Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Proteomic Network Approach across the Kidney Stone Disease Reveals Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress and Crystal-Cell Interaction in the Kidney

Crystal-cell interactions are a vital step toward kidney stone formation. However, its mechanisms remained unclear. Here, a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analysis of a kidney stone revealed that the proteins were enriched in a posttranslational protein modification process in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). The in vitro study showed that the markers of ER stress, including Bip and CHOP, were upregulated, PERK and ATF6 were activated, and XBP-1 mRNA was spliced. An ER stress-specific protein, caspase-12, was activated in the apoptotic cells induced by calcium oxalate monohydrate (COM) crystals. The treatment with tunicamycin, an ER stress inducer, promoted the crystal-cell adhesion assayed by atomic absorption, reduced cell viability assayed by MTT, and downregulated the expression of proteins involved in the crystal formations. The treatment with salubrinal, an ER stress inhibitor, reversed the above effects for both tunicamycin and COM crystals. The aforementioned main observations were supported by in vivo study. These data demonstrated that ER stress was an essentially biological process of crystal-cell interactions. Our findings suggest that blocking ER stress may become a potential approach to preventing a kidney stone.
Frequency-Domain Timing Synchronizer with Wide Clock Offset Tolerance in Very-High-Throughput MIMO-OFDM Systems

Due to the explosive growth demand for wireless communication, the next-generation wireless communication systems are expected to provide high-speed and high-throughput. However, high-speed transmission needs high sampling rate, which would cause wide sampling clock offset. Based on phase adjustment, this work investigates a frequency-domain timing synchronizer to perform coherent sampling for 2048-FFT Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) timing recovery. In the proposed algorithm, we use a multiphase all-digital clock management (ADCM) which can generate more than 32 phases over GHz without phase-locked or delay-locked loops to adjust sampling phases and utilize the correlation between short preambles to estimation the sampling phase error. It can perform the sampling clock synchronization efficiently and quickly. Performance evaluation indicates that the proposed timing synchronizer can tolerate -30000 ~ 40000ppm sampling clock offsets with 0.2db SNR losses at 8% PER in frequency-selective fading. Hence, this scheme involves a little overhead to ensure fast recovery and wide offset tolerance for OFDM packet transmissions.
The Socio-Economic Impact of Controlled and Notifiable Wildlife Diseases in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) States of Africa

The African continent is endowed with abundant wildlife, which attracts a vast majority of international and national visitors and with them foreign revenue. Eco-tourism therefore remains one of the most significant contributors to the economies of many developing countries in Africa. However, these financial reserves are continuously threatened by the emergence of endemic and/or exotic diseases that compromise both the wildlife and livestock industries of such countries. Livestock farming is a way of living for many people in many African countries especially in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) states and outbreaks of viral disease, whether endemic or exotic, results in the imposition of stringent food-safety regulations by lucrative foreign markets, thus preventing the export of animals and/or animal products from these regions. This paper aims to highlight the specific social and economic consequences on both the SADC regions as well as selected developing countries in the north of Africa, that are imposed by two viral diseases, Foot-and- Mouth Disease (FMD), a devastating disease that affects the livestock industries worldwide and Avian Influenza Virus (AIV), an exotic viral disease of birds, which not only affects the poultry industries globally, but also has the potential of causing a pandemic. The SADC states can greatly enhance its chances of reducing poverty and building rural economies by addressing the strategies that deal specifically with these two wildlife diseases and in doing so, develop necessary policies that will aid in the assessment and prevention of future outbreak situations.
Nucleus tractus solitarius mediates hyperalgesia induced by chronic pancreatitis in rats

BACKGROUND Central sensitization plays a pivotal role in the maintenance of chronic pain induced by chronic pancreatitis (CP). We hypothesized that the nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS), a primary central site that integrates pancreatic afferents apart from the thoracic spinal dorsal horn, plays a key role in the pathogenesis of visceral hypersensitivity in a rat model of CP. AIM To investigate the role of the NTS in the visceral hypersensitivity induced by chronic pancreatitis. METHODS CP was induced by the intraductal injection of trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNBS) in rats. Pancreatic hyperalgesia was assessed by referred somatic pain via von Frey filament assay. Neural activation of the NTS was indicated by immunohistochemical staining for Fos. Basic synaptic transmission within the NTS was assessed by electrophysiological recordings. Expression of vesicular glutamate transporters (VGluTs), N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor subtype 2B (NR2B), and α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid receptor subtype 1 (GluR1) was analyzed by immunoblotting. Membrane insertion of NR2B and GluR1 was evaluated by electron microscopy. The regulatory role of the NTS in visceral hypersensitivity was detected via pharmacological approach and chemogenetics in CP rats. RESULTS TNBS treatment significantly increased the number of Fos-expressing neurons within the caudal NTS. The excitatory synaptic transmission was substantially potentiated within the caudal NTS in CP rats (frequency: 5.87 ± 1.12 Hz in CP rats vs 2.55 ± 0.44 Hz in sham rats, P < 0.01; amplitude: 19.60 ± 1.39 pA in CP rats vs 14.71 ± 1.07 pA in sham rats; P < 0.01). CP rats showed upregulated expression of VGluT2, and increased phosphorylation and postsynaptic trafficking of NR2B and GluR1 within the caudal NTS. Blocking excitatory synaptic transmission via the AMPAR antagonist CNQX and the NMDAR antagonist AP-5 microinjection reversed visceral hypersensitivity in CP rats (abdominal withdraw threshold: 7.00 ± 1.02 g in CNQX group, 8.00 ± 0.81 g in AP-5 group and 1.10 ± 0.27 g in saline group, P < 0.001). Inhibiting the excitability of NTS neurons via chemogenetics also significantly attenuated pancreatic hyperalgesia (abdominal withdraw threshold: 13.67 ± 2.55 g in Gi group, 2.00 ± 1.37 g in Gq group, and 2.36 ± 0.67 g in mCherry group, P < 0.01). CONCLUSION Our findings suggest that enhanced excitatory transmission within the caudal NTS contributes to pancreatic pain and emphasize the NTS as a pivotal hub for the processing of pancreatic afferents, which provide novel insights into the central sensitization of painful CP.
Biochemical Characterization of a Novel α/β-Hydrolase/FSH from the White Shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei

(1) Background: Lipases and esterases are important enzymes that share the α/β hydrolase fold. The activity and cellular localization are important characteristics to understand the role of such enzymes in an organism. (2) Methods: Bioinformatic and biochemical tools were used to describe a new α/β hydrolase from a Litopenaeus vannamei transcriptome (LvFHS for Family Serine Hydrolase). (3) Results: The enzyme was obtained by heterologous overexpression in Escherichia coli and showed hydrolytic activity towards short-chain lipid substrates and high affinity to long-chain lipid substrates. Anti-LvFHS antibodies were produced in rabbit that immunodetected the LvFSH enzyme in several shrimp tissues. (4) Conclusions: The protein obtained and analyzed was an α/β hydrolase with esterase and lipase-type activity towards long-chain substrates up to 12 carbons; its immunodetection in shrimp tissues suggests that it has an intracellular localization, and predicted roles in energy mobilization and signal transduction.
Plant Somatic Embryogenesis: Some Useful Considerations

Embryogenesis has evolved as a successful reproductive strategy in higher plants. The life cycle of angiosperm plants (flowering plants) is divided into two phases: the diploid sporophytic phase and the haploid gametophytic phase (Fan et al., 2008). The functions of the gametophyte are short lived and less complex than those of the sporophyte and are only devoted to produce haploid male and female gametes (Fan et al., 2008; Reiser & Fischer, 1993; Yadegari & Drews, 2004). Male gametes or microgametophytes (pollen grains) are developed inside the anthers and are formed from a pollen mother cell which undergoes a meiotic process that gives rise to a tetrad of haploid cells called microspores. During the maturation towards the pollen formation, the microspore suffers an asymmetric mitotic division giving rise to a two new cells: the vegetative and the generative cells. The generative cell undergoes a second mitotic division producing two sperms, while the vegetative cell remains undivided and bears the capacity of producing the polen tube which
Relations of magnesium intake to cognitive impairment and dementia among participants in the Women’s Health Initiative Memory Study: a prospective cohort study

Objective To examine the associations of dietary and supplemental magnesium (Mg) as assessed by a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire with cognitive outcomes among ageing women. Design This work conducts a prospective cohort study of participants enrolled in the Women’s Health Initiative Memory Study (WHIMS), which was subsequently extended and named WHIMS-Epidemiology of Cognitive Health. Setting Forty clinical centres in the USA. Participants Postmenopausal women aged 65–79 years without dementia on enrolment. Main outcome measures Physician-adjudicated mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and/or probable dementia (PD). Results Participants were excluded (n=1006) if they had extreme values of dietary energy intake, had missing or extreme body mass index values, with prevalent MCI/PD at baseline, received only one cognitive assessment or had been followed up for <1 year. During >20 years of follow-up, 765 (11.8%) out of 6473 participants developed MCI/PD. For MCI/PD and MCI, the risks tended to be lower among participants in quintiles Q2–Q5 of Mg consumption compared with those in the lowest quintile. Participants in Q3 had a significantly lower risk of MCI/PD (HR 0.69, 95% CI 0.53 to 0.91) and MCI (HR 0.63, 95% CI 0.45 to 0.87) after multivariate adjustments. No significant association was observed between total Mg intake and PD. The association between total Mg intake, MCI/PD and MCI was non-linear as suggested by the likelihood test. Conclusions Total Mg intake between the estimated average requirement and the recommended dietary allowances may associate with a lower risk of MCI/PD and MCI. Trial registration number NCT00685009.
Environmental knowledge and the adoption of ready-made environmental management solutions

In this article we study organizational learning with respect to environmental management or corporate greening in six UK water and electricity utilities, concentrating on information acquisition and dissemination. We find that companies make use of a variety of information acquisition strategies, including learning from experience, e.g. environmental incidents leading to prosecution; learning by observing other organizations (bench-marking); by importing environmental knowledge through outside experts and management systems and by building up an information searching and collecting system. Environmental managers play a heavy role in acquiring and disseminating information. We feel that, while organizations try to rationalize environmental learning and make it as efficient as possible, a lack of redundancy of information, heavy reliance on a limited number of outside sources of expertise and the use of environmental management systems may also bring with it the danger of institutionalizing environmental management and closing environmental questions prematurely.
The solidification during flow of AlSi10Mg alloy in an expendable and a permanent mould

The presented work focuses on the influence of the material of the mould on the solidification kinetics of AlSi10Mg alloy dur ing the mould cavity filling. In order to examine this problem, the measurements concerning temperature changes in the selected points of the mould have been taken for AlSi10Mg alloy poured into either the oil-bound sand mould or the metal mould. Thus the solidification and cooling curves of the examined material have been achieved. The recorded temperature changes have served as a basis for preparing graphs representing the velocity of the metal stream and the distance travelled by the front of the stream against the time. Casting in the permanent mould has resulted in shortening the flown distance by about 10% as compared with casting in the expendable mould. The recorded data has also allowed for determining the temperature changes at the moving front of the metal stream during the mou ld filling. The results indicate that the alloy poured into the metal mould begins the solidification process much earlier, after covering only half of the distance travelled by the metal in the expendable mould prior to the solidification beginning.
Transitioning Democracies are a Risky Business in the South

The paper finds that trade is insignificant in explaining income inequality. The results also suggest institutions are good for inequality mitigation for a larger sample of developed and developing countries. Though, the results do not change for some institutions like rule of law when the sample is restricted to developing countries. However, for other institutions like democracy and autocracy, the author finds that former is positively related with inequality and later is negatively related. The results shed light on the fact that transition to democracies come with higher risks for the developing countries and stable economies even with autocratic setup may have more equal societies when compared to newly adopted democratic set ups.
Mobile Subscribers ' Willingness to Churn Under the Mobile Number Portability ( MNP )

Mobile number portability (MNP) means that customers using mobile service can retain their telephone numbers when they change operators. Mobile carriers are concerned about which factors influence willingness to churn of customers. This study examined these concerns through three steps. The first is checking whether willingness to churn between the different situations, without MNP and with MNP differs. The second is to figure out how different factors influence willingness to churn in those situations. Finally, a classification model is proposed to categorize the subscribers who have willingness to churn or not. This study shows that the difference of willingness to churn before and after MNP. The results show that quality and price are the most influential factors in both cases. Inconvenience of changing numbers is additional factor in case of the unavailability of MNP. The results have implications particularly that mobile carriers should consider their quality of service and price more under the new situation.
Video component of a computer system to supervise of charge position by induction heating

The article presents the project and ways to implement video component of a computer system designed to supervise position of induction heating charges. Streszczenie. W artykule przedstawiony zostal projekt oraz metody implementacji komponentu wizyjnego systemu komputerowego przeznaczonego do nadzoru pracy stanowiska do nagrzewania indukcyjnego (Komponent wizyjny system komputerowego do nadzorowania pracy stanowiska nagrzewania indukcyjnego).
Formate and its role in amino acid metabolism.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW The aim of this report is to examine critical relationships between amino acid and formate metabolism with particular reference to the production of formate, and to review novel functions of formate. RECENT FINDINGS In addition to well established mechanisms in one-carbon metabolism, formate may play an important role in early pregnancy by preventing the onset of neural tube defects in sensitive strains of mice, including mice with deficiencies in MTHFD1L, the glycine cleavage system and the mitochondrial folate transporter. Markedly elevated, circulating levels of formate are found in late pregnancy, including in cord blood, as well as elevated levels of amino acid precursors. These are consistent with specific roles for formate in late pregnancy. Serine metabolism may reduce NADP+ to NADPH and permit the use of NADPH in reductive reactions. Novel, noncanonical functions of formate include high rates of formate production from serine in cells and in cancers. SUMMARY Novel, noncanonical functions of formate continue to be discovered. Integrating their functions with well established elements of one-carbon metabolism remains an important future objective.
An Information Processing Paradigm of IT Innovation Adoption

Recent research suggests that there may be other, more granular factors that influence the adoption of innovations like cloud computing by organizations. In the current study, organizational adoption of cloud computing is investigated by examining specific aspects of the classical diffusion theory as they are framed in the context of the information processing paradigm. The authors argue that various aspects of an organization and its respective environment create different information needs and influence the adoption and the diffusion of information technology (IT) innovation. An empirical study is conducted to test the model. The results show that the business process complexity, organizational culture and the compatibility of the current information system all contributes to the organization’s adoption decision. This study serves as a preliminary effort to investigate how the information processing requirement affects firms’ attitude to adopt IT innovation.
Sugar labeling: How numerical information of sugar content influences healthiness and tastiness expectations

Overconsumption of highly sugary foods contributes to increases in obesity and diabetes in our population, and initiatives are issued worldwide to reduce sugar content in food products. However, it is unclear how the presentation of reduced sugar content on food packages affects taste expectations of consumers. Based on the learned knowledge about negative health effects of sugar and the common belief that unhealthy food tastes better than healthy food, consumers might conclude that lower sugar levels are associated with higher healthiness and lower tastiness. Addressing this concern, we examined how quantitative information about sugar content without any verbal description influences consumers’ health and taste expectations of dairy desserts. We asked participants to indicate the expected healthiness and tastiness of randomly sampled dairy desserts, while varying systematically the quantitative sugar information provided in a label presented with the desserts (numerical sugar level in grams per 100 grams of product: low vs. original vs. high). We assumed that quantitative sugar content is not equally associated with healthiness and tastiness of products and that numerical information about sugar content informs health more than taste expectations. Therefore, we predicted that consumers expect higher healthiness, but not to the same degree lower tastiness for products with reduced sugar contented compared to products with higher sugar content. The results of the present study are in line with this hypothesis. We found that consumers expected desserts with less sugar to be healthier than desserts with higher levels of sugar. The experimentally varied sugar levels did not affect the tastiness expectations. Notably, consumers did not follow the unhealthy = tasty intuition and did not devaluate the tastiness of desserts because of heightened healthiness expectations. Our findings suggest that sole numerical information about sugar content—an important nutritional value—is more diagnostic in the construction of healthiness rather than tastiness expectations of food products.
FINANCIAL REPORTING PRACTICE AS A RITUAL: UNDERSTANDING ACCOUNTING WITHIN INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK

This study is aimed is to understand a ritual in financial reporting practice of a single com- pany, and how institutional theory is useful to explain such ritual through institutionalized isomorphism. Ontologically, this study is built on a belief that financial reporting practice is an institutional practice concerning the supply of information. As such, this study employed interpretive paradigm and was conducted in an insurance company, as a research setting. To improve the credibility of the research findings, the data were collected from interview, ob- servation, and document analyses which were manually analyzed using a method suggested by Marshall and Rossman (1999) and Seidel (1998). It reveals that financial reporting prac- tice has been perceived by organizational members of PT ABTBK as an institutionalized rou- tine that becomes a ritual in the company. Financial reporting practice is seen as a ritual of constructing and delivering information to an audience using “a holy guidance of ceremony” (regulations, law, standards and procedures). In doing so, the company employed three insti- tutionalized isomorphism as explained by the institutional theory. It advocates that financial reporting practice of the company is a socially-dynamic process that is not value free, but rather a socially constructed reality.
Applying an Active Trading Strategy to Financial Bubbles . Forward Looking Risk Management

This paper examines the performance of the The Log-Periodic Power-Law (LPPL) model and the Generalized Hurst Exponent (GHE) in forecasting a bubble’s crash date. Furthermore, it is investigated whether applying a market-timing strategy to financial bubbles results in obtaining higher returns compared to a passive trading strategy. The LPPL model and the GHE approach are fitted to historical price time series of several indexes. Based on the information gathered from this calibration, an active trading strategy is applied. The aim of the active trading strategy is to obtain significant higher returns, whilst reducing the risk, compared to a passive trading strategy. Furthermore, the performance of the LPPL and the GHE model on the Bitcoin is examined. Both the LPPL model and the GHE approach are accurate when fitting historical bubbles. When applying the LPPL model and GHE approach to a trading strategy, the models overall show to be beneficial. The LPPL model leaving the market at the OLS estimated critical time provides the best trading strategy. For the Bitcoin, the models do not provide a higher return.