Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rapamycin toxicity in MIN 6 cells and rat and human islets is mediated by the inhibition of mTOR complex 2 ( mTORC 2 )

Aims/hypothesis Rapamycin (sirolimus) is one of the primary immunosuppressants for islet transplantation. Yet there is evidence that the long-term treatment of islet-transplant patients with rapamycin may be responsible for subsequent loss of islet graft function and viability. Therefore, the primary objective of this study was to elucidate the molecular mechanism of rapamycin toxicity in beta cells. Methods Experiments were performed on isolated rat and human islets of Langerhans and MIN6 cells. The effects of rapamycin and the roles of mammalian target of rapamycin complex 2 (mTORC2)/protein kinase B (PKB) on beta cell signalling, function and viability were investigated using cell viability assays, insulin ELISA assays, kinase assays, western blotting, pharmacological inhibitors, small interfering (si)RNA and through the overproduction of a constitutively active mutant of PKB. Results Rapamycin treatment of MIN6 cells and islets of Langerhans resulted in a loss of cell function and viability. Although rapamycin acutely inhibited mTOR complex 1 (mTORC1), the toxic effects of rapamycin were more closely correlated to the dissociation and inactivation of mTORC2 and the inhibition of PKB. Indeed, the overproduction of constitutively active PKB protected islets from rapamycin toxicity whereas the inhibition of PKB led to a loss of cell viability. Moreover, the selective inactivation of mTORC2 using siRNA directed towards rapamycininsensitive companion of target of rapamycin (RICTOR), mimicked the toxic effects of chronic rapamycin treatment. Conclusions/interpretation This report provides evidence that rapamycin toxicity is mediated by the inactivation of mTORC2 and the inhibition of PKB and thus reveals the molecular basis of rapamycin toxicity and the essential role of mTORC2 in maintaining beta cell function and survival.
Opportunities of Scanning Probe Microscopy for Electrical, Mechanical and Electromechanical Research of Semiconductor Nanowires

In this chapter, three types of phenomena (electrical, mechanical, and electromechanical) that can be investigated in individual III – V semiconductor nanowires with scanning probe microscope are presented. Transport measurements in GaAs nanowires based on stable electric connection provided opportunity to study individual vertical freestanding nanowires under gentle precisely controlled force. Latter approach appears superior to studies of horizontally fixed nanowires because studying vertical as-grown nanowires avoids charge leakage into the substrate and impact of defects caused by breakage of nanowires. Principles of thermionic emission theory are used to characterize electrical effects in individual as-grown nanowires. Effects of SiO 2 protective layer, surface pas- sivation layers, illumination, and influence of sweeping rate of current-voltage recording are analyzed. Elastic studies are performed for individual InP nanowires affixed at one end. Bending of the tapered nanowires with diameters of a narrow free end either 10 or 20 nm was performed under different loading forces. It allowed calculation of flexi- bility coefficient profiles along the nanowires ’ axes. Improved numerical model for tapered nanowires leads to the finding of Young ’ s modulus of wurtzite InP material in nanowires. Piezoelectric measurements permitting registration of reverse piezo effect with opportunities of direct piezo response recording for individual wurtzite GaAs nanowires are briefly described.
Koiter Asymptotic Analysis Of Thin-Walled Cold-Formed Steel Members

Abstract An imperfection sensitivity analysis of cold-formed steel members in compression is presented. The analysis is based on Koiter’s approach and Monte Carlo simulation. If the modes interaction is correctly accounted, than the limit load and the erosion of critical buckling load can be easily evaluated. Thousands of imperfection can be analysed with very low computational cost and an effective statistical evaluation of limit performance can be carried out. The analysis is done on pallet rack uprights in compression, based on an intensive experimental study carried out at the Politehnica University of Timisoara.
Utilization of Water Turbidity Meter Devices in Estimating the Aggregate Stability of Many Artificially Stabilized Soils

This study is designed to utilize portable turbidity meters, usually available in most water analysis laboratories, in developing of a quick Dispersion Ratio test (DR, %) as an index of soil stability. The work includes: first, the use of many stabilizers (Bitumen, Lime and Cement) in the preparation of many artificially stabilized lead contaminated soil; second, the measurements of the scouring depth (SD, in mm), by a “Mini” Jet Erosion Test and then both the critical shear stress (τc, pa) and the erodibility coefficient (kd, cm3/kN.s); and finally, the comparisons between dispersion ratio (DR, %) values of soils, as estimated by a portable turbidity meter first and then by the gravimetric method. The results showed that all stabilizers can markedly improve the stability of soil; either as (SD, τc, and kd) or as (DR, %) and cement was the best. In general, good correlations were found between the turbidity (NTU) and suspended solids (mg/l) of the stabilized soils (R= 0.99, 0.96 and 0.97) for bitumen, lime and cement, respectively. However, the turbidity DR (%) appears to have a higher correlation with both lime (R= -0.98) and bitumen (R= -0.96) and in a lesser extent with cement (R= -0.87); because only 3% cement could sharply reduce DR of the untreated soil from 7.03 to 2.54%, compared with 4.9 and 4.25% for lime and bitumen respectively. Moreover, the turbidity DR (%) seems to be highly correlated with the kd of soils (R= 0.99, 0.96 and 0.90) for cement, bitumen and lime, respectively and cement was a superior in the reduction of both kd and DR (%) even at 3%. The salient conclusion of this work is that the turbidity DR (%) can be easily utilized to be as a successful index of soil stability. Because this method is quick and of results that are highly correlated with the erodibility coefficient (kd), this may suggest and recommend the use of the turbidity meter devices in estimating the stability of artificially stabilized soils and other similar soils.
Tinker, Taper, QE, Bye? The Effect of Quantitative Easing on Financial Flows to Developing Countries

This paper examines gross financial inflows to developing countries between 2000 and 2013, with a particular focus on the potential effects of quantitative easing policies in the United States and other high-income countries. The paper finds evidence for potential transmission of quantitative easing along observable liquidity, portfolio balancing, and confidence channels. Moreover, quantitative easing had an additional effect over and above these observable channels, which the paper argues cannot be attributed to either market expectations or changes in the structural relationships between inflows and observable fundamentals. The baseline estimates place the lower bound of the effect of quantitative easing at around 5 percent of gross inflows (for the average developing economy), which suggests that of the 62 percent increase in inflows during 2009-13 related to changing global monetary conditions, at least 13 percent of this was attributable to quantitative easing. The paper also finds evidence of heterogeneity among different types of flows; portfolio (especially bond) flows tend to be more sensitive than foreign direct investment to our measured effects from quantitative easing. Finally, the paper performs simulations that explore the potential effects of the withdrawal of quantitative easing on financial flows to developing countries.
The contribution of African leafy vegetables (ALVS) to vitamin a intake and the influence of income in rural Kenya

Despite the increased recognition of African Leafy Vegetables (ALVs) as important source of vitamin A, there is still paucity of research highlighting on the vitamin A intake attributed to them. The level and the extent of contribution of ALVs could inform programming, monitoring and evaluation of vitamin A-related nutrition and development programs. The study aimed at investigating the level of contribution of ALVs to household vitamin A intake and the influence of household monthly income in a rural setting, through use of selected data from a cross-sectional vitamin A consumption survey in Butere-Mumias District, western Kenya. A multistage cluster sampling procedure was used to select 814 households considered for the survey. It was found that plant sources contributed about 43.1% of total household vitamin A intake. ALVs contributed 65.7% of vitamin A from plant sources and 32.7 % of household vitamin A intake. Predominant ALV was the cowpea leaves which accounted for about 45% of vitamin A contributed by ALVs, 34% of the contribution of plant sources and 14.7% of household vitamin A intake. Although the influence of monthly income on the level of vitamin A from ALVs was not conclusive, there were some indications that lower intake from ALVs was positively correlated with lower incomes and vice versa. Income was weakly and negatively associated with household vitamin A intake (r=-1.92, 3.7% of variance explained), and the opposite was true for the proportion of income spent on food verses household vitamin A intake (r=1.64, 2.7% of variance explained). It was apparent that ALVs formed an important dietary source of vitamin A in rural households in western Kenya with cowpea leaves as a predominant contributor. In areas of similar environmental conditions, ALVs production, marketing and consumption should be promoted. There was no evidence that increase in income among the rural folk may likely improve ALVs consumption and vitamin A intake. It is thus recommended that development programs and policies consider ALVs as significant source of vitamin A, and that increments in incomes per se may not significantly influence household vitamin A intake and from ALVs.
Treatment Outcome of Tuberculosis Patients under Directly Observed Treatment of Short Course in Benishangul Gumuz Region, Western Ethiopia: A Ten-Year Retrospective Study

A retrospective study was conducted to assess TB treatment outcome and thus evaluate DOTS programme in Benishangul Gumuz Region, western Ethiopia. The records of 3658 TB patients registered in the two hospitals between November, 2003 and October, 2012 at DOTS Clinics were analyzed. From the total patients, 2,223 (60.77%) were successfully treated, 315 (8.61%) lost to follow up, 341 (9.32%) died, 4 (0.11%) failed treatment and 775 (21.19%) not evaluated. There is no association in treatment success rate between new and previously treated patients (60.55% vs. 58.33%, X2=0.14; P>0.704). When transferred out (not evaluated) is excluded, the success rate was increased approximately by a rate of 0.03 times while the time is increased by one year (β=0.03106; CI=0.0218-0.0403). Smear negative pulmonary TB patients had 1.24 times low treatment success rate (64.08% vs. 58.07%; CI=1.02-1.51; P<0.001) compared to smear positive. Patients from Pawe areas had 1.34 times lower treatment success rate compared to cases from Assosa (64.91% vs. 58.57%; CI=1.16-1.55). Not evaluated and lost to follow up rates were higher in Pawe (24.93% vs. 14.16%; X2=38.66; P<0.001 and 10.10% vs. 5.82%; X2=16.40; P<0.001 respectively) while death rate was higher in Assosa (14.95% vs. 6.33%; X2=59.05; P<0.001). Accordingly, males and elders had the trend to be more likely to experience death. In conclusion, the treatment success rate of TB patients was low which accounts for 60.77%. Low treatment success and high proportion of death (9.32%) and defaulted (8.61%) rates are serious public health concerns that point out low DOTs programme performance in the study areas.
Posttraumatic stress disorder after cancer diagnosis in adults

s. Authors were contacted for missing data if the papers did not report the number of people with PTSD. For longitudinal studies, we included only the latest data point available for all papers in order to take advantage of the longer latencies between diagnosis and PTSD assessment. This also allowed us to avoid double-sampling participants. If papers reported two methods of assessing PTSD, we included only the results from clinical interviews rather than self-report measures. Where authors reported time since the end of treatment, we added six months to derive an approximation of the time since diagnosis. Where medians rather than means were given, the data were considered missing. Statistical procedures We conducted random effects meta-analysis using Comprehensive Meta-Analysis 2.0 (Englewood, NJ, 2005) and Stata version 14.1 (StataCorp 4905 Lakeway Dr College Station,
Efficiency of Intranasal Fentanyl in Patients with Breakthrough Cancer Pain in Daily Practice - Results of the German Non-Interventional Study with Instanyl® (GENISIS)

Objective: Breakthrough cancer pain (BTcP) affects 19-95% of cancer patients (dependent on the definition and methods used and the populations studied) and is associated with detrimental physical, psychological and social complications in affected individuals as well as with significant economic burden on society and the healthcare system. This study evaluated the analgesic efficacy and safety of intranasal fentanyl spray (INFS) for the treatment of BTcP in a clinical setting with a special focus on its impact on health care resource utilization. Research design and methods: This was a prospective, open-label, noninterventional, multi-center study. Opioid-tolerant adult patients with BTcP received INFS in the course of routine clinical practice, and completed standardized questionnaires as well as BTcP diaries over a 28-day observation period. Clinical trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00994760 Main outcome measures: Efficacy was assessed using measures of BTcP intensities, the times to first and to the maximum effect of INFS, as well as changes in BTcP-related restrictions in quality-of-life (QoL), activities of daily life (ADL) and overall wellbeing. Further analyses based on INFS-related changes in health care resource utilization. Treatment emergent adverse events (TEAEs) were recorded throughout. Results: Overall, 58 centers participated and enrolled 131 patients, of whom 116 (88.5%) completed the observation period and documented a total of 556BTcP episodes. The 100µg dose was judged as the most effective INFS dose in 64.0a% of patients, followed by 50 µg (28.0a%) and 200 µg (8.0 a%). The study recorded a substantial INFSrelated improvement in maximum BTcP intensity, compared with baseline as well as prior use. Patients reported experiencing the first effects of the study drug within 5 minutes of administration in 81.9% of episodes, and a time to maximum effect within 10 minutes in 81.4% of episodes. QoL and BTcP-related restrictions in ADL showed considerable improvements during the observation period. INFS was well tolerated, with sixpatients (4.6%) experiencing ≥1 study drug-related adverse event. Study limitations include a modest size and duration, and the single-arm design. Conclusion: Under the conditions of this non-interventional open-label study, INFS proved to be a rapid onset, highly effective and well tolerated alternative for the treatment of BTcP in opioid-tolerant cancer patients. INFS treatment was not only associated with substantial improvements in BTcP intensity as well as related restrictions in QoL and ADL, but also with a respectable decrease of health care resource demands – especially in the field of ambulatory palliative care nursing services.
Consumer acceptability and purchase intent of probiotic yoghurt with added glucose oxidase using sensometrics, artificial neural networks and logistic regression

This research aimed to identify the drivers of acceptance and purchase intent of a probiotic (Biﬁdobacte-rium longum BL05) nonﬂavoured yoghurt supplemented with glucose oxidase, and to model theconsumers’ acceptability using sensometrics and artiﬁcial neural networks (ANN). Consumers (n =100)evaluated the degree of liking of yoghurt assays in respect of appearance, aroma, taste, texture and over-all linking. Sensometric techniques – multiple linear regression (MLR), partial least squares regression(PLS), principal component regression (PCR) – and ANN were used to model the overall liking. Sensorydrivers of global acceptance and purchase intent were also determined using logistic regression (LR). Hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) identiﬁed three consumer segments that presented differences in allsensory attributes evaluated (P < 0.05). The ANN model showed the best performance to predict overallliking, followed by the MLR, PLS and PCR, indicating that taste and texture were the most signiﬁcantattributes impacting the yoghurts overall liking. In accordance with the logistic models, overall accep-tance and purchase intent could be predicted with 81.94 and 85.49% accuracy, respectively. The logisticregression indicated that taste was the attribute that contributed signiﬁcantly (P < 0.0001) to higherscores for purchase intent and was considered the driver of acceptance.Keywords Probiotic yoghurt, Glucose oxidase, Sensorial acceptance, Oxygen.INTRODUCTIONThe existence of a fermentation step leads to easyadaptation for the viability of probiotic micro-organisms in dairy products, contributing to thefact that this class of product has become its mostimportant representative (Heller 2001). The great-est concentration of probiotic micro-organisms canbe found in dairy products, especially fermentedproducts, such as yoghurts and drinks based on fer-mented milk and keﬁr. Of these,yoghurts represent36.6% (Granato et al. 2010a) in the Latin Ameri-can market: probiotic yoghurts increased 32%between 2005 and 2007 (Crowley 2008). Indeed,yoghurt presents the preference of the consumer,acting as the main vehicle for supplementationwith probiotic bacteria (Granato et al. 2010b),being reported in several studies (Korbekandi et al.2009; Wang et al. 2010; Ejtahed et al. 2011;Ramchandran and Shah 2011). The main purpose of technological solutions inprobiotic yoghurts and fermented milks is to main-tain the viability of the strain throughout productstorage in sufﬁcient numbers aimed to have bene-ﬁts to the consumer (Champagne and Gardner2005). These technologies include, among others,freeze drying (Kearney et al. 2009), inclusion offruit matrices (Almeida et al. 2009; Espi´rito Santoet al. 2011), microencapsulation (Ding and Shah2009; Sandoval-Castilla et al. 2010), dry matter
Distribution and taxonomy of the Italian clovers belonging to Trifolium sect. Vesicastrum subsect. Mystillus (Fabaceae)

In this paper, we focused our attention on the taxonomy and distribution in Italy of taxa belonging to Trifolium sect. Vesicastrum subsect. Mystillus. A short description of these closely related clovers, based on the study of fresh plant material, revision of herbarium specimens, and analysis of the relevant literature, is provided. Diagnostic features were highlighted by means of high-resolution digital images and, accordingly, an identification key is given. Trifolium spumosum, T. vesiculosum, T. mutabile and T. setiferum are reported to be distributed throughout Italy. We have updated the Italian distribution of the first three species by providing new occurrences from Tuscany, Umbria, Campania, Basilicata, and Calabria and by correcting previous references. The current presence of T. multistriatum in southern Italy is confirmed by our study, while T. setiferum must be excluded from the flora of Sicily. The study resulted in five new regional occurrences and 16 changes of presence status. Finally, intermediate forms between T. vesiculosum, T. multistriatum and T. mutabile were found both in living material and in the revised herbarium specimens.
The ant fauna of the Pilbara Bioregion , Western Australia

The ant fauna of the Pilbara Bioregion, which covers an area of ca. 179,000 km2, is reviewed. During surveys undertaken between May 2003 and September 2006, ants were one of the taxonomic groups to receive special attention. The total number of ant species recorded from 24 survey areas was 245, and these were placed in 37 genera and 9 subfamilies. Ants recorded from single quadrats (‘singletons’) accounted for 18.8% of the species. The most speciose genera were Camponotus (36 spp.), Iridomyrmex (31 spp.) and Melophorus (30 spp.). Based on current knowledge, 43% are purely Eremaean, 8% are primarily Bassian, 6% are primarily Torresian, nearly 17% occur over two of Australia’s three biogeographic divisions, and 25% are widespread over all three. At a quadrat level, there was no significant correlation between richness and any environmental variable, while clustering analysis revealed weak environmental correlations with ant assemblage composition. The classification at survey area level identified six groupings of ants; three climatic variables associated with these groupings were identified, namely annual temperature, precipitation in the coldest quarter of the year and annual precipitation.
BIM Education and Implementation View project Cyclone Project investigation GNSS Jammer Localisation ( Project Ends Feb 2018 ) View project

GNSS has become one of the most widespread measurement technologies, allowing cm-level positioning accuracy using RTK or Network RTK. Unfortunately, the system’s major drawbacks are the requirement for a clear view of the sky and accuracy dependent on the geometric distribution of the satellites, not only varying throughout the day but also prone to location specific problems. With widespread utilisation of GNSS for monitoring of manmade structures and other civil engineering tasks, such shortcomings can be critical. One of possible solution is the deployment of a supporting system, such as Locata – a terrestrial positioning technology, which mitigates the need for a clear view of the sky and provides system integrity control. This paper, part of the proposed integration feasibility study, presents Locata performance indoors, its capacity and mitigation methods.
The Reproduction of Efficiency Theory: The Construction of the AstraZeneca Merger in the Public Discourse

Mergers have become a generally accepted solution to a broad set of managerial problems in practice. However, research on mergers and acquisitions provides a rather sceptical view as to the success of mergers in solving business problems. The current paper aims at investigating the public discourse on mergers and acquisitions and its relation to the scientific discourse. The public discourse is studied by an analysis of Swedish media reports on the Astra Zeneca merger. More specifically we study the actors given voice in the discourse, the temporal evolution of the discourse and the arguments voiced. We conclude that the discourse is dominated by journalists, managers and financial analysts who all generate arguments based on a rather narrow “efficiency theoretical” basis. This is in conflict with current insights in research on mergers and acquisitions that has proposed more valid and complex models for understanding mergers. The reasons and consequences of this discrepancy between the public and the scientific discourses are discussed.