Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Loss of detoxification in inflammatory bowel disease: dysregulation of pregnane X receptor target genes.

BACKGROUND & AIMS Phase 1, phase 2, and cellular efflux transporters are critical components in intestinal barrier function against xenobiotics and bacteria. We therefore performed global gene expression profiling in patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease as well as control specimens, with a special emphasis on genes involved in detoxification and epithelial membrane integrity. METHODS Mucosal biopsy specimens from nonaffected regions of the colon and the terminal ileum were subjected to DNA microarray analysis and pathway-related data mining. Real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction was used for verification of selected regulated candidate genes in larger inflammatory bowel disease sample numbers and intestinal cell lines. RESULTS Several dysregulated genes were identified in both disease groups and tissues. A set of genes coordinately down-regulated in the colon of patients with UC was composed of cellular detoxification and defense genes, which are target genes for the transcription factor pregnane X receptor (PXR). Messenger RNA expression of ABCB1 (MDR1) and PXR was significantly reduced in the colon of patients with UC but was unaffected in patients with Crohn's disease. In contrast to some of its target genes, the expression of PXR was not sensitive to tumor necrosis factor alpha stimulation of intestinal cell lines. CONCLUSIONS A disease- and tissue-specific decrease in the expression of detoxification enzymes and ABC transporters was observed, which may be explained by a loss of PXR expression. Thus, dysregulation of xenobiotic metabolism and PXR activity in the gut is likely to contribute to the pathophysiology of UC.
Hybrid Multi-Objective Optimization Models for Managing Pavement Assets

Increasingly tighter budgets, changes in government role/function, declines in staff resources, and demands for increased accountability in the transportation field have brought unprecedented challenges for state transportation officials at all management levels. Systematic methodologies for effective management of a specific type of infrastructure (e.g., pavement and bridges) as well as for holistically managing all types of infrastructure assets are being developed to approach these challenges. In particular, the intrinsic characteristics of highway system make the use of multi-objective optimization techniques particularly attractive for managing highway assets. Recognizing the need for effective tradeoff tools and the limitations of state-of-practice analytical models and tools in highway asset management, the main objective of this dissertation was to develop a performance-based asset management framework that uses multiobjective optimization techniques and consists of stand-alone but logically interconnected optimization models for different management levels. Based on a critical review of popular multi-objective optimization techniques and their applications in highway asset management, a synergistic integration of complementary multi-criteria optimization techniques is recommended for the development of practical and efficient decision-supporting tools. Accordingly, the dissertation first proposes and implements a probabilistic multi-objective model for performance-based pavement preservation programming that uses the weighting sum method and chance constraints. This model can handle multiple incommensurable and conflicting objectives while considering probabilistic constraints related to the available budget over the planning horizon, but is found more suitable to problems with small number of objective functions due to its computational intensity.
Analytical techniques for the study of polyphenol–protein interactions

ABSTRACT This mini review focuses on advances in biophysical techniques to study polyphenol interactions with proteins. Polyphenols have many beneficial pharmacological properties, as a result of which they have been the subject of intensive studies. The most conventional techniques described here can be divided into three groups: (i) methods used for screening (in-situ methods); (ii) methods used to gain insight into the mechanisms of polyphenol–protein interactions; and (iii) methods used to study protein aggregation and precipitation. All of these methods used to study polyphenol–protein interactions are based on modifications to the physicochemical properties of the polyphenols or proteins after binding/complex formation in solution. To date, numerous review articles have been published in the field of polyphenols. This review will give a brief insight in computational methods and biosensors and cell-based methods, spectroscopic methods including fluorescence emission, UV-vis adsorption, circular dichroism, Fourier transform infrared and mass spectrometry, nuclear magnetic resonance, X-ray diffraction, and light scattering techniques including small-angle X-ray scattering and small-angle neutron scattering, and calorimetric techniques (isothermal titration calorimetry and differential scanning calorimetry), microscopy, the techniques which have been successfully used for polyphenol–protein interactions. At the end the new methods based on single molecule detection with high potential to study polyphenol–protein interactions will be presented. The advantages and disadvantages of each technique will be discussed as well as the thermodynamic, kinetic or structural parameters, which can be obtained. The other relevant biophysical experimental techniques that have proven to be valuable, such electrochemical methods, hydrodynamic techniques and chromatographic techniques will not be described here.
The impact of the ISO 9000:2000 quality standards in small software firms

The aim of this study is to evaluate the current approach to quality‐management practices in the small‐firm software industry. In particular, the impact of the revised ISO 9000:2000 quality standard is explored with regard to this sector. The research methodology involves a multiple case‐study approach, guided by an initial exploratory survey, involving small software firms from Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland. The case approach includes semi‐structured interviews, organisational information, and archive data. In summary, the research findings indicate that the state of quality‐management practices in the software industry is very weak. However, there is a perception in the industry that effective quality‐management systems can play a key role in improving both operational and strategic business performance. Thus, there is a significant opportunity for improvement in the software industry and for the incidence of large‐scale project failure to be diminished.
55-kD Actin-bundling Protein (p55) Is a Specific Marker for Identifying Vascular Dendritic Cells

Compared with other members of the dendritic cell family, the antigen profile of the recently recognized vascular dendritic cells has received limited attention. This study demonstrates that vascular dendritic cells in the human aorta and carotid arteries express 55-kD actin-bundling protein (p55), a specific marker for blood dendritic cells and Langerhans cells. This finding will facilitate screening of dendritic cells during their isolation from the arterial wall, as well as other investigations.
Corporate citizenship: Panacea or problem?

=914518, accessed 14 March 2012. —— (2007b) ‘Doing Well by Doing Good—Case Study: “Fair & Lovely” Whitening Cream’, ssrn.com/abstract=958087, accessed 14 March 2012. —— (2007c) ‘Aneel Karnani: Corporate Social Irresponsibility’, Business Standard, www. business-standard.com/india/storypage.php? autono=276886, accessed 1 July 2010. Korhonen, J. (2002) ‘The Dominant Economics Paradigm and Corporate Social Responsibility’, Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management 9: 67-80. Kumar, N. (2000) ‘Multinational Enterprises and M&As in India: Patterns and Implications’, Economic and Political Weekly 35.5: 2851-58. Levy, S. (2000) ‘Antibacterial Household Products: Cause for Concern’, presentation at the Emerging Infectious Diseases Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, 16–19 July 2000 (www.cdc.gov/ ncidod/EID/vol7no3_supp/levy.htm, accessed 1 October 2010). Loman, B. (2006) Hindustan Lever’s Shakti-Project: Empowering Rural Indian Women (Master’s thesis Development Studies; Nijmegen, Netherlands: Radboud University Nijmegen, www.socsci. ru.nl/maw/cidin/bamaci/scriptiebestanden/563.pdf, accessed 14 March
Taxes, Benefits and Financial Incentives to Work: The United Kingdom, Germany and Poland Compared

We provide a detailed comparison of financial incentives to work resulting from the tax and benefit systems in three countries: the United Kingdom, Germany and Poland. Financial incentives to work are compared using a range of example family profiles under different assumptions concerning benefit eligibility, wage levels and work intensity. Consequences of the different design of taxes and benefits are discussed in detail from the perspective of attractiveness of employment.
Robust fault detection observer design for Takagi-Sugeno systems: A descriptor approach

In this paper, a robust fault detection observer is designed for a class of nonlinear systems described by T-S (Takagi-Sugeno) fuzzy model with sensor faults and unknown bounded disturbances. The method uses the technique of descriptor systems by considering sensor faults as an auxiliary state variables. The basic idea of our study is to formulate the robust fault detection observer design as a H-/H∞ problem. A solution of the considered problem is then given via a Linear Matrix Inequality (LMI) formulation. The considered robust fault detection observer design problem is solved with a given sufficient conditions based on an iterative LMI procedure.
Donor coordination in a fragile states of Africa: Capacity building for peace and poverty reduction

Fragile states (FS) are often neglected and categorized as “aid orphans”. In extreme circumstances, they are loaded with aid beyond their absorptive capacity. However, whether they receive little or too much, there is a compelling imperative to coordinate aid aimed at capacity development effectively. In an ever shrinking pot of funds from donors mainly due to the current global economic downturn, it is extremely important to coordinate and harmonise aid delivery. FS cannot afford to waste any money trapped under rubble of multi‐donor aid bureaucracy. Due to the multidimensional nature of fragility, we draw on case studies and interdisciplinary insights from Authority‐Legitimacy‐Capacity (ALC), Country Development Framework (CDF) and other models and frameworks of donor coordination. A number of asymmetries (e.g. technical, cultural and, financial) between donors and recipients need to be addressed. Donors can harmonise their respective Africa strategies reports and give priority to infrastructure instead of focusing exclusively on the social agenda as in the past. FS should fight the local culture of corruption, avoid fungibility, protect vulnerable groups in society, focus on reintegration as well as demobilizing ex‐combatants with employment provisions. Donors should not give mixed signals to recipients and need to be flexible in their operational procedures. Finally, we discuss the implications of key emerging issues that threaten or facilitate sustainable reconstruction, development and poverty reduction in post‐conflict environments.
Two new human T-lymphotropic virus type I phylogenetic subtypes in seroindeterminates, a Mbuti pygmy and a Gabonese, have closest relatives among African STLV-I strains.

Six new HTLV-I strains from seroindeterminate individuals were analyzed: four from Gabon, one from a Mbuti Efe pygmy in Congo (formerly Zaire), and one from a Congolese patient residing in Belgium. The LTR and env regions were sequenced and phylogenetic analyses were performed to characterize the new strains. Nucleotide divergence and phylogeny results showed that four of the new strains belong to the HTLV-Ib Central African subtype. The other two strains, one from the Efe pygmy and one from Gabon, lie on distinct branches of the LTR and env trees with respect to the four major HTLV-I subtypes. Despite the low bootstrap values, likelihood mapping analyses proved that these strains can be considered two new HTLV-I molecular subtypes, putatively named HTLV-Ie and HTLV-If. A relation exists in the phylogenetic trees and in the likelihood maps between the new subtypes and African STLV-I strains from Papio spp. and Cercopithecus spp. , suggesting one or more interspecies transmission events in the past. This study demonstrates that the phylogenetic subtyping of HTLV-I in the African continent is far from being completed and that samples presenting an indeterminate serology can potentially belong to new subtypes in humans. In addition, present day serological tests do not reliably type strains within the HTLV-Ib Central African subtype.
Tuning Phonon Transport: From Interfaces to Nanostructures

A wide range of modern technological devices utilize materials structured at the nanoscale to improve performance. The efficiencies of many of these devices depend on their thermal transport properties; whether a high or low conductivity is desirable, control over thermal transport is crucial to the continued development of device performance. Here we review recent experimental, computational, and theoretical studies that have highlighted potential methods for controlling phonon-mediated heat transfer. We discuss those parameters that affect thermal boundary conductance, such as interface morphology and material composition, as well as the emergent effects due to several interfaces in close proximity, as in a multilayered structure or superlattice. Furthermore, we explore future research directions as well as some of the challenges related to improving device thermal performance through the implementation of phonon engineering techniques. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4023584]
Schistosome-induced portacaval haemodynamic changes in Rattus rattus are associated with translocation of adult worms to the lungs

The presence of naturally portacaval shunts has been investigated in the vasculature of normal and Schistosoma mansoni-infected Rattus rattus. Using the technique of injecting Polystyrene microspheres in the superior mesenteric vein, we demonstrated that the presence of adult schistosomes in the lungs of R. rattus was not due to an innate anomaly of the rat vasculature but resulted from the formation of portacaval shunts during infection. In rats harbouring a bisexual infection, microspheres were only detected in the lungs from week 7. The development and increasing size of the shunts were maximal between weeks 7 and 10 and coincident with the translocation of adult worms from the portal tract to the lungs. At weeks 20–25, only 1–2% of the microspheres were recovered from the lungs, suggesting that the portacaval anastomoses have regressed due to reduction in portal hypertension after worm translocation. R. rattus with a male-only schistosome infection harboured adult worms in the lungs, indicating that the development of shunts does not solely depend upon egg deposition in the liver to generate hypertension. The relationships between the presence of the schistosomes in the lungs, the portacaval shunting and the resistance to reinfection is discussed.
Propensity of Indian Private Firms to Use Leverage and Growth as Tools to Enhance Control by Promoters

Indian private firms are predominantly family firms with management generally under firm control of individual promoters and their family members or associates. It may be educative to study the differences in firm characteristics of private firms vis a vis PSUs and foreign firms at one hand and within various groups of private firms on the other. Significant differences are expected among different group of non financial firms like top 50 business houses, large business houses, other business houses, stand alone private firms, PSUs and foreign firms. The study will give insight into functioning of these firms which has significant bearing on their corporate governance standards. It may also be interesting to find the instruments used by promoters to enhance their control. In addition to equity, the reliance can be on debt in a significant manner by private firms for enhancement of control. Another interesting aspect of study could be whether private firms tend to attach greater importance to growth rather than economic value which could be self-fulfilling at the cost of interest of minority shareholders. It could also be instructive to analyse whether value get locked or destroyed in business groups as they tend to undertake less profitable ventures merely to get presence or foothold in diverse businesses at the cost of overall economic value.
Price customization and within-chain data do not mix!

Purpose – Grocery retailers have access to detailed data on consumer purchases within their own chains. Previous research has used across-chain scanner panel data to develop optimal price cuts targeted to individual households but whether such a targeting strategy will work with only within-chain data is unknown. The purpose of this research is to address this specific question. Design/methodology/approach – The authors use scanner panel data from multiple categories to create across-chain and within-chain purchase histories for the same consumers. They then estimate models of purchase decisions on the two datasets and compare their performance. Findings – Within-chain data fares significantly worse on both fit and prediction criteria. Retailers' upside to customizing is minimal compared to those reported for manufacturers. Finally, customized prices based on the within-chain model significantly underperform the promise of across-chain data. Research limitations/implications – Store choice is not modelled.
The recovery language approach for software-implemented fault tolerance

We describe a novel approach for software-implemented fault tolerance that separates error detection from error recovery and offers a distinct programming and processing context for the latter. This allows the application developer to address separately the non-functional aspects of error recovery from those pertaining to the functional behaviour that the user application is supposed to have in the absence of faults. We conjecture that this way only a limited amount of non-functional code intrusion affects the user application, while the bulk of the strategy to cope with errors is to be expressed by the user in a "recovery script", conceptually as well physically distinct from the functional application layer. Such script is to be written in what we call a "recovery language", i.e. a specialised linguistic framework devoted to the management of the fault tolerance strategies that allows to express scenarios of isolation, reconfiguration, and recovery. These are to be executed on meta-entities of the application with physical or logical counterparts (processing nodes, tasks, or user-defined groups of tasks). The developer is therefore made able to modify the fault tolerance strategy with only a few or no modifications in the application part, or vice-versa, tackling more easily and effectively any of these two fronts. This can result in a better maintainability of the target fault-tolerant application and in support for reaching portability of the service while moving the application to different unfavourable environments. The paper positions and discusses the recovery language approach and a prototypal implementation for embedded applications developed within project TIRAN on a number of distributed platforms.
Investigating UK Consumers' Unethical Attitudes and Behaviours

The UK annually spends ? 450m on store security and crime prevention, which not only costs retailers, but also amounts to a hidden tax on those lawbinding consumers who bear higher retail prices. Little previous research has investigated how prevalent these misbehaviours are or the moral attitudes of consumers towards them. Despite the obvious implications for both buyers and sellers, most research has focused on the business ethics of the sellers or marketers. Using a hybrid of both qualitative and survey approaches (n = 240), this paper examines the structure and inter-relationship between consumers' ethical beliefs and aberrant behaviours. Many of the activities discovered were hidden frauds and the research developed an exploratory index of 50 unethical activities to assess the degree of UK consumers' aberrant behaviour. The most common were: 'taping a movie off the television', 'giving an unused car park ticket to a new user', 'receiving too much change and not saying anything', and 'lying about a child's age to get a price reduction'. Four main factors were found to have a significant influence in consumer's ethical decision making. These were: (1) the role played by the consumer; (2) the perceived illegality; (3) the perceived severity of consequence and a new factor, (4) the visibility of the behaviour. The paper argues that government, marketing practitioners and retailers should adopt pro-active rather than reactive measures to combat aberrant behaviour.
Factors Influencing Impulse Buying of Sports Team Merchandise in Developing Country: an Empirical Investigation

Impulse buying is an immediate urge to make a purchase. Sports enthusiast tends to engage in impulse buying when it comes to sports team merchandise. The paper attempts to investigate what factors lead to impulse buying of sports team merchandise. AMOS was used to compute the variables for Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), using the data collected from 288 young sports enthusiasts belonging to the age bracket of 18-26. The results strongly support the claim that shopping enjoyment is not directly related to impulse buying but has pathways that lead to it. The research empirically shows that sports enthusiasts do indulge in impulse buying where money availability, in store display/marketing efforts and fan identification are promoting factors to shopping enjoyment and thus causing impulse buying.
Average current control for aircraft applications

Five, single-phase H-bridge converters are used to interface variable-speed, permanent magnet generator into a common DC bus. To draw high quality current from the generator and provide constant DC voltage, a modified implementation of the average current control technique is proposed. A phase shift circuit was added to the average current control to allow system operation at different load and speed conditions. The proposed technique has a significantly faster dynamic performance. The analysis was validated using rigorous simulation.