Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Short-chain fatty acids stimulate leptin production in adipocytes through the G protein-coupled receptor GPR 41

Leptin is an adipose-derived hormone that regulates a wide variety of physiological processes, including feeding behavior, metabolic rate, sympathetic nerve activity, reproduction, and immune response. Circulating leptin levels are tightly regulated according to energy homeostasis in vivo. Although mechanisms for the regulation of leptin production in adipocytes are not well understood, G protein-coupled receptors may play an important role in this adipocyte function. Here we report that C2–C6 short-chain fatty acids, ligands of an orphan G protein-coupled receptor GPR41, stimulate leptin expression in both a mouse adipocyte cell line and mouse adipose tissue in primary culture. Acute oral administration of propionate increases circulating leptin levels in mice. The concentrations of short-chain fatty acids required to stimulate leptin production are within physiological ranges, suggesting the relevance of this pathway in vivo.
Performance appraisals and job satisfaction

Abstract The research in this article is focused on formal performance appraisals (PA), one of the most important human resource management practices in firms. In detail, the study analyzes the effect of PAs on employees’ overall job satisfaction. We are able to differentiate between appraisals that are linked to monetary outcomes, such as bonus payments and promotions, and appraisals that have no monetary consequences. Building on a representative, longitudinal sample of around 10,500 German employees, we apply fixed effects regressions that allow us to more closely estimate the causal effect of appraisals on job satisfaction compared to previous cross-sectional studies. We find a significantly positive effect of PAs on job satisfaction, which is primarily driven by appraisals linked to monetary outcomes. The results demonstrate that PAs linked to monetary outcomes are a powerful HR management tool that is appreciated by employees. Furthermore, we explore the moderating effects of personality traits (Big Five, locus of control) on the relationship between PAs and job satisfaction. The results show that if tangible benefits cannot be provided or are not tied to the assessment procedure, the use of appraisals with no monetary consequences can be detrimental for open-minded and self-determined employees, as appraisals could then potentially raise expectations that are not fulfilled. Theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.
Simulating charge transport in organic semiconductors and devices: a review

Charge transport simulation can be a valuable tool to better understand, optimise and design organic transistors (OTFTs), photovoltaics (OPVs), and light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). This review presents an overview of common charge transport and device models; namely drift-diffusion, master equation, mesoscale kinetic Monte Carlo and quantum chemical Monte Carlo, and a discussion of the relative merits of each. This is followed by a review of the application of these models as applied to charge transport in organic semiconductors and devices, highlighting in particular the insights made possible by modelling. The review concludes with an outlook for charge transport modelling in organic electronics.
Interpreting Multiple Linear Regression: A Guidebook of Variable Importance

Copyright is retained by the first or sole author, who grants right of first publication to the Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation. Permission is granted to distribute this article for nonprofit, educational purposes if it is copied in its entirety and the journal is credited. PARE has the right to authorize third party reproduction of this article in print, electronic and database forms.
Wyeomyia Subgroup of Arbovirus: Isolation from Man

An agent, serologically identical to a Wyeomyia virus obtained from mosquitoes, was isolated from a worker on the inter-American highway project in Darien Province in eastern Panama. He experienced a mild febrile illness with recovery. A significant rise in anttibody titer to this virus was demonstrated in his serum during convalescence. Neutralizing antibodies to this newly isolated strain were found in 10 of 59 blood samples from inhabitants of Darien Province. The virus is designated the Darien strain.
How to Implement Agile IT setups: a Taxonomy of Design options

The digital transformation requires organizations to rethink how they interact with customers, define value propositions, leverage data, and organize internal operations. Evolving into an indispensable part of value creation, IT organizations are required to not only plan, build, and run IT services in the safe and steady mode, but also to enable organizations seizing digital opportunities in an agile and adaptive mode. Despite mature knowledge on IT organizations, ambidextrous IT, and agile methods, there is high uncertainty on how to implement bimodal IT organizations. To address this gap, we propose a taxonomy of design options for the agile mode. Our taxonomy includes seven dimensions (i.e., scope, institutionalization, accountability, governance, location, staffing, and technical integration) that address relevant questions regarding the design of agile IT setups. While creating our taxonomy, we built on extant literature and involved experts from various organizations (e.g., Chief Information Officers, Digital Transformation Officers, and Managing Directors of IT departments). These experts did not only validate our taxonomy regarding real-world fidelity and understandability, but also applied it to classify the agile IT setups of their organizations. Thus, our study contributes to descriptive knowledge and delivers practically relevant insights into existing agile IT setups.
How Global Warming Can Affect Where People Live? Evidence from Flood Surprises

This paper challenges the notion that changes in flood risk will have a minimal impact on population because of the availability of insurance and that most of the effect, if any, will be borne out by the real estate market. Insurance premiums even when subsidized are a cost that a household will need to pay with the increase in flood risk. The evidence suggests that flood events, historical and contemporaneous, play a role in the determination of the local perceived flood risk. Attractive communities that have positive growth before the flood surprise are hardest hit. They see a persistent 1.4\% dip in population with a 0.7\% decrease in the pre-flood trend. Flooding does not affect population in the rest of the high surprise locations. Instead, they see close to 4\% drop real estate values with the biggest effect among higher tier housing. There is also evidence that flood incidence in these communities is higher among the low-income population as suggested by relief payments by FEMA.
HIV and hepatitis C virus co-infection among men who have sex with men in Sydney, and associations with sexual and drug use practices.

BACKGROUND In recent years there has been an increase in the incidence of acute hepatitis C virus (HCV) in men who have sex with men (MSM). The aim of the present study was to examine the prevalence of HIV/HCV co-infection among MSM in Sydney, and to compare sexual and drug use risk practices of HIV/HCV co-infected MSM with HIV and HCV mono-infected MSM. METHODS Data were collected from gay and other homosexually active men as part of the ongoing Gay Community Periodic Surveys (GCPS). The analysis herein presents findings from the Sydney GCPS in August 2011, which collected data on HCV for the first time. The survey was completed by 2009 respondents. RESULTS Three per cent of respondents self-reported being HCV positive (representing 9.0% of HIV-positive men and 1.9% of HIV-negative men). Overall, 1.2% of respondents reported being HIV/HCV co-infected. HIV/HCV co-infected men were more likely than HCV or HIV mono-infected men to report several sexual and drug use practices that may increase the risk of blood-borne virus transmission. CONCLUSIONS Consistent with other research, we found a higher prevalence of HCV among HIV-positive than HIV-negative men. Several risk practices were more commonly reported among HIV/HCV co-infected men. These findings, and the increasing incidence of HCV in MSM, reinforce the need for routine HCV screening in this population.
The IcrE Gene Is Part of an Operon in the Icr Region of Yersinia enterocolitica 0 : 3

The low-calcium response (kcr) region of the virulence plasmid of Yersinia pestis, Yersinia pseudotuberculosis, and Yersinia enterocoliica has been associated with calcium-dependent growth of bacteria. Mutations in the previously identified krE locus within the kcr region lack the repressor control of production of the kcr specific proteins, Yersinia outer membrane proteins (Yops) and V and W antigens. We sequenced a 3.3-kilobase-pair BamHI-ClaI fragment of the lcrE locus of pYV03, the virulence plasmid of Y. enterocolitica 0:3. The sequence of kcrE locus revealed six tightly packed open reading frames (ORFs), one of which was identified as the structural gene, kcrE, of the 32.9-kilodalton outer membrane protein LcrE (formerly known as Yop4b or YopN). Detection of large (>2.3-kilobase-pair) transcripts strongly supports the conclusion that the lcrE gene and ORF1 to -5 function as an operon. Transcription of the kcrE-containing operon and the adjacent kcrB locus was found to be divergent, and the corresponding transcripts overlapped about 1,200 nudeotides. This extremely long overlap of the 5' ends of the transcripts produced from face-to-face promoters is a new finding; the longest overlap thus far found has been a few hundred nucleotides. Temperature was found to play the major role in regulation of transcription of the kcrE-containing operon of pYV03, whereas Ca2e concentration seemed to affect it only moderately.
Digital legal rights for suspects: users' perspectives and PACE safeguards

Research has consistently shown that many people do not understand their legal rights when arrested by the police. In seeking to help address this problem, a prototype App was developed to provide information to suspects when detained by the police. The prototype was tested with 100 detainees in two large custody suites and the findings are presented in this report. A number of issues are addressed, including police decision-making and the processing of cases, access to legal advice, users’ perspectives of fairness in the criminal process, and the potential for technology to enhance procedural safeguards. The study identified a number of problems relating to suspects’ legal rights. These include, for example, difficulties for suspects in accessing legal advice; with no provision to facilitate a confidential telephone conversation between a solicitor and their client. There were also identified long delays, with the average length of detention being over 17 hours in both police stations – almost double the time identified in an earlier study. Before proceeding, it is important that the gaps identified between the law in books and the law in action are addressed so that information about suspects’ legal rights, contained in an App, reflect practice on the ground.
Effective management of scarce resources: a case study of American collegiate sport clubs

ABSTRACT Voluntary, non-profit sport clubs are considered an important sport provider for communities across the world, with management effectiveness of great importance to promote long-term organizational health and sustainability. Due to a scarcity of volunteers and financial resources, the management of human and financial resources are major difficulties inhibiting club effectiveness. The current study explored the goals and management effectiveness of American collegiate sport clubs (ACSC) through focus groups with 13 sport clubs, interviews with two recreation professional staff, and six publicly accessible documents pertaining to the management practices of ACSC at a large university in the United States. While the ACSC were found moderately effective at managing their human and financial resources, when compared to their ascribed goals and best practices established in the literature, many prescribed management practices were not adhered to. Implications for effective management practices specific to the collegiate context are presented, with a call for greater education of student officers to support clubs’ organizational effectiveness.
Predicting vocal emotion expressions from the human brain

Speech is an important carrier of emotional information. However, little is known about how different vocal emotion expressions are recognized in a receiver's brain. We used multivariate pattern analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging data to investigate to which degree distinct vocal emotion expressions are represented in the receiver's local brain activity patterns. Specific vocal emotion expressions are encoded in a right fronto‐operculo‐temporal network involving temporal regions known to subserve suprasegmental acoustic processes and a fronto‐opercular region known to support emotional evaluation, and, moreover, in left temporo‐cerebellar regions covering sequential processes. The right inferior frontal region, in particular, was found to differentiate distinct emotional expressions. The present analysis reveals vocal emotion to be encoded in a shared cortical network reflected by distinct brain activity patterns. These results shed new light on theoretical and empirical controversies about the perception of distinct vocal emotion expressions at the level of large‐scale human brain signals. Hum Brain Mapp, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Peer Influence in the Workplace: Evidence from an Enterprise Digital Platform

We study how the sharing of peer success on an enterprise digital platform affects worker productivity. Using sales workers in an information technology service company as our research context, we leverage the unexpected resignation of several human resources staff as an exogenous shock to the sharing of peer success and implement a difference-in-differences estimation. The empirical evidence suggests the sharing of peer success motivates workers to exert more effort. However, there exists important heterogeneity based on the specific content of peer success messages. In particular, we explore two types of content: messages that highlight peer’s ability (i.e. ability-based messages) and messages that highlight peer’s effort (i.e. effort-based messages). We find that a worker’s response to ability-based messages is stronger if the messages praise the ability of peers who are socially close or have worse historical performance than the focal worker. By contrast, a worker’s response to effort-based messages does not vary by peer characteristics.
The Relationship Between Strategic Choices and Performance in Italian Food SMEs: A Resource-based Approach

In the context of progressive rise of the competition among firms, due to the increasing globalisation, it is interesting to understand the potential sources of competitive advantage in order to set up a successful strategy. The theory of Resource-based View used in this framework examines the connection among internal resources and strategic choices, and how the latter affect firm performance. The firm strategy is determined by available resources and capabilities which are deployed to obtain a good performance. Therefore, strategic choices act in between resources and performance. The purpose of the paper is to evaluate the relationship between strategic choices and performance achieved by food SMEs, based on a set of distinctive resources. This approach is assessed in food SMEs located in Italy, by applying a Structural Equation Model. The results of the empirical analysis showed that, in the food sector, strategic choices based on innovation, product positioning, and chain relationship development have positive effects on performance, but only if distinctive resources and capabilities are considered. Innovation plays a capital role because of its direct as well as indirect effects.
766 LEHKY , POUGET , AND SEJNOWSKI

We have known since Wheatstone (1838) that disparities between images presented to the two eyes induce a strong sensation of depth. More recent experiments with random-dot stereograms have shown that disparity is a sufficient cue for stereopsis (Julesz 1960, 1971). Disparity-tuned neurons in visual cortex were first demonstrated in the cat (Barlow et al. 1967; Nikara et al. 1968; Pettigrew et at. 1968) and later in the macaque monkey (Hubel and Wiesel 1970; Poggio and Fischer 1977; Poggio and Poggio 1984). Similar disparity mechanisms probably exist in the human visual cortex. We have developed a model for the representation of stereo disparity b i using a population of-neurons that is based on tuning curves similar in shape to those measured physiologica11y (Lehky and Sejnowski 1990). The model predicts depth discrimination thresholds that agree with human ~sychophysical data only when the population size representing disparity in a,. small patch of visual field was in the range of about 20-200 units. This population model of disparity coding at a single spatial location was extended to include lateral interactions, as suggested by psychophysical data on stereo interpolation (Westheimer 1986a). local representation is rate encoding (Fig, 1B). Here, a single unit codes all disparity values by its firing rate. As disparity increases, the firing rate of the unit increases monotonically. Examples of models that have used a rate-coded representation of depth are Julesz's dipole model (Julesz 1971) and the model of Marr and Poggio (1979). A third type of encoding, which we use here, is a distributed representation, o r population
Short-Term Heavy Resistance Training Eliminates Age-Related Deficits in Muscle Mass and Strength in Healthy Older Males

Candow, DG, Chilibeck, PD, Abeysekara, S, and Zello, GA. Short-term heavy resistance training eliminates age-related deficits in muscle mass and strength in healthy older males. J Strength Cond Res 25(2): 326-333, 2011-The objective of this investigation was to determine whether short-term heavy resistance training (RT) in healthy older men could eliminate deficits in muscle mass and strength (ST) compared with healthy younger men. Seventeen older men (60-71 yr) performed supervised RT for 22 weeks. Before and after RT, measurements were made for lean tissue mass (LTM), muscle thickness (MT), and ST (leg and bench press 1 repetition maximum) and were compared with values of younger men (n = 22-60 for the different measures, 18-31 yr). Before training, older men had significantly lower (p < 0.05) LTM (58.4 ± 7.0 kg), MT (3.4 ± 0.7 cm), and ST (leg press = 168 ± 33 kg; bench press = 75 ± 18 kg) compared with younger men (LTM 64.3 ± 7.1 kg; MT 4.0 ± 0.8 cm; leg press = 231 ± 54 kg; bench press = 121 ± 31 kg). All deficits were eliminated after 22 weeks of RT (LTM = 60.5 ± 7.6 kg; MT = 4.0 ± 0.7 cm; leg press = 222 ± 48 kg; bench press = 107 ± 19 kg). Short-term, heavy RT in healthy older men is sufficient to overcome deficits in muscle mass and ST when compared with healthy younger men. The practical application from this research is that healthy older men can be prescribed a whole-body heavy RT program to substantially increase muscle mass and ST to levels similar to young, active individuals.
Interferon‐gamma‐induced alterations of monocyte susceptibility to lysis by autologous lymphokine‐activated killer (LAK) cells

Interleukin‐2 (IL‐2)‐activated killer (LAK) cells specifically lyse human monocytes, which may account for some of the toxicity seen during LAK/IL‐2 immunotherapy of cancer patients. In an effort to protect autologous monocytes, we treated monolayer cultures of monocytes with various doses of recombinant human interferon‐gamma (IFN‐gamma) and assessed their sensitivity to LAK‐mediated lysis. IFN‐gamma lessens the sensitivity of monocytes to lysis in a dose‐dependent manner. Treatment of FMEX, an NK‐resistant melanoma tumor cell line, with IFN‐gamma did not affect its susceptibility to LAK lysis. Kinetic studies demonstrated that as little as 2 hr incubation with IFN‐gamma was sufficient for protection to occur, and that monocytes which were treated with IFN‐gamma for 2 hr, washed, and then cultured in medium alone retained their resistance to lysis for at least 4 days. Cold target inhibition studies showed that IFN‐treated and untreated monocytes could effectively compete with each other for binding sites on LAK cells. Finally, binding studies demonstrated that there was no significant difference between the number of conjugates formed using either IFN‐treated or untreated monocytes. This indicates that resistance to lysis induced by IFN treatment affects a post‐binding event and not an initial recognition signal.
Regulating Strategies for Producing Carbohydrate Active Enzymes by Filamentous Fungal Cell Factories

Filamentous fungi are important eukaryotic organisms crucial in substrate degradation and carbon cycle on the earth and have been harnessed as cell factories for the production of proteins and other high value-added products in recent decades. As cell factories, filamentous fungi play a crucial role in industrial protein production as both native hosts and heterologous hosts. In this review, the regulation strategies of carbohydrate active enzyme expression at both transcription level and protein level are introduced, and the transcription regulations are highlighted with induction mechanism, signaling pathway, and promoter and transcription factor regulation. Afterward, the regulation strategies in protein level including suitable posttranslational modification, protein secretion enhancement, and protease reduction are also presented. Finally, the challenges and perspectives in this field are discussed. In this way, a comprehensive knowledge regarding carbohydrate active enzyme production regulation at both transcriptional and protein levels is provided with the particular goal of aiding in the practical application of filamentous fungi for industrial protein production.
Dialysis modality and outcomes in kidney transplant recipients.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES The influence of pretransplant dialysis modality on post-transplant outcomes is not clear. This study examined associations of pretransplant dialysis modality with post-transplant outcomes in a large national cohort of kidney transplant recipients. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS Linking the 5-year patient data of a large dialysis organization to the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients, 12,416 hemodialysis and 2092 peritoneal dialysis patients who underwent first kidney transplantation were identified. Mortality or graft failure and delayed graft function risks were estimated by Cox regression (hazard ratio) and logistic regression (odds ratio), respectively. RESULTS Recipients treated with peritoneal dialysis pretransplantation had lower (21.9/1000 patient-years [95% confidence interval: 18.1-26.5]) crude all-cause mortality rate than those recipients treated with hemodialysis (32.8/1000 patient-years [30.8-35.0]). Pretransplant peritoneal dialysis use was associated with 43% lower adjusted all-cause and 66% lower cardiovascular death. Furthermore, pretransplant peritoneal dialysis use was associated with 17% and 36% lower unadjusted death-censored graft failure and delayed graft function risk, respectively. However, after additional adjustment for relevant covariates, pretransplant peritoneal dialysis modality was not a significant predictor of death-censored graft failure delayed graft function, respectively. Similar trends were noted on analyses using a propensity score matched cohort of 2092 pairs of patients. CONCLUSIONS Compared with hemodialysis, patients treated with peritoneal dialysis before transplantation had lower mortality but similar graft loss or delayed graft function. Confounding by residual selection bias cannot be ruled out.