Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of low dose cyclophosphamide on the immune system of cancer patients: reduction of T-suppressor function without depletion of the CD8+ subset.

Low dose cyclophosphamide (CY) can augment the development of delayed-type hypersensitivity to primary antigens in patients with advanced cancer. In this paper, we have considered the hypothesis that the immunopotentiation is related to reduction of T-suppressor activity. Peripheral blood lymphocytes were collected and cryopreserved from 45 patients with metastatic malignancy before and then 3, 7, and 19 days after administration of CY, 300 mg/m2 i.v. The peripheral blood lymphocytes were tested for generation of concanavalin A-inducible suppressor activity, proliferative response to phytohemagglutinin, and phenotype using monoclonal antibodies to CD4 and CD8. Concanavalin A-inducible suppression was significantly reduced by day 3 and declined progressively through day 19. The mean percentage changes in suppression were: day 3, -23.4 +/- 6.8 (SE) (P less than 0.01); day 7, -33.1 +/- 14.3 (P = 0.052); day 19, -43.1 +/- 10.7 (P less than 0.01). In contrast, CY caused no significant changes in phytohemagglutinin proliferation (mean percentage changes: day 3, -4.7 +/- 6.1; day 7, -15.6 +/- 7.5; day 19, -5.5 +/- 8.1), indicating that the reduction in concanavalin A-inducible suppression was not merely a reflection of a general reduction in peripheral blood lymphocyte function. The total number of circulating lymphocytes was not affected by low dose CY. Moreover, flow cytometric analysis showed no significant changes in the percentage of circulating CD8+ or CD4+ T-cells or in the CD4/CD8 ratio at any time point after CY. Thus, administration of low dose CY to these patients caused impairment of nonspecific T-suppressor function without selective depletion of the CD8+ subset that is generally associated with that function. Several immunoregulatory models that are consistent with these observations are discussed.
Skilled Migration in Australia: Policy and Practice

By virtue of its island geography and isolation, Australia is able to control the scale and composition of immigration more than most nations. Accordingly, it has one of the most highly managed migration programs and intakes. Skill selection has been the major focus of both permanent and temporary migration programs in Australia over the last two decades. Government has continually modified the Permanent Migration Program so that not only are a higher proportion of settlers coming to Australia under the Skilled Migration Program but the skill selection is tied increasingly to skill shortages in the labor market. Increasingly, permanent settlers are selected from student migrants and skilled temporary migrants because they have Australian qualifications and experience. The article analyzes the increasingly complex nexus between temporary and permanent skilled migration in Australia, and discusses the changing scale and composition of skilled migration to Australia. One particular feature of Australian immigration has been the continual shifts in the process of selection of skilled temporary and permanent immigrants on the basis of empirical evidence to achieve better economic outcomes.
Distributed stochastic resource allocation in teams

Motivated by Naval Battle Group tactical operations and by distributed product distributions and supplies, this paper considers distributed dynamic resource allocation within a two-person team. Having different but overlapping responsibilities, two geographically separated human decision makers (DM’s) are to process multiple types of randomly arriving tasks with a set of renewable resources. To maximize the team reward for task processing, the DM’s must coordinate on the assignment of common tasks (tasks of joint responsibility) and on the transfer of resources. A normative-descriptive approach is adopted to describe human decisionmaking process in the above setting. The approach starts with a normative model that predicts the team’s optimal decision making, and a human-in-the-loop experiment that generates experimental data. Human limitations and cognitive biases are then identified to explain differences between model predications and experimental data. Incorporating human limitations and cognitive biases into the normative model, a normative-descriptive model is obtained. This model matches experimental data in almost all measures, and provides insights to human decision-making behavior.
Maintenance of temporal synchrony between syrphid flies and floral resources despite differential phenological responses to climate

Variation in species’ responses to abiotic phenological cues under climate change may cause changes in temporal overlap among interacting taxa, with potential demographic consequences. Here, we examine associations between the abiotic environment and plant–pollinator phenological synchrony using a long‐term syrphid fly–flowering phenology dataset (1992–2011). Degree‐days above freezing, precipitation, and timing of snow melt were investigated as predictors of phenology. Syrphids generally emerge after flowering onset and end their activity before the end of flowering. Neither flowering nor syrphid phenology has changed significantly over our 20‐year record, consistent with a lack of directional change in climate variables over the same time frame. Instead we document interannual variability in the abiotic environment and phenology. Timing of snow melt was the best predictor of flowering onset and syrphid emergence. Snow melt and degree‐days were the best predictors of the end of flowering, whereas degree‐days and precipitation best predicted the end of the syrphid period. Flowering advanced at a faster rate than syrphids in response to both advancing snow melt and increasing temperature. Different rates of phenological advancements resulted in more days of temporal overlap between the flower–syrphid community in years of early snow melt because of extended activity periods. Phenological synchrony at the community level is therefore likely to be maintained for some time, even under advancing snow melt conditions that are evident over longer term records at our site. These results show that interacting taxa may respond to different phenological cues and to the same cues at different rates but still maintain phenological synchrony over a range of abiotic conditions. However, our results also indicate that some individual plant species may overlap with the syrphid community for fewer days under continued climate change. This highlights the role of interannual variation in these flower–syrphid interactions and shows that species‐level responses can differ from community‐level responses in nonintuitive ways.
The impact of ethnicity on auditor choice: Malaysian evidence

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of ethnicity on auditor choice for Malaysian listed companies. Design/methodology/approach - This study evaluates the effects of various independent variables on auditor choice behaviour, particularly ethnicity of auditor and ethnicity of management, using a logistic regression analysis approach for 300 companies listed on the Bursa Malaysia (formerly known as Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange-KLSE) over an 18 year period. Findings - Auditor choice is shown to be significantly influenced by client firm's characteristics, notably changes in management, complexity, and financial risk, lending support to the findings of previous survey studies. Ethnicity was found to be a significant factor influencing auditor choice only for auditor switches between non-Big 4 and Big 4 firms. Research limitations/implications - A number of important variables such as corporate governance characteristics, audit fees, client size, and growth that might enhance an understanding of auditor choice behaviour in Malaysia were not incorporated in the regression models, and might be considered in future studies. Originality/value - The results presented in the paper have important implications for both the auditing profession and regulators in Malaysia.
Breast-feeding and the risk of breast cancer in BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers.

BACKGROUND Several studies have reported that the risk of breast cancer decreases with increasing duration of breast-feeding. Whether breast-feeding is associated with a reduced risk of hereditary breast cancer in women who carry deleterious BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations is currently unknown. METHODS We conducted a case-control study of women with deleterious mutations in either the BRCA1 or the BRCA2 gene. Study participants, drawn from an international cohort, were matched on the basis of BRCA mutation (BRCA1 [n = 685] or BRCA2 [n = 280]), year of birth (+/-2 years), and country of residence. The study involved 965 case subjects diagnosed with breast cancer and 965 control subjects who had no history of breast or ovarian cancer. Information on pregnancies and breast-feeding practices was derived from a questionnaire administered to the women during the course of genetic counseling. Conditional logistic regression analyses were used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) for the risk of breast cancer. All statistical tests were two-sided. RESULTS Among women with BRCA1 mutations, the mean total duration of breast-feeding was statistically significantly shorter for case subjects than for control subjects (6.0 versus 8.7 months, respectively; mean difference = 2.7 months, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.4 to 4.0; P<.001). The total duration of breast-feeding was associated with a reduced risk of breast cancer (for each month of breast-feeding, OR = 0.98, 95% CI = 0.97 to 0.99; P(trend)<. 001). Women with BRCA1 mutations who breast-fed for more than 1 year were less likely to have breast cancer than those who never breast-fed (OR = 0.55, 95% CI = 0.38 to 0.80; P =.001), although no such association was seen for BRCA2 (OR = 0.95, 95% CI = 0.56 to 1.59; P =.83). CONCLUSIONS Women with deleterious BRCA1 mutations who breast-fed for a cumulative total of more than 1 year had a statistically significantly reduced risk of breast cancer.
Integration of Dual-Band Monopole and Microstrip Grid Array for Single-Chip Tri-Band Application

A novel antenna design and packaging solution for tri-band (2.4, 5.2 and 60 GHz) radio application is proposed. The integration of the dual-band monopole antenna and the assembly of the microstrip grid array antenna on a system printed-circuit board (PCB) of practical size are described. A defected ground structure is devised to minimize the impact of the system PCB on the radiation characteristics of the antennas especially in the 5.2-GHz band. Simulated and measured results demonstrate that the novel antenna design achieves excellent performance in the three frequency bands.
Waiting for Enron: The Unstable Equilibrium of Auditor Independence Regulation

A primary function of auditor independence regulation is to ensure that any financial incentives auditors may have to approve misleading or inaccurate accounting are outweighed by market and regulatory deterrents to compromising an auditor's independence. This article is an inquiry into the current state of this incentive equilibrium in the United Kingdom: the possible costs and benefits that may be incurred by auditors if they elect to acquiesce to management's demands to accept problematic accounting. It argues that the equilibrium position currently incentivizes a rational auditor to acquiesce. On the one hand, the article demonstrates that the recent evolution of audit firm revenue streams has provided auditors with a substantial incentive to compromise their independence and provided management with credible sanctions to pressurize them to do so. On the other hand, the article shows that regulatory and market costs of acquiescence do not counterbalance the benefits of acquiescence.
The constructs of sustainable supply chain management - a content analysis based on published case studies

The intersection of supply chain management and sustainability is still a rather young research field emerging as growing topic only recently. This paper outlines findings of a content analysis assessing systematically all case studies in the field of sustainable supply chain management, published from 1994 to 2007 in English-speaking peer-reviewed journals, and thus, mapping and evaluating the scope of current SCM topics reflected in these case papers. The analysis confirms previous research that highlights pressures from governments, customers and stakeholders as triggers of sustainable supply chain management and the neglect of the social dimension of sustainability within supply chain management. Improving supplier performance or, at least, assuring minimum performance standards can be generally regarded important objectives of supply chain strategies. Communication is an outstanding characteristic both for traditional and sustainable supply chain management; though far-reaching supply chain integration is still rather limited.
Logic of Citizen Participation in Sustainable Development

Abstract Sustainable development, a concept which has been built with the sustainability of economic progression as a main thrust, has been a widely preferred model to traditional developmental models. However, the real meaning of what sustainable development is and should include has been an object of debate. On the one hand, differing from traditional economic developmental models, economic progress does not necessitate the practice of ‘sustainable development’. On the other hand, current levels of science and technology are still unable to solve several problems that arise with economic development. Sustainable development has transferred the responsibility of environmental destruction to that of developing countries. Lastly, instead of utilizing the best technology and leadership into formulating excellent environmental- protection policies, it is more important to create widespread awareness to the public on the need to protect the environment and thereby engage their participation in decision-making to actually realize what is truly ‘sustainable development’.
Children born into families affected by HIV.

The present year marks the 10th anniversary of the Coalition, and this the third special journal supplement it has supported in the past decade. This supplement can be considered the fourth special supplement in a series, given that many people in the Coalition were also part of the Joint Learning Initiative on Children and AIDS (JLICA). JLICA Learning Group 1 produced a special supplement in AIDS Care in 2009 on ‘Strengthening Families’. This was followed by two special supplements in the Journal of the International AIDS Society (JIAS) coordinated and funded by the Coalition, one in 2010 on ‘FamilyCentered Services for Children Affected by HIV and AIDS’, and the second in 2012 on ‘Community Action to End Paediatric HIV’. These special issues were launched at the Coalition’s Biennial Symposium on children’s issues, affiliated to the 2-yearly International AIDS Conference. This year the theme of the Coalition’s Symposium, hosted in collaboration with The Teresa Group and UNICEF, is ‘Children and HIV: Start Early, Start Now! Integrated interventions for young children born into HIV-affected families’. The 2014 Symposium deals with many of the issues covered in this special supplement to AIDS.
Peripheral B-Cell Phenotype and BAFF Levels are Associated With HLA Immunization in Patients Awaiting Kidney Transplantation

Background The role of B-cell subsets in human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-specific humoral responses in patients with end-stage renal disease is poorly documented. The objective of this study was to analyze the potential association between B-cell subsets distribution and anti-HLA antibodies before kidney transplantation. Methods The authors studied by flow cytometry peripheral B-cell subsets and serum levels of BAFF, the main homeostatic cytokine for peripheral B cells, in 101 consecutive end-stage renal disease patients admitted for transplantation. Results In patients with HLA antibodies detected with Luminex single antigen, the proportion of activated naive B cells (Bm2) was significantly higher (64.4±15.1% vs. 52.5±19.1% in HLA antibody-negative patients, P=0.0008) at the expense of memory B cells, as were BAFF serum levels (1,651±1,297 vs. 1,139±693 pg/mL, P<0.0001). Proportion of Bm2 and BAFF levels were positively associated with the diversity of anti-HLA antibodies. In multivariate analysis, besides HLA-immunizing events (pregnancy and previous transplantation), proportion of Bm2 cells but not of other B-cell subsets or BAFF levels was independently associated with the presence and diversity of anti-HLA antibodies. High proportion of Bm2 cells before transplantation was associated with an increased risk of developing de novo donor-specific antibodies during the first year posttransplant. The authors did not find any association between the frequency of antibody-mediated rejection and pretransplant proportion of any B-cell subset or BAFF serum levels. Conclusion Increased proportions of activated naive B cells are linked with pretransplant HLA immunization and the development of posttransplant donor-specific antibodies.
MIXED COMPANIES AND LOCAL GOVERNANCE: NO MAN CAN SERVE TWO MASTERS

This article looks at the use of institutionalized public–private partnership (PPP) arrangements by local governments for the delivery of different types of infrastructure. It starts by analyzing the mixed company model from a theoretical point of view, in particular the potential for internal regulation and the achievement of a relational agreement. Then, after discussing the practicalities of crafting this type of governance structure, four Portuguese case studies are examined. The empirical evidence on mixed companies operating in the water, waste, transportation, and education sectors shows that the extreme complexity involved in the whole life-cycle management of these companies usually leads to a poor protection of the public interest.
Workfare as an E ffective Way to Fight Poverty: The Case of India's NREGS

This paper analyzes the impact of India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) on poor rural households. In particular, we study the impact of the program on food security, savings, and health outcomes. We have a panel data of 1,064 households from 198 villages of Andhra Pradesh, over two years. In the early stage of the program, several households that applied for work were denied employment due to shortage of work. We exploit this exogenous variation to calculate triple-difference estimates of the impact of the program. Our results indicate that the NREGS significantly increased the monthly per capita expenditure on food and non-food consumables. The program also improved food security by a significant reduction in the number of meals foregone by households per week. The program raised the probability of holding savings and reduced the incidence of depression among rural households.
Cells of adult brain germinal zone have properties akin to hair cells and can be used to replace inner ear sensory cells after damage

Auditory hair cell defect is a major cause of hearing impairment, often leading to spiral ganglia neuron (SGN) degeneration. The cell loss that follows is irreversible in mammals, because inner ear hair cells (HCs) have a limited capacity to regenerate. Here, we report that in the adult brain of both rodents and humans, the ependymal layer of the lateral ventricle contains cells with proliferative potential, which share morphological and functional characteristics with HCs. In addition, putative neural stem cells (NSCs) from the subventricular zone of the lateral ventricle can differentiate into functional SGNs. Also important, the NSCs can incorporate into the sensory epithelia, demonstrating their therapeutic potential. We assert that NSCs and edendymal cells can undergo an epigenetic functional switch to assume functional characteristics of HCs and SGNs. This study suggests that the functional plasticity of renewable cells and conditions that promote functional reprogramming can be used for cell therapy in the auditory setting.
Severe head injury and the risk of early death

Background: Severe head injury (SHI) is one of the most important health, social and economic problems in industrialised countries. Unfortunately, none of the neuroprotection trials for traumatic brain injury have shown efficacy. One of the reasons for this failure could be the inclusion of patients with high probability of early death. A population-based, retrospective study was conducted to develop a prognostic model for identification of these patients. Methods: Between January 1987 and August 1999, a total of 895 patients (⩾15 years of age) with non-missile SHI were studied, in whom a computed tomography scan was carried out within the first 6 h of injury. The association between early death (first 48 h after injury) and independent prognostic factors was determined by logistic regression analysis. A scoring system was also constructed. Results: The early-death rate was 20%. Independent predictors of early mortality after SHI were non-evacuated mass (odds ratio (OR) 65, 95% confidence interval (CI) 11 to 379), diffuse injury IV (OR 25, 95% CI 5 to 112), diffuse injury III (OR 8, 95% CI 3 to 22), flaccidity (OR 7, 95% CI 3 to 15), non-reactive bilaterally mydriasis (OR 6, 95% CI 3 to 12), evacuated mass (OR 4, 95% CI 1 to 11), age ⩾65 years (OR 4, 95% CI 1 to 9), decerebration (OR 3, 95% CI 2 to 7) and shock (OR 3, 95% CI 2 to 6). The prognostic model correctly identified 93% of the patients. Conclusions: This prognostic model is based on simple clinical and radiological data readily available during the first 6 h after injury and is useful for identification of early death after SHI.
Valuation of properties in close proximity to waste dumps sites: The Nigeria experience

The paper identified and evaluated the techniques used by Nigerian Estate Surveyors and Valuers in valuing properties close to waste dump sites. A random sample of 107 Estate Surveyors and Valuers were taken from a sampling frame of 228 for the administration of questionnaire out of which 99 were returned. The data was analysed using the percentile, mean score and One Sample t ‐test. The results show that majority of the Estate Surveyors and Valuers were not aware of the existence of methodologies used for the valuation of environmentally contaminated properties. The result further showed that the Estate Surveyors and Valuers over value properties in close proximity to the waste dump sites using inappropriate methods. In view of these findings, the undergraduate and post‐graduate curricula in Estate Management in the tertiary institutions should be reviewed to incorporate the appropriate methods of valuation in use for environmentally contaminated properties and the Continuous Professional Development (CPD) programme for the practitioners should be tailored to addresses this area of deficiency.