioning and merging method for parallel vector spatial analysis

Based on the principle of the proximity of spatial elements and the equilibrium of spatial data's size, this paper presents a data partitioning and merging method based on spatial filling curve and collection of spatial features. In the data reducing section, this method takes the principle of dynamic tree merging and reduces the times of data serialization and deserialization. The experiment shows that such methods can cut down the time of every process' computing and merging, improve the load balancing degree, and make a great improvement to the efficiency of parallel algorithm and expandability.
MEK5 is Activated by Shear Stress, Activates ERK5 and Induces KLF4 to Modulate TNF Responses in Human Dermal Microvascular Endothelial Cells

Please cite this paper as: Clark, Jensen, Kluger, Morelock, Hanidu, Qi, Tatake, Pober (2011). MEK5 is Activated by Shear Stress, Activates ERK5 and Induces KLF4 to Modulate TNF Responses in Human Dermal Microvascular Endothelial Cells. Microcirculation18(2), 102–117.
My Italy : Design and usability evaluation of an M-Tourism prototype

In this paper we describe the prototype of a location-based M-tourism application called My Italy, developed by the Usability and Accessibility Laboratory (LUA) University of Rome Sapienza. My Italy is a mobile multimedia tourist guide capable of supplying the mobile user with context-aware information during travel in a fast and easy way. My Italy was designed to optimize the user’s experience through a user-friendly interface and proper information architecture. The design process has taken into account the specific needs of tourists as well as several variables that characterize the mobile context. The prototype developed as a result has been tested with users in a real scenario to evaluate its usability and performance.
RADIOPROTECTIVE AGENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF CANCER AND THE ROLE OF AMIFOSTINE : KANSER TEDAVİSİNDE RADYOPROTEKTİF BİLEŞİKLER VE AMİFOSTİNİN ROLÜ

Recently, there has been an increase in the interest in research on radioprotective agents. The aim is to achieve preferential protection of normal tissues against injury inflicted by ionising radiation or chemotherapy agents used to treat tumours. There are several classes of radioprotective compounds are present and still under investigation. Among these agents, commonly the sulfydryl-containing amifostine (Ethyol) is currently the most widely used. Amifostine is a potent radioprotector of normal tissues and protect against radiation carcinogenesis. To be successful in tumor therapy, developing of new radioprotective compounds is urgently needed considering the amifostine is the only one effective compound in use in cancer treatment so far.
An ontology to support the classification of learning material in an organizational learning environment: An evaluation

Purpose The purpose of this research was to evaluate whether ontology integrated in an organizational learning environment may support the automatic learning material classification in a specific knowledge area. Design/methodology/approach An ontology for recommending learning material was integrated in the organizational learning environment based on ontology. An experiment was performed with 15 experts and 84 learners. Experts and learners were asked to classify 30 learning material related to Software Engineering area. The results obtained from experts and learners were compared with the ontology results. Findings Among 30 learning materials evaluated, 24 learning materials got closer to the expert classification using the ontology than using the learners’ manual classification. The learners had difficulties in correctly classifying the learning materials according to the knowledge area applied. Originality/value In an autonomous collaborative environment without a tutor responsible for organizing the learning materials shared by collaborators, an ontology may be an auxiliary mechanism to support automatic learning material classification. The proposed ontology uses recommendations given by the collaborators to get the correct knowledge area classification. The correct classification may support retrieval of appropriate learning materials according to the learners’ needs.
Prospective, National Clinical and Epidemiologic Study on Imported Childhood Malaria in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland

Background: Current knowledge of clinical features of imported childhood malaria is largely limited to small, retrospective, and/or single-center case series. This prospective, population-based study describes the epidemiology and clinical features of imported childhood malaria in children <16 years in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. Methods: Active prospective national surveillance with clinical data collection was performed between January 1, 2006 and January 31, 2007 through the British Pediatric Surveillance Unit and capture-recapture analysis using cases reported independently to respective national surveillance centers. Results: There were 290 cases, including 186 reported through the British Pediatric Surveillance Unit with clinical details. Capture-recapture analysis estimated the burden of imported childhood malaria to be 2.8/100,000 per year for the United Kingdom and 4.6/100,000 per year for Ireland. Black-African children born in the United Kingdom and Ireland and traveling to West Africa during school holidays without antimalarial prophylaxis accounted for the majority of cases. Thirty of 117 children (26%) who had traveled to a malaria-endemic country had previously been diagnosed with malaria, reflecting missed opportunities to educate families on malaria prevention. A third of children (46/148) with Plasmodium falciparum malaria fulfilled World Health Organization criteria for severe or potentially complicated malaria, although only 11/46 (24%) required intensive care. The choice of antimalarials varied considerably among hospitals and within the same hospital. However, recrudescence occurred in only 1 child and none died. Conclusions: Interventions to prevent imported childhood malaria should focus on Black-African families traveling to West Africa, while pediatricians should be offered clearer guidance on the treatment of childhood malaria.
Troponin I degradation and myocardial stunning.

To the Editor: The article by Feng et al1 caused a revolution in current thinking regarding the pathomechanism involved in myocardial stunning, in that it irrefutably proved that there is no causal link between troponin I (TnI) degradation and the transiently depressed contractile function after a brief ischemic episode. However, does this fact imply that …
Radioiodine- 125 in biomedicine: 1959-1984.

Radioiodine, 1125(tÂ1⁄2 @1J days) is the longest-lived radioisotope obtainable in specific activity suit able for an in vivo tracer of stable Iodine, I12@. Each 100 disintegrations is accompanied by 142 â€œusableâ€• photons: about 8 are unconverted 35.4Keyrny-rays and 134are 27.3KeyX-raysfollowingelectron capture and internalconversion. Broad-beamhalf-thicknessin cheeseslices is 2.4 centimeters. Calculated narrow-beamhalf thicknesses are: Water, 1.6; Sodium Iodide, 0.018; Copper, 0.0054; and Lead, 0.0015 Cm. A 2millimeter Na! crystal absorbs more than 99 percent of the photons, and the background is quite low.One millimeterof copperor lead absorbsalmost all photonsso that shieldingis simple,colli mators can be light, and directionality is readily achievable.
Tumor necrosis factor α induces early morphologic and metabolic alterations in friend leukemia cell tumors and fibrosarcomas in mice

Morphologic and metabolic studies have been carried out on Friend leukemia cell (FLC) tumors (grown in DBA/2 mice) or fibrosarcomas (grown in C3H/HeN or C3H/Hej mice) shortly after peritumoral injection of recombinant mouse tumor necrosis factor (TNF) α. Marked vascular congestion and focal extravasation of erythrocytes were observed as soon as I hr after injection of either FLC tumors or fibrosarcomas with TNF. Focal areas of disaggregation of tumor cells were observed I hr after injection of TNF. Intraluminal thrombi (composed of degranulated platelets and fibrin) were detected 3 and 6 hr after TNF treatment, and were associated with areas of depletion of endothelial cell cytoplasm. To correlate these morphologic changes in the tumor with alterations in tumor metabolism, NMR spectroscopy and biochemical studies were undertaken on freshly dissected FLC tumors and fibrosarcomas shortly after injection of TNF. The earliest metabolic alterations observed after I hr in TNF‐treated FLC tumors or fibrosarcomas were: (i) increase in the average intratumoral PH; (ii) decrease in the levels of ATP. These phenomena were not associated with a reduced glycolytic capacity of TNF‐treated tumors as, at these early times after injection, the levels of lactic acid were virtually the same for TNF‐treated or control treated tumors. Alterations in the levels of some products of phospholipid degradation (Gro‐PCho, GroPEtn, Crop and Cho) also occurred in these tumors as early as 3 hr after TNF treatment. These metabolic changes were not observed in ascitic FLC tumors after TNF treatment. We suggest that TNF induces alterations in tumor blood vessels which subsequently lead to changes in tumor metabolism and tumor degeneration.
Mucosal and systemic immune responses to plasmid protein pgp3 in patients with genital and ocular Chlamydia trachomatis infection

The circulating and cervical B cell responses to Chlamydia trachomatis plasmid protein pgp3 were characterized in children and adults with ocular or genital chlamydial infection using the enzyme‐linked immunospot assay (ELISPOT) and ELISA. No pgp3‐specific ASCs were detected in healthy controls, but predominantly IgA ASCs were detected in UK adults with uncomplicated cervicitis or urethritis (P = 0·03, 0·019). In patients with extragenital complications or pelvic inflammatory disease a mixed response with more IgG and IgM ASCs was evident, suggesting a breach of mucosal immune compartmentalization with more extensive infection. In women with chlamydial cervicitis, ASCs secreting predominantly IgA, but also IgG, to pgp3 were present in cervix at presentation, with a frequency 30–50 times higher than blood. Cervical ASC numbers, especially IgG, fell markedly six weeks after antibiotic treatment. We detected principally IgA pgp3‐specific antibody secreting cells (ASCs) in children resident in a Gambian endemic area, with a trend towards suppression of IgA responses during intense trachomatous inflammation (P = 0·06), as previously reported for other chlamydial antigens, and in keeping with the findings in genital disease. These data provide a rationale for further studies of immune responses to pgp3 in humans and animal models of chlamydia‐induced disease, and its potential use in diagnostic assays and protective immunization strategies.
DFT calculation of carbon nanotubes energy and dipole moment in external electric field

This article presents an analysis of the total energy and dipole moment of open-ended carbon nanotubes in presence of external electric field. Density functional theory has been applied for modelling with hybrid functional of Becke, Lee, Yang and Parr for exchange-correlation term. The 6-31g basis set provides initial approximation. Calculations were done by quantum chemistry program Gaussian 09 with GaussView 5.0. 9 visualization.