Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Scientometric analysis of research productivity from Indian dialysis over the last twenty years in Web of Science

This study aims to investigate the publication rate of Indian dialysis research and analyze the distribution of research areas. This research was a scientometric study that applied quantitative and qualitative bibliographies of Web of Science (WoS). The data were extracted from the Web of Science database between 2001 to 2020 of Indian dialysis research. We used bibliographic analyses using VOSviewer software for network analysis between 2001 to 2020. We performed analyses of journals, authors, publication years, organizations, and countries. We accessed 1503 documents published during the period, the majority of published in 2020 with 151 documents. The study revealed that Jha V is the most prolific author in this field with 100 papers and the highest h-index (25). Results showed that the most document types are journal Articles (1135) of a total number of publications. We observed from the journals, the most preferred choice of the authors to publish their research on Peritoneal Dialysis International (n = 77), whereas Indian Pediatrics (India) had the lowest articles (n = 14). The study also revealed that documents published a number of countries with limited relationship within the network, suggesting opportunities to build their research collaboration with leaders of significant networks or with other countries.
Role of parents and peers in influencing the smoking status of high school students in Taiwan

Objectives: To assess parental influence on smoking behaviour by high school students in an Asian culture and to compare the relative importance of parental and peer influence. Methods: A 5% nationally representative sample, including 44 976 high school students in 10th to 12th grade (aged 15–18 years) in Taiwan, were surveyed in 1995. Each completed a long self administered questionnaire. Parental influence was measured by examining both parental behaviour (smoking status) and attitudes (perceived “tender loving care” (TLC) by adolescents). Changes in smoking status were used to determine peer influence, defined as the increase in the likelihood of smoking from grade 10 to 12 in a steady state environment. Odds ratios (ORs) were calculated for parental and peer influence, using logistic regression. Results: Adolescents of smoking parents with low TLC had the highest smoking rates and those of non-smoking parents with high TLC had the lowest. The difference was more than twofold in boys and more than fourfold in girls. When either parental smoking status or TLC alone was considered, parental influence was similar to peer influence in boys, but larger than peer influence in girls. However, when smoking status and TLC were considered jointly, it became larger than peer influence for both groups (OR 2.8 v 1.8 for boys and OR 3.9 v 1.3 for girls). Conclusion: When parental influence is taken as parental behaviour and attitude together, it plays a more important role than peer influence in smoking among high school students in Taiwan. This study, characterising such relationships among Asian populations for the first time, implies that future prevention programmes should direct more efforts toward the parental smoking and parent–child relationships, and not aim exclusively at adolescents in schools.
Pollution Haven Hypothesis - A Meta-analysis

In this paper the Pollution Haven Hypothesis (PHH) has been taken for quantitative literature review. An attempt has been made to isolate the systematic factors from the specific factors present in different published empirical works which are conducted to verify the presence of PHH in different contexts, with varied degree of success. According to the PHH, with trade liberalization the rich countries will specialize in cleaner industries since they are expected to have stricter environmental regulations while the poor or low income countries with a laxer environmental regulation will specialize in pollution intensive industries. The channel of pollution movement and the role of domestic policies as well as local characteristics are found to be quite distinct for different studies and no conclusive evidence in this context has been accepted in the literature. After conducting the meta-analysis, it is observed that the systematic factors contributing favorably to the PHH are related to the level of industry-disaggregation at which the study is being conducted, the nature of trade relation being considered (i.e. bilateral or multilateral), the level of economic development and the stringency of environmental regulation. Control for the possible presence of endogeneity among the explanatory factors appears to improve the reliability of the estimates to significant extent. However, no significant contribution of factor endowment hypothesis, the type of data and specification of pollution measures is observed.
Importance of Amino Acids of the Central Portion of the Second Intracellular Loop of the Gastrin-Releasing Peptide Receptor for Phospholipase C Activation, Internalization, and Chronic Down-Regulation

Little is known about the function of the central portion of the second intracellular loop (i2 loop) of peptide receptors in activation of downstream pathways and receptor modulatory processes such as receptor internalization or chronic down-regulation (DR). Recent data suggest a role for i2 loop hydrophobic amino acids in these processes. We used site-directed mutagenesis to address these issues with the gastrin-releasing peptide receptor (GRP-R). Each i2 loop residue from 142 to 148 was mutated and the receptors were expressed in Balb 3T3 cells. Two mutants showed a minimal (<2-fold) decrease in affinity. Five mutants showed decreased efficacy for activating phospholipase C (PLC). Two double mutants (IM143.147AA and VM144.147AA) showed a minimal decrease in affinity but had a decreased ability to fully activate PLC. Only the IM double mutation had decreased maximal internalization, whereas the R145A single mutant showed an increase, suggesting a tonic inhibitory role for Arg-145 in internalization. Three single and both double mutants showed decreases in receptor DR. There was a weak correlation between the extent of GRP-R internalization and the maximal PLC activation, whereas changes in the maximal PLC activation were significantly (p = 0.008) coupled to receptor DR. This study shows that amino acids of the i2 loop of the GRP-R are important in activation of PLC, internalization and down-regulation, but not for affinity. Our results support the proposal that internalization and chronic down-regulation have differing dependence on PLC and are largely independent processes, because some mutants showed no changes in internalization, but significant alterations in down-regulation.
Chemokine receptor CCR2 involvement in skeletal muscle regeneration

Chemokines, signaling through the CCR2 receptor, are highly expressed in injured skeletal muscle. Their target specificity depends on the cellular expression of the specific receptors. Here we demonstrate that, in freeze‐injured muscle, CCR2 co‐localized with Mac‐3, a marker of activated macrophages as well as with myogenin, a marker of activated muscle precursor cells. The degeneration/regeneration process in skeletal muscle of CCR2−/− and wild‐type mice was not significantly different at day 3. However in contrast to the regenerated muscle of the wild‐type mice, the muscle from CCR2−/− mice was characterized by impaired regeneration, inflammation, and fibrotic response at day 14, increased fat infiltration, fibrosis, and calcification at day 21, and impaired strength recovery until at least 28 days post‐injury. Consistently, the increased expression of Mac‐1 and TNF‐α was prolonged in the injured muscle of CCR2−/− mice. The expression pattern of the myogenic factors MyoD and myogenin was similar for both types of mice, while NCAM, which is associated with the initiation of fusion of muscle precursor cells, was more increased in the injured muscle of CCR2−/− mice. In conclusion, the study delineates that signaling through CCR2 is involved in muscle precursor cell activities necessary for complete and rapid regeneration of injured skeletal muscle.
The Effect of Dose Rate on Radiation-Induced Neoplastic Transformation In Vitro by Low Doses of Low-LET Radiation

Abstract Elmore, E. , Lao, X-Y. , Kapadia, R. and Redpath, J. L. The Effect of Dose Rate on Radiation-Induced Neoplastic Transformation In Vitro by Low Doses of Low-LET Radiation. Radiat. Res. 166, 832–838 (2006). The dependence of the incidence of radiation-induced cancer on the dose rate of the radiation exposure is a question of considerable importance to the estimation of risk of cancer induction by low-dose-rate radiation. Currently a dose and dose-rate effectiveness factor (DDREF) is used to convert high-dose-rate risk estimates to low dose rates. In this study, the end point of neoplastic transformation in vitro has been used to explore this question. It has been shown previously that for low doses of low-LET radiation delivered at high dose rates, there is a suppression of neoplastic transformation frequency at doses less than around 100 mGy. In the present study, dose–response curves up to a total dose of 1000 mGy have been generated for photons from 125I decay (approximately 30 keV) delivered at doses rates of 0.19, 0.47, 0.91 and 1.9 mGy/min. The results indicate that at dose rates of 1.9 and 0.91 mGy/min the slope of the induction curve is about 1.5 times less than that measured at high dose rate in previous studies with a similar quality of radiation (28 kVp mammographic energy X rays). In the dose region of 0 to 100 mGy, the data were equally well fitted by a threshold or linear no-threshold model. At dose rates of 0.19 and 0.47 mGy/min there was no induction of transformation even at doses up to 1000 mGy, and there was evidence for a possible suppressive effect. These results show that for this in vitro end point the DDREF is very dependent on dose rate and at very low doses and dose rates approaches infinity. The relative risks for the in vitro data compare well with those from epidemiological studies of breast cancer induction by low- and high-dose-rate radiation.
Surface Impedance Boundary Conditions in Time Domain for Guided Structures of Arbitrary Cross Section With Lossy Dielectric Walls

This paper presents a procedure to implement the concept of surface impedance boundary condition (SIBC) for lossy dielectrics in time domain. The SIBC formulation, validation, and results are obtained with a time domain numerical method, namely the transmission-line matrix (TLM). The formulation of surface impedance in frequency domain is converted to the time domain using a rational approximation followed by a bilinear transform with a canonical representation in the state-space. This surface impedance formulation has been implemented in TLM. Simulations show that the proposed model is valid for interfaces between air and a lossy dielectric, and arbitrary conductivity $\sigma$. An application that concerns mode propagation in a rectangular tunnel with lossy dielectric walls is shown. A comparison with an approximate method proposed by Marcatilli is presented. It confirms that the propagation in electrically large guided structures, such as tunnels with lossy dielectric walls, can be efficiently modeled by this approach.
Liver carcinogen aflatoxin B1 as an inducer of mitotic recombination in a human cell line

The mycotoxin aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is one of the most potent rodent and human liver carcinogens. Upon cytochrome P450–specific metabolism, it induces mutations as well as mitotic recombination events in in vitro systems. We have found that in the lower eukaryote yeast, the recombinagenic activity of AFB1 surpasses its mutagenic activity, and we speculated on possible consequences in terms of the mechanism of liver carcinogenesis. In this study we investigated whether the recombinagenic activity of AFB1 also would be identified in human cells. To address this question, we followed the fate of a heterozygous thymidine kinase (tk) allele in the human lymphoblastoid cell line TK6 upon exposure to AFB1. Individual mutants that had lost tk activity were subjected to loss of heterozygosity analysis of the tk locus and its flanking markers. Fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis on chromosome 17 also was performed. In parallel, a similar analysis was performed on TK6 cells exposed to the alkylating agent N‐nitrosomethylurea, a well‐known classic point mutagen. Our analysis showed a difference in the molecular mechanism leading to inactivation of the tk allele upon exposure to these two mutagens. In AFB1‐exposed cells the fraction of recombination‐derived mutants predominated, whereas in N‐nitrosomethylurea–exposed cells the fraction of point mutants was higher. Thus, the recombinagenic activity of AFB1 previously identified in a lower eukaryote also was found in the human cell line TK6. Our data support the hypothesis that mitotic recombination represents a central mechanism of action in AFB1‐induced liver carcinogenesis. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
When to stop testing under warranty using SRGM with change-point

When a vendor sells a product, there is usually an implied promise that a product will do something. Under the law, when you buy the product, you can reasonably expect that the product will perform as promised. When a product is purchased and used by a customer then it might be possible that a difference between the product performance and customer expectation crops in. As a result the insurance policy of warranty comes into the picture. A warranty is simply a formal promise by a vendor that the product is defect free, meaning that it will do what it promises to do, and that if it fails to do so, then vendor will go about rectifying defects. But servicing a warranty engages additional costs to the manufacturer and this has an effect on the profit levels. Warranty cost may be reduced by providing higher reliable product. The conflict existing in the context of software reliability, warranty period and selling price need to be considered jointly. In this paper, we formulated an optimization problem that determines the optimal testing time and price with change-point under with warranty. The factors like fixed cost of testing and debugging during testing phase and warranty period cost of testing up to the release time considered in the problem of maximization of the profit.
Towards a Compositional Distributional Model of Meaning

We propose a mathematical framework for a unification of the distributional theory of meaning in terms of vector space models, and a compositional theory for grammatical types, namely Lambek’s pregroup semantics. A key observation is that the monoidal category of (finite dimensional) vector spaces, linear maps and the tensor product, as well as any pregroup, are examples of compact closed categories. Since, by definition, a pregroup is a compact closed category with trivial morphisms, its compositional content is reflected within the compositional structure of any non-degenerate compact closed category. The (slightly refined) category of vector spaces enables us to compute the meaning of a compound well-typed sentence from the meaning of its constituents, by ‘lifting’ the type reduction mechanisms of pregroup semantics to the whole category. These sentence meanings live in a single space, independent of the grammatical structure of the sentence. Hence we can use the inner-product to compare meanings of arbitrary sentences. A variation of this procedure which involves constraining the scalars of the vector spaces to the semiring of Booleans results in the well-known Montague semantics.
Development of software for human muscle force estimation

Muscle force estimation (MFE) has become more and more important in exploring principles of pathological movement, studying functions of artificial muscles, making surgery plan for artificial joint replacement, improving the biomechanical effects of treatments and so on. At present, existing software are complex for professionals, so we have developed a new software named as concise MFE (CMFE). CMFE which provides us a platform to analyse muscle force in various actions includes two MFE methods (static optimisation method and electromyographic-based method). Common features between these two methods have been found and used to improve CMFE. A case studying the major muscles of lower limb of a healthy subject walking at normal speed has been presented. The results are well explained from the effect of the motion produced by muscles during movement. The development of this software can improve the accuracy of the motion simulations and can provide a more extensive and deeper insight in to muscle study.
Relationship between Intensity and Reaction Time in Normal-Hearing Infants and Adults

Objective Reaction time (RT) to sound is known to be related to loudness in adult listeners. The purpose of this study was to determine whether infants’ RT to sound decreases systematically with intensity as it does in adults. Design RT was measured for 24 6- to 9-mo-old infants and 11 19- to 26-yr-old adults. All participants were normal hearing, naïve listeners. The stimuli consisted of 4000 and 1000 Hz pure tones presented to the right ear through an insert earphone. Stimulus intensities ranged in 10 dB steps from 40 to 80 dB SPL for adults and 50 to 90 dB SPL for infants. Infant responses consisted of a head turn toward a reinforcer whereas adults responded by raising their hand. An additional three adults responded with a head turn. RT was defined as the time between the onset of the tone and an observer’s button press indicating that a response had occurred. RT was corrected for the observer’s reaction time and averaged over three to five repetitions at each level to obtain the mean reaction time (MRT) for each subject, frequency, and level. Results MRT decreased with increasing intensity in both infants and adults. An examination of the MRT-intensity functions suggests that the infant functions may be steeper than those of adults, although considerable variability exists between listeners. Conclusions RT holds potential as a measure of loudness in infants. Whether differences in the MRT-intensity slopes exist between infants and adults is unclear. Future investigations using methods to reduce the variability of RT measurements are needed to examine potential slope differences further.
Towards accurate in vivo spectroscopy of the human prostate

The recent interest in photodynamic therapy of human prostate cancer is accompanied by a need for techniques for in vivo monitoring of optical and physiological characteristics. We propose time‐of‐flight (TOF) spectroscopy in combination with Monte Carlo evaluation as a reliable optical technique for quantitative assessment of absorption, scattering, hemoglobin content and tissue oxygenation in the human prostate. For the first time, we demonstrate Monte Carlo‐based evaluation of in vivo TOF photon migration data. We show that this approach is crucial in order to avoid the large errors associated with the use of time‐resolved diffusion theory of light propagation in prostate‐like tissues. This progress also allows us to present the first in vivo scattering spectroscopy of human prostate tissue. Furthermore, TOF spectroscopy, in contrast to the more common steady‐state approach, is insensitive to bleedings, and has been found highly reliable (100% success rate). (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
Simultaneous measurement of metabolic flux in portally-drained viscera, liver, spleen, kidney and hindquarter in the conscious pig

A method was developed to measure metabolic fluxes simultaneously across the portally-drained viscera (PDV), liver, spleen, kidney and hindquarter (HQ) in the conscious pig (20-25 kg). For this purpose, sampling catheters were implanted in the abdominal artery, portal vein, hepatic vein, splenic vein, renal vein and caval vein. Further, two extra infusion catheters were implanted in the splenic vein and abdominal artery. These allow continuous infusion of para-aminohippuric acid (PAH), providing a method for estimating the plasma flow of the liver, PDV, spleen, kidney and HQ. To minimize the postoperative recovery period of the pigs, great attention was paid to the housing conditions. After a recovery period of seven days, pigs were used for experiments twice a week. During the three weeks experimental period, food intake, body temperature, weight gain, blood gas data and plasma flow were monitored. Mean plasma flow was: liver 52±6, PDV 40±5, HQ 20±2, spleen 4±1 and kidneys 15±2 ml/kg body weight/min. These data were characteristic for a pig in a conscious normal resting and unstressed state. The long-term patency rate of the sampling catheters was very high (ranging from 75% to 100%). This was probably due to the prevention of catheter-related infections using a gentamicin (20 mg/ml), α-chymotrypsin (225 U/ml) solution as catheter filling. We conclude that this model enables simultaneously liver, PDV, intestine, spleen, liver, kidney and HQ flux measurement of many metabolic substances in the conscious pig.
Land Markets and Migration Trends in Tanzania: A Qualitative‐Quantitative Analysis

While migration has been found to enhance welfare across a range of settings, most of the literature focuses on rural‐to‐urban migrant flows. Using a unique dataset from north‐western Tanzania, this article probes an important, yet overlooked, link between land markets and rural‐to‐rural migration. A mixed‐methods approach is used to discern how these two forces are intertwined in village life. Results indicate that household decisions to migrate are particularly influenced by the ease of market‐based land access in their new communities. This suggests that labour mobility may be facilitated through the development of a well‐functioning land market.
Is the Index Efficient? A Worldwide Tour with Stochastic Dominance

The paper develops a necessary condition for stochastic dominance efficiency at any order. We find that equity market indices of seventeen developed and developing countries across the globe are inefficient, nearly always at order three and very often at order two, making them not a suitable investment for a risk-averse and prudent investors. The indices are often dominated by individual industry sub-indices, with consumer goods, services, and utilities performing especially well. Macro factors such as the GDP growth rate, inflation, unemployment, and the current account balance predict future efficiency of the equity market indices, but exhibit the opposite signs for developed and developing markets. Strong values of aggregate economic indicators point to a higher likelihood of the equity market index efficiency for well-balanced economies; but they signal a lower likelihood of efficiency for less balanced economies, which heavily rely on only several key industries.
Diode temperature sensor with the output voltage proportional to the absolute temperature and its application to the thin film Pirani Vacuum Sensor

It is demonstrated that our proposed new type temperature sensor has a proportional output signal voltage DeltaV to the absolute temperature T as our theoretically predicted equation DeltaV=alphaT by choosing the proper constant dc current I0, where T is the absolute temperature and alpha a constant. In these experiments square waveform as an ac small signal current deltaI superimposed on the I0 is adopted and deltaI/I0 is kept constant against the source voltage fluctuation. As results the good proportional relationships between DeltaV and T over the temperature range of 77-470 K and 140-500 K for the Si pn diode and the SiC Schottky diode, respectively, are achieved. This new temperature sensor is applied to the thin film Pirani vacuum sensor proposed by us to measure the temperature difference between temperatures by double pulse heating of a cantilever using a diode-heater driven by different constant forward voltages. This prototype vacuum sensor is sensitive in the very wide vacuum pressure range of 1times10-2 -105 Pa at least.