Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lactobacillus gasseri PA-3 utilizes the purines GMP and guanosine and decreases their absorption in rats

ABSTRACT Excessive intake of purine-rich foods elevates serum uric acid levels, making it a risk factor for hyperuricemia. We hypothesized that lactic acid bacteria ingested with food might utilize purines and contribute to their decreased absorption in the intestines, thereby preventing hyperuricemia. We previously reported that Lactobacillus gasseri PA-3 (PA-3) incorporates adenosine/inosine and related purines and that oral ingestion of PA-3 reduced the absorption of these purines in rats. However, it is unclear whether PA-3 also decreases the absorption of other purines, such as guanosine 5′-monophosphate (GMP) and guanosine. This study investigated whether PA-3 incorporates GMP and guanosine and reduces their absorption in rats. PA-3 incorporated both purines, with 14C-GMP uptake being greater than that of 14C-guanosine. Radioactivity in rat blood was significantly lower 30, 45, and 60 minutes after administration of 14C-GMP plus PA-3 than after administration of 14C-GMP alone and was significantly lower 15 minutes after administration of 14C-guanosine plus PA-3 than after administration of 14C-guanosine alone. PA-3 incorporates GMP and guanosine in vitro. Oral administration of PA-3 with GMP and guanosine reduces the intestinal absorption of these purines in vivo. These findings, together with those of previous studies, indicate that PA-3 reduces the absorption of major purines contained in foods. PA-3 may also attenuate the excessive absorption of dietary purines in humans, protecting these individuals against hyperuricemia.
Performance analysis of DS/SS inter-vehicle communication assisted by road-vehicle communication

In this paper, improving DS/SS inter-vehicle communication using p-persistent CSMA MAC protocol is studied. It is possible for p-persistent CSMA to adapt optimally to current packet traffic situation by setting p to an appropriate value. Therefore, improvement of IVC performance is expected if optimal p value can be set according to the traffic of vehicles. In order to perform this, the scheme where the traffic monitor on the road side informs the appropriate p value to each vehicle in the area using road-vehicle communication is proposed and its performance is analyzed by simulations.
Firms' Disclosure Reactions to Major Social Incidents: Australian Evidence

This study examines the reaction of Australian firms, in terms of annual report disclosure, to five major social incidents. These incidents had significant implications for either the environment, or the safety of both employees and community members. The incidents reviewed are the Exxon Valdez and Bhopal disasters; the Moura Mine disaster in Queens-land; an oil spill, caused by the Iron Baron, off the coast of Tasmania; and the Kirki oil spill, off the coast of Western Australia. Studies of this nature have previously been restricted to the examination of US company disclosure (e.g. Patten 1992; Blacconiere and Patten 1994), or the stock market reaction to such events in the US (e.g. Blacconiere and Patten 1994). The results of this study indicate that, following four of the incidents, sample firms operating in the affected industries provided more social information in their annual reports than they did prior to the incidents occurrence. These results support a view that organizations utilize their annual report as a means of influencing society's perception of their operations, and as a means of legitimizing their ongoing existence. The strategic nature of voluntary annual report disclosures is emphasized.
Systems, Components and Technological Discontinuities: The Case of the Semiconductor Industry

This paper uses the semiconductor industry to describe a model of technological change that sheds light on the mechanism by which many technological discontinuities occur. The model combines two arguments: (1) incremental improvements in a system's components impact on the performance and design of systems; and (2) these incremental improvements in components can lead to discontinuities in system design through their impact on the design tradeoffs that are inherent in all systems. Components are defined loosely as any subsystem in a nested hierarchy of subsystems where the most important component in the semiconductor industry is semiconductor manufacturing equipment. Improvements in this equipment and the processes they are used in have changed (and continue to change) the tradeoffs that firms make in their choices of semiconductor materials, transistor designs and system designs, and thus led to a number of technological discontinuities. The model is described using the discontinuities that are the most widely emphasized in histories of the semiconductor industry.
Population structure of Guyanagaster necrorhizus supports termite dispersal for this enigmatic fungus

Understanding how species accomplish dispersal of their propagules can shed light on how they are adapted for their ecosystem. Guyanagaster necrorhizus is a sequestrate fungus, meaning its dispersal propagules, or spores, are entirely enclosed within a fruiting body, termed a sporocarp. This fungus is most closely related to Armillaria and its allies. While Armillaria species form mushrooms and have forcibly discharged spores, G. necrorhizus spores have lost this ability, and by necessity, must be passively dispersed. However, G. necrorhizus does not possess characteristics of other sequestrate fungi with known dispersal mechanisms. Repeated observations of termites feeding on G. necrorhizus sporocarps, and spores subsequently adhering to their exoskeletons, led to the hypothesis that termites disperse G. necrorhizus spores. To test this hypothesis, we used microsatellite markers and population genetics analyses to understand patterns of clonality and population structure of G. necrorhizus. While Armillaria individuals can spread vegetatively over large areas, high genotypic diversity in G. necrorhizus populations suggests spores are the primary mode of dispersal. Spatial genetic structure analyses show that G. necrorhizus sporocarps within 238 m of each other are more closely related than would be expected by chance and conservative estimates from population assignment tests suggest gene flow no longer occurs between sporocarps separated by 2 km. These distances are consistent with previous studies analysing foraging distances of the termites found associated with G. necrorhizus sporocarps. Termites have rarely been recorded to specifically target fungal sporocarps, making this a potentially novel fungal–insect interaction.
Enterprise Finance and Investment in Listed Hungarian Firms

This Paper studies the financing of enterprise investment in listed Hungarian firms during the first years of transition. These firms were selected for listing on the exchange and presumably had better access to external capital. In particular, we look for evidence of financial constraints that limit real investment and attempt to identify the effect of different ownership and governance structures. The empirical results indicate significant financial constraints even among the better-known firms in the period from 1992 to 1998. Consistent with studies from other countries, we find evidence that foreign-owned firms do not suffer from limited external finance. Previous leverage can strain investment, suggesting that hard budget constraints are binding. State ownership does not alleviate capital constraints and larger firms do not appear to be less constrained than the smaller firms, which contrasts with the evidence in Western countries.
Partitioning of nutrient net fluxes across the portal-drained viscera in sheep fed twice daily: effect of dietary protein degradability

Extrusion is used to decrease leguminous seed protein degradability in the rumen in order to shift part of the dietary protein digestion towards the small intestine. The effect of such displacement of digestion site on the partitioning of nutrient net fluxes across the gastrointestinal tract was studied using four sheep fitted with catheters and blood-flow probes, allowing measurements across the rumen, the mesenteric-drained viscera (MDV) and the portal-drained viscera (PDV). Two diets containing 34 % of pea seeds were tested in a crossover design. They differed only according to pea treatment: raw pea (RP) or extruded pea (EP) diet. Rumen undegradable protein (RUP) accounted for 23 and 40 % of dietary crude protein for RP and EP diets, respectively. Across the rumen wall, ammonia net flux was lower with EP diet, whereas urea net flux was not different. Across the MDV, free amino acid (FAA) net flux was greater with EP diet, whereas peptide amino acid net flux was not different, accounting for 7 % of the non-protein amino acid net release. From RP to EP diet, PDV net flux of ammonia decreased by 23 %, whereas FAA net release increased by 21 %. The difference in dietary RUP did not affect the PDV net flux of SCFA, 3-hydroxybutyrate, lactate and glucose. In conclusion, the partial shift in pea protein digestion from the rumen to the small intestine did not affect the portal net balance of N, but decreased N loss from the rumen, and increased amino acid intestinal absorption and portal delivery.
Warning Signals of Regime Shifts as Intrinsic Properties of Endogenous Dynamics*

Ecosystem dynamics can exhibit large, nonlinear changes after small changes in an environmental parameter that passes a critical threshold. These regime shifts are often associated with loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Because critical thresholds for regime shifts are hard to determine with precision, some recent studies have focused on deriving signals from dynamics leading up to the thresholds. Models in these studies depend on using noise terms independent of system parameters and variables to add stochasticity. However, demographic stochasticity, an important source of random variability, arises directly from system dynamics. In this study, a framework is developed for modeling demographic stochasticity in a mechanistic way, incorporating system variables and parameters. This framework is applied to a deterministic, dynamic model of a coral reef benthos. The resulting stochastic model indicates that increasing variance—but not skewness—is consistently found in system dynamics approaching a critical threshold of grazing pressure. Even if the threshold is breached, attraction of transient dynamics by a saddle point provides an opportunity for regime shift reversal by management intervention. These results suggest that early warning signals of regime shifts can arise intrinsically in endogenous dynamics and can be detected without reliance on random environmental forcings.
Foreign Capital Flows and the Efficiency of the HDI Dimensions

This paper examines the impact of the various types of foreign capital flows (or FCF) on the efficiency with which countries transform their respective resources into the achievements associated with the three dimensions (Life expectancy or LI, Educational attainment or EI and wealth or WI) of the Human Development Index. An important result is the identification of returns to scale as the main factor preventing some countries from achieving the total efficiency level assumed by standard economic analysis, if decision-making units (DMUs) or countries in this case, working along their respective production possibility frontiers, wish achieve the goal of optimizing the utilization of their resources.
Compensatory Link between Fusion and Endocytosis of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 in Human CD4 T Lymphocytes

ABSTRACT Virions of the type 1 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) can enter target cells by fusion or endocytosis, with sharply different functional consequences. Fusion promotes productive infection of the target cell, while endocytosis generally leads to virion inactivation in acidified endosomes or degradation in lysosomes. Virion fusion and endocytosis occur equally in T cells, but these pathways have been regarded as independent because endocytosis of HIV virions requires neither CD4 nor CCR5/CXCR4 engagement in HeLa-CD4 cells. Using flow cytometric techniques to assess the binding and entry of green fluorescent protein (GFP)-Vpr-labeled HIV virions into primary peripheral blood mononuclear cells, we have found that HIV fusion and endocytosis are restricted to the CD4-expressing subset of cells and that both pathways commonly require the initial binding of HIV virions to surface CD4 receptors. Blockade of CXCR4-tropic HIV virion fusion with AMD3100, a CXCR4-specific entry inhibitor, increased virion entry via the endocytic pathway. Similarly, inhibition of endosome acidification with bafilomycin A1, concanamycin A, or NH4Cl enhanced entry via the fusion pathway. Although fusion remained dependent on CD4 and chemokine receptor binding, the endosome inhibitors did not alter surface expression of CD4 and CXCR4. These results suggest that fusion in the presence of the endosome inhibitors likely occurs within nonacidified endosomes. However, the ability of these inhibitors to impair vesicle trafficking from early to late endosomes in some cells could also increase the recycling of these virion-containing endosomes to the cell surface, where fusion occurs. In summary, our results reveal an unexpected, CD4-mediated reciprocal relationship between the pathways governing HIV virion fusion and endocytosis.
THE CHANGING VOLATILITY OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN ECONOMY

During the last decade economic literature explored the presence of and reasons for what became known as "the great moderation" in the US and other G7 countries. "The great moderation" describes the decrease in economic volatility experienced in many of the G7 countries. This paper finds that in South Africa volatility is also not constant (it even finds that there are autoregressive conditional heteroskedastic effects present) and that volatility also decreased, particularly since 1994. Following the literature, the paper explores several reasons for this decrease and finds that smaller shocks, better monetary policy and improvements in the financial sector that place less liquidity constraints on individuals and allow them to manage their debt better are some of the main reasons for the reduction in the volatility of the South African economy. The literature on the G7 also suggests that better inventory management contributed to the lower volatility. However, this seems not to be true for South Africa. Copyright (c) 2008 The Author. Journal compilation (c) 2008 Economic Society of South Africa.
Cultural differences in urban recreation patterns: An examination of park usage and activity participation across six population subgroups

Current demographic trends indicate population growth for racial and ethnic minority groups in the US is increasing considerably faster than the rate for the nation's population as a whole. Nation-wide, racial and ethnic minority groups constitute important and growing user segments of urban parks and forests. Development and delivery of effective urban outdoor recreation and leisure services require focused efforts by urban park and forest managers to assess and address the recreational needs and interests of racial and ethnic minority groups. Existing studies have not been highly effective in providing an in-depth examination of recreation patterns of specific urban ethnic minority groups in the US. In order to further our understanding of ethnic urban recreation, this US-based study investigated differences in outdoor recreation characteristics (type of urban park usage and types of activities) across six urban population subgroups, i.e., Hispanic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, African American, and White. The results of the study highlighted several similarities and differences in outdoor recreation characteristics among the six population subgroups. Findings also demonstrated the presence of certain acculturation-based variations in type of urban park usage and activity participation within the Hispanic and Asian subgroups.
Comparing Choice Question Formats for Evaluating Natural Resource Tradeoffs

Choice questions are increasingly being used to scale competing natural resource programs. Respondents choose between two alternatives with varying levels of program characteristics and costs. Complexity in the choice task can increase the randomness (variance) in the choices and the estimation of preferences, and the magnitude of randomness is examined using scope tests and scale parameters. We provide an empirical comparison of response variance from three formats. A simple resource-to-resource format appears superior to simple referendum and composite formats in terms of coherence. The application stems from a study addressing PCB-caused natural resource losses in Green Bay, Wisconsin. (JEL Q26)
Neighbors United for Health

Abstract Modeled upon the ecclesiastic community group concept of Latin America to unite and strengthen the bond between the Church and neighborhoods, a community-based organization created Vecinos Unidos por la Salud (Neighbors United for Health) to bring health messages into urban Latino neighborhoods. The model is based on five tenants, and incorporates Latino subjective norms to strengthen the bonds of group members with similar interest, lifestyles, language and acculturation.
Step or trap? Transition from fixed-term contracts in Central Eastern Europe

This article investigates the transition from fixed-term contracts to permanent jobs from the viewpoint of the ‘stepping stone versus trap’ theoretical framework. The main contribution of this research is that it examines what function fixed-term contracts have in the EU new member states, countries that have not yet been investigated in this regard. This research tests which individual characteristics influence the transition to permanent employment and how labour market institutions can help in understanding the differences among countries. The analysis covers the eight post-communist countries which joined the EU in 2004. The period analysed is 2005–10. We make use of the EU-SILC dataset and employ multinomial logistic regression to perform the analysis. The findings reveal that, on average, a temporary job is more a trap than a stepping stone, although considerable differences exist across countries. Surprisingly, most of the individual demographic and human capital characteristics do not have an effect on the transition to permanent employment. Only the age category and work experience significantly increase the chances for a successful transition. Institutions such as employment rigidity and industrial relations explain a considerable amount of the country variations. More rigid labour markets and stronger trade unions lower the probability of successful transition. We argue that the reason is that companies use FTCs as a tool to increase flexibility in rigid labour markets. The concluding part discusses some limitations of the research, links it back to the theoretical literature and suggests some challenges for future research.
Democracy, Governance, and Economic Performance: Theory and Evidence

In this book, Yi Feng combines political and economic analyses to study the effects of political institutions on economic performance. Traditionally, political scientists disregard details of economic conditions, while economists may not take into consideration a systematic explanation of political regimes. The growing interest in the interplay of political and economic systems, spurred by the political democratization and economic liberalization evident in many countries over the last twenty years, merits this new perspective. The book examines the political determinants of economic growth, and, specifically, the controversial question of the relationship between democracy and quality of life. Feng systematically studies three variables of a political system—political freedom, political stability, and policy certainty—and relates them to economic development. He examines the political factors that may affect patterns of growth directly or indirectly. Combining theory and country-specific case studies, Democracy, Governance, and Economic Performance demonstrates that political institutions and conditions do matter in economic growth. After establishing a theoretical foundation, Feng tests it by examining the direct effects of the three key political variables on economic growth and the indirect effects of democracy in terms of other variables (political instability, inflation, investment, education, income distribution, property rights, and population growth). He concludes by considering the policy implications of these results.
Can phonological and semantic short‐term memory be dissociated? Further evidence from landau‐kleffner syndrome

Recent studies have made a distinction between short‐term storage capacities for phonological information and short‐term storage capacities for lexico‐semantic information (R. Martin, Lesch, & Bartha, 1999). In this multiple case study, we tried to provide further evidence for the dissociability of phonological and lexico‐semantic short‐term memory (STM) components, by studying verbal STM in three patients who had recovered from Landau‐Kleffner syndrome. Furthermore, we explored to what extent apparent dissociations between phonological and lexico‐semantic STM could be related to underlying phonological and lexico‐semantic processing impairments. We found clear dissociations between phonological and lexico‐semantic STM measures in patients TG, JPH, and DC, whose performance was impaired in nonword immediate serial recall and in a rhyme probe task, while performance was normal for a category probe task. These patients also presented reduced phonological effects (word length, phonological similarity, phonotactic frequency) but normal lexico‐semantic effects (lexicality, word imageability, word frequency) in STM. Moreover, there were no systematic correspondencies between phonological and lexico‐semantic STM and phonological and lexico‐semantic processing impairments. Implications for current models of STM and language processing are discussed.
Sisters Peer Counseling in Reproductive Issues After Treatment (SPIRIT)

African American breast cancer survivors may be at high risk for reproductive health problems, including menopause symptoms, sexual dysfunction, and distress about cancer‐related infertility. The authors partnered with Sisters Network Inc. to create the Sisters Peer Counseling in Reproductive Issues After Treatment (SPIRIT) program, a culturally sensitive intervention program that combined a written workbook and peer counseling.
Multimodal Poisson Gamma Belief Network

To learn a deep generative model of multimodal data, we propose a multimodal Poisson gamma belief network (mPGBN) that tightly couple the data of different modalities at multiple hidden layers. The mPGBN unsupervisedly extracts a nonnegative latent representation using an upward-downward Gibbs sampler. It imposes sparse connections between different layers, making it simple to visualize the generative process and the relationships between the latent features of different modalities. Our experimental results on bi-modal data consisting of images and tags show that the mPGBN can easily impute a missing modality and hence is useful for both image annotation and retrieval. We further demonstrate that the mPGBN achieves state-of-the-art results on unsupervisedly extracting latent features from multimodal data.