Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dexamethasone inhibits insulin‐induced chondrogenesis of ATDC5 cells by preventing PI3K‐Akt signaling and DNA binding of Runx2

Glucocorticoids play important roles in cell growth and differentiation. In this study, we investigated the effect of application of dexamethasone (DEX) at the early stage of chondrogenesis using the prechondrogenic cell line, ATDC5, which differentiates into chondrocytes in the presence of insulin. When ATDC5 cells were cultured in the presence of DEX and insulin, DEX inhibited insulin‐induced cellular condensation and subsequent cartilaginous nodule formation, and reduced proteoglycan synthesis and type II collagen expression dose‐dependently. Pretreatment with 10−8 M DEX for 1 day inhibited insulin‐induced Akt phosphorylation, but not ERK1/2 phosphorylation, in ATDC5 cells. Treatment of ATDC5 cells with insulin for more than 2 days upregulated the levels of phosphatidylinositol 3‐kinase (PI3K) subunit proteins, p85 and p110, and Akt, whereas the upregulation was inhibited in the presence of 10−8 M DEX. In electrophoresis mobility shift assays (EMSAs), treatment with 10−8 M DEX inhibited DNA binding of Runx2 during culture of ATDC5 cells with insulin. Reporter assays using osteocalcin promoter showed that DEX inhibited Runx2‐dependent transcription dose‐dependently. Adenoviral introduction of dominant‐negative (dn)‐Akt or dn‐Runx2 into ATDC5 cells inhibited cellular condensation and reduced proteoglycan synthesis upon incubation with insulin, whereas adenoviral introduction of Akt or Runx2 prevented the inhibition of chondrogenesis by DEX. These findings indicate that DEX inhibits chondrogenesis of ATDC5 cells at the early stage by downregulating Akt phosphorylation as well as the protein levels of PI3K subunits and Akt, thereby suppressing PI3K‐Akt signaling, and by inhibiting DNA binding of Runx2 and Runx2‐dependent transcription. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Importance of the Carbohydrate-Binding Module of Clostridium stercorarium Xyn10B to Xylan Hydrolysis

The Clostridium stercorarium xylanase Xyn10B is a modular enzyme comprising two thermostabilizing domains, a family 10 catalytic domain of glycosyl hydrolases, a family 9 carbohydrate-binding module (CBM), and two S-layer homologous (SLH) domians [Biosci. Biotechnol. Biochem. , 63, 1596-1604 (1999)]. To investigate the role of this CBM, we constructed two derivatives of Xyn10B and compared their hydrolytic activity toward xylan and some preparations of plant cell walls; Xyn10BΔCBM consists of a catalytic domain only, and Xyn10B-CBM comprises a catalytic domain and a CBM. Xyn10B-CBM bound to various insoluble polysaccharides including Avicel, acid-swollen cellulose, ball-milled chitin, Sephadex G-25, and amyloseresin. A cellulose binding assay in the presence of soluble saccharides suggested that the CBM of Xyn10B had an affinity for even monosaccharides such as glucose, galactose, xylose, mannose and ribose. Removal of the CMB from the enzyme negated its cellulose- and xylanbinding abilities and severely reduced its enzyme activity toward insoluble xylan and plant cell walls but not soluble xylan. These findings clearly indicated that the CBM of Xyn10B is important in the hydrolysis of insoluble xylan. This is the first report of a family 9 CBM with an affinity for insoluble xylan in addition to crystalline cellulose and the ability to increase hydrolytic activity toward insoluble xylan.
The Moderating Role of Family Control on the Relationship between Audit Committee Financial Expertise and Earnings Management

The current study offers empirical evidence on the way the family ownership moderates the association that exists between the financial experience of the audit committee and earnings management based on a sample of 44 manufacturing firms that are registered with the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) from 2012 to 2016. From the results of the study, there is a significant negative association between the financial experience of the audit committee and earnings management. In addition, the study shows a positive interaction of the financial experience of the audit committee and the family ownership on earnings management. This indicates that an increase in the percentage of audit committee members having financial expertise, in order to restrict earnings management, is less likely to be influential in the case of family controlled firms. These results have implications for policy makers and regulatory bodies in Jordan since they highlight the need to improve the good corporate governance practices and attempt to constrain the incidence of earnings management in Jordanian firms.
Reliability of Dermatologists in Acne Lesion Counts and Global Assessments

Background: There is a paucity of data on the reliability of dermatologists in acne lesion counting and global severity assessments. The effects of training and practice on reliability are also uncertain. The objective of this study was to determine the reliability of these outcome measurements when performed by trained dermatologists. Methods: Eleven dermatologists were divided into two groups that evaluated the same six acne subjects twice on the same day. A training session was provided either after (group A) or before (group B) the first patient evaluation sessions. Reliability of raters in lesion counting and global severity assessment was determined by calculation of intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs). ICC values close to 1.0 indicate excellent reliability, whereas values less than 0.75 are considered unacceptable. Results: Intrarater ICCs ranged from 0.37 to 0.99 for noninflammatory lesions, 0.26 to 0.97 for inflammatory lesions, and 0.56 to 0.83 for global assessments for group A (trained after); corresponding values for group B (trained before) were 0.84 to 0.98, 0.61 to 0.95, and 0.43 to 0.91. ICC values ≥ 0.75 for all three outcome parameters were observed in one of six group A and three of five group B raters. Interrater ICCs for groups A and B after the first evaluation session were 0.17 versus 0.68 for noninflammatory counts, 0.84 versus 0.72 for inflammatory counts, and 0.71 versus 0.65 for global assessments, respectively. Corresponding values after session 2 were 0.79 and 0.77 for noninflammatory, 0.81 and 0.90 for inflammatory, and 0.61 and 0.77 for global assessments. Conclusion: Dermatologists tended to be reliable in acne lesion counting but somewhat less so in global assessments. Training tended to improve group reliability in noninflammatory lesion counts and increased the proportion of raters with good reliability in all three outcome measures. Practice enhanced reliability in all outcome measurements.
Pharmacotherapy during pediatric extracorporeal membrane oxygenation: a review

ABSTRACT Introduction: Pediatric critical illness and associated alterations in organ function can change drug pharmacokinetics (PK). Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), a life-saving therapy for severe cardiac and/or respiratory failure, causes additional PK alterations that affect drug disposition. Areas covered: The purposes of this review are to discuss the PK changes that occur during ECMO, the associated therapeutic implications, and to review PK literature relevant to pediatric ECMO. We discuss various classes of drugs commonly used for pediatric patients on ECMO, including sedatives, analgesics, antimicrobials and cardiovascular drugs. Finally, we discuss future areas of research and recommend strategies for future pediatric ECMO pharmacologic investigations. Expert opinion: Clinicians caring for pediatric patients treated with ECMO must have an understanding of PK alterations that could lead to either therapeutic failures or increased drug toxicity during this life-saving therapy. Limited data currently exist for optimal drug dosing in pediatric populations who are treated with ECMO. While there are clear challenges to conducting and analyzing data associated with clinical pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic studies of children on ECMO, we present techniques to address these challenges. Improved understanding of the physiology and drug disposition during ECMO combined with PK-PD modeling will allow for more adaptable and individualized dosing schemes.
Ground estimation and point cloud segmentation using SpatioTemporal Conditional Random Field

Whether it be to feed data for an object detection-and-tracking system or to generate proper occupancy grids, 3D point cloud extraction of the ground and data classification are critical processing tasks, on their efficiency can drastically depend the whole perception chain. Flat-ground assumption or form recognition in point clouds can either lead to systematic error, or massive calculations. This paper describes an adaptive method for ground labeling in 3D Point clouds, based on a local ground elevation estimation. The system proposes to model the ground as a Spatio-Temporal Conditional Random Field (STCRF). Spatial and temporal dependencies within the segmentation process are unified by a dynamic probabilistic framework based on the conditional random field (CRF). Ground elevation parameters are estimated in parallel in each node, using an interconnected Expectation Maximization (EM) algorithm variant. The approach, designed to target high-speed vehicle constraints and performs efficiently with highly-dense (Velodyne-64) and sparser (Ibeo-Lux) 3D point clouds, has been implemented and deployed on experimental vehicle and platforms, and are currently tested on embedded systems (Nvidia Jetson TX1, TK1). The experiments on real road data, in various situations (city, countryside, mountain roads,…), show promising results.
Visual Perception in Acoustically Deprived and Normally Hearing Children

In the present study an attempt was made to establish if and to what extent auditory deprivation modifies the processes of visual analysis and synthesis. The study included 54 children aged 10–16 years with hearing impairment attending the School and Educational Center for Children with Hearing Impairment in Wrocław (group I) and 127 children with normal hearing acuity attending public schools (group II), forming a reference group. Hearing impairment in the children of group I was from 60 to 100 dB. In 9 of these children the hearing impairment was inherited, while in some others it was acquired and resulted from rubella during the mother's pregnancy (5 subjects) or a severe disease course in childhood, for instance cerebral meningitis (4 subjects) and otolaryngologic antibiotic therapy (7 subjects). In the remaining subjects the reason for auditory deprivation was unknown. Hearing impairment, apart from genetically conditioned causes, appeared in the first months or years of life. The general intellectual level of the examined children was similar to that of their control counterparts, which was confirmed by school psychologists during a routine examination. The examination was performed by means of two tests from the Nonverbal Score of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children: Puzzles and Block Design. The children with a hearing deficit generally needed more time to perform the tasks than those with normal hearing. The investigated parameters of visual perception improved in correlation with age, but the dynamics of these changes were different in the two study groups.
Long tube precise THz-TDS measurement of the transmission of the atmosphere from 0.2 to 2 THz

In order to assess the potential of THz applications in imaging, sensing, ranging and communications, it is important to know the frequency dependent transmission of the atmosphere. Essentially, all of the attenuation of the atmosphere in the range from low frequencies up to 2 THz is caused by water vapor. Here we report the most accurate measurement of this attenuation to date.
Entrepreneurship, risk perception and firm performance

Risk attitudes of entrepreneurs are well-established drivers of business performance. Most empirical studies in this field only take into account risk propensity, leaving out the complementary concept of risk perception. Using data on 611 entrepreneurs from Tanzania, we show that risk perception is positively associated with business performance. In addition, we classify the entrepreneurs in four different groups based on their risk profile. The results show that the worst performing entrepreneurs are those with low risk perception and high risk propensity.
A Learned Component of the Ventilatory Response to Exercise in Man

The ventilatory response to mild‐to‐moderate exercise in humans is isocapnic, or ‘error‐free’. It has been suggested that this response is learned over many repetitions of exercise through the process of minimising any deviations from normal in the blood gas tensions, as sensed by the chemoreceptors. However, relatively limited training programmes have failed to produce any convincing evidence in humans that forcibly altering the blood gas tensions during repeated periods of exercise alters the subsequent steady‐state ventilatory response to exercise. In this study, eight healthy young subjects were exposed, over a 7 day training period, to a total of 70 repeated bouts of exercise paired with a simultaneous airway CO2 load to stimulate the chemoreceptors (protocol EX + CO2). The ventilatory response to exercise was measured before and after training to determine whether it had been modified. Two further training protocols were undertaken as controls. One employed repeated exercise without an airway CO2 load, and the other employed repeated airway CO2 loading without exercise. On the 1st and 2nd days following training with protocol EX + CO2, end‐tidal PCO2 was regulated at a lower level during steady‐state exercise than following training with the control protocols and than before training (mean ±s.e.m. reduction in end‐tidal PCO2= 1.32 ± 0.36 Torr, ANOVA, P < 0.05). In contrast to previous studies, this finding demonstrates that the steady‐state ventilatory response to exercise can be modified by a prior period of altered chemoreception during exercise. This suggests that ventilation is matched to metabolic rate during exercise by a mechanism that involves learning and memory.
Central Bank Purchases of Private Assets: An Evaluation

We develop a model of asset exchange and monetary policy, augmented to incorporate a housing market and a frictional financial market. Homeowners take out mortgages with banks using their residential properties as collateral to finance consumption. Banks use mortgages and government liabilities as collateral to secure deposit contracts, but they have an incentive to falsify the quality of mortgages at a cost. Quantitative easing in the form of central bank purchases of mortgages from private banks has an effect on the composition of assets in the economy and on the incentive structure of the private sector. When the incentive problem is severe, private banks hold capital with mortgage retention to mitigate the incentive problem, and the central bank can unambiguously improve welfare by purchasing mortgages. However, when this problem is not severe, the central bank's mortgage purchases cause a housing construction boom and can sometimes decrease an exchange in the economy, thereby reducing welfare. (Copyright: Elsevier)
Diversity, Group Identity, and Citizenship Education in a Global Age

Worldwide immigration and quests for rights by minority groups have caused social scientists and educators to raise serious questions about liberal assimilationist conceptions of citizenship that historically have dominated citizenship education in nation-states. The author of this article challenges liberal assimilationist conceptions of citizenship and citizenship education. He argues that citizenship education should be reformed so that it reflects the home cultures and languages of students from diverse groups, and he contends that group rights can help individuals to attain structural equality. In the final part of the article, he discusses the implications of his analysis for transforming citizenship education.
Advances in hepatitis immunization (A, B, E): public health policy and novel vaccine delivery

Purpose of review This review offers an update on hepatitis A, B and E vaccines based on relevant literature published in 2011–2012. Hepatitis A and B vaccines have been commercially available for years; however, the development of the hepatitis E vaccine is still facing some challenges. Recent findings Current scientific evidence shows that both hepatitis A and B vaccines confer long-term protection. These data supported the updated recommendations from the WHO on hepatitis A and B vaccines and the respective booster policy. In addition, a single-dose hepatitis A vaccination programme may be an option for some intermediate endemic countries, as far as the epidemiological situation is further monitored. Recent data illustrate the co-administration of hepatitis A with infant vaccines, as well as the interchangeability with other hepatitis A vaccines. Two genetically engineered hepatitis E vaccines are currently in development, showing more than 95% protective efficacy. Summary Follow-up of vaccinated individuals confirms the long-term protection offered by the hepatitis A as well as hepatitis B vaccines. Data confirm the safety and immunogenicity profile of both vaccines, also when used in patient groups. The first data on the hepatitis E vaccine look promising, but questions on cross-protection, long-term efficacy and safety and immunogenicity in pregnant women and children less than 2 years remain unanswered.
A rapid and strong laparoscopic-assisted gastropexy in dogs.

OBJECTIVE To develop a technique for laparoscopic gastropexy in dogs and evaluate effects on stomach position and strength of the adhesion between the stomach and abdominal wall. ANIMALS 8 healthy dogs. PROCEDURE Dogs were anesthetized, and the abdomen was insufflated with carbon dioxide. A laparoscope was placed through a cannula inserted on the abdominal midline caudal to the umbilicus. Babcock forceps placed through a cannula inserted lateral to the right margin of the rectus abdominus muscle were used to exteriorize the pyloric antrum, a longitudinal incision was made through the serosa and muscular layer of the pyloric antrum, and the seromuscular layer of the pyloric antrum was sutured to the transversus abdominus muscle. After surgery, positive-contrast gastrography was used to evaluate stomach position and the onset of gastric emptying, and ultrasonography was used to assess stomach wall activity and mobility. Dogs were euthanatized 1 month after surgery, and tensile strength of the adhesion was tested. RESULTS In all dogs, stomach position and the onset of gastric emptying were normal 25 days after surgery, and the pyloric antrum was firmly attached to the abdominal wall 30 days after surgery. Mean +/- SD ultimate load of the adhesion in tension was 106.5 +/- 45.6 N. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE The laparoscopic gastropexy technique described in the present study could be performed quickly and easily by an experienced surgeon, resulted in a strong fibrous adhesion between the stomach and abdominal wall, and appeared to cause minimal stress to the dogs.
Obesity induced magnesium deficiency can be treated by vitamin D supplementation.

OBJECTIVE To determine the effect of vitamin D injection on Serum Magnesium concentration in obese and non obese women. METHOD This Interventional study was performed on 82 women (17-50 years) which were randomly selected from general population of Tabriz city. They were assigned into two experimental groups. Obese group with stage 1 and 2 obesity and non obese group with normal weight. Weight was measured to the nearest 0.1 kg using a calibrated Seca scale. Height was measured using a cotton ruler which was pasted on the wall. Body mass index was calculated based on weight and height results. Biochemical parameters were measured before and after injection of 600000 IU doses of vitamin D. Serum Magnesium was measured calorimetrically and Serum 25 hydroxy vitamin D was estimated by Chemiluminescence Immune Assay method (CLIA). RESULTS Baseline concentrations of serum Magnesium and 25 hydroxy vitamin D in obese individuals was lower than non obese individuals, the former being significant. Twenty seven percent of obese women versus 15% of non obese women were Magnesium deficient. Vitamin D injection caused a significant increase in serum Magnesium concentration in obese subjects but not in non obese subjects. There was also a significant increase of serum 25 hydroxy vitamin D in both groups. Mean elevation in serum Magnesium level among women who had Magnesium deficiency was higher than women with Magnesium adequacy (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION Low serum Magnesium concentration in obese individuals can be modified by vitamin D injection.
Lethality and survival of Klebsiella oxytoca evoked by conjugative IncN group plasmids

The transmission of plasmid pCU1 (or other IncN group plasmid) into a population of Klebsiella oxytoca cells reduces the viability of the population. A 2,400-bp region adjacent to traA is responsible for this phenotype and includes two regions, called kikA and kikC. Klebsiella cells which received this region and survived were found to acquire a chromosomal mutation which renders them immune to killing even after the plasmid is cured from the cells. To obtain insight into the mode of this apparent lethality, an appropriate pCU1lacZ derivative was constructed. It could be introduced with high efficiency into Klebsiella cells. Analyses of the resultant colonies indicate that the loss of viability is not a consequence of the death of plasmid-free segregants. On the contrary and unlike postsegregational killing by plasmids, cells survived by losing the plasmid or by acquiring, secondarily, a chromosomal mutation which confers immunity to killing.
Assessing the health impacts of air pollution: a re-analysis of the Hamilton children's cohort data using a spatial analytic approach

The objective of this paper was to reassess children's exposure to air pollution as well as investigate the importance of other covariates of respiratory health. We re-examined the Hamilton Children's Cohort (HCC) dataset with enhanced spatial analysis methods, refined in the approximately two decades since the original study was undertaken. Children's exposure to air pollution was first re-estimated using kriging and land-use regression. The land-use regression model performed better, compared to kriging, in capturing local variation of air pollution. Multivariate linear and logistic regression analysis was then applied for the study of potential risk factors for respiratory health. Findings agree with the HCC study-results, confirming that children's respiratory health was associated with maternal smoking, hospitalization in infancy and air pollution. However, results from this study reveal a stronger association between children's respiratory health and air pollution. Additionally, this study demonstrated associations with low-income, household crowding and chest illness in siblings.
Breast Reconstruction and Radiation Therapy: An Update

Summary: With the indications for radiation therapy in the treatment of breast cancer continuing to expand, many patients present for reconstruction having previously had radiation or having a high likelihood of requiring radiation following mastectomy. Both situations are challenging for the plastic surgeon, with different variables impacting the surgical outcome. To date, multiple studies have been performed examining prosthetic and autologous reconstruction in this setting. The purpose of this article was to provide a general platform for understanding the literature as it relates to reconstruction and radiation through an examination of recent systematic reviews and relevant recent publications. We examined this with a focus on the timing of the radiation, and within this context, examined the data from the traditional surgical outcomes standpoint as well as from a patient-reported outcomes perspective. The data provided within will aid in patient counseling and the informed consent process.