Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stability of recombinant human thyrotropin potency based on bioassay in FRTL-5 cells.

BACKGROUND Recombinant human thyrotropin (rhTSH; Thyrogen®) is approved for use in a 0.9 mg dose/day for 2 consecutive days for diagnosis and treatment of differentiated thyroid cancer. It is recommended that it be injected immediately after reconstitution in the distilled water diluent supplied by the manufacturer. However, Thyrogen has been used off-label in doses less than the standard 0.9 mg dose for stimulation of radioiodine uptake in the treatment of multinodular goiter. To determine whether the biologic activity of Thyrogen can be preserved after dilution, we designed experiments to assess the biologic stability of Thyrogen under different durations and temperatures of storage. METHODS rhTSH was diluted in 1% bovine serum albumin in phosphate-buffered saline to a concentration of 0.9 mg /mL and further diluted to 0.1 mg/mL. Aliquots of 0.5 mL were stored at room temperature, 4°C, -11°C, and -60°C for various lengths of time. In addition, rhTSH aliquots were also subjected to incubation for 1 hour at 50°C and to 10 cycles of freezing in dry ice alternating with thawing at 37°C. Bioassays were performed in FRTL-5 cells. rhTSH was added to the media at a final concentration of either 5 ng/mL or 20 ng/mL, and the cells were then incubated for 48 hours. Potency was assessed by measurement of ¹²⁵I-iodide uptake in comparison to cells treated with perchlorate to block iodide uptake. Samples were immunoassayed at day 185 of storage. RESULTS Samples stored at 4°C, -11°C, -60°C, and room temperature retained activity after storage periods of up to 204 days. Samples subjected to 10 freeze-thaw cycles or heated to 50°C for 1 hour retained full biologic activity. Immunoassay at day 185 showed no difference in immunoactivity in relation to the storage condition. CONCLUSION rhTSH kept at 4°C, -11°C, -60°C, and room temperature maintained good biologic potency for more than 6 months of storage when tested in vitro, indicating that the biologic activity is very stable. However, altered sialylation occurring during storage could have altered the half-life of rhTSH. Nevertheless, the data provide reassurance that storage in the cold for a few months does not result in significant loss of biologic activity.
The Influence of Principals’ Technology Training on the Integration Of Technology into Schools

Abstract The purpose of this study was to investigate whether technology training received by principals influences the integration of technology into classrooms. The study examined the levels of technology integration into the schools’ curricula with regard to the amounts and types of technology training received by K–12 school principals. The level of technology integration was also examined with regard to the following demographics age; sex, principal’s years of administrative experience, school size, and grade level. Statistical significance was found for amounts and types of technology training principals received, indicating that each can influence levels of integration into a school’s curricula. Data showed the age of the principal also influences technology integration into the curriculum.
Quality in Scotland

Gives an extensive historical overview of the industrial history of Scotland. Goes on to look at quality in Scotland today. Reports on a survey of 200 enterprises in Central Scotland with regard to the benefits of various quality practices. Concludes that quality is now instilled in the operations of Scottish companies and suggests that this will develop in the future.
Kinetic modelling of degradation of phenolic compounds in leachate

Leachates from municipal solid waste (MSW) contain a large number of compounds many of which are not hazardous to health and nature as they represent degradation products ranging from small volatile acids to refractory fulvic and humic-like compounds and some of which are hazardous compounds including aromatic compounds, halogenated compounds, phenolic compounds, pesticides, heavy metals, and ammonium. Phenolic compounds released into the environment are of high concern because of their potential toxicity. These compounds found in the leachate include phenol, cresols and substituted and chlorinated phenols that have been designated as priority pollutants by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Phenolic compounds degrade under anaerobic conditions in landfill sites. In this study, the degradation of phenolic compounds in leachate has been investigated by using leachate recirculated anaerobic reactors representing bioreactor landfills. Wastes representing Istanbul municipal solid wastes were disposed in the reactors. Phenolic compounds of leachate are analyzed by using Gas Chromatograph. Before injection of leachate to the Chromatograph, contaminants in the leachate are extracted by using solid phase micro extraction (SPME) method. A first-order kinetic model was adopted to represent the microbial degradation of phenolic compounds under anaerobic conditions.
A Model of Spatial Patterns across Local Retail Property Markets in Great Britain

Property markets are commonly modelled either at relatively high levels of aggregation (such as regional or national) using time-series data or panel data, or at individual-town level. This paper develops a cross-sectional model of a large number of retail property markets at the city and town level. The model is developed using prime retail rental levels data as the dependent variable and a number of demand and supply variables, suggested by theory, as independent variables. The model takes the form of a single equation and is based on multiple linear least-squares regression analysis. During the course of the paper, a number of issues are addressed: principal components analysis is suggested as a method of reducing multicollinearity in a model, and the spatial stability of the model is assessed. The paper concludes that the size of the retail core (as measured by the number of national multiple retailers present) and the demographic profile of the local population provide a highly significant explanation for the differential rental levels across towns and cities in Great Britain. The model generally exhibits a high degree of spatial stability, when tested using dummy variables and F tests. However, there is some evidence of spatial instability in the common model between southern and northern centres, large versus smaller centres and across centres with high, medium or low rental levels, but this is inconclusive.
Quantum control and quantum error correction

We describe a scheme for quantum error correction that employs feedback and weak measurement. This provides a method of protecting an unknown quantum state against errors that does not use the standard tools of quantum error correction - projective measurements and fast controlled unitary gates - and is practicably implementable because of the little side processing required. We evaluate the performance of our scheme by simulating a simple scenario of protection against bit-flips.
Alcoholism among Taiwan aborigines defined by the Chinese Diagnostic Interview Schedule: a comparison with alcoholism among Chinese

The prevalence of alcoholism was reported to be 0.1 % in an aboriginal study on Taiwan using the census survey method in the 1950s. This study adopted a modified Chinese Diagnostic Interview Schedule to determine the prevalence of DSM‐III‐defined alcohol abuse (AA) and alcohol dependence (AD) in the Atayal, Paiwan and Yami ethnic groups of Taiwan aborigines. Stratified random sampling was used. The sample sizes of Atayal, Paiwan and Yami were 793, 656 and 106 respectively. The prevalence rates of DSM‐III‐defined AA and AD were 11.6%, 11.4% and 14.2%; and 9.0%, 8.1% and 6.4% respectively. No significant difference was found between the 3 ethnic groups. These prevalence figures are significantly higher than those for Chinese. In this comparative analysis, 2 distinct etiological hypotheses are proposed for the AA and the AD.
Population Mobility, Tenure Choice and Institutional Factors

The Hong Kong government is involved deeply in the housing market. It provides public rental blocks as well as subsidised housing for sale. Government intervention has created various institutional factors in the form of relocation restrictions and subsidies. Little research has been done in the past to address how mobility is affected by institutional factors, in terms of the unique tenure structure in Hong Kong. This research aims to bridge this gap. It is found that government policy has a significant effect on the mobility of households, in particular the public rental sector. Further, the patterns of tenure choice are significantly different for households of public and private sectors. There are signs that the government is intending to minimise its role in the housing system. The suspension of the HOS programme together with the cancellation of loan subsidies could further restrain the mobility of public sector households. Institutionally induced spatial lock-in among public sector households will be aggravated in the near future. It is recommended that the loan scheme should be reinstated to provide an alternative and incentive for the households in the public sector to relocate and return their flats to the Housing Authority. This can help relieve the financial pressure in the face of a budget deficit because loan subsidies are more cost effective than subsidies in kind.
Transcriptional Activation of the α1(VI) Collagen Gene during Myoblast Differentiation Is Mediated by Multiple GA Boxes (*)

During differentiation of C2C12 myoblasts in vitro, expression of α1(VI) collagen mRNA was transiently stimulated severalfold. Promoter assays on cells transfected with chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) chimeric constructs have identified a region of the α1(VI) collagen promoter that increases CAT activity about 8-fold during differentiation. The region, which overlaps with transcription initiation sites, was shown to contain three protected segments (A, B, and C) in DNase I footprinting assays. The contact points between nuclear factors and the protected segments were determined by methylation interference assay and included the sequence GGGAGGG (GA box) in all segments. Experiments in which CAT constructs were cotransfected with double-stranded oligonucleotides containing the GA box suggested that this motif was necessary for induction. Transfections with deletion constructs of the natural promoter and with minipromoters made of three copies of A, B, or C showed that the elements have inducing activity and that elements C and, to a lower extent, B are stimulatory for basal transcription, whereas the contribution of A in this process is limited. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays with nuclear extracts from C2C12 cells indicated that the three GA box-containing elements bound several transcription factors, including Sp1. Comparison of the properties of the bands shifted under different experimental conditions (presence of 10 mM EDTA, heating of the nuclear extracts, addition of different concentrations of competitor oligonucleotides) established that A, B, and C probes form nine, eight and five main retarded complexes, respectively, and indicated that nuclear factors binding to C and B are subsets of proteins binding to A. UV cross-linking assays identified several peptides (seven with probe A, six with B, and five with C) in the range of 150-32 kDa. Comparison of the gel retardation pattern obtained with nuclear extracts from proliferating and differentiating cells revealed a particular increased intensity of two retarded bands. The data establish that multiple GA boxes mediate induction of the α1(VI) collagen promoter during myoblast differentiation and suggest the attractive hypothesis that the effect may be related to variations of expression of transcription factors binding to these motifs.
Of Market Failure, Voluntary Failure, and Third-Party Government: Toward a Theory of Government-Nonprofit Relations in the Modern Welfare State

Despite the fact that gouernment in the United States relies more heavily on nonprofit organizations than on its own instrumentalities to deliver government- funded human services, and that nonprofits receive more of their income from government than from any other single source, the phenomenon of government- nonprofit partnership has been largely overlooked both in analyses of the welfare state and in research on the voluntary sector. This article argues that this neglect of government-nonprofit ties is less the product of a lack of research than of important weaknesses in theory. Both the theory of the welfare state and the theory of the voluntary sector, moreover, are deficient. To overcome these weaknesses, the article advances an alternative theoretical formulation that replaces the prevailing con ception of the welfare state with the concept of "third-party government," and replaces the current "market failure-government failure" theory of the voluntary sector with a theory built around the concept of "voluntary failure" instead. Viewed through these alternative conceptual lenses, the phenomenon of government-non profit partnership comes into far better view and becomes far more understandable. Against the backdrop of this alternative theory, the article then identifies a number of principles that should guide government-nonprofit relations in the years ahead.
GCN: GPU-Based Cube CNN Framework for Hyperspectral Image Classification

Hyperspectral image classification has been proved significant in remote sensing field. Traditional classification methods have meet bottlenecks due to the lack of remote sensing background knowledge or high dimensionality. Deep learning based methods, such as deep convolutional neural network (CNN), can effectively extract high level features from raw data. But the training of deep CNN is rather time-consuming. The general purpose graphic processing units (GPUs) have been considered as one of the most common co-processors that can help accelerate deep learning applications. In this paper we propose a GPU-based Cube CNN (GCN) framework for hyperspectral image classification. First, a Parallel Neighbor Pixels Extraction (PNPE) algorithm is designed to enable the framework directly loading raw hyperspectral image into GPU's global memory, and extracting samples into data cube. Then, based on the peculiarity of hyperspectral image and cube convolution, we propose a novel Cube CNN-to-GPU mapping mechanism that transfers the training of Cube CNN to GPU effectively. Finally, the mini-batch gradient descent(MBGD) algorithm is improved with Computing United Device Architecture(CUDA) multi-streaming technique, which further speeds up network training in GCN framework. Experiments on KSC dataset, PU dataset and SA dataset show that, compared with state-of-art framework Caffe, we achieve up to 83% and 67% reduction in network training time without losing accuracy, when using SGD (Stochastic Gradient Descent) and MBGD algorithm respectively. Experiments across different GPUs show the same performance trend, which demonstrates the good extendibility of GCN framework.
Vertical disintegration and the life‐cycle of firms and industries

T0he degree of vertical integration experienced by a firm is an important managerial decision variable. It is an issue where there is a distinct lack of unanimity in studies on the economics of organizations. Moreover, studies have tended to ignore the complementary feature of vertical disintegration. This study examines the basic Stigler hypothesis that vertical disintegration is the typical development in growing industries. Using UK data on divestments, the results initially indicated some positive relationship between industry growth and vertical divestment activity; however, when different categories of asset transfer were examined, the Stigler view was rejected in favour of a null hypothesis.
Dynamics of energy sector and GHG emissions in Saudi Arabia

The energy sector is the main contributor to GHG emissions in Saudi Arabia. The tremendous growth of GHG emissions poses serious challenges for the Kingdom in terms of their reduction targets, and also the mitigation of the associated climate changes. The rising trend of population and urbanization affects the energy demand, which results in a faster rate of increase in GHG emissions. The major energy sector sources that contribute to GHG emissions include the electricity generation, road transport, desalination plants, petroleum refining, petrochemical, cement, iron and steel, and fertilizer industries. In recent years, the energy sector has become the major source, accounting for more than 90% of national CO2 emissions. Although a substantial amount of research has been conducted on renewable energy resources, a sustainable shift from petroleum resources is yet to be achieved. Public awareness, access to energy-efficient technology, and the development and implementation of a legislative framework, energy pricing policies, and renewable and alternative energy policies are not mature enough to ensure a significant reduction in GHG emissions from the energy sector. An innovative and integrated solution that best serves the Kingdom's long-term needs and exploits potential indigenous, renewable, and alternative energy resources while maintaining its sustainable development stride is essential. Policy relevance The main contributor to GHG emissions in Saudi Arabia is the energy sector that accounts for more than 90% of the national CO2 emissions. Tremendous growth of GHG emissions poses serious challenges for the Kingdom in their reduction and mitigating the associated climate changes. This study examines the changing patterns of different activities associated with energy sector, the pertinent challenges, and the opportunities that promise reduction of GHG emissions while providing national energy and economic security. The importance of achieving timely, sustained, and increasing reductions in GHG emissions means that a combination of policies may be needed. This study points to the long-term importance of making near- and medium-term policy choices on a well-informed, strategic basis. This analytical paper is expected to provide useful information to the national policy makers and other decision makers. It may also contribute to the GHG emission inventories and the climate change negotiations.
A Structural Model of Turnout and Voting in Multiple Elections, Fourth Version

This paper develops a unified approach to study participation and voting in multiple elections. The theoretical setting combines an “uncertain-voter” model of turnout with a spatial model of voting behavior. We apply our framework to the study of turnout and voting in U.S. presidential and congressional elections. We structurally estimate the model using individual-level data for the 2000 elections, and quantify the relationships between observed individual characteristics and unobserved citizens’ ideological preferences, information, and civic duty. We then use the estimated model, which replicates the patterns of abstention, selective abstention, split-ticket voting, and straight-ticket voting observed in the data, to assess the effects of policies that may increase citizens’ information and sense of civic duty on their turnout and voting behavior.
Photoresponses of Light-Grown phyA Mutants of Arabidopsis (Phytochrome A Is Required for the Perception of Daylength Extensions)

Several aspects of the photophysiology of wild-type Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings were compared with those of a phytochrome A null mutant, phyA-1, and a mutant, fhy1, that is putatively involved in the transduction of light signals from phytochrome A. Although phyA seedlings display a near wild-type phenotype when grown in white light (W), they nevertheless display several photomorphogenic abnormalities. Thus, whereas the germination of wild-type and fhy1 seeds is almost fully promoted by a pulse of red light (R) or by continuous far-red light (FR), phyA seed germination is responsive only to R. Following growth under day/night cycles, but not under continuous W, the hypocotyls of light-grown phyA and fhy1 seedlings are more elongated than those of wild-type seedlings. For seedlings grown under low red/far-red (R/FR) ratio light conditions, phyA and fhy1 seedlings display a more marked promotion of hypocotyl elongation than wild-type seedlings. Similarly, seedlings that are doubly null for phytochrome A and phytochrome B(phyA phyB) also have more elongated hypocotyls under low R/FR ratio conditions than phyB seedlings. This indicates that phytochrome A action in light-grown seedlings is antagonistic to the action of phytochrome B. Although wild-type, fhy1, and phyA seedlings flower at essentially the same time under both short-day and long-day conditions, an obvious consequence of phytochrome A deficiency is a pronounced late flowering under conditions where a short day of 8 h of fluorescent W is extended by 8 h of low-fluence-rate incandescent light. The evidence thus indicates that phytochrome A plays a role in seed germination, in the control of elongation growth of light-grown seedlings, and in the perception of daylength.
Understanding of Higher Education in Transitional Society: A Case Study of Rural Odisha, India

Higher education is considered as an asset for an individual for his maximum growth and meaningful affiliation. It is that capital and instrument which makes possible for a society and nation to deal with adversaries and complexities in an effective manner. Taking the instrumentality and capacity of higher education into confidence, nations across the world are trying to make it accessible to their considerable population. One of the consequences of that is, in the recent decades, higher education has been given importance in India’s developmental plans. India has been endeavouring to make it inclusive in terms of accessibility and quality. One of the very clear agendas of giving importance to higher education in this country during formulation of various developmental policies in the recent times is to ensure that the people of the lower ladder of society could participate in it and make them adapted in the competitive environment posed by knowledge society and forces of globalization. But the paradox is that due to certain existing discrepancies in those ambitious policies and their implementations these people are developing negative connotation of higher education. The negative understanding and underestimation of higher education by these people is not a positive sign for the society which is considered to be at the lower ladder in particular and for India in general, which aspires to establish a knowledge society in near future.
Explaining Interest Rate Spread In Namibia

This paper investigates the determinants of interest rate spread in Namibia for the period 1996-2010. The investigation is conducted through cointegrated vector autoregression (VAR) or multivariate cointegration methods. The investigation reveals that interest rate spread in Namibia is determined by Treasury bill rate, inflation rate, the size of the economy, financial deepening, bank rate or discount rate and exchange rate volatility. Treasury bill rate, inflation rate and bank rate are associated with an increase in interest rate spread. The size of the economy and financial deepening are associated with a decrease in interest rate spread. The results suggest that an increasing interest rate policy pursued by the government can cause interest rate spread to rise. Increase in the cost of funds to commercial banks may be passed to consumers in the form of higher interest rate spread. An increase in the cost of doing business will cause interest rate spread to rise. Interest rate spread can be reduced by increasing the size of the economy which allows for economies of scale and greater competition. Financial deepening, which allows a high level of interbank competition, can also reduce the interest rate spread.