Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nucleotide Excision Repair/TFIIH Helicases Rad3 and Ssl2 Inhibit Short-Sequence Recombination and Ty1 Retrotransposition by Similar Mechanisms

ABSTRACT Eukaryotic genomes contain potentially unstable sequences whose rearrangement threatens genome structure and function. Here we show that certain mutant alleles of the nucleotide excision repair (NER)/TFIIH helicase genes RAD3 and SSL2(RAD25) confer synthetic lethality and destabilize theSaccharomyces cerevisiae genome by increasing both short-sequence recombination and Ty1 retrotransposition. Therad3-G595R and ssl2-rtt mutations do not markedly alter Ty1 RNA or protein levels or target site specificity. However, these mutations cause an increase in the physical stability of broken DNA molecules and unincorporated Ty1 cDNA, which leads to higher levels of short-sequence recombination and Ty1 retrotransposition. Our results link components of the core NER/TFIIH complex with genome stability, homologous recombination, and host defense against Ty1 retrotransposition via a mechanism that involves DNA degradation.
Quantitative Enhancement Washout Analysis of Solid Cortical Renal Masses Using Multidetector Computed Tomography

Purpose: The aim of the study was to prospectively assess the utility of quantitative enhancement washout method in the differentiation of benign solid renal masses from various subtypes of malignant masses using multidetector computed tomography. Methods: In a prospective investigation from January 2009 to May 2010, 97 patients with solid renal masses underwent CT scan examination with unenhanced, arterial, parenchymal, and delayed phases. The following features were analyzed: the maximum attenuation value in each phase, attenuation difference (enhancement) of the mass in each phase from the unenhanced phase (&Dgr;H), and parenchymal and delayed phases' washout. Of these patients, 82 (85%) underwent unilateral radical nephrectomy, 15 (15%) underwent partial nephrectomy. Group comparison was performed with the Kruskal-Wallis test and Mann-Whitney U test. Results: The masses included in our study were 45 clear cell renal cell carcinomas (CCRCCs); 18 chromophobe renal cell carcinomas, 16 papillary (PRCC), 14 oncocytomas, and 4 minimal fat containing angiomyolipomas. In the arterial phase, the CCRCC was the most enhancing type and could be differentiated from other renal masses (benign or malignant) with high sensitivity and specificity. In the parenchymal phase, the CCRCCs demonstrated the highest washout. Chromophobe renal cell carcinomas showed the second highest washout in this phase. Benign lesions and PRCCs did not exhibit significant washout in this phase. In the delayed phase, the malignant lesions (with the exception of PRCCs) showed the highest washout. Benign lesions showed significant washout but less than malignant lesions. Conclusions: Multiphasic multidetector CT utilizing arterial-phase attenuation and quantitative enhancement washout method could help in the preoperative differentiation of various types of solid renal masses.
Balancing Selection at the Prion Protein Gene Consistent with Prehistoric Kurulike Epidemics

Kuru is an acquired prion disease largely restricted to the Fore linguistic group of the Papua New Guinea Highlands, which was transmitted during endocannibalistic feasts. Heterozygosity for a common polymorphism in the human prion protein gene (PRNP) confers relative resistance to prion diseases. Elderly survivors of the kuru epidemic, who had multiple exposures at mortuary feasts, are, in marked contrast to younger unexposed Fore, predominantly PRNP 129 heterozygotes. Kuru imposed strong balancing selection on the Fore, essentially eliminating PRNP 129 homozygotes. Worldwide PRNP haplotype diversity and coding allele frequencies suggest that strong balancing selection at this locus occurred during the evolution of modern humans.
Poverty and Inequality during the Great Recession in Greece

The severe economic crisis that has been affecting Greece since 2009 is having an unprecedented impact in terms of job and income losses, and is widely perceived to have a comparably significant effect in terms of greater inequality and increased poverty. This article provides an early assessment of whether (and to what extent) the latter is the case. Specifically, it simulates the impact of the austerity (i.e. fiscal consolidation policies) and the recession (i.e. negative developments in the wider economy) on the distribution of incomes in 2009–12, and estimates how the burden of the Great Recession has been shared across income groups. The article concludes by discussing the policy implications of the authors’ research.
Stars and their Supporting Cast: State, Market and Community as Actors in Urban Governance

In the search for better ways to govern cities there has been a shift from an emphasis on the role of ‘urban government’ to an emphasis on ‘urban governance’. Governance is now widely understood as incorporating the role of the state in policy making and implementation but extending beyond that single actor to include the roles of the private sector (market) and community (civil society). The relationships amongst the three are both complex and changing. This article proposes a conceptual framework that structures our understanding of how the actors in urban governance interact, based on relationships where one of the actors has far greater influence than the other two, in other words where one is the ‘star’ or central actor. The framework then addresses the question of the roles of the ‘supporting cast’, or the other two actors. The ‘governance orthodoxy’ is that relationships are collaborative and consensual, expressed through ideas about ‘partnerships’ and ‘networks’. The framework, however, draws attention to the possibility of conflict. The article explores some of the implications for urban governance theory and practice of these complex relationships.
Toward a Model of Risk in Declining Organizations: An Empirical Examination of Risk, Performance and Decline

Scholars who study organizational decline have argued that declining organizations reduce or eliminate their riskier activities such as innovation. Further, they cite reduced risk-taking as a primary contributor to further decline. Scholars with an interest in risk per se come to the opposite conclusion: low performing firms often take more risks than other firms and such risks reduce subsequent performance. This study attempts to resolve these conflicting views by examining the risk of firms in decline.Our model, based on Cyert & March's (Cyert, R. M., J. G. March. 1963. A behavioral theory of the firm . Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.) behavioral theory of the firm, includes six basic variables: (1) performance, (2) slack, (3) aspirations, (4) expectations, (5) risk (income stream uncertainty), and (6) organization size as a measure of decline. The estimated model includes prior levels of risk and performance in the risk and performance equations respectively as controls. This study uses data on 344 low-performing firms in 19 manufacturing industries to estimate a time-series model that addresses both decline's influence on risk and risk's influence on performance while controlling for firm slack resources and industry factors.The results suggest (1) organizational decline and potential slack (debt/equity) positively influence risk whereas recoverable slack (SGA/Sales), and the difference between performance aspirations and expectations negatively influence risk; and (2) recoverable slack and risk negatively influence performance. We also examined the influences of performance and slack on organizational decline and found that performance associates negatively whereas recoverable and potential slack associate positively with decline.These results challenge the argument that declining firms reduce risk and so hurt their subsequent performance. Instead, the results suggest a cyclical process with positive feedback in which decline and the loss of certain slack resources increases risk which in turn reduces performance and results in further organizational shrinkage. Thus firms facing decline fall into a trap of taking unprofitable risks that ultimately exacerbates the decline. In addition, results relating slack to risk and performance exhibited inconsistent relations across the measures raising questions about the role slack resources play in risk and decline. Previous discussions of this slack implicitly assume all forms of slack have similar influences but our results demonstrate different forms of slack have very different effects.
Is Rural Contribution to Aggregate Poverty Reduction Substantial? New Evidence

Abstract Using the recent estimates of rural, urban and aggregate poverty rates for 31 developing countries, the present study statistically examines the extent to which the rural sector contributes to aggregate poverty reduction. After adjusting for the effect of rural-urban migration, our results suggest that the rural sector makes a substantial contribution to aggregate poverty reduction across all five regions, consistent with earlier studies arguing for the importance of rural sector growth in poverty reduction. Recent studies giving greater priority to urbanisation-especially small and secondary towns-are thus mistaken.
The intracellular antibody capture technology (IACT): towards a consensus sequence for intracellular antibodies.

We describe the application of an intracellular antibody capture technology (IACT) as a generic in vivo selection procedure for isolating intracellular antibodies or ICAbs. IACT was applied to the de novo selection of functional ICAbs against the microtubule-associated protein TAU, found in neurofibrillary lesions of Alzheimer's disease brains. A panel of 17 different ICAbs was created which bind TAU inside cells and the epitopes recognized by the selected ICAbs have been determined by an in vivo epitope mapping procedure. Finally, sequence analysis showed that the IACT-derived ICAbs are characterized by a common signature of conserved amino acid residues, suggesting that the IACT naturally selects a sort of "captured consensus sequence" for intracellular antibodies. The development of IACT, together with the possibility of scaling up in a high throughput and automated format, makes IACT a new enabling tool for target validation in functional genomics and global proteomics.
Characterization of the vaginal microflora in health and disease.

BACKGROUND Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is an imbalance of the vaginal bacterial microbiota and its aetiology is still unknown. Our aims were to investigate the diagnostic potential of species/genus specific quantitative PCR (qPCR) for bacteria present in swabs and first-void urine (FVU) samples using Nugent's and Claeys' criteria and 454 sequencing of the vaginal microbiome as reference. METHODS Self-collected swabs, vaginal smears and FVU were obtained from 177 women from Greenland (Study I and III) and physician-collected vaginal swabs and smears were obtained from 163 Swedish women (Study II). BV was diagnosed by Nugent's criteria in Study I and III and by Amsel's criteria in Study II. The vaginal swabs and FVU samples were analysed by qPCR for selected vaginal bacteria in all three studies and for four sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in Study I. RESULTS Study I: STIs were common in women from Greenland and BV was found in 45% of these women but was not associated with individual STIs. In multivariate logistic analysis, Atopobium vaginae and Prevotella spp. were both independently associated with BV in swabs. BV could be subdivided into clusters dominated by a single or a few species together. Seven vaginal bacteria (A. vaginae, Prevotella spp. Gardnerella vaginalis, Bacterial vaginosis associated bacterium (BVAB) 2, Eggerthella-like bacterium, Leptotrichia amnionii and Megasphaera type 1) had areas under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve > 85% in swabs, suggesting that they were good predictors of BV according to Nugent. Study II: For the majority of species/genera, the kappa values indicated fair to good agreement when their presence was determined by 454 pyrosequencing versus real-time PCR. The same seven vaginal bacteria as found in Study I, had areas under the ROC-curve > 85% in swabs from Swedish women, demonstrating a good diagnostic accuracy for BV according to Amsel. Study III: In a multivariate model, Megasphaera type 1 and Prevotella spp. remained significantly associated with BV in FVU samples. A linear regression analysis showed good agreement between bacterial load from swabs and FVU, but Prevotella spp. could be detected in high numbers in a few FVU samples without being present in swabs. After applying ROC curve analysis, the same seven vaginal bacteria as previously mentioned showed good prediction for BV according to Nugent in FVU. BV could be detected with comparable sensitivity in FVU and vaginal swabs. CONCLUSION BV can be diagnosed by molecular methods performed either on swabs or urine but it is important to apply thresholds in order to improve the accuracy of the diagnosis. Furthers it was possible to identify clusters of BV dominated by single or paired bacteria, and these clusters could classify BV into subgroups, providing a more detailed understanding of the condition. Seven vaginal bacteria were highly accurate for BV diagnosis both in swabs and FVU. Finally a good agreement between Nugent and Claeys was found.
Strategic planning of service supply chain using dynamic SAP-LAP model: a case study of a leading gas organisation in India

A supply chain management (SCM) practice in services is an ongoing process and needs continuous efforts on total quality management (TQM) practices and flexible systems (FSs) practices fronts. Implementation of new practices and proper strategic planning in accordance with the vision and mission of the business will enhance SCM programme, as these are directly responsible for the customer's relationship and strategic relationship of final products. As per our study, information sharing is playing significant role. A detailed case study of India's leading gas utility company has been undertaken. The case study of GAIL (India) Ltd. formerly called as Gas Authority India Limited (GAIL) has been taken into account using dynamic SAP-LAP model. As a conclusion, SCM practice in services is a part of strategic relationship and customer's relationship of the organisation as a final product. SAP-LAP framework helps us to understand the SCM practices in the case study taken here.
Rebalancing the Chinese economy

China has run a current account surplus for two decades. Its current account surplus is not simply a result of the saving gap. Rather, the current account surplus, as well as the saving gap, is a result of complicated interaction among various factors in a dynamic fashion. While running a large current account surplus, China has also run a large capital account surplus mainly in the form of FDI over decades. China’s ‘twin surpluses’ are a reflection of market distortion, which has caused large welfare losses for the country. The Chinese government should not only pay attention to internal balance but also to external imbalance. Hence it should combine expenditure-switching policies and expenditure-changing policies to maintain a decent non-inflationary growth rate, while keeping the current-account-balance-to-GDP ratio at a rational level. Copyright 2013, Oxford University Press.
Intellectual Property Rights, Environmental Regulations, and Foreign Direct Investment

Sustainable development has been a popular buzzword among policymakers and economists for over a decade. Although a key tenet of maintaining a sustainable development path for many economies rests on attracting mobile capital, theoretical and empirical evidence into the institutional policies that attract factors remains largely unresolved. This paper takes a positive look at the determinants of attracting capital with particular attention paid to intellectual property rights and environmental regulations. (JEL F23, O34, Q28)
The Donor Problem: An Experimental Analysis of Beneficiary Empowerment

Abstract Donors often rely on local intermediaries to deliver benefits to target beneficiaries. Each selected recipient observes if the intermediary under-delivers to them, so they serve as natural monitors. These recipients may, however, withhold complaints to ‘thank’ the intermediary for selecting them. Furthermore, the intermediary may distort selection (for example, by picking richer recipients who feel less entitled) to reduce complaints. We design an experimental game representing the donor's problem. We compare two institutions. In one treatment the intermediary selects recipients. In the other selection is random – as by an uninformed donor. In our data random selection dominates delegation of the selection task to the intermediary. Selection distortions are similar but intermediaries divert more when they have selection power (correctly anticipating that gratitude for selection will reduce complaints). Our results identify a problem in combining selection and delivery tasks. The insights are also applicable to social funds, decentralisation and participatory projects.
A literature review of empirical research methodology in lean manufacturing

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review the existing literature on empirical research in lean manufacturing (LM). It provides a critical assessment of empirical research methodology of 178 research articles published from 1990 to 2009. Design/methodology/approach – The article reviewed a set of 178 empirical research articles in LM research with respect to empirical research design and its related facets. The 236 empirical research articles which are published in 70 journals during 1990-2009 are collected from four major management science publishers, namely, Emerald Online, Science Direct, Springer Link and Taylor & Francis. In total 178 research articles published in 24 journals are selected for critical review of empirical research methodology in LM. The approach for the critical review of 178 empirical research articles in LM is based on empirical research approach given by Flynn et al. (1990). The critical review discusses the current status of empirical research in LM and future directions.
Non-Timber forest products: Conservation status and management priorities in the community managed forests of Andhra Pradesh, South India

Primary surveys were conducted in 20 villages and an equal number of community managed forests (CMFs) of two districts, Adilabad and Chittoor in the state of Andhra Pradesh in southern India. The interviews conducted with 216 respondents listed a total of 22 and 23 non-timber forest products (NTFP) from Adilabad and Chittoor districts, respectively, of which 15 species were common to both study districts. Eight of these NTFPs, including, Sterculia urens, Thysanolena maxima, Sapindus emerginatus, Dendrocalamus strictus, Pongamia pinnata, Schleichera oleosa, Azadirachta indica and Diospyros melenoxylon were collected for commercial purposes. The vegetation survey was conducted in a total of 240 sample plots in 20 CMFs, and found 15 NTFP species from Adilabad and 18 NTFP species from Chittoor. The density of NTFP trees in Adilabad was 52 trees/ha, as against an overall tree density of 278 trees/ha, while in Chittoor it was only 28 trees/ha as against an overall density of 110 trees/ha. The regeneration density of NTFP species was, however, higher in Chittoor. Some of the NTFP species, prioritized for conservation, included Sterculia urens, Tamarindus indica, Phyllanthus emblica, Strychnos nuxvomica, S. potatorum and Anogeissus latifolia.
Allelic variants of ADH, ALDH and the five factor model of personality in alcohol dependence syndrome

Background: The etiology of alcohol dependence is a complex interplay of biopsychosocial factors. The genes for alcohol-metabolizing enzymes: Alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH2 and ADH3) and aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH2) exhibit functional polymorphisms. Vulnerability of alcohol dependence may also be in part due to heritable personality traits. Aim: To determine whether any association exists between polymorphisms of ADH2, ADH3 and ALDH2 and alcohol dependence syndrome in a group of Asian Indians. In addition, the personality of these patients was assessed to identify traits predisposing to alcoholism. Materials and Methods: In this study, 100 consecutive males with alcohol dependence syndrome attending the psychiatric outpatient department of a tertiary care service hospital and an equal number of matched healthy controls were included with their consent. Blood samples of all the study cases and controls were collected and genotyped for the ADH2, ADH3 and ALDH2 loci. Personality was evaluated using the neuroticism, extraversion, openness (NEO) personality inventory and sensation seeking scale. Results: Allele frequencies of ADH2FNx012 (0.50), ADH3FNx011 (0.67) and ALSH2FNx012 (0.09) were significantly low in the alcohol dependent subjects. Personality traits of NEO personality inventory and sensation seeking were significantly higher when compared to controls. Conclusions: The functional polymorphisms of genes coding for alcohol metabolizing enzymes and personality traits of NEO and sensation seeking may affect the propensity to develop dependence.
Big Five personality traits and performance anxiety in relation to marching arts satisfaction.

OBJECTIVE To examine the Big Five personality traits and performance anxiety in relation to marching arts satisfaction. PARTICIPANTS Data were collected from 278 instrumentalists (i.e., brass players and percussionists) and color guard performers (e.g., dancers) representing six world class drum and bugle corps. METHOD PARTICIPANTS completed three measures: the Adolescent Personal Style Inventory was used to measure the Big Five personality factors: Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, Extraversion, and Openness; the Performance Anxiety Questionnaire - used to assess somatic and cognitive symptoms of performance anxiety; and the Marching Arts Satisfaction - used to assess for the physical, social, and contextual environments of drum and bugle corps. RESULTS Correlation and multiple regression analyses revealed concurrent relationships between the Big Five and performance anxiety with satisfaction. A linear combination of the Big Five traits and Performance Anxiety accounted for 36% of the total variance in satisfaction, with Extraversion, Emotional Stability, and Performance Anxiety contributing significant unique variance. CONCLUSIONS The findings of the present study suggest that performers who are extraverted, conscientious, and effective at managing general stress - and performance stress in particular - find a greater sense of satisfaction with their participation in world class drum and bugle corps.
The Effects of Tolerance for Ambiguity and Task Uncertainty on the Balanced and Combined Use of Project Controls

This study contributes to the literature by examining antecedents to different combinations of management control systems. These combinations include combined use, focusing on the absolute magnitude of the project manager's organic and mechanistic control activities, and the balanced use, that is their relative magnitude. It is proposed that project managers' perceived task uncertainty and tolerance for ambiguity have direct and interaction effects on their balanced and combined use of different combinations of project control. Consistent with the hypotheses, the results show negative relationships between high tolerance for ambiguity and balanced and combined use of organic and mechanistic controls. Further, task uncertainty appears to have a direct, significant negative effect on balanced use, but not on combined use. Furthermore, as proposed, a negative significant interaction effect was found. The results were controlled for project size, project type and level of innovativeness.