Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
UHRF2, a Ubiquitin E3 Ligase, Acts as a Small Ubiquitin-like Modifier E3 Ligase for Zinc Finger Protein 131*

Background: The nuclear protein UHRF2 is a member of the RING-type ubiquitin E3 ligase family. Results: UHRF2 promotes covalent SUMOylation of ZNF131 regardless of its ubiquitin E3 ligase activity. Conclusion: UHRF2 acts as a novel SUMO E3 ligase for ZNF131. Significance: UHRF2 is a dual-functional E3 ligase for covalent ubiquitin and SUMO conjugation. Small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO), a member of the ubiquitin-related protein family, is covalently conjugated to lysine residues of its substrates in a process referred to as SUMOylation. SUMOylation occurs through a series of enzymatic reactions analogous to that of the ubiquitination pathway, resulting in modification of the biochemical and functional properties of substrates. To date, four mammalian SUMO isoforms, a single heterodimeric SUMO-activating E1 enzyme SAE1/SAE2, a single SUMO-conjugating E2 enzyme ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme E2I (UBC9), and a few subgroups of SUMO E3 ligases have been identified. Several SUMO E3 ligases such as topoisomerase I binding, arginine/serine-rich (TOPORS), TNF receptor-associated factor 7 (TRAF7), and tripartite motif containing 27 (TRIM27) have dual functions as ubiquitin E3 ligases. Here, we demonstrate that the ubiquitin E3 ligase UHRF2 also acts as a SUMO E3 ligase. UHRF2 effectively enhances zinc finger protein 131 (ZNF131) SUMOylation but does not enhance ZNF131 ubiquitination. In addition, the SUMO E3 activity of UHRF2 on ZNF131 depends on the presence of SET and RING finger-associated and nuclear localization signal-containing region domains, whereas the critical ubiquitin E3 activity RING domain is dispensable. Our findings suggest that UHRF2 has independent functional domains and regulatory mechanisms for these two distinct enzymatic activities.
The Influence of Technology Readiness on Information Technology Competencies and Civil Conflict Environment

Nowadays, the employment of information technology (IT) in accounting is vastly exercised and has turned into an everyday routine, in which the accounting and financial operations can no longer be conducted efficiently without the use of IT. Therefore, accountants are increasingly utilising IT in a workplace to provide information to users efficiently. This study confirms prior findings that the Technology Readiness scale can capture the association among technology readiness and technology usage behaviours. This study also expands earlier research by investigating the impact of technology readiness on individual competency among accountants to using IT in a workplace under the intensity of civil conflict in Iraqi environment. The result showed that there is a positive significant relationship between technology readiness and the IT competencies of Iraqi accountants. It implies that the technology readiness regarding willingness, enthusiasm, and motivation of accountants using IT has an impact on their IT competencies. In other words, the higher the readiness of the accountants in making use of technology, the higher their competence in the use of IT. This study contributes to the body of knowledge in terms of theory, method and practice in Iraq especially and developing countries in general.
DEVELOPMENT OF COMPETITIVENESS INDICES FOR INDIGENOUS CONSTRUCTION FIRMS IN NIGERIA

Competitiveness of indigenous construction firms plays a vital role in the economic development of any nation. The significance of competitiveness to economic development lies in the fact that it increases the level of profits earned by indigenous construction firms, thereby contributing to a nation‟s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). However, foreign construction firms dominate the Nigerian construction market on account of managerial and technological capabilities in which foreign construction firms have a significant comparative advantage. This research, therefore, aimed at developing a set of indices which can be used as a benchmark for evaluating the competitiveness of indigenous construction firms in Nigeria. The study adopted a quantitative research design. Questionnaire was used to elicit information from indigenous construction firms registered with the Nigerian Institute of Building (NIOB). Data obtained from the survey were analyzed using bar charts, tables, ranking analysis and correlation. Competitiveness indices were developed by means of the „weighted summation‟ a statistical tool for evaluating multi-criteria concepts. Forty significant competitiveness indices were developed in this research. The five most significant competitiveness indices for indigenous construction firms in Nigeria were: effectiveness of cost controlling methods, effectiveness of site management, method of procurement, effectiveness of time controlling methods and client relationship. Finally, this study recommended that indigenous construction firms should allocate sufficient resources to the competitiveness indices developed in this study in order to increase their chances of winning more jobs and ultimately significantly bridge the gap between them and their foreign counterparts.
Baby in a world without pity Do you think what I ’ m askin ’ s too much ? I just want to feel you in my arms And share a little of that human touch

Thernström Blomqvist, Y. 2012. Kangaroo Mother Care: Parents’ experiences and patterns of application in two Swedish neonatal intensive care units. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Medicine 804. 73 pp. Uppsala. ISBN 978-91-554-8452-1. Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) is an alternative model of care that prevents parent-infant separation when preterm infants need neonatal intensive care by skin-to-skin contact between infants and their parents. KMC is also a strategy that involves parents in their infants’ care and enables them to assume the responsibility for the care. Furthermore, KMC promotes parentinfant bonding and attachment. The overall aim of this thesis was to gain a deeper understanding and knowledge about parents’ capacity, willingness, and experiences of KMC and to which extent parents choose to use KMC throughout their infants' hospital stay. These studies were conducted in the NICUs at two Swedish university hospitals (NICU A and NICU B). Mothers of infants cared for at NICU A (n=17) answered a questionnaire about their experiences of KMC (Paper I). Twenty parents of infants cared for at NICU A recorded the duration of each KMC session during a period of 24 hours and the identity the KMC provider (Paper II). Seven fathers were interviewed about their experiences of KMC (Paper III) and 76 mothers and 74 fathers completed a questionnaire about what facilitated or rendered it difficult to perform KMC (Paper IV). The time of initiation of KMC and duration in minutes, and the identity of the KMC providers was recorded continuously during the infants’ (n=104) hospital stay: 83 mothers and 80 fathers also completed a questionnaire during their infants’ hospital stay (Paper V). This thesis provides new knowledge about parents’ practice of KMC, also continuously day and night, in a high tech NICU in an affluent society, with good resources for infant care in an incubator by trained staff. The accuracy of parents’ records of KMC were comparable to nurses’ records. The results indicate that parents want to be together with their infant in the NICU and be actively involved in the infants’ care. Although parents may experience KMC as exhausting and uncomfortable, they still prefer KMC to conventional neonatal intensive care as it supports their parental role. Early initiation of KMC after birth appears to result in a longer total duration of KMC during the infants’ hospital stay.
Possibility of chemoprevention by the eradication of Helicobacter pylori: oxidative DNA damage and apoptosis in H. pylori infection.

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to study the changes of 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OH-dG) contents of DNA from human gastric mucosa with or without Helicobacter pylori and the changes of two biomarkers, iNOS and apoptosis, in gastric biopsies obtained before and after the eradication of H. pylori. METHODS DNA isolated from the biopsied human gastric mucosa was digested to deoxynucleotides by nuclease P1, then with Escherichia coli alkaline phosphatase, and analyzed by HPLC-ECD system. 8-OH-dG content was expressed as the number of residues per 10(5) deoxyguanosine. iNOS immunohistochemical staining was performed with antihuman iNOS antiserum generated in mice at a dilution of 1:500, and in situ apoptosis was detected by in situ terminal deoxyribonucleotide transferase (TdT)-mediated dUTP nick end labeling. Both the density of H. pylori and the degree of inflammation were scored. RESULTS The 8-OH-dG contents of healthy normal controls with negative H. pylori were 4.31 +/- 2.33 (8-OH-dG/10(5) dG), whereas those of patients with positive H. pylori were 10.40 +/- 7.25. The difference between these two values was statistically significant (p < 0.01). The 8-OH-dG contents were significantly decreased after the eradication of H. pylori (12.22 +/- 2.09 vs. 2.42 +/- 1.22, p < 0.001). After the eradication of H. pylori, both the apoptotic index and the iNOS scores were significantly decreased, compared with those before eradication (3.72 +/- 1.74 vs. 1.17 +/- 1.06 for apoptosis and 10.34 +/- 6.79 vs. 1.43 +/- 1.14 for iNOS, p < 0.001). Statistically significant correlations were observed among apoptotic index, iNOS score, degree of inflammation, and density of H. pylori (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS The increased levels of oxidative DNA damage, increased occurrences of apoptosis, and increased expressions of iNOS suggest mechanistic links between H. pylori infection and gastric carcinogenesis.
Gender and Advertisements: A Content Analysis of Pakistani Prime Time Advertisements

Abstract—Advertisements carry a great potential to influence our lives because they are crafted to meet particular ends. Stereotypical representation in advertisements is capable of forming unconscious attitudes among people towards any gender and their abilities. This study focuses on gender representation in Pakistani prime time advertisements. For this purpose, 13 advertisements were selected from three different categories of foods and beverages, cosmetics, cell phones and cellular networks from the prime time slots of one of the leading Pakistani entertainment channel, ‘Urdu 1’. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses are carried out for range of variables like gender, age, roles, activities, setting, appearance and voice overs. The results revealed that gender representation in advertisements is stereotypical. Moreover, in few instances, the portrayal of women is not only culturally inappropriate but is demeaning to the image of women as well. Their bodily charm is used to promote products. Comparing different entertainment channels for their prime time advertisements and broadening the scope of this research will yield greater implications for the researchers who want to carry out the similar research. It is hoped that the current study would help in the promotion of media literacy among the viewers and media authorities in Pakistan.
Decide for the future by looking back: The perceived impact of predictive analytics to support decision making in the construction industry

Based on data from the past, predictive analytics can give a competitive advantage for companies when it is used to forecast the future. Specifically, predictive analytics can be used to aid decision makers in strategic planning. As the construction industry faces challenges with both more costly and complicated projects, predictive analytics can support decision makers in the industry in the most critical parts of a construction project. The purpose of our study was to identify the perceived impact of predictive analytics to support decision making in the construction industry. The research was conducted by using a qualitative research strategy interviewing managers from six midsize and large Swedish construction companies. We used concepts on how IT may impact decision making and sorted these into the decision-making process, containing the phases of intelligence, design and choice. Our findings show that construction companies perceived extensive impact of predictive analytics to support decision making in the intelligence, and reasonably impact the choice phase. However, our findings reveal that the construction companies perceive that predictive analytics barely impact the design phase. Our findings contribute to IS research since the impact of predictive analytics on decision making for a specific industry has been identified. (Less)
Combination of tumour markers CEA and CA19-9 improves the prognostic prediction in patients with pancreatic cancer

Aims Tumour markers including carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) or carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9) are frequently determined at the time of diagnosis in patients with pancreatic cancer. Several studies indicate a prognostic relevance of these markers in pancreatic cancer, but space for improvement with regard to the predictive accuracy and ability is given. In this work, the main focus is on mathematical combinations of these two tumour markers in order to validate an improvement of prognostic test results in terms of sensitivity and specificity. Methods This retrospective study includes 393 patients with pancreatic cancer, who were treated between the years 2005 and 2012 at the Division of Oncology, Medical University of Graz, Austria. The goal of this study was to explore whether an appropriate combination of two tumour markers leads to a statistically significant improvement of the prognostic prediction. Results Receiver operating characteristic curves comparison analyses with the classification variable cancer-specific survival showed that the mathematical product of two tumour markers (TMproduct= (CEA×CA19-9); area under the curve (AUC)=0.727; 95% CI 0.680 to 0.770) is significantly better than CEA alone (AUC=0.644; 95% CI 0.594 to 0.691; p=0.003) but not significant compared with CA19-9 (AUC=0.710; 95% CI 0.662 to 0.754; p=0.1215). A linear combination of CEA and CA19-9 (TMlinear=(85×CEA+CA19-9); AUC=0.748; 95% CI 0.702 to 0.790) is significantly better than CEA (p<0.0001) as well as CA19-9 alone (p=0.0304). Conclusions Mathematical combinations of pretherapeutic tumour markers CEA and CA19-9 are feasible and can significantly improve the prognostic prediction in patients with pancreatic cancer.
Causalité et probabilités : réseaux bayésiens, propensionnisme

Les theories probabilistes de la causalite apparaissent dans les annees 1960 correlativement de la critique de l'idee selon laquelle la causalite serait une relation de necessitation. Le present travail traite de questions soulevees par l'etat actuel du developpement de ces theories. En ce qui concerne la causalite generique, on peut considerer que l'analyse conceptuelle de ses rapports avec les probabilites est achevee. Les questions qui se posent aujourd'hui sont donc epistemologiques. Plus exactement, les questions traitees dans ce travail portent sur l'inference aux causes generiques en tant qu'elle est fondee sur les reseaux bayesiens causaux. De facon sensiblement differente, la question du rapport entre la causalite singuliere et les probabilites n'est pas completement reglee du point de vue conceptuel. Nous abordons cette question a partir d'une analyse de la relation entre la causalite et la theorie propensionniste des probabilites.
The Movement Advantage in Famous and Unfamiliar Faces: A Comparison of Point-Light Displays and Shape-Normalised Avatar Stimuli

Facial movement may provide cues to identity, by supporting the extraction of face shape information via structure-from-motion, or via characteristic patterns of movement. Currently, it is unclear whether familiar and unfamiliar faces derive the same benefit from these mechanisms. This study examined the movement advantage by asking participants to match moving and static images of famous and unfamiliar faces to facial point-light displays (PLDs) or shape-normalised avatars in a same/different task (experiment 1). In experiment 2 we also used a same/different task, but participants matched from PLD to PLD or from avatar to avatar. In both experiments, unfamiliar face matching was more accurate for PLDs than for avatars, but there was no effect of stimulus type on famous faces. In experiment 1, there was no movement advantage, but in experiment 2, there was a significant movement advantage for famous and unfamiliar faces. There was no evidence that familiarity increased the movement advantage. For unfamiliar faces, results suggest that participants were relying on characteristic movement patterns to match the faces, and did not derive any extra benefit from the structure-from-motion cues in the PLDs. The results indicate that participants may use static and movement-based cues in a flexible manner when matching famous and unfamiliar faces.
Psychological Criteria for Treating Children with Idiopathic Short Stature

The role of psychological criteria in guiding treatment decisions about growth hormone (GH) replacement in idiopathic short stature (ISS) is a current topic of debate. This summary discusses findings about the impact of short stature in terms of observer-rated and patient-reported psychological outcomes. Although a literature review did not provide conclusive evidence for differences in psychological status between short children and children of normal height in the general population, patients and parents, when probed, reported issues, especially in the social domain. Studies do not clearly suggest that the diagnosis of ISS or GH deficiency is related to impaired psychological functioning; they also do not imply that height is the only determinant of psychological status. Similarly, results on treatment-related changes in psychological status are equivocal. Assessment of psychological status should be included in future research and in the current clinical care of patients with ISS. Accumulating evidence suggests that assessment of psychological criteria may become a factor in guiding treatment decisions in patients with ISS.
EpIC: a rational pipeline for epitope immunogenicity characterization

UNLABELLED Efforts to develop peptide-based vaccines, in particular those requiring site-specific targeting of self-proteins, rely on the ability to optimize the immunogenicity of the peptide epitopes. Currently, screening of candidate vaccines is typically performed through low-throughput, high-cost animal trials. To improve on this we present the program EpIC, which enables high-throughput prediction of peptide immunogenicity based on the endogenous occurrence of B-cell epitopes within native protein sequences. This information informs rational selection of immunogenicity-optimized epitopes for peptide vaccines. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION EpIC is available as a web server at http://saphire.usask. ca/saphire/epic.
A Network Lifetime-Oriented Energy-Aware Sink Relocation Scheme

When sensor nodes are located around a sink node in a wireless sensor network (hereafter referred to as WSN), their energy will be consumed more quickly. Hence it’s necessary to make a proper relocation of the sink node to prevent the surrounding sensor nodes from excessive energy consumption. In view of this, this paper proposes an energy-aware sink relocation (hereafter referred to as EASR) scheme, which is able to realize the adaptive adjustment on the transmission range according to the energy status of the sensor nodes in addition to the establishment of conditions for sink relocation. If the relocation condition is met, sink node will move toward the optimal direction based on the energy status of the surrounding sensor nodes. The simulation result shows that the EASR scheme proposed in this paper is able to prolong effectively the network lifetime.
Non-Financial Human Capital Disclosure and Share Price

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between disclosure of non-financial human capital information (HCD) and share price of the top 100 companies listed on Bursa Malaysia from financial years 2010 to 2013. Human capital (HC) is considered a valuable asset in a knowledge-based economy. The knowledge and skills possessed by individuals are regarded as a key source of competitive advantage and value creator to companies. Prior research acknowledges the importance of HC information to investors, who may have to rely on disclosures in annual reports when evaluating a company’s future direction, potential, value and prospects. However, companies only disclose limited information on this ‘asset’. In this study, HCD is viewed from the perspective of signalling and efficient capital market theories. Following previous studies, we incorporate HC information and its two components, namely, HC information related to directors and employees, into the Ohlson model. Our study reveals an increasing trend of HCD, and the disclosure is value relevant. Further analysis of the HC information component reveals that both HC information (HC related to directors and employees) are value relevant. These findings are in line with the argument that Malaysian financial analysts and fund managers regard information related to the company’s management and key corporate decision makers as important in investment decision making. The findings of this study are relevant to accounting standard setters in determining the types of HC that should be disclosed in the annual reports because this information can create value for companies. Managers should also pay attention to HC information because such information is value relevant to stakeholders.
Propane and n-Butane Oxidation by Pseudomonas putida GPo1

ABSTRACT Propane and n-butane inhibit methyl tertiary butyl ether oxidation by n-alkane-grown Pseudomonas putida GPo1. Here we demonstrate that these gases are oxidized by this strain and support cell growth. Both gases induced alkane hydroxylase activity and appear to be oxidized by the same enzyme system used for the oxidation of n-octane.