Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mouse Macrophages Are Permissive to Motile Legionella Species That Fail To Trigger Pyroptosis

ABSTRACT Legionella pneumophila, a motile opportunistic pathogen of humans, is restricted from replicating in the lungs of C57BL/6 mice. Resistance of mouse macrophages to L. pneumophila depends on recognition of cytosolic flagellin. Once detected by the NOD-like receptors Naip5 and Ipaf (Nlrc4), flagellin triggers pyroptosis, a proinflammatory cell death. In contrast, motile strains of L. parisiensis and L. tucsonensis replicate profusely within C57BL/6 macrophages, similar to flagellin-deficient L. pneumophila. To gain insight into how motile species escape innate defense mechanisms of mice, we compared their impacts on macrophages. L. parisiensis and L. tucsonensis do not induce proinflammatory cell death, as measured by lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release and interleukin-1β (IL-1β) secretion. However, flagellin isolated from L. parisiensis and L. tucsonensis triggers cell death and IL-1β secretion when transfected into the cytosol of macrophages. Neither strain displays three characteristics of the canonical L. pneumophila Dot/Icm type IV secretion system: sodium sensitivity, LAMP-1 evasion, and pore formation. Therefore, we postulate that when L. parisiensis and L. tucsonensis invade a mouse macrophage, flagellin is confined to the phagosome, protecting the bacteria from recognition by the cytosolic surveillance system and allowing Legionella to replicate. Despite their superior capacity to multiply in mouse macrophages, L. parisiensis and L. tucsonensis have been associated with only two cases of disease, both in renal transplant patients. These results point to the complexity of disease, a product of the pathogenic potential of the microbe, as defined in the laboratory, and the capacity of the host to mount a measured defense.
Leisingera methylohalidivorans gen. nov., sp. nov., a marine methylotroph that grows on methyl bromide.

A marine methylotroph, designated strain MB2T, was isolated for its ability to grow on methyl bromide as a sole carbon and energy source. Methyl chloride and methyl iodide also supported growth, as did methionine and glycine betaine. A limited amount of growth was observed with dimethyl sulfide. Growth was also noted with unidentified components of the complex media marine broth 2216, yeast extract and Casamino acids. No growth was observed on methylated amines, methanol, formate, acetate, glucose or a variety of other substrates. Growth on methyl bromide and methyl iodide resulted in their oxidation to CO2 with stoichiometric release of bromide and iodide, respectively. Strain MB2T exhibited growth optima at NaCl and Mg2+ concentrations similar to that of seawater. Phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rDNA sequence placed this strain in the alpha-Proteobacteria in proximity to the genera Ruegeria and Roseobacter. It is proposed that strain MB2T (= ATCC BAA-92T = DSM 14336T) be designated Leisingera methylohalidivorans gen. nov., sp. nov.
The Economic Valuation of Improved Urban Parks: A Case Study of Warda Park

Urban Parks are recognized as major contributors to the physical and aesthetic quality of urban neighborhoods. Hence, there is an increasing demand for improved urban parks. The overall objective of the study is to value the preferences, attitudes and motives of Warda Park visitors for a policy that aims at endowing the park with more amenities. The contingent valuation method is used. A Logit model and a Turnbull lower bound estimator are applied in order to estimate the visitors’ willingness to pay for improved urban park. The results of the study reveal that 78% of respondents are willing to pay an entrance fee that is higher than the current one if the park were endowed with more amenities. Moreover, the mean willingness to pay is FCFA 370.35/person for the Logit model and FCFA 351/person for the Turnbull lower bound estimator. The policy implications for urban park management are discussed.
Earnings Management and Earnings Quality

Viewing the detection of earnings management from the perspective of a crime scene investigator sheds new light on prior research on earnings management and its close relative, earnings quality. The works of Ball and Shivakumar [2008. Earnings quality at initial public offerings. Journal of Accounting and Economics, in press. ] and Teoh et al. [1998. Earnings management and the subsequent market performance of initial public offerings. Journal of Finance 53, 1935-1974. ] are used to illustrate the application of seven components of a crime scene investigation to earnings management research.
Risk Capital and VaR

In a few short years, Value at Risk has become one of the most widely used metrics for evaluating exposure to financial risk. Originally presented as a way to measure exposure to market risk over very short periods — typically overnight, or perhaps up to ten days — the VaR concept has been extended to broader uses, including estimating the need for risk capital to fund a risky business unit or investment project. In this article, Kupiec points out a couple of pitfalls in applying the VaR approach to the longer-horizon problem of allocating risk capital. One issue is how to treat the expected return on the assets: Do you measure VaR relative to the initial value, or to the expected end-of-period value? (Kupiec argues for the former.) Another issue is that when debt is part of the financing mix, the probability of insolvency at maturity depends on the firm's ability to pay both the principal and the interest on its bonds, but interest payments may not be included in a standard VaR calculation. Moreover, the size of the interest payment will be endogenous, because the rate depends on default risk, which in turn is a function of the firm's risk capital allocation. Kupiec discusses these issues and illustrates their quantitative importance under different parameter values.
Association Rule Analysis of Spatial Data Mining Based on Matlab-A Case of Ancheng Township in China

Though there are many methods for spatial data mining, it is also a desirable problem that how to carry out this operation fast. Matlab is called full-purpose calculation paper. And it has certain advantage in carrying out data mining because of its powerful matrix calculation function. According to the association rule method of data mining, spatial data of land use and slope was processed and extracted on Geographic Information System (GIS) at first, and data mining was performed by the program, which was wrote in M-language of Matlab. The study area was Ancheng township in Shandong province of China. The confidence and the support between different land use types and slope levels were mined, and the association rules were set up. Through the empirical study, it has been proved that this study method is feasible and the conclusion can provide instruction for local land use planning.
Protest: Random or Contagious?

This paper tests the argument that outbreaks of protest occur contagiously over time against the alternative expectation that protest occurs randomly over time. Using univariate ARIMA models, it analyzes a time series of protest in the postwar United Kingdom, consisting of the number of day/locales of protest events. The (logged) data are probed for three periods of temporal aggregation: annual, quarterly, and monthly. Five principal findings emerge: (1) The best yearly model was (0, 1, 0); the best quarterly and monthly models (0, 1, 1). Thus, annual protest displays a random walk with a slight upward trend, while quarterly and monthly protest display, after differencing, a first-order moving average process. (2) Nonstationarity in protest, indicated by the differencing of protest, appears in all three temporal aggregations. (3) Cycles appear very weakly with quarterly aggregations and not with monthly aggregations. (4) The 1950s had less protest than the 1970s; the 1960s were a time of increasing protest activity. (5) Forecasts of protest generated by all ARIMA models investigated were poor. We conclude that autocorrelation effects are indeed present in British protest and that, therefore, protest actions at successive time points are not completely random but are interdependent. Finally, this paper explores the implications of these findings for theories of protest.
Reliability, validity and the structure of the General Health Questionnaire in a Chinese context

SYNOPSIS The 30-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), the 24-item Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ), and a Chinese version of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) were administered to 225 English-speaking Chinese. The GHQ was found to have high internal consistency as a scale and to assess 5 dimensions of psychopathology: anxiety, inadequate coping, depression, insomnia, and social dysfunctioning. As a brief screening instrument, it correlated 0·49 with the SRQ. In the ‘case–non-case’ classification, it yielded a concordance rate of above 75% with the SRQ. Using the MMPI modal profiles derived from classification research as criterion measures, sensitivity, specificity and correct classification rates were above 70%. Implications for future research with the GHQ are discussed.
The balance-of-payments—constrained growth model: a north—south approach

This paper develops a general extended version of the balance-of-payments -constrained growth model that takes into account three often ignored aspects of contemporary growth in open economies—namely, trade imbalances and the importance of net financial flows in the long run, relative price changes caused by idiosyncratic rules of adjustment in prices, and trade and payments interdependence among asymmetric regions. We first present partial solutions for both a northern and a southern region under the key assumption of an exogenous world income growth. We show how, under specific assumptions, the solutions reduce to Thirlwall's rule. After that, we lift the small economy assumption and allow full interdependence among regions and explore the implications, over the terms of trade and the rate of growth of both regions, of changes in the rate of growth of net financial transfers. Contingent on parameters values of each region, we found that an exogenous change in the rate of growth of financial transfers may generate either a mutually reinforcing growth regime or a conflicting growth regime.
LOJİSTİK İŞLEVİNİN PAZARLAMA VE ÜRETİM BİRİMLERİ ARASINDAKİ BAĞLAYICI ROLÜ VE İŞLETME PERFORMANSI ÜZERİNDEKİ ETKİLERİ

The aim of the study is to investigate the effects of operations function, marketing function, and logistics function on business performance. It shows that overall business performance under effective coordination between the functions is higher than the performance achieved when the tasks are performed individually. The specific implications of the study are: (1) the most prominent issue for achievement of high performance is the coordination between operations and logistics functions in the specific sample, and (2) logistics function plays a crucial role in linking the activities of operations and marketing departments in a company.
Bid Design and Yea Saying in Single-Bounded, Dichotomous-Choice Questions

Bid design in dichotomous-choice questions is an issue of considerable concern and debate. This paper investigates the effect of bid structures on welfare estimates using two pretest distributions (from open-ended and dichotomous-choice questions) and three bid structures (two-bid, five-bid, and multi-bid designs). Both Monte Carlo simulations and responses from a field experiment are used. Results support the growing evidence that "yea saying" occurs and the problem becomes worse when bids are clustered at discrete bid levels in the upper tail of the distribution. The systematic effect of bids on responses to dichotomous-choice questions reduces the effectiveness of optimal bid designs.
A temporal perspective of composite objects

For the development of object-oriented applications, the description of temporal aspects of object behaviour often turns out to be an important issue. We present a collection of notions and concepts intended for the description of the temporal order in which messages are sent to and received from an object. We also propose notions for the description of the temporal order of messages exchanged between cooperating objects related with part-of relationships. Using propositional temporal logic as the underlying formalism of our approach, we show how to verify the consistency of object specifications.
#Opendata: Digital-Era Governance Thoroughbred or New Public Management Trojan Horse?

The open data movement - in which advocates have called for governments to provide open, easy-to-use and largely free-of-charge access to public data - has generated significant momentum in a short period of time. I review the benefits - to both governments and the public - that many open data advocates agree are achievable from making digitized government data more open. Following this, I focus on one of these purported benefits and propose an alternative interpretation that identifies a potential downside to open data as currently framed: that an alternative reading of some elements of the open data advocacy coalition originate in the New Public Management reform agenda and seek to revive it.
Budget deficit, size of the public sector and majority voting

In this paper Tabellini’s and Alesina’s (1990) median voter model for the explanation of budget deficits is modified by endogenizing the private sector. Debt finance is supplemented by taxing a private consumption which serves as an additional source of revenue for funding the public sector. The introduction of the private sector enables us to explain the budget balance as a result of political polarization with a left-wing party and a right-wing party having different preferences for the size of the public sector.
Effectiveness of a smartphone app to increase parents' knowledge and empowerment in the MMR vaccination decision: A randomized controlled trial

ABSTRACT Researchers are trying to build evidence for mhealth effectiveness in various fields. However, no evidence yet is showing the effectiveness of mhealth on parents' attitudes and behavior with regard to recommended vaccination of their children. The aim of this study was to look into the effects of 2 smartphone-based interventions targeting MMR vaccination knowledge and psychological empowerment respectively. The interventions used gamification features and videos in combination with text messages. We conducted a 2x2 between-subject factorial randomized controlled trial (absence/presence of knowledge intervention X absence/presence of empowerment intervention) with parents of young children in Italy. We randomly allocated 201 eligible participants to one of the 4 conditions. Data were collected by questionnaires at baseline and posttest. Primary outcomes were MMR vaccination knowledge, psychological empowerment, risk perception, and preferred decisional role; secondary outcomes included MMR vaccination intention, attitude, confidence, and recommendation intention. A significant gain in vaccination knowledge was reported by all experimental groups compared with the control (F(3,179) = 48.58, p < . 000), while only those receiving both interventions reported a significant increase in their psychological empowerment (t(179) = −2.79, p = . 006). Participants receiving the intervention targeting knowledge reported significantly higher intention to vaccinate (t(179) = 2.111; p = . 03) and higher confidence in the decision (t(179) = 2.76; p = . 006) compared with the control group. Parent-centered, gamified mobile interventions aimed at providing parents with vaccination-related information can be used to increase their knowledge, their intention to vaccinate as well as their confidence in the vaccination decision.
Radiographic Comparison of Periimplant Bone Resorption and Assessment of Survival Rates of 2 Implant Systems: A 10-Year Prospective Multicenter Study

Purpose:The aim of this multicenter human clinical trial was to radiographically evaluate the marginal bone loss and to assess implant survival rate in patients treated using 2 different implant systems (Bio-Plant and Tuber-Plant) after 10 years of loading. Methods:Ninety-seven patients were selected, and 160 implants were inserted (72 Bio-Plant and 88 Tuber-Plant). Ten years later, 20 patients were lost at follow-up and 77 patients (126 implants; 67 Bio-Plant and 59 Tuber-Plant) were recalled. After 10-year, the periimplant bone resorption was significantly lower (P = 0.0039) for Tuber-Plant (0.74 ± 0.12 mm) than for Bio-Plant (1.31 ± 0.09 mm). The cumulative survival rate was 99.11%. Conclusion:Both implant systems demonstrated to be suitable for a long-term successful rehabilitation because of stable marginal bone levels and high survival rates after 10 years of functional loading.
Impact of input data parameter uncertainty on simulation-based decision making

Simulation-based optimisation is popularly employed to determine the best system configuration of complex simulation models. However, it is assumed that the input distribution and parameters are known. In this paper, the input distribution parameter is assumed to be unknown and the impact of the same on the optimal system configurations obtained is investigated. Bootstrapping of the sample data is performed to generate multiple parameter estimates, each of which is used to obtain an optimal solution using regression based simulation-optimisation. It is proposed that the convex combination of the multiple optimal solutions got using different regression models gives a better estimate of the `true' optimum. The above approach is illustrated using the classical (s, S) inventory policy.
Exploring the relationship between gender and career outcomes for social scientists: Implications for research on IS scholarship

Purpose – The paper seeks to provide a structured review of the literature on gender and scholarly career outcomes in the social sciences and discuss its relevance to research on IS scholarship, in order to guide researchers who seek to conduct studies on the role of gender in academic IS careers.Design/methodology/approach – The authors review the literature to identify all published studies that compare (or theorize about) various academic career outcomes for men and women in the social sciences.Findings – In comparing the literature from the IS field with other social science disciplines, the authors conclude that gender has been entirely overlooked in studies of IS scholars' publication patterns and other career outcomes. Propositions are developed for researchers in order to guide future studies that examine the relationship between gender and academic career outcomes.Research limitations/implications – The paper focuses on studies that compare research productivity and other career outcomes for men .
TASEL: dynamic taint analysis with selective control dependency

Dynamic Taint Analysis (DTA) is an approach used for software testing and vulnerability analysis. The vanilla DTA method is widely used, but its simple taint propagation does not consider any control dependency. Therefore, vanilla DTA generally suffers from the under-tainting caused by control dependency. The under-tainting can be problematic when analyzers try to check vulnerabilities of software. In this paper, we propose Dynamic Taint Analysis with Selective Control Dependency (TASEL), to mitigate the under-tainting problem caused by control dependency. Our technique detects control-dependent data which have possibilities to change the program's control flows. We implemented TASEL using Intel Pin, and applied it for the commodity programs such as Microsoft Notepad. Experimental results show our proposed method successfully resolves the under-tainting problem, without causing the over-tainting problem.
Genome-Wide Expression Analysis of Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Mastitis in a Mouse Model

ABSTRACT To better understand the acute host response to Escherichia coli mastitis, we analyzed gene expression patterns of approximately 23,000 transcripts 4 h after an intramammary infusion of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in a mouse model. A total of 489 genes were significantly affected, of which 391 were induced and 98 were repressed. Gene ontology analysis demonstrated that most of the induced genes were associated with the innate immune response, apoptosis, and cell proliferation. Substantial induction of the chemokines CXCL1, CXCL2, and S100A8; the acute-phase protein SAA3; and the LPS binding protein CD14 were confirmed by Northern blot analysis. A subsequent time course experiment revealed CXCL1 induction prior to that of CD14 and SAA3. Mammary epithelial cell cultures also showed marked expression of these factors in response to LPS. The expression of immune-related genes in mammary epithelial cells indicates the importance of this cell type in initiating the inflammatory responses. Repressed genes include several carbohydrate and fatty acid metabolic enzymes and potassium transporters, which may contribute to milk composition changes during mastitis. Therefore, the overall transcription profile, in conjunction with gene ontology analysis, provides a detailed picture of the molecular mechanisms underlying the complex biological processes that occur during LPS-induced mastitis.
Molecular Cloning and Expression of Human and Mouse Tyrosylprotein Sulfotransferase-2 and a Tyrosylprotein Sulfotransferase Homologue in Caenorhabditis elegans *

Tyrosine O-sulfation, a common post-translational modification in eukaryotes, is mediated by Golgi enzymes that catalyze the transfer of the sulfuryl group from 3′-phosphoadenosine 5′-phosphosulfate to tyrosine residues in polypeptides. We recently isolated cDNAs encoding human and mouse tyrosylprotein sulfotransferase-1 (Ouyang, Y. B., Lane, W. S., and Moore, K. L. (1998) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 95, 2896–2901). Here we report the isolation of cDNAs encoding a second tyrosylprotein sulfotransferase (TPST), designated TPST-2. The human and mouse TPST-2 cDNAs predict type II transmembrane proteins of 377 and 376 amino acid residues, respectively. The cDNAs encode functionalN-glycosylated enzymes when expressed in mammalian cells. In addition, preliminary analysis indicates that TPST-1 and TPST-2 have distinct specificities toward peptide substrates. The human TPST-2 gene is on chromosome 22q12.1, and the mouse gene is in the central region of chromosome 5. We have also identified a cDNA that encodes a TPST in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans that maps to the right arm of chromosome III. Thus, we have identified two new members of a class of membrane-bound sulfotransferases that catalyze tyrosineO-sulfation. These enzymes may catalyze tyrosineO-sulfation of a variety of protein substrates involved in diverse physiologic functions.