Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Workshop to Identify Critical Windows of Exposure for Children's Health: Neurobehavioral Work Group Summary

For much of the history of toxicology, the sensitivity of the developing organism to chemical perturbation attracted limited attention. Several tragic episodes and new insights finally taught us that the course of early brain development incurs unique risks. Although the process is exquisitely controlled, its lability renders it highly susceptible to damage from environmental chemicals. Such disturbances, as recognized by current testing protocols and legislation such as the Food Quality Protection Act, can result in outcomes ranging from death to malformations to functional impairment. The latter are the most difficult to determine. First, they require a variety of measures to assay their extent. Second, adult responses may prove an inadequate guide to the response of the developing brain, which is part of the reason for proposing additional safety factors for children. Third, neuropsychological tests are deployed in complex circumstances in which many factors, including economic status, combine to produce a particular effect such as lowered intelligence quotient score. Fourth, the magnitude of the effect, for most environmental exposure levels, may be relatively small but extremely significant for public health. Fifth, changes in brain function occur throughout life, and some consequences of early damage may not even emerge until advanced age. Such factors need to be addressed in estimating the influence of a particular agent or group of agents on brain development and its functional expression. It is especially important to consider ways of dealing with multiple risks and their combinations in addition to the prevailing practice of estimating risks in isolation.
“IF MY MOTHER WERE STILL ALIVE, I AND YOU WOULD DEFINITELY GET DIVORCED”: A CASE STUDY OF A VIETNAMESE WOMAN’S REFUSING IN INTERACTION

This paper presents the major findings from a recent study conducted to explore how a Vietnamese woman refuses a high-stakes advice or request in everyday conversations. Data used in this study are conversations excerpted from a TV series entitled Những công dân tập thể (lit. the citizens living in the same apartment building). The analytical tool is a combination of Conversation Analysis (Hutchby & Wooffitt, 1998, 2008; Sacks, 1992a, 1992b) and Multimodal Interactional Analysis (Norris, 2004, 2009). The results show that (1) Vietnamese refusing is often performed concurrently by different modes of communication and language is only one of them; (2) refusing a high-stakes advice or request often takes a long time to negotiate in a conversation and through a series of conversations; and (3) Vietnamese women’s responsibility to obey their parents, a Confucian teaching, still has its role in contemporary Vietnamese society.
A Novel Modeling based Agent Cellular Automata for Advanced Residential Mobility Applications

Nowadays, residential mobility (RM) is usually interconnected with other urban phenomena to give more realistic and effective to the simulation models in order to support urban planners and decision makers. Recent RM research works to describe models from a functional view; however researchers do less focus in providing software modeling of their RM applications. Based on this note, the article presents an agent cellular automata based modeling for advanced RM applications. The proposed modeling contains six models based on UML 2.0 diagrams which models parts of the system from different views. The work could be of interest for specialists (researchers, designers and developers) when modeling advanced RM applications.
Weak corporate governance can lead to a county's financial catastrophe: the case of Cyprus

Good corporate governance is a crucial ingredient in a country’s infrastructure and cannot be ignored. Proper governance processes are likely to create an environment that is conducive to success and increase the creation of wealth by improving the performance of honestly managed and financially sound companies. It does not follow that there exists a perfect corporate governance system that can guard companies and their stakeholders from the consequences of error. Companies are not immune from failure. Corporate collapses happen for many reasons, but there is little doubt that poor corporate governance plays some part in contributing to such collapses. That is precisely why the system of checks and balances that supports corporate governance needs to work well. The presence of an effective corporate governance system within institutions and across economies, promotes a level of confidence that is fundamental for the appropriate functioning of a market economy. By developing good governance practices, corporations have more chances of performing well, while the contrary, bad governance corporate practices, joined with some other elements, have exactly the opposite result. The recent global financial crisis of 2008–09 is indicative of this. While corporate catastrophes are not a new phenomenon, Cyprus appears to have learnt few lessons from previous experiences to safeguard the long-term prosperity of its institutions. Corporate governance failures were instrumental in bringing about the country’s financial ruin and as the Cypriot economy has become dependent on state support for its *J.B. L. 362 continued survival, reinstating the trust in its corporate governance structures becomes a matter of urgency.
Investigating the Effects of Consumer Experience Tourism on Brand Equity and Market Outcomes: an Application in the Wine Industry

This paper aims at presenting a conceptual framework about Consumer Experience Tourism in a winery setting and its effects on post-visit consumer behavior. The tourism experience of a winery visit has been noted as having multiple valuable effects for the winery and its brands, such as increased brand awareness, loyalty, emotional connection, increased involvement and brand differentiation. The proposed model offers an examination of the on-site winery experience within a wide temporal context, by incorporating pre-visit expectations, satisfaction parameters and post visit consumer behaviour. The main focus is the effect on consumer based brand equity and linked market outcomes.
Assembling novel protein folds from super‐secondary structural fragments

The results of applying a fragment‐based protein tertiary structure prediction method to the prediction of 14 CASP5 target domains are described. The method is based on the assembly of supersecondary structural fragments taken from highly resolved protein structures using a simulated annealing algorithm. A number of good predictions for proteins with novel folds were produced, although not always as the first model. For two fold recognition targets, FRAGFOLD produced the most accurate model in both cases, despite the fact that the predictions were not based on a template structure. Although clear progress has been made in improving FRAGFOLD since CASP4, the ranking of final models still seems to be the main problem that needs to be addressed before the next CASP experiment. Proteins 2003;53:480–485. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Cathelicidin Family of Antibacterial Peptides CAP18 and CAP11 Inhibit the Expression of TNF-α by Blocking the Binding of LPS to CD14+ Cells1

Mammalian myeloid and epithelial cells express several kinds of antibacterial peptides (α-/β-defensins and cathelicidins) that contribute to the innate host defense by killing invading micro-organisms. In this study we evaluated the LPS-neutralizing activities of cathelicidin peptides human CAP18 (cationic antibacterial proteins of 18 kDa) and guinea pig CAP11 using the CD14+ murine macrophage cell line RAW264.7 and the murine endotoxin shock model. Flow cytometric analysis revealed that CAP18 and CAP11 inhibited the binding of FITC-conjugated LPS to RAW264.7 cells. Likewise, Northern and Western blot analyses indicated that CAP18 and CAP11 suppressed LPS-induced TNF-α mRNA and protein expression by RAW264.7 cells. Interestingly, CAP18 and CAP11 possessed LPS-binding activities, and they strongly suppressed the interaction of LPS with LPS binding protein that mediates the transport of LPS to CD14 to facilitate the activation of CD14+ cells by LPS. Moreover, when CAP18 and CAP11 were preincubated with RAW264.7 cells, they bound to the cell surface CD14 and inhibited the binding of FITC-LPS to the cells. Furthermore, in the murine endotoxin shock model, CAP18 or CAP11 administration inhibited the binding of LPS to CD14+ cells (peritoneal macrophages) and suppressed LPS-induced TNF-α expression by these cells. Together these observations indicate that cathelicidin peptides CAP18 and CAP11 probably exert protective actions against endotoxin shock by blocking the binding of LPS to CD14+ cells, thereby suppressing the production of cytokines by these cells via their potent binding activities for LPS and CD14.
Value-at-Risk Disclosure and Cost of Equity Capital

Commercial banks disclose their exposure to market risks in the form of value-at-risk (VAR), potential maximum losses under a certain confidence level. Using a sample of 24 U.S. commercial banks, we examine the relation between VAR of banks’ trading activities and their cost of equity capital. We show that the implied cost of equity capital and the bid-ask spread, both proxying for the cost of equity capital, are positively related to VAR, as well as a quality indicator based on bank technical sophistication. The results are consistent with the claims that VAR effectively captures bank trading risk, and that investors care about banks’ risk-taking activities.
Recentering and restarting a genetic algorithm using a generative representation for an ordered gene problem

Recentering-Restarting Genetic Algorithms have been used successfully to evolve multiple epidemic networks and perform DNA error correction. This work studies variations of the Recentering-Restarting Genetic Algorithm for the purpose of evaluating its effectiveness for ordered gene problems. These variations use multiple seeds and two adaptive representations which use generating sets to produce local search. These algorithm variations are applied to what many considered the quintessential ordered gene problem, the Travelling Salesman Problem. Two distinct sets of experimental analysis was performed: first, using large problem instances to determine the effectiveness of the Recentering-Restarting Genetic Algorithm in comparison to benchmarks and second, studying many small problem instances ranging from 12 to 20 cities to determine if any one of the algorithm variations always outperforms the others.These algorithm variations were comparable to highly competitive optimization algorithms submitted to the DIMACS TSP implementation challenge. In studying the small problem instances, it was observed that no one algorithm always dominates on all problem instances within a domain. This study demonstrates how the Recentering-Restarting Genetic Algorithm is a useful tool for improving upon results generated by other powerful heuristics.
Voluntary corporate governance disclosure, firm valuation and dividend payout : evidence from Hong Kong listed firms

The disclosure of Corporate Governance (CG) information by firms has been found in prior studies to have an impact on the market value of firms. This thesis extends the research by studying the impact of voluntary CG disclosure by firms in Hong Kong, a market which provides a strong legal investor protection but characterized by a high insider ownership, on company valuation, as proxied by Tobin’s q. This thesis also examines the role of dividend payout on the CG of Hong Kong firms. Based on hand-collected data for a sample of 258 firm-years over the 2003-2005 period, the empirical results show that, firstly, voluntary CG disclosure is positively and significantly related to market valuation for small firms, but the relationship is not significant for large or medium firms. Combining large firms and small firms in a pooled sample, as done in most previous studies, thus misses the differential value relevance of voluntary CG disclosure for small versus large firms. Secondly, firms with higher CG disclosure are associated with lower dividend payout ratios, ceteris paribus. The evidence appears to suggest that CG disclosure can substitute for dividend payout. Thirdly, those small firms with medium levels of insider ownership are found to pay lower dividends than small firms with either low or very high levels of insider ownership, suggesting that investors would expect higher dividends from small firms that are prone to, or have either agency problems or entrenchment problems. Furthermore, controlling for the level of insider ownership, a small firm with high CG disclosure is always associated with a higher market valuation. The empirical evidence suggests that voluntary CG disclosure has a much stronger impact on the reduction of information asymmetry between investors (i.e., the outsiders) and managers (i.e., the insiders) for small firms than for large firms. Hence, by voluntarily disclosing more CG information, a small firm can be expected to enjoy the double benefits of receiving a higher market valuation and a lower demand for dividend payout from investors. This study contributes to the research of value relevance of CG disclosure in several ways. It provides clear evidence that voluntary CG disclosure enhances the valuation of small firms, which previous research may have overlooked. It also shows that voluntary CG disclosure and the level of insider ownership jointly affect a firm’s valuation and dividend payout. Voluntary disclosure of corporate governance information, even under a strong legal regime for investor protection, seems to be a company attribute very much appreciated by outside investors.
Cross‐functional involvement in new product development

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to garner multiple perspectives from cross‐functional new product development (NPD) team members and determine point of contact in and responsibilities throughout the development process.Design/methodology/approach – The use of an integrative literature review and in‐depth interviews were two qualitative approaches to data collection in the study of cross‐functional NPD. A convenience sample initiated research efforts, then snowball sampling facilitated the completion of semi‐structured, face‐to‐face interviews among 94 team members in 11 firms. The literature review culled research from fields as distinct as communication, industrial design, and research and development. The in‐depth, semi‐structured design provided the permitted open‐ended investigation and some unplanned questions. Face‐to‐face questioning allowed for the reading of facial expressions, other forms of body language, and the free pursuit of interesting subtopics. The study design utilized a 19‐quest.
Downregulation of miR-133 and miR-590 contributes to nicotine-induced atrial remodelling in canines.

AIMS The present study was designed to decipher molecular mechanisms underlying nicotine's promoting atrial fibrillation (AF) by inducing atrial structural remodelling. METHODS AND RESULTS The canine model of AF was successfully established by nicotine administration and rapid pacing. The atrial fibroblasts isolated from healthy dogs were treated with nicotine. The role of microRNAs (miRNAs) on the expression and regulation of transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-beta1), TGF-beta receptor type II (TGF-betaRII), and collagen production was evaluated in vivo and in vitro. Administration of nicotine for 30 days increased AF vulnerability by approximately eight- to 15-fold in dogs. Nicotine stimulated remarkable collagen production and atrial fibrosis both in vitro in cultured canine atrial fibroblasts and in vivo in atrial tissues. Nicotine produced significant upregulation of expression of TGF-beta1 and TGF-betaRII at the protein level, and a 60-70% decrease in the levels of miRNAs miR-133 and miR-590. This downregulation of miR-133 and miR-590 partly accounts for the upregulation of TGF-beta1 and TGF-betaRII, because our data established TGF-beta1 and TGF-betaRII as targets for miR-133 and miR-590 repression. Transfection of miR-133 or miR-590 into cultured atrial fibroblasts decreased TGF-beta1 and TGF-betaRII levels and collagen content. These effects were abolished by the antisense oligonucleotides against miR-133 or miR-590. The effects of nicotine were prevented by an alpha7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor antagonist. CONCLUSION We conclude that the profibrotic response to nicotine in canine atrium is critically dependent upon downregulation of miR-133 and miR-590.
Fragmented Selves : Recall of Self-Referenced Adjectives and the Self-Schema in Schizophrenia

The self-schema has been implicated in the social and cognitive disabilities found in people diagnosed with schizophrenia. It is hypothesized that the self-schema is relatively disorganized and unstable in schizophrenia patients compared to healthy individuals. Few studies have examined this hypothesis in the literature, as the self-schema in schizophrenia is not yet fully understood. Testing this hypothesis, mean recall for 20 adjectives was compared between 20 adult male participants with schizophrenia and 20 adult male nonclinical participants under two levels of processing: semantic and self-referential. Results showed that self-referencing facilitated memory (i.e., the selfreference effect). There was a significant difference in the mean recall of the nonclinical participants under the two encoding conditions, but this difference was not significant for schizophrenia patients. That is, schizophrenia patients showed a global impairment in word recall compared to the nonclinical participants, and the self-reference effect was not shown. Accordingly, treatment should aim to ameliorate these deficits in self-concept and social cognition in addition to the standard rehabilitation repertoire.
Exchange and combination of knowledge‐based resources in network relationships: A study of software firms in Finland

Purpose – To gain a better understanding of various network relationships in the software industry by classifying relationships by type and identifying distinctions with respect to the business potential of those relationships.Design/methodology/approach – On the basis of literature, the study presents a framework for the tasks of combining and exchanging knowledge‐based resources in network relationships. In the empirical research setting, the relationships of nine Finnish software firms are first classified and placed in the framework, and then the organisational effectiveness of the relationships is measured.Findings – The findings reveal three relationship types, each leading to different effectiveness profiles.Research limitations/implications – It is recognised that this exploratory multiple‐case study raises the concern of generalisability and, thus, a statistical research using more accurate quantitative methods could be useful in checking the validity of the findings. Further, the selected cases .
Performance Persistence of Individual Investors

Using unique data on month-end stock market portfolios of all individual investors over an eleven year period, we find that a substantial number of investors exhibit economically and statistically significant performance persistence. Furthermore, a portfolio that is long in stocks previously favored by top performing investors earns a substantial risk adjusted return. These finding are robust to how we measure past performance, how often investors trade, and to the size of investors' portfolios. Unlike the evidence from mutual and pension funds, the persistence in performance of individual investors is not concentrated in portfolios with poor prior performance.
Securities Litigation and its Lawyers: Changes During the First Decade After PSLRA

Congress enacted the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PSLRA or the Act) to address problems plaguing securities class action litigation. This Article surveys the empirical evidence on the impact of the PSLRA, examining the specific categories of reforms introduced by the Act. We look at the existing evidence relating to: substantive changes in the definition of fraud necessary to bring a securities class action; the Congressional efforts to empower lead plaintiffs relative to the plaintiffs' attorney bar; and the direct sanctioning of lawyers authorized in the Act. Given the PSLRA's focus on changing the incentives and behavior of plaintiff lawyers, we also provide preliminary data on the role of the lead plaintiff law firm. We report that while the market concentration of plaintiff law firms based on settlement amounts did not change appreciably after the enactment of the PSLRA, the tendency of top tier law firms to associate with lower tier firms did increase significantly in the post-PSLRA period. We also report that institutional investors taking on the role of lead plaintiffs in the post-PSLRA period tended to develop repeat relationships with select top tier law firms. Our survey of the existing evidence and study of new evidence relating to the role of plaintiff law firms leads us to raise several questions for possible new lines of research into the effectiveness of the PSLRA.
Acute Leukemia Classification using Bayesian Networks

In this study, two models for constructing acute leukemia classifiers using the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) gene selection method in conjunction with the Bayesian Networks (BNs) have been proposed. In the first model, genes of the acute leukemia training dataset are ranked using the SNR method and then top ranked genes are selected and used to construct the acute leukemia BN classifier. In the second model, genes of the acute leukemia training dataset are clustered using thekmeans clustering and then genes of each cluster are ranked using the SNR method after that top ranked genes from gene clusters are selected and used to construct the acute leukemia BN classifier. From the experimental evaluation, the results showed that the classification accuracies achieved by the acute leukemia classifiers constructed according to either of these two models are good compared with the classification accuracies achieved in other studies. The results also indicated that the second model is better than the first model.
Relationship between frequency and amplitude dependence in the lung: a nonlinear block-structured modeling approach.

During lung constriction, there is an increase in both the frequency and tidal volume (VT) dependences of lung tissue resistance (Rti) and elastance (Eti). This suggests that 1) significant alterations take place in the mechanisms contributing to both the linear and nonlinear characteristics of lung tissues; and 2) the frequency and VT dependences of Rti and Eti are coupled. We examined these issues for the case of sine wave and special pseudorandom inputs by utilizing the theory of nonlinear block-structured systems. Two basic model structures were considered: the Hammerstein and the Wiener structures. The Hammerstein structure is a cascade connection of a nonlinear zero-memory (N) system and a linear dynamic process (L). This structure predicts that frequency and VT dependences of Rti and Eti are decoupled. The Wiener structure is an inverse cascade of these two blocks (i.e., L-N) in which the frequency and VT dependences of Rti and Eti are coupled. These two structures were combined with a nonlinear airway compartment and fitted to measured airway opening and alveolar capsule pressure-flow time domain data in dogs before and after histamine-induced constriction. The best lung model was a linear airway compartment combined with a Wiener structure consisting of a constant-phase linear tissue impedance in cascade with a polynomial nonlinearity, suggesting that frequency and VT dependences of Rti and Eti are indeed coupled during control and constricted conditions. Moreover, histamine caused much larger changes in the linear tissue parameters than in the nonlinear coefficients. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)