Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Retinoblastoma and p53 tumor suppressor genes in human hepatoma cell lines

We analyzed the status of retinoblastoma and p53 genes in 10 human hepatoma cell lines. Polyclonal anti‐peptide antibodies generated against peptides homologous to COOH‐terminal and leucine‐zipper domains of the retinoblastoma protein allowed us to identify two cell lines (Hep 3B and FOCUS) with abnormal expression. The same cell lines have both lacked p53 expression. In contrast to the retinoblastoma gene, the expression of the p53 gene was abnormal in six additional cell lines. Indeed, only the Hep G2 hepatoblastoma cell line (and its derivative Hep G2/2215) appeared to have normal p53 and retinoblastoma gene expression. Our studies indicate that p53 abnormalities are common but retinoblastoma gene aberrations are rare in human hepatoma cell lines. —Puisieux, A. , Galvin, K. , Troalen, F. , Bressac, B. , Marcais, C. , Galun, E. , Ponchel, F. , Yakicier, C. , Ji, J., Ozturk, M. Retinoblastoma and p53 tumor suppressor genes in human hepatoma cell lines. FASEB J. 7: 1407‐1413; 1993.
Reforming the Pension Reforms: The Recent Initiatives and Actions on Pensions in Argentina and Chile

This paper describes the recent reforms of pension policies adopted by Argentina and Chile. The structural reforms in the 1980s and 90s were targeted on improving the long term fiscal sustainability of the system and their institutional design, while transferring part of the economic and social risks from the State to participants. However, in recent years authorities in both countries coincided on identifying insufficient coverage among the elderly and adequacy of benefits as the most critical problems. As a result of differences in political economy and institutional constraints, responses were different. In Chile, a long and participatory process resulted in a large reform that focuses on impacts on the medium term, through a carefully calibrated adjustment. In Argentina, instead, reforms were adopted through a large number of successive normative corrections, with little public debate about their implications, and immediate impacts on coverage and fiscal demands.
Altered expression of the glutamate transporter EAAT2b in neurological disease

Functional studies suggest that up to 95% of all glutamate transport is handled by the glutamate transporter EAAT2. Amino and C‐terminal antibodies demonstrate that under normal conditions EAAT2 is specific to astrocytes. A truncated splice variant of EAAT2, known as EAAT2b, also has been identified in astrocytes and some neurons. In vitro studies suggest EAAT2b transports glutamate similar to EAAT2, although the contribution of EAAT2b to normal clearance of extracellular glutamate is unknown. To investigate EAAT2b biology in pathological conditions, we examined the cellular and regional distribution of EAAT2b in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Using epitope‐specific, affinity purified antibodies, we found that EAAT2b tissue levels were increased by more than twofold in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis motor cortex, whereas EAAT2 levels were decreased by up to 95%. EAAT2b distribution in normal human cortex was largely confined to the neuropil‐like EAAT2, with occasional faint neuronal expression. In contrast, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis motor cortex had an obvious qualitative increase in neuropil EAAT2b staining and a drastic increase in neuronal soma and dendritic EAAT2b immunostaining. Despite these increases in EAAT2b immunostaining, functional transporter studies demonstrated a large loss of EAAT2 function. These studies clearly document altered regulation and splicing of the dominant glutamate transporter EAAT2 under conditions of neurological stress. Ann Neurol 2004;55:000–000
Power Law Degree Distributions Can Fit Averages of Non-Power Law Distributions

Many complex systems have been modeled as networks. Examples of such systems that are of interest to cognitive psychologists include the mental lexicon for spoken word recognition and semantic memory. A frequent finding in such studies is that the frequency distribution of the number of connections each node in the network has follows a power law. This finding has been interpreted to mean that the network grows through a process similar to preferential attachment: when a node is added to the network, it attaches to other nodes with a probability proportional to the number of connections those other nodes already have. Power-law degree distributions, however, may also well describe degree distributions that result when averaging across multiple individual degree distributions, none of which follows a power-law. Further, each of these individual distributions may reflect a random growth process rather than the more systematic process suggested by preferential attachment.
HmsP, a putative phosphodiesterase, and HmsT, a putative diguanylate cyclase, control Hms‐dependent biofilm formation in Yersinia pestis

The Hms+ phenotype of Yersinia pestis promotes the binding of haemin or Congo red (CR) to the cell surface at temperatures below 34°C. We previously demonstrated that temperature regulation of the Hms+ phenotype is not controlled at the level of transcription. Instead, HmsH, HmsR and HmsT are degraded upon a temperature shift from 26°C to 37°C. We used random transposon mutagenesis to identify new genes involved in the temperature‐regulated expression of the Hms phenotype. One of these genes, which we designated hmsP, encodes a putative phosphodiesterase with a conserved EAL motif. Mutations in hmsP caused formation of red colonies on CR plates at 26°C and 37°C. Strains complemented with hmsP+ on a plasmid form white colonies at both temperatures. We used a crystal violet assay and confocal laser scanning microscopy to demonstrate Hms‐dependent biofilm formation by Y. pestis cells. Y. pestis Hms+ strains grown at 26°C but not at 37°C form a biofilm on borosilicate glass surfaces. Strains that either overexpress HmsT (a GGDEF domain protein) or have a mutation in hmsP produced an extremely thick biofilm. Alanine substitutions for each of the GGEE residues (amino acids 296–299) of HmsT as well as the E506 and L508 residues of HmsP caused a loss of function. We propose that HmsT and HmsP together control the amount of biofilm produced in Y. pestis. Degradation of HmsT at 37°C may be a critical factor in controlling the temperature‐dependent expression of the Hms biofilm.
Distance Education in Georgia's Public School Districts: Baseline Data on Utilization and the Perceived Barriers to Implementation and Expansion.

Interest in distance education, particularly online education, is increasing in public school districts throughout the United States. Districts are using these courses for a variety of reasons, including, but not limited to the following: offering courses not available at school, increasing the availability of Advanced Placement (AP) and college level courses, and solving scheduling conflicts for students. Many states have created virtual schools for this purpose. The Georgia Virtual School program was created on May 4, 2005, upon the signing of Senate Bill 33 by Governor Sonny Perdue. In an effort to aid those who are involved in the planning and administration of K-12 distance education programs in Georgia, the researcher sought to gather and report baseline data on the current utilization of distance education courses in Georgia’s K-12 public school districts, and to determine the perceived barriers to the implementation and expansion of distance education programs. The researcher developed an online survey instrument, which was sent to 175 of the 180 Georgia public school district superintendents. Descriptive statistics common to quantitative research were calculated, including frequencies, means, and standard deviations. Pearson’s Chi-Square test was used to determine if any statistically significant differences were found among responses to the
Assessing the default risk of Chinese public companies in the energy industry with the KMV model

The structural approach to credit risk modeling has gained a growing attention in both the academics and in the industry. In this dissertation, we outline the basic ideas and structures of the KMV (Merton) model and also explain some related issues before implementing this model. Referring to the KMV model, we use the KMV model to identify the credit risk of listed companies in China. We use real data to examine the default probability of 30 companies (ST and non ST) in the energy sector, and the time period is from 2001 to 2010. Our results indicate that the KMV model has the ability to early identify credit risk in the energy industry of China. Also, the recent share structure reform has affected the credit risk and equity volatility of the firms in the Chinese energy sector.
Required CEO Stock Ownership: Consequences for Risk-taking and Compensation

Most large U.S. public firms have adopted executive stock ownership requirements ('SORs') in recent years. Compared to CEOs already in compliance, CEOs not in compliance at SOR adoption subsequently increase stock holdings, exposing them to more company-specific risk, which may provide a risk-reducing incentive and diminish their subjective valuation of firm equity. Using changes in state capital gains tax rates as an instrument, we find that these CEOs reduce firm idiosyncratic risk, but not market risk, through investment allocations and MA reduce earnings volatility and financial leverage; and receive increased compensation. A placebo test further addresses endogeneity.
Business Reporting on the Internet: Development of a Disclosure Quality Index

The rapid growth of the internet has significantly influenced business reporting practices and accounting communication of companies. Studies of internet business reporting apply various indexes to measure disclosure practices. However, existing indexes suffer weaknesses in the scope covered, which is mainly limited to financial disclosure. The present study develops a new indexiXthe Internet Business Reporting Quality (IBRQ) indexiXto measure the quality of internet business reporting practices. Detailed consideration was made about weights in the index. Results from multi-rater reliability test indicate that the index is a valid and reliable instrument. The index was also reviewed by prominent researchers. The IBRQ index addresses a significant gap in the literature.
Bold Analysts or Bold Banks: Do Institutional Factors Drive Herding Behavior?

This paper examines the influence of institutional factors on the herding behavior of security analysts. Exploiting a unique dataset on the ownership of brokerage houses, we find that analysts from publicly listed brokers are more likely to issue herding forecasts compared to analysts from privately held brokers. We show that this effect is driven by the group of analysts covering financial sector stocks. In particular, the probability of issuing a herding forecast revision is 4% higher (average marginal effect) for financial sector analysts from public brokers compared to financial sector analysts from private brokers. We interpret this finding as evidence that financial sector analysts from public brokers are less independent, as their forecasts exert an externality on their broker’s stock valuation.
An automated technique for the quantitative assessment of 3D‐MRSI data from patients with glioma

Although proton magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (1H‐MRSI) has been shown to be effective for localizing tumor in patients with gliomas, it is not a routinely used clinical tool. This is due, in part, to the lack of a standardized, objective method for analyzing spectra. We present an automated technique for a) selecting a population of voxels from each patient that have the spectral features of normal brain regions, and b) using the selected voxels as internal controls for quantifying the probability of abnormality at each voxel location. The technique was demonstrated on a phantom, 14 normal volunteers, and 30 patients with histologically proven tumor. In addition, we demonstrated the usefulness of the method for monitoring patients in serial studies from two glioma patients with progressive disease. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2001;13:167–177. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Morality and Its Relation to Political Ideology

Our research investigated whether promotion concerns with advancement and prevention concerns with security related to moral beliefs and political ideology. Study 1 found that chronic prevention and promotion focus had opposite relations to binding foundation endorsement (as measured by the Moral Foundations Questionnaire), that is, positive for prevention and negative for promotion, and opposite relations to political ideology, that is, more conservative for prevention and more liberal for promotion, and the relation between focus and political ideology was partially mediated by binding foundation endorsement. Study 2 showed that promotion and prevention, even as situationally induced states, can contribute to differences in binding foundation endorsement, with prevention producing stronger endorsement (compared with a control) and promotion producing weaker endorsement.
13C Urea Breath Test with Nondispersive Isotope‐Selective Infrared Spectrometry: Reproducibility and Importance of the Fasting Status

Background. The 13C urea breath test (13C‐UBT) is the most convenient method for diagnosing Helicobacter pylori infection noninvasively. Nondispersive isotope‐selective infrared spectrometry (NDIRS) is an inexpensive and easy alternative to mass spectrometry. The objective of this study was to evaluate: (1) the reproducibility of the 13C‐UBT as performed by using the NDIRS method; (2) the repeatability of bags analysis and the impact of delayed analysis; and (3) the need for fasting status for the 13C‐UBT.
Telomere length and telomerase reverse transcriptase gene copy number in patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma.

CONTEXT The family risk ratio for papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is among the highest of all cancers. Collectively, familial cases (fPTC) and sporadic cases (sPTC) are not known to show molecular differences. However, one study reported that telomeres were markedly shorter and the telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) gene was amplified and up-regulated in germline DNA from patients with fPTC compared with sPTC. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to evaluate telomere length and TERT gene amplification and expression in blood samples of fPTC and sPTC patients in a genetically distinct population from the previous study. DESIGN In 42 fPTC and 65 sPTC patients, quantitative real-time PCR was employed to measure the relative telomere length (RTL) and TERT gene copy number and RNA level. To validate the results using alternative methods, we further studied a subset of the original cohort consisting of randomly chosen fPTC (n = 10) and sPTC (n = 14) patients and controls (n = 21) by assessing both telomere length by flow fluorescent in situ hybridization and TERT gene expression by quantitative real-time PCR. RESULTS RTL and TERT gene copy number did not differ between fPTC and sPTC (P = 0.957 and P = 0.998, respectively). The mean RTL and TERT gene expression were not significantly different among the groups of the validation series (P = 0.169 and P = 0.718, respectively). CONCLUSION Our data show no difference between familial and sporadic PTC with respect to telomere length, TERT copy number, or expression in our cohort. Further investigations in additional cohorts of patients are desirable.
Grain growth across protoplanetary discs: 10 μm silicate feature versus millimetre slope

Context. Young stars are formed with dusty discs around them. The dust grains in the disc are originally of the same size as interstellar dust, i.e., of the order of 0.1 μm. Models predict that these grains will grow in size through coagulation. Observations of the silicate features around 10 and 20 μm are consistent with growth from submicron to micron sizes in selected sources whereas the slope of the spectral energy distribution (SED) at mm and cm wavelengths traces growth up to mm sizes and larger. Aims. We here look for a correlation between these two grain growth indicators. Methods. A large sample of T-Tauri and Herbig-Ae/Be stars, spread over the star-forming regions in Chamaeleon, Lupus, Serpens, Corona Australis, and the Gum nebula in Vela, was observed with the Spitzer Space Telescope at 5–13 μm, and a subsample was observed with the SMA, ATCA, CARMA, and VLA at mm wavelengths. We complement this subsample with data from the literature to maximise the overlap between μm and mm observations and search for correlations in the grain-growth signatures. Synthetic spectra are produced to determine which processes may produce the dust evolution observed in protoplanetary discs. Results. Dust disc masses in the range <1 to 7 × 10^(-4) M_☉ are obtained. The majority of the sources have a mm spectral slope consistent with grain growth. There is a tentative correlation between the strength and the shape of the 10-μm silicate feature and the slope of the SED between 1 and 3 mm. The observed sources seem to be grouped per star-forming region in the 10-μm-feature vs. mm-slope diagram. The modelling results show that, if only the maximum grain size is increased, first the 10-μm feature becomes flatter and subsequently the mm slope becomes shallower. To explain the sources with the shallowest mm slopes, a grain size distribution shallower than that of the interstellar medium is required. Furthermore, the strongest 10-μm features can only be explained with bright (L ~ 6 L_☉), hot (T_(eff) = 4000 K) central stars. Settling of larger grains towards the disc midplane results in a stronger 10-μm feature, but has a very limited effect on the mm slope. Conclusions. A tentative correlation between the strength of the 10-μm feature and the mm slope is found, which would imply that the inner and outer disc evolve simultaneously. Dust with a mass dominated by large, ~mm-sized, grains is required to explain the shallowest mm slopes. Other processes besides grain growth, such as the clearing of an inner disc by binary interaction, may also be responsible for the removal of small grains. Observations with future telescopes with larger bandwidths or collecting areas are required to provide the necessary statistics to study these processes of disc and dust evolution.
Selective D2 Receptor Actions on the Functional Circuitry of Working Memory

Prefrontal neurons engaged by working memory tasks express a sequence of phasic and tonic activations linked to a train of sensory, mnemonic, and response-related events. Here, we report that the dopamine D2 receptor selectively modulates the neural activities associated with memory-guided saccades in oculomotor delayed-response tasks yet has little or no effect on the persistent mnemonic-related activity, which is instead modulated by D1 receptors. This associates the D2 receptor with a specific component of working memory circuitry and fractionates the modulatory effects of D1 and D2 receptors on the neural machinery of a cognitive process.
RADIO PROPAGATION IN RURAL RESIDENTIAL AREAS WITH VEGETATION - ABSTRACT

In this paper we describe radio wave propagation within mixed residential area consisting of vegetation and houses. We assume no specific knowledge of the houses and vegetation location, but only of their statistical parameters. A three-dimensional (3D) stochastic approach, which is based on the statistical description of the terrain features, houses and vegetation, and deterministic description of signal decay is presented. The scattering and diffraction from trees and buildings, as well as the diffused reflection from the rough structures of the obstructions are modeled using the statistical description of an array of non-transparent phase screens randomly distributed on the rough terrain. The model, which accounts for single scattering and diffraction phenomena and a similar model, which accounts for multiple scattering effects without effects of diffraction are compared with measurements carried out in typical rural mixed residential areas with vegetation. The accuracy of the theoretical prediction is analyzed accounting possible variations of the terrain features. The approach presented here is applicable in many cases, where specific topographical information is not available.
Identification and description of hybrids of Fundulus heteroclitus and F. diaphanus (Pisces: Cyprinodontidae) from Porters Lake, Nova Scotia, with evidence for absence of backcrossing.

Phenotypic analysis of 2143 killifish (Cyprinodontidae) collected in Porters Lake. Halifax County, Nova Scotia, from May 1971 to September 1972, indicated that 1973 killifish were of two readily distinguishable species, either Fundulus heteroclitus or F. diaphanus, and 170 individuals were an apparent hybrid of the two which was intermediate for the eight morphometric, meristic, and molecular characters analyzed. Character index analysis and consistent electrophoretic patterns of muscle malate dehydrogenase and lactate dehydrogenase suggested that the hybrids, which comprised four age-classes, were invariably F1 hybrids. There was no indication of backcrossing. Reciprocal interspecific fertility and postlarval viability were confirmed in F1 laboratory crosses. These forms possessed structural measures, character indices, and electrophoretic patterns that were virtually identical with those of the natural hybrids.
Supply chain visibility and sustainable competitive advantage: An integrated model

Lack of visibility of the assets in a product supply chain compromises attempts to optimise supply chain management. Increasing the visibility of these assets presents a relatively unexplored frontier in operations and supply where organisations can create competitive advantage through the opportunities asset visibility offer. This research aims at investigating the key capabilities of asset visibility specifically those associated with returnable transport assets that travel across supply chains carrying material and products e.g. cages, boxes, trays, trolleys and pallet bins. In addition, how these capabilities may influence supply chain visibility and firm performance in a way that might lead to sustainable competitive advantage is examined. To achieve these objectives, the research develops a two-stage model that is theoretically grounded in the extended resource-based view. Philosophically, the research adopts a critical realist approach using abductive logic. Methodologically, a sequential exploratory strategy for data collection is implemented. A qualitative, indepth site-based case study supported by field expert interviews was conducted as a pilot study. The pilot study findings refined the initial conceptual model derived from literature and informed the next stage of the research. The quantitative phase focused on refining the factors constituting asset visibility capabilities and then testing the relationship between these capabilities and supply chain visibility, performance and sustainable competitive advantage. Key findings are that asset visibility capabilities are shaped through three key capabilities: (1) an asset management capability formed by both core technological aspects related to tracking and tracing technology, and non-technological ones focusing on logistic-related capability; (2) a complementary technological capability comprising of IT infrastructure for supply chain integration; and (3) a complementary nontechnological capability represented through three sub-capabilities: (a) supply chain process integration; (b) focal firm-3PL relational orientation; and (c) internal firm integration. The research findings prove a positive relationship between asset visibility capabilities and supply chain visibility. In addition, a positive relationship between these capabilities and sustainable competitive advantage through the mediated effect of supply chain visibility and firm performance, is confirmed.