Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Title : Functional clusters of autoantibodies targeting TLR and SMAD pathways stratify novel subgroups of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

The molecular targets of the vast majority of autoantibodies in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) are unknown. Using a baculovirus-insect cell expression system to create an advanced protein microarray with improved protein folding and epitope conservation, we assayed sera from 277 SLE individuals and 280 age, gender and ethnicity matched controls. Here, we identified 103 novel autoantigens in SLE sera and show that SLE autoantigens are distinctly clustered into four functionally related groups. The original SLE autoantigens Ro60, La, and SMN1/Sm complex formed the first distinct antigen cluster (SLE1a). A further set of antigens (SLE1b) extended this group with other proteins involved in RNA, DNA and chromatin processing. The largest two subgroups of novel autoantigens involved interconnected genes involved in receptor-regulated SMAD signalling (SLE2) and toll-like receptor pathways and lymphocyte development (SLE3). SLE individuals clustered into four subgroups matching the four functional clusters of autoantigens, which suggests that autoantibody profiles of SLE patients identify subgroups with different underlying pathogenic immune mechanisms. The microarray revealed a significant number of ethnicity-sensitive autoantibodies in keeping with the strong influence of ethnicity on SLE prevalence, severity and organ involvement. Multiple recent failures of new SLE therapies in clinical trials demonstrates that there is a need for improved classification of SLE and related connective tissue diseases. The novel autoantibody clusters identified in this study represent a major advance in SLE diagnostics, and enable identification of new subgroups of SLE, each of which may require different therapeutic strategies.
Interferon-l restricts West Nile virus neuroinvasion by tightening the blood-brain barrier

tt D ow nladed from Although interferon-l [also known as type III interferon or interleukin-28 (IL-28)/IL-29] restricts infection by several viruses, its inhibitory mechanism has remained uncertain. We used recombinant interferon-l and mice lacking the interferon-l receptor (IFNLR1) to evaluate the effect of interferon-l on infectionwithWest Nile virus, an encephalitic flavivirus. Cell culture studies in mouse keratinocytes and dendritic cells showed no direct antiviral effect of exogenous interferon-l, even though expression of interferon-stimulated genes was induced. We observed no differences inWest Nile virus burden between wild-type and Ifnlr1mice in the draining lymph nodes, spleen, or blood. We detected increased West Nile virus infection in the brain and spinal cord of Ifnlr1mice, yet this was not associated with a direct antiviral effect in mouse neurons. Instead, we observed an increase in blood-brain barrier permeability in Ifnlr1mice. Treatment ofmicewithpegylated interferon-l2 resulted in decreasedblood-brainbarrier permeability, reducedWest Nile virus infection in the brainwithout affecting viremia, and improved survival against lethal virus challenge. An in vitro model of the blood-brain barrier showed that interferon-l signaling in mouse brain microvascular endothelial cells increased transendothelial electrical resistance, decreased virus movement across the barrier, and modulated tight junction protein localization in a protein synthesis– and signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 (STAT1)–independent manner. Our data establish an indirect antiviral function of interferon-l in which noncanonical signaling through IFNLR1 tightens the blood-brain barrier and restricts viral neuroinvasion and pathogenesis. p//st
CT Guided Ablation of T 1 Renal Tumors

Acosta Ruiz, V. 2019. CT Guided Ablation of T1 Renal Tumors. Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Medicine 1598. 71 pp. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. ISBN 978-91-513-0750-3. The widespread use of medical imaging contributes to the increased detection of incidentally detected small renal tumors, a majority which are often indolent masses found in elderly patients with preexisting chronic kidney disease. In Sweden, partial nephrectomy with minimal invasive surgical approach is the current standard for removing these tumors, although another option is percutaneous image-guided tumor ablation that allows treatment of elderly patients with comorbidities for who surgery is a risk. Due to the lack of long-term follow-up studies and prospective randomized trials, ablation is still considered an alternative option to surgery in Sweden. The aim of this thesis was to evaluate treatment of T1 renal tumors with CT guided radiofrequency (RFA) and microwave ablation (MWA). Factors affecting the efficacy rate of complete tumor ablation with RFA after a single session were evaluated (Paper I). Optimal electrode placement and a long tumor distance to the collecting system were associated with an increased primary efficacy. Renal tumor RFA was compared with laparoscopic partial nephrectomy (LPN: Papers II-III): both methods had comparable secondary efficacy rates, but RFA involved several treatment sessions. Total session times and hospitalization times were shorter and complications less frequent for RFA than for LPN (Paper II). After treatment, renal function impact was assessed by evaluation of both renal function quantity and quality through determination of the split renal function (SRF: Paper III). Standard renal function measurements were assessed and both RFA and LPN were nephron sparing when treating small renal tumors and did not affect creatinine or GFR. However, LPN involved greater SRF reduction in the affected kidney than RFA. Initial experience with microwave ablation was evaluated and this new ablation technique demonstrated high efficacy rates with fewer complications, and was comparable with the mid-term results of now established ablation techniques (Paper IV). In conclusion, CT guided RFA and MWA are safe and effective treatments for the removal of T1 renal tumors. This thesis provides further insights into the field of thermal ablation of small renal masses, which can aid future treatment selection and patient management.
Carcass and Meat Characteristics from Steers of Different of Hereford x Nellore Genotypes

The objective of this experiment was to evaluate the carcass and meat characteristics of Hereford (H), 5/8 H 3/8 Nellore (N), 1/2 H 1/2 N and 1/4 H 3/4 N steers, feedlot finished, from 20 to 24 months of age. Twenty-four steers randomly taken from th same herd were used. The diet contained, in a dry matter basis, 12.7% of crude protein and 57.5:42.5% forage:concentrate ratio. The for ge was composed by corn silage + sugar cane (relation 1:1). The slaughter and cold carcass weights were higher for 1/2 H 1/2 N steers (443 and 236 kg) followed by 5/8 H 3/8 N (426 and 225 kg). The cold carcass dressing percentage increased as the proportion of N increased, being 48.91, 52.74, 53.37 and 54.23%, respectively. There was no difference for subcutaneous fat thickness, bon e, mu cle and fat percentage in the carcass. The meat tenderness decreased with the increase of N ellor proportion in the genotype.
0 . 29 68 v 2 [ m at hph ] 2 A pr 2 01 2 Conjugate flow action functionals

We present a new method to construct an action functional for a field theory described in terms of nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs). The key idea relies on an intrinsic representation of the PDEs governing the physical system relatively to a diffeomorphic flow of coordinates which is assumed to be a functional of their solution. This flow, which will be called the conjugate flow of the theory, evolves in space and time similarly to a physical fluid flow of classical mechanics and it can be selected in order to symmetrize the Gâteaux derivative of the field equations relatively to a suitable (advective) bilinear form. This is equivalent to require that the equations of motion of the field theory can be derived from a principle of stationary action on a Lie group manifold. By using a general operator framework, we obtain the determining equations of such symmetrizing manifold for a second-order nonlinear scalar field theory. The generalization to vectorial and tensorial theories is straightforward. PACS numbers: 02.30. Zz, 02.30. Xx, 45.20. Jj, 02.40. Hw Submitted to: arXiv.org
The Effect of Capital Structure on the Financial Performance of Manufacturing Firm ’ s in Nigeria ( 2008-2014 )

This research work investigates the effect of capital structure on the financial performance of manufacturing firms in Nigeria. The secondary data of which the published annual reports for the period 2008-2014 were employed as the key source of data collection for ten sampled manufacturing firms. The relationship between capital structure and financial performance was determined using panel data, variables of return on assets and returns on equity were used to measure the financial performance, also variables of debt-equity ratio, asset turnover and age of firm were used to measure capital structure of the sampled manufacturing firms. This study observed that debt-equity ratio has a negative but statistically significant effect on financial performance, further, asset turnover has a positive and significant effect on financial performance also age of firm has a negative insignificant effect on financial performance of the sampled manufacturing firms as measured by Return on assets. However, the study also revealed that the debt-equity ratio has positive and insignificant effect on financial performance, also asset turnover has a positive and significant effect on financial performance, and the age of firm has negative but statistically significant effect on financial performance of the sampled manufacturing firms as measured by Return on equity. The present study recommends that management should be careful when using debt as its source of financing its activities. The benefit of financing with debt is that there will be no tax duties accrued to borrowed funds in an organization. Therefore, management should seek to finance their activities with retained earnings and use debt as a last option as supported by the pecking order theory. Key word: Capital Structure, Financial Performance, Manufacturing Firms, Nigeria, Return on Asset, Return on Equity 1.1 Background of the Study Capital structure is the most significant part of financing for a firm and financing manager is concerned with the determination of the best financing decision in terms of the combination of debt and equity to be used for his firm. Capital structure decision is the mix of debt and equity that a company uses to finance its business which is very necessary for its efficient operation (Damodaran, 2001). According to Lim (2012), capital structure refers to the way a firm generates the money to finance its operations and the manner it assigns these financing Journal of Accounting and Financial Management ISSN 2504-8856 Vol. 3 No. 3 2017
Risk Factors of Colorectal Cancer in Northwest Iran

Purpose: Environmental and lifestyle factors are believed to play an important role in modifying incidence of colorectal cancer which is currently the third most common cancer in all over the world. This study was aimed to determine epidemiological findings regarding the association between risk factors and colorectal cancer among the northwest Iran population. Methods: To examine the association between risk factors such as life style, familial history, diabetes, hypertension and colorectal cancer risk, we conducted a cross sectional study which included 100 patients who suffered colorectal cancer and attended in radiotherapy department of Imam Reza Educational-Medical center which is the most advanced referral center in northwest Iran. Results: Patients consisted of 30 female and 70 male (mean age was 49.3±5.1 years old). Low physical activity, low fiber diet, obesity, smoking, diabetes, hypertension, and dyslipidemia were found among 96.9%, 62.2%, 41%, 42%, 27%, 37% and 27% of patients respectively. Conclusion: Life style, low fiber diet, low physical activity and metabolic syndrome were found to have statistically significant relation with colorectal cancer. Considering results of this study, preventive programs should be modified, therefore programs for controlling burden of colorectal cancer might improve.
Profit shifting and Foreign entry restrictions

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has surged but various foreign entry restrictions remain. Investment agreements aim at partly removing these restrictions. This paper studies the economic and political determinants of foreign entry restrictions and of investment agreements in the context of transfer pricing by multinationals. We develop a new model in which governments can restrict the entry of foreign affiliates and multinationals can shift their profits using transfer pricing. We find a new economic rationale for foreign entry restrictions which limit the entry of foreign affiliates that both decrease national firms’ profits and repatriate part of their profits abroad. We show that (i) restrictions increase in the foreign intra-firm price and that (i) countries are trapped in a prisoner’s dilemma when they set optimal foreign entry restrictions non-cooperatively. Using a coalitional bargaining model where both national firms and foreign affiliates can lobby, we show that (i) lobbying can reduce restrictions compared to the case of no lobbying when the intra-firm price is not too high and that (ii) domestic lobbying might then be preferred to a costly investment agreement . Finally we use two proxies for the profit shifting behaviour to provide empirical evidence that profit shifting affects the choice of FDI restrictions.
UCP2 silencing aggravates mitochondrial dysfunction in astrocytes under septic conditions

Uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2) plays a positive role in sepsis. However, the role of UCP2 in experimental sepsis in astrocytes remains unknown. The present study was designed to determine whether UCP2 has a protective effect in an experimental sepsis model in astrocytes asnd to clarify the mechanisms responsible for its neuroprotective effects after sepsis. An experimental astrocyte model mimicking sepsis-induced brain injury was established using lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and interferon (IFN)-γ. Additionally, UCP2 knockdown in astrocytes was achieved by adenovirus transfection. Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and interleukin (IL)-1β activity, mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) and reactive oxygen species (ROS), and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) levels were assessed. The mitochondrial ultrastructure was evaluated, and the expression of UCP2 was determined by western blotting. LPS with IFN-γ co-stimulation increased the mRNA and protein expression levels of UCP2 in astrocytes, damaged the mitochondrial structure, and accelerated the release of TNF-α and IL-1β, resulting in a decrease in the MMP, and the excessive generation of ROS. Moreover, sepsis also caused a reduction in ATP production. The knockdown of UCP2 exacerbated astrocyte injury and mitochondrial impairment. In conclusion, both the function and morphology of mitochondria were damaged in an experimental model of sepsis in astrocytes, and knockdown of UCP2 using shRNA exacerbated this impairment, suggesting that UCP2 has a positive effect on astrocytes as determined in an experimental sepsis model.
Brand Image and Customers ’ Willingness to Pay a Price Premium for Female ’ s Stitched Clothing

The aim of the present study is to better understand customer’s willingness to pay a price premium in the market for female’s stitched clothing and what sort of brand images can be used by a brand in order to achieve price premium. This study is based on quantitative survey of brand images found in branding literature and their impact on customer’s willingness to pay a price premium for branded female’s stitched clothing. This study applies regression analysis to find out the strength of the role of brand image dimensions towards willingness to pay price premium, using data collected from 409 university level female students. The outcome of the present study demonstrates that perceived uniqueness is the strongest predictor, perceived social image is the second strongest, perceived corporate social responsibility is the third strongest predictor, perceived awareness is the fourth strongest predictor, perceived quality is the fifth strongest predictor, perceived country of origin is the last strongest predictor of customer’s willingness to pay a price premium. This study looks into other branding related dimensions to check price premium rather than actual price premium determinants. The outcomes aid brand managers to be aware of the significance of incorporating price premium and to build up an improved perceptive of what brand images dimensions coerce price premium. Brand Image and Customers’ Willingness to Pay a Price Premium 1028
Phytoestrogens as Nutritional Modulators in Colon Cancer Prevention

Intestinal carcinogenesis is the final outcome of a multi-step process resulting from genetic alterations that are influenced by two categories of factors: environmental factors and hostrelated factors such as cytokines and hormones (including sex steroid hormones). One of the most important environmental factors involved in the development of colon cancer is dietary components. However, variations in cancer incidence among and within populations with similar dietary patterns suggest that the predominant pathogenetic factor is the individual response, through the expression of different protein and metabolite patterns (1). Among host-related factors particular attention is paid in this work to the relationship between estrogens, as well as their agonists (phytoestrogens), and colon cancer, and the possible role of these latter substances in the prevention of colon cancer.
Obstacle Avoidance for an Autonomous Robot Car using Deep Learning

The focus of this study was deep learning. A small, autonomous robot car was used for obstacle avoidance experiments. The robot car used a camera for taking images of its surroundings. A convolutional neural network used the images for obstacle detection. The available dataset of 31 022 images was trained with the Xception model. We compared two different implementations for making the robot car avoid obstacles. Mapping image classes to steering commands was used as a reference implementation. The main implementation of this study was to separate obstacle detection and steering logic in different modules. The former reached an obstacle avoidance ratio of 80 %, the latter reached 88 %. Different hyperparameters were looked at during training. We found that frozen layers and number of epochs were important to optimize. Weights were loaded from ImageNet before training. Frozen layers decided how many layers that were trainable after that. Training all layers (no frozen layers) was proven to work best. Number of epochs decided how many epochs a model trained. We found that it was important to train between 10-25 epochs. The best model used no frozen layers and trained for 21 epochs. It reached a test accuracy of 85.2 %.
The Effects of Moody’s Sovereign Ratings on European Stock Markets

The purpose of this study is to examine if the sovereign ratings which Moody’s provide have any effect on the respective countries stock markets. This study is only focusing on announcements made by Moody’s and include all rating changes available for our chosen sample of countries. It is of importance to examine, not only the effects of rating changes made by Moody’s but also if the magnitude of the effects has changed after the crisis in 2008 from what it was before. Our research is based on price series data from 11 European countries that have had a debt to GDP ratio of 80 % or more between the years of 2008-2012. An event study methodology has been applied when analyzing the time series data using linear regressions with the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) method in order to examine if there exist abnormal returns in relation to credit changes. Our results suggest that credit changes announced by Moody’s do have an impact on the sample of stock markets and that the effects of negative credit changes have increased. We also conclude that the persistency of these negative effects has increased after the crisis of 2008.
On the Relationship among Teacher Talk , Authentic Material , and Listening Comprehension Ability of Iranian EFL Learners

As second language (L2) teachers and language schol ars acknowledge the unique characteristics of the listening skill and the vital role it plays in language learning and communication, they underscore more and more the significance of teachi ng listening comprehension in L2 classes. Given this, the present study was an attempt to emp irically investigate if the teacher talk and the authentic material had any positive effect on liste ning comprehension of Iranian EFL learners. To this end, 60 male and female EFL learners were s l cted via double sampling and after administrating a pre-test they were assigned to two experimental groups (the Teacher Talk and the Authentic Group) and a control group. One group received authentic material and the other group was taught based on the characteristics of th e Teacher Talk. After the treatment, a post test was given to the sample study. The thorough analysi s of data using one-way ANOVA indicated that the authentic materials had a more prominent e ffect on learners’ listening comprehension. The paper ends with some recommendations for furthe r es arch.
Optical Injection Locking: From Principle to Applications

This paper reviews optical injection locking (OIL) of semiconductor lasers and its application in optical communications and signal processing. Despite complex OIL dynamics, we attempt to explain the operational principle and main features of the OIL in an intuitive way, aiming at a wide understanding of the OIL phenomenon and its associated techniques in the optic and photonic communities. We review and compare different control techniques that enable robust OIL in practical systems. The applications are reviewed with a focus on new developments in the past decade, under the categories of ‘High Speed Directly Modulated Lasers’ and ‘Optical Carrier Recovery’. Finally, we draw our vision for future research directions.
BODY COMPOSITION AND HAND GRIP STRENGTH IN MALE BRICKFIELD WORKERS

Ninety two male brickfield workers and sixty sedentary individuals of 25-45 years were randomly selected from brickfields of West Bengal, India, to evaluate the body composition and hand grip strength among male brickfield workers and to compare the data with their sedentary counterparts. Assessment of body composition by skinfold measurements and determination of hand grip strength (HGS) by hand grip dynamometer indicated significantly higher (p<0.001) fatness, skinfold values and body mass index (BMI) among the sedentary individuals though HGS and hand grip endurance were significantly higher (p<0.001) among brickfield workers. BMI and %fat values indicated that the subjects were non-obese and non-overweight and regression norms for prediction of %fat from BMI in both the groups were computed as follows : Control Group : Y = 1.647 X – 22.789 (r = 0.92, p<0.001, SEE = 1.01), Brick-field Workers : Y = 0.747 X – 8.398 (r = 0.78, p<0.001, SEE = 1.34). Percentage of lean body mass (%LBM) was significantly higher (p<0.001) among brickfield workers whereas absolute LBM value had insignificant variation because of significant difference (p<0.001) in body mass between the groups. The present investigation revealed that the daily labour of the brick-field workers hindered the accumulation of body fat and extensive use of their hand and finger muscles enabled them to achieve greater arm strength. The proposed norms for prediction of %fat from BMI will also provide a firsthand impression about the body composition in the studied population.