Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Liquidity Impact of the Credit Default Swap Index Market on Large Complex Financial Institutions

In this paper, we conduct the first empirical investigation into the impact of liquidity in the credit default swap index market on large complex financial institutions (LCFIs). We estimate this liquidity effect for the investment grade 5-year CDX North America and the investment grade 5-year iTraxx Europe. Using CDS data spanning three years, we document a strong positive link between changes in liquidity in the CDX and iTraxx index market and LCFIs equity returns and bid-ask spreads and find that that adjustments take place simultaneously. In addition, we show that CDX index liquidity shocks have even stronger effects to the European based-LCFIs. The US LCFIs are more prone to liquidity shocks in the iTraxx index market. Overall, the results support the hypothesis that contagion during the financial crisis was spread through a liquidity channel which, in turn, was associated with major portfolio rebalancing by LCFIs.
Effects of dietary fat on long-term growth and mammary tumorigenesis in female Sprague-Dawley rats given a low dose of DMBA.

The effects of dietary fat on experimental mammary cancer have typically been observed in relatively young animals. However, in human populations, breast cancer incidence and mortality are highest in postmenopausal women. To develop an animal model that stimulates the human situation more closely, female Sprague-Dawley rats were given a relatively small dose (1.5 mg) of 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (DMBA) at 50 days of age while on a semipurified diet containing 3% sunflower-seed oil. One week later, half of the 70 rats were transferred to a diet containing 20% sunflower-seed oil. Very few mammary lesions appeared until about 35 weeks after administration of DMBA, at which time palpable mammary nodules began to appear in many of the animals on the high-fat diet. More than half of the animals in this group had developed nodules by Week 41, whereas the other half of the animals on the low-fat diet developed nodules by Week 46. Rats on the high-fat diet gradually became much more obese than those on the low-fat diet and were significantly heavier at the time they developed lesions. The incidence of nodules continued to increase in both groups and reached 100% in the group fed the high-fat diet by Week 55, with a 70% incidence of adenocarcinomas. At this time, 79% of the animals on the low-fat diet had palpable nodules without a plateau in incidence being reached. On autopsy, adenocarcinomas were found in 57% of animals on the low-fat diet. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Novel Nutrition for Dairy Replacement Heifers

The goals of a dairy replacement management program are to rear heifers at a low economic and environmental cost without compromising future lactation performance. To meet these objectives, increased sophistication dairy heifer nutrition programs may be required. Research evaluating more sophisticated dairy heifer nutrition programs however does not always result in a relevant field application. For example, numerous research trials have evaluated protein degradability in dairy heifer diets. Neither negative nor positive effects on improving milk yield, growth or decreasing feed cost have been observed. In contrast, dairy heifers have commonly been fed diets containing low cost, high fiber forages (MPS, 2003), which meet the low energy requirement (NRC, 2001) of replacement heifers. Feeding bred heifers low energy, high fiber forages minimizes over-conditioning at calving which can be detrimental to lactation performance (Hoffman et al., 1996) but feed efficiency and feed cost of this feeding practice is seldom considered. Recent research, while limited has demonstrated that heifers can be limit-fed to control over-conditioning resulting in reduced feed cost without effect on lactation performance. Thus, limit feeding is potential management practice that meets the goals for field application as defined above. This paper will review limit feeding and other new and potential innovations in dairy heifer nutrition.
Nrf2 Transcription Factor, a Novel Target of Keratinocyte Growth Factor Action Which Regulates Gene Expression and Inflammation in the Healing Skin Wound

ABSTRACT Keratinocyte growth factor (KGF) is a potent mitogen for epithelial cells, and it promotes survival of these cells under stress conditions. In a search for KGF-regulated genes in keratinocytes, we identified the gene encoding the transcription factor NF-E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2). Nrf2 is a key player in the cellular stress response. This might be of particular importance during wound healing, where large amounts of reactive oxygen species are produced as a defense against invading bacteria. Therefore, we studied the wound repair process in Nrf2 knockout mice. Interestingly, the expression of various key players involved in wound healing was significantly reduced in early wounds of the Nrf2 knockout animals, and the late phase of repair was characterized by prolonged inflammation. However, these differences in gene expression were not reflected by obvious histological abnormalities. The normal healing rate appears to be at least partially due to an up-regulation of the related transcription factor Nrf3, which was also identified as a target of KGF and which was coexpressed with Nrf2 in the healing skin wound. Taken together, our results reveal novel roles of the KGF-regulated transcription factors Nrf2 and possibly Nrf3 in the control of gene expression and inflammation during cutaneous wound repair.
Ultrabithorax is essential for bacteriocyte development

Significance Among the most fundamental questions in developmental biology is how novel cell types have emerged in the metazoan evolution. Among the most challenging questions in evolutionary biology is how sophisticated symbiotic associations have evolved through less intimate interorganismal interactions. These fundamental biological issues are crystalized in the evolution and development of insect’s bacteriocytes specialized for harboring symbiotic bacteria. Here, we report that a conserved transcription factor Ultrabithorax is essential for bacteriocyte development in an insect, thereby uncovering a molecular mechanism underlying the emergence of the novel host cells for symbiosis. Our finding highlights the importance of developmental cooption of preexisting transcription factors and sheds new light on a long-lasting enigma in evolutionary developmental biology. Symbiosis often entails the emergence of novel adaptive traits in organisms. Microbial symbionts are indispensable for diverse insects via provisioning of essential nutrients, wherein novel host cells and organs for harboring the microbes, called bacteriocytes and bacteriomes, have evolved repeatedly. Molecular and developmental mechanisms underpinning the emergence of novel symbiotic cells and organs comprise an unsolved question in evolutionary developmental biology. Here, we report that a conserved homeotic gene, Ultrabithorax, plays a pivotal role in the bacteriocyte differentiation in a hemipteran insect Nysius plebeius. During embryonic development, six pairs of aggregated presumptive bacteriocytes appear on both sides of six abdominal segments, incorporate the symbiotic bacteria at the stage of germband retraction, and fuse into a pair of lateral bacteriomes at the stage of germband flip, where bacteriocyte-associated Ultrabithorax expression coincides with the symbiont infection process. Suppression of Ultrabithorax expression by maternal RNA interference results in disappearance of the bacteriocytes and the symbiont localization therein, suggesting that Ultrabithorax is involved in differentiation of the host cells for symbiosis. Suppression of other homeotic genes abdominal-A and Antennapedia disturbs integrity and positioning of the bacteriomes, affecting the configuration of the host organs for symbiosis. Our findings unveil the molecular and developmental mechanisms underlying the bacteriocyte differentiation, which may have evolved either via cooption of the transcription factors for inducing the novel symbiotic cells, or via revival of the developmental pathway for the bacteriocytes that had existed in the ancestral hemipterans.
Financial Structure, Bank Lending Rates, and the Transmission Mechanism of Monetary Policy

The stickiness of bank lending rates with respect to money market rates is often regarded as an obstacle to the smooth transmission of monetary policy impulses. Yet, no systematic measure of the different degree of lending rate stickiness across countries has been attempted. This paper provides such a measure. It also relates the different degree of lending rate stickiness to structural features of the financial system, such as the existence of barriers to competition, the degree of development of financial markets, and the ownership structure of the banking system. Thus, the paper provides further evidence on the relationship between structural financial policies and monetary policy, as well as on the relevance of credit markets for the monetary policy transmission mechanism. The role of administered discount rates in speeding up the adjustment of lending rates is also discussed.
Effect of Instructional Conditions on Rate of Binocular Rivalry

When conflicting contours are projected to corresponding areas of the retinae through a stereoscopic device, S reports viewing not a stable figure but an irregular alternation that cannot be given a unitary interpretation. For example, if the conflicting contours are a vertical bar projected to the left eye and a horizontal bar projected to the right, rhen the phenomenal outcome is the periodic establishment of one bar as dominant and the total or partial suppression of the other. The experienced alternation in contour domrnance defines the phenomenon of bitaoczdm ("retinal") rivaky, and the total number of reversals or alternations per unit of time has been taken as an operational measure of the rate of binocz~lar rivahy. Historically, the phenomenon of binocular rivalry was linked with sensory threshold fluctuations and figure reversal and was accounted for merely as "fluctuations in the attention" (Helmholtz, 1925). However, Guilford ( 1927) demonstrated thac these three phenomena had nothing to do with attention but were a physiological function occurring only with liminal stimuli; a number of physiological conditions, both peripheral and central, were involved, among which were local retinal adaptation, eye movements, and local-central fatigue and inhibition. McDougall ( 1903) held thac the latter, local-central fatigue and inhibition, accounted for the phenomenon of "retinal" rivalry; but that the phenomenon is affected by so many other than physiological factors that no purely physiological explanation could be satisfactory. Recently, Linksz ( 1952, p. 549) has deplored the usage of the term "retinal rivalry" for the phenomenon and instead employs the term "cortical rivalry of retinal processes. " The rivalry of the contours, he argues, is the phenomenal counterpart of opposing neurological gradients which cannot occupy the same cortical (or retinal) locus. Because of the limited neurological and physiological data in this area, the present writers have employed the more neutral and less objectional term, binocular rivalry, to describe the phenomenon. Although a number of studies have been conducted to determine rhe effects of rnv~ronmental variables, such as illumination level, figure-ground relationships, sc~mulus content, etc., on the rate of binocular rivalry, relatively few have been concerned with the inscri~ctions. Specifically, what is the effect of insuucrions on the reversal process? In his early work, Helmholtz (1925, p. 541) observed that he could voluntarily control the persistence of one visual field over the other, but he dismissed this ubiquitous finding as "simply a phenomenon of
Methotrexate and cyclooxygenase metabolism in cultured human rheumatoid synoviocytes.

OBJECTIVE Our objective was to characterize the effect of methotrexate (MTX) on prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) synthesis in cultured human rheumatoid synovial cells. Prostaglandins (PG) are important mediators of inflammation and joint destruction in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Two isoforms of cyclooxygenase (COX), the key enzyme in PG synthesis, have been characterized: a constitutively expressed form, COX-1, and an inducible form, COX-2. The mechanisms of action of low dose MTX in RA treatment are still poorly understood. As the clinical effects are often first noticed within a month of starting MTX therapy, an antiinflammatory action has been proposed. METHODS Adherent synovial cells were obtained by collagenase digestion of rheumatoid synovium, isolated from patients with RA undergoing synovectomy. Between passages 3 and 6, cultured synovial cells were incubated with or without MTX for 54 h, at various concentrations. Interleukin (IL)-1beta (1 ng/ml) was added or not for the last 6 h of incubation. Supernatants were harvested and assayed for PGE2 by enzyme immunoassay (EIA). Exogenous [1-14C]arachidonic acid metabolism of synoviocytes was analyzed by reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC). COX-1 and COX-2 mRNA expression was determined by total RNA extraction and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS Cellular viability was not affected by MTX. EIA showed that MTX decreased IL-1beta induced PGE2 production by synoviocytes in a dose dependent manner. RP-HPLC analysis confirmed the inhibition of PGE2 and (12S)-12-hydroxy-5,8,10-heptadecatrienoic acid production. COX-1 and IL-1beta induced COX-2 mRNA expression were not inhibited by MTX. CONCLUSION MTX has an inhibitory effect on IL-1beta stimulated production of PGE2 by cultured human rheumatoid synoviocytes, without affecting either COX mRNA expression. Among various biochemical and immunologic events, MTX could have an antiinflammatory action by decreasing PGE2 release.
Critical factors for effective implementation of ISO 9001 in SME service companies

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to investigate the critical factors for the effective implementation of the ISO 9001 standard in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) operating in the services sector.Design/methodology/approach – An empirical study is conducted with a sample of 93 ISO 9001:2000‐certified Greek service companies. Data are obtained by a questionnaire survey of the managers responsible for quality in each of the sample firms. Individual critical factors for ISO 9001:2000 implementation are assessed for importance by simple descriptive statistics. Exploratory factor analysis is then applied to refine these individual critical factors into five latent constructs.Findings – All of the individual critical factors examined in the study are assessed as being of some importance with regard to their contribution to ISO 9001 effectiveness. The five latent constructs of the underlying structure of these critical factors are (in descending order of importance): “internal motivation of company”; “a.
Chronic daily ethanol and withdrawal: 3. Forebrain pro-opiomelanocortin gene expression and implications for dependence, relapse, and deprivation effect.

BACKGROUND Although forebrain pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC)-producing neurons seem to mediate or modulate many responses to ethanol consumption, changes in activity of this opiomelanocortinergic system in response to chronic ethanol consumption, withdrawal, and subsequent abstinence remain unresolved. METHODS We investigated the effects of chronic daily ethanol consumption, withdrawal, and subsequent abstinence on adult male Sprague-Dawley rat forebrain opiomelanocortinergic activity as reflected by changes in hypothalamic POMC messenger RNA (mRNA) content by using a well characterized liquid diet model that we have previously demonstrated to accurately simulate not only daily oral ethanol consumption quantity and pattern, but also both neuroendocrine and behavioral changes characteristic of actively drinking and subsequently abstinent alcoholics. RESULTS After 7 weeks of daily ethanol consumption at night and withdrawal during the day, evening mediobasal hypothalamus POMC mRNA concentrations were suppressed versus both ad libitum-fed and pair-fed controls. Morning POMC mRNA concentrations were also suppressed versus ad libitum-fed controls and tended to be decreased versus pair-fed controls. Three weeks after gradual removal of ethanol from the diet, mediobasal hypothalamus POMC mRNA concentrations were increased relative to ad libitum-fed and pair-fed controls. Plasma concentrations of corticosterone, testosterone, and leptin were also altered by the daily ethanol/withdrawal treatment and by subsequent abstinence. CONCLUSIONS Because each of these hormones has been demonstrated to modify forebrain POMC gene expression under some conditions, the overall changes in forebrain opiomelanocortinergic regulation in response to chronic daily ethanol/withdrawal and subsequent abstinence probably reflect, at least in part, regulation by multiple endocrine mechanisms, together with responses to stress, development of tolerance during chronic daily ethanol consumption, and rebound of function after termination of this consumption. Overall, the demonstrated changes in forebrain POMC gene expression are consistent with significant roles for forebrain opiomelanocortinergic regulation in mediating alcohol dependence, propensity to relapse, and the alcohol deprivation effect.
Colored Petri net methods for performance analysis of scalable high-speed interconnects

Large concurrent or distributed systems have proven notoriously difficult to comprehend due to their combinatoric complexity. There is a clear need for thorough formal system modeling at all design stages. Ease of use and validation capability are important criteria in method selection. It is important that the selection permit evaluation of design details with respect to performance and behavioral goals. Net models are a likely candidate to achieve the requisite needs of such a modeling environment. They provide both graphical and mathematical system modeling views which inherently enable both quantitative and qualitative analysis of the design. To demonstrate this claim, a colored Petri Net model and performance analysis of a particular scalable multiprocessor interconnect fabric is presented. The fundamental component of this fabric is an adaptive routing device, R2. The R2 fabric is based on the interconnection scheme used in the Mayfly parallel processing system. <<ETX>>
Underpinning Business Competitive Indicators to Fulfill Organizational Excellence for International Tourism Hotel in Taiwan

The study is also in the case of top profit-making international tourist hotels in Taiwan, and would o ffer a set of criteria to underpin the unique competitive indicat or and focus on the international tourist hotels to examine the truly facts associated with organizational conditions. An d also would indicate the specific diagnosis skelet on to know how to fit with those requirements that critical to organi zational performance for international tourist hote ls. Hope the findings of the research would contribute some inspirations for the best practice as well as the solution for fmanagement of hospitality industry.
th Global Conference of Actuaries Option Pricing with Actuarial Techniques

1.1 Developments in financial economics have recently evoked a great deal of interest among the actuarial community, especially in the wake of recent developments in the life insurance industry. For many years, actuarial science and financial economics have been going their separate ways, despite the similarities in the nature of problems addressed. 1.2 The press release announcing that Merton and Scholes were awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1997 stated:
Hypoxic right ventricular cardiomyopathy. A morphological and pathogenetic study on the myocardial atrophy and fatty infiltration.

The autopsy report of an asymptomatic, non familial cardiomyopathy with widespread fatty infiltration of the right ventricular wall in two alcoholic subjects, who were also heavy smokers and suffering from a serious laryngeal obstruction, led the Authors to investigate, on the basis of a thorough review of the literature, the possibility that hypoxia, alcoholism and smoke could have caused the development of the cardiac lesion. The presence of myocardial fatty infiltration is explained, under conditions of high-flow hypoxia, by the reduced fatty acid oxidation. The higher tissue levels of fatty acyl-CoA, fatty acyl-carnitine and alpha-glycerophosphate thereby lead to the increased conversion of the FFA into tissue lipids. Under hypoxic conditions there is also an increased polyols synthesis. The reduced conversion of dyacylglycerol into phosphatidic acid causes its tissutal increase and the interaction with fatty acyl-CoA to produce triacylglycerol and CoASH. In alcoholic patients reduced oxidation and increased FFA synthesis is sustained by the altered mitochondrial respiratory control and excess of acetate, with the consequent increase in acetyl-CoA, fatty acyl-CoA and alpha-glycerophosphate concentration. In addition, fatty acid ethyl esters normally absent in the myocardium are formed. The fact that, in hypoxic or alcoholic subjects with cardiomyopathy, an impaired myocardial contractility has been noted as the most relevant haemodynamic factor may be explained by both the reduced energy production following the decrease in aerobic glycolysis and FFA oxidation, and specific genetic changes that lead to both the production of a myosin with lower Ca2 + ATPase activity and a reduced protein (and therefore myofibrillar) synthesis. This fact can result in a severe atrophy of the cardiac myocytes. The lower their contractile activity, the more evident the process of atrophy. The lesion principally affects the right ventricle for both metabolic and anatomical reasons. It has been shown how, under normal conditions, the RV metabolism is suited to a relatively reduced O2 supply situation, with a high lactate dehydrogenase and alpha-hydroxybutiratedehydrogenase activity. It is more likely to be affected therefore whenever there is a chronic state of high-flow hypoxia. While alpha-HBDH allows the RV extensive utilization of ketone bodies as an energy source, its notable increase under hypoxic conditions further increases the synthesis of fatty acids and therefore fatty infiltration of the myocardium. The relatively lower capacity for oxygen extraction and lower tissue perfusion of the RV compared with the left ventricle make an adequate oxygen supply in the case of increased O2 demand even more difficult. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Barriers to HACCP amongst UK farmers and growers: an in‐depth qualitative study

Purpose – Changes to legislation in England during 2006 introduced the requirement for a “farm to fork” approach to food safety. The new regulations require primary producers such as arable farmers, fruit growers and vegetable growers to follow good hygiene practice and manage their operations in such a way as to control food safety hazards. Various food safety incidents in recent years have increased the public's concern with food safety and contributed to the establishment of various farm assurance schemes in order to reassure the public, often via labelling displaying high profile symbols such as the Red Tractor logo, that the food they eat is safe and has been produced in accordance with strict guidelines and standards. The requirement for documented HACCP plans is central to the majority of farm assurance schemes in the UK. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent and nature of barriers to HACCP implementation amongst a group of arable farmers and fresh produce growers. The research for.