Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Humanitarian logistics: the role of logistics service providers

Purpose – In recent years, logistics service providers (LSPs) have become important players in the humanitarian field, providing support for NGOs and governments when they respond to major disasters. However, the academic literature on humanitarian logistics has not really explored the roles that LSPs play in relief supply chains. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of LSPs in humanitarian relief. Design/methodology/approach – The research uses a two-stage exploratory approach: first, it systematically reviews the humanitarian logistics literature to see the extent to which LSPs are taken into account. Then it analyses the web sites of leading LSPs to examine how they communicate about their role in humanitarian relief. Findings – This research produces some surprising findings. While the academic literature seems to neglect the roles of LSPs in humanitarian logistics, some major third-party firms highlight their roles in relief networks. A number of research propositions are presented de.
Perceived Needs for Support Program for Family With Child Sexual Abuse Victim in South Korea: Focus Group Interview With Therapists and Mothers

ABSTRACT This study assessed perceived needs for psychological support program for family with victim of child sexual abuse in South Korea. We conducted two separate focus group interviews with five therapists who served child sexual abuse victims and families as well as four mothers of a child sexual abuse victim. Consensual qualitative research analysis revealed four domains: Emotional support for parents, psychoeducation, family therapy, and tailored and flexible service delivery. Core ideas of the four domains were identified. The results were consistent with the family support program contents developed in Western countries and suggested culture-specific contents and culturally sensitive service delivery. Clinical implications for developing family support program in South Korea were discussed.
ACOUSTIC SCENE CLASSIFICATION BASED ON SPECTRAL ANALYSIS AND FEATURE-LEVEL CHANNEL COMBINATION

This paper is a submission to the sub-task Acoustic Scene Classification of the IEEE Audio and Acoustic Signal Processing challenge: Detection and Classification of Acoustic Scenes and Events 2016. The aim of the sub-task is to correctly detect 15 different acoustic scenes, which consist of indoor, outdoor, and vehicle categories. This work is based on spectral analysis, feature-level channel combination, and support vector machine classifier. In this short paper, the impact of different parameters while extracting features is analyzed. The accuracy gain obtained by feature-level channel combination is then reported.
Physical health and mental disorder in elderly suicide: A case-control study

The psychological autopsy method was used to study 95 cases of suicide. Ninety-five comparison subjects matched for gender, age, region, and date of death were selected from the death register. This study showed that suicide cases did not differ from controls with regard to the number of chronic health problems and, compared to the suicide cases, the controls had less functional autonomy six months prior to death. If minor and sub-threshold depression cases were included, 74.7% of the suicide cases would have been considered as having a mental health disorder compared to 12.6% in the control group. When the effect of other co-variables were controlled for, multivariate analysis showed that suicide cases and controls did not differ according to marital status, education, income, and living arrangement. Furthermore, suicide cases were no more likely than controls to seldom meet with family members or friends or to have been isolated during the six-month period preceding their death. Our findings suggest that detection of psychiatric disorders, mainly depression, must be included in late life suicide prevention strategies.
Corporate governance in Germany : an empirical investigation

1 Introduction. - 2 Literature Review and Methodological Concerns. - 3 The German Corporations Database (GCD). - 4 Frequency, Causes, and Consequences of Control Transfers. - 5 Determinants of Acquisition and Failure. - 6 Corporate Governance, Market Discipline, and Productivity Growth. - 7 Concluding Remarks. - List of Data Sources. - List of Figures. - List of Tables.
Are Shocks to Energy Consumption Persistent? Evidence from Subsampling Confidence Intervals

This paper analyzes the persistence property of energy use in 107 countries around the world during 1971-2011 using different subsampling confidence intervals introduced by Romano and Wolf (2001). These confidence intervals are much more informative than the unit root tests and are more robust to misspecification errors as they require fewer assumptions on the nature of data generating process. While providing evidence about the stationarity or non-stationarity of the variables, they also show the degree of persistence and consequently are very informative for the role of government intervention in environ- mental oriented policies. The findings show that there are three classes of countries in terms of energy use: with explosive behavior (highly populated with high growth economies- 4 countries); non-stationary (developing and highly oil dependent economies- 64 countries); and stationary (generally developed and energy-rich countries- 39 countries). An explosive behavior of energy use would make government environmental related policies improbable as they require strict enforcement rules for the policy to be effective. For the nonstationary cases, government interventions can be effective for energy conservation and other environmental oriented policies, while for the stationary cases the effect of government intervention, energy conservation or environmental-oriented demand-management policies would be tem- porary, and their effects will not last long.
A PIXEL INTERPOLATION TECHNIQUE FOR CURVED HAIR REMOVAL IN SKIN IMAGES TO SUPPORT MELANOMA DETECTION 1

Melanoma Insitu is one of the most earliest perilous forms of skin cancer. These cancerous growths develop when unrepaired DNA damage to skin cells (most often caused by ultraviolet radiation) triggers mutations (genetic defects) that lead the skin cells to multiply rapidly and form malignant tumors. As there is no effective treatment for advanced melanoma, recognizing the lesion at an early stage is crucial for successful treatment. This lead to the development of several computer-aided methods to assist dermatologists. While diagnosing, hair occlusion caused algorithms to fail to identify the correct lesion in skin, and caused errors in the results. Removing hairs without altering the lesion in skin images is important to effectively apply detection algorithms. The challenge is to develop fast, precise and robust algorithms for the removal of hairs without altering the lesion in skin images. Hence, it leads to the techniques of image processing by identifying hair pixels within a binary image mask using the Pixel Interpolation Technique. The Pixel Interpolation Technique was adapted to find a quadratic curve which detects curved hairs in the image mask for removal and replacement through pixel interpolation. MATLAB [12] gives the platform to perform tests rapidly on both simulated and actual images for implementing this. Overall the quadratic Radon formula for Pixel Interpolation works nicely in being able to detect curves in the image and ignore the majority of image spots which are considered noise.
The cdk5 Kinase Regulates the STAT3 Transcription Factor to Prevent DNA Damage upon Topoisomerase I Inhibition*

The STAT3 transcription factors are cytoplasmic proteins that induce gene activation in response to growth factor stimulation. Following tyrosine phosphorylation, STAT3 proteins dimerize, translocate to the nucleus, and activate specific target genes involved in cell-cycle progression. Despite its importance in cancer cells, the molecular mechanisms by which this protein is regulated in response to DNA damage remain to be characterized. In this study, we show that STAT3 is activated in response to topoisomerase I inhibition. Following treatment, STAT3 is phosphorylated on its C-terminal serine 727 residue but not on its tyrosine 705 site. We also show that topoisomerase I inhibition induced the up-regulation of the cdk5 kinase, a protein initially described in neuronal stress responses. In co-immunoprecipitations, cdk5 was found to associate with STAT3, and pulldown experiments indicated that it associates with the C-terminal activation domain of STAT3 upon DNA damage. Importantly, the cdk5-STAT3 pathway reduced DNA damage in response to topoisomerase I inhibition through the up-regulation of Eme1, an endonuclease involved in DNA repair. ChIP experiments indicated that STAT3 can be found associated with the Eme1 promoter when phosphorylated only on its serine 727 residue and not on tyrosine 705. We therefore propose that the cdk5-STAT3 oncogenic pathway plays an important role in the expression of DNA repair genes and that these proteins could be used as predictive markers of tumors that will fail to respond to chemotherapy.
Spontaneous plaque rupture and secondary thrombosis in apolipoprotein E‐deficient and LDL receptor‐deficient mice

Apolipoprotein E‐deficient (apoE−/−) and LDL receptor‐deficient (LDLR−/−) mice develop extensive atherosclerosis, but the occurrence of spontaneous plaque rupture and secondary thrombosis in these models has not been established. The goal of this study was to provide histological evidence of acute complications of atherosclerotic lesions in these mice and to assess their prevalence. Complications of atherosclerosis were initially studied in aortas of control mice which died during previous intervention studies. Coronary arteries and the aortic origin were then systematically assessed in serial sections through the heart of apoE−/− and LDLR−/− mice. Aortic plaque rupture and/or thrombi were seen in 3 of 82 untreated mice from past intervention studies. Screening of heart sections of 33 older apoE−/− mice (age 9–20 months) showed extensive atherosclerosis in one or more coronary arteries of 18 animals. In three coronary arteries, the presence of blood‐filled channels within advanced atherosclerotic lesions suggested previous plaque disruption/thrombotic events followed by recanalization. In the aortic origin of the same mice, four deep plaque ruptures (or erosions reaching necrotic core areas) and a large thrombus originating from the core of a disrupted atherosclerotic lesion were observed. Although plaque ruptures/deep erosions were far less frequent than in human populations, these observations demonstrate that spontaneous plaque rupture and secondary thrombosis do occur in apoE−/− and LDLR−/− mice. These mice may therefore be suitable for studying factors contributing to thrombotic complications of atherosclerosis. However, the frequent absence of a clearly defined single fibrous cap in murine coronary lesions limits their usefulness as a model of fibrous cap rupture. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Attitude and behaviour dichotomy in SME strategic alliance: A south west of Western Australian study

Strategic alliances are generally perceived as cooperative relationships constrained within the parameters of bounded rationality, seeking to maximise their levels of control in a turbulent economic environment. They are also commonly conceptualised as a means of creating competitive advantage in business. In regional areas of Western Australia they are favoured by government instrumentalities as a means of making small to medium enterprises (SMEs) more competitive. With the dominant global emphasis in the literature on big business, relatively little is known still about strategic alliances in small to medium enterprises. Moreover, the research on strategic alliances within Australia is also limited, and since 92% ofbusinesses in Australia are SMEs (ABS 1999), there are significant gaps in the literature about a significant contributor to economic health of the nation. For these reasons this thesis focuses attention on SMEs in Australia, in particular the South West of Western Australia. This thesis is concerned with strategic alliance propensity in selected small to medium enterprises with less than 500 employees but three or more employees including family members. Mixed methodology data collection was used; based on an extensively validated international survey instrument, ~no ~ sP-ries of in-depth interviews. The outcome of the study was a synthesised model of SME strategic alliance decision-making which addresses the impacts on attitudes of SME Key Decision-Leaders choosing either positive or negative behaviours relating to strategic alliance formation. The development of this model, the Strategic Alliance Participation Paradigm (SAPP) was achieved through an iterative approach to environmental exploration, literature scanning and analysis and the application of a mixed methodological approach to data collection. Chapters One to Three present the development of the research questions and the research process adopted to address important elements of the research. Chapter Four presents the major consolidated findings based on factor analysed outcomes. Variables were subjected to logistic regression statistical analysis determining support for hypothesised research outcomes. In depth interviews provide evidence of the SME domain, in the context initially of the regional area under review. Conclusions are further reviewed in the context of a recent significant Norwegian culturally based survey. The Strategic Alliance Participation Paradigm reflects the work carried out by a small group of earlier researchers, and further, empirically tests the determinants of SME Key-Decision-Leader strategic alliance behaviour. Recommendations for future research developed from the research findings are presented in Chapter Five supporting the conclusions and implications of this study for future SME strategic alliance research both regional and global. Benefits from this process will be seen in the enhanced ability to benchmark at source regional
Miconazole and amphotericin B alter polymorphonuclear leukocyte functions and membrane fluidity in similar fashions

The influence of miconazole on polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) was investigated and compared with that of amphotericin B (AmB). Human PMN were preincubated in vitro with miconazole or AmB at therapeutically attainable concentrations in plasma, and their chemotactic functions were assessed with the synthetic chemotactic peptide N-formylmethionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine (FMLP). Changes in membrane fluidity of PMN were examined by an excimer-forming lipid technique. Adherence of PMN was measured by a nylon fiber column method. Miconazole and AmB pretreatment irreversibly depressed PMN random migration and chemotaxis under agarose but did not influence superoxide anion production. Both miconazole and AmB increased PMN adherence. Miconazole and AmB lowered the binding affinity of FMLP receptors on PMN and decreased the membrane fluidity in a similar manner. These results demonstrate that miconazole and AmB alter selected in vitro membrane properties of human PMN.
A framework for predicting accuracy limitations in large-eddy simulation

The accuracy of large-eddy simulations is limited, among other things, by the quality of the subgrid parametrization and the numerical contamination of the smaller retained flow structures. We characterize the total simulation error in terms of the “subgrid-activity” s, which measures the relative turbulent dissipation rate (0⩽s⩽1) and the “subgrid resolution” r. This analysis is applied to turbulent mixing of a “Smagorinsky fluid” using a finite volume discretization of fourth order accuracy. On fixed coarse grids, i.e., at constant computational cost, the total simulation error decreases monotonically with filter width Δ for large s while for smaller s the total error may even increase with decreasing Δ. The corresponding modeling- and spatial discretization-error contributions are quantified at various resolutions.
THE JOURNAL OF HISTOCHEMISTRY AND CYTOCHEMISTRY

Respiratory-linked accumulation of Srl+ was applied to visualize mitochondrial energy production in unfixed slices of liver, kidney and heart muscle. The reaction was dependent on the function of the respiratory chain and energy coupling as was shown by the inhibitory effect of KCN and 2,4-dinitrophenol. The electron-dense granular or needle-like reaction product was localized in the inner compartment of the swollen mitochondria. Sr2 translocation was also utilized to detect the coupled oxidation of different respiratory substrates. The overwhelming majority of mitochondria showed, more or less, activity when malate was oxidized. In the kidney and heart muscle a few mitochondria, however, did not show succinate-supported SrI+ accumulation. This points to the possible differences in substrate utilization of mitochondria localized in the same cells. In the liver all mitochondna exhibited marked reaction with both substrates.
A cross-sectional study of correlates of imprisonment in opioid-dependent men and women in New South Wales, Australia.

INTRODUCTION AND AIMS Involvement in the criminal justice system is common among opioid-dependent people. This study aimed to determine prevalence and adolescent-onset correlates of adult imprisonment among opioid-dependent men and women in New South Wales, Australia. DESIGN AND METHODS Participants were recruited from opioid substitution therapy clinics and completed a face-to-face, structured interview. Data were collected on demographic characteristics, family history, substance dependence and psychiatric disorders. Adolescent-onset correlates of adult incarceration (including interactions with gender) were examined using logistic regression. RESULTS Opioid-dependent men were significantly more likely than opioid-dependent women to report adult imprisonment (66% vs 40%; P < 0.001). In a multivariable logistic regression model, older age, male gender, having completed high school education only, having dependent children or living independently prior to age 18 years, a history of juvenile detention and adolescent-onset opioid dependence were all significantly associated with increased odds of adult imprisonment. Adolescent-onset depression was associated with a halving of odds of adult imprisonment. The only variable for which we observed an interaction with gender was juvenile detention, which had a significantly greater impact on the odds of imprisonment for men than women. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS More than half of this sample of opioid dependent adults had a history of imprisonment. Variables that are associated with imprisonment in the general population, such as childhood maltreatment, were not important in predicting imprisonment in this sample. Further study is required to understand the interaction between sex and juvenile detention in predicting adult imprisonment. [Larney S, Cama E, Nelson E, Larance B, Degenhardt L. A cross-sectional study of correlates of imprisonment in opioid-dependent men and women in New South Wales, Australia. Drug Alcohol Rev 2016;35:686-692].
SAFER STOPS FOR VULNERABLE CUSTOMERS

As transit agencies continue to seek innovative and effective means of increasing ridership and improving the image of public transportation, the bus stop must be acknowledged as part of the overall transit environment. Factors such as the location, design, maintenance, and general appearance of bus stops greatly affect the public's perception, and often the reality of a stop's safety and security. This synthesis report presents a brief synopsis of the current literature and technologies being used in the development of safer and more secure bus stops. While the focus is most specifically with regard to vulnerable populations—women, children, senior citizens, and the disabled—improvements related to the safety and security of bus stops may be of benefit to all transit users, potential users, the community at large, and the transit industry in general.
Expression of the Human UGT1 Locus in Transgenic Mice by 4-Chloro-6-(2,3-xylidino)-2-pyrimidinylthioacetic Acid (WY-14643) and Implications on Drug Metabolism through Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor α Activation

The UDP-glucuronosyltransferase (UGT) 1A genes in humans have been shown to be differentially regulated in a tissue-specific fashion. Transgenic mice carrying the human UGT1 locus (Tg-UGT1) were recently created, demonstrating that expression of the nine UGT1A genes closely resembles the patterns of expression observed in human tissues. In the present study, UGT1A1, UGT1A3, UGT1A4, and UGT1A6 have been identified as targets of the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) α in human hepatocytes and Tg-UGT1 mice. Oral administration of the PPARα agonist 4-chloro-6-(2,3-xylidino)-2-pyrimidinylthioacetic acid (pirinixic acid, WY-14643) to Tg-UGT1 mice led to induction of these proteins in either the liver, gastrointestinal tract, or kidney. The levels of induced UGT1A3 gene transcripts in liver and UGT1A4 protein in small intestine correlated with induced lamotrigine glucuronidation activity in these tissues. With UGT1A3 previously identified as the major human enzyme involved in human C24-glucuronidation of lithocholic acid (LCA), the dramatic induction of liver UGT1A3 RNA in Tg-UGT1 mice was consistent with the formation of LCA-24G in plasma. Furthermore, PPAR-responsive elements (PPREs) were identified flanking the UGT1A1, UGT1A3, and UGT1A6 genes by a combination of site-directed mutagenesis, specific binding to PPARα and retinoic acid X receptor α, and functional response of the concatenated PPREs in HepG2 cells overexpressing PPARα. In conclusion, these results suggest that oral fibrate treatment in humans will induce the UGT1A family of proteins in the gastrointestinal tract and liver, influencing bile acid glucuronidation and first-pass metabolism of other drugs that are taken concurrently with hypolipidemic therapy.
In vivo drug‐drug interaction studies‐ A survey of all new molecular entities approved from 1987 to 1997

Ninety‐eight new molecular entities applications approved between 1987 to 1991 (period I) and 193 applications for new molecular entities between 1992 to 1997 (period II) were surveyed for drug‐drug interaction studies. In period I (used as a comparator), 32 applications contained drug‐drug interaction studies for a total of 117 studies. In period II, 106 applications reported drug‐drug interaction studies, and the number of studies per new molecular entity ranged from 0 to 15. Most studies (77%) were performed in healthy subjects, with 44% using crossover designs, 7% using parallel designs, and the remaining using fixed sequence designs. The most common dosing scheme for new molecular entities/interacting drug was multiple dose (47%), whereas single dose/multiple dose was used in 31% of studies, and single dose/single dose was used in 18% of studies. Of the 540 drug‐drug interaction studies submitted in period II, 80 (15%) resulted in clinically significant labeling statements. Submissions for new molecular entities to the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research divisions most likely to include drug‐drug interaction studies were neuropharmacology, cardiorenal, antiviral, and antiinfective drugs. Some drug classes such as oncology drug products and radioimaging products were least likely to include drug‐drug interaction studies in their submissions. We conclude that the use of drug‐drug interaction studies in the drug development process has increased between the two periods.