Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Privatisation Reversals of Bus Transport Service: A Case of Shanghai in China

Abstract Public services have experienced a wave of privatisation reversal worldwide since 1990s. The debate about privatisation reversal has thus increased growing scholarly attention. To fully understand the reversal, this paper attempts to identify the reasons for reversal (why do actors engage in them), reveal the characteristics of reversal process (how does it happen), and evaluate the performance after reversal in urban bus transport field. The reversal of the privatised Shanghai public bus service was selected for illustration. The findings suggest that: (1) there exist various reversal reasons in different institutional environments, involving economic, political, and societal factors; (2) The reversal process is characterised by multi-actor interactions embedded in institutional environments; (3) The performance is improved after reversal.
Cash Crops and Food Security: Evidence from Ethiopian Smallholder Coffee Producers

Abstract One of the central questions in food policy debates has been the role of cash cropping for achieving food security in low-income countries. We revisit this question in the context of smallholder coffee production in Ethiopia. Using data collected by the authors on about 1600 coffee farmers in the country, we find that coffee income is associated with improved food security, even after controlling for total income and other factors. Further analysis suggests that one possible pathway is linked to being better able to smooth consumption across agricultural seasons.
Unbiased identification of signal-activated transcription factors by barcoded synthetic tandem repeat promoter screening (BC-STAR-PROM)

Gosselin et al. designed a widely applicable method, dubbed BC-STAR-PROM, to identify signal-activated TFs without any prior knowledge of their properties. To establish proof of concept for BC-STAR-PROM, they applied it to the identification of TFs induced by drugs affecting actin and tubulin cytoskeleton dynamics.
Aberrant Contraction of Antigen-Specific CD4 T Cells after Infection in the Absence of Gamma Interferon or Its Receptor

ABSTRACT Several lines of evidence from different model systems suggest that gamma interferon (IFN-γ) is an important regulator of T-cell contraction after antigen (Ag)-driven expansion. To specifically investigate the role of IFN-γ in regulating the contraction of Ag-specific CD4 T cells, we infected IFN-γ−/− and IFN-γR1−/− mice with attenuated Listeria monocytogenes and monitored the numbers of Ag-specific CD4 T cells during the expansion, contraction, and memory phases of the immune response to infection. In the absence of IFN-γ or the ligand-binding portion of its receptor, Ag-specific CD4 T cells exhibited normal expansion in numbers, but in both strains of deficient mice there was very little decrease in the number of Ag-specific CD4 T cells even at time points later than day 90 after infection. This significant delay in contraction was not due to prolonged infection, since mice treated with antibiotics to conclusively eliminate infection exhibited the same defect in contraction. In addition to altering the number of Ag-specific CD4 T cells, the absence of IFN-γ signaling also changed the phenotype of cells generated after infection. IFN-γR1−/− Ag-specific CD4 T cells reacquired expression of CD127 more quickly than wild-type cells, and more IFN-γR1−/− CD4 T cells were capable of producing both IFN-γ and interleukin 2 following Ag stimulation. From these data we conclude that IFN-γ regulates the contraction, phenotype, and function of Ag-specific CD4 T cells generated after infection.
A protein-binding site with dyad symmetry in the long terminal repeat of the MCF13 murine leukemia virus that contributes to transcriptional activity in T lymphocytes

We have previously identified regions in the long terminal repeat (LTR) of the MCF13 murine leukemia virus (MLV) that contribute to transcriptional activity in different cell types. We have observed that enhancer sequences and a region that resides 3' of the enhancer make significant contributions to transcriptional activity in T lymphocytes (T. Hollon and F. K. Yoshimura, J. Virol. 63:3353-3361, 1989). In this report, we have focused on the region of the MCF13 LTR that is 3' of the enhancer to identify binding sites for proteins that may play a role in the regulation of transcription in T cells. By gel shift and DNA footprint analyses, we have identified a single protein-binding site (MLPal) that includes a nucleotide sequence with dyad symmetry. A synthetic double-stranded oligonucleotide corresponding to this protein-binding site formed a specific protein-DNA complex. Deletion of this protein-binding site from the wild-type LTR decreased transcriptional activity in T lymphocytes but not in fibroblasts as determined by a transient expression assay. The MLPal sequence by itself cannot augment transcription in T cells but is able to do so in conjunction with enhancer sequences.
[Clinical studies on the use of hyperbaric oxygen in replantation of young permanent teeth].

OBJECTIVE To investigate the treatment effects of hyperbaric oxygen(HBO) in replantation of young permanent teeth. METHODS A total of 138 luxation injuries to young permanent teeth undergoing treatment. The teeth were replanted and then divided into 2 groups. The HBO group was exposed to 0.25 MPa pure oxygen 40 x 2 minutes each day for 10 days continuously while the control group were compared. RESULTS The total effective rates of the HBO group and the control group were 97.26% and 70.77% respectively, and showed significant difference (P < 0.05); respective frequencies of missing tooth after 1 year were 1.37% and 18.46%, and provided a statistical significance (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION HBO used in replantation of luxated young permanent teeth could promote the recovery of periodontal membrane, pulp, and prevent resorption of root.
Factors Predicting Pressure Ulcers in Veterans with Spinal Cord Injuries

Smith BM, Guihan M, LaVela SL, Garber SL: Factors predicting pressure ulcers in veterans with spinal cord injuries. Am J Phys Med Rehabil 2008;87:750–757. Objectives:To identify patient risk factors for pressure ulcers in a sample of veterans with spinal cord injuries and disorders. Design:A survey incorporating questions from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System was mailed to individuals with spinal cord injuries and disorders in 2003. A multiple logistic regression model including 2574 respondents was used to examine the association between patient characteristics and the self-report of pressure ulcers. Results:Approximately 36% of respondents reported having pressure ulcers during the previous year. Respondent characteristics significantly associated with report of one or more pressure ulcers included diabetes (incidence rate ratio [IRR] = 1.36, P < 0.001), smoking (IRR = 1.16, P = 0.030), injury duration >30 yrs (IRR = 1.27, P = 0.000), and reporting frequent depressive symptoms (IRR = 1.30, P < 0.001). Veterans who did not have injuries related to their military service (IRR = 1.39, P < 0.001) or who received care at non-VA facilities in addition to or instead of VA facilities (IRR = 1.13, P = 0.024) were more likely than other veterans to report pressure ulcers. Conclusion:Efforts to prevent pressure ulcers should include increased attention to managing diabetes and depressive symptoms. Further research to explore the association between multiple healthcare system use and the risk of pressure ulcers should be pursued.
Applicability of New Expression Vectors for Both Engineering Uses and Biological Studies

To be applicable for both engineering and biological uses, the plasmid with the features of tight regulation, high‐level expression, and subtle modulation (or homogeneous induction) is required. IPTG‐inducible promoters are of particular interest since they acquire the latter two merits but usually lack stringency. To this end, two plamids have been developed to contain the T7 A1 promoter along with either lacIq or lacI gene. As a production system, the cells harboring the plamids with the lacZ gene clone enabled production of the maximal protein accounting for 35% total cell content upon induction by a saturating IPTG level. This protein yield is amplified over 700‐fold relative to that at the uninduced state. As a system for biological study, the ppc negative strain bearing the plasmid with the ppc gene clone failed to grow on glucose without IPTG induction but immediately resumed its growth in the presence of IPTG. Moreover, the level of the ppc gene product in the cell was varied by various IPTG, and the result revealed that the wild‐type ppc level was sufficient to support the saturated growth of the cell on glucose. Overall, it illustrates the applicability of these plasmids to needs in the post‐genome era.
Biohydrogenation of C20 polyunsaturated fatty acids by anaerobic bacteria[S]

The PUFAs include many bioactive lipids. The microbial metabolism of C18 PUFAs is known to produce their bioactive isomers, such as conjugated FAs and hydroxy FAs, but there is little information on that of C20 PUFAs. In this study, we aimed to obtain anaerobic bacteria with the ability to produce novel PUFAs from C20 PUFAs. Through the screening of ∼100 strains of anaerobic bacteria, Clostridium bifermentans JCM 1386 was selected as a strain with the ability to saturate PUFAs during anaerobic cultivation. This strain converted arachidonic acid (cis-5,cis-8,cis-11,cis-14-eicosatetraenoic acid) and EPA (cis-5,cis-8,cis-11,cis-14,cis-17-EPA) into cis-5,cis-8,trans-13-eicosatrienoic acid and cis-5,cis-8,trans-13,cis-17-eicosatetraenoic acid, giving yields of 57% and 67% against the added PUFAs, respectively. This is the first report of the isolation of a bacterium transforming C20 PUFAs into corresponding non-methylene-interrupted FAs. We further investigated the substrate specificity of the biohydrogenation by this strain and revealed that it can convert two cis double bonds at the ω6 and ω9 positions in various C18 and C20 PUFAs into a trans double bond at the ω7 position. This study should serve to open up the development of novel potentially bioactive PUFAs.
Evidence for climate‐driven synchrony of marine and terrestrial ecosystems in northwest Australia

The effects of climate change are difficult to predict for many marine species because little is known of their response to climate variations in the past. However, long‐term chronologies of growth, a variable that integrates multiple physical and biological factors, are now available for several marine taxa. These allow us to search for climate‐driven synchrony in growth across multiple taxa and ecosystems, identifying the key processes driving biological responses at very large spatial scales. We hypothesized that in northwest (NW) Australia, a region that is predicted to be strongly influenced by climate change, the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon would be an important factor influencing the growth patterns of organisms in both marine and terrestrial environments. To test this idea, we analyzed existing growth chronologies of the marine fish Lutjanus argentimaculatus, the coral Porites spp. and the tree Callitris columellaris and developed a new chronology for another marine fish, Lethrinus nebulosus. Principal components analysis and linear model selection showed evidence of ENSO‐driven synchrony in growth among all four taxa at interannual time scales, the first such result for the Southern Hemisphere. Rainfall, sea surface temperatures, and sea surface salinities, which are linked to the ENSO system, influenced the annual growth of fishes, trees, and corals. All four taxa had negative relationships with the Niño‐4 index (a measure of ENSO status), with positive growth patterns occurring during strong La Niña years. This finding implies that future changes in the strength and frequency of ENSO events are likely to have major consequences for both marine and terrestrial taxa. Strong similarities in the growth patterns of fish and trees offer the possibility of using tree‐ring chronologies, which span longer time periods than those of fish, to aid understanding of both historical and future responses of fish populations to climate variation.
An analysis of the cable properties of spinal motoneurones using a brief intracellular current pulse

1. A brief intracellular current pulse, with duration less than 500 μsec, has been applied to lumbosacral motoneurones in anaesthetized cats. The resulting voltage transients have been analysed by the procedure suggested in Jack & Redman (1971b) to obtain the cable parameters for each motoneurone.
Control strategy study of Bi-directional energy storage converter

With the rapid development of new energy industries, the development of energy storage technology is becoming the focus of attention. Energy storage technology as a process operation of the grid in mining, generation, transmission, distribution, use, storage of six links, plays an important role in grid and distributed generation based on micro-grid system; These technology applications will also bring major changes in the traditional power system design, planning, scheduling, control and so on. Current research is mainly used for energy storage technology of distributed photovoltaic power generation, wind power systems; Energy storage converter played an energy storage system, an important part, between the photovoltaic panels, wind turbines and grid played interface role in achieving the two-way exchange of energy. Firstly, this paper describes the development and the classification of the bidirectional energy storage converter, and analyzes the structure and working principle of the bi-directional DC/DC converter and AC/DC converter topology. Then establish the mathematical model of single-phase PWM rectifier circuit is established, which is based on the rotating coordinate transformation, This paper — investigates the bidirectional flow of energy between network side and energy storage battery through selecting different control strategy to operate the system. According to the current inner loop and voltage outer loop control, the system of energy storage can run steadily.
The use of complementary non-destructive evaluation methods to evaluate the integrity of the cement—bone interface

Abstract The integrity of the cement—bone interface is vital to the long-term stability of cemented hip arthroplasty. Most of the previous studies investigating the interface have been confined to the continuum level, neglecting the effects of microstructure. Microscopic damage at the interface may eventually lead to macroscopic loosening of the implant. However, as the strength of the interface depends on the interlock of the cement with bone and because the properties of cancellous bone depend on its microstructure, the study of the behaviour of the interface at the microstructural level may help to gain an understanding of the factors governing initiation of loosening. In this study, two complementary non-destructive methods, acoustic emission (AE) and computed tomography (CT), have been implemented to study the initiation and progression of damage of an analogue cement—bone interface sample under four-point bending. Early failure was detected, localized, and characterized using AE. CT images of the sample before and after loading were used to visualize damage in three dimensions. Damage initiated at the interface and was found to be related to stress-raising microstructural features in the cement. These were caused by irregularities in the geometry of the bone analogue and recesses and notches formed by the flow of cement.
The Relationship Between Endothelial Damage and Aortic Augmentation Index

Augmentation index (AIx), a measure of wave reflection, is regulated by a number of factors, including endothelial function and vascular smooth muscle tone. The relationship between local endothelium-derived factors and AIx is well known; however, association between endothelial damage markers and AIx has not been sufficiently studied. This study investigates whether endothelial damage markers—von Willebrand factor (vWF) soluble thrombomodulin (sTM)—are associated with wave reflections. We studied 46 (48.5 ± 10.6, years) never-treated patients with hypertension (HT) and an age-matched control group of 40 (47 ± 8.6, years) normotensive individuals. von Willebrand factor and sTM levels were determined in all subjects. We evaluated the aortic AIx of the study population using applanation tonometry (Sphygmocor, AtCor Medical, Sydney, Australia). The heart rate-corrected augmentation index (AIx@75) was estimated as a marker of wave reflections. Endothelial damage markers and AIx@75 were significantly higher in hypertensive patients than in controls. In the whole population, the vWF level (β = 0.24, p = 0.01) was an independent determinant of AIx@75 in multivariate analysis. However, the sTM level was not associated with AIx@75. We found that the vWF level was an independent determinant of AIx@75. Our results suggest that increased an vWF level contributes significantly to increased wave reflections.
Symbolic behavioral modeling for slew and settling analysis of operational amplifiers

Traditionally symbolic techniques are used for analyzing small-signal circuit behaviors. They are not suitable for analyzing the large-signal transient responses of operational amplifiers (op-amps). This paper combines a symbolic dominant pole technique with a popular slew and settling analysis technique existing in the literature to form a symbolic transient analysis method which can be used for fast characterization of the op-amp behavior in the time-domain. A unified technique for slew and settling characterization is proposed. Experimental results have validated that the proposed method can calculate the slew and settling time of a two-stage op-amp more accurately for both large and small current designs.
Gasoline Prices, Beliefs, and the Energy Efficiency

This paper fills the gaps in cognitive process understanding of human behaviors between future gasoline price perception and the willingness to purchase hybrid vehicles. How consumers form future gasoline price beliefs and its impacts on decision making process is underexplored in literature. Using the monthly Michigan Survey of Consumers conducted in July 2008 to November 2008, we pool five cross sections and run a generalized linear model. We find statistically significant evidence that current and long-term future gasoline price perceptions affect the willingness to buy hybrid vehicles. This paper also shows the long-term future gasoline price perceptions predict better than the short-term future gasoline price beliefs. Understanding the effect of gasoline price on the willingness to buy more fuel-efficient cars has an important policy implication for the gasoline tax and other economic incentives to internalize negative externalities.
Is gender an impediment to firm performance? Evidence from small firms in Mauritius

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to test the female entrepreneurship underperformance hypothesis using a sample of small firms. The paper also attempts to explain why gender matters in entrepreneurship. The paper specifically investigates the differences in turnover of female and male entrepreneurs and also examines the reasons behind this differential performance by accounting for the gender factor. Design/methodology/approach This study uses survey data on 256 male and female entrepreneurs from the Island of Mauritius. The survey allows for the examination of the performance differential across male- and female-owned small businesses. The paper uses ordinary least squares and logistic estimation techniques to investigate the underperformance of female entrepreneurs. Sensitivity analyses are also undertaken to ensure robustness of the results. Findings The study finds evidence that gender matters when comparing the performance of male- and female-owned businesses. The results reveal that access to finance is an important hindrance to the performance of these small firms. Furthermore, the study also reveals that ethnicity plays a major role in influencing firm performance. Originality/value This paper is among the few studies, which investigates the female entrepreneurship underperformance hypothesis in a small developing state context and also attempts to explain the reasons why gender matters. The paper is an important empirical contribution to the literature in an African context.
SAFETY AND EFFICACY OF SUBTHALAMIC NUCLEUS DEEP BRAIN STIMULATION PERFORMED WITH LIMITED INTRAOPERATIVE MAPPING FOR TREATMENT OF PARKINSON'S DISEASE

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to establish the safety and efficacy of bilateral subthalamic nucleus (STN) deep brain stimulation (DBS) in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients with disabling motor fluctuations performed with an expedient procedure with limited intraoperative mapping. METHODS Bilateral STN DBS systems were implanted in 110 PD patients. Targeting of STN was achieved with T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging guidance and a stereotactic navigation system confirmed by limited electrophysiological mapping. The safety of the procedure was analyzed in all 110 patients. The efficacy of the procedure was assessed in the practically-defined off medication state in the 72 patients who underwent evaluations 3 to 12 months after electrode implantation. RESULTS Adverse effects were infrequent and transient with no incidence of death, hemiparesis, or seizure. In the 72 patients, STN DBS reduced total Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale motor scores at the time of the follow-up evaluation by 47% from 43.4 ± 16.1 with stimulators off to 22.8 ± 11.6 with stimulators on (P < 0.001). The changes in Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale motor subscores improved as follows: rest tremor, 74% (P < 0.001); rigidity, 58% (P < 0.001); bradykinesia, 37% (P < 0.001); pull test, 35% (P < 0.001); gait, 44% (P < 0.001); axial signs, 42% (P < 0.001); and speech, 13% (P = 0.002). The prescribed total daily levodopa-equivalent dose decreased 45 ± 32%. We averaged 1.3 ± 0.9 electrodes passes per lead implantation. The mean operating time from the mounting of the stereotactic frame to its removal was 5 hours 42 minutes (median, 5 h 25 min; standard deviation, 1 h 12 min). CONCLUSION This STN DBS surgical technique for PD is expedient with effective outcomes and low complication rates.