Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Short‐term exercise training in humans reduces AMPK signalling during prolonged exercise independent of muscle glycogen

We examined the effect of short‐term exercise training on skeletal muscle AMP‐activated protein kinase (AMPK) signalling and muscle metabolism during prolonged exercise in humans. Eight sedentary males completed 120 min of cycling at 66 ± 1%, then exercise trained for 10 days, before repeating the exercise bout at the same absolute workload. Participants rested for 72 h before each trial while ingesting a high carbohydrate diet (HCHO). Exercise training significantly (P < 0.05) attenuated exercise‐induced increases in skeletal muscle free AMP: ATP ratio and glucose disposal and increased fat oxidation. Exercise training abolished the 9‐fold increase in AMPK α2 activity observed during pretraining exercise. Since training increased muscle glycogen content by 93 ± 12% (P < 0.01), we conducted a second experiment in seven sedentary male participants where muscle glycogen content was essentially matched pre‐ and post‐training by exercise and a low CHO diet (LCHO; post‐training muscle glycogen 52 ± 7% less than in HCHO, P < 0.001). Despite the difference in muscle glycogen levels in the two studies we obtained very similar results. In both studies the increase in ACCβ Ser221 phosphorylation was reduced during exercise after training. In conclusion, there is little activation of AMPK signalling during prolonged exercise following short‐term exercise training suggesting that other factors are important in the regulation of glucose disposal and fat oxidation under these circumstances. It appears that muscle glycogen is not an important regulator of AMPK activation during exercise in humans when exercise is begun with normal or high muscle glycogen levels.
Extracting Ideal Point Estimates from Actors’ Preferences in the EU Constitutional Negotiations

This article uses the Domestic Structures and European Integration (DOSEI) data set of actors’ preferences on 65 issues in the 2003-4 Intergovernmental Conference to extract the underlying preferences of the governments, the Commission and the European Parliament on the main dimensions of conflict in the European Union’s constitutional negotiations. The analysis starts by comparing the ideal point estimates produced by three ‘inductive’ techniques: exploratory factor analysis, NOMINATE and Optimal Classification. The results are a series of ideal point estimates that do not correlate well with some simple a priori assumptions about key actors’ positions on the reform of the EU. The analysis then proceeds with a ‘mixed’ deductive/inductive method, in which responses to the survey questions relating to the two exogenous dimensions of constitutional design in a multi-level polity (the ‘vertical’ and ‘horizontal’ allocation of power) are used to generate ideal point estimates on these two dimensions. The result is a more intuitive set of ideal point estimates for the 28 main actors in the negotiations.
Role of Hisbah (Ombudsmanship) Institution in Ensuring Ethical Business Practices: Reflection for Shari’ah Implementing States in Nigeria

Absence of discussion on the economic role of Hisbah institution in complementing the effort of regulatory and monitoring authorities in the inspection of weights and measures, quality of food products, manipulation of prices, supplies and production, monopolistic collisions, cheating and fraud has made many people in Nigeria to mistaken the Hisbah agency for an institution whose primary occupation is just to deal with fornicators, thieves and those who carry women on motorcycles in such societies. Using literature survey, this paper assesses the role of Hisbah institution in ensuring ethical business practices for Shari’ah implementing States in Nigeria to reflect over. The paper argues that contrary to the notion many people have in Nigeria, the institution of Hisbah is not meant to only serve spiritual and social purposes in the society devoid of economic contribution but that it has specific role in ensuring that businesses are conducted in line with Islamic business ethics particularly in Shari’ah implementing States. The paper concludes that the task ahead of the Shari’ah implementing States is to maximally exploit the economic role of the Hisbah in view of its relevance in the modern economy.
Fathering a Child with a Disability in India: A Perspective from Mumbai

ccording to the 2001 census of India (as reported on in Mitra & Sambamoorthi, 2006), individuals with disabilities constitute about 2% of the total population in I India. Of these, nearly half (48.55%) have a visual impairment; the next most numerous group is those with a locomotor disability (27.87%), followed by those with mental retardation (10.33%). The large populationof people withdisabilitiesposesunique challenges in terms of social, educational, and occupational mainstreaming. The task is uphill, despite the efforts of both government and nongovernment organizations (Mishra & Gupta, 2006). Awareness of and understanding about disability is low. For example, according to Chaturvedi and Malhotra (1983), many consider mental retardation to be a curable ”illness. ” It is also common to find fatalistic attitudes to explain disability, such as blaming external factors (e.g., poverty, violence, and accidents) (Dalal & Pande, 1999). Although, traditionally, a father’s involvement in a disabled child’s life was limited to shouldering the financial responsibility and making some major decisions regarding the child’s future, recent studies point toward a more comprehensive involvement by fathers. The present article will provide a review of father involvement perspectives, research, and practices in India and draw implications for further research and practice. The article also integrates findings from the author’s own study with fathers of children with a disability in the city of Mumbai, India. FATHERING A CHILD WITH A DISABILITY In India, the family plays a crucial role in accepting and providing support to children with a disability (Kashyap, 1989). In a country-wide study on what facilitates and hinders coping among mothers of children with mental retardation, Peshwaria et al. (1998) found that both parents look for mutual support and physical support from the family as an important facilitator in their coping process. In a patriarchal society, the father’s support also stands for family support. Some evidence indicates that the father’s level of acceptance determines the acceptance/rejection of a child with a disability at home (Peck & Stephens, 1960). Fathers themselves benefit from more involvement with a child who has a disability. Fathers of children with chronic illness or disability report experiencing amore ”holistic” identity of themselves as fathers (McNeill, 2004) and an overall greater personal growth (Meyer, 1986). Studying attitudes and coping among fathers could lead to a better understanding of their involvement in child-rearing processes. Yet, fatherhood itself is a neglected field of research in India. From various scholars of family research, it can be gleaned that a father’s traditional role has been that of a family patriarch, overseeing many aspects of the family, acting as moral guardian, provider-protector, and teacher (Kapoor, 2000; Krishnan, 1998, Saraswathi & Pai, 1997), but with an emotionally distant persona (Kakar, 1981). Recent research, however, indicates that fathers do participate in the child-rearing process and are not as emotion-
Escherichia coli HU protein suppresses DNA‐gyrase‐mediated illegitimate recombination and SOS induction

The HU protein is an abundant DNA binding protein of bacteria and is a major constituent of the bacterial nucleoid. HU protein is known to be involved in several fundamental biological functions, including DNA supercoiling, DNA replication, site‐specific DNA inversion, and transposition. It is generally thought that a functional relationship exists between HU protein and DNA gyrase.
Impact of Organizational Culture and Influence Tactics on Transformational Leadership

Impact of organizational culture (strong and weak) and use of influence tactics (soft and hard) on transformational leadership was studied using a 2 × 2 experimental design and a sample of 120 executives in a large manufacturing firm in eastern India. Results of analyses of variance show that leaders are seen as more transformational if the organizational culture is strong rather than weak, and if leaders use soft influence tactics rather than hard tactics. Transformational leadership is the highest when soft tactics are used in a strong culture, and the lowest when hard tactics are used in a weak culture.
The Impact of the Roles, Structure and Process of Boards on Firm Performance: Evidence from Turkey

This study aims at investigating the impact of the roles, structure and process of boards on performance of Turkish companies. Drawing on the data obtained from a sample of 386 mostly small and non-listed stock ownership companies, it was found that the separation of chairman and general manager positions has significant positive impact on firm performance. From the board roles of control, service and resource acquisition, firm performance was found to be positively related only to the level of adoption of resource acquisition role. It was also found that the effectiveness, information access and performance evaluation attributes of boards are positively and significantly associated with firm performance.
Effects of Curriculum-Based Measurement on Teachers' Instructional Planning

This study assessed the effects of curriculum-based measurement (CBM) on teachers' instructional planning. Subjects were 30 teachers, assigned randomly to a computer-assisted CBM group, a noncomputer CBM group, and a contrast group. In the CBM groups, teachers specified 15-week reading goals, established CBM systems to measure student progress toward goals at least twice weekly, and systematically evaluated those data bases to determine when instructional modifications were necessary. Contrast teachers monitored student progress toward Individualized Education Program (IEP) goals as they wished and were encouraged to develop instructional programs as necessary. At the end of a 12- to 15-week implementation period, teachers completed a questionnaire with reference to one randomly selected pupil. Analyses of variance indicated no difference between the CBM groups. However, compared to the contrast group, CBM teachers (a) used more specific, acceptable goals; (b) were less optimistic about goal attainment; (c) cited more objective and frequent data sources for determining the adequacy of student progress and for deciding whether program modifications were necessary; and (d) modified student programs more frequently. Questionnaire responses were correlated with verifiable data sources, and results generally supported the usefulness of the self-report information. Implications for special education research and practice are discussed.
Health and environmental impacts of energy systems

The assessment of health and environmental impacts of energy production has undergone a major evolution in recent years, reflecting progress in the underlying scientific domains. This paper reviews these developments and draws conclusions. The paper begins with a discussion of the relation between purpose and scope of an assessment. The following sections describe the methodology, with particular attention to key issues such as dispersion modelling, epidemiology, discounting, and the valuation of mortality. In the light of this discussion the major fuel chain studies since 1990 are reviewed and compared, to lead up to the present authors' best estimate of the impacts and damage costs of the most important energy technologies. The generalisability of the results to other sites and variations in emissions is discussed. Expressed in monetary terms as cost per kWh, the impacts of electricity from fossil fuels are not negligible even for new power plants they are in the range of 10 to 100% of the market price of electricity, being about two to four times higher for coal than for gas. The damage costs of nuclear are much smaller, a few percent of the market price of electricity even at zero discount rate, assuming normal functioning in a stable mature society. Not surprisingly, the damage costs of renewable energies are, in most cases, very small. In view of the controversies surrounding far future impacts, we also present some comparisons of physical impacts, for example showing that the increase in radiation dose from an all-nuclear scenario would be small relative to natural background.
Efficient Mother-to-Child Transfer of Antiretroviral Immunity in the Context of Preclinical Monoclonal Antibody-Based Immunotherapy

ABSTRACT When mice under the age of 5 to 6 days are infected, the FrCasE retrovirus induces a neurodegenerative disease leading to death within 1 to 2 months. We have recently reported that transient treatment with a neutralizing monoclonal antibody (MAb) shortly after infection, in addition to an expected immediate decrease in the viral load, also favors the development of a strong protective immune response that persists long after the MAb has been cleared. This observation may have important therapeutic consequences, as it suggests that MAbs might be used, not only as direct neutralizing agents, but also as immunomodulatory agents enabling patients to mount their own antiviral immune responses. We have investigated whether immunoglobulins from mothers who displayed a strong anti-FrCasE humoral response induced upon MAb treatment could affect both viremia and the immune systems of FrCasE-infected pups till adult age upon placental and/or breastfeeding transfer. The strongest effects, i.e., reduction in the viral load and induction of protective humoral antiviral responses, were observed upon breastfeeding alone and breastfeeding plus placental immunity transfer. However, placental transfer of anti-FrCasE antibodies was sufficient to both protect neonatally infected animals and help them initiate a neutralizing anti-FrCasE response. Also, administration of a neutralizing MAb to naive mothers during late gestation and breastfeeding could generate similar effects. Taken together, our data support the concept that passive immunotherapies during late gestation and/or breastfeeding might help retrovirally infected neonates prime their own protective immune responses, in addition to exerting an immediate antiviral effect.
The Wealth Effects of Capital Investment Decisions: An Empirical Comparison of Korean Chaebol and Non-Chaebol Firms

This paper investigates the capital investment decisions of Korean firms and their impact on shareholder wealth. Overall, we find positive abnormal returns surrounding the announcements of 697 cases of investment projects during the period 1992-1999. This paper also finds that the investment decisions of business group ("chaebol"-affiliated) firms do not increase shareholder wealth, while the capital investment decisions of non-"chaebol" firms generate significantly positive abnormal returns. The multivariate tests provide consistent evidence that the announcement effects for "chaebol" firms are lower than for non-"chaebol" firms, after growth opportunities, investment size and firm size are controlled for. The findings support the view that the organizational structure of Korean "chaebols" creates an incentive for managers to make non-value maximizing capital investment decisions. Copyright Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 2005.
Imaging and manipulating phosphoinositides in living cells

Phosphoinositides are minor phospholipid constituents of virtually every biological membrane yet they play fundamental roles in controlling membrane‐bound signalling events. Phosphoinositides are produced from phosphatidylinositol (PtdIns) by phosphorylation of one or more of three positions (3, 4 and 5) of the inositol headgroup located at the membrane cytoplasmic interface by distinct families of inositol lipid kinases. Intriguingly, many of the kinase reactions are catalysed by more than one form of the kinases even in simple organisms and these enzymes often assume non‐redundant functions. A similar diversity is seen with inositide phosphatases, the enzymes that dephosphorylate phosphoinositides with a certain degree of specificity and the impairments of which are often linked to human diseases. This degree of multiplicity at the enzyme level together with the universal roles of these lipids in cell regulation assumes that inositol lipids are spatially and functionally restricted in specific membrane compartments. Studying the compartmentalized roles of these lipids at the cellular level represents a major methodological challenge. Over the last 10 years significant progress has been made in creating reagents that can monitor inositol lipid changes in live cells with fluorescence or confocal microscopy. New methods are also being developed to manipulate these lipids in specific membrane compartments in a regulated fashion. This article recalls some historical aspects of inositide research and describes the new methodological advances highlighting their great potential as well as the problems one can encounter with their use.
Primary factors influencing bid mark‐up size decisions of general contractors in Kuwait

Purpose – Since the construction industry in the State of Kuwait is further governed by a competitive environment, which is driven by the lowest cost mentality, the aim of this study is to identify and rank the relative importance of factors perceived to influence bid mark‐up size decisions among local general contractors bidding on construction projects.Design/methodology/approach – The effects of 40 identified factors, which were shortlisted based on previous relevant investigations and the input of local industry experts, were surveyed by a statistically representative sample of contractors. Using the “relative importance index” technique, the influence ranks of the factors explored were established.Findings – The results reveal the following as the primary factors affecting general contractors' bid mark‐up size decisions: employer type and identity; project size; clarity of technical specifications; previous experience with employer; number and identity of competitors; previous experience in similar p.
Riskier Times and Asset Returns

This paper studies asset pricing implications of the notion of riskiness, using the approach of Aumann and Serrano (2008, Journal of Political Economy). We develop a model which implies that some investors may reduce their holdings in equity investments when riskiness increases, and changes in riskiness can be negatively related to the future return of an investment. Our empirical analysis shows that changes in riskiness of equity investments are negatively linked to subsequent (i) equity premium, (ii) value spread, (iii) size spread, (iv) momentum spread, (v) distress spread, and (vi) excess returns of some industries, and these effects are statistically significant. In contrast, we obtain a positive effect for Treasury excess returns. We investigate whether some of these findings can be reconciled within factor pricing models.
Obesity prevention using the Internet : development and evaluation of a video- and text-based version of a computer-tailored intervention

This PhD research study found that an e-health weight management programme is an effective way for Dutch adults to lower their BMI and their caloric intake. The e-health programme that informed participants via video messages had the biggest impact, as it proved to be the most effective and the best evaluated. This PhD research also found that the e-health programme was equally effective for highly-educated people as it was for less highly-educated people. The implementation of an e-health weight management programme can contribute to the development of a cost-effective prevention strategy for obesity.
Reflecting over a practice: Framing issues for scholar understanding

Explores the possibilities of basing scientific investigation on the practical experiences gained by the author when he participated in the development of the Student Information System of a Finnish university. The practical process which lasted over a decade contained several theoretically interesting issues which could be formulated as meaningful research problems. They concerned the design of acts, the evaluation of the outcomes of the various phases of the process, and the formulation of the experience to models which could be transferred to other contexts. The overall analysis method is reflection‐in‐action in the form suggested by Donald Schon. Each practical problem is paraphrased through reflection‐in‐action which yields a theoretical understanding of the phenomenon at hand. This frames the situation; the framing is necessary for the solution that is to be designed. Indicates that reflection‐in‐action can yield research results just as valid as other types of organizational studies. It is not supe.
Non-Audit Service Fees and Audit Quality: The Impact of Auditor Specialization

Recent studies on whether the provision of non-audit services impairs audit quality document mixed results, depending on the proxy for auditor quality used. We posit that the effect of non-audit fees on audit quality is conditional on auditor industry specialization in that audit quality is less likely to be impaired in the case of industry specialist auditors providing non-audit services. Our premise is that industry specialist auditors are more likely to be concerned about reputation losses and litigation exposure, and to benefit from knowledge spillovers from the provision of non-audit services. We find some evidence that audit quality (as measured by increased propensity to issue going-concern opinion, increased propensity to miss analysts' forecasts, as well as higher earnings-response coefficients) is less likely to be reduced for firms that acquire non-audit services from industry specialist auditors compared to non-specialist auditors. Implications are discussed.
The Accuracy of Profits Forecasts in Initial Public Offering Prospectuses

Abstract The paper examines the accuracy of profits forecasts contained in prospectuses of companies newly listing on the New Zealand Stock Exchange. Accuracy is measured by forecast errors, absolute forecast errors and squared forecast errors. The level of forecast accuracy appears to be poor in comparison to studies conducted elsewhere. An attempt to model the errors as a function of firm specific characteristics and of Big Eight/non-Big Eight auditor choice proved to be of little value. The forecasting errors were found to be unrelated to the stock price premium upon listing.
Economic Integration Without Policy Coordination: The Case of Mercosur

This paper analyses the evolution of the South American Common Market, Mercosur. It shows how the lack of coordination of macroeconomic policies, especially of the two major participants (Argentina and Brazil), had caused trade strains and conflicting interests in attracting foreign investments. Divergent macro-economic policies have had negative effects on bilateral trade due to the risk averseness (resulting from bilateral exchange rate volatilities) of exporters and importers, and due to the protectionist forces they have brought forth. The paper also shows how the lack of policy coordination caused increased confrontations with respect to Foreign Direct Investment in the region.