Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems ( PACIS ) 2014 THE INFLUENCE OF PRICE DISPERSION ON PURCHASE INTENTION IN CHINESE ONLINE C 2 C MARKET : A TRUST PERSPECTIVE

Chinese C2C market grows rapidly. However, it is plagued by serious trust fraud problems. The level of price dispersion in C2C platforms is relatively high. The mixed interaction between “lemons market” problem and high level of price dispersion makes it hard for buyers to identify trustworthy sellers with low price. We are interested in the generation of initial trust and purchase intention when the buyers search a product and receive a list of widely distributed prices, rather than a list of narrowly distributed prices. However, limited knowledge can be gained from previous studies regarding this issue. This study puts forward a theoretical model to explain how price dispersion interacts with other important factors in C2C purchase (e.g. initial trust, perceived risk, perceived value and purchase intention). Product type (hightouch/low-touch) is taken into consideration as well since the level of uncertainty faced by buyers is different. A proposal for experiment is described. This research-in-progress has the potential to lead to various theoretical and practical implications. For example, the results will enhance the literature on trust, help buyers do better purchase decision, assist sellers in designing pricing strategy, and be utilized by platforms to propose new mechanisms.
How to Support Innovative Behaviour?The Role of LMX and Satisfaction with HR Practices

Innovative behaviour of employees refers to a key aspect of organizational effectiveness: the creation, intro-duction and application of new ideas within a group or organization in order to benefit performance. Using data from a Dutch and German survey in four technical organizations (n=272) we developed and tested two models to explain the relationships between Leader-Member-Exchange (LMX), satisfaction with HR prac-tices (employee influence, flow, rewards and work content) and innovative behaviour. As expected both LMX and satisfaction with HR practices were positively related to innovative behaviour. Furthermore, we found evidence that satisfaction with HR practices mediates the relationship between LMX and innovative behaviour. No significant interaction effects between LMX and satisfaction with HR practices on innovative behaviour were found.
Conscientious objection and induced abortion in Europe

ABSTRACT The issue of conscientious objection (CO) arises in healthcare when doctors and nurses refuse to have any involvement in the provision of treatment of certain patients due to their religious or moral beliefs. Most commonly CO is invoked when it comes to induced abortion. Of the EU member states where induced abortion is legal, invoking CO is granted by law in 21 countries. The same applies to the non-EU countries Norway and Switzerland. CO is not legally granted in the EU member states Sweden, Finland, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic. The Icelandic legislation provides no right to CO either. European examples prove that the recommendation that CO should not prevent women from accessing services fails in a number of cases. CO puts women in an unequal position depending on their place of residence, socio-economic status and income. CO should not be presented as a question that relates only to health professionals and their rights. CO mainly concerns women as it has very real consequences for their reproductive health and rights. European countries should assess the laws governing CO and its effects on women's rights. CO should not be used as a subtle method for limiting the legal right to healthcare.
Study of Obsessive Compulsive Beliefs: Relationship with Eating Disorders

Background: The relationship between Eating Disorders (ED) and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) has been extensively studied in the last few years. However, little effort has been devoted to studying the link between these disorders with regard to their distorted beliefs. Aims: The first objective of the study was to analyze the differences in OCD-related beliefs among ED subtypes and the general population, controlling for age, Body Mass Index, and obsessionality. The second objective was to explore which OCD beliefs explain ED symptomatology. Method: Seventy-nine ED patients without OCD comorbidity, divided into diagnostic subtypes, and 50 community participants completed the Obsessive Beliefs Spanish Inventory-Revised and measures of ED and OCD symptomatology. Results: There were no differences found among clinical ED subtypes in obsessive beliefs, but the bulimia nervosa purgative subtype and binge eating groups obtained significantly different scores from the community group on Thought-Action-Fusion (TAF)-likelihood and TAF-moral, respectively. OCD symptomatology had the most important predictive effect on ED symptoms, followed by Overestimation of Threat, BMI and FPA-moral. Conclusions: The different patterns of beliefs among subtypes reflect what other studies have suggested about the relevance of the presentation of ED symptoms associated with restriction, purges and binge without purges. Our results agree with the transdiagnostic perspective of ED.
Simian virus 40 infection via MHC class I molecules and caveolae

Summary: MHC class I molecules are a necessary component of the cell surface receptor for simian virus 40 (SV40). After binding to class I molecules, SV40 enters cells via a unique endocytic pathway that involves caveolae, rather than clathrin‐coated pits. This pathway is dependent on a transmembrane signal that SV40 transmits from the cell surface. Furthermore, it delivers SV40 to the endoplasmic reticulum, rather than to the endosomal/lysosomal compartment, which is the usual target for endocytic traffic. The glycosphingolipid and cholesterol‐enriched plasma membrane domains that contain caveolae are also enriched for class I molecules, relative to whole plasma membrane. Nevertheless, although class I molecules bind SV40, they do not enter with SV40, nor do they enter spontaneously into uninfected SV40 host cells. Instead, they are shed from the cell surface by the activity of a metalloprotease. These results imply the existence of a putative secondary receptor for SV40 that might mediate SV40 entry. It is not yet clear whether class I molecules are active in transmitting the SV40 signal. Monoclonal antibodies against class I molecules also induce a signal in the SV40 host cells. However, the antibody‐induced signal is mediated by mitogen‐activated protein kinase (MAP kinase), whereas the SV40 signal is independent of MAP kinase.
Neuronal Apoptosis in Mouse Trisomy 16

Abstract: Hippocampal neurons from the trisomy 16 (Ts16) mouse, a potential animal model of Down’s syndrome (trisomy 21) and neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), die at an accelerated rate in vitro. Here, we present evidence that the accelerated neuronal death in Ts16 occurs by apoptosis, as has been reported for neurons in AD. First, the nuclei of dying Ts16 neurons are pyknotic and undergo DNA fragmentation, as revealed by terminal transferase‐mediated dUTP nick end‐labeling. Second, the accelerated death of Ts16 neurons is prevented by inhibitors of the caspase family of proteases, which are thought to act at a late, obligatory step in the apoptosis pathway. In the presence of maximally effective concentrations of caspase inhibitors, Ts16 neuron survival was indistinguishable from that of control neurons. These results suggest that overexpression of one or more genes on mouse chromosome 16 leads to caspase‐mediated apoptosis in Ts16 neurons.
Avoidance of unfavourable results following primary flexor tendon surgery

This review describes the biological problems faced by those managing primary flexor tendon injuries and explains why these problems still thwart attempts to achieve normal, or near normal, function after this injury, despite a century of surgical effort. It considers the historical background of the early 20th century attempts to improve the results and analyses the clinical usefulness of more recent research into tendon core and circumferential suture modification, including the authors’ work in this field, and changes in post-operative mobilisation over the last 50 years. More recent manipulation of the sheath to improve results and the future possibility of manipulation of adhesions are discussed. It also discusses other factors, e.g., the patient, the experience of the surgeon, the use of therapists, the timing of repair, complex injuries, injuries in zones other than zone 2, which can have a bearing on the results and considers how these can be modified to avoid an unfavourable outcome.
Relative and Absolute Incentives: Evidence on Worker Productivity

Using personnel data, we compare worker productivity under a relative incentive scheme -where pay is based on individual productivity relative to the average productivity of the group- to productivity under piece rates. We find that productivity is at least 50% higher under piece rates. Further analysis shows this is due to workers partially internalizing the negative externality their effort imposes on others under the relative incentive scheme. Workers internalize this externality to a greater extent when they work with fewer co-workers, and a greater share of their coworkers are their close friends. The relationship among workers has no affect on productivity under piece rates
Gene–environment interactions in development and disease

Developmental geneticists continue to make substantial jumps in our understanding of the genetic pathways that regulate development. This understanding stems predominantly from analyses of genetically tractable model organisms developing in laboratory environments. This environment is vastly different from that in which human development occurs. As such, most causes of developmental defects in humans are thought to involve multifactorial gene–gene and gene–environment interactions. In this review, we discuss how gene–environment interactions with environmental teratogens may predispose embryos to structural malformations. We elaborate on the growing number of gene–ethanol interactions that might underlie susceptibility to fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. WIREs Dev Biol 2017, 6:e247. doi: 10.1002/wdev.247
Performance study of mobile WiMAX network with changing scenarios under different modulation and coding

WiMAX—the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access is a promising technology for offering high‐speed data, video and multimedia services over mobile platform evolving toward all IP networks. The increasing demand of WiMAX for VoIP and high‐speed multimedia is due to the simplicity of installation and cost reduction compared with the traditional wired DSL cable. The challenges to service providers lie with the Quality of Service (QoS) under varying fading environment while at the same time maximizing for resource utilization. In this paper, a rigorous and comprehensive performance study of mobile WiMAX has been made with respect to adaptive modulation and coding techniques considering the variation in the speed of the mobile, path‐loss, scheduling services and application type for comparing with the fixed type of modulations. The OPNET 14.5. A modeler for WiMAX platform has been used as simulator for adaptation at the physical layer of the transmission in WiMAX OFDMA structure. Observation reveals that dynamic adaptation of modulation and coding schemes based on channel condition enables better QoS while consuming low overall bandwidth of the system. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Simultaneously Discovering and Quantifying Risk Types from Textual Risk Disclosures

Managers and researchers alike have long recognized the importance of corporate textual risk disclosures. Yet it is a nontrivial task to discover and quantify variables of interest from unstructured text. In this paper, we develop a variation of the latent Dirichlet allocation topic model and its learning algorithm for simultaneously discovering and quantifying risk types from textual risk disclosures. We conduct comprehensive evaluations in terms of both conventional statistical fit and substantive fit with respect to the quality of discovered information. Experimental results show that our proposed method outperforms all competing methods, and could find more meaningful topics risk types. By taking advantage of our proposed method for measuring risk types from textual data, we study how risk disclosures in 10-K forms affect the risk perceptions of investors. Different from prior studies, our results provide support for all three competing arguments regarding whether and how risk disclosures affect the risk perceptions of investors, depending on the specific risk types disclosed. We find that around two-thirds of risk types lack informativeness and have no significant influence. Moreover, we find that the informative risk types do not necessarily increase the risk perceptions of investors---the disclosure of three types of systematic and liquidity risks will increase the risk perceptions of investors, whereas the other five types of unsystematic risks will decrease them. Data, as supplemental material, are available at http://dx.doi. org/10.1287/mnsc.2014. 1930 . This paper was accepted by Alok Gupta, special issue on business analytics.
Assessment of composite insulator’s behavior during the aging of its housing material

During the lifetime of a High Voltage composite insulator, the housing of that latter is exposed to stress conditions. Those exposures alter the insulating behavior of the insulator in term of Electrical field (E-field) distribution and, consequently, the leakage current flow. The assessment of that evolution is an important parameter to be considered during the design of the insulator in order to prevent additional stresses such as dry band arcing which is caused by the leakage current increase. In this paper, an attempt has been made to build a model based on the Finite Element Method (FEM) for the calculation of the E-field distribution around a composite insulator. This model was used to assess the impact of the aging of the housing material. A program was developed in order to minimize the effect of the aging of the housing. That optimization was done by modifying the construction parameters of the insulator.
Paired Exchange: A New Innovation in Live Donor Kidney Transplantation

Barriers to traditional living-donor kidney transplantation include ABO incompatibility and positive cross-match. Paired exchange kidney transplantation (PEKT) is a viable an increasingly popular method to increase live donation. We discuss the pros and cons as well as the various ways to achieve PEKT along with a review of existing literature. To achieve the full potential of PEKT, the transplant community at large needs to work toward a national kidney paired donation program along with a centralized financial intermediary.
Impact of Antipsychotics and Anticholinergics on Autonomic Modulation in Patients With Schizophrenia

Abstract Antipsychotics are associated with cardiovascular risk, but the relationship between their anticholinergic properties and cardiac function is not clear. We hypothesize that antipsychotics with a high muscarinic affinity (HMA) may reduce parasympathetic modulation, which should be observable by means of heart rate variability (HRV) measurement. We also assume that anticholinergics, which are commonly used in patients with schizophrenia to treat drug-induced parkinsonism, interact with antipsychotics, and this may also affect HRV. Fifty-five patients with schizophrenia were recruited into this study. Twenty-eight subjects used antipsychotics with an HMA and 27 subjects used antipsychotics with a low muscarinic affinity (LMA). Heart rate variability values between the patients on antipsychotics with HMA and those on antipsychotics with LMA were compared. Correlation and regression analysis were then performed to clarify the relationship between HMA, LMA, and HRV. The influence of anticholinergics was also assessed by correlation analysis. The HMA group showed significantly reduced low-frequency (LF) power, high-frequency (HF) power, total power (TP), and normalized LF (LF%) than the LMA group. Regression analysis supported the hypothesis that muscarinic affinity was related to LF (&bgr; = −0.447; P < 0.001), HF (&bgr; = −0.390; P = 0.002), and TP (&bgr; = −0.399; P = 0.001). The interaction between LMA and anticholinergic use also influenced LF% (&bgr; = 0.326; P = 0.006). In the LMA group, the use of anticholinergics was positively correlated with LF% and LF/HF. In the HMA group, after exclusion of the patients using anticholinergics, the equivalent dose of antipsychotics showed a negative correlation with HF. Our results suggest that the muscarinic affinity of antipsychotics affects both sympathetic and parasympathetic modulation and that anticholinergics interact with antipsychotics to influence HRV.
Investigating long-run demand for broad money in the Gulf Arab countries

We estimate the long-run demand for broad money for the six Gulf Cooperation Council countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates) over the 1980–2012 period. Applying time series and panel econometric tests, we first document the existence of long-run equilibrium relationship for money demand – both nationally and regionally. The estimated income elasticities are generally lower than those reported in the literature, while the interest elasticities are more in line with the standard money demand literature. We discuss how the movements in income velocity can reconcile the varying income and interest elasticities documented across the six countries. A discussion on the homogeneity (poolability) of the long-run money demand parameters and the error correction model of money demand is also provided.
Age-related cognitive deficits mediated by changes in the striatal dopamine system.

OBJECTIVE The study examined the influence of losses in dopaminergic function on age-related cognitive deficits. METHOD Eleven healthy subjects (21-68 years of age) completed a set of cognitive tasks used to assess perceptual speed and episodic memory. D(2) receptor binding was measured in the caudate and the putamen by using positron emission tomography. RESULTS A gradual age-related deterioration was found for all cognitive tasks and for D(2) binding in both striatal structures. Statistical control of D(2) binding eliminated the age-related cognitive variation, whereas residual effects of D(2) binding were seen after the analysis controlled for age. CONCLUSIONS D(2) receptor binding is a more important factor than chronological age in accounting for variation in cognitive performance across the adult lifespan. Changes in dopaminergic neurotransmission play an important role in aging-related cognitive decline.
Local Joint Inflammation and Histone Citrullination in a Murine Model of the Transition From Preclinical Autoimmunity to Inflammatory Arthritis

Anti–citrullinated protein antibodies (ACPAs) are characteristic of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). However, their presence years before the onset of clinical RA is perplexing. Although multiple putative citrullinated antigens have been identified, no studies have demonstrated the specific capacity of these antigens to initiate inflammatory arthritis. This study was undertaken to recapitulate the transition from preclinical to clinical RA and to demonstrate the capacity of local citrullination to facilitate this transition.
Cochlear Implantation Improves Spatial Release From Masking and Restores Localization Abilities in Single-sided Deaf Patients

Hypothesis: Adult patients with acquired single-sided deafness (SSD) benefit from binaural hearing after cochlear implantation (CI). Background: To spatially separate the signal of interest from noise is of utmost importance for the speech understanding in challenging listening situations. This ability, however, largely depends on binaural hearing. CI in acquired SSD restores hearing on the deaf ear. This study intended to test, if this is accompanied by a restoration of binaural functions of the auditory system. Methods: Eleven CI users with SSD and normal hearing to mild sensorineural hearing loss in the contralateral ear participated in this study. Speech reception thresholds (SRT) were obtained using the Oldenburg Sentence Test (OLSA) sentence test in competing two talker babble noise. To evaluate spatial release from masking, seven spatial configurations of speech and noise were used in a free field setup: noise originated from 0 degree, ±45 degrees and ±90 degrees incidence angles, whereas speech was either presented from the front or ±90 degrees. In addition, localization ability in the frontal horizontal plane was assessed with a 1 s Comité Consultatif International Téléphonique et Télégraphique (CCITT) noise stimulus using an array of nine equally spaced loudspeakers. All tests were conducted in acoustic normal hearing ear alone (AH) and aided conditions. Results: In conditions with spatially separated signal and noise sources, significant benefit of the aided over the AH condition was observed, even when noise was presented from the AH side. Localization ability significantly improved in the aided condition. Conclusion: The present data demonstrates that spatial release from masking can be restored in patients with SSD using a cochlear implant.
Successful treatment of rhinocerebral mucormycosis by a combination of aggressive surgical debridement and the use of systemic liposomal amphotericin B and local therapy with nebulized amphotericin – a case report

Abstract A case of mucormycosis involving the nose and paranasalsinuses in a 55-year-old man with recently diagnosed acute promyelocytic leukaemia is reported. It was successfully treated with a combination of aggressive surgical debridement and systemic amphotericin B. In addition, local nebulized amphotericin B was used as an adjunct totherapy. We believe this is only the second documented use of nebulized amphotericin in the management of sinonasal mucormycosis. The needfor a high index of suspicion and early aggressive management is emphasized.
DNA hypomethylation and methyltransferase expression in atherosclerotic lesions

Arterial smooth muscle cell (SMC) migration and proliferation are central features in atherogenesis. Altered gene expression and cell proliferation in atherosclerotic lesions have some similar characteristics with certain solid tumors and thus might have similar mechanisms that lead to SMC proliferation. Among cancer cells common features are genome-wide hypomethylation which correlates with transformation and tumor progression, and coincident over-expression of methyltransferase (MTase). The purpose of the present study was to analyze whether alterations in DNA methylation and MTase expression are present in atherosclerotic lesions. A significant reduction in genomic 5-methylcytosine content was detected in advanced human atherosclerotic lesions and in lesions of ApoE knock-out mice. SMC were shown to develop hypomethylation in vitro during transformation from a contractile to synthetic pheno-type. Balloon denudation of New Zealand White rabbit aorta caused proliferation of intimal SMC with concomitant genomic hypomethylation in the thickened intima. By using in situ hybridization the overall transcriptional activity was found to be increased in clusters of lesion SMC. Marked heterogeneity was seen in MTase mRNA expression in various types of atherosclerotic lesions among intimal and medial SMC. These findings show that (1) genomic hypomethylation occurs during atherogenesis in human, mouse and rabbit lesions and that it correlates with increased transcriptional activity; (2) MTase is expressed in atherosclerotic lesions; and (3) hypomethylation is present in advanced lesions at the same level as in malignant tumors and may affect cellular proliferation and gene expression in atherosclerotic lesions.