Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Meningococcal surface fibril (Msf) binds to activated vitronectin and inhibits the terminal complement pathway to increase serum resistance

Complement evasion is an important survival strategy of Neisseria meningitidis (Nm) during colonization and infection. Previously, we have shown that Nm Opc binds to serum vitronectin to inhibit complement‐mediated killing. In this study, we demonstrate meningococcal interactions with vitronectin via a novel adhesin, Msf (meningococcal surface fibril, previously NhhA or Hsf). As with Opc, Msf binds preferentially to activated vitronectin (aVn), engaging at its N‐terminal region but the C‐terminal heparin binding domain may also participate. However, unlike Opc, the latter binding is not heparin‐mediated. By binding to aVn, Msf or Opc can impart serum resistance, which is further increased in coexpressers, a phenomenon dependent on serum aVn concentrations. The survival fitness of aVn‐binding derivatives was evident from mixed population studies, in which msf/opc mutants were preferentially depleted. In addition, using vitronectin peptides to block Msf–aVn interactions, aVn‐induced inhibition of lytic C5b‐9 formation and of serum killing could be reversed. As Msf‐encoding gene is ubiquitous in the meningococcal strains examined and is expressed in vivo, serum resistance via Msf may be of significance to meningococcal pathogenesis. The data imply that vitronectin binding may be an important strategy for the in vivo survival of Nm for which the bacterium has evolved redundant mechanisms.
MUCOSAL IMMUNITY AND VACCINES

These mucosal surfaces, while located inside the body, are actually a physical barrier between the outside and the sterile interior cavity of the body known as the “systemic” environment. Critical nutrients, oxygen and other molecules are constantly taken up across these mucosal barriers; however, another important function of the mucous is to keep invading pathogens out [15]. Daily these mucous membranes are bombarded by outside elements and it is up to the unique immune system of the mucous to determine what is potentially harmful and what is beneficial [15,18].
POLICY OPTIONS TO IMPROVE FINANCIAL EDUCATION: Equipping Families for their Financial Futures

Sorting through credit card offers, deciding how to invest retirement funds in the stock market, picking the right mortgage from a myriad of options, deciding how to save for a child’s college tuition—the scope and diversity of the financial decisions a family has to make has grown exponentially. Former Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan observed, “Today’s financial world is highly complex when compared with that of a generation ago. Forty years ago, a simple understanding of how to maintain a checking and savings account at local banks and savings institutions may have been sufficient. Now, consumers must be able to differentiate between a wide range of financial products and services, and providers of those products and services. ” (Greenspan, 2003).
Trajectories of Lifetime Comorbid Alcohol and Other Drug Use Disorders Through Midlife.

OBJECTIVE Very few studies have examined the developmental nature of comorbid alcohol use disorders and drug use disorders (AUD-DUD). The current study sought to extend our understanding of the nature of AUD-DUD comorbidity by characterizing the developmental course of AUD-DUD comorbidity, determining the degree to which the two disorders occur during the same period, and eliciting differences in AUD-DUD trajectories over the life course. METHOD Vietnam-era male veterans and matched civilians provided retrospective accounts of alcohol- and other drug-related experiences spanning 25 years. Concurrent growth mixture modeling was used to describe the course of AUD-DUD lifetime comorbidity. RESULTS Five trajectories were identified based on the probabilities of diagnosing with AUD-DUD: substance switching (increasing AUD, decreasing DUD); young adult (both AUD and DUD decreasing rapidly after young adulthood); severe nonchronic (both AUD and DUD decreasing slowly in the third decade of life); severe chronic alcohol-severe nonchronic drug (AUD remains high and DUD decreases in the fourth decade); and young adult alcohol-severe chronic drug (decreasing AUD in the second decade and DUD remains high). CONCLUSIONS For the majority of this sample, substance use disorders continued or worsened through adulthood, indicating a problem that extends far beyond young adulthood. Demographic characteristics differed among the trajectories; however, psychiatric diagnoses did not differ except for the number of years with diagnoses of antisocial personality disorder. Subthreshold symptoms in adulthood may be present for a significant period before diagnosis, making this period important for intervention and prevention. Integration of efforts into healthcare, employment, and public policy will help target those at highest risk.
DIXONS AND LAURA ASHLEY: DIFFERENT ROUTES TO INTERNATIONAL GROWTH

The continued poor performance of many retailers trading internationally suggests that effectively managing international operations continues to be a source of great difficulty. This paper presents short case studies of the ways in which two leading UK retailers – Dixons and Laura Ashley – have, by very different mechanisms, expanded their businesses outside the UK. For both companies, a review of their motivations for and philosophies on trading internationally is followed by some observations on the management of their international operations. Both companies have recently restructured their management in an effort to move away from a “multi‐domestic” management style and towards a more integrated “transitional” approach.
Activation of α1‐adrenoceptors enhances excitatory synaptic transmission via a pre‐ and postsynaptic protein kinase C‐dependent mechanism in the medial prefrontal cortex of rats

The physiological effects of α1‐adrenoceptors (α1‐ARs) have been examined in many brain regions. However, little is known about the mechanism of modulation on synaptic transmission by α1‐ARs in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). The present study investigated how α1‐AR activation regulates glutamatergic synaptic transmission in layer V/VI pyramidal cells of the rat mPFC. We found that the α1‐AR agonist phenylephrine (Phe) induced a significant enhancement of the amplitude and frequency of miniature excitatory postsynaptic currents (mEPSCs). The facilitation effect of Phe on the frequency of mEPSCs involved a presynaptic protein kinase C‐dependent pathway. Phe produced a significant enhancement on the amplitude of α‐amino‐3‐hydroxy‐5‐methyl‐4‐isoxazolepropionic acid receptor (AMPA‐R)‐ and N‐methyl‐d‐aspartic acid receptor (NMDA‐R)‐mediated evoked excitatory postsynaptic currents (eEPSCs). Phe enhanced inward currents evoked by puff application of glutamate or NMDA. The Phe‐induced facilitation of AMPA‐R‐ and NMDA‐R‐mediated eEPSCs required, in part, postsynaptic Gq, phospholipase C and PKC. These findings suggest that α1‐AR activation facilitates excitatory synaptic transmission in mPFC pyramidal cells via both pre‐ and post‐synaptic PKC‐dependent mechanisms.
Price Shock Detection With an Influence-Based Model of Social Attention

There has been increasing interest in exploring the impact of human behavior on financial market dynamics. One of the important related questions is whether attention from society can lead to significant stock price movements or even abnormal returns. To answer the question, we develop a new measurement of social attention, named periodic cumulative degree of social attention, by simultaneously considering the individual influence and the information propagation in social networks. Based on the vast social network data, we evaluate the new attention measurement by testing its significance in explaining future abnormal returns. In addition, we test the forecasting ability of social attention for stock price shocks, defined by the cumulative abnormal returns. Our results provide significant evidence to support the intercorrelated relationship between the social attention and future abnormal returns. The outperformance of the new approach in predicting price shocks is also confirmed by comparison with several benchmark methods.
Predicting Long-Term Outcome After Acute Ischemic Stroke

Background and Purpose—An early and reliable prognosis for recovery in stroke patients is important for initiation of individual treatment and for informing patients and relatives. We recently developed and validated models for predicting survival and functional independence within 3 months after acute stroke, based on age and the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score assessed within 6 hours after stroke. Herein we demonstrate the applicability of our models in an independent sample of patients from controlled clinical trials. Methods—The prognostic models were used to predict survival and functional recovery in 5419 patients from the Virtual International Stroke Trials Archive (VISTA). Furthermore, we tried to improve the accuracy by adapting intercepts and estimating new model parameters. Results—The original models were able to correctly classify 70.4% (survival) and 72.9% (functional recovery) of patients. Because the prediction was slightly pessimistic for patients in the controlled trials, adapting the intercept improved the accuracy to 74.8% (survival) and 74.0% (functional recovery). Novel estimation of parameters, however, yielded no relevant further improvement. Conclusions—For acute ischemic stroke patients included in controlled trials, our easy-to-apply prognostic models based on age and National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score correctly predicted survival and functional recovery after 3 months. Furthermore, a simple adaptation helps to adjust for a different prognosis and is recommended if a large data set is available. (Stroke. 2008;39:1821-1826.)
Magnetically active polymeric nanocomposites for two-photon stereolithography

We report about the realization of a negative-tone photoresist for two-photon lithography containing superparamagnetic iron-oxide nanoparticles at 0.1 wt. % concentration. The material was characterized in terms of optical transparence in the visible spectral range and the microfabrication process engineered in order to minimize particles agglomeration. The versatility of two-photon direct laser writing allowed us to fabricate three-dimensional structures with sub-micrometer resolution, letting us envision possible applications of this nanocomposite blend for the realization of complex magnetically actuated MEMS.
A Project Planning Guide For Healthcare Facility Owners

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to thank the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) for allowing me the opportunity to create this guide among other deliverables from College of Architecture at Georgia Tech. Through their grants and generosity, research continues towards the improvement of health and healthcare for all Americans. For more information about the RWJF and their focus areas go to their website, www.rwjf. org. I would like to also thank healthcare consulting industry experts that were willing to review this guide and provide their advice and insight to certain topic areas.
Action refinement in end-based choice settings

The choice operator is essential for the description of action-based reactive systems. If the atomicity of actions is dropped (e.g. by action refinement), one has to decide when the choice is triggered. The standard approach is to trigger the choice when actions start. This thesis examine the alternative approach that the choice is triggered when actions terminate. This end-based choice is motivated and a process algebra, which contains an end-based choice and an action refinement operator, is established. Consistent semantics (operational, denotational, axiomatical) are given. Furthermore, the difference between the start-based and the end-based choice are examined, in particular with respect to equivalence notions. New equivalence are established, since the standard equivalences are not preserved by the end-based action refinement operator.
New Challenges for Industrial Policy in a Knowledge-Based Economy: Toward a Regional Innovation System

Regional innovation systems(RIS) have been put emphasis on as new industrial development strategy in a knowledge-based economy. This paper, examine new directions of industrial policy with regard to the RIS. With the impotance of innovation system, industrial cluster, and inter-firm networks for industrial development, new directions of industrial policy in Korea is suggested as follows; ¤ To make policy efforts to foster firm networks, ¤Ł To be balance of regarding policies designed for fostering competition and promoting collaboration, ¤Ø To establish a regional innovation system with which to boost industrial clusters(or districts). The RIS model for regional industry development is outlined in this paper but policy initiatives for building a RIS have to be extracted from further studies.
Technology acceptance evaluation of electronic banking in Nigeria

Article history: Electronic banking in the modern world today requires some degree of technology acceptance for effectiveness. A lesser statistics in academic research in Africa relating to e-banking denotes the need for more research into the field of e-banking across developing countries. This is further affected by factors militating against e- banking acceptance in developing nations with Nigeria inclusive. This Paper investigates the factors influencing the adoption and effective use of e-banking in Nigeria. Cross-sectional data was collected from 176 respondents through a survey. Multiple regression and factor analysis was employed to analyze data. The findings supported the developed research hypotheses and confirmed that perceived relative advantages, perceived ease of use, and trust in e-banking all impact attitudes toward the intention of adopting Internet banking. This paper makes a contribution to Internet banking literature. It sheds light on the factors that affect online banking adoption. The findings made contributes in terms of understanding the factors that contribute to the adoption of online banking by Nigerian consumers and invariably direct future e-banking policies. Future research can examine myriads of technology acceptance models aimed at achieving more effective results.
Genetical and Cytological Proof of Non-disjunction of the Fourth Chromosome of Drosophila Melanogaster.

droxide, and the lysine as picrate. The residual solution contained an' amount of non-amino nitrogen corresponding approximately to thatdetermined by Van Slyke's method in excess of the arginine and histidine non-amino nitrogen. Attempts to crystallize the free base or its derivatives have been successful only with the phosphotungstate. Recrystallization of the phosphotungstate yields a product in which the ratio, Total N: Amino N = 2 : 1. The free base -prepd. from the recrystallized phosphotungstate is hygroscopic, and decomposes slowly when dried at 1000. It does not appear to be a peptide, for the ratio of amino to total nitrogen is not increased by boiling 40 hours with 20 per cent hydrochloric acid, nor by heating 8 hpurs in a bomb tube at 1250 with 25 per cent sulfuric acid. We are engaged in the preparation of larger. amounts of the substance in the hope of determining its structure. I Literature quoted by D. D. Van Slyke, J. Biol. Chm. ,10, 1911 (15). 1Koessler, K. K. , and Hanke, M. T. , J. Biol. Chem., 39, 1919 (497).
The synthesis, discovery, and development of a highly promising class of microtubule stabilization agents: Curative effects of desoxyepothilones B and F against human tumor xenografts in nude mice

We have evaluated two synthetic epothilone analogues lacking the 12,13-epoxide functionality, 12,13-desoxyepothilone B (dEpoB), and 12,13-desoxyepothilone F (dEpoF). The concentrations required for 50% growth inhibition (IC50) for a variety of anticancer agents were measured in CCRF-CEM/VBL1000 cells (2,048-fold resistance to vinblastine). By using dEpoB, dEpoF, aza-EpoB, and paclitaxel, the IC50 values were 0.029, 0.092, 2.99, and 5.17 μM, respectively. These values represent 4-, 33.5-, 1,423- and 3,133-fold resistance, respectively, when compared with the corresponding IC50 in the parent [nonmultiple drug-resistant (MDR)] CCRF-CEM cells. We then produced MDR human lung carcinoma A549 cells by continuous exposure of the tumor cells to sublethal concentrations of dEpoB (1.8 yr), vinblastine (1.2 yr), and paclitaxel (1.8 yr). This continued exposure led to the development of 2.1-, 4,848-, and 2,553-fold resistance to each drug, respectively. The therapeutic effect of dEpoB and paclitaxel was also compared in vivo in a mouse model by using various tumor xenografts. dEpoB is much more effective in reducing tumor sizes in all MDR tumors tested. Analysis of dEpoF, an analog possessing greater aqueous solubility than dEpoB, showed curative effects similar to dEpoB against K562, CCRF-CEM, and MX-1 xenografts. These results indicate that dEpoB and dEpoF are efficacious antitumor agents with both a broad chemotherapeutic spectrum and wide safety margins.
Study on the adsorption of nitrogen and phosphorus from biogas slurry by NaCl-modified zeolite

A NaCl-modified zeolite was used to simultaneously remove nitrogen and phosphate from biogas slurry. The effect of pH, contact time and dosage of absorbants on the removal efficiency of nitrogen and phosphate were studied. The results showed that the highest removal efficiency of NH4+-N (92.13%) and PO43−-P (90.3%) were achieved at pH 8. While the zeolite doses ranged from 0.5 to 5 g/100 ml, NH4+-N and PO43−-P removal efficiencies ranged from 5.19% to 94.94% and 72.16% to 91.63% respectively. The adsorption isotherms of N and P removal with NaCl-modified zeolite were well described by Langmuir models, suggesting the homogeneous sorption mechanisms. While through intra-particle diffusion model to analyze the influence of contact time, it showed that the adsorption process of NH4+-N and PO43−-P followed the second step of intra-particle diffusion model. The surface diffusion adsorption step was very fast which was finished in a short time.
Customer segmentation based on buying and returning

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to empirically test whether a “one size fits all” strategy fits the fashion e-commerce business and second, to evaluate whether consumer returns are a central aspect of the creation of profitability and, if so, to discuss the role of returns management (RM) in the supply chain strategy. Design/methodology/approach – Transactional sales and return data were analysed and used to categorise customers based on their buying and returning behaviours, measuring each customer’s net contribution margins. Findings – The e-commerce business collects a vast quantity of data, but these data are seldom used for the development of service differentiation. This study analysed behaviour patterns and determined that the segmentation of customers on the basis of both sales and return patterns can facilitate a differentiated service delivery approach. Research limitations/implications – This research empirically supports the theory that customer buying and returning behaviours can be used to appropriately categorise customers and thereby guide the development of a more differentiated service approach. Practical implications – The findings support a differentiated service delivery system that utilises a more dynamic approach, conserving resources and linking the supply chain and/or organisational strategies with customers’ buying and returning behaviours to avoid over and underservicing customers.
Food retail change and the growth of food deserts: a case study of Cardiff

“Food deserts” in British cities are partly the result of the expansion of multiple food retailing. New large stores force smaller stores to close down, thus depriving local residents of food shopping opportunities. Examines this proposition through an analysis of changes in consumer access to food shopping in Cardiff over the last 20 years. Shows that although accessibility scores have increased in Cardiff since 1980 they have increased at a faster rate in higher income areas. In a pocket of deprived areas accessibility has declined over the decade. Thus, there has been a polarisation effect with a widening gap in accessibility scores across the city.
Measuring the Quality of E-Banking Portals - an Empirical Investigation

Purpose - In the internet economy, the business model of web portals has spread rapidly over the last few years. Despite this, there have been very few scholarly investigations into the services and characteristics that transform a web site into a portal as well as into the dimensions that determine the customer's evaluation of the portal's service quality. Design/methodology/approach - Based on an empirical study in the field of e-banking, the authors validate a measurement model for the construct of web portal quality based on the following dimensions: security and trust, basic services quality, cross-buying services quality, added value, transaction support and responsiveness. Findings - The identified dimensions can reasonably be classified into three service categories: core services, additional services, and problem-solving services. Originality/value - The knowledge of these dimensions as major determinants of consumer's quality perception in the internet provides banks a promising starting point for establishing an effective quality management for their e-businesses.
Optimum conditions for selective separation of kraft lignin.

Lignin has been investigated over the last few decades as a promising natural alternative to phenolic resin (phenol-formaldehyde), due to their structural similarity. In the present work, lignin was precipitated from the Kraft black liquor of Eucalyptus camaldulensis Dehn. at pH 2, 4 and 6, respectively in order to determine the optimal separation conditions. A comparison study was performed among the lignin samples obtained, based on yield, average molecular weight, chemical structure and thermal stability. The results showed that the best conditions occurred with lignin precipitation at pH 4. For low molecular weight (MW) lignin, each selective extraction was carried out using dichloromethane, acetone and methanol to study the effects of the lignin to solvent ratio, and extraction time on the lignin yield. Physico-chemical characterization of the low MW lignin was also carried out to evaluate the most suitable lignin for adhesive purposes. The results showed a ratio of 1:5 (lignin:solvent) and an extraction time of 1 h were sufficient for extraction. Dichloromethane-soluble lignin with a molecular weight of approximately 940 g mol-1 would be best for the adhesive formulation in future work.
Managing Reform: How Can the Baltic States as Aid Donors Best Share their Transition Experience with Less Advanced Economies and what Lessons Can they Learn from the International Development Programs of the Nordic Countries?

In spite of the global economic and financial crisis the Baltic States continue with their transition. According to the World Bank, Estonia and Latvia already are high income countries and Lithuania is an upper middle income country. All the Baltic States are members of key multilateral development institutions and have also established their bilateral development programs. Currently they are assisting and sharing their transition experience with countries further to the south and the east, including Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, etc. This article argues that small states can play an important role in economic development and the Baltic States can be important contributors since they have recent and relevant transition experience to share if they engage in policy dialogue with countries that are less advanced in their transition.