Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Traumatic Injury, Early Gene Expression, and Gram-Negative Bacteremia*

Objectives:Bacteremic trauma victims have a higher risk of death than their nonbacteremic counterparts. The role that altered immunity plays in the development of bacteremia is unknown. Using an existing dataset, we sought to determine if differences in early postinjury immune-related gene expression are associated with subsequent Gram-negative bacteremia. Design:Retrospective cohort study, a secondary analysis of the Glue Grant database. Setting:Seven level I trauma centers across the United State. Subjects:Severely injured blunt trauma patients. Interventions:None. Measurements and Main Results:Total leukocyte gene expression was compared between the subjects in whom Gram-negative bacteremia developed and those in whom it did not develop. We observed that Gram-negative bacteremia was an independent risk factor for death (odds ratio, 1.86; p = 0.015). We then compared gene expression at 12 and 96 hours after injury in 10 subjects in whom subsequently Gram-negative bacteremia developed matched to 26 subjects in whom it did not develop. At 12 hours, expression of 64 probes differed more than or equal to 1.5-fold; none represented genes related to innate or adaptive immunity. By 96 hours, 102 probes were differentially expressed with 20 representing 15 innate or adaptive immunity genes, including down-regulation of IL1B and up-regulation of IL1R2, reflecting suppression of innate immunity in Gram-negative bacteremia subjects. We also observed down-regulation of adaptive immune genes in the Gram-negative bacteremia subjects. Conclusions:By 96 hours after injury, there are differences in leukocyte gene expression associated with the development of Gram-negative bacteremia, reflecting suppression of both innate and adaptive immunity. Gram-negative bacteremia after trauma is, in part, consequence of host immunity failure and may not be completely preventable by standard infection-control techniques.
The rise of the entrepreneurial state : state and local economic development policy in the United States

"The Rise of the Entrepreneurial State" charts the development of state and local government initiatives to influence the market and strengthen economic development policies. This trend marked a decisive break from governments' traditionally small role in the affairs of private industry that defined the relationship between the public and private sector for the first half of the twentieth century. The turn to state and local government intervention signaled a change in subnational politics that, in many ways, transcended partisan politics, regional distinctions, and racial alliances. Eisinger's meticulous research uncovers state and local governments' transition from supply-side to demand-side strategies of market creation. He shows that, instead of relying solely on the supply-side strategies of tax breaks and other incentives to encourage business relocation, some governments promoted innovation and the creation of new business approaches.
0.5 Gy Gamma Radiation Suppresses Production of TNF-α through Up-regulation of MKP-1 in Mouse Macrophage RAW264.7 Cells

Abstract Tsukimoto, M. , Homma, T. , Mutou, Y. and Kojima, S. 0.5 Gy Gamma Radiation Suppresses Production of TNF-α through Up-regulation of MKP-1 in Mouse Macrophage RAW264.7 Cells. Radiat. Res. 171, 219–224 (2009). Low- or intermediate-dose γ radiation appears to have the capacity to ameliorate certain types of diseases, including allergic conditions, when examined under specific exposure conditions and with specific animal models, though the molecular mechanisms involved remain to be fully clarified. We investigated the anti-inflammatory effects of intermediate-dose γ radiation by examining its effects on the activation state of p38 MAPK and the production of cytokines in mouse macrophage RAW264.7 cells. Dephosphorylation of both ERK1/2 and p38 MAPK was observed at 15 min after irradiation (0.5–1 Gy from a 137Cs source) concomitant with a significant increase in the expression of MKP-1, which dephosphorylates ERK1/2 and p38 MAPK. Since activated p38 MAPK mediates TNF-α production, we examined the effect of radiation on LPS-induced activation of p38 MAPK and TNF-α production. The activation of p38 MAPK and production of TNF-α induced by LPS treatment were both suppressed in preirradiated cells. LPS-induced production of TNF-α was enhanced by knockdown of MKP-1. These results indicate that 0.5 Gy γ radiation would cause up-regulation of MKP-1, leading to inactivation of p38 MAPK and suppression of TNF-α production, in cells of mouse macrophages cell line.
Regulatory phosphorylation of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase in protoplasts from Sorghum mesophyll cells and the role of pH and Ca2+ as possible components of the light-transduction pathway.

The light-dependent phosphorylation of the photosynthetic phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PyrPC) was shown to occur in protoplasts from Sorghum mesophyll cells. It was accompanied by an increase in PyrPC protein-serine-kinase activity and conferred the target-specific functional properties, i.e. an increase in Vmax and apparent Ki for L-malate, as previously found with the whole leaf. The light-dependent regulatory phosphorylation of PyrPC was (a) specifically promoted by the weak bases NH4Cl and methylamine (agents which increase cytosolic pH), but not by KNO3, (b) inhibited by the cytosolic protein-synthesis inhibitor, cycloheximide, thus confirming that protein turnover is a component of the signal-transduction cascade, as reported in [4], (c) found to moderately decrease in the presence of EGTA and to be strongly depressed when the Ca(2+)-selective ionophore A23187 was added to the incubation medium together with EGTA. Addition of Ca2+, but not of Mg2+, to the Ca(2+)-depleted protoplasts partially, but significantly, relieved the inhibition. Calcium deprivation apparently affected the in-situ light-activation of the PyrPC protein kinase. These data indicated that both Ca2+ and an increase in cytosolic pH are required for the induction of PyrPC protein kinase activity/PyrPC phosphorylation in illuminated protoplasts from Sorghum mesophyll cells.
A critical study of TQM and TPM approaches on business performance of Indian manufacturing industry

Abstract Total Quality Management (TQM) and Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) have gained considerable acceptance in Indian manufacturing industry to take on the challenge of transition from protected economy to global competition. These two improvement drives are being adopted and adapted for raising performance standards of Indian companies to world class level. TQM and TPM are considered complementary to each other and thereby being implemented simultaneously by many companies to achieve synergy. This paper aims to provide empirical evidences on the comparative contributions of two drives to improve business performance in the context of Indian manufacturing industry. It also tries to establish a synergetic effect of TQM and TPM, when implemented in tandem. The paper highlights that a combined application brings out significantly higher improvements than individual drives. The study is based on data collected through a questionnaire as a research instrument and statistical analysis using Microsoft EXCEL 2000.
Financial Reporting of European Banks During the GFC: A Pitch

This short paper applies the pitch template developed by Faff (2015a), for a proposed accounting research project on financial reporting of European banks and the global financial crisis. I begin by giving a brief background to writing the pitch. I then give a brief commentary on my pitch, followed by a few key personal reflections on the pitch exercise itself.
MMSE Based Interference Processing For Satellite Broadcast Reception

The problem of adjacent satellite interference (ACI) within the direct-to-home (DTH) satellite broadcast reception scenario is considered. The use of small DTH front-end reception systems results inevitably in a higher interference level from adjacent satellites using the same frequency band. The growth in satellite communication and the trend to small dishes increases the ACI problem. The general problem of interference limited DTH reception has been studied in recent work. This paper extends the work of (J. Grotz et al., 2005) by considering additionally an MMSE based method based on the proposal by Beidas and Gamal (2002). The interference channel model and the iterative interference cancellation algorithm are introduced and applied to the DTH digital broadcast case. Simulations of the interesting scenarios are conducted and discussed. It is shown, that the algorithm works well over large ranges of the considered scenarios of frequency offset and signal power levels.
Irrational Trading in a Financial Market

A basic assumption in economics is that agents prefer more to less. We find that in an experimental financial market--a large scale political stock market--more than 50 percent of the traders act irrationally in the sense that they violate this fundamental assumption frequently (at least 10 percent of the time). However, the impact of this irrationality seems small, since related losses consist of less than 1 percent of total investments in this market and we find no effect on prices. We do however find systematic bias in prices: Our evidence shows that the sum of the bid prices of all traded stocks exceeds the fundamental value of the market about 10 percent of the time. We argue that another type of irrationality known as 'loss aversion' causes this upward bias.
Attitudes Toward Menopause and Hormone Therapy Among Women with Access to Health Care

Objective:To explore the relationship between women's attitudes toward menopause and hormone therapy and paradigms of menopause as a natural life event versus a biomedical phenomenon. Design:Women (N = 2092) sampled from physicians' practices in Washington state completed mailed questionnaires with a response rate of 72%. Results:Women's attitudes toward menopause were unrelated to their adoption of a biomedical versus developmental paradigm of menopause. In contrast, women's adoption of the view that menopause was an endocrine deficiency and that symptoms should be treated with hormones were correlated. Endorsement of the endocrine deficiency model of menopause was related to women's attitudes toward hormone therapy as more efficacious, less risky, and requiring daily use of a drug. Women's experiences of a hysterectomy and hormone use were associated with their attitudes. Conclusions:Women's attitudes toward menopause are multidimensional and not influenced wholly by adoption of a biomedical or developmental paradigm. Women embraced menopause as part of life and simultaneously accepted changes in their endocrine production. Attitudes toward hormone therapy were closely aligned with adoption of a biomedical view of menopause and use of hormone therapy.
A multicenter, prospective validation of disseminated intravascular coagulation diagnostic criteria for critically ill patients: Comparing current criteria*

Objectives:To validate scoring algorithm criteria established by the Japanese Association for Acute Medicine (JAAM) for disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) and to evaluate its diagnostic property by comparing the two leading scoring systems for DIC, from the Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare (JMHW) and International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH). Design:Prospective, multicenter study during a 3-month period. Setting:General critical care center in a tertiary care hospital. Patients:Two hundred seventy-three patients with platelet counts <150 × 109/L were enrolled. Intervention:None. Measurements and Main Results:The JAAM, JMHW, and ISTH DIC scoring algorithms were prospectively applied within 12 hrs of patients meeting the inclusion criteria (day 0) to days 1–3, by global coagulation tests. The numbers of systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) criteria and Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) scores were determined simultaneously. Mortality associated with any cause was also assessed 28 days after the enrollment. All global coagulation tests and SIRS criteria adopted in the JAAM criteria and their cutoff points were validated with use of SOFA scores and mortality rate. DIC diagnostic rate of the JAAM DIC scoring system was significantly higher than that of the other two criteria (p < .001). The JAAM DIC algorithm was the most sensitive for early diagnosis of DIC (p < .001). Patients who fulfilled the JAAM DIC criteria included almost all those whose DIC was diagnosed by the JMHW and ISTH scoring systems. The JAAM DIC scores showed significant correlation with SOFA scores (&rgr; = 0.499; p < .001). SOFA score and mortality rate worsened in accordance with an increase in the JAAM DIC score. Fibrinogen criteria had little effect in predicting outcome for the DIC patients, and a total score of 4 points in the JAAM scoring system without fibrinogen was closely related to poor prognosis. According to the results, we revised the JAAM criteria by excluding fibrinogen and confirmed that the DIC diagnostic properties of original criteria remained unchanged in the revised JAAM criteria. Conclusions:The JAAM scoring system has an acceptable property for the diagnosis of DIC. The scoring system identified most of the patients diagnosed by the JMHW and ISTH criteria. Revised JAAM DIC criteria preserved all properties of the original criteria for DIC diagnosis. The revised scoring system can be useful for selecting DIC patients for early treatment in a critical care setting.
What Price Ambiguity? or the Role of Ambiguity in Decision-Making

INTRODUCTION IN A recent article Daniel Ellsberg discusses ambiguity as a variable in the decision-making process.2 Three fundamental issues are discussed: What is ambiguity? What role does it play in decision-making? What role should it play in decision-making? The present study is focused on the first two of these issues and seeks to supplement the contributions of Ellsberg by adding experimental evidence and by suggesting a more easily measurable concept of ambiguity.
Customary Practice and Community Governance in Implementing the Human Right to Water – The Case of the Acequia Communities of Colorado's Rio Culebra Watershed

Community control of water resources has great cultural and political importance when people’s identity and ways of living depend on their relationship to specific landscapes and natural resources. In this paper we focus on the Colorado Acequia Act, a 2009 law intended to provide an alternative and culturally specific legal regime for the management of water rights and water distribution systems in Hispano communities. We analyze the challenges of meeting the Act’s policy goals in the shadow of Colorado’s dominant prior appropriation system of water allocation. We note the continuity of the Act’s purposes with international law principles favoring recognition of a human right to water.This paper was presented at "Implementing the Human Right to Water in the West," held at Willamette University College of Law Feb. 3-5, 2011.
New criteria for assessing fit quality in dynamic contrast‐enhanced T1‐weighted MRI for perfusion and permeability imaging

Contrast‐enhanced (CE) MRI provides in vivo physiological information that cannot be obtained by conventional imaging methods. This information is generally extracted by using models to represent the circulation of contrast agent in the body. However, the results depend on the quality of the fit obtained with the chosen model. Therefore, one must check the fit quality to avoid working on physiologically irrelevant parameters. In this study two dimensionless criteria—the fraction of modeling information (FMI) and the fraction of residual information (FRI)—are proposed to identify errors caused by poor fit. These are compared with more conventional criteria, namely the quadratic error and the correlation coefficient, both theoretically and with the use of simulated and real CE‐MRI data. The results indicate the superiority of the new criteria. It is also shown that these new criteria can be used to detect oversimplified models. Magn Reson Med, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Computer Tablet Games’ Effect on Young Children’s Self-Concept

Playing in general has a positive effect on child development; yet with the advancement of technology, the way children play has changed, and the effects of their play have changed as well. Some studies have shown an overall negative effect of electronic games, while others have reported the opposite. This study aims to investigate the effects of tablet-based electronic games on the child’s self-concept. Twenty-six children between the ages of 4 and 6 years from low-income backgrounds participated. They were divided into two groups; in the experimental group, children were given a tablet device with 10 educational electronic games on it, and the mothers were instructed to let them play the games for less than three hours a day in a normal home situation. The control group was not given any electronic devices. A pre- and post-pictorial measure of self-concept was used. The overall results showed no gains in self-concept for the experimental group and no differences between the groups, except in the domain of curiosity, where the control group children experienced a pre- to post-test increase.
Functional Characterization of Multidrug Resistance-Associated Protein 3 (Mrp3/Abcc3) in the Basolateral Efflux of Glucuronide Conjugates in the Mouse Small Intestine

The intestine expresses metabolic enzymes and transporters and functions as a barrier to orally administered xenobiotics. This study aimed to examine the importance of multidrug resistance-associated protein 3 (Mrp3/Abcc3) in the serosal efflux of glucuronide conjugates formed in the intestine using wild-type and Mrp3(−/−) mice. The everted sacs of the intestine were incubated with 4-methylumbelliferone (4MU), and the efflux rates of intracellularly formed glucuronide conjugate of 4MU (4MUG) into the mucosal and serosal sides were determined. The permeability-surface area product across the serosal membrane (PSserosal) of 4MUG in wild-type mice was greatest in the duodenum followed by the jejunum, ileum, and colon. The corresponding parameters were significantly reduced in Mrp3(−/−) mice (approximately 33% of that in wild-type mice) except for the colon where the PSserosal of 4MUG was similar between wild-type and Mrp3(−/−) mice. There was no difference in the PSmucosal of 4MUG in whole segments of the intestine between wild-type and Mrp3(−/−) mice. In addition to 4MUG, the PSserosal of the glucuronide conjugates of 7-ethyl-10-hydroxycamptothecin (SN-38) and acetaminophen in the jejunal everted sacs were also significantly reduced in Mrp3(−/−) mice compared with wild-type mice. There was no difference in the mRNA and protein expression of efflux transporters between wild-type and Mrp3(−/−) mice. These results suggest that Mrp3 plays major roles in the efflux transport of various glucuronide conjugates from the enterocytes to the portal blood in the small intestine together with unknown transporter(s), but the contribution of Mrp3 to the basolateral efflux of 4MUG was negligible in the colon.
Boards of directors in SMEs: a review and research agenda

This paper aims at reviewing research and presenting a research agenda on boards of directors in SMEs. While most publications about boards in SMEs focus on the lack of research in the area, this paper presents some of the work that has been conducted. Publications on boards of directors during the 1990s in outlets for SME research are reviewed. Boards of directors in small and medium-sized companies are getting increased attention, but the knowledge about boards in such companies is still fragmented. This paper presents research challenges based on a holistic model of directorates in SMEs that is elaborated from previous research about directorates. The papers selected for this special issue on boards of directors in SMEs are presented in this framework.
Organizational service orientation and its role in service performance formation: evidence from Polish service industry

Purpose – The paper seeks to evaluate the state of organizational service orientation in service industry in Poland; also to examine the influence of service orientation on key service performance, especially on the quality of service. Employing a cross‐sector approach, it aims to assess the problem of differences of organizational service orientation across different service trade.Design/methodology/approach – In the research process the survey method was employed. The research population enclosed 230 service enterprises operating in three regions of Poland; units were chosen randomly. Serv*Or questions battery designed by Lytle et al. was employed to assess the organizational service orientation. Advantage was taken of correlations analyses and ANOVA.Findings – The weakest element regarding organizational service orientation is employee empowerment, which originates partly from national inclination to individualism, and partly from the central planning political system that existed in the Polish economy.
SVM based Emotional Speaker Recognition using MFCC-SDC Features

Enhancing the performance of emotional speaker recognition process has witnessed an increasing interest in the last years. This paper highlights a methodology for speaker recognition under different emotional states based on the mul-ticlass Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier. We compare two feature extraction methods which are used to represent emotional speech utterances in order to obtain best accuracies. The first method known as traditional Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC) and the second one is MFCC combined with Shifted-Delta-Cepstra (MFCC-SDC). Experimentations are conducted on IEMOCAP database using two multiclass SVM ap-proaches: One-Against-One (OAO) and One Against-All (OAA). Obtained results show that MFCC-SDC features outperform the conventional MFCC.
mTor is required for hypertrophy of Pten-deficient neuronal soma in vivo

The mechanisms that regulate mammalian cell size during development and homeostatic maintenance are poorly understood. The tumor suppressor Pten is required for correct maintenance of mammalian neuronal soma size. Selective inactivation of Pten in postnatal granule neurons of the cerebellum and dentate gyrus in mouse causes cell-autonomous hypertrophy as well as more complex phenotypes, including progressive macrocephaly, seizures, and premature death. To determine the contribution of mTor signaling to Pten-mediated growth regulation in the mammalian nervous system, we treated Pten conditional knockout mice with CCI-779, a specific mTor inhibitor. mTor inhibition decreased the seizure frequency and death rate in Pten mutant mice, prevented the increase in Pten-deficient neuronal soma size in young mice, and reversed neuronal soma enlargement in adult mice. mTor inhibition did not decrease the size of wild-type adult neurons. Thus, mTor is required for neuronal hypertrophy downstream of Pten deficiency, but is not required for maintenance of normal neuronal soma size. mTOR inhibitors may be useful therapeutic agents for diseases in brain resulting from PTEN deficiency such as Lhermitte–Duclos disease or glioblastoma multiforme.