pinecone/core-2020-05-10-deduplication huggingface dataset:
Stage Dependent Expression and Tumor Suppressive Function of FAM134B (JK1) in Colon Cancer

The aims of the present study are to investigate sub-cellular location, differential expression in different cancer stages and functional role of FAM134B in colon cancer development. FAM134B expression was studied and quantified at protein and mRNA levels in cell lines using immunocytochemistry, Western blot and real-time PCR. In vitro functional assays and an in vivo xenotransplantation mouse models were used to investigate the molecular role of FAM134B in cancer cell biology in response to FAM134B silencing with shRNA lentiviral particles. FAM134B protein was noted in both cytoplasm and nuclei of cancer cells. In cancer cells derived from stage IV colon cancer, FAM134B expression was remarkably reduced when compared to non-cancer colon cells and cancer cells derived from stage II colon cancer. FAM134B knockdown significantly (P < 0.05) increased the proliferation of colon cancer cells following lentiviral transfection. Furthermore, FAM134B suppression significantly increased (34–52%; P < 0.05) the clonogenic capacity, wound healing potential of and increases the proportion of cells performing DNA synthesis (P < 0.01). Xenotransplantation model showed that larger and higher-grade tumors were formed in mice receiving FAM134B knockdown cells. To conclude, expression analysis, in vitro and in vivo indicated that FAM134B acts as a cancer suppressor gene in colon cancer.Griffith Health, School of MedicineFull Tex
TMPRSS2-ERG gene fusion is rare compared to PTEN deletions in stage T1a prostate cancer

T1a prostate cancers (cancer found incidentally in transurethral resection, <5% of the tissue) are indolent tumors of the transition zone. The overexpression of ERG and the inactivation of PTEN have been shown to be important drivers of carcinogenesis in large series of prostate cancer, but the genetics of transition zone tumors have not been well characterized. We evaluated the status of ERG and PTEN in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue using immunohistochemical and FISH analysis in 54 T1a transition zone tumors. The protein expression of ERG was determined using a rabbit monoclonal antibody and nuclear staining was scored as positive or negative. The genomic status of ERG was determined using three colored FISH using an ERG-TMPRSS2 tri-color probe set. The protein expression of PTEN was determined using a rabbit monoclonal antibody and cytoplasmic, and nuclear staining was scored as positive or negative. The genomic status of PTEN was determined using dual color FISH with a PTEN probe and a CEP10 probe. We found ERG rearrangement in 2 of 54 tumors (4%), one with protein overexpression by immunohistochemistry. PTEN inactivation was seen in 13 of 54 tumors (24%). Nine of the 13 PTEN alleles were inactivated by hemizygous deletion. No homozygous PTEN deletion was observed. PTEN deletion and ERG rearrangement were mutually exclusive. ERG rearrangement was rare compared to peripheral zone tumors and to PTEN inactivation in T1a transition zone tumors
A new fuzzy multi-criteria evaluation method for group site selection in GIS

Multiple criteria group site selection problems involve a group of individuals evaluating a set of alternative sites on the basis of multiple criteria. This paper presents an application of a new fuzzy algorithm for finding and exploring potential solutions to these problems in a raster Geographical Information System (GIS) environment. Linguistic assessments from decision-makers are represented as triangular fuzzy numbers (TFN’s), which are adjusted for uncertainty in the source data and its relationship to suitability by using an approach based on type-2 fuzzy sets. The first aggregation of inputs is a compensatory one based on fuzzy multi-attribute decision-making (MADM) theory. An adjusted aggregation then factors in conflicts, risks and uncertainties to enable a variety of compensatory and non-compensatory outcomes to be generated based on decision-maker preferences. The algorithm was implemented in ArcView GIS as part of an ongoing collaborative project with Brisbane Airport. This paper outlines the fuzzy algorithm and its use in site selection for a recycling facility on the Brisbane Airport site
Visualization Approaches for the Prototype Improvement Problem

The article of record as published may be located at http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mcda.424One of the basic engineering optimization problems is improvement of the prototype. This problem is often
encountered by industrial and academic organizations that produce and design various objects (e.g. motor vehicles,
machine tools, ships, and aircrafts). This paper presents an approach for improving the prototype by constructing
the feasible and Pareto sets while performing multicriteria analysis. We introduce visualization methods that
facilitate construction of the feasible and Pareto sets. Using these techniques developed on the basis of Parameter
Space Investigation method, an expert can correctly state and solve the problem under consideration in a series of
dialogues with the computer. Finally, we present a case study of improving the ship prototype
Validity and Efficacy of Screening Algorithms for Assessing Deep Brain Stimulation Candidacy in Parkinson's Disease

DBS  for Parkinson's disease ( PD ) may be underutilized because of limited access to care (most  DBS  surgeries are performed at specialized centers) or over‐referral of poor candidates, leading to inequitable utilization of limited evaluative resources. There is a pressing need for a widely employable screening algorithm to aid in the evaluation of  PD  candidates for  DBS . The aim of this study was to compare the validity and efficacy of two published screening algorithms, the Florida Surgical Questionnaire for  PD  and Stimulus, to predict candidacy for  DBS . We reviewed the clinical data at our  DBS  center for 147 consecutive  PD DBS  referrals between 1 September 2007 and 31 December 2011. Florida Surgical Questionnaire and Stimulus scores were applied retrospectively through a chart review of the movement disorder neurologist's initial clinical evaluation. The validity and accuracy of these two algorithms in predicting candidacy for  DBS  was compared to the decision to offer  DBS  surgery by our multidisciplinary  DBS  team. Of the 130 consecutive  PD  referrals who presented for initial evaluation, 50 were offered  DBS  after a standardized multidisciplinary evaluation. The Stimulus scale was a superior screening tool for predicting  PD DBS  candidacy in these referrals (area under the receiver operating curve [ AUROC ] = 0.8088), compared to the Florida Surgical Questionnaire for  PD  ( AUROC  = 0.6285). In this single‐center study, Stimulus was a more appropriate screening measure than the Florida Surgical Questionnaire for  PD  to assess  DBS  candidacy for  PD
Irritability in Huntington’s Disease: Factor Analysis of Snaith’s Irritability Scale

Following the embargo period the above license applies.Background:\ud
\ud
Elevated levels of irritability are reported to occur in a number of neurological conditions, including Huntington's disease (HD), a genetic neurodegenerative disorder. Snaith's Irritability Scale (SIS) is used within HD research, but no psychometric evaluation of this instrument has previously been undertaken. Therefore, the current study aimed to analyze the factor structure of this scale among an HD population.\ud
Methods:\ud
\ud
Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis were used to examine the structural properties of SIS using responses from 1,264 HD gene expansion carriers, across 15 European countries, who were engaged in the REGISTRY 3 study.\ud
Results:\ud
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An exploratory factor analysis of a subsample of the data suggested a two-factor interpretation of the data comprising “temper” and “self-harm.” Eight possible models were tested for goodness of fit using confirmatory factor analysis. Two bifactor models, testing general and group factors in the structure of the scale, provided an equivocal “good” fit to the data. The first comprised a general irritability factor and two group factors (as originally proposed using SIS): outward irritability and inward irritability. The second comprised a general irritability factor and two group factors (as proposed by the exploratory factor analysis): temper and self-harm. The findings from both models suggested that the loadings of items were higher on the general factor.\ud
Conclusions:\ud
\ud
Bifactor models are proposed to best consider the structure of the SIS, with findings suggesting that an overall score should be used to measure irritability within HD populations.Peer-reviewedPost-prin
Efficiency in pre-merger and post-merger non-bank financial institutions

A two-part process is employed to analyse the role of efficiency in merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in Australian credit unions during the period 1993 to 1997. The measures of efficiency are derived using the nonparametric technique of data envelopment analysis. The first part uses panel data in the probit model to relate pure technical efficiency, along with other managerial, regulatory and financial factors, to the probability of merger activity, either as an acquiring or acquired entity. The results indicate that loan portfolio diversification, management ability, earnings and asset size are a significant influence on the probability of acquisition, though the primary determinant of being acquired is smaller asset size. The second part uses a tobit model adapted to a panel framework to analyse post-merger efficiency. Mergers appear to have improved both pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency in the credit union industry
Employee Motivation, External Orientation and Technical Efficiency of Foreign-Financed Firms in China: A Stochastic Frontier Analysis

By using a stochastic frontier model, we have identified several firm-specific attributes as determinants of technical efficiency in foreign-financed manufacturing firms in southern China. The empirical results suggest a strong association between efficiency and employee motivation, which includes the use of bonus incentives and flexibility in employment policy. In terms of the external orientation behavior of firms, the findings do not support the export/efficiency relationship. Sample firms with a high degree of export-orientedness were less efficient, possibly due to the high transaction costs in China of exportation. As for the effects of expatriate input on production, our empirical evidence revealed that firms with a relatively high expatriate ratio performed less efficiently than others did. These two findings may have significant implications for the marketing strategies and management (including the localization) of human resources of foreign-financed firms in China
SIMULTANEOUS DETERMINATION OF INVENTORIES AND ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE

The study presents a model based on 3,375 observations from industrial firms in Pakistan, and the Three-Stage Least Square (3SLS) technique has been applied for the estimation. The results indicate that the Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) of inventories is not a constant magnitude; it is a variable closely associated with 'time trend'. While the ‘buffer stock’ element can be estimated through the constant term of an equation. Receivables from customers show a negative correlation with liquid assets and the cost of production. Receivables are also shown to act as substitute for closing inventories.
Price Rigidity and Flexibility: Recent Theoretical Developments

The price system, the adjustment of prices to changes in market conditions, is the primary mechanism by which markets function and by which the three most basic questions get answered: what to produce, how much to produce and for whom to produce. To the behaviour of price and price system, therefore, have fundamental implications for many key issues in microeconomics and industrial organization, as well as in macroeconomics and monetary economics. In microeconomics, managerial economics, and industrial organization, economists focus on the price system efficiency. In macroeconomics and monetary economics, economists focus on the extent to which nominal prices fail to adjust to changes in market conditions. Nominal price rigidities play particularly important role in modern monetary economics and in the conduct of monetary policy because of their ability to explain short-run monetary non-neutrality. The behaviour of prices, and in particular the extent of their rigidity and flexibility, therefore, is of central importance in economics.  This introductory essay briefly summarizes the eight studies of price rigidity that are included in this special issue.
Price Rigidity and Flexibility: New Empirical Evidence

The marketplace, along with its price system, is the single most important institution in a western-style free enterprise economy. The ability of prices to adjust to changes in supply and demand conditions enables the market to function efficiently and lies behind the magical invisible hand mechanism. To the behaviour of prices and in particular to the ability of prices to adjust to changes in market conditions, therefore, have fundamental implications for many key issues in many areas of both microeconomics as well as macroeconomics. It is, therefore, critical to study and understand whether there are barriers to price adjustments, what are the nature of these barriers, how the barriers lead to price rigidity, what are possible implications of these rigidities, etc. This introductory essay briefly summarizes the fourteen empirical studies of price rigidity that are included in this special issue.
Corporate governance and firm efficiency: Evidence from China's publicly listed firms

This paper applies a two-stage, double bootstrapping data envelope analysis approach to investigate whether and to what extent various distinctive corporate governance practices affect productive efficiency in a sample of 461 publicly listed manufacturing firms in China between 1999 and 2002. We find that firm efficiency is negatively related to state ownership while positively related to public and employee share ownership. In addition, the relationship between ownership concentration and firm efficiency is U-shaped, indicating the presence of tunneling activities by the largest shareholder. Among three types of controlling shareholder, state exerts the most negative impact on firm efficiency, followed by state-owned legal entities. These results provide strong evidence that political interferences have reduced firm efficiency. It shows that the proportion of outside directors and the number of board meetings are positively associated with firm efficiency, suggesting that board of directors can be an effective internal governance mechanism. Furthermore, provincial market development, a proxy for the strength of external governance mechanism, is positively related to firm efficiency. Overall, our findings illustrate that restructuring state-owned enterprises via improvements in corporate governance has enhanced firm efficiency, but partial privatization without transfer of ownership and control from the state to the public remains a major source of inefficiency in corporate China. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.postprin
Worker Absenteeism and Incentives: Evidence from Italy

In Italy employees are fully insured against earning losses due to illness. Since worker’s health is not easily verifiable, absenteeism due to illness is considered an empirical proxy for employee shirking. The Bank of Italy Household Survey (SHIW) provides individual data on days of absence. Controlling for personal characteristics and potential determinants of health status and family responsibilities  (age, gender, education, marital status, children at home) we show that the nature of employment contracts affects workers’ incentives to provide effort: sickness absences, at least partially, hide opportunistic behaviours. The type of occupation and the labour contracts affects workers’ behaviour in that more protected and difficult to monitor jobs show significantly higher levels of absenteeism: employees in public sector or in large firms, with permanent contracts or with longer tenure, individuals living in regions with low unemployment rates.
Commitment in R&D Tournaments via Strategic Delegation to Overoptimistic Managers

This paper shows that it is profitable for a firm to hire an overoptimistic manager to commit to a certain investment strategy in an R&D tournament situation. In the unique symmetric equilibrium, all firms delegate to overoptimistic managers, where the optimal degree of overoptimism depends on the riskiness of the tournament. In these situations a manager’s type may serve as a substitute for delegation via contracts. By delegating to overoptimistic managers, firms can escape the rat race nature of R&D tournaments.
Endogenous social comparisons and the internal organization of firms

Should workers of a firm be organizationally integrated to realize benefits from benchmarking? Or should they be separated to preclude horizontal social comparisons? This paper highlights a trade-off that arises if social comparisons in firms are endogenous. We analyze a principal multi-agent model in which the principal trades off the reduction of agents' risk exposures by use of relative performance evaluation and the thereby induced social comparisons for which agents must be compensated. Contrary to standard theoretical predictions, relative performance evaluation is optimal only if the performance measures are sufficiently correlated relative to the agents' regard for other
Asymmetric Price Adjustments in Airlines

This paper uses a unique daily time series data set to investigate the asymmetric response of airline prices to capacity costs driven by demand fluctuations. We use a Markov regime-switching model with time-varying transition probabilities to capture the time variation in the response. The results show strong evidence of asymmetric price adjustments: positive cost shifts have a large positive effect, while negative cost shifts have no effect. The asymmetry is also explained by summer travel, but not by the size of cost shifts. The findings show the importance of consumer heterogeneity and capacity constraints as a source of asymmetric responses.
The effects of intra-industry and extra-industry networks on performance: A case of venture capital portfolio firms

This study examines the influence of intra-industry and extra-industry networks on firm performance by using data on 1264 UK venture-capital-backed start-up companies. The venture's network was operationalized by connecting together the various portfolio companies sharing the same investor. Regression results show that the venture's network has a strong impact on firm's success. Yet, whereas extra-industry ties are directly and positively linked to the likelihood of the venture to reach a successful exit, intra-industry ties exert a negative impact on companies' performances. However, interaction effects show that once a firm establishes a sufficient number of extra-industry ties, it is able to profit from the network in its industry of operation. Overall, these findings show that an optimal balance of ties is achieved through a diverse set of connections incorporating both intra-industry and extra-industry ties
Measuring The Value Of Product Characteristics In The Presence of Price Dispersion

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Damian Ward, 'Measuring the Value of Product Characteristics in the Presence of Price Dispersion', Managerial and Decision Economics, Vol. 36 (8): 535-544, December 2015, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/mde.2693. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.Modeling the price of multi-attribute products generally requires an assessment of eachattributes??? market value. In the presence of price dispersion, when similar products are soldat different prices, hedonic pricing models provide users with biased estimates of attributevalue. This paper develops the hedonic pricing literature by proposing data envelopmentanalysis as a prior means of identifying a sub-sample of products which, after adjustingfor attribute provision, display no price dispersion. These products then display a homoge-nous link between attributes and price, which can be modeled using hedonic pricing. Thispaper implements and evaluates this two-stage approach using 1000 observations fromthe UK mortgage market
Bilateral delegation in duopoly wage and employment bargaining.\ud

We study bilateral delegation in wage and employment bargaining between firms and unions in a Cournot duopoly. Incentive delegation creates frictions for each party between its objectives of within-firm rent extraction and market/job stealing from the rival firm. The net effect is restraint in production, resulting in a larger bargaining pie. But each player's payoff will be inversely related to his bargaining power. We also show that if players are given a choice to delegate, they will not resort to delegation when their bargaining power is sufficiently high. This is in contrast to the scenarios commonly assumed in many models
Strategic groupings as competitive benchmarks for formulating future competitive strategy: A modelling approach

Previous studies on strategic groups have examined issues such as the identification of strategic groups, the relationship between strategic groups structure and industry performance, and the movement of strategic groups over time. In contrast to previous studies, this paper uses the analytical concepts of game theory to explore the question of what strategic groups will exist in the future. These benchmark (future) strategic groups represent long‐run strategic positions available within an industry and thus reference points for firms in developing sustainable competitive strategies. The benchmark strategic groups are discussed and comments are offered to illustrate how firms can use the benchmark information to redirect their strategic positions in order to survive and remain competitive in the long run
Abnormalities of the spatiotemporal characteristics of gait at the onset of freezing in Parkinson's disease

We investigated the spatiotemporal variables of gait leading up to freezing. Gait analysis was carried out on 14 patients with Parkinson's disease in the off phase of the medication cycle. A computerised, three-dimensional gait analysis system was used to measure the walking pattern. After several trials of normal walking with voluntary stopping, distracting manoeuvres and obstacles on the walkway were used to provoke freezing or festination. The gait variables of normal (off phase), festinating, prestop, and prefreezing strides were analysed using analysis of variance for repeated-measures. Cadence was excessively increased (68%) and stride length decreased (69%) during festination compared with normal off walking; a pattern which remained pronounced when comparing prefreezing strides with normal stopping. Analysing in more detail the three steps before a freeze, we found a progressive decrease of stride length and stable cadence rates and proportions of double support phases. The relationship between cadence and stride length exhibited an exponential increase of cadence with a decreasing stride length during festination and freezing. Results suggest that freezing is caused by a combination of an increasing inability to generate stride length superimposed on a dyscontrol of the cadence of walking.status: publishe