Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sustainability of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Benefits Postimplementation: An Individual User Perspective

Sustainability of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Benefits Postimplementation: An Individual User Perspective by Mohamed Abdalla Mohamed Badreldin Lotfy MS, Military Technical College, Cairo, Egypt, 1988 BE, Military Technical College, Cairo, Egypt, 1981 BS, Military Technical College, Cairo, Egypt, 1981 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Applied Management and Decision Sciences
Market Reaction to the Karachi Stock Exchange Floor Imposition

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the market reaction to the decision made by the management of the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) to impose a price floor that resulted in trading curbs in 2008. The paper analyzes if regulatory intervention helped in restoring investor confidence.Design/methodology/approach – The paper examines the effect of enforcement of price floor and trading curbs by splitting the time period studied into two periods: pre-floor and post-floor period. The parametric t-statistics and non-parametric Mann-Whitney test are used to compare the abnormal returns (ARs), abnormal trading volume, bid-ask spread, Amihud illiquidity ratio, and price volatility between the two periods. Event study was conducted to observe the behavior of market returns surrounding market-wide price floor. Finally, multivariate regression analysis was also applied by controlling for factors that might influence valuation, liquidity, and volatility. The standard errors have been corrected for cross-sectional clustering due to market-wide restrictions.Findings – The study found an adverse impact of price freeze and trading curb in the KSE, following the relaxation of floor (resumption of active trading). First, the price of securities (or ARs) significantly declined following the relaxation of the price freeze. Second, the market liquidity deteriorated following the relaxation of the price floor. Third, the price volatility increased in the post-floor period. It seems that the decision made by the KSE’s board to implement lower cap on prices for an extended period was ineffective.Practical implications – Market intervention by regulators to bring calm in the financial markets have negative consequences across the globe. The results presented in this paper suggest that implementing price floor brought inefficiency in the market and prevented firms from raising capital to finance their future investments. The author believe this study will add to the knowledge base of regulatory intervention and its impact on the performance of financial markets.Originality/value – There is no empirical evidence on the impact of price limits on volatility in emerging markets. The author selected Pakistan as a case study, where we particularly focus upon impact of the enforcement of a price floor around the peak of Global Financial Crisis (or market intervention) in Pakistan. This study also documents the effect of trading curb on liquidity and volatility in an emerging market, given that a majority of research on trading halt/price limits is based on developed markets.
Obstructive sleep apnea in non-dialysis chronic kidney disease patients

Abstract There is an enormous increase in the burden of chronic kidney disease both in developing and developed countries. There is a paucity of data on obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients in India. We used a cross-sectional prospective observational study to determine the prevalence of OSA in non-dialysis CKD patients. Of the 647 CKD patients 302 patients were in stage II, III and IV. The study population was screened using the Berlin questionnaire and 87 patients were positive for OSA (28%). Among the 87, 37 patients were excluded based on the exclusion criteria. Fifty patients underwent a split night sleep study. Stage II, III CKD patients were clubbed as early CKD or group one and stage IV CKD patients were clubbed as late CKD or group two. The spilt night study revealed an 88% incidence of OSA of varying severity. A sub group analysis was done to assess the severity of OSA. A statistical significance (p < 0.05) between early and late CKD group was observed with respect to AHI and ODI. An improvement in the late CKD is observed and the Z values for AHI and ODI are 4.273 and 2.307, respectively. The prevalence and incidence of OSA was found to be 28% and 88% in non-dialysis CKD patients, respectively and the risk and severity of OSA increased with the progression of CKD stages and thus necessitating the need for screening the non-dialysis CKD population.
Duration of Untreated Psychosis and the Pathway to Care in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Abstract Considerable controversy surrounds the role of traditional health practitioners (THPs) as first-contact service providers and their influence on the duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) in sub-Saharan Africa. This study examined first-contact patterns and pathways to psychiatric care among individuals with severe mental illness in South Africa. A cross-sectional study was conducted at a referral-based tertiary psychiatric government hospital in KwaZulu-Natal Province. Information on pathways to care was collected using the World Health Organization’s Encounter Form. General hospital was the most common first point of contact after mental disorder symptom onset and the strongest link to subsequent psychiatric treatment. Family members were the most common initiators in seeking care. First contact with THPs was associated with longer DUP and higher number of provider contacts in the pathway based on adjusted regression analyses. Strengthening connections between psychiatric and general hospitals and provision of culturally competent family-based psychoeducation to reduce DUP are warranted.
The Nurr1 Activator 1,1-Bis(3′-Indolyl)-1-(p-Chlorophenyl)Methane Blocks Inflammatory Gene Expression in BV-2 Microglial Cells by Inhibiting Nuclear Factor κB

NR4A family orphan nuclear receptors are an important class of transcription factors for development and homeostasis of dopaminergic neurons that also inhibit expression of inflammatory genes in glial cells. The identification of NR4A2 (Nurr1) as a suppressor of nuclear factor κB (NF-κB)–related neuroinflammatory genes in microglia and astrocytes suggests that this receptor could be a target for pharmacologic intervention in neurologic disease, but compounds that promote this activity are lacking. Selected diindolylmethane compounds (C-DIMs) have been shown to activate or inactivate nuclear receptors, including Nurr1, in cancer cells and also suppress astrocyte inflammatory signaling in vitro. Based upon these data, we postulated that C-DIM12 [1,1-bis(3′-indolyl)-1-(p-chlorophenyl) methane] would suppress inflammatory signaling in microglia by a Nurr1-dependent mechanism. C-DIM12 inhibited lipopolysaccharide (LPS)–induced expression of NF-κB–regulated genes in BV-2 microglia including nitric oxide synthase (NOS2), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 2 (CCL2), and the effects were attenuated by Nurr1-RNA interference. Additionally, C-DIM12 decreased NF-κB activation in NF-κB–GFP (green fluorescent protein) reporter cells and enhanced nuclear translocation of Nurr1 primary microglia. Chromatin immunoprecipitation assays indicated that C-DIM12 decreased lipopolysaccharide-induced p65 binding to the NOS2 promoter and concurrently enhanced binding of Nurr1 to the p65-binding site. Consistent with these findings, C-DIM12 also stabilized binding of the Corepressor for Repressor Element 1 Silencing Transcription Factor (CoREST) and the Nuclear Receptor Corepressor 2 (NCOR2). Collectively, these data identify C-DIM12 as a modulator of Nurr1 activity that results in inhibition of NF-κB–dependent gene expression in glial cells by stabilizing nuclear corepressor proteins, which reduces binding of p65 to inflammatory gene promoters.
PPAR γ regulates MITF and β‐catenin expression and promotes a differentiated phenotype in mouse melanoma S91

Melanoma represents one of the most rapidly metastasizing, hence deadly tumors due to its high proliferation rate and invasiveness, characteristics of undifferentiated embryonic tissues. Given the absence of effective therapy for metastatic melanoma, understanding more fully the molecular mechanisms underlying melanocyte differentiation may provide opportunities for novel therapeutic intervention. Here we show that in mouse melanoma S91 cells activation of the peroxisome proliferator activated receptor (PPAR) γ induces events resembling differentiation, such as growth arrest accompanied by apoptosis, spindle morphology and enhanced tyrosinase expression. These events are preceded by an initial transient increase in expression from the Microphthalmia‐associated transcription factor gene, (MITF) promoter, whereas exposure to a PPAR γ ligand‐ ciglitazone that exceeds 8 h, causes a gradual decrease of MITF, until by 48 h MITF expression is substantially reduced. Beta‐catenin, an MITF transcriptional activator, shows a similar pattern of decline during ciglitazone treatment, consistent with previous reports that activated PPAR γ inhibits the Wnt/β‐catenin pathway through induction of β‐catenin proteasomal degradation. We suggest that the PPAR γ‐mediated β‐catenin down‐regulation is likely to be responsible for changes in MITF levels. The data suggest that PPAR γ, besides its well‐established role in mesenchymal cell differentiation towards adipocytes, might regulate differentiation in the melanocytic lineage.
Lorazepam and midazolam in the intensive care unit: a randomized, prospective, multicenter study of hemodynamics, oxygen transport, efficacy, and cost.

OBJECTIVES To evaluate and compare the clinical efficacy, impact on hemodynamic and oxygen transport variables, safety profiles, and cost efficiency of sedation and anxiolysis with lorazepam vs. continuous infusion of midazolam in critically ill, intensive care unit patients. DESIGN Multicenter, prospective, randomized, open-label study. SETTING Teaching hospitals. PATIENTS Ninety-five critically ill, mechanically ventilated patients with fiberoptic pulmonary artery catheters in place were randomly assigned to receive short-term (8 hrs) sedation with either intermittent intravenous injection lorazepam (group A, n = 50) or continuous intravenous infusion midazolam (group B, n = 45) titrated to clinical response. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS The severity of illness, demographic characteristics, levels of anxiety and agitation, hemodynamic parameters, oxygen transport variables, quality of sedation, nursing acceptance, and laboratory chemistries reflecting drug safety were recorded. There were no significant differences with regard to demographic data, hemodynamic and oxygen transport variables, or levels of anxiety/agitation between the two groups at baseline, 5 mins, 30 mins, and 4 and 8 hrs after administration of sedation. There were no significant differences in the quality of sedation or anxiolysis. Midazolam-treated patients used significantly larger amounts of drug for similar levels of sedation and anxiolysis (14.4 +/- 1.2 mg/8 hrs vs. 1.6 +/- 0.1 mg/8 hrs, p = .001). Both drugs were safely administered and patient and nurse satisfaction was similar. CONCLUSIONS Sedation and anxiolysis with lorazepam and midazolam in critically ill patients is safe and clinically effective. Hemodynamic and oxygen transport variables are similarly affected by both drugs. The dose of midazolam required for sedation is much larger than the dose of lorazepam required for sedation, and midazolam is therefore less cost-efficient.
Comparative population structure of two dominant species, Shinkaia crosnieri (Munidopsidae: Shinkaia) and Bathymodiolus platifrons (Mytilidae: Bathymodiolus), inhabiting both deep‐sea vent and cold seep inferred from mitochondrial multi‐genes

Abstract Deep‐sea hydrothermal vents and cold seeps, limited environments without sunlight, are two types of extreme habitat for marine organisms. The differences between vents and cold seeps may facilitate genetic isolation and produce population heterogeneity. However, information on such chemosynthetic fauna taxa is rare, especially regarding the population diversity of species inhabiting both vents and cold seeps. In this study, three mitochondrial DNA fragments (the cytochrome c oxidase submit I (COI), cytochrome b gene (Cytb), and 16S) were concatenated as a mitochondrial concatenated dataset (MCD) to examine the genetic diversity, population structure, and demographic history of Shinkaia crosnieri and Bathymodiolus platifrons. The genetic diversity differences between vent and seep populations were statistically significant for S. crosnieri but not for B. platifrons. S. crosnieri showed less gene flow and higher levels of genetic differentiation between the vent and seep populations than B. platifrons. In addition, the results suggest that all the B. platifrons populations, but only the S. crosnieri vent populations, passed through a recent expansion or bottleneck. Therefore, different population distribution patterns for the two dominant species were detected; a pattern of population differentiation for S. crosnieri and a homogeneity pattern for B. platifrons. These different population distribution patterns were related to both extrinsic restrictive factors and intrinsic factors. Based on the fact that the two species were collected in almost identical or adjacent sampling sites, we speculated that the primary factors underlying the differences in the population distribution patterns were intrinsic. The historical demographics, dispersal ability, and the tolerance level of environmental heterogeneity are most likely responsible for the different distribution patterns.
Are the Determinants of Capital Structure Country or Firm Specific? Evidence from SMEs

In this paper we investigate the capital structure determinants of Greek, French, Italian and Portuguese small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). We compare the capital structure of SMEs across countries and consider if differences in country characteristics such as financial development and institutional features may impact on capital structure choices. We assess the extent to which the debt ratio depends upon their asset structure, size, profitability, risk and growth. The results show that SMEs in these countries seem to determine their capital structure in similar ways as it is evident by the signs of the statistically significant regression coefficients. We find that, size is positively related to leverage, while the relationship between leverage and asset structure, profitability and risk is negative. Growth is not a statistically significant determinant of leverage for any of the four countries. We attribute these similarities to the country institutional and financial characteristics and the commonality of their civil law systems. However, structural differences do arise due to differences in the size of the coefficients in the country regressions. We find that these differences are due to firm-specific effects. Our main conclusion is that firm specific rather than country factors explain differences in capital structure choices of SMEs in these countries.
Paired‐pulse depression of excitatory postsynaptic current sinks in hippocampal CA1 in vivo

Paired‐pulse depression (PPD), a short‐term neural plasticity, was studied in hippocampal CA1 of urethane‐anesthetized rats in vivo, using field potential recordings and current source density analysis. PPD was robust when an ipsilateral CA3 (iCA3) conditioning pulse of moderate stimulus intensity was followed 30–200 ms later by a contralateral CA3 (cCA3) test pulse; the ratio of the conditioned (C) to the nonconditioned (NC) response, as measured by the peak excitatory sink at the apical dendrites, ranged from 0.6 to 0.8. An alveus conditioning pulse evoked a large antidromic population spike in CA1 and a modest depression of the CA3‐evoked excitatory sink (C/NC ratio of ∼0.85). High‐intensity paired pulses, both delivered to iCA3, also showed PPD of the proximal excitatory sinks; however, paired‐pulse facilitation of the dendritic sinks was found at the mid‐apical dendrites, >250 μm from the soma. Local injection of GABAA antagonist picrotoxin or bicuculline increased the C/NC ratio at IPIs of <150 ms, as well as the ratio of the amplitude of the population spikes (P2/P1; where P2 and P1 are the population spikes evoked by the second and first pulse, respectively). GABAB receptor antagonists, CGP35348 given intracerebroventricularly or CGP56999A administered locally, increased C/NC and P2/P1 at IPIs of 150–400 ms. It is concluded that conditioned depression of the excitatory sinks was caused by mainly feedforward and some feedback inhibition at the apical dendrites. GABAA‐mediated postsynaptic inhibition dominated at early latencies, while GABAB‐mediated inhibition prevailed at long latencies, probably at both presynaptic and postsynaptic sites. PPD of the excitatory sinks provides a measure of population dendritic inhibition in vivo. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Effect of Insulin and Rat Weight Upon Rat Adipose Tissue Membrane Resting Electrical Potential (REP)

The reports of a possible insulin effect upon membrane resting electrical potential (REP) have been few and conflicting. Zierler reported a small, but significant, increase of skeletal muscle REP following addition of insulin. Small, 6o-gm. , rats were utilized. No such insulin effect upon REP was noted in an isolated ventricular heart preparation obtained from 200-gm. rats. The present report is concerned with the effect of small concentrations of insulin upon REP of epididymal adipose tissue obtained from rats of various weights.
Systemic effects of epidural dexamethasone injections.

OBJECTIVES to evaluate potential systemic effects of a single epidural injection of dexamethasone. PATIENTS AND METHODS each of nine patients (five males and four females, mean age 47 +/- 11.8 years) admitted for sciatica was given a single epidural injection of 15 mg dexamethasone acetate. Before the injection (D0) and two (D2), seven (D7) and 21 (D21) days after the injection, the following laboratory tests were performed: serum cortisol and ACTH in the morning after an overnight fast, free cortisol in a 24-hour urine collection, fasting serum levels of glucose, triglycerides and cholesterol, serum levels of sodium and potassium. Blood pressure was measured on D0, D2, and D7. RESULTS Serum cortisol, ACTH and urinary cortisol were profoundly decreased on D2 and D7 but normal on D21. There were no changes in fasting serum glucose, triglycerides, cholesterol, sodium or potassium levels. CONCLUSION a single epidural injection of 15 mg dexamethasone acetate is associated with transient adrenal suppression, denoting passage of the steroid into the systemic bloodstream. However, evidence of hypercorticism is usually lacking.
Stock Repurchases Associated with Stock Options Do Represent Dollars Out of Shareholders' Wallets

This paper explores the repurchase activity and employee and executive option activity for nonfinancial firms for the period 1995-1999. We find that the value of both firm-level options outstanding and executive-level options outstanding are strong predictors of repurchase activity. When option grants are considered, only executive-level grants provide incremental explanatory power. Our results suggest that firms repurchase shares to avoid dilution from a stock option program. We also examine market reactions to repurchase authorizations. We find that the returns preceding the announcement are less negative for firms that are active executive option users, and that investors react less enthusiastically to stock repurchases when firms grant executive (but not employee) options during the repurchase year. The evidence indicates that markets recognize that particularly executive option grants represent a real cost to the firm ex post in the form of stock buybacks, possibly representing a wealth transfer from the shareholders to employees.
Identification of Arabidopsis accession with resistance to Botrytis cinerea by natural variation analysis, and characterization of the resistance response

Botrytis cinerea is a ubiquitous necrotrophic fungal pathogen that infects over 200 different plant species. We have analyzed 17 Arabidopsis ecotypes for natural variations in their susceptibility to B. cinerea, and found compatible and incompatible Arabidopsis–Botrytis interactions. We determined that Arabidopsis ecotype Ler is resistant to 5 B. cinerea isolates used in this study. To further investigate the roles of the salicylic acid (SA)-dependent defense response pathways against B. cinerea, we inoculated various Arabidopsis mutants with the pathogen. Arabidopsis Ler plants expressing the nahG gene inoculated with B. cinerea showed as much resistance as the parental plants (Ler-wild type). The sgt1b-1 and rar1-10 mutants also showed resistance to the pathogen. In this study, we discuss the natural variations in the symptoms observed among various ecotypes upon inoculation with B. cinerea. In addition, SA plays only a minor role in preventing systemic infection with B. cinerea.
Mechanisms of strontium uptake by laboratory and brewing strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Laboratory and brewing strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae were compared for metabolism-independent and -dependent Sr2+ uptake. Cell surface adsorption of Sr2+ to live cells was greater in the brewing than in the laboratory strain examined. However, uptake levels were greater in denatured (dried and ground) S. cerevisiae, and the relative affinities of Sr2+ for the two strains were reversed. Results for the brewing S. cerevisiae strain were similar whether the organism was obtained fresh from brewery waste or after culturing under the same conditions as for the laboratory strain. Reciprocal Langmuir plots of uptake data for live biomass were not linear, whereas those for denatured biomass were. The more complex Sr2+ binding mechanism inferred for live S. cerevisiae was underlined by cation displacement experiments. Sr2+ adsorption to live cells resulted in release of Mg2+, Ca2+, and H+, suggesting a combination of ionic and covalent bonding of Sr2+. In contrast, Mg2+ was the predominant exchangeable cation on denatured biomass, indicating primarily electrostatic attraction of Sr2+. Incubation of live S. cerevisiae in the presence of glucose resulted in a stimulation of Sr2+ uptake. Cell fractionation revealed that this increased Sr2+ uptake was mostly due to sequestration of Sr2+ in the vacuole, although a small increase in cytoplasmic Sr2+ was also evident. No stimulation or inhibition of active H+ efflux resulted from metabolism-dependent Sr2+ accumulation. However, a decline in cytoplasmic, and particularly vacuolar, Mg2+, in comparison with that of cells incubated with Sr2+ in the absence of glucose, was apparent. This was most marked for the laboratory S. cerevisiae strain, which contained higher Mg2+ levels than the brewing strain.
Flow-GAN: Bridging implicit and prescribed learning in generative models

Evaluating the performance of generative models for unsupervised learning is inherently challenging due to the lack of well-defined and tractable objectives. This is particularly difficult for implicit models such as generative adversarial networks (GANs) which perform extremely well in practice for tasks such as sample generation, but sidestep the explicit characterization of a density. We propose Flow-GANs, a generative adversarial network with the generator specified as a normalizing flow model which can perform exact likelihood evaluation. Subsequently, we learn a Flow-GAN using a hybrid objective that integrates adversarial training with maximum likelihood estimation. We show empirically the benefits of Flow-GANs on MNIST and CIFAR-10 datasets in learning generative models that can attain low generalization error based on the log-likelihoods and generate high quality samples. Finally, we show a simple, yet hard to beat baseline for GANs based on Gaussian Mixture Models.