Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The multifactorial nature of hypoxia-induced drug resistance in cancer: involvement of hypoxia-inducible factor 1

iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. iv STATEMENT OF CONTRIBUTION. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS. vii LIST OF TABLES. xi LIST OF FIGURES. xii LIST OF SUPPLEMENTARY TABLES AND FIGURES. xvi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS. xvii CHAPTER 1: GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 1 1.1 Tumor progression and cancer cell evolution. 2 1.2 The tumor microenvironment as a selection pressure for malignant phenotypes in cancer cells: the role of intratumoral hypoxia. 5 1.2. 1 Pathogenesis of intratumoral hypoxia. 6 1.2. 2 Cellular consequences of hypoxia. 6 1.2. 3 Mechanisms of oxygen sensing. 9 1.2. 3.1 Oxygen sensing by hydroxylases and hypoxia-inducible factor. 10 1.2. 3.2 Oxygen sensing by nitric oxide synthases. 14 1.2. 3.3 Oxygen sensing by mitochondrial and reactive oxygen species. 15 1.2. 3.4 Additional mechanisms of oxygen sensing. 17 1.2. 4 Cellular adaptations to hypoxia. 18 1.2. 4.1 Diminishing hypoxia-induced stress: the angiogenic switch. 18 1.2. 4.2 Tolerating hypoxia: the glycolytic switch and the emergence of phenotypes resistant to acidic conditions, apoptosis and oxidative stress. 21 1.2. 4.3 Escaping hypoxia: tissue remodeling, cell motility, cellular invasion and metastasis. 26 1.3 The impact of intratumoral hypoxia on cancer therapy. 28 1.3.1 Hypoxia and radiation therapy. 28 1.3.2 Hypoxia and chemotherapy. 29 1.3.3 Role of hypoxia-induced survival adaptations in the acquisition of the chemoresistance phenotype. 31 1.4 Rationale and hypothesis. 36
Dry Anaerobic Digestion for Agricultural Waste Recycling

For sustainable agriculture, it is important to manage agricultural wastes, such as crop residues and livestock wastes. Anaerobic digestion has been gathering the attention to recycle these wastes into renewable energy (biogas) and fertilizer (soil amendment) (digestate). Dry anaerobic digestion is defined as digestion at higher than 20% of total solid (TS) content in the reactor, which is suitable for wastes with high TS content, such as agricultural wastes. In this chapter, we reviewed recent advances in biogas production and use of digestate as soil amendment from dry anaerobic digestion of agricultural wastes. It has been found that ammonia concentration, feed/inoculum (F/I) ratio, and TS content are important parameters for operation of dry anaerobic digestion. Several operation technologies have been in operation, while new operation strategies have been developed. Application of solid digestate into the soil is beneficial to increase soil properties; however it should be carefully operated because it has risks of nitrate leaching and soil pathogens.
Carbapenemase en Pseudomonas aeruginosa en los hospitales de Managua Nicaragua.

El presente estudio se planteó con el propósito de conocer la frecuencia de Pseudomonas aeruginosa metalo-β-lactamasas y patrón de resistencia en pacientes hospitalizados. Para ello se realizó un estudio transversal en el periodo julio 2016, enero del 2017. Las cepas se obtuvieron de los diferentes procesos infecciosos de los pacientes hospitalizados, dichas cepas fueron conservadas en caldo leche en los hospitales hasta su posterior análisis, las cepas fueron reactivadas en agar MacConkey, se realizó un tamizaje por el método de Kirby Bauer, se tomó el valor de corte, cuando Imipenem y Meropenem estuvo ≤21mm, se determinó el test de sinergia, utilizando los carbapenémicos y sus inhibidores, ácido etilendiaminotetraacético (10ᶙg) y ácido fenil borónico (10ᶙg), el perfil de resistencia se realizó mediante vitek2 Compact, también se determinó la concentración mínima inhibitoria para Imipenem 2-4 µg/mL y para Ertapenem 2 µg/mL, la genotipificación se determinó mediante la Reacción en cadena de la Polimerasa y el peso molecular se determinó por electroforesis. El universo estuvo comprendido por 288 cepas de estas 22 fueron Pseudomonas aeruginosa, que corresponde al 7.6%, las cepas analizadas presentaron multirresistencia a los diversos antibióticos analizados, solo 7 (32%), presentó resistencia a Tigeciclina y ninguna de las cepas presento resistencia a Colistina, los genes con mayor frecuencia fue VIM, para un 68%, el tipo de muestra con mayor frecuencia, donde se aisló Pseudomonas, fue muestras traqueal, 7 (32%), seguido de secreción 5(23%), Hemocultivo 1(4%), punta de catéter 4(18%), y las salas con mayor frecuencia donde estaban presente estos microorganismo, fue UCI pediátrico con el 91%. Como resultado del estudio se concluye que la prevalencia de Pseudomonas aeruginosa, productoras de carbapenemasas, en hospitales de Nicaragua, es baja, pero debe ser de preocupación para autoridades hospitalarias, debido que las cepas contienen diversos tipos de genes combinados como; VIM y GIM, VIM y SPM, que pueden desencadenar brotes epidémicos, la frecuencia con la que aparece nueva cepas resistente a los carbapenémicos es evidente, esta evidencia conlleva a la búsquedas de estrategias, para evitar la dispersión de cepas multiresistentes en diferentes unidades de salud en el momento del traslado de un paciente portador a otra unidad hospitalaria
Mental Health Changes Over Time: a Longitudinal Perspective

 The second most common type of discharge was ‘medical discharge’, with almost one-fifth (18.6%) of Transitioned ADF reporting this type of discharge. The most commonly reported reasons for transition were ‘impact of service life on family’ (11.0%), ‘better employment prospects in civilian life’ (6.2%), ‘posting issues’ (6.1%), ‘mental health problems’ (6.1%), and ‘physical health problems’ (5.9%).
Development of endoscopic valve therapy in patients with severe emphysema

Introduction: Valve therapy in emphysema patients is performed since 2003. The VENT in 2010 showed statistically significant but not clinically relevant benefit. In the last years, patient selection was optimized increasing efficacy of valve therapy. Objective: Exploratory data analysis of patients receiving valve therapy. Methods: Evaluation of valve therapy by analysis of lung function, exercise capacity and radiological outcome from 2009-2013. Results: From 01/2009-12/2013, 382 patients underwent valve therapy. Overall, patients had statistically significant but clinically less relevant benefit (ΔVC 110ml, ΔFEV1 72ml, ΔRV -334ml, Δ6-MWT 37m, all p≤0.001) 3 months after valve therapy. During long-term follow-up, 58% had neither complete lobar atelectasis as maximum result nor pneumothorax as complication. A lobar atelectasis without pneumothorax was confirmed in 21% with increasing prevalence over the years. These patients had an excellent outcome (ΔVC 374ml, ΔFEV1 163ml, ΔRV -799ml, Δ6-MWT 52m, all p Conclusion: Today, valve therapy seems to induce clinically relevant benefit in a remarkable portion of treated patients most likely due to optimized patient selection.
Study of diuretic activity of aqueous extract of amaranthus spinosus linn on rats

Background: Traditional Siddha medicine literature claims that the Amaranthus spinosus Linn. Whole plant possesses diuretic property. The aim of the present study is to investigate the diuretic activity of aqueous extract of amaranthus spinosus linn on rats. Methods: The rats were randomly divided into four groups of six animals each and deprived of food for 18 hours before the experiments. Control (Group I) rats were treated with Normal saline (5ml/Kg,) and Standard (Group II) rats were administered furosemide 15mg/Kg, I.P. Group III and IV were treated with Aqueous extract of Amaranthus spinosus Linn (AEAS) 250 and 500 mg/kg in normal saline respectively, The urine was collected after 5 and 24 hours. The urine volume and the total concentration of Na+, K+, and Cl- in the urine were estimated. The data were presented as mean ± standard deviation and analyzed using one-way analysis of variance and Student's "t"-test. P <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Conventional windows software was used for statistical analysis. Results: Urine analysis showed that Na+, K+, and Cl- levels were significantly (p<0.05) increased with AEAS 250 and 500 mg/kg as rats treated with furosemide 15mg/kg. Urine volume is significantly (p<0.05) increased in rats treated with drugs (AEAS 500 mg/kg and furosemide 15mg/kg) compared to normal saline 25ml/Kg, treated rats at 5 and 24 hours. Conclusions: These data suggest that AEAS has produced notable diuretic effect which appeared to be comparable to that produced by the standard diuretic furosemide.
Let’s talk about depression: social workers’ use of chemical imbalance explanations

ABSTRACT Social workers play an important role in helping clients understand the evidence base on which treatment options and choices are made. This study investigates social workers’ use of a biomedical perspective in their practice with clients who experience depression. A majority of licensed social workers who responded to an on-line survey (N = 77) reported using a chemical imbalance explanation of depression. Among the individual and contextual measures analyzed, only attitudes about antidepressants were significantly associated with use of a biochemical explanation. Implications are presented regarding developing social workers’ critical appraisal skills in support of clients’ right to self-determination.
“Is Old Gold?” the Role of Prior Experience in Exploring the Determinants of Islamic Social Entrepreneurial Intentions: Evidence from Bangladesh

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to identify the determinants of Islamic social entrepreneurial intentions (ISEI) in the context of Bangladesh. Specifically, how do empathy, moral obligation, self-efficacy and perceived social support influence Islamic social entrepreneurial intentions through the mediation of prior experience of individual? To answer this question, a theoretical framework using the theory of social entrepreneurial intentions provided (TSEI) by Mair and Noboa as its basis was established. Using measurement scales created to assess different aspects of the constructs, a survey instrument was developed to test the various relationships implied by ISEI. Data (n = 249) were collected following random sampling procedure from a business school at a private university in Bangladesh. Data were analysed using the procedure of structural equation modelling. Findings show that prior experience both directly and indirectly predicts Islamic social entrepreneurial intentions. Entrepreneurial self-efficacy has both the largest impact on intentions as well as on prior experience.
Microstructured Biodegradable Fibers for Advanced Control Delivery

Biodegradable polymers are increasingly employed at the heart of therapeutic devices. Particularly in the form of thin and elongated fibers, they offer an effective strategy for controlled release in a variety of biomedical configurations such as sutures, scaffolds, wound dressings, surgical or imaging probes, and smart textiles. So far however, the fabrication of fiber‐based drug delivery systems has been unable to fulfill significant requirements of medicated fibers such as multifunctionality, adequate mechanical strength, drug loading capability, and complex release profiles of multiple substances. Here, a novel paradigm in the design and fabrication of microstructured biodegradable fibers with tailored mechanical properties and capable of predefined release patterns from multiple reservoirs is proposed. Different biodegradable polymers compatible with the scalable thermal drawing process are identified, and their release properties as thin films of various thicknesses in the fiber form are experimentally investigated and modeled. Multimaterial microstructured fibers with predictable complex release profiles of potentially different substances are then designed and fabricated. Moreover, the tunability of the mechanical properties via tailoring the drawing process parameters is demonstrated, as well as the ability to weave such fibers. This work establishes a novel platform for biodegradable microstructured fibers for applications in implants, sutures, wound dressing, or tissue scaffolds.
Embedded element patterns in receiving array analysis

The traditional approach to antenna design is the array factor (AF) method. This method separates the effects of the array topology from the element radiation pattern; the overall radiation pattern is then the product of the array factor and element pattern. This is still the default method taught in most courses on antenna engineering, and it is encountered ubiquitously in antenna textbooks. However, this approach neglects mutual coupling, and the limitations of AF method have long been recognised for high performance applications. For the high-sensitivity receiving arrays being designed for contemporary radio telescopes, this is highly relevant.
Effectiveness of Relationship Marketing Tools on Building Brand Perception: With Reference to Surgery Transplant Products in Sri Lankan Pharmaceutical Industry

The pharmaceutical industry is one of the rapidly growing industries in global and even local contexts. Industry practices referring to marketing and business development are found as peculiar in terms of its norms and legal frameworks operate. The “transplant segment” of the medical sector in Sri Lanka too seems to be a competitive segment as per the intensity of investment and competition exist. Having focused to the behavioral significance of this product segment in Sri Lankan context, researchers investigated about how customer relationship practices impact to develop perception and market positioning of the product brands. Researchers used 40 sample units (medical professionals) from different areas where the transplant surgery methods being implemented actively, and empirical data were collected through structured questionnaires. The independent variables were recognized as four variables namely personnel sponsorship, institutional sponsorship, continuous medical educational programs and commitment rewards where brand perception was referred as dependent variable measured through 3 items namely price, quality and packaging were taken as dependent variables driven to perception . As per the four hypotheses tested, it was found that all the relationship marketing practices significantly impact on the brand perception. The contribution of personnel sponsorship and continuous medical educational (CME) programs were found as most effective relationship marketing tools indicating above 0.6 of correlation coefficient at 95% confidence level whereas commitment rewards was also figured as an effective relationship marketing tool at above averaged level.
Dynamic Community Evolution Analysis Framework for Large-Scale Complex Networks Based on Strong and Weak Events

Community evolution remains a heavily researched and challenging area in the analysis of dynamic complex network structures. Currently, the primary limitation of traditional event-based approaches for community evolution analysis is the lack of strict constraint conditions for distinguishing evolutionary events, which entails that as the cardinality of discovered events increases, so does the number of redundant events. Another limitation of existing approaches is the lack of consideration for weak events. Weak events can be generated by small changes in communities, which are empirically prevalent, and are typically not captured by traditional events. To manage these two aforementioned limitations, this research aims to formalize a weak and strong events-based framework, which includes the following newly discovered events: “weak shrink,” “weak expand,” “weak merge,” and “weak splity” predicated on the community overlapping degree and community degree membership, this article refines these traditional strong events, as well as new constraints for weak events. In addition, a community evolution mining framework, which is based on both strong and weak events, is proposed and denoted by a weak-event-based community evolution method (WECEM). The framework can be summarized by the following: 1) communities in complex networks with adjacent time-stamps are compared to determine the community overlapping degree and community membership degree; 2) the values of the community overlapping degree and membership degree meet the definition of events; and 3) weak events are effectively identified. Extensive experimental results, on real and synthetic data sets consisting of dynamic complex networks and online social networks, demonstrate that WECEM is able to identify weak events more effectively than traditional frameworks. Specifically, WECEM outperforms traditional frameworks by 22.9% in the number of discovered strong events. The detection accuracy of evolutionary events is approximately 12.2% higher than that of traditional event-based frameworks. It is also worth noting that, as the cardinality of the data grows, the proposed framework, when compared with traditional frameworks, can more effectively, and efficiently, mine large-scale complex networks.
Education Professionals as Facilitators of Study Abroad Programs in Spain: Formal Training Needs

This paper investigates an aspect of study abroad programs that has rarely been studied before: the training needs of local education professionals in Spain. Through a mixed-method, using a questionnaire completed by 103 participants, and interviews with 15 of them, we focus on their previous formal specific training and their perspective on the group of students they work with. Results show that most of them have rarely been trained on how to work as cultural facilitators for students from the US. This fact often creates a cultural gap and prevents the teachers from fulfilling their role as cultural bridges for students. Specific action needs to be taken in order to solve this lack of preparation in this group of professionals.
Raw feeding in dogs and cats

This article reviews the reasons for feeding domestic dogs and cats a diet based on raw meaty bones. Dogs, though able and willing to eat a wide variety of foods, exhibit numerous carnivorous traits, and are classified as carnivores. Dogs have been shown to prefer foods with nutrient profiles much closer to those of a wild wolf diet than those of kibbled diets, raising the possibility that dogs fed modern commercial diets, low in protein, and high in carbohydrate and additives, might face physiological and metabolic challenges. Cats are strict, obligate carnivores with characteristic dentition and a short digestive tract. A well-constructed raw food diet is high in protein, nutrient-rich, satiating, extremely palatable, and high in prebiotic ‘animal fibre’. Early domestic dogs were not ‘fed’ but allowed to forage for themselves like their wild ancestors. Today, most of our pets are fed on highly processed, dried diets, known commonly as ‘biscuit’ or ‘kibble’, barely recognisable from canine and feline ancestral diets. The intestinal microbiota has been found to vary significantly between raw-fed and non-raw-fed dogs. A species-appropriate, nutrient-rich diet, most closely resembling canine and feline ancestral diets, would seem a sensible option if our pets are to achieve optimal health. Feeding real, whole food consisting mainly of good quality raw meat on the bone, skin, offal, eggs and fish, is perhaps as close as we can come, in modern, Western society, to achieve this.
Value Investment Based on Data Analysis with Comparison of Three Airline Corporations in the US

Value investment analysis is essential for all kinds of enterprises, especially those that are closely related to people's daily life. Analysis plays an important role in the development of an enterprise, even if the enterprise is in different stages. This can not only help enterprises to reduce the possibility of making wrong investment decisions, but also judge whether it is worth to continue to invest and how to invest through comprehensive factors, so as to guide enterprises to the right direction. This paper mainly uses certain data to analyze the value investment of the three aviation enterprises, and then selects the aviation enterprises with the largest investment value based on the operation situation of the companies.
Prophylactic administration of a Propionibacterium acnes-killed preparation increases survival in animals with polymicrobial sepsis via the nitric oxide and TNF- pathway

Propionibacterium acnes (P. acnes) is a gram-positive anaerobic microorganism present in human skin, and has being widely used in clinical trials as a suitable candidate for therapeutic approach to sepsis. A previous study performed by our research group demonstrated that a P. acne killed preparation had an important immunomodulatory role in severe sepsis. Hence, this study we evaluated the immunomodulatory effect of P. acnes preparation on sub-lethal sepsis using a clinically relevant animal model of polymicrobial sepsis. Cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) was performed in male mice under anesthesia. The group pretreated with the P. acnes-killed preparation showed 80% survival at the end of the experiment (10 days) while the sub-lethal group showed 40% survival. There was an increase in the recruitment of leukocytes to the infection site in animals pretreated with the P. acnes-killed preparation, which was confirmed by a histological analysis of the cecum. Reduction in the Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) level was observed in the group prophylactically treated with the P. acnes-killed preparation compared to the level in the sub-lethal group. However, significant changes were not observed in Interleukin-1β (IL-1) and Interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels between the groups prophylactically treated with P. acnes and those subjected to sub-lethal sepsis. Treatment with the P. acnes-killed preparation also reduced lung injury and reduced the nitric oxide (NO) levels in the peritoneal fluid of the treated animals compared to the levels recorded in the sub-lethal group, a result probably related to the increased recruitment of neutrophils and increased survival. The results obtained suggest that prophylactic treatment P. acnes can mitigate the effects of sepsis, increasing the survival of mice. Key words: Immunomodulation, sepsis, cellular migration, nitric oxide.