Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Synergistic effects of interferon gamma and tumour necrosis factor alpha on T84 cell function.

BACKGROUND Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is characterised by chronic intestinal inflammation and increased epithelial permeability. Both tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) and interferon gamma (IFN-gamma) have been implicated in IBD. AIMS To understand better the effects of these cytokines on epithelial cell function. METHODS T84 cells were cultured with IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha and changes in transepithelial resistance (TER), fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) dextran flux, short circuit current (I(sc)), cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) protein levels, cell morphology, TNF receptor gene expression, and apoptosis were assayed. RESULTS Relative to controls, significant changes (p<0.05) occurred in cells incubated with IFN-gamma for two days: TER was decreased to 20 (6.2)%, FITC-dextran flux was increased by 109 (19)-fold, cAMP and Ca dependent I(sc) were decreased to 51 (6.4)% and 24 (2.2)%, respectively, and CFTR levels were decreased to 47 (11)%. Cell morphology was altered but cell death was not induced. TNF receptor mRNA levels were increased. When added with IFN-gamma, TNF-alpha accelerated IFN-gamma dependent changes. Relative to controls, significant changes occurred after one day of culture with IFN-gamma plus TNF-alpha: TER was decreased to 27 (3.5)%, FITC-dextran flux was increased by 185 (45)-fold, and cAMP and Ca dependent I(sc) were decreased to 66 (12)% and 35 (6.8)%, respectively. TNF-alpha also enhanced IFN-gamma dependent changes in cell morphology but did not induce cell death. CONCLUSION IFN-gamma alters T84 cell epithelial properties and TNF-alpha can enhance these effects, perhaps due to IFN-gamma dependent increases in TNF receptor gene expression. Overall, these studies suggest that in IBD, TNF-alpha may have synergistic effects on IFN-gamma mediated alterations of epithelial cell function.
Firm Characteristics and Long-Run Abnormal Returns after IPOs: A Jordanian Financial Market Experience

This study aims to detect the long run performance of the Jordanian initial public offerings (IPOs) listed in Amman stock exchange during the period from (1st January, 1993 until 31st December, 2011). In order to achieve the study’s objectives, the researcher applied “The Event Study” approach on the study sample which is consisted of all the Jordanian initial public offerings that are listed in Amman stock exchange during the study period, which were (119) companies. We calculated the monthly returns of these companies for 60 months (5 years) after listing. Also, a simple linear regression model applied to explore the relationship between the companies’ characteristics such as (company age, size, the sector in which the company belongs, and the offer size), and the abnormal return (AR) by using the three benchmarks that are employed in the study. The results of the analysis showed that the study corresponds to most of the previous studies with regard to the long run underperformance phenomenon for the initial public offerings (IPOs), but the level of this underperformance was different based on the benchmark employed to measure the long run performance. This conclusion was also confirmed by some previous studies. This study showed that there are statistically significant differences in the abnormal returns (AR) after applying the three benchmarks by using the parametric ‘‘One Sample T-test”. Finally, by running simple linear regressions, the study showed that there is statistically significant positive relationship between the characteristics of the firm (size, age, sector, and offer size) and the abnormal return (AR) after applying various benchmarks.
Future treatments in systemic sclerosis

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is an autoimmune disorder with clinical manifestations resulting from immune activation, fibrosis development and damage of small blood vessels. Although there have been no established treatments for SSc, lots of new treatments targeting organ and pathogenesis are in the process of development. Transforming growth factor (TGF)‐β is a major cytokine involved in the pathogenesis of fibrosis in SSc. The blockade of cell surface molecules capable of activating latent TGF‐β, blockade of ligand by the pan‐isoform‐specific antibody, soluble TGF‐β receptors and a recombinant latency associated peptide, as well as inhibitors for ALK5 and Smad3 are the potential strategies to abolish the pathological activation of TGF‐β signaling in SSc fibroblasts. Besides TGF‐β, connective tissue growth factor (CTGF)/CCN2, platelet‐derived growth factor (PDGF) and endothelin‐1 are the candidates for the new therapeutic targets. As for immune dysfunction in SSc, i.v. immunoglobulin infusion, stem cell transplantation and B‐cell depletion are potential new therapies under or awaiting a randomized, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled trial, although their efficacies are still controversial. Phosphodiesterase‐5 inhibitors, endothelin receptor antagonists and inhibitors for serotonin signaling are the new therapeutic targets for Raynaud’s phenomenon, digital ulceration and pulmonary arterial hypertension in SSc. Imatinib mesylate may be a novel new therapy for fibrosis and vasculopathy in SSc because it reverses the expression levels of Fli1, which is a transcription factor downregulated in SSc through an epigenetic mechanism and is likely to be involved in the development of fibrosis and vasculopathy in this disease. Potential therapeutic targets other than those described above are also reviewed.
Tourism and social capital in Malaysia

This article explores the relationship between social capital and tourism in Malaysia. Social capital is a concept that has received particular attention within the social sciences. Despite this, scholars have relatively neglected whether and how tourism contributes to enhance levels of social capital. This is particularly true if non-Western societies, such as Malaysia, are referred to. Malaysia is a plural society that consists of three main ethnic groups, namely Malays, Chinese, and Indians. Considering the country's diverse socio-cultural fabric, social capital is a highly debated topic in Malaysia. Yet, there exists a paucity of data on how specific social practices, such as tourism, strengthen social relationships within Malaysian society. In an attempt to fill this gap, in-depth interviews were conducted with 22 Malaysians from the three main ethnic groups. The findings reveal that tourism is an experience that creates and strengthens social relationships among people irrespective of ethnic background. Overall, this article's contribution to our knowledge is twofold. First, the work on which this article is based contributes to the ongoing debate concerning the nature and meaning of tourism and post-tourism experiences. Second, it provides empirical material on non-Western tourists, who have been relatively neglected by tourism scholars.
Domestication and tameness: brain gene expression in red junglefowl selected for less fear of humans suggests effects on reproduction and immunology

The domestication of animals has generated a set of phenotypic modifications, affecting behaviour, appearance, physiology and reproduction, which are consistent across a range of species. We hypothesized that some of these phenotypes could have evolved because of genetic correlation to tameness, an essential trait for successful domestication. Starting from an outbred population of red junglefowl, ancestor of all domestic chickens, we selected birds for either high or low fear of humans for five generations. Birds from the fifth selected generation (S5) showed a divergent pattern of growth and reproduction, where low fear chickens grew larger and produced larger offspring. To examine underlying genetic mechanisms, we used microarrays to study gene expression in thalamus/hypothalamus, a brain region involved in fear and stress, in both the parental generation and the S5. While parents of the selection lines did not show any differentially expressed genes, there were a total of 33 genes with adjusted p-values below 0.1 in S5. These were mainly related to sperm-function, immunological functions, with only a few known to be relevant to behaviour. Hence, five generations of divergent selection for fear of humans produced changes in hypothalamic gene expression profiles related to pathways associated with male reproduction and to immunology. This may be linked to the effects seen on growth and size of offspring. These results support the hypothesis that domesticated phenotypes may evolve because of correlated effects related to reduced fear of humans.
Performance evaluation of beacons control data dissemination protocol in handover scenario for VANET

For minimizing road accidents, traffic jams, car parking and other significant scenarios related to cost effectiveness and safety in VANET, the communication between vehicle to vehicle and vehicle to road side unit (RSU) should achieve the service quality, high data receive ratio and low latency. However, the probability of TCP disruption increases by the increasing distance between source and destination due to the high mobility of vehicles. Therefore, for increasing the reliability of TCP connection, the communication should follow the automatic connection and disconnection mechanism during the contact time between RSU and vehicle. In this research study, the beacons control data dissemination protocol has been proposed for reducing the impact of TCP disruptions on the network performance during handover. Network simulator 2 has been used to implement this protocol and analyses the performance on different traffic density, routing protocols of MANET and traffic type. The result shows that dedicated routing protocols in MANET are suitable for proposed protocol in VANET and AODV routing protocol has found more reliable from DSDV and AOMDV. In addition, the traffic type is not much affected on the data receive ratio (DRR) and the performance of proposed protocol degraded for high density of vehicles.
Implications of the Revised Definition of Marketing: From Exchange to Value Creation

The distinctive difference between the 1985 and the 2004 American Marketing Association definitions of marketing is the lack of exchange. In the new definition, a focus on creating and delivering value through customer relationships replaces the historical focus on the exchange paradigm. The authors welcome this change and discuss its implications, the limits of the exchange paradigm, the merits of value creation, and the future paradigm for marketing.
Equality and diversity in the public services: moving forward on lesbian, gay and bisexual equality?

A key change for lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people in the European Union has been the prohibition by the Employment Equality Directive (2000) of discrimination in employment on grounds of sexual orientation. This article focuses on the UK, which in 2003 introduced legislation making it unlawful to discriminate on these grounds. It explores the factors encouraging ‘good practice’ in sexual orientation equality work. It considers progress within the public services that have ‘pioneered’ sexual orientation equalities work, drawing on the views of LGB employees, management and trade union stakeholders. The recent legislation is considered to have provided a major impetus for change; however, an emerging ‘business case’ within the public service modernisation agenda is considered to have provided both opportunities and barriers to progress. A challenge for HR practitioners is getting organisational commitment to sexual orientation work, which is still perceived within organisations as a ‘sensitive’ area.
Family Firm Types Based on the Professionalization Construct

This article responds to the calls from the research field to find effective ways to distinguish between different categories of family firms. The authors contribute to this literature by extending and refining previous family firm typologies. To attain this objective, the authors introduce the professionalization construct as basis for distinguishing family firms. As this construct is often approached in an oversimplified, one-dimensional manner, they first conduct an exploratory factor analysis to reveal its multidimensional nature. Based on these results, drawn from a representative sample of 532 Belgian family businesses, a cluster analysis facilitates a distinction between different “types” of family firms based on a multidimensional conceptualization of firm professionalization.
Investment Banks as Insiders and the Market for Corporate Control

We study holdings in M&A targets by financial conglomerates which affiliated investment banks advise the bidders. We show that advisors take positions in the targets before M&A announcements. These stakes are positively related to the probability of observing the bid and to the target premium. We argue that this can be explained in terms of advisors, privy to important information about the deal, investing in the target in the expectation of its price to increase. We document the high profits of this strategy. We also document a positive relationship between the advisory stake and the deal characteristics. The advisory stake is positively related to the likelihood of deal completion and to the termination fees. However, these deals are not wealth-creating: there is a negative relation between the advisory stake and the viability of the deal. These results provide new insights into the conflicts of interest affecting financial intermediaries simultaneously advising on deals and investing in equities.
Growth and product formation in chemostat and recycling cultures by Aspergillus niger N402 and a glucoamylase overproducing transformant, provided with multiple copies of the glaA gene.

Continuous and recycling cultures were carried out with Aspergillus niger N402 wild-type and a glucoamylase overproducing transformant to investigate growth and product formation characteristics. In shake flask cultures, the amount of glucoamylase produced by the transformant was about five times more than by the wild-type strain. In contrast with these results, a twofold overproduction was found in glucose-limited continuous cultures, while no overproduction was found under maltodextrin-limitation. Two regions of specific growth rates could be distinguished, one at specific growth rates lower (domain I) and one at specific growth rates higher than 0.12 h-1 (domain II). In domain I changes in mycelium morphology and conidia formation were observed. It has been concluded that maintenance requirements are dependent on the specific growth rate over the whole range of measured growth rates. The deviation in linearity in the linear equation of substrate utilization, caused by this phenomenon, should be considered when continuous cultures with filamentous fungi are performed. In recycling cultures, xylose as limiting carbon source repressed glucoamylase production very strongly. Under maltodextrin-limitation a fivefold overproduction was found. After about 150 h , the total amount of glucoamylase produced was still increasing, while total amount of product, measured as carbon, remained constant. After this time no increase in the amount of biomass formed was observed. These results suggest autolysis and cryptic growth taking place in a recycling fermenter and cell death rate equalling growth rate.
DO DEMOCRACY AND PRESS FREEDOM REDUCE CORRUPTION? EVIDENCE FROM A CROSS COUNTRY STUDY

This paper calls attention to the instrumental role of democracy and press freedom in combating corruption. As opposed to an autocracy with no or limited press freedom, a free press in a democracy can inform voters about the corruption of political representatives, and voters in turn can punish incumbents by electing opposition parties. The empirical investigation carried out in this paper shows that democracy and press freedom can have significant impact on corruption. Though corruption may persist in the short- to medium-run, an increase in voters' participation and press freedom can reduce corruption.
Time-Series Wage Differential in Taiwan: The Role of International Trade

Rising relative wages between skilled and unskilled workers in developed countries has been a popular subject of recent studies. This paper analyzes Taiwan, a semi-developed economy, where the relative wage reveals a declining trend since the mid-1980s. The authors study the role of international trade. A major point of departure is to distinguish the effects of net exports to OECD countries from those to non-OECD countries. The paper also differentiates the effects of net exports to China from those to non-OECD countries except China. It is found that net exports to the OECD countries raise the relative wage of skilled workers, whereas net exports to non-OECD countries and China diminish the relative wage. Moreover, the impacts of net exports to China are much larger than those to OECD and other non-OECD countries. The documented wage effects of international trade in this work diverge from what existing works have argued based on Heckscher-Ohlin theory. Copyright 2001 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Tangible and intangible sunk costs and the entry and exit of firms in a small open economy: the case of Austria

The paper provides evidence on the role of sunk costs as mobility barriers. An empirical study of the Austrian manufacturing industry explicitly considers sunk costs related to investment in dedicated intangible assets. The results confirm the relevance of sunk costs as mobility barriers, their symmetry with respect to entry and exit, and show that the influence of sunk costs is robust to aggregation.
Interference Between Family Caregivers’ Mental Disorders and Their Estimates of Quality of Dying and Death (QODD) of Their Loved Ones

Background: In studies enrolling informal caregivers of patients in palliative care, it is necessary to ensure that findings are not influenced by factors such as mental disorders. Aim: This study aims to describe the influence of anxiety and depression on bereaved informal caregivers’ retrospective ratings of the quality of dying and death (QoDD) of their loved ones. Design: Informal caregivers of deceased patients from 2 German palliative care (PC) units took part in a validation study of the German version of the original QoDD-Deutsch-Angehörige (QoDD-D-Ang) during the fourth week following the patient’s death at the earliest. Depressive and panic disorders were assessed via the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ). Group comparisons (χ2, t test; significance level P < .05) analyzed whether informal caregivers with depression or panic disorders and those without such disorders differ in their estimates. Results: A total of 226 informal caregivers participated between August 2012 and December 2013. The mean age of participants was 55.5 years; 61.1% were female. The PHQ of 221 participants resulted in 8.6% with major disorders, 13.6% with other depressive syndromes, and 77.8% without depressive disorders. In this secondary data analysis here, there was no difference between female and male participants concerning the incidence of depression (P = .519, χ2). Two participants screened positive for both panic and major depressive disorders. Both groups presented no significant differences in the mean total QoDD-D-Ang scores (P = .343). Conclusion: Informal caregivers’ estimates on the QoDD-D-Ang of their significant others do not interfere with mental disorders. Therefore, bereaved informal caregivers are able to participate in the PC research after a few weeks following the loss of a loved one.
Emotion Regulation Via Maternal Touch.

The study of emotion elicitation in the caregiver-infant dyad has focused almost exclusively on the facial and vocal channels, whereas little attention has been given to the contribution of the tactile channel. This study was undertaken to investigate the effects of touch on infants' emotions. During the time that objects were presented to the dyad, mothers provided tactile stimulation to their 12-month-old infants by either (a) tensing their fingers around the infants' abdomen while abruptly inhaling, (b) relaxing their grip around the infants' abdomen, or (c) not providing additional tactile stimulation (control condition). The results revealed that infants in the first condition (a) touched the objects less and waited longer to touch the objects while displaying more negative emotional displays compared to infants in the control condition. However, no apparent differences were found between infants in the second condition (b) and the control condition. The results suggest that infants' emotions may be elicited by specific parameters of touch.
The high-field-strength curmudgeon.

I undertook this assignment, to muse on the state of current 3T clinical imaging, with trepidation because, depending on the phase of the moon, I vacillate between wild unjustified, undocumented optimism of the technology and the opposite extreme of sounding like a fossilized curmudgeon incapable of
Teachers' and Students' Perceptions of the Nature and Impact of Large-Scale Reforms

The goal of this study was to examine how and to what extent Ontario secondary teachers have implemented educational reforms that had a direct impact on students, teachers, and the curriculum. The survey concluded that secondary school teachers at randomly selected Ontario secondary schools were overworked, lacked in-service professional development, resources, and support. This situation impacted curriculum planning, teaching, student evaluation, reporting, technology, and the delivery of special education programs. Yet, teachers were able to make changes that supported the reforms even though changes required more time, effort, and new knowledge in the areas of assessment and the integration of technology.
Path Independent Choices

IN THIS PAPER we examine situations in which an individual or society has to choose one element out of a given finite set of elements. For example, given a list of candidates for presidency, the society has to choose a president. Another example: given a set of commodity bundles in the budget set, a consumer has to choose one bundle. Very frequently, a consumer may find two bundles which he likes equally, and in order to choose one out of the two he needs a random device that will make the decision for him. Similarly, a society may find itself in situations in which there are several candidates with identical amounts of support. Under such conditions, choosing one of the candidates would have to rely on some randomization. Thus, we shall be dealing with situations in which a decision maker (either an individual or a society) has to choose a lottery (i.e., a probability distribution or any convex combination) over a finite set, when that set is given to him to choose from. As a matter of fact, the set of alternatives, from which the decision maker has to choose, may itself involve probability distributions. Consider the following example. A committee has to decide where some convention will take place. Two cities have been suggested to host the convention. One of the cities has a 50 per cent probability for rain on the convention day, so that all outdoors activities would have to be cancelled if that city is chosen and it rains. Thus, the committee has to make a decision without really knowing what the actual outcome will be. In view of the above discussion, we would like to incorporate lotteries both in the given alternatives, and in the choices based on them. Thus, we formalize choices in the following way. Let our universe of alternatives X be a subset of some topological real linear space (for example, a Euclidean space). The structure of a real linear space enables us to interpret a point x, in the convex hull of a set S, as a lottery over the elements of S. Let X * denote the set of all finite nonempty subsets of X.