Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Transcript profiling in Candida albicans reveals new cellular functions for the transcriptional repressors CaTup1, CaMig1 and CaNrg1

The pathogenic fungus, Candida albicans contains homologues of the transcriptional repressors ScTup1, ScMig1 and ScNrg1 found in budding yeast. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, ScMig1 targets the ScTup1/ScSsn6 complex to the promoters of glucose repressed genes to repress their transcription. ScNrg1 is thought to act in a similar manner at other promoters. We have examined the roles of their homologues in C. albicans by transcript profiling with an array containing 2002 genes, representing about one quarter of the predicted number of open reading frames (ORFs) in C. albicans. The data revealed that CaNrg1 and CaTup1 regulate a different set of C. albicans genes from CaMig1 and CaTup1. This is consistent with the idea that CaMig1 and CaNrg1 target the CaTup1 repressor to specific subsets of C. albicans genes. However, CaMig1 and CaNrg1 repress other C. albicans genes in a CaTup1‐independent fashion. The targets of CaMig1 and CaNrg1 repression, and phenotypic analyses of nrg1/nrg1 and mig1/mig1 mutants, indicate that these factors play differential roles in the regulation of metabolism, cellular morphogenesis and stress responses. Hence, the data provide important information both about the modes of action of these transcriptional regulators and their cellular roles. The transcript profiling data are available at http://www.pasteur. fr/recherche/unites/RIF/transcriptdata/.
The Governance of Not-for-Profit Firms

Many factors including incentive-pay, powerful shareholders, and takeover threats push for-profits managers towards maximizing shareholder value. One of the most striking factors about non-profit firms is that they have no comparable governance institutions, and the only check on managers are boards that are themselves rarely responsible to anyone outside the firm. This essay discusses the implications of these weak governance institutions on non-profit behavior. A primary implication is that non-profits will often evolve into organizations that resemble workers' cooperatives. The primary check on this tendency is the need of the organizations to compete in outside markets. After presenting a model of non-profit behavior, I look at four different sectors (hospitals, museums, universities and the church). All display significant signs of capture by elite workers, but all still perform their basic missions reasonably, probably because of market competition.
A new HDL mimetic peptide that stimulates cellular cholesterol efflux with high efficiency greatly reduces atherosclerosis in mice

Here, we report the creation of a single-helix peptide (ATI-5261) that stimulates cellular cholesterol efflux with Km molar efficiency approximating native apolipoproteins. Anti-atherosclerosis activity of ATI-5261 was evaluated in LDLR−/− and apolipoprotein (apo)E−/− mice ∼5–7 months of age, following 13–18 weeks on a high-fat Western diet (HFWD). Treatment of fat-fed LDLR−/− mice with daily intraperitoneal injections of ATI-5261 (30 mg/kg) for 6 weeks reduced atherosclerosis by 30%, as judged by lesion area covering the aorta (7.9 ± 2 vs.11.3 ± 2.5% control, P = 0.011) and lipid-content of aortic sinus plaque (25 ± 5.8 vs. 33 ± 4.9% control, P = 0.014). In apoE−/− mice, the peptide administered 30 mg/kg ip on alternate days for 6 weeks reduced atherosclerosis by ∼45% (lesion area = 15 ± 7 vs. 25 ± 8% control, P = 0.00016; plaque lipid-content = 20 ± 6 vs. 32 ± 8% control, P < 0.0001). Similar reductions in atherosclerosis were achieved using ATI-5261:POPC complexes. Single intraperitoneal injection of ATI-5261 increased reverse cholesterol transport from macrophage foam-cells to feces over 24–48 h. In summary, relatively short-term treatment of mice with the potent cholesterol efflux peptide ATI-5261 reduced substantial atherosclerosis. This was achieved using an L-amino acid peptide, in the presence of severe hypercholesterolemia/HFWD, and did not require daily injections or formulation with phospholipids when administered via intraperitoneal injection.
Relationship Between Mission Statement and Company Performance

Abstract Mission statement is a managerial tool which has the power of directing the behaviour in a company. The important question we can ask is whether the existence of a mission statement is associated with company performance or not. Findings of different studies exploring this relationship are not very conclusive. Besides, mission statements often comprise of different components or dimensions. It seems that relationship between the mission statement and company performance depends on mission statement dimensions as well. In our research based on a sample of 394 Slovenian companies we explore the links between the existences of a mission statement and its components on one side, and different measures of company performance on the other. We recognised value added per employee (VAE) as the only performance measure associated with existence or non-existence of mission statement. Besides, VAE is associated with two possible mission statement dimensions - focus on relationships and focus on company resources
Why Do Local South Korean Market Leaders Supply Retailer Grocery Brands?

This article examines why many of the leading South Korean brand manufacturers produce retailer brand products within their major product categories. The reasons identified include pressure from retailers, protection of other national brand product ranges, maintenance or improvements in working relationships, protection of other distribution channels, savings in marketing budgets, diversification of product lines, and changing competitive structures. Evidence is also provided of the dynamic nature of decision making relating to retail brand supply across the whole portfolio of brands which the manufacturer offers, rather than in respect of individual product brands or markets, the focus of much existing work.
Do Aggressive Funds Reallocate Their Portfolios Aggressively?

This study examines pairs of asset allocation mutual funds that are controlled for all informational attributes, except for the level of risk aversion. Standard mean-variance models of portfolio choice suggest that the percentage rebalancing of common stocks in aggressive funds would be the same as that in conservative funds. However, this study finds the rebalancing of common stocks in aggressive funds to be disproportionally less intense.
Euromed, European Neighbourhood Policy and the Union for the Mediterranean: Overlapping Policy Frames in the EU's Governance of the Mediterranean

This article uses the language of governance to explore the relationships between the EU and the states around the Mediterranean. Against the background of multiple legal, policy and institutional arrangements which have been created by the EU since 1995 to frame EuroMediterranean relations, the article considers how seemingly different priorities and methods come together. Of particular interest is the EU's stated goal of a partnership across the Mediterranean, which is promoted by the EU at the same time as it seeks to project its own values in the countries just beyond its borders. The article considers the changing nature of the Mediterranean within EU policy-making, as well as the EU's changing priorities, which suggests incoherency but which instead underlines the central role of the EU in a EuroMediterranean system of governance. The positive connotations of the language of governance (identified in the first part of the article) are not fully present in the overlapping policy frames since the stated partnership between the two sides of the Mediterranean in a system of governance is not borne out in practice.
Use of Vitamins and Minerals in the Treatment of Hair Loss: A Cross-Sectional Survey among Dermatologists in Saudi Arabia

Background: Several controversies exist regarding the use of vitamin and mineral supplements in treating hair loss. Objectives: To explore practices, knowledge, and attitudes for using vitamins and minerals in treating hair loss among dermatologists in Saudi Arabia. Methods: A self-administrated questionnaire containing 33 questions was distributed to 177 dermatologists attending a national dermatology conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 2012. Results: Of the 177 attending dermatologists, 144 responded to the questionnaire (81% response rate). Vitamins and minerals were recommended for treating at least one type of hair loss by 60%. Vitamins and minerals were most commonly used for acute telogen effluvium (62%). The majority (72%) reported a good knowledge of vitamins and minerals toxicity. Conclusion: Although dermatologists in Saudi Arabia displayed positive believes in the usefulness of vitamins and minerals in treating hair loss, further research is needed to prove their role in the management of different hair loss disorders.
Alleviating Urban Traffic Congestion

In 2000, the average driver in US metropolitan areas endured 27 hours of traffic delays, a rise from 7 hours in 1980. In many other countries, traffic delays are considerably worse than in the United States, and in developing countries urban traffic congestion is increasing with alarming rapidity. For fifty years, economists have been advocating congestion pricing as the way to deal with urban traffic congestion; but today, even after some successes, congestion pricing is encountering considerable political resistance. The authors of Alleviating Urban Traffic Congestion advocate active consideration of more microscopic policies that attack the problem at the scale at which actual policy decisions are made. Microscopic models, rather than macroscopic models that are too simplified and too aggregated, they argue, will lead to the analysis of a wider and more creative range of policies, at least some of which should work well and be politically acceptable. After developing the themes of the book, the authors illustrate them by examining some areas of urban transport policy that have been neglected by the macroscopic approach. These include downtown parking policy, the encouragement of bicycling, the staggering of work hours by dominant employers, and the use by medium-sized cities of a "multimode" ticket that charges cars entering the city center a toll equal to the transit fare. The reorientation of urban transport analysis that they advocate will by no means eliminate traffic delays but should speed up the adoption of a richer, more flexible, and ultimately more effective set of policies to alleviate urban traffic congestion.
Hepatitis B Virus Genotype Distribution among Chronic Hepatitis B Virus Carriers in Shanghai, China

Objective: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) genotype distribution is still unclear in China, where a high prevalence of HBV infection exists, although it is well known that HBV can be classified into six genotypes based on intergroup divergence. The aim of this study was to investigate the epidemiological distribution of HBV genotypes and to clarify further the genotype-related differences in the pathogenicity of HBV. Methods: Seminested PCR and restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis were conducted in 97 asymptomatic HBV carriers (ASC) and 46 chronic hepatitis (CH), 37 liver cirrhosis (LC) and 44 hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients in Shanghai, China. Results: Two hundred and twenty samples (98.2%) were positive for HBV DNA, and of these, 3 (1.4%), 38 (17.2%) and 179 (81.4%) were classified as genotype A, B and C, respectively. There was a statistically significant difference in the distribution of genotypes B and C among various categories of liver diseases (p < 0.01). The distribution of genotype C showed an increasing trend from ASC, CH and LC to the HCC group; in contrast, the distribution of genotype B showed a decreasing trend in the same order. HBeAg positivity was higher in genotype C than in genotype B in all the subjects or in the ASC group alone (p < 0.05, p < 0.01, respectively). More severe liver damage and a higher mean age were observed in genotype C than in genotype B (p < 0.01, p < 0.05, respectively). Conclusions: These results indicate the following: (1) genotypes A, B and C of HBV exist in Shanghai, China; (2) genotype C is the major genotype in this area; (3) genotype C is associated with the development of severe liver diseases, and (4) genotype B has a relatively good prognosis.
Learning Trajectories, Violence and Empowerment Amongst Adult Basic Skills Learners

Learning Trajectories, Violence and Empowerment amongst Adult Basic Skills Learners offers deep insights into the lives of marginalised communities and the link between learning, literacy and violence, not previously carried out in-depth in a small scale study. It breaks the negative stereo-types of adults who struggle to read and write, who are often labelled and stigmatised by dominant discourses, and in doing so exposes why and how Basic Skills Learners often find themselves in marginal positions. The structural inequalities many face from childhood to adulthood across the private and public domains of their lives are revealed and probed, thus challenging neo-liberalism claims of an apparently egalitarian social field. The learners’ narratives expose the contradiction, complexities and ambivalences they experience in their daily lives, and how they try to make sense of them from their structural positioning as basic skills learners in a society based on inequality of opportunity and choice. Applying a feminist, qualitative, longitudinal, ethnographic and participatory approach, the book offers a critical perspective, drawing on Bourdieu’s work as the theoretical framework, as well as using a range of feminist, sociologists of education, literature on the ethics of care and critical literacy pedagogy, including the New Literacy Studies. The author’s personal position as an ’insider’ with ‘insider knowledge’ of marginalised communities is also woven throughout the chapters and offers insights into the struggles, conformity and resistance faced by the participants in the study. The book contributes to the debate on the impact of violence on learning and its link to class, gender and basic skills as well opening up a discussion on the power of a critical curriculum to empower people across the domains of their lives. It will be valuable reading for trainee teachers, teachers, education and sociology students, postgraduate students, as well as literacy specialists, researchers, academics, policy makers and managers of public services.
Incidental findings on positron emission tomography/CT scans performed in the investigation of lung cancer.

OBJECTIVES This study aimed to clarify the number and cause of incidental findings detected on positron emission tomography (PET)/CT in patients undergoing investigation for presumed lung cancer. METHODS The scan reports from PET/CT studies performed for patients with lung cancer under National Institute for Clinical Evidence guidelines from January 2006 until March 2008 were retrospectively reviewed. Incidental findings were followed up by a combination of case note review, clinician feedback, colonoscopy database, histopathology and follow-up imaging. RESULTS 818 patients were investigated for lung cancer in the study period. 197 incidental findings were found in 175 (21%) patients. The subsequent investigation of 108 lesions confirmed a pathological correlation in 71 (66%) cases. A second primary malignancy was found in 10 patients within the bowel (6), breast (2), tongue (1) and stomach (1). A pre-malignant lesion was confirmed in 25 cases (24 large bowel tubulovillous adenomas and a follicular thyroid lesion). A further 41 (5%) benign abnormalities were detected at multiple sites; the thyroid gland was the single most frequently affected site (14 abnormalities). There were 36 (4.4%) false-positive reported findings, including 17 in the region of the pharynx and larynx and 12 within the large bowel. CONCLUSIONS Overall, 9.2% of patients with suspected or known lung cancer having PET/CT had a confirmed incidental finding. A malignant or pre-malignant lesion was found in 1.2% and 3.0%, respectively. These were mostly located within the gastrointestinal tract. The majority of false-positive incidental findings were located in the larynx and pharynx. Uptake in these regions is unlikely to be significant in the absence of a CT morphological correlation.
Demand for a Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit: Exploring Consumer Preferences under a Managed Competition Framework

Several proposals for adding a prescription drug benefit to the Medicare program rely on consumer choice and market forces to promote efficiency. However, little information exists regarding: 1) the extent of price sensitivity for such plans among Medicare beneficiaries, or 2) the extent to which drug-only insurance plans using various cost-control mechanisms might experience adverse selection. Using data from a survey of elderly Wisconsin residents regarding their likely choices from a menu of hypothetical drug plans, we show that respondents are likely to be price sensitive with respect to both premiums and out-of-pocket costs but that selection problems may arise in these markets. Outside intervention may be necessary to ensure the feasibility of a market-based approach to a Medicare drug benefit.
Stock Market Driven Acquisitions versus the Q Theory of Takeovers - The UK Evidence

Using a sample of UK mergers and acquisitions from 1985-2004, we show that equity over-valuation appears to play an important role in the determination of financing method. Our results are broadly consistent with the Sheifer and Vishny (2003) theory of market-driven acquisitions rather than a Q-theory explanation. In some contrast to the US results of Dong et al (2006) we find that over-valuation appears to be the more persuasive explanation for acquisition behaviour in the UK, although like them we cannot comprehensively reject a Q-theory explanation. Given the evidence in favour of the Shleifer-Vishny hypothesis, we argue that a selection model is necessary in when investigate the long run performance of acquirers, and present results which indicate that there is some evidence of high-Q acquirers performing better, but only amongst the cash acquirer sub-sample.
Germline transformation of the diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella L., using the piggyBac transposable element

The diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella, is one of the most economically important agricultural pests. The larvae of this moth cause damage by feeding on the foliage of cruciferous vegetables such as cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and rapeseed. Control generally comprises chemical treatment; however, the diamondback moth is renowned for rapid development of resistance to pesticides. Other methods, such as biological control, have not been able to provide adequate protection. Germline transformation of pest insects has become available in recent years as an enabling technology for new genetics‐based control methods, such as the Release of Insects carrying a Dominant Lethal (RIDL®). In the present study, we report the first transformation of the diamondback moth, using the piggyBac transposable element, by embryo microinjection. In generating transgenic strains using four different constructs, the function of three regulatory sequences in this moth was demonstrated in driving expression of fluorescent proteins. The transformation rates achieved, 0.48–0.68%, are relatively low compared with those described in other Lepidoptera, but not prohibitive, and are likely to increase with experience. We anticipate that germline transformation of the diamondback moth will permit the development of RIDL strains for use against this pest and facilitate the wider use of this species as a model organism for basic studies.
The Trajectory of REOs in Southern California Latino Neighborhoods: An Uneven Geography of Recovery

Although a rich literature exists on the determinants and effects of concentrated foreclosures, little is known about what drives variation in how long real estate owned (REO) properties take to sell and to whom, particularly in Latino communities heavily affected by the current foreclosure crisis. This research employs multilevel and event history modeling to assess the factors associated with recent REOs’ likelihood of sale, sale to an investor, and sale to a Spanish-surname household in a sample of majority Latino Southern California neighborhoods. Properties in inner-city and exurban Latino neighborhoods with larger black population shares were less likely to sell and more likely to sell to investors if they did, while those located in lower poverty, largely Latino communities were more likely to sell to Spanish-surname households. These results suggest that the crisis is both exacerbating existing patterns of inequality and segregation while enabling Latinos’ homeownership in potentially socioeconomic mobility-enabling areas.
Dose selection for the investigational anticancer agent alisertib (MLN8237): Pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and exposure–safety relationships

We report population pharmacokinetic, pharmacodynamic, and pharmacokinetic‐safety analyses to support phase II/III dose/regimen selection of alisertib, a selective Aurora A kinase (AAK) inhibitor. Phase I studies in adult cancer patients evaluated dosing on Days 1–7 in 21‐day cycles or Days 1–21 in 35‐day cycles, with corresponding maximum tolerated doses of 50 mg twice daily (BID) and 50 mg QD, respectively. Population pharmacokinetic analyses supported dose‐ and time‐linear pharmacokinetics without identification of clinically meaningful covariates. Exposure‐related increases in skin mitotic index and decreases in chromosomal alignment/spindle bipolarity in tumor mitotic cells confirmed AAK inhibition. Exposures in the 7‐day schedule at or near 50 mg BID are expected to result in tumor AAK inhibition based on pharmacodynamic assessment in patient tumors. Exposure‐safety analyses of data from patients receiving doses of 5–200 mg/day in the 7‐day schedule support a low (∼7%) predicted incidence of dose‐limiting toxicity at 50 mg BID. Taken together, these analyses support a pharmacologically active and acceptably tolerated dose range of alisertib for future clinical development.
DIVERSIFICATION BENEFITS IN THE FINNISH COMMERCIAL PROPERTY MARKET

The Finnish commercial property market internationalised rapidly in the beginning of the 21st century. According to the portfolio theory and previous research on international property investments, the main motivation factor driving international real estate investments is the possibility to reach diversification benefits. The paper discusses the diversification benefits offered by the Finnish property market in its early years of internationalisation. As international real estate investors in the Finnish property market include investors with both real estate only, as well as mixed‐asset portfolios, the diversification benefits are studied both in terms of a Finnish mixed‐asset portfolio, as well as international real estate portfolio.