Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Combination treatment with arsenic trioxide and irradiation enhances autophagic effects in U118-MG cells through increased mitotic arrest and regulation of PI3K/Akt and ERK1/2 signaling pathways

Malignant gliomas are resistant to many kinds of treatments including chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and other adjuvant therapies. Autophagy is a novel response of cancer cells to ionizing radiation (IR) or chemotherapy, but its significance and underlying mechanism remains largely elusive. Induction of autophagy in glioma cells using irradiation and arsenic trioxide (ATO) have been reported separately. However, the combined effects of ATO and IR on the cell death processes of malignant glioma cells have not been thoroughly studied, especially in U118-MG cells. In the present study, we investigated the anticancer effect of IR combined with ATO and the underlying mechanisms on U118-MG human malignant glioma cells in vitro. We found that the enhanced cytotoxic effect of IR combined with ATO was through induction of more autophagy in U118-MG cells, which were characterized by the presence of acidic vascular organelle formation, determined by electron microscopic observation and immunoblotting of LC3. Combined treatment could induce more mitotic arrest compared to ATO or IR alone. In addition, we also found that the combined treatment-induced autophagy occurred through inhibition of PI3K/Akt and activation of ERK1/2 signaling pathways. These findings suggest a potential therapeutic strategy for malignant gliomas, which are resistant to various proapoptotic therapies.
The neurobiology of oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder: Altered functioning in three mental domains

Abstract This review discusses neurobiological studies of oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder within the conceptual framework of three interrelated mental domains: punishment processing, reward processing, and cognitive control. First, impaired fear conditioning, reduced cortisol reactivity to stress, amygdala hyporeactivity to negative stimuli, and altered serotonin and noradrenaline neurotransmission suggest low punishment sensitivity, which may compromise the ability of children and adolescents to make associations between inappropriate behaviors and forthcoming punishments. Second, sympathetic nervous system hyporeactivity to incentives, low basal heart rate associated with sensation seeking, orbitofrontal cortex hyporeactiviy to reward, and altered dopamine functioning suggest a hyposensitivity to reward. The associated unpleasant emotional state may make children and adolescents prone to sensation-seeking behavior such as rule breaking, delinquency, and substance abuse. Third, impairments in executive functions, especially when motivational factors are involved, as well as structural deficits and impaired functioning of the paralimbic system encompassing the orbitofrontal and cingulate cortex, suggest impaired cognitive control over emotional behavior. In the discussion we argue that more insight into the neurobiology of oppositional defiance disorder and conduct disorder may be obtained by studying these disorders separately and by paying attention to the heterogeneity of symptoms within each disorder.
Orocoecal Transit Time in Healthy and Constipated Children

ABSTRACT. Orocoecal transit time (OCTT), assessed by means of H2 breath test after lactulose and/or after a semisolid standard meal, was studied in normal and constipated children. Both control subjects and patients with constipation showed a significantly longer OCTT after a standard meal than after lactulose ingestion (p<0.01). Whereas the OCTT after lactulose did not differ in the two groups, the constipated patients had a significantly longer transit time after a standard meal when compared to controls (p<0.05). No correlation was observed within each group between the OCTT after a standard meal or after lactulose ingestion (r=‐0.077; p>0.1). These findings suggest that 1) measurement of the transit of a standard meal instead of a lactulose solution may offer more direct insight into the role of small intestinal transit of food, both in physiological and pathological conditions, 2) gastrointestinal segments other than colon may play a role in chronic non organic constipation of childhood.
Government Checking Government: How Performance Measures Expand Distributive Politics

This paper argues that distributive politics operates in a variety of contexts in which governments seek to check the behavior of other governments. We provide a novel theoretical account of performance measurement systems as political discipline mechanisms even when measures are compiled by formally independent administrative agencies. We test the implications of our theory using a dataset of performance ratings in English local government assessed between 2002 and 2006. Results suggest that political influence favors swing voters, and local authorities sharing party affiliation with the incumbent central government are favored over those controlled by the opposition. Evidence further suggests that the independent rater in our empirical case is influenced through ties between its membership and the local authorities that it regulates. Our theoretical argument and findings have implications for many national and international contexts.
Disentangling the firm growth process: evidence from a recursive panel VAR

We attempt to describe the coevolution of employment growth, sales growth and growth of profits in a panel of French manufacturing firms 1996-2004. Our analysis entails ‘recursive’ panel vector autoregressions, whereby we impose the structure of employment growth leading to contemporaneous sales growth, which in turn is associated with contemporaneous growth of profits. We observe that whilst employment growth has a direct negative association with profit growth, there are indirect effects through which employment growth leads to sales growth which in turn has a large effect on profits growth. The net effect of employment growth is thus positive growth of profits. Counter to some ‘replicator dynamics’ theories of industrial development, profit growth is not followed by much subsequent growth of employment.
Fuel Prices and Consumer Preferences for Vehicles

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between fuel prices and consumer preferences for passenger motor vehicles in the U.S. automobile market. The paper examines the stated preferences of new vehicle owners from December 2001 to January 2008 to explore possible indications of changes in consumer preferences. Annual survey data were used. During the observation period, gasoline prices fluctuated significantly and rose to more than twice their lowest level. The importance of acquiring a vehicle with good fuel economy was analyzed, and the results of the statistical analysis are presented. The paper presents additional evidence that more consumers would state that fuel economy becomes a more important factor in their purchasing decisions as gasoline prices rise. The evidence also supports the suggestion that the financial impact of fuel economy will matter first to lower-income buyers as gasoline prices rise.
Mobile Sensor Node Deployment and Asynchronous Power Management for Wireless Sensor Networks

Mobile sensor node deployment and power management are important issues in the wireless sensor network system. This study designs a mobile sensor node platform to achieve a highly accurate localization mechanism by using ultrasonic, dead reckoning, and radio frequency information which is processed through a particle filter algorithm. Mobile sensor node with accurate localization ability is of great interest to basic research works and applications, such as sensor deployment, coverage management, dynamic power management, etc. In this paper, we propose an efficient mobile sensor node deployment method, grid deployment, where the map is divided into multiple individual grids and the weight of each grid is determined by environmental factors such as predeployed nodes, boundaries, and obstacles. The grid with minimum values is the goal of the mobile node. We also design an asynchronous power management strategy in our sensor node to reduce power consumption of the sensor network. Several factors such as probability of event generation, battery status, coverage issues, and communication situations have also been taken into consideration. In network communication, we propose an asynchronous awakening scheme so that each node is free to switch on or off its components according to observed event statistics and make a tradeoff between communication and power consumption. The deepest sleep state period is determined by the residual power. By combining these methods, the power consumption of the sensor node can be reduced.
Do we follow others when we should outside the lab? Evidence from the AP top 25

We use data from the Associated Press college American football poll to analyze two types of ex-post optimality of social learning in a non-lab setting. The poll is a weekly subjective ranking of the top 25 teams, voted on by over 60 sports journalists. Voters potentially can learn from their peers by observing the aggregate ranks before updating their individual ranks. Our results indicate that, while voters do learn from their peers to some extent, the informativeness of peer ranks appears to be under-valued.
Family Firms and Debt: Risk Aversion versus Risk of Losing Control

This study examines the effect of family management, ownership, and control on capital structure for 523 Colombian firms between 1996 and 2006. The study finds that debt levels tend to be lower for younger firms when the founder or one of his heirs acts as manager, but trends higher as the firm ages. When family involvement derives from direct and indirect ownership, the family–debt relationship is positive, consistent with the idea that external supervision accompanies higher debt levels and reduces the risk of losing control. When families are present on the board of directors (but are not in management), debt levels tend to be lower, suggesting that family directors are more risk-averse. The results stress the tradeoff between two distinct motivations that determine the capital structure of family firms: risk aversion pushes firms toward lower debt levels, but the need to finance growth without losing control makes family firms to prefer higher debt levels.
Integrating Talent Engagement as a Strategy to High Performance and Retention

The paper focuses on how talent engagement is an antecedent of job involvement and what should company do to make the talents engaged. The paper also discusses the importance of talent retention strategies with special reference to the leadership style of the superiors within the organization. The paper suggests Talent Engagement Model, which explains the process of engagement, psychological ownership, performance and retention of talents and their relative relationships, which can help not only to retain the talents but also to increase the performance for the overall development of both the talents and the organization.
The impact of policy responses on stock liquidity

The collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 marked the peak of a financial crisis that is affecting the entire world of finance. This period is characterized by increasing fear of further defaults by corporations (including banks) or even by countries. In reaction, investors began shifting their assets to more stable and secure investments and this resulted in stock market crashes. Various policy interventions were initiated to restore stability. In this article, we analyse the impact of these interventions on stock liquidity, proxied by a new liquidity measure. The interventions, which we consider, are published by the Federal Reserve Bank (FED) in the form of a crisis timeline. Here, they are further combined to the following categories: bank liability guarantees, liquidity and rescue interventions, unconventional monetary policy and other market interventions. The results indicate that the market reacts positively to liquidity and rescue interventions, whereas bank liability guarantees reduced stock liquidity. In addition, we show that international events have a significant impact on the domestic market. By analysing the spreads of different trading volumes, an asymmetric effect can be detected, where the impact on lower trading volumes is substantially more pronounced compared to higher trading volumes.
VOLUME AND VOLATILITY SURROUNDING QUARTERLY REDESIGNATION OF THE LEAD S&P 500 FUTURES CONTRACT

During the last weeks before each quarterly expiration of Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 futures, the bulk of trading volume begins to shift away from the next‐to‐expire (nearby or lead) contract toward the second‐to‐expire (next out) contract. At some point, the exchange formally redesignates the next out as the new lead contract, and the next out replaces the nearby in the futures pit location designated for the lead contract. This event invariably results in a dramatic increase (decrease) in trading activity in the next out (nearby) contract. This shift in relative trading volumes is due to the microstructure of the futures exchange rather than new information or underlying volatility conditions. The event thus offers us an opportunity to examine how volatility responds to noninformation‐based exogenous changes in volume. This study examines the volatility behavior of nearby and next out S&P 500 futures contracts on the 10 days surrounding quarterly redesignation of the lead contract. Our model measures possible changes in (a) the level of volatility and/or (b) the association between volume and volatility after redesignation of the lead contract. Results indicate that when we account for the association between volume and volatility, the higher volume lead contract consistently experiences a lower level of volatility. This outcome supports the view that the larger population of liquidity providers who trade the more active lead contract fosters greater market depth and lower volatility. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 21:1119–1149, 2001
Helix capping

Helix‐capping motifs are specific patterns of hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interactions found at or near the ends of helices in both proteins and peptides. In an α‐helix, the first four >N‐H groups and last four >C=O groups necessarily lack intrahelical hydrogen bonds. Instead, such groups are often capped by alternative hydrogen bond partners. This review enlarges our earlier hypothesis (Presta LG, Rose GD. 1988. Helix signals in proteins. Science 240:1632‐1641) to include hydrophobic capping. A hydrophobic interaction that straddles the helix terminus is always associated with hydrogen‐bonded capping. From a global survey among proteins of known structure, seven distinct capping motifs are identified‐three at the helix N‐terminus and four at the C‐terminus. The consensus sequence patterns of these seven motifs, together with results from simple molecular modeling, are used to formulate useful rules of thumb for helix termination. Finally, we examine the role of helix capping as a bridge linking the conformation of secondary structure to supersecondary structure.
Discover USSR Welfare Model in the context of European Social Model

Observe the progress of the USSR Welfare Model in Estonia, six target impacts we could formulate for the rethinking process since the 1997 when the platform had related to the social democratic welfare reqime in Scandinavia. Summary, the consequence is the insufficient solidarity express in society, since start from independent time, the percent of the person who is excluding from state’s welfare schemes has increased. The inadequate schemes of the welfare, they don’t influence the poverty reduction and Estonia has given priority to the restoration of economic growth instead of alleviation of negative social consequences. The interaction between the social policy both state and European level and European Social Model has been dual practice.
Catching up in new wave technologies

In the last quarter of the 20th Century, new technologies and competitive practices challenged earlier opportunities for entry from a low skill base and the pursuit of an incremental process of catching up. In traditional manufacturing industries, these changes pose few problems at the entry level, though they render catch-up processes more difficult to sustain. In "new wave technologies", such as those growing out of biotechnology, the science base, patent intensity and systems' embeddedness have raised the barriers to entry and narrowed opportunities for incremental catching up from a low skill base. This paper explores these changes and their implications for traditional entry and catch-up strategies in developing countries.
Hepatitis C Virus Core Protein Induces an Anergic State Characterized by Decreased Interleukin-2 Production and Perturbation of Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Responses

ABSTRACT Alterations of cytokine responses are thought to favor the establishment of persistent hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections, enhancing the risk of liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Here we demonstrate that the expression of the HCV core (C) protein in stably transfected T cells correlates with a selective reduction of interleukin-2 (IL-2) promoter activity and IL-2 production in response to T-cell receptor triggering, whereas the activation of IL-4, IL-10, gamma interferon, and tumor necrosis factor alpha was moderately increased. This altered cytokine expression profile was associated with a perturbation of mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase responses. Extracellular regulated kinase and p38 were constitutively phosphorylated in C-expressing cells, while triggering of the costimulatory c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) signaling cascade and activation of the CD28 response element within the IL-2 promoter appeared to be impaired. The perturbations of MAP kinase phosphorylation could be eliminated by cyclosporine A-mediated inhibition of nuclear factor of activated T cells, suggesting that the inactivation of JNK signaling and hyporesponsiveness to IL-2 induction were downstream consequences of C-induced Ca2+ flux in a manner that mimics the induction of clonal anergy.
Neuropsychological and Clinical Profiles of Children and Adolescents Diagnosed with Childhood Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

INTRODUCTION The differential features of childhood-onset obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) compared to adult-onset OCD are being more of a focus of attention in recent years. The aim of this study was to determine the clinical and neuropsychological profiles of children and adolescents diagnosed with childhood-onset OCD and to investigate the association between the duration, severity, comorbidity, and family history of the disorder and clinical and neuropsychological functional impairments. METHODS Thirty-five OCD patients (patient group) and 35 healthy control subjects (control group) between 8-15 years of age were included. To investigate the neuropsychological profiles, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), Stroop Test, and Continuous Performance Test (CPT) were applied. To assess the clinical and behavioral profiles, the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI), Conner's Parent Rating Scale (CPRS-48), and the Yale Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (YB-OCS) and Yale Global Tic Severity Rating Scale (YGTSRS) were given. RESULTS Based on the performance in the WCST, Stroop Test, and SPT, the results of the study reveal that childhood-onset OCD patients have statistically significant worse performance compared to healthy controls in terms of executive functions, sustained attention, and motor inhibition tasks. Excluding the comorbid diagnoses, childhood-onset OCD patients did not show a difference in behavioral problems, but they had higher levels of anxiety compared to healthy controls. CONCLUSION The findings of this study reveal that independent of the duration, severity, comorbid problems, and anxiety levels, the disorder itself is associated with worse performance in executive functions, attention, and motor inhibition processes, and a positive family history of OCD is an important risk factor. Long-term follow-up studies with patients diagnosed with childhood-onset OCD would be a logical next step in order to determine the cause-effect relation between the disorder and cognitive impairments.
Earnings of women with and without children

Raising children entails not only child care responsibilities, but also monetary costs. One cost is the so-called ‘family gap,’ also referred to as the ‘child penalty’ or ‘motherhood earnings gap. ’ It measures how much the earnings of women with children fall below those of women without children, other factors being equal. A significant earnings gap would place financial stress on young families and might discourage the labour force participation of new mothers, if, for example, the gap were sufficiently high to preclude the mother’s earnings from adequately covering her work-related expenses, including child care. Withdrawal from the labour market can become attractive in such circumstances. Financial concerns related to childbirth may affect the take-up of maternity leave allowances made available through provincial and federal legislation. A recent survey showed that more than 40% of new parents could not take maternity leave because their financial situation did not allow it, and among parents who took the leave and returned to work, 81% indicated that they would have stayed home longer if they could have afforded to do so (Beaupre and Cloutier 2007). In addition, studying the earnings gap between women with and without children helps to better understand issues related to parents’ decision about family size. As in other developed countries, the fertility rate in Canada has declined and stayed below the replacement level for many years. One reason for the low fertility rate may be the high costs associated with child rearing and child care. 1 The family gap concept captures, at least in part, the opportunity costs of having children.
Markups and the Business Cycle

As output and employment rise in business cycle booms, the marginal product of labor falls while real wages generally do not. So marginal cost, which equals the wage divided by the marginal product of labor, rises more than do prices. In this paper we examine this business cycle variation in the markup of price over marginal cost. We consider three leading theories of markup determination. The first is that firms are monopolistic competitors and that the elasticities of their demand curves vary over the business cycle. The second is the customer market model of Phelps and Winter (1970) where firms' markups also depend on the desirability of raising current market share in order to increase future sales. The third has markups depend on individual firms' incentives to deviate from an implicit collusive understanding, as in Rotemberg and Saloner (1986). We show that these three theories can be nested in a single specification that makes markups a function of current sales and of the expected present discounted value of future profits. However, the three theories make different predictions about the signs of the parameters relating the markup to its determinants. We thus estimate equations of this sort empirically to gauge the validity of the three models. This estimation is carried out both with aggregate data and with two-digit industry data. The two-digit data also allow us to see how the relationship between the markup and its determinants varies with the concentration of the industry. Finally, we also discuss in detail the causes of markup variation in two highly concentrated industries.