Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Glucose-induced Thermogenesis in Nondiabetic and Diabetic Obese Subjects

The glucose-induced thermogenesis (GIT) following a 100-g oral glucose load has been measured by continuous indirect calorimetry in 55 nondiabetic and diabetic obese subjects of various ages and compared with two control groups of 17 young and 13 elderly nonobese subjects. The obese subjects were divided into four groups: group A, normal glucose tolerance; group B, impaired glucose tolerance; group C, diabetes with increased insulin response; group D, diabetes with reduced insulin response. The glucose-induced thermogenesis measured during 3 h represented 8.6 ± 0.7% of the energy content of the load in the young control group. In all obese groups, the glucose-induced thermogenesis was significantly lower than in the young control group, i.e., 6.6 ± 0.9%, 6.4 ± 0.6%, 3.7 ± 0.7%, and 2.2 ± 0.4% in groups A, B, C, and D, respectively. Since the obese diabetics were older than the other groups, their glucose-induced thermogenesis was compared with that of the elderly control group; the latter (5.8 ± 0.3%) was significantly lower (P < 0.05) than that of the young control group. The obese diabetics also had a significantly lower glucose-induced thermogenesis than the elderly control group (P < 0.02 and P < 0.001 for groups C and D, respectively). When corrected for glucosuria and after taking into account the glucosuria and the changes in the glucose space, the corrected glucose-induced thermogenesis (i.e., related to glucose “uptake”), was still significantly reduced in group A versus the young control group (6.6 ± 0.9 versus 8.6 ± 0.7%, P < 0.05), and in group D versus the elderly (matched for age) control group (4.2 ± 0.7 versus 5.8 ± 0.3%, P < 0.05). It is concluded that the postprandial thermogenesis induced by glucose ingestion is decreased in the presence of insulin resistance and/or reduced insulin response to the glucose load in obese subjects. In addition, age itself contributes to decrease glucose-induced thermogenesis.
Reduction of Disulfide Bonds by Streptomyces pactum during Growth on Chicken Feathers

For disintegration of chicken feathers by Streptomyces pactum, keratinolytic proteinases and extracellular reduction of disulfide bonds were necessary. Conditions for disulfide reduction were examined with oxidized glutathione as model substrate. The reduction of glutathione depended on the presence of metabolically active cells. The mycelium also reduced tetrazolium dyes and cystine.
A buried object approach (BOA) for the scattering of electromagnetic waves from 2D rough surfaces

In this paper, a MoM based numerical method is given to solve the 3D scattering problem including two lossy dielectric half space media separated by a 2D locally rough interface. The proposed method is the extended form of the buried object approach (BOA) method [2] to 2D rough surfaces. The method is very effective for locally rough surfaces having arbitrary surface variation.
New insights into the pathophysiology and management of bone disease in multiple myeloma

Bone disease is a major feature of multiple myeloma (MM) that is responsible for increased morbidity and mortality. Recent studies have revealed that new molecules such as the receptor activator of nuclear factor-kappa B, its ligand, osteoprotegerin and macrophage inflammatory protein-1 a are implicated in the pathogenesis of myeloma bone disease. These molecules seem to interfere not only with the biology of MM bone destruction, but also with the tumour growth and survival. Currently, bisphosphonates play a major role in the treatment of myeloma bone disease. This review attempts to summarize all the available data for the biology of bone damage in MM and the possible novel targets for developing new drugs that may help in the management of MM bone disease. It also describes the results of all major studies investigating the effects of different types of bisphosphonates on myeloma bone disease, their mode of action and the future implications of their use. Multiple myeloma (MM), which accounts for 10% of malignant haematological diseases, is characterized by the accumulation of malignant plasma cells in the bone marrow. Bone disease is a common clinical feature of MM and correlates with increased morbidity. The manifestation of bone disease includes osteoporosis, hypercalcaemia, lytic lesions and pathological fractures. Vertebral fractures may be associated with spinal cord compression and neurological complications. It has been well documented that MM bone disease is the result of an increased activity of osteoclasts that leads to increased bone resorption in combination with decreased bone formation. The interaction of plasma cells with bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) in the bone marrow microenvironment is crucial for the activation of osteoclasts. The use of bisphosphonates, which inhibit bone resorption, for the treatment of MM bone disease has led to an improvement in the quality of life for patients with MM. Several recent studies have provided new insights into the pathogenesis of MM bone disease. Apart from cytokines, such as interleukin-6 (IL-6), IL-1b, IL-11 and the tumour necrosis factors (TNFs), which are known to have osteoclast activating functions, the characterization of newer molecules, such as the receptor activator of nuclear factor-kappa B (RANK), its ligand (RANKL), osteoprotegerin (OPG; the decoy receptor of RANKL) and macrophage inflammatory protein-1 alpha (MIP-1a), has helped in further understanding the pathogenesis of MM bone disease and also in developing new therapeutic approaches. BIOLOGY OF MM BONE DISEASE
Trachea transplantation: from laboratory to patient

Today, tracheal lesions occupying < 30% of the trachea in children and < 50% in adults can be treated with primary resection, followed by end‐to‐end anastomosis. However, lesions larger than this require a tracheal replacement, of which there are currently few options available. The recent advancement of tissue‐engineering principles in tracheal research is quickly opening up new vistas for airway reconstruction and creating a very promising future for medical science. This review discusses the main criteria required for the development of a tissue‐engineered tracheal replacement. The criteria include: (a) appropriate cell types and sources; (b) biomolecules to direct the differentiation of the cells to the desired lineage; (c) a suitable scaffold for a cellular matrix; and (d) a bioreactor to facilitate cell attachment and proliferation and construct transport to theatre. Our group has designed and developed the world's first synthetic tracheal replacement, using a novel nanocomposite material, also developed in our laboratory. It was implanted clinically in June 2011 with a successful outcome. The application of tissue‐engineering approaches to tracheal replacement development is the first step towards the much‐anticipated ‘off‐the‐shelf’ tissue‐engineered technology, contributing extensively to the advancement in treatment and rehabilitation of patients afflicted with tracheal pathology. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Subsequent Reaction to Online Advertisement Disturbance

The objective of this study is to examine subsequent reaction to online advertisements in information searching prior to product purchase. Total valid samples were 283, out of 300 surveyed respondents. The mobile phone is used in this study as objects. The informativeness of online advertisements including dimensions of price/promotion, service, design, and function are what respondents intend to view. For respondents in the ad-neutral cluster, price/promotion and service are factors valued more importantly. On the contrary, for respondents in the ad-annoyed cluster, design and function are more important factors than price/promotion and service in terms of information upon seeing online advertisements. The results indicate internet users are aware of online advertisements and understand the disturbance caused by online advertisements is unavoidable. When internet users are disturbed and the annoyance can be tolerated, the information searching behavior goes on. When internet users are disturbed and the annoyance cannot be tolerated, the information searching behavior is terminated. The effort of designing online advertisements ended up with users' ignorance or termination can be wasted and useless. Marketers and advertisers not only try to attract attentions of online users with advertisements, but also need to restrict the annoyance or disturbance of online advertisements to an acceptable level to reduce the opportunities of being ignored or terminated.
How Chinese State-Owned Enterprises Change Their Dynamics in New Product Innovation?

The innovation of state-owned enterprises and its adaptation to the market competition have been in the spotlight of studies. According to the panel data form Statistics on Science and Technology-Oriented Activities of Industry Enterprises, this research measures and contrasts the new product innovation investment and performance of Chinese State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) and non-SOEs. It reveals that market competition is a positive effect on new product innovation input and output of state-owned enterprises, as non-SOE, the relationship between competition intensity and new product innovation output of state-owned enterprises appears exponential relationship. Furthermore, it discovers that non-SOE is more sensitive to competition intensity than SOE. Under the different competitive environment, both of them play differents role on promoting development of innovation and stabilising the market.
Associations of Fertility and Pregnancy Outcomes with Leather Tannery Work in Mongolia

Abstract To our knowledge, reproductive health effects among male leather tannery workers have not been previously investigated. Tannery work involves exposure to chromium, solvents, and other chemicals, which has been associated with adverse pregnancy and fertility outcomes in animals or humans in some studies. This study retrospectively investigates the association of male leather tannery work with preterm delivery, spontaneous abortion, time to pregnancy, and infertility by comparing tannery employees to other workers in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Participants were randomly selected from current employee rosters at eight tanneries and two bread-making companies. The results of this research suggest that tannery work may be associated with reduced fertility in males. The study had limited statistical power, and some factors are likely to have biased findings toward the null hypothesis; other limitations and possible sources of undetermined bias give reason for cautious interpretation. Additional studies should be conducted to further examine fertility among tannery workers.
The replacement of assertive outreach services by reinforcing local community teams: a four-year observational study

Abstract Background: The introduction of specialist Assertive Outreach (AO) teams has produced only modest differential findings from English studies compared to standard care. Providers have gradually closed AO services over the last 8 years. We previously studied outcomes at 12 months following the dismantling of two AO teams in London. We now report on the longer term outcomes for these patients. Aims: To evaluate the longer term outcomes, activity and costs for patients receiving a less intensive service. Methods: Observational service level evaluation of 112 patients comparing baseline of AO care with each year of routine care subsequent to the team closure. Results: Patients transferred to standard teams reinforced with the Flexible Assertive Community Treatment (FACT) approach had significantly fewer admissions and bed days at each of the four subsequent years compared to baseline, offset by a significant rise in missed face-to-face appointments. There was no significant change in the use of crisis services. Predictably patients had significantly fewer contacts under standard care. Conclusions: AO patients are remarkably resilient to substantial reductions in the intensity of care. Reinforcing multi-disciplinary community mental health teams (CMHTs) with FACT appears to provide an integrated service that is clinically effective and an affordable alternative to orthodox AO teams.
Schistosomiasis in Africa: An Emerging Tragedy in Our New Global Health Decade

African trypanosomiasis, are also being targeted for elimination. Unfortunately, other NTDs have not fared so well in terms of coverage. Today it is believed that fewer than 10% of eligible populations living in endemic regions of Africa, Asia, and the Americas are receiving annual treatments for their schistosomiasis, intestinal helminth infections, and/or trachoma [2]. The World Health Organization (WHO) and several leading public private partnerships and non-governmental development organizations are actively working to correct this situation and to steadily increase global coverage to the levels of LF and onchocerciasis. Of these, we believe that the single largest gap in mass drug administration for a serious NTD has to be the almost nonexistent global coverage for schistosomiasis.
Navigating through metaproteomics data: A logbook of database searching

Metaproteomic research involves various computational challenges during the identification of fragmentation spectra acquired from the proteome of a complex microbiome. These issues are manifold and range from the construction of customized sequence databases, the optimal setting of search parameters to limitations in the identification search algorithms themselves. In order to assess the importance of these individual factors, we studied the effect of strategies to combine different search algorithms, explored the influence of chosen database search settings, and investigated the impact of the size of the protein sequence database used for identification. Furthermore, we applied de novo sequencing as a complementary approach to classic database searching. All evaluations were performed on a human intestinal metaproteome dataset. Pyrococcus furiosus proteome data were used to contrast database searching of metaproteomic data to a classic proteomic experiment. Searching against subsets of metaproteome databases and the use of multiple search engines increased the number of identifications. The integration of P. furiosus sequences in a metaproteomic sequence database showcased the limitation of the target‐decoy‐controlled false discovery rate approach in combination with large sequence databases. The selection of varying search engine parameters and the application of de novo sequencing represented useful methods to increase the reliability of the results. Based on our findings, we provide recommendations for the data analysis that help researchers to establish or improve analysis workflows in metaproteomics.
The impact of demutualization on stock exchanges’ financial performance: the moderating role of corporate governance practices

The current literature implies that demutualization, or the conversion to for-profit firm, improves financial performance. An econometric analysis focused on the stock exchange industry challenges this status quo by revealing that demutualization by itself does not explain much of the improved exchange financial performance. However, the picture changes when taking into account the interaction effects between demutualization strategy and corporate governance restructuring measures that accompanied demutualization. Results indicate that improved performance is mainly driven by major restructuring in exchanges corporate governance following demutualization involving board of directors, top management teams and incentives structures. Our results shed light on how demutualization strategy brings efficiencies and provide guidance to exchanges considering demutualization. Our results may also apply to firms facing major changes in their business environments.
Building from Waste

Accordingto the US-based Worldwatch Institute , the world? s growing population andprosperity will double the annual production of municipal solid waste by 2025,from today? s 1.3 to 2.6 billion tonnes. Will we be able to activate thismaterial for urban construction? If so, the concept of a circular metabolismcould emerge, whereby the city is constantly producing the matter it needs togrow without exploiting natural resources.
Historical development and current problems of Czech housing sector

This paper is focused on housing sector in Czech economy since 1998. At first, the history of housing market is described using time series which covers a period between 2006:Q1 and 2016:Q1. There are mentioned key structural breaks on real estate market and how these have changed relationship between the housing sector and business cycle of the Czech economy. Second part shows current states on the Czech real estate market: (i) heating the real estate market (ii) transition from rents to real estate purchases (iii) higher household indebtedness. At the end work describes mortgage banks and their policy; specifically, how the banks set mortgage interest rates and loan to value ratio (LTV) in accordance with expansionary monetary policy.
Emerging drugs for bronchiectasis: an update

Introduction: Recent research has confirmed the increasing burden of bronchiectasis, in affluent and developing countries. Bronchiectasis, the destruction and dilation of airways, is due to a variety of causes and is characterised by a self-perpetuating cycle of airway inflammation, infection and obstruction that results in substantial morbidity and mortality. Improved therapies that address these three components, and the diseases that both cause and result from bronchiectasis are required. Areas covered: In this review, we update our previous summary of the clinical features, pathophysiology and epidemiology of bronchiectasis among adults and children, highlighting the most recent advances in therapeutics. We discuss current treatment strategies and then identify key goals for future research on the causes and treatments of a variety of types of bronchiectasis. Expert opinion: Bronchiectasis remains an orphan disease with respect to the development of new therapies. There has been progress in the recognition and studies but further research is now required on the pathogenesis, prevention, and treatment of bronchiectasis in order to decrease its high burden. Such advances will require a concerted, global effort to coordinate studies of both the pathophysiology and potential treatments of this heterogeneous, chronic disease that affects people of all ages and demographics.
Comparing the Origins of External Default, Domestic Default and Banking Crisis

Purpose of this paper is to explore the origins of external default, domestic default and banking crisis. Using Random Forest (Breiman et al.,1984) to measure variable importance, we adopt the long-dated cross-country data on public debt developed by Reinhart and Rogoff (2009), which covers 66 countries in 1970 to 2012. The robust conclusions as follows.1. “Debtrelated variables” have higher importance on eruption of external default. 2. “Macroeconomicrelated variables” reflecting the background of a country have higher importance on eruption of domestic default. 3. “The interest payments from debt” have higher importance on eruption of banking crisis. Especially, the origins of external default are corresponding with those of banking crisis. In the past, the relationship between macroeconomic variables and debt default is hard to conclude. However, we get robust conclusions, reflecting that “macroeconomicrelated variables”, “debt-related variables” are indeed important origins of external default, domestic default and banking crisis.
Including the behavioral aspects of customers in demand response model: Real time pricing versus peak time rebate

Demand response (DR) programs enable the demand side to actively optimize its consumption in response to the dynamic prices. The flexibility of consumption can be a useful tool for the electricity market to resolve many of its operation and reliability issues. Several models have been proposed in the literature to explain the human behavior aspect of the customers. These models are based on the classical utility function, but some studies have shown that the price effect on the customer's decision in areas like energy efficiency and consumption reduction depends upon many behavioral characteristics and without considering such characteristics, the results are unrealistic. Thus, loss aversion plays a crucial role in the decision making. So, in this paper, the impact of two time based rate DR programs have been investigated on the peak reduction considering the loss-aversion and its impact on the perception of the customers. Real time pricing and peak time rebate are two competing alternatives for peak reduction. A modified price elasticity based DR model is proposed to simulate the price response of the customers in the presence of both DR programs. MATLAB software is used to implement the DR models. The models are examined on one of the summer days of 2014 in Connecticut. The data is reported by New England ISO. Two PTR cases are generated for this study, with and without considering the loss aversion. Under both scenarios, without considering the loss aversion, PTR has advantages over RTP, but considering the loss-aversion, RTP showed a superior performance. It is shown that the behavioral characteristics of the customers, loss-aversion in this case, is indispensable in the selection of the proper program.
Implementation of On-Chip and On-Package Reactive Equalizer to Minimize Inter-symbol Interference (ISI) and Jitter from Frequency Dependent Attenuation

In this paper, on-chip and on-package reactive equalizer schemes that minimize inter-symbol interference (ISI) and jitter are proposed. The proposed reactive equalizers are designed and optimized in a frequency domain for 3 Gbps signaling on a transmission line with frequency dependent loss and parasitic capacitance. The proposed reactive equalizer was implemented using a 0.18 um CMOS process, and verification of improvements in the signal quality was performed via simulation and measurement of the time domain reflection and an eye diagram.
Factors affecting employee commitment for small independent hotels in Phuket Province

The objectives of this study were (1) to investigate the levels of employee commitment to the small independent hotel organizations in Phuket Province, (2) to compare the levels of employee commitment to the organization of the small independent hotel organizations in Phuket Province dictated by personal characteristics, and (3) to investigate the relationship between job characteristics, organization characteristics and the levels of employee commitment to the organization of small independent hotels in Phuket Province. The findings showed that small independent hotel employees in Phuket were strongly committed to their organization. The personal characteristics in terms of education, job level and work experience have an effect on the employee commitment level. Furthermore, the job characteristics and the organization characteristics involved had a positive relationship with the small independent hotel employees’ organizational commitment. The results of this study will be useful for small independent hotel owners to improve their Human Resources management system by maximizing their employee commitment and retaining their help for the organization to gain a competitive advantage.
Characteristic of variable-bit-rate video frames duration over the Ethernet network

A packet network, like the Ethernet network, has a self-similar characteristic with its burst pattern over almost all time resolution. Therefore, a specific traffic, such as video traffic, needs special treatment for real-time applications. We show the behavior of the MPEG-1 stream over our local area Ethernet network. Although the pattern of the frame length is kept the same, duration pattern of each frame is difficult to predict from the frame length.