bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
microRNA changes in liver tissue associated with fibrosis progression in patients with hepatitis C
Authors: Van Keuren‐Jensen Kendall R. , Malenica Ivana , Courtright Amanda L. , Ghaffari Layla T. , Starr Alex P. , Metpally Raghu P. , Beecroft Taylor A. , Carlson Elizabeth W.J. , Kiefer Jeffrey A. , Pockros Paul J. , Rakela Jorge 
Published: July 2015

AbstractBackground & AimsAccumulating evidence indicates that microRNAs play a role in a number of disease processes including the pathogenesis of liver fibrosis in hepatitis C infection. Our goal is to add to the accruing information regarding microRNA deregulation in liver fibrosis to increase our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of pathology and progression.MethodsWe used next generation sequencing to profile all detectable microRNAs in liver tissue and serum from patients with hepatitis C, stages F1–F4 of fibrosis.ResultsWe found altered expression of several microRNAs, in particular, miR‐182, miR199a‐5p, miR‐200a‐5p and miR‐183 were found to be significantly upregulated in tissue from liver biopsies of hepatitis C patients with advanced fibrosis, stage F3 and F4, when compared with liver biopsies from patients with early fibrosis, stages F1 and F2. We also found miR‐148‐5p, miR‐1260b, miR‐122‐3p and miR‐378i among the microRNAs most significantly down‐regulated from early to advanced fibrosis of the liver. We also sequenced the serum microRNAs; however, we were not able to detect significant changes in circulating microRNAs associated with fibrosis stage after adjusting for multiple tests.ConclusionsAdding measurements of tissue microRNAs acquired during routine biopsies will continue to increase our knowledge of underlying mechanisms of fibrosis. Our goal is that these data, in combination with studies from other researchers and future long‐term studies, could be used to enhance the staging accuracy of liver biopsies and expand the surveillance of patients at increased risk for cancer and progression to advanced fibrosis.
Analysis of conserved NCS2 motifs in the Escherichia coli xanthine permease XanQ
Authors: Karena Ekaterini , Tatsaki Ekaterini , Lambrinidis George , Mikros Emmanuel , Frillingos Stathis 
Published: July 2015

SummaryThe xanthine permease XanQ of Escherichia coli is a paradigm for transporters of the evolutionarily broad family nucleobase‐cation symporter‐2 (NCS2) that transport key metabolites or anti‐metabolite analogs. Most functionally known members are xanthine/uric acid transporters related to XanQ and belong to a distinct phylogenetic cluster of the family. Here, we present a comprehensive mutagenesis of XanQ based on the identification and Cys‐scanning analysis of conserved sequence motifs in this cluster. Results are interpreted in relation to homology modeling on the structurally known template of UraA and previous data on critical binding‐site residues in transmembrane segments (TMs) 3, 8 and 10. The current analysis, of motifs distant to the binding site, revealed a set of functionally important residues in TMs 2, 5, 12 and 13, including seven irreplaceable ones, of which six are Gly residues in the gate domain (159, 369, 370, 383, 409) and in TM2 (Gly‐71), and one is polar (Gln‐75). Gln‐75 (TM2) is probably crucial in a network of hydrogen‐bonding interactions in the middle of the core domain involving another essential residue, Asp‐304 (TM9). Although the two residues are irreplaceable individually, combinatorial replacement of Gln‐75 with Asn and of Asp‐304 with Glu rescues significant transport activity.
Gluconeogenesis, an essential metabolic pathway for pathogenic Francisella
Authors: Brissac Terry , Ziveri Jason , Ramond Elodie , Tros Fabiola , Kock Stephanie , Dupuis Marion , Brillet Magali , Barel Monique , Peyriga Lindsay , Cahoreau Edern , Charbit Alain 
Published: July 2015

SummaryIntracellular multiplication and dissemination of the infectious bacterial pathogen Francisella tularensis implies the utilization of multiple host‐derived nutrients. Here, we demonstrate that gluconeogenesis constitutes an essential metabolic pathway in Francisella pathogenesis. Indeed, inactivation of gene glpX, encoding the unique fructose 1,6‐bisphosphatase of Francisella, severely impaired bacterial intracellular multiplication when cells were supplemented by gluconeogenic substrates such as glycerol or pyruvate. The ΔglpX mutant also showed a severe virulence defect in the mouse model, confirming the importance of this pathway during the in vivo life cycle of the pathogen. Isotopic profiling revealed the major role of the Embden–Meyerhof (glycolysis) pathway in glucose catabolism in Francisella and confirmed the importance of glpX in gluconeogenesis. Altogether, the data presented suggest that gluconeogenesis allows Francisella to cope with the limiting glucose availability it encounters during its infectious cycle by relying on host amino acids. Hence, targeting the gluconeogenic pathway might constitute an interesting therapeutic approach against this pathogen.
Effect of light emitting diodes on the cultivation of Spirulina platensis using NPK‐10:26:26 complex fertilizer
Authors: Kumari Ankita , Pathak Akhilendra K. , Guria Chandan 
Published: July 2015

SummaryNPK‐10:26:26 complex fertilizer based culture medium was studied for the mass production of Spirulina platensis using different light emitting diodes (LEDs). First, cultivation was carried out under white LED to formulate the optimum fertilizer loading for which Spirulina growth was maximized. Optimum composition for newly formulated fertilizer medium was NPK fertilizer −0.76 g L−1 and sodium bicarbonate −10.0 g L−1 and corresponding biomass productivity was found to be 76.67 mg L−1 day−1. The effect of different LEDs (for example, blue, white, red, green and yellow) on Spirulina growth kinetics and the accumulation of chlorophyll, protein and lipid content was determined using the optimum NPK fertilizer medium. Kinetic parameters (i.e., biomass productivity, maximum specific growth rate, maximum biomass concentration, nitrogen‐to‐biomass conversion factor and phosphorus‐to‐biomass conversion factor) and chlorophyll accumulation were affected by the use of different LEDs and follow the following trend: blue > white > red > green > yellow, whereas protein and lipid accumulation was almost independent of LEDs used. Elemental C, N, P and K concentrations were measured to find the effects of nutrients for the growth of Spirulina platensis. Physicochemical parameters (pH and conductivity) were also monitored during biomass growth under different LEDs. Finally, biomass growth using NPK‐10:26:26 fertilizer under different LEDs was compared with standard Zarrouk medium and better growth results were obtained using optimally formulated NPK‐10:26:26 fertilizer medium.
Factors Affecting Detection of Hepatitis E Virus on Canadian Retail Pork Chops and Pork Livers Assayed Using Real‐Time RT‐PCR
Authors: Wilhelm B. J. , Leblanc D. , Avery B. , Pearl D. L. , Houde A. , Rajić A. , McEwen S. A. 
Published: July 2015

SummaryWe collected 599 Canadian retail pork chops and 283 pork livers routinely (usually weekly) from April 2011 to March 2012 using the Canadian Integrated Program for Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance (CIPARS) retail sampling platform. Samples were assayed using validated real‐time (q) reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR) and nested classical RT‐PCR for the detection of hepatitis E virus (HEV), porcine enteric calicivirus (PEC) and rotavirus (RV). The presence of Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp. and Campylobacter spp. was measured on a subset of our samples. Exact logistic regression models were fitted for predictors for HEV detection, for each assay. For both assays, sample type (pork chop versus liver) was a significant predictor for HEV RNA detection. For nested classical RT‐PCR but not qRT‐PCR, region of sample collection was a significant predictor (P = 0.008) of HEV detection. Odds of HEV detection were greatest in spring relative to other seasons. E. coli was a significant predictor for HEV RNA detection using the qRT‐PCR (P = 0.03). Overall, the prevalence of E. coli, Salmonella spp. and Campylobacter spp. was significantly greater than HEV, PEC or RV on our retail pork samples. Our sparse data set for the detection of PEC and RV precluded modelling of risk factors for the detection of these viruses.
Maximizing E-Learning to Train the 21st Century Workforce
Authors: Pantazis Cynthia 
Published: July 2015

Advances in technology have created an environment for a learning revolution. In the digital economy, technology enabled learning or e-learning is becoming an integral part of a larger system of practices and policies designed to prepare and support a high skilled workforce. The power of e-learning comes from the opportunity to leverage technology and information to alter the basic tenets of learning by eliminating the one-size fits all approach to instruction and customizing content to meet individual needs and learning styles. Because e-learning has the potential to significantly improve workforce development, the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) and the National Governors' Association (NGA) convened leaders from business, government, and education to examine how e-learning can equip workers with the skills needed to succeed. The culmination of this effort is outlined in A Vision of E-Learning for America's Workforce. The report makes the social and economic case for creating a sustainable e-learning environment for America's workforce and identifies priority areas for action for the public and private sectors to implement jointly.
Internal Human Resources Consulting: Why Doesn't Your Staff Get It?
Authors: Green Marnie E. 
Published: July 2015

For over a decade HR leaders have been striving to become business partners. They want to have a strategic impact on their organizations; however, many are struggling to make this transition. The primary reason for lack of progress in this endeavor is that HR analysts, the staff who carry out this mission, are still trained and reinforced in the traditional, transactional mindset. In order for the entire HR department to be considered strategic in nature, the HR analyst must learn critical consultative skills. These skills must be developed through a structured, deliberate approach. A methodical approach to developing HR staff for this role should include the following elements: ▪ Clearly defined jobs for internal HR consultants ▪ Strategic mission for the HR department that includes consultative approaches ▪ Formal training programs for internal HR consultant staff development ▪ Feedback on performance, including consultative skills ▪ Individual development planning based on feedback ▪ Coaching, mentoring, and continual feedback on consultative skills ▪ Job rotation
Training and Development: Best Practices
Authors: Bjornberg Linda , DellCioppia Susan , Tanzer Kelly 
Published: July 2015

The IPMA HR Benchmarking Committee has identified a series of successful approaches—“best practices”—in key human resource areas from the 2001–2002 HR Benchmarking Survey. The primary purpose of the benchmarking project is to provide human resource practitioners with tools, models, skills, methods, and data to improve the effectiveness of their human resource programs for their customers. The main goal of the benchmarking project is to: identify, measure, and share the best practices of leading HR organizations so that others can compare their practices to these HR organizations and identify opportunities to improve their own organizations. Rarely can a program or solution seamlessly transfer to every other organization, but the IPMA HR Benchmarking Committee will feature successful models for HR professionals to review and determine whether they may adopt or adapt the practice—or elements of the practice—in their own organizations. In conjunction with IPMA's available benchmarking data, the HR Benchmarking Committee will use the following criteria to determine which agencies have “potential” best practices. Training and Development was one of the “best practice” program areas identified. Linda Bjornberg, a member of the Benchmarking Committee, discusses the innovative and successful efforts of the selected HR organizations in measuring the impact of training on their organizations' missions. Successful over time Quantitative and/or qualitative results Recognized or recognizable positive outcomes — customer satisfaction — positive impact Innovative Replicable — transferable with modifications — portable — adds value by improving service, quality and/or productivity Meaningful to Users of the Benchmarking Site
Employee Satisfaction with Sexual Harassment Policies: The Training Connection
Authors: Reese Laura A. , Lindenberg Karen E. 
Published: July 2015

This paper explores satisfaction with sexual harassment policies in public sector workplaces, using a survey of municipal employees to address the following policy questions: What types of sexual harassment policies do employees want? How would employees handle complaints of sexual harassment? How satisfied are employees with current workplace policies? What appears to enhance policy and process satisfaction? It concludes that public sector organizations should: Include confidentiality protections and sanctions in policies; Require that parties to a complaint be fully informed of the outcome; Increase awareness and knowledge of policies through employee training; Train supervisors in interpersonal skills and investigatory processes; Utilize teams to investigate allegations of sexual harassment; and, Understand that training and process implementation issues are more important to employee satisfaction than the policy itself.
It's All about Context and Implementation
Authors: Lavelle John 
Published: July 2015

The 2005 World Public Sector Report makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the drivers of public sector performance. It skillfully manages to meld scholarship, breath, specificity and pragmatism into a unified and coherent whole: it is thought provoking and surely required reading for all who are concerned about the role of people in effective public administration in general and the critical contribution of human resource management (HRM) to public sector success, in particular. This short article focuses selectively on a number of the report's key findings and arguments. It adopts the perspective of a HR practitioner, concerned with the intellectual thrust and direction of public sector HR management but focused chiefly on matters of implementation and on the context in which implementation takes place. It argues that effective public sector HR practice is situational: adoption of particular management practices and HR tools hinges on an understanding of local culture and organizational form: one size doesn't fit all. Increasingly too, the composition of the public sector workforce is changing and the boundaries between the public and private sectors are blurring or at least becoming more porous. This has profound implications for public sector HRM. The temptation is often to ape “best practice” from the private sector. Judicious borrowing from the private sector can pay handsome dividends but care is needed in crafting practices and approaches which respect the unique character of the public sector, its workforce, esprit and values.
The Psychological Contract and the Union Contract: A Paradigm Shift in Public Sector Employee Relations
Authors: Calo Thomas J. 
Published: July 2015

This article examines the changing nature of employee and labor relations in the United States. A significant shift has occurred in the employee relations environment between the public and private sectors. As union representation in the private sector workforce has steeply declined, there had been a sharp and steady increase in third party representation in the public sector workforce. The reasons for these changes are explored. The article goes beyond the issue of labor relations to the broader issue of positive employee relations in the workplace. Exploring employee relations from a behavioral science perspective, the article describes and discusses the psychological contract as an organizing framework for understanding and achieving positive employee relations in the workplace. The article also draws upon the author's professional human resource experiences in the public and private sectors.
Working Women
Authors: Wong Lisa M.L. 
Published: July 2015

Various circumstances and conditions are responsible for the shift in lifestyles of women today. As women join the labor force, many aspects of their lives are altered due to the increasing demands placed upon them by the work environment and their personal lives. These pressures significantly influence the lifestyles of these women, often creating unreasonable circumstances and challenges for them. Working women today must, out of necessity, accept and meet this challenge of juggling roles as executives, wives, and mothers. As women have adapted to these demands, some of their creative ideas reflect attitudes of perhaps a new generation; yet, the basic values and beliefs of traditional women continue to prevail as women cope with these struggles.
Unions in the 21st Century
Authors: Mosca Joseph B. , Pressman Steven 
Published: July 2015

There have been no specific causes as to why declines in unionization have occurred over the past 20 or 30 years. The Bureau of Labor Statistics' Surveys indicate that between 1961 and 1984, a significant number of employees in unions declined to 51 % from 73%. This decline was among production employees within metropolitan areas, and dipped to 12% from 17% for non-supervisory clerical workers. It has been found that declines in union membership can be attributed to employment shifts, and that job change has different affects depending on if the shift entails an employee change. Unions have been fighting to maintain both membership and public approval. Although union approval declined until 1981, people's attitudes toward organized labor never became negative. This study has found that the percentage of the general public that approves of unions has increased recently in many important areas. The key to success of unions in the 21st Century seems to lie in the creation of a cooperative atmosphere between organized labor and management. In order to do so, unions must realize and address issues of importance to the changing work force and give voice to the skill demands of workers, more women in the work force, and the current health care crisis. The 21st Century holds in store for unions an image of reduced health care costs, greater participation by previously unorganized segments of the work force, and better understanding and an adaption to technological changes. All of these things will help corporations keep their costs lower and retain more employees, leading to greater job security, improved relations between labor and management, and more satisfied workers.
Perceived Training Needs of Volunteers in Government Service
Authors: Hinton Karen L. 
Published: July 2015

Community boards, committees and commissions are an essential element in linking citizens to local government. Their input and involvement provide a credible citizen voice to impact decisions. Training is often the first step necessary to help ensure that boards, committees and commissions can serve in a strong and effective manner. The information contained in this article is based upon a survey conducted in Fall 1992 by the Family Community Leadership (FCL) Project to ascertain training needs of individuals serving on municipal boards, committees and commissions in Carson City, Nevada. Effective leadership has become a more difficult challenge in the context of the ever increasing complexity of our society. Roles have become a complex set of functions rather than simply holding a position. The ability to envision the future, identify and analyze issues and to utilize a wide array of communication skills has been identified by many studies as critical elements for community leaders in the 90s. In the context of local government, Epstein and Cutchin (1990) identify individual development and improved communications as approaches that have been shown successful in achieving organizational excellence. These approaches tend to become more measurable when they are embraced by the total organization and the top of the organizational structure displays involvement with sponsorship and setting of the program's tone.
Exploring the critical factors influencing online lending intentions
Authors: Wang Peng , Zheng Haichao , Chen Dongyu , Ding Liangchao 
Published: July 2015

Abstract

Background
Online lending (P2P lending) is a type of internet finance mainly used to meet the financial needs of small and medium-sized enterprises and groups of individuals. It is a supplement to the traditional financial system.

Method
This paper uses PPDai.com—the most influential online lending platform in China—as a research object to study the leading factors that affect lenders’ loan trust and perception of information asymmetry. It also studies the impacts of these factors on lending intention.

Results
The results of this study show that the lending intention is mainly influenced by trust; perceived information asymmetry will affect trust, but it will not have a direct impact on lending intention. Trust is significantly affected by the borrowers’ reputation and information integrity. Information asymmetry has various causes, including structural assurance and legitimacy. This perception of information asymmetry significantly prevents the further development of online P2P lending.

Conclusion
The findings in this research imply that there are profound differences between online lending and online purchasing, thus the results obtained in the traditional e-commerce market cannot be applied in the field of online lending without verification.
Writing Disidentification and the Relational Self in Fadwa Tuqan’sMountainous Journey
Authors: Abdelmotagally Noha F. 
Published: July 2015

AbstractThe 1985 autobiography of the Palestinian poet Fadwa Tuqan (1917–2003), Rihla Jabaliyya, Rihla Saʿba: Sira Dhatiyya, translated into English as A Mountainous Journey: A Poet’s Autobiography (1990), has been studied in diverse critical works. Unlike most scholars, I am attentive to interiority and psychology in A Mountainous Journey, which I read to examine the writing of self in relation to intimates in Tuqan’s life. I examine Tuqan’s writing of life-as-journey and the protagonist’s struggle to articulate a self in a traumatic family context the author experienced as committed to disappearing and containing her. I argue that this process works through disidentification, an ambivalent and unstable combination of identification and counteridentification.
Systematic Approach to the Management of Labour Motivation of Personnel Service Organizations
Authors: Иваненко  , Ivanenko Marina 
Published: July 2015

The article discusses the components of the system of labour motivation. The author conducted a comparative analysis of the concept of “work motivation”.
Presents the components of work motivation in the context of a systematic approach. The introduction of a systematic approach in the activities of the service
organization will optimize the management of human resources, which in turn, will increase its competitive advantage. The author focuses on trichotomies
the nature of labour motivation, namely the presence of three interdependent subsystems. In connection with this motivation should be considered it must be
based on three components — a set of motives, incentives and employment. The main elements of the system work motivation service organizations include:
the content of the work, wages, social contacts, self-education and support, autonomy, self-realization, organizational culture.