Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Relationship between serum beta 2-microglobulin, bone histology, and dialysis membranes in uraemic patients.

BACKGROUND beta 2-Microglobulin (beta 2M) is the main constituent of osteoarticular amyloid deposits in haemodialysis patients. When dialysed with cellulosic (C) membrane such patients present a higher incidence of beta 2M-related amyloid arthropathy than with synthetic high-flux (SHF) membrane, and they have higher serum levels of beta 2M. This could favour beta 2M deposition as amyloid fibrils and/or modify bone and cartilage metabolism. METHODS We examined 56 uraemic patients dialysed in the same centre for 7.5 +/- 4.8 years (mean +/- SD). Based on bone histomorphometry criteria they were classified into either high-turnover bone disease (HTBD, 45 patients) or normal/low-turnover bone disease (N/LTBD, 11 patients). A subgroup of 30 patients had been dialysed with the same dialysis membrane for at least 18 months prior to study, 8 on C and 22 on SHF membrane. RESULTS Serum intact parathyroid hormone levels were not different between the two patient subgroups. In contrast, serum beta 2M levels were higher in patients on C than on SHF membrane: 59.8 +/- 14.1 versus 32.8 +/- 8.7 mg/l, and so were serum total alkaline phosphatase and osteocalcin levels: 323 +/- 167 versus 173 +/- 50 IU/l, and 656 +/- 395 versus 288 +/- 263 ng/ml respectively. The increase of these serum markers of bone formation was associated with a higher bone cell number: osteoblast surface, 21.7 +/- 5.1 versus 9.8 +/- 11%; osteoclast surface, 4.27 +/- 1.86 versus 1.96 +/- 1.34%; and osteoclast number/mm2, 2.85 +/- 1.26 versus 1.27 +/- 0.88 respectively. Serum beta 2M was positively correlated with serum osteocalcin (r = 0.58, P < 0.001), bone-specific alkaline phosphatase (bAP) (r = 0.46, P < 0.008), and free pyridinoline (PYD) (r = 0.62, P < 0.002), and negatively correlated, only for HTBD, with osteoid volume: r = -0.40, P < 0.006. Serum beta 2M was higher in patients with HTBD than N/LTBD: CONCLUSION The bone metabolism of chronic haemodialysis patients may be influenced by dialysis membrane biocompatibility. Moreover, the association of high serum beta 2M with increased bone cell number and serum markers of bone turnover suggests that beta 2M is either another marker of bone cell activity or an activator of bone cells.
HISTOCHEMISTRY OF OXIDASES IN SEVERAL TISSUES OF BIVALVE MOLLUSCS

Various tissues of the marine bivalveMytilus galloprovincialiswere analysed histochemically for oxidases capable of generating reactive oxygen species (ROS) using the cerium‐DAB technique. Incubations were performed on unfixed cryostat sections using polyvinyl alcohol and semipermeable membranes. High xanthine oxidoreductase andd‐amino acid oxidase (DAOX) activities were observed in kidney epithelial cells of mussels. DAOX also presented a strong activity in all the digestive epithelia. No xanthine oxidase activity was observed in any of the mussel tissues tested suggesting the presence of an enzyme only showing dehydrogenase activity. Mannitol oxidase, associated with special organelles called ‘mannosomes’ of terrestrial gastropods, presented a weak activity in the stomach epithelium and a strong specific activity in the haemocytes. Only DAOX presented a discrete granular distribution compatible with a peroxisomal compartmentalization. No urate oxidase activity could be demonstrated in tissues of mussels. These observations suggest a role for peroxisomes in ROS generation and determine the tissues capable of producing oxygen radicals in the digestive gland. This study raises the question of the behaviour of these enzymes in conditions in which ROS‐generating organic xenobiotics are accumulated in the digestive gland of molluscs.
Wealth, Top Incomes, and Inequality

Although it is heartening to see wealth inequality being taken seriously, key concepts are often muddled, including the distinction between income and wealth, what is included in "wealth", and facts about wealth distributions. This chapter highlights issues that arise in making ideas and facts about wealth inequality precise, and employs newly-available data to take a fresh look at wealth and wealth inequality in a comparative perspective. The composition of wealth is similar across countries, with housing wealth being the key asset. Wealth is considerably more unequally distributed than income, and it is distinctively so in the United States. Extending definitions to include pension wealth however reduces inequality substantially. Analysis also sheds light on life-cycle patterns and the role of inheritance. Discussion of the joint distributions of income and wealth suggests that interactions between increasing top income shares and the concentration of wealth and income from wealth towards the top is critical.
Comparison of agar disk diffusion, microdilution broth, and agar dilution for testing antimicrobial susceptibility of coagulase-negative staphylococci

A collection of 120 oxacillin-susceptible and 120 oxacillin-resistant coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS) from six tertiary care hospital laboratories were tested by agar disk diffusion, three microdilution broth systems (Sensititre, Dynatech, and Alpkem), and the Vitek AutoMicrobic system for comparison with reference agar dilution results. The antimicrobial agents tested were oxacillin, cefazolin, cefotaxime, cefuroxime, cefamandole, fusidic acid, rifampin, and vancomycin. Incubation was at 30 or 35 degrees C for 24, 48, and 72 h. The broth media were supplemented with 2% NaCl for some antimicrobial agents, and the agar dilution method was used with and without the addition of 4% NaCl. The CNS were identified to species by the method of Kloos and Schleifer. The results showed a lack of concordance between two hospitals with respect to oxacillin susceptibility testing by agar dilution with no NaCl supplement. The reasons are not clear but may be related to variations in media. The 4% NaCl supplement or extended incubation to 48 h eliminated this difference. The cefazolin and cefotaxime susceptibility results in the agar disk diffusion test were unreliable if accepted at face value. Cefamandole testing correlated well with the reference method regardless of the method used, and salt supplementation is not recommended. Most of the oxacillin-resistant CNS were resistant to the other beta-lactam drugs except cefamandole. Of 22 CNS resistant to cefamandole, 21 were S. haemolyticus.
Physocalycoside, a New Phenylethanoid Glycoside from Phlomis physocalyx Hub.-Mor.

Abstract A new phenylethanoid tetraglycoside, physocalycoside (2), was isolated from the aerial parts of Phlomis physocalyx. Its structure was identified as 3-hydroxy-4-methoxy-β-phenyl-ethoxy-O-[α-ʟ-rhamnopyranosyl-(1→2)-α-ʟ-rhamnopyranosyl-(1→3)]-4-O-feruloyl-[β-ᴅ- glucopyranosyl-(1→6)]-|β-ᴅ-glucopyranoside, on the basis of spectroscopic evidence. In addition, one known iridoid glucoside, lamiide (1) and five known phenylethanoid glycosides, wiedemannioside C (3), verbascoside (= acteoside) (4). leucosceptoside A (5), martynoside (6), and forsythoside B (7) were also characterized. Compounds 2-7 demonstrated radical scavenging properties towards the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical.
Managing work motivation in Fiji

This thesis examines the use and difficulties of work motivation as a strategic management tool for economic development with a particular focus on its application in the workplace of the public sector. Guided by Kerr, Dunlop, Harbison and Myers’ (1960) argument that the level of work commitment is determined by the level of industrialisation, this study argues that Fiji’s experience of a British colonialism and a form of British industrialism has given rise to a benevolent work culture and an acquiescent workforce. This in turn has influenced the capacities of public management systems from effectively maximising motivational potential in the workplace. The study utilises a conventional research approach in two parts. The first part comprises a literature survey of work motivation reflected in the selected experiences of industrialised and developing market economies. The second part constitutes the case findings of three service agencies in the public sector. The findings of this study reinforced the view that motivation is a generic concept that can be utilised in any organisational form, sector or industry. The influences of exogenous stereotypes relating to age, authority structures, control, consultative processes, ethnicity and gender have impacted on employee behaviour and motivation in many ways, while the particularities of context also confirm that managing human resources will be influenced by the dictates of local neccessities. Since work motivation is a universal characteristic of human behaviour, and employee motivation a common manifestation in all organisations, sectoral distinction is not a key obstacle and what this boils down to is the potential to particularise strategies of implementation put into effect. The conclusion drawn from these findings indicates that while Fijian workplaces comprise employees with a common heritage, employee response to standard aspects of work differ according to the structure of the workplace. However, while a common heritage does not neccessarily equate with common employee behaviour, the relativity of these tendencies implies that socio-cultural orientations have an equally important role in the management of local neccessities. While productivity is possible and more feasible when the strategies are particularised to each workplace, the challenge for
A quantized consensus algorithm for distributed task assignment

This paper proposes a novel distributed algorithm for a multi-agent assignment problem, in which a group of agents has to reach a consensus on an optimal distribution of tasks among themselves. Distributing a number of tasks to a number of agents is one of the most fundamental resource allocation problems that appear in numerous control and decision systems, ranging from multi-agent robotics to processor allocation in computing systems. The problem is formalized as a distributed consensus algorithm, i.e., as a procedure using which the agents can exchange messages and update autonomously and iteratively their assigned tasks. The proposed distributed algorithm aims to minimize the task costs assuming that each agent can perform a subset of the available tasks and can communicate with a subset of agents. Some results prove that the convergence to a task assignment consensus is reached and a suitable stopping criterion is given.
Perivascular adipose tissue from human systemic and coronary vessels: the emergence of a new pharmacotherapeutic target

Fat cells or adipocytes are distributed ubiquitously throughout the body and are often regarded purely as energy stores. However, recently it has become clear that these adipocytes are engine rooms producing large numbers of metabolically active substances with both endocrine and paracrine actions. White adipocytes surround almost every blood vessel in the human body and are collectively termed perivascular adipose tissue (PVAT). It is now well recognized that PVAT not only provides mechanical support for any blood vessels it invests, but also secretes vasoactive and metabolically essential cytokines known as adipokines, which regulate vascular function. The emergence of obesity as a major challenge to our healthcare systems has contributed to the growing interest in adipocyte dysfunction with a view to discovering new pharmacotherapeutic agents to help rescue compromised PVAT function. Very few PVAT studies have been carried out on human tissue. This review will discuss these and the hypotheses generated from such research, as well as highlight the most significant and clinically relevant animal studies showing the most pharmacological promise.
Gender Gap in Coronary Artery Disease: Comparison of the Extent, Severity and Risk Factors in Men and Women Aged 45–65 Years

This retrospective study aimed to characterize coronary artery disease (CAD) and its risk factors among relatively young women, as compared to men in a similar age group. Confirmed cases of CAD were compared regarding their medical background, performance and outcome of coronary artery procedures, physical profile and lifestyle information. The study population included 179 women and 270 men aged 45–65 years who were hospitalized during the study period 1990–1995 in the Hadassah Medical Centers. Significantly more women presented with histories of prior myocardial infarction and a higher number of vessels occluded by 80% or more and required percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty for 3 or more arteries, and the women had a higher incidence of risk factors such as diabetes, hypertension and hypercholesterolemia than their male counterparts.
The changes of stemness biomarkers expression in human adipose‐derived stem cells during long‐term manipulation

One of the advantages of human adipose‐derived stem cells (ASCs) in regenerative medicine is that they can be harvested in abundance. However, the stemness biomarkers, which marked the safety and efficacy of ASCs in accordance with the good manufacturing practice guidelines, is not yet well established. This study was designed to investigate the effect of long‐term culture on the stemness properties of ASCs using quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction and flow cytometry. Results showed the growth rate of ASCs was at its peak when they reached P10 (population doubling; PD = 26) but started to decrease when they were expanded to P15 (PD = 36) and P20 (PD = 46). The ASCs can be culture expanded with minimal alteration in the stemness genes and cluster of differentiation (CD) markers expression up to P10. Expression level of Sox2, Nestin, and Nanog3 was significantly decreased at later passage. CD31, CD45, CD117, and human leukocyte antigen DR, DQ, and DP were lowly expressed at P5 and P10 but their expressions increased significantly at P15 or P20. The differentiation ability of ASCs (adipogenesis, osteogenesis, and neurogenesis) also decreased in long‐term culture. Our findings suggested that P10 (PD = 26) should be the “cutoff point” for clinical usage because ASCs at passage 15 onward showed significant changes in the stemness genes, CD markers expression, and differentiation capability.
A GARCH-VaR Investigation on the Brazilian Sectoral Stock Indices

In this paper, we have explored operational risk in Brazil by considering different sectoral indices of the Brazilian economy and the GACH Value-at-Risk (GARCH-VaR) estimation approach. We have carried a statistical evaluation of the eight Brazilian sectoral stock indices during different time ranges so that VaR methodologies could be chosen according to the data. We have analyzed the sectoral Brazilian indices during a common time range where we have realized VaR backtests using recent data. The results of the study reveals that VaR may be an effective tool on minimizing risk exposure and potentially to avoid losses when trading in the Brazilian stock market. Furthermore, we have showed that different sectors of the Brazilian economy have significantly different risk behavior. In particular, the consumption and industrial sectoral indices presented the best risk performance. In this sense, we highlight that this type of analysis would be useful to small lenders/investors in evaluating the attractiveness of lending/investing on the Brazilian stock market.
Buyout Longevity and Post-Exit Performance 1

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Corruption and Economic Growth in Indonesia

Studi mencoba melihat dampak korupsi pada pertumbuhan produktivitas di Indonesia. Studi ini menggunakan data tingkat perusahaan dan data agregat antar propinsi dan kabupaten. Estimasi model pada model tingkat perusahaan menunjukkan bahwa perusahaan memilih lokasi dengan tingkat korupsi yang lebih rendah. Daerah dengan tingkat korupsi tinggi akan dijauhi oleh perusahaan-perusahaan baru yang kemudian akan mempunyai efek menurunya produktivitas secara agregat. Untuk menguji hal ini maka model kovergensi pertumbuhan diaplikasikan pada data agregat daerah dengan memasukan variabel korupsi. Hasilnya menunjukkan korupsi memberikan dampak negatif pada pertumbuhan produktivitas.
End-of-life care for veterans with schizophrenia and cancer.

OBJECTIVE This study compared the quality of end-of-life care between veterans with and without schizophrenia who died of cancer in the northwestern United States. METHODS In this cross-sectional study, medical records of 60 veterans with schizophrenia and 196 with no major mental illness who died of cancer were compared on hospice enrollment, palliative and life-sustaining interventions, advance directives, and site of death. RESULTS Among veterans with schizophrenia, 58% had an advance directive, 73% received an opiate before hospice enrollment, 63% had a physician order to forgo cardiopulmonary resuscitation, 55% were hospice enrolled, and 27% died in the hospital. Schizophrenia patients had longer hospice stays (107+/-144 versus 63+/-96 days, p=.05) and more physician orders for life-sustaining treatment (15% versus 5%, p=.006) compared with veterans without mental illness. CONCLUSIONS On most measures, veterans with schizophrenia who died of cancer received comparable or better end-of-life care than veterans without mental illness.
Benzofuran derivatives: a patent review

Introduction: Benzofuran moiety constitutes the core of several interesting pharmacologically active natural products. Benzofurans are among feasible potent active inhibitors against many diseases, viruses, microbes, fungus and enzymes. Several series of therapeutically important synthetic and naturally occurring benzofuran-containing compounds are reported in this chapter. Areas covered: The current chapter focuses on the recent applications of benzofuran scaffolds and their wide range of biological activities during 1999 – 2012. The pharmacological areas covered included anti-inflammatory, antitumor, cytotoxic, antimicrobial, antitubercular, antioxidant, antiplasmodial, trypanocidal and insecticidal activities as well as enzyme inhibitory, HCV and HIV inhibitory activities. Expert opinion: The results reported in the chapter indicate that some benzofuran derivatives may be useful as potent drugs. From the structure–activity relationship (SAR), the presence of certain functions like -OH, -OMe in the benzofuran derivatives contributed greatly in increasing the potency of their therapeutic activities when compared with standards. For example, presence of the -OH and -OMe have made some benzofuran compounds more potent HIV-RT inhibitory activity than the standard atevirdine, and more potent antitumor agent when compared with standards (fluorouracil, doxorubicin and cytarabine). In addition, the enzyme aromatase CYP19 inhibitory activity of benzofurans having -OH and -OMe were greater than that observed for the reference arimidex.
Evaluation of mandibular infiltration versus mandibular block anaesthesia in treating primary canines in children.

OBJECTIVE The objectives of this study were to determine the effectiveness of mandibular infiltration compared with mandibular block in treating primary canines in children and to relate the effectiveness to the type of treatment performed. METHODS A total of 89 children, 6-9 years old, requiring identical treatment on contralateral mandibular canines were selected. The split mouth study design was used. The anaesthetic used in both techniques was 2% lidocaine solution with 1 : 80,000 epinephrine. Dental procedures included class III, IV, and V restorations, formocresol pulpotomies, and extractions. Child's pain reaction and behaviour for each anaesthesia technique and the type of treatment were rated at certain intervals of treatment using sounds, motor, and ocular changes indicating pain and the Frankl Behaviour Rating Scale. Evaluations were made upon injection, probing, rubber dam placement, and during tooth preparation and extraction. RESULTS No statistically significant difference was found between the two anaesthetic techniques for either pain or behaviour at all evaluation intervals (P > 0.05), during the performance of restorations, pulpotomies, or during extractions. CONCLUSIONS Mandibular infiltration anaesthesia is as effective as mandibular block for restoration, pulpotomy, and extraction in primary canines. The mandibular infiltration anaesthesia was not significantly less painful than the mandibular block.
Differential Effects of Neuropathic Analgesics on Wind-up-like Pain and Somatosensory Function in Healthy Volunteers

Objectives: To investigate the effects of gabapentin, carbamazepine, and amitriptyline on temporal summation, simple nociceptive pain, and innocuous touch sensation in healthy volunteers. Methods: A placebo controlled four-way crossover double-blind randomized protocol was followed. Seventeen healthy subjects, male and female, aged 18 to 24, took part. Punctate pain, temporal summation pain to repeat punctate stimulation, and vibration detection threshold were assessed in triplicate. Study drugs were given as bedtime and early morning doses with assessments carried out midmorning. Results: Gabapentin and carbamazepine significantly reduced the intensity of temporal summation pain (P < 0.001 and P < 0.01 respectively), whereas amitriptyline significantly increased temporal summation pain (P < 0.001). None of the drugs affected pain produced by a single punctate stimulus (P > 0.05). Carbamazepine increased vibration detection thresholds (P < 0.05), but neither gabapentin nor amitriptyline had any detectable effect on vibration. Discussion: We have shown that gabapentin, carbamazepine, and amitriptyline, three pharmacologically different drugs, have distinct and quantifiable effects on somatosensory pathways in healthy volunteers. These findings provide a link between pharmacology of the study drugs and clinical effectiveness. The effects of gabapentin and carbamazepine on temporal summation pain show that these drugs can block centrally amplified wind-up pain in the absence of a neuropathic disorder.
Intracellular Ca2+ regulation in a human prostate stromal cell culture

Prostate stromal cell cultures are used in vitro to study the cellular pathophysiology of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), but their functional properties are poorly understood. This study characterized intracellular Ca2+ ([Ca2+]i) regulation in a cultured cell line in comparison to freshly isolated cells, as a background to understanding contractile regulation and cellular proliferation in this tissue.