Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pharmacokinetics of alendronate in a combined Alendronate/Vitamin D3 tablet in healthy volunteers using plasma and urine data

Alendronate is indicated for treatment of a variety of bone metabolism disorders. In spite of quite low plasma concentrations following oral administration, pharmacokinetic study of alendronate based on plasma concentrations had normally been reported for up to 8 h. Due to much longer detectable periods in urine, a number of pharmacokinetic studies have been based upon urinary excretion data. The objective of this study was to determine pharmacokinetics of alendronate following oral administration of combined Alendronate/Vitamin D3 tablet. Blood and urine samples were collected for 10 h after oral administration of a combined Alendronate/Vitamin D3 tablet to healthy volunteers. Alendronate levels in plasma and urine samples were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with fluorescence detection. The analytical method involved co-precipitation of alendronate in plasma or urine samples with calcium and followed by solid-phase extraction (SPE) process. Pharmacokinetic parameters were analyzed by the non-compartmental method using WinNonlin. Pharmacokinetics parameters, i.e. Cmax, Tmax, AUC0-10, T1/2, were 56.6±11.8 ng/mL, 1.29±0.39 h, 132.4±46.9 ng·h/mL, and 3.43±2.24 h, respectively. Amount excreted in 10 h urine and maximum excretion rate (Rmax) were 578.59±308.9 μg and 143.3±72.8 μg/h, respectively. Although these parameters were different from previously reported values, Rmax obtained at 1.29±0.76 h agreed well with Tmax observed from plasma data. Based upon urinary excretion data, enhanced absorption of alendronate after administration of a combined Alendronate/Vitamin D3 tablet is suggested.
Impact of Hyperuricemia on Long-term Outcomes of Kidney Transplantation: Analysis of the FAVORIT Study.

BACKGROUND Elevated uric acid concentration is associated with higher rates of cardiovascular (CV) morbidity and mortality in the general population. It is not known whether hyperuricemia increases the risk for CV death or transplant failure in kidney transplant recipients. STUDY DESIGN Post hoc cohort analysis of the FAVORIT Study, a randomized controlled trial that examined the effect of homocysteine-lowering vitamins on CV disease in kidney transplantation. SETTING & PARTICIPANTS Adult recipients of kidney transplants in the United States, Canada, or Brazil participating in the FAVORIT Study, with hyperhomocysteinemia, stable kidney function, and no known history of CV disease. PREDICTOR Uric acid concentration. OUTCOMES The primary end point was a composite of CV events. Secondary end points were all-cause mortality and transplant failure. Risk factors included in statistical models were age, sex, race, country, treatment assignment, smoking history, body mass index, presence of diabetes mellitus, history of CV disease, blood pressure, estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), donor type, transplant vintage, lipid concentrations, albumin-creatinine ratio, and uric acid concentration. Cox proportional hazards models were fit to examine the association of uric acid concentration with study end points after risk adjustment. RESULTS 3,512 of 4,110 FAVORIT participants with baseline uric acid concentrations were studied. Median follow-up was 3.9 (IQR, 3.0-5.3) years. 503 patients had a primary CV event, 401 died, and 287 had transplant failure. In unadjusted analyses, uric acid concentration was significantly related to each outcome. Uric acid concentration was also strongly associated with eGFR. The relationship between uric acid concentration and study end points was no longer significant in fully adjusted multivariable models (P=0.5 for CV events; P=0.09 for death, and P=0.1 for transplant failure). LIMITATIONS Unknown use of uric acid-lowering agents among study participants. CONCLUSIONS Following kidney transplantation, uric acid concentrations are not independently associated with CV events, mortality, or transplant failure. The strong association between uric acid concentrations with traditional risk factors and eGFR is a possible explanation.
Mitochondrial Dysregulation of Osteoarthritic Human Articular Chondrocytes Analyzed by Proteomics

Mitochondria are involved in many cellular processes; mitochondrial dysfunctions have been associated with apoptosis, aging, and a number of pathological conditions, including osteoarthritis (OA). Mitochondrial proteins are attractive targets for the study of metabolism of the chondrocyte, the unique cell type present in mature cartilage, and its role in tissue degradation. Using a proteomics approach based on two-dimensional DIGE and MALDI-TOF/TOF mass spectrometric identification of mitochondria- enriched protein fractions from human articular chondrocytes, we analyzed mitochondrial protein changes that are characteristic of OA chondrocytes. A total of 73 protein forms were unambiguously identified as significantly altered in OA; 23 of them have been previously described as mitochondrial. An extensive statistical and cluster analysis of the data revealed a mitochondrial protein profile characteristic for OA. This pattern includes alterations in energy production, maintenance of mitochondrial membrane integrity, and free radical detoxification. Real time PCR, Western blot, and immunohistofluorescence assays confirmed a significant decrease of the major mitochondrial antioxidant protein manganese-superoxide dismutase (SOD2) in the superficial layer of OA cartilage. As possible outputs for this antioxidant deficiency, we found an increase of intracellular reactive oxygen species generation in OA chondrocytes and also verified an OA-dependent increase in the mitochondrial tumor necrosis factor-α receptor-associated protein 1 (TRAP1), a chaperone with a reported reactive oxygen species antagonist role. Our results describe the differences between the mitochondrial protein profiles of normal and OA chondrocytes, demonstrating that mitochondrial dysregulation occurs in cartilage cells during OA and highlighting redox imbalance as a key factor in OA pathogenesis.
Constraints Hindering Adoption of ICT in Government Secondary Schools in Tanzania: The Case of Hanang District

This paper addresses teachers’ skills on ICT Integration in teaching and learning and constraints that hinder the adoption in Government owned secondary schools. The study employed a cross-section research design which guided the collection of both quantitative and qualitative data. Simple random sampling was employed in the selection of participants of which data were collected from 75 teachers in government secondary schools, 15 Heads of Schools, 1 DEO and 3 Quality Assurers. Questionnaires and interviews were used to obtain data. Qualitative data were analysed through content analysis while descriptive statistics was used to analyse quantitative data with the aid of SPSS version 21. The findings revealed that, most of the secondary school teachers had minimal skills of integrating ICT in teaching and learning due to different challenges such as lack of ICT facilities, inadequate computer labs in schools, and inadequate pre-service and in-service teachers training. Finally, the paper recommends a holistic approach in harmonising the curriculum requirements and the ICT policy strategies so as to create awareness among teachers, thus develop the required ICT pedagogical skills.
Earnings Management in Response to Stock Price Pressure: Evidence from Fire Sales (and Purchases) by Mutual Funds

This paper examines whether managers manipulate earnings in response to fire sales (and purchases) of stocks by mutual funds. I find that managers engage in upward earnings management when facing downward price pressure driven by fire sales of mutual funds. I find no evidence that managers engage in downward earnings management when their stocks are fire purchased by mutual funds. My results become stronger for firms with more illiquid stocks, firms under tighter financial constraints and firms issuing new debt. I also find that earnings management increases stock prices in the short term and helps stock prices return to “normal” levels in the long run. Collectively, my evidence suggests that downward price pressure caused by fire sales of mutual funds leads to upward earnings management, which in turn speeds up price recovery.
Accounting for China ’ s Sources of Growth in 1949-2010 with A Newly Constructed Data

Given that most of the existing studies on the sources of China’s growth are conducted in the same or very similar neoclassical growth accounting framework, the long and still inconclusive debate about China’s growth and productivity performance is logically and essentially caused by serious data and measurement problems. Based on my persistent efforts on China’s macro-measurement problems, this study presents a series of careful investigations in both input and output data problems in the Chinese statistics, especially those often ignored or mishandled in the previous studies, including a serious structural break in the official employment data, an abnormally high post-reform labor productivity growth in the non-market services (including the so-called “non-material” services in the old MPS statistics), a severe inconsistency between the official industrial statistics and national accounts in value added including an odd counter-cyclical movement of the industrial output by the below “designated-size” enterprises, and main conceptual and measurement problems in the official measure of fixed asset investment. These investigations have led to the construction of a new data set for the aggregate economy and its major sectors. Under the most reasonable scenario, my new estimates show that China’s annul TFP growth is -0.7 percent in the planning period and merely 1 percent in the reform period, substantially lower than the TFP estimates obtained using the unadjusted official GDP estimates and investment data and deflators, -0.2 and 4.2 percent, respectively.
THE EFFECTS OF PERCEIVED RISK ON SOCIAL COMMERCE ADOPTION BASED ON TAM MODEL

As the Internet has led to the emergence of electronic commerce, the development of social networks has led to the emergence of the concept of social commerce. Since the acceptance of new technology can be somewhat challenging, the effect of perceived risk on the adoption of social commerce is examined from the perspective of Internet users. For this purpose, a conceptual model based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) has been created to take into account different types of risks, including financial, functional, social, time, psychological, and privacy risks. The results of the study, which used a structural equation modeling (SEM) approach and partial least squares (PLS), revealed that, among 277 active users of social media, the perceived risk has a significant impact on the perceived usefulness of social commerce. Moreover, among different constructs of risk, psychological, and social risks doesn’t have a noticeable effect on commerce adoption. To cite this document: Saba Torki Biucky, Neda Abdolvand, and Saeedeh Rajaee Harandi, "THE EFFECTS OF PERCEIVED RISK ON SOCIAL COMMERCE ADOPTION BASED ON THE TAM MODEL", International Journal of Electronic Commerce Studies, Vol.8, No.2, pp.134-157, 2017. Permanent link to this document: http://dx.doi. org/10.7903/ijecs.1538
Real-time co-simulation platform using OPAL-RT and OPNET for analyzing smart grid performance

The objective of this paper is to present a real-time co-simulation platform for analyzing electric power grid operation, taking into account integrated communication systems. This paper discusses how a co-simulation platform can be set up using OPNET and OPAL-RT as communication and power system simulators, respectively. A simplified distribution automation case study is demonstrated to show how the co-simulation platform can be used to analyze performance of the smart grid operation in real-time.
Examining Absolute and Relative Pitch as Automatic Processes via Auditory-Visual Stroop Test  

Relative pitch is the ability to identify intervals between pitches, whereas absolute pitch is the less common ability to identify and reproduce musical pitches without reference to other pitches. This study utilized an auditory-visual Stroop test to investigate the automaticity of absolute and relative pitch. Absolute and relative pitch possessors simultaneously heard a piano tone and viewed a music note in treble clef on a computer screen. The piano tone and viewed note were either congruent or incongruent with one another, and participants were asked to vocally identify either the visual or auditory stimuli. I hypothesized that absolute pitch possessors would exhibit slower reaction times than relative pitch possessors when identifying notes during incongruent as opposed to congruent pitch and note trials, which would suggest that absolute pitch possessors are unable to suppress pitch labeling and therefore experience cognitive interference. Contrary to my predictions, however, I found only a main effect of congruency, such that both absolute and relative pitch possessors were equally slowed down by incongruent pitch and note trials. These results suggest that relative pitch possessors may be able to acquire a sense of absolute pitch when exposed to multiple instances of congruent visual and auditory stimuli. In addition, these findings demonstrate that cognitive interference can occur cross-modally between two different sensory pathways such as audition and vision, and that this interference is not limited to individuals who have internalized and absolute (i.e., one to one) relationships between sounds and images.
Toward Sustainable Agriculture

Future trends in population growth, energy use, climate change, and globalization will challenge agriculturists to develop innovative production systems that are highly productive and environmentally sound. Furthermore, future agricultural production systems must possess an inherent capacity to adapt to change to be sustainable. During the 20th century, US agriculture underwent vast transformations. Number of farmers decreased, more farmers relied on off-farm income, agriculture’s proportion of the US gross domestic product (GDP) declined, and farming dependency of nonmetro counties in the United States declined and continues to decrease. Because of these transformations, new challenges have emerged in animal agriculture, including industrialization, globalization, fossil-fuel energy use, development of bioenergy, and water availability. Through a commitment of the US agricultural community, these challenges can be met and US farmers can lead the way toward a sustainable future. Agriculture has been very successful in meeting the needs of most of the world’s population. Specifically, today’s agriculture feeds a population of six billion people (Tilman et al. 2002) using only 0.2 ha of land per person (Trewavas 2002). Despite such impressive achievements, there are concerns about the sustainability of modern agriculture. Intensive agriculture impacts the resource base and potentially reduces both its capacity (Huang et al. 2002) and its sustainability (Brummer 1998; Tilman et al. 2002). In the Great Plains, many cropping systems are characterized by a lack of diversity (Brummer 1998) and declining soil organic carbon (Krall and Schuman 1996). Beef production in the United States has done an excellent job of developing animals that can convert feed grains into meat (i.e., feedlots) acceptable for human consumption, but it relies heavily on fossil fuels (Heitschmidt et al. 1996). Great changes have occurred within the US agricultural community over the past century (figure 1). From 1930 to 2002, the workforce employed in agriculture decreased from 22% to 2%, the portion of total GDP from agriculture decreased from 7.7% to 0.7%, farming dependent nonmetro counties decreased and became a minority (figure 2), and the percentage of farmers working off farm increased from 30% to 93% (Dimitri et al.
Conceptualizing television news interpretation by its viewers: The concept of interpretive complexity

Abstract In recent years many scholars seem to agree that viewers’ interpretations play a prominent role in the influence of television news. However, a clear concept of ‘interpretation’ is still missing. This article proposes to conceptualize interpretation as the ‘representation’ of a news item as constructed and reported by a news viewer. More specifically, we look at this representation in terms of its complexity. Two aspects are important: first, the fundamental elements viewers use in their interpretation (differentiation), and second, how the viewer relates these elements to one another on a more abstract level (integration). Together, differentiation and integration represent the complexity of the viewer’s interpretation of a television news item. The article provides definitions of these concepts and argues that interpretive complexity can be useful in studying the influence of television news. It concludes by outlining research questions in the field of television news using interpretive complexity.
Psychoendocrinology of the Menstrual Cycle: I. Enjoyment of Daily Activities and Moods

&NA; Thirty‐three women participated in a study of the relationship between moods and enjoyment of activities during the menstrual cycle. All subjects had normal cycles and were screened for psychological health. None were taking oral contraceptives. Each subject filled out daily the Profile of Mood States (POMS) and the Social—Sexual Activities Log (SAAL). They also completed the Moos Menstrual Distress Questionnaire (MDQ) once a month. The SSAL was developed as part of this research in order to provide a means of assessing subjective enjoyment of daily activities. SSAL items were developed from semistructural individual interviews and assessed behavior across eight different categories. Results suggest that the SSAL is a reliable self‐report instrument. Although there were no changes in either moods or enjoyment of activities as a function of cycle phase with either the POMS or the SSAL, scores on the MDQ showed the usual cycle‐related differences. These findings raise questions concerning the validity of retrospective methods in general, and of the MDQ in particular, as techniques for assessment of personal distress during the menstrual cycle. Equally important, the results suggest that when changes in psychological states are assessed concurrently during the menstrual cycle, the fluctuations observed in a healthy population are minimal.
Whole-body vibration effects on the muscle activity of upper and lower body muscles during the baseball swing in recreational baseball hitters

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of whole-body vibration (WBV) on the muscle recruitment of selected upper and lower body muscles during the baseball swing. Participants were recreationally trained males (n = 16, 22 ± 2 years, 181.4 ± 7.4 cm, 84.7 ± 9.0 kg), with previous baseball experience. Subjects participated in three randomized sessions on separate days, consisting of three sets of five swings off a hitting tee. Exercises (upper and lower body dynamic and static movements) with or without WBV exposure were performed between swing sets. During each swing, the gastrocnemius, biceps femoris, gluteus maximus, pectoralis major, latissimus dorsi, and triceps brachii were evaluated for electromyographic (EMG) activity. EMG values were normalized to EMG measured during maximal voluntary isometric contraction. Statistical analysis revealed no significant differences in EMG activity across the three treatments. In addition, the results displayed a specific muscle recruitment order during the swing, starting with the lower body followed by the upper body muscles. This study was the first to report the recruitment order during the baseball swing. Although acute exposure to WBV did not significantly alter the muscle recruitment, these results may prove useful for practitioners looking to enhance baseball swing performance.
Identifying genetic modulators of the connectivity between transcription factors and their transcriptional targets

Significance We present a transcription-factor–centric computational method that utilizes data on natural variation in mRNA abundance to identify genetic loci that influence the responsiveness of genes to variation in the activities of their regulators. We call these connectivity quantitative trait loci, or cQTLs. When testing our method in yeast, we identified a polymorphism that modulates the mating response and confirmed our prediction experimentally. Our approach provides a sophisticated and nuanced approach to understanding the influence of genetic variation on interactions within regulatory networks. Applying our approach to human data may improve our understanding of the impact of genetic variation in contributing to phenotypic differences among individuals. Regulation of gene expression by transcription factors (TFs) is highly dependent on genetic background and interactions with cofactors. Identifying specific context factors is a major challenge that requires new approaches. Here we show that exploiting natural variation is a potent strategy for probing functional interactions within gene regulatory networks. We developed an algorithm to identify genetic polymorphisms that modulate the regulatory connectivity between specific transcription factors and their target genes in vivo. As a proof of principle, we mapped connectivity quantitative trait loci (cQTLs) using parallel genotype and gene expression data for segregants from a cross between two strains of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We identified a nonsynonymous mutation in the DIG2 gene as a cQTL for the transcription factor Ste12p and confirmed this prediction empirically. We also identified three polymorphisms in TAF13 as putative modulators of regulation by Gcn4p. Our method has potential for revealing how genetic differences among individuals influence gene regulatory networks in any organism for which gene expression and genotype data are available along with information on binding preferences for transcription factors.
The future of targeted peptidomics

Targeted MS is becoming increasingly important for sensitive and specific quantitative detection of proteins and respective PTMs. In this article, Ceglarek et al. [Proteomics Clin. Appl. 2013, 7, 794–801] present an LC‐MS‐based method for simultaneous quantitation of seven apolipoproteins in serum specimens. The assay fulfills many necessities of routine diagnostic applications, namely, low cost, high throughput, and good reproducibility. We anticipate that validation of new biomarkers will speed up with this technology and the palette of laboratory‐based diagnostic tools will hopefully be augmented significantly in the near future.