Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hypnotizability and Absorption in a Danish Sample: Testing the Influence of Context

Abstract This study tests the validity of a Danish translation of the Tellegen Absorption Scale (TAS) by investigating the correlation between scores on the TAS and a previously validated Danish translation of the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility (HGSHS: A) in a sample of 168 subjects. Mean TAS and HGSHS:A scores were comparable to those found in U.S. samples. The correlation between absorption and hypnotizability was calculated for scores obtained in the same session (n = 84) and for scores obtained independently in 2 sessions taking place 2 to 12 months apart (n = 84). The results showed a significant relationship between absorption and hypnotizability when absorption was assessed in the hypnotic context. A significant association was also found when absorption and hypnotizability were assessed independently. The findings support the construct validity of the Danish translation of the TAS and reaffirm results of previous studies suggesting that absorption is an important predictor of hypnotizability.
Identification and expression of GRAS family genes in maize (Zea mays L.)

GRAS transcriptional factors have diverse functions in plant growth and development, and are named after the first three transcription factors, namely, GAI (GIBBERELLIC ACID INSENSITIVE), RGA (REPRESSOR OF GAI) and SCR (SCARECROW) identified in this family. Knowledge of the GRAS gene family in maize remains was largely unknown, and their characterization is necessary to understand their importance in the maize life cycle. This study identified 86 GRAS genes in maize, and further characterized with phylogenetics, gene structural analysis, genomic loci, and expression patterns. The 86 GRAS genes were divided into 8 groups (SCL3, HAM, LS, SCR, DELLA, SHR, PAT1 and LISCL) by phylogenetic analysis. Most of the maize GRAS genes contain one exon (80.23%) and closely related members in the phylogenetic tree had similar structure and motif composition. Different motifs especially in the N-terminus might be the sources of their functional divergence. Segmental- and tandem-duplication occurred in this family leading to expansion of maize GRAS genes and the expression patterns of the duplicated genes in the heat map according to the published microarray data were very similar. Quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) results demonstrated that the expression level of genes in different tissues were different, suggesting their differential roles in plant growth and development. The data set expands our knowledge to understanding the function of GRAS genes in maize, an important crop plant in the world.
HST FRONTIER FIELDS PRELIMINARY MAP MODELING CATs Team ( Clusters As Telescopes )

Producing a magnification map involves solving the lens equation for light rays originating from distant sources and deflected by the massive foreground cluster. This is ultimately an inversion problem for which several sets of codes and approaches have been developed independently (see recent review by Kneib & Natarajan 2010). Our collaboration uses LENSTOOL, an algorithm developed collectively by us over the years. LENSTOOL is a hybrid code that combines observational strongand weak-lensing data to constrain the cluster mass model. The total mass distribution of clusters is assumed to consist of several smooth, large-scale potentials that are modeled either in a parametric form or non-parametrically, along with contributions from many (typically N > 50) individual cluster galaxies that are modeled using physically motivated parametric forms. For lensing clusters a multi-scale approach is optimal, in as much as the constraints resulting from this inversion exercise are derived from a range of scales. Further details of the methodology are outlined in Jullo & Kneib (2009) and have been extended to the weak-lensing regime (Jauzac et al. 2012).
Anticancer Activity of Chloroform Extract and Sub-fractions of Nepeta deflersiana on Human Breast and Lung Cancer Cells: An In vitro Cytotoxicity Assessment

Background: Cancer is one of the major causes of death worldwide. The plant-derived natural products have received considerable attention in recent years due to their diverse pharmacological properties including anticancer effects. Nepeta deflersiana (ND) is used in the folk medicine as antiseptic, carminative, antimicrobial, antioxidant, and for treating rheumatic disorders. However, the anticancer activity of ND chloroform extract has not been explored so far. Objectives: The present study was aimed to investigate the anticancer activities of chloroform Nepeta deflersiana extract and various sub-fractions (ND-1–ND-15) of ND against human breast cancer cells (MCF-7) and human lung cancer cells (A-549). Materials and Methods: The 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide and neutral red uptake assays, and cellular morphological alterations using phase contrast light microscope were studied. Cells were exposed with 10–1000 μg/ml of sub-fractions of ND for 24 h. Results: Results showed that selected sub-fractions of the chloroform extract significantly reduced the cell viability of MCF-7 and A-549 cells, and altered the cellular morphology in a concentration-dependent manner. Among the sub-fractions, ND-10 fraction showed relatively higher cytotoxicity compared to other fractions whereas, ND-1 did not cause any cytotoxicity even at higher concentrations. The A-549 cells were found to be more sensitive to growth inhibition by all the extracts as compared to the MCF-7 cells. Conclusion: The present study provides preliminary screening of anticancer activities of chloroform extract and sub-fractions of ND, which can be further used for the development of a potential therapeutic anticancer agent. SUMMARY Nepeta deflersiana extract exhibit cytotoxicity and altered the cellular morphology. Sub-fractions of the chloroform extract of Nepeta deflersiana reduced the cell viability of MCF-7 and A-549 cells. Among the sub-fractions, ND-10 fraction showed relatively higher cytotoxicity. The A-549 cells were found to be more sensitive as compared to the MCF-7 cells. Abbreviations used: MTT: 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide; NRU: Neutral red uptake; DMEM: Dulbecco's modified eagle medium; FBS: Fetal bovine serum; PBS: Phosphate buffer saline; DMSO: Dimethyl sulfoxide
Developing Buyer-Seller Relationships

Marketing theory and practice have focused persistently on exchange between buyers and sellers. Unfortunately, most of the research and too many of the marketing strategies treat buyer-seller exchanges as discrete events, not as ongoing relationships. The authors describe a framework for developing buyer-seller relationships that affords a vantage point for formulating marketing strategy and for stimulating new research directions.
State-Dependent Pricing and the General Equilibrium Dynamics of Money and Output

Economists have long suggested that nominal product prices are changed infrequently because of fixed costs. In such a setting, optimal price adjustment should depend on the state of the economy. Yet, while widely discussed, statedependent pricing has proved difficult to incorporate into macroeconomic models. This paper develops a new, tractable theoretical state-dependent pricing framework. We use it to study how optimal pricing depends on the persistence of monetary shocks, the elasticities of labor supply and goods demand, and the interest sensitivity of money demand.
The Impact of the Sub-Prime Crisis on the Financial Performance of Investment and Commercial Banks

After the latest global financial crisis, Equity Ratio (relating to capital adequacy), Operating Cost Ratio (management capability), Return on Equity (shareholders’ profitability), Return on Assets (bank profitability) and Tobin’s Q (business value) are used in this study to explore the changes in the financial performance of representative investment and commercial banks. Our empirical results reveal that following the sub-prime crisis, management capability, profitability and business value, in both investment and commercial banks alike, all took a turn for the worse; there has also been significant deterioration in the capital adequacy of investment banks. However, the pronounced and negative impacts in both the management capability and profitability of investment banks and commercial banks in the developed markets differ quite markedly from the findings on similar representative banks in the emerging markets. Following the crisis, there were significant declines in the capital adequacy and profitability of investment banks, as well as similar significant declines in the profitability and business value of commercial banks, regardless of the overall size of the bank. These results stand in contrast to the findings reported by both Li (2003) and Aysan and Ceyhan (2008), that when faced with financial crisis, the scale of a bank will be found to have a positive correlation with its financial performance.
The impact of communication effectiveness and service quality on relationship commitment in consumer, professional services

Most previous research in the domain of relationship marketing has focused on the antecedents of loyalty and commitment in industrial markets, distribution channels or consumer goods. This study, however, models the antecedents of clients’ relationship commitment in the context of a professional service, high in credence qualities (where customers have difficulty in confidently evaluating service quality, even purchase and consumption) ‐ i.e. personal financial planning services. The impact of four key explanatory variables (communication effectiveness, technical quality, functional quality and trust) are examined. The results support the hypothesized model and show communication effectiveness to be a key driver of all antecedent variables, and the single most powerful determinant of relationship commitment.
Antecedents of customer satisfaction and purchase intention with mobile shopping system use

Although mobile shopping (m-shopping) has growth potential in the Taiwan market, as 22% of local smart phone users polled use their phones to assist with shopping, Taiwan is considered a largely untapped market for mobile consumers, who have just begun mobile shopping and are not yet proficient. While m-shopping is becoming an increasingly significant multichannel for retailers, most m-shopping experiences are still far from satisfactory. The purpose of this study is to examine the quality of m-shopping systems based on the extended IS success model. The model posits that system quality, information quality, and service quality are the major determinants of m-shopping system use and customer satisfaction, which in turn are direct antecedents of purchase intention. The results indicate significant support for the research model. The results of the analysis lead to some recommendations and identify limitations of this study for future research.
Audit Quality Differences Among Auditors: The Case of Hong Kong

Audits play a critical role in satisfying the public interest in strengthening accountability and supporting confidence in financial reporting. Conventionally, audit quality is defined as a probability that financial statements are free from material misstatements. The existence of a positive relationship between audit firm size and audit quality has long been accepted in previous literature. This has resulted in numerous studies collecting evidence of differential audit quality relative to the size of audit firms, both large and small. Consequently, the conclusion has been asserted that larger audit firms produce a higher and more homogenous audit quality. The collapse of Arthur Andersen, however, has undermined the premise that large audit firms provide higher audit quality than smaller firms. This research investigates audit quality based on the extent of compliance levels with disclosure requirements pertaining to goodwill impairment of large listed Hong Kong firms in the third year transition to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The result found that audit firm identity appears to be a significant proportion of crosssectional variation, in which compliance levels and disclosure quality varied considerably among auditors.
IFRS Adoption and the Environment: Is Africa Closing Her Eyes to Something?

This study aims at establishing a linkage between IFRS adoption and environmental pollution in Africa. More so, the role of institution was emphasized as a possible ameliorator of environmental pollution, in the face of IFRS adoption. The empirical model builds on the traditional EKC hypothesis, by including IFRS adoption variable and an interaction term (which captures the multiplicative between IFRS adoption and institutions). Data was gathered for 47 African countries for the period 2001-2013. The SGMM technique was used in the estimation process. The robust estimation reveals that a positive and significant linkage exist between IFRS adoption and environmental pollution. The interactive variable also shows that the effect of IFRS on the environment will reduce when institutions quality (in the form of bureaucratic corruption) is addressed.
DIVIDENDS, CONTROLLING SHAREHOLDERS AND FIRM PERFORMANCE: AN INVESTIGATION OF LARGE FIRMS ON THE HONG KONG STOCK EXCHANGE

This study examines whether dividends payout has a positive contribution to firm performance while taking into account the important firm level characteristics such as the divergence between the control rights and the ownership rights of controlling shareholders and firm leverage. Investigating the large firms listed on the Main Board of Hong Kong Stock Exchange over the 1998–2007 period, we find that dividends payout has statistically significantly positive impacts on both return on assets (ROA) and Tobin's Q, particularly after controlling for the nonlinear relation between dividends and firm performance and between control rights of the controlling shareholder and firm performance. The regression results do not show significant interaction effect between dividends payout and control divergence on firm performance. But the impact of dividends payout on firm performance is different in family controlled firms versus state controlled firms and varies with institutional factors.
Corporate Governance, Economic Entrenchment and Growth

Around the world, large corporations usually have controlling owners, who are usually very wealthy families. Outside the U.S. and the U.K., pyramidal control structures, cross shareholding and super voting rights are common. Using these devices, a family can control corporations without making a commensurate capital investment. In many countries, such families end up controlling considerable proportions of their countries'' economies. Three points emerge. First, at the firm level, these ownership structures vest dominant control rights with families who often have little real capital invested creating agency and entrenchment problem simultaneously. In addition, controlling shareholders can divert corporate resources for private benefits using transactions within the pyramidal group. The result is a poor utilization of resources. At the economy level, extensive control of corporate assets by a few families distorts capital allocation and reduces the rate of innovation. The result is an economy-wide misallocation of resources, and slower economic growth. Second, political influence is plausibly related to what one controls, rather than what one owns. The controlling owners of pyramids thus have greatly amplified political influence relative to their actual wealth. They appear to influence the development of both public policy, such as property rights protection and enforcement, and institutions like capital markets. We denote this phenomenon economic entrenchment. Third, we conceive of a relationship between the distribution of corporate control and institutional development that generates and preserves economic entrenchment as one equilibrium; but not the only one. Based on the literature, we identify key determinants of economic entrenchment. We also identify many gaps where further work exploring the political economy importance of the distribution of corporate control is needed.
Utilizing Virtual Team: Lessons Learned from MMORPGs Players

Virtual teams, with the advantage of bridging over geographical and temporal restriction, have been widely utilized by companies around the world to make the best use of talents from different domains and areas to accomplish complex missions and assignments. However, it is always a challenging task to build up a perfect environment for virtual teams to deliver outstanding performance. The current study utilized online survey to collect data from MMORPGs (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Play Games) players, a special type of virtual team, to investigate critical issues on the journey of attaining operational goals. The major objective is to figure out relationships among different factors that were proposed, from the literature or practical evidences, to affect the performance of virtual teams. The results are concluded as follows: (1) Trust among virtual team members has positive influences on team cooperation; (2) The cohesiveness of virtual team members has positive influences on team cooperation; (3) Team cooperation has positive influences on team performance; (4) Communication among virtual team members would decrease the influence of team cooperation on team performance. Managerial implication and directions for further studies are provided at the end of the current study.
Macrophage Transcriptional Profile Identifies Lipid Catabolic Pathways That Can Be Therapeutically Targeted after Spinal Cord Injury

Although infiltrating macrophages influence many pathological processes after spinal cord injury (SCI), the intrinsic molecular mechanisms that regulate their function are poorly understood. A major hurdle has been dissecting macrophage-specific functions from those in other cell types as well as understanding how their functions change over time. Therefore, we used the RiboTag method to obtain macrophage-specific mRNA directly from the injured spinal cord in mice and performed RNA sequencing to investigate their transcriptional profile. Our data show that at 7 d after SCI, macrophages are best described as foam cells, with lipid catabolism representing the main biological process, and canonical nuclear receptor pathways as their potential mediators. Genetic deletion of a lipoprotein receptor, CD36, reduces macrophage lipid content and improves lesion size and locomotor recovery. Therefore, we report the first macrophage-specific transcriptional profile after SCI and highlight the lipid catabolic pathway as an important macrophage function that can be therapeutically targeted after SCI. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The intrinsic molecular mechanisms that regulate macrophage function after spinal cord injury (SCI) are poorly understood. We obtained macrophage-specific mRNA directly from the injured spinal cord and performed RNA sequencing to investigate their transcriptional profile. Our data show that at 7 d after SCI, macrophages are best described as foam cells, with lipid catabolism representing the main biological process and canonical nuclear receptor pathways as their potential mediators. Genetic deletion of a lipoprotein receptor, CD36, reduces macrophage lipid content and improves lesion size and locomotor recovery. Therefore, we report the first macrophage-specific transcriptional profile after SCI and highlight the lipid catabolic pathway as an important macrophage function that can be therapeutically targeted after SCI.
An Empirical Study of Direct Relationship of Service Quality, Customer Satisfaction and Customer Trust on Customer Loyalty in Malaysian Rural Tourism

The purpose of this study is to develop a direct effect understanding of service quality, customer satisfaction and trust on customer loyalty in Malaysia rural tourism. The Structural Equation Model (SEM) used to analyze the casual relationships between independent variables and dependent variable. The model was developed and later tested by adopting the Partial Least Square (PLS) procedure on data collected from a survey that yielded 295 usable questionnaires. The findings showed that service quality, customer satisfaction and trust have significant and positive influence on customer loyalty in Malaysia rural tourism. It is important to do the study utilizing experimental design by capturing longitudinal data in Malaysia rural tourism industry using robust measures. The findings imply that the relationship of service quality, satisfaction and trust on customer loyalty will lead to rural tourism operators’ profitability. This research is one of the first known attempts to use PLS to test a direct effect.
Comparative In Vitro Activities of Ciprofloxacin, Clinafloxacin, Gatifloxacin, Levofloxacin, Moxifloxacin, and Trovafloxacin againstKlebsiella pneumoniae, Klebsiella oxytoca,Enterobacter cloacae, and Enterobacter aerogenes Clinical Isolates with Alterations in GyrA and ParC Proteins

ABSTRACT The in vitro activities of ciprofloxacin, clinafloxacin, gatifloxacin, levofloxacin, moxifloxacin, and trovafloxacin were tested against 72 ciprofloxacin-resistant and 28 ciprofloxacin-susceptible isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae, Klebsiella oxytoca, Enterobacter cloacae, and Enterobacter aerogenes. Irrespective of the alterations in GyrA and ParC proteins, clinafloxacin exhibited greater activity than all other fluoroquinolones tested against K. pneumoniae and E. aerogenes.
Effects of dorzolamide-timolol and brimonidine-timolol on retinal vascular autoregulation and ocular perfusion pressure in primary open angle glaucoma.

PURPOSE To assess whether dorzolamide 2%-timolol 0.5% (D/T) and/or brimonidine 0.2%-timolol 0.5% (B/T) alters retinal vascular autoregulation (RVA) and seated ocular perfusion pressure (sOPP) in primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) patients who demonstrate retinal vascular dysregulation (RVD) on timolol 0.5% alone. METHODS In this prospective, observer-masked, crossover study, 21 POAG patients with untreated intraocular pressure (IOP) >21 mmHg were treated for 6 weeks with timolol 0.5%. Subsequently, we measured inferior temporal retinal artery blood flow in the left eye with subjects seated and then while reclined for 30 min using the Canon Laser Blood Flowmeter. Subjects with a change in retinal blood flow in response to posture change outside of the range previously found in healthy subjects were designated as having RVD and randomized to either D/T or B/T for 6 weeks and re-tested. This was followed by treatment with the opposite medication. RESULTS Seven of the 21 subjects demonstrated RVD in response to posture change following timolol 0.5%. Multiple linear regression analysis indicated that lower sOPP was the main determinant of RVD (P=0.033). After treatment with D/T, all 7 converted from RVD to normal RVA status (P=0.001). Four of 6 subjects showed a similar return to normal RVA following B/T (P=0.066). Mid-morning sOPP was 41.1±5.5 mmHg post-timolol, 46.3±6.5 mmHg post-D/T, and 38.6±6.0 mmHg post-B/T (D/T vs. B/T, P=0.026). CONCLUSIONS D/T significantly improved RVA in POAG patients exhibiting RVD while on timolol 0.5% alone. D/T also increased sOPP compared to B/T. There was no significant difference (P=0.37) between D/T and B/T in improving RVA.