Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Plasma‐activated medium (PAM) kills human cancer‐initiating cells

Medical non‐thermal plasma (NTP) treatments for various types of cancers have been reported. Cells with tumorigenic potential (cancer‐initiating cells; CICs) are few in number in many types of tumors. CICs efficiently eliminate anti‐cancer chemicals and exhibit high‐level aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) activity. We previously examined the effects of direct irradiation via NTP on cancer cells; even though we targeted CICs expressing high levels of ALDH, such treatment affected both non‐CICs and CICs. Recent studies have shown that plasma‐activated medium (PAM) (culture medium irradiated by NTP) selectively induces apoptotic death of cancer but not normal cells. Therefore, we explored the anti‐cancer effects of PAM on CICs among endometrioid carcinoma and gastric cancer cells. PAM reduced the viability of cells expressing both low and high levels of ALDH. Combined PAM/cisplatin appeared to kill cancer cells more efficiently than did PAM or cisplatin alone. In a mouse tumor xenograft model, PAM exerted an anti‐cancer effect on CICs. Thus, our results suggest that PAM effectively kills both non‐CICs and CICs, as does NTP. Therefore, PAM may be a useful new anti‐cancer therapy, targeting various cancer cells including CICs.
Public Sector Reform in France: Views and Experiences from Senior Executives

textabstractIntroduction: Coordinating for Cohesion in the Public Sector of the Future (COCOPS), as one of the largest comparative public management research projects in Europe, intends to provide a comprehensive picture of the challenges facing the public sector in European countries and to systematically explore the impact of New Public Management (NPM)-style reforms in Europe. The project brings together public administration scholars from eleven universities in ten countries2 and is funded as part of the European Union’s 7th Framework Programme between January 2011 and June 2014.3 The research is comparative and evidence-based, drawing on both existing data and innovative new quantitative and qualitative data collection, at both national and policy sector levels. A cornerstone of the project is the COCOPS Executive Survey on Public Sector Reform in Europe: an original, large-scale survey of public sector top executives in ten European countries, exploring executives’ opinions and experiences with regards to public sector reforms in general government, as well as more particularly in the health and employment policy sectors. Scholars within the public administration discipline have long underlined the need for more quantitative and rigorous comparative research, going beyond single-country and single-organization approaches (see Derlien, 1992; Fitzpatrick et al., 2011; Pollitt, 2011; Raadschelders and Lee, 2011). Moreover, few research initiatives have explored in depth the transformation of public administrations as triggered by NPM reform discourses in a systematic comparative form (Van de Walle and Hammerschmid, 2011). Responding to such concerns, this survey offers systematic evidence regarding the dynamics of public administration reform in Europe, with the goal to create an encompassing and systematic picture of public administration after more than two decades of NPM reforms.
The Economic Impact of the Mining Boom on Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australians

Many mining operations are on or near Indigenous land, and the strong level of investment during the recent mining boom may have disproportionately affected Indigenous communities. This article examines changes in local Indigenous employment, income and housing costs to identify any localised ‘resource curse’ for Indigenous communities and the Australian population at large. Census data are used to show the mining boom has improved employment and income outcomes, but increased average housing costs. While the average increase in income has generally offset the increase in costs, housing stress for low-income households has increased as a result of the mining boom.
Predicting Student Actions in a Procedural Training Environment

Data mining is known to have a potential for predicting user performance. However, there are few studies that explore its potential for predicting student behavior in a procedural training environment. This paper presents a collective student model, which is built from past student logs. These logs are first grouped into clusters. Then, an extended automaton is created for each cluster based on the sequences of events found in the cluster logs. The main objective of this model is to predict the actions of new students for improving the tutoring feedback provided by an intelligent tutoring system. The proposed model has been validated using student logs collected in a 3D virtual laboratory for teaching biotechnology. As a result of this validation, we concluded that the model can provide reasonably good predictions and can support tutoring feedback that is better adapted to each student type.
Carcinogen–DNA adducts in human breast epithelial cells

Diet and environmental exposures are often regarded as significant etiologic factors in human breast cancer. Chemicals that may be involved in these exposures include heterocyclic amines, aromatic amines, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which also serve as strong mammary carcinogens in different animal models. In this study, we chose to quantify the major DNA adducts derived from one member of each of these classes of carcinogens, that is, 2‐amino‐1‐methyl‐6‐phenylimidazo[4,5‐b]pyridine (PhIP), 4‐aminobiphenyl (ABP), and benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P), respectively, in DNA isolated from exfoliated ductal epithelial cells in human breast milk. Milk was collected from healthy, nonsmoking mothers. The isolated DNA was digested to 3′ nucleotides and subjected to 32P‐postlabeling. Adduct enrichment was achieved using Oasis Sep‐Paks and the analyses were conducted by HPLC using radiometric detection. Critical to the analyses were the syntheses of bis(phosphate) standards for the C8‐dG adducts of PhIP and ABP, and the N2‐dG adduct of B[a]P, which were added to each reaction as UV markers. Of the 64 samples analyzed, adducts were found in 31 samples. Thirty samples contained detectable levels of PhIP adducts, with a mean value of 4.7 adducts/107 nucleotides; 18 were positive for ABP adducts with a mean value of 4.7 adducts/107 nucleotides; and 13 were found to contain B[a]P adducts with a mean level of 1.9 adducts/107 nucleotides. These data indicate that women are exposed to several classes of dietary and environmental carcinogens and that these carcinogens react with DNA in breast ductal epithelial cells, the cells from which most breast cancers arise. Environ. Mol. Mutagen. 39:184–192, 2002. Published 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The Economic Contributions of Human-Powered Outdoor Recreation to the US Economy

This paper presents a comprehensive assessment of the economic contributions of the major forms of human-powered outdoor recreation, including trail-based recreation, bicycle-based recreation, paddle-based recreation, snow-based recreation and camp-based recreation. The results show that the combined economic contributions of human-powered recreation to the US economy exceed US$590 billion annually in total gross output, supporting over five million jobs. Other studies estimate that wildlife-based recreation contributes another US$140 billion annually in total gross output to the US economy, making a total contribution of US$730 billion from both human-powered and wildlife-based recreation. Active outdoor recreation not only strengthens the US economy but also improves the quality of life for participants.
CAMA Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis Understanding Long-run Price Dispersion CAMA Working Paper 57 / 2013 February 2013

We use a unique panel of retail prices spanning 123 cities in 79 countries from 1990 to 2005, to uncover six novel properties of long-run international price dispersion. First, at the PPP level, virtually all (91.6%) of price dispersion is attributed to service-sector wages, consistent with a dominant role of the retail distribution margin. Second, at the level of individual goods and services, the average contribution of service-sector wages is significantly reduced, one-third as large (31.9%). This reflects the fact that good-specific sources of price dispersion, such as trade costs and good-specific markups, tend to average out across goods. Third, at the LOP level, borders and distance contribute about equally to price dispersion with distance elasticities consistent with the existing trade gravity literature which links trade volumes (rather than relative prices) to borders and distance. Fourth, in the crosssection, price dispersion is rising in the distribution share consistent with the notion that baby-sitting services and haircuts embody local wages to a far greater extent than highly traded manufactured goods. Fifth, we provide the first estimates of distribution margins at the micro-level and show them to be very different across goods and substantial in the aggregate, where they account for about 55% of consumption expenditure. Sixth, these estimates are broadly consistent with more aggregated U.S. NIPA measures currently used in the literature. We especially thank Mary Amiti, Eric Bond, Paolo Pesenti and Robert Vigfusson for valuable comments and criticisms as well as participants at numerous conferences and seminars. We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the National Science Foundation (SES-1030164). The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. © 2013 by Mario J. Crucini and Hakan Yilmazkuday. All rights reserved. Short sections of text, not to exceed two paragraphs, may be quoted without explicit permission provided that full credit, including © notice, is given to the source. Mario J. Crucini, Department of Economics, Vanderbilt University, Box 1819 Station B, Nashville, TN 37235-1819 and NBER; mario.j.crucini@vanderbilt.edu Hakan Yilmazkuday, Department of Economics, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199; skuday@gmail.com | T H E A U S T R A L I A N N A T I O N A L U N I V E R S I T Y
Effect of hormone manipulations on acute adrenocortical stress response phenotypes , dehydration and survival rates

Continued range expansion into physiologically challenging environments requires invasive species to maintain adaptive phenotypic performance. The adrenocortical stress response, governed in part by glucocorticoid hormones, influences physiological and behavioural responses of vertebrates to environmental stressors. However, any adaptive role of this response in invasive populations that are expanding into extreme environments is currently unclear. We experimentally manipulated the adrenocortical stress response of invasive cane toads (Rhinella marina) to investigate its effect on phenotypic performance and fitness at the species’ range front in the Tanami Desert, Australia. Here, toads are vulnerable to overheating and dehydration during the annual hot–dry season and display elevated plasma corticosterone levels indicative of severe environmental stress. By comparing unmanipulated control toads with toads whose adrenocortical stress response was manipulated to increase acute physiological stress responsiveness, we found that control toads had significantly reduced daily evaporative water loss and higher survival relative to the experimental animals. The adrenocortical stress response hence appears essential in facilitating complex phenotypic performance and setting fitness trajectories of individuals from invasive species during range expansion.
A Review of Implantable Patch Antennas for Biomedical Telemetry: Challenges and Solutions [Wireless Corner]

Biomedical telemetry permits the transmission (telemetering) of physiological signals at a distance. One of its latest developments is in the field of implantable medical devices (IMDs). Patch antennas currently are receiving significant scientific interest for integration into the implantable medical devices and radio-frequency (RF)-enabled biotelemetry, because of their high flexibility in design, conformability, and shape. The design of implantable patch antennas has gained considerable attention for dealing with issues related to biocompatibility, miniaturization, patient safety, improved quality of communication with exterior monitoring/control equipment, and insensitivity to detuning. Numerical and experimental investigations for implantable patch antennas are also highly intriguing. The objective of this paper is to provide an overview of these challenges, and discuss the ways in which they have been dealt with so far in the literature.
The Spatial Density of Production Activity and Productivity Differentials across Regions: A Case of Korea *

This study investigates the effects of the spatial density of production activity on labor productivity and total factor productivity in Korean manufacturing. A theoretical model that directly relates productivity growth to the spatial density of production activity is developed. The empirical results show that a higher density of production activity would lead to an increase in productivity in four regions (Gwangju, Gyeongsangbuk-do, Chungcheongnam-do, and Gyeonggi-do) out of 15 regions. Our empirical analysis further suggests that any increase in the density of production activity in the metropolitan cities (except for Gwangju) could lead to a decrease in productivity. It can be thus concluded that there is a potential for Korean firms to increase productivity by readjusting the density of production activity across regions.
Autonomy or organisation? Reforms in the Ghanaian internal revenue service

Autonomous Revenue Authorities (ARAs) have recently become a popular organisational reform to improve revenue collection in developing countries. The success of ARAs is commonly attributed to ‘autonomy’ which reduces political interference, and increases financial independence and managerial freedom. This article examines the case of the Ghanaian ARA – the Internal Revenue Service and argues that its strong performance is the result of not ‘autonomy’, but other more nuts and bolts reforms, specifically: (a) strategies designed to direct the focus of the IRS to different taxpayer segments, particularly the informal sector and (b) significant attempts to bring the tax administration closer to the taxpayer through decentralisation and improved taxpayer services. To the extent that autonomy enables ARAs to undertake these other reforms it forms an important piece of the picture, however, they do not require autonomy – they could well be adopted under traditional tax administrations. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
99% Normal Adjudication and 1% Supernormal Adjudication ------ Posner Paradigm and Construction of Chinese Scholar-Type Judge Mechanism

Law of individual equity pursues for scholar-type judges who are endowed with radical talents and revolutionary spirits. To trigger out these judges’ natural advantages of mastering law theories and reform trends and overcome their shortcomings of ignoring equity of interests in criticizing legal system and seeking for radical reform are the key parts in the modernization of China legal system. “Double excellent law man” Posner’s paradigm shows the core of constructing a scholar-type judge mechanism, that is, to cultivate judges who possess characters of being modest, wary, and responsible, gifts of openness, wisdom, and unselfish, super ability of logic analysis, loyalty to rationality, sagacity and courage of grasping reform chances and making supernormal adjudications, and avoid the attitude of “results-oriented adjudication”.
Diminishing America's Demographic Dilemma Through Pre-Funding Social Security

Financing Social Security benefits at current levels implies significant increases in payroll taxes within the next 20 years under current U.S. demographic developments. Using a general-equilibrium overlapping-generations model with realistic patterns of fertility and lifespan extension, this study shows that future generations would be harmed during the demographic transition due to rising payroll taxes and declining real wages. A faster rate of technological progress would mitigate only some of the payroll tax increase and would not prevent the decline in real wages. Addressing the problem by reducing Social Security benefits as needed or by raising the eligibility age imposes major welfare losses on current or near term retirees. By contrast, pre-funding Social Security through consumption taxes more evenly spreads the welfare losses across generations, and it helps future generations, especially the poor, by stimulating capital formation. JEL classification: E62, H55, J18
Determinants of Credit Card Accounts: An Application of Tobit Analysis

Tobit analysis was used to examine the relative importance of household characteristics in determining the number of credit card accounts per household. Results supported theoretical predictions that households whose time was the most valuable would be most likely to have credit card accounts. This study suggests that Tobit analysis is useful for a broad range of consumer behavior studies.
Entrepreneurial opportunity identification and new firm development processes: a comparison of family and non-family new ventures

This research examines differences between family and non-family firms with respect to new venture creation processes. We invoke a social embeddedness explanation of differences between family and non-family firms with respect to opportunity identification processes and outcomes and new venture development processes. In a sample of 183 family and non-family firms, we find that family firms are less likely to report an opportunity identification process that is sudden, spontaneous and creative. The new opportunities thus identified are less innovative than those identified by non-family firms. Finally, family firms are somewhat more likely to follow effectuation processes and significantly less likely to follow causation processes during new venture creation. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
Sub‐micromolar increase in [Ca2+]i triggers delayed exocytosis of ATP in cultured astrocytes

Astrocytes release a variety of transmitter molecules, which mediate communication between glial cells in the brain and modulate synaptic transmission. ATP is a major glia‐derived transmitter, but the mechanisms and kinetics of ATP release from astrocytes remain largely unknown. Here, we combined epifluorescence and total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy to monitor individual quinacrine‐loaded ATP‐containing vesicles undergoing exocytosis in cultured astrocytes. In resting cells, vesicles exhibited three‐dimensional motility, spontaneous docking and release at low rate. Extracellular ATP application induced a Ca2+‐dependent increase in the rate of exocytosis, which persisted for several minutes. Using UV flash photolysis of caged Ca2+, the threshold [Ca2+]i for ATP exocytosis was found to be ∼350 nM. Subthreshold [Ca2+]i transients predominantly induced vesicle docking at plasma membrane without subsequent release. ATP exocytosis triggered either by purinergic stimulation or by Ca2+ uncaging occurred after a substantial delay ranging from tens to hundreds of seconds, with only ∼4% of release occurring during the first 30 s. The time course of the cargo release from vesicles had two peaks centered on ≤10 s and 60 s. These results demonstrate that: (1) [Ca2+]i elevations in cultured astrocytes trigger docking and release of ATP‐containing vesicles; (2) vesicle docking and release have different Ca2+ thresholds; (3) ATP exocytosis is delayed by several minutes and highly asynchronous; (4) two populations of ATP‐containing vesicles with distinct (fast and slow) time course of cargo release exist in cultured astrocytes. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Motivations for environmental collaboration within the building and construction industry

Purpose - This paper sets out to document a review of environmental collaborations in the Australian building and construction industry and to identify a number of motivations that appear to drive particular environmental groups and building and construction companies to collaborate on specific projects. Design/methodology/approach - The research involves a series of in-depth interviews with individuals from building and construction companies and from environmental groups, and utilises a number of theoretical perspectives to explain the various perspectives being adopted by the interviewees. Findings - The results indicate that corporate managers seek to collaborate with environmental groups as a result of pressures exerted by particular stakeholder groups, particularly government, and by the desire to be aligned with an organisation that has “green credentials” – something that is valuable in enhancing the reputation and legitimacy of the company and the related building project. There was also a related financial motivation for collaborating. The representatives from the environmental groups indicated that motivations for collaboration included developing a project that could be used as a vehicle for “educating” the public, generating positive environmental outcomes, complying with the expectations of their constituents, and setting an example for other building and construction companies to follow. Originality/value - Little research has been done in the area of environmental collaborations. In this study, environmental collaborations were considered as a vehicle for both the environmental groups and the companies to further meet their organisational objectives and were generally considered as successful initiatives from each organisation's perspective.
Protein structural ensembles are revealed by redefining X-ray electron density noise

Significance This work presents computational solutions to two longstanding problems in protein structure determination using X-ray crystallography. Together, these methods reveal that the electron density threshold for discovering alternative protein and ligand conformations is much lower than the standard cutoff for structural modeling. Three broad applications illustrate that the features present in weak electron density can reveal important, unanticipated conformational heterogeneity in proteins. The methods introduced here help convert X-ray crystallography from the principal technique to obtain “snapshots” of biological molecules to an approach that also can reveal the signatures of molecular motions that are potentially important for function. These advances have broad implications for developing drugs and understanding protein mechanisms. To increase the power of X-ray crystallography to determine not only the structures but also the motions of biomolecules, we developed methods to address two classic crystallographic problems: putting electron density maps on the absolute scale of e−/Å3 and calculating the noise at every point in the map. We find that noise varies with position and is often six to eight times lower than thresholds currently used in model building. Analyzing the rescaled electron density maps from 485 representative proteins revealed unmodeled conformations above the estimated noise for 45% of side chains and a previously hidden, low-occupancy inhibitor of HIV capsid protein. Comparing the electron density maps in the free and nucleotide-bound structures of three human protein kinases suggested that substrate binding perturbs distinct intrinsic allosteric networks that link the active site to surfaces that recognize regulatory proteins. These results illustrate general approaches to identify and analyze alternative conformations, low-occupancy small molecules, solvent distributions, communication pathways, and protein motions.