Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Is Stimulation of Cardiomyocyte Renewal a Facette of Reversible Catecholamine Toxicity?

The cardiotoxicity of high doses of catecholamines has been described more than half a century ago as an infarct-like injury.1 Sustained application of isoprenaline in rats reproducibly and dose-dependently induces cardiomegaly, myocardial necrosis, cardiomyocyte hypertrophy, fibrosis, and cardiac dysfunction,2 associated with the full molecular signature of chronic heart failure.3 The simplicity and robustness of the model and the fact that catecholamine toxicity is a likely pathogenic factor in systolic heart failure and the treatment of acute decompensated heart failure in patients made isoprenaline infusion one of the most frequently used experimental models in cardiovascular research. Isoprenaline cardiotoxicity is associated with lowering of mean arterial blood pressure and, as noted early,2 seems to be largely reversible. Because necrotic, that is, dying cardiomyocytes are unlikely to recover, the interesting possibility exists that the loss of myocytes in catecholamine cardiotoxicity is compensated for by an injury-induced stimulation of cardiomyocyte renewal. Article, see p 865 In fact, recent publications provided evidence in favor of this hypothesis. An article on cats showed that a 10-day infusion of high doses of isoprenaline (1.1 mg/kg×h) induced myocyte death (increase in troponin plasma levels), hypertrophy, fibrosis, and cardiac dysfunction. Although the increase in cardiac collagen content was irreversible, cardiac dysfunction and hypertrophy showed partial recovery in 4 weeks after the end of injury phase.4 Recovery at this time point was associated with a robust increase in the number of left atrial myocytes that had incorporated 5-bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) given during the isoprenaline infusion (≈2% versus 0.018 in control). Because the increase in BrdU incorporation during the 10-day isoprenaline infusion was restricted to nonmyocytes (18.6% versus 2.5% in control), the data suggested the new myocytes observed after 28 days to be derived from stimulated nonmyocytes, potentially c-kit+ cardiac progenitor cells. The data would be …
Influence Of Corporate Social Responsibility As Perceived By Salespeople On Their Ethical Behaviour, Attitudes And Their Turnover Intentions

The ethical behavior of salespeople has become a tremendous challenge in the business world. While a great majority of big companies communicate about their Corporate Social Responsibility, this study shows for the first time that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has no influence upon the ethical behavior of salespeople. However, it demonstrates that a reputation associated with CSR can be a precious management tool that can be used to act upon salespeople’s satisfaction, organizational commitment and turnover intentions. More specifically, CSR policies, as perceived by salespeople, increase their satisfaction level which, in turn, decreases their turnover intention. Likewise, CSR policies, as perceived by salespeople, increase their organizational commitment, which, in turn, contributes to decrease their turnover intention. In addition, this study provides avenues to explore regarding the tools influencing the ethical behavior of salespeople. The answers of 197 salespeople were collected using an innovative recruitment method with high potentialities - social networks.
Use of Outer Surface Protein Repeat Regions for Improved Genotyping of Staphylococcus epidermidis

ABSTRACT Staphylococcus epidermidis is an important nosocomial pathogen, but little is known of its epidemiology. Accurate, reproducible typing systems would greatly improve epidemiologic investigations of S. epidermidis. The sequence-based typing technique most recently evaluated, multilocus sequence typing (MLST), often lacks discrimination and can be expensive. PCR and sequence-based analyses of the serine-aspartate repeat region of sdrG (Fbe) and the repeat region of the accumulation-associated protein gene (aap) were evaluated for the ability to discriminate among previously well-characterized S. epidermidis clinical isolates. Forty-eight strains were investigated, with sdrG found in 100% and aap found in 79% of all strains tested. Both genes demonstrated PCR product size and nucleotide sequence variation. Each system by itself gave an index of discrimination similar in value to that of MLST (0.924 and 0.953 compared to 0.96), but discrimination was further improved when combinations of the three systems were used. We conclude that typing systems using amino acid and nucleotide repeat regions of the S. epidermidis surface proteins SdrG and Aap show promise as typing tools and should be investigated using a larger panel of clinically relevant isolates.
Corporate governance and restrictions in debt contracts 1

We investigate the impact of corporate governance mechanisms on the presence of restrictions in bond and syndicated bank loan contracts. These mechanisms are in place to align the interests of equity holders and managers but they can also enhance the monitoring and enforcement of debt contracts. If this is the case, we expect lenders to accept fewer restrictions in debt contracts. Using a broad set of corporate governance indicators, we find that debt contracts have fewer restrictions when the board size is larger, members have more expertise, and the firm has more activist shareholders. However, lenders demand more restrictions when blockholders control the firms; an indication of a greater concern about the expropriation of debt-holder wealth typically associated with these shareholders. We also find that arms’-length lenders (i.e., bondholders) rely more on borrowers’ corporate governance mechanisms when setting restrictions in debt contracts as compared to banks that do their own monitoring.
Electroencephalographic activity during perception of motion in childhood

The purpose of the present study was to relate observations of biological motion to cortical activity by evaluation of the association of quantified electroencephalogram (qEEG) parameters with a video film projection. Thirty right‐handed healthy children (2–8‐year‐olds) viewed a video film showing still shots and moving shots with human movement or object movement. The EEG was recorded while children watched the video movie and was then subjected to spectral analysis; the spectral powers for theta, alpha and beta bands were matched with corresponding sequences of video film. The power values of each frequency band were analysed in a four‐way repeated‐measures anova (Age × Hemisphere × Electrode × Sequence). Three main results were obtained: (i) younger children (2–4‐year‐olds) had higher power spectral values than older children (5–8‐year‐olds); (ii) greater EEG desynchronization of the left hemisphere was observed; (iii) observation of biological movement was related to a significant decrease in theta 1 and theta 2 power values of EEG in fronto‐temporal and central regions of the left hemisphere compared with visual perception of still shots or nonhuman movement. These results indicated some support for the theory that the sensori‐motor cortex and Broca's area are activated during visual observation of human motion.
Examining the Impact of Disruption, Supplier Quality and Knowledge Transfer: Recommended Strategies for Meeting Demand and Supplier Development

I investigate the effect of supply-chain disruption on a firm’s decisions on investment in quality, and on ordering decisions, when there is a choice between suppliers, and a variable rate of knowledge transfer. I find that supply-chain disruption has a negative effect on profit, which can be mitigated by appropriate policies for order allocation and supplier development. When the probability of disruption is high, the firm should seek alternative sources of supply (even if they have lower levels of quality). Under certain conditions, the firm can improve its profit by investing in quality improvement efforts at the alternative supplier. I consider three different policies for supply-chain management and quality investment, and find that investment in supplier development is warranted when the initial quality level of the new supplier is relatively low; when the expected rate of improvement from such investment is relatively high; when the effectiveness of inspection is relatively low; and when the cost of inspection is relatively high.
Price sensitivity as an indicator of customer defection in retail banking

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to analyse how different dimensions of perceived service loyalty including price sensitivity explains the consumer defection in retail banking.Design/methodology/approach – Empirical tests were conducted with survey data from nearly 1,700 consumers in Finland.Findings – The findings support previous suggestion that service loyalty can be determined by following four dimensions, although a shade of interference in the unidimensionality of the service loyalty instrument in question was observed: purchase intention; word‐of‐mouth communication; price sensitivity; and complaining behaviour.Originality/value – It was found that only the price sensitivity dimension – in which reliability and unidimensionality was strongly verified – was related to the likelihood of defection in the case of low‐price and limited product range driven sales offers. Results show that loyal customers are also open to attractive marketing information. This outcome is important since the willi.
Corporate Governance and Risk: A Study of Board Structure and Process

ACCA's international research programme generates high-profile, high-quality, cutting-edge research. All research reports from this programme are subject to a rigorous peer-review process, and are independently reviewed by two experts of international standing, one academic and one professional in practice. The Council of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants consider this study to be a worthwhile contribution to discussion but do not necessarily share the views expressed, which are those of the authors alone. No responsibility for loss occasioned to any person acting or refraining from acting as a result of any material in this publication can be accepted by the authors or publisher.
Enforcement of Financial Reporting: A Corporate Governance Perspective

The main objective of financial reporting is to provide useful information to a firm’s stakeholders. However, it is questionable whether this goal can be fully realized without effective enforcement, which ensures faithful and consistent application of the relevant accounting standards. Within the multiplicity of studies investigating enforcement mechanisms and consequences to enforcement actions, this paper provides an overview on the current state of research on enforcement from a corporate governance perspective. We therefore analyze enforcement literature from both internal and external corporate governance perspectives in order to show interactions between enforcement and other mechanisms of financial reporting oversight. In addition, it becomes evident that most preceding research addresses neither efficiency nor efficacy of enforcement systems due to missing effect variables or data accessibility. Furthermore, we deduce further research opportunities with respect to enforcement consequences and their determinants.
The Effect of Ownership Structure on Underinvestment and Overinvestment Processes

This paper investigates how insider ownership and ownership concentration influence a firm's investment-cash flow sensitivity. We propose a new empirical approach that allows us to account for the non-linearities of ownership structure with respect to firm value, and to distinguish between firms according to their propensity to suffer from underinvestment or overinvestment processes. The empirical evidence is obtained by estimating an extended version of the q model of investment that incorporates capital market frictions. This model has been estimated by the generalized method of moments (GMM), which allows us to control for the endogeneity problem by using instruments, and for unobservable heterogeneity through an individual effect. First, our results show that there are no differences in the role played by ownership structure between underinvestor and overinvestor firms, since the alignment of interests between owners and mangers and the monitoring by concentrated ownership both alleviate the investment-cash flow sensitivity of firms in general. Second, we find that managerial entrenchment and expropriation phenomena do cause a shift in this effect, since they exacerbate the conflicts of interests between main stakeholders and, consequently, underinvestment and overinvestment processes worsen.
The Short- and Long-Term Effects of Measuring Intent to Repurchase

We compare the incidence, timing, and profitability of repeated online grocery purchases made by a cohort of consumers whose purchase intentions were measured with those of similar consumers whose intentions were not measured. We find that measuring intentions increases the likelihood of repeat purchase incidence and shortens the time until the first repeat purchase but that these two mere-measurement effects decay rapidly after 3 mo. Still, we find persisting gains in customer profitability over time because the accelerated purchases of the first 3 mo. lead to faster subsequent purchases in the remainder of the period.
Combination of hTERT and bmi-1, E6, or E7 Induces Prolongation of the Life Span of Bone Marrow Stromal Cells from an Elderly Donor without Affecting Their Neurogenic Potential

ABSTRACT Murine bone marrow stromal cells differentiate not only into mesodermal derivatives, such as osteocytes, chondrocytes, adipocytes, skeletal myocytes, and cardiomyocytes, but also into neuroectodermal cells in vitro. Human bone marrow stromal cells are easy to isolate but difficult to study because of their limited life span. To overcome this problem, we attempted to prolong the life span of bone marrow stromal cells and investigated whether bone marrow stromal cells modified with bmi-1, hTERT, E6, and E7 retained their differentiated capability, or multipotency. In this study, we demonstrated that the life span of bone marrow stromal cells derived from a 91-year-old donor could be extended and that the stromal cells with an extended life span differentiated into neuronal cells in vitro. We examined the neuronally differentiated cells morphologically, physiologically, and biologically and compared the gene profiles of undifferentiated and differentiated cells. The neuronally differentiated cells exhibited characteristics similar to those of midbrain neuronal progenitors. Thus, the results of this study support the possible use of autologous-cell graft systems to treat central nervous system diseases in geriatric patients.
Role of Glutamate and Glutamate Receptors in Memory Function and Alzheimer's Disease a

Several investigations stress the involvement of glutamate and its receptors in learning and memory. The hippocampal region attracted early attention for being involved in such processes in man. '. * Later, long-term potentiation (LTP) was first ascribed to the hippocampus and several studies have developed the concept as a synaptic model for m e m ~ r y . ~ , ~ LTP is blocked by N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonists and is localized to several different glutamergic pathway^. ^ LTP is, however, a widespread phenomenon and can be produced throughout the limbic forebrain including the entorhinal area, but marked differences exist bctwecn different pathways6 Further, animal studies involving selective hippocampal lesion have not been able to confirm a global mnemonic role of the hippocampus. ' According to the literature on the rat, the hippocampus appears to be more involved in working memory than in reference m e m ~ r y . ~ , ~ Human investigations on memory function focused on the neurochemical and histological changes in Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's disease is a form of dementia characterized histologically by the presence of neurofibrillary tangles and senile plaque and a loss of pyramidal cells in the brain. The severity of the dementia is related to the number of neurofibrillary tangles and less to the senile plaques. Previously, the cholinergic dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease had been the dominating concept,1° but in the last five years several reviews have pointed out a possible central role of glutamergic neurons in the development of the The ventromedial temporal lobe including the entorhinal cortex, the hippocampus, and the amygdala are the most markedly atrophied regions in Alzheimer's disease. The association areas of the parietotemporal and prefrontal cortex are involved to an intermediate degree.I5J6 It now seems accepted that the first cells to be affected with neurofibrillary tangles are located in the transentorhinal cortex, followed by the perirhinal cortex, the entorhinal cortex, and the pyramidal cells in CA1 and subiculum. This hierarchy of pathology occurs both in normal aging and more predominantly in Alzheimer's disease.I7JR The affected areas in the brain seemed to be closely linked with the entorhinal cortex. An area separated by none or one synapse is more affected than an
Customer Orientation and Sme export performance: Insights from Italian manufacturing firms

The purpose of this study is to advance knowledge of export literatureon Italian Smes. Given the striking changes that the process of globalizationhas brought to international markets, scholarly research hashighlighted that Italian Smes should adopt a customer orientation strategyin order to increase their competitiveness. To date, very few studieshave tested whether those strategies viewed as success factors are actuallybeneficial for the Italian Smes. A sample of senior managers ofsmall and medium-sized exporting firms in Italy is used to test the hypotheses.Whilst confirming that customer orientation has a direct impacton strategic performance, we show that customer orientation hasa negative effect on firms' financial performance. Our study shows thattechnology intensity of products does not have a significant impact onfinancial performance, but this link is mediated by strategic performance.Finally, our results confirm that experienced managers of Smesconsider customer orientation a central element of their firm's exportstrategy. Implications of these findings along with the limitations of thestudy are discussed.
Factors underlying the phenomenon of consumer ethnocentricity: evidence from four central European countries

It has been suggested that ethnic sentiment is becoming one of the strongest motivations in consumer purchasing behavior in the contemporary marketplace, particularly in economies undergoing major reforms such as those in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). While the consequences of consumer ethnocentric tendencies have been well acknowledged in empirical research, the sources of this phenomenon have yet to be established. The present study inquired into cultural openness and demographic variables as antecedents to consumer ethnocentricity. Theory based propositions were investigated on samples of consumers in four CEE countries. The results revealed relatively low ethnocentric tendencies, which differed significantly across the countries. Furthermore, brand awareness as an indicator of cultural openness, age and gender were all found to be significant determinants of this phenomenon. The paper concludes by providing a platform for further discussion on the role of ethnocentrism research.
Caloric Expenditure of Aerobic, Resistance, or Combined High-Intensity Interval Training Using a Hydraulic Resistance System in Healthy Men

Abstract Falcone, PH, Tai, C-Y, Carson, LR, Joy, JM, Mosman, MM, McCann, TR, Crona, KP, Kim, MP, and Moon, JR. Caloric expenditure of aerobic, resistance, or combined high-intensity interval training using a hydraulic resistance system in healthy men. J Strength Cond Res 29(3): 779–785, 2015—Although exercise regimens vary in content and duration, few studies have compared the caloric expenditure of multiple exercise modalities with the same duration. The purpose of this study was to compare the energy expenditure of single sessions of resistance, aerobic, and combined exercise with the same duration. Nine recreationally active men (age: 25 ± 7 years; height: 181.6 ± 7.6 cm; weight: 86.6 ± 7.5 kg) performed the following 4 exercises for 30 minutes: a resistance training session using 75% of their 1-repetition maximum (1RM), an endurance cycling session at 70% maximum heart rate (HRmax), an endurance treadmill session at 70% HRmax, and a high-intensity interval training (HIIT) session on a hydraulic resistance system (HRS) that included repeating intervals of 20 seconds at maximum effort followed by 40 seconds of rest. Total caloric expenditure, substrate use, heart rate (HR), and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) were recorded. Caloric expenditure was significantly (p ⩽ 0.05) greater when exercising with the HRS (12.62 ± 2.36 kcal·min−1), compared with when exercising with weights (8.83 ± 1.55 kcal·min−1), treadmill (9.48 ± 1.30 kcal·min−1), and cycling (9.23 ± 1.25 kcal·min−1). The average HR was significantly (p ⩽ 0.05) greater with the HRS (156 ± 9 b·min−1), compared with that using weights (138 ± 16 b·min−1), treadmill (137 ± 5 b·min−1), and cycle (138 ± 6 b·min−1). Similarly, the average RPE was significantly (p ⩽ 0.05) higher with the HRS (16 ± 2), compared with that using weights (13 ± 2), treadmill (10 ± 2), and cycle (11 ± 1). These data suggest that individuals can burn more calories performing an HIIT session with an HRS than spending the same amount of time performing a steady-state exercise session. This form of exercise intervention may be beneficial to individuals who want to gain the benefits of both resistance and cardiovascular training but have limited time to dedicate to exercise.
The role of APS systems in Supply Chain Management: a theoretical and industrial analysis

Companies are engaged in developing integrated and worldwide information system. Therefore, ERP have been largely introduced and more recently, APS emerge for the supply chain planning function. This paper presents an analysis of the contribution of APS to Supply Chain Management. Do APS cover the whole supply chain and enable the integration of its activities? Are companies mature enough to exploit both vertical and horizontal integration? Based on academic works and industrial interviews, our findings reveal a good integration of supply chain activities, even if we notice a relatively partial use of APS, mainly for the upstream supply chain.