Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of renal impairment on the pharmacokinetics of the GLP-1 analogue liraglutide.

WHAT IS ALREADY KNOWN ABOUT THIS SUBJECT * Patients with Type 2 diabetes are likely to have or to develop renal impairment, which affects the pharmacokinetics of some antidiabetic treatments. * Whether dosing of the once-daily human glucagon-like peptide-1 analogue liraglutide should be modified in patients with renal impairment has not previously been studied. WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS * Renal dysfunction was not found to increase the exposure of liraglutide. * Hence, no dose adjustment is expected to be required in patients with Type 2 diabetes and renal impairment treated with liraglutide. AIMS To investigate whether dose adjustment of the once-daily human glucagon-like peptide-1 analogue liraglutide is required in patients with varying stages of renal impairment. METHODS A cohort of 30 subjects, of whom 24 had varying degrees of renal impairment and six had normal renal function, were given a single dose of liraglutide, 0.75 mg subcutaneously, and completed serial blood sampling for plasma liraglutide measurements for pharmacokinetic estimation. RESULTS No clear trend for change in pharmacokinetics was evident across groups with increasing renal dysfunction. While the between-group comparisons of the area under the liraglutide concentration-curve (AUC) did not demonstrate equivalence [estimated ratio AUC(severe)/AUC(healthy) 0.73, 90% confidence interval (CI) 0.57, 0.94; and AUC (continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis)(CAPD)/AUC(healthy) 0.74, 90% CI 0.56, 0.97], the regression analysis of log(AUC) for subjects with normal renal function and mild-to-severe renal impairment showed no significant effect of decreasing creatinine clearance on the pharmacokinetics of liraglutide. The expected AUC ratio between the two subjects with the lowest and highest creatinine clearance in the study was estimated to be 0.88 (95% CI 0.58, 1.34) (NS). Degree of renal impairment did not appear to be associated with an increased risk of adverse events. CONCLUSIONS This study indicated no safety concerns regarding use of liraglutide in patients with renal impairment. Renal dysfunction was not found to increase exposure of liraglutide, and patients with Type 2 diabetes and renal impairment should use standard treatment regimens of liraglutide. There is, however, currently limited experience with liraglutide in patients beyond mild-stage renal disease.
Researching English as a Lingua Franca in Asia: the Asian Corpus of English (ACE) project

Abstract The major role of English in Asia today is as a lingua franca. English is the de facto lingua franca of the grouping of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and with the signing of the ASEAN Charter in February 2009 assumed official status as the sole working language of ASEAN. English is also the working language of the extended grouping known as ASEAN + 3, which includes the ten states of ASEAN plus China, Japan and Korea. To date, however, little research has been done into English as a lingua franca in Asia. In this article I shall describe the Asian Corpus of English (ACE) project in which a number of teams across East and Southeast Asia are collaborating. Our aim is to compile a million-word corpus of naturally occurring, spoken, interactive English being used as a lingua franca in Asia. A team led by Professor Seidlhofer of the University of Vienna has just completed the VOICE corpus, a million-word corpus of European ELF. The Asian ELF team will ensure, as far as possible, that the Asian corpus is comparable with the VOICE corpus, in order to enable researchers to compare the features and use of Asian ELF with those of European ELF.
Perturbation Analysis of Nonlinear Propagation in a Strongly Dispersive Optical Communication System

We discuss an analytical model that predicts the impact of the Kerr nonlinearity in optical communication systems when the signal spectrum is wide and the accumulated dispersion during propagation is large. A detailed derivation of this model is given for a generalized system by means of a perturbation analysis of the Manakov equation with attenuation, gain, and third order dispersion included. As in the case with previous studies, three simplifying assumptions are necessary. These are that (i) the nonlinearity is weak, (ii) the input signal is of a given specific form, and (iii) the signal-noise interaction can be neglected. Under these assumptions, the result is found exactly. We also discuss the accuracy of the analytical result and show that third order dispersion has a small impact in practice.
Knowledge transfer in international educational collaboration programme

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review the literature of international development strategy of high education and examine what is happening currently in terms of education collaboration between the UK and China and attempt to address various challenges in capacity building through knowledge transfer.Design/methodology/approach – Theoretical analysis supported by observation and interviews.Findings – The study has identified that there are a certain number of elements, which are crucial to the success of international educational collaboration, of which, the appropriateness and effectiveness of knowledge transfer/knowledge sharing is vital to the capacity building of higher educational institutions. The study examines on‐going Sino‐British education collaboration programme and fuelled the debate concerning knowledge transfer/knowledge sharing in high education between the developed and developing countries.Originality/value – Based on a comprehensive examination and analysis of the process of kno.
AN EMPIRICAL MODEL OF CAPACITY EXPANSION AND PRICING IN AN OLIGOPOLY WITH BAROMETRIC PRICE LEADERSHIP: A CASE STUDY OF THE NEWSPRINT INDUSTRY IN NORTH AMERICA*

The weak form of oligopolistic coordination in pricing and capacity expansion of the North American newsprint industry is examined. A dynamic model consisting of demand, price, and regional capacity equations is estimated for the years 1965 to 1986. The reference price in the industry is hypothesized to be based on either adjusted full-cost pricing or mark-up over marginal cost pricing. Neither hypothesis was rejected, confirming that either pricing rule better describes industry practices than marginal cost pricing. The determinant of mark-up levels was the industry operating rate. The model also showed that capacity expansion was negatively related to the concentration ratio. Coauthors are V. Kanetkar, I. Vertinsky, and D. Whistler. Copyright 1991 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
[Effects of Hedyotis diffusa Willd injection on the proliferation of RPMI 8226 cells].

OBJECTIVE To explore the inhibition of Hedyotis diffusa Willd Injection (HDI) on the proliferation of RPMI 8226 cells and its mechanisms. METHODS The inhibition of HDI on the proliferation of RPMI 8226 cells was detected by MTT and the drug concentrations for further researches were screened out. The apoptosis rate was detected using Annexin V-PI of flow cytometry. The cell cycle distribution was detected by PI. The expressions of adhesion molecule FITC-CD44 and PE-CD49d were detected. The IL-6 and VEGF concentrations of cell supernatants were tested by ELISA. The mRNA expressions of Bax, Bcl-2, Caspase-3, Survivin, IL-6, and VEGF were detected by RT-PCR. RESULTS HDI could inhibit the proliferation of RPMI 8226 cells. Meanwhile, it induced their early apoptosis, arresting them at G1 phase in a concentration-dependent manner. The VEGF concentrations were down-regulated after acted by 0, 20, 40, and 60 microL/mL HDI in a dose-dependent manner (P< 0.01). The IL-6 content increased (P<0.01). The expressions of CD44 and CD49d were up-regulated in a concentration-dependent manner. After acted by 40 microL/mL HDI, the Survivin mRNA level was significantly downregulated (P<0.01), the mRNA levels of Bcl-2, IL-6, and VEGF were significantly up-regulated (P<0.01), but the up-regulation of Bax and Caspase-3 mRNA levels were not so obvious (P>0.05). CONCLUSIONS HDI could inhibit the proliferation of RPMI 8226 cells. Its mechanisms might be correlated with early apoptosis induction, G1 phase arresting, VEGF secretion lowering, and Survivin mRNA transcription level down-regulating.
Shared Infrastructure Power Saving for Solar Powered IEEE 802.11 WLAN Mesh Networks

Solar powered WLAN infrastructure is a cost effective option in outdoor deployments where continuous power sources are not practical. In these nodes the cost of the solar panel and battery can be a significant fraction of the total, and therefore reducing access point power consumption is very important. In this type of network, peak bandwidth requirements may not be satisfied by a single access point radio, even though long term average bandwidth requirements may be very low. In this case multiple radio APs or overlapped AP coverage deployment is required to meet this peak demand. When this happens the long term power consumption of the nodes can be reduced by implementing shared dynamic power saving between the WLAN mesh nodes. In this paper we propose and evaluate two algorithms for efficiently activating the solar powered infrastructure when additional bandwidth is needed. The algorithms are designed to be compatible with the existing IEEE 802.11 standard and include conventional load balancing when more than one AP is active in a given coverage area. We demonstrate that the proposed algorithms can significantly reduce the power consumption of the shared solar powered infrastructure.
Arterial stiffness.

BACKGROUND Arterial stiffness is an important determinant of pulse pressure, and of left ventricular load and coronary perfusion pressure. ASSESSMENTS OF STIFFNESS Precise quantification is elusive, since stiffness is different in different arteries and even in the same artery at different pressures. Proximal elastic arteries and peripheral muscular arteries respond differently to aging change and to drugs. Various other terms are used to express stiffness, such as distensibility and compliance. Various indirect indices are also used, including pulse wave velocity, characteristic impedance and augmentation index. INCREASES IN STIFFNESS While the literature is confusing, it is well established that stiffness of central arteries increases with aging and with elevated blood pressure. Effects of other diseases and of vasoactive agents are less clear-cut.
Expanding Motor Skills through Relay Neural Networks

While the recent advances in deep reinforcement learning have achieved impressive results in learning motor skills, many of the trained policies are only capable within a limited set of initial states. We propose a technique to break down a complex robotic task to simpler subtasks and train them sequentially such that the robot can expand its existing skill set gradually. Our key idea is to build a tree of local control policies represented by neural networks, which we refer as Relay Neural Networks. Starting from the root policy that attempts to achieve the task from a small set of initial states, each subsequent policy expands the set of successful initial states by driving the new states to existing "good" states. Our algorithm utilizes the value function of the policy to determine whether a state is "good" under each policy. We take advantage of many existing policy search algorithms that learn the value function simultaneously with the policy, such as those that use actor-critic representations or those that use the advantage function to reduce variance. We demonstrate that the relay networks can solve complex continuous control problems for underactuated dynamic systems.
Inquiry-based Learning in China: Lesson learned for School Science Practices

Inquiry-based learning is widely considered for science education in this era. This study aims to explore inquiry-based learning in teacher preparation program and the findings will help us to understanding what inquiry-based classroom is and how inquiry-based learning are. Data were collected by qualitative methods; classroom observation, videotape recording, photography, and interview were employed during time of visiting Guangxi Normal University, China. The results can be explained in terms of lesson learned for school science practice of inquiry-based learning and pedagogical strategies. It can be understandable, simply to incorporate for general science classroom, and also be implied to inquiry-based instructional practices.
Comment réduire la sous-évaluation lors de l'introduction en bourse?

(VF)La valorisation des entreprises introduites en bourse s'opere dans un contexte d'incertitude et d'asymetrie d'information. Il en resulte frequemment une sous-evaluation a l'introduction:les emetteurs diffusent les actions dans le public a un prix plus faible que le "juste" prix. Cette sous-evaluation peut etre reduite par la divulgation d'informations pertinentes dans les prospectus et par la certification de ces informations par des intermediaires jouissant d'une bonne reputation. (VA) Valorisation of firms going public takes place in a context of uncertainty and information asymmetry. This frequently implies IPO underpricing:the issuers sell shares to the public at a lower price than the "true value". This underpricing can be reduced by the disclosure of relevant information in the prospectus and by certification of these information by prestigious underwriters and auditors.
Current Perspectives on Ophthalmic Mycoses

SUMMARY Fungi may infect the cornea, orbit and other ocular structures. Species of Fusarium, Aspergillus, Candida, dematiaceous fungi, and Scedosporium predominate. Diagnosis is aided by recognition of typical clinical features and by direct microscopic detection of fungi in scrapes, biopsy specimens, and other samples. Culture confirms the diagnosis. Histopathological, immunohistochemical, or DNA-based tests may also be needed. Pathogenesis involves agent (invasiveness, toxigenicity) and host factors. Specific antifungal therapy is instituted as soon as the diagnosis is made. Amphotericin B by various routes is the mainstay of treatment for life-threatening and severe ophthalmic mycoses. Topical natamycin is usually the first choice for filamentous fungal keratitis, and topical amphotericin B is the first choice for yeast keratitis. Increasingly, the triazoles itraconazole and fluconazole are being evaluated as therapeutic options in ophthalmic mycoses. Medical therapy alone does not usually suffice for invasive fungal orbital infections, scleritis, and keratitis due to Fusarium spp. , Lasiodiplodia theobromae, and Pythium insidiosum. Surgical debridement is essential in orbital infections, while various surgical procedures may be required for other infections not responding to medical therapy. Corticosteroids are contraindicated in most ophthalmic mycoses; therefore, other methods are being sought to control inflammatory tissue damage. Fungal infections following ophthalmic surgical procedures, in patients with AIDS, and due to use of various ocular biomaterials are unique subsets of ophthalmic mycoses. Future research needs to focus on the development of rapid, species-specific diagnostic aids, broad-spectrum fungicidal compounds that are active by various routes, and therapeutic modalities which curtail the harmful effects of fungus- and host tissue-derived factors.
PUBLIC ENCOUNTERS: THE HISTORY AND FUTURE OF FACE‐TO‐FACE CONTACT BETWEEN PUBLIC PROFESSIONALS AND CITIZENS

Public encounters, face-to-face contact between public professionals and citizens, was first identified as a key issue in public administration 80 years ago, but never developed into a subject area of its own. Although receiving attention in research on street-level bureaucrats' contact with customers, clients, and citizens, the concept of public encounters is hardly used. However, it has great potential to overcome current limitations in understanding how public encounters can enhance the quality of services, decisions, and outcomes. This article traces the historical development of research on public encounters and sets a future agenda for developing it into a subject area of its own. The main argument is that, so far, the encounter, or ‘in-between’, has not been captured as a distinct phenomenon. A framework is developed to examine this in-between in terms of the everyday communicative practices and processes through which public professionals and citizens encounter each other.
The Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD). Part XIV

We made follow-up observations on 1,036 Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD) patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) enrolled in 21 university medical centers in the United States. Evaluations were scheduled annually for as long as 7 years; at the time of analysis, there were 332 deaths. The median duration of survival from time of entry into CERAD was 5.9 years (95% CI; 5.6 to 6.4 years). Factors independently affecting survival were sex, age, and severity of dementia as measured by the Clinical Dementia Rating scale and the Blessed Scale for activities of daily living. The median survival after entry was 5.7 years for men, compared with 7.2 years for women. For men age 70, 75, and 80 years, median survival times were 6.5, 5.5, and 4.4 years, values notably less than those for the general population. Neither race, education, nor marital status significantly affect survival. This large nationwide study confirms the fact that AD is associated with shorter survival, particularly in men, subjects age 70 or older, patients with greater impairment in daily activities of living, and those with more severe dementia.
Characterization of Physical Interactions of the Putative Transcriptional Adaptor, ADA2, with Acidic Activation Domains and TATA-binding Protein (*)

RNA polymerase II transcription requires functional interactions between activator proteins bound to upstream DNA sites and general factors bound to the core promoter. Accessory transcription factors, such as adaptors and coactivators, have important, but still unclear, roles in the activation process. We tested physical interactions of the putative adaptor ADA2 with activation domains derived from acidic activator proteins and with certain general transcription factors. ADA2 associated with the herpesvirus VP16 and yeast GCN4 activation domains but not with the activation domain of yeast HAP4, which previously was shown to be independent of ADA2 function in vivo and in vitro. Furthermore, the amino terminus of ADA2 directly interacted with the VP16 activation domain, suggesting that ADA2 provides determinants for interaction between activation domains and the adaptor complex. Both TATA-binding protein (TBP) and TFIIB have previously been shown to interact directly with the VP16 activation domain in vitro (Stringer, K. F., Ingles, C. J., and Greenblatt, J.(1990) Nature 345, 783-786; Lin, Y. S. , Ha, I. , Maldonado, E. , Reinberg, D. , and Green, M. R. (1991) Nature 353, 569-571). Interestingly, when binding was tested between VP16 and these general factors in yeast nuclear extracts, both factors interacted with VP16, but only the TBP/VP16 association was dependent on ADA2. In addition, ADA2 physically associated with TBP, but not with TFIIB. These results suggest that the role of ADA2 in transcriptional activation is to promote physical interaction between activation domains and TBP.
Activins, Inhibins, and Follistatins: From Endocrinology to Signaling. A Paradigm for the New Millennium

It has been 70 years since the name inhibin was used to describe a gonadal factor that negatively regulated pituitary hormone secretion. The majority of this period was required to achieve purification and definitive characterization of inhibin, an event closely followed by identification and characterization of activin and follistatin (FS). In contrast, the last 15–20 years saw a virtual explosion of information regarding the biochemistry, physiology, and biosynthesis of these proteins, as well as identification of activin receptors, and a unique mechanism for FS action—the nearly irreversible binding and neutralization of activin. Many of these discoveries have been previously summarized; therefore, this review will cover the period from the mid 1990s to present, with particular emphasis on emerging themes and recent advances. As the field has matured, recent efforts have focused more on human studies, so the endocrinology of inhibin, activin, and FS in the human is summarized first. Another area receiving significant recent attention is local actions of activin and its regulation by both FS and inhibin. Because activin and FS are produced in many tissues, we chose to focus on a few particular examples with the most extensive experimental support, the pituitary and the developing follicle, although nonreproductive actions of activin and FS are also discussed. At the cellular level, it now seems that activin acts largely as an autocrine and/or paracrine growth factor, similar to other members of the transforming growh factor β superfamily. As we discuss in the next section, its actions are regulated extracellularly by both inhibin and FS. In the final section, intracellular mediators and modulators of activin signaling are reviewed in detail. Many of these are shared with other transforming growh factor β superfamily members as well as unrelated molecules, and in a number of cases, their physiological relevance to activin signal propagation remains to be elucidated. Nevertheless, taken together, recent findings suggest that it may be more appropriate to consider a new paradigm for inhibin, activin, and FS in which activin signaling is regulated extracellularly by both inhibin and FS whereas a number of intracellular proteins act to modulate cellular responses to these activin signals. It is therefore the balance between activin and all of its modulators, rather than the actions of any one component, that determines the final biological outcome. As technology and model systems become more sophisticated in the next few years, it should become possible to test this concept directly to more clearly define the role of activin, inhibin, and FS in reproductive physiology.
Water savings or water efficiency? Water-use attitudes and behaviour in rural and regional areas

Drought conditions in southwest Victoria, as in other regions of Australia and around the world, have caused the need to reduce water consumption to ensure security of supply into the future. To develop effective water-saving behaviour change strategies, an understanding of people's attitudes to the behaviour, including barriers stopping them from adopting the behaviour, is required. Thus, this paper explores the water-use behaviours and attitudes of rural and regional urban water users in southwest Victoria. A conceptual model of the factors impacting on water use of these users, including drivers and barriers to water saving, is developed. The factors that appear to impact on water-use behaviour not previously identified included the source of water supply (groundwater versus surface water), previous experience with water shortages and trust in the water authority and government. Also, a difference in the drivers for water saving was found, with farmers wanting to be ‘water efficient’ to keep their business viable and productive, while hobby farmers and residential users were ‘saving water’ for more altruistic reasons. These findings have implications for development of demand management strategies in this, and other, rural and regional areas. However, the conceptual model has to be tested to determine if it truly reflects factors influencing water-saving behaviour in rural and regional areas.