Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Protective role of curcumin in myocardial oxidative damage induced by isoproterenol in rats

This study was designed to investigate the effect of oral curcumin pretreatment (200 mg/kg) on isoproterenol-induced myocardial injury in rats. Isoproterenol (85 mg/kg, s.c., in two divided doses at 24 h intervals) administration induced a statistically significant increase (P < 0.01) in serum lactate dehydrogenase, creatine kinase, aspartate transaminase, and alanine transaminase activities and significant increase (P < 0.01) in myocardial lipid peroxides levels as compared to vehicle control rats. Furthermore, significant depletion (P < 0.01) of myocardial endogenous antioxidants viz. superoxide dismutase, catalase, and tissue glutathione levels were also found in the pathogenic control group, that is, isoproterenol only treated animals. Curcumin (200 mg/kg) pretreatment for 20 days in isoproterenol treated rats significantly lowered (P < 0.01) the serum lactate dehydrogenase, creatine kinase, aspartate transaminase, alanine transaminase, and myocardial lipid peroxides levels and increased the levels of myocardial endogenous antioxidants (superoxide dismutase, catalase, and tissue glutathione) as compared to pathogenic control rats. Furthermore, histological examination of rat’s heart section confirmed myocardial injury with isoproterenol administration and near normal pattern with curcumin pretreatment. The results of our study provide clear evidence that the curcumin pretreatment enhances the antioxidant defense against isoproterenol-induced oxidative myocardial injury in rats and exhibit cardioprotective property.
Antiallodynic effect of intrathecal resiniferatoxin on neuropathic pain model of chronic constriction injury.

INTRODUCTION Injuries and/or dysfunctions in the somatosensory system can lead to neuropathic pain. Transient receptor potential vanilloid sub‑type 1 (TRPV1) play an important role in the development of allodynia and hyperalgesia following injury and the ensuing inflammatory conditions. Resiniferatoxin (RTX) is an ultrapotent synthetic TRPV1 agonist and many different administration routes are available for different mechanisms and different effects. RTX is used intraperitonially as a model of neuropathic pain or epidurally and topically to produce prolonged analgesic effects. However, the use of RTX is controversial because its neurotoxicity and margin of safety have not been addressed adequately. The present study evaluates the effect of intrathecal RTX on the induction and allodynia behavior of animals submitted to neuropathic pain by chronic constriction injury (CCI). METHODS 160 Swiss mice were randomly distributed into two groups: intrathecal pre‑treatment group (PRE) aiming the effect in induction of allodynia and late intrathecal treatment group (POST) to evaluate the antiallodynic effect of the RTX on mechanical nociceptive threshold evaluated by the Von Frey hair filaments. Additionally, we evaluated the expression of TRPV1 in dorsal root ganglia (DRG) by western blotting after PRE‑ and POST‑treatment with RTX. RESULTS Our results showed that the CCI mice developed prolonged mechanical allodynia‑like behavior in ipsilateral paw after surgery up to 24 hours. The PRE‑ and POST‑treatment groups presented significant antiallodynic effects in ipsilateral paw for 24 hours. Only the POST‑treatment group showed a significant reduction of expression of the TRPV1 receptor after CCI. CONCLUSION The presented data demonstrated that both PRE‑ and POST‑treatment with RTX given intrathecally produced potent antiallodynic activities in CCI mice and that POST‑treatment can reduce TRPV1 expression in DRG, suggesting that POST‑treatment RTX can revert central sensitization and its associated allodynia.
Is the 'Technology Acceptance Model' Universally Applicable?: The Case of the Kuwaiti Ministries

Abstract This study tests the applicability of the 'Technology Acceptance Model' (TAM) in Kuwaiti ministries. The aim of the study was to understand the usage of Information Systems (IS) in Kuwait in governmental organizations. The study did not find significant statistical evidence for the relationships between the TAM's core concepts, except in the case of the relationship between 'Perceived Ease of Use' (PEOU) and 'Perceived Usefulness' (PU). National cultural differences, the context of public organizations, and the nature/type of IS usage have been examined as possible explanations of why the TAM was not supported by the evidence. Managerial and research implications are also offered.
Religion and Female Educational Attainment

The paper reviews the literature on the education, gender, and religion nexuses and identifies plausible hypotheses that religion adversely affects female education. The link between major religions and female educational attainment is examined using the Barro-Lee data set for a sample of 97 countries. The estimates include control variables for colonial heritage, urbanization, labor force participation, and young adult mortality. The estimates show powerful negative links between female educational attainment and the proportion of ethnoreligions, Hindu, and Muslim adherents in a country, with similar results for the gender gap. The paper offers some interpretative thoughts and research agendas. Copyright (c) 2009 The Ohio State University.
Tissue Specific Expression of a Terpene Synthase in Nicotiana benthamiana Leaves

To study transient tissue specific linalool emission and to examine its fate, plastid targeted dual linalool/nerolidol synthase (FaNES1) was introduced into Nicotiana benthamiana leaves under LTP1, SUC2, RbcS and CaMV35 promoters. Tissue specificity of the promoters was tested with β-glucuronidase (GUS) reporter gene. Promoter::GUS/FaNES1 fusion was confirmed with colony PCR and agro-infiltrated into six weeks old N. benthamiana leaves. Eight days post inoculation (dpi), promoter::GUS constructs were examined with GUS histochemical staining at 1.5 h, 3.5 h, 5.5 h and 16 h incubation times. After 4/8 days, FaNES1 construct agro-inoculated leaves were assessed for linalool emissions and its conjugates using a dynamic headspace system and LC-MS, respectively. There was high affinity of promoters to their respective cell-types although it was not as specific as in stable transformation. This is possibly due to activations of many copies of transiently introduced promotes by few transcription factors of the respective promoter that naturally exist in untargeted cell-types. GUS staining intensity was stronger in leaf veins and injured sites compared to other plant tissues under all heterologous promoters, and it was gradually increased with increase in incubation times that could be explained by promoters wounding responses and/ or GUS leakage to unstained sites. Linalool emission was obtained in the same pattern under all promoters; it was higher at day 4 than day 8. Its concentration declined 44, 12, 4.5 and 4 folds at 8 dpi under LTP1, SUC2, RbcS and CaMV35S promoters, respectively. Conversely, linalool conjugates were significantly increased at day 8. These might be due to T-DNA degradations and/or protein modifications 4 dpi. LTP1 promoter was the least efficient to drive both GUS and FaNES1 possibly due to immature plastids in epidermal cells and/or its weak performance. Hence, to study FaNES1 activity in transient assay it is suggested to use relatively shorter duration and longer inoculation times for linalool and its conjugates, respectively.
Voluntary Earnings Disclosures and Corporate Governance: Evidence from France

The primary objective of this paper is to study the relationship between voluntary earnings disclosures and a combined set of corporate governance attributes in France. We use binary logit models to check our hypotheses. The results indicate significant negative associations between voluntary earnings disclosures and ownership concentration, and between voluntary earnings disclosures and a unitary leadership structure. The results also show that French firms providing voluntary earnings disclosures are more likely to have higher foreign institutional investor's ownership, and to offer stock option plans for their executives. These findings shed the light on the corporate governance features that enhance incentives for voluntary earnings disclosures and those affecting these incentives under high ownership concentration.
Underdiagnosis of Vertebral Fractures Is a Worldwide Problem: The IMPACT Study

Accurate radiographic diagnosis of vertebral fractures is important. This multicenter, multinational study assessed radiographic diagnoses of vertebral fracture in 2451 postmenopausal women with osteoporosis. Comparison between local and central readings yielded a false‐negative rate of 34%. Underdiagnosis of vertebral fracture is a worldwide problem.
Low-incidence MNS antigens associated with single amino acid changes and their susceptibility to enzyme treatment

Abstract MNS antigens are carried on glycophorin A (GPA), glycophorin B (GPB), or their variants. Antigens at the N-terminus of GPA are sensitive to cleavage by ficin, papain, and trypsin but are resistant to α-chymotrypsin. Antigens at the N-terminus of GPB are sensitive to cleavage by ficin, papain, and α-chymotrypsin but are resistant to trypsin treatment. These characteristics have been used to aid in the identification of blood group alloantibodies. Recent molecular analyses have identified changes in amino acids that are associated with several low-incidence antigens in the MNS blood group system. This review relates the molecular studies with the susceptibility or resistance of these antigens to treatment of intact red blood cells by proteolytic enzymes. Immunohematology 2001;17:76–81.
Malignant lymphoma of the thyroid apparently arising in struma lymphomatosa

LPORTS OF MALIGNANT LYMPHOMA of the R thyroid associated with changes suggesthe of pre-existent struma lymphomatosa have appeared only sporadically in the literature. If one considers, however, the infrequency of the apparent primary lymphoma of this gland, such repeated reports would seem to indicate more than mere coincidence. This report is made to record two cases of primary thyroid lymphoma recently seen in this laboratory. Emphasis will be directed to associated changes, noted in the uninvolved portion of the gland, which suggest an antecedent struma lymphoma toqa.
Customer Perception of Services Quality in The Retail Banking Sector

Service quality is becoming more crucial for banks to maintain their market shares. This study tries to identify the perception of customers of banks through the relationship of five factors along with the demographic characteristics of customers. A total of 304 retail banking customers have been taken for the study and convenience sampling method was adopted for collecting a sample. Factor analysis revealed five factors and results of analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated that while age, gender, occupation have no significant effect on customer perception of service quality and income and qualification differs significantly.
High-growth SMEs versus non-high-growth SMEs: a discriminant analysis

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the main variables that allow one to distinguish between high-growth firms and non-high-growth firms. Theoretically, we discuss such differences through a combination of economic (external approach) and strategic (internal approach) visions. Empirically, this paper provides two differences with regard to previous literature: (1) the primary goal of our work is not to provide an outright explanation of firm growth; rather, we aim to establish what characteristics enable us to distinguish between high-growth and non-high-growth firms. This aspect determines the methodology used (discriminant analysis with dichotomic dependent variable); and (2) firm high growth is understood as an extraordinary growth in comparison with the average growth of other firms in the same industry, and not in absolute terms. The results show that in the main high-growth firms are different from moderate-growth firms or declining firms because of their smaller size (which is contrary to Gibrat's Law), their higher availability of idle resources (consistent with the theory of resources and capabilities), and in some cases, their lower availability of financial resources (consistent with the existing literature on entrepreneurship).
Liver steatosis and chronic hepatitis C: a spurious association?

Objective: Based on the observation of steatosis in the majority of liver biopsy specimens from hepatitis C virus (HCV) infected patients, it has been suggested that HCV may be pathogenetically implicated. We aimed to determine the influence of possible underlying metabolic disorders on this association. Design: In a series of 148 consecutive patients with chronic hepatitis, with and without HCV infection, we evaluated by logistic regression analysis the association between steatosis and HCV, controlling for diabetes, obesity, hyperlipidaemia and alcohol. These are all known to be factors associated with a fatty liver, and also with the histological degree of liver disease. Results: Antibodies to HCV were detected in 121 of 148 (81.8%) patients. Steatosis, distributed in different histological patterns, was found in 73 of 121 (60%) HCV-positive and in 14 of 27 (52%) HCV-negative patients (P = NS). Using simple logistic regression, the association of HCV to steatosis was weak and not statistically significant (OR, 1.41; 95% CI, 0.61—3.27). The same was true for hyperlipidaemia (OR, 4.45; 95% CI, 0.52–37.9). A strong and statistically significant association was found, however, between obesity and steatosis (OR, 4.18) and between steatosis and the highest degree of histological severity (Liver cirrhosis vs chronic persistent hepatitis: OR, 12.8). Using multivariate analysis, the association between steatosis and HCV was shown to be not significant. Hyperlipidaemia, among all the independent variables tested, was shown to be co-linear with obesity. Conclusion: Our findings seem to suggest that HCV is irrelevant as a risk factor for a fatty liver. The results indicated that there is a 'confounding' role of obesity and hyperlipidaemia, and that the severity of liver disease is associated with steatosis and HCV.
Puberty and Athletic Sports in Female Adolescents

The increasing involvement of young children in intense physical training over the past several decades has generated concerns as to its potential effects on children’s growth and maturation. Puberty in humans is characterized by large hormonal changes resulting in both physical and sexual maturation. Since intense training prior to puberty, together with the potential metabolic effects of dieting, can alter hypothalamic-pituitary function, the time at which athletic training is initiated has been implicated as a factor in delayed menarche and sexual maturation in female athletes. On the other hand, some studies have suggested that delayed menarche is likely due to genetic factors. Girls who mature later often self-select or are recruited by coaches into sports that favor small or very lean bodies. Body composition has also been used to explain both delayed menarche and menstrual irregularities observed among elite athletes. A higher prevalence of menstrual dysfunction has been reported for adolescent athletes participating in weight-dependent sports as compared to that observed in other sports. However, as recently suggested, there is no direct cause-effect association between fatness and reproduction and, in actual fact, energy availability, and not body fat, regulates reproductive function in females. More research is warranted to further investigate this interaction between short-term changes in fuel availability and athletic amenorrhea in female adolescents. It is concluded that, given the many factors that have been shown to influence menarche and menstruation, the role played by physical training alone as a causative factor in the later onset of puberty and menstrual irregularities in active young females is still unclear. Research involving longitudinally designed studies is required to identify whether the maturity differences observed between female athletes and non-athletes are the result of nature or nurture, and what the balance between the two factors is.
Lesions of the orbital prefrontal cortex impair the formation of attentional set in rats

In rats, reversal learning impairments are commonly reported after lesions of the orbital prefrontal cortex (OFC), in contrast to the effect of lesions of the medial prefrontal cortex, which impair attentional set‐shifting. Comparable dissociations have also been reported in humans, monkeys and mice. However, these two manifestations of behavioural flexibility may share common cognitive processes. The present study tested the hypothesis that lesions of the OFC (an area that integrates expected and actual outcomes to signal which cues in the environment predict reward) would impair the formation of attentional set as well as impairing reversal learning. We compared the performance of lesioned and control rats on two set‐shifting tasks. The first task we used, ‘the 4ID task’, had no reversal stages, but multiple intradimensional acquisitions before the extradimensional shift stage, to assess set‐formation as well as set‐shifting. The second task was the standard intradimensional/extradimensional ‘7‐stage task’, which includes reversal learning stages after each compound acquisition. Compared with controls, lesioned rats were slower to form attentional set on the 4ID task. When they did form a set, they required more trials to complete the extradimensional shift stage. On the 7‐stage task, we replicated our previous finding of impaired reversal learning and reduced shift‐costs. We interpret these findings as reflecting a single deficit in identifying relevant cues after unexpected outcomes, which supports recent models of OFC function. Our findings challenge the assumption that the contribution of the OFC to behavioural flexibility is limited to reversal learning.
Forced Saving: Mandating Private Retirement Incomes

1. Introduction 2. Work and saving over the life cycle 3. Saving for retirement 4. Financial risks over the life cycle 5. Retirement income streams 6. Taxation of retirement saving 7. Administrative costs and charges 8. Conclusion Appendix A1. Mandatory retirement saving in Australia Annex A1. Chronology of retirement income policy in Australia Appendix 2. International comparisons of private mandatory retirement saving.
Beyond the ‘String of Pearls’: is there really a Sino-Indian security dilemma in the Indian Ocean?

The article will ask whether Sino-Indian strategic competition in the Indian Ocean should be properly understood through the lens of a security dilemma. It examines the strategic positions of India and China in the Indian Ocean and concludes that India has an overwhelming strategic advantage that China cannot realistically mitigate in the foreseeable future. This advantage precludes any real security dilemma arising between them. In fact, both China and India have good reasons to keep strategic competition under control while they each broaden their regional influence.
Treatment of a forging industry graphite-rich wastewater and sludge characterization

Forging is a manufacturing process involving the shaping of metal using localized compressive forces. It is necessary to apply a lubricant, in many cases composed by graphite, and the process generate a wastewater that requires a proper treatment. The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of the treatment of such effluent and characterize the sludge generated at a forging industry that recently changed in industrial process the oil-based lubricant by water-based lubricants. Initially, wastewater was treated by coagulation/flocculation with poly-aluminum chloride and a cationic flocculant. The treatment substantially reduced the pollutants load, exceeding in 90% the efficiency for most parameters assessed. The sludge generated in the wastewater treatment plant was characterized in terms of its microstructure, particle size distribution, chemical and mineralogical composition, and immediate analysis in terms of a solid energetic material. The sludge is composed mainly by graphite particles and, after dehydration, resulted in a material with possibilities for safe discharge, recycling or reuse. Considering the amount of sludge generated and the regional context, one possibility for destination is as energetic material for electric power generation.
Improved Serodiagnosis of Bovine Brucellosis by Novel Synthetic Oligosaccharide Antigens Representing the Capping M Epitope Elements of Brucella O-Polysaccharide

ABSTRACT Members of the genus Brucella have cell wall characteristics of Gram-negative bacteria, which in the most significant species includes O-polysaccharide (OPS). Serology is the most cost-effective means of detecting brucellosis, as infection with smooth strains of Brucella leads to the induction of high antibody titers against the OPS, an unbranched homopolymer of 4,6-dideoxy-4-formamido-d-mannopyranosyl residues (d-Rha4NFo) that are variably α(1→2)- and α(1→3)-linked. Six d-Rha4NFo homo-oligosaccharides were synthesized, each containing a single α(1→3) link but with a varied number of α(1→2) links. After conjugation to bovine serum albumin (BSA), glycoconjugates 1 to 6 were used to develop individual indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (iELISAs). The diagnostic capabilities of these antigens were applied to panels of cattle serum samples, including those falsely positive in conventional assays, and the results were compared with those of the complement fixation test (CFT), serum agglutination test (SAT), fluorescent polarization assay (FPA), smooth lipopolysaccharide (sLPS) iELISA, and competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (cELISA) methods. Results from field serum samples demonstrated that all of the synthetic antigens had excellent diagnostic capabilities. Assays developed with the α(1→3)-linked disaccharide conjugate 1 were the best at resolving false-positive serological results. This was supported by the results from serum samples derived from experimentally infected cattle. Data from synthetic trisaccharide antigens 2 and 3 and tetrasaccharide antigen 4 identified an OPS epitope equally common to all Brucella abortus and Brucella melitensis strains but unique to Brucella. Synthetic oligosaccharide conjugates function as effective surrogates for naturally derived antigens. The creation of discrete OPS epitope antigens reveals not only the previously untapped diagnostic potential within this key diagnostic structure but also holds significance for the design of brucellosis vaccines and diagnostics that enable the differentiation of infected from vaccinated animals.
Women’s Substantive Representation in the Belgian Chamber of Representatives: Testing the Added Value of a ‘Claims-making’ Approach

Abstract Studies of women’s representation have often explored the link between women’s descriptive and women’s substantive representation in parliament, analyzing whether female representatives bring a unique – and often feminist– contribution to the representation of women’s interests. Recent studies however propose to apply a claim-based framework, leaving open how, why and by whom women’s substantive representation occurs (Celis et al. 2008). In this article, we put this new claim-based approach to the empirical test. More in particular, we consider its added value by studying the variety of claims made about women in the Belgian Chamber of Representatives (1995–2007). We conclude that a claim-based framework indeed brings additional actors and perspectives to the fore, but that there are limits as to which claims can be formulated and by whom.