Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
p53 genetic abnormalities and myc activation in human lung carcinoma

p53 mutations and myc gene amplification and expression were studied in 119 lung carcinomas of all histological types. A mutant p53 immunophenotype was previously found in 47% of these tumors by immunohistochemical analysis. Seven cases exhibited p53 genomic rearrangements on Southern blots. Elevated levels of p53 transcript were found in 12 carcinomas (10%) and decreased levels in 27 carcinomas (23%) on Northern blots. In most of the cases, low levels of transcript were associated with negative immunostaining, whereas elevated levels of mRNA were related to positive immunostaining (mutant immunophenotype). p53 RT/PCR analysis in 10 tumors with absence of transcript on Northern blots revealed only weak or absent expression of normal and/or altered size transcripts. These abnormal transcripts showed deletions, insertions or splicing abnormalities. Taken together, p53 abnormalities were found in 66% of lung carcinomas [52% of neuroendo‐crine (NE) carcinomas and 75% of NSCLC]. c‐myc was found to be activated in 24% (10/42) of these NE and in 48% (33/69) of these NSCLC carcinomas using Southern‐ and Northern‐blot techniques. In addition, L‐ and N‐myc genes were also activated in 26% (10/42) of NE carcinomas. No correlation was found between p53 mutations and myc activation in SCLC or in NSCLC, but their association was significantly more frequent in NSCLC than in SCLC. These results indicate that the p53‐positive immunophenotype uncovers the occurrence of p53 point mutations in lung cancer and that p53 and c‐myc gene alterations are important but represent independent occurrences in the development of lung tumors.
Epidemiology of Recurrent Spontaneous Abortion

ABSTRACT: With recent scientific advances leading to better understanding of the immunobiology of recurrent spontaneous abortion (RSA), interest has now focused upon the epidemiology of RSA. A cohort of 214 couples with a history of two or more consecutive abortions were studied for the prevalence of etiologic factors and association with other reproductive failures. The prevalence of causes of RSA in this cohort was compared with etiologic factors among 179 couples with a history of three or more consecutive abortions. The obstetrical histories of 214 women with RSA were analyzed for the total number of pregnancies, live births, stillbirths, spontaneous abortions, ectopic pregnancies, and hydatidiform moles. These numbers were compared with the expected frequency of each in the general population. The prevalence of etiologies among 214 with RSA were as follows: chromosomal—6%, anatomic—1%, hormonal—5%, immunologic—65%, and unexplained—23%. No differences in the prevalence of etiologic factors exist when couples with a history of two or more abortions are compared with three or more abortions. When the number of ectopic pregnancies, molar pregnancies, and stillbirths among 214 women with RSA were compared with the expected numbers, the odds ratios were 2.2 for ectopic pregnancies, 6.0 for molar pregnancies, and 2.3 for stillbirths. These data indicate that no difference in the prevalence of etiologies of RSA exist when couples with two or more abortions are compared with three or more and a comorbidity between RSA and other types of reproductive failure exists.
Is credit associated with a higher quality of life? A capability approach

There has been an increasing amount of research going beyond income-based approaches to social and economic development. Drawing closely on Sen’s capability approach to welfare economics, this article investigates whether the access to, and use of, informal and formal credit is associated with a higher quality of life among the poor in Hong Kong. Specifically, a new survey is constructed, reflecting key theoretical concepts from Sen and Nussbaum’s framework, and regression models are used to estimate relationships between life quality and financial services. Key empirical findings of the article include the existence of the unhappy borrower, the lower level of capability that borrowers have at home relative to those that do not borrow money and how credit is used has an effect on objective well-being.
Ultra-high-frequency lead–lag relationship and information arrival

To our knowledge, this paper is the first study on the effect of information arrival on the lead–lag relationship amongst related spot instruments. Based on a large data-set of ultra-high-frequency transaction prices time-stamped to the millisecond of the S&P500 index and its two most liquid tracking ETFs, we find that their lead–lag relationship is affected by the rate of information arrival whose proxy is the unexpected trading volume of these instruments. Specifically, when information arrives, the leadership of the leading instrument may strengthen or weaken depending on whether the leading or lagging instrument responds to that information. An increase in the unexpected volume of the leader strengthens its leadership whereas an increase in the unexpected volume of the lagger weakens this leadership. In addition to the strength of leadership, an increase in the unexpected volume in response to information arrival may also have opposite effects on the lead–lag correlation coefficient depending on whether that volume increase belongs to the leader or the lagger. Finally, we find that sophisticated investors have a more significant effect on the lead–lag relationship than non-sophisticated ones.
Regulation of cardiac transient outward potassium current by norepinephrine in normal and diabetic rats

α‐Adrenergic stimulation regulates cardiac contractility by reducing repolarising K+ currents. Despite this, no published work exists on the effects of norepinephrine on isolated cardiac transient outward current, responsible for action potential duration in the rat and human. Besides, diabetes alters cardiac inotropic responses to sympathetic innervation, and this can result from altered responsiveness of the transient outward current to norepinephrine.
Breakdown Characteristics and Mechanisms of Liquid Nitrogen Under Transient Thermal Stress for Superconducting Fault Current Limiters

We have been investigating the electrical breakdown (BD) characteristics of liquid nitrogen (LN2) with a transient thermal stresses to simulate the quench conditions of resistive-type superconducting fault current limiters (SFCL). We call such BD of LN2 with the transient thermal stress as “dynamic BD,” and discriminate it from that with a continuous thermal stress. In this paper, we investigated the dynamic BD characteristics of LN2 for different LN2 pressures, electrode sizes, and terms of transient thermal stress input. In addition, we obtained the BD characteristics of LN2 with the continuous thermal stress, and compared them with the dynamic BD characteristics. Furthermore, we analyzed the statistical scattering of the time from the thermal stress input to the dynamic BD occurrence and discussed the dynamic BD mechanisms of LN 2. We also proposed a flowchart of rational and reliable electrical insulation design of resistive-type SFCL based on the dynamic BD characteristics of LN2.
A 100W SiC MESFET amplifier for L-band T/R module of APAR

In the paper, a 100W SiC MESFET amplifier design for especially L-band T/R module of APAR is presented. The output power higher than 100W has been achieved by combining in a balanced configuration two single stages with Cree's 60W CRF24060 SiC MESFETs. The amplifier design methodology is based on the small-signal model and DC characteristics of SiC MESFET. The model is extracted using the transistor S-parameters at three operating points for On-state, Off-state and normally bias. The measurements and simulations prove usefulness of the proposed method. The amplifier were excited both pulsed and cw signals for the case temperature from 60oC to 140oC. The As result of the case temperature changes the output power drop was lower than 0, 5dB on the level of 150W.
Sender-Jump Receiver-Wait: A Simple Blind Rendezvous Algorithm for Distributed Cognitive Radio Networks

Cognitive radio (CR) has emerged as an advanced and promising technology to exploit the wireless spectrum opportunistically. In cognitive radio networks (CRNs), any pairwise communicating nodes are required to rendezvous on a commonly available channel prior to exchange information. In the earlier research, the most popular method is selecting a Common Control Channel (CCC) in CRNs to establish the rendezvous. However, employing a CCC has many problems such as the control channel saturation, vulnerability to jamming attacks, and inapplicability to dynamic network scenarios. Therefore, the blind rendezvous, which requires neither CCC nor the information of the target user's available channels, has recently attracted a lot of research interests. As a contribution to this research area, in this paper we propose a Sender-Jump Receiver-Wait (SJ-RW) blind rendezvous algorithm, which has fully satisfied the following requirements: 1) guaranteeing rendezvous; 2) realizing full rendezvous diversity, i.e., any pair of users can rendezvous on all commonly available channels; 3) requiring no time-synchronization; 4) supporting both symmetric and asymmetric models; 5) supporting multi-user/multi-hop scenarios and 6) consuming short Time-to-Rendezvous (TTR). Theoretical analysis, computer simulations and experiment with testbed have validated the proposed SJ-RW algorithm.
In vitro antioxidant and hypoglycemic activities of Ethiopian spice blend Berbere

The metal chelating activity, antioxidant properties, and the effect on carbohydrate-hydrolyzing enzymes of Ethiopian spice blend Berbere have been investigated. Berbere contains a total amount of phenols corresponding to 71.3 mg chlorogenic acid equivalent per gram of extract and a total flavonoid content of 32.5 mg quercetin equivalent per gram of extract. An increase of the resistance towards forced oxidation was obtained when Berbere was added to sunflower oil. In order to evaluate the bioactivity of the non-polar constituents, an n-hexane extract was obtained from Berbere. The gas chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis revealed the presence of 19 fatty acids constituents (98.1% of the total oil content). Among them, linoleic acid was the major component (72.0% of the total lipids). The ethanolic extract had the highest ferric-reducing ability power (35.4 μM Fe(II)/g) and DPPH scavenging activity with a concentration giving 50% inhibition (IC50) value of 34.8 μg/ml. Moreover, this extract exhibited good hypoglycemic activity against α-amylase (IC50 = 78.3 μg/ml). In conclusion, Ethiopian spice blend Berbere showed promising antioxidant and hypoglycemic activity via the inhibition of carbohydrate digestive enzymes. These activities may be of interest from functional point of view and for the revalorization of the spice blend in gastronomy also outside the African country.
Impact of FLT3 mutations and promyelocytic leukaemia‐breakpoint on clinical characteristics and prognosis in acute promyelocytic leukaemia

In the present study 170 newly diagnosed acute promyelocytic leukaemia patients (M3: n = 121; M3v: n = 49) were molecularly characterised with respect to PML breakpoint and additional molecular mutations. In total, 83 patients were positive for bcr1 (49%), five for bcr2 (3%) and 82 for bcr3 (48%). Bcr3 was more frequent in M3v (65·3%) compared with M3 (41·3%) (P = 0·005). Cases with bcr3 showed a significantly higher white blood cell count (median: 3·65 × 109/l vs. 1·59 × 109/l, P = 0·003), as well as a higher PML‐RARAABL expression ratio (14·8% vs. 72·7%, P < 0·005) compared with bcr1. FLT3‐length‐mutations were detected more frequently together with bcr3 compared with bcr1 (56·5% vs. 19·4%, P < 0·001) and in M3v compared with M3 (64·5% vs. 24·1%, P < 0·005). FLT3 tyrosine kinase mutations were found in eight cases (6·4%) and were distributed equally within the total group. Analysis for further mutations revealed no MLL‐PTD and KIT mutations and only two cases of 99 analysed (2%) with NRAS mutations. FLT3‐mutations were detected in 62 of 139 cases (44·6%) and associated with a significant lower overall survival (P = 0·0339). In addition, cases with bcr3 showed a tendency for a worse event‐free survival (P = 0·0795) compared with the bcr1 group.
Shareholder voting in mergers and acquisitions: evidence from the UK

ABSTRACT This paper examines the determinants and consequences of shareholder voting on mergers and acquisitions using a sample of resolutions approved by shareholders of UK publicly listed firms from 1997 to 2015. We find that dissent on M&A resolutions is negatively related to bidder announcement returns and positively related to shareholders’ general dissatisfaction towards the management. Shareholder dissent is an important predictor of the announcement returns of subsequent M&A deals. We also report an increase in shareholder dissent after the 2007–2008 financial crisis.
Mandating Women on Boards: Evidence from the United States

On September 30, 2018, California became the first U.S. state to set quotas for women directors on corporate boards. The law resulted in a decline in shareholder value for firms headquartered in California. This decline increases with the number of female directors required to be added under these quotas. We find evidence that supply-side constraints drive the announcement effects. The law expanded the supply of women in the director pool. Female directors appointed to meet the quotas are as skilled as male directors, but possess a less similar set of skills and are given fewer responsibilities on the board.
Atopic Dermatitis, Patch Testing, and House Dust Mites: A Brief Review

&NA; The association between house dust mites (HDMs) and atopic dermatitis (AD) has long been a contested issue in both dermatology and allergy/immunology. As AD continues to burden millions of individuals and even whole societies, the commercial availability of a HDM allergen mix for epicutaneous testing has revived efforts to identify a definitive link between HDMs and AD. Conclusive evidence of a role for HDMs in the pathogenesis of AD would justify patch testing with mite allergens and would further the use of allergen‐specific immunotherapy in the management of such patients; an absence of involvement would refocus our investigative efforts on other conspirators. We present a thorough review of the dissenting scientific evidence and expert opinions on this controversial topic. The association of HDMs with AD has remained elusive, and additional investigation is necessary to resolve this vexing riddle.
Proteome analysis of tunicamycin‐induced ER stress

Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress occurs upon increased levels of unfolded proteins and results in activation of cellular responses such as the unfolded protein response (UPR) and ER‐associated protein degradation (ERAD). To examine ER stress, we performed a quantitative proteome analysis of human neuroblastoma cells using stable isotope labeling with amino acids in cell culture (SILAC) in combination with SDS‐PAGE and LC‐MS/MS. Proteins associated with the ER were overrepresented in the dataset of altered proteins. In particular, ER chaperones responsible for protein folding were significantly upregulated in response to ER stress. The important ER stress regulator 78 kDa glucose‐regulated protein (GRP‐78 or BiP) was highly upregulated together with several proteins that have been found to form a multiprotein complex with BiP including cyclophilin B, DnaJ homolog subfamily B member 11, endoplasmin, hypoxia upregulated protein 1, protein disulfide isomerase and protein disulfide isomerase A4 upon tunicamycin‐induced ER stress. Furthermore, seven aminoacyl‐tRNA synthetases and five proteins belonging to the Sec61 complex were increased in response to tunicamycin‐induced ER stress.
Magnetospirillum caucaseum sp. nov., Magnetospirillum marisnigri sp. nov. and Magnetospirillum moscoviense sp. nov., freshwater magnetotactic bacteria isolated from three distinct geographical locations in European Russia.

Three strains of helical, magnetotactic bacteria, SO-1T, SP-1T and BB-1T, were isolated from freshwater sediments collected from three distinct locations in European Russia. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the strains belong to the genus Magnetospirillum. Strains SO-1T and SP-1T showed the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to Magnetospirillum magnetotacticum MS-1T (99.3 and 98.1 %, respectively), and strain BB-1T with Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense MSR-1T (97.3 %). The tree based on concatenated deduced amino acid sequences of the MamA, B, K, M, O, P, Q and T proteins, which are involved in magnetosome formation, was congruent with the tree based on 16S rRNA gene sequences. The genomic DNA G+C contents of strains SO-1T, SP-1T and BB-1T were 65.9, 63.0 and 65.2 mol%, respectively. As major fatty acids, C18 : 1ω9, C16 : 1ω7c, C16 : 0 and C18 : 0 were detected. DNA-DNA hybridization values between the novel strains and their closest relatives in the genus Magnetospirillum were less than 51.7 ± 2.3 %. In contrast to M. magnetotacticum MS-1T, the strains could utilize butyrate and propionate; strains SO-1T and BB-1T could also utilize glycerol. Strain SP-1T showed strictly microaerophilic growth, whereas strains SO-1T and BB-1T were more tolerant of oxygen. The results of DNA-DNA hybridization and physiological tests allowed genotypic and phenotypic differentiation of the strains from each other as well as from the two species of Magnetospirillum with validly published names. Therefore, the strains represent novel species, for which we propose the names Magnetospirillum caucaseum sp. nov. (type strain SO-1T = DSM 28995T = VKM B-2936T), Magnetospirillum marisnigri sp. nov. (type strain SP-1T = DSM 29006T = VKM B-2938T) and Magnetospirillum moscoviense sp. nov. (type strain BB-1T = DSM 29455T = VKM B-2939T).
Regulating work in the gig economy: What are the options?

Paid work associated with digital platform businesses (in taxi, delivery, maintenance and other functions) embodies features which complicate the application of traditional labour regulations and employment standards. This article reviews the extent of this type of work in Australia, and its main characteristics. It then considers the applicability of existing employment regulations to these ‘gig’ jobs, citing both Australian and international legislation and case law. There is considerable uncertainty regarding the scope of traditional regulations, minimum standards and remedies in the realm of irregular digitally mediated work. Regulators and policymakers should consider how to strengthen and expand the regulatory framework governing gig work. The article notes five major options in this regard: enforcement of existing laws; clarifying or expanding definitions of ‘employment’; creating a new category of ‘independent worker’; creating rights for ‘workers’, not employees; and reconsidering the concept of an ‘employer’. We review the pros and cons of these approaches and urge regulators to be creative and ambitious in better protecting the minimum standards and conditions of workers in these situations.
Access to outreach specialist palliative care teams among cancer patients in Denmark.

BACKGROUND Equal access to end-of-life care is important. However, social inequality has been found in relation to place-of-death. The question is whether social and economic factors play a role in access to specialist palliative care services. OBJECTIVE The study analyzed the association between access to outreach specialist palliative care teams (SPCTs) and socioeconomic characteristics of Danish cancer patients who died of their cancer. METHODS The study was a population-based, cross-sectional register study. We identified 599 adults who had died of cancer from March 1 to November 30, 2006, in Aarhus County, Denmark. Data from health registers were retrieved and linked based on the unique personal identifier number. RESULTS Multivariate analysis with adjustment for age, gender, and general practitioner (GP) involvement showed a higher probability of contact with an SPCT among immigrants and descendants of immigrants than among people of Danish origin (prevalence ratio [PR]: 1.55; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.04;2.31) and among married compared to unmarried patients (PR: 1.25; 95% CI: 1.01;1.54). The trends were most marked among women. CONCLUSION We found an association between females, married patients, and female immigrants and their descendants and access to an SPCT in Denmark. However, no association with the examined economic factor was found. Need for specialized health care, which is supposed to be the main reason for access to an SPCT, may be related to economic imbalance; and despite the relative equality found, SPCT access may not be equal for all Danish residents. Further research into social and economic consequences in palliative care services is warranted.
Cocaine Hepatotoxicity in Mice: Histologic and Enzymatic Studies

The severity of hepatotoxicity in CF-1 mice given 5 daily doses of 5, 10, and 20 mg cocaine/kg body weight and sacrificed 24 hr after the last injection appeared to be dose-dependent. Using light microscopy, the hallmark of cocaine early toxicity was manifested by pallor and ballooning of the hepatocytes in the midzonal and then in the centrilobular areas. Degeneration and necrosis of the liver cells in the same zones were encountered while the hepatocytes in the periportal areas remained intact. When examined under the electron microscope, such pallor and ballooning of the hepatocytes appeared to be due to dilation of the rough endoplasmic reticulum (RER) profiles which of ten revealed a significant loss of their ribosomes. Dilation of the smooth endoplasmic reticulum (SER) was also common and moderate proliferation of peroxisomes was frequently seen. In the degenerating hepatocytes, the 2 forms of endoplasmic reticulum were difficult to recognize and the peroxisomes appeared sparse. Cocaine treatment elevated the level of glutamic pyruvic transaminase and glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase in a dose-dependent manner. Although hepatic cytochrome P450 was slightly increased in the low dose groups, a reduction in the enzyme activity was noticed in the group treated with 20 mg cocaine/kg. However, hepatic reduced glutathione content manifested a significant increase in the group which received 20 mg cocaine/kg.
Detection of Sources in Non-Negative Blind Source Separation by Minimum Description Length Criterion

While non-negative blind source separation (nBSS) has found many successful applications in science and engineering, model order selection, determining the number of sources, remains a critical yet unresolved problem. Various model order selection methods have been proposed and applied to real-world data sets but with limited success, with both order over- and under-estimation reported. By studying existing schemes, we have found that the unsatisfactory results are mainly due to invalid assumptions, model oversimplification, subjective thresholding, and/or to assumptions made solely for mathematical convenience. Building on our earlier work that reformulated model order selection for nBSS with more realistic assumptions and models, we report a newly and formally revised model order selection criterion rooted in the minimum description length (MDL) principle. Adopting widely invoked assumptions for achieving a unique nBSS solution, we consider the mixing matrix as consisting of deterministic unknowns, with the source signals following a multivariate Dirichlet distribution. We derive a computationally efficient, stochastic algorithm to obtain approximate maximum-likelihood estimates of model parameters and apply Monte Carlo integration to determine the description length. Our modeling and estimation strategy exploits the characteristic geometry of the data simplex in nBSS. We validate our nBSS-MDL criterion through extensive simulation studies and on four real-world data sets, demonstrating its strong performance and general applicability to nBSS. The proposed nBSS-MDL criterion consistently detects the true number of sources, in all of our case studies.