Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Increased Pathogenicity of a Reassortant 2009 Pandemic H1N1 Influenza Virus Containing an H5N1 Hemagglutinin

ABSTRACT A novel H1N1 influenza virus emerged in 2009 (pH1N1) to become the first influenza pandemic of the 21st century. This virus is now cocirculating with highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza viruses in many parts of the world, raising concerns that a reassortment event may lead to highly pathogenic influenza strains with the capacity to infect humans more readily and cause severe disease. To investigate the virulence of pH1N1-H5N1 reassortant viruses, we created pH1N1 (A/California/04/2009) viruses expressing individual genes from an avian H5N1 influenza strain (A/Hong Kong/483/1997). Using several in vitro models of virus replication, we observed increased replication for a reassortant CA/09 virus expressing the hemagglutinin (HA) gene of HK/483 (CA/09-483HA) relative to that of either parental CA/09 virus or reassortant CA/09 expressing other HK/483 genes. This increased replication correlated with enhanced pathogenicity in infected mice similar to that of the parental HK/483 strain. The serial passage of the CA/09 parental virus and the CA/09-483HA virus through primary human lung epithelial cells resulted in increased pathogenicity, suggesting that these viruses easily adapt to humans and become more virulent. In contrast, serial passage attenuated the parental HK/483 virus in vitro and resulted in slightly reduced morbidity in vivo, suggesting that sustained replication in humans attenuates H5N1 avian influenza viruses. Taken together, these data suggest that reassortment between cocirculating human pH1N1 and avian H5N1 influenza strains will result in a virus with the potential for increased pathogenicity in mammals.
Performance measurement and change in local government: A general case and a childcare application

This article first makes a general case for the use of multi‐dimensional performance measurement (PM) in local government as a way of helping managers cope with environmental and organizational change, and then applies it to a social services departments childcare team. Based on a case study of PM at Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council, the article's proposals are complementary to those of the Audit Commission and the Citizen's Charter, and are intended to improve local services in two ways: by forging closer links between objectives, strategies and daily operations; and encouraging more fundamental service process redesign where necessary.
Natural Resources and Regional Development: An Assessment of Dependency and Comparative Advantage Paradigms

Abstract The role of natural resources in regional development is the subject of a debate between dependency theorists, who argue that natural resources impede development, and comparative-advantage theorists, who argue that resources can expedite development. This debate is assessed by a case study analysis of the impact of resource development on a regional economy. The case study uses a model to estimate the comparative advantage of the resource sector. The results show that natural resources have the potential to provide a significant comparative advantage relative to other economic sectors by virtue of generating resource rent, which is a surplus above normal returns to other factors of production. The case study also shows that there are considerable risks in resource-led growth, including the propensity to dissipate rent and increase community instability by building surplus capacity. These risks are amenable to mitigation because they are largely the result of poor management of resource development. The case study demonstrates that the most productive analytical approach for understanding the role of natural resources in the development process is a synthetic approach, which combines the insights of the dependency and comparative-advantage paradigms into a unified framework. It also demonstrates that the concept of resource rent, which has frequently been ignored in development theory, must be reintegrated into the unified framework to improve the understanding of the role of natural resources in the regional development process.
Linkages between Parliamentary and Ministerial Careers in Germany, 1949–2008: The Bundestag as Recruitment Pool

Delegation theory assumes strong direct links between the parliamentary majority and the government in parliamentary democracies. Based on a data set of career characteristics for all federal cabinet ministers in Germany 1949 to 2008, we test whether the Bundestag serves as the dominant recruitment pool throughout the period, whether party membership of ministers is a sine qua non, and whether non-party members and/or non-MPs seek membership as soon as possible after their selection for a cabinet post. We find confirmation for all three hypotheses, although in more recent times an increasing number of ministers are level-switchers, i.e. are recruited from the ranks of Länder executives.
Structural basis of lipoprotein signal peptidase II action and inhibition by the antibiotic globomycin

Insight into a bacterial membrane protease Lipoproteins have key functions in many bacteria. They are synthesized in a precursor form that requires processing by enzymes that are essential in many pathogenic bacteria but have no equivalent in humans, making them potential drug targets. LspA is a key membrane protein involved in lipoprotein maturation in the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Vogeley et al. determined the crystal structure of LspA bound to the antibiotic globomycin. Their structure and mutagenesis studies reveal how LspA processes substrate lipoproteins and indicate that globomycin inhibits the enzyme by binding to the active site. These findings should be useful in the development of new antibiotics. Science, this issue p. 876 A crystal structure shows how a bacterial enzyme functions in lipoprotein maturation and is inhibited by an antibiotic. With functions that range from cell envelope structure to signal transduction and transport, lipoproteins constitute 2 to 3% of bacterial genomes and play critical roles in bacterial physiology, pathogenicity, and antibiotic resistance. Lipoproteins are synthesized with a signal peptide securing them to the cytoplasmic membrane with the lipoprotein domain in the periplasm or outside the cell. Posttranslational processing requires a signal peptidase II (LspA) that removes the signal peptide. Here, we report the crystal structure of LspA from Pseudomonas aeruginosa complexed with the antimicrobial globomycin at 2.8 angstrom resolution. Mutagenesis studies identify LspA as an aspartyl peptidase. In an example of molecular mimicry, globomycin appears to inhibit by acting as a noncleavable peptide that sterically blocks the active site. This structure should inform rational antibiotic drug discovery.
Simultaneous Optical Mapping of Transmembrane Potential and Intracellular Calcium in Myocyte Cultures

Simultaneous Mapping of Vm and Cai2+. Introduction: Fast spatially resolved measurements of transmembrane potential (Vm) and intracellular calcium (Cai2+) are important for studying mechanisms of arrhythmias and defibrillation. The goals of this work were (1) to develop an optical technique for simultaneous multisite optical recordings of Vm and Cai2+, and (2) to determine the relationship between Vm and Cai2+ during normal impulse propagation in myocyte cultures.
Candidatus Chloracidobacterium thermophilum: An Aerobic Phototrophic Acidobacterium

Only five bacterial phyla with members capable of chlorophyll (Chl)–based phototrophy are presently known. Metagenomic data from the phototrophic microbial mats of alkaline siliceous hot springs in Yellowstone National Park revealed the existence of a distinctive bacteriochlorophyll (BChl)–synthesizing, phototrophic bacterium. A highly enriched culture of this bacterium grew photoheterotrophically, synthesized BChls a and c under oxic conditions, and had chlorosomes and type 1 reaction centers. “Candidatus Chloracidobacterium thermophilum” is a BChl-producing member of the poorly characterized phylum Acidobacteria.
Examining the link between human resource management orientation and firm performance

This paper examines the relationship between HRM (in terms of the orientation of the function) and firm performance in Greek firms, using the universalistic approach. In order to acquire a better view of this much‐researched issue, measures for various aspects of firm performance have been used, controlling for external environment, competitive strategy, and organizational size. The research findings show that HRM has a more significant influence on growth/innovation indices, as opposed to financial performance. Also, high orientation in all HRM models does not lead to improved firm performance, as was initially expected.
The thoracic outlet syndrome: Controversies, overdiagnosis, overtreatment, and recommendations for management

This review is an objective critique of the thoracic outlet syndrome, with emphasis on the need to separate true neurogenic and vascular syndromes from nonspecific ones. Major controversies in the diagnosis and management of thoracic outlet syndromes are discussed, with an analysis of major pitfalls encountered in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with nonspecific syndromes. Recommendations to improve diagnostic methods in patients with chronic neurovascular abnormalities in the upper extremities are outlined.
Stress and Birth Weight: Evidence from Terrorist Attacks

While terrorist attacks are relatively infrequent, Gary Becker and Yona Rubinstein (2008) provide evidence that they generate a disproportionate amount of stress and fear, suggesting that the indirect effects may be far more reaching than the direct effects. The international organization Medecins Sans Frontieres (2006) claims that the physiological effect of civil conflict is Colombian’s worst public health problem. This paper is the first attempt to measure the effect of prenatal psychological stress due to terrorism on child birth outcomes. The medical literature indicates that prenatal stress increases levels of CorticotrophinReleasing Hormone (CRH), which regulates the duration of pregnancy and fetal maturation and thus increases the risk of adverse birth outcomes (Pathik D. Wadhwa et al. 1993, among others). There is also evidence that birth outcomes are most sensitive to maternal stress in early stages of pregnancy (Laura M. Glynn et al. 2001). This study finds that the intensity of random landmine explosions during a woman’s first trimester of pregnancy has a significant negative impact on child birth weight. This finding persists when mother fixed effects are included, suggesting that neither observable nor unobservable characteristics of the mothers are driving the results. I use a large dataset, comprising approximately 4 million births in Colombia from 1998 to 2003, which enables me to observe multiple births by the same mother and gives strong statistical power to discern patterns. The data also allow me to link the date of a landmine explosion with the trimester of the pregnancy, and thereby to identify the stage of pregnancy Stress and Birth Weight: Evidence from Terrorist Attacks
Essays on restructured electricity markets

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Georgetown University, 2008. ; Includes bibliographical references. This dissertation focuses on the performance of restructured electricity markets in the United States. In chapter 1, I study bidder-specific offer caps ("BSOCs") which are used to mitigate market power in three wholesale electricity markets. The price of electricity is determined through multi-unit uniform price auctions and BSOCs impose an upper limit, which is increasing in marginal cost, on each generator's bid. I apply BSOCs in both the uniform and discriminatory price auctions and characterize the equilibria in a two firm model with stochastic demand. BSOCs unambiguously increase expected production efficiency in the uniform price auction and they can increase the expected profit of the generator with the lower cap. ; Chapter 2, coauthored with Ramteen Sioshansi, Ph.D., compares two types of uniform price auction formats used in wholesale electricity markets, centrally committed markets and self committed markets. In centrally committed markets, generators submit two-part bids consisting of a fixed startup cost and a variable (per MWh) energy cost, and the auctioneer ensures that no generator operates at a loss. Generators in self committed markets must incorporate their startup costs into their one part energy bids. We derive Nash equilibria for both the centrally and self committed electricity markets in a model with two symmetric generators with nonconvex costs and deterministic demand. Using a numerical example, we demonstrate that if the caps on the bid elements are chosen appropriately, the two market designs are equivalent in terms of generator revenues and settlement costs. ; Regulators and prominent academic experts believe that electric restructuring polices have stifled investment in new generation capacity. In chapter 3 I seek to determine whether these fears are supported by empirical evidence. I examine both total investment in megawatts and the number of new investments across regions that adopted different electric restructuring policies to determine whether electric restructuring is associated with lower levels of investment in new generation capacity. The estimation results do not prove that total investment levels are lower in regions with restructured electric systems, but I cannot rule the possibility out.
Research in managerial accounting: Learning from others' experiences

The purpose of this paper is to identify the strengths and weaknesses of three research methods employed in managerial accounting: experimental, survey and field research. We do this by drawing on the three papers published in this issue of the Journal. These three papers provide the reader with a 'behind the scenes' expose on the problems, choices and decisions confronted by the researcher during the method phase of the empirical study. The complexities associated with method are rarely reported in published papers nor is there any explanation of why effort is devoted to particular methodological issues. It is, however, important for the novice researcher to recognise these choices and problems, both when selecting a particular method, and in designing a study. We attempt to critique these papers in terms of choice of method and also the extent to which each of the studies satisfies the three maxims' of scientific method, namely, construct validity, internal validity and external validity. Our review demonstrates the trade-offs that are necessarily made when designing a research study. There are, however, ways in which the effects of these trade-offs can be minimised and we provide guidance as to how the study design might be improved to achieve this.
Photoperiodism in Hamsters: Abrupt Versus Gradual Changes in Day Length Differentially Entrain Morning and Evening Circadian Oscillators

In studies of photoperiodism, animals typically are transferred abruptly from a long (e.g., 16 h light per day [16L]) to a short (8L) photoperiod, and circadian oscillators that regulate pineal melatonin secretion are presumed to reentrain rapidly to the new photocycle. Among rats and Siberian hamsters, however, reentrainment rates vary depending on whether additional darkness is added to morning or evening, and a subset of hamsters (nonresponders) fails ever to reentrain normally to short photoperiods. The authors assessed whether several short-day responses occurred at different rates when darkness was extended into morning versus evening hours and the effectiveness of abrupt versus gradual shortening in day lengths (DLs). Entrainment patterns of photoresponsive hamsters also were compared to those of photononresponsive hamsters. Responsive hamsters transferred on a single day from 16L to 8L underwent more rapid gonadal regression, weight loss, decreases in follicle-stimulating hormone titers, and expansion of nocturnal locomotor activity when darkness was added to morning versus evening. When the dark phase was extended gradually by 8 h over 16 weeks, short-day responses occurred at the same rate whether darkness was appended to morning or evening or was added symmetrically. Darkness added to evening promoted more rapid short-day responses when it was added gradually rather than abruptly, despite the fact that average DLs were significantly shorter for the latter group. Among nonresponders, morning extensions of darkness transiently increased activity duration, whereas evening extensions did not. Gradual and abrupt decreases in DL differentially affect entrainment of evening and morning circadian oscillators. The authors argue for the incorporation of simulated natural photoperiods in studies of photoperiodism.
The status of internal controls in fast moving small medium and micro consumer goods enterprises within the Cape Peninsula

South African Small Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) play an important role in terms of stimulating the national economy. Despite the aforementioned, prior research shows that the failure rate of these entities is amongst one of the highest in the world, which is believed to be caused by economic factors. Several economic factors which impact on SMME sustainability have subsequently been researched and identified. As a result, SMME sustainability has received attention from the national government in recent times. One of economic factors which have been perceived by the authors as a major contributor to the high SMME failure rate is the lack of internal controls. Ultimately the responsibilities to both implement internal control frameworks and maintain all internal controls, rests with the management of an organisation. In essence, it can be said that a business is uncontrollable when it is essentially unmanageable. With the absence of adequate internal controls, an environment is created where an organisation is susceptible to all kinds of detrimental risks and, if these risks are not taken care of on time, the overall sustainability of the organisation could be negatively affected, which may lead in imminent failure. The main objective of this study was to determine the degree to which the implementation of an adequate system of internal control can help improve SMME sustainability. The research that was conducted was empirical in nature and fell within the ambit of the positivistic research paradigm. Questionnaires were administered and distributed to 110 owners and/or managers of SMMEs (SMME leaders) that operate within the fast moving consumer goods industry, situated in the Cape Peninsula. Based on the findings, it is obvious that most of the SMMEs do have a variety of internal controls, as prescribed by formal internal control frameworks but their support in terms of SMMEs sustainability were quite limited.
Estimating Investment Rigidity within a Threshold Regression Framework: The Case of U.S. Hog Production Sector

This article addresses the issues of investment/disinvestment asymmetry and a possible existence of a sluggish regime in the demand for a quasi-fixed input in the U.S. hog production sector. Adopting a new threshold estimation procedure, quarterly data from 1970 through 2002 are used to estimate a regime-dependent investment demand equation for a quasi-fixed input, taking sows as a proxy. The results support the existence of three regimes over alternative specifications precluding the sluggish regime, confirming the existence of asset fixity in hog production. The results also highlight the importance of accounting for investment rigidity when estimating hog supply and variable input demands. Copyright 2007, Oxford University Press.
The Political Conditioning of Economic Perceptions

Economic theories of voting argue that party popularity and vote are heavily influenced by the performance of the economy. Inferences about the direction of causality between perceptions of the economy and party support remain questionable, however. This article evaluates the microfoundations of economic theories of voting and party popularity using multiwave panel data. We model the dynamic relationships between party support and retrospective economic perceptions—both sociotropic and egocentric—through the 1992–97 British electoral cycle. Our findings indicate that sociotropic perceptions are strongly conditioned by prior opinions of the incumbent Conservative Party and once this temporal relationship is taken into account, they have little affect on incumbent party popularity. Throughout the electoral cycle, lagged political support has a substantially stronger effect on sociotropic perceptions than the latter have on concurrent party support. Moreover, egocentric perceptions appear to be neither strongly affected nor influenced by party support. The findings of these dynamic individual-level analyses indicate that conventional wisdom is likely to considerably overstate the importance of retrospective economic considerations for political preferences.
Effectiveness and Toxicity Screening of Various Absorption Enhancers in the Rat Small Intestine: Effects of Absorption Enhancers on the Intestinal Absorption of Phenol Red and the Release of Protein and Phospholipids from the Intestinal Membrane

Sodium glycocholate, sodium taurocholate, sodium deoxycholate, EDTA, sodium salicylate, sodium caprate, diethyl maleate, N‐lauryl‐β‐D‐maltopyranoside, linoleic acid polyoxyethylated (60 mol) mixed micelles (all 20 mM) have been ranked in order of their effectiveness as enhancers of the absorption of drugs in the rat small intestine, by use of an in‐situ loop model with phenol red as a model drug. Local toxicity in rats was examined by assessing protein and phospholipid release as biological markers.
The double indeterminacy of labour power

This research note aims to develop labour process theory by dividing labour power into two elements: effort and mobility power. Conventional labour process theory concentrates upon conflictual relations between workers and managers in the production process, especially around the effort or wage bargain (see Thompson, 1989; Thompson and Smith, 2001 for a full account of labour process debates). The paper develops the position that worker’s mobility choices and employer’s retention strategies are closely related to the organization of the labour process. The paper is mainly theoretical, but using secondary historical and contemporary research it shows how the double indeterminacy of labour structures work relations between workers and employers. The paper has seven parts, beginning with a review of the concept of indeterminacy and its two components within the capitalist employment relationship. Section two discusses research that has attempted to examine the link between the theme of labour turnover to conflicts in the labour process, and the strengths and limitations of this research. Sections three and four explore the wider political economy of labour mobility through the labour process, and section five the historical development of research on labour turnover. Section six examines the theory of internalization of labour within the large firm, and attempted management of mobility through career controls. Finally, section seven suggests the need for future research to examine the interaction between labour process and labour mobility in the representation of work relations in contemporary capitalism.