Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Limited Contribution of Cells of Intact Extrahepatic Tissue Origin to Hepatocyte Regeneration in Transplanted Rat Liver

Background. It is now well established that various adult somatic tissues harbor multipotent stem cells that can differentiate into a broad variety of cell types of all three germ layer origins. It remains controversial, however, whether they are a reservoir of cells utilized for emergent tissue repair or simply a vestige of evolution and, if the former is the case, to what extent they can potentially contribute to reconstitution of a specific organ. To get an insight in such a direction, we examined the extent of contribution of naive intact cells of extrahepatic origin to hepatocyte reconstitution in the transplanted liver with or without injury in the rat. Methods. Liver from wild-type donor rats was transplanted to green fluorescent protein (GFP)-transgenic rats, and GFP-positive hepatocytes were examined with or without liver injury. Results. The proportion of GFP-positive hepatocytes in the transplanted noninjured liver linearly increased by 0.0048% per week, that is, approximately 5×103 hepatocytes of extrahepatic origin were generated per day. Liver injury induced by treatment with 2-acetylaminofluorene and CCl4 or the additional application of hepatocyte growth factor did not further increase the percentage of GFP-positive hepatocytes. Conclusion. The present results indicate that cells derived from nonmanipulated extrahepatic tissues appreciably contribute, though limitedly, to hepatocyte reconstitution in the liver of the rat.
A Decade of Non-State Administration of Forests in Romania: Achievements and Challenges

SUMMARY The purpose of this study was to assess the evolution of private forest districts during the last decade and to explore the main challenges such entities are facing, based on the existing statistics and a nationwide survey of private forest district managers. In 2011, the 132 authorized private forest districts had under administration 1.529 million ha of non-state forests (23 percent of the total forest area of Romania), whilst in 2010 the harvested volume exceeded 5.89 million m3 and the cumulated annual turnover of the private forest districts was 107 million Euro. The managers of private forest districts face various challenges in their relationship with owners and state authorities. The significant structural transformation of the forestry sector had an important impact on the evolution of private forest districts and considering that more than 1 million ha of non-state forests are still administrated by the state, the number of private forest districts and their role in the Romanian forestry sector could increase significantly in the future.
The Economics of Urban Sprawl: Theory and Evidence on the Spatial Sizes of Cities

Many commentators believe that the phenomenon of urban sprawl, which is characterized by vigorous spatial expansion of urban areas, is a symptom of an economic system gone awry. By transforming pastoral farmland into often-unattractive suburbs, sprawl is thought to disrupt a natural balance between urban and non-urban land uses, leading to a deplorable degradation of the landscape. ' This sentiment is often translated into policy through zoning restrictions designed to inhibit the conversion of land from agricultural to urban use (see Bryant and Conklin (1975)). The economist's view of urban expansion stands in stark contrast to this emotionally-charged indictment of sprawl. Economists believe that urban spatial size is determined by an orderly market process which correctly allocates land between urban and agricultural uses. The model underlying this view, which was originally developed by Muth (1969) and Mills (1972) and more completely analyzed by Wheaton (1974), suggests that urban spatial size is determined in a straightforward way by a number of exogenous variables. By showing empirically that urban size is related to the given variables (population, income, agricultural rent, and commuting cost) in the manner predicted by the model, the present paper achieves two goals. First, the empirical results suggest that the economist's view of urban sprawl is justified: rather than being determined by a process which indiscriminately consumes agricultural land, urban sizes are the result of an orderly market equilibrium where competing claims to the land are appropriately balanced.2 Second, by confirming the urban size predictions of the underlying model, the empirical results constitute yet another piece of evidence validating the basic framework of urban economic analysis.3 The plan of the paper is as follows. Section II sketches the structure of the Muth-Mills model and presents the main comparative static results relevant to urban sprawl. With the model's predictions in focus, section III discusses the sample and the data, and section IV presents the empirical results. Section V offers conclusions.
Have the Benefits of International Diversification Diminished?

ROBERT LITTERMAN is also a vice president in the fixed income research department at Goldman, Sachs & Co., in New York. e robust growth in the size and liquidity of international government bond markets in recent years has led to an increased focus of domestic investors P on international markets. U.S. investors, in particular, have dramatically expanded their investment in global bond markets. For example, U.S. investors purchased over $60 billion net of foreign bonds in 1993, m'ore than the total amount purchased during the entire decade of the 1980s, according to the Securities Industry Association. One of the principal motivations of domestic investors for expanding their investment portfolios into international markets is the potential for reducing portfolio risk through international diversification. ' The critical variables influencing the amount of risk reduction obtainable through diversification are 1) the level of international market volatilities, and 2) the degree of intermarket correlations. Recent events in particular a generalized increase in the volatility of returns in global bond markets have called into question the extent to which international diversification actu,ally reduces portfolio risk. More to the point, the incre\asjng market volatility appears to be associated with greater intermarket correlations of returns. If this is the case, then the risk reduction benefits of international diversification may be disappearing just when they are most needed.2 To address this issue, we review the nature of recent changes in global bond market volatilities and correlations and examine the impact of those changes on the diversification benefits of international investing. We find that volatilities of returns generally rose in 1994 with increases in volatilities of ten-year government bonds ranging from roughly 10% for Canada
Water relations of black spruce trees on a peatland during wet and dry years

Low water tables typically found in peatlands during dry summer periods or in the vicinity of drainage ditches may lead to moisture deficiency in porous surface peats. Episodes of drought stress might compromise the growth benefits brought about by lower ground-water levels. We examined the water relations of black spruce (Picea mariana) trees on a natural peatland during relatively wet (1990) and relatively dry (1991) summers. Seasonal patterns of pre-dawn and mid-day shoot water potentials and stomatal conductance were not related to peat water content or to water-table depth. There was no evidence of water stress or osmotic adjustment in sampled trees during wet and dry growing seasons. Our soil moisture data showed that although water-table levels were as low as −66 cm in 1991, water availability in the root zone remained high. Even with the absence of mid-day water stress during the summer of 1991, a 50% reduction in stomatal conductance as compared with the previous year was found. We suggest that signals from the bulk of the roots located in dry peat top layer contributed to the regulation of stomatal conductance.
Investigating the Relationship between Marketing and Overall Satisfaction with Life in a Developing Country

It has long been a belief that marketing has a positive effect on quality of life by delivering material well-being. Furthernore, many marketing scholars urge that greater emphasis be placed on marketing in developing countries to improve the quality of life. This conventional wisdom has not been investigated empirically because of inadequate conceptualizations of the relationship between marketing and the quality of life and because of the lack of necessary measurements. In the present study, these conceptualizations and measurements have been supplied, and a model utilizing a satisfaction/dissatisfaction framework has been developed and tested. According to the model, an individual's satisfaction with different domains of life (for example, work life, material possessions) has a significant positive effect on his or her overall satisfaction with life (quality of life). Data obtained from residents of the developing country of Thailand were used to test the hypotheses. Results of the study show that satisfaction with three domains-Family Life, Material Possessions, and Self-development-has a significant positive impact on overall life satisfaction. Additional findings and implications for government, business, and marketing researchers are presented, along with directions for future research.
The Sport of Governance—a Study Comparing Swedish Riding Schools

Abstract Swedish riding schools can conduct their business in one of several organisational forms. Two possible forms are the private firm and the not-for-profit association. These organisational forms apply different strategies and structures. According to previous research, there should be a fit between organisations’ strategies and structures, which would stimulate performance. This might be true for the large corporations for which the theories have been developed, but this paper shows that to apply the theories to other organisational forms, it is necessary to consider the incentives given to the participants. This study has been conducted using the theory of property rights, implying rights and liabilities for participants involved in the organisational forms. Hypotheses are derived and tested on empirical data collected from Swedish riding schools. Statistical tests indicate that there is not always a fit between strategy and structure. Regardless of whether business is conducted in a private or a non-profit riding school, the strategy is more or less the same, although the way of structuring the organisations differs.
Toxicological evaluation and hepatoprotective potential of Clerodendron glandulosum.Coleb leaf extract

This inventory evaluates toxicological effects and hepatoprotective potential of Clerodendron glandulosum.Coleb (CG) aqueous extract. Acute and subchronic toxicity tests were performed using Swiss albino mice as per the guideline of Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Also, hepatoprotective potential of CG extract was examined in experimental model of carbon tetrachloride (CCl 4)-induced hepatotoxicity. Acute and subchronic toxicity tests revealed that CG extract is non-toxic and its median lethal dose (LD50) value is >5000 mg/kg bodyweight. Also, rats pretreated with CG extract followed by administration of CCl4 recorded significant decrement in plasma marker enzymes of hepatic damage, total bilirubin content and hepatic lipid peroxidation. While, hepatic reduced glutathione, ascorbic acid content, activity levels of superoxide and catalase and plasma total protein content were significantly increased. Microscopic examination of liver showed that pretreatment with CG extract prevented CCl4-induced hepatic damage in CG + CCl 4 group. CG extract has hepatoprotective potential by modulating activity levels of enzymes and metabolites governing liver function and by helping in maintaining cellular integrity of hepatocytes that is comparable with that of standard drug silymarin. CG extract exhibits potent hepatoprotective activity against CCl4-induced hepatic damage but does not exhibit any toxic manifestations.
The Effect of Fibrin Glue on Skin Grafts in Infected Sites

Fibrin bonding of skin grafts to wounds is an essential part of the graft-adherence process. Bacteria, in concentrations greater than 105/gm of tissue, are associated with graft failure. Sixty-five rats were randomly divided into three groups, dorsal split-thickness skin grafts were harvested, and the sites were inoculated with Staphylococcus aureus. After incubation, each wound was quantitatively biopsied and treated with saline, fibrin glue with aprotinin, or fibrin glue alone. We found that the addition of commercially available fibrin glue with or without the antifibrinolytic agent aprotinin is capable of restoring graft adherence to normal levels in graft sites infected with greater than 105 bacteria/gm of tissue. Fibrin glue may have potential for increasing skin-graft take in the clinical situation where the graft bed is infected.
Unemployment Insurance and Subsequent Job Duration: Job Matching vs. Unobserved Heterogeneity

The relationship between unemployment benefit duration, unemployment duration and subsequent job duration is investigated using a multi-state duration model with state specific unobserved heterogeneity. I allow maximum benefit duration to be correlated with unemployment duration as well as accepted job duration. I examine two potential explanations for the relationship between unemployment and job spell durations; UI benefits increase job matching quality vs unobserved heterogeneity. I find that the escape rate out of unemployment seems to raise significantly within 5 weeks of benefit termination and new jobs accepted within this 5 week period seem to have a higher dissolution rate. At the same time, unobserved heterogeneity is also found to explain the correlation between unemployment and job duration. Various simulations indicate that increasing the maximum benefit duration by one week will raise expected unemployment duration by 1 to 1.5 days and expected job duration by 0.5 to 0.9 day.
Population Pharmacokinetics of Lamivudine in Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Exposed and -Infected Infants

ABSTRACT This study aimed to determine lamivudine disposition in infants and to construct an appropriate dose adjustment for age, given the widespread use of lamivudine for both the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the treatment of HIV-infected infants. Using a pooled-population approach, the pharmacokinetics of lamivudine in HIV-exposed or -infected infants from four Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trials Group studies were assessed. Ninety-nine infants provided 559 plasma samples for measurement of lamivudine concentrations. All infants received combination antiretroviral therapy including lamivudine dosed at 2 mg/kg of body weight every 12 h (q12h) for the first 4 to 6 weeks of life and at 4 mg/kg q12h thereafter. Lamivudine's apparent clearance was 0.25 liter/h/kg at birth, doubling by 28 days. In the final model, age and weight were the only significant covariates for lamivudine clearance. While lamivudine is predominantly renally eliminated, the serum creatinine level was not an independent covariate in the final model, possibly because it was confounded by age. Inclusion of interoccasion variability for bioavailability improved the individual subject clearance prediction over the age range studies. Simulations based on the final model predicted that by the age of 4 weeks, 90% of infant lamivudine concentrations with the standard 2 mg/kg dose of lamivudine fell below the adult median concentration. This population pharmacokinetic analysis affirms that adjusting the dose of lamivudine from 2 mg/kg to 4 mg/kg q12 h at the age of 4 weeks for infants with normal maturation of renal function will provide optimal lamivudine exposure, potentially contributing to more successful therapy.
Potential for Pricing Policies in Water Resource Management: Estimation of Urban Residential Water Demand in Zaragoza, Spain

This paper presents an empirical study to estimate the urban residential water demand in Zaragoza, Spain; this allows the testing of the short-run sensitivity of water demand to changes in a set of socioeconomic variables and especially in prices. A residential water demand model is estimated using a dynamic panel data technique. Furthermore, three water demand equations have been proposed and two alternative process specifications are applied. The empirical application suggests that the linear demand specification is the most adequate. Finally, the results indicate that domestic demands are inelastic with respect to price.
Mobilizing local knowledge with ‘Provocative’ non-financial measures

Knowledge and organizational learning are central concerns of contemporary organizations. Local knowledge is stored in the detailed operational practices, professional routines and grassroot ways of thinking in specific situations, which different agents employ in their organizational segments and niches. These sources of field insight are relevant in producing new competitive initiatives and in the creation of new strategy. This empirically grounded paper illustrates how focused non-financial management accounting measurement brings the controller closer to operational detail, stimulates horizontal debate, and leads to expert resistance. It suggests that non-financial measurement, as an intrusive and controversial management accounting technology, can be perceived as being ‘provocative’. Organizational actors react strongly to this focused measurement. However, ‘provocative’ non-financial measurement assists the articulation of intriguing local knowledge in organizational discourse, providing new possibilities for the controller in locally situated processes of learning.
Effects of a supplemental Spanish oral language program on sentence length, complexity, and grammaticality in Spanish-speaking children attending English-only preschools.

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a supplemental Spanish language instruction program for children who spoke Spanish as their native language and were attending English-only preschool programs. Specifically, the study evaluated the program's effects on the children's Spanish sentence length in words, subordination index, and grammaticality of sentences. METHOD Forty-five Spanish-speaking children attending English-only prekindergarten classrooms were selected for study. Of those, 15 children received 30 min of Spanish instruction 5 days a week for 16 weeks. The program targeted 5-10 vocabulary words a week, dialogic book reading, phonemic awareness, and letter knowledge. The remaining 30 children participated in regular preschool English instruction. Students were evaluated before intervention, immediately after intervention, and 4 months following intervention. RESULTS Repeated measures analyses of variance indicated that the children who received the small-group supplemental Spanish language instruction made significant gains in their Spanish sentence length in words and subordination index when compared to those receiving regular English-only classroom instruction. There were no differences in the children's grammaticality of sentences. DISCUSSION AND CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS The findings demonstrate that a daily short native language program has significant effects on sentence length in words and subordination index in English language learners who are attending English-only preschool programs.
The political economy of the Ecuadorian financial crisis

This paper takes the unusual step of exploring economic hypotheses through interviews with key economic agents. It focuses on the causes of Ecuador’s 1999 banking collapse, within an eclectic framework with Minskian elements. Broad support is found for ‘endogenous’ explanations of financial crises and little backing for explanations such as accidents or policy mistakes. Interviewees argued that after the stabilisation programme of 1992, agents became euphoric and accumulated debt to finance imprudent levels of expansion; that incentives for moral hazard led to financial corruption and excessive risk taking; and that weak regulation after
Involvement of aquaporin‐7 in the cutaneous primary immune response through modulation of antigen uptake and migration in dendritic cells

Dendritic cells (DCs) have the ability to present antigen and play a critical role in the induction of the acquired immune response. Skin DCs uptake antigen and subsequently migrate to regional draining lymph nodes (LNs), where they activate naive T cells. Here we show that the water/glycerol channel protein aquaporin 7 (AQP7) is expressed on epidermal and dermal DCs and involved in the initiation of primary immune responses. AQP7‐deficient DCs showed a decreased cellular uptake of low‐molecular‐mass compounds (fluorescein isothiocyanate and Lucifer yellow) and high‐molecular‐mass substances (ovalbumin and dextran), suggesting that AQP7 is involved in antigen uptake. AQP7‐deficient DCs also exhibited reduced chemokine‐dependent cell migration in comparison to wild‐type DCs. Consistent with these in vitro results, AQP7‐deficient mice demonstrated a reduced accumulation of antigen‐retaining DCs in the LNs after antigen application to the skin, which could be attributed to decreased antigen uptake and migration. Coincidentally, AQP7‐deficient mice had impaired antigen‐induced sensitization in a contact hypersensitivity model. These observations suggested that AQP7 in skin DCs is primarily involved in antigen uptake and in the subsequent migration of DCs and is responsible for antigen presentation and the promotion of downstream immune responses. —Hara‐Chikuma, M. , Sugiyama, Y. , Kabashima, K. , Sohara, E. , Uchida, S. , Sasaki, S. , Inoue, S. , Miyachi, Y. Involvement of aquaporin‐7 in the cutaneous primary immune response through modulation of antigen uptake and migration in dendritic cells. FASEB J. 26, 211–218 (2012). www.fasebj. org
Tourism Disaster Planning and Management: From Response and Recovery to Reduction and Readiness

Despite the growing number of natural hazards and disasters little research has been conducted on tourism disaster management and planning. Although there have been a growing number of studies in the tourism field on tourism disaster management, most have highlighted, and indeed researched, reactive response and recovery efforts of the tourism industry at the expense of reduction and readiness strategies and initiatives. This paper integrates hazards and emergency planning literature with tourism disaster planning research to examine possible deficiencies and future directions for research in this field. The paper argues that an understanding of tourism disaster planning is only possible through an understanding of literature from the hazards, natural disaster and emergency planning field alongside an analysis of previous tourism disaster planning research. This synthesis suggests a ‘post-disciplinary’ approach to researching and better understanding the problem of tourism disaster planning involving researchers from disciplines such as education, communication, sociology, emergency planning, hazards and tourism. It is hoped that such an approach would lead to a better understanding of tourism disaster planning, reduction and readiness and the development of suitable policies and initiatives from tourism agencies and industry associations to facilitate more effective planning.