Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Outward FDI from India and its impact on the performance of firms in the home country

Purpose This paper aims to analyse the change in performance of parent Indian firms (home effects) who have invested in overseas locations in recent times. Design/methodology/approach Difference-in-difference (DiD) estimate of home effects using farm level data. Findings Home effects of Indian outward foreign direct investment (OFDI), in general, are insignificant. However, in the case of OFDI directed only to non-offshore financial centre (OFC), some firms did enjoy beneficial home effects with respect to turnover, current ratio and leverage ratio. In the case of OFDI directed purely to OFC locations, some of the parameters exhibited negative home effects. In the subsample of Indian OFDI directed to combination of OFC and non-OFC locations, the results show positive home effects with respect to export, operating profit margin and forex earnings; however, impact on turnover seems to be negative for all the quartiles. Research limitations/implications Estimation of home effects using data over longer horizon may yield robust outcome. Practical implications These results make a strong case to draw a distinction among OFDIs to OFC, non-OFC and combination of OFC and non-OFC locations in studying the beneficial home effects of OFDI. Originality/value To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper which estimates home effects of different groups of Indian firms (based on their investment locations and size class) using difference-in-difference estimate.
Myxovirus Resistance Gene A (MxA) Expression Suppresses Influenza A Virus Replication in Alpha Interferon-Treated Primate Cells

ABSTRACT Alpha interferon (IFN-α) production is triggered when influenza virus RNA is detected by appropriate pattern recognition receptors in the host cell. IFN-α induces the expression of more than 300 interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs), and this blunts influenza virus replication. The human ISG MxA can inhibit influenza A virus replication in mouse cells by interfering with a step in the virus replication cycle after primary transcription of the negative-strand RNA genome to mRNA (J. Pavlovic, O. Haller, and P. Staeheli, J. Virol. 66:2564–2569, 1992). To determine the role of MxA in blocking human influenza A virus replication in primate cells, we manipulated MxA expression in rhesus kidney epithelial cells (LLC-MK2) and human lung carcinoma cells (A549). We found that IFN-α treatment prior to influenza virus infection suppressed virus replication and induced the expression of many ISGs, including MxA. However, IFN-α-mediated suppression of virus replication was abolished by small interfering RNA (siRNA) knockdown of MxA expression in IFN-treated cells. In addition, influenza virus replication was suppressed in Vero cells stably transfected with MxA. A strand-specific reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) assay showed that positive-strand influenza virus mRNA and negative-strand genomic RNA (gRNA) accumulated to high levels at 8 h after infection in control Vero cells containing the empty vector. However, in Vero cells stably transfected with MxA positive-strand influenza virus mRNA, complementary positive-strand influenza virus genome RNA (cRNA) and influenza virus gRNA were drastically suppressed. Thus, in primate cells, MxA inhibits human seasonal influenza virus replication at a step prior to primary transcription of gRNA into mRNA. Taken together, these results demonstrate that MxA mediates control of influenza virus replication in primate cells treated with IFN-α.
Brain Lactate Concentration Falls in Response to Hypoglycemia in Patients With Type 1 Diabetes and Impaired Awareness of Hypoglycemia

Brain lactate may be involved in the development of impaired awareness of hypoglycemia (IAH), a condition that affects approximately 25% of patients with type 1 diabetes and increases the risk of severe hypoglycemia. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of acute hypoglycemia on brain lactate concentration in patients with IAH as compared with those with normal awareness of hypoglycemia (NAH) and healthy control subjects (n = 7 per group). After an overnight fast, all subjects underwent a two-step hyperinsulinemic euglycemic (5.0 mmol/L)–hypoglycemic (2.8 mmol/L) glucose clamp. Brain lactate concentrations were measured continuously with 1H-MRS using a specific lactate detection method. Hypoglycemia generated symptoms in patients with NAH and healthy control subjects but not in patients with IAH. Brain lactate fell significantly by ∼20% in response to hypoglycemia in patients with type 1 diabetes with IAH but remained stable in both healthy control subjects and in patients with NAH. The fall in brain lactate is compatible with increased brain lactate oxidation providing an alternative fuel source during hypoglycemia, which may contribute to the impaired detection of hypoglycemia.
Lessons from HIV-1 vaccine efficacy trials

Purpose of reviewOnly four HIV-1 vaccine concepts have been tested in six efficacy trials with no product licensed to date. Several scientific and programmatic lessons can be learned from these studies generating new hypotheses and guiding future steps. Recent findingsRV144 [ALVAC-HIV (canarypox vector) and AIDSVAX B/E (bivalent gp120 HIV-1 subtype B and CRF01_AE)] remains the only efficacy trial that demonstrated a modest vaccine efficacy, which led to the identification of immune correlates of risk. Progress on subtype-specific, ALVAC (canarypox vector) and gp120 vaccine prime-boost approaches has been slow, but we are finally close to the launch of an efficacy study in Africa in 2016. The quest of a globally effective HIV-1 vaccine has led to the development of new approaches. Efficacy studies of combinations of Adenovirus type 26 (Ad26)/Modified Vaccinia Ankara (MVA)/gp140 vaccines with mosaic designs will enter efficacy studies mid-2017 and cytomegalovirus (CMV)-vectored vaccines begin Phase I studies at the same time. Future HIV-1 vaccine efficacy trials face practical challenges as effective nonvaccine prevention programs are projected to decrease HIV-1 incidence. SummaryAn HIV-1 vaccine is urgently needed. Increased industry involvement, mobilization of resources, expansion of a robust pipeline of new concepts, and robust preclinical challenge studies will be essential to accelerate efficacy testing of next generation HIV-1 vaccine candidates.
IL-17RC Is Required for Immune Signaling via an Extended SEF/IL-17R Signaling Domain in the Cytoplasmic Tail

IL-17 mediates essential inflammatory responses in host defense and autoimmunity. The IL-17A–IL-17F signaling complex is composed of IL-17RA and IL-17RC, both of which are necessary for signal transduction. To date, the specific contribution of IL-17RC to downstream signaling remains poorly understood. To define the regions within the IL-17RC cytoplasmic tail required for signal transduction, we assayed signaling by a panel of IL-17RC deletion mutants. These findings reveal that IL-17RC inducibly associates with a specific glycosylated IL-17RA isoform, in a manner independent of the IL-17RC cytoplasmic tail. Using expression of the IL-17 target genes IL-6 and 24p3/lipocalin-2 as a readout, functional reconstitution of signaling in IL-17RC−/− fibroblasts required the SEF/IL-17R signaling domain (SEFIR), a conserved motif common to IL-17R family members. Unexpectedly, the IL-17RC SEFIR alone was not sufficient to reconstitute IL-17–dependent signaling. Rather, an additional sequence downstream of the SEFIR was also necessary. We further found that IL-17RC interacts directly with the adaptor/E3 ubiquitin ligase Act1, and that the functional IL-17RC isoforms containing the extended SEFIR region interact specifically with a phosphorylated isoform of Act1. Finally, we show that IL-17RC is required for in vivo IL-17–dependent responses during oral mucosal infections caused by the human commensal fungus Candida albicans. These results indicate that IL-17RC is vital for IL-17–dependent signaling both in vitro and in vivo. Insight into the mechanisms by which IL-17RC signals helps shed light on IL-17–dependent inflammatory responses and may ultimately provide an avenue for therapeutic intervention in IL-17–mediated diseases.
Opportunities for Web-based Drug Repositioning: Searching for Potential Antihypertensive Agents with Hypotension Adverse Events

Background Drug repositioning refers to the process of developing new indications for existing drugs. As a phenotypic indicator of drug response in humans, clinical side effects may provide straightforward signals and unique opportunities for drug repositioning. Objective We aimed to identify drugs frequently associated with hypotension adverse reactions (ie, the opposite condition of hypertension), which could be potential candidates as antihypertensive agents. Methods We systematically searched the electronic records of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) through the openFDA platform to assess the association between hypotension incidence and antihypertensive therapeutic effect regarding a list of 683 drugs. Results Statistical analysis of FAERS data demonstrated that those drugs frequently co-occurring with hypotension events were more likely to have antihypertensive activity. Ranked by the statistical significance of frequent hypotension reporting, the well-known antihypertensive drugs were effectively distinguished from others (with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve > 0.80 and a normalized discounted cumulative gain of 0.77). In addition, we found a series of antihypertensive agents (particularly drugs originally developed for treating nervous system diseases) among the drugs with top significant reporting, suggesting the good potential of Web-based and data-driven drug repositioning. Conclusions We found several candidate agents among the hypotension-related drugs on our list that may be redirected for lowering blood pressure. More important, we showed that a pharmacovigilance system could alternatively be used to identify antihypertensive agents and sustainably create opportunities for drug repositioning.
Reference scenarios for the deployment of emergency communications for earthquakes and mass transport accidents

Voice-based Private Mobile Radio (PMR) networks are currently the state-of-the-art for coordination of disaster response works. The increasing availability of digital data on one hand and the advantages of IT-based command and control systems on the other, create a need for data networks between the incident area and back office command and control structures. During major incidents, commercial public networks might be damaged or overloaded, and current digital PMR networks do not support data rates beyond several kbit/s. Satellite communication can play an important role to complement existing terrestrial networks because of their inherent independence from terrestrial infrastructures, wide coverage and multicast capacity. However, in order to devise the best solution, it is important to capture and model user operating modes, communication needs as well as the topological characteristics of user deployment and motion. These findings are synthesised in what is called a “scenario”. This paper describes the current work within the ETSI STF472 in the SatEC working group on small to large scale emergency scenarios. A general overview of rescue response roles is also described together with communication network requirements and flows. Future work will focus on producing more detailed satellite network requirements and network topological models showing how entities involved and their roles are deployed during the incident response.
Formaldehyde induces diabetes‐associated cognitive impairments

Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) often develop cognitive impairments and have an increased risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. Hyperglycemia is a major characteristic of T2DM, but how elevated glucose levels lead to cognitive decline remains elusive. Here, we report that patients with T2DM and mutations in the formaldehyde (FA)‐degrading enzyme aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2) gene had higher levels of FA and more severe dementia. Injection of FA induced hyperglycemia and cognitive deficits in rats. Ablation of gene expression of ALDH2, the main enzyme to oxidize FA, resulted in abnormally high levels of hippocampal FA, leading to hyperglycemia and cognitive impairments as well as potentiating streptozotocin‐induced diabetes development in ALDH2 knockout mice. We found that FA interacts with insulin to form FA‐insulin adducts, and these FA‐insulin adducts caused insulin deficiency, contributing to memory decline in diabetic rodent models. Reduction of FA by transgenic overexpression of human ALDH2 attenuates hyperglycemia and alleviates cognitive deficits in diabetic mouse models. These findings suggest that excess FA plays a critical role in mediating diabetes‐related dementia. Targeting FA and its metabolizing enzyme ALDH2 may be a valid approach for preventing and treating dementia in diabetes mellitus. —Tan, T. , Zhang, Y. , Luo, W. , Lv, J., Han, C. , Hamlin, J. N. R. , Luo, H. , Li, H. , Wan, Y. , Yang, X. , Song, W. , Tong, Z. Formaldehyde induces diabetes‐associated cognitive impairments. FASEB J. 32, 3669–3679 (2018). www.fasebj. org
Opportunities for improving eGovernment: using language technology in workflow management

Workflow management deals with a fair amount of free text -- scanned paper documents, web input forms, e-mail, input from mobile devices as well as texts from government agencies to citizens. The free-text input is intended for a human reader. Still, in eGovernment settings we would like to process such input before, while and after handling officers read it. This paper presents some examples on how language technology can increase efficiency and quality of workflow management.
Subglottic stenosis examined as a fibrotic response to airway injury characterized by altered mucosal fibroblast activity.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the association between mucosal fibroblast activity and subglottic stenosis (SGS) development. DESIGN Prospective study of an animal model of SGS. SETTING Academic research laboratory. SUBJECTS New Zealand white rabbits were assigned to either the cricothyroidotomy and carbon dioxide laser injury group or the cricothyroidotomy and silver nitrate injury group. Airways were excised for histologic analysis and the establishment of primary fibroblast cultures. Lesions from surgical excision of established SGS and subglottic tissue were used to analyze SGS recurrence. INTERVENTIONS The subglottis was approached via cricothyroidotomy and was subjected to either carbon dioxide laser or silver nitrate injury before closure. The SGS lesions were excised at 8 to 10 weeks and were used to establish explants for fibroblast culture. The animals underwent recovery for an additional 14 days to follow recurrence of SGS. After 14 days, all the animals were killed humanely, and subglottic tissue was harvested for histologic evaluation. Rates of migration and contraction of SGS and normal airway fibroblasts were assayed using established in vitro methods under basal conditions and with prostaglandin E(2) treatment. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES For in vivo studies, injury, healing, and scarring of the mucosa and cartilage were the primary measures. For cultured fibroblast experiments, cellular responses of fibroblasts from normal and stenosed mucosa were compared and contrasted. RESULTS Mucosal injury resulted in acute fibroplasia and chronic SGS, surgical excision of mature SGS at 8 weeks resulted in rapid recurrence of stenosis, and SGS-derived fibroblasts were relatively refractory to the effects of prostaglandin E(2) on migration and contraction. CONCLUSIONS Subglottic stenosis represents a fibrotic airway repair process that involves fibroblasts that produce recurrent, excessive scar formation. We suggest that SGS development and recurrence may be partially dictated by altered fibroblast responsiveness to antifibroplastic signals during mucosal repair.
Physiology and pathophysiology of heart rate and blood pressure variability in humans: is power spectral analysis largely an index of baroreflex gain?

1. It is often assumed that the power in the low- (around 0.10 Hz) and high-frequency (around 0.25 Hz) bands obtained by power spectral analysis of cardiovascular variables reflects sympathetic and vagal tone [corrected] respectively. An alternative model attributes the low-frequency band to a resonance in the control system that is produced by the inefficiently slow time constant of the reflex response to beat-to-beat changes in blood pressure effected by the sympathetic (with or without the parasympathetic) arm(s) of the baroreflex (De Boer model). 2. We have applied the De Boer model of circulatory variability to patients with varying baroreflex sensitivity to patients with varying baroreflex sensitivity and one normal subject, and have shown that the main differences in spectral power (for both low and high frequency) between and within subjects are caused by changes in the arterial baroreflex gain, particularly for vagal control of heart rate (R-R interval) and left ventricular stroke output. We have computed the power spectrum at rest and during neck suction (to stimulate carotid baroreceptors). We stimulated the baroreceptors at two frequencies (0.1 and 0.2 Hz), which were both distinct from the controlled respiration rate (0.25 Hz), in both normal subjects and heart failure patients with either sensitive or poor baroreflex control. 3. The data broadly confirm the De Boer model. The low-frequency (0.1 Hz) peak in either R-R or blood pressure variability) was spontaneously generated only if the baroreflex control of the autonomic outflow was relatively intact. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Repression of Vaccinia Virus Holliday Junction Resolvase Inhibits Processing of Viral DNA into Unit-Length Genomes

ABSTRACT The vaccinia virus A22R gene encodes a protein that is homologous to the bacterial enzyme RuvC and specifically cleaves and resolves four-way DNA Holliday junctions into linear duplex products. To investigate the role of the vaccinia virus Holliday junction resolvase during an infection, we constructed two recombinant viruses: vA22-HA, which has a short C-terminal epitope tag appended to the A22R open reading frame, and vA22i, in which the original A22R gene is deleted and replaced by an inducible copy. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and Western blot analysis of extracts and purified virions from cells infected with vA22-HA revealed that the resolvase was expressed after the onset of DNA replication and incorporated into virion cores. vA22i exhibited a conditional replication defect. In the absence of an inducer, (i) viral protein synthesis was unaffected, (ii) late-stage viral DNA replication was reduced, (iii) most of the newly synthesized viral DNA remained in a branched or concatemeric form that caused it to be trapped at the application site during pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, (iv) cleavage of concatemer junctions was inhibited, and (v) virion morphogenesis was arrested at an immature stage. These data indicated multiple roles for the vaccinia virus Holliday junction resolvase in the replication and processing of viral DNA into unit-length genomes.
[Assessing needs of families with premature newborns in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit].

UNLABELLED The aim of this study was to identify needs of families with premature newborns in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, perceived by parents and nurses. The study was conducted in the Kaunas Perinatal Center, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Hospital of Kaunas University of Medicine. The sample consisted of 181 parents and 37 nurses. The NICU Family Needs Inventory was used for data collection. The instrument included five dimensions of needs. Reliability of the scale was identified as 0.94 using Cronbach's alpha. RESULTS The importance of the needs by parents was prioritized as following: assurance, proximity, information, support, and comfort, and by nurses--assurance, information, proximity, support, and comfort. The needs for assurance, proximity, and information were significantly more important for parents as compared with nurses. Needs for support were significantly more important for nurses. Forty-seven (83.9%) items (out of 56) were identified as important by parents and 49 (87.5%) items--by nurses. Both parents and nurses identified the same 7 items within the group of 10 most important. Parents and nurses identified the same 7 items within the group of 10 least important. CONCLUSIONS Both groups of respondents identified needs for assurance as the most important for parents. The needs for comfort were perceived as the least important by parents and nurses. All groups of needs, except the needs for support, were significantly more important for parents as compared with nurses. Both parents and nurses identified the same 44 items (out of 56) as important for parents in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. The 10 most important need statements and 10 least important need statements were identified by parents and nurses.
Overview of bladder heating technology: matching capabilities with clinical requirements

Abstract Moderate temperature hyperthermia (40–45°C for 1 h) is emerging as an effective treatment to enhance best available chemotherapy strategies for bladder cancer. A rapidly increasing number of clinical trials have investigated the feasibility and efficacy of treating bladder cancer with combined intravesical chemotherapy and moderate temperature hyperthermia. To date, most studies have concerned treatment of non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) limited to the interior wall of the bladder. Following the promising results of initial clinical trials, investigators are now considering protocols for treatment of muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC). This paper provides a brief overview of the devices and techniques used for heating bladder cancer. Systems are described for thermal conduction heating of the bladder wall via circulation of hot fluid, intravesical microwave antenna heating, capacitively coupled radio-frequency current heating, and radiofrequency phased array deep regional heating of the pelvis. Relative heating characteristics of the available technologies are compared based on published feasibility studies, and the systems correlated with clinical requirements for effective treatment of MIBC and NMIBC.
A study on the minimum dominating set problem approximation in parallel

A dominating set of a small size is useful in several settings including wireless networks, document summarization, secure system design, and the like. In this paper, we start by studying three distributed algorithms that produce a small sized dominating sets in a few rounds. We interpret these algorithms in the natural shared memory setting and experiment with these algorithms on a multi-core CPU. Based on the observations from these experimental results, we propose variations to the three algorithms and also show how the proposed variations offer interesting trade-offs with respect to the size of the dominating set produced and the time taken.
Non-linéarité entre inflation et croissance économique : quels enseignements pour la zone BEAC ?

L’objectif de ce papier est d’estimer le taux d’inflation optimal, defini comme le taux en dessous et au-dela duquel la croissance economique est affectee, a partir de l’experience de la BEAC1. Pour y parvenir, nous appliquons un modele Panel Smooth Transition Regression (PSTR) initialement developpe par Gonzalez et al. (2005), estime a partir des donnees des pays de la BEAC sur la periode 1985-2013. Nos resultats montrent que : (i) le taux d’inflation optimal se situe autour de 4,3 % ; (ii) en deca de ce seuil, toute augmentation de 1 % de l’inflation induit celle de la croissance economique d’environ 0,28 % ; mais au-dela du seuil, la croissance economique est reduite de 0,26 % lorsque l’inflation s’accroit de 1 %. Les analyses de sensibilite et l’estimation realisee par la methode GMM montrent que ces resultats sont robustes.