Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A cellular and molecular basis for the selective desmopressin-induced ACTH release in Cushing disease patients: key role of AVPR1b receptor and potential therapeutic implications.

CONTEXT Desmopressin is a synthetic agonist of vasopressin receptors (AVPRs). The desmopressin stimulation test is used in the diagnosis and postsurgery prognosis of Cushing disease (CD). However, the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the desmopressin-induced ACTH increase in patients with CD are poorly understood. OBJECTIVE The objectives of this study were to determine, for the first time, whether desmopressin acts directly and exclusively on pituitary corticotropinoma cells to stimulate ACTH expression/release and to elucidate the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in desmopressin-induced ACTH increase in CD. DESIGN A total of 8 normal pituitaries (NPs), 23 corticotropinomas, 14 nonfunctioning pituitary adenomas, 17 somatotropinomas, and 3 prolactinomas were analyzed for AVPR expression by quantitative real-time RT-PCR. Primary cultures derived from corticotropinomas, nonfunctioning pituitary adenomas, somatotropinomas, prolactinomas, and NPs were treated with desmopressin, and ACTH secretion/expression, [Ca(2+)]i kinetics, and AVPR expression and/or proliferative response were evaluated. The relationship between AVPR expression and plasma adrenocorticotropin/cortisol levels obtained from desmopressin tests was assessed. RESULTS Desmopressin affects all functional parameters evaluated in corticotropinoma cells but not in NPs or other pituitary adenomas cells. These effects might be due to the dramatic elevation of AVPR1b expression levels found in corticotropinomas. In line with this notion, the use of an AVPR1b antagonist completely blocked desmopressin stimulatory effects. Remarkably, only AVPR1b expression was positively correlated with elevated plasma adrenocorticotropin levels in corticotropinomas. CONCLUSIONS The present results provide a cellular and molecular basis to support the desmopressin stimulation test as a reliable, specific test for the diagnosis and postsurgery prognosis of CD. Furthermore, our data indicate that AVPR1b is responsible for the direct/exclusive desmopressin stimulatory pituitary effects observed in CD, thus opening the possibility of exploring AVPR1b antagonists as potential therapeutic tools for CD treatment.
A many-body potential approach to modelling the thermomechanical properties of actinide oxides

A many-body potential model for the description of actinide oxide systems, which is robust at high temperatures, is reported for the first time. The embedded atom method is used to describe many-body interactions ensuring good reproduction of a range of thermophysical properties (lattice parameter, bulk modulus, enthalpy and specific heat) between 300 and 3000 K for AmO2, CeO2, CmO2, NpO2, ThO2, PuO2 and UO2. Additionally, the model predicts a melting point for UO2 between 3000 and 3100 K, in close agreement with experiment. Oxygen–oxygen interactions are fixed across the actinide oxide series because it facilitates the modelling of oxide solid solutions. The new potential is also used to predict the energies of Schottky and Frenkel pair disorder processes.
A data mining approach to employee turnover prediction (case study: Arak automotive parts manufacturing)

Training and adaption of employees are time and money consuming. Employees’ turnover can be predicted by their organizational and personal historical data in order to reduce probable loss of organizations. Prediction methods are highly related to human resource management to obtain patterns by historical data. This article implements knowledge discovery steps on real data of a manufacturing plant. We consider many characteristics of employees such as age, technical skills and work experience. Different data mining methods are compared based on their accuracy, calculation time and user friendliness. Furthermore the importance of data features is measured by Pearson Chi-Square test. In order to reach the desired user friendliness, a graphical user interface is designed specifically for the case study to handle knowledge discovery life cycle.
Content comparison of guideline-recommended instruments used in treatment for alcohol use disorders

Abstract Purpose: Practice guidelines recommend the use of standardized instruments in the treatment of alcohol use disorders (AUDs); however, the extent to which these instruments assess patients’ functioning is unclear. The aim of this study was to examine the domains of functioning and contextual factors contained in guideline-recommended instruments, using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) as a reference. Materials and methods: We identified instruments by reviewing AUD treatment guidelines used in Germany, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, United Kingdom, and United States. We included instruments which were available in English free of charge, we excluded instruments developed solely for diagnostic or epidemiological purposes and those for children or adolescents. Following a standardized set of rules, two health care researchers identified the concepts contained in the items on the instruments and independently linked them to ICF categories. Results: A total of 10 instruments were included. Among 517 items, 752 meaningful concepts (MCs) were derived, and 622 of them were linked to the ICF. Inter-rater agreement was κ = 0.61. One hundred eighty eight MCs referred to personal factors, 175 to body functions, 168 to activity and participation, and 91 to environmental factors. The most frequently linked ICF chapter was b1 (mental functions). Conclusions: Instruments recommended in AUD treatment guidelines vary considerably in their assessment of patients’ functioning and contextual factors. Within the investigated instruments, environmental factors are under-represented in comparison to body functions and personal factors. ICF linkage provides guidance for clinicians and researchers in the selection of appropriate instruments. Implications for rehabilitation Since instruments that are recommended in alcohol treatment guidelines vary considerably in respect the functioning domains and context factors they cover, it may be challenging for clinicians to select instruments relevant to their treatment context. Using the ICF as framework, our results provide guidance for clinicians in how to select appropriate instruments. Within the investigated instruments, environmental factors and activities and participation are under-represented in comparison to body functions and personal factors. Clinicians may employ AUD-unspecific or ICF-based instruments to cover these components if needed.
Privatization and regional distribution of manufacturing in Turkey

The state owned enterprises were crucial in the early stage of industrial development in Turkey. They were producer of basic consumption goods and contributed the building the entrepreneurial understanding, and hence the development of the private sector. State owned enterprises have played key role in almost all sectors of the Turkish economy, including manufacturing sectors and various infrastructural facilities. After 1980, the radical transformation has occurred in Turkish economic policies: The reform process included not only financial liberalization and trade reforms, but also the privatization of the state owned enterprises. Initially, starting from the second half of 1980s, international organizations have advocated privatization as a “must” policy tool. The paper explores the effects of privatization on regional growth of Turkish manufacturing. The analyses are carried out at regional basis in order to detect to what extent the public sector is complement to or substitute of the private sector. The findings show that privatization has no perverse effects on the development of the manufacturing activities in the traditional and new industrial zones. However, its effects are in opposite directions in the poor regions.
Reliability compact modeling approach for layout dependent effects in advanced CMOS nodes

In this paper, we have analysed and modelled the layout dependent effects (LDE) found in pMOSFET transistors from 14nm UTBB FDSOI CMOS technology. Experiments show that changing the layout has a clear impact on threshold Voltage (Vth), under NBTI reliability and on Ring Oscillator (RO) Frequency drift. Compact models taking account the impact of LDE on Vth, NBTI reliability, and on RO frequency are proposed. Measurement data are fitted with a new compact model showing that the obtained results are in very good agreements with the modelling.
Subject Review: Conceptual and methodological challenges in discourse assessment with TBI speakers: towards an understanding

The primary objective of this paper is to review theoretical and methodological literature pertaining to the clinical evaluation of discouse abilities in speakers who have sustained traumatic brain injury (TBI). A brief history of the study of discourse impairment in this population is followed by consideration of the following issues: (1) sampling (genres selected, the physical setting in which sampling takes place, the relationship between speakers, elicitation techniques, presence of recording devices, the number of samples required, and transcription); (2) measurement; (3) the relationship between sampling and measurement; (4) other approaches to discourse assessment (self and close other report); (5) consideration of the criterion of ? normal' which clinicians should employ; (6) the relationship between discourse impairment and measures of executive function; and (7) the relationship between discourse impairment and severity of injury. Recommendations arising from a critical review of these domains are made for both clinical practice and research.
Performance Audit: A Tool for Fighting Corruption in the Nigeria’s Public Sector Administration

The efficient and effective management of financial resources forms the basis for achieving good governance. In achieving the good governance, fiscal transparency and accountability must be ensured. Performance audit provides the platform to determine if the resources are being managed with due regard for economy, efficiency and effectiveness and that accountability requirements are being met reasonably. This study looks at performance audit as a tool for fighting corruption in Nigerian public sector administration. Questionnaires were distributed and analysed using the Pearson’s correlation co-efficient and we discovered that performance audit could be an effective tool in curbing corruption. It was suggested that performance audit report should be made public and stringent punishment should be melted on offenders to serve as deterrent to others.
Clinical and Demographic Characteristics of Binge Drinkers Associated with Lack of Efficacy of Brief Intervention and Medical Advice.

UNLABELLED Brief Counseling Intervention (BCI) and Medical advice (MA) are psychotherapeutic approaches used for the treatment of binge drinkers in Primary Care. Although binge drinking is a common pattern of alcohol misuse in Europe and in the US, no studies have evaluated those subjects who do not respond to Brief Counseling Interventions or Medical Advice. OBJECTIVE To determine the clinical and demographic characteristics of binge drinkers in whom BCI or MA are not effective in reducing harmful alcohol use. METHODS This is a secondary analysis of data from a randomized alcohol brief intervention trial with a 12-month follow-up period. A total of 674 subjects (89%) participated right through to the end of the study. The primary outcome measure was change in harmful alcohol use from baseline to 12 months. RESULTS The strongest baseline predictors of harmful alcohol use during follow-up were educational status, young adults, and high number of cigarettes smoked, present family history of alcoholism, treatment condition and number of drinks per episode of binge drinking. CONCLUSIONS Binge drinkers are a heterogeneous group that responds to brief intervention or MA but in a subgroup of them these interventions fail to prevent harmful alcohol use. Other interventions should be implemented for these subjects.
MOLECULAR PHYLOGENY OF CORYNOSOMA LÜHE, 1904 (ACANTHOCEPHALA), BASED ON 5.8S AND INTERNAL TRANSCRIBED SPACER SEQUENCES

Species of Corynosoma (Acanthocephala) are distributed worldwide as parasites of marine mammals and sea birds. Species diagnosis is based on morphological characters, including the size and number of hooks in the proboscis and the number of spines in the dorsal and ventral regions of the body. We inferred the phylogenetic relationships of 10 nominal species of Corynosoma through analysis of internal transcribed spacers (ITS-1, ITS-2) and 5.8S ribosomal RNA sequences. Nucleotide distances between species of Corynosoma ranged from 0.4 to 11% for ITS sequences. Maximum parsimony and likelihood analyses indicated that species of Corynosoma that inhabit hosts in the marine environment form a monophyletic assemblage, but yielded conflicting hypotheses for the relationship of Corynosoma cetaceum to other members of the genus. However, parsimony and likelihood analyses were consistent for many Corynosoma sister species relationships of (e.g., C. australe plus C. bullosum, C. validum plus C. villosum, C. caspicum plus C. magdaleni, and C. enhydri plus C. strumosum). This phylogenetic framework was used to evaluate taxonomic controversies concerning C. cetaceum and C. caspicum.
Home Management of Upper Airway Obstruction in Pierre Robin Sequence Using a Nasopharyngeal Airway

Objective: This unit has reported management of infants with Pierre Robin Sequence (PRS) and upper airway obstruction using nasopharyngeal airways and nutritional support until enough growth takes place for the infant to thrive. There was a mean hospital stay of 60 days. This long in-patient stay prompted review of our management protocols and consideration of treatment at home. This paper reports our experience of managing infants with PRS at home using a nasopharyngeal airway and nasogastric feeding tube and reviews whether such management reduces in-patient stay while remaining safe and effective. Design: Retrospective review of cases referred over a 3.5-year period. Comparison is made with the unit's previously published results. Patients: Thirteen PRS infants were referred to the West Midlands Regional Cleft service and required transfer to Birmingham Children's Hospital for specialist assessment and airway control. Interventions: The parents of 12 infants underwent training to manage the airway and feeding tube. Treatment then continued at home. Outcome measures: In-patient episode, rate of weight gain, and complication rate were used. Results: The median hospital stay was 19.5 days compared to 54 days previously. The median rate of weight gain was 34 g/d. There were no complications or readmissions. Conclusion: This series demonstrates the revised management protocol followed has reduced in-patient stays and remained effective, with infants continuing to thrive after discharge home, and has a low complication rate.
Cross-Industry Determinants of Capital Structure: Evidence from Pakistani Data

This study investigates the cross-industry determinants of capital structure. Sample consists of firms from three main industries (textile, cement and power industry) of Pakistan. Five year data from 2005 to 2009 is collected for 199 firms out of which 149 firms from textile industry, 23 from cement industry and 27 from power industry. Leverage is taken as a dependent variable and Profitability, Size, Assets Tangibility, Growth and Non-debt tax shield are taken as independent variables. OLS regression analysis suggested that profitability and assets tangibility are two common determents which show the same results in all the three industries. All the other variables show different results across the industries. So results indicate that across the industry determinants of the capital structure are different.
A study on the Price Behavior of Base Metals traded in India

This study looks into the price behavior of five base metals – aluminum, copper, zinc, lead and nickel traded on Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX), using near month futures contracts and spot contracts for the period from November 2007 to January 2013. To assess the impact of the recent Global Financial Crisis on trading of base metals, the price volatility of the base metals has been examined using GARCH models. The paper also studies the effect of implied volatility of equity market, measured by India VIX on the price volatility of the five base metals. The findings of the study suggest that there is presence of short term persistence in price volatility of the metals, and the daily price volatility of base metals is influenced by the Global Financial Crisis. The implied volatility in equity market is also found to affect the price volatility of the metals. Thus, the paper gives important evidence in support of the introduction of option contracts on base metals in Indian Commodity Markets, since option contracts are priced considering the price volatility of the underlying asset.
Role of Immunoproteasome Catalytic Subunits in the Immune Response to Hepatitis B Virus

ABSTRACT Inhibition of hepatitis B virus (HBV) replication and viral clearance from an infected host requires both the innate and adaptive immune responses. Expression of interferon (IFN)-inducible proteasome catalytic and regulatory subunits correlates with the IFN-α/β- and IFN-γ-mediated noncytopathic inhibition of HBV in transgenic mice and hepatocytes, as well as with clearance of the virus in acutely infected chimpanzees. The immunoproteasome catalytic subunits LMP2 and LMP7 alter proteasome specificity and influence the pool of peptides available for presentation by major histocompatibility complex class I molecules. We found that these subunits influenced both the magnitude and specificity of the CD8 T-cell response to the HBV polymerase and envelope proteins in immunized HLA-A2-transgenic mice. We also examined the role of LMP2 and LMP7 in the IFN-α/β- and IFN-γ-mediated inhibition of virus replication using HBV transgenic mice and found that they do not play a direct role in this process. These results demonstrate the ability of the IFN-induced proteasome catalytic subunits to shape the HBV-specific CD8 T-cell response and thus potentially influence the progression of infection to acute or chronic disease. In addition, these studies identify a potential key role for IFN in regulating the adaptive immune response to HBV through alterations in viral antigen processing.
Joint frequency domain equalisation and phase noise estimation for single-carrier modulations in doubly-selective channels

In this study the authors propose a novel joint detection and phase noise estimation scheme suited for severely time-dispersive channels. The authors consider single-carrier modulations combined with frequency domain equalisation schemes where the wireless transmission is impaired with phase noise. An iterative frequency-domain equaliser is assumed on the receiver side and the phase noise is estimated and compensated for after the equalisation step and within each iteration of the equaliser. In fact, by exploiting the Gaussianity of the equaliser output the authors are able to track the phase noise using stochastic recursive filtering techniques. These techniques share the same dynamic state-space (DSS) model. The observation equation corresponds to the measurement of the phase noise of a digitally-modulated signal affected by additive white Gaussian noise, and the dynamics equation corresponds to the Wiener–Levy model for the phase noise. Supported on this DSS model the authors aim at estimating the unknown phase noise value given all observations up to the current time instant. In a Bayesian context this represents estimating recursively in time the filtering and the predictive distributions. From these distributions a minimum mean-squared error estimate of the phase noise is determined.
Outcoupling Efficiency Analysis of OLEDs Fabricated on a Wrinkled Substrate

Enhancement of outcoupling efficiency of OLEDs by using a buckled or wrinkled substrate has been recently reported by several groups, while an optical analysis for understanding the coupling between various modes in OLED devices has not been conducted. For various wrinkle shape, FDTD simulation was conducted to find the external quantum efficiency improved by the coupling into a radiation mode, and the power fraction of various modes existing in the OLED device was examined. Consequently, we found that the coupling between TE mode and surface plasmon mode was critically affecting the fraction of outcoupled mode. For confirming the simulation results with an experiment, the wrinkled OLED device was fabricated by incorporating a novel UV curable liquid prepolymer material. The experimental result corresponded well to the prediction from FDTD analysis.
Impact of ATM Banking Performance on Customer Satisfaction with the Bank in Malawi

Automated teller machine banking has become a significant channel for banking products and services behind branch banking in Malawi and banks continue to invest in new and efficient technologies that can handle more functions that include cash depositing to attract more customers and achieve customer satisfaction with the banks. 353 respondents participated in this study to assess the impact of Automated teller machine banking performance on customer satisfaction with banks. The study adopted a performance only approach to measuring customer satisfaction. A self administered questionnaire containing multi-dimension and multi-attribute Likert measurement scales was used where respondents rated the performance only and their satisfaction with Automated teller machine banking and satisfaction with their respective banks. Using SPSS, regression analysis of satisfaction with Automated teller machine banking performance and satisfaction with the bank was conducted and the results indicate that performance of automated teller machine banking has 40 percent predictive capability of customer satisfaction with the bank. The study further found that despite influencing customer satisfaction with the bank, Automated teller machine banking has no capability to attract customers to switch banks. Therefore banks could improve their customer satisfaction ratings through improvements in Automated teller machine banking services but where the banks wish to attract customers from rivals, alternative marketing strategies should be sought.
Innovation Strategies and Performance in Small Firms

John Baldwin and Guy Gellatly find that the strategic decisions young firms make play a critical role in determining their odds for survival and growth. New small firms survive by developing a core set of business skills – skills related inter alia to management, human resources, marketing and financing. Advanced innovation capabilities related to R&D and technology set high-performance firms apart from other businesses. Industry-level differences in product lifecycle, production activity, competitive intensity and the science base all influence the nature of small-firm innovation.