Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cannabinoid Receptor Type 1 (CB1R) Signaling Regulates Hepatic Gluconeogenesis via Induction of Endoplasmic Reticulum-bound Transcription Factor cAMP-responsive Element-binding Protein H (CREBH) in Primary Hepatocytes*

Activated cannabinoid 1 receptor (CB1R) signaling has been implicated in the development of phenotypes associated with fatty liver, insulin resistance, and impaired suppression of hepatic glucose output. Endoplasmic reticulum stress-associated liver-specific transcription factor CREBH is emerging as a critical player in various hepatic metabolic pathways and regulates hepatic gluconeogenesis in diet-induced obese settings. In this study, we elucidated the critical role of CREBH in mediating CB1R signaling to regulate glucose homeostasis in primary rat and human hepatocytes. mRNA and protein levels and glucose production were analyzed in primary rat and human hepatocytes. ChIP assays were performed together with various transcriptional analyses using standard techniques. CB1R activation by 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG) specifically induced CREBH gene expression via phosphorylation of the JNK signaling pathway and c-Jun binding to the AP-1 binding site in the CREBH gene promoter. 2-AG treatment significantly induced hepatic gluconeogenic gene expression and glucose production in primary hepatocytes, and we demonstrated that the CREBH binding site mutant significantly attenuated 2-AG-mediated activation of the gluconeogenic gene promoter. Endogenous knockdown of CREBH led to ablation of 2-AG-induced gluconeogenic gene expression and glucose production, and the CB1R antagonist AM251 or insulin exhibited repression of CREBH gene induction and subsequently inhibited gluconeogenesis in both rat and human primary hepatocytes. These results demonstrate a novel mechanism of action of activated CB1R signaling to induce hepatic gluconeogenesis via direct activation of CREBH, thereby contributing to a better understanding of the endocannabinoid signaling mechanism involved in regulating the hepatic glucose metabolism.
African Regional Organizations Seen From Below: Theorizing Legitimacy Beyond the European Nation-State

Despite a long and rich history of African-led conflict interventions, very little is known whether regional organizations (RO) such as the AU and ECOWAS are considered legitimate authorities in today’s conflicts. There is hardly any interest on the reaction, perception and contestation of RO’s conflict management by those directly affected – citizens, civil society, local authorities etc. Whereas a growing literature deals with the legitimacy of the UN’s peace operations as well as with grassroots perceptions of their blue helmets, similar studies relating to African RO’s are scarce. However, apart from this empirical blind spot, there is also a more fundamental, epistemological problem. What unites the existing literature is either a functional understanding of legitimacy, such as Scharpf’s inand output legitimacy, or a subjective conception of legitimate order inspired by Max Weber. Recent scholarly debate has highlighted the importance of different audiences, sources and practices of legitimation understood as a dynamic process rather than an attribute. However, they all relate to a theoretical background that is embedded in concepts of legitimate (democratic) order and thus limit our grasp of eventually other ‘benchmarks’ of legitimacy as perceived, shaped and contested by those directly affected by interventions. Studying the legitimacy of African RO’s might inspire theory building as 1) African RO’s have a larger authority to intervene in domestic conflict compared to other regional organizations, thus directly affect state-society relations. 2) The latter are – in contrast to the European nation-state – hardly characterized by democratic representation and legitimate authority but by the fluidity of power relations as well as a constantly changing set of actors in times of conflict. This paper argues that a bottom-up perspective on legitimacy of regional organizations could feed into novel theorizing of the meaning and function of legitimacy beyond the nation-state that deliberately draws on and theorizes from non-Western experiences. 1 This paper was presented at the Panel “What Is Africa a Case of? Connecting General Theory and Local Contexts”, at the Conference of the African Studies Association in Germany (VAD e.V.), Institute of African Studies & Centre for Area Studies, Leipzig University, 30 June 2018. PRIF Working Paper No. 42
Fluorescence spectroscopy as a tool for monitoring solubility and aggregation behavior of β‐lactoglobulin after heat treatment

Denaturation and aggregation of whey proteins are of interest to the food and pharmaceutical industry due to the importance of final structure in functionality, impact on food texture, and the chemical stability of the final product. In this study, we demonstrate the potential of fluorescence spectrometry combined with multivariate chemometric methods for quantifying solubility and aggregation behavior of β‐lactoglobulin (β‐LG); a major whey protein and a frequent food ingredient. Heat‐induced aggregation of β‐LG was studied under different conditions including pH, temperature and heating durations. Results showed very good agreement between the fluorescence‐based predictions and measurements obtained by HPLC and gravimetric analysis regardless of the conditions. Standard normal variate (SNV), a signal preprocessing and filtering tool, was found to enhance the predictive accuracy and robustness of the fluorescence‐based model. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Exploring Transitions Within a Project-based Housing First Setting: Qualitative Evaluation and Practice Implications

The Housing First (HF) approach is a model of housing that entails the provision of immediate, permanent, low-barrier, supportive housing to chronically homeless individuals either in separate apartments within a larger community (known as scattered-site HF) or in a single building (known as project-based HF). One recent innovation is the application of project-based HF with chronically homeless individuals with alcohol problems. Although initial studies have shown its effectiveness, there is currently no research on residents’ and staff ’s experiences living and working in a project-based HF program. The purpose of this article was to document these experiences and highlight strengths and challenges of project-based HF programs. Using data collected from naturalistic observations, agency documentation, one-on-one resident interviews, and a staff focus group, we delineated transitional periods, including moving into project-based HF, community-building, managing day-to-day, and transitions from project-based HF. Findings are interpreted to help health care policymakers and providers envision the role of project-based HF in comprehensive public health efforts and to integrate lessons learned into their own clinical practice.
[6]-shogaol induces Ca²⁺ signals by activating the TRPV1 channels in the rat insulinoma INS-1E cells.

CONTEXT [6]-shogaol is a vanilloid compound present in steamed ginger (Zingiber officinale), a commonly used spice. Pancreatic beta-cells respond to nutrients like glucose, amino acids and fatty acids, by an increase in the cytoplasmic free Ca²⁺ concentration ([Ca²⁺](i)), which mediates diverse cellular processes in these cells. Some vanilloid compounds activate the transient receptor potential vanilloid receptor type 1 (TRPV1) channel. OBJECTIVE We investigated whether [6]-shogaol could trigger Ca²⁺ signals in the beta-cell. METHODS [Ca²⁺](i) was measured from single INS-1E cells by microscope-based fluorometry using fura-2 as the Ca²⁺ indicator. RESULTS In fura-2 loaded single rat insulinoma INS-1E cells, a widely used model of beta-cell, [6]-shogaol increased [Ca²⁺](i) in a concentration-dependent manner. [Ca²⁺](i) increase by [6]-shogaol was completely blocked when Ca²⁺ was omitted from the extracellular medium. Capsazepine, an inhibitor of the TRPV1 ion channel completely inhibited the [6]-shogaol-induced [Ca²⁺](i) increase. [Ca²⁺](i) increase obtained by 1 µM [6]-shogaol was greater than that obtained by 10 mM glucose. Moreover, a sub-stimulatory concentration of [6]-shogaol (300 nM), significantly enhanced the glucose-induced [Ca²⁺](i) increase in these cells. CONCLUSION We conclude that [6]-shogaol induces Ca²⁺ signals in the beta-cell by activating the TRPV1 channels, and it sensitizes the beta-cells to stimulation by glucose.
Comparison of three algorithms for estimating Snow Water Equivalent (SWE) over the La Grande River watershed using SSM/I data in the context of Hydro- Québec’s hydraulic power management

Ongoing information on snow water equivalent (SWE) is a crucial issue for Hydro-Quebec in terms of reservoir management late in the winter or in the early months of spring. Three algorithms that use passive microwave data have been evaluated over the La Grande River Watershed in northeastern Quebec (Canada). The first and second algorithms that were tested consisted of a simple linear regression (LR) and piecewise linear regression (PLR) between a brightness temperature gradient (GTV) and SWE. The third was a multilayer feedforward artificial neural network (ANN). A self-organizing feature map (SOFM) was used to optimize the division of the input data into training, validation and testing subsets. The first simulation results show that it is possible to evaluate SWE with an acceptable accuracy in a taiga environment, with a mean absolute error (MAE) of 25% for the ANN algorithm and about 20% for the linear regression approach and piecewise linear algorithm.
Politics and Poetics of Authenticity

Cover design: www.ironicitalics. com Free open access versions available from www.ucl. ac.uk/ucl-press ‘This is a refreshing contribution to the growing body of scholarly literature on Sri Lanka’s Sinhalese nationalism, its politics and intellectual strands. Its value is enhanced by the marshalling of sources available in the Sinhalese language that are usually ignored in scholarly work on contemporary Sri Lanka. ’ – Professor Jayadeva Uyangoda, formerly University of Colombo
Field study on behaviors and adaptation of elderly people and their thermal comfort requirements in residential environments.

UNLABELLED This study investigated the thermal sensation of elderly people in Taiwan, older than 60 years, in indoor microclimate at home, and their requirements for establishing thermal comfort. The study was conducted using both a thermal sensation questionnaire and measurement of indoor climatic parameters underlying the thermal environment. Survey results were compared with those reported by Cheng and Hwang (2008, J. Tongji Univ., 38, 817-822) for non-elders to study the variation between different age groups in requirements of indoor thermal comfort. The results show that the predominant strategy of thermal adaptation for elders was window-opening in the summer and clothing adjustment in the winter. The temperature of thermal neutrality was 25.2 degrees C and 23.2 degrees C for the summer and the winter, respectively. Logistically regressed probit modeling on percentage of predicted dissatisfied (PPD) against mean thermal sensation vote revealed that the sensation votes corresponding to a PPD of 20% were +/- 0.75 for elders, about +/- 0.10 less than the levels projected by ISO 7730 model. The range of operative temperature for 80% thermal acceptability for elders in the summer was 23.2-27.1 degrees C, narrower than the range of 23.0-28.6 degrees C reported for non-elders. This is likely a result of a difference in the selection of adaptive strategies. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS Taiwan in the last decade has seen a rapid growth in the elderly population in its societal structure, and as such the quality of indoor thermal comfort increasingly concerns the elderly people. This study presents the results from field-surveying elders residing in major geographical areas of Taiwan, and discusses the requirements of these elders for indoor thermal comfort in different seasons. Through a comparison with the requirements by non-elders, this study demonstrates the unique sensitivity of elders toward indoor thermal quality and the selection of adaptive strategies that need to be considered when a thermal comfort zone is attempted in a household of members consisting of different age groups.
Supply-side variants in the supply of open data in university governance

This paper presents the flow of open data using the case of public university governance in South Africa. It reveals two different forms of open data supply from the same closed, government dataset. The paper argues that supply and demand should not be separated in open data research, that the shape of the open data supplied is informed by demand, and that different forms of open data supply may have varying degrees of impact and at different governance system levels.
Aiding web crawlers; projecting web page last modification

Due to colossal amount of data on the Web, Web archivists typically make use of Web crawlers for automated collection. The Internet Archive is the largest organization based on a crawling approach in order to maintain an archive of the entire Web. The most important requirement of a Web crawler, specially when they are used for Web archiving, is to be aware of the date (and time) of last modification of a Web page. This strategy has various advantages, most important of them include i) presentation of an up-to-date version of a Web page to the end user ii) ease of adjusting the crawl rate that allows future retrieval of a Web page's version at a given date, or to compute its refresh rate. The typical way for this modification information of a Web page, that is, to use the Last-Modified: HTTP header, unfortunately does not provide correct information every time. In this work, we discuss various techniques that can be used to determine the date of last modification of a Web page with the help of experiments. This will help in adjusting the crawl rate for a specific page and also helps in presenting users with up to date information and thus allowing future versioning of a Web page more meticulous.
Adaptation, Recombination and Reinforcement: The Story of Antitrust and Competition Law in Germany And Europe

We consider, in this paper, national business system change in relation to transnational institution building. Our field of exploration is antitrust regulation and competition law, its emergence and development both in Germany and at the European level. It is increasingly acknowledged that legal frameworks structure market economies and constrain economic behavior (Laporta et al. 1998, De Soto 2000, Fligstein 2001, Berglof et al. 2001). We see the legal treatment of competition issues as important in that respect (Dobbin and Dowd 2000, Djelic 2002). [First paragraph]
Selection for Body Weight in Chickens: Resource Allocations and Scaling

Academic) Evaluated were correlated responses to 54-generations of divergent selection for 8-week body weight (BW) and of BW at other ages and reproductive traits. Evaluated first was the influence of scaling on phenotypic responses to selection, phenotypic correlations of means and standard deviations, and unadjusted vs. standardized responses. Measured was BW at 4 (BW4), 8 (BW8), 24 (BW24), and 38 (BW38) weeks of age. Correlations between means and standard deviations were positive and greater in the LWS than HWS. Scaling masked the degree more than the pattern of response and was line specific with the magnitude of response greater in the LWS than HWS. While BW ratios across ages were not influenced by scaling in LWS, they were evident in HWS. Also measured were correlated responses of reproductive traits in selected and relaxed lines. Traits were age at first egg (AFE), body weight at first egg (WFE), their ratio (WAFE), and hen-day normal egg production (HDP). Although sexual maturity was delayed, the effect was more pronounced in the low than high weight lines. Selection for low BW decreased WFE, WAFE and HDP. Selection for high BW resulted in lower HDP, while WFE and WAFE were generally higher. Minimum AFE, WFE and WAFE in relation to sexual maturity were line specific. Opposition between relaxed and artificial selection resulted in a higher reproductive performance and fitness with relaxed than artificial selection. Overall, results demonstrate that correlated responses to long-term divergent selection were masked by scaling and negative correlated reproductive responses. Selection for body weight in chickens: Resource allocations and scaling
Expression of the Staphylococcus hyicus Lipase inLactococcus lactis

ABSTRACT The extracellular Staphylococcus hyicus lipase was expressed under the control of different promoters in Lactococcus lactis and Bacillus subtilis. Its expression at high and moderate levels is toxic for the former and the latter hosts, respectively. In L. lactis, the lipase was expressed at a high level, up to 30% of the total cellular proteins, under the control of the inducible promoter PnisA. About 80% of the lipase remained associated with the cells. Close to half of this amount remained associated with the inner side of the cytoplasmic membrane as unprocessed pre-pro-lipase. The other half was trapped by the cell wall and partially degraded at the N-terminal end. This result suggests that extracellular proteases degrade the lipase. Surprisingly, the kinetics and the pattern of lipase degradation were different in the twoL. lactis subspecies, L. lactis subsp.cremoris and L. lactis subsp.lactis. The extracellular proteolytic systems that degrade lipase are thus different in these closely related subspecies. The incorrect export of the lipase is not due to an inappropriate leader peptide but may be due to an inefficiency of several steps of lipase secretion. We propose that (i) the S. hyicus lipase may require a special accessory system to be correctly exported or (ii) the kinetics of lipase synthesis may be a critical factor for proper folding.
Trade-off between outreach and sustainability of microfinance institutions: evidence from sub-Saharan Africa

The changing landscape of the microfinance industry, which is characterized by a decline in donor funding, has reignited debates regarding the ability of microfinance institutions to serve the poor while remaining sustainable. In this study, we examined the relationship between outreach and sustainability in the context of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and analysed the determinants of sustainability using data from 71 microfinance institutions (MFIs) across 10 countries. By applying correlation analysis and fixed effects regression, we found mixed evidence of a trade-off between the depth of outreach and operational self-sustainability. Furthermore, the results show that interest rate is a major determinant for MFI sustainability, which is consistent with the institutionalist view. Factors that significantly influence the sustainability of MFIs in SSA are the average loan size as a percentage of gross national income, gross loan portfolio, portfolio at risk, operating expenses to assets ratio, governance effec.
Employee Stock Ownership Plan, Board Structure, and Firm Value: Evidence from Taiwan

The authors explore the effect of an employee stock ownership plan on firm value and examine the following important findings. First, they reveal that a firm with better corporate governance, such as a higher directors’ holding ratio, higher institutional holding ratio, and small board size will have better stock price performance resulting in the enhancement of firm value. Second, firms with higher institutional holdings that are implementing an ESOP actually might not enhance firm value, compared to firms with higher institutional holdings that do not implement an ESOP; this may be the result of interest and influence by institutional investors who are likely to be affected by the ESOP. The authors explain that understanding these results may be useful for investors in personal financial planning and wealth management in terms of screening investing targets.
Effects of bleaching with carbamide peroxide gels on microhardness of restoration materials.

The objective of this in vitro study was to quantitatively assess the effects of bleaching with 10 and 15% carbamide peroxide (CP) on restoration materials by performing superficial microhardness analysis. Acrylic cylindrical containers (4 x 2 mm) were filled with the following restoration products: Charisma (Heraues Kulzer, Vila Santa Catarina, São Paulo, Brazil), Durafill VS (Heraeus Kulzer), Vitremer (3M, Sumaré, São Paulo, Brazil), Dyract (Dentsply, Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), and Permite C (SDI, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil). Sixty samples were prepared of each restoration material. Twenty samples received bleaching treatment with 10% CP, 20 samples received bleaching treatment with 15% CP, and 20 samples were kept submerged in artificial saliva, which was replaced daily. The treatment consisted of immersion of the specimens in 1 cm3 of CP at 10 and 15% for 6 hours per day during 3 weeks, whereupon the test specimens were washed, dried, and kept immersed in artificial saliva for 18 hours. Then the test and control specimens were analyzed using a microhardness gauge. The Knoop Hardness Number (KHN) was taken for each test and control specimen at five different locations by applying a 25 g force for 20 seconds. The values obtained were transformed into KHNs and the mean was calculated. The data were submitted to statistical analysis by analysis of variance and Tukey test, p < . 05. The means/standard deviations were as follows: Charisma: CP 10% 38.52/4.08, CP 15% 34.31/6.13, saliva 37.36/4.48; Durafill VS: CP 10% 18.65/1.65, CP 15% 19.38/2.23, saliva 18.27/1.43; Dyract AP: CP 10% 30.26/2.81, CP 15% 28.64/5.44, saliva 33.88/3.46; Vitremer: CP 10% 28.15/3.04, CP 15% 17.40/3.11, saliva 40.93/4.18; and Permite C: CP 10% 183.50/27.09, CP 15% 159.45/5.78, saliva 215.80/26.15. A decrease in microhardness was observed for the materials Dyract AP, Vitremer, and Permite C after treatment with CP at 10 and 15%, whereas no effect on either of the two composites (Charisma and Durafill) was verified. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE The application of the carbamide peroxide gels at 10 and 15% did not alter the microhardness of the composite resins Charisma and Durafill. In situ and clinical studies are necessary to enable one to conclude that the reduction in microhardness of the materials effectively results in clinical harm to the restorations.
Immunosuppression and Monitoring of Rejection in Hand Transplantation

Advances in vascularized composite allotransplantation over the last decade have achieved significant milestones in basic science and translational research, as well as clinically with highly encouraging functional and immunologic outcomes. However, certain immunologic challenges remain. In particular, although tolerance has been induced to nearly all components of a hand allograft in experimental models, the skin component may still be subject to acute rejection episodes. Currently, conventional immunosuppressive protocols have been successful at preventing allograft loss; however, they have not prevented episodes of acute skin rejection. Furthermore, the profound side effect profile of the life-long, high-dose, multidrug immunosuppression regimen that is necessary to maintain a viable graft alters the risk to benefit ratio of this non–life-saving procedure. Therefore, there must be a concerted effort in the scientific community to develop novel protocols to either minimize immunosuppression or to induce tolerance to the allograft to promote the widespread application of this life-changing procedure.