Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reduced High-Density Lipoprotein Level is Linked to Worse Ankle Brachial Index and Peak Oxygen Uptake in Postmenopausal Women With Peripheral Arterial Disease

Women with peripheral arterial disease (PAD) have more limited physical function than men but the mechanisms involved are not clear. We determined whether alterations in lipid components, such as decreased high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), are associated with worsening intermittent claudication (IC) in postmenopausal women with PAD. Our cross-sectional cohort study included 69 postmenopausal women with IC (Fontaine stage II). A treadmill test was used to measure initial claudication distance (ICD), absolute claudication distance (ACD), peak oxygen uptake, and ankle systolic blood pressure. High-density lipoprotein cholesterol correlated with ankle brachial index ([ABI]; R = .29, P = .019). No other lipid profile components were associated with exercise performance and hemodynamic measures. Among women with HDL-C <50 mg/dL (n = 43), the median peak oxygen uptake level was significantly lower (P = .021) relative to women with normal HDL-C >50 mg/dL (n = 26). Lower HDL-C levels are associated with worse ABI and decreased peak oxygen uptake in postmenopausal women with PAD.
Effect of concussion and blast exposure on symptoms after military deployment

Objective: To examine whether blast exposure alone and blast-associated concussion result in similar neurologic and mental health symptoms. Methods: A 14-item questionnaire was administered to male US Marines on their return from deployment in Iraq and/or Afghanistan. Results: A total of 2,612 Marines (median age 22 years) completed the survey. Of those, 2,320 (88.9%) reported exposure to ≥1 blast during their current and/or prior deployments. In addition, 1,022 (39.1%) reported ≥1 concussion during the current deployment, and 731 (28.0%) had experienced at least 1 prior lifetime concussion. Marines were more likely to have sustained a concussion during the current deployment if they had a history of 1 (odds ratio [OR] 1.5, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.2–2.0) or ≥1 (OR 2.3, 95% CI 1.7–3.0) prior concussion. The most common symptoms were trouble sleeping (38.4%), irritability (37.9%), tinnitus (33.8%), and headaches (33.3%). Compared to those experiencing blast exposure without injury, Marines either experiencing a concussion during the current deployment or being moved or injured by a blast had an increased risk of postinjury symptoms. Conclusions: There appears to be a continuum of increasing total symptoms from no exposure to blast exposure plus both current deployment concussion and past concussion. Concussion had a greater influence than blast exposure alone on the presence of postdeployment symptoms. A high blast injury score can be used to triage those exposed to explosive blasts for evaluation.
A model of consumer external price search behavior in an electronic marketplace (world-wide-web)

This dissertation proposes and tests a causal model of the factors influencing consumer external price search behavior in an electronic marketplace using an inclusive theoretical perspective that incorporates both traditionally and online search determinants. Drawing on the framework of consumer information search proposed by Schmidt and Spreng (1996), the present model brings empirical verification to a broad theoretical approach that integrates search costs economics, motivational theory, and information processing theory. Select items from preexisting scales were adapted to the context of price search and internet shopping to form the basis for the construction of the survey research instrument. A pilot study using 127 student subjects showed scales to have acceptable reliability. The main study employed a convenience sample of 587 students who had made at least one purchase through the WWW in the three months preceding survey participation. Maximum Likelihood estimation in LISREL 8.5 was used to analyze the covariance matrix of observed variables in tests of the measurement model, structural model, and overall model fit. Estimation of the proposed model adhered to the assumptions of the general LISREL model. Following testing and respecification, the model indicated that motivation was the strongest predictor of online price search. The role of motivation was greatest when the subjects perceived that prices varied considerably between WWW sellers and were highly involved with the internet as a task-aiding tool. The effect of motivation was strongly decreased when the costs associated with online price search were high. Costs were decreased for individuals knowledgeable about online search and increased when shopping time was limited. The structural model accounted for approximately one third of the variance in online price search. This figure exceeds the amount of variance accounted for in earlier price search research that exclusively used the costs vs. benefits framework, and is within the range of the variance accounted for in prior price search research conducted in the context of grocery shopping.
Oligodendrocyte Progenitors Reversibly Exit the Cell Cycle and Give Rise to Astrocytes in Response to Interferon-γ

Oligodendrocyte-type 2 astrocyte progenitor cells (O-2A/OPCs) populate the CNS and generate oligodendrocytes and astrocytes in vitro and in vivo. Understanding how O-2A/OPCs respond to their environment is crucial to understanding how these cells function in the CNS and how to best promote their therapeutic proliferation and differentiation. We show that interferon-γ (IFN-γ) was not toxic to highly purified perinatal or adult rat O-2A/OPCs. IFN-γ treatment led to downregulation of PDGFR-α (platelet-derived growth factor receptor-α) and Ki-67 and decreased self-renewal in clonal populations. IFN-γ also significantly increased the proportion of cells in the G0/G1 phase of the cell cycle, decreased BrdU (5-bromo-2′-deoxyuridine) incorporation, and led to increased expression of the cell cycle inhibitors Rb and p27kip1. Although p27kip1 expression was not necessary for IFN-γ-mediated quiescence, its upstream regulator IRF-1 was required. The quiescent state of O-2A/OPCs caused by IFN-γ was reversible as the withdrawal of IFN-γ allowed O-2A/OPCs to appropriately respond to both proliferation and differentiation signals. Differentiation into oligodendrocytes induced by either thyroid hormone or CNTF was also abrogated by IFN-γ. This inhibition was specific to the oligodendrocyte pathway, as O-2A/OPC differentiation into astrocytes was not inhibited. IFN-γ alone also led to the generation of GFAP-positive astrocytes in a subset of O-2A/OPCs. Together, these results demonstrate a reversible inhibitory effect of IFN-γ on O-2A/OPC proliferation with a concomitant generation of astrocytes. We propose that neuroinflammation involving increased IFN-γ can reduce progenitor numbers and inhibit differentiation, which has significant clinical relevance for injury repair, but may also contribute to the generation of astrocytes.
Navigating in a Graph by Aid of Its Spanning Tree Metric

The well-known least squares semidefinite programming (LSSDP) problem seeks the nearest adjustment of a given symmetric matrix in the intersection of the cone of positive semidefinite matrices and a set of linear constraints, and it captures many applications in diversing fields. The task of solving large-scale LSSDP with many linear constraints, however, is numerically challenging. This paper mainly shows the applicability of the classical alternating direction method (ADM) for solving LSSDP and convinces the efficiency of the ADM approach. We compare the ADM approach with some other existing approaches numerically, and we show the superiority of ADM for solving large-scale LSSDP.
A Small‐Scale Land‐Sparing Approach to Conserving Biological Diversity in Tropical Agricultural Landscapes

Two contrasting strategies have been proposed for conserving biological diversity while meeting the increasing demand for agricultural products: land sparing and land sharing production systems. Land sparing involves increasing yield to reduce the amount of land needed for agriculture, whereas land‐sharing agricultural practices incorporate elements of native ecosystems into the production system itself. Although the conservation value of these systems has been extensively debated, empirical studies are lacking. We compared bird communities in shade coffee, a widely practiced land‐sharing system in which shade trees are maintained within the coffee plantation, with bird communities in a novel, small‐scale, land‐sparing coffee‐production system (integrated open canopy or IOC coffee) in which farmers obtain higher yields under little or no shade while conserving an area of forest equal to the area under cultivation. Species richness and diversity of forest‐dependent birds were higher in the IOC coffee farms than in the shade coffee farms, and community composition was more similar between IOC coffee and primary forest than between shade coffee and primary forest. Our study represents the first empirical comparison of well‐defined land sparing and land sharing production systems. Because IOC coffee farms can be established by allowing forest to regenerate on degraded land, widespread adoption of this system could lead to substantial increases in forest cover and carbon sequestration without compromising agricultural yield or threatening the livelihoods of traditional small farmers. However, we studied small farms (<5 ha); thus, our results may not generalize to large‐scale land‐sharing systems. Furthermore, rather than concluding that land sparing is generally superior to land sharing, we suggest that the optimal approach depends on the crop, local climate, and existing land‐use patterns.
A differential game approach to formation control for a team of agents with one leader

A team of agents consisting of one leader and N followers is considered. The problem in which the leader is steered towards a target position while the followers create and maintain a formation about the leader, while avoiding collisions, is posed as a nonlinear differential game. Dynamic strategies which approximate the solution to the differential game are constructed. It is shown that for the case in which collisions are not considered the problem simplifies to a linear-quadratic differential game, for which approximate solutions are identified. These approximate solutions are well-suited for situations in which the agents do not have full information regarding the positions of all members of the team. Simulations illustrate the results for both the linear-quadratic and the nonlinear problems.
The Role of Prosocialness and Trust in the Consumption of Water as a Limited Resource

This research analyzes the role of prosocialness and trust in the use of water as a limited resource under situations of competition or cooperation. For this purpose, 107 participants played the role of farmers and made decisions about irrigating their fields in the web-based multiplayer game Irrigania. Before the simulation exercise, participants’ prosocialness and trust levels were evaluated and they were randomly assigned to an experimental condition (competition or cooperation). Repeated measures analysis, using the 10 fields and the experimental conditions as factors, showed that, in the cooperation condition, farmers and their villages used a less selfish strategy to cultivate their fields, which produced greater benefits. Under competition, benefits to farmers and their villages were reduced over time. Mediational analysis shows that the selfish irrigation strategy fully mediated the relationship between prosocialness and accumulated profits; prosocial individuals choose less selfish irrigation strategies and, in turn, accumulated more benefit. Moreover, moderation analysis shows that trust moderated the link between prosocialness and water use strategy by strengthening the negative effect of prosocialness on selection of selfish strategies. The implications of these results highlight the importance of promoting the necessary trust to develop prosocial strategies in collectives; therefore, the efficacy of interventions, such as the creation of cooperative educational contexts or organization of collective actions with groups affected by water scarcity, are discussed.
White matter lesions and hippocampal atrophy in Alzheimer’s disease

White matter lesions (WML) and hippocampal atrophy (HA) on MRI commonly co-occur in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and are thought to play a role in the etiology of AD. It is still not known whether WML and HA are independent or related. The authors investigated the relation between WML and HA in 179 patients with probable AD who had a cerebral MRI. A linear relation was found between WML and HA, especially for WML in the frontal and parieto-occipital regions. The results suggest that vascular pathology and typical AD pathology (HA) are related.
Pertussis Toxin‐Insensitive Phosphoinositide Hydrolysis, Membrane Depolarization, and Positive Inotropic Effect of Carbachol in Chick Atria

Muscarinic agonists can stimulate rather than inhibit cardiac muscle in some preparations. In left atria from hatched chicks, treatment with pertussis toxin reversed the membrane action of carbachol from hyperpolarization to depolarization and reversed the inotropic effect of carbachol from negative to positive. Acetylcholine also depolarized the membrane and increased the force of contraction in atria from pertussis-toxin-treated chicks although oxotremorine did not. These cholinergic responses were blocked by atropine but not by adrenoceptor antagonists, suggesting that they are mediated via muscarinic receptors and are not due to actions of endogenously released catecholamines. Muscarinic receptor stimulation leads to two distinct biochemical responses in chick atria: inhibition of adenylate cyclase and activation of phosphoinositide (PI) hydrolysis. The former is lost in atria from pertussis-toxin-treated chicks, whereas the PI response persists. The pharmacologic characteristics of the PI response resemble those of the depolarization and positive inotropic response. Both are insensitive to blockade by pertussis toxin, require high concentrations of carbachol, and are elicited by acetylcholine but not by oxotremorine. The present study suggests that muscarinic agonist-induced PI turnover may be responsible for the membrane depolarization and positive inotropic effects of carbachol and acetylcholine; that an increase in Na+ conductance underlies these responses; and that it is stimulated either by an increase of intracellular calcium mobilized by inositol triphosphate and/or by activation by protein kinase C.
A new 2.5D TSV package assembly approach

Just in few years, three-dimensional (3D) packaging technologies have attracted much more attention. With emergence of through-silicon via (TSV) technology, silicon-based device integrations, the TSV's, have become the main stream of 3D packaging technologies. TSV's can be further classified as 2.5D and 3D TSV's. For 2.5D TSV package assembly, since multiple components involved, there are normally two assembly process approaches, i.e., from “Top-to-Bottom” (TOB), or from “Bottom-to-Top (BOT). Each approach has its own pros and cons. From stress minimization aspect, TOB is more desirable. But from packaging assembly easiness viewpoint, BOT is more practical and thus has been mainly utilized. To overcome these dilemmas occurred in 2.5D TSV package assembly, a new assembly process approach, called new TOB (n-TOB), has been developed. Instead of bonding the chip onto the interposer, the n-TOB starts out with precisely bonding the interposer onto the chip with using a specially-designed eccentric-axis pickup tip which also effectively protects the flip chip C4 bumps on the interposer backside during bonding. Finite-element (FE) simulation and reliability tests were employed to assess the effectiveness and impact of this new assembly approach on 2.5D TSV packages. The assessment results show that n-TOB is feasible with at least the same performance in both package assembly and reliability.
The intensity of hemodialysis and the response to erythropoietin in patients with end-stage renal disease.

BACKGROUND Anemia (characterized by a hematocrit of 30 percent or lower) persists in 40 to 60 percent of patients treated for end-stage renal disease with maintenance hemodialysis, despite concomitant erythropoietin (epoetin) therapy. We tested the hypothesis that inadequate dialysis is a key reason for the insufficient response to erythropoietin in patients with end-stage renal disease who are receiving hemodialysis. METHODS We prospectively studied 135 randomly selected patients undergoing hemodialysis who had been receiving intravenous erythropoietin for at least four months. The adequacy of dialysis was assessed by measuring the percent reduction in the blood urea nitrogen concentration and the serum albumin concentration. The hematocrit was measured weekly for four weeks, transferrin saturation was measured, and coexisting illnesses were documented. To determine the effect of an increased level of dialysis on the hematocrit, the thrice-weekly schedule of dialysis was increased to raise the mean urea-reduction value from 60.7 to 72 percent for six weeks in 20 consecutive patients whose base-line urea-reduction value was less than 65 percent. The change in the hematocrit in these patients was compared with that observed in the next 20 patients who had an equivalent base-line urea-reduction value but whose level of dialysis was not altered. RESULTS The mean hematocrit of the entire group was 29.2 +/- 4 percent, and the mean thrice-weekly dose of erythropoietin was 59 +/- 29 U per kilogram of body weight. The mean serum albumin concentration was 3.8 +/- 0.4 g per deciliter, the mean urea-reduction value was 62 +/- 4.8 percent, and the mean transferrin saturation was 20 +/- 9 percent. Multiple regression analysis revealed direct correlations between the hematocrit and the serum albumin concentration (P = 0.009) and between the hematocrit and the urea-reduction value (P = 0.012) after adjustment for other factors. A logistic-regression analysis indicated that an 11 percent increase in the urea-reduction value doubled the odds that a patient would have a hematocrit above 30 percent. After six weeks of increased intensity of dialysis in 20 patients with base-line urea-reduction values of less than 65 percent, the mean (+/- SE) hematocrit rose from 28.4 +/- 0.78 percent to 32.3 +/- 0.71 percent (P = 0.002); there was no significant change in a control group of 20 patients with equivalent base-line urea-reduction values in whom the dialysis level was not altered (28.2 +/- 0.84 percent to 26.3 +/- 0.85 percent; P = 0.175). CONCLUSIONS In patients with end-stage renal disease, inadequate hemodialysis is associated with a suboptimal response to erythropoietin therapy. Increasing the intensity of dialysis in patients with anemia who are receiving inadequate dialysis results in a significant increase in the hematocrit.
Exploring the molecular hub in plant elongation responses: regulation of PHYs and PIFs

Light and temperature signalling response is a central mediator of plant growth plasticity. This thesis aimed to provides new molecular insights into control of plant growth. We investigated the role of phytochrome and PIF4 genes activity as function of light quality and temperature. First time the study shows that PHYD is a constitutive repressor of PHYA-reporter activity and that PHYB and PHYA reporter activity is strongly up-regulated under FR, while this response to FR is not affected by the classical FR sensor PHYA but by PHYB and PHYE. Our findings of the light sensitivity of phytochrome gene expression especially under the artificial LED light conditions provide crucial new fundamental insights that may be used to control plant growth, yield and quality in greenhouses and indoor farming industries. Next chapter, we discovered that the positive feedback regulation of PIF4 expression by BZR1 is actually broken by PIF4 itself, which acts as a negative regulator of its own expression. The negative action of PIF4 can also compete with the positive action of BZR1. Overall this adds a new layer to the regulation of transcription of PIF4 and shows that overall PIF4 transcription may be determined by the relative levels of PIF4 to BZR1 protein. We also investigated the role of MED25 in transcriptional regulation of PIF4. We showed that PIF4 expression is upregulated in med25 mutant at ambient temperature, while PIF4 expression is super induced compared to WT at warm temperature. However, this upregulation of PIF4 expression is uncoupled from induction of PIF4 target gene YUCCA8 and from the elongation response. The regulation of PIF4 gene transcription and regulation of PIF4 target genes by PIF4 has an additional layer, as histone modifications at these promoters also become part of the equation. We provide evidence that MED25 may actually recruit histone modifying activity for PIF4 target genes. In last chapter, we describe a novel strategy by which plants can be transformed with a single construct to obtain overexpression of the transgene and silencing of an endogenous target gene of interest. The concept of a transgene containing an aimiRNA could be useful for simultaneous manipulation of several gene activities, which could be an important tool for plant biotechnology.
Short-Run Productivity Behavior in U.S. Manufacturing

IN recent years the behavior of productivity has received increasing theoretical and empirical attention. Two basic approaches have been developed. The first focuses upon the long-run trend in output per man-hour and examines the sources of that trend. The second focuses upon the short-run or cyclical behavior of productivity. The purpose of this paper is to explain the characteristic behavior of output per man-hour over the business cycle and to identify changes in the cyclical response mechanism. An explanation of cyclical changes in productivity is essential for an analysis of unit labor costs, and is therefore a necessary ingredient in an explanation of the price level and its movements. It is also a necessary precondition to understanding the longer-run trends; cyclical fluctuations in output per man-hour are large, and the trends based on capital and technology cannot be seen until the short-run variations have been removed.
Total and acylated ghrelin in liver cirrhosis: Correlation with clinical and nutritional status

Abstract Objectives. The pathogenesis of anorexia in cirrhotic patients is complex and the appetite-modulating hormone ghrelin could be involved. Acylated ghrelin is the biologically active form that modifies insulin sensitivity and body composition. The aim of the present study was to compare acylated and total ghrelin concentration in patients with liver cirrhosis and to investigate the possible relationship between ghrelin and clinical and nutritional parameters. Design and methods. Sixty patients with viral liver cirrhosis who did not have hepatocellular carcinoma or acute infections were studied. Twenty healthy volunteers were recruited after matching for age, gender, and body mass index with the patients and served as controls. Fasting levels of total, acylated ghrelin, leptin, TNF-α and insulin were measured in all subjects, in addition, clinical and nutrition parameters were assessed. Results. In cirrhotic patients, plasma levels of both acylated and total ghrelin were significantly higher than those in the controls. The mean plasma acylated ghrelin levels were significantly higher in Child C cirrhosis compared to Child A and B. Ghrelin (total and acylated) were negatively correlated with leptin in cirrhotic patients confirming the fact that leptin acts as a physiological counterpart of ghrelin. Conclusions. Nutritional and metabolic abnormalities in cirrhotic patients may be dependent on the changes in the ghrelin/leptin systems, mainly the acylated form of ghrelin.