Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Integrating attitudinal theories to understand and predict use of technology‐based self‐service: The Internet as an illustration

Technology‐based self‐service is growing at a tremendous rate all over the world, but a strong unifying theory to understand this form of service is lacking. Proposes a comprehensive conceptual framework that incorporates several well‐known attitudinal theories to explain the pivotal role of attitudes in influencing intentions and behavior related to technology‐based self‐service. The framework makes it possible to understand and predict better consumer decisions related to using technology‐based self‐service by thoroughly examining underlying consumer attitudes. Uses the Internet to illustrate how our framework can be applied to study consumer behavior related to a specific technology‐based self‐service. Draws on insights from the extant literature on technology‐based self‐service and also incorporates the many unique characteristics of the Internet that have implications for theory. Discusses practical implications of our model for marketers and provides directions for future research on technology‐based self‐service in general and the Internet in particular. With its integrative approach to theory, also contributes to the attitudinal literature.
Ethnobotanical Study of Medicinal Plants Used as Anti-Obesity Remedies in the Nomad and Hunter Communities of Burkina Faso

Background: Obesity is a global epidemic that affects both developed and developing countries. According to World Health Organization (WHO), in 2014, over 1.9 billion adults were overweight. Burkina Faso, like other countries, faces the problem of obesity, with a prevalence of 7.3%. The main cause is excessive intake of caloric foods combined with low physical activity, although genetic, endocrine and environmental influences (pollution) can sometimes be predisposing factors. This metabolic imbalance often leads to multiple pathologies (heart failure, Type II diabetes, cancers, etc.). Drugs have been developed for the treatment of these diseases; but in addition to having many side effects, locally these products are not economically accessible to the majority of the population. Burkina Faso, like the other countries bordering the Sahara, has often been confronted in the past with periods of famine during which populations have generally used anorectic plants to regulate their food needs. This traditional ethnobotanical knowledge has not been previously investigated. An ethnobotanical survey was conducted in Burkina Faso in the provinces of Seno (North) and Nayala (Northwest) to list the plants used by local people as an anorectic and/or fort weight loss. Methods: The survey, conducted in the two provinces concerned traditional healers, herbalists, hunters, nomads and resourceful people with knowledge of plants. It was conducted over a period of two months and data were collected following a structured interview with the respondents. The approach was based on dialogue in the language of choice of the respondent and the use of a questionnaire. The data have been structured and then statistically analyzed. Results: The fifty-five (55) respondents of the survey were aged between 40 and 80 years. Sixty-one (61) plant species, belonging to thirty-one (31) families were listed as appetite suppressants and/or for their anti-obesity properties. The main families of plants are Mimosaceae, Rubiaceae, Asclepiadaceae and Cesalpiniaceae. Fruits are the most used part of the plant organs. Consumption in the raw state or as a decoction are the two main forms of preparation. Conclusion: The great diversity of plants cited by informants demonstrates the existence of rich local knowledge to address obesity in Burkina Faso. Evaluation of the biochemical activity of the extracts of the most cited species could allow the development of a phytomedicine economically accessible to the majority of the population. This could allow for the preservation of biodiversity in this region which is weakened by climate change because some of the species cited are in fragile state or are threatened with extinction.
Productivity Growth and R&D Expenditure in Taiwan's Manufacturing Firms

This study sets out to estimate the impact of R&D on productivity within the private sector, with further analysis of the different impacts of R&D in high-tech and conventional firms. The study also aims to estimate the rates of return on R&D investment and total factor productivity at firm level. Based on a sample of 136 large manufacturing firms listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange over the period 1994-2000, our findings suggest that Taiwan's R&D investment had a significant impact on firm productivity growth, with output elasticity standing at around 0.18. When the sample is divided into high-tech and conventional firms, the R&D output elasticity in high-tech firms is significantly greater than that of conventional firms. In addition, the average rate of return in high-tech firms is much larger than that estimated in other industries. Our empirical findings further show that although there was a dramatic decline in TFP in 1998 for all selected industries, this nevertheless started to climb again in 1999.
CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells in irritable bowel syndrome patients

Abstract The aetiology of the irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is incompletely understood. A low‐grade colonic inflammation is frequently seen, but it is unclear to what extent this phenomenon contributes to the pathophysiology of IBS. CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells (Treg) are implicated to play an important role in suppressing intestinal inflammation. We, therefore, examined whether the intestinal inflammatory process in IBS patients is the result of an altered function and/or frequency of CD25+ Treg cells. Patients with IBS (n = 34), fulfilling the Rome II criteria, were compared with controls (n = 26). The suppressive activity of blood CD25+ Treg cells was determined and the frequency of colonic and blood CD25+ Treg cells was analysed by flow cytometry. The expression of the Treg marker, FOXP3 mRNA, in colonic biopsies was determined by reverse transcription‐polymerase chain reaction. Blood CD25+ Treg cells from IBS patients suppressed the proliferation of blood CD4+CD25low/− T cells. Similar frequencies of CD25+ Treg cells were recorded in mucosa and blood of IBS patients and controls. FOXP3 mRNA was equally expressed in the colonic mucosa of patients with IBS and controls. In conclusion, the low‐grade intestinal inflammation recorded in patients with IBS is not associated with an altered function or frequency of CD25+ Treg cells.
FCF Agency Cost, Earnings Management, and Investor Monitoring

The present research attempts to investigate the relationship between agency problems that rise due to the free cash flow with long term profitability and income management; and also the effects of the structure of ownership on income management. The criterion used for measuring long-term profitability is Tobin's Q. Discretionary accruals have been estimated using the Adjusted Jones Model (1995) and finally the Panel analysis was used to analyze the data. Results from testing the hypotheses in 106 companies listed on Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) throughout the years 2003-2007 reflect that agency problems of Free Cash Flows result in short term and eventually long term profitability. The results also indicate that managers in companies with Free Cash Flows apply discretionary accruals that tend to reduce profits. However, no evidence was observed pertaining to the application of income management in companies with agency problems due to Free Cash Flows. Moreover monitoring of investors would not decrease the application of arbitrary accruals and income management.
Role of Translation Initiation Factor 2B in Control of Cell Survival by the Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase/Akt/Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3β Signaling Pathway

ABSTRACT The phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI 3-kinase)/Akt signaling pathway is an important mediator of growth factor-dependent survival of mammalian cells. A variety of targets of the Akt protein kinase have been implicated in cell survival, including the protein kinase glycogen synthase kinase 3β (GSK-3β). One of the targets of GSK-3β is translation initiation factor 2B (eIF2B), linking global regulation of protein synthesis to PI 3-kinase/Akt signaling. Because of the central role of protein synthesis, we have investigated the involvement of eIF2B, which is inhibited as a result of GSK-3β phosphorylation, in programmed cell death. We demonstrate that expression of eIF2B mutants lacking the GSK-3β phosphorylation or priming sites is sufficient to protect both Rat-1 and PC12 cells from apoptosis induced by overexpression of GSK-3β, inhibition of PI 3-kinase, or growth factor deprivation. Consistent with these effects on cell survival, expression of nonphosphorylatable eIF2B prevented inhibition of protein synthesis following treatment of cells with the PI 3-kinase inhibitor LY294002. Conversely, cycloheximide induced apoptosis of PC12 and Rat-1 cells, further indicating that protein synthesis was required for cell survival. Inhibition of translation resulting from treatment with cycloheximide led to the release of cytochrome c from mitochondria, similar to the effects of inhibition of PI 3-kinase. Expression of nonphosphorylatable eIF2B prevented cytochrome c release resulting from PI 3-kinase inhibition but did not affect cytochrome c release or apoptosis induced by cycloheximide. Regulation of translation resulting from phosphorylation of eIF2B by GSK-3β thus appears to contribute to the control of cell survival by the PI 3-kinase/Akt signaling pathway, acting upstream of mitochondrial cytochrome c release.
Are Value, Size and Momentum Premiums in CEE Emerging Markets Only Illusionary?

The answer to the question posed in the title is mostly yes. Using sorting and crosssection, we investigate the impact of illiquidity and transaction costs on value, size and momentum premiums in 11 CEE stock markets (Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia) for the years 2000–2013. We find very high value and size premiums and strong synergy effects between value and momentum strategies. However, the impact of illiquidity and transaction costs is almost lethal. After accounting for varying bid-ask spreads and liquidity, only the value premium survives. The size and momentum effects get obliterated.
RNA polymerase II transcription factors H4TF-1 and H4TF-2 require metal to bind specific DNA sequences

Specific DNA-binding and in vitro transcription activities of H4TF-1 and H4TF-2 are inactivated by chelating agents. Binding activity is restored by addition of Zn2+, and H4TF-2 is also reactivated by Fe2+. In contrast, preformed factor-DNA complexes are resistant to chelators. Therefore, metal ions are a required component of the H4TF-1 and H4TF-2 DNA-binding domains.
A new node-join-tree distributed algorithm for minimum weight spanning trees

A distributed algorithm that uses a node-join-tree approach for the minimum-spanning-tree problem in a communication network is developed. The algorithm needs at most (2e+n(n-1)/4) messages in O(n/sup 2/) time on a general random graph. In the best case, it needs only 2e messages in O(log n) time. The parameters e and n are the number of edges and nodes, respectively. Although the worst-case performance is not better than that of tree-join-tree algorithms under some extreme cases, simulation results show that it provides better performance in most cases. The algorithm is initialized from a single node, so that there is no need to wake up all nodes at the beginning. It is less complicated than other algorithms, so that a reliable implementation is easier to achieve. The results can be used to improve the algorithms for many other problems in distributed computing, such as leader-election, node-counting, deadlock-resolution, and message-broadcasting. <<ETX>>
Unemployment Insurance in Developing Countries: The Case of Brazil

Few developing countries have adopted an Unemployment Insurance (UI) program but the list of countries considering its implementation is growing. Focusing on the Brazilian UI program and using administrative data covering the universe of formal employment, we provide empirical evidence documenting two relevant facts for the debate around the design of such program in countries characterized by a large informal sector and a lack of administrative and enforcement capacity. First, UI benefits strongly affects the timing of formal job finding for those workers able to find a formal job soon after job-loss. Second, those workers constitute a small share of the overall pool of UI beneficiaries, since most job-losers do not find a formal job rapidly. Therefore, offering UI is costly (most beneficiaries would exhaust their benefits for typical lengths of benefit duration) and UI benefits have little distortionary effect on the job-finding behavior of the average (formal) job-loser: they constitute pure income transfers for 3/4 of the potential beneficiaries. We further discuss implications of these 2 facts and highlight some interactions with job protection legislations (hiring costs), the main policy instrument used to protect workers from labor demand fluctuations in those countries.
Financial Intermediation and Economic Growth

Financial depth does not fully reflect how well the financial intermediaries serve to economic agents in stimulating economic growth. Additional aspects of financial system such as access, efficiency and stability should be taken into account in order to shed light into the relationship between finance and economic growth. In our paper we capture the four aspects of finance ? depth, access, efficiency and stability ? to investigate the impact of financial development and economic growth. Our results suggest that the impact of four parameters of financial development differs depending on the level of financial development and has an inverted S-shape function.
Where Do Companies Attempt Earnings Management, and When Do Auditors Prevent it?

Research about earnings management ("EM") is sometimes criticized as insufficiently useful to standard setters (e.g., Healy and Whalen 1999). Because prior studies necessarily focus on those areas of EM that have resulted in SEC enforcement actions or for which empirical tests are most powerful, little is known about EM with respect to many accounts. Also, relatively little research has examined factors that limit EM. For example, because prior studies focus on post-audit financial statements, they cannot separate managers' attempts to manage earnings and auditors' decisions to waive adjustment of earnings-management attempts. Our study complements prior research by constructing a database of 526 earnings-management attempts ("EMAs") that span the issues regulated by SFAS's 1-132 and their precursors. We obtain EMAs by surveying audit partners and managers from one Big-5 firm and eliciting specific experiences they have had with audit clients who they believe were attempting earnings management. This database allows us to examine how managers' decisions to attempt EM and auditors' decisions to waive EMAs are affected by financial-accounting-standard precision, transaction structuring, current-year-income effect, materiality, and/or client size. We also assess the relative frequency of EMAs in various accounts, as well as the relative frequency with which EMAs are waived by auditors to become EM in the audited financial statements. Regarding managers' EMAs, analyses indicate that transaction structuring is infrequent, and tends to occur with respect to precise standards. Of those EMAs that affect current-period income, 60% are income increasing. EMAs are more likely to increase current-period income when standards are precise and/or transactions have been structured. Regarding auditors' waive decisions, analyses indicate that auditors are more likely to waive adjustment of an EMA when it decreases current-year income, is governed by an imprecise standard, is structured (particularly to meet a precise standard), is considered by the auditor to be immaterial, or is attempted by a large client. In our database, EMAs occur most frequently with respect to reserves, followed by, in order of frequency, revenue recognition, business combinations, intangibles, fixed assets, investments, leases, compensation, and many other areas. While revenue-recognition EMAs are second most frequent, auditors infrequently waive them, so they are the third most frequent category of EM. Auditors require adjustment of 43% of EMAs. They waive adjustment of 22% because they conclude the EMA is allowed by GAAP, 18% because the auditor has no convincing evidence that their client's position is incorrect, and 17% for another reason (usually, immateriality). At the conclusion of our paper we discuss limitations and implications of our results for earnings-management research, audit practice, and financial-accounting and auditing regulation.
Reciprocal regulation of the Epstein-Barr virus BamHI-F promoter by EBNA-1 and an E2F transcription factor

The Epstein-Barr virus BamHI-F promoter (Fp) is one of three used to transcribe the EBNA latency proteins, in particular, EBNA-1, the only viral gene product needed for episomal replication. Fp is distinguished by possession of the only EBNA-1 binding sites (the Q locus) in the Epstein-Barr virus genome outside oriP. Activity of Fp is negatively autoregulated by interaction of EBNA-1 at two sites in the Q locus, which is situated downstream of the RNA start site. We demonstrate in transient assays that this EBNA-1-mediated repression of Fp can be overcome by an E2F transcription factor which interacts with the DNA at a site centered between the two EBNA-1 binding sites within the Q locus. An E2F-1 fusion protein protects the sequence 5'-GGATGGCGGGTAATA-3' from DNase I digestion, and a DNA probe containing this sequence binds an E2F-specific protein complex from cell extracts, although this region is only loosely homologous with known consensus binding sites for E2F transcription factors. In mobility shift assays, E2F can displace the binding of EBNA-1 from the Q locus but not from oriP, where the E2F binding site is not present. E2F also activates expression of Fp in epithelial cells. These findings identify a potentially new binding site for members of the E2F family of transcription factors and suggest that such a factor is important for expression of EBNA-1 in lymphoid and epithelial cells by displacing EBNA-1 from the Q locus. In addition, the possibility that Fp activity is under cell cycle control is raised. Since the supply of functional E2F varies during the cell cycle and since in these assays overexpression of E2F can overcome repression of Fp by EBNA-1, control of transcription of EBNA-1 mRNA by cell cycle regulatory factors may help to bring about ordered replication of episomes.
Pengaruh Intellectual Capital terhadap Kinerja Keuangan dengan Ukuran, Jenis Industri, dan Leverage sebagai Variabel Moderating

Managing Intellectual Capital is getting more important in today’s business. Theoretically, Intellectual Capital having a positive impact on the Performance of an Organization. This study focused on the effect of Intellectual Capital toward Organization’s Performance, and on the moderating effect of Size, Industrial Type, and Leverage toward the relationship between Intellectual Capital and Organization’s Performance in companies listed in the Indonesian Stock Exchange.Result of the study showed that Intellectual Capital have a positive impact on Organization’s Performance (using the proxy of ROA and MB or Market to Book Value of Assets), but Intellectual Capital have no impact on Organization’s Performance (using ATO as a proxy). The study showed that Size did not have moderating effect on the relationship between Intellectual Capital and Organization’s Performance. The study also revealed that Industrial Type and Leverage had moderating impact on the relationship between Intellectual Capital and Organization’s Performance (using ROA and MB as a proxy), but failed to do so using ATO as a proxy of Organization’s Performance.
Expression of disialogangliosides GD2 and GD3 on human soft tissue sarcomas

Methods. Fifty‐six freshly frozen human sarcomas were studied for expression of disialogangliosides by avi‐din‐biotin immunohistochemical staining with purified monoclonal antibodies (MoAb) 3F8 (antidisialoganglioside GD2) and R24 (antidisialoganglioside GD3).
IgA nephropathy‐specific expression of the IgA Fc receptors (CD89) on blood phagocytic cells

We analysed the biochemical features of receptors for the Fc‐region of IgA (FcαR, CD89) on blood monocytes and granulocytes of patients with IgA nephropathy (IgAN). FcαR on monocytes of IgAN were found to have a higher Mr (60‐80kD) than those of control monocytes (50–75 kD) and granulocytes (55–75 kD) in both IgAN and controls as shown by immunoprecipitation analysis. Removal of N‐linked carbohydrates from FcαR on monocytes of IgAN revealed a 32–36 kD protein core, the Mr of which was still higher than that of controls (28–32 kD). When FcaL transcripts were analysed by reverse‐transcription‐PCR, only one prominent band was visualized in PCR products from IgAN monocytes. Since the results thus far show that IgAN monocytes express FcαR protein and mRNA differently from granulocytes and control monocytes, PCR products were then cloned and sequenced. The predominant band in PCR products from IgAN monocytes was identical to that of the FcαR a.l transcript, and an additional 10 transcripts containing five novel transcripts were obtained from granulocytes and control monocytes. In three transcripts, we found an insertion sequence between the S2 and EC1 domains, suggesting the existence of a new exon. These results suggest a predominant usage of FcαR a.l among various transcripts of FcαR in IgAN monocytes.
Minimal Residual Disease is a Prognostic Marker for Neuroblastoma With Bone Marrow Infiltration

ObjectiveThis pilot study focused on whether flow cytometry (FCM) detection of minimal residual disease in bone marrow (BM) could predict the outcome of patients with advanced neuroblastoma (NB). Patients and MethodsFifty-seven stage 4 NB patients with BM infiltration were enrolled in this study. All of them received NB-2001 protocol. BM samples were examined for tumor cell contamination by both morphology and FCM with CD45-FITC−/CD81-PE+/CD56-PECy5+ monoclonal antibodies cocktail at diagnosis and after 4 courses of chemotherapy. ResultsBM samples of all patients were positive at diagnosis by FCM, and samples from 30 patients became negative after 4 courses of chemotherapy, 10 patients relapsed (33.3%) in mean 45.5 months, range 7 to 69. Another 27 patients remained positive, and 20 of them relapsed (74.1%) in mean 24.2 months, range 8 to 48. There was a statistically significant difference in event-free survival between the 2 groups (P = 0.002). ConclusionsPersistence of minimal residual disease in BM may work as a chemotherapy response marker and predict the prognosis in advanced NB.