Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inhibition of macrophages with gadolinium chloride alters intercellular adhesion molecule‐1 expression in the liver during acute endotoxemia in rats

Cell adhesion molecules are important for localized accumulation of phagocytes at sites of tissue damage. In the present studies, we analyzed the effects of blocking hepatic macrophages on expression of β2 integrins and intercellular adhesion molecule‐1 (ICAM‐1) adhesion molecules on liver cells during acute endotoxemia. Flow cytometric analysis revealed distinct subpopulations of macrophages from control animals that varied on the basis of their size and density. In contrast, hepatocytes and endothelial cells were relatively homogeneous. Treatment of rats with endotoxin (5 mg/kg, intravenously) resulted in a time‐dependent increase in the percentage of small, dense macrophages and a progressive loss of larger, less‐dense cells. In contrast, no major effects were observed on the physical properties of hepatocytes or endothelial cells. ICAM‐1 was found to be constitutively expressed on endothelial cells and hepatocytes, as well as on macrophages. Induction of acute endotoxemia resulted in a time‐dependent increase in ICAM‐1 expression on hepatocytes, which was observed within 3 hours and reached a maximum after 24 hours. An increase in ICAM‐1 expression was also observed on endothelial cells and on macrophages at 3 hours, followed by a decrease at 24 to 48 hours. Macrophages and endothelial cells also constitutively expressed β2 integrins. Induction of acute endotoxemia had no effect on β2 integrin expression by these cells. Pretreatment of rats with gadolinium chloride (GdCl3 ), a macrophage inhibitor known to block endotoxin‐induced liver injury, abrogated the effects of endotoxin on ICAM‐1 expression by hepatocytes and macrophages. In contrast, ICAM‐1 expression on endothelial cells increased. Interestingly, treatment of rats with GdCl3 alone resulted in a marked increase in expression of ICAM‐1 on endothelial cells and hepatocytes, and of β2 inteegrins on macrophages and endothelial cells. Taken together, these data suggest that ICAM‐1 is involved in mediating macrophage adherence and accumulation in the liver during endotoxemia. Furthermore, macrophages appear to regulate expression of this cell adhesion molecule on parenchymal cells.
Kallikrein–kinin in stroke, cardiovascular and renal disease

Tissue kallikrein, a serine proteinase, produces the potent vasodilator kinin peptide from kininogen substrate. The levels of tissue kallikrein are reduced in humans and animal models with hypertension, cardiovascular and renal disease. Using transgenic and somatic gene transfer approaches, we investigated the role of the tissue kallikrein–kinin system in cardiovascular, renal and central nervous systems. A single injection of the human tissue kallikrein gene in plasmid DNA or an adenoviral vector resulted in a prolonged reduction of blood pressure and attenuation of hypertrophy and fibrosis in the heart and kidney of several hypertensive animal models. Furthermore, enhanced kallikrein–kinin levels after gene transfer exerted beneficial effects, with protection against cardiac remodelling, renal injuries, restenosis, cerebral infarction and neurological deficits in normotensive animal models without haemodynamic effects, indicating direct actions of kallikrein independent of its ability to lower blood pressure. The effects of kallikrein were mediated by the kinin B2 receptor, as the specific B2 receptor antagonist icatibant abolished the actions of kallikrein. Moreover, kallikrein–kinin exhibited pleiotropic effects by inhibiting apoptosis, inflammation, hypertrophy and fibrosis, and promoting angiogenesis and neurogenesis in the heart, kidney, brain and blood vessel. Exogenous administration of kallikrein also led to increased nitric oxide (NO)/cGMP and cAMP levels, and reduced NAD(P)H oxidase activities, superoxide formation and pro‐inflammatory cytokine levels. These results indicate a novel role of kallikrein–kinin through the kinin B2 receptor as an antioxidant and anti‐inflammatory agent in protection against stroke, cardiovascular and renal disease, and may uncover new drug targets for the prevention and treatment of heart failure, vascular injury, end‐stage renal disease and stroke in humans.
Comparative cellular catabolism and retention of astatine-, bismuth-, and lead-radiolabeled internalizing monoclonal antibody.

UNLABELLED Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) labeled with alpha-emitting radionuclides such as (211)At, (212)Bi, (213)Bi, and (212)Pb (which decays by beta-emission to its alpha-emitting daughter, (212)Bi) are being evaluated for their potential applications for cancer therapy. The fate of these radionuclides after cells are targeted with mAbs is important in terms of dosimetry and tumor detection. METHODS In this study, we attached various radionuclides that result in alpha-emissions to T101, a rapidly internalizing anti-CD5 mAb. We then evaluated the catabolism and cellular retention and compared them with those of (125)I- and (111)In-labeled T101. T101 was labeled with (211)At, (125)I, (205,6)Bi, (111)In, and (203)Pb. CD5 antigen-positive cells, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMNC), and MOLT-4 leukemia cells were used. The labeled T101 was incubated with the cells for 1 h at 4 degrees C for surface labeling. Unbound activity was removed and 1 mL medium added. The cells were then incubated at 37 degrees C for 0, 1, 2, 4, 8, and 24 h. The activity on the cell surface that internalized and the activity on the cell surface remaining in the supernatant were determined. The protein in the supernatant was further precipitated by methanol for determining protein-bound and non-protein-bound radioactivity. Sites of internal cellular localization of radioactivity were determined by Percoll gradient centrifugation. RESULTS All radiolabeled antibodies bound to the cells were internalized rapidly. After internalization, (205,6)Bi, (203)Pb, and (111)In radiolabels were retained in the cell, with little decrease of cell-associated radioactivity. However, (211)At and (125)I were released from cells rapidly ((211)At < (125)I) and most of the radioactivity in the supernatant was in a non-protein-bound form. Intracellular distribution of radioactivity revealed a transit of the radiolabel from the cell surface to the lysosome. The catabolism patterns of MOLT-4 cells and PBMNC were similar. CONCLUSION (211)At catabolism and release from cells were somewhat similar to that of (125)I, whereas (205,6)Bi and (203)Pb showed prolonged cell retention similar to that of (111)In. These catabolism differences may be important in the selection of alpha-radionuclides for radioimmunotherapy.
Oil, Politics, and Ghana’s Democracy

Africa’s natural resource-rich countries tend to combine mismanagement of their “windfall” with poor record of democratic governance. However, for Ghana, which has recently become an oil producer, the prospect of escaping the “resource curse” is decent – largely on account of its current status as an electoral democracy. While the prevailing democratic political environment has contributed positively to the crafting of policy governing the new oil sector, and legislation and nascent institutions partially justify such optimism, severe deficiencies in contemporary Ghanaian politics, together with the new resource’s aggravation of the country’s patronage-fuelled democracy and acrimonious political competition, give cause for caution.
Local Democracy and Local Government Efficiency: The Case of Elected Executives in Australian Local Government

In the international context it has been argued that institutional reform to leadership in local government can improve the sector in terms of both its democratic legitimacy and its operational efficiency. In Australia, despite two decades of far-reaching reform processes across state government jurisdictions, focused heavily on structural change, local government still faces daunting problems, yet the potential of reform to political leadership as a method of alleviating these problems has not been fully explored. This paper thus examines the applicability of alternative leadership models to Australian local government, in particular the elected executive model which characterises some American and European local government systems. We argue that the introduction of elected executives could prove problematic in terms of accountability and representation in Australian local government.
Agricultural lending decision: a Tobit regression analysis.

Using data from a survey of loan applicants and bank officials from Union Bank of Nigeria and First Bank of Nigeria in south-western Nigeria, this paper empirically evaluated the determinants of loan approval decision and the size of the loan given using a Tobit regression model. With a multi-stage sampling technique, data were collected with the aid of structured questionnaire drawn on 450 applicants. The respondents’ ages varied between twenty five years and sixty nine years with a mean of fifty and a half years for all the respondents. The mean age recorded for each category of respondents suggests that middle-aged farmers who are expected to be economically active and energetic dominated the sampled population. They should be willing to explore avenues and adopt new methods in order to raise their level of productivity. The relatively large farm sizes owned by the applicants indicated that it is one of the major criteria for giving loans to the farmers; hence those with very small farm sizes may not have access to loans from the two institutions. Tobit estimates show that institutional, environmental and part of the resource variables were important determinant factors of loan approval decision and a decomposition of elasticities calculated at the mean of the variables revealed that a 10% increase in the RISK variable will lead to a total elasticity change of about -0.79 %. This indicates that the elasticity of probability of loan approval will decrease by about 0.36 % and elasticity of expected loan size will decrease by 0.43%. The result tends to imply riskaverseness of the lenders, as fewer loans are granted. The positive coefficient of HHZE indicated that high farm assistance was received from respondents’ relations who positively influenced the implications for family labour and cultivation of large area of land and eventually influenced the approval decision. The coefficient of NFI positively influenced the loan approval decision since the farmer can expand his options to acquire more loans and use for profitable ventures since this variable is viewed as a proxy for wealth, thus the beneficiary will have sufficient resources to absorb the cost and risk of failure in their agricultural enterprises. In each of the two institutions, the marginal changes in most of the variables considered increased the probability of loan size influence than it increased the probability of approval. Key words: Lending Decision, Tobit Regression, Credit
Looking at prospect theory

This paper demonstrates that prospect theory's (PT) predictions differ dramatically from what strategy scholars have inferred. PT's value function predicts negative risk‐return associations for high performers and positive for low performers, directly contrary to the strategy literature. In addition, PT's isolation assumption means most firm choices should appear as mixed gambles. Prior PT‐based theorizing in strategy implicitly assumed that the firm faced unmixed gambles. Finally, it demonstrates that PT does not make the general predictions most strategy researchers have assumed, but rather PT's predictions depend on a full range of parametric and choice characteristics that strategy scholars have ignored. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Lessons About Markets from the Internet

Many of us have grown used to, tired of, and finally downright skeptical of claims of the transformative powers of the Internet. It was to usher in the New Economy, but we seem mostly to have the Old. It would transform retail, but Toys "R" Us has outlasted EToys. Frictionless commerce would be the norm, but plenty of friction still exists. The Internet was also claimed to require a whole new economics with all new laws. While this, too, was very far from the truth--existing theories have mostly done quite well--the Internet has had a substantial effect on economic thought. In this paper, we discuss some ways in which the Internet has affected how economists think about markets.
Reduced levels of XPA, ERCC1 and XPF DNA repair proteins in testis tumor cell lines

Over 80% of patients with advanced metastatic testis tumors can be cured using cisplatin‐based combination chemotherapy. This is unusual as metastatic cancer in adults is usually incurable. Cell lines derived from testis tumors retain sensitivity to cisplatin in vitro. We previously investigated 2 testis tumor cell lines with a low capacity to remove cisplatin‐induced DNA damage and found that they had low levels of the DNA nucleotide excision repair proteins XPA, ERCC1 and XPF. To determine whether low levels of XPA, ERCC1 and XPF proteins are characteristic of testis tumor cell lines, we investigated 35 cell lines derived from cancers to determine whether groups of cell lines from diverse tissue origins differ from one another in constitutive levels of these NER proteins. Quantitative immunoblotting was used to compare groups of cell lines representing prostate, bladder, breast, lung, cervical, ovarian and testis cancers. Only the 6 testis tumor cell lines showed significantly lower mean levels of XPA (p = 0.001), XPF (p = 0.001) and ERCC1 (p = 0.004) proteins from the other groups. Our results encourage further investigation of the possibility that low levels of these nucleotide excision repair proteins could be related to the favorable response of testis tumors to cisplatin‐based chemotherapy. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Accounts and accountability: Theoretical implications of the right-to-information movement in India

The work of a small and unusual activist group in the north Indian state of Rajasthan has raised a series of practical and theoretical issues concerning the best means for combating specific instances of corruption, and for promoting accountability more generally. The Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS)-literally-:Workers' and Farmers' Power Organisation-has waged a campaign to secure the right of ordinary people to gain access to information held by government officials. In the process of experimenting with methods of compiling, sharing and verifying expenditure data at very local levels-thus far, in the absence of a statutory entitlement to such informationthe MKSS has developed a radical interpretation of the notion that citizens have a right both to know how they are governed and to participate actively in the process of auditing their representatives. This article examines the process by which this campaign emerged and the means by which it pursues its goals. It then analyses the implications of th.
Evaluation of serum uric acid levels in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma

Background: Worldwide, oral carcinoma is one of the most prevalent cancers and is one of the most common causes of death. Toxicity by oxygen radicals has been suggested as an important cause of cancer. Several researchers have reported an association of plasma/serum uric acid with different cancers. Aim: The aim was to determine the serum uric acid level in patients with newly diagnosed oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and then to compare and correlate it with those of normal subjects and also to determine the role of uric acid in the etiology of OSCC. Materials and Methods: The study group included 41 OSCC patients and 40 age- and sex- matched healthy subjects as a control group. Estimation of serum urate concentration was determined enzymatically with a commercially available reagent. The data were statistically evaluated with Student's t-test and Chi-square test using SPSS 11.5 software. Results: The mean serum uric acid levels were very low with the study group as compared to control group and were very highly significant (t = 4.14, P < 0.001). It was also found that risk of OSCC was more in a study group with low serum uric acid levels with tobacco intake. Conclusion: This study showed that serum uric acid was lower in oral cancer patients compared with healthy volunteers and low serum uric acid was associated with increased risk of oral cancer development.
P3 and other Long Latency Auditory Evoked Potentials in Presenile Dementia Alzheimer Type and Alcoholic Korsakoff Syndrome

The P300 (P3) and other long latency auditory evoked potentials were measured in 15 patients with presenile dementia Alzheimer type (ATD), 16 patients with alcoholic Korsakoff syndrome (KS) and 23 age-matched control subjects. All were drug free for at least four weeks before testing. The latency of the P3 was significantly longer and the amplitude significantly smaller in the ATD group than in both the KS and control groups. The KS group did not differ significantly from the control group in either latency or amplitude of P3 but both the KS and ATD groups had reduced N1 and P2 compared to controls. Using a combination of P3 latency and amplitude, 70% of the ATD patients could be separated from the other groups with no false positives. These findings suggest that evoked potential recording may be of value in the diagnosis of early ATD.
Safety and efficacy of intrathecal rituximab in children with B cell lymphoid CD20+ malignancies: An international retrospective study

Central nervous system (CNS) involvement in patients with mature B non‐Hodgkin lymphoma, post‐transplantation proliferative disorder and acute lymphoblastic leukemia confers a significantly inferior prognosis as compared to patients without CNS disease. Intrathecal (IT) or intraventricular administration of rituximab is an option for this group of patients. We report 25 children with CNS involvement of CD20+ B lymphoid malignancies who received in total 163 IT/intraventricular rituximab doses. The median number of doses received by each patient was 6, with a median dose of 25 mg. The most common adverse events were Grades 1 and 2 peripheral neuropathies in five patients (20%), allergy in two patients, and headache in two patients. These events were self‐limited, occurring in the 48 hours after treatment and resolving within 24 hr. Three patients presented with more severe though transient side effects, one with a Grade III neuropathy and two with seizure. Eighteen patients (72%) of those treated with IT/intraventricular rituximab, with or without other CNS directed treatment, achieved a CNS remission. This case series suggests that IT/intraventricular rituximab has therapeutic efficacy and relatively limited toxicity. Prospective trials of IT/intraventricular rituximab for patients with CNS involvement of CD20 + B lymphoid malignancies are warranted. Am. J. Hematol. 91:486–491, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Correlation between Eosinophils and Protection against Reinfection with Schistosoma mansoni and the Effect of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Coinfection in Humans

ABSTRACT Longitudinal investigations of an adult male population of Kenyan car washers who have heavy and quantifiable occupational exposure to Schistosoma mansoni cercariae revealed that some individuals develop resistance to reinfection while others remain highly susceptible. We sought to characterize immune correlates associated with host protection in this population. Previous studies have demonstrated an association of peripheral eosinophilia with resistance to reinfection with schistosomes. Thus, we investigated the relationship between the percentage of circulating eosinophils and the effect of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) coinfection on the susceptibility of the car washers to reinfection with schistosomes. Elevated percentages of circulating eosinophils were associated with resistance to reinfection by S. mansoni in HIV-1-seronegative persons. In the HIV-1-seropositive cohort, low CD4+-T-cell counts were associated with a less intense eosinophilia. Moreover, eosinophils from the car washers expressed high levels of FcεRI β chain, a molecule important in immunoglobulin E (IgE)-mediated immunity. Levels of FcεRI β chain expression correlated with serum levels of total and antigen-specific IgE for HIV-1-negative car washers, but this was not the case for individuals coinfected with HIV-1. Overall, these data further implicate eosinophils as having a potential role in development of protective immunity against schistosomes and suggest that changes associated with HIV-1 coinfection increase susceptibility to reinfection.
Prolyl hydroxylase inhibition during hyperoxia prevents oxygen-induced retinopathy

Oxygen-induced retinopathy (OIR) in the mouse, like the analogous human disease retinopathy of prematurity, is an ischemic retinopathy dependent on oxygen-induced vascular obliteration. We tested the hypothesis that chemically overriding the oxygen-induced downregulation of hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) activity would prevent vascular obliteration and subsequent pathologic neovascularization in the OIR model. Because the degradation of HIF-1α is regulated by prolyl hydroxylases, we examined the effect of systemic administration of a prolyl hydroxylase inhibitor, dimethyloxalylglycine, in the OIR model. Our results determine that stabilizing HIF activity in the early phase of OIR prevents the oxygen-induced central vessel loss and subsequent vascular tortuosity and tufting that is characteristic of OIR. Overall, these findings imply that simulating hypoxia chemically by stabilizing HIF activity during the causative ischemia phase (hyperoxia) of retinopathy of prematurity may be of therapeutic value in preventing progression to the proliferative stage of the disease.
Porphyria Cutanea Tarda

Porphyria cutanea tarda (PCT) is a skin disease that results from decreased activity of uroporphyrinogen decarboxylase (UROD). About 80% of patients have the sporadic (type I) form in which UROD deficiency is restricted to the liver. Others have familial (type II) PCT in which mutations in the UROD gene are inherited in an autosomal dominant pattern with low clinical penetrance. PCT may also follow exposure to porphyrogenic chemicals. Clinically overt PCT (types I and II) is provoked by liver cell injury, particularly when associated with alcohol abuse, hepatitis C infection, or estrogens. Hepatic iron overload is common, depletion of iron stores produces remission, and their replenishment leads to relapse. In PCT, hepatic UROD is inactivated by a process targeted at its catalytic site, which is iron-dependent, requires a heme precursor, and may be accelerated by induction of cytochrome P450s. Susceptibility to develop PCT in response to common causes of liver injury may be determined by co-inheritance of genes that regulate components of this inactivation process.