Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Anthrax Lethal Toxin Impairs IL-8 Expression in Epithelial Cells through Inhibition of Histone H3 Modification

Lethal toxin (LT) is a critical virulence factor of Bacillus anthracis, the etiological agent of anthrax, whose pulmonary form is fatal in the absence of treatment. Inflammatory response is a key process of host defense against invading pathogens. We report here that intranasal instillation of a B. anthracis strain bearing inactive LT stimulates cytokine production and polymorphonuclear (PMN) neutrophils recruitment in lungs. These responses are repressed by a prior instillation of an LT preparation. In contrast, instillation of a B. anthracis strain expressing active LT represses lung inflammation. The inhibitory effects of LT on cytokine production are also observed in vitro using mouse and human pulmonary epithelial cells. These effects are associated with an alteration of ERK and p38-MAPK phosphorylation, but not JNK phosphorylation. We demonstrate that although NF-κB is essential for IL-8 expression, LT downregulates this expression without interfering with NF-κB activation in epithelial cells. Histone modifications are known to induce chromatin remodelling, thereby enhancing NF-κB binding on promoters of a subset of genes involved in immune response. We show that LT selectively prevents histone H3 phosphorylation at Ser 10 and recruitment of the p65 subunit of NF-κB at the IL-8 and KC promoters. Our results suggest that B. anthracis represses the immune response, in part by altering chromatin accessibility of IL-8 promoter to NF-κB in epithelial cells. This epigenetic reprogramming, in addition to previously reported effects of LT, may represent an efficient strategy used by B. anthracis for invading the host.
Integral Model of a Multiphase Plume in Quiescent Stratification

The writers present a one-dimensional integral model to describe multiphase plumes discharged to quiescent stratified receiv- ing waters. The model includes an empirical submodel for detrainment, and the capability to include dispersed phase dissolution. Model equations are formulated by conservation of mass, momentum, heat, dissolved species concentration, and salinity, and allow the tracking of dissolved material and changes in plume density due to solute density effects. The detrainment or peeling flux, Ep, is assumed to be a function of the dispersed phase slip velocity, ub, the integrated plume buoyancy, Bi, and the momentum of the entrained plume fluid, characterized by the fluid velocity, ui, given by the general relationship Ep=ub/ui 2 Bi/ui . The parameter is calibrated to laboratory experimental data. Because Ep is based on a force balance, this algorithm allows numerical models to reproduce a wide range of characteristic plume behavior. Such a predictive algorithm is important for applying models to field scale plumes, especially where chemical processes within the plume may alter plume buoyancy and hence peeling behavior, as in the case of a CO2 droplet plume used for ocean sequestration of CO2.
Charles A . Dice Center for Research in Financial Economics Globalization , Country Governance , and Corporate Investment Decisions : An Analysis of Cross-Border Acquisitions

Using a sample of control cross-border acquisitions from 56 countries from 1990 to 2007, we find that acquirers from better governed countries gain more from such acquisitions and their gains are higher when targets are from worse governed countries. Other acquirer country characteristics, including the indices for laws protecting investors the earlier literature focuses on, are not consistently related to acquisition gains. However, globalization leaves a strong mark on acquisition returns. Acquisition returns are affected by global factors at least as much as they are by acquirer country factors. First, across all acquisitions, the acquirer’s industry and the year of the acquisition explain more of the stock-price reaction than the country of the acquirer. Second, for acquisitions of private firms or subsidiaries, acquirers gain more when acquisition returns are high for acquirers from other countries. A country’s governance and global mergers and acquisitions activity are important predictors of mergers and acquisitions activity in that country. Finally, we find strong evidence that at the firm-level better alignment of interests between insiders and minority shareholders is associated with greater acquirer returns and weaker evidence that this effect mitigates the adverse impact of poor country governance for the bidder. JEL Classification: G31; G32; G34
Benefits and Costs of International Financial Integration: Theory and Facts

The author provides a selective review of the recent analytical and empirical literature on the benefits and costs of international financial integration. He discusses the impact of financial openness on consumption, investment, and growth, and the impact of foreign bank entry on the domestic financial system. Consistent with some recent studies, the author argues that financial integration must be carefully prepared and managed to ensure that the benefits outweigh the short-run risks. Prudent macroeconomic management, adequate supervision and prudential regulation of the financial system, greater transparency, and improved capacity to manage risk in the private sector are important requirements for coping with potentially abrupt reversals in pro-cyclical, short-term capital flows. The author adopts a more skeptical view than some assessments in two areas, however. First, only foreign direct investment appears to provide dynamic gains and improved prospects for growth; the evidence on the benefits of other types of capital flows remains weak. Second, empirical research on the net benefits associated with foreign bank penetration is far from conclusive; in particular, the possibility that such penetration may lead to adverse changes in the allocation of credit among domestic firms cannot be dismissed on the basis of the existing evidence.
Microlensing optical depth as a function of source apparent magnitude

Measurements of the microlensing optical depth τ towards the Galactic bulge appear to depend on the method used to obtain them. Those values based on the lensing of red clump giants (RCGs) appear to be significantly lower than those based on the lensing of all stars along the line of sight. This discrepancy is still not understood. Through Monte Carlo simulations, it is found that the discrepancy cannot be explained by a dependence on the flux limits of the two methods. The optical depth is expected to be generally constant as a function of source apparent magnitude for I 0 ≥ 13.0, except in the range 13.5 ≤I 0 ≤ 15.5. Here many RCGs are detected, causing a significant oscillation in r. The amplitude of this oscillation is a function of the inclination angle of the Galactic bar, θ bar , which may thus be constrained. A further constraint comes from a similar dependence of τ with θ bar : combining the predicted trends with the measured values provides 1 σ upper limits, which exclude the large bar angles recently reported by the GLIMPSE and EROS surveys. The latest survey data from EROS-2 appear to show the predicted τ oscillation, though currently at a low significance. However, a further sign comes from EROS-2 event counts, which show a clear skew towards fainter magnitudes.
The Suburban Stream Syndrome: Evaluating Land Use and Stream Impairments in the Suburbs

Development is known to impair stream water quality at moderate to high levels of urbanization, but the effects of low-density urban expansion, the kind occurring on the outskirts of many cities, remain unclear. We examined five suburban headwater streams in Duchess County, New York whose watersheds contained between 4.7% and 34% impervious surface cover. We measured Cl- and nitrate-N (NO3-N) concentrations in water samples taken at four to six sites on each stream in winter and summer. Even at low levels of population and impervious cover, concentrations of both Cl- and NO3-N exceeded reference levels found in cleaner streams in the region. Chloride levels were elevated in upper reaches and remained elevated or continued to increase downstream, with a linear response to impervious cover. Nitrate-N increased downstream in all watersheds, indicating that NO3-N inputs exceeded natural denitrification and uptake in both winter and summer. Nitrate-N responded logarithmically to impervious surface cover, with steep increases at low levels of imperviousness. Per-capita inputs were also high in rural areas. Agricultural inputs were not sufficient to explain observed trends in NO3-N; we interpret inputs to result chiefly from low-density exurban expansion. Widespread residential expansion has significant impacts on water quality that have not previously been acknowledged.
A Model for Context in the Design of Open Production Communities

Open production communities (OPCs) provide technical features and social norms for a vast but dispersed and diverse crowd to collectively accumulate content. In OPCs, certain mechanisms, policies, and technologies are provided for voluntary users to participate in community-related activities including content generation, evaluation, qualification, and distribution and in some cases even community governance. Due to the known complexities and dynamism of online communities, designing a successful community is deemed more an art than a science. Numerous studies have investigated different aspects of certain types of OPCs. Most of these studies, however, fall short of delivering a general view or prescription due to their narrow focus on a certain type of OPCs. In contribution to theories on technology-mediated social participation (TMSP), this study synthesizes the streams of research in the particular area of OPCs and delivers a theoretical framework as a baseline for adapting findings from one specific type of community on another. This framework consists of four primary dimensions, namely, platform features, content, user, and community. The corresponding attributes of these dimensions and the existing interdependencies are discussed in detail. Furthermore, a decision diagram for selecting features and a design guideline for “decontextualizing” findings are introduced as possible applications of the framework. The framework also provides a new and reliable foundation on which future research can extend its findings and prescriptions in a systematic way.
The Economics of Peer-to-Peer Networks

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks have emerged as a significant social phenomenon for the distribution of information goods and may become an important alternative to traditional client-server network architectures for knowledge sharing within enterprises. This paper reviews and synthesizes the relevant computer science and economics literatures as they relate to P2P networks, and raises important questions for researchers interested in studying the behavior of these networks from the perspective of the economics of information technology.
Red Cell Distribution Width Is Associated With Incident Myocardial Infarction in a General Population: The Tromsø Study

Background Red cell distribution width (RDW), a measure of the variability in size of circulating erythrocytes, is associated with mortality and adverse outcome in selected populations with cardiovascular disease. It is scarcely known whether RDW is associated with incident myocardial infarction (MI). We aimed to investigate whether RDW was associated with risk of first‐ever MI in a large cohort study with participants recruited from a general population. Methods and Results Baseline characteristics, including RDW, were collected for 25 612 participants in the Tromsø Study in 1994–1995. Incident MI during follow‐up was registered from inclusion through December 31, 2010. Cox regression models were used to calculate hazard ratios with 95% confidence intervals for MI, adjusted for age, sex, body mass index, smoking, hemoglobin, white blood cells, platelets, and other traditional cardiovascular risk factors. A total of 1779 participants experienced a first‐ever MI during a median follow‐up time of 15.8 years. There was a linear association between RDW and risk of MI, for which a 1% increment in RDW was associated with a 13% increased risk (hazard ratio 1.13; 95% CI, 1.07 to 1.19). Participants with RDW above the 95th percentile had 71% higher risk of MI compared with those with RDW in the lowest quintile (hazard ratio 1.71; 95% CI, 1.34 to 2.20). All effect estimates were essentially similar after exclusion of participants with anemia (n=1297) from the analyses. Conclusion RDW is associated with incident MI in a general population independent of anemia and cardiovascular risk factors.
Entrepreneurial Attitudes, Self-Efficacy, and subjective Norms Amongst Female Emirati entrepreneurs

The antecedents of entrepreneurial intentions help us better understand, explain and predict entrepreneurial activity. The purpose of this paper is an exploratory study of the entrepreneurial self-efficacy, subjective norms and attitudes of female Emirati entrepreneurs. The theory of planned behaviour is the main theoretical framework utilized in this exploratory study that hypothesizes that entrepreneurial self-efficacy, subjective norms, and attitudes positively affect entrepreneurial intentions that in turn lead to entrepreneurial activity. We test our hypothesis amongst female Emirati business undergraduate students from a Higher Education Institute in the UAE who are currently engaging in entrepreneurial activity. The main finding is that attitudes have the strongest and positive effect on entrepreneurial intentions. Selfefficacy and subjective norms are not found to significantly contribute to entrepreneurial intentions. Our research contributes to the study of entrepreneurship as it uses the theory of planned behaviour in the context of the UAE amongst active entrepreneurs. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.
Cdmtcs Research Report Series Imprecise Reasoning about Geographic Information

This report summarizes preliminary work on a framework for imprecise reasoning about spatial information, in particular spatial information in geographic information systems. It is based on papers previously published by Jonathan Histed, Ute L orch, David Poon, and the author. Geographic information systems have gained an increasing interest over the recent years. However, their abilities are restricted in that they usually reason about precise quantitative information only, which means that they fail whenever exact matches cannot be found. They do not allow for any form of reasoning with imprecision. In this report, we describe a way of incorporating imprecise qualitative spatial reasoning with quantitative reasoning in geographic information systems. In particular, we show how tessellation data models can be extended to allow for qualitative spatial reasoning. The idea is to associate qualitative information with fuzzy sets whose membership grades are computed by applying the concept of proximity. In addition, we will show how images like geographic maps or satellite images can be analyzed by computing the distances between given reference colors and the colors that occur in the image, and how the results of this analysis can be used in the fuzzy spatial reasoner.
Effects of Feedstock and Pyrolysis Temperature on Biochar Adsorption of Ammonium and Nitrate

Biochar produced by pyrolysis of biomass can be used to counter nitrogen (N) pollution. The present study investigated the effects of feedstock and temperature on characteristics of biochars and their adsorption ability for ammonium N (NH4 +-N) and nitrate N (NO3 −-N). Twelve biochars were produced from wheat-straw (W-BC), corn-straw (C-BC) and peanut-shell (P-BC) at pyrolysis temperatures of 400, 500, 600 and 700°C. Biochar physical and chemical properties were determined and the biochars were used for N sorption experiments. The results showed that biochar yield and contents of N, hydrogen and oxygen decreased as pyrolysis temperature increased from 400°C to 700°C, whereas contents of ash, pH and carbon increased with greater pyrolysis temperature. All biochars could sorb substantial amounts of NH4 +-N, and the sorption characteristics were well fitted to the Freundlich isotherm model. The ability of biochars to adsorb NH4 +-N followed: C-BC>P-BC>W-BC, and the adsorption amount decreased with higher pyrolysis temperature. The ability of C-BC to sorb NH4 +-N was the highest because it had the largest cation exchange capacity (CEC) among all biochars (e.g., C-BC400 with a CEC of 38.3 cmol kg−1 adsorbed 2.3 mg NH4 +-N g−1 in solutions with 50 mg NH4 + L−1). Compared with NH4 +-N, none of NO3 −-N was adsorbed to biochars at different NO3 − concentrations. Instead, some NO3 −-N was even released from the biochar materials. We conclude that biochars can be used under conditions where NH4 +-N (or NH3) pollution is a concern, but further research is needed in terms of applying biochars to reduce NO3 −-N pollution.
Professional Development Needs and Experiences of Secondary Principals in Southwestern Pennsylvania

This study examined the professional development needs and experiences of secondary principals in southwestern Pennsylvania. Professional development for principals has become critical as school leaders have been challenged by the need to create a school culture that helps prepare students for a global society and concurrently meets the requirements of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) (2001). School leaders need to experience relevant, sustained, job-embedded, instructionally focused professional development in order to successfully lead their schools and students into the 21st century. The purpose of this study was to determine the professional development needs of secondary principals, what their preferred delivery method was for this professional development, what types of professional development initiatives they have participated in throughout the region, and if these all align and support one another. A questionnaire based on the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) standards, the Balanced Leadership Study responsibilities (Waters, et al., 2003), and the Pennsylvania administrative standards was designed and used to investigate the secondary principals' perspectives in relation to these needs and preferences for learning. Based on the findings of this study, the top five professional development needs of secondary principals in the southwestern Pennsylvania region include analyzing data, communicating effectively, using research and "best practices", building team commitment, developing information and data collection strategies. Coaching was the overall preferred delivery method for professional development for the secondary principals surveyed, followed by the method of mentoring. Many of the initiatives across the region were viewed as providing effective professional development in areas of need identified in the survey. Additionally, many principals recognized the importance of having professional development experiences that allow for professional reflection and collaboration with other administrators, as well as those that were focused on best instructional practices to improve student achievement. The findings of this study can be used to help providers of professional development design learning experiences for principals that address their stated needs through their preferred delivery method. It also offers Pennsylvania's Department of Education a secondary principal's perspective on some of the initiatives across the region. In light of current legislation that addresses principal professional development, the findings may offer some insight into how these initiatives can help support the current Pennsylvania Inspired Leadership (PIL) legislation.
The shared circuits model (SCM): how control, mirroring, and simulation can enable imitation, deliberation, and mindreading.

Imitation, deliberation, and mindreading are characteristically human sociocognitive skills. Research on imitation and its role in social cognition is flourishing across various disciplines. Imitation is surveyed in this target article under headings of behavior, subpersonal mechanisms, and functions of imitation. A model is then advanced within which many of the developments surveyed can be located and explained. The shared circuits model (SCM) explains how imitation, deliberation, and mindreading can be enabled by subpersonal mechanisms of control, mirroring, and simulation. It is cast at a middle, functional level of description, that is, between the level of neural implementation and the level of conscious perceptions and intentional actions. The SCM connects shared informational dynamics for perception and action with shared informational dynamics for self and other, while also showing how the action/perception, self/other, and actual/possible distinctions can be overlaid on these shared informational dynamics. It avoids the common conception of perception and action as separate and peripheral to central cognition. Rather, it contributes to the situated cognition movement by showing how mechanisms for perceiving action can be built on those for active perception. ;>;>The SCM is developed heuristically, in five layers that can be combined in various ways to frame specific ontogenetic or phylogenetic hypotheses. The starting point is dynamic online motor control, whereby an organism is closely attuned to its embedding environment through sensorimotor feedback. Onto this are layered functions of prediction and simulation of feedback, mirroring, simulation of mirroring, monitored inhibition of motor output, and monitored simulation of input. Finally, monitored simulation of input specifying possible actions plus inhibited mirroring of such possible actions can generate information about the possible as opposed to actual instrumental actions of others, and the possible causes and effects of such possible actions, thereby enabling strategic social deliberation. Multiple instances of such shared circuits structures could be linked into a network permitting decomposition and recombination of elements, enabling flexible control, imitative learning, understanding of other agents, and instrumental and strategic deliberation. While more advanced forms of social cognition, which require tracking multiple others and their multiple possible actions, may depend on interpretative theorizing or language, the SCM shows how layered mechanisms of control, mirroring, and simulation can enable distinctively human cognitive capacities for imitation, deliberation, and mindreading.
Developing Economic Indexes for the Quebec Hog/Pork Industry

"The Quebec hog/pork industry has grown significantly over the last 25 years. Explanations of this growth in the literature have centered on government policies, expansion of profitable market opportunities, and reforms in marketing institutions. A coincident index model that trends with total hog slaughters in Quebec is estimated using a dynamic factor model. It implicitly defines a variable that measures the overall state of economic activity in the Quebec hog/pork industry. The results show that reforms in hog marketing institutions are strongly correlated with the economic expansion of the industry. A leading economic index also forecasts the growth of the coincident index using leading variables. The overall statistical performance of the leading coincident index is disappointing, but the growth in American inventories of frozen pork meat is shown to have useful predictive value. " Copyright 2005 Canadian Agricultural Economics Society.