Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Synthesis and receptor sites of endothelin‐1 in the rat liver vasculature

Immunocytochemical localization of big endothelin‐1 (big ET‐1), ET‐1, and ET receptor A and B (ETA and ETB), and gene expression of prepro ET‐1 mRNA were examined on the rat liver vasculature. Immunoreactivities for big ET‐1 and ET‐1 were preferentially seen along the endothelium of interlobular veins (IV) and artery (IA), although the staining intensity was more pronounced in IV. Expression of preproET‐1 mRNA was detected in both vascular endothelia and the signal intensity was more prevalent in IV. Immunoelectron microscopy showed that rough endoplasmic cisterns were immunoreactive for big ET‐1, while Weibel‐Palade (WP) bodies, a storage site for ET‐1, were immunoreactive for ET‐1 in endothelial cells of IV. These results indicate that endothelial cells of IV are the major site of synthesis of ET‐1, which is extracellularly secreted by degranulation and/or exocytosis of WP bodies. Hepatic stellate cells (HSCs), especially of the plasma membrane of perisinusoidal and interhepatocellular processes, were immunoreactive for both ETA and ETB receptor antibodies. These findings suggest that ET‐1 receptor‐mediated HSC contraction is involved in the regulation of hepatic sinusoidal blood flow as previously cited in mammalian liver cirrhosis. We also showed that sarcolemma and caveoles in the smooth muscle cells of the media of IV, and its branches before reaching the hepatic sinusoids, were immunoreactive for ETA receptor antibody. The results suggest that such vessels, which contains a large amount of hepatic blood inflow, participate in pump mechanism toward hepatic sinusoidal circulation in a receptor‐mediated paracrine fashion. Anat Rec 259:437–445, 2000. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Space for performing teacher identity: through the lens of Kafka and Hegel

Franz Kafka’s 1912 novella The Metamorphosis provides an analogy for a consideration of the process of teacher identity formation and performance. Gregor Samsa awoke to find himself transformed into a giant beetle. He faced a complete loss of identity as he lost connection with the micro‐political space that formed the context of his former role performances. Teachers face an analogous situation. Within the context of institutional role scripts and political influences, do teachers choose to become determined by outside forces rendering them incapable of change? Do they forfeit their rights and responsibilities within society? Or, do teachers, through positive action within discursive practices, express their freedom and their self‐consciousness by recognizing their ethical responsibility to serve society? G.W. F. Hegel provides a framework within which to consider the potential responses to these questions. Teachers have a choice to make: surrender or act. An examination of the development of teacher identity is presented utilizing the lens of Kafka’s The Metamorphosis and G.W. F. Hegel’s The Phenomenology of Mind.
A watermelon without seeds : A case study in rhetorical rationality

In this article, we discuss the meaning of rationality in rhetoric through an examination of fundamentalist rhetoric. Liberal critics of fundamentalism far too often dismiss their opponents and their speech as 'irrational'. In our interpretation, fundamentalist rhetoric is neither irrational nor is it simply an example of an alternative discursive community which is contextually bound to its own form of rationality. Rather fundamentalist rhetoric proceeds along the lines of practical reason. Through the examination of a missionary speech given by a popular fundamentalist Israeli preacher, we illustrate rhetorical rationality at work.
Feasibility of model checking software requirements: a case study

Model checking is an effective technique for verifying properties of a finite specification. A model checker accepts a specification and a property, and it searches the reachable states to determine if the property is a theorem of the specification. Because model checking examines every state of the specification, it is a more thorough validation technique than testing executable specifications. However, some researchers question the feasibility of model checking, because the size of a specifications state-space grows exponentially with respect to the number of variables in the specification. This paper demonstrates the feasibility of symbolically model checking a non-trivial specification: the software requirements of the A-7E aircraft. The A-7E requirements document lists five properties that the designers manually derived from the requirements. Using McMillan's (1992) Symbolic Model Verifier, we were able to verify or find a counterexample to each property in less than 10-15 CPU minutes. In particular, we found that an important safety property did not hold.
Reassembling gender: Actor-network theory (ANT) and the making of the technology in gender

In 1987, Bruno Latour published his seminal outline of actor-network theory (ANT) Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers through Society. While ANT has remained controversial, its impact on science and technology studies (STS) is undeniable. One of the topics that emerged from Science in Action, and which Latour has continued to develop, perhaps most prominently in the 2005 volume Re-Assembling the Social, is a general theory of action. A main tenet of this theory is that society is an achievement of people engaging in producing a variety of associations of human and non-human elements. We might remind ourselves, paying attention to its subtitle, that Science in Action is an analysis of how scientists and engineers not only make technoscience, but society as well. Lately, Latour (2010) claims that in spite of his profound empirical interest, the main direction of his work is philosophical and centred on the critique of the concept of the modern. However, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Science in Action, it seems fitting to return to the sociological potential of Latour’s theory of action to explore further its potential to make sense of the role of technology – the non-human actors – in the re-assembly of how people construct themselves and their actions. I am interested in examining what Latour’s theory of action may contribute to a long-standing concern of feminist scholars in STS, namely the relationship between gender and technology.
Joint Satisfaction of Syntactic and Pragmatic Constraints Improves Incremental Spoken Language Understanding

We present a model of semantic processing of spoken language that (a) is robust against ill-formed input, such as can be expected from automatic speech recognisers, (b) respects both syntactic and pragmatic constraints in the computation of most likely interpretations, (c) uses a principled, expressive semantic representation formalism (RMRS) with a well-defined model theory, and (d) works continuously (producing meaning representations on a word-by-word basis, rather than only for full utterances) and incrementally (computing only the additional contribution by the new word, rather than re-computing for the whole utterance-so-far). We show that the joint satisfaction of syntactic and pragmatic constraints improves the performance of the NLU component (around 10 % absolute, over a syntax-only baseline).
iBeam: Intelligent client-side multi-user beamforming in wireless networks

Frequently, client-side wireless devices have a view of multiple WiFi access points, whether from open residential and commercial networks, corporate networks, or mesh networks. Given the increasing number of radios and antennas in today's wireless devices, residual capacity from these multiple APs could be leveraged if client devices communicate with multiple APs simultaneously. In this paper, we exploit multi-user multi-input multi-output (MU-MIMO) technology to improve throughput and reliability in both directions of a wireless connection. For uplink, we use multi-user beamforming to enable the client devices to send multiple data streams to multiple APs simultaneously. For downlink, we leverage interference nulling technology to allow the client devices to decode parallel packets from multiple APs. This iBeam system requires no changes to existing APs or backhaul networks and is compatible with the IEEE 802.11 standards. We experimentally evaluate iBeam and show significant throughput improvements over both single-AP connections and multi-AP connections in a time division mode. The client's reliability and stability are also significantly improved due to the multi-AP diversity gain.
Characteristics and health status change over 6 months in people with moderately severe to severe Alzheimer's disease in the U.K.

Background and objectives: Until recently, attention and treatment strategies have focused mainly on patients in the early phases of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The objectives of this study were to collect information on moderately severe and severe AD patients (Mini-mental State Examination score < 15) in terms of epidemiological, clinical and economic characteristics and disease change in the later stages of AD, and to compare this specific AD population over 6 months with those in the earlier stages. Methods: This descriptive analysis recruited institutionalized patients and patients living within the community from the city of London and the South-East region of the U.K. Subgroup analyses at baseline and 6 months were performed using the study population from the London and South-East Region Alzheimer's Disease (LASER-AD) Study. Data from a range of clinical scales, a quality of life (QOL) scale and a resource-utilization questionnaire were analyzed. Results: People with moderately severe or severe AD are a heterogeneous group with varying QOL, cognitive and functional disabilities, neuropsychological symptoms and relatively low health care resource consumption. This patient group continued to decline but progression of the disease was observed only in some domains. Conclusion: Even at the later stages of AD, patients show varying rates of decline. Improved knowledge about the characteristics and progression of the disease reveals that moderately severe and severe patients cannot be regarded as beyond help and have the potential to experience varying and even high levels of QoL.
Predictive model for the detection of pulmonary hypertension in dogs with myxomatous mitral valve disease

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) often occurs due to a left heart disease, such as myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD), in dogs and is diagnosed using Doppler echocardiography and estimated pulmonary arterial pressure. Diagnosis of PH in dogs requires expertise in echocardiography: however, the examination for PH is difficult to perform in a clinical setting. Thus, simple and reliable methods are required for the diagnosis of PH in dogs. The purpose of this study was to develop models using multiple logistic regression analysis to detect PH due to left heart disease in dogs with MMVD without echocardiography. The medical records of dogs with MMVD were retrospectively reviewed, and 81 dogs were included in this study and classified into PH and non-PH groups. Bivariate analysis was performed to compare all parameters between the groups, and variables with P values of <0.25 in bivariate analysis were included in multiple logistic regression analysis to develop models for the detection of PH. In multiple logistic regression analysis, the model included a vertebral heart scale short axis of >5.2 v, and a length of sternal contact of >3.3 v was considered suitable for the detection of PH. The predictive accuracy of this model (85.9%) was judged statistically adequate, and therefore, this model may be useful to screen for PH due to left heart disease in dogs with MMVD without echocardiography.
Discourses of Design: Perspectives on the Meaning of Housing Quality and ?Good? Housing Design

This paper uses an approach based on language and discourse analysis to examine different perspectives on definitions of housing quality and good housing design. The need for such definitions is currently topical in the UK, where central government, in its desire to further the agendas of sustainable communities and urban renaissance, is urging local authorities to impose stricter controls on design. By examining policy documentation, the paper shows that housing regulators are promoting prescriptive and quantifiable standards, whilst the DETR is moving towards a more discerning approach derived from urban design. In conclusion, the paper suggests that there are other disciplines which might profitably be drawn on, and which would help to capture the more amorphous level at which people experience, relate to, and dwell in their environments.
Global Harmonies and Local Discords: Transnational Policies and Practices in the European Recording Industry

This article focuses on processes of globalization in the music industry by examining the transnational practices of the major record companies in Europe. Outlining various pan-European repertoire policies and working arrangements, it describes how tensions arise between staff in different national divisions of record companies; over the unequal exchange of musical products and due to the way in which locally produced music is deprioritized in favour of material produced by artists from Britain and the USA. It also describes how various local state and community interests attempt to support musical activity, assuming a position explicitly in opposition to that of the major entertainment corporations. In general, this article argues that a complex series of nationstate, commercial market and civil society relationships concretely mediate processes of `globalization', intervening as the global strategies of corporations are actively translated into specific local cultural practices.
Whittaker Functions on Metaplectic Groups

The theory of Whittaker functions is of crucial importance in the classical study of automorphic forms on adele groups. Motivated by the appearance of Whittaker functions for covers of reductive groups in the theory of multiple Dirichlet series, we provide a study of Whittaker functions on metaplectic covers of reductive groups over local fields.
Development of a National Cruciate Ligament Surgery Registry

Background No prospective surveillance system exists for monitoring the outcome of cruciate ligament surgery. Purpose This article is intended to describe the development and procedures of the Norwegian National Knee Ligament Registry (NKLR), including baseline results from the first 2 years of operation. Study Design Cohort study (prevalence); Level of evidence, 1. Methods The NKLR was established on June 7, 2004 to collect information prospectively on all cases of cruciate ligament reconstruction surgery in Norway. Information on the details of surgery is gathered through a registration form completed by the surgeon postoperatively, and a validated knee outcome score form is completed by the patients preoperatively and at follow-ups on all patients at 2, 5, and 10 years postoperatively. Hospital compliance was examined in 2005 and 2006. Results A total of 2793 primary cruciate ligament reconstruction surgeries were registered by 57 hospitals. This corresponds to an annual population incidence of primary anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction surgeries of 34 per 100 000 citizens (85 per 100 000 citizens in the main at-risk age group of 16–39 years). After 21 months of operation, the NKLR had an overall compliance of 97% when compared with the hospital records. Conclusions A national population-based cruciate ligament registry has been developed, implemented, and maintained in Norway. The registry will each year enroll approximately 1500 primary cruciate ligament reconstruction cases. It is expected that inadequate procedures and devices can be identified, as well as prognostic factors associated with good and poor outcomes, at least for the most frequent categories.
Improving job fit for mission workers by including expatriate and local job experts in job specification

Purpose – International development policy proposes that reducing poverty depends on alignment of international aid projects with local priorities, which would imply a role for local as well as expatriate job experts in job selection processes. This paper aims to explore whether person‐job “fit” with both local and expatriate job specification relates to work performance indicators.Design/methodology/approach – Mission organizations and their individual workers play an influential role in poverty reduction projects. In Study I, N=70 host nation missionaries, i.e. local job experts (n=22), expatriate mission leaders (n=25) and expatriate mission workers (n=23) provided mean panel ratings of the importance of SHL's Universal Competencies, alongside religious values, for mission jobs. In Study II, N=130 individual expatriate mission workers also provided ratings of the same set of competencies for mission jobs and rated themselves on these competencies. Each individual worker's profile was assessed for “fit”.
Structure of the mammalian ribosomal pre-termination complex associated with eRF1•eRF3•GDPNP

Eukaryotic translation termination results from the complex functional interplay between two release factors, eRF1 and eRF3, in which GTP hydrolysis by eRF3 couples codon recognition with peptidyl-tRNA hydrolysis by eRF1. Here, we present a cryo-electron microscopy structure of pre-termination complexes associated with eRF1•eRF3•GDPNP at 9.7 -Å resolution, which corresponds to the initial pre-GTP hydrolysis stage of factor attachment and stop codon recognition. It reveals the ribosomal positions of eRFs and provides insights into the mechanisms of stop codon recognition and triggering of eRF3’s GTPase activity.
Lifted Inference for Relational Continuous Models

Relational Continuous Models (RCMs) represent joint probability densities over attributes of objects, when the attributes have continuous domains. With relational representation, they can model joint probability distributions over large numbers of variables compactly in a natural way. This paper presents the first exact inference algorithm for RCMs at a lifted level, thus it scales up to large models of real world applications. The algorithm applies to relational pairwise models which are (relational) products of potentials of arity 2. Our algorithm is unique in two ways. First, it is an efficient lifted inference algorithm. When Gaussian potentials are used, it takes only linear time while existing methods take cubic time. Second, it is the first exact inference algorithm which handles RCMs in a lifted way. The algorithm is illustrated over an example from Econometrics. Experimental results show that our algorithm outperforms both a ground-level inference algorithm and an algorithm built with previously-known lifted methods.
Indoor evacuation planning using a limited number of sensors

This paper focuses on indoor evacuation path planning problem where the objective is to find evacuation paths for each evacuee such that the evacuation egress time is minimized. Since paths are dependent on the distribution of evacuees, initial positions of evacuees are required to find optimal paths during emergency. Instrumenting a building to obtain initial positions and count of people in a building is very challenging (and costly), and hence evacuation plans are prepared for a few expected distributions. Generally, a standard plan based on a predominant distribution of evacuees is posted on the walls inside an indoor facility for people to follow. However, the actual distribution may be another distribution from among the possible distributions. In this work, we consider the problem of finding the distribution that prevails at the evacuation time so that evacuees can be guided to follow the optimal paths (leading to minimum time) rather than following the standard plan. We propose a cost-effective solution to this problem by observing movement of people within a specified time period, labeled distribution detection window, using minimum number of optimally located sensors. This is in contrast to existing approaches which assume that unlimited sensors are available to instantaneously obtain the exact distribution of evacuees at the time of incidence. To our knowledge this paper presents the first formal evacuation planning approach that enables the user to optimally tradeoff the delay in distribution detection with the cost of the deployed sensor network used to obtain this distribution. Our approach is based on the popular heuristic denoted as Capacity Constrained Routing Planner (CCRP). Our approach is illustrated by a set of experiments on two case studies. The results demonstrate that evacuation plans obtained using minimum number of sensors are better than the standard plans and are comparable to evacuation plans computed using unlimited number of sensors.
Proposal for defining the relevance of drug accumulation derived from single dose study data for modified release dosage forms

Recently, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) published the new draft guideline on the pharmacokinetic and clinical evaluation of modified release (MR) formulations. The draft guideline contains the new requirement of performing multiple dose (MD) bioequivalence studies, in the case when the MR formulation is expected to show ‘relevant’ drug accumulation at steady state (SS). This new requirement reveals three fundamental issues, which are discussed in the current work: first, measurement for the extent of drug accumulation (MEDA) predicted from single dose (SD) study data; second, its relationship with the percentage residual area under the plasma concentration–time curve (AUC) outside the dosing interval (τ) after SD administration, %AUC(τ‐∞)SD; and third, the rationale for a threshold of %AUC(τ‐∞)SD that predicts ‘relevant’ drug accumulation at SS. This work revealed that the accumulation ratio RA,AUC, derived from the ratio of the time‐averaged plasma concentrations during τ at SS and after SD administration, respectively, is the ‘preferred’ MEDA for MR formulations. A causal relationship was derived between %AUC(τ‐∞)SD and RA,AUC, which is valid for any drug (product) that shows (dose‐ and time‐) linear pharmacokinetics regardless of the shape of the plasma concentration–time curve. Considering AUC thresholds from other guidelines together with the causal relationship between %AUC(τ‐∞)SD and RA,AUC indicates that values of %AUC(τ‐∞)SD ≤ 20%, resulting in RA,AUC ≤ 1.25, can be considered as leading to non‐relevant drug accumulation. Hence, the authors suggest that 20% for %AUC(τ‐∞)SD is a reasonable threshold and selection criterion between SD or MD study designs for bioequivalence studies of new MR formulations. © 2014 The Authors Biopharmaceutics & Drug Disposition Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.