Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ultrastructural analysis of in vitro direct and indirect organogenesis

Ultrastructural analysis of in vitro direct and indirect organogenesis). This is a comparative study of the ultrastructural characteristics of the cells involved in the organogenesis in vitro of Bauhinia forficata Link (indirect system) and Glycine max (L.) Merrill (direct system). B. forficata calli after 30 days culture and G. max meristemoids after 10 days culture were prepared for ultrastructural analysis using conventional methods. Concentrically arranged rough endoplasmic reticulum (RER) and plastids containing starch grains were seen during G. max and B. forficata organogenesis. The amitotic process, the presence of plastids around the nucleus and nuclear envelope with conspicuous pores were found in B. forficata.
Continuity of the Self in Later Life: Perceptions of Informal Caregivers

The authors explore perceptions of informal caregivers of extremely elderly (80+) relatives or friends regarding the purpose of caregiving, including factors they considered important for the life satisfaction of the care recipients. They collected data mainly through qualitative interviewed and employed symbolic interactionism. The results revealed a general purpose of the informal caregiving: protection of the care recipient’s self. This purpose was a significant aspect of the identified caregiving categories—social-emotional, proxy, and instrumental care—and the authors consider all four factors important for the care recipients’ life satisfaction: activity, independence, and environmental and adaptive factors. Some informal caregivers gave forceful encouragement to care recipients in an attempt to get them to accept formal care and move to sheltered accommodation. This study underscores the value of informal caregiving and that the caregiving interaction should be balanced by reciprocity.
Cattle as a Store of Wealth in Swaziland: Reply

Jarvis believes that there are four main differences between us. ' He maintains that: (a) whereas we believe that the store-of-wealth effect seriously reduces beef production, he attributes the poor technical efficiency observed in Swaziland much more to the existence of communal ranges; (b) whereas we believe that the negative price response of cattle slaughter is consistent with noncommercial attitudes, he believes it is more likely to be evidence that they are responsive to market incentives; (c) whereas we hold that Swazi herders exhibit a negative price response because they maintain cattle as a store of wealth and only sell to meet specific cash needs, he maintains that Swazi herders' decisions to sell are based on the profit-maximizing motive; and (d) whereas we believe that recent livestock development programs may exacerbate the overgrazing problem and thereby reduce technical efficiency, he does not believe that technical efficiency has fallen and believes that the livestock projects have had a positive effect. In this reply, we accept his argument in respect of point (a), agree that the position he adopts in respect of point (b) is as valid as ours, but continue to disagree with him on points (c) and (d).
Globalisation, the environment and recent trends in international trade

The process of globalization has had far-reaching social as well as economic effects. The term "globalization" is generally taken to mean an increase in international transactions in markets for goods, services and factors of production and a growth in institutions . that straddle international borders. This development has also meant that the corporate-governance mechanisms have to be reinforced to ensure fairness and transparency as well as social responsibility. Finally, international infrastructure and institutions have to evolve to facilitate and ameliorate the effects of the growth in this world trade on the environment, sustainable development and bio-diversity. This paper provides an overview of the current developments in all these areas.
Human Cytomegalovirus Latency and Reactivation – A Delicate Balance between the Virus and Its Host’s Immune System

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a ubiquitous herpesvirus that still causes severe morbidity and mortality in immunocompromised individuals. During its evolution, the virus has developed sophisticated methods to evade immune recognition and to establish life-long persistence in its host. Today, we know that the virus establishes latency in myeloid lineage cells and that the virus is dependent on immune activation mechanisms to reactivate it from latency to produce a new viral progeny. During this process, a number of viral proteins are produced that interfere with different immune recognition pathways. The current knowledge of the delicate balance between the virus‘ continuous existence and its host’s immune system will be summarized in this chapter.
Unstructured Additive Schwarz-Conjugate Gradient Method for Elliptic Problems with Highly Discontinuous Coefficients

This paper concerns the iterative solution of symmetric elliptic problems with piecewise constant coefficients in two or three space dimensions discretized by linear finite element methods on unstructured triangular or tetrahedral meshes. The effect of the discontinuous coefficients is studied by first postulating that there are d fixed regions of the domain where the coefficient takes constant positive values a = (a1, . . . , ad)and then considering certain (positive) coefficient sequences {a(m)} in which some of these values approach $0$ or $\infty$ as $m \rightarrow \infty$. We consider the performance of additive Schwarz domain decomposition preconditioners constructed from local solves on automatically generated subdomains together with a global solve on some coarser grid. Assuming no relationship between the regions on which the coefficient function is constant and either the subdomains or the coarse grid, we show that the preconditioned conjugate gradient method converges (in both the energy and the Euclidean norms) with a number of iterations which grows only logarithmically in the size of the maximum jump ${\cal J}^{(m)} := \max\{a_k^{(m)}/a_l^{(m)} \ : \ k, l = 1, \ldots , d\} $, as $m\rightarrow \infty$. The result is obtained by a careful analysis of the preconditioned matrix. It cannot be obtained by the usual procedure of estimating condition numbers: a simple example is given in which the condition number of both the original and the preconditioned stiffness matrices degrade linearly in ${\cal J}^{(m)}$. Recent results of Chan, Smith, and Zou have shown that by using this preconditioner together with the conjugate gradient method, the number of iterations can be bounded independently of the mesh diameter provided the subdomains have overlap commensurate with the size of the coarse mesh. Our results now show that this method is also highly resilient to discontinuous coefficients, even if no attention is paid to the coefficient discontinuity in the construction of the solver.
Cytokine-mobilized peripheral blood CD34+Thy-1+Lin- human hematopoietic stem cells as target cells for transplantation-based gene therapy.

Gene-therapy of blood-borne disorders may be best achieved using hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) which have extensive self renewal potential as well as multilineage repopulating potential as a cellular target. The human HSC, which is CD34+Thy-1+Lin- has been isolated from fetal, adult bone marrow and cytokine-mobilized peripheral blood (MPB) (1-3). Results presented in this study show that the degree of mobilization of HSC into peripheral blood of cancer patients is highly variable and that the combined use of high dose chemotherapy and GM-CSF as a mobilization strategy is superior to the use of G-CSF with regard to the mobilization of true HSC. A multistep cell isolation procedure has been developed which utilizes high speed flow-cytometric cell sorting and allows the isolation of sufficient numbers of HSC from MPB to permit their use as an hematopoietic graft for clinical transplantation. Hematopoietic stem cells isolated from MPB are capable of self-renewal and differentiation into multiple hematopoietic lineages as shown by their behavior in both in vitro and in vivo assays. Mobilized PB mononuclear cells isolated from cancer patients are frequently contaminated with tumor cells. Using this cell isolation procedure, HSC preparations from patients with multiple myeloma have been created with greatly reduced tumor cell burdens. These CD34+Thy-1+Lin- cells are capable of being stably transduced at high efficiency (32-75%) by co-culture on a cell line producing recombinant retroviruses containing the neomycin-resistant gene. These HSC cell populations are likely ideal targets for hematopoietic cell-based gene therapy. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
European External Trade Policy: The Role of Ideas in German Preference Formation

In the literature examining European Union external trade policy, the relative influence of the Commission, the member states and interest groups are an issue of ongoing debate. This article will argue that member states can still play an important role and that a focus on member state preferences is therefore crucial in understanding European external trade policy in general. An interest-based explanation of state preferences is proposed in which both material (political and economic) and ideational variables are included, whereas material explanations alone dominate the current research in the trade policy field. An in-depth case study of German preference formation and position taking with regard to the agricultural chapter of the GATT Uruguay Round (1986-1993) shows the interplay between material and ideational interest. As well as German preference formation being guided by Germany’s trade interests and political interests (particularly when these interests were united and governmental sensitivity was high), considerations concerning the Franco-German friendship, affecting Germany’s ideational interest, also proved to be a constant in the preference-formation process.
Spatial externalities, organisation of the firm and ICT adoption: the specificities of French agri-food firms

The aim of this paper is to define the organisational foundations of the process of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) adaption, and to show the influence of determinants related to the spatial structure of firms. We examine the existence of specificities in the adoption behaviour of agri-food firms. For this purpose, our econometric study makes use of individual data from almost 4,000 industrial French firms. This data provides information concerning the behaviour of firms in terms of ICT adoption, but also the different components of the firms' internal and external modes of organisation and their relations to space. Beyond the determinants traditionally examined in empirical studies concerning firms' ability to innovate, results show that the organisational and spatial factors have a significant impact on ICT adoption. They also enable us to highlight agri-food specificities, in particular those related to their spatial and managerial organisation.
Gender Inequality in The Information Systems Workforce: Challenges And Implications for Management In Botswana

This paper reports on a research that examined the types of gender-based inequalities of information systems (IS) personnel in Botswana. Questionnaires were distributed to 243 IS employees in 48 organisations in Botswana who are employed at levels of computer programmer and above. One hundred and four questionnaires were completed and returned. The results show that the percentage of female employees in IS is smaller compared to the national average of women employees. Female employees also think that they are not fairly treated in promotions and that their employers do not value their contributions. Female employees are also unhappy with many other issues about their career and the percentage of those who might quit their jobs at the earliest opportunity is higher than that of male employees. Challenges and implications for management are also discussed.
Structural Reforms, Investment and Zero Lower Bound in a Monetary Union

type="main"> We assess the effects of competition-friendly reforms on the zero lower bound (ZLB) on the monetary policy rate in a monetary union, using a dynamic general equilibrium model calibrated to two regions within the euro area (EA) and the rest of the world. Reforms simultaneously implemented in the entire EA favor an earlier exit from the ZLB if they generate sufficient short-run inflationary effects. This happens if capital accumulation increases, magnifying the expansionary effects of reforms on permanent income and, thus, short-run aggregate demand. If investment does not increase, the effects are not sufficient to reduce the ZLB duration.
Three Criteria for Establishing the Usefulness of Biotechnology for Reducing Micronutrient Malnutrition

The fundamental reason that plant breeding using either conventional breeding or biotechnology is so cost-effective is that the benefits of a one-time investment at a central research location can be multiplied over time across nations all over the world. Supplementation and fortification incur the same recurrent costs year after year in country after country. However, each intervention has its own comparative advantages, such that a combination of several interventions is required to substantially reduce micronutrient malnutrition. Improving the density of trace minerals in plants also reduces input requirements and raises crop yields. A simulation model for India and Bangladesh demonstrated that $42 million invested in conventional breeding in developing and planting iron- and zinc-dense varieties of rice and wheat on only 10% of the acreage used for these crops would return $4.9 billion in improved nutrition (including a total of 44 million prevented cases of anemia over 10 years) and higher agricultural productivity.
Kidney Injury Molecule-1 Expression in Rat Proximal Tubule after Treatment with Segment-Specific Nephrotoxicants

Dose-response expression of kidney injury molecule-1 (KIM-1) gene in kidney cortex and its correlation with morphology and traditional biomarkers of nephrotoxicity (plasma creatinine and blood urea nitrogen, BUN) or segment-specific marker of proximal tubule injury (kidney glutamine synthetase, GSK) were studied in male rats treated with proximal tubule segment-specific nephrotoxicants. These included hexachloro-1:3-butadiene (HCBD, S3 segment-specific), potassium dichromate (chromate, S1-S2 segment-specific), and cephaloridine (Cph, S2 segment-specific). Rats were treated with a single intraperitoneal (ip) injection of HCBD 25, 50, and 100 mg/kg, subcutaneous (sc) injection of chromate 8, 12.5, and 25 mg/kg; or ip injection of Cph 250, 500, and 1,000 mg/kg. KIM-1 gene showed a dose-dependent up-regulation induced by all segment-specific nephrotoxicants. Interestingly, magnitude of the up-regulation reflected the severity of microscopic tubular changes (degeneration, necrosis, and regeneration). Even low-severity microscopic observations were evidenced by significant gene expression changes. Furthermore, KIM-1 showed significant up-regulation even in the absence of morphological changes. In contrast, traditional and specific markers demonstrated low sensitivity or specificity. In conclusion, this study suggested KIM-1 as a sensitive molecular marker of different levels of tubular injury, and it is likely to represent a potential tool for early screening of nephrotoxicants.
Spread decomposition with common spread components

Purpose - This paper aims to incorporate a market wide buying and selling pressure cost component into a spread decomposition model as spread cost component. Design/methodology/approach - The paper extends a commonly used trade indicator spread decomposition model to include a component common to all stocks of a specialist firm and a market wide component common to all stocks. Findings - Strong evidence is found that specialists consider this common factor cost component when they set bid and ask quotes. Some specialist firms also take the next logical step and specifically manage their firm wide stock inventories. The common factor is in percentage terms largest for securities with the highest trade frequencies. Research limitations/implications - The relative importance of the common factor spread component decreases as the pricing grid becomes finer, but remains highly significant under the decimal trading regime. Originality/value - This is the first study to document not-security-specific spread cost components that are common to all stocks for which a specialist firm makes markets and to all stocks in the market. Using the model it is shown that market wide uncertainty translates into spreads of individual securities.
Bridging the gap between optimal and suboptimal ACE PAPR reduction scheme for OFDM

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is a widely adopted modulation scheme in digital telecommunications systems. However, its high peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) is one of the major challenges to overcome in practical systems. Active constellation extension (ACE) is an effective way to reduce the PAPR of the OFDM signal. In this paper the optimal solution to the problem is given solving a corresponding quadratically constrained quadratical program (QCQP). Previously known clipping based (suboptimal) methods are also compared to the optimal solutions through simulations.
Identification of Five Different Patr Class I Molecules That Bind HLA Supertype Peptides and Definition of Their Peptide Binding Motifs1

We have sequenced the Pan troglodytes class I (Patr) molecules from three common chimpanzees and expressed them as single molecules in a class I-deficient cell line. These lines were utilized to obtain purified class I molecules to define the peptide binding motifs associated with five different Patr molecules. Based on these experiments, as well as analysis of the predicted structure of the B and F polymorphic MHC pockets, we classified five Patr molecules (Patr-A*0101, Patr-B*0901, Patr-B*0701, Patr-A*0602, and Patr-B*1301) within previously defined supertype specificities associated with HLA class I molecules (HLA-A3, -B7, -A1, and -A24 supertypes). The overlap in the binding repertoire between specific HLA and Patr class I molecules was in the range of 33 to 92%, depending on the particular Patr molecule as assessed by the binding of HIV-, hepatitis B virus-, and hepatitis C virus-derived epitopes. Finally, live cell binding assays of nine chimpanzee-derived B cell lines demonstrated that HLA supertype peptides bound to Patr class I molecules with frequencies in the 20–50% range.
Bargaining with Informative Offers: An Analysis of Final‐Offer Arbitration

Final‐offer arbitration is analyzed when parties are permitted to renegotiate after bids are submitted to the arbiter. If the failure to settle without arbitration arises owing to informational asymmetries, then the final‐offer bids may communicate some of this private information. The informational content of the bids may act to encourage settlement after the bids have been submitted, though this outcome is not guaranteed. We find that a pooling equilibrium, under which all cases settle prior to arbitration, is less likely when there exists an opportunity for renegotiation. However, for parameter values in which there is no pooling equilibrium, the renegotiation stage strictly reduces the use of arbitration. The results may prove important in comparing settlement rates between final‐offer arbitration and conventional arbitration.
Delisting Returns and Their Effect on Accounting-Based Market Anomalies

We show that tests of market efficiency are sensitive to the inclusion of delisting firm-years. When included, trading strategy returns based on anomaly variables can increase (for strategies based on earnings, cash flows and the book-to-market ratio) or decrease (for a strategy based on accruals). This is due to the disproportionate number of delisting firm-years in the lowest decile of these variables. Delisting firm-years are most often excluded because the researcher does not correctly incorporate delisting returns, because delisting return data are missing or because other research design choices implicitly exclude them.
Local Political Elite, Partial Reform Symptoms, and the Business and Market Environment in Rural China

In this article we examine how Chinese local officials impact rural business environment and market development since the late 1990s. If their power is not effectively checked by village elections, local political elite are able to manipulate reform policies in a way to serve their economic and political interests at the cost of villagers' interests. In other words, local officials selectively implement reform policies not only to maximize economic rents available for extraction but also to minimize the risk that may challenge their rent-seeking capacity in the countryside. We draw on a survey data collected by the authors from rural China in 2003 and 2004 to test our hypothesis on the relationship between political control exercised by local officials over village elections and rural business environment & market development. Our analysis shows that if a local government can keep a village elections under its control, then local officials would charge more license application fees from self-employment business owners, put village land re-allocation process under government administrative control, restrict peasants from founding their own professional associations. Local officials' self-serving strategy inevitably deteriorates rural business & market environment and bodes an incomplete market-oriented reform for reformists in the central government.
Biosynthetic relationship among aflatoxins B1, B2, M1, and M2

Aflatoxins are a family of toxic, acetate-derived decaketides that arise biosynthetically through polyhydroxyanthraquinone intermediates. Most studies have assumed that aflatoxin B1 is the biosynthetic precursor of the other aflatoxins. We used a strain of Aspergillus flavus which accumulates aflatoxin B2 to investigate the later stages of aflatoxin biosynthesis. This strain produced aflatoxins B2 and M2 but no detectable aflatoxin B1 when grown over 12 days in a low-salt, defined growth medium containing asparagine. Addition of dichlorvos to this growth medium inhibited aflatoxin production with concomitant accumulation of versiconal hemiacetal acetate. When mycelial pellets were grown for 24, 48, and 72 h in growth medium and then transferred to a replacement medium, only aflatoxin B2 and M2 were recovered after 96 h of incubation. Addition of sterigmatocystin to the replacement medium led to the recovery of higher levels of aflatoxins B2 and M2 than were detected in control cultures, as well as to the formation of aflatoxins B1 and M1 and O-methylsterigmatocystin. These results support the hypothesis that aflatoxins B1 and B2 can arise independently via a branched pathway.
Fast Fluorescence Microscopy with Light Sheets

In light sheet microscopy, optical sectioning by selective fluorescence excitation with a sheet of light is combined with fast full-frame acquisition. This illumination scheme provides minimal photobleaching and phototoxicity. Complemented with remote focusing and multi-view acquisition, light sheet microscopy is the method of choice for acquisition of very fast biological processes, large samples, and high-throughput applications in areas such as neuroscience, plant biology, and developmental biology. This review explains why light sheet microscopes are much faster and gentler than other established fluorescence microscopy techniques. New volumetric imaging schemes and highlights of selected biological applications are also discussed.