Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A rapid appraisal approach to evaluation of community‐level fisheries management systems: Framework and field application at selected coastal fishing villages in the Philippines and Indonesia

Among the recent attempts to use Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA) techniques traditionally employed in agriculture and other terrestrial resource systems is in the evaluation of the coastal and marine fisheries environments. One of these approaches is called Rapid Appraisal of Fisheries Management Systems (RAFMS). which was developed at the International Center for Living Aquatic Resources Management (ICLARM). The RAFMS is a diagnostic tool designed to quickly document and evaluate the operating fisheries management systems, both formally and informally, at the community level. As a critical first step in diagnosing the existing types of community‐level fisheries management systems, the RAFMS shall provide general information on their essential features, operations, and impacts. Given limited funds, time, and research personnel, it is not always possible to conduct in‐depth studies of community based fisheries resource management systems at a specific site or across a country. While the RAFMS is no substitute .
Entrepreneurial branding: growth and its implications for brand management

Small enterprise growth is at the heart of entrepreneurship research. While in most cases growth is welcome, its management brings about major challenges. The main focus of this article is on showing the relationship between a firm's corporate branding practices, its entrepreneurial behaviours and impact on perceived brand authenticity during phases of growth. The entrepreneurial growth process of the German BIONADE brand is analysed. The results show that as long as outside and internal perception of brand values is congruent the brand is perceived as authentic. The results show three variables, i.e., company size, increasing presence/availability as well as ownership structures, to have considerable impact on the degree to which the brand is perceived as authentic.
Soft-Talk Management Cash Flow Forecasts: Bias, Quality, and Stock Price Effects

We exploit a novel feature of management cash flow forecasts (MCFFs) to investigate how managers’ discretion over forecast precision, clarity, and verifiability affects the bias, quality, and stock price effects of such forecasts. Many MCFFs are issued with an equivocal definition of the cash flow number being forecasted. We refer to such forecasts as “Soft-Talk” MCFFs and predict, due to their lower precision and clarity, potential for bias, and low ex-post verifiability, that they will have lower disclosure quality and lower credibility with investors when compared to “GAAP-Based” MCFFs. “GAAP-Based” MCFFs are those whose cash flow definition is associated with a GAAP cash flow measure (e.g., OCF or NCF), one that can be derived from GAAP cash flow measures (e.g., free cash flow, FCF), or one where management explicitly discloses the definition of cash flow. We find that “Soft-Talk” MCFFs are optimistically biased and that managers’ decision to issue “Soft-Talk” MCFFs is related to economic factors including litigation risk, actual cash flow performance, industry concentration, and the issuance of prior cash flow forecasts. As predicted, “Soft-Talk” MCFFs have lower disclosure quality than “GAAP-Based” MCFFs. Finally, while MCFFs in general affect stock prices, consistent with the low precision and clarity, and potential for optimistic bias in “Soft-Talk” MCFFs, they have no effect on stock prices. Our findings document how and why managers’ discretion over forecast precision, clarity, and verifiability affects the bias, quality, and stock price effects of such forecasts.
Cold-induced depolarization of insect muscle: differing roles of extracellular K+ during acute and chronic chilling

Insects enter chill coma, a reversible state of paralysis, at temperatures below their critical thermal minimum (CTmin), and the time required for an insect to recover after a cold exposure is termed chill coma recovery time (CCRT). The CTmin and CCRT are both important metrics of insect cold tolerance that are used interchangeably, although chill coma recovery is not necessarily permitted by a direct reversal of the mechanism causing chill coma onset. Nevertheless, onset and recovery of coma have been attributed to loss of neuromuscular function due to depolarization of muscle fibre membrane potential (Vm). Here we test the hypothesis that muscle depolarization at chill coma onset and repolarization during chill coma recovery are caused by changes in extracellular [K+] and/or other effects of low temperature. Using Locusta migratoria, we measured in vivo muscle resting potentials of the extensor tibialis during cooling, following prolonged exposure to −2°C and during chill coma recovery, and related changes in Vm to transmembrane [K+] balance and temperature. Although Vm was rapidly depolarized by cooling, hemolymph [K+] did not rise until locusts had spent considerable time in the cold. Nonetheless, a rise in hemolymph [K+] during prolonged cold exposure further depressed muscle resting potential and slowed recovery from chill coma upon rewarming. Muscle resting potentials had a bimodal distribution, and with elevation of extracellular [K+] (but not temperature) muscle resting potentials become unimodal. Thus, a disruption of extracellular [K+] does depolarize muscle resting potential and slow CCRT following prolonged cold exposure. However, onset of chill coma at the CTmin relates to an as-yet-unknown effect of temperature on neuromuscular function.
Agricultural extension and rural environment: focus on water resource influencing lives and livelihood.

Agricultural extension with its basic philosophies, scope, principles and applications strive to support the existing rural environment encompassing livelihoods: social, physical , financial, human and natural(natural resources)capitals to a great extent. Farming systems vary with agro-ecological conditions and no single intervention will work as a magical cure for improving farm productivity. Revival of agricultural dynamism calls for corrective steps to deal with the near collapse of the extension systems in most states and the decline in agricultural research universities.The technologies and approaches with ‘ top-down’, technology-driven projects: local, decentralized, community-based, people-centered alternatives are available. Problems of scarcity of water, depleted aquifers, declining groundwater tables, and drought proneness have been successfully tackled by water harvesting endeavors in Ralegan Siddhi village in Maharashtra, Sukhomajri in Haryana, and Alwar in Rajasthan only the need of the hour is to properly revive our old conventional systems for sustainable future and livelihood.
Reversed-phase ion-pairing liquid chromatography/ion trap mass spectrometry for the analysis of negatively charged, derivatized glycans.

The significant complexity, similar polarity and lack of ionizable sites make the analysis of glycans an analytical challenge. These compounds are often derivatized and separated by normal-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) or capillary electrophoresis (CE) followed by UV or fluorescence detection. Due to widespread use of reversed-phase chromatography coupled to electrospray mass spectrometry as an analytical tool, our laboratory has developed this methodology for the analysis of glycans derivatized with a negatively charged tag, 8-aminonaphthalene-1,3,6-trisulfonic acid (ANTS). It is possible to exploit the ability of this negatively charged tag to interact with a mobile phase ion-pairing reagent, allowing retention on a reversed-phase C(18) column for subsequent on-line UV or MS analysis. ANTS-derivatized samples, including a maltooligosaccharide ladder and glycans released from bovine ribonuclease B, bovine fetuin, and chicken ovalbumin, were analyzed using this method. In addition to reversed-phase retention, ribonuclease B and ovalbumin derivatives displayed highly desirable isomeric separation. With the use of mass spectrometric detection for glycan identity, this allowed relative quantitation of individual components.
The distribution of earnings in OECD countries

: Earnings inequality in the OECD countries is commonly seen to have widened considerably since 1980 - and this is generally explained by the steady increase in relative demand for skilled labour due to skill-biased technical change and the growing exposure of unskilled workers to international competition through globalization. But this single explanation now looks questionable: the increase in inequality has been uneven across countries, and greater earnings dispersion has mostly been occurring at the top of the distribution. This article takes a fresh look at the evidence and considers alternative explanations to supplement that provided by the race between technology and education.
A Discrete Time Model for Pricing Treasury Bills, Forward, and Futures Contracts

Abstract This paper develops a discrete time model for valuing treasury bills and either forward or futures contracts written against them. It provides formulae for bill prices, forward prices, futures prices, and their conditional variances and risk premiums. The interest rate process is described by a multiplicative binomial random walk whose features conform to some principal characteristics of observed processes. Initial forward rates are constrained to match initially observed term structure data.
mTOR Kinase Inhibition Effectively Decreases Progression of a Subset of Neuroendocrine Tumors that Progress on Rapalog Therapy and Delays Cardiac Impairment

Inhibition of mTOR signaling using the rapalog everolimus is an FDA-approved targeted therapy for patients with lung and gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (NET). However, patients eventually progress on treatment, highlighting the need for additional therapies. We focused on pancreatic NETs (pNET) and reasoned that treatment of these tumors upon progression on rapalog therapy, with an mTOR kinase inhibitor (mTORKi), such as CC-223, could overcome a number of resistance mechanisms in tumors and delay cardiac carcinoid disease. We performed preclinical studies using human pNET cells in vitro and injected them subcutaneously or orthotopically to determine tumor progression and cardiac function in mice treated with either rapamycin alone or switched to CC-223 upon progression. Detailed signaling and RNA sequencing analyses were performed on tumors that were sensitive or progressed on mTOR treatment. Approximately 57% of mice bearing pNET tumors that progressed on rapalog therapy showed a significant decrease in tumor volume upon a switch to CC-223. Moreover, mice treated with an mTORKi exhibited decreased cardiac dilation and thickening of heart valves than those treated with placebo or rapamycin alone. In conclusion, in the majority of pNETs that progress on rapalogs, it is possible to reduce disease progression using an mTORKi, such as CC-223. Moreover, CC-223 had an additional transient cardiac benefit on valvular fibrosis compared with placebo- or rapalog-treated mice. These results provide the preclinical rationale to further develop mTORKi clinically upon progression on rapalog therapy and to further test their long-term cardioprotective benefit in those NET patients prone to carcinoid syndrome. Mol Cancer Ther; 16(11); 2432–41. ©2017 AACR.
Impact of total quality management on productivity

The twenty‐first century harbors intense global competition where the playing field and the rules of the game have changed. There is an urgent need for Pakistani businesses to change the way they operate. This paper introduces the total quality management (TQM) concept and argues that its implementation is the critical need of the hour for the survival of our industries both locally and internationally. The paper is divided into four segments: the first discusses the changed environment in which businesses are operating; the second gives a brief introduction to the TQM philosophy and discusses TQM systems and tools; the third discusses the effect of TQM on productivity and explains what is meant by “effective productivity”; and the fourth presents some of the benefits that were realized by international and local firms implementing TQM.
Direct Transcriptional Regulation of Human Hepatic Cytochrome P 450 3 A 4 ( CYP 3 A 4 ) by Peroxisome Proliferator – Activated Receptor Alpha ( PPAR a ) s

The nuclear receptor peroxisome proliferator–activated receptor (PPAR)a is known primarily as a regulator of fatty acid metabolism, energy balance, and inflammation, but evidence suggests a wider role in regulating the biotransformation of drugs and other lipophilic chemicals. We investigated whether PPARa directly regulates the transcription of cytochrome P450 3A4, the major human drug-metabolizing enzyme. Using chromatin immunoprecipitation in human primary hepatocytes as well as electrophoretic mobility shift and luciferase reporter-gene assays, we identified three functional PPARa-binding regions (PBR-I, -II, and -III) within ∼12 kb of the CYP3A4 upstream sequence. Furthermore, a humanized CYP3A4/3A7mousemodel showed in vivo induction of CYP3A4 mRNA and protein by [4chloro-6-(2,3-xylidino)-2-pyrimidinylthio]acetic acid (WY14,643) in liver but not in intestine, whereas hepatic occupancy of PBRs by PPARa was ligand independent. Using lentiviral gene knock-down and treatment with WY14,643 in primary human hepatocytes, PPARa was further shown to affect the expression of a distinct set of CYPs, including 1A1, 1A2, 2B6, 2C8, 3A4, and 7A1, but not 2C9, 2C19, 2D6, or 2E1. Interestingly, the common phospholipid 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycerol-3phosphocholine (16:0/18:1-PC), previously proposed to reflect nutritional status and shown to be a specific endogenous ligand of PPARa, induced CYP3A4 (up to 4-fold) and other biotransformation genes in hepatocytes with similar selectivity and potency as WY14,643. These data establish PPARa as a direct transcriptional regulator of hepatic CYP3A4. This finding warrants investigation of both known and newly developed PPARa-targeted drugs for their drug-drug interaction potential. Furthermore, our data suggest that nutritional status can influence drug biotransformation capacity via endogenous phospholipid signaling.
Automatic Poisson peak harvesting for high throughput protein identification

High throughput identification of proteins by peptide mass fingerprinting requires an efficient means of picking peaks from mass spectra. Here, we report the development of a peak harvester to automatically pick monoisotopic peaks from spectra generated on matrix‐assisted laser desorption/ionisation time of flight (MALDI‐TOF) mass spectrometers. The peak harvester uses advanced mathematical morphology and watershed algorithms to first process spectra to stick representations. Subsequently, Poisson modelling is applied to determine which peak in an isotopically resolved group represents the monoisotopic mass of a peptide. We illustrate the features of the peak harvester with mass spectra of standard peptides, digests of gel‐separated bovine serum albumin, and with Escherictia coli proteins prepared by two‐dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. In all cases, the peak harvester proved effective in its ability to pick similar monoisotopic peaks as an experienced human operator, and also proved effective in the identification of monoisotopic masses in cases where isotopic distributions of peptides were overlapping. The peak harvester can be operated in an interactive mode, or can be completely automated and linked through to peptide mass fingerprinting protein identification tools to achieve high throughput automated protein identification.
S&P 500 index inclusion announcements: does the S&P committee tell us something new?

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to directly examine the information hypothesis of S&P 500 index inclusion announcements by investigating the degree to which information beyond Standard & Poor's eight stated criteria enters the inclusion decision. Design/methodology/approach - Isolating a sample of S&P 500 additions and their eligible candidates during 1987-2004, this paper employs logistic analysis that identifies factors Findings - The evidence indicates that, when choosing among new S&P 500 candidates, the S&P's committee relies primarily on publicly available information related to enterprise risk and historical performance. Material, private insight into future value-relevant information plays at most a small part in the selection. Research limitations/implications - The results suggest that index additions convey limited new information about added firms. Studies analysing index additions should start with the presumption that index inclusion announcements are information-free events, and focus on the consequences of index inclusions such as liquidity, awareness or arbitrage risk, in their relation to index premia. Originality/value - The results indicate that the previous evidence supporting the information hypothesis using the S&P 500 inclusions is not compelling.
Corporate entrepreneurship and firms’ performance in the manufacturing sector in Nigeria

Concern for investment in the manufacturing sector in Nigeria has continued to grow; but little is probably known about its entrepreneurial posture. This study examines the relationship between corporate entrepreneurship and firms' performance in the manufacturing sector in Nigeria. Data were generated by means of questionnaires to 670 manufacturing firms on entrepreneurship and performance variables. Responses from the survey were statistically analysed using descriptive statistics, product moment correlation, regression analysis and Z-test (approximated with the independent samples t-test). The results of the study indicate a statistically significant relationship between corporate entrepreneurship and firms' performance as well as reveal a significant difference between the performance of entrepreneurial firms and the performance of conservative firms. The implications of this study include the need for manufacturing firms in Nigeria to demonstrate high level of commitment to entrepreneurship.
Total Quality Research: Integrating Markets and the Organization

The market research function has to broaden its scope, move out of the functional trap in marketing, and become the organizer and facilitator of the company-wide Total Quality Research (TQR) system. This article presents a systematic approach for transforming the marketing research function into a Total Quality Research system which can guide a company's Total Quality Management (TQM) effort. The article describes how to design a TQR system that elicits the voice of the customer and business processes, and that organizes and deploys this information for use in strategic planning and resource allocation. The TQR system is further explored by presenting case studies of leading companies that have applied different parts of this system in their TQM efforts. The article concludes by offering five imperatives for successfully implementing a TQR system.
Stress sigma factor RpoS degradation and translation are sensitive to the state of central metabolism

Significance Bacteria such as Escherichia coli encounter multiple environments and, as with all organisms, must balance growth and survival when conditions are suboptimal. E. coli uses the RpoS sigma factor, a specialized subunit of RNA polymerase, under conditions of stress or starvation to change the transcriptional program to one that promotes survival. We find that a block in central metabolism, via deletion of a gene encoding pyruvate dehydrogenase, leads to a dramatic increase in RpoS in exponential phase cells. This metabolic cue is likely via reduced amounts of acetyl-CoA. The increase in RpoS is mediated by stabilization of RpoS protein and by translational up-regulation of RpoS synthesis and links this stress response to the state of central metabolism. RpoS, the stationary phase/stress sigma factor of Escherichia coli, regulates a large cohort of genes important for the cell to deal with suboptimal conditions. Its level increases quickly in the cell in response to many stresses and returns to low levels when growth resumes. Increased RpoS results from increased translation and decreased RpoS degradation. Translation is positively regulated by small RNAs (sRNAs). Protein stability is positively regulated by anti-adaptors, which prevent the RssB adaptor-mediated degradation of RpoS by the ClpXP protease. Inactivation of aceE, a subunit of pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH), was found to increase levels of RpoS by affecting both translation and protein degradation. The stabilization of RpoS in aceE mutants is dependent on increased transcription and translation of IraP and IraD, two known anti-adaptors. The aceE mutation also leads to a significant increase in rpoS translation. The sRNAs known to positively regulate RpoS are not responsible for the increased translation; sequences around the start codon are sufficient for the induction of translation. PDH synthesizes acetyl-CoA; acetate supplementation allows the cell to synthesize acetyl-CoA by an alternative, less favored pathway, in part dependent upon RpoS. Acetate addition suppressed the effects of the aceE mutant on induction of the anti-adaptors, RpoS stabilization, and rpoS translation. Thus, the bacterial cell responds to lowered levels of acetyl-CoA by inducing RpoS, allowing reprogramming of E. coli metabolism.
Staphylococcus saprophyticus as a cause of urinary tract infections

Our objectives in this study were to elucidate various aspects of the epidemiology of Staphylococcus saprophyticus. This organism was isolated from the midstream urine specimens of 7.5% of 145 college women with frequency and urgency of urination and dysuria, but from only 0.07% of 14,835 urine specimens from adult inpatients at the Victoria General Hospital. It was found to be part of the urethral flora of only 2% of healthy women. Other staphylococci which formed part of the urethral flora of 100 healthy women included S. epidermidis (59 women), S. hominis (15 women), S. haemolyticus (13 women), S. warneri (9 women), and S. aureus (6 women). Finally, we determined that resistance to the 5-micrograms novobiocin disk has a 93% positive predictive accuracy as a presumptive test for S. saprophyticus.