Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neuropeptide Action in Insects and Crustaceans*

Physiological processes are regulated by a diverse array of neuropeptides that coordinate organ systems. The neuropeptides, many of which act through G protein–coupled receptors, affect the levels of cyclic nucleotides (cAMP and cGMP) and Ca2+ in target tissues. In this perspective, their roles in molting, osmoregulation, metabolite utilization, and cardiovascular function are highlighted. In decapod crustaceans, inhibitory neuropeptides (molt‐inihibiting hormone and crustacean hyperglycemic hormone) suppress the molting gland through cAMP‐ and cGMP‐mediated signaling. In insects, the complex movements during ecdysis are controlled by ecdysis‐triggering hormone and a cascade of downstream neuropeptides. Adipokinetic/hypertrehalosemic/hyperprolinemic hormones mobilize energy stores in response to increased locomotory activity. Crustacean cardioacceleratory (cardioactive) peptide, proctolin, and FMRFamide‐related peptides act on the heart, accessory pulsatile organs, and excurrent ostia to control hemolymph distribution to tissues. The osmoregulatory challenge of blood gorging in Rhodnius prolixus requires the coordinated release of serotonin and diuretic and antidiuretic hormones acting on the midgut and Malpighian tubules. These studies illustrate how multiple neuropeptides allow for flexibility in response to physiological challenges.
An Improved Method on Wilcoxon Rank Sum Test for Gene Selection from Microarray Experiments

Selecting a small subset out of the thousands of genes in microarray data is important for accurate classification of phenotypes. In this paper, we propose a flexible rank-based nonparametric procedure for gene selection from microarray data. In the method we propose a statistic for testing whether area under receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) for each gene is equal to 0.5 allowing different variance for each gene. The contribution to this “single gene” statistic is the studentization of the empirical AUC, which takes into account the variances associated with each gene in the experiment. Delong et al. proposed a nonparametric procedure for calculating a consistent variance estimator of the AUC. We use their variance estimation technique to get a test statistic, and we focus on the primary step in the gene selection process, namely, the ranking of genes with respect to a statistical measure of differential expression. Two real datasets are analyzed to illustrate the methods and a simulation study is carried out to assess the relative performance of different statistical gene ranking measures. The work includes how to use the variance information to produce a list of significant targets and assess differential gene expressions under two conditions. The proposed method does not involve complicated formulas and does not require advanced programming skills. We conclude that the proposed methods offer useful analytical tools for identifying differentially expressed genes for further biological and clinical analysis.
Guidelines for CEO‐speak: editing the language of corporate leadership

Purpose – The paper highlights the strategic importance of being alert to the power of the language and words used by CEOs in their various communications – their CEO‐speak.Design/methodology/approach – The paper employs a close reading analysis of several contemporary examples of one of the most significant genres of CEO‐speak – the CEO's annual letter to stockholders.Findings – Four perspectives important for understanding corporate strategy are highlighted: the importance of CEO‐speak as a linguistic marker of CEO narcissism; the revealing nature of metaphors chosen by CEOs; the potential rhetorical potency that arises from the way CEO‐speak is framed; and the significance of cultural keywords.Research limitations/implications – Case examples, such as the close readings in this article, possess the strength of specific instance detail and interpretation, and the ostensible weakness arising from interpretation of small samples. But such research may provide for a reframing of conceptual perspectives and.
Maintaining Consistent Global Asset Views (with a Little Help from Euclid)

Global economic and capital market integration has led to a host of new concerns for plan sponsors and money managers. In such an environment, ensuring consistent capital market expectations, policies, and strategies among different base currencies is important. A primary difficulty is translating risk and correlation estimates from the home currency into any other currency. We provide a method for converting risk and correlation views. The method makes use of a geometric interpretation of risks and correlations, dramatically simplifying the requisite calculations.
Anti‐apoptotic effect of Mao‐B inhibitor PF9601N [N‐(2‐propynyl)‐2‐(5‐benzyloxy‐indolyl) methylamine] is mediated by p53 pathway inhibition in MPP+‐treated SH‐SY5Y human dopaminergic cells

PF9601N [N‐(2‐propynyl) 2‐(5‐benzyloxyindol) methylamine] is a non‐amphetamine type MAO‐B inhibitor that has shown neuroprotective properties in vivo using different experimental models of Parkinson’s disease. The mechanisms underlying its neuroprotective effects are poorly understood, but appear to be independent of MAO‐B inhibition. We have studied its neuroprotective properties using the human SH‐SY5Y dopaminergic cell line exposed to 1‐methyl‐4‐phenylpyridinium (MPP+), a cellular model of Parkinson’s disease. PF9601N pre‐treatment significantly reduced MPP+‐induced cell death and decreased the activation of one of the main executioner caspases, caspase‐3. MPP+ induced stabilization of transcription factor p53, which led to increased levels of this transcription factor, its nuclear translocation and transactivation of p53 response elements. PF9601N prevented this increase, thus reducing its transcriptional activity. Additional results showed that p53 may mediate its pro‐apoptotic actions through caspase‐2 under our experimental conditions. PUMA‐α may also contribute to the p53‐induced cell death. Since PF9601N significantly reduced MPP+‐induced caspase‐2 activity and PUMA‐α levels, this reduction may lead to increased cell survival. Thus, PF9601N is a novel molecule with an apparently novel mechanism of action which has a promising potential as a therapeutic agent in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.
Disability and the labour market: a review of the empirical evidence

Purpose - This paper aims to identify and draw together key themes in the literature relating to the impact of disability on labour market outcomes. In doing so it provides an overview of issues in estimation in empirical work relating to disability. Design/methodology/approach - This paper reviews the existing international evidence relating to the impact of disability on labour market outcomes. Findings - Regardless of country, data source or time period disability serves to reduce labour market prospects. Understanding the reasons for this requires consideration of issues such as separating discrimination from unobserved differences in productivity and preferences, the influence of heterogeneity within the disabled group and the dynamic effects of disability. Practical implications - The paper also reviews recent evidence concerning the labour market impact of significant changes in legislation affecting the disabled, particularly the introduction of the Americans with Disabilities Act in the USA. This evidence is particularly useful to policymakers. Originality/value - The paper provides a comprehensive review of the empirical evidence relating to the labour market impact of disability and the influence of recent changes in legislation.
Getting social with recruitment

Purpose – This article aims to discuss the growing popularity of social networking as a recruitment tool and to outline some of the key considerations that organizations must take when embarking on social recruiting.Design/methodology/approach – This is a best practice guide based on Jobpartners' experience of providing e‐recruitment solutions to a number of blue‐chip global companies.Findings – The article outlines best practice when it comes to social recruiting, highlighting how one major global retail brand has successfully integrated social media tools into its recruitment strategy.Originality/value – The article will be of interest to HR professionals at organizations of all sizes interested in how to get best value from social recruiting.
The Impact of Nondollar-Denominated Oil Pricing

OPEC has discussed replacing the dollar as the currency in which oil is priced. The impact of such a change on U.S. energy costs is explored using a simulation to reconstruct oil costs for the period 1986-90. Variability of oil prices would have been higher as would have the U.S. trade deficit and overall domestic oil expenditures.
A New Adaptive SMO for Speed Estimation of Sensorless Induction Motor Drives at Zero and Very Low Frequencies

A speed control of sensorless induction motor (IM) drives at zero and very low frequencies is designed in this paper. A new adaptive sliding mode observer (SMO) to estimate the stator current, rotor flux, and rotor speed is proposed. To improve the robustness and accuracy of an adaptive SMO during very low frequency operation, the sliding mode flux observer uses independent gains of the correction terms. The gains of current and rotor flux SMOs are designed using Lyapunov stability theory to guarantee the stability and fast convergence of the estimated variables. A Lyapunov function candidate utilizing the error of rotor fluxes and speed estimation error is synthesized for speed estimation. Detailed simulations and experiments are given showing the operation of the sensorless speed control at very low frequency. The results prove the accuracy and robustness of the proposed adaptive SMO. Also, comparison results with the state-of-the-art methods prove that the proposed method shows excellent transient and steady-state speed estimation, particularly at very low and zero frequency operations.
Lentiviral shRNA knock‐down of ADAMTS‐5 and ‐9 restores matrix deposition in 3D chondrocyte culture

Aggrecan is one of the two major constituents of articular cartilage, and during diseases such as osteoarthritis (OA) it is subject to degradation by proteolytic enzymes. The primary proteases responsible for aggrecan cleavage are the aggrecanases, identified as members of the ADAMTS family of proteases, which are upregulated in response to inflammatory stimuli. It is uncertain which of the six aggrecanases (ADAMTS‐1, ‐4, ‐5, ‐8, ‐9 and ‐15) are primarily responsible for the degradation of aggrecan in human cartilage. Here we show that four of the six aggrecanases are expressed in immortalized chondrocyte cell‐lines and can be upregulated in response to inflammatory cytokines. Using RNA interference, we demonstrate robust knock‐down of ADAMTS‐5 and ‐9 expression in these cells and, by culturing them on three‐dimensional (3D) scaffolds, show that reduction in expression of ADAMTS‐5 enzyme results in an increase in matrix deposition. These data suggest that the quality of tissue‐engineered cartilage matrix might be improved by targeted depletion of aggrecanase expression. Moreover, this work also provides further evidence that ADAMTS‐5 may be a therapeutic target in the treatment of arthritic disease. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Determinants of Destination Management System (DMS) and Tourism Industry Assessment of Madagascar

Tourism is one of the largest industries in the world. It is particularly significant in island economies, but also benefits significantly a range of developing and developed countries across the world. The sector is compound largely because of the interdependency between the universal production, largely managed in the established world, and the purposes around the world for which it assembles visitors. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) and tourism are two of the most dynamic drives of our worldwide economy. In the Madagascar, the tourism sector is the third largest provider of currency. Madagascar has a remarkable array of biodiversity, natural beauty and cultural resources to support tourism. Unexpectedly, of the 200,000 visitors the island per year, only about 60,000 come expressly for tourism, the rest traveling for other reasons but which could include some tourism activity. Madagascar has the potential to welcome many more tourists if the sector’s growth is well planned in abroad, multi-sectorial way focusing on economic aspects, infrastructure and environmental and social concerns, particularly for community participation. This report sets out a program for equitable development of the sector and evaluates the opportunities for growth and the barriers that currently block progress and some suggestions that how to cover this era to maintain its stander of tourism sector along with. This paper describes the tourism of Madagascar, some lack of management, condition of the present tourism sector and at the end there is a conclusion of this study and recommendations on the base of present study.
Measurement of Intracranial Pressure

Observations in humans and animals have shown that the increase in intracranial pressure (ICP) during the administration of anesthetic agents such as halothane is greatly accentuated in the presence of intracranial pathology that has reduced the capacity for volume compensation. In these circumstances cerebral perfusion pressure (arterial blood pressure minus ICP) may fall to low levels and accentuation of pressure gradients within the cranial cavity may lead to mass displacement of the brain resulting in brain stem compression.
Ownership Concentration and Corporate Performance in the Czech Republic

The relationship between ownership structure and corporate performance has been the subject of intense research in both transition and market economies. The Czech Republic's mass-privatization program provides an unique opportunity to investigate this relationship. It changed the ownership of firms in a short period of time, and firm characteristics had only a limited influence on the resulting ownership structure. For a cross-section of 706 Czech firms over the period 1992 through 1997, we find that the more concentrated ownership, the higher firm profitability and labor productivity. These findings are weakly robust to the inclusion of control variables for the type of ownership, or to a correction for the endogeneity of ownership concentration.
BRCA1 mRNA Expression Levels Predict for Overall Survival in Ovarian Cancer after Chemotherapy

Purpose: We investigated whether BRCA1 mRNA expression levels may represent a biomarker of survival in sporadic epithelial ovarian cancer following chemotherapy treatment. Experimental Design: The effect of loss of BRCA1 expression on chemotherapy response in ovarian cancer was measured in vitro using dose inhibition assays and Annexin V flow cytometry. Univariate and multivariate analyses were done to evaluate the relationship between BRCA1 mRNA expression levels and survival after chemotherapy treatment in 70 fresh frozen ovarian tumors. Results: We show that inhibition of endogenous BRCA1 expression in ovarian cancer cell lines results in increased sensitivity to platinum therapy and decreased sensitivity to antimicrotubule agents. In addition, we show that patients with low/intermediate levels of BRCA1 mRNA have a significantly improved overall survival following treatment with platinum-based chemotherapy in comparison with patients with high levels of BRCA1 mRNA (57.2 versus 18.2 months; P = 0.0017; hazard ratio, 2.9). Furthermore, overall median survival for higher-BRCA1-expressing patients was found to increase following taxane-containing chemotherapy (23.0 versus 18.2 months; P = 0.12; hazard ratio, 0.53). Conclusions: We provide evidence to support a role for BRCA1 mRNA expression as a predictive marker of survival in sporadic epithelial ovarian cancer.
A semiparametric analysis of calorie response to income change across income groups and gender

This paper estimates the relationship between calorie intake and income within a semiparametric framework, which allows for heterogeneity across individuals and possible nonlinearity in the relationship. The results, using a panel data set from rural south India, indicate that the income elasticity of calorie intake is small but is nonzero and statistically significant, and that the elasticity is higher for the relatively poor households in the sample. The semiparametric analysis also brings out some interesting patterns of calorie response to income change at different income levels for males and females.
Biodiversity in intensive grasslands: effect of management, improvement and challenges

Intensified grasslands are usually the dominant type of grassland in many countries in Europe but are generally of poor ecological value. Several management factors may affect biodiversity of these grasslands including fertilisation, grazing and cutting management. Their effects on grassland biodiversity are described in this paper. In most cases, intensive and profitable grass production from semi-natural grasslands appears to be incompatible with maintaining a high level of biodiversity. Two key questions then arise: how to restore biodiversity in intensive grasslands while limiting the technical and economical consequences? How to choose the target species on an objective basis? Some solutions are considered in the paper but it is suggested that 1) new tools (i.e. indicators) are required to evaluate the functions of biodiversity and to achieve biodiversity restoration goals and 2) in the short-term the research priority is to understand and predict biodiversity at the field and farm-scale.
The Value of Corporate Philanthropy During Times of Crisis: The Sensegiving Effect of Employee Involvement

Recent research suggests that philanthropy’s value to the firm is largely mediated by contextual factors such as managers’ assumed motives for charity. Our article extends this contingency perspective using a “sensegiving” lens, by which external actors’ interpretations of organizational actions may be influenced by the way in which the organization communicates about those actions. We consider how sensegiving features in philanthropy-related press releases affect whether investors value those donation decisions. For the empirical investigation in this study, we analyze abnormal returns to announcements by U.S. Fortune 500 firms documenting their donations to Hurricane Katrina disaster relief in 2005. We expect that in general, donation decisions would be controversial given the uncertainty surrounding the hurricane’s economic effects at the time. However, we also propose that announcements emphasizing employee involvement in the donation send investors positive signals about the firm’s ability to bounce back from the disaster’s adverse effects. We find empirical support for the proposed hypotheses, and discuss the implications for theory and practice.
Incidence of systemic lupus erythematosus in the United Kingdom, 1990-1999.

OBJECTIVE To estimate the annual incidence of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) over a 10-year period in the UK, and to examine age-, sex-, and region-specific rates. METHODS The study was based on the UK General Practice Research Database (GPRD), which covers approximately 5% of the UK population. We estimated SLE incidence rates, during the period 1990-1999, among persons registered with practices contributing to the GPRD, representing >33 million person-years of observation. RESULTS A total of 1,638 patients with incident SLE (1,374 females, 264 males) were identified. The age-standardized SLE incidence in the UK during the 1990s was 7.89 per 100,000 (95% confidence interval [95% CI] 7.46, 8.31) for females and 1.53 per 100,000 (95% CI 1.34, 1.71) for males (overall female-to-male ratio 5.2:1). Peak incidence occurred at age 50-54 years for females and 70-74 years for males. There was a small but insignificant increase of SLE incidence over the 10 years among females but not males. No clear association between latitude and SLE incidence was found, but regional variations existed, with age-standardized rates ranging from 3.56 per 100,000 (95% CI 3.00, 4.13) for the West Midlands to 7.62 per 100,000 (95% CI 5.59, 9.65) for Northern Ireland. CONCLUSION This study provides updated estimates of SLE incidence in the UK. Standard methodology throughout the study period and target population allowed for comparison of rates over time and across regions.
Acute Metformin Therapy Confers Cardioprotection Against Myocardial Infarction Via AMPK-eNOS–Mediated Signaling

OBJECTIVE—Clinical studies have reported that metformin reduces cardiovascular end points of type 2 diabetic subjects by actions that cannot solely be attributed to glucose-lowering effects. The therapeutic effects of metformin have been reported to be mediated by its activation of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), a metabolite sensing protein kinase whose activation following myocardial ischemia has been suggested to be an endogenous protective signaling mechanism. We investigated the potential cardioprotective effects of a single, low-dose metformin treatment (i.e., 286-fold less than the maximum antihyperglycemic dose) in a murine model of myocardial ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—Nondiabetic and diabetic (db/db) mice were subjected to transient myocardial ischemia for a period of 30 min followed by reperfusion. Metformin (125 μg/kg) or vehicle (saline) was administered either before ischemia or at the time of reperfusion. RESULTS—Administration of metformin before ischemia or at reperfusion decreased myocardial injury in both nondiabetic and diabetic mice. Importantly, metformin did not alter blood glucose levels. During early reperfusion, treatment with metformin augmented I/R-induced AMPK activation and significantly increased endothelial nitric oxide (eNOS) phosphorylation at residue serine 1177. CONCLUSIONS—These findings provide important information that myocardial AMPK activation by metformin following I/R sets into motion events, including eNOS activation, which ultimately lead to cardioprotection.
True and Fair View or rzetelny i jasny obraz 1? A survey of polish practitioners

Abstract The ongoing harmonisation processes with the European market (EC regulation 2002 on the application of International Accounting Standards, hereafter IAS) drive reforms in the Polish accounting framework. In 2000, the Accounting Act introduced significant changes to the 1994 Accounting Act, its predecessor. New accounting terminology and provisions based on the IAS framework were introduced and a substantial number of existing regulations modified. This paper outlines recent developments in Polish accounting and discusses their implications for the realisation of the True and Fair View construct (hereafter TFV). Legal changes (de jure analysis) are confronted with the insights from an exploratory study on the local operationalisation of the TFV construct. The questionnaire survey with Polish practitioners was conducted in the years 2000 and 2001. Then, follow-up interviews were carried out in order to validate the questionnaire data categorisation. Insights from the study raise issues of the (un)transferability of constructs such as the TFV across languages and culture though there is emerging evidence indicating that the current regulatory framework putatively supports the TFV concept. In practice, there appears to be a lack of consensus in translation and grammatical construction of the TFV concept, revealing a general local unfamiliarity with the substance of this ‘Western’-originated and constructed predominantly in the British and American context construct. The paper concludes that a Polish equivalent for the TFV as a multifaceted construct, a derivative of a hybrid experience, cannot be realised outside the localised Central and Eastern European reality in which it is situated, despite the new Europe discourse.