Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Attachment and growth of cultured fibroblast cells on silk protein matrices.

The attachment and growth of L-929 cells on films made of Bombyx mori silk proteins--fibroin and sericin and their mixtures--was studied by a cell culture method. Both cell attachment and growth were dependent on a minimum of around 90% sericin in the mixture. The results from electron micrography as well as from the DSC measurements supported the notion that the mixture of the two proteins fibroin and sericin has a phase-separated structure in the solid state. The observed minimum of sericin in the cell attachment and growth is thought to be a result of this phase-separated structure. Films of pure component proteins (i.e., 100% fibroin or sericin) exhibited as high a cell attachment and growth as collagen, a widely used mammalian cell culture substrate. However, a morphological study of the attached cells revealed that the cells attached to silk fibroin were extended and had a spindle shape, just like the cells attached to collagen, while the cells attached to the silk sericin had a different shape. It is concluded, therefore, that the attachment condition on silk fibroin is ideal for the viability, growth and function of the cells.
DETERMINANTS OF CAPITAL FLIGHT FROM ARGENTINA, BRAZIL, AND MEXICO

This paper derives four alternative measures of "hot money" outflows of capital from Latin America's three major debtors-Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico. These measures are based on two sources of quarterly data from 1977 to 1986: (i) the balance of payments statistics and (ii) changes in the U.S. bank deposits of non-banking entities in the debtor countries. The portfolio adjustment model then is used to specify the factors influencing capital flight. These factors are grouped into two types. The push factors relate to characteristics of the so-called source countries for capital flight and include the interest and inflation rates, the degree of currency overvaluation, and the environmental risks embodied in both frequent regime changes and the onset of the 1982 debt crisis. The pull factors include the interest and inflation rates in the host country, the United States. The principal findings of the paper show that the push factors alone are significant in explaining capital outflows from Argentina and Brazil. For Mexico, by contrast, the push factors as well as the pull factors are found to be relevant in explaining the behavior of flight capital, as measured by changes in the deposits of Mexican non-bank entities in the U.S. banking system. Copyright 1989 Western Economic Association International.
REITs and Correlations with Other Asset Classes: A European Perspective

Executive Summary. Long present in the United States, real estate investment trusts (REITs) are a fairly new phenomenon in Europe. This paper examines the sensitivity of European REIT returns to returns in other asset classes, including equities, bonds, and commodities. Consistent with previous studies, the results suggest that a significant positive correlation is observed between REITs and equities, especially small cap- and value stocks; REIT correlation to fixed income securities is found negative. Temporal variations in asset volatilities and their effect on correlations are assessed: The motivation is for investors and portfolio managers alike to incorporate the time-varying nature of the relationship in their decision making. Whereas the diversification benefits for equities decrease with increasing volatility, fixed income assets provide an increased hedge. The case of commodities in this sense remains to a large extent blurred.
Information Sharing Behavior in Social Commerce Sites: The Differences between Sellers and Non-Sellers

The rise of social media encouraged customers to share information more frequently and to larger extent. Previous work primarily focused on how and why customers share information in online social commerce sites. In the current study, we distinguish between the two types of users: sellers and non-sellers in social commerce sites. Drawing on the goal theory, we empirically examine intrinsic and extrinsic benefits as the key direct antecedents, and explore the moderating role of sellers/non-sellers in the relationship between intrinsic and extrinsic benefits and information sharing behavior. Analyzing survey data (n=1170) in the first phase collected from a popular social commerce site, we found that intention to share information among sellers and nonsellers are indeed different. This study can advance the understandings of information sharing literature by revealing the differences between different types of users. The results offer important and interesting insights to IS research and practice.
Cease‐fire at the leading edge: New perspectives on actin filament branching, debranching, and cross‐linking

Membrane protrusion at the leading edge of migrating cells is driven by the polymerization of actin. Recent studies using advanced imaging techniques raised a lively controversy about the morphology of these filaments; however, common ground between the two sides now appears to have been found. Here we discuss how the controversy has led to a deeper consideration of the architecture of actin networks underlying cell migration, and has helped define new challenges that lie ahead. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Perinatal outcomes and satisfaction with care in women with high body mass index.

INTRODUCTION The majority of studies on pregnant women with high body mass index (BMI) have focused on medical complications and birth outcome, rather than these women's encounters with health care providers. The aims were to identify the proportion of pregnant women with high BMIs (≥30); compare maternal characteristics and pregnancy and birth outcomes; and assess the experiences of prenatal, intrapartum, and postnatal care in women with high (≥30) and lower (<30) BMIs. METHODS Data were collected through questionnaires and antenatal records from 919 women recruited in mid-pregnancy at 3 hospitals in the north of Sweden, with a follow-up questionnaire 2 months after birth. RESULTS The prevalence of obesity was 15.2%. Women with high BMIs were more often aged 35 years or older and less likely to have a university education. They had more negative attitudes regarding being pregnant and reported more childbirth fear compared to women with lower BMIs, but they did not differ in regard to their feelings about the approaching birth or the first weeks with the newborn. They reported more pregnancy complications and had less continuity of caregiver. High BMI was associated with labor induction and emergency cesarean birth. No differences were found in birth complications; birth experience; or satisfaction with prenatal, intrapartum, or postnatal care. DISCUSSION The findings reveal that women who are obese have more complicated pregnancies and births but are generally satisfied with the care they receive. There are some differences in the way they experience care. Health care providers have a delicate task to provide sufficient information about health risks while still offering respect, encouragement, and support.
Ad-fRNK and Ad-p53 cooperate to augment drug-induced death of a transformed cell line.

BACKGROUND Transformed cells have abnormalities in the survival pathways contributing to drug resistance. These abnormalities include p53 mutations and increased focal adhesion kinase (FAK) expression. Because FAK regulates cell survival via p53-dependent and -independent pathways, it was hypothesized that combined therapy using wild-type p53 and an inhibitor of FAK (FRNK) would sensitize cells to anticancer drugs. MATERIALS AND METHODS RPMI 2650 cells were infected with recombinant adenoviruses causing overexpression of p53 (Ad-p53) and FRNK (Ad-FRNK). Cell viability and apoptosis were measured using in vitro assays, whereas protein expression was determined by Western blotting. RESULTS Co-infection of cells with Ad-p53 and Ad-FRNK induced more cellular apoptosis than transfection with either agent alone. Likewise, the co-transfection of cells with Ad-FRNK and Ad-p53 improved the cytotoxic response to four commonly used anticancer drugs relative to cells transfected with Ad-FRNK alone, Ad-p53 alone, or the equivalent amount of control adenovirus. This effect was associated with loss of endogenous FAK protein.
Effect of PETTLEP imagery training on performance of nursing skills: pilot study.

AIM This article is a report of a study to evaluate the effect of PETTLEP-based imagery training on nursing skill performance. BACKGROUND Imagery structuring has been demonstrated to facilitate the development of psychomotor skills in sporting performance. A form of imagery structuring known as PETTLEP was employed in this study. PETTLEP (an acronym for its procedures) involves preparation through focussing on physical characteristics, the environment, the task itself, timing, learning, emotion and perspective. METHODS A pilot study was conducted, using experimental design, and the data were collected in 2005. Participants in the experiment were 56 pre-registration students from one university in the United Kingdom. Half of the students received training for two basic nursing skills using PETTLEP procedures, and scores were compared for two objective structured clinical examinations. RESULTS Students who received PETTLEP training for blood pressure measurement performed statistically significantly better than those who did not (F = 4.62 P = <0.05). The training did not have a statistically significant effect for aseptic techniques. We suggest that the psychomotor element in aseptic techniques was not as important as that involved in blood pressure measurement. CONCLUSION PETTLEP imagery should be explored further as a method to help nursing students acquire skills that have a psychomotor component.
A Ku-band CMOS build-in-self-test chip based on phasor-sum detection method for RF beamforming transceivers

A Ku-band build-in-self-test (BIST) chip in CMOS is presented for RF beamforming arrays in 5G mobile communication systems. Since the beamforming array in 5G systems has hundreds of antenna elements, the BIST circuits must be incorporated in the RF chains to be able to accurately detect and control the phase and amplitude of the signal such that the required beam shape and direction can be precisely generated. The BIST based on the phasor-sum detection method is designed in 90 nm CMOS technology at Ku-band. The measurement results show that the relative phase detection error is less than 5.9o, compared with the data directly from the vector network analyzer.
Rhinovirus infections in children: A retrospective and prospective hospital‐based study

To analyze clinical characteristics and prevalence of rhinovirus infections in children in the hospital, we reviewed a retrospective dataset from a 20‐year period, and conducted a short‐term prospective study. Records of children and adolescents treated at our hospital during 1987–2006 with a documented rhinovirus infection were reviewed and compared with patients with other respiratory virus infections. Prospective study included all children ≥1 month of age admitted to pediatric infectious disease ward during an autumn period. Rhinoviruses were detected by reverse transcription‐PCR and/or culture, and sequence analysis was used for virus typing. In the retrospective study, the median age of 580 children with rhinovirus infection was 1.9 years (interquartile range, 1.0–4.3 years), and 27% had an underlying medical condition. Eighty‐four children (16% of in‐patients) were treated at pediatric intensive care unit. Twenty‐one children (4%) had a hospital‐acquired rhinovirus infection. In the prospective study, rhinoviruses were detected in 28% of 163 hospital episodes. Acute wheezing illness was diagnosed in 61% of children with rhinovirus and in 31% of children with respiratory syncytial virus, enterovirus, or no study virus (P < 0.001). One‐half of sequence‐analyzed rhinovirus strains belonged to the newly identified C group. In conclusion, rhinovirus infections are a frequent cause of pediatric hospitalizations, and they are common also at the intensive care unit. Acute wheezing is the most frequent manifestation in hospital setting, but the range of clinical presentations is wide. Group C rhinoviruses may account for a large part of rhinovirus hospitalizations. J. Med. Virol. 81:1831–1838, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Do Expectations Play Any Role in Determining Pak Rupee Exchange Rates

This paper presents some evidence on the role of expectations in the determination of Pak rupee exchange rates vis-a-vis the dollar, pound, and yen over the period 1982:1– 1993:7. Results of cointegration and coefficient restriction tests in two out of three cases are supportive of the view of exchange rate determination in postulating that in efficient markets in which uncertainty and expectations about the future are dominant, the equilibrium nominal exchange rate is determined not only by current relative prices but also by the expected real exchange rate. These results are supportive of ex ante purchasing power parity, implying that the real exchange rate follows a random walk. These results also suggest that the anticipated inflation rate is higher in Pakistan than in other countries, which tends to encourage the domestic residents to convert their current balances into foreign currency, so that the terms of trade deteriorate and offset much of gains of the continuous devaluation of Pak rupee by undermining external competitiveness.
Foreign Direct Investment in China: How Big are the Roles of Culture and Geography?

I assess the importance of geography and cultural ties in foreign direct investment in China. Using an estimated gravity model to construct predicted FDI stocks in China for 1997 from major source countries, I find that the total FDI stock would be lowered by about 45% if China's economic center were located in New Delhi, India, and would be lowered by about 70% if it were located in New Delhi and there were no cultural ties. These estimates suggest that much of China's ability to attract FDI is due to its natural advantages. Copyright 2005 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Long-Term Investing in Politicians; Or, Give Early, Give Often

THE political history of the United States is filled with stories about the power of money in shaping public decisions, and concern about this power is a frequent cause for public debate and an occasional cause for public legislation. Nonetheless, despite years of research by political scientists and economists, the extent to which money actually buys political influence on a regular basis remains a mystery. Virtually all scholarly work attempting to document a systematic effect of money on public decisions focuses on the relationship between campaign contributions-especially Political Action Committee (PAC) contributions-and congressmen's roll-call voting behavior.1 Overall, the
A eficiência dos gastos públicos em educação: evidências georreferenciadas nos municípios goianos

This paper is aimed at evaluating the efficiency of public spending on education in the municipalities of Goias State. The efficiency of municipal networks in the period 2005-2009 was evaluated by comparing the results obtained in the model of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) with those calculated by the classic method of inverted frontier. The results reveal the level of inefficiency (67.44%) and its causes: a) scale inefficiency (11.63%), b) the impact of the environment (4.01%), c) inefficiency of management (16.92%). This paper also estimates and locate geographically the cost of inefficiency and the municipalities that have achieved more balanced performance.
On Homomorphisms of nD Behaviors

Different modeling procedures applied to a physical system may result in behaviors which are distinct but nevertheless share many structural properties. Such behaviors are isomorphic in a sense which we formalize and characterize in this paper. More generally, we introduce a natural notion of homomorphisms between behaviors of multidimensional systems, generalizing recent work of Fuhrmann. A generalization of strict system equivalence (in the sense of Fuhrmann) is shown to describe the relationship between generalized state-space descriptions in theD case.
Collaborations between foreign-invested enterprises and China’s VET schools: making the system work amid localised skill shortages

This article examines collaborative initiatives individual foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) develop with China’s vocational education and training (VET) schools amid localised shortages of skilled workers. It thus focuses on employer initiatives in responding to VET system weaknesses rather than, as is common, those weaknesses. Using Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) as the research site, it provides a local labour market perspective for understanding how firms have redirected their interactions with local VET institutions in an economically advanced area. As a mixed-method study, data collection was through face-to-face interviews with FIE managers and local government officials and firm-level surveys. Employer initiatives take a number of forms and follow diverse motivations. Motivations include firm-focused needs and commitments to improving the system. A firm’s duration in SIP explains choices for more, and more demanding collaborations. Furthermore, through their collaborative programmes, the most engaged FIEs reshape those VET schools and also the choices of other local FIEs.
The anatomy of the perineal membrane: its relationship to injury in childbirth and episiotomy

Episiotomy during childbirth, intended to protect the anal sphincter, may fail to do so. Furthermore damage to the anal sphincter complex may occur without complete perineal tear.We hypothesise that these particular injuries may occur due to posterior displacement of the anus leading to distraction of the anal sphincter complex from an anterior attachment to the perineal membrane. However, the anatomical basis for this has not been well defined.
Rough classification and accuracy assessment

In search for methods to handle imprecision in geographical information this paper explores the use of rough classification to represent uncertainty. Rough classification is based on rough set theory, where an uncertain set is specified by giving an upper and a lower approximation. Novel measures are presented to assess a single rough classification, to compare a rough classification to a crisp one and to compare two rough classifications. An extension to the error matrix paradigm is also presented, both for the rough-crisp and the roughrough cases. An experiment on vegetation and soil data demonstrates the viability of rough classification, comparing two incompatible vegetation classifications covering the same area. The potential uses of rough sets and rough classification are discussed and it is suggested that this approach should be further investigated as it can be used in a range of applications within geographic information science from data acquisition and analysis to metadata organization.
Fuzzy Filtering for Physiological Signal Analysis

This study suggests the use of fuzzy-filtering algorithms to deal with the uncertainties associated to the analysis of physiological signals. The signal characteristics, for a given situation or physiological state, vary for an individual over time and also vary among the individuals with the same state. These random variations are due to the several factors related to the physiological behavior of individuals, which cannot be taken into account in the interpretation of signal characteristics. Our approach is to reduce the effect of random variations on the analysis of signal characteristics via filtering out randomness or uncertainty from the signal using a nonlinear fuzzy filter. A fuzzy-filtering algorithm, which is based on a modification of filtering algorithm of Kumar et al. [M. Kumar, N. Stoll, and R. Stoll, IEEE Trans. Fuzzy Syst. , vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 150-166, Feb. 2009], is proposed for an improved performance. The method is illustrated by studying the effect of head-up tilting on the heart-rate signal of 40 healthy subjects.
Frequency Discrimination in Listeners with Sensorineural Hearing loss

Abstract The difference hen for frequency [DLFI was measured in both ears of 34 hearing-impaired subjects at the octave and interoctave frequencies between 500 and 4000 Hz. In agreement with previous studies of DLF in the hearing impaired, there was only a moderate correlation (0.491 between DLF/F and hearing threshold level (HTL]. Correlation and regression analyses at the individual frequencies, however, indicated that DLF/F is much more closely related to HTL at 1000 Hz and above than it is below 1000 Hz. Comparison of the right-left ear differences in DLF and HTL revealed some large DLF differences where there was no HTL difference and some large HTL differences where no DLF difference was found. The lack of a strong relationship between DLF and HTL asymmetries indicates that the structures that limit the DLF and the HTL may, at the same frequency, be damaged differently in each ear of the same subject.
Do patterns of trade and international competitiveness support the case for industrial policy?

Although industrial policy is promoted as a means of achieving and preserving international competitiveness, the patterns of trade between countries are often ignored in both justifying industrial policies and measuring their impact. This paper examines the case for industrial policy using bilateral trade patterns over a 12-year period to measure changes in British industrial competitiveness. As Germany is widely portrayed as a model of industrial competitiveness, the research addresses the common view that Germany strengthened its leading position as an industrial European power, whereas UK is slowly falling behind because it lacks an active industrial policy. By studying competitiveness using various metrics related to export data, a more subtle and nuanced picture arises of what has happened to the UK vis-à-vis Germany with implications for policy-making. We analyse changes in the structural composition of British and German manufactured exports based on specific trade indices, including the revealed comparative advantage, the Grubel–Lloyd index, the marginal intra-industry index and factor intensity, calculated at industry and product level. The results have policy implications for how UK advances towards policy objectives of increasing exports to balance the economy, achieve sustainable growth and overcome the negative effects of the recent financial crisis.
Firm Foundations? Contingent Labour and Employers' Provision of Training in the UK Construction Sector

Based on an original survey of the UK construction industry this article examines the training disadvantages faced by contingent labour. This article addresses two key questions: first, is the provision of training different for directly employed labour and different forms of contingent labour? Second, what structural and organisational factors shape the provision of training to different contingent labour forms? The article finds that fewer firms provide training for agency, self-employed and subcontract labour, compared to directly employed workers. Training for subcontract labour seems to reflect a longer-term perspective towards the use of this labour form, while decisions to train agency and self-employed labour appears to be driven by more short-term considerations.