Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Intrarenal dopamine production and distribution in the rat. Physiological control of sodium excretion.

Dopamine (DA), produced by the renal proximal tubule, has been demonstrated as an intrarenal paracrine hormone mediating diuresis and natriuresis. The precise mechanism by which DA exerts its cell-to-cell action is not fully understood. In the present study, renal interstitial fluid (RIF) DA (by in vivo microdialysis) and urinary DA excretion (UDAV) were compared in anesthetized rats on either normal (0.28% NaCI, NS) or high (4.0% NaCI, HS) sodium balance and in response to acute gamma-L-glutamyl-L-dopa (gludopa) administration. Urine flow (UV) and sodium excretion (UNaV) in HS were greater than in NS rats. UDAV was increased in HS compared with NS rats. RIF DA was significantly lower in HS than NS rats. Gludopa at 3, 5, and 7.5 nmol/kg (IV bolus) produced a larger increase in UDAV than RIF DA. Only the highest dose of gludopa (7.5 nmol/kg), which resulted in a 7.3-fold increase in UDAV and 1.7-fold increase in RIF DA, was associated with significant diuresis and natriuresis. Cortical and medullary blood flow remained unchanged after gludopa (7.5 nmol/kg) administration, while angiotensin II (100 ng.kg-1.min-1) induced significant reduction in cortical and medullary blood flow. Prior bilateral renal denervation did not have a significant effect on basal DA levels (RIF DA and UDAV) or gludopa-induced DA production or natriuresis and diuresis. These data demonstrated that both chronic sodium loading and acute gludopa administration stimulated renal DA production and release predominantly into the tubule lumen, where DA had a direct tubule action in the control of UNaV. Renal DA production and its renal effects were not significantly regulated by renal sympathetic nerve activity.
SHO Time for Innovation: The Real Effects of Short Sellers

We examine the real effect of financial markets by analyzing how short sellers affect firm innovation. Using exogenous variation in short-selling costs generated by a quasi-natural experiment, Regulation SHO, which randomly assigns a subsample of Russell-3000 firms into a pilot program and removes the tick restriction on their stocks, we show that short sellers appear to have a positive, causal effect on the quality, efficiency, and originality of corporate innovation. The exposure to patenting-related litigation initiated by short sellers is a plausible mechanism through which short sellers affect firms’ innovative activities. Our paper provides new insights into an unintended real effect of short sellers – their improvement of technological innovation.
Tissue necrosis following extravasation of acyclovir in an adolescent: A case report.

OBJECTIVE Extravasation of intravenously infused vesicant solutions is a common problem in medical practice, which can lead to severe and progressive tissue dysfunction, ranging from persistent tissue oedema and fibrosis to delayed tissue necrosis. Acyclovir is a known vesicant medication administrated in paediatric patients, which appears to irritate venous and soft tissue if extravasated. CASE REPORT We present the first case involving the extravasation of intravenously infused acyclovir in a female adolescent patient, which caused tissue necrosis and left behind a residual scar lesion. Nursing and medical staff should be aware of the potential dermatological side effects of intravenously infused acyclovir and other medications, even a long time after infusion, and the possible lack of initial local symptoms and signs. CONCLUSION Early recognition of extravasation and prompt management are critical in preventing further morbidity, and optimizing outcomes.
Parentage, reproductive skew and queen turnover in a multiple–queen ant analysed with microsatellites

We investigated the fine genetic structure of colonies of the ant, Leptothorax acervorum, to examine how queens share parentage (skew) in a social insect with multiple queens (polygyny). Overall, 494 individuals from eight polygynous field colonies were typed at up to seven microsatellite loci each. The first main finding was that surprisingly many sexual progeny (60% of young queens and 49% of young males) were not the offspring of the extant queens within their colonies. This implies that a high turnover (brief reproductive lifespan) of queens within colonies could be an important feature of polygyny. The second main result was that in most colonies relatedness among sexual progeny fell significantly below that expected among full siblings, proving that these progeny were produced by more than one singly–mated queen, but that skew in two colonies where the data permitted its calculation was moderate to high. However, relative to a German population, the study population is characterized by low queen–queen relatedness and low skew in female production, which is in line with the predictions of skew theory.
Soluble gp130 promotes intestinal epithelial hyperplasia during reovirus infection

Soluble gp130 (sgp130) has been shown to suppress the inflammatory response of autoimmune pathologies; however, its effects on virus infection are not known. Here, we report that intraperitoneal treatment of mice with sgp130‐Fc fusion protein at the time of oral reovirus serotype 3 infection resulted in altered morphopathological changes that were evident by less shortening of intestinal villi length and crypt depth after infection. That the effect mediated by sgp130 treatment was due to an increase in intestinal crypt cell proliferation was demonstrated by an increase in the number of crypt mitotic figures. This was further confirmed by increased immunoreactivity to the Cdc47 proliferation‐associated antigen in crypts of sgp130‐treated virus‐infected mice compared to infected non‐treated mice. These findings suggest that sgp130 may have a beneficial effect during intestinal virus infection by disrupting interleukin‐6 trans‐signalling, thereby reducing the local inflammatory response.
Recovery pathway of post-SARS patients

Do endothelial progenitor cells contribute to lung repair and, if so, how? Understanding how circulating stem cells released from the haematopoietic compartment accumulate and differentiate into the parenchymal cells of organs has become an exciting, thought provoking, and intriguing forefront of medical science. Many investigators have begun to address the ability of various populations of stem cells to aid in the repair of nearly every organ including the lungs,1–19 either through recruitment and differentiation into parenchymal cells or through facilitating proliferation and differentiation of cells already present to mediate the repair. Numerous questions remain about if and how stem cells can facilitate organ repair. The studies presented by Yamada and colleagues1 in this issue of Thorax address an important aspect about endothelial progenitor cells (EPC) in lung repair. They show that patients with pneumonia confined to one lobe and no other illnesses have circulating EPC in their blood within the first day of illness, and that this number is decreased 8 weeks after treatment and recovery. Their data provide strong evidence that inflammation in the lungs induces release of progenitor cells from the bone marrow that are capable of differentiating toward endothelial cell phenotypes upon culturing in appropriate growth media. Most curiously, the patients who had fibrotic changes persisting at 8 weeks were the ones with low numbers of circulating EPC within the first 28 hours of pneumonia. These data raise the possibility that circulating EPC may contribute to normal lung repair. As with all good clinical studies, these results raise more questions than they answer. Are these circulating EPC retained within the lungs and what is their fate? Do they participate in the repair of the lungs and, if so, what role do they play? Studies examining the lungs of patients with transplanted haematopoietic stem cells …
A meta‐analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging studies of eye movements and visual word reading

The pattern of eye movements during reading is substantially correlated with linguistic factors. While there have been a large number of studies on the neural mechanisms of eye movements and word reading separately, a limited number of studies have compared the activation patterns of these two processes and discussed the associations of their corresponding brain regions within the framework of naturalistic reading.
Sterol absorption and sterol balance in phytosterolemia evaluated by deuterium-labeled sterols: effect of sitostanol treatment.

Absorption of dietary cholesterol, campesterol, and sitosterol, cholesterol balance, and fecal excretion of plant sterols were determined in three unrelated patients with phytosterolemia and three healthy volunteers during constant intake of cholesterol and plant sterols using accurate gas-liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry techniques. Each subject received a mixture of [26,26,26,27,27,27-2H6]cholesterol, [6,7,7-2H3]sitostanol, and [6,7,7-2H3]campesterol together with two non-absorbable markers, [5,6,22,23-2H4]sitostanol and chromic oxide. Feces were collected from days 5 to 7 and absorption of different sterols was calculated from the intestinal disappearance of the different sterols relative to [5,6,22,23-2H4]sitostanol and chromic oxide. The results obtained by the two markers were not different and the absorption of cholesterol averaged 53 +/- 4% for the patients (mean +/- SD) and 43 +/- 3% for the volunteers. Campesterol absorption averaged 24 +/- 4% in patients and 16 +/- 3% in healthy volunteers, whereas sitosterol absorption averaged 16 +/- 1% and 5 +/- 1%, respectively. Cholesterol synthesis expressed by body weight varied considerably in the two groups but appeared to be about 5 times lower in patients than in controls. Administration of a high dose of sitostanol (0.5 g t.i.d.) to two patients was followed by a reduction in cholesterol absorption by 24% and 44%, an increase in fecal output of cholesterol and steroids derived from cholesterol and plant steroids, and a marked reduction of serum cholesterol, campesterol, and sitosterol. Under the conditions used, inhibition of cholesterol absorption by sitostanol was not followed by a significant rise in cholesterol synthesis. The time of observation was, however, too short to allow final conclusion on this. The results show that the absolute difference in absorption rate of different sterols between the patients and healthy volunteers was about the same. As a consequence, increasing hydrophobicity causes a relative decrease of absorption rates. Thus, patients with phytosterolemia seem to have a generally increased absorption of sterols rather than a loss of a specific discriminatory mechanism, and oral administration of sitostanol seems to be an interesting new approach for treatment of phytosterolemia.
Viruses, host responses, and autoimmunity

Summary: Conceptually, the initiation of autoimmune disease can be described as a three‐stage process involving both genetic and environmental influences. This process begins with the development of an autoimmune cellular repertoire, followed by activation of these autoreactive cells in response to a localized target and, finally, the immune system's failure to regulate these self reactive constituents. Viruses have long been associated with inciting autoimmune disorders. Two mechanisms have been proposed to explain how a viral infection can overcome immunological tolerance to self components and initiate an organ specific autoreactive process, these mechanisms arc molecular mimicry and bystander activation. Both pathways, as discussed here, could play pivotal roles in the development of autoimmunity without necessarily excluding each other. Transgene technology has allowed us and others to examine more closely the roles of these mechanisms in mice and to dissect the requirements for initiating disease. These results demonstrate that bystander activation is the must likely explanation fur disease development. Additional evidence suggests a further role for viruses in the reactivation and chronicity of autoimmune diseases. In this scenario, a second invasion by a previously infecting virus may restimulate already existing autoreactive lymphocytes and thereby contribute to the diversity of the immune response.
LDPC Code Designs, Constructions, and Unification

Written by leading experts, this self-contained text provides systematic coverage of LDPC codes and their construction techniques, unifying both algebraic- and graph-based approaches into a single theoretical framework (the superposition construction). An algebraic method for constructing protograph LDPC codes is described, and entirely new codes and techniques are presented. These include a new class of LDPC codes with doubly quasi-cyclic structure, as well as algebraic methods for constructing spatially and globally coupled LDPC codes. Authoritative, yet written using accessible language, this text is essential reading for electrical engineers, computer scientists and mathematicians working in communications and information theory.
Moesin overexpression is a unique biomarker of adenomyosis

Adenomyosis is characterized by extension of endometrial glands and stromal cells into the myometrium. Here we proved that ‘moesin’ is a unique biomarker of adenomyosis. We selected two cases of adenomyosis that had been surgically resected and fixed with formalin. Proteins were extracted from the infiltrating adenomyosis lesions and normal endometrium by tissue microdissection. The extracted proteins were examined using a LC‐MS/MS system and the expression profiles of each region were compared. Two hundred and sixty proteins were detected, among which 73 were expressed more in adenomyosis than in normal endometrium. Among these proteins, we focused on overexpression of moesin in adenomyosis. Expression of moesin estimated semiquantitatively using an immunohistochemistry score was higher in adenomyosis than in normal endometrium. In particular, moesin was significanly overexpressed in stromal cells of adenomyosis than in those of normal endometrium. Relative to normal endometrium, moesin was also overexpressed at the RNA level in 9 of 14 cases of adenomyosis and at the protein level in all 14 cases. We also detected activated (phosphorylated) moesin in adenomyosis lesions. The present findings suggest that moesin is characteristically overexpressed and activated in adenomyosis, and that moesin activation may be related to extension of adenomyosis in the myometrium.
The effects of ball possession status on physical and technical indicators during the 2014 FIFA World Cup Finals

ABSTRACT This study examined the effect of high- (HPBPT) and low-percentage ball possession (LPBPT) on physical and technical indicators during 2014 FIFA World Cup matches. This would enable a regression model to be constructed to further understand the impact of different ball possession (BP) strategies on match performance. Data were collected from 346 international soccer players using a multiple-camera computerised tracking system. Although players in HPBPT covered lower distances (P < 0.01) in total and at low speed compared to LPBPT, this produced a trivial effect size (ES). However, they covered similar distances (P > 0.05) at medium and high speeds. Players in LPBPT covered more distance without BP but less with BP than HPBPT (P < 0.01; ES large). All positions in LPBPT spent less time in the opposing half and attacking third than the players in HPBPT (P < 0.01; ES small–moderate), but all positions in HPBPT completed more short and medium passes than LPBPT (P < 0.01; ES moderate). Players in HPBPT produced more solo runs into the attacking third and penalty area than LPBPT (P < 0.05, ES small). The equation to predict BP from physical and technical indicators highlighted the importance of distances covered (total, with and without BP), time spent in the attacking third and successful short passes during matches. In practical terms, high or low BP does not influence the activity patterns of international matches although HPBPT spend more time in offensive areas of the pitch.
Evidence from Cadavers Suggestive of Entrapment of Fifth Lumbar Spinal Nerves by Lumbosacral Ligaments

Lumbosacral spines from 51 geriatric-age cadavers (25 men and 26 women) were examined both grossly and under the dissecting microscope for evidence of compression of fifth lumbar spinal nerves by their respective lumbosacral ligaments. These ligaments were found to extend from the transverse process and body of L5 to the ala of the sacrum in 97% of the specimens, and from the transverse process and body of L5 to the promontory of the sacrum in 3% of the specimens. Anterior primary rami of the fifth lumbar spinal nerve were observed to be compressed in 11% (11 of 102) of the specimens examined grossly and under the dissecting microscope. Histologic evidence of chronic compression, as suggested by perineurial and endoneurial fibrosis, peripheral thinning of myelin sheaths, or subjective evidence of a shift in fiber diameter to a population of smaller size fibers was found, deep to the lumbosacral ligament, in three of the 11 nerves judged to be compressed. The information derived is of interest to the clinician whose patient presents with L5 root signs and a myelogram, discogram, and computed tomographic scan which do not show any abnormality. The possibility of extraforaminal compression must be considered as a possible source of the clinical signs.
The pediatric randomized carvedilol trial in children with chronic heart failure: Rationale and design

Abstract Background Carvedilol is a medication with both β-receptor and α-receptor blocking properties that has been approved for the treatment of heart failure in adults. Little is known about its safety, efficacy, pharmacokinetics, and dosing profile in children. Methods The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of carvedilol administered twice daily for 8 months in terms of its effect compared with placebo on a composite measure of clinical outcomes in children with symptomatic systemic ventricular systolic dysfunction and heart failure. The secondary objectives are to determine the effect of carvedilol on individual components of a composite of clinical outcomes (hospitalizations for worsening heart failure, all-cause mortality and cardiovascular hospitalizations, all cause mortality, heart failure symptoms, and patient and physician global assessment); determine the effect of carvedilol on echocardiographic indices of ventricular function and remodeling; characterize the pharmacokinetics of carvedilol in pediatric patients with heart failure; characterize the effects carvedilol on neurohormonal systems; and provide data for the selection of an optimal titration schedule and daily dose of carvedilol in children with heart failure. This study will enroll 150 children between birth and 17 years of age with chronic symptomatic heart failure caused by systemic ventricular systolic dysfunction. Conclusion This study will determine whether carvedilol improves symptoms in children with heart failure as a result of systemic ventricular systolic dysfunction. The study also will provide information on echocardiographic changes of ventricular performance and neurohormonal levels in children with heart failure before and after treatment with carvedilol, in addition to pharmacokinetics of carvedilol in children. (Am Heart J 2002;144:383-9.)
Relationship of Colonie Mucosa ! Background to Neoplastic Proliferative Activity in Dimethylhydrazine-treated Mice 1

Proliferative activity of background and neoplastic colonie mucosa was examined following five months of weekly injec tions of 1,2-dimethylhydrazine (20 mg/kg) and one or four months of rest to determine whether previously reported changes may result from an acute or chronic effect of dimethylhydrazine and whether differences exist between stages of neoplasia. To determine whether neoplasia is responsive to a Proliferative stimulus, 1,2-dimethylhydrazine dihydrochloridetreated mice were inoculated with Citrobacter freundii. The labeling index and the proliferative zone increased in back ground mucosa after one month; whereas after four months labeling index, proliferative zone and crypt heights increased, but the mitotic index decreased. There was a positive linear correlation between advancing tumor grade and increasing tumor labeling index and mitotic index. Background labeling index, even when elevated by C. freundii inoculation, had no effect upon tumor labeling index. Mitotic index diminished in background and neoplastic mucosa following prolonged rest and increased in both following C. freundii inoculation. These studies show that 1,2-dimethylhydrazine dihydrochloride causes long-term changes in background mucosa that are apart from a reparative response to cytotoxicity. As tumors progress, labeling index and mitotic index increase, suggesting a multistage process of evolution.
Optimal Pricing-Based Edge Computing Resource Management in Mobile Blockchain

As the core issue of blockchain, the mining requires solving a proof-of-work puzzle, which is resource expensive to implement in mobile devices due to the high computing power needed. Thus, the development of blockchain in mobile applications is restricted. In this paper, we, for the first time, consider the edge computing as the network enabler for mobile blockchain. In particular, we study optimal pricing-based edge computing resource management to support mobile blockchain applications where the mining process can be offloaded to an Edge computing Service Provider (ESP). We adopt a two-stage Stackelberg game to jointly maximize the profit of the ESP and the individual utilities of different miners. In Stage~I, the ESP sets the price of edge computing services. In Stage~II, the miners decide on the service demand to purchase based on the observed prices. We apply the backward induction to analyze the sub-game perfect equilibrium in each stage for uniform and discriminatory pricing schemes. Further, the existence and uniqueness of Stackelberg game are validated for both pricing schemes. At last, the performance evaluation shows that the ESP intends to set the maximum possible value as optimal price for profit maximization under uniform pricing. In addition, the discriminatory pricing helps the ESP to encourage higher total service demand from miners and achieve greater profit correspondingly.
First-Principles Calculations of Thermoelectric Properties of IV–VI Chalcogenides 2D Materials

A first-principles study using density functional theory and Boltzmann transport theory has been performed to evaluate the thermoelectric properties of a series of single layer 2D materials. The compounds studied are SnSe, SnS, GeS, GeSe, SnSe2, and SnS2, all of which belong to the IV-VI chalcogenides family. The first fourth compounds have orthorhombic crystal structures, and the last two have hexagonal crystal structures. Solving a semi-empirical Boltzmann transport model through the BoltzTraP software, we compute the electrical properties, including Seebeck coefficient, electrical conductivity, power factor and the electronic thermal conductivity, at three levels of carrier concentrations (1018, 1019 and 1020 cm-3). The spin orbit coupling (SOC) effect on these properties is evaluated and is found not to influence the results significantly. First-principles lattice dynamics combined with the iterative solution of phonon Boltzmann transport equations are used to compute the lattice thermal conductivity of these materials. It is found that these materials have narrow band gaps in the range of 0.75-1.58 eV. Based on the highest values of figure-of-merit ZT of all the materials studied, we notice that the n-type materials generally have better thermoelectric properties than the p-type ones. The best thermoelectric materials at low temperature (300 K) are SnSe, SnS, and GeS, and at high temperature (800 K) are SnSe at 10^18, 10^19 cm-3 respectively, and SnSe2, at 10^20 cm-3 levels of carrier concentration.