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This study investigates the corruption formation process in Iranian football. Data was collected using library studies as well as 18 in-depth and semi-structured interviews with football industry stakeholders. The research data were analyzed through the coding process in three stages: open, pivotal and selective. Grounded Theory was used to determine the initial list of corruption causes. Then, interpretive structural modeling and MICMAC analysis were utilized. Having analyzed the data, the researchers classified the variables into four different levels, and after MICMAC analysis, we divided the variables into two groups of independent and dependent variables. None of the variables were included in the group of autonomous and linkage variables. The results showed that at the highest level, corrupt governance of football (including weak football federation statutes, government control of football, and weak governance in football) was the most influential factor. At the third level, the key factor was structural dysfunction which was underpinned by both weak management and supervision in football. At the second level, defective agreements and monitoring (consisting of weak rules and regulations and inefficient national and club contracts) was significant. At the first level, financial dysfunction (including money laundering and economic and financial factors), bias and opportunism (by journalists and agents), and corruption of human resources (comprising coercion and nurturing corrupt forces) were influential. The findings showed that the managerial level has a major role in preventing corruption.

We discovered that 90.3% of patients with angiomyolipomas, lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM), and tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) carry the arginine variant of codon 72 (R72) of TP53 and that R72 increases the risk for angiomyolipoma. R72 transactivates NOTCH1 and NODAL better than the proline variant of codon 72 (P72); therefore, the expression of NOTCH1 and NODAL is increased in angiomyolipoma cells that carry R72. The loss of Tp53 and Tsc1 within nestin-expressing cells in mice resulted in the development of renal cell carcinomas (RCC) with high Notch1 and Nodal expression, suggesting that similar downstream mechanisms contribute to tumorigenesis as a result of p53 loss in mice and p53 polymorphism in humans. The loss of murine Tp53 or expression of human R72 contributes to tumorigenesis via enhancing epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition and motility of tumor cells through the Notch and Nodal pathways.Implications:This work revealed unexpected contributions of the p53 polymorphism to the pathogenesis of TSC and established signaling alterations caused by this polymorphism as a target for therapy. We found that the codon 72 TP53 polymorphism contributes to TSC-associated tumorigenesis via Notch and Nodal signaling.

S1. Expression of hamartin and p53 in mice. S2. CRISPR-Cas9 mediated editing of TP53 codon 72 in angiomyolipoma cells and the impact of R72 on Notch/Nodal axis. S3. Overexpression of Nodal in LAM. S4. Overexpression of Nodal in TSC-associated renal tumors. S5. R72 increases migration of angiomyolipoma cells. Supplementary Table S1. The frequency of TP53 codon 72 germline polymorphism in TSC and LAM patients. Supplementary Table S2. The frequency of TP53 R72 codon polymorphism in TSC and sporadic angiomyolipoma and TSC-associated RCC. Supplementary Table S3. The number of experimental mice used in study.

PurposeThis study examines the role of market orientation in the relationship between internal marketing and entrepreneurial orientation within private sports clubs.Design/methodology/approachThe research is a descriptive-correlational study based on private sports clubs employees within Iran (Sanandaj). A theoretical model was developed based on the literature and tested using SPSS and PLS-SEM software.FindingsThe findings indicate a positive relationship between internal marketing and employees' entrepreneurial orientation. Market orientation has also played a positive mediating role in the relationship between internal marketing and entrepreneurial orientation.Originality/valueThe results suggest a higher level of market orientation in the organization can increase teamwork and, consequently, entrepreneurship development among employees. This is important in sports clubs as employees have a significant role in the success of the sports club. Club employees' satisfaction, generated through internal marketing, provides is a prerequisite for customer satisfaction. This therefore creates an environment supportive of entrepreneurial orientation in the club.

In this paper, we propose a predictor–corrector interior-point method for symmetric cone optimization. The proposed algorithm is based on a new one-norm neighbourhood, which is an even wider neighb...

BackgroundCorrelating gene expression patterns with biomechanical properties of connective tissues provides insight into molecular processes underlying development and maintenance of the tissues’ physical characteristics. Cadaveric tissues such as human knees are widely considered suitable for biomechanical studies, but their usefulness for gene expression experiments is potentially limited by unavoidable, nuclease-mediated degradation of RNA.MethodsWe quantified mRNAs encoding 84 extracellular matrix components and five housekeeping proteins in intact and partially degraded RNA from human anterior cruciate ligaments (ACLs), and compared relative amounts of the individual mRNAs by regression analysis.ResultsHuman ACL RNA degraded in vitro by limited ribonuclease digestion (N=6) resembled degraded RNA isolated from cadaveric tissue. PCR threshold cycle (Ct) values from degraded RNAs ranged variably higher than values obtained from their corresponding non-degraded RNAs, reflecting both the expected loss of target templates in the degraded preparations as well as differences in the extent of degradation. Relative Ct values obtained for mRNA targets in degraded preparations correlated strongly with the corresponding target levels in non-degraded RNA, both for each ACL as well as for pooled results from all six ACLs. Nuclease-mediated degradation produced similar, strongly correlated losses of housekeeping and non-housekeeping gene mRNAs. Expression profiling of RNA degraded in situ yielded comparable results, confirming that in vitro digestion suitably mimicked degradation by endogenous ribonucleases in frozen and thawed ACL.ConclusionPCR-based expression analyses can yield valid mRNA profiles from partially degraded RNA preparations such as those obtained from cadaveric knees and other skeletal motion segments used in biomechanical studies. Legitimate comparisons between variably degraded tissues can be made by normalizing quantitative data to an appropriate housekeeping transcript.

Correlating gene expression patterns with biomechanical properties of connective tissues provides insights into the molecular processes underlying the tissue growth and repair. Cadaveric specimens such as human knees are widely considered suitable for biomechanical studies, but their usefulness for gene expression experiments is potentially limited by the unavoidable, nuclease-mediated degradation of RNA. Here, we tested whether valid gene expression profiles can be obtained using degraded RNA from human anterior cruciate ligaments (ACLs). Human ACL RNA (N = 6) degraded in vitro by limited ribonuclease digestion resemble highly degraded RNA isolated from cadaveric tissue. PCR threshold cycle (Ct) values for 90 transcripts (84 extracellular matrix, 6 housekeeping) in degraded RNAs variably ranged higher than values obtained from their corresponding non-degraded RNAs, reflecting both the expected loss of target templates in the degraded preparations as well as differences in the extent of degradation. Relative Ct values obtained for mRNAs in degraded preparations strongly correlated with the corresponding levels in non-degraded RNA, both for each ACL as well as for the pooled results from all six ACLs. Nuclease-mediated degradation produced similar, strongly correlated losses of housekeeping and non-housekeeping gene mRNAs. RNA degraded in situ yielded comparable results, confirming that in vitro digestion effectively modeled degradation by endogenous ribonucleases in frozen and thawed ACL. We conclude that, contrary to conventional wisdom, PCR-based expression analyses can yield valid mRNA profiles even from RNA preparations that are more than 90% degraded, such as those obtained from connective tissues subjected to biomechanical studies. Furthermore, legitimate quantitative comparisons between variably degraded tissues can be made by normalizing data to appropriate housekeeping transcripts.

We discovered that 90.3% of patients with angiomyolipomas, lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM), and tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) carry the arginine variant of codon 72 (R72) of TP53 and that R72 increases the risk for angiomyolipoma. R72 transactivates NOTCH1 and NODAL better than the proline variant of codon 72 (P72); therefore, the expression of NOTCH1 and NODAL is increased in angiomyolipoma cells that carry R72. The loss of Tp53 and Tsc1 within nestin-expressing cells in mice resulted in the development of renal cell carcinomas (RCC) with high Notch1 and Nodal expression, suggesting that similar downstream mechanisms contribute to tumorigenesis as a result of p53 loss in mice and p53 polymorphism in humans. The loss of murine Tp53 or expression of human R72 contributes to tumorigenesis via enhancing epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition and motility of tumor cells through the Notch and Nodal pathways. Implications: This work revealed unexpected contributions of the p53 polymorphism to the pathogenesis of TSC and established signaling alterations caused by this polymorphism as a target for therapy. We found that the codon 72 TP53 polymorphism contributes to TSC-associated tumorigenesis via Notch and Nodal signaling.

One-dimensional modeling is considered as one of the most approved methods of studying the characteristics and performance of aircraft reciprocating engines, operating under different flight conditions. Owing to the recent progresses, the one-dimensional modeling of piston engine components including air filter, carburetor, air manifold, inlet and outlet valves, cylinder, piston, crankshaft, exhaust manifold, and turbocharger have become possible using some of the engineering software such as the GT-Power. The present paper is devoted to extensive performance analysis of one of the most widely used aircraft engines, the Rotax-914 which is a spark-ignition (SI) turbocharged aircraft engine, during the climb phase. The survey is conducted through the preparation of a one-dimensional model of the Rotax-914 using GT-power software. Then, to be more consistence with the real flight condition, its turbocharger is accurately modeled by considering the performance curves provided by the manufacturer. Next, to ensure its accuracy, the developed model was validated against the manufacturer data. The important engine performance parameters and turbocharger performance curves were analyzed for different flight aspects up to 30,000 feet. The obtained results indicated that the turbocharger prevents a dramatic decline in engine performance parameters up to 18,000 feet. Thereafter, the compressor reaches the choking region, fails to supply air demand, leading to extreme performance loss. The effect of ambient temperature difference from the international-standard-atmosphere (ISA) on engine performance was also investigated. A 40 °C increase in the ambient temperature causes a 10% drop in the brake horsepower and consequently, a performance loss was observed during the climb. Ambient temperature and altitude differently affect engine performance. The effect of ambient temperature on the engine performance was greater as the compressor reaches the choking region. Beyond the choking region, altitude variations had a greater impact on engine performance than the temperature variations.

Following the central-path, as a guide line to optimal solution of mathematical problems, is one of the main difficulty of interior-point methods in practice. These iterative methods, follow the central path step by step to get close enough to the optimal solution of underlying problem. Based on estimating the central path by an ellipse, we propose an infeasible interior-point method for linear complementarity problem. In each iteration, the algorithm follows the ellipsoidal approximation of the central-path to find an $$\varepsilon $$ -approximate solution of the problem. We prove that under certain conditions the proposed algorithm is well-defined and the generated points by the algorithm converge to an $$\varepsilon $$ -approximate solution of the linear complementarity problem.

In this paper, we present a neighborhood following primal-dual interior-point algorithm for solving symmetric cone convex quadratic programming problems, where the objective function is a convex quadratic function and the feasible set is the intersection of an affine subspace and a symmetric cone attached to a Euclidean Jordan algebra. The algorithm is based on the [13] broad class of commutative search directions for cone of semidefinite matrices, extended by [18] to arbitrary symmetric cones. Despite the fact that the neighborhood is wider, which allows the iterates move towards optimality with longer steps, the complexity iteration bound remains as the same result of Schmieta and Alizadeh for symmetric cone optimization problems.

Inferential methods based on ranks present robust and powerful alternative methodology for testing and estimation. In this article, two objectives are followed. First, develop a general method of s...

In this paper, we present a feasible interior-point algorithm for Cartesian horizontal linear complementarity problems in a new large neighbourhood of the central path. The new large neighbourhood is based on the infinity norm, and it is wider than the well-known neighbourhood based on negative infinity pseudonorm as well as the recently introduced large neighbourhood by Liu et al. [A new wide neighborhood primal-dual infeasible-interior-point method for symmetric cone programming. J Optim Theory Appl. 2013;158:796–815] which is based on Frobenius norm. The iterates are calculated by taking the largest possible step along the Nesterov–Todd search directions. Nevertheless, we show that the algorithm is globally convergent with the favourable polynomial iteration bound. Furthermore, the preliminary numerical results indicate that our method preforms quite well and outperforms the large-step Liu et al.'s method.

In this paper, we propose a large-update primal–dual interior-point algorithm for linear optimization problems based on a new kernel function with a trigonometric growth term. By simple analysis, w...

In this paper, a corrector-predictor interior-point algorithm is proposed for symmetric optimization. The algorithm approximates the central path by an ellipse, follows the ellipsoidal approximation of the central-path step by step and generates a sequence of iterates in a wide neighborhood of the central-path. Using the machinery of Euclidean Jordan algebra and the commutative class of search directions, the convergence analysis of the algorithm is shown and it is proved that the algorithm has the complexity bound O ( r L ) for the well-known Nesterov-Todd search direction and O(rL) for the xs and sx search directions.