Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Resveratrol Suppresses TNF-Induced Activation of Nuclear Transcription Factors NF-κB, Activator Protein-1, and Apoptosis: Potential Role of Reactive Oxygen Intermediates and Lipid Peroxidation1

Resveratrol (trans-3,4′,5-trihydroxystilbene), a polyphenolic phytoalexin found in grapes, fruits, and root extracts of the weed Polygonum cuspidatum, exhibits anti-inflammatory, cell growth-modulatory, and anticarcinogenic effects. How this chemical produces these effects is not known, but it may work by suppressing NF-κB, a nuclear transcription factor that regulates the expression of various genes involved in inflammation, cytoprotection, and carcinogenesis. In this study, we investigated the effect of resveratrol on NF-κB activation induced by various inflammatory agents. Resveratrol blocked TNF-induced activation of NF-κB in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Resveratrol also suppressed TNF-induced phosphorylation and nuclear translocation of the p65 subunit of NF-κB, and NF-κB-dependent reporter gene transcription. Suppression of TNF-induced NF-κB activation by resveratrol was not restricted to myeloid cells (U-937); it was also observed in lymphoid (Jurkat) and epithelial (HeLa and H4) cells. Resveratrol also blocked NF-κB activation induced by PMA, LPS, H2O2, okadaic acid, and ceramide. The suppression of NF-κB coincided with suppression of AP-1. Resveratrol also inhibited the TNF-induced activation of mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase and c-Jun N-terminal kinase and abrogated TNF-induced cytotoxicity and caspase activation. Both reactive oxygen intermediate generation and lipid peroxidation induced by TNF were suppressed by resveratrol. Resveratrol’s anticarcinogenic, anti-inflammatory, and growth-modulatory effects may thus be partially ascribed to the inhibition of activation of NF-κB and AP-1 and the associated kinases.
Share returns and the Fisher hypothesis reconsidered

This paper compares and tests the four different proxy hypotheses and examines their ability to explain two empirical regularities, namely that the inflation elasticity of share returns tends towards zero in the postwar period and towards two in the interwar period. Using monthly and annual data for almost a century, for 17 OECD (Organisation for Economic Coorporation and Development) countries, the estimates show that the proxy models give important insight into the relationship between inflation and share returns.
Loss of the AP-2alpha transcription factor is associated with the grade of human gliomas.

PURPOSE The activator protein (AP)-2alpha transcription factor plays a crucial role in the progression of several human tumors, including malignant melanoma, prostate, and breast cancer. Loss of AP-2alpha results in deregulation of several genes with AP-2alpha binding motifs such as E-cadherin, p21WAF1, MMP-2, MCAM/MUC18, VEGF, and c-KIT. The purpose of our study was to determine AP-2alpha expression distribution among grades of gliomas and any possible effect on prognosis. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN A tissue microarray was assembled from all surgical glioma cases with available tissue samples at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center since 1986 to include 72 glioblastomas, 49 anaplastic astrocytomas, 9 low-grade astrocytoma, 37 oligodendrogliomas, 37 anaplastic oligodendrogliomas, 15 mixed oligoastrocytomas, 20 anaplastic mixed oligoastrocytomas, and 7 gliosarcomas. The microarray included normal brain tissue, and AP-2alpha expression was determined by immunohistochemistry. RESULTS AP-2alpha expression was lost on 99% (P < 0.001) and 98% (P < 0.001) of glioblastomas and anaplastic astrocytomas, respectively, compared with grade 2 astrocytomas and normal brain, all of which (100%) maintained expression of AP-2alpha. The loss of AP-2alpha was a negative prognostic indicator within the overall category of gliomas by univariate analysis (rate ratio, 4.30; 95% confidence interval, 2.60-7.10; P < 0.001). However, there was no significant effect of loss of AP-2alpha expression on survival observed after adjustment for patient age, Karnofsky Performance Scale score, tumor grade, and extent of resection (rate ratio, 1.2; 95% confidence interval, 0.6-2.2; P = 0.6). CONCLUSIONS AP-2alpha expression correlates inversely with glioma grade, suggesting a direct role in glioma tumorigenicity, possibly through subsequent deregulation of target genes. Of all the previously characterized markers of progression, the loss of AP-2alpha would be the most common (96.2%) molecular marker as an astrocytic tumor evolves from grade 2 to 3.
Corrosive esophageal injuries I. A study of nine cases of concurrent accidental caustic ingestion

Treatment of corrosive injuries of the esophagus remains largely unsatisfactory, and severe esophageal burns still frequently result in stricture with accompanying morbidity or death. The nine patients presented here with 3‐year follow‐up accidentally drank a concentrated alkaline solution. All were teenagers or young adults who drank from the same bottle while at a party. The problems encountered in these patients led us to conclude that all patients with moderate to severe corrosive injury of the esophagus should have assessment of the entire esophagus and stomach at the time of initial assessment. Six patients underwent diagnostic laparotomy and one underwent thoracotomy as well for assessment of his esophageal injuries. Had we followed the traditional approach of esophagoscopy only to the level of the first circumferential burn, more severe and potentially life‐threatening injuries would have been missed. Early endoscopic evaluation of the esophagus and stomach remains the standard for diagnosis; however, complete assessment may require laparotomy or thoracotomy. Early resection of necrotic tissue in the esophagus or stomach can lead to increased survival.
Disseminated Rhizopus microsporus infection following allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in a child with severe aplastic anemia

Disseminated Rhizopus microsporus infections are uncommon in children and are resistant to echinocandin and azole antifungal agents. We describe a child with severe aplastic anemia who developed disseminated R. microsporus infection following allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. R. microsporus was identified microscopically in the hepatic drain culture and was confirmed on the basis of 18S rRNA and 28S rRNA sequence analyses. The patient was treated successfully with hepatic drainage and amphotericin B deoxycholate.
Public Values Embedded in Australian Public Works Procurement

Procurement arrangements for public works are highly contextualized as jurisdictions adapt and respond to local issues and constraints. Policy-makers in Australia at all levels are focused on protecting public values when procuring public works. Public values are shown here to be consistent across Australian jurisdictions, although considerable variety exists in the institutional arrangements that safeguard these values.
Forensic Applications of Infrared Imaging for the Detection and Recording of Latent Evidence

Abstract: We report on a simple method to record infrared (IR) reflected images in a forensic science context. Light sources using ultraviolet light have been used previously in the detection of latent prints, but the use of infrared light has been subjected to less investigation. IR light sources were used to search for latent evidence and the images were captured by either video or using a digital camera with a CCD array sensitive to IR wavelength. Bloodstains invisible to the eye, inks, tire prints, gunshot residue, and charred document on dark background are selected as typical matters that may be identified during a forensic investigation. All the evidence types could be detected and identified using a range of photographic techniques. In this study, a one in eight times dilution of blood could be detected on 10 different samples of black cloth. When using 81 black writing inks, the observation rates were 95%, 88% and 42% for permanent markers, fountain pens and ball‐point pens, respectively, on the three kinds of dark cloth. The black particles of gunshot residue scattering around the entrance hole under IR light were still observed at a distance of 60 cm from three different shooting ranges. A requirement of IR reflectivity is that there is a contrast between the latent evidence and the background. In the absence of this contrast no latent image will be detected, which is similar to all light sources. The use of a video camera allows the recording of images either at a scene or in the laboratory. This report highlights and demonstrates the robustness of IR to detect and record the presence of latent evidence.
Trajectory tracking and iterative learning on an unmanned aerial vehicle using parametrized model predictive control

A parametrization of state and input trajectories is used to approximate an infinite-horizon optimal control problem encountered in model predictive control. The resulting algorithm is discussed with respect to trajectory tracking, including the problem of generating feasible trajectories. In order to account for unmodeled repeatable disturbances an iterative learning scheme is applied, and as a result, the tracking performance can be improved over consecutive trials. The algorithm is applied to an unmanned aerial vehicle and shown to be computationally efficient, running onboard at a sampling rate of 100 Hz during the experiments.
Are user charges efficiency‐ and equity‐enhancing? A critical review of economic literature with particular reference to experience from developing countries

User charges have come to play a significant role in the financing and delivery of publicly provided health services in many developing countries. As a response to health care financing crises, user charges are often promoted as a way of rationalizing the use of care, raising revenue, and improving the coverage and quality of services. The primary purpose of this paper is to provide a critical review of the main arguments for the efficiency- and equity-enhancing potential of user charges. The extent and scope of welfare gains from user charges are found to be very limited in practice. Using a less restrictive theoretical choice model and estimation technique, the most recent demand studies' findings indicate that household's utilization of health services are more responsive to changes in price and income than was initially reported by the early demand studies. Response to price changes are also found to be greater among the poor than the rich. These findings, combined with modest retained fee revenues and the failure of exemption mechanisms to protect the poor tend to cast doubt on the net benefits of user charges policy, particularly in the area of equity. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The functional properties of the human ether‐à‐go‐go‐like (HELK2) K+ channel

The voltage‐dependent K+ channels belonging to the ether‐à‐go‐go family (eag, erg, elk) are widely expressed in the mammalian CNS. Their neuronal function, however, is poorly understood. Among the elk clones, elk2 is the most abundantly expressed in the brain. We have characterized the human ELK2 channel (HELK2) expressed in mammalian cell lines. Moreover, we have detected helk2 mRNA and ELK2‐like currents in freshly dissociated human astrocytoma cells. HELK2 was inhibited by Cs+ in a voltage‐dependent way (Kd was 0.7 mm, at −120 mV). It was not affected by Way 123398 (5 µm), dofetilide (10 µm), quinidine (10 µm), verapamil (20 µm), haloperidol (2 µm), astemizole (1 µm), terfenadine (1 µm) and hydroxyzine (30 µm), compounds known to inhibit the biophysically related HERG channel. The crossover of the activation and inactivation curves produced a steady state ‘window’ current with a peak around −20 mV and considerably broader than it usually is in voltage‐dependent channels, including HERG. Similar features were observed in the ELK2 clone from rat, in the same experimental conditions. Thus, ELK2 channels are active within a wide range of membrane potentials, both sub‐ and suprathreshold. Moreover, the kinetics of channel deactivation and removal of inactivation was about one order of magnitude quicker in HELK2, compared to HERG. Overall, these properties suggest that ELK2 channels are very effective at dampening the neuronal excitability, but less so at producing adaptation of action potential firing frequency. In addition, we suggest experimental ways to recognize HELK2 currents in vivo and raise the issue of the possible function of these channels in astrocytoma.
A Model to Analyze the Macroeconomic Interdependence of Hong Kong With China and the United States

Based on several stylized facts, this paper develops a macroeconomic model for Hong Kong that emphasizes its interdependence with China and the United States. Important macroeconomic variables such as the price level and nominal wage rate, as well as capital flow, are analyzed first in a static setting and then in a dynamic model. As an application, the model is used to analyze macroeconomic adjustment of Hong Kong in response to economic slowdown in the U.S. and a possible devaluation of the RMB. Theoretical results are obtained both under the assumption of adaptive and rational expectations.
Vice Chancellors perceptions of university marketing: a view from universities in a developing country

Focuing on perceptions of university vice-chancellors of the marketing concept, this paper argues that, despite the widely acknowledged development of university marketisation in the developed world, its practice in developing countries has not yet attained strategic levels. This is largely due to the fact that marketing in HE does not have a sufficiently robust axis and as such remains buried under traditional university activities. The research was based on interviews held with nine of the eleven VCs in Zimbabwe. The findings indicate that there is a possible relationship between the curricular orientation and missions of universities and the way marketing is perceived and understood. Where the focus of organisational mission is on issues of curricular relevance and needs of customers, marketing perceptions are more customer focused. Traditional universities whose missions remain transfixed in models of excellence in teaching, research and service tend to exhibit product orientations of marketing. The research proposes that focusing the purposes of marketing on issues of curriculum dvelopment and delivery offers scope for developing a more sustainable marketing orientation.
The french research community's perspectives on new public human resource management

Abstract OECD analyses show that France has been slow in introducing the new Human Resource Management (HRM) model; however, the few changes that have been made have still aroused controversy. There is a substantial body of empirical research showing that the newly introduced tools and initiatives have often had little effect on HRM practices, and external analyses show that progress in public-sector HRM reform in France has been imperceptible compared with the situation in many other countries. At the same time, the managerial philosophy on which some new HRM processes are based is increasingly being challenged. This paper summarizes current views on HRM reform in France and presents the results of a survey of public-sector management researchers that highlights the two main French perspectives on HRM reform.
The Political Economy of Legislation on Terrorism

1 This paper presents an empirical analysis of what drives congressional legislation on terrorism during the period 1995 to 2010. We utilize and augment current methodology to compile and analyze data on sponsorship and cosponsorship of terrorism related data. Our results on the sources of legislation on terrorism are largely in line with past examinations of the importance of committee membership and leadership, party majority-ship, and other political factors. Further, we find that the most significant and robust drive for legislation on terrorism is the September 11th attacks. And while the impact of 9/11 affected legislative productivity everywhere, we find that it most significantly affected states surrounding New York and Washington D.C. Our results indicate that the economy may be one factor motivating politicians to legislate on terrorism; however, these results are not robust. 1This research was funded in part by a grant from the Lowe Institute of Political Economy. The corresponding author is S. Brock Blomerg. We thank Chris Blomberg and Brianna Loyosa for their excellent research assistance on the project.
Socialim is Dead, Long Live Socialism!

Utopian socialists believed that socialism is inevitable because it is a more rational system to organize production and life, a system more in line with the “good” nature of human beings. Marxism rejected this reasoning replacing it with what is known as historical materialism: social systems, it argued, emerge, develop and die not because they correspond more or less to the “natural” aspirations of the people, but because they become more or less competitive in the process of historical evolution – a version of social Darwinism applied not to individuals, but to communities and countries. In particular, Marxism stated that capitalism develops productive forces up to the point when they can no longer be managed efficiently in societies with markets and private property; at this point social property of the means of production and centrally planned economy (CPE) become a more efficient way of managing productive forces, whose social nature has outgrown the narrow capitalist limits. This prediction did not come true – in the XX century socialism came to being not in most advanced capitalist countries, but in the periphery and semi-periphery (USSR, Eastern Europe, China, North Korea, Cuba), and only in North Korea and Cuba it survived into the XXI century. This paper explains why capitalism was competitive in recent 500 years, and why an attempt in the XX century to replace it by socialist CPEs did not succeed. But it argues that there are other reasons, not associated with “social nature of productive forces”, which are finally going to make socialism competitive: the costs of numerous negative consequences of high income inequalities, like greater social tensions, high crime and poor institutional capacity of the state, become larger than the benefits of high savings and investment rate that were making capitalism competitive for 500 years. This “new socialism” will not be necessarily mean a total elimination of markets and private property, but is likely to limit both substantially for the sake of achieving lower income inequality.
The patent system and the dynamics of innovation in Europe

After briefly examining the US challenge and the international and European dimensions of patent regulations, this paper devotes special attention to the short-term and long-term issues facing the European patent system. The concluding remarks reflect upon the problems and possible solutions identified in the article and discuss the role of the patent system in relation to the dynamics of innovation in Europe. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.
Beyond Neuronal Activity Markers: Select Immediate Early Genes in Striatal Neuron Subtypes Functionally Mediate Psychostimulant Addiction

Immediate early genes (IEGs) were traditionally used as markers of neuronal activity in striatum in response to stimuli including drugs of abuse such as psychostimulants. Early studies using these neuronal activity markers led to important insights in striatal neuron subtype responsiveness to psychostimulants. Such studies have helped identify striatum as a critical brain center for motivational, reinforcement and habitual behaviors in psychostimulant addiction. While the use of IEGs as neuronal activity markers in response to psychostimulants and other stimuli persists today, the functional role and implications of these IEGs has often been neglected. Nonetheless, there is a subset of research that investigates the functional role of IEGs in molecular, cellular and behavioral alterations by psychostimulants through striatal medium spiny neuron (MSN) subtypes, the two projection neuron subtypes in striatum. This review article will address and highlight the studies that provide a functional mechanism by which IEGs mediate psychostimulant molecular, cellular and behavioral plasticity through MSN subtypes. Insight into the functional role of IEGs in striatal MSN subtypes could provide improved understanding into addiction and neuropsychiatric diseases affecting striatum, such as affective disorders and compulsive disorders characterized by dysfunctional motivation and habitual behavior.
Lost connections and new directions: neo-liberalism, new public managerialism and the 'modernization' of the British police

[About the book] Crime control has risen rapidly up the social and political agendas to become a central feature of western societies. As inequalities in society have increased, so the actual and perceived risks of crime and other social ills have grown rapidly for all sections of society. Crime has become a central issue to governments, and no longer just a technical operation of law enforcement and adjudication. This book is concerned with issues arising from these developments. Top criminologists from Britain, the USA and Australia explore the links between crime and risk through a range of themes, from the depiction of crime in the media to the dilemmas of policing, to the new punitiveness of criminal justice systems and the custodial warehousing of the poor and excluded
Treatment of adult T-cell leukaemia/lymphoma: is the virus a target?

Purpose of review To discuss current understanding of the mechanisms of human T-lymphotropic virus type-1 (HTLV-1) tumorigenesis and current and potential treatment strategies for adult T-cell leukaemia/lymphoma (ATL), an aggressive malignant disease of CD4+ cells caused by HTLV-1. Recent findings Treatment of the aggressive subtypes of ATL remains inadequate, with little improvement in overall survival in the 30 years since HTLV-1 was discovered. Detailed analysis of the clonal expansion of HTLV-1 has provided new insight into pathogenesis. Most HTLV-1-infected cells, including ATL, express CCR4 which can be targeted. Reports of antitumour effects with allogeneic bone marrow transplantation provide a rationale for novel immunotherapy approaches. Progress has been made in the indolent subtypes of ATL with the use of ‘antiviral’ therapies. Summary ATL has poor prognosis. There is a major, urgent, unmet clinical need to identify HTLV carriers who will develop ATL to develop biomarkers of transforming disease and disease progression and to provide novel treatment approaches within the context of clinical trials. Several strategies now include putative or actual antiviral therapy. Potentially, the risk of ATL would be reduced by eliminating some or all infected clones. HTLV-1 infection, and hence ATL, can be prevented by antenatal HTLV-1 screening.