Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Accumulation of cyclophilin A isoforms in conditioned medium of irradiated breast cancer cells

Secreted proteins play a key role in cell signaling and communication. We recently showed that ionizing radiations induced a delayed cell death of breast cancer cells, mediated by the death receptor pathways through the expression of soluble forms of “death ligands. ” Using the same cell model, the objective of our work was the identification of diffusible factors, secreted following cell irradiation, potentially involved in cell death signaling. Differential proteomic analysis of conditioned media using 2DE resulted in detection of numerous spots that were significantly modulated following cell irradiation. The corresponding proteins were identified using MALDI‐TOF MS and LC‐MS/MS approaches. Interestingly, five isoforms of cyclophilin A were observed as increased in conditioned medium of irradiated cells. These isoforms differed in isoelectric points and in accumulation levels. An increase of cyclophilin A secretion was confirmed by Western blotting of conditioned media of irradiated or radiosentive mammary cells. These isoforms displayed an interesting pattern of protein maturation and post‐translational modifications, including an alternating removal of N‐terminal methionine, associated with a combination of acetylations and methylations. The role of the protein is discussed in relation with its potential involvement in the mechanisms of intercells relationships and radiosensitivity.
Decision Making in Corporate Taxation

nature of the task may limit the ability of the results to generalize to the different tax 38 H2a and H2b cannot be tested because all participants in the Decision Target-Other conditions were excluded. 103 decision-making contexts. However, the study examines one specific factor that differs between tax decision-making contexts: decision maker type. As such, a key strength of this study is the controlled nature of the experimental design. The experimental procedure is designed to be as rigid as possible (e.g., conducted in a behavioral lab using a script, includes detailed task instructions with minimal context), differing only for the manipulated variables. My reason for avoiding overly contextual tax language in this study (e.g., “placing” participants into a role within a tax scenario) is that factors such as the social value placed upon risky tax compliance decisions may differ in an individual tax context compared to other tax contexts, namely the corporate tax context. Thus, using more contextual tax language could have confounded the intended manipulation. Given the vast differences between individual and business tax environments, I chose a clean, minimal design to intentionally minimize the differences and sought only to determine the effect of the specific contextual factors of interest. This study was also intended to examine the combined effect of decision maker type and decision target on the riskiness of tax compliance decision, predicting that decision maker type will moderate the effect of decision target on riskiness. Individual decision makers are predicted to make riskier decisions for themselves than on behalf of others, and groups are predicted to make riskier decisions for other groups than for their own group. However, these hypotheses could not be tested because all participants in the Decision Target-Other conditions were excluded. Future research should examine the influence of decision target on decision riskiness as theory suggests this factor may be important to our understanding of decision making in different tax contexts. The study attempts to make inroads into the emerging area of behavioral corporate tax research, furthering our understanding of how tax compliance decisions may differ in the 104 business tax environment compared to individual tax. Due to the complexity and ambiguity of the corporate taxation, few corporate tax decisions may be made by only one individual without input from others such as in corporate tax departments. As such this study contributes to the groundwork for future studies in this area by isolating one of the primary differences between individual and corporate tax decision makers: the type of decision maker.
A “plug-n-play” computationally efficient approach for control design of large-scale nonlinear systems using co-simulation

Recently, there has been a growing interest towards simulation-based control design (co-simulation), where the controller utilizes an optimizer to minimize or maximize an objective function (system performance) whose evaluation involves simulation of the system to be controlled. However, existing simulation-based approaches are not able to handle in a computationally efficient way large-scale optimization problems involving hundreds or thousands of states and parameters. In this paper, we propose and analyze a new simulation-based control design approach, employing an adaptive optimization algorithm capable of efficiently handle large-scale control problems. The convergence properties of the proposed algorithm are established. Simulation results exhibit efficiency of the proposed approach when applied to large-scale problems. The simulation results employ two large-scale real-life systems for which conventional popular optimization techniques totally fail to provide an efficient simulation-based control design.
Development and validation of an experimental life support system for assessing the effects of global climate change and environmental contamination on estuarine and coastal marine benthic communities

An experimental life support system (ELSS) was constructed to study the interactive effects of multiple stressors on coastal and estuarine benthic communities, specifically perturbations driven by global climate change and anthropogenic environmental contamination. The ELSS allows researchers to control salinity, pH, temperature, ultraviolet radiation (UVR), tidal rhythms and exposure to selected contaminants. Unlike most microcosms previously described, our system enables true independent replication (including randomization). In addition to this, it can be assembled using commercially available materials and equipment, thereby facilitating the replication of identical experimental setups in different geographical locations. Here, we validate the reproducibility and environmental quality of the system by comparing chemical and biological parameters recorded in our ELSS with those prevalent in the natural environment. Water, sediment microbial community and ragworm (the polychaete Hediste diversicolor) samples were obtained from four microcosms after 57 days of operation. In general, average concentrations of dissolved inorganic nutrients (NO3−; NH4+ and PO4−3) in the water column of the ELSS experimental control units were within the range of concentrations recorded in the natural environment. While some shifts in bacterial community composition were observed between in situ and ELSS sediment samples, the relative abundance of most metabolically active bacterial taxa appeared to be stable. In addition, ELSS operation did not significantly affect survival, oxidative stress and neurological biomarkers of the model organism Hediste diversicolor. The validation data indicate that this system can be used to assess independent or interactive effects of climate change and environmental contamination on benthic communities. Researchers will be able to simulate the effects of these stressors on processes driven by microbial communities, sediment and seawater chemistry and to evaluate potential consequences to sediment toxicity using model organisms such as Hediste diversicolor.
Backwash ileitis is strongly associated with colorectal carcinoma in ulcerative colitis.

BACKGROUND & AIMS Commonly accepted risk factors for colorectal carcinoma (CRC) in ulcerative colitis are duration and extent of disease. By identifying still unknown risk factors, surveillance strategies may be improved further. We investigated whether backwash ileitis is also a factor associated with CRC in ulcerative colitis. METHODS Five hundred ninety consecutive patients with ulcerative colitis who received restorative proctocolectomy were classified into 3 groups: (1) pancolitis with backwash ileitis, (2) pancolitis without backwash ileitis, and (3) left-sided colitis. The association with CRC was analyzed in these 3 groups of patients. As further risk factors, we investigated disease duration, dysplasia, primary sclerosing cholangitis, age at diagnosis of disease, disease activity, and gender. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression were used for analysis. RESULTS CRC was diagnosed in 11.2% of all patients. CRC was found in 29.0% of 107 patients in group 1, compared with 9.0% of 369 patients in group 2, and in 1.8% of 114 patients in group 3 (P < 0.001). Cancer patients in group 1 showed significantly more multiple tumor growth (45.2%) than patients in group 2 (24.2%) and group 3 (0%) (P = 0.041). Estimating the relative risk for CRC in the multivariate analysis, patients in group 1 showed a significantly higher odds ratio than patients in groups 2 and 3 (odds ratio: 19.36 vs. 9.58 vs. 1; P < 0.001). High-grade dysplasia, low-grade dysplasia, disease duration of more than 10 years, and disease duration of less than 10 years in patients older than 45 years were further factors with significantly increased risk (odds ratios: 21.69, 6.36, 3.63, 4.37), but primary sclerosing cholangitis was not (P = 0.080). However, primary sclerosing cholangitis was strongly associated with backwash ileitis. CONCLUSIONS There is a strong association of backwash ileitis with CRC in patients with ulcerative colitis who undergo proctocolectomy. The predictive value of backwash ileitis for CRC and premalignant dysplasia in patients with ulcerative colitis should be investigated in future studies based on colonoscopic surveillance.
High commitment HRM and organizational and occupational turnover intentions: the role of organizational and occupational commitment

Abstract Using data from 41 managers and 143 chefs from 41 Indonesian restaurants, we examined whether High Commitment Human Resource Management (HCHRM) is negatively related to chefs’ organizational (ORTI) and occupational turnover intentions (OCTI). In addition, we examined whether organizational commitment (ORC) mediates the HCHRM–ORTI relationship and occupational commitment (OCC) moderates the HCHRM–OCTI relationship. Results from hierarchical level modeling analyses (chefs nested in restaurants) showed that HCHRM is negatively related to both chefs’ ORTI and OCTI. In addition ORC mediates the HCHRM–ORTI relationship, and OCC moderates HCHRM–OCTI relationship. These results have important implications in terms of the unique role the two foci of commitment play in the HCHRM–ORTI and OCTI linkages.
Sports-Related Concussions

Concussions are an inherent part of collision sports such as football and soccer. As a subset of traumatic brain injury, concussions are neurometabolic events that cause transient neurologic dysfunction. Following a concussion, some athletes require longer neurologic recovery than others. Education and intervention aimed at prevention and management can minimize the long-term sequelae of sports-related concussions.
Service user perspectives on palliative care education for health and social care professionals supporting people with learning disabilities

Background and objectives Evidence from European and American studies indicates limited referrals of people with learning (intellectual) disabilities to palliative care services. Although professionals’ perceptions of their training needs in this area have been studied, the perceptions of people with learning disabilities and family carers are not known. This study aimed to elicit the views of people with learning disabilities, and their family carers concerning palliative care, to inform healthcare professional education and training. Methods A qualitative, exploratory design was used. A total of 17 people with learning disabilities were recruited to two focus groups which took place within an advocacy network. Additionally, three family carers of someone with a learning disability, requiring palliative care, and two family carers who had been bereaved recently were also interviewed. Results Combined data identified the perceived learning needs for healthcare professionals. Three subthemes emerged: ‘information and preparation’, ‘provision of care’ and ‘family-centred care’. Conclusions This study shows that people with learning disabilities can have conversations about death and dying, and their preferred end-of-life care, but require information that they can understand. They also need to have people around familiar to them and with them. Healthcare professionals require skills and knowledge to effectively provide palliative care for people with learning disabilities and should also work in partnership with their family carers who have expertise from their long-term caring role. These findings have implications for educators and clinicians.
Intensive injection cocaine use as the primary risk factor in the Vancouver HIV-1 epidemic

Objectives: The explosive and ongoing injecting drug use-related HIV-1 epidemic in Vancouver continues to receive international attention. This study was conducted to determine how patterns of cocaine use influence the risk of HIV infection. Methods: The Vancouver Injection Drug Users Study is an open prospective cohort of injecting drug users that began in May 1996. At enrollment and at semi-annual follow-up visits an interviewer administers a detailed semi-structured questionnaire. Cox proportional hazards models were used to determine behavioral and drug use patterns reported in the 6 months prior to HIV seroconversion. Results: One-hundred and nine incident HIV infections have been observed during a mean follow-up of 31 months, from 940 HIV-seronegative participants. During the 6 months prior to seroconversion, predictors of HIV infection were injecting cocaine use [adjusted hazards ratio (AHR), 3.72], incarceration (AHR, 2.74), unstable housing (AHR, 2.36), methadone maintenance treatment (AHR, 1.98), and Aboriginal ethnicity (AHR, 1.78). Injecting cocaine use was predictive of HIV infection in a dose-dependent fashion. Compared with infrequent cocaine users, participants who averaged more than three injections per day were seven times more likely to contract HIV. In addition, the time to HIV infection was accelerated among regular cocaine injectors independent of concurrent heroin use. Conclusions: Injecting cocaine use was a strong, dose-dependent predictor of HIV seroconversion in this poly-drug using population. Injection cocaine users remain particularly vulnerable to HIV infection and treatment options for cocaine dependency remain woefully inadequate.
Post-script: Guide, guard and glue – Electronic monitoring and penal supervision

This issue of the European Journal of Probation provides us with contemporary, considered and thoughtful analyses of the development of electronic monitoring (EM) in the context of penal sanctions and measures in five jurisdictions: Australia, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and Scotland. The guest editor of this special issue – Professor Kristel Beyens – deserves great credit for pulling together such an interesting and important collection of papers. She has asked me – as someone deeply interested in penal supervision but to some extent detached from debates about EM – to offer some closing reflections. In what follows, I try to do that, not through any attempt to synthesise the analyses of these excellent papers, but rather simply by sharing the thoughts and questions they provoked in this reader. Perhaps the obvious place to start is with my ‘detachment’ hitherto from EM. Despite the encouragement of wiser colleagues (like Mike Nellis and Kristel Beyens) to engage more with EM in my work on supervision, I have always been hesitant. On the one hand, like everyone else, I find it impossible to dispute the important influence of technologies on social (and therefore penal) policies and practices – and on the evolution of social life and social control in late-modernity. To make this case, I need only examine the way that my own life has been progressively re-framed by new technologies. My smartphone is my guide and my guard – and the glue that, in one sense, fixes together my social and personal relations. In fact, this single handheld device digitally mediates most of my social relations. It is not that I do not have an ‘analogue life’ where I meet and relate to ‘real’ people in the flesh; rather, it is that even those interactions are planned, ordered and facilitated by that device. So, I shudder at the fearful prospect of the loss of my smartphone, even if I also sometimes resent its omnipresence and fear its omniscience: Better than any person perhaps, it knows (and records) my plans, my contacts, my movements, my curiosities, my purchases, my networks, and so forth. Yes, I can silence its tones and alerts, but even then I hover around it – curious as to the digital ‘action’ that I might be missing. And the digital world does seem to be where most of the action is. Even so, when it comes to thinking about penal supervision, perhaps like many probation academics and practitioners of my generation (or older), the centrality of humanhuman interactions and relationships has been drilled into me, both in my professional 700544 EJP0010.1177/2066220317700544<italic>European Journal of Probation</italic>McNeill 2017
E-public procurement: Which factors determine its acceptance by small- to medium-sized enterprises and large companies in Belgium?

The dematerialisation of public procurement (hereinafter, e-procurement) is one of the most innovative public management initiatives in Europe today. However, according to European statistics, the acceptance of this new public procurement technique by private companies remains very limited. Furthermore, despite the existence of an abundant literature dealing with the acceptance of technology, for example, in the field of e-commerce, very few studies have addressed the field of e-procurement. The aim of this article is to analyse the latter by making a distinction between the acceptance determinants of e-procurement by small- to medium-sized enterprises, on the one hand, and by large companies, on the other. Based on several theories on the acceptance of innovation in general, and on the acceptance of technology in particular – the Technology Acceptance Model, the Innovation Diffusion Theory and the model of Iacovou et al. – we developed a model and tested it on a sample of firms. The results of the survey, covering 695 small- to medium-sized enterprises and 126 large companies in Belgium, have enabled us to identify four main factors that can account for about 33.4% of the total variability in the acceptance of e-procurement by small- to medium-sized enterprises. In addition, we have identified two factors that could account for around 28.5% of the total variability of e-procurement acceptance by large firms. Points for practitioners Our study was able to account for about 33.4% of the total variability of e-procurement acceptance by small- to medium-sized enterprises and 28.5% by large companies. Identifying the determinants of this acceptance by distinguishing between small- to medium-sized enterprises and large companies can help decision-makers at the political and administrative level to develop a more effective action plan to promote the adoption of this new procurement technology, and thus to make the most of the benefits expected from it.
Functional reassembly of ATP-dependent xenobiotic transport by the N- and C-terminal domains of RLIP76 and identification of ATP binding sequences.

We have recently shown that RLIP76, a Ral-binding, GTPase-activating protein, is an ATP-dependent transporter of doxorubicin (DOX) as well as glutathione conjugates [Awasthi, S. , et al. (2000) Biochemistry 39, 9327-9334]. RLIP76 overexpressed in human cells or transformed E. coli undergoes proteolysis to yield several fragments, including two prominent peptides, N-RLIP76(1-367) and C-RLIP76(410-655), from the N- and C-terminal domains, respectively. To investigate whether the fragmentation of RLIP76 has any relevance to its transport function, we have studied the characteristics of these two peptide fragments. Recombinant N-RLIP76(1-367) and C-RLIP76(410-655) were purified from overexpressing transformed E. coli. While N-RLIP76(1-367) readily underwent proteolysis, showing SDS-gel patterns similar to those of RLIP76, C-RLIP76(410-655) was resistant to such degradation. Both N-RLIP76(1-367) and C-RLIP76(410-655) had ATPase activity (K(m) for ATP, 2.5 and 2.0 mM, respectively) which was stimulated by DNP-SG, DOX, and colchicine (COL). ATP binding to both peptides was confirmed by photoaffinity labeling with 8-azido-ATP that was increased in the presence of compounds that stimulated their ATPase activity. Photoaffinity labeling was also increased in the presence of vanadate, indicating trapping of a reaction intermediate in the ATP binding site. The ATP binding sites in N-RLIP76(1-367) and C-RLIP76(410-655) were identified to be (69)GKKKGK(74) and (418)GGIKDLSK(425), respectively. Mutation of K(74) and K(425) to M residues, in N-RLIP76(1-367) and C-RLIP76(410-655), respectively, abrogated their ATPase activity as well as azido-ATP labeling. Proteoliposomes reconstituted with either N-RLIP76(1-367) or C-RLIP76(410-655) alone did not catalyze ATP-dependent transport of DOX or COL. However, proteoliposomes reconstituted with a mixture of N-RLIP76(1-367) and C-RLIP76(410-655) mediated such transport. Proteoliposomes reconstituted with the mixture of mutant peptides lacking ATPase activity did not exhibit transport activity. Present studies have identified the ATP binding sites in RLIP76, and show that DOX and COL transport can be reconstituted by two fragments of RLIP76.
Increased generalization capability of trainable COSFIRE filters with application to machine vision

The recently proposed trainable COSFIRE filters are highly effective in a wide range of computer vision applications, including object recognition, image classification, contour detection and retinal vessel segmentation. A COSFIRE filter is selective for a collection of contour parts in a certain spatial arrangement. These contour parts and their spatial arrangement are determined in an automatic configuration procedure from a single user-specified pattern of interest. The traditional configuration, however, does not guarantee the selection of the most distinctive contour parts. We propose a genetic algorithm-based optimization step in the configuration of COSFIRE filters that determines the minimum subset of contour parts that best characterize the pattern of interest. We use a public dataset of images of an edge milling head machine equipped with multiple cutting tools to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed optimization step for the detection and localization of such tools. The optimization process that we propose yields COSFIRE filters with substantially higher generalization capability. With an average of only six COSFIRE filters we achieve high precision P and recall R rates (P = 91.99%; R = 96.22%). This outperforms the original COSFIRE filter approach (without optimization) mostly in terms of recall. The proposed optimization procedure increases the efficiency of COSFIRE filters with little effect on the selectivity.