Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Oroxylin A Inhibits Colitis-associated Carcinogenesis Through Modulating the IL-6/STAT3 Signaling Pathway

Background:Patients with inflammatory bowel disease, which includes ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, are at a significantly increased risk of developing colorectal cancer, and aberrant interleukin (IL)-6/STAT3 signaling pathway exists in both inflammatory bowel disease and inflammation-related gastrointestinal cancers. We have previously found that oroxylin A inhibited the NF-&kgr;B signaling in human colon tumor HCT-116 cells. However, whether oroxylin A could inhibit the colitis-associated carcinogenesis remains to be determined. Methods:HCT-116 cells were treated with various concentrations of oroxylin A. Expression of relative proteins of IL-6/STAT3 signaling pathway was assayed by Western blot and immunofluorescence analysis. Mouse model for colitis-associated colorectal cancer was induced by a combined treatment with 10 mg/kg azoxymethane (AOM) followed by 3 cycles of 2.5% dextran sodium sulfate in C57BL/6 mice. IL-6 and IL-1&bgr; gene expression were analyzed by quantitative real-time PCR. Expression of relative proteins was examined by immunohistochemistry and Western blot. Results:Oroxylin A effectively inhibited IL-6/STAT3 pathway in human HCT-116 cells, and the effect of oroxylin A was reversible. Dietary administration of oroxylin A throughout the experimental period significantly reduced the tumor burden, inhibited cell proliferation, and induced apoptosis in colon carcinomas. The expression of inflammatory cytokines IL-6 and IL-1&bgr; decreased in tumors in oroxylin A–treated mice. The IL-6/STAT3 signaling pathway was attenuated in oroxylin A–treated mice. Conclusions:Our results demonstrated that oroxylin A inhibits colitis-associated carcinogenesis through modulating IL-6/STAT3 pathway in AOM/dextran sodium sulfate mouse model and in HCT-116 cells.
Assessing the Changing Network TV Market: A Resource-Based Analysis of Broadcast Television Networks

Abstract To assess the new landscape of the broadcast television network market amidst the growth of the Internet, the arrival of digital television, and many other technological and regulatory changes, we applied a resource-based framework of strategic management to review the characteristics of the television market as evidenced by the networks’ property- and knowledge-based resources. We examined the resources that became more prevalent as the competitive dynamics increased the level of uncertainty in this market and investigated the types of resources that might lead to superior performance. We conducted a case study to assess the resources of NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, UPN and WB in four different time periods.
Spatiotemporal dynamics of global drought

Understanding the evolution and physical drivers of drought is critical to informing forecasting efforts. One aspect that has seldom been explored is the joint evolution of droughts in space and time. Most studies fix the reference area and focus on their temporal variability or study their spatial heterogeneity over fixed durations. This work implements a Lagrangian approach by aggregating contiguous areas under drought into clusters. These clusters become the frame of reference and are tracked as they evolve through space and time. Clusters were identified from soil moisture data from the Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (1979–2009). Evapotranspiration, moisture fluxes, and precipitation were used to explore the relevance of possible mechanisms of drought propagation. While most droughts remain near their origin, the centroid of 10% of clusters traveled at least 1400–3100 km, depending on the continent. This approach also revealed that large‐scale droughts often lock into further growth and intensification.
Modelling Pedestrian Behavior at Signalized Intersections: A Case Study in Shanghai

Pedestrian crossing behavior at signalized intersections consists of “entering the crosswalk” and “interactions at the crosswalk”. According to the time when a pedestrian enters the crosswalk, pedestrian crossing behavior can be classified into four types: “Green Walkers (right behavior), “Late Walkers”, “Risk Walkers” and “Early Walkers”. Manoeuvres taken by either pedestrians or vehicle drivers to avoid collisions are called interactions, which can be distinguished by five levels depending on whether pedestrians/drivers obey traffic rules, intensity of interactions and executor of a manoeuvre. A case study at 5 representative crosswalks in Shanghai were carried out and behavior of 1328 pedestrians was analyzed in order to find out pedestrian behavioral characteristics and evaluate pedestrian safety at signalized intersections. The results showed that pedestrian non-compliance was rather serious in Shanghai, 44 percent of the pedestrians arriving during non-green time crossed on Red. According to the regression model, average pedestrian delay was found to be the most sensitive influencing factor, follows was average headway of conflicting vehicles and crossing distance. “Lane (group)-based tactic” and “side-based tactic” used by non-compliant pedestrians to cross the street resulted in high risks for Risk Walkers. Green Walkers took manoeuvres frequently to yield to turning vehicles, due to the Right Turn on Red, unreasonable control method of turn movement and low traffic discipline of drivers.
The Center for Economic Studies Program to Assemble Economic Census Establishment Information

The Bureau of the Census has been collecting information on U.S. business populations ince about 1810 [Bohme, 1987]. Economic historians have used the published aggregates from the economic ensus as a primary source of information on the evolution of the U.S. economy. More recently, individual scholars have used the responses of individual businesses, located on economic ensus' schedules now in the public domain [Bertin, Bresnahan, and Raff, 199613 However, the use of these data is hampered by lack of a central data fde in machine-readable format, similar to the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series [IPUMS] project for decennial census data [Ruggles, Hacker, and Sobeck, 1995]. This paper eports on a Census Bureau project o assemble economic ensus information in such a format for the "recent past. " This paper has two purposes. The primary one is to acquaint he business history community with the business data base efforts at the Bureau of the Census Center for Economic Studies (hereafter, the Center). The second purpose is to begin/continue the discussion f the current state of availability of economic ensus response information from the past two centuries. The outline of the paper is as follows. An introductory section is a brief discussion of the economic census program, with a review of how the individual economic ensus responses differ from published aggregates and how in recent years these business-level data on employment, wages, and sales over time have proved useful in describing changing economic situations. The next section, serving the major purpose of this paper, is a description of the business database activities at the Center. I then rum to a discussion of how the
The evaluation of system success model on CRM applications

The purpose of this study is to observe sales process and measure of the system success on CRM applications which are technologic innovation. In this study, DeLone and McLean [1] model is used in order to measure system success. According to the indicators of this model, system quality, information quality, system use, user satisfaction, individual affect and organizational affect are evaluated. The survey was made for this study. The survey was performed for the CRM users in a private company in Turkey. A study area of the survey was determined, before analyzing. Also, according to the departments, different IT projects were introduced. Application of the survey has been carried out to 100 people. The data obtained from 100 people in total, were analyzed with SPSS Statistical package. As a result of this study, system quality affects system use positively; user satisfaction and system use directly affects organization impact. Firstly, the basic components of information technology have been examined. The purpose of Information Technologies, the benefits and the problems of implementation has been discussed. The concept of CRM which is composed by Information Technologies is described. Moreover, DeLone and McLean Information System Success Model has been discussed and the influence on the system has been explained. This study shows the researches and the users that The DeLone and McLean model in what way and how affect the Information System Success in terms of individual and organizational impact. The thesis addresses the people from information sector, the CRM users, the producers of the CRM systems, consulting service providers and the people work in sales and the marketing field. Keywords: CRM, DeLone and McLean Model, Information Technology, CRM Application Success.
Increasing enjoyable activities to treat depression in nursing home residents with dementia: A pilot study

This pilot study aimed to assess the feasibility and acceptability of a behavioral activities intervention (BE-ACTIV) in Australian nursing homes. BE-ACTIV was developed by researchers at the University of Louisville, USA, to improve mood and quality of life (QOL) in nursing home residents with mild to moderate dementia. An eight-week trial was conducted and 10 residents with mild to moderate dementia received the BE-ACTIV intervention while eight residents received a Walking and Talking intervention. Measures of depression (GDS-12R) and QOL (QOL-AD-NH) were administered prior to and following the interventions. Qualitative feedback indicated residents benefited from BE-ACTIV, evident by improved mood, although no statistically significant treatment effect was found. Moreover, the intervention was found to be feasible and acceptable to Australian nursing home staff and our findings highlight the importance of individualizing activities for people with dementia, of which 1:1 staff attention was a key component.
Social Capital and the Cost of Credit: Evidence from a Crisis

Social capital is a key factor affecting the functioning of financial markets (Guiso, Sapienza and Zingales, 2004). However, the estimation of the effect of social capital on credit markets is notoriously difficult. In this paper we exploit the recent Lehman Brothers crisis and a rich dataset to investigate whether social capital shields firms from the tightening of credit conditions. We mainly focus on lending to small Italian firms that rely almost exclusively on banks’ credit and we compare the level of loan interest rates before (June 2008) and after (June 2010) Lehman’s default for a balanced sample of bank-firm relationships. We find that for firms headquartered in provinces where social capital is higher, the rise in the loan spreads following Lehman’s default was milder compared to firms located in low-social capital communities. The benefits were larger for small firms borrowing from more than one bank and for uncollateralised credit but did not extend to larger firms. Moreover, different measures of social capital provide slightly different results, suggesting a more ambiguous role for particularistic networking (e.g. having a wide network of friends) than for altruistic behaviour rooted in universalistic ethics. Finally, the propensity of a community to cooperate in the credit market, a kind of credit-specific measure of networking, did not always have an impact comparable to that for more general measures of social capital.
Phish Phinder: A Game Design Approach to Enhance User Confidence in Mitigating Phishing Attacks

Phishing is an especially challenging cyber security threat as it does not attack computer systems, but targets the user who works on that system by relying on the vulnerability of their decision-making ability. Phishing attacks can be used to gather sensitive information from victims and can have devastating impact if they are successful in deceiving the user. Several anti-phishing tools have been designed and implemented but they have been unable to solve the problem adequately. This failure is often due to security experts overlooking the human element and ignoring their fallibility in making trust decisions online. In this paper, we present Phish Phinder, a serious game designed to enhance the user's confidence in mitigating phishing attacks by providing them with both conceptual and procedural knowledge about phishing. The user is trained through a series of gamified challenges, designed to educate them about important phishing related concepts, through an interactive user interface. Key elements of the game interface were identified through an empirical study with the aim of enhancing user interaction with the game. We also adopted several persuasive design principles while designing Phish Phinder to enhance phishing avoidance behaviour among users.
TQM and knowledge management: Literature review and proposed framework

This research study seeks to come up with a conceptual framework that investigates the different dimensions of total quality management (TQM) and its effects on knowledge management (KM). This is to help build a theoretical framework of TQM and its dimensions, which mainly consists of leadership, strategic planning, information and analysis, process management, human resource focus and customer focus. These constructs are rooted in the work of Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA). To build the conceptual framework, the background of TQM and Knowledge Management theory served as a good starting point. The current research study is based on the complete assessment of present literatures, the six constructs of TQM and the three elements of knowledge acquisition, knowledge application and knowledge dissemination. This paper serves as a guide to senior management, who seeks to improve their company’s organizational knowledge management activities through the execution of TQM practices, in which the TQM practices support their company’s knowledge management efforts. Furthermore, the conceptual model serves as a benchmark for practitioners to execute their TQM programmes more effectively and efficiently in their own respective firms. This paper seeks to close the gap on the existing literature, by giving guidance to the senior management of TQM companies that aspires to discover the competency of knowledge management. By developing a deeper understanding of the relationship between TQM practices and knowledge management, senior management can thus focus their efforts on the practices that ensure the firms’ ability to establish a competitive knowledge management capability.
Bilateral Advantages in Subitizing With Visual Masking

Performance on a range of visual-processing tasks has been shown to improve when information is split bilaterally across the left and right visual hemifields rather than being restricted to a single visual hemifield. However, a recent study by Delvenne et al. found no such bilateral advantage for subitizing, which is our ability to rapidly and accurately enumerate small quantities of objects. This finding is particularly surprising, as it contradicts the prediction of FINgers of INSTantiation theory that subitizing should benefit from bilateral presentation. Our study investigated the issue by determining if there are any circumstances where a bilateral advantage for subitization occurs. Contrary to Delvenne et al., we found that subitizing could show bilateral advantages, but only when the display was backward-masked. We discuss these findings in relation to how the rate of encoding and the time available for this encoding may affect bilateral advantages in subitizing. A general model is proposed under which bilateral advantages could be explained.
Development of the active capacitor for PFC converters

In this paper, the active capacitor is proposed to replace the electrolytic capacitor of the power factor correction (PFC) converter. Conventionally, a bulky electrolytic capacitor is connected in parallel with the output stage of the PFC converter to reduce the output ripple voltage. However, the electrolytic capacitor would shorten the lifetime and reduce the reliability of the PFC converter. Thus, the active capacitor is proposed to reduce the required capacitance of the PFC converter so that the electrolytic capacitor can be replaced by the film capacitor. The mathematical analysis and component selection of the active capacitor are presented in this paper. Simulation and experimental results of a 200W prototype PFC converter are presented to verify the performance of the proposed active capacitor.
The changing landscape of regional trade agreements

Disclaimer and citation guideline Discussion Papers are presented by the authors in their personal capacity and opinions expressed in these papers should be attributed to the authors. They are not meant to represent the positions or opinions of the WTO Secretariat or of its Members and are without prejudice to Members' rights and obligations under the WTO. Any errors or omissions are the responsibility of the authors. With written permission of the WTO Publications Manager, reproduction and use of the material contained in this document for non-commercial educational and training purposes is encouraged.
Understanding Covariance Estimates in Expectation Propagation

Bayesian inference for most models of modern interest requires approximation of the posterior distribution. Variational inference (VI) methods formulate posterior approximation as a particular optimization problem and have grown in popularity due to their fast runtime on large datasets. There is recent work that suggests it might be beneficial to instead consider an alternative optimization objective to that used by VI, such as the one employed by expectation propagation (EP). EP has recently been shown to scale to large datasets and complex models, and existing theory suggests we should expect EP to overestimate—rather than underestimate— the variance of parameters. We show through two examples that there are actually two regimes, one in which EP overestimates covariances and one in which it underestimates. We prove that under some conditions, the objective function behind EP switches between these regimes depending on the log-concavity / convexity of the approximate distribution used.
Reference Price Research: Review and Propositions

A substantial body of research evidence has now accumulated in the reference price literature. One stream of research has identified the antecedents of reference price and has assessed their effects through experimentation. Others have calibrated a variety of reference price models on panel data and reported the effects on brand choice and other purchase decisions. In this article, the authors review the published literature on reference price in both the behavioral and modeling streams. They offer an integrative framework to review prior research on (1) the formation of reference price, (2) retrieval and use of reference price, and (3) influences of reference price on various purchase decisions and evaluations. In doing so, the authors examine the influences of consumers' prior purchase history and contextual moderators, such as specific purchase occasions, promotional environment of the store, and product category characteristics. They summarize the key findings, identify the unresolved issues, and offer an agenda for further research, which includes a set of testable propositions. They also identify the methodological challenges that face reference price research. In the concluding section, the authors discuss the managerial implications of reference price research.
Endocrine disruption: historical perspectives and its impact on the future of toxicology testing.

The endocrine system is one of the body’s major homeostatic control systems whose aim is to maintain normal functions and development in the face of a constantly changing environment. Working in tandem with the nervous system, which mainly is responsible for rapid and immediate responses, the approximately 30 different glands comprising the endocrine system tend to act in a slower and more sustained manner to regulate processes as diverse as the female reproductive cycle, bone growth, cell proliferation, and psychosocial behavior. Multiple endocrine glands also work in concert with one another to form complex feedback loops, which tightly regulate critical physiological processes. Like all homeostatic control systems, the capacity to maintain physiological parameters within normal bounds is finite, and when this capacity is exceeded by chemical exposures, drugs, or environmental stressors, adverse consequences can ensue. In the mid-1990’s, concerns about the potential for environmental chemicals, drugs, and other stressors to alter endocrine physiology rapidly mounted and received a great deal of attention within the toxicology community as well as in the public media. These circumstances spurred a flurry of research on mechanisms of toxicity, new questions about how to deal with cumulative exposures to endocrine-active compounds (EACs) from man-made, dietary, and endogenous sources, and the creation of major chemical screening and testing programs focused on endocrine-mediated modes of toxic action. In this review, we will trace the path of knowledge regarding the effects of exogenous agents on the endocrine system, the events which gave rise to the explosion of interest in this topic in the mid-1990’s, and how it led to a fundamentally different paradigm in toxicity testing as well as a great deal of basic research on mechanisms of endocrine-mediated toxicity. We first cover the history of testing for endocrine-mediated toxicity, followed by coverage of key historical events in basic science, and then bring the two together to discuss implications of the science on testing both now and for the future.
Impact of Social Media on Marketing

Growing popularity of social media compelled the marketers to think about this media along with traditional functional areas of marketing. Social media is based primarily on internet or cellular phone based applications and tools to share information among people. The number of social media user‟s is more than the population of some of the countries today. Impact of social media on marketing can be judged by comparing marketing before the social media and marketing after the introduction of social media and type of technologies used in social media
Destination Image and Events: A Structural Model for the Algarve Case

Algarve is Portugal's top tourism destination. In looking to develop the traditional sun and beach tourism, the Portuguese government launched the Allgarve program in 2007 with the aim of positioning the region as a premier tourism destination, promoting the cultural industry as a modern and competitive component of the regional economy. Using partial least squares modelling (PLS), the study explores the relationship between the image projected by Allgarve and the image of Algarve as a tourism destination. Results show that the program has had a positive and reasonably strong influence on the destination image. In terms of affective elements, findings show that these were not easily perceived by tourists, as anticipated by the Allgarve program. An important outcome of this study is to contribute towards better management of future editions of the Allgarve program.