Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An experiment in dialectic information systems

This paper describes an experiment concerned with the investigation of presentation formats for Dialectic Information Systems (DIS). DIS are information systems which generate information for a decision maker by means of intense conflict between proponents of two radically opposing positions, theories, points of view, etc. In a DIS, information is generated through the confrontation between “data” and the world-views (Weltanschauungen) of opposing experts. The particular DIS experiment under discussion investigates the effects of explicit DIS training on an individual's world-view. The perception of drama and emotion, the structure of syntehsizing contexts, and the ability to “think” dialectically are also discussed as important features of the particular experiment.
THE PREVALENCE OF ENTREPRENEURIAL ORIENTATION IN A DEVELOPING COUNTRY: JUXTAPOSITIONS WITH FIRM SUCCESS AND SOUTH AFRICA'S INNOVATION INDEX

The study investigates the prevalence of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) amongst diverse South African firms (n = 315) in a multicultural environment. Through literary investigations innovation as an important predictor of competitiveness is emphasized and EO is validated as a multidimensional construct, acknowledging that in addition to individual and firm differences, forces operating within cultural contexts also influence levels of EO. Based on global competitiveness indices, the country level innovation index is interpreted in the context of a developing country. By addressing methodological concerns of sample representativeness and firm size, survey data is obtained at the firm level and analyzed using correlational analysis. The findings indicate that EO is positively associated with overall firm performance and the overall significance of the study emerges when links with South Africa's innovation levels are made.
Adoption of Environmental Reporting and Management Practices: An Analysis of New South Wales Public Sector Entities

This paper analyses the level of environmental disclosure and the corresponding adoption of environmental management practices by New South Wales public sector entities in 1996. From the analysis of 35 entities, it was found that the development of environmental management practices and the level of environmental disclosure were significantly associated. The results suggest that entities were responding to increased political visibility through higher levels of environmental disclosure, however they were also responding through the development of environmental management practices.
Induction and Repair of DNA Double-Strand Breaks in Human Cells: Dephosphorylation of Histone H2AX and its Inhibition by Calyculin A

Abstract Antonelli, F. , Belli, M. , Cuttone, G. , Dini, V. , Esposito, G. , Simone, G. , Sorrentino, E. and Tabocchini, M. A. Induction and Repair of DNA Double-Strand Breaks in Human Cells: Dephosphorylation of Histone H2AX and its Inhibition by Calyculin A. Radiat. Res. 164, 514–517 (2005). Phosphorylation of histone H2AX at serine 139 (γ-H2AX) represents one of the earliest steps in DNA DSB signaling and repair, but the mechanisms of coupling this histone modification to DSB processing remain to be established. In this work, H2AX phosphorylation-dephosphorylation kinetics induced by low doses of γ rays in MRC-5 human fibroblasts was studied. The number of γ-H2AX foci increased rapidly, with the maximum reached 20 min after irradiation. Using calyculin A, a protein phosphatase inhibitor, no significant dephosphorylation was found in this time. At longer times, no further induction of γ-H2AX foci occurred. This indicates that the number of γ-H2AX foci scored at 20 min can be used as representative of the initial number of DSBs. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) was also used to determine whether calyculin A-mediated inhibition of γ-H2AX dephosphorylation and DSB rejoining are independent phenomena. We found that the maintenance of the phosphate group at Ser 139 in γ-H2AX does not represent an obstacle for DSB rejoining. Preliminary experiments performed with 62 MeV/nucleon carbon ions have shown a longer persistence of γ-H2AX foci with respect to γ rays, consistent with the induction of damage that is more severe and difficult to repair.
Understanding the development of port and regional relationships: a new cooperation/competition matrix

This thought-piece article was developed as part of an international expert forum review for ports planning and maritime logistics. We examine some of the key ways in which seaports have developed from a position of direct competition to increasing collaboration in order to remain competitive in a fast-changing world. Strategic port cooperation is considered through a new conceptual cooperation/competition matrix, which can be used to evaluate the response strategies of ports to inter-port rivalry and changing maritime competitive dynamics. We address key discussion questions: What are the major types of cooperation in which ports are now engaged? What are the major maritime competitive dynamics? How should port authorities cooperate and plan moving forward towards 2030? The cooperation/competition matrix is not meant to be prescriptive, but rather offers a useful tool for holistic evaluation, to identify the way in which port strategy has changed over recent decades and indicate a direction for ports and regional planning in the twenty-first century.
Monopolizing the Center : The AKP and the Uncertain Path of Turkish Democracy

The Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi-the AKP) has been in power over a period of twelve years, having won three successive general elections and most likely to win a fourth one in 2015. This is a unique achievement for a party in a country dominated by political parties of the center-right tradition. None of the previous center-right parties in Turkey have come close to matching the AKP’s electoral achievements over seven decades of multi-party democracy. Consequently, many scholars increasingly use the label, “a hegemonic party” to describe the AKP’s unrivalled dominance in the current Turkish political system. 1
Effect of All-transretinoic Acid on Th17 and T Regulatory Cell Subsets in Patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis

Objective. We compared Th17 and T regulatory cells in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and in healthy controls. The effect of all-transretinoic acid (ATRA) was studied on cultured CD4+ T cells of patients with AS compared to controls. Methods. Eighteen patients with AS and 18 age- and sex-matched healthy controls were included. CD4+ T cells were separated and cultured in conditions of anti-CD3 and anti-CD28 stimulation with and without ATRA. Intracellular and secreted cytokines, transcription factors, and gene expression were evaluated after 72 h. Results. The frequency of CD4+IL-17+ T cells was significantly higher in patients with AS compared to controls, and ATRA could significantly decrease it. The frequency of forkhead box protein 3 (FOXP3)+ retinoic acid-related orphan receptor γt (RORγt) negative T-bet negative CD4+ cells was significantly lower in cases compared to controls. Intracellular and secreted interferon-γ (IFN-γ) was not significantly different between cases and controls. ATRA significantly increased intracellular IFN-γ in cases but not in controls. Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) secretion was significantly higher and interleukin 10 secretion was significantly lower in culture supernatant of cases compared to controls. ATRA could significantly decrease TNF-α secretion in cases. Conclusion. Our findings favor a pathogenic role for Th17 cells in AS. Th1 cells did not seem to contribute in the pathogenesis of this disease. The effect of ATRA as an immunomodulator on deviated immune cells was associated with decreased inflammatory markers. This association could be a reason for a clinical trial of ATRA in patients with AS.
Factors affecting ethical judgement of South African chartered accountants

The start of the twenty‐first century was marred by a spate of company collapses that involved fraudulent accounting activity. In many cases, company executives, many of whom belonged to the accounting profession, perpetrated the fraud. As a result, internationally, the accounting profession has suffered an enormous loss of goodwill, and its reputation as a profession with integrity has been severely harmed. Accounting professionals are no longer accorded the high regard they commanded in the past.The consequences for the profession have been far‐reaching: accounting now faces a long, uphill battle to restore its reputation and to regain the trust of the international business community. This study replicates two famous international studies in the South African context. The focus of the study was to establish whether factors such as the Code of Professional Conduct of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA), the corporate ethical environment and their age influence the ethical judgement of individual accountants. The first such study was conducted in the United States of America (USA), and it was followed by similar research in Turkey. The results of these two studies suggested very different factors that could influence accountants’ ethical judgement. The study reported in this article investigated South African chartered accountants; and its results were similar to those obtained in the US study.
The law of schools, students, and teachers in a nutshell

Attendance in Public Schools; The Instructional Program; Due Process Rights of Students; Freedom of Speech and Expression; Religion in Public Schools and State Funding of Religious Schools; Student Publications; Search and Seizure; Student Discipline; Racial Segregation; Education of Disabled Children; Student Sex Discrimination; Civil Liability; Student Records, Defamation and Privacy; Student Testing; Terms and Conditions of Teacher Employment; Constitutional Rights of Teachers; Teacher Dismissal; Employment Discrimination.
Nonoperative management of rectal cancer

Surgery has long been the primary curative modality for localized rectal cancer. Neoadjuvant chemoradiation has significantly improved local control rates and, in a significant minority, eradicated all disease. Patients who achieve a pathologic complete response to neoadjuvant therapy have an excellent prognosis, although the combination treatment is associated with long‐term morbidity. Because of this, a nonoperative management (NOM) strategy has been pursued to preserve sphincter function in select patients. Clinical and radiographic findings are used to identify patients achieving a clinical complete response to chemoradiation, and they are then followed with intensive surveillance. Incomplete, nonresponding and those demonstrating local progression are referred for salvage with standard surgery. Habr‐Gama and colleagues have published extensively on this treatment strategy and have laid the groundwork for this approach. This watch‐and‐wait strategy has evolved over time, and several groups have now reported their results, including recent prospective experiences. Although initial results appear promising, several significant challenges remain for NOM of rectal cancer. Further study is warranted before routine implementation in the clinic. Cancer 2016;122:34–41. © 2015 American Cancer Society.
A content analysis of multinationals' Web communication strategies: cross-cultural research framework and pre-testing

Despite the growing trend toward the interactive medium, there would appear to be a lack of comprehensive research methodology for evaluating the degree of standardisation in multinational corporations’ (MNCs’) online communication strategies across differing cultures. The objective of this exploratory study is to construct a research framework for cross‐cultural comparison of corporate Web pages, applying traditional advertising content study techniques. A series of pre‐tests were conducted to examine three explanatory variables, i.e. information content, cultural values and creative strategies on Japanese MNCs’ product‐based home pages in Japan, Spain and the USA. The results revealed that Japanese firms tended to localise their online communication strategies in their target markets. In closing, future research directions are discussed and content analysis research designs are summarised.
Molecular and biological characteristics of echovirus 22, a representative of a new picornavirus group

Recent sequence analysis revealed that the human pathogen echovirus 22 (EV22) is genetically distant from all the other picornaviruses studied to date (T. Hyypiä, C. Horsnell, M. Maaronen, M. Khan, N. Kalkkinen, P. Auvinen, L. Kinnunen, and G. Stanway, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 89:8847-8851, 1992). We have further characterized the biological properties of the virus and show here that the virion has properties similar to those of other picornaviruses. However, the protein composition is unique, in that most copies of one of the three major capsid proteins, VP0, do not undergo the further processing to VP2 and VP4 observed during the maturation of the virus in previously studied picornaviruses. Alignment of the capsid protein sequences with those of other picornaviruses revealed, furthermore, that the VP3 polypeptide contains an apparent insertion of approximately 25 amino acids at its amino terminus. An arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (RGD) motif is found in VP1, and by using synthetic peptides, it was shown that this sequence plays a role in cell surface receptor recognition. Finally, EV23 was shown to share remarkable identity with EV22 in certain parts of the genome and also belongs to this previously unrecognized picornavirus group.
Differential involvement of striosome and matrix dopamine systems in a transgenic model of dopa-responsive dystonia

Dopa-responsive dystonia (DRD) is a hereditary dystonia characterized by a childhood onset of fixed dystonic posture with a dramatic and sustained response to relatively low doses of levodopa. DRD is thought to result from striatal dopamine deficiency due to a reduced synthesis and activity of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), the synthetic enzyme for dopamine. The mechanisms underlying the genesis of dystonia in DRD present a challenge to models of basal ganglia movement control, given that striatal dopamine deficiency is the hallmark of Parkinson's disease. We report here behavioral and anatomical observations on a transgenic mouse model for DRD in which the gene for 6-pyruvoyl-tetrahydropterin synthase is targeted to render selective dysfunction of TH synthesis in the striatum. Mutant mice exhibited motor deficits phenotypically resembling symptoms of human DRD and manifested a major depletion of TH labeling in the striatum, with a marked posterior-to-anterior gradient resulting in near total loss caudally. Strikingly, within the regions of remaining TH staining in the striatum, there was a greater loss of TH labeling in striosomes than in the surrounding matrix. The predominant loss of TH expression in striosomes occurred during the early postnatal period, when motor symptoms first appeared. We suggest that the differential striosome-matrix pattern of dopamine loss could be a key to identifying the mechanisms underlying the genesis of dystonia in DRD.
Transparency and the disclosure of risk information in the banking sector

The essence of any bank is that it is a risktaking enterprise and therefore, as a part of good corporate governance, it is expected that relevant risk-related information will be released to the marketplace. Currently, however, it is suggested that there is insufficient disclosure of risk information by banks and as a consequence Pillar 3 of Basel II lays out a comprehensive framework for risk disclosures with the intention that this will enable stakeholders to assess the risk pro.le of a bank. In addition, one outcome of the UK company law review is that there will be a requirement for all quoted companies to discuss risks and uncertainties within the annual report. This paper analyses these risk disclosure requirements while also reviewing current bank disclosure practices within the context of this risk disclosure debate. The important issues of disclosure of forward-looking risk information, location of disclosure and proprietary risk information are also discussed together with their implications for the proposed disclosure requirements.
Temporal and Spatial Information Diffusion in Real Estate Price Changes and Variances

This article examines patterns of temporal and spatial diffusion of real estate price changes. In addition to means, changes in volatility are tracked in reaction to substantial new information, estimated with GARCH-M methods. The data covers towns in Connecticut and near San Francisco. There is evidence of negative feedback at short lags, contrary to previous research on housing and other assets. There is also evidence of a moving average error process which tends to reverse recent shocks. Significantly positive spatial information diffusion is found from neighboring towns in Connecticut but none in control tests on nonneighboring towns. The results also include evidence of a risk-reward tradeoff in housing price changes in the San Francisco area. Copyright American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association.
Recruiting Minority Students for Academic Careers: The Role of Graduate Student and Faculty Mentors

careers in general. When the material rewards, in terms of salary and security, are matched against the effort, it may hardly seem worth it in any rational sense. Yet there are some important compensations. In most cases, this career offers the prospect of being able to define one's own objectives and control the pace and content of one's labor. It offers the many rewards of teaching-making a difference in the lives of others, starting students on their own quest for knowledge, contributing to the betterment of community and so on. It often includes the opportunity to participate in work at the frontiers of knowledge about a critical dimension of human life. It almost always provides a lifetime's worth of intellectual challenges, often in company with helpful and exciting people who encourage one to keep trying to meet those challenges. It can, in short, make life interesting. And for all of those that fall by the wayside, there are many others who make it through successfully. Further, while it shares the liabilities of an academic life, a scholarly career in political science offers the same compensations. For many, this includes a measure of modest financial security with tenure. More importantly for most, whether in research or teaching, it offers the excitement of making a living by one's wits, of shaping events (occasionally) and minds (often) on the strength of pure intellectual energy. For some, such compensations are enough rationally to offset the risks of failure this career entails. For others, there is no question of choice, since the alternatives are so infinitely less attractive as to be unthinkable while any hope of success remains. It is in the hope of saving these last committed aspirants that I have set these lessons down.
Anti-interleukin-6 antibody treatment restores cell-mediated immune function in mice with acute ethanol exposure before burn trauma.

BACKGROUND Previous studies from this laboratory reported that suppression of cell-mediated immune function was coincident with elevated interleukin (IL)-6 production after acute ethanol exposure before burn trauma, compared with either insult alone. The goal of this study was to investigate whether treatment with an anti-IL-6 antibody could restore immunocompetence in mice subjected to burn trauma with previous exposure to alcohol, as assessed by delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) and mitogen-induced splenocyte proliferative responses. METHODS Mice given an ethanol treatment designed to reach a blood alcohol level of 100 mg/dl before a 15% total body surface area burn injury were treated with an anti-IL-6 antibody at 30 min and 24 hr postinjury. RESULTS Burn/ethanol mice exhibited a 91% suppression of the DTH response ( < 0.01) and a 76% suppression of mitogen-induced splenocyte proliferation (p < 0.01) at 48 hr postinjury, along with increased levels of circulating and splenic macrophage-derived IL-6, compared with all other treatment groups. After anti-IL-6 antibody administration to burn/ethanol mice, there was a 25% (p < 0.05) and 63% (p < 0.01) recovery of the DTH and splenocyte proliferative responses, respectively. Addition of exogenous IL-6 to splenocyte cultures isolated from anti-IL-6 antibody-treated burn/ethanol mice resulted in a 70% inhibition of mitogen-induced proliferative responses (p < 0.03). CONCLUSIONS These data confirm previous findings that burn in combination with acute ethanol exposure suppresses cell-mediated immune function compared with either insult alone. Furthermore, the ability of the anti-IL-6 antibody treatment to improve cellular immune responses in the burn/ethanol group suggests that blocking this cytokine may be beneficial for the ethanol-exposed, thermally injured individual.
A Motivational Model of Daily Hassles, Physical Symptoms, and Future Work Intentions Among Police Officers1

This study tested a motivational model of daily hassles, physical symptoms, and future work intentions with a sample of 122 police officers. In agreement with self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985, 2002), path analyses showed that police oficers who perceived their immediate supervisor as highly supportive of their autonomy were found to report higher levels of self-determined motivation toward work. In turn, higher levels of self-determined motivation were found to be associated with higher future work intentions and lower levels of reported daily hassles. Finally, daily hassles were found to be positively associated with reported physical symptoms. Contrary to our hypotheses, perception of competence support from supervisors was not found to be significantly associated with self-determined motivation. Instead, competence support was found to be negatively associated with daily hassles.
Black pioneers—do their moves to the suburbs increase economic opportunity for mothers and children?

Abstract This paper examines whether housing vouchers help poor people improve their education and employment. The Gautreaux program uses housing certificates and counseling to help poor people move to white suburbs and to black urban areas. The people who move to suburbs face different opportunities and challenges than those moving within the city, so it is not certain which group will have better employment and education. We find that compared with city movers, the adult suburban movers have greatly improved employment, even after controls, but they have no different pay or hours worked. Among children, suburban movers are more likely than city movers to be (1) in school, (2) in college‐track programs, (3) in four‐year colleges, (4) in jobs, (5) in better‐paying jobs, and (6) in jobs with benefits. Just by moving people and without providing additional services, this program has uncovered capabilities of these low‐income people that were not evident in the city. Policy implications of this program are c.