Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Roles for Gcn5 in promoting nucleosome assembly and maintaining genome integrity

The coordinated process of DNA replication and nucleosome assembly, termed replication-coupled (RC) nucleosome assembly, is important for the maintenance of genome integrity. Loss of genome integrity is linked to aging and cancer. RC nucleosome assembly involves deposition of histone H3-H4 by the histone chaperones CAF-1, Rtt106 and Asf1 onto newly-replicated DNA. Coordinated actions of these three histone chaperones are regulated by modifications on the histone proteins. One such modification is histone H3 lysine 56 acetylation (H3K56Ac), a mark of newly-synthesized histone H3 that regulates the interaction between H3-H4 and the histone chaperones CAF-1 and Rtt106 following DNA replication and DNA repair. Recently, we have shown that the lysine acetyltransferase Gcn5 and H3 N-terminal tail lysine acetylation also regulates the interaction between H3-H4 and CAF-1 to promote the deposition of newly-synthesized histones. Genetic studies indicate that Gcn5 and Rtt109, the H3K56Ac lysine acetyltransferase, function in parallel to maintain genome stability. Utilizing synthetic genetic array analysis, we set out to identify additional genes that function in parallel with Gcn5 in response to DNA damage. We summarize here the role of Gcn5 in nucleosome assembly and suggest that Gcn5 impacts genome integrity via multiple mechanisms, including nucleosome assembly.
Sustainability of global water use: past reconstruction and future projections

Overuse of surface water and an increasing reliance on nonrenewable groundwater resources have been reported over various regions of the world, casting significant doubt on the sustainable water supply and food production met by irrigation. To assess the limitations of global water resources, numerous indicators have been developed, but they rarely consider nonrenewable water use. In addition, surface water over-abstraction is rarely assessed in the context of human and environmental water needs. Here, we perform a transient assessment of global water use over the historical period 1960–2010 as well as the future projections of 2011–2099, using a newly developed indicator: the blue water sustainability index (BlWSI). The BlWSI incorporates both nonrenewable groundwater use and nonsustainable water use that compromises environmental flow requirements. Our results reveal an increasing trend of water consumed from nonsustainable surface water and groundwater resources over the historical period (∼30%), and this increase is projected to continue further towards the end of this century (∼40%). The global amount of nonsustainable water consumption has been increasing especially since the late 1990s, despite a wetter climate and increasing water availability during this period. The BlWSI is the first tool suitable for consistently evaluating the renewability and degradation of surface water and groundwater resources as a result of human water over-abstraction.
A Study of the Determinants of County E-Government in the United States

As governments rapidly adopt information and communication technologies to improve their service delivery, the study of e-government has emerged as an important area of research in public administration. Researchers have studied various aspects of e-government, including the factors associated with its adoption at state and municipals levels. Literature provides limited information related specifically to counties’ adoption of e-government in the United States, and although some researchers have studied the effect of institutional and contextual factors in particular states, none have studied their influence on counties nationwide. Based on a survey of county administrators primarily responsible for e-government services and a content analysis of counties’ official websites, this research examines the role of institutional, contextual, and socioeconomic factors on e-government adoption at the county level in the United States.
A Study on Efficiency Monitoring and Interest Assimilation in Corporate Governance: Listed Companies in Taiwan

This paper examines whether efficiency monitoring has a positive influence on corporate performance by using the fixed effect model with panel data of listed firms in Taiwan from 2005 to 2010. The results show that having a shared interest group, formed by the controlling shareholders of a company and its board directors, leads to a failing monitoring function of the board of directors. Moreover, greater divergence between the number of board seats controlled and voting rights leads to a higher likelihood of corporate performance appearing to be an inverted curve. If this divergence exceeds a certain threshold, the interests of external shareholders may be harmed by large shareholders.
The dynamics of beta 1 integrin expression during peripheral nerve regeneration.

The aim of the present study was to examine the expression of beta 1 integrin subunit after peripheral nerve transection. After sciatic nerve transection two experimental procedures were used; changes in the freely regenerating rat sciatic nerve were compared to a situation in which spontaneous regeneration was prevented by suturing both ends of the nerve to the muscle next to the point of transection. Specimens for morphological analysis were collected 6 h, 1, 3, 5, 7 days and 2, 4, 6 and 8 weeks after the axotomy. Sections from the proximal (two zones) and distal (three zones) stumps next to the point of transection were stained with antibodies against beta 1 integrin subunit, macrophages, collagen types I and III, and S-100 protein. The control nerves showed beta 1 integrin-stained cells in the perineurium and vasa nervorum but the endoneurium was negative. Positively stained endoneurial fibroblast-like cells could be seen in the proximal part of the nerve already at 24 h after transection. The number of these positively stained cells increased steadily; they were most numerous 4 weeks after transection in the distal zone 2. Subsequently, the number of positively stained endoneural cells declined sharply and 8 weeks after transection no positively stained cells could be found. The morphological appearance and the immunohistochemical properties of the cells suggest that the majority of beta 1 integrin-positive cells are endoneurial fibroblast-like cells. Thus, the process appeared to be dynamic, starting from the proximal part and continuing to the distal parts, and was similar in both experimental groups. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Switching of the respiratory phases and evoked phrenic responses produced by rostral pontine electrical stimulation

1. In midcollicular‐decerebrate, gallamine‐paralysed, vagotomized cats, efferent phrenic discharge was recorded as an indicator of the central respiratory cycle. Electrical stimulation (50–250/sec) delivered in the rostral lateral pontine ‘pneumotaxic centre’ region (in and near nucleus parabrachialis), and set to occur at specified times in the cycle, produced powerful respiratory effects: (a) at dorsolateral points, inspiratory‐facilitatory effects (increase of phrenic discharge, shortening of the expiratory phase); (b) at ventrolateral points, expiratory‐facilitatory effects (decrease of phrenic discharge, shortening of the inspiratory phase, lengthening of the expiratory phase).
Top Civil Servants Under Contract

This article focuses on the introduction of the new top civil servant contract system in New Zealand and Norway. Even though both countries introduced contractual arrangements at the same time, the content of the reforms and their scope, scale and intensity are very different. The New Zealand reform was more radical and internally consistent. In contrast to an aggressive and thorough implementation in New Zealand, the contract system was implemented more cautiously and reluctantly in Norway. The effects of the reform are ambiguous and uncertain in both countries. A transformative perspective focusing on the interconnection between international administrative doctrines, national political-administrative culture, and polity feature is used to understand why contracts reforms have different contents, effects and implications.
Audit duration quality and client credit risk

Using Taiwanese listed firms, we examined how auditor-related idiosyncratic risk affects clients’ credit risks from the perspective of audit duration quality, including the level and volatility of audit report lag (ARL). We find that both the level and the volatility of ARL are positively related to clients’ credit risks when other well-known determinant variables are controlled. In addition, the level (volatility) of ARL has weaker (greater) power in predicting the financial crisis of client firms associated with the Big-4 auditing firms than the non-Big-4 ones. Moreover, the results are robust to the issue that ARL may be long, the concern of initially engaged clients, different estimation periods of ARL volatility, and another credit risk measure.
Synaptic Plasticity in Dissociated Hippocampal Cultures: Pre‐ and Postsynaptic Contributions

The distinction between pre‐ or postsynaptic expression of synaptic plasticity is difficult to make, unless the postsynaptic receptors can be investigated in isolation. We have studied single synaptic contacts in dissociated cultures of rat hippocampus. The reaction of postsynaptic receptor assemblies to the induction of synaptic plasticity was measured and compared with changes in the rate of spontaneous miniature excitatory postsynaptic currents (mEPSCs), which can reflect changes in the transmitter release mechanism. The response of a receptor assembly to locally applied exogenous glutamate was measured before and after synchronized application of glutamate and a train of postsynaptic depolarizations (‘pairing’). Pairing induced a variety of changes: (i) the majority of the receptor assemblies showed no change in their response to glutamate before and after pairing; (ii) the postsynaptic current due to exogenous glutamate showed a rapid increase in five out of 26 cases. This was not due to changes in the single channel conductance; (iii) the rate of mEPSCs increased, if it had previously been below 25 Hz; (iv) the rate of mEPSCs decreased, if it had previously been above 25 Hz. Effects 2 and 3 were blocked by antagonists of NMDA receptors. These findings provide direct evidence for an increase of the number of glutamate receptors at a subset of the investigated postsynaptic sites during synaptic potentiation.
International Standardisation and Harmonisation: a New Measurement Technique

We argue in this paper that it is the availability of alternative accounting treatments and the use by individual firms of the appropriate method that produces financial statements which are comparable. Accordingly, international harmony in accounting should be seen as a state in which firms throughout the world are able to use an internationally-recognised accounting treatment that is appropriate to their circumstances without being constrained to do otherwise by local accounting regulations or other requirements to adopt practices confined to particular nations. The paper distinguishes harmonisation from standardisation and presents a method for measuring harmonisation which allows for choice between alternative accounting treatments. The statistical model also takes account of the stylised fact that accounting treatments are not mutually exclusive, and the method is illustrated by an analysis of goodwill accounting practices in Europe.
Credit Granting: A Comparative Analysis of Classification Procedures

Financial classification issues, and particularly the financial distress problem, continue to be subject to vigorous investigation. The corporate credit granting process has not received as much attention in the literature. This paper examines the relative effectiveness of parametric, nonparametric and judgemental classification procedures on a sample of corporate credit data. The judgemental model is based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process. Evidence indicates that (nonparametric) recursive partitioning methods provide greater information than simultaneous partitioning procedures. The judgemental model is found to perform as well as statistical models. A complementary relationship is proposed between the statistical and the judgemental models as an effective paradigm for granting credit. THE CREDIT GRANTING process involves a tradeoff between the perceived default risk of the credit applicant and potential returns from granting requested credit. The main objective in credit granting is to determine the optimal amount of credit to grant. The amount of credit requested along with other financial and nonfinancial factors influences the assessment of default risk. While default risk assessment can be appropriately modeled using classificatory models, integration of such risk assessment with potential returns can be accomplished using a dynamic expected value framework. ' Academic research on credit granting can be grouped into two basic categories:2 (i) attempts to apply classification procedures to customer attribute data and develop classification models to assign group membership in the future; and (ii) attempts to explicitly recognize the need to integrate such risk assessment with potential return as well as allow for differing degrees of credit investigation depending on the costs of such investigation. To our knowledge, this study represents the first attempt at examining the relative performance of classification procedures for corporate credit granting. Relative performance is measured in terms of how well the models replicate expert judgement. We examine four statistical models: multiple discriminant analysis (MDA), logistic regression * Northeastern University and University of Cincinnati, respectively. We are grateful to Robert Eisenbeis and Sangit Chatterjee for their insightful comments on an earlier draft. We also thank an anonymous Fortune 500 corporation as well as the Credit Research Foundation for their support. The usual disclaimer applies. 1 This paper is primarily concerned with the credit granting decision in an industrial (nonfinancial) setting. A more detailed version of this paper is available from the authors. Further, for a review of the various motives for corporations to extend credit, refer Emery [10]. 2 We do not make any attempts to present a comprehensive review of the literature. Interested readers are referred to an excellent review by Altman et al. [1].
Power Resources and Employer-Centered Approaches in Explanations of Welfare States and Varieties of Capitalism: Protagonists, Consenters, and Antagonists

The power resources approach, underlining the relevance of socioeconomic class and partisan politics in distributive conflict within capitalist economies, is challenged by employer-centered approaches claiming employers and cross-class alliances to have been crucial in advancing the development of welfare states and varieties of capitalism. Theoretically and empirically these claims are problematic. In welfare state expansion, employers have often been antagonists, under specific conditions consenters, but very rarely protagonists. Well-developed welfare states and coordinated market economies have emerged in countries with strong left parties in long-term cabinet participation or in countries with state corporatist institutional traditions and confessional parties in intensive competition with left parties.
The Long Fall of the Safavid Dynasty: Moving beyond the Standard Views

If the Revolution of Persia has been so astonishing, when taken only in a general View, and according to the very imperfect Ideas we can form of it from the Gazettes and other publick News Papers, we may affirm, it will appear still more amazing, when we come to give a particular Account of the remote Causes and Events that prepar'd the Way to it for above twenty Years…
Disclosing a Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease: Patient and Family Experiences

Background: Informing patients and families about the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a complex ethical and practical issue. This qualitative study explores the psychosocial impact of disclosing a diagnosis of AD on patients and family members. Methods: This study identified 14 patients and their accompanying family members undergoing a multidisciplinary assessment for dementia at an outpatient clinic for AD and related disorders. Of the group, three patients had probable AD and five had possible AD as per NINCDS-ADRDAcriteria. Six patients were not demented as per DSM IIIR criteria. Disclosure of diagnosis occurred, in a family conference, within six to eight weeks of the assessment. Data collection methods included observation of the assessment and the family conference as well as in-depth home interviews with family members and with each patient whenever feasible. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and coded for recurrent themes. Results: A total of 40 individuals across 14 families participated in this study. Only two families chose not to have the patient attend the family conference. The disclosure of a diagnosis of probable AD brought on an experience of relief in three families, marking the end of a lengthy period of confusion about the nature of memory problems. Patients diagnosed with possible AD and their families interpreted how indicative the diagnosis was of the presence of the disease with varying degrees of certainty depending on pre-assessment beliefs about the cause of memory problems. In the group diagnosed as not demented, four patients had complaints of forgetfulness likely related to minor depression. The disclosure of a diagnosis of no dementia did not produce the anticipated relief. Two patients continued to believe their memory problems were caused by the early onset of AD or some other “organic” problem. Interpretation: This study reveals that disclosure of the diagnosis of AD to patients and family members is generally beneficial but that there are variations in the understanding of the diagnostic information, particularly in instances where the assessment results are ambiguous.
Predicting European Takeover Targets

This article extends the Palepu (1986) acquisition likelihood model by incorporating measures of a technical nature, e.g. momentum, trading volume as well as a measure of market sentiment. We use the proposed model to predict takeover targets in a large sample of European and cross-border merger and acquisition deals and validate its performance on an in- and out-of-sample basis. The robustness of the proposed model is investigated across several dimensions. In addition we explore the ability of the model to form the basis of successful takeover timing investment strategies. The results of our empirical analysis suggest that the proposed model predicts European takeover targets with relatively high accuracy and is able to determine portfolios that earn significant returns which are not explained by conventional risk factors.
Futures Hedging Under Price, Basis, and Production Risk

We consider the hedging problem of a firm that has three sources of risk: price, basis, and yield uncertainty. An exact solution for the optimal futures hesge is derived under the assumption that the three random variables are joint normally distributed and that utility is of the CARA type. Unlike the mean-variance approximation applied in previous research, we show that the optimal hedge does depend on risk attitudes, even when the agent perceives the futures price as being unbiased. The theoretical results are applied empirically to the problem of hedging soybean production in Iowa. The exact solution, relying on CARA and normality, is compared with numerical solutions under lognormal distributions and CRRA utility.
A diode-clamped multilevel converter with reduced number of clamping diodes

This paper presents a diode-clamped multilevel converter topology with reduced number of clamping diodes. The novel topology uses a combination of multilevel converter cells with different number of levels. The proposed topology and its switching pattern are discussed based on a five-level converter, and it can be easily extended to N-level converter. Compared with the traditional topology, the proposed topology can significantly reduce the number of clamping diodes and the system cost of the multilevel converter. A detail comparison of the two topologies has been conducted. Simulation and experimental results show the validity of the topology.
Neighbourhood Deprivation, Social Capital and Regular Exercise during Adulthood: A Multilevel Study in Chicago

This multilevel research examines the contextual effects of neighbourhood SES and social capital indicators on physical activity over and above individual socio-demographic background. Using 1990 census data and two social surveys, the hypotheses are tested among 907 Chicagoans in 242 neighbourhoods in 1996. Significant interaction effects are found with gender and both neighbourhood SES and social capital; women's physical activity level is more responsive to neighbourhood context. Controlling for socio-demographic factors at the individual level and the interaction effects between neighbourhood variables and gender, social capital and neighbourhood SES appear to be significant correlates of individual physical activity. Moreover, contrary to most findings in the neighbourhood effects research on health, the data show that the effects of neighbourhood SES are stronger than the effects of household income. Interventions promoting physical activity should incorporate local environmental features into their designs.
Bactericidal and Morphological Effects of NE-2001, a Novel Synthetic Agent Directed against Helicobacter pylori

ABSTRACT The antibacterial activities of NE-2001 were tested against 24 clinical isolates of Helicobacter pylori and compared with those of amoxicillin, clarithromycin, metronidazole, and furazolidone. The MIC50 and MIC90 of this synthetic compound on the isolates were 8 and 16 μg/ml, respectively. This action was highly selective against Helicobacter pylori; there was a >4-fold difference between the concentration of NE-2001 required to inhibit the growth of Helicobacter pylori and that required to inhibit the growth of common aerobic and anaerobic bacteria. Exposure of Helicobacter pylori (ATCC43504) to NE-2001 at the MIC (4 μg/ml), or at a greater concentration, resulted in an extensive loss of viability. The phenomenon was also observed at pH levels between 3.0 and 7.0. When two clinical Helicobacter pylori strains were successively cultured at subinhibitory concentrations of NE-2001, no significant changes in the bactericidal effects were found. The morphological alterations of Helicobacter pylori cells (ATCC43504), exposed to NE-2001 at various concentrations for 6 h, were observed using transmission electron microcopy. The bacterium displayed features such as swelling, vacuole-like structures in the cytoplasm, and cell destruction following exposure to NE-2001. The efficacy of NE-2001 was maintained when evaluated in eight clinical isolates resistant to metronidazole and five isolates resistant to both metronidazole and clarithromycin (MIC ranging between 4 and 16 μg/ml). The above-described results suggest that NE-2001 may have the potential to be developed as a candidate agent for the treatment of Helicobacter pylori infection.