Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Addition of an indoleamine 2,3,-dioxygenase inhibitor to B cell-depletion therapy blocks autoreactive B cell activation and recurrence of arthritis in K/BxN mice.

OBJECTIVE To define the role of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) in driving pathogenic B cell responses that lead to arthritis and to determine if inhibitors of the IDO pathway can be used in conjunction with therapeutic B cell depletion to prevent the reemergence of autoantibodies and arthritis following reconstitution of the B cell repertoire. METHODS Immunoglobulin-transgenic mice were treated with the IDO inhibitor 1-methyltryptophan (1-MT) and monitored for the extent of autoreactive B cell activation. Arthritic K/BxN mice were treated with B cell depletion alone or in combination with 1-MT. Mice were monitored for the presence of autoantibody-secreting cells, inflammatory cytokines, and joint inflammation. RESULTS Treatment with 1-MT did not affect the initial activation or survival of autoreactive B cells, but it did inhibit their ability to differentiate into autoantibody-secreting cells. Treatment with anti-CD20 depleted the B cell repertoire and attenuated arthritis symptoms; however, the arthritis symptoms rapidly returned as B cells repopulated the repertoire. Administration of 1-MT prior to B cell repopulation prevented the production of autoantibodies and inflammatory cytokines and flare of arthritis symptoms. CONCLUSION IDO activity is essential for the differentiation of autoreactive B cells into antibody-secreting cells, but it is not necessary for their initial stages of activation. Addition of 1-MT to therapeutic B cell depletion prevents the differentiation of autoantibody-secreting cells and the recurrence of autoimmune arthritis following reconstitution of the B cell repertoire. These data suggest that IDO inhibitors could be used in conjunction with B cell depletion as an effective cotherapeutic strategy in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.
Mapping tropical Pacific sea level : Data assimilation via a reduced state space Kalman filter

The well-known fact that tropical sea level can be usefully simulated by linear wind driven models recommends it as a realistic test problem for data assimilation schemes. Here we report on an assimilation of monthly data for the period 1975-1992 from 34 tropical Pacific tide gauges into such a model using a Kalman filter. We present an approach to the Kalman filter that uses a reduced state space representation for the required error covariance matrices. This reduction makes the calculation highly feasible. We argue that a more complete representation will be of no value in typical oceanographic practice, that in principle it is unlikely to be helpful, and that it may even be harmful if the data coverage is sparse, the usual case in oceanography. This is in part a consequence of ignorance of the correct error statistics for the data and model, but only in part. The reduced state space is obtained from a truncated set of multivariate empirical orthogonal functions (EOFs) derived from a long model run without assimilation. The reduced state space filter is compared with a full grid point Kalman filter using the same dynamical model for the period 1979-1985, assimilating eight tide gauge stations and using an additional seven for verification (Miller et al., 1995). Results are not inferior to the full grid point filter, even when the reduced filter retains only nine EOFs. Five sets of reduced space filter assimilations are run with all tide gauge data for the period 1975-1992. In each set a different number of EOFs is retained: 5, 9, 17, 32, and 93, accounting for 60, 70, 80, 90, and 99% of the model variance, respectively. Each set consists of 34 runs, in each of which one station is withheld for verification. Comparing each set to the nonassimilation run, the average rms error at the withheld stations decreases by more than 1 cm. The improvement is generally larger for the stations at lowest latitudes. Increasing the number of EOFs increases agreement with data at locations where data are assimilated; the added structures allow better fits locally. In contrast, results at withheld stations are almost insensitive to the number of EOFs retained. We also compare the Kalman filter theoretical error estimates with the actual errors of the assimilations. Features agree on average, but not in detail, a reminder of the fact that the quality of theoretical estimates is limited by the quality of error models they assume. We briefly discuss the implications of our work for future studies, including the application of the method to full ocean general circulation models and coupled models.
Threat of Bankruptcy and Earnings Management in Nigerian Listed Banks

The study examines the impact of bankruptcy threats on the likelihood of earnings manipulation in Nigerian listed banks. There is robust empirical evidence on the relationship between bankruptcy threat and earnings management in other countries while scanty evidence exists in Nigeria, hence this study was carried out in order to see if such results obtainable in other countries may hold in Nigeria. Using Altman Z-score and Beneish M-score, the expost-facto research design within a panel framework was employed and binary regression models were used in testing the hypothesis of the study via Eview 8.0. The study period is 2011-2015. The result reveals that bankruptcy threat has no significant impact on the likelihood of an upward earnings manipulation in Nigeria listed banks. The implication is that manipulation of earnings in Nigerian banks is spurred significantly by other factors outside the threat of bankruptcy. By this, regulators and bank managements are to place less emphasis on the bankruptcy position of banks when probing into issues of earnings manipulation because banks manipulate earnings not just because of the threat of bankruptcy, as non-potentially bankrupt firms also engage in upward earnings manipulation. Using the Altman Z-score and Beneish M-score, the study contributes to literature on the relationship between bankruptcy threat and earnings manipulation and submit that non-potentially bankrupt firms involve in upward earnings manipulation.
Award Number: W81XWH-09-1-0737 TITLE: Optimizing Screening and Risk Assessment for Suicide Risk in the U.S. Military PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR:

Suicide rates have been increasing in military personnel since the start of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, and it is vital that efforts be made to advance suicide risk assessment techniques and treatment for members of military who may be experiencing suicidal symptoms. One potential way to advance the understanding of suicide in the military is through the use of the Interpersonal-Psychological Theory of Suicide. This theory proposes that three necessary factors are needed to complete suicide: feelings that one does not belong with other people, feelings that one is a burden on others or society, and an acquired capability to overcome the fear and pain associated with suicide. This review analyzes the various ways that military service may influence suicidal behavior and integrates these findings into an overall framework with relevant practical implications. Findings suggest that although there are many important factors in military suicide, the acquired capability may be the most impacted by military experience because combat exposure and training may cause habituation to fear of painful experiences, including suicide. Future research directions, ways to enhance risk assessment, and treatment implications are also discussed. 2. Jessica D. Ribeiro, M.S., Jennifer Buchman, B.A., Theodore W. Bender, Ph.D., Matthew K. Nock, Ph.D., M. David Rudd, Ph.D., Craig J. Bryan, Psy.D. , Ingrid C. Lim, Psy.D. , Monty T. Baker, Ph.D., Chadwick Knight, M.H. S.A. , Pete Gutierrez, Ph.D., & Thomas E. Joiner, Ph.D. (In Press). Depression and Anxiety. An investigation of the interactive effects of the acquired capability for suicide and acute agitation on suicidality in the Military. Please see full copy of the above article in the appendices.
Acid phosphatase 5 is responsible for removing the mannose 6-phosphate recognition marker from lysosomal proteins

Most newly synthesized proteins destined for the lysosome reach this location via a specific intracellular pathway. In the Golgi, a phosphotransferase specifically labels lysosomal proteins with mannose 6-phosphate (Man-6-P). This modification is recognized by receptors that target the lysosomal proteins to the lysosome where, in most cell types, the Man-6-P recognition marker is rapidly removed. Despite extensive characterization of this pathway, the enzyme responsible for the removal of the targeting modification has remained elusive. In this study, we have identified this activity. Preliminary investigations using a cell-based bioassay were used to follow a dephosphorylation activity that was associated with the lysosomal fraction. This activity was high in the liver, where endogenous lysosomal proteins are efficiently dephosphorylated, but present at a much lower level in the brain, where the modification persists. This observation, combined with an analysis of the expression of lysosomal proteins in different tissues, led us to identify acid phosphatase 5 (ACP5) as a candidate for the enzyme that removes Man-6-P. Expression of ACP5 in N1E-115 neuroblastoma cells, which do not efficiently dephosphorylate lysosomal proteins, significantly decreased the steady state levels of Man6-P glycoproteins. Analysis of ACP5-deficient mice revealed that levels of Man-6-P glycoproteins were highly elevated in tissues that normally express ACP5, and this resulted from a failure to dephosphorylate lysosomal proteins. These results indicate a central role for ACP5 in removal of the Man-6-P recognition marker and open up new avenues to investigate the importance of this process in cell biology and medicine.
Improving leader-follower formation control performance for quadrotors

This thesis aims to improve the leader-follower team formation flight performance of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) by applying nonlinear robust and optimal techniques, in particular the nonlinear H_infinity and the iterative Linear Quadratic Regulator (iLQR), to stabilisation, path tracking and leader-follower team formation control problems. Existing solutions for stabilisation, path tracking and leader-follower team formation control have addressed a linear or nonlinear control technique for a linearised system with limited disturbance consideration, or for a nonlinear system with an obstacle-free environment. To cover part of this area of research, in this thesis, some nonlinear terms were included in the quadrotors' dynamic model, and external disturbance and model parameter uncertainties were considered. Five different controllers were developed. The first and the second controllers, the nonlinear suboptimal H_infinity control technique and the Integral Backstepping (IBS) controller, were based on Lyapunov theory. The H_infinity controller was developed with consideration of external disturbance and model parameter uncertainties. These two controllers were compared for path tracking and leader-follower team formation control. The third controller was the Proportional Derivative square (PD2), which was applied for attitude control and compared with the H_infinity controller. The fourth and the fifth controllers were the Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) control technique and the optimal iLQR, which was developed based on the LQR control technique. These were applied for attitude, path tracking and team formation control and there results were compared. Two features regarding the choice of the control technique were addressed: stability and robustness on the one hand, which were guaranteed using the H_infinity control technique as the disturbance is inherent in its mathematical model, and the improvement in the performance optimisation on the other, which was achieved using the iLQR technique as it is based on the optimal LQR control technique. Moreover, one loop control scheme was used to control each vehicle when these controllers were implemented and a distributed control scheme was proposed for the leader-follower team formation problem. Each of the above mentioned controllers was tested and verified in simulation for different predefined paths. Then only the nonlinear H_infinity controller was tested in both simulation and real vehicles experiments.
Facts or Opinions: Which Make a Difference? Word-of-Mouth and Attitude Change in a High-Involvement Service Context

Abstract This research explores how word-of-mouth (WOM) changes consumers’ attitudes and choice behavior in a high-involvement service (higher education) context. Hypotheses are tested by means of structural equation modeling. The main results indicate that different forms (normative and informational) of WOM affect two components of attitude change (credence and search). The findings highlight the central role of normative WOM, and give novel insights into the role of informational WOM. The study contributes to the research on behavioral processes of WOM, with managerial implications in the area of services marketing.
Diagnostics of psychophysiological states and motivation in elite athletes.

OBJECTIVES Concepts explored in our study concerned identification of various types of motivation and their connection to psychophysiological states in elite judo and Greco-Roman wrestlers. We tried to figure out how do these different types of motivation interact to describe psychophysiological state in qualified wrestlers. METHODS Neuropsychological evaluation methods as simple (SRT) and choice reaction-time (CRT) tests, HRV measurements, psychological questionnaires. To explore obtained data methods of statistical analysis were used RESULTS AND CONCLUSION Obtained data show that different combinations of levels of motivation to achieve success and motivation to avoid failure provoke different psychophysiological states. Conducted experiment revealed that combination of high levels of both motivation to achievement of success and motivation to avoid failure provides better psychophysiological state in elite wrestlers compared to other groups with different combinations of motivational variables. Conducted experiment revealed that motivation to avoid failures had been formed as a personality formation, which compensates excessive tension, caused by high level of motivation to achieve and regulate the psychophysiological state. This can be viewed as an effect of training in athletes (Tab. 3, Fig. 1, Ref. 38).
Environmental Beta or How Institutional Investors Think about Climate Change and Fossil Fuel Risk

It is widely recognized that to limit the long-term extent of global warming and its socioecological consequences, the world must transition over future decades to a low- or zero-carbon economy. Among the many imponderables relating to this eventual transition is the role of the principal owners of the fossil fuel companies that are primarily responsible for global greenhouse gas emissions—namely, institutional financial investors. The investment behavior of these institutions will substantively shape not only the speed and nature of the economy and society’s transition to cleaner energy sources but also the speed and nature of the global financial system’s own parallel transition to a low- or zero-carbon world. In the wake of the global financial crisis of 2007 to 2009, governments and regulators around the world are increasingly concerned that the latter transition might represent a major potential source of future financial instability. These authorities are calling on institutional investors to effect an orderly and measured transition by fully recognizing the climate-related risks of investment in fossil fuel companies and pricing these risks appropriately. Yet they are doing so in the absence of informed, up-to-date, and meaningful knowledge of how the investment community actually thinks about climate change and fossil fuel risk. This article maps out the key lineaments of this thinking on the basis of an extensive program of interviews with global investment institutions. Contra government and regulator hopes and expectations, this thinking indicates that fossil fuel investment is set to be a long-term locus of excess, not minimal, financial market volatility: of environmental beta.
Watch Me Pay: Twitch and the Cultural Economy of Surveillance

This paper describes where and how research into the Amazon-owned livestreaming platform Twitch can profitably engage surveillance studies. It argues that Twitch sits at the intersection of what David Lyon calls “surveillance culture,” a culture in which watching and being watched is fundamental to individuals’ customs, habits, and ways of interpreting the world; and surveillance capitalism, Shoshana Zuboff’s term for an emerging logic of accumulation built on data collection and hoarding. I draw attention to three different actors in the Twitch ecosystem—the viewer, the streamer, and the platform owner—to articulate the different modes of seeing and being seen each position affords. In all cases, I illustrate how visibility is bound up in a complex, multidirectional web of political economic relations. In order to resist technological determinist narratives about platform effects, I consider Twitch as a “boundary object” in order to identify how social, geographical, and cultural context influences actors in each position. I conclude by offering some observations about what Twitch reveals about platform surveillance in general.
Rab1 interacts directly with the β2-adrenergic receptor to regulate receptor anterograde trafficking

Abstract Very little is understood about the trafficking of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) to the plasma membrane. Rab guanosine triphosphatases (GTPases) are known to participate in the trafficking of various GPCRs via a direct interaction during the endocytic pathway, but whether this occurs in the anterograde pathway is unknown. We evaluated the potential interaction of Rab1, a GTPase known to regulate β2-adrenergic receptor (β2AR) trafficking, and its effect on export from the ER. Our results show that GTP-bound Rab1 interacts with the F(x)6LL motif of β2AR. Receptors lacking the interaction motif fail to traffic properly, suggesting that a direct interaction with Rab1 is required for β2AR anterograde trafficking.
Sara Sustainable Livelihoods : Household adaptation strategies to climate change and Gender structures-A case study in two mid-hills agrarian mountain communities of Nepal

This study aims to investigate the influence of livelihood strategies and gender structures for climate change adaptation among rural households in two mid-hills agrarian mountain communities in Nepal. The Sustainable Livelihoods (SL) framework has been used to provide a holistic and micro-level perspective of livelihood strategies. The method used was qualitative semi-structured interviews to reach respondents views, opinions and feelings of their reality and experiences. Findings suggest climate change may increase smallholder agriculture households’ vulnerability in rural mid-hills mountain areas of Nepal, where women as a group are disproportionately affected; the success of livelihood diversification as a autonomous adaptation strategy to climate change is dependent on local opportunities and socioeconomic aspects and must be understood in the broader context, not just related to climate change; and livelihood strategies do not necessarily present equal opportunities for sustainable livelihoods for men and women, as it may even increase existing structures of gender inequalities. ISBN _____________________________________________________ ISRN LIU-TEMA/MV-C—17/02--SE _________________________________________________________________ ISSN _________________________________________________________________ Serietitel och serienummer Handledare Julie Wilk Nyckelord Klimatförändringar Sårbarhet – Anpassning – Diversifiering av uppehällen – Genus – Nepal
Intangible Assets Disclosure Among Malaysian Technology Companies: A Resource Based View

The current development of the service industry and information technology-related trades, alongside with the growth in the international mergers and acquisitions forms a higher level of importance towards the intangible assets accounting measures. Besides that, companies opt to voluntarily disclose their intangible assets information in the annual report due to the inability of traditional financial reporting practices to produce adequate intangible information to corporate stakeholders. Therefore, it is important to identify the variables that effect the voluntary disclosure of intangible assets. This study aims a) to analyse the extent of voluntary disclosure of intangible assets and b) to examine the factors, based on resource based view, influencing the voluntary disclosure of intangible assets among Malaysian public listed companies. By content analysing the frequency scoring of intangible assets in the 94 annual reports from 47 technology listed companies on the Ace Market for two years. The results reveal that Chief Executive Officer with international experience and firm size are two resources that can influence or motivate the extent of intangible assets voluntary disclosure. The other factors namely profitability, organisational slack, board size and board independence prove not to be significant drivers in encouraging the intangible assets disclosure. © 2018 Published by Future Academy www.FutureAcademy. org.UK
Falls in Parkinson disease: analysis of a large cross-sectional cohort.

BACKGROUND Falls remain a significant cause of morbidity in PD. Risk factors are not well understood. OBJECTIVE In this study we explore risk factors for falls in PD utilizing the cross-sectional, baseline data in the National Parkinson Foundation Quality Improvement Initiative (NPF-QII) database. Subjects are being followed prospectively, and this study will provide the basis for subsequent longitudinal analyses. METHODS A cross-sectional analysis of data from 2,876 ambulatory patients with Parkinson disease enrolled in the NPF-QII at 18 sites. Main outcome measure was falling history in the 3 months preceding assessment. The following were considered as possible predictor variables: age, sex, height, weight, body mass index, disease duration, age at disease onset, investigator's confidence in the diagnosis, Hoehn and Yahr stage, rest tremor, ability to stand unassisted, coexistent pathologies (cardiovascular, respiratory, diabetes, cancer, neurological, osteoarthritis, and "other" comorbidities), anticholinergics, antidepressants, antipsychotics, cognitive enhancers, deep brain stimulation surgery, timed-up-and-go, semantic fluency, and 5 word recall. Variables with associations to the outcome measure in univariate analyses were analyzed in multivariable models using logistic regression. RESULTS 37.2% of subjects experienced falls. In the multivariable regression model the following variables were found to be independently associated with falls: disease duration; Hoehn and Yahr stage; absence of rest tremor; cardiovascular, arthritis, or "other" comorbidity; antidepressants; deep brain stimulation surgery; timed-up-and-go; and, semantic fluency. CONCLUSION Disease duration but not age is independently associated with falls in Parkinson disease. Timed-up-and-go accurately reflects falls risk. Impaired semantic fluency is independently associated with falls, while verbal memory is not. Comorbidities, antidepressants, and deep brain stimulation also contribute to falls risk.