Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Coping with sleep deprivation: shifts in regional brain activity and learning strategy.

STUDY OBJECTIVES dissociable cognitive strategies are used for place navigation. Spatial strategies rely on the hippocampus, an area important for flexible integration of novel information. Response strategies are more rigid and involve the dorsal striatum. These memory systems can compensate for each other in case of temporal or permanent damage. Sleep deprivation has adverse effects on hippocampal function. However, whether the striatal memory system can compensate for sleep-deprivation-induced hippocampal impairments is unknown. DESIGN with a symmetrical maze paradigm for mice, we examined the effect of sleep deprivation on learning the location of a food reward (training) and on learning that a previously nonrewarded arm was now rewarded (reversal training). MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS five hours of sleep deprivation after each daily training session did not affect performance during training. However, in contrast with controls, sleep-deprived mice avoided a hippocampus-dependent spatial strategy and preferentially used a striatum-dependent response strategy. In line with this, the training-induced increase in phosphorylation of the transcription factor cAMP response-element binding protein (CREB) shifted from hippocampus to dorsal striatum. Importantly, although sleep-deprived mice performed well during training, performance during reversal training was attenuated, most likely due to rigidity of the striatal system they used. CONCLUSIONS together, these findings suggest that the brain compensates for negative effects of sleep deprivation on the hippocampal memory system by promoting the use of a striatal memory system. However, effects of sleep deprivation can still appear later on because the alternative learning mechanisms and brain regions involved may result in reduced flexibility under conditions requiring adaptation of previously formed memories.
Parental bonding and eating psychopathology in bulimia nervosa: personality traits as possible mediators

SUMMARY Aims – The relationship between eating disorders, attachment, personality traits and eating psychopathology remains unexplored. This study tested the mediating role of temperament and character between parental bonding and psy-chopathology in bulimic women. Methods – 154 bulimic subjects and 154 healthy controls were compared using Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI), Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI), Eating Disorder Inventory-2 (EDI-2), and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Multiple regression analysis tested the mediation of personality traits between parenting and eating psy-chopathology. Results – Bulimic subjects displayed low maternal and paternal care and low self-directedness, and high novelty seeking and eating psychopathology. Maternal care was negatively related to social insecurity, inadequacy and impulsiveness. Paternal care predicted novelty seeking, self-directedness, interoceptive awareness, impulsiveness, and asceticism. The mediation effect of self-directedness between paternal care and psychopathology was significant, not the one of novelty seeking. Conclusions – Parental care is lower in bulimic than in control women even when controlled for possible confounding variables. Some eating psychopathology traits are related to maternal and paternal care, but not the bulimia subscale. Paternal care is also related to temperament and character traits which are related to eating psychopathology. Self-directedness mediates with different degrees between parenting and eating psychopathology. Clinical implications are discussed. Declaration of Interest: The first author received financing from Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation for the research on eating disorders (3989 IT/FA 2005.1797). The National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA) awarded a Charron Family Grant to the second author to sustain research about the families of subjects affected by eating disorders. The third author received a grant from “Regione Piemonte” for research on Eating Disorders for the years 2008 and 2009. The authors have not received any other financing for the present research, including pharmaceutical company support or any honoraria for consultancies for interventions during the last two years. The authors are not involved in any conflict of interest in connection to the submitted article.
Big Auditors, Private Firms and Accounting Conservatism: Spanish Evidence

This paper analyses the relationship between Big Auditors and the conditional and unconditional forms of conservatism. Drawing on a sample of Spanish firms, the current study suggests that despite small incentives for maintaining independence, Big Auditors promote conditional conservatism, thereby increasing the contracting efficiency of their clients' accounting information. The results also indicate, however, that for high levels of litigation and reputation risk, Big Auditors tend to promote unconditional conservatism, which can reduce the quality of financial reports. On this basis, I conclude that in the absence of essential litigation and reputation risk, Big Auditors typically provide higher quality audits than non-Big Auditors do. This differentiation may become subtler with litigation and reputation risk, however, because Big Auditors become overly conservative.
EFFECTS OF FLUORIDE AND ASCORBIC ACID ON COLLAGEN BIOSYNTHESIS IN MOUSE LIVER FIBROBLAST CULTURES

——————————————— For Correspondence: Maria Wardas PhD, Department of Food and Nutrition, Silesian Academy of Medicine, 4 Jagiellonska Street, 41-200 Sosnowiec, Poland; E-mail: chemogan@slam.katowice. pl The Institute of Experimental and Clinical Biochemistry, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Silesian Academy of Medicine; Department of General and Analytical Chemistry, Silesian Academy of Medicine. EFFECTS OF FLUORIDE AND ASCORBIC ACID ON COLLAGEN BIOSYNTHESIS IN MOUSE LIVER FIBROBLAST CULTURES
Microbiological and Epidemiological Features of Clinical Respiratory Isolates of Burkholderia gladioli

ABSTRACT Burkholderia gladioli, primarily known as a plant pathogen, is involved in human infections, especially in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). In the present study, the first respiratory isolates recovered from 14 French patients with CF and 4 French patients without CF, identified by 16S rRNA gene analysis, were tested for growth on B. cepacia selective media, for identification by commercial systems, and for their antimicrobial susceptibilities, and were compared by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Patients' data were collected. All 18 isolates grew on oxidation-fermentation-polymyxin B-bacitracin-lactose medium and Pseudomonas cepacia agar, but only 13 grew on Burkholderia cepacia selective agar. API 20NE strips did not differentiate B. gladioli from B. cepacia, whereas Vitek 2 GN cards correctly identified 15 isolates. All isolates were susceptible to piperacillin, imipenem, aminoglycosides, and ciprofloxacin and were far less resistant to ticarcillin than B. cepacia complex organisms. Fifteen PFGE types were observed among the 18 isolates, but shared types were not identified among epidemiologically related patients. The microbiological follow-up of CF patients showed that colonization was persistent in 3 of 13 documented cases; B. gladioli was isolated from posttransplantation cultures of blood from 1 patient. Among the patients without CF, B. gladioli was associated with intubation (three cases) or bronchiectasis (one case). In summary, the inclusion of B. gladioli in the databases of commercial identification systems should improve the diagnostic capabilities of those systems. In CF patients, this organism is more frequently involved in transient infections than in chronic infections, but it may be responsible for complications posttransplantation; patient-to-patient transmission has not been demonstrated to date. Lastly, B. gladioli appears to be naturally susceptible to aminoglycosides and ciprofloxacin, although resistant isolates may emerge in the course of chronic infections.
The relationship of family size and composition to fertility desires, contraceptive adoption and method choice in South Asia.

CONTEXT Many countries in South Asia, including Nepal, India and Bangladesh, demonstrate a strong cultural preference for sons, which may influence fertility desires and contraceptive use. METHODS Demographic and Health Survey data from married, nonpregnant women aged 15-49 who had at least one child were used to examine the relationship of parity and number of sons to reproductive outcomes in Nepal, India and Bangladesh. Outcomes of interest were desire for another child, contraceptive use and type of contraceptive (modern vs. traditional, temporary vs. permanent). Odds ratios and relative risk ratios were calculated using binary and multinomial logistic regression. RESULTS In general, desire for another child decreased and contraceptive use increased as the number of children and number of sons increased. These associations were more prominent in Nepal and India than in Bangladesh. For example, compared with women who had three daughters and no sons, the odds of contraceptive use among women with two sons and one daughter were 4.8 in Nepal, 3.5 in India and 2.0 in Bangladesh. Within India, the associations of parity and number of sons with reproductive outcomes were generally stronger in northern states than in South India or West Bengal. CONCLUSIONS Son preference remains widespread in all three countries and has a major influence on reproductive behavior. Reducing such preference would require a change in social norms and attitudes of the people and an improvement of the status of women.
Legitimacy Signals and Family IPO Performances

The objective of this research is to examine the relationship between signals including governance and management practices and the performance of family firms IPOs. Using IPO data of 129 family firms and 129 comparable non-family firms from the Taiwan Stock Exchange, our findings highlighted the role of non-family insiders, or non-family affiliated directors in the IPOs of family firms. Our comparison between family and non-family IPOs shows hiring prestigious underwriters significantly improves the performance of family firm IPOs. Finally, we found the industries of IPO firms moderate the relationship between corporate governance characteristics and IPO performances, as non-family firms in technology industries are perceived to be more legitimate than their family counterparts. This paper makes three contributions to existing research. Firstly, we contribute to the legitimacy theory by suggesting an interaction effect between internal (organizational) and external (environmental) factors. Secondly, our analysis highlighted the roles of affiliated directors and industry in the performances of public family firms. Thirdly, this study contributes to the family business research by underscoring the differences between family and non-family firms in the IPO context.
Market Value and Patent Citations: A First Look

As patent data become more available in machine-readable form, an increasing number of researchers have begun to use measures based on patents and their citations as indicators of technological output and information flow. This paper explores the economic meaning of these citation-based patent measures using the financial market valuation of the firms that own the patents. Using a new and comprehensive dataset containing over 4800 U. S. Manufacturing firms and their patenting activity for the past 30 years, we explore the contributions of R&D spending, patents, and citation-weighted patents to measures of Tobin's Q for the firms. We find that citation-weighted patent stocks are more highly correlated with market value than patent stocks themselves and that this fact is due mainly to the high valuation placed on firms that hold very highly cited patents. We also find that self-citations are worth about twice as much as ordinary citations, especially to smaller firms.
Changing Labour Force Participation and Occupational Status: Arab Women in the Israeli Labour Force

The second half of the twentieth century has seen a dramatic increase in female labour force participation in both developing and industrialised societies. Consequently, a growing number of social scientists have turned attention to changes in the occupational distributions and status of economically active women (Cho and Koo 1983; Boserup 1970; Presser and Kishor 1991). In the present paper we aim to contribute to the growing literature on this topic by studying changes over time in the relative occupational status of Arab women in Israel.
Suggestibility and state anxiety: How the two concepts relate in a source identification paradigm

Source identification tests provide a stringent method for testing the suggestibility of memory because they reduce response bias and experimental demand characteristics. Using the techniques and materials of Maria Zaragoza and her colleagues, we investigated how state anxiety affects the ability of undergraduates to identify correctly the source of misleading post-event information. The results showed that individuals high in state anxiety were less likely to make source misattributions of misleading information, indicating lower levels of suggestibility. This effect was strengthened when forgotten or non-recognised misleading items (for which a source identification task is not possible) were excluded from the analysis. Confidence in the correct attribution of misleading post-event information to its source was significantly less than confidence in source misattributions. Participants who were high in state anxiety tended to be less confident than those lower in state anxiety when they correctly identified the source of both misleading post-event information and non-misled items. The implications of these findings are discussed, drawing on the literature on anxiety and cognition as well as suggestibility.
Outside Directors on Korean Boards: Governance and Institutions

Drawing on institutional theory, this study examines the factors that pressured Korean firms to appoint outside directors to their boards. While this practice could be considered to be a management innovation in Korea, in the Anglo-American corporate governance system it has long been used as one of several mechanisms to mitigate agency costs between management and shareholders. As such, this response by Korean firms, following the 1997–98 currency crisis in Asia, could be seen as an example of corporate governance convergence on the Anglo-American model, where higher levels of outside director representation on the board are the norm. We examine the antecedents of having a higher proportion of outside directors on Korean boards. Our findings indicate that larger firms that are under stricter control by the government have higher representation of outside directors on the board. We also find a positive and significant relationship between the proportion of outside directors and business group affiliation, poor prior firm performance, higher levels of debt and foreign ownership.
Elliptic Curve Cryptography on Heterogeneous Multicore Platform

Elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) is becoming the algorithm of choice for digital signature generation and authentication in embedded context. However, performance of ECC and the underlying modular arithmetic on embedded processors remains a concern. At the same time, more complex system-on-chip platforms with multiple heterogeneous cores are commonly available in mobile phones and other embedded devices. In this work we investigate the design space for ECC on TI's OMAP 3530 platform, with a focus of utilizing the on-chip DSP core to improve the performance and efficiency of ECC point multiplication on the target platform. We examine multiple aspects of ECC and heterogeneous design such as algorithm-level choices for elliptic curve operations and the effect of interprocessor communication overhead on the design partitioning. We observe how the limitations of the platform constrict the design space of ECC. However, by closely studying the platform and efficiently partitioning the design between the general purpose ARM core and the DSP, we demonstrate a significant speed-up of the resulting ECC implementation. Our system focused approach allows us to accurately measure the performance and power profiles of the resulting implementation. We conclude that heterogeneous multiprocessor design can significantly improve the performance and power consumption of ECC operations, but that the integration cost and the overhead of interprocessor communication cannot be ignored in any actual system.
The Role of Defaults in Preventing Innovation Rejection

Innovation rejection remains a serious problem for companies introducing new products, as customers may overvalue products they already own and underestimate the innovation's advantage. Choice data from two experiments demonstrate that innovation rejection is determined by (dis)satisfaction with the status quo and that defaults are powerful instruments to overcome the status quo effect in innovation decision making. Innovation rejection decreases significantly if the innovation is implemented as a default, an option customers select unless they actively opt out. Furthermore, it is observed that implementing the innovation as the default significantly increases the perceived value and decreases the perceived risk of the innovation. Taking into account customer expertise, the authors detect that defaults are more effective in reducing innovation rejection for novices. The study derives managerial implications for new product launch management that aims at preventing innovation rejection.
Diagnosing and prognosticating the quality movement – a review on the 25 years quality literature (1987–2011)

The purpose of this article is to create a snapshot of 25 years’ quality movement. The creation process of the snapshot, as well as the result of the study, aims to help in diagnosing the current status of quality management (QM) and further contribute in understanding and shaping its future direction. For this purpose, all published articles during the last 25 years’ period (1987–2011) under the subject of Total Quality Management (TQM), Business Excellence (BE), quality tools, techniques as well as core values/principles have been collected through the ABI/INFORM complete periodical database. The collected data were analysed and reflected in order to show the current status, evolution trends of the past, and the predicted future directions. The results show that the total number of articles under the subject of TQM has been decreasing after having reached its peak in 1995. However, papers focusing on techniques and tools within the QM framework in terms of Lean, Just-in-Time/Toyota Production System, Benchmarking, and Six-Sigma Quality have been increasing. In addition, papers focusing on core values/key principles needed to build a quality culture in terms of leadership, people-based management, continuous improvements, management based on facts, and focus on the customer have been slightly increasing during the last decade. The findings indicate that QM is now at a more mature stage where focuses have shifted from being initially on TQM to tools, techniques, and core values which are needed for building a quality and BE culture. Based on its evolution, it is concluded that TQM can be understood as a management innovation, if not a management revolution.
Coalition Government Membership in West European Parliamentary Democracies

The results of a quantitative investigation into the factors affecting coalition government membership in West European parliamentary democracies are reported in this article. Using a new data set covering the post-war era to 1990, separate logistic regression analyses are performed to determine what influences the odds of becoming the government ‘formateur’ and the odds of becoming a coalition partner. In addition, Laver and Shepsle's portfolio allocation theory is subjected to testing. Among the independent variables considered are a party's size, its previous experience in government, its willingness to trade off policy for office, and its ideological position in the parliamentary party system. The findings point to the important roles played by the formateur's preferences and by the need to build workable coalitions, given party-system constraints. They also suggest several criteria that ought to, but often do not, guide formal theory-building.
Industry herding and market states: evidence from Chinese stock markets

This paper uses firm-level data to examine whether investors follow each other into and out of the same industries in China’s A-share markets. Our study is a significant addition to the literature that investigates herding behaviour in an industry context with asymmetric herding effects with respect to different market states, different stock exchanges, and the role of the information technology sector. Using recent daily data from 17 May 2001 through 16 May 2011, we demonstrate strong evidence of industry herding in the A-share markets. Evidence further supports that stock return dispersions from the information technology sector play a significant role in explaining the other sectors’ herding activity. After examining bull and bear markets, herding is more profound in some sectors during a bull market. Finally, industry herding is more prevalent in the Shenzhen stock exchange, while for some sectors in the Shanghai stock exchange herding is more prevalent during a bull market state.
How Effective is Internal Control Reporting Under SOX 404? Determinants of the (Non-)Disclosure of Existing Material Weaknesses

We study determinants of internal control reporting decisions during the SOX 404 era using a sample of restating firms whose original misstatements are linked to underlying control weaknesses. We find that only a minority of these firms acknowledge their existing control weaknesses during their misstatement periods, and that this proportion has declined over time. Further, the probability of reporting existing weaknesses is negatively associated with external capital needs, firm size, non-audit fees, and the presence of a large audit firm; it is positively associated with financial distress, auditor effort, previously reported control weaknesses and restatements, and recent auditor and management changes. These results provide evidence that detection and disclosure incentives play a role in whether existing material weaknesses are reported, which has implications for the effectiveness of SOX 404 in providing investors with advance warning of potential accounting problems.
Overwhelming cryptococcal infection detected by bone marrow examination

A 37-year-old homosexual man was admitted to an accident and emergency department in extremis. He had a cardiac arrest and died shortly afterwards. A history from his flatmate was of non-specific malaise with episodic confusion and disorientation for about a month. He was not known to be HIV-antibody positive. Bone marrow aspirate and trephine specimens taken post mortem showed numerous organisms of Cryptococcus neoformans with no granulomatous response. The aspirate has been stained with Grocott’s methenamine silver stain (left) and the trephine specimen with haematoxylin and eosin (right). Blood cultures taken just before death grew Cryptococcus neoformans and an HIV antibody test was positive.