Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Suppression of azoxymethane‐induced colonic preneoplastic lesions in rats by 1‐methyltryptophan, an inhibitor of indoleamine 2,3‐dioxygenase

The escape of preneoplastic cells from the immune system, which is caused by immune tolerance, occurs during the development of several types of tumors. Indoleamine 2,3‐dioxygenase (IDO) plays a critical role in the induction of immune tolerance. In the present study we investigated the effects of 1‐methyltryptophan (1‐MT), an IDO inhibitor, and (−1;)‐epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), the major catechin in green tea, on the development of azoxymethane (AOM)‐induced colonic preneoplastic lesions by focusing on the inhibition of IDO. To induce colonic premalignant lesions, male F344 rats were injected with AOM (20 mg/kg body weight, s.c.) once a week for 2 weeks. They also received 0.2% 1‐MT or 0.1% EGCG in their drinking water for 4 weeks, starting 1 week before the first dose of AOM. Both 1‐MT and EGCG significantly decreased the total number of aberrant crypt foci and β‐catenin‐accumulated crypts, which overexpressed IDO protein. Treatment with EGCG decreased IDO mRNA expression in both the colonic epithelium and stroma of rats induced by AOM. The AOM‐induced increase in cyclooxygenase‐2 mRNA expression in the colonic stroma was significantly decreased by EGCG. Furthermore, AOM‐induced increases in IDO activity in the serum and stroma were significantly inhibited by 1‐MT and EGCG. Inhibition of IDO activity by 1‐MT and EGCG was also observed in cell‐free assays. These findings suggest that upregulation of IDO activity is observed in the early stages of colon carcinogenesis and that the use of IDO inhibitors, such as 1‐MT and EGCG, which suppress the occurrence of colonic preneoplastic lesions, could be a novel strategy for the chemoprevention of colon cancer. (Cancer Sci 2012; 103: 951–958)
Adipose-Derived Stem Cells Promote Proliferation, Migration, and Tube Formation of Lymphatic Endothelial Cells In Vitro by Secreting Lymphangiogenic Factors

AbstractAdipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) are a promising new therapeutic modality for several diseases and have been applied to various clinical fields because of their multidifferentiation potential and capacity for growth-factor secretion. Recently, 2 in vivo studies showed ADSCs to have potential applications in lymphedema therapy. However, it remains unclear whether ADSCs have direct effects on lymphatic endothelial cells (LECs). In this study, human LECs were treated with murine ADSC-derived conditioned media. Changes in LEC proliferation, migration, and tube formation were assessed by WST-8 assay, transwell chamber assay, and Matrigel-based tube formation assay, respectively, with recombinant human vascular endothelial growth factor-C used as a positive control. Additionally, the expression of several lymphangiogenic factors in ADSCs was examined by quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Factors secreted by ADSCs induced LEC proliferation, migration, and tube formation more potently than recombinant human vascular endothelial growth factor-C. We confirmed by quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay that some of the lymphangiogenic factors of ADSCs were dramatically up-regulated under serum-starved conditions. These data indicate that ADSCs could directly contribute to lymphangiogenesis via secretory factors in vitro and may thus provide a therapeutic modality for patients with lymphedema.
Temporal auditory processing and phonological awareness in reading and writing disorders: preliminary data.

PURPOSE To verify if there is an association between temporal auditory tests and phonological awareness in individuals with reading and writing disorders. METHODS Sixteen children were subjects of this study, aged between 7 and 12 years old, who had reading and writing disorders confirmed after specific assessment. All participants underwent phonological awareness assessment using CONFIAS test. In order to assess the auditory temporal processing, duration and frequency pattern tests were used. RESULTS The descriptive analysis indicated low performance in syllabic and phonemic activities of phonological awareness as well as in temporal auditory tests. Fisher's test indicated association between disorders in auditory temporal processing and phonological awareness (p>0.001). It suggests that disorders in temporal processing contribute to low performance in phonological awareness tasks. CONCLUSIONS There was association between performance in temporal auditory tests and in the phonological awareness. Data found provide reflections about including temporal auditory assessment among procedures used in the analysis of individuals with reading and writing disorders.
Empirical study of the impact of Software Quality Practices on Product Performance in engineering firms in Pakistan

In the growing race of technology and innovation users and engineering firms, particularly in developing countries like Pakistan, are perturbed by software related issues in the build products that impede customer satisfaction, timely product development and delivery. Software quality practices have become important to tackle such impediments as reveals in literature review. This paper identifies a research framework and investigates the impact of Software Quality Practices composed of three factors Software Quality Standards, Software Configuration Management and Software Tools on Product Performance composed of other three factors Customer Satisfaction, Product Safety and Product Development Time once software quality practices were introduced and implemented in four engineering firms in Pakistan. The research is administered with survey questionnaire and primary data collected from the customers of these firms. Statistical analysis is performed and the results show that product performance increased after the implementation of software quality practices. Recommendations are proposed to deal with implementation challenges and reducing product development and delivery time. The study contributes to determine and align the practical solutions related to software quality practices in engineering firms in Pakistan.
New results on the Be-8 anomaly

Recently, we measured the e$^+$e$^-$ angular correlations in internal pair creation (IPC) for the M1 transitions depopulating the 17.6 and 18.15 MeV states in $^8$Be, and observed a peak-like deviation from the predicted IPC for the 18.15 MeV transition, but not for the 17.6 MeV one. To the best of our knowledge no nuclear physics related description of such deviation can be made. The deviation between the experimental and theoretical angular correlations is significant and can be described by assuming the creation and subsequent decay of a boson with mass $m_0c^2$=16.70$\pm0.35 $(stat)$\pm 0.5 $(sys) MeV. The branching ratio of the e$^+$e$^-$ decay of such a boson to the $\gamma$ decay of the 18.15 MeV level of $^8$Be is found to be $5.8\times10^{-6}$ for the best fit. The data can be explained by a 17.6 MeV vector gauge boson X that is produced in the decay of the excited state to the ground state, and then decays to e$^+$e$^-$ pairs. In the present work we re-investigated the e$^+$e$^-$ pair correlation in the 17.6 MeV transition of $^8$Be in which some smaller deviation was also expected. The branching ratio of the $e^+e^-$ decay of such a boson to the $\gamma$ decay was found to be $(2\pm2)\times10^{-6}$.
The nutritional health of New Zealand vegetarian and non-vegetarian Seventh-day Adventists: selected vitamin, mineral and lipid levels.

AIM To determine whether adult non-vegetarian Seventh-day Adventists differ in selected nutrition related health aspects from adult vegetarian Seventh-day Adventists. METHODS One hundred and forty-one Seventh-day Adventist church members responded to a general health questionnaire. Forty-seven sex and age matched subjects (23 non-vegetarians and 24 vegetarians) were selected for further investigation. Blood lipids, serum vitamin B12, folate, haemoglobin and ferritin levels were measured along with stature, weight and blood pressure. A quantitative 7-day diet record was also completed. RESULTS Body mass index was similar between the non-vegetarian and vegetarian groups but diastolic blood pressure was higher for non-vegetarian than vegetarian males. Even though the dietary vitamin B12 intake was significantly lower (p < 0.01) in the vegetarian group both vegetarians and non-vegetarians recorded similar serum vitamin B12 levels. The vegetarian and non-vegetarian groups had similar haemoglobin concentrations. While dietary iron intake was higher in the female vegetarian group, though predominantly in the non-haem form, the difference was not significant. Low serum ferritin levels were found in both female dietary groups even though the vegetarian group had a significantly (p < 0.05) higher vitamin C intake. Blood lipid levels were similar in the two diet groups even though the vegetarian group had a lower percentage energy contribution from total and saturated fat (p < 0.01) and consumed significantly less cholesterol. CONCLUSION Both non-vegetarian and vegetarian Seventh-day Adventists appear likely to enjoy a lower risk of nutrition related chronic degenerative disease than the average New Zealander and have a satisfactory iron and vitamin B12 status.
Adaptive Learning and Labour Market Dynamics

It is well known that the standard search and matching model with Rational Expectations (RE) is unable to generate amplification in unemployment and vacancies. We show that relaxing the RE assumption has the potential to provide a solution to this well known unemployment volatility puzzle. A model in which agents use Recursive Least Square algorithms to update their expectations as new information becomes available is presented. Firms choose vacancies by making infinite horizon forecasts over (un)employment rates, wages and interest rates at each point in time. Firms have much greater incentive for vacancy posting because of overoptimism about the discounted value of expected profits at the time a positive TFP shock hits the economy. The model with adaptive learning is able to match the relative volatility of labour market variables in US data and the properties of forecast errors of unemployment rates obtained from the Survey of Professional Forecasters.
Human scleral permeability. Effects of age, cryotherapy, transscleral diode laser, and surgical thinning.

PURPOSE To determine the in vitro permeability of human sclera to compounds varying in molecular weight. To evaluate the effects of age, cryotherapy, transscleral diode laser, and surgical thinning on scleral permeability. METHODS Scleral tissue from 97 human eye bank eyes was tested individually in a two-chamber Ussing apparatus with the following hydrophilic radiolabeled compounds on one side of the chamber: 5-fluorouracil, sucrose, dexamethasone, methotrexate, inulin, and three separate dextran polymers (MWt = 10,000, 40,000, and 70,000). Scleral hydration levels were obtained on 20 more scleral specimens. Additional groups of scleral specimens were treated with either a cryotherapy probe, a transscleral diode laser retinopexy probe, or partial thickness lamellar dissection, and specimens were mounted in the Ussing chambers for testing. Scleral tissue was digested to measure the amount of radioactivity present. Scleral sections were examined with electron microscopy. RESULTS Scleral hydration was maintained during the perfusion. The mean scleral permeability (cm/second x 10(-6) +/- SD) was established for each of the above compounds. Age, cryotherapy, or diode laser treatment did not alter permeability or ultrastructure of the sclera. Surgical thinning significantly increased the scleral permeability to dexamethasone (P = 0.011) and methotrexate (P = 0.037). CONCLUSION This study establishes baseline human scleral permeability to a series of hydrophilic compounds with various molecular weights. Age, cryotherapy, and diode laser treatment do not alter the permeability or ultrastructure of the sclera, whereas surgical thinning significantly increases permeability.
Exploring Personalized Neural Conversational Models

Modeling dialog systems is currently one of the most active problems in Natural Language Processing. Recent advances in Deep Learning have sparked an interest in the use of neural networks in modeling language, particularly for personalized conversational agents that can retain contextual information during dialog exchanges. This work carefully explores and compares several of the recently proposed neural conversation models, and carries out a detailed evaluation on the multiple factors that can significantly affect predictive performance, such as pretraining, embedding training, data cleaning, diversity-based reranking, evaluation setting, etc. Based on the tradeoffs of different models, we propose a new neural generative dialog model conditioned on speakers as well as context history that outperforms previous models on both retrieval and generative metrics. Our findings indicate that pretraining speaker embeddings on larger datasets, as well as bootstrapping word and speaker embeddings, can significantly improve performance (up to 3 points in perplexity), and that promoting diversity in using Mutual Information based techniques has a very strong effect in ranking metrics.
A New Dynamic Floating Input D Flip-Flop (DFIDFF) for High Speed and Ultra Low Voltage Divided-by 4/5 Prescaler

A new ultra low voltage dynamic floating input D flip-flop (DFIDFF) is proposed for high speed prescaler circuit. Prescaler and VCO are the main blocks that determining the speed of phase locked-loop (PLL). In this paper, a very low power-delay product divide-by 4/5 prescaler based on our DFIDFF is proposed. The prescaler implemented with 0.13 mum 1P8M N-well CMOS process with an ultra low 0.5 V power supply voltage. By HSPICE simulation results, the power-delay product (PDP) of the novel divided-by 4/5 prescaler can be reduced over 39% in comparison to conventional divided-by 4/5 prescaler. Moreover, the novel divided-by-4/5 prescaler circuit can operate at 613 MHz with the power consumption of 8.014 uW under a 0.5 V supply voltage.
Psychometric properties of the Swedish version of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire—Short Form (CTQ-SF)

Childhood maltreatment is delicate to assess both in clinical work and in research. There is a need for assessment tools that can be easily administered in an ethical and non-intrusive way that meets requirements of conceptual validity for various types of maltreatment and is sensitive to levels of severity. This study explores the psychometric properties of the Swedish translation of one such tool—the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire—Short Form (CTQ-SF; Bernstein and Fink, 1998). The CTQ-SF was administered to seven samples (total n=659)—five clinical samples and two non-clinical student samples. The factor structure supports the construct validity of the global maltreatment scale, four of the five maltreatment subscales (emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse and emotional neglect) and the minimization/denial (MD) scale, but not the physical neglect (PN) subscale. All items are highly correlated with their respective subscale. The discriminant validity is satisfactory. Highly significant correlation with social desirability gives further support for the MD-scale and to the recommendation of how to apply it. Internal consistency of PN is acceptable and for all other scales satisfactory. Swedish norm groups tend to score lower than similar American norm groups on abuse scales but higher on the neglect scales. Percentiles for seven gender-specific norm groups are presented. The weaknesses of the PN-scale are discussed and new constructs are proposed. The Swedish version of the CTQ-SF has the same construct validity and internal consistency as the original, including less homogeneity of the PN scale.
Essays on monetary policy

This thesis consists of three essays which aim to evaluate the role played by monetary policy in economic outcomes. The first two essays investigate the properties of the historical conduct of monetary policy in the United Kingdom and the United States, respectively, and justify how these properties are related to economic performance. The third essay analyzes the impact of changes in the volatility of monetary policy shocks on the economy using a Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) model with financial frictions.
Inhibition of human trophoblast invasiveness by high glucose concentrations.

CONTEXT Trophoblast invasion of the uterus is regulated by local microenvironmental factors. OBJECTIVE Because certain conditions may affect uterine glucose levels during placentation, the aim of this study was to determine the effect of glucose concentration on trophoblast invasion. RESULTS Compared with incubation in 0.2 and 2.5 mm glucose, a 24-h incubation in increasing glucose concentrations (5 and 10 mm) resulted in up to a 62% inhibition (P < 0.01) of the in vitro invasiveness of immortalized HTR-8/SVneo trophoblasts. This decreased invasiveness in 5 and 10 mm glucose was paralleled by inhibition of a plasminogen activator (PA) activity corresponding to active urokinase-type PA (uPA). Inhibition of pro-uPA binding to the uPA receptor decreased the invasiveness of cells incubated in 0.2 and 2.5 mm glucose to levels observed in cells incubated in higher glucose concentrations (P < 0.05). Gelatin zymography and Western blot analysis revealed that the levels of matrix metalloproteinase-2 and -9, PA inhibitor-1, and uPA receptor were unaffected by glucose. Glucose transporter-1 levels were 26 and 34% higher in cells cultured in 2.5 and 0.2 mm glucose, respectively, vs. 5 or 10 mm glucose (P < 0.05). In contrast, glucose transporter-3 levels were not affected by incubation in various glucose concentrations. CONCLUSIONS These findings indicate that high glucose concentrations inhibit the invasiveness of HTR-8/SVneo cells by preventing uPA activation. Therefore, through its effects on uPA activity, glucose may be an important regulator of trophoblast invasiveness during implantation and placentation.
The nucleus is a conserved mechanosensation and mechanoresponse organelle

Cells in vivo exist in a dynamic environment where they experience variable mechanical influences. The precise mechanical environment influences cell‐cell interactions, cell‐extracellular matrix interactions, and in‐turn, cell morphology and cell function. Therefore, the ability of each cell to constantly and rapidly alter their behavior in response to variations in their mechanical environment is essential for cell viability, development, and function. Mechanotransduction, the process by which mechanical force is translated into a biochemical signal to activate downstream cellular responses, is thus crucial to cell function during development and homeostasis. Although much research has focused on how protein complexes at the cell cortex respond to mechanical stress to initiate mechanotransduction, the nucleus has emerged as crucial to the ability of the cell to perceive and respond to changes in its mechanical environment. This additional method for mechanosensing allows for direct transmission of force through the cytoskeleton to the nucleus, which can increase the speed at which a cell changes its transcriptional profile. This review discusses recent work demonstrating the importance of the nucleus in mediating the cellular response to internal and external force, establishing the nucleus as an important mechanosensing organelle. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Factors associated with changes in physical activity: a cohort study of inactive adolescent girls.

OBJECTIVE To identify factors associated with changes in physical activity in adolescent girls at risk for sedentary lifestyles and obesity. DESIGN A cohort study was performed with 201 high school girls recruited to participate in an evaluation study of a school-based obesity prevention physical education program. Three assessments were performed during an 8-month period. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Associations between physical activity and a range of personal factors (self-acceptance, self-worth, athletic competence, body image, depressive mood, perceived benefits, enjoyment of physical activity, self-efficacy, and body mass index), behavioral factors (watching television and time constraints), and socioenvironmental factors (social support and costs/resources) were assessed. RESULTS The 2 strongest and most consistent factors associated with change in physical activity were time constraints and support for physical activity from peers, parents, and teachers. Measures assessing self-perceptions, global (ie, self-worth) and specific to physical activity (ie, self-efficacy to be physically active), were also associated with change in physical activity. For example, a decrease of 2.0 U for an adolescent's perceived time constraints (possible range, 3.0-12.0 U) would be expected to lead to an increase of 53 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week (95% confidence interval, 33-72 minutes). An increase of 2.0 U in perceived support for physical activity (possible range, 3.0-12.0 U) would be expected to lead to an increase of 35 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week (95% confidence interval, 13-56 minutes). An increase of 3.0 U on the self-worth scale (possible range, 5.0-20.0 U) might be expected to lead to an increase of 19 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week (95% confidence interval, 0-40 minutes). CONCLUSION The effectiveness of interventions aimed at increasing physical activity among adolescent girls might be enhanced by engaging support from friends, family, and caring adults; addressing real and perceived time constraints; and helping adolescent girls feel more confident about themselves and their ability to engage in physical activity.
Modelling emerging market risk premia using higher moments

The purpose of this paper is to assess the incremental value of higher moments in modelling capital asset pricing models (CAPMs) of emerging markets. Whilst it is recognized that emerging markets are unlikely to yield sensible results in a mean-variance world, the high skewness and kurtosis present in emerging markets returns make our assessment potentially interesting. Generalized method of moments (GMM) is used for the estimation. We also present new versions of higher-moment market models of the data-generating process of the individual emerging markets and use these to identify model parameters. We find some evidence that emerging markets are better explained with additional systematic risks, such as co-skewness and co-kurtosis, than the conventional mean-variance CAPM. Copyright @ 1999 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. All rights reserved.