Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Business is not just war. Transferring the principle of double effect from war to business

Abstract In this article the validity of transferring the Principle of Double Effect from the just war tradition to the domain of business is critically reviewed. If a case can be build for sufficient analogies between war and business, the principle of double effect can legitimately be transferred from war to business. If, on the other hand it can be shown that there are aspects in which business differ substantially from just war, then the transfer to business of a principle developed within the context of war becomes more problematic. After exploring the nature of arguments of analogy and fallacious arguments of weak analogy some important disanalogies between war and business are highlighted. Given these disanalogies it is then contended that the just war background of the Principle of Double Effect had some bearing on both the content and manner of application of the Principle of Double Effect. Finally it is argued that these disanalogies require some revisions to the Principle of Double Effect with regard to both its content and its manner of application before it can be applied meaningfully to foreseeable negative side-effects of business.
Aging rat neuromuscular junnctions: A morphometric study of cholinesterase‐stained whole mounts and ultrastructure

Previous morphological studies of the adult rat soleus neuromuscular junction (NMJ) indicate that its ultrastructure changes with age, a consequence of a dynamic, ongoing remodeling of pre‐ and postsynaptic elements. With aging, the balance between axonal sprouting and withdrawal appears to shift in favor of denervation. Here we have examined the extent and direction of the remodeling process during the adult life of the rat (5–111 weeks) by quantificatation and morphometry of NMJ structure as seen in electron microscopic composites and in cholinesterase (ChE) stained whole mounts.
Failure of Poly(ADP-Ribose) Polymerase Cleavage by Caspases Leads to Induction of Necrosis and Enhanced Apoptosis

ABSTRACT Activation of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) by DNA breaks catalyzes poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation and results in depletion of NAD+ and ATP, which is thought to induce necrosis. Proteolytic cleavage of PARP by caspases is a hallmark of apoptosis. To investigate whether PARP cleavage plays a role in apoptosis and in the decision of cells to undergo apoptosis or necrosis, we introduced a point mutation into the cleavage site (DEVD) of PARP that renders the protein resistant to caspase cleavage in vitro and in vivo. Here, we show that after treatment with tumor necrosis factor alpha, fibroblasts expressing this caspase-resistant PARP exhibited an accelerated cell death. This enhanced cell death is attributable to the induction of necrosis and an increased apoptosis and was coupled with depletion of NAD+ and ATP that occurred only in cells expressing caspase-resistant PARP. The PARP inhibitor 3-aminobenzamide prevented the NAD+ drop and concomitantly inhibited necrosis and the elevated apoptosis. These data indicate that this accelerated cell death is due to NAD+ depletion, a mechanism known to kill various cell types, caused by activation of uncleaved PARP after DNA fragmentation. The present study demonstrates that PARP cleavage prevents induction of necrosis during apoptosis and ensures appropriate execution of caspase-mediated programmed cell death.
Evaluation of cortisol levels in gingival crevicular fluid and saliva in anxious and non-anxious patients with chronic periodontitis

Background: To evaluate gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) and salivary cortisol levels in anxious and non-anxious patients with chronic periodontitis. Materials and Methods: A total of 45 patients with a mean age 43.4 ± 6.12 years were assigned to three groups: Healthy control group (Group 1), group with chronic periodontitis but no anxiety (Group 2) and group with chronic periodontitis and with anxiety (Group 3). State – Trait anxiety inventory and Hamilton Anxiety rating scale were used to assess the anxiety levels of all the subjects. Clinical measures such as plaque index (PI), gingival index (GI), probing pocket depth (PPD) and clinical attachment level (CAL) were recorded. GCF and unstimulated whole saliva samples were collected, and cortisol levels were determined using ELISA kit. Results: PI, GI, PPD, and CAL were higher in Group 3. Hormone level was significantly higher in Group 3. A positive correlation was found among salivary and GCF cortisol and CAL in Group 3. Conclusion: Based on the obtained results individuals with high-levels of anxiety seem to be more prone to have periodontal disease. Salivary and GCF cortisol levels can be used as biomarker for evaluating part of the etiopathogenesis of chronic periodontitis.
Multidirectional walk test in individuals with Parkinson’s disease: a validity study

Gait parameters of forward, backward, and sideways walk were studied when the participants walked overground in four directions at their self-selected speed and were compared with walking in the four directions on an instrumented GAITRite walkway. Intraclass correlation coefficients between the overground walk test measures and the instrumented walkway measures of gait speed, cadence, and stride length for the forward walk were 0.85, 0.88, and 0.87, respectively. For the backward walk, the coefficients were 0.91 for gait speed, 0.75 for cadence, and 0.93 for stride length. For the sideways walk, the coefficients were 0.92 for gait speed, 0.93 for cadence, and 0.94 for stride length. Gait parameters of forward, backward, and sideways walk obtained by the overground walk test had excellent agreement with those obtained by the instrumented walkway. The quick timed test provided quantitative data for gait evaluation and was valid for clinical use.
[A study on the relationship of birth order hepatocellular carcinoma].

OBJECTIVE To explore the association of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with environmental factors through analyzing birth order data from pedigree sibships. METHODS A birth order study was conducted based on the methods of Greenwood and Haldane for 100 probands and 22 affected siblings from 100 pedigrees in a cohort which was followed up for 8 years in Haimen, Jiangsu, China. RESULTS The findings from the Greenwood method suggested that there was a tendency for cases of HCC to concentrate at lower birth orders of 1 to 3. With the effects of hepatitis B virus on the birth orders being controlled, the same tendency was also observed. The results from Haldane method showed that difference between actual value and expected value of 6A was more than the double standard deviation. Sigma 6A(actual value) = 1,806, Sigma 6A(expected value) = 1,988, the absolute value of (Sigma 6A(actual value) - Sigma 6A(expected value))/the square root of Sigma V6A = 2.1657 (0.02 < P < 0.05). The actual value of 6A was lower than the expected value of 6A suggesting that individuals at lower birth orders were at a higher risk of suffering from HCC. In addition, through data from ecologic research, there was a decreasing tendency of mortality of HCC within 10 years after the prevalence of tap water in Haimen city. The correlation coefficient by Spearman test was -0.818 (P < 0.01). The contribution of the quality of drinking water in the locality to the onset of HCC was found among people born in earlier period. CONCLUSIONS There was a tendency that the onset of HCC cases concentrating was at lower birth orders in this research, which was inconsistent with several reports of foreign authors' which showed a reverse tendency. According to the ecological results, it was suggested that long-term drinking of ditch-water was responsible for the tendency of cases of HCC concentrating at lower birth orders. There were also certain effects of environmental factors exerted on the onset of HCC being discovered.
Occupational Mortality Associated with Inflammatory Bowel Disease in the United States 1984–1998

Background: The occurrence of Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) is shaped by environmental influences. Many such environmental risk factors vary potentially with occupational exposure. We used a large national database to study the occupational variation of mortality associated with CD and UC. Methods: The National Occupational Mortality Surveillance database contains data from the death certificate linked with information about the occupation and industry of each deceased individual. Deaths were grouped by gender, ethnicity, disease type, occupation, and industry. Mortality by occupation and industry were expressed as age‐adjusted proportional mortality ratio. Results: A total of 3110 inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients were included in the present analysis. IBD mortality was low among blue collar workers and high among white collar workers. It was low among farming occupations, manufacturing occupations, and manual laborers. It was high among secretaries, professionals, sales workers, homemakers, managerial occupations, and teachers. There was a strong correlation between the occupational distribution of CD and UC that applied to men and women alike. The overall distribution among different industries corroborated the patterns observed with respect to the occupational distribution. Conclusions: The correlations between the occupational distribution of CD and UC support the contention that environmental influences shape the occurrence of both diseases. Such influence must vary by occupation and, to a lesser extent, also by industry. It must be similar for both types of IBD. (Inflamm Bowel Dis 2011;)
Coexpression of ephrin‐Bs and their receptors in colon carcinoma

The erythropoietin‐producing hepatoma amplified sequence (Eph) family is the largest subfamily of receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs). The Ephs (receptors) bind to specific cell‐bound ligands, called ephrins. The binding of this ligand‐receptor system is dependent on cell‐cell interactions. The ephrin‐Eph system is important in embryologic development and differentiation of the nervous and vascular systems. In the current study, the authors hypothesized that ephrins may play a role in the growth and development of colon carcinoma and may be expressed differentially in normal and malignant colonic tissues.
Privacy and authentication on a portable communications system

The authors discuss technical options to achieve adequate privacy and fraud control for portable communication systems. As the goal is to provide privacy at least comparable to that provided by wireline, the authors concentrate on the privacy of conversations on the radio link only. A high-level description of the portable communications system is presented, which provides a basis for further discussion. Message encryption is considered, the process by which a cipher function is applied to the portable communications systems data streams in order to deter eavesdroppers. Some background on public-key cryptography and some information regarding implementation of public-key techniques in low-power portable units are given. Key agreement and authentication protocols are outlined. <<ETX>>
A Replication-Competent Adenovirus-Human Immunodeficiency Virus (Ad-HIV) tat and Ad-HIV env Priming/Tat and Envelope Protein Boosting Regimen Elicits Enhanced Protective Efficacy against Simian/Human Immunodeficiency Virus SHIV89.6P Challenge in Rhesus Macaques

ABSTRACT We previously demonstrated that replication-competent adenovirus (Ad)-simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) recombinant prime/protein boost regimens elicit potent immunogenicity and strong, durable protection of rhesus macaques against SIVmac251. Additionally, native Tat vaccines have conferred strong protection against simian/human immunodeficiency virus SHIV89.6P challenge of cynomolgus monkeys, while native, inactivated, or vectored Tat vaccines have failed to elicit similar protective efficacy in rhesus macaques. Here we asked if priming rhesus macaques with replicating Ad-human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) tat and boosting with the Tat protein would elicit protection against SHIV89.6P. We also evaluated a Tat/Env regimen, adding an Ad-HIV env recombinant and envelope protein boost to test whether envelope antibodies would augment acute-phase protection. Further, expecting cellular immunity to enhance chronic viremia control, we tested a multigenic group: Ad-HIV tat, -HIV env, -SIV gag, and -SIV nef recombinants and Tat, Env, and Nef proteins. All regimens were immunogenic. A hierarchy was observed in enzyme-linked immunospot responses (with the strongest response for Env, followed by Gag, followed by Nef, followed by Tat) and antibody titers (with the highest titer for Env, followed by Tat, followed by Nef, followed by Gag). Following intravenous SHIV89.6P challenge, all macaques became infected. Compared to controls, no protection was seen in the Tat-only group, confirming previous reports for rhesus macaques. However, the multigenic group blunted acute viremia by approximately 1 log (P = 0.017), and both the multigenic and Tat/Env groups reduced chronic viremia by 3 and 4 logs, respectively, compared to controls (multigenic, P = 0.0003; Tat/Env, P < 0.0001). The strikingly greater reduction in the Tat/Env group than in the multigenic group (P = 0.014) was correlated with Tat and Env binding antibodies. Since prechallenge anti-Env antibodies lacked SHIV89.6P-neutralizing activity, other functional anti-Env and anti-Tat activities are under investigation, as is a possible synergy between the Tat and Env immunogens.
Laminin and fibronectin scaffolds enhance neural stem cell transplantation into the injured brain

Cell transplantation offers the potential to treat central nervous system injuries, largely because multiple mechanisms can be targeted in a sustained fashion. It is crucial that cells are transplanted into an environment that is favourable for extended survival and integration within the host tissue. Given the success of using fetal tissue grafts for traumatic brain injury, it may be beneficial to mimic key aspects of these grafts (e.g. three‐dimensionality, cell–cell and cell–matrix support) to deliver cells. Extracellular matrix proteins such as fibronectin and laminin are involved in neural development and may provide adhesive support for donor cells and mediate subsequent cell signalling events. In this study, neural stem cells were transplanted into the traumatically injured mouse brain within a tissue‐engineered construct containing either a laminin‐ or fibronectin‐based scaffold. Cells delivered within the scaffolds were more widely distributed in the injured brain compared to cells delivered in media alone. There were no differences in donor cell survival at 1 week post‐transplant; however, by 8 weeks post‐transplant, cells delivered within the scaffolds showed improved survival compared to those transplanted in media alone. Survival was more enhanced with the laminin‐based scaffold compared to the fibronectin‐based scaffold. Furthermore, behavioural analyses indicated that mice receiving neural stem cells within the laminin‐based scaffold performed significantly better than untreated mice on a spatial learning task, supporting the notion that functional recovery correlates positively with donor cell survival. Together these results suggest that the use of appropriate extracellular matrix‐based scaffolds can be exploited to improve cell transplantation therapy. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Recurrent pain and discomfort in relation to fitness and physical activity among young school children

Abstract As an increase in pain symptoms among children has been shown in the last decades, the aim of this study was to describe perceptions of recurrent pain, measured physical fitness and levels of reported physical activity (PA) in children, and to investigate if any associations between PA, fitness and recurrent pain could be identified. A school-based study comprised 206 Swedish children 8–12 years old, 114 boys, 92 girls. A questionnaire with questions about perceived pain, self-reported PA and lifestyle factors was used. Health-related fitness was assessed by 11 physical tests. A physical index was calculated from these tests as a z score. High physical index indicated high fitness and low physical index indicated low fitness. ANOVA test, chi-square test and logistic regression analysis were used to compare active and inactive children. The prevalence of one pain location (head, abdomen or back) was 26%, two 11% and three 4% (n=206). Female gender, living in single-parent families, low PA and low subjective health were associated with reported recurrent pain. Children reporting high levels of PA had high physical index and reported low prevalence of pain symptoms. The physical index and level of self-reported PA decreased gradually the more pain locations. Physically active children had higher fitness levels and reported less pain symptoms than inactive peers. Coping with pain is an integral part of PA, and active children learn to cope with unpleasant body sensations which together with high fitness may reduce the perception of pain.
PGC‐1α: overexpression exacerbates β‐amyloid and tau deposition in a transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer's disease

The peroxisome proliferator‐activated receptor γ coactivator 1‐α (PGC‐1α) interacts with various transcription factors involved in energy metabolism and in the regulation of mitochondrial biogenesis. PGC‐1α mRNA levels are reduced in a number of neurodegenerative diseases and contribute to disease pathogenesis, since increased levels ameliorate behavioral defects and neuropathology of Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. PGC‐1α and its downstream targets are reduced both in postmortem brain tissue of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and in transgenic mouse models of AD. Therefore, we investigated whether increased expression of PGC‐1α would exert beneficial effects in the Tg19959 transgenic mouse model of AD; Tg19959 mice express the human amyloid precursor gene (APP) with 2 familial AD mutations and develop increased β‐amyloid levels, plaque deposition, and memory deficits by 2–3 mo of age. Rather than an improvement, the cross of the Tg19959 mice with mice overexpressing human PGC‐1α exacerbated amyloid and tau accumulation. This was accompanied by an impairment of proteasome activity. PGC‐1α overexpression induced mitochondrial abnormalities, neuronal cell death, and an exacerbation of behavioral hyperactivity in the Tg19959 mice. These findings show that PGG1α overexpression exacerbates the neuropathological and behavioral deficits that occur in transgenic mice with mutations in APP that are associated with human AD. —Dumont, M. , Stack, C. , Elipenahli, C. , Jainuddin, S. , Launay, N. , Gerges, M. , Starkova, N. , Starkov, A. A. , Calingasan, N. Y. , Tampellini, D. , Pujol, A, Beal, M. F. PGGla overexpression exacerbates β‐amyloid and tau deposition in a transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. FASEB J. 28, 28–1745 (1755). www.fasebj. org
Time Warp on the GPU: Design and Assessment

The parallel execution of discrete-event simulations on commodity GPUs has been shown to achieve high event rates. Most previous proposals have focused on conservative synchronization, which typically extracts only limited parallelism in cases of low event density in simulated time. We present the design and implementation of an optimistic fully GPU-based parallel discrete-event simulator based on the Time Warp synchronization algorithm. The optimistic simulator implementation is compared with an otherwise identical implementation using conservative synchronization. Our evaluation shows that in most cases, the increase in parallelism when using optimistic synchronization significantly outweighs the increased overhead for state keeping and rollbacks. To reduce the cost of state keeping, we show how XORWOW, the default pseudo-random number generator in CUDA, can be reversed based solely on its current state. Since the optimal configuration of multiple performance-critical simulator parameters depends on the behavior of the simulation model, these parameters are adapted dynamically based on performance measurements and heuristic optimization at runtime. We evaluate the simulator using the PHOLD benchmark model and a simplified model of peer-to-peer networks using the Kademlia protocol. On a commodity GPU, the optimistic simulator achieves event rates of up to 81.4 million events per second and a speedup of up to 3.6 compared with conservative synchronization.
RNA-seq analysis of the C. briggsae transcriptome

Curation of a high-quality gene set is the critical first step in genome research, enabling subsequent analyses such as ortholog assignment, cis-regulatory element finding, and synteny detection. In this project, we have reannotated the genome of Caenorhabditis briggsae, the best studied sister species of the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans. First, we applied a homology-based gene predictor genBlastG to annotate the C. briggsae genome. We then validated and further improved the C. briggsae gene annotation through RNA-seq analysis of the C. briggsae transcriptome, which resulted in the first validated C. briggsae gene set (23,159 genes), among which 7347 genes (33.9% of all genes with introns) have all of their introns confirmed. Most genes (14,812, or 68.3%) have at least one intron validated, compared with only 3.9% in the most recent WormBase release (WS228). Of all introns in the revised gene set (103,083), 61,503 (60.1%) have been confirmed. Additionally, we have identified numerous trans-splicing leaders (SL1 and SL2 variants) in C. briggsae, leading to the first genome-wide annotation of operons in C. briggsae (1105 operons). The majority of the annotated operons (564, or 51.0%) are perfectly conserved in C. elegans, with an additional 345 operons (or 31.2%) somewhat divergent. Additionally, RNA-seq analysis revealed over 10 thousand small-size assembly errors in the current C. briggsae reference genome that can be readily corrected. The revised C. briggsae genome annotation represents a solid platform for comparative genomics analysis and evolutionary studies of Caenorhabditis species.
Radiosensitivity of human squamous carcinoma cell lines is associated with amount of spontaneous DNA strand breaks

We asked whether the constitutive level of DNA strand breaks (SBs) in four human squamous carcinoma cell lines is associated with their radiosensitivity, measured by the clonogenic assay. Because impairment in DNA replication and the action of endogenous deoxyribonucleases are two major sources of DNA strand breaks under normal cell metabolism, we also analyzed DNA polymerase and DNA ligase activities as well as the functional status of Poly(ADP‐ribose) polymerase (PARP) and nucleolytic degradation of genomic DNA. We showed that the two relatively radioresistant cell lines, UM‐SCC‐1 and UT‐SCC‐5, had a statistically significant lower constitutive level of DNA SBs, as measured by DNA precipitation technique, compared with the two relatively radiosensitive cell lines, UM‐SCC‐14A and UT‐SCC‐9. We found that cell lines with a higher level of broken DNA tended to have a higher constitutive level of DNA polymerase α activity, measured by incorporation of [3H]dTTP in DNase I‐activated DNA. UM‐SCC‐1, UT‐SCC‐5, and UM‐SCC‐14A did not show any difference in DNA ligase activity when a nicked oligonucleotide was used as substrate. The most radiosensitive cell line, UT‐SCC‐9, had a significantly lower ligation efficiency compared to the other three cell lines. The functional status of the PARP was the same in the four cell lines. Although none of the four cell lines showed a characteristic apoptotic or necrotic degradation of genomic DNA, when tested with the “plasmid rejoining assay,” a significant degradation of the plasmid DNA in UT‐SCC‐9 was detected. We conclude that the high fraction of DNA SBs for UT‐SCC‐9, the most radiosensitive cell line, is most likely a consequence of low ligation efficiency combined with a relatively high DNA polymerase α activity and the nuclease degradation of DNA. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.