Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Behavioural effects of directive cues on front-of-package nutrition information: the combination matters!

Abstract Objective Nutrition information aims to reduce information asymmetries between manufacturers and consumers. To date, however, it remains unclear how nutrition information that is shown on the front of the packaging should be designed in order to increase both visual attention and the tendency to make healthful food choices. The present study aimed to address this gap in research. Design An experimental laboratory study applying mobile eye-tracking technology manipulated the presence of two directive cues, i.e. health marks and traffic light colour-coding, as part of front-of-package nutrition information on actual food packages. Setting Participants wore mobile eye-tracking glasses during a simulated shopping trip. After the ostensible study had finished, they chose one snack (from an assortment of fifteen snacks) as a thank you for participation. All products were labelled with nutrition information according to the experimental condition. Subjects Consumers (n 160) who were mainly responsible for grocery shopping in their household participated in the study. Results The results showed that, in the absence of traffic light colouring, health marks reduced attention to the snack food packaging. This effect did not occur when the colouring was present. The combination of the two directive cues (v. presenting traffic light colours only) made consumers choose more healthful snacks, according to the nutrient profile. Conclusions Public policy makers may recommend retailers and manufacturers implement consistent front-of-pack nutrition labelling that contains both health marks and traffic light colouring as directive cues. The combination of the cues may increase the likelihood of healthful decision making.
Preoperative capecitabine with pelvic radiotherapy for locally advanced rectal cancer (phase I trial).

OBJECTIVE Phase I multicenter study defined the maximal tolerated dose (MTD), dose-limiting toxicity (DLT) and safety profile of capecitabine in combination with preoperative radiation for patients with locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC). MATERIAL AND METHOD Patients were treated with oral capecitabine (700, 800, 900, 1000, 1100 and 1200 mg/m2 twice daily continuously) plus preoperative whole pelvic irradiation (45-46 Gy in 23-25 fractions over 5-6 weeks). Surgery was performed at the median of 42 days after chemoradiation treatment. RESULTS Twenty-seven patients were in this trial. Eighteen patients (3 per dose level) had received capecitabine from 700 mg/m2 twice daily to the highest dose level of 1200 mg/m2 twice daily. There were no grade 3/4 DLTs during dose escalation, a further nine patients were included at the highest capecitabine dose. Two of the twelve patients (16%) receiving capecitabine 1200 mg/m2 twice daily developed grade 3 diarrhea and discontinued treatment. There were no other grade 3/4 adverse events. After capecitabine chemoradiation, 24 of 27 patients (89%) received definite surgery. Primary and lymph node down staging occurred in ten patients (42%). Sphincter-sparing surgery was performed in seven patients (26%) and abdominal-perineal resection was performed in 17 patients (63%). CONCLUSION Preoperative capecitabine chemoradiation based on continuous daily capecitabine is very well tolerated in patients with LARC. The authors did not reach the MTD in the present study.
Altered mRNA expression of specific molecular species of fucosyl‐ and sialyl‐transferases in human colorectal cancer tissues

Human colorectal cancers express various cancer‐associated carbohydrate determinants such as Lewis Y or sialyl Lewis A, suggesting a considerable alteration in glycosyltransferase activities occurring upon malignant transformation. We investigated the mRNA amounts of fucosyltransferase (Fuc‐T) and sialyltransferase (ST) isoenzymes, including Fuc‐T III, IV, V, VI and VII and ST‐3N, ST‐30 and ST‐4, in human colorectal cancer tissues by Northern blotting and RT‐PCR. Regarding fucosyltransferases, mRNA of Fuc‐T III and VI was not significantly altered, and only Fuc‐T IV mRNA showed a moderate increase in cancer tissues when compared with adjacent non‐malignant colonic epithelia taken from the same patient (273 ± 96%; p < 0.001). The moderate increase of Fuc‐T IV message may be related to an enhanced expression of Lewis Y in colon cancer tissues. In the ST isoenzymes, mRNA for ST‐3N remained unchanged, whereas that for ST‐4 decreased significantly in cancer tissues, to 32 ± 29%, (p < 0.005). The most remarkable finding was that the message of ST‐30 was prominently increased in cancer tissues compared with non‐malignant colorectal mucosa. When further investigated by quantitative RT‐PCR assays on a larger series of patients with colorectal cancers, the average increase in mRNA for ST‐30 was 459 ± 200% compared with that in adjacent non‐malignant epithelium (significant at p < 0.0001). The increase of ST‐30 message was more prominent in the cancer tissues strongly expressing sialyl Lewis A than in the cancer tissues expressing sialyl Lewis A only weakly or moderately (significant at p < 0.05). The marked increase in the message of ST‐30 is suggested to be related to an enhanced expression of sialylated carbohydrate determinants in colon cancer tissues including sialyl Lewis A, since the enzyme exhibited a significant activity against the type I chain carbohydrate substrate and produced the precursors for sialyl Lewis A synthesis, when its cDNA was expressed in Cos‐7 cells. Int. J. Cancer 71:556‐564, 1997 © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same: The Liberal Tradition and Obama's Counterterrorism Policy

Barack Obama campaigned on a platform of “Change We Can Believe In. ” One of the biggest changes many anticipated with his election was a dramatic break with the previous administration's counterterror policy. There were good reasons for thinking that this would be the case. George W. Bush was a Republican who took his cues from the most conservative elements of his party, including neoconservatives, the religious right, and other proponents of an assertive stance of U.S. global primacy and a forward-leaning posture in the war on terror. Conversely, Barack Obama is a liberal Democrat who opposed the Iraq War and seeks to “reset” America's relations with other countries around the world by recommitting the United States to a more moderate approach to waging the war against al-Qaeda, including measures such as adopting a more multilateral foreign policy, closing the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, ending the practices of extraordinary rendition and enhanced interrogation, and showing a greater respect for civil liberties domestically.
Familias latinoamericanas en transformación: desafíos y demandas para la acción pública

A lo largo de las ultimas decadas en America Latina se han dado una serie de transformaciones demograficas, sociales, economicas y culturales que afectaron las formas de vivir en familia y las dinamicas de la vida familiar. Estos cambios societales alteraron, tanto los gustos, preferencias y orientaciones de los individuos, como las estructuras de oportunidades a las que tienen acceso. La creciente heterogeneidad en las formas familiares no solo se debe a una modernizacion de los vinculos sociales y de creciente autonomia individual sino que es tambien el resultado de las crisis, del crecimiento economico desigual y de una mayor inequidad en la region. Las familias tuvieron que enfrentar y adecuarse a las nuevas circunstancias en funcion de los recursos y los activos disponibles. Para muchas estos cambios vinieron acompanados por un empobrecimiento de la oferta y calidad de servicios publicos y de apoyo institucional. Este trabajo se propone contribuir a la discusion sobre cambios familiares y los retos que imponen para las politicas publicas. Inicialmente se recorren las principales transformaciones sociodemograficas que contribuyen a alterar las estructuras y dinamicas y las funciones familiares de cuidado. Seguidamente se establecen los cambios en los procesos de formacion, disolucion y estructura familiar identificando patrones intrarregionales comunes y determinando comportamientos diferenciados derivados de las inequidades socioeconomicas. En tercer lugar se examinan las dinamicas intra-familiares, en particular los cambios en la division sexual del trabajo. Se presentan los procesos que subyacen a la ruptura del modelo patriarcal y la creciente necesidad de apoyos institucionales para facilitar las tareas de cuidado, proteccion y socializacion dentro y fuera de la familia Finalmente, se analizan las politicas de proteccion y bienestar, planteando la necesidad de aplicar conjuntamente politicas sectoriales y transversales para mejorar la equidad y hacer efectivo el acceso a derechos de ciudadania.
When genetic distance matters: Measuring genetic differentiation at microsatellite loci in whole-genome scans of recent and incipient mosquito species

Genetic distance measurements are an important tool to differentiate field populations of disease vectors such as the mosquito vectors of malaria. Here, we have measured the genetic differentiation between Anopheles arabiensis and Anopheles gambiae, as well as between proposed emerging species of the latter taxon, in whole genome scans by using 23–25 microsatellite loci. In doing so, we have reviewed and evaluated the advantages and disadvantages of standard parameters of genetic distance, FST, RST, (δμ)2, and D. Further, we have introduced new parameters, D′ and DK, which have well defined statistical significance tests and complement the standard parameters to advantage. D′ is a modification of D, whereas DK is a measure of covariance based on Pearson's correlation coefficient. We find that A. gambiae and A. arabiensis are closely related at most autosomal loci but appear to be distantly related on the basis of X-linked chromosomal loci within the chromosomal Xag inversion. The M and S molecular forms of A. gambiae are practically indistinguishable but differ significantly at two microsatellite loci from the proximal region of the X, outside the Xag inversion. At one of these loci, both M and S molecular forms differ significantly from A. arabiensis, but remarkably, at the other locus, A. arabiensis is indistinguishable from the M molecular form of A. gambiae. These data support the recent proposal of genetically differentiated M and S molecular forms of A. gambiae.
Dyke Maintenance and Other Stories: Some Neglected Types of Public Goods

The orthodox "summation" model of a pure nonexcludable public good assumes that each individual consumes a quantity of public good defined as the sum of all individuals' contributions to that good. Recently, Hirshleifer [1983, 1985] has analyzed models that do not fall within this class. At one extreme is the "weakestlink," in which the total quantity available to each consumer equals the smallest individual contribution. At the other is the "best-shot," in which the total quantity available equals the largest individual contribution. Hirshleifer's example of the weakest-link case concerns a circular region, of which each citizen owns a pie-shaped slice. The perimeter is marked by a dyke. Floods may penetrate the weakest point of the dyke and cause damage equally throughout the region. Each citizen decides the height and state of repair of that section of the dyke adjoining his piece of land, its maintenance constituting his contribution to the public good. Thus, the level of protection enjoyed by all is determined by the least well maintained section of the dyke. An example of the best-shot case concerns a number of antimissile batteries ringing a city, firing at an incoming ICBM. All that matters is the accuracy of the best shot. Bliss and Nalebuff [1984] discuss dragon-slaying as another example of a best-shot situation. Section II of this paper introduces a class of functions of which the summation, weakest-link, and best-shot are examples. Section III analyzes the properties of equilibrium when consumers have identical tastes and incomes. Section IV analyzes the implications of income redistribution. In the summation case the equilibrium is unaffected by the initial redistribution over a range, and outside that range transfers help the recipient and hurt the donor. Within the broader class of models, however, the invariance property does not generally hold, and there may be opportunities for Paretoimproving income redistribution. I give an example, similar to the weakest-link case, in which a Pareto-improving redistribution is
Different magnetization transfer effects exhibited by the short and long T2 components in human brain

Magnetization transfer ratios (MTRs) were measured separately for the two T2 components in white matter. For both binomial and off‐resonance sinc MT pulses, the MTR was larger for the short T2 component than for the long T2 component. This differential MT effect disappeared for delays between the MT pulse and the multi‐echo pulse sequence longer than 200 msec, indicating exchange between the two components. When using the sinc MT pulse, the MTR for the short T2 component was similar for different white matter structures, whereas it varied for different white matter structures when using the binomial pulse—a phenomenon attributed to direct saturation. When the sinc pulse frequency was brought closer to resonance, MTRs in white matter and doped water phantoms increased for both components but more so for the shorter T2 component. This behavior was consistent with a Bloch equation model of direct saturation. Magn Reson Med 44:860–866, 2000. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Redefining Cellular Phenotypy Based on Embryonic, Adult, and Cancer Stem Cell Biology

Stem cell biology has provided constant alteration if not reversal of dogma related to the understanding of the behaviors of primitive and dynamic cells. This review summarizes recent findings on dynamic changes of phenotype that accompany the in vitro growth and differentiation of not only stem and progenitor cells, but also differentiated cells derived from a variety of normal and pathological tissues. As there are examples of apparent dedifferentiation and transdifferentiation of neural cells that appear to be terminally differentiated, there is a need to reconsider elements of cellular fate choice that have relevance to neurooncology and neural repair. Recent findings of dynamic behaviors and mixed phenotype of both normal and cancer stem cells suggest that some of the diverse lineage attributes of different solid tumors may owe their existence to dynamic cellular phenotypy gone awry.
Industrial Organization and New Findings on the Turnover and Mobility of Firms

This paper surveys a large new literature derived from longitudinal data bases on the populations of firms and establishmnets in a number of countries. It shows the prevasiveness of turnover from entry and exit (high infant mortality of entrants); the entry process shows a good deal of rationality about entrants' chances and the importance of real options for entrants. Mobility and mean-regression processes are pervasive among incumbent firms. This evidence is related to the existing core of industrial organization, derived from equilibrium models, with emphasis on the integration of random processes and purposive behavior. Turnover and mobility are also related to productivity growth and the prevalence of productive inefficiency.
Risk of suicide amongst dentists: myth or reality?

OBJECTIVES To analyse the scientific weight of the studies about reports of suicide rates in dentistry and decide the possible stressors caused by dental clinical activity, their consequences and their treatment. DISCUSSION The previous literature treats the high suicide rate associated with the dental profession in different ways: myth for some, important statistical data which needs further research for others. The possible errors repeated in the literature as a result of not introducing certain indispensable variables are analysed and a report given of the main stressors linked to the profession. The results showed that the absence of treatment of the disorders arising from these stressors by qualified professionals along with the lack of preventative measures developed by universities and clinicians to be one of the main problems. CONCLUSIONS In the literature we find systematically a suicide rate among dentists higher than those of other occupations. These studies lack the correct scientific weight and new studies are required that introduce the demographic variables, the psiquiatric morbidity previous to the development of the profession, the opportunity factor, the stressors not related to work and the relative emphasis to these are necessary to for the profession to decrease the risk of suicide.
Evaluating the Economic Impact of International Remittances On Developing Countries Using Household Surveys: A Literature Review

Abstract This literature review covers 50 recent empirical studies of the economic impact of international remittances on the developing world that are based on household survey data. It begins by reviewing the considerable methodological problems confronting economic work on international remittances, and then examines the strengths and weaknesses of various economic studies of the impact of remittances in the developing world on such outcomes as: poverty and inequality, health and education, investment and savings, labour supply and participation, and economic growth. It finds that while international remittances generally have a positive impact on poverty and health in the developing world, remittances can have negative effects on labour supply, education and economic growth.
The Management of Family Firms: An Empirical Investigation

Stephenson and David Monteith are with the University of Ulster at Jordanstown, Northern Ireland. A significant proportion of small firms in the United Kingdom and the United States are family businesses where one family exercises financial and/or managerial control. Differences occur between those ventures where ownership and/or control is vested in a founder and his family and those where non-owning managers are the dominant force. This paper reports on an empirical investigation carried out by the authors into more than 3,000 firms in Britain and Ireland. They examined whether demographic differences in areas such as age, size, legal status and industrial classification arose between family and non-family firms and whether distinctive ownership arrangements and management structures were found in the two groups. At the outset they suspected that family firms would be less professionally managed in terms of their strategic and day-to-day decision making, designation of roles and relationships and evaluation of their personnel than nonfamily businesses.
Impact of Manufacturing Technology and Material Composition on the Clinical Performance of Hydrogel Lenses

Purpose. To establish the clinical impact of three different methods of manufacture used to produce soft contact lenses. Methods. Clinical performance of five lens types was investigated by undertaking a prospective, double-masked, randomized, crossover study. Three of the lenses were made from poly(hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (pHEMA) by three different manufacturing processes (lathing, spin casting, and cast molding), and the remaining two lenses were cast molded from different materials—hydroxyethyl methacrylate/methacrylic acid and hydroxyethyl methacrylate/glycerol methacrylate (HEMA/GMA). All lenses were specially fabricated for this work at the same manufacturing plant. Thirty-four soft contact lens wearers wore each lens for 1 month on a daily-wear basis. Several clinical variables, such as ocular response, visual acuity, lens fitting, prelens tear film, lens surface dehydration, subjective response, and protein deposition, were measured. Results. In general, the spun-cast pHEMA lens performed inferiorly compared with the other pHEMA lenses. This lens induced significantly more limbal and conjunctival hyperemia than the cast-molded lens and provided poorer low contrast visual acuity (LCVA) than the other two lenses. It dehydrated more and had the least on-eye movement. However, the spun-cast lens deposited the least protein of the pHEMA lenses. In general, the HEMA/GMA lens performed inferiorly compared with the other cast-molded lenses. LCVA was worse with this lens, and subjective responses showed that this lens was thought to give the worst visual performance of the cast-molded lenses. It was also thought to be the most difficult lens to handle. Significantly more breakages occurred with this lens than any other. Conclusions. Overall, this work has shown that manufacturing method and material composition have a fundamental effect on many clinical properties of a lens. Therefore, method of manufacture is also an important consideration in the overall production of a soft lens.
Thermal stability of Hf/sub x/Ta/sub y/N metal gate electrodes for advanced MOS devices

In this letter, the composition effects of hafnium (Hf) and tantalum (Ta) in Hf/sub x/Ta/sub y/N metal gate on the thermal stability of MOS devices were investigated. The work function of the Hf/sub x/Ta/sub y/N metal gate can reach a value of /spl sim/4.6 eV (midgap of silicon) by suitably adjusting the Hf and Ta compositions. In addition, with a small amount of Hf incorporated into a TaN metal gate, excellent thermal stability of electrical properties, including the work function, the equivalent oxide thickness, interface trap density and defect generation rate characteristics, can be achieved after a post-metal anneal up to 950/spl deg/C for 45 s. Experimental results indicate that Ta-rich Hf/sub x/Ta/sub y/N is a promising metal gate for advanced MOS devices.
Using Survey Data To Test for Ricardian Equivalence

Drawing on nationwide and representative survey data for the Netherlands, this article tests, first, to what degree economic subjects are aware of the level of both government debt and deficits, and, second, examines whether fiscal policy relates to individual saving decisions. The results presented suggest that one of the central assumptions of the Ricardian equivalence hypothesis must be refuted: most individu als have little knowledge of the government's indebtedness. Furthermore, their saving behavior appears not to be influenced by the fiscal policy stance. The authors show that individual responses vary with age, education, income, and employment status, but not with having offspring.
Role of Cell-Type-Specific Endoplasmic Reticulum-Associated Degradation in Polyomavirus Trafficking

ABSTRACT BK polyomavirus (BKPyV) is a widespread human pathogen that establishes a lifelong persistent infection and can cause severe disease in immunosuppressed patients. BKPyV is a nonenveloped DNA virus that must traffic through the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) for productive infection to occur; however, it is unknown how BKPyV exits the ER before nuclear entry. In this study, we elucidated the role of the ER-associated degradation (ERAD) pathway during BKPyV intracellular trafficking in renal proximal tubule epithelial (RPTE) cells, a natural host cell. Using proteasome and ERAD inhibitors, we showed that ERAD is required for productive entry. Altered trafficking and accumulation of uncoated viral intermediates were detected by fluorescence in situ hybridization and indirect immunofluorescence in the presence of an inhibitor. Additionally, we detected a change in localization of partially uncoated virus within the ER during proteasome inhibition, from a BiP-rich area to a calnexin-rich subregion, indicating that BKPyV accumulated in an ER subcompartment. Furthermore, inhibiting ERAD did not prevent entry of capsid protein VP1 into the cytosol from the ER. By comparing the cytosolic entry of the related polyomavirus simian virus 40 (SV40), we found that dependence on the ERAD pathway for cytosolic entry varied between the polyomaviruses and between different cell types, namely, immortalized CV-1 cells and primary RPTE cells.