Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
DNA Copy Number Changes in Cervical Adenocarcinoma 1

Purpose: There is evidence that specific genetic events are involved in the initiation and progression of squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix. The genotype-phenotype correlations in cervical adenocarcinoma (AC) are unclear. Experimental Design: Comparative genomic hybridization was applied to screen for DNA copy number gains and losses in 22 cervical ACs of clinical stage IB. IHC was performed in all of the samples to determine HER-2/neu expression (HercepTest). Results: The most frequent copy number alterations were DNA sequence gains of chromosome 17q (54%). HER2/neu expression (score 2 ) was immunohistochemically detected in 2 of 22 tumors. DNA sequence losses were most prevalent on chromosomes Xq (50%), Xp (36%), 18q (36%), and 4q (36%). DNA sequence losses of chromosome 18q were associated significantly with poor prognosis in cervical AC (P < 0.01). Conclusions: DNA sequence copy number gains of chromosome 17q are frequent events in ACs of the cervix. However, gains on 17q are not associated with HER-2/neu expression in cervical ACs. The inactivation of tumor suppressor genes on chromosome 18q might be responsible for the progression of both cervical AC and cervical squamous cell carcinoma.
Ground Squirrel Hepatitis Virus Infection

Twenty‐four adult Beechey ground squirrels persistently infected with the hepatitis B virus‐related ground squirrel hepatitis virus (GSHV) remained infected with high levels of viral surface antigen (GSHsAg) and virion‐associated DNA polymerase activity in the blood for over 2 years in captivity. Unlike humans infected with hepatitis B virus, no GSHsAg‐bearing ground squirrels had surface antigen in the blood without DNA polymerase‐containing virions, and the levels of these did not change. Only a very mild hepatitis was observed histologically in some of the virus‐infected animals, with faint Shikata‐staining detectable in some. Other animals exhibited no histologic evidence of hepatitis. While the closely related woodchuck hepatitis virus has been associated with more severe chronic hepatitis and a high incidence of liver cancer in woodchucks, these were not found in GSHV‐infected ground squirrels when a similar number of animals were followed for a similar time of observation. Experimental infection of ground squirrels with no evidence of current or past GSHV infection resulted in three types of response: (i) self‐limited or transient GSHV‐positive infection; (ii) GSHV‐positive infection which became persistent, and (iii) primary anti‐GSHs and anti‐GSHc (antibody to the viral core antigen) responses without detectable GSHsAg or virion DNA polymerase activity in the blood. These responses are similar to those observed following experimental infection of man with HBV. GSHV produced none of the three responses when injected into a variety of laboratory animal species and a chimpanzee, causing only an antibody response to GSHsAg. No evidence of current or past infection was detected in a number of animal species from an area endemic for GSHV. The virus has only been found in one area of northern California, with a carrier rate in that location reaching 52%.
Environmental Accounting and Firm Profitability in Nigeria: Do Firm-Specific Effects Matter?

The study aims to investigate the effect of environmental accounting on the financial performance of firms in Nigeria. It utilizes a cross-sectional research design and content analysis to obtain environmental disclosure information from the audited annual reports. Regression analysis, adopting the ordinary least square method, is used and the results reveal that there exists a significant relationship between environmental accounting disclosure and firm’s financial performance when environmental accounting is moderated by firm-specific variables such as firm size, industry type and auditor firm type. The primary contribution of the paper is a more realistic appraisal of the relation between environmental disclosure and firm’s financial performance by specifying models that account for both individual effects of environmental disclosure and the effect of interactions between environmental disclosure and firm-specific variables on firm’s financial performance.
Caffeinated Beverage Consumption Rates and Reported Sleep in a United States Navy Ship

Ship crews live and work in an environment characterized by extreme sleep deprivation. In an attempt to maintain alertness, crewmembers frequently consume caffeinated beverages and energy drinks. As part of a broader study, this work assesses the consumption of caffeinated beverages and investigates the association between caffeinated beverage consumption and reported sleep amount. Crewmembers of a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier (N=767; age 18-49 years) completed a survey with questions pertaining to demographics, exercise frequency, average sleep duration, caffeine beverage consumption, the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), and the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS). Results show that the sample of active duty personnel slept approximately six hours per night. Most respondents (~90%) reported using at least one type of caffeinated beverage (~55% coffee, ~50% soft drinks, ~35% energy drinks, and ~35% tea). The participants who reported drinking caffeinated drinks had an average weekly caffeine intake of 812±917 mg (MD=540), ranging from 30 to 9210 mg. Crewmembers who consumed more than 1,270 mg of caffeine weekly (equivalent to 180 mg daily) reported sleeping 5.79±1.17 hours, whereas crewmembers that drank less than 1,270 mg of caffeine reported sleeping 6.17±1.07 hours (p<0.001). Overall, our study shows widespread use of caffeine among active duty crewmembers in our sample. Our results suggest that caffeine intake – in the form of coffee, tea, caffeinated soft drinks, or energy drinks – is associated with sleep and may interfere with sleep patterns while working at sea. Future efforts should be directed at exploring causal relationships involved in this phenomenon. Better understanding of causal links will enable appropriate guidance for better sleep hygiene in the maritime operational environment.
A hydrothermal time model explains the cardinal temperatures for seed germination

Temperature ( T ) and water potential ( y ) are two primary environmental regulators of seed germination. Seeds exhibit a base or minimum T for germination ( T b ), an optimum T at which germination is most rapid ( T o ), and a maximum or ceiling T at which germination is prevented ( T c ). Germination at suboptimal T can be characterized on the basis of thermal time, or the T in excess of T b multiplied by the time to a given germination percentage ( t g ). Similarly, germination at reduced y can be characterized on a hydrotime basis, or t g multiplied by the y in excess of a base or threshold y that just prevents germination ( y b ). Within a seed population, the variation in thermal times to germination among different seed fractions ( g ) is based on a normal distribution of y b values among seeds ( y b ( g )). Germination responses across a range of suboptimal T and y can be described by a general hydrothermal time model that combines the T and y components, but this model does not account for the decrease in germination rates and percentages when T exceeds T o . We report here that supra-optimal temperatures shift the ψ b ( g ) distribution of a potato ( Solanum tuberosum L.) seed population to more positive values, explaining why both germination rates and percentages are reduced as T increases above T o . A modified hydrothermal time model incorporating changes in ψ b ( g ) at T > T o describes germination timing and percentage across all T and ψ at which germination can occur and provides physiologically relevant indices of seed behaviour.
NADH fluorescence lifetime is an endogenous reporter of α‐synuclein aggregation in live cells

α‐Synuclein (aS) aggregation has been amply investigated for its involvement in Parkinson's disease because its amyloid fibrils are the main constituent of Lewy bodies, one of the hallmarks of the disease. aS aggregation was studied here in vitro and in cellular models to correlate aggregation products with toxicity mechanisms. Independent results published elsewhere suggested that aS overexpression and/or aggregation may impair cellular metabolism and cause mitochondrial damage. In this context, we report the characterization of changes in NADH fluorescence properties in vitro and in human embryonic kidney 293 cells upon aS aggregation. The application of the phasor approach to study NADH fluorescence lifetime and emission allowed us to identify changes that correlate with aS aggregation. In particular, the fraction of bound NADH, characterized by longer lifetimes in comparison to free NADH, is increased, and the maximum of the NADH emission is shifted toward shorter wavelengths in the presence of aggregating aS both in vitro and in cells. These data suggest that NADH binds to aggregated aS. NMR experiments in vitro substantiate such binding, which occurs during aggregation. NADH fluorescence is thus useful to detect aS aggregation and by extension the associated oxidative stress. —Plotegher, N. , Stringari, C. , Jahid, S. , Veronesi, M. , Girotto, S. , Gratton, E. , Bubacco, L. NADH fluorescence lifetime is an endogenous reporter of α‐synuclein aggregation in live cells. FASEB J. 29, 2484‐2494 (2015). www.fasebj. org
Board of Directors Characteristics and Performance in Family Firms

This paper examines the relationship between board of director characteristics and performance in family businesses, providing evidence on whether family firms differ from non-family ones and focusing also on the possibility of asymmetrical effects between periods of stability and economic adversity. To fulfill this objective, a sample of Portuguese listed firms was analysed for the 2002-2013 period, using a panel data approach. The results show that family firms are likely to have lower proportion of independent members and higher gender diversity on their boards than non-family firms. Family firms’ performance is positively related with ownership concentration and gender diversity. There are performance premiums for family businesses with more gender diversity relative to their counterparts. These effects also depend on whether the economy is in recession or not. The evidence suggests that the presence of women on board and the firms’ leverage and size impact more significantly on family firms’ performance in periods of economic adversity.
NXG04-3: Does Multi-hop Communication Extend the Battery Life of Mobile Terminals?

Multi-hop cellular communication has been proposed mainly to overcome some of the short-comings of cellular networks. Increasing network capacity and reducing energy consumption are amongst the promised advantages of this concept. In this paper, energy consumption in multi-hop CDMA cellular networks is investigated with the objective of quantifying the resulting effect. Reducing energy consumption in CDMA cellular networks, using multi-hop communication, is shown to be possible. Furthermore, comparing multi-hop cellular networks with and without power control, it is shown that power control further reduces energy consumption - especially with small number of hops. The effect of varying the hardware specifications is also studied. It is shown that multi-hopping is more effective in environments with high path loss.
Separation of B. subtilis DNA into complementary strands. 3. Direct analysis.

The eluates corresponding to each peak were pooled, dialyzed in the cold against at least four changes of 2000 ml of dist. H20 for 48 hr, concentrated in a flash evaporator, and finally taken to dryness in the hydrolysis tubes under a stream of nitrogen. About 1 mg of each fraction was hydrolyzed at 1000 for 1 hr in a sealed tube in 0.02-0.04 ml of 7.5 N HCl04; the hydrolysate was diluted with H20 to a volume of 0.1-0.15 ml and centrifuged, and two 0.02-ml portions were subjected to chromatography in butanol-0.6 N ammonia (6:1, v/v); the same quantities were also developed in isopropanol-conc. HCl-H20 (17:4:4, v/v/v). Each figure in Table 1 consequently is the average of four determinations in two solvent systems.
Challenges of E-Government Implementation in the Nigerian Public Service

The concept of e-government began in the early 1990s which is the use of information technology to improve governance, promote efficiency and effectiveness in the delivery of public service. In the year 2000, the Federal Government of Nigeria recognized the need to transform the public service into the modern day system through the use of information technology. This was necessitated by the urgent need to improve public service delivery, ensure transparency, make government accessible, and ensure that information dissemination to the public is in real time. This study explored the hurdles faced by public agencies in materializing the government’s e-government vision. This study found that despite the government investing hugely in the ICT to realise the objectives stated in the policy document, minimal progress have been achieved. The lack of massive success can be attributed to infrastructural gap, power failure, digital divide, low ICT literacy level, theft and vandalization of ICT equipment, privacy and security. Keywords: E-Government; ICT; public service; public service; transparency
Regulation of Embryonic Chick Insulin Cells: Effect of Retinoic Acid and Insulin-Like Growth Factor 1

We are interested in the regulation of early pancreatic differentiation, particularly with regard to factors that enhance insulin cell proliferation. Both retinoic acid and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) are known to be important in the proliferation and differentiation of insulin cells. Individually, they have the ability to increase the proportion of insulin cells when added to cultures of chick dorsal pancreatic buds. The aim of this study was to define the action of retinoic acid (RA) in combination with IGF-1 on the proportion of insulin cells. The dorsal pancreatic bud of 5-day-old chick embryos was excised and the endodermal component, with minimal adherent mesenchyme, was explanted onto Matrigel. RA (10–6 M) and IGF-1 (50 ng/ml) were added to Ham’s F12 culture medium containing transferrin (5 µg/ml) and selenium (10–10 M) (F12.TS). Control explants were cultured in F12.TS alone or in F12.TS containing dimethyl sulphoxide (DMSO) [F12.TS (DMSO)]. After 7 days in culture, insulin and glucagon cells were localized immunocytochemically; numbers of insulin cells were expressed as a percentage of insulin plus glucagon cell counts. Addition of RA plus IGF-1 to the medium increased the proportion of insulin cells markedly (23.43%) compared with the proportions in control explants (11.3% with F12.TS (DMSO), 13.2% with F12.TS). This increase represents a more than twofold increase in the proportion of insulin cells over that of control explants.
Isolation and characterization of novel phenotype CHO cell mutants defective in peroxisome assembly, using ICR191 as a potent mutagenic agent

To elucidate molecular and cellular mechanisms of peroxisome biogenesis, we have isolated Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell mutants defective in peroxisome biogenesis by making use of enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) and a frameshift‐inducing mutagen ICR191. CHO‐TKa cells stably expressing Pex2p were transformed with a cDNA encoding EGFP fused with peroxisomal targeting signal type 2 (PTS2‐EGFP), termed Tka/EG2. TKa/EG2 cells were mutagenized with ICR191 and cultured in the presence of P9OH (9‐(1′‐pyrene) nonanol) followed by an exposure to UV. P9OH/UV‐resistant and morphologically peroxisome‐deficient mutant cells were isolated by directly observing cytosolic localization of EGFP, without cell staining. By a combination of cell‐fusion and PEX transfection, we determined complementation groups (CGs) of 16 cell mutants isolated here. The mutants were classified into five CGs, including pex2, pex3, pex5, pex6, and pex7 cell mutants. In contrast to typical pex6 mutants with the impaired import of both PTS1‐ and PTS2‐proteins, two clones, ZPEG236 and ZPEG244, showed a distinct, novel phenotype where PTS1‐protein import was normal despite the abrogated PTS2 import. Dysfunction of Pex3p in pex3 ZPEG 238 was due to one base (G) insertion in the codon for Asn 7 resulting in a frameshift, thereby inducing a distinct 31 amino‐acid sequence and a termination. pex2 ZPEG239 showed a mutation in codon GAG for Glu201 to a nonsense mutation, TAG. Thus, the method developed here using ICR191 could be useful for isolation of further novel cell mutants impaired in peroxisome biogenesis. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
CYTONUCLEAR COADAPTATION IN DROSOPHILA: DISRUPTION OF CYTOCHROME C OXIDASE ACTIVITY IN BACKCROSS GENOTYPES

Abstract The cytochrome c oxidase enzyme (COX) is comprised of 10 nuclear-encoded subunits and three mitochondrial-encoded subunits in close physical association in the inner mitochondrial membrane. COX passes electrons from cytochrome c to molecular oxygen and pumps protons into the inner mitochondrial space for ATP production. Selection on nuclear-mitochondrial interactions within species should lead to coadaptation of the proteins comprising this important enzyme. Under this model, there should be relatively little disruption of COX activity when mitochondrial genomes are crossed among strains within species. A more pronounced disruption of activity is expected when the mitochondrial genome is expressed in the nuclear background of a different species. We test these hypotheses in Drosophila using hybridization and backcrossing among lines of D. simulans and D. mauritiana. Disrupted cytonuclear genotypes were constructed using backcrosses between two lines of D. simulans (siI and siII) that introduced each divergent mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) into each nuclear background due to maternal inheritance of mtDNA. Similar crosses were used to introduce each D. simulans mtDNA into the D. mauritiana maI nuclear background. Reconstituted cytonuclear control genotypes were constructed by backcrossing the initial F1 females to males of the maternal genotype. COX enzyme activities were compared among these disrupted and reconstituted backcross genotypes within and between species. The disruption effect on COX activity was restricted to males of interspecific genotypes. These data support the coadaptation hypothesis and are consistent with predictions that the evolution of modifiers of male mitochondrial dysfunction is hindered by the maternal inheritance of mtDNA. New sequence data for nuclear encoded subunits of COX identified amino acids that may play a role in the disruption effect.
LEXICAL BASED METHOD FOR PHISHING URLS DETECTION

Phishing is a social engineering attack that exploits user’s ignorance during system processing has an impact on commercial and banking sectors. Numerous techniques are developed in the last years to detect phishing attacks such as authentication, security toolbars, blacklists, phishing emails, phishing websites, and URL analysis. Regrettably, nowadays detection system implemented for specific attack vectors such as email which make developing wide scope detection is much needed. Previous studies show that analysis of URLs proved to be a good option to detect malicious activities where this method mostly based on features of lexical, host information, and other complex method which requires a long processing time. In this paper, we present phishing detection system using features extracted from URLs lexical only to meet two important goals which are wide scope of protection and applicability in a real-time system. The system provides accuracy of 94% and can classify single URL in average time of 0.12 second.
Financial & Accounting Regulation and the Sustainability of Municipalities' Financial Policies. The Case of the Italian 'Internal Stability Pact'.

This paper has an explorative nature and focuses on the relationships between the financial and budgetary constraints established by the Central Government through the Internal Stability Pact (ISP), and the sustainability of the Italian Municipalities‟ decisions. The paper aims to investigate the dynamics between accounting rules and management needs, the consequences of the application of the ISP on financial statements composition, the allocation and use of resources, and finally the influence on the strategic decisions made by political leaders and public managers. Hence the paper intends to offer an evaluation of the choices and strategies concerning accounting, debt, investment and management made by the Italian municipalities. From a methodological point of view, the paper mainly adopts an inductive approach, based on a single-country case study and on the following research instruments: literature and documental analysis, some interviews to civil servants working on the municipalities‟ financial management area, and finally a survey on the official financial reports – from 2002 to 2006 – of a representative sample of 101 Italian Municipalities constrained by the Internal Stability Pact.Concerning the results, the analysis of the existing literature and of the empirical data suggests that the application of the Pact deeply influenced Municipalities internal and external management and their policies concerning accounting, debt and investment. In addition it works as an indirect incentive to management short-termism, and it seems to generate a critical trade-off between some of the main Public Sector objectives: the control public expenses and deficit; the enhancement of the Italian Municipalities‟ autonomy and finally the improvement of the efficiency and the effectiveness in internal and external management and in the local governance. Consequently, focusing on the general issue, it seems that accounting and finance systems concerning Italian municipalities do not completely fit with their managerial needs. In addition, accounting and financial rules could generate some difficulties in the budgeting process and in the management of local resources. Anyway these gaps seem to depend not only on regulation deficiencies, but also on some characteristics of Italian administrative culture and institutions and of reforms‟ implementation process.
Damage to Soil and Residual Trees Caused by Different Logging Systems Applied to Late Thinning

This paper concerns the evaluation of logging systems in terms of the damage to the forest ecosystem. Damages to trees and soil during late thinning conducted in foothills areas in Poland using tree-length and cut-to-length logging systems were assessed. In both stands, the test plots were located within the primary and secondary skid trails. In the study, areas occupied by skid trails were determined as well as the depth of ruts. In order to determine changes in the soil properties at selected measurement points, a soil penetration resistance and a maximum shearing stress were measured. For each logging system, the share of trees damaged during harvesting operations and location of injuries were determined. The studies have shown that a 70% larger area was required to form technological trail with CTL than with TL. After CTL, skid trails were scarred by shallow ruts, and the share of ruts with the depth between 0.16 and 0.25 was three times smaller than after TL. The average increase in penetration resistance of soil in the ruts after TL was 324% and 302% and after CTL 308% and 220%, respectively, for primary and secondary skid trail, in comparison to the values obtained in measurement points located 5 m from the trails. In TL, comparable changes of soil properties were caused by skidder wheels and by hauled wood. The research has shown a greater share of damaged trees after TL. In both logging systems, the most damage was found within the root collar and lower parts of the bole.