Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Republished article: Pharmacogenetics of antiplatelet therapy: ready for clinical application?

Pharmacogenetics has many possible applications in the drug treatment of cardiovascular diseases. First, individual patients may be screened for genetic polymorphisms to choose agents with the greatest potential for efficacy and least potential for toxicity. Second, pharmacogenetics may be useful for dose adaptations for specific drugs in patients with aberrant drug metabolism. Based on the annual report of the American Heart Association, in 2010, an estimated 785 000 Americans will have a new coronary attack and 610 000 people will experience a new stroke. Despite the advances in the development of more potent platelet inhibitors and more precise revascularisation techniques, 470 000 recurrent coronary attacks and 185 000 recurrent strokes are expected, indicating that optimisation of treatment strategies is warranted.w1 The large number of pharmacogenetic studies undertaken in recent years may provide enough evidence to aid clinicians in prescribing the most optimal drug in the proper concentration in the individual patient. This article discusses the current knowledge of pharmacogenetics of antiplatelet drugs. Human blood platelets are essential and hazardous at the same time. They are, on the one hand, indispensable for appropriate haemostasis upon vascular injury, but, on the other hand, play a major role in the pathophysiology of thrombosis. Since thrombosis of atherosclerotic plaques is the most frequent cause of myocardial ischaemia and embolic stroke, antiplatelet therapy is the cornerstone of modern cardiovascular treatment, as it has been implemented in all major guidelines. It is well known that not all patients derive the same degree of benefit from antiplatelet treatment. Individual differences in the intrinsic rate of platelet reactivity and a wide variability in response to antiplatelet therapy causes a considerable number of patients (up to 25%)1 to be non-responsive and continue to experience new thrombotic events despite guideline treatment. In the literature regarding the pharmacogenetics of platelet inhibitors, the term …
NF1-L Is the DNA-binding Component of the Protein Complex at the Peripherin Negative Regulatory Element (*)

The peripherin gene, which encodes a neuronal-specific intermediate filament protein, is transcriptionally induced with a late time course when nerve growth factor stimulates PC12 cells to differentiate into neurons. We have defined a negative regulatory element (NRE) that has a functional role in repressing peripherin expression in undifferentiated and nonneuronal cells. Nerve growth factor-induced derepression of peripherin gene expression is associated with alterations in proteins binding to a GC-rich DNA sequence in the NRE as detected by the DNA electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA). We have utilized DNA affinity chromatography to purify from rat liver a 33-kDa DNA-binding protein that specifically recognizes the NRE. Microsequencing reveals identity with NF1-L, a member of the CTF/NF-1 transcription factor family. This protein forms a single complex when incubated with the NRE probe using EMSA analysis. The more slowly migrating complexes characteristic of crude undifferentiated PC12 cell extract are reconstituted by mixing the purified protein with the flow-through from the DNA affinity column, thereby demonstrating that protein-protein interactions are involved in complex formation. Supershift experiments incubating anti-CTF-1 antibody with undifferentiated PC12 cell extract prior to EMSA analysis confirm that NF1-L, or a closely related family member, is the DNA-binding protein component of the multiprotein complex at the NRE.
The Role of Entrepreneurship Education in Developing Students’ Entrepreneurial Intentions

This study, based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), assesses the impact of entrepreneurship education programs (EEPs) on entrepreneurial intentions of 320 students following entrepreneurship courses at six Iranian universities. Data were collected by a questionnaire before and after completing EEPs. Result indicated that EEPs significantly influence perceived behavioral control and subjective norms. However, no support was found for the effects of EEPs on attitudes toward entrepreneurship and intention. Findings suggest that the TPB could be considered to provide a useful framework to analyze how EEP might influence students’ entrepreneurial intentions.
Towards Dual Income Taxes - a Country Comparative Perspective

Many western European countries have been moving away from comprehensive towards dual income tax systems since the middle of the 1980s. Within a comprehensive system of income taxation all forms and sources of income are (or should be) subject to the same – mostly progressive – income tax schedule. By contrast, a dual income tax system treats capital income and non-capital (labour) income differently. Moreover, in the pure form of a dual income tax system the capital income and the corporate income tax rate are identical, and no exemptions are granted (Cnossen 1997).
An Online Mentoring Practicum in Physical and Health Education teacher preparation: Preliminary findings and future directions

An important aspect of any professional education is the opportunity for students to engage in meaningful practical experiences. In pre-service teacher education, this vital practicum component has undergone challenges in recent years due to increasing student numbers (due to the increasing demand for new teachers) and limited resources in university and school sectors. As a result, new innovations to enhance the practical component of this professional degree have been sought. This paper highlights prelimina findin s of one aspect of a larger stud that used async onous Web-based communication tools to facilitate mentoring and peer sllPllort ti1rough the practIce teachmg expenence. Analysis of the statistical data, online discussions and interviews with participants provides an mdicatlOn of the nature of the interactions, perceived value of the intervention, and infonns the otential for the future d:. velopment an application of the intervention. Background Opportunities for students to engage in meaningful professional experiences are essential and central to any professional education. Faculties of Education and teacher education institutions, across a range of developed countries, are constantly exploring potential opportunities to integrate increased practice based, professional experiences. In so doing, students are provided with enhanced opportunities to link theory into practice and further develop their professional knowledge and skills. An important aspect of this endeavor is to find appropriate ways to draw on the abilities and experiences of like professionals, who are able to provide the necessary professional guidance and direction required. As such, students are provided with credible sources of advice and support while giving justification to the knowledge, skills and abilities of experienced others.
Up‐regulation of human monocyte CD163 upon activation of cell‐surface Toll‐like receptors

The hemoglobin (Hb) scavenger receptor, CD163, is a cell‐surface glycoprotein that is expressed exclusively on monocytes and macrophages. It binds and internalizes haptoglobin‐Hb complexes and has been implicated in the resolution of inflammation. Furthermore, the regulation of CD163 during an innate immune response implies an important role for this molecule in the host defense against infection. LPS, derived from the outer membrane of Gram‐negative bacteria, activates TLR4 to cause acute shedding of CD163 from human monocytes, followed by recovery and induction of surface CD163 to higher levels than observed on untreated monocytes. We now report that the TLR2 and TLR5 agonists—Pam3Cys and bacterial flagellin—have similar effects on CD163 surface expression. Up‐regulation of CD163 following treatment of human PBMC with TLR2, TLR4, and TLR5 agonists parallels increased production of IL‐6 and IL‐10, and neutralization of IL‐6 and/or IL‐10 blocks CD163 up‐regulation. Furthermore, simultaneous stimulation of TLR2 or TLR5 in combination with TLR4 activation results in enhanced up‐regulation of CD163. It is notable that exogenous recombinant IFN‐γ (rIFN‐γ) suppresses cell‐surface, TLR‐mediated IL‐10 production as well as CD163 up‐regulation. Sustained down‐regulation of CD163 mediated by rIFN‐γ can be partially rescued with exogenous rIL‐10 but not with exogenous rIL‐6. This divergent regulation of CD163 by cytokines demonstrates that human monocytes react differently to infectious signals depending on the cytokine milieu they encounter. Thus, surface CD163 expression on mononuclear phagocytes is a carefully regulated component of the innate immune response to infection.
Large Displays in Automotive Design

Explores the traditional and current uses of large displays in automotive design and presents new applications that make innovative use of large-format electronic displays. The development of our applications has highlighted several issues and challenges for the future. Perhaps the overriding issue is that, ultimately, the story is about interaction, not displays. For the system to be of value, it's generally not enough simply to present information. Viewers must be able to create, manipulate, explore and annotate the displayed image. Furthermore, the display's location, who uses it, what it's used for and how it's used are all critical in determining value.
Impact of Demand Uncertainty on Stability of Supplier Alliances in Assembly Models

In their recent paper, Nagarajan and Sošić study an assembly supply chain in which n suppliers sell complementary components to a downstream assembler, who faces a price‐sensitive deterministic demand. Suppliers may form alliances, and each alliance then sells a kit of components to the assembler and determines the price for that kit. The assembler buys the components (kits) from the alliances and sets the selling price of the product. Nagarajan and Sošić consider three modes of competition—supplier Stackelberg, vertical Nash (VN), and assembler Stackelberg models—which correspond to different power structures in the market, and study stable supplier alliances when the assembler faces linear and isoelastic demand. In this paper, we study the impact that demand uncertainty has on stability results obtained in Nagarajan and Sošić. We first analyze models in which all decisions are made before the uncertainty is resolved, and show that the alliance of all suppliers remains stable when demand is isoelastic, or under Stackelberg models when demand is linear. However, demand uncertainty may change stability results when both parties make decisions simultaneously (VN model) and demand is linear. We then extend our results by considering scenarios in which some decisions may be postponed and made after the actual demand is known. When the ordering quantity can be determined after observing the true demand, we show that stable outcomes correspond to those obtained in the deterministic case and uncertainty has no impact on coalition stability; if only the assembler's pricing decision is postponed, we need additional conditions for stability results to carry over in the additive demand model.
An Empirical Analysis of Inflation-Growth Nexus in Developing Countries: The Case of Sri Lanka

The maintenance of price stability is regarded as a key economic policy goal, as inflation is costly and hinders economic growth. There is a vast literature on the relationship between inflation and growth across time, regions, and inflation ranges. The conventional neoclassical view postulates a linear negative relationship between inflation and economic growth. The Keynesian and Neo ]Keynesian frameworks, however, have established a linear positive relationship between inflation and growth in the short ]run. Some researchers maintain that neither positive nor negative associations exist between inflation and growth. Although there seems to be an obvious positive relationship between inflation and growth in Sri Lanka in the long ]run, it is difficult to establish a clear link between the two without a thorough investigation. Moreover, the high and volatile inflation rates have sparked a confusing debate within policy circles over the nexus of growth and inflation in the country. Given this background, this paper develops an econometric model to identify the real nature of the growth ]inflation link in Sri Lanka and to determine the optimum or threshold rate of inflation that would minimise the economic cost of inflation in terms of economic growth. To the best of the author's knowledge, there has been no attempt previously to find such a threshold level of inflation for Sri Lanka. The proposed model uses long time series data to establish the plausible link between growth and inflation and also to estimate the inflation threshold.The current study finds a non ]linear relationship between inflation and growth in Sri Lanka, contradicting the general belief about the linear relationship between inflation and growth. Growth increases with inflation, showing a positive relationship between the two variables up to 11 per cent of inflation, and then, growth becomes negative if inflation increases beyond that level. This finding implies that in Sri Lanka, there is a significant structural break of inflation at the 12 per cent level. The paper also finds that GDP growth and per capita GDP maximising inflation rate for the country falls between 7.4 ]9.6 per cent.
Interorganizational collaboration in social service organizations: A study of the prerequisites to success

Organizational scholars have identified four prerequisites to effective interorganizational collaboration: incentive, willingness, ability, and capacity. This study analyzes data drawn from participants in eight family services collaboratives in order to assess the relationships identified in the literature. Our findings support the premise that each of these prerequisites is positively related to collaborative effectiveness. Implications for collaboration leaders are suggested.
Pathogenesis of invasive fungal infections

Purpose of review Invasive fungal infection (IFI) is increasingly being recognized as a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in immunosuppressed patients. This review focuses on the latest literature reports concerning the pathogenesis of IFI in this population. Recent findings New virulence factors of Candida and Aspergillus have recently been identified. The past few months have brought significant advances in our understanding of how the immune system acts against fungal infection, especially with regard to the role of mucosa in the innate immune system, the arsenal of innate immune recognition receptors and the pathways connecting innate and adaptive immunity. Summary Knowledge of fungal pathogenesis and host immune response can help to optimize the management of fungal infections. Greater understanding of these processes may aid physicians in developing better prophylactic measures and antifungal or immunomodulatory therapies.
Crowd detection and occupancy estimation through indirect environmental measurements

In this paper, the real-time estimation of indoor occupancy has been evaluated starting from the processing of environmental parameters. The proposed system is based on a low cost and non-invasive wireless sensor network infrastructure for the distributed acquisition of simple quantities like temperature and humidity. The proposed algorithm has been structured in three successive phases of detection, filtering, and classification in order to face with the high variability and instability of such quantities. The problem of occupancy estimation has been recast as an inverse problem solved by means of a customized learning-by-example strategy (i.e., the classification phase). A measurement campaign in a museum area has been carried out and preliminary experimental results have been obtained in order to assess the potentialities and limitations of the proposed strategy.
Intralesional Treatment for Keloids and Hypertrophic Scars: A Review

BACKGROUND Although differing in clinical presentation and prognosis, keloids and hypertrophic scars are generally characterized by abnormally proliferative scar tissue and are extremely debilitating. Several intralesional therapies have been studied in attempts to find a universally safe and effective modality, of which there are currently none. OBJECTIVE To provide a comprehensive review of current intralesional treatment modalities for keloids and hypertrophic scars. METHODS AND MATERIALS A PubMed search was performed for literature pertaining to intralesional treatment modalities for keloids and hypertrophic scars. References from retrieved articles were also considered for review. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION Many intralesional therapies for keloids and hypertrophic scars are currently available to physicians and patients. Mechanisms of action and side effect profiles vary between these agents, and new approaches to keloids and hypertrophic scars are frequently being explored. Randomized controlled trials are needed to assess these new and promising modalities fully.
Information, Pricing and Efficiency in Cash and Futures Markets: The Case of Hogs

The price leadership roles among hog cash and futures markets are assessed to locate points of price discovery and to examine flows of information among these markets. Several years of data are analyzed using lead/lag causality analysis and strength of linear causality measures. Although significant instantaneous relationships exist among hog cash and futures markets, one-way causality tests indicate that generally the futures market dominates cash hog markets in the price discovery process. Copyright 1992 by The Economic Society of Australia.
Relative Constancy Hypothesis, Structural Pluralism, and National Advertising Expenditures

I studied the development of advertising within the national economy. Contrary to the relative constancy hypothesis, time-series analysis of aggregate-level data generally support my hypotheses that expenditures on advertising as a proportion of the national income increased from the 19th to the 20th century and that structural pluralism, not just national income, predicts absolute changes in advertising expenditures. I argue that the need for information and advertising grows as a social system becomes more structurally pluralistic and that general economic conditions (i.e., national income) alone are insufficient to explain changes in relative and absolute spending.
Intron Size and Exon Evolution in Drosophila

We have found a negative correlation between evolutionary rate at the protein level (as measured by dN) and intron size in Drosophila. Although such a relation is expected if introns reduce Hill-Robertson interference within genes, it seems more likely to be explained by the higher abundance of cis-regulatory elements in introns (especially first introns) in genes under strong selective constraints.
A Testbed for Security Analysis of Modern Vehicle Systems

As wireless and telecommunicaton infrastructure communications have been integrated into modern vehicle systems (i.e., infotainment systems and vehicle to vehicle systems), the security implications on the relatively unchanged underlying network protocols inside the vehicles are investigated by researchers and industrial experts in the corresponding domain. Some researchers have achieved the investigation by using actual vehicles or vehicle components, and although this is an effective way to produce an accurate testing environment it provides little or no flexibility in its configuration. In this work, we produce a testbed architecture for vehicle security investigation that not only can reproduce the complexity of numerous vehicle control units running at real time inside the vehicle CAN bus, but is also reconfigurable giving the testbed the ability to replicate various test configurations. We create a prototype of the testbed and conduct an experiment to demonstrate a new type of security attack through an infotainment gateway in the testbed, the source code of the prototype and the test data of the experiment are all uploaded for sharing.
Unraveling the Choice Format Effect: A Context-Dependent Random Utility Model

A few recent studies report that preferences elicited from a two-alternative choice format are different from those elicited from a three-alternative choice format, when both choice set designs contain a status quo option. We hypothesize that the choice format effect might disappear when we estimate a random utility model (RUM) that allows for context-dependent preferences. Based on the estimated context-dependent RUM, we find that the choice format effect is likely the result of two offsetting effects: a task complexity effect that increases the probability of choosing the status quo option, and a preference matching effect, which decreases the probability. (JEL C25, Q51)
The Impact of AFTA on Wage, Employment, and Income Distribution in Thailand: A Computable General Equilibrium Model

This paper adopts the Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) technique to analyze the impacts of tariff reduction under AFTA’s scheme concerning wage earning and employment outcomes in Thailand. In aggregate terms, Thai laborers are expected to gain from the full implementation of AFTA. By sectoral differential, the impacts of AFTA on wage and employment outcomes of Thai workers are varied, depending on production intensity, rate of substitution between inputs, and linkages. งานศกษานใชเครองมอแบบจำลองดลยภาพทวไป (Computable General Equilibrium) ในการวเคราะหผลกระทบของการลดภาษภายใตกรอบการคาเสรอาเซยน (AFTA) ตอคาจาง, การจางงาน, และการกระจายรายไดในประเทศไทย โดยพบวา ถงแมแรงงานไทยจะไดรบประโยชนจากเปดการคาเสรอาเซยนกตาม แตผลทไดกลบแตกตางในแตละสาขาการผลตโดยขนอยกบ ความเขมขนของการผลต, การทดแทนกนของปจจยการผลต, และการเชอมโยงในแตละสาขาการผลตเปนสำคญ
Grand Rounds : Eve ’ s Rib , or a Revisionist View of Osteoporosis in Men

It is widely accepted that estrogen withdrawal following menopause predisposes women to accelerated bone loss and increased risk of developing osteoporosis. Although osteoporosis is a significant public health problem for aging men as well as women, the cause of osteoporosis in men remains largely unknown. A substantial number of men with osteoporosis present with bone loss secondary to conditions associated with reduced gonadal steroid hormone levels. Although hypogonadism is related to bone loss in men, and androgen levels decline with age in men, it is not at all clear that reduced androgen levels are related to bone loss in older men. What, then, is the role of gonadal steroids in osteoporosis in men? This review focuses on recent research—including clinical investigations of men with genetic disorders of estrogen action, basic biomedical studies of estrogen receptor “knockout” mice, and population-based comparisons of bone density with gonadal steroids in older men—leading to the surprising conclusion that estrogen plays a vital role in maintenance of bone in men as well as in women. Possible mechanisms whereby reduced estrogen levels might result in bone loss in both sexes are also reviewed, as are potential therapeutic implications of a role for estrogen in osteoporosis in men.
Current-fed switched Z-source inverters

In this paper, two new structures for current-fed switched Z-source inverters (CSZSIs) are proposed. The proposed structures have the same number of the elements. The proposed structures have less passive elements in comparison with the conventional current-fed Z-source inverters (CZSIs). In the first proposed topology, the input current source has common earth with inverter section. The performance of the proposed inverters is presented in different operating modes and the voltage and current of all elements are calculated. Also, the current and voltage ripple of the inductor and the capacitor are calculated. Moreover, a suitable pulse width modulation (PWM) control method is proposed for proposed topologies. Finally, to approve the analyses, the simulation results using PSCAD/EMTDC software are presented.