Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pretreatment of Nicorandil Protects the Heart from Exhaustive Exercise-Induced Myocardial Injury in Rats

Objective Nicorandil has been widely used for the treatment of angina pectoris and myocardial infarction. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether nicorandil plays a protective role in exhaustive exercise (EE)-induced myocardial injury. Methods Here, we applied the rat EE model and treated them with exercise preconditioning (EP, reported to protect the heart) or different doses of nicorandil gavage, respectively, to explore whether there are protective effects of single EP or nicorandil or a combination of both and the potential mechanism. Forty-nine male Sprague Dawley rats were randomly divided into control, EE, EP + EE, nicorandil (with low, middle, and high dose) + EE, and EP + nicorandil (middle dose) + EE. Blood samples and myocardial tissues were collected to analyze the myocardial injury-related index. Results EE induced myocardial structural damage and altered the myocardial injury markers, which were partially reversed by pretreatment of nicorandil. In addition, oxidative stress and inflammation lead to the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) products and further damage to the myocardium, while pretreatment of nicorandil reduces the oxidative stress response and inflammation. Moreover, nicorandil suppressed the myocardial apoptosis induced by EE, as indicated by a decrease of Bax and caspase-3 expression and an increase of Bcl-2 expression. Finally, the pathway in which nicorandil plays a role may be involved in the endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS)/nitric oxide (NO) pathway. Pretreatment of nicorandil increased the protein level of myocardial eNOS and NO production. Conclusion Our result demonstrated that nicorandil has protective effects in EE-induced myocardial injury with dose-dependent effects. A combination of nicorandil and EP can further improve the protective effects. Taken together, nicorandil can be potentially used as an intervention method in EE-induced myocardial injury.
Customer satisfaction in retail services: A comparative study of public and private sector banks

Indian banking has come a long way from being a sleepy business institution to a highly proactive and dynamic entity. This transformation has been largely brought about by large scale liberalization and economic reforms that have allowed banks to explore new business opportunities rather than generating revenues from conventional streams such as borrowing and lending. Economic reforms and the entry of private players have seen nationalized banks revamp their services and product portfolios to incorporate new, innovative customer-centric schemes. Hence, Indian banking has finally woken up to the surging demands of the ever-discerning Indian consumer. Nowadays, due to the increase in competition, customer satisfaction is considered to be the most important thing in retail services. This study aims to analyse the major factors that are contributing towards customer satisfaction in banking services. The study also attempts to investigate any difference in the customer satisfaction of public and private sector banks. The study revealed that Innovative services, Network, Asscess, Technicalities, Behaviour, Comfort and Image are some of the factors responsible for customer satisfaction. Results have also revealed that there is no significant difference in the customer satisfaction of public and private sector banks.
A panel of three serum microRNA can be used as potential diagnostic biomarkers for nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma is cancer with unique epidemiological characteristics, showing obvious ethnicity, gender, and geographical prevalence. More and more evidence shows that microRNAs are stable in serum and are specific to different tumor types. Therefore, miRNA is a new non‐invasive biomarker for cancer detection.
Influence of Lower Extremity Deep Venous Thrombosis in Cerebral Infarction on Coagulation Index and Thromboelastogram and Its Risk Factors

Cerebral infarction is a serious brain injury disease, which is mainly caused by the blockage of blood circulation in patients' brains; thus, the patient's brain appears ischemia and hypoxia state, and large-scale nerve cell death occurs immediately. The aim of this study was to explore the influence of lower extremity deep venous thrombosis (LEDVT) on coagulation indexes and thromboelastogram (TEG) after cerebral infarction. Altogether, 67 patients with cerebral infarction complicated with LEDVT in our hospital from April 2017 to August 2019 were collected as the observation group (OG) and 58 patients with cerebral infarction without lower extremity deep venous thrombosis as the control group (CG). The R, K, angle, and MA values in PT, APTT, TT, FIB, and TEG indexes were compared between the two groups. The ROC curve was applied to analyze the diagnostic value of R value, K value, angle value, and MA value in the occurrence of LEDVT in patients with cerebral infarction. Logistic regression analysis was applied to analyze the independent risk factors of lower extremity deep venous thrombosis in cerebral infarction. PT, APTT, and TT in the OG were evidently lower than those in the CG, while FIB in the OG was evidently higher than that in the CG, R value and K value of the OG were evidently lower than those of the CG, and angle and MA values were higher than those in the CG. The AUC of R value, K value, angle value, and MA value of the ROC curve of LEDVT in patients with cerebral infarction was 0.735, 0.713, 0.790, and 0.819. Multivariate analysis showed that high FIB, angle, and MA were risk factors, while R and K values were protective factors. PT, APTT, and TT are lower and FIB is higher in patients with cerebral infarction with LEDVT. TEG has a certain diagnostic value. FIB value, angle value, and MA value are independent risk factors of LEDVT in patients with cerebral infarction, while R value and K value are protective factors.
FOCUS THEME ISSUE: CONCISE COMMUNICATION Dysbiosis of nail microbiome in patients with psoriasis.

Shifts in skin microbiome are considered to be involved in the pathogenesis of psoriasis. However, data on the microbial dysbiosis of nail psoriasis is scarce. In this study, we aim to investigate and characterize the nail bacterial and fungal microbiome in patients with psoriasis. Nail samples were collected prospectively from 36 subjects with nail psoriasis, 24 psoriatic subjects without nail involvement, and 32 healthy controls. Amplicon sequencing was performed to evaluate the bacterial and fungal community compositions. Significant alterations in the bacterial microbiome were found in the nail samples of psoriatic patients. The unaffected nails in psoriatic patients were associated with higher bacterial diversity, and a higher relative abundance of Enhydrobacter, whereas nail psoriasis was correlated with a decreased relative abundance of Anaerococcus. Shifts in fungal community composition was reflected by a higher proportion of Malassezia in the unaffected nails of psoriatic patients and an increased proportion of Candida in psoriatic nails. Shifts in the nail microbiome in psoriasis suggest a potential role of microbes in the development of nail psoriasis. Future researches focusing on these microorganisms may help to explain the pathogenesis of psoriasis.
Corticofugal Modulation of Temporal and Rate Representations in the Inferior Colliculus of the Awake Marmoset.

Temporal processing is crucial for auditory perception and cognition, especially for communication sounds. Previous studies have shown that the auditory cortex and the thalamus use temporal and rate representations to encode slowly and rapidly changing time-varying sounds. However, how the primate inferior colliculus (IC) encodes time-varying sounds at the millisecond scale remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the temporal processing by IC neurons in awake marmosets to Gaussian click trains with varying interclick intervals (2-100 ms). Strikingly, we found that 28% of IC neurons exhibited rate representation with nonsynchronized responses, which is in sharp contrast to the current view that the IC only uses a temporal representation to encode time-varying signals. Moreover, IC neurons with rate representation exhibited response properties distinct from those with temporal representation. We further demonstrated that reversible inactivation of the primary auditory cortex modulated 17% of the stimulus-synchronized responses and 21% of the nonsynchronized responses of IC neurons, revealing that cortico-colliculus projections play a role, but not a crucial one, in temporal processing in the IC. This study has significantly advanced our understanding of temporal processing in the IC of awake animals and provides new insights into temporal processing from the midbrain to the cortex.
CHAPTER 3 Flexible Optically Transparent Antennas

Communication in today’s world has never been more connected than it is now, much of which is taking place wirelessly. Every device that communicates wirelessly does so by means of an antenna. Devices nowadays, especially cellular devices, often times have multiple antennas for different protocols. WiFi, GPS, GSM, and Bluetooth are typically well represented and have become standard features. We have seen the evolution of these antennas and the trend is clear: smaller, lighter, and more efficient. Today’s cellular devices include novel antennas that do not protrude from the device, which allow the device maker to focus more on the aesthetics. As the room for the antenna in these devices becomes more cramped, newer and more innovative solutions must be devised to keep up with demand. Antennas that can conform to different shapes clearly have an edge over their rigid counterparts, and many companies now are already developing devices that are completely flexible. Wearable antennas that can provide connectivity between multiple devices in close proximity and then to the outside world are not out of the question. In the world of displays, this flexible technology is already in place. In fact, the Flexible Display Center at Arizona State University is providing many services related to the development of flexible and transparent thin film technologies. There are opportunities for component makers to dive into this market and that includes antenna designers. For the antenna designer, this presents unique challenges due to the fact that the antenna will need to be flexible while maintaining radiation characteristics, as well as robust enough to survive mechanical distortions. In this chapter, state–of-the-art designs and fabrication techniques of optically transparent antennas are surveyed. Moreover, a case study of a flexible transparent monopole antenna based on indium tin oxide and kapton polyimide substrate is presented.
Optimização de estratégias de operação de sistemas híbridos

v Agradecimentos . vii Índice. ix Lista de figuras . xi Lista de tabelas . xiv Abreviaturas e Símbolos . xv 1 Introdução . 1 1.1 Enquadramento . 1 1.2 Motivação . 2 1.3 Objectivos . 2 1.4 Estrutura . 3 2 Sistemas Híbridos de Energia . 5 2.1 Introdução . 5 2.2 Descrição de Sistemas Híbridos Isolados . 6 2.3 Descrição dos Componentes em estudo . 8 2.3.1 Produção Fotovoltaica . 9 2.3.2 Aerogerador . 10 2.3. 3 Gerador Diesel . 11 2.3. 4 Sistema de Armazenamento . 12 2.3. 5 Controlador do Sistema . 16 2.4 Descrição de Modelos de Dimensionamento . 17 2.4.1 Software de Dimensionamento de Sistemas Híbridos . 19 2.5 Revisão de Abordagens Estratégicas . 21 3 Dimensionamento de Sistemas Híbridos . 24 3.1 Modelização dos Componentes do Sistema em Estudo. 24 3.1.1 Modelização da Produção Fotovoltaica . 24 3.1.2 Modelização da produção eólica . 26 3.1.3 Modelização do Gerador Diesel. 28 3.1.4 Modelização do Banco de Baterias . 30 3.1. 5 Modelização do Diagrama de Cargas . 32 3.2 Utilização do software HOMER . 36 3.2.1 Descrição do dimensionamento efectuado . 36 4 Optimização de Operação . 43 4.1 Mapeamento de Estratégias pré-definidas . 43 4.1.1 Load Following ou Seguimento de Carga . 43 4.1.2 Cycle charging ou Ciclo de Carga das Baterias . 45 4.2 Modelo de Optimização Estratégica de Operação . 46 4.2.1 Dificuldades encontradas na tentativa de Optimização . 48 4.3 Metodologia da Eficiência de Estratégias por Previsão . 49 4.4 Análise de Resultados . 52 4.5 Comparação de resultados com estratégias pré-definidas . 55 5 Implicações da Previsão no Dimensionamento . 63 5.1 Optimização do Dimensionamento da Fracção Renovável . 63 5.1.1 Análise Económica . 64 5.1.2 Resultados do Dimensionamento da Fracção Renovável do Sistema . 65 5.2 Optimização da Capacidade de Armazenamento do Sistema. 66 6 Algoritmo de Despacho pela Previsão de Benefícios . 69 6.1 Descrição do Algoritmo . 70 6.2 Análise de resultados do Modelo Proposto . 75 7 Conclusões . 79 7.1 Trabalhos Futuros . 80 Referências . 81 Anexos . 84
Diagnostic Benefit of the Detection of Mitotic Figures in Endometriotic Lesions

Abstract Objectives Endometriosis is a chronic disease which is diagnosed by surgical intervention combined with a histological work-up. Current international and national recommendations do not require the histological determination of the proliferation rate. The diagnostic and clinical importance of the mitotic rate in endometriotic lesions still remains to be elucidated. Methods In this retrospective study, the mitotic rates and clinical data of 542 patients with histologically diagnosed endometriosis were analyzed. The mean patient age was 33.5 ± 8.0 (17 – 72) years, and the mean reproductive lifespan was 21.2 ± 7.8 (4 – 41) years. Patients were divided into two groups and patientsʼ reproductive history and clinical endometriosis characteristics were compared between groups. The study group consisted of women with confirmed mitotic figures (n = 140, 25.83%) and the control group comprised women without proliferative activity according to their mitotic rates (n = 402, 74.27%). Results Women with endometriotic lesions and histologically confirmed mitotic figures were significantly more likely to have a higher endometriosis stage (p = 0.001), deep infiltrating endometriosis (p < 0.001), ovarian endometrioma (p = 0.012), and infertility (p = 0.049). A mitotic rate > 0 was seen significantly less often in cases with incidental findings of endometriosis (p = 0.031). The presence of symptoms and basic characteristics such as age, age at onset of menarche, reproductive lifespan and parity did not differ between the group with and the group without mitotic figures. Conclusion This study shows that a simple histological assessment of the mitotic rate offers additional diagnostic value for the detection of advanced stages of endometriosis. The possible role as a predictive marker for the recurrence of endometriosis or the development of endometriosis-associated cancer will require future study.
A comparison of the effects of sudden gains and depression spikes on short- and long-term depressive symptoms in a randomized controlled trial of behavioral activation and cognitive behavioural therapy.

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to examine the effects of sudden gains and depression spikes in a randomized controlled trial of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and behavioral activation (BA) for depression (COBRA trial). METHOD This is a secondary analysis of 300 adults with major depressive disorder (MDD) who received CBT (n = 156) or BA (n = 144) (Richards et al., 2016). The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and Structured Clinical Interview Schedule (SCID) were used to measure depression symptoms at 6-, 12-, and 18-month follow-up. RESULTS One-hundred and ten (37%) individuals experienced sudden gains, and 77 (26%) experienced depression spikes. There were no differences in rates of gains or spikes between treatments. Individuals with sudden gains had lower PHQ-9 scores across follow-up and were less likely to meet SCID criteria than those without a sudden gain. Generalized estimating equation (GEE) models demonstrated that individuals who had a sudden gain and were in CBT had lower PHQ-9 scores at 6 and 18 months than those in BA. Conversely, individuals who had a depression spike and were in CBT had higher PHQ-9 scores across follow-up compared to those without a depression spike and also a greater chance of meeting SCID criteria for MDD at 18 months than those who received BA. CONCLUSIONS The short- and long-term impact of discontinuous change varied by type of treatment package. Identifying strategies within treatment packages and client processes that are associated with gains and spikes may help to inform treatment planning and clinical decision-making. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
Factors Associated With the Experience of Cognitive Training Apps for the Prevention of Dementia: Cross-sectional Study Using an Extended Health Belief Model

Background The prevalence and economic burden of dementia are increasing dramatically. Using information communication technology to improve cognitive functions is proven to be effective and holds the potential to serve as a new and efficient method for the prevention of dementia. Objective The aim of this study was to identify factors associated with the experience of mobile apps for cognitive training in middle-aged adults. We evaluated the relationships between the experience of cognitive training apps and structural variables using an extended health belief model. Methods An online survey was conducted on South Korean participants aged 40 to 64 years (N=320). General characteristics and dementia knowledge were measured along with the health belief model constructs. Statistical analysis and logistic regression analysis were performed. Results Higher dementia knowledge (odds ratio [OR] 1.164, P=.02), higher perceived benefit (OR 1.373, P<.001), female gender (OR 0.499, P=.04), and family history of dementia (OR 1.933, P=.04) were significantly associated with the experience of cognitive training apps for the prevention of dementia. Conclusions This study may serve as a theoretical basis for the development of intervention strategies to increase the use of cognitive training apps for the prevention of dementia.
Mortality in the Ocean-With Lessons from Hydrothermal Vents off Kueishan Tao, Ne-Taiwan

There is evidence of plankton mortality and extinction at various temporal and spatial scales induced by man-made pollution, or by natural causes (ageing, competition, predation, diseases, natural pollution). If mortalities take place at large scale they might become of environmental concern and may impact other biotic compartments including fisheries substantially. Such mortalities are a consistent phenomenon at time scales from geological mass extinctions to regularly occurring HABs, that appear to be increasing on a global basis. Several mass mortalities might have escaped our notice for their patchy and erratic occurrences. This also holds for mortalities caused by hydrothermal vents (HVs) that cover possibly more than 1.5% of the ocean floor. We studied zooplankton diversity, abundance and distribution patterns above shallow water hydrothermal vents at Kueishan Tao (Turtle Island), off the northeast coast of Taiwan (West Pacific). The HVs at this side provide an opportunity for the study of mortality, community and population effects of HV effluents with ecophysiological investigations that are otherwise difficult to perform at the more common HV environment, the deep sea. We found evidence for a bottle-neck situation for plankton above vent sites since holoplankton was generally deadly affected when immersed directly in vent plumes. Here we used copepods from HV sites for ecotoxicological testing in mesocosm field experiments.
Is there any effect on imprinted genes H19, PEG3, and SNRPN during AOA?

Abstract Assisted oocyte activation (AOA) has been proposed as an effective technique to overcome the problem of impaired fertilization after intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) but the safety of AOA remains a concern. We aimed to investigate if AOA induces imprinting effects on embryos. We used 13 cleavage embryos, nine blastocysts, and eight placentas from 15 patients. The subjects were divided into six groups by tissue type and with or without AOA. The methylation levels of imprinted genes (H19, paternally expressed gene [PEG3] and small nuclear ribonucleoprotein polypeptide N [SNRPN]) were tested by pyrosequencing. We observed different methylation levels among cleavage embryos. The variability was much more remarkable between cleavage embryos than blastocysts and placenta tissues. The methylation levels were especially higher in SNRPN and lower in the H19 gene in AOA embryos than those without AOA. No significant difference was found either among blastocysts or among placenta tissues regardless of AOA. The methylation levels of the three genes in blastocysts were very similar to those in the placenta. Compared to conventional ICSI, AOA changed imprinting methylation rates at H19 and SNRPN in cleavage embryos but not in the blastocyst stage and placenta. We recommend that blastocyst transfer should be considered for patients undergoing AOA during in vitro fertilization.
Factors Influencing Award-based Crowdfunding Users’ Continuous Participation Intention: A Study Based on Stickiness

The crowdfunding industry is facing the problems of decreasing the number of platforms and increasing the competitive pressure. How to improve the supporters' continuous participation intention is the focus of the award-based crowdfunding platform. Therefore, this paper intends to explore the influencing factors of continuous participation willingness. On the one hand, it extracts the influencing factors based on the characteristics of award-based crowdfunding; on the other hand, it introduces user stickiness based on the commonness of award-based crowdfunding and transactional virtual community. Then, on the basis of expectation-confirmation model, we build a research model of willingness to participate in award-based crowdfunding. Based on the data of 380 supporters, the empirical study finds that: (1) Satisfaction, perceived usefulness and stickiness can significantly improve the continuous participation willingness of award-based crowdfunding supporters. (2) Perceived usefulness and Expectation Confirmation can improve supporter satisfaction, while perceived risk can reduce supporter satisfaction. (3) Crowdfunding quality and supporters' trust have a significant positive effect on stickiness, while supporters' identity has no significant effect on stickiness.
Review of injury mitigation strategies and methods of assessment for passenger vehicle rollover crashes in Australia

Rollover crashes are one of the most severe crash modes for passenger vehicle occupants in Australia. They produce a wide range of injury patterns due to their ballistic and chaotic nature. Thus, multiple injury mitigation strategies are required to protect occupants against the large variety of potential loading and impact scenarios. Many strategies (e.g. side curtain airbags and upper interior head protection) have been employed to reduce the occurrence of injuries in rollover crashes with varying success. Recent epidemiological research regarding serious and fatal head, spine, and thoracic injury in pure rollover crashes has identified distinct injury patterns and characteristics. Further, the relationships between these injury patterns and specific occupant, vehicle, and crash factors have also been identified. This work reviews current and proposed injury mitigation techniques specific to pure rollover crashes in light of these recent findings and attempts to identify the types of injuries that each strategy would be most effective at reducing. The injury characteristics previously identified serve as a basis from which to evaluate the estimated effectiveness that particular countermeasures and injury mitigation strategies might have for the Australian passenger vehicle fleet. The findings will provide an up-to-date review with specific focus on Australian rollover characteristics that can be used to inform future regulatory and consumer rating tests.