Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Interleukin-8 gene regulation in intestinal epithelial cells infected with rotavirus: role of viral-induced IkappaB kinase activation.

Rotavirus is the major etiologic agent of diarrhea in children and the most common cause of severe pediatric gastroenteritis. Rotavirus infection is limited to mature enterocytes that line the villi of the small intestine. Gut epithelial cells, upon infection and cytokine stimulation, are able to produce chemokines, a family of small chemotactic cytokines that regulate the migration and activation of leukocytes. We have previously shown that rotavirus infection of the intestinal epithelial cell line HT-29 induces increased expression of the CXC chemokine interleukin- (IL) 8. Mechanisms responsible for the transcriptional regulation of the IL-8 gene in intestinal epithelial cells during viral infections have not been fully elucidated. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to define the molecular mechanisms of IL-8 gene expression in HT-29 cells infected with rotavirus. Transient transfection analysis of 5' deletions and mutations of the IL-8 promoter driving expression of luciferase reporter gene indicates that the activating protein- (AP) 1 and nuclear factor- (NF) kappaB elements are necessary for IL-8 promoter activation during rotavirus infection. The importance of NF-kappaB activation for IL-8 gene expression was further demonstrated by the inhibition of rotavirus-induced IL-8 gene transcription and protein synthesis following blockade of degradation of the NF-kappaB cytoplasmic inhibitor IkappaB-alpha. Rotavirus infection of HT-29-induced IkappaB kinase (IKK) activation and overexpression of a dominant negative mutant of IKK-beta greatly reduced rotavirus-induced IL-8 promoter activation and NF-kappaB-driven transcription, indicating that IKK is involved in rotavirus-induced IL-8 gene expression and NF-kappaB activation.
Launching Emerging Technologies to Create New Markets

Examines potential industrial buyers of a product based on emerging technology, PACS (picture archiving and communication system), a new image management system which stores and retrieves digitized radiology images. Using multiple case sites of buyers, identifies buyer characteristics which may contribute strategic advantages to pioneer supplier firms during the early stages of commercialization and early formation of buyer‐seller relationships. Identifies four pre‐conditions of high‐potential buyers in this emerging industry and proposes additional concepts to understand and manage the formation of buyer‐seller relationships early in the commercialization of a technological innovation.
Determination of Electron Optical Properties for Aperture Zoom Lenses Using an Artificial Neural Network Method

Abstract Multi-element electrostatic aperture lens systems are widely used to control electron or charged particle beams in many scientific instruments. By means of applied voltages, these lens systems can be operated for different purposes. In this context, numerous methods have been performed to calculate focal properties of these lenses. In this study, an artificial neural network (ANN) classification method is utilized to determine the focused/unfocused charged particle beam in the image point as a function of lens voltages for multi-element electrostatic aperture lenses. A data set for training and testing of ANN is taken from the SIMION 8.1 simulation program, which is a well known and proven accuracy program in charged particle optics. Mean squared error results of this study indicate that the ANN classification method provides notable performance characteristics for electrostatic aperture zoom lenses.
Murine Retrovirally‐Transduced Bone Marrow Engraftment Models of MLL‐Fusion‐Driven Acute Myelogenous Leukemias (AML)

MLL‐rearranged leukemia represents approximately 5% to 10% of adult acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) and nearly half of all infant/pediatric acute leukemia cases. These leukemias have a poor prognosis, and there are no approved therapeutic options. The rearrangement in the MLL gene leads to aberrant expression of MLL‐fusion proteins. These are transforming in murine bone marrow and, in particular, on stem cells and myeloid progenitors derived from bone marrow or fetal liver. The commonality of the MLL fusions is the in‐frame fusion of 8 to 11 N‐terminal exons of MLL1 (KMT2a) with the C‐terminus of a partner fusion gene. Currently, over 80 different fusion partners are known. The protocols detailed in this unit focus on bone marrow–derived models only, using one particular MLL fusion, MLL‐AF9. These models have proven effective for drug screening to predict clinical response. © 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Uncovering the links between brand choice and personal values among young consumers in Spain and the UK

This PhD thesis presents an exploratory study examining how successfully the meansend chain model can be applied to 11-12 year old British and Spanish girls, and whether a clear association exists between their personal values and the snacks and clothing brands they choose. This study draws on the subjective-interpretive epistemology, and takes a qualitative, depth interview approach. The author uses the laddering technique to build a mental map ofbenefits offered by different brands, and the personal values that these brands in some way satisfy The author's study makes a methodological contribution to knowledge. Her findings reveal that the means-end chain model can be successfully applied to the 11-12 year old respondents, and that there is a clear association between their personal values and the snacks and clothing brands they select. This study also makes a theoretical contribution to knowledge, revealing the types of personal values satisfied by snacks and clothing brands for these young consumers. All the personal values elicited are inner-directed or outer/other-directed. A trusted brand name, while not always important, often generates reassurance, can increase self-esteem and lead to a deepened sense ofbelonging among the peer group. High levels of involvement can be demonstrated for both sets ofrespondents in both product categories; clothing, in particular, helps the girls define their identities. The author's findings are relevant to both marketing managers and to public policymakers interested in children's health and welfare: respondents feel tremendous pressure to fit in with their peer group, fear social exclusion, and use snacks and clothing products to help them achieve a sense ofbe1onging. The author recommends additional research should be carried out with boys, with different age groups, with different nationalities and with different product categories to further enrich the body ofknowledge relating to children's personal values.
CORPORATE GOVERNANCE, INFORMATION ASYMMETRY, AND EARNINGS MANAGEMENT

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between corporate governance, information asymmetry, and earnings management. Prior research indicates that information asymmetry negatively correlated with earnings management (Richardson, 2001). As predicted, this study also found negative correlation between bid-ask spread, as a proxy of information asymmetry, and discretionary accruals, as a proxy of earnings management. In addition, we also test whether corporate governance mechanisms will impact the level of discretionary accruals and eventually affect firm value. We use several variables as proxies of corporate governance mechanisms such as institutional ownership, audit quality, independent board, and existence of audit committee. We found that audit committee has significant negative relation with discretionary accruals. This indicates that audit committee existence is effectively constraining the level of earnings management. This study also has that proportion of independent board and existence of audit committee increase the positive relationship between discretionary accruals and stock return. These indicates that earnings management conducted by firms having higher proportion of independent board and firms having audit committee will be valued higher by the market.
Ultrasensitive NO2 Gas Sensor Based on Epitaxial Graphene

We report about technology of fabrication and optimization of a gas sensor based on epitaxial graphene. Optimized graphene/metal contact configuration exhibited low contact resistance. Complementary annealing of graphene sensor after each gas exposure led to significant improvement in the sensing performance. The response of the annealed sensor to the nitrogen dioxide (NO2) was tenfold higher than that of an as-fabricated graphene sensor. NO2 concentration as low as 0.2 parts per billion (ppb) was easily detectable. Devices have high signal-to-noise ratio. The detection limit of the graphene sensor was estimated to be 0.6 ppt (parts per trillion). The present technology with additional annealing improves the performance of the graphene based sensor and makes it suitable for the environmental nitrogen dioxide gas monitoring.
Developmental dyscalculia: a brief report on four cases

SYNOPSIS Four patients with ‘developmental dyscalculia’ are described who were initially identified on the basis of clinical tests, reports of longstanding and severe difficulties in arithmetic, and psychological test results. Descriptive psychological testing indicated (1) that the arithmetical deficits could not be accounted for on the basis of a generally low level of intellectual functioning; (2) that of the four basic arithmetical processes that of multiplication was relatively more deficient; (3) that this relative deficiency in multiplication stemmed from a faulty grasp of basic multiplication tables; that this was a real difficulty, experienced subjectively by the patient, and one that could not be accounted for simply by carelessness; and finally, that the degree of difficulty experienced varied with the multiplication table involved. Two kinds of attempt were made to improve arithmetical functioning. The first involved brief remedial coaching programmes directed at the basic multiplication tables: relatively little success was obtained with this method. The second kind of attempt involved methods of bypassing the necessity for learning multiplication tables: some success was obtained with these methods. The discussion concentrates on some of the features which may provide possibly useful cues for identifying ‘developmental dyscalculia’: these are classified in terms of: (1) pattern of deficit displayed; (2) qualitative features of arithmetical performance; and (3) response to remedial teaching. Some suggestions are made concerning further lines of investigation.
Vaccine-Induced Protection against Helicobacter pylori in Mice Lacking Both Antibodies and Interleukin-4

ABSTRACT To test the hypothesis that a Th2 response to Helicobacter pylori is necessary for protection and to address the possibility that humoral and Th2 cellular responses may compensate for each other, we generated mice deficient in both interleukin-4 (IL-4) and antibodies. The immunized double-knockout mice were protected from H. pylori challenge, as were the parental strains and wild-type C57BL/6 mice. Neutralization of IL-4 in B-cell-deficient mice did not prevent protection. Immunized IL-5-deficient mice were also protected. Thus, IL-4 and IL-5 are not essential for protection.
Simulation and Visualization of a large scale Real Time Multi-Robot system

This paper describes the software implementation and the visualization aspects of an interaction-communication protocol within a large scalable multi-robot system. It investigates the current communication protocols within multi-agent systems and the feasibility to transfer them into a virtual environment system that performs a speci-ﬁed task intelligently, embedding human capability into the control system software. The proposed system allows dynamic changes, i.e. the user may be able to continuously issue commands, or modify tasks. The work presented exploits the Virtual Environment Centre VEC. The semi-immersive full scale environment within the VEC allows the user to better understand the robots’ behaviour and in turn test whether they simulate the expected behaviour. The use of a semi-immersive full-scale environment also gives an increased level of presence enabling the user to believe they are within their own simulation. It also presents a prototype for a robot automatic ﬁre extinguishing system as a test application area.
Transferring Rhineland capitalism to the Polish‐German border

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to look at the past development and potential of the Rhenish capitalist governance “model”. The origins and nature of the model are to be discussed. The aim is to focus on its specific role within the transformation processes of Central‐Eastern European economies. East‐Central Europe is where, it is contended, Rhineland capitalism's future will be decided.Design/methodology/approach – Using a survey questionnaire, customers' perceptions of bank governance and practice in the Polish‐German city of Zgorzelec‐Gorlitz are explored. The experience of Dresdner Bank is stressed and the fact that the local people not long before lived under a Socialist regime. A control group in London is used to ascertain the presence of German management traditions as opposed to Anglo‐American approaches to management in the context of retail bank markets. In total there were 210 participants in the survey (all equally divided between the three cities). Findings – German and Polish responde.
Resilience does not explain the dissociation between chronic pain and physical activity in South Africans living with HIV

Pain burden is high in people living with HIV (PLWH), but the effect of this pain on functionality is equivocal. Resilience, the ability to cope with adversity, may promote adaptation to pain, so we hypothesised that higher resilience would correlate with less pain-related impairment of activity. We recruited 197 black South African PLWH, 99 with chronic pain (CP) and 98 patients without. We measured pain intensity and interference using the Brief Pain Inventory, and resilience using the Resilience Scale. Participants were generally highly resilient. Greater resilience correlated with better health-related quality of life, but not with pain intensity or interference. We also measured physical activity objectively, by actigraphy, in a subset of patients (37 with chronic pain and 31 without chronic pain), who wore accelerometers for two weeks. There was no difference in duration or intensity of activity between those with and without pain, and activity was not associated with resilience. In this sample, pain was not associated with altered physical activity. Resilience did not explain differences in pain intensity or pain interference but was associated with improved quality of life. Financial stresses and the fear of HIV stigma may have driven patients to conceal pain and to suppress its expected impairment of activity.
Performance Comparison of Interconnect Technology and Architecture Options for Deep Submicron Technology Nodes

Several technological and architectural solutions have been proposed to solve the "interconnect performance bottleneck", such as the use of on-chip transmission lines, carbon-nanotube (CNT) interconnects, wafer-level package (WLP) interconnects, 3D interconnects, RF and microwave interconnects and optical interconnects. It is essential to accurately estimate the interconnect performance and power gains achievable by these options and to understand the various trade-offs involved between the different metrics of interest. In this paper, an exhaustive comparison in terms of representative performance, energy and density metrics has been carried out among the different options for global interconnects. This analysis shows that 3D interconnects offer an attractive option to reduce the energy dissipation and propagation delay of long on-chip wires (51% and 54% reduction in latency and energy dissipation respectively at 45nm node). This analysis also shows that optical interconnects offer reduced latency compared to scaled Cu/low-k technologies but they do not offer significant improvement compared to other technologies like WLP interconnects (Beyne, 2003). It also follows from the analysis that CNT interconnects compare favorably to scaled Cu/low-k interconnects in terms of latency with a 42% reduction in delay
STOCK RETURN VOLATILITY AND COINTEGRATION OF U.S. ANDASIAN MARKETS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE FINANCIAL CRISIS(1997-2014)

Nature of the stock return is one of the important aspect for investor in making their decision to invest theirn money. The nature of stock could be examined by using three variables, consist of volatility, risk premium, and information asymmetry.This research will used E-GARCH and ARCH-M models, using the data from five counties whichi consist of U.S., Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, and Hong Kong. These data was taken from 1st July 1997-30th June 2014 which consist of eight periods of global economic events Periods. This research was conducted with seceral objectives, they are: (1) To analyze the effect of global economic conditions to stock return. (2) To investigate the effect of global economic conditions to risk premium. (3) To examine the impact of good nor bad news (asymmetric information) effect to the volatility of stock. (4)To analyze the co-integration between US market and four Asian markets during the global economic events (financial crisis).
The Canadian junior IPO market and the Capital Pool Company program

The Handbook of Research on IPOs provides a comprehensive review of the emerging trends and directions in the global initial public offerings (IPO) markets. The empirical evidence included in the book covers Europe, the US and the Far East, and presents a truly global perspective of IPO markets around the world and at the different stages of the entire IPO process.
Receptor protein complexes are in control of autophagy

In autophagic processes a variety of cargos is delivered to the degradative compartment of cells. Recent progress in autophagy research has provided support for the notion that when autophagic processes are operating in selective mode, a receptor protein complex will process the cargo. Here we present a concept of receptor protein complexes as comprising a functional tetrad of components: a ligand, a receptor, a scaffold and an Atg8 family protein. Our current understanding of each of the four components and their interaction in the context of cargo selection are considered in turn.
Designing an Interface for Citizen Science Platforms Ensuring a Good User Experience

The engagement of volunteers on Citizen Science platforms can considerably be influenced by an intuitive and motivating user interface. This thesis elaborates on a design approach for collaborative Citizen Science platforms that involve their contributors during multiple stages of the scientific research process. The approach provides design concepts, which ensure a good user experience and therefore support a modern science process carried out by professional scientists and lay people. Based on the Citizen Science platform ARTizen, which provides a framework for a collaborative data analysis of art history, an implementation demonstrates the feasibility of the design approach.
Depression and neuropsychological performance in asymptomatic HIV infection.

OBJECTIVE The authors examined the effect of depression on neuropsychological performance in HIV-infected men. Previous studies have suggested that depression may account for the neuropsychological abnormalities observed in some patients with HIV infection, but few studies have specifically examined this question. METHOD An extensive neuropsychological test battery was administered to 121 HIV-seropositive asymptomatic men and 42 HIV-seronegative comparison subjects. The seropositive subjects were grouped into depressed and non-depressed groups on the basis of scores on the Beck Depression Inventory, Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression, and Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R. RESULTS Statistical comparisons revealed very few measures on which the depressed seropositive subjects scored significantly worse than either of the nondepressed comparison groups. The nondepressed seropositive group differed consistently from the seronegative comparison subjects on measures of verbal memory and dexterity. CONCLUSIONS These data indicate that the subtle neuropsychological abnormalities observed in some asymptomatic HIV-seropositive subjects cannot be attributed to depression. These data also indicate the advantages of a multifaceted approach to assessment of depression.
A new implementation of the numerical manifold method(NMM) for the modeling of non-collinear and intersectingcracks

The numerical manifold method (NMM), based on the finite covers, unifies the continuum analyses and discontinuum analyses without changing a predefined mathematical mesh of the uncracked solid, and has the advantages of being concise in theory as well as being clear in concept. It provides a natural method to analyze complex shaped strong discontinuities as well as weak discontinuities such as multiple cracks, intersecting cracks, and branched cracks. However, the absence of an effective algorithm for cover generation, to date, is still a bottle neck in the research and application in the NMM. To address this issue, a new method for the generation of the finite covers in the NMM is proposed, for the modeling of cracks. In the present algorithm for cover generation, the physical lines such as joints and cracks are described by geometric functions, the mathematical cover is naturally partitioned into different regions by the physical lines, and the regions belonging to a same physical cover, which contains the end points of the physical lines are identified by a simple calculation of the function values of the physical lines. The present method is simple and robust, and is also very fast because it avoids the usage of the complex geometrical algorithms, and the time-consuming judgment of the point-polygon relations, which are commonly used in the previous literature. Several linear elastic fracture problems are analysed here, to demonstrate the validity and the robustness of the proposed algorithms.
Regulation of striatal astrocytic receptor for advanced glycation end‐products variants in an early stage of experimental Parkinson's disease

Convincing evidence indicates that advanced glycation end‐products and danger‐associated protein S100B play a role in Parkinson's disease (PD). These agents operate through the receptor for advanced glycation end‐products (RAGE), which displays distinct isoforms playing protective/deleterious effects. However, the nature of RAGE variants has been overlooked in PD studies. Hence, we attempted to characterize RAGE regulation in early stages of PD striatal pathology. A neurotoxin‐based rodent model of PD was used in this study, through administration of 1‐methyl‐4‐phenyl‐1,2,3,6‐tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) to C57BL/6 mice. Animals were killed 6 h post‐MPTP to assess S100B/RAGE contents (RT‐qPCR, ELISA) and RAGE isoform density (WB) and cellular distribution (immunohistochemistry). Dopaminergic and gliotic status were also mapped (HPLC‐ED, WB, immunohistochemistry). At this preliminary stage of MPTP‐induced PD in mice, RAGE inhibitory isoforms were increased whereas full‐length RAGE was not affected. This putative cytoprotective RAGE phenotype paired an inflammatory and pro‐oxidant setting fueling DAergic denervation. Increased RAGE inhibitory variants occur in astrocytes showing higher S100B density but no overt signs of hypertrophy or NF‐κB activation, a canonical effector of RAGE. These findings expand our understanding of the toxic effect of MPTP on striatum and offer first in vivo evidence of RAGE being a responder in early stages of astrogliosis dynamics, supporting a protective rather tissue‐destructive phenotype of RAGE in the initial phase of PD degeneration. These data lay the groundwork for future studies on the relevance of astrocytic RAGE in DAergic neuroprotection strategies.