Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Meeting report: teaching signal transduction.

In July, 2005, the European Institute of Chemistry and Biology at the campus of the University of Bordeaux, France, hosted a focused week of seminars, workshops, and discussions around the theme of "teaching signal transduction. " The purpose of the summer school was to offer both junior and senior university instructors a chance to reflect on the development and delivery of their teaching activities in this area. This was achieved by combining open seminars with restricted access workshops and discussion events. The results suggest ways in which systems biology, information and communication technology, Web-based investigations, and high standard illustrations might be more effectively and efficiently incorporated into modern cell biology courses.
City Research Online

To Multilevel multivariable logistic regression analysis was used on a nationally-representative sample of 6029 children from 2735 mothers aged 15-49 years and nested within 365 communities from the 2003 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey. Odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals were used to express measures of association between the characteristics. Variance partition coefficients and proportional change in variance were used to express measures of variation. Children of rural non-migrant mothers had a significantly lower risk of under-five deaths compared to children of rural-urban migrant mothers. The disruption of family and community ties, low socio-economic position and vulnerability, as well as the difficulty migrants face in adapting into the new urban environment, may predispose the children of rural-urban migrants to higher mortality. Our results stress the need for community-level and socio-economic interventions targeted at migrant groups within urban areas, and directed at improving accessibility to health care services, maternal education, and improving the general socio-economic situation of women.
Insulin, Exercise, and Dietary Effects upon Behavioral Thermoregulation in Albino Rats

The objectives of this exploratory research were to assess the effects of insulin preparations (Humulin-regular and NPH) on operant behavior reinforced by schedules of microwave radiation in a cold environment and to measure changes in this thermoregulatory behavior as a function of exercise and food deprivation. Eight albino rats were conditioned to regulate their thermal environment with 6-sec. exposures of microwave (MW) radiation (SAR = 0.34 Watts/kg/(mW/cm2) under FR-1 and FR-10 schedules. Regular-insulin and NPH-insulin sessions were administered alternately with saline-control sessions for 8-hr. durations. Exercise in an activity wheel and 48 hr. of food deprivation (diet) were additional independent variables used to alter thermoregulation. Three randomized-block analysis of variance designs with repeated measures showed that insulin preparations resulted in a suppression of operant responding for heat, yet food deprivation increased rates of microwave responding. These data are interpreted in terms of functional relationships between ambient temperature changes, core body temperature, blood glucose fluctuations, and operant behavior.
Characterization of genotype G8 strains from Malawi, Kenya, and South Africa

Reviews of the global distribution of rotavirus genotypes have revealed the continuous circulation of G8 strains in Africa, often responsible for more cases of rotavirus disease than the more common G1–G4 rotavirus strains. During the study, genotype G8 strains from Malawi, Kenya, and South Africa were detected and the VP7 and VP4 genes of selected specimens were sequenced. Results indicated that G8 strains appeared to reassort frequently and were associated with P[6], P[4], and P[8] specificity. Phylogenetic analysis suggested that G8 strains occurred in a North/South African phylogenetic divide. In addition, G8 strains appear to be able to infect non‐human primates and strains with close phylogenetic relationships were detected in the same year on two continents. Any rotavirus vaccine introduced into African environments will need to demonstrate protective efficacy against unusual genotype combinations, new serotypes, and animal strains. Therefore, continuous monitoring of rotavirus strains in human and animal populations in Africa is a necessity. J. Med. Virol. 82:2073–2081, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Substation equipment temperature monitoring system design based on self-powered wireless temperature sensors

High voltage switchgear, isolating switch and other high voltage switch equipment in substation are all important equipment in transmission system. Their stable operation is necessary for the normal work of power grid, so the temperature monitoring of these equipment plays an important role in the whole power system. In this paper, we design a novel self-powered wireless temperature sensor using the electric field inductive technology and propose a kind of structure of the substation equipment temperature monitoring system based on the novel sensor. Composed of self-powered wireless temperature sensing chip and electric field coupling plate, self-powered wireless temperature sensor can acquire temperature information of the substation equipment without any enteral power supply. Meanwhile, the self-powered wireless temperature sensor is applied to the temperature monitoring system, which can real-timely measure the temperatures of several points, such as cable joint, knife contact, high voltage switchgear contact or copper platoon connection point and so on. This system has advantages of low power consumption, high reliability and strong anti-jamming capability, and can effectively guarantees the safety of the substation equipment.
1new Public Management: The Cruellest Invention of the Human Spirit?

This article examines one of the most significant phenomena of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries—the emergence of New Public Management (NPM). NPM has been widely adopted, internationally. However, its adoption is based on governments having faith in its deployment to transform their public sectors using private sector performance criteria. In this article, the case is advanced that the widespread use of NPM is often a cruel disappointment for governments. This is demonstrated by focusing on four key elements of NPM, as practised in the early twenty-first century—the role of management consultants, the development of e-government, the emergence of the ‘audit society’ and the increasing importance of risk management.
Effects of dexmedetomidine infusion in patients undergoing functional endoscopic sinus surgery under local anaesthesia

Background and objectives: Functional endoscopic sinus surgery can be performed under either local or general anaesthesia. The objective of this study was to investigate the haemodynamic effects of perioperatively administered dexmedetomidine, a new generation &agr;‐2‐agonist, in patients for functional endoscopic sinus surgery. Methods: Sixty‐two patients who were planned to undergo functional endoscopic sinus surgery under local anaesthesia were included in the study. Following meperidine premedication, both groups were monitored in a standard manner with electrocardiogram, non‐invasive blood pressure and percentages of peripheral saturation of oxygen. Saline intravenous infusion was started in the placebo group, and dexmedetomidine bolus intravenous infusion (an initial loading dose of 1 &mgr;g kg−1 given for a 10‐min period followed by 0.7 &mgr;g kg−1 h−1) was administered to the treatment group. Maintenance dose infusion was stopped 15 min before the end of the surgical procedure. Results: Systolic, diastolic and mean arterial pressures, and heart rate markedly decreased in the dexmedetomidine group. However, dexmedetomidine had no effect on serum nitric oxide levels, measured by a nitric oxide/ozone chemiluminescence method. No significant difference was found in oxygen saturation levels of the two groups. Postoperative nausea and vomiting rates were significantly lower in the dexmedetomidine group. No adverse effects were observed with this &agr;‐2‐agonist. Dexmedetomidine provided appropriate levels of sedation. Conclusion: These results suggest that dexmedetomidine provides analgesia, adequate sedation and surgical comfort without adverse effects for patients undergoing functional endoscopic sinus surgery under local anaesthesia.
The Importance of Imports for Household Environmental Impacts

A promising way to reduce environmental impacts of consumer expenditure is through the encouragement of more sustainable consumption patterns. Consumers cause environmental impacts both directly, such as by fuel use in personal cars, and indirectly, by paying for the production of consumables. With increased international trade, the indirect environmental impacts are difficult to determine because a portion of the emissions occurs in different geographical regions. Many previous studies have unrealistically assumed that imports are produced using domestic production technology. For countries with diverging technology and energy mixes the likely errors are significant. This study applies a methodology that explicitly includes technology differences to the case of Norwegian households. It is found that a significant portion of pollution is embodied in Norwegian household imports. Further, a disproportionately large amount of pollution is embodied in imports from developing countries. Overall, as in previous studies, we find that mobility and food are most important in terms of household environmental impacts. By analyzing the imports in more detail we find that for some sectors the majority of emissions occur in foreign regions; in particular, this is true for food, business services, clothing, chemicals, furniture, cars, agriculture, textiles, and most manufactured products.
The Effect of Regulatory Changes in the Airline Industry on Shareholders' Wealth

IVE years of intense debate marked by hearings and deliberations in Congress and experimental regulatory actions by the Civil Aeronautics Board led, in October 1978, to the Airline Deregulation Act. Airline deregulation has attracted considerable attention in the academic literature, and researchers have examined the impact of deregulation in such areas as fares, welfare, and industry structure. ' With the exception of Spiller's 1983 and 1986 studies, however, there has been little in the financial economics literature evaluating the effect of regulatory changes on airlines' profitability.2 The purpose of this article is to examine the effect
Distributed Stars (D-Stars): A system topology for microgrids

A Distributed Stars (D-Stars) topology is proposed for microgrids, consisting of distributed generators and loads. The benefits and operational modes of the topology are discussed. Further, the topology creates an environment in which the control scheme for power balancing can be improved. The power balancing algorithms presented in [1] and [2] are extended using local current measurements, from local load branches. SABER simulations show the improvement in control achieved by the new algorithms.
Exchange Rate Volatility, Monetary Policy, and Capital Mobility: Empirical Evidence on the Holy Trinity

This paper uses a panel of data from twenty-two countries between 1967 and 1992 to explore the tradeoff between the 'Holy Trinity' of fixed exchange rates, independent monetary policy, and capital mobility. I use: flexible- and sticky-price monetary exchange rate models to parameterize monetary divergence; factor analysis to extract measures of capital mobility from a variety of different indicators; and conditional exchange rate volatility to measure the degree to which the exchange rate is fixed. Exchange rate volatility is loosely linked to both monetary divergence and the degree of capital mobility. Interestingly, exchange rate volatility is significantly correlated with the width of the explicitly declared exchange rate band, even after taking monetary divergence and capital mobility into account.
New Scottish Parliament, New Scottish Parliamentarians?

This article analyses the social characteristics and career paths of Scottish elected representatives, assessing the extent to which the Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) are different from their Scottish counterparts at Westminster as well as the society at large. Taking the analysis of comparative representation beyond the contemporary focus on gender, this article finds that in certain specific ways the Scottish counterparts at Westminster are actually more representative of the Scottish population. While MSPs are more representative of the female population, traditional 'politics facilitating' career paths are less important than they are for Westminster and Scottish MPs are more representative of ethnicity and the working class in Scotland. Findings suggest that if we want a more inclusive style of 'new politics' then the parties will have to address the issue of microcosmic representation from a wider perspective than the current focus on gender.
An empirical bayes adjustment to increase the sensitivity of detecting differentially expressed genes in microarray experiments

MOTIVATION Detection of differentially expressed genes is one of the major goals of microarray experiments. Pairwise comparison for each gene is not appropriate without controlling the overall (experimentwise) type 1 error rate. Dudoit et al. have advocated use of permutation-based step-down P-value adjustments to correct the observed significance levels for the individual (i.e. for each gene) two sample t-tests. RESULTS In this paper, we consider an ANOVA formulation of the gene expression levels corresponding to multiple tissue types. We provide resampling-based step-down adjustments to correct the observed significance levels for the individual ANOVA t-tests for each gene and for each pair of tissue type comparisons. More importantly, we introduce a novel empirical Bayes adjustment to the t-test statistics that can be incorporated into the step-down procedure. Using simulated data, we show that the empirical Bayes adjustment improved the sensitivity of detecting differentially expressed genes up to 16%, while maintaining a high level of specificity. This adjustment also reduces the false non-discovery rate to some degree at the cost of a modest increase in the false discovery rate. We illustrate our approach using a human colon cancer dataset consisting of oligonucleotide arrays of normal, adenoma and carcinoma cells. The number of genes with differential expression level declared statistically significant was about 50 when comparing normal to adenoma cells and about five when comparing adenoma to carcinoma cells. This list includes genes previously known to be associated with colon cancer as well as some novel genes. AVAILABILITY R code for the empirical Bayes adjustment and step-down P-value calculation via resampling are available from the supplementary web-site. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION http://www.mathstat. gsu.edu/~matsnd/EB/supp.htm
A critical evaluation of strategic alliances in liner shipping

During the last few years, the liner industry has endured a period of radical change, largely due to the formation of the so-called global strategic alliances amongst leading container carriers. However, not even after a full year of operations, a series of cross-alliance mergers and acquisitions has forced three out of the four newly formed alliances to restructure and/or modify their partner base. While this recent development does not put an end to such kind of agreements, as the merged companies are still committed in a second generation of strategic alliances, it highlights the fact that, despite the intentions of their respective partners, such alliances are actually characterized by a high level of instability. This paper, after considering the key profiles of strategic alliances in liner shipping, argues that their current structure may prove inherently inadequate to deliver an acceptable level of stability. The main factors driving such instability can be found in the increased organizational complexity of the alliance as well as in the establishment of a certain degree of intra-alliance competition, whose effects are likely to undermine the level of mutual trust between partner companies. Causes and effects of such factors are investigated and some measures aimed at controlling alliance instability are also suggested.
Circadian Aspects of Postprandial Metabolism

Time‐dependent variations in the hormonal and metabolic responses to food are of importance to human health, as postprandial metabolic responses have been implicated as risk factors in a number of major diseases, including cardiovascular disease. Early work reported decreasing glucose tolerance in the evening and at night with evidence for insulin resistance at night. Subsequently an endogenous circadian component, assessed in constant routine (CR), as well as an influence of sleep time, was described for glucose and insulin. Plasma triacylglycerol (TAG), the major lipid component of dietary fat circulating after a meal, also appears to be influenced by both the circadian clock and sleep time with higher levels during biological night (defined as the time between the onset and offset of melatonin secretion) despite identical hourly nutrient intake. These time‐dependent differences in postprandial responses have implications for shiftworkers. In the case of an unadapted night shift worker, meals during work time will be taken during biological night. In simulated night shift conditions the TAG response to a standard meal, preceded by either a low‐fat or a high‐fat premeal, was higher after a nighttime meal than during a daytime meal, and the day/night difference was larger in men than in women. In real night shift workers in Antarctica, insulin, glucose, and TAG all showed an increased response after a nighttime meal (second day of night shift) compared to a daytime meal. Night shift workers are reported to have an approximately 1.5 times higher incidence of heart disease risk and also demonstrate higher TAG levels compared with matched dayworkers. As both insulin resistance and elevated circulating TAG are independent risk factors for heart disease, it is possible that meals at night may contribute to this risk.
Accurate estimation of isoelectric point of protein and peptide based on amino acid sequences

Abstract Motivation: In any macromolecular polyprotic system—for example protein, DNA or RNA—the isoelectric point—commonly referred to as the pI—can be defined as the point of singularity in a titration curve, corresponding to the solution pH value at which the net overall surface charge—and thus the electrophoretic mobility—of the ampholyte sums to zero. Different modern analytical biochemistry and proteomics methods depend on the isoelectric point as a principal feature for protein and peptide characterization. Protein separation by isoelectric point is a critical part of 2-D gel electrophoresis, a key precursor of proteomics, where discrete spots can be digested in-gel, and proteins subsequently identified by analytical mass spectrometry. Peptide fractionation according to their pI is also widely used in current proteomics sample preparation procedures previous to the LC-MS/MS analysis. Therefore accurate theoretical prediction of pI would expedite such analysis. While such pI calculation is widely used, it remains largely untested, motivating our efforts to benchmark pI prediction methods. Results: Using data from the database PIP-DB and one publically available dataset as our reference gold standard, we have undertaken the benchmarking of pI calculation methods. We find that methods vary in their accuracy and are highly sensitive to the choice of basis set. The machine-learning algorithms, especially the SVM-based algorithm, showed a superior performance when studying peptide mixtures. In general, learning-based pI prediction methods (such as Cofactor, SVM and Branca) require a large training dataset and their resulting performance will strongly depend of the quality of that data. In contrast with Iterative methods, machine-learning algorithms have the advantage of being able to add new features to improve the accuracy of prediction. Contact: yperez@ebi.ac. uk Availability and Implementation: The software and data are freely available at https://github.com/ypriverol/pIR. Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Tackling Entrepreneurship in the Informal Economy: Evaluating the Policy Options

Purpose – Although there is emerging an understanding that many entrepreneurs conduct some or all of their transactions off‐the‐books, there has so far been little attempt to consider what can and should be done about entrepreneurship in the informal economy. The purpose of this paper is to bridge this gap.Design/methodology/approach – Following a review of what is known about the prevalence and nature of informal entrepreneurship, this paper evaluates what can and should be done about informal entrepreneurs by analyzing the various policy options and their implications.Findings – Evaluating the possible policy approaches of doing nothing, eradication, de‐regulation and facilitating formalisation, the finding is that doing nothing leaves intact the existing negative impacts on formal and informal businesses, customers and governments, whilst eradicating informal entrepreneurship results in governments stamping out precisely the entrepreneurship and enterprise culture that they wish to nurture, and de‐regu.
Transcatheter Closure of Secundum Atrial Septal Defect Using the Amplatzer Device: Single Center Experience in 140 Patients

In this paper we present our experience with the Amplatzer septal occluder device, employed in 140 patients for percutaneous closure of atrial secundum defect (ASD), from October 2002 to February 2006. The age of patients ranged between 5.3 and 70 years, median 21.9 years. Procedure time ranged between 25 and 240 minutes, median 60 minutes; fluoroscopy time ranged between 3.5 and 45 minutes, median 12 minutes. Transoesophageal echocardiography was used to monitor the implantation procedure. The size of the selected device was 1 to 2 mm larger than the stretched diameter of the defect and ranged between 6-40 mm. Two devices have been implanted in two patients. Serious procedure related complications (embolization and perforation of the left atrial wall) occurred in two cases. At follow up (10 days to 3.4 years, median 2.3 years) complete closure was documented in 97% of this patient group. Unrecognized during implantation, but detected after release, small additional defect with trivial residual shunt was documented in 4 patients. A young critically ill patient, cyanotic due to right-to-left shunt, with complex congenital heart disease developed a brain abscess three months after implantation. In conclusion, percutaneous ASD closure with use of the Amplatzer device in this patient cohort was highly successful with a low complication rate.