Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Re: impact of stromal sensitivity on radiation response of tumors.

BACKGROUND Irradiation of tumors causes the death of both parenchymal tumor cells as well as normal tissue stromal cells (e.g., endothelium, connective tissue). However, it has been difficult to distinguish the contributions to overall tumor response after irradiation from the two compartments. The development of the severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mouse provides a model in which the contribution of stromal cell responses to ionizing radiation to overall tumor response can be defined, because its normal tissue cells are extremely radiosensitive. Therefore, the results of irradiation of tumors in radiation-sensitive (SCID) and radiation-resistant hosts can be compared, and the contribution of the normal tissue stroma clarified. PURPOSE Our purpose was to investigate the effects of radiation-induced stromal cell damage on tumor cell death, using tumor growth delay (GD) and local control (complete and permanent regression of the irradiated tumor) as end points. METHODS Tumor GD and local control experiments were performed in SCID, athymic, and C3H mice. Sixty SCID and 60 nude mice for each of three human tumor cell lines (HGL9, HSTS26, HCT15) and for each of five murine cell lines (FSC1, FSC2, FSM1, FSM2, E01) and 60 SCID and 60 C3H mice for the FSa2 spontaneous C3H sarcoma were studied. Neoplasms were produced by injection of 10(6) cells from in vitro tissue cultures into the flanks of donor mice; after tumors had grown, experimental neoplasms were produced by transplanting 2- to 3-mm fragments into recipient mice. Animals were randomly assigned to various groups when tumors reached average volumes of 120 mm3. Graded, single-dose x irradiations (15-115 Gy, dose rate about 7 Gy/min) were given under acutely hypoxic conditions. Tumors were scored one to two times per week until recurrence. RESULTS The x-ray doses needed to achieve local control in 50% of the animals (tumor control doses, TCD50) ranged from 45.1 to 58.0 Gy for human tumors and from 36.3 to 114.0 Gy for murine tumors. On average, the TCD50 values in SCID mice were only about 3.5% lower than values in nude or C3H mice. The amount of GD defined at 66% of the TCD50 for the various groups was, however, 27% longer in the SCID mice (P = .004). CONCLUSIONS While the three-fold higher radiation sensitivity of the normal tissue stromal cells in the SCID mice did not alter the percentage of tumors controlled by x irradiation in the SCID mouse hosts as compared with other hosts, there appear to be significant differences in GD. Radiation-induced stromal cell damage does not significantly contribute to tumor cell death; however, it can prolong the interval of tumor regression.
Bioaccumulation and distribution of perfloroalkyl acids in seafood products from Bohai Bay, China

Ten perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) were measured in seafood collected from Bohai Bay, China in 2010. The summed concentrations of the PFAAs were in the ranges of not detected to 194 ng/g dry weight and 4.0 to 304 ng/g dry weight for invertebrates and fish, respectively. The levels of perflurooctanesulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) in the seafood were lower than those from North America, the Mediterranean Sea, and South Korea. Living habitat, trophic level, and feeding habits had important impacts on the bioaccumulation and distribution of PFAAs in the seafood. The species at higher trophic levels had the potential to accumulate more PFAAs than benthic invertebrates. Tidal‐flat organisms tended to accumulate more PFOA than PFOS, whereas the opposite was seen for shallow‐water species. For all the species, PFOS and PFOA were partitioned preferentially in the liver or viscera. Risk assessment indicated that the current level of PFAAs in the seafood of Bohai Bay does not represent an immediate source of harm to public health. Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 2012; 31: 1972–1979. © 2012 SETAC
Glycolysis is independent of oxygenation state in stimulated human skeletal muscle in vivo

1 We tested the hypothesis that the cytoplasmic control mechanism for glycolysis is affected by the presence of oxygen during exercise. We used a comparison of maximal twitch stimulation under ischaemic and intact circulation in human wrist flexor and ankle dorsiflexor muscles. 31P magnetic resonance spectroscopy followed the phosphocreatine (PCr), Pi and pH dynamics at 6–9 s intervals. Glycolytic PCr synthesis was determined during stimulation from pH and tissue buffer capacity, as well as the oxidative phosphorylation rate. 2 Ischaemic vs. aerobic stimulation resulted in similar glycolytic fluxes in the two muscles. The onset of glycolysis occured after fifty to seventy stimulations and the extent of glycolytic PCr synthesis was directly proportional to the number of stimulations thereafter. 3 Two‐fold differences in the putative feedback regulators of glycolysis, [Pi] and [ADP], were found between aerobic and ischaemic stimulation. The similar glycolytic fluxes in the face of these differences in metabolite levels eliminates feedback as a control mechanism in glycolysis. 4 These results demonstrate that glycolytic flux is independent of oxygenation state and metabolic feedback, but proportional to muscle activation. These results show a key role for muscle stimulation in the activation and maintenance of glycolysis. Further, this glycolytic control mechanism is independent of the feedback control mechanism that governs oxidative phosphorylation.
Family correlates of daughter's and son's locus of control expectancies during childhood

ABSTRACT Children who expect they can bring about good outcomes and avoid bad outcomes tend to experience more personal successes. Little is known about factors that contribute to these ‘control expectancies’. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether children's internal control expectancies occur in the context of parents’ internal control expectancies, low family strain, and high family cohesiveness and whether these factors are more strongly related to daughters’ than sons’ control expectancies. A community sample of 85 children aged 9–11 years and their parents (85 mothers; 63 fathers) completed rating scales. Fathers’ more internal control expectancies and mothers’ reports of fewer family strains were associated with daughters’ but not sons’ greater internal control expectancies, and greater family cohesiveness was related to both daughters’ and sons’ internal control orientations. These findings suggest that family factors may contribute to children's, particularly daughters’, development of internal control expectancies.
High-Frequency Trading in the U.S. Treasury Market: Liquidity and Price Efficiency around Macroeconomic News Announcements

This paper investigates high-frequency (HF) trading in the U.S. Treasury market around major macroeconomic news announcements. After identifying HF market and limit orders on the basis of the speed of their placement, alteration and cancellation deemed beyond manual ability, we use the introduction of the co-location facility (i-Cross) by BrokerTec at the end of 2007 as an exogenous instrument to assess the impact of HF trading on market liquidity and price efficiency. We find that HF trading activity substantially increases after news announcements and generally improves price efficiency. However, it has a negative impact on liquidity, as it widens spreads before announcements and lowers depth of the order book after announcements. JEL classification: G10, G12, G14.
How foreign investors influence stock markets? The Saudi Arabian experience

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the impact of foreign institutional investors on valuation, liquidity and volatility in the Saudi stock exchange for the post-liberalization period. Saudi regulators allowed the foreign investment community to invest in the Tadawul All Share Index (TASI) in June 2015. Firstly, the paper finds a positive change in abnormal returns in the three-year post-liberalization period compared to the three-year non-liberalization period (pre-period), suggesting that the entry of qualified foreign institutional investors (QFIIs) benefited security valuation. Further, the higher valuation result is consistent with the prediction of standard international asset pricing models, that stock market liberalization may reduce the liberalizing country’s cost of equity capital by allowing for risk sharing between domestic and foreign agents. Secondly, contrary to the regulators/policymakers’ intention and empirical evidence, the liquidity proxies document mixed evidence. Lastly, this study finds mixed evidence in the price volatility measures. However, the volatility and liquidity finding suggests that the presence of foreign institutional investors is not the source of excess volatility or high turnover on local bourses. Overall, the evidence, on average, shows some signs of improvement for different market efficiency measures during the post-liberalization period compared to the pre-liberalization period. The less than expected improvement in Tadawul during the post-period implies that the Saudi financial regulator’s incentive of opening the TASI for QFIIs coincides with economic vulnerabilities for the Kingdom, stringent QFIIs regulation and weak investor protection laws.
Ectopic Pregnancy Risk With Assisted Reproductive Technology Procedures

OBJECTIVE: To assess the ectopic pregnancy risk among women who conceived with assisted reproductive technology (ART) procedures. METHODS: The ectopic rate for ART pregnancies was calculated from population-based data of pregnancies conceived with ART in U.S. clinics in 1999–2001. Variation in ectopic risk by patient and ART treatment factors was assessed by using bivariate analyses and multivariable logistic regression. RESULTS: Of 94,118 ART pregnancies, 2,009 (2.1%) were ectopic. Variation was observed by procedure type. In comparison with the ectopic rate (2.2%) among pregnancies conceived with in vitro fertilization and transcervical transfer of freshly fertilized embryos from the patient’s oocytes (fresh, nondonor IVF-ET), the ectopic rate was significantly increased when zygote intrafallopian transfer (ZIFT) was used (3.6%) and significantly decreased when donor oocytes were used (1.4%) or when a gestational surrogate carried the pregnancy (0.9%). Among fresh nondonor IVF-ET procedures, the risk for ectopic pregnancy was increased among women with tubal factor infertility (odds ratio [OR] 2.0, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.7–2.4; referent group = ART for male factor), endometriosis (OR 1.3, 95% CI 1.0–1.6), and other nontubal female factors of infertility (OR 1.4, 95% CI 1.2–1.6) and decreased among women with a previous live birth (OR 0.6, 95% CI 0.5–0.7). Transfer of embryos with an indication of high implantation potential was associated with a decreased ectopic risk when 2 or fewer embryos were transferred (OR 0.7, 95% CI 0.5–0.9), but not when 3 or more embryos were transferred. CONCLUSION: Ectopic risk among ART pregnancies varied according to ART procedure type, reproductive health characteristics of the woman carrying the pregnancy, and estimated embryo implantation potential. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: II-2
Surprise, defence, or making sense: What removes hindsight bias?

This paper examines predictions concerning the absence of hindsight bias. Some hypothesise that because hindsight bias increases with outcome "surprisingness", only unsurprising outcomes will remove it. Others suggest the opposite--that very surprising outcomes will reduce or reverse the bias. A proposed sense-making model suggests that unexpected outcomes (i.e., initially surprising) invoke greater sensemaking, which typically produces greater hindsight bias. If the process is not successful, however, the bias may be reduced or reversed. Expected outcomes will also produce little hindsight bias, but only because they invoke relatively little sensemaking in the first place. Feelings of surprise arising from sensemaking (i.e., resultant surprise) should be inversely related to hindsight bias. Results of four experiments provide support for the model. A secondary goal was to determine the boundaries of a defensive-processing mechanism also thought to reduce hindsight bias for negative, self-relevant outcomes. Results suggest that a sense of responsibility for the outcome may be necessary for defensive processing to be activated.
Governance of IT sourcing relationships : an empirical investigation of the influence of contract mechanisms and behavior

This work is an empirical investigation of IT sourcing contracts and relationships, and on a general level, it is about the relationship between formal contract governance and relational governance of business relationships. It is a study of ‘the nature of contract’, with an emphasis on how elements of the contract influence on co-operation in business relationships (IT sourcing relationships). We employed a cross-sectional design, with data on IT contracts and relationships between a Norwegian industrial buyer and its suppliers of IT products and services. Our results suggest that it is relevant to focus on micro analytic elements of formal contracts, here expressed as contract mechanisms. The contract mechanisms show different effect on contract behavior. Detailed requirement specifications and penalty mechanisms seem to drive competition between the parties. They are extremely powerful discrete mechanisms that could be used in more certain sourcing situations. If, however, the sourcing situation at hand is more complex, then the parties should be very cautious. Measurement and specificity are so powerful that the combination might restrict co-operation. On the other hand, co-operative behavior seems to be promoted by the use of detailed requirement specifications, and by working together in lasting relationships. Finally, we found that environmental and behavioral uncertainty should be treated differently. Environmental uncertainty promotes competition and discrete contract behavior, while behavioral uncertainty seems to promote lasting and co-operative relationships.
Age‐related changes in hypothalamic androgen receptor and estrogen receptor α in male rats

The control of reproductive function involves actions of sex steroids upon their nuclear receptors in the hypothalamus and preoptic area (POA). Whether hypothalamic hormone receptors change their expression in aging male mammals has not been extensively pursued, although such changes may underlie functional losses in reproductive physiology occurring with aging. We performed a stereologic analysis of immunoreactive androgen receptor (AR) and estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) cells in three POA nuclei of male Sprague‐Dawley rats (anteroventral periventricular nucleus [AVPV], median preoptic area [MePO], and medial preoptic nucleus [MPN]), at young (3 months), middle‐aged (12 months), and old (20 months) ages. Serum testosterone and estradiol levels were assayed. Testosterone concentrations decreased significantly and progressively with aging. Estradiol concentrations were significantly higher in middle‐aged than either young or old rats. Stereologic analyses of the POA demonstrated that AR‐immunoreactive cell numbers and density in the AVPV, MePO, and MPN were significantly higher in old compared with young or middle‐aged rats. No change in the total number or density of ERα‐immunoreactive cells was detected with age, although when cells were subdivided by intensity of immunolabeling, the most heavily labeled ERα cells increased in number with aging in the AVPV and MePO, and in density in the AVPV. There are several interpretations to our finding of substantially increased AR cell numbers during aging, including a potential compensatory upregulation of the AR under diminished testosterone concentrations. These results provide further information about how the neural targets of steroid hormones change with advancing age. J. Comp. Neurol. 512:688–701, 2009. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Motivation Structure Of End-User Application Developers In Organisational Learning

Information and knowledge have played the primary role in the success of knowledge intensive companies. Working contents including both the substance and tools used are increasingly based on innovation and the adoption of new technologies. The goal of the study is to analyse the motivation structure of end-user application developers (EUADers) from the view of organisational learning. We study the intention and behaviour of the EUADers as innovators from the subjectivist point of view. The focus is on their motivation, styles of learning, perceptions towards the organisation and computing, tools and working methods used. The research is based on interviews of ten active EUADers who are supposed to present the pioneers of new innovations in organisations. The findings show that the EUAD activity is based both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. The EUADers are interested in computing per se, but the activity will continue only if it is useful. The findings show that whatever the context and motivation is, they are committed and highly motivated.We found two patterns of adoptions in the process of EUAD activity: the (i) desire-driven pattern of adoption is mainly based on intrinsic and (ii) the requirements-driven on extrinsic motivation. We also found four groups of EUADers: the (i) inventors take the EUAD as a hobby, the (ii) utilitarian users take the EUAD as a tool to improve their actual work performance, (iii) the work enrichers want to make their work more interesting, and finally, (iv) the opportunity seekers are that type of EUADers for whom the activity plays an important role in their position in their workplace. The results also show that even if the EUADers do not seek IT professions, they still are driven to apply more and more IT related tasks, many of them ending up as IT professionals as well. At the end of the study we analyse the organisational implications of the EUAD activity. Accordingly, we discuss the role of EUADers as change agents, knowledge creators as well as resources in developing core competencies. We also discuss the findings in the light of modern job design. The study suggests that the management should consider more intrinsic motivation and reserve the end-users more time to for learning and developing of working practices.
Safety and immunogenicity of a fully liquid vaccine containing five-component pertussis-diphtheria-tetanus-inactivated poliomyelitis-Haemophilus influenzae type b conjugate vaccines administered at two, four, six and 18 months of age.

OBJECTIVE The safety, immunogenicity and lot consistency of a fully liquid, five-component acellular pertussis combination vaccine, comprised of diphteria, tetanus and acellular pertussis, inactivated polio vaccine, Haemophilus influenzae type b (DTaP-IPV-Hib [Pediacel, sanofi pasteur, Canada]) were assessed and compared with that of Hib vaccine reconstituted with the five-component acellular pertussis combination vaccine (DTaP-IPV//Hib, Pentacel [sanofi pasteur, Canada]). METHODS Infants were recruited at vaccine study centres in Montreal, Quebec; Simon Fraser Health Region, British Columbia, and southern Alberta after the protocol had been approved by the relevant institutional ethics committees. Written informed consent was obtained from the parents or guardians of all subjects. At two months of age, the infants were randomly assigned to receive one of three consecutive production lots of DTaP-IPV-Hib by intramuscular injection. Reactions to vaccinations were assessed by parental observation and through telephone interviews conducted by study nurses. Blood samples were obtained at two, six, seven, 18 and 19 months of age for measurement of antibodies to vaccine antigens. RESULTS Most injection site and systemic reactions were mild or moderate, and of brief duration. All infants were protected against tetanus, diphtheria and all three polio serotypes after both primary and booster vaccinations. Antibody responses to pertussis antigens were similar to those observed in Swedish infants, in whom the five-component vaccine was shown to be 85% effective. Proportions of infants with antipolyribosylribitol phosphate antibody of 0.15 mug/mL or greater and 1.0 mug/mL or greater, were 97.9% and 88.9%, respectively, following primary immunization, and 100% and 99% following booster vaccination. Safety and immunogenicity results with both reconstituted and fully liquid combination vaccines were comparable. CONCLUSIONS The fully liquid combination vaccine was comparable in terms of safety and immunogenicity with the reconstituted combination vaccine.
Alpha Decay

Stocks purchased by institutional investors earn significant positive alpha that declines gradually over twelve months. Using a comprehensive new dataset of daily trades, we find that purchases predict alpha even after controlling for stock characteristics. Observed trading behaviour suggests that fund managers act strategically to minimize information leakage, consistent with Kyle-type models — managers build positions in small increments proportional to remaining alpha, trade more aggressively when the number of competitors and/or correlation among information signals is high, and do not increase trade size after unexpected capital flows. Alpha is negatively related to competition/correlation, also consistent with the strategic trading hypothesis.
Product Return Episodes in Retailing

Often, the return of a product is merely one of a series of transactions that a consumer undertakes in search of a good. Recognizing this, whereas the extant literature views each product return transaction in isolation, we analyze returns as part of a search process: Upon returning a product, customers may immediately purchase an alternative one, which they may later replace with another product, and so on, until they either ultimately keep their last purchase (Keep outcome) or not (No-keep outcome). We call such a sequence of transactions a product return episode. Using data from a consumer electronics retailer, we show that episodic metrics of return behavior better explain managerially relevant measures, such as net customer spending, and offer a richer understanding of returns than commonly used transactional metrics. Our findings suggest that although higher price and larger store assortment both tend to increase the return probability, they also increase the probability of keeping a product at the end of an episode, which may point to profit-improving opportunities for retailers.