Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Resistin induces expression of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines in human articular chondrocytes via transcription and messenger RNA stabilization.

OBJECTIVE To elucidate the effects of resistin on human articular chondrocytes and to generate a picture of their regulation at the transcriptional and posttranscriptional levels. METHODS Human articular chondrocytes were cultured with resistin. Changes in gene expression were analyzed at various doses and times. Cells were also treated with the transcription inhibitor actinomycin D after resistin treatment or with the NF-kappaB inhibitor IKK-NBD before resistin treatment. Gene expression was tested by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Computational analysis for transcription factor binding motifs was performed on the promoter regions of differentially expressed genes. TC-28 chondrocytes were transfected with CCL3 and CCL4 promoter constructs, pNF-kappaB reporter, and NF-kappaB and CCAAT/enhancer binding protein beta (C/EBPbeta) expression vectors with or without resistin. RESULTS Resistin-treated human articular chondrocytes increased the expression of cytokines and chemokines. Levels of messenger RNA (mRNA) for matrix metalloproteinase 1 (MMP-1), MMP-13, and ADAMTS-4 also increased, while type II collagen alpha1 (COL2A1) and aggrecan were down-regulated. The cytokine and chemokine genes could be categorized into 3 groups according to the pattern of mRNA expression over a 24-hour time course. One pattern suggested rapid regulation by mRNA stability. The second and third patterns were consistent with transcriptional regulation. Computational analysis suggested the transcription factors NF-kappaB and C/EBPbeta were involved in the resistin-induced up-regulation. This prediction was confirmed by the cotransfection of NF-kappaB and C/EBPbeta and the IKK-NBD inhibition. CONCLUSION Resistin has diverse effects on gene expression in human chondrocytes, affecting chemokines, cytokines, and matrix genes. Messenger RNA stabilization and transcriptional up-regulation are involved in resistin-induced gene expression in human chondrocytes.
The Relative Impact of Bank Credit on Manufacturing Sector in Nigeria

This study examined the relative impact of Bank credit on the manufacturing sector in Nigeria’ 1986-2013. The major objective was to investigate the extent of impact of bank credit on the output of the manufacturing sector in Nigeria. The study adopted the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bound cointegration test approach and error correction representations. Focusing on the short run relationship, we found every explanatory variable and their following lags as significant functions of volume of output of the manufacturing sector at 5% except exchange rate and its lags. In the bound test following the ARDL, we found evidence in favor of cointegration among the variables regardless of whether they are stationary or not given that the observed test statistic exceeds the upper critical band. Our results imply the presence of co integrating vectors of long run equilibrium relationships among the variables of interest. This result is corroborated by the Dynamic ordinary least squares results as well as the long run estimates of the ARDL. Overwhelmingly, we found evidence of a certain return to the long-run equilibrium in the model. The error correction term is negative and statistically significant. The negative value shows that there exists an adjustment speed from short-run disequilibrium towards the long-run equilibrium. By this, there is an indication that it takes about 3 years to restore the long-run equilibrium state on the Output of the manufacturing should there be any shock from the explanatory variables. By way of policy recommendation or positioning, the Central Bank and other monetary authorities alike should make policy that will lead to increase in VBC to the manufacturing sector. As this will play a catalytic role for growth in the sector in particular and the economy in general.
Probabilistic linkage of computerized ambulance and inpatient hospital discharge records: a potential tool for evaluation of emergency medical services.

STUDY OBJECTIVES Emergency medical services (EMS) is an important part of the health care system. The effect of EMS on morbidity, mortality, and costs of illness is difficult to evaluate because hospital information is not available in out-of-hospital databases. We used probabilistic linkage to create such a database from ambulance and inpatient data and demonstrate the potential for linkage to facilitate evaluation of EMS responses resulting in hospital admission. METHODS Statewide ambulance and inpatient hospital discharge records were available for 1994 through 1996. Ambulance records indicating admission to the emergency department or hospital (165,649 records) were linked to inpatient hospital records indicating emergency admission (146,292 records) by using probabilistic linkage. Out-of-hospital data (dispatch code, treatments rendered, and ages), linkage rates, and inpatient data (discharge status, charges, length of stay, and payer category) were analyzed. RESULTS We linked 24,299 (14.7%) ambulance events to inpatient hospital discharges. If we had used exact linkage methods, we would have only linked 14,621 record pairs, a loss of nearly 40%. Linkage rates were relatively constant between years (approximately 15%) but differed by ambulance dispatch codes. Out-of-hospital dispatch codes with high linkage rates included breathing problems (22.6%), chest pain (21.5%), diabetic problems (16.9%), drowning incidents (14.9%), falls (19.2%), strokes (32.8%), and unconsciousness or fainting episodes (16.1%). Linkage to the hospital record provided access to hospital outcome data. Inpatient mortality was 6.8%. Survivors were discharged home (60.7%), transferred to other acute-care facilities (3.6%) or intermediate-care facilities (23.3%), or discharged with home health care provision (4.9%). The median length of stay was 3 days, and median charges were $6,620; total inpatient charges were $286,737,067. CONCLUSION Probabilistic linkage enables ambulance and hospital discharge records to be linked together and potentially increases our ability to critically evaluate EMS by providing access to hospital-based outcomes. Such evaluation will be further improved by linking to ED, other outpatient, and other public health data sources.
Discrete choice model of residential location in Krakow

Purpose This paper aims to discuss the link between socio-economic characteristics of house buyers and their housing location choices. The major objective of the study is an examination of the role of household socio-economic characteristics. The research addresses the importance of previous residence location and latent housing motives for intra-urban housing mobility. Design/methodology/approach The research examines housing preferences structure and analyzes housing location choices in the city of Krakow (Poland) using discrete choice model (conditional logit model). The research is based on stated preference data from Krakow. Findings The results of this study suggest that demand for housing alternatives is negatively linked to the distance from current residence. Other factors stay equal, the further the distance, the less likely a household is willing to choose a location within the metropolitan area. The study indicates that housing motives can help explain housing location decisions. Practical implications The paper provides an empirical assessment of housing decisions in Krakow, one of the major metropolitan areas in Poland. Originality/value The paper contributes to a better understanding of the nature of housing decision and housing preferences in emerging markets in Central and Eastern Europe. As a result, presented research helps to fill the gap in housing market and urban economics literature.
Targeting systemic inflammation: novel therapies for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

The increasing evidence that inflammation in the lungs leads to the structural changes observed in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, whereas extrapulmonary symptoms and comorbidities may be systemic manifestations of these inflammatory processes, highlights an urgent need to discover novel, effective anti-inflammatory treatments for this disease. Some studies are suggesting that, by decreasing dynamic hyperinflation, bronchodilators might reduce systemic inflammation; inhaled corticosteroids and their combination with long-acting β2-agonists might contribute to this goal. Even so, the opinion that suppression of the inflammatory response might improve systemic complications is stimulating a search for novel anti-inflammatory therapies. Many drugs include those that inhibit the recruitment and activation of inflammatory cells and/or antagonise their products. However, many of these therapeutic strategies are not specific for neutrophilic inflammation because they affect other cell types, thus, it is difficult to interpret whether any clinical benefit observed is a result of a reduction in airway neutrophils. In any case, there is some evidence that drugs used to treat a co-morbid condition, such as statins, angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and angiontensin II type 1 (AT1) receptor blockers as well as glycosaminoglycans and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) agonists, might benefit chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients because they deal with the extrapulmonary, systemic component of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Adipocytokines and ghrelin level of bipolar patients from manic episode to euthymic episode

Abstract Purpose: Obesity and metabolic syndrome (MeS) are more frequently observed in bipolar patients than the general population. This may result from the differences of adipocytokines and ghrelin levels in bipolar disorder. Material and methods: We evaluated the leptin, adiponectin, resistin and ghrelin levels in bipolar patients (n = 30) in manic episode and in a control group (n = 30). After treatment, the same patients were evaluated again during the euthymic episode. We also measured the insulin, glucose, insulin resistance (HOMA), trygliceride (TG), total cholesterol (TCHOL), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL) and low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL) in relation to the (MeS). Results: When controlling for age, BMI and glucose, leptin levels were higher in the bipolar disorder manic episode group (BD-ME) and bipolar euthymic episode group (BD-EE) than the control group; resistin levels were higher in the BD-ME compared to the control group and it had a positive correlation with Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS). After treatment, ghrelin levels were higher in the BD-EE compared to the BD-ME group. There was no difference among the groups with respect to adiponectin. Conclusions: The present results point that high leptin, resistin and ghrelin levels may be involved in the early pathophysiological process which can lead to later obesity and MeS in patients with bipolar disorder.
Development of a cellular biosensor system for genotoxicity detection based on Trp53 promoter

Objective: To develop a mouse cell biosensor system for the high-throughput genotoxicity detection of chemicals, such as environmental pollutants. Method: We developed a novel reporter vector pGL4-GFP, wherein the firefly luciferase reporter gene in the pGL4.82 vector was replaced by the green fluorescent protein (GFP) gene from the pAcGFP1-N1 vector. To construct the reporter pGL4-p53-GFP (p53 promoter linked to GFP), a fragment containing the p53 gene promoter was generated by amplifying a region from −481 to +180 of mouse genomic DNA isolated from mouse tail tissue. We developed a mouse cell biosensor system for the high-throughput genotoxicity detection of new drugs by stably integrating the reporter plasmid of pGL4-p53-GFP into the mouse embryonic fibroblast cells. Various genotoxic agents were used to treat this biosensor system. The resulting fluorescence was directly observed under a fluorescence microscope, and the GFP protein level was measured through Western blot analysis. Result: The biosensor system was treated with genotoxic agents, such as doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, and benzo(a)pyrene. The GFP protein expression was significantly increased in cells exposed to genotoxic agents but negatively responded to the non-genotoxic agent dimethyl sulfoxide, thereby proving the specificity and sensitivity of the biosensor system. Conclusion: This novel in vitro biosensor system can be especially useful in genotoxicity detection.
China’s Tourism-Led Foreign Direct Investment Inflows: An Empirical Study

Based on the annual data of China from 2000 to 2014, this paper applies the dynamic panel model to study the relationship between inbound tourism and foreign direct investment (FDI). Compared with previous literatures, our analysis is not limited to the study of FDI in single tourism sectors such as hotels and restaurants, but takes general FDI into consideration. The empirical results show that the growth of inbound tourism can not only promote FDI flow into the tourism industries, but also increase the inflows of FDI to other sectors. In other words, the flourished inbound tourism may have spillover impacts of FDI on non-tourism sectors. It’s also indicated that the two policies of inbound tourism improvement and inward FDI promotion are complementary. Therefore, I believe coordination can maximize the effect of policies, because the two policies may coordinate with each other to achieve economic growth targets.
Singularity analysis of redundant parallel manipulators

The general methods of singularity analysis of a general parallel manipulator are not suitable for that of a redundant parallel manipulator, thereby This work presents a method for the identification of the singularities of redundant parallel manipulators. Firstly, the theory of singular value decomposition is employed to analyze the velocity equation of a mechanism, and the relationship between the generalized input velocities and the generalized output velocities is researched. Then the physical interpretation of the singularity of a redundant parallel manipulator is discussed, and the relationship between the singularity and the singularity values of the Jacobian matrix of a mechanism is studied. Finally, based on above analysis, the singularities of a redundant manipulator are divided into three basic types and a method for computing the singularity set is presented and formulated. As an example, a 3 degree-of-freedom redundant manipulator is researched through using this method, and all the singular configurations of this manipulator are found out and pictured.
A Single Pulse Charge Pumping Technique for Fast Measurements of Interface States

Characterizing interface states is a key task, and it typically takes seconds when conventional techniques, such as charge pumping (CP), are used. The stress-induced degradation can recover substantially during this time, and there is a need to improve the measurement speed. The central task of this work is to reduce the measurement time for interface states from seconds to microseconds to minimize the recovery. A fast single pulse CP (SPCP) technique is developed. By exploring the differences in the transient currents corresponding to the two edges of the gate pulse, the net charges pumped into devices can be obtained, and their saturation level is used to evaluate interface states. Unlike the conventional CP (CCP) method, the contribution of currents during the plateaus of gate pulse is excluded for SPCP, making it less vulnerable to the interferences of gate leakage and defects within dielectrics. For the first time, the SPCP allows the recovery of interface states being monitored with a time resolution in microseconds. The results show that the recovery of stress-induced interface states is substantial within 100 μs, which would be missed if the CCP were used.
Media Competition and Information Disclosure

This paper analyzes an election game where self-interested politicians can exploit the lack of information that voters have about candidates' preferred policies in order to pursue their own agendas. In such a setup, we study the incentives of newspapers to acquire costly information, and how competition among the media affect such incentives. We show that the higher the number of potential readers and/or the lower the cost or investigating, the more the newspapers investigate. We also show that the readers' purchasing habits play a crucial role in the model. More specifically, we show that if the readers always buy a newspaper, media competition favors information disclosure; whereas if they just buy a newspaper in the case news are uncovered, competition is not so desirable.
A proposal for integrated optical isolator using apodized Kerr-like nonlinear Bragg Grating

In this paper an integrated optical isolator based on an apodized Kerr-like nonlinear Bragg grating is proposed and investigated carefully. The proposed structure has high enough isolation more easily than 40-dB using apodized nonlinear multilayer stack. Effects of types of apodization and number of layers on isolation are investigated. From presented simulations, we find out that types of apodization and number of layers have critical effect on isolation. Also, the transmitted field distribution for forward and inverse cases are calculated and demonstrated. The proposed method is suitable for integrated purpose and easy for implementation. The proposed structure is simple and easy for control of optical isolation. So, the proposed method is a suitable approach for realization of integrated isolators instead of the magneto-optical based isolators.
Different Attitudes toward Humor between Chinese and American Students: Evidence from the Implicit Association Test

Although cross-cultural research indicates that Chinese people demonstrate less humor than do Americans, little research addresses the reasons. This cross-cultural difference may be largely due to different implicit attitudes toward humor held by Chinese and Americans, deeply rooted in the two cultural traditions. Both self-report evaluation and the Implicit Association Test (IAT) were used to compare Chinese and American attitudes toward humor. Although 60 Chinese undergraduate students showed no significant difference from 33 American exchange students in explicit attitudes toward humor, the former associated humor more frequently with unpleasant adjectives and seriousness with pleasant adjectives on the IAT; the opposite pattern was found for the American group. This indicated a negative implicit attitude toward humor among the Chinese students.
Correctness of the Chord Protocol

Internet of Things (IoT) can be seen as a cooperation of various devices with limited performances that participate in the same system. IoT devices compose a distributed architecture system. The core of every IoT system is its discovery and control services. To realize such services, some authors used the developed solutions from the different domains. One such solution is the Chord protocol, one of the first, the simplest and the most popular distributed protocols. Unfortunately, the application of the Chord protocol was realized using the correctness of the Chord protocol for granted, or by the very hard assumptions. In this paper we prove the correctness of the Chord protocol using the logic of time and knowledge with the respect to the set of possible executions, called regular runs. We provide the deterministic description of the correctness of the Chord protocol and consider Chord actions that maintain ring topology while the nodes can freely join or leave.
Potency (Minimum Alveolar Anesthetic Concentration) of Isoflurane Is Independent of Peripheral Anesthetic Effects

The spinal cord is an important site where inhaled anesthetics suppress movement in response to noxious stimuli.Inhaled anesthetics also act in peripheral tissues, although it is unclear whether these actions influence anesthetic requirements. In six isoflurane-anesthetized mongrel dogs, we placed Y cannulas in the lower aorta and vena cava, allowing us to divert blood to, and infuse blood from, a bubble oxygenator/roller pump system or to maintain normal blood flow. This technique permits a greatly diminished isoflurane concentration at the site of the noxious stimulus (tail), while maintaining isoflurane in the remainder of the body. After baseline minimum alveolar anesthetic concentration (MAC1) was determined, venous blood from the lower body was diverted to the bubble oxygenator and reinfused into the lower body via the aortic cannula; MAC2 was determined with isoflurane in the lower body at approximate equals 0.2%, and MAC3 was determined with isoflurane in the lower body matched to the end-tidal isoflurane. Bypass was terminated, the native circulation established, and MAC4 determined. MAC1, 2, 3, and 4 were (mean +/- SD) 1.3 +/- 0.3%, 1.2 +/- 0.1%, 1.2 +/- 0.2%, and 1.1 +/- 0.2%, respectively (P > 0.05). We conclude that the peripheral effects of isoflurane do not influence the response to a noxious stimulus. (Anesth Analg 1995;81:69-72)
Drivers for Policy Agreement in Nascent Subsystems: An Application of the Advocacy Coalition Framework to Fracking Policy in Switzerland and the UK (Forthcoming/Available Online)

The study of public policy deals with subsystems in which actors cooperate or compete to turn their beliefs into policy solutions. Yet, most studies concern mature subsystems in which the main actors and their allies and enemies can easily be identified. This paper tackles the challenge of studying nascent subsystems, in which actors have begun to engage in politics but are uncertain about other actors’ beliefs. Actors therefore find it relatively difficult to identify their allies and opponents. Focusing on the Advocacy Coalition Framework, we examine three main ways in which actors might agree to support the same policy design before they decide whether or not to form long-term relationships within advocacy coalitions: they see the issue through the same lenses, they follow leaders, or they know each other from earlier cooperation. We use the case of fracking policy in Switzerland and the UK as a key example, in which actors have begun to agree with each other, but where final policy outputs were not yet defined, and long-term relationships not yet observable. We find that, when dealing with new issues, actors strongly rely on former contacts rather than shared ideologies or leadership.
Evaluation of genetic variation among wild rice populations in Cambodia

A total of 448 samples in five natural populations of wild rice (Oryza rufipogon) were collected in Cambodia. They were examined using 12 SSR and two chloroplast markers to evaluate the degree of variation among populations and the genetic structure within populations. In the two annual populations, the number of plants with homozygous alleles at all 12 SSR loci were high (66.3% and 79.5%), suggesting that these plants propagate mainly through self-pollination. In the three perennial populations, no individuals had all homozygous genotypes, but redundant genotypes resulted from clonal propagation were observed. Percentages of the redundant genotypes were highly varied (3.6%, 29.2% and 86.0%). This may be due to the different stable levels of environmental conditions. As for chloroplast genome, most of the wild plants showed the same chloroplast types as most Indica-type cultivars have. However, plants with different chloroplast types were maintained, even in the same population. In tropical Asian countries, many wild rice populations were observed under similar ecological conditions examined in this study. Therefore, the present results concerning population structure will be important to further elucidate genetic features of wild rice, and will also give strong clues to utilize and conserve wild natural genetic resources.