Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Increased apolipoprotein A5 expression in human and rat non-alcoholic fatty livers

Summary Apolipoprotein A5 (apoA5) is a potent regulator of triglyceride (TG) metabolism and therefore may contribute to the pathogenesis of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), a disease characterised by excessive TG-rich lipid droplets in hepatocytes. To test this hypothesis, we examined the mRNA expression of apoA5 in paediatric NAFLD livers in comparison to healthy controls. According to microarray and quantitative real-time PCR, human NAFLD livers exhibited elevated apoA5 expression compared to healthy controls. The apoA5 expression levels were positively correlated with hepatic TG storage and a marker for lipid droplets (perilipin), but were not correlated with plasma TG levels. These observations were confirmed with a NAFLD rat model. Interestingly, apoA5 expression was not altered in cultured fat-laden HepG2 cells, demonstrating that fat storage does not induce apoA5 in NAFLD livers. Therefore, the correlation between apoA5 and intracellular fat storage is likely explained by the potent effect of apoA5 in promoting intracellular fat storage. Our NAFLD patients and rats had elevated insulin resistance, which may have a role in elevating apoA5 expression in NAFLD livers. Our data support the hypothesis that apoA5 promotes hepatic TG storage and therefore contributes to the pathogenesis of NAFLD, and may represent a potential target for therapeutic intervention.
Work environment investments: outcomes from three cases

Work environment investments are important in order to create a healthy and safe workplace. This article presents findings from a seven-step interventions process aimed at examining and following-up work environment investments in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with a particular focus on air contaminants. Three different cases were analyzed and included in the study: (a) an educational center for welding; (b) a paint station in furniture manufacturing; (c) a joinery in furniture manufacturing. The results show that the work environment investments were highly appreciated by the employees and managers, but at the same time the investment could be optimized through markedly decreased exposure levels for the worker. Factors such as follow-ups of the investment, education and training in how to use the equipment, worker involvement in the process and leadership engagement are important in order to optimize work environment investments.
Membrane Permeation by Multidrug‐resistance‐modulators and Non‐modulators: Effects of Hydrophobicity and Electric Charge

This study was designed to test the hypothesis that lipophilic cationic drugs with only roughly similar structures mediate the reversal of multidrug‐resistance (MDR) by interacting with membrane phospholipids. The permeation properties of MDR‐modulators and non‐modulators were studied by quantifying their ability to induce the leakage of Sulphan blue through the membrane of negatively charged unilamellar liposomes.
Sesamin enhances nitric oxide bioactivity in aortas of spontaneously hypertensive rats

Background: The blood pressure lowering effect of sesamin has been demonstrated to be associated with the increase in vascular nitric oxide (NO) biological activity by our previous studies and others. The present study was designed to explore the underlying mechanisms involved in the effect of sesamin on aortic NO bioactivity in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs). Methods: Sesamin was orally administered for 8 consecutive weeks in SHRs. Systolic blood pressure (SBP) was measured using the tail-cuff method. The aortas were isolated and in vitro vascular reactivity studies were performed. Superoxide anion production in carotid arteries was assessed by dihydroethidium fluorescence staining. The protein expression of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), phosphorylated eNOS (P-eNOS), dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR), nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate oxidase subunit p47phox, and copper, zinc superoxide dismutase (Cu/Zn-SOD) in aortas was detected by Western blotting. The dimeric form of eNOS in aortas was determined by low-temperature sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). Aortic level of nitrotyrosine and activities of antioxidant enzymes, namely, total SOD (T-SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and catalase were also detected. Results: In SHRs, sesamin treatment reduced SBP, improved vascular relaxation induced by acetylcholine and enhanced aortic NO bioactivity. Sesamin treatment enhanced NO biosynthesis in SHR aortas was due to upregulated P-eNOS and suppressed eNOS uncoupling, and the latter effect might be attributed to decreased nitrotyrosine and upregulated DHFR. Sesamin also reduced the NO oxidative inactivation and decreased the superoxide anion production through downregulation of p47phox and amelioration of eNOS uncoupling. In addition, sesamin treatment did not alter the levels of GPx and catalase activity but obviously reduced the compensatory elevated T-SOD activity and Cu/Zn-SOD protein expression. Conclusion: Chronic treatment with sesamin could reduce hypertension and improve endothelial dysfunction through enhancement of NO bioactivity in SHR aortas.
Noise of a JFET Charge Amplifier for Piezoelectric Sensors

A comprehensive noise model of a junction gate field-effect transistor (JFET) charge amplifier is presented for applications with piezoelectric sensors. Based on this previously reported amplifier structure, a noise equivalent circuit is derived and discussed. Universal noise gain expressions for each of the twelve considered noise sources are given. By means of an analytical description of the charge amplifier’s noise behavior, the design and optimization of such preamplifiers for various capacitive microelectromechanical sensor systems will be distinctly simplified. Calculations of the noise floor are compared with measurements with a cantilever-type magnetoelectric sensor and with the performance of a so far commonly utilized basic charge amplifier. With the JFET charge amplifier a noise reduction of approximately 22 dB is achieved in the vicinity of the utilized sensor’s resonance frequency of 7.45 kHz. The reported amplifier is the first which has no negative influence on the total noise level of a resonant magnetoelectric sensor system.
Spontaneous confabulation, temporal context confusion and reality monitoring: A study of three patients with anterior communicating artery aneurysms

Abstract Spontaneous confabulation involves the production of false or distorted memories, and is commonly associated with ventromedial prefrontal damage. One influential theory proposes that the critical deficit is a failure to suppress currently irrelevant memory traces that intrude into ongoing thinking (Schnider & Ptak, 1999). In this study, we report experimental investigations with three spontaneously confabulating patients aimed at exploring this account. Using Schnider and Ptak’s (1999) continuous recognition paradigm, we replicated their experimental results with our patients. However, our data suggest that the critical impairment might be more generalized than a failure to suppress currently irrelevant memories. First, a temporal source monitoring task failed to show that previous memory traces intrude into the present. Second, a reality monitoring task revealed that confabulating patients had a tendency to misidentify imagined events as real, a result that cannot be explained in terms of temporal confusion. This error was specific to confabulating patients and was not shared by non-confabulating ACoA patients. Our data therefore suggest a more generalized impairment in source monitoring, not only on the basis of temporality or current relevance, but across a range of contextual domains, including information used to distinguish real memories from imaginings. (JINS, 2010, 16, 984–994.)
GLFR: A Generalized LFR Benchmark for Testing Community Detection Algorithms

Comparisons between community detection methods are mostly based on their accuracies in recovering the built-in community structure in artificial benchmark networks. Current community detection benchmarks assign a fixed fraction of inter-community links, referred to as the mixing fraction, for every community in the same network. We first show in this paper that the variation in community mixing fractions has different impacts on the performances of different community detection methods that could change the decision to select a particular detecting algorithm. To comprehensively compare community detection methods, we therefore need a benchmark that generates heterogeneous community mixing fractions, which is not currently available. We address this gap by generalizing the state-of-the-art Lancichinetti-Fortunato- Radicchi benchmark to generate networks with heterogeneous community mixing fractions. Using our new benchmark, we can quantify the impact of the variation in community mixing fractions on existing community detection methods and re- evaluate the performance of the detecting algorithms as a function of the heterogeneity among the mixing fractions. Furthermore, we show that the heterogeneous community mixing tests using our generalized benchmark reflect better the performance that would be expected on real networks than the homogeneous community mixing tests using the original benchmark.
HPV testing in patients with low grade cervical cytological abnormalities: a follow up study.

AIM: To assess the diagnostic performance of human papillomavirus (HPV) analysis in predicting cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) grades 2 and 3 in patients with persistent low grade cervical cytological abnormalities. METHODS: Cervical smears from 167 women referred for colposcopy with persistent borderline, wart virus or mildly dyskaryotic changes on cervical screening were analysed by Papanicolaou staining, non-isotopic in situ hybridisation and generic and type specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of HPV sequences. Follow up was by cytological and, where appropriate, histological analysis. RESULTS: CIN grade 2 or 3 was identified in 46 patients after a median follow up of 27 months. HPV positivity by both techniques was associated with high grade CIN and with age less than 30 years (median age 33 years). Non-isotopic in situ hybridisation was more predictive but less sensitive than either generic or type specific PCR, but prediction was greater using either molecular technique in women over 30 years of age. CONCLUSIONS: Although the degree of prediction found is of only limited clinical value, the strong association of HPV positivity with both high grade CIN and patient age suggests that further studies of HPV testing in this patient group are warranted.
A Multi-view Deep Learning Method for Epileptic Seizure Detection using Short-time Fourier Transform

With the advances in pervasive sensor technologies, physiological signals can be captured continuously to prevent the serious outcomes caused by epilepsy. Detection of epileptic seizure onset on collected multi-channel electroencephalogram (EEG) has attracted lots of attention recently. Deep learning is a promising method to analyze large-scale unlabeled data. In this paper, we propose a multi-view deep learning model to capture brain abnormality from multi-channel epileptic EEG signals for seizure detection. Specifically, we first generate EEG spectrograms using short-time Fourier transform (STFT) to represent the time-frequency information after signal segmentation. Second, we adopt stacked sparse denoising autoencoders (SSDA) to unsupervisedly learn multiple features by considering both intra and inter correlation of EEG channels, denoted as intra-channel and cross-channel features, respectively. Third, we add an SSDA-based channel selection procedure using proposed response rate to reduce the dimension of intra-channel feature. Finally, we concatenate the learned multi-features and apply a fully-connected SSDA model with softmax classifier to jointly learn the cross-patient seizure detector in a supervised fashion. To evaluate the performance of the proposed model, we carry out experiments on a real world benchmark EEG dataset and compare it with six baselines. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that the proposed learning model is able to extract latent features with meaningful interpretation, and hence is effective in detecting epileptic seizure.
Essays in international trade : international fragmentation of production and trade costs

In this dissertation, I contribute to the thriving empirical literature in international trade by looking specifically at the international fragmentation of production and non-traditional trade costs. In chapter 1, using the new features of global input-output tables, I quantify the impact of the recent changes in foreign input use on the factor content of trade. I found that the changes in the factor content of trade are driven by each country position in the global supply chains. The chapter 2 analyzes the links between political relations and trade in light of the growing interdependency between countries. In this joint work with Julian Hinz, using a new proxy fora negative shock to political relations between countries, we show that the impact of such a negative shock is crucially heterogeneous across traded goods. Finally, in chapter 3 co-authored with Julian Hinz, we introduce a new measure for spoken languages based on Twitter data. We then use this measure to evaluate the effect of changes in language diversity on trade and real income in different locations in Europe.
Trust development processes in intra-organisational relationships: A multi-level permeation of trust in a merging university

ABSTRACT This paper introduces a model to study the trust development processes in intra-organisational relationships at multiple levels. The model is applied to explore a multi-level permeation of trust in a merger. More specifically, the empirical study focuses on how trust develops at different organisational levels in the context of a merger of two universities into one entity. The study applies a process view using qualitative longitudinal data analysed by a discourse analytical approach. The paper emphasises a dynamic nature of trust development suggesting that the discourse analysis approach applies particularly well to studying trust development as a dynamic process in the longitudinal case study setting. This paper contributes to trust research by adding to contextual process studies on trust development over time at different levels of the organisation. The findings show that trust permeates through the organisation influenced by interaction and the organisation-specific attributes that are manifested in the discursive practices of top management and the individual, group and organisation-level actions.
The Life of Ideas during a Community-Based Innovation Contest

Few studies focus on how ideas circulate during community-based innovation contests. This research studies a contest employing two creativity methods: the hybrid and the speedstorming. Participants initially ideated individually, then ideated in pairs, and finally selected ideas for development. A novel research method that permits to track the “life” of ideas is settled. We found that final ideas are moderately original in comparison to the remainder of ideas submitted. We also found that participants did not reveal their most original ideas. Finally, we show that the final ideas were not co-created by the participants but came from solitary individuals.
Out But Still in: Norway's Approach to Migration and Asylum as a Non-EU State

Norway is a somewhat exceptional country in Europe in political terms. It is one of the few European countries that are not members of the European Union (EU). Rather it has structured its connections with European institutions and organisations through membership in the European Economic Area (EEA) and a host of other agreements and accessions to EU policies. It is in this context that this paper addresses Norway’s migration policies from the vantage point of three conceptions of global justice. The time period for definitional analysis is recent developments, with a main focus on 2009 to 2016. A relatively recent historical phenomenon to Norway, migration is rapidly becoming an ever more important topic of political debate and policy-making. As any territorial state, Norway is part of the system of states, with effects on the logic of membership and gatekeeping on access to the territory and residence. This system has, however, become more ‘porous’ with supranational actors such as the EU, international legal obligations, and increased interconnectedness in cultural and economic terms transforming the nation-state. A firm conclusion on the adherence of Norway’s migration policy with the three conceptions of justice cannot be provided based on the descriptive definitional work of this paper. If anything, it has shown that there is arguably a tilt toward more adherences with justice as non-domination. Still, in terms of economic migration there is movement in the direction toward justice as impartiality in the equal treatment and non-discrimination principles for EU and EEA citizens. On the other hand, parts of asylum policy clearly stand in the way of realising the notion of reciprocity in the justice as impartiality or mutual recognition.
Liver transplant recipients and prioritization of anti‐HCV therapy: an Italian cohort analysis

In patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV), recurrence of infection after liver transplant (LT) is universal and associated with worst survival. We present the results of an Italian cohort to compare the 3‐year outcome of HCV‐Ab‐positive and HCV‐Ab‐negative LT recipients and to assess the potential interaction between HCV‐Ab sero‐status and other risk factors for LT failure.
Efficacy of Mesna for Prevention of Hemorrhagic Cystitis After High-Dose Cyclophosphamide Therapy

For these reasons, a definitive statement about the relative efficacy of mesna for prophylaxis of cyclophosphamide-associated HC in BMT patients cannot be made. Because HC is a frequent and potentially serious complication of high-dose cyclophosphamide therapy, the implementation of some preventive measure is mandatory in all patients. Unless medically contraindicated, provision of sufficient hydration and diuresis to maintain adequate high urine flow should be a component of all prophylactic regimens. It is unclear whether the addition of mesna therapy or bladder irrigation to intravenous hydration provides greater protection. Studies indicate that mesna probably has no adverse effect on engraftment. This is consistent with its chemistry and pharmacology, as the drug is hydrophilic and activated only in the kidneys. Thus, it is inactive in the bloodstream and unable to penetrate cell membranes and interfere with the action of cyclophosphamide. Although safety issues surrounding the use of mesna for prevention of cyclophosphamide-associated HC appear to have been resolved, efficacy issues must await the completion of further well-controlled comparative trials.
Making research relevant to policymaking: from brokering boundaries to drawing on practices

ABSTRACT While urban policy makers and social scientists both aim to successfully address societies’ most pressing problems, their interactions are frequently strained or even counter-productive. A case study describing a collaborative research project on Cost Benefit Analysis shows that shifting from a representational perspective on knowledge transfer towards a performative understanding of problem structuring highlights how differences between research and policymaking can be made conducive to learning instead of frustrating it. To this end knowledge development is analysed in terms of Translations in institutionally embedded knowledge practices. This approach supplements the two-community approach by opening up collaborative practices where problem structuring and group formation coevolve. Depending on circumstance and design, such practices can both reproduce or transform real-world urban problems. Furthering academic understanding of these practices can strengthen the capacity of cities and universities to successfully address unstructured problems.
Predictive Bayesian Microbial Dose‐Response Assessment Based on Suggested Self‐Organization in Primary Illness Response: Cryptosporidium parvum

The probability of illness caused by very low doses of pathogens cannot generally be tested due to the numbers of subjects that would be needed, though such assessments of illness dose response are needed to evaluate drinking water standards. A predictive Bayesian dose‐response assessment method was proposed previously to assess the unconditional probability of illness from available information and avoid the inconsistencies of confidence‐based approaches. However, the method uses knowledge of the conditional dose‐response form, and this form is not well established for the illness endpoint. A conditional parametric dose‐response function for gastroenteric illness is proposed here based on simple numerical models of self‐organized host‐pathogen systems and probabilistic arguments. In the models, illnesses terminate when the host evolves by processes of natural selection to a self‐organized critical value of wellness. A generalized beta‐Poisson illness dose‐response form emerges for the population as a whole. Use of this form is demonstrated in a predictive Bayesian dose‐response assessment for cryptosporidiosis. Results suggest that a maximum allowable dose of 5.0 × 10−7 oocysts/exposure (e.g., 2.5 × 10−7 oocysts/L water) would correspond with the original goals of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Surface Water Treatment Rule, considering only primary illnesses resulting from Poisson‐distributed pathogen counts. This estimate should be revised to account for non‐Poisson distributions of Cryptosporidium parvum in drinking water and total response, considering secondary illness propagation in the population.
Applied 3D Vision - An Empirical Study

Non-Rigid structure from motion (NRSfM ), is a long standing and central problem in computer vision, allowing us to obtain 3D information from multiple images when the scene is dynamic. A main issue in the further development of this important computer vision topic, is the lack of high quality data sets. We here address this issue by presenting of data set compiled for this purpose, which is made publicly available, and considerably large than previous state of the art. To validate the applicability of this data set, and provide and investigation into the state of the art of NRSfM , including potential directions forward, we here present a benchmark and a scrupulous evaluation for this data set. This benchmark evaluates 16 different methods with available code, which we argue reasonably spans the state of the art in NRSfM . We also hope, that the presented and public data set and evaluation, will provide benchmark tools for further development in this field.