Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tissue-specific effects of physiological ANP infusion on blood-tissue albumin transport.

Blood-tissue transport of 131I-labeled bovine serum albumin (BSA) during intravenous infusion of synthetic atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) was examined in anesthetized male Wistar rats. Plasma volumes were maintained at pre-ANP levels by infusion of 2% BSA in lactated Ringer solution (LR) to minimize compensatory responses to ANP-induced hypovolemia. 131I-BSA clearance was measured over 30 min, and 125I-BSA was injected terminally to correct for intravascular volume. Thirty-minute infusion of 20 ng.kg-1.min-1 ANP resulted in a tissue-selective increase in 131I-BSA clearance in jejunum and colon compared with controls given LR only. Smaller but significant increases in tracer clearance also were observed in fat, kidney, left ventricle, and skeletal muscle exposed to 400 ng.kg-1.min-1 ANP. The observed elevation in tracer albumin extravasation was not associated with any measurable increase in tissue extravascular water content. Furthermore, it was shown that coupling of 131I-BSA transport to filtration induced by hindlimb venous congestion was similar in control and ANP-treated rats. In a second series of experiments, plasma ANP levels were determined after 30-min ANP infusions from 0 to 180 ng.kg-1.min-1. Significant linear associations between physiological ANP levels (62-578 pg/ml) and 131I-BSA clearance were demonstrable for small intestine, colon, fat, kidney, and skeletal muscle but not for skin, heart, diaphragm, and lung. We conclude that raising plasma ANP by infusion of the synthetic peptide results in a filtration-independent, tissue-selective increase in albumin transport. Tissue uptake of albumin is a potential mechanism for extrarenal fluid shift during circulatory volume overload.
Amazing chloride channels: an overview.

AIM This review describes molecular and functional properties of the following Cl- channels: the ClC family of voltage-dependent Cl- channels, the cAMP-activated transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR), Ca2+ activated Cl- channels (CaCC) and volume-regulated anion channels (VRAC). If structural data are available, their relationship with the function of Cl- channels will be discussed. We also describe shortly some recently discovered channels, including high conductance Cl- channels and the family of bestrophins. We illustrate the growing physiological importance of these channels in the plasma membrane and in intracellular membranes, including their involvement in transepithelial transport, pH regulation of intracellular organelles, regulation of excitability and volume regulation. Finally, we discuss the role of Cl- channels in various diseases and describe the pathological phenotypes observed in knockout mice models.
Investor Reactions to PCAOB Inspection Reports

This study examines whether PCAOB inspection reports succeed in providing a meaningful signal of audit quality. We find a statistically and economically significant market response to the issuances of 224 first-round and 134 second-round inspection reports between January 2005 and March 2010, indicating that inspection reports have information content. Moreover, the observed market response is systematically associated with cross-sectional variation in report-specific determinants of inspection report informativeness, indicating that the market response can be reliably attributed to the information in the inspection report. We also find that at least part of the market response to the publication of PCAOB inspection reports can be attributed to revisions in investors’ beliefs about accounting information quality. This paper takes a first step to assess the informative value of the PCAOB inspection reports to investors, who could be regarded the ultimate consumers of the audit. It also contributes to the literature on the value of the audit by providing evidence that a commonly available signal of audit quality has an economically significant value effect.
The effects of business process re-engineering in the provision of services in civil service: case study of Ministry of Lands

The identification of this researchable topic was as a result of the inspiration and passion of studying the effects of Business Process Re-engineering in the provision of services in the Civil service: Case study Ministry of Lands. Chapter one is the brief introductory overview of the detailed background of the study which includes the core function of the ministry, achievements, challenges and with the intervention measure to improve the provision of services through result based management (RBM), Performance contracting / performance contracting appraisals, strategic plan and Business Process Re-engineering undertakings. The statement of the problem highlights the demand for change of the traditional business activity as a was of surviving in the changing business environment and advocates of finding out the practability and implications of embracing Business process reengineering and the objectives of the study and research questions are related to the effects of technology, organizational resources, performance contracting and customer demands to the business process reengineering. The significance of the study states the usefulness to various categories of people including and not limited to Ministry of Lands / other ministries employees and management, scholars and researchers. The limitation and scope of the study are also included in this chapter. Chapter two provides the concepts of business process reengineering as; innovative thinking, process function, radical change, organizational development and performance. The brief review of theoretical review, empirical review and conceptual framework are provided in details as a foundation of the proposed study. It clearly identifies the research gap not addressed by the previous researcher and which the study proposes to fill including the conceptual framework. Chapter three is the research methodology which outlines the research design. The systematic procedure followed in various stages of Data collection, storing, computation and presentation. The chapter emphasizes that both the qualitative and quantitative data are appropriately to be collected and presented. The remaining chapter four and five are core to the study as they present results and discussions with conclusions for policy recommendations.
Corporate social responsibility in small and medium enterprises: application of stakeholder theory and social capital theory

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a business management concept that originated in the early 1930s after the Wall Street crash of 1929 exposed corporate irresponsibility in large organisations. Since then, social responsibility has continued to be the focus of business operations and a popular topic of investigation for practitioners and academics from a range of disciplines. Whilst the initial interpretation of CSR has been modified and refined since it was first used, the significance of this multidimensional concept for the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector has continued to be overshadowed by its application to large and multinational organisations. Due to relatively little attention being given to CSR in relation to SMEs until recent years, the knowledge of social activities in this sector, particularly in Australia, has remained unexplored and amorphous. This study therefore investigates CSR from the perspective of SMEs in Australia. The aim of this research is to advance the understanding of how SMEs perceive CSR and their approaches to social responsibility. From the literature review, a few areas were identified in which investigation would contribute to developing a holistic understanding. These areas are: business values, knowledge and attitudes to CSR, actual and stated CSR behaviour, influences on CSR participation, motivations for CSR, the barriers and facilitators of CSR in SMEs and finally, the motivations for voluntary engagements with different associations. The increased understanding of the CSR orientation of these organisations obtained by investigating these areas shed more light on the use of stakeholder theory and social capital theory for explaining the SME–CSR relationship. A qualitative case study research methodology was applied to investigate the research problem. Data was collected through twelve semi-structured open ended interviews with owner-managers of SMEs in the Gold Coast region of Australia. The analysis of responses commenced with data reduction followed by data display and then conclusion forming and verification. A range of tactics was used to ensure the validity and reliability of the case study research design. This research supports the view that SMEs are not always profit driven and that they are therefore fundamentally distinct from large organisations. Ethical operation and compliance with social norms are the most common values that drive such organisations. In contrast to past assumptions, SMEs are well aware of the fundamentals of social responsibility and presently consider responsible behaviour as a platform to grow their businesses. As a result, they think, act and engage with their communities proactively. The term Business Social Responsibility (BSR) appears to be more relevant and appropriate for SMEs rather than the traditional term ‘CSR’. However, Australian SMEs are not yet strategic about business responsibilities, rather strongly influenced by their moral values. Creating and maintaining their reputations through social networking and…
PENGUNGKAPAN TANGGUNG JAWAB SOSIAL DAN KARAKTERISTIK CORPORATE GOVERNANCE PADA SEKTOR FINANSIAL

The aim of this research is to examine the relation of corporate governance and corporate socialresponsibility disclosure on public companies listed at the Jakarta Stock Exchange. Disclosureof corporate social responsibility was measured by using modified Hackton and Milne’s(1996) indicators. This research predicts that corporate social disclosure is determined by thecharacteristics of corporate governance i.e. size of the board of commissioners; independentcommissioners, independent audit committees, government ownership, and presence of womenthe board of commissioners. Company size and profitability is used as control variables. Thissample consists of companies in financial sector. There are 45 companies fulfilling the samplingcriterion. The data were then analyzed using multiple regression analysis. The results indicatedthat the size of the board of commissioners, government ownership, independent audit committee,and company size had a positive and significant relation on the disclosure of corporate socialresponsibility; but the independent commissioners, the presence of women in the board ofcommissioners, and profitability did not have a significant relationship.
Managerial Entrenchment and Antitakeover Provisions in Japan

We analyze the characteristics of Japanese firms that introduced antitakeover provisions after the official guidelines for antitakeover provisions were released in 2005. Our main results are the following. First, firms' operating performance or stock market valuations were not related to the adoption of takeover defense measures. Second, firms' age and their ownership structure were correlated with the adoption of antitakeover provisions. Specifically, companies that were older, had lower proportions of shares held by their directors, or higher cross-shareholding ratios were more likely to adopt takeover defense measures, which suggests that the adoption of such measures is motivated by self-protection on the part of corporate managers and influenced by the conflicts of interest between managers and shareholders. In addition, as controlling shareholders had lower shares of stocks and institutional investors had higher shares of stocks, firms were more inclined to adopt takeover defense measures, suggesting that companies are likely to adopt such measures if their shares are liquid and easy to acquire.
Phylogenetic analysis reveals a scattered distribution of autumn colours.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Leaf colour in autumn is rarely considered informative for taxonomy, but there is now growing interest in the evolution of autumn colours and different hypotheses are debated. Research efforts are hindered by the lack of basic information: the phylogenetic distribution of autumn colours. It is not known when and how autumn colours evolved. METHODS Data are reported on the autumn colours of 2368 tree species belonging to 400 genera of the temperate regions of the world, and an analysis is made of their phylogenetic relationships in order to reconstruct the evolutionary origin of red and yellow in autumn leaves. KEY RESULTS Red autumn colours are present in at least 290 species (70 genera), and evolved independently at least 25 times. Yellow is present independently from red in at least 378 species (97 genera) and evolved at least 28 times. CONCLUSIONS The phylogenetic reconstruction suggests that autumn colours have been acquired and lost many times during evolution. This scattered distribution could be explained by hypotheses involving some kind of coevolutionary interaction or by hypotheses that rely on the need for photoprotection.
The ion channel ASIC1 contributes to visceral but not cutaneous mechanoreceptor function.

BACKGROUND & AIMS Visceral mechanoreceptors are critical for perceived sensations and autonomic reflex control of gastrointestinal function. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying visceral mechanosensation remain poorly defined. Degenerin/epithelial Na+ channel (DEG/ENaC) family ion channels are candidate mechanosensory molecules, and we hypothesized that they influence visceral mechanosensation. We examined the influence of the DEG/ENaC channel ASIC1 on gastrointestinal mechanosensory function, on gastric emptying, and on fecal output. We also compared its role in gastrointestinal and somatic sensory function. METHODS To assess the role of ASIC1 we studied wild-type and ASIC1-/- mice. Reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blot analysis determined expression of ASIC1 messenger RNA and protein in vagal and spinal sensory ganglia. Colonic, gastroesophageal, and cutaneous afferent fibers were characterized by functional subtype and their mechanical stimulus-response relationships were determined. Gastric emptying was determined by using a 13CO2 breath test. Behavioral tests assessed somatic mechanical and thermal sensitivity. RESULTS ASIC1 was expressed in sensory ganglia and was lost after disruption of the ASIC1 gene. Loss of ASIC1 increased mechanosensitivity in all colonic and gastroesophageal mechanoreceptor subtypes. In addition, ASIC1-/- mice showed almost double the gastric emptying time of wild-type mice. In contrast, loss of ASIC1 did not affect function in any of the 5 types of cutaneous mechanoreceptors, nor did it affect paw withdrawal responses or fecal output. CONCLUSIONS ASIC1 influences visceral but not cutaneous mechanoreceptor function, suggesting that different mechanisms underlie mechanosensory function in gut and skin. The role of ASIC1 is highlighted by prolonging gastric emptying of a meal in ASIC1-/- animals.
Growth of normal human mammary gland epithelium in vitro.

Summary A method is described whereby ducts of the nonlactating human mammary gland can be identified in vivo and isolated so as to serve as a specific source of epithelial cells for studies in vitro . The method overcomes the inherent difficulty in obtaining epithelial cells from random explants of nonlactating mammary gland where the duct system is poorly developed. Ducts from the nipple and subjacent mammary tissue were first dissected from the surrounding connective tissue, cut into small fragments and explanted on glass coverslips. Epithelial cells grew out onto the coverslip as a stratified squamous epithelium in which mitoses were numerous. Ultrastructurally, cells remaining on the explant and those in the outgrowth were characterized by an abundance of cytoplasmic filaments indicating their origin from filament-containing cells normally found in breast epithelium. There was no convincing morphological evidence of milk synthesis or secretion. Further exploitation of this system may allow correlative studies of function and carcinogenesis in the human mammary gland in vivo and in vitro , studies heretofore not possible.
Special Section on Robust Speech Processing in Realistic Environments Using Mutual Information Criterion to Design an Efficient Phoneme Set for Chinese Speech Recognition

Chinese is a representative tonal language, and it has been an attractive topic of how to process tone information in the state-of-theart large vocabulary speech recognition system. This paper presents a novel way to derive an efficient phoneme set of tone-dependent units to build a recognition system, by iteratively merging a pair of tone-dependent units according to the principle of minimal loss of the Mutual Information (MI). The mutual information is measured between the word tokens and their phoneme transcriptions in a training text corpus, based on the system lexical and language model. The approach has a capability to keep discriminative tonal (and phoneme) contrasts that are most helpful for disambiguating homophone words due to lack of tones, and merge those tonal (and phoneme) contrasts that are not important for word disambiguation for the recognition task. This enables a flexible selection of phoneme set according to a balance between the MI information amount and the number of phonemes. We applied the method to traditional phoneme set of Initial/Finals, and derived several phoneme sets with different number of units. Speech recognition experiments using the derived sets showed its effectiveness. key words: mutual information, Chinese lexical tones, tone dependent units, speech recognition
The Oxidation of Lipoproteins by Monocytes-Macrophages

The oxidation of lipoproteins has been proposed as a biological process that initiates and accelerates arterial lesion development (1–5). Oxidized lipoproteins accumulate in lesions (6) and may form at other inflammatory sites. Whether the oxidized lipoprotein is an initiator or accelerator of disease is the subject of speculation, debate, and intensive study. Various cellular and biochemical mediators of lipoprotein oxidation in vivo have been proposed, but none has yet been proven to be responsible. Two decades ago we demonstrated that low density lipoprotein (LDL), the plasma level of which correlates with the risk of atherosclerosis, could injure endothelial cells (ECs) in culture (7). The capacity of LDL to injure cells was directly related to the level of LDL oxidation, and we speculated on a possible role for oxidized LDL-mediated endothelial injury in atherogenesis (8, 9). Contemporaneously, Dr. Daniel Steinberg’s group (10, 11) demonstrated that LDL exposed to cultured ECs was altered such that it became a ligand for scavenger receptors. In 1984, both Steinberg’s group and ours (12, 13) demonstrated that the “EC-modified LDL” they had characterized and the “oxidized LDL” we had described were the same entity. Their report highlighted the macrophage recognition of the EC-oxidized lipoprotein, and ours the capacity of EC or smooth muscle cell (SMC)-oxidized LDL to injure cells. These papers introduced the concept that reactive oxygen species from vascular cells could transform LDL, causing it to exhibit dramatically altered composition and atherogenic properties. The first demonstration that certain leukocyte populations could oxidize LDL employed human neutrophils and activated populations of adherent human monocytes, cells well known to generate abundant reactive oxygen species in vitro and in vivo (14). The identity of the cells responsible for the oxidation of LDL that accumulates in lesions is uncertain. Although it is well known that free ferrous or cupric ions catalyze lipid peroxidation reactions in vitro, the presence of free metal ions in vivo is doubted (15). Multiple mechanisms exist in vivo for binding free transition metal ions, rendering them redox-inactive (15–17). In this minireview, we take the position that monocyte-derived macrophages are likely candidates to mediate the in vivo oxidation of lipoproteins, because they are prominent in arterial lesions, known to generate activation-dependent reactive oxygen species, and, unlike EC and SMC (12, 18), capable in vitro of LDL oxidation in media free of metal ion additives. In vitro LDL appears to be oxidized extracellularly without interaction with the LDL receptor (19–21). There are multiple potential pathways through which monocytes-macrophages may promote extracellular LDL oxidation. In this review we evaluate cellular mechanisms (both enzymatic and non-enzymatic) for LDL oxidation. We use the term “monocyte-macrophage” as a shorthand reference to in vitro studies performed on isolated monocytes, macrophages, and monocyte-like cell lines.
Morphological Changes and Detachment of Adherent Cells Induced by p122, a GTPase-activating Protein for Rho*

We recently cloned a novel signaling molecule, p122, that shows a GTPase-activating activity specific for Rho and the ability to enhance the phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate-hydrolyzing activity of phospholipase C δ1 in vitro. Here we analyzed the in vivo function of p122. Microinjection of the GTPase-activating domain of p122 suppressed the formation of stress fibers and focal adhesions induced by lysophosphatidic acid, suggesting a GTPase-activating activity for Rho as in in vitro. Transfection of p122 also induced the disassembly of stress fibers and the morphological rounding of various adherent cells. Analyses using deletion and point mutants demonstrated that the GTPase-activating domain of p122 is responsible for the morphological changes and detachment and that arginine residues at positions 668 and 710 and a lysine residue at position 706 in the GTPase-activating domain are essential. Using Fluo-3-based Ca2+ microscopy, we found that p122 evoked a rapid elevation of intracellular Ca2+ levels, suggesting that p122 stimulates the phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate-hydrolyzing activity of phospholipase C δ1. These results demonstrate that p122 synergistically functions as a GTPase-activating protein specific for Rho and an activator of phospholipase C δ1 in vivo and induces morphological changes and detachment through cytoskeletal reorganization.
Determinants and Impact of Hidden Liquidity: Evidence from NASDAQ ModelView Data

We take advantage of a unique data set, NASDAQ ModelView, to empirically analyze the determinants and the impact of hidden liquidity on public exchanges. Our findings are as follows. First, the cross-sectional presence of hidden liquidity is well explained by observable and readily available stock characteristics. The spread captures most of the limit order book's predictive power over hidden liquidity. Second, hidden orders arrive in large volumes, at few points in time and cluster around few price quotes. Third, these hidden order submissions have an economically significant impact on price returns. While we do not observe an impact for displayed orders, the impact of hidden orders exceeds the impact of important earnings announcements news. We find evidence that these effects do not arise from information arrival but from trading frictions. Accordingly, hidden orders impair an efficient coordination between the supply and demand side of liquidity. Ultimately, large hidden orders are forced to execute against a "thin" market leading to higher price fluctuations.
Labor Market Transitions Among Older Workers: Job Opportunities, Skills, and Working Conditions

The paper examines job transitions and opportunities among older workers, with emphasis on occupational skill requirements and working conditions. Bystandard measures, older workers fare well, realizing relatively high earnings, having low rates of unemployment and displacement, and choosing in large numbers to exit the labor market or decrease work hours at early ages. These measures, however, overstate the opportunities that would face older workers were they to leave current employer and search for a new job.