Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An experimental sclerosing encapsulating peritonitis model in mice.

BACKGROUND Sclerosing encapsulating peritonitis (SEP) is a life-threatening complication of continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis. To elucidate the mechanism and develop treatments for this condition, an experimental SEP model in mice was constructed. METHODS C57BL/6 mice were administered 0.3 ml of 0.1% chlorhexidine gluconate and 15% ethanol dissolved in saline, intraperitoneally, on a daily basis for 56 days (group 1, n=15). A control group of C57BL/6 mice were administered 0.3 ml of phosphate-buffered saline only in the same manner (group 2, n=15). The mice were sacrificed on days 3, 7, 21, 56 and were prepared for histological analysis. RESULTS In group 1, all mice had developed macroscopic evidence of SEP 56 days after the injection. Microscopically we observed peritoneal fibrosis and an increase in infiltrates of mononuclear cells over time. The peritoneal fibrosis reached the chronic inflammatory stage by 56 days after the injection. CONCLUSION We have developed a convenient experimental model of SEP in mice, which may be useful in elucidating the pathogenesis of SEP and in establishing possible treatments.
Real Estate ‘Value’ Stocks and International Diversification

In recent years there has been an increased interest in the extent to which managers can improve their property portfolio position through international diversification. Much of this interest has centred on the use of various statistical/econometric tests of time‐varying correlations and long‐run equilibrium positions using whole of country property indices. In this paper, a short‐run tactical asset allocation approach to securitized property is adopted. Using neural network methodology, a neural network model that ‘learns’ well‐established rules of portfolio investment is built. The model uses a set of individual property companies across three of the most highly securitized property markets in the world viz. the US, the UK and Australia. The standpoint of a UK investor is adopted and the model is asked to compare portfolios constructed purely from domestic assets with portfolios constructed from internationally held assets allowing for foreign exchange adjustments. When the foreign exchange risk is actively managed, the outcomes from the analysis suggest that the gains from hedging are conditional on both the return to the unhedged position and the volatility of the underlying currency being hedged.
Trade and Income Inequality in a Less Developed Country: The Case of Mozambique

Abstract Although the relationship between international trade and income inequality has been widely studied in developing economies at the national level, less attention has been paid to regional differentiation within those countries. This article examines the differential impacts of trade in two distinct regions in Mozambique: the relatively more developed southern portion and the more isolated region north of the Zambezi River. Despite differences in physical geography and levels of human and physical capital, these two regions are governed by the same trade and economic development policies. The results indicate that the effects of agricultural trade orientation—the degree to which a region’s population is involved in the production and sale of cash crops and vegetable crops—on regional inequality are mixed. In southern Mozambique, the orientation toward crops traded within the country (vegetables) has inequality-increasing effects, whereas in northern Mozambique, the orientation toward internationally exported crops (cash crops) has inequality-dampening effects. These mixed findings imply a complex relationship between trade and inequality that varies by region and the type of trade. They suggest that regional trade and development policies that take historical, political, and geographic variation within countries into account would be better equipped to address the trade-related effects on uneven development than would national-level policy.
Direct observation of electrogenic NH4+ transport in ammonium transport (Amt) proteins

Significance We have detected and analyzed electrogenic transport of ammonium and methylammonium by members of the ammonium transport (Amt) family of membrane proteins using solid-supported membrane electrophysiology. Amt transport is pH-dependent and occurs at a rate of 30–300 ions per s per trimer, well in the range of other transport proteins. The study establishes, to our knowledge, the first in vitro assay system for Amt transport in a fully controlled setup and settles debate about whether Amt proteins function as passive ammonia channels or active ammonium transporters. Ammonium transport (Amt) proteins form a ubiquitous family of integral membrane proteins that specifically shuttle ammonium across membranes. In prokaryotes, archaea, and plants, Amts are used as environmental NH4+ scavengers for uptake and assimilation of nitrogen. In the eukaryotic homologs, the Rhesus proteins, NH4+/NH3 transport is used instead in acid–base and pH homeostasis in kidney or NH4+/NH3 (and eventually CO2) detoxification in erythrocytes. Crystal structures and variant proteins are available, but the inherent challenges associated with the unambiguous identification of substrate and monitoring of transport events severely inhibit further progress in the field. Here we report a reliable in vitro assay that allows us to quantify the electrogenic capacity of Amt proteins. Using solid-supported membrane (SSM)-based electrophysiology, we have investigated the three Amt orthologs from the euryarchaeon Archaeoglobus fulgidus. Af-Amt1 and Af-Amt3 are electrogenic and transport the ammonium and methylammonium cation with high specificity. Transport is pH-dependent, with a steep decline at pH values of ∼5.0. Despite significant sequence homologies, functional differences between the three proteins became apparent. SSM electrophysiology provides a long-sought-after functional assay for the ubiquitous ammonium transporters.
Ars and the Man: The Politics of Art in Virgil's Aeneid

IT IS BY NOW A TRUISM to remark that Turnus' sudden death in the Aeneid's last moments closes the epic with a dramatic illustration of Virgil's fascination with the human passions and their control. We could even say that the control of self and control over others are the twin goals of the poem's ideological trajectory towards the foundation of Rome, however disturbing it may seem that the Aeneid's final spasm of fury undermines the one kind of control in the interest of violently accomplishing the other. Such issues of control and its breakdown into violence are nothing if not ideological here, and they have drawn the question of art into their orbit as well. Virgil's most famous ecphrases-Daedalus' relief, the temple of Juno, Aeneas' shield and Pallas' belt-all seem to play into an ideology that leaves us with a binary opposition between control and violence, and with other such oppositions-truth versus deception, empire versus chaos-in which one alternative, whatever its costs, implicitly asks to be valorized over the other. Part of my project in this paper is to show just how the artworks of the Aeneid participate in this economy of values that sets control and containment against the consequences of an impassioned violence. This attribute of the Virgilian artwork is counterbalanced, however, by its repeated failure to fulfill such a task: unable to restrain violence, the artwork literally lets it spill out, like a troop of murderous Greek warriors issuing from the carved cavity of a wooden horse's womb. These two interpretive possibilities for the artifacts of the Aeneid (that is, the containment versus the release of violence) have had consequences for the poem itself as a piece of art, so that some readers have concluded pessimistically about Virgil's own poem that it, too, must participate in such a failure-as the Harvard school of critics identified by W. R. Johnson would say. Others have concluded optimistically that art has a powerful shaping role in the foundation of order, even if it must remain backstage to the real tools by which this is accomplishedand here I hear Aeneas' father Anchises, the architect of empire, cheering in the background, with a chorus of the so-called continental critics providing
Pattern-independent, fine-morphology Ni-Pt silicide formation by partial conversion with low metal-consumption ratio

We applied partial conversion as initial silicidation to control the morphologies of Ni-Pt silicide, viz., the thickness, crystal grain, and Pt concentration of the Ni-Pt silicide. This partial conversion kept the thickness of Ni-Pt silicide constant regardless of the device pattern, i.e., by controlling silicidation with thermal diffusion. The key to partially converting Ni-Pt silicide was leaving a thick Ni-Pt alloy on the silicide, viz., a low metal-consumption ratio, at the narrow active line. This process made the crystal grain finer and enriched the Pt of Ni-Pt silicide, thereby suppressing the increase in resistivity in Ni-Pt silicide.
Blockholder Dispersion and Firm Value

Multiple blockholder structures are a widespread phenomenon in the U.S. The theoretical literature, however, provides conflicting predictions on whether a single large blockholder or a set of dispersed smaller blockholders is better for firm value. Using U.S. data, we find a negative correlation between Tobin's Q and blockholder dispersion. The findings are robust to a wide variety of model specifications and controls and differ from results for other geographic regions such as Europe and Asia.
Temporal and spatial requirements for Nodal‐induced anterior mesendoderm and mesoderm in anterior neurulation

Zebrafish with defective Nodal signaling have a phenotype analogous to the fatal human birth defect anencephaly, which is caused by an open anterior neural tube. Previous work in our laboratory found that anterior open neural tube phenotypes in Nodal signaling mutants were caused by lack of mesendodermal/mesodermal tissues. Defects in these mutants are already apparent at neural plate stage, before the neuroepithelium starts to fold into a tube. Consistent with this, we found that the requirement for Nodal signaling maps to mid‐late blastula stages. This timing correlates with the timing of prechordal plate mesendoderm and anterior mesoderm induction, suggesting these tissues act to promote neurulation. To further identify tissues important for neurulation, we took advantage of the variable phenotypes in Nodal signaling‐deficient sqt mutant and Lefty1‐overexpressing embryos. Statistical analysis indicated a strong, positive correlation between a closed neural tube and presence of several mesendoderm/mesoderm‐derived tissues (hatching glands, cephalic paraxial mesoderm, notochord, and head muscles). However, the neural tube was closed in a subset of embryos that lacked any one of these tissues. This suggests that several types of Nodal‐induced mesendodermal/mesodermal precursors are competent to promote neurulation. genesis 54:3–18, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Physiological and morphological properties of Dbx1‐derived respiratory neurons in the pre‐Bötzinger complex of neonatal mice

• The transcription factor Dbx1 gives rise to putatively respiratory rhythm‐generating neurons in the pre‐Bötzinger complex. Comparative analysis of Dbx1‐derived (Dbx1+) and non‐Dbx1‐ derived (Dbx1−) neurons can help elucidate the cellular bases of respiratory rhythm generation. • In vitro, Dbx1+ neurons activate earlier in the respiratory cycle, discharge larger magnitude inspiratory bursts and exhibit a lower rheobase compared with Dbx1− neurons. • The Dbx1+ neurons tend to express the intrinsic currents IA (transient outward A‐current) and Ih (hyperpolarization‐activated current) in diametric opposition, which may facilitate temporal summation of excitatory synaptic inputs, whereas the Dbx1− neurons show no significant pattern of expression regarding IA and Ih. • The Dbx1+ neurons exhibit smooth, spineless dendrites that project in the transverse plane, whereas the Dbx1− neurons are confined to the transverse plane to a lesser extent and sometimes exhibit spines. • The properties of Dbx1+ neurons that may contribute to respiratory rhythmogenesis include a high level of excitability linked to ongoing network activity and dendritic properties that may facilitate synaptic integration.
Assessment of the Educational Skills and Competencies Needed By Beginning Hospitality Managers

The need for competent management personnel has created outstanding career opportunities for foodservice and lodging management graduates. This increased demand, however, has also created problems in the development and evaluation of hospitality education. Academic programs in hospitality vary considerably, and there has been little effort to identify competencies for hospitality occupations, especially at the baccalaurate level. The researcher, therefore, undertook this study to develop and assess the educational skills and competencies needed by hospitality managers upon graduation. Today's beginning hospitality manager needs a diversity of talents, skills, and competencies to meet the expectations of the industry. Human relations and conceptual management skills, however, deserve serious consideration in baccalaurate programs. The top five competencies which were rated by the respondents deal directly with human relations skills and attitudes. Technical skills are important, but should not be considered a priority in relation to the entire educational process.
Regulation of interleukin 1α secretion by inflammasomes

The crucial role of the proinflammatory cytokine interleukin 1β (IL-1β) in driving inflammatory disorders, such as Muckle–Wells syndrome and gout, has been extensively characterised. Owing to its high potency to induce inflammation the activation and secretion of IL-1β is tightly regulated. The sensing of various host ‘dangers’, including infections and metabolic deregulation, results in the formation of large protein complexes, termed inflammasomes. Formation of the inflammasomes leads to the cleavage and activation of caspase-1, which in turn proteolytically processes its substrates, including pro-IL-1β. Biologically active IL-1β is subsequently secreted by the cell. In contrast to IL-1β, little is known about mechanisms underlying the activation and secretion of its close homologue IL-1α. Moreover, the physiological role of IL-1α is still not well defined. Several studies hypothesise that IL-1α serves as a danger signal, which is passively released from dying cells. However, recent studies suggest a more complex function of this cytokine. Indeed, NLRP3 inflammasome agonists such as uric acid crystal or nigericin induce IL-1α cleavage and secretion, leading to the cosecretion of both IL-1β and IL-1α. Depending on the type of NLRP3 agonist, release of IL-1α is NLRP3-inflammasome/caspase-1 dependent or independent, but in both cases IL-1α processing depends on calpain protease activity. Taken together, these results suggest that the promotion and progression of inflammatory diseases is not solely due to IL-1β but also to its close relative IL-1α. This should be considered when IL-1 blockade is applied as a therapeutic strategy for diseases such as cryopyrin-associated periodic syndromes or gout.
Partitioning of ecosystem respiration in a paludified shallow-peat spruce forest in the southern taiga of European Russia

Soil, tree stems, and ecosystem carbon dioxide fluxes were measured by chambers and eddy covariance methods in a paludified shallow-peat spruce forest in the southern taiga of European Russia (Tver region, 56° N 33° E) during the growing seasons of 2002–2012. The site was established in 1998 as part of the EUROSIBERIAN CARBONFLUX project, an international field experiment examining atmosphere–biosphere interaction in Siberia and European Russia. In all years the observed annual cumulative net ecosystem flux was positive (the forest was a source of carbon to the atmosphere). Soil and tree stem respiration was a significant part of the total ecosystem respiration (ER) in this paludified shallow-peat spruce forest. On average, 49% of the ER came from soil respiration. We found that the soil fluxes exhibited high seasonal variability, ranging from 0.7 to 10 μmol m−2 s−1. Generally, the soil respiration depended on the soil temperature and ground water level. In drought conditions, the soil respiration was low and did not depend on temperature. The stem respiration of spruces grew intensively in May, had permanently high values from June to the end of September, and in October it dramatically decreased. The tree stem respiration in midsummer was about 3–5 μmol m−2 s−1 for dominant trees and about 1–2 μmol m−2 s−1 for subdominant trees. The respiration of living tree stems was about 10–20% of the ER.
Financial Crisis and the Great Depression: A Regime-Switching Approach

I explore the timing of and effects of the U.S. financial crisis of the 1930s in a regime switching framework. Estimated conditional probabilities over the state of the financial sector suggest that a prolonged period of crisis begins not with the 1929 stock market crash, but with the first banking panic of October 1930. These probabilities also suggest that the crisis persists until the introduction of federal deposit insurance in early 1934. Consistent with the view that this financial crisis had real effects, these conditional probabilities contain additional explanatory power for output fluctuations. This is in addition to that provided by the money stock.
Functional Characterization of the Promoter of Human Carbonyl Reductase 1 (CBR1). Role of XRE Elements in Mediating the Induction of CBR1 by Ligands of the Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor

Human carbonyl reductase 1 (CBR1) metabolizes a variety of substrates, including the anticancer doxorubicin and the antipsychotic haloperidol. The transcriptional regulation of CBR1 has been largely unexplored. Therefore, we first investigated the promoter activities of progressive gene-reporter constructs encompassing up to 2.4 kilobases upstream of the translation start site of CBR1. Next, we investigated whether CBR1 mRNA levels were altered in cells incubated with prototypical receptor activators (e.g., dexamethasone and rifampicin). CBR1 mRNA levels were significantly induced (5-fold) by the ligand of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) β-naphthoflavone. DNA sequence analysis revealed two xenobiotic response elements (–122XRE and –5783XRE) with potential regulatory functions. CBR1 promoter constructs lacking the –122XRE showed diminished (9-fold) promoter activity in AHR-proficient cells incubated with β-naphthoflavone. Fusion of –5783XRE to the –2485CBR1 reporter construct enhanced its promoter activity after incubations with β-naphthoflavone by 5-fold. Furthermore, we tested whether the potent AHR ligand 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) induced Cbr1 expression in Ahr+/– and Ahr–/– mice. TCDD induced hepatic Cbr1 mRNA (TCDD, 2-fold) and Cbr1 protein levels (TCDD, 2-fold) in Ahr+/– mice compared with vehicle-injected controls. In contrast, no significant Cbr1 mRNA and Cbr1 protein induction was detected in livers from Ahr–/– mice treated with TCDD. These studies provide the first insights on the functional characteristics of the human CBR1 gene promoter. Our data indicate that the AHR pathway contributes to the transcriptional regulation of CBR1.
Lifting particle coordinate changes of magnetic moment type to Vlasov-Maxwell Hamiltonian dynamics

Techniques for coordinate changes that depend on both dependent and independent variables are developed and applied to the Maxwell-Vlasov Hamiltonian theory. Particle coordinate changes with a new velocity variable dependent on the magnetic field, with spatial coordinates unchanged, are lifted to the field theoretic level, by transforming the noncanonical Poisson bracket and Hamiltonian structure of the Vlasov-Maxwell dynamics. Several examples are given including magnetic coordinates, where the velocity is decomposed into components parallel and perpendicular to the local magnetic field, and the case of spherical velocity coordinates. An example of the lifting procedure is performed to obtain a simplified version of gyrokinetics, where the magnetic moment is used as a coordinate and the dynamics is reduced by elimination of the electric field energy in the Hamiltonian.
A note on ivory trade and elephant conservation

ABSTRACT To protect the elephant, trade in ivory has been banned since 1990. In this paper, we demonstrate that this ban's effect on elephant populations is ambiguous. Depending on the discount rate, among other things, the trade ban can either increase or decrease optimal population size. If the decision-maker's discount rate exceeds a certain threshold, the optimum stock of elephants is greater with a trade ban. Since the threshold is in the range of possible social discount rates, the success of the trade ban in promoting elephant conservation will vary spatially and temporally, depending on the characteristics and level of development of countries with significant elephant populations.
Economies of Scale and Organizational Efficiency in Banking: A Profit-Function Approach

SINCE DAVID ALHADEFF's SEMINAL STUDY in 1954, numerous studies of bank size, organization, and efficiency have been published (see Guttentag and Herman [7] and Benston [2] for surveys and Longbrake and Haslem [19] for a more recent and sophisticated investigation). Most of these studies have confined the scope of inquiry to questions of operational or "technical" efficiency and have consequently utilized the theory and estimation of the cost function as an analytical framework. Commenting on a substantial portion of this literature in 1967, Guttentag and Herman observed that "we do not know much more about operational efficiency than we did before 1954. " Nor has much progress been made in recent years (see Mullineaux [21]). ' Indeed, public officials charged with the regulation of entry, merger, and organizational restructuring within the banking industry continue to be dismayed by the nonuniformity and inconclusiveness of evidence relating to bank operating efficiency. Regulators must be concerned with more than operating efficiency, however. Since they are charged with provision for the "convenience and needs of the community," they must also consider allocative, or "price" efficiency. Price inefficiency means that scarce resources are not being directed to their most highlyvalued uses. Allocative inefficiencies can of course result from noncompetitive market conditions, but they may also occur in a competitive environment. In the latter case, price inefficiencies simply reflect a failure to maximize profits. For example, information costs may prevent some firms from successfully equalizing marginal revenue product to the relevant input prices. Thus, bank regulators need to know whether bank markets are competitive, and, if so, whether some kinds of bank organizations are more price efficient ("better" profit maximizers) than others. Again, however, research to date has proved inconclusive. Indeed, since it is frequently alleged that there may be a "trade-off" between technical and price efficiency (e.g., that larger firms can achieve unit cost reductions but are also likely to produce more allocative inefficiency), it seems imperative to attempt to measure differences in both kinds of efficiency across different types of banking organizations. Furthermore, since the existing regulatory environment may have an impact on "observed" measures of efficiency, it should somehow be taken into account in the testing procedure.
TQM Self‐assessment in the UK

There is currently little published information about the use of total quality (TQ)‐based self‐assessment in the UK despite the increasing interest in the subject. Discusses the findings of a survey into the practice and benefits of self‐assessment to recognized models such as the European model for Total Quality Management and the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award model. Survey findings indicate that companies are increasingly using self‐assessment and that benefits from this approach are quickly realized.