Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
L-arginine in the ischemic phase protects against liver ischemia-reperfusion injury.

PURPOSE To investigate the effects of intravenous L-arginine (LG) infusion on liver morphology, function and proinflammatory response of cytokines during the early phase of ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI). METHODS Thirty rabbits were subjected to 60 minutes of hepatic ischemia and 120 minutes of reperfusion. An intravenous injection of saline or L-arginine was administered five minutes before the ischemia and five minutes before initiating the reperfusion and at the 55th and 115th minutes after the ischemia. Samples were collected for histological analysis of the liver and measurements of the serum AST, ALT and LDH and the cytokines IL-6 and TNF-alpha. RESULTS It was observed a significant reduction of sinusoidal congestion, cytoplasmic vacuolization, infiltration of polymorphonuclear leukocyte, nuclear pyknosis, necrosis and steatosis in liver tissue, as well as AST, ALT and LDH after injection of LG in the ischemia (p <0.001). Lower levels of IL-6 and TNF-alpha were associated with LG infusion during ischemia. Higher levels these proteins were observed in animals receiving LG during reperfusion. CONCLUSION L-arginine protects the liver against ischemia/reperfusion injury, mainly when is administered during the ischemic phase.
Myostatin gene knockdown through lentiviral-mediated delivery of shRNA for in vitro production of transgenic bovine embryos

Summary Myostatin is described as a negative regulator of the skeletal muscle growth. Genetic engineering, in order to produce animals with double the muscle mass and that can transmit the characteristic to future progeny, may be useful. In this context, the present study aimed to analyse the feasibility of lentiviral-mediated delivery of short hairpin RNA (shRNA) targeting of myostatin into in vitro produced transgenic bovine embryos. Lentiviral vectors were used to deliver a transgene that expressed green fluorescent protein (GFP) and an shRNA that targeted myostatin. Vector efficiency was verified through in vitro murine myoblast (C2C12) cell morphology after inductive differentiation and by means of real-time PCR. The lentiviral vector was microinjected into the perivitellinic space of in vitro matured oocytes. Non-microinjected oocytes were used as the control. After injection, oocytes were fertilized and cultured in vitro. Blastocysts were evaluated by epifluorescence microscopy. Results demonstrated that the vector was able to inhibit myostatin mRNA in C2C12 cells, as the transducted group had a less amount of myostatin mRNA after 72 h of differentiation (p < 0.05) and had less myotube formation than the non-transduced group (p < 0.05). There was no difference in cleavage and blastocyst rates between the microinjected and control groups. After hatching, 3.07% of the embryos exhibited GFP expression, indicating that they expressed shRNA targeting myostatin. In conclusion, we demonstrate that a lentiviral vector effectively performed shRNA myostatin gene knockdown and gene delivery into in vitro produced bovine embryos. Thus, this technique can be considered a novel option for the production of transgenic embryos and double muscle mass animals.
Effects of SNRs on the measurement of spectra

In the present paper, the effects of signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) on the measurement of 19 atomic Lick indices are analyzed. The stellar spectra of the large sky area multi-object fiber spectroscopic telescope (LAMOST) are selected under different conditions, which allows investigating the impact of SNRs on the accuracy and precision of the measurement of Lick/LAMOST indices. The experiment result shows that SNRs greatly affects the measurement of LAMOST/Lick indices in a complex manner. Normally, the precision of the measurement increases with SNRs with a linear trend and the affection of SNRs over 80 can be ignored. The proposed minimum SNRs is 25 according to the accuracy. Comparisons of the Lick indices under different conditions help to analyze the influence of SNRs on the precision of the measurements of LAMOST/Lick indices.
Planning, connecting, and financing cities - now : priorities for city leaders

This report provides Mayors and other policymakers with a policy framework and diagnostic tools to anticipate and implement strategies that can avoid their cities from locking into irreversible physical and social structures. The world's first cities were in the Uruk cluster in Mesopotamia. The largest was Ur, which appears in the Epic of Gilgamesh (one of the earliest known works of literature, set around 3,500 BCE). Extending over 60 hectares, Ur was home to about 24,000 people. But as an irrigation city, also providing marketing and defense services, it governed and extracted surpluses from a neighboring population of about 500,000. Its urban population was densely concentrated, more than 400 people per hectare, and the planning practices were strikingly sophisticated. With four main residential areas, Ur offered its inhabitants basic amenities such as well-laid-out streets and sanitation. The report provides a framework to help city leaders make informed decisions for sustainable development in their cities. This book, planning, connecting, and financing cities, now distills the lessons learned from these diagnostics into a practical framework for sustainable urbanization, which is organized around the three policy pillars of the title. The coordination among these pillars is critical, particularly the relationship between land use planning and hazard risk, housing, infrastructure, and urban transport. This framework has already helped to reshape core urbanization policy debates and to integrate action across the urban space in countries such as Colombia, India, Uganda, and Vietnam. For example, In India, the Urbanization review provided considerable inputs to the teams that shaped the contours of the 12th five-year plan; in Colombia, the Urbanization review helped in the design of a mission for cities, the product of a high level committee for urban management.
CORRELATION MINIMIZING FRAMES

In this dissertation, we study the structure of correlation minimizing frames. A correlation minimizing (N,d)-frame is any uniform Parseval frame of N vectors in dimension, d, such that the largest absolute value of the inner products of any pair of vectors is as small as possible. We call this value the correlation constant. These frames are important as they are optimal for the 2-erasures problem. We produce the actual correlation minimizing frames. To further study the structure of correlation minimizing frames, we obtain upper bounds on the correlation constant. In the real case, we find an upper bound on the correlation constant of a correlation minimizing (N,d)-frame. As a result, we prove the correlation constant goes to zero for fixed redundancy as the dimension and number of vectors increases proportionally by 2. When addressing the correlation constant for complex correlation minimizing (N,d)-frames, we consider circulant matrices which are also projections as the Grammian matrix of a uniform Parseval frame. We derive a relationship between these Grammian matrices and the Dirichelet kernel as well as the structure of quadratic residue. Utilizing these relationships, we obtain two upper bounds on the correlation constant. Furthermore, we investigate how the correlation constant behaves asymptotically in comparison to the Welch bound. In L[0, 1], the Laurent matrix is a projection defined by the Fourier transform of the characteristic function on an interval of fixed finite length in [0,1]. Considering the magnitude of the Fourier transform of the characteristic function on a set of sufficiently small size, we derive a bound on the correlation constant and construct a method to create a correlation constant that is arbitrarily small.
Corneal sensitivity and tear production in 108 horses with ocular disease

PURPOSE To compare corneal sensitivity and tear production in horses with keratitis to horses with other ocular disease. METHOD Retrospective medical record review was used to identify equine patients presented during a 1-year period for an ocular complaint who had Schirmer Tear Test (STT) or Corneal Touch Threshold (CTT) measured. Variables studied included patient age and sex; affected eye; category of presenting ocular complaint (keratitis vs. other ocular complaint); STT; and CTT. Patients with a complaint of ulcerative keratitis, immune-mediated keratitis, and stromal abscess were categorized in the keratitis group. Patients with a complaint of uveitis, as well as lid, lens, or retinal disease, were categorized in the group having other ocular disease. For patients presenting more than once in 2013, only the first visit at which STT or CTT was measured was included. For patients with bilateral disease, STT and CTT of both eyes were averaged. RESULTS A total of 108 patients were included, 45 with keratitis and 63 with other ocular disease. Average age was 13.65 years, with more males (77) than females (31). Adjusted for age, STT in affected eyes did not differ significantly between the two groups (keratitis = 29.92 mm/min; other ocular disease = 27.96 mm/min), but CTT was significantly lower in patients with keratitis (33.78 mm) than in patients with other ocular disease (40.10 mm). CONCLUSIONS Corneal sensitivity may be decreased in patients with keratitis. It is not known whether this is a cause or an effect of corneal disease.
Streaming news sequential evolution model based on distributed representations

In the field of advance scientific research where world is moving towards less human resources and more machine. Distributed representation has been one of the major field in which the prospects of neural usage have shifted immensely. In this research paper we have discussed how distributed representations are being used in streaming data clustering, and how to build a sequential evolution model for a streaming news website. Firstly, the stream news data collected from the web are cut to several slices chronologically; in addition, word2vec models are built in different time periods for every slice of data; lastly, compare the relationship of any target word in sequential word2vec models and analyze the evolutional procedure of the target word. An experimental result shows that our method is able to emerge the trend of the relationship between target words which can't be easily measured through traditional methods.
Services in European Policies

This paper’s objective is twofold. Firstly, it presents the case for services-related policies in the current European Union (EU). The services economy is frequently misunderstood, due to old and new myths that stem from the classic economic tradition. These myths obscure the role of the services economy in economic development. Nonetheless, the European services economy faces specific problems, such as lack of market integration, which amplifies arguments that justify policy actions toward services within a framework where market and systemic failures do apply. Secondly, this paper focuses on existing services-policies at the EU level, paying special attention to the internal market for services policies and to the complementary role of primarily non-regulatory policies. Within a comprehensive policy framework, each individual policy will have a higher impact, improved implementation and easier acceptance. Synergies among services-related policies should be promoted; the internal market policies, enterprise and industrial policies, competition policies and regional policies may take the lead in such a framework. Since the Lisbon Strategy, services have begun to gain recognition in EU policy agendas. This paper attempts to increase their visibility and to highlight their crucial role in European integration and in economic growth and social welfare.
Competition Policy in Turkey

We review the enforcement of competition policy and the activities of Turkish Competition Authority during 1997-2000. Descriptive statistics are provided on the caseload handled, such as types of anti-competitive behavior investigated, breakdown of investigations by industry, violations found, and penalties imposed. Competition Authority has been stretched in terms of manpower as it has faced a flood of applications in addition to having to develop the necessary secondary legislation. The most salient cases handled concerned infringement of competition, while a rather lenient position was taken in authorizing mergers and acquisitions. The silence of the Turkish Competition Law regarding public undertakings is a potential source of problem for aligning competition policies with those of EU.
Genes that are differentially expressed in rat vibrissa follicle germinative epithelium in vivo show altered expression patterns after extended organ culture

Abstract: Hair growth depends on maintenance of signalling between the dermal papilla and the germinative epithelium (GE), from which the differentiated layers of the hair fibre originate. Because no molecular studies have been reported which concentrate specifically on GE cells either in vivo or in vitro, we prepared a cDNA library enriched for messages which were highly expressed in GE cells to identify genes that may be involved in hair growth control. Of 35 subtracted library clones sequenced, 23 shared extensive homology with previously determined cDNA sequences, including LEF‐1 and id4. Hair follicle organ culture models are often used to investigate the molecular basis of hair growth, although hair growth arrest occurs relatively rapidly in vitro. As an indicator of their role in follicle activities, we compared the expression of GE‐specific clones in different regions of freshly isolated vibrissa follicles, with the corresponding regions of growth arrested, cultured follicles. Changes in the expression of some of these clones indicates that they could be related to fundamental cellular activities in the follicle. A library enriched for GE‐specific clones therefore provides a useful source of candidate molecules for studies of follicular epithelial cell behaviour, both in vivo and in vitro.
The Chemotactic Response of Vibrio anguillarum to Fish Intestinal Mucus Is Mediated by a Combination of Multiple Mucus Components

ABSTRACT Chemotactic motility has previously been shown to be essential for the virulence of Vibrio anguillarum in waterborne infections of fish. To investigate the mechanisms by which chemotaxis may function during infection, mucus was isolated from the intestinal and skin epithelial surfaces of rainbow trout. Chemotaxis assays revealed that V. anguillarum swims towards both types of mucus, with a higher chemotactic response being observed for intestinal mucus. Work was performed to examine the basis, in terms of mucus composition, of this chemotactic response. Intestinal mucus was analyzed by using chromatographic and mass spectrometric techniques, and the compounds identified were tested in a chemotaxis assay to determine the attractants present. A number of mucus-associated components, in particular, amino acids and carbohydrates, acted as chemoattractants for V. anguillarum. Importantly, only upon combination of these attractants into a single mixture were levels of chemotactic activity similar to those of intestinal mucus generated. A comparative analysis of skin mucus revealed its free amino acid and carbohydrate content to be considerably lower than that of the more chemotactically active intestinal mucus. To study whether host specificity exists in relation to vibrio chemotaxis towards mucus, comparisons with a human Vibrio pathogen were made. AcheR mutant of a Vibrio cholerae El Tor strain was constructed, and it was found that V. cholerae andV. anguillarum exhibit a chemotactic response to mucus from several animal sources in addition to that from the human jejunum and fish epithelium, respectively.
The Cost-Benefit from the Perspective of the Hospital of a Proactive Psychiatric Consultation Service on Inpatient General Medicine Services

Objective: Co-occurring mental illness and substance abuse disorders, highly prevalent in general medical inpatients, are associated with longer Lengths of Stay (LOS) and higher costs. We examined the increased financial costs and benefits associated with a proactive multidisciplinary intervention, the Behavioral Intervention Team (BIT) relative to the fiscal benefit. Methods: Costs and benefits associated with a Conventional Consultation Liaison (CCL) model and the BIT on three general inpatients units of a tertiary care hospital in a before-and-after design. Results: Inpatients seen by the BIT had reduced LOS, resulting in lower per-case costs and incremental revenue from new cases. Total financial benefit when offset by additional BIT personnel costs resulted in a return of investment of 1.7:1. Conclusion: Compared to the reactive CCL model, the proactive BIT resulted in significant financial benefit. Further study is needed to examine the impact of BIT model on quality of patient care and staff satisfaction.
Do Foreign Firm Betas Change During Cross-Listing?

The reaction of foreign stocks to cross-listing events has been documented in an extensive literature, finding that the betas of these stocks change over time. In this paper, I use stock return data for foreign companies listed on U.S. exchanges to ask whether the betas changed at all and, if so, on what date. While betas for most of these companies indeed change over their sample, the evidence shows that these changes arise from greater integration between their home markets and the U.S. Moreover, of the remaining companies, the betas change significantly after, not during, the cross-listing event.
Plasminogen activator inhibitor‐1 is elevated, but not essential, in the development of bleomycin‐induced murine scleroderma

Accumulative data have demonstrated that plasminogen activator inhibitor‐1 (PAI‐1) plays an important role in the extracellular matrix metabolism; however, the involvement of PAI‐1 in scleroderma has not been fully elucidated. In this study, we investigated the role of PAI‐1 in bleomycin‐induced murine scleroderma. 100 µg of bleomycin was injected subcutaneously to the back skin of C3H/HeJ mice on alternate day for 4 weeks. Histopathological findings revealed that PAI‐1 was positive in macrophage‐like cells and fibroblastic cells in the dermis, in parallel with the induction of dermal sclerosis. PAI‐1 mRNA expression in the whole skin was up‐regulated at 1 and 4 weeks. The production of active PAI‐1 protein in the lesional skin was significantly increased 3 and 4 weeks after bleomycin treatment. Next, we examined whether dermal sclerosis is induced by bleomycin in PAI‐1‐deficient (PAI‐1–/–) mice. 10 µg of bleomycin was subcutaneously injected to PAI‐1–/– and wild type (WT) mice 5 days per week for 4 weeks. Histological examination revealed that dermal sclerosis was similarly induced even in PAI‐1–/– as well as WT mice. Dermal thickness and collagen contents in the skin were significantly increased by bleomycin injection in both PAI‐1–/– and WT mice, and the rate of increase was similar. These data suggest that PAI‐1 plays an important role, possibly via TGF‐β pathway activation. However, the fact that PAI‐1 deficiency did not ameliorate skin sclerosis suggest that PAI‐1 is not the essential factor in the development of bleomycin‐induced scleroderma, and more complex biochemical effects other than PA/plasmin system are greatly suspected.
The Role Of Accounting System Classification In The Optimization Of International Harmonisation Process

The main objective of international accounting bodies is represented by worldwide accounting harmonisation. However, this process faces difficulties which arise from matters specific to each country, either from the complicated nature of international financial reporting standards, from interpretation, from language and terminology problems or from the different nature of the principles, procedures, methods and accounting practices nationwide. The degree of awareness of the differences and similarities between national accounting systems serves as a basis for the international accounting classifications, this classification being needed to better understand the difficulties faced by accounting experts related to the harmonisation process.
Assessment of spatial discordance of primary and effective seed dispersal of European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) by ecological and genetic methods

Spatial discordance between primary and effective dispersal in plant populations indicates that postdispersal processes erase the seed rain signal in recruitment patterns. Five different models were used to test the spatial concordance of the primary and effective dispersal patterns in a European beech (Fagus sylvatica) population from central Spain. An ecological method was based on classical inverse modelling (SSS), using the number of seed/seedlings as input data. Genetic models were based on direct kernel fitting of mother‐to‐offspring distances estimated by a parentage analysis or were spatially explicit models based on the genotype frequencies of offspring (competing sources model and Moran‐Clark's Model). A fully integrated mixed model was based on inverse modelling, but used the number of genotypes as input data (gene shadow model). The potential sources of error and limitations of each seed dispersal estimation method are discussed. The mean dispersal distances for seeds and saplings estimated with these five methods were higher than those obtained by previous estimations for European beech forests. All the methods show strong discordance between primary and effective dispersal kernel parameters, and for dispersal directionality. While seed rain was released mostly under the canopy, saplings were established far from mother trees. This discordant pattern may be the result of the action of secondary dispersal by animals or density‐dependent effects; that is, the Janzen‐Connell effect.
Internationalization and Firm Performance: the S-Curve Hypothesis under the Eurozone context

In this article, we analyse the gains in performance of international diversified firms applied to the Eurozone, taking into account the impact of the interactive effect of both product and international diversification on this performance. We test all the conflicting relations explored in the literature of international diversification (linear, quadratic and cubic), and found that the S-curve is a more complete approach, since it considers different stages of different firms, regarding the international diversification-performance relation. Another important contributions of this article are: i) the fact we take into consideration not only account based measures of performance, but also market based measures; ii) different from previous studies, our sample is multi country and European; iii) we take into account not only manufacturing or service firms exclusively, but both together.
Algorithms for nonlinear bilevel mathematical programs

The bilevel programming problem (BLPP) is a model of a leader-follower game in which play is sequential and cooperation is not permitted. Some basic properties of the general model are developed, and a conjecture relevant to solution procedures is presented. Two algorithms are presented for solving various versions of the game when certain convexity conditions hold. One algorithm relies upon a hybrid branch-and-bound scheme and does not guarantee global optimality. Another is based on objective function cuts and, barring numerical stability problems with the optimizer, is guaranteed to converge to an epsilon -optimal solution. The performance of the two algorithms is examined using randomly generated test problems. The computational performance of the branch-and-bound algorithm is explored, and the cutting-plane algorithm is used to determine whether or not the branch-and-bound algorithm is uncovering global optima. >