Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Cynomolgus Macaque MHC Polymorphism in Experimental Medicine

Among the non-human primates used in experimental medicine, cynomolgus macaques (Macaca fascicularis hereafter referred to as Mafa) are increasingly selected for the ease with which they are maintained and bred in captivity. Macaques belong to Old World monkeys and are phylogenetically much closer to humans than rodents, which are still the most frequently used animal model. Our understanding of the Mafa genome has progressed rapidly in recent years and has greatly benefited from the latest technical advances in molecular genetics. Cynomolgus macaques are widespread in Southeast Asia and numerous studies have shown a distinct genetic differentiation of continental and island populations. The major histocompatibility complex of cynomolgus macaque (Mafa MHC) is organized in the same way as that of human, but it differs from the latter by its high degree of classical class I gene duplication. Human polymorphic MHC regions play a pivotal role in allograft transplantation and have been associated with more than 100 diseases and/or phenotypes. The Mafa MHC polymorphism similarly plays a crucial role in experimental allografts of organs and stem cells. Experimental results show that the Mafa MHC class I and II regions influence the ability to mount an immune response against infectious pathogens and vaccines. MHC also affects cynomolgus macaque reproduction and impacts on numerous biological parameters. This review describes the Mafa MHC polymorphism and the methods currently used to characterize it. We discuss some of the major areas of experimental medicine where an effect induced by MHC polymorphism has been demonstrated.
Does the Feldstein–Horioka puzzle exist among South Asian countries? A regime‐switching approach

A plethora of researches has been undertaken to study the validity of the Feldstein Horioka (FH) Puzzle. However, divergent views continue to persist in the FH Puzzle literature. This study explores the empirical validity of the FH puzzle in the case of South Asian countries using Annual data from 1960-2017. Both panel data approach and Markov switching regression approach are used to empirically analyse the FH puzzle. The results of the cointegration test confirm the long run associationships between saving and investment in the selected South Asian countries. The results of Markov switching regression confirms the saving retention coefficient has shifted from high to low values and also from low to high values. Thus, the FH Puzzle exists for a particular time period and mostly depends on the regime shifts in the South Asian countries. The results of panel FMOLS and DOLS methods also confirms that FH puzzle holds for the South Asian countries. Therefore, the study suggests any saving promotion policies are desirable for enhancing investment among the South Asian regions.
Glucose-induced O ( 2 ) consumption activates hypoxia inducible factors 1 and 2 in rat insulin-secreting pancreatic Beta-cells . "

Glucose increases the expression of glycolytic enzymes and other hypoxiaresponse genes in pancreatic beta-cells. Here, we tested whether this effect results from the activation of Hypoxia-Inducible-factors (HIF) 1 and 2 in a hypoxiadependent manner. Document type : Article de périodique (Journal article) Référence bibliographique Bensellam, Mohammed ; Duvillié, Bertrand ; Rybachuk, Galyna ; Laybutt, D Ross ; Magnan, Christophe ; et. al. Glucose-induced O(2) consumption activates hypoxia inducible factors 1 and 2 in rat insulin-secreting pancreatic Beta-cells. In: PLoS One, Vol. 7, no. 1, p. e29807 (2012) DOI : 10.1371/journal.pone. 0029807 Glucose-Induced O2 Consumption Activates Hypoxia Inducible Factors 1 and 2 in Rat Insulin-Secreting Pancreatic Beta-Cells Mohammed Bensellam, Bertrand Duvillié, Galyna Rybachuk, D. Ross Laybutt, Christophe Magnan, Yves Guiot, Jacques Pouysségur, Jean-Christophe Jonas* 1 Pôle d9Endocrinologie, Diabète et Nutrition, Institut de Recherche Expérimentale et Clinique, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium, 2 Pôle de Morphologie, Institut de Recherche Expérimentale et Clinique, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium, 3 INSERM U845, Faculté de Médecine, Research Center Growth and Signalling, Université Paris Descartes, Hôpital Necker, Paris, France, 4 Diabetes and Obesity Research Program, Garvan Institute of Medical Research, St. Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney, Australia, 5 Unité de Biologie Fonctionnelle et Adaptative, CNRS-Université Paris Diderot-Paris 7, Paris, France, 6 Institute of Developmental Biology and Cancer Research, University of Nice, CNRS UMR 6543, Centre A. Lacassagne, Nice, France
THE EFFECTS OF MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS ON FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE : CASE STUDY OF UK COMPANIES

The objective of this research is to examine the effect of merger & acquisitions on financial performance on United of Kingdom firms. The research was done on 40 companies listed under London Stock Exchange (LSE) that has undergone consolidation in 2011. Comparisons are made between 5-years premerger & acquisition and 5-years post-merger & acquisition financial ratios. The independent variables of the study is Mergers and acquisition and meanwhile the dependent variables are Return on Assets, Return on Equity, Earning per Share, and Net Profit Margin. The study employed Descriptive statistics and Paired sample (Ttest) and the result illustrated that the variable a positively correlated to mergers and acquisition. While mergers & acquisitions is found to have a significant impact on Return on Assets, Return on Equity and Earning per Share. Other than that the study uses a Convenience sampling as a sampling technique. Furthermore, it is recommended to use other financial ratios that have not been used in the study with a wider time span and greater sample size to portray a clearer picture for the topic. Lastly the research will give the community, shareholders and directors advantage whether to consolidate other firms to gain profit. The outcome shows that the net profit margin not affected by mergers while return on asset return on equity and earning per share affected by mergers and acquisition. Key Terms: Financial Performance, Net Profit Margin, Return on Asset, Return on Equity, Earning per share, United Kingdom
Microsoft Word - 0_16456_22mai_AOP.docx

The commercial opening in Mexico from 1980 extended the domain of forms in modern supply, as well as generated stagnation of modalities of traditional supply; however, the uneven growth of these supply forms has generated territorial inequalities. This article aims to identify patterns of access to the retail sell of food and its association with urban marginalization in Mexico City from a spatial perspective. In the first part, a conceptual revision of the food deserts is presented as an approach through which territorial disparities are recognized with relation to, not only physical access, but also to the economic limitations that make it impossible for people to move to centers of consumption, restricting them to their proximity. In the second part, particularities are scrutinized regarding the urban structure of Mexico City that influence the differentiated distribution of the types of food supply. Subsequently, a methodological strategy is presented for the delimitation of areas with differentiated proximity to points of sale of fresh and processed foods from a mobile focal reference point, applied in territories with different levels of urban marginalization. Finally, the patterns of access to retail food establishments are revealed. These manifests themselves as large areas of the center, north and east of the city, exposed to an unhealthy food environment, while the peripheral areas of the west, south and southeast are under the influence of food deserts.
PARAMETRIC ANALYSES OF FIRE RESISTANCE OF STEEL COLUMNS SUBJECTED TO CAR PARK FIRE SCENARIOS

Performance-based approaches are more and more widely-used for assessment of open car parks behaviour in case of fire. The Annex C of the current EN 1991-1-2 already includes formulae to evaluate the temperatures in the plume along the vertical flame axis of a localised fire when the flame does not impact the ceiling. It also allows evaluating the heat flux at the ceiling level as a function of the horizontal distance from the fire, if the flame impacts the ceiling. More recently, a new calculation method has been developed in order to assess the thermal impact of a localised fire on a vertical element situated outside the fire. This method has been implemented into SAFIR software and allows analyzing the global behaviour of structures subjected to localised fires. This present paper describes a parametric study performed with SAFIR software on the bearing capacity of steel columns under recommended fire scenarios.
Models of Human Decision-Making as Tools for Estimating and Optimizing Impacts of Vehicle Automation

With the development of increasingly automated vehicles (AVs) comes the increasingly difficult challenge of comprehensively validating these for acceptable, and ideally beneficial, impacts on the transport system. There is a growing consensus that virtual testing, where simulated AVs are deployed in simulated traffic, will be key for cost-effective testing and optimization. The least mature model components in such simulations are those generating the behavior of human agents in or around the AVs. In this paper, human models and virtual testing applications are presented for two example scenarios: (i) a human pedestrian deciding whether to cross a street in front of an approaching automated vehicle, with or without external human–machine interface elements, and (ii) an AV handing over control to a human driver in a critical rear-end situation. These scenarios have received much recent research attention, yet simulation-ready human behavior models are lacking. They are discussed here in the context of existing models of perceptual decision-making, situational awareness, and traffic interactions. It is argued that the human behavior in question might be usefully conceptualized as a number of interrelated decision processes, not all of which are necessarily directly associated with externally observable behavior. The results show that models based on this type of framework can reproduce qualitative patterns of behavior reported in the literature for the two addressed scenarios, and it is demonstrated how computer simulations based on the models, once these have been properly validated, could allow prediction and optimization of AV impacts on traffic flow and traffic safety.
Development of microwave energy to the fast extraction of policosanol from beeswax

Policosanol is a mixture of long chain aliphatic primary alcohols (C20 to C36). It has been use in pharmaceutical composition and food supplements. The main objective of this study is developing policosanol extraction from beeswax by microwave energy activation. The beeswax contained 0.2-0.5 % of moisture and melted at 58-62 ̊C. Triglycerides and other impurities were extracted from crude beeswax by refluxing with hexane followed by isopropanol. The purified beeswax was complete rapidity hydrolysis with 0.5 M KOH in 80% ethanol in 60 seconds at 300 watt of microwave instrument in activation. Long chain aliphatic alcohols (policosanol) and free fatty acids of the hydrolyzed product were displayed by TLC. Purification of policosanol was performed by extracting with a mixture of organic solvent and the good policosanol yields microwave were 14.57%. The results of policosanol composition from gas chromatography showed that policosanol consisted of 18-34 carbon atoms of long chain aliphatic primary alcohols. We had successfully used microwave instrument for activating hydrolysis reaction of the wax ester in beeswax to policosanol in short time. Keywords—beeswax; hydrolysis; microwave; policosanol
MiR 199 a is implicated in embryo implantation by regulating Grb 10 in rat

MiR199awas found tobedifferentiallyexpressed in ratuteri between the prereceptiveand receptive phasevia microRNA(miRNA)microarray analysis in our previous study. However, the role ofmiR199a in rat embryo implantation remained unknown. In the study, northern blot results showed that the expression levels ofmiR199a were higher on gestation days 5 and 6 (g.d.5–6) in rat uteri than on g.d. 3–4 and g.d. 7–8. In situ localization ofmiR199a in rat uteri showed thatmiR199awas mainly localized in the stroma or decidua. The expression ofmiR199awas not significantly different in the uteri of pseudopregnant rats and evidently increased in the uteri of rats subjected to activation of delayed implantation and experimentally induced decidualization. Treatment with 17b-estradiol or both 17b-estradiol and progesterone significantly diminished miR199a levels. Gain of function of miR199a in endometrial stromal cells isolated from rat uteri inhibited cell proliferation and promoted cell apoptosis. Loss of function of miR199a displayed opposite roles on cell proliferation and apoptosis. Further investigation uncovered a significant inverse association between the expression of miR199a and growth factor receptor-bound protein 10 (Grb10), an imprinted gene, and miR199a could bind to the 30UTR of Grb10 to inhibit Grb10 translation. In addition, in vivo analysis found that the immunostaining of GRB10 was attenuated in the stroma or decidua from g.d. 4 to 6, contrary to the enhancement of miR199a. Collectively, upregulation of miR199a in rat uterus during the receptive phase is regulated by blastocyst activation and uterine decidualization. Enforced miR199a expression suppresses cell proliferation partially through targeting Grb10. Reproduction (2014) 147 91–99
THE AFFECT TRANSFER EFFECT ON SPOKES-CHARACTERS

For the purpose of understanding how spokes-characters influence the retailers and the brands they are trying to sell this study explores attitude transfer relations among spokes-character attitude, spokes-character retailer attitude, and brand retailer attitude from the affect transfer perspective. In this study, further research is made on the indirect influence of three attitude constructs on spokes-character retailers and brand retailers. Research findings show that spokes-character retailer attitude is the complete intermediate variable of spokes-character attitude and spokes-character retailer intention. On the other hand, brand retailer attitude is the complete intermediate variable of spokes-character attitude and spokes-character retailer intention. The author provides some practical suggestions in view of these.
Germany’s nuclear phase-out: Impacts on electricity prices, CO2 emissions and on Europe

Following the nuclear meltdown in Fukushima Daiichi, the German parliament decided in summer 2011 to phase-out nuclear power by 2022. We investigate which influence this decision has on national and European electricity prices and on CO2 emissions and to which extent this decision is influencing European energy policy. A model-based analysis of electricity prices and CO2 emissions let us conclude that emissions can be kept at levels that are in line with the national reduction targets. Electricity prices for consumers will hardly be affected by the decision on the phase-out, whereas those for industry will increase due to the phase-out. A comparison with results from other studies shows that some model assumptions, e.g. the gas price, have a much larger influence on the electricity price than the nuclear phase-out itself. An empirical analysis reveals that the effect on the electricity prices for other European countries was only short-term but that a long-term influence of the German nuclear phase-out on the prices cannot be determined yet. We argue that for avoiding an excessive increase in costs the transformation of the German energy system requires further European coordination beyond the current level.
Diagnostic Performance of microRNA-122 and microRNA-224 in Hepatitis C Virus-Induced Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC)

Background and objectives: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a potential health problem in Egypt because of the high prevalence of HCV infection. Using alpha-fetoprotein for diagnosis is unsatisfactory especially in early stages. Many studies showed that microRNAs (miRNA) expression may be associated with the development and progression of various types of cancer including HCC and it may serve as biomarkers for diagnosis. This study examined two miRNAs which are miRNA-122 and miRNA-224 if it could serve as biomarkers for diagnosis of HCC. Methods: This study included 20 patients with HCV-induced HCC and 20 patients with HCV-induced liver cirrhosis for comparison. As well as 20 healthy volunteers as controls. All participants were subjected to history taking, clinical examination, and determination of serum alpha-fetoprotein. Quantification of plasma miRNA-122 and miRNA-224 was done by real-time quantitative PCR. Results: Our results showed that levels of miRNA-122 were significantly lower in HCC group compared to the cirrhosis group and controls, while levels of miRNA-224 were significantly higher. The levels of both miRNAs have a correlation with tumor size. Moreover, the diagnostic accuracy of miRNA-122 (sensitivity 95%, specificity 81%, p-value <0.001) and of miRNA-224 (sensitivity 85%, specificity 79%, p-value <0.001) in discriminating patients with HCC from patients with liver cirrhosis were higher than that of alpha-fetoprotein (sensitivity 70%, specificity 70%, p-value <0.05). In addition, combining any one of these miRNAs with alpha-fetoprotein will increase the diagnostic accuracy compared to using each marker alone. Conclusion: miRNA-122 and miRNA-224 could serve as biomarkers for the diagnosis of HCC.
Sexual and reproductive health of adolescents in schools for people with disabilities

Introduction Persons with disabilities have the same sexual and reproductive health (SRH) needs as the abled people but they often face barriers to SRH information and services which are necessary for healthy and safe relationships, protection from HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). This study sought to access the SRH services among adolescents with disabilities in four Special Needs Schools in Ghana. Methods The study adopted a cross-sectional study design with a quantitative approach to data collection between the months of January to March, 2018. A structured and pretested questionnaire was used to collect data from adolescents with disabilities from selected schools in Ghana. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were performed using chi-square test and multivariate logistic regression. Results Majority of participants had hearing disability (52.1%). The average age at menarche among females was 13 years whiles the age at which puberty was attained among boys was 14 years. School teachers were the major source of information on SRH for the respondents (63.7%) followed by parents (12.2%). A majority (67.1%) of respondents had good knowledge of SRH. Factors which were significantly associated with knowledge level were age (p=0.026), religion (p=0.034), sources of information (p<0.001), guardians (p=0.049). Conclusion The majority of participants had good knowledge of SRH, although their knowledge of contraceptive and access were poor. Only condoms were mostly known. There is the need for increased awareness on the availability of other contraceptives methods and the removal of barriers to contraceptive methods.
Author ' s personal copy

Because size reduced, or bottlenecked, populations are more prone to adverse events, the detection of genetic bottleneck signatures in wildlife species is highly relevant for conservation. Here we applied 11 microsatellite markers to the endangered Siberian tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) using tissue and blood samples of animals from the Primorsky region of the Russian Far East. Excess heterozygosity and mode shift in allele frequencies tests were positive, while the M-ratio test was negative, indicating the likelihood of a contemporary rather than a historical population bottleneck. The recent genetic population bottleneck could be attributed to the well-documented demographic collapse of the Siberian tiger population in the 1940s, when population size hit bottom with 20–30 surviving animals. The mean effective population size Ne was 14 Siberian tigers (CI95: 12–25 animals), and the effective population size/census size ratio (Ne/N ratio) was 0.028. This is the first molecular evidence of a recent Siberian tiger population bottleneck, which is of great interest for further conservation and management plans of the highly endangered largest felid species, while the worryingly low effective population size challenges the optimism for the recovery of the huge Siberian cat. © 2011 Deutsche Gesellschaft für Säugetierkunde. Published by Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.
Enhancing Patient/Surgeon Relations: Examining the Delivery and Reception of Diagnosis

Health communication is a fairly recent and currently growing area of the medical field. The diagnostic phase of many medical encounters can be the making, or breaking point of future relationships for the physician and patient (Blum, 1972). Many studies have examined how the physician's communication affects the relationship. However, few studies have investigated diagnosis in clinical setting with the exceptions of Heath (1987), Maynard (1991), and Nikolaisen (1998). Moreover, none have been found on the delivery and reception of diagnosis in the surgical setting. Research reveals that the diagnostic phase in physician/patient relationships is a crucial one in establishing adherence, compliance, and foundations for future relationships (Blum, 1972). As the diagnostic phase is present in every surgical encounter, it is important to further examine its content. Specifically, this study investigates delivery and reception in eleven surgery cases. In surgery, there is more to the diagnosis and reception than there would be in an encounter with a clinician, family practitioner, or general practitioner. In the case of surgery, there is a pre-diagnosis and reception, and a post-diagnosis and reception. Thus, the diagnostic phase of medical encounters is more complex in surgical cases. In general, the findings of this study indicate that the time span of the diagnostic delivery in surgery is longer than in general practice settings. The two-step phase of diagnostic delivery and reception in surgery is also a new finding indicated in this study. As for reception, I found, unlike others, mixed reception to be a category beyond good news and bad news reception. Overall, there were more similarities than differences between diagnostic delivery and reception in surgery to those findings of diagnostic delivery and reception in clinical settings.
Evidence for Area as the Primary Visual Cue in Pie Charts

The long-standing assumption of angle as the primary visual cue used to read pie charts has recently been called into question. We conducted a controlled, preregistered study using parallel-projected 3D pie charts. Angle, area, and arc length differ dramatically when projected and change over a large range of values. Modeling these changes and comparing them to study participants’ estimates allows us to rank the different visual cues by model fit. Area emerges as the most likely cue used to read pie charts.