Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MicroRNA-320 regulates the radiosensitivity of cervical cancer cells C33AR by targeting β-catenin

Cervical cancer is the second most common malignancy in women worldwide and always has recurrence owing to radioresistance. MicroRNA (miRNA or miR) has been identified to relate to the sensitivity of cancer radiotherapy. Here, we investigated the potential of miRNA-320 as a biomarker for radiosensitivity by targeting β-catenin in cervical cancer. A radioresistant cervical cancer cell line, C33AR, was established, and the radioresistance of C33AR cells was confirmed by a colony-formation assay. The expression of miRNA-320 was detected by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction, and compared between C33A and C33AR. β-catenin, the target of miRNA-320, was determined at the protein level by western blotting after transfecting the inhibitor of miRNA-320. The expression of miRNA-320 was markedly decreased in C33AR cells, which appeared to be more radioresistant, compared with its parental cell line C33A. Target prediction suggested that miRNA-320 negatively regulated the expression of β-catenin. Knockdown of β-catenin increased C33AR radiosensitivity, which revealed that the inhibition of β-catenin could rescue the miRNA-320-mediated cell radioresistance. On the other hand, overexpressing miRNA-320 increased C33AR radiosensitivity. In conclusion, miRNA-320 regulated the radiosensitivity of C33AR cells by targeting β-catenin. This finding provides evidence that miRNA-320 may be a potential biomarker of radiosensitivity in cervical cancer.
Longitudinal Changes in the Motor Learning-Related Brain Activation Response in Presymptomatic Huntington's Disease

Neurocognitive decline, including deficits in motor learning, occurs in the presymptomatic phase of Huntington’s disease (HD) and precedes the onset of motor symptoms. Findings from recent neuroimaging studies have linked these deficits to alterations in fronto-striatal and fronto-parietal brain networks. However, little is known about the temporal dynamics of these networks when subjects approach phenoconversion. Here, 10 subjects with presymptomatic HD were scanned with 15O-labeled water at baseline and again 1.5 years later while performing a motor sequence learning task and a kinematically matched control task. Spatial covariance analysis was utilized to characterize patterns of change in learning-related neural activation occurring over time in these individuals. Pattern expression was compared to corresponding values in 10 age-matched healthy control subjects. Spatial covariance analysis revealed significant longitudinal changes in the expression of a specific learning-related activation pattern characterized by increasing activity in the right orbitofrontal cortex, with concurrent reductions in the right medial prefrontal and posterior cingulate regions, the left insula, left precuneus, and left cerebellum. Changes in the expression of this pattern over time correlated with baseline measurements of disease burden and learning performance. The network changes were accompanied by modest improvement in learning performance that took place concurrently in the gene carriers. The presence of increased network activity in the setting of stable task performance is consistent with a discrete compensatory mechanism. The findings suggest that this effect is most pronounced in the late presymptomatic phase of HD, as subjects approach clinical onset.
University of Huddersfield Repository Corporate governance and risk reporting in South Africa: A study of corporate risk disclosures in the pre- and post-2007/2008 global financial crisis periods

The 2007/2008 global financial crisis has reignited the debate regarding the need for effective corporate governance (CG) through sound risk management and reporting practices. This paper, therefore, examines the crucial question of whether the quality of firm-level CG has any effect on the quality and extent of corporate risk disclosures (CRD) in South Africa (SA) with particular focus on the pre- and post-2007/2008 global financial crisis period. Using one of the largest datasets to-date on CG and CRD, from 2002 to 2011, and distinctively drawing on a multiple theoretical perspective, we find that CRD are largely ‘non-financial’, ‘historical’, ‘good news’ and ‘qualitative’ in nature over the ten-year period investigated. We also find that block ownership and institutional ownership are negatively associated with the extent of CRD, whilst board diversity, board size and independent non-executive directors are positively related to the extent of CRD. By contrast, dual board leadership structure has no significant connection with the extent of CRD. Our results are robust across a raft of econometric models that adequately address different types of endogeneity problems, as well as alternative CG and CRD proxies. Our findings are largely consistent with the predictions of our multi-theoretical framework that incorporates insights from agency, legitimacy, institutional, resource-dependence, and stakeholder theories. equality in means and medians of all our financial variables, including capital expenditure, firm size, leverage, operating profit and sales growth, between our final balanced sample of 50 firms and the unbalanced sample of 263 firms. If the two groups display similar features, then we can conclude that our final sample is representative of the underlying population. The results (which for brevity are not reported, but available upon request) indicate that there are no statistically significant differences in the mean or median values for all the variables. We interpret this observation as suggesting that the characteristics of our final 50 sampled firms are largely similar to the underlying population and that our findings are not likely to be seriously affected by survivorship bias.
A Comparison of Proximity and Land Use Regression Traffic Exposure Models and Wheezing in Infants

Background We previously reported an association between infant wheezing and residence < 100 m from stop-and-go bus and truck traffic. The use of a proximity model, however, may lead to exposure misclassification. Objective Results obtained from a land use regression (LUR) model of exposure to truck and bus traffic are compared with those obtained with a proximity model. The estimates derived from the LUR model were then related to infant wheezing. Methods We derived a marker of diesel combustion—elemental carbon attributable to traffic sources (ECAT)—from ambient monitoring results of particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter < 2.5 μm. We developed a multiple regression model with ECAT as the outcome variable. Variables included in the model were locations of major roads, bus routes, truck traffic count, and elevation. Model parameter estimates were applied to estimate individual ECAT levels at infants’ homes. Results The levels of estimated ECAT at the monitoring stations ranged from 0.20 to 1.02 μg/m3. A LUR model of exposure with a coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.75 was applied to infants’ homes. The mean (± SD) ambient exposure of ECAT for infants previously categorized as unexposed, exposed to stop-and-go traffic, or exposed to moving traffic was 0.32 ± 0.06, 0.42 ± 0.14, and 0.49 ± 0.14 μg/m3, respectively. Levels of ECAT from 0.30 to 0.90 μg/m3 were significantly associated with infant wheezing. Conclusions The LUR model resulted in a range of ECAT individually derived for all infants’ homes that may reduce the exposure misclassification that can arise from a proximity model.
Performance Effects of Stakeholder Interaction in Emerging Economies: Evidence from Brazil

Firm survival in emerging economies is often related to having access to valuable resources that are in stakeholders' hands. However, the literature on strategy in emerging economies provides scant information on the efficiency of acquiring stakeholder resources and its effect on firm performance. We investigated the stakeholder interaction effects on performance of domestic firms competing in an emerging market (Wright, Filatotchev, Hoskisson, & Peng, 2005) from a contractual perspective (Williamson, 1985). We argue that interacting stakeholders in a contractual set yield synergistic governance structures that allow firms more efficient access to external resources. Using a sample of 267 firms in Brazil (secondary data), we explored different patterns in stakeholder contracting with community, government, top management, and employees. A three-stage analysis process was devised: cluster analysis, general linear model estimation and verification tests. Results suggest that stakeholder interaction has a positive impact on firm performance. The conjoint effect of government and community contracts was found to yield superior firm performance as they provide a basic structure for contracting with other interacting stakeholders.
Treue Speed illusion in MT 3 of neurons tuned to the direction and speed of moving stimuli present in their receptive fields 60

1 Submitted to J Neurophysiology 1 2 3 Misperceptions of speed are accounted for by the responses of neurons in 4 macaque cortical area MT 5 6 7 Pınar Boyraz & Stefan Treue 8 9 10 1 Department of Physiology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada 11 2 Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, German Primate Center, Germany 12 3 Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Goettingen, Germany 13 14 15 16 17 Number of Figures: 9 18 19 Number of Words: 193 (Abstract), 592 (Introduction), 1878 (Discussion) 20 21
N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist MK-801 prevents apoptosis in rats that have undergone fetal spinal cord transplantation following spinal hemisection

Spinal cord injury is the main cause of paraplegia, but effective therapies for it are lacking. Embryonic spinal cord transplantation is able to repair spinal cord injury, albeit with a large amount of neuronal apoptosis remaining in the spinal cord. MK-801, an N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist, is able to reduce cell death by decreasing the concentration of excitatory amino acids and preventing extracellular calcium ion influx. In this study, the effect of MK-801 on the apoptosis of spinal cord neurons in rats that have received a fetal spinal cord (FSC) transplant following spinal hemisection was investigated. Wistar rats were divided into three groups: Spinal cord hemisection injury with a combination of FSC transplantation and MK-801 treatment (group A); spinal cord hemisection injury with FSC transplantation (group B); and spinal cord injury with insertion of a Gelfoam pledget (group C). The rats were sacrificed 1, 3, 7 and 14 days after the surgery. Apoptosis in spinal slices from the injured spinal cord was examined by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP-biotin nick end labeling reaction, and the expression of B-cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2) was measured by immunohistochemistry. The positive cells were quantitatively analyzed using a computer image analysis system. The rate of apoptosis and the positive expression of Bcl-2 protein in the spinal cord neurons in the three groups decreased in the following order: C>B>A (P<0.05) and A>B>C (P<0.05), respectively. This indicates that treatment with the NMDA receptor antagonist MK-801 prevents apoptosis in the spinal cord neurons of rats that have undergone FSC transplantation following spinal hemisection.
Towards safer carotid artery stenting: a scoring system for anatomic suitability.

BACKGROUNDS AND PURPOSE To develop a scoring system to facilitate case selection for carotid artery stenting based on anatomic features. METHODS Twelve experts comprising a multinational and multispecialty panel were convened. Delphi consensus methodology was applied over 4 "rounds" involving emailed questionnaires, private decision-making, structured interaction and explicit aggregation. In round 1 panelists proposed individual anatomic features that were considered relevant during carotid artery stenting. In round 2 each criterion was scored from 1 (straightforward) to 9 (difficult). Round 3 involved removing some factors based on individual scores to reduce the number of subsequent combination anatomies. The final round involved scoring 96 combination anatomies (representing a "full factorial" design) plus a dichotomous response, ie, whether carotid artery stenting should or should not be advised for a "novice. " RESULTS There were 1164 responses, providing a score for 12 individual anatomic features and for 96 combinations anatomies with good level of agreement between panelists. After derivation of mean (and standard deviation) of the cutting scores for 1152 yes/no responses a scoring system for combination anatomy was produced, comprising broad agreement bands presented as traffic light colors: red for particularly difficult anatomy, amber for moderate difficulty and green for lesser difficulty. CONCLUSIONS A scoring system has been developed, based on objective expert consensus, which can be used to categorise expected difficulty of carotid artery stenting and aid case selection.
Infrared Microscopy Enhanced Ångström's Method for Thermal Diffusivity of Polymer Monofilaments and Films

Ångström's method has been used to quantify thermal diffusivity of materials for over 150 years via measurement of thermal waves propagating through a long, thin sample. However, the traditional Ångström's method has some limitations. First, the traditional method is insensitive to potential variability in thermal diffusivity along the length of a sample because only two sensors are used. Second, conventional contact-based sensing techniques such as thermocouples limit the method to samples that are sufficiently large so as to be unaffected by heat loss through the sensors. Here, we develop and validate the infrared microscopy enhanced Ångström's method that overcomes these limitations and enables measurement of microscale samples. This work demonstrates the accuracy and applicability of the technique through measurement of several commercially available polymer monofilaments and films and comparison of the data to published values. This method is particularly robust to uncertainty in emissivity making it attractive for characterization of semitransparent samples.
Relationship between type II diabetes mellitus and Helicobacter pylori infection in Erbil city

Background and objective: Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder characterized by the increase in blood glucose due to insulin resistance or deficiency of insulin. The subjects are more likely to be prone to infection. So, it could be correlated with Helicobacter pylori infection, which means that gastrointestinal inflammation might be affected by uncontrolled glycemic level. This study aimed to examine the correlation of type II diabetes and infection of gastrointestinal in order to illustrate such complication of diabetes mellitus apart from others. Methods: A total of 64 persons from Erbil city participated in this cross-sectional study. They were divided into two groups, each group involving 32 persons. The cases group included those suffering from type II diabetes and were selected by simple random sampling method. The other group included those not possessing any types of disease including diabetes mellitus. Examination of Helicobacter pylori, glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), besides measuring blood pressure and body mass index were performed for all individual subjects in both groups. Chi-Square and unpaired t-test were used for data analysis. Results: There was a 59% positively Helicobacter pylori in diabetes group whereas there was a 31% positively Helicobacter pylori in non-diabetes mellitus. The difference between the rates of Helicobacter pylori in both groups was statistically significant (P <0.05). Conclusion: The prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection in diabetics was significantly higher than the non-diabetics.
Skill Evaluation of Human Operators in Partly Automated Mobile Working Machines

The performance of a mobile working machine is strongly dependent on the skills of the operator. It is commonly accepted that among operators, productivity may vary tens of percents. This research considers the human skill evaluation in working machines during normal work. A general framework for skill evaluation via task sequence recognition by a hidden Markov model (HMM) is described. The definitions of skill metrics, based on task resource consumption, task completion frequency, task difficulty, and ability to plan and make decisions, are given and justified through an example. The skill evaluation methods are illustrated by utilizing them in two industrial applications.
Everyday Sensegiving: A Closer Look at Successful Plant Managers

The authors conducted in-depth interviews and on-site visits with successful plant managers to understand similarities in their management approaches. Across 11 different plants, representing nine different industries, the authors found each plant manager actively engaged in shaping how employees viewed the organization and its values through what the authors call “everyday sensegiving. ” From themes inductively identified from the interviews and on-site visits, four central values—“Here, we value people, we value openness, we value being positive, and we value being part of a larger community” were identified. In this article, the authors link everyday sensegiving of these middle managers and extend the findings of the study to consider linkages to organizational performance and change efforts.
The Evolution of An Axi-symmetric Stokes Bubble with Volumetric Change

The evolution of an axi-symmetric Stokes bubble is considered when the bubble volume is changed. Linear stability analysis shows that an expanding spherical bubble is stable, while a shrinking spherical bubble is unstable. Numerical calculations of the time evolution shows that for certain initial condition, such a bubble can form cusps or near cusps or undergo topological change (pinching) before it reduces to zero size, qualitatively similar to earlier exact solutions in
Transparency and deliberation within the FOMC: a computational linguistics approach

How does transparency, a key feature of central bank design, aect the deliberation of monetary policymakers? We exploit a natural experiment in the Federal Open Market Committee in 1993 together with computational linguistic models (particularly Latent Dirichlet Allocation) to measure the eect of increased transparency on debate. Commentators have hypothesized both a benecial discipline eect
Opportunities for youth smoking cessation: findings from a national focus group study.

To identify opportunities for smoking cessation among adolescents, we conducted six computer-assisted telephone focus groups with 48 male and female high school student smokers and former smokers from six states across the United States, all aged 15-17 years, in two groups each of "established smokers," "late experimenters," and "quitters. " These adolescents considered addiction to cigarettes real, powerful, stealthy, insidious, harmful, and avoidable. They considered quitting smoking achievable and desirable. Many of the established smokers and some experimenters would not consider quitting until an indefinite future, when they expected adult responsibilities to help them quit. Quitters had been encouraged by friends who did not smoke around them or offer them cigarettes; they also associated more with nonsmoking friends. Some adolescents, especially quitters, reported that parents had tried to help them quit; some smokers reported that parents had provided them with cigarettes. Some adolescents reported school rules and enforcement that made it hard to smoke; others reported school rules and enforcement that made it easy and tempting to smoke. These adolescents were not aware of the availability of professional help or interested in it. Many did not consider smoking urgent or "intense" enough for professional help. Perceptions of cessation programs were nonexistent or negative. Participants were aware of nicotine replacement therapies but less so of prescription medications. These findings suggest that it is critical to educate adolescents about what good cessation programming is and is not, why it is needed, how it might help, and where it is offered.
Chronic Rhinosinusitis with Nasal Polyps - Symptoms, Heredity and Genetics

Chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP) is characterized by long-term inflammation of the paranasal sinuses combined with bilateral glassy protuberances from the middle meatus of the nasal cavity. This disease has an unknown cause, affects approximately 3% of the population and causes symptoms from the upper airways. This thesis addresses the heredity, symptoms and possible genetic factors of chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps. METHODS/RESULTS: Paper I investigates the prevalence of nasal polyps in a group of 410 first-degree relatives to patients with the same condition using nasal endoscopy and compares them to a control group of 1387 individuals from a previous study. 13.4% of the relatives had nasal polyps themselves, compared to 2.7% in the control group. The relative risk of the first-degree relatives having nasal polyps when compared to the control group was 4.9. Paper II studies the symptoms and risk factors of 367 patients with CRSwNP and compares them to 1349 polyp-free controls. Symptoms and risk factors were gathered by a structured interview and compared in a multiple logistic regression model. Higher age, male sex, nasal blockage, impaired sense of smell, nasal secretions and asthma was more common among subjects with CRSwNP whereas smoking was less frequent. Paper III is a family-based genome-wide association study that compares single nucleotide polymorphisms between 406 participants with CRSwNP and 376 of their polyp-free first-degree relatives. After association testing and post-GWAS analysis; HLCS, HLA-DRA, BICD2, VSIR and SLC5A1 were the most significant. Of these five genes, only HLA-DRA had been implicated in CRSwNP previously. Paper IV measures the expression levels of ten of the most significant genes from Paper III in peripheral blood from 76 individuals with CRSwNP and 45 of their polyp-free relatives and studies their eQTL patterns. NDUFS5, CPEB3, HLCS and BICD2 were upregulated in cases. HLCS, LYZ, PDGFD and TIAM1 showed differences in expression when examining participants with different genotypes. CONCLUSIONS: First-degree relatives of patients with CRSwNP have an almost fivefold increased relative risk of having nasal polyps themselves when compared to controls. Nasal secretion, nasal blockage and decreased sense of smell are more common among subjects with CRSwNP than among controls. HLCS, BICD2, VSIR and SLC5A1 are potential new genes of interest in CRSwNP. HLA-DRA is strengthened as a research target. NDUFS5, CPEB3, HLCS and BICD2 are upregulated in peripheral blood samples from patients with CRSwNP when compared to controls. HLCS, LYZ, PDGFD and TIAM1 displayed differences when comparing allelic expression.
Establishing Trust in Decision-Aiding: The Role of a Visualization of Agent Decision-Space in Improving Operator Engagement with Reduced Cognitive Load

Decision recommendation systems relieve operators from high cognitive-load during stressful situations. However, automation over-trust can disengage complacent operators from the task leading to lower situation awareness and inability to intervene and override incorrect recommendations. Our recent research effort was focused on a visualization of agent decision-space to improve automation transparency and aid the operator’s perception of the environment. We describe specific properties of the interface and their anticipated benefits such as improved situation-awareness and expectancy. The visualization is compared with an