Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sympathetic Nerve Activity in End-Stage Renal Disease

Background—Uremia is proposed to increase sympathetic nerve activity (SNA) in hemodialysis patients. The aims of the present study were to determine whether reversal of uremia by successful kidney transplantation (RTX) eliminates the increased SNA and whether signals arising in the diseased kidneys contribute to the increased SNA in renal failure. Methods and Results—We compared muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) in 13 hemodialysis patients wait-listed for RTX and in renal transplantation patients with excellent graft function treated with cyclosporine (RTX-CSA, n=13), tacrolimus (RTX-FK, n=13), or without calcineurin inhibitors (RTX-Ø, n=6), as well as in healthy volunteers (CON, n=15). In addition to the above patients with present diseased native kidneys, we studied 16 RTX patients who had undergone bilateral nephrectomy (RTX-NE). Data are mean±SEM. MSNA was significantly elevated in hemodialysis patients (43±4 bursts/min), RTX-CSA (44±5 bursts/min), RTX-FK (34±3 bursts/min), and RTX-Ø (44±5 bursts/min) as compared with CON (21±3 bursts/min), despite excellent graft function after RTX. RTX-NE had significantly reduced MSNA (20±3 bursts/min) when compared with RTX patients. MSNA did not change significantly with RTX in 4 hemodialysis patients studied before and after RTX (44±6 versus 43±5 bursts/min, P =NS). In contrast, nephrectomy resulted in reduced MSNA in all 6 RTX patients studied before and after removal of the second native kidney. Conclusions—Despite correction of uremia, increased SNA is observed in renal transplant recipients with diseased native kidneys at a level not significantly different from chronic hemodialysis patients. The increased SNA seems to be mediated by signals arising in the native kidneys that are independent of circulating uremia related toxins.
A Markov Regime-Switching Model on Foreign Trade: The Case of China

Based on Hamilton' Markov regime-switching model applied to postwar U.S. business cycle (1989,1994), the paper uses Chinese import and export data from January 1999 to November 2010 to describe and investigate the dynamic growth path of China's foreign trade. The empirical results suggest that the growth path of China's foreign trade can be classified as long-term expansion regime¿i1999.01~2008.08 and 2008.12~2010.11¿jand short-term recession regime (2008.09~2008.11), which means the growth path of China's foreign trade may experience a shift of regime. The global economic situation and Chinese economic policy during these periods may explain the move of regime. Chinese economy needs to shift from export-oriented economic growth to more reliance on indigenous innovation of firms and domestic demand-pulled growth, which maybe not only the results of the 2008 global financial crisis, but also reflects the need for continual growth of Chinese economy in the future.
Potenciais auditivos evocados corticais em idosos com queixa de dificuldade de compreensão da fala

Este trabalho foi motivado pelo aumento do numero de pacientes idosos com queixa de dificuldade para entender a fala, que apresentam exame auditivo dentro do normal, ou com perda leve ou moderada a partir de 4 kHz, que nao justifica esta queixa. The number of elderly people, without hearing loss or with mild hearing loss in high frequencies, with difficulties in understanding speech complaints is growing. Looking for possible dysfunctions at the primary auditory.
Long-term selection experiment with Afrikaner cattle 3. Selection applied and response in calf growth traits

A selection and line x environment interaction study with grade Afrikaner cattle was established in 1956 at Matopos Research Station, Zimbabwe. Two selection lines of 100 cows each were reared in different management environments. The non-supplemented (NS) line relied on the range throughout the year and was mated to calve with the onset of the rains (December to February). The supplemented (S) line was offered protein-rich supplements during the dry season and mated to calve prior to the onset of the rains (October to December). In 1976, after approximately two generations of selection, lines were sub-divided into 75 cows each, where one sub-line remained within each environment as a control; the remaining sub-lines were interchanged between environments. Bulls were selected on weaning weight within control lines, while replacement heifers were selected on weight at mating within sub-line. Data recorded over approximately six generations of selection (40 years) were analyzed. The average age of sires and dams at the time of birth of their progeny was 5.9 and 7.5 years respectively in the pre-crossover phase and was reduced to 4.4 and 6.5 years respectively in the post-crossover phase. The rate of inbreeding across lines and environments was 1.2%/generation. The cumulative selection differential trends for both the S and NS lines for adjusted weaning weight plotted against generation number were very low, relatively linear and greater for the S line (0.10 s.d./year) compared with the NS line (0.08 s.d./year). Direct and correlated responses were uniformly low, approximating 1% of the trait mean per generation, and indicating that considerable attention was given to secondary characters. These results concur with general findings of effective direct and correlated responses of weight traits to individual selection.
TGF-β1 mRNA Increases in Macrophage/Microglial Cells of the Hippocampus in Response to Deafferentation and Kainic Acid-Induced Neurodegeneration

This study examined TGF-beta 1 mRNA levels and cellular localization in the F344 rat hippocampus following deafferentation or kainic acid (KA)-induced neurodegeneration. By RNA solution hybridization, TGF-beta 1 transcripts were at low prevalence in intact adult rat hippocampus (0.02 pg/microgram total RNA). Four days after unilateral entorhinal cortex lesioning (ECL), TGF-beta 1 mRNA increased threefold in the ipsilateral hippocampus. This increase was localized to the outer molecular layer of the dentate gyrus, where gliosis, synapse loss, and synaptic reorganization occur. TGF-beta 1 mRNA also increased in the hippocampus after KA-induced limbic seizures, particularly in the areas of the hippocampus undergoing neurodegeneration. Microglia [OX-42 immunoreactive (IR) cells] responded to these two lesions with distinct morphological changes. Combined immunocytochemistry-in situ hybridization showed that TGF-beta 1 mRNA was localized to reactive microglia (OX-42-IR, with blunt processes), but not to resting ramified microglia (OX-42-IR, with numerous fine processes) or to astrocytes (GFAP-IR). After ECL, round macrophage-like cells (OX-42-IR with TGF-beta 1 mRNA) were seen at the wound site. Thus, brain macrophage/microglial cells produce TGF-beta 1 mRNA in the hippocampus in response to deafferentation and neurodegeneration.
High-Resolution Northern Blot for a Reliable Analysis of MicroRNAs and Their Precursors

This protocol describes how to perform northern blot analyses to detect microRNAs and their precursors with single-nucleotide resolution, which is crucial for analyzing individual length variants and for evaluating relative quantities of unique microRNAs in cells. Northern blot analysis consists of resolving RNAs by gel electrophoresis, followed by transferring and fixing to nylon membranes as well as detecting by hybridization with radioactive probes. Earlier efforts to improve this method focused mainly on altering the sensitivity of short RNA detection. We have enhanced the resolution of the northern blot technique by optimizing the electrophoresis step. We have also investigated other steps of the procedure with the goal of enhancing the resolution of RNAs; herein, we present several recommendations to do so. Our protocol is applicable to analyses of all kinds of endogenous and exogenous RNAs, falling within length ranges of 20–30 and 50–70 nt, corresponding to microRNA and pre-microRNA lengths, respectively.
Treatment of hypertrophic scars using laser and laser assisted corticosteroid delivery

Hypertrophic scars and contractures are common following various types of trauma and procedures despite skilled surgical and wound care. Following ample time for healing and scar maturation, many millions of patients are burdened with persistent symptoms and functional impairments. Cutaneous scars can be complex and thus the approach to therapy is often multimodal. Intralesional corticosteroids have long been a staple in the treatment of hypertrophic and restrictive scars. Recent advances in laser technology and applications now provide additional options for improvements in function, symptoms, and cosmesis. Fractional ablative lasers create zones of ablation at variable depths of the skin with the subsequent induction of a wound healing and collagen remodeling response. Recent reports suggest these ablative zones may also be used in the immediate post‐operative period to enhance delivery of drugs and other substances. We present a case series evaluating the efficacy of a novel combination therapy that incorporates the use of an ablative fractional laser with topically applied triamcinolone acetonide suspension in the immediate post‐operative period.
In Vitro and In Vivo Pharmacokinetics-Pharmacodynamics of GV143253A, a Novel Trinem

ABSTRACT The aim of the present study was to characterize the pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic relationship of GV143253A, a novel trinem anti-methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) agent active against gram-positive cocci, including multidrug-resistant clinical isolates. An in vitro pharmacodynamic study with methicillin-susceptible S. aureus (MSSA) and MRSA has shown that the duration of exposure to GV143253A rather than its concentration is the major determinant of the extent of bacterial killing. The in vitro findings were confirmed by use of a neutropenic murine model of thigh infection caused by MSSA ATCC 25923. From the dose-response curves, the static doses extrapolated for three different dosing intervals showed that more frequent dosing of GV143253A was more effective than less frequent dosing. A pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic analysis demonstrated that only the time during which the drug concentration exceeded the MIC (t>MIC) correlated with in vivo GV143253A activity. The value of t>MIC required to achieve a bacteriostatic effect in a thigh infection of neutropenic animals was 20% (95% confidence interval [CI], 18 to 22%) of the dosing interval. This result is similar to those reported in the literature for carbapenems and for GV104326A, another novel trinem compound. In addition, in order to compare the therapeutic efficacy of GV143253A to that of vancomycin in a thigh infection caused by MRSA in immunocompetent mice, suitable dosing regimens were designed on the basis of previous pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic findings for GV143253A and on the human pharmacokinetic profile of the glycopeptide. Although the pharmacokinetic profiles of the two agents were completely different, GV143253A showed good efficacy comparable to that of vancomycin, reducing by 4 log units the bacterial counts in the thighs of treated mice relative to untreated infected animals after 48 h of therapy. The results suggest that if the time of exposure to the pathogen above the MIC is at least 30% of the dosing interval, GV143253A could have a role in the clinical treatment of infections caused by MRSA, which is difficult to eradicate with current antibiotics.
Efficient partial enumeration for timing analysis of asynchronous systems

This paper presents an efficient method for the timing verification of concurrent systems, modeled as labeled Timed Petri nets. The verification problems we consider require us to analyze the system's reachable behaviors under the specified time delays. Our geometric timing analysis algorithm improves over existing ones by enumerating the state space only partially. The algorithm relies on a concept called pre-mature firing and a new, extended notion of clocks with a negative age. We have tested the fully automated procedure on a number of examples. Experimental results obtained on highly concurrent Petri nets with more than 6000 nodes and 10/sup 210/ reachable states show that the proposed method can drastically reduce computational cost.
Research Paper Series Globalisation and Labour Markets International Competition, Returns to Skill and Labor Market Adjustment the Centre Acknowledges Financial Support from the Leverhulme Trust under Programme Grant F114/bf Acknowledgements We Are Grateful to Participants at the Midwest Internation

The finding, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the World Bank. Abstract This paper examines whether increased import competition induces domestic workers to skill upgrade and/or switch industries. The analysis makes use of a large unique longitudinal matched employer-employee dataset that covers virtually all workers and firms in Portugal over the 1986-2000 period. Our identification strategy uses two exogenous changes in the degree of international competition. First, we exploit the strong appreciation of the Portuguese currency in 1989-1992 and pre-existing differences in trade exposure across industries in a differences-indifferences estimation. Second, we make use of changes in industry-specific (source-weighted) real exchange rates. A bivariate probit model is used to analyse the impact of increased international competition on skill-upgrading and/or industry switching. Based on both empirical strategies, and on two different skill definitions, we find strong confirmation for the hypothesis that increased international competition increases the returns to skill and induces skill upgrading.
Graph Mining Framework for Finding and Visualizing Substructures Using Graph Database

In the scientific and commercial domains, graph as a data structure has become increasingly important for modeling sophisticated structures especially the interactions within them. Mining the knowledge from graph data has become a major research topic in recent data mining studies. Researchers have designed several efficient algorithms for mining various substructures (subgraphs) within the graph. Several graph visualization tools and techniques exist. But there is a need to define a unified framework for finding and visualizing substructures from graph. In this paper we propose a graph mining framework that captures entities and relations between entities from different data sources. The framework further models this data as a graph and facilitates the dense substructure extraction and frequent substructure discovery in order to find substructures. It also supports knowledge visualization using graphs.
A Literate Programming Tool for Concurrent Clean

Literate programming has attracted some interest in the functional programming community. This paper presents a prettyprinting algorithm used in a literate programming tool for the functional language Concurrent Clean, and discusses some of the issues involved in prettyprinting layout based languages. 1 Literate programming This section introduces the concept of literate programming for those who are unfamiliar with it, and makes some suggestions as to the merits of literate programming. There is some coverage of the topic from the point of view of functional programming, which is the authors primary interest. 1.1 What is literate programming? Literate programming is a style of programming introduced by Donald Knuth in his book of the same name [2]. The central idea of literate programming is: Instead of imagining that our main task is to instruct a computer what to do, let us concentrate rather on explaining to human beings what we want a computer to do. [7] The exact features of the various literate programming systems vary, but they have a number of common features. 1. They all provide some mechanism for writing both code and documentation in a single file, and extracting the program code in a form suitable for compilation. 2. Most provide some form of automatic indexing of the program code. The tools construct an index of identifiers and code fragments, and generate cross reference information. 3. Most systems provide some mechanism for reordering the program code, so that it can be presented in way the author wishes, rather than in the order which the compiler requires. Tools are used to automatically reorder the code for the compiler.
Characterization of in vitro proton pumping by microsomal vesicles isolated from corn coleoptiles.

Corn (Zea mays L. cv Golden Cross Bantam) coleoptile microsomal vesicles have been isolated which are capable of ATP-driven H(+)-transport as measured by [(14)C]methylamine accumulation and quinacrine fluorescence quenching. Formation of the pH gradient in vitro shows a high specificity for ATP.Mg, is temperature-sensitive, exhibits a pH optimum at 7.5, and is inhibited by carbonyl cyanide-m-chlorophenylhydrazone. Of the divalent cations tested, Mn(2+) is almost as effective as Mg(2+), while Ca(2+) is ineffective. Excess divalent cations, particularly Ca(2+), reduces the pH gradient. H(+) transport is strongly promoted by anions, especially chloride, while potassium does not affect pump activity. Studies with (36)Cl(-) indicate that ATP-driven H(+) transport into the vesicles is associated with chloride uptake. Both carbonyl cyanide-m-chlorophenylhydrazone and the anion transport inhibitor, 4,4'-diisothiocyano-2,2'-disulfonic acid stilbene, inhibit methylamine accumulation and (36)Cl(-) uptake. Proton pumping is also blocked by diethyl stilbestrol and N,N'-dicyclohexylcarbodiimide, but is insensitive to oligomycin and vanadate. These properties of the pump are inconsistent with either a mitochondrial or plasma membrane origin.
Effects of unilateral subthalamic deep brain stimulation on contralateral arm sequential movements in Parkinson’s disease

In Parkinson’s disease, unilateral deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN), unlike bilateral stimulation, excludes ipsilateral confounding effects so that the contralateral effects of DBS on motor performance can be investigated alone. Because no kinematic study has yet investigated how unilateral STN-DBS affects the performance of a contralateral fast sequential motor act, we performed a kinematic analysis of the movement duration, switching time and spatial accuracy of a motor arm sequence in 10 parkinsonian patients. Patients were studied without dopaminergic therapy and when they were OFF and ON unilateral STN-DBS. We found that unilateral STN-DBS significantly improved movement time of a motor sequence and the switching time from one sequential step to the next, whereas accuracy deteriorated. We conclude that unilateral STN-DBS improves the performance of contralateral sequential arm movements in patients with Parkinson’s disease.
Microbes in nature are limited by carbon and energy: the starving-survival lifestyle in soil and consequences for estimating microbial rates

Understanding microbial transformations in soils is important for predicting future carbon sequestration and nutrient cycling. This review questions some methods of assessing one key microbial process, the uptake of labile organic compounds. First, soil microbes have a starving-survival life style of dormancy, arrested activity, and low activity. Yet they are very abundant and remain poised to completely take up all substrates that become available. As a result, dilution assays with the addition of labeled substrates cannot be used. When labeled substrates are transformed into 14CO2, the first part of the biphasic release follows metabolic rules and is not affected by the environment. As a consequence, when identical amounts of isotopically substrates are added to soils from different climate zones, the same percentage of the substrate is respired and the same half-life of the respired 14CO2 from the labeled substrate is estimated. Second, when soils are sampled by a variety of methods from taking 10 cm diameter cores to millimeter-scale dialysis chambers, amino acids (and other organic compounds) appear to be released by the severing of fine roots and mycorrhizal networks as well as from pressing or centrifuging treatments. As a result of disturbance as well as of natural root release, concentrations of individual amino acids of ~10 μM are measured. This contrasts with concentrations of a few nanomolar found in aquatic systems and raises questions about possible differences in the bacterial strategy between aquatic and soil ecosystems. The small size of the hyphae (2–10 μm diameter) and of the fine roots (0.2–2 mm diameter), make it very difficult to sample any volume of soil without introducing artifacts. Third, when micromolar amounts of labeled amino acids are added to soil, some of the isotope enters plant roots. This may be an artifact of the high micromolar concentrations applied.
Cytomegalovirus Treatment in Pediatric Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Patients

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a frequent complication of hematopoietic stem cell transplant in pediatric patients, with significant morbidity and mortality. Antiviral drugs are used as prophylactic, preemptive or therapeutic medicines; however, no uniform guidelines exist for the best strategy to prevent CMV disease. Resistance to standard antiviral therapies can lead to further difficulty in managing CMV disease. Studies for investigational therapies are underway and could provide options for treatment of resistant CMV, while limiting toxicities associated with currently used antiviral therapies.
Development of optimized supersaturable self-nanoemulsifying systems of ezetimibe: effect of polymers and efflux transporters

Objectives: To develop an optimized supersaturable self-nanoemulsifying drug delivery system (S-SNEDDS) in order to control drug precipitation along with surmounting poor aqueous solubility and P-glycoprotein (P-gp) and multidrug resistance protein 2 (MRP2) efflux activity. Methods: Long-term stability of a previously reported formulation (OPT-LCT) consisting of Maisine 35-1 and Labrasol indicated rapid precipitation of ezetimibe. In vitro supersaturation test was carried out for selection of apt polymeric precipitation inhibitor (PPI). Following incorporation of the selected PPI, the precipitates from various formulations were differentiated employing optical microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray diffraction techniques. The S-SNEDDS was evaluated for globule size distribution. Also, lipid-lowering activity of S-SNEDDS was compared in relation to marketed product and optimized-long chain triglyceride. Subsequently, in situ perfusion studies were carried out for calculating various permeability and absorptivity parameters with specific focus on P-gp and MRP2 inhibition. Results: Supersaturation test facilitated the selection of HPMC E5LV as the best PPI. The precipitates from the S-SNEDDS were identified as amorphous while crystalline ezetimibe precipitates were found when HPMC was absent in the formulation. Owing to heterogeneous distribution, globule size analysis was not practicable. Plasma lipid estimations showed that S-SNEDDS had considerable influence in increasing the high-density lipid levels. The single-pass intestinal perfusion parameters, namely fraction absorbed and effective permeability demonstrated significant improvement in rate and extent of absorption from S-SNEDDS. Co-administration of itraconazole and indomethacin as P-gp and MRP2 inhibitors, respectively revealed the potential of S-SNEDDS in reducing the efflux activities. Conclusions: The studies revealed that the systemic exposure of ezetimibe following oral administration can be substantially improved using S-SNEDDS.