Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
AMP-Activated Protein Kinase Mediates the Antiplatelet Effects of the Thiazolidinediones Rosiglitazone and Pioglitazone s

The thiazolidinedione antidiabetic drugs rosiglitazone and pioglitazone exert antiplatelet effects. Such effects are known to be mediated by the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor g (PPARg), an acknowledged target of the thiazolidinediones, although the molecular mechanism is elusive. Recently, AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) signaling was reported to inhibit platelet aggregation. Because AMPK is another target of the thiazolidinediones, the impact of rosiglitazone and pioglitazone on platelet AMPK and its involvement in aggregation were investigated to assess the contribution of AMPK to the antiplatelet activity of these agents. Treatment with rosiglitazone stimulated both AMPK and PPARg in isolated rat platelets. However, the concentration and the treatment time required for activation were distinct from each other. Indeed, stimulation of AMPK and PPARg were discrete events without any cross-activation in platelets. Activation of AMPK or PPARg by rosiglitazone rendered platelets less responsive to aggregatory stimuli such as collagen, ADP, and thrombin. However, the resultant efficacy caused by activating AMPK was higher than that attributable to PPARg stimulation. Similar results were obtained with pioglitazone. Taken together, rosiglitazone and pioglitazone inhibit platelet aggregation by activating AMPK. AMPK functions as a potential target of rosiglitazone and pioglitazone for their antiplatelet activity, although the in vivo or clinical relevance remains to be assessed.
Actions of Activins, Inhibins and Follistatins: Implications in Anterior Pituitary Function

1. The anterior pituitary is well documented to be under the control of central and peripheral factors that dynamically interact to affect cell‐specific modulation of pituitary functions. However, it is becoming increasingly evident that these extrinsic factors work in concert with a variety of local products that exert autocrine/paracrine control on pituitary cells.
Cloud Security Threats and Techniques to Strengthen Cloud Computing Adoption Framework

Cloud Computing allows firms to outsource their entire information technology IT process, allowing them to concentrate more on their core business to enhance their productivity and innovation in offering services to customers. It allows businesses to cut down heavy cost incurred over IT infrastructure without losing focus on customer needs. However, to a certain limit adopting Cloud computing has struggled to grow among many established and growing organizations due to several security and privacy related issues. Throughout the course of this study several interviews were conducted, with cloud developers and security experts, and the literature was reviewed. This study enabled us to understand, current and future, security and privacy challenges with cloud computing by providing suitable solutions to identified challenges. The outcome of this study led to identification of total 18, current and future, security issues affecting several attributes of cloud computing. In this process of identification, the author also found mitigation techniques to avert these security issues. A security guide is formulated which enables organizations to be aware of security challenges, vulnerabilities and techniques to evade them.
Critical Success Factors for Online-Shops of Drugstores

The digitalization of the every-day life also affects buying habits of customers. Changes that take place regarding these habits result in an increasing number of e-commerce retailers. Online-shops in the business-to-consumer field are especially successful with apparel and electronic products. But not every industry that goes online initially starts out as being appealing for customers. This article deals with an e-commerce field of still low frequency, online-shops of drugstores. Their success depends on two factors: the user-friendliness of the information system and the consistency of the marketing strategy. Regarding the first -user-friendliness- the focus is on the quality of the system, which includes a clear structure of and easy navigation through the online-shop. To further ensure the quality of information they need to be up to date, relevant and comprehensible. Last but not least the service quality of the information system needs to be considered by offering hotlines or FAQ-sections. Regarding the second part – consistency of the marketing strategy- it is important to initially understand consumers’ behaviour throughout all buying phases and integrate these insight in a multi-channel strategy. This should combine the advantages of buying in a retail store (products can be touched) and buying online (convenience). A comparing analysis of Schlecker’s and Rossmann’s online-shop including the success factors above shows why drugstores are successful with e-commerce – and why not.
Interset Association between Measures of Customer Service and Market Response

Customer service is often described as consisting of a set of measurable elements. Similarly, market response to customer service may be viewed as consisting of a set of components which are measurable. Most published empirical studies of the relationship between customer service and market response, however, have represented market response through the use of a single measure. The results of an empirical study of interset association between two sets of measures, one representing the elements of customer service (measured in service levels) and the other representing various forms of market response, are reported. Canonical correlation analysis of data collected from 91 grocery channel dyads indicated (as expected) a closer association of market response with customer perceptions of customer service than with supplier perceptions of the same. Also presented, is the contribution of individual measures to the close association between market response and customer perceptions of customer service.
Managing Tenant Mix in New Shopping Centres

The tenant mix of a shopping centre is recognized widely as a critical determinant of marketing and financial success. For new shopping centres the early development of a strong tenant line‐up is particularly crucial as these centres endeavour to establish their market position and market share. Recent environmental changes, however, are having a major impact on lettings and are presenting significant problems for the development and management of tenant mix in new in‐town centres. Highlights the importance of tenant mix, and shows how a high proportion of new in‐town centres have been struggling recently to secure the desired quantity and quality of lettings, in the face of increasing competition, reduced property demand, and in some cases scheme‐design deficiencies. A case example of tenancy development in the early stages of growth for one centre is analysed in detail to observe some of the difficulties, noting slow rates of growth, fluctuating occupancy levels, high rates of tenant failure and variati.
Sun, Sand, and Beach Fale: Benefiting from Backpackers—the Samoan Way

In Samoa, the development of large hotels and resorts has often been thwarted by landowners who refuse to let control of their communally-held resources slip out of their hands. As an alternative livelihood strategy local families have built low-cost beach fale accommodation (consisting of thatched, open-sided beach huts) in prime beach side locations. These beach fale have proven to be popular with backpackers who, contrary to dominant discourses on contemporary backpacker culture, are generally considered by their hosts to be courteous and culturally-sensitive. Although, beach fale tourism attracts backpackers and domestic tourists rather than high-spending tourists, it contributes greatly to development because most economic benefits are retained locally, it is based upon local skills and resources, it involves cultural education of guests, and it does this all in the context of high levels of local ownership and participation. An important implication of this research is that government planners should not be indifferent to the potential value of budget-style tourism, as in certain circumstances backpackers can play a significant role in supporting locally controlled forms of tourism which meet social and economic development objectives.
Minimally invasive treatment of intracerebral hemorrhage

Intracerebral hemorrhages (ICH) cause high levels of morbidity and mortality. Secondary neuronal injury from perihematomal edema is thought to contribute to poor outcomes. Surgical evacuation of ICH is a theoretically promising approach, yet clinical data on the efficacy of standard craniotomy approaches is limited. Recent exploration of minimally invasive techniques for ICH removal includes stereotactic surgery combined with intra-clot thrombolysis, as well as endoscopic hematoma evacuation. Ongoing trials have demonstrated the safety of such minimally invasive approaches, and pending efficacy data from these studies is likely to change the standard management of ICH.
Uncertainty and Information-Gathering Behavior: An Empirical Investigation.

The relationship between environmental uncertainty and the information-gathering behavior of managers in organizational boundary-spanning positions are empirically examined in this study. It tests hypotheses related to the perceived importance managers attach to external, internal, formal, and informal information sources, and the frequency with which they consult these sources. R & D expenditure per sales dollar was used as an objective surrogate measure of uncertainty in selecting the electronics (8.7%) and wood products (.4%) industries for testing these hypotheses. The findings of this study provide empirical support for a contingency view of the relationship between uncertainty and the adaptive-coping responses of managers. Significant positive correlations exist between the amount of environmental uncertainty perceived by managers in a given firm and their: (1) reliance on external information sources; (2) their frequency of use of all information sources; and (3) the amount of time they allocate to.
Information systems outsourcing: reasons, reservations and success factors

The aim of this paper is to determine the main reasons that lead to information systems outsourcing, the reservations that are initially present in front of this kind of contract and the factors considered necessary for the success of outsourcing in the case of Spanish public universities. With this aim, a survey has been made among information systems managers in those universities. The results show the possibility of establishing a typology of universities depending on the position they have adopted with respect to outsourcing.
Implementation of RFID tags in food containers in catering business

This article describes the design and manufacturing development of food containers, whose use has been enhanced through the incorporation of an UHF RFID Tag. The primary use of these containers was to store fresh products, such as sauces or fruits, in industrial kitchens at restaurants and hotels. Due to the addition of the RFID tags in these containers, more accurate and historic information about product and usage can be gathered. Hence, this new information RFID-based system helps to achieve better inventory control, improve events management such as cold-storage room replenishment, or reduce products close to expiration date. The importance of this project is in the fact that, according to a previous review, there is no an initiative similar to develop this RFID application anywhere else. The project was an initiative of the plastic in-moulding factory ARAVEN with the collaboration of LOG.ID Lab (Identification Laboratory for the supply chain) at Zaragoza Logistics Center.
Information Conversion into Information Resources

The article conducts a survey of the information resources features, describes the properties of information resources and reveals their content, defines application and types of information resources, reveals legal and regulatory support of the system of state information resources management, discloses different types of resources, shows organizational aspects of information resources management. The technology of information resources management is described.
How could rapid bacterial identification improve the management of septic patients?

Severe sepsis and septic shock have been the major motivation behind microbiologists’ attempts to identify bacteria present in the blood quickly. Rapid identification (ID) tools exist when blood culture (BC) bottles are positive (e.g., MALDI, FISH, PCR, microarrays and so on) [1–5], but it has become obvious that there is clinical need to identify bacteria in the blood far more rapidly than the time required to grow a bacterial culture! Several companies have developed multiplexed PCR assays (e.g., Septifast, Roche) [6] or more recently a PCR–electro spray ionization mass spectrometry platform (PlexID, Abbott Molecular) [7,8] to provide a very rapid ID of the pathogen(s) directly from whole blood. These attempts currently remain limited by difficulties with detecting bacterial DNA from whole blood due to the very low concentration of bacteria in the blood of adults, even during severe sepsis (1–30 CFU/ml) [9,10]. Aside from such technical limitations and despite the fact that every hour without adequate treatment in septic shock is clearly associated with a 7.6% decrease in survival [11,12], doubts remain about the real impact of a rapid ID in such situations:
Using soft systems methodology to help model beef production systems as supply chains.

INTRODUCTION The Total Genetic Resource Management system (Kinghorn, these proceedings) is a potent implementation of animal breeding technologies in a decision support tool. Extending the implementation in a similar manner from breeding to processing of cattle could yield gains in efficient use of resources leading to greater profitability for all industry members (Kinghorn, 1999). To do this the beef industry needs to be modelled as a supply chain of cattle breedingproduction-processing. There has been limited success in implementing decision support tools partly due to poor involvement of participants in the development process (Newman et al., 1999). Soft systems methodology (SSM) — an ontological tool that draws the participants into the process of constructing the system (Davies and Ledington, 1991)—could be used to describe the beef production supply chain. The objective of this investigation was to use SSM to model beef production systems in Australia in order to discover opportunities to effectively support supply chain optimisation.
Success factors in a CRM strategy: technology is not all

Abstract Organisations today need to create, maintain and reinforce relationships with customers. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) seems to have helped firms to better understand their relationships. However, past studies have looked at technology and customer orientations (COs) as key factors. This paper aims to analyse the simultaneous effect of Market Orientation (MO) (rather than CO), Knowledge Management (KM) and other organisational factors in order to explain how to implement a successful CRM. Findings suggest that MO and KM may influence CRM success. Data also suggest that particular organisational factors such as employees, leadership and specific know-how may be key factors in determining the success of CRM. For efficiency resource management, this paper recommends to focus not as much in technology, but on programmes for selection, training and motivation of employees which may enhance CRM objectives. Companies may also pursue a higher customer value by putting in place and reinforcing KM schemes in specific know-hows about CRM.
Knowledge Generation in Mid Size Entrepreneurial Firms

Literature on medium sized enterprises (MSEs) is limited both in developed markets and emerging markets. This paper addresses this gap and explores MSEs from a knowledge-based perspective. Grounded in the case based research often MSEs, the paper identifies the knowledge assets employed by highly successful firms. The paper performs a detailed case analysis of three such firms from our sample. We trace the knowledge generation process through a detailed line diagram and based on the case analysis, build a generic model for analyzing the knowledge conversion process in MSEs. The contribution of this work is articulated in the process model that integrates the various classes of knowledge assets in the context of transitional firms in India. The paper also develops a few empirically testable propositions, filling a major gap in existing literature on knowledge management.
Nasal Mucociliary Clearance and Nasal and Oral pH in Patients with Insulin-Dependent Diabetes

We studied 32 patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus to determine how their rate of mucociliary clearance and their levels of nasal and oral pH compared with those of 10 nondiabetic controls and how these rhinologic measurements varied within different subsets of diabetic patients. Although we found very few statistically significant differences in all our comparisons, we did find that nasal mucociliary clearance and oral pH levels in the diabetic patients were significantly different from those of healthy subjects.
Notable effects of angiotensin II receptor blocker, valsartan, on acute cardiotoxic changes after standard chemotherapy with cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisolone

There are three distinct types of doxorubicin‐induced cardiotoxicity (acute, chronic, and late‐onset). Although previous studies with animal models suggest that angiotensin II plays a key role in the process of the doxorubicin‐induced cardiotoxicity, there has been no such observation in humans. This randomized study investigated whether valsartan, a new class of angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB), can inhibit acute cardiotoxicity after doxorubicin‐based chemotherapy.
The Globe is All One: Wars I Have Seen as Proto-Network Narrative

“The Globe is All One: Wars I Have Seen as Proto-Network Narrative” charts Gertrude Stein's characterization of the human mind as an data-processor by tracing the conceptual correspondences between her writings and early information theory, including the work of Norbert Weiner, Claude Shannon, and Vannevar Bush. The article argues that Stein first sees language as data that human beings are compelled to parse in even the most contextless and semantically “noisy” frameworks, which shapes the purpose and form of Stein's notoriously difficult prose poem, “Tender Buttons”; the ease with which meaning can be exchanged emphasizes the importance of the ways in which a given meaning is selected from a set of possible meanings rather than interpreted or revealed. While this may simply reiterate the mode of “Tender Buttons” in different terms, the paper's crucial intervention is in its positioning of the chance selection of significance as the mode of signification that animates her wartime memoir “Wars I Have Seen”. Like words in the poem, political identity in occupied France is unstable and waits to be parsed in the act of encounters with others and with history. In her narrative's foregrounding of and experimental play with the conventions of memoir, Stein discovers the shifting nature of her main character (herself) in a series of ruminations and chance meetings; an early version of the network narrative emerges in the nodal structure of the story that undermines chronological and nationalist frames of signification.
Race/ethnicity and location of stroke mortality: implications for population-based studies.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Stroke community surveillance projects often focus on hospital data rates. We hypothesized that not including strokes which occurred in nursing homes or at home would differentially affect race/ethnic stroke rates. METHODS Texas vital statistics data were studied to compare age-specific (45 to 59, 60 to 74, and >/=75 years) location of stroke death for African Americans (AAs), Hispanic Americans (HAs), and non-Hispanic whites (NHWs). Rate ratios are reported with 95% CIs; NHW is used as the referent group. RESULTS During 1991 to 1996, there were 52 996 stroke deaths in Texas for individuals aged 45 years and older. HAs in the oldest age group (>/=75 years) were 33% more likely than NHWs to die in the hospital, and HAs aged 45 to 59 and 60 to 74 years were 4% and 10%, respectively, more likely to die in the hospital. AAs aged >/=75 years were 19% more likely to die in the hospital. HAs aged 60 to 74 years were 35% less likely to die in a nursing home, whereas HAs aged >/=75 years were 43% less likely than NHWs to die in a nursing home. AAs aged >/=75 were 33% less likely to die in a nursing home. Death at home was 19% more likely in HAs aged 60 to 74 years. Significant gender differences are also reported. CONCLUSIONS Using hospital data alone would overestimate stroke mortality in the HA and AA groups. Stroke community surveillance projects should account for ethnic and gender differences in location of death to avoid bias in race/ethnic and gender comparisons.
Amélioration de la sécurité par la conception des logiciels web. (Securing web applications by design)

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés. Amélioration de la sécurité par la conception des logiciels web Theodoor Scholte
The Need for Environmental Auditing in Tourism Industry

The World Tourism Organization defines tourism as ‘activities of persons travelling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes (Holden 2000: 3). Further, the tourism industry has experienced dramatic growth over the past 50 years and is now recognized as the world’s largest industry (Goodwin 1996; Middleton 1998). It contributes significantly to the global economy providing 11% of the gross national product and over 200 million jobs in order to accommodate the 650 million tourists that existed at the beginning of the 21st century (Holden 2000).
MULTINATIONALS' DIVERSIFICATION AND THE RISK-RETURN TRADE-OFF

This paper advances a theoretical rationale to explain Bowman's paradox (1980) that firms with high returns can have low risk. Here we draw on the rich body of international management research and argue that global market diversification, which provides firms with three distinct options and opportunities over domestic firms, can explain the high return-low risk profile. We also argue that no strong theoretical rationale exists in support of either related or unrelated product diversification generating such a favorable risk-return profile. By integrating both the product and the global market dimension of diversification into our analyses and by controlling for the industry effect, this paper sheds new light on the relationship between corporate diversification and the risk-return tradeoff. The results of this research, which are based on the diversification experiences of 125 multinationals, reveal the strikingly important, though so far overlooked, role that global market diversification plays in the joint management of corporate risk and return. Global market diversification here reflects both the multiplicity of international market areas in which a firm operates and the distribution pattern of a firm's industries across these multiple areas.