Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
CXC receptor 1 is overexpressed in endoscopy-negative gastroesophageal reflux disease

Interleukin 8 (IL-8), a representative CXC chemokine, exhibits a potent chemotactic activity for neutrophils [1]. It has been shown to possess functions such as the regulation of epidermal cell growth and angiogenesis [1] and its actions are mediated via two distinct receptors, CXC receptor 1 (CXCR-1) and CXCR-2 [2]. Elevated levels of IL8 messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) and protein expression have been demonstrated in reflux esophagitis [3]. In that study, we quantified the expression of IL-8 mRNA in snap-frozen biopsy samples employing a real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) procedure. We found significantly enhanced expression of IL-8 mRNA levels in esophageal mucosa of patients with incipient gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), who had no mucosal breaks on esophagoscopy (endoscopy-negative GERD) [3]. The presence of basal zone hyperplasia and intraepithelial neutrophils, histopathological hallmarks of GERD, was associated with higher levels of IL-8 mRNA. In addition, the IL-8 mRNA levels were substantially decreased after lansoprazole therapy, concomitantly with the resolution of GERD symptoms [3]. These results indicate that IL-8 is involved in the pathogenesis of GERD. Despite such intense interest in the role of IL-8 in GERD, little is known regarding the expression of IL-8 receptors. We studied the expression of CXCR-1 and CXCR-2 mRNA in the esophageal biopsy tissue of 17 patients with endoscopy-negative GERD and 16 asymptomatic controls using the similar quantitative RT-PCR technology [2,3]. There were no significant differences in baseline characteristics, including age, gender, body mass index, current tobacco use, alcohol intake and Helicobacter pylori status, between the two groups. As shown in Figure 1, the relative CXCR-1 mRNA expression levels, expressed as the ratio of CXCR-1/tubulin alpha 3 (housekeeping gene) in arbitrary units, in patients with endoscopy-negative GERD were significantly more increased than those in controls. On the other hand, the relative levels of CXCR-2 mRNA expression were comparable between the GERD patients and controls (Figure 2). No significant correlation was noted between the expression levels of CXCR-1 and CXCR-2 mRNA (r /0.190, p /0.29). In previous work, we demonstrated that intraepithelial neutrophils were immunoreactive for CXCR-1 in esophageal mucosa of GERD [3]. The enhanced expression of this specific IL-8 receptor
Photoresponse and AC impedance characterization of electrodeposited TiO2-based nanocomposite films for dye-sensitized solar cells

The effect of calcination temperature on the photoelectrochemical properties of the electrodeposited TiO<sub>2</sub> and TiO<sub>2</sub>/SiO<sub>2</sub> films as well as the corresponding dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) was investigated in combination with photoresponse and AC impedance measurement. The thermal treatment of as-prepared electrodeposited TiO<sub>2</sub>-based films was found to decrease the charge transfer resistances at the TiO<sub>2</sub>-based film/FTO-coated glass and the TiO<sub>2</sub>-based film/electrolyte interfaces. Meanwhile, such the treatment could significantly increase the charge storage in the TiO<sub>2</sub>/SiO<sub>2</sub> film, which is ascribed to the increase in the bonding between TiO<sub>2</sub> nanoparticles as well as the enhancement of the bonding between TiO<sub>2</sub> and SiO<sub>2</sub> that effectively forms the energy barrier between the TiO<sub>2</sub> matrix and redox electrolyte. This barrier consequently brings about the improvement of photocurrent density of the derived TiO<sub>2</sub>/SiO<sub>2</sub> film and the photovoltaic performance of corresponding DSSC.
Study of factors associated with poor glycemic control in Type -2 Diabetic patients

INTRODUCTION Diabetes mellitus is the most common chronic diseases among adults. By 2030, number will increase to 439 million with prevalence of 7.7 %. Number of deaths in adult due to diabetes is estimated to be 3.96 million per year and mortality rate of diabetes in all ages is 6.8 %, at global level. In India, 40 million have diabetes. By 2025 it is estimated to rise to 70 million. In spite of well-defined treatment for type 2 diabetes, in majority of the people, disease is poorly controlled with existing therapies. Studies like UKPDS and DCCT have proven that poor glycemic control(HbA1C>7%) is associated with increased risk for micro vascular complications. An Indian study showed that the prevalence of diabetes is high in urban India. There is a large pool of subjects with impaired glucose tolerance at a high risk of conversion to diabetes. Hence it would be interesting to identify the factors associated with poor control of diabetes.
Perceptions of Interfirm Power and its use within a Franchise Channel of Distribution

Data from a field study of the automobile distribution channel are used to examine how dealers’ perceptions of their manufacturers’ power are related to the latter's use of coercive and noncoercive influence strategies. Dealers’ reports about their manufacturers’ reliance on the various influence strategies also are related to dealers’ attitudes toward their manufacturers and the dealers’ own use of selected influence strategies.
Management perspectives on country of origin

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a new perspective by conceptualising country of origin (COO) from a management perspective, identifying the impact different COO constructs have in the context of fashion retailer and manufacturer businesses. Design/methodology/approach – This qualitative study comprises a series of in-depth interviews with key informants from large-scale fashion retailers and manufacturers in the UK. Findings – The major findings of this research demonstrate that COO is considered a strategic business imperative but manifests in a variety of ways depending on brand positioning, long-term strategic plans, expertise, and brand values, etc. Research limitations/implications – This study contributes to the body of knowledge about the importance of COO. The findings of this research will have practical implications for manufacturers and retailers, informing the debate on the value of the “Made in […]” epithet. Findings are limited to the UK fashion clothing industry. Originali.
Gaining legitimacy in large Australian listed companies: exploring the role of corporate reporting regarding employees

Corporate reporting is a key tool in managing stakeholder relationships. It is useful for developing corporate legitimacy especially as large listed companies are increasingly asked to report on different dimensions of their performance (economic, social and environmental). Our paper thus investigates corporate reporting regarding employees in large listed Australian companies by questioning how they take into account their national and industrial contexts to develop legitimacy. We analyse corporate reporting of employees in 60 Australian companies listed on the Australian Stock Exchange top 100 companies in 2009. First we found that companies report to develop their pragmatic legitimacy by providing information on the benefits valued by employees such as health and safety or career development. They also attempt to improve their moral legitimacy by communicating on anti-discrimination policies or business ethics. Lastly they try to enhance their cognitive legitimacy by reporting against areas such as health and safety and business ethics whilst they do not report against industrial relations and responsible management of employees. We also underline the influence of industry risk characteristics in shaping corporate reporting practices.
Stochastic differential portfolio games

We study stochastic dynamic investment games in continuous time between two investors (players) who have available two different, but possibly correlated, investment opportunities. There is a single payoff function which depends on both investors’ wealth processes. One player chooses a dynamic portfolio strategy in order to maximize this expected payoff, while his opponent is simultaneously choosing a dynamic portfolio strategy so as to minimize the same quantity. This leads to a stochastic differential game with controlled drift and variance. For the most part, we consider games with payoffs that depend on the achievement of relative performance goals and/or shortfalls. We provide conditions under which a game with a general payoff function has an achievable value, and give an explicit representation for the value and resulting equilibrium portfolio strategies in that case. It is shown that non-perfect correlation is required to rule out trivial solutions. We then use this general result explicitly to solve a variety of specific games. For example, we solve a probability maximizing game, where each investor is trying to maximize the probability of beating the other's return by a given predetermined percentage. We also consider objectives related to the minimization or maximization of the expected time until one investor's return beats the other investor's return by a given percentage. Our results allow a new interpretation of the market price of risk in a Black-Scholes world. Games with discounting are also discussed, as are games of fixed duration related to utility maximization.
Histological pattern of gynecological cancers.

INTRODUCTION The information on cancer incidence is an important basis to prioritize the preventive policy of a country. Since there are only limited reports on the gynecological cancers in Nepal, the present study was undertaken to further elucidate the incidences of different gynecological cancers by age, site and histological subtype in a large series. METHODS A retrospective analysis was performed in histopathologically proven gynecological malignancies by retrieving data from the archives of the Department of Pathology, BP Koirala Memorial Cancer Hospital between July 1999 and April 2004. RESULTS Out of total 1517 cases of gynecological cancers diagnosed, 1293 cases (85.23%) were cervical, 97 (6.39%) ovarian, 48 (3.16%) vulval, 41 (2.7%) vaginal, 32 (2.11%) endometrial cancers as well as 5 (0.33%) choriocarcinoma and 1 (0.07%) fallopian tube cancer. Squamous cell carcinoma was the commonest histologic type in cervical, vaginal and vulval cancers whereas serous adenocarcinoma and endometrioid adenocarcinoma were commonest histological types in the ovary and endometrium respectively. Gynecological cancers were most common in age between 40 and 60 years with mean age 45 years. CONCLUSIONS Cervical cancer is the most frequent gynecological malignancy in Nepal. Since it is a preventable disease, national screening and awareness programs are necessary to reduce the burden of the cancer and to improve the health of women in Nepal.
Dichotic listening performance suggests right hemisphere involvement in PTSD

The present study focuses on language laterality as measured with dichotic listening (DL) to consonant-vowel syllables (CV syllables) in refugees with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD is associated with impaired callosal transfer and with increased right hemisphere activation and impaired executive skills that could influence the processing of dichotic stimuli. A total of 22 participants with PTSD were compared to 23 participants without a diagnosis of PTSD. All participants had similar experiences of acts of war and political violence. They were tested with dichotic listening to CV syllables with free recall and directed attention following the forced attention paradigm. The PTSD group showed increased right ear advantage due to impaired left ear reporting and also smaller attention modulation compared to the control group, and the performance shared variance with self-report measures of arousal and intrusive memories. The results are discussed towards a model of impaired functionality of the frontal lobe and right hemisphere versus impaired callosal transfer, both yielding predictions for the processing of the left ear input and the ability to attention modulation of the performance.
Effects of nitroglycerin on cardiac function and regional blood flow distribution in conscious dogs.

The effects of intravenous infusion of nitroglycerin (NTG), 8 and 32 microgram/kg.min for 7 min, and of sublingual NTG, 1.2 mg, were examined on direct and continuous measurements of systemic, coronary, and regional hemodynamics, left ventricular (LV) dimensions, pressures, and myocardial contractility in conscious dogs. NTG induced sustained reductions in LV dimensions and transient increases in heart rate and dP/dt, and decreases in mean arterial pressure. Initially NTG increased cardiac output and flows to the coronary, mesenteric, renal, and iliac beds, while systemic and regional vascular resistances fell. Later, cardiac output, cardiac work, and mesenteric and iliac flows fell significantly below control, and significant vasoconstriction in the systemic as well as mesenteric, iliac, and coronary beds was observed at a time when LV end-diastolic dimensions were still significantly reduced. Peripheral vasoconstriction was not observed with systemic NTG in deafferented dogs or when NTG, 1 microgram/kg.min, was infused intra-arterially into the iliac bed. Thus, systemic NTG induces a biphasic response consisting of initial arteriolar vasodilation followed by vasoconstriction in the mesenteric, iliac, coronary and systemic beds, which is presumably due to longer lasting effects on preload and to secondary reflex responses to the drug.
The SKT—A Short Cognitive Performance Test for Assessing Deficits of Memory and Attention

The SKT is a simple and short test for assessing cognitive impairment of memory and attention. The test consists of nine subtests, each limited to a maximum performance time of 60 seconds. Thus, total testing time normally does not exceed 10 to 15 minutes. Test scoring and auditing are also accomplished within a short time and are easily learned. The test is useful for staging the severity of cognitive deficits and for assessing the benefits of therapy, especially with patients suffering from dementia. The SKT is highly accepted both by patients, who are motivated by the appealing character of the tasks and their play-like nature, and hospital clinicians and general practitioners (GPs) because of its brevity and simplicity. The SKT was introduced in Germany two decades ago and has been successfully validated. Test versions of the SKT in English and other languages have confirmed its international applicability and validity, a point of particular importance in light of the current attempts to harmonize methods for assessing the efficacy of pharmaceutical products.
Does “Made in …” Also Apply to Services? An Empirical Assessment of the Country-of-Origin Effect in Service Settings

ABSTRACT The country-of-origin (COO) effect is one of the most prominent phenomena in the field of international marketing. Its influence on consumer quality perception, as well as on purchase decision, is strongly supported by a notable amount of empirical work. However, despite the obvious managerial relevance, most COO studies have been conducted with respect to products, whereas the impact of COO in service settings is a woefully underresearched area. This article fills that void by using limit conjoint analysis to empirically test the role of COO effect for services in two experimental settings. Specifically, the study investigates how much the relative importance of COO changes if additional quality cues are available for the consumer. Results lend support for the relevance of COO effects for services and provide useful implications for ways to utilize COO effects in international services marketing.
Relationships Among Insulin Resistance, Type 2 Diabetes, Essential Hypertension, and Cardiovascular Disease: Similarities and Differences

Insulin resistance plays a major role in the pathogenesis and clinical course of patients with type 2 diabetes (2DM) and essential hypertension. However, the syndromes differ in prevalence of insulin resistance, and associated insulin secretory response. Essentially all patients with type 2 diabetes are insulin resistant, whereas only approximately 50% of those with essential hypertension are insulin resistant. Furthermore, 2DM develops when the pancreatic β‐cell can no longer maintain the degree of compensatory hyperinsulinemia needed to prevent hyperglycemia. In contrast, the compensatory hyperinsulinemia that prevents most insulin resistant individuals from developing 2DM acts on normally insulin sensitive tissues in a manner that predisposes to the development of essential hypertension. This review will discuss these similarities and differences in some detail, as well as exploring the relationship among insulin resistance and related metabolic abnormalities in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease in patients with 2DM and essential hypertension. J Clin Hypertens (Greenwich). 2011;13:238–243. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
CULTURAL DIFFERENCES AND SHAREHOLDER VALUE IN RELATED MERGERS: LINKING EQUITY AND HUMAN CAPITAL

Merger literature suggests that the relationship between shareholder gains and the relatedness of merging firms is contingent upon the compatibility of the two firms' top management cultures. This hypothesis is tested by surveying the perceptions of cultural differences of top management teams of recently acquired firms, and then relating these perceptions to related stock market gains to the buying firms. The findings suggest a strong inverse relationship between perceptions of cultural differences and shareholder gains, after controlling for perceptions of the buying firm's tolerance for multiculturalism and the relative size of the merging firms.
Origin vs organic in Manchego cheese: which is more important?

Purpose – The paper aims to measure the degree of influence that attributes such as price, origin, type and production system have on Spanish consumers when purchasing cheese, while also analysing various cheese differentiation strategies.Design/methodology/approach – The methodology consisted in a survey of 420 Madrid (Spain) cheese consumers during the month of December 2006, whose preferences were determined through several multivariate techniques.Findings – The first result derived from this paper is the negative influence of the organic production system attribute on the cheese consumer preference structure. Therefore, this attribute becomes an inadequate differentiation strategy for cheese, while origin is the most adequate differentiation. In this sense, three consumer segments are identified: the first, shops for cheese mainly by type, the second, by a combination of origin, type and price and the third, by an origin of cheese. In this sense, except for the first segment, where competition by a ty.
Comparison of the Effects of Local Application of Hydroxyapatite Graft Soaked with Alendronate Solution and Pure Hydroxyapatite Graft in the Mandible of Ovariectomized Rats

ABSTRACT This study aimed to investigate whether local delivery of alendronate could improve bone formation and decrease bone resorption after hydroxyapatite grafting in ovariectomised rat mandibular defects. Thirty-six female Wistar rats were divided into control and experimental groups. Both groups were ovariectomised. After two months a surgical defect was created on the vestibular side of their mandible. In the experimental group, hydroxyapatite graft soaked with alendronate solution was placed in the bone defect, and in the control group hydroxyapatite graft soaked with physiological saline was used. Both groups were divided into 3 subgroups: 2-, 4-, and 8-week follow-up groups. Each of the groups consisted of 6 rats. The animals were killed at the end of the designated periods. The number of osteoclasts and the amount of new bone formation were evaluated and compared. Eight weeks after surgery, the experimental group had more bone formation than the control group but it was not statistically significant. The number of osteclasts was increased significantly in the 4th week compared to the 2nd week and decreased significantly in the 8th week compared to 4th week in both groups. Local application of a single dose of alendronate did not have a decreasing effect on the number of osteoclasts between the second and fourth week. Although hydroxyapatite graft soaked with alendronate solution showed a trend towards better performance for bone formation at the 4th week, no statistically significant intergroup difference was found.
Comparing Vasculogenic Mimicry With Endothelial Cell-lined Vessels: Techniques for 3D Reconstruction and Quantitative Analysis of Tissue Components from Archival Paraffin Blocks

We previously described techniques to generate 3-dimensional reconstructions of the tumor microcirculation using immunofluorescence histochemistry and laser scanning confocal microscopy on serial sections from archival formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues. By aligning sequential z-stacks in an immersive visualization environment (ImmersaDesk), the need to insert fiduciary markers into tissue was eliminated. In this study, we developed methods to stitch overlapping confocal z-series together to extend the surface area of interest well beyond that captured by the confocal microscope objective and developed methods to quantify the distribution of markers of interest in 3 dimensions. These techniques were applied to the problem of comparing the surface area of nonendothelial cell-lined, laminin-rich looping vasculogenic mimicry (VM) patterns that are known to transmit fluid, with the surface area of endothelial cell-lined vessels in metastatic uveal melanoma to the liver in 3 dimensions. After labeling sections with antibodies to CD34 and laminin, the surface area of VM patterns to vessels was calculated by segmenting out structures that labeled with laminin but not with CD34 from those structures labeling with CD34, or CD34 and laminin. In metastatic uveal melanoma tissues featuring colocalization of high microvascular density [66.4 microvessels adjusted for 0.313 mm2 area (range 56.7 to 72.7)] and VM patterning, the surface area of VM patterns was 11.6-fold greater (range 10.8 to 14.1) than the surface provided by CD34-positive vessels. These methods may be extended to visualize and quantify molecular markers in 3 dimensions in a variety of pathologic entities from archival paraffin-embedded tissues.
Serotonin released from amacrine neurons is scavenged and degraded in bipolar neurons in the retina

The neurotransmitter serotonin is synthesized in the retina by one type of amacrine neuron but accumulates in bipolar neurons in many vertebrates. The mechanisms, functions and purpose underlying serotonin accumulation in bipolar cells remain unknown. Here, we demonstrate that exogenous serotonin transiently accumulates in a distinct type of bipolar neuron. KCl‐mediated depolarization causes the depletion of serotonin from amacrine neurons and, subsequently, serotonin is taken‐up by bipolar neurons. The accumulation of endogenous and exogenous serotonin by bipolar neurons is blocked by selective reuptake inhibitors. Exogenous serotonin is specifically taken‐up by bipolar neurons even when serotonin‐synthesizing amacrine neurons are destroyed; excluding the possibility that serotonin diffuses through gap junctions from amacrine into bipolar neurons. Further, inhibition of monoamine oxidase A prevents the degradation of serotonin in bipolar neurons, suggesting that monoamine oxidase A is present in these neurons. However, the vesicular monoamine transporter 2 is present only in amacrine cells suggesting that serotonin is not transported into synaptic vesicles and reused as a transmitter in the bipolar neurons. We conclude that the serotonin‐accumulating bipolar neurons perform glial functions in the retina by actively transporting and degrading serotonin that is synthesized in neighboring amacrine cells.