Economic Policy Uncertainty: A Review on Applications and Measurement Methods with Focus on Text Mining Methods

Economic Policy Uncertainty (EPU) represents the uncertainty realized by the investors during economic policy alterations. EPU is a critical indicator in economic studies to predict future investments, the unemployment rate, and recessions. EPU values can be estimated based on financial parameters directly or implied uncertainty indirectly using the text mining methods. Although EPU is a well-studied topic within the economy, the methods utilized to measure it are understudied. In this article, we define the EPU briefly and review the methods used to measure the EPU, and survey the areas influenced by the changes in EPU level. We divide the EPU measurement methods into three major groups with respect to their input data. Examples of each group of methods are enlisted, and the pros and cons of the groups are discussed. Among the EPU measures, text mining-based ones are dominantly studied. These methods measure the realized uncertainty by taking into account the uncertainty represented in the news and publicly available sources of financial information. Finally, we survey the research areas that rely on measuring the EPU index with the hope that studying the impacts of uncertainty would attract further attention of researchers from various research fields. In addition, we propose a list of future research approaches focusing on measuring EPU using textual material.Comment: JEL Classification: C53, C38, A13, O38, H5

Effects of intrathecal opioids use in cesarean section on breastfeeding and newborns’ weight gaining

Objective: To assess the association between intrapartum intrathecal opioid use and breastfeeding and weight gain following cesarean section. Materials and methods: The prospective double-blinded study was conducted on term pregnant women, undergoing elective cesarean section under spinal anesthesia. They divided into two groups. In the first group, intrathecal Morphine was used to achieve analgesia during or after the operation. The remainder divided into two subgroups, those who did not receive any opioid or those received systemic opioids. Following labor breastfeeding accessed in a follow-up, two month latter. Results: There was no difference between the demographic variables of the mothers and newborns APGAR score and weight at the time of birth. Breastfeeding rate was similar in intrathecal group in compare with other patents (P value = 0.518). While, the infants’ weight at the end of second month was lower in spinal opioid group (P value = 0.036). Conclusion: The present study was the first to suggest that spinal (intrathecal) opioids do not have any impact on breastfeeding. However the relationship between spinal anesthesia on weight gaining needs more investigation

Iterative Nearest Neighborhood Oversampling in Semisupervised Learning from Imbalanced Data

Transductive graph-based semi-supervised learning methods usually build an undirected graph utilizing both labeled and unlabeled samples as vertices. Those methods propagate label information of labeled samples to neighbors through their edges in order to get the predicted labels of unlabeled samples. Most popular semi-supervised learning approaches are sensitive to initial label distribution happened in imbalanced labeled datasets. The class boundary will be severely skewed by the majority classes in an imbalanced classification. In this paper, we proposed a simple and effective approach to alleviate the unfavorable influence of imbalance problem by iteratively selecting a few unlabeled samples and adding them into the minority classes to form a balanced labeled dataset for the learning methods afterwards. The experiments on UCI datasets and MNIST handwritten digits dataset showed that the proposed approach outperforms other existing state-of-art methods

Nutrition and immunity : the effects of the combination of arginine and tryptophan on growth performance, serum parameters and immune response in broiler chickens challenged with infectious bursal disease vaccine

To explore the effects of the combination of tryptophan (Trp) and arginine (Arg) on growth performance, serum parameters and immune response of broiler chickens challenged with intermediate plus strain of infectious bursal disease virus vaccine, an in vivo experiment was conducted. A corn-soybean meal-based diet containing different levels of Arg and Trp was used. Cobb500 male broiler chickens from 0 to 49 days of age were subjected to a diet supplemented with the combination of Trp and Arg. Growth performance parameters and serum parameters were measured at 27 and 49 days of age. To evaluate the immunomodulatory effects of the combination of Trp and Arg on the challenged chickens, we measured the serum levels of interferon-α, interferon-γ and immunoglobulin G at 27, 35, 42, and 49 days of age. The results showed that the three evaluated immune system parameters including interferon-α, interferon-γ and immunoglobulin G were significantly enhanced after treatment. This enhancement resulted in the recovery of infectious bursal disease virus-infected chickens compared with controls as confirmed by histopathological examinations. Moreover, serum parameters such as albumin and total protein increased, whereas the treatment decreased (P<0.05) the feed:gain ratio, aspartate amino-transferase, alkaline phosphatase, lactic dehydrogenase, triglyceride and cholesterol. These findings suggest that the combination of Arg and Trp has a regulatory effect on growth performance. Moreover, it modulates the systemic immune response against infectious bursal disease

Tryptophan Stimulates Immune Response in Broiler Chickens Challenged with Infectious Bursal Disease Vaccine

Infectious bursal disease is still a challenging issue by posing a serious threat to the commercial poultry industry especially due to the emergence of highly Infectious Bursal Disease Virus (IBDV). In the present study, we evaluated the immunomodulatory effects of Tryptophan (Tip) on innate, humoral and cellular immune responses in chickens challenged by oral administration of intermediate plus strain of IBD virus at 28 days of age. A corn-soybean meal based diet containing different levels of Tip (0, 0.10 and 0.20) for the starter, (0, 0.07 and 0.15) for the grower and (0, 0.05 and 0.13) for the finisher has been utilized. In a completely randomized design with three treatments of five replicates each and 10 chickens per replicate, 150 Cobb 500 male broiler chickens from 0-49 days of age were subjected to Tip diet. To measure the innate, cellular and humoral immunity indicators (interferon-alpha, interferon-gamma, immunoglobulin G, respectively) at 27, 35, 42 and 49 days of age, serum samples from each replicate of treatments were collected and subjected to ELISA. The result showed that Trp supplementation in the chickens basal diets significantly increased the serum levels of interferon-alpha at 35, 42 and 49 days of age (p<0.05), interferon-gamma at 27, 35 and 49 days of age (p<0.05) and immunoglobulin G at 27, 35, 42 and 49 days of age (p<0.05). These results strongly suggest that tryptophan plays a vital role in modulation of protective immune response against IBDV

Glass fiber/polypropylene composites with potential of bone fracture fixation plates : manufacturing process and mechanical characterization

Mechanical properties and manufacturing processes of Glass Fiber/Polypropylene (GF/PP) composites for application of flexible internal long bone fracture fixation plates have been investigated. PP/Short Chopped Glass Fiber (PPSCGF), PP/Long Glass Fiber (PPLGF) and PP/Long Glass Fiber Yarn (PPLGFY) were used in fabrication of the fixation plates. The PPSCGF and PPLGF plates were made by the heat-compressing process and Three-dimensional (3D) printing method was used to make the PPLGFY ones. The values of Young’s modulus, tensile strength, flexural modulus and strength, and impact strength of the PPSCGF in the fiber longitudinal direction were found to be [Formula: see text]GPa, [Formula: see text]MPa, [Formula: see text]GPa, [Formula: see text]MPa and [Formula: see text]kJ/m2, respectively. Where, these values for the PPLGF were to [Formula: see text]GPa, [Formula: see text]MPa, [Formula: see text]GPa, [Formula: see text]MPa, and [Formula: see text]kJ/m2 and for the PPLGFY were to [Formula: see text]GPa, [Formula: see text]MPa, [Formula: see text]GPa, [Formula: see text]MPa and [Formula: see text]kJ/m2. These have been found to be in close agreement with the human bone properties. Furthermore, the strength and modulus values of the plates were reasonable to be used as a bone implant applicable for bone fracture reconstructions. Hence, the study concluded that the GF/PP composites are useful for load-bearing during daily activities and would be recommended as a choice in orthopedic fixation plate applications. It will help the researchers for development of new fixation designs and the clinicians for better patient’s therapy in future

Growth performance and blood parameters as influenced by different levels of dietary Arginine in broiler chickens.

An experiment was conducted to determine effects of dietary Arginine (ARG) on growth performance and blood serum parameters in broiler chickens. A corn-soybean meal based diet containing different levels of ARG (0, 0.67, 1.37, 2.07 and 2.77) for the starter (0, 0.53, 1.1, 1.68 and 2.25) for the grower and (0, 0.52, 1.04, 1.56 and 2.08) for the finisher was used. In a completely randomized design with five treatments of five replicates each and 10 chickens per replicate, 250 Cobb 500 male broiler chickens from 0-49 days of age were used. Growth performance (body weight gain, feed intake and feed: gain ratio) and blood serum (albumin, total protein, glucose, cholesterol, triglyceride, urea, uric acid, aspartate amino-transferase, alanine amino-transferase, alkalin phosphatase, lactic dehydrogenase and creatine kinase) parameters were measured at 27 and 49 days of age. Increase of dietary ARG increased (p0.05) aspartate amino-transferase and cholesterol. It was concluded that dietary ARG might have positive effects on health status of the broiler chickens

The comparison of Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder and Traits in mothers of 4 -11 years children having OCD Vs control group

Objectives: Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)   begins in childhood and adolescence and progresses along with aging .This  survy is conducted to compare temperament and character and Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD) and OCPD traits in parents of children with OCD and parents of healthy controls.Materials and Methods: In each group, 30 patients were studied. There were 11 boys (%36.7) in the study group (children with obsessive compulsive disorder), and 12 ones in control group (%40.0). In case group, four mothers (%13.3) had obsessive compulsive personality disorder, while the frequency in control group was one (%3.3) and the frequency difference was not considered statistically significant. There was also a case of borderline personality disorder in mothers of children with obsessive-compulsive disorder, but those in control group were not diagnosed with this disorder which showed thta there was still no significant difference between the two groups. No other personality disorders (including mixed personality disorder or NOS)  was detected in two groups.Results:The results indicated that the frequency of preoccupation with details was %46.7 in the case group (children with obsessive-compulsive disorder), and %10.0 in the control group that means no significant difference between the two groups (0.002). The frequency of perfectionism was %43.3 in the treatment group and %20.0 in the control group which again had no significant difference (0.052).Conclusions: The existence of the some symptomsof OCPD according to SCID in parents of children withOCD in comparison to parents of healthy children confirm the necessity of considering the role of personality factors in familial OCD.The results of this study showed that the four dimensions of temperament based on TCI-125 and triple dimensions of attitudes between mothers in the two groups was not statistically different

A comparative study of 3D printing and heat-compressing methods for manufacturing the thermoplastic composite bone fixation plate : design, characterization, and in vitro biomechanical experimentation

Metallic bone fixations, due to their high rigidity, can cause long-term complications. To alleviate metallic biomaterials’ drawbacks, in this research new Glass Fiber/Polypropylene (GF/PP) composite internal fixations were developed, and an investigation of their mechanical behavior was performed through in vitro biomechanical experiments. Short randomly oriented, long unidirectional prepreg, and long unidirectional fiber yarn were considered as reinforcements, and the effects on their mechanical properties of different manufacturing processes, that is, 3D printing and heat-compressing, were investigated. The constructed fixation plates were tested in the transversely fractured diaphysis of bovine tibia under axial compression loading. The overall stiffness and the Von Mises strain field of the fixation plates were obtained within stable and unstable fracture conditions. The samples were loaded until failure to determine their failure loads, strains, and mechanisms. Based on the results, the GF/PP composite fixation plates can provide adequate interfragmentary movement to amplify bone ossification, so they can provide proper support for bone healing. Moreover, their potential for stress shielding reduction and their load-bearing capacity suggest their merits in replacing traditional metallic plates

Dietary Tryptophan Effects on Growth Performance and Blood Parameters in Broiler Chicks

In order to study the effect of Tryptophan (Tip) on growth performance and blood parameters of broiler chickens, an in vivo experiment was conducted. A corn-soybean meal based diet containing different levels of Trp (0, 0.10 and 0.20) for the starter, (0, 0.07 and 0.15) for the grower and (0, 0.05 and 0.13) for the finisher was used. In a completely randomized design with three treatments of five replicates each and 10 chickens per replicate, 150 Cobb500 male broiler chickens from 0-49 days of age were subjected to Trp diet. Growth performance (body weight gain, feed intake and feed, gain ratio) and blood serum (albumin, total protein, glucose, cholesterol, triglyceride, urea, uric acid, aspartate amino-transferase, alanine amino-transferase, alkalin phosphatase, lactic dehydrogenase and creatine. e kinase) parameters were measured at 27 and 49 days of age. As the result showed the increase of dietary Trp elevated (p 0.05) body weight gain, feed intake, albumin, total protein, glucose, urea and uric acid and decreased (p>0.05) feed gain ratio, aspartate amino-transferase, lactic dehydrogenase, triglyceride and cholesterol. Therefore, we conclude that dietary Tip might have positive effects on health status of the broiler chickens