Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hepatocyte growth factor enhances ovarian cancer cell invasion through down-regulation of thrombospondin-1

Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) plays an important role in stimulating tumor invasion and metastasis of tumor cells. However, the exact mechanisms of HGF regulation of cell invasion are largely unknown. In this study, we demonstrated that the MAPK specific inhibitor U0126 prevented the HGF-induced invasion of SKOV-3 cells. HGF stimulation of cell invasion and enhancement of MMP-9 expression were partially suppressed by TSP-1 overexpression. Furthermore, the MAPK signaling pathway is predominantly responsible for HGF-induced TSP-1 down-regulation. We conclude that HGF is a potential down-regulator of TSP-1, through MAPK signaling pathways, leading to the induction of MMP-9 expression and subsequent invasion of SKOV-3 cells. This study enhances our understanding of the mechanisms of signaling transduction in the HGF-induced invasion and progression of ovarian cancer.
Participatory pressuring and strategic self-silencing theory : warning! there can be health and organizational risks

Participatory Pressuring and Strategic Self-Silencing Theory: Warning! There can be Health and Organizational Risks By Ellen Rudderham-Gaudet April 30, 2013 Initial gendered studies on the male dominated organization of Rotary International (Rotary) were catalytic to the decision to do more research on both female and male membership experiences. Previous theoretical knowledge was initially put aside to develop substantive theory about a membership problem and how it was resolved. Theory emerged and was developed using a classical grounded theory approach (Glaser, 1998) to analyze data collected using participant observation. Participatory pressuring (PP) was identified as a central problem for participants. PP tactics were used to engage members to think or engage in certain ways. In the short term, PP tactics often worked, but members often felt uncomfortable with their use and subsequently resorted to strategic self-silencing (SSS) behaviors in resistance and avoidance to protect relationships and/or the organization. A developing conceptual framework of PP and SSS was compared to related scholarship. With data from the literature indicating a causal link between self-silencing and anxiety and depression for women, the research was redirected to comparatively include gendered data. Based on ‘all the data’ from incidents and the literature, the semifictional story of Violet emerged. Violet’s story was created to reflect the gendered implications of PP and SSS theory and the sensitive nature of data collected. Violet’s story highlighted the importance of how PP and SSS behaviors can impact women compared to men and offered insight into why women may be opting out of opportunities to participate more in organizational contexts. In the silence of Rotary, leaders are not getting invaluable feedback to address membership retention and recruitment challenges. PP-SSS theory provides both descriptive and explanatory conceptualizations about what is going on in Rotary and the impact these behaviors have at both individual and organizational levels. This research contributes to knowledge about practices used to engage members and to the growing body of knowledge about organizational silence. Descriptive details with conceptual and critical insights on how the research process was conducted contribute to the evolving interpretations of grounded theory methodology.
The Use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) among Legal Practitioners in Ibadan Metropolis

This work present the use of ICTs among legal practitioners in Ibadan metropolis and to determine how often the lawyers used ICTs for their information needs and to ascertain the extent to which they were satisfied with the services provided by ICTs. The analyses are based on data from a questionnaire survey of the legal practitioners in the metropolis. The findings revealed that due to lack of awareness, majority of the lawyers were yet to take advantage of the huge potential benefits that can be derived from using ICTs. The study revealed that legal practitioners used some ICTs more than others; for instance, mobile phones and computers were the most frequently used ICTs. Furthermore, young legal practitioners embraced ICTs more than the older lawyers. In addition, about 75.2% of the respondents strongly agreed that the application of ICTs in the legal profession would go a long way in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the profession. The major problems and constraints identified to the use of ICTs among lawyers are the unfavorable economic situation of the country, excessive cost of procurement of ICTs facilities and inadequate infrastructure such as telecommunication and electric supply.
A Review of the State of the Art of Power Electronics for Wind Turbines

This paper reviews the power electronic applications for wind energy systems. Various wind turbine systems with different generators and power electronic converters are described, and different technical features are compared. The electrical topologies of wind farms with different wind turbines are summarized and the possible uses of power electronic converters with wind farms are shown. Finally, the possible methods of using the power electronic technology for improving wind turbine performance in power systems to meet the main grid connection requirements are discussed.
Distributed Topology Control With Lifetime Extension Based on Non-Cooperative Game for Wireless Sensor Networks

In a large and complex distributed sensor network, the individual sensor directly communicates only with its neighboring sensors. Despite being restricted to such local communications, the network itself should be self-organizing to maintain certain desirable properties, such as network connectivity and lifetime maximization. Topology control is a technique to determine the optimal transmit parameters for each sensor, such that the network topology has the best possible network performance. In this paper, we investigate a dynamic topology control scheme to improve the network lifetime for wireless sensor networks in the presence of selfish sensors. A non-cooperative game aided topology control approach is developed for designing energy-efficient and energy balanced network topologies dynamically. Each sensor in the topology control game tries to minimize its unwillingness for constructing a connected network according to its residual energy and transmit power. We prove the existence of Nash equilibrium (NE) and demonstrate that the NE is Pareto optimal as well. Specifically, a fully distributed algorithm-topology control with lifetime extension (TCLE)-is proposed to construct dynamic network topologies. The topologies derived by TCLE algorithm can improve the network lifetime significantly as compared with existing algorithms. Simulations demonstrate the efficiency of our TCLE algorithm.
Luck Versus Skill: Can Chinese Funds Beat the Market?

ABSTRACT In this article, we examine luck versus skill in Chinese mutual fund performance. A bootstrap approach has been applied to 773 open-end equity funds over the period 2002–13. Both the analyses with a returns-based measure and a holdings-based measure suggest the same result: no fund in China can outperform the market. We also find that more growth funds have positive alphas, but the result is not statistically significant. For sub-periods, we find that compared with the period 2008–13 there are fewer unskilled managers than during the period 2002–7. The analyses with different bootstrap rules and different minimum data requirements suggest the same result.
Cyclic treatment of chronic hepatic encephalopathy with rifaximin. Results of a double-blind clinical study.

BACKGROUND Chronic hepatic encephalopathy (HE) represents a frequent and serious complication of chronic liver disease. Aim of the study is to comparatively evaluate the effect of rifaximin, lactitol and their combination in treating chronic HE. METHODS Forty out-patients (29 males, 11 females, mean age: 59 years, range 40-70), with viral liver cirrhosis and chronic HE (1st-2nd degree) were studied. HE was assessed by considering: mental state, asterixis, number connection test (NCT), arterial blood ammonia levels. Patients were randomly assigned to the following treatments: rifaximin (plus sorbitol as placebo) (group R); lactitol (group L); rifaximin plus lactitol (group RL). All treatments were continued for 15 days for 3 cycles, intervalled by 15 days of washout. RESULTS The 3 treatments reduced HE, but with different efficacy: patients of group R and RL significantly (p<0.05) documented a faster improvement in HE degree, a higher percentage of patients which normalized mental state and NCT, a faster improvement of asterixis and a longer persistence of normal ammonia levels than patients of group L. CONCLUSIONS Rifaximin in combination with lactitol or sorbitol represents an effective and safe treatment of chronic HE.
RHABDOID TUMOUR OF THE KIDNEY: a clinicopathological study of 22 patients from the International Society of Paediatric Oncology (SIOP) nephroblastoma file

We present 22 (0.9%) cases of rhabdoid tumour of the kidney diagnosed amongst 2392 renal tumours in children. The patients ages ranged from 3 weeks to 94 months (median 7 months) and the female:male ratio was 1.2 : 1. Clinically, they presented with an abdominal mass but four (18%) children also had hypercalcaemia and one (4.5%) developed a brain tumour (primitive neuroectodermal tumour). None of the children presented with stage I disease, five (23%) had stage II, ten (46%) stage III, and five (23%) stage IV disease. Two (9%) patients had bilateral tumours. Histologically, the vast majority (20/22) of the tumours exhibited a classical pattern but other histological patterns were also noted. Immunohistochemical studies performed in 12 cases showed vimentin positivity in all cases, CAM 5.2 in eight, epithelial membrane antigen in six, neuron specific enolase in four, S‐100 protein in eight, and desmin in one case. In only 12 of the 22 tumours was there agreement between the reporting pathologist and the panel on a diagnosis of rhabdoid tumour of the kidney. Eight tumours originally diagnosed as rhabdoid tumour of the kidney were found to be other renal tumours and in another ten cases the initial diagnosis was changed by the panel to rhabdoid tumour. Metastases developed in 18 (82%) of the children—in eight they were present at the time of diagnosis and in 10 they developed from 2 weeks to 9 months after initial diagnosis. Metastases were found in the lung, abdomen, lymph nodes, liver, bone and brain. Of the 19 children with adequate follow‐up, only two (10.5%) with stage II disease are alive, while 17 (89.5%) died 2 weeks to 20 months after the diagnosis.
Psychiatric disorders are overlooked in patients with drug abuse.

INTRODUCTION Psychiatric disease is overlooked in drug users. Patients with both drug abuse and a psychiatric disease - dual diagnosis - suffer decreased compliance to treatment and decreased life expectancy compared with single-diagnosis patients. Identifying the patients among either drug addicts or mentally ill patients is difficult. METHODS All drug addicts autopsied at the Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, in the years 1992, 2002 and 2012 were included. The group was divided into two subpopulations of possible dual diagnosis patients either according to police reports stating mental illness or to psychotropics found in the toxicology screening after autopsy. RESULTS We found a rise in possible mental illness in both subpopulations in the study period. Drug addicts with psychotropics in the blood at the time of death increased from 3.1% in 1992 to 48.1% in 2012, and this group was significantly younger at the time of death than those without psychotropics in the blood. CONCLUSIONS Suspected dual diagnosis patients have increased in number. They die earlier than their drug addict counterparts. Methadone remains the leading cause of death in all subpopulations. Possible causes are misuse of treatment and/or illegally bought methadone, wrongly assigned cause of death due to unknown tolerance and/or polydrug toxicity in combination with psychotropic medicine. FUNDING none. TRIAL REGISTRATION not relevant.
The effective diffusion coefficient and the distribution constant for small molecules in calcium‐alginate gel beads

The effective diffusion coefficient, De, and the distribution constant, Ki, for selected mono‐ and disaccharides and organic acids were determined in homogeneous calcium‐alginate gel with and without entrapped bacteria. Results were obtained from transient concentration changes in well‐stirred solutions of limited volume, in which the gel beads were suspended. The effective diffusioncoefficients and the distribution constants were estimated by fitting mathematical model predictions to the experimental data using a nonlinear model fitting program (MODFIT). Both single solute diffusion and multiple solute diffusion were performed. A small positive effect was obtained onthe values of De for the system of multiple solute diffusion; however, the values of Ki were not significantly influenced. For the nine solutes tested, De for 2% Ca‐alginate gel beads was found to be approximately 85% of the diffusivity measured in water. The effects on De and Ki, for lactose and lactic acid were determined for variations of alginate concentration, pH, temperature, and biomass content in the beads. De decreased linearly for both lactose and lactic acid with increasing cell concentration in the Ca‐alginate gel. Ki, was constant for both lactose and lactic acid with increasing cell concentration. De was significantly lower at pH 4.5 than at pH 5.5 and 6.5 for both lactose and lactic acid. Furthermore, De seemed to decrease with increased alginate concentration in the range of 1% to 4%. The diffusion rate increased with increasing temperature, and the activation energy for the diffusion process for both lactose and lactic acid was constant in the temperature range tested. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons Inc.
State-corporate alliance : ramifications for corporate social responsibility and sustainable livelihood

This article inquires into the ramifications of state-corporate alliance for corporate social responsibility and sustainable livelihoods in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Oil production has taken place in this region for almost five decades. Oil production is carried out through joint ventures between the Nigerian federal government and oil transnational corporations. As a country, Nigeria has benefited tremendously from the oil endowment. However, the Niger Delta region has been impoverished as a result of unmitigated oil spills and enormous environmental degradation. Over 80 percent of the oil spill incidents are man-made, and therefore avoidable. There are various laws and regulations intended to elicit the best practices in the oil industry in order to protect the environment. However, the laws have not been enforced. The lack of regulatory enforcement is attributed to the financial interest in the state-corporate alliance. A new autonomous agency is proposed to enforce the law and monitor compliance under a multi-institutional strategy to transform the region.
Verb bias and verb-specific competition effects on sentence production

How do speakers choose between structural options for expressing a given meaning? Overall preference for some structures over others as well as prior statistical association between specific verbs and sentence structures (“verb bias”) are known to broadly influence language use. However, the effects of prior statistical experience on the planning and execution of utterances and the mechanisms that facilitate structural choice for verbs with different biases have not been fully explored. In this study, we manipulated verb bias for English double-object (DO) and prepositional-object (PO) dative structures: some verbs appeared solely in the DO structure (DO-only), others solely in PO (PO-only) and yet others equally in both (Equi). Structural choices during subsequent free-choice sentence production revealed the expected dispreference for DO overall but critically also a reliable linear trend in DO production that was consistent with verb bias (DO-only > Equi > PO-only). Going beyond the general verb bias effect, three results suggested that Equi verbs, which were associated equally with the two structures, engendered verb-specific competition and required additional resources for choosing the dispreferred DO structure. First, DO production with Equi verbs but not the other verbs correlated with participants’ inhibition ability. Second, utterance duration prior to the choice of a DO structure showed a quadratic trend (DO-only < Equi > PO-only) with the longest durations for Equi verbs. Third, eye movements consistent with reimagining the event also showed a quadratic trend (DO-only < Equi > PO-only) prior to choosing DO, suggesting that participants used such recall particularly for Equi verbs. Together, these analyses of structural choices, utterance durations, eye movements and individual differences in executive functions shed light on the effects of verb bias and verb-specific competition on sentence production and the role of different executive functions in choosing between sentence structures.
Differential regulation of interleukin‐6 receptors by interleukin‐6 and interferons in multiple myeloma cell lines

Interleukin‐6 (IL‐6) mediates pleiotropic functions through specific receptors (IL‐6R) composed of an 80‐kDa binding protein, associated with a non‐ligand binding protein (gp130) which transduces the signal. Because IL‐6 is the major tumor growth factor in multiple myeloma, we investigated the regulation of IL‐6R in two human multiple myeloma cell lines. Binding experiments with 125I‐labeled IL‐6 showed that IL‐6R were expressed at a high density on RPMI‐8226 cells (15 000 receptors/cell), but no specific binding was detected on XG‐1 cells, whose growth depends on the presence of exogenous IL‐6. However, when IL‐6 was removed from the culture medium, high‐affinity IL‐6R appeared on the surface of XG‐1 cells (5300 sites/cell). Treatment of RPMI‐8226 cells with IL‐6 reduced the number of IL‐6R without changing their affinity. This reduction was dose dependent and was not affected by acid treatment which dissociates ligand‐receptor complexes. Cross‐linking experiments showed that the formation of one IL‐6/receptor complex of 160 kDa markedly decreased upon IL‐6 treatment, while the other complex of 190 kDa became undetectable. These data provide evidence for ligand‐induced down‐regulation of membrane IL‐6R expression in myeloma cells. Treatment of RPMI‐8226 cells with interferon‐α (IFN‐α), which inhibits the growth of these cells, stimulated IL‐6R expression and increased the formation of the 160‐kDa IL‐6/receptor complex. This stimulation was specific for IFN‐α, since IFN‐γ reduced the number of IL‐6R. These data indicate that, in myeloma cells, IL‐6R are differentially regulated by IL‐6 and IFN‐α.
Stroke paradox with SGLT-2 inhibitors: a play of chance or a viscosity-mediated reality?

Diabetes mellitus is a major risk factor for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Current therapeutic strategies have not provided constant beneficial cardiovascular-related results. Sodium–glucose co-transporters 2 (SGLT-2) inhibitors have emerged as a novel antidiabetic class of drugs that exert favourable results in a variety of other cardiovascular risk factors too, such as increased blood pressure and body weight. The Empagliflozin, Cardiovascular Outcomes, and Mortality in Type 2 Diabetes (EMPA-REG OUTCOME) study was the first trial that evaluated cardiovascular outcomes in patients with diabetes with the use of empagliflozin, a member of this new class of drugs. Empagliflozin was associated with remarkable reduction of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality and all-cause death. On the contrary, stroke incidence was slightly increased, although the result did not reach statistical significance. It could be assumed that a drug providing such beneficial effects on cardiovascular outcomes, would have also the same impact in stroke risk. This finding could theoretically be attributed to ‘play of chance’. However, an increase of haematocrit was observed in EMPA-REG and other SGLT-2 inhibitors studies. Accumulating evidence suggests a direct association between increased haematocrit and stroke risk. Could this ‘stroke paradox’ be a result of the increased haematocrit levels noted with SGLT-2 inhibitors? The aim of this review is to critically assess both possibilities, given that increased stroke rates (if indeed true) should not be neglected and unattended.
Masked Priming of Prefixes and the Influence of Spelling–Meaning Consistency

Two experiments are reported which examined whether a prefixed word can be primed by a word sharing only the prefix letters in a masked priming paradigm. In addition the studies examined whether the size of the priming effect is influenced by the consistency with which a prefix letter pattern appears in real prefixed words. The ratio of real prefixed words to all words containing a prefix letter pattern was calculated and used to identify high-consistency prefixes, which are frequently used as prefixes (e.g., UN in UNHAPPY) and rarely appear as pseudoprefixes (e.g., UNCLE), and low-consistency prefixes, which appear in many pseudoprefixed words (e.g., DE in DESERT) but fewer truly prefixed words (e.g., DECODE). In Experiment 1, decision latencies for both types of prefixes were facilitated when real prefixed target words were preceded by real prefixed prime words in a short SOA masked priming paradigm, although the size of the priming effect for low-consistency prefixes was similar in size to that for orthographic controls. In Experiment 2, real prefixed target words were preceded by pseudoprefixed prime words. Facilitation in performance remained for high-consistency prefixes but was absent for low-consistency prefixes. These results support models of morphological processing that are sensitive to the statistical nature of the relationships between orthographic and semantic representations in a language.