Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of Irbesartan on Cloned Potassium Channels Involved in Human Cardiac Repolarization

We studied the effects of irbesartan, a selective angiotensin II type 1 receptor antagonist, on human ether-a-go-go-related gene (HERG), KvLQT1+minK, hKv1.5, and Kv4.3 channels using the patch-clamp technique. Irbesartan exhibited a low affinity for HERG and KvLQT1+minK channels (IC50 = 193.0 ± 49.8 and 314.6 ± 85.4 μM, respectively). In hKv1.5 channels, irbesartan produced two types of block, depending on the concentration tested. At 0.1 μM, irbesartan inhibited the current in a time-dependent manner (22 ± 3.9% at +60 mV). The blockade increased steeply with channel activation increasing at more positive potentials. However, at 10 μM, irbesartan induced a time-independent blockade that occurred in the range of potentials of channel opening, reaching its maximum at ≈0 mV, and remaining unchanged at more positive potentials (24.0 ± 1.0% at +60 mV). In Kv4.3 currents, irbesartan produced a concentration-dependent block, which resulted in two IC50values (1.0 ± 0.1 nM and 7.2 ± 0.6 μM). At 1 μM, it inhibited the peak current and accelerated the time course of inactivation, decreasing the total charge crossing the membrane (36.6 ± 7.8% at +50 mV). Irbesartan shifted the inactivation curve of Kv4.3 channels, the blockade increasing as the amount of inactivated channels increased. Molecular modeling was used to define energy-minimized dockings of irbesartan to hKv1.5 and HERG channels. In conclusion, irbesartan blocks Kv4.3 and hKv1.5 channels at therapeutic concentrations, whereas the blockade of HERG and KvLQT1+minK channels occurred only at supratherapeutic levels. In hKv1.5, a receptor site is apparent on each α-subunit of the channel, whereas in HERG channels a common binding site is present at the pore.
Selfies at the science museum: exploring girls’ identity performances in a science learning space

ABSTRACT Science education has a seemingly intractable gender problem and remains largely the reserve of White, middle-class men and boys, especially in the physical sciences. In this paper, taking an intersectional approach to Butler’s idea of identity as performance, we explore the affordances and limitations of a specific science learning space (a science museum) for girls. We discuss four types of performance, one based on ‘good’ behaviour, one combining masculinity and ‘race’/ethnicity, one of silence and one based on being ‘cool’. We focus on the experiences of 25 girls aged 12-13, from a mixture of ethnic backgrounds, from two inner-city, state-run, co-educational London schools, in the UK. We argue that the museum space put girls in a difficult position for both learning science and enacting the identities they were invested in. We conclude by reflecting on the implications for science learning spaces that disrupt rather than reproduce social inequalities.
Boosting automatic event extraction from the literature using domain adaptation and coreference resolution

Motivation: In recent years, several biomedical event extraction (EE) systems have been developed. However, the nature of the annotated training corpora, as well as the training process itself, can limit the performance levels of the trained EE systems. In particular, most event-annotated corpora do not deal adequately with coreference. This impacts on the trained systems' ability to recognize biomedical entities, thus affecting their performance in extracting events accurately. Additionally, the fact that most EE systems are trained on a single annotated corpus further restricts their coverage. Results: We have enhanced our existing EE system, EventMine, in two ways. First, we developed a new coreference resolution (CR) system and integrated it with EventMine. The standalone performance of our CR system in resolving anaphoric references to proteins is considerably higher than the best ranked system in the COREF subtask of the BioNLP'11 Shared Task. Secondly, the improved EventMine incorporates domain adaptation (DA) methods, which extend EE coverage by allowing several different annotated corpora to be used during training. Combined with a novel set of methods to increase the generality and efficiency of EventMine, the integration of both CR and DA have resulted in significant improvements in EE, ranging between 0.5% and 3.4% F-Score. The enhanced EventMine outperforms the highest ranked systems from the BioNLP'09 shared task, and from the GENIA and Infectious Diseases subtasks of the BioNLP'11 shared task. Availability: The improved version of EventMine, incorporating the CR system and DA methods, is available at: http://www.nactem. ac.uk/EventMine/. Contact: makoto.miwa@manchester.ac.uk
Tastes and Technology in a Two-Country Model of the Business Cycle: Explaining International Comovements

This paper studies the international transmission of business cycles by developing a two-country real business-cycle model and confronting it with a broad set of empirical observations. These observations include variances and covariances of output, labor, consumption, employment, and investment in traded and nontraded sectors of the economy, cross-country correlations of output and consumption, and correlations between quantities and relative prices. We find that technology shocks as measured by observed total factor productivity (by sector) must be supplemented by other sources of disturbances to explain certain features of the data. We call these other disturbances taste shocks, though they may stand in for some other shocks. In particular, it is difficult to explain the observed comovements of the relative price of nontraded to traded goods with the relative consumption of those goods without invoking something like taste shocks. Our model is roughly consistent with a broad set of observations, though puzzles emerge regarding the correlation of nontraded-sector output with its relative price and the variance of the balance of trade.
Individually Adapted Sequential Bayesian Designs for Conjoint Choice Experiments

In this paper, we propose an efficient individually adapted sequential Bayesian approach for constructing conjoint choice experiments. It uses Bayesian updating, a Bayesian analysis and a Bayesian design criterion for generating choice-set-designs for each individual respondent based on previous answers of that particular respondent. The proposed design approach is compared with two non-adaptive design approaches (the average customization design proposed by Arora and Huber 2001 and the nearly orthogonal design constructed with Sawtooth software) under various degree of response error and respondent heterogeneity. The simulation study shows that the individually adapted sequential Bayesian approach leads to designs which are robust not only to respondent heterogeneity but also to response error. It turns out that the proposed method outperforms the benchmark methods in all scenarios that we have looked at. In particular, for conditions with high response error (the responses from a respondent can hardly provide proper information about the individual-level parameter and is therefore very challenging for individually adapted choice designs), our approach leads to substantially improvement not only in the precision of the parameter estimates but also in the predictive accuracy when the respondent heterogeneity is large. The new method therefore overcomes the limitation of the recently proposed adaptive polyhedral choice-based question design approach by Toubia et al. (2004), whose method performs well only when the response error is low. Furthermore, our study provides compelling evidence that adapting each respondent's choice sets based on the previous responses of that particular respondent in a Bayesian framework enables one to capture more information for the individual-level parameters and therefore also on the population-level parameters. It is shown that it is substantially better to employ the adaptive approach when the response heterogeneity is high.
Horizon-Dependent Underreaction in Financial Analysts' Earnings Forecasts

This paper provides empirical evidence that underreaction in financial analysts' earnings forecasts increases with the forecast horizon, and the paper offers a rational economic explanation for this result. The empirical portion of the paper evaluates analysts' responses to earnings-surprise and other earnings-related information. Our empirical evidence suggests that analysts' earnings forecasts underreact to both types of information, and the underreaction increases with the forecast horizon. The paper also develops a theoretical model that explains this horizon-dependent analyst underreaction as a rational response to an asymmetric loss function. The model assumes that, for a given level of inaccuracy, analysts' reputations suffer more (less) when subsequent information causes a revision in investor expectations in the opposite (same) direction as the analyst's prior earnings forecast revision. Given this asymmetric loss function, underreaction increases with the risk of subsequent disconfirming information and with the disproportionate cost associated with revision reversal. Assuming that market frictions prevent prices from immediately unraveling these analyst underreaction tactics, investors buying (selling) stock based on analysts' positive (negative) earnings forecast revisions also benefit from analyst underreaction. Therefore, the asymmetric cost of forecast inaccuracy could arise from rational investor incentives consistent with a preference for analyst underreaction. Our incentives-based explanation for underreaction provides an alternative to psychology-based explanations and suggests avenues for further research.
Calibrating a dependent failure model for computing reliabilities in telecommunication networks

In this work, we propose a methodology for calibrating a dependent failure model to compute the reliability in a telecommunication network. We use the Marshall-Olkin (MO) copula model, which captures failures that arise simultaneously in groups of links. In practice, this model is difficult to calibrate because it requires the estimation of a number of parameters that is exponential in the number of links. We formulate an optimization problem for calibrating an MO copula model to attain given marginal failure probabilities for all links and the correlations between them. Using a geographic failure model, we calibrate various MO copula models using our methodology, we simulate them, and we benchmark the reliabilities thus obtained. Our experiments show that considering the simultaneous failures of small and connected subsets of links is the key to obtaining a good approximation of reliability, confirming what is suggested by the telecommunication literature.
Automatically Adapting an NLP Core Engine to the Biology Domain

Background: Rather than specifying rules, constraints and lexicons for NLP systems manually, we advocate a procedure for automatically acquiring linguistic knowledge using machine learning (ML) methods. In order to demonstrate how feasible this approach is, we automatically adapt OpenNLP, an open source ML-based NLP tool suite, to the sublanguage domain of biology. Results: In the first evaluation ever of a ML-based ensemble of core NLP components in the biology domain, which are all based on the maximum entropy method, we demonstrate that the performance of OpenNLP’s sentence splitter, tokenizer, part-of-speech tagger, chunker and parser on bio texts matches up with state-of-the-art performance figures from the newspaper domain. Conclusions: Core BioNLP systems can automatically be derived from non-bio domain settings by (re-)training rather than by manual rule re-writing and lexical re-specification. Background The prevailing approach to build large-scale BioNLP systems relies heavily on human efforts and expertise, i.e., manual rule, constraint and lexicon specification and maintenance (e.g., [1,2]). It is often deplored that
Conservatism and Adaptability during Squirrel Radiation: What Is Mandible Shape Telling Us?

Both functional adaptation and phylogeny shape the morphology of taxa within clades. Herein we explore these two factors in an integrated way by analyzing shape and size variation in the mandible of extant squirrels using landmark-based geometric morphometrics in combination with a comparative phylogenetic analysis. Dietary specialization and locomotion were found to be reliable predictors of mandible shape, with the prediction by locomotion probably reflecting the underlying diet. In addition a weak but significant allometric effect could be demonstrated. Our results found a strong phylogenetic signal in the family as a whole as well as in the main clades, which is in agreement with the general notion of squirrels being a conservative group. This fact does not preclude functional explanations for mandible shape, but rather indicates that ancient adaptations kept a prominent role, with most genera having diverged little from their ancestral clade morphologies. Nevertheless, certain groups have evolved conspicuous adaptations that allow them to specialize on unique dietary resources. Such adaptations mostly occurred in the Callosciurinae and probably reflect their radiation into the numerous ecological niches of the tropical and subtropical forests of Southeastern Asia. Our dietary reconstruction for the oldest known fossil squirrels (Eocene, 36 million years ago) show a specialization on nuts and seeds, implying that the development from protrogomorphous to sciuromorphous skulls was not necessarily related to a change in diet.
The State of the World's Children 1998: Focus on Nutrition.

Sound nutrition can change children's lives, improve their physical and mental development, protect their health and lay a firm foundation for future productivity. This year's edition of The State of the World's Children 1998, focuses on the nearly 200 million children under the age of five, who are affected by malnutrition everyday. Arising from the combined onslaught of poverty and preventable diseases, malnutrition represents a potent threat to the survival and development of children, as well as their families and communities. The Report examines three key factors that determine whether a child will thrive and develop: access to food; access to basic health services; and caring practices. It explores some of the low-cost measures that can be taken to improve children's quality of life, and puts forward a plan of action to alleviate some of the worst effects of child malnutrition.
The Tokuhashi Score: Significant Predictive Value for the Life Expectancy of Patients With Breast Cancer With Spinal Metastases

Study Design. Retrospective study of 55 consecutive patients with spinal metastases secondary to breast cancer who underwent surgery. Objective. To evaluate the predictive value of the Tokuhashi score for life expectancy in patients with breast cancer with spinal metastases. Summary of Background Data. The score, composed of 6 parameters each rated from 0 to 2, has been proposed by Tokuhashi and colleagues for the prognostic assessment of patients with spinal metastases. Methods. A total of 55 patients surgically treated for vertebral metastases secondary to breast cancer were studied. The score was calculated for each patient and, according to Tokuhashi, the patients were divided into 3 groups with different life expectancy according to their total number of scoring points. In a second step, the grouping for prognosis was modified to get a better correlation of the predicted and definitive survival. Results. Applying the Tokuhashi score for the estimation of life expectancy of patients with breast cancer with vertebral metastases provided very reliable results. However, the original analysis by Tokuhashi showed a limited correlation between predicted and real survival for each prognostic group. Therefore, our patients were divided into modified prognostic groups regarding their total number of scoring points, leading to a higher significance of the predicted prognosis in each group (P < 0.0001), and a better correlation of the predicted and real survival. Conclusion. The modified Tokuhashi score assists in decision making based on reliable estimators of life expectancy in patients with spinal metastases secondary to breast cancer.
Does temperature preference relate to the anaerobic capacity of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua L.) with different haemoglobin phenotype?

Abstract The effect of Hb-I* phenotype on white muscle lactate dehydrogenease (LDH, E. C. 1.1.1.27) activity and buffering capacity was studied in Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua), acclimated and measured at temperatures near their behavioral temperature preference. It was hypothesized that these conditions would optimize biochemical processes but no difference was found in LDH activity between the Hb-I* phenotype after 56 d of acclimation to 6 and 14°C. However, LDH activity was both mass- and temperature-dependent; mean activity was 162.2±5.0 and 275.9±6.4 IU g−1 wet mass (mean±SEM) at 6 and 14°C respectively and larger fish had the highest rate of enzyme activity. White muscle buffer capacity was unaffected by Hb-I* phenotype but higher in cod held at 14°C.
No Survival Improvement for Patients with Angioimmunoblastic T-Cell Lymphoma over the Past Two Decades: A Population-Based Study of 1207 Cases

Angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma (AITL) is a rare lymphoid malignancy with dismal prognosis. We conducted a large population-based study using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database (1973–2010) to determine the temporal survival trends and prognostic factors of AITL patients. A total of 1207 patients with AITL were included in this study, with a median age at diagnosis of 69 years. At presentation, most patients (79.5%) had an advanced-stage disease. Overall survival (OS) probabilities at 2, 5 and 10 years were 46.8%, 32.9%, and 21.9% respectively. Two-year, 5-year, and 10-year disease-specific survival (DSS) rates were 56.1%, 44.0%, and 35.9% respectively.On multivariate analysis, age older than 70 years, advanced-stage disease and male sex were identified adverse predictors for OS and DSS. We failed to find any survival differences among subgroups diagnosed in the 5 periods studied (1992 to 1998, 1999 to 2001, 2002 to 2004, 2005 to 2007, and 2008 to 2010). The current study represents the largest specific series of patients with AITL and the first investigation on temporal changes in survival of AITL patients. There has been no survival improvement for AITL patients over the past two decades. Further investigations are warranted to develop more effective treatment for AITL.
Cytotoxic effect of some natural compounds isolated from Lauraceae plants and synthetic derivatives.

INTRODUCTION The antiproliferative effect of eleven neolignans, two lignans and one diterpene isolated from three Lauraceae plants, four benzofurans and two bicyclooctanes synthetic derivatives was evaluated in vitro on a set of five human cancer cells from solid tumors with a high incidence in Colombia. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the cytotoxic effect of twenty compounds on the tumor cell lines HeLa, A-549, Hep-2, PC-3, and MCF-7. MATERIALS AND METHODS. Fourteen natural compounds were isolated by chromatographic techniques from three native Colombian plants (Pleurothyrium cinereum, Ocotea macrophylla and Nectandra amazonum), whose structures were established by spectroscopic methods; six synthetic derivatives were prepared by oxyarylation and diazomethane methylation. Antiproliferative effect and cell recovery were performed by means of in vitro treatment of tumor cell lines with test compounds, evaluating cell viability by resazurin staining. RESULTS Among test compounds, only neolignans ocophyllal A, cinerin D, kaurenoic acid, two benzofuran-derivatives, and synthetic (-)-cinerin A were found to have antiproliferative effect at different levels. Bicyclooctanoids as well as kaurenoic acid exhibited activity against all human cancer cells while benzofuranoids showed selective activity against HeLa. Furthermore, compounds (-)-cinerin A and kaurenoic acid exhibited total lethal effect against all-five cell lines and PC-3, Hep-2, and A549 cell lines, respectively. CONCLUSION Test compounds exhibiting antiproliferative activity showed interesting results, which would promote their use as lead compounds on further studies for anticancer agents development.
SINR order statistics in OFDMA systems

In orthogonal frequency division multiple access downlink, the signal-to-interference-noise ratio (SINR) of every subband at each user is estimated with the aid of pilots and the channel quality (some function of SINR's) is fed back to the base station (BS). This information is utilized by the BS for downlink scheduling. However, the SINR of the bands at each user are correlated due to the common interfering BSs. In this paper, we obtain the order statistics of band SINR's by considering the the co-channel interference and taking the correlations of interference across the bands into consideration. The order statistics are then used to analyse a best-m band feedback scheme, in which every users reports the index of their best-m bands to the BS. The BS utilizes this information and does greedy allocation of the bands to the users. We observe that utilizing the partial ordering of SINR's for channel allocation provides substantial gains over random allocation of bands to the users even in the presence of interference.
Turkish Background Families Live In Germany and Education: In Term of Families, Students, Teachers

The aim of this research is to determine the problems, supports and suggestions for families of Turkish background living in Germany about their children’s education. It is also intended to determine opinions of Turkish background students living in Germany and Turkish background teachers working in Germany about Turkish background families’ parents’ role. Phenomenology, which is one of the qualitative research methods, was used in this research. This research was carried out on 23 parents, 12 students and 6 teachers living in Germany with Turkish background to reveal the participants’ thinking about the research subject interviewed with participants. The data were obtained using semi-structured interview forms were prepared by researcher. A content analysis technique was used for the resolve of the data. In the light of the results language problems, cultural differences and conflicts, assimilations, prejudices of teachers towards Turkish students are mainly problems in education. Participants specified some suggestions such as, school parents’ cooperation should be developed, mother tongue teaching should be considered, and inclusion should be used instead of assimilation. According to results, it can be said that new generation are more conscious and liable about their children’s education than old generation of Turkish background families living in Germany. Key words: Turkish background families living in Germany, migration, education.