Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tuberculosis prophylaxis in patients with steroid treatment and systemic rheumatic diseases. A case-control study.

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to assess the impact of isoniazid prophylaxis in patients with systemic rheumatic diseases who attended a teaching hospital in Mexico City between 1987 and 1992. METHODS In this case-control study, patients with systemic rheumatic diseases and tuberculosis (cases) were compared with patients with systemic rheumatic diseases without tuberculosis (controls). The groups were matched by year of hospital admission and rheumatic disease. Clinical charts were reviewed for: 1) isoniazid prophylaxis, defined as the administration of isoniazid 300 mg/day for 6 or more months in patients with exposure to steroids (prophylaxis with isoniazid was defined as complete, incomplete or any prophylaxis); 2) exposure to steroids: defined as the administration of prednisone > 15 mg/day (or its equivalent of another steroid) for 3 or more months before tuberculosis or recruitment into the study; 3) exposure to immunosuppressants, defined as the administration of any dose of azathioprine, methotrexate, cyclophosphamide, and/or 6-mercaptopurine, before tuberculosis in the cases or recruitment date in the controls; 4) reactivity to PPD; and 5) other relevant variables. RESULTS Twenty cases and 66 controls were studied. A 70% decrease in the risk of developing tuberculosis was found among patients who received any prophylaxis with isoniazid as compared to controls: OR 0.31, 95% CI 0.09-0.98, p = 0.03. A 97% decrease was seen in those patients who received complete prophylaxis: OR 0.034, 95% CI 0.0001-0.216, p < 0.0001. The protective effect of complete prophylaxis persisted even after controlling for other potential confounders, such as age, gender, rheumatic disease, duration of rheumatic symptoms, and exposure to steroids and/or immunosuppressants. CONCLUSION The results of this study suggest that in countries with a high prevalence of tuberculosis the use of isoniazid (300 mg/day for 6 months) in rheumatic patients with exposure to prednisone (> 15 mg/day for three or more months) may be useful to prevent tuberculosis, independently of the results of the PPD reactivity test. However, a controlled clinical trial will be required to confirm these results.
Steady-State Phosphorylation of Light-Harvesting Complex II Proteins Preserves Photosystem I under Fluctuating White Light1[W][OA]

According to the “state transitions” theory, the light-harvesting complex II (LHCII) phosphorylation in plant chloroplasts is essential to adjust the relative absorption cross section of photosystem II (PSII) and PSI upon changes in light quality. The role of LHCII phosphorylation upon changes in light intensity is less thoroughly investigated, particularly when changes in light intensity are too fast to allow the phosphorylation/dephosphorylation processes to occur. Here, we demonstrate that the Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) stn7 (for state transition7) mutant, devoid of the STN7 kinase and LHCII phosphorylation, shows a growth penalty only under fluctuating white light due to a low amount of PSI. Under constant growth light conditions, stn7 acquires chloroplast redox homeostasis by increasing the relative amount of PSI centers. Thus, in plant chloroplasts, the steady-state LHCII phosphorylation plays a major role in preserving PSI upon rapid fluctuations in white light intensity. Such protection of PSI results from LHCII phosphorylation-dependent equal distribution of excitation energy to both PSII and PSI from the shared LHCII antenna and occurs in cooperation with nonphotochemical quenching and the proton gradient regulation5-dependent control of electron flow, which are likewise strictly regulated by white light intensity. LHCII phosphorylation is concluded to function both as a stabilizer (in time scales of seconds to minutes) and a dynamic regulator (in time scales from tens of minutes to hours and days) of redox homeostasis in chloroplasts, subject to modifications by both environmental and metabolic cues. Exceeding the capacity of LHCII phosphorylation/dephosphorylation to balance the distribution of excitation energy between PSII and PSI results in readjustment of photosystem stoichiometry.
THE ROLE OF KNOWLEDGE INNOVATION BUSINESS SERVICES IN SUPPORTING CREATIVE & INOVATIVE CLUSTERS

This article aims to highlight the role of knowledge intensive business services (KIBS) into supporting creative & innovative clusters. The paper focuses on the analysis of Romanian clusters, by identifying first their members and by underlying later the importance of these highly important actors for the regional development. It is structured into three parts. The first part presents a brief literature review by highlighting the most important characteristics of the creative & innovative clusters, and of the KIBS. In the second part the focus is on the analysis of creative & innovative clusters, observing their structure and projects, with the purpose to illustrate their impact for regional development. In the last part, it is highlighted the link between the KIBS and the creative & innovative clusters, emphasizing the essential strengths for the regional development strategy. In the end we present the main conclusions, underlying the novelty and the importance of the chosen topic for the Romanian economy.
Monoclonal antibodies identifying subsets of ectodermal, mesodermal, and endodermal cells in gastrulating and neurulating avian embryos

The goal of our laboratory research is to elucidate the mechanisms underlying gastrulation and neurulation, using the avian embryo as a model system. In previous studies, we used two approaches to map the morphogenetic movements involved in these processes: (1) we constructed quail/chick transplantation chimeras in which grafted quail cells could be identified within chick host embryos by the presence of nucleolarassociated heterochromatin, and (2) we microinjected exogenous cell markers. However, it would be advantageous to be able to detect endogenous markers to demarcate various subsets of cells within the unmanipulated embryo. To elucidate such a series of natural markers, we have used monoclonal antibodies to identify epitopes found on subsets of ectodermal, mesodermal, and endodermal cells. Antibodies were made by immunizing mice against either homogenized ectoderm (i. e., Prospective neural plate and surface ectoderm) or primitive streak, which had been microdissected from stage 3 chick embryos. Additionally, we screened a panel of antibodies made against soluble protein obtained from isolates of cell nuclei from late embryonic chick brain. Here, we describe the labeling patterns of three monoclonal antibodies, called MAb‐GL1, GL2, and GL3 (GL, germ layer), during avian gastrulation and neurulation. Our results show that labeling early avian embryos with monoclonal antibodies can reveal previously undetected distributions of cells bearing shared epitopes, providing new labels for subsets of cells in each of the three primary germ layers. © 1993 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Percentage Change in Antenatal Body Mass Index as a Predictor of Neonatal Macrosomia

PURPOSE We wanted to evaluate the predictive value of percentage change in antenatal maternal body mass index (BMI) as it relates to macrosomia, as well as to compare change in pregnancy BMI with existing weight gain guidelines. METHODS We analyzed data from 6 months of consecutive deliveries, focusing on first visit (first trimester) BMI, last visit (37 weeks or later) BMI, and fetal birth weight. Using regression and χ2 analyses, we evaluated the relationship between change in BMI and macrosomia. RESULTS Of the 238 consecutive deliveries, we were able to analyze data from 186, of which 15.6% (n = 29) of the infants were macrosomic. Among macrosomic infants, 86.2% (25/29) of their mothers had a 25% or greater increase in BMI compared with 6.6% (10/157) of mothers of normal-weight infants (P <.001), for a relative risk 13.5% (95% confidence interval [CI], 7.3%–25.1%). Percentage change in BMI of 25% or greater had a sensitivity of 86.2% (95% CI, 68.3%–96.1%), a specificity of 93.6% (95% CI, 88.6%–96.9%), a positive predictive value of 71.4% (95% CI, 53.7%–85.4%), and a negative predictive value 97.4% (95% CI, 93.4%–99.3%) for macrosomia. Logistic regression adjusted for maternal age, race, parity, and gravidity showed that those women whose BMI increased 25% or greater were more than 200 times more likely (odds ratio [OR] = 219.3; 95% CI, 38.8–1,238.6; P <.001) to give birth to a macrosomic infant. Further adjusting for initial BMI strengthened the association (OR=1,062.4; 95% CI, 83.2–13,572.2; P < 001). Regardless of weight gain, when compared with Institute of Medicine weight gain recommendations, change in BMI or 25% or greater was associated with macrosomia (P <.001). CONCLUSION Independent of initial pregnancy BMI or absolute weight gain, an increase in maternal BMI of 25% or greater during pregnancy is highly predictive of macrosomia.
GABA and glycine frequently colocalize in terminals on cat spinal motoneurons

In this ultrastructural study the colocalization of γ-amino butyric acid (GABA) and glycine in terminals within cat lumbar motoneuronal cell groups was investigated and the frequency of this colocalization was determined. For this purpose the post-embedding immunogold technique was applied on serial sections, using antibodies directed against either GABA or glycine. Analysis of all labelled terminals in a random area of cat motoneuronal cell groups showed that 25 ± 5% were labelled for GABA only, 29 ± 6% were labelled for glycine only and 46 ± 9% were labelled for both GABA and glycine, meaning that nearly two out of every three GABA-labelled terminals were also labelled for glycine and vice versa. Based on these results and on other data suggesting a high frequency of colocalization, it is concluded that in cat motoneuronal cell groups colocalization of GABA and glycine is the rule rather than the exception.
A Model for Studying R&D–Marketing Interface in the Product Innovation Process

It is proposed that a firm's strategy and how it perceives environmental uncertainty can influence the need for R&D–marketing integration. Factors related to organizational design and senior management support, along with the sociocultural differences between R&D and marketing managers, can influence the level of integration achieved by an organization. Finally, it is proposed that the gap between the level of integration needed and that achieved can influence innovation success.
Tri-axial sensors and actuators made of a single piezoelectric cylindrical shell

Electromechanical transducers for sensing and actuating disturbances or vibrations have been used in many fields of applications. There have been transducers of different configuration developed for the unidirectional transduction. This paper demonstrates a single element transducer for tri-axial components made of a piezoelectric cylindrical shell. The separation of the tri-axial transductions is achieved by devising a proper electrode arrangement. The structure and the fundamental idea are first presented, and then the numerical analysis by means of the finite element modeling follows, and their characteristics and behaviors are then experimentally verified.
From ancient to modern RNA world: a metabolic story.

The RNA world theory suggests that modern life arose from molecular ancestors in which RNA molecules both stored genetic information and catalyzed chemical reactions. This theory is largely supported by the importance of RNA molecules in essential contemporary cellular processes: RNA is involved in the decoding of genetic information, DNA replication, and chromosome-end maintenance; it mediates interference to defend cells against molecular parasites, and an increasing number of non-coding RNAs have recently been discovered that are involved in various biological processes. In addition, individual ribonucleotides and their coenzyme derivatives are highly involved in central metabolism. Moreover, the discovery of catalytic RNAs strongly reinforced the RNA world hypothesis. Seven naturally occuring classes of ribozymes have been identified yet, including the four classes of small self-cleaving RNAs. The latter are found on plant pathogenics RNA genomes, and are essentially involved in the pathogenicity by mediating the viral replication. Here, we will succinctly present the arguments in favor of the ancient RNA world. Then, we will describe the world of non-coding RNAs and natural ribozymes, and finally focus on small self-cleaving RNAs by presenting their structural and functional characteristics.
Stakeholder Influence Capacity and the Variability of Financial Returns to Corporate Social Responsibility

Should corporations serve as agents of social change? For more than 30 years, scholars have attempted to make a "business case" that demonstrates that corporations should because they can earn positive financial returns from social responsibility. However, the business case remains unproven. This paper argues that research on the business case must account for the path dependent nature of firm-stakeholder relations, and develops the construct of stakeholder influence capacity (SIC) to fill this void. SIC helps explain why the effects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on corporate financial performance (CFP) vary across firms and across time, and so provides a missing link in the study of the business case. This paper distinguishes CSR from related and confounded corporate resource allocations and from corporate social performance (CSP), then incorporates SIC into a conceptual framework that illustrates how acts of CSR are transformed into CFP through stakeholder relationships. This paper also develops a set of propositions to aid future research on the contingencies that produce variable financial returns to investments in CSR.
Natural enemies in control of invasive species Diabrotica virgifera Virgifera from maize crops.

The invasive Diabrotico virgifera virgifera Le Conte (western corn rootworm) species has become a very important pest of maize growing areas from Europe. Incidence of this pest in Europe and Romania attract the specialist's attention and European organisms regarding substantial changes which save the yield. Current trends in control regard the using natural enemies' because non-pollutants effects. In this way it follows protection of useful scale from agroecosystems and their exploitation in control of invasive population. It were take the soil and surface samples for establish the presence of control biological agents. The maximum appearance period of invasive species (July, August) is very important in establishing the analogy with appearance of predator's species. From natural enemies of Diabrotica virgifera can be notice follow species: Speira diademata, Argiope bruennichi, Theridion impressum (Arachnida: Araneae), Coccinella sp. , Pseudophomus rufipes (Insecta: Coleoptera). The spider species Argiope bruennichi (Araneae: Araneidae) and Theridion impressum (Araneae: Theriidae) are able to diminish significantly population of adults, especially in appearance of maize silk. The aim of the theme we approach is to find solutions to the issues created by invasive species Diabrotica virgifera virgifera using an ecological alternative of the chemical methods, as an-polluting biological methods. In a period when easily apply to chemical substances we consider that is absolutely necessary the introduction of these biological methods.
The) impacts of organizational slack and firm visibility on corporate philanthropy

This study aims at examining the impacts of organizational slack and firm visibility ― firm size, media attention, and internationalization of the firm ― on corporate philanthropy. This study searched for the empirical evidence of why some firms invest in social initiatives even when having relatively less organizational slack, considering moderating effects of firm visibility. The sample in this study consists of publicly traded Korean firms which were randomly selected. I tested the hypotheses by performing a confirmatory factor analysis and hierarchical regression. Results indicate that organizational slack and media attention positively influence corporate philanthropy as well as firm size and media attention strengthens the relationship between organizational slack and corporate philanthropic contributions.
Asymmetric Response to Price in Consumer Brand Choice and Purchase Quantity Decisions

The study investigates whether consumers exhibit asymmetry (i.e., different sensitivity) to negative (“loss”) and positive (“gain”) differences between the reference price and the purchase price in brand choice and purchase quantity decisions. Using panel data for two frequently purchased products with three brands in each product category, we find that consumers loyal to a brand (“loyals”) respond to gain and loss with the same sensitivity in brand choice decisions. However, consumers not loyal to any brand (“switchers”) respond more strongly to gains than to losses. In purchase quantity decisions, brand-loyal consumers are found to respond asymmetrically to gains and losses, but the direction of the asymmetry depends on whether the decision is made before or after the household inventory reaches a stock-out level (i.e., the level at which the household inventory needs to be replenished). When the decision is made after a stock-out, brand-loyal consumers are more responsive to a gain in the price of their favorite brand than to a loss. In contrast, when the quantity decision is made before a stock-out, loyals are more sensitive to a loss than to a gain. In only two of the six brands examined do we find evidence of asymmetry in switchers' quantity decisions. In both cases, switchers respond more strongly to a price loss than to a gain, regardless of whether the purchase decision is made before or after a stock-out.
Statistical Properties of Teng and Risch’s Sibship Type Tests for Detecting an Association between Disease and a Candidate Allele

Risch and Teng [Genome Res 1998;8:1273–1288] and Teng and Risch [Genome Res 1999;9:234–241] proposed a class of transmission/disequilibrium test-like statistical tests based on the difference between the estimated allele frequencies in the affected and control populations. They evaluated the power of a variety of family-based and nonfamily-based designs for detecting an association between a candidate allele and disease. Because they were concerned with diseases with low penetrances, their power calculations assumed that unaffected individuals can be treated as a random sample from the population. They predicted that this assumption rendered their sample size calculations slightly conservative. We generalize their partial ascertainment conditioning by including the status of the unaffected sibs in the calculations of the distribution and power of the statistic used to compare the allele frequency in affected offspring to the estimated frequency in the parents, based on sibships with genotyped affected and unaffected sibs. Sample size formulas for our full ascertainment methods are presented. The sample sizes for our procedure are compared to those of Teng and Risch. The numerical results and simulations indicate that the simplifying assumption used in Teng and Risch can produce both conservative and anticonservative results. The magnitude of the difference between the sample sizes needed by their partial ascertainment approximation and the full ascertainment is small in the circumstances they focused on but can be appreciable in others, especially when the baseline penetrances are moderate. Two other statistics, using different estimators for the variance of the basic statistic comparing the allele frequencies in the affected and unaffected sibs are introduced. One of them incorporates an estimate of the null variance obtained from an auxiliary sample and appears to noticeably decrease the sample sizes required to achieve a prespecified power.
Essays on the economics of judicial independence and the effectiveness of criminal defense

In this study I provide an empirical analysis of the judicial system. The main emphasis of this study is on the causes and consequences of judicial independence. In the first chapter, I analyze the determinants of judicial independence in a cross-country setting. I investigate the empirical evidence for two hypotheses about the conditions for judicial independence: institutional protection and political competition. Using a new set of indicators from constitutions of countries, I show that there is no evidence for a significant effect of institutional rules on judicial independence. A panel data analysis shows a significant effect of political competition on judicial independence. This effect holds after including country-specific fixed effects, using instrumental variables to address the issue of reverse causality, and controlling for persistence in judicial independence and mean-reverting dynamics. The second chapter examines the relative merits of judicial selection methods in the American states. The conventional wisdom holds that appointive judges act differently from elected judges, because they are more independent and are less vulnerable to public pressure. Existing theories suggest that appointive systems create more uncertainty; therefore, one should expect higher litigation rates in these systems. Those theories also suggest that public pressure forces elected judges to be more productive. Using time-series data on litigation rates and opinions, I investigate the impact of switching in selection methods on judicial behavior. I use tests of structural break, with both known and unknown dates, to examine whether a switch from elective and appointive systems to a merit selection causes a structural regime change. I evaluate the results using asymptotic results in the literature as well as with Monte Carlo analysis. My results contradict the existing theories. A change in selection method causes a regime change, but the direction of the change is not consistent with the predictions of the theory. For example, the litigation rates in Connecticut increased after switching to merit plan, whereas the litigation rates in New Mexico dropped. Moreover, I find that adopting a merit plan significantly reduces the number of opinions written by the Supreme Court justices, though some exceptions exist. All together, I conclude that the switch in the selection method affects the behavior of both judges and litigants. The effects on the behavior of the judges are stronger than the impact on the behavior of potential litigants.
High-temperature creep rupture of low alloy ferritic steel butt-welded pipes subjected to combined internal pressure and end loadings

Constitutive equations are reviewed and presented for low alloy ferritic steels which undergo creep deformation and damage at high temperatures; and, a thermodynamic framework is provided for the deformation rate potentials used in the equations. Finite element continuum damage mechanics studies have been carried out using these constitutive equations on butt-welded low alloy ferritic steel pipes subjected to combined internal pressure and axial loads at 590 and 620 °C. Two dominant modes of failure have been identified: firstly, fusion boundary failure at high stresses; and, secondly, Type IV failure at low stresses. The stress level at which the switch in failure mechanism takes place has been found to be associated with the relative creep resistance and lifetimes, over a wide range of uniaxial stresses, for parent, heat affected zone, Type IV and weld materials. The equi-biaxial stress loading condition (mean diameter stress equal to the axial stress) has been confirmed to be the worst loading condition. For this condition, simple design formulae are proposed for both 590 and 620 °C.