Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Birth Characteristics and Risk of Prostate Cancer: the Contribution of Genetic Factors

Background: Prostate cancer has a strong hereditary component, but it has been proposed that hormonal influences in utero may contribute to offspring risk. We investigated the associations between birth characteristics and the risk of prostate cancer in twins, and whether possible associations could be confounded by familial factors, such as shared environment and common genes. Methods: All like-sexed male twins in the Swedish Twin Registry, born from 1926 to 1958 and alive in 1973, were eligible. Data were obtained from birth records, and 11,420 male twins with reliable birth weight data were included in the final study population. Hazard ratios with 95% confidence intervals (CI) from Cox regression models were used to estimate associations between birth characteristics and risk of prostate cancer. Paired analysis was done to account for potential confounding by familial factors. Results: Compared with twins with a birth weight of 2,500 to 2,999 g, the hazard ratio (95% CI) for twins with a higher birth weight (≥3,000 g) corresponded to 1.22 (0.94-1.57). In analyses within twin pairs, in which both twins had a birth weight of ≥2,500 g, a 500 g increase in birth weight was associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer within dizygotic twin pairs (odds ratio, 1.41; 95% CI, 1.02-1.57), but not within monozygotic twin pairs (odds ratio, 1.06; 95% CI, 0.61-1.84). Conclusions: High birth weight is associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer. The difference in risk within dizygotic and monozygotic twin pairs may be due to genetic factors playing an important role in this association. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2009;18(9):2422–6)
Vitamin E status of infants at birth

Abstract Preterm infants may be susceptible to chronic lung disease and retinopathy of prematurity because of deficient antioxidant mechanisms including deficiency of vitamin E. The aim of this study was to evaluate the status of the antioxidant vitamin E among preterm and term livebirths. Umbilical cord blood samples collected from 40 preterm and 180 term babies were analyzed for vitamin E levels using high performance liquid chromatography. Linear regression analysis was used to examine the relationship of vitamin E with gestational age, birth weight and appropriateness of weight for gestational age. The median vitamin E level of preterm babies (2.61 mg/L) was not significantly different from that of term babies (2.77 mg/L), p 5 0.2. Linear regression analysis demonstrated a weak but statistically significant correlation between cord blood vitamin E levels and gestational age (r = 0.14, p = 0.046). Vitamin E levels did not correlate with birth weight or weight for gestational age. Preterm babies had a higher incidence of vitamin E deficiency compared to term babies (38% v 19%, p = 0.02). Our findings lead us to conclude that vitamin E accumulates in the fetus throughout the third trimester so that preterm infants are likely to have vitamin E deficiency.
Entrepreneurial orientation, strategic planning and firm performance: the impact of national cultures

How can firms achieve high performance in different cultural settings? We use a contingency perspective to explore how configurations of entrepreneurial orientation and strategic planning lead to high firm performance and contrast these results between cultural contexts. Fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis is used as a statistical technique that can detect combinations of independent variables that lead to similar outcomes. The results derived from a data set of 2506 firms from seven countries show that a combination of innovativeness and strategic planning activities leads to high performance regardless of cultural context. A strong orientation towards specialised and innovative offerings therefore needs to be combined with strategic planning activities. The impact of proactiveness varies across cultural contexts and leads to high performance when combined with strategic planning in high uncertainty avoidance and long-term oriented cultural contexts that favour the development of bureaucratic structures.
Laboratory Monitoring: A Turning Point in the Use of New Oral Anticoagulants

Abstract: Large clinical trials have demonstrated that new oral anticoagulants (NOACs) are at least as efficient as vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) in preventing thromboembolic events, while providing a better safety profile. The relatively stable pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, the reduced reports on food and drug interactions, and the wide therapeutic windows of NOACs appear to provide a more predictable anticoagulant effect than that observed with VKAs, enabling the use of fixed doses without the need for monitoring. However, the safe implementation of NOACs may require additional judgment, and one should not have the erroneous impression that NOACs are free from interactions or that inter- and intra-individual variability is absent with NOACs. In fact, a consensus seems to have been reached concerning the usefulness of “circumstantial” testing in certain clinical scenarios. Recent data also suggest that factors such as intercurrent diseases, drug interactions, and inexplicable variability may occasionally alter the anticoagulant effect of NOACs. Furthermore, the issue of nonadherence, already high in VKA-treated patients, may represent an even greater clinical concern with NOACs, given their short half-lives. This review aims to underline the main arguments that support the need for NOAC monitoring, at least in selected categories of patients. Additionally, an overview of classic coagulation assays and novel laboratory techniques that may provide a tool for NOAC monitoring is also provided.
Bidirectional Insulin Granule Turnover in the Submembrane Space During K+ Depolarization‐Induced Secretion

Like primary mouse islets, MIN6 pseudoislets responded to the depolarization by 40 mm KCl and the resulting increase in the free cytosolic Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) with a massive increase in insulin secretion, whereas 15 mm KCl had little effect in spite of a clear increase in [Ca2+]i. Analysis of insulin‐enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP)‐labeled granules in MIN6 cells by total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy showed that 40 mm KCl increased the number of short‐term resident granules (<1 second presence in the submembrane space), while the total granule number and the number of long‐term resident granules decreased. The rates of granule arrival at and departure from the submembrane space changed in parallel and were two orders of magnitude higher than the release rates, suggesting a back‐and‐forth movement of the granules as the primary determinant of the submembrane granule number. The effect of 15 mm KCl resembled that of 40 mm but did not achieve significance. Both 15 and 40 mm KCl evoked a [Ca2+]i increase, which was antagonized by 10 µm nifedipine. Nifedipine also antagonized the effect on secretion and on granule number and mobility. In conclusion, during KCl depolarization L‐type Ca2+ channels seem to regulate two processes, insulin granule turnover in the submembrane space and granule exocytosis.
Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Indicators of Physical Health Status: Do They Still Exist Throughout Late Life?

Physical health problems become more common as people age and are associated with a great deal of disability. Although racial and ethnic disparities have been reported in physical health, little is known about whether these disparities remain in the latest part of older adulthood. Accordingly, the current study sought to examine racial and ethnic differences in the physical health status of three age groups of older adults, using the 2005 and 2007 California Health Interview Survey. The sample for the current study included 40,631 individuals aged 55 and older: 33,488 non‐Hispanic whites, 1,858 blacks, 2,872 Asians and Pacific Islanders, and 2,412 Latinos. Respondents were compared with regard to three indicators of physical health: four chronic health conditions, difficulties with activities of daily living, and self‐rated health. Analyses were conducted with and without adjustment for sex, marital status, education, English‐language proficiency, nativity, and insurance status. Results revealed that, in general, racial and ethnic disparities existed for physical health in late adulthood, with differences less pronounced for Asians and Pacific Islanders and Latinos aged 75 and older after multivariable adjustment. Disparities between blacks and non‐Hispanic whites and disparities across all racial and ethnic minorities in self‐rated health still existed. These findings suggest that, to reduce racial and ethnic disparities, clinicians need to address specific sociodemographic and lifestyle factors related to racial and ethnic differences in health before these conditions are manifested in late adulthood.
Equilibrium Flows: Bipartite Contracts in Decentralized Markets

This article introduces a model of decentralized markets with frictions. In our framework, utility is imperfectly transferable between agents that can only trade through bipartite contracting. Economic outcomes are defined as pairs of a flow vector and a price vector.We prove the existence of a competitive equilibrium outcome and discuss its efficiency. We interpret this equilibrium in the case of indivisible commodities. Under additional assumptions and in a partial equilibrium setting, we link this result with linear programming theories of network optimization and optimal assignment. We present two methods for the computation of such an equilibrium generalizing the simplex algorithm and ∈-relaxation algorithm to extend those computation techniques to the imperfectly transferable utility settings.As an illustration, we build a model for the overnight interbank loan market with counterparty risk, collateralization costs and risk aversion.
Image Matters: Incentivizing Green Tourism Behavior

Understanding the factors that motivate tourists to engage in pro-environmental behavior is an increasingly important topic in the tourism industry. In order to incentivize such green behavior, lodging properties often offer incentives to tourists who are willing to participate in property-level sustainability programs. Unfortunately, incentivizing participation in such initiatives is a difficult task, as tourists’ willingness to engage in pro-environmental behavior often depends on a number of situation-specific factors. Accordingly, the purpose of this research is to advance the understanding of the motivating factors that underlie tourist reactions to sustainability programs. Based on the tenets of motivation crowding theory, this research demonstrates that such reactions depend not only on the nature of the incentive that is offered but also on the image of the destination in which the property is located.
G-quadruplex ligand SYUIQ-5 induces autophagy by telomere damage and TRF2 delocalization in cancer cells

Agents stabilizing G-quadruplexes have the potential to destroy the functional structure of telomere and could therefore act as antitumor agents. We previously reported that SYUIQ-5 could stabilize G-quadruplex, induce senescence, and inhibit c-myc gene promoter activity. In this study, we showed that SYUIQ-5 inhibited proliferation of CNE2 and HeLa cancer cells, triggered a rapid and potent telomere DNA damage response characterized by the formation of telomeric foci γ-H2AX, and obviously induced autophagy with the features of increased LC3-II and a punctuated pattern of YFP-LC3 fluorescence. These phenomena may primarily depend on the delocalization of TRF2 from telomere, which was further degraded by proteasomes. Furthermore, overexpression of TRF2 inhibited SYUIQ-5–induced γ-H2AX expression. Also, ATM was activated following SYUIQ-5 treatment. The pretreatment with ATM inhibitor ku55933 and ATM siRNA effectively reduced the production of γ-H2AX and LC3-II. ATM knockdown partially antagonized the anticancer effects of SYUIQ-5. Moreover, inhibition of autophagy by short hairpin RNA against the autophagy-related gene ATG5 attenuated the cytotoxicity of SYUIQ-5. These results indicated that SYUIQ-5 triggered potent telomere damage through TRF2 delocalization from telomeres, and eventually induced autophagic cell death in cancer cells. Our findings exhibit a novel mechanism that is responsible for the antitumor effects of SYUIQ-5. [Mol Cancer Ther 2009;8(12):3203–13]
Innovation objectives as determinants of organizational innovations

Abstract This study analyzes the adoption of organizational innovations focusing on their drivers or objectives pursued. Complementarities of objectives and organizational innovations are considered together with a sectoral approach to evaluate differences between manufacturing and service industries. Based on the Community Innovation Survey (CIS), a canonical analysis is performed to allow the study of interrelationships among sets of multiple dependent variables (organizational innovations) and multiple predictor variables (objectives). Improving innovations skills is the most relevant objective in adopting any organizational innovation. Two objectives are closely related to innovations in workplace organization, namely reducing response time and cost (efficiency drivers). New business processes and external relations are more affected by desires to improve innovation skills and quality (intangible drivers). The results reveal similar behavior in manufacturing and service industries supporting the synthesis approach. Logit regressions confirm these findings.
Cardiac Troponin Assays: Guide to Understanding Analytical Characteristics and Their Impact on Clinical Care.

BACKGROUND Cardiac troponin I (cTnI) and cardiac troponin T (cTnT) determinations are fixtures in clinical practice and research. Cardiac troponin testing has been the standard of practice for the diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction (AMI), early rule-out, risk stratification, and outcomes assessment in patients presenting with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and non-ACS myocardial injury. We recognize from reading the literature over the past several years how poorly understood the analytical characteristics are for cTnI and cTnT assays by laboratorians, clinicians, and scientists who use these assays. CONTENT The purposes of this mini-review are (a) to define limit of blank, limit of detection, limit of quantification, and imprecision, (b) overview the analytical characteristics of the existing cardiac troponin assays, (c) recommend approaches to define a healthy (normal) reference population for determining the 99th percentile and the appropriate statistic to use for this calculation, (d) clarify how an assay becomes designated as "high sensitivity," and (e) provide guidance on determining delta (Δ) change values. SUMMARY This review raises important educational information regarding cTnI and cTnT assays, their 99th percentile upper reference limits (URL) differentiated by sex, and specifically addresses high-sensitivity (hs)-assays used to measure low concentrations. Recommendations are made to help clarify the nomenclature and analytical and clinical characteristics to define hs-assays. The review also identifies challenges for the evolving implementation of hs-assays into clinical practice. It is hoped that with the introduction of these concepts, laboratorians, clinicians and researchers can develop a more unified view of how these assays should be used worldwide.
A Simulation Framework for Multiple-Antenna Terminals in 5G Massive MIMO Systems

The recent interest in massive multiple in multiple out (MIMO) has spurred intensive work on massive MIMO channel modeling in the contemporary literature. However, current models fail to take the characteristics of terminal antennas into account. There is no massive MIMO channel model available that can be used for the evaluation of the influence of different antenna characteristics at the terminal side. In this paper, we provide a simulation framework that fills this gap. We evaluate the framework with antennas integrated into Sony Xperia handsets operating at 3.7 GHz as this spectrum is identified for the 5G new radio standard by 3rd Generation Partnership Project. The simulation results are compared with the measured terminal performance when communicating with the Lund University’s massive MIMO testbed under the same loading conditions. Expressions are derived for comparison of the gain obtained from different diversity schemes computed from measured far-field antenna patterns. We conclude that the simulation framework yields the results close to the measured ones and that the framework can be used for antenna evaluation for terminals in a practical precoded massive MIMO system.
The transmission of attitudes towards food: twofold specificity of similarities with parents and friends.

OBJECTIVES The present study explored whether similarity of students' food attitudes with those of their parents and friends varies as a function of both the food and type of measurement. We expected greater resemblance with parents for attitudes towards fruit and for implicit attitudes and greater resemblance with friends for attitudes towards snacks and for explicit attitudes. DESIGN We compared the resemblance in implicit and explicit attitudes towards fruit and preference for sweet over savoury snacks between target-parent and target-friend pairings. The parental-peer mutual influence effect was separated from cultural effect by comparing real and random dyads. METHODS Target participants were 85 students who recruited one parent and one best friend each. All participants completed online two Implicit Association Tests and rated their liking for fruit and sweet/savoury snacks. RESULTS Our target participants' attitudes towards fruit were predicted by those of their parents rather than friends, with this relationship being detected through implicit but not explicit measures. Conversely, target participants' preference for sweet over savoury snacks was predicted with those of their friends but not parents, with this relationship being detected through explicit but not implicit measures. CONCLUSIONS Young adults' resemblance to parents and friends, in terms of food attitudes, seems specific both to the food type and to the attitude measure, suggesting that parents' influence concerns healthy food and is exerted at an implicit attitude level; whereas friends' influence concerns junk food and is exerted at an explicit attitude level. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Effects of fasting on corticosterone production by zona fasciculata-reticularis cells in ovariectomized rats.

BACKGROUND To investigate the function and mechanism of fasting on the production of corticosterone in vitro by zona fasciculata-reticularis (ZFR) cells from ovariectomized (OVX) rats. METHODS Female rats were OVX for 4 days before decapitation. Rats were fed or fasted for 1 day before experiment. ZFR cells from fed and fasted rats were incubated with adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), forskolin, 8-bromo-3',5'-cyclic adenosine monophosphate, SQ22536, nifedipine, chelerythrine chloride, trilostane or steroidogenic precursors at 37 degrees C for either 60 or 30 minutes. Corticosterone, pregnenolone concentrations in spent media, and the intracellular adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (cAMP) concentration were determined by radioimmunoassay. The effects of fasting in response to ACTH on the protein expressions of steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR) or cytochrome P450 side-chain cleavage enzyme (P450scc) in ZFR cells were determined by Western blot analysis. RESULTS The concentration of plasma corticosterone in fasted rats was significantly higher than that in fed rats (P<0.01). One-day fasting significantly increased the responsiveness of ZFR cells to ACTH, forskolin, and precursor-stimulated corticosterone productions and to forskolin-stimulated cAMP accumulation. The corticosterone production was reduced in fasted group when adenylyl cyclase was inhibited by SQ22536. The fasting-enhanced level of corticosterone production in ZFR cells was decreased by the administration of nifedipine but not altered by that of chelerythrine chloride. Fasting significantly increased trilostane-stimulated production of pregnenolone in ZFR cells. The activities of enzymes which converting cholesterol, pregnenolone, progesterone, and deoxycorticosterone to corticosterone and the expressions of StAR in ZFR cells were greater in fasted rats than in fed rats. CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrated that fasting increased the release of corticosterone and the accumulation of cAMP by rat ZFR cells. The action mediated through enhancing the responsiveness to ACTH stimulation, cAMP cascades and the activity of L-type calcium channels. The activities of steroidogenic enzymes including P450scc, 3beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase, 21-hydroxylase, and 11beta-hydroxylase were all enhanced by the fasting treatment.
CENTRAL NEUROCHEMICAL EFFECTS OF DIHYDROPYRIDINE CALCIUM ANTAGONISTS

Summary— Recent advances in central dihydropyridine (DHP)‐binding sites are reviewed. DHP‐binding sites are pre‐synaptically and post‐synaptically localized in the brain. The functional role of post‐synaptic sites is still unknown, whereas pre‐synaptic sites seem to contribute to the control of calcium uptake and of neurotransmitter release. DHP‐binding sites may be modulated in physiological (age, sex) and pathological events (hypertension, ischaemia, neurological diseases) or after drug treatments (alcohol, morphine, etc.). The reviewed data suggest new therapeutic implications of DHP calcium channel antagonists in the treatment of other diseases and of drug withdrawal syndrome.
BCSG1 Methylation Status and BCSG1 Expression in Breast Tissues Derived from Chinese Women with Breast Cancer

Objective: To investigate the role of DNA methylation in the regulation of BCSG1 gene expression in breast tissues derived from Chinese women with breast cancer. Methods: The methylation status of exon 1 of the BCSG1 gene in breast cancer, and matched non-neoplastic adjacent and benign lesion tissues was extensively examined using methylation-specific PCR analysis. Corresponding mRNA expression levels were determined by real-time PCR. Results: We found: (1) the BCSG1 gene was universally demethylated in all breast tissues regardless of the tissue state, although 50–60% of the samples displayed methylated products as well; (2) DNA methylation correlated to the expression of the BCSG1 gene in tumor tissues, but not in non-neoplastic adjacent and benign tissues; (3) breast tumor tissues expressed lower BCSG1 than non-neoplastic adjacent tissues. Conclusions: Our data revealed a unique expression pattern and methylation status of the BCSG1 gene in breast tissues derived from Chinese patients and suggested both methylation status and mechanisms underlying BCSG1 regulation might be closely related to the racial background.