Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Troglitazone Stimulates Basolateral Rheogenic Na+/HCO–3 Cotransport Activity in Rabbit Proximal Straight Tubules

Thiazolidinedione derivatives, new insulin-sensitizing antidiabetic agents, are expected to have potential clinical use. Since these drugs cause edema in a variable proportion of patients, we examined whether troglitazone (Tro) has direct action on Na<sup>+</sup> transport of rabbit proximal straight tubule perfused in vitro. For this purpose, we measured basolateral membrane voltage (V<sub>B</sub>) by conventional microelectrode techniques and intracellular pH (pH<sub>i</sub>) by microscopic fluorescence spectrophotometry with a pH-sensitive fluorescent dye, 2’, 7’-bis-2-carboxyethyl-5-carboxyfluorescein. Tro at 50 µM in the bath significantly depolarized both transepithelial voltage and V<sub>B</sub>. To examine whether the basolateral rheogenic Na<sup>+</sup>/HCO<sup>–</sup><sub>3</sub> cotransport activity is affected by Tro, we observed V<sub>B</sub> deflection upon abrupt 10-fold decrease in bath HCO<sup>–</sup><sub>3</sub> in the absence and presence of Tro. The apparent transference number of HCO<sup>–</sup><sub>3</sub> (t<sub>HCO3</sub>), as calculated from the V<sub>B</sub> deflection, was significantly greater in the presence of Tro (50 µM) than that seen in its absence. Tro caused cell acidification and increased the intracellular acidification rates (dpH<sub>i</sub>/dt) upon abrupt 10-fold decreases in bath HCO<sup>–</sup><sub>3</sub> and Na<sup>+</sup> concentrations. The stimulatory effects of Tro on t<sub>HCO3</sub> and dpH<sub>i</sub>/dt were dose dependent between 5 and 50 µM, but they were unaffected at 0.5 µM. From these results, we conclude that Tro acts on the proximal straight tubule and stimulates the basolateral rheogenic Na<sup>+</sup>/HCO<sup>–</sup><sub>3</sub> cotransport activity. The stimulatory action of Tro may partly account for edema formation.
The Paris Agreement and South Africa ’ s just transition March 2018 Executive Summary

This briefing paper explores the relationship between South Africa’s Paris pledge and the concept of a just transition. We deploy this concept as a frame of reference or ‘lens’ to help us suggest what we believe to be appropriate (and necessary) and inappropriate policies under a changing climate system in a carbon constrained world. We conclude that the just transition concept, once elevated and centralised in government decision-making, has the potential to generate policies that would deliver environmental gains (eg GHG reductions) as well as socio-economic gains (eg employment, poverty reduction) for South Africa. The result would be a just transition to—what is now referred to in South African narratives—a ‘wellbeing economy’. 1
First-Line Gefitinib in Patients Aged 75 or Older With Advanced Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer Harboring Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Mutations: NEJ 003 Study

Introduction: Recent studies have demonstrated that first-line treatment with gefitinib, an epidermal growth factor receptor (EFGR)–targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor, is significantly superior to standard chemotherapy for advanced non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) harboring EGFR sensitive mutations. Meanwhile, the efficacy of gefitinib therapy among elderly populations diagnosed with EGFR-mutated NSCLC has not yet been elucidated. The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy and feasibility of gefitinib for chemotherapy-naive patients aged 75 or older with NSCLC harboring EGFR mutations; generally, these patients have no indication for treatment with platinum doublets. Methods: Chemotherapy-naive patients aged 75 years or older with performance status 0 to 1 and advanced NSCLC harboring EGFR mutations, as determined by the peptide nucleic acid-locked nucleic acid polymerase chain reaction clamp method, were enrolled. The enrolled patients received 250 mg/day of gefitinib orally. Results: Between January 2008 and May 2009, 31 patients were enrolled, all of whom were eligible. The median age was 80 (range, 75–87) years. Twenty-five patients (81%) were women, and 30 patients (97%) had adenocarcinoma. The overall response rate was 74% (95% confidence interval, 58%–91%), and the disease control rate was 90%. The median progression-free survival was 12.3 months. The common adverse events were rash, diarrhea, and liver dysfunction. One treatment-related death because of interstitial lung disease occurred. Conclusions: This is the first study that verified safety and efficacy of first-line treatment with gefitinib in elderly patients having advanced NSCLC with EGFR mutation. Considering its strong antitumor activity and mild toxicity, first-line gefitinib may be preferable to standard chemotherapy for this population.
SVD B ASED L ATENT S EMANTIC I NDEXING WITH USE OF THE GPU C OMPUTATIONS

The purpose of this article is to determine the usefulness of the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) calculations used to implement the Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) reduction of the TERM-BY-DOCUMENT matrix. Considered reduction of the matrix is based on the use of the SVD (Singular Value Decomposition) decomposition. A high computational complexity of the SVD decomposition - O(n 3 ), causes that a reduction of a large indexing structure is a difficult task. In this article there is a comparison of the time complexity and accuracy of the algorithms implemented for two different environments. The first environment is associated with the CPU and MATLAB R2011a. The second environment is related to graphics processors and the CULA library. The calculations were carried out on generally available benchmark matrices, which were combined to achieve the resulting matrix of high size. For both considered environments computations were performed for double and single precision data.
Determinants of Dividend Payout Policy in Emerging Markets: Evidence from the ASEAN Region

This study examines the determinants of dividend payout policy by analyzing the behavior of 226 nonfinancial firms in three emerging markets in the ASEAN region from 2012 to 2016. The OLS regression model is employed to investigate the impacts of firms? characteristics and countries? factor on dividend payout decisions. The results show that the dividend payout is positively related with profitability. In contrast, growth opportunity has a negative effect on dividend payout. Other factors such as firm size, free cash flow, financial leverage and liquidity have little or no significant relationships with dividend payout decisions. A further contribution of this research is that it considers the impact of law on firms and their investor relationships. The results from this analysis reveal that firms in countries with higher investor protection tend to pay more dividends.
Posterior Fossa Syndrome: Identifiable Risk Factors and Irreversible Complications

Cerebellar mutism was first described by Rekate et al. in 1985 as a transient condition which occurs after posterior fossa operations in children. Posterior fossa syndrome (PFS) and cerebellar mutism are often used interchangeably in the literature. In our experience, we found cerebellar mutism to be a reversible component of a persistent neurologic syndrome. The cause and identifiable risk factors have not been clearly elucidated in the literature. To further characterize PFS, we reviewed 253 children with posterior fossa tumors who underwent surgical resection. We documented 20 cases of PFS (8%), 12 males and 8 females. Age ranged from 1.5 to 13 years (mean = 6.5). Of the 20, 16 were medulloblastoma, 3 ependymoma and 1 astrocytoma. There was a 21% incidence (16/76) of PFS in medulloblastoma of the posterior fossa. The incidence for ependymoma was 13% (3/24) and 1% (1/102) for astrocytoma. All 20 cases (100%) had brainstem involvement by the tumor. The most frequent postoperative findings included mutism, ataxia, 6th and 7th nerve palsies and hemiparesis. Mutism had a latency range of 1–7 days (mean = 1.7) and a duration of 6–365 days (mean = 69.2, median = 35). Although mutism resolved in all cases, the remaining neurologic complications which characterized our findings of PFS were rarely reversible. We describe potential risk factors for developing PFS after surgery with hopes of making neurosurgeons more aware of potential problems following the removal of lesions in this area. Early recognition of PFS would further promote patient and family understanding and coping with this syndrome.
The role of fluid mechanics in the localization and detection of atherosclerosis.

Fluid dynamics research over the past twenty years has contributed immensely to our knowledge of atherosclerosis. The ability to detect localized atherosclerotic plaques using noninvasive ultrasonic methods was advanced significantly by investigations into the nature and occurrence of velocity disturbances created by arterial stenoses, and diagnosis of carotid bifurcation disease using a combination of ultrasonic imaging and Doppler measurement of blood velocity is now quite routine. Since atherosclerotic plaques tend to be localized at sites of branching and artery curvature and since these locations would be expected to harbor complex flow patterns, investigators postulated that fluid dynamics might play an initiating role in atherogenesis. Several fluid dynamic variables were proposed as initiating factors. Investigations were undertaken during the 1980s in which fluid dynamic model experiments with physiologic geometries and flow conditions were employed to simulate arterial flows and in which morphometric mapping of intimal thickness was performed in human arteries. Correlations between fluid dynamic variables and intimal thickness revealed that atherosclerotic plaques tended to occur at sites of low and oscillating wall shear stress; and these observations were reinforced by studies in a monkey model of atherosclerosis. Concomitantly, it was realized that arteries adapt their diameters so as to maintain wall shear stress in a narrow range of values around 15 dynes/cm2, findings which were based both on observations of normal arteries and on animal studies in which flow rates were manipulated and arterial diameter adaptation was measured. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Loading patterns and jaw movements during mastication in Macaca fascicularis: a bone-strain, electromyographic, and cineradiographic analysis.

Rosette strain gage, electromyography (EMG), and cineradiographic techniques were used to analyze loading patterns and jaw movements during mastication in Macaca fascicularis. The cineradiographic data indicate that macaques generally swallow frequently throughout a chewing sequence, and these swallows are intercalated into a chewing cycle towards the end of a power stroke. The bone strain and jaw movement data indicate that during vigorous mastication the transition between fast close and the power stroke is correlated with a sharp increase in masticatory force, and they also show that in most instances the jaws of macaques are maximally loaded prior to maximum intercuspation, i.e. during phase I (buccal phase) occlusal movements. Moreover, these data indicate that loads during phase II (lingual phase) occlusal movements are ordinarily relatively small. The bone strain data also suggest that the duration of unloading of the jaw during the power stroke of mastication is largely a function of the relaxation time of the jaw adductors. This interpretation is based on the finding that the duration from 100% peak strain to 50% peak strain during unloading closely approximates the half-relaxation time of whole adductor jaw muscles of macaques. The EMG data of the masseter and medial pterygoid muscles have important implications for understanding both the biomechanics of the power stroke and the external forces responsible for the "wishboning" effect that takes place along the mandibular symphysis and corpus during the power stroke of mastication. Although both medial pterygoid muscles reach maximum EMG activity during the power stroke, the activity of the working-side medial pterygoid peaks after the balancing-side medial pterygoid. Associated with the simultaneous increase of force of the working-side medial pterygoid and the decrease of force of the balancing-side medial pterygoid is the persistently high level of EMG activity of the balancing-side deep masseter (posterior portion). This pattern is of considerable significance because the direction of force of both the working-side medial pterygoid and the balancing-side deep masseter are well aligned to aid in driving the working-side lower molars across the upper molars in the medial direction during unilateral mastication. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Butorphanol tartrate acts to decrease sow activity, which could lead to reduced pig crushing.

The objective of this study was to determine whether administration of an analgesic to sows immediately after farrowing would allow them to lie more restfully. Sows lying on their pigs, causing them to be "crushed," is a major cause of pig mortality. Most deaths due to crushing occur during the first 3 d postpartum. For modern, lean-type sows, farrowing crates are relatively hard and unforgiving, even though they may be equipped with plastic-coated, expanded metal flooring. Indeed, many sows develop pressure sores on their shoulders, and this may contribute to the sows' discomfort. These sores may cause a sow to change position frequently to alleviate pain, thus increasing its chances of crushing pigs. Sixteen production sows were assigned to either a control group (C, n = 8) with litter size 11.71+/-. 78 or an experimental group (B, n = 8) with litter size 11.63+/-1.22. Pigs born to C and B sows weighed 1.60+/-. 04 and 1.37+/-. 04 kg, respectively. The C sows were given no treatment, whereas the B sows were administered an i.m. injection of butorphanol tartrate at a dose of . 15 mg/kg BW every 6 h until 3 d after farrowing. Data were collected on all sows using time-lapse photography (1 frame/.4 s) for a 3-d duration upon the initiation of farrowing. To assess the degree of comfort of each sow, body position changes were recorded when sows switched between lying, sitting, and standing. Data were analyzed by 12-h periods using Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney equations. During the 72-h period, B sows tended to perform fewer position changes than C sows (P = .10). Specifically, position changes were fewer for B sows from 48 to 72 h postpartum (P<.06). There were no differences in position changes between treatments from 0 to 48 h postpartum (P>.50). There was no difference in the rate of crushing between treatments (C = 5, B = 5). The butorphanol did not seem to affect pig activity or normal behaviors or to create adverse effects, such as diarrhea. Although the sows given butorphanol showed a reduced number of position changes, the dose was intermediate, and a higher dose may have a greater effect. If pig mortality can be decreased, an analgesic protocol that is simple to administer and readily available to producers can be developed. Alternatively, using of more pliable flooring or an increase in sow body fat may allow sows to lie more stationary.
= ORTHOGONAL POLYNOMIAL SYSTEMS AND SOME APPLICATIONS

Orthogonal polynomial systems on the real line, the unit circle, the unit semicircle and a circular arc with respect to a given positive definite or to a nonHermitian inner product are considered. The basic properties, recurrence relations, distributions of zeros and other characterizations of such polynomials are included. The classical and non-classical orthogonal polynomials on the real line, as well as some Sobolev type orthogonal polynomials are considered. An interpretation of sorthogonality is also treated. Finally, some applications in numerical integration, numerical differentiation, moment-preserving spline approximation and summation of slowly convergent series are done.
RetroWrite: Statically Instrumenting COTS Binaries for Fuzzing and Sanitization

Analyzing the security of closed source binaries is currently impractical for end-users, or even developers who rely on third-party libraries. Such analysis relies on automatic vulnerability discovery techniques, most notably fuzzing with sanitizers enabled. The current state of the art for applying fuzzing or sanitization to binaries is dynamic binary translation, which has prohibitive performance overhead. The alternate technique, static binary rewriting, cannot fully recover symbolization information and hence has difficulty modifying binaries to track code coverage for fuzzing or to add security checks for sanitizers.The ideal solution for binary security analysis would be a static rewriter that can intelligently add the required instrumentation as if it were inserted at compile time. Such instrumentation requires an analysis to statically disambiguate between references and scalars, a problem known to be undecidable in the general case. We show that recovering this information is possible in practice for the most common class of software and libraries: 64-bit, position independent code. Based on this observation, we develop RetroWrite, a binary-rewriting instrumentation to support American Fuzzy Lop (AFL) and Address Sanitizer (ASan), and show that it can achieve compiler-level performance while retaining precision. Binaries rewritten for coverage-guided fuzzing using RetroWrite are identical in performance to compiler-instrumented binaries and outperform the default QEMU-based instrumentation by 4.5x while triggering more bugs. Our implementation of binary-only Address Sanitizer is 3x faster than Valgrind’s memcheck, the state-of-the-art binary-only memory checker, and detects 80% more bugs in our evaluation.
CJON BOOK EXCERPT SERIES

Digital Object Identifi er: 10.1188/06.CJON. 407-416 Cancer therapists talk in terms of a ‘fi ve-year survival rate,’ by which they mean the number of patients with a given tumor who will live fi ve years beyond the time of diagnosis. It is an arbitrary way of measuring human existence but useful for scoring the likelihood of escape from cancer. In mid-March 1980, I tiptoed past the invisible line and into the future. ” —Fitzhugh Mullan, 1983
Oxidative Stress: Cause Mechanisms and Defense Agents

Although oxidation is a fundamental part of cellular metabolism and is involved in energy production, regulation of cell growth, and cell defense, there may be detrimental effects related to the aggression of proteins in the tissues, enzymes, and DNA. In this context, the objective of this work is to analyze the main mechanisms that cause oxidative stress, and the most relevant agents for antioxidant defense. This work means to be descriptive in nature. The descriptive research, according to Gil (2007) has as main objective the description of the characteristics of certain populations or phenomena, aiming to describe, explain, classify, and clarify the presented problem. The methodology was given through bibliographic research initially. The research was done with theoretical basis, being sketched arguments by the researcher on the subjects treated. It was concluded that the installation of oxidative stress occurs due to an imbalance between pro-oxidant and antioxidant factors, since the mechanisms of free radical generation occur in mitochondria and cytoplasm.
MODEL-BASED OBSTACLE SONIFICATION FOR THE NAVIGATION OF VISUALLY IMPAIRED PERSONS

This paper proposes a sonification model for encoding visual 3D information into sounds, inspired by the impact properties of the objects encountered during blind navigation. The proposed model is compared against two sonification models developed for orientation and mobility, chosen based on their common technical requirements. An extensive validation of the proposed model is reported; five legally blind and five normally sighted participants evaluated the proposed model as compared to the two competitive models on a simplified experimental navigation scenario. The evaluation addressed not only the accuracy of the responses in terms of psychophysical measurements but also the cognitive load and emotional stress of the participants by means of biophysiological signals and evaluation questionnaires. Results show that the proposed impact sound model adequately conveys the relevant information to the participants with low cognitive load, following a short training session.
Sparse channel estimation using orthogonal matching pursuit algorithm

Sparse channels are encountered in several communication applications. Exploiting the sparsity, a channel estimate can be obtained by using a matching pursuit (MP) algorithm. Previously, it was demonstrated that the MP based channel estimation outperforms the conventional least squares (LS) estimation algorithm for sparse channels. In this paper, we propose to use the orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP) algorithm for channel estimation. Using OMP, the convergence problem in MP algorithm based on re-selection of the basis vectors is eliminated. It is also verified that by avoiding the re-selection problem more accurate channel estimates can he obtained by using the OMP algorithm. The performance of decision feedback equalizers based on the channel estimates obtained by using the MP and OMP algorithms are compared, verifying that the OMP outperforms the MP, with a comparable computational complexity.
Effect of Flooding at Various Growth Stages of Soybean ( Glycine max ( L . ) Merr ) on Growth and Yield )

The soybean (Glycine rnax (L.) Merr) plant is able to make morphological adaptations to flooding such as the formation of adventive roots. Long-term continuous flooding result in reductive conditions in the rhizosphere which is detrimental to plant growth. This experiment was conducted to investigate the influence of flooding at various stages of soybean development on growth and yield of the crop on Alluvial and Red Yellow Podsolic soils. Flooding invariably resulted in the reduction of the net assimilation rate and yield of soybean. Reduction depended on the time and duration of flooding. Flooding during active vegetative growth (PI), flowering-pod filling (P2), seed ripening (P3), active vegetative growth and flowering-pod filling (P4), active vegetative growth and seed ripening (PS), flowering-pod filling and seed ripening (P6), and active vegetative growth until seed ripening (P7) respectively resulted yield reductions of 20.42, 50.74, 9.43, 46.68, 30.28, 52.63 and 35.26% compared to the unflooded control. The number and dry weight of root nodules and nitrogen fixation rate were highest in the P4 and P7 treatments. Nodules were formed on the adventive roots, when the soybean plants were flooded.
A Novel Scan 2 Pass Architecture for Enhancing Security towards E Commerce

Widely deployed web services facilitate and enrich several applications, such as e-commerce, social networks, and online banking. This study proposes an optical challengeresponse user authentication system model based on the One Time Password (OTP) principle (Scan2Pass) that use multifactor authentication and leverage a camera equipped mobile phone of the legitimate user as a secure hardware token. The methodology which is designed and implemented to evaluate the proposed idea will be explored and explained throughout this paper. The chosen method presents a brief overview about the steps required to design an efficient and practical system. Also, the requirements will be discussed as well as our assumption to give a simple yet an adequate understanding about the security of our proposed system in general. Then, an overview about the basic architecture needed for the proposed system to explain the role of the shared secret and the challenge response protocol in order to complete authentication procedure and provide mutual authentication between the user and the server by adopting multi-factors such as time, OTP algorithm by describing the operation flows of users during each phase of this system. Keywords—Electronic commerce; authentication; one time password; performance and reliability