Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Parathyroid Hormone-Related Peptide (1-36) Enhances Beta Cell Regeneration and Increases Beta Cell Mass in a Mouse Model of Partial Pancreatectomy

Aims/Hypothesis Finding ways to stimulate the regeneration of endogenous pancreatic beta cells is an important goal in the treatment of diabetes. Parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP), the full-length (1–139) and amino-terminal (1–36) peptides, enhance beta cell function, proliferation, and survival. Therefore, we hypothesize that PTHrP(1–36) has the potential to regenerate endogenous beta cells. Methods The partial pancreatectomy (PPx) mouse model of beta cell injury was used to test this hypothesis. Male Balb/c mice underwent either sham-operation or PPx, and were subsequently injected with PTHrP(1–36) (160μg/kg) or vehicle (veh), for 7, 30, or 90 days. The four groups of mice, sham-veh, sham-PTHrP, PPx-veh, and PPx-PTHrP were assessed for PTHrP and receptor expression, and glucose and beta cell homeostasis. Results PTHrP-receptor, but not the ligand, was significantly up-regulated in islets from mice that underwent PPx compared to sham-operated mice. This suggests that exogenous PTHrP could further enhance beta cell regeneration after PPx. PTHrP did not significantly affect body weight, blood glucose, plasma insulin, or insulin sensitivity, in either sham or PPx mice. Glucose tolerance improved in the PPx-PTHrP versus PPx-veh mice only in the early stages of treatment. As hypothesized, there was a significant increase in beta cell proliferation in PPx-PTHrP mice at days 7 and 30; however, this was normalized by day 90, compared to PPx-veh mice. Enhanced beta cell proliferation translated to a marked increase in beta cell mass at day 90, in PPx-PTHrP versus PPx-veh mice. Conclusions PTHrP(1–36) significantly enhances beta cell regeneration through increased beta cell proliferation and beta cell mass after PPx. Future studies will determine the potential of PTHrP to enhance functional beta cell mass in the setting of diabetes.
Identification and Evaluation of 21 Novel Microsatellite Markers from the Autumnal Moth (Epirrita autumnata) (Lepidoptera: Geometridae)

The autumnal moth (Epirrita autumnata) is a cyclically outbreaking forest Lepidoptera with circumpolar distribution and substantial impact on Northern ecosystems. We have isolated 21 microsatellites from the species to facilitate population genetic studies of population cycles, outbreaks, and crashes. First, PCR primers and PCR conditions were developed to amplify 19 trinucleotide loci and two tetranucleotide loci in six multiplex PCR approaches and then analyzed for species specificity, sensitivity and precision. Twelve of the loci showed simple tandem repeat array structures while nine loci showed imperfect repeat structures, and repeat numbers varied in our material between six and 15. The application in population genetics for all the 21 microsatellites were further validated in 48 autumnal moths sampled from Northern Norway, and allelic variation was detected in 19 loci. The detected numbers of alleles per locus ranged from two to 13, and the observed and expected heterozygosities varied from 0.04 to 0.69 and 0.04 to 0.79, respectively. Evidence for linkage disequilibrium was found for six loci as well as indication of one null allele. We find that these novel microsatellites and their multiplex-PCR assays are suitable for further research on fine- and large-scale population-genetic studies of Epirrita autumnata.
INSTITUTIONAL TRANSITIONS AND STRATEGIC CHOICES : IMPLICATIONS FOR CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN RUSSIA

It directly benefited from the World Bank/Wharton School Zicklin Center conference on corporate social responsibility and sustainable competitiveness in Russia held at the World Bank headquarters in Washington and via videoconference in Moscow and Philadelphia on December 6, 2002. While we thank all participants for lively discussions, we especially appreciate the stimulating conversations with the group in Washington, namely,
Transforming Power: The Politics of Electricity Planning

Introduction 1. Institution and electricity planning 2. Tasmania: the means justify the ends 3. New Zealand: the triumph of distributive politics 4. B. C. Hydro: winning reform after losing the peace 5. Ontario Hydro: the decline and fall of the electric empire 6. Victoria: uncertain reform 7. Institutions and electricity planning.
Gender Mainstreaming in Poverty Eradication and the Millennium Development Goals: A Handbook for Policy-Makers and Other Stakeholders

Abbreviations Foreword Executive Summary 1. Gender, Poverty and Development Policy Introduction A Brief History of Poverty Reduction Policies Putting Gender on the Policy Agenda 2. Integrating Gender into Macroeconomic Analysis Introduction Gender Bias in Macroeconomic Analysis Empirical Findings Gender Equity and Economic Growth: Competing Hypothesis Conclusion 3. The Geography of Gender Inequality Introduction Institutions and Gender Inequality Regional Perspectives on Gender Equality Updating the Geography of Gender Classifying Gender Constraints Conclusion 4. Approaches to Poverty Analysis and its Gender Dimensions Introduction The Poverty Line Approach The Capabilities Approach Participatory Poverty Assessments (PPAs) Conclusion 5. Gender Inequality and Poverty Eradication: Promoting Household Livelihoods Introduction Gender Inequality and Household Poverty in South Asia Gender Inequality and Household Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa Links Between Gender Inequality and Income Poverty: The Wider Picture Conclusion 6. Gender Equality and Human Development Outcomes: Enhancing Capabilities Introduction Gender Inequality and Human Development: The Equity Rationale Gender Inequality and Family Well-being: The Instrument Rationale Conclusion 7. Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment Introduction Conceptualising Empowerment: Agency, Resources and Achievement Access to Education and Women's Empowerment Access to Paid Work and Women's Empowerment Voice, Participation and Women's Empowerment Agency and Collective Action: Building Citizenship from the Grassroots Conclusion 8. Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment Introduction Gender Equality and Economic Growth: Synergy or Trade-off? Poverty Reduction Strategy papers (PRSPs): A Gender Audit Gender-responsive Budget (GRB) Analysis Mainstreaming Gender in Policy-making Institutions Mobilising around Gender Equity Goals: Building active Citizenship Conclusion Select Bibliography Glossary
Mechanical properties of polycrystalline boron-nitride nanosheets

The first molecular dynamics (MD) study was conducted to explore mechanical-failure response of ultra-fine grained single-layer boron-nitride films. We used MD simulations to construct relatively large molecular models of polycrystalline structures with random grain configurations. By applying uniaxial tensile loading, we then studied the grain size effect on the mechanical response of polycrystalline boron-nitride nanosheets. Our results reveal that by decreasing the grain size, the elastic modulus of polycrystalline films decreases gradually. Interestingly, our MD results reveal that ultra-fine grained samples could present a tensile strength of around half that of the pristine films. Our investigation suggests that experimentally fabricated polycrystalline boron nitride nanosheets can exhibit remarkably high mechanical properties.
Policy Implications of Limiting Immigrant Concentration in Danish Public Schools

Immigrant students in Denmark on average perform worse in lower secondary school than native Danish students. Part of the effect may not stem from the immigrant students themselves, but from the student composition at the school. From a policy perspective, the latter aspect is quite interesting since it is more feasible to change student composition in schools than the socioeconomic status of the individual students. This article describes theoretically the circumstances under which total student achievement can be increased by reallocating certain groups of students. Empirical analyses of Danish register data of more than 40,000 students suggest that the gain in total student achievement by reallocating immigrant students is minor. The educational outcome of immigrant students can however, ceteris paribus, be increased, at minimal expense to the majority of native Danish students' educational outcome, by limiting the share of immigrant students at grade level at any one school to less than 50 percent. The policy implications of this finding are discussed.
Building positive peace? : A gendered analysis of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security

Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) forms part of the United Nations approach to international peacebuilding. Whereas the resolution has been critiqued in terms of its implementation, there is a gap in the existing analysis concerning a deeper critical understanding of gender and the significant link between the constructions of gender and cultures of violence and peace. Grounded in a theoretical framework of a gendered analysis of peacebuilding theory, the empirical research combines policy analysis and qualitative interviews in order to examine how the concept of gender is understood within peacebuilding policy and how this impacts on implementation. Using the principle themes that emerge from SCR 1325 gender mainstrearning, participation, and protection this thesis presents an analysis of the different understandings of gender found in the policy making arena and locates these within perspectives for building more sustainable and positive peace. It is argued that, in order to overcome the inertia in implementing gender aware perspectives and policies in the security arena, the focus of analysis must be broadened from a focus on women to include the relational nature of constructions of gender. It is thus necessary to examine the related issues of power, and the roles of femininities and masculinities, patriarchy and militarization in the field of peacebuilding policy. This involves moving beyond the confines of the prevailing liberal peace thesis towards a more transformative approach to building sustainable peace.
Socioeconomic status and exposure to outdoor NO2 and benzene in the Asturias INMA birth cohort, Spain

Background It is commonly assumed that low socioeconomic levels are associated with greater exposure to pollution, but this is not necessarily valid. Our goal was to examine how individual socioeconomic characteristics are associated with exposure levels in a Spanish region included in the INfancia y Medio Ambiente (INMA) cohort. Methods The study population comprised 430 pregnant women from the Asturias INMA cohort. Air pollution exposure was estimated using land-use regression techniques. Information about the participants’ lifestyle and socioeconomic variables was collected through questionnaires. In multivariate analysis, the levels of NO2 and benzene assigned to each woman were considered as dependent variables. Other variables included in the models were residential zone, age, education, parity, smoking, season, working status during pregnancy and social class. Results The average NO2 level was 23.60 (SD=6.50) μg/m3. For benzene, the mean value was 2.31 (SD=1.32) μg/m3. We found no association of any pollutant with education. We observed an association between social class and benzene levels. Social classes I and II had the highest levels. The analysed socioeconomic and lifestyle variables accounted for little variability in air pollution in the models; this variability was explained mainly by residential zone (adjusted R2: 0.27 for NO2; 0.09 for benzene). Conclusions Education and social class were not clearly associated with pollution. Administrations should monitor the environment of residential areas regardless of the socioeconomic level, and they should increase the distances between housing and polluting sources to prevent settlements at distances that are harmful to health.
The Theorem of Proportionality in Contemporary Capital Theory: An Assessment of its Applicability

This paper surveys and assesses the empirical literature that bears on the applicability of the theorem of proportionality, which asserts that depreciation is proportional to the outstanding capital stock. All available evidence shows that: a) the rates of depreciation and retirements vary from year to year in response to changes in conventional economic forces like utilization, maintenance and repair, the prices of new capital goods, etc., and b) while the approximation of the distribution of depreciation rates by a single parameter may be characterized by simplicity and ease of use, at the same time it thwarts the advances that can be achieved by returning to a general equilibrium model centered on the time structure of capital and the useful lives of its components. For this reason, it is concluded that, the sooner this theorem is replaced by an endogenous theory of depreciation and replacement, the better for economic theory and policy.
The military campaign in German Southwest Africa, 1904 - 1907 and the genocide of the Herero and Nama

This article examines the military campaign to suppress the Herero and Nama Revolts in German Southwest Africa from 1904 to 1907. These operations led to genocide in both cases. Rather than focusing on ideology (racism) as the main causal factor, this article analyzes the genocide as the result of a conventional European-style military campaign whose tenets and propensity to go to extremes developed out of Imperial Germany's military culture. After analyzing the four phases of the military campaign, the article goes on to delineate the characteristic features of German military culture that led to mass killing.
Impaired sensory processing as a basis for object-recognition deficits in schizophrenia.

OBJECTIVE Individuals are able to recognize common objects even when portions of them are obscured from view, reflecting the operation of neural perceptual closure processes. This study evaluates the integrity of object recognition and perceptual closure as a function of sensory and cognitive manipulations. METHOD Object recognition was examined in 26 subjects with schizophrenia and 23 nonpsychiatric comparison subjects of similar age with a presentation of fragmented pictures by means of the ascending method of limits. The effects of prior exposure to subsets of stimuli and of word prompting were examined in separate testing phases. Demographic and clinical characteristics were evaluated as covariates. RESULTS Although they had impairments in perceptual closure, schizophrenic patients showed improvement in performance equivalent to that of nonpatient comparison subjects with prior exposure to the pictures (i.e., repetition priming) and with presentation of valid word prompts. A significant correlation was found between impaired performance and the severity of negative symptoms. CONCLUSIONS The results support models of widespread dysfunction in information processing in patients with schizophrenia involving both sensory and cognitive regions. Perceptual closure is significantly impaired in schizophrenic patients; however, this deficit in sensory precision is dissociated from the effects of higher-order repetition priming and word prompting. Furthermore, this work suggests that deficits in perceptual closure may contribute to the muted world experience of patients with the persistent negative symptoms of schizophrenia.
Spatial diversity of spontaneous activity in the cortex

The neocortex is a layered sheet across which a basic organization is thought to widely apply. The variety of spontaneous activity patterns is similar throughout the cortex, consistent with the notion of a basic cortical organization. However, the basic organization is only an outline which needs adjustments and additions to account for the structural and functional diversity across cortical layers and areas. Such diversity suggests that spontaneous activity is spatially diverse in any particular behavioral state. Accordingly, this review summarizes the laminar and areal diversity in cortical activity during fixation and slow oscillations, and the effects of attention, anesthesia and plasticity on the cortical distribution of spontaneous activity. Among questions that remain open, characterizing the spatial diversity in spontaneous membrane potential may help elucidate how differences in circuitry among cortical regions supports their varied functions. More work is also needed to understand whether cortical spontaneous activity not only reflects cortical circuitry, but also contributes to determining the outcome of plasticity, so that it is itself a factor shaping the functional diversity of the cortex.
Integrating tuberculosis and HIV care in the primary care setting in South Africa

Background In many countries including South Africa, the increasing human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and tuberculosis (TB) epidemics have impacted significantly on already weakened public health services. This paper reviews the scope, process and performance of the HIV and TB services in a primary care setting where antiretroviral therapy is provided, in Khayelitsha, South Africa, in order to assess whether there is a need for some form of integration.
Alcohol and Drug Expectancies as Anticipated Changes in Affect: Negative Reinforcement Is Not Sedation

argued that all three basic alcohol-expectancy factors can be assessed with a brief questionnaire (AEMax), related to the circumplex model of emotion. I argue that negative reinforcement, one of the three basic expectancy factors, is not assessed with the AEMax. Importantly, negative reinforcement is positively related to problem drinking while sedation (the AEMax-factor that comes closest) is not. In a new dataset (from 119 students, collected in 2002), I demonstrate that sedation is related to negative expectancies and not to negative reinforcement. Different ways to assess all major expectancy factors are proposed.
Hyaluronan and the hyaluronan receptor RHAMM promote focal adhesion turnover and transient tyrosine kinase activity

The molecular mechanisms whereby hyaluronan (HA) stimulates cell motility was investigated in a C-H-ras transformed 10T 1/2 fibroblast cell line (C3). A significant (p < 0.001) stimulation of C3 cell motility with HA (10 ng/ml) was accompanied by an increase in protein tyrosine phosphorylation as detected by anti-phosphotyrosine antibodies using immunoblot analysis and immunofluorescence staining of cells. Tyrosine phosphorylation of several proteins was found to be both rapid and transient with phosphorylation occurring within 1 min of HA addition and dissipating below control levels 10-15 min later. These responses were also elicited by an antibody generated against a peptide sequence within the HA receptor RHAMM. Treatment of cells with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (genistein, 10 micrograms/ml or herbimycin A, 0.5 micrograms/ml) or microinjection of anti-phosphotyrosine antibodies inhibited the transient protein tyrosine phosphorylation in response to HA as well as prevented HA stimulation of cell motility. To determine a link between HA-stimulated tyrosine phosphorylation and the resulting cell locomotion, cytoskeletal reorganization was examined in C3 cells plated on fibronectin and treated with HA or anti-RHAMM antibody. These agents caused a rapid assembly and disassembly of focal adhesions as revealed by immunofluorescent localization of vinculin. The time course with which HA and antibody induced focal adhesion turnover exactly paralleled the induction of transient protein tyrosine phosphorylation. In addition, phosphotyrosine staining colocalized with vinculin within structures in the lamellapodia of these cells. Notably, the focal adhesion kinase, pp125FAK, was rapidly phosphorylated and dephosphorylated after HA stimulation. These results suggest that HA stimulates locomotion via a rapid and transient protein tyrosine kinase signaling event mediated by RHAMM. They also provide a possible molecular basis for focal adhesion turnover, a process that is critical for cell locomotion.
Ideologies of Globalization : Contending Visions of a New World Order

1. Introduction 2. Americanism, Fordism and Hegemony 3. The Hegemonic Project of Liberal Globalization 4. From Liberal Globalization to Global Democratization 5. Fear & Loathing in the New World Order 6. Competition or Solidarity? : The new populism and the ambiguities of common sense 7. New World Order: Passive revolution or transformative process?
Bisphenol A causes reproductive toxicity, decreases dnmt1 transcription, and reduces global DNA methylation in breeding zebrafish (Danio rerio)

ABSTRACT Bisphenol A (BPA) is a commercially important high production chemical widely used in epoxy resins and polycarbonate plastics, and is ubiquitous in the environment. Previous studies demonstrated that BPA activates estrogenic signaling pathways associated with adverse effects on reproduction in vertebrates and that exposure can induce epigenetic changes. We aimed to investigate the reproductive effects of BPA in a fish model and to document its mechanisms of toxicity. We exposed breeding groups of zebrafish (Danio rerio) to 0.01, 0.1, and 1 mg/L BPA for 15 d. We observed a significant increase in egg production, together with a reduced rate of fertilization in fish exposed to 1 mg/L BPA, associated with significant alterations in the transcription of genes involved in reproductive function and epigenetic processes in both liver and gonad tissue at concentrations representing hotspots of environmental contamination (0.1 mg/L) and above. Of note, we observed reduced expression of DNA methyltransferase 1 (dnmt1) at environmentally relevant concentrations of BPA, along with a significant reduction in global DNA methylation, in testes and ovaries following exposure to 1 mg/L BPA. Our findings demonstrate that BPA disrupts reproductive processes in zebrafish, likely via estrogenic mechanisms, and that environmentally relevant concentrations of BPA are associated with altered transcription of key enzymes involved in DNA methylation maintenance. These findings provide evidence of the mechanisms of action of BPA in a model vertebrate and advocate for its reduction in the environment.
Macroeconomic variables and stock market: US review

This focus of this paper are the effect, implication, impact and realtionship between selected macroeconomic variables and wider US indices S&P 500 and industrial Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA). Considered are inflation, interest rates, money supply, producer price index, industrial production index, oil price and unemployment and their impact on selected stock indices in the USA between 1999 and 2012. The hypotesis of this paper is, that between selected macroeconomic variables, namely producer price index, industrial production index, oil price and Dow Jones index is strongly relationship than between these factors and S&P 500. The paper is organising as follows. First section reviews the related literature. In section two are materials and methods which are use explained. Section 3 provides the empirical results and the last part presents the conslusions
Symmetric Orthogonal Tensor Decomposition is Trivial

We consider the problem of decomposing a real-valued symmetric tensor as the sum of outer products of real-valued, pairwise orthogonal vectors. Such decompositions do not generally exist, but we show that some symmetric tensor decomposition problems can be converted to orthogonal problems following the whitening procedure proposed by Anandkumar et al. (2012). If an orthogonal decomposition of an $m$-way $n$-dimensional symmetric tensor exists, we propose a novel method to compute it that reduces to an $n \times n$ symmetric matrix eigenproblem. We provide numerical results demonstrating the effectiveness of the method.