Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Exported Inducer Peptide Regulates Bacteriocin Production in Enterococcus faecium CTC492

ABSTRACT Production of the bacteriocins enterocin A and enterocin B inEnterococcus faecium CTC492 was dependent on the presence of an extracellular peptide produced by the strain itself. This induction factor (EntF) was purified, and amino acid sequencing combined with DNA sequencing of the corresponding gene identified it as a peptide of 25 amino acids. The gene encodes a prepeptide of 41 amino acids, including a 16-amino-acid leader peptide of the double-glycine type. Environmental factors influenced the level of bacteriocin production in E. faecium CTC492. The optimal pH for bacteriocin production was 6.2. At pH 5.5, growth was slow, and very little bacteriocin was formed. The presence of NaCl or ethanol (EtOH) was also inhibitory to bacteriocin production, and at high concentrations of these solutes, no bacteriocin production was observed. The induction factor induced its own synthesis, and by dilution of the culture 106 times or more, nonproducing cultures were obtained. Bacteriocin production was induced in these cultures by addition of EntF. The response was linear, and low bacteriocin production could be induced by about 10−17 M EntF. This response was attenuated by low pH or the presence of high concentrations of NaCl or EtOH, and 300 times more EntF was needed to induce detectable bacteriocin production in the presence of 6.5% NaCl. High levels of bacteriocin production in cultures grown at low pH or in the presence of high concentrations of NaCl or EtOH were obtained by addition of sufficient amounts of EntF.
Global financial crisis-driven mutations affecting the transmission mechanism customized to monetary policy strategies. A VAR, SVAR and BVAR approach

This paper analyzes the transmission mechanisms of monetary policy in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries on the road to euro adoption depending on the monetary policy strategies used by the national central banks (CBs). The scientific construction of the paper is based on three methods: vector autoregressive (VAR), structural vector autoregressive (SVAR) and Bayesian techniques-estimated vector autoregressive (BVAR). The main results have indicated: 1) lack of similarity of the transmission mechanism, a high degree of heterogeneity in the transmission of monetary policy impulses indicated in all three cases subject to analysis: speed, persistence and amplitude, 2) an increase in the speed of monetary policy shocks transmission, a decrease in the amplitude of monetary policy shock impact and a reduction (or the maintaining at a similar level) of the persistence of monetary policy shock effects subsequent to the global financial crisis, regardless of the monetary policy strategy used.
Robust H∞ dynamic output feedback controller design for industrial boilers via LMI technique

Linear Matrix Inequality (LMI) terms can be used to formulated a number of linear control problems. In this paper the robust H∞ dynamic output feedback controller via LMI approach, studied for an industrial boiler-turbine unit. Boilers are essential component in the most coil fired power plant and generate steam continuously. A third order nonlinear Astrom and Bell model is considered. The boiler's output variables are drum pressure, electric power and drum water level deviation. Because of many safety factors, the outputs should be controlled. By using the advantage of LMI, one of the seventh operation points is chosen and the H∞ dynamic output feedback controller designed. The main goal of the H∞controller is to get a good performance such as tracking performance and disturbance rejection. To achieve a good and fast response, the pole placement technique is used. According to the simulation results, the H∞ controller leads to good robustness and tracking response.
Development of two transmitter release components during the critical period for imprinting in the chick IMHV

Transmitter release at an excitatory synapse has two components, fast synchronous and slow asynchronous transmitter release. Using the whole cell recording technique, we investigated the developmental properties of neurotransmitter release, which is composed of the two components in the intermediate and medial part of the hyperstriatum ventral (IMHV) of chicks during the critical period for imprinting. Analysis of the paired‐pulse responses revealed that the depression of the excitatory postsynaptic currents (EPSCs), driven mainly by fast synchronous release, was frequently observed in P0–1 chicks but not in those at P5–8. The spontaneous excitatory postsynaptic currents (sEPSCs) after the paired‐pulse stimulation, which were thought to be driven by asynchronous transmitter releases, were observed more frequently in P0–1 chicks than P5–8 chicks. Furthermore, examination of Ca2+ dependency in the evoked EPSCs showed that the amplitudes in P5–8 chicks were more sensitive to reduction of the extracellular Ca2+ concentration than younger chicks. Considering that the Ca2+ dependency of EPSCs is defined by both Ca2+ sensitivity and the proportion of each type of release machineries at the release site, these results indicate that the ratio of fast synchronous to slow asynchronous transmitter release machinery changed during the critical period. These changes may play critical roles in the capacity of the avian brain to consolidate novel experience in the immediate period after hatching.
Globalisation vs Skill-Biased Technological Change: Implications for Unemployment and Wage Inequality

Globalisation and skill-biased technological change have emerged as alternative explanations for the increase in US wage inequality since 1980. We investigate the static and dynamic effects of these shocks on unemployment across skill classes using a model of search unemployment. Although we confirm that globalisation and skill-biased technological change both lead to increases in wage inequality, we show that these shocks may have different effects on unemployment. We also show that labour market institutions play a role in determining the size of shocks, which formalises an argument in Krugman (1994) about the labour market experiences of the US and Europe since 1980.
Technicity as a quality indicator of excellence in gynaecology.

OBJECTIVES The objective of this study was to calculate the technicity index (TI) for hysterectomies at a tertiary care university hospital in Oman. METHODS This is a retrospective chart review of patients who had hysterectomies at Sultan Qaboos University Hospital (SQUH), a tertiary care university hospital. Profiles were reviewed for all patients who had hysterectomies at SQUH in the period 2003-2009. The cumulative frequencies for all types of hysterectomies were tallied and the year-specific TI was calculated. RESULTS Overall, we enumerated a total of 258 hysterectomies, of which 6 (2.3%) were laparoscopic assisted hysterectomies, 42 (16.3%) vaginal hysterectomies, and 208 (80.6%) total abdominal hysterectomies. The average TI was 19% (48/258), and it ranged from 11% to 24%. The trend of change fluctuated over the years starting with 16% (2003) and increasing gradually during 2004-2006, but then declining again during 2007-2008 (trend P value 0.02). This low and fluctuating trend was mainly attributed to the inconsistency in the availability of trained surgeons and laparoscopic equipment. CONCLUSION TI at our institution can be improved by increasing the number of minimally invasive hysterectomies through providing more trained surgeons and laparoscopic equipment.
&agr;5&bgr;1 Integrin Signaling Mediates Oxidized Low-Density Lipoprotein–Induced Inflammation and Early Atherosclerosis

Objective—Endothelial cell activation drives early atherosclerotic plaque formation. Both fibronectin deposition and accumulation of oxidized low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL) occur early during atherogenesis, and both are implicated in enhanced endothelial cell activation. However, interplay between these responses has not been established. The objective of our study was to determine whether endothelial matrix composition modulates the inflammatory properties of oxLDL. Approach and Results—We now show that oxLDL-induced nuclear factor-&kgr;B activation, proinflammatory gene expression, and monocyte binding are significantly enhanced when endothelial cells are attached to fibronectin compared with basement membrane proteins. This enhanced response does not result from altered oxLDL receptor expression, oxLDL uptake, or reactive oxygen species production, but results from oxLDL-induced activation of the fibronectin-binding integrin &agr;5&bgr;1. Preventing &agr;5&bgr;1 signaling (blocking antibodies, knockout cells) inhibits oxLDL-induced nuclear factor-&kgr;B activation and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 expression. Furthermore, oxLDL drives &agr;5&bgr;1-dependent integrin signaling through the focal adhesion kinase pathway, and focal adhesion kinase inhibition (PF-573228, small interfering RNA) blunts oxLDL-induced nuclear factor-&kgr;B activation, vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 expression, and monocyte adhesion. Last, treatment with the &agr;5&bgr;1 signaling inhibitor, ATN-161, significantly blunts atherosclerotic plaque development in apolipoprotein E–deficient mice, characterized by reduced vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 expression and macrophage accumulation without affecting fibrous cap size. Conclusions—Our data suggest that &agr;5&bgr;1-mediated cross-talk between fibronectin and oxLDL regulates inflammation in early atherogenesis and that therapeutics that inhibit &agr;5 integrins may reduce inflammation without adversely affecting plaque structure.
Do Chinese IPOs Really Underperform in the Long Run?

The empirical examination of the long-term performance of Chinese initial public offerings (IPOs) is the subject of this article. Using the calendar-time factor-regression method, the authors find that Jensen’s alpha, their measure for post-IPO three-year abnormal returns for 245 monthly IPO portfolios from July 1992 through December 2012, can vary from –1.15% to 0.49% per month, depending on factor specifications in the regression and weighting specifications in the portfolio formation. However, alpha estimates in almost all factor-weighting scenarios do not differ from zero after correcting for the new listing bias, indicating that Chinese IPOs do not underperform in the long run compared with their non-IPO counterparts. The findings report in this article highlight the importance of measurement problems in estimating long-term performance of Chinese IPOs.
Proof for a Case where Discounting Advances the Doomsday

In a previous paper (Koopmans [1]) I considered some problems of " optimal " consumption P, over time of an exhaustible resource of known finite total availability R. In one of the cases studied, consumption of a minimum amount of the resource is assumed to be essential to human life, in such a way that all life ceases upon its exhaustion at time T. Assuming a constant population until that time, and denoting by r the positive minimum consumption level needed for survival of that population, the survival period Tis constrained by
The Public-Private Sector Pay Differential in Greece

This article examines the earnings differential between the public and private sectors pay in Greece employing quantile regression analysis and using micro data. The results suggest that average earnings are higher in the public sector than in the private sector for both genders but earnings in the public sector show a smaller dispersion with respect to the private sector. The findings indicate that employees in the public sector at the lower end of the earnings distribution earn a higher wage gap compared with their counterparts in the private sector but this gap decreases at higher quantiles. In addition, quantile regression estimation reveals that the earnings differences in the low quantiles are mainly attributed to the unobserved characteristics and partly to the differences in endowment. By contrast, in the highest quantiles the differences in earnings between sectors for both genders are mainly attributed to the observed differences in the endowment characteristics.
Standards and Industry Self-Regulation

Standards affect the quality and cost of virtually every product and service. Yet the persons who set standards seldom go beyond the technical aspects of their function to consider the economic and social welfare effects of such standards. The consumer should be represented in standards and certification programs; this could be done by the proposed federal consumer protection agency as well as by strengthening the independent action of the National Bureau of Standards.
Inflation and Central Bank Independence: Conventional Wisdom Redux

Until recently there existed a broad consensus that an important institution for combating inflation is a central bank insulated from political influence. This conventional wisdom has been challenged by, among others, Campillo and Miron (1997), who present evidence purporting to show that if an inflation regression equation is expanded to include not only their proxy for central bank independence (CBI) but other regressors as well, then the negative correlation between inflation and CBI vanishes. The present paper argues that allegations of the demise of this nexus should not be accepted uncritically. This paper, which reports the results of an analysis of covariance structures, finds a strong negative relationship between inflation and CBI.
Overview of CBA and CEA Methods

Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) and cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) are formal analytic techniques for comparing the positive and negative consequences of alternative uses of resources. Both CBA and CEA require the identification, quantification, and comparison of all significant consequences—health effects and resource costs—of health care interventions. CBA and CEA differ in the quantification or valuation of the demonstrated health effects. CBA requires that health effects (benefits) be valued in the same unit as costs, namely dollars. CEA values benefits in “health effects” units—lives saved, years of life saved, days of disability avoided. This difference in benefit measurement leads to differences in the nature of the comparisons that can be made and the types of decisions that can be informed by the two analytic techniques. While CBA and CEA have limitations, their value as information-generating techniques that aid decision making should not be underestimated.
Dimensions of customer loyalty in hospitality micro-enterprises

This study aims to explore the role of customer loyalty as a managerial tool in the context of hospitality micro-enterprises (HMEs). In the absence of the concept of franchise customer loyalty becomes one of the key factors for survival. Analysis of data results in exploring the importance of customer loyalty to owner-managers, and their role in generating the antecedents of loyalty is also revealed. Encounter of owner-managers' motivations with small hospitality business characteristics appears to be influential. Motivation leads to creation of an ‘at home’ feeling and offering extra services. These directly influence customer loyalty in HMEs. A paradox has been highlighted: as a result of the same factors (host motivations and small business characteristics) customer loyalty cannot be built in its higher levels.
Documentation of Red Flags by Physical Therapists for Patients with Low Back Pain

Abstract The comprehensiveness of physical therapists' adherence to the guidelines for red flag documentation for patients with low back pain has not previously been described. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to describe that comprehensiveness. Red flags are warning signs that suggest that physician referral may be warranted. Clinic charts for 160 patients with low back pain seen at 6 outpatient physical therapy clinics were retrospectively reviewed, noting the presence or absence of 11 red flag items. Seven of the 11 red flag items were documented over 98% of the time. Most charts (96.3%) had at least 64% of the red flag items documented. Documentation of red flags was comprehensive in some areas but lacking in others. Red flags that were regularly documented included age over 50, bladder dysfunction, history of cancer, immune suppression, night pain, history of trauma, saddle anesthesia, and lower extremity neurological deficit. The red flags not regularly documented included weight loss, recent infection, and fever/chills. Factors influencing item documentation comprehensiveness are discussed, and suggestions are provided to enhance the completeness of recording patient examination data. The study results provide a red flag documentation benchmark for clinicians working with patients with low back pain and they lay the groundwork for future research.
A discrete dynamic programming approach towards optimal outsourcing policy in supply chain management

Purpose – As global markets become more customer oriented, rapid response rates are now often among the most important metrics in business. To achieve the required agility, many companies are forced to take decisions of whether to vertically integrate a value chain or to outsource some of its operations. The purpose of this paper is to develop a sequential decision modeling process to enable determination of optimal outsourcing policy decisions with respect to the variables such as warehouse inventory, in‐house manufacturing capacity and the ordering cost to the outsource supplier.Design/methodology/approach – In this paper, a discrete dynamic programming‐based modeling framework is developed for analyzing outsourcing policies for supply chain management problems. Specifically, the assumed situation entails a dynamic decision between in‐house production vis‐a‐vis outsourcing, which is contingent upon several factors such as demand during the period under consideration, available inventory, available produ.
Nonlinear joint transceiver design for coordinated multi-cell systems with energy cooperation

This paper studies the nonlinear transceiver design in downlink coordinated multi-cell system where base stations (BSs) are powered by hybrid sources, including conventional grid and renewable energy. Renewable energy is collected by energy harvesting equipment deployed at BS. However, the harvested energy from different BSs varies in space and time, and the system gain will be limited by the least energy of the coordinated BSs. One of the methods to settle this drawback is energy cooperation among BSs. The nonlinear joint transceiver is formulated as an optimization problem to maximize the minimum signal-to-interference noise ratio of streams under the transmit power constraint. The closed-form solutions are derived by the proposed two-step algorithm. The proposed algorithm guarantees the performance balancing among all users and all streams of each user. Simulation results illustrate the performance improvement of the proposed algorithm.
Heartbeat biometrics: a sensing system perspective

This paper reviews the emerging research into exploitation of heartbeat data as a biometric for human identification. A variety of methods have been proposed for acquiring heartbeat signatures and a range of processing methods has been examined. We approach the biometric identification and verification problem by characterising the three major factors affecting performance: individual variants, environmental variants, and sensor variants. The ability to collect and process the signal, exploit the data for individual identification or verification, and disseminate the information depends on all three of these factors. Within each component, we have identified the relevant research. Where possible, we have tied these research papers to practical examples using high resolution ECG data. The research indicates that the heartbeat contains rich information about the individual, their level of anxiety, and the cardiac state.
Mechanisms underlying epileptiform burst discharge

Studies of hyperexcitable cells in alumina‐gel and penicillin epileptogenic foci suggest that epileptic neurons have intrinsic burst‐generating properties. The burst mechanism may be released or triggered by a number of extrinsic factors which disrupt the normal depolarizing‐hyperpolarizing balance. This paper presents the hypothesis that the most important influence for burst discharge is influx of calcium ions. This excitatory effect is modulated by synaptic inputs, hyperpolarazing conductances, cell morphology and membrane characteristics, and the extracellular milieu. The hypothesis incorporates findings from both penicillin and alumina models of epilepsy and provides experimentally testable concepts for further investigation.
A Hierarchical Supply Chain Planning Model for a Perishable Item with Stochastic Lifetime

Article history: Received 16 December 2012 Accepted 16 January 2013 Available online 6 February 2013 This paper focuses on distribution of a perishable product in a hierarchical supply chain. Due to changeable conditions and the perishable feature of the product, lifetime can be characterized as stochastic. A bilevel programming model is proposed to coordinate the supplier and the retailer. By replacing the second level problem with its KKT optimality conditions, an equivalent single level program of the bilevel programming problem is obtained. A small numerical example is given to illustrate our model.
Informal and Formal Sources of Knowledge as Drivers of Regional Innovation: Digging a Little Further into Complexity

We study the combined effect of formal (FSK) and informal (ISK) sources of knowledge on European regional innovation performance. Our findings show that the effect of the two sources of knowledge on innovation performance is not simple and linear. First, both sources of knowledge have an interaction effect on innovation performance (ie, the effect of FSK on regional innovation depends on the level of access to ISK in the region, and vice versa). Second, while the effect of ISK is linear (although different for each region), the effect of the FSK (which is more intensive in monetary, time, effort, and opportunity costs) has a diminishing-returns form, and achieves a saturation point at high levels of use of FSK. Our findings also show that the balanced access to both types of sources is important and that, for instance, regions with limited access to ISK should not expect miraculous effects from high levels of FSK. To the best of our knowledge, no previous research has been reported which has empirically studied the combined effect of both sources of knowledge at a European regional level.
Prioritizing and Monitoring Concurrent Project Work: Effects on Switching Behavior

Project switching occurs when a multi‐project worker shifts his/her attention from one project to another before completing the first project. In this study, we study the effects of two areas of management policy on project switching behavior, project prioritization, and work monitoring. We conduct a controlled experiment to evaluate direct and combined effects of prioritization, scheduled progress checks, and managerial progress checks on project switching behavior in a distributed, multi‐project work environment. We use computerized tasks constituting multiple projects as a means of efficiently simulating a project work setting. Working professionals served as subjects for the experiment, thereby enabling us to control for experience and other individual differences that may vary across workers in real‐world projects. We find that clarifying priorities has little overall effect on the prevalence of switching in our multi‐project setting, while the presence of managerial progress checks has significant and distinct impacts, driving up switch tendencies. Interestingly, various attributes of the timing of these monitoring events also significantly impact the likelihood that workers will switch in response to these event triggers. We discuss the implications of these findings for managerial practice and for future research.