Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Age‐related ubiquitin deposits in dystrophic neurites: an immunoelectron microscopic study

Widespread neuritic dystrophy is a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and, in a less severe form, of brain ageing in various mammalian species. By immunohistochemistry, diffuse dot‐like staining for ubiquitin (Ubq), a polypeptide involved in the degradation of abnormal and shortlived proteins, has been associated with human brain ageing. The nature of the Ubq deposits was investigated by immunogold electron microscopy on autopsy samples from aged human and dog brains. Most of the dot‐like staining was localized to the white matter and corresponded to myelinated dystrophic neurites filled by Ubq‐labelled lysosomal dense bodies. They did not contain paired helical filaments or multilamellar bodies. A minority of Ubq deposits was represented by amorphous densities in focal enlargements of the myelin sheaths, Our findings show that the spectrum of Ubq changes in ageing brain is wider than formerly recognized, and support the hypothesis that a defective regulation of the lysosomal system might be involved in the pathogenesis of structural abnormalities both in the ageing brain and in Alzheimer's disease.
A critical mass of corruption: why some football leagues have more match-fixing than others

This paper examines what drives match-fixing in football and why some leagues collapse from corruption. Based on more than 220 interviews with players, referees, sports officials and law enforcement officers, the gambling industry and corrupters, three factors presented when high levels of match-fixing were observed: strong illegal gambling networks, high levels of relative exploitation of players, and perceived corrupt officials. Leagues collapsed if the public became aware of high-level corruption and an alternative market competitor was introduced.
Complementarities in the innovation strategy: do intangibles play a role in enhancing the impact of R&D on firm performance?

The objective of this paper is to assess the role of investments in advertising and human capital as a way to improve and to appropriate the returns to research and development (R&D). We evaluate firm performance focusing on the three intangible resources that the literature has argued as having the greatest strategic importance (technological, marketing resources and human capital) and develop hypotheses linking them with firm value creation. In order to test our hypotheses, we rely on a large sample of Spanish manufacturing firms. Our results show evidence of complementarities between technological and marketing resources, but they are not conclusive in the case of technological and human resources. Interestingly, the results are consistent with the idea that improvements in performance exist when the firms invest in the three assets at the same time.
Gender in Irish tourism employment.

This chapter is concerned with some of the gender dimensions of the Irish tourism industry. A brief outline of the industry and its recent development is presented initially. In the absence of data on the gender characteristics of tourists themselves, the chapter focuses on those working in the turism industry in Ireland, set in the context of the position of women in the Irish workforce in general. A number of aspects of employment in tourism, including skill levels, part-time and seasonal work, segmentation, flexibility and trade union membership are examined from a gender perspective. There follows a case study of the nature of employment in the bed and breakfast business. The chapter concludes with some observations on the implications for economic development in Ireland of the strong emphasis currently being placed on tourism by the Irish government.
Pleasure & Emotion : An Investigation of Physiological Responses Emerged by Pleasant Stimuli

Now that consumers expect everything they buy to be both functional and easy to use, designers need to think seriously about the pleasure their designs bring to users. The services and products with which we surround ourselves are potential sources of pleasure. They should be designed with a view to how they can provide pleasure to those who use and experience them. This study discussed the importance of pleasure for our life. It aims at investigating the critical physiological responses that are emerged by pleasant stimuli. Various physiological responses of the brain (encephaloelectrogram; EEG), autonomic nervous system (ANS), immune system and endocrine system were monitored when pleasant stimuli such as odors, emotional pictures and rakugo, a typical Japanese comical story-telling, were presented to subjects. The results revealed that (i) EEG activities of the left frontal brain region were enhanced by a pleasant odor; (ii) emotional pictures related to primitive element such as nudes and erotic couples elevated vasomotor sympathetic nervous activity; and (iii) an increase in salivary immunoglobulin A (s-IgA) and a decrease in salivary cortisol (s-cortisol) were induced by rakugo-derived linguistic pleasant emotion. Positive emotion is complicated state. However, by considering the evolutionary history of human being, it is possible to assess and evaluate positive emotion from certain physiological responses by appropriately summating various physiological parameters.
Profitable Customer Engagement: Concept, Metrics and Strategies

List of Illustrations List of Abbreviations Foreword : From a Thought Leader by David J. Reibstein Foreword : From a Business Leader by J. Patrick Bewley Preface Introduction to Customer Engagement Metrics for Engaging Customers Brand: "Is That What You Think of Me? " Valuing Customer Contributions: The Future Looks Green! Linking Brand Value to Customer Value Customer Referrals Customer Influence Value: Really! Where Did You Hear That? Please Help Us Help You . Managing Customers in a Multi-dimensional World Glossary Index About the Author
Farm Management: Principles and Strategies

The scope of farm management -- The farming environment -- The functions of management -- The decision process -- The farm business life cycle -- A business plan -- Strategic management -- A game plan -- Crafting a strategy -- Strategic planning -- Strategy implementation -- Strategic control -- Marketing plan -- Marketing plan components -- Historical price patterns -- General price forecasting methods -- Marketing control -- Budgeting -- General budget terminology -- Types of budgets -- Microeconomic principles for management -- Budget development -- Production and operations management -- Process mapping -- Improving the current process -- Enterprise selection -- Input supply management -- Scheduling operations -- Quality management and control -- Quality defined -- The costs of quality -- Quality management -- Process control -- Tools for process improvement -- Financial analysis -- Understanding financial statements -- Measures of financial position and performance -- Initial analysis -- Diagnostic analysis -- Financial management -- Sources and uses of capital -- Calculating loan payments -- Estimating the cost of credit -- Cash flow management -- Financial control -- Investment analysis -- The time value of money -- Investment analysis (a.k.a. capital budgeting) -- Land purchase and rental -- Purchasing land -- Land rental -- Risk management -- Sources of risk -- Managing risk -- Crop insurance -- Making risky decisions -- Scenarios for management planning -- Production contract evaluation -- Types of production contracts -- Evaluating production contracts -- A production contract checklist -- Staffing and organization -- Human and employee needs -- Human resource management -- Business organization -- The future farm manager -- Farmers' responses -- Concluding comments.
Board of Director Incentive Alignment and the Design of Executive Compensation Contracts

In this paper I empirically examine how cross-sectional and inter-temporal differences in characteristics measuring the board of director's ability to monitor and evaluate top management in the interests of the firm's shareholders ('director incentive alignment') are associated with differences in the design of executive compensation contracts. I first document a significant shift over the past 20 years in board characteristics measuring director ownership, independence, and effectiveness in the direction consistent with a general increase in directors' incentive alignment. This shift in director incentive alignment is also accompanied by an increase in measures of the incentive-intensity of CEO pay. Even after controlling for hypothesized determinants of the firm's monitoring environment and alternative monitoring mechanisms, I find that director incentive alignment and the incentive-intensity of CEO pay have both increased over time and are positively associated with each other. My results suggest that board and compensation structures are complementary monitoring mechanisms that have evolved over time in order to mitigate an increasing managerial moral hazard problem.
Polymorphisms of the insulin receptor substrate-2 in patients with type 2 diabetes.

We investigated the significance of Gly1057Asp and Leu647Val insulin receptor substrate (IRS)-2 polymorphisms in two Italian cohorts comprising 186 glucose-tolerant subjects and 240 subjects with type 2 diabetes from the Lazio region (i.e. representative of central Italy), and 123 glucose-tolerant subjects from the Sicily region (i.e. representative of south Italy). The allelic frequency of Gly1057Asp variant did not differ between diabetics (32.9%) and nondiabetic subjects, whatever their ethnicity was (35.8% and 33.7% from Lazio and Sicily, respectively). As compared with Gly/Gly subjects within each group, Asp/Asp individuals showed no differences in quantitative traits, including fasting insulin and C-peptide, and several indices of insulin sensitivity and secretion. Only one of the diabetic patients was heterozygous for the Leu647Val variant, and none of the control subjects carried this variant. This patient had three children who were also heterozygous for this variant. They were glucose tolerant, and their insulin sensitivity and insulin secretion indices were within the range of age-matched controls. We also analyzed IRS-2 function in fibroblasts from carriers of Gly1057Asp or Leu647Val variant. No defects in IRS-2 expression, insulin-stimulated phosphorylation, or binding to the p85 subunit of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase were observed. These results strongly argue against a major role of IRS-2 polymorphisms in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes.
Phosphatidylcholine for the Treatment of Prominent Lower Eyelid Fat Pads: A Pilot Study

Purpose: To find out whether the off-label use of Lipostabil is as effective as advertised for the nonsurgical treatment of bulging lower eyelid fat pads. Methods: This is a pilot, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, comparative, single-center study. Participants were 45 patients with full lower eyelids who were injected with 0.5 ml of Lipostabil in one eyelid and 0.5 ml of isotonic saline in the opposite lower eyelid as a control. Inclusion criteria were healthy adults older than 25 years. Exclusion criteria included patients with a known bleeding tendency or bleeding disorder and patients addicted to “antiwrinkle” products. The main outcome measures were reduction of lower eyelid fat pads and the occurrence of ocular or systemic side effects. Results: The pre- and postinjection pictures of the 23 patients who completed the study were examined by 3 masked observers. They failed to differentiate the Lipostabil from the saline-injected eyelids or even the pretreatment from the posttreatment pictures in the majority of patients. Conclusions: Mesotherapy is hailed in the media as the most exceptional discovery since the introduction of botulinum toxin. Unfortunately, we failed to observe any improvement in appearance or reduction of fullness after multiple injections. Further studies are needed to determine whether Lipostabil is indeed ineffective for the management of eyelid fullness or the dose the authors used has to be increased.
Molecular windows into speech and language disorders

Why do some children fail to acquire speech and language skills despite adequate environmental input and overtly normal neurological and anatomical development? It has been suspected for several decades, based on indirect evidence, that the human genome might hold some answers to this enigma. These suspicions have recently received dramatic confirmation with the discovery of specific genetic changes which appear sufficient to derail speech and language development. Indeed, researchers are already using information from genetic studies to aid early diagnosis and to shed light on the neural pathways that are perturbed in these inherited forms of speech and language disorder. Thus, we have entered an exciting era for dissecting the neural bases of human communication, one which takes genes and molecules as a starting point. In the current article I explain how this recent paradigm shift has occurred and describe the new vistas that have opened up. I demonstrate ways of bridging the gaps between molecules, neurons and the brain, which will provide a new understanding of the aetiology of speech and language impairments.
Challenges, Design and Analysis of Peer-to-Peer Video-on-Demand Systems

The work described in this thesis has been carried out in the ASCI graduate school. ASCI dissertation series number 256. i Acknowledgments I would like to start by thanking my PhD promotor, Henk Sips. Henk, thank you for having always encouraged me during my PhD. Your positive attitude and support motivated me to keep going. I'm also thankful for the many career advices and contacts you gave me towards the end of my PhD and for the nice talks about non-work-related topics, like languages and sailing. Johan, I would like to thank you for the freedom you gave me in my research. Thanks for not insisting for me to work on a brand new topic every other day and instead letting me focus on developing my own ideas. I'm also grateful that I had the chance to work on a daily basis with Tamas. Although not being officially my supervisor, you were always there to discuss with me work-related as well as non-work-related topics. I always felt understood and supported by you. You are a very kind and sensible person and I was lucky to have your friendship. I wish you the best luck for your academic career in Hungary. Michel, I would like to thank you for helping me getting started with doing scientific research. You guided me with writing my first peer-reviewed paper. Thanks to your help, our paper was accepted and I got the necessary confidence that I could complete a PhD track. Also, I would like to thank you for your post-PhD advices, which helped me in getting my current job position. Rameez, thanks for bringing a different view in our group. Your original ideas helped me to think out of the box, and influenced much of the content of this thesis. I also enjoyed a lot the late-afternoon talks (and jokes) we had, together with Tamas. I hope that everything goes alright with your new life in Pakistan. Mihai, thanks for being a loyal office-mate, and for warning anyone from sitting at my desk in my absence. Also, I'm grateful you were always available to review my work and talk about many other topics, like learning dutch and finding girlfriends. Adele, thank you for involving me in the early stages of your work, and for the many gifts from China. I will also remember all the hours spent making Totoro plushies with you and Jie. …
Pengaruh Corporate Social Responsibility Terhadap Nilai Perusahaan

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui pengaruh CSR terhadap nilai perusahaan. Akan tetapi CSR tidak dapat secara langsung mempengaruhi nilai perusahaan sehingga diperlukan variable moderating, yaitu prosentase kepemilikan manajemen dan profitabilitas untuk menguatkan hubungan variabel independen dan dependennya. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode regresi linear berganda. Dengan menggunakan populasi semua perusahaan terbuka yang terdaftar di Bursa Efek Indonesia (BEI) pada tahun 2008-2012, penelitian ini menunjukkan hasil bahwa CSR tidak berpengaruh signifikan terhadap nilai perusahaan. Prosentase kepemilikan manajemen dan profitabilitas secara parsial berpengaruh signifikan terhadap nilai perusahaan. Prosentase kepemilikan manajemen dan profitabilitas sebagai variabel moderating mampu mempengaruhi hubungan CSR dengan nilai perusahaan. Secara serempak CSR, prosentase kepemilikan manajemen, profitabilitas, interaksi antara CSR dan prosentase kepemilikan manajemen, dan interaksi antara CSR dan profitabilitas berpengaruh signifikan terhadap nilai perusahaan.
Ex vivo evaluation of PPD-specific IFN-gamma or IL-5 secreting cells in the peripheral blood and lungs of patients with tuberculosis.

OBJECTIVES To evaluate ex vivo purified protein derivative (PPD) specific Th1- and Th2-type functional responses in human tuberculosis (TB). DESIGN IFN-gamma and IL-5 secreting cells were measured by a computer-assisted ELISPOT assay in the peripheral blood of patients with pulmonary TB, in patients with other respiratory diseases (control patients) and in tuberculin skin test negative or positive healthy controls. Moreover, the number of IFN-gamma or IL-5 spots was assessed in the bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) cells of five patients with advanced TB and lung inflammation. RESULTS The frequency of PPD-specific IFN-gamma secreting cells in TB patients was higher than in control patients and healthy subjects. Although the number of PPD-specific IL-5 spots was low, a trend towards a higher frequency was observed in the peripheral blood of TB patients. Patients with advanced TB and lung inflammation had an increased number of both PPD-specific IFN-gamma and IL-5 spots in BAL as compared to that in peripheral blood, but the IFN-gamma/IL-5 ratio was about two-fold lower. CONCLUSIONS In human TB, the host response in the periphery is driven by a specific Th1-type cytokine response, whereas in the lungs of patients with advanced disease and lung inflammation, polarisation towards a Th2-like bias is observed.
Young Children Infer Causal Strength From Probabilities and Interventions

We examine the interaction of two cues that children use to make judgments about cause-effect relations: probabilities and interventions. Children were shown a “detector” that lit up and played music when a block was placed on its surface. We varied the probabilistic effectiveness of the block, as well as whether the experimenter or the child was performing the interventions. In Experiment 1, we found that children can use probabilistic evidence to make inferences about causal strength. However, when the results of their own interventions are in conflict with the overall frequencies, preschoolers favor the results of their own interventions. In Experiment 2, children used probabilistic evidence to infer a hidden causal mechanism. Though they again gave preference to their own interventions, they did not do so when their interventions were explicitly confounded by an alternative cause.
Discounted But Not Diversified: Organizational Structure and Conglomerate Discount

I document a large and significant diversification discount in multi-division firms that are diversified neither industrially nor geographically. All divisions of these firms, which are called "pseudo-conglomerates", operate in the same finely defined industry. Since divisions of pseudo-conglomerates face similar investment opportunities, the resource allocation problem is less severe and, perhaps, non-existent in these firms. This implies that inefficient internal capital market and diversity across industries play a smaller role in the well-documented conglomerate discount. I also analyze an exogenous event - change in segment-reporting rules from SFAS 14 to SFAS 131 in 1997. I find that standalone firms start trading at a discount when they begin reporting multiple segments after the rule change. This suggests that revealing a more complex organizational structure results in value loss. Together, these results suggest that the diversification discount may be more appropriately called an "organizational" discount.
An Analysis of the Influence of CEO Characteristics on Research and Development Expenditures in Large American Corporations (2005 Data)

Lee, Sun Gu, M.S., Department of Economics, Wright State University, 2008. An Analysis of the Influence of CEO Characteristics on Research and Development Expenditures in Large Corporations (2005 Data). This study analyzes the influence exerted by CEO characteristics (specifically, CEO stockholding percentages and CEO age) on research and development (R&D) expenditures in large American corporations over the twenty year period from 1986 to 2005. Using the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) to measure market share concentrations, and making specific reference to two Schumpeterian hypotheses on the correlation between R&D and increases in firm size, this study establishes a positive linear relationship between the dependent variable, R&D expenditure, and the independent variables of CEO stockholding, CEO age, firm size, and market share. This study next describes the corporate and market conditions which promote the development of a positive linear relationship between CEO characteristics and R&D and concludes by identifying the point of high market concentration at which the prominence of R&D activity is superseded by expenditures for advertising. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page
Analysts’ Earnings Forecasts and Other Comprehensive Income

I empirically investigate the decision usefulness of mandatory reporting of comprehensive income in Canada under the erstwhile Accounting handbook section 1530. Comprehensive income (CI) equals the sum of Net Income (NI) and Other Comprehensive Income (OCI). I operationalize decision usefulness in terms of the association of OCI with analysts’ earnings forecasts and forecast errors. My sample consists of firms listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. I find that aggregate OCI and two of its components - unrealized gains and losses on available for sale securities (SEC) and unrealized gains and losses on cash flow hedges (HEDGE) - are significantly associated with analysts’ earnings forecasts. I also find that aggregate OCI, SEC and HEDGE are negatively significantly associated with analysts’ forecast errors. I interpret these results as suggesting that aggregate OCI and at least some of its individual components are decision useful for analysts.
Giardia lamblia binding immunoglobulin protein triggers maturation of dendritic cells via activation of TLR4‐MyD88‐p38 and ERK1/2 MAPKs

Much remains unknown about the mammalian immune response to Giardia lamblia, a protozoan pathogen that causes diarrhoeal outbreaks. We fractionated protein extracts of G. lamblia trophozoites by Viva‐spin centrifugation, DEAE ion exchange and gel filtration chromatography. Resultant fractions were screened for antigenic molecules by western blots analysis using anti‐G. lamblia antibodies (Abs), resulting in identification of G. lamblia binding immunoglobulin protein (GlBiP). Maturation of mouse dendritic cells (DCs) in response to recombinant GlBiP (rGlBiP) was detected by increased expression of surface molecules such as CD80, CD86 and MHC class II; these mature DCs, produced pro‐inflammatory cytokines (TNF‐α, IL‐12 and IL‐6). Especially, the truncated rGlBiP containing the heat‐shock protein 70 domain‐induced cytokine production from mouse DCs. rGlBiP‐induced DC activation was initiated by TLR4 in a MyD88‐dependent way and occurred through activation of p38 and ERK1/2 MAPKs as well as increased activity of NF‐κB and AP‐1. Moreover, CD4+ T cells stimulated with rGlBiP‐treated DCs produced high levels of IL‐2 and IFN‐γ. Together, our results suggest that GlBiP contributes to maturation of DCs via activation of TLR4‐MyD88‐p38, ERK1/2 MAPK, NF‐κB and AP‐1.