Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tumors: Wounds That Do Not Heal—Redux

Similarities between tumors and the inflammatory response associated with wound healing have been recognized for more than 150 years and continue to intrigue. Some years ago, based on our then recent discovery of vascular permeability factor (VPF)/VEGF, I suggested that tumors behaved as wounds that do not heal. More particularly, I proposed that tumors co-opted the wound-healing response to induce the stroma they required for maintenance and growth. Work over the past few decades has supported this hypothesis and has put it on a firmer molecular basis. In outline, VPF/VEGF initiates a sequence of events in both tumors and wounds that includes the following: increased vascular permeability; extravasation of plasma, fibrinogen and other plasma proteins; activation of the clotting system outside the vascular system; deposition of an extravascular fibrin gel that serves as a provisional stroma and a favorable matrix for cell migration; induction of angiogenesis and arterio-venogenesis; subsequent degradation of fibrin and its replacement by “granulation tissue” (highly vascular connective tissue); and, finally, vascular resorption and collagen synthesis, resulting in the formation of dense fibrous connective tissue (called “scar tissue” in wounds and “desmoplasia” in cancer). A similar sequence of events also takes place in a variety of important inflammatory diseases that involve cellular immunity. Cancer Immunol Res; 3(1); 1–11. ©2015 AACR.
Multimarket Trading and the Cost of Debt: Evidence from Global Bonds

Global bonds are international securities designed to be traded and settled efficiently in multiple markets. This paper studies global bonds to examine the effects of multi-market trading on corporate bond liquidity, prices, and the cost of debt. Using a sample of primary and secondary market transactions matched by issuer, I find that global bonds command a significant liquidity and price advantage over comparable domestic bonds. On average, global bonds trade at yields 15 to 25 basis points below domestic bonds of the same issuers, with the difference being greater for speculative grade bonds and in times of crisis. Global issues are more liquid, as evidenced by several trade-based liquidity measures, but the liquidity advantage of global bonds does not fully explain the yield differential. The findings imply that international corporate bond markets are not fully integrated, and global bond offerings can reduce the cost of debt. JEL Classification: G15, G12, G32, F36
Alternative panel models to evaluate the store brand market share: Evidence from the Spanish market

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand the intra‐ and inter‐category differences of the store brand market share. Strategic, structural and performance factors are considered to be explanatory.Design/methodology/approach – The paper proposes four possible alternative fixed‐effects panel models for the data. The empirical analysis is performed on the Spanish consumer goods market in 50 traditional categories during the period from 1996 to 2000, when these brands consolidated their position as the best choices on the shelves.Findings – The paper obtains consistent results for the four models proposed. The analysis of these reveal which strategic, structural and performance factors influence the store brand market share and how they influence it at intra‐ and inter‐category levels.Research limitations/implication – The main limitations of this research derive from the conditioning factors of the information. Some potential explanatory variables could not be considered in the models or could onl.
Impact of Social Cognition on Alcohol Dependence Treatment Outcome: Poorer Facial Emotion Recognition Predicts Relapse/Dropout

BACKGROUND Despite growing evidence for neurobehavioral deficits in social cognition in alcohol use disorder (AUD), the clinical relevance remains unclear, and little is known about its impact on treatment outcome. This study prospectively investigated the impact of neurocognitive social abilities at treatment onset on treatment completion. METHODS Fifty-nine alcohol-dependent patients were assessed with measures of social cognition including 3 core components of empathy via paradigms measuring: (i) emotion recognition (the ability to recognize emotions via facial expression), (ii) emotional perspective taking, and (iii) affective responsiveness at the beginning of inpatient treatment for alcohol dependence. Subjective measures were also obtained, including estimates of task performance and a self-report measure of empathic abilities (Interpersonal Reactivity Index). According to treatment outcomes, patients were divided into a patient group with a regular treatment course (e.g., with planned discharge and without relapse during treatment) or an irregular treatment course (e.g., relapse and/or premature and unplanned termination of treatment, "dropout"). RESULTS Compared with patients completing treatment in a regular fashion, patients with relapse and/or dropout of treatment had significantly poorer facial emotion recognition ability at treatment onset. Additional logistic regression analyses confirmed these results and identified poor emotion recognition performance as a significant predictor for relapse/dropout. Self-report (subjective) measures did not correspond with neurobehavioral social cognition measures, respectively objective task performance. Analyses of individual subtypes of facial emotions revealed poorer recognition particularly of disgust, anger, and no (neutral faces) emotion in patients with relapse/dropout. CONCLUSIONS Social cognition in AUD is clinically relevant. Less successful treatment outcome was associated with poorer facial emotion recognition ability at the beginning of treatment. Impaired facial emotion recognition represents a neurocognitive risk factor that should be taken into account in alcohol dependence treatment. Treatments targeting the improvement of these social cognition deficits in AUD may offer a promising future approach.
A novel Interactive Health Communication Application (IHCA) for parents of children with long-term conditions: Development, implementation and feasibility assessment

Background: Few evidence-based, on-line resources exist to support home-based care of childhood long-term conditions. Methods: In a feasibility study, children with stages 3, 4, or 5 chronic kidney disease, parents and professionals collaboratively developed a novel Online Parent Information and Support (OPIS) application. Parents were randomized to an intervention arm with access to OPIS or a control arm without access. OPIS usage was assessed using Google Analytics. Parents in the intervention arm completed the Suitability Assessment of Materials (SAM) and User Interface Satisfaction (USE) questionnaires and participated in qualitative interviews. Results: Twenty parents accessed OPIS with a mean of 23.3 (SD 20.8, range 2–64) visits per user. Responses from the SAM and USE questionnaires were positive, most respondents rating OPIS highly and finding it easy to use. Qualitative suggestions include refinement of OPIS components, enabling personalization of OPIS functionalities and proactive endorsements of OPIS by professionals. Conclusions: Implementation of OPIS into standard practice is feasible in the centre where it was developed. Suggested developments will augment reported strengths to inform ongoing testing in the wider UK network of units. Our design and methods are transferrable to developing and evaluating web-applications to support home-based clinical care-giving for other long-term conditions.
Comparative Analysis Of Employee Job Satisfaction In The Accounting Profession

Evaluating job satisfaction among accounting professionals is an increasingly important area of concern for employers, which strive to recruit and retain quality employees and to improve their competitive positions. This study examines the results of surveys of accounting graduates from two AACSB International accredited universities from 1980 to 2003. Respondents were asked a variety of questions on job satisfaction as it relates to many factors including profession, firm size, certification, age, sex, race, advanced degrees and parent education. The findings of this study on job satisfaction provide benchmarks upon which accounting firms can use to evaluate job satisfaction levels among their own employees.
Leadership and competency on organizational performance

The main objective of this study was to examine the relationship between leadership characteristics and managerial competency of the CEO to organizational performance. The findings did indicate that the relationship did exist, with leadership characteristics contributed significantly more to organizational performance than managerial competency. The findings also indicated the leadership characteristics of persistence accounting more for organizational performance than any of the other leadership characteristics or managerial competency variables, although the managerial competency grouping of results driven showed a significant relationship with organizational performance. With regard to the demographic profile of the CEOs, the educational level did indicate a significant relationship with organizational performance. Similarly the size of the business organization also did indicate a significant relationship with organizational performance
Enhanced coupling property using a conical metal wire waveguide in the terahertz frequency range

We investigated the coupling properties of a metal wire waveguide in the terahertz (THz) frequency range using theoretical simulations and experiments. Because a conical wire tip has a smaller tip diameter than a cylindrical wire tip, it has a greater THz field density than a cylindrical wire tip. After the coupling of the THz pulse to the receiver (Rx) using a 1-mum-diameter conical-wire tip, the detected THz pulse increased 5.3 times compared with when the 500-mum-diameter cylindrical-wire tip was used. This result agrees with that of theoretical simulations using high-frequency structure simulation (HFSS).
Angiotensin II type1 receptor regulation and differential trophic effects on rat cardiac myofibroblasts after acute myocardial infarction

Fibroblast growth in the scar and surviving tissue is a key element of the remodeling post myocardial infarction. The regulation of fibroblast growth after acute myocardial infarction remains to be determined. Recently, Angiotensin II has been demonstrated to be a mitogen for neonatal cardiac fibroblasts. In this study adult rat cardiac fibroblasts were isolated from different regions of the infarcted rat heart and Angiotensin II effects examined. Adult Wistar‐rats were sham operated or left coronary artery ligated. After 4 days, hearts were removed and fibroblasts from sham operated, infarct‐ and non‐infarct regions of the left ventricle isolated. Radioligand binding studies were performed and cell number, cell area, total protein, and AT1 receptor mRNA after stimulation determined. Radioligand binding studies demonstrated that myofibroblasts expressed a single class of high affinity Angiotensin II AT1 receptors. Myofibroblasts from the infarct area revealed a lower maximal binding capacity, compared to sham operated myocardium. Conversely, myofibroblasts from the non‐infarct area had a higher expression of Angiotensin II AT1 receptor mRNA compared to sham operated myofibroblasts. Angiotensin II (1 μM, 48 h) increased cell‐number in sham operated and non‐infarct, but not in infarct myofibroblasts. Angiotensin II elevated total protein in sham operated, non‐infarct, and infarct myofibroblasts. In addition, Angiotensin II increased cell area in sham operated and infarct myofibroblasts. These data demonstrate that Angiotensin II acted as a mitogen in sham operated and non‐infarct myofibroblasts and stimulated hypertrophy in infarct myofibroblasts. These regional different effects of Angiotensin II might participate in the remodeling post myocardial infarction. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
An on-line universal lossy data compression algorithm via continuous codebook refinement - Part I: Basic results

A new on-line universal lossy data compression algorithm is presented. For finite memoryless sources with unknown statistics, its performance asymptotically approaches the fundamental rate distortion limit. The codebook is generated on the fly, and continuously adapted by simple rules. There is no separate codebook training or codebook transmission. Candidate codewords are randomly generated according to an arbitrary and possibly suboptimal distribution. Through a carefully designed "gold washing" or "information-theoretic sieve" mechanism, good codewords and only good codewords are promoted to permanent status with high probability. We also determine the rate at which our algorithm approaches the fundamental limit.
The filter pads and filtration mechanisms of the devil rays: Variation at macro and microscopic scales

Three lineages of cartilaginous fishes have independently evolved filter feeding (Lamniformes: Megachasma and Cetorhinus, Orectolobiformes: Rhincodon, and Mobulidae: Manta and Mobula); and the structure of the branchial filters is different in each group. The filter in Rhincodon typus has been described; species within the Lamniformes have simple filamentous filters, but the anatomy and ultrastructure of the branchial filter in the mobulid rays varies and is of functional interest. In most fishes, branchial gill rakers are elongated structures located along the anterior ceratobranchial and/or epibranchial arches; however, mobulid gill rakers are highly modified, flattened, lobe‐like structures located on the anterior and posterior epibranchial elements as well as the ceratobranchials. The ultrastructure of the filter lobes can be smooth or covered by a layer of microcilia, and some are denticulated along the dorsal and ventral lobe surface. Flow through the mobulid oropharyngeal cavity differs from other filter‐feeding fishes in that water must rapidly deviate from the free stream direction. There is an abrupt 90° turn from the initial inflowing path to move through the laterally directed branchial filter pores, over the gill tissue, and out the ventrally located gill slits. The deviation in the flow must result in tangential shearing stress across the filter surface. This implies that mobulids can use cross‐flow filtration in which this shearing force serves as a mechanism to resuspend food particles initially caught by sieving or another capture mode. These particles will be transported by the cross filter flow toward the esophagus. We propose that species with cilia on the rakers augment the shear mediated movement of particles along the filter with ciliary transport. J. Morphol. 274:1026–1043, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Amphotericin B incorporated into egg lecithin-bile salt mixed micelles: molecular and cellular aspects relevant to therapeutic efficacy in experimental mycoses

The cellular activities of amphotericin B (AmB) used as Fungizone were compared with those of AmB complexed to either egg lecithin and glycocholate (Egam) or egg lecithin and deoxycholate (Edam). Under conditions in which leakage of K+ from erythrocytes and cultured L cells treated with Fungizone was almost complete, Egam and Edam containing concentrations of AmB severalfold greater than the concentration of AmB in Fungizone had no effect but retained the ability to decrease the level of retention of K+ in fungal cells. Analysis by absorption and circular dichroism spectroscopy demonstrated that when these formulations containing AmB at concentrations of less than 10(-5) M were added to buffer, the AmB dissociated slowly as monomers from Egam or Edam and dissociated rapidly as a mixture of monomers and self-associated species from Fungizone. We propose that in Egam and Edam, the absence of free AmB in the self-associated form reduces the toxicity of AmB to mammalian cells, whereas the presence of monomeric AmB results in the retention of the antifungal activities of these complexes.
The distribution of dark matter and gas spanning 6 Mpc around the post-merger galaxy cluster MS 0451−03

Using the largest mosaic of Hubble Space Telescope images around a galaxy cluster, we map the distribution of dark matter throughout an ∼6 × 6 Mpc2 area centred on the cluster MS 0451−03 (z = 0.54, $M_{200}=1.65\times 10^{15}\, {\rm M}_{\odot }$). Our joint strong- and weak-lensing analysis shows three possible filaments extending from the cluster, encompassing six group-scale substructures. The dark matter distribution in the cluster core is elongated, consists of two distinct components, and is characterized by a concentration parameter of c200 = 3.79 ± 0.36. By contrast, XMM–Newton observations show the gas distribution to be more spherical, with excess entropy near the core, and a lower concentration of $c_{200}=2.35^{+0.89}_{-0.70}$ (assuming hydrostatic equilibrium). Such a configuration is predicted in simulations of major mergers 2–7 Gyr after the first core passage, when the two dark matter haloes approach second turnaround, and before their gas has relaxed. This post-merger scenario finds further support in optical spectroscopy of the cluster’s member galaxies, which shows that star formation was abruptly quenched 5 Gyr ago. MS 0451−03 will be an ideal target for future studies of the growth of structure along filaments, star formation processes after a major merger, and the late-stage evolution of cluster collisions.
Card Loyalty. A New Emerging Issue in Grocery Retailing

In the 1990's all the largest grocery retailers have introduced loyalty cards with the specific goal of acquiring consumer knowledge. The use of loyalty cards as a knowledge tool has become so critical that retailers offer customers rewards in return for card subscription and continuous use, because knowledge accumulates only if consumers keep on using the cards they have subscribed. These cards have opened a rich debate in marketing literature, which is still going on. All the analyses of card data have however assumed that consumers are card loyal, that is they use the card they have subscribed. Is card ownership and use tangible evidence of consumer loyalty? The paper offers a framework for testing the feasibility of this fundamental assumption. The framework is applied to the loyalty card database of an Italian supermarket to answer three questions: 1. Who are the heaviest users of the card? 2. Is their shopping behavior different from that of light users? 3. Who are the key cardholders? Answer Tree (SPSS package) is the technique used to operate the empirical analysis.
Perinatal antidepressant exposure alters cortical network function in rodents

Serotonin (5-HT) plays a key role in early brain development, and manipulation of 5-HT levels during this period can have lasting neurobiological and behavioral consequences. It is unclear how perinatal exposure to drugs, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), impacts cortical neural network function and what mechanism(s) may elicit the disruption of normal neuronal connections/interactions. In this article, we report on cortical wiring organization after pre- and postnatal exposure to the SSRI citalopram. We show that manipulation of 5-HT during early development in both in vitro and in vivo models disturbs characteristic chemoarchitectural and electrophysiological brain features, including changes in raphe and callosal connections, sensory processing, and myelin sheath formation. Also, drug-exposed rat pups exhibit neophobia and disrupted juvenile play behavior. These findings indicate that 5-HT homeostasis is required for proper brain maturation and that fetal/infant exposure to SSRIs should be examined in humans, particularly those with developmental dysfunction, such as autism.
The contribution of globular clusters to cosmic reionization

Author(s): Ma, Xiangcheng; Quataert, Eliot; Wetzel, Andrew; Faucher-Giguere, Claude-Andre; Boylan-Kolchin, Michael | Abstract: We study the escape fraction of ionizing photons (f_esc) in two cosmological zoom-in simulations of galaxies in the reionization era with halo mass M_halo~10^10 and 10^11 M_sun (stellar mass M*~10^7 and 10^9 M_sun) at z=5 from the Feedback in Realistic Environments project. These simulations explicitly resolve the formation of proto-globular clusters (GCs) self-consistently, where 17-39% of stars form in bound clusters during starbursts. Using post-processing Monte Carlo radiative transfer calculations of ionizing radiation, we compute f_esc from cluster stars and non-cluster stars formed during a starburst over ~100 Myr in each galaxy. We find that the averaged f_esc over the lifetime of a star particle follows a similar distribution for cluster stars and non-cluster stars. Clusters tend to have low f_esc in the first few Myrs, presumably because they form preferentially in more extreme environments with high optical depths; the f_esc increases later as feedback starts to disrupt the natal cloud. On the other hand, non-cluster stars formed between cluster complexes or in the compressed shell at the front of a superbubble can also have high f_esc. We find that cluster stars on average have comparable f_esc to non-cluster stars. This result is robust across several star formation models in our simulations. Our results suggest that the fraction of ionizing photons from proto-GCs to cosmic reionization is comparable to the cluster formation efficiency in high-redshift galaxies and hence proto-GCs likely contribute an appreciable fraction of photons but are not the dominant sources for reionization.
Review of Logistics Service Regulations for Freight Forwarding Businesses: What Should Be Addressed for a Better Logistics Regulatory Framework?

Regulatory frameworks on logistics regulations are often opaque, especially in developing countries, because of the complex nature of logistics services. World Bank client countries have faced difficulty finding the issues that hinder them from improving logistics competence. Therefore, it is beneficial to understand how the logistics service industry is regulated and what should be addressed in building the regulatory framework to improve logistics competence. This note proposes questions to be addressed for beneficial regulations by reviewing existing logistics service regulations in 14 countries, particularly regulations for the freight forwarding industry. These questions will help in assessing a regulatory framework and identifying regulatory weaknesses. This note suggests that the regulatory framework should take into consideration national recognition of freight forwarding business, an institutional arrangement with clear division of responsibility among stakeholders, and streamlined but flexible regulations adapted to the country context.