Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Interaction between the C(−344)T polymorphism of CYP11B2 and age in the regulation of blood pressure and plasma aldosterone levels: cross-sectional and longitudinal findings of the Olivetti Prospective Heart Study

Objective To study the interaction between the C(−344)T CYP11B2 polymorphism and known determinants (age, body mass and dietary sodium) of blood pressure and plasma aldosterone. Design Cross-sectional and longitudinal (1980–1995) survey of male workers in southern Italy. Setting Medical centre of the Olivetti factories. Participants In 1995, the C(−344)T polymorphism was characterized in 811 untreated men. A subgroup of 280 participants already seen in 1980 was the object of longitudinal analysis. Main outcome measures Blood pressure, demographic, anthropometric and biochemical variables (serum and urinary electrolytes and plasma aldosterone) and frequency of the C(−344)T polymorphism. Results In the whole population, there was no difference among genotypes for any of the variables examined. However, multiple regression showed a significant interaction between age (but not body mass or sodium intake) and genotype with regard to systolic (P = 0.03) and diastolic (P = 0.02) pressure variability independently of covariates. Diastolic pressure increased linearly with age in carriers of the T allele (TT, P < 0.001 and TC, P = 0.005), but not in CC homozygotes (P = 0.848). In T carriers – but not in CC homozygotes – blood pressure and serum potassium increased and plasma aldosterone and serum sodium decreased across quintiles of age (P < 0.001 for all trends). In the longitudinal study, diastolic pressure increased significantly over time only in T carriers (TC+TT: +2.6 ± 0.6, versus CC: −0.4 ± 1.5 mmHg, P = 0.04). Conclusion Inter-individual variation of blood pressure and plasma aldosterone is affected by the interaction of CYP11B2 C(−344)T polymorphism and ageing, thus supporting a role for this variant in mechanisms affecting blood pressure regulation.
Cultural comparison of tourists' safety perception in relation to trip satisfaction

Although safety and security are seen as a priori for a prosperous tourism industry in any destination, safety and security perception and its influence on tourist behaviour have received limited empirical attention from researchers. This study investigated tourists' perception of the safety and security of a destination in relation to the level of satisfaction with their trip, using Turkey and its visitors as a case in point. The stepwise regression analysis was employed to investigate the relationship between trip satisfaction, safety and security-related variables, existence of product or service failure, and selected demographic variables. Results showed that positive perception of Turkey's hygiene and health, and safety and security helped visitors to have greater trip satisfaction, especially if they stayed longer and enjoyed their trip without any product or service failure; however, German tourists and tourists with a secondary school degree are more likely to have less trip satisfaction. Practical implications and future research suggestions are discussed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
ATM-Mediated Stabilization of hMutL DNA Mismatch Repair Proteins Augments p53 Activation during DNA Damage

ABSTRACT Human DNA mismatch repair (MMR) proteins correct DNA errors and regulate cellular response to DNA damage by signaling apoptosis. Mutations of MMR genes result in genomic instability and cancer development. Nonetheless, how MMR proteins are regulated has not yet been determined. While hMLH1, hPMS2, and hMLH3 are known to participate in MMR, the function of another member of MutL-related proteins, hPMS1, remains unclear. Here we show that DNA damage induces the accumulation of hPMS1, hPMS2, and hMLH1 through ataxia-telangiectasia-mutated (ATM)-mediated protein stabilization. The subcellular localization of PMS proteins is also regulated during DNA damage, which induces nuclear localization of hPMS1 and hPMS2 in an hMLH1-dependent manner. The induced levels of hMLH1 and hPMS1 are important for the augmentation of p53 phosphorylation by ATM in response to DNA damage. These observations identify hMutL proteins as regulators of p53 response and demonstrate for the first time a function of hMLH1-hPMS1 complex in controlling the DNA damage response.
Evolutionary semi-supervised ordinal regression using weighted kernel Fisher discriminant analysis

Ordinal regression has a wide range of applications, while it is intractable to be solved when lacking sufficient labeled data. In this paper, we propose an evolutionary semi-supervised kernel Fisher discriminant approach for ordinal regression. The proposed algorithm obtains the projection and thresholds by incorporating the unlabeled data with a weighting scheme, where the weights indicate the degrees of contributions to the class distribution by different training instances. The projection maps the original data to a one-dimensional space, and the thresholds are used for the prediction. The weights are computed with a label propagation method first. However, it is not always accurate. In order to further tune the weights to be more accurate, the differential evolution algorithm is applied here in this work. By a delicate weight update rule, the weights can be evolved indirectly. This tuning scheme makes the size of evolutionary individual just associated with the number of ranks rather than the number of instances. The experimental studies demonstrate that our algorithm can effectively use unlabeled data and yield satisfactory learning performance.
Translocation of histone H1 subtypes between chromatin and cytoplasm during mitosis in normal human fibroblasts

Histone H1 is an important constituent of chromatin, which undergoes major structural rearrangements during mitosis. However, the role of H1, multiple H1 subtypes, and H1 phosphorylation is still unclear. In normal human fibroblasts, phosphorylated H1 was found located in nuclei during prophase and in both cytoplasm and condensed chromosomes during metaphase, anaphase, and telophase as detected by immunocytochemistry. Moreover, we detected remarkable differences in the distribution of the histone H1 subtypes H1.2, H1.3, and H1.5 during mitosis. H1.2 was found in chromatin during prophase and almost solely in the cytoplasm of metaphase and early anaphase cells. In late anaphase, it appeared in both chromatin and cytoplasm and again in chromatin during telophase. H1.5 distribution pattern resembled that of H1.2, but H1.5 was partitioned between chromatin and cytoplasm during metaphase and early anaphase. H1.3 was detected in chromatin in all cell cycle phases. We propose therefore, that H1 subtype translocation during mitosis is controlled by phosphorylation, in combination with H1 subtype inherent affinity. We conclude that H1 subtypes, or theirphosphorylated forms, may leave chromatin in a regulated way to give access for chromatin condensing factors or transcriptional regulators during mitosis. © 2010 International Society for Advancement of Cytometry
The Foreign Policy of Italian Regions: Not Much Ado About Something?

What does regional external power mean? To what extent is it allowed? What are the limits for its exercise? And how is it carried out in today's quasi-federal Italy? Not only is regional foreign policy a litmus test for the legal development of a compound system; it is also extremely telling as far as the political maturity of the actors in a multi-level governmental system is concerned. In the present constitutional and political framework in Italy, there is a cleavage between the rather developed normative framework and the immature practical reality. Regional foreign policy is something very important about which too little ado is made.
Market Model Stationarity of Individual Public Utilities

The search for an economically sound procedure for estimating an appropriate rate of return on equity consistent with the Supreme Court's ruling in the Hope case [13] has led many economists, financial experts, and public service commissions to estimate the rate of return on equity with the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) (see [30], [19], and [21]). The popularity of the CAPM in regulatory proceedings was reported by Harrington [15] who, in a survey of public service commissions, found that 38 states were considering or had seen the CAPM used, two jurisdictions preferred the CAPM, Oregon required the CAPM, and South Carolina would require the CAPM in all future cases. Hence, given the popularity of the CAPM and the tremendous economic impact that outcomes of regulatory proceedings have on the financial well-being of both the regulated firm and the consumer, it is critical that if the CAPM is used in regulatory proceedings that it be applied in the best manner possible and that any limitations associated with the CAPM be recognized fully.
Toward a Resilience Model for the Hospitality & Tourism Industry

The present research examines the impact of natural disasters on hospitality industry jobs and attempts to model job resilience after the industry experiences a disaster. While disasters are increasing at an unparalleled velocity, the hospitality industry has yet to fully appreciate their impact, reach, and consequences. Because the industry is a critical source of domestic economic activity, it is important to understand what happens to industry jobs post disaster and the mechanisms by which industry resilience is achieved. Using systems theory and a capital stock approach, our prior research supports our hypothesis: changes in hospitality industry jobs as a result of experiencing a natural disaster are a function of community resilience. Our regression results suggest characteristics such as creating and maintaining social networks of shared norms and values in a community help explain more changes in industry jobs than does the consequence of anatural disaster. This new model of resilience builds on community characteristics to foster industry jobs sustainability.
Profit warnings: will openness be rewarded?

We investigate the information content of profit warnings released by firms on the abnormal returns for a sample of 149 firms listed on the Euronext Amsterdam in 2000–2002. We propose that firms can diminish the negative influence of profit warnings on shareholder's returns by releasing detailed information, thereby reducing the information asymmetry between shareholders and management. We find empirical evidence that a greater degree of disclosure has a significantly positive impact on the abnormal returns of firms with multiple successive profit warnings. We argue that negative abnormal returns will occur with firms which provide external reasons in their press releases indicating that the causes of the current situation are a market-wide phenomenon and beyond their scope. We report a negative – but not significant – impact of information regarding external reasons on the abnormal returns to shareholders of firms with profit warnings. Our research findings offer valuable insights into the practical implications of the information content of profit warnings.
Recent blooms of the dinoflagellate Ceratium in Albert Falls Dam (KZN): history, causes, spatial features and impacts on a reservoir ecosystem and its zooplankton

A lake-wide bloom of the dinoflagellate Ceratium hirundinella, discovered in Albert Falls Dam in October 2006, exposed a significant ecological change indicative of reduced water quality in this historically mesotrophic reservoir. The spatial distribution of the bloom was examined synoptically in October 2006 and January 2007; these surveys revealed generally higher dinoflagellate densities in inshore reaches of the lake, and especially in the discharge plume of the inflowing Mgeni River. Ceratium totally dominated the phytoplankton assemblage, accounting almost completely for coincident chlorophyll levels, which generally increased with depth to generate a ‘deep’ chlorophyll maximum. Vertical oxygen profiles during the bloom differed substantially from corresponding profiles during non-bloom conditions historically typical in this reservoir. Direct count data and ordination analysis using non-metric multidimensional scaling exposed marked changes in zooplankton community structure compared to seasonally congruent non-bloom conditions in other years. Changes included the effective replacement of Moina by Bosmina, substantial reductions in Daphnia and Ceriodaphnia, and smaller but definite increases in abundance especially of calanoid copepods, as well as cyclopoid copepods and of Chaoborus, although not all of these differences were apparent in both survey months. These compositional changes are attributable to intrinsic differences in feeding biology among taxa and their associated susceptibility to the altered food environment, which was commensurate with Ceratium’s emergence. In addition, chydorid cladocerans appeared as a new (but spatially restricted) eutrophic bio-indicator component of the zooplankton, and the species diversity of cyclopoid copepods was enriched. The historical incidence of Ceratium in the lake since 1995 coincided with low NO3-N:TP values (used here as an N:P ratio proxy), particularly of inflow waters, and with broadly coincident values in the open lake. Ceratium was present but sparse in 1995, at average N:P ratios around 5.5. It disappeared in 1996 when the ratio increased radically to >10, and reappeared in 2004 after an erratic decline of the ratio to < 5 in the lake. The decline in N:P ratio of inflow waters since 1996 was clearly associated with a consistent rise in TP levels in inflows, most plausibly attributable to inputs of (Howick) wastewater treatment (WWT) plant origin. The appearance of Ceratium blooms is accordingly related to progressive elevations in mean annual P concentrations in inflows from ~40 ig/l in 1995 to 120 ig/l in 2007 (broadly mirrored in annual TP loadings), suggesting that improved operational efficiency (and capacity) of the WWT plant offers a plausible prospect for mitigation and reversal
Certification of Corporate Social Responsibility. The Case Study of India

Corporate social responsibility is in the focus of many companies in recent years. It becomes a way of sustainability for many companies on the market. It expresses a voluntary commitment of companies to behave responsibly to their surroundings within three pillars: economic, social and environmental one. The issue of social responsibility is developing in many European countries and European Commission is aiming at supporting national CSR strategies. CSR activities can be focused on philanthropy, the care of the employees, the environment and transparency of economic activities. This paper describes the certification process for CSR, namely SA8000 and focuses on states with the higest number of certified companies. After European Italy, it is India which is in the centre of attention and specifically with respect to child labor.
On the Role of Social Security as a Means for Efficient Risk-Bearing in an Economy Where Human Capital is Not Tradeable

An intertemporal general equilibrium model of an economy with overlapping generations and two factors of production, labor and capital, is used to analyze the economic inefficiencies caused by the non- tradeability of human capital -and to derive a constrained pareto-optimal sys tern of taxes and transfers which "c.orrectS1 these inefficiencies. It is shown that, in the absence of such a system, this market failure causes the equilibrium path of the economy to deviate from the optimum for two reasons: First, as is well known, people cannot achieve their optimal lifecycle consumption program because early in life when most of their wealth is in the form of human capital, they cannot consume as much as they would otherwise choose. Second, investors cannot achieve an optimal portfolio allocation of their savings. Not only will some investors be forced to bear more risk than they would choose in the absence of this market failure, but because factor shares are uncertain, the portfolios held by investors will be inefficient. The young are "forced" to invest "too much" of their savings in human capital and the old are "forced" to invest "too little" in human capital. Hence, all investors bear "factor-share" risk which if human capital were tradeable, could be diversified away. It is shown that a optimal system of taxes and transfers not unlike the current Social Security system can eliminate this inefficiency, and therefore, it is suggested that a latent function of the present system may be to improve the efficiency of risk-bearing in the economy.
Synaptic Contributions to Focal and Widespread Spatiotemporal Dynamics in the Isolated Rat Subiculum In Vitro

The subiculum, which has a strategic position in controlling hippocampal activity, is receiving significant attention in epilepsy research. However, the functional organization of subicular circuits remains unknown. Here, we combined different recording and analytical methods to study focal and widespread population activity in the isolated subiculum in zero Mg2+ media. Patch and field recordings were combined to examine the contribution of different cell types to population activity. The properties of cells leading field activity were examined. Predictive factors for a cell to behave as leader included exhibiting the bursting phenotype, displaying a low firing threshold, and having more distal apical dendrites. A subset of bursting cells constituted the first glutamatergic type that led a recruitment process that subsequently activated additional excitatory as well as inhibitory cells. This defined a sequence of synaptic excitation and inhibition that was studied by measuring the associated conductance changes and the evolution of the composite reversal potential. It is shown that inhibition was time-locked to excitation, which shunted excitatory inputs and suppressed firing during focal activity. This was recorded extracellularly as a multi-unit ensemble of active cells, the spatial boundaries of which were controlled by inhibition in contrast to widespread epileptiform activity. Focal activity was not dependent on the preparation or the developmental state because it was also recorded under 5 mm [K+]o and in adult tissue. Our data indicate that the subicular networks can be spontaneously organized as leader-follower local circuits in which excitation is mainly driven by a subset of bursting cells and inhibition controls spatiotemporal firing.
Changes of Protein Folding Pathways by Circular Permutation

The evolved properties of proteins are not limited to structure and stability but also include their propensity to undergo local conformational changes. The latter, dynamic property is related to structural cooperativity and is controlled by the folding-energy landscape. Here we demonstrate that the structural cooperativity of the ribosomal protein S6 is optimized by geometric overlap of two competing folding nuclei: they both include the central β-strand 1. In this way, folding of one nucleus catalyzes the formation of the other, contributing to make the folding transition more concerted overall. The experimental evidence is provided by an extended set of circular permutations of S6 that allows quantitative analysis of pathway plasticity at the level of individual side chains. Because similar overlap between competing nuclei also has been discerned in other proteins, we hypothesize that the coupling of several small nuclei into extended “supernuclei” represents a general principle for propagating folding cooperativity across large structural distances.
Air Travel and Pregnancy Outcomes: A Review of Pregnancy Regulations and Outcomes for Passengers, Flight Attendants, and Aviators

To review flight regulations and gestational complications associated with air travel in pregnant passengers, flight attendants, and aviators. A literature search was undertaken on the relationship of air travel and spontaneous pregnancy losses, intrauterine fetal demise (IUFD), birth weight <10th percentile, preterm delivery, and neonatal intensive care unit admissions. The literature search identified 128 abstracts, of which 9 evaluated air travel and pregnancy outcomes. The risk of a pregnancy loss (spontaneous abortion or IUFD) was greater in flight attendants than controls (odds ratio [OR]: 1.62, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.29, 2.04). The risk of preterm birth <37 weeks was greater in passengers than controls (OR: 1.44, 95% CI: 1.07, 1.93). However, the risk of preeclampsia (OR: 0.86, 95% CI: 0.58, 1.27), neonatal intensive care unit admissions (OR: 1.19, 95% CI: 0.78, 1.82), or birth weight <10th percentile (OR: 1.25, 95% CI: 0.62, 2.48) was not increased. Flight attendants did not have an increased risk of preterm birth compared to controls (OR: 1.37, 95% CI: 0.85, 2.22) or delivering infants with birth weight <10th percentile (OR: 1.57, 95% CI: 0.68, 3.74). The risks of spontaneous abortions and other adverse pregnancy outcomes have been poorly studied in a limited number of investigations. An analysis of the available information suggests a greater risk of spontaneous abortions or IUFD in flight attendants, and a greater risk of preterm birth <37 weeks in air passengers. However, the literature on which these findings are based is generally not of high methodologic quality. Target Audience: Obstetricians & Gynecologist, Family Physicians. Learning Objectives: After completion of this educational activity, the reader will be able to Evaluate the published literature on air travel and pregnancy outcomes. Analyze the potential maternal and perinatal consequences of air travel. Examine the current limitations on air travel and pregnancy.
Are Cooperative Banks a Lever for Promoting Bank Stability? Evidence from the Recent Financial Crisis in OECD Countries

Based on a sample of cooperative, savings, and commercial banks from OECD countries, this paper examines whether and to what extent cooperative banks affected average bank soundness during 2001–2010. To account for the impact of the recent financial crisis, we analyse separately the pre‐crisis period (2001–2006) and crisis years (2007–2010). Unlike published claims that blame the fragility of banking systems on the presence of non–profit‐maximising entities, our main finding is that cooperative banks have explanatory power for stabilisation during the crisis years, but only above a certain market share threshold.
Fast image super-resolution via Randomized Multi-split Forests

This paper proposes a novel learning-based image Super-Resolution via a Randomized Multi-split Forests model (SRRMF). The proposed method uses the LR-HR training patch pairs to model the nonlinear patch manifold into a pairs of linear subspaces. The key idea of this approach is to use several decision trees split randomly the training data into different classes. A linear regression model is learnt to map the relationship between LR and HR patches at the end of the leaf nodes. In order to make full use of the generalization ability of the random forests, we randomize the grow of the decision tree to cover more possibilities. Furthermore, we modify the splitting function by using Multi-Split Binary Test (MSBT) function so that we can use more feature information to derive more accurate classification result to match patch subspace. Extended experimental results show that image super-resolution using our proposed method can achieve the state-of-the-art super-resolution performance with reduced computation time.
AGGREGATE IMPORT DEMAND BAHAVIOR FOR INDONESIA: EVIDENCE FROM BOUNDS TESTING APPROACH

This paper empirically re-estimates the long-run relationship between Indonesian aggregate import demand and its determinants; namely, real income and relative import prices. In contrast to previous studies (Reinhart, 1995; and Senhadji, 1998), the result of the bounds test (Pesaran et al., 2001) reveals that import volume, real income and relative import prices are cointegrated. This is an important finding from the viewpoint of the Indonesian economic policy. The estimated long-run elasticity of real income and relative price are 0.98 and –0.4 respectively. JEL Classification: C22, F14