Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The membrane attack complex of complement contributes to plasmin‐induced synthesis of platelet‐activating factor by endothelial cells and neutrophils

Thrombolytic agents, used to restore blood flow to ischaemic tissues, activate several enzymatic systems with pro‐inflammatory effects, thus potentially contributing to the pathogenesis of ischaemia–reperfusion injury. Platelet‐activating factor (PAF), a phospholipid mediator of inflammation, has been implicated in the pathogenesis of this process. We previously showed that the infusion of streptokinase (SK) induces the intravascular release of PAF in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI), and that cultured human endothelial cells (EC) synthesized PAF in response to SK and plasmin (PLN). In the present study, we investigated the role of the membrane attack complex (MAC) of complement in the PLN‐induced synthesis of PAF. In vivo, we showed a correlation between the levels of soluble terminal complement components (sC5b‐9) and the concentrations of PAF detected in blood of patients with AMI infused with SK. In vitro both EC and polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN), incubated in the presence of PLN and normal human serum, showed an intense staining for the MAC neoepitope, while no staining was detected when they were incubated with PLN in the presence of heat‐inactivated normal human serum. Moreover, the insertion of MAC on EC and PMN plasmamembrane elicited the synthesis of PAF. In conclusion, our results elucidate the mechanisms involved in PAF production during the activation of the fibrinolytic system, showing a role for complement products in this setting. The release of PAF may increase the inflammatory response, thus limiting the beneficial effects of thrombolytic therapy. Moreover, it may have a pathogenic role in other pathological conditions, such as transplant rejection, tumoral angiogenesis, and septic shock, where fibrinolysis is activated.
Psychosocial Predictors of Outcome in Acute and Subchronic Low Back Trouble

Study Design A prospective survey of patients seeking primary care for low back pain. Clinical and psychosocial data, available at presentation, were explored for predictors of outcome at 1 year. Objectives To determine the relative value of clinical and psychosocial variables for early identification of patients with a poor prognosis. Summary of Background Data Current treatment strategies for low back pain have failed to stem the rising levels of disability. Psychosocial factors have been shown to be important determinants of response to therapy in chronic patients, but the contribution from similar data in acute or subchronic patients has not been comprehensively investigated. Methods Two hundred fifty-two patients with low back pain, presenting to primary care, underwent a structured clinical interview and completed a battery of psychosocial instruments. Follow-up was done by mail at 1 year; outcome was measured using a back pain disability questionnaire. Predictive relationships were sought between the data at presentation and disability at follow-up. Results Most patients showed improved disability and pain scores, although more than half had persisting symptoms. Eighteen percent showed significant psychological distress at presentation. Multiple regression analysis showed the level of persisting disability to depend principally on measures in the psychosocial domain; for acute cases outcome is also dependent on the absence or presence of a previous history of low back trouble. Discriminant models successfully allocated typically 76% of cases to recovered/not-recovered groups, largely on the basis of psychosocial factors evident at presentation. Conclusions Early identification of psychosocial problems is important in understanding, and hopefully preventing, the progression to chronicity in low back trouble.
Handling and storing medicines on beef and dairy farms

Veterinary medicines that are stored on the majority of UK farms include antimicrobials, anthelmintics, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and vaccines. All prescription veterinary medicines have storage requirements as directed on the datasheet or summary of product characteristics (SPC) and there are also specific instructions for how, when and where medicines should be administered. Vaccines often have storage and handling instructions on the SPC in addition to those applied to other medications; most also require maintenance of the ‘cold chain’ consistently between 2 and 8°C and have short shelf lives (usually hours) once bottles have been broached. This article highlights areas where the on-farm handling and storage of medicines (particularly vaccines) could be improved and provides suggestions for how veterinary practices can support clients to ensure that medicines are used to their maximum benefit.
Hayek’s Pure Theory of Capital

The Elgar Companion to Hayekian Economics provides an in-depth treatment of Friedrich August von Hayek’s economic thought from his technical economics of the 1920s and 1930s to his broader views on the spontaneous order of a free society. Taken together, the chapters show evidence both of continuity of thought and of significant changes in focus.
Pendelentfernung, Lebenszufriedenheit und Entlohnung

Zusammenfassung: Der Beitrag thematisiert den Einfluss der Pendelmobilitat auf die allgemeine Lebenszufriedenheit. Zur genauen Beurteilung der Mobilitatseffekte prufen die Analysen zudem den Effekt der Pendelentfernung auf das Einkommen sowie die Zufriedenheit mit der Wohnung und der beruflichen Situation. Die Untersuchung der Zusammenhange beruht auf Langsschnittdaten des Sozio-oekonomischen Panels (SOEP) von 1998–2009 und den Indikatoren und Karten zur Raum- und Stadtentwicklung (INKAR). Fixed-Effects-Modelle zeigen einen geringen, aber robusten negativen Effekt des Pendelns auf die allgemeine Lebenszufriedenheit abhangig Beschaftigter. Zugleich bestatigen die Analysen den positiven Zusammenhang zwischen Pendelentfernung und Einkommen. Die Zufriedenheit mit der Wohn- und Arbeitssituation wird durch die Entfernung zwischen dem Wohn- und Arbeitsort hingegen nicht beeinflusst. Pendelmobilitat zahlt sich also finanziell aus, senkt jedoch die allgemeine Lebenszufriedenheit. Schlagworte: Pendelmobilitat; Lebenszufriedenheit; Raumliche Kontextfaktoren; SOEP; INKAR. Summary: This paper examines the effect of commuting on life satisfaction. In order to evaluate the consequences of commuting, additional models test the effects of commuting on wages as well as satisfaction with both the work and the residential situation. The empirical analysis is based on longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) for the period 1998–2009 and the Indicators and Maps on Spatial Development (INKAR) of the (German) Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs, and Spatial Development. Fixed-effects models reveal a small but robust negative effect of commuting on life satisfaction. Furthermore, the results prove the expected positive relationship between commuting distance and earnings. Job and housing satisfaction are, however, not influenced by the distance between work and home. Consequently, commuting pays off financially but adversely affects life satisfaction.
Detecting Modifications in Printed Circuit Boards from Fuel Pump Controllers

Frauds involving illegal modifications to the printed circuit boards from fuel pump controllers are a serious problem, which not only harms customers, but also connects to other crimes, such as money laundering and tax evasion. The current state-of-practice for inspecting these boards is a visual analysis performed by a human. In this paper, we introduce an image-based approach that can provide support to the human inspector by aumoatically detecting suspicious regions in the boards. The proposed approach aligns a photograph of the inspected board to a reference view, partitions the image in sub-regions, extracts features using a variation of the popular Scale-Invariant Feature Transform, classifies the features against previously trained Support Vector Machines, and integrates the results for presentation. In experiments performed on a dataset containing 649 images from a board, with and without modifications, our approach achieved a precision of 0.7739, a recall of 0.9434, and an F-measure 0.8503. These results indicate that our approach can effectively identify suspicious regions, providing invaluable help to the human inspector.
Altered Profile of Circulating Endothelial-Derived Microparticles in Ventilator-Induced Lung Injury*

Objectives:Pulmonary endothelial cell injury is central to the pathophysiology of acute lung injury. Mechanical ventilation can cause endothelial disruption and injury, even in the absence of preexisting inflammation. Platelet-endothelial cell adhesion molecule-1 is a transmembrane protein connecting adjacent endothelial cells. We hypothesized that injurious mechanical ventilation will increase circulating lung endothelial-derived microparticles, defined as microparticles positive for platelet-endothelial cell adhesion molecule-1, which could serve as potential biomarkers and mediators of ventilator-induced lung injury. Design:Prospective randomized, controlled, animal investigation. Setting:A hospital preclinical animal laboratory. Subjects:Forty-eight Sprague-Dawley rats. Interventions:Animals were randomly allocated to one of the three following ventilatory protocols for 4 hours: spontaneous breathing (control group), mechanical ventilation with low tidal volume (6 mL/kg), and mechanical ventilation with high tidal volume (20 mL/kg). In both mechanical ventilation groups, positive end-expiratory pressure of 2 cm H2O was applied. Measurements and Main Results:We analyzed histologic lung damage, gas exchange, wet-to-dry lung weight ratio, serum cytokines levels, circulating endothelial-derived microparticles, platelet-endothelial cell adhesion molecule-1 lung protein content, and immunohistochemistry. When compared with low–tidal volume mechanical ventilation, high–tidal volume ventilation increased lung edema score and caused gas-exchange deterioration. These changes were associated with a marked increased of circulating endothelial-derived microparticles and a reduction of platelet-endothelial cell adhesion molecule-1 protein levels in the high–tidal volume lungs (p < 0.0001). Conclusions:There is an endothelial-derived microparticle profile associated with disease-specific features of ventilator-induced lung injury. This profile could serve both as a biomarker of acute lung injury and, potentially, as a mediator of systemic propagation of pulmonary inflammatory response.
Lower extremity flexibility patterns in classical ballet dancers and their correlation to lateral hip and knee injuries

Knee and hip problems account for up to 40% of injuries in classical ballet. Despite apparent flexibility, many dancers appeared to have tight iliotibial bands that contributed to lower limb problems. Thirty senior female ballet dancers were contrasted with thirty age-matched active volunteers for hip and knee range of motion, and the information derived was correlated with their ortho paedic medical histories. Dancers spent a reasonable period of time warming up, but it was usually with an unbalanced routine that emphasized hip abduction and external rotation to the exclusion of adduction work. This was reflected in the significantly lower range of passive hip adduction and internal rotation compared to the controls. Furthermore, the older and more ex perienced the dancer, the more this trend was exag gerated. This unbalanced flexibility may play a role in the production of lateral knee pain (30% of the dancers) and anterior hip pain (33% of the dancers). It is sug gested that more attention should be given to a bal anced stretching regimen as part of the dancers' war mup in an effort to reduce the frequency of some of the chronic hip and knee complaints.
Current-Reused 2.4-GHz Direct-Modulation Transmitter With On-Chip Automatic Tuning

This paper presents the design, analysis, and experimental verification of a self-calibrating current-reused 2.4-GHz direct-modulation transmitter for short-range wireless applications. The key contributions are the design/analysis of a stacked power amplifier (PA)/voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) architecture, the nonlinear frequency-dependent analysis of a Gilbert-cell-based root-mean-square detector, and an on-chip LC-tank calibration circuit that needs no analog-to-digital convertor (ADC)/digital signal processor. The stacked architecture reduces the number of required regulators, utilizes supply headroom effectively, and allows for an “ADC-less” calibration loop that can dynamically tune the PA center frequency by sensing the transmitted signal. The very nature of direct-modulation architecture obviates additional high-purity signal generators, reducing complexity and allowing online calibration. The system was implemented in TSMC 0.18 μm CMOS, occupies 0.7 mm2 (TX)+0.1 mm2 (self-tuning), and was measured in a QFN48 package on an FR4 PCB. Automatically correcting PA/VCO tank misalignment in this case yielded >4 dB increase in output power. With the automatic tuning active, the transmitter delivers a measured output power >0 dBm to a 100-Ω differential load, and the system consumes 22.9 mA from a 1.8-V core-circuit supply.
Changes in public attitudes to depression during the Defeat Depression Campaign

Background Aims of the Defeat Depression Campaign between 1991 and 1996 included the reduction of stigma associated with depression, education of the public about the disorder and its treatment and encouragement of earlier treatment-seeking. Newspaper and magazine articles, radio and television programmes and other media activities were employed. Method Surveys of public attitudes were conducted by MORI in late 1991, early 1995 and mid-1997. Each covered approximately 2000 subjects, sampled to be representative of the population of Great Britain. Structured interviews covered views on depression, treatment and general practitioners (GPs). Results There were significant positive changes regarding attitudes to depression, reported experience of it, attitudes to antidepressants, and less consistently, to treatment from GPs. Changes were of the order of 5–10%. Throughout, attitudes to depression and to treatment by counselling were very favourable, whereas antidepressants were regarded as addictive and less effective. Conclusions Positive attitude change was achieved during the Campaign, although there is still room for improvement in some aspects.
Adaptive H∞ formation control for infinite-dimensional systems

Design methods of adaptive H∞ formation control of multi-agent systems composed of a class of infinite-dimensional systems are presented in this paper. The proposed control schemes are derived as solutions of certain H∞ control problems, where artificial error terms added to potential functions, and the effects of neglected infinite-dimensional modes are regarded as external disturbances to the processes. It is shown that the resulting control systems are robust to uncertain system parameters and that the desirable formations are achieved approximately via adaptation schemes.
Winner versus Loser: Time-Varying Performance And Dynamic Conditional Correlation

Using multi-factor models in OLS and GARCH-M methodology, this paper provides a cross-sectional and time-series investigation of conditional and unconditional expected returns of real REITs index momentum portfolios against real estate property, large-cap stock small-cap stock, and bond index in USA. The expected returns and dynamic conditional correlations between REITs and those of other financial and tangible assets vary in period 1989-2010. REITs returns exhibit a higher correlation with up move of financial market, but a lower correlation in market downturns. REITs may possibly provide diversification benefits to multi-asset investment portfolio. We find that the performances of momentum returns are different from the NAREIT index, and display asymmetric volatility as well. Additionally, we find evidence that REITs momentum returns are varying between winner and loser by Wald test. The results of regressions also indicate that REITs return exhibits the greater sensitivity to large- and small-cap stock index, and less closely with those of bond and real estate index. The results also suggest that REITs not be viewed as a complete substitute for investment in tangible property of real estate.
Optical imaging of human epileptogenic tissues in vitro

Epilepsy is a chronic disorder characterized by abnormal spatiotemporal neural activities. To clarify its physiological mechanisms and associated morphological features, we investigated neuronal activities using the flavoprotein fluorescence imaging technique and histopathological changes in epileptogenic tissue resected from patients with epilepsy. We applied an imaging technique suitable for examining human brain slices, and as a consequence achieved sufficient responses with high reproducibility. Moreover, we detected significant alterations in neuronal morphology associated with the acquired responses. Therefore, this strategy is useful for gaining a better understanding of the pathomechanisms underlying intractable epilepsy.
an and murine Hoxa-7 gene specifies the uring embryonal development

Homeobox-containing genes encode DNA-binding proteins, which are highly conserved throughout evolution and function as transcriptional regulators. Homeotic genes were first identified in Drosophila melanogaster and a causal linkage between the expression of these genes and the identity of segmental units has been established (Akam et al., 1988). In higher vertebrates the 38 Hox genes correspond both functionally and structurally to the homeotic genes of Drosophila. They are organised in four separate gene clusters and are assumed to have arisen by duplication and expansion of an ancestral complex (Kappa et al., 1993; Schubert et al., 1993). Hox genes are expressed in mesoderm and neuroectoderm in nonidentical, overlapping domains (Kessel and Gruss, 1990; McGinnis and Krumlauf, 1992). The distinct combination of expressed Hox genes in segments along an anterior-posterior axis was defined as the Hox code (Hunt et al., 1991; Kessel and Gruss, 1991). The functional significance of the Hox code in the specification of positional identities during development in vertebrates was established by ectopic expression of Hox genes (Balling et al., 1989; Kessel et al., 1990; Lufkin et al., 1992; Morgan et al., 1992), by the introduction of loss of function mutants (Chisaka and Capecchi, 1991; Chisaka et al., 1992; Lufkin et al., 1991), in vivo modulation of Hox genes by retinoic acid (Kessel, 1992, 1993; Kessel and Gruss, 1991) and transplantation experiments (Guthrie et al., 1992). In invertebrates and in vertebrates there is a direct relationDevelopm Printed in
Pedometer assessed physical activity of people with metabolic syndrome in Poland.

INTRODUCTION Metabolic syndrome is a contemporary disease of civilization, an effect of lack of healthy behaviour, a consequence of lifestyle devoid of physical activity, eating poor quality food rich in calories and excessive stress. Apart from a proper diet, physical activity remains an important part of metabolic syndrome management. OBJECTIVE The main objective of the work was to evaluate the physical activity of an adult population of patients with metabolic syndrome. materials and method. Adults aged 35-70 fulfilling the criteria of metabolic syndrome according to International Diabetes Federation (IDF) were included. New Lifestyles NL-2000 pedometers were used to assess locomotive physical activity during an entire week. RESULTS In the group of 100 subjects, as many as 61 people (61%) represented low or sedentary activity, while nearly one fourth of the respondents - 23 (32%) represented the negligible activity type. Average weekly physical activity of those in the study was 6,743 steps/day (in 100 individuals) and ranged from 1,781-15,169. A great diversity was found in the study group, since the highest number of steps per day was 23,347 and the lowest - 409. No significant differences in the number of steps on weekdays and at weekends were observed (mean: 6,676/day and 6,913/day, respectively). A statistically significant negative correlation (r = -0.29) was observed between age and physical activity, between the average daily number of steps in the week and Waist Hip Ratio (WHR) (r = 0.201), as well as between the average daily number of steps in the week and Body Mass Index (BMI) (r = 0.226). CONCLUSIONS The majority of people with metabolic syndrome represent a low or sedentary activity type and decrease of physical activity corresponds to increasing age, BMI and WHR. No significant differences in physical activity are observed between working days and free days (weekends).
Kinetics and temperature dependence of exposure of endocytosed material to proteolytic enzymes and low pH: Evidence for a maturation model for the formation of lysosomes

The temperature dependence of acidification of internalized dextran by Swiss 3T3 cells was determined using dual fluorescence flow cytometry. Essentially no acidification was observed at 11°C; acidification was limited to pH 6–6.5 at temperatures between 13°C and 17°C. In contrast, a rapid drop to pH 6–6.5 followed by acidification to pH 5–5.5 was observed at temperatures above 19°C. These results confirm the biphasic nature of the acidification process (J. Cell Biol. (1984) 98:1757–1762). The timing of exposure of material internalized by fluid‐phase endocytosis to lysosomal enzymes was determined for Swiss 3T3 cells by using a fluorogenic substrate specific for Cathepsin B. Hydrolysis of the substrate, as measured by both fluorometry and flow cytometry, began within minutes of its addition to cells at 37°C, and was inhibited by coincubation with leupeptin, a competitive inhibitor of the enzyme, or by weak bases, which raise the pH of acidic compartments. At temperatures between 13° and 21°C, the rate of hydrolysis was reduced to 31–44% of that at 37°C. Thus, in contrast to previous reports, exposure of endocytosed material to at least one lysosomal enzyme is not inhibited below 20°C; the reduction in hydrolysis rate may be explained by the temperature effects on the efficiency of the enzyme. The results for acidification and proteolysis are consistent with, but do not prove, a maturation model for the formation of lysosomes. We suggest that at lower temperatures, part of the maturation involving recycling and/or concentration of the contents of the endosome is inhibited. This causes the endosome to remain as a mildly acidic, low‐density organelle containing lysosomal enzymes.