Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Signal transducer and activator of transcription-3/suppressor of cytokine signaling-3 (STAT3/SOCS3) axis in myeloid cells regulates neuroinflammation

Suppressor of cytokine signaling (SOCS) proteins are feedback inhibitors of the JAK/STAT pathway. SOCS3 has a crucial role in inhibiting STAT3 activation, cytokine signaling, and inflammatory gene expression in macrophages/microglia. To determine the role of SOCS3 in myeloid cells in neuroinflammation, mice with conditional SOCS3 deletion in myeloid cells (LysMCre-SOCS3fl/fl) were tested for experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). The myeloid-specific SOCS3-deficient mice are vulnerable to myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG)-induced EAE, with a severe, nonresolving atypical form of disease. In vivo, enhanced infiltration of inflammatory cells and demyelination is prominent in the cerebellum of myeloid-specific SOCS3-deficient mice, as is enhanced STAT3 signaling and expression of inflammatory cytokines/chemokines and an immune response dominated by Th1 and Th17 cells. In vitro, SOCS3-deficient macrophages exhibit heightened STAT3 activation and are polarized toward the classical M1 phenotype. SOCS3-deficient M1 macrophages provide the microenvironment to polarize Th1 and Th17 cells and induce neuronal death. Furthermore, adoptive transfer of M2 macrophages into myeloid SOCS3-deficient mice leads to delayed onset and reduced severity of atypical EAE by decreasing STAT3 activation, Th1/Th17 cells, and proinflammatory mediators in the cerebellum. These findings indicate that myeloid cell SOCS3 provides protection from EAE through deactivation of neuroinflammatory responses.
Laparoscopic and minilaparotomy cholecystectomy: a randomized trial comparing postoperative pain and pulmonary function.

BACKGROUND Upper abdominal surgery is associated with severe postoperative pain and a concomitant reduction in pulmonary function and oxygen saturation. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy is said to result in less postoperative pain compared with open cholecystectomy. METHODS In a pragmatic, randomized trial, postoperative pain, opiate analgesic consumption, oxygen saturation, and pulmonary function (forced vital capacity, forced expiratory volume in 1 second, and peak expiratory flow rate) were assessed after laparoscopic (n = 67) and minilaparotomy (n = 65) cholecystectomy. RESULTS Compared with minilaparotomy cholecystectomy, laparoscopic cholecystectomy was associated with lower linear analogue pain scores (median 40 vs 59, p < 0.001), lower patient-controlled morphine consumption (median 22 vs 40 mg, p < 0.001), a smaller reduction in postoperative pulmonary function (mean peak expiratory flow rate 64% of preoperative value vs 49%, p < 0.001), and better oxygen saturation (mean 92.9% vs 91.2%, p = 0.008). CONCLUSIONS This study confirms that the postoperative pain and pulmonary changes associated with upper abdominal surgery are significantly reduced by the laparoscopic technique. These findings suggest that laparoscopic cholecystectomy may result in a reduced risk of postoperative pulmonary complications.
Nutritional influences on bone mass

Bone is composed of an organic matrix of type I collagen associated with non-collagenous proteins and a large mineral component consisting of calcium hydroxyapatite. To date, measurement of bone mass only takes into account the mineral component of bone, while recognizing that the organic matrix is important in providing both structure and strength. The present paper will concentrate on the influence of nutrition on bone mass, examining initially the effects of bone mass with ageing, defining the principal disease of bone mass (i.e. osteoporosis), considering the genetic and environmental factors which affect bone mass and summarizing the methods of bone health assessment. The review will then focus on the nutritional factors (from both dietary sources and in the form of supplementation) which may influence bone mass and fracture rates. Finally, examination of how our knowledge of nutrition factors could be used to target lifestyle changes in individuals at risk of future osteoporosis will be discussed.
Socially grounded engineering for digital libraries

Our work embodies one approach to developing theories of use that can be embedded in programs and new ways of working. We argue that building digital libraries that work will require that systems design, development and deployment be grounded in use and done collaboratively with users, and we will describe our approach to accomplishing this as well as the issues and questions it raises.
A Compact Wideband CMOS Low-Noise Amplifier Using Shunt Resistive-Feedback and Series Inductive-Peaking Techniques

A wideband low-noise amplifier (LNA) with shunt resistive-feedback and series inductive-peaking is proposed for wideband input matching, broadband power gain and flat noise figure (NF) response. The proposed wideband LNA is implemented in 0.18-mum CMOS technology. Measured results show that power gain is greater than 10 dB and input return loss is below -10 dB from 2 to 11.5 GHz. The IIP3 is about +3 dBm, and the NF ranges from 3.1 to 4.1 dB over the band of interest. An excellent agreement between the simulated and measured results is found and attributed to less number of passive components needed in this circuit compared with previous designs. Besides, the ratio of figure-of- merit to chip size is as high as 190 (mW-1 /mm2 ) which is the best results among all previous reported CMOS-based wideband LNA.
The effect of mergers and acquisitions on the dividend policy of banks

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Acquisition Decisions of Zero-Leverage Firms

We provide evidence on whether zero-leverage firms make unique acquisition decisions in line with their unique leverage policies. We show that zero-leverage firms are more likely to acquire targets with low or zero leverage than they are to acquire other targets in order to maintain zero leverage and that they are more likely to use cash than equity in their offers. Although managers of zero-leverage firms have high levels of discretion, they are not likely to pursue value-destroying acquisitions. Overall, these findings shed light on the interlinked capital structure and investment decisions of zero-leverage firms.
Birth Spacing and Sibling Outcomes

Using the NLSY79 and NLSY79 Child and Young Adult Surveys, we investigate the effect of the age difference between siblings (spacing) on educational achievement. Because spacing may be endogenous, we use an instrumental variables strategy that exploits variation in spacing driven by miscarriages. The IV results indicate that a one-year increase in spacing increases test scores for older siblings by about 0.17 standard deviations. These results are larger than the OLS estimates, suggesting that failing to account for the endogeneity of spacing may understate its benefits. For younger siblings, we find no causal impact of spacing on test scores.
ENCOUNTERING AND COUNTERING WORK STRESS: A MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS OF THE OCCUPATIONAL STRESS AND COPING MECHANISMS OF FAST FOOD RESTAURANT PERSONNEL IN THE PHILIPPINES

Food is always viewed as an indispensable household necessity. Based on the 2009 Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES), 42.6% of the total expenditure of a typical Filipino household is solely being allocated for food (Limtingco, 2012). As the growing demand for food continues to escalate, fast food providers had proliferated both in the metro and rural provinces to help augment the need. In effect, the demand for human workforce for these companies had also escalated. However, at present, no available literature had yet explicated on the current psychological condition of the working personnel of these companies. Thus, this research is an exploratory attempt meant to delve on the various typologies and severity of stressors currently experienced by the food service personnel in the Philippines. Furthermore, this study statistically accounted for the coping mechanisms used by the fast food service personnel in treating their work related problems.
Autonomic involvement in tick-borne encephalitis (TBE): report of five cases.

BACKGROUND Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) is a viral infection of the CNS with significant acute and long-term morbidity. Dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system may be a potentially harmful complication of TBE. MATERIAL AND METHODS In a retrospective case series, 5 patients with acute TBE were evaluated for clinical signs of autonomic dysfunction and subject to autonomic testing. Heart rate variability (HRV) with 6 per minute deep breathing was performed between day 9 to 31 after onset of meningitis. Follow-up data were available in three cases. RESULTS All patients showed clinical signs of autonomic dysfunction, including upper and lower gastrointestinal tract symptoms, orthostatic hypotension, and urinary retention. A reduced HRV was observed in 4 patients, with sustained sinus tachycardia in 2 of them. The minimum of the HRV was reached 9 to 20 days after onset of meningitis. In one patient, normalization of the HRV occurred within 3 months. CONCLUSION Acute TBE can be associated with autonomic dysfunction including reduced HRV and tachycardia. Prospective studies are needed to analyze the incidence of autonomic dysfunction in TBE, and to clarify which patients have the highest risk for autonomic failure.
ARTIST (osteoarthritis intervention standardized) study of standardised consultation versus usual care for patients with osteoarthritis of the knee in primary care in France: pragmatic randomised controlled trial

Objective To evaluate the impact of standardised consultations on patients with osteoarthritis of the knee. Design Open pragmatic cluster randomised controlled trial. Setting Primary care in France. Participants 198 primary care rheumatologists, each of whom had to include two consecutive patients who met the American College of Rheumatology criteria for osteoarthritis of the knee. Interventions Standardised consultation was provided during three goal oriented visits (education on osteoarthritis and treatment management; information on physical exercises; information on weight loss) or usual care. Main outcome measures Change in body weight and in time spent on physical exercises (Baecke index) at four months. Results 336 patients were included (154 allocated to standardised consultation and 182 to usual care). Nine patients were excluded because of lack of baseline data (standardised consultation, n=8; usual care, n=1). At four months, taking into account the clustering effect, the decrease in weight was greater in the standardised consultation group than in the usual care group (mean −1.11 (SD 2.49) kg v −0.37 (2.39) kg; P=0.007). The physical activity score was higher for the standardised consultation group than for the usual care group (mean 0.20 (0.65) v 0.04 (0.78); P=0.013). The standardised consultation and usual care groups did not differ in secondary outcomes, except for global assessment of disease activity (0-10 numeric scale: mean −1.66 (2.26) v −0.90 (2.48); P=0.003) and pain level (0-10 numeric scale: mean −1.65 (2.32) v −1.18 (2.58); P=0.04). Conclusions A structured consultation programme for patients with osteoarthritis of the knee resulted in short term improvement in weight loss and time spent on physical activity. Trial registration Clinical trials NCT00462319.
A Smartbox as a low-cost home automation solution for prosumers with a battery storage system in a demand response program

On the basis that a processing resource optimally calculates the loads scheduling one day-ahead for those prosumers operating in a demand response program, the question is: who acts the scheduling? This paper presents an electronic device named Smartbox as a low-cost and feasible home automation solution; so, given a processing resource which optimally calculates the loads scheduling one day-ahead, the mission of the Smartbox is receive and act the loads scheduling. The processing resource is in the cloud computing and it calculates the optimal scheduling through the solution of a prosumer problem so to minimizes the electricity bill; such a load scheduling is sent to the Smartbox via Internet. The Smartbox receives the load scheduling and hourly sends commands to local schedulable loads through an existing home automation system. In order to demonstrate the effectiveness and the feasibility of the proposed Smartbox, a prototype using an Arduino MEGA 2560 has been realized and tested in the laboratory. Such a prototype has been tested in combination with a) a software application consisting in a Java program which serves the user for input data, b) a prosumer problem solver consisting in a personal computer with Matlab and c) a demonstration panel which represents a private household equipped with a Schneider Electric - Konnex protocol home automation system. The laboratory test demonstrate that the Smartbox prototype is genuinely effective in implementing the load scheduling because duly and correctly the Smartbox manages the switching-on and off of schedulable loads.
Image and video retexturing

We propose a novel image/video retexturing approach that preserves the original shading effects without knowing the underlying surface and lighting conditions. For static images, we first introduce the Poisson equation‐based algorithm to simulate the texture distortion on the projected interest region of the underlying surface, while preserving the shading effect of the original image. We further work on videos by retexturing the key frame as static image and then propagating the results onto the other frames. In video retexturing, we have introduced the mesh based optimization for object tracking to avoid texture drifting, and the graph cut algorithm to effectively deal with visibility shift between frames. The graph cut algorithm is applied on a trimap along the boundary of the object to extract the textured part inside the trimap. The proposed approach is developed in image/video retexturing at nearly interactive rate, and our experimental results have showed the satisfactory performance of our approach. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Installment Contracts and Material Breach

Default rules in contract law grant a buyer the right to terminate a contract over the recurrent delivery in multiple periods (i.e., an installment contract) and cancel future deliveries if, and only if, past deliveries by the seller are sufficiently defective (putting the seller in “material breach”). Using an incomplete contracts framework with buyer’s relationship-specific investment, I show that, absent other contractual solutions, an installment contract can solve the buyer’s holdup problem and implement the “first-best” (i.e., efficient) outcome. Multiple independent contracts over one delivery each, installment contracts without the right to terminate, or installment contracts with noncontingent rights to terminate cannot solve the buyer’s holdup problem. I also show that the optimal termination right is not too buyer friendly when the buyer has low bargaining power in ex post renegotiations. This result serves as an economic rationale for the restriction of termination rights to cases of material breach of contract.
Influence of slogans on brand preference:A case of barclays bank of Kenya customers

As businesses strive to maintain a competitive advantage in the marketplace, slogans influence brand preference by helping differentiate the product or the company from its competitors. According to Harris (2002) branding might be one of the last remaining resources by which financial institutions can achieve a sustainable competitive advantage and a critical success factor. Many banking organizations have adopted slogans/taglines as a way of building and marketing brand to their customers. Barclays Bank has had a slogan reading: “It's our business to know your business”; this creates the link between the customers and the bank and shows concern between the two parties. In the banking industry, however, there has been no known study on influence of slogans on brand preference. This study was motivated by this gap and sought to make attempts to bridge it. The objectives of this study were to determine the influence of slogans in brand building by Barclays Bank of Kenya and their customers; to establish the effects of slogans in Barclays Bank of Kenya marketing. The survey used descriptive research design to achieve these objectives. The survey found that slogans have a very powerful role in enhancing brand building; this was due to the fact that most of the respondents indicated that they preferred Barclays bank to other banks, who offer almost the same services. The study also found out that the creativity of a slogan and whether the slogan stands out from the competitors are some of the key factors that are considered as important in relation to a bank’s choice and preference. Equally, consistency of a slogan with the brand and the benefits contained in the slogan were considered to be important.
Co-encapsulation of human serum albumin and superparamagnetic iron oxide in PLGA nanoparticles: Part II. Effect of process variables on protein model drug encapsulation efficiency

Abstract This study investigates encapsulation efficiency of model drug, encapsulated by magnetic poly d,l-lactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) nanoparticles (NPs). This is the following part of our preceding paper, which is referred in this paper as Part I. Magnetic nanoparticles and model drug human serum albumin (HSA)-loaded PLGA NPs were prepared by the double emulsion solvent evaporation method. Among five important process variables, concentration of PLGA and concentration of HSA in the inner aqueous phase along with their cross-effect had the strongest influence on the encapsulation efficiency. Encapsulation efficiency of nanoparticles ranged from 18% to 97% depending on the process conditions. Higher encapsulation efficiencies can be achieved by using low HSA and high PLGA concentrations. The optimization process, carried out by exact mathematical tools using GAMSTM/MINOS software makes it easier to find out optimum process conditions to achieve comparatively high encapsulation efficiency (e.g. 92.3%) for relatively small-sized PLGA NPs (e.g. 155 nm).
Chronic Chagas' disease cardiomyopathy patients display an increased IFN-gamma response to Trypanosoma cruzi infection.

One-third of all Trypanosoma cruzi -infected patients eventually develop chronic Chagas' disease cardiomyopathy (CCC), a particularly lethal inflammatory dilated cardiomyopathy, where parasites are scarce and heart-infiltrating mononuclear cells seem to be the effectors of tissue damage. Since T. cruzi is a major inducer of interleukin-12 production, the role of inflammatory cytokines in the pathogenesis of CCC was investigated. We assayed cytokine production by peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from CCC and asymptomatic T. cruzi -infected (ASY) individuals, as well as by T cell lines from endomyocardial biopsies from CCC patients. PBMC from CCC and ASY patients produced higher IFN-gamma levels than normal (N) individuals in response to B13 protein and phytohaemagglutinin PHA; IFN-gamma high responders (> or =1 ng/ml) were 2-3 fold more frequent among CCC patients than ASY individuals. Conversely, IL-4 production in response to the same stimuli was suppressed among T. cruzi -infected patients. The frequency of PHA-induced IFN gammaproducing cells on PBMC was significantly higher among CCC than ASY and N individuals. IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha were produced by ten out of ten PHAstimulated T cell lines from CCC patients; IL-2 and IL-10 were produced by four out of ten and one out of ten lines, respectively; IL-4, IL-1alpha, IL-1beta, IL-6 and IL-12 were undetectable. Our results suggest that CCC and ASY patients may respond differentially to the IFN-gamma-inducing stimulus provided by T. cruzi infection. Given the T(1)-type cytokine profile of heart-infiltrating T cell lines from CCC patients, the ability to mount a vigorous IFN-gamma response may play a role on the differential susceptibility to CCC development.
Combination therapy with infliximab and azathioprine is superior to monotherapy with either agent in ulcerative colitis.

BACKGROUND & AIMS The comparative efficacy and safety of infliximab and azathioprine therapy alone or in combination for ulcerative colitis (UC) have not been evaluated previously. METHODS This randomized, double-blind trial evaluated the efficacy and safety of 16 weeks of treatment with infliximab monotherapy, azathioprine monotherapy, or the 2 drugs combined in tumor necrosis factor-a antagonist-naive adults with moderate to severe UC. Patients were assigned randomly to receive intravenous infusions of infliximab 5 mg/kg at weeks 0, 2, 6, and 14 plus daily oral placebo capsules; oral azathioprine 2.5 mg/kg daily plus placebo infusions on the infliximab schedule; or combination therapy with the 2 drugs. Corticosteroid-free clinical remission (primary end point, week 16) was evaluated at weeks 8 and 16. The study was terminated before the enrollment target was reached. RESULTS A total of 239 patients were included in efficacy analyses. Baseline characteristics were similar between treatment groups. Corticosteroid-free remission at week 16 was achieved by 39.7% (31 of 78) of patients receiving infliximab/azathioprine,compared with 22.1% (17 of 77) receiving infliximab alone(P =.017) and 23.7% (18 of 76) receiving azathioprine alone(P =.032). Mucosal healing at week 16 occurred in 62.8% (49 of 78) of patients receiving infliximab/azathioprine, compared with 54.6% (42 of 77) receiving infliximab (P = .295) and 36.8% (28 of 76) receiving azathioprine (P =.001). Serious infections occurred in 2 patients (1 patient receiving infliximab,and 1 patient receiving azathioprine). CONCLUSIONS Anti–tumor necrosis factor-a–naive patients with moderate to severe UC treated with infliximab plus azathioprine were more likely to achieve corticosteroid-free remission at 16 weeks than those receiving either monotherapy. Combination therapy led to significantly better mucosal healing than azathioprine monotherapy. ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00537316.