Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Docosahexaenoic Acid Attenuates Doxorubicin-induced Cytotoxicity and Inflammation by Suppressing NF-&kgr;B/iNOS/NO Signaling Pathway Activation in H9C2 Cardiac Cells

Abstract: Doxorubicin (DOX) is a widely used antineoplastic agent for a variety of carcinomas. However, it is cardiotoxic and leads to cardiomyopathy. Previous studies have indicated that omega-3 polyunsaturated acids (&ohgr;-3 PUFAs) have therapeutic effects on dilated and diabetic cardiomyopathies. However, whether &ohgr;-3 PUFAs exert therapeutic effects on DOX-induced cardiomyopathy remains unclear. In this study, we explored the effect and underlying mechanisms of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), an important type of &ohgr;-3 PUFA, on DOX-induced cardiotoxicity and inflammation. H9C2 cardiac cells were exposed to DOX (5 &mgr;M) and interfered with by DHA (10 &mgr;M) for 4 hours. The effect of DHA on H9C2 cell viability was measured by Cell Counting Kit-8 assay. The levels of mRNA and protein expression of inflammatory cytokines were determined by real-time polymerase chain reaction and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, respectively. Reactive oxygen species and nitric oxide (NO) levels were determined by corresponding kits. The protein expression of key molecules in the nuclear factor-kappa B/inducible isoform of nitric oxide synthase/nitric oxide (NF-&kgr;B/iNOS/NO) signaling pathway was determined by western blotting. DOX-induced significant cytotoxicity and reactive oxygen species production in H9C2 cardiac cells. It also induced cardiac inflammation as evidenced by significantly increased expressions of inflammatory cytokines, including tumor necrosis factor-&agr;, interleukin-6, interleukin-1&bgr;, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, and inducible isoform of NO synthase. However, DHA effectively attenuated DOX-induced cytotoxicity and inflammation. A further mechanistic study revealed that DHA suppressed DOX-induced activation of the NF-&kgr;B/iNOS/NO signaling pathway in H9C2 cells. Our results indicate that DHA may protect against DOX-induced cardiotoxicity by inhibiting NF-&kgr;B/iNOS/NO signaling pathway activation.
Perceived barriers to physical activity across Norwegian adult age groups, gender and stages of change

This study investigated differences in the type of and number of perceived barriers to engagement in physical activity experienced by adult women and men in the same geographical area, the relationship between the experienced barriers and stages of change in relation to exercise behavior, and identified barriers related to reported engagement in leisure‐time physical activity. Data were obtained from a population study by the National Institute of Public Health in two counties during 2000–2001. The sample consisted of 2709 females and 2212 men in the age groups 75, 60, 45, 40 and 30 years. Questionnaires measured barriers to engagement in physical activity, engagement in physical activity and readiness for engaging in physical activity (stages of change). Multivariate analyses of variance demonstrated significant age and gender differences in the perceptions of barriers at the various stages of change. The logistic regressions [estimated odds ratios (OR)] demonstrated that low scores for affective/cognitive and practical barriers were significantly associated with higher OR for engagement in physical activity for women, and low‐priority barriers and lower age were associated with higher OR for being physically active for men. The information from this study should be valuable for designing and tailoring both motivational strategies and interventions to fit targeted groups.
Complexity of Primary Lifetime Occupation and Cognition in Advanced Old Age

Objectives: The authors explored the association between complexity of primary lifetime occupation and cognition in older adulthood. Method: The study included 386 participants from the Swedish Panel Study of Living Conditions of the Oldest Old, a nationally representative sample aged 77 years or older. The authors examined complexity of work with data, people, and things in relation to cognitive functioning, measured with a shortened version of Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and cognitive impairment based on MMSE score cutoff. Results: Complexity of work with data and people were associated with better MMSE scores, controlling for age, sex, childhood socioeconomic status, and education. The association between complexity of work with data and MMSE remained statistically significant when adult occupational status was substituted for education as a covariate. Discussion: Complexity of primary lifetime occupation may be reflected in cognitive functioning even in advanced old age. This effect may be independent of education or occupational status.
Regionalism and peacebuilding in West Africa: addressing the challenge of roaming combatants

This thesis provides insights into approaches to regional peacebuilding with reference to the Mano Union River region of West Africa, comprising Liberia, Sierra Leone, Cote d’Ivoire and Guinea. Using the case of the interrelated conflicts in these countries, particularly of regional fighters that fought in two or more countries, it investigates the constraints of conventional peacebuilding theory and practice in addressing regional conflict. Drawing largely on a constructivist International Relations approach, it argues that state-centred perspectives of conflict and peacebuilding, undertaken by institutions made rigid by ritualised practice, preclude an understanding of cross-border conflicts as localised conflicts, within the framing of a micro-region, and also block their effective engagement with the narratives articulated by combatants about their motivations for participating in cross-border conflict. Fieldwork was largely undertaken in Liberia, with the analysis supported by in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with regional combatants of Sierra Leonean, Liberian and Ivoirian descent, based in Liberia, as well as an institutional ethnography of United Nations peace operations, drawing on participant-observation, interviews and documentary analysis. The thesis demonstrates that while economic motivations feature prominently in regional combatants’ motivations, they also subscribe to other motives, in part mediated by socially constructed regional identities. These motives, however, receive limited or misguided attention from peacebuilding institutions, resulting in responses that are, in turn, limited in scope and effectiveness. A key lesson is the importance of understanding the opportunities and challenges arising from localised yet transnational imperatives that translate into violent cross-border movements in marginal border areas, to ensure adequate responses and sustain peace in the region in the long term.
Role of Two Adaptor Molecules SLP-76 and LAT in the PI3K Signaling Pathway in Activated T Cells

Previously, we identified p85, a subunit of PI3K, as one of the molecules that interacts with the N-terminal region of Src homology 2 domain-containing leukocyte protein of 76 kDa (SLP-76). We also demonstrated that tyrosine phosphorylation either at the 113 and/or 128 position is sufficient for the association of SLP-76 with the Src homology 2 domain near the N terminus of p85. The present study further examines the role of the association of these two molecules on the activation of PI3K signaling cascade. Experiments were done to determine the role of SLP-76, either wild-type, tyrosine mutants, or membrane-targeted forms of various SLP-76 constructs, on the membrane localization and phosphorylation of Akt, which is an event downstream of PI3K activation. Reconstitution studies with these various SLP-76 constructs in a Jurkat variant cell line that lacks SLP-76 or linker for activation of T cells (LAT) show that the activation of PI3K pathway following TCR ligation requires both SLP-76 and LAT adaptor proteins. The results suggest that SLP-76 associates with p85 after T cell activation and that LAT recruits this complex to the membrane, leading to Akt activation.
Enterogastric bile reflux during technetium-99m-sestamibi cardiac imaging.

UNLABELLED Enterogastric bile reflux (EGBR), a risk factor for both gastritis and esophagitis, is a potentially treatable noncoronary cause for chest pain. METHODS To investigate the frequency of EGBR during different 99mTc-sestamibi cardiac imaging, 1405 consecutive 99mTc-sestamibi SPECT myocardial perfusion studies were reviewed. RESULTS One hundred sixteen of the 1405 patient studies (8.3%) showed EGBR with roughly equal numbers of patients having marked (43 patients), moderate (38 patients) or minimal (35 patients) intensity of abnormal gastric activity. Two examinations showed gastroesophageal reflux of activity. EGBR was less frequent with treadmill stress testing (5.5% patients) than with pharmacologic stress testing using either dipyridamole (11% of patients) or dobutamine (9.2% of patients) (p > 0.005). EGBR also was more frequent in patients over 40 yr of age. Finally, the prevalence of upper gastrointestinal symptoms and the frequency of established upper gastrointestinal diagnoses correlated strongly with the presence and intensity of EGBR. CONCLUSION Clarification of the full clinical significance of EGBR during 99mTc-sestamibi cardiac imaging is a topic for future research. Nonetheless, the imaging finding of EGBR may, in fact, identify a potentially treatable noncoronary cause for chest pain.
The Resource-Based Theory of the Firm

This paper examines the determinants of firm survival. We use hazard models to test a number of hypotheses mainly drawn from the Resource-Based Theory of the Firm. According to the Resource-Based View the ability of a firm to develop distinct capabilities enhances its ability to adapt to the changing competitive environment and improves its survival prospects. The results confirm that firms that develop firm- specific assets through advertising and making R&D (inde- pendently of the technological intensity of the industry) enjoy better survival prospects. Furthermore, failure risk increases up to about 20 years of trading, and then decreases to later rise in line with liability of "adolescence" and "senescence. "
Exploring adolescent perceptions of achievement motivation through participation in a high school wide summer reading initiative

1. Background/introduction/situation Poor adolescent achievement motivation is a problem of practice in education. Academic motivation decreases as adolescents reach high scho ol. Adolescents struggle with maintaining motivation for their studies for a vari ety of possible reasons including: boredom, lack of relevance of material, lack of aut onomy in curriculum, negative attitude toward reading, low beliefs of self-efficacy, and s ocial environment. After decades of research and attempts at various educational strate gies, educators continue to struggle with effectively motivating adolescents in the clas sroom. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore academic motivation through th e implementation of a high school wide summer reading initiative. In our ever changi ng global economy, education needs to transform itself to better motivate students in their secondary studies. 2. Present research/purpose The purpose of this qualitative study was to explor e adolescent achievement motivation, engagement and socialization at Sovereign High Scho ol t rough the informal learning experiences gained through the implementation of a high school wide summer reading initiative. 3. Methods/materials/subjects/procedure This research study employed a qualitative approach in exploring adolescent achievement motivation to better understand the adolescent pers pectives of their unique educational experience as it relates to the shared summer readi ng program. An interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was appropriate for this study in its intent to understand adolescent perspectives on the specific problem of decreased adolescent achievement motivation at Sovereign High School through the imp lementation of a school wide collaborative summer reading initiative. Observati on of a book discussion group was conducted along with two semi-structured adolescent focus groups, and three follow-up semi-structured individual interviews. In addition , document analysis included transcript, report card and academic record review. A total of 9 adolescent participants participated in this study. 4. Results/findings The findings revealed four distinct universal theme s r lated to achievement motivation including: autonomy, efficacy, value of grades on o ther aspects of life and social supports. Although, all these themes intertwined, a utonomy was found to be the most salient theme across participant responses. Greate r student autonomy led to grater selfefficacy which enhanced academic motivation. Parti cipants highly valued grades as they related to their future goals of college and career s. Participants actively gauged teacher motivation for the academic task which influenced t heir personal motivation for the task. Motivation did not always translate into engagement or completion of task. In addition to perceived poor teacher motivation, other obstacles included lack of time or poor timing of assigned task, competing academic demands, lack of meaning for task, access to short
PENGARUH BUDAYA ORGANISASI, GAYA KEPEMIMPINAN, SISTEM INFORMASI AKUNTANSI DAN STANDAR AKUNTANSI PEMERINTAH TERHADAP KINERJA ORGANISASI PADA PEMERINTAH DAERAH KABUPATEN SUMBAWA

This study was conducted to examine the influence of organizational culture , leadership style , accounting information systems and government accounting standards on organizational performance Sumbawa Regency government . Objects in this study are echelon II , III Echelon and Echelon IV. Respondents were asked to answer a list of questions in the questionnaire form Distribution of the questionnaire as many as 90 copies to all agencies , but which can be analyzed only 84 questionnaires.Processing and analysis of data using multiple linear regression method with SPSS version 18.0. Results based on test data analysis showed that the variables t Cultural organizations and government accounting standards significant positive effect on the performance of local government organizations Sumbawa.While the leadership style variable and accounting information systems showed no effect on organizational performance at local government district, Sumbawa. Based on the value of the F test showed that the variables of organizational culture , leadership style , accounting information systems and accounting standards of government influence simultaneously on the performance of local government organizations Sumbawa.
Biting the Hand that Feeds: Reconsidering the Partisan Determinants of Welfare Spending in Times of Austerity

The New Politics of the welfare state suggests that periods of welfare retrenchment present policymakers with a qualitatively different set of challenges and electoral incentives compared to periods of welfare expansion. An unresolved puzzle for this literature is the relative electoral success of retrenching governments in recent decades, as evidenced by various studies on fiscal consolidations. This article points to the importance of partisan biases as the main explanatory factor. I argue that partisan biases in the electorate create incentives for incumbent governments to depart from their representative function and push the burden of retrenchment on the very constituencies to which they owe their electoral mandate (‘Nixon-goes-to-China’). After offering a simple model on the logic of partisan biases, the article proceeds by testing the unexpected partisan hypotheses that the model generates. My findings from a cross-section time-series analysis in a set of 23 OECD countries provide corroborative evidence on this Nixon-goes-to-China logic of welfare retrenchment: governments systematically inflict pain on their core constituencies. These effects are especially pronounced in periods of severe budgetary pressure.
Rapid genetic screening of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 1A and hereditary neuropathy with liability to pressure palsies patients

We used the allele-specific PCR-double digestion method on peripheral myelin protein 22 (PMP22) to determine duplication and deletion mutations in the proband and family members of one family with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 1 and one family with hereditary neuropathy with liability to pressure palsies. The proband and one subclinical family member from the Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 1 family had a PMP22 gene duplication; one patient from the hereditary neuropathy with liability to pressure palsies family had a PMP22 gene deletion. Electron microscopic analysis of ultrathin sections of the superficial peroneal nerve from the two probands demonstrated demyelination and myelin sheath hyperplasia, as well as an ‘onion-like’ structure in the Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 1A patient. We observed an irregular thickened myelin sheath and ‘mouse-nibbled’-like changes in the patient with hereditary neuropathy with liability to pressure palsies. In the Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 1A patient, nerve electrophysiological examination revealed moderate-to-severe reductions in the motor and sensory conduction velocities of the bilateral median nerve, ulnar nerve, tibial nerve, and sural nerve. Moreover, the compound muscle action potential amplitude was decreased. In the patient with hereditary neuropathy with liability to pressure palsies, the nerve conduction velocity of the bilateral tibial nerve and sural nerve was moderately reduced, and the nerve conduction velocity of the median nerve and ulnar nerve of both upper extremities was slightly reduced.
Understanding the contribution of suicide to life expectancy in South Korea

Background: South Korea has the highest rate and highest rate of increase in suicide among developed countries. The suicide epidemic in Korea is an anomaly, and suicide rates are high for both men and women, with no signs of decreasing. Yet we do not know the extent to which suicide has reduced life expectancy in Korea. Objective: We investigated whether and to what extent the rapid increase in suicide has contributed to changes in Korean life expectancy, a key indicator of population health. Methods: We used a recently developed decomposition method that separates the contribution of suicide’s effect on change in life expectancy into two parts: that due to change in the overall suicide incidence rate and that due to change in the mean age of suicide victims. Results: From 1995 to 2010, life expectancy increased by 6.5 years in Korea, with change in most causes of death contributing to its growth. We nonetheless find, as expected, that the rise in suicides reduced the increase in life expectancy from 1995 to 2010, so life expectancy in Korea is about 0.21 years lower than it would have been without the increase in suicides. Moreover, had the age of suicide victims remained stable, we project that Korea's life expectancy would be fully 0.70 years lower than it is. Conclusions: Although the growth in suicide was the largest single factor slowing the rise in Korean life expectancy, the effect would have been even larger had the age of suicide victims not increased.
Biochemical mapping of the simian rotavirus SA11 genome

Biochemical mapping experiments of the simian rotavirus SA11 genome were performed to determine which double-stranded RNA segment coded for each of the viral polypeptides. Viral RNA transcripts were synthesized in vitro by using the endogenous viral RNA polymerase and fractionated by electrophoresis in acid-urea agarose gels. The fractionated transcripts were translated in two cell-free systems: micrococcal nuclease-treated reticulocyte lysates and wheat germ extracts. The polypeptide products were identified by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and partial peptide analysis and compared with polypeptides synthesized in infected cells or found in purified virus. The RNA segment that coded for each transcript was determined by hybridization of the fractionated transcripts to the double-stranded RNA genome and analysis of the hybrids by electrophoresis in polyacrylamide gels. Primary gene products were assigned for 10 of the rotavirus transcripts and 10 of the double-stranded RNA segments. The coding assignments are as follows: the inner-capsid polypeptides, VP1, VP2, and VP6, were assigned to segments 1, 2, and 6, respectively; the major outer-capsid polypeptides, VP3 and VP7, were assigned to segments 4 and 9, respectively; segments 5, 7, and 8 coded for nonstructural polypeptides with molecular weights of 53,000, 34,000, and 35,000, respectively; segment 10 coded for the 20,000-molecular-weight precursor to the 29,000-molecular-weight glycosylated nonstructural polypeptide; and segment 11 coded for a 26,000-molecular-weight polypeptide that may be the precursor to the minor outer-capsid polypeptide VP9. Several methods were used to determine the product of gene segment 3, and the problems associated with the identification of this gene product are discussed.
Effects of ghrelin on activation of Akt1 and ERK1/2 pathways during in vitro maturation of bovine oocytes

Summary The purpose of this study was to investigate the possible molecular pathways through which ghrelin accelerates in vitro oocyte maturation. Bovine cumulus–oocyte complexes (COCs), after 18 or 24 h maturation in the absence or the presence of 800 pg ml–1 of acylated ghrelin were either assessed for nuclear maturation or underwent in vitro fertilization in standard media and putative zygotes were cultured in vitro for 8 days. In a subset of COCs the levels of phosphorylated Akt1 and ERK1/2 (MAPK1/3) were assessed at the 0th, 6th, 10th, 18th and 24th hours of in vitro maturation (IVM). At 18 and 24 h no difference existed in the proportion of matured oocytes in the ghrelin-treated group, while in the control group more (P < 0.05) matured oocyte were found at 24 h. Oocyte maturation for 24 h in the presence of ghrelin resulted in substantially reduced (P < 0.05) blastocyst yield(16.3%) in comparison with that obtained after 18 h (30.0%) or to both control groups (29.3% and 26.9%, for 18 and 24 h in maturation, respectively). Ghrelin-treated oocytes expressed lower Akt1 phosphorylation rate at the 10th hour of IVM, and higher ERK1/2 at the 6th and 10th hours of IVM compared with controls. In cumulus cells, at the 18th and 24th hours of IVM Akt1 phosphorylation rate was higher in ghrelin-treated oocytes. Our results imply that ghrelin acts in a different time-dependent manner on bovine oocytes and cumulus cells modulating Akt1 and ERK1/2 phosphorylation, which brings about acceleration of the oocyte maturation process.