Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mutations in the rpmBG operon of Escherichia coli that affect ribosome assembly

The rpmBG operon of Escherichia coli codes for ribosomal proteins L28 and L33. Two strains with mutations in the operon are AM81, whose ribosomes lack protein L28, and AM90, whose ribosomes are without protein L33. Neither strain showed major defects in ribosome assembly. However, when the mutations were transferred to other strains of E. coli, ribosome synthesis was greatly perturbed and precursor ribonucleoproteins accumulated. In the new backgrounds, the mutation in rpmB was complemented by synthesis of protein L28 from a plasmid; the rpmG mutation was not complemented by protein L33 because synthesis of protein L28 from the upstream rpmB gene was also greatly reduced. The results suggest that protein L33, in contrast to protein L28, has at best a minor role in ribosome assembly and function.
Nanoparticle Vaccines Adopting Virus-like Features for Enhanced Immune Potentiation

Synthetic nanoparticles play an increasingly significant role in vaccine design and development as many nanoparticle vaccines show improved safety and efficacy over conventional formulations. These nanoformulations are structurally similar to viruses, which are nanoscale pathogenic organisms that have served as a key selective pressure driving the evolution of our immune system. As a result, mechanisms behind the benefits of nanoparticle vaccines can often find analogue to the interaction dynamics between the immune system and viruses. This review covers the advances in vaccine nanotechnology with a perspective on the advantages of virus mimicry towards immune potentiation. It provides an overview to the different types of nanomaterials utilized for nanoparticle vaccine development, including functionalization strategies that bestow nanoparticles with virus-like features. As understanding of human immunity and vaccine mechanisms continue to evolve, recognizing the fundamental semblance between synthetic nanoparticles and viruses may offer an explanation for the superiority of nanoparticle vaccines over conventional vaccines and may spur new design rationales for future vaccine research. These nanoformulations are poised to provide solutions towards pressing and emerging human diseases.
Merchants of Labor: Agents of the Evolving Migration Infrastructure

The special focus of this paper are the merchants of labour, the public and private agents who move workers over borders. The ILO Convention 97 (1949) recommended that migrants move over borders with the help of public employment service agencies in sending and receiving countries, with bilateral agreements regulating wages and other conditions affecting work. This model dominated in the 1950s and 1960s in Europe and North America, but was not the norm when Asian workers began moving to the Middle East in the 1970s and 1980s. Private agents have come to dominate recruitment and deployment in many labour-sending nations, raising concerns that range from the equity of lower-wage migrants often paying the highest fees to the fact that private agents may have interests that are different from those of employer, migrants and governments. Most governments have adopted policies to get private merchants of labour to identify themselves by obtaining licenses, regulating the fees that they can charge, and educating migrants to ensure that recruitment regulations are obeyed. The success of this management framework is uneven, as is apparent in the case studies examined in this working paper.
An examination of the exporter and freight forwarder relationships : a strategic alliance perspective

Oversize m aterials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are re­ produced by sectioning the original, beginning a t the upper left-hand corner and continuing from left to right in equal sections w ith small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. These are also available as one exposure on a standard 35mm slide or as a 17" x 23" black and w hite photographic p rin t for an additional charge.
Determinants of audit fees for Swedish listed non-financial firms in NASDAQ OMX Stockholm

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to define factors which influence audit fees. Methodology: I have used the deductive approach to find out the results. Theoretical perspectives: I have used factors found in previous studies to discuss about and build my own hypotheses. Empirical foundation: I have used data from 2010 annual reports of Swedish listed non-financial firms in NASDAQ OMX Stockholm. Spearman correlation and multiple linear regression are used to analyze audit fee structure. Conclusions: The study finds that auditee size and other fees have positive correlations with audit fees. In addition, audit committee presence has a negative relation with audit fees. Meanwhile, there is no precise answer that audit risk, auditee industry, auditor branch name have associations with audit fees or not. Other factors of auditee complexity, year-end date and audit tenure have no relation with audit fees.
Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma agonists increase vascular endothelial growth factor expression in human vascular smooth muscle cells.

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), expressed in a variety of mesenchymal cells including vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC), is a potent mitogen for endothelial cells, and is used clinically applied for ischemic disease of peripheral vessels. To determine whether peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma) regulates VEGF production in VSMC, we examined VEGF secretion from VSMC treated with PPAR agonists. Troglitazone increased VEGF secretion in a time- and dose-dependent manner (261 +/- 35% with 25 mM of troglitazone for 24 h), and also increased levels of VEGF mRNA. VEGF secretion was also increased by other PPARgamma agonists, pioglitazone, LY171883, and 15d-PGJ2 (224 +/- 17.1%, 247 +/- 36.8% and 171 +/- 7.8%, respectively), but not the PPARgamma agonists bezafibrate and Wy14643 (85.2 +/- 1.5%, 94.6 +/- 3.2, respectively). Our findings suggest that thiazolidinediones might be useful for the therapeutic angiogenesis for ischemic artery disease.
Foreign Exchange Exposure of U.S. Firms in the Pacific Rim

This is the first study of the broad exposure of U.S. stock returns to Pacific Rim foreign exchange (FX) risk. Our work provides an independent test of the robustness of findings in other markets. For example, we find an interval effect (i.e., the sensitivity of the relationship between stock returns and FX fluctuations increases with return horizon). This finding lends support to the hypothesis of Chow et al (1997) that weak sensitivity relationships found in much of the prior literature may be because most authors use shorthorizon data. Our other main results are consistent with theory and with prior empirical results in other markets.
Internal audit: the expert in providing comfort to the audit committee. The case of risk management and internal control

This study investigates to what extent audit committees feel uncomfortable about risk management and internal control, and focuses on how internal audit can be the expert in providing comfort in these areas, building upon the sociology of professions literature. Four case studies reveal that audit committees need comfort with respect to the control environment. Thanks to their internal position, their familiarity with the company, and their position close to people across the company, internal audit seems to be the most suitable one to provide comfort and be the ‘guard of the corporate culture’. Furthermore, audit committees need comfort regarding the internal controls in high-risk areas. Besides internal audit’s assurance role, active involvement in the improvement of these internal controls provides a significant level of comfort to the audit committee. Their unique conceptual and companyspecific knowledge about risk management and internal control, combined with the right inter-personal skills, enables internal audit to provide this comfort. Formal audit reports and presentations, together with informal contacts, seem to be important ways of providing this comfort. Finally, it becomes clear that the overall level of comfort in the audit committee can be enhanced through a ‘joint audit approach’ between internal and external audit.
Olfactory dysfunction in LRRK2 G2019S mutation carriers

Background: Olfactory dysfunction is an established nonmotor feature of idiopathic Parkinson disease (PD), which may precede disease onset. Olfaction is likely disturbed in patients with PD with leucine-rich repeat kinase (LRRK2) G2019S mutations, although the degree of impairment is debated. It is also unclear whether mutation carriers who have not yet manifested with PD have olfactory disturbances. Methods: Thirty-one subjects with LRRK2 G2019S mutation–related PD (PD-manifesting carriers [PD-MC]), 30 subjects with PD without mutations (PD noncarriers [PD-NC]), 28 mutation carrier family members (nonmanifesting carriers [NMC]), and 46 controls completed the University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT). Generalized estimating equations were applied to determine whether olfactory score was associated with PD and LRRK2 mutation status. Results: As expected, having PD was associated with impaired olfaction regardless of LRRK2 mutation status. More importantly, however, impaired olfaction was increased overall in LRRK2 carriers both with and without PD, though the impairment was only present in a subset of NMCs. Compared to controls, the mean score was lower among NMC (difference = −3.518, p = 0.006), MC (difference = −7.677, p < 0.0001), and idiopathic PD (PD-NC) (difference = −13.810, p < 0.0001). Olfaction was better among MC (PD-MC) than non-LRRK2 PD (PD-NC) (difference = 6.13, p = 0.0012). Group differences from the continuous analysis were maintained in dichotomous analysis stratifying at 15th percentile for age and gender. Conclusion: Olfaction is impaired in LRRK2 G2019S–mutation related PD, although less overall than other PD. Further, olfaction is impaired in a subset of LRRK2 NMC, suggesting that olfaction may be a marker for development of PD in this group, and that longitudinal studies are warranted.
Consumer Perception and Preference for Meat Types in Ogbomoso area of Oyo State, Nigeria.

Two hundred and six (206) respondents in Ogbomoso (a university community) in Oyo state Nigeria were randomly selected through structured questionnaires to examine their perception and preference of meat and meat products. Data collected were analyzed through the use of descriptive statistical tools. The results showed that marketing activities should be centered on female who are mostly married (83.0%) within the age group 31-40 since women are the one to purchase the meat at home, although men (56.8%) responded to the questionnaire than their female (43.2%) counterpart. It was clearly shown that respondents eat beef meat the most but enjoyed chicken the most, while availability and taste were major factors that influenced decision on the meat types of preference. Consumers preferred a designated meat shop as against the conventional abattoir and general market to purchase meat. Greater number of respondents however showed their preference in eating meat at home than outside. Beef, was the most affordable (54.9%), preferred at ceremony (69.4%) and the most convenient (55.3%). Chicken (32.3%) and Turkey (36.3%) are most preferred for picnic. Chevon (35.4%) was the most nutritious while chicken (27.7%) and beef (23.3%) were the most preferred as fast to cook meat. The study clearly revealed the importance of meat to the respondents in Ogbomoso. Keywords: meat, preference, consumer, protein, quality
Assessing the Cost of Protection in Vietnam after Becoming WTO's Member

Since the economic reform in 1986, Vietnam has experienced extremely quick integration into the world market. Trade volume has increased sharply and the composition of Vietnam’s trading partners has broadened. Trade turnover in 1990 was roughly 6.2 billion USD, however, in 2005 it reached 69.2 billion USD and that of 2008 has been 143.4 billion USD. The growth of Vietnam’s trading rate in 2000─2005 period is 18.4%, which is 2.6 times the growth rate of Vietnam’s GDP. At the same time, the number of trading partners has increased, of which Asian countries constitute the most important trading partners of Vietnam, accounting for more than 50% of Vietnam’s trade. Vietnam has become WTO member in 2006, which is one big step of its integration into the world market. Becoming WTO’s member means that Vietnam has to fulfill its obligations regarding reducing tariffs, opening markets for foreign products but at the same time it can have more access to foreign markets. Although the objective of WTO is freer trade all over the world, its negotiations of the Doha Round have been halted for a long time (Jones, 2009). Almost all countries in the world including Vietnam still maintain many restrictions on the movements of goods across borders. As widely accepted in economics, this will reduce surplus or gains from trade of all countries engaged. Restrictions of Vietnam on imports and restrictions of other countries on Vietnam’s export will reduce the consumers’ choices and will divert resources from industries where there are comparative advantages. This paper’s objective is to estimate the welfare cost of protection in Vietnam before and after it became WTO member. Although the welfare cost of protection is confirmed in economics theory, the structure of protection in Vietnam is vivid (Prema-chandra Athukorala, 2006), quantitative analyses on Vietnam’s welfare cost of protection are still limited. This paper applies gravity model to Vietnam’s trade data to evaluate trade potential and welfare cost of protection in Vietnam. It will then use the result of the regression to further estimate the effect of protection on the volume of Vietnam’s trade and to obtain rough estimates of the resulting welfare effects before and after Vietnam became WTO member.
Brightness differences influence the evaluation of affective pictures

We explored the possibility of a general brightness bias: brighter pictures are evaluated more positively, while darker pictures are evaluated more negatively. In Study 1 we found that positive pictures are brighter than negative pictures in two affective picture databases (the IAPS and the GAPED). Study 2 revealed that because researchers select affective pictures on the extremity of their affective rating without controlling for brightness differences, pictures used in positive conditions of experiments were on average brighter than those used in negative conditions. Going beyond correlational support for our hypothesis, Studies 3 and 4 showed that brighter versions of neutral pictures were evaluated more positively than darker versions of the same picture. Study 5 revealed that people categorised positive words more quickly than negative words after a bright picture prime, and vice versa for negative pictures. Together, these studies provide strong support for the hypotheses that picture brightness influences evaluations.
Drag Produced by Waves Trapped at a Density Interface in Nonhydrostatic Flow over an Axisymmetric Hill

AbstractLinear nonhydrostatic theory is used to evaluate the drag produced by 3D trapped lee waves forced by an axisymmetric hill at a density interface. These waves occur at atmospheric temperature inversions, for example, at the top of the boundary layer, and contribute to low-level drag possibly misrepresented as turbulent form drag in large-scale numerical models. Unlike in 2D waves, the drag has contributions from a continuous range of wavenumbers forced by the topography, because the waves can vary their angle of incidence to match the resonance condition. This leads to nonzero drag for Froude numbers (Fr) both 1 and a drag maximum typically for Fr slightly below 1, with lower magnitude than in hydrostatic conditions owing to wave dispersion. These features are in good agreement with laboratory experiments using two axisymmetric obstacles, particularly for the lower obstacle, if the effects of a rigid lid above the upper layer and friction are taken into account. Quantitative agreement is le.
Multi-stakeholder Processes for Governance and Sustainability: Beyond Deadlock and Conflict

A Call to Readers * Introduction * Part I: Building Blocks - Terms, Variety and Goals * The Context: Multi-stakeholder Processes and Global Governance * The Concepts: Key Values and Ideologies of MSPs * The Research: Effective Communication and Decision-making in Diverse Groups * The Practice: Examples of Multi-stakeholder Processes * Part II: How To Do It - Designing MSPs: A Detailed Guide * The Short-cut * Conclusion More Than One Step Beyond - What Next? Appendix I: Methodology of the Project * Appendix II: Contributors, Commentators and Interviewees * Appendix III: UNED Forum * References * Notes * Index
Public-Private Partnership Projects in Infrastructure: An Essential Guide for Policy Makers

Investment in infrastructure is critical to economic growth, quality of life, poverty reduction, access to education, healthcare, and achieving many of the goals of a robust economy. But infrastructure is difficult for the public sector to get right. Public-private partnerships (PPPs) can help; they provide more efficient procurement, focus on consumer satisfaction and life cycle maintenance, and provide new sources of investment, in particular through limited recourse debt. But PPPs present challenges of their own. This book provides a practical guide to PPPs for policy makers and strategists, showing how governments can enable and encourage PPPs, providing a step-by-step analysis of the development of PPP projects, and explaining how PPP financing works, what PPP contractual structures look like, and how PPP risk allocation works in practice. It includes specific discussion of each infrastructure sector, with a focus on the strategic and policy issues essential for successful development of infrastructure through PPPs.
Review of the Literature on Enterprise Risk Management

The aim of this paper is to review previous studies on Enterprise Risk Management (ERM). Previous studies show that empirical works on ERM are still limited. Research using both primary and secondary data will be discussed. From the previous studies, it was found that most of the studies in Malaysia on risk management or ERM used primary data. The scopes of the previous studies in Malaysia include construction, financial institutions, service sector, technology, industrial products, consumer products, plantation and trade and services, and these studies used mail questionnaires and interviews. While studies from the secondary data focus on industrial product companies, of which data are gathered from their annual reports.
Towards a framework for promoting sustainable construction in Malaysia

This research aims to propose a framework for promoting sustainable construction in Malaysia. Issues that related with environmental destruction in Malaysia have been heard regularly due to negative impacts from human development especially construction activities. This growing concern makes the government and private sectors in Malaysia to be more proactive in minimising this problem without restraining the need for development. In this research, mixed methods of quantitative and qualitative research were adopted prior to developing a framework for promoting sustainable construction in Malaysia. A list of 11 impediments was preliminarily identified through extensive literature review. This was followed by questionnaire survey to collect the developers opinion on the relative importance of these factors. Using relative importance index (RII) analysis, the 11 impediments were listed according to their most importance factors. Further, the qualitative research was conducted in order to further confirm the most important impediments and the strategies to promote sustainable construction in Malaysia. Findings indicated four impediments: cost, government roles, lack of awareness, and insufficient green product supplier. The framework suggests that the government should play an important role to increase demand on sustainable project by providing supports in terms of cost and promulgate green product supplier to construction practitioner for more sustainable projects.
Variation in sexual reproduction in orchids and its evolutionary consequences: a spasmodic journey to diversification

The great taxonomic diversity of the Orchidaceae is often attributed to adaptive radiation for specific pollinators driven by selection for outcrossing. However, when one looks beyond the product to the process, the evidence for selection is less than overwhelming. We explore this problem by discussing relevant aspects of orchid biology and asking which aspects of reproduction explain the intricate pollination mechanisms and diversification of this family. We reaffirm that orchids are primarily pollination limited, the severity of which is affected by resource constraints. Fruit set is higher in temperate than in tropical species, and in species which offer pollinator rewards than those that do not. Reproductive success is skewed towards few individuals in a population and effective population sizes are often small. Population structure, reproductive success and gene flow among populations suggest that in many situations genetic drift may be as important as selection in fostering genetic and morphological variation in this family. Although there is some evidence for a gradualist model of evolutionary change, we believe that the great diversity in this family is largely a consequence of sequential and rapid interplay between drift and natural selection. © 2005 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2005, 84, 1–54.
A retrospective study of male breast cancer in Holland

A retrospective study has been undertaken of 104 men with breast cancer, all of them having a follow‐up period of at least 5 years. In 78 cases a histological diagnosis was obtained. The preferred treatment for operable cases was radical mastectomy, in which 60 per cent positive axillary nodes were found. Five‐year survival is 54 per cent and the disease‐free interval is 42 per cent. Local recurrence occurred in 26 per cent and 16 per cent had developed distant metastases. The overall results are similar to those in the literature with the exception of those for stage III who did better in this series. The generally held beliefs that Klinefelter's syndrome is the strongest predisposing factor to developing male breast cancer and that gynaecomastia is not a premalignant condition are supported by this study. Comparison of results from this series, with those of women of the same age having breast cancer leads to the conclusion that the prognosis in male breast cancer is no worse than for women with comparable disease.
R&D Spillovers: Evidence from U.S. Food Processing, Farm Machinery and Agriculture

This paper focuses on the private and social rates of return to R&D capital in the three vertically linked sectors, primary agriculture, food processing, and farm machinery and equipment. Evidence supporting a divergence between these rates is found for primary agriculture and food processing. Using a cost function approach, the private rates of return to R&D capital ranged from an average of 10.2% per annum for food processing to 22.3% for farm machinery and equipment. In the case of agriculture, the direct return to public R&D averaged 37.3% per annum. The social rates of return to R&D capital in agriculture and food processing are significantly larger than the private rates due to the existence of spillovers. While the divergence between rates is small in the farm machinery and equipment sector, its high direct rate may suggest relatively large intra-sector spillovers. We find that spillovers from public agricultural R&D to food processing exceeds the spillovers from food processing to the other two sectors. Thus, to a degree, public R&D in agriculture mitigates the market's failure in food processing to fully appropriate the returns to their R&D capital.