Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Blood glucose and risk of cardiovascular disease in the Asia Pacific region.

OBJECTIVE To assess the shape and strength of the association between usual blood glucose and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in Asian and Australasian cohorts and to determine the impact of adjusting for other determinants of CVD risk and excluding people with diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Relative risk estimates and 95% CIs were calculated from Cox models, stratified by sex and cohort, and adjusted for age at risk on individual participant data from 17 cohort studies. Repeat measurements of blood glucose were used to adjust for regression dilution bias. RESULTS Fasting blood glucose data were available for 237,468 participants, and during approximately 1.2 million person-years of follow-up, there were 1,661 stroke and 816 ischemic heart disease (IHD) events. Data were also available on 27,996 participants with nonfasting glucose measurements. Continuous positive associations were demonstrated between usual fasting glucose and the risks of CVD down to at least 4.9 mmol/l. Overall, each 1 mmol/l lower usual fasting glucose was associated with a 21% (95% CI 18-24%) lower risk of total stroke and a 23% (19-27%) lower risk of total IHD. The associations were similar in men and women, across age-groups, and in Asian compared with Australasian (Australia and New Zealand) populations. Adjusting for potential confounders or removing those with diabetes as baseline did not substantially affect the associations. Associations for nonfasting glucose were weaker than those with fasting glucose. CONCLUSIONS Fasting blood glucose is an important determinant of CVD burden, with considerable potential benefit of usual blood glucose lowering down to levels of at least 4.9 mmol/l.
The Actions of Endothelin on Single Cells in the Anteroventral Third Ventricular Region and Supraoptic Nucleus in Rat Hypothalamic Slices

Endothelin (ET), a peptide consisting of 21 amino‐acid residues was recently isolated from the culture supernatant of porcine aortic endothelial cells. ET has been reported to be a more potent vasoconstrictor than angiotensin II. Other studies suggest that ET is involved in central control of the autonomie nervous system and body water regulation. Extracellular recordings were made from neurons in the anteroventral third ventricle (AV3V) and supraoptic nucleus (SON) in rat hypothalamic slice preparations. ET‐3 was applied at concentrations of 10−10 M to 3x 10−7 M. Of 226 AV3V neurons tested, 48 (21%) were excited, 8 (4%) were inhibited, and 170 (75%) were unaffected by ET‐3 at 10−7 M. The threshold concentration to evoke the responses was approximately 10−9 M. Of 144 SON neurons tested, 64 had a phasic firing pattern and 80 had a non‐phasic firing pattern. Of 64 phasic neurons tested, 39 (61%) were inhibited by ET‐3 at 10−7 M, 25 (39%) were non‐responsive and none was excited. Of 80 non‐phasic neurons tested, 14 (17.5%) were inhibited by ET‐3 at 10−7 M, 66 (82.5%) were non‐responsive and none was excited. The effects of ET‐1 were compared with those of ET‐3. The number of neurons responding to ET‐1 and their responsiveness were almost the same as for ET‐3. To investigate whether the ET responses are dependent on Ca2+ influx, a Ca2+ free medium and the Ca2+ antagonist, nicardipine, were used. The excitatory responses of AV3V neurons to ET were maintained in the Ca2+ free medium. Nicardipine at 10−5 M suppressed neither the excitatory responses of AV3V neurons nor the inhibitory responses of SON neurons to ET‐3. After 8 to 12 h preincubation of slices with islet activating peptide (IAP: pertussis toxin) at 10−7 M, none of the 48 AV3V neurons tested was excited by either ET‐3 or ET‐1. On the other hand, inhibitory responses were still observed in 12 (52%) out of 23 phasic SON neurons tested after IAP treatment. These results suggest that ET has a direct action as a neuropeptide on hypothalamic neurons through the ETB receptor and that the mechanisms underlying the responses may be different in the AV3V and the SON.
An Evaluation Study of a College Success Course as a Counseling Intervention

Community colleges are attracting many first generation minority students. A question often asked is how can a college, faculty, and staff promote student achievement, particularly to underrepresented groups? One of the courses required at a South Texas community college, serving a predominately Hispanic population, is a College Success Course. Courses such as these are designed to facilitate students in developing the necessary skills/a college. The study explored the perceptions of counselors and students regarding the effectiveness of a College Success Course as a counseling intervention and as it related to improved student skills and achievement. The study included a between interviews were conducted with six counselors who taught the College Success Course. The students that received the College Success Course intervention completed a personal skills survey with open-ended questions. The constant comparative method was utilized to analyze the additional qualitative data (Patton, 2002). The findings of the qualitative portion of the study indicated that the College Success Course was viewed overall by s effective counseling intervention to improve student success skills. Students completed Nelson and Low’s (2004) College Version Emotional Skills Assessment Process (ESAP). Descriptive statistics and a one (ANOVA) were completed to compare the posttest ESAP scores of the intervention groups in comparison with the control groups. The ANOVA was significant in the assertion scores only. Although the quantitative statistical significance was limited, t facilitating them in improving their study skills.
Performance Drop Detector Based on Bayesian Network and Logistic Regression

In this paper, performance drop detector is designed for formative assessment using Bayesian network. Assessment items' difficulty and discrimination are determined by logistic regression to improve detector's performance. Students' result on assessment are predicted by Bayesian network with assessment items as nodes. The probability that the student may fail is calculated based on the properties of nodes for each path, the threshold probability is set as 0.9 to improve the accarucy for the prediction. The precision and recall of the prediction depends on number of layers of the network, the assessment item's difficulty and discrimination. With our sample, the precision of the prediction can be as high as 0.94 (recall 0.30).
TGF-β directs trafficking of the epithelial sodium channel ENaC which has implications for ion and fluid transport in acute lung injury

Significance The acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a devasting clinical problem with high mortality, no drug therapy, and poorly understood pathogenesis. The hallmark of ARDS is persistent pulmonary edema, attributable in part to impaired Na+ and fluid transport across the alveolo-capillary barrier, undertaken by the epithelial sodium channel (ENaC). We describe a unique signaling pathway driven by TGF-β, which acutely dysregulates ENaC trafficking, blocking alveolar Na+ transport and edema resolution. This pathway represents a unique pathomechanism in ARDS, highlights potential “druggable” targets, and may represent a physiological means of acutely regulating ENaC in lungs and other organs. TGF-β is a pathogenic factor in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), a condition characterized by alveolar edema. A unique TGF-β pathway is described, which rapidly promoted internalization of the αβγ epithelial sodium channel (ENaC) complex from the alveolar epithelial cell surface, leading to persistence of pulmonary edema. TGF-β applied to the alveolar airspaces of live rabbits or isolated rabbit lungs blocked sodium transport and caused fluid retention, which—together with patch-clamp and flow cytometry studies—identified ENaC as the target of TGF-β. TGF-β rapidly and sequentially activated phospholipase D1, phosphatidylinositol-4-phosphate 5-kinase 1α, and NADPH oxidase 4 (NOX4) to produce reactive oxygen species, driving internalization of βENaC, the subunit responsible for cell-surface stability of the αβγENaC complex. ENaC internalization was dependent on oxidation of βENaC Cys43. Treatment of alveolar epithelial cells with bronchoalveolar lavage fluids from ARDS patients drove βENaC internalization, which was inhibited by a TGF-β neutralizing antibody and a Tgfbr1 inhibitor. Pharmacological inhibition of TGF-β signaling in vivo in mice, and genetic ablation of the nox4 gene in mice, protected against perturbed lung fluid balance in a bleomycin model of lung injury, highlighting a role for both proximal and distal components of this unique ENaC regulatory pathway in lung fluid balance. These data describe a unique TGF-β–dependent mechanism that regulates ion and fluid transport in the lung, which is not only relevant to the pathological mechanisms of ARDS, but might also represent a physiological means of acutely regulating ENaC activity in the lung and other organs.
Risk factors for slow graft function after kidney transplants: a multivariate analysis

Humar A, Ramcharan T, Kandaswamy R, Gillingham K, Payne WD, Matas AJ. Risk factors for slow graft function after kidney transplants: a multivariate analysis. Clin Transplant 2002: 16: 425–429. © Blackwell Munksgaard, 2002
The Role of MSME in the Growth of India

Because of the positive political and economic scenario India is considering to be the one of major emerging economy in the coming decades. The MSME (Micro Small and Medium Enterprises) is always playing a vital and significant role in the economic growth of a country. The MSME covers both manufacturing and service sector. In a developing country like India the role of MSME is very important for the growth and development. The article is discuss the major growth pertaining sector specially agriculture, textile, defense, pharmaceutical, Hotel, Hospitality and tourism sector of the country.
Lamotrigine Treatment During Amygdala‐Kindled Seizure Development Fails to Inhibit Seizures and Diminishes Subsequent Anticonvulsant Efficacy

PURPOSE Lamotrigine (LTG) is an anticonvulsant that is currently in use for the treatment of various seizure disorders and that shows promise in the treatment of affective illness. LTG is also effective in the suppression of amygdala-kindled seizures. Because many drugs show a differential efficacy profile as a function of the phase of kindling evolution, we evaluated LTG for its potential antiepileptogenic effects on the development of amygdala-kindled seizures. METHODS In two separate studies, LTG (5 or 15 mg/kg versus vehicle) was administered before each daily amygdala stimulation (biphasic square wave pulses, 100 pulse pairs per second for a total of 0.5 second, 1-millisecond pulse width) at an intensity of 50 microA over the AD threshold. Seizure development was assessed, as well as the effect of this pretreatment on subsequent efficacy of LTG on completed kindled seizures. RESULTS LTG at 5 mg/kg failed to block seizure development. At 15 mg/kg, LTG paradoxically enhanced seizure development and produced running fits in four of the nine animals tested. Animals previously treated with either dose of LTG during kindling development showed a diminished response to the anticonvulsant effects of LTG on fully kindled seizures compared with the vehicle-treated controls. CONCLUSIONS Although LTG possesses potent anticonvulsant effects on completed amygdala-kindled seizures, it is either without effect (5 mg/kg) or facilitates (15 mg/kg) the initial phase of kindling development. In addition, exposure to LTG during kindled seizure development leads to a reduced subsequent response to the drug in fully kindled animals. These observations parallel those with carbamazepine and suggest that different stages of kindling (epileptogenesis versus fully manifest seizures) may have different underlying neural mechanisms that require distinct pharmacotherapies.
Perceived Ease of Use as a Predictor of Social Networking Technologies Adoption in Institutions of Higher Learning in Uganda

Social Networking Technologies (SNTs) play a major role in education by improving student academic performance through a participatory culture. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) on the adoption of Social Networking Technologies in institutions of higher learning in Uganda. A cross sectional survey methodology was employed to gather data from 146 institutions of higher learningon the variables captured by the modified PEOU construct. Results of correlation and regression analysis indicated that a positive and significant relationship exists between Perceived Ease of Use and SNTs adoption. These findings have theoretical implications for models of SNTs adoption by aligning Perceived Ease of Use as a Significant Predictor of SNT adoption. The findings also have practical interventions designed at increasing use of SNTs by pointing out that lecturers and students should conceptualize the aspects of technology-enhanced tools and realize the potential of the use of SNTs in the lecturing and learning contexts respectively.
Single nucleotide polymorphisms and haplotype frequencies of CYP3A5 in a Japanese population

In order to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and haplotype frequencies of CYP3A5 in a Japanese population, we sequenced the proximal promoter region, all exons, and the surrounding intronic regions using genomic DNA from 187 Japanese subjects. Thirteen SNPs, including seven novel ones: 13108T>C, 16025A>G, 16903A>G, 16993C>G, 27448C>A, 29782A>G, and 31551T>C (A of the translational start codon of GenBank Accession # NG_000004.2 is numbered “1” according to the CYP Allele Nomenclature), were identified. The most common SNP was 6986A>G (key SNP for CYP3A5*3), with a 0.759 frequency. Two novel SNPs, 29782A>G (I456V) and 31551T>C (I488T), as well as 12952T>C (*5 marker) were found, but these alterations were always associated with the *3A marker SNPs, 6986A>G and 31611C>T. Using these 13 SNPs, haplotype analysis was performed and five novel *1 haplotypes (subtypes) (*1e to *1i) and six novel *3 haplotypes (subtypes) (*3d to *3i) were identified. Our findings suggest that CYP3A5*3 is the major defective allele and that other functional exonic SNPs are rare in the Japanese. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Neuroprotective effects of estrogen therapy for cognitive and neurobiological profiles of monkey models of menopause

Many postmenopausal women question whether to start or continue hormone therapy because of recent clinical trial negative results. However, evidence from other studies of postmenopausal women, and from studies in menopausal monkeys, indicate that estrogen has neurocognitive protective effects, particularly when therapy is initiated close to the time of menopause before neural systems become increasingly compromised with age. In this review, we present studies of menopausal women and female monkeys that support the concept that estrogen therapies protect both cognitive function and neurobiological processes. Am. J. Primatol. 71:794–801, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Students’ Team Project Experiences and Their Attitudes Towards Teamwork

Abstract Purpose: The aim of the study is to evaluate the influence of team project experiences of students (presence and role of a leader; fairness in team projects; conditions supporting teamwork created by a university) on their attitudes towards teamwork, especially the perception of teamwork effectiveness and the preference of working in teams. Methodology: In the study the quantitative research was done among master degree Polish students of Management (105 questionnaires). The measures used for the study were developed specifically for the study referring to the previous research in the field. Findings: Results indicate that leaders in team projects and conditions supporting teamwork are connected with the students’ perception of teamwork effectiveness, while the fairness in team projects is connected with students’ preference of working collectively. Research implications: We conclude that in order to develop a positive attitude towards teamwork, the teamwork projects should be better supported by the instructors (especially supporting the emergence of leader(s) and minimising the problem of free riders) and the university should create a climate that facilitates teamworking, otherwise team projects might negatively influence students’ attitude towards collective work. Value: On the labour market the teamwork skills are one of the most important skills of employees, as the team-based organizational designs are becoming the norm in work organization. The study is contributing to the understanding of the relations between student experiences and their attitudes as well as the role played by high education in the development of these attitudes. Some previous research in Anglo-Saxon culture countries indicate that team project assignments realised by students during studies might even hinder their attitudes to teamwork and their willingness to work in teams in the future.
Selective expression of Knot/Collier, a transcriptional regulator of the EBF/Olf‐1 family, endows the Drosophila sensory system with neuronal class‐specific elaborated dendritic patterns

Dendritic tree morphology is a hallmark of cellular diversity in the nervous system, and Drosophila dendritic arborization (da) neurons provide an excellent model system to study its molecular basis. The da neurons are classified into four classes I–IV in the order of increasing branching complexity. A transcriptional regulator of the early B‐cell factor (EBF)/olfactory 1 (Olf‐1) family, Knot (Kn)/Collier (Col) is expressed selectively in class IV neurons, which generate the most expansive and complicated dendritic trees in the four classes. Loss of kn function in class IV neurons greatly reduced the number of their dendritic branches. Conversely mis‐expression of kn in classes I and II produced supernumerary higher‐order branches, whereas class III‐specific short and straight terminal branches was hardly formed by kn mis‐expression. Neither kn loss of function nor mis‐expression were associated with dramatic alterations in the expression patterns of two other transcriptional regulators, Abrupt (Ab) and Cut (Ct), which play important roles in shaping dendritic trees with distinct class specificity from Kn. In contrast, Kn was necessary and sufficient to drive expression of a gene that encodes a class IV‐specific channel protein. Collectively, all of our results suggest that Kn exerts its cell‐autonomous function to control the formation, and possibly the function, of class IV‐like elaborated dendritic arbors.
Differential Adjustment Among Rural Adolescents Exposed to Family Violence

This study examines differences in psychological adjustment in a sample of rural adolescents who have been exposed to family violence. Self-report questionnaires were administered to 580 adolescents and their primary caregivers. The results revealed that over two thirds of the study participants (68.8%) had been exposed to violence in their families. As hypothesized, cluster analysis identified several profiles among adolescents, distinguished by their psychological and emotional functioning: well adjusted (46.2%), moderately adjusted (44.3%), and struggling (9.5%). Discriminant function analysis confirmed the groupings and revealed that family functioning was among the most influential factors explaining adjustment differences. Multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVAs) further showed that adolescents from each of the three adjustment profiles reported significantly different levels of family social support, parental involvement, and perceived neighborhood safety. Overall, the results confirm heterogeneity of adolescent adaptation in the aftermath of family violence and provide insights into family and neighborhood factors that account for variability in adolescents’ reactions to violence. Implications for future research and practical interventions are discussed.
A 3.4-$\mu$ W Object-Adaptive CMOS Image Sensor With Embedded Feature Extraction Algorithm for Motion-Triggered Object-of-Interest Imaging

We report a low-power object-adaptive CMOS imager, which suppresses spatial temporal bandwidth. The object-adaptive imager has embedded a feature extraction algorithm for identifying objects of interest. The sensor wakes up triggered by motion sensing and extracts features from the captured image for the detection of object-of-interest (OOI). Full-image capturing operation and image signal transmission are performed only when the interested objects are found, which significantly reduces power consumption at the sensor node. This motion-triggered OOI imaging significantly saves a spatial bandwidth more than 96.5% from the feature output and saves a temporal bandwidth from the motion-triggered wakeup and object adaptive imaging. The sensor consumes low power by employing a reconfigurable differential-pixel architecture with reduced power supply voltage and by implementing the feature extraction algorithm with mixed-signal circuitry in a small area. The chip operates at 0.22 μW/frame in motion-sensing mode and at 3.4 μW/frame for feature extraction, respectively. The object detection from on-chip feature extraction circuits has demonstrated a 94.5% detection rate for human from a set of 200 sample images.
Organizational Size and Social Capital in the Public Sector

Organization theory suggests that the strength of the ties between employees is likely to be weaker in large organizations, but that decentralization of decision making can help generate norms of collaboration, trust, and shared mission. This article explores the separate and combined effects of size and decentralization on perceptions of organizational social capital in central government agencies in Europe. The statistical results suggest that there is a negative relationship between organization size and organizational social capital and a contrasting positive relationship between decentralized decision making and social capital. Further analysis revealed that decentralization of key decisions can overcome the internal social dysfunctions associated with being a big organization. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Neurochemical Correlates of Dementia Severity in Alzheimer's Disease: Relative Importance of the Cholinergic Deficits

Abstract: Cholinergic markers, neuropeptides, and amines and their metabolites were sampled from identical specimens across 10 neocortical regions in a large sample of Alzheimer's disease (AD) cases and controls. Levels of choline acetyltransferase, acetylcholinesterase, somatostatin, corticotropin‐releasing factor, serotonin, and 5‐hydroxyindoleacetic acid were significantly reduced in AD versus controls. After data reduction, the most descriptive neurochemical indices were used to examine the relationship of neurochemical measures and dementia severity within the AD sample, controlling for age effects. Dementia severity ratings were based on antemortem assessments (46.9% of AD sample) and postmortem chart review (53.1% of the AD sample). Choline acetyltransferase activity was highly correlated with clinical dementia ratings across the neocortex of the AD cases. Somatostatin and corticotropin‐releasing factor levels were correlated with dementia severity only when control cases were included in the analyses. None of the amines, their metabolites, or the neuropeptides quantified related significantly to dementia severity in the AD cohort. These data (a) confirm the strong association of cholinergic deficits with functional impairment in AD and show that this association is independent of age and (b) suggest that of all the neurochemical species quantified, the cholinergic indices may be unique in their association with dementia severity.