Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Autoantibodies to Citrullinated (Poly)Peptides: A Key Diagnostic and Prognostic Marker for Rheumatoid Arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), is a common systemic autoimmune disease with a prevalence of about 1% worldwide. RA is marked by a chronic inflammation of the synovial joints, which leads to joint swelling, progressive joint erosions and eventually disability. Current therapies for RA are mainly anti-inflammatory strategies and so far unable to cure the disease. Nevertheless, these therapies can slow down the extent of swelling and erosive damage (reviewed by Smolen and Steiner). Insights gained over the last years suggest that aggressive therapy given early in the disease has the greatest therapeutic potential. It is therefore, crucial to identify the RA patients prior to the occurrence of joint damage. The American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria for classification of RA are mainly based on clinical observations and are therefore, not well suited to diagnose RA at an early stage of the disease. The only serological marker included in the ACR criteria is the rheumatoid factor (RF). RF antibodies can be detected in the majority of RA patients (up to 80%), but are not very specific (less than 90%) for RA. For this reason, more specific and sensitive serological markers would be beneficial. The serological marker that meets these requirements is the anti-citrullinated protein antibody. This review will discuss the potential of this autoantibody system for the diagnosis and prognosis of RA.
Service Quality Components and Group Criteria in Local Government

Uses exploratory factor analysis to investigate the dimensions of service which consumers of local government services use as a basis for their judgement of service quality: 30 customers of such a local government authority were surveyed. The six factors identified were cluster analysed to see whether or not the survey population represented groups of people who ascribed different levels of importance to the service quality dimensions. This was found to be true. Other demographic groupings of respondents were also investigated for such differences in importance using analysis of variance. People with different income levels and different ethnic backgrounds were found to attribute different levels of importance to some of the dimensions which had been identified. The results suggest that local government authorities need to take into account strategic dimensions and sectoral views of dimensional importances if they are to maximize their customer perceived service quality performance.
An error control scheme of hybrid ARQ based on conception of plurality voting

Based on the conception of voting, this paper proposes an error control scheme of hybrid ARQ for binary linear block codes over AWGN channel. The proposed scheme keeps each decoded code word in the memory buffers as a candidate at each transmission. Whenever there are a number of code words in the candidates are the same one, retransmission stops. In other words, the plurality of code words among candidates is chosen as the output code word. Simulation results illustrate that the proposed scheme outperforms ARQ scheme not only in the throughput efficiency but also in the error-correcting performance, particularly under low SNR.
Buyer beliefs, attitudes and behaviour: foods with therapeutic claims

Builds on past studies in the USA and assesses the market potential for functional goods through investigating consumer needs and attitudes. Aims to add to past research through: assessing consumer knowledge and beliefs on nutrition and diet‐health relationships; analysing the influence of such knowledge and beliefs of information and sources of information; and evaluating the effectiveness and implications of government preventative health campaigns on purchase behaviour. Concludes that issues regarding personal and national health are extremely important because of the financial costs and human suffering that could be involved; and that functional goods, as a relatively new phenomenon, still need to be examined further with regard to their influence on trust and legitimacy in buyer behaviour.
PAIN From the gate to the neuromatrix

The gate control theory’s most important contribution to understanding pain was its emphasis on central neural mechanisms. The theory forced the medical and biological sciences to accept the brain as an active system that filters, selects and modulates inputs. The dorsal horns, too, were not merely passive transmission stations but sites at which dynamic activities (inhibition, excitation and modulation) occurred. The great challenge ahead of us is to understand brain function. I have therefore proposed that the brain possesses a neural network the bodyself neuromatrix which integrates multiple inputs to produce the output pattern that evokes pain. The body-self neuromatrix comprises a widely distributed neural network that includes parallel somatosensory, limbic and thalamocortical components that subserve the sensorydiscriminative, affective-motivational and evaluative-cognitive dimensions of pain experience. The synaptic architecture of the neuromatrix is determined by genetic and sensory influences. The ‘neurosignature’ output of the neuromatrix patterns of nerve impulses of varying temporal and spatial dimensions is produced by neural programs genetically build into the neuromatrix and determines the particular qualities and other properties of the pain experience and behavior. Multiple inputs that act on the neuromatrix programs and contribute to the output neurosignature include, (1) sensory inputs (cutaneous, visceral and other somatic receptors); (2) visual and other sensory inputs that influence the cognitive interpretation of the situation; (3) phasic and tonic cognitive and emotional inputs from other areas of the brain; (4) intrinsic neural inhibitory modulation inherent in all brain function; (5) the activity of the body’s stress-regulation systems, including cytokines as well as the endocrine, autonomic, immune and opioid systems. We have traveled a long way from the psychophysical concept that seeks a simple one-to-one relationship between injury and pain. We now have a theoretical framework in which a genetically determined template for the body-self is modulated by the powerful stress system and the cognitive functions of the brain, in addition to the traditional sensory inputs. 6 1999 International Association for the Study of Pain. Published by Elsevier Science B.V. Keywords; Gate control theory: Neuromatrix; Neurosignature
The internationalization of Indian SMEs in B‐to‐B markets

Purpose – The study aims to examine the effect of market orientation on the international performance of Indian SMEs in the business‐to‐business market; assess the potential moderating effect of environmental uncertainty, along with market orientation, on SMEs' performance; and discuss implications to guide SME owners/managers in their efforts to successfully expand internationally in turbulent markets.Design/methodology/approach – Surveys were sent to a random cross‐sectional industry sample of SMEs located in India. The data consisted of 150 responses.Findings – Market orientation and international orientation are positively related to export performance and the relationship between the market orientation and international performance of Indian SMEs is moderated by market turbulence.Research limitations/implications – The data were collected at a single point in time, and therefore do not allow the determination of cause and effect or the impact of changes over time. Data were collected with a reliance .
Downlink blind interference alignment for cellular networks

We consider downlink transmission in a two-cell network where each base station has multiple antennas and each user has a pattern reconfigurable antenna. Without channel state information at the transmitters, existing approaches do not fully exploit the degrees of freedom (DoF) of the network due to detrimental effects of inter-cell interference and intra-cell interference. In this work, we propose a blind interference alignment scheme which can cancel both types of interference. We show that the achievable DoF is asymptotically optimal for large antenna array.
Memory CD4+ T-Lymphocyte Loss and Dysfunction during Primary Simian Immunodeficiency Virus Infection

ABSTRACT It has long been appreciated that CD4+ T lymphocytes are dysfunctional in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV)-infected individuals, and it has recently been shown that HIV/SIV infections are associated with a dramatic early destruction of memory CD4+ T lymphocytes. However, the relative contributions of CD4+ T-lymphocyte dysfunction and loss to immune dysregulation during primary HIV/SIV infection have not been fully elucidated. In the current study, we evaluated CD4+ T lymphocytes and their functional repertoire during primary SIVmac251 infection in rhesus monkeys. We show that the extent of loss of memory CD4+ T lymphocytes and staphylococcal enterotoxin B-stimulated cytokine production by total CD4+ T lymphocytes during primary SIVmac251 infection is tightly linked in a cohort of six rhesus monkeys to set point plasma viral RNA levels, with greater loss and dysfunction being associated with higher steady-state viral replication. Moreover, in exploring the mechanism underlying this phenomenon, we demonstrate that the loss of functional CD4+ T lymphocytes during primary SIVmac251 infection is associated with both a selective depletion of memory CD4+ T cells and a loss of the functional capacity of the memory CD4+ T lymphocytes that escape viral destruction.
Global Crisis, Regulatory Reform and International Policy Coordination

The recent global crisis has brought the following issues to the forefront of macro-policy analysis: (a) procyclicality of bank capital regulation, (b) role of asset bubbles, (c) high social costs of financial failures and (d) high leverage of financial institutions (FIs). It has been realized by the global community that tackling these problems calls for a coordinated approach in which the following agencies will have to play a vital role: National regulatory and supervisory (R&S) authorities International Monetary Fund (IMF) Financial Stability Forum (FSF) International standard setting bodies—Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS), International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), etc. Influential groups like G-20 For purposes of this article, we focus on the role of national R&S authorities and find that this role revolves around seven key policy areas, namely (a) making monetary policy respond to asset prices, (b) strengthening and expanding the scope of regulation and supervision, (c) controlling leverage of FIs, (d) dampening procyclicality of capital requirements, (e) reducing costs of financial failures, (f) devising market incentives for prudent behaviour and (g) a shift from micro-prudential to macro-prudential regulation. We examine to what extent the official financial supervisory and regulatory authorities in India have fulfilled this role successfully. JEL Classification: E6, F4, F5
Issues in SME development in Ghana and South Africa

This paper discusses the characteristics of SMEs to economic development, and the constraints to SME development in developing countries with particular reference to Ghana and South Africa. SMEs in Ghana have been noted to provide about 85% of manufacturing employment of Ghana. They are also believed to contribute about 70% to Ghana’s GDP and account for about 92% of businesses in Ghana. In the Republic of South Africa, it is estimated that 91% of the formal business entities are SMEs. They also contribute 52-57% to GDP and provide about 61% to employment . Notwithstanding the recognition of the important roles SMEs play in these countries, their development is largely constrained by the number of factors such as lack of access to appropriate technology; limited access to international markets, the existence of laws, regulations and rules that impede the development of the sector; weak institutional capacity, lack of management skills and training, and most importantly finance. This paper provides some relevant recommendations to policy makers, development agencies, entrepreneurs, and SME mangers to ascertain the appropriate strategy to improve the SME sector in these countries.
Verbal fluency: Effect of time on item generation

The distribution of item generation/time in the performance of elderly on verbal fluency (VF) remains unknown. Objective To analyze the number of items, their distribution and impact of the first quartile on the final test result. Methods 31 individuals performed the tests (average age=74 years; schooling=8.16 years). Results The number of items produced in the first quartile differed from the other quartiles for both semantic and phonologic VF where 40% of items were produced in the first quartile. No effect of age was found and schooling influenced performance on the first and second quartiles of semantic VF and on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd quartiles of phonemic VF. Discussion This study contributes with the finding that asymptotic levels are attained prior to the 30 seconds observed in other studies, being reached at the 15-second mark. Furthermore, schooling was found to be associated to the number of items produced in both the first and 2nd quartiles for semantic VF, and in 1st, 2nd and 3rd quartiles for phonemic fluency. Conclusion The schooling effect was noted both in semantic and executive aspects of VF. The brief form of the VF test may represent a promising tool for clinical evaluation.
Islamic Finance Ethics and Shari'ah Law in the Aftermath of the Crisis: Concept and Practice of Shari'ah Compliant Finance

As its name suggests, Islamic finance is based on a religious worldview and is thus often considered to be 'ethical finance' per se. It is expected to observe the prohibition against interest (riba), uncertainty (gharar) and gambling (maysir), and it is supposed to tie financial transactions to activities in the real economy and share entrepreneurial risks. Proponents of Islamic banking claim that it is therefore supe- rior to conventional finance regarding efficiency, justice and stability. The practice of Islamic banking, however, has reduced potentially substantial differences to actu- ally subtle distinctions in the contractual basis of financial transactions. The replica- tion of conventional products - including functional equivalents for complex struc- tured products similar to those that contributed to the recent financial crisis - took place with the approval of prominent scholars on the Shari'ah boards of Islamic financial institutions. The said Shari'ah scholars see themselves more as legal advi- sors than as guardians of business ethics. Their micro-legalistic approach ('Shari'ah compliance') is very different from the macro-systemic perspective of Islamic econ- omists who have been developing models of interest-free and profit and loss-shar- ing economies since the second half of the last century. But with 'form over sub- stance' in practice, Islamic finance has become a profitable segment of the global finance industry. In its present form, it is neither more ethical nor more efficient or stable than 'prudent' conventional banking. This could change in the future. The Islamic finance industry might respond to a growing demand from the public for more ethical banking and socially responsible investment and to the increasing con- cerns of some regulators in relation to more genuine Shari'ah based financial inno- vations with an explicit ethical profile and a consistent link to the real economy.
RGS2 Inhibits the Epithelial Ca2+ Channel TRPV6*

The epithelial Ca2+ channels TRPV5 and TRPV6 constitute the apical Ca2+ entry pathway in the process of active Ca2+ (re)absorption. By yeast two-hybrid and glutathione S-transferase pulldown analysis we identified RGS2 as a novel TRPV6-associated protein. RGS proteins determine the inactivation kinetics of heterotrimeric G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) signaling by regulating the GTPase activity of Gα subunits. Here we demonstrate that TRPV6 interacts with the NH2-terminal domain of RGS2 in a Ca2+-independent fashion and that overexpression of RGS2 reduces the Na+ and Ca2+ current of TRPV6 but not that of TRPV5-transfected human embryonic kidney 293 (HEK293) cells. In contrast, overexpression of the deletion mutant ΔN-RGS2, lacking the NH2-terminal domain of RGS2, in TRPV6-expressing HEK293 cells did not show this inhibition. Furthermore, cell surface biotinylation indicated that the inhibitory effect of RGS2 on TRPV6 activity is not mediated by differences in trafficking or retrieval of TRPV6 from the plasma membrane. This effect probably results from the direct interaction between RGS2 and TRPV6, affecting the gating properties of the channel. Finally, the scaffolding protein spinophilin, shown to recruit RGS2 and regulate GPCR-signaling via Gα, did not affect RGS2 binding and electrophysiological properties of TRPV6, indicating a GPCR-independent mechanism of TRPV6 regulation by RGS2.
What to do after the clean slate? Post-relief public debt sustainability and management

Major international public debt relief initiatives for low-income countries are nearing their end. This report reflects on the legacy of such initiatives and casts some light on the future. First, we summarise the literature on the evolution and effects of past debt relief efforts. We find that grand, concerted initiatives like HIPC and MDRI have been necessary interventions to render low-income countries’ debt stocks and service sustainable again, although their impact on governance, investment, pro-poor spending, and ultimately, growth and poverty reduction remains difficult to gauge. Based on the latest IMF’s DSAs, the immediate prospects for debt sustainability in former HIPCs seem moderately positive, albeit with a few exceptions. In the second part of the report we document a number of post-relief trends in development financing and (planned) initiatives deemed to be of importance for debt sustainability and management over the medium- to longer-term. Among the evolutions that require close monitoring are the growing importance of loans in overall ODA, the crossing of World Bank’s IDA eligibility thresholds by fast-growing former HIPCs, the aid-cum-investment packages of emerging donors, and ex-HIPCs’ recently acquired access to international and domestic capital markets. We argue that, above all, countries themselves will need to better manage the key drivers of public debt dynamics, through prudent fiscal, monetary and exchange rate policies and growth-enhancing strategies. Donors should continue to assist countries by improving the DSA/DSF framework and extending current activities aimed at building local debt management capacity. Lastly, we compare ‘market-based’ and ‘statutory’ approaches to future restructuring of non-concessional public debt, i.e., adaptations to the contractual clauses of international bonds vs. a full-fledged multilateral legal framework. Whereas the first approach has already achieved some successes, it has limited scope and does not address problems beyond collective action failures. Conversely, the second approach is more comprehensive but faces many hurdles, not the least of which is opposition from the main financial centres.
The landscape of the Hubbard model

I present a pedagogical survey of a variety of quantum phases of the Hubbard model. The honeycomb lattice model has a conformal field theory connecting the semi-metal to the insulator with Neel order. States with fractionalized excitations are linked to the deconfined phases of gauge theories. I also consider the confining phases of such gauge theories, and show how Berry phases of monopoles induce valence bond solid order. The triangular lattice model can display a metal-insulator transition from a Fermi liquid to a deconfined spin liquid, and I describe the theory of this transition. The bilayer triangular lattice is used to illustrate another compressible metallic phase, the `fractionalized Fermi liquid'. I make numerous connections of these phases and critical points to the AdS/CFT correspondence. In particular, I argue that two recent holographic constructions connect respectively to the Fermi liquid and fractionalized Fermi liquid phases.
Target Identification and Distributed Cooperative Control of Sensor Networks

With the advances in communication and embedded systems, the monitoring and/or controlling of physical phenomena that span over wide spatial area have been attempted with deployment of a network of inexpensive and miniature sensors. In this paper, we focus on the automated sensor management for target identification at the application layer. The sensor management is formulated using graph grammar that reactively control the states of the sensors based on their proximity to the target and the states of their neighboring sensors. Target identification, on the other hand, concerns the estimation of the target's kinematics and attributes. The current practice is often formulated as finding the conditional probability of the target type on features derived from the sensor measurements with statistical pattern recognition. However, due to lack of training data, we demonstrate that the use of semantic latent indexing and stochastic approximation techniques, borrowed from the computer science community, is a more powerful method for sensor management and target identification.
The effects of ranibizumab (Lucentis) on retinal function in isolated perfused vertebrate retina

Background: Intraocular ranibizumab (Lucentis, Novartis, Basel Switzerland) is the primary choice in the treatment of neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is known to be a survival factor for neuronal cells. Therefore, blockage of all VEGF isoforms by ranibizumab could induce retinal dysfunction. Methods: Using isolated bovine retinas, the electroretinogram (ERG) was recorded as a transretinal potential using Ag/AgCl electrodes, while the retinas were perfused with an oxygen preincubated nutrient solution. For 45 min, ranibizumab was applied at a concentration of 0.2 mg/ml and alternatively the solvent carrier without the active agent. The ERG was monitored before, during and after exposure. Results: The concentration of 0.2 mg/ml ranibizumab induced a non-significant b-wave reduction of 22.32% after exposure (p = 0.13). For the a-wave amplitude only a reduction of 4% was detected (p = 0.18). The solvent carrier induced no significant reduction of the a- and b-wave amplitudes (p = 0.30 and p = 0.979, respectively). Conclusion: In the ex vivo model, the isolated perfused vertebrate retina, ranibizumab has been proven to be a safe compound at the concentrations applied. The stability of the ERG-amplitudes rules out a considerable retinal dysfunction after an injection of up to 1 mg ranibizumab.
The Changing Benefit of REITs to the Mixed-Asset Portfolio

Executive Summary. A number of studies have examined the allocation of public real estate securities (REITs) in the mixed-asset portfolio. Yet no study has explicitly examined what benefits REITs offer to the traditional capital market mixed-asset portfolio (i.e., whether REITs are a return enhancer, diversifier, or both). This paper examines this issue using the method suggested by Liang and McIntosh (1999), which decomposes the overall risk-adjusted benefits of an investment to an existing portfolio into its diversification benefits and return benefits. The results show that REITs offer different benefits to different asset classes and the mixedasset portfolio and that these benefits have changed over time. Thus, whether REITs can have a place in any future mixed-asset portfolio largely depends on the relative return performance of REITs versus the alternative asset classes within the mixed-asset portfolio.