Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rapid Identification of Rhodococcus equi by a PCR Assay Targeting the choE Gene

ABSTRACT The actinomycete Rhodococcus equi is an important pathogen of horses and an emerging opportunistic pathogen of humans. Identification of R. equi by classical bacteriological techniques is sometimes difficult, and misclassification of an isolate is not uncommon. We report here on a specific PCR assay for the rapid and reliable identification of R. equi. It is based on the amplification of a fragment of the choE gene encoding cholesterol oxidase. The choE-based PCR was assessed by using a panel of strains comprising 132 isolates from different sources and of different geographical origins, all initially identified biochemically as R. equi, and 30 isolates of representative non-R. equi actinomycete species, including cholesterol oxidase producers. The expected 959-bp amplicon was observed only with R. equi isolates, as confirmed by sequencing of a variable region of the 16S RNA gene from a random sample of 20 PCR-positive isolates. All R. equi isolates gave a positive choE-based PCR result, which correlated with a high degree of conservation of the choE gene. Three of the 132 strains originally identified as R. equi were negative for the choE gene, and subsequent analysis of their 16S RNA gene sequences confirmed that they belonged to other bacterial species (Dietzia maris, Mycobacterium peregrinum, and Staphylococcus epidermidis). All non-R. equi isolates were negative by the choE-based PCR. ATCC 21387, the only known isolate of Brevibacterium sterolicum, gave a 959-bp amplicon whose DNA sequence was virtually identical to that of R. equi choE. Comparison of the 16S RNA genes indicated that ATCC 21387 should be considered an R. equi isolate.
In-situ Data Analytics In Cyber-Physical Systems

Cyber-Physical System (CPS) is an engineered system in which sensing, networking, and computing are tightly coupled with the control of the physical entities. To enable security, scalability and resiliency, new data analytics methodologies are required for computing, monitoring and optimization in CPS. This work investigates the data analytics related challenges in CPS through two study cases: Smart Grid and Seismic Imaging System. For smart grid, this work provides a complete solution for system management based on novel in-situ data analytics designs. We first propose methodologies for two important tasks of power system monitoring: grid topology change and power-line outage detection. To address the issue of low measurement redundancy in topology identification, particularly in the low-level distribution network, we develop a maximum a posterior based mechanism, which is capable of embedding prior information on the breakers status to enhance the identification accuracy. In power-line outage detection, existing approaches suffer from high computational complexity and security issues raised from centralized implementation. Instead, this work presents a distributed data analytics framework, which carries out in-network processing and invokes low computational complexity, requiring only simple matrix-vector multiplications. To complete the system functionality, we also propose a new power grid restoration strategy involving data analytics for topology reconfiguration and resource planning after faults or changes. In seismic imaging system, we develop several innovative in-situ seismic imaging schemes in which each sensor node computes the tomography based on its partial information and through gossip with local neighbors. The seismic data are generated in a distributed fashion originally. Different from the conventional approach involving data collection and then processing in order, our proposed in-situ data computing methodology is much more efficient. The underlying mechanisms avoid the bottleneck problem on bandwidth since all the data are processed distributed in nature and only limited decisional information is communicated. Furthermore, the proposed algorithms can deliver quicker insights than the state-of-arts in seismic imaging. Hence they are more promising solutions for real-time in-situ data analytics, which is highly demanded in disaster monitoring related applications. Through extensive experiments, we demonstrate that the proposed data computing methods are able to achieve near-optimal high quality seismic tomography, retain low communication cost, and provide real-time seismic data analytics. INDEX WORDS: Cyber-Physical System, Smart Grid, Seismic Imaging System, In-Network Processing, In-Situ Analytics, Distributed Computing. IN-SITU DATA ANALYTICS IN CYBER-PHYSICAL SYSTEMS
An update of gender diversity in editorial boards: a longitudinal study of management journals

Purpose – This study aims to update knowledge of women's representation on the boards of scholarly management journals with a longitudinal analysis of the same over two decades.Design/methodology/approach – This study extends the work of Metz and Harzing on women's representation in the editorial boards of 57 management journals from 1989 to 2004 by focusing on the development of gender diversity in editorial board membership over time. The authors first add another time period (2005‐2009) to Metz and Harzing's data. They then add empirical richness by conducting a more fine‐grained analysis of women's representation at the various editorial board levels over time. In addition, this study analyses the development of female editorial board memberships over time for five management fields, journals of four different ranks, and two geographic regions. As a result, this study examines women's representation in the editorial boards of 57 management journals over a period of 20 years (from 1989 to 2009). Finding.
Student perceptions of environmental management: profiling the future environmental manager

Large growth is expected in the environment industry in coming decades; especially in Australia where the government's new price on carbon began in July 2012. This growth inevitably raises the question of who will fill new environmental management roles. This article presents the perceptions and expectations of students who are beginning to think about a possible career in this sector; what influences their decision-making and how do they view a career as an environmental manager? Without this information the environment sector will be under prepared for the expectations of incoming recruits and may lose valued students, graduates and employees. We found that prospective environmental managers are passionate and committed individuals who express a desire to help create a better world. They fail, however, to adequately articulate what environmental management entails, and have a poor understanding of the industry. They appear to be worried about financial security in what they see as a growing, but not yet fully mature, industry. The environment sector must therefore take the opportunity to engage these future environmental managers, and to communicate where the field will lead and how it can help this next generation achieve their aspirations to ‘save the planet’.
The Growth of Direct Payouts to Shareholders in Brazil: Tax Savings or Changing Characteristics of Firms?

This paper shows that the increase in the proportion of Brazilian publicly traded firms providing cash payouts between 1990 and 2003 was due to an increase in the propensity to pay and not to changes in the companies’ characteristics. Unlike in the United States, the current Brazilian tax structure favors cash payouts over capital gains. The tax structure also makes a distinction between dividends and interest on stockholders’ equity. The latter category has become the main way of cash distribution. Big firms with high profitability and low leverage are the most likely to make cash profit distributions.
Increased Retinoic Acid Receptor-β4 Correlates In vivo with Reduced Retinoic Acid Receptor-β2 in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Different retinoic acid receptor-β (RAR-β) isoforms seem to have contrasting biological effects in human carcinogenesis. Both in vitro and in vivo data indicate that RAR-β2 expression is frequently lost or reduced (and transfecting RAR-β2 suppresses growth and promotes apoptosis) in various cancer cells and tissues, whereas RAR-β4 expression is increased in several cancer cell lines. To clarify the effects of different RAR-β isoforms in esophageal carcinogenesis, we used real-time quantitative reverse transcription-PCR to assess in vivo RAR-β mRNA levels in specimens of normal and malignant human esophageal tissue, comparing these levels with each other and the expressions of other genes. RAR-β2 mRNA expression was significantly reduced (i.e., lower in cancer than normal tissue) in 67% (18 of 27, P = 0.001) and RAR-β4 mRNA was increased in 52% (14 of 27, P = 0.054) of our esophageal cancer cases. The expressions of RAR-β1, chicken ovalbumin upstream promoter-transcription factor-I (COUP-TFI), COUP-TFII, and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ (PPAR-γ) mRNA were reduced, whereas epidermal growth factor receptor and cyclin D1 expressions were increased in tumor compared with in normal tissues. Reduced RAR-β2 expression correlated with increased RAR-β4 expression (P = 0.002) and with the suppression of COUP-TFI and COUP-TFII (P = 0.050 and 0.023, respectively) in tumor samples. These are the first in vivo expression patterns of RAR-β2 and RAR-β4 reported in humans or animals and support the in vitro data on these isoforms and their contrasting biological effects in human carcinogenesis.
Financial Liberalisation, Consumption and Wealth Effects in Seven OECD Countries

We estimate the impact of financial liberalisation on consumption in seven major industrial countries, and find a marked shift in behaviour, notably a decline in short-run income elasticities and a rise in short-run wealth and interest rate elasticities. A corollary is that consumption equations estimated over both pre- and post-liberalisation regimes may be misleading, and either a form of testing as presented here or a shortening of the sample period may be appropriate for accurate forecasting and simulation.
Preconditions for pacts on incomes policy: Bringing structures back in

Corporatist theory assumes a close association between centralized structures of interest intermediation and policy concertation, but recent social pacts have occurred in countries without these structures. Recent literature has focused instead on the processes involved in negotiating pacts. We bring structures back into the debate, arguing that tripartite pacts on incomes policy are systematically associated with multi-employer bargaining which is not coordinated by exposed-sector pattern-setting. This thesis is tested on time-series data for 14 West European countries from 1980 to 2003. We conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for the future of pacts.
Current Status of Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation for Adult Patients with Hematologic Diseases and Solid Tumors in Japan

A nationwide survey of hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) was started in Japan in 1991, and the analyzed survey data have been presented as the annual report of the Japan Society for Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation.The 10-year overall survival (OS) rates after HCT for each disease are as follows: acute myelogenous leukemia, 44.2%; acute lymphocytic leukemia, 33.7%; adult T-cell leukemia, 24.6%; chronic myelogenous leukemia, 53.3%; myelodysplastic syndrome, 37.3%; non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, 41.5%; Hodgkin’s lymphoma, 50.8%; aplastic anemia, 72.5%; breast cancer, 37.1%; germ cell tumor, 52.6%; and ovarian cancer, 44.2%. The 5-year OS rates for multiple myeloma and lung cancer were 40.6% and 23.6%, respectively. Except in cord blood transplantation, engraftment was accomplished in more than 90% of patients.The respective frequencies of acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and chronic GVHD were 41.1% and 34.9% for related bone marrow transplantation (BMT), 66.8% and 34.5% for unrelated BMT, 52.9% and 36.0% for allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell transplantation, and 53.3% and 32.1% for allogeneic cord blood transplantation. OS for each disease was analyzed by patient age, stem cell source, donor type, disease status, and disease type.These data provide objective and valuable information for hematologists as well as for patients who need HCT.
The value relevance of environmental performance

Abstract This paper provides insight into how environmental information is reflected in the market value of listed Swedish companies. Using the residual income valuation model, we express market value of equity as a function of book value of equity, accounting earnings, and environmental performance, where the last variable is used as a proxy for other value-relevant information. Our research is motivated by the recommendation of the Swedish Society of Financial Analysts regarding environmental reporting. This recommendation assumes that environmental information has value relevance, since it is likely to affect the expected future earnings of listed companies. We contribute empirical findings to current debate on the relationship between environmental performance and shareholder value. The cost-concerned school argues that environmental investments represent only increased costs, resulting in decreased earnings and lower market values. The value creation school regards environmental efforts as a way to increase competitive advantage and improve financial returns to the investors. The current research finds support for the cost-concerned school, because the results indicate that environmental performance has a negative influence on the market value of firms.
Pharmacogenetics in cancer therapy - 8 years of experience at the Institute for Oncology and Radiology of Serbia.

PURPOSE Pharmacogenetics is a study of possible mechanism by which an individual's response to drugs is genetically determined by variations in their DNA sequence. The aim of pharmacogenetics is to identify the optimal drug and dose for each individual based on their genetic constitution, i.e. to individualize drug treatment. This leads to achieving the maximal therapeutic response for each patient, while reducing adverse side effects of therapy and the cost of treatment. A centralized pharmacogenetics service was formed at the Institute for Oncology and Radiology of Serbia (IORS) with the aim to provide a personalized approach to cancer treatment of Serbian patients. METHODS Analyses of KRAS mutations in metastatic colorectal cancer, EGFR mutations in advanced non-small cell lung cancer, CYP2D6 polymorphism in breast cancer, DPD polymorphism in colorectal cancer and MTHFR polymorphism in osteosarcoma have been performed by real time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). RESULTS Mutation testing analyses were successful for 1694 KRAS samples and 1821 EGFR samples, while polymorphism testing was successful for 9 CYP2D6 samples, 65 DPD samples and 35 MTHFR samples. CONCLUSIONS Pharmacogenetic methods presented in this paper provide cancer patients in Serbia the best possible choice of treatment at the moment.
A 20-year longitudinal study of subjective symptoms of temporomandibular disorders from childhood to adulthood

The aims were to study the development over 20 years of reported temporomandibular disorders (TMD) symptoms in an epidemiologic sample and to analyze possible correlations between these symptoms and some other variables. Four hundred and two randomly selected 7-, 11-, and 15-year-old subjects were originally examined by means of a questionnaire with regard to symptoms of TMD. The investigation was repeated after 4-5, 10, and 20 years, using the same method. After 20 years, when the original group had reached the age of 27 to 35 years, 378 individuals (94%) could be traced, and they were sent a questionnaire. Three hundred and twenty subjects (80% of the original sample, 85% of the traced subjects) completed and returned the questionnaire. There was a substantial fluctuation of reported symptoms over the 20-year period. Progression to severe pain and dysfunction of the masticatory system was rare. On the other hand, recovery from frequent symptoms to no symptoms was also rare. At the last examination 13% reported one or more frequent TMD symptom. The prevalence of bruxism increased with time, but other oral parafunctions decreased. Women reported TMD symptoms and headache more often than men. Correlations between the studied variables were mainly weak. The highest correlations found (rs = 0.4-0.5) were those between reported tooth clenching and tooth grinding and jaw fatigue. It can be concluded that in this epidemiologic sample, followed over 20 years from childhood to adulthood, a substantial fluctuation of TMD symptoms was found. Severe symptoms were rare, but 1 of 8 subjects reported frequent TMD symptoms at the last exam.
Coupled iron corrosion and chromate reduction: mechanisms for subsurface remediation.

The reduction of chromium from the Cr(VI) to the Cr(III) state by the presence of elemental, or zero-oxidation-state, iron metal was studied to evaluate the feasibility of such a process for subsurface chromate remediation. Reactions were studied in systems of natural aquifer materials with varying geochemistry. Different forms of iron metal had significantly different abilities to reduce chromate, ranging from extremely rapid to essentially no effect. Impure, partially oxidized iron was most effective, with iron quantity being the most important rate factor, followed by aquifer material type and solid :solution ratio. Evidence for chromium-iron hydroxide solid solution (Cr x, Fe 1-x )(OH) 3 (ss) formation was obtained by electron probe microanalysis. A cyclic, multiple reaction electrochemical corrosion mechanism, enhanced by the development of an electrical double-layer analogue, is proposed to explain the differing iron reactivities and aquifer material effects.
Demographic Changes and International Factor Mobility

This paper reviews the extent and policy implications of linkages between demographic changes and international factor mobility. Evidence is found of significant demographic effects on both migration and the current account, but for different reasons neither increased migration nor international transfers of savings is expected to offer much assistance in digesting the variety of demographic transitions expected over the next fifty years. The paper also examines more briefly the effects of demography on the factor content of international trade, as exemplified by offshore provision of back-office and other services previously provided closer to home. When considering the consequences of using international capital movements and especially migration to mediate international differences in demographic patterns, I broaden the focus from the usual economic variables, such as the size and distribution of incomes and employment, to consider explicit measures of well-being, which have been shown to depend on far more than economic variables. This has implications for a whole range of policies, both domestic and international, that might help deal with national and global demographic transitions.
SEVEN ASIAN EMERGING EQUITY MARKETS: ARE THEY INTEGRATED?

This study investigates how closely the equity indices of seven emerging countries in South Asia and South East Asia (Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) are integrated as these countries do share many common economic, political, and cultural relationships. The analysis uses the cointegration methodology developed by Johansen. It is the preferred method to other alternatives since it enables testing for the presence of more than one cointegrating vector. The cointegration results confirm that the equity indices of these countries are highly integrated. There is also evidence that some of the emerging economies have started displaying divergence from each other because of dissimilar levels of development and growth. Equity markets integration should be of interest to academics, practitioners, institutional investors, portfolio managers and
Raising Marketing's Aspirations

Marketing as a function and a profession suffers from the tyranny of exceedingly low expectations. Rather than accept that most customers view most marketing actions in a negative light and that the response rates to marketing initiatives must remain extremely low because of competitive pressures, marketing must raise its aspirations. It must articulate and enforce high standards for what is deemed to be acceptable marketing practice, using mechanisms analogous to GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) in accounting.
Qualifications: a fast‐track to hotel general manager?

Purpose – To examine the role of formal qualifications in the career development of contemporary hotel general managers in Scotland.Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire was used which provided a sound basis for comparing the opinions, performance and career paths of both formally qualified and unqualified general managers.Findings – Key findings identified that formal qualifications were an integral part of career development. They facilitated career moves between companies and allowed prospective managers to “fast‐track” to general management status. Formal qualifications were considered particularly beneficial in developing those functional managerial skills required to succeed.Practical implications – At this present time of change within the industry, the existing move towards a more business perspective in the role of hotel general manager may in fact be influencing the development of managers’ mid‐career. The actual importance today of food and beverage positions may be far less than it has.
Guilty Pleasure or Pleasurable Guilt? Affective Experience of Impulse Buying in Hedonic-Driven Consumption

Consumption of hospitality products and services is often driven by hedonic motivations. However, the affective aspect of consumption experience is not well understood in the current hospitality literature. This study explores consumers’ dynamic affective experience in a particular consumption situation—impulse buying. Results of this experimental study suggest that impulse buying leads to a state of cognitive and affective ambivalence. Specifically, cognitive ambivalence (the tension between beliefs about self-indulgence and beliefs about self-control) is positively related to affective ambivalence (a mixed feeling of positive and negative affect). Affective ambivalence is linked to consumers’ normative evaluation of impulse purchases. The results suggest that affective ambivalence manifests itself in two subtly but qualitatively different affective states: “guilty pleasure” and “pleasurable guilt. ” Important managerial implications of the findings are also discussed.
Role of customer orientation in an integrative model of brand loyalty in services

This study attempts to model the development of brand loyalty by examining the simultaneous effects of customer orientation, perceived quality, brand associations, and satisfaction on brand loyalty. Data are used from retail banking and discount store retailing services to examine the direct and indirect effects of customer perceptions of customer orientation and quality on brand loyalty. It was found that customer orientation has a direct effect on brand loyalty and indirect effects through customer satisfaction, perceived quality, and brand associations as mediators. Further, perceived quality has a direct effect on brand loyalty as well as an indirect effect with satisfaction as a mediator. The results suggest that effective management of brand loyalty would require tracking of customer perceptions of a firm's customer orientation, quality and brand, in addition to measuring customer satisfaction.