Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Blood content of asymmetric dimethylarginine: new insights into its dysregulation in renal disease.

BACKGROUND Plasma asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA), an endogenous inhibitor of nitric oxide synthase, is significantly elevated in patients with kidney disease and is a potential risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Here, we tested whether human whole blood (WB), as in rodent blood, can accumulate free ADMA and whether this accumulation is a function of disease burden. METHODS In 16 healthy control subjects (CO), 18 patients with ESRD and 18 matched hypertensive patients with normal renal function (HTN), we compared using high-pressure liquid chromatography baseline plasma and WB supernatant (WBSUP) ADMA and symmetrical dimethylarginine (SDMA) concentrations and accumulation during a 5-h incubation. We measured protein turnover in incubated WBSUP to determine if proteolytic processes drive ADMA accumulation. RESULTS Elevated plasma ADMA was confirmed in ESRD and HTN populations while basal WBSUP ADMA was significantly higher in ESRD subjects than controls (P = 0.05 versus CO; P = 0.02 versus HTN). Plasma SDMA followed a similar pattern. Incubation of WBSUP resulted in ADMA release from protein-incorporated stores while SDMA was unaffected. ADMA accumulation in ESRD samples was significantly greater than that in HTN (P = 0.03). CO and HTN men showed significantly greater ADMA accumulation than women (P = 0.01 and P = 0.003, respectively) but no gender difference was observed in the ESRD group (P = 0.26). ADMA accumulation correlated with ex vivo protein turnover (R = 0.76, P < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS Human blood is capable of releasing physiologically significant quantities of ADMA via proteolytic pathways. Dysregulated ADMA release from WB reservoirs may contribute to the distinctly high plasma ADMA levels in ESRD populations.
On the Optimality of k-out-of-n:G Systems

Phillips proved that for i.i. d. components with opposite failure modes the k-out-of-n:G systems are the optimal s-coherent systems in terms of maximising reliability. This paper generalises that result to s-dependent components. Further, the proof provides corollaries in terms of: 1) necessary conditions for a system of s-identical components to be s-coherent, and 2) a method for efficiently evaluating the mean-time-to-failure of s-coherent systems of s-identical components.
The advertising of pharmaceuticals direct to consumers: a critical review of the literature and debate

Pharmaceuticals are a substantial global industry which is unusual in that with few exceptions direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) is not permitted. This paper examines the arguments presented for and against the use of DTCA for prescription pharmaceuticals, studies the experience of the two OECD markets which currently permit DTCA (USA and New Zealand) and reviews the positions put forward by the many interested stakeholders for and against DTCA.
Influence of Temperature and Stress Field on Optical Voltage Sensor

The influence of temperature field and stress field on OVS has been analyzed theoretically. The law that temperature field and stress field affect the stability of optical voltage sensor (OVS) was obtained. Namely, thermal-optic effect by temperature and elato-optic by compressive stress of SF6 have no influence on the performance of OVS, but the phase retardation resulted through thermal-stress by the temperature variation is superimposed on the phase retardation produced through elastro-optic effect and varies with temperature, which affects the stability of OVS. Keywords-optical voltage sensor; stability; thermo-optic effect; elasto-optic effect
Proceedings, The Range Beef Cow Symposium XX

Historically, considerable efforts have been made to understand how nutrition impacts health and productivity during the postnatal period. While maternal nutrition during pregnancy plays an essential role in proper fetal and placental development, less is known about how maternal nutrition impacts the health and productivity of the offspring. Indeed, the prenatal growth trajectory is sensitive to the direct and indirect effects of maternal dietary intake from the earliest stages of embryonic life when the nutrient requirements for conceptus growth are negligible (Robinson et al., 1977). Not only is neonatal health compromised, but the subsequent health may be “programmed” as offspring from undernourished dams have been shown to exhibit poor growth and productivity and also to develop significant diseases later in life (Barker et al., 1993; Godfrey and Barker, 2000).
An empirical study of unit IPOS in the UK: why do firms include warrants in initial public offerings?

The main objective of this thesis is to identify the reasons why firms choose to issue unit IPOs instead of share-only IPOs. Evidence is found that unit firms are smaller, riskier, with higher level of agency costs and higher levels of information asymmetry than share-only firms and unit IPOs are underwritten by less reputable underwriters. The initial return results provide strong support to the Agency Cost hypothesis that unit IPOs is significantly more underpriced than share-only IPOs. Unit firms have lower survival rate than that of share-only IPO firms; however, unit firms that do survive are more likely to issue seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) for further funding. A clear pattern of price run-up is observed before SEO announcements by unit firms and a significant negative price adjustment is found when the SEOs are announced. In the long-term, this thesis provides evidence that unit IPOs present significantly worse underperformance comparing to both the matching share-only IPOs and various market indices. Such results contradict both the Agency Cost and the Signalling hypotheses and imply that unit firms cannot significantly improve performance by simply attaching warrants, regardless as whether they are used to reduce agency costs or to signal firm value.
Growth and Characterization of CZT Crystals by the Vertical Bridgman Method for X-Ray Detector Applications

CdZnTe crystals were grown by the vertical Bridgman method in closed quartz ampoules. The crystalline quality and the impurity content of these crystals were studied. Several X-ray detectors were cut out of these crystals. The resistivity, emission spectra, μτ product, and spectroscopic characteristics of these detectors were extensively measured and compared with the characteristics of detectors obtained from CdZnTe crystals grown by the boron oxide encapsulated vertical Bridgman technique. The detectors prepared from crystals grown without boron oxide show good μτ value, spectroscopic resolution, and higher reproducibility. The influence of growth method on impurity content and on detector response was discussed.
Prospective follow-up suggests similar risk of subsequent cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 2 or 3 among women with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 1 or negative colposcopy and directed biopsy.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to determine the risk of cumulative cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) grade 2 or 3 according to initial colposcopy and directed biopsy results among women with low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LSIL) or human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA positive atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASCUS). STUDY DESIGN A 2-year follow-up of 897 cases of LSIL and 1193 cases of HPV DNA positive ASCUS from the ASCUS/LSIL Triage Study was used to simulate American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology Consensus Conference recommendations. Women with CIN grade 1 or less were followed up for 2 years by semiannual cytologic examination, with universal exit colposcopy. The clinical end point was a cumulative clinical center histologic diagnosis of CIN grade 2 or 3. RESULTS The cumulative risk of CIN grade 2 or 3 was equivalent for LSIL (27.6%) and HPV positive ASCUS (26.7%). After excluding the women with a diagnosis of CIN grade 2 or 3 at initial colposcopy and directed biopsy (17.9%), the remaining women were at nearly identical risk for subsequent CIN grade 2 or 3 regardless of initial colposcopy result (completely negative colposcopy-11.3%; negative colposcopically directed biopsy-11.7%; and CIN grade 1 biopsy-13.0%). CONCLUSION LSIL and HPV positive ASCUS are clinically equivalent. Initial colposcopic detection of obviously prevalent CIN grade 2 or 3 reduces risk. However, for the remaining women who have CIN grade 1 or less on colposcopy and directed biopsy, the risk for subsequent CIN grade 2 or 3 (whether missed, prevalent, or truly incident) is approximately 12% over 2 years. This risk does not vary meaningfully by initial distinction of histologic CIN grade 1 from negative colposcopy and biopsy.
Critical Success Factors for Knowledge Management Implementation in Life Insurance Enterprises

This study investigates the critical success factors for knowledge management implementation via empirical surveys among Taiwanâ€™s life insurance enterprises using structure equation modeling. We find that individual characteristics, knowledge management characteristics and organizational characteristics significantly affect knowledge management implementation. Environments significantly influence knowledge management characteristics and organizational characteristics. Information technology infrastructure significantly affects knowledge management characteristics. This study provides directions for future research and practical implications for the life insurance business in having knowledge management into place
Current issues in clinical trials: standing on the shoulders of Jerome Cornfield

Jerome Cornfield was one of the leading biostatisticians of the mid‐20th century and made major contributions to the methods and practice of statistics in many areas. One of Cornfield's major areas of interest was clinical trials. He considered and wrote about many of the issues that continue to concern clinical trialists today. His work ranged from philosophical treatises about the approaches to inference from clinical trials, all the way to assessing the details of the conduct of a particular trial to determine how to best interpret the results. It is interesting to see how many of today's ‘hot topics’ in clinical trials methodology were addressed in Cornfield's works in the 1960s and 1970s. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The impact of motorcycle helmet use.

Mandatory motorcycle helmet-use legislation is supported by the high morbidity of motorcycle trauma and its cost to society. Opponents argue, however, that the majority of motorcycle trauma morbidity and costs are the result of injuries to body regions other than the head. Previous data do not address this argument because they fail to control for differences in non-head injury severity (i.e., kinetic impact) between helmeted and unhelmeted patients. This study investigates the impact of helmet use on the morbidity and cost of motorcycle trauma, after controlling for non-head injuries. A retrospective review of all patients admitted to Harborview Medical Center with motorcycle trauma from 1/1/85 to 1/1/90 was performed. Non-head injury severity was determined by calculating an ISS that did not include head injury. This non-head ISS was used to control for injury severity below the neck. Four hundred twenty-five patients were identified. Stratified analysis showed that helmet use decreased the need for and duration of mechanical ventilation, the length of ICU stay, the need for rehabilitation, and prevented head injury. Costs of acute care were significantly less in helmeted patients. Regression analysis, controlling for age, gender, and blood alcohol level (as well as non-head injury severity), confirmed that acute costs were 40% less with helmet use.
TOWARDS A HOLISTIC APPROACH FOR MODELING FINANCIAL VOLATILITY

Due to the more global economic system, financial markets impact to society and family throughout the world and causing new global crisis because of the higher and faster volatility of financial prices. This paper proposes a system view to set the basis for modeling the dynamics of global financial market with a holistic system view, in order to achieve a global sustainable development.
SOCIAL REPORTING- CR or PR?: THE UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

KPMG’s 2005 biennial survey of Corporate Responsibility (CR) Reporting (KPMG, 2005) showed that 52 % of the top 250 firms in the Fortune 500 published a CR report compared to 45% just two years earlier. An additional 11% included CSR information in their annual financial reports. Only 30% of those reporting CR data, however, had employed any assurance methods to verify their reports. Further, there is little consistency or agreement on the standards of rigorous assurance processes or even, the range of issues that should be reported upon. The result is the potential for many of these reports to be slick, glossy instruments of reputation managementa public relations ploy rather than a committed effort to identify, address and report upon CR issues. The paper critically examines the theoretical issues relating to CR reporting including an introduction to the current state of CR reporting, the reporting models currently available, the complexity around creating and executing assurance processes, and then asks five critical questions that are important to the future of CR reporting, including what and who should be involved in assurance and how, and the intricacies of auditor independence and voluntary versus mandatory compliance.
C-terminal Domain of Leucyl-tRNA Synthetase from Pathogenic Candida albicans Recognizes both tRNASer and tRNALeu*

Leucyl-tRNA synthetase (LeuRS) is a multidomain enzyme that catalyzes Leu-tRNALeu formation and is classified into bacterial and archaeal/eukaryotic types with significant diversity in the C-terminal domain (CTD). CTDs of both bacterial and archaeal LeuRSs have been reported to recognize tRNALeu through different modes of interaction. In the human pathogen Candida albicans, the cytoplasmic LeuRS (CaLeuRS) is distinguished by its capacity to recognize a uniquely evolved chimeric tRNASer (CatRNASer(CAG)) in addition to its cognate CatRNALeu, leading to CUG codon reassignment. Our previous study showed that eukaryotic but not archaeal LeuRSs recognize this peculiar tRNASer, suggesting the significance of their highly divergent CTDs in tRNASer recognition. The results of this study provided the first evidence of the indispensable function of the CTD of eukaryotic LeuRS in recognizing non-cognate CatRNASer and cognate CatRNALeu. Three lysine residues were identified as involved in mediating enzyme-tRNA interaction in the leucylation process: mutation of all three sites totally ablated the leucylation activity. The importance of the three lysine residues was further verified by gel mobility shift assays and complementation of a yeast leuS gene knock-out strain.
Androgens stimulate hypoxia-inducible factor 1 activation via autocrine loop of tyrosine kinase receptor/phosphatidylinositol 3'-kinase/protein kinase B in prostate cancer cells.

PURPOSE Androgen deprivation is implicated in reducing neoangiogenesis in prostate cancer (PCA). Androgens regulate the expression of the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF); hypoxia stimulates VEGF expression through the activation of the transcriptional factor, hypoxia-inducible factor 1 (HIF-1). We tested the hypothesis that an effect of androgens on VEGF expression is regulated directly by HIF-1 and HIF-2, and antiandrogens block HIF function. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Androgen and antiandrogen effects were evaluated on HIF-1alpha protein and HIF-1 transcriptional activation in human PCA cells. RESULTS Dihydrotestosterone (DHT) activates HIF-1alpha nuclear protein expression in LNCaP cells but not in androgen receptor-negative PC-3 cells. HIF-1alpha expression is correlated with the transactivation of a hypoxia-responsive element-driven reporter gene and with the production of VEGF protein. The effect of DHT on HIF-1 was blocked by nonsteroidal antiandrogens, flutamide and bicalutamide. DHT does not affect HIF-1alpha mRNA levels but regulates HIF-1alpha protein expression through a translation-dependent pathway. PC-3 cells when incubated with increasing amounts of conditioned medium from LNCaP cells treated with DHT experienced a dose-dependent increase in HIF-1alpha. This induction was not seen either when LNCaP cells were treated with flutamide or conditioned medium were pretreated with antibody to the epidermal growth factor (EGF). HIF-1 activation by DHT was blocked by LY294002, a potent inhibitor of the phosphatidylinositol 3'-kinase signaling pathway, whereas HIF-1 activation by EGF, as ligand, was not inhibited by flutamide. In contrast, HIF-2alpha protein was not affected by androgens or antiandrogens. CONCLUSION Androgens activate HIF-1, driving VEGF expression in androgen-sensitive LNCaP cells. This regulation is mediated through an autocrine loop involving EGF/phosphatidylinositol 3'-kinase/protein kinase B, which in turn activate HIF-1alpha and HIF-1-regulated gene expression. Therapeutic actions of antiandrogens in PCA include inhibition of HIF-1 function.
The Evolution of Agriculture in Insects

▪ Abstract Agriculture has evolved independently in three insect orders: once in ants, once in termites, and seven times in ambrosia beetles. Although these insect farmers are in some ways quite different from each other, in many more ways they are remarkably similar, suggesting convergent evolution. All propagate their cultivars as clonal monocultures within their nests and, in most cases, clonally across many farmer generations as well. Long-term clonal monoculture presents special problems for disease control, but insect farmers have evolved a combination of strategies to manage crop diseases: They (a) sequester their gardens from the environment; (b) monitor gardens intensively, controlling pathogens early in disease outbreaks; (c) occasionally access population-level reservoirs of genetically variable cultivars, even while propagating clonal monocultures across many farmer generations; and (d) manage, in addition to the primary cultivars, an array of “auxiliary” microbes providing disease suppression.
Adaptive fuzzy moving sliding mode control for a class of perturbed underactuated nonlinear systems

This paper presents an adaptive fuzzy moving sliding mode control for a class of uncertain Multi-Input Multi-Output (MIMO) nonlinear underactuated systems. The proposed control law involves a Proportional Integral control (PI) to reduce the chattering phenomenon caused by the discontinuous term in the classical sliding mode technique. The uncertain system functions are predicted by fuzzy logic systems and free parameters can be updated on-line by adaptive laws based on Lyapunov theory. The moving sliding mode is introduced to enhance the control law robustness in the presence of disturbance and parameter variations, hence the sliding surfaces are moved by changing the magnitude of the slopes by adaptive laws. The stability analysis is verified and the proposed approach is applied to an inverted pendulum and achieves satisfactory results.
PENGARUH LAPORAN AUDIT WAJAR TANPA PENGECUALIAN DENGAN PARAGRAF PENJELASAN DAN LAPORAN AUDIT WAJAR DENGAN PENGECUALIAN TERHADAP ABNORMAL RETURN(Studi Empiris Pada Perusahaan Yang Terdaftar Di BEI)

Audit report is the medium of communication between auditors and the users of financial statements. Audit report must be objective, understandable, and relevant. The relevant audit report is the audit report has information content that can influence the decision making. This study aims to analyze the effect of unqualified audit report with explanatory paragraph and qualified audit report on abnormal return. This study aims to examine the information content of unqualified audit report with explanatory paragraph and qualified audit report. The research was done by using event study method, by using t-test. The sample were companies that have unqualified audit report with explanatory paragraph and qualified audit report that listed in Indonesia Stock Exchange in the period 2004-2009. The results showed that the announcement of unqualified audit report with explanatory paragraph and qualified audit report did not significantly affect the abnormal return. Thus, it can be deduced that there is no information content in unqualified audit report with explanatory paragraph and qualified audit report.
An Economic Analysis of the Bekaert NV Insider Trading Case

This article contains a clinical study of Bekaert NV, the biggest insider trading case inBelgium. Up to now, no economic analysis of this case was ever conducted. It showed thatBelgian courts currently seem to lack knowledge of the functioning of financial markets toassess an insider trading case. Therefore their decisions give little guidance to futurelitigants. Using a law and economics framework, this case study is clarifying in severalaspects compared to a traditional legal analysis. The analysis focuses on two aspects of aninsider trading case. First, the price-sensitive character of the information is examined.Second, the standard of proof was examined.
How Did the Crisis in International Funding Markets Affect Bank Lending? Balance Sheet Evidence from the United Kingdom

Evidence abounds on the propagation of financial stresses originating in the US mortgage market to banking systems worldwide through international funding markets. But the transmission of this external funding shock to the real economy via bank lending is surprisingly underexamined, given the central importance ascribed to this channel of contagion by policymakers. This paper provides evidence of this transmission for the UK-resident banking system, the largest in the world by asset size. It uses a novel data set, created from detailed and confidential balance sheet data reported by individual banks quarterly to the Bank of England. I find that the shock to foreign funding caused a substantial pullback in domestic lending. The results are derived using a range of instruments to correct for endogeneity and omitted variable bias. Foreign subsidiaries and branches reduced lending by a larger amount than domestically owned banks, while the latter calibrated the reduction in domestic lending more closely to the size of the funding shock.
Nanoparticles - A Review

For the past few decades, there has been a considerable research interest in the area of drug delivery using particulate delivery systems as carriers for small and large molecules. Particulate systems like nanoparticles have been used as a physical approach to alter and improve the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties of various types of drug molecules. They have been used in vivo to protect the drug entity in the systemic circulation, restrict access of the drug to the chosen sites and to deliver the drug at a controlled and sustained rate to the site of action. Various polymers have been used in the formulation of nanoparticles for drug delivery research to increase therapeutic benefit, while minimizing side effects. Here, we review various aspects of nanoparticle formulation, characterization, effect of their characteristics and their applications in delivery of drug molecules and therapeutic genes.