Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Role of Ca2+ in Insulin-stimulated Glucose Transport in 3T3-L1 Cells*

We have examined the requirement for Ca2+ in the signaling and trafficking pathways involved in insulin-stimulated glucose uptake in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. Chelation of intracellular Ca2+, using 1,2-bis (o-aminophenoxy)ethane-N,N,N′,N′-tetraacetic acid tetra (acetoxy- methyl) ester (BAPTA-AM), resulted in >95% inhibition of insulin-stimulated glucose uptake. The calmodulin antagonist, W13, inhibited insulin-stimulated glucose uptake by 60%. Both BAPTA-AM and W13 inhibited Akt phosphorylation by 70–75%. However, analysis of insulin-dose response curves indicated that this inhibition was not sufficient to explain the effects of BAPTA-AM and W13 on glucose uptake. BAPTA-AM inhibited insulin-stimulated translocation of GLUT4 by 50%, as determined by plasma membrane lawn assay and subcellular fractionation. In contrast, the insulin-stimulated appearance of HA-tagged GLUT4 at the cell surface, as measured by surface binding, was blocked by BAPTA-AM. While the ionophores A23187 or ionomycin prevented the inhibition of Akt phosphorylation and GLUT4 translocation by BAPTA-AM, they did not overcome the inhibition of glucose transport. Moreover, glucose uptake of cells pretreated with insulin followed by rapid cooling to 4 °C, to promote cell surface expression of GLUT4 and prevent subsequent endocytosis, was inhibited specifically by BAPTA-AM. This indicates that inhibition of glucose uptake by BAPTA-AM is independent of both trafficking and signal transduction. These data indicate that Ca2+ is involved in at least two different steps of the insulin-dependent recruitment of GLUT4 to the plasma membrane. One involves the translocation step. The second involves the fusion of GLUT4 vesicles with the plasma membrane. These data are consistent with the hypothesis that Ca2+/calmodulin plays a fundamental role in eukaryotic vesicle docking and fusion. Finally, BAPTA-AM may inhibit the activity of the facilitative transporters by binding directly to the transporter itself.
Prevalence of transmitted drug resistance among HIV-1 treatment-naive patients in Beijing

Abstract To optimise patients’ outcomes and gain insight into transmitted drug resistance (TDR) among human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1 treatment-naive patients in Beijing, the prevalence of TDR was assessed. Demographic and clinical data of 1241 treatment-naive patients diagnosed between April 2014 and February 2015 were collected. TDR was defined using the Stanford University HIV drug resistance mutations database. The risk factors were evaluated by multi-logistic regression analysis. Among 932 successfully amplified cases, most were male (96.78%) and infected through men having sex with men (91.74%). Genotype were CRF01_AE (56.44%), B (20.60%), CRF07_BC (19.96%), C (1.61%) and other genotypes (1.39%). The overall prevalence of TDR was 6.12%. Most frequent mutations occurred in non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) (3.11%), followed by protease inhibitors (PIs) (2.25%) and nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) (1.32%). Furthermore, HIV-1 genotype was associated with high risk of resistance, in which genotype C and other genotype may have higher risk for resistance. The prevalence among treatment-naive patients in Beijing was low. Resistance to NNRTIs was higher than with PIs or NRTIs. Continuous monitoring of regional levels of HIV-1 TDRs would contribute to improve treatment outcomes and prevent failures.
Option Value to Waiting Created by a Control Problem

type="main" xml:lang="en"> We study a principal-agent model in which there is an option to defer a capital project approval decision. A control (incentive) problem makes the option to wait valuable when it would not have been valuable otherwise. Deferring the project approval decision has both a cost and a benefit. The cost of waiting is that the agent’s uncertainty regarding future project cost realizations cannot be exploited. However, by delaying the first project’s approval decision, the principal can condition its approval on the agent’s cost report of the second project. Such conditioning can be valuable in the provision of incentives because of a diversification effect.
State Education as High-Yield Investment: Human Capital Theory in European Policy Discourse

State Education as High-Yield Investment: Human Capital Theory in European Policy Discourse Human Capital Theory has been an increasingly important phenomenon in economic thought over the last 50 years. The central role it affords to education has become even more marked in recent years as the concept of the ‘knowledge economy’ has become a global concern. In this paper, the prevalence of Human Capital Theory within European educational policy discourse is explored. The paper examines a selection of policy documents from a number of disparate European national contexts and considers the extent to which the ideas of Human Capital Theory can be seen to be influential. In the second part of the paper, the implications of Human Capital Theory for education are considered, with a particular focus on the possible ramifications at a time of economic austerity. In problematizing Human Capital Theory, the paper argues that it risks offering a diminished view of the person, a diminished view of education, but that with its sole focus on economic goals leaves room for educationists and others to argue for the educational, social, and moral values it ignores, and for the conception of the good life and good society it fails to mention.
Trade Credit, Product Quality, and Intragroup Trade: Some European Evidence

Marc Deloof is Assistant Professor of Finance. Marc Jegers is Professor of Accounting and Finance. Both are at the Free University of Brussels (VUB). Long, Malitz, and Ravid (1993) proposed a model based on the idea that the major purpose of trade credit is to allow buyers to assess the quality of the firm's products before paying. In this paper, we apply a similar methodology not only using a sample of industrial firms, but also a sample of Belgian wholesale distribution firms. Furthermore, we develop and test two additional hypotheses, based on the observation that industrial and financial groupings play an important role in the Belgian economy. While our results partially confirm the four hypotheses of Long et al., we find evidence that a firm selling to a linked customer extends trade credit for reasons other than assessing product quality. We find that when a firm has a shortage of cash, investment in accounts receivable from linked firms is reduced. An excess of cash does not seem
A second gene for a secreted aspartate proteinase in Candida albicans

The gene (PRA11) encoding a secreted aspartate proteinase of Candida albicans has been cloned and sequenced. The nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequences of PRA11 are 77 and 73% identical, respectively, with the reported sequences of PRA10 also cloned from C. albicans. Southern analyses indicated that the genome of each strain examined (ATCC 10231 and ATCC 10261) contains PRA10 and PRA11. Northern (RNA) analyses showed that PRA11 was expressed at a much higher level than was PRA10 when secretion of the proteinase by strain ATCC 10261 was induced with albumin.
Before Prebendalism: A Positive Analysis of Core Infrastructure Investment in a Developing Fiscal Federalism

This paper provides a framework for making decisions on what type of infrastructure to build and where to build. The basic intuition is that by deriving the marginal physical products of installed infrastructure, we can prioritize infrastructure investment of the same type between regions, and of different types within a region. The methodology is to estimate a panel of regional production functions that allows the intercepts to capture individual differences (‘the fixed effects’) but uses interactive dummies to capture the effect of individual differences on marginal productivity. This framework could be a useful tool for the management of public capital in an economy subject to fiscal federalism, particularly where the interaction of interest-group struggle and the politics of center-state grants may involve difficult trade-offs. Ce document etablit un cadre de prise de decision concernant le type d’infrastructures a construire et l’endroit ou les construire. L’idee de base est qu’en determinant le produit materiel marginal des infrastructures installees, nous pouvons classer par ordre de priorites l’investissement dans les infrastructures de meme type entre regions et de types differents au sein d’une region. La methode consiste a definir un panel de fonctions de production regionale dont les coordonnees permettent de saisir les differences individuelles (“les effets fixes”), mais qui recourt a des variables muettes pour obtenir l’effet des differences individuelles sur la productivite marginale. Ce cadre pourrait se reveler utile pour la gestion des investissements publics dans une economie sujette au federalisme fiscal, en particulier lorsque l’interaction entre les revendications de groupes d’interets et la politique de subvention du gouvernement central risque de donner lieu a des arbitrages difficiles.
Arming as a Strategic Investment in a Cooperative Equilibrium

To develop a positive, economic theory of military spending, this analysis focuses on a game-theoretic, general equilibrium model of international conflict, in which consumption, peaceful investment, and military spending are endogenously determined. The analysis illustrates that when there is repeated interaction between nations, a game of threats and punishments generally will not support a disarmament outcome and that fluctuations in military spending can be an endogenous result of fluctuations in aggregate economic activity. Furthermore, the analysis shows how the relation between aggregate economic activity and military spending qualitatively depends on whether governments are acting opportunistically or cooperatively. Copyright 1990 by American Economic Association.
Factorial Structure and Validity of the Quantified Behavior Test Plus (Qb+©)

This study investigates the factorial structure and validity of the Quantified Behavior Test Plus (Qb+©), a computerized test to objectively evaluate the three attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder core symptoms, hyperactivity, inattention, and impulsivity, independently. Confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses were conducted with an outpatient sample of 773 subjects ≥12 years old. In a second sample of 297 patients ≥16 years, a multitrait–multimethod analysis was performed to examine concurrent and discriminant validity. The discriminative power of the Qb+ was investigated using a general linear model and logistic regression analysis. The three factorial structure (Hyperactivity, Inattention, Impulsivity) was verified in the confirmatory factor analysis. Fit indices demonstrated a good model fit and factor loadings were almost all moderate to high. In the multitrait–multimethod analysis, the criterion for convergent validity was fulfilled. The discriminant validity of the Qb+ was partially supported. Significant but small gender and age effects were found. In the logistic regression analysis, omission errors and reaction time variability, belonging to the Inattention factor, were able to discriminate between subjects with and without attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. The internal structure of the Qb+ was verified. Its validity was partially supported. Results regarding discriminative power were mixed.
Assisted Dying and End‐of‐Life Symptom Management

This qualitative study aimed to describe symptom management strategies oncology nurses have used in responding to and preventing requests of terminally ill patients with cancer for assisted dying (AD). The study involved secondary analysis of written stories from 36 nurses who agreed to describe their experiences with a request for assisted dying. Of the 36 nurses, 12 refused to support patient requests for AD and described their attempts to control the circumstances of dying by controlling symptoms. The remaining 24 nurses denied ever receiving requests for AD and described symptom management practices believed to prevent such requests. Data were analyzed using Denzin's process of interpretive interactionism. Two themes emerged from the participant's stories: alternative strategies for AD and prevention of requests for AD. The participants shared many examples of clinical interventions and other features of nursing responses to relieve or prevent suffering including physical, emotional, and spiritual care practices; comfort and medication management; and service as teacher-advocate. Both the nurses who had received requests for AD and those who had not used a variety of similar symptom management approaches to alleviate suffering. In doing so, these nurses upheld current standards of both their professional and specialty organizations.
Changes in Indirect Taxes in Australia: A Dynamic General Equilibrium Analysis

Over the last thirty years, the effects of indirect taxation changes have been analysed using comparative static general equilibrium models. We use a new method to analyse current changes in Australia’s indirect taxes: dynamic computable general equilibrium modelling. Comparative static methods compare the situation in a given year (usually unspecified) with and without a policy change. The dynamic method shows the effects of a policy change through time. Comparative static methods are usually restricted to estimates of long‐run changes in allocative efficiency. The dynamic method provides information not only on efficiency but also on adjustment processes, including variations in employment. With our dynamic method, the effects of policy changes are analysed as deviations from explicit forecasts. We find that these forecasts are important for the policy results. For Australia’s current set of indirect tax changes, our main conclusions are (i) the short‐run employment effects depend critically on the wage response; (ii) merchandise exporters benefit but tourism is harmed; and (iii) the long‐run welfare effectsare likely to be negative, reflecting a decline in the terms of trade and increased compliance costs.
Voting stability, political gridlock: Ukraine's 1998 parliamentary elections

MUCH OF THE INITIAL COMMENT on the 1998 Ukrainian elections focused on the strong performance of the Communist Party.1 The Communists did indeed emerge as the largest single force, with 24.65% of the list vote and 122 out of 450 seats in parliament (Verkhovna Rada). However, the real story of the elections was one of underlying stability and limited change.2 The elections confirmed overall voting patterns that were initially apparent in the transition elections of 1990-94. Ukraine still has no real national party system, only a set of local systems, but the sum total of these systems now seems to produce overall results that are fairly predictable. Although the Communists benefited from a realignment of forces within the left camp, the left as a whole won roughly the same proportion of votes and seats as in 1994 (40%), when the last parliamentary elections were held.3 The 1998 elections confirmed that the left parties command plurality, but not majority support.4 The nationalist or, in Ukrainian terminology, 'national-democratic' mainstream underperformed slightly on its traditional 20-25% with under 15% of the seats (Rukh, members of other rightist parties elected in single-member seats, plus independents). The far right won 2-3% of the vote, which, despite some commentators crowing at its failure to win significant numbers of seats,5 was roughly the same as in 1994 (see Table 1). The elections therefore confirmed the strictly limited base of support for Ukrainian ethnonationalism.6 Significant change came only in the political centre, which took the same proportion of seats as in 1994, but where proper political parties have now emerged for the first time. This article is in five parts. First, we give an overview of the election law used for the 1998 elections, followed by an examination of the main groups contesting the poll. We then describe the voter survey designed by the authors and conducted by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology in the last two weeks of the election campaign and use its data to construct a model of party support. The voting results are then analysed in detail, before a final section discusses the process of faction formation in parliament after the elections.
Informational Implications of Interest Rate Rules

Returning to a topic first systematically treated by Poole (1970) in a textbook Keynesian model, this paper compares interest rate and money supply rules. Our analysis, by contrast, is conducted within a rational expectations macro model that incorporates flexible prices and informational frictions. With differential information, interest rate targets can affect the information content of market prices and real activity, but these real consequences can always be replicated by an appropriately chosen money stock rule with feedback to economic activity. However, when the policy authority has incomplete information about the state of the economic system, it faces a discrete choice between an interest rate peg and strict money stock control. Depending on the parameters of the model, either of these policies may be optimal, given the informational constraints faced by the monetary authority.
The Accrual Anomaly in Australia: A Closer Look at Trading Strategy Returns

We conduct a detailed examination of the accrual anomaly in Australia using a trading strategy research design. Our primary contribution is to show how sensitive the results are to the precise research design specifications. We focus on four key areas of importance in designing such tests. First, the choice of proxy for total accruals; second, the definition of abnormal returns (i.e., the return generating model); third, the impact of data trimming as a response to exceptionally large returns; and fourth, the choice between value or equal weighting of returns. We show that research design choices do matter, and in doing so we also provide some reconciliation of apparently conflicting prior evidence of any accrual anomaly in Australia. Our results suggest the need for caution in drawing inferences from specific research design specifications in trading strategy tests of the accrual anomaly.
The Economic Value of Market Information for Farmers in Developing Economies

In developing countries, farmers lack information for making informed production, manufacturing/selling decisions to improve their earnings. To alleviate poverty, various non‐governmental organizations (NGOs) and for‐profit companies have developed different ways to distribute information about market price, crop advisory and farming technique to farmers. We investigate a fundamental question: will information create economic value for farmers? We construct a stylized model in which farmers face an uncertain market price (demand) and must make production decisions before the market price is realized. Each farmer has an imprecise private signal and an imprecise public signal to estimate the actual market price. By examining the equilibrium outcomes associated with a Cournot competition game, we show that private signals do create value by improving farmers' welfare. However, this value deteriorates as the public signal becomes available (or more precise). In contrast, in the presence of private signals, the public signal does not always create value for the farmers. Nevertheless, both private and public signals will reduce price variation. We also consider two separate extensions that involve non‐identical private signal precisions and farmers' risk‐aversion, and we find that the same results continue to hold. More importantly, we find that the public signal can reduce welfare inequality when farmers have non‐identical private signal precisions. Also, risk‐aversion can dampen the value created by private or public information.
Feasibility of dynamic telecytopathology for rapid on-site evaluation of endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial fine needle aspiration.

OBJECTIVE Rapid on-site evaluation (ROSE) at the time of endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial fine needle aspiration (EBUS-TBFNA) is useful in obtaining adequate samples and providing preliminary diagnosis. We present our experience with ROSE of EBUS-TBFNA using telecytopathology. MATERIALS AND METHODS Real-time images of Diff-Quik (Mercedes Medical, Sarasota, FL)-stained cytology smears were obtained with an Olympus (Olympus America, Center Valley, PA) digital camera attached to an Olympus CX41 microscope and transmitted via ethernet by a cytotechnologist to a cytopathologist in a cytopathology laboratory who rendered a preliminary diagnosis while communicating with an on-site cytotechnologist via the Vocera (San Jose, CA) voice communication system. The endoscopy suite was located a block away from the cytopathology laboratory. Accuracy of ROSE via telecytopathology was compared with an equal number of cases that received ROSE, prior to introduction of telecytopathology, via conventional microscopy. RESULTS ROSE was performed on a total of 200 EBUS-TBFNAs. The telecytopathology system and conventional microscopy were used to evaluate equal numbers of cases (100 each). Preliminary diagnoses of negative/benign, atypical/suspicious, and positive for malignancy were 58%, 14%, and 24% for telecytopathology and 57%, 10%, and 31% for conventional microscopy. Four percent of telecytopathology cases and 2% of conventional microscopy cases were deemed unsatisfactory at the time of ROSE. The overall concordance between the preliminary and final diagnoses was 96% for telecytopathology and 93% for conventional microscopy. The causes of discordant preliminary and final diagnoses could be mainly attributed to difficulty in distinguishing small cell carcinoma versus reactive lymph node due to crush artifact, atypia related to reactive bronchial epithelial cells, and availability of cell block material and Papanicolaou-stained slides for review at the time of final cytologic sign out. CONCLUSIONS Telecytopathology is comparable with conventional microscopy in ROSE of EBUS-TBFNA. It can serve as a valid substitute for conventional microscopy for on-site assessment of EBUS-TBFNA.
Look Who's Talking: Sources of Variation in Information Disclosure in the UK

The article examines the correlates of variable levels of information disclosure by management to employees in the UK. It develops several hypotheses that are tested using 1998 and 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey data. The results show that managerial perceptions of goal alignment by employees and the existence of direct participation mechanisms are positively associated with disclosure at both dates. The size of the workplace has a generally negative relationship at both dates, but less so in 2004 than in 1998. Other variables such as financial distress and the presence of trade unions and joint consultation have more complicated relationships over the two time periods. The article discusses theoretical and policy implications of the findings.