Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Firm Size and Profitability

A BASIC proposition of economic theory is that, under competition, profit rates will tend toward equality. Baumol, on the other hand, has put forward the hypothesis that increased money capital will not only increase the total profits of the firm, but because it puts the firm in a higher echelon of imperfectly competing capital groups, it may very well also increase its earnings per dollar of investment" [5, p. 33]. The logic of Baumol's proposition is that large firms have all of the options of small firms, and, in addition, they can invest in lines requiring such scale that small firms are excluded. It follows that ". so long as any industries are peculiarly well suited to large investments, and so yield disproportionate returns to sizeable funds, then, provided capital is prepared to move in response to profit differences, this will tend to be true of all other industries in which large firms operate" [5, p. 37]. If this hypothesis is correct, we should find higher rates of return in large enterprises even in the long run and even in the absence of barriers to entry other than those directly associated with availability of capital. An empirical test of this proposition should give a basis for judging the "height" of the "capital requirements" barrier [2, p. 156], a potentially important element in the explanation of industry performance. The primary goal of this paper is to test Baumol's hypothesis. It is divided into three parts. In section I we discuss our data and our model, in section II we present and analyze our results, and in section III we draw a few tentative conclusions. I
Sendai virus trailer RNA binds TIAR, a cellular protein involved in virus‐induced apoptosis

Sendai virus (SeV) leader (le) and trailer (tr) RNAs are short transcripts generated during abortive antigenome and genome synthesis, respectively. Recom binant SeV (rSeV) that express tr‐like RNAs from the leader region are non‐cytopathic and, moreover, prevent wild‐type SeV from inducing apoptosis in mixed infections. These rSeV thus appear to have gained a function. Here we report that tr RNA binds to a cellular protein with many links to apoptosis (TIAR) via the AU‐rich sequence 5′ UUUUAAAUUUU. Duplication of this AU‐rich sequence alone within the le RNA confers TIAR binding on this le* RNA and a non‐cytopathic phenotype to these rSeV in cell culture. Transgenic overexpression of TIAR during SeV infection promotes apoptosis and reverses the anti‐apoptotic effects of le* RNA expression. More over, TIAR overexpression and SeV infection act synergistically to induce apoptosis. These short viral RNAs may act by sequestering TIAR, a multivalent RNA recognition motif (RRM) family RNA‐binding protein involved in SeV‐induced apoptosis. In this view, tr RNA is not simply a by‐product of abortive genome synthesis, but is also an antigenome transcript that modulates the cellular antiviral response.
Left Ventricular Subendocardial Ischemia in Severe Valvar and Supravalvar Aortic Stenosis: A Common Mechanism

Severe valvar aortic stenosis (VAS) and supravalvar aortic stenosis (SVAS) each may cause left ventricular (LV) subendocardial ischemia and infarction, even with patent coronary arteries. LV ischemia in VAS has been related to reduced coronary perfusion relative to raised metabolic requirements, whereas this mechanism of ischemia has not been widely accepted in SVAS because coronary perfusion pressure is higher than normal.LV subendocardial coronary blood flow (CBF) occurs predominantly in diastole and a diastolic pressure-time index (DPTI) was used to estimate it. LV oxygen requirements were estimated from the systolic pressure-time index (SPTI). The ratio DPTI:SPTI (supply:demand) was evaluated as an estimate of the adequacy of subendocardial flow. SVAS was produced acutely in nine dogs and phasic left CBF and distribution of CBF to the LV myocardium were measured. Although mean CBF always rose with aortic constriction, flow in diastole fell from a control of 80% to 34% (P < 0.001) and LV myocardial flow distribution became inhomogeneous with the proportion of flow to subendocardial muscle decreasing 63% (P < 0.001). Departure from the normal homogeneous flow distribution to the LV was predictable from the ratio DPTI:SPTI; values below 0.7 were always associated with relative subendocardial underperfusion.DPTI:SPTI ratios in two patients, one with severe VAS (0.25) and one with SVAS (0.39) were well below values obtained in 18 control patients (1.03 ± 0.23), and were similar to the ratios in dogs with SVAS (0.27 ± 0.08). Both patients had ECG changes suggesting LV ischemia. The mechanism of subendocardial ischemia is thought to be the same in both types of stenosis and its presence is predictable from pressure measurements available at cardiac catheterization.
Therapeutic targets in the management of Type 1 diabetes

For historical reasons, diabetes has long been linked with blood and urine glucose control, partly because these were clearly linked to acute symptoms, and partly because glucose became measurable around 200 years ago. Today it is recognized that there is far more to diabetes than simply monitoring symptoms and blood glucose. Intensive management has an impact on the quality of life. Late complications have their own risk factors and markers. Monitoring and early detection of these risk factors and markers can lead to changes in treatment before tissue damage is too severe. Accordingly, professionals now find themselves monitoring a range of adverse outcomes, markers for adverse outcomes, risk factors and risk markers for microvascular and arterial disease, acute complications of therapy, and the care structures needed to deliver this. Adverse outcomes lend themselves to targets for complication control in populations, and markers of adverse outcomes (such as retinopathy and raised albumin excretion rate) in treatment cohorts. Surveillance systems will have targets for yearly recall and review of early complications. Metabolic (surrogate) outcomes can be monitored in individual patients, but monitoring is only of value in so far as it guides interventions, and this requires comparison to some intervention level or absolute target. Even for blood glucose control this is not easy, for conventional measures such as glycated haemoglobin have their own problems, and more modern approaches such as post‐prandial glucose levels are controversial and less convenient to measure. In many people with type 1 diabetes targets for blood pressure, LDL cholesterol, and serum triglycerides will also be appropriate, and need to be part of any protocol of management. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Cooperative Spectrum Sensing in Heterogeneous Cognitive Radio Networks Based on Normalized Energy Detection

Spectrum sensing is an essential technology to detect the presence of primary users' (PUs) signals in cognitive radio (CR) networks. To achieve desirable performances under shadowing and fading environments, cooperative spectrum sensing has been proposed as a promising scheme, which takes advantage of spatial and multiuser diversity gain. In this paper, we investigate cooperative sensing (CS) in a heterogeneous CR network scenario, where each secondary user (SU) may be equipped with different numbers of receive antennas and may have different signal processing capabilities, e.g., sampling rates. By considering the discrepancy in sensing reliability of different SUs, we propose an optimal normalized energy detection-based CS (NED-CS) scheme by virtue of the principle of log-likelihood ratio test (LRT). This LRT-based NED-CS scheme also takes into account the reporting errors at a fusion center (FC), which may receive erroneous results from some SUs due to channel fading and quantization errors. Our derivation shows that the detection statistic of our proposed LRT-based NED-CS scheme is the linear combination of modified local detection statistics, and the optimal combining coefficient can be shown to be a function of the numbers of antennas, the received signal samples, the received signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs), and the variances of reporting errors at each SU. Meanwhile, to drop the prerequisite on a priori information on the received SNRs of all SUs and the variances of reporting errors and to simplify the decision making and threshold setting, a simplified LRT (SLRT)-based NED-CS scheme is proposed as well. Furthermore, we analyze and compare the performance of our proposed LRT-based NED-CS scheme with existing NED-CS schemes, including the equal gain combination (EGC) method and the maximum normalized energy (MNE) detector, with reporting errors under both additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) and Rayleigh fading channels in a heterogeneous CR network. We derive the probability density function (PDF) of received SNR at each SU and obtain the series expansions and closed-form approximate expressions of detection and false alarm probabilities of our proposed LRT-based NED-CS scheme. Our analytical results match simulation results well, and both of them show that the proposed LRT- and SLRT-based NED-CS schemes perform significantly better than the existing EGC and MNE methods.
Protective Immunity to Rotavirus Shedding in the Absence of Interleukin-6: Th1 Cells and Immunoglobulin A Develop Normally

ABSTRACT We investigated whether interleukin-6 (IL-6) was required for the development of immunoglobulin A (IgA)- and T-helper 1 (Th1)-associated protective immune responses to rotavirus by using adult IL-6-deficient mice [BALB/c and (C57BL/6 × O1a)F2 backgrounds]. Naive IL-6− mice had normal frequencies of IgA plasma cells in the gastrointestinal tract. Consistent with this, total levels of IgA in fecal extracts, saliva, and sera were unaltered. In specific response to oral infection with rhesus rotavirus, IL-6−and IL-6+ mice exhibited efficient Th1-type gamma interferon responses in Peyer's patches with high levels of serum IgG2a and intestinal IgA. Although there was an increase in Th2-type IL-4 in CD4+ T cells from IL-6− mice following restimulation with rotavirus antigen in the presence of irradiated antigen-presenting cells, unfractionated Peyer's patch cells failed to produce a significant increase in IL-4. Moreover, virus-specific IgG1 in serum was not significantly increased in IL-6− mice in comparison with IL-6+ mice. Following oral inoculation with murine rotavirus, IL-6− and IL-6+ mice mediated clearance of rotavirus and mounted a strong IgA response. When IL-6− and IL-6+ mice [(C57BL/6 × O1a)F2 background] were orally inoculated with rhesus rotavirus and later challenged with murine rotavirus, all of the mice maintained high levels of IgA in feces and were protected against reinfection. Thus, IL-6 failed to provide unique functions in the development of IgA-secreting B cells and in the establishment of Th1-associated protective immunity against rotavirus infection in adult mice.
Evaluation of the category high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion in The Bethesda System for reporting cervical cytology

Background: High grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL) is a category of The Bethesda System (TBS) for reporting cervical cytology that is in vogue since the introduction of the said system in 1988 and it was not modified in 2001 modification of TBS. The term includes moderate dysplasia (CIN II), severe dysplasia (CIN III) and squamous cell carcinoma in situ. Terms like ASC-US used in TBS are being considered to be not very useful in the prediction about the possible behavior of the pathological status of the cervix. After more than 10 years of use the term HSIL also needs fresh evaluation as in this category two entities of potentially different outcome are clubbed. Aims: The aim was to find out whether it is justified to have a term like HSIL which includes different points of the spectrum of intraepithelial pathology of cervix from moderate hyperplasia through carcinoma in situ, all having different significance. Materials and Methods: In this study 619 cases of cervical cytology reported by TBS were evaluated by comparing them with biopsy reports of the same lesion for the assessment of the sensitivity, specificity and positive predictive value of HSIL as a category of diagnosis in TBS. Results: As a category, HSIL had the diagnostic sensitivity of 96.4%, specificity of 87.5%. The positive predictive value was 96.4%. Conclusion: HSIL as a diagnostic category shows a very good predictive accuracy, which implies that it provides a very high probability of the accurate diagnosis collectively of all the conditions in the disease spectrum from moderate dysplasia through in situ carcinoma. Hence, HSIL was found to be a very useful diagnostic category in TBS that conveys proper message to the clinician.
Measuring Social and Political Phenotypes

Measurement is probably the most classical empirical process independent of time period or area of study. The title of this chapter suggests that a discussion of how to measure when approaching the borders of social and natural sciences is what follows, but this is somewhat misleading. Good measurement is independent of how the measures are used. Measures smothered with error, on the contrary, will be bad measures.
Toward understanding success and failures in the use of selenium for cancer prevention.

SIGNIFICANCE Adequate and supranutritional selenium (Se) intake, maintaining full expression of selenoproteins, has been assumed to be beneficial for human health with respect to prevention of cancer. Strikingly, the effectiveness of dietary Se supplementation depends on many factors: baseline Se status, age, gender, and genetic background of an individual; type of cancer; and time point of intervention in addition to metabolic conversion and dose of applied Se compounds. RECENT ADVANCES Se intake levels for optimization of plasma selenoproteins in humans have been delineated. Regulation, function, and genetic variants of several selenoproteins have been characterized in the intestine, where Se-mediated prevention of colorectal cancer appears to be particularly promising. CRITICAL ISSUES Numerous cell culture and animal studies indicate anticarcinogenic capacity of various Se compounds but, at present, the outcome of human studies is inconsistent and, in large part, disappointing. Moreover, supranutritional Se intake may even trigger adverse health effects, possibly increasing the risk for Type 2 diabetes in Se-replete populations. FUTURE DIRECTIONS To improve protocols for the use of Se in cancer prevention, knowledge on cellular and systemic actions of Se compounds needs to be broadened and linked to individual-related determinants such as the occurrence of variants in selenoprotein genes and the Se status. Based on better mechanistic insight, populations and individuals that may benefit most from dietary Se supplementation need to be defined and studied in suitably planned intervention trials.
Regulation of Phosphorylation of Thr-308 of Akt, Cell Proliferation, and Survival by the B55α Regulatory Subunit Targeting of the Protein Phosphatase 2A Holoenzyme to Akt*

Akt is a protein serine/threonine kinase that is involved in the regulation of diverse cellular processes. Phosphorylation of Akt at regulatory residues Thr-308 and Ser-473 leads to its full activation. The protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) has long been known to negatively regulate Akt activity. The PP2A holoenzyme consists of the structural subunit (A), catalytic subunit (C), and a variable regulatory subunit (B). Here we report the identification of the specific B regulatory subunit that targets the PP2A holoenzyme to Akt. We found endogenous association of PP2A AB55C holoenzymes with Akt by co-immunoprecipitation analyses in pro-lymphoid FL5.12 cells. Akt was shown to associate with ectopically expressed B55α subunit in NIH3T3 cells. The direct interaction between B55α subunit and Akt was confirmed using in vitro pulldown analyses. Intriguingly, we found that overexpression of B55α subunit significantly impaired phosphorylation at Thr-308, but to a lesser extent at Ser-473 of Akt in both FL5.12 and NIH3T3 cells. Concomitantly, phosphorylation of a subset of Akt substrates, including FoxO3a, was substantially decreased by B55α overexpression in these cells. Silencing of B55α expression markedly increased phosphorylation at Thr-308 but not at Ser-473 in both FL5.12 cells and NIH3T3 cells. Consistently, PP2A AB55αC holoenzymes preferentially dephosphorylated phospho-Thr-308 rather than phospho-Ser-473 in in vitro dephosphorylation assays. Furthermore, B55α overexpression retarded proliferation of NIH3T3 cells, and knockdown of B55α expression increased survival of FL5.12 cells upon interleukin-3 deprivation. Together, our data demonstrate that B55α-dependent targeting of the PP2A holoenzyme to Akt selectively regulates Akt phosphorylation at Thr-308 to regulate cell proliferation and survival.
PRIVATIZATION AND POLITICAL CULTURE: PERSPECTIVES FROM SMALL CITIES AND TOWNS

The curtailment of federal aid to local governments during the Reagan administration compelled municipalities to search for alternative methods of service delivery in a period of cutback management and service retrenchment. One option has been the privatization of municipal services. However, controversy remains as to the appropriateness and desirability of privatization within certain realms of government. This study differentiates the contracting experience in eight municipalities in southeastern Ohio (Greater Cincinnati) and rural northern Mississippl.The study identifies distinguishing aspects among the respective communities in their approach to contracting out and illustrates differences between the rural vs. the urban experience. Privatization, in its pure form, is a means whereby the government completely relinquishes its responsibility for providing the service and agreements are made directly between the recipients and vendors. This is also known as "load shedding" (Savas, 1982). Contracting out, on the other hand, is a different form of privatization where the government engages private companies to deliver services. The overwhelming majority of the services privatized in this study falls under the category of contracting out. Contracting out may also include contracts with other government organizations (intergovernmental agreements). As a result, contracting out is the preferred term.
An Analysis of the Behaviour of Select Indian Mutual Funds during the Financial Crisis of the Year 2008

The essence of a Mutual Fund is the portfolio of investment, which diversifies and reduces the risk by spreading out the investor's money across available different types of investments. Through our study we have analyzed how few selected Mutual Fund Schemes behave during the period of December 2008 to December 2012, i.e. during the global meltdown and the period thereafter. We have analyzed the coefficient of variation of the return generated by the Sensex, Company Scrips and the Mutual Fund Schemes to determine a more stable series, the Managerial Efficiency of the selected Mutual Fund Schemes in stock selection, the Sharpe ratio and the pattern of return generated by the selected Mutual Fund Schemes before 2008 and after 2008.We found that the variability in the return of the Mutual Fund Schemes are between moderate to high and thus these Mutual Fund Schemes may not be as stable as they seem to be. The investors should weigh their options carefully before deciding to invest in a Mutual Fund Scheme. I. Background Of The Study Indian Mutual Funds are playing a very crucial developmental role in allocating resources in the emerging market economy by mobilizing savings by issuing units and channelling funds in the capital market into productive investment. According to the Association of Indian Mutual Fund Industry, "A Mutual Fund is a trust that pools the savings of a number of investors who share a common financial goal. The money thus collected is then invested in capital market instruments such as shares, debentures and other securities. The income earned through these investments and the capital appreciation realized is shared by the unit holders in the proportion to the number of units owned by them. Thus a mutual fund is the most suitable investment for the common man as it offers an opportunity to invest in a diversified professionally managed basket of securities at a relatively low cost. " The first Mutual Fund scheme was launched in India by UTI in 1964 and since then the industry has seen a lot of growth in terms of new Mutual Fund schemes and their returns. In March 1965 the AUM was INR 25 crore. As on 31
Genetic linkage and natural selection

The prevalence of recombination in eukaryotes poses one of the most puzzling questions in biology. The most compelling general explanation is that recombination facilitates selection by breaking down the negative associations generated by random drift (i.e. Hill–Robertson interference, HRI). I classify the effects of HRI owing to: deleterious mutation, balancing selection and selective sweeps on: neutral diversity, rates of adaptation and the mutation load. These effects are mediated primarily by the density of deleterious mutations and of selective sweeps. Sequence polymorphism and divergence suggest that these rates may be high enough to cause significant interference even in genomic regions of high recombination. However, neither seems able to generate enough variance in fitness to select strongly for high rates of recombination. It is plausible that spatial and temporal fluctuations in selection generate much more fitness variance, and hence selection for recombination, than can be explained by uniformly deleterious mutations or species-wide selective sweeps.
HIV Infection and Human Herpesvirus-8 Oral Shedding Among Men Who Have Sex with Men

Human herpesvirus-8 (HHV-8) is frequently detected in oropharyngeal secretions from HIV-infected men who have sex with men (MSM), and contact with saliva may be an important mode of HHV-8 transmission. A total of 196 MSM were followed over 2 years to determine the correlates of HHV-8 oropharyngeal shedding. A total of 134 (68%) of 196 participants were HHV-8 seropositive upon enrollment, and 9 (15%) of 62 participants seroconverted to HHV-8 during follow-up. HHV-8 DNA was detected in 43 (22%) of 196 participants: 39 (27%) of 134 HHV-8 seropositive, 4 (8%) of 53 HHV-8 seronegative, and 5 (56%) of 9 seroconverters to HHV-8. HHV-8 was detected in 101 (15%) of 696 total oral specimens: 84 (17%) of 481 samples from HHV-8–seropositive men, 6 (3%) of 180 samples from HHV-8–seronegative men, and 11 (31%) of 35 samples from seroconverters. Using adjusted marginal structural models, HHV-8 shedding was higher in men not receiving highly active antiretroviral therapy (odds ratio 2.4, 95% CI 1.0–6.0, P = 0.06), with CD4 counts > 200 cells/mm3 (odds ratio 4.8, 95% CI 1.0–22.8, P = 0.05), or with detectable oral leukocyte esterase (odds ratio 5.0, 95% CI 2.0–12.5, P < 0.01). CD4 count, antiretroviral therapy, and oral inflammation may influence HHV-8 oropharyngeal shedding.