Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analysis of channel addition/removal response in all-optical gain-clamped cascade of lumped Raman fiber amplifiers

The effect of addition and/or dropping of wavelength-multiplexed channels in a network comprising three concatenated lumped Raman fiber amplifiers (LRFAs) have been analyzed by numerical simulation and verified experimentally. The first LRFA in the cascade is gain clamped using a ring-laser configuration, and the lasing power propagates through the cascade. A large-signal numerical model that incorporates time variation effects and the downstream propagation of signal, upstream propagation of pumps, and downstream and upstream propagation of amplified spontaneous emission spectral components has been used for the theoretical analysis. The LRFAs consist of 16 km of dispersion-compensating fiber counterdirectionally pumped at 1455 nm by a Raman fiber laser. Channel addition/removal is simulated by propagating through the cascade of LRFAs optical power from two laser diodes. One of them is square-wave modulated at 500 Hz, and power fluctuations of the second continuous-wave signal caused by the cross-gain saturation effect in LRFAs are monitored.
A conceptually new treatment approach for relapsed glioblastoma: Coordinated undermining of survival paths with nine repurposed drugs (CUSP9) by the International Initiative for Accelerated Improvement of Glioblastoma Care

To improve prognosis in recurrent glioblastoma we developed a treatment protocol based on a combination of drugs not traditionally thought of as cytotoxic chemotherapy agents but that have a robust history of being well-tolerated and are already marketed and used for other non-cancer indications. Focus was on adding drugs which met these criteria: a) were pharmacologically well characterized, b) had low likelihood of adding to patient side effect burden, c) had evidence for interfering with a recognized, well-characterized growth promoting element of glioblastoma, and d) were coordinated, as an ensemble had reasonable likelihood of concerted activity against key biological features of glioblastoma growth. We found nine drugs meeting these criteria and propose adding them to continuous low dose temozolomide, a currently accepted treatment for relapsed glioblastoma, in patients with recurrent disease after primary treatment with the Stupp Protocol. The nine adjuvant drug regimen, Coordinated Undermining of Survival Paths, CUSP9, then are aprepitant, artesunate, auranofin, captopril, copper gluconate, disulfiram, ketoconazole, nelfinavir, sertraline, to be added to continuous low dose temozolomide. We discuss each drug in turn and the specific rationale for use- how each drug is expected to retard glioblastoma growth and undermine glioblastoma's compensatory mechanisms engaged during temozolomide treatment. The risks of pharmacological interactions and why we believe this drug mix will increase both quality of life and overall survival are reviewed.
Cross-cultural validation of the Falls Efficacy Scale International (FES-I) in older people: Results from Germany, the Netherlands and the UK were satisfactory

Purpose. To carry out a cross-cultural validation of the Falls Efficacy Scale International (FES-I), a 16-item modified version of the Falls Efficacy Scale that was developed to assess both easy and more complex physical and social activities, in a range of languages and different cultural contexts. Method. Data were collected in Germany (n = 94), The Netherlands (n = 193), and the UK (n = 178) in samples of older people living in the community. Four-week FES-I re-test data were collected in Germany and The Netherlands. Descriptive statistics and reliability estimates were computed as well as FES-I sum scores according to age, sex, falls history and fear of falling. Results. Mean inter-item correlations were all above 0.38 and internal reliability estimates were all 0.90 or above. The intra-class correlation coefficients in the German and the Dutch sample were 0.79 and 0.82, respectively. As expected, FES-I scores were associated with age, sex, falls history and fear of falling. In addition, the FES-I discriminated between sub-groups somewhat better than the original ten-item FES scale. Conclusions. The FES-I has been shown to have acceptable reliability and construct validity in different samples in different countries and may be used in cross-cultural rehabilitation research and clinical trials.
Theft, Gift-Giving, and Trustworthiness: Honesty is its Own Reward in Rural Paraguay

In developing countries lacking legal enforcement, villagers may use implicit contracts to minimize crime. I construct a dynamic limited-commitment model, in which a thief cannot commit to forego stealing, but is induced to steal less by the promise of future gifts. Combining survey data on production, theft, gifts, and trust with experiments measuring trustworthiness, I provide supporting evidence. Farmers living near more relatives or with plots that are difficult to steal from give fewer gifts and trust more, and those living near more relatives also experience less theft. Giving increases when trust is lower and the threat of theft is greater. (JEL D86, K42, O17, Z13)
Phase I trial of exisulind (sulindac sulfone, FGN-1) as a chemopreventive agent in patients with familial adenomatous polyposis.

Exisulind (sulindac sulfone; FGN-1), a metabolite of sulindac without known effects on prostaglandin synthesis, can promote apoptosis and inhibit tumorigenesis in preclinical systems. We performed a Phase I trial of this compound in patients with familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) to examine the tolerability and safety of this drug in the cancer chemoprevention setting. Six patients each were treated with exisulind at doses of 200, 300, and 400 mg p.o. twice a day. Reversible hepatic dysfunction was noted in four of six patients treated at the 400-mg p.o. , twice-a-day dose level, but in only one to two of six patients treated at each of the lower dose levels. The serum half-life of exisulind was 6-9 h; little drug accumulation was noted over time. A nonsignificant trend toward increased apoptosis in polyps was noted at the maximum tolerated dose, but no decrease in polyp numbers or significant effects on cellular proliferation was noted. After treatment, polyps tended to display a "halo" appearance grossly and mucinous differentiation histologically. The maximum safe dose of exisulind is 300 mg p.o. twice a day in patients with subtotal colectomies. Reversible hepatic dysfunction limits further dose escalation. A decrease in polyp numbers could not be demonstrated, but the trend toward increased apoptosis at the MTD and the observation of mucinous change histologically suggest that further investigation of drugs of this class might be warranted.
OIL PRICE SHOCKS AND NIGERIA ’ S MACRO ECONOMY

A steep upward trend in the price of crude oil in recent years, reaching a record nominal high in mid-2008, has led to increasing concern about its macroeconomic implications, both abroad and in Nigeria given that the Nigerian economy is highly vulnerable to oil price fluctuations. This paper analyses the dynamic relationship between oil price shocks and major macroeconomic variables in Nigeria by applying a VAR approach. The study points out the asymmetric effects of oil price shocks; for instance, positive as well as negative oil price shocks significantly increase inflation and also directly increases real national income through higher export earnings, though part of this gain is seen to be offset by losses from lower demand for exports generally due to the economic recession suffered by trading partners. The findings of the study show a strong positive relationship between positive oil price changes and real government expenditures. Unexpectedly, the result identifies a marginal impact of oil price fluctuations on industrial output growth. Furthermore, the "Dutch Disease" syndrome is observed through significant real effective exchange rate appreciation.
Efficient Chemical Sensing by Coupled Slot SOI Waveguides

A guided-wave chemical sensor for the detection of environmental pollutants or biochemical substances has been designed. The sensor is based on an asymmetric directional coupler employing slot optical waveguides. The use of a nanometer guiding structure where optical mode is confined in a low-index region permits a very compact sensor (device area about 1200 μm2) to be realized, having the minimum detectable refractive index change as low as 10-5. Silicon-on-Insulator technology has been assumed in sensor design and a very accurate modelling procedure based on Finite Element Method and Coupled Mode Theory has been pointed out. Sensor design and optimization have allowed a very good trade-off between device length and sensitivity. Expected device sensitivity to glucose concentration change in an aqueous solution is of the order of 0.1 g/L.
DIFFERENT BOLD RESPONSES TO EMOTIONAL FACES AND EMOTIONAL FACES AUGMENTED BY CONTEXTUAL INFORMATION

Literature suggests that relatively simple stimuli such as emotional facial expressions elicit neural activation in subcortical-limbic regions whereas contextually richer emotional pictures generate activation in a broader network of prefrontal as well as subcortical-limbic regions. The extent to which contextual features modulate subjective and neural responses associated with responses to emotional faces is unclear. Normative valence and arousal ratings for a large corpus of affective pictures (IAPS) were reviewed to explore whether emotional pictures containing both faces and context evoked more intense subjective emotional reactions than faces presented alone. This review study demonstrated that subjective emotional reactions to emotional faces with contextual information were greater than those to faces. An fMRI study was conducted to examine neural reactivity to these two types of emotional stimuli. Eleven healthy right-handed subjects viewed passively emotional stimuli during event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) assessment. Emotional faces augmented by contextual information elicited significant brain activity in the prefrontal cortex (BA10/11/47) as well as amygdala and thalamus. In contrast, emotional facial expressions provoked neural responses only in the subcortical-limbic/paralimbic regions including amygdala, thalamus, insula and posterior cingulate gyrus. These findings suggest that there are different but overlapping brain networks engaged by emotional faces and faces augmented by contextual information. The amygdala and thalamus can be regarded as common regions associated with emotional processing. Prefrontal regions may be unique in more cognitive and conscious processing of emotional faces augmented by contextual information.
APP Regulates NGF Receptor Trafficking and NGF-Mediated Neuronal Differentiation and Survival

β-amyloid precursor protein (APP) is a key factor in Alzheimer's disease (AD) but its physiological function is largely undetermined. APP has been found to regulate retrograde transport of nerve growth factor (NGF), which plays a crucial role in mediating neuronal survival and differentiation. Herein, we reveal the mechanism underlying APP-mediated NGF trafficking, by demonstrating a direct interaction between APP and the two NGF receptors, TrkA and p75NTR. Downregulation of APP leads to reduced cell surface levels of TrkA/p75NTR and increased endocytosis of TrkA/p75NTR and NGF. In addition, APP-deficient cells manifest defects in neurite outgrowth and are more susceptible to Aβ-induced neuronal death at physiological levels of NGF. However, APP-deficient cells show better responses to NGF-stimulated differentiation and survival than control cells. This may be attributed to increased receptor endocytosis and enhanced activation of Akt and MAPK upon NGF stimulation in APP-deficient cells. Together, our results suggest that APP mediates endocytosis of NGF receptors through direct interaction, thereby regulating endocytosis of NGF and NGF-induced downstream signaling pathways for neuronal survival and differentiation.
Ethnic differences in general practitioner consultations.

OBJECTIVE--To examine the levels of general practitioner consultations among the different ethnic groups resident in Britain. DESIGN--The study was based on the British general household surveys of 1983-5 and included 63,966 people aged 0-64. Odds ratios were derived for consultation by ethnic group by using logistic regression analysis adjusting for age and socioeconomic group. SETTING--The results relate to people living in private households in England, Scotland, and Wales. RESULTS--After adjustment for age and socioeconomic class, consultation among adults aged 16-64 was highest among people of Pakistani origin with odds ratios of 2.82 (95% confidence interval 1.86 to 4.28) for men and 1.85 (1.22 to 2.81) for women. Significantly higher consultations were also seen for men of West Indian and Indian origin (odds ratios 1.65 and 1.53 respectively). Ethnic differences were greatest at ages 45-64, when consultation rates in people of Pakistani, Indian, and West Indian origin were much higher in both sexes compared with white people. CONCLUSIONS--The ethnic composition of inner cities is likely to influence the workload and case mix of general practitioners working in these areas.
Childhood Reports of Food Neglect and Impulse Control Problems and Violence in Adulthood

Food insecurity and hunger during childhood are associated with an array of developmental problems in multiple domains, including impulse control problems and violence. Unfortunately, extant research is based primarily on small convenience samples and an epidemiological assessment of the hunger-violence link is lacking. The current study employed data from Wave 1 (2001–2002) and Wave 2 (2004–2005) of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC). The NESARC is a nationally representative sample of non-institutionalized U.S. residents aged 18 years and older. Participants who experienced frequent hunger during childhood had significantly greater impulsivity, worse self-control, and greater involvement in several forms of interpersonal violence. These effects were stronger among whites, Hispanics, and males. The findings support general theoretical models implicating impulse control problems as a key correlate of crime and violence and add another facet to the importance of ameliorating food neglect in the United States.
Association of Mucosal Organisms with Patterns of Inflammation in Chronic Rhinosinusitis

Background Chronic rhinosinusitis is a multifactorial process disease in which bacterial infection or colonization may play an important role in the initiation or persistence of inflammatory response. The association between mucosal bacteria presence and inflammatory patterns has only been partially explored. Objective To demonstrate specific mucosal microorganisms possible association with inflammatory patterns. Methods We collected nasal polyps or sinus tissues from a clinical selection of six patient groups with defined sinus disease using tissue biomarkers. In the tissues, we detected bacteria using peptide nucleic acid fluorescence in situ hybridization (PNA-FISH). Results After reviewing a total of 115 samples (15–20 samples per group), the mucosal presence of Staphylococcus aureus was correlated with IL-5 and SE-IgE positive chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps and nasal polyps from cystic fibrosis patients. Chronic rhinosinusitis without nasal polyps with TNFα >20 pg/ml was associated with the mucosal presence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Conclusion This study identifies the relationship between intramucosal microbes and inflammatory patterns, suggesting that bacteria may affect the type of inflammation in chronic rhinosinusitis. Additional investigation is needed to further identify the nature of the relationship.
Insights on the evolution of a vegetatively propagated crop species

The opportunity for gene flow between a vegetatively propagated crop and its wild relatives is expected to be much lower than for seed‐propagated crops, since sexual reproduction in the crop occurs only infrequently. A study by Duputié and colleagues now demonstrates evidence of sexual reproduction between a vegetatively propagated crop and a closely related wild congener. Working in French Guiana, these workers have documented a hybrid zone arising from introgression between cassava (Manihot esculenta ssp. esculenta, Euphorbiaceae), which is propagated by stem cuttings, and wild Manihot populations growing in close proximity. Patterns of heterozygosity suggest that there are little–to–no barriers to reproduction between the crop and these wild populations. Previous work by these researchers has documented the importance of occasional sexual reproduction for the development of cassava varieties in traditional Amerindian farming systems. Taken together with their previous work, these new findings suggest that gene flow between wild Manihot populations and cassava plants could potentially play a much greater role in the crop's evolution than previously thought.
Ventricular Tachycardia Storm - An Atypical Presentation of Sarcoidosis Exacerbation

Management of ventricular tachycardia (VT) storm in a patient with an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) is a challenging medical emergency. We describe a patient with cardiac sarcoidosis (CS) and an ICD who is admitted with VT storm. Management of VT was difficult due to resistance to multiple antiarrhythmic drugs. He responded to immunosuppressive therapy supporting active CS as the cause of his VT. This case suggests that CS may underlie some cases of refractory VT and that immunosuppressive therapy may be effective in controlling this arrhythmia.
The political sciences of European integration: disciplinary history and EU studies

[From the introduction]. This chapter does not pretend to offer a single definitive account of the field of EU politics, but it does investigate the various formal and informal accounts that exist in terms of the above observations. It begins with two short preparatory discussions. The first identifies six issues that intercept any attempt to write disciplinary history in this area, while the second supplies a rough ‘anatomy’ of the field of EU studies/EU politics in an effort to adjudicate some fundamental issues surrounding the substance of this area of study. In so doing, it perhaps justifies this chapter’s focus on what appears to be an Anglophone academic mainstream. It then moves to describing and offering critical engagement with standard accounts of the field with a view to showing how, overwhelmingly, extant stories about the evolution of EU studies are bound up with particular claims about the organisation of knowledge in the present. Indeed the argument here suggests that disciplinary history is used to adjudicate disputes about the proper scope and substance of the study of EU politics, which in turn connect to some quite fundamental struggles for the soul of political science. Thus the chapter is also attentive to sociology of knowledge questions. These remind us that our knowledge about the world is produced amidst broad scientific and more specific disciplinary structures, norms, practices and institutions – what Jorgensen (2000) neatly calls the ‘cultural-institutional context’ of academic work. It follows that the evolution of a field is (at the very least) partly a function of developments within the field. These in turn might reflect much broader path dependent pathologies, which take us back to the intellectual and socio-political conditions of disciplinary foundation (Mancias, 1987). This ‘internalist’ take on disciplinary history might not necessarily provide a full explanation of why scholars of EU politics address particular puzzles at particular moment, but it does offer a framework for understanding why particular theories and approaches dominate at particular times (Schmidt, 1998; Waever, 2003). At the same time, many would prefer to argue for an ‘externalist’ understanding of disciplinary evolution, where the main academic innovations are largely construed as responses to the changing anatomy of the field’s primary object of study (the EU/the politics of European integration).
Evaluation of the effect of consuming an energy drink on the concentration of glucose and triacylglycerols and on fatty tissue deposition. A model study.

UNLABELLED BACKGROUND. The animal model study was aimed at evaluating the effect of diet composition and energy drink intake on body weight, accumulation and distribution of deposited fatty tissue, and concentrations of glucose and triacylglycerols in blood plasma. MATERIAL AND METHODS The experiment was carried out on 30 male rats. The animals were sorted into three groups, fed on group I - standard feed, groups II and III - modified feed, in which part of whole wheat and corn grains were isocalorically substituted with wheat flour and saccharose. Animals from groups I and II were receiving settled tap water for drinking, whereas these from group III were administered 3 ml of an energy drink, and then were provided drinking water. RESULTS In analysing the results obtained it was stated that the addition of the energy drink to diet affected diminished body weight gains of the animals (per energy unit in the diet) as compared to the group of animals fed modified diet. The animals receiving the energy drink were additionally characterised by a lower content of peri-intestinal and intramuscular fatty tissue, whereas were found to deposit significantly higher amounts of peri-cardiac fatty tissue. Samples of blood plasma of these animals were found to contain a significantly higher concentration of glucose, compared to those of the animals fed modified diet. In turn, the concentration of triacylglycerols was comparable in all groups of animals. CONCLUSIONS The analysis of results achieved enabled concluding that the addition of energy drink to diet was significantly modifying the rate and tendency of metabolic changes, which was manifested in: increased glucose concentration in blood plasma, diminished body weight gains of the animals and deposition of peri-cardial fat.
Recombinant Human Type II Collagens with Low and High Levels of Hydroxylysine and Its Glycosylated Forms Show Marked Differences in Fibrillogenesis in Vitro *

Type II collagen is the main structural component of hyaline cartilages where it forms networks of thin fibrils that differ in morphology from the much thicker fibrils of type I collagen. We studied here in vitro the formation of fibrils of pepsin-treated recombinant human type II collagen produced in insect cells. Two kinds of type II collagen preparation were used: low hydroxylysine collagen having 2.0 hydroxylysine residues/1,000 amino acids, including 1.3 glycosylated hydroxylysines; and high hydroxylysine collagen having 19 hydroxylysines/1,000 amino acids, including 8.9 glycosylated hydroxylysines. A marked difference in fibril formation was found between these two kinds of collagen preparation, in that the maximal turbidity of the former was reached within 5 min under the standard assay conditions, whereas the absorbance of the latter increased until about 600 min. The critical concentration with the latter was about 10-fold, and the absorbance/microgram collagen incorporated into the fibrils was about one-sixth. The morphology of the fibrils was also different, in that the high hydroxylysine collagen formed thin fibrils with essentially no interfibril interaction or aggregation, whereas the low hydroxylysine collagen formed thick fibrils on a background of thin ones. The data thus indicate that regulation of the extents of lysine hydroxylation and hydroxylysine glycosylation may play a major role in the regulation of collagen fibril formation and the morphology of the fibrils.