Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Improving the prevention of money laundering in the United Kingdom - a situational crime prevention approach

The aim of this research study was to build upon the continuing interest around the applicability of situational crime prevention to tackle many forms of crime, including organised crimes. Using money laundering as the specific crime type, this study focused on two specific methods, namely cash intensive businesses and the purchasing of high value portable commodities to determine whether situational crime prevention could improve or enhance current preventative measures within the United Kingdom.
Effect of Interleukin-6 promoter polymorphisms in survivors of myocardial infarction and matched controls in the North and South of Europe

Summary Elevated plasma IL-6 levels have been implicated in the pathogenesis of coronary heart disease. We have investigated the association of two polymorphisms in the promoter of IL-6 (-572G>C and -174G>C) with levels of inflammatory markers and risk of myocardial infarction (MI) in a European study of MI survivors and age-matched controls from two high-risk centres in the North of Europe, and two low risk centres in the South. IL-6 and CRP levels were similar in controls in both regions, but were higher in cases. For the -174G>C polymorphism the rare -174C allele showed a regional difference in allele frequency, being more common in the North European group (0.43 vs 0.28; p < 0.0005), where -174C allele carriers showed an apparent reduced risk of MI compared to -174GG homozygotes (OR 0.53, 95%CI 0.32, 0.86). No such effect was observed in the South or with the -572G>C in either group. Neither genotype was associated with a significant effect on plasma IL-6 levels in either cases or controls. Furthermore, no regional difference was observed in the frequency of the -572G>C SNP, suggesting that these polymorphisms are unlikely to be contributing to the observed increased risk of cardiovascular disease in Northern Europe.
The Pricing of Greek Initial Public Offerings: 1985-1995

Initial public offerings in every stock market are offered on the average at a discount. Underpricing is, however, more pronounced in emerging markets where the regulatory environment is more restrictive. In this paper we provide data on Greek IPOs and demonstrate that the extreme underpricing in the Greek market was generated by the presence of a full downside risk protection requirement in the underwriting contracts until 1990.
Endometrial Glands Are Required for Preimplantation Conceptus Elongation and Survival1

Abstract Endometrial glands secrete molecules hypothesized to support conceptus growth and development. In sheep, endometrial gland morphogenesis occurs postnatally and can be epigenetically ablated by neonatal progestin exposure. The resulting stable adult uterine gland knockout (UGKO) phenotype was used here to test the hypothesis that endometrial glands are required for successful pregnancy. Mature UGKO ewes were bred repeatedly to fertile rams, but no pregnancies were detected by ultrasound on Day 25. Day 7 blastocysts from normal superovulated ewes were then transferred synchronously into Day 7 control or UGKO ewes. Ultrasonography on Days 25–65 postmating indicated that pregnancy was established in control, but not in UGKO ewes. To examine early uterine-embryo interactions, four control and eight UGKO ewes were bred to fertile rams. On Day 14, their uteri were flushed. The uterus of each control ewe contained two filamentous conceptuses of normal length. Uteri from four UGKO ewes contained no conceptus. Uteri of three UGKO ewes contained a single severely growth-retarded tubular conceptus, whereas the remaining ewe contained a single filamentous conceptus. Histological analyses of these uteri revealed that endometrial gland density was directly related to conceptus survival and developmental state. Day 14 UGKO uteri that were devoid of endometrial glands did not support normal conceptus development and contained either no conceptuses or growth-retarded tubular conceptuses. The Day 14 UGKO uterus with moderate gland development contained a filamentous conceptus. Collectively, these results demonstrate that endometrial glands and, by inference, their secretions are required for periimplantation conceptus survival and development.
Virtual Agent Navigation in Open Spaces using Iterative Shrinking Polygons

Populating an urban environment with a virtual crowd provides a dynamic element to an otherwise static scene; bringing the virtual environment to life. One of the fundamental components governing the fidelity of the scene is the realistic simulation of the crowd behaviour. To create a believable crowd simulation one group of methods considers constructing a graph covering the space available to the virtual agents and subsequently performing path planning to allow the agents to navigate their environment by traversing the edges of the graph. To avoid computationally expensive path planning algorithms there exists a tradeoff between the number of edges in the graph and the amount of available space which an agent can visit. In order to alleviate this problem we propose to compute the straight skeleton to provide an initial covering of the environment. This is subsequently augmented using iterative shrinking polygons to generate additional edges in the larger open spaces. The technique developed requires limited knowledge of the urban environment, processes the relevant information automatically and is illustrated in this paper to control the behaviour of a virtual crowd in real time.
Metamorphosis in the summer flounder (Paralichthys dentatus): stage-specific developmental response to altered thyroid status.

The summer flounder (Paralichthys dentatus) undergoes a true metamorphosis during which the bilaterally symmetrical larva transforms into an asymmetrical juvenile. This study addresses the influence of manipulating thyroid status on larval development and growth. Development was assessed by categorizing larvae in stages based on the position of the translocating eye and growth was assessed as a change in total length. Larvae were raised in seawater or in seawater containing thyroxine-sodium salt (100 ppb, T4) or thiourea (30 ppm, TU). Ambient T4 raised whole-animal T4 concentration almost threefold, whereas treatment with TU reduced whole-animal T4 concentration by 95%. The whole-animal T4 concentrations of untreated larvae increased during metamorphic climax (MC) and were related to developmental stage rather than age. Altering thyroid status of larvae in different stages had different consequences. T4 treatment of late premetamorphic (late pre-M) larvae accelerated their rate of development to prometamorphosis (pro-M), early MC, and mid MC, whereas TU treatment at this stage caused developmental stasis in early MC. T4 treatment of pro-M larvae accelerated development to early MC only and, unlike the response of late pre-M larvae, some of the pro-M larvae treated with TU slowly developed to late MC. TU treatment could inhibit completion of metamorphosis in early MC and mid MC, but not in late MC. Thyroid status of larvae had no effect on growth. However, starting at an age when most untreated and T4-treated larvae were in late MC, they began to grow longer than TU-treated larvae in developmental stasis at early MC and mid MC. Thus, T4 is necessary and sufficient for metamorphosis in summer flounder and, at this single dose, has a more pronounced effect on development at earlier stages.
Cellular Location and Hormonal Regulation of Ghrelin Expression in Rat Testis1

Abstract Ghrelin, the endogenous ligand for the growth hormone-secretagogue receptor, is a recently cloned 28-amino acid peptide, expressed primarily in the stomach and hypothalamus, with the ability to stimulate growth hormone (GH) release and food intake. However, the possibility of additional, as yet unknown biological actions of ghrelin has been suggested. As a continuation of our recent findings on the expression and functional role of ghrelin in rat testis, we report here the pattern of cellular expression of ghrelin peptide in rat testis during postnatal development and after selective Leydig cell elimination, and we assess hormonal regulation of testicular ghrelin expression, at the mRNA and/or protein levels, in different experimental models. Immunohistochemical analyses along postnatal development demonstrated selective location of ghrelin peptide within rat testis in mature fetal- and adult-type Leydig cells. In good agreement, ghrelin protein appeared undetectable in testicular interstitium after selective Leydig cell withdrawal. In terms of hormonal regulation, testicular ghrelin mRNA and protein expression decreased to negligible levels after long-term hypophysectomy, whereas replacement with human chorionic gonadotropin (CG) (as superagonist of LH) partially restored ghrelin mRNA and peptide expression. Furthermore, acute administration of human CG (25 IU) to intact rats resulted in a transient increase in testicular ghrelin mRNA levels, with peak values 4 h after injection, an effect that was not mimicked by FSH (12.5 IU/rat). In contrast, testicular expression of ghrelin mRNA remained unaltered in GH-deficient rats, under hyper- and hypothyroidism conditions, as well as in adrenalectomized animals. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that mature Leydig cells are the source of ghrelin expression in rat testis, the protein being expressed in both fetal- and adult-type Leydig cells. In addition, our data indicate that testicular expression of ghrelin is hormonally regulated and is at least partially dependent on pituitary LH.
False Signals from Stock Repurchase Announcements: Evidence from Earnings Management and Analysts' Forecast Revisions

This paper investigates the possibility of false signaling by firms announcing open-market stock repurchases. We examine a sample of 281 open-market share repurchases, with the self-styled reason of undervaluation, by firms between 1993 and 1998. Our results showed no evidence of an upward revision in the earnings forecasts of analysts following open-market share repurchase announcements, finding instead, small negative surprise revisions, which contradicts the prevailing empirical evidence. Moreover, we found that surrounding share repurchase announcements, managers manipulated discretionary accruals upward. We posit that this action, on the part of management, is to persuade market participants that the equity of their firm is undervalued. We also found no evidence of the market underreaction phenomenon but did observe negative abnormal returns in the 3- to 12-month period subsequent to the announcement. Overall, our results confirm that with a weaker signaling power, open-market share repurchase programs have been used to send a false signal to the marketplace, by emphasizing an undervalued equity.
Predictors of short- and long-term survival in HIV-infected patients admitted to the ICU.

STUDY OBJECTIVES To evaluate the prognosis of HIV-infected patients admitted to ICUs and to identify factors predictive of short- and long-term survival. DESIGN A prospective study from January 1, 1990, to December 31, 1992, including all consecutive HIV-infected patients admitted to our ICU for the first time. ICU survivors were followed up until January 1, 1994. SETTING An 18-bed infectious diseases ICU in a 1,300-bed university hospital in Paris. PATIENTS Four hundred twenty-one HIV-related admissions were recorded during the study period (33.5% of 1,258 admissions to ICU); 354 HIV-infected patients were first ICU admissions and were analyzed. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS Predictive factors on univariate and multivariate analyses (logistic regression and Cox model) for short- and long-term mortality were performed. Respiratory failure was the main cause of admission (49.2%), followed by neurologic disorders (26.8%), sepsis (10.2%), heart failure (4.5%), and miscellaneous disorders (9.3%). For these groups, in-ICU and in-hospital mortality rates were as follows: 16.7% and 33.9%; 23.2% and 41.1%; 38.9% and 58.3%; 25% and 68.8%; and 12.1% and 24.2%, respectively. In-ICU and in-hospital mortality rates were significantly different across the groups (p=0.026 and 0.002, respectively). Multivariate analysis showed that the in-hospital outcome was significantly associated with functional status (p=0.05), time since AIDS diagnosis (p=0.04), HIV disease stage (0.016), simplified acute physiology score (SAPS I) (p=0.06), need for mechanical ventilation (p<0.000001), and its duration (p=0.0001). In the 281 patients who were discharged alive from the ICU, cumulative survival rates were 51%+/-38% at 6 months, 28%+/-38% at 12 months, and 18%+/-30% at 24 months. Median and crude mean+/-SD survival times were 199 days and 316+/-343 days. Multivariate analysis showed that the long-term outcome was significantly associated with functional status (p=0.000001), weight loss (p=0.00001), the CD4 count (p=0.00001), the HIV disease stage (p=0.01), the duration of AIDS (p=0.001), the admission cause group (p=0.03), and the SAPS I at admission (p=0.00001). CONCLUSIONS The short-term (in-ICU and in-hospital) outcome of HIV-infected patients was mainly related to the severity of the acute illness (SAPS I, cause of admission, need for and duration of mechanical ventilation), and to the preadmission health status, based on functional status and weight loss. Some of these parameters, in particular the SAPS I and preadmission health status, also influenced the long-term outcome. Whereas HIV-related variables had little impact on the in-ICU outcome, they were closely related with the in-hospital outcome and even more strikingly with the long-term outcome. Thus, the life expectancy of HIV-infected patients, which depends primarily on the natural history of the HIV infection, is the most powerful determinant of the long-term prognosis. Our results confirm that ICU support for HIV-infected patients should not be considered futile.
Country v. Sector Effects in Equity Returns: Are Emerging-Market Firms Just Small Firms?

In the debate whether country factors are typically more variable than sector factors, sparked off by e.g. Roll (1991) and Heston and Rouwenhorst (1994), one of the few uncontested facts is that the addition of emerging markets (EMs) does boost the ratio of country-factor variance relative to industry-factor variance. Emerging markets do tend to have a higher variability but simultaneously are less related to global market and industry factors. We investigate to what extent this phenomenon can be traced to the impact of adding more small firms. We find, first, that small firms do have higher volatility, but one needs to control for country and sector affiliation before that becomes visible. We next find that small firms do have weaker sector affinity, as expected. Third, small firms unexpectedly have weaker local-market sensitivities than large firms. Facts 2 and 3 mean that adding more small firms to the data base has a diversifying effect on both the sector- and country-factor variance; and while the impact on sector variance is larger, the net effect turns out to be tiny. Fourth, adding emerging markets has a very marked impact on the variance ratio. In fact, the addition of small stocks to the sample hardly dents the effect of adding EMs. Thus, the role of emerging markets cannot be reduced to just a small-firm phenomenon
The Interaction between Air Quality and Meteorological Factors in an Arid Environment of Makkah, Saudi Arabia

Air quality and meteorological factors are closely linked through atmospheric chemical reactions and dynamic processes. Limited studies areconducted to determine the interactions between meteorological factors and air pollutants in an arid environment. The present study aims to investigate the association of air pollutants (PM10, O3, NO2, and SO2) with meteorological parameters (wind speed, wind direction, relative humidity, temperature and rainfall) in the Holy City of Makkah, Saudi Arabia. Wind speed was positively correlated with O3 (r=0.34) and PM10 (r=0.17) and negatively correlated with NOx (r=-0.38), CO (r=-0.39), and SO2 (r=-0.04). Temperature was positively correlated with most of the pollutant, except NO (r=-0.05) and SO2 (r=-0.07). The effect of rainfall was either negative or insignificant on most of the pollutants. The analysis is further elaborated by graphical presentations, such as polar plots, correlation plots and advanced scatter plots.
The effects of Push-pull-mooring on the Switching Model for Social Network sites Migration

Although the number of users has been growing exponentially in SNSs, some SNSs are facing a financial crisis and might be shut down in the near future. Therefore, understand users' incentives to switch to another SNS has great influence on operators' business performance. The study extended "Push-Pull-Mooring" migratory theory to explain the switching behaviors of users in SNS. Structural equation modeling will applied to analyze data collected from a filed survey. The result can construct a solid switching framework and help operators to understand their customer better.
Finite Element Gradient Superconvergence for Nonlinear Elliptic Problems

We consider second order nonlinear elliptic boundary value problems in twoand three-dimensional domains with Dirichlet boundary conditions approximated using finite element schemes based on linear and quadratic triangular (tetrahedral) finite elements. Superconvergence of the tangential derivatives at Gauss points on edges of elements is proved for these nonlinear problems and quasiuniform partitions of the domain.
Effects of positional tensioning and stretch on reaction latency and contraction speed of muscle.

Abstract High school boys (N = 58) were carefully positioned on their right sides in a special apparatus. Positional tensioning (temporary, passive elongation) of right hamstrings was varied by means of four levels of hip flexion with a constant knee angle. Reaction and movement times for a maximal-speed knee flexion were measured. Before one testing period a stretching exercise was given. It was found that the flexibility of the hip joint was significantly increased by this exercise. The exercise had no effect on reaction time or on movement time. Increases in positional tensioning decreased reaction time significantly but had no effect on movement time.
Effects of disruption of the nucleotide pattern in CRID element and Kozak sequence of interferon β on mRNA stability and protein production

Abstract Interferon β (IFNβ) is the most important drug that has been used frequently for multiple sclerosis treatment. This study has tried to improve the IFNβ production by introducing mutations in the coding region of IFNβ, while its amino acid sequence is intact. Two recombinant vectors IFNβK and IFNβK+CRID were designed by site-directed mutagenesis. The IFNβK and IFNβK+CRID have two substitutions in Kozak sequence and four substitutions in CRID sequence, respectively. The Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell codon usage optimization was also performed for both of them. They were transiently transfected to CHO-dhfr− cell line using Lipofectamine kit (Invitrogen, Grand Island, NY). The amount of mRNA and protein was determined by real time PCR and ELISA. The results of this study indicate that the amount of IFNβ protein produced by CHO cells containing IFNβK has been elevated up to 3.5-fold. On the other hand, enormous amounts of IFNβ mRNA and protein were produced by cells containing IFNβK+CRID construct; more than 4.6-fold and 6-fold, respectively. It could be concluded that disruption of AT pattern in CRID element increase RNA and protein production, improve IFNβ mRNA stability and, may also enhance mRNA half-life. In a similar way, more proteins are produced by modification of Kozak sequence.
Indoor location-aware medical systems for smart homecare and telehealth monitoring: state-of-the-art

This paper presents a comprehensive literature review of current progress in the application of state-of-the-art indoor positioning systems for telecare and telehealth monitoring. This review is the first in the literature that provides a comprehensive discussion on how existing wireless indoor positioning systems can benefit the development of home-based care systems. More specifically, this review provides an in-depth comparative study of how both system users and medical practitioners can get benefit from indoor positioning technologies; e.g. for real-time monitoring of patients suffering chronic cardiovascular conditions, general monitoring of activities of daily living (ADLs), fall detection systems for the elderly as well as indoor navigation systems for those suffering from visual impairments. Furthermore, it also details various aspects worth considering when choosing a certain technology for a specific healthcare application; e.g. the spatial precision demanded by the application, trade-offs between unobtrusiveness and complexity, and issues surrounding compliance and adherence with the use of wearable tags. Beyond the current state-of-the-art, this review also rigorously discusses several research opportunities and the challenges associated with each.
Bladder neck invasion is an independent predictor of prostate‐specific antigen recurrence

The 1997 TNM staging system for prostatic carcinoma and the 2002 revision thereof classified prostatic carcinoma with bladder neck involvement classified as pT4 disease. This classification is based on the belief that tumors that invade surrounding structures are more aggressive and warrant higher staging than tumors that do not invade surrounding structures. Recent reports in the literature suggested that microscopic involvement of the bladder neck does not carry independent prognostic significance. Therefore, resection specimens with bladder neck involvement should not be classified as pT4. The current study prospectively examined the prognostic significance of bladder neck involvement by prostatic carcinoma.
High Performance Work Practices: An examination of adoption and impact in large Australian Organizations

Purpose – This study examines the adoption of HCWP in large Australian organizations from the perspective of Human Resource Management (HRM) practitioners. In doing so it considers the factors that may influence adoption and the relationship between HCWP and employer and employee outcomes. Design/methodology/approach – This study uses survey data collected from the senior members of the HRM function in 189 large Australian organizations. Findings – The research found a significant relationship between the adoption of most HCWP and positive outcomes. HCWP were universally applicable in all organizations regardless of their type or context. Theory Y management attitude, organizational policy, the quality of HRM and good employee relations facilitate the adoption of HCWP. Research limitations/implications – This study used cross sectional survey data from the single source of the HRM practitioner in large organizations which places limits on its ability to determine causation between variables and generalize to all Australian organizations. Further research could use multiple respondents and time series data and investigate HPWP in small and medium sized Australian organizations. Practical implications – Large Australian organizations, regardless of industry, workforce composition and strategy focus could benefit from the adoption of HCWP. To facilitate adoption organizations should ensure that their management has the right attitude; their HRM function is strategic and effectively resourced; and develop an effective relationship between management and employees. Originality/value – This research has investigated whether extant theory and research on HCWP is applicable to large Australian organizations and extends research on the factors that impact on HCWP adoption.