Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Uptake of cortisol by the perfused rat liver: validity of the free hormone hypothesis applied to cortisol.

The mechanism by which cortisol in plasma enters hepatic cells was investigated using the isolated perfused rat liver. To determine whether hepatic uptake of cortisol from serum can be accounted for entirely by the pool of unbound (free) cortisol, we compared observed uptake rates with the equilibrium-free fraction of cortisol in serum and the rates of dissociation of cortisol from its serum binding proteins (determined using a rapid filtration assay based on transfer of [3H] cortisol to dextran-coated charcoal). More than 95% of the cortisol in both human and rat serum dissociated spontaneously from its binding proteins within 5 sec at 37 C. The fractional unidirectional hepatic uptakes of cortisol from pooled human serum and pooled rat serum were 59.4 +/- 5.4% and 59.5 +/- 1.0% (mean +/- SE), respectively, at the physiological flow rate of 1 ml/min.g liver. The corresponding free cortisol fractions in these sera were 4.53 +/- 0.15% and 8.16 +/- 0.23%, respectively. The fractional unidirectional hepatic uptake of cortisol from protein-free buffer averaged 99.9% (n = 5) at a flow rate of 3 ml/min.g liver. By calculating the appropriate rate constants and applying the Kety-Renkin-Crone equation to the above data, it can be shown that all of the cortisol taken up from serum by the perfused rat liver can be accounted for by the pool of free cortisol, which turns over very rapidly. The physiological significance of this finding is discussed in terms of a general mathematical model of hormone transport that delineates the conditions under which the free hormone hypothesis is and is not valid.
Returns to University Education: Evidence from a

In 1982 the duration of university education in the Netherlands was reduced from five to four years. This institutional reform is here used to estimate the causal effect of one year of university education on wages. I find that the fifth year of university education increased wages by 7%-9%. This differential is found by comparing wages of cohorts of graduates enrolling five years before and five years after the reform in a difference-in-differences approach.
PRACTICES IN HIGHER EDUCATION POLICY: GENDER-RELATED ACCESS AS A POLICY ISSUE IN KENYA

Over the years, higher education in Kenya has been characterised by gender disparities. A gendered analysis of admissions at University illustrates a low representation of females. But, the Kenyan governments’ policies in higher education, should have attended to this problem. Hence, this study seeks to examine the governments’ gender-related access policy making processes in higher education. This thesis discusses how the gender-related access policy making process in Kenya’s higher education can be analysed. It highlights the government of Kenya’s adoption of genderrelated access policies following the 1990 Education For All (EFA) Jomtien Conference, which includes a pressing need of addressing gender equity issues in education, especially in ensuring access to education for girls and women, and removing barriers that hamper their active participation. Further, this study shows that it is useful to distinguish between different stages in the gender related access policy making process. However, the separations between the stages are not black-and-white and decision-making continues in the implementation and evaluation stages. Consequently, policy making is a complex, iterative process that may not be predetermined from start to finish. This study indicates the intricacy of coming up with policy issues or problems, policy objectives and policy instruments. However, there are challenges in the implementation of gender-related policies thus this thesis posits competing views in the practices of policy making and implementation in Kenya, by EFA and through the work of non governmental organisations, in this case FAWE. Consequently, this thesis explores the governments’ policy making practice with regards to gender-related access policy formulation and implementation in Kenya’s higher education.
The Legal Aspects of Corruption in Sport = Prawne aspekty korupcji w sporcie

: The author of this paper presents legal measures against corruption in sport. The overall issues such as the notion of corruption and influence of corruption on the society are discussed in the beginning of this article. Furthermore, it is showed the influence of corruptive behaviours on sport. In the main part of this paper, the author considers selected measures against corruption in sport and opinions of legal researchers about them.
Pricing and hedging guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefits under a general Lévy framework using the COS method

This paper extends the Fourier-cosine (COS) method to the pricing and hedging of variable annuities embedded with guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefit (GMWB) riders. The COS method facilitates efficient computation of prices and hedge ratios of the GMWB riders when the underlying fund dynamics evolve under the influence of the general class of Lévy processes. Formulae are derived to value the contract at each withdrawal date using a backward recursive dynamic programming algorithm. Numerical comparisons are performed with results presented in Bacinello et al. [Scand. Actuar. J., 2014, 1–20], and Luo and Shevchenko [Int. J. Financ. Eng., 2014, 2, 1–24], to confirm the accuracy of the method. The efficiency of the proposed method is assessed by making comparisons with the approach presented in Bacinello et al. [op. cit.]. We find that the COS method presents highly accurate results with notably fast computational times. The valuation framework forms the basis for GMWB hedging. A local risk minimisation approach to hedging intra-withdrawal date risks is developed. A variety of risk measures are considered for minimisation in the general Lévy framework. While the second moment and variance have been considered in existing literature, we show that the Value-at-Risk (VaR) may also be of interest as a risk measure to minimise risk in variable annuities portfolios.
Evaluation of Dry and Wet Transported Intravaginal Swabs in Detection of Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae Infections in Female Soldiers by PCR

ABSTRACT Screening women for sexually transmitted diseases (STD) in nonclinic settings is highly desirable because many infections are asymptomatic. This is especially true for military women, for whom logistical, social, and other job-related obstacles present barriers to accessing medical care. We assessed the accuracy of intravaginal swabs transported by mail in a wet versus a dry state for PCR (Amplicor CT/NG test) detection of chlamydia and gonorrhea infections in a cross-sectional study of 793 active-duty military women attending an STD clinic. PCR tests of vaginal swabs (wet and dry) were compared to local clinical methods used on cervical swabs. Standard wet vaginal swab PCR testing detected more chlamydia (11.6%) than cervical enzyme immunoassay (9.3%). For detection of chlamydia using wet swabs, the sensitivity and specificity compared with adjudicated true positives were 94.6% (87 of 92) and 99.3% (696 of 701), respectively. Comparing dry swabs to true-positives for chlamydia, the sensitivity was 91.3% (84 of 92) and the specificity was 99.3% (696 of 701). Standard wet vaginal swab PCR detected more gonorrhea (3.3%) than routine cervical culture (2.1%). The sensitivity and specificity of PCR testing of wet swabs compared to true-positives (infected patients) were 96.3% (26 of 27) and 98.2% (752 of 766) for gonorrhea, respectively. For gonorrhea, the sensitivity and specificity of dry swabs compared to true-positives (infected patients) were 88.9% (24 of 27) and 98.3% (753 of 766), respectively. PCR testing of wet and dry transported intravaginal swabs to detect chlamydia and gonorrhea infections was an accurate diagnostic method for military women.
New Measures for Inflation Uncertainty and Disagreement from Treasury Auctions: Alternative to Surveys

ABSTRACT In this article, we propose a novel methodology to construct new uncertainty and disagreement measures for the long-term inflation rate with the use of micro data of Treasury auctions. We employ individual bids submitted in Treasury auctions for nominal and inflation indexed bonds. We argue that these newly formed indicators do not have the problems associated with the survey and market-based uncertainty and disagreement measures. We also focus on the interactions of our proposed measures for inflation rate by comparing the measures commonly used in the literature. The findings of this article are believed to enhance the effectiveness of policy-making by introducing new proxies for crucial economic variables and also by providing the opportunity for other emerging economies with inadequate surveys to construct historical uncertainty and disagreement measures for inflation rates.
Total counts, culturable and viable, and non‐culturable microflora of a French mineral water: a case study

The changes in bacterial counts during the storage of a natural mineral water from a French spring were studied. Samples were taken from the spring and the bottling line. Viable cultivable (VC) bacteria were counted on R2A medium. Total counts, viable and dead bacteria were counted using the LIVE/DEAD® Bac LightTM VIABILITY kit and epifluorescence microscopy. Viable but non‐cultivable (VNC) bacteria were estimated by difference between viable and VC counts. Isolates were clustered by phenotype. The microflora in the spring water increased from < 10–3 × 105 bacteria ml−1 after 6 d in storage and then stabilized. Mechanical bottling increased the allochthonous bacteria in the water that stabilized at 105 bacteria ml−1. Maximal growth is controlled by the low concentration of nutrients in the mineral water and the lysis of dead cells. The allochthonous bacteria came from the aquifer and colonized the filling line. The changes in the VC and VNC populations showed that the bacteria used starvation–survival and entry into the VNC state to adapt to the bottling stress and the enclosed oligotrophic environment.
Enhanced Contractile Responses of Arteries from Diabetic Rats to α1‐Adrenoceptor Stimulation in the Absence and Presence of Extracellular Calcium

The purpose of this study was to determine the receptor subtype mediating enhanced contractile responses of aortae and mesenteric arteries from diabetic rats to the α-adrenoceptor agonists, norepinephrine, clonidine, and methoxamine and to establish whether the enhanced responses are associated with increased release of intracellular Ca2+ or are dependent on the presence of extracellular Ca2+. The pA2 values calculated for the α1-selective antagonist prazosin were similar in arteries from control and diabetic rats and were 2.5–3 log units greater than pA2 values calculated for the α2-selective antagonist yohimbine. Contractile responses of aortae incubated in Ca2+ -free Krebs' solution containing 1 mM EGTA to maximal but not to ED50 concentrations of the α-adrenoceptor agonists were significantly greater in preparations from diabetic than from control rats. Following readdition of Ca2+, contractile responses of diabetic aortae to all concentrations of the agonists tested were significantly greater than control. Similar results were obtained in mesenteric arteries, except that no clonidine response could be detected in preparations from either diabetic or control rats in the absence of extracellular Ca2+. These data indicate that enhanced responses of arteries from diabetic rats to α-adrenoceptor agonists are mediated by α1 adrenoceptors, and are largely dependent on the presence of extracellular Ca2+. However, increased release of intracellular Ca2+ appears to contribute to enhanced responses to high concentrations of these agonists.
Senior Lifestyles and Injury Prevention: Evaluating the Effectiveness of an Injury Prevention Program for Older Adults

The purpose of this multicenter, before-and-after observational study was to determine whether a short educational intervention was associated with improvement in self-reported safety behavior in older adults. We developed 4 original injury prevention presentations with companion testing materials: Motor Vehicle Safety, Fall Prevention, Pedestrian Safety, and Home Safety. Participants also completed pre-post Short Form Health Survey Instrument (SF-12) quality-of-life surveys. Of 414 participants, 226 completed follow-up testing and SF-12 surveys, for a 54.6% response rate. Those who completed either Pedestrian or Home Safety program showed no significant changes (P > .05) in either test scores or SF-12, and they comprised 61.9% of the final sample. Participants in the Motor Vehicle Safety and Fall Prevention programs accounted for 38.1% of the final sample and did show significant improvements between pre-post test scores. Only Fall Prevention participants showed significant differences in pre-post SF-12 scores. In the Fall Prevention group, numerous SF-12 subscores from the initial survey were significantly inversely correlated with pretest scores, and improvements in some SF-12 subscores correlated with improvements in test scores. Findings from the Fall Prevention group suggest that seniors with quality-of-life limitations may be aware of their increased risk and more willing to make changes to enhance safety. Further study is needed because many questions regarding optimal approaches to injury prevention in the aging demographic remain unanswered.
Structural brain abnormalities in patients with schizophrenia and their healthy siblings.

OBJECTIVE The authors sought to investigate the contribution of genotype on structural brain abnormalities in schizophrenia. METHOD Intracranial volumes and volumes of the cerebrum, white and gray matter, lateral and third ventricles, frontal lobes, caudate nucleus, amygdala, hippocampus, parahippocampal gyrus, and the cerebellum were measured in 32 same-sex siblings discordant for schizophrenia and 32 matched comparison subjects by means of magnetic resonance imaging. RESULTS Third ventricle volumes did not differ between the schizophrenic patients and their healthy siblings. However, both had higher third ventricle volumes than did the comparison subjects. The schizophrenic patients had lower cerebrum volumes than did the comparison subjects, whereas the cerebrum volume of the healthy siblings did not significantly differ from the patients or comparison subjects. Additionally, patients with schizophrenia displayed a volume reduction of the frontal lobe gray matter and a volume increase of the caudate nuclei and lateral ventricles compared to both their healthy siblings and comparison subjects. Intracranial volume, CSF volume, or volumes of the cerebellum, amygdala, hippocampus, or the parahippocampal gyrus did not significantly differ among the patients, siblings, and comparison subjects. CONCLUSIONS Healthy siblings share third ventricle enlargement with their affected relatives and may partially display a reduction in cerebral volume. These findings suggest that third ventricular enlargement, and to some extent cerebral volume decrease, may be related to genetic defects that produce a susceptibility to schizophrenia.
Ablation of Severe Drug‐Resistant Tachyarrhythmia During Pregnancy

Ablation of Tachyarrhythmia During Pregnancy. Aims: The goal of this study was to describe mapping and ablation of severe arrhythmias during pregnancy, with minimum or no X‐ray exposure. Treatment of tachyarrhythmia in pregnancy is a clinical problem. Pharmacotherapy entails a risk of adverse effects and is unsuccessful in some patients. Radiofrequency ablation has been performed rarely, because of fetal X‐ray exposure and potential maternal and fetus complications.
5-2-1-almost none: parents' perceptions of changing health-related behaviors in their obese child.

OBJECTIVE Recent clinical pediatric practice guidelines reiterate the importance of key messages to prevent childhood overweight and obesity, including the consumption of at least five servings of fruits or vegetables each day, a limit to screen time (time spent watching TV, using a computer, and playing video games) of two hours or less per day, engagement in at least one hour of physical activity per day, and the consumption of no sugary beverages each day. The perceptions of primary caregivers of obese children of these key messages are less clear. We explored parents' (or caregivers') awareness of and confidence in adopting a variation of the expert committee's recommended (5-2-1-Almost None [AN]) behaviors. MATERIALS AND METHODS Before the initiation of treatment, parents of obese children completed a survey designed to explore their awareness of and confidence in adopting 5-2-1-AN behaviors. Qualitative and quantitative analyses were conducted to assess how aware these families are of 5-2-1-AN behaviors and how confident they would be of their ability to guide adoption of these specific behaviors. RESULTS Parents from 193 families indicated that weight management depends substantially on physical activity (63%). However, parents rated as less important consuming fruits and vegetables (17%), controlling portions (13%), eliminating sugary drinks (4%), reducing screen time (3%), eating breakfast each morning (1%), and having family dinners (1%). Almost universally, respondents reported significantly reduced confidence in helping their child adopt nonspecific lifestyle changes in eating and physical activity versus the targeted behaviors identified in 5-2-1-AN. CONCLUSION Parents surveyed for this clinical study readily accept certain aspects of the 5-2-1-AN message as factors in healthy living. Despite low levels of reported awareness of the message, the consumption of almost no sugary drinks was the only actionable behavior in the 5-2-1-AN message that parents felt significantly more confident they could achieve than the nonspecific goal of improved eating. These perceptions can be used to help guide the adoption of 5-2-1-AN strategies as well as help clinicians target messages for specific healthy behavior adoption.
The improved unscented Kalman particle filter based on MCMC and consensus strategy

In the traditional Particle Filter algorithm, there is particle degradation and tracking accuracy is not good, so a new improved unscented particle filter algorithm with the Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) and consensus strategy is discussed. The algorithm uses unscented Kalman filter to generate a proposal distribution, which incorporates the latest observations into a prior updating routine. And the algorithm utilizes MCMC sampling method to make the particles more diversification. Meanwhile, the algorithm is optimized by consensus strategy, which makes the state estimates of all network nodes converge to a more precise value. The simulation results show that the improved unscented Kalman particle filter solves particle degradation effectively and improves tracking accuracy.
Isolation by a replica‐plating technique of chinese hamster temperature‐sensitive cell cycle mutants

Isolation of a wide variety of temperature‐sensitive (ts) cell cycle mutants in mammalian cells has previously proved to be a very difficult task. The various procedures used for the isolation of such mutants included a mutant enrichment step based on exposure of the cells to the restrictive temperatures in order to kill the growing wild‐type cells with agents that kill DNA‐synthesizing cells. Hence, these methods favored the isolation of ts mutants that do not lose viability rapidly at the restrictive temperatures, We have treated cells of the Chinese hamster established cell line E36 with the mutagen ethyl‐methane‐sulfonate (EMS) and used a replicaplating technique that we developed to screen the ts mutants for growth. This technique enabled us to recover all ts mutants for growth including the ts cell cycle mutants. Screening of the ts cell cycle mutants among the ts mutants for growth was performed by the flow microfluorimetry technique and the premature chromosome condensation technique. Our results show that 1.3% of the survivors of the mutagenic treatment are ts mutants for growth. Six of 84 ts mutants analyzed were found to be ts cell cycle mutants. They include ts mutants arrested in phases G1, S, and G2. Many of the ts mutants for growth including the ts cell cycle mutants arrested in S and G2 lose viability very fast when incubated at the restrictive temperature. As a consequence they could not have been isolated by any method that includes a mutant enrichment step based on the exposure of the cells to the restrictive temperature.
Management Perspectives of Awards for Creative Advertising

'Winning creative ideas' have significant management implications. Ideas that stand out from the crowd and that are memorable can have enormous impact on a company ' s sales and may influence the hiring and firing of advertising agencies, as well as their remuneration [1], [2], and an organization ' s competitive advantage [3]. The key measurement tool for such management issues is the creative award. According to Helgesen [4]: 'advertising awards are widely perceived as indicators of advertising performance with a strong emphasis on creative excellence. ' Recurring discussions ofcreative awards in various trade journals support the importance of such forums . Most award shows reward agencies, creatives and clients on the basis of the best examples of creativity as represented by advertisements and campaigns for that year. Awards provide the advertising industry with a professional way to legitimise their craft; just as filmmakers, writers and actors seek to win prestigious Academy Awards. There are around 500 annual creative award competitions worldwide. Researchers have used Greative awaJ;ds as measures of success and studied their impact on a variety of aspects of the creative business and agency-client relationship. Creative awards have been examined in terms of their links with creativity, agencies, clients and staff, but they have yet to be considered in their own right from a managerial perspective. This paper will examine this perspective and begins with an assessment of creative award shows.
Can Territorial Tax Compliance Systems Reduce the Tax Avoidance of Firms with Operations in Tax Havens?

ABSTRACT The Korean government has recently focused its compliance efforts on offshore tax evasion and has accordingly adopted several tax compliance systems. This article empirically examines the association between the enforcement of those tax compliance systems and firms’ tax avoidance from 1999 to 2014. Firms with foreign operations in tax havens have greater opportunities to decrease their overall tax burdens. Thus, the analysis in this study attempts to determine the differential impact of tax compliance systems between firms with subsidiaries in tax haven countries and firms without operations in such places. It is found that tax compliance systems effectively reduce the tax avoidance of firms without operations in tax havens, but not the tax avoidance of firms with operations in tax havens, as predicted. The results also show that financially distressed firms are likely to engage in aggressive tax planning. Moreover, financially distressed firms with operations in tax havens seem to engage in tax avoidance activities even after the enforcement of tax compliance systems. This article may have some implications with respect to considering mechanisms designed to broaden the tax base and more effectively detect offshore tax evasion.