Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Toll‐like receptor‐mediated inhibition of Gas6 and ProS expression facilitates inflammatory cytokine production in mouse macrophages

Activation of Toll‐like receptors (TLRs) triggers rapid inflammatory cytokine production in various cell types. The exogenous product of growth‐arrest‐specific gene 6 (Gas6) and Protein S (ProS) inhibit the TLR‐triggered inflammatory responses through the activation of Tyro3, Axl and Mer (TAM) receptors. However, regulation of the Gas6/ProS‐TAM system remains largely unknown. In the current study, mouse macrophages are shown to constitutively express Gas6 and ProS, which synergistically suppress the basal and TLR‐triggered production of inflammatory cytokines, including those of tumour necrosis factor‐α, interleukin‐6 and interleukin‐1β, by the macrophages in an autocrine manner. Notably, TLR signalling markedly decreases Gas6 and ProS expression in macrophages through the activation of the nuclear factor‐κB. Further, the down‐regulation of Gas6 and ProS by TLR signalling facilitates the TLR‐mediated inflammatory cytokine production in mouse macrophages. These results describe a self‐regulatory mechanism of TLR signalling through the suppression of Gas6 and ProS expression.
HIV-1 neutralizing activity is correlated with increased levels of chemokines in saliva of HIV-1-exposed uninfected individuals.

AIM Mucosal HIV-1 exposure stimulates a variety of mucosal immune responses, including IgA1-mediated virus neutralization, even in the absence of an established infection. We hypothesized that other immune molecules might also contribute to the HIV-1 neutralizing activity observed in the mucosal secretions of HIV-1 exposed uninfected individuals. METHODS Saliva samples were collected from HIV-1 seronegative high-risk female sex workers (FSW) from Nairobi. Samples were also collected from HIV-1 IgG positive FSW and HIV-1 IgG negative low-risk women from the same geographical area. In all samples, IgA2, secretory leukocyte protease inhibitor (SLPI), regulated on activation, normal T-cell expressed and secreted (RANTES), macrophage inflammatory protein 1 alpha and beta (MIP-1alpha and -beta) and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) were quantified. The IgA1-depleted saliva samples were subsequently tested for neutralizing capacity in a PBMC-based neutralization assay using a primary HIV-1 clade A isolate to determine biological relevance of the measured molecules. RESULTS HIV-1 specific neutralization was present in the IgA1-depleted fraction from saliva of both HIV-1 seropositive (9 of 10) and high-risk individuals (36 of 45) but not in HIV-1 IgG-negative control subjects (0 of 8). In the high-risk individuals, higher levels of CC-chemokines were seen in those that could neutralize HIV-1 as compared with those that could not (P<0.05). CONCLUSION The HIV-1 neutralizing activity in saliva of HIV-1-exposed high-risk individuals is not only mediated by IgA1, but is also present in IgA1-depleted fractions and is associated with increased levels of CC-chemokines. Such innate immune factors may be important in limiting HIV-1 mucosal transmission.
The Security Measures of WSN Networks by Avoiding Message Replay Attacks

The challenges area of Ad Hoc networks is attributable to their lack of established infrastructure, requirement for redistributed management, dynamic topology, and wireless channel characteristics. We have a tendency to study the performance of IEEE 802.15 MAC protocol below varied conditions such as using Power control method and other techniques that improve better than of other Ad Hoc networks. To satisfy these needs a WSN networks is used to supports adaptively and improvement across layers of the protocol is needed. The WSN network improves better than other Ad Hoc networks types because in WSN the data only transferred when the both (sender /receiver) satisfied otherwise they kept on sleeping mode. The major challenge of this paper is to avoid the attacks because WSN continuously performed better than other technologies. The attack that is classified in the section 3; from these attack classification we analyze that the Message Replay attack is one of the more powerful attack that continuously touch with destination node and destination node assumes that the packets was received soon but an malicious node can’t transferred the packets to the destination node. So in this stage message dropping start and the performance of the entire network goes down. We implement the secret key methodology in the network scenario so that each node communicates to other node only when if they having a secret key otherwise communication could not occurred. From the results studied it was observed that we improve the performances of WSN and avoided the Message replay attacks.
The role of religious and spiritual beliefs in coping with malignant melanoma

This study investigated the role of spiritual and religious beliefs in ambulatory patients coping with malignant melanoma. One‐hundred and seventeen patients with melanoma being seen in an outpatient clinic completed a battery of measurements including the newly validated Systems of Belief Inventory (SBI‐54). No correlation was found between SBI‐54 scores and levels of distress. However, there was a correlation between greater reliance on spiritual and religious beliefs and use of an active–cognitive coping style (r=0.46, p<0.0001). Data suggest that use of religious and spiritual beliefs is associated with an active rather than passive form of coping. We suggest that such beliefs provide a helpful active–cognitive framework for many individuals from which to face the existential crises of life‐threatening illness. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
General Tests of Latent Variable Models and Mean-Variance Spanning

The methods of Michael R. Gibbons and Wayne Ferson (1985) are extended, relaxing the assumption that expected returns are linear functions of predetermined instruments. A model of conditional mean-variance spanning generalizes G. Huberman and S. Kandel (1987). The empirical results indicate that more than a single risk premium is needed to model expected stock and bond returns, but the number of common factors in the expected returns is small. However, when size-based common stock portfolios proxy for the risk factors, the authors reject the hypothesis that four of them describe the conditional expected returns of the other assets. Copyright 1993 by American Finance Association.
Consumer rationality assumptions in the real-time pricing of electricity

Dynamic tariffs such as RTP (real-time pricing) and day-ahead pricing function as load management tools because they interact with consumer behaviour. Hence analytical models for an electricity supply system with RTP would need to incorporate behavioural models for consumers. These models have to be logically and mathematically consistent and empirically meaningful. The model developed by the authors relies on the concepts of demand elasticity across time, degree of consumer economic rationality and, on the supply side, on the price formation model. The authors explore a range of assumptions in respect of these matters. < >
The Economics of Defense

This compelling book provides an up-to-date survey of the field of defense economics, the study of defense and peace issues, with the application of economic analysis and methods. The subject embraces both microeconomics and macroeconomics, taking into account such features as growth theory, comparative statistics, game theory and econometrics. A wide range of topics are addressed, including all aspects of the economics of defense, disarmament, conversion and peace. The implications of different organizational forms and their performances are examined, considering the efficient management of defense resources budgets and internal markets in the armed forces. In this groundbreaking volume, Sandler and Hartley synthesize and unify the vast literature on defense economics and peace science.
Familial Networks and Regional Entrepreneurs in Northeast Mississippi's Upholstered Furniture Industry

Using a sample of 75 owners, we examine the role of familial networks in the establishment and proliferation of the upholstered furniture industry in Northeast Mississippi. Our data show that strong familial and associational ties are linked to the original furniture plant and its owner–approximately 70 percent of our sample. Owners have used these strong-ties typical of rural regions to facilitate a regional development outcome where owners do not see each other as competitors, but they share in knowledge resources. There is a general feeling that, "There is plenty to go around, just let me get my fair share. " When local competition represents one's friends and/or family, competition moves to a more distant, less intimate focus thus facilitating even more local entrepreneurial opportunities.
Yield spreads on EMU government bonds

Government bond spreads We provide evidence that the movements in yield differentials between euro zone government bonds explained by changes in international risk factors – as measured by banking and corporate risk premiums in the United States – are more pronounced for bonds issued by Italy and Spain. Liquidity factors play a smaller role, so policies meant to increase financial market efficiency do not appear sufficient to deliver a ‘seamless’ bond market in the euro area. The risk of default is a small but important component of yield differentials movements, which signal market perceptions of fiscal vulnerability, impose market discipline on national fiscal policies, and may be reduced only by further convergence in debt ratios. — Lorenzo Codogno, Carlo Favero and Alessandro Missale
Abstract–An Empirical Investigation of the Corporate Debt Maturity Structure

This paper develops a hypothesis regarding the factors which influence the average maturity of corporate debt, and the hypothesis is tested with a cross-sectional sample of large industrial firms. The sample consists of 159 companies from the Fortune 500 list of the largest industrial firms as of 1971. A linear regression model is developed with the firm's average debt maturity expressed as a function of the firm's asset maturity, size, variability of income, growth, and the proportion of debt in the firm's capital structure.
Slotting Allowances and the Market for New Products1

Slotting allowances are fixed fees paid to retailers by manufacturers in return for stocking new products on a trial basis. While slotting allowances emerged over 10 years ago, there is still no consensus on what purpose the fees serve. This article shows that slotting allowances are consistent with competitive behavior and could have been caused by an increase in the supply of products. A consumer search cost model predicts that when an increase in the supply of products is not accompanied by an increase in sales per store, the equilibrium slotting allowance will increase. The implications of the model are supported by trends in new‐product activity, sales per store, and prices in the grocery industry. Anticompetitive explanations for slotting allowances are refuted by the trends in retailer and manufacturer profits and prices.
The Party and the Unions in Communist China

A Communist party is not a mass party. It is rather, by its own definition, a party of elites, the most advanced members of a single class. The Communist Party in China is proportionally the smallest of all ruling Communist parties, never having comprised as much as three per cent. of the population. Such a small leadership group, lacking the direct involvement of the masses in its membership, must rely on other organs to engage the bulk of the population on its behalf. These are the mass organizations. Operating through these mass organizations, the Party maintains leadership and control over the various sectors of society; at the same time, the organizations, staffed by Party members, educate the masses in communism and provide grass roots listening posts which help the Party to maintain its legitimacy.
Evidence of market inefficiency in a war environment

This paper examines the UK FT30 stock index during the Second World War period 1939–1945 for weak form efficiency, showing that there is substantial structure in the data, albeit in two distinct subsets. Fitting a GARCH (p, q) model to each data subset yields R -2 values of around 19%; clear evidence that the data do not follow a random walk. The weak-form efficiency hypothesis is therefore rejected.
A DoS Detection Method Based on Composition Self-Similarity

Based on the theory of local-world network, the composition self-similarity (CSS) of network traffic is presented for the first time in this paper for the study of DoS detection. We propose the concept of composition distribution graph and design the relative operations. The (R/S)d algorithm is designed for calculating the Hurst parameter. Based on composition distribution graph and Kullback Leibler (KL) divergence, we propose the composition self-similarity anomaly detection (CSSD) method for the detection of DoS attacks. We evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed method. Compared to other entropy based anomaly detection methods, our method is more accurate and with higher sensitivity in the detection of DoS attacks.
Second-generation antipsychotics: reviewing the cost–effectiveness component of the CATIE trial

The cost–effectiveness component of the 18-month CATIE trial of schizophrenia pharmacotherapy (n = 1460) showed that the first-generation antipsychotic perphenazine was US$300–600 per month less expensive than each of four second-generation antipsychotics, and no less effective across multiple measures. We consider whether or not each of eight potential methodological limitations could weaken this conclusion: follow-up rates, study duration, sample characteristics, the choice of outcome measures, exclusion of patients with tardive dyskinesia from assignment to perphenazine, choice of study drugs and doses, reliance on intention-to-treat analysis, and differences in prestudy treatment. We conclude that results of CATIE are robust to these limitations. Perphenazine seems to have been a more representative choice for first-generation antipsychotic comparison treatment than haloperidol.
Debt and Equity Market Reaction to Employment Reports

Several researchers have recently shown an interaction between macroeconomic variables and stock returns. Most of these studies have concentrated on interest rates and inflation. These and other variables, of course, have an influence on the debt markets as well. Other variables that can influence the debt and equity markets include employment information. On the first Friday of each month the government releases its employment report for the previous month. Strong growth in employment generally bodes well for economic output and growth in the economy. Any inflation and interest rate implications of a strong employment report will ultimately be reflected in bond and stock prices. It is generally observed that if payroll employment growth is moderately strong prices in the bond market drop while prices in the stock market rise. The empirical evidence presented supports these observations. This study documents the reaction of the bond and the stock markets in response to the employment reports. As the unemployment rate tends to rise so do the bond and the stock markets.
A 8.1/5.4/2.7/1.62 Gb/s receiver for DisplayPort Version 1.3 with automatic bit-rate tracking scheme

In this paper, a wide range and low power multi-rate receiver for DisplayPort Version 1.3 is proposed. In order to extend the bandwidth, a high speed AC coupled interconnect receiver comprising output compensated negative impedance and positive feedback techniques is introduced. Furthermore, the automatic bit-rate tracking scheme is used for clock and data recovery (CDR) to achieve wide data rate range. Besides, this wide range CDR is realized by omitting the power-hungry divider. Thus, the required area and the corresponding power consumption can be substantially reduced. Designed and fabricated in 90nm CMOS technology, this test chip occupies 0.23 mm2 and consumes 90 mW. The measured root-mean-square jitter is 5.52/3.15/2.96/3.6 psrms with the data rates of 8.1/5.4/2.7/1.62 Gb/s, respectively. The bit error rate (BER) for all data rate is less than 10-12 for 27-1 pseudo random binary sequences (PRBS).
A wavelength-selective switch based on microring resonators and Mach-Zehnder interferometer switches

A wavelength-selective switch composed of microring resonators (MRRs) and Mach-Zehnder interferometer thermo-optic switches is demonstrated with an output on/off ratio of 9.7 dB for a selected wavelength channel. The degradation of the transmittance of WSS is addressed due to the difference in resonant wavelength between MRRs coupled to input and output bus lines.
PAGER 2.0: an update to the pathway, annotated-list and gene-signature electronic repository for Human Network Biology

Abstract Integrative Gene-set, Network and Pathway Analysis (GNPA) is a powerful data analysis approach developed to help interpret high-throughput omics data. In PAGER 1.0, we demonstrated that researchers can gain unbiased and reproducible biological insights with the introduction of PAGs (Pathways, Annotated-lists and Gene-signatures) as the basic data representation elements. In PAGER 2.0, we improve the utility of integrative GNPA by significantly expanding the coverage of PAGs and PAG-to-PAG relationships in the database, defining a new metric to quantify PAG data qualities, and developing new software features to simplify online integrative GNPA. Specifically, we included 84 282 PAGs spanning 24 different data sources that cover human diseases, published gene-expression signatures, drug–gene, miRNA–gene interactions, pathways and tissue-specific gene expressions. We introduced a new normalized Cohesion Coefficient (nCoCo) score to assess the biological relevance of genes inside a PAG, and RP-score to rank genes and assign gene-specific weights inside a PAG. The companion web interface contains numerous features to help users query and navigate the database content. The database content can be freely downloaded and is compatible with third-party Gene Set Enrichment Analysis tools. We expect PAGER 2.0 to become a major resource in integrative GNPA. PAGER 2.0 is available at http://discovery.informatics. uab.edu/PAGER/.
Preformed Donor-Specific Antibodies and Risk of Antibody-Mediated Rejection in Repeat Renal Transplantation

Background Allograft outcomes in patients undergoing repeat renal transplantation are inferior compared to first-time transplant recipient outcomes. Donor-specific antibodies detected by solid-phase assays (DSA-SPA) may contribute to the worse prognosis. The influence of DSA-SPA on repeat renal transplantation outcomes has not been previously studied in detail. Design This study reports the findings in 174 patients who underwent repeat renal transplantation between years 2007 and 2012. These included 62 patients with preformed DSA-SPA detected by Luminex at the time of transplantation. Patients received standard and consistent immunosuppression and were monitored closely for evidence of rejection. Recipients who underwent desensitization were excluded from this analysis. Endpoints included development of biopsy-proven acute rejection and analysis of graft survival and function. Results Patients in the DSA-SPA-positive and DSA-SPA-negative groups received similar immunosuppression, and a similar proportion of recipients had a peak panel reactive antibody greater than 20%; the two groups differed with respect to human leukocyte antigen mismatches (4.7±1.1 vs. 4.1±1.7, P=0.024). Recipients with preformed DSA-SPA had higher rejection rates (54.8% vs. 34.8%, P=0.01), including higher rates of antibody-mediated rejection (AMR) (32.3% vs. 7.1%, P<0.001). Recipients who were DSA-SPA-positive and flow cytometry crossmatch (FCXM)-positive had a higher incidence of both AMR (OR 4.6, P=0.009) and of acute rejection (OR 3.57, P=0.02) as compared to those who were DSA-SPA-positive and FCXM-negative. Overall allograft survival was similar in the DSA-SPA-positive and DSA-SPA-negative groups (log-rank test=0.63, P=0.428). Differences in allograft function were detectable after 2 years (32.8±13.1 vs. 47±20.2 mL/min/1.73 m2, P=0.023) and may be reflective of more AMR among DSA-SPA-positive patients. Conclusions This analysis suggests that DSA-SPA increases the overall risk of acute rejection but does not appear to adversely impact allograft survival during the early follow-up period. Close monitoring of renal function and early biopsy for AMR detection appear to allow for satisfactory short-term allograft outcomes in repeat transplant recipients.
Cross-Border Differences and Unfamiliarity: Shopping Mobility in the Dutch-German Rhine-Waal Euroregion

Many international differences can be experienced in shopping spaces on both sides of a national border. Other languages, unfamiliar goods and unknown spatial codes are only a few of the physical-functional and socio-cultural differences that could cause exciting and stimulating situations but could also be perceived as problematic and deterring. This paper analyses perceptions, motivations and practices of cross-border (non-)shoppers and provides insights into ways in which people from cross-border regions deal with differences and the extent to which they interact across borders. The aim is to both theoretically and empirically substantiate the dynamic concept of (un)familiarity by scrutinizing the impact of “push”, “pull”, “keep” and “repel” factors on shopping (im)mobility in the Dutch-German Rhine-Waal Euroregion. These factors are seen as rooted in dynamic processes of constructing, deconstructing and reconstructing differences between places on both sides of the border. In so doing, attention is paid to changing shopping practices and motivations and influencing changing perceptions of international differences. As such, the paper also discusses “familiarization processes” in cross-border regions. The concluding section provides critical reflections on the current European policy approach towards cross-border regional development. In fact, the paper ends with a plea for more instead of less borders, as borders are markers of international differences which could promote cross-border mobility.
An elephant on the 13th floor of the Berlaymont? European Council and Commission relations in legislative agenda setting

ABSTRACT With the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, the European Council has become an official institution of the European Union (EU). According to the Treaty, it should provide the Union with ‘impetus’ and ‘general political directions and priorities’. The explicit exclusion of any legislative functions seems to demarcate its role clearly from that of the European Commission, which retains the formal monopoly over legislative initiative. However, Treaty provisions have not prevented the European Council and its President from informally setting the agenda in a detailed way, often creating tension with the Commission. By looking into three high profile cases – the energy climate package, economic governance reform and Schengen reform – through the prism of two theoretical approaches – the principal agent model and ‘joint agenda setting’ approach – this article explores patterns of interactions between the two institutions in legislative agenda setting and shows that the relationship can be best defined in terms of ‘competitive cooperation’.