Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Targeting Pericytes for Angiogenic Therapies

In pathological scenarios, such as tumor growth and diabetic retinopathy, blocking angiogenesis would be beneficial. In others, such as myocardial infarction and hypertension, promoting angiogenesis might be desirable. Due to their putative influence on endothelial cells, vascular pericytes have become a topic of growing interest and are increasingly being evaluated as a potential target for angioregulatory therapies. The strategy of manipulating pericyte recruitment to capillaries could result in anti‐ or proangiogenic effects. Our current understanding of pericytes, however, is limited by knowledge gaps regarding pericyte identity and lineage. To use a music analogy, this review is a “mash‐up” that attempts to integrate what we know about pericyte functionality and expression with what is beginning to be elucidated regarding their regenerative potential. We explore the lingering questions regarding pericyte phenotypic identity and lineage. The expression of different pericyte markers (e.g., SMA, Desmin, NG2, and PDGFR‐β) varies for different subpopulations and tissues. Previous use of these markers to identify pericytes has suggested potential phenotypic overlaps and plasticity toward other cell phenotypes. Our review chronicles the state of the literature, identifies critical unanswered questions, and motivates future research aimed at understanding this intriguing cell type and harnessing its therapeutic potential.
Fullerene‐associated phenanthrene contributes to bioaccumulation but is not toxic to fish

The present study investigated the effects of aqueous fullerene suspensions (nC60) on the bioavailability and toxicity of phenanthrene (Phe) to junior carp (Cyprinus carpio). Bioaccumulation factors (BAFs) were calculated based on total as well as free concentrations of Phe. Equal BAF values were obtained with and without nC60 based on the total concentrations, whereas greater BAFs were found in the presence of nC60 when free Phe concentrations were applied. The results demonstrated that nC60 could act as a contaminant carrier to facilitate Phe bioaccumulation. The concentration–response relationship of induced hepatic 7‐ethoxysorufin‐O‐deethylase activity was established in regard to the total and free concentrations of aqueous Phe solutions as well as the body residues. The concentration‐response curves were reliant on the nC60 concentration when the total concentration of Phe was employed as a variable but were independent of nC60 presence when free concentration or body residue was employed as a variable, implying that the latter 2 parameters were more accurate in evaluating biological effects. Particles of C60 were mostly distributed in fish liver and intestines, which indicated the primary routine of uptake was through ingestion. Approximately 22% to 100% of the Phe–nC60 complex contributed to the bioaccumulation, whereas the complex did not contribute to the toxicity. Environ Toxicol Chem 2015;34:1023–1030. © 2015 SETAC
Cytokine gene transfer in the therapy of autoimmune

Detlef Neumann and Diana Boraschi* Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany Institute of Biomedical Technologies, CNR, Pisa, Italy __________________________________________________________________________________ *Correspondence: Diana Boraschi, Laboratory of Cytokines, Unit of Immunobiology, Institute of Biomedical Technologies, Area della Ricerca di S. Cataldo, Via G. Moruzzi 1, I-56124 Pisa, Italy; Tel: +39/050/3152775; Fax: +39/050/3153973; E-mail: diana.boraschi@itb.cnr. it
Basement membrane synthesis by human corneal epithelial cells in vitro.

PURPOSE Collagen gels may prove to be potential carriers for transplantation of cultured corneal epithelial cells. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the suitability of collagen gels in comparison with corneal stromal blocks as the substrate to support the growth of human corneal epithelial cells in culture and the synthesis and deposition of the basement membrane components by these cells. METHODS Corneal epithelial sheets, freed from the culture dishes using Dispase II (Boehringer Mannheim, Indianapolis, IN), were cultured on corneal stromal blocks. Deposition of laminin, type IV collagen, type VII collagen, and perlecan (heparan sulfate proteoglycan) were evaluated immunohistochemically after 4 days, 7 days, 2 weeks, and 3 weeks. Human limbal explant cultures were established on collagen gels prepared from bovine type I collagen with or without addition of cultured human corneal fibroblasts. After 1, 2, 3, and 4 weeks, the deposition of the basement membrane components was evaluated immunohistochemically. RESULTS Corneal epithelial cells, cultured on corneal stromal blocks as well as on collagen gels with or without fibroblasts, deposited laminin, type IV collagen, perlecan, and type VII collagen at the interface of the cells and the substrates. However, different substrates differentially influenced the temporal pattern of the deposition of various basement membrane components. On the stromal blocks, deposition of laminin, type IV collagen, and perlecan by the epithelial cells was evident at 1 week. Type VII collagen was detected at 2 weeks. On the collagen gels with fibroblasts, deposition of laminin, type IV collagen and perlecan was detectable at 1 week. In the epithelial cultures on the collagen gels without fibroblasts, only perlecan was detectable at 1 week. At 2 weeks, all of the basement membrane components, including type VII collagen were detectable on the collagen gels, either with or without fibroblasts. CONCLUSION Human corneal epithelium cultured on collagen gels or on corneal stromal blocks can synthesize and deposit basement membrane components, including laminin, type IV collagen, type VII collagen, and perlecan within 2 weeks in culture. Therefore, collagen gels may serve as potential carriers for human corneal epithelial transplantation.
Influence of suprasegmental features on perceived ethnicity of American politicians

How accurate are listeners at identifying the ethnicities of political figures from one-word samples? Do suprasegmental variables provide a basis for these judgments? Tokens of six lexical items were extracted from speeches by seven male political figures of different stated ethnic identities. In a Mechanical Turk experiment, 94 listeners heard each token twice, then responded to the multiplechoice question: “What is the ethnicity of this speaker? ”. While listeners overall performed with an accuracy rate below chance, certain speakers and tokens were more consistently identified than others, both accurately and inaccurately. Analysis indicates suprasegmental features including Intensity Ratio, Harmonics to Noise Ratio, Jitter Average. Pitch Peak Ratio, and Syllable Duration Ratio, contribute to listener judgments of ethnicity.
Corporate social responsibility: engaging the community

Purpose This paper aims to extend corporate social responsibility (CSR) theory by exploring how firms engage with community. The community is frequently cited as a stakeholder of the firm, but in spite of its status in networks it has not been the focus of research. Drawing on community theory and Carroll’s pyramid for the foundation of this study, the authors undertake an empirical investigation to advance knowledge in CSR engagement with a particular stakeholder group. Design/methodology/approach To generate an in-depth insight, the study adopts a multiple case study approach involving the purposeful selection of three retail banks in Ghana as units of analysis. It draws on multiple data sources to strengthen its findings. Findings The study finds that community engagement consists of four spheres of activity: donations, employee voluntarism, projects and partnerships. Philanthropy forms part of largely ad hoc CSR actions by firms. The study also finds that philanthropy is not merely a desired function of the CSR pyramid but an essential one. Practical implications This research imparts increased understanding of how firms engage with an important but frequently overlooked stakeholder group – community. Originality/value This study presents specific theoretical extensions to CSR through its identification of four core activities of community engagement.
A Study of Factors Affecting the Intention to Use Mobile Payment Services in Vietnam

The goal of this paper is to spot out factors affecting the intention to use mobile payment service plan in Vietnam. This study attempts to analyze the impact of various variables extracted from Mobility, Convenience, Compatibility, M-payment knowledge, Ease to use, Usefulness, Risk, Trust, Safe to use on Intention to use mobile payment. Quantitative questionnaire is use to measure responses of participants. The statistical analysis method employed in this study is to apply Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to test all hypotheses. The results indicate that the strong predictors of the intention to use m-payment are perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. All respondents showed that they do not care about risk when they have intention to use mobile payment services. Mobility, Convenience, Compatibility, and Mobile payment knowledge have impacts on Ease to use and Usefulness. Among of them, Compatibility has the most significant impact on Ease to use and Usefulness in the opinion of those surveyed. At the end of this paper, a set of suggestions is outline to be investigated in the subsequent research works. ___________________________________________________________________________ Keyword: Mobile payment, Mobility, Convenience, Compatibility, M-payment knowledge, Ease to use, Usefulness, Risk, Trust, Safe to use, Intention to use, Vietnam. Proceedings of the Second Asia-Pacific Conference on Global Business, Economics, Finance and Social Sciences (AP15Vietnam Conference) ISBN: 978-1-63415-833-6 Danang-Vietnam, 10-12 July, 2015 Paper ID: V574 2 www.globalbizresearch. org
Hydroxyethyl Starch: Safe or Not

H ydroxyethyl starch (HES) and albumin are the two colloids administered most frequently for intravascular volume expansion during the perioperative period. Ideally, the selection between the two would be based only on relative risks and benefits in each individual patient. However, economic issues have become increasingly important in choosing between medical therapies. In terms of cost-containment, HES is an attractive choice, because it is considerably less expensive than albumin. As an example, at the University of Virginia Medical Center, the hospital cost of 500 mL (1 unit) HES is $43, whereas 500 mL albumin costs $66. Between March 1994 and March 1995, 536 L HES and 422.5 L albumin were used in the operating rooms. Assuming that HES use is similar among hospitals, extrapolation to all hospitals in the United States suggests that exclusive use of HES could save approximately $50 million/year. However, the economic benefit of using HES instead of albumin as a colloid for volume expansion must be weighed against potential adverse effects. Particularly, effects of HES on the coagulation system have received attention (1-18). This study will give an overview of the physical chemistry and pharmacology of HES, and review data available on adverse effects to allow clinicians to make an informed choice as to which colloid to use. The first colloid used clinically for intravascular volume expansion was acacia, a mixed polysaccharide used during World War I. Several colloids have followed (including gelatins, dextran, and synthetic polypeptides), but all of these occasionally induced anaphylactoid reactions or coagulation defects. Some were eliminated too rapidly from the circulation, whereas others remained in the body indefinitely. In 1963, Thompson and Walton suggested HES as an a1ternative.i
Connecting the Dots Within

In two studies drawing from social identity theory and the creative-cognition approach, we found that higher levels of identity integration—perceived compatibility between two social identities—predict higher levels of creative performance in tasks that draw on both identity-relevant knowledge domains. Study 1 showed that Asian Americans with higher identity integration were more creative in developing new dishes using a given set of ingredients, but only when both Asian and American ingredients were available. Study 2 showed that female engineers with higher identity integration were more creative in designing a product, but only when the product was targeted to female users. These findings suggest that the psychological management of multiple social identities may be related to accessibility of multiple knowledge domains, which in turn influences creativity.
On the Merits and Limits of Replication and Negation for IS Research

A simple idea underpins the scientific process: All results should be subject to continued testing and questioning. Given the particularities of our international IS discipline, different viewpoints seem to be required to develop a picture of the merits and limits of testing and replication. Hence, the authors of this paper approach the topic from different perspectives. Following the ongoing discourse in neighbouring disciplines, we start by highlighting the significance of testing, replication and negation for scientific discourse as well as for the sponsors of research initiatives. Next, we discuss types of replication research and the challenges associated with each. In the third section, challenging questions are raised in the light of the ability of IS research for self-correction. Then, we address publication issues related to types of replications that require shifting editorial behaviors. The fifth section reflects on the possible use and interpretation of replication results in the light of contingency. As a key takeaway, the paper suggests ways to identify studies worth replicating in our field and reflects on possible roles of replication and testing for future IS research.
Public versus Private Delivery of Municipal Solid Waste Services: The Case of Korean Local Governments

This paper examines the effects of different institutional arrangements and characteristics on cost savings, efficiency gains, and productivity of providing municipal solid waste services. A cost function approach is employed, and South Korea local government data for ten years (2000 to 2009) is used for the research. The empirical findings indicate that there is no effect of contracting-out on cost savings, efficiency and productivity gains in local solid waste disposal services in Korea. Solid waste service costs were not significantly lower under contracting-out than under direct public delivery. In addition, contrary to the arguments of proponents of privatization or contracting-out, efficiency and productivity gains under direct public delivery were higher than under contracting-out.
Services branding triangle: Examining the triadic service brand promises for creating a strong brand in banking industry

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine customer, management, and contact personnel perceptions of consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) and its dimensions utilizing a services branding triangle framework in the banking industry. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from customers, managers, and contact personnel of three types of banks in Turkey – state, private, and foreign. Findings – The study finds significant external branding gaps between the perceptions of managers and customers and interactive branding gaps between the perceptions of contact personnel and customers, but no internal branding gaps between the perceptions of managers and contact personnel with respect to CBBE dimensions. Research limitations/implications – The sample was limited to Turkish adult citizens of a single major metropolitan area in Turkey and bank personnel in three cities. Originality/value – The services branding triangle framework used in this study allows service brand managers to understand not only the differences in the perceptions of brand equity dimensions of bank customers, managers, and contact personnel, but also provides an opportunity to identify the external, internal, and interactive branding gaps of each of the brand equity dimensions. The findings provide an empirical test for the three promises theory and identifying potential branding gaps resulting from differences between consumer, management, and contact personnel perceptions of CBBE and its dimensions. The paper discusses the implications of the findings in developing a strong services brand and brand equity.
Development of an upper extremity motor function rehabilitation system and an assessment system

This paper presents a novel upper extremity motor function rehabilitation system and an assessment system. The rehabilitation system is an active rehabilitation that can be manipulated by patients through a haptic device and an inertia sensor to perform a tracking task in virtual environment with coordination training of bilateral upper extremity. The design of system aims to augment patients' force exerted by their upper extremity and the ability of force control, namely, dexterity. The structure of rehabilitation system is compact and the inertia of the haptic device's stylus is very small (only 45 g), which makes the system suitable for home-rehabilitation. Simultaneously, in order to assess the effect of rehabilitation, an assessment system has been developed using a 6-axis force sensor. The proposed rehabilitation system is testified experimentally for the upper limbs' rehabilitation training.
Aids In Africa Its Present And Future Impact

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Foundations of information integration

We study three fundamental problems in information integration: (1) the data integration query problem, (2) the data exchange core computation problem, and (3) the schema mapping composition problem. The first problem consists of computing the certain answers to a query over a target schema for a source instance under constraints which relate the source and target schemas. We show how to compute certain answers for a larger family of constraints and queries than those previously addressed. One of the main tools is the chase, which we study and extend significantly. The second problem deals with inserting data from one database into another database having a different schema. Fagin, Kolaitis, and Popa have shown that among the universal solutions of a solvable data exchange problem, there exists---up to isomorphism---a most compact one, "the core", and have convincingly argued that this core should be the database to be materialized. We show how to compute the core in the general setting where the mapping between the source and target schemas is given by source-to-target constraints which are arbitrary tuple generating dependencies (TGDs) and target constraints consisting of equality generating dependencies (EGDs) and weakly-acyclic TGDs. The third problem, composition of mappings between schemas, is essential to support schema evolution, data exchange, data integration, and other data management tasks. We study the issues involved in composing schema mappings given by embedded dependencies that need not be source-to-target and we concentrate on obtaining (first-order) embedded dependencies. We provide a composition algorithm and several negative results. In particular, we show that even full dependencies that are not limited to be source-to-target are not closed under composition and that determining whether the composition can be given by these kinds of dependencies is undecidable. These negative results carry over to mappings given by embedded dependencies.
How to Separate the Wheat from the Chaff: Improved Variable Selection for New Customer Acquisition

Steady customer losses create pressure for firms to acquire new accounts, a task that is both costly and risky. Lacking knowledge about their prospects, firms often use a large array of predictors obtained from list vendors, which in turn rapidly creates massive high-dimensional data problems. Selecting the appropriate variables and their functional relationships with acquisition probabilities is therefore a substantial challenge. This study proposes a Bayesian variable selection approach to optimally select targets for new customer acquisition. Data from an insurance company reveal that this approach outperforms nonselection methods and selection methods based on expert judgment as well as benchmarks based on principal component analysis and bootstrap aggregation of classification trees. Notably, the optimal results show that the Bayesian approach selects panel-based metrics as predictors, detects several nonlinear relationships, selects very large numbers of addresses, and generates profits. In a series of post hoc analyses, the authors consider prospects’ response behaviors and cross-selling potential and systematically vary the number of predictors and the estimated profit per response. The results reveal that more predictors and higher response rates do not necessarily lead to higher profits.
Adenovirus E4 ORF3 Protein Inhibits the Interferon-Mediated Antiviral Response

ABSTRACT The PML oncogenic domain (POD/ND10/PML body) is a common target of DNA viruses, which replicate their genomes in proximity to this nuclear structure. The adenovirus early protein E4 ORF3 is both necessary and sufficient to rearrange PODs from punctate bodies into track-like structures. Although multiple hypotheses exist, the precise reason for this activity has not yet been elucidated. PML, the protein responsible for nucleating PODs, is an interferon (IFN)-stimulated gene, implicating the participation of this nuclear body in an innate antiviral response. Here, we demonstrate that E4 ORF3 is critical to the replicative success of adenovirus during the IFN-induced antiviral state. When cells are pretreated with either IFN-α or IFN-γ, a mutant virus that does not express E4 ORF3 is severely compromised for replication. This result suggests the functional significance of ORF3 track formation is the inhibition of a POD-mediated, antiviral mechanism. Replication of the E4 ORF3 mutant virus can be rescued following the introduction of E4 ORF3 from evolutionarily divergent adenoviruses, suggesting a conserved function for E4 ORF3 inhibition of the IFN-induced antiviral state. Furthermore, E4 ORF3 inhibition of an IFN-induced response is unrelated to the inhibition of adenovirus replication by the Mre11-Rad50-Nbs1 DNA repair complex. We propose that the evolutionarily conserved function of the adenovirus E4 ORF3 protein is the inhibition of a host interferon response to viral infection via disruption of the PML oncogenic domain.