Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Metabolic and Developmental Adaptations of Growing Potato Tubers in Response to Specific Manipulations of the Adenylate Energy Status1[W][OA]

Heterotrophic carbon metabolism has been demonstrated to be limited by oxygen availability in a variety of plant tissues, which in turn inevitably affects the adenylate status. To study the effect of altering adenylate energy metabolism, without changing the oxygen supply, we expressed a plastidially targeted ATP/ADP hydrolyzing phosphatase (apyrase) in tubers of growing potato (Solanum tuberosum) plants under the control of either inducible or constitutive promoters. Inducible apyrase expression in potato tubers, for a period of 24 h, resulted in a decrease in the ATP-content and the ATP-ADP ratio in the tubers. As revealed by metabolic profiling, this was accompanied by a decrease in the intermediates of sucrose to starch conversion and several plastidially synthesized amino acids, indicating a general depression of tuber metabolism. Constitutive tuber-specific apyrase expression did not lead to a reduction of ATP, but rather a decrease in ADP and an increase in AMP levels. Starch accumulation was strongly inhibited and shifted to the production of amylopectin instead of amylose in these tubers. Furthermore, the levels of almost all amino acids were decreased, although soluble sugars and hexose-Ps were highly abundant. Respiration was elevated in the constitutively expressing lines indicating a compensation for the dramatic increase in ATP hydrolysis. The increase in respiration did not affect the internal oxygen tensions in the tubers. However, the tubers developed a ginger-like phenotype having an elevated surface-volume ratio and a reduced mass per tuber. Decreased posttranslational redox activation of ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase and a shift in the ratio of soluble starch synthase activity to granule-bound starch synthase activity were found to be partially responsible for the alterations in starch structure and abundance. The activity of alcohol dehydrogenase was decreased and pyruvate decarboxylase was induced, but this was neither reflected by an increase in fermentation products nor in the cellular redox state, indicating that fermentation was not yet induced in the transgenic lines. When taken together the combined results of these studies allow the identification of both short- and long-term adaptation of plant metabolism and development to direct changes in the adenylate status.
Association between fibromyalgia and psychiatric disorders in systemic lupus erythematosus.

OBJECTIVES Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease that may affect many organs, with musculoskeletal symptoms being the most common. Fibromyalgia (FM) is frequent in SLE patients. Psychiatric disorders such as anxiety and depression are also present in many SLE patients. The aim of our study is to determine the relationship between FM and psychiatric symptoms (PS), both anxious (AS) and depressive (DS), and its impact on health status in SLE patients. METHODS In a total of 84 SLE patients we studied the presence of both FM and PS using specific questionnaires (Hamilton). We also evaluated health status and SLE disease activity by both the Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index (SLEDAI) and serological markers. Patients performed the Short Form 12 (SF-12) questionnaire as a quality of life measure. Qualitative variables were compared using Pearson's chi-square test and Fisher's exact test, and Student's t-test was used for quantitative variables. The Mann-Whitney U-test was applied if a normal distribution was not observed. RESULTS Thirty patients were diagnosed with FM (35.7%), 16 had clinical signs DS (19%) and 30 had clinical signs AS (35.7%). We found a statistically significant association between FM and AS (p<0.001), and between FM and DS (p<0.001). Higher SF-12 physical component and mental component scores were observed in FM group compared to non-FM group (p<0.001). We have not found any associations between SLE activity and FM and PS. CONCLUSIONS There is a high prevalence of FM in SLE patients, and a strong association with DS and AS. FM contributes to worsening health status in SLE patients. SLE activity has little or no impact either on psychiatric symptoms or FM.
Term-Time Employment and the Academic Performance of Undergraduates

This article outlines a framework for evaluating the decision of undergraduate students to engage in term-time employment as a method of financing higher education. We then examine the impact of work on academic achievement and find that employment has modest negative effects on student grades, with a grade point average (GPA) falling by 0.007 points per work hour. We use a unique custom dataset based on students at a traditional regional state university that provides information on student motivations and allows us to directly address some of the endogeneity problems that affect existing literature. We find that students who work for primarily financial reasons earn lower grades than students who work for career-specific skills but higher grades than those students motivated by a desire for general work experience.
Capital structure and labour demand: further evidence

This paper provides further evidence on the relationship between a firm's capital structure and its labour demand. This study estimates dynamic labour demand equations using firm-level panel data for firms in the electronics sector in Ireland for the period 1982 to 1995. These results suggest that labour demand is not affected by a firm's capital structure, proxied by its debt-to-asset ratio. This may give statistical support to the Modigliani-Miller theorem, which conjectures that the market value of a firm is not influenced by its capital structure, implying that a firm's labour demand decision is independent of capital structure.
Corporate Spinoffs and Information Asymmetry between Investors

We examine the effect of corporate spinoffs on the trading environment of the stock of firms that spinoff units. Spinoffs change the information environment of firms. The increased precision and quantity of information will change the relative advantage of informed traders. Consistent with increased information incorporation, residual return variance increases following spinoffs. Transaction costs and the price impact of trades are also higher in the quarter following spinoffs. These results are stronger for spinoffs where parent firms divest unrelated subsidiaries. Changes in the information environment associated with spinoffs appear to benefits informed traders at the expense of uninformed traders.
Corporate governance criteria as applied in private equity investments

Ineffective governance has often formed a backdrop to corporate failure with the resultant negative impact on stakeholders. In the field of private equity, investors have consistently received financial returns that outperform those of listed equities. This research investigates the relationship that private equity principals seek with their agents. The “agent-principal” relationship in private equity investments was investigated through a literature review and a survey of experienced private equity practitioners identified the key characteristics associated with this relationship. A conjoint analytical technique was used to measure the relative importance of the various attributes and the degree of preference or utility value for these attributes amongst a sample of 27 experts. The field research established that private equity investments are characterised by, inter alia , proactive agent-principal relationships; a relatively high level of shareholder activism; insistence on transparency; non-executive influence; and active performance management. While the implementation of these lessons may be a subject for future research, the current research has identified and prioritised corporate governance mechanisms that may be more generally applied.
Optimizing antiretroviral therapy for women living with HIV

Purpose of review This review considers the evidence available to guide clinicians in their choice of optimal antiretroviral therapy (ART) for women with HIV. Recent findings Cohort and clinical trial data indicate that ART is as efficacious in women as men, although women are more likely to discontinue therapy, which compromises effectiveness. For many drugs, women have higher plasma levels than men, although whether this is secondary to differing metabolism in women or because on average women have a lower body mass than men is not clear. For many drugs, women experience more adverse events secondary to ART. Opinion on the use of efavirenz in pregnancy differs between countries. The average age of women with HIV is increasing. Although virological responses to ART are not affected by age, immunological responses may be poorer. Older women with HIV face issues such as neurocognitive impairment, early menopause, osteoporosis and polypharmacy, which will have the potential to impact on their use of ART. Summary When planning ART regimes with women, clinicians need to be mindful of the woman's social situation and stage in the life course, as well as the scientific data on individual drug effectiveness according to sex.
Owning the Code: Status Closure in Distributed Groups

An ethnographic study of a team of software developers working on a new product across two groups---located on the West Coast of the United States and in Bangalore, India---is used to analyze status dynamics in distributed groups. Whereas existing literature has emphasized the importance of communication, task design, and incentives for cooperation, this paper shows how status differentials and geographic distance reinforce each other to affect the work processes and collaboration in distributed teams. The focus is on two elements: the relationship between the collaboration across the two groups and their members and the members' interpretations of this relationship. Status influences the perceptions of the remote group, as well as the willingness to cooperate with its members. The key findings specify the informal closure strategies used by the high-status group in relation to the low-status group. Furthermore, the superimposition of geographic and status distance in remote work lowered the cost of exclusion of one group from the collaboration and led to the deepening of status differences between remote groups. By showing status to be both an input and an output of intergroup relations, the paper specifies some of the mechanisms through which status orderings are maintained and reinforced.
What about the Elephant in the Room? Varieties of Capitalism, Varieties in Capitalism

Conceived as considerably broader than simply the Varieties of Capitalism framework, I argue that the varieties of capitalism literature is premised upon an institutional reductionism which necessitates the search for a more holistic approach. In brief, if we are to explain convincingly the evolution of national political economies, then we must acknowledge that varieties of capitalism are also varieties in capitalism. In particular, Antonio Gramsci's writings on common sense enable us to focus on the role of institutions as a historical force without abandoning the system of production that they are part of. I then provide an alternative explanation, compared to the varieties of capitalism literature, of the evolution of the Dutch and German political economies in order to demonstrate the advantages of the framework I develop.
The road to success

Correcting the causes of Haiti’s problems is long over due. Recently I took part in an effort to alleviate the cause of one of Haiti’s problems instead of just effects. I am currently involved with an orphanage that I support in Pétionville. The orphanage’s function was to house abandoned street children. Soon, however, we realized that when they reached the age to leave the orphanage, the children would simply return to Haiti’s streets. Therefore, in 2004, we decided to build a technical school. The technical school’s goal is to return the matured children back to their community with a skill and a trade! The school is now operational and the children are being taught the skills they need to attain employment.
Depletion of B220+NK1.1+ cells enhances the rejection of established melanoma by tumor-specific CD4+ T cells

Five-year survival rates for patients diagnosed with metastatic melanoma are less than 5%. Adoptive cell transfer (ACT) has achieved an objective response of 50% by Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) in this patient population. For ACT to be maximally effective, the host must first be lymphodepleted. It is hypothesized that lymphodepletion may remove regulatory elements and cytokine sinks, or increase the activation and availability of antigen presenting cells (APCs). We use an in vivo model to study the ACT of tumor-associated antigen (TAA)-specific CD4+ T cells (TRP-1 cells). We have discovered that depletion of NK1.1+ cells enhances the rejection of established melanoma tumors by adoptively transferred TRP-1 CD4+ T cells. NK1.1+ cell depletion increases the number of CD4+ T cells, the serum concentration of pro-inflammatory cytokines, autoimmune vitiligo, host survival and prevented recurrence after ACT. Because multiple cells express NK1.1, we targeted different NK1.1+ cell populations using antibodies specific for NK cells, pre-mNK cells, and innate lymphoid cells (ILCs). Our data suggests that NK1.1+B220+ pre-mNK cells (also known as interferon-producing killer dendritic cells; IKDCs) are an important inhibitor of the CD4+ T cell response to melanoma. Understanding this mechanism may help design new immunotherapies to modulate the activity of pre-mNKs in the face of an antitumor immune response and inhibit their suppression of adoptively transferred T cells.
Measurement of Internal Acyl Migration Reaction Kinetics Using Directly Coupled HPLC-NMR:  Application for the Positional Isomers of Synthetic (2-Fluorobenzoyl)-d-glucopyranuronic Acid.

Ester glucuronides (1-O-acyl-β-d-glucopyranuronates) of many drugs may undergo internal acyl migration reactions, resulting in the formation of new positional isomers with both α- and β-anomers. We illustrate here a novel approach for the direct investigation of the acyl migration kinetics of ester glucuronides and show the application with respect to the isomers of synthetic (2-fluorobenzoyl)-d-glucopyranuronic acid. Individual isomers were separated from an equilibrium mixture containing the β-1-O-acyl, α- and β-2-O-acyl, α- and β-3-O-acyl, and α- and β-4-O-acyl isomers at pH 7.4 in 20 mM phosphate buffer. The interconverting isomers were separated using reversed-phase HPLC and pumped directly into a dedicated on-line NMR flow probe in a 600 MHz NMR spectrometer. The flow was stopped with each isomer in the NMR flow probe, and sequential NMR spectra were collected at 25 °C, allowing direct measurement of the production of positional isomers from each selectively isolated glucuronide isomer. All of the positional isomers and anomers were characterized, and relative quantities determined, and a kinetic model describing the rearrangement reactions was constructed. The acyl migration reaction kinetics were simulated using a theoretical approach using nine first-order rate constants determined for the acyl migration reactions and six first-order rate constants describing the mutarotation each of the 2-, 3-, and 4-positional isomers. The rate constants (in h(-)(1)) for the rearrangement reactions of the 2-fluorobenzoyl glucuronide isomers were as follows: β-1-O-acyl, 0.29 ± 0.01; α-2-O-acyl, 0.11 ± 0.01; β-2-O-acyl, 0.07 ± 0.01; α-3-O-acyl, 0.10 ± 0.01; β-3-O-acyl, 0.09 ± 0.01; α-4-O-acyl, 0.09 ± 0.01; and β-4-O-acyl, 0.06 ± 0.01. The α- and β-anomerization rates were estimated on the basis of the kinetics model; the anomerization rates of the 4-O-acyl isomers were additionally determined experimentally using directly coupled HPLC-NMR. The fitted anomerization rates for the 4-O-acyl isomer were 0.80 (α → β) and 0.50 h(-)(1) (β → α), whereas the experimentally estimated anomerization rates were 0.89 ± 0.1 and 0.52 ± 0.1 h(-)(1), respectively. The dynamic stop-flow HPLC-NMR approach allows unique kinetic information to be obtained relating to glucuronide reactivity, and this approach will be useful in future structure-reactivity studies on drug ester glucuronides and their properties.
Efficacy and Tolerability of Advanced Glycation End-Products Inhibitor in Osteoarthritis: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-controlled Study

Objectives:Advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) play an important role in pathogenesis of osteoarthritis (OA). The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of AGEs inhibitor (benfotiamine [50 mg]+pyridoxamine [50 mg]+methylcobalamin [500 µg]; Vonder [Cosme Farma Laboratories Limited, Goa, India]) in OA patients. Methods:A 24-week, double-blind, randomized placebo-controlled study in primary OA patients (n=30 [F/M=26/4; mean age, 57.26±2.16 y]) meeting the classification criteria of American College of Rheumatology, was conducted. Inflammatory disease activity scores on the Western Ontario and McMaster University (WOMAC) Osteoarthritis Index, Lequesne Index, and Pain scores were analyzed. Biomarkers: serum nitrite, AGEs, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances, C-reactive protein, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, were also measured. Time taken to walk 20 m was also recorded. Patients were randomized to either AGEs inhibitor or placebo tablets as thrice-daily regimen. Results:At 24 weeks, net decrease in pain score, −6.64±2.71 versus −8.20±1.28, P=0.003; total WOMAC score, −5.88±0.84 versus −8.26±1.24, P=0.013; Lequesne Index score, −0.60±0.06 versus −0.84±0.09, P=0.05; time taken for 20-m walk test, −5.0±1.39 versus −5.0±0.92 s, P=1.00, were observed in the placebo versus drug group, respectively. Net change in serum nitrite, −0.15±0.01 versus −0.79±0.12 µmol/L, P<0.001; AGEs, −0.12±0.02 versus −0.99±0.09, arbitrary florescence units, P=0.001; thiobarbituric acid reactive substances, −0.69±0.12 versus −1.80±0.12 nmol/L, P<0.01; C-reactive protein, −0.12±0.35 versus −2.45±0.60 mg/L, P<0.01, were observed in the placebo versus drug group, respectively. Discussion:This study shows the efficacy of an AGE inhibitor on decreasing pain and inflammation, and increasing daily activity and mobility in OA patients.
Gauging bank efficiency during card insolvency crisis: the case of the Taiwanese banks

Previous studies mostly focus on bank performance, but few studies have effectively investigated how efficiency is reduced as banks expand credit card or cash card issuances. This study seeks to investigate how bank's relaxations of card issuance and credit revolvers reduce bank efficiency during card insolvency crisis in the Taiwanese banking industry. The results show that the credit card insolvency crisis reduces bank efficiency. Particularly, banks with low card issuance levels perform better than those with high card issuance levels. This suggests that if banks approve card applications while neglecting an applicant's capability to repay the card debt, they will suffer losses. Furthermore, the regression used in this study indicates that bank efficiency is negatively related to the issuances of credit cards, issuances of cash cards, and the revolving amount of credit cards. These findings imply that the relaxations relating to the card issuance or loosened approvals of credit revolvers reduced bank profits resulting from unpaid debts.
Initial fluid resuscitation of patients with septic shock in the intensive care unit

Background: Fluid is the mainstay of resuscitation of patients with septic shock, but the optimal composition and volume are unknown. Our aim was to evaluate the current initial fluid resuscitation practice in patients with septic shock in the intensive care unit (ICU) and patient characteristics and outcome associated with fluid volume.
Correlation of MIC with Outcome for Candida Species Tested against Caspofungin, Anidulafungin, and Micafungin: Analysis and Proposal for Interpretive MIC Breakpoints

ABSTRACT The CLSI Antifungal Subcommittee followed the M23-A2 “blueprint” to develop interpretive MIC breakpoints for anidulafungin, caspofungin, and micafungin against Candida species. MICs of ≤2 μg/ml for all three echinocandins encompass 98.8 to 100% of all clinical isolates of Candida spp. without bisecting any species group and represent a concentration that is easily maintained throughout the dosing period. Data from phase III clinical trials demonstrate that the standard dosing regimens for each of these agents may be used to treat infections due to Candida spp. for which MICs are as high as 2 μg/ml. An MIC predictive of resistance to these agents cannot be defined based on the data from clinical trials due to the paucity of isolates for which MICs exceed 2 μg/ml. The clinical data set included only three isolates from patients treated with an echinocandin (caspofungin) for which the MICs were >2 μg/ml (two C. parapsilosis isolates at 4 μg/ml and one C. rugosa isolate at 8 μg/ml). Based on these data, the CLSI subcommittee has decided to recommend a “susceptible only” breakpoint MIC of ≤2 μg/ml due to the lack of echinocandin resistance in the population of Candida isolates thus far. Isolates for which MICs exceed 2 μg/ml should be designated “nonsusceptible” (NS). For strains yielding results suggestive of an NS category, the organism identification and antimicrobial-susceptibility test results should be confirmed. Subsequently, the isolates should be submitted to a reference laboratory that will confirm the results by using a CLSI reference dilution method.
EXPLORING THE GAP BETWEEN A PRE- AND POST-INSTALLATION OF A CORPORATE E-LEARNING PROGRAM IN AN ACCOUNTING WORKPLACE

Although earlier concentration has addressed the use of corporate e-learning programs (CELP), the dissimilitude between pre and post installation reaction to CELP is less explored. This study adopted a two-phase investigation to survey learner intention to use CELP and actual behavior within an international accounting firm. In the pre-installation phase, a survey was conducted to evaluate learner intention to use CELP, followed one year later by a second investigation to examine learner reactions to CELP and the actual usage frequency/ duration. The results of this study identified there is actually a difference between intention and actual usage duration. Further questionnaire surveys were implemented to identify learner reactions and factors that could potentially contribute to the gap between intention and actual usage duration. Results also indicated that scheduling was the critical factor leading to the differences in actual usage. The conclusions clarify the relationships among learner intention to use CELP, actual usage frequency/ duration, and subsequent reactions towards it.
Tyrosinemia type 1 in Spain: Mutational analysis, treatment and long‐term outcome

Background: Tyrosinemia type 1 (HT1) is a rare but treatable disease. The aim of the present study was to review the efficacy of long‐term treatment of HT1 with nitisinone, expand knowledge about the clinical spectrum of the disease and assess a possible genotype–phenotype correlation.