Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gemfibrozil Ameliorates Relapsing-Remitting Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis Independent of Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor-α

The present study underlines the importance of gemfibrozil, a lipid-lowering drug and an activator of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-α (PPAR-α), in inhibiting the disease process of adoptively transferred experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE), an animal model of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. Clinical symptoms of EAE, infiltration of mononuclear cells, and demyelination were significantly lower in SJL/J female mice receiving gemfibrozil through food chow than those without gemfibrozil. It is noteworthy that the drug was equally effective in treating EAE in PPAR-α wild-type as well as knockout mice. Gemfibrozil also inhibited the encephalitogenicity of MBP-primed T cells and switched the immune response from a Th1 to a Th2 profile independent of PPAR-α. Gemfibrozil consistently inhibited the expression and DNA-binding activity of T-bet, a key regulator of interferon-γ (IFN-γ) expression and stimulated the expression and DNA-binding activity of GATA3, a key regulator of IL-4. Gemfibrozil treatment decreased the number of T-bet–positive T cells and increased the number of GATA3-positive T cells in spleen of donor mice. The histological and immunohistochemical analyses also demonstrate the inhibitory effect of gemfibrozil on the invasion of T-bet–positive T cells into the spinal cord of EAE mice. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the differential effect of gemfibrozil on the expression of T-bet and GATA3 was due to its inhibitory effect on NO production. Although excess NO favored the expression of T-bet, scavenging of NO stimulated the expression of GATA-3. Taken together, our results suggest gemfibrozil, an approved drug for hyperlipidemia in humans, may find further therapeutic use in multiple sclerosis.
Wine Quality and Regional Reputation: Hedonic Analysis of the Bulgarian Wine Market

This paper develops a hedonic pricing model to estimate the effects of wine quality and regional and varietal reputation on prices in the Bulgarian wine market. We show, most importantly, that wine quality has a significant and positive impact. Red wines of local varieties have diminishing reputations, while white wines from local varieties have improved their standing in consumers' preferences. Our results reveal that there is significant regional reputation effect as well--at least for now--with wines sold with significant price discounts compared to Svishtov cabernet sauvignon wines. Over time, price discounts are rapidly diminishing for white wines and increasing for red wines, and regional reputations are losing significance, with an increase in the coefficients. We also show that product differentiation is important when transition markets are discussed. Regional specialization in production of a certain type of wine is displayed, and regional reputation depends strongly on it. Finally, the age of the wine has a strong positive and significant impact on market prices for red wines but is insignificant for white wines.
Classification of Thyroid Nodules in Ultrasound Images Based On Texture Analysis

Thyroid is a butterfly-shaped gland in the front of the neck. It is found below the voice box. Thyroid nodule is one of the indicative of thyroid cancer. Nodule can be due to the growth of thyroid cells or a cyst in the thyroid gland. It is very important to differentiate between the thyroid nodule as benign or malignant. This paper presents characterization and classification of thyroid nodule using Ultrasonography. It includes extraction of set of features by using Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix GLCM, Wavelet Transform and Local Ternary Pattern (LTP). These features are reduced to set of selected features by using PCA algorithm. The selected features are given to SVM classifier for the classification of thyroid nodule as benign or malignant. The performance of classifiers is evaluated with the accuracy, sensitivity and specificity.
Substance use and misuse in burn patients: Testing the classical hypotheses of the interaction between post-traumatic symptomatology and substance use

ABSTRACT The authors aimed to test whether the three classical hypotheses of the interaction between post-traumatic symptomatology and substance use (high risk of trauma exposure, susceptibility for post-traumatic symptomatology, and self-medication of symptoms), may be useful in the understanding of substance use among burn patients. Substance use data (nicotine, alcohol, cannabis, amphetamines, cocaine, opiates, and tranquilizers) and psychopathology measures among burn patients admitted to a burn unit and enrolled in a longitudinal observational study were analyzed. Lifetime substance use information (n = 246) was incorporated to analyses aiming to test the high risk hypothesis. Only patients assessed for psychopathology in a 6-month follow-up (n = 183) were included in prospective analyses testing the susceptibility and self-medication hypotheses. Regarding the high risk hypothesis, results show a higher proportion of heroin and tranquilizer users compared to the general population. Furthermore, in line with the susceptibility hypothesis, higher levels of symptomatology were found in lifetime alcohol, tobacco, and drug users during recovery. The self-medication hypothesis could be tested partially due to the hospital stay “cleaning” effect, but severity of symptoms was linked to the amount of caffeine, nicotine, alcohol, and cannabis use after discharge. It was found that the 3 classical hypotheses could be used to understand the link between traumatic experiences and substance use explaining different patterns of burn patient's risk for trauma exposure and emergence of symptomatology.
Chlamydia trachomatis Infection Does Not Enhance Local Cellular Immunity against Concurrent CandidaVaginal Infection

ABSTRACT Although Th1-type cell-mediated immunity (CMI) is the predominant host defense mechanism against mucosal Candida albicansinfection, CMI against a vaginal C. albicans infection in mice is limited at the vaginal mucosa despite a strongCandida-specific Th1-type response in the draining lymph nodes. In contrast, Th1-type CMI is highly effective against an experimental Chlamydia trachomatis genital tract infection. This study demonstrated through two independent designs that a concurrent Candida and Chlamydia infection could not accelerate or modulate the anti-Candida CMI response. Together, these results suggest that host responses to these genital tract infections are independent and not influenced by the presence of the other.
Hispanics in American politics : the search for political power

Evaluates and analyzes the past and evolving role of Hispanics in American politics. After providing brief sketches of each Hispanic sub-group (Mexican-Americans, Cubans, and Puerto Ricans) and its historical and political development in American politics, the effort is to examine the realities and possibilities of conceptualizing Hispanics as a single viable political group.
Trade Intermediation and the Organization of Exporters

The business literature and recent descriptive evidence show that exporting rms typically require the help of foreign trade intermediaries or need to set up own foreign wholesale aliates. In contrast, conventional trade theory models assume that producers can directly access foreign consumers. This paper introduces intermediaries in an international trade model where producers dier with respect to productivity as well as regarding their varieties’ perceived quality and tradability. We assume that trade intermediation is prone to frictions due to the absence of enforceable cross-country contracts while own wholesale subsidiaries require capital investment. We derive the sorting pattern of rms according to their degree of competitive advantage and show how the relative prevalence of intermediation depends on the degree of heterogeneity among producers, on the importance of market-specicity of goods, or on expropriation risk. We use US export data for 50 sectors and 133 destination countries to check the empirical validity of this predictions and nd robust empirical support.
Termination of pregnancy services: experiences of gynaecological nurses.

AIM This paper is a report of a study to identify the experience of gynaecological nurses involved with termination of pregnancy. BACKGROUND Staff involved with termination of pregnancy have been found to experience both positive and negative views. Varying processes and experiences for staff have been identified, from termination of pregnancy work being emotionally draining and stressful to there being a process of care that evolves with greater experience. METHODS A purposive sample of seven gynaecological nurses currently working in a termination of pregnancy service was recruited. Data were collected between October 2007 and January 2008 using interviews and standardized questionnaires. Transcripts of the interviews were analysed using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis. RESULTS Eight superordinate themes emerged from the analysis: (1) Unconditional acceptance and understanding of termination of pregnancy, (2) Strategies for managing the demands and challenges, (3) What we do for patients and job satisfaction, (4) Challenges to unconditional acceptance, (5) Juggling the contrasting needs and demands of patients, (6) The most demanding aspects of the role, (7) The significance of personal experience and (8) The service context. Some of the experiences were interpreted as ways in which nurses justified their role. The themes were understood in terms of a balance between strains, coping and contextual influences. CONCLUSION Providing a recognized supportive supervisory environment might allow for the acknowledgement of the unique challenges staff in termination of pregnancy services face, and might enhance a sense of validation within the organization and hence staff wellbeing.
A biosocial approach to living conditions: inter-generational changes of stature dimorphism in 20th-century Spain

Abstarct Background: Applying sexual stature dimorphism (SSD) to history and the social sciences faces the difficulty of disentangling nature from nurture in addition to the limitations of sources (e.g. small, fragmented or heterogeneous samples). Aim: To investigate the relationship between inter-generational changes and social differences in SSD and the evolution of living conditions in 20th-century Spain. Subjects and methods: Self-reported height and socio-demographic information from individuals born 1910–1979 (n = 99 023) were drawn from health interview surveys. Weighed least squares regression was used to construct continuous time-cohort series of SSD for the entire population and for specific socioeconomic groups represented by levels of educational attainment. Results: SSD remained below modern values among cohorts that were exposed to structural deprivation at pre-adult ages. Socioeconomic status mediated the correction of these deviations among subsequent cohorts. Lower classes (less educated segments of the population) systematically deviated to a greater extent from normal modern SSD values and they reached these values later in time. Conclusions: In Spain, variations in SSD have been found that are associated with both socioeconomic changes at a nationwide level and SES differentials at the individual level, thus continuous series of this indicator offer new opportunities in the study of living conditions of current and past generations.
Prediction of an Epitope-based Computational Vaccine Strategy for Gaining Concurrent Immunization Against the Venom Proteins of Australian Box Jellyfish

Background: Australian Box Jellyfish (C. fleckeri) has the most rapid acting venom known to in the arena of toxicological research and is capable enough of killing a person in less than 5 minutes inflicting painful, debilitating and potentially life-threatening stings in humans. It has been understood that C. fleckeri venom proteins CfTX-1, 2 and HSP70-1 contain cardiotoxic, neurotoxic and highly dermatonecrotic components that can cause itchy bumpy rash and cardiac arrest. Subjects and Methods: As there is no effective drug available, novel approaches regarding epitope prediction for vaccine development were performed in this study. Peptide fragments as nonamers of these antigenic venom proteins were analyzed by using computational tools that would elicit humoral and cell mediated immunity, were focused for attempting vaccine design. By ranking the peptides according to their proteasomal cleavage sites, TAP scores and IC50<250 nM, the predictions were scrutinized. Furthermore, the epitope sequences were examined by in silico docking simulation with different specific HLA receptors. Results: Interestingly, to our knowledge, this is the maiden hypothetical immunization that predicts the promiscuous epitopes with potential contributions to the tailored design of improved safe and effective vaccines against antigenic venom proteins of C. fleckeri which would be effective especially for the Australian population. Conclusion: Although the computational approaches executed here are based on concrete confidence which demands more validation and in vivo experiments to validate such in silico approach.
Symposium on Deliberation Introduction

The relationship between deliberation and democracy has in the last two decades emerged as one of the key concerns of democratic theory. In terms of sheer volume, by far the greatest contribution to the analysis of this relationship has come from political philosophers, whose work has focused largely on the normative pre-requisites of democratic deliberation and its effects on political legitimacy. By and large, this work takes as given that deliberation will succeed in communicating arguments and transmitting information to and from the participants. A growing body of game-theoretic work on cheap-talk communication has, however, argued that this should not be assumed by fiat: incentive problems can and often do substantially complicate the willingness of participants to reveal what they know to others and so limit the nature of the claims that can be made on behalf of deliberation. Two key questions in relation to this work and its connection to the normative literature on deliberation remain open: (1) What is or are the right way(s) to model deliberation? and (2) What institutional and other circumstances mitigate the incentive problems in communication and move the deliberative interaction closer to the normative ideal? The present symposium brings together two game-theoretic articles that speak directly to these questions. Both these articles have already proved influential in developing these arguments. Each article develops distinct approaches to thinking about deliberation though they are not contradictory. They each point toward and explore parallel research agendas. Adam Meirowitz’s article, ‘In Defense of Exclusionary Deliberation: Communication and Voting with Private Beliefs and Values’, belongs to a tradition of modeling communication that dates back to Crawford and Sobel (1982). In this tradition, communication is cheap talk – it involves sending and receiving costless and unverifiable signals. The meanings of these signals are endogenous to the deliberative interaction and its particular equilibrium play. Here whether information is revealed or transmitted under a particular strategy profile depends upon common knowledge. If, given that strategy profile, there is common knowledge that the sender means to be informative (to a particular degree given by the dependence of the signals chosen on the states of the world) and the
Study of Enterprise Project Management Knowledge Base Management System Based on Ontology

Aiming at the problems in present knowledge management for enterprise project management, such as knowledge scattered storage and innovated knowledgepsilas untimely storage, etc., this paper quoted the idea of ontology to project management field. We discussed the acquisition, classification, representation method, and maintenance of knowledge base of project management knowledge in enterprise, then put forward a knowledge frame based on ontology in order to supporting knowledge sharing and reuse.
Pricing Efficiency of Nifty BeES in Bullish and Bearish Markets

This article examines the pricing efficiency of Nifty BeES in bullish and bearish market conditions using high frequency data for a period of seven years. It seeks to address three questions. First, does the portfolio manager of Nifty BeES follow its benchmark replication strategy across different market conditions? Second, whether the portfolio manager minimizes the portfolio return volatility relative to the benchmark volatility. Third, whether the magnitude of premiums/discounts varies in bullish and bearish market conditions. Our findings suggest a significant difference in alpha-generation abilities of fund manager between the two market conditions. Tracking error was found to be relatively high in bearish conditions. The average premium is higher in bearish markets characterized with highest volatility. On the other hand, the average discount is higher in bullish markets characterized with least volatility. The price divergence disappears within three days and the market price and the fund’s net asset value (NAV) get aligned due to arbitrage mechanism.
Use of alternative curing salts for processing salamis

Objective This study was performed to determine effects of different curing salts on the quality of salamis and to assess feasibility of using NaCl-alternative salts. Methods Various types of curing salts (KCl or MgCl2) as well as NaCl (sun-dried or refined) were incorporated for processing of salamis. The proximate composition, fatty acids, nucleotide-related compounds, and free amino acids of the salamis were analyzed during 40 days of ripening. Results The substitution of NaCl by KCl caused higher fat and ash content, but lower moisture content of the salami after 20 days of ripening (p<0.05). Compared with the sun-dried NaCl, use of KCl in salami also led to greater inosine 5′-monophosphate whereas refined NaCl had more inosine (p<0.05). KCl-added salami also had a higher C12:0, C17:1, and C20:0 than other types of salami (p<0.05). MgCl2-added salami had higher content of free amino acids compared to the other salamis (p<0.05). Conclusion Alternative curing salts such as KCl and MgCl2 could substitute NaCl in consideration of quality factor of a fermented meat product. Especially replacement of NaCl with KCl will be a suitable strategy for developing relatively low sodium salami products without compromising product quality.
Social enterprise in Europe: recent trends and developments

Purpose – Twelve years ago, the concept of social enterprise was rarely discussed in Europe, however it is now making significant breakthroughs in European Union (EU) countries. Within this context, the purpose of this paper is to synthesize major evolutions experienced by social enterprises across Europe and the key challenges they are facing; and specific members of the EMES European Research Network provide a more in‐depth update as to current trends and debates in their respective countriesDesign/methodology/approach – This paper is based on a comparative analysis of the different institutions (legal frameworks, public policies, supporting structures, public procurement policies …) which support the development of social enterprises in the different EU countries. To delimit the field, the paper relies on the “ideal‐type” social enterprise as defined by the EMES network: “Social enterprises are not‐for‐profit private organizations providing goods or services directly related to their explicit aim to be.
Modelling adoption of natural resources management technologies: the case of fallow systems

This paper presents an adoption model of a resource management technology derived from a three-step decision process (information, adoption, and intensity of adoption). From the theoretical results it is found that while the levels of technical parameters such as duration and regeneration rate of soil fertility by improved fallow are relevant for adoption, it is misleading to ignore economic and social factors as they are reflected in the discount rate, risk, information, and prices of inputs and outputs. It is also shown that models that do not take account of the problems of self-selection due to the ability of the potential adopters to acquire and process the relevant information about a technology, lead to biased estimators. Empirical estimations generally confirm the theoretical results. It is found that the acquisition of information about resources management technology is influenced by age of farmers and actions of official extension services; the adoption decision is influenced by prior utilization, the bundle of land property rights owned, and the level of financial liquidity; and the intensity of adoption is influenced by the percentage of the farm that is degraded.
Continuous improvement and inter-project learning in new product development

In an age of discontinuity, one of the few sources of sustainable competitive advantage remains in the ability of companies to innovate their products effectively. As innovative processes for products become more frequent and strategically relevant, long-term competitiveness compels firms to exploit synergy and learning among projects. In fact, mastering the overall process of knowledge creation, dissemination and application is the basis for creating and continuously improving a capability in product development. Learning through sequences of unique innovations, however, is neither simple nor natural, but requires adequate enabling mechanisms. This paper proposes an interpretative model of learning in product innovation. The objective is to identify the barriers that inhibit learning and the main enabling mechanisms to overcome them. The application of these mechanisms and their effects on a firm's performance are discussed on the basis of the results of research involving nineteen case studies of Italian and Swedish companies.
Effect of Fish Oil on Levels of R- and S-Enantiomers of 5-, 12-, and 15-Hydroxyeicosatetraenoic Acids in Mouse Colonic Mucosa

The balance of putative pro- and antiinflammatory lipoxygenase (LOX)-derived S-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acids (S-HETEs) in colon mucosa is a potential target for modulating colon cancer risk and progression. The biological effects of S-HETEs and R-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acids (produced by distinct pathways) may differ, but levels of these compounds in the colon are unknown. The objective of this study was to develop chiral methods to characterize hydroxyeicosatetraenoic (HETE) enantiomers in colonic mucosa and evaluate the effects of fish oil on HETE formation. C57BL/6 mice (COX-1 null, COX-2 null, wild-type) were fed a diet supplemented with either olive oil or menhaden oil for 11 wk, and R-/S-HETEs in colonic mucosa were quantified by chiral LC-MS/MS. The R-enantiomer comprised 60–72% of 5-HETE, 18–58% of 15-HETE, and 1–16% of 12-HETE in colonic mucosa, suggesting that non-LOX sources contribute to HETE profiles. Fish oil reduced levels of both R- and S-HETEs, and increased the preponderance of the R-enantiomers (particularly 12- and 15-HETEs). There was apparent shunting of arachidonic acid to 12-/15-LOX in the COX-1 null animals. This is the first report of the enantiomeric composition of HETEs in the colon in vivo and shows large effects of fish oil in the normal colon.
International Portfolio Investment Flows

This paper develops a model of international equity portfolio investment flows based on differences in informational endowments between foreign and domestic investors. It is shown that when domestic investors possess a cumulative informati on advantage over foreign investors about their domestic market, investors tend to purchase foreign assets in periods when the return on foreign assets is high and to sell when the return is low. The implications of the model are tested using data on US equity portfolio flows.