Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Differential roles of iNOS and nNOS at rostral ventrolateral medulla during experimental endotoxemia in the rat.

We investigated the differential contribution of inducible and neuronal nitric oxide synthase (iNOS and nNOS) at the rostral ventrolateral medulla (RVLM) to endotoxemia induced by E. coli lipopolysaccharide (LPS). In Sprague-Dawley rats maintained under propofol anesthesia, i.v. administration of LPS (15, 30, or 45 mg/kg) induced a reduction (phase I), followed by an augmentation (phase II) and a secondary decrease (phase III) in the power density of the vasomotor components (0-0.8 Hz) in systemic arterial pressure (SAP) signals. LPS also induced an immediate hypotension, followed by a rebound increase and a secondary decrease in SAP. In addition, the level of iNOS mRNA exhibited a significant surge that began with phase I endotoxemia, reaching progressively its peak at phase III. Discernible down-regulation of nNOS mRNA was not detected until the last phase of endotoxemia. Pretreatment with microinjection of the selective iNOS inhibitor, aminoguanidine (250 pmol), into the bilateral RVLM significantly prolonged phases II and III endotoxemia, blunted the initial and secondary hypotension, and antagonized the upregulation of iNOS mRNA. Similar pretreatment with the selective nNOS inhibitor, 7-nitroindazole (1 pmol), on the other hand, discernibly shortened phase II and prolonged phase III endotoxemia, and induced progressive hypotension by antagonizing the rebound increase in SAP. We conclude that the relative prevalence of functional expression and molecular synthesis of iNOS over nNOS in the RVLM may be a crucial determinant for the reduction or loss in power density of the vasomotor components of SAP signals during experimental endotoxemia.
Maternal Dietary Intake in Twin Pregnancies: Does it Diminish Towards Term?

Abstract We tested the hypothesis that energy intake among women with twin pregnancies decreases in late gestation, as the uterus enlarges and they become increasingly uncomfortable. We asked women to recall dietary intake for the previous 24 hours, every 2 weeks from around 29 weeks of gestation, using a photographic atlas and other strategies to estimate portion size. Eighty women provided data at around 29, 31, 33 and 35 weeks of gestation. We calculated total energy intake, and energy intake from carbohydrate, fat and protein. Data were log transformed to reduce skewness. Using mixed effects linear regression models, we found minimal evidence that total energy intake changed over this time period, either before or after adjustment for potential confounding factors (95% confidence interval for relative change per week: −1.4%, 0.6%). There was weak evidence of a small decline in carbohydrate intake over time, both before and after controlling for energy intake. We cannot exclude change in energy intake or diet composition before 29 weeks or after 35 weeks of twin gestation.
Phenotypic and cytolytic activity of Macaca nemestrina natural killer cells isolated from blood and expanded in vitro

Natural killer (NK) cells from nonhuman primates have not been completely characterized, and methods for expanding nonhuman primates NK cells in vitro have been described only in rhesus species. The purpose of this report was to characterize NK cells in pigtail macaques (Macaca nemestrina), a species that is frequently used in studies of transplantation biology/immunology, virology, vaccine development, and reproductive biology. NK cells from Macaca nemestrina peripheral blood were best defined by the expression of CD16 and CD8α, and the absence of CD3. Subsets of these cells express CD56, NKp30, and NKp46. An enhanced ability to kill K562 cells was not present in fluorescence activated cell sorted (FACS)‐purified CD16–/CD3+ and CD16–/CD56+ cells isolated from fresh peripheral blood. However, FACS‐purified CD16+/CD3– and CD16+/CD56– cells were highly efficient killers of K562 cells. Macaca nemestrina NK cells can be expanded by in vitro culturing of FACS‐purified CD16+/CD2–/CD3–/CD56– cells, or from peripheral blood cells depleted of cells expressing CD3, CD4, and HLA‐DR. Cells in these cultures expand 70‐fold after 21 days of culturing. After culturing, these cells express high levels of natural cytotoxicity receptors (NCRs) NKp30 and NKp46. NK cell populations obtained from FACS‐purified CD16+/CD3–, CD16+/CD56– cells and CD3/CD4/HLA‐DR‐depleted cells were highly efficient killers of K562 cells. These data suggest that a population of highly enriched cytolytic NK cells can be obtained from purified CD16+/CD3– and CD16+/CD56– cells obtained from peripheral blood, as well as from cells that have been cultured and expanded from peripheral blood that is depleted of CD3/CD4/HLA‐DR‐expressing cells. Am. J. Primatol. 68:753–764, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The Lens Opacities Classification System III. The Longitudinal Study of Cataract Study Group.

OBJECTIVE To develop the Lens Opacities Classification System III (LOCS III) to overcome the limitations inherent in lens classification using LOCS II. These limitations include unequal intervals between standards, only one standard for color grading, use of integer grading, and wide 95% tolerance limits. DESIGN AND RESULTS The LOCS III contains an expanded set of standards that were selected from the Longitudinal Study of Cataract slide library at the Center for Clinical Cataract Research, Boston, Mass. It consists of six slit-lamp images for grading nuclear color (NC) and nuclear opalescence (NO), five retroillumination images for grading cortical cataract (C), and five retroillumination images for grading posterior subcapsular (P) cataract. Cataract severity is graded on a decimal scale, and the standards have regularly spaced intervals on a decimal scale. The 95% tolerance limits are reduced from 2.0 for each class with LOCS II to 0.7 for nuclear opalescence, 0.7 for nuclear color, 0.5 for cortical cataract, and 1.0 for posterior subcapsular cataract with the LOCS III, with excellent interobserver agreement. CONCLUSION The LOCS III is an improved LOCS system for grading slit-lamp and retroillumination images of age-related cataract.
Intermittent injections vs. continuous infusion of Factor VIII in haemophilia patients undergoing major surgery

Continuous infusion (CI) of factor VIII (FVIII) has been proved to be a safe alternative to intermittent bolus injections (BI) in haemophilia A. Most reports on CI suggest a considerable saving in FVIII compared with historical controls treated with BI, but some recent reports failed to demonstrate such an effect. The present study prospectively compared safety, efficacy and factor requirements in 43 major surgical procedures performed in severe haemophilia A patients who were treated with either BI (18 operations) or CI (25 operations). The aim was to maintain factor VIII levels above the same minimum levels. Improved safety of CI over BI was observed, despite a bias in favour of the BI group (all underwent unilateral operations, compared with 24% of the CI group who underwent bilateral operations). Higher nadir levels were found in the CI group (0·44 ± 0·06 vs. 0·31 ± 0·09 IU/ml; P < 0·01) with a lower incidence of dangerous drops below 0·3 IU/ml (8% vs. 44% of patients respectively; P < 0·01), and a lower drop in haemoglobin (Hb) (1·56 ± 1·21 vs. 3·01 ± 2·13 g/dl; P < 0·05) and blood transfusion requirements (12% vs. 39%; P < 0·01). Major bleeding complications developed in three out of 18 patients (17%) in the BI group and none of the CI group (P = 0·06). The FVIII dosage was lower by 36% in the CI group (467 ± 104 vs. 733 ± 126 IU/kg; P < 0·01). Had the trough factor levels been maintained at the target levels, a greater difference of 72% would probably have been observed.
Open government and citizen participation: an empirical analysis of citizen expectancy towards open government data

Citizens are at the heart of open government, and their participation represents a fundamental principle of the latter. Despite their essential role and the great potential benefits open government holds for the public, challenges of use among citizens persist. Previous empirical research has scarcely addressed these issues from a citizen perspective. This study investigates the determinants of open government data use by citizens in Germany. Our results indicate that ease of use, usefulness, as well as transparency, participation and collaboration expectancies significantly determine citizens’ intention to use open government data, which in turn positively affects their word-of-mouth intention. Overall, the findings not only contribute to our understanding of citizen behavior in the context of open government research, especially shedding light on the key aspects of citizens’ usage intention, but also provide implications for both researchers and practitioners. Points for practitioners Citizen-based use of open government data (OGD) has multiple facets that practitioners should be aware of. Public administration needs to take account of the important role of accessibility and usability in providing OGD services, with the objective of meeting the major challenge of enabling equal access for all populations via appropriate channels and customization. The content-related preparation of OGD services should seek to enhance transparency, participation and collaboration, raising and shaping respective expectations among citizens. Finally, practitioners should pay particular attention to the opportunities and risks associated with word-of-mouth communication in the context of OGD.
Unique Susceptibility of the Fetal Thymus to Feline Immunodeficiency Virus Infection: An Animal Model for HIV Infection In Utero 1

PROBLEM: Human infants infected in utero with HIV develop thymus insufficiency and progress to AIDS sooner than infants infected peripartum. However, direct analysis of the thymus is difficult due to limited tissue access and variable timing of vertical transmission. METHOD OF STUDY: Fetal and neonatal cats were inoculated with feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) at an equivalent infectious dose. The thymus, blood, and lymph nodes were harvested and compared at 23 and 46 days post‐inoculation (p.i.) and also compared to sham‐inoculated, age‐matched controls. Lymphocyte phenotypes were analyzed by flow cytometry and virus burden was quantified in histologic sections and by virus isolation from plasma. RESULTS: Fetal cats inoculated with FIV had acute thymus atrophy at birth, which coincided with peak viremia. At 46 days p.i. , thymus size and cell composition rebounded and supported increased productive infection. In contrast, neonatal cats inoculated with FIV developed chronic thymus atrophy and degeneration, which was associated with decreasing productive infection and low‐level viremia. CONCLUSIONS: The fetal thymus is uniquely vulnerable to acute, transient depletion and high‐level productive infection. The neonatal thymus is less vulnerable to acute changes, and responds through progressive atrophy and declining productive infection. Reduced immune competence, as reflected by the failure to control virus replication, may contribute to the accelerated progression of FIV and HIV infections in utero.
Mining Interesting Purchase Patterns: A Method of Granular Computing

Nowadays, information technologies are widely used in business. Enterprises hope to make good use of the advanced technologies to analyze customer purchase behavior for better marketing. So it has become a hot issue to find interesting customer purchase patterns in a large amount of information. This paper proposes a method of granular computing to mine interesting purchase patterns. The granule represents a set of tuples that have the same attribute value in the database. For all tuples involved in interesting purchase patterns, we can represent them by using existing granules or creating new granules by logical operations (AND or OR) among existing granules. And then we use these granules to generate interesting patterns. This method not only can improve performance efficiently without scanning database repeatedly, but it is easier to understand for users and improves process flexibility. Especially for some complicated user demands, some high-level concepts which users take interest in don't exist in the database, but we can generate new granules by OR operations to represent them. So it's very convenient to mine interesting purchase patterns using granular computing.
Genetic variants of increased waist circumference in psychosis

Objective We examined whether established metabolic risk genetic variants in the population confer a risk for increased waist circumference in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders and also an association with schizophrenia spectrum disorders irrespective of waist circumference. Patients and methods We analyzed the association in (i) a case–case model in which patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder with increased waist circumference (≥80 cm for women and ≥94 cm for men) (n=534) were compared with patients with normal waist circumference (<80 cm for women; <94 cm for men) (n=124), and in (ii) a case–control model in which schizophrenia spectrum disorder patients with increased waist circumference or irrespective of waist circumference were compared with population-derived controls (n=494) adjusted for age, sex, fasting glucose, smoking, and family history of diabetes. Results Genetic variants in five genes (MIA3, MRAS, P2RX7, CAMKK2, and SMAD3) were associated with increased waist circumference in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder (P<0.046). Genetic variants in three other genes (PPARD, MNTR1B, and NOTCH2) were associated with increased waist circumference in patients when compared with control individuals (P<0.037). Genetic variants in the PPARD, MNTR1B, NOTCH2, and HNF1B were nominally associated with schizophrenia spectrum disorder irrespective of waist circumference (P<0.027). No differences in waist circumference between specific psychosis diagnoses were detected. Conclusion Increased waist circumference in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder may be explained, in part, by increased metabolic risk gene burden, and it indicates a shared genetic susceptibility to metabolic disorder and psychosis per se. Along these lines, common metabolic risk genetic variants confer a risk for increased waist circumference in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders.
Mothers’ knowledge, health beliefs and intentions to vaccinate their daughters against human papillomavirus in Korea

Abstract This study aimed to identify the factors influencing Korean mothers’ intentions to vaccinate their daughters against human papillomavirus (HPV). In Korea, a mother’s will is a key determinant for daughters receiving the cervical cancer vaccine. The factors influencing mothers’ intentions to vaccinate their daughters against HPV were the perceived benefits of the vaccine, having acquaintances with cervical cancer experiences, awareness of the cervical cancer vaccine, believing that one’s daughter needs regular Pap smears, and occupation; these variables explained 32% of the variance. The perceived benefits of the vaccine were the strongest predictor of mothers’ intentions. The findings of the current study suggested that mothers’ perceived benefits about the HPV vaccine play an important role in their choice to vaccinate their daughters.
An Optimized Cooperative Transmission Scheme for Interference Mitigation in Heterogeneous Downlink Network

In the context of out-of-cell interference mitigation, cooperative base-station transmission strategy in homogeneous network deployment has been intensively investigated and also been demonstrated effectively. To tackle the problem of interference cancelation in a hierarchical cell structure, this paper proposes a framework for the study of cooperative base-station transmission strategy over macro and femto base stations within the heterogeneous network deployment. In particular, we consider two distinct coordinated schemes for cell median and edge users respectively. The main contribution of this paper is a network-wide optimized transmission scheme in terms of per cell sum rate maximization. Numerical results show that with the proposed cooperative transmission scheme, higher throughput is achieved by both cell median and edge users when compared to the conventional transmission strategy without coordination for inter-cell interference mitigation.
Top-Gate Dry-Etching Patterned Polymer Thin-Film Transistors With a Protective Layer on Top of the Channel

Photolithographic and dry-etching processes are developed to pattern the organic semiconductor (OSC) layer for top-gate organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs). A fluorine polymer layer is used to protect the OSC surface from the patterning processes so that the common photoresist can be used. The ON/OFF-current ratios of the patterned OTFTs are improved by about one order of magnitude compared with that of unpatterned devices. However, it is shown that removing the polymer protective layer can cause degraded subthreshold behavior due to increased interface trap density at the semiconductor/dielectric interface. A process without removing the polymer protective layer is thus developed to address this issue, and is shown to be able to provide a reliable route to achieve patterned top-gate OTFTs with high ON/OFF-current ratio, small subthreshold swing, and negligible hysteresis.
The impact of foreign capital inflows on economic growth on selected African countries

Purpose Nowadays, foreign capital inflow (FCI) is considered as a catalyst for economic development and an important source of transferring technology and foreign exchange earnings from developed to developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to study, first, the impact of different forms of FCIs, namely, foreign direct investment (FDI), personal remittances (PR) and official development assistant (ODA) on economic growth on 26 top African countries; and, second, which of them is more effective on economic growth of the studied countries. The results of this paper are very important for host governments’ policy and help them to design their economic plans to absorb the suitable foreign inflow. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses Pooled Mean Group (PMG) econometric technique to estimate the heterogeneous panels over the period 1992–2016. Findings The results of the study show that all three forms of FCIs have positive and significant effects on economic growth in the long and short run. However, the PR had the most effect on economic growth in the long and short run. The study suggests that the governments should design and implement appropriate fiscal, monetary and trade policies in order to create and improve an enabling environment to attract FCIs as a supplementary source of domestic investment. Research limitations/implications The research limitations of this paper are as follows: data sets of FDI, PR and ODA were available not for all African countries; and, data sets that were available were of before the year 1992. Thus, the research is done for the African countries which had the data sets after the year 1992. Practical implications The result of this paper indicates the impact of each FDI, PR and ODA in economic growth. So, countries can take more attentions to each of them on economic planning. Social implications FCIs are one of the important external source of exchange for each country. So, the study of importance of each of them is necessary for economic planning. Originality/value Most of the previous studies have examined the impact of three different forms of FCIs on economic growth separately, on different countries and regions and using various models and econometric techniques. One of the contributions of this paper is focused on the impacts of FDI, PR and ODA on economic growth separately and simultaneously in 26 top recipient African countries and using the PMG technique which is an advanced econometrical estimation and studied less about it. The other contribution of this research is the comparison of the impact of different FCIs on economic growth, and it is very important for governments’ economic policy.
STATE SUBSIDY COMPOSITION IN HIGHER EDUCATION: POLICY AND IMPACTS

OF DISSERTATION STATE SUBSIDY COMPOSITION IN HIGHER EDUCATION: POLICY AND IMPACTS Higher education is the third largest state expenditure behind K-12 and Medicaid but is generally more discretionary than most other budget categories. As demographic trends and economic downturns constrain state budgets, the delivery of state subsidies in higher education has increasingly shifted toward students via grant aid and away from institutions via appropriations. Since the 1990s, many states have changed the composition of their state subsidies in higher education to varying degrees. There is a rich literature that examines the effects of state subsidies on various aspects of the higher education market. This dissertation aims to contribute to the literature on two broad fronts. First, rather than state subsidy levels, theoretical and empirical emphasis is placed on subsidy composition, or the distribution of subsidies across three primary modes of delivery—appropriations, need-based grants, and non-need-based grants. This focus is meant to reflect the policy decision faced by states, especially during times of fiscal stress, and reveal insights into important economic considerations. Second, differential impacts of state subsidies are examined not only with respect to student ability and income but also college inputs of academic quality and amenities. College amenities are an important input in the higher education market in need of more theoretical and empirical analysis. The introduction briefly discusses the economic rationale for public subsidies in higher education and the complexity confronting states to subsidize the cost of college under various constraints and policy goals. Chapter 2 aims to orient the reader to the policy, trends, and research pertaining to state subsidies in higher education. Chapter 3 theoretically examines the response in student demand for educational resources and amenities to changes in state subsidy composition from which several policy implications and directions for future research are considered. Chapter 4 focuses on subsequent effects that changes in demand between educational resources and amenities may have on institutions. State subsidies and institutional expenditures between 1990 and 2016 are examined in order to determine whether the composition of state subsidies causes in-state institutions to alter expenditures in a way that reflects a divergence between educational and amenity inputs. Chapter 5 considers the role of college student migration with respect to state subsidies and student outcomes. State subsidies impact college choice, and in turn, alter the distance students migrate to attend college. The effect of distance on college student success is theoretically and empirically examined. Chapter 6 concludes with a summary and discussion of the main findings as well as ideas and directions for future research.