Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neural influences on human intestinal epithelium in vitro

We present the first systematic and, up to now, most comprehensive evaluation of the basic features of epithelial functions, such as basal and nerve‐evoked secretion, as well as tissue resistance, in over 2200 surgical specimens of human small and large intestine. We found no evidence for impaired nerve‐evoked epithelial secretion or tissue resistance with age or disease pathologies (stomach, pancreas or colon cancer, polyps, diverticulitis, stoma reversal). This indicates the validity of future studies on epithelial secretion or resistance that are based on data from a variety of surgical specimens. ACh mainly mediated nerve‐evoked and basal secretion in the small intestine, whereas vasoactive intestinal peptide and nitric oxide were the primary pro‐secretory transmitters in the large intestine. The results of the present study revealed novel insights into regional differences in nerve‐mediated secretion in the human intestine and comprise the basis by which to more specifically target impaired epithelial functions in the diseased gut.
An Integer-Linear-Programming-Based Routing Algorithm for Flip-Chip Designs

The flip-chip package provides a high chip-density solution to the demand for more input-output pads of very large scale integration designs. In this paper, we present the first routing algorithm in the literature for the preassignment flip-chip routing problem with a predefined netlist among pads and wire-width and signal-skew considerations. Our algorithm is based on integer linear programming (ILP) and guarantees to find an optimal solution for the addressed problem. It adopts a two-stage technique of global routing followed by detailed routing. In global routing, it first uses three reduction techniques to prune redundant solutions and create a global-routing path for each net. Without loss of the solution optimality, our reduction techniques can further prune the ILP variables (constraints) by 85.5% (98.0%) on average over a recent reduction technique. The detailed routing applies passing-point assignment, net-ordering determination, and X-based gridless routing to complete the routing. Experimental results based on five real industry designs show that our router can achieve 100% routability and the optimal global-routing wirelength, and satisfy all signal-skew constraints, under reasonable central-processing-unit times, whereas recent related work has resulted in much inferior solution quality.
TREM2 is upregulated in amyloid plaque‐associated microglia in aged APP23 transgenic mice

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by extracellular deposits of amyloid‐β protein which attract dense clusters of microglial cells. Here, we analyzed amyloid plaque‐associated areas in aged APP23 transgenic mice, an animal model of AD, by combining laser microdissection with microarray analysis and quantitative RT‐PCR (qPCR). By comparing gene expression profiles, we found that 538 genes (1.3% of a total of 41,234 analyzed genes) were differentially expressed in plaque‐associated versus plaque‐free tissue of aged APP23 transgenic mice. One of these genes is the microglia‐associated triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells (TREM2) which enhances phagocytosis, but abrogates cytokine production as well as TLR and Fc receptor‐mediated induction of TNF secretion. Western Blot analysis demonstrated an upregulation of TREM2 protein in APP23 transgenic compared with nontransgenic mice. Confocal imaging studies, furthermore, confirmed colocalization of TREM2 protein with microglia. Thus, when TREM2 is induced on microglia in plaque‐loaded brain areas the respective signaling may prevent inflammation‐induced bystander damage of neurons. At the same time, TREM2 signaling may also account for the failure to sufficiently eliminate extracellular amyloid with the help of a systemic immune response. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Impact of RNA quality on reference gene expression stability.

Gene expression quantification methods are important tools in the understanding of the molecular events underlying human diseases and in the identification of diagnostic and therapeutic targets. Generally, the messenger RNA (mRNA) used for these analyses is derived from human biopsies obtained after surgery. As a consequence, several steps during tissue handling have to be carefully controlled in order to preserve the quality and integrity of the RNA material. It is well known that RNA is sensitive to degradation by postmortem processes and inadequate sample handling or storage (1). However, RNA integrity control is often not systematically performed prior to (PCR-based) downstream analyses. While in the past, RNA quality could often not be assessed due to the limited availability of the precious sample (e.g., from microdisected cells or small biopsies), the advent of capillary gel electrophoresis and (sample retention) spectrophotometry technologies (e.g., NanoDrop® ND-1000; NanoDrop Technologies, Wilmington, DE, USA ) has addressed this issue, allowing quality estimations using only nanograms (or even picograms) of total RNA (2). In addition, amplification of RNA is now an alternative method to obtain sufficient amounts to conduct gene expression studies when postmortem tissues are scarce; however, assessment of RNA quality based on the 18S and 28S ribosomal RNA bands is often not possible anymore after amplification. Furthermore, it remains to be determined whether the amplified mRNA can faithfully be used to assess RNA quality of the starting material. Apart from RNA quality, the choice of a proper set of reference genes for accurate normalization is another crucial factor with a profound impact on the reliability of the obtained gene expression levels (3). Reference genes are expressed constitutively in every cell; however, their expression can be regulated with diseases state, during cellular proliferation, due to cellular composition and by mitogenic stimuli (e.g., growth factors) (4,5). Furthermore, it is now known that life styles and genetic make-up of individuals can influence mRNA expression (6). That is why the validation of the expression stability of reference genes remains an important step to ensure the accuracy and reliability of gene expression studies. The objective of this study was to analyze the influence of RNA degradation on the stability and expression pattern of different internal control genes. To this purpose, 10 commonly used reference genes were quantified in both intact and degraded RNA from clinical specimens obtained from ethmoidal and maxillary sinuses collected from patients with nasal polyposis (NP) and chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS). Sixteen clinical tissue samples (30 mg) were homogenized in Tri-reagent buffer (Sigma, St. Louis, MO, USA) (1 mL/50–100 mg of tissue) in a chilled pestle mortar. Total RNA isolation and cDNA synthesis were performed as described previously (7). RNA Impact of RNA quality on reference gene expression stability
Comparison of elderly nonfallers and fallers on performance measures of functional reach, sensory organization, and limits of stability.

BACKGROUND Previous literature indicates that balance impairment is a primary risk factor in the occurrence of falls, which has led clinicians to develop gross standardized balance assessment tests to distinguish elderly nonfallers from fallers. The purpose of this study was to compare functional reach (FR), limits of stability (LOS), and sensory organization among elderly nonfallers and fallers. METHODS FR was examined in 15 elderly nonfallers and 10 idiopathic fallers who were at least 60 years of age. Forceplate measures from the NeuroCom Smart Balance Master system, which included the LOS test and the sensory organization test (SOT), were used to quantify limits of stability and balance. Associations among the three tests were examined. RESULTS There was no significant difference in mean FR distance between elderly nonfallers and fallers using the functional reach test. FR distance did not correlate with anterior displacement on the LOS test. There was a significant difference in mean composite score on the SOT between nonfallers and fallers as well as a significant positive correlation between the SOT composite score and anterior displacement on the LOS test for fallers. CONCLUSIONS The results suggest that FR measures do not differentiate nonfallers from fallers. In contrast, this study demonstrates that using the SOT protocol could differentiate elderly nonfallers from fallers for balance impairment. Caution should be used when interpreting information from the FR test in determining a balance-impaired population.
No plateau for HIV/AIDS epidemic in US women.

TWO MAJOR messages emerged from the third National Conference on Women and HIV, held last month in Pasadena, Calif: Women have become the fastest-increasing new group of AIDS patients in the United States, and they as a group are being overlooked. The acquired immunodeficiency syndrome has become the third leading cause of death among women in the 25- to 44-year-old age group, and the disease ranks first as cause of death among African-American women in that group. See also p 1752. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, Ga, in the first 2 quarters of 1996, the estimated number of AIDS deaths was 13% lower than the estimated number of AIDS deaths in 1995. Deaths declined in men by 15% but increased among women by 3%. Earlier in the US epidemic, in 1985, women accounted for only 7% of cases; while in 1996, the percentage of
Human Resource Development in the Thai Private Sector

The purposes of this study were to examine the history of human resource development (HRD) practices in the Thai private sector, and to answer the question about the future of HRD practices in the Thai private sector based on the results of the first purpose. Based on a review of existing studies related to the Thai private sector and its human resource practices, as well as the Thai economic situation, and its effect on human resource practices, the implication of HRD practices for the Thai private sector and HRD professional are discussed. Challenges related to HRD practices are also discussed. การพฒนาทรพยากรมนษยในภาคเอกชนไทย วตถประสงคของบทความน คอ การสำรวจทบทวนประวตของแนวปฏบตดานการพฒนา ทรพยากรมนษยในภาคเอกชนของประเทศไทย และนำผลการศกษาทไดมามงตอบคำถามเกยวกบ อนาคตของแนวทางปฏบตดานการพฒนาทรพยากรมนษยในภาคเอกชนไทย จากผลการทบทวน วรรณกรรมทเกยวของกบภาคเอกชนไทยและแนวปฏบตเกยวกบทรพยากรมนษย รวมทงสภาวะ เศรษฐกจและผลกระทบทมตอแนวปฏบตเกยวกบทรพยากรมนษย บทความนไดอภปรายและเสนอ ความทาทายตางๆ ทเกยวของกบแนวปฏบตดานการพฒนาทรพยากรมนษยสำหรบนกพฒนาทรพยากร มนษยในภาคเอกชนไทย
Regulation of axonal outgrowth and pathfinding by integrin–ecm interactions

Developing neurons use a combination of guidance cues to assemble a functional neural network. A variety of proteins immobilized within the extracellular matrix (ECM) provide specific binding sites for integrin receptors on neurons. Integrin receptors on growth cones associate with a number of cytosolic adaptor and signaling proteins that regulate cytoskeletal dynamics and cell adhesion. Recent evidence suggests that soluble growth factors and classic axon guidance cues may direct axon pathfinding by controlling integrin‐based adhesion. Moreover, because classic axon guidance cues themselves are immobilized within the ECM and integrins modulate cellular responses to many axon guidance cues, interactions between activated receptors modulate cell signals and adhesion. Ultimately, growth cones control axon outgrowth and pathfinding behaviors by integrating distinct biochemical signals to promote the proper assembly of the nervous system. In this review, we discuss our current understanding how ECM proteins and their associated integrin receptors control neural network formation. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Develop Neurobiol 71: 901‐923, 2011
Nano-mechanical Properties of Fluoride-treated Enamel Surfaces

Calcium-fluoride-like deposits play a key role in caries prevention by topical fluoride. Previous microhardness analyses have introduced errors due to a substrate effect, and thereby could not substantiate the early loss of these deposits. To address this question, we applied Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and a nano-indentation technique in this study to characterize the nano-mechanical properties and topographic structure of enamel surfaces following topical fluoride treatment. The deposits were found to have a low nano-hardness and a high nano-wear depth, which explains the early loss of calcium-fluoride-like deposits. However, a 22% increase in the fluoride concentration could still be detected on the treated enamel surface following the removal of the surface deposits, justifying the long-term effectiveness of topical fluoride treatment.
A Decision Model on Corporate Social Responsibility and Business Strategies

The role of companies in today’s society has been radically transformed, especially in developed economies. The stakeholders have deposited on companies different expectations compared to some years ago. Furthermore, this transformation has led to the establishment of new internal models of corporate governance depending on the intensity of the impact of demand for social action coming from the stakeholders interacting with firms. The aim of this work is to offer a decision model on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and business strategies. This model constitutes a tool that can be adopted by firms, no matter their operational sector, to establish their particular coordinates with respect to their CSR actions and social commitment. Using this tool, companies can update their particular situation taking decisions to change those aspects influencing this position and improving their social integration, if it is perceived as non-aligned with its aspirations of success, efficiency or adequateness.
Context oriented data staging for mobile environments

In today’s computing environments every user interacts with several dozens of highly heterogeneous devices. These devices are frequently arranged in contexts; in any given context the user is interacting with a specific set of devices. Context oriented data staging is the problem of delivering up-to-date data to the devices of the current context, following the movement of the user between the contexts. Additional constraints are provided by factors such as the existence of intermediary contexts with low resource availability, the heterogeneous and potentially intermittent network connections of the devices, and the users preference for certain applications. We present a mathematical model of context based data staging by extending existing models with concepts of context, document type and preferred application. A set of hybrid algorithms, relying on heuristics and rule-based systems are proposed. We present an implementation of the algorithms, an experimental harness and typical scenarios. Simulation results prove the feasibility of the approach.
Induction of Diabetes in Nonobese Diabetic Mice by Th2 T Cell Clones from a TCR Transgenic Mouse1

We have produced a panel of cloned T cell lines from the BDC-2.5 TCR transgenic (Tg) mouse that exhibit a Th2 cytokine phenotype in vitro but are highly diabetogenic in vivo. Unlike an earlier report in which T cells obtained from the Tg mouse were cultured for 1 wk under Th2-promoting conditions and were found to induce disease only in NOD.scid recipients, we found that long-term T cell clones with a fixed Th2 cytokine profile can transfer disease only to young nonobese diabetic (NOD) mice and never to NOD.scid recipients. Furthermore, the mechanism by which diabetes is transferred by a Tg Th2 T cell clone differs from that of the original CD4+ Th1 BDC-2.5 T cell clone made in this laboratory. Whereas the BDC-2.5 clone rapidly causes disease in NOD.scid recipients less than 2 wk old, the Tg Th2 T cell clones can do so only when cotransferred with other diabetogenic T cells, suggesting that the Th2 T cell requires the presence of host T cells for initiation of disease.
Emotional Feature Extraction Method Based on the Concentration of Phoneme Influence for Human–Robot Interaction

Depending on the emotion of speech, the meaning of the speech or the intention of the speaker differs. Therefore, speech emotion recognition, as well as automatic speech recognition is necessary to communicate precisely between humans and robots for human–robot interaction. In this paper, a novel feature extraction method is proposed for speech emotion recognition using separation of phoneme class. In feature extraction, the signal variation caused by different sentences usually overrides the emotion variation and it lowers the performance of emotion recognition. However, as the proposed method extracts features from speech in parts that correspond to limited ranges of the center of gravity of the spectrum (CoG) and formant frequencies, the effects of phoneme variation on features are reduced. Corresponding to the range of CoG, the obstruent sounds are discriminated from sonorant sounds. Moreover, the sonorant sounds are categorized into four classes by the resonance characteristics revealed by formant frequency. The result shows that the proposed method using 30 different speakers' corpora improves emotion recognition accuracy compared with other methods by 99% significance level. Furthermore, the proposed method was applied to extract several features including prosodic and phonetic features, and was implemented on 'Mung' robots as an emotion recognizer of users.
Financial Performance of Pension Companies Operating in Turkey with Topsis Analysis Method

In this study, financial performances of the companies were analyzed by TOPSIS method via using financial tables of the sixteen pension and life-pension companies. Firstly, financial ratios which are one of the important indicators for the financial power of companies were determined and calculated for each company separately. Calculated ratios converted to demonstrate of company performance unique point by using TOPSIS method. Companies have sorted according to their calculated performance scores. Financial performance assessment was performed for five terms included in 2008-2012 period and obtained results were compared. Consequently found that, performance scores of the pension companies generally weren't changed during analyze period.
Diagnostic errors in the intensive care unit: a systematic review of autopsy studies

Context Misdiagnoses may be an underappreciated cause of preventable morbidity and mortality in the intensive care unit (ICU). Their prevalence, nature, and impact remain largely unknown. Objectives To determine whether potentially fatal ICU misdiagnoses would be more common than in the general inpatient population (∼5%), and would involve more infections or vascular events. Data sources Systematic review of studies identified by electronic (MEDLINE, etc.) and manual searches (references in eligible articles) without language restriction (1966 through 2011). Study selection and data abstraction Observational studies examining autopsy-confirmed diagnostic errors in the adult ICU were included. Studies analysing misdiagnosis of one specific disease were excluded. Study results (autopsy rate, misdiagnosis prevalence, Goldman error class, diseases misdiagnosed) were abstracted and descriptive statistics calculated. We modelled the prevalence of Class I (potentially lethal) misdiagnoses as a non-linear function of the autopsy rate. Results Of 276 screened abstracts, 31 studies describing 5863 autopsies (median rate 43%) were analysed. The prevalence of misdiagnoses ranged from 5.5%–100% with 28% of autopsies reporting at least one misdiagnosis and 8% identifying a Class I diagnostic error. The projected prevalence of Class I misdiagnoses for a hypothetical autopsy rate of 100% was 6.3% (95% CI 4.0% to 7.5%). Vascular events and infections were the leading lethal misdiagnoses (41% each). The most common individual Class I misdiagnoses were PE, MI, pneumonia, and aspergillosis. Conclusions Our data suggest that as many as 40 500 adult patients in an ICU in USA may die with an ICU misdiagnoses annually. Despite this, diagnostic errors receive relatively little attention and research funding. Future studies should seek to prospectively measure the prevalence and impact of diagnostic errors and potential strategies to reduce them.
Tri-Trophic Studies Using Cry1Ac-Resistant Plutella xylostella Demonstrate No Adverse Effects of Cry1Ac on the Entomopathogenic Nematode, Heterorhabditis bacteriophora

ABSTRACT The potential impacts on natural enemies of crops that produce insecticidal Cry proteins from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) are an important part of an environmental risk assessment. Entomopathogenic nematodes are important natural enemies of lepidopteran pests, and the effects of Bt crops on these nontarget organisms should be investigated to avoid disruption of their biological control function. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of Cry1Ac-expressing transgenic Bt broccoli on the entomopathogenic nematode, Heterorhabditis bacteriophora Poinar (Rhabditida: Heterorhabditidae), under tri-trophic conditions. Using Cry1Ac-resistant Plutella xylostella L. (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae) larvae as hosts, we evaluated the potential impact of Cry1Acexpressing Bt broccoli on several fitness parameters of H. bacteriophora. Virulence, reproductive potential, time of emergence, and preference of H. bacteriophora for the host (P. xylostella) were not significantly affected when Cry1Ac-resistant P. xylostella larvae were reared on leaves of Cry1Ac or non-Bt broccoli. Also the aforementioned parameters of the subsequent generation of H. bacteriophora did not differ between nematodes obtained from P. xylostella reared on Cry1Ac broccoli compared with those obtained from P. xylostella reared on non-Bt broccoli. To the best of our knowledge, the current study provides the first clear evidence that Cry1Ac does not affect important fitness parameters of H. bacteriophora.
Debt and Investment Policy in German Firms : The Issue of Capital Shortage

The new institutional economics and the principal-agent literature have much in common. They both address ultimately non-cooperative games under asymmetric information where at least some aspect of the reliance relationship must be self-enforcing. And both literatures proceed by analyzing the role of additional constraints in formal or informal optimization models. For example, whether the unobservable action is managerial effort (Holmstrom and Tirole [1989] and Tirole [1988]), retail promotional services (Rey And Tirole [1986]), or the judicious selection of capital investment projects (Diamond [1984], [1985]) what appears as the moral hazard problem of post-contractual opportunism in one literature (Williamson [1985], Alchian and Woodward [1987], [1988]) reappears as incentive compatibility constraints in the other. Or to take another example, hostage mechanisms facilitating the exchange of experience goods (say, sunk cost advertising investments for unverifiably slow tread wear on tires (Wiggins and Lane [1983]) or collateral for unverifiably safe loans) dissipate the notorious or risky firm's rent from fraud or excessive risk taking (Phlips [1988] and Rasmussen [1989]) and make binding its participation constraint.