Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase Activity Negatively Regulates Stability of Cyclooxygenase 2 mRNA*

Human alveolar macrophages have both lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced and constitutive phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) activity. We observed that blocking PI3K activity increased release of prostaglandin E2 after LPS exposure, and increasing PI3K activity (interleukin-13) decreased release of prostaglandin E2 after LPS exposure. This was not because of an effect of PI3K on phospholipase 2 activity. PI3K inhibition resulted in an increase in cyclooxygenase 2 (COX2) protein, mRNA, and mRNA stability. PI3K negatively regulated activation of the p38 pathway (p38, MKK3/6, and MAPKAP2), and an active p38 was necessary for COX2 production. The data suggest that PI3K inhibition of p38 modulates COX2 expression via destabilization of LPS-induced COX2 mRNA.
Evaluation of Highway Projects under Government Support Mechanisms Based on an Option-Pricing Framework

Different features included in public-private partnership (PPP) highway projects such as limited liability of the leveraged firm and government support mechanisms [e.g., price adjustment clauses (PACs)] result in asymmetric project value payoff functions that cannot be properly assessed by traditional methods such as discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis. To overcome this issue, an option-pricing framework is developed that enables financial assessment of different types of road projects in the presence of different government support mechanisms. However, this paper focuses on evaluation of highway projects under the presence of PACs. By providing a framework for calculating the value of government support mechanisms and long-term material and energy contracts, this model can help road agencies and contractors with choosing effective hedging strategies.
An approach to the language discrimination in different scripts using adjacent local binary pattern

The paper proposes a language discrimination method of documents. First, each letter is encoded with the certain script type according to its status in baseline area. Such a cipher text is subjected to a feature extraction process. Accordingly, the local binary pattern as well as its expanded version called adjacent local binary pattern are extracted. Because of the difference in the language characteristics, the above analysis shows significant diversity. This type of diversity is a key aspect in the decision-making differentiation of the languages. Proposed method is tested on an example of documents. The experiments give encouraging results.
The Perceived Corporate Image of Private Secondary Schools By Students' and Parents' Views *

The purpose of this research is to determine the corporate image of secondary schools in Kocaeli according to students' and parents' opinions. The population of the research is the private secondary schools in Kocaeli. Of the thirteen private secondary schools, nine of them accepted to participate in the study. The formation of an overall image requires quite a long time; therefore the students of the final grade and their parents amounting to a number of 800 participants were chosen as the sample of the study. The data was collected by a scale developed by the researchers using the existing scales by Kazoleas, Kim and Moffitt (2001). The findings suggest that, of the different types of image, namely the academic quality image, social image, infrastructure and facility image, physical appearance image and programme image, the most positively perceived one was the academic quality image. Appearance image, social image, infrastructure and facility image and programme image followed. Other findings suggest that students' and parents' perceptions concerning the school image were different, in that parents had more positive image perceptions than students. Different types of image perceptions differed in terms of gender among students and parents.
A Utility-based Model of Common Stock Price Movements

This paper develops and tests a nonlinear utility-based econometric model of the temporal behavior of aggregate stock price movements based on a constant relative risk aversion utility function and an observable information set consisting of aggregate consumption, aggregate dividends, and past stock prices. The stochastic process derived from time-series analyses of consumption and dividends measured over annual intervals is used to derive and empirically test a closed-form solution for stock-price movements. The endogenization of discount rate changes in the utility-based model is shown to be more consistent with aggregate stock price movements over a twenty-year holdout period than constant discount rate models. The model is also used to estimate the representative investor's relative risk aversion. The estimate of 4.22 is consistent with that used by Grossman and Shiller in their perfect foresight model and is significantly higher than the relative risk aversion of 1.0 implied by logarithmic utility. THE PURPOSE OF THIS paper is to develop a utility-based econometric model of the time-series behavior of aggregate common stock price movements. A nonlinear time series model is estimated based on a constant relative risk aversion (CRRA) utility function and an observable information set consisting of aggregate consumption, aggregate dividends, and past stock prices. Since spot consumption data is not available, the model accounts for the use of consumption data measured over annual intervals. The stochastic process derived from time-series analyses of consumption and dividends is used to derive a closed-form solution for aggregate stock price movements. This closed-form relation is tested in its conditional expectation form, using time-series data on aggregate stock price movements over the period 1926-1982. The aggregate CRRA utility function has been extensively analyzed in both theoretical' and empirical2 studies. The present paper also estimates the representative investor's relative risk aversion. The magnitude of the econometric estimate of relative risk aversion is relevant to financial economics for two
Representing and reasoning with situations for context-aware pervasive computing: a logic programming perspective

Context-aware pervasive systems are emerging as an important class of applications. Such systems can respond intelligently to contextual information about the physical world acquired via sensors and information about the computational environment. A declarative approach to building context-aware pervasive systems is presented, and the notion of the situation program is introduced, which highlights the primacy of the situation abstraction for building context-aware pervasive systems. There is also a demonstration of how to manipulate situation programs using meta-programming within an extension of the Prolog logic programming language which is called LogicCAP. Such meta-reasoning enables complex situations to be described in terms of other situations. Furthermore, a discussion is given on how the design of situation programs can affect the properties of a context-aware system. The approach encourages a high-level of abstraction for representing and reasoning with situations, and supports building context-aware systems incrementally by providing modularity and separation of concerns.
Estimating the equilibrium real exchange rate: the case of Turkey

Since 1980 Turkey has pursued an export-led growth policy, introducing a set of policy measures for market liberalization. Unlike many other developing countries, Turkey has been relatively successful in her liberalization e orts. The main features of this policy were import liberalization, export subsidies and a ̄exible exchange rate system. As expected Turkish exports and imports have increased sharply since 1980. The trade balance de®cit increased by 78% to $5000 million in 1980 compared to 1979. The average annual de®cit during the period 1980±1998 was about $8302 million, while the same statistic for the period 1960±1979 was about $1112 million. The trade liberalization process was accelerated after a customs union was formed between Turkey and the European Union (EU) in 1995. With the establishment of the customs union, Turkey abolished all customs duties on imports of industrial products from the EU and adopted the common customs tari s of the EU against non-member nations. The customs union resulted in both increased competition and imports volume. The general consensus among researchers is that the government must pursue an appropriate exchange rate policy as a part of its liberalization e ort in order to strengthen the competitiveness of domestic ®rms against the established foreign producers. Inadequate economic performance has been the result of an inappropriate exchange rate policies. Maintaining the real exchange rate at the `wrong’ level has negative e ects on the nation’s competitiveness. It is the intention of this study to estimate the equilibrium real exchange rate (ERER) and compare it with the real e ective exchange rate (REER) to see if the government exchange rate policy is appropriate . The paper is organized as follows: Section II brie ̄y summarizes the literature review. In Section III, the model is presented. Section IV presents estimation results. Finally, Section V provides concluding summaries.
Overfitting, generalization, and MSE in class probability estimation with high‐dimensional data

Accurate class probability estimation is important for medical decision making but is challenging, particularly when the number of candidate features exceeds the number of cases. Special methods have been developed for nonprobabilistic classification, but relatively little attention has been given to class probability estimation with numerous candidate variables. In this paper, we investigate overfitting in the development of regularized class probability estimators. We investigate the relation between overfitting and accurate class probability estimation in terms of mean square error. Using simulation studies based on real datasets, we found that some degree of overfitting can be desirable for reducing mean square error. We also introduce a mean square error decomposition for class probability estimation that helps clarify the relationship between overfitting and prediction accuracy.
On the accuracy of loss-given-default prediction intervals

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to critically analyze the common assumption, made by many credit risk models such as the Moody's KMV Loss-Calc model, of a Design/methodology/approach - Simulation experiments were conducted to highlight the potential problems associated with this distributional assumption in constructing prediction intervals for LGD. Findings - The simulation experiments show that, when starting from a different assumption concerning the shape of the population distribution, the beta distribution does not perform well in constructing prediction intervals for LGD. Originality/value - The analysis performed in this study addresses a relevant subject. Indeed, a correct estimate of a credit exposure LGD is particularly relevant not only for internal risk management and management purposes, but also for regulatory reasons within the context of the internal ratings based approach of the recently approved capital regulation framework (Basel II).
The Governance of Forced Labour in the Global Economy

Abstract The problem of forced labour in the contemporary global economy is attracting increasing attention in global governance debates and policy circles. The effectiveness of governance initiatives depends on underlying understandings of the root causes of the problem. We explore how the root causes of forced labour in global production networks (GPNs) are framed in global governance debates. Focusing on the dominant frameworks mobilized by international institutions, with some attention to cognate national-level and corporate governance strategies, we identify certain limitations to dominant interpretations, which derive from their ‘residual’ character and their associated neglect of the manner in which the roots of forced labour reach deeply into the organization of GPNs, the forms of exploitation which are integral to them, and the connections between exploitation and poverty. We set out an alternative, ‘relational’ perspective on the roots of forced labour in GPNs, based on the concept of ‘adverse incorporation’, and consider the implications of the insights generated by this perspective for contemporary governance frameworks.
Practical Considerations for Recursive DFT Implementation in Numerical Relays

In this paper, practical considerations for recursive discrete Fourier transform (DFT) implementation in numerical relays are presented. The DFT filter instabilities which would produce magnified errors are emphasized. The aspects ruling error magnification of the estimated magnitude and phase are highlighted. Novel solutions directed for the elimination of error magnification are proposed and intensively tested. Digital signal processing (DSP) board based test set-up is utilized for results corroboration. The paper results are valuable for the protection engineers particularly those concerned with the development and implementation of numerical relays
Data Mining Techniques and Applications for Tourism Internet Marketing

Abstract The travel industry is a provider of experiences, and increasingly these experiences need to be customized. This paper analyzes the potential uses of Data Mining techniques in Tourism Internet Marketing and electronic customer relationship management. Various Data Mining technologies are described and their potential uses in the travel industry are explained. In particular, customer profiling, inquiry routing, e-mail filtering, on-line auctions, and updating e-catalogs are explained. The challenges in implementing these and other techniques are addressed at the end of the paper.
Survey research in operations management: a process‐based perspective

This paper provides guidelines for the design and execution of survey research in operations management (OM). The specific requirements of survey research aimed at gathering and analysing data for theory testing are contrasted with other types of survey research. The focus is motivated by the need to tackle the various issues which arise in the process of survey research. The paper does not intend to be exhaustive: its aim is to guide the researcher, presenting a systematic picture which synthesises suitable survey practices for research in an OM context. The fundamental aim is to contribute to an increase in the quality of OM research and, as a consequence, to the status of the OM discipline among the scientific community.
TESTING DYNAMIC SPECIFICATIONS FOR IMPORT DEMAND MODELS: THE CASE OF COTTON

Error correction models impose few prior restrictions on dynamic model specification and allow the data to determine model structure. Despite this obvious advantage, few applications have adopted the error correction model to explain trade flows. An error correction model of cotton import demand is estimated for France, Japan, and Hong Kong. A variety of tests are applied to determine the dynamic structure of the model. We find the most general models are those that best fit the data for cotton import demand. Long-run elasticities from these general models are significantly different than elasticities derived from a comparable static model.
Youth's Future and Prospects: Examining Awareness about Professional Field among Educated Youth of Gujrat, Pakistan

2 Abstract: Education is very necessary for a better professional career in field; and awareness about the professional field make the students more determined for the career they have to choose after completing study. Researchers conducted this study to know the level of awareness of educated youth about the professional field. Students of final semester of University of Gujrat was the target population for this study and sample size was selected by using proportionate stratified sampling and 10% sample size was selected among the total population of final semester of the selected social and basic science subjects. Frequency tables, Mann-whitney U, Kruskal-walis and correlation tests were used for data analysis. The findings show that higher level of awareness about the scope of subject impacts positively on the level of awareness about the professional field of the students. Academic performance does not have significant relationship with the level of awareness. On the basis of this study, it is recommended that the teachers at universities should provide assistance to students about professional field so that they can easily decide about their professional career.
Ecosystem Services as an Indicator for Strategic Environmental Assessment: Towards an adaptive sustainability appraisal evaluation framework

The trends in environmental performance from different assessments at different levels show continuous environmental degradation. This means environmental balancing of process and function are lacking in developmental activities, due to a sink in the level of Ecosystem Services (ES). Therefore, ES can be an appropriate indicator to weight developmental policies, programs and plans to ensure the consideration of environmental balancing at the policy level. ES are the benefits people derived from natural ecosystems. This paper argues that coupling ES with a more adaptive sustainability appraisal can provide a baseline indicator framework for Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) that incorporates ecological, socio-economic and culture relationships in evaluating policy plans. This is because anthropogenic activities have a greater influence in environmental degradation and an understanding of their relationship with ES by decision maker and the general public would ensure that environmental balancing of processes and their functions are carried out at the policy level in developmental activities. A strategic analytical approach is employed to develop a more adaptive framework that incorporates these relationships. This is based on Term of References (ToRs) and allows an integration of SEA evaluation criteria with expert judgments, reports and beliefs. The purpose is to evaluate ES and justify it as an indicator system that is flexible, adaptive to changes (sustainability) in achieving SEA objectives and determines potential areas of conflicts, which can be mitigated at the policy level and ensure that developmental activities are sustainable. The assessment framework and method for evaluating ES as an indicator for SEA are discussed in more details and also show that there exist tools for estimating ES that can support them as indicators.
Telephone peer support for women with gynaecological cancer: benefits and challenges for supporters

Despite the prevalence of one‐to‐one peer support programmes for people with cancer, little research has examined its impact on the supporters themselves. This qualitative study examined a telephone‐delivered one‐to‐one peer support intervention for women with gynaecological cancer, focussing on supporters' subjective experiences of benefits or costs to themselves and challenges arising in the support process.
Teachers' Perceptions of Greek Special Education Policies and Practices

Special education teachers and related service providers were interviewed for their perspectives on Greek special education policies and practices and how these influenced their job preparation and duties. Specifically, they were asked about the impact of the following on their jobs: Greek law related to the education of students with disabilities; university teacher training programs; job experience; teaching strategies; and changing teacher roles. They were also asked for suggestions to improve special education practices. Their perspectives are summarized and recommendations are provided.
Cutting Edge: Murine UL16-Binding Protein-Like Transcript 1: A Newly Described Transcript Encoding a High-Affinity Ligand for Murine NKG2D1

Murine NKG2D is known to recognize H60 and five RAE1 variants. The human homologue recognizes both inducible MHC class I chain-related gene and constitutive (UL16-binding protein (ULBP)) ligands. Widely expressed, the latter are thought to mark transformed or infected cells for destruction by NK cells in the context of down-regulated cell surface class I (i.e., the “missing self”-response). Unlike MIC and ULBP however, mRNA for the murine ligands appears only in very limited contexts in the mature animal. In this study, we describe a NKG2D ligand termed “murine ULBP-like transcript 1 (MULT1) whose mRNA appears to be widely expressed in adult parenchyma. This molecule possesses MHC class I-like α1 and α2 domains as well as a large cytoplasmic domain. Recombinant MULT1 binds NKG2D with relatively high affinity (KD ≈ 6 nM) and low koff (∼0.006s−1). Expression of MULT1 by normally resistant RMA cells results in their susceptibility to lysis by C57BL/6 splenocytes.
OPTIMIZATION OF MUNICIPALITIES WITH EXTENDED COMPETENCE SELECTION

Municipalities with extended administration, in which public administration offi ces are located, were selected within the frame of public administration reform (Act No. 344/1997 Coll., on the Territorial Arrangement of the State and Establishment of Higher Territorial & Administrative Units). These municipalities with extended administration partly substitute the function of district authorities. The selection of municipalities was carried out on the basis of criteria set by the government and political subjects. From the point of view of citizens, the most important criterion for the dislocation of public administration branch offi ces is the transport availability. Nevertheless, transport availability was not paid relevant attention in the decision making process in question. This fact becomes more and more important in connection with the growing problems related to ensuring regional transport. The paper deals with the creation of a mathematical model of the optimisation of branch offi ces dislocation and subsequent implementation. The solution of this model has three outputs. The fi rst output is the evaluation of the contemporary state from the point of view of accessibility of branch offi ces. The second one is the sensibility analysis of accessibility depending on the number of branch offi ces. The third output is the post-optimisation analysis, which brought about numerical expression of the relationship between the cost of running a branch offi ce and losses due to citizens travelling to municipalities with extended administration.
Tolerance‐induced receptor selection: scope, sensitivity, locus specificity, and relationship to lymphocyte‐positive selection

Summary: Receptor editing is a mode of immunological tolerance of B lymphocytes that involves antigen‐induced B‐cell receptor signaling and consequent secondary immunoglobulin light chain gene recombination. This ongoing rearrangement often changes B‐cell specificity for antigen, rendering the cell non‐autoreactive and sparing it from deletion. We currently believe that tolerance‐induced editing is limited to early stages in B‐cell development and that it is a major mechanism of tolerance, with a low‐affinity threshold and the potential to take place in virtually every developing B cell. The present review highlights the contributions from our laboratory over several years to elucidate these features.