Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Impact of Organizational Settings on Creativity and Learning in Alliances

Data from a cross-industry sample confirm the effects of different organizational structures on dynamic capabilities in alliance settings. Our work integrates the literatures pertinent to organizational structure and the learning and creativity processes that characterize dynamic capabilities in alliances. Our results suggest that centralized structures in alliances hinder creativity and learning, and that formalization impedes learning in alliances. Supporting the arguments put forward by authors such as Burns and Stalker (1961), our results suggest that mechanistic structures in alliance teams hinder the development of dynamic capabilities, whereas organic structures are more conducive in these interorganizational settings.
Determining land use change pattern in southern Nigeria: a comparative study

The use of land for different purposes makes it an essential commodity. The fact that it is fixed in supply constitute a problem to land usage. This paper presents a land use change pattern analysis in the three geopolitical zones of southern Nigeria as a prerequisite towards the development of adequate human health monitoring model for the study area. The land area of Ebonyi Edo and Ondo states were used for the study. Time series of multitemporal landsat satellite imageries of four different epochs from 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2016 that were obtained from the United State Geological Survey was used for the analysis. The results indicate that there is substantial change of land use from 2000 to 2016 for the built-up land, forestland, farmland and mixed land in the study area. On the other hand, water body and rock outcrop land show less significant land use change. Other types of land decreases as the built-up land increases. The findings suggest that animals such as rat, monkey and rabbit that have their homes in the forest and farmland would be displaced, and might be tempted to dwell among men, which implies that humanity in the Southern Nigeria might become susceptible to diseases.
Self-limited autoimmune disease related to transient donor B cell activation in mice neonatally injected with semi-allogeneic F1 cells.

BALB/c mice injected at birth with 10(8) semi-allogeneic (C57BL/6 x BALB.IgHb)F1 spleen cells develop a lupus-like syndrome in which autoantibodies bear exclusively the donor allotype. We have analyzed the evolution of donor B cell chimerism and the autoimmune manifestations during the first year of life in these mice. Anti-DNA, -histone, and -cardiolipin IgG antibodies as well as circulating immune complexes appeared in the second week of life, reached the highest values around the sixth week, and then progressively dropped to normal values after the sixth month in most mice. The kinetics of the evolution of the autoimmune manifestations, as well as the kinetics of serum donor Ig allotype, were parallel to the kinetics of donor B cell chimerism, which was particularly prominent in the spleens in early weeks of life, and progressively decreased after remission of the autoimmune syndrome. Membrane-proliferative glomerulonephritis, which was followed as the more representative histological abnormality in this model, was particularly evident after 10 weeks of life, but disappeared by the end of the follow-up. Interestingly, when mice with a self-limited disease were re-injected with 10(8) F1 spleen cells i.v. , a flare in the serological manifestations was observed. In these re-injected mice a predominance of anti-DNA, IgG1 antibodies bearing exclusively the donor allotype was also observed, as in the early weeks of life. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Telomere shortening triggers a feedback loop to enhance end protection

Abstract Telomere homeostasis is controlled by both telomerase machinery and end protection. Telomere shortening induces DNA damage sensing kinases ATM/ATR for telomerase recruitment. Yet, whether telomere shortening also governs end protection is poorly understood. Here we discover that yeast ATM/ATR controls end protection. Rap1 is phosphorylated by Tel1 and Mec1 kinases at serine 731, and this regulation is stimulated by DNA damage and telomere shortening. Compromised Rap1 phosphorylation hampers the interaction between Rap1 and its interacting partner Rif1, which thereby disturbs the end protection. As expected, reduction of Rap1–Rif1 association impairs telomere length regulation and increases telomere–telomere recombination. These results indicate that ATM/ATR DNA damage checkpoint signal contributes to telomere protection by strengthening the Rap1–Rif1 interaction at short telomeres, and the checkpoint signal oversees both telomerase recruitment and end capping pathways to maintain telomere homeostasis.
SOCIOECONOMIC INEQUALITIES IN SELF-REPORTED HEALTH AND PHYSICAL FUNCTIONING IN ARGENTINA: FINDINGS FROM THE NATIONAL SURVEY ON QUALITY OF LIFE OF OLDER ADULTS 2012 (ENCaViAM)

Summary This study aimed to evaluate educational and income inequalities in self-reported health (SRH), and physical functioning (limitations in Activities of Daily Living (ADL)/Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL)), among 60-year-old and older adults in Argentina. Using cross-sectional data from the Argentinian National Survey on Quality of Life of Older Adults 2012 (Encuesta Nacional sobre Calidad de Vida de Adultos Mayores, ENCaViAM), gender-specific socioeconomic inequalities in SRH and ADL and IADL limitations were studied in relation to educational level and household per capita income. The Relative Index of Inequality (RII) – an index of the relative size of socioeconomic inequalities in health – was used. Socioeconomic inequalities in the studied health indicators were found – except for limitations in ADL among women – favouring socially advantaged groups. The results remained largely significant after full adjustment, suggesting that educational and income inequalities, mainly in SRH and IADL, were robust and somehow independent of age, marital status, physical activity, the use of several medications, depression and the occurrence of falls. The findings add to the existing knowledge on the relative size of the socioeconomic inequalities in subjective health indicators among Argentinian older adults, which are to the detriment of lower socioeconomic groups. The results could be used to inform planning interventions aimed at decreasing socioeconomic inequalities in health, to the benefit of socially disadvantaged adults.
Incidence of multiple myeloma in Great Britain, Sweden, and Malmö, Sweden: the impact of differences in case ascertainment on observed incidence trends

Objectives The increased incidence of multiple myeloma (MM) across China and East Asia stimulated us to examine the current rates in Great Britain, where rates increased dramatically in the second half of the 20th century. However, rates have been stable and high during this period in Malmö, Sweden, where there is a keen interest in MM. We thus assessed recent changes in MM incidence in Great Britain, Sweden overall, and Malmö, Sweden, and examined how these changes might explain recent reports of increased MM incidence across Asia. Design Estimation of MM incidence for Great Britain, Sweden overall, and Malmö, Sweden. Populations MM incidence data for Great Britain (1975–2009) were obtained from Cancer Research UK and for Sweden (1970–2009) from the Swedish Cancer Registry. MM incidence data from Malmö, Sweden, were available from 1950 to 2012. Main outcome measures Age-specific incidence of MM in Great Britain, Sweden overall, and Malmö, Sweden. Results MM incidence in Great Britain, Sweden overall, and Malmö increased progressively with age, even among the oldest group. The MM age-adjusted incidence (European standard population) increased by 69% from 1975–1979 to 2005–2009 in Great Britain, from 3.2/100 000 to 5.4/100 000. The largest increases occurred among those 70–79 years of age, for whom rates increased from 17.9/100 000 to 33.6/100 000; reflecting an increase of 69%. During this same period, the age-adjusted incidence (European stand population) in Sweden overall remained stable, at approximately 4.7/100 000. Conclusions MM age-specific incidence is now similar in Great Britain, Sweden overall, and Malmö. We believe this is a result of improvements in case ascertainment in Great Britain, particularly among the elderly. Similar changes can be predicted to occur across Asia as improved access to healthcare contributes to better diagnosis of MM.
Biosilica formation in diatoms: Characterization of native silaffin-2 and its role in silica morphogenesis

The biological formation of inorganic materials with complex form (biominerals) is a widespread phenomenon in nature, yet the molecular mechanisms underlying biomineral morphogenesis are not well understood. Among the most fascinating examples of biomineral structures are the intricately patterned, silicified cell walls of diatoms, which contain tightly associated organic macromolecules. From diatom biosilica a highly polyanionic phosphoprotein, termed native silaffin-2 (natSil-2), was isolated that carries unconventional amino acid modifications. natSil-2 lacked intrinsic silica formation activity but was able to regulate the activities of the previously characterized silica-forming biomolecules natSil-1A and long-chain polyamines. Combining natSil-2 and natSil-1A (or long-chain polyamines) generated an organic matrix that mediated precipitation of porous silica within minutes after the addition of silicic acid. Remarkably, the precipitate displayed pore sizes in the range 100–1000 nm, which is characteristic for diatom biosilica nanopatterns.
Sorption of metolachlor and atrazine in fly ash amended soils: Comparison of optimized isotherm models

Adsorption of metolachlor and atrazine was studied in the fly ash (Inderprastha and Badarpur)- amended Inceptisol and Alfisol soils using batch method. Results indicated that sorption of both the herbicides in soil+fly ash mixtures was highly nonlinear and sorption decreased with a higher herbicide concentration in the solution. Also, nonlinearity increased with an increase in the level of fly ash amendment from 0–5%. Three two-parameter monolayer isotherms viz. Langmuir, Temkin, Jovanovic and one imperical Freundlich models were used to fit the experimental data. Data analysis and comparison revealed that the Temkin and the Freundlich isotherms were best-suited to explain the sorption results and the observed and the calculated adsorption coefficient values showed less variability. The study suggested that sorption mechanism of metolachlor and atrazine involved the physical association at the sorbate surface and the nonlinearity in the sorption at higher pesticide or fly ash concentration was due to a decrease in the heat of adsorption and higher binding energy.
Adaptation to cold in arctic and tropical mammals and birds in relation to body temperature, insulation, and basal metabolic rate.

Maintenance of constant body temperature in a homoiothermic animal depends upon a balance between heat production and heat dissipation, and there are consequently three possible main avenues for climatic adaptation, (1) by body-to-air gradient, (2) by heat dissipation, and (3) by metabolic rate. There is no evidence of adaptive low body temperature in arctic mammals and birds, or high body temperature in tropical mammals and birds. The body-to-air gradient can be adapted only by means of behavioral thermoregulation (nest building, avoidance of direct sunshine, etc.). With few exceptions our adult arctic and tropical mammals and birds have a basal metabolic rate that fits the standard mouse to elephant curve, i.e., the basal metabolic rate is determined by an exponential relation to size; evidently fundamental to most animals, warm-blooded or not. The basal metabolic rate is consequently not influenced by such factors as temperature gradient and insulation which largely determine the heat loss, and is henc.
Signaling by two-component system noncognate partners promotes intrinsic tolerance to polymyxin B in uropathogenic Escherichia coli

A single stimulus triggers cross talk between two signaling systems that promotes antibiotic resistance in uropathogenic Escherichia coli. Unusual signaling partners Bacteria use two-component systems to sense and respond to environmental stimuli. Each two-component system consists of a sensor histidine kinase and a response regulator. Most sensors and response regulators function as exclusive partners (cognate partners) that do not interact with components of other two-component systems. Guckes and Breland et al. studied the response of a strain of uropathogenic Escherichia coli to iron, an ion representative of the cations that bacteria encounter during infection. Exposing these bacteria to ferric iron stimulated the histidine kinase PmrB to phosphorylate its cognate response regulator PmrA and the noncognate response regulator QseB, both of which were required for the transcriptional response to ferric iron. Pretreating clinical isolates of uropathogenic E. coli with iron increased the tolerance of some strains to the antibiotic polymyxin B. This study identifies an example of signaling through noncognate interactions between two-component systems and implicates both cognate and noncognate signaling by PmrB in antibiotic resistance of some uropathogenic strains of E. coli. Bacteria use two-component systems (TCSs) to react appropriately to environmental stimuli. Typical TCSs comprise a sensor histidine kinase that acts as a receptor coupled to a partner response regulator that coordinates changes in bacterial behavior, often through its activity as a transcriptional regulator. TCS interactions are typically confined to cognate pairs of histidine kinases and response regulators. We describe two distinct TCSs in uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) that interact to mediate a response to ferric iron. The PmrAB and QseBC TCSs were both required for proper transcriptional response to ferric iron. Ferric iron induced the histidine kinase PmrB to phosphotransfer to both its cognate response regulator PmrA and the noncognate response regulator QseB, leading to transcriptional responses coordinated by both regulators. Pretreatment of the UPEC strain UTI89 with ferric iron led to increased resistance to polymyxin B that required both PmrA and QseB. Similarly, pretreatment of several UPEC isolates with ferric iron increased tolerance to polymyxin B. This study defines physiologically relevant cross talk between TCSs in a bacterial pathogen and provides a potential mechanism for antibiotic resistance of some strains of UPEC.
Long-term beneficial effect of late reperfusion for acute anterior myocardial infarction with percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty.

BACKGROUND Although the short-term and long-term beneficial effects of early coronary revascularization by primary PTCA or thrombolytic therapy have been established for acute myocardial infarction, thrombolytic therapy >24 hours after the onset of acute myocardial infarction has not been shown to improve clinical outcome. The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of late revascularization by primary PTCA over a 5-year period. METHODS AND RESULTS Eighty-three patients with initial Q-wave anterior myocardial infarction >24 hours after onset were randomized into a PTCA group (n=44) and a no-PTCA group (n=39). Long-term follow-up was conducted with regard to end points, which included cardiac death, nonfatal recurrence of myocardial infarction, and development of congestive heart failure. Left ventricular ejection fraction and regional wall motion at 6 months after myocardial infarction were similar in the 2 groups. Left ventricular end-diastolic and end-systolic volume indexes were significantly smaller in the PTCA group than in the no-PTCA group (P<0.0001). With cardiac events as end points, a 5-year Kaplan-Meier event-free survival analysis revealed that the no-PTCA group had a worse prognosis than the PTCA group (P<0.0001). Patency of the infarct-related artery, left ventricular ejection fraction, end-diastolic volume index, and end-systolic volume index were significantly associated with cardiac events by a Cox proportional hazards analysis (hazard ratios 0.120, 0.845, 1.065, and 1.164, respectively). CONCLUSIONS In initial Q-wave anterior myocardial infarction, we conclude that even with late reperfusion, PTCA had beneficial effects on cardiac events over the 5-year period after myocardial infarction, with the prevention of left ventricular dilation after myocardial infarction being a possible mechanism.
Open Access Research Article Prediction of Breast Cancer Prognosis Using Gene Set Statistics Provides Signature Stability and Biological Context

Background: Different microarray studies have compiled gene lists for predicting outcomes of a range of treatments and diseases. These have produced gene lists that have little overlap, indicating that the results from any one study are unstable. It has been suggested that the underlying pathways are essentially identical, and that the expression of gene sets, rather than that of individual genes, may be more informative with respect to prognosis and understanding of the underlying biological process. Results: We sought to examine the stability of prognostic signatures based on gene sets rather than individual genes. We classified breast cancer cases from five microarray studies according to the risk of metastasis, using features derived from predefined gene sets. The expression levels of genes in the sets are aggregated, using what we call a set statistic. The resulting prognostic gene sets were as predictive as the lists of individual genes, but displayed more consistent rankings via bootstrap replications within datasets, produced more stable classifiers across different datasets, and are potentially more interpretable in the biological context since they examine gene expression in the context of their neighbouring genes in the pathway. In addition, we performed this analysis in each breast cancer molecular subtype, based on ER/HER2 status. The prognostic gene sets found in each subtype were consistent with the biology based on previous analysis of individual genes. Conclusions: To date, most analyses of gene expression data have focused at the level of the individual genes. We show that a complementary approach of examining the data using predefined gene sets can reduce the noise and could provide increased insight into the underlying biological pathways. Background Much attention has been given to predicting patient survival from microarray data. In breast cancer, van 't Veer et al. [1,2] set out to find genes that could be used to predict whether breast cancer patients would experience a metastasis five years after surgery (a binary variable). Their list of 70 genes (NKI70) performed well in predicting the clinical outcome (area under receiver-operating characteristic curve, AUC ≈ 0.7) and is currently commercially available as a prognostic test for breast cancer patients. However, Ein-Dor et al. [3] used the stratified bootstrap to show that many other gene lists of similar predictive ability could be found from the same data.
Evaluation of interface trap densities and quantum capacitance in carbon nanotube network thin-film transistors

The interface trap density in single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) network thin-film transistors (TFTs) is a fundamental and important parameter for assessing the electronic performance of TFTs. However, the number of studies on the extraction of interface trap densities, particularly in SWNT TFTs, has been insufficient. In this work, we propose an efficient technique for extracting the energy-dependent interface traps in SWNT TFTs. From the measured dispersive, frequency-dependent capacitance–voltage (C–V) characteristics, the dispersive-free, frequency-independent C–V curve was obtained, thus enabling the extraction and analysis of the interface trap density, which was found to be approximately 8.2 × 1011 eV−1 cm−2 at the valence band edge. The frequency-independent C–V curve also allows further extraction of the quantum capacitance in the SWNT network without introducing any additional fitting process or parameters. We found that the extracted value of the quantum capacitance in SWNT networks is lower than the theoretical value in aligned SWNTs due to the cross point of SWNTs on the SWNT network. Therefore, the method proposed in this work indicates that the C–V measurement is a powerful tool for obtaining deep physical insights regarding the electrical performance of SWNT TFTs.
Towards usable VR: an empirical study of user interfaces for immersive virtual environments

This paper reports empirical results from a study into the useof 2D widgets in 3D immersive virtual environments. Severalresearchers have proposed the use of 2D interaction techniques in3D environments, however little empirical work has been done totest the usability of such approaches. We present the results oftwo experiments conducted on low-level 2D manipulation tasks withinan immersive virtual environment. We empirically show that theaddition of passive-haptic feedback for use in precise UImanipulation tasks can significantly increase user performance.Furthermore, users prefer interfaces that provide a physicalsurface, and that allow them to work with interface widgets in thesame visual field of view as the objects they are modifying.
Disordered T-Cell Development and T-Cell Malignancies in SCL LMO1 Double-Transgenic Mice: Parallels with E2A-Deficient Mice

ABSTRACT The gene most commonly activated by chromosomal rearrangements in patients with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) is SCL/tal. In collaboration with LMO1 or LMO2, the thymic expression of SCL/tal leads to T-ALL at a young age with a high degree of penetrance in transgenic mice. We now show that SCL LMO1 double-transgenic mice display thymocyte developmental abnormalities in terms of proliferation, apoptosis, clonality, and immunophenotype prior to the onset of a frank malignancy. At 4 weeks of age, thymocytes from SCL LMO1 mice show 70% fewer total thymocytes, with increased rates of both proliferation and apoptosis, than control thymocytes. At this age, a clonal population of thymocytes begins to populate the thymus, as evidenced by oligoclonal T-cell-receptor gene rearrangements. Also, there is a dramatic increase in immature CD44+CD25− cells, a decrease in the more mature CD4+ CD8+ cells, and development of an abnormal CD44+ CD8+ population. An identical pattern of premalignant changes is seen with either a full-length SCL protein or an amino-terminal truncated protein which lacks the SCL transactivation domain, demonstrating that the amino-terminal portion of SCL is not important for leukemogenesis. Lastly, we show that the T-ALL which develop in the SCL LMO1 mice are strikingly similar to those which develop in E2A null mice, supporting the hypothesis that SCL exerts its oncogenic action through a functional inactivation of E proteins.