Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Strategies for university improvement: the research profile change at a South African non-research-intensive university

Universities worldwide experience continual change in order to achieve what is perceived as improvement. In these changes, there is usually an emphasis on the research function of a university, and the literature contains a number of themes in this regard. We contribute by presenting a detailed case study of a non-research-intensive university which implemented drastic change to achieve improvement, with emphasis on research, research management and interdisciplinarity. The case study provides insight into the processes, restructuring and outcomes, illustrates the selection and implementation of focus areas for research and postgraduate education, identifies supporting factors and provides an example of a university where there was radical restructuring across the full width of the institution. It sheds light on questions concerning outcomes of the use of institutional funds as 'seed money', the change in culture and climate and the operation of research units in a framework of matrix management.
Investigating factors influencing the decision making process for ERP adoption and implementation: An exploratory case study

The rapid developments in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have resulted into a borderless business environment along with an amplified market competition. Traversing through such a trend globally, organisations have significantly focused on adopting and implementing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems to automate their prime business processes, enhance organisational productivity with lower costs and prompt service delivery to fulfil consumer demands. Thus, ERP systems are considered as a principal source to provide imperative information vital for strategic decision making process. On the contrary, ERP systems adoption and implementation is also highly considered as a challenging and expensive process that not only requires rigorous efforts but also demands to have an exhaustive investigation of influential factors that are critical to the adoption and implementation of ERP systems. A plethora of research studies have been theorised exploring factors influencing the decision making process for ERP adoption and implementation; however, the authors claim that these studies are not filtered comprehensively in terms of the different perspectives. Notwithstanding, the implications of such research have yet to be assessed, leaving scope for timeliness and novel research. This paper thus focuses on the ERP critical success factors from five different perspectives such as: stakeholders; process; technology; organisation; and project based on the literature analysis. These perspectives comprise of 24 factors that are imperative for a successful ERP adoption and implementation, which are validated through a qualitative single case study based research. The empirical findings illustrate that these factor help realise significant benefits such as reducing costs and saving time or extra effort.
The Chinese Government Bond Returns

In this paper, we analyze the Chinese Government Bond (CGB) market. We find that CGB returns exhibit three common risk factors, which are well captured by three indices composed of short-, medium-, and long-term bonds. Moreover, these common risk factors exhibit strong momentum. In particular, weekly returns on medium and long maturity bond portfolios have a serial correlation of 27.73% and 31.29%, respectively. We further show that the serial correlation in bond returns allows significant profits from using simple momentum strategies. The strong momentum in bond portfolio returns indicates market inefficiencies. We further compare CGBs facing different restrictions on their trading in different markets and find that bonds with more restrictions allow more momentum profits.
Massive Pulmonary Embolism in Recovery Period of General Anesthesia: Rapid Diagnosis and Successful Rescue by the Guidance of Transthoracic Echocardiography

Massive pulmonary embolism (PE), an uncommon event in the perioperative period, is a major challenge to anesthesia management. Massive PE is often associated with an unexpected hemodynamic collapse and severe desaturation without other characteristic changes. It is difficult to make a rapid diagnosis during the perioperative period, especially under general anesthesia. We present a rare case of massive PE diagnosed with transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) in the recovery period of general anesthesia.
The Genome of the Kinetoplastid Parasite, Leishmania major

Leishmania species cause a spectrum of human diseases in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. We have sequenced the 36 chromosomes of the 32.8-megabase haploid genome of Leishmania major (Friedlin strain) and predict 911 RNA genes, 39 pseudogenes, and 8272 protein-coding genes, of which 36% can be ascribed a putative function. These include genes involved in host-pathogen interactions, such as proteolytic enzymes, and extensive machinery for synthesis of complex surface glycoconjugates. The organization of protein-coding genes into long, strand-specific, polycistronic clusters and lack of general transcription factors in the L. major, Trypanosoma brucei, and Trypanosoma cruzi (Tritryp) genomes suggest that the mechanisms regulating RNA polymerase II–directed transcription are distinct from those operating in other eukaryotes, although the trypanosomatids appear capable of chromatin remodeling. Abundant RNA-binding proteins are encoded in the Tritryp genomes, consistent with active posttranscriptional regulation of gene expression.
Inhibition of basolateral cAMP permeability in the toad urinary bladder

1 The effect of sulphonylurea drugs on hydrosmotic flow across toad urinary bladder epithelium was re‐evaluated in the present study. Glibenclamide, added to the basolateral medium, significantly enhanced the osmotic flow induced by low doses of antidiuretic hormone (ADH) or forskolin (FK), while it inhibited the effect of exogenous cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) or its non‐hydrolysable bromo derivative, 8‐Br‐cAMP, added to the basolateral medium. These opposite effects of glibenclamide on the transepithelial osmotic flow can be explained by a reduction of cAMP permeability across the basolateral membrane of the epithelium. The decrease in cAMP permeability leads, according to the direction of the cAMP gradient, to firstly an enhanced osmotic flow when cAMP is generated intracellularly by addition of ADH and FK, glibenclamide reducing cAMP exit from the cell, and secondly a decreased osmotic flow in response to cAMP (and 8‐Br‐cAMP) added to the basolateral medium, glibenclamide inhibiting, in this case, their entry into the cell 2 The demonstration that glibenclamide actually inhibits the basolateral cAMP permeability rests on the fact that firstly it decreases the release of cAMP into the basolateral medium by about 40 %, at each concentration of ADH or forskolin tested, secondly it increases the cAMP content of paired hemibladders incubated in the presence of ADH or FK, when intracellular degradation was prevented by phosphodiesterase inhibition, and thirdly it decreases also the uptake of basolateral 8‐Br‐[3H]cAMP into paired toad hemibladders. 3 Taken together, the present data demonstrate that glibenclamide inhibits the toad urinary bladder basolateral membrane permeability to cAMP, most probably by a direct interaction with a membrane protein not yet indentified but distinct from the sulphonylurea receptor.
The Gain-of-Function Arabidopsis acd6 Mutant Reveals Novel Regulation and Function of the Salicylic Acid Signaling Pathway in Controlling Cell Death, Defenses, and Cell Growth

We isolated a dominant gain-of-function Arabidopsis mutant, accelerated cell death 6 (acd6), with elevated defenses, patches of dead and enlarged cells, reduced stature, and increased resistance to Pseudomonas syringae. The acd6-conferred phenotypes are suppressed by removing a key signaling molecule, salicylic acid (SA), by using the nahG transgene, which encodes SA hydroxylase. This suppression includes phenotypes that are not induced by application of SA to wild-type plants, indicating that SA acts with a second signal to cause many acd6-conferred phenotypes. acd6–nahG plants show hyperactivation of all acd6-conferred phenotypes after treatment with a synthetic inducer of the SA pathway, benzo(1,2,3)thiadiazole-7-carbothioic acid (BTH), suggesting that SA acts with and also modulates the levels and/or activity of the second defense signal. acd6 acts partially through a NONEXPRESSOR OF PR 1 (NPR1) gene–independent pathway that activates defenses and confers resistance to P. syringae. Surprisingly, BTH-treated acd6–nahG plants develop many tumor-like abnormal growths, indicating a possible role for SA in modulating cell growth.
The Anterior and Posterior Selective Temporal Lobe Amobarbital Tests: Angiographic, Clinical, Electroencephalographic, PET, SPECT Findings, and Memory Performance

The techniques, results, and problems of three types of selective temporal lobe (TL) amobarbital procedures (balloon technique with temporary occlusion of the internal carotid artery distal to the origin of the anterior choroidal artery (acha) [n = 19]; selective anterior catheterization of the acha [n = 20]; and selective catheterization of the peduncular P2-segment of the posterior cerebral artery [n = 5]) are described in a group of 40 patients with medically refractory complex partial seizures of mesial TL origin. Selective amobarbital tests were carried out before surgery to predict the memory deficit after an intended selective amygdalohippocampectomy. The effects of selective anaesthetization of TL were correlated with clinical data, pattern and duration of amobarbital induced EEG changes, and performance on verbal and nonverbal memory tasks measured during the test. In 4 patients the effect of selective amobarbital injection on regional and global metabolism was studied with 18F-FDG-PET, with the PET tracer being injected intravenously immediately after amobarbital. More recently in 2 patients the vascular territory perfused by amobarbital in the acha test was studied with SPECT using 99m Tc ECD injected immediately prior to the amobarbital into the acha. Whereas the PET studies showed a rather widespread and bilateral amobarbital-induced decrease of metabolism, the SPECT studies confirmed the selective distribution of the tracer in the vascular territory of the acha, i.e., in amygdala and hippocampus. The comparison of selective TL amobarbital test performance with postoperative neuropsychological performance showed that the predictive value of this test is rather good for the postoperative verbal memory but underestimates postoperative nonverbal ("figural") memory performance.
Indigenous Tourism Businesses: An Exploratory Study of Business Owners' Perceptions of Drivers and Inhibitors

Abstract Indigenous tourism has become an important, albeit niche, part of Australia's tourism industry, supported by Federal, State and Territory governments seeking to leverage tourism as an economic opportunity for indigenous peoples while concomitantly providing a ‘product’ point of difference for the country. While there have been a number of demand driven studies of indigenous tourism, with few exceptions, little attention has been given to supply side capacity and in particular, the nature, scope and development of indigenous tourism businesses. Indeed, little is known about the factors that drive or inhibit the development of these businesses. Therefore in-depth interviews were undertaken with seven indigenous tourism business operators from Queensland, Australia with the goal to explore indigenous tourism operators' perceptions of what constitutes drivers and inhibitors of their business. The main drivers of indigenous tourism businesses were found to include training and knowledge, product development and funding. Identifying and understanding these factors will assist business operators to effectively prioritize them and in turn, will be better equip indigenous tourism businesses to develop and operate in an increasingly global and competitive industry.
Cortisol, ACTH, and cardiovascular response to a cognitive challenge paradigm in aging and depression.

Aging and hypercortisolism may be associated with alterations of stress-induced hormone release. We therefore studied 20 normal controls of two different age groups (< 30 and > 60 yr of age) and 20 age-matched patients with major depression; baseline ACTH and cortisol secretion (between 1400 and 1700) as well as blood pressure and heart rate and their responses to a 45-min lasting signal detection task (1705-1750) were determined. No difference in basal hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) system activity between young and older healthy controls was noted. The cognitive challenge resulted in an increase in stress-induced hormonal secretion that was greater in the older controls than in their young counterparts. Basal hypercortisolemia and, at baseline, heart rates were higher in depressed patients, regardless of age. Blood pressure was elevated in older healthy controls as well as depressed patients. With the exception of the young depressed patients, all groups responded with an increase of the cardiovascular parameters during stress.
Divergence in NK cell and cyclic AMP regulation of T cell CD40L expression in asthmatic subjects

T cells are central in the pathogenesis of asthma, and the associated ligand, CD40L, plays an important role by increasing production of immunoglobulin E and inflammatory mediators. β‐Adrenoceptor agonists are commonly used in asthma, although little is known regarding effects on CD40L expression and T cell activation. Here, we demonstrate that cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) and β‐adrenoceptor agonists differentially regulate CD40L in asthma. cAMP increased naïve T cell CD40L expression in asthmatics (9.8±8.5 increase in percent CD40L‐positive cells), and expression in control subjects was inhibited (7.1±6.0 decrease in percent CD40L‐positive cells; P< 0.05). Cell depletion and reconstitution experiments were used to determine that cAMP enhancement of CD40L required cell‐to‐cell contact with an asthma‐associated natural killer (NK) cell subset. The NK cell subset expressed elevated levels of CD95, and in vitro‐generated CD95+ NK2 cells also produced similar effects on CD40L expression. Our findings suggest that a subset of NK cells with elevated CD95 expression is associated with asthma and can reverse cAMP inhibitory effects on T cell CD40L with the potential to increase disease exacerbation.
EFFECTIVELY MINIMIZE THE OVERALL TRIP DISTANCE USING CONTINUOUS DETOUR QUERY IN SPATIAL NETWORK

The top-k shortest path discovery is a key process on graphs to determine k-shortest paths between a two nodes with the minimal length. This work precisely holds three processes for ranking the shortest path problem without loop by the way of using top-k shortest path join (TKSPJ) in spatial network. First, Construct transformed graph with side cost by using of input original graph. Second, structural encoding label is used for loop detection and third to find top k shortest path without loop. The main advantage of this work is to reduce the cost and prune the search space. The pre computed shortest paths translating the original graph based on the threshold value has also been introduced, to reduce the search space in a spatial network.
The Multinational Corporation as an Interorganizational Network

A multinational corporation consists of a group of geographically dispersed and goal-disparate organizations that include its headquarters and the different national subsidiaries. Such an entity can be conceptualized as an interorganizational network that is embedded in an external network consisting of all other organizations such as customers, suppliers, regulators, and so on, with which the different units of the multinational must interact. Based on such a conceptualization, the present authors draw on interorganization theory to develop a model of the multinational corporation as an internally differentiated interorganizational network. They propose hypotheses that relate certain attributes of the multinational, such as resource configuration and internal distribution of power, to certain structural properties of its external network.
A region-based multiple testing method for hypotheses ordered in space or time

Abstract We present a multiple testing method for hypotheses that are ordered in space or time. Given such hypotheses, the elementary hypotheses as well as regions of consecutive hypotheses are of interest. These region hypotheses not only have intrinsic meaning but testing them also has the advantage that (potentially small) signals across a region are combined in one test. Because the expected number and length of potentially interesting regions are usually not available beforehand, we propose a method that tests all possible region hypotheses as well as all individual hypotheses in a single multiple testing procedure that controls the familywise error rate. We start at testing the global null-hypothesis and when this hypothesis can be rejected we continue with further specifying the exact location/locations of the effect present. The method is implemented in the R package cherry and is illustrated on a DNA copy number data set.
Promoter-Dependent Mechanism Leading to Selective Hypomethylation within the 5′ Region of Gene MAGE-A1 in Tumor Cells

ABSTRACT Several male germ line-specific genes, including MAGE-A1, rely on DNA methylation for their repression in normal somatic tissues. These genes become activated in many types of tumors in the course of the genome-wide demethylation process which often accompanies tumorigenesis. We show that in tumor cells expressing MAGE-A1, the 5′ region is significantly less methylated than the other parts of the gene. The process leading to this site-specific hypomethylation does not appear to be permanent in these tumor cells, since in vitro-methylated MAGE-A1 sequences do not undergo demethylation after being stably transfected. However, in these cells there is a process that inhibits de novo methylation within the 5′ region of MAGE-A1, since unmethylated MAGE-A1 transgenes undergo remethylation at all CpGs except those located within the 5′ region. This local inhibition of methylation appears to depend on promoter activity. We conclude that the site-specific hypomethylation of MAGE-A1 in tumor cells relies on a transient process of demethylation followed by a persistent local inhibition of remethylation due to the presence of transcription factors.
The Effectiveness of A Brand Call-Center In Revenue Recovery

ABSTRACT As organizations gradually recognize that enhanced customer satisfaction leads to better customer retention and profitability, the economic value of customers has been increasingly studied in various industries and individual companies in the past decade (e.g., Goodman, Ward, & Yanovsky, 1998; Reinartz & Kumar, 2000; Zeithaml, 2000). There has also been a significant increase in research on service recovery (Brown, Cowles & Tuten, 1996). However, very little research has aimed at the economic value of customers retained by effective service recovery in general and none, specifically, in the hotel industry. This paper presents a methodology to measure revenue recovery and the results of a six-year study on the effectiveness of a hotel call center in recovering revenue for the hotel brand. The results show that the call center has been effective in recovering revenue in that the recovery has been significant and is greater than the administrative costs of the call center operation. The findings of this study suggest that revenue recovery could be a reliable measure for hotel brands to asses the economic value of their call centers.
trEST, trGEN and Hits: access to databases of predicted protein sequences

High throughput genome (HTG) and expressed sequence tag (EST) sequences are currently the most abundant nucleotide sequence classes in the public database. The large volume, high degree of fragmentation and lack of gene structure annotations prevent efficient and effective searches of HTG and EST data for protein sequence homologies by standard search methods. Here, we briefly describe three newly developed resources that should make discovery of interesting genes in these sequence classes easier in the future, especially to biologists not having access to a powerful local bioinformatics environment. trEST and trGEN are regularly regenerated databases of hypothetical protein sequences predicted from EST and HTG sequences, respectively. Hits is a web-based data retrieval and analysis system providing access to precomputed matches between protein sequences (including sequences from trEST and trGEN) and patterns and profiles from Prosite and Pfam. The three resources can be accessed via the Hits home page (http://hits. isb-sib.ch).
The Impact of Corporate Accountability & Transparency on the Performance of Manufacturing Firms Listed on KSE

Economic success of a country, if described in few words, is the success of big corporations of that country and vice versa. Corporate governance is thus economic governance in general. Some of the major corporate scandals that stunned global economies and businesses followed by falling down of corporate giants like Enron, BCCI, Coloroll, Polly Pech, Barings, HIH Insurance and Parmalat resulted in tight regulations, codes, and principles of corporate governance. These scandals erupted due to nonexistent of accountability and transparency principles of corporate governance within these companies as the management concealed important facts from the shareholders and that they were also not accountable for their actions.This empirical research study intends to examine different characteristics of Corporate Governance and their impact on firm performance. These characteristics include Transparency and Accountability. Analyses were based on primary data which will be collected through questionnaire from 200 respondents. Correlation and Regression analysis were used to get results of the study. Results of the study revealed positive relationship between accountability and transparency with firm performance. The results showed that accountability and transperancy has positive significant impact on the firm performance.
Programme evaluation: Maintaining quality in higher education

The evaluation of educational or social programmes is paramount for establishing success or impact in higher education. Evaluation questions about programme goals (e.g. better performance of first-year students) or about the quality of programme strategies (design and implementation) and effectiveness of delivery (coordinator inputs and management) reflect not only sound research methodology, but also the desire for real knowledge claims regarding programme effect. The model for programme evaluation presented in this article is generic and could be applied to any academic or support programme. The research is presented here as it pertains to a structured mentoring programme for undergraduate students and focuses on programme implementation and programme monitoring. While programme monitoring focuses more on programme delivery, outcome evaluation or impact assessment looks at the actual benefits experienced by the clientele or beneficiaries (Babbie and Mouton 2003), in this case students in higher education. The evaluation of programmes is important to establish success or impact of interventions. Therefore, a logic model to enable programme coordinators to evaluate their work is presented and discussed.