Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Paraquat Induces Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition-Like Cellular Response Resulting in Fibrogenesis and the Prevention of Apoptosis in Human Pulmonary Epithelial Cells

The aim of this study is to investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying delayed progressive pulmonary fibrosis, a characteristic of subacute paraquat (PQ) poisoning. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) has been proposed as a cause of organ fibrosis, and transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) is suggested to be a powerful mediator of EMT. We thus examined the possibility that EMT is involved in pulmonary fibrosis during PQ poisoning using A549 human alveolar epithelial cells in vitro. The cells were treated with various concentrations of PQ (0–500 μM) for 2–12 days. Short-term (2 days) high-dose (>100 μM) treatments with PQ induced cell death accompanied by the activation of caspase9 as well as a decrease in E-cadherin (an epithelial cell marker), suggesting apoptotic cell death with the features of anoikis (cell death due to the loss of cell-cell adhesion). In contrast, long-term (6–12 days) low-dose (30 μM) treatments with PQ resulted in a transformation into spindle-shaped mesenchymal-like cells with a decrease of E-cadherin as well as an increase of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA). The mesenchymal-like cells also secreted the extracellular matrix (ECM) protein fibronectin into the culture medium. The administration of a TGF-β1 receptor antagonist, SB431542, almost completely attenuated the mesenchymal transformation as well as fibronectin secretion, suggesting a crucial role of TGF-β1 in EMT-like cellular response and subsequent fibrogenesis. It is noteworthy that despite the suppression of EMT-fibrogenesis, apoptotic death was observed in cells treated with PQ+SB431542. EMT-like cellular response and subsequent fibrogenesis were also observed in normal human bronchial epithelial (NHBE) cells exposed to PQ in a TGF-β1-dependent manner. Taken together, our experimental model reflects well the etiology of PQ poisoning in human and shows the involvement of EMT-like cellular response in both fibrogenesis and resistance to cell death during subacute PQ poisoning of pulmonary epithelial cells.
Trends in mortality rates of cutaneous melanoma in East Asian populations

The incidence of cutaneous melanoma (CM) has rapidly increased over the past four decades. CM is often overlooked in East Asian populations due to its low incidence, despite East Asia making up 22% of the world’s population. Since the 1990s, Caucasian populations have seen a plateau in CM mortality rates; however, there is little data investigating the mortality rates of CM in East Asian populations. In this study, the World Health Organization Mortality Database with the joinpoint regression method, and a generalized additive model were used to investigate trends in age standardized mortality rates (ASMRs) of CM in four East Asia regions (Japan, Republic of Korea (Korea), China: Hong Kong (Hong Kong), and Singapore) over the past six decades. In addition, mortality rate ratios by different variables (i.e., sex, age group, and region) were analyzed. Our results showed ASMRs of CM in East Asia significantly increased non-linearly over the past six decades. The joinpoint regression method indicated women had greater annual percentage changes than men in Japan, Korea, and Hong Kong. Men had significantly greater mortality rate ratio (1.51, 95% CI [1.48–1.54]) than women. Mortality rate ratios in 30−59 and 60+ years were significant greater than in the 0−29 years. Compared to Hong Kong, mortality rate ratio was 0.72 (95% CI [0.70–0.74]) times, 0.73 (95% CI [0.70–0.75]) times, and 1.02 (95% CI [1.00–1.05]) times greater in Japan, Korea, and Singapore, respectively. Although there is limited research investigating CM mortality rates in East Asia, results from the present study indicate that there is a significant growth in the ASMRs of CM in East Asian populations, highlighting a need to raise awareness of CM in the general population.
Restricted Expression of Epstein-Barr Virus Latent Genes in Murine B Cells Derived from Embryonic Stem Cells

Background Several human malignancies are associated with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and more than 95% of the adult human population carries this virus lifelong. EBV efficiently infects human B cells and persists in this cellular compartment latently. EBV-infected B cells become activated and growth transformed, express a characteristic set of viral latent genes, and acquire the status of proliferating lymphoblastoid cell lines in vitro. Because EBV infects only primate cells, it has not been possible to establish a model of infection in immunocompetent rodents. Such a model would be most desirable in order to study EBV's pathogenesis and latency in a suitable and amenable host. Methodology/Principal Findings We stably introduced recombinant EBV genomes into mouse embryonic stem cells and induced their differentiation to B cells in vitro to develop the desired model. In vitro differentiated murine B cells maintained the EBV genomes but expression of viral genes was restricted to the latent membrane proteins (LMPs). In contrast to human B cells, EBV's nuclear antigens (EBNAs) were not expressed detectably and growth transformed murine B cells did not arise in vitro. Aberrant splicing and premature termination of EBNA mRNAs most likely prevented the expression of EBNA genes required for B-cell transformation. Conclusions/Significance Our findings indicate that fundamental differences in gene regulation between mouse and man might block the route towards a tractable murine model for EBV.
Nuclear pore targeting of the yeast Pom33 nucleoporin depends on karyopherin and lipid binding

ABSTRACT Pom33 is an integral membrane protein of the yeast nuclear pore complex (NPC), and it is required for proper NPC distribution and assembly. To characterize the Pom33 NPC-targeting determinants, we performed immunoprecipitation experiments followed by mass spectrometry analyses. This identified a new Pom33 partner, the nuclear import factor Kap123. In vitro experiments revealed a direct interaction between the Pom33 C-terminal domain (CTD) and Kap123. In silico analysis predicted the presence of two amphipathic &agr;-helices within Pom33-CTD. Circular dichroism and liposome co-flotation assays showed that this domain is able to fold into &agr;-helices in the presence of liposomes and preferentially binds to highly curved lipid membranes. When expressed in yeast, under conditions abolishing Pom33-CTD membrane association, this domain behaves as a Kap123-dependent nuclear localization signal (NLS). Although deletion of Pom33 C-terminal domain (Pom33&Dgr;CTD–GFP) impaired Pom33 stability and NPC targeting, mutants affecting either Kap123 binding or the amphipathic properties of the &agr;-helices did not display any detectable defect. However, combined impairment of lipid and Kap123 binding affects targeting of Pom33 to NPCs. These data highlight the requirement of multiple determinants and mechanisms for proper NPC localization of Pom33.
Designing Appropriate Exchange Rate Regimes for East Asia: Inflation Targeting and Monetary Policy Rules

While favoring relatively more flexible regimes, emerging economies in East Asia and elsewhere appear to heavily manage their currencies despite being officially described as Â“floatersÂ”. In other words, revealed preferences of regional monetary authorities appear to indicate a high degree of Â“fear of floatingÂ”. The paper first explores the reasons for this fear of floating. It then goes on to examine the case for and operational mechanics behind an open inflation targeting regime which has increasingly been advocated for small and open economies in East Asia and elsewhere. The paper also attempts a reconciliation between the discussion of analytics behind open economy inflation targeting and its implications for exchange rate design, on the one hand, and actual exchange rate ongoings in East Asia, on the other.
Inflexibility Of Inflation Targeting Revisited: Modeling The "Anchoring" Effect

Opponents of inflation targeting have argued that a commitment to a numerical inflation target reduces policy’s stabilization flexibility – increasing output volatility under supply shocks. Using a novel game theoretic approach our paper demonstrates that this claim may fail to account for the ‘anchoring’ effect of explicit targets on expectations and wages. Under a credible long-term inflation target and costly acquiring information/wage resetting the public may find it optimal to ‘look-through’ shocks. This makes policymaker’s short-term interest rate instrument more effective in output stabilization giving it greater leverage over the real rate. As a consequence, the variability trade-off is improved, i.e. volatility of both inflation and output is reduced in equilibrium. Our analysis thus adds another dimension to the ‘rule vs. discretion debate’ by showing that a long-run rule may be compatible with (and in fact enhance the effectiveness of) short-run discretion. We conclude by showing that our results are consistent with several empirical findings of the literature.
A social history of Western Europe, 1880-1980

Stealing a march on the E.E. C. , Kaelbe (social history, Free U., Berlin) contends that European social integration is well advanced. He presents a European history, rather than a series of national histories, of such aspects of society as family, employment, business, class, and education. Translate
Albumin-corrected calcium and ionized calcium in stable haemodialysis patients.

BACKGROUND It is ionized calcium that is physiologically active and under homeostatic control; however, total calcium is more conveniently measured. Formulae for correction of calcium to account for albumin binding have not been validated in a dialysis setting. METHODS We measured ionized calcium simultaneously with total calcium (t[Ca]), albumin, total protein and pH before dialysis in 50 stable outpatients and convalescent inpatients. RESULTS Although 92% of patients were taking calcium supplements and 70% taking alphacalcidol, 11 patients (22%) had ionized hypocalcaemia. To facilitate comparison of calculated ionized calcium, measured total calcium (t[Ca]), and 'corrected' calcium (c[Ca]), with the criterion measure of ionized calcium, all measurements were converted to z scores, standardized on the normal range for each variable. Results are expressed as intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC: 0, all differences are due to error; 1, all differences are due to between patient variation). CONCLUSIONS None of the published formulae greatly improved the test characteristics beyond simply using the total calcium. A correction formula in widespread use (Payne), quoted in reference texts, agreed less well with ionized calcium than did the unadjusted measured calcium. Correction formulae should be abandoned in favour of the use of uncorrected calcium. In cases of doubt, ionized calcium should be directly measured.
Political Mobilisation by Minorities in Britain 1 : outcomes , side-effects and negative feedbacks of ‘ Race Relations ’ ?

This paper uses a political opportunity approach for studying the relationship of minority groups to the political community in Britain. The argument is made that the British Race Relations approach established in the 1960s, has had an important effect which still shapes the patterns of political mobilisation and contention by different minority groups today. Original data on political claims-making by minorities demonstrates that British ‘racialised’ cultural pluralism has structured an inequality of opportunities facing the two main groups, African Caribbeans and Indian Subcontinent minorities. African-Caribbeans mobilise along racial lines, use a strongly assimilative ‘black’ identity, conventional action forms, and target state institutions with demands for justice that are framed within the recognised framework of Race Relations. Conversely, a high proportion of the Indian Subcontinent minority mobilisation is by Muslim groups, a non-assimilative religious identity. These are autonomously organised, but largely make public demands for extending the principle of racial equality to their nonracial group. Within the Indian Subcontinent minorities, the relative absence of mobilisation by Indian, Sikh and Hindu minorities, who have achieved much better levels of socioeconomic success than Pakistani and Bangladeshi Muslims, suggests that there is also a strong socio-economic basis for shared experiences and grievances as Muslims in Britain. This considerably relativises the notion that Muslim mobilisation is Britain is purely an expression of the right for cultural difference per se, and sees it as a product of the paradoxes of British Race Relations.
The impact of happiness on managers' contextual and task performance

The ‘happy–productive worker thesis’ has long intrigued organisational researchers and practitioners. Despite mixed empirical evidence from decades of research, there is support in the literature for this thesis. An account is provided on a variation on the enduring debate of the happiness–productivity theme, to support an emerging ‘happy–performing managers proposition’. An empirical study is presented to establish the dimensions of managers' job happiness (operationalised as affective well-being and intrinsic job satisfaction) associated with contextual and task performance. The emphasis was on investigating an aspect of human behaviour with the potential to enhance managerial performance. These findings inform the broader debate on what determines the job performance of managers.
Analysis of Electrocardiogram Recordings with Advanced Non-linear Methods for the Evaluation of Atrial Fibrillation Organisation

In this study, atrial fibrillation (AF) organisation has been estimated using an advanced non-linear time series analysis method called LempelZiv (LZ) complexity with a k-means coarse-graining approach. The results show that this technique can predict paroxysmal AF organisation with a maximum accuracy of 90% and suggests that non-terminating paroxysmal AF signals are less organised (more complex) than terminating AF signals. Further studies using larger databases or combining LZ complexity with other non-linear methods should be conducted.
‘Urban entrepreneurialism’ in the Post-socialist City: Government-led Urban Development Projects in Kazan, Russia

While the dominance of urban entrepreneurialism, governance and competitiveness in Western cities has been well documented, much less is known about the drivers and mechanisms of urban development in the Russian context. This article examines the role of the local state in urban development under the conditions of post-socialist transition in the Russian Federation. The article focuses on the Special Federal Programme for the Preservation and Development of the Kazan Historic Centre (2001–2005). The study challenges the assumption of a key role of partnership between the public and the private sector. Under conditions of post-socialism, the state may have sufficient economic resources and the capacity to govern which may make the role of public–private partnership less relevant. Other findings are as follows: (i) the local authorities play a leading role in entrepreneurialism; (ii) there is a mismatch between the entrepreneurial rhetoric and reality; (iii) while the authorities in Kazan engage in ‘entrepreneurial urbanism’, the similarities with Western cities are superficial or even deceptive, due to the underlying political and economic conditions of Russian cities.
Local enterprises in the global economy : issues of governance and upgrading

This book opens a fresh chapter in the debate on local enterprise clusters and their strategies for upgrading in the global economy. The authors employ a novel conceptual framework in their research on industrial clusters in Europe, Latin America and Asia and provide new perspectives and insights for researchers and policymakers alike. The debate on local upgrading capacity is torn between two lines of thinking: those who believe that local relationships between enterprises and institutions are key to upgrading, and those who argue that the spaces for upgrading are defined by the sourcing strategies of global buyers. From this debate a number of important questions arise: how feasible is it to develop local upgrading strategies? Can local policy networks make a difference, or do global forces undermine them? Do global quality and labour standards marginalise developing country producers or do they help them to upgrade? To answer these questions, the book brings together theoretical and empirical research on local and regional clusters, global value chains and global standards, using case studies from developed and developing countries. The authors provide a new understanding of how global and local governance interact, highlighting power and inequality in global chains but also identifying scope for local action. By showing how and why insertion in global value chains can accelerate or inhibit local upgrading, this book represents a significant contribution to the academic and political debate on globalization. It will be essential reading for all students, academics and researchers interested in global political economy, global and local governance structures, economic geography and innovation studies.
Effect of lnterferon-~, Interferon-7 and Tumour Necrosis Factor on African Swine Fever Virus Replication in Porcine Monocytes and Macrophages

Bovine interferon-0ql (IFN-cti1) and porcine interferon-y (IFN-~) inhibited African swine fever virus replication in both porcine monocytes and alveolar macrophages. The most potent antiviral activity was observed with IFN-y-treated alveolar macrophages. The production of both a virulent (CC83) and a non-virulent (BA71) isolate of the virus was inhibited. Bovine turnout necrosis factor ~ did not show antiviral activity in either monocytes or alveolar macrophages. Rather, an increase of African swine fever virus production in tumour necrosis factor or-treated monocytes was found. An analysis of viral protein synthesis in IFN-~tI1and IFN-~,-treated alveolar macrophages showed an inhibition of synthesis of some viral proteins. The inhibition of late proteins was very pronounced in IFN-~-treated cells, and it was probably a consequence of the inhibition of African swine fever virus DNA polymerase activity.
Isometric Exercise Training for Managing Vascular Risk Factors in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia diagnosed amongst the elderly. Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a condition often indicative of the earliest symptomatology of AD with 10%–15% of MCI patients reportedly progressing to a diagnosis of AD. Individuals with a history of vascular risk factors (VRF’s) are considered high risk candidates for developing cognitive impairment in later life. Evidence suggests that vascular injury resulting from untreated VRF’s promotes progression from MCI to AD and exacerbates the severity of dementia in AD, and neuroimaging studies have found that the neurodegenerative processes associated with AD are heavily driven by VRF’s that promote cerebral hypoperfusion. Subsequently, common links between vascular disorders such as hypertension and neurodegenerative disorders such as AD include compromised vasculature, cerebral hypoperfusion and chronic low grade inflammation (a hallmark of both hypertension and AD). Exercise has been demonstrated to be an effective intervention for blood pressure management, chronic low grade inflammation and improvements in cognition. Data from recent analyses suggests that isometric exercise training (IET) may improve vascular integrity and elicit blood pressure reductions in hypertensives greater than those seen with dynamic aerobic and resistance exercise. IET may also play an effective role in the management of VRF’s at the MCI stage of AD and may prove to be a significant strategy in the prevention, attenuation or delay of progression to AD. A plausible hypothesis is that the reactive hyperemia stimulated by IET initiates a cascade of vascular, neurotrophic and neuro-endocrine events that lead to improvements in cognitive function.
Cortical correlates of audio-visual integration

Introduction Animals have multiple sensory systems with which they can probe the external environment. Oftentimes, objects or events in the environment produce signals to which more than one sensory system responds, and it is the task of the cerebral cortex to integrate these separate modalities into a unified percept. We take this process for granted, but it is in fact a difficult problem, which becomes obvious when we start to ask ourselves how we would design a system to do the same. The current state of knowledge described in the literature is quite limited and is mostly phenomenological, i.e. describing how auditory and visual inputs can either modulate each other and/or activate association areas of the cortex. There does not seem to be a mechanistic understanding of how this works. I have collected a number of papers that look at audio-visual integration at different levels, from single-unit studies to cortical activation patterns to behavioral. The methods used range from intracellular recordings to scalp-recorded ERP (event-related potentials) to fMRI / MEG / PET imaging. For your pleasure and convenience, most of these papers are quite short. I have chosen three of them to discuss in class (Discussion papers), three for background, and quite a few for ‘further reading’ (if you only want to read a few of these, the most interesting for me are marked by ♦).
Explicit Disclosure of Location Information

This paper reports on the early results from an ongoing study of the use of popular photo-sharing platform. We specifically focus our investigation on the factors influencing the accuracy users choose to link their photos to the physical world. We believe that modeling these mechanism can impact the design of ubiquitous systems that support sharing and retrieval of locationenhance information. For instance, it could suggest guidelines to match people’s expectations of granularity in location information. Our early results reveal that while familiarity with a place does not seem to influence the accuracy of the disclosed location, the city and type of urban landscape impact the use of coarse and fine-grained location information.
Does Business Cycle Risk Account for Systematic Returns from Currency Positioning? The International Perspective

Low-yielding currencies (relative to dollar interest rate and based on annual data) represent a strong hedging tool for a US investor in the event of a slowdown of the US economy, as shown in Lustig and Verdelhan (2007). In this paper we show that such a conclusion is far more general, holding jointly for representative agents in a number of countries (Australia, Canada, France, United Kingdom and United States) and for quarterly holding period returns, which are closer to the frequency at which portfolios are re-balanced. The prices of risk for nondurable and durable consumption growth explain the cross-sectional variation of average currency portfolio returns, as confirmed by high Rý coefficients. However, statistical significance of the coefficients, checked both individually and joint, does not exceed 10%. Overall, taking an economic standpoint, holding currencies that pay out low interest rates provides some means of insurance against economic slowdown in the domestic economy.