Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
THIAZOLIDINEDIONE INDUCES THE ADIPOSE DIFFERENTIATION OF FIBROBLAST‐LIKE CELLS RESIDENT WITHIN BOVINE SKELETAL MUSCLE

To investigate the role of peroxisome proliferator‐activated receptor γ (PPARγ) in adipocyte formation within the skeletal muscle of beef cattle, fibroblast‐like cells were isolated from the longissimus muscle of cattle and cultured with activators of murine PPARγA thiazolidinedione T‐174, which is a specific ligand for PPARγ, stimulated adipose differentiation (evaluated by counting differentiated adipocytes under microscopic observation) in a dose‐dependent fashion. A peroxisome proliferator Wy14,643 which strongly activates the α isoform of murine PPAR also stimulated differentiation but its potency was weaker than that of T‐174. Unexpectedly, 15‐deoxy‐Δ12,14‐prostaglandin J2, which is believed to be an endogenous ligand for PPARγ, could not induce adipose differentiation in doses which have been found to be effective on rodent cells. Immunoblotting analysis confirmed the significant expression of PPARγ protein in fibroblast‐like cell cultures prepared from bovine skeletal muscle. In conclusion, bovine skeletal muscle contains adipose precursor cells expressing functionally active PPARγ.
R&D project announcements and the impact of ownership structure

This paper examines the stock market reaction to research and development (R&D) announcements made by listed UK companies. R&D projects on average are found to be associated with significant positive abnormal returns. However, the level of these abnormal returns varies significantly with the ownership structure of the firm. In particular, it is found that the level of abnormal returns are significantly lower for companies with large institutional investors. This negative relationship may be associated with short-term pressures on the performance of institutional investors.
Changes in the Bispectral Index in Response to Loss of Consciousness and No Somatic Movement to Nociceptive Stimuli in Elderly Patients

Background:Bispectral index (BIS) is considered very useful to guide anesthesia care in elderly patients, but its use is controversial for the evaluation of the adequacy of analgesia. This study compared the BIS changes in response to loss of consciousness (LOC) and loss of somatic response (LOS) to nociceptive stimuli between elderly and young patients receiving intravenous target-controlled infusion (TCI) of propofol and remifentanil. Methods:This study was performed on 52 elderly patients (aged 65–78 years) and 52 young patients (aged 25–58 years), American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status I or II. Anesthesia was induced with propofol administered by TCI. A standardized noxious electrical stimulus (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, [TENS]) was applied (50 Hz, 80 mA, 0.25 ms pulses for 4 s) to the ulnar nerve at increasing remifentanil predicted effective-site concentration (Ce) until patients lost somatic response to TENS. Changes in awake, prestimulus, poststimulus BIS, heart rate, mean arterial pressure, pulse oxygen saturation, predicted plasma concentration, Ce of propofol, and remifentanil at both LOC and LOS clinical points were investigated. Results:BISLOC in elderly group was higher than that in young patient group (65.4 ± 9.7 vs. 57.6 ± 12.3) (t = 21.58, P < 0.0001) after TCI propofol, and the propofol Ce at LOC was 1.6 ± 0.3 &mgr;g/ml in elderly patients, which was significantly lower than that in young patients (2.3 ± 0.5 &mgr;g/ml) (t = 7.474, P < 0.0001). As nociceptive stimulation induced BIS to increase, the mean of BIS maximum values after TENS was significantly higher than that before TENS in both age groups (t = 8.902 and t = 8.019, P < 0.0001). With increasing Ce of remifentanil until patients lost somatic response to TENS, BISLOS was the same as the BISLOC in elderly patients (65.6 ± 10.7 vs. 65.4 ± 9.7), and there were no marked differences between elderly and young patient groups in BISawake, BISLOS, and Ce of remifentanil required for LOS. Conclusion:In elderly patients, BIS can be used as an indicator for hypnotic-analgesic balance and be helpful to guide the optimal administration of propofol and remifentanil individually. Trial Registration:CTRI Reg. No: ChiCTR-OOC-14005629; http://www.chictr. org.cn/showproj.aspx? proj=9875.
Do Non-Audit Services Compromise Auditor Independence? Further Evidence

This paper challenges the findings of Frankel et al. (2002) (FJN). The results of our discretionary accruals tests differ from FJN's when we adjust discretionary current accruals for firm performance. In our earnings benchmark tests, in contrast to FJN we find no statistically significant association between firms meeting analyst forecasts and auditor fees. Our market reaction tests also provide different results than those reported by FJN. Overall, our study indicates that FJN's results are sensitive to research design choices, and we find no systematic evidence supporting their claim that auditors violate their independence as a result of clients purchasing relatively more nonaudit services.
Banking Concentration: Implications for Systemic Risk and Safety-net Design

This paper explores the impact of banking concentration on safety net design –in particular, deposit insurance– and on systemic risk. The paper focuses on a system characterized by high concentration and low total number of banks. Each issue is addressed separately. The first section discusses best practices in deposit insurance design and derives conclusions for the case we are interested in. One is that in this context deposit insurance cannot be thought of as a stand-alone instrument, but rather must be understood as an element of the intervention and resolution policy. The second part of the paper studies systemic risk in such a system, using the Eisenberg and Noe (2001) approach to model and study risk in a network of banks. A working metric of the “too big to fail” situation can be derived in the model. More importantly, this section shows how the risk of idiosyncratic shocks spreading through the system are substantially higher in concentrated systems than in decentralized ones. Finally, the paper proposes and evaluates a specific regulatory measure that successfully contains systemic risk.
The Emergence of Evidence–Based Entrepreneurship

Evidence-based entrepreneurship (EBE) pursues the science-informed practice of entrepreneurship. A prerequisite is the systematic accumulation and interpretation of the body of evidence from entrepreneurship scholarship (Rauch & Frese, 2006). EBE builds on insights from the related practice of evidence-based management (EBMgt, (Rousseau, 2012), itself influenced by evidence-based approaches in medicine, criminology, and other fields. At the same time, we must ask to what extent entrepreneurship can make use of the still controversial ideas of EBMgt. EBMgt combines four fundamental practices in making everyday managerial judgments and decisions: (1) use of the best available relevant scientific findings, (2) systematic attention to organizational facts, indicators, and metrics, (3) ongoing practice of critical, reflective judgment, and use of decision aids in order to improve decision quality, (4) consideration of ethical issues, in particular, the impact of decisions on their many stakeholders (Rousseau, 2012, pp. 4, 5). This special issue takes stock of the current state of EBE as well as the opportunities and limits of modeling it after evidence-based practice in other fields. Importantly, differences between entrepreneurship and other fields are noteworthy. EBE faces challenges that are not equally present in the fields of management or medicine. First is the typical requirement in evidence-based practice to establish standards based on the best available evidence. For example, evidence-based medicine may lead to the recommendations that reduce variability in practice, such that doctors deliver a particular treatment for a certain diagnosis in a well-specified fashion. Entrepreneurship, on the other hand, deals with generating novelty and being different from other participants in the market. So the
A Synthesis of Recent Developments in the Theory of Capital Tax Competition

This paper proposes a unifying framework for theories of capital tax competition, and surveys and synthesizes the literature within this framework. The synthesis covers various standard tax competition models, models allowing for leviathan governments and democratic elections, in addition more recent contributions to the literature such as cross hauling of investment and models allowing for agglomeration forces to be associated with capital mobility. The paper illustrates under which assumptions the race to the bottom in tax rates results from increasing capital mobility, and when capital tax rates can be expected to increase as a result of higher capital mobility.
Performance Related Pay: The Importance of Fairness

Performance related pay (PRP) has been revived as a ‘new idea’ in recent years in connection with workplace reform and enterprise bargaining. Yet it has been tried many times in the past without achieving the increases in efficiency promised by its advocates. The challenge for PRP is to establish a pattern of pay which is seen as fair by employees, which uses reasonably objective measures of performance, which can stand the strain of change, which sustains the object of the system, is not too large a portion of the pay packet and is not too costly to administer. If a ‘conventional’ view of fairness is maintained in relation to PRP, the net returns may not be sufficient for the majority of employees. Much depends on whether a new concept of fairness is emerging which accepts differential increases based on performance rather than the rate for the job.
All-To-All Communication with Minimum Start-Up Costs in 2D/3D Tori and Meshes

All-to-all communication patterns occur in many important parallel algorithms. This paper presents new algorithms for all-to-all communication patterns (all-to-all broadcast and all-to-all personalized exchange) for wormhole switched 2D/3D torus- and mesh-connected multiprocessors. The algorithms use message combining to minimize message start-ups at the expense of larger message sizes. The unique feature of these algorithms is that they are the first algorithms that we know of that operate in a bottom-up fashion rather than a recursive, top-down manner. For a 2/sup d//spl times/2/sup d/ torus or mesh, the algorithms for all-to-all personalized exchange have time complexity of O(2/sup 3d/). An important property of the algorithms is the O(d) time due to message start-ups, compared with O(2/sup d/) for current algorithms. This is particularly important for modern parallel architectures where the start-up cost of message transmissions still dominates, except for very large block sizes. Finally, the 2D algorithms for all-to-all personalized exchange are extended to O(2/sup 4d/) algorithms in a 2/sup d//spl times/2/sup d//spl times/2/sup d/3D torus or mesh. These algorithms also retain the important property of O(d) time due to message start-ups.
The Illyrian Firm Revisited

The labor managed firm (LMF) is viewed as a contract-based coalition of workers. The coalition contract defines the worker's membership in the LMF, gives credence to the short-run risk of layoffs, and identifies the LMF as being more than a mere neoclassical production function plus fixed cost. Our model embodies three key features: the rational worker's concern with income-employment risk, the LMF's maximization of the member's expected utility, and the distinction between the LMF's short-run workforce and its long-run membership size. The main result is twofold. First, the LMF's short-run output supply curve is upward sloping in its price, except in the range of very low output prices where revenues are so small relative to the fixed costs as to make the LMF's remuneration fall below the member's short-run reservation income. Second, of equal importance as determinants of the LMF's short-run behavior are the internal and external conditions of financing its short-run fixed cost. In this regard the article delineates the role of internal wage funds and the external insurance provisions in inducing an upward sloping pattern of LMF's output-employment responses in the short run .
The Thyroid Hormone Receptor Is a Suppressor of ras-Mediated Transcription, Proliferation, and Transformation

ABSTRACT The thyroid hormone triiodothyronine (T3) has a profound effect on growth, differentiation, and metabolism in higher organisms. Here we demonstrate that T3 inhibits ras-induced proliferation in neuroblastoma cells and blocks induction of cyclin D1 expression by the oncogene. The hormone, at physiological concentrations, strongly antagonizes the transcriptional response mediated by the Ras/mitogen-activated protein kinase/ribosomal-S6 subunit kinase (Rsk) signaling pathway in cells expressing thyroid hormone receptors (TRs). T3 blocks the response to the oncogenic forms of the three ras isoforms (H-, K-, and N-ras) and both TRα and TRβ can mediate this action. The main target for induction of cyclin D1 transcription by oncogenic ras in neuroblastoma cells is a cyclic AMP response element (CRE) located in proximal promoter sequences, and T3 represses the transcriptional activity of b-Zip transcription factors such as CREB (CRE-binding protein) or ATF-2 (activation transcription factor 2) that are direct targets of Rsk2 and bind to this sequence. The hormone also blocks fibroblast transformation by oncogenic ras when TR is expressed. Furthermore, TRs act as suppressors of tumor formation by the oncogene in vivo in nude mice. The TRβ isoform has stronger antitransforming properties than the α isoform and can inhibit tumorigenesis even in hypothyroid mice. These results show the existence of a previously unrecognized transcriptional cross talk between the TRs and the ras oncogene which influences relevant processes such as cell proliferation, transformation, or tumorigenesis.
Do Public Subsidies Leverage Private Philanthropy for the Arts? Empirical Evidence on Symphony Orchestras

The relationship between public subsidies and private philanthropy is at the heart of a common claim that state subsidies “leverage” private donations to the arts. This claim might seem counterintuitive to some who find it more likely that state funding would crowd out private donations. This article empirically tests this question, using panel data on five major American symphony orchestras. The principal result of the statistical analysis is that neither claim is correct for these orchestras: The two funding sources are independent. This finding has significant managerial implications with respect to revenue-raising strategies for arts organizations as well as nonprofit firms in general. These implications and several related policy issues are discussed.
Forest water use and water use efficiency at elevated CO2: a model‐data intercomparison at two contrasting temperate forest FACE sites

Predicted responses of transpiration to elevated atmospheric CO2 concentration (eCO2) are highly variable amongst process‐based models. To better understand and constrain this variability amongst models, we conducted an intercomparison of 11 ecosystem models applied to data from two forest free‐air CO2 enrichment (FACE) experiments at Duke University and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. We analysed model structures to identify the key underlying assumptions causing differences in model predictions of transpiration and canopy water use efficiency. We then compared the models against data to identify model assumptions that are incorrect or are large sources of uncertainty. We found that model‐to‐model and model‐to‐observations differences resulted from four key sets of assumptions, namely (i) the nature of the stomatal response to elevated CO2 (coupling between photosynthesis and stomata was supported by the data); (ii) the roles of the leaf and atmospheric boundary layer (models which assumed multiple conductance terms in series predicted more decoupled fluxes than observed at the broadleaf site); (iii) the treatment of canopy interception (large intermodel variability, 2–15%); and (iv) the impact of soil moisture stress (process uncertainty in how models limit carbon and water fluxes during moisture stress). Overall, model predictions of the CO2 effect on WUE were reasonable (intermodel μ = approximately 28% ± 10%) compared to the observations (μ = approximately 30% ± 13%) at the well‐coupled coniferous site (Duke), but poor (intermodel μ = approximately 24% ± 6%; observations μ = approximately 38% ± 7%) at the broadleaf site (Oak Ridge). The study yields a framework for analysing and interpreting model predictions of transpiration responses to eCO2, and highlights key improvements to these types of models.
The analects (Lun yü)

One of the most influential books in human history, in a revelatory new translation The book that the Chinese have returned to repeatedly for reflection, renewal, and validation of their own views, "The Analects" was compiled by the disciples of Confucius, China s earliest teacher and moral thinker, from his remarks and his conversations with rulers, political operators, and people he happened to meet. It laid the foundation of the Chinese idea of what is moral and what is politically viable, what is a good government and who has integrity. Featuring both the English and Chinese texts, this new translation, by one of the pre-eminent scholars of Confucius, draws on the most recent excavated manuscripts and centuries of scholarship to illuminate the historical context of Confucius teachings, explaining who the many local figures referenced are, and navigating a rich tradition of historical commentaries. The result is a map of Confucian thought that brings us as close as possible to experiencing Confucius as his followers might have 2,500 years ago. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust theseries to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-datetranslations by award-winning translators. "
Bank Exposure to Interest Rate Risk: A Global Perspective

In 1993, the Basle Committee on Banking Supervision considered whether to incorporate interest rate risk in risk-based capital requirements for international banks. At issue was whether a bank's interest rate risk varies with the country of concern. While the effects of interest rate movements on U.S. banks are well documented, the effects on banks from other countries are not. We find that bank interest rate risk varies among countries, which supports the need to capture interest rate risk differentials in the risk-based capital requirements. We also find that non-U.S. bank values are sensitive not only to domestic interest rates, but to international interest rates as well.
IPO Liability and Entrepreneurial Response

This paper explores how legal liability in the IPO context can impact an entrepreneur's decision of whether and how to take a firm public. Liability under the Securities Act of 1933 effectively embeds a put option in an IPO security, where the entrepreneur must insure the shareholder against poor firm performance, which inflates the price of the security and exposes the entrepreneur to risk. This may cause IPO firms to appear to underperform relative to non-IPO firms as the option value decays, and may lead the entrepreneur to undertake strategic (but destructive) responses to minimize the put value and his exposure to risk. Because of the value-destroying characteristics of these responses - which include initial underpricing, entrenchment, lower NPV projects, asset partitioning, and reduced disclosure - this state of affairs is inefficient compared to a system where the entrepreneur can simply allocate the risk to shareholders. While the Securities Act's risk-allocation regime may provide some benefits in the form of more accurate disclosure, the availability of substitute responses by the entrepreneur makes any such benefit uncertain.
A 2-Dose Regimen of a Recombinant Hepatitis B Vaccine with the Immune Stimulant AS04 Compared with the Standard 3-Dose Regimen of Engerix-B in Healthy Young Adults

An open-label randomized study was undertaken to compare a 2-dose regimen (Months 0 and 6) of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) vaccine formulated with a novel adjuvant (HBsAg/AS04) with a standard 3-dose regimen (Months 0, 1 and 6) of licensed recombinant HBsAg vaccine in terms of immunogenicity and reactogenicity when administered to healthy subjects aged between 15 and 40 y. At 1 and 6 months after the full vaccination course there was a 100% seroprotection rate (anti-HBs ≥ 10 mIU/ml) with the HBsAg/AS04 vaccine, compared with a 99% response rate with the licensed vaccine. The corresponding geometric mean titres were significantly higher for the novel vaccine compared to the standard vaccine: 15,468 and 2,745 mIU/ml at Months 7 and 12 vs. 6,274 and 1,883 mIU/ml, respectively. There was a higher prevalence of local symptoms with the adjuvant vaccine (90% of doses) than with the standard vaccine (48% of doses). However, these symptoms (pain, swelling and redness) were predominantly of mild-to-moderate intensity and resolved rapidly without treatment. A 2-dose regimen of the new HBsAg/AS04 adjuvant vaccine therefore compared favourably to the standard regimen in healthy young adults. It is anticipated that the simplified vaccination schedule may improve compliance and reduce costs.
Ocean governance, maritime security and the consequences of modernity in Northeast Asia

Abstract High economic growth rates, the revolution in telecommunications and the end of the Cold War have brought about rapid and profound changes to the domestic as well as regional environments of Northeast Asian governments. The maritime sphere, where increasingly militarized state boundaries delineate political authority and economic activities link increasingly interdependent communities therein, bears high significance for the study of regional cooperation. This paper looks at how the maritime sphere of Northeast Asia is represented in common political and academic discourses of international relations. It finds that maritime affairs are firmly cast in the language of national security, and that empirical evidence against perceived threats and related security imperatives is often neglected if not completely ignored. The paper argues that the maritime space, due to its special character, has become the stage on which the consequences of modernity appear particularly strong. The relentless quest to develop and control the ocean clashes with the notion of the sea as a space of global trade and communication flow. At the same time, the ocean as an entity itself is excluded from the discourse because it is irreconcilable with the conception of the international system of sovereign territorial units. As a result, the maritime sphere is seen as a dividing element between nations rather than a connecting element, and salient environmental problems of the maritime space remain low on political and academic agendas. This is also a consequence of mainstream methods of political science that continue to reproduce discourses of territorial division and fail to offer alternative approaches suitable for the study of contemporary Northeast Asia.