Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
To Be Or Net To Be ASP 57, That Is The Question

I n recent years, particular excitement has been generated because a genetic marker has been shown to be extremely highly associated with earlyonset insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM). This association, whereby a child in the U.S. having the marker is 50-100 times more likely to develop the disease in contrast to those without the marker, is the strongest seen for any chronic disease with a genetic predisposition. Here, the story of the characterization of this marker, called in laboratory jargon non-Asp 57, is presented together with the technological improvements that allowed its original identification and its contribution to our understanding of the etiology of IDDM. A few years ago, IDDM began to be considered an autoimmune disease characterized by the progressive destruction of the insulin-producing p-cells of the pancreas (1-3). The best reasons to believe that the immune system plays a
Plant Size, Turnover and Productivity in Malaysian Manufacturing

Malaysian manufacturing has an asymmetrical structure: small and medium-sized enterprises dominate in numbers, but contribute relatively little to total output, employment, and exports as compared to their larger counterparts. In light of an increasingly competitive environment arising from globalization, a sound knowledge of turnover patterns within the sector by plant size and its potential impact on aggregate productivity growth is imperative. We find that turnover, particularly of large plants, makes a substantial contribution to overall productivity growth in manufacturing. Hence, from a policy perspective, facilitating turnover might be as important as supporting existing plants in promoting aggregate productivity growth
The Accruals Based Trading Strategy on the Swedish Stock Market: Does the benchmark when classifying extreme accrual firms have an impact on the trading strategy’s effectiveness?

Purpose: To investigate if it is possible to earn abnormal returns from the accruals based trading strategy in Sweden. The aim is also to examine if the benchmark used when classifying firms into accruals portfolios has an impact on the abnormal returns from the trading strategy. Methodology: The study investigates the abnormal returns from the trading strategy that aims to exploit the accruals anomaly. Firms are divided into portfolios and using previously established methods of risk-adjustment, the abnormal returns from the trading strategy are estimated and tested for each of the 11 portfolio years. Theoretical perspectives: The theory in the paper is based on previous research on the accruals anomaly. The theories have been applied when investigating other markets to describe and analyse the accruals anomaly. Empirical foundation: The study examines firms listed on NASDAQ OMX Stockholm main market. Portfolios are formed each year between 2002 and 2012. The majority of the data has been collected using Thomson Reuters Datastream. Conclusions: The results show that while the benchmarks classify firms differently, the difference does not spill over to the abnormal returns earned by the investor. Overall, the results for all risk-adjustment methods show that investor may not earn positive abnormal returns from the trading strategy in Sweden.
Difference in Age at Regression in Children with Autism with and without Down Syndrome

Objective: Autism occurs more frequently in individuals with Down syndrome than it does in the general population. Among children with autism and Down syndrome, regression is reported to occur in up to 50%. The aim of this study was to characterize and compare regression in children with autism with and without Down syndrome. Methods: In this case-control study, children with Down syndrome and autism characterized by a history of developmental regression (n = 12) were compared to children with autism with regression who did not have Down syndrome, matched for chronologic age and gender. Comparisons were made on age at acquisition of language and age at loss of language and other skills as measured by the Autism Diagnostic Interview–Revised (ADI-R). Results: The mean age at acquisition of meaningful use of single words was 40.6 months (SD = 38.0) in children with Down syndrome and autism compared to 14.9 months (SD = 8.5) in children with autism without Down syndrome (p = .005). The mean age at language loss in children with autism with Down syndrome was 61.8 months (SD = 22.9) compared to 19.7 months (SD = 5.8) for those with autism without Down syndrome (p = .01). The mean age at other skill loss was 46.2 months (SD = 19.1) and 19.5 months (SD = 5.6), respectively (p = .006). Conclusions: When regression occurs in children with autism and Down syndrome it is, on average, much later than is typically seen in children with autism without Down syndrome.
DNA Methyltransferase Inhibition Induces the Transcription of the Tumor Suppressor p21 WAF1/CIP1/sdi1 *

Previous lines of evidence have shown that inhibition of DNA methyltransferase (MeTase) can arrest tumor cell growth; however, the mechanisms involved were not clear. In this manuscript we show that out of 16 known tumor suppressors and cell cycle regulators, the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p21 is the only tumor suppressor induced in the human lung cancer cell line, A549, following inhibition of DNA MeTase by a novel DNA MeTase antagonist or antisense oligonucleotides. The rapid induction of p21 expression points to a mechanism that does not involve demethylation of p21 promoter. Consistent with this hypothesis, we show that part of the CpG island upstream of the endogenous p21 gene is unmethylated and that the expression of unmethylated p21 promoter luciferase reporter constructs is induced following inhibition of DNA MeTase. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that the level of DNA MeTase in a cell can control the expression of a nodal tumor suppressor by a mechanism that does not involve DNA methylation.
Antihypertensive treatment and risk of dementia: a retrospective database study.

OBJECTIVE Vascular risk factors play an important role in the pathogenesis of vascular dementia, as well as in Alzheimer disease. The effect of antihypertensive medication on risk of dementia is unclear. The aim was to investigate the association between antihypertensive prescriptions and incident dementia, using a primary care database. METHODS The analysis was based on 575 general and internal practices in Germany (10/2003 - 09/2008) (Disease analyzer database). Antihypertensive medication (ATC codes) during 3 years before newly diagnosed dementia (ICD codes or specific medication) in 1,297 patients was compared to 1,297 controls without dementia after matching for age (mean age: 80.6 ± 8.6 y), sex (females: 62%) and date of diagnosis. Conditional logistic regression was used to calculate crude and adjusted odds ratios (95% confidence intervals). RESULTS Betablocker prescriptions (≥ 1 per year over 3 y) showed a significant inverse association with newly diagnosed dementia (Odds ratio, OR: 0.79 95% CI 0.61 - 0.99) after adjusting for demographic covariates, health care use, and cardiovascular and neurological comorbidity. In the fully adjusted model, ACE inhibitors also tended to be inversely associated with incident dementia, but failed statistical significance (OR 0.84 95% CI 0.65 - 1.08). Calcium channel blockers were positively related to cognitive impairment only in the crude analysis. The other drug groups were not significantly related to dementia (diuretics OR: 0.89; 0.67 - 1.19; angiotensin- 1-inhibitors OR: 1.04; 0.66 - 1.64). CONCLUSIONS This practice-based case-control study indicated a possible protective effect of some antihypertensive agents (betablockers, ACE-inhibitors) on the development of dementia. Randomized controlled trials are required to confirm this finding.
Effects of Intraventricular Hemorrhage and Other Medical and Environmental Risks on Multiple Outcomes at Age Three Years

This study examined the interrelated effects of intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH), neonatal medical condition, and environmental quality on development. At age 3 years, the functioning of 105 preterms was assessed in a variety of cognitive areas. Analyses revealed that IVH was related to gross motor, receptive, and expressive communication ability. However, it was only the subjects who had severe IVH who performed significantly worse than the comparison subjects. Subjects who had hemorrhages confined to a germinal matrix or a small intraventricular bleed did not differ from the comparison subjects who performed at expected age levels. When medical condition, socioeconomic status, and family risk, a composite variable including proximal environmental measures, were examined together with IVH as predictors, IVH remained related to motor and receptive communication ability after controlling for the other variables. The number of other medical complications and the environmental factors had more wide-ranging effects. Each predictor was related to a unique set of outcomes. J Dev Behav Pediatr 16:89–96, 1995. Index terms: intraventricular hemorrhage, IVH, prematurity.
Being a former carer : impacts on health and wellbeing Journal Item

Much care for older, ill and disabled people is provided by informal unpaid carers usually in the context of familial relationships. Such care can involve providing support with aspects of daily living including shopping, transport to medical appointments as well as physical and personal care. Those who receive informal care may be living with multiple health conditions that give rise to complex needs such that carers might also provide assistance with managing medication and contact with health and social care professionals (Hammond et al, 2013). The variation in the extent to which carers carry out these different tasks and the amount of time they spend doing them illustrates the potentially multi-faceted nature of the caregiving experience.
An investigation of the concept of independent director with specific reference to the King III Report and how companies listed on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE) apply the King III codes

This study investigates the independence of non-executive directors serving on the boards of the Top 40 companies listed on the JSE based on information collected from the companies‘ annual reports. It examines the definition of an independent non-executive director and analyses whether the directors of the Top 40 companies comply with the definition of the independent non-executive directors as set out in the King III Report. The third King Report on Governance for South Africa also known as King III Report was developed in response to the Companies Act of 2008 and the global financial crisis where the boards of directors were accused of not providing the required oversight in companies. Governments and regulatory bodies around the world were calling for the reform of laws and corporate governance codes to prevent occurrences such as the financial crisis and other corporate governance scandals. The new Companies Act mainly focuses on the duties and responsibilities of directors and their performance obligation. The King III report incorporated the amendments to the new Companies Act to ensure that companies are in line with best practice in corporate governance and that they comply with the law in terms of the Companies Act. The King code focuses on the role of non-executive directors with emphasis on the independence of directors because the role of directors is seen to be pivotal to good corporate governance. The findings of the study show that the majority of the companies analysed comply with the definition of an independent director as outlined in the King III Report. However, there is evidence that some companies are not yet compliant in terms of the disclosure of information concerning the tenure of directors as well as the number of directorships. The non-disclosure of information pertaining to the tenure and number of directorships held by some directors makes it difficult to assess whether the directors are fully compliant or not. There is also evidence that suggests that the majority of the boards do not assess directors‘ independence for those directors who have served on the board for more than nine years. Therefore, the majority of companies do not include a review of the independence of directors. Best practice stipulates that there be an assessment of the directors‘ independence when extending the directors‘ tenure beyond the given nine-year period. The study recommends that the King Report should be decisive on issues such as the number of directorships and that it should provide guidelines for the number of directorships that directors can hold. The study shows that some of the directors in the Top 40 companies listed on the JSE currently hold too many directorships and that there is a need for more clarity in this regard.
Computerized clinical decision support system utilization in nursing: a scoping review protocol

Review question/objective: The objective of this scoping review is to comprehensively identify and examine the available literature on computerized clinical decision support systems utilized in nursing. The following focus questions will be used as an initial starting point in order to map and discuss important characteristics of the work done in this field:What is the nature of computerized clinical decision support systems (CCDSSs) utilized in nursing? What is the nature of the research conducted on CCDSSs utilized in nursing, particularly, how has the research been conducted, what topics/aspects have been investigated, and what topics/aspects represent knowledge gaps? What impact/outcomes have been reported through the use of CCDSSs utilized in nursing?
Prevalence and longterm course of primary biliary cirrhosis in primary Sjögren's syndrome.

OBJECTIVE To study the prevalence of primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) and its progression in patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome (SS). METHODS We investigated 410 patients with primary SS, without history of liver disease, for the presence of PBC based on a retrospective review of clinical, biochemical, immunologic, and histologic data. RESULTS Thirty-six (8.8%) patients had cholestatic liver biochemistry. Of them, 21 (5.1%) had positive antimitochondrial autoantibodies (AMA) detected by indirect immunofluorescence, while 15 were AMA-negative. Ten of the 21 AMA-positive patients and 7 of the 15 AMA-negative patients were further investigated with liver biopsy, the result of which was compatible with PBC in all but one (AMA-negative) patient. Overall, 27 (6.6%) patients had definite (n=10), probable (n=11), or AMA-negative (n=6) PBC. Pathologically, most PBC lesions were stage 1. Five patients had a second liver biopsy, with no significant histological deterioration. CONCLUSION PBC is a rather uncommon development in patients with primary SS. The disease appears to be pathologically mild, with a propensity for slow progression, as assessed clinically, biochemically, and histologically.
Do high performance work practices promote positive employee attitudes or do they intensify work

This study explores the independent and synergistic effects of high performance work practices on employee attitudes and well-being, and examines the mediating role of work intensification in these relationships. The study shows that innovative workplace practices produce varying independent effects on employee-level outcomes, and work intensification may explain the intermediary processes underlying some of these effects. The results also show that innovative workplace practices have synergistic properties, and organizations can achieve larger employee-level gains when they adopt an extensive range of innovative workplace practices together in combination.
The Effect of Auditory Stimulation on Autobiographical Recall in Dementia

Elderly individuals with mild-moderate ("high ability") or moderate ("low ability") dementia, answered autobiographical memory questions drawn from three life eras (remote, medium-remote, and recent), in familiar music, novel music, cafeteria noise or quiet. Recall was significantly better in the high-ability than the low-ability group, in sound than in quiet, and in music than in noise. Recall was significantly related to life era, declining from remote to recent memory. The superiority of recall in music compared with noise was apparent for recall from remote and remote but not recent eras. The results are interpreted as favoring an explanation of the beneficial of auditory stimulation, predominantly in terms of enhanced arousal or attention deployment, with a possible subsidiary role for associative facilitation.
The Functional Neuroanatomy of Episodic and Semantic Autobiographical Remembering: A Prospective Functional MRI Study

Autobiographical memory comprises episodic and semantic components mediated by dissociable states of consciousness, one promoting the experience of the self at a specific moment in the past, and the other involving self-knowledge that does not require mental time travel. These components can be difficult to dissociate using retrospective autobiographical stimuli collection. In this study, we manipulated the episodic/semantic distinction within prospectively collected autobiographical stimuli. Over several months, participants made recordings documenting specific episodes, repeated episodes, and world knowledge. These recordings were later played back to participants during scanning with functional MRI. The results indicated overlapping but distinct patterns of brain activity corresponding to episodic and semantic autobiographical memory. Both episodic and semantic autobiographical memory engaged the left anteromedial prefrontal cortex associated with self-reference, but the episodic condition did so to a greater degree. The episodic condition uniquely engaged the medial temporal, posterior cingulate, and diencephalic regions associated with remote memory recovery. Whereas the episodic condition engaged the right temporo-parietal cortex involved in reconstruction of spatial context and attentional orienting, the semantic condition engaged the left temporo-parietal and parieto-frontal systems involved in egocentric spatial processing and top-down attentional control. Episodic recollection was also associated with suppression of emotional paralimbic regions. These findings support a functional neuroanatomical dissociation between episodic and semantic autobiographical memory, providing concordance to amnesic syndromes with disproportionate impairment in one of these two forms of autobiographical memory.
A Soft-Robotic Gripper With Enhanced Object Adaptation and Grasping Reliability

A novel soft-robotic gripper design is presented, with three soft bending fingers and one passively adaptive palm. Each soft finger comprises two ellipse-profiled pneumatic chambers. Combined with the adaptive palm and the surface patterned feature, the soft gripper could achieve 40-N grasping force in practice, 10 times the self-weight, at a very low actuation pressure below 100 kPa. With novel soft finger design, the gripper could pick up small objects, as well as conform to large convex-shape objects with reliable contact. The fabrication process was presented in detail, involving commercial-grade three-dimensional printing and molding of silicone rubber. The fabricated actuators and gripper were tested on a dedicated platform, showing the gripper could reliably grasp objects of various shapes and sizes, even with external disturbances.
Attitudes of distance education students towards compulsory virtual teamwork in an undergraduate business course

[Abstract]; Today’s global business environment, requires business graduates to have the skills to work as members of virtual teams. Online interaction and team-based online assessment in business education courses allows students with to experience virtual teamwork. This paper presents the findings of an electronic survey of distance education students’ perceptions concerning a virtual team assessment item (VTAI) using asynchronous discussion. The VTAI was set for an undergraduate marketing course at the University of Southern Queensland. The findings revealed that while the students did not necessarily enjoy the VTAI and found the assessment task to be both frustrating and time-consuming, they agreed that the task was beneficial to their learning and should be included in future course offerings.
Ownership succession and enterprise education in UK ethnic minority family firms

Purpose: This paper explores the role of enterprise education and ownership succession in ethnic minority family firms in the UK. Design/methodology/approach: We have developed a complex conceptual model of ethnic minority graduates‟ economic activities and the influence of enterprise education and entrepreneurial learning, in addition to an exemplar case study (which is illustrative, not analytical) of an ethnic minority graduate who returned to a family firm. Findings: Current enterprise education provision is insufficiently customised, failing to take account of socio-cultural differences between minority and indigenous students. We, therefore, suggest that case studies based on co-ethnic role models should be more widely used – as well as a greater emphasis upon intrapreneurship within family firms. Research limitations/implications: Focusing upon this rather broad – but, we would argue, necessarily so – „territory‟ limits the scope of the paper. However, there are opportunities for more specific research into a number of sub-themes within the paper, as well as for further theoretical development and testing of the conceptual model.
Comparative anti-MRSA activities of seven selected Nigerian medicinal plants and phytochemical constituents of Piper guineense (Schum and Thonn.), Curculigo pilosa (Schum and Thonn.) and Chromolaena odorata (King and Robinson).

The aims of this study were to compare the anti-MRSA activities of Ageratum conyzoides, Bryophyllum pinnatum, Piper guineense, Peperomia pellucida, Ocimum gratissimum, Chromolaena odorata and Curculigo pilosa and to determine the phytochemical constituents of the bioactive plants. Preliminary antibacterial susceptibility test using 25mg/ml and 50mg/ml concentrations of the aqueous and ethanolic extracts of the plants on eight clinical MRSA isolates showed no anti-MRSA activity with A. conyzoides, B. pinnatum, P. pellucida and O. gratissimum. Activities were recorded with C. odorata, P. guineense and C. pilosa. Phytochemical analysis of the aqueous, ethanolic and hexane extracts of the three bioactive plants selected revealed the presence of: carbohydrates, reducing sugars, saponins, tannins, alkaloids, flavonoids and steroids while in the hexane extracts only steroids were obtained. Antibacterial activities of the aqueous, ethanolic and hexane extracts of the three plants on seven MRSA and four MSSA were: C. odorata: 9.29 ±1.25mm (MIC, 12.5mg/ml), 12.17 ±1.38mm (MIC, 12.5mg/ml), 5.06 ±1.17mm (MIC, 25mg/ml); P. guineense: 1.53 ±0.59mm (MIC, 50mg/ml), 6.34 ±1.19mm (MIC, 25mg/ml), 3.41 ±1.03mm (MIC, 12.5mg/ml) and C. pilosa: 2.14 ±0.69mm (MIC, 50mg/ml), 1.72 ±0.60mm (MIC, 50mg/ml) with no activity for its hexane extract respectively. The results suggest the need to isolate and evaluate the active constituents of C. odorata as the most efficacious plant for the development of novel chemotherapeutic agents for the effective treatment of MRSA infections.