Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Role of nitric oxide in renal tubular apoptosis of unilateral ureteral obstruction.

BACKGROUND The obstructed kidney in unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO) is characterized by renal atrophy and tissue loss, which is mediated by renal tubular apoptosis. We sought to determine whether NO is involved in renal tubular apoptosis in vitro and in vivo. METHODS Rat renal tubular epithelial cells (NRK-52E) were subjected to mechanical stretch, and apoptosis and cell size were analyzed by flow cytometry. Furthermore, we studied UUO in mice lacking the gene for inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS-/-) and their wild-type littermates. Tubular apoptosis and proliferation were detected by immunostaining. NOS activity and NOS expression were assessed by a citrulline assay and Western blot, respectively. RESULTS Stretching-induced apoptosis in NRK-52E, which was reduced when NO was increased; conversely, stretch-induced apoptosis was increased when a NOS inhibitor was added to the cells. Stretched cells are larger and more apoptotic than unstretched cells. In UUO, the obstructed kidney of iNOS-/- mice exhibited more apoptotic renal tubules than the wild-type mice through 14 days of UUO. The obstructed kidney of iNOS-/- mice at day 3 showed more proliferative tubules compared with wild type. The obstructed kidney of wild-type mice exhibited higher total NOS activity until day 7 after UUO compared with iNOS-/- mice. However, the obstructed kidney of day 14 wild-type mice exhibited significantly lower iNOS activity and protein compared with the day 0 kidney. CONCLUSION These results suggest that mechanical stretch is related to renal tubular apoptosis and that NO plays a protective role in this system in UUO.
Public safety networks

Disaster can be defined as the onset of an extreme event causing profound damage or loss as perceived by the afflicted people. The networks built in order to detect and handle these events are called Public safety networks (PSNs). These networks have the fundamental role of providing communication and coordination for emergency operations. Many of the problems of the PSN field come from the heterogeneity of systems and agencies involved in the crisis site and from their mobility at the disaster site. The main aim of this book chapter is to provide a broad view of the PSN field, presenting the different emergency management phases, PSNs requirements, technologies and some of the future research directions for this field.
Acute rejection following renal transplantation. Evidence that severity is the best predictor of subsequent graft survival time.

UNLABELLED Timely recognition of risk factors influencing graft survival time following kidney transplantation could facilitate the development of clinical interventions that would increase the longevity of graft survival. To identify these risk factors, we performed a retrospective analysis of the clinical outcome of 1949 renal transplants performed at The Ohio State University Transplant Program between 22 September 1982 and 14 June 1996. The number of acute rejection (AR) episodes was most predictive of shorter graft survival time. The first AR episode severity (indexed using the difference between post-treatment serum creatinine (RxCr) and baseline serum creatinine (BCr), or DeltaCr = RxCr - BCr) was the best predictor of graft survival time (r = 0.27, p < 0.0001) in patients experiencing AR. Subsequent AR episodes occurred more frequently in patients with a higher DeltaCr. However, DeltaCr was the best predictor of graft survival time (r = 0.44, p < 0.0001) in patients who had only one AR episode. The severity of the first AR episode (DeltaCr) correlated with the risk of subsequent AR episodes, the severity of a second AR episode and the average of mean blood pressures obtained after, but not before, the first AR episode. Therefore, we conclude that the severity of the first AR episode was the best predictor of renal allograft survival time in all patients experiencing AR, independent of subsequent AR episodes and correlated with subsequent clinical events which also influence renal allograft survival time. Thus, early diagnosis and aggressive treatment of the first AR episode are warranted to minimize AR severity and thereby maximize subsequent graft survival time. CONCLUSIONS The severity of the first acute rejection episode following renal transplantation is the best determinant of graft survival time and correlates with subsequent clinical events which could further reduce graft survival time.
Design studies of three layer HIS design for L-band frequencies

This paper presents design studies of three layer high impedance surface for three different structures (prototypes) with and without vias for L band application. High impedance surface zero reflection phase and surface wave band and current density are few important aspects taken into consideration for comparing three HIS structures for different antenna applications. Transverse electric and transverse magnetic modes are realized from dispersion diagram. Dispersion diagram of three HIS structures is realized by Eigen mode solver. Design and simulation of three layers HIS is performed using CST v.15.
Ecologically Concerned Consumers: Who are They?

much solid waste as manufacturing does.1 Numerous consumer products, such as automobiles, laundry detergents, glass and aluminum containers, pesticides, and fertilizers, have been identified as significant contributors to environmental deterioration.2 Whether marketers like it or not, they are increasingly being caught in an ecology/ market choice controversy that is already affecting the way many goods and services are marketed. At the same time, public policy makers are under greater pressure to define their role in coping with the problem. A key factor in the controversy is the consumer, whose personal consumption decisions can help maintain the environment or contribute to its deterioration.
Outcomes in patients waiting for antiretroviral treatment in the Free State Province, South Africa: prospective linkage study

Objective:In South Africa, many HIV-infected patients experience delays in accessing antiretroviral therapy (ART). We examined pretreatment mortality and access to treatment in patients waiting for ART. Design:Cohort of HIV-infected patients assessed for ART eligibility at 36 facilities participating in the Comprehensive HIV and AIDS Management (CHAM) program in the Free State Province. Methods:Proportion of patients initiating ART, pre-ART mortality and risk factors associated with these outcomes were estimated using competing risks survival analysis. Results:Forty-four thousand, eight hundred and forty-four patients enrolled in CHAM between May 2004 and December 2007, of whom 22 083 (49.2%) were eligible for ART; pre-ART mortality was 53.2 per 100 person-years [95% confidence interval (CI) 51.8–54.7]. Median CD4 cell count at eligibility increased from 87 cells/μl in 2004 to 101 cells/μl in 2007. Two years after eligibility an estimated 67.7% (67.1–68.4%) of patients had started ART, and 26.2% (25.6–26.9%) died before starting ART. Among patients with CD4 cell counts below 25 cells/μl at eligibility, 48% died before ART and 51% initiated ART. Men were less likely to start treatment and more likely to die than women. Patients in rural clinics or clinics with low staffing levels had lower rates of starting treatment and higher mortality compared with patients in urban/peri-urban clinics, or better staffed clinics. Conclusions:Mortality is high in eligible patients waiting for ART in the Free State Province. The most immunocompromised patients had the lowest probability of starting ART and the highest risk of pre-ART death. Prioritization of these patients should reduce waiting times and pre-ART mortality.
Internet Use Among Community College Students: Implications in Designing Healthcare Interventions

The Internet has become a commonly used venue for seeking healthcare information. Young adults search the Internet for health information more than any other group, yet little is known about use patterns among community college students. The authors surveyed a diverse community college to assess students' use of the Internet for health-related information. More than 80% had home Internet access, regardless of race or gender. Men and women searched for health information in almost equal numbers. Most students were interested in searching for diet/nutrition topics, and least interested in smoking information. Although the digital divide appears to be closing, varying levels of interest in a variety of important health topics remain. Understanding these differences could guide the design of more effective Web-based health interventions.
Contractual Satisfaction: The Polish and Tanzanian Perspectives

Purpose: Interfirm satisfaction has been studied at the aggregate level, which has limited use in terms of understanding specific dimensions. Contractual satisfaction relates to the specific level of analyzing interfirm satisfaction. This study contributes towards understanding contractual satisfaction and the contextual nature of the concept. To achieve the latter, two heterogeneous emerging markets were used (Poland and Tanzania). Methodology: The study was conducted in Poland and Tanzania, focusing on manufacturing firms. The sample included 201 Polish firms and 240 Tanzanian firms. Findings: The major findings suggest that ex ante costs and ex post specifications have a significant positive effect on contractual satisfaction, with a stronger effect in Poland. Behavioral uncertainty has a significant moderating effect on these two constructs in Tanzania but not in Poland, whereas the moderating effect of trust is found to be significantly positive in Poland but negative in Tanzania. Research Implications: The nature of markets and institutions has an influence on business to business relations. Practical Implications: Contractual satisfaction is not homogeneous across markets; managers should pay attention to specific contextual factors such as institutions and the stage they are at in their transformation. Originality: The study looks specifically at contractual satisfaction and extends the contractual governance literature by considering heterogeneous emerging markets.
Relationship between Disclosure Level and Cost of Equity in Companies Listed in Tehran Stock Market

The present study aims at investigating the relationship between disclosure level and cost of equity in select companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE). The study adopts a descriptive-correlational method. The population of the study consisted of all manufacturing companies listed in TSE (N=201). The research sample was selected based on prerequisite inclusion criteria using random sampling technique. In this regard, a number of 67 companies were selected as the sample from among the population. Pearson correlation coefficient and linear regression analysis were run to analyze the data. Disclosure level was measured based on the two variables of information reliability and timeliness. The results showed a significant negative correlation of the reliability and timeliness of information with the cost of equity. In other words, with increased disclosure level, cost of equity decreased. Besides, either variable was shown to be significant predictors of the cost of equity. Finally, we provide viable and research recommendations to guide further studies.
The hidden costs of outsourcing: evidence from patent data

Drawing on patent data for approximately 500 firms over 20 years, we advance recent theory on firm boundaries and test these propositions for the first time. We first provide evidence for the existence of knowledge complementarities between vertically related activities in a firm's value chain by showing that firms face increasing (decreasing) performance in conducting downstream activities (i.e., patent litigation) the less (more) they outsource related upstream activities (i.e., patent filing). We then propose and empirically demonstrate that vertical integration benefits through learning differ from vertical outsourcing costs through forgetting. We show that firms can partly offset these hidden outsourcing costs by sourcing similar upstream products from internal and external suppliers. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The Effect of Endogenous Contract Selection on Budgetary Slack: An Experimental Examination of Trust, Distrust, and Trustworthiness

This study examines the effect of endogenous contract selection on budgetary slack using two slack-inducing contracts found in the literature: a trust contract where the superior must accept any feasible budget submitted by the subordinate and a discretion contract where the superior can accept or reject the budget. We find that both contracts generate less budgetary slack when they are endogenously selected by the superior than when they are randomly assigned by the experimenter. Exit questionnaire responses support our expectation that selecting a trust contract signals trust and expectations of trustworthiness whereas selecting a discretion contract signals distrust and an increased willingness to reject unreasonable budgets. We find the greatest level of efficiency with the endogenously selected discretion contract, which is not significantly different in efficiency than the optimal hurdle contract under traditional agency assumptions. Thus, our results suggest that endogenous contract selection improves efficiency whether it signals trust or distrust and signaling distrust may be optimal for the firm in some contracting settings.
Social Media Marketing Strategies for Customer Retention in Fitness Industry.

Aleksandra Ilina Social Media Marketing Strategies for Customer Retention in Fitness Industry, 46 pages, 1 appendix Saimaa University of Applied Sciences Faculty of Business Administration, Lappeenranta Degree Programme in International Business Bachelor’s Thesis 2015 Instructors: Lecturer Sami Lanu, Saimaa University of Applied Sciences The purpose of the study was to investigate the most effective ways of social media marketing that can be applied for customers’ loyalty management in fitness industry, as well as particular features, benefits, and methods of these strategies. The main idea is to create appropriate guidelines for the case companies to build social bonds with customer that will positively impact on maintaining communication and retention. The data for this study were collected from several sources, such as articles, books, and journals. The customer retention process was analyzed on the example of two fitness clubs located in Finland and Spain. The quantitative research method was selected for acquiring data from the two case companies for further analysis and formulation of recommendations. The results of the study revealed the significance of social media marketing in fitness service management in modern society. A comparison of earlier and more recent studies on customer retention concept helped in investigation of effective strategic approaches that successfully work nowadays. Together with the analysis of the organizations that played a role of examples in the author’s case study, a set of general guidelines were elaborated for fitness clubs that disclose some hidden opportunities of social media sites for an improved application of customer retention techniques.
Tools for Strategy Development in Family Firms

Family businesses provide a unique model for companies reconsidering their basic strategies. In all types of businesses, leaders experience the emotional and cognitive demands of strategic decision making that are most prevalent in family firms. The authors see three issues that are relevant to family businesses: (1) stages in the family life cycle do not coincide with strategic imperatives; (2) the founder's ideas and intentions may dominate future decision making and make change difficult; (3) later generations may want to diversify their holdings and may not trust other family members in the same way they trusted their parents. After studying and working with family firms, Drozdow and Carroll found four criteria for family firms' strategic planning approaches: 1. Link feelings to choices. Family members must consider their feelings of fear and guilt in making strategic choices. 2. Link business strategy to ownership structure. Members must consider all ownership issues along with capital structures and financial plans in planning strategy. 3. Embed strategy development into the key relationships in the business. Family relationships cannot be allowed to dominate how people think about the company and its prospects. 4. Help family members and leaders accelerate the pace of strategy review. Rather than linking planning to life cycle changes, family firms must see development as ongoing, not generational. The authors used simulation tools to help family members change their way of thinking about their firms. In two examples, they helped members assess the future through memos, articles, role playing, and scenarios. In the first, the Trout family needed to make strategy and succession decisions. In the second, the Dewey family had to decide whether to sell the firm, make a partial public offering, or remain the same. After the simulations, family members and managers were better able to envision their company's business and their relationships to it and each other.
The persistence of knowledge‐based advantage: an empirical test for product performance and technological knowledge

Resource-based theory maintains that intrinsic characteristics of resources and capabilities, such as their tacitness, complexity, and specificity, prevent imitation and thereby prolong exceptional performance. There is little direct evidence to verify these claims, yet a substantial literature encourages firms to formulate competitive strategies around resources with these attributes. Further, work outside the resource-based tradition suggests that these attributes can slow innovation, and it is not clear when this effect outweighs the benefits of inimitability. This paper seeks to clarify whether and how the complexity, tacitness, and specificity of a firm's knowledge affect the persistence of its performance advantages. We find that the complexity and tacitness of technological knowledge are useful for defending a firm's major product improvements from imitation, but not for protecting its minor improvements. The design specificity of technological knowledge delayed imitation of minor improvements in this study. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
What's Different About Family Businesses?

Family businesses make up forty percent of the Fortune 500 companies in the US, generate about two-thirds of the German GDP, employ about one-half of the labor force in Britain, and account for the majority of the private economies in developing countries. This paper develops a theory of family business that brings market forces and the family, as a nonmarket institution, under one rubric. The paper highlights and analyzes important factors, including product market competition, trust, and succession, which allow family businesses to thrive and to successfully compete with other businesses.
Long‐term glycaemic control directly correlates with glomerular filtration rate in early Type 1 diabetes mellitus before the onset of microalbuminuria

Hyperfiltration occurs early in diabetes mellitus and has been implicated in the development of microalbuminuria. Our aim was to re‐examine the controversial relationship between glycaemic control and glomerular filtration (GFR) in normoalbuminuric, normotensive, non‐obese patients with short duration Type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM). We studied 75 Type 1 DM patients, 35 male, aged 18–42 years, with a duration of diabetes of 4–8 years. GFR was determined by inulin clearance; hyperfiltration was defined as above 145 ml min−1 1.73 m−2 (equivalent to 2 SD above mean for a control population). Analysis was by paired Student’s t‐testing and linear regression. GFR correlated significantly with HbA1c (r = 0.47, p < 0.0001) and fructosamine (r = 0.24, p = 0.035). Mean HbA1c and fructosamine in the 13 patients with hyperfiltration was significantly higher than in the rest of the group (HbA1c: 9.2 % (95 % C.I. 7.9–10.4 %) vs 7.6 % (7.2–7.9), p = 0.002; fructosamine: 479 μmol l−1 (450–507) vs 410 μmol l−1 (388–432), p = 0.009. This significant difference persisted even when the two highest values of HbA1c or fructosamine were removed from analysis. Effective renal plasma flow, assessed by PAH clearance, also correlated in all patients with HbA1c (r = 0.31, p = 0.039). We conclude that poor glycaemic control directly correlates with hyperfiltration and renal hyperperfusion in early Type 1 DM. Copyright © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Change in transcription of repetitive DNA sequences in N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine-transformed hamster cells.

Transcription of repetitive DNA in in vitro -transformed hamster cells was compared with that of normal control cells by the technique of DNA-RNA hybridization. Hybridization efficiencies of rapidly labeled RNA extracted from these cells were almost identical, indicating no significant increase in the concentration of hybridizable RNA in the transformed cells. Hybridization-competition experiments indicated that certain segments of repetitive DNA which had not been transcribed in the normal cells were activated in the transformed cells, whereas no detectable deletion occurred in the RNA population of transformed cells as compared with normal fibroblasts. On the other hand, the total stable RNA population was not significantly different between these two types of cells.
Molecular characterization of human homologs of yeast MOB1

MOB (Mps one binder) was originally identified in yeast as a regulator of mitotic exit and cytokinesis, and was later identified as a tumor suppressor and a component of an emerging Hippo‐LATS tumor suppressor pathway in Drosophila (D). So far, 7 human homologs of yeast MOB (hMOB1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, 2C, 3, 4) have been identified. Although hMOB1A/B has been extensively studied, the biological features of other hMOBs are largely unknown. In addition, while hMOB1 has been reported to interact with and activate LATS (Large tumor suppressor)/Warts tumor suppressor, the functional significance of this is unknown. In this study, we have characterized, for the first time, the cellular and biochemical function of all human MOBs. By examining hMOB mRNAs expression in various human tissues, we found that hMOBs demonstrated different expression patterns. Further biochemical characterization of hMOBs showed that only hMOB1A and hMOB1B interact with both LATS1 and LATS2 in vitro and in vivo. Significantly, we have discovered that overexpression of hMOB1 in human cancer cells activated LATS activity and inhibited cell proliferation or caused apoptosis while hMOB1, targeting the plasma membrane, led to a more significant phenotype. Reciprocally, short‐hairpin (sh) RNA‐mediated suppression of hMOB1 causes increased cell proliferation. Our findings provided evidence that hMOB1A and hMOB1B are 2 LATS‐binding proteins that may function as tumor suppressors in human cancer cells.