Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Erythroxylum pungens elicits vasorelaxation by reducing intracellular calcium concentration in vascular smooth muscle cells of rats

The cardiovascular effects elicited by the ethanolic extract obtained from the roots of Erythroxylum pungens O.E. Schulz, Erythroxylaceae (EEEP) and the vasorelaxant effect induced by its main tropane alkaloid (pungencine) were investigated. In normotensive rats, administration of EEEP (1, 10, 30 and 60 mg/kg i.v., randomly) produced dose-dependent hypotension (-2±1, -7±0.5 -17.6±1, -24±1 Δ mmHg, n=5) followed by tachycardia (3±0.5, 7±2, 7.1±1, 10±5 Δ bpm, n=5). In intact phenylephrine (Phe, 10 µM)-pre-contracted rings, EEEP (0.01-500 µg/mL) induced concentration-dependent vasorelaxation (EC50 13.7±5.5 µg/mL, Maximal Response= 92±2.6%), and this effect was unchanged after the removal of the vascular endothelium (EC50 27.2±4.7 µg/ml, Maximal Response= 88.3±3.3 %). In KCl (80 mM)-pre-contracted-endothelium-denuded rings, EEEP elicited concentration-dependent relaxation (EC50= 128.2±11.2 µg/mL, Maximal Response 76.8±3.4%). Vasorelaxation has also been achieved with tonic contractions evoked by the L-type Ca2+ channel agonist Bay K 8644 (EC50 80.2±9.1 µg/mL, Maximal Response 86.3±8.3%). In addition, in a depolarizing medium, EEEP inhibited CaCl2 (30-500 µg/mL) induced contractions and caused a concentration-dependent rightward shift of the relaxation curves. Lastly, the tropane alkaloid pungencine caused vasorelaxation in mesenteric arteries resembling to the EEEP responses. These results suggests that EEEP induces hypotension and vasorelaxation, at least in part, due to the reduction in [Ca2+]i in vascular smooth muscle cells.
Probabilistic population projections with migration uncertainty

Significance Projected populations to the end of this century are an important factor in many policy decisions. Population forecasts become less reliable as we look farther into the future, suggesting a probabilistic approach to convey uncertainty. Migration projections have been largely deterministic until now, even in probabilistic population projections. Deterministic migration projections neglect a substantial source of population uncertainty. We incorporate a probabilistic migration model with probabilistic models of fertility and mortality to produce probabilistic population projections for all countries until 2100. The result is a substantial increase in uncertainty about the populations of Europe and Northern America, with very little change to uncertainty about the population of Africa, Asia, and the world as a whole. We produce probabilistic projections of population for all countries based on probabilistic projections of fertility, mortality, and migration. We compare our projections to those from the United Nations’ Probabilistic Population Projections, which uses similar methods for fertility and mortality but deterministic migration projections. We find that uncertainty in migration projection is a substantial contributor to uncertainty in population projections for many countries. Prediction intervals for the populations of Northern America and Europe are over 70% wider, whereas prediction intervals for the populations of Africa, Asia, and the world as a whole are nearly unchanged. Out-of-sample validation shows that the model is reasonably well calibrated.
Caracterización de la Mortalidad por Accidentes de Tránsito en Ecuador, 2015

Caracterizar las principales causas de fallecimientos por accidentes de transito (AT) en Ecuador. Material y metodos: Estudio descriptivo, retrospectivo, se analizo fuentes secundarias de informacion de los fallecimientos por AT de la Agencia Nacional de Transito (ANT). Resultados: Se evidencia una tendencia ascendente de los fallecidos por AT (1998-2015), se registraron 35.706 accidentes, provocando 25.234 lesionados y 2.138 muertes en 2015. Las motocicletas y automoviles representan los tipos de vehiculo mas veces involucrados en estos fallecimientos. El tipo de accidente mas frecuente es el arrollamiento-atropello a peatones y choques frontales entre vehiculos en las principales provincias del pais. Las causas de los fallecimientos por AT son atribuidas a la imprudencia del conductor y peaton. Por cada 100 lesionados por arrollamiento en AT fallecieron 61 personas. Conclusiones: Los AT son un problema prioritario en salud publica para Ecuador. Los organismos publicos deben proporcionar mayor informacion de los AT, de modo que permitan profundizar en el estudio y analisis de las causas de los mismos y establecer nuevas lineas de investigacion. Asi mismo, es necesario fortalecer la conciencia de conductores y peatones sobre los AT para reducir los altos indices de mortalidad.
Metallothionein Mediates the Level and Activity of Nuclear Factor ΚB in Murine Fibroblasts

The zinc-binding protein metallothionein (MT) is associated with resistance to apoptosis. We examined whether MT regulates the zinc-dependent antiapoptotic transcription factor nuclear factor ΚB (NF-ΚB), which is up-regulated under many conditions that lead to elevated MT expression. NF-ΚB protein levels and NF-ΚB-dependent reporter gene activity were examined in clonal MT(+) (MT-WT) and MT(–) (MT-KO) fibroblastic cell lines. The amount of cellular NF-ΚB p65 protein in MT-KO was less than 20% of the amount in MT-WT cells, in accord with increased sensitivity of MT-KO cells to apoptosis. NF-ΚB p65 mRNA levels, and NF-ΚB p50 subunit and IΚBα protein levels, were unchanged. NF-ΚB activity assessed by expression of a transfected NF-ΚB reporter construct was less than half that observed in MT-KO cells. Decreased nuclear localization of NF-ΚB p65 in MT-KO clones was not responsible for differences in activity. In fact, MT-KO cells had higher nuclear levels of NF-ΚB p65 than did MT-WT cells, despite a lower cellular NF-ΚB level and function, suggesting that metallothionein mediated the specific activity of NF-ΚB. Reconstitution of MT by stable incorporation of an MT-1 expression vector in MT-KO cells resulted in increased NF-ΚB p65 (but not IΚBα or NF-ΚB p50), increased NF-ΚB-dependent reporter activity, and increased resistance to apoptosis. These data support the hypothesis that metallothionein positively regulates the cellular level and activity of NF-ΚB.
A Study on the Plan and Design of Leisure Farms’ Tourist Touch Points

Leisure agricultural tourism has become a new way for people in modern society to alleviate the pressure in daily life in holidays. Meanwhile, the investment in the construction of leisure farms is increasing rapidly. In terms of farm management, a differentiated management strategy can make projects on the development and construction of leisure farms stand out, and thus brings huge benefits and value. The Leisure Farm Customer Journey Map (CJM) is an effective strategic management tool for farm operators to understand the satisfaction degree of tourists. In this study, through many visits to leisure farms in Taiwan, 20 representative leisure farms are selected as research samples for case study, of which the analysis of touch points is conducted in order to find out visitors’ preference. In addition, through questionnaires, we try to find out which factors are the core motivations for tourists to visit leisure farms. This study hopes to help leisure farm operators understand the importance of the planning and design of these touch points for tourists’ experience through combining touch points in service design with tourists’ core motivations, and aims at optimizing the resource allocation of leisure farms and promoting the sustainable operation of leisure farms.
Liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma: Lessons from the first year under the Model of End‐Stage Liver Disease (MELD) organ allocation policy

We examined the impact of the Model for End‐Stage Liver Disease (MELD) organ allocation scheme on 44 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) awaiting orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) between February 2002 and January 2003, and compared the outcome with 58 patients listed in the 4 years before MELD implementation. Patients undergoing living‐donor liver transplantation were excluded. The Kaplan‐Meier probabilities for OLT at 3, 6, and up to 8.5 months were 22.5%, 64.0%, and 88.0%, respectively, under MELD versus 17.2%, 24.7%, and 35.8% at 3, 6 and 9 months, respectively, in the pre‐MELD group (P = .0006). In Cox regression analysis, non‐O blood group (hazard ratio 2.5; P = .047 versus blood group O) and 3 tumor nodules (hazard ratio 5.5; P = .005) were associated with a significantly higher probability for OLT under MELD. The probabilities of dropout were 5.6% at 6 and 8.5 months under MELD versus 7.2% and 37.8% at 6 and 12 months, respectively, in the pre‐MELD group (P = .74). The lack of a significant difference in dropout may be due to low dropout rates in the first 6 months in either group. No HCC was found in the explant in 1 patient from each group. In conclusion, the HCC‐adjusted MELD system significantly improved the probability of timely OLT, albeit a significant disadvantage for blood group O was evident. Compared with preliminary UNOS data, in which 90% of patients with HCC have received OLT within 3 months, our results reflect the wide regional variation in the impact of MELD. (Liver Transpl 2004;10:621–630)
Algorithms for Persistent Autonomy and Surveillance by Cenk Baykal

In this thesis, we consider the problem of monitoring stochastic, time-varying events occurring at discrete locations. Our problem formulation extends prior work in persistent surveillance by considering the objective of successfully completing monitoring tasks in unknown, dynamic environments where the rates of events are timeinhomogeneous and may be subject to abrupt changes. We propose novel monitoring algorithms that effectively strike a balance between exploration and exploitation as well as a balance between remembering and discarding information to handle temporal variations in unknown environments. We present analysis proving the favorable properties of the policies generated by our algorithms and present simulation results demonstrating their effectiveness in several monitoring scenarios inspired by realworld applications. Our theoretical and empirical results support the applicability of our algorithm to a wide range of monitoring applications, such as detection and tracking efforts at a large scale. Thesis Supervisor: Daniela Rus Title: Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Optimal Power Control and Error Performance for Full-Duplex Dual-Hop AF Relaying Under Residual Self-Interference

This paper investigates optimal power allocation schemes at the relay and their impact on the error performance for a full-duplex, dual-hop, amplify-and-forward system using finite constellations and under residual self-interference. The variance of the interference is assumed to be proportional to the λ-th power of the transmitted power. The worst-case pairwise error probability (PEP) is considered as the performance criterion. To find the optimal power allocation, we first derive a closed-form expression for the derivative of the PEP. A simple bisection method is then applied to obtain the optimal scheme. An asymptotically optimal allocation in closed form is also obtained assuming high power regions. From this analysis, it is shown that power allocation leads to a better diversity performance than full power transmission. In addition, the error floor behavior observed in previous works can be eliminated through power allocation. Numerical results are finally presented to illustrate the advantage of the proposed scheme over full power usage.
On omission in simultaneous interpreting: Risk analysis of a hidden effort

One of the long-standing debates in studies on simultaneous interpreting would pit “contextualists”, who see interpreters’ performances as being conditioned by contextual determinants, against “cognitivists”, who analyze performances in terms of cognitive constraints that would be the same for all professionals, regardless of context. Gile’s Effort Models would seem to be very much in the cognitive camp. However, modeling of the resources used when interpreters make omissions suggests that cognitive management may actively respond to contextual factors such as the aims of the discourse, the strategies of the speakers, and the variable risks of the text items. Analysis of the data from one of Gile’s experiments indicates that the cognitive management of omissions is indeed highly variable. Omissions that are low-risk for the aims of the discourse occur in a constant background mode, almost without sourcetext stimuli, such that in repeat performances they are found with similar frequency but in different places. On the other hand, omissions that incur high levels of risk tend to be repaired in repeat performance. This suggests that simultaneous interpreters strive for non-omission only in the case of high-risk contextualization. Further, since their management skills must incorporate enough contextualization for the necessary risk analysis to take place, the cognitive strategies of interpreters should be modeled in the same terms as those of all other linguistic mediators.
How Information Technology Strategy and Investments Influence Firm Performance: Conjecture and Empirical Evidence

In this paper, we develop conjectures for understanding how information technology (IT) strategy and IT investments jointly influence profitability and the market value of the firm. We view IT strategy as an expression of the dominant strategic objective that the firm chooses to emphasize, which can be revenue expansion, cost reduction, or a dual emphasis in which both goals are pursued. Using data from more than 300 firms in the United States, we find that at the mean value of IT investments, firms with a dual IT strategic emphasis have a higher market value as measured by Tobin's Q than firms with a revenue or a cost emphasis, but they have similar levels of profitability. Of greater importance, IT strategic emphasis plays a significant role in moderating the relationship between IT investments and firm performance. Dual-emphasis firms have a stronger IT-Tobin's Q relationship than revenue-emphasis firms. Dual-emphasis firms also have a stronger IT- profitability relationship than either revenue- or cost-emphasis firms. Overall, these findings imply that, at low levels of IT investment, the firm may need to choose between revenue expansion and cost reduction, but at higher levels of IT investment, dual-emphasis in IT strategy or IT strategic ambidexterity increasingly pays off.
Molecular analysis of cell-free circulating DNA for the diagnosis of somatic mutations associated with resistance to tyrosine kinase inhibitors in non-small-cell lung cancer

In non-small-cell lung cancer, the molecular diagnosis of somatic mutations is instrumental for the choice of the most appropriate treatment. However, despite an initial response, resistance to tyrosine kinase inhibitors occurs and thereafter tumors progress. For this reason, next generation inhibitors able to overcome acquired resistances are currently in development. Therefore, the identification of the molecular determinants of resistance is needed to adapt treatment accordingly. The analysis of circulating cell-free tumor DNA represents a powerful tool to monitor the somatic changes induced by treatment. This review focuses on the most recent advantages in the diagnosis of acquired resistance in circulating cell-free tumor DNA and underlines the strategies ready to be translated in the clinical practice.
Ranking of Outcome Domains for Use in Real-Time Outcomes Feedback Laboratory by Patients With Schizophrenia

The purpose of this study was to prioritize real-time outcomes from the perspective of patients with schizophrenia. Thirty-eight patients were interviewed and ranked 15 outcome domains according to their preference for communicating these outcomes with their mental health provider in the context of a real-time outcomes feedback laboratory. Subjects with schizophrenia ranked overall physical health as the most important outcome domain that they wanted to communicate to their mental health provider in the context of a real-time outcomes feedback laboratory. The ranking of physical health as the most important outcome domain was true for subjects regardless of total psychosis symptom severity, positive symptom severity, age, or level of insight. Outcomes feedback interventions for patients with schizophrenia should include physical health problems in addition to the usual mental health parameters.
Long noncoding RNA LINC00673 epigenetically suppresses KLF4 by interacting with EZH2 and DNMT1 in gastric cancer

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), a variety of transcripts without protein coding ability, have recently been reported to play vital roles in gastric cancer (GC) development and progression. However, the biological role of long non-coding RNA LINC00673 in GC is not fully known. In the study, we found that LINC00673 expression was dramatically higher in gastric cancer tissues compared with adjacent normal tissues, and positively associated with lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis and TNM stage in patients. Higher LINC00673 expression predicted poor disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) in GC patients. By univariate and multivariate Cox analysis, the results confirmed that higher LINC00673 expression was an independent risk factor of prognosis in patients. Knockdown of endogenous LINC00673 significantly inhibited cell proliferation, colony formation number, cell migration and invasion in GC. Furthermore, knockdown of endogenous LINC00673 reduced the expression levels of PCNA, CyclinD1 and CDK2 in GC cells. RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) proved that LINC00673 suppressed KLF4 expression by interacting with EZH2 and DNMT1 in GC cells. Moreover, we confirmed that LINC00673 promoted cell proliferation and invasion by partly repressing KLF4 expression in GC. Taken together, these results indicated that LINC00673 may be a prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target for GC patients.
25 Years of systemic therapies research: Progress and promise

Abstract Objective: In this article we describe and assess the state of the science on systemic psychotherapies. In the quarter century since the first issue of Psychotherapy Research was published, considerable progress has been made. There is an increasingly solid evidence base for systemic treatments, which includes a wide range of approaches to working conjointly with couples and families. Moreover, there are exciting new developments that hold promise for explicating the dynamic processes of therapeutic change in couple and family systems. Method: We begin by explaining how we view “systemic therapies” as different from individual approaches and then summarize what we have learned in the past 25 years about this set of treatments, how we have learned it, and what we have yet to learn. Results and Conclusions: We consider current trends in research on outcomes and change process mechanisms, and end with speculations about what lies ahead in the interrelated domains of systemic research and practice.
Fine-needle aspiration cytology of Kikuchi Fujimoto disease

Kikuchi disease (KD) is an enigmatous, self-limiting, rarely fatal, disease of young females. The self-limiting disorder usually occurs in Asian women in their late 20s or early 30s. Typically it runs a benign course and appears to resolve spontaneously one to six months after definitive diagnosis. We report a 27 years old lady presenting with cervical lymphadenopathy. Fine needle aspiration cytology of the node clinched the diagnosis revealing crescentic histiocytes, plasmacytoid monocytes, extracellular (karyorrhectic) debris and necrosis. The diagnosis was subsequently confirmed by histopathology.
Pathotypic characterization of Newcastle disease virus isolated from vaccinated chicken in West Java, Indonesia

Aim: This research was conducted to differentiate and characterize eight Newcastle disease virus (NDV) isolates collected from vaccinated chicken at commercial flocks in West Java, Indonesia, in 2011, 2014 and 2015 by pathotype specific primers. Materials and Methods: A total of eight NDV isolates collected from clinical outbreaks among commercial vaccinated flocks in West Java, Indonesia, in 2011, 2014, and 2015 were used in this study. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction was used to detect and differentiate virulence of NDV strains, using three sets of primers targeting their M and F gene. First primers were universal primers to detect NDV targeting matrix (M) gene. Other two sets of primers were specific for the fusion (F) gene cleavage site sequence of virulent and avirulent NDV strains. Results: Our results showed that three isolates belong to NDV virulent strains, and other five isolates belong to NDV avirulent strains. The nucleotide sequence of the F protein cleavage site showed 112K/R-R-Q/R-K-R/G-F117 on NDV virulent strains and 112G-K/R-Q-G-R-L117 on NDV avirulent strain. Conclusion: Result from the current study suggested that NDV virulent strain were circulating among vaccinated chickens in West Java, Indonesia; this might possess a risk of causing ND outbreaks and causing economic losses within the poultry industry.
Altered experience mediates the relationship between schizotypy and mood disturbance during shamanic-like journeying

Studies have found that shamanic practices are associated with statistically significant reductions in mood disturbance relative to baseline. However, contrary results were obtained for non-shamanic practitioners exposed to shamanic-like techniques. These inconsistent results may be partially due to a personality trait referred to as schizotypy, which has been demonstrated to influence susceptibility to shamanic-like techniques. Furthermore, given that an integral feature of shamanism is the production of altered states of awareness and altered experiences, and that shamanism is associated with health benefits, perhaps the production of such alterations affects health benefits. Consequently, the present study aimed to investigate whether altered state of awareness and altered experience mediated the association between schizotypy and mood disturbance during exposure to a shamanic-like condition. Sixty-nine non-shamans were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: shamanic-like journeying with drumming or sitting quietly with eyes open. Total mood disturbance-change was significantly negatively correlated with schizotypy and altered experience -- but not altered state of awareness -- and these correlations were significantly stronger for the shamanic-like journeying condition relative to the control condition. Furthermore, altered experience significantly mediated the association between schizotypy and total mood disturbance-change during exposure to shamanic-like journeying.