Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inhibition of Tumor Necrosis Factor-&agr; Reduces Atherosclerosis in Apolipoprotein E Knockout Mice

Objective—Inflammation plays an important role in atherosclerosis. One of the most potent pro-inflammatory cytokines is tumor necrosis factor-&agr; (TNF-&agr;), a cytokine identified to have a pathogenic role in chronic inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The aim of the study was to evaluate the importance of TNF-&agr; in atherogenesis. Methods and Results—Mice deficient in both apolipoprotein E (apoE) and TNF-&agr; were compared regarding their atherosclerotic burden. Mice were fed a Western-style diet (WD) or normal chow. Mice deficient in both apoE and TNF-&agr; exhibited a 50% (P=0.035) reduction of relative lesion size after 10 weeks of WD. Bone marrow transplantation of apoEo mice with apoEotnf-&agr;o bone marrow resulted in a 83% (P=0.021) reduction after 25 weeks on WD. In apoE knockout mice treated with recombinant soluble TNF receptor I releasing pellets, there was a reduction in relative lesion size after 25 weeks of 75% (P=0.018). Conclusions—These findings demonstrate that TNF-&agr; is actively involved in the progression of atherosclerosis. Accordingly, TNF-&agr; represents a possible target for prevention of atherosclerosis. This may be of particular importance in rheumatoid arthritis because these patients have an increased risk for cardiovascular disease.
Pheromone Exposure Influences Preoptic Arginine Vasotocin Gene Expression and Inhibits Social Approach Behavior in Response to Rivals but Not Potential Mates

The nonapeptides arginine vasotocin (AVT) and vasopressin mediate a variety of social behaviors in vertebrates. However, the effects of these peptides on behavior can vary considerably both between and within species. AVT, in particular, stimulates aggressive and courtship responses typical of dominant males in several species, although it can also inhibit social interactions in some cases. Such differential effects may depend upon AVT influences within brain circuits that differ among species or between males that adopt alternative reproductive phenotypes and/or upon the differential activation of those circuits in different social contexts. However, to date, very little is known about how social stimuli that promote alternative behavioral responses influence AVT circuits within the brain. To address this issue, we exposed adult male goldfish to androstenedione (AD), a pheromonal signal that is released by both males and females during the breeding season, and measured social approach responses of males towards same- and other-sex individuals before and after AD exposure. In a second experiment, we measured AD-induced AVT gene expression using in situ hybridization. We found that brief exposure to AD induces social avoidance in response to rival males, but does not affect the level of sociality exhibited in response to sexually receptive females. Exposure to AD also increases AVT gene expression in the preoptic area of male goldfish, particularly in the parvocellular population of the preoptic nucleus. Together, these data suggest that AD is part of a social signaling system that induces social withdrawal specifically during male-male interactions by activating AVT neurons.
Fashion or future: does creating shared value pay?

Porter and Kramer's () concept of ‘creating shared value’ (CSV) has attracted considerable attention from business and academics. According to Porter and Kramer, CSV is about creating economic value in a way that also generates value for society by addressing its basic needs and challenges. One of the key assumptions of the CSV concept is that companies will benefit economically through engaging in CSV activity. We test this empirically by developing a proxy measure of CSV based on 26 sustainability performance indicators drawn from a customised database. Based on a sample of ASX 300 companies taken over a 5‐year period (2008–2012), we find a strong statistical association between the CSV proxies and a range of financial performance indicators. These companies also tend to be larger and have higher growth opportunities. However, statistical tests of causality indicate that superior financial performance leads to greater CSV activity, rather than CSV activity driving financial outcomes. This finding suggests that successful companies may well be adopting CSV‐type practices more as an outcome of management fashion than because of their tangible contribution to the financial performance of the firm.
Porphyromonas gingivalis survives within KB cells and modulates inflammatory response.

BACKGROUND/AIMS The purpose of the study was to investigate the intracellular survival of Porphyromonas gingivalis as a possible mechanism for maintaining periodontitis. METHODS P. gingivalis strains, the strain ATCC 33277 and seven clinical isolates, were co-cultured with KB cells. The number of intracellular bacteria was determined up to 3 days after infection. In addition, the numbers of KB cells per well, the concentrations of the cytokines interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta), IL-6, IL-8 and tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and the arginine-specific amidolytic activity were measured. The 16S rRNA of P. gingivalis and the mRNA expression of IL-1beta, IL-6, IL-8, TNF-alpha and rgpA were also determined. RESULTS All the P. gingivalis strains studied were able to survive within KB cells. In contrast to the reduced values of colony-forming units at day 3, equal and higher levels of 16S rRNA were seen in comparison to day 0. Arginine-specific amidolytic activity declined in all samples during infection. Expression of mRNA for rgpA was not found after infection of KB cells by P. gingivalis strains. IL-8 was detectable in all samples 2 days after infection with P. gingivalis strains. Principal components analysis underlined a correlation between the arginine-specific amidolytic activity 1 h after infection and both the released IL-8 and the mRNA expression of IL-8. Associations were found between the cultivable numbers of intracellular P. gingivalis and the mRNAs of IL-1, IL-6 and TNF-alpha at the day of infection. CONCLUSION The results indicate survival of P. gingivalis within epithelial cells, possibly in a non-cultivable stage. Invasion into cells modulates the virulence properties of P. gingivalis as well as the inflammatory response of the cells.
Signaling and subcellular localization of the TNF receptor Edar.

Tabby and downless mutant mice have identical phenotypes characterized by deficient development of several ectodermally derived organs such as teeth, hair, and sweat glands. Edar, encoded by the mouse downless gene and defective in human dominant and recessive forms of autosomal hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia (EDA) syndrome, is a new member of the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptor superfamily. The ligand of Edar is ectodysplasin, a TNF-like molecule mutated in the X-linked form of EDA and in the spontaneous mouse mutant Tabby. We have analyzed the response of Edar signaling in transfected cells and show that it activates nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) in a dose-dependent manner. When Edar was expressed at low levels, the NF-kappaB response was enhanced by coexpression of ectodysplasin. The activation of NF-kappaB was greatly reduced in cells expressing mutant forms of Edar associated with the downless phenotype. Overexpression of Edar did not activate SAPK/JNK nor p38 kinase. Even though Edar harbors a death domain its overexpression did not induce apoptosis in any of the four cell lines analyzed, nor was there any difference in apoptosis in developing teeth of wild-type and Tabby mice. Additionally, we show that the subcellular localization of dominant negative alleles of downless is dramatically different from that of recessive or wild-type alleles. This together with differences in NF-kappaB responses suggests an explanation for the different mode of inheritance of the different downless alleles.
Effects of a policy-level intervention on children's pedometer-determined physical activity: preliminary findings from Movin' Afterschool.

OBJECTIVES Although evidence supports the benefits of incorporating physical activity (PA) after school and standards for quality after-school programs (ASPs) include PA, evaluation of policies to increase PA after school is nonexistent. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of an evidence-informed policy-level ASP intervention on youth pedometer-determined PA. DESIGN This study was a quasi-experimental community-based intervention (Movin' Afterschool), with a pre-/posttest design, without a control. SETTING Movin' Afterschool took place in the after-school setting. PARTICIPANTS Participants were children (5-12 years old) attending 1 of 12 ASPs in Nebraska during the fall and spring of 2010-2011. INTERVENTION Movin' Afterschool was an evidence-informed policy-level intervention. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Physical activity was measured using pedometers. RESULTS Children averaged 3145 steps per day at baseline and 3042 steps per day at postassessment. There were no effects of sex, body mass index percentile, age, or the interaction of these covariates on steps. Three ASPs experienced substantial declines in PA compared with the remaining 9 ASPs. Excluding these 3 sites, there was an average increase in steps per day in the remaining 9 sites. No significant contribution was observed with the covariates. CONCLUSION This was the first study to provide evidence for the initial effectiveness of a policy-level intervention on youth PA participation while attending an ASP despite the failed attempt by some ASPs to improve PA. Further research may help determine the following: (1) the amount of support necessary to help ASPs modify their planning to meet policies, and (2) strategies that should be emphasized during staff training to ensure that staff are able to implement PA policies.
Value of Examining Multiple Sputum Specimens in the Diagnosis of Pulmonary Tuberculosis

ABSTRACT To objectively assess the value of examining multiple sputum specimens in maximizing the sensitivity of detection ofMycobacterium tuberculosis, we retrospectively reviewed the acid-fast bacillus smear and culture results of patients diagnosed with culture-proven pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) at Hennepin County Medical Center between 1986 and 1996. Two hundred and forty six persons were diagnosed with pulmonary TB in the time period analyzed. In 93% of these cases (229 of 246) the laboratory diagnosis was made by detection of M. tuberculosis in sputum specimens; however, only 52% (120 of 229) of these patients had at least three sputum specimens submitted to the laboratory at the time of diagnosis. Of the patients from whom at least three specimens were collected, 47% (56 of 120) had at least one smear-positive specimen; the third or later specimen submitted was the first smear-positive specimen for 13% (7 of 56) of these persons but was the first culture-positive specimen for only 7% (4 of 56). Of the 64 patients with smear-negative specimens, for only 5% (3 of 64) was the third or subsequent specimen submitted the first from which M. tuberculosis was recovered. This data indicates that, in our institution, the overwhelming majority of culture-proven pulmonary TB cases are diagnosed from the first or second sputum specimen submitted to the laboratory and that only rarely is a third specimen of diagnostic value.
Challenges of strategy implementation in Murang’a county government in Kenya

Although formulating a consistent strategy is a difficult task for anymanagement team,making that strategy work implementing it throughout the organization – is even more difficult (Hrebiniak, 2006). A myriad of factors can potentially affect the process by which strategic plans are turned into organizational action. Unlike strategy formulation, strategy implementation is often seen as something of a craft, rather than a science, and its research history has previously been described as fragmented and eclectic (Noble, 1999). Strategy implementation is the execution of plans both internally and externally so that the organization moves in the desired strategic direction. The research sought to find the challenges faced by Murang’a County Government and the measures taken to address these challenges. The county governments developed their County Integrated Development plans in line with the Kenya vision 2030. The study adopted a case study research design since the research context was one county. The study used both primary and secondary data. The respondents of the study included two county directors and six chief officers in the various departments. Primary data was collected through an interview guide. The data collected was analyzed using content analysis. The study findings reveal that the main challenges that face the implementation of strategy by the Murang’a County include lack of adequate resources in physical, financial and human capital. Recommendations provided that the County government should put in place measures to monitor and evaluate progress of the implementation process in order to avoid wastage of resources. Among the limitations of the study were time constraint and difficulty in accessing the required information. Some respondents were also unwilling to participate in the study as they feared being victimized. This impacted greatly on the research since the information accessed was limited. Devolution is still a new concept in Kenya and as County governments try to navigate through the system, more studies need to be done on the implementation of county integrated development plans. Comparisons ought to be done on how well the Kenya vision 2030 goals are incorporated into these plans. This will be help in identifying the key challenges facing county governments in implementing development plans.
Scheduling and combinatorial auctions: Lagrangean relaxation-based bonds for the WJISP

In this paper we consider the following problem: a Company wants to sell consecutive time slots on a single machine. It wants to maximize the revenues, whereby market prizes are not known. Additionally, consider a number of potential buyers of those time slots providing each at least one job. All these jobs can be executed on that machine, but the number of time slots is not large enough to schedule all jobs. Furthermore assume, that every customer gains a job-specific profit with the processing of one of his jobs, whereby this profit is private information and thus, only known to him. What the company faces then is an allocation problem: Which buyer should get what time slot(s) at what prize in order to maximize the company's revenue. In the following we will show that this problem is well suited to be solved by a combinatorial auction. Within combinatorial auctions bidders are enabled to place bids on any subset of items that are auctioned off. We will focus on the winner determination problem for such an auction. The winner determination is understood as the assignment of items to bidders after all bids have been placed, with the objective to maximize the auctioneers outcome. It will be shown that the winner determination problem here can be described as so-called Weighted Job Interval Scheduling Problem (WJISP). Since this problem is known to be NP-hard, heuristics have become a main research interest. Unfortunately, there has not been done much research on upper bounds so far. Furthermore, to the best of our knowledge, no runtime studies are available in the literature yet. Here, we try to close these gaps. First, we present a Lagrangean heuristic for the WJISP and characterize relevant test instances. Using this test-bed, the considered upper and lower bounds are respectively compared to the LP-solution and to a heuristic taken from the literature.
Effects of growth implants on consumer perceptions of meat tenderness in beef steers.

Anabolic steroid implants are routinely used to increase growth performance and profitability; however, there are concerns that the use of implants, particularly those containing trenbolone acetate, may have detrimental effects on carcass quality and beef tenderness. Thus, the objectives of the current study were to determine the effects of various commonly used implant regimens on shear force values, sensory properties, and consumer satisfaction of beef top loin steaks from cattle of Bos indicus influence. Cattle were supplied by producers that agreed to provide sire and dam information in exchange for carcass and sensory data. Steers (n = 2,748) were assigned randomly to one of three implant treatments (12/sire; four steers from each sire were placed into each treatment group): 1) unimplanted controls (n = 1,368); 2) Synovex-S followed by another Synovex-S (n = 660); or 3) Synovex-S followed by Revalor-S (n = 720). Steaks sampled after 3, 7, and 14 d of aging indicated that unimplanted cattle had lower (P < 0.05) Warner-Bratzler Shear force values than those from implanted animals. No differences (P > 0.05) in shear force values were found between the two treatments or the control groups for steaks sampled following a 21-d aging period. Steaks from implanted animals sampled after 3, 7, and 14 d aging were rated lower (P < 0.05) for initial and sustained trained sensory panel tenderness scores. Consumers failed to detect any differences in steak samples related to implant treatment after 7 and 14 d of aging. Consumer education level and family income did not affect overall acceptability (P > 0.10 and 0.18, respectively) or tenderness acceptability (P > 0.11 and 0.68, respectively); however, consumers with postgraduate degrees recorded lower (P < 0.05) overall quality, beef flavor, juiciness, and tenderness scores than consumers in all other education classifications. Additionally, family income had no effect on overall quality (P > 0.21), beef flavor (P > 0.28), juiciness (P > 0.58), or tenderness (P > 0.45) scores. Results indicate that using a moderate implant program in Bos indicus-influenced cattle has no detrimental effects on beef tenderness and consumer acceptability.
Chemokine expression in trinitrochlorobenzene‐mediated contact hypersensitivity

The expression of the murine IP‐10 and MCP‐1 genes has been examined in the skin of mice during contact hypersensitivity reactions to the hapten trinitrochlorobenezene (TNCB). In both naive and passively sensitized animals, challenge with TNCB resulted in elevated expression of both genes as early as 4 h as detected by Northern hybridization analysis. Twenty‐four hours after challenge, expression was markedly reduced in naive animals but remained elevated in sensitized animals. This prolonged expression of chemokine gene products correlates with the tissue swelling response generally used as a measure of delayed‐type hypersensitivity (DTH) in this model and suggests that the continued expression of these genes results from the stimulation of hapten‐specific T helper cells. Examination of cell type expression patterns by in situ hybridization using 3H‐radiolabeled riboprobes confirmed the results of Northern hybridization experiments. Both genes were expressed predominantly in cells exhibiting the morphology of connective tissue fibroblasts, although the distribution of cells positive for IP‐10 mRNA expression differed from that of cells expressing MCP‐1 mRNA. IP‐10 expression was localized almost exclusively to a population of connective tissue cells surrounding the fur follicle. MCP‐1 expression was rarely found associated with fur follicles but instead was distributed throughout the dermis in cells embedded in the collagenous extracellular matrix. Surprisingly, neither endothelial cells lining the small vessels located deep within the dermis nor epidermal keratinocytes were positive under any of the conditions utilized in the present study. Expression of both IP‐10 and MCP‐1 has been previously reported in a variety of distinct cell types in vitro. The present results indicate that only a subset of the cell types with such potential are stimulated to express these chemokine genes in vivo during hapten‐mediated DTH responses, implying the presence of subtle cell type‐ and tissue‐specific control mechanisms. J. Leukoc. Biol. 55: 452–460; 1994.
Brain angiotensin AT1 receptors as specific regulators of cardiovascular reactivity to acute psychoemotional stress

1. Cardiovascular reactivity, an abrupt rise in blood pressure (BP) and heart rate in response to psychoemotional stress, is a risk factor for heart disease. Pharmacological and molecular genetic studies suggest that brain angiotensin (Ang) II and AT1 receptors are required for the normal expression of sympathetic cardiovascular responses to various psychological stressors. Moreover, overactivity of the brain AngII system may contribute to enhanced cardiovascular reactivity in hypertension.
The importance of contextualisation in giving a diagnosis of genital chlamydial infection: findings from a qualitative study

Objective To explore the impact of diagnostic communication upon the way in which people receive and respond to a diagnosis of chlamydial infection. Methods A qualitative study examining the responses of individuals to a diagnosis of chlamydial infection. The study was conducted in a genitourinary medicine clinic and a family planning clinic in the Midlands region of the UK. The sample size was 50 and included both males and females. Data collection was by means of unstructured interviews, which were audio-taped and fully transcribed. The principles of grounded theory were followed in the sampling, analysis and exploration of the literature. Results A diagnosis of chlamydial infection was commonly unexpected and associated with negative reactions, which derived from the social construction of sexually transmitted infections as evidence of breaching the moral code. The way in which the health professional communicated the diagnosis contributed to the patient response, either negatively by reinforcing feelings of self-recrimination or positively by the provision of key information that appeared to be helpful in modifying that response. Conclusion Sensitive management and the provision of contextualised information serve an important function for those diagnosed with chlamydial infection.
Building topological map using omnidirectional image matching

This paper addresses the problem of constructing a globally consistent topological map by a vision-based mobile robot in an indoor environment. The vertices of the map represent the appearance of certain places and the edges represent the relative position between two vertices. An omnidirectional image matching algorithm is proposed to solve two problems: detecting loop closure and calibrating odometry feedback, which uses matched radial lines in successive frames to estimate the rotational angles of the robot. The map construction task consists of two steps: when no loop closure is detected, the robot use image matching results to calibrate the odometry data. After loop closure is detected, an energy-based spring model is used to refine the structure of the global map by minimize the energy of the model. Experimental evidence of the correctness of this method is given in unmodified indoor environments.