Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stimulus‐Specific Effects of Pentoxifylline on Neutrophil CR3 Expression, Degranulation, and Superoxide Production

The effects of pentoxifylline (Trental) on human neutrophil CR3 up‐modulation, degranulation, and superoxide production were studied. We used the chemotactic peptide fMLP and the phorbol ester PMA as soluble stimuli, and β‐glucan particles as a CR3‐specific solid phase stimulus of neutrophil superoxide production. Since neutrophils have adenosine A2 receptors, we compared effects of pentoxifylline to effects of adenosine, and we also looked at the effect of cytochalasin B, which breaks up actin filaments. Pentoxifylline inhibited both CR3 up‐modulation and degranulation of myeloperoxidase and lysozyme. Pentoxifylline is a more potent inhibitor of fMLP‐ compared to PMA‐induced degranulation, and is especially potent against superoxide production. While pentoxifylline is less potent than adenosine in its inhibiton of fMLP‐induced superoxide production, it is more potent in its inhibition of PMA‐ and β‐glucan particle‐stimulated superoxide production. Cytochalasin B, which enhances degranulation and fMLP‐stimulated superoxide production, was found to inhibit β‐glucan particle‐stimulated superoxide production. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that pentoxifylline can affect both the cytoskeletal architecture of unstimulated neutrophils and the activation and responses of neutrophils which involve actin polymerization and receptor‐cytoskeletal interactions.
The effects of risk-reducing strategies on consumer perceived risk and on purchase likelihood: A modelling approach.

Purpose – Consumer perception of risk and its impacts on purchasing behaviour are critical aspects of food safety. Consumer risk management strategies influence, and respond to, the risk management strategies adopted by the food industry. This research, using poultry product as the focus, aims to identify the consumer risk-reducing strategies and their impact on perception of food safety-related risk and then on purchase behaviour. Design/methodology/approach – By adopting a quantitative research paradigm with a quota sample of 200 respondents, a Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) model was built to assess the direct and indirect effects of strategies taken by consumers to reduce perceived risk and the consequences for purchase likelihood, utilising LISREL 8.30. Findings – The research reveals brand, information and quality assurance as influential risk-reducing strategies to reduce consumer perception of food safety risk and subsequently to facilitate purchase likelihood during a period concerned about .
External heterogeneity and its impact on open innovation performance

While current research commonly finds there may be an optimum overall level of search depth commitment at the apex of an inverted U relationship, it says comparatively little about the optimal allocation of search depth between competing search channels. Neither does it explore in depth the qualitative differences in the breadth of different external search channels. Here we conceptually and empirically explore the idea of the intra-search channel allocation problem using the concept of heterogeneity in search depth and breadth. We explore how variations in the distribution of open innovation search depth and breadth influnence innovation performance and in doing so contribute to a more fine grained conceptual understanding of external innovation. We do so an emerging market context, namely China. Our contributions are therefore twofold, involving both conceptual and empirical elements.
Seroprevalence of toxoplasma antibody in a Toronto population.

OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence of infection with toxoplasmosis by country of birth and age in a sample of convenience. DESIGN Banked sera and the computerized data base of demographic and other factors from an earlier epidemiological study were retrieved. SETTING Thirty-eight infant-toddler day care centres in Toronto. POPULATION Day care providers from whom informed consent was obtained and banked sera were available. MAIN RESULTS Of the 124 providers whose serum was tested, 16 (12.9%) were seropositive. Of those providers born in Canada, 8.2% were seropositive, while of those born outside of Canada, 19.6% were positive (P=0.067, OR 2.68, 95% CI 0.91, 7.94). While there was no significant association of seropositivity with age, the association of seropositivity with country of birth was different in the providers under 30 years of age. Among those born in Canada, 4.6% were seropositive, while among those born outside of Canada 23.1% were seropositive. CONCLUSIONS The data supplement the limited existing data on toxoplasmosis infection in Canada. Among Canadians, those born outside of Canada were more likely to be seropositive than those born in Canada, suggesting that there may be a differential risk of congenital infection for infants whose parents were born outside of Canada.
Self-Efficacy, Depression, and Self-Care Activities in Adult Jordanians with Type 2 Diabetes: The Role of Illness Perception

Diabetes mellitus is reaching epidemic levels worldwide. In a developing country like Jordan, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) has reached a prevalence rate of 17.1%. This cross-sectional study examined the relationship between self-care activities and: illness perception, depression, social support, religiosity and spiritual coping, and self-efficacy among patients with T2DM. A random sample of 220 patients with T2DM, who attended Jordan University Hospital in Jordan were enrolled. The data were collected through a structured interview and the medical files. The instruments consisted of a sociodemographic and clinical standardised questionnaires: Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire, Patients’ Health Questionnaire-9; ENRICH Social Support Instrument; Religious and Spiritual Coping Subscale; Diabetes Management Self-Efficacy Scale; and Summary of Diabetes Self-Care Activities. Bivariate analysis investigated the relationship between variables. Structure Equation Modelling (SEM) was performed to test the proposed conceptual model. The study found that approximately 70% of the respondents suffered some form of depressive symptoms. The SEM showed a direct relationship between self-efficacy and self-care activities (β = 0.40; p < 0.001). Depression was indirectly related to self-care activities through self-efficacy (β = –0.20; p = 0.003); nevertheless, it was directly related to perception of: treatment control, consequences, and emotional representations. Overall, the sequence between illness perception and self-efficacy was mediated by depression. Strategies to promote self-efficacy and illness perception are vital in customising a diabetes health plan to meet Arabic cultural expectations.
Identification of germline alterations in breast cancer predisposition genes among Malaysian breast cancer patients using panel testing

Although an association between protein‐truncating variants and breast cancer risk has been established for 11 genes, only alterations in BRCA1, BRCA2, TP53 and PALB2 have been reported in Asian populations. Given that the age of onset of breast cancer is lower in Asians, it is estimated that inherited predisposition to breast cancer may be more significant. To determine the potential utility of panel testing, we investigated the prevalence of germline alterations in 11 established and 4 likely breast cancer genes in a cross‐sectional hospital‐based cohort of 108 moderate to high‐risk breast cancer patients using targeted next generation sequencing. Twenty patients (19%) were identified to carry deleterious mutations, of whom 13 (12%) were in the BRCA1 or BRCA2, 6 (6%) were in five other known breast cancer predisposition genes and 1 patient had a mutation in both BRCA2 and BARD1. Our study shows that BRCA1 and BRCA2 account for the majority of genetic predisposition to breast cancer in our cohort of Asian women. Although mutations in other known breast cancer genes are found, the functional significance and breast cancer risk have not yet been determined, thus limiting the clinical utility of panel testing in Asian populations.
Assessment of Knowledge and Attitude of Colostrum among Postnatal Mothers

Background and aim: colostrum is the first milk produced by the mammary glands of mammals in late pregnancy just prior to giving birth and continuing through the early days of breastfeeding. The study aimed to assess knowledge and attitude of colostrum among postnatal mothers and to find out the association between knowledge and attitude of mothers with demographic characteristics. Materials and method: cross sectional study, deals with 300 mothers who attending to Babylon maternal and child hospital and Alkather health centre. A questionnaire was used to collect the data from the period of 21 November 2012 to 15 March 2013. Data were analyzed by using descriptive and inferential statistical (percentage, frequency, and chi –square). Results : the study shows that the majority of mothers age between (30-39) years was 59% ,also there are significant relationship between the attitude of mothers with some of demographic characteristics of mothers . Conclusion: The study concludes that there is significant relationship between mothers knowledge with their demographic characters at P ≥ 0.5 and there is significant relationship between mothers’ attitude with their demographic characterize.
Neurotrophic Factors and Receptors in the Immature and Adult Spinal Cord after Mechanical Injury or Kainic Acid

Delivery of neurotrophic factors to the injured spinal cord has been shown to stimulate neuronal survival and regeneration. This indicates that a lack of sufficient trophic support is one factor contributing to the absence of spontaneous regeneration in the mammalian spinal cord. Regulation of the expression of neurotrophic factors and receptors after spinal cord injury has not been studied in detail. We investigated levels of mRNA-encoding neurotrophins, glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) family members and related receptors, ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF), and c-fos in normal and injured spinal cord. Injuries in adult rats included weight-drop, transection, and excitotoxic kainic acid delivery; in newborn rats, partial transection was performed. The regulation of expression patterns in the adult spinal cord was compared with that in the PNS and the neonate spinal cord. After mechanical injury of the adult rat spinal cord, upregulations of NGF and GDNF mRNA occurred in meningeal cells adjacent to the lesion. BDNF and p75 mRNA increased in neurons, GDNF mRNA increased in astrocytes close to the lesion, and GFRα-1 and truncated TrkB mRNA increased in astrocytes of degenerating white matter. The relatively limited upregulation of neurotrophic factors in the spinal cord contrasted with the response of affected nerve roots, in which marked increases of NGF and GDNF mRNA levels were observed in Schwann cells. The difference between the ability of the PNS and CNS to provide trophic support correlates with their different abilities to regenerate. Kainic acid delivery led to only weak upregulations of BDNF and CNTF mRNA. Compared with several brain regions, the overall response of the spinal cord tissue to kainic acid was weak. The relative sparseness of upregulations of endogenous neurotrophic factors after injury strengthens the hypothesis that lack of regeneration in the spinal cord is attributable at least partly to lack of trophic support.
Why do customer attitudes towards loyalty programs matter a lot

Recent figures show that, unless rising number of enrollments, consumers become less active and engaged with their loyalty programs (LPs). Firms tend to spend more time and money in enrollment campaigns than in managing relations with program members. As a result, customers are unaware of LP features, do not perceive the benefits and become or stay non-active. In order to build real relationships, firms should first foster favorable attitude towards their LPs. This paper aims to understand how attitudes towards LPs are formed and how they impact behaviors. The results of our qualitative study show that LP attitudes are built up from the associations consumers make about LPs and that they are likely to drive their behavior with the program and the store. By understanding the formation of attitudes towards LPs, firms might create favorable attitudes, increase active memberships and subsequently build long lasting relationships.
Debt Maturity and the Dynamics of Leverage

This paper shows that short debt maturities commit equityholders to leverage reductions when refinancing expiring debt in low-profitability states. However, shorter maturities lead to higher transaction costs since larger amounts of expiring debt need to be refinanced. We show that this trade-off between higher expected transaction costs against the commitment to reduce leverage in low-profitability states motivates an optimal maturity structure of corporate debt. Since firms with high costs of financial distress and risky cash flows benefit most from committing to leverage reductions, they have a stronger motive to issue short-term debt. Evidence supports the model’s predictions.
Group Accounting Across Borders

Over the last twenty years, accounting diversity between countries has been an important issue in international accounting research. A driving force has been the growth of multinational companies across borders. The development has created new challenges in consolidating financial statements across borders to a common group accounting report. The actual behaviour at the headquarter levels and in the subsidiaries abroad when consolidating vertically to a group report has not been empirically examined. The main research question in the study is if Swedish multinational enterprises make the accounting adjustments that would be necessary to comply with the Swedish accounting standards in their group reports. The vertical adjustments can take place either at the parent company (group level) or at subsidiary levels. The empirical investigations were conducted as three survey investigations of companies on the Stockholm Stock Exchange (1990, 1992 and 1999) and case studies in twelve Swedish groups and their subsidiaries in Denmark, the US, and Brazil (1991-1992). The objective of the empirical study was to investigate how Swedish multinational groups listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange deal with accounting diversity among foreign subsidiaries in the consolidation processes.The study focused on accounting method choices in the adjustment process from local subsidiary reports to the group accounts as well as the issue in which currency the adjustments were made. The effects of currency translation methods can have a material impact on reported profits. Factors that were related to the frequency of adjustments were: the number of stock exchanges the Swedish groups were listed on, proportion of foreign activity in the group, inflation rate in the subsidiary countries, accounting diversity the group faced, main industry of the group, size of the group and income smoothing behaviour especially on subsidiary levels.An unexpected result was that some of the groups declared in their annual reports that they had followed actual Swedish accounting standards even if they made accounting method choices that did not comply with Swedish standards.
Third Party Customers Infecting Other Customers for Better or for Worse

In this article the effect of the displayed emotions of third party customers and purchase occasion on customers are examined, even when there is no direct interaction between customers. Three independent studies, including two experiments are employed. The first experiment examines the effects of both positive and negative displayed emotions of third party customers and purchase occasion on customer emotions and repurchase intentions, when there is no direct interaction between customers. The second experiment captures changes in the customers’ affective state on a moment-by-moment basis enabling differentiation between the effects of the service environment and the intervention of exposure to the displayed emotions of third party customers. Results show that customers are “infected” by the displayed emotions of third party customers even when there is no direct interaction between the customers. It is also demonstrated that the purchase occasion affects the type and intensity of emotions customers experience and the likelihood of repurchase. Implications for scholarly research and retailers are discussed.
Adversarial Examples that Fool Detectors

An adversarial example is an example that has been adjusted to produce a wrong label when presented to a system at test time. To date, adversarial example constructions have been demonstrated for classifiers, but not for detectors. If adversarial examples that could fool a detector exist, they could be used to (for example) maliciously create security hazards on roads populated with smart vehicles. In this paper, we demonstrate a construction that successfully fools two standard detectors, Faster RCNN and YOLO. The existence of such examples is surprising, as attacking a classifier is very different from attacking a detector, and that the structure of detectors - which must search for their own bounding box, and which cannot estimate that box very accurately - makes it quite likely that adversarial patterns are strongly disrupted. We show that our construction produces adversarial examples that generalize well across sequences digitally, even though large perturbations are needed. We also show that our construction yields physical objects that are adversarial.
Mobile banking adoption of the youth market

Purpose – This study aims to investigate consumers' mobile banking adoption through an integration of the technology acceptance model (TAM) with work on perceived benefits and perceived risks.Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from 435 university students who were non‐users but future prospects, and analyzed by structural equation modeling (SEM). Findings – It was found that perceived usefulness, perceived social risk, perceived performance risk and perceived benefit directly affect attitudes towards mobile banking, and that attitude is the major determinant of mobile banking adoption intention. In addition, no direct relationship between perceived usefulness and intention to use, perceived ease of use and attitude, financial risk, time risk, security/privacy risk and attitude was detected.Research limitations/implications – This study reflects the perceptions of non‐users and university students – potential future prospects – in an emerging country. The main theoretical contribution of this.
MiR‐34a attenuates paclitaxel‐resistance of hormone‐refractory prostate cancer PC3 cells through direct and indirect mechanisms

Patients with hormone‐refractory prostate cancer are treated with taxane drugs, but eventually become drug resistant. We aimed to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying paclitaxel resistance of hormone‐refractory prostate cancer with a special focus on the roles of miR‐34a and SIRT1.
Sex hormones and the risk of osteoarthritis in women: epidemiological evidence.

16 Hochberg MC, Powell-Threets, SK, Nevitt MC, Lane NE, Cummings SR, Pressman AR, et al. Reproductive and gynaecologic history and osteoarthritis ofthe hip in elderly women: data from the study of osteoporotic fractures. Arthritis Rheum 1995;38(suppl):S396. 17 Spector TD, Brown GC, Silman AJ. Increased rates of previous hysterectomy and gynaecological operations in women with osteoarthritis. BMJ 1988;297:899-901. 18 Spector TD, Hart DJ, Brown P, Almeyda J, Dacre JE, Doyle DV, et al. Frequency of osteoarthritis in hysterectomized women. J Rheumatol 1991;18:1877-83. 19 Lethbridge-Cejku M, Hochberg MC, Scott WW, Reichle R, Plato CC, Roy TA, et al. Lack of association of reproductive and gynaecologic factors with radiographic features of osteoarthritis of the knee in postmenopausal women: Data from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging. Arthritis Rheum 1995;38(suppl):S223.
Enhancing Export Performance for Business Markets: Effects of Interorganizational Relationships on Export Market Orientation (EMO)

ABSTRACT Purpose: Drawing on the relationship marketing perspective, this study explores the effects of interorganizational relationship variables on export market orientation (EMO), in turn enhancing the export performance. Furthermore, firm internationalization was included as a moderator between export market-oriented behavior and export performance. Methodology: The authors tested the hypotheses via a mail survey involving 235 exporting firms. LISREL and regression analysis were used to test the proposed model. Findings: The results support the hypotheses, which posit that commitment, trust, and social interaction are positively related to EMO behavior, whereas power is negatively related to such behavior. Second, firm EMO behavior is positively related to export performance. Third, the degree of internationalization strengthens the effect of EMO on export performance. Research implications: This study improves existing theoretical understanding by supporting the relationship marketing perspective and international channel research for performing export market-oriented behaviors. Practical implications: The leverage of interorganizational relationships appears a solid strategy for performing export market-oriented behaviors. Exporters can focus not only on export market-oriented behaviors being performed but also on expansion to new markets. Originality/value: This study contributes to the marketing and international business literature and provides insights to exporters by examining the relationships among interorganizational relationship variables, EMO, and export performance. This study also introduces the degree of internationalization from a contingency-based view and demonstrates that internationalization complements EMO, and thus facilitates export performance.
Tradition-based Dental Care and Evidence-based Dental Care

T radition-based dental care and evidence-based dental care offer complementary paradigms for clinical Tdecision-making. Tradition-based care emphasizes the primacy of knowledge, experience, and intuition in the exercise of good clinical judgment. Evidence-based care emphasizes the integration of good judgment with the best available evidence and the patient's values in the making of clinical decisions (Haynes et al., 1996; Sackett et al., 1996). Evidence-based care therefore requires a new set of tools and rules. The new tools are the Internet-linked computer databases. The new rules facilitate an unbiased, rapid identification, critical appraisal, and clinical implementation of important clinical data found in these databases. In this communication, we highlight some of the limitations of tradition-based care, and highlight some of the benefits of evidence-based care.
Confocal microscopy of the Peripheral Gustatory System: Comparison between Healthy Subjects and Patients Suffering from Taste Disorders during Radiochemotherapy

Objectives: Laser‐scanning microscopy (LSM) was used to compare taste buds and epithelia of fungiform papillae of healthy subjects with those of patients suffering from taste disorders during/after radiochemotherapy (RCT). Aim of the study was to investigate effects responsible for taste loss at a microscopic level.