Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Genetic variants at chromosome 8q24, colorectal epithelial cell proliferation, and risk for incident, sporadic colorectal adenomas

Three polymorphic sites at chromosome 8q24 (rs7837328, rs10808555, rs6983267) have been associated with risk for colorectal adenomas. It was also previously reported that the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs6983267 may enhance Wnt signaling, which regulates cell proliferation. To investigate associations between the 8q24 variants and colorectal epithelial cell proliferation in the normal‐appearing colorectal mucosa, as well as with colorectal adenoma, we analyzed data from a previously conducted pilot, colonoscopy‐based case–control study of incident, sporadic colorectal adenoma (n = 90 cases, 132 controls). Proliferation was measured in biopsies of the normal‐appearing mucosa of the rectum, sigmoid colon, and cecum using immunohistochemistry for proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA). The direct associations of each SNP with colorectal adenoma were consistent with those in previous reports. For all three SNPs, proliferation tended to be higher among those homozygous for the risk alleles compared to those heterozygous or homozygous for the nonrisk alleles combined; among the controls, proliferation was 32.1% higher (P = 0.23) for those with the rs10808555 GG genotype, 16.4% higher (P = 0.16) for those with the rs7837328 AA genotype, and 6.5% higher (P = 0.52) for those with the rs6983267 GG genotype. These preliminary findings, which are consistent with previously reported direct associations between genetic variants at chromosome 8q24 and risk for colorectal adenoma, suggest that the genetic variants may also be associated with higher levels of colorectal epithelial cell proliferation, thus providing support for further investigation of the hypothesis that 8q24 variants may increase risk via enhanced Wnt signaling. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Neuropeptides bombesin and calcitonin inhibit apoptosis‐related elemental changes in prostate carcinoma cell lines

Etoposide‐induced apoptosis in prostate carcinoma cells is associated with changes in the elemental content of the cells. The authors previously reported that calcitonin and bombesin inhibited etoposide‐induced apoptosis in these cells. In the current study, the authors investigated whether these neuropeptides block the etoposide‐induced changes in elemental content.
Tourism, Trams and Local Government Policy-making in Christchurch, New Zealand

This paper examines the role of local government and the nature of the policy-making process in urban tourism through a detailed analysis of the development of the Christchurch tourist tramway. The basic issues addressed are why and how a tourist tramway was developed in Christchurch and what was the development and policy process. A detailed chronology of events is established through the analysis of archival material, newspaper accounts and interviews with key personnel. The analysis and interpretation centres on understanding what was driving the tramway development process. Emphasis is given to identifying key factors and events, the tourism arguments used, and the interests of the different parties involved. The process is shown to be ad hoc and incremental, with the development of the tramway being part of broader urban processes and policies. Tourism is frequently used to rationalise other interests, notably a desire amongst enthusiasts to see trams running once more on the city's streets. In many respects, the Christchurch case reflects broader issues elsewhere.
Whose Preferences are Revealed in Hours of Work?

It has become orthodox in economics research to interpret the association between hourly earnings and working hours as the expression of the preferences of workers. This convention originated in H. Gregg Lewis' explanation for the decline in hours of work since the nineteenth century. His explanation rested on an explicit resolution of the identification problem inherent in any quantity (hours) - price (wage) relation. For over forty years, researchers have neglected this identification problem with the result that the findings in the purported "labor supply" literature are of questionable value.
The mechanism of action of induced membranes in bone repair.

BACKGROUND Inducement of foreign-body granulation tissue is a relatively novel therapeutic modality in bone repair. A two-stage bone reconstruction method, known as the Masquelet technique, combines inducement of a granulation tissue membrane and subsequent bone autografting as a biphasic technique allowing reconstruction of large bone defects. In light of their already well-characterized osteogenesis-improving capabilities in animals, we performed this translational study to investigate these membranes in patients. METHODS Fourteen patients with complicated fractures and bone defects were randomly selected for this study. Biopsy samples of foreign-body-induced membranes were collected at different time points during scheduled surgical procedures. The membranes were co-cultured with mesenchymal stromal cells, and differentiation into the osteoblastic lineage was assessed by measuring alkaline phosphatase activity, aminoterminal propeptide of type-I procollagen (PINP) production, and Ca2+ concentration. Histological characteristics were evaluated with image analysis. Quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction was used to measure vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and type-I collagen (Col-1) expression. RESULTS The induced membranes were characterized histologically by maturating vascularized fibrous tissue. The vascularization was greatest in one-month-old samples and decreased to <60% in three-month-old samples. One-month-old membrane samples had the highest expression of VEGF, IL-6, and Col-1, whereas two-month-old membranes expressed <40% of the levels of the one-month-old membranes. Specific alkaline phosphatase activity, PINP production, and Ca2+ concentration were increased in co-cultures when a membrane sample was present. In cultures of one-month-old membranes, PINP production was more than two times and Ca2+ deposition was four times higher than that in cultures of two-month-old membranes. CONCLUSIONS The induced membranes have osteogenesis-improving capabilities. These capabilities, however, appear to decrease over time. We speculate that the optimal time for performing second-stage surgery may be within a month after implantation of foreign material.
Neoliberal climate policy: from market fetishism to the developmental state

There is a broad literature that suggests that neoliberalism is the predominant force structuring climate change policy. However, analyses that focus only on the creation of carbon markets as neoliberalism's effect on climate policy are too restricted. Focusing on the United States, as the paradigmatic neoliberal state, it is demonstrated that, because neoliberal states must nevertheless intervene to promote accumulation, and because system-wide regulation of greenhouse gases has been impossible to achieve, the United States has developed a range of alternative means by which to pursue emissions reductions. These means derive from the ‘strategic selectivities’ (or historical path-dependencies) inherent in federal policy development in the United States. The focus is on three ways that this has occurred: the growth of sub-national regulation; the use of executive authority; and in particular the deployment of a dense network of research and development infrastructure through which the development of new energy and environmental technologies is supported.
Insertions of Mini-Tn10 Transposon T-POP in Salmonella enterica sv. typhi

We have mutagenized a clinical strain of Salmonella enterica sv. typhi with mini-transposon Tn10dTet (T-POP) to obtain conditional lethal (tetracycline-dependent) mutants with T-POP insertions upstream of essential genes. Generalized transducing phage P22 was used to introduce T-POP from a S. typhimurium donor into a S. typhi recipient. Chromosomal DNA was purified from the mutagenized donor strains, fragmented, and then electroporated into S. typhi to backcross the original T-POP insertions. Four tetracycline-dependent mutants with two distinct terminal phenotypes were found among 1700 mutants with T-POP insertions. When grown in the absence of tetracycline, two of the four tetracycline-dependent mutants arrest at a late stage in the cell cycle, can be rescued by outgrowth in media with tetracycline, and define a reversible checkpoint late in the cell cycle. One of these insertions creates an operon fusion with a gene, yqgF, that is conserved among gram-negative bacteria and likely encodes an essential Holliday junction resolvase. T-POP insertions can be used not only to identify essential S. typhi genes but also to reveal novel phenotypes resulting from the depletion of their products.
Vinegar as a disinfectant of extracted human teeth for dental educational use

Context: Extracted human teeth are routinely used in dentistry to learn technical and preclinical skills. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has adopted guidelines for infection control of extracted teeth used for research and teaching, requiring that teeth be sterilized before use. Many of the proposed disinfection methods starting from use of formalin, sodium hypochlorite and to autoclaving have their own drawbacks and may not be practical. Aim: To assess the effectiveness of vinegar for disinfection/sterilization of extracted human teeth. Materials and Methods: A total of 80 extracted non-carious human teeth were kept in seven disinfectant media—10% formalin, 3% hydrogen peroxide, 5.25% sodium hypochlorite, 70% alcohol, vinegar, neem extract and normal saline. Ten samples were placed in each disinfectant individually for a period of 7 days, at room temperature. In all, 10 teeth were treated with microwave irradiation at 650 W for 3 min. Later, teeth from each group were placed individually in separate test tubes containing 10 ml of tryptic soy broth at 37°C for 48 h to observe the evidence of growth of microorganisms. Semiquantitative analysis of all the samples was done in Clade agar at 37°C for 48 h. Statistical Analysis Used: The number of teeth disinfected in each group was compared using Chi square test. Results: 10% formalin, 3% hydrogen peroxide and vinegar were totally effective. The result was statistically significant with a Chi square value of 61.414 and P < 0.001. Conclusions: Vinegar can be used as an effective disinfectant medium for extracted human teeth.
International inflation linkages and forecasting in the presence of structural breaks

This PhD thesis consists of three related chapters; each contributes to the study of inflation dynamics by examining different issues that have previously been raised in the relevant literature. In particular, the first chapter is concerned with the nature of different changes that have taken place in the conditional mean and variance of inflation. To shed light on this question, an iterative structural break testing methodology is developed which allows the possibility of distinct changes in the conditional mean and variance components by iterating tests between them, with outliers also identified in relation to regimes. This methodology is applied to models that link domestic and foreign inflation, and uncovers a positive and strengthening contemporaneous relationship between domestic and foreign inflation, adding to the literature that provides evidence of increasing globalization of inflation. The second chapter sheds further light on the nature of the globalization of inflation by separating core, energy and food components of aggregate inflation, analyzing changes in the international links in these separate components. Comparison with the aggregate inflation reveals that the overall globalization is driven largely by the mean levels of core inflation being very similar across countries, especially from the early 1990s. Further, an increased synchronization of short-run movements in non-core (energy and food) components contribute to the overall globalization effect, but such short-run synchronization is less evident in core inflation. The first and second chapters show that structural breaks either in the conditional mean or variance parameters of inflation are a common feature. Therefore, the third chapter focuses on the problem of forecasting in the presence of structural breaks. Specifically, chapter 3 proposes a forecast method which allows for break date uncertainty by employing a confidence interval estimate of the break date. A Monte Carlo simulation study and an empirical application to inflation time series demonstrate the usefulness of this approach. This chapter also proposes an algorithm that re-orders time series data based on the similarity of regimes. It is shown that such re-ordering can improve forecast accuracy when estimation exploits the additional information provided by the re-ordered series. These improvements are significant when there are multiple breaks which have the form of reverting coefficients.
Are Immigrants' Earnings Influenced by the Characteristics of Their Neighbours?

Differences in immigrant economic trajectories have been attributed to a wide variety of factors. One of these is the local spatial context where immigrants reside. This spatial context assumes special salience in light of expanding public exposure to and scholarly interest in the potential impacts of spatial concentrations of immigrants. A crucial question is whether immigrants' opportunities are influenced by their neighbours. In this paper we contribute statistical evidence relevant to answering this vital question. We develop multiple measures of the spatial context in which immigrants reside and assess their contribution to the average earnings of immigrant individuals in the three large Swedish metropolitan areas, controlling for individual and regional labour-market characteristics. We use unusually rich longitudinal information about Swedish immigrants during the 1995–2002 period. We find evidence that immigrant men and women paid a substantial penalty during 1999–2002 if in 1999 they resided in areas where a substantial number of their neighbours were members of the same ethnic group. The evidence suggests that own-group concentrations can initially pay dividends for immigrants, but these benefits quickly turn into net disadvantages over time.
Comments on "Toward a Framework for Software Measurement Validation"

A view of software measurement that disagrees with the model presented by Kitchenham, Pfleeger, and Fenton (1995), is given. Whereas Kitchenham et al. argue that properties used to define measures should not constrain the scale type of measures, the authors contend that that is an inappropriate restriction. In addition, a misinterpretation of Weyuker's (1988) properties is noted.
On Risk and Return in MENA Capital Markets

This paper investigates relationships between market risk premium, time-varying variance and time-varying covariance in eleven Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) markets and eight developed markets from 1990 to 2001. Following Pettengill, Sundaram and Mathur (1995), we argue that the Capital Asset Pricing Model has only been partially examined because the negative portion of the market risk premium distribution has not been priory fully investigated. This issue is addressed by implementing a state-dependent multivariate GARCH methodology to proxy for a riskreturn relationship. As a result, significant positive and negative relationships between risk premiums and conditional variance (covariance) are found in MENA capital markets (developed markets). We conclude that MENA markets are highly segmented and provide diversification benefits to the global investor. We test for asymmetric patterns of reward to risk and observe that six out of the eleven MENA markets return series exhibit overly pessimistic reactions unwarranted by market variance alone. This finding supports the overreaction hypothesis and sets grounds for contrarian portfolio strategies.
Antecedents of Total Factor Productivity of Malaysian Banks: Evidence from Semi-Parametric Malmquist Productivity Index Method

The paper employs the semi-parametric Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI) method to assess the impact of technological change on the obtained total factor productivity of Malaysian banks during the period 1998 – 2008. The preferred methodology provides bias-corrected estimates of total factor productivity change along with the information on efforts to catch up to the frontier (efficiency change) from shifts in the frontier (technological change). During the period under study, the empirical findings indicate that the Malaysian banking sector has exhibited productivity progress mainly attributed to technological progress. We also find that shift in the frontier (technological change) positively influence both domestic and foreign banks total factor productivity change.
Histone H1 chaperone activity of TAF‐I is regulated by its subtype‐dependent intramolecular interaction

Linker histone H1 is involved in the regulation of gene activity through the maintenance of higher‐order chromatin structure. Previously, we have shown that template activating factor‐I (TAF‐I or protein SET) is involved in linker histone H1 dynamics as a histone H1 chaperone. In human and murine cells, two TAF‐I subtypes exist, namely TAF‐Iα and TAF‐Iβ. TAF‐I has a highly acidic amino acid cluster in its C‐terminal region and forms homo‐ or heterodimers through its dimerization domain. Both dimer formation and the C‐terminal region of TAF‐I are essential for the histone chaperone activity. TAF‐Iα exhibits less histone chaperone activity compared with TAF‐Iβ even though TAF‐Iα and β differ only in their N‐terminal regions. However, it is unclear how subtype‐specific TAF‐I activities are regulated. Here, we have shown that the N‐terminal region of TAF‐Iα autoinhibits its histone chaperone activity via intramolecular interaction with its C‐terminal region. When the interaction between the N‐ and C‐terminal regions of TAF‐Iα is disrupted, TAF‐Iα shows a histone chaperone activity similar to that of TAF‐Iβ. Taken together, these results provide mechanistic insights into the concept that fine tuning of TAF‐I histone H1 chaperone activity relies on the subtype compositions of the TAF‐I dimer.
Economic Problems of Ireland in Europe

This paper uses the recent controversy between the European Union and the Irish Republic to discuss the more general relation between the European Union, the EMU and the member countries. Despite outstanding economic growth and budget surpluses, Ireland has been criticized by the European Commission because it has reduced taxes in the context of a relatively high rate of inflation. The first part of the paper considers the ways in which the EMU is likely to affect inflation and cyclical unemployment in the member countries over the longer term. The second part deals more specifically with the current Irish situation and the reasons for an EU reprimand of a very small country. That part suggests that an alternative standard, based on the principle of 'do no harm' would have lead to a different outcome. Finally, the paper describes a policy of creating investment-based personal retirement accounts that would allow Ireland to share its future budget surpluses with taxpayers in a way that does not contribute to inflationary pressures.
Money demand in China in the reform period: an error correction model

Based on integration and cointegration test findings, this paper constructs an error correction (ECM) model to evaluate the dynamic adjustment process of money demand in China in the reform period (1979 to 1990). The cointegration tests suggest that some long-run relationship exists among money demand, real income, price, and the real interest rate. The ECM model shows that the dynamic adjustment process of money demand maintains stable and significant relationships to most of its determinants.
Structural transitions of complement component C3 and its activation products

Complement sensitizes pathogens for phagocytosis and lysis. We use electron microscopy to examine the structural transitions in the activation of the pivotal protein in the complement pathway, C3. In the cleavage product C3b, the position of the thioester domain moves ≈100 Å, which becomes covalently coupled to antigenic surfaces. In the iC3b fragment, cleavage in an intervening domain creates a long flexible linker between the thioester domain and the macroglobulin domain ring of C3. Studies on two products of nucleophile addition to C3 reveal a structural intermediate in activation, and a final product, in which the anaphylatoxin domain has undergone a remarkable movement through the macroglobulin ring.
Structure and characteristics of top management teams as antecedents of outside executive appointments: a three-country study

We examine top management team (TMT) structure and characteristics as potential endogenous antecedents of outside appointments of non-CEO senior executives, an executive category that has not yet received significant research attention despite its importance for corporate outcomes. In doing so, we draw on human capital and similarity-attraction theories, thus combining two complementary managerial decision rationales. Additionally addressing the pressing need for cross-country TMT research, this study empirically analyzes a unique sample of 880 non-CEO TMT appointments at large non-financial corporations in France, Germany and the UK between 2006 and 2010. Overall, the results show that TMT endogenous factors such as structure, new executive characteristics and incumbent TMT characteristics may hold significant explanatory power for new executives' origin. Beyond the individual explanatory factors, the comparative nature of the study reveals three distinct country profiles of the degree by which the two theoretical rationales appear to influence appointment decisions.
Dissection of fission yeast microtubule associating protein p93Dis1: regions implicated in regulated localization and microtubule interaction

Background: Fission yeast microtubule associating protein (MAP) p93Dis1 functions for sister chromatid separation: dis1 mutants fail to separate chromosomes, while the spindle elongates but without cyclin destruction. p93Dis1 localizes along microtubules in interphase cytoplasm, but shifts to the spindle pole body (SPB) and spindle microtubules upon the entry into mitosis. In this study, regions of p93Dis1 were dissected to examine their role.
The effect of ISO14001 certification in property management on property price

Purpose – As environmental awareness has become increasingly pronounced among various stakeholders such as governments and communities, many businesses start to adopt a more environmental-friendly approach in their operations. Even a service-oriented industry such as property management is no exception. One way to showcase a company's commitment to this cause is to become ISO14001-certified, under which it is required to implement an environmental management system. In light of this, this paper aims to investigate the impact of this certification in property management, along with two other well-known management certifications/awards in ISO9001 and Hong Kong Management Association Quality Award (HKMAQA), on property price. Design/methodology/approach – The hedonic price model was used to determine whether or not there is a relationship between ISO14001 certification (as well as ISO9001 and HKMAQA) and property price, and if so, its impact. Three districts from different parts of Hong Kong, including 17 pr.