Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Determination of Lewis FUT3 gene mutations by PCR using sequence‐specific primers enables efficient genotyping of clinical samples

We have developed a polymerase chain reaction method using sequence‐specific primers (PCR‐SSP) for rapid and correct genotyping of the common Lewis (FUT3) gene mutations 59T>G, 202T>C, 314C>T, 508G>A, and 1067T>A. The PCR‐SSP method was validated on 20 healthy blood donors and 16 non‐insulin‐dependent diabetic patients. All individuals were in parallel genotyped by our established polymerase chain reaction–restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR‐RFLP) analysis. The FUT3 genotypes, determined with the PCR‐SSP method, were in complete accordance with the results of the PCR‐RFLP reference method. The PCR‐SSP method could also be adapted to assign the presence of a specific mutation to the respective FUT3 alleles. We found the method to be reliable, rapid and cheap with no requirements for restriction enzyme processing. Hum Mutat 18:358–359, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The body composition, nutritional knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, and future education needs of senior schoolboy rugby players in Ireland.

PURPOSE This study examined the body composition, nutritional knowledge, behaviors, attitudes, and educational needs of senior schoolboy rugby players in Ireland. METHODS Participants included 203 male rugby players age 15-18 yr competing at Senior School's Cup level in Leinster, Ireland. Estimation of body composition included measurement of height, weight, and percentage body fat (PBF; using bioelectrical impedance analysis, Tanita BC-418). Nutritional knowledge, behaviors, attitudes, and education needs were assessed by questionnaire. RESULTS The range of PBF was 5.1-25.3%. Sixty-eight percent of the players in this study had a healthy PBF (10-20%), 32 (22%) were classified as underweight (<10% body fat), and 9.7% (n = 14) were overweight. Assessment of nutritional knowledge demonstrated poor knowledge of the foods required for refueling, appropriate use of sports drinks, and the role of protein in muscle formation. Alcohol consumption and dietary supplement use were reported by 87.7% and 64.5%, respectively. A perception that greater body size enhances sport performance did not predict dietary supplement use. Nutritional advice had been previously sought by 121 players from coaches (66.9%), magazines (42.1%), Web sites (38.8%), peers (35.5%), family (28.1%), sport organizations (16.5%), and health professionals (8.2%). Nutritional knowledge was no better in these players, nor did better nutritional knowledge correlate with positive dietary behaviors or attitudes. CONCLUSIONS Most players had a healthy PBF. Despite a positive attitude toward nutrition, poor nutritional knowledge and dietary practices were observed in many players. Young athletes' nutritional knowledge and dietary practices may benefit from appropriate nutritional education.
Perception of Partner Sleep and Mood: Postpartum Couples’ Relationship Satisfaction

Separate research areas indicate that sleep quality, mood, and relationship satisfaction decline among couples during the postpartum period. Furthermore, accurate partner perceptions are associated with positive relationship qualities. In this study, 21 first-time postpartum mother–father dyads, contributed 1 week of continuous wrist actigraphy along with concurrent subjective Palm Pilot monitoring to provide objective and subjective sleep measures. Parents also reported on their own as well as their perception of their partners’ sleep, mood, and relationship satisfaction. Greater objectively measured total sleep time was associated with greater relationship satisfaction. Mothers (a) underestimated fathers’ self-reported frequency of nocturnal awakenings, as well as (b) relationship satisfaction, and (c) overestimated fathers’ self-reported sleep quality. Fathers (a) underestimated mothers’ self-reported duration of wake at night, as well as (b) sleep quality, and (c) overestimated mothers’ self-reported mood disturbance. Preventative measures that target sleep and improvement in perception of partner's experiences could be used to buffer against decreases in relationship satisfaction among new parents.
The Industrial Differences of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Reporting: An Empirical Study of Listed Firms in Ghana

This article comparatively examines corporate social responsibilities reporting in the context of listed companies in the emerging economy - Ghana. The stakeholders’ anticipations for infrastructural development demand pressures and reporting have forced the companies to persistently improve their functioning practices whereas engage in Corporate Social Responsibility practices. This article searches the journey taken by the listed firms, as they implement their social responsibilities policies. The researchers use the companies’ secondary data drawn from their corporate reports to answer three research questions. The three common findings after testing our hypothesis indicates that there is a significant CSR reporting among the listed firms on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) which seeks to support the “triple bottom line” approach. The outcomes provide additional confirmation that CSR reporting in Ghana are not stable, all-purpose and more of altruistic in nature. The aftermaths, therefore, provide some initial indication of the possibility that CSR reporting in Ghana represent attempts by companies to advance their corporate expelling image and to be seen as responsible corporate citizens in their actions of operations in the host communities.The government therefore have to put in place stern principles to control listed firms to implement their CSR policies to their host communities to win the legitimacy within the environment they find themselves.
Auditor Terms and Term Limits in the Public Sector: Evidence from the US States

Improving transparency and enabling the principal to hold its agents accountable is a major issue in any principal agent relationship. This paper focuses on the role of public auditors in this task and presents evidence on the impact of auditor term length and term limits on government performance at the US State level. While the empirical results for the influence of term length are ambiguous, I find strong evidence for a positive and significant influence of term limits on state credit ratings. Auditors who face a binding term limit seem to be more effective monitors, which improves credit ratings.
Are empathic abilities learnable? Implications for social neuroscientific research from psychometric assessments

Empathy is defined as an individually varying but stable personality trait. To our knowledge this notion seems questionable considering recent studies proving neuronal plasticity not only in childhood and adolescence but over the whole lifespan. We propose a model in which an individual’s basic empathic abilities—arising from genetic factors, brain maturation, and early attachment experiences —are continually modulated by the intensity, continuity, and frequency of interpersonal socio-emotional stimulation and challenges. We assume neural processes and their underlying neural structures being modified by social and socio-emotional stimulation. Continuous social interactions should produce noticeable effects on the empathic abilities of an individual independent of age or brain maturation level. In particular, empathic abilities should be learnable and expandable beyond specific developmental windows. To elucidate this hypothesis we surveyed empathy measures of students of various professions with the help of a new instrument, the Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy (QCAE) categorizing them into three different groups depending on their subsequent occupational fields: medical students, students of academic social professions, and a control group. Results indicate that continuous socio-emotional stimulation could increase empathic abilities potentially leading to learning effects.
Markov Chain Monte Carlo Analysis of Correlated Count Data

This article is concerned with the analysis of correlated count data. A class of models is proposed in which the correlation among the counts is represented by correlated latent effects. Special cases of the model are discussed and a tuned and ef cient Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm is developed to estimate the model under both multivariate normal and multivariate-t assumptions on the latent effects. The methods are illustrated with two real data examples of six and sixteen variate correlated counts.
Intravascular Ultrasound Imaging in the Assessment of Atherosclerotic Plaques in Rabbit Abdominal Aorta: Comparison With Histologic Findings

Ochiai R, Kisanuki A, Asada Y, et al. Intravascular ultrasound imaging in the assessment of atherosclerotic plaques in rabbit abdominal aorta: Comparison with histologic findings. Invest Radiol 2002;37:309–313. rationale and objectives. To examine the correlation between the echogenicity and the components of atherosclerotic plaques in rabbit. methods. The atherosclerotic plaque formation in the abdominal aortas of hyperlipidemic or normolipidemic rabbits was stimulated by inserting polyethylene tubing. Intravascular ultrasound (30-MHz, 4.5 F catheter) investigation was performed at locations in the vessel. The intravascular ultrasound images of the plaques were evaluated and compared with the histologic findings. results. Ultrasound images delineated areas showing hyperechoic or hypoechoic ultrasound beams in the plaques. Histologic studies revealed that the hyperechoic areas were closely associated with a dense fibrous extracellular matrix, whereas the hypoechoic areas corresponded to lesions showing a marked accumulation of foamy macrophages or proteoglycan-rich loose myxoid extracellular matrix with smooth muscle cell proliferation. conclusion. A good correlation between ultrasound images and histologic features was observed. These results suggest that intravascular ultrasound imaging could provide useful information for assessing the tissue characteristics of atherosclerotic lesions.
Dealing With Spatial Heterogeneity in Entrepreneurship Research

In quantitative research, analyses are generally made using a geographically defined population as the study area. In this context, the relationships between predictor and response variables can differ within the study area, a feature that is known as spatial heterogeneity. Without analyzing spatial heterogeneity, a global model may not be correct, and there may be unclear spatial boundaries in the generalizability of the findings. The authors discuss how the method of geographically weighted regression (GWR) can be used to identify the study area, and illustrate the utility of GWR for empirical analyses in entrepreneurship research. Future entrepreneurship research can benefit from analyzing whether conflicting evidence may be due to spatial heterogeneity and from applying GWR in an exploratory way.
Efficacy model for mosquito stage transmission blocking vaccines for malaria

SUMMARY Vaccines that target antigens found on the mosquito stages of Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax parasites are under development as transmission blocking vaccines. Antisera from vaccinated animals and humans are able to block oocyst development in artificially fed mosquitoes but it is not clear from these data what level of antibody response would be required for a useful vaccine in a field setting. This paper describes a mathematical model that takes into account the relationship between antibody levels and blocking of oocyst levels in artificial feeds, the distribution of antibody responses seen in human populations and the distribution of oocyst densities in infected mosquitoes in the field to calculate the levels of antibody in the host population that would be required to achieve a level of herd immunity in a vaccinated human population that would give an operationally useful level of transmission blocking. The model predicts that current formulations of Pfs25 are likely to achieve useful reductions in transmission when tested in human field trials.
Waiting time influence on the satisfaction‐loyalty relationship in services

Purpose – Delay is an important issue for service providers. Indeed, previous studies have widely shown the negative effect of waiting time on consumer service satisfaction. However, being satisfied with the service seems to be insufficient for customers to remain loyal. Creating customer loyalty is even more crucial than just satisfying them. The paper aims to investigate how customers weigh up their service satisfaction and waiting time satisfaction in order to determine whether they will remain loyal or not.Design/methodology/approach – A survey was conducted in the Belgian health care industry. The final sample includes 946 respondents. Regression analyses were performed and the Baron and Kenny method used to test moderator and mediator impacts of variables.Findings – The results confirm that waiting time satisfaction is not only a service satisfaction determinant, but it also moderates the satisfaction‐loyalty relationship. Moreover, determinants of customer waiting time satisfaction include the perc.
Lattice calculation of parton distributions

We report on our exploratory study for the direct evaluation of the parton distribution functions from lattice QCD, based on a recently proposed new approach. We present encouraging results using Nf = 2 + 1 + 1 twisted mass fermions with a pion mass of about 370 MeV. The focus of this work is a detailed description of the computation, including the lattice calculation, the matching to an infinite momentum and the nucleon mass correction. In addition, we test the effect of gauge link smearing in the operator to estimate the influence of the Wilson line renormalization, which is yet to be done.
Reducing harmful alcohol-related behaviors: effective regulatory methods.

OBJECTIVE This article examines the effects of tort liability, criminal law, administrative regulation, price and availability of alcohol, and personal and state characteristics on the decisions to engage in heavy episodic drinking and to drink and drive. METHOD Individual behavior data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveys (1984-95) were used in a logit analysis of the probability that a respondent engaged in heavy episodic drinking (n = 86,273), drinking and driving (n = 87,087) and drinking and driving if also a heavy episodic drinker (n = 22,261). RESULTS Imposing tort liability on bars reduced self-reported incidents of drunk driving among all drinkers (p = .043) but did not reduce the probability of heavy episodic drinking or drinking and driving among heavy drinkers. In this first national study of the impact of social host liability, we found that such liability lowered the self-reported probability of heavy episodic drinking (p = .0004) and drinking and driving among all drinkers (p = .0005). CONCLUSIONS Although several criminal and administrative regulations were also effective in reducing heavy episodic drinking and drunk driving, the imposition of tort liability represents a useful addition to the arsenal of alcohol-control policies.
Burning Issues: The Changing Role of Deputy and Assistant Principals

Identified issues for DP/APs Changing role In New Zealand DP/APs are part of a senior management team. Their responsibilities can be broadly categorised as involving administration, management of resources, communication, meetings, people management, staff development and change management (Kemp and Nathan 1991). Meeting these responsibilities requires planning, organising a variety of tasks, directing the implementation of policies, and making decisions with the principal regarding staff and students (Lawley 1988).
Surgeon: a packager for dynamically reconfigurable distributed applications

Surgeon is a tool that helps programmers prepare software to be dynamically reconfigured. Dynamic reconfiguration environments allow programmers to change a distributed software application while it executes, but existing environments require programmers to manually adapt their software for reconfiguration. However, recent work on the automatic preparation of software for a distributed execution environment (software packaging) shows that interfacing software can be generated automatically, given abstract descriptions of the components and the desired application geometry. Surgeon merges these results so that programmers can dynamically reconfigure their applications without the overhead of manually adapting the software.
Mediators of tau phosphorylation in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease

The need for disease-modifying drugs for Alzheimer’s disease has become increasingly important owing to escalating disease prevalence and the associated socio-economic burden. Until recently, reducing brain amyloid accumulation has been the main therapeutic focus; however, increasing evidence suggests that targeting abnormal tau phosphorylation could be beneficial. Tau is phosphorylated by several protein kinases and this is balanced by dephosphorylation by protein phosphatases. Phosphorylation at specific sites can influence the physiological functions of tau, including its role in binding to and stabilizing the neuronal cytoskeleton. aberrant phosphorylation of tau could render it susceptible to potentially pathogenic alterations, including conformational changes, proteolytic cleavage and aggregation. While strategies that reduce tau phosphorylation in transgenic models of disease have been promising, our understanding of the mechanisms through which tau becomes abnormally phosphorylated in disease is lacking.
Effects of Reducing the Income Cap on Eligibility for Farm Program Payments

The current $2.5-million income cap on eligibility for farm program payments affects only a small number of farm program payment recipients each year. A reduction in the cap to $200,000 would affect a larger number of farm households but still only a small share of recipients. Based on IRS tax data for 2004, about 1.2 percent of all farm sole proprietors and about 2 percent of crop share landlords would be potentially subject to the proposed lower adjusted gross income (AGI) cap. ARMS survey data suggest a similar share of farm sole proprietors (1.1 percent) could be affected. When partnerships and farm corporations are included, about 1.5 percent of all farm operator households could be affected because a larger share of farm partnerships (2.5 percent) and farm corporations (9.7 percent) could be subject to the proposed cap. ARMS data indicate that $807 million in payments were received in 2004 by farm operators organized as proprietors, partnerships, and corporations with incomes exceeding $200,000. However, not all of these payments would be affected by a $200,000 income cap on eligibility for payments due to differences in IRS and ARMS data and changes by producers in how they manage their incomes and expenses. The study also found that farm income averaged $271,749 and net worth averaged over $1.86 million for farm households with AGI estimated to be over $200,000 based on the ARMS data.
An Illumination-Robust Approach for Feature-Based Road Detection

Road detection algorithms constitute a basis for intelligent vehicle systems which are designed to improve safety and efficiency for human drivers. In this paper, a novel road detection approach intended for tackling illumination-related effects is proposed. First, a grayscale image of modified saturation is derived from the input color image during preprocessing, effectively diminishing cast shadows. Second, the road boundary lines are detected, which provides an adaptive region of interest for the following lane-marking detection. Finally, an improved feature-based method is employed to identify lane-markings from the shadows. The experimental results show that the proposed approach is robust against illumination-related effects.
Chondrocyte IGF-1 receptor expression and responsiveness to IGF-1 stimulation in mouse articular cartilage during various phases of experimentally induced arthritis.

OBJECTIVE--To examine the distribution of insulin like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) receptors and the biological response to IGF-1 stimulation in articular cartilage of normal mouse knee joints and arthritic joints taken at various stages of experimentally induced arthritis. METHODS--In situ IGF-1 receptor expression and responsiveness to IGF-1 stimulation were examined in murine articular cartilage at different phases in two models of experimentally induced arthritis. IGF-1 receptor expression was visualised in joint sections with the use of anti-IGF-1 receptor antibodies and quantified by confocal laser scanning microscopy. Chondrocyte proteoglycan (PG) synthesis was measured by incorporation of 35S-sulphate. RESULTS--In control cartilage, the majority of IGF-1 receptors were found on chondrocytes localised in the middle and deeper zones of the cartilage, whereas receptor expression in surface zone chondrocytes was very low. During culture of normal articular cartilage, IGF-1 was able to maintain chondrocyte PG synthesis at the in vivo level. Concurrently with the development of arthritis, cartilage lost its capacity to react to IGF-1, but IGF-1 stimulation recovered when the inflammatory response waned. Shortly after induction of arthritis, IGF-1 receptor expression initially declined, but it had returned to normal levels by day 1 and remained increased thereafter. CONCLUSION--The distribution of IGF-1 receptor expression in the different zones of normal articular cartilage reflects IGF-1 stimulation and metabolic activity of chondrocytes in these layers. This correlation is disturbed in arthritic cartilage, suggesting inadequate or overruled signalling.
Sialoadhesin on macrophages: its identification as a lymphocyte adhesion molecule

In this study we present evidence that the mouse and rat sialoadhesin (originally named sheep erythrocyte receptor) on macrophages can function as a lymphocyte adhesion molecule. Lymphocytes were shown to bind to the splenic marginal zone, and lymph node subcapsular sinus and medulla in a frozen section assay. Selective depletion experiments showed that binding was mediated by macrophages. Adhesion was blocked by preincubation of the sections with monoclonal antibodies against mouse or rat sialoadhesin. Binding was temperature dependent, divalent cation independent, and involved sialic acid residues on the lymphocyte, as it could be inhibited by prior neuraminidase treatment or addition of the ganglioside GD1a. Binding to sialoadhesin was confirmed using the purified receptor and was observed among T cells, T blasts, B cells, and B blasts. Isolated macrophages or dendritic cells showed little binding. Sialoadhesin provides the first example of a macrophage-restricted lymphocyte adhesion molecule.
Unilateral Posterior Stromal Keratitis Possibly Secondary to Lyme Disease

Purpose: To report a case of Lyme disease presenting as unilateral posterior stromal keratitis in a pediatric patient. Methods: Case report and review of available literature. Results: A 13-year-old adolescent with unilateral painless blurry vision presented with prominent posterior corneal stromal haze. A positive Borrelia burgdorferi antibody enzyme immunoassay and Western blot analysis (9 of 10 reactive immunoglobulin G bands and 1 of 3 immunoglobulin M bands) confirmed the diagnosis. Treatment with oral antibiotics and topical corticosteroids were necessary for resolution. Conclusions: Lyme disease may present as a unilateral posterior stromal keratitis, even in a pediatric population. Treatment requires both systemic and topical therapy.
Testing Small System Customer Set-Up

Customer Set-Up is a proven approach to reducing service costs and providing products at lower prices to customers. To ensure the effectiveness of Customer Set-Up instructions and procedures, these instructions and procedures must be studied before being shipped with their associated product. This paper will address several points to consider when planning a study of a Customer Set-Up system, such as procedure, appropriateness of subjects, number of subjects, the iterative procedure, studies vs. test, and development of test criteria.