Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Regulation as Retrospective Ethnography

Often, we ask: how can regulation mitigate risk? What might happen if instead we ask: what does regulation tell us about socially situated action? This article poses a thought experiment along these lines. The emerging conversation about regulation and the risks of mobile financial services has been relatively silent on a ubiquitous set of things people do with cash and coin not limited to the strictly economic functions of these media. Adding mobile into the mix of people's existing; highly complex monetary practices has the potential to create new risks -- but also new opportunities for product design and smarter regulation. This paper describes the social uses of mobile phones and cash from different cultural contexts, including proscriptions regarding the disclosure of certain transactions, and multi-person sharing of money and mobiles. It then reflects on how we might understand regulation as an account of people's practices and experiences, an account we might set alongside other forms of data on use cases for mobile and money. It argues that the risks identified by the regulators, rather than hindering innovation or frightening off developers, might instead inspire user-oriented solutions for mobile money, and for mobile money as part of, not a replacement for, the user's world of diverse social currencies.
MicroRNA gene expression profile of hepatitis C virus–associated hepatocellular carcinoma

MicroRNAs are small noncoding RNAs that regulate gene expression by targeting messenger RNAs (mRNAs) through translational repression or RNA degradation. Many fundamental biological processes are modulated by microRNAs, and an important role for microRNAs in carcinogenesis is emerging. Because understanding the pathogenesis of viral‐associated hepatocellular carcinomas is important in developing effective means of classification, prognosis, and therapy, we examined the microRNA expression profiles in a large set of 52 human primary liver tumors consisting of premalignant dysplastic liver nodules and hepatocellular carcinomas by quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction. All patients were infected with hepatitis C, and most had liver cirrhosis. Initially, the accessibility of microRNAs from formalin‐fixed paraffin‐embedded archival liver tissue by real‐time polymerase chain reaction assays was shown. Subsequently, target parenchyma from routinely processed tissue was macrodissected, RNA was extracted, and reverse transcription followed by quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction was performed. Relative quantification was performed by the 2−ΔΔCt method with normal livers as a calibrator. In order to obtain a comprehensive microRNA gene expression profile, 80 microRNAs were examined in a subset of tumors, which yielded 10 up‐regulated and 19 down‐regulated microRNAs compared to normal liver. Subsequently, five microRNAs (miR‐122, miR‐100, miR‐10a, miR‐198, and miR‐145) were selected on the basis of the initial results and further examined in an extended tumor sample set of 43 hepatocellular carcinomas and 9 dysplastic nodules. miR‐122, miR‐100, and miR‐10a were overexpressed whereas miR‐198 and miR‐145 were up to 5‐fold down‐regulated in hepatic tumors compared to normal liver parenchyma. Conclusion: A subset of microRNAs are aberrantly expressed in primary liver tumors, serving both as putative tumor suppressors and as oncogenic regulators. (HEPATOLOGY 2008.)
New determinants of ease of use and perceived usefulness for mobile banking adoption

This research centres the variables affecting the intention of individuals to continue using mobile banking in Pakistan through using a model of technology acceptance model (TAM). Relevant information was collected through a structured instrument while the sample size included 300 users of mobile banking. Furthermore, statistical tools applied as a part of a study were reliability analysis and partial least square-SEM = Structural Equation Modelling in order to check the effect of those factors with the intention of the users. Outcomes suggest that resistance is significantly and negatively associated with perceived ease of use while it is significantly and positively associated with perceived usefulness. Also, perceived risk and compatibility have positive significant relationships with both perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. However, awareness is positively and significantly connected with perceived ease of use and an insignificant relationship with perceived usefulness. Perceived ease of use has a significant positive relationship with both perceived usefulness and attitude, while perceived usefulness has a positive significant relationship with attitude and intention towards adopting mobile banking. Finally, attitude is also positively and significantly linked with the intention of using mobile banking. The results of this study provide useful information about the users' pattern of using the technology, which will be helpful for the financial institutions.
The importance of nuclear import in protection of the vitamin D receptor from polyubiquitination and proteasome‐mediated degradation

Others and we previously showed that the vitamin D receptor (VDR) is subject to degradation by the 26S proteasome and that treatment with 1,25‐dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25D3) inhibited this degradation. In the present study, we found that in osteoblasts, but not in intestinal epithelial cells, the VDR was susceptible to degradation by the 26S proteasome. The subcellular site for degradation of the VDR in osteoblasts is the cytoplasm and the site for ligand‐dependent protection of the VDR from the 26S proteasome is the chromatin. These direct relationships between nuclear localization and protection of the VDR from 26S proteasome degradation led us to hypothesize that the unoccupied cytoplasmic VDR is a substrate for polyubiquitination, which targets VDR for degradation by the 26S proteasome, and that nuclear localization has the ability to protect the VDR from polyubiquitination and degradation. To test these hypotheses, we used Cos‐1 cells transfected with human VDR and histidine‐tagged ubiquitin expression vectors. We found that unoccupied VDR was polyubiquitinated and that 1,25D3 inhibited this modification. Mutations in the nuclear localization signal of VDR (R49W/R50G and K53Q/R54G/K55E) or in the dimerization interface of VDR with retinoid X receptor (M383G/Q385A) abolished the ability of 1,25D3 to protect the VDR from polyubiquitination, although these mutations had no effect on the ligand‐binding activity of VDR. Therefore, we concluded that in some cellular environments unoccupied cytoplasmic VDR is susceptible to polyubiquitination and proteasome degradation and that ligand‐dependent heterodimerization and nuclear localization protect the VDR from these modifications. J. Cell. Biochem. 110: 926–934, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
QUALITY MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN THE PALESTINIAN CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

The objective of this paper is to investigate the implementation of project quality management practices and using computer software in supporting the projects management by public owners and contractors in the Gaza Strip. This study has been conducted by means of a survey questionnaire. Seventy-three questionnaires were distributed to contractors and twenty-five questionnaires for public owners. Sixty questionnaires from contractors and twenty-three questionnaires from public owners were received and analyzed. The results indicate that project quality management tools and techniques are fairly used among contractors and owners. Furthermore, the use of computer soft-ware in scheduling and administrative issues is satisfactorily used by both owners and contractors. However, the computers software for cost estimate and cost control is not widely used. The results of this study recommended that there is a need to establish computer models for cost estimate and cost control which takes into consideration the local trends and methodologies to achieve improvement in this area. Finally, the contractors have to make investment in improving the abilities of their staff for best use of computer based applications for cost estimate and cost control techniques.
How Gifts Influence Relationships With Service Customers and Financial Outcomes for Firms

Service companies invest billions of dollars to develop and maintain long-term customer relationships by offering corporate gifts. Yet several questions remain regarding such relationship marketing instruments: What impact do different kinds of gifts have on customers? Which perceptions allow gifts to affect customer behavior? What financial outcomes do these gifts imply for firms? To answer these questions, the authors use data from 1,950 airline customers—combining a longitudinal field experiment with internal customer database information—and explore the effects of different gift designs on customer perceptions and actual spending behavior. The experiment manipulates four gift designs (economic related/unrelated; social related/unrelated) and measures customer perceptions and behavior at different points in time. Multivariate analyses of covariance (MANCOVAs) and spotlight analyses reveal that the congruent combinations of economic related and social unrelated gift dimensions have the strongest effects on customer perceptions of relationship investment. Serial mediation analyses further reveal that the impact of gifts on customer spending is fully mediated by customer perceptions of perceived relationship investment and repurchase intention. Economic related gifts produce the highest contribution margins. Service managers may use these findings to design effective gifts and management processes (e.g., gift success tracking).
Historical perspective of soil balancing theory and identifying knowledge gaps: A review

The common philosophies that contextualize soil test results and fertilizer recommendations are sufficiency level of available nutrients (SLAN), buildup and maintenance, and basic cation saturation ratio (BCSR). The BCSR approach postulates maintaining an ideal ratio of basic cation (Ca2+, Mg2+, and K+) saturations on the soil exchange sites to maximize crop yields. The practice of adding amendments to alter the ratios of basic cation saturations in soils is called “soil balancing. ” Bear, Graham, and Albrecht promoted this concept, with each suggesting a desired saturation ratio of Ca:Mg:K for optimum crop yields. Several researchers have tried to validate this theory with both greenhouse and field experiments but could not conclude that an ideal cation saturation ratio existed and found that crop yields were similar across a wide range of ratios. While the scientific community disregards this theory, some farmers, crop consultants, and commercial soil-testing laboratories still use BCSR to guide their fertilizer recommendations. It is believed that soil balancing effectively controls weeds, insects, and pests and improves overall soil health for better plant growth, ultimately producing better crop yields. Some even argue that soil balancing improves nutritional quality of the harvested crop. However, contemporary research to objectively demonstrate such perceived benefits of practicing soil balancing is missing. This review presents a holistic overview of soil balancing, presents a literature review on BCSR, and identifies knowledge gaps, which need to be addressed to better understand the merits and limitations of soil balancing. Soil fertility testing is a valuable tool to make informed nutrient management decisions. Three main philosophies exist to interpret soil test reports and provide appropriate fertilizer recommendations. Those include (i) sufficiency level of available nutrients (SLAN), (ii) buildup and maintenance, and (iii) basic cation saturation ratio (BCSR) concepts (Black, 1993). The SLAN approach works on the principle that there are certain critical levels of individual nutrients. If a soil tests above the critical level, the crop will not likely respond to fertilization but if the soil tests below the critical level, the crop will respond to fertilization (Eckert, 1987). The buildup-and-maintenance approach calls for a gradual buildup of soil nutrient levels above the critical levels over time, and then to maintain these levels by replacing the amounts of each nutrient Published in Crop Forage Turfgrass Manage. Volume 3. doi:10.2134/cftm2016.10. 0072 © 2017 American Society of Agronomy and Crop Science Society of America 5585 Guilford Rd., Madison, WI 53711 All rights reserved. Published online July 20, 2017
Genetic diversity of echovirus 30 involved in aseptic meningitis cases in Brazil (1998–2008)

Aseptic meningitis is one of the most common neurological disorders caused by enteroviruses. Among them, Echovirus 30 (E30) is described as the main etiological agent of many outbreaks and sporadic cases. This study investigated the genomic variability of E30 isolated from the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of aseptic meningitis cases that occurred from 1998 to 2008 in Brazil. Over a 10‐year period (1998–2008), 302 non‐polio enteroviruses were isolated, of which 177 were identified as E30 (58.6%). Phylogenetic analysis of the complete VP1 gene (876 nt) of 48 E30 isolates was performed and compared with additional Brazilian and foreign strains. E30 VP1 sequences segregated into three distinct major groups and seven subgroups, which were linked to the isolation year. In general, sequence divergence among E30 strains ranged from 0.2% to 13.8%. A common direct ancestor for this set of E30 strains was not defined. Brazilian isolates from Group I were related genetically to a 1997 USA isolate and both may have a common origin. Group III representatives showed close relationship to the 2007 Argentinean isolates. The present results complement existing data on the molecular characterization and genetic variability of E30 and may contribute to the understanding of the epidemiology of aseptic meningitis in the region. J. Med. Virol. 83:2164–2171, 2011. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Protective effect of 21‐aminosteroid pretreatment in peripheral nerve low‐load crush injury in mature and immature rats

The effects of U‐74006F (tirilazad mesylate), a 21‐aminosterold antioxidant, on injured peripheral nerve were studied. Twenty‐two immature and 44 mature rats were divided equally into two groups. The experimental group received two injections of 3 mg/kg of U‐74006F at a 2 hour interval. The control group received the same volumes of a citrate buffer. A 5 mm segment of the sciatic nerve was subjected to a crush load of 100 g for 2 hours. Motor function (sciatic functional index) was assessed to day 48 postoperatively. There was total paralysis of the crushed limb in all rats the first week after crushing. The experimental group had a statistically significant improvement in motor function compared with the controls on days 14, 21, 25, and 28 for the mature rats and on days 11 and 14 for the immature rats. The mature controls attained complete recovery on day 42 and had a significantly slower recovery rate than the immature controls, which had recovered fully by day 25. The recovery rates were almost similar among mature and immature groups pretreated with U‐74006F, both of which had fully recovered motor function by day 28. The results indicate that pretreatment with U‐74006F can significantly promote peripheral nerve function after low‐load crush injury and that the age of the animal influences the rate of peripheral nerve recovery.
Intellectual Capital, Innovative Performance and the Moderating Effect of Entrepreneurial Orientation Among Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Jordan

The aim of this study investigates empirically the role of moderating effect of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) in relationship between intellectual capital (IC) and innovative performance (IP) among Jordanian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Data was gathered by using a questionnaire survey. The questionnaire was distributed to a sample of 600 managers/owners from Jordanian SMEs. 325 usable questionnaires were returned. Partial least squares-structural equation modeling technique had been applied to analyses the data. The findings showed that dimensions of IC (human capital and customer capital) were found positively and significantly related to IP. In addition, this study supports the effect of EO that moderate partially in relationship between IC and IP.
The Impact of a Rating Agency's Private Information and Disclosed Causes of Rating Downgrades on Insurer Stock Returns

Existing studies document that bond and insurer rating downgrades are associated with negative abnormal returns but generally do not consider the reasons for the downgrade disclosed or implied in the downgrade announcement. Using hand-collected press releases (downgrade announcements) of A.M. Best Company (Best) for a sample of publicly traded insurance firms during the period 1996–2012, we classify and analyze downgrades based on the disclosed causes of the downgrades and whether the rating agency has implied reliance upon unfavorable private information or opinion. We find that during the three-day event window (−1, +1), rating downgrades overall generate a statistically significant cumulative average abnormal return (CAAR) of negative 7.76%. A significantly more negative CAAR of negative 11.46% is found for “financial-prospects-deterioration” downgrades with the perceived presence of Best's private information or opinion. For downgrades without any indication of Best's private information or opinion, the CAAR is negative 3.35%, which is significantly different from zero but significantly less negative than the CAAR of downgrades where private information or opinion is indicated. Downgrades with reported causes other than deterioration of a firm's fundamental financial performance or condition, such as increases in financial leverage and increased business risk taking, produced statistically significant CAAR of negative 3.19% during the (−1, +1) three-day event window, which is also significantly less negative than the CAAR of downgrades where private information or opinion is indicated. Our results provide evidence that downgrades where private information or opinion is likely and downgrades due to a decline in fundamental financial profiles contain more value-relevant information than other types of downgrades.
High-Performance Germanium $\Omega$ -Gate MuGFET With Schottky-Barrier Nickel Germanide Source/Drain and Low-Temperature Disilane-Passivated Gate Stack

We report high-performance p-channel Ω-gate germanium (Ge) p-channel multigate field-effect transistor (MuGFET) with low-temperature Si<sub>2</sub>H<sub>6</sub> surface passivation and Schottky-barrier nickel germanide (NiGe) metallic source/drain, fabricated on high-quality germanium-on-insulator (GeOI) substrates using sub-400°C process modules. As compared with other reported p-channel multigate Ge devices formed by top-down approaches, the Ge MuGFETs in this letter have a record-high ON-state current I<sub>ON</sub> of ~450 μA/μm at V<sub>GS</sub> - V<sub>TH</sub> = -1 V and V<sub>DS</sub> = - 1 V. High peak intrinsic saturation transconductance of ~740 μS/μm and low OFF-state current are reported. We also study the effect of fin or channel doping on Ge MuGFET performance. The simple MuGFET process developed using GeOI substrate would be a good reference for future 3-D Ge device fabrication.
On histamine in cotton dust, and in the blood of cotton workers

Crystalline histamine picrate and hydrochloride have been prepared from cotton dust. The melting-points and crystalline structure found are in agreement with those obtained by other workers. The blood histamines in sixty-five card-room workers have been estimated and compared with the figures found in 103 students and eighteen elderly chronic bronchitics. The figures for the three groups are shown in distribution figures, and the card-room workers have, on an average, a higher blood histamine than both groups of controls. It has, however, to be admitted that the differentiation of card-room asthma from other respiratory diseases on the basis of the level of blood histamine cannot be guaranteed in individuals.
Can We Afford It? Reference Point Dependent Investment Decisions of Family and Nonfamily Owners

This study focuses on an issue particularly relevant in these difficult financial times. Can family businesses afford the risk associated with making investments that could generate higher returns? Studies examining financing behavior of family firms report higher control risk aversion than nonfamily firms, whereby control risk is measured through leverage levels. We found that family firm owners\' degree of control risk aversion depends on reference points. Investment alternatives implying higher leverage levels become significantly more attractive to family owners when considered from a secure reference point with low leverage levels, than when the same investment alternatives are assessed from a less secure reference point with higher leverage levels. Implications are discussed
PXML-Miner: A Projection-Based Interesting XML Rule Mining Technique

In recent times, the mining of association rules from XML databases has received attention because of its wide applicability and flexibility. Many mining methods have been proposed. Because of the inherent flexibility of the structures and the semantics of the documents, however, these methods are challenging to use. In order to accomplish the mining, an XML document must first be converted into a relational dataset, and an index table with node encoding is created to extract transactions and interesting items. In this paper, we propose a new method to mine association rules from XML documents using a new type of node encoding scheme that employs a Unique Identifier (UID) to extract the important items. The node scheme modified with UID encoding speeds up the mining process. A significance measure is used to identify the important rules found in the XML database. Finally, the mining procedure calculates the confidence that the identified rules are indeed meaningful. Experiments are conducted using XML databases available in the XML data repository. The results illustrate that the proposed method is efficient in terms of computation time and memory usage.
Punctuated-equilibrium model of biological evolution is also a self-organized-criticality model of earthquakes.

Bak and Sneppen proposed a self-organized-criticality model to explain the punctuated equilibrium of biological evolution. The model, as it is, is a good self-organized-criticality model of earthquakes. Real earthquakes satisfy the required conditions of criticality; that is, power laws in (1) the size distribution of earthquakes, and (2) both the spatial and the temporal correlation functions.
The pattern of external respiration in the unanaesthetized animal

Observations are recorded of respiratory pressure and flow in the unanaesthetized dog, sheep, goat, cow, pig, donkey, mule, horse, chicken and duck. The pattern of air flow in and out of the lungs was measured with a flow transducer, which was attached to a mask retained on the head by a simple harness. Intra-oesophageal and intrapleural pressures were measured directly; intra-alveolar pressure was estimated by an interrupter technique. Species differences in the rate and depth of pulmonary ventilation were observed, but, with the exception of the Equidae, the patterns of air flow were similar. The full-grown donkey, mule and horses showed a double phase during expiration; this was not observed in the young animal. Although there was wide variation in body weight and pulmonary ventilation, the total swing in intrathoracic pressure during quiet breathing was of the same order of magnitude in all animals.