Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The relationship between environmental disclosure quality and earnings quality: a panel study of an emerging market

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between corporate environmental disclosure quality (EDQ) and earnings quality (EQ). Design/methodology/approach The paper uses earnings persistence and accruals quality as a measures of EQ. The paper also uses panel data regression to examine the association between EDQ and EQ for a sample of 107 Iran non-financial firms. Two different theoretical frameworks are used to clarify whether and to what extent an association may exist as an explicit relationship between EDQ and EQ. Findings After controlling for several firm-specific characteristics, the results show that between 2011 and 2016, there has been a significant positive relationship between EDQ and EQ. Practical implications This study sheds light on the relevance of regulating corporate reporting within a setting where companies are already voluntarily reporting on environmental information. Findings have implications for policymakers who have mandated or considering mandating environmental reporting. To the policymakers, in particular, this study highlights the need for incorporating, within the listing rules, minimum requirements in relation to the nature and content of environmental reports. Social implications The findings have implications for stakeholders in terms of effective information quality. The findings are important as more environmentally responsible firms may provide higher quality, more reliable and more transparent information to meet the ethical expectations of stakeholders. Originality/value This is the first study in Iran that considered the impact of EDQ on EQ. This study contributes to the literature on the relationship between EDQ and EQ by showing that the EDQ in Iran is associated with the EQ.
Inhibition of all‐Trans‐retinoic acid‐induced proteasome activation potentiates the differentiating effect of retinoid in acute myeloid leukemia cells

All‐trans retinoic acid (ATRA) is nowadays considered to be the sole efficient agent for differentiation‐based therapy in leukemia; however, the mechanisms of ATRA's biological effects remain largely unknown. Here we first reported that ATRA‐induced myeloid leukemia differentiation was accompanied with the increased level of ubiquitin–protein conjugates and the upregulation of proteasome activity. To explore the functional role of the activated proteasome in retinoic acid (RA) signaling, the effects of proteasome inhibitors on RA‐induced cell differentiation were determined. Our results demonstrated that inhibition of ATRA‐elevated proteasome activity obviously promoted the myeloid maturation program triggered by ATRA, suggesting that the overactivated proteasome is not beneficial for ATRA's effects. Further studies demonstrated that the synergistic differentiating effects of ATRA and proteasome inhibitors might be associated with the protection of retinoic acid receptor alpha (RARα) from degradation by the ubiquitin–proteasome pathway (UPP). Moreover, the accumulated RARα was able to enhance the transcription of its target gene, which might also contribute to the enhanced differentiation of leukemia cells. Together, by linking the UPP to ATRA‐dependent signaling, our data provide a novel insight into studying the mechanisms of ATRA‐elicited cellular effects and imply the possibility of combination of ATRA and proteasome inhibitors in leukemia therapy. Mol. Carcinog. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A Small Interfering RNA Targeting Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Inhibits Ewing's Sarcoma Growth in a Xenograft Mouse Model

Angiogenesis plays an essential role in tumor growth and metastasis and is a promising therapeutic target for cancer. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a key regulator in vasculogenesis as well as in angiogenesis. TC71 human Ewing's sarcoma cells overexpress VEGF, with a shift in isoform production from membrane-bound VEGF189 to the more soluble VEGF165. Transfection of TC71 cells with a vector-based VEGF targeted small interfering RNA expression system (VEGFsi) inhibited VEGF165 expression by 80% and VEGF165 protein production by 98%, with no alteration in VEGF189 expression. Human microvascular endothelial cell proliferation and migration induced by conditioned medium from VEGFsi-transfected TC71 cells was significantly less than that induced by conditioned medium from TC71 cells and control vector-transfected TC71 cells. Furthermore, after s.c. injection into athymic nu/nu mice, the tumor growth of VEGFsi-expressing TC71 cells was significantly less than that of parental or control vector-transfected cells. Vessel density as assessed by CD31 immunohistochemical analysis and VEGF165 expression as assessed by Northern blotting were also decreased. Intratumor gene therapy with polyethylenimine/VEGFsi also resulted in tumor growth suppression. When inoculated into the tibias of nude mice, VEGFsi-expressing TC71 cells induced osteolytic bone lesions that were less severe than those induced by control groups. These data suggest that targeting VEGF165 may provide a therapeutic option for Ewing's sarcoma.
Using registry data to suggest which birth defects may be more susceptible to artifactual clusters and trends.

BACKGROUND Some birth defects appear to be more susceptible than others to artifactual prevalence variability over time or geographically. This article uses an empirical approach to try to identify them. METHODS Assumption: Variation in clinical practice and other artifactual sources of variability impact observed variation in prevalence of mild cases more than severe cases for a given birth defect. APPROACH Data were examined from Texas Birth Defects Registry deliveries from 1999-2003. For each of 312 delivery hospitals, birth prevalence for mild cases was calculated for birth defect X. The 5(th) percentile was subtracted from the 95(th) percentile to measure spread in the frequency distribution of all hospitals. That was repeated for severe cases. The ratio of the mild:severe spread was calculated for 49 defects, and the defects ranked into quintiles. That was repeated using birth prevalence based on county, and using isolated cases. The percentages of severe cases were calculated and also ranked into quintiles. A sensitivity analysis and simulation were conducted. RESULTS Forty-nine birth defects were ranked from those least susceptible to differences in mild:severe prevalence variability (e.g., anencephaly, hypoplastic left heart syndrome) to most susceptible (e.g., atrial septal defect, fetal alcohol syndrome). Resulting quintile ranks based on the three measures were highly correlated, whether based on all cases or isolated cases. CONCLUSIONS This empirical approach may be helpful for a number of public health applications. Birth defects and other health outcomes more susceptible to prevalence variability may be more likely to exhibit artifactual trends or clusters.
Impaired lymphocyte transformation in intestinal lymphangiectasia: evidence for at least two functionally distinct lymphocyte populations in man.

Intestinal lymphangiectasia is a disease characterized by hypoproteinemia and edema resulting from protein-losing gastroenteropathy secondary to abnormal intestinal lymphatics. Immunologic abnormalities associated with this disease include hypogammaglobulinemia, lymphocytopenia, skin anergy, and impaired allograft rejection. In the present study, the in vitro blastogenic transformation of lymphocytes from 12 patients with intestinal lymphangiectasia was assessed in order to gain insight into the mechanism of the cellular immune defect in this disease. Peripheral blood lymphocytes from patients with intestinal lymphagiectasia showed impaired in vitro transformation to nonspecific mitogens, specific antigens, and allogeneic cells when compared to equal numbers of cells from normal individuals. Patients with the most deficient in vitro reactivity tended to have the lowest serum albumin concentration and the lowest absolute lymphocyte count. Lymphocytes obtained from chylous effusions in each of the four patients studied transformed more vigorously than peripheral blood cells from the same patients. These results may be explained by the loss of recirculating, long-lived lymphocytes into the gastrointestinal tract, resulting in a relative depletion of the population of lymphocytes necessary for in vitro blast transformation. This disease thus represents a clinical analogue of animals with experimental thoracic duct drainage, and provides evidence for the existence, in man, of two functionally distinct lymphocyte populations. In addition, these findings establish a new mechanism of impaired delayed hypersensitivity and defective in vitro lymphocyte transformation, i.e. the gastrointestinal loss and consequent depletion of the long-lived, recirculating population of lymphocytes from the peripheral lymphocyte pool.
Comparative evaluation of microleakage of two self-etching dentin bonding agents on primary and permanent teeth. An in vitro study.

AIM Conservative procedures using dentin bonding agents are one of the important aspects of paediatric dental practice. The objective of this in vitro study was to comparatively evaluate the microleakage of two self etching adhesives in primary and permanent teeth. MATERIALS AND METHODS Sixty-four human anterior teeth (thirty-two primary and thirty-two permanent) were divided into four groups: primary teeth bonded using a 6th generation (Contax) bonding agent; permanent teeth bonded using a 6(th) generation (Contax) bonding agent; primary teeth bonded using a 7(th) generation (Clearfil S3) bonding agent; permanent teeth bonded using a 7(th) generation (Clearfil S3) bonding agent. A Class V cavity was prepared on all samples and were restored with composite resin as per manufacturers' instruction. After thermocycling, the teeth were stained with methylene blue, sectioned, and measured for microleakage. RESULTS It was found a statistically significant difference in microleakage between incisal and gingival margins in each of the study group. CONCLUSION Clearfil S3 (7(th) generation) bonding agent could be of greater advantage in paediatric dentistry than Contax (6(th) generation) because of its fewer steps and lesser microleakage in both primary and permanent teeth.
Reference values for nocturnal home pulse oximetry during sleep in primary school children.

OBJECTIVE To provide reference values for pulse oximeter saturation (SpO(2)) in primary school children, measured at home during sleep. METHODS Recordings of SpO(2) and signal quality from 100 children were randomly selected from a larger population-based sample intended to study the prevalence of sleep-disordered breathing. Recordings were analyzed for the duration of artifact-free recording time (AFRT), minimum SpO(2) (SATmin) and median SpO(2) (SAT(50)), the SpO(2) below which the child spent 5% of AFRT (SAT(5)), and the SpO(2) below which the child spent 10% of AFRT (SAT(10)). In addition, the time in seconds with SpO(2) <or= 90% per hour of AFRT (TI(90)) was calculated, as were the number of falls in SpO(2) by >or= 4% per hour of AFRT (DI(4)), the number of falls in SpO(2) to <or= 90% per hour of AFRT (DI(90)), and the number of falls in SpO(2) to <or= 92% per hour of AFRT (DI(92)). RESULTS Ten recordings had to be excluded because of insufficient AFRT (< 5 h). Mean age of the remaining 90 children (54 girls) was 9.3 years (SD, 0.6). Median (range; fifth centile) values for SATmin, SAT(5), SAT(10), and SAT(50) were 93% (76 to 97; 87.5), 97% (88 to 99; 95), 97% (89 to 99; 96), and 98% (94 to 100; 97). Median values (range; 95th centile) for TI(90), DI(4), DI(90), and DI(92) were 0.0 s (0.0 to 5.8; 1.6), 0.8 (0.0 to 6.1; 3.9), 0.0 (0.0 to 1.2; 0.2), and 0.0 (0.0 to 2.0; 0.6). CONCLUSION Baseline SpO(2) values < 97% were uncommon in these children, as were intermittent desaturations to <or= 90%. These data may serve as a basis for the interpretation of clinical recordings of SpO(2) in children referred for sleep-related breathing disorders.
The examination of the relationship between experiential value and price fairness in consumers’ dining experience

ABSTRACT Consumers enjoy sharing meaningful consumption experiences with others. The purpose of this study is to better understand this behavior by identifying the specific aspects of experiential value that motivate word of mouth behavior. To these ends, this study tests a model that proposes relationships among four types of experiential value (aesthetics, escapism, service excellence, and efficiency), satisfaction, price fairness, and word of mouth. The results indicate that, among the four types of experiential value, service excellence and efficiency are the most important determinants of post-consumption word of mouth. Accordingly, this research contributes a better understanding of experiential value and its effects on motivating favorable post consumption word of mouth promotion. Managerial implications providing a holistic perspective of consumer cognition, emotion, and motivation are provided.
CYP2C8 and CYP3A4 are the principal enzymes involved in the human in vitro biotransformation of the insulin secretagogue repaglinide.

AIMS To identify the principal human cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzyme(s) responsible for the human in vitro biotransformation of repaglinide. Previous experiments have identified CYP3A4 as being mainly responsible for the in vitro metabolism of repaglinide, but the results of clinical investigations have suggested that more than one enzyme may be involved in repaglinide biotransformation. METHODS [14C]-Repaglinide was incubated with recombinant CYP and with human liver microsomes (HLM) from individual donors in the presence of inhibitory antibodies specific for individual CYP enzymes. Metabolites, measured by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with on-line radiochemical detection, were identified by liquid chromatography-mass spectrophotometry (LC-MS) and LC-MS coupled on-line to a nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer (LC-MS-NMR). RESULTS CYP3A4 and CYP2C8 were found to be responsible for the conversion of repaglinide into its two primary metabolites, M4 (resulting from hydroxylation on the piperidine ring system) and M1 (an aromatic amine). Specific inhibitory monoclonal antibodies against CYP3A4 and CYP2C8 significantly inhibited (> 71%) formation of M4 and M1 in HLM. In a panel of HLM from 12 individual donors formation of M4 and M1 varied from approximately 160-880 pmol min-1 mg-1 protein and from 100-1110 pmol min-1 mg-1 protein, respectively. The major metabolite generated by CYP2C8 was found to be M4. The rate of formation of this metabolite in HLM correlated significantly with paclitaxel 6alpha-hydroxylation (rs = 0.80; P = 0.0029). Two other minor metabolites were also detected. One of them was M1 and the other was repaglinide hydroxylated on the isopropyl moiety (M0-OH). The rate of formation of M4 in CYP2C8 Supersomes was 2.5 pmol min-1 pmol-1 CYP enzyme and only about 0.1 pmol min-1 pmol-1 CYP enzyme in CYP3A4 Supersomes. The major metabolite generated by CYP3A4 was M1. The rate of formation of this metabolite in HLM correlated significantly with testosterone 6beta-hydroxylation (rs = 0.90; P = 0.0002). Three other metabolites were identified, namely, M0-OH, M2 (a dicarboxylic acid formed by oxidative opening of the piperidine ring) and M5. The rate of M1 formation in CYP3A4 Supersomes was 1.6 pmol min-1 pmol-1 CYP enzyme but in CYP2C8 Supersomes it was only approximately 0.4 pmol min-1 pmol-1 CYP enzyme. CONCLUSIONS The results confirm an important role for both CYP3A4 and CYP2C8 in the human in vitro biotransformation of repaglinide. This dual CYP biotransformation may have consequences for the clinical pharmacokinetics and drug-drug interactions involving repaglinide if one CYP pathway has sufficient capacity to compensate if the other is inhibited.
The Power of We: Using Instant Messaging for Student Group Project Discussion

Online group work has been identified as an important issue in Web-based education for a long time. With the prevalence of instant messaging in adolescents, more and more students opt to choose this emerging synchronous communication medium for online group project discussion. In this paper, we-intention to use instant messaging for online group project discussion was examined and a research model of we-intention was proposed and empirically tested with 482 students in China. The research model explains 43.2% of the variance in we-intention and attitude, anticipated emotions, group norms and social identity are found statistically significant. Implications for both researchers and practitioners are discussed.
NSm Protein of Rift Valley Fever Virus Suppresses Virus-Induced Apoptosis

ABSTRACT Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) is a member of the genus Phlebovirus within the family Bunyaviridae. It can cause severe epidemics among ruminants and fever, myalgia, a hemorrhagic syndrome, and/or encephalitis in humans. The RVFV M segment encodes the NSm and 78-kDa proteins and two major envelope proteins, Gn and Gc. The biological functions of the NSm and 78-kDa proteins are unknown; both proteins are dispensable for viral replication in cell cultures. To determine the biological functions of the NSm and 78-kDa proteins, we generated the mutant virus arMP-12-del21/384, carrying a large deletion in the pre-Gn region of the M segment. Neither NSm nor the 78-kDa protein was synthesized in arMP-12-del21/384-infected cells. Although arMP-12-del21/384 and its parental virus, arMP-12, showed similar growth kinetics and viral RNA and protein accumulation in infected cells, arMP-12-del21/384-infected cells induced extensive cell death and produced larger plaques than did arMP-12-infected cells. arMP-12-del21/384 replication triggered apoptosis, including the cleavage of caspase-3, the cleavage of its downstream substrate, poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase, and activation of the initiator caspases, caspase-8 and -9, earlier in infection than arMP-12. NSm expression in arMP-12-del21/384-infected cells suppressed the severity of caspase-3 activation. Further, NSm protein expression inhibited the staurosporine-induced activation of caspase-8 and -9, demonstrating that other viral proteins were dispensable for NSm's function in inhibiting apoptosis. RVFV NSm protein is the first identified Phlebovirus protein that has an antiapoptotic function.
Detection of hepatitis C core antigen in serum or plasma as a marker of hepatitis C viraemia in the serological window‐phase

Summary A new immunoassay for the detection of hepatitis C core antigen (HCVcoreAg) in peripheral blood during serological window‐phase was evaluated among healthy blood donors, commercially available hepatitis C virus (HCV) seroconversion panels and in‐house specimens from individuals undergoing seroconversion. Among 1964 low‐risk blood donor samples, seven samples were initially reactive but only one was repeat reactive. Reactivity of this specimen was not confirmable by neutralization with specific anti‐HCV core antibody, and the sample was negative for HCV RNA by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The specificity of the HCVcoreAg enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was 99·95%. In seven commercially available HCV seroconversion panels, HCVcoreAg appeared 23–46 days earlier than anti‐HCV antibody by third generation assay. Additional testing with specimens from patients undergoing anti‐HCV seroconversion indicated that HCVcoreAg becomes undetectable by the present test format soon after the onset of antibody. This test may be considered as an alternative to nucleic amplification techniques (NAT) for blood donor HCV screening. Additional development of technology for detecting HCVcoreAg may be useful for patient diagnosis and therapy monitoring.
[Factors related to screening of hepatitis C virus in general medicine].

UNLABELLED Despite the high prevalence of hepatitis C in France ( approximately 1.2%), a large proportion of people infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) are not known aware of their status. The objective of this study was to investigate the factors related to screening in general medicine. MATERIAL AND METHODS Three hundred and one general practitioners were interviewed by phone in South-Eastern France about their HCV screening practices, knowledge of the epidemic, of the natural course of the disease, and opinions about health care for people infected with HCV. RESULTS While general practitioners often offered HCV screening to intravenous drug users, screening for people who had received blood transfusion, and identification of risk factors among patients were not satisfactory. Multivariate analysis showed that certain characteristics in general practitioners were negatively and independently related to the frequency of HCV screening, especially: general practitioners older than 40 (odds-ratio: 3.12), general practitioners who did not care for intravenous drug users (odds-ratio: 2.24) and did not prescribe human immunodeficiency virus tests (odds-ratio: 5.55). Other characteristics such as awareness of the course of hepatitis C and health care were also associated with HCV screening. Conversely knowledge of the size of the epidemic was not related to better HCV screening practices. CONCLUSION Our study shows that knowledge about the size of the epidemic and the natural history of hepatitis C, HCV screening practices and investigation of risk factors among patients are not satisfactory among South-eastern French general practitioners. Although HCV screening and health care must be improved among intravenous drug users, hepatitis C should not be considered as a disease of injecting drug users only by general practitioners and the population. Efforts should be made so that hepatitis C is recognized as a global public health issue, and training of general practitioners should be improved to investigate risk factors and offer HCV screening instead of merely dramatizing the situation.