Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PPAR-γ Agonists in Polycystic Kidney Disease with Frequent Development of Cardiovascular Disorders

Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) is the most common of the monogenic disorders and is characterized by bilateral renal cysts; cysts in other organs including liver, pancreas, spleen, testis and ovary; vascular abnormalities including intracranial aneurysms and subarachnoid hemorrhage; and cardiac disorders such as left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), mitral valve regurgitation, mitral valve prolapse and aortic regurgitation. Autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease (ARPKD) is an early-onset multisystem disorder characterized by polycysts divided from the renal collecting ducts, congenital hepatic fibrosis, and ductal plate malformation complicated by pulmonary hyperplasia and systemic hypertension. In these polycystic kidney diseases (PKD), progressive enlargement of the cysts results from the aberrant proliferation of tubule epithelial cells and trans-epithelial fluid secretion leading to extensive nephron loss and interstitial fibrosis. Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ (PPAR-γ), a member of the ligand-dependent nuclear receptor superfamily, is expressed in a variety of tissues, including kidneys and liver, and plays important roles in cell proliferation, fibrosis, and inflammation. PPAR-γ agonists ameliorate polycystic kidney, polycystic liver and cardiac defects through β-catenin, c-Myc, CFTR, MCP-1, S6, ERK, and TGF-β signaling pathways in animal models of PKD. In this review, we describe the possible therapeutic value of PPAR-γ agonists in the treatment of renal and hepatic manifestations, and cardiac defects in progressive PKD.
Evaluation of microencapsulation as an improved vaccination strategy against brucellosis

Evaluation of Microencapsulation as an Improved Vaccination Strategy against Brucellosis. (May 2007) Angela Maria Arenas Gamboa, D.V.M., La Salle University, Colombia Co-Chairs of Advisory Committee: Dr. Allison Rice Ficht Dr. Thomas A. Ficht Brucellosis is an important zoonotic disease of nearly worldwide distribution. Despite the availability of live vaccine strains for bovine (S19, RB51) and small ruminants (Rev 1), these vaccines have several drawbacks including residual virulence for animals and humans. Safe and efficacious immunization systems are therefore needed to overcome these disadvantages. Brucella melitensis and Brucella abortus mutants in the luxR gene were generated and investigated for theri potential use as improve vaccine candidates. Immunization with a sustained release vehicle to enhance vaccination efficacy was evaluated utilizing the live mutants in encapsulated alginate microspheres containing a non-immunogenic eggshell precursor protein of the parasite Fasciola hepatica (Vitelline protein B, VpB). BALB/c mice were immunized with either encapsulated or nonencapsulated vaccine candidates to evaluate immunogenicity, safety and protective efficacy. The results suggest that luxR mutants, are attenuated in the mouse and macrophage model and appear good and safe vaccine candidates when the immunogen is given in a microencapsulated format. We were also able to demonstrate the utility of microencapsulation in oral delivery by increasing vaccine performance of current licensed vaccine strains in a natural host, the Red Deer.
Severe Hypoxia Specifically Downregulates Hepatocyte Nuclear Factor-4 Gene Expression in HepG2 Human Hepatoma Cells

The liver is one of the organs in which hypoxia helps to regulate gene expression under normal physiological conditions and in diseases such as cirrhosis and cancer. We postulated that the expression/activity of some of the ‘liver-enriched’ transcription factors, which control liver-specific genes, was sensitive to hypoxia. We tested hepatocyte nuclear factor-1 (HNF-1), HNF-3 and HNF-4, which play key roles in differentiation, development and hepatic gene expression, using HepG2 human hepatoma cells cultured under hypoxic conditions. Severe hypoxia/anoxia downregulated HNF-4 DNA-binding activity while DNA-binding activity of HNF-1 and HNF-3 remained unaffected. These hypoxic conditions also strongly and specifically decreased cell contents of HNF-4 protein, indicating that the decrease in HNF-4 DNA-binding activity was due to the lower amount of protein and not to decreased DNA-binding affinity. Northern analysis indicated that the expression of the hnf-4 gene was also downregulated in HepG2 cells cultured under hypoxic conditions. These results provide evidence that hypoxic stress triggers a cascade of events that inhibits the transactivation potential of HNF-4 in HepG2 cells. This step may be crucial in modulating the expression of a subset of liver genes that are targets for this nuclear receptor. This relationship provides a new route for the investigation of the effects of hypoxia on the liver cell.
An Implementation and Analysis on Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm and Its Variants

This paper aims to provide implementation and analysis of digital signature in some schemes. These days, the usage of digital signature can protect the integrity of the files from alteration and corruption of the data, could provide an early warning of possible virus and malware inside the file and also could prevent it by deleting the files or simply not open the files. Other usage for this type of digital signature is to authenticate the actual owner or creator of the file. The digital signature this paper provided is using ECDSA and two of its variants to provide secure signature and using SHA1 for digesting the message. Keywords—digital signature, ECDSA, SHA1, authenticate.
Ocean Tracking Network Canada: A Network Approach to Addressing Critical Issues in Fisheries and Resource Management with Implications for Ocean Governance

Abstract The Ocean Tracking Network (OTN) Canada is an integrative seven-year research program initiated in 2010 with academic, government, and industry partners. The team makes use of novel biotelemetry (primarily acoustic telemetry curtains), biologging, and oceanographic technologies to better understand changing ocean dynamics and their impact on ocean ecosystems, animal movements, and ecology and the dynamics of marine animal populations, many of which are commercially important. The network is organized around three ocean arenas (i.e., the Atlantic, Arctic, and Pacific) where specific research projects will occur. However, all projects will contribute toward addressing a single unifying nationalscale question—what are the movements of continental shelf marine animals, how do these movements affect species interactions, and what are the consequences of environmental variability/change and human activities on these species’ distributions and abundance? Taxa that will be tracked include diadromous (e.g.
Factors Related to Successful Course Completion in an Online Program for Returning High School Dropouts

Dropping out of high school has been declared an educational crisis in the United States with national and individual consequences. In New Mexico, adult dropouts only option for a high school credential has been a GED. In August 2010, Graduate New Mexico (GNM), an online asynchronous program, was implemented to help adult dropouts earn a high school diploma. The program was closed in March 2011. The purpose of this study is to determine the factors related to successful course completion of the GNM program that helped returning dropout students complete online course work. Using a qualitative design and interviews as the method of inquiry, 23 students, the full-time teachers, and administrators were interviewed. Three main research questions and related sub-questions were asked to seek out reasons for dropping out of high school, the impact dropping out had on their lives, the reason for returning to school, and the factors they identified that made them successful in the GNM course work.
Las relaciones sexuales, encuesta a los estudiantes de la Universi- tat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona (20 a 27 años) Sex Survey about university students of UPF (from 20 to 27 years old)

The purpose of the present survey was to assess the level of sexual knowledge, attitudes and practice of university students, adult young people from 20 to 27 years old and to identify if there was any signifi cant difference in terms of age and sexual activity with other surveys. The survey was undertaken in which data were collected from 838 students who attended the third and four course of their graduate in Humanities. Differences between answers by sex were tested using Pearson’s χ 2 test. The study established that behaviour, knowledge, attitudes and practice of the universitary students vary by sex in some regards. The fi rst sexual relationships is around they have 15,4 years old and no statistically signifi cant difference was found between sex. The average of the starter interesting about sex is around 13,5 years old and a statistically signifi cant difference was found between sex, the average of boys is 12,7 years old and girls 13,7. People who were sexually active are satisfi ed and show is so important to their wellbeing. Majority use contraceptive methods in the last relationship and the same percentage use the condom in order to avoid sexually transmitted diseases. The study confi rmed that there are 21% the students don’t use any method to avoid sexually transmitted diseases. Our conclusion is both, the knowledge and attitudes of students necessarily required appropriate sex education in the secondary school.
Knowledge, Attitude and Sexual practices of People Living With HIV/AIDS

Background: In India, there are 2.2 million people living with HIV. People with HIV/AIDS can enjoy healthy and productive lives with effective treatment with antiretroviral (ARV) drugs. Deficient knowledge, negative attitudes and perceived stigma may hamper their quality of life. Objectives: 1)To study the epidemiological profile of People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA) 2) To assess their knowledge, Attitudes regarding prevention and transmission of infection and current sexual practices. 3) To find out any perceived discrimination faced by them. Methods : A cross –sectional observational qualitative survey design was used to collect information on the epidemiological profile, knowledge , attitudes and current sexual practices of People Living With HIV/ AIDS. Any stigma and perceived discrimination faced by them was also assessed. Results 64(62.75%) were males and 38(37.25%) were females. Knowledge regarding HIV/AIDS transmission and prevention was deficient in study participants. 6(7.40%) of participants were following risky sexual practices. Among those participants who had revealed their status; 16 (15.7%) participants perceived discrimination within their families and 4 (3.90%) participants at their workplace. Conclusions: People living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA) are deficient in knowledge regarding prevention and transmission of infection. Reinforcement of correct, consistent condom use during counselling sessions may result in improved sexual practices. PLHA are perceiving discrimination within their families and/ workplace. Programmes for development of positive attitudes coupled with interactions with motivated peers, nutrition education; yoga may result in PLHA’s who can be allies in HIV/AIDS prevention and education interventional programmes.
China’s Manufacturing Strategy Choice: An Integrated Strategic Analysis Framework Combining SWOT and Logical Growth Models

One of the keys to China becoming the world? s leading manufacturer in about 40 years is choosing the right manufacturing strategy. However, there is a lack of research on China? s manufacturing strategy evolution over the past 40 years and future development. We used the resource-based SWOT model to analyze the strategic choices of China? s manufacturing industry and used the logical growth model to analyze how mutual learning and competition between firms affect strategic choices for the first time. We established an integrated strategic choice analysis framework from the industry level to the enterprise level. We concluded that manufacturing companies should follow national strategies. In the past, low-cost strategies were the best choice for manufacturing in China. However, in the current period, the capabilities and the environment have changed dramatically. Chinese manufacturing should adopt a quality strategy to develop world brands. Improving quality requires lean production and new technologies, such as big data and intelligent manufacturing. Only by opening up to the world can the company? s intelligent manufacturing capabilities develop faster.
Building a Pronunciation Dictionary for Indonesian Speech Recognition System

This paper reports the development of a pronunciation dictionary generator for Bahasa Indonesia. The pronunciation dictionary is an important component in developing an automatic speech recognition system (ASR). We compare two kinds of pronunciation dictionary: one that is generated automatically and another that is manually prepared. Both dictionaries are used in an Indonesian ASR system. The result shows that both dictionaries have similar levels of accuracy.
Lyrics based genre classification in Bundeli folk songs

Genre classification is one of the primary tasks of music information retrieval systems. Within the Indian context most work on genre classification has relied on feature extraction from audio input and hardly any work has gone into lyrics based classification [Kini et al., 2011]; [Jothilakshmi and Kathiresan, 2012]. In this paper, we analyse three genres in Bundeli folk music Gaari,Rai and Phag. We use an ensemble of probabilistic and statistical techniques to affect a classification of these genres based ngram token frequencies of both stopwords and POS based lyrical feature. In addition, we successfully demonstrate that a set of common stopwords in Bundeli can be used to categorize song genres and a Bundeli news. ∗Electronic address: ayuship.09@gmail.com; Corresponding author †Electronic address: indranil.dutta. id@gmail.com
Interchangeable Heads of Homemade Computer Numerical Control ( CNC ) Machine

The aim of this research is to design and produce a low cost Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machine which is equipped with interchangeable head for many applications especially for small-medium creative industry. The CNC machine has good flexibility where its head can be changed manually and easily between pen (impact-engraver) mounted and CO2 laser mounted. The choice will depend on the application that is chosen by the user. The software that is used is basically from open source software and its precision is “what you see is what you get” (WYSIWYG). Some creative applications are successfully performed as shown in this paper, and its lower-production cost is favorable for small-medium industry. By the year 2014, this machine will be produced in a mass production and will be marketable in Indonesia.
Effect of environmental temperature on lactating sows and their litters

Sows were exposed to an air temperature of 27? or 21 ? C at 75% relative humidity from day 110 of pregnancy to weaning at 31 days post-partum. At the higher temperature sows had higher rectal temperature and respiration rate, ate less feed and lost more weight in lactation. The young pigs at 27? C had a higher rectal temperature after birth and were lighter at weaning. Health of the sows or litters was not affected by treatment
Eualuation of Medical Technologies

The author describes a new methodology to solve medical decision problems involving a choice between alternatives under conditions of risk and uncertainty when imperfect empirical information from diagnostic technologies is available. The main new concept is the generalized ROC (GROC) curve, which extends considerably the scope of analysis of the traditional ROC curve as well as the threshold approach to medical decision making. Both techniques become special cases of the new general approach. The author shows how to apply the technique and derive comprehensive clinical guidelines to solve the medical decision problem involving one patient in the most general situation. The larger problem of evaluating the performances of diagnostic technologies for a population of patients with varying prior probabilities of disease is then addressed. A new measure of performance is proposed that goes beyond the well-accepted area under the ROC curve index. This measure is used to compare different technologies for a population of patients, and a new methodology is proposed to carry out such comparisons.
Rural electrification: the potential and limitations of solar power

This paper provides experimental evidence on the adoption of solar power at the household level. In partnership with a local NGO we designed a randomized field experiment in which households in rural Tanzania were offered the chance to purchase solar powered lamps with solar panels. The lamps are offered on credit and provide a clean source of lighting and a small amount of power enough, for example, to charge a mobile phone. The paper centers around two questions 1) how does demand for a solar powered light source vary with price? 2) are there spill over effects in adoption of a renewable energy source? Our results indicate a slightly concave demand curve where small subsidies may induces a high probability of purchase. We also document positive spillovers in take up of the technology. Future work will explore the impact of social learning and information spillovers on technology adoption of solar energy and the impact of solar energy on household and individual outcomes. ∗This project was funded by research grants from the International Growth Center and the Research Council Formas. We thank IIES seminar participants for helpful comments. †IIES, Stockholm University anna.aevarsdottir@iies.su. se ‡Goethe University barton@econ.uni-frankfurt.de §IIES, Stockholm University tessa.bold@iies.su. se
Workplace Obesity Prevention

OvelWeight and obesity have increased sharply among both adults and children during the past30 years.The prevalence of obesity hasbeenreportedas33.3%amongadult men and 35.3% among adult women (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2011). Two thirds of Americans are considered overweight or obese. Obesity and overweight are linked to many comorbid and chronic conditions such as hypertension, type 2 diabetes, stroke, coronaryheartdisease, and certaincancers(CDC, 2011). In 2008, obesity-related health care costs in the United States were estimatedto be as high as $147 billion annually (Finkelstein, Trogdon, Cohen, & Dietz, 2009). By 2018, the projection is $344 billionannually (Hellrnich, 2009). Health care expenses are estimated to be 42% higherfor obese than for non-obese employees (Finkelstein et al., 2009). Obese individuals spend 77% more than non-obese individuals for medications. Thesehealthcarecosts can directly affect employers' profits. Employers spendan estimated$13 billion annually on obesity (Finkelstein et al.,2009). Approximately 9.1% of U.S. health care costs are related to obesity and overweight (Finkelstein, Fiebelkorn,& Wang, 2(03). Obesityalsohasasignificantimpact
The incidence of second primary malignancies after gastrointestinal stromal tumor before and after the introduction of imatinib mesylate

Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) are the most common mesenchymal tumors of the gastrointestinal tract. Imatinib mesylate was FDA-approved in 2002 for the treatment of unresectable and metastatic GISTs and has become the standard of care. Its use has resulted in greatly increased survival rates for patients with GIST. The increased survival in patients with GIST raises concerns about long term effects of therapy, particularly the development of second primary malignancies (SPMs), which has been reported with imatinib treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia. In addition, the diagnosis of GIST itself may pose a risk for the development of SPMs. The purpose of this study was to examine the incidence of SPMs after GIST, particularly before (pre-imatinib era: 1992-2001) and after (imatinib era: 2002-2009), and factors related to the occurrence of SPMs. Data from the NCI’s Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) 1992-2009 program was utilized. Standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for these were calculated using SEER*Stat 8.0. 1. Observed incidences were then compared between preimatinib and imatinib eras using Fisher’s exact test. The relationship between the presence of SPMs and each of the variables was examined using logistic regression. There were significantly more patients in the imatinib era alive after follow-up (n=533, 63.99%) than in the pre-imatinib era (n=130, 22.41%, P<0.001). Overall, the rate of SPMs after GIST in the imatinib era was 7.07%, compared with the rate of 1.15% that occurred in the pre-imatinib era (P=0.030). This difference was mainly accounted for by a higher incidence of colon adenocarcinoma in the imatinib era (P=0.023). Renal cell carcinoma also accounted for this difference. In contrast, the rate of melanoma of the skin was significantly lower in the imatinib era compared with the pre-imatinib era (P=0.030). In the pre-imatinib era for melanoma, the SIR was 17.64 (95% CI: 3.64-51.57). Patients with SPMs were significantly older at diagnosis (mean =64.18, SD =12.95) than patients without SPMs (mean =60.63, SD =15.27, P=0.024). Marital status was significantly related to the presence of SPMs (78.26% vs. 65.62%, P=0.0154) with those patients with SPMs more likely to be married compared to those without SPMs. This relationship is most likely due to increased survival. Of note, patients with SPMs had greater number of months of survival (mean =70.83, SD =51.54) than those without SPMs (mean =39.33, SD =37.30, P<0.0001). The findings in our study demonstrate that patients after GIST are at increased risk of developing SPMs and that this risk is increased following the introduction of imatinib in 2002. The increased incidence of SPMs in the era of imatinib could be explained by the increased survival of patients with metastatic GIST and therefore more time to develop SPMs, however, further studies are needed to investigate this mechanism.
Virtual reality in rehabilitation: WIITM as an occupational therapy tool in patients with spinal cord injuries

The use of virtual reality has gained importance in the rehabilitation sector over the last few years. The Wii™ console complements traditional treatment by exercising the motor skills in a motivating context, which is important in long-term interventions, such as spinal cord injury. Objectives: to describe our work with the Wii™ console and the different support products used in occupational therapy at the Fundacion del Lesionado Medular, and to discuss advantages and disadvantages. Method: 63 patients with spinal cord injury (of whom 46 with quadriplegia and 17 with paraplegia), treated over the period of one year in weekly 30-minute sessions. Results: motor-skill improvements, more involvement of the patients in the treatment. Conclusion: the features of the console and the support products created by our department make the Wii™ accessible to patients, increase their motivation and enrich the treatment.
EMERGING MYTHS AND REALITIES IN TEACHING AND LEARNING

The new emerging myth in higher education is Quality Assurance QA, having brought about numerous accreditation agencies applying their own standards and procedures, ranging from institutional accreditation to programme accreditation. The latest trends are to streamline the various approaches into an international standard, e.g. ISO IEC 19796-1, comparable to ISO 9001:2008, for the Quality Management System QMS of a higher education provider.