Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Why Has the U.S. Economy Stagnated since the Great Recession?

Abstract Since the Great Recession in 2007–2009, U.S. real GDP has failed to return to its previously projected path, a phenomenon widely associated with secular stagnation. We investigate whether this stagnation was due to hysteresis effects from the Great Recession, a persistent negative output gap following the recession, or slower trend growth for other reasons. To do so, we develop a new Markov-switching time series model of output growth that accommodates two different types of recessions: those that permanently alter the level of real GDP and those with only temporary effects. We also account for structural change in trend growth. Estimates from our model suggest that the Great Recession generated a large, persistent negative output gap rather than any substantial hysteresis effects, with the economy eventually recovering to a lower trend path that appears to be due to a reduction in productivity growth that began prior to the onset of the Great Recession.
The role of peripheral N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors in muscle hyperalgesia

The present study demonstrates that intramuscular administration of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist AP5 dose-dependently attenuates complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA) induced muscular hyperalgesia. CFA significantly reduced mean bite force and success rate in the rats trained to produce a specific bite force. Pretreatment with AP5 reversed the overall magnitude of reduction in mean bite force and success rate in CFA inflamed rats, and significantly facilitated the recovery of these measures to pre-injection level. AP5 treatment 1 day after the CFA injection had little effect on CFA-mediated changes in bite force measurements. These data suggest that peripheral N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors play a critical role in the development of persistent muscle hyperalgesia, and provide important new insights for therapeutic alternatives that can be directed at the periphery.
3D X-Ray Source Deblurring in High Cone-Angle Micro-CT

High geometric magnification X-ray micro-computed tomography (μCT) is used to study many high-resolution features in insects, cellular, bones, composite and mineral materials. The resolution of lab-based μCT in a fine-focus geometry is limited by blurring that occurs below the spatial coherence length of the illuminating radiation: resolution can be no smaller than the size of the X-ray source spot. In cases where the source spot size cannot be reduced (e.g. due to signal-to-noise, time or cost considerations) there is a need to model and correct for this blurring. In ANU CT-lab, we use a high cone angle and high geometric magnification with transmission x-ray source spot size up to three voxels, this creates blurring in the projection. This work takes a simulation approach mimicking such source spot size, and compares systems with horizontal cone-angles (often referred to as the fan angle) of 0.06, 14.36 and 60 degrees. We aim to eliminate this blurring in the reconstruction process. Furthermore, in a high cone-angle geometry, using a reconstruction method that only deconvolves each projection image leads to non-uniform resolution in the reconstruction volume. Alternatively, iterative methods that fully model the non-point source and avoid such artefacts are computationally expensive. We propose a hybrid method that corrects the effect of the non-point source by better modelling the physics rather than just deconvolving each projection image, therefore obtains results closer to the iterative full modelling method, and while being computationally much cheaper.
Patient characteristics, drug adherence patterns, and hypoglycemia costs for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus newly initiated on exenatide or insulin glargine*

ABSTRACT Objective: Examine real-world effectiveness and hypoglycemia cost burden in patients with type 2 diabetes newly initiated on exenatide or insulin glargine. Design and methods: Retrospective cohort study describing patient characteristics, drug adherence patterns, and 1-year hypoglycemia rates with associated costs using an administrative claims database. Adult subjects with type 2 diabetes had an initial claim for exenatide or insulin glargine between May 1, 2005 and June 30, 2007, and had continuous eligibility for ≥ 6 months pre- and ≥ 12 months post-initiation. Results: The exenatide cohort (n = 3262) was 53 ± 10 years (±SD); 54% female. The insulin glargine cohort (n = 3038) was 56 ± 12 years; 41% female. The mean Deyo-Charlson comorbidity index score was 1.45 for exenatide versus 1.82 for insulin glargine (p < 0.001). Baseline OAD use rates for exenatide and insulin glargine, respectively, were 77% versus 69% metformin; 47% versus 65% sulfonylurea; 50% versus 49% thiazolidinedione; 56% versus 60% multiple OAD. For patients with two or more pharmacy claims for exenatide or insulin glargine, the 12-month medication possession ratio (MPR) was 68 ± 29% for exenatide and 58 ± 28% for insulin glargine (p < 0.001). MPR ≥ 80% was higher for exenatide (p < 0.001) and fewer patients discontinued therapy (p < 0.001). The probability of a hypoglycemic event was significantly lower for exenatide (p < 0.005), resulting in lower associated annual costs. Conclusions: This study provides the first real-world observational comparison of type 2 diabetes patients newly initiated on exenatide or insulin glargine. Exenatide patients had a lower comorbidity burden, better drug adherence, and a lower rate of hypoglycemic events with associated costs. Retrospective database analyses examine medical care utilization in large populations using a relatively inexpensive and expedient approach. However, data are only representative of a commercial health-care plan with limited information on multiple variables usually collected during clinical trials.
Impact of Menthol Inhalation on Nasal Mucosal Temperature and Nasal Patency

Background Menthol is a natural herbal compound. Its isomer L-menthol presents the characteristic peppermint scent and is also responsible for the cooling sensation when applied to nasal mucosal surfaces because of stimulation of trigeminal cold receptors. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of menthol inhalation on end-inspiratory nasal mucosa temperature and nasal patency. Methods Eighteen healthy volunteers with a mean age of 30 years were enrolled in this study. Objective measurements included the septal mucosal temperature within the nasal valve area by using a miniaturized thermocouple as well as active anterior rhinomanometry before and after inhalation of l-menthol vapor. All subjects completed a visual analog scale (VAS; range, 1–10) evaluating nasal patency before and after menthol. Results The mean end-inspiratory mucosal temperature ranged from 27.7°C (±4.0) before menthol inhalation to 28.5°C (±3.5) after menthol inhalation. There were no statistically significant differences between the temperature values before and after menthol inhalation (p > 0.05). In addition, no statistically significant differences between the rhinomanometric values before and after menthol inhalation were observed. Sixteen of the 18 subjects reported an improvement of nasal breathing after menthol inhalation by means of the VAS. Conclusion Menthol inhalation does not have an effect on nasal mucosal temperature and nasal airflow. The subjective impression of an improved nasal airflow supports the fact that menthol leads to a direct stimulation of cold receptors modulating the cool sensation, entailing the subjective feeling of a clear and wide nose.
Effort-Reward Imbalance, Overcommitment, and Psychological Distress in Canadian Police Officers

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship among Effort, Reward, and Overcommitment dimensions of Siegrist's Effort-Reward Imbalance Model and Psychological Distress in a sample of 78 Canadian police officers. Ages of respondents ranged between 24 and 56 years (M = 36.1, SD=8.0). 30% of respondents had been in policing for 16 years or more, 24% between 6 and 15 years, and 44% for 5 years or less. Ordinary least-squares regression was used to evaluate the relationship between the independent and dependent variables. After adjusting for age, sex, education, and marital status, higher levels of Effort-Reward Imbalance and Overcommitment were associated with greater Psychological Distress. Present findings support the utility of the model in this particular occupational group and add to the increasing literature suggesting association of Effort-Reward Imbalance, Overcommitment, and reduced mental health.
Mitochondrial dysfunction and Down's syndrome.

Neither the pathogenesis nor the aetiology of Down's syndrome (DS) are clearly understood. Numerous studies have examined whether clinical features of DS are a consequence of specific chromosome 21 segments being triplicated. There is no evidence, however, that individual loci are responsible, or that the oxidative damage in DS could be solely explained by a gene dosage effect. Using astrocytes and neuronal cultures from DS fetuses, a recent paper shows that altered metabolism of the amyloid precursor protein and oxidative stress result from mitochondrial dysfunction.1 These findings are consistent with considerable data implicating the role of the mitochondrial genome in DS pathogenesis and aetiology.
The International Committee for Monitoring Assisted Reproductive Technology (ICMART) and the World Health Organization (WHO) Revised Glossary on ART Terminology, 2009.

BACKGROUND Many definitions used in medically assisted reproduction (MAR) vary in different settings, making it difficult to standardize and compare procedures in different countries and regions. With the expansion of infertility interventions worldwide, including lower resource settings, the importance and value of a common nomenclature is critical. The objective is to develop an internationally accepted and continually updated set of definitions, which would be utilized to standardize and harmonize international data collection, and to assist in monitoring the availability, efficacy, and safety of assisted reproductive technology (ART) being practiced worldwide. METHOD Seventy-two clinicians, basic scientists, epidemiologists and social scientists gathered together at the WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland in December, 2008. Several months in advance, three working groups were established which were responsible for terminology in three specific areas: clinical conditions and procedures, laboratory procedures and outcome measures. Each group reviewed the existing ICMART glossary, made recommendations for revisions and introduced new terms to be considered for glossary expansion. RESULTS A consensus was reached on 87 terms, expanding the original glossary by 34 terms, which included definitions for numerous clinical and laboratory procedures. Special emphasis was placed in describing outcome measures such as cumulative delivery rates and other markers of safety and efficacy in ART. CONCLUSIONS Standardized terminology should assist in analysis of worldwide trends in MAR interventions and in the comparison of ART outcomes across countries and regions. This glossary will contribute to a more standardized communication among professionals responsible for ART practice, as well as those responsible for national, regional and international registries.
Canadian Immigration Policies: Blueprint for Europe?

In Europe discussions about immigration policies have been wide-spread and heated ever since a flood of illegal immigrants have reached Europe’s shores and caused problems with labour markets, housing, fiscal, social and cultural institutions. Some commentators see the solution to some of these problems in the adoption of the Canadian model for the selection of immigrants. This paper contributes to this discussion by a description of current Canadian immigration policies and a discussion of the negative economic and social effects it has produced. It concludes with a presentation of reforms of the existing system that have been proposed and speculates why politicians have been unwilling to adopt any of these reforms.
Analysis of English Spelling Errors in a Word-Typing Game

The emergence of the web has necessitated the need to detect and correct noisy consumer-generated texts. Most of the previous studies on English spelling-error extraction collected English spelling errors from web services such as Twitter by using the edit distance or from input logs utilizing crowdsourcing. However, in the former approach, it is not clear which word corresponds to the spelling error, and the latter approach requires an annotation cost for the crowdsourcing. One notable exception is Rodrigues and Rytting (2012), who proposed to extract English spelling errors by using a word-typing game. Their approach saves the cost of crowdsourcing, and guarantees an exact alignment between the word and the spelling error. However, they did not assert whether the extracted spelling error corpora reflect the usual writing process such as writing a document. Therefore, we propose a new correctable word-typing game that is more similar to the actual writing process. Experimental results showed that we can regard typing-game logs as a source of spelling errors.
Laparoscopic Surgery for Ovarian Lesions: Potential Pitfalls

Laparoscopic surgery for ovarian lesions has the potential for an enormous positive impact on the care that we are able to provide for our patients. Technologic advances and the proliferation of new equipment have occurred at a rapid rate. However, the criteria for the safe and appropriate use of endoscopic surgery have not been developed fully or followed by all surgeons, and there is some evidence that a lack of adherence to carefully considered protocols has the potential to have an adverse impact on women with ovarian lesions. McDonough made a thoughtful presentation on the need for technology assessment in the reproductive sciences, focusing on the fact that there has been a rapid diffusion of technology without prior broad-based critical peer review and stressing the need to have scientific technology assessment. Pitkin, in his editorial on operative laparoscopy, questioned whether we are evaluating therapeutic appropriateness properly as a separate and independent issue from technical feasibility. Obviously, it would be preferable to have had more controlled prospective data on the relative merits and risks of the use of the laparoscope for resection of ovarian cysts before the widespread use of this technology. However, there are several situations in which it currently appears to have important clinical utility for the patient. In addition, it already is being used widely, and it would be inappropriate to withhold this method from our patients. However, it should be urged that careful prospective evaluation be undertaken so that both the scientific community and the public are able to have an accurate understanding of the risks, benefits, indications, and contraindications of this technology. In addition, when a surgeon is considering pelviscopic surgery for an ovarian mass, it is essential that this be done with strict adherence to carefully constructed preoperative criteria and intraoperative protocols.
Assessment of drivers to implement integrated lean green manufacturing system in Indian SMEs through IF-TOPSIS approach

Due to globalisation and strict environmental regulation by government agencies, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are under hideous pressure to improve their operational, financial as well as environmental performance. Taking this fact into consideration, an integrated lean green manufacturing system (LGMS) has been proposed as a solution to improve the overall performance of SMEs. It is important to identify the essential driving factors that influence in adoption of LGMS in SMEs. Therefore, present study examines the rank of drivers by utilising an intuitionistic fuzzy technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (IF-TOPSIS) approach. Finding of the study shows that 'competitiveness', 'legislative and regulatory compliances', 'reduce manufacturing cost', 'market trends' and 'improve working environment' are the top most essential drivers among 23 drivers. This study provides important insights to policy makers in government and industries for proper and effective implementation of LGMS in manufacturing SMEs.
Transformer-less photovoltaic (PV) inverters: A critical comparison

Transformer-less photovoltaic (PV) inverters specifically designed to achieve high efficiency shall also comply with leakage current limits, low current harmonic distortion and reactive power handling capability. This paper aims at benchmarking some recently published or patented topologies with the most successful industrial products and it offers a complete trends scenario and a critical comparison. The performances are evaluated in terms of efficiency, common-mode voltage, leakage current, power quality, reactive power handling capability, size of the grid filter and power converter rating.
Prevalence of Coxiella burnetii in cattle at South Korean national breeding stock farms

This is the first study to evaluate the serologic and molecular prevalence of Coxiella burnetii in cattle at national breeding stock farms in South Korea. These government farms have well-organized biosecurity and management systems to prevent livestock diseases. Of the 736 cattle in this study, 77 tested positive for antibodies against C. burnetii antigens (10.5%, 95% CI: 8.3–12.7) and 11 were positive for a C. burnetti infection on PCR analysis (1.5%, 95% CI: 0.6–2.4). Since the 16S rRNA sequences of C. burnetii from all 11 PCR-positive samples were identical, three representative samples (C-CN-3 from the southern region, C-JJ-9 from Jeju Island, and C-CB-37 from the central region) are described in this paper. These three sequences had 99.3–100% identity to those of C. burnetii deposited in GenBank. These sequences clustered with those from USA, Japan, and Greenland, underscoring the sequence similarity among C. burnetii isolates in these countries. Because C. burnetii was detected in cattle at well-managed national breeding stock farms, cattle at non-government operated farms may be more likely to be exposed to C. burnetii in South Korea. Thus, continuous surveillance and control strategies in animals and humans are required to prevent the transmission of C. burnetii to humans.
Sources of mechanical power for uphill running in humans

SUMMARY During uphill running limb muscles must perform net mechanical work to increase the body's potential energy, while during level running the net mechanical work required is negligible as long as speed is constant. The increased demands for work as running incline increases might be met by an increase in power output at all joints, or only a subset of joints. We used inverse dynamics to determine which joints modulate net work output in humans running uphill. We measured joint kinematics and ground reaction force during moderate speed running at 0°, 6° and 12° inclines. Muscle force, joint power and work per step were determined at the ankle, knee and hip using inverse dynamics calculations. We found that virtually all of the increase in work output with increasing incline resulted from increases in net work done at the hip (-0.25±0.23 J kg-1, level, vs 0.88±0.10 J kg-1, 12° incline), while the knee and ankle performed similar functions at all inclines. The increase in work output at the hip resulted primarily from a large increase in average net muscle moment during stance (2.07±17.84 Nm, level, vs 87.30±13.89 Nm, 12° incline); joint excursion increased by only 20% (41.22±3.41°, level, vs 49.22±2.35°, 12° incline). The increase in hip muscle moment and power was associated with a poorer mechanical advantage for producing force against the ground. The increase in hip moment with running incline allows for the production of the power necessary to lift the body. This power may be developed by hip extensors or by transfer of power from muscles at other joints via biarticular muscles.
What Explains the Variety of Reform Outcomes Across Countries

Suppose an identical regulatory reform is adopted simultaneously across a number of countries. We argue that the reformers will grow differently after the reform. To understand the reasons behind the eventual outcome divergence, we set up a tractable general equilibrium (GE) model to study how firms of different size grow after a regulatory reform. The reform reduces the costs to start, operate and close a business. The regulatory cost is modeled as lost labor hours. The model predicts that larger firms will grow faster than smaller firms after the reform. We then take the model predictions to the largest global publicly available firm-level data set, the Enterprise Surveys (ES), which encompasses 121,991 firm-level observations from 2006 to 2015 in 136 countries and territories and 211 country-years. We merge the ES data with the Doing Business indicators. We then test the theoretical predictions, which are broadly confirmed in the data. Thus, based on the notable differences of firm-size distributions across countries which are fairly stable over time, identical reforms may produce a variety of growth outcomes across countries.
Evidence for angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 as a therapeutic target for the prevention of pulmonary hypertension.

RATIONALE It has been proposed that an activated renin angiotensin system (RAS) causes an imbalance between the vasoconstrictive and vasodilator mechanisms involving the pulmonary circulation leading to the development of pulmonary hypertension (PH). Recent studies have indicated that angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), a member of the vasoprotective axis of the RAS, plays a regulatory role in lung pathophysiology, including pulmonary fibrosis and acute lung disease. Based on these observations, we propose the hypothesis that activation of endogenous ACE2 can shift the balance from the vasoconstrictive, proliferative axis (ACE-Ang II-AT1R) to the vasoprotective axis [ACE2-Ang-(1-7)-Mas] of the RAS, resulting in the prevention of PH. OBJECTIVES We have taken advantage of a recently discovered synthetic activator of ACE2, XNT (1-[(2-dimethylamino) ethylamino]-4-(hydroxymethyl)-7-[(4-methylphenyl) sulfonyl oxy]-9H-xanthene-9-one), to study its effects on monocrotaline-induced PH in rats to support this hypothesis. METHODS The cardiopulmonary effects of XNT were evaluated in monocrotaline-induced PH rat model. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS A single subcutaneous treatment of monocrotaline in rats resulted in elevated right ventricular systolic pressure, right ventricular hypertrophy, increased pulmonary vessel wall thickness, and interstitial fibrosis. These changes were associated with increases in the mRNA levels of renin, ACE, angiotensinogen, AT1 receptors, and proinflammatory cytokines. All these features of PH were prevented in these monocrotaline-treated rats by chronic treatment with XNT. In addition, XNT caused an increase in the antiinflammatory cytokine, IL-10. CONCLUSIONS These observations provide conceptual support that activation of ACE2 by a small molecule can be a therapeutically relevant approach for treating and controlling PH.