Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Contributions of Rad9 to tumorigenesis

Rad9 plays a crucial role in maintaining genomic stability by regulating cell cycle checkpoints, DNA repair, telomere stability, and apoptosis. Rad9 controls these processes mainly as part of the heterotrimeric 9‐1‐1 (Rad9‐Hus1‐Rad1) complex. However, in recent years it has been demonstrated that Rad9 can also act independently of the 9‐1‐1 complex as a transcriptional factor, participate in immunoglobulin class switch recombination, and show 3′‐5′ exonuclease activity. Aberrant Rad9 expression has been associated with prostate, breast, lung, skin, thyroid, and gastric cancers. High expression of Rad9 is causally related to, at least, human prostate cancer growth. On the other hand, deletion of Mrad9, the mouse homolog, is responsible for increased skin cancer incidence. These results reveal that Rad9 can act as an oncogene or tumor suppressor. Which of the many functions of Rad9 are causally related to initiation and progression of tumorigenesis and the mechanistic details by which Rad9 induces or suppresses tumorigenesis are presently not known, but are crucial for the development of targeted therapeutic interventions. J. Cell. Biochem. 113: 742–751, 2012. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Acquisitions of private vs. public firms: Private information, target selection, and acquirer returns

The acquisition of privately held firms is a prevalent phenomenon that has received little attention in mergers and acquisitions research. In this study, we examine three questions: (1) What drives the acquirer's choice between public and private targets? (2) Do acquisitions of private targets elicit a more positive stock market reaction than acquisitions of public targets, which, on average, destroy value for acquirers' shareholders? (3) Do acquirers gain when their selection of a public or private target fits the theory? In this paper, we argue that the lack of information on private targets limits the breadth of the acquirer's search and increases its risk of not evaluating properly the assets of private targets. At the same time, less information on private targets creates more value-creating opportunities for exploiting private information, whereas the market of corporate control for public targets already serves as an information-processing and asset valuation mechanism for all potential bidders. Using an event study and survey data, we find that: (1) acquirers favor private targets in familiar industries and turn to public targets to enter new business domains or industries with a high level of intangible assets; (2) acquirers of private targets perform better than acquirers of public targets on merger announcement, after controlling for endogeneity bias; (3) acquirers of private firms perform better than if they had acquired a public firm, and acquirers of public firms perform better than if they had acquired a private firm. These results support the expectation that acquirer returns from their target choice (private/public) are not universal but depend on the acquirer's type of search and on the merging firms' attributes. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Nanoparticles target distinct dendritic cell populations according to their size

The efficiency of a vaccine largely depends on the appropriate targeting of the innate immune system, mainly through prolonged delivery of antigens and immunomodulatory substances to professional antigen‐presenting cells in the lymphoid environment. Particulate antigens, such as virus‐like particles (VLP) induce potent immune responses. However, little is known about the relative importance of direct drainage of free antigen to lymph nodes (LN) versus cellular transport and the impact of particle size on the process. Here, we show that nanoparticles traffic to the draining LN in a size‐dependent manner. Whereas large particles (500–2000 nm) were mostly associated with dendritic cells (DC) from the injection site, small (20–200 nm) nanoparticles and VLP (30 nm) were also found in LN‐resident DC and macrophages, suggesting free drainage of these particles to the LN. In vivo imaging studies in mice conditionally depleted of DC confirmed the capacity of small but not large particles to drain freely to the LN and demonstrated that DC are strictly required for transport of large particles from the injection site to the LN. These data provide evidence that particle size determines the mechanism of trafficking to the LN and show that only small nanoparticles can specifically target LN‐resident cells.
Higher education for a sustainable world

Purpose: The paper aims to explore the nature and purpose of higher education (HE) in the twenty-first century, focussing on how it can help fashion a green knowledge-based economy by developing approaches to learning and teaching that are social, networked and ecologically sensitive. Design/methodology/approach: The paper presents a discursive analysis of the skills and knowledge requirements of an emerging green knowledge-based economy using a range of policy focussed and academic research literature. Findings: The business opportunities that are emerging as a more sustainable world is developed requires the knowledge and skills that can capture and move then forward but in a complex and uncertain worlds learning needs to non-linear, creative and emergent. Practical implications: Sustainable learning and the attributes graduates will need to exhibit are prefigured in the activities and learning characterising the work and play facilitated by new media technologies. Social implications: Greater emphasis is required in higher learning understood as the capability to learn, adapt and direct sustainable change requires interprofessional co-operation that must utlise the potential of new media technologies to enhance social learning and collective intelligence. Originality/value: The practical relationship between low-carbon economic development, social sustainability and HE learning is based on both normative criteria and actual and emerging projections in economic, technological and skills needs.
Access to maternal and perinatal health services: lessons from successful and less successful examples of improving access to safe delivery and care of the newborn

The huge majority of the annual 6.3 million perinatal deaths and half a million maternal deaths take place in developing countries and are avoidable. However, most of the interventions aiming at reducing perinatal and maternal deaths need a health care system offering appropriate antenatal care and quality delivery care, including basic and comprehensive emergency obstetric care facilities. To promote the uptake of quality care, there are two possible approaches: influencing the demand and/or the supply of care. Five lessons emerged from experiences. First, it is difficult to obtain robust evidence of the effects of a particular intervention in a context, where they are always associated with other interventions. Second, the interventions tend to have relatively modest short‐term impacts, when they address only part of the health system. Third, the long‐term effects of an intervention on the whole health system are uncertain. Fourth, because newborn health is intimately linked with maternal health, it is of paramount importance to organise the continuum of care between mother and newborn. Finally, the transfer of experiences is delicate, and an intervention package that has proved to have a positive effect in one setting may have very different effects in other settings.
Corporate Governance and Value: A Principal Component Approach

There is general acceptance of the importance of corporate governance for resolving agency problems. Nevertheless, the empirical literature investigating the individual effect of corporate governance mechanisms on corporate value has not been able to consistently identify positive effects. These mixed findings may be in part due to the difficulty in creating reliable and valid measures for the complex construct that is termed "corporate governance". This is further complicated by the challenge of generating a benchmark measure for company value contingent on a company’s characteristics.In this paper I examine the effect of governance factors on value, given the lack of theory on governance structures that may recommend the use of structural equations. I find an association between a company’s shortfall from its benchmark performance and its governance factors. The findings support a view that incentive and monitoring mechanisms are key aspects to a company’s corporate governance, but to varying degrees. This suggests that successful governance structures arise and are contingent on the issues facing a company. Recent reforms are likely to encourage isomorphism in corporate governance practices. I find support for a view that successful governance is the solution to a constrained optimisation problem.
Challenges and strategies among the poor: focus on urban agriculture in KwaMashu, Durban, South Africa

Urban agriculture in South Africa historically has been labeled as an illegal activity. The problems caused by this labeling have been compounded by the traditional planning system in South Africa, which does not recognize urban agriculture as a part of the land use in the urban landscape. Despite its illegality, however, current evidence shows that it is commonly practiced by many poor households in developing countries. There is growing evidence that most countries are gradually recognizing the value of urban agriculture to poor households, and to this end they are beginning to realize the importance of incorporating it into their urban policy packages. Despite this recognition and acceptance of urban agriculture as a livelihood and food-security strategy among the urban poor, little attention is paid to it. This paper explores urban agriculture as one of the survival strategies among the urban poor in Durban's KwaMashu residential area. The focus is on the nature of urban agriculture and the competing challenges associated with it. At the core of some of the challenges are existing legislation and policies that seem to be unresponsive to urban agriculture. Despite this unresponsive legislation, we show that urban agriculture continues to flourish along sensitive areas such as river banks and on road right-of-ways. The paper concludes by arguing that the onus is on the local authorities to promote urban agriculture by putting in place mechanisms that should promote its growth and integrate it into mainstream development plans.
Dynamic expression of lunatic fringe suggests a link between notch signaling and an autonomous cellular oscillator driving somite segmentation.

The metameric organization of the vertebrate trunk is a characteristic feature of all members of this phylum. The origin of this metamerism can be traced to the division of paraxial mesoderm into individual units, termed somites, during embryonic development. Despite the identification of somites as the first overt sign of segmentation in vertebrates well over 100 years ago, the mechanism(s) underlying somite formation remain poorly understood. Recently, however, several genes have been identified which play prominent roles in orchestrating segmentation, including the novel secreted factor lunatic fringe. To gain further insight into the mechanism by which lunatic fringe controls somite development, we have conducted a thorough analysis of lunatic fringe expression in the unsegmented paraxial mesoderm of chick embryos. Here we report that lunatic fringe is expressed predominantly in somite -II, where somite I corresponds to the most recently formed somite and somite -I corresponds to the group of cells which will form the next somite. In addition, we show that lunatic fringe is expressed in a highly dynamic manner in the chick segmental plate prior to somite formation and that lunatic fringe expression cycles autonomously with a periodicity of somite formation. Moreover, the murine ortholog of lunatic fringe undergoes a similar cycling expression pattern in the presomitic mesoderm of somite stage mouse embryos. The demonstration of a dynamic periodic expression pattern suggests that lunatic fringe may function to integrate notch signaling to a cellular oscillator controlling somite segmentation.
A Human Capital Evaluation of Graduates from the Faculty of Management Sciences Employability Skills in South Africa

Previous research on employability has underscored the supply side perspective which for the most part focuses on curriculum design and teaching methods. However, ultimately industry is the consumers of graduates produced by higher education. Consequently, the demand side perspective on employability should also be taken into consideration. The objectives of this study were twofold namely evaluating graduates’ from Management Sciences current employability skills from the demand side based on a human capital approach as well as to elicit employers’ perception on generic skills graduates are lacking. To this end ex post facto research was undertaken by utilizing a questionnaire with a reliability of 0.97 and an inter-item correlation of 0.405340. The sample consisted out of 503 employers from diverse South African business sectors. Statistical analysis indicated that the respondents were less than satisfied with graduates’ employability skills. The findings show need for the inclusion of generic business administration skills that specifically emphasise customer service, Excel training and financial management. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2014. v3n6p265
Report from the third international meeting of the Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Molecular Genetics Network.

Growing evidence of a genetic contribution to attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has prompted investigators from around the world to convene annually to discuss ways of facilitating collaboration and sharing information about their work on this topic. The number of participants in the meeting has grown each year as a result of enthusiastic responses to each previous conference. This third annual meeting, held in Boston, began with presentations of ongoing and proposed collaborations. The status of Hypescheme, an operational criteria checklist developed in an effort to promote the reliable communication of information related to ADHD, was reviewed. A symposium was conducted to review current evidence for whether DSM-IV subtypes breed true. Finally, new data from individual research sites were presented. Despite recent advances, more work is needed to better characterize heritable aspects of the ADHD phenotype as well as the actual candidate genes themselves.
Early stages of secondary succession on abandoned cropland in north-east Borneo Island

A study on community structure and floristic change in the early stages of the tropical old-field succession in an intensive shifting cultivation area, Sabah, north-east Borneo Island, was conducted in March and September 1997. Dense therophytic communities were established soon after abandonment, and rapidly changed: namely, from Galinsoga parviflora (in approximately 1–2 months) to Crassocephalum crepidioides (in approximately 3–5 months) and further to Conyza sumatrensis (in approximately 1 year). These therophytic communities were replaced by perennial grass and shrub species, such as Imperata cylindrica and Eupatorium odoratum, within 3 years after abandonment. At this stage, a few pioneer tree species such as Trema orientalis made a sparse canopy layer approximately 3–4 m high. The three pioneer annuals have wind-dispersed small seeds. The plant densities of the three annuals did not appear to change between areas fallow for 1 month and 4 months. Almost all of the seedlings of the three annuals might simultaneously have invaded the fallowed field soon after abandonment. The three pioneer annuals take a different amount of time to reach their respective mature sizes. This resulted in the rapid successional changes in the tropical old-field succession. The seed-bank annuals, whose seeds germinate after the winter pre-chilling, occurred in the temperate old-fields as the first-year pioneers under seasonal condition. Intermittent shifting cultivation and tropical conditions without seasonality favour the occurrence of wind-dispersed annuals with a spatially fugitive strategy.
Managing antiplatelet therapy in the ACS patient: straight from the emergency department to you.

Atherothrombosis triggered by plaque rupture reduces arterial blood flow, leading to myocardial ischemia and/or necrosis, in which the extent of occlusion relates to the clinical presentations of acute coronary syndrome (ACS): unstable angina (UA), non-STsegment and ST-segment elevated myocardial infarction (NSTEMI and STEMI, respectively). Although UA and NSTEMI may be indistinguishable at the time of presentation, NSTEMI is defined by myocardial necrosis and is differentiated by release of cardiac enzymes. In UA, the myocardial ischemia is reversible, without necrosis. Typically, STEMI results from the total occlusion of a large epicardial infarct-related artery and is diagnosed by electrocardiography (ECG) and the release of cardiac enzymes. Strategies employed by emergency physicians and hospitalists to treat the spectrum of symptoms caused by ACS include pharmacotherapy and revascularization procedures. Coordination of care between these 2 groups of physicians, and appropriate handoff of patients from the ED to hospitalists, utilizing guideline-based care pathways and treatment protocols, will ensure maximization of outcomes in patients with ACS.
Do Managers Provide Misleading Earnings Guidance Before Stock Repurchases?

We point out several methodological flaws in previous research that concludes that managers mislead shareholders into selling their stock for too cheap by releasing overly negative information before stock repurchases. In particular, this research relies primarily on measured market reaction to management guidance which suffers from endogeneity concerns. Using a sample of 3,181 repurchase firms and matching rival firms during 2003-2012, we find insignificant differences between their frequencies of management guidance, the implied earnings updates, and the closeness of earnings guidance to actual earnings. In contrast, there is a significant difference in market reaction to guidance, which is 1.5% lower for repurchase firms than for rival firms after accounting for differences in earnings updates and other information. Our evidence suggests that repurchases occur in response to investor misreaction to management guidance, but we find no evidence to suggest that managers mislead investors before this dominant form of shareholder returns.
Post‐partum weight retention in women in Asia: a systematic review

Obesity is a health issue for people in Asia, and many studies support that childbearing may contribute to women's obesity. However, most studies of post‐partum weight retention (PWR) focus on Western countries. This paper aimed to review recent data on PWR and discuss the related factors of PWR for women in Asia. Three electronic databases – MEDLINE, CINAHL and PsycINFO – were searched for data from January 1990 to August 2010. Twelve studies were identified as containing information related to PWR. Chinese, Taiwanese and Korean women tend to have higher gestational weight gain and PWR than women in other Asian countries in this review. The average reported gestational weight gain in these studies ranged from 8.3 kg to 18.0 kg, and the average weight retention at 6 months post partum in various countries ranged from 1.56 kg to 4.1 kg. Gestational weight gain had a positive effect on PWR, but there were no consistent conclusions for other factors. Only a few psychosocial and behavioural factors have been studied. Moreover, no one has assessed changes in waist circumference and waist‐to‐hip ratio for measuring central obesity and ensuring risk of chronic disease. Focusing on changes in maternal weight and body composition, and considering the impact of psychological and behavioural factors are suggested for future studies in Asia.
ResearchIncreased risk for hepatitis C associated with solvent use among Canadian Aboriginal injection drug users

Background: Solvent abuse is a particularly serious issue affecting Aboriginal people. Here we examine the association between solvent use and socio-demographic variables, drug-related risk factors, and pathogen prevalence in Aboriginal injection drug users (IDU) in Manitoba, Canada. Methods: Data originated from a cross-sectional survey of IDU from December 2003 to September 2004. Associations between solvent use and variables of interest were assessed by multiple logistic regression. Results: A total of 266 Aboriginal IDU were included in the analysis of which 44 self-reported recent solvent use. Hepatitis C infection was 81% in solvent-users, compared to 55% in those reporting no solvent use. In multivariable models, solvent-users were younger and more likely to be infected with hepatitis C (AOR: 3.5; 95%CI: 1.3,14.7), to have shared needles in the last six months (AOR: 2.6; 95%CI:1.0,6.8), and to have injected talwin & Ritalin (AOR: 10.0; 95%CI:
SOCIO-ECONOMIC FACTORS AFFECTING ACCESS AND UTILIZATION OF VETERINARY SERVICES BY SMALL RUMINANT PRODUCERS IN IZZI LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF EBONYI STATE, NIGERIA

A study was carried out to evaluate the socio-economic factors affecting access and utilization of veterinary services by small ruminant (sheep and goat) producers in Izzi Local Government area of Ebonyi State, Nigeria. This was done by selecting 60 small ruminant farmers through multistage sampling technique. Both descriptive statistics (mean, frequency and percentage) and inferential statistics (regression analysis) were employed to analyse the specific objectives of the study which included among others, to determine the effects of socio-economic characteristics of farmers on their level of access to veterinary services in the study area. Result obtained showed that 58% of the respondents were males while 42% were females. The highest proportion of them (35%) attained secondary education though 82% of them had one level of educational attainment or another ranging from primary to secondary education. Furthermore, 42% of the farmers had an average annual income of N81,000 – N90,000 only. The regression analysis showed that annual income, farm size, educational status and household size had positive coefficients showing that these factors affected farmers’ level of access to veterinary services in the study area positively. On the other hand the coefficient of age was negatively signed showing inverse relationship between this variable and the dependent variable. On the whole 82% of the variation in the level of access to veterinary services was explained by the combined influence of the factors included in the model. Also, the F-ratio (54.42) was highly significant at 1% level showing that the overall regression was a good fit. Based on the results obtained, it was recommended among others, that policies for enhancing the level of access of small ruminant farmers to veterinary services in the study area should take into consideration measures to further enhance their annual income,
Evaluating Enterprise Risk Management (ERM); Bahrain Financial Sectors as A Case Study

Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) is a process used by firms to manage risks and seize opportunities related to the achievement of their objectives. ERM provides a proactive framework for risk management, which typically involves identifying particular events relevant to the organization's objectives, assessing them and magnitude of impact, determining a response strategy, and monitoring progress. This research measures the awareness of Bahrain financial sector of ERM and if companies maintain an effective ERM framework. The results show success since all companies are aware of ERM and have an effective ERM framework in place.