Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Simultaneous equations analysis of fertility in the U.S.: a comment.

Comments on a study by Conger and Campbell which postulated a 6 equation dynamic model including a fertility equation, estimated by 2 stage least squares on the basis of aggregate data for the U.S. The authors present a table with 3 sets of estimates for each of the 6 structural equations specified in the earlier study; 2 stage least squares estimates obtained for 1946-70 and 1946-76 and the estimates obtained by Conger and Campbell are indicated. The authors report that they were unable to obtain the results reported by the latter; their estimates were quite different and did not seem to support the conclusions offered in the earlier study. Estimates for the longer period were substantially different from those for the shorter. The authors believe that the Conger Campbell data also do not support the Conger-Campbell conclusions. Each point is discussed, with reference to the table. The equations are used to evaluate fertility, female participation, infant mortality, income, education, and medical expenditure.
The Price Discrete Analysis of B2C Online Shopping Market for Chinese Household Appliances Industry

In the commodity market, the discrete phenomenon of the commodities’ market prices widely exists since kinds of reasons. Thus, the research for the discrete analysis of commodities’ prices is positively significant in the both academic and practical sides. This article aims to improve the B2C online shopping market for our county’s household appliances industry by investigating in the prices’ discrete phenomenon of the market. Finally, it generally presents that the prices’ discrete degree for the whole market is a little higher comparing with the normal category, whereas that for the large ones is the lowest in the household appliances categories.
Hadron spectrum on an 18(3) x 42 lattice.

We present results for the hadron spectrum of quenched lattice QCD on an 18/sup 3/ x 42 lattice at . beta. = 6.2. We compare r = (1/2 Wilson fermions with quark masses in the range m/sub q//m/sub s/ = 1 to 5 to staggered fermions with m/sub q//m/sub s/ = (1/3 to 2. In the overlap region we find that the spectra agree, and that both yield a/sup -1/approx. =2.5 GeV, if we use m/sub rho/ to set the scale. We also find that the flavor symmetry of the staggered fermions is restored to a greater degree than at lower . beta. However, for both types of fermion, the nucleon to rho mass ratio comes out too high, never dipping below 1.5. We show the advantages to be gained with staggered fermions by using operators nonlocal in time. Using these operators we uncover a second problem: an anomalously light flavor-nonsinglet scalar. We also present results for the . pi. /sup +/-. pi. /sup 0/ electromagnetic mass splitting and for the Landau-gauge gluon propagator.
Circulating vaspin and its relationship with insulin sensitivity, adiponectin and liver histology in subjects with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis

We read with great interest the recent paper by Genc et al. [1]. They had compared serum vaspin levels in 50 patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and 30 ageand sex-matched controls with no evidence of liver disease. The results from univariate analysis indicated that serum vaspin levels were higher in patients with NASH than in controls. However, circulating vaspin levels did not differ significantly between patients and controls after adjusting for glucose, lipid parameters and measures of insulin resistance (homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance, HOMA-IR). The study design used by the authors – focusing on NASH only and not the entire spectrum beginning with simple steatosis, progressing through borderline NASH and ending with definite NASH offers numerous advantages, including a good internal validity due to the use of a small, homogeneous sample. However, the study also suffers from key statistical issues that need to be addressed to ensure that the result is valid. Specifically, the authors conducted covariateadjusted analyses which aimed to refine the analysis of the overall difference in serum vaspin levels by taking account of the fact that some baseline characteristics may be related to vaspin levels and may be unbalanced between patients and controls. Unfortunately, the procedure used for the selection of covariates in this paper is unclear. The authors mention adjustment for glucose, lipid parameters and HOMA-IR, but other potential confounders (including age, BMI, waist circumference and liver enzymes) were not included. The standard rule in selecting covariates is to select the measures that correlate most highly with the outcome and, for multiple covariates, have little intercorrelation [2,3]. This could be easily examined through an interaction test. However, the authors did not provide the results of this analysis. Therefore, we cannot be sure that a further adjustment for age, BMI, waist circumference and liver enzymes did not have an impact on serum vaspin across patients and controls, especially considering the baseline differences in BMI, waist circumference and liver enzymes observed in the Genc et al.’s study [1]. As a consequence, the authors’ intriguing conclusions are limited by the underuse of appropriate statistical tests for interaction, inconsistencies in the use of covariate adjustment and the lack of clear guidelines on covariate selection in multivariable-adjusted models. Finally, there are some other important clinical issues that need to be addressed. While diabetic patients were apparently excluded from the study, those with impaired fasting glucose and impaired glucose tolerance were not. The authors did not account for this additional potential confounder, even though evidence suggests that alterations in adipokine serum concentrations can be already detectable in prediabetic states [4]. Finally, the number of patients with different histological findings reported in Table II does not sum up to 50, which apparently represented
Galectin-3 Precipitates as a Pentamer with Synthetic Multivalent Carbohydrates and Forms Heterogeneous Cross-linked Complexes*

Galectin-3 is unique among the galectin family of animal lectins in its biological activities and structure. Most members of the galectin family including galectin-1 possess apoptotic activities, whereas galectin-3 possesses anti-apoptotic activity. Galectin-3 is also the only chimera type galectin and consists of a nonlectin N-terminal domain and a C-terminal carbohydrate-binding domain. Recent sedimentation equilibrium and velocity studies show that murine galectin-3 is a monomer in the absence and presence of LacNAc, a monovalent sugar. However, quantitative precipitation studies in the present report indicate that galectin-3 precipitates as a pentamer with a series of divalent pentasaccharides with terminal LacNAc residues. Furthermore, the kinetics of precipitation are fast, on the order of seconds. This indicates that although the majority of galectin-3 in solution is a monomer, a rapid equilibrium exists between the monomer and a small percentage of pentamer. The latter, in turn, precipitates with the divalent oligosaccharides, resulting in rapid conversion of monomer to pentamer by mass action equilibria. Mixed quantitative precipitation experiments and electron microscopy suggest that galectin-3 forms heterogenous, disorganized cross-linking complexes with the multivalent carbohydrates. This contrasts with galectin-1 and many plant lectins that form homogeneous, organized cross-linked complexes. The results are discussed in terms of the biological properties of galectin-3.
COSMIC RADIATION EFFECTS ON AVIONICS, AN INCREASING HAZARD IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM?

With the increasing use of microelectronics of ever diminishing feature size, systems are becoming increasingly susceptible to single event effects arising from the highly ionising interactions of cosmic rays and solar particles. Such single event effects include soft errors, involving both single and multiple bits, and hard errors due to latch-up or burn-out. For space systems an increasing body of evidence has accumulated over the last twenty years, systems have been lost and expensive ground control procedures have had to be invoked. Although cosmic-ray effects are now a normal part of the specification, expensive mistakes are still made. While the earth’s atmosphere shields out most of the primary cosmic rays, there is a build up of secondary neutrons which reach a maximum at around 60000 feet and are only a factor of three diminished at 30000 feet. By sea level there is a further factor 300 diminution. As a result of this mechanism the radiation hazard at aircraft altitudes is as severe as in certain low-earth orbits. During the past ten years there has been increasing evidence of single event effects on aircraft electronics as well as in sea- level systems. At the same time there is new legislation on the allied problem of the effects of these neutrons on aircrew and frequent flyers. The problem is expected to increase as more low power, small feature size electronics are deployed in More Electric aircraft. In addition, the current period of solar maximum activity following the turn of the millennium is likely to provide large solar particle events which can penetrate to aircraft altitudes. A Cosmic Radiation Effects Working Group has been established to pool research information on this problem. The work programme is described together with some initial results.
Dorsal root ganglionopathy is responsible for the sensory impairment in CANVAS

Objective: To elucidate the neuropathology in cerebellar ataxia with neuropathy and bilateral vestibular areflexia syndrome (CANVAS), a novel cerebellar ataxia comprised of the triad of cerebellar impairment, bilateral vestibular hypofunction, and a peripheral sensory deficit. Method: Brain and spinal neuropathology in 2 patients with CANVAS, together with brain and otopathology in another patient with CANVAS, were examined postmortem. Results: Spinal cord pathology demonstrated a marked dorsal root ganglionopathy with secondary tract degeneration. Cerebellar pathology showed loss of Purkinje cells, predominantly in the vermis. Conclusion: The likely underlying sensory pathology in CANVAS is loss of neurons from the dorsal root and V, VII, and VIII cranial nerve ganglia—in other words, it is a “neuronopathy” rather than a “neuropathy. ” Clinically, CANVAS is a differential diagnosis for both spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 (or Machado-Joseph disease) and Friedreich ataxia. In addition, there are 6 sets of sibling pairs, implying that CANVAS is likely to be a late-onset recessive or autosomal dominant with reduced penetrance disorder, and identification of the culprit gene is currently a target of investigation.
Pharmacology and clinical experience with alosetron

Alosetron (Lotronex) is a potent, highly selective 5-HT3 antagonist. Animal models have shown it to be active in anxiety, psychosis, cognitive impairment, emesis and drug withdrawal, though its application in humans has been almost entirely restricted to irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Alosetron does not cause adverse pharmacodynamic effects, is absorbed rapidly after oral administration and is widely distributed throughout tissues after oral or iv. dosing in animals. Its metabolism is rapid and extensive with N-demethylation, hydroxylation and oxidation. The drug, or its two principal metabolites, is equally excreted through the biliary tract and kidneys. Alosetron has proved safe in a range of toxicity studies; at high repeated dosing, clinical signs were transient and repeated administration produced no significant adverse effects on fertility, reproductive performance or fetal development. In pharmacokinetic studies, bioavailability of alosetron in healthy volunteers is approximately 60% and the plasma half-life is about 1.5 h. There are some gender differences in the pharmacokinetic profile, with 30 - 50% higher alosetron concentrations in females. No consistent differences in alosetron serum concentrations between the young and elderly were observed. The pharmacokinetics of single, oral doses of alosetron are linear up to 8 mg. In human pharmacodynamic studies, alosetron increased basal jejunal water and electrolyte absorption, increased colonic transit time and, consequently, whole gut transit time. Alosetron has been evaluated in two large Phase II trials (randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled) and in Phase III trials which included a four-week observation period after cessation. Dose response studies suggested that the effective dosages could be between 1 and 2 mg, twice-daily. In Phase II trials, alosetron, 1 mg b.i. d. , resulted in a greater proportion of non-constipated IBS patients reporting adequate relief of pain and discomfort, as well as improvement of bowel symptoms, frequency, urgency and stool consistency when compared with placebo. However, this beneficial effect was seen exclusively among females. Phase III studies evaluated exclusively females with non-constipated IBS and confirmed the results of the Phase II studies. Alosetron was well-tolerated in all studies, with the most frequently recorded adverse event being constipation. Thus, alosetron appears promising in the treatment of abdominal pain and discomfort and normalising of bowel function in patients with non-constipated IBS. It also improves quality of life, has a high degree of tolerability and has an excellent safety profile to date.
Web-based design review portal with fuzzy set theoretic methods for fuel pump designs

Design review is used throughout the product development process to evaluate the design in terms of costs, quality and delivery, to ensure that the most suitable knowledge and technology are incorporated into the design, and to resolve possible problems instead of passing them downstream. Business globalization has extended design review activities to involve interdisciplinary members within and outside the enterprise, either geographically collocated or dispersed. This paper first proposes a systematic and rigorous framework based on a Systematic Theory of Axiomatic Design Review for more efficient and effective design review. The resulting framework is adequately well-structured and generic, enabling it to become the basis for developing a web-based design review portal in the extended enterprise. The framework is extended further to formulate a new design review technique called FuzzySTAR (Fuzzy Set Theory Approach to design Review). This paper demonstrates how design review tools are accommodated within the design review enterprise portal and how to use FuzzySTAR for reviewing the design of a fuel pump.
The incidence of patent foramen ovale in 1,000 consecutive patients. A contrast transesophageal echocardiography study.

STUDY OBJECTIVE Patent foramen ovale (PFO) is present in 10 to 35% of people and has been reported to be an important risk factor for cardioembolic cerebrovascular accidents (CVAs) and transient ischemic attacks (TIAs), especially in younger patients. While contrast transthoracic echocardiography has been used to detect PFO, contrast transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) has a greater sensitivity. Prior studies reported the incidence of PFO in patients presenting with a CVA or TIA. DESIGN To determine the incidence of PFO in a more general population, we reviewed 1,000 consecutive TEEs performed with contrast and color Doppler for the presence of PFO and other cardioembolic risk factors, including atrial septal aneurysm (ASA), aortic plaque, atrial fibrillation (AFib), and atrial thrombi. While imaging with monoplane or biplane TEE, multiple injections of agitated saline solution were injected during cough or Valsalva maneuver to detect flow through a PFO. PATIENTS There were 482 male and 518 female patients with mean age of 60 +/- 17 years (range 11 to 93 years). RESULTS Patent foramen ovale was found in 9.2% of all patients and, though seen in all age groups divided by decade, the incidence in patients aged 40 to 49 years was greater than those aged 70 to 79 years (12.96% vs 6.15%, p = 0.03). Contrast TEE had a much higher detection rate than color Doppler alone. Importantly, there was no greater incidence of PFO in patients with CVA vs those without CVA, or in male vs female patients. Also, there was a very strong correlation between the presence of ASA and PFO (p < .001). CONCLUSION Thus, PFO detected by TEE, frequently seen with ASA, is seen in all age groups and does not in itself present a risk factor for CVA. The association of PFO with peripheral thrombosis and CVA needs further study.
Spatial modulation: optimal detector asymptotic performance and multiple-stage detection

Spatial modulation (SM) is a recent multiple-input multiple-output transmission technique, which entirely avoids inter-channel interference as well as the need for transmit antenna synchronisation. The first objective of this study is to present an asymptotic bound to quantify the average bit error rate (BER) performance of M-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (M-QAM) SM with optimal-based detection over independent and identically distributed Rayleigh flat fading channels. The analytical frameworks are validated by Monte Carlo simulation results, which show that the derived lower bounds are increasingly tight for large signal-to-noise ratio values. The second objective is to introduce a novel SM detection scheme, termed multiple-stage (MS) detection. Performance and complexity comparisons with existing SM detectors show two main benefits of MS detection: near-optimal BER performance and up to a 35% reduction in receiver complexity as compared to the maximum likelihood-based SM detector.
A CMOS Micromachined Capacitive Tactile Sensor With High-Frequency Output

This paper describes the design and characterization of a CMOS-micromachined tactile sensing device that can be utilized for fingerprint recognition. The complete post micromachining steps are performed at die level without resorting to a wafer-level process, providing a low-cost solution for production. The micromechanical structure has an area of 200 mum by 200 mum and an initial sensing capacitance of 153 fF. An oscillator circuit is used to convert the pressure induced capacitance change to a shift in output frequency. The circuit has a measured initial frequency at 49.5 MHz under no applied force. The total frequency shift is 14 MHz with a corresponding mechanical displacement of 0.56 mum and a capacitance change of 63 fF, averaging a capacitive sensitivity of 222 kHz/fF. The measured spring constant is 923N/m, producing a force sensitivity of 27.1 kHz/muN
Combining ability analysis for yield and its component traits in maize (Zea mays L.)

Combining ability analysis for yield and its component traits was performed with twenty four lines, three testers and the resulting 72 hybrids using Line x Tester analysis. The interaction of Line x Tester was highly significant for all the characters studied except number of leaves per plant. Variance due to sca was greater than gca variance for the traits viz., grain yield per plant, cob diameter, cob length, plant height, ear height, leaf length, 100 grain weight, grain rows per cob, days to 50 per cent tasseling and days to 50 per cent silking. The variance due to SCA was higher than due to GCA indicating the predominance of non-additive type of gene action in the governance of above mentioned traits. Among the lines, the line UMI 1093 was found as the best general combiner with better mean performance for most of the yield contributing traits followed by UMI 1044-7, UMI 1053-6, UMI 1029-5 and UMI 2244-1. Considering the testers, UMI 61 was found as the best general combiner with better mean performance for most of the yield contributing traits followed by UMI 1119. Among the crosses, UMI 1044-7 x UMI 61 was found to be the superior with positive significant SCA effects and better mean performance for grain yield, cob length and grains per row. Similar superior positive significant SCA effects with better mean performance were also observed in UMI 1093 x UMI 61 (grain yield per plant) and UMI 2244-1 x UMI 1119 (grain yield per plant and grain rows per cob).
Association between Leptin, Insulin, and Body Fat Distribution in 2‐Diabetes Mellitus

Leptin is a newly discovered hormone that acts as a feedback signal from adipose tissue. It regulates energy storage through the central nervous system (CNS). We measured the serum leptin in fasting blood (Linco Research, St. Louis, MO) and insulin in 43 patients with 2-diabetes mellitus (2-DM) and in 18 controls by radioimmunoassay. Abdominal subcutaneous fat volume (ASF) and abdominal visceral fat volume (AVF) were measured by spiral CT (Elscint CT twin, Israel) and shaded surface display (SSD) software (FIG. 1) in 11 diabetics. We also measured leptin 2 h after a 75-g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) in 22 2-DM patients and fasting serum testosterone in 13 male 2-DM patients. Baseline serum leptin concentrations were not significantly different between the newly diagnosed group and the normal group when participants were matched for BMI and sex (TABLE 1), but were higher in females than males (12.76 ± 6.77 vs. 5.10 ± 3.50). The leptin level dropped by 19.19% 2 h after a 75-g OGTT. The diabetic group, who had poorly controlled metabolism (fasting blood glucose > 14 mmol/L) had lower leptin levels. TABLE 2 summarizes the correlation coefficients among serum leptin, BMI, ASF, AVF, and insulin. There were significantly positive correlations between leptin and BMI (r = 0.57; p = 0.0001), between leptin and insulin (r = 0.47; p = 0.0013), and between leptin and ASF (r = 0.67; p = 0.025). Leptin was not significantly correlated to age, but was inversely correlated with serum testosterone (r = −0.61; p = 0.025). The results of multiple stepwise regression analysis of leptin concentrations against the variables showed that BMI (32.05%, p = 0.0001), sex (21.78%, p = 0.0001), and ASF (6.67%, p = 0.016) were important factors modulating serum leptin (TABLE 3). Leptin is an important hormone in regulating body composition and is highly correlated with adiposity, generating a signal that limits further weight gain. The fact that obesity can coexist with a high leptin level has been interpreted to indicate the presence of leptin resistance. Leptin levels of the newly diagnosed group were not different from that of the normal group after the groups were matched for BMI and sex. It implies that there was neither an ob gene defect, as in ob/ob mice, nor mutation of the leptin receptor gene, as in db/db mice. Leptin may be not the main causal factor in 2-DM. The gender difference in leptin level has been reported by others; it may be caused by sex steroids. Testosterone and its active metabolite dihydrotestosterone suppressed leptin secretion and leptin messenger ribonucleic acid in prima-
Does the MGIT 960 System Improve the Turnaround Times for Growth Detection and Susceptibility Testing of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex?

The nonradiometric and fully automated Mycobacteria Growth Indicator Tube 960 system (MGIT 960; Becton Dickinson Microbiology Systems, Sparks, MD) has been proposed as a more efficient alternative to the semiautomated and radiometric BACTEC 460TB system ([4][1], [5][2]). However, it is noteworthy