Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Vitamin A inhibits pancreatic stellate cell activation: implications for treatment of pancreatic fibrosis

Background and aims: Activated pancreatic stellate cells (PSCs) are implicated in the production of alcohol induced pancreatic fibrosis. PSC activation is invariably associated with loss of cytoplasmic vitamin A (retinol) stores. Furthermore, retinol and ethanol are known to be metabolised by similar pathways. Our group and others have demonstrated that ethanol induced PSC activation is mediated by the mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway but the specific role of retinol and its metabolites all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) and 9-cis retinoic acid (9-RA) in PSC quiescence/activation, or its influence on ethanol induced PSC activation is not known. Therefore, the aims of this study were to (i) examine the effects of retinol, ATRA, and 9-RA on PSC activation; (ii) determine whether retinol, ATRA, and 9-RA influence MAPK signalling in PSCs; and (iii) assess the effect of retinol supplementation on PSCs activated by ethanol. Methods: Cultured rat PSCs were incubated with retinol, ATRA, or 9-RA for varying time periods and assessed for: (i) proliferation; (ii) expression of α smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), collagen I, fibronectin, and laminin; and (iii) activation of MAPKs (extracellular regulated kinases 1 and 2, p38 kinase, and c-Jun N terminal kinase). The effect of retinol on PSCs treated with ethanol was also examined by incubating cells with ethanol in the presence or absence of retinol for five days, followed by assessment of α-SMA, collagen I, fibronectin, and laminin expression. Results: Retinol, ATRA, and 9-RA significantly inhibited: (i) cell proliferation, (ii) expression of α-SMA, collagen I, fibronectin, and laminin, and (iii) activation of all three classes of MAPKs. Furthermore, retinol prevented ethanol induced PSC activation, as indicated by inhibition of the ethanol induced increase in α-SMA, collagen I, fibronectin, and laminin expression. Conclusions: Retinol and its metabolites ATRA and 9-RA induce quiescence in culture activated PSCs associated with a significant decrease in the activation of all three classes of MAPKs in PSCs. Ethanol induced PSC activation is prevented by retinol supplementation.
Difference between office and ambulatory blood pressure and response to antihypertensive treatment

Objective To investigate whether a clinic-ambulatory blood pressure difference persists with time under active drug treatment or placebo and to determine whether and how it interferes with the evaluation of the efficacy of antihypertensive treatment. Design and methods In 382 mild or moderate essential hypertensive patients (mean age±SD 51.5 ± 9.2 years) clinic and ambulatory (SpaceLabs 90207 device) blood pressures were measured twice, under baseline conditions and after 4-8 weeks of antihypertensive treatment by calcium antagonists or angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (n=266) or of placebo administration (n=116). In each patient the difference between clinic and daytime average blood pressure was taken as a surrogate measure of the magnitude of the 'white-coat effect', separately for systolic and diastolic blood pressures. The changes in this difference induced by treatment and by placebo and the relationship between the blood pressure changes induced by drug treatment and by placebo and the magnitude of the difference before and during treatment or placebo, respectively, were computed. Results Before drug treatment, the difference was 16.6 ±13.6 and 10.1 ± 7.9 mmHg for systolic and diastolic blood pressures, respectively. During treatment the corresponding values were 11.9±14.2 and 6.8±9.2mmHg; both of the reductions were statistically significant Both for systolic and for diastolic blood pressure, the reduction in clinic blood pressure caused by treatment was directly related to the clinic-ambulatory difference before treatment, but inversely related to the magnitude of that difference persisting during treatment. The clinic-ambulatory blood pressure difference observed before placebo was attenuated during placebo, the magnitude of the attenuation being similar to that found under drug treatment. No significant difference between clinic and daytime average heart rate was ever observed before and during active treatment or placebo. Conclusions A considerable clinic-ambulatory blood pressure difference persists during several weeks of antihypertensive treatment, but its magnitude is significantly attenuated. This leads to an overestimation of the effectiveness of antihypertensive treatment when this is assessed by clinic blood pressure measurements only. This overestimation is greater in subjects with an initially greater difference because in these subjects the subsequent attenuation is greater. Because similar phenomena are observed with placebo, the attenuation in the difference during drug treatment is likely to reflect merely habituation to clinic blood pressure measurements with time.
Melodic Clustering Within Topological Spaces of Schumann's Träumerei

This paper aims at extending a topological model of motivic analysis and structure in order to insert the concept of clustering. Our immanent approach includes the contour similarity for motives of different cardinalities making possible to formalize the concept of germinal motif. Based on motif, contour, gestalt, and motif similarity concepts, neighborhoods of motives are introduced and yield (T0-)topological spaces. Given a collection X of motives to be organized in melodic clusters, we extract the clusters from the topological space by considering, within the relative space X , intersections of some sets corresponding to the formalization of motif variations within the model. The model extension was implemented and applied to Schumann’s Traumerei. The resulting clusterings are successfully compared to the music theorist Repp’s melodic segmentation of the piece (1992).
Spin-Offs in an Environment of Bank Debt

An assessment of the wealth impact of spin-offs involving UK firms is of interest, as they tend to access debt through banks rather than capital markets. Banks will have a different relationship with shareholders, so the distribution of returns may differ from that previously observed. The short and long-term impact on both parent and spin-off shareholders is investigated. Possible reasons for a positive returns response, including an anticipated acquisition premium, and management focus related gains, are considered. Annual financial ratios offer a further evaluation of operating performance and assess the impact on levels of leverage in parents and spin-offs. Copyright (c) 2008 The Author Journal compilation (c) 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
POLITICAL GROUP COHESION AND ‘HURRAH’ VOTING IN THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

ABSTRACT This research note re-examines the evidence for the claim that political group cohesion has risen over time in the European Parliament. We first demonstrate that political group cohesion has always been high in the EP and one of the principal reasons for this is owing to the large number of lopsided votes that take place. We next demonstrate that on votes in which the main political groups are opposing, intra-party cohesion is lower than conventional wisdom would have us believe and, furthermore, cohesion on such votes has not systematically increased over time.
Determining the influence of intellectual capital on the organisational performance of banking sector in Kelantan, Malaysia

In this study the researchers attempt to examine the effect of intellectual capital on the organisational performance of banking sector operating in Kelantan, Malaysia. There is no doubt that intellectual capital is considered as the prime asset of an organisation to stay in a competitive business environment. In a knowledge-based economy organisations mainly based on intangible or soft assets. These assets refer to intellectual capital. Intellectual capital is considered as the nucleus of knowledge-based economy. In this study, a total of 250 individuals were involved to examine the role of intellectual capital in the banking sector operating in Kelantan, Malaysia. Multiple regression analysis was used to test the research hypotheses. The findings of this study revealed that four research hypotheses were supported while three research hypotheses were not supported. This study provides empirical findings of the contribution of intellectual capital to banking sector in Malaysia.
Integrating children's contributions in the interaction design process

In this paper, we describe three studies for the design of a hand-held music device for children. The studies involved researchers from different disciplines and children from different schools. We reflected on what happened during the design activities. And we looked at the outputs produced by the children in order to understand the feasibility of the activities that were included in the design sessions from two perspectives: whether they contributed to the design of the product – termed their capability – and whether they suitably involved children in the process – called their suitability . We then report on how children’s ideas were selected and integrated into the product design through iterative cycles of testing and refinements. This description of the process prompted the discussion on the involvement of children and their ideas throughout the whole process, its benefit and difficulties that could be applicable to a wide variety of design contexts with children.
Susceptibility of retinal ganglion cells to excitotoxicity depends on soma size and retinal eccentricity.

PURPOSE This study was undertaken to determine if retinal ganglion cell sensitivity to intraocular N-methyl-D-aspartate or kainate injections varied as a function of retinal location (eccentricity) or cell soma size. METHODS Rat retinal ganglion cells surviving intraocular N-methyl-D-aspartate or intraocular kainate induced lesions were retrogradely labeled with horseradish peroxidase and analyzed using an image analysis system. Control animals were retrogradely labeled after vehicle injection only. Cell counting was performed at 48 sampling points over the entire retina and represented a total area of 1.92 mm2 per retina. RESULTS Larger cells were more sensitive to kainate than to N-methyl-D-aspartate excitotoxicity; smaller cells more vulnerable to N-methyl-D-aspartate excitotoxicity. Further from the optic nerve, more smaller cells survived kainate administration. After N-methyl-D-aspartate administration, larger cells survived most, noticeably in the central retina. CONCLUSIONS Our results suggest that loss of retinal ganglion cells after N-methyl-D-aspartate or kainate administration affects distinct populations of retinal ganglion cells, dependent upon soma size and retinal location. The mechanism by which certain classes of cells survive or succumb to such insults has yet to be determined.
Daily Institutional Trades and Stock Price Volatility in a Retail Investor Dominated Emerging Market

We examine the short-run dynamic relation between daily institutional trading and stock price volatility in a retail investor-dominated emerging market. We find a significantly negative relation between volatility and institutional net trading that is mainly due to the unexpected institutional trading. The price volatility-institutional trade relation differs for institutional buys and institutional sells, and for small and large stocks. Institutional investors herd-trade in large stocks, but do not systematically engage in positive-feedback trading. We argue that the net impact of informational and noninformational institutional trades determines the relation between volatility and institutional trading, and that the relation is negative when informational trading by institutions prevails.
Mathematical Modeling of Electrode Processes – Potential Dependent Transfer Coefficient in Electrochemical Kinetics

The connection between experimental results and mathematical modeling of electrode processes may become an inspiration for new results and deeper understanding of the nature of electrochemical processes and its kinetic description. Sometimes experiment is preceded by a theory, sometimes it is the other way round. To avoid over discovering of phenomena, uncertainties and even mistakes, a responsible validation of model results is required. The analysis of complex, multi-electron electrode processes with chemical step(s) provides the respective examples.
Towards a methodological approach: theorising scenario thinking as a social practice

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to draw on the social theory of practice to show scenario thinking as an everyday practice and how the practice could be theorised at the meso‐level.Design/methodology/approach – Counterfactual analysis, scenario analysis and peripheral vision are presented as the constituting methodological triad through which scenario thinking comes into representation.Findings – Scenario thinking is a temporally emerging everyday organizational practice. By placing emphasis on the mundane and taken for granted activities that come together to form the nexus of the practice, often deep underlying structures of organizational behaviour contributing to scenario thinking can be theorised.Research limitations/implications – The practice conceptualisation of scenario thinking inverts and challenges existing management and practitioners' conventional understanding of the practice as an episodic phenomenon in waiting to be facilitated by an expert with specific end points and conformity.Pract.
Cooperatives as Entrants

A potential shortcoming of game-theoretic models in industrial organization is their failure to consider consumers as players. We introduce a customer coalition --- a cooperative -- as a potential entrant and compare the cooperative entry threat with that posed by the usual for-profit entrant. We identify four fundamental distinctions between cooperative and for-profit entrants and demonstrate that the strategic interplay between a cooperative and an incumbent firm may differ markedly from that between the incumbent and a for-profit entrant. The results impart a prospectively powerful role to potential cooperatives in beneficially regulating free-market performance.
Nucleotide Binding Activity of SecA Homodimer Is Conformationally Regulated by Temperature and Altered byprlD and azi Mutations*

SecA ATPase is critical for protein translocation across the Escherichia coli inner membrane. To understand this activity further, the high affinity nucleotide binding activity of SecA was characterized. We found that at 4 °C SecA homodimer binds one ADP molecule with high affinity. This nucleotide binding activity was conformationally regulated by temperature: at low temperature SecA affinity for ADP was high with a slow exchange rate, whereas at high temperature the converse was true. Azi- and PrlD-SecA proteins that confer azide-resistant and signal sequence suppressor phenotypes were found to have reduced affinity for ADP and accelerated exchange rates compared with wild type SecA. Consistent with this observation, fluorescence and proteolysis studies indicated that these proteins had a conformationally relaxed state at a reduced temperature compared with SecA. The level of Azi- and PrlD-SecA protein was also elevated in inverted membrane vesicles where it displayed higher membrane ATPase activity. These results provide the first direct evidence for conformational regulation of the SecA-dependent nucleotide cycle, its alteration in azi and prlD mutants, and its relevance to in vivo protein export.
Community Capacity for Environmental Health Promotion: Determinants and Implications for Practice

The human response to an environmental hazard can either reduce or exacerbate its impact on health. This article reviews determinants of community-level responses to environmental health hazards. The aim is to identify factors that can enhance a community’s capacity to protect itself and to suggest public health strategies that can increase such capacity. Four case histories of community environmental health action are presented to test a theoretical model for understanding the determinants of community capacity to promote environmental health. Specific actions public health professionals can take to strengthen community capacity include increasing access to accurate science, building strong relationships between communities and local health departments, and supporting political reforms that level the playing field for communities that seek to challenge corporate or government practices.
Management control systems and performance: evidence from the Greek shipping industry

This study explores how Management Control Systems (MCS) enhance the performance of shipping companies. Based on data collected from semi-structured interviews, MCS are distinguished in three categories according to the purposes they fulfill: “Basic MCS” are implemented in order to set standards and support basic operations of the business, “Cost MCS” collect information about cost minimization while “External Information MCS” focus on compliance with the requirement of the cargo owners. Furthermore, evidence collected through a survey instrument addressed to shipping companies located in Greece suggests that the choice of MCS is contingent upon the strategy pursued by the shipping companies. Moreover, this paper tests whether shipping companies with an optimal fit between their strategies and their MCS experience superior business performance and a higher perceived usefulness of MCS. Results reinforce the notion that the performance of the shipping companies is contingent on the use of those control systems which are consistent with their strategies and a number of control variables such as experience of the person implemented the MCS, the size, and age of company.
Comparative Advantage and the Location of Production

The paper returns to a familiar topic in international trade, comparative advantage, introducing it into Krugman's classic, core-periphery model of economic geography. This extra force of dispersion radically changes the stability properties of the model. Instead of the familiar result that trade liberalization leads to increased industrial concentration, lowering trade costs leads initially to increased concentration and then to dispersion of production. When a pattern of comparative advantage exists, integration may lead to international specialization of production. This may be good news for peripheral countries, which may be able to retain industry despite the attraction of the core.
THE ORTHOPAEDIC CONSEQUENCES OF CHILDHOOD MENINGOCOCCAL SEPTICAEMIA

The aim of this study is to use a defined population of patients with meningococcal septicaemia to calculate the incidence of orthopaedic complications. Medical records and radiographs were analyzed retrospectively for all patients admitted to the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) of the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children from 01/01/2001 to 31/12/2012 with meningococcal septicaemia. Of the 130 patients with meningococcal septicaemia alive at discharge, 10 developed orthopaedic sequelae, representing an overall incidence in this patient population of 7.7%. 9 patients required an amputation, mostly in the lower limb, 16/22 (72.7%). 48 growth plate abnormalities were identified in 8 patients. 39 (81.3%) The most commonly affected was the distal tibia (38.5%). 10 ankles were identified as having a varus malalignment. 6 patients had documented leg length discrepancy Using a clearly defined denominator this study has identified an incidence of orthopaedic sequelae following meningococcal septicaemia of 7.7%. The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) suggested that the incidence of growth disturbance is approximately 3%. This study highlights the underestimation of orthopaedic complications following meningococcal septicaemia. Close follow up of at risk patients should be considered to reduce the potential impact of these debilitating injuries.
Business and Management Studies in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework

The Research Excellence Framework 2014 (REF 2014) was the 7th formal assessment of research in UK universities and other institutions of higher education. Participation in these assessments is voluntary, and institutions can decide which staff to include and under which discipline to include them. A hundred and one institutions chose to submit research in Business and Management Studies, and this work was assessed by a panel of academic researchers and research users nominated by a wide range of academic constituencies. The previous assessment exercise was conducted in 2008, and REF 2014 shows that the quality of UK research in Business and Management Studies, already high in 2008, has improved since then. The operation of the Business and Management Studies sub-panel is described, the results are summarized, and a few caveats are discussed so as to aid the Business and Management Studies community in its endeavours to understand and evaluate the process and the results.
The effect of deep brain stimulation randomized by site on balance in Parkinson's disease

The effect of the surgical site of DBS on balance and gait in Parkinson's Disease (PD) is uncertain. This is the first double‐blind study of subjects randomized to either the STN (N = 14) or GPi (N = 14) who were assessed on a range of clinical balance measures.
CCN Activity, Variability and Influence on Droplet Formation during the HygrA-Cd Campaign in Athens

Measurements of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentrations (cm−3) at five levels of supersaturation between 0.2–1%, together with remote sensing profiling and aerosol size distributions, were performed at an urban background site of Athens during the Hygroscopic Aerosols to Cloud Droplets (HygrA-CD) campaign. The site is affected by local emissions and long-range transport, as portrayed by the aerosol size, hygroscopicity and mixing state. Application of a state-of-the-art droplet parameterization is used to link the observed size distribution measurements, bulk composition, and modeled boundary layer dynamics with potential supersaturation, droplet number, and sensitivity of these parameters for clouds forming above the site. The sensitivity is then used to understand the source of potential droplet number variability. We find that the importance of aerosol particle concentration levels associated with the background increases as vertical velocities increase. The updraft velocity variability was found to contribute 58–90% (68.6% on average) to the variance of the cloud droplet number, followed by the variance in aerosol number (6–32%, average 23.2%). Therefore, although local sources may strongly modulate CCN concentrations, their impact on droplet number is limited by the atmospheric dynamics expressed by the updraft velocity regime.
Econometric Modeling of Value-at-Risk

Recently risk management has become a standard prerequisite for all financial institutions. Value-at-Risk is the main tool of reporting to the bank regulators the risk that the financial institutions face. As it is essential to estimate it accurately, numerous methods have been proposed in order to minimize the forecast error. This chapter provides a selective survey of the risk management techniques that have been applied and discusses potential improvements in estimating, evaluating and adjusting Value-at-Risk and Expected Shortfall.