Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
pH Dependency and Desensitization Kinetics of Heterologously Expressed Combinations of Acid-sensing Ion Channel Subunits*

The exact subunit combinations of functional native acid-sensing ion channels (ASICs) have not been established yet, but both homomeric and heteromeric channels are likely to exist. To determine the ability of different subunits to assemble into heteromeric channels, a number of ASIC1a-, ASIC1b-, ASIC2a-, ASIC2b-, and ASIC3-containing homo- and heteromeric channels were studied by whole-cell patch clamp recordings with respect to pH sensitivity, desensitization kinetics, and level of sustained current normalized to peak current. Analyzing and comparing data for these three features demonstrated unique heteromeric channels in a number of co-expression experiments. Formation of heteromeric ASIC1a+2a and ASIC1b+2a channels was foremost supported by the desensitization characteristics that were independent of proton concentration, a feature none of the respective homomeric channels has. Several lines of evidence supported formation of ASIC1a+3, ASIC1b+3, and ASIC2a+3 heteromeric channels. The most compelling was the desensitization characteristics, which, besides being proton-independent, were faster than those of any of the respective homomeric channels. ASIC2b, which homomerically expressed is not activated by protons per se, did not appear to form unique heteromeric combinations with other subunits and in fact appeared to suppress the function of ASIC1b. Co-expression of three subunits such as ASIC1a+2a+3 and ASIC1b+2a+3 resulted in data that could best be explained by coexistence of multiple channel populations within the same cell. This observation seems to be in good agreement with the fact that ASIC-expressing sensory neurons display a variety of acid-evoked currents.
Toward a self-regulatory form of accountability in the voluntary sector

Non-profit organisations are private self-regulating bodies. As their social welfare role expands so the need for greater public transparency and accountability increases. This article concentrates on the relationship between the sector and those stakeholders, beyond government and funding bodies, that are without formal levers of power. It draws upon three Ontario-based case studies that have experienced considerable change and share a strong commitment to self-regulatory accountability to their multiple stakeholders. It illustrates both the importance of particular organisational features and the immense difficulty and complexity of implementing the practice.
Improvement of shelf-life and microbiological quality of minimally processed refrigerated capsicum by gamma irradiation

Shelf-life, microbiological and chemical quality of minimally processed capsicum subjected to radiation doses of 1, 2 and 3 kGy followed by storage at 5°C and 10°C were evaluated. Irradiation at an optimal dose of 2 kGy reduced the initial bacterial population by 2–3 log cycles and eliminated the coliforms Listeria and Yersinia. Chemical analysis revealed that the initial contents of ascorbic acid (127.7 mg/100 g), carotenoid (110 μg/100 g) and chlorophyll (7.75 mg/g) were reduced marginally by 5–10% with increasing radiation dose. However, during subsequent storage, up to 4 weeks, the temperature-dependent losses in vitamin C and chlorophyll content of irradiated samples were less compared with non-irradiated samples. The total carotenoid content of capsicum irradiated and stored for up to 2 weeks at 10°C showed a similar trend. Thus, gamma irradiation at 2 kGy was found to improve both the hygienic quality and shelf-life without affecting the nutritional quality of minimally processed capsicum.
Separating the Political and Technical: Accounting Standard-Setting and Purification†

The U.S.-based Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) emphasizes that accounting standard-setting is not and should not be regarded as a �political process. � Employing the case of accounting for stock compensation, I examine a recent debate in which FASB appears to have successfully established and maintained a boundary between a technical accounting process and politics. This case is interesting because an earlier, failed effort to expense stock compensation was described as highly politicized. However, the boundary between technical and political processes was maintained in the more recent episode. I find that a focus on due process, characterizations of existing accounting requirements as anomalous and available measurement methods as reliable, and warnings about the dangers of injecting �politics� into standard-setting were important to this boundary work. I also find that the boundary work required considerable interpretive flexibility in selecting (or ignoring) the evidence to be used in justifying the standard-setting project and its conclusions. I conclude by suggesting that a different understanding of what it means to be involved in a �political process� might help all parties understand more fully what is taking place during the accounting standard-setting process. Attention could be turned to developing processes to facilitate debates over which values should guide decisions occurring throughout the standard-setting process. To this end, an enhanced standard-setting process might allow for increased participation in agenda setting, in framing and scoping standard-setting projects, and in providing opportunities for nonexperts to participate.
Development of the topographical projection of motor neurons to a rat muscle accompanies loss of polyneuronal innervation

The rat lateral gastrocnemius muscle receives a topographical projection from lumbar segmental nerves L4 and L5. A study has been made of the development of this projection during the period when polyneuronal innervation is eliminated. The tetanic contraction due to stimulation of each nerve was compared with that due to stimulation of both nerves simultaneously. This percentage of contraction declined from about 90% to 70% for L4 from birth to 2 postnatal weeks; it declined from about 90% to 30% for L5 over the same period. The innervation of about 60% of the cells by both L4 and L5 is therefore eliminated during 2 postnatal weeks. Tetanic and twitch contraction due to stimulation of ventral rootlets of segmental level L4 and L5 was compared to stimulation of the whole muscle directly. There was a general reduction in the size of the motor units from both L4 and L5. A selective reduction in the number of L5 motor units was observed during the first 5 postnatal days. The distribution of L4 and L5 terminals on the dorsal surface of the muscle was determined by intracellular impalement of muscle cells and was determined by recording endplate potentials (EPPs) due to stimulation of L4 and L5. Polyneuronal innervation of the lateral gastrocnemius is eliminated by about 2 postnatal weeks. The percentage of muscle cells innervated by L4 or L5 in each of six equal-size muscle sectors was ascertained during this period. This percentage of innervation of muscle cells by L5 declined in all sectors between 3 days and 2 weeks postnatal. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
An empirical examination of the Ohlson (1995) model

This paper examines the Ohlson (1995) model and documents its validity in explaining share prices using data for 129 firms continuously listed on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE hereafter), over a twelve year period. More specifically, cross-sectional multiple regressions and panel data least squares procedures are used to examine whether accrual accounting information and a residual income model are useful in explaining variations in year-end share prices. The cross-sectional results indicate that the Ohlson (1995) model does not establish a significant relationship between year-end share prices and accrual accounting information. However, the panel data least square model resulted in significant and positive relationships between year-end share prices and abnormal earnings, abnormal cash dividends and book value of assets.
Quality of care information makes a difference: an analysis of market share and price changes after publication of the New York State Cardiac Surgery Mortality Reports.

OBJECTIVES Quality report cards are becoming increasingly more common and receive much publicity. They can have significant impact on competition among providers, costs, and quality of health care. The authors test the hypotheses that hospitals and surgeons with better outcomes reported in the NYS Cardiac Surgery Reports experience a relative increase in their market share and prices. METHODS Information from the New York State Cardiac Surgery Reports was linked with physicians' claims submitted to Medicare and was used to calculate market shares and average prices for hospitals and physicians performing CABG surgeries. Regression models were estimated to test hypotheses. All 30 hospitals offering coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) were studied as well as a majority of surgeons (114 or approximately 80%) performing CABG surgery in New York State during the 1990-1993 period. RESULTS Findings indicate that hospitals and physicians with better outcomes experienced higher rates of growth in market shares. Physicians with better outcomes also had higher rates of growth in charges for this procedure. CONCLUSIONS Patients (and referring physicians) seem to respond to information about quality of individual surgeons and hospitals as expected. The magnitude of the association between reported mortality and market shares varies geographically, potentially reflecting differences in sociodemographic characteristics. The association tends to decline over time, suggesting that it is primarily due to "new" information.
Experiential Learning

Section One: Beginning: A Personal Story 1. The American Dimension 2. The British Dimension 3. APEL in Action Begins 4. Reflections Section Two: A Decade of APEL 5. Introduction 6. The Assessment and Accreditation of Experiential Learning 7. APEL and Higher Education 8. APEL and Further Education Section Three: APEL in the Future A Two Way Street to Opportunity 9. Introduction 10. Some Tensions 11. Post Industrial Learning 12. Access: A Two Way Street 13. Restructuring, Reorganizing, Redeploying.
Inhaled corticosteroids in patients with stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

CONTEXT Recent studies of inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) therapy for managing stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have yielded conflicting results regarding survival and risk of adverse events. OBJECTIVE To systematically review and quantitatively synthesize the effects of ICS therapy on mortality and adverse events in patients with stable COPD. DATA SOURCES Search of MEDLINE, CENTRAL, EMBASE, CINAHL, Web of Science, and PsychInfo through February 9, 2008. STUDY SELECTION Eligible studies were double-blind, randomized controlled trials comparing ICS therapy for 6 or more months with nonsteroid inhaled therapy in patients with COPD. DATA EXTRACTION Two authors independently abstracted data including study characteristics, all-cause mortality, pneumonia, and bone fractures. The I(2) statistic was used to assess heterogeneity. Study-level data were pooled using a random-effects model (when I(2) > or = 50%) or a fixed-effects model (when I(2) < 50%). For the primary outcome of all-cause mortality at 1 year, our meta-analysis was powered to detect a 1.0% absolute difference in mortality, assuming a 2-sided alpha of . 05 and power of 0.80. RESULTS Eleven eligible randomized controlled trials (14,426 participants) were included. In trials with mortality data, no difference was observed in 1-year all-cause mortality (128 deaths among 4636 patients in the treatment group and 148 deaths among 4597 patients in the control group; relative risk [RR], 0.86; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.68-1.09; P = .20; I(2) = 0%). In the trials with data on pneumonia, ICS therapy was associated with a significantly higher incidence of pneumonia (777 cases among 5405 patients in the treatment group and 561 cases among 5371 patients in the control group; RR, 1.34; 95% CI, 1.03-1.75; P = .03; I(2) = 72%). Subgroup analyses indicated an increased risk of pneumonia in the following subgroups: highest ICS dose (RR, 1.46; 95% CI, 1.10-1.92; P = .008; I(2) = 78%), shorter duration of ICS use (RR, 2.12; 95% CI, 1.47-3.05; P < .001; I(2) = 0%), lowest baseline forced expiratory volume in the first second of expiration (RR, 1.90; 95% CI, 1.26-2.85; P = .002; I(2) = 0%), and combined ICS and bronchodilator therapy (RR, 1.57; 95% CI, 1.35-1.82; P < .001; I(2) = 24%). CONCLUSIONS Among patients with COPD, ICS therapy does not affect 1-year all-cause mortality. ICS therapy is associated with a higher risk of pneumonia. Future studies should determine whether specific subsets of patients with COPD benefit from ICS therapy.
Business, Government and the Business of Urban Governance

In the recent revival of interest in urban policy and politics in the UK, it has become almost axiomatic that there has been a shift from local government to local governance. In other words, a system of local policymaking ostensibly dominated by elected local authorities has been refashioned into one in which local government shares powers, responsibilities and resources with a wide range of non-elected statutory bodies and others operating in non-statutory sectors. As a result, local authorities exert less direct control over local policy agenda and other ‘players’ have assumed important roles in a much more complex and fragmented local policy environment. Central to such analyses is the argument that the private sector has played an increasingly important role in urban governance both directly, in respect of service delivery, and indirectly, through business involvement in various forms of public– private partnership and business ‘leadership’ of the growing number of governmentappointed agencies active, in particular, in local economic development and labour market initiatives (see, for example, Harding, 1991; Bailey et al., 1995; Imrie et al., 1995; Peck, 1995; Shaw, 1994; Strange, 1996, 1997; Wood et al., 1997). Despite growing academic interest in these trends, the literature on the private-sector role in urban governance is characterised by a number of explanatory weaknesses. The  rst, and most surprising, lacuna is that there have been relatively few studies which demonstrate, empirically, how private-sector involvement in, and in uence over, urban governance is manifested and with what effect. Secondly, and notwithstanding a few studies that have borrowed productively from North American urban political economy and the regulation school(s), relatively few connections have been made between the sorts of phenomena that are widely seen as denoting a growth in private-sector in uence in urban governance and the more promising, overarching theories which can contextualise and help to explain those phenomena and the way they have changed over time. Thirdly, debate has focused upon new institutional forms and policy-making/delivery arrangements and the role of the private sector within them, rather than on the less visible in uence that business interests have over local governing arrangements and practices. Fourthly, and as a direct consequence of the  rst three limitations, there are few methodological guidelines or innovations available to
A Choice Model for Packaged Goods: Dealing with Discrete Quantities and Quantity Discounts

Utility maximizing solutions to economic models of choice for goods with either discrete quantities or non-linear prices cannot always be obtained using standard first-order conditions such as Kuhn-Tucker and Roy's identity. When quantities are discrete, there is no guarantee that derivatives of the utility function are equal to derivatives of the budget constraint. Moreover, when prices are nonlinear, as in the case of quantity discounts, first-order conditions can be associated with the minimum rather than the maximum value of utility. In these cases, the utility function must be directly evaluated to determine its maximum. This evaluation can be computationally challenging when there exist many offerings and when stochastic elements are introduced into the utility function. In this paper, we provide an economic model of demand for substitute brands that is flexible, parsimonious, and easy to implement. The methodology is demonstrated with a scanner panel data set of light-beer purchases. The model is used to explore the effects of price promotions on primary and secondary demand, and the utility of product assortment.
An examination of the pay policy line in New Jersey libraries

Purpose – Over time, management theory has shaped the structure of libraries. No matter the current view of management by matrix, when it comes to library organizations, there is always going to be a hierarchical structure. The object then is for transparency to be in place, and a recognized sense of fairness and equality. This study aims to address this issue.Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews the concepts of the literature on management and organization theory, and details the literature on valuing human capital and its recent application to knowledge management work. It then discusses how the literature and its deployment over the years have resulted in the formation of pay policies, and shows the application of Fay Hensen's predictive validity testing to the pay policy line in the field of libraries through the study of the New Jersey Library Association's Guidelines for Minimum Recommended Starting Salaries for Library Staff from the years 2007 and 2008.Findings – By measuring for intern.
Hibernation in Black Bears: Independence of Metabolic Suppression from Body Temperature

Hibernating black bears suppress their metabolic rate to 25% of normal, but only slightly reduce their body temperature. Black bears hibernate for 5 to 7 months a year and, during this time, do not eat, drink, urinate, or defecate. We measured metabolic rate and body temperature in hibernating black bears and found that they suppress metabolism to 25% of basal rates while regulating body temperature from 30° to 36°C, in multiday cycles. Heart rates were reduced from 55 to as few as 9 beats per minute, with profound sinus arrhythmia. After returning to normal body temperature and emerging from dens, bears maintained a reduced metabolic rate for up to 3 weeks. The pronounced reduction and delayed recovery of metabolic rate in hibernating bears suggest that the majority of metabolic suppression during hibernation is independent of lowered body temperature.
Circular Dichroism and X-ray Spectroscopies of Azotobacter vinelandii Nitrogenase Iron Protein

Nucleotide interactions with nitrogenase are a central part of the mechanism of nitrogen reduction. Previous studies have suggested that MgATP or MgADP binding to the nitrogenase iron protein (Fe protein) induce protein conformational changes that control component protein docking, interprotein electron transfer, and substrate reduction. In the present study, we have investigated the effects of MgATP or MgADP binding to the Azotobacter vinelandii nitrogenase Fe protein on the properties of the [4Fe-4S] cluster using circular dichroism (CD) and x-ray absorption spectroscopies. Previous CD and magnetic CD studies on nitrogenase Fe protein suggested that binding of either MgATP or MgADP to the Fe protein resulted in identical changes in the CD spectrum arising from transitions of the [4Fe-4S] cluster. We present evidence that MgADP or MgATP binding to the oxidized nitrogenase Fe protein results in distinctly different CD spectra, suggesting distinct changes in the environment of the [4Fe-4S] cluster. The present results are consistent with previous studies such as chelation assays, electron paramagnetic resonance, and NMR, which suggested that MgADP or MgATP binding to the nitrogenase Fe protein induced different conformational changes. The CD spectrum of a [2Fe-2S] form of the nitrogenase Fe protein was also investigated to address the possibility that the MgATP- or MgADP-induced changes in the CD spectrum of the native enzyme were the result of a partial conversion from a [4Fe-4S] cluster to a [2Fe-2S] cluster. No evidence was found for a contribution of a [2Fe-2S] cluster to the CD spectrum of oxidized Fe protein in the absence or presence of nucleotides. A novel two-electron reduction of the [2Fe-2S] cluster in Fe protein was apparent from absorption, CD, and electron paramagnetic resonance data. Fe K-edge x-ray absorption spectra of the oxidized Fe protein revealed no changes in the structure of the [4Fe-4S] cluster upon MgATP binding to the Fe protein. The present results reveal that MgATP or MgADP binding to the oxidized state of the Fe protein result in different conformational changes in the environment around the [4Fe-4S] cluster.
Coplanar Waveguides on High-Resistivity Silicon Substrates With Attenuation Constant Lower Than 1 dB/mm for Microwave and Millimeter-Wave Bands

Coplanar waveguides (CPWs) with extremely low loss have been successfully developed on high-resistivity silicon (HR-Si) substrates as interposers of multichip modules for microwave and millimeter-wave bands. The attenuation constant of these CPWs on HR-Si is less than 1 dB/mm for frequencies up to 100 GHz, which is comparable with that of CPWs on semi-insulating compound semiconductor substrates. Conventional CPW structures show a larger attenuation constant due to the effects of the low-resistivity layer generated at the interface between the insulating layer of SiN and the HR-Si substrate, which has been detected through both experimental investigations and numerical calculations. A CPW structure that suppresses the effects of the low-resistivity layer is presented in this paper. The fabrication process is rather simple and can be smoothly integrated in conventional semiconductor device fabrication processes.
Border Zone Mass Transit Demand in Brownsville and Laredo

This study examines whether economic conditions in Mexico influence public transportation ridership levels in the border cities of Brownsville and Laredo, Texas. Besides the standard variables generally utilized to model bus ridership, additional indicators included in the empirical analysis are northbound pedestrian traffic and the real exchange rate index. Seemingly unrelated regression parameter estimates suggest that the volume of pedestrian border crossings in both cities is positively related to changes in ridership. The real exchange rate index in Laredo is negatively related to fluctuations in ridership, implying that peso appreciation increases transit utilization in this border city.