Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pretargeting of renal cell carcinoma: improved tumor targeting with a bivalent chelate.

Radiolabeled monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) can target tumors selectively. Sustained activity levels in nontarget tissues limit their application. Pretargeting approaches using bispecific mAbs (bsmAbs) or the biotinavidin interaction have been proposed to improve tumor:nontumor ratios. Pretargeting a tumor and subsequently administering the radioactivity as a low molecular weight ligand fundamentally changes the pharmacokinetics of the radiolabel. In previous studies, we have shown successful radioimmunotargeting of diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA) labeled with indium-111 to renal cell carcinoma (RCC) after pretargeting in nude mice. In this study, we aimed to optimize further a pretargeting strategy in nude mice with RCC xenografts based on a bispecific anti-RCC x anti-DTPA mAb. Using this two-step approach, we studied whether the use of a bivalent chelate ((111)In-diDTPA) could improve radioimmunotargeting. The (111)In-diDTPA dose greatly affected the uptake of the radiolabeled chelate in the tumor. At a low (111)In-diDTPA dose (< or = 7 pmol), tumor uptake of (111)In-diDTPA was very high [>50% injected dose (ID)/g, 1 h postinjection (p.i.)], whereas at higher doses (> or = 20 pmol), tumor uptake of (111)In-diDTPA decreased (<30% ID/g). With monovalent (111)In-DTPA uptake of the radiolabel in the tumor was much lower (<10% ID/g, 1 h p.i.). Furthermore, the bivalent chelate accreted rapidly in the tumor (78% ID/g, 4 h p.i.) and was virtually completely retained in the tumor during several days p.i. (92% ID/g, 72 h p.i.). Clearance of the (111)In-diDTPA from the blood and kidneys was rapid and complete without the need to clear the bsmAb from the blood, probably due to the relative lability of the univalent bsmAb-diDTPA complexes in the blood. As a result, with this two-step pretargeting approach tumor:blood ratios increased up to values as high as 3500 at 72 h p.i. High doses of diDTPA could be targeted preferentially to the tumor, indicating that this approach could also be used for radioimmunotherapy. Tumors could be imaged up to 1 week p.i. of 50 microCi of (111)In-diDTPA. Quantitative analysis of the images confirmed the biodistribution data and indicated that, at 20 h p.i. , 50 +/- 15% of the whole-body activity was localized in the tumor. In conclusion, these studies indicate that the use of bivalent chelates can very effectively optimize two-step targeting of tumors with bsmAbs. Our data indicate that this approach could optimize radioimmunotherapy.
Variation in Gastric pH May Determine Kiwifruit’s Effect on Functional GI Disorder: An in Vitro Study

Consumption of kiwifruit is reported to relieve symptoms of functional gastrointestinal (GI) disorder. The effect may be related to the proteases in kiwifruit. This in vitro study aimed to measure protein hydrolysis due to kiwifruit protease under gastric and duodenal conditions. A sequence of experiments incubated meat protein, with and without kiwifruit, with varying concentrations of pepsin and hydrochloric acid, at 37 °C for 60 min over the pH range 1.3–6.2 to simulate gastric digestion. Duodenal digestion was simulated by a further 120 min incubation at pH 6.4. Protein digestion efficiency was determined by comparing Kjeldahl nitrogen in pre- and post-digests. Where acid and pepsin concentrations were optimal for peptic digestion, hydrolysis was 80% effective and addition of kiwifruit made little difference. When pH was increased to 3.1 and pepsin activity reduced, hydrolysis decreased by 75%; addition of kiwifruit to this milieu more than doubled protein hydrolysis. This in vitro study has shown, when gastric pH is elevated, the addition of kiwifruit can double the rate of hydrolysis of meat protein. This novel finding supports the hypothesis that consumption of kiwifruit with a meal can increase the rate of protein hydrolysis, which may explain how kiwifruit relieves functional GI disorder.
How Leaders Cultivate Support for Change: Resource Creation Through Justice and Job Security

It is well documented that employees’ supportive behavior is essential for the success of change initiatives and that leaders are considerably influential on generating this support. Drawing from conservation of resources theory, this article investigates how leader–member exchange is associated with behavioral support for change through resource creation. It is proposed that high-quality leader–member relationships increase resource reserves of employees regarding their fairness and job security perceptions, which in turn enhance their support for change. A survey was conducted in organizations going through change using a sample of 269 employees and their immediate supervisors. The results showed that the relationship between leader–member exchange and behavioral support was fully mediated by the two underlying mechanisms of procedural justice and job insecurity. Findings demonstrate that managers who want to enhance support for change need to pay attention to fair procedures and nurturing a climate of security.
Fiscal Decentralization in Developing Countries: A Review of Current Concepts and Practice

The designations employed in UNRISD publications, which are in conformity with United Nations practice, and the presentation of material therein do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNRISD concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The responsibility for opinions expressed rests solely with the author(s), and publication does not constitute endorsement by UNRISD. Contents Acronyms ii Summary/Résumé/Resumen iii Summary iii Résumé iv Resumen v
HUMMR, a hypoxia- and HIF-1α–inducible protein, alters mitochondrial distribution and transport

Mitochondrial transport is critical for maintenance of normal neuronal function. Here, we identify a novel mitochondria protein, hypoxia up-regulated mitochondrial movement regulator (HUMMR), which is expressed in neurons and is markedly induced by hypoxia-inducible factor 1 α (HIF-1α). Interestingly, HUMMR interacts with Miro-1 and Miro-2, mitochondrial proteins that are critical for mediating mitochondrial transport. Interestingly, knockdown of HUMMR or HIF-1 function in neurons exposed to hypoxia markedly reduces mitochondrial content in axons. Because mitochondrial transport and distribution are inextricably linked, the impact of reduced HUMMR function on the direction of mitochondrial transport was also explored. Loss of HUMMR function in hypoxia diminished the percentage of motile mitochondria moving in the anterograde direction and enhanced the percentage moving in the retrograde direction. Thus, HUMMR, a novel mitochondrial protein induced by HIF-1 and hypoxia, biases mitochondria transport in the anterograde direction. These findings have broad implications for maintenance of neuronal viability and function during physiological and pathological states.
Deaths attributed to pediatric complex chronic conditions: national trends and implications for supportive care services.

BACKGROUND Children with complex chronic conditions (CCCs) might benefit from pediatric supportive care services, such as home nursing, palliative care, or hospice, especially those children whose conditions are severe enough to cause death. We do not know, however, the extent of this population or how it is changing over time. OBJECTIVES To identify trends over the past 2 decades in the pattern of deaths attributable to pediatric CCCs, examining counts and rates of CCC-attributed deaths by cause and age (infancy: <1 year old, childhood: 1-9 years old, adolescence or young adulthood: 10-24 years old) at the time of death, and to determine the average number of children living within the last 6 months of their lives. DESIGN/METHODS We conducted a retrospective cohort study using national death certificate data and census estimates from the National Center for Health Statistics. Participants included all people 0 to 24 years old in the United States from 1979 to 1997. CCCs comprised a broad array of International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision codes for cardiac, malignancy, neuromuscular, respiratory, renal, gastrointestinal, immunodeficiency, metabolic, genetic, and other congenital anomalies. Trends of counts and rates were tested using negative binomial regression. RESULTS Of the 1.75 million deaths that occurred in 0- to 24-year-olds from 1979 to 1997, 5% were attributed to cancer CCCs, 16% to noncancer CCCs, 43% to injuries, and 37% to all other causes of death. Overall, both counts and rates of CCC-attributed deaths have trended downward, with declines more pronounced and statistically significant for noncancer CCCs among infants and children, and for cancer CCCs among children, adolescents, and young adults. In 1997, deaths attributed to all CCCs accounted for 7242 infant deaths, 2835 childhood deaths, and 5109 adolescent deaths. Again, in 1997, the average numbers of children alive who would die because of a CCC within the ensuing 6-month period were 1097 infants, 1414 children, and 2548 adolescents or young adults. CONCLUSIONS Population-based planning of pediatric supportive care services should use measures that best inform our need to provide care for time-limited events (perideath or bereavement care) versus care for ongoing needs (home nursing or hospice). Pediatric supportive care services will need to serve patients with a broad range of CCCs from infancy into adulthood.
Visual Gender Cues Elicit Agent Expectations: Different Mismatches in Situated Language Comprehension

Previous research has shown that visual cues (depicted events) can have a strong effect on language comprehension and guide attention more than stereotypical thematic role knowledge (‘depicted / recent event preference’). We examined to which extent this finding generalizes to another visual cue (gender from the hands of an agent) and to which extent it is modulated by picture-sentence incongruence. Participants inspected videos of hands performing an action, and then listened to non-canonical German OVS sentences while we monitored their eye gaze to the faces of two potential subjects / agents (one male and one female). In Experiment 1, the sentential verb phrase matched (vs. mismatched) the video action and in Experiment 2, the sentential subject matched (vs. mismatched) the gender of the agent’s hands in the video. Additionally, both experiments manipulated gender stereotypicality congruence (i.e. whether the gender stereotypicality of the described actions matched or mismatched the gender of the hands in the video). Participants overall preferred to inspect the target agent face (i.e. the face whose gender matched that of the hands seen in the previous video), suggesting the depicted event preference observed in previous studies generalizes to visual gender cues. Stereotypicality match did not seem to modulate this gaze behavior. However, when there was a mismatch between the sentence and the previous video, participants tended to look away from the target face (post-verbally for action-verb mismatches and at the final subject region for hand gender – subject gender mismatches), suggesting outright picture-sentence incongruence can modulate the preference to inspect the face whose gender matched that of the hands seen in the previous video.
Timing of Umbilical Cord Blood Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells Transplantation Determines Therapeutic Efficacy in the Neonatal Hyperoxic Lung Injury

Intratracheal transplantation of human umbilical cord blood (UCB)-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) attenuates the hyperoxia-induced neonatal lung injury. The aim of this study was to optimize the timing of MSCs transplantation. Newborn Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly exposed to hyperoxia (90% for 2 weeks and 60% for 1 week) or normoxia after birth for 21 days. Human UCB-derived MSCs (5×105 cells) were delivered intratracheally early at postnatal day (P) 3 (HT3), late at P10 (HT10) or combined early+late at P3+10 (HT3+10). Hyperoxia-induced increase in mortality, TUNEL positive cells, ED1 positive alveolar macrophages, myeloperoxidase activity and collagen levels, retarded growth and reduced alveolarization as evidenced by increased mean linear intercept and mean alveolar volume were significantly better attenuated in both HT3 and HT3+10 than in HT10. Hyperoxia-induced up-regulation of both cytosolic and membrane p47phox indicative of oxidative stress, and increased inflammatory markers such as tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin (IL) -1α, IL-1β, IL-6, and transforming growth factor-β measured by ELISA, and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1, CXCL7, RANTES, L-selectin and soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 measured by protein array were consistently more attenuated in both HT3 and HT3+10 than in HT10. Hyperoxia-induced decrease in hepatocyte growth factor and vascular endothelial growth factor was significantly up-regulated in both HT3 and HT3+10, but not in HT10. In summary, intratracheal transplantation of human UCB derived MSCs time-dependently attenuated hyperoxia-induced lung injury in neonatal rats, showing significant protection only in the early but not in the late phase of inflammation. There were no synergies with combined early+late MSCs transplantation.
Acceptable noise levels in Arabic-Persian bilinguals

Background and Aim: Acceptable noise level (ANL) test is a reliable measure of people’s abi­lity to tolerate background noise. Central ner­vous system is one of the determinant factors in subject’s tolerance of noise. Bilinguals’ diffe­rent central activity pattern may yield different ANL test results from monolinguals. This study aims to compare noise tolerance function in Arabic-Persian bilinguals with Persian monolin­guals via Persian version of ANL. Methods: In the present study, the Persian ver­sion of ANL was administered on 115 cases with normal hearing (56 male, 59 female) aged 18–37 years in three groups of the Persian mon­olingual, sequential Arabic-Persian bilinguals, and simultaneous Arabic-Persian bilinguals. Results: The statistical analysis revealed sig­nificant difference in most comfortable level (p = 0.002) and background noise level (p = 0.011) among three groups, i.e. between Persian monolinguals and sequential Arabic-Persian bil­inguals and between Persian monolinguals and simultaneous Arabic-Persian bilinguals. In other words, mean scores of bilingual were higher than monolingual scores. There was no signifi­cant difference among three groups with regard to ANL scores (p = 0.114). * Corresponding author: Department of Audiology, School of Rehabilitation, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Piche-Shemiran, Enghelab Ave., Tehran, 1148965141, Iran. Tel: 009821-77530636, E-mail: ageshani@tums.ac. ir Conclusion: Despite the difference between Persian monolinguals and Arabic-Persian bilin­guals in most comfortable level and background noise level, there is no significance difference in ANL results. Therefore, auditory central proce­ssing acts similarly in normal hearing monolin­gual and bilingual subjects. As a result, Persian version of ANL can be used for Arabic-Persian bilinguals, too.
On evolutionary processes in natural and artificial systems

The close links that now exist between biology and computation raise the prospect of setting species evolution in a broader, computat ion l context. This context would comprise theories about the origins of pattern and order in complex systems. We argue that several processes play crucial roles in both natural and artificial evolution. One mechanism consists of critical changes between different system phases that promote order and variation respectively. Processes that lead to modular structures promote both robustness and increasing complexity i n evolution. Examples of such processes include genetic convergence, gene shuffli ng and ordered asynchronous processing. We demonstrate that gene shuffling caus es colocation of genes on chromosomes, thus promoting genetic modularity.
Letter to Editor. How to understand the fundamentalism and acts of terrorism?

In the light of the known definition of mental health the fundamentalist attitude and associated acts of terrorism, sometimes in the form of suicidal attacks are not normal behaviours. Although they are complex phenomena, described by psychologists and sociologists , it seems that the essence of the causes of fundamentalist attitudes and acts of terrorism should also be discussed by psychiatrists. This is important, in particular by reason of diffusion by the mass-media of fears, which increases prevalence of the anxiety syndromes. In face of the recent spread of these phenomena, any theoretical considerations, which bring closer the explanation of the essence of these occurrences, can be important because it can contribute to effective countermeasures. It is necessary to distinguish the trails of explanation of the nature of a fundamentalist attitude from theories related to the coexisting acts of terrorism. There are two different approaches to interpret the causes of terrorism. Activities that can be termed " terrorism " happened always. The well-known researcher of these phenomena Jerrold M. Post, outlining historical transformations notes that the first such actions in the twentieth century was the attack on the Israeli Olympic Village in Munich in 1970 [1–4]. J.M. Post proposes classification of all acts of terrorism and the distinction of: 1) Political; 2) Criminal; and 3) Pathological terrorisms. Among the Political Terrorism he distinguishes: A) Sub-state terrorism; B. State supported terrorism; C) Regime or state terrorism. Among the sub-state terrorism he discerns: 1. Social revolutionary terrorism (Left); 2. Right wing terrorism; 3. National-separatist terrorism; 4. Religious extremist terrorism, with categories of: 4a. Religious fundamentalist; and 4b. New religion terrorism. There is also 5. Single issue terrorism. J.M. Post cites many authors advocating his view that the vast majority of so-called terrorists do not show known significant psychopathological disorders [5–7]. It stresses that a typical psychological common feature of these people is their
Context personalization, preferences, and performance in an intelligent tutoring system for middle school mathematics

Learners often think math is unrelated to their own interests. Instructional software has the potential to provide personalized instruction that responds to individuals' interests. Carnegie Learning's MATHia™ software for middle school mathematics asks learners to specify domains of their interest (e.g., sports & fitness, arts & music), as well as names of friends/classmates, and uses this information to both choose and personalize word problems for individual learners. Our analysis of MATHia's relatively coarse-grained personalization contrasts with more finegrained analysis in previous research on word problems in the Cognitive Tutor (e.g., finding effects on performance in parts of problems that depend on more difficult skills), and we explore associations of aggregate preference "honoring" with learner performance. To do so, we define a notion of "strong" learner interest area preferences and find that honoring such preferences has a small negative association with performance. However, learners that both merely express preferences (either interest area preferences or setting names of friends/classmates), and those that express strong preferences, tend to perform in ways that are associated with better learning compared to learners that do not express such preferences. We consider several explanations of these findings and suggest important topics for future research.
Fecal Calprotectin Level Reflects the Severity of Clostridium difficile Infection

Clostridium difficile is a significant nosocomial and community-acquired pathogen, and is the leading cause of antibiotic-induced diarrhea associated with high morbidity and mortality. Given that the treatment outcome depends on the severity of C. difficile infection (CDI), we aimed to establish an efficient method of assessing severity, and focused on the stool biomarker fecal calprotectin (FC). FC directly reflects the intestinal inflammation status of a patient, and can aid in interpreting the current guidelines, which requires the integration of indirect laboratory parameters. The distinction of 80 patients with CDI versus 71 healthy controls and 30 severe infection cases versus 50 mild cases was possible using FC as a marker. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curves were 0.821 and 0.746 with a sensitivity of 75% and 70% and specificity of 79% and 80%, for severe versus mild cases, respectively. We suggest FC as a predictive marker for assessing CDI severity, which is expected to improve the clinical management of CDI.
Scheduled Perturbation to Reduce Nondetection Zone for Low Gain Sandia Frequency Shift Method

It is known that the choice of gain (K) in the Sandia frequency shift (SFS) scheme has direct impacts on the stability of a system with grid-connected distributed generations (DGs). In this paper, a scheduled perturbation technique is proposed to reduce the stability impact of K. In the proposed technique, chopping fraction (cf) is used to compensate for reduction in the value of K, where higher cf values are used to achieve zero nondetection zone (NDZ) under low gain SFS. It is shown by analysis that theoretical reduction of NDZ can be always achieved for a nonzero value of cf. Simulations for singleand multi-DGs systems are performed to verify the analytical analysis. It is shown that an appropriate design of scheduled signal duty cycle (d) is of critical importance to realize the proposed reduction in NDZ. While close synchronization of perturbation signals for multi-DG system is required, a delay of 0.33 s is shown to be tolerated for a two-DG system. Synchronization can be achieved either through locally synchronized timers or by limited communication among DGs. The proposed technique provides an attractive option for systems with high DG penetration by reducing the negative impact of K on stability.
Emerging Markets and Entry by Actively Managed Funds

This paper investigates the incentives of investors to set up an actively managed fund in an emerging market or asset class. The analysis highlights the role of agency problems between fund managers and investors in determining this entry decision. It is shown that investors may wish to set up a fund in a new market, only when another fund is also active in that market. Fund entry into a new market can therefore be subject to a co-ordination problem, which may result in no entry of funds. This problem is acute when fund managers have little information about underlying asset values. Equilibrium wage contracts for managers are derived for the case when one or two managers are active in a market. It is shown that wage contracts induce (i) overly aggressive trading by managers when two funds are active in a market, and (ii) insufficiently aggressive trading when only one manager is active. The evidence of country fund inception for emerging markets is reviewed in light of this analysis and policy implications are presented.
A Colpitts Oscillator Design for a GSM Base Station Synthesizer

This paper presents the design of a VCO using a Colpitts topology. The VCO system is fully integrated and suitable to operate in GSM base station synthesizers. The challenges and requirements for this application will be discussed and the possibility of achieving the performance of the oscillator will be demonstrated. The topology of the VCO core is a varactor tuned Colpitts oscillator which achieves a phase noise of -148 dBc/Hz at 1.8 MHz offset frequency. A 130 nm RF-CMOS process was used for the implementation. The process supports thick oxide devices for higher breakdown voltages. These transistors were chosen in order to obtain the highest possible voltage swing in the VCO core.