Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Isolation and identification of marine fish tumour (odontoma) associated bacteria

Objective: To identify fish tumour associated bacteria. Methods: The marine fish Sphyraena jello with odontoma was collected from in Tamil Nadu (Southeast India), and tumour associated bacteria were isolated. Then the isolated bacteria were identified based on molecular characters. Results: A total of 4 different bacterial species were isolated from tumour tissue. The bacterial species were Bacillus sp. , Pontibacter sp. , Burkholderia sp. and Macrococcus sp. , and the sequences were submitted in DNA Data Bank of Japan with accession numbers of AB859240, AB859241, AB859242 and AB859243 respectively. Conclusions: Four different bacterial species were isolated from Sphyraena jello, but the role of bacteria within tumour needs to be further investigated.
What drives Korean firms to downsize under the global financial crisis?

Drawing upon the Korea Workplace Panel Survey (KWPS) data, this study examines how Korean firms responded to the global financial crisis (GFC), and in particular, what factors induced Korean firms to adopt downsizing actions. Analysis reveals that Korean firms are driven to implement downsizing due to experience with prior episodes of redundancy action, rather than due to economic considerations of business difficulties. The institutionalized norm of downsizing in the common cognitive mode of management was found to be an unstable entity influenced by the social pressure of public opinion, and particularly challenged by the oppositional force of the anti-downsizing point of view.
Predictive ecology: systems approaches

The world is experiencing significant, largely anthropogenically induced, environmental change. This will impact on the biological world and we need to be able to forecast its effects. In order to produce such forecasts, ecology needs to become more predictive—to develop the ability to understand how ecological systems will behave in future, changed, conditions. Further development of process-based models is required to allow such predictions to be made. Critical to the development of such models will be achieving a balance between the brute-force approach that naively attempts to include everything, and over simplification that throws out important heterogeneities at various levels. Central to this will be the recognition that individuals are the elementary particles of all ecological systems. As such it will be necessary to understand the effect of evolution on ecological systems, particularly when exposed to environmental change. However, insights from evolutionary biology will help the development of models even when data may be sparse. Process-based models are more common, and are used for forecasting, in other disciplines, e.g. climatology and molecular systems biology. Tools and techniques developed in these endeavours can be appropriated into ecological modelling, but it will also be necessary to develop the science of ecoinformatics along with approaches specific to ecological problems. The impetus for this effort should come from the demand coming from society to understand the effects of environmental change on the world and what might be performed to mitigate or adapt to them.
Excitatory Amino Acids Differentially Regulate the Expression of GDNF, Neurturin, and Their Receptors in the Adult Rat Striatum

Glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) family ligands are important regulators of neuronal development and maintenance of the connectivity in the basal ganglia and show neuroprotective activities in several paradigms of brain injury. The mRNAs of two members of this family, GDNF and neurturin, and also their receptors have been detected in the basal ganglia. In the present work, we analyzed the time course changes in the expression of these neurotrophic factors and receptors in the adult rat striatum, induced by quinolinate or kainate excitotoxicity. Our results show that stimulation of NMDA or non-NMDA receptors induced different effects on the mRNA levels analyzed. Expression of GDNF and its preferred receptor, GDNF family receptor-alpha1 (GFRalpha1), was transiently up-regulated by quinolinate and kainate, but with differing intensity and temporal pattern. Immunohistochemical analysis showed that, although GDNF and GFRalpha1 were initially localized in neurons, excitotoxicity induced the expression of these proteins in astrocyte-like cells. Neurturin mRNA levels were only up-regulated after quinolinate injection, whereas quinolinate or kainate injection did not modify GFRalpha2 mRNA. The mRNA for the common receptor, c-Ret, was up-regulated by both agonists with similar temporal pattern but with differing intensity. Immunohistochemical analysis showed that c-Ret protein was located on neurons. These changes in mRNA levels and protein localization of GDNF family components could reflect an endogenous trophic response of striatal cells to different excitotoxic insults.
Drive Decay: The Cause of Fast "Extinction" of Habits Learned for Brain Stimulation

According to Deutsch's theory of intracranial self-stimulation, cessation of responding after the withdrawal of the stimulus should be a simple function of time without stimulation. To test this prediction, the lever was withdrawn from a Skinner box for varying times, then replaced and normal extinction completed. The number of extinction trials was a simple function of the time the lever was out of the box, thus confirming Deutsch's hypothesis that cessation of responding in this instance is due to a decay of a motivational excitation produced by the electrical stimulation, and not a function of the number of unreinforced trials as in normal extinction.
Investigation of the flow-field in the upper respiratory system when wearing N95 filtering facepiece respirator

ABSTRACT This article presents a reverse modeling of the headform when wearing a filtering facepiece respirator (FFR) and a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation based on the modeling. The whole model containing the upper respiratory airway, headform, and FFR was directly recorded by computed tomography (CT) scanning, and a medical contrast medium was used to make the FFR “visible. ” The FFR was normally worn by the subject during CT scanning so that the actual deformation of both the FFR and the face muscles during contact can be objectively conserved. The reverse modeling approach was introduced to rebuild the geometric model and convert it into a CFD solvable model. In this model, we conducted a transient numerical simulation of air flow containing carbon dioxide, thermal dynamics, and pressure and wall shear stress distribution in the respiratory system taking into consideration an individual wearing a FFR. The breathing cycle was described as a time-dependent profile of the air velocity through the respiratory airway. The result shows that wearing the N95 FFR results in CO2 accumulation, an increase in temperature and pressure elevation inside the FFR cavity. The volume fraction of CO2 reaches 1.2% after 7 breathing cycles and then is maintained at 3.04% on average. The wearers re-inhale excessive CO2 in every breathing cycle from the FFR cavity. The air temperature in the FFR cavity increases rapidly at first and then stays close to the exhaled temperature. Compared to not wearing an FFR, wearers have to increase approximately 90 Pa more pressure to keep the same breathing flow rate of 30.54 L/min after wearing an FFR. The nasal vestibule bears more wall shear stress than any other area in the airway.
Sequence of the Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteriophage HB-3 amidase reveals high homology with the major host autolysin

We have sequenced a DNA fragment containing the pneumococcal bacteriophage HB-3 hbl gene, which codes for the phage lytic amidase. A remarkable nucleotide similarity (87.1%) between the lytA gene, coding for the pneumococcal amidase, the major autolysin of Streptococcus pneumoniae, and the hbl gene was found. This similarity completely disappeared outside the open reading frames coding for both amidases. The hbl gene transformed amidase-deficient strains of S. pneumoniae to the wild-type phenotype, and Southern blotting experiments provided evidence for recombination between donor and recipient genes. A comprehensive evaluation of these and previous results on the peptidoglycan hydrolases of S. pneumoniae and its bacteriophages suggested that recombination mechanisms participate in the evolution of the genes coding for these enzymes.
SERIAL CHANGES IN RENAL HAEMODYNAMICS DURING NORMAL HUMAN PREGNANCY

Effective renal plasma flow (ERPF) and glomerular filtration rate (GFR) were determined at constant intervals during and after the normal pregnancies in 25 healthy women. Compared with non‐pregnant values, ERPF increased by 80 per cent during early pregnancy but fell significantly from this new level during the third trimester. GFR, however, remained at a level 50 per cent above the non‐pregnant throughout pregnancy. Filtration fraction (GFR/ERPF) was significantly reduced during early pregnancy but rose to a value equivalent to the non‐pregnant during the third trimester. Comparable data of previous workers are re‐interpreted.
L’épargne salariale est-elle un complément d’épargne retraite adapté ?

Cet article examine les effets des plans d’epargne salariale sur l’epargne retraite volontaire. Nous construisons un modele dynamique de maximisation d’utilite, pour determiner les equations de demande de l’epargne salariale d’une part et de l’epargne classique d’autre part. Trois parametres influencent la constitution d’un complement d’epargne retraite : le niveau de retraite anticipe par les menages, les conditions de blocage de leur epargne salariale et le montant de leur endettement. Toute reforme autorisant un deblocage anticipe de l’epargne salariale pour relancer la consommation doit tenir compte de ces trois parametres,au risque de ne pas conduire aux resultats escomptes.
IMPLEMENTING INITIATIVES ON QUALITY: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE SPECIAL ISSUE ON TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT

In the early 1980s, companies around the world, learning from the Japanese experience, saw that they could address their severe competitive problems related to productivity and quality only by looking at the entire set of processes and organizational relationships in the context of the customer's needs. This approach was termed total quality management (TQM). As companies pursue quality‐related initiatives, they must deal with a number of issues; some of these issues are addressed here: measurement of benefits, feedback and recognition, work‐teams, teaching continuous improvement, and enhancing the effectiveness of statistical process control charts.
Health services utilization in Jerusalem under terrorism.

OBJECTIVE The authors explored the effects of an escalation of terrorism on the help-seeking behavior of the general population in Jerusalem, a city that offers an adequate supply of medical and psychiatric services. METHOD Time-series analyses were applied to examine the utilization of health services (primary medical care and ambulance calls) and mental health services (clinics, hospitals, and telephone hotlines) by Jerusalem residents before and during part of the current intifada. The authors assessed seasonality, general linear trends (from factors such as health education and increased access), short-term intifada impact (reflecting reactions that peaked at the third month and ended 1 year thereafter), and long-term impact (starting at the intifada outbreak and reflecting a more stable population behavior). RESULTS Adult psychiatric outpatient visits did not change except for the elderly in ongoing care who had both short- and long-term increases. The proportion of recorded ICD-10 diagnoses reflecting intifada-related reactions remained generally stable. Short-term effects included an increase in psychiatric readmissions. First contacts to substance abuse clinics remained unchanged. While long-term effects included a decrease in new psychiatric hospitalizations, the rate of monthly general practitioner visitors and the number of monthly ambulance and hotline calls increased. CONCLUSIONS Except for the elderly and previously hospitalized persons, Jerusalem residents did not increase their use of psychiatric services but did increase their use of some other health services. These results suggest that this terrorism-affected population did not perceive their mental and social suffering as requiring specialized intervention.
Latin America's Social Policy Challenge: Education, Social Insurance, Redistribution

Long regarded as a region beset by macroeconomic instability, high inflation, and excessive poverty and inequality, Latin America has undergone a major transformation over the last 20 years. The region has seen improved macroeconomic management and substantial and sustained reductions in poverty and inequality. In this paper, we argue that social policy, including human capital and education, social insurance, and redistribution, need special attention if achievements of the last two decades are to be sustained and amplified. Starting in the mid 1990s, many governments in the region introduced a variety of programs, including noncontributory pensions and health insurance, and cash transfers targeted to the poor. Social spending in Latin America increased sharply. These policies have been widely praised, and we believe they have resulted in substantial improvements in the lives of the poor in the region. However, a more nuanced view shows some worrisome trends. Moving forward, we believe it is necessary to pay much closer attention to the quality of services, particularly in education; to the incentives generated by the interplay of some programs, particularly in the labor market; to a more balanced intertemporal distribution of benefits, particularly between young and old; and to sustainable sources of finance, particularly to the link between contributions and benefits.
Mobility in Europe since the Eastern enlargement: emergence of a European labour market?

The aim of this paper is to give an overview of the most recent trends in labour mobility after the two waves of Eastern enlargement, within the context of labour market developments mainly in the newly joined Central and Eastern European Member States. The article focuses on the question of how the current economic and financial crisis impacted on these trends, whether a slowdown of labour outflow from the Central and Eastern European Member States could be detected as a consequence. From a policy point of view, it is important to assess the consequences of the new mobility trends not only in the receiving countries, but also in the sending ones, as well as the individuals and families affected. Due to the short time which passed since the enlargement, there is limited empirical evidence, but the paper makes an attempt to highlight those issues in this regard, which could have important policy implications in the future. The analysis is based partly on previous research, partly on the most recent empirical data.
Do subjective indicators measure welfare? Evidence from 33 European societies

Indicators of subjective well-being have gained only limited acceptance as tools for the social-scientific analysis of human welfare, mainly because they seem insensitive to variations in the socio-economic context. However, this apparent insensitivity has been established by research which has been limited in various ways. Using data on life satisfaction for 33 European societies which goes some way to transcending these limits, this paper identifies linkages between subjective well-being and socio-economic conditions which are both strong and suggestive of important insights about national and cross-national relativities in human welfare. Populations in the rich parts of Europe have high and relatively equal life satisfaction, while those in the poorer parts of Europe have low and unequal life satisfaction. Social inequalities within rich European societies seem to have little effect on life satisfaction but they have significant effects within poor European societies. Inequalities between European societies also have strong effects. These findings suggest that analysis of inequalities and relativities in welfare in purely national terms is insufficient. Greater weight needs to be given to cross-national relativities, since these are much more consistent with what otherwise seem to be puzzling variations in subjective well-being across and within countries.
Single versus combination intravenous antibiotic therapy for people with cystic fibrosis.

BACKGROUND Choice of antibiotic, and the use of single or combined therapy are controversial areas in the treatment of respiratory infection in cystic fibrosis (CF). Advantages of combination therapy include wider range of modes of action, possible synergy and reduction of resistant organisms; advantages of monotherapy include lower cost, ease of administration and reduction of drug-related toxicity. Current evidence does not provide a clear answer and the use of intravenous antibiotic therapy in CF requires further evaluation. OBJECTIVES To assess the effectiveness of single compared to combination intravenous antibiotic therapy for treating people with CF. SEARCH METHODS We searched the Cochrane Cystic Fibrosis and Genetic Disorders Group Trials Register, comprising references identified from comprehensive electronic database searches and handsearches of relevant journals and abstract books of conference proceedings.Most recent search of the Group's Trials Register: 22 August 2013. SELECTION CRITERIA Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) comparing a single intravenous antibiotic with a combination of that antibiotic plus a second antibiotic in people with CF. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS Two authors independently assessed trial quality and extracted data. MAIN RESULTS We identified 43 trials, of which eight trials (356 participants) comparing a single agent to a combination of the same antibiotic and one other, were included.There was a wide variation in the individual antibiotics used in each trial. In total, the trials included seven comparisons of a beta-lactam antibiotic (penicillin-related or third generation cephalosporin) with a beta-lactam-aminoglycoside combination and three comparisons of an aminoglycoside with a beta-lactam-aminoglycoside combination. These two groups of trials were analysed as separate subgroups.There was considerable heterogeneity amongst these trials, leading to difficulties in performing the review and interpreting the results. The meta-analysis did not demonstrate any significant differences between monotherapy and combination therapy, in terms of lung function; symptom scores; adverse effects; and bacteriological outcome measures.These results should be interpreted cautiously. Six of the included trials were published between 1977 and 1988; these were single-centre trials with flaws in the randomisation process and small sample size. Overall, the methodological quality was poor. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS The results of this review are inconclusive. The review raises important methodological issues. There is a need for an RCT which needs to be well-designed in terms of adequate randomisation allocation, blinding, power and long-term follow up. Results need to be standardised to a consistent method of reporting, in order to validate the pooling of results from multiple trials.
The New Home Economics at Colombia and Chicago

When Jacob Mincer and Gary Becker started the New Home Economics (NHE) at Columbia University in the early 1960s, they expanded on the field of family and consumption economics that Hazel Kirk and Margaret Reid began in the early 1920s. This paper studies forty years of household economics, the decisions that household members make regarding any allocation of resources. These decisions may regard consumption, labor supply, transportation, fertility, or health. A review of the history of the NHE shows that Jacob Mincer's original contribution tends to be underestimated. This paper also argues that the growth of the NHE benefited from the concentration of talent at Columbia, organizational support, the diversity of a student body that included many talented women, the ideological commitments that students, many of them married, had for the study of home production, a departmental policy de-emphasizing gender-related politics, and relatively high levels of civility.
A Theoretical Explanation of the Cost Advantages of Multi-unit Franchising

We advance franchising research by explaining the important role, so far overlooked, of different franchising forms in developing low-cost competitive advantage. We analyze the most meaningful cost drivers for franchising systems: economies of scale, reduced transaction costs, economies of learning, reduced monitoring costs, standardization, and relative bargaining power. Our analysis suggests that asymmetrical cost effects are likely for franchisors and franchisees. For franchisors, relative to single-unit franchising (SUF), multi-unit franchising (MUF) should yield lower costs from scale economies and monitoring, higher costs from bargaining power, and similar costs from learning economies and standardization. For franchisees, lower costs for MUF are indicated from scale economies and standardization but not for monitoring. Within MUF, comparisons between area development franchising (ADF) and incremental franchising suggest that ADF yields lower costs from scale economies and learning economies for the entire system, but monitoring and standardization only reduce costs for their franchisees. Implications for practice and research are discussed.
Sequelae of breast cancer and the influence of menopausal status at diagnosis among rural breast cancer survivors.

BACKGROUND Rural women are among the largest medically underserved groups in the nation, yet few studies have evaluated the sequelae of breast cancer in this population. The purpose of this study was to examine the physical and psychosocial effects of breast cancer experienced by rural survivors at the time of treatment and currently and to examine differences in these effects between younger and older rural survivors based on menopausal status at diagnosis. METHODS Women treated for breast cancer within the past 6 years at one of three rural cancer centers were mailed a survey with a cover letter from their oncology provider. RESULTS Survey respondents (n=918, 83% response rate) were 67±13 years old, on average 3.2 years from treatment, 22% were premenopausal at the time of breast cancer diagnosis, and 95% were postmenopausal at the time of the survey. Women who were premenopausal at diagnosis were significantly more likely to experience numerous symptoms at the time of treatment and currently, including higher rates of hot flashes, vaginal dryness, loss of sexual desire, and weight gain (p≤0.001). The most common psychosocial concerns were fear of recurrence and change in body image, and women premenopausal at diagnosis were significantly more likely than postmenopausal women to report experiencing these concerns (68% vs. 47%, and 43% vs. 27%, respectively, p≤0.001). CONCLUSIONS Negative physical and psychosocial sequelae of breast cancer were common in this rural sample and were significantly worse for premenopausal women. Research and resources are needed for delivering targeted survivorship care to rural women, particularly younger rural women.