Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Varied Forms of Bias Due to Nondifferential Error in Measuring Exposure

Continuous exposure variables are frequently categorized in epidemiologic data analysis. It has recently been shown that such categorization may transform nondifferential error in measuring continuous exposure variables into differential exposure misclassification. This paper assesses the direction and magnitude of the resulting misclassification bias under a variety of practically relevant forms of nondifferential measurement error. The expected bias of measures of the exposure-disease association is toward the null in the case of purely random measurement error with a mean of zero. Systematic nondifferential over- or underestimation of the exposure may bias measures of the exposure-disease association either toward the null or away from the null, depending on the underlying distribution of exposure, the true exposure-disease relation, and the cutpoints employed for categorization. If exposure measurement error has both random and systematic components, the direction of the net bias is less predictable than with pure error of either type, but bias toward the null is increasingly likely as the random component grows larger. The results indicate the need for careful evaluation of potential effects of nondifferential exposure measurement error in epidemiologic studies in which categories are formed from continuous exposure variables. (Epidemiology 1994;5:510–517)
Orbital angular momentum microlaser

Microlasers with a twist Structured light, in the form of helical wavefronts, provides an additional degree of freedom to encode information for optical communications. Creating light beams with the desired amount of optical angular momentum, or twist, has usually been achieved with bulk optic devices. Miao et al. demonstrate a possible route for an integrated optics approach in which a twisted-light source with a controlled amount of optical angular momentum is generated internally to the designed device structure. These microlasers could find application in telecommunication and information technologies to increase the rate of information transmission. Science, this issue p. 464 A microlaser is demonstrated that generates a light beam with controlled optical angular momentum. Structured light provides an additional degree of freedom for modern optics and practical applications. The effective generation of orbital angular momentum (OAM) lasing, especially at a micro- and nanoscale, could address the growing demand for information capacity. By exploiting the emerging non-Hermitian photonics design at an exceptional point, we demonstrate a microring laser producing a single-mode OAM vortex lasing with the ability to precisely define the topological charge of the OAM mode. The polarization associated with OAM lasing can be further manipulated on demand, creating a radially polarized vortex emission. Our OAM microlaser could find applications in the next generation of integrated optoelectronic devices for optical communications in both quantum and classical regimes.
Health inequalities in the workforce: the labour market core-periphery structure.

OBJECTIVES To explore health inequalities between six labour market groups ranging from permanent employees to the long-term unemployed receiving minimum daily allowance. METHODS A sample of 15 468 employees or job seekers from a population survey. Their perceived health, diseases, and depression were measured. RESULTS Compared with permanent employees, the odds for poor health were highest among the unemployed with low incomes irrespective of adjustments, across all health indicators and in both men and women. High odds were also found among the less disadvantaged unemployed and the employed with atypical contracts, but not among fixed-term employees. CONCLUSIONS Rather than between the employed and the unemployed, it seems that health inequalities prevail across different labour market groups within the employed and the unemployed. Future studies should employ a more detailed classification of employment situation.
CD44 can be activated to function as an hyaluronic acid receptor in normal murine T cells

The hyaluronic acid (HA)‐binding function of CD44 expressed on the cell surface of normal hematopoietic cells has been studied by assaying binding of fluoresceinated hyaluronic acid (FI‐HA) and adhesion to immobilized HA. As has been observed previously, normal hematopoietic cells from bone marrow and spleen do not constitutively bind HA. A CD44‐specific monoclonal antibody, IRAWB 14, which has been shown to rapidly induce HA binding in some CD44+ cell lines, was used to activate the HA‐binding function of CD44 in these normal cells. Only splenic T cells were activated by the IRAWB 14 antibody to bind FI‐HA. Upon activation, FI‐HA binding correlated with the level of CD44 expression.
Evaluation of the frequency of putative prostate cancer stem cells in primary and metastatic prostate cancer

Tumour cells with a stem cell‐like phenotype have recently been identified in prostate tumors and it has been suggested that this population may be responsible for the diversity of cell types within tumors and also for the initiation of metastases. These cells carry a number of defined markers: they are cd133 and cd44+ve and express high levels of α2β1 integrin. In this study we have, for the first time, assessed matched primary and bone marrow biopsies from prostate cancer patients for the distribution of cells carrying these and a number of other putative stem cell markers.
Endocrine cells in rectal biopsy specimens from patients with familial amyloidotic polyneuropathy.

BACKGROUND A decreased amount of duodenal endocrine cells has recently been found in patients with familial amyloidotic polyneuropathy (FAP), and it has been suggested that this may contribute to the development of the gastrointestinal symptoms. The present study was performed to establish whether the endocrine cells in the lower gastrointestinal tract are also affected. METHODS The endocrine cells in rectal biopsy specimens from 13 patients (7 women and 6 men) with FAP were investigated by means of immunocytochemistry and computed image analysis. These specimens were taken early during the disease. As controls, rectal specimens from 13 patients (7 women and 6 men) with rectal bleeding caused by haemorrhoids or polyps were included. RESULTS The amount of both serotonin- and pancreatic polypeptide (PP)-immunoreactive cells was significantly decreased compared with the controls. There was no significant difference between patients and controls with regard to the amount of chromogranin A-, polypeptide YY (PYY)-, enteroglucagon- and somatostatin-immunoreactive cells. CONCLUSION It has been suggested that serotonin depletion may contribute to the development of the severe constipation encountered in FAP patients in early stages of the disease. This constipation may promote bacterial overgrowth in the small intestine, with diarrhoea and malabsorption as a result.
Union substitution effects of human resource management practices in South Korean workplaces, 2005–2013

Abstract This article explores the association between various workplace-level HRM practices and a decline in union strength using a unique longitudinal survey data-set gathered in South Korea from 2005 to 2013. It addresses the underlying theoretical mechanisms by which HRM programs substitute for the roles labor unions have traditionally played. Suggesting more nuanced theoretical implications about HRM practices and union decline, statistical analyses reveal that workplaces that have implemented HRM practices have unions with a weaker organizational base than those without such practices, but that certain HRM programs correlate with unions with a strong collective voice in management decision-making. This article identifies the new roles for unions in South Korea in the era of HRM.
Citation-Based Journal Rankings: Key Questions, Metrics, and Data Sources

This guide presents nine key questions that can help researchers make good use of citation-based journal rankings (metrics) in the natural and social sciences. The nine questions address the characteristics that distinguish one metric from another: the source documents, the citation-counting window, the document types counted, the cited-document window, the impact of highly cited documents, the treatment of self-citations, the distinction between size-dependent and size-independent metrics, the use of normalization to account for disciplinary differences in impact, and the use of weighting to account for the impact or centrality of each citing journal. Next, the guide reviews 19 standard citation metrics, including the <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$h$ </tex-math></inline-formula> index, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$g$ </tex-math></inline-formula> index, impact factor, source normalized impact per paper, eigenfactor, article influence score, and SCImago journal rank. Three underlying data sources (Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar) are described, along with six major data download sites: Journal Citation Reports, Eigenfactor, CWTS Journal Indicators, SCImago, Scopus Journal Metrics, Cabell’s International, and Google Scholar Metrics. The paper summarizes the main criticisms of citation metrics and concludes with suggestions for their further development, dissemination, and use.
Budesonide Inhalation Suspension Reduces the Need for Emergency Intervention in Pediatric Asthma: A Named‐Patient Case Series

This report describes 15 children aged 10–35 months frequently hospitalized with uncontrolled asthma who were monitored for a mean of 26.9 months to assess the efficacy of budesonide inhalation suspension (AstraZeneca LP, Wilmington, DE) in reducing emergency interventions. Budesonide inhalation suspension was previously shown to relieve asthma symptoms, improve pulmonary function, and reduce rescue medication use in children as young as 6 months with mild to severe persistent asthma. We now show that ≥ 1 year of treatment with Budesonide inhalation suspension at doses between 0.25 and 1.5 mg/d decreased the burden of asthma. The mean number of hospitalizations caused by asthma or respiratory illness decreased from 1.8 ± 1.37 in the period before initiation of treatment with Budesonide inhalation suspension to 0.33 ± 0.62 during treatment. Likewise, the mean number of oral prednisone courses decreased from 8.1 ± 13.7 to 1.8 ± 2.1, and the mean number of acute respiratory illnesses requiring additional therapy decreased from 2.7 ± 2.3 before treatment with Budesonide inhalation suspension to 0.87 ± 0.74 during treatment. Numbers of emergency department visits decreased or remained the same after initiation of Budesonide inhalation suspension treatment in all but two children. There was no effect on growth rate in this group of children with moderate to severe asthma. In this case series, Budesonide inhalation suspension represents a safe, effective treatment option to prevent recurrent emergency intervention for patients < 3 years of age with poorly controlled asthma.
Hepatic Fibrosis in Dogs

Hepatic fibrosis is commonly diagnosed in dogs, often as a sequela to chronic hepatitis (CH). The development of fibrosis is a crucial event in the progression of hepatic disease that is of prognostic value. The pathophysiology of hepatic fibrosis in human patients and rodent models has been studied extensively. Although less is known about this process in dogs, evidence suggests that fibrogenic mechanisms are similar between species and that activation of hepatic stellate cells is a key step. Diagnosis and staging of hepatic fibrosis in dogs requires histopathological examination of a liver biopsy specimen. However, performing a liver biopsy is invasive and assessment of fibrotic stage is complicated by the absence of a universally accepted staging scheme in veterinary medicine. Serum biomarkers that can discriminate among different fibrosis stages are used in human patients, but such markers must be more completely evaluated in dogs before clinical use. When successful treatment of its underlying cause is feasible, reversal of hepatic fibrosis has been shown to be possible in rodent models and human patients. Reversal of fibrosis has not been well documented in dogs, but successful treatment of CH is possible. In human medicine, better understanding of the pathomechanisms of hepatic fibrosis is leading to the development of novel treatment strategies. In time, these may be applied to dogs. This article comparatively reviews the pathogenesis of hepatic fibrosis, its diagnosis, and its treatment in dogs.
Long-term amelioration of rat adjuvant arthritis following systemic elimination of macrophages by clodronate-containing liposomes.

OBJECTIVE To determine whether systemic elimination of macrophages by means of clodronate-containing liposomes counteracts inflammation and joint destruction in rats with established adjuvant arthritis (AA). METHODS Rats with AA received a total of 2.7 mg of clodronate encapsulated in liposomes in 3 intravenous doses on days 10, 11, and 12 of arthritis. Phosphate buffered saline (PBS), PBS-laden liposomes, or free clodronate were used as negative controls. Clinical, hematologic, and histopathologic signs of AA were monitored, and depletion of macrophages by clodronate-liposomes was evaluated both in the synovial membrane (SM) and in organs of the mononuclear phagocyte system (MPS). RESULTS Clodronate-laden liposomes led to significant, long-term amelioration of the clinical signs of AA, a reduction in the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), and counteraction of joint destruction, not only immediately after treatment, but also for 2 weeks thereafter. Free clodronate induced moderate clinical improvement and a significant decrease in the ESR, but only during the late phase of AA. Drug-free vesicles even aggravated the joint destruction. Clodronate-laden liposomes did not induce significant depletion of resident macrophages in the SM, but rather, in the paracortical region of popliteal lymph nodes, in the liver, and in the marginal zone and periarteriolar lymphatic sheaths of the spleen. CONCLUSION Clodronate-laden liposomes induce long-term amelioration of AA, even if administered for a brief period during the florid phase of the disease. The amelioration is paralleled by the elimination of macrophages in immunocompetent areas of the spleen and draining lymph nodes, but not locally in the SM. This suggests an influence of the treatment on the immunoregulatory rather than effector, functions of macrophages.
Analysis of Risk and Mispricing Hypotheses of Accruals: Evidence from Brazil

Purpose – Analyze how the accruals pricing is configured in the brazilian stock market, that is, if it represents a market mispricing or a risk factor. Design/methodology/approach – We used a sample of non-financial companies listed in B3. To reach the objective, the portfolio methodology, asset pricing models were used, and two-stage cross-sectional regression (2SCSR) was used to test risk and mispricing hypotheses. Findings – The results obtained showed evidence of the accruals anomaly for the companies classified as small and that the evidence is stronger when evaluating the discretionary component. The two-stage cross-sectional regression analysis did not show that accruals represent a risk factor, suggesting that the evidence of anomaly obtained for discretionary accruals is caused by mispricing. Originality/value – Non-rejection of the accruals' mispricing assumption leads to the conclusion that stock prices of small firms are influenced by the accounting results disclosed and that managers, by having capital market and profit incentives related, can use accounting choices opportunists with the motivation to maximize their expected utility, that is, to influence the price of shares through the distortions in profits.
Tandem Phosphorylation of Ser-911 and Thr-912 at the C Terminus of Yeast Plasma Membrane H+-ATPase Leads to Glucose-dependent Activation*

In recent years there has been growing interest in the post-translational regulation of P-type ATPases by protein kinase-mediated phosphorylation. Pma1 H+-ATPase, which is responsible for H+-dependent nutrient uptake in yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), is one such example, displaying a rapid 5–10-fold increase in activity when carbon-starved cells are exposed to glucose. Activation has been linked to Ser/Thr phosphorylation in the C-terminal tail of the ATPase, but the specific phosphorylation sites have not previously been mapped. The present study has used nanoflow high pressure liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray electron transfer dissociation tandem mass spectrometry to identify Ser-911 and Thr-912 as two major phosphorylation sites that are clearly related to glucose activation. In carbon-starved cells with low Pma1 activity, peptide 896–918, which was derived from the C terminus upon Lys-C proteolysis, was found to be singly phosphorylated at Thr-912, whereas in glucose-metabolizing cells with high ATPase activity, the same peptide was doubly phosphorylated at Ser-911 and Thr-912. Reciprocal 14N/15N metabolic labeling of cells was used to measure the relative phosphorylation levels at the two sites. The addition of glucose to carbon-starved cells led to a 3-fold reduction in the singly phosphorylated form and an 11-fold increase in the doubly phosphorylated form. These results point to a mechanism in which the stepwise phosphorylation of two tandemly positioned residues near the C terminus mediates glucose-dependent activation of the H+-ATPase.
Identification of Candidate Biomarkers in Peripheral Blood for Cardiac Allograft Rejection based on Bioinformatics Analysis.

BACKGROUND Cardiac allograft rejection (AR) can cause graft dysfunction and even mortality, and an early noninvasive diagnosis of cardiac AR is required. This study aims to identify candidate biomarkers in peripheral blood for cardiac AR, which might benefit early diagnosis. MATERIAL AND METHODS Gene expression profile (ID: GSE5967) of peripheral blood from cardiac allograft recipients was achieved from the Gene Expression Omnibus database, including 7 chips in rejection group, 7 chips in post-rejection group, and 7 chips in control group. After data preprocessing, limma package was used to screen the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between these groups (|log2 fold change| ≥0.58, and p-value <0.05). Then, online software DAVID was utilized to study the pathways and functions involving these DEGs (p-value <0.05). RESULTS Totally, 21 up-regulated and 16 down-regulated DEGs were identified between rejection and control groups, and up-regulated DEGs were mainly enriched in bio-functions about translation and ribosome. Furthermore, 3 up-regulated and 14 down-regulated DEGs were identified between post-rejection and control groups. The down-regulated DEGs in 2 contrast groups were mainly enriched in bio-functions about lipid biosynthesis and membrane. CONCLUSIONS RPL7, RPL11, RPS23, RPS25, SCD5, CSF3R, and FPR1 were predicted as candidate biomarkers in peripheral blood for monitoring cardiac AR. The up-regulation of RPL7, RPS25, RPS23, and RPL11 might promote the translation of AR-related cytokines, and the down-regulation of SCD5, CSF3R, and FPR1 might reduce the stability of cell membrane, mediating cytokines secretion and the phagocytosis of macrophages. However, further studies are required to validate these predictions.
Classification, Filtering, and Identification of Electrical Customer Load Patterns Through the Use of Self-Organizing Maps

Different methodologies are available for clustering purposes. The objective of this paper is to review the capacity of some of them and specifically to test the ability of self-organizing maps (SOMs) to filter, classify, and extract patterns from distributor, commercializer, or customer electrical demand databases. These market participants can achieve an interesting benefit through the knowledge of these patterns, for example, to evaluate the potential for distributed generation, energy efficiency, and demand-side response policies (market analysis). For simplicity, customer classification techniques usually used the historic load curves of each user. The first step in the methodology presented in this paper is anomalous data filtering: holidays, maintenance, and wrong measurements must be removed from the database. Subsequently, two different treatments (frequency and time domain) of demand data were tested to feed SOM maps and evaluate the advantages of each approach. Finally, the ability of SOM to classify new customers in different clusters is also examined. Both steps have been performed through a well-known technique: SOM maps. The results clearly show the suitability of this approach to improve data management and to easily find coherent clusters between electrical users, accounting for relevant information about weekend demand patterns
Pharmacokinetic Properties of Nucleoside/Nucleotide Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors

Options for antiretroviral therapy in patients infected with HIV continue to expand as new drugs are integrated into treatment regimens. Nonetheless, nucleoside/nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs/NtRTIs) remain the backbone of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). With the approval of emtricitabine in 2003, there are now 8 Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved NRTIs/NtRTIs. Several of these agents are effective as once-daily therapy, including didanosine, lamivudine, extended-release stavudine (FDA approved, but not currently available), tenofovir DF, and emtricitabine. Recent results from pharmacokinetic and clinical trials indicate that another NRTI, abacavir, may also be effective as a once-daily therapy, and FDA approval of once-daily dosing is anticipated. NRTIs are inactive as administered, requiring anabolic phosphorylation within target cells to achieve their antiretroviral effects. All NRTIs are converted to nucleoside triphosphates, which serve as the active metabolites (the NtRTI, tenofovir DF, only requires conversion to the diphosphate form). Frequency of drug administration is closely related to the pharmacokinetic properties of a drug. The key parameter is the half-life; however, the plasma elimination half-life of the NRTIs/NtRTIs as administered is of little use in developing a dosing schedule. Rather, the intracellular half-life of the nucleoside triphosphate is the relevant parameter. This article reviews the pharmacokinetic properties, particularly those of the various phosphorylation steps, of the NRTIs/NtRTIs.