Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Plasma Concentrations of Prostaglandins During Late Human Pregnancy: Influence of Normal and Preterm Labor

Highly sensitive and specific RIA procedures have been used to measure prostaglandin concentrations in the peripheral circulation of late pregnant and parturient women. The concentrations of prostaglandin E (PGE) and prostaglandin F (PGF) in plasma samples assayed within 4 weeks of collection were not significantly different among the groups studied, the levels (mean +/- SEM, picograms per ml) were: late pregnancy (n = 13): PGE, 4.8 +/- 1.0; PGF, 6.2 +/- 0.5; early term labor (n = 5): PGE, 6.8 +/- 1.5; PGF, 7.9 +/- 0.7; late term labor (n = 5): PGE, 5.4 +/- 2.2; PGF, 12.4 +/- 3.5; and preterm labor (n = 7): PGE, 4.4 +/- 0.4; PGF, 6.9 +/- 1.4. The concentration of 13,14-dihydro-15-keto-prostaglandin F (PGFM) in late pregnancy was 59.0 +/- 7.8 pg/ml. During spontaneous term labor, the concentration of PGFM was significantly elevated (P less than 0.01) to 142.8 +/- 32.3 pg/ml in early labor and 282.7 +/- 55.3 pg/ml in late labor. The concentration of PGFM in plasma from patients in preterm labor (62.7 +/- 17.4 pg/ml) was not significantly different from that found during late pregnancy, but was significantly lower than levels found at term during early labor (P less than 0.05). The concentration of PGE increased significantly in frozen plasma samples stored for more than 4 weeks in all groups studied; the concentration of PGF was significantly elevated after storage only in the late pregnancy group (P less than 0.01). The plasma concentration of PGFM in all groups studied was unaffected by storage. It is concluded that measurement of PGFM concentrations is the most reliable method available of monitoring prostaglandins in the peripheral circulation and that great care must be exercised in the assay and interpretation of prostaglandin levels in human plasma.
Serious infections in British patients with systemic lupus erythematosus: hospitalisations and mortality

This retrospective study determined the prevalence and nature of hospitalisations secondary to infection, and examined the mortality from infection in our large British cohort of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Casenote and database information of 104 consecutive patients attending the UCLH specialised SLE clinic were reviewed for the number of hospitalisations due to infection and the clinical and serological features of affected patients. Cohort mortality data were examined to identify deaths secondary to infectious diseases. Infection serious enough to result in hospitalisation occurred in 15% of the patients in the selected sample of our whole cohort. Six patients had more than one admission due to infection, with pneumonia being the most frequent. Typical bacterial pathogens were most commonly identified. A significant association between admissions for infection and nephritis (P < 0.05 by Chi-square) was identified; however, the use of high dose prednisolone or other immunosuppressants did not increase the risk for infection requiring hospitalisation (P > 0.5 by Chi-square) in our study. Between 1978 and 2007, 17 of 67 (25%) deaths in our SLE cohort of 470 patients were because of infection. Patients who died from infectious causes were more likely to have existing or previous renal disease than those who died from non-infectious causes (P < 0.01 by Chi-square). The majority who died from infection were on high dose prednisolone plus at least one other immunosuppressive agent and had serologically active disease. The study highlights the significant problem of infection in British patients with SLE. Early recognition and treatment of infectious diseases in these patients together with considered use of immunosuppressant medications and vaccinations may help to reduce the impact of these complications.
Nadolol can prevent the first gastrointestinal bleeding in cirrhotics: A prospective, randomized study

Propranolol has been reported to prevent the risk of hemorrhage in patients who survived episodes of variceal rupture. Since the first bleeding episode can be lethal, we did a prospective, randomized trial to see whether β‐blockers could also prevent the first hemorrhage. Seventy‐nine consecutive cirrhotics with large esophageal varices by endoscopy and who had never bled were randomly allocated to one of the following treatments: placebo; ranitidine (300 mg per day), or nadolol (40 to 120 mg per day)—which is not cardioselective, reduces portal hypertension and does not interfere with renal flow. Since no significant differences between ranitidine and placebo treatment were observed, the two groups were combined as the control group and compared with the nadolol group.
Openers of small conductance calcium‐activated potassium channels selectively enhance NO‐mediated bradykinin vasodilatation in porcine retinal arterioles

Background and purpose: Small (SKCa or KCa2) and intermediate (IKCa or KCa3.1) conductance calcium‐activated potassium channels are involved in regulation of vascular tone and blood pressure. The present study investigated whether NS309 (6,7‐dichloro‐1H‐indole‐2,3‐dione 3‐oxime) and CyPPA (cyclohexyl‐[2‐(3,5‐dimethyl‐pyrazol‐1‐yl)‐6‐methyl‐pyrimidin‐4‐yl]‐amine), which are selective openers of SKCa and IKCa channels and of SKCa2 and SKCa3 channels, respectively, enhance endothelium‐dependent vasodilatation in porcine retinal arterioles.
T‐Cell epitope discovery for variola and vaccinia viruses

Variola major, the causative agent of smallpox, afflicted mankind throughout history until the worldwide World Health Organisation WHO vaccination campaign successfully eradicated the disease. Unfortunately, recent concerns about bioterrorism have renewed scientific interest in this virus. One essential component of our biodefense and preparedness efforts is an understanding of poxvirus immunity. To this end a number of laboratories have sought to discover T‐ and B‐Cell epitopes from select agents such as variola virus. This review focuses on the efforts to identify CD8+ T‐Cell epitopes from poxviruses as a means to develop new vaccines and therapeutics. A wide variety of techniques have been employed by several research groups to provide complementary information regarding cellular immune responses to poxviruses. In the last several years well over 100 T‐Cell epitopes have been identified and the work rapidly continues. The information gleaned from these studies will not only give us a greater understanding of immunity to variola virus and other viruses, but also provide a foundation for next generation vaccines and additional tools with which to study host‐pathogen interactions. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The Substance of Things Hoped For: Do State Faith-Based and Community Partnership Offices and Liaisons Help Grassroots Organizations Get Federal Funding?

Abstract In response to The White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (FBCI, later renamed the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, FBNP), many states either created an FBCI office within state government or established a state liaison to the federal program through a nonprofit organization. While the offices have multiple stated goals, the acquisition of federal funding for community organizations within their respective states is a fairly consistent, and critical, goal for most of these offices. Using a multivariate regression model and a survey of state liaison offices, this mixed methods study finds that there is no difference between states with liaisons and states without with respect to federal funding for community organizations in their states and identifies barriers to their successful achievement of funding objectives. A survey of state FBNP offices detailing budgets, staffing, and reporting structures, among other things, indicates that a lack of unrestricted funds, lack of adequate staffing, and decreasing political salience are contributing factors.
Public opinion, the Leopold Report, and the reform of federal predator control policy

This paper explores the role of public opinion in a landmark shift in the federal predator control program. In 1963, the Leopold Committee recommended extensive reform in the federal predator control program, predicting that growing public support for the environmental movement would force such a move if the government did not initiate a change. In the years following the publication of the Leopold Report, the U.S. Division of Wildlife Services reformed its predator control program and tried to improve its public image. Meanwhile, both environmentalists and ranchers fought to control public opinion about the issue. The 1972 ban on predacides (poisons for predators) in federal predator control programs resulted as much from the environmentalists’ ability to control public opinion as from the changing scientifi c understanding of predators.
Perceptions of tax fairness and tax compliance in Australia and Hong Kong ‐ a preliminary study

Discusses how important perceptions of tax fairness can be in forming tax‐compliant behaviour in various jurisdictions, based on a crosscultural study of Australia and Hong Kong. Defines fairness and its relationship with legitimacy. Describes a tax survey questionnaire administered to business students, which is broken down by demographic data and includes extensive correlations between tax‐fairness perception and tax‐compliance behaviour. Concludes that legitimacy is a crucial normative influence in shaping how fair tax systems are perceived to be and how likely people are to comply with their tax obligations.
Influence of plant model variants for the automatic optimisation of control parameters

Designing controllers in a model based engineering environment has become more important in industrial applications. As the name already suggests, the model based design process depends strongly on the plant model and its quality as well as on the accuracy of the corresponding model parameters, which sometimes are estimated or even just guessed. The goal of this paper is to investigate the automation potentials of the model based design process, concretely in this paper the parametrization of two given cascaded controllers for a plant, which might vary over time or due to certain events. Transferring controller parametrization to a computer which is in contrast to a human engineer not sensible of the real life use cases, makes the plant model even more important. In this work we want to underline this point by a case study and provide some insights into the possibilities and limitations of automated parametrization of controllers during a model based design process for two cascaded controllers.
Recipient allocation preferences and organizational choices: a fit perspective

Recipient Allocation Preferences and Organizational Choices: A Fit Perspective. (December 2005) Celile Itir Gogus, B.S., Bilkent University; M.S., Texas A&M University Co-Chairs of Advisory Committee: Dr. Adrienne J. Colella Dr. Christopher O. L. H. Porter The purpose of this dissertation is to understand how individuals’ preferences for resource allocation affect their attitudinal and behavioral responses towards the organization. Building on the three main allocation norms (equity norm, equality norm and need norm) and taking the perspective of the recipient of an allocation, a model that predicts the antecedents of norm preference and consequences of using different allocation norms by the organization is presented and tested with a sample of Turkish registered nurses. Results show that recipients have differential preferences for allocation norms depending on resource type being allocated and characteristics of the environment. Furthermore, the fit or misfit between recipients’ preferred allocation norm and the allocation norm used by the organization affects recipients’ justice perceptions about the organization, their outcome satisfaction and performance.
Rabbit oral papillomavirus complete genome sequence and immunity following genital infection.

Rabbit oral papillomavirus (ROPV) infects mucosal tissues of domestic rabbits. The viral genomic sequence has been determined and the most related papillomavirus type was the cutaneous cottontail rabbit papillomavirus (CRPV). Homologies between the open reading frames (ORFs) of ROPV and CRPV, however, ranged from 68% amino acid identity for L1 to only 23% identity for E4. Shared features unique to the two rabbit viruses included a large E6 ORF and a small E8 ORF that overlapped the E6 ORF. Serological responses to ROPV L1 viruslike particles (VLPs) were detected in rabbits infected at either the genital or oral mucosa with ROPV. The antibody response was specific to intact ROPV L1 VLP antigen, was first detected at the time of late regression, and persisted at high levels for several months after complete regression. Both oral and genital lesions regressed spontaneously, accompanied by a heavy infiltrate of lymphocytes. ROPV infection of rabbit genital mucosa is a useful model to study host immunological responses to genital papillomavirus infections.
Disseminated Infection Due to Mycobacterium avium Subsp. avium in an Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus)

Abstract: A disseminated infection caused by Mycobacterium avium subspecies avium (MAA) was diagnosed in a 57-yr-old male Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) housed at the Seoul Zoo, Gyeonggi, Republic of Korea. An apparent granulomatous inflammation with central caseous necrosis was evident in the lung sections. To confirm mycobacterial infection, polymerase chain reaction–restriction enzyme polymorphism analysis (PCR-RFLP) of the rpoB and hsp65 genes was performed from multiple organs and cultured bacteria. The PCR-RFLP revealed a M. avium subspecies. MAA was identified by multiplex PCR for detection of IS901 and IS1311. Thus, it is believed that MAA caused the disseminated infection in this case. Although the source of infection was not determined, the elephant may have become infected through contamination of soil and feed by free-living birds infected with MAA. This is the first reported case of disseminated infection due to MAA in a captive elephant in the Republic of Korea.
Role of microRNA in anticancer drug resistance

Chemotherapy has been widely used in treatment of cancer, both as systemic therapy and as part of local treatment. Unfortunately, many kinds of cancer are still refractory to chemotherapy. The anticancer drug resistance mechanisms have been extensively explored, yet have not been fully characterized. Recent works have underlined the involvement of noncoding RNAs in cancer development, with several studies regarding their possible involvement in the evolution of drug resistance. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenous small noncoding RNAs (20–23 nucleotides) that negatively regulate the gene expressions at the post‐transcriptional level by base pairing to the 3′ untranslated region of target messenger RNAs. Evidence is emerging that particular microRNAs (miRNA) alterations are involved in the initiation and progression of human cancer. More recently, accumulating evidence is revealing an important role of miRNAs in anticancer drug resistance and miRNA expression profiling can be correlated with the development of anticancer drug resistance. The micro‐RNA‐mediated form of drug resistance adds yet another mechanism of drug resistance. So, exploiting the emerging knowledge of miRNAs for the development of new human therapeutic applications for overcoming anticancer drug resistance will be important.
Evidence-based evaluation of benefits in therapeutic interventions: methodologically controlled and non-randomly assigned reflections on the number needed to treat.

BACKGROUND The number needed to treat (NNT), calculated as the reciprocal of the absolute risk reduction, is a parameter that provides quantitative information on the efficacy of therapeutic interventions. The introduction of this parameter was provoked by the demonstration that physicians were not too familiar with the percentage expressions of risk reduction, but preferred, in assessing the efficacy of a treatment in the context of a clinical trial, numbers that directly indicated patients. DESCRIPTION Although the results of the evolution in the concept of the NNT have been available for various years, the diffusion of such parameters is still poor. The frequency of explicit reporting of the NNT in the published randomized controlled trials of five major biomedical journals has been recently assessed. This review has shown that in 359 eligible papers, the NNT was recorded in only eight articles. This represents a major drawback of biomedical literature, since the NNT allows health operators to understand how much effort is needed to prevent a given event. CONCLUSIONS The NNT represents a measure of immediate and major clinical impact, and should always be reported, when appropriate, as an expression of the results of clinical trials. As a single number, it cannot stand alone as the sole justification for including a new treatment in the therapeutic armamentarium; still, it should be seen as an indicator by means of which the same treatment may be critically considered. It seems therefore appropriate to require that authors publishing results of clinical trials should provide readers with the information necessary to allow them to make responsible decisions; in this case, adopting the useful tool constituted by the NNT.
The Impact of Exchange Rate Volatility on Us Direct Investment

In this paper we examine the impact of the level of the exchange rate, volatility in the exchange rate and exchange rate expectations on outward US foreign direct investment in 12 developed countries and inward foreign direct investment to the USA from those countries for the period from 1983 to 1995. In our empirical analysis we find no evidence for an effect of exchange rate variation on either US outward investment or inward investment in the USA. This result is robust to a number of different estimation procedures. As regards the level of the exchange rate we find a positive relationship between US outward investment and appreciation in the host country currency while there is a negative relationship between US inward investment and appreciation in the dollar.
A threshold stochastic volatility model

This article introduces a new model to capture simultaneously the mean and variance asymmetries in time series. Threshold non-linearity is incorporated into the mean and variance specifications of a stochastic volatility model. Bayesian methods are adopted for parameter estimation. Forecasts of volatility and Value-at-Risk can also be obtained by sampling from suitable predictive distributions. Simulations demonstrate that the apparent variance asymmetry documented in the literature can be due to the neglect of mean asymmetry. Strong evidence of the mean and variance asymmetries was detected in U.S. and Hong Kong data. Asymmetry in the variance persistence was also discovered in the Hong Kong stock market. Copyright © 2002 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A Non-Linear Control Algorithm for a DC Servo Tracking System with Friction

Friction, especially its nonlinear components, may degrade the tracking performance of any servo drive systems. Focused on high precision positioning of DC electrical drive with friction the paper proposes a non linear control algorithm developed around an input-output linearization by state feedback. The feedback linearization controller aims to minimize the tracking error for the positioning DC drive considered, assuming micrometer scale for reference trajectories within the friction zero dynamics behavior prevails. Numerical simulation results concerning the tracking errors for large range of reference test signals, including the micrometer scale, are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of feedback linearization controller.
Optimal dividend problems for a jump-diffusion model with capital injections and proportional transaction costs

In this paper, we study the optimal control problem for a company whose surplus process evolves as an upward jump diffusion with random return on investment. Three types of practical optimization problems faced by a company that can control its liquid reserves by paying dividends and injecting capital. In the first problem, we consider the classical dividend problem without capital injections. The second problem aims at maximizing the expected discounted dividend payments minus the expected discounted costs of capital injections over strategies with positive surplus at all times. The third problem has the same objective as the second one, but without the constraints on capital injections. Under the assumption of proportional transaction costs, we identify the value function and the optimal strategies for any distribution of gains.
Meeting the challenge of the work-life balance in the South African workplace

The work-life balance (WLB) construct as a business imperative has been of growing concern in organisations outside South Africa for the past two decades, particularly given the pressure to create a sustainable global competitive advantage through human capital. Within the last decade this aspect has been prominent in various forums. However, no studies as yet provide insight into the applicability of WLB models to the South African workplace. The present article therefore explores the composition of a WLB system, and analyses constraints on its application under the conditions of the South African labour market.
Morphology of retinogeniculate axons in the macaque

Abstract The size, pattern of terminal arborizations, and laminar specificity of individual retinogeniculate axons were studied in the macaque following injections of HRP into the optic tract. Axons that terminated in the magnocellular layers had significantly larger fiber diameters and wider terminal fields than those that terminated in the parvocellular layers. Terminal fields of magnocellular fibers spanned most of the width of their target layer, whereas those of parvocellular fibers were restricted to approximately one-half the width of their target layers; almost all terminal fields were oriented along lines of projection. All of the optic tract fibers that we examined terminated in only one layer of the lateral geniculate nucleus (GL), including a population of fine caliber fibers that project to the intercalated layers, and none had collateral projections outside the GL. The results suggest that each layer – magnocellular, parvocellular, and intercalated – receives projections from a morphologically distinct population of optic tract fibers.