Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reflex inhibition of human soleus muscle during fatigue.

1. Human soleus muscles were fatigued under ischaemic conditions by intermittent stimulation at 15 Hz. When maximal voluntary plantarflexion was then attempted, the loss of torque was found to be associated with a reduction in voluntary EMG activity. 2. The decrease in EMG activity could not have been due to ‘exhaustion’ of descending motor drive in the central nervous system since fatigue had been induced by electrical stimulation of peripheral nerve fibres. Similarly, the decrease could not be explained by changes at the neuromuscular junction or muscle fibre membrane, since changes in the M wave (evoked muscle compound action potential) were relatively modest. 3. When the excitability of the soleus motoneurones was tested during fatigue, using the H (Hoffmann) reflex, it was found to be significantly reduced. Control experiments with ischaemia or electrical stimulation, but without fatigue, failed to demonstrate any significant effects on reflex excitability. 4. The findings in this study favour the concept of reflex inhibition of alpha‐motoneurones during fatigue.
Mechanism of pulmonary function changes after surgical correction for funnel chest.

In 24 subjects with pectus excavatum we evaluated whether the previously detected unfavourable effects of corrective surgery on the ventilatory capacity were attributable to pulmonary or to chest wall factors. We found that 12.2 +/- 3.7 yrs postoperatively (i.e. at the age of 23.3 +/- 5.4 yrs) the vital capacity was decreased from 89 +/- 10% predicted (pred) preoperatively to 64 +/- 6% pred (p less than 0.001) and forced expiratory volume in one second from 88 +/- 17 to 66 +/- 11% pred (p less than 0.001). At total lung capacity (TLC; 69 +/- 5% pred) we found an obvious reduction in transpulmonary pressure (59 +/- 23% pred) and in transdiaphragmatic pressure (30 +/- 17 cmH2O) postoperatively. This indicated an extrapulmonary cause of the restrictive defect, attributable to abnormal chest wall mechanics secondary to the extensive surgery on the sternum and parasternal zones.
Interactive Network Clustering Layout Method Based on Implicit Connection

Force-directed algorithms are devoted to creating network visualization that better meet aesthetic standards but rarely consider interactive requirements, making it difficult to place certain nodes with semantic clustering features together through interactive operations. To solve this problem, we realize the interactive semantic clustering visualization through implicit connection. The key steps include: First, to layout the network to equilibrium state using traditional algorithm; then, to establish implicit connections interactively, so adjusting the repulsion and attraction forces to break the balanced state and generate semantic clustering. Experiments show that our algorithm has the same quality as the traditional algorithms. The advantage of our algorithm is that it can meet the user's interaction needs, so our results are more able to meet the user's expectations.
A combined liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry assay for the quantification of urinary oxalate and citrate in patients with nephrolithiasis

Background Analysis of citrate and oxalate in a 24-h urine sample is important in the screening and monitoring of patients with nephrolithiasis. To streamline the analytical process, it was decided to combine oxalate and citrate and analyse them simultaneously in the same assay. Objective A highly sensitive and specific assay for analysis of urine citrate and oxalate was developed using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) with a simple weak anion exchange solid phase extraction (WAX SPE) clean-up procedure. Method Premixed calibrator/acidified urine (50 µL) was combined with mixed internal standard (13C2 oxalate/citrate-d4) and 5% v/v formic acid in water and passed through a Waters WAX SPE plate. After clean-up steps, the plate was eluted with 5% NH3 in methanol, the eluent was dried down and re-constituted with 100 µL distilled water. Separation was then performed on an HSS T3 2.1 × 50 mm column (Waters, Manchester, UK), flow rate of 0.5 mL/min using a gradient of aqueous and organic mobile phases. We detected multiple reaction monitoring transitions m/z citrate 191.1>110.9, citrate IS 195.1>112.9, oxalate 88.9>60.85, oxalate IS 90.9>61.9 using a Waters TQD in electrospray-negative mode. Results Oxalate and 13C2 oxalate were eluted at 0.29 min; citrate and citrate-d4 were eluted at 0.52 min. Mean recovery was 100% for oxalate and 103% for citrate; lower limit of quantification of oxalate was 60 µmol/L and 50 µmol/L for citrate. Oxalate was linear up to 1388 µmol/L; citrate was linear up to 4762.5 µmol/L. Oxalate was found to be affected by ion suppression (matrix effect: −23 to +65%) but was compensated for by the internal standard used in all cases. The coefficient of variation of the assay in urine for oxalate was <7% for oxalate and 5% for citrate. Discussion We have developed a rapid assay for LC-MS/MS measurement of urinary oxalate and citrate in a routine clinical laboratory. It is simple, reproducible and easy to perform.
Modulation of STIM 1 and capacitative Ca 2 + entry by the endoplasmic reticulum luminal oxidoreductase ERp 57

Thank you for the submission of your research manuscript to our editorial offices. First of all I would like to apologize for the unusual amount of time it has taken us to get back to you with a decision on your manuscript. Your study has been sent to three referees, and even though we have chased the third referee several times, we have so far only received the reports from two of the experts who were asked to assess it (referees 1 and 3). As these referees agree on the potential interest of the findings, I would like to ask you to begin revising your manuscript according to their comments. Please note that this is a preliminary decision made in the interest of time, and that it is subject to change should the third referee offer very strong and convincing reasons for this. We will forward you the third report as soon as we have received it and we expect you to not only address the concerns of the first two referees, but also of the third reviewer once we have received them.
Kukoamine B, a novel dual inhibitor of LPS and CpG DNA, is a potential candidate for sepsis treatment

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Lipopolysaccharides (LPS) and oligodeoxynucleotides containing CpG motifs (CpG DNA) are important pathogenic molecules for the induction of sepsis, and thus are drug targets for sepsis treatment. The present drugs for treating sepsis act only against either LPS or CpG DNA. Hence, they are not particularly efficient at combating sepsis as the latter two molecules usually cooperate during sepsis. In this study, a natural alkaloid compound kukoamine B (KB) is presented as a potent dual inhibitor for both LPS and CpG DNA.
Effects of Leadership Styles on Implementation of Organization Strategic Plans in Small and Medium Enterprises in Nairobi

The study sought to analyze the effect of leadership styles on implementation of strategic plans in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Specifically the study: analyzed the effect of autocratic leadership style, assessed the effect of democratic leadership style and evaluated the effect of laissez faire leadership style on implementation of strategic plans in SMEs. Descriptive research design was used. The study population consisted of 4531 SMEs registered by Ministry of Industrialization and Enterprise development. A sample of 354 SMEs was selected using stratified random sampling. A questionnaire composed of open and closed ended questions was used to collect primary data. Quantitative data was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (Version 21). In addition, a multivariate regression model was generated to assist in determination of the relative importance of each of the three variables to implementation of strategic plans. The regression showed that autocratic leadership had the highest effect of implementation of strategic plans with a coefficient of 0.488, followed by democratic leadership with a coefficient of 0.384 and laissez faire with a coefficient 0.269. The study recommends that organizations should use all the three leadership styles to maximize implementation of strategic plans.
Design and research on PTN technology in local transport network

In this paper, PTN network scheme and characteristics are firstly deeply analyzed, then we put forward the application of PTN in the local transport network. Moreover, we propose a design for the network scheme of PTN+OTN joint networking in the local network. The conclusion is that PTN could be applied to the local network, it is very appropriate for IP-based service and full services development.
Trastuzumab-based combination therapy for breast cancer

Trastuzumab, a humanised monoclonal antibody directed against the extracellular domain of HER-2, has been shown to be active against HER-2-overexpressing metastatic breast cancer, either as single agent or when used in combination with chemotherapy. In preclinical models, trastuzumab has shown additive and even synergistic anti-tumour activity with the most active chemotherapeutic agents used in the treatment of breast cancer. In a large, randomised, Phase III trial, the combination of trastuzumab plus chemotherapy was shown to improve response rate and survival. The high incidence of cardiotoxicity seen with the combination of trastuzumab plus anthracycline drugs prompted carrying out of several clinical studies combining trastuzumab with other chemotherapeutic agents, including docetaxel, vinorelbine, platinum salts, gemcitabine and capecitabine. This article summarises the available data on trastuzumab-based combinations for breast cancer.
Impact of Pain on Stroke and Hypertension as Comorbidities In Parkinson’s Disease

Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease in the world after Alzheimer’s Disease. Approximately, 5 million people around the world suffers from PD [1]. Non-motor symptoms of PD are found in all stages of PD and have a significant role in the impairment of quality of life. Previous study showed that non-motor symptoms of PD are frequently underdiagnosed by clinician [2]. In the early development of PD, Pain was one of the most disturbing symptoms, yet it is still poorly understood. The prevalence rate of pain in PD was estimated to be 60% and was an early sign of development of PD even precedes the motor symptoms in the early years of the disease [3-5].
Modelling of climate conditions in forest vegetation zones in Malawi

Adverse impact of climate change on the environment has been widely reported. Malawi has not been spared from the adverse impacts of climate change as evidenced by recent floods and drought. This study was conducted to assess the impact of climate change on forest type, forest living biomass, basal area and number of stems. Holdridge Life Zone model and GAP Formind modified were used for the assessment. The results show that there are currently two forest vegetation zones occurring in Malawi (2011‐2040). These include: tropical dry forest and tropical very dry forest. In mid‐century (2041‐2070) thorn woodland forest will emerge, while tropical dry forest will disappear in end‐century (2071‐2100). There will be a significant decrease in forest living biomass (1,000 kg ha‐1yr‐1) and basal area (43.5%) from near century to end‐century. On the other hand, there will be a significant increase (5 stems ha‐1yr‐1) in number stems from near century to end‐century. The study has demonstrated that future climate change will be conducive to growth and expansion of very dry forest vegetation zone, which causes positive effects on reforestation planning and adaptive strategies in this region. Therefore, the study suggests the following as some possible strategies to adapt climate change: promotion of natural regeneration of tree species, promotion of tree site matching, production and promotion of new tree seed varieties; and seed banking for drought resistant tree species.
Regulation of SESAME-mediated H3T11 phosphorylation by glycolytic enzymes and metabolites

Cancer cells prefer aerobic glycolysis, but little is known about the underlying mechanism. Recent studies showed that the rate-limiting glycolytic enzymes, pyruvate kinase M2 (PKM2) directly phosphorylates H3 at threonine 11 (H3T11) to regulate gene expression and cell proliferation, revealing its non-metabolic functions in connecting glycolysis and histone modifications. We have reported that the yeast homolog of PKM2, Pyk1 phosphorylates H3T11 to regulate gene expression and oxidative stress resistance. But how glycolysis regulates H3T11 phosphorylation remains unclear. Here, using a series of glycolytic enzyme mutants and commercial available metabolites, we investigated the role of glycolytic enzymes and metabolites on H3T11 phosphorylation. Mutation of glycolytic genes including phosphoglucose isomerase (PGI1), enolase (ENO2), triosephosphate isomerase (TPI1), or folate biosynthesis enzyme (FOL3) significantly reduced H3T11 phosphorylation. Further study demonstrated that glycolysis regulates H3T11 phosphorylation by fueling the substrate, phosphoenonylpyruvate and the coactivator, FBP to Pyk1. Thus, our results provide a comprehensive view of how glycolysis modulates H3T11 phosphorylation.
A Context-Enriched Neural Network Method for Recognizing Lexical Entailment

Recognizing lexical entailment (RLE) always plays an important role in inference of natural language, i.e., identifying whether one word entails another, for example, fox entails animal. In the literature, automatically recognizing lexical entailment for word pairs deeply relies on words' contextual representations. However, as a "prototype" vector, a single representation cannot reveal multifaceted aspects of the words due to their homonymy and polysemy. In this paper, we propose a supervised Context-Enriched Neural Network (CENN) method for recognizing lexical entailment. To be specific, we first utilize multiple embedding vectors from different contexts to represent the input word pairs. Then, through different combination methods and attention mechanism, we integrate different embedding vectors and optimize their weights to predict whether there are entailment relations in word pairs. Moreover, our proposed framework is flexible and open to handle different word contexts and entailment perspectives in the text corpus. Extensive experiments on five datasets show that our approach significantly improves the performance of automatic RLE in comparison with several state-of-the-art methods.
Pricing Contingent Convertible Capital

This thesis develops a novel empirical approach to price contingent convertible bonds (CoCos) with a Core Tier 1 (CT1) ratio trigger. Existing models on CoCo pricing all develop a process linking a proxy of the trigger with the stock price, but we find that the proxies used are not representative for the CT1 ratio. In particular, they all imply high correlation with the stock price and fail to incorporate the bank’s control of the ratio through their risk management. As we find the correlation between the trigger and the stock price to be historically insignificant, we model them as independent processes. Their evolution is estimated based on historical data, while allowing the bank to have a target for their capital adequacy ratio. To test our model and check its sensitivity to the input data, we study the Credit Suisse CoCo issue of March 20th, 2012. According to our best estimate, including information likely incorporated by investors, the CoCo is underpriced by the market.
A high-T, high-resolution thermometer based on a microfiber coupler tip

A compact thermometer based on a broadband microfiber coupler tip is demonstrated in this paper. The thermometer can measure a broad temperature range from room temperature to 1283°C. This is the highest temperature measured with a silica optical fiber device. An average sensitivity of 11.96pm/°C was achieved for a coupler tip diameter of ~3 μm.
Financial Inclusion and Development in the CEMAC

This paper examines financial inclusion and development in the CEMAC. We explore the level of financial inclusion in the CEMAC through a benchmarking exercise.We construct a measure of financial development gap and analyze its determinants. Using panel data regressions, we find that inflation, income, and natural resources explain most of the financial development level but that better financial sector governance and stronger economic governance are positively associated with financial sector development. Richer and poorer countries can be equally far from their expected financial development levels. Finally, we use a benchmarking exercise to identify countries that have successfully reduced the financial development gap and propose policy measures that CEMAC countries could use to boost financial inclusion.
Preface to: Efficiency of Racetrack Betting Markets (2008 Edition)

A reprint of one of the classic volumes on racetrack efficiency, this book is the only one in its field that deals with the racetrack betting market in-depth, containing all the important historical papers on racetrack efficiency. As evidenced by the collection of articles, the understanding of racetrack betting is clearly drawn from, and has correspondingly returned something to, all the fields of psychology, economics, finance, statistics, mathematics and management science.
Understanding and using sensitivity, specificity and predictive values

In this article, we have discussed the basic knowledge to calculate sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value. We have discussed the advantage and limitations of these measures and have provided how we should use these measures in our day-to-day clinical practice. We also have illustrated how to calculate sensitivity and specificity while combining two tests and how to use these results for our patients in day-to-day practice.
Resveratrol-induced Autophagocytosis in Ovarian Cancer Cells

Resveratrol (3,5,4-trihydroxystilbene), a natural phytoalexin present in grapes, nuts, and red wine, has antineoplastic activities. Several molecular mechanisms have been described to underlie its effects on cells in vitro and in vivo. In the present study, the response of ovarian cancer cells to resveratrol is explored. Resveratrol inhibited growth and induced death in a panel of five human ovarian carcinoma cell lines. The response was associated with mitochondrial release of cytochrome c, formation of the apoptosome complex, and caspase activation. Surprisingly, even with these molecular features of apoptosis, analysis of resveratrol-treated cells by light and electron microscopy revealed morphology and ultrastructural changes indicative of autophagocytic, rather than apoptotic, death. This suggests that resveratrol can induce cell death through two distinct pathways. Consistent with resveratrol’s ability to kill cells via nonapoptotic processes, cells transfected to express high levels of the antiapoptotic proteins Bcl-xL and Bcl-2 are equally sensitive as control cells to resveratrol. Together, these findings show that resveratrol induces cell death in ovarian cancer cells through a mechanism distinct from apoptosis, therefore suggesting that it may provide leverage to treat ovarian cancer that is chemoresistant on the basis of ineffective apoptosis.
R&D Cooperation in Regular Networks with Endogenous Absorptive Capacity

Abstract In this paper we analyze how firms’ R&D investment decisions, firms’ profits and social welfare are affected by absorptive capacity; that is, the ability of a firm to learn from other collaborating firms. The model developed is a strategic regular network where firms have the opportunity to form pair-wise collaborative links with other firms and then compete à la Cournot. Different to the existing literature, we find that firms’ R&D efforts could increase or decrease with the degree of the network, depending on the level of absorptive capacity, the market size and the network dimension. In particular, in the case of small market size and low learning effect, the connection between firms drives up research investments. Moreover, if absorptive capacity is sufficiently low, the research collaboration between firms turns out not to be desirable from a private point of view while, in line with the existing literature, social efficiency requires a complete or intermediate level of collaborative activity. We also show that the complete network is pair-wise stable and socially optimal for an intermediate level of spillover intensity, while the empty network maximizes firms’ profits when absorptive capacity is small, yet it is not pair-wise stable.
Recovery of Hidden Economic and State Variable Effects on Oil and Gas Asset Value and Risk Measures

Commodity price shocks are shown to cause shifts in both the quantum and timing of risk in natural resource assets. We provide evidence that static risk measures understate the periodicity of price risk implicit in depleting assets. Risk measurement is demonstrated to be asset specific and to vary heterogeneously in response to the combined effects state and economic variables. We use a global sample of oilfield assets to demonstrate that oilfield participation terms cause corporate asset cash flows, volatility horizons and minimum variance hedge ratios to vary in response to oil price. We provide additional insights into movements in the timing of physical O&G asset risk, a hidden effect not recoverable from market oil prices. Temporal variance for physical assets is shown to be a hidden dimensional outcome of the effects of economic and state variables.
Isolation and Entomotoxic Properties of theXenorhabdus nematophilus F1 Lecithinase

ABSTRACT Xenorhabdus spp. and Photorhabdus spp. , entomopathogenic bacteria symbiotically associated with nematodes of the families Steinernematidae and Heterorhabditidae, respectively, were shown to produce different lipases when they were grown on suitable nutrient agar. Substrate specificity studies showed thatPhotorhabdus spp. exhibited a broad lipase activity, while most of the Xenorhabdus spp. secreted a specific lecithinase. Xenorhabdus spp. occur spontaneously in two variants, phase I and phase II. Only the phase I variants ofXenorhabdus nematophilus and Xenorhabdus bovienii strains produced lecithinase activity when the bacteria were grown on a solid lecithin medium (0.01% lecithin nutrient agar; 24 h of growth). Five enzymatic isomers responsible for this activity were separated from the supernatant of a X. nematophilus F1 culture in two chromatographic steps, cation-exchange chromatography and C18 reverse-phase chromatography. The substrate specificity of the X. nematophilus F1 lecithinase suggested that a phospholipase C preferentially active on phosphatidylcholine could be isolated. The entomotoxic properties of each isomer were tested by injection into the hemocoels of insect larvae. None of the isomers exhibited toxicity with the insects tested, Locusta migratoria, Galleria mellonella, Spodoptera littoralis, and Manduca sexta. The possible role of lecithinase as either a virulence factor or a symbiotic factor is discussed.