OBJECTIVES Accumulation of extracellular matrix (ECM) components is an early sign of diabetic nephropathy. Also the glycosaminoglycan hyaluronan (HA) is elevated in the renal interstitium during experimental diabetes. The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway participates in the signaling of hyperglycemia-induced ECM accumulation in the kidney, but this has not yet been investigated for ...

COMPARED TO SOME OF ITS EAST ASIAN NEIGHBORS, SUCH AS SOUTH Korea and Japan, Taiwan’s party system has been much more stable over the last two decades. Remarkably, the same two parties, the Kuomintang (KMT) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), dominate the party scene in 2012 as in 1986. The year 1986 was particularly significant as it was the first election in which the KMT faced a genuine ...

Pathogenesis of AD is similar to that of uremic encephalopathy of Homocysteic acid. (Homocysteic acid is a pathogen of Alzheimer's disease in human) 2 Abstract Homocysteic acid (HA) has been established as a pathogen in Alzheimer's disease (AD) in 3xTg-AD model mice. However, it is not established whether HA is involved in the AD pathogenesis in humans. We investigated the relationship between ...

An objective noninvasive biomarker for fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption would help to more reliably characterize the relationship between FV intake and health status in observational studies. Because increases in urinary hippuric acid (HA) were observed after consumption of several FV varieties, we aimed to investigate whether 24-h urinary HAmay represent a potential biomarker for FV consum...

deep economic and social developments in two recent centuries beside other important alterations, created important changes in contracting aria among them placing weak and strong parties against each other in contracts. freedom of contract, that before enjoided from some kind of sancity,could not provid contractual justice in this new conditions. therefore adjustment of this tool(contract) in a...

BACKGROUND Whereas it is well established that various soluble biomarkers can predict level of liver fibrosis, their ability to predict liver-related clinical outcomes is less clearly established, in particular among HIV/viral hepatitis co-infected persons. We investigated plasma hyaluronic acid's (HA) ability to predict risk of liver-related events (LRE; hepatic coma or liver-related death) in...

In this paper I study the strategic implications of coalition formation in an assembly. A coalition forms a voting bloc to coordinate the voting behavior of its members, acting as a single player and affecting the policy outcome. In a game of endogenous coalition formation, I show that voting blocs form in equilibrium, and in an assembly with two parties I show how the incentives to join a bloc...

BACKGROUND Hyaluronan (HA) is a non-sulfated glycosaminoglycan (GAG) that promotes motility, adhesion, and proliferation in mammalian cells, as mediated by cell-surface HA receptors. We sought to identify non-carbohydrate ligands that would bind to and activate cell-surface HA receptors. Such analogs could have important therapeutic uses in the treatment of cancer, wound healing, and arthritis,...