Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Transcriptomics-Aided Dissection of the Intracellular and Extracellular Roles of Microcystin in Microcystis aeruginosa PCC 7806

ABSTRACT Recent studies have provided evidence for both intracellular and extracellular roles of the potent hepatotoxin microcystin (MC) in the bloom-forming cyanobacterium Microcystis. Here, we surveyed transcriptomes of the wild-type strain M. aeruginosa PCC 7806 and the microcystin-deficient ΔmcyB mutant under low light conditions with and without the addition of external MC of the LR variant (MC-LR). Transcriptomic data acquired by microarray and quantitative PCR revealed substantial differences in the relative expression of genes of the central intermediary metabolism, photosynthesis, and energy metabolism. In particular, the data provide evidence for a lower photosystem I (PSI)-to-photosystem II (PSII) ratio and a more pronounced carbon limitation in the microcystin-deficient mutant. Interestingly, only 6% of the transcriptional differences could be complemented by external microcystin-LR addition. This MC signaling effect was seen exclusively for genes of the secondary metabolism category. The orphan polyketide synthase gene cluster IPF38-51 was specifically downregulated in response to external MC-LR under low light. Our data suggest a hierarchical and light-dependent cross talk of secondary metabolites and support both an intracellular and an extracellular role of MC in Microcystis.
Influence of gamma irradiation on the development of neoplastic disease in mice. I. Reticular tissue tumors.

The influence of ${}^{137}{\rm Cs}\ \gamma $ irradiation on the development of reticular tissue neoplasms was investiged using male and female RFM/Un mice. The relationship between radiation dose and incidence of thymic lymphoma for females was complex, and no simple model described the relationship over the entire dose range. Over the range 0 to 25 rad linearity could be rejected and a dose-squared model described the data, while over the range 50 to 300 rad the response was linear. Males were less sensitive to induction of thymic lymphoma than females and their dose-response relationship was less complex with a linear response predominating. Males were more sensitive than females to induction of myeloid leukemia, with the age-adjusted incidence at 300 rad reaching 20% in males but only 5% in females. The response was linear for both sexes. The age-adjusted incidence of reticulum cell sarcoma decreased with dose in both male and female mice. The role of host factors in determining the type of neoplasm as.
Financial analysts’ earnings forecasts for loss firms

Refers to previous research on the accuracy of financial analysts’ earnings forecasts and explores the differences in accuracy for loss making and non‐loss making firms using 1985‐1993 US data. Finds an optimistic bias for both types of firms (smaller for more recent forecasts); which is greater for loss making firms even after controlling for forecast horizon, year of forecast and industry. Considers possible explanations for this finding and consistency with other research.
Job Displacement and Earnings Loss: Evidence from the Displaced Worker Survey

Using data from the Displaced Worker Survey, a special supplement to the January 1984 Current Population Survey, the authors estimate a model of reemployment earnings for workers displaced from full-time nonagricultural jobs between January 1979 and January 1984. Median losses for workers reemployed full-time were not large, but a sizable minority of that group—mostly workers with substantial specific human capital investments—experienced large and enduring earnings losses.
Separation of the two different sizes of storage granules with GH or ACTH activity from the pellets of acidophils isolated from rat anterior pituitaries.

It was preliminarily revealed by a histogram made from the electron micrographs of acidophils on the tissue sections of anterior pituitaries in normal rats that the two different sizes of storage granules were distributed in high population in many acidophils. These two granules, small and large in size, were isolated from the pellet of isolated acidophils and separated each other by filtrations through membrane filters with various pore sizes and by discontinuous sucrose density gradient centrifugations. The other histogram made from the electron micrographs of these separated granules coincided with the above histogram. ACTH, GH and prolactin activities were bioassayed on the free granules. GH activity was found only in the large granules with diameter between 300 and 450mμ. ACTH activity was detected only in the small granules with diameter between 100 and 200 mμ, though the content of ACTH contained in the isolated granules represented only a few per cent of the total ACTH content of the homogenate of anterior pituitary. No prolactin activity was found in the both kinds of granules. These findings strongly suggested that the two kinds of granules originated from the acidophils of the rat anterior pituitaries were involved in GH and ACTH storage and the acidophils were responsible for ACTH production. The findings were also discussed related to the mode of intracellular localization of the hormones.
Enabling Agents to Perform Prioritized Multi-Criteria Aggregation

Here the weights correspond to the importance of the Many agent based decisions involve an aggregation of individual of the criteria. the satisfaction to multiple criteria. We consider the It is easy to see that this type of aggregation is situation where there exists a prioritization relationship monotonic, if C i (x) ≥ C i (y) for all i then C(x) ≥ C(y). over the criteria. In this situation increase in satisfaction It is bounded Min i [C i (x)] ≤ C(x) ≤ Max[C i (x)). It is to a lower priority criteria doesn't readily compensate for a also idempotent, if all C i (x) = a then C(x) = a. Because decrease in satisfaction in higher priority criteria. of these properties this is an averaging operator. Typically the relationship between safety and cost Central to this type of aggregation is the ability to manifests this property. We suggest that prioritization trade off between criteria. In particular wk wi is the between criteria can be modeled by making the weights associated with a criteria dependent upon the satisfaction of relation between criteria C i and C k . In this type of the higher priority criteria. We discuss a number of aggregation we can compensate for a decrease of ∆ in methods for obtaining the associated weights. satisfaction to criteria C i by gain wk wi ∆ in satisfaction
The Relevance of Hyman Minsky

Hyman Minsky, who died in 1996, was responsible for an analytical framework that he called the "financial instability hypothesis" or the "Wall Street paradigm. " His analysis is perhaps even more relevant today than it was when Robert Pollin wrote this retrospective of his work in 1997. Minsky's paradigm led to one central result was is fundamentally at odds with the mainstream view, but is key to understanding our current crisis: Capitalist economies are inherently unstable, and disequilibrium and unemployment are their normal state of affairs. Minsky wrote, "The capitalist market mechanism is flawed in the sense that it does not lead to stable price-full employment equilibrium, and that the basis of the flaw resides in the financial system. " His life work, reviewed here by Pollin, sheds light on ways we can redeem the capitalist marketplace to promote stability and equity.
Risk of mortality associated with neonatal hypothermia in southern Nepal.

OBJECTIVE To quantify the neonatal mortality/hypothermia relationship and develop evidence-based cutoffs for global definitions of neonatal hypothermia. DESIGN Cohort study. Field workers recorded neonatal axillary temperature at home and recorded vital status at 28 days. SETTING Rural Nepal. PARTICIPANTS Twenty-three thousand two hundred forty infants in Sarlahi, Nepal. MAIN EXPOSURE Hypothermia. OUTCOME MEASURES Mortality risk was estimated using binomial regression models. Infants were classified using (1) World Health Organization (WHO) cutoffs for mild, moderate, and severe hypothermia; (2) quarter-degree intervals from 32.0 degrees C to 36.5 degrees C; and (3) continuous temperatures. Estimates were adjusted for age, ambient temperature, and other potential confounders. RESULTS Mortality increased among mild (relative risk [RR], 1.70; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.23-2.35]), moderate (RR, 4.66; 95% CI, 3.47-6.24]), and severe (RR, 23.36; 95% CI, 4.31-126.70]) hypothermia cases. Within the WHO's moderate classification, risk relative to normothermic infants ranged from 2 to 30 times. Adjusted mortality risk increased 80% (95% CI, 63%-100%) for each degree decrease, was strongly associated with temperatures below 35.0 degrees C (RR, 6.11; 95% CI, 3.98-9.38), and was substantially higher among preterm infants (RR, 12.02; 95% CI, 6.23-23.18]) compared with full-term infants (RR, 3.12; 95% CI, 1.75-5.57). Relative risk was highest in the first 7 days, but remained elevated through 28 days. CONCLUSIONS A new hypothermia classification system should be considered by the WHO for global guidelines. We recommend that grade 1 be equivalent to the current mild category (36.0 degrees C), restricting and splitting the moderate category into grades 2 (35.0 degrees C-36.0 degrees C) and 3 (34.0 degrees C-35.0 degrees C), and expanding severe hypothermia to less than 34.0 degrees C (grade 4). Reducing hypothermia may dramatically decrease the global neonatal mortality burden.
Usefulness of polyethylene glycol solution with dimethylpolysiloxanes for bowel preparation before capsule endoscopy

Background and Aim: Capsule endoscopy (CE) is widely used for diagnosing small intestinal diseases. In some cases, however, observation of target sites is very poor during CE because of residues etc. Herein we report the usefulness of a preparation comprised of polyethylene glycol solution (PEG) for CE.
Putative Mechanisms of Cognitive Dysfunction in Chemotherapy-Naïve Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma: A Case Report and Review of the Literature

Cognitive impairment is now recognized as a frequent consequence of treatments for cancers localized outside the central nervous system (CNS). In contrast, little attention has been given to the potentially deleterious cognitive effects from non-CNS cancers themselves. The present case study proposes that cognitive deficits occur in a subset of treatment-naïve patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma in whom no gross evidence of lymphoma-related CNS involvement is apparent. Evidence is presented from a case study and elaborate putative mechanisms centering on deleterious effects of B-cell-mediated inflammatory cytokine secretion on neurons. Moreover, this case study speculates that genetic variability involving apolipoprotein E or other factors may mediate cognitive variability among these patients.
Making mergers and acquisitions work: Strategic and psychological preparation

Executive Overview Three out of four mergers and acquisitions fail to achieve their financial and strategic objectives. Because the nature of the combination process--such as the secrecy that shrouds negotiations--runs counter to the requirements of rigorous research, efforts to learn why so many combinations fail, and to understand the management actions that put combinations on a successful course, have yielded limited insights. As a result, mergers and acquisitions continue to be mismanaged and to produce disappointing results. This article draws from the authors' experience in over 70 mergers and acquisitions to understand the managerial actions that distinguish successful from disappointing combinations. It focuses on early efforts in the precombination phase that steer a combination toward the successful path. Precombination preparation covers strategic and psychological matters. The strategic challenges concern key analyses that clarify and bring into focus the sources of synergy in a combination.
Effect of comorbidity on the treatment and prognosis of elderly patients with non-small cell lung cancer

Background: With the rising mean age, more patients will be diagnosed with one or more other serious diseases at the time of lung cancer diagnosis. Little is known about the best way to treat elderly patients with comorbidity or the outcome of treatment. This study was undertaken to evaluate the independent effects of age and comorbidity on treatment and prognosis in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods: All patients with NSCLC diagnosed between 1995 and 1999 in the southern part of the Netherlands (n = 4072) were included. Results: The proportion of patients with localised NSCLC who underwent surgery was 92% in patients younger than 60 years and 9% in those aged 80 years or older. In patients aged 60–79 years this proportion also decreased with comorbidity. In patients with non-localised NSCLC the proportion receiving chemotherapy was considerably higher for those aged less than 60 years (24%) than in those aged 80 or older (2%). The number of comorbid conditions had no significant influence on the treatment chosen for patients with non-localised disease. Multivariable survival analyses showed that age, tumour size, and treatment were independent prognostic factors for patients with localised disease, and stage of disease and treatment for those with non-localised disease. Comorbidity had no independent prognostic effect. Conclusions: It is questionable whether the less aggressive treatment of elderly patients with NSCLC is justified.
Price and Advertising Effectiveness over the Business Cycle

Firms are under increasing pressure to justify their marketing expenditures. This evolution toward greater accountability is reinforced in harsh economic times when marketing budgets are among the first to be reconsidered. To make such decisions, managers must know whether, and to what extent, marketing's effectiveness varies with the economic tide; however, surprisingly little research addresses this issue. Therefore, the authors conduct a systematic investigation of the business cycle's impact on the effectiveness of two important marketing instruments: price and advertising. To do so, they estimate time-varying short- and long-term advertising and price elasticities for 150 brands across 36 consumer packaged goods categories, using 18 years of monthly U.K. data from 1993 to 2010. The long-term price sensitivity tends to decrease during economic expansions, whereas long-term advertising elasticities increase. During contractions, the long-term own and cross price elasticities increase. Moreover, throughout the observation period, the short-term price elasticity became significantly stronger. Finally, patterns differ across categories and brands, which presents opportunities for firms that know how to ride the economic tide.
Gastrointestinal parasites in cattle in Ontario.

In 1957, MacGregor and Kingscote (14) reported that 21.2% of the cattle in Ontario had gastrointestinal parasite eggs in the feces. In Ontario this is the only field survey for such parasites although others (6, 12, 15, 18, 19) have demonstrated gastrointestinal parasitism in cattle. Slocombe (19) found that 58% of the bovine fecal samples examined at the Ontario Veterinary College during 196570 were positive and suggested several reasons for the apparent increase from 1957. Since management practices had changed considerably from 1957, a field survey was conducted in 1970 and the results are now reported. The survey was confined to Southwestern Ontario where the majority of cattle are located. The study was restricted to dairy cattle which represents in Ontario a more indigenous and less transient population than beef cattle.
Sustainability Accounting and Accountability in Public Water Companies

This article analyses the ways that Spanish public water companies communicate sustainability information to their stakeholders and explores whether distinctive and more progressive accountability is possible in the public sector in comparison with private sector organizations. Two distinct activities are identified in sustainable accountability: public organizations are engaged in informal as well as formal reporting activity, and their reporting seems to be coupled with real organizational strategies and operational activities.
Heterogeneous Agents Models: two simple examples, forthcoming In: Lines, M. (ed.) Nonlinear Dynamical Systems in Economics, CISM Courses and Lectures, Springer, 2005, pp.131-164

These notes review two simple heterogeneous agent models in economics and finance. The first is a cobweb model with rational versus naive agents introduced in Brock and Hommes (1997). The second is an asset pricing model with fundamentalists versus technical traders introduced in Brock and Hommes (1998). Agents are boundedly rational and switch between different trading strategies, based upon an evolutionary fitness measure given by realized past profits. Evolutionary switching creates a nonlinearity in the dynamics. Rational routes to randomness, that is, bifurcation routes to complicated dynamical behaviour occur when agents become more sensitive to differences in evolutionary fitness.
Experimental validation of dynamic visual servoing for a quadrotor using a virtual camera

This paper presents a dynamic image-based visual servoing (IBVS) control law for a quadrotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) equipped with a single fixed on-board camera. The motion control problem is to regulate the relative position and yaw of the vehicle to a stationary target located on the ground. The control law is termed dynamic as it based on the dynamics and kinematics of the vehicle. The proposed design relies on the notion of a virtual camera and image moments as visual features to simplify the kinematics and dynamics. The convergence of the closed-loop is proven to be globally asymptotically stable. Experimental and simulation results demonstrate the method's ease of on-board implementation, performance, and robustness.
Prospects for corporatist decision‐making in the European union: The social policy agreement

Abstract Setting out the legal framework for European collective bargaining, the Social Policy Agreement appended to the Maastricht Treaty appears to introduce some corporatist characteristics to the Union policy process. This article explores whether this legal framework really does represent a sufficient basis for introducing a new, corporatist policy formation mode at the European level. The main conclusion is that the existing infrastructure of organized management and labour at the European level, as well as that of the European Union (EU) institutions concerned, does not provide the appropriate institutional set‐up for corporatist policy partnership formalized by the Maastricht Social Annex. Nevertheless, the Agreement is not without utility. If its ‘reflexive potential’ (i.e. its capability to shape European collective bargaining by defining procedural norms and limiting or expanding the competences of the social partners) is taken into account, the Agreement can be regarded as a framework under wh.
Gray Matter Differences between Musicians and Nonmusicians

Abstract: Musicians learn complex motor and auditory skills at an early age and practice these specialized skills extensively from childhood through their entire careers. Using a voxel‐by‐voxel morphometric technique, we found gray matter volume differences in motor as well as auditory and visuospatial brain regions comparing professional musicians (keyboard players) with matched amateur musicians and nonmusicians. These multiregional differences might represent structural adaptations in response to long‐term skill learning and repetitive rehearsal of these skills. This is supported by finding a strong association between structural differences, musician status, and practice intensity as well as by a wealth of supporting animal data showing structural changes in response to long‐term motor training.
Optimal Design and Analysis of Genetic Studies on Gene Expression

Whole-genome profiling of gene expression in a segregating population has the potential to identify the regulatory consequences of natural allelic variation. Costs of such studies are high and require that resources—microarrays and population—are used as efficiently as possible. We show that current studies can be improved significantly by a new design for two-color microarrays. Our “distant pair design” profiles twice as many individuals as there are arrays, cohybridizes individuals with dissimilar genomes, gives more weight to known regulatory loci if wished, and therewith maximizes the power for decomposing expression variation into regulatory factors. It can also exploit a large population (larger than twice the number of available microarrays) as a useful resource to select the most dissimilar pairs of individuals from. Our approach identifies more regulatory factors than alternative strategies do in computer simulations for realistic genome sizes, and similar promising results are obtained in an application on Arabidopsis thaliana. Our results will aid the design and analysis of future studies on gene expression and will help to shed more light on gene regulatory networks.
Nebulin plays a direct role in promoting strong actin‐myosin interactions

The role of the actin filament‐associated protein nebulin on mechanical and kinetic properties of the actomyosin motor was investigated in skeletal muscle of wild‐type (ωt) and nebulin‐deficient (nebulin_/‐) mice that were 1 d old' an age at which sarcomeric structure is still well preserved. In Ca2+‐activated skinned fibers from psoas muscle, we determined the Ca2+ dependence of isometric force and stiffness, the rate of force redevelopment after unloaded shortening (kTR), the power during isotonic shortening, and the unloaded shortening velocity (V0). Our results show a 65% reduction in isometric force in nebulin‐/‐ fibers at saturating [Ca2+], whereas neither thin‐filament length nor the Ca2+ sensitivity of the contractile system is affected. Stiffness measurements indicate that the reduction in isometric force is due to a reduction in the number of actin‐attached myosin motors, whereas the force of the motor is unchanged. Furthermore, in nebulin‐/‐ fibers, kTR is decreased by 57%, V0 is increased by 63%, and the maximum power is decreased by 80%. These results indicate that, in the absence of nebulin, the attachment probability of the myosin motors to actin is decreased, revealing a direct role for nebulin in promoting strong actomyosin interactions responsible for force and power production. — Bang, M. ‐L. , Caremani, M. , Brunello, E. , Littlefield, R. , Lieber, R. L. , Chen, J., Lombardi, V. , Linari, M. Nebu‐lin plays a direct role in promoting strong actin‐myosin interactions. FASEBJ. 23,4117‐4125 (2009). www.fasebj. org
Monetary Policies and Oil Price Determination: An Empirical Analysis

While the oil price shocks of 1970s can be explained by pure supply factors, starting in the 1980s oil prices increasingly began to come under a different type of pressure. Oil prices accelerated from about $35/barrel in 1981 to beyond $111/barrel in 2011. At the same time interest rates subsided from 16.7 per cent per annum to about 0.1. This paper explains how this long-term price increase was, in most cases, caused by expansionary monetary policies that heightened oil prices through interest rate channels. Aggressive monetary policies stimulated oil demand and blew up oil prices, a trend that led to slower economic growth. As for elasticities, the results described in this paper show that oil demand price elasticity is low value and unlike some earlier literature states, supply price elasticity is statistically significant. In last section, the results show that oil prices adjust instantly, declaring the existence of equilibrium in the oil market during the period from 1960 to 2011.