Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Aging and Structural Change

Many studies analyzed in depth how aging affects aggregate economic performance. But analyses of these effects on the employment structure are scarce and they do not consider that consumption patterns, the supply of goods and services, and also sectoral labor productivity are all likely to adjust to aging and will change. Hence, regression analysis of sectoral employment shares is proposed that controls for aging. For a large panel of countries and a long time period it is found that aging indeed affects relative employment of most sectors statistically highly significant either positive or negative. We also conclude that aging tends to accelerate ongoing structural change. This enables to derive specific policy implications. The approach could thus become a new method in forecasting employment and other effects of aging.
Costs of Stroke Using Patient-Level Data: A Critical Review of the Literature

Background and Purpose— With decision-analytic models becoming more popular to assess the cost-effectiveness of health care interventions, the need for robust estimates on the costs of cerebrovascular disease is paramount. This study reports the results from a literature review of the costs of cerebrovascular diseases, and assesses the quality of the published evidence against a set of defined criteria. Methods— A broad literature search was conducted. Those studies reporting mean/median costs of cerebrovascular diseases derived from patient-level data in a developed country setting were included. Data were abstracted using standardized reporting forms and assessed against 4 predefined criteria: use of adequate methodologies, use of a population-based study, inclusion of premorbid resource use, and reporting of costs by different patient subgroups. Results— A total of 120 cost studies were identified. The cost estimates of stroke were compared by taking into account the effects of inflation and price differentials between countries. Average costs of stroke ranged from $468 to $146 149. Differences in costs were also found within country, with estimates in the USA varying 20-fold. Although the costing methodologies used were generally appropriate, only 5 studies were based on population-based studies, which are the gold standard study design when comparing incidence, outcome, and costs. Conclusions— This review showed large variations in the costs of stroke, mainly attributable to differences in the populations studied, methods, and cost categories included. The wide range of cost estimates could lead to selection bias in secondary health economic analyses, with authors including those costs that are more likely to produce the desired results.
Novel RNA-binding motif: the KH module.

The KH motif has recently been identified in single or multiple copies in a number of RNA associated proteins. Here we review the current knowledge accumulated about the sequence, structure, and functions of the KH. The multidomain architecture of most of the KH-containing proteins inspired an approach based on the production of peptides spanning the sequence of an isolated KH motif. Correct identification of the minimal length necessary for producing a folded peptide has had a number of important consequences for interpreting functional data. The presence of the KH motifs in fmr1, the protein responsible for the fragile X syndrome, and their possible role in the fmr1 functions are also discussed.
Una Strategia di Ranking di Attività Commerciali Basata su User Generated Content

Nell’ ultimo decennio i siti di recensioni di attività commerciali hanno dimostrato di avere un incredibile impatto commerciale nei riguardi delle attività da loro indicizzate. Essere o non essere indicizzati in questi siti, e la posizione in cui la propria attività viene restituita nella lista dei risultati a seguito di una query, può decisamente cambiare la fortuna commerciale di un’attività rispetto al proprio mercato di riferimento (vedi [2]). Purtroppo questi siti hanno dimostrato di possedere una certa vulnerabilità rispetto ai criteri con cui viene impostato l’ordinamento delle attività reperite a seguito di una query [4]. In questo contesto, l’aspetto innovativo della strategia di ranking qui presentata consiste nell’utilizzo di un insieme di criteri (alcuni tradizionali, altri qui definiti) per la stima della rilevanza di un’attività commerciale rispetto alla query formulata da un utente. Data la particolare tipologia di “oggetti” informativi da reperire, la definizione di criteri di rilevanza che possano ben valorizzare le caratteristiche di tali oggetti e tenere conto delle informazioni generate dagli utenti in relazione ad essi costituisce un interessante problema. Pertanto è stato definita una strategia per la stima di rilevanza delle attività rispetto alle necessità informative dell’utente (strategia di ranking) che combina la ”topicalità” (stima della pertinenza rispetto alle parole chiave della query) dell’attività, il rapporto tra recensioni negative/positive e la popolarità forniti all’attività direttamente dagli utenti. La classificazione delle recensioni di ogni attività in positive/negative è stata effettuata sulla base del loro contenuto usando SentiStrength. L’approccio definito ha portato alla progettazione ed allo sviluppo di un prototipo basato sulla collezione costituita dallo Yelp Academic Dataset, mediante il quale sono state effettuate delle valutazioni preliminari che hanno dato risultati interessanti, presentati nella sezione 3.
Payment for Ecosystem Services and the Challenge of Saving Nature

In a seminal and underappreciated book, Green Imperialism , Grove (1995) explains the rise of a global environmental consciousness as a result of European colonial expansion. Grove details how, by the mid-seventeenth century, ". a coherent and relatively organized awareness of the ecological impact of the demands of emergent capitalism and colonial rule started to develop, to grow into a fully fledged understanding of the limited nature of the earth's natural resources and to stimulate a con-comitant awareness of a need for conservation " (p. 6). In particular he documents the growing belief that loss of forests, particularly in island settings, could negatively affect shipping, agriculture, and even the local climate. The colonial powers awoke to the importance of what today would be called ecosystem services and set about trying to restore them and diminish their further degradation. In recent decades humankind's reliance on the natural world has increasingly been expressed through the concept of ecosystem services. In the time period covered by Grove, ecosystem services were seen as vital for maintaining the economic output of the colonies. Today they are judged important as a way of framing conservation imperatives to convince humans of the value of the natural world. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment began a rapid shift in the concept of ecosystem services from an academic backwater to the mainstream of conservation and environmental policy. Nature noted how recent developments " seem to herald ecosystem services entry into mainstream scientific and political thinking " (Nature 2009:764). Ecosystem services have now become the central metaphor within which to express humanity's need for the rest of living nature. As the Global Environment Outlook-4 report rightly points out, " As the basis for all ecosystem services, and the foundation for truly sustainable development, biodiversity plays fundamental roles in maintaining and enhancing the well-being of the world's more than 6.7 billion people, rich and poor, rural and urban alike " (UNEP 2008:160). Important research is being undertaken to establish empirically the value of ecosystem services and their distribution in space and time. The concept of ecosystem services increasingly structures the way conservationists think, the ways they explain the importance of nature to often skeptical policy makers, and the ways they propose to promote its conservation. Is this a good thing? Not entirely. There are risks to the current enthusiasm for the ecosystem services concept. Conservation has a history of placing great faith …
Central Nervous System Blockade by Peripheral Administration of AT1 Receptor Blockers

After peripheral administration, AT1 receptor blockers appear to be able to enter the brain and cause AT1 receptor blockade in the central nervous system. In the current study, we investigated the effects of subcutaneous administration of embusartan versus losartan on inhibition of AT1 receptor binding in rat brain by in vitro autoradiography. At 4 hours after single doses of 5, 30, or 100 mg/kg, both losartan and embusartan decreased iodine 125I Ang II binding dose dependently in brain structures that express AT1 receptors both outside (e.g., organum vasculosum laminae terminalis) and within (e.g., paraventricular nucleus) the blood–brain barrier. At low doses, embusartan was twofold more potent than losartan inside but not outside the blood–brain barrier. After chronic treatment (30 mg/kg daily for 6 days), at 4 hours after the last dose, embusartan still caused more inhibition than losartan in the brain structures inside the blood–brain barrier. At 24 hours after the last dose, a modest, better inhibition for embusartan versus losartan remained: from 15% to 33% versus 10% to 24%, respectively. At 36 hours after the last dose, the inhibition for both blockers had almost completely disappeared inside the blood–brain barrier but persisted in, for example, the kidneys. These results demonstrate that—likely because of its high lipophilic character—embusartan appears to penetrate the blood–brain barrier more easily than losartan and therefore causes more effective AT1 receptor blockade in nuclei within the blood–brain barrier.
Effect of binge drinking on the liver: an alarming public health issue?

Alcohol consumers show strong variations in demographic characteristics, alcohol intake, frequency, duration and profile of consumption. Individuals consuming up to two drinks per day (men) or one drink per day (women) are defined as moderate drinkers and do not have an increased risk compared to abstainers. Conversely, a high-risk pattern, defined as daily consumption above those limits, or binge drinking episodes, cause health, personal and social problems. This definition separates chronic drinkers from binge drinkers, as their drinking patterns are different. Binge drinking implies “drinking too much too fast”. Periods of binge drinking (several consecutive days, weeks or months) are typically followed by periods of abstinence or, in some cases, significantly lower levels of consumption.1 The threshold of alcohol intake per episode which is used to define binge drinking varies from one study to another. In order to propose a consensual definition, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (Bethesda, Maryland, USA) defines binge drinking episodes as consumption of five or more drinks (male) or four or more drinks (female) in the space of about 2 h.2 This definition is not clear-cut. It does not consider the amount of alcohol intake in one binge episode, nor the possibility that some individuals may go on several binges during the same day. Moreover, the behaviour of some binge drinkers may overlap that of chronic drinkers, with several binges over several consecutive days. The latter issue has been partially addressed by previous studies showing that repetition of binge episodes during adolescence constitutes a risk factor for being a chronic drinker during adulthood. A considerable increase in binge drinking is currently being seen in Western countries. This tendency appears to be more striking in beer- and spirit-drinking cultures in the UK and northern Europe.3 Young people seem particularly prone to …
Rate Limits in Sensorimotor Synchronization With Auditory and Visual Sequences: The Synchronization Threshold and the Benefits and Costs of Interval Subdivision

Abstract Synchronization of finger taps with an isochronous event sequence becomes difficult when the event rate exceeds a certain limit. In Experiment 1, the synchronization threshold was reached at interonset intervals (IOIs) above 100 ms with auditory tone sequences (in a 1:4 tapping task) but at IOIs above 400 ms with visual flash sequences (1:1 tapping). Using IOIs above those limits, the author investigated in Experiment 2 the reduction in the variability of asynchronies that tends to occur when the intervals between target events are subdivided by additional identical events (1:1 vs 1:n tapping). The subdivision benefit was found to decrease with IOI duration and to turn into a cost at IOIs of 200–250 ms in auditory sequences and at IOIs of 450–500 ms in visual sequences. The auditory results are relevant to the limits of metrical subdivision and beat rate in music. The visual results demonstrate the remarkably weak rhythmicity of (nonmoving) visual stimuli.
Herpesvirus Envelopment

The growth and envelopment processes of three representative herpesviruses, equine abortion, pseudorabies, and herpes simplex, were examined in baby hamster kidney (BHK 21/13) cells by bioassay (plaque-forming units) and electron microscopy. The envelopment process was identical for all three viruses. After assembly in the nucleus, the nucleocapsid acquired an envelope by budding from the inner nuclear membrane. This membrane was reduplicated as the enveloped particle was released so that the budding process did not result in disruption of the continuity of the nuclear membrane. That portion of the nuclear membrane which comprised the viral envelope was appreciably thicker than the remainder of the membrane and exhibited numerous projections on its surface. Once enveloped, the viral particles were seen in vesicles and vacuoles in the cell cytoplasm. These appeared to open at the cytoplasmic membrane, releasing the virus from the cell. There was no detectable difference in the size or appearance of enveloped particles in intra- or extracellular locations.
Highly sulfated forms of heparin sulfate are involved in japanese encephalitis virus infection.

Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) infects a broad range of cell types in vitro, though little is known about the initial events of JEV infection. In the present study, we found that highly sulfated glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are involved in infection of both neurovirulent (RP-9) and attenuated (RP-2ms) JEV strains. Competition experiments using highly sulfated GAGs, heparin and dextran sulfate, demonstrated an inhibition of JEV's attachment and subsequent infection of BHK-21 cells. Treatment of target cells by a potent sulfation inhibitor, sodium chlorate, greatly reduced viral binding ability as well as infection, suggesting a critical role of GAGs' sulfation status on the cellular surface in JEV infection. This phenomenon was confirmed by the manifestation of a distinct binding efficiency of JEV to the wild-type CHO cell line and its mutants with defects in GAG biosynthesis. We also demonstrated the binding of JEV particles and virus envelope glycoprotein to immobilized heparin beads. Furthermore, the addition of heparin suppressed the cytopathic effects induced by JEV infection in cultured cells. Our results establish that the highly sulfated form of GAGs on cell surfaces plays a determining role in the early stage of in vitro JEV infection.
Breast size and asymmetry during pregnancy in dependence of a fetus's sex

Breast size and fluctuating asymmetry (FA) are related to women's biological condition, as size correlates positively with fecundity, whereas FA correlates negatively with biological quality. We tested if breast volume, FA, and their changes during pregnancy are related to a fetus's sex. Women with bigger, symmetrical breasts, with a greater increase in size during pregnancy, should be more likely to carry a more ecologically sensitive and energetically demanding male fetus.
Associative learning in fl ying phobia

Background and objectives: Modern learning theories suggest that particularly strong associative learning contributes to the etiology and maintenance of anxiety disorders, thus explaining why some individuals develop an anxiety disorder after a frightening (conditioning) event, whereas others do not. However, associative learning has rarely been investigated experimentally in specific phobias. The current study investigated associative learning in patients with flying phobia and healthy controls using a modified version of Olson and Fazio’s associative learning paradigm (Olson & Fazio, 2001). Methods: Under the guise of an attention task, patients with flying phobia (n 1⁄4 33), and healthy controls (n 1⁄4 39) viewed a series of distracters interspersed with pairings of novel objects (counterbalanced conditioned stimuli, CSs) with frightening and pleasant stimuli (unconditioned stimuli, USs). Results: After the conditioning procedure patients with flying phobia rated both CSs more frightening and showed stronger discrimination between the CSs for valence compared to healthy controls. Conclusions: Our findings indicate a particularly stronger conditioning effect in flying phobia. These results contribute to the understanding of the etiology of specific phobia and may help to explain why only some individuals develop a flying phobia after an aversive event associated with flying. 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
A Comparison of Experiential Instructional Strategies upon the Science Process Skills of Urban Elementary Students.

Efforts to improve teaching and learning in science education are concurrent with endeavors in agricultural education to increase agricultural literacy. Science educators advancing an experientia l approach to teaching might be interested in using agriculturally-oriented strategies, especially if such strategies positively impact science process skill development. Science process skills include the ability to observe, communicate, compare, order, relate, and infer. The intent of this study was to explore the impact that two types of agriculturally-oriented experiential instructional strategies had upon science process skill development. The data collection approach was qualitative in nature and included direct researcher observation of written and verbal student responses to a series of activities. Three classrooms were observed during a 10 week period in which one classroom was taught science using short, in-class projects, another was taught using an ongoing gardening project, and the other class taught using a traditional, teacher-oriented expository strategy. Science process skills were observed both prior to the study and after the study. Findings from the study supports that participation in agriculturall y-oriented experiential activities positively impacts the development of science process skills. The status of science education in the United that the context in which students lear n needed to be States is in a state of transition (America n as authentic to the "real world" as possible an d Association for the Advancement of Science, 1989). argued against "cookbook" approaches to teaching The United States has been identified in severa l subject matter (as has often been the case of science studies as among the lowest-ranking countries laboratory instruction). internationally in science education (Roark, 1990). Stuessy (1993) summarized the status well by Andersen (1994) indicated that in the future , stating: "Reformers in mathematics and science effective science teachers must assume new education are attempting to solve the problems o f classroom roles. Teachers must become more decreasing scores in indicators of mathematics and "constructive" in nature, than "instructive. " Thi s scientific literacy for the general population" (p. 55). involves the teacher encouraging student interaction
Applications of microscopy to the deformation and fracture of rubber‐toughened polymers

The principal mechanisms of inelastic deformation in rubber‐toughened plastics, and in other similar multiphase polymers, are shear yielding and multiple crazing in the rigid matrix phase, and cavitation in the soft disperse phase. Microscopy has played a very important part in the identification and study of these mechanisms. However, no one technique has been predominant. Polarized‐light microscopy is useful for observing crazing, and has proved to be the most effective method for studying shear yielding, whereas transmission electron microscopy has provided valuable insights into the cavitation behaviour of complex rubber particles. Scanning electron microscopy has made significant contributions in the study of all three micromechanisms. In some microscopy investigations, thin sections have been strained in situ on the microscope stage. In others, specimens have been deformed in the bulk state before being polished and etched, or stained and microtomed, or coated with a thin layer of metal, in preparation for examination in the microscope. The importance of combining microscopy with other, complementary methods for studying deformation micromechanics is emphasized, and two novel methods for detecting cavitation in multiphase polymers are discussed briefly.
An improved stable adaptive fuzzy control method

Stable adaptive fuzzy control is a self-tuning concept for fuzzy controllers that uses a Lyapunov-based learning algorithm, thus guaranteeing stability of the system plant-controller-learning algorithm and convergence of the plant output to a given reference signal. In the paper, two new methods for stable adaptive fuzzy control are presented. The first method is an extension of an existing concept: it is shown that a major drawback of that concept, the necessity for new adaptation at every change of the reference signal, can be avoided by a simple modification. The main focus of the paper is on the presentation of a second method, which extends the applicability of stable adaptive fuzzy control to a broader class of nonlinear plants; this is achieved by an improved controller structure adopted from the neural network domain. Performance and limitations of the proposed methods, as well as some practical design aspects, are discussed and illustrated with simulation results.
The Replacement Problem in Frictional Economies: An 'Equivalence Result'

We examine how technological change affects wage inequality and unemployment in a calibrated model of matching frictions in the labor market. We distinguish between two polar cases studied in the literature: a "creative destruction" economy where new machines enter chiefly through new matches and an "upgrading" economy where machines in existing matches are replaced by new machines. Our main results are: (i) these two economies produce very similar quantitative outcomes, and (ii) the total amount of wage inequality generated by frictions is very small. We explain these findings in light of the fact that, in the model calibrated to the U.S. economy, both unemployment and vacancy durations are very short, i.e., the matching frictions are quantitatively minor. Hence, the equilibrium allocations of the model are remarkably close to those of a frictionless version of our economy where firms are indifferent between upgrading and creative destruction, and where every worker is paid the same market-clearing wage. These results are robust to the inclusion of machine-specific or match-specific heterogeneity into the benchmark model.