Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
CEO Inside Debt Holdings and Risk-Shifting: Evidence from Bank Payout Policies

Bank payouts divert cash to shareholders, while leaving behind riskier and less liquid assets to repay debt holders in the future. Bank payouts, therefore, constitute a type of risk-shifting that benefits equity holders at the expense of debt holders. In this paper, we provide insights on how CEO incentives stemming from inside debt (primarily defined benefit pensions and deferred compensation) impact bank payout policy in a manner that protects debt holder interests. We show that CEOs with higher inside debt relative to inside equity are associated with more conservative bank payout policies. Specifically, CEOs paid with more inside debt are more likely to cut payouts and to cut payouts by a larger amount. Reductions in payouts occur through a decrease in both dividends and repurchases. Our results also hold over a subsample of TARP banks where we expect the link between risk-shifting and payouts to be of particular relevance because it involves wealth transfers from the taxpayer to equity holders. We conclude that inside debt can help in addressing risk-shifting concerns by aligning the interests of CEOs with those of creditors, regulators, and in the case of TARP banks, the taxpayer.
Color-Based Broadcasting for Ad Hoc Networks

This paper develops a novel color-based broadcast scheme for wireless ad hoc networks where each forwarding of the broadcast message is assigned a color from a given pool of colors. A node only forwards the message if it can assign it a color from the pool which it has not already overheard after a random time. In the closely related counter-based broadcast scheme a node simply counts the number of broadcasts not the colors overheard. The forwarding nodes form a so-called backbone, which is determined by the random timers and, thus, is random itself. Notably, any counter-generated backbone could result from pruning a color-generated backbone; the typical color-generated backbone, however, exhibits a connectivity graph richer than the counter-based ones. As a particular advantage, the colors reveal simple geometric properties of the backbones which we exploit to prove that the size of both, color- and counter-generated back-bones are within a small constant factor of the optimum. We also propose two techniques, boosting and edge-growing, that improve the performance of color- and counter-based broadcast in terms of reachability and number of rebroadcasts. Experiments reveal that the powerful boosting method is considerably more effective with the color-based schemes.
Opposite Adaptive Processing of Stimulus Intensity in Two Major Nuclei of the Somatosensory Brainstem

Tactile information ascends from the brainstem to the somatosensory cortex via two major parallel pathways, lemniscal and paralemniscal. In both pathways, and throughout all processing stations, adaptation effects are evident. Although parallel processing of sensory information is not unique to this system, the distinct information carried by these adaptive pathways remains unclear. Using in vivo intracellular recordings at their divergence point (brainstem trigeminal complex) in rats, we found opposite adaptation effects in the corresponding nuclei of these two pathways. Increasing the intensity of vibrissa stimulation entailed more adaption in paralemniscal neurons, whereas it caused less adaptation in lemniscal cells. Furthermore, increasing the intensity sharpens lemniscal receptive field profile as adaptation progresses. We hypothesize that these pathways evolved to operate optimally at different dynamic ranges of sustained sensory stimulation. Accordingly, the two pathways are likely to serve different functional roles in the transmission of weak and strong inputs. Hence, our results suggest that due to the disparity in the adaptation properties of two major parallel pathways in this system, high and reliable throughput of information can be achieved at a wider range of stimulation intensities than by each pathway alone.
Evidence for a Time‐Integrated Species‐Area Effect on the Latitudinal Gradient in Tree Diversity

The greater area of tropical forest biomes has been proposed as a factor that drives the latitudinal gradient in species diversity by modulating speciation and extinction rates. But speciation and extinction are processes that operate over millions of years, so an adequate test of area’s contribution to diversity patterns must take into consideration that biome areas have changed through time in response to climate. Here we correlate estimates of current tree species diversity with a composite parameter integrating area over geological time for each continent’s tropical, temperate, and boreal biomes. We find significant positive correlations between current tree diversity and area‐time for periods since the Eocene, Oligocene, and Miocene, which we take as evidence for a time‐integrated species‐area effect on current patterns of species richness across biomes. These results contribute to explanations for why most lineages have tropical origins and why tropical forests are more diverse than extratropical forests.
Molecular determinants of acute single-cell lysis by human immunodeficiency virus type 1

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection of CD4-positive lymphocytes is accompanied by acute cytopathic effects, i.e., syncytium formation and single-cell lysis. Syncytium formation involves cell-cell fusion mediated by viral envelope glycoproteins on the surface of infected cells and by CD4 glycoproteins on adjacent cells. The molecular basis for the lysis of single-HIV-1 infected cells is unclear. Here we report that the expression of functional envelope glycoproteins from primary and laboratory-adapted HIV-1 isolates resulted in the lysis of single CD4-positive lymphocytes. As was previously observed in HIV-1 infected cultures, single-cell lysis in this system primarily involved necrosis and was not inhibited by soluble CD4. Binding of the viral envelope glycoproteins to the CD4 glycoprotein facilitated, but was not sufficient for, cytolysis. Importantly, the ability of the HIV-1 envelope glycoproteins to mediate membrane fusion was essential for single-cell killing. By contrast, the long cytoplasmic tail of the gp41 transmembrane envelope glycoprotein was neither necessary nor sufficient for single-cell lysis. These results suggest that intracellular envelope glycoprotein-CD4 interactions initiate autofusion events that disrupt cell membrane integrity, leading to single-cell lysis by HIV-1.
The Myth of Race and the Human Sciences

This article presents a critical assessment of two major schools of thought in the human sciences relative to the mythology of race: logical positivism and social realism. In reviewing both, it maintains that while confronting and resisting the intellectual substance of racist arguments of human scientists is essential, questioning the very nature of science as a way of knowing is even more necessary. It concludes with discussion of an alternative, emerging school of thought: science for the people as a means to facilitate the empowerment of the oppressed, who are usually viewed simply as "human subjects"for dominant-group analysis. The human sciences are those paradigms, theories, methods, and substantive areas preoccupied with the empirical study of human beings in their physical and social habitats. They include the social sciences and the human concerns of the biological, genetic, and medical sciences. There are two ways of interpreting the history and the sociology of human sciences that have great bearing on the ways in which we come to understand the place of persons of African descent in the intellectual and policy frameworks these sciences produce: logical positivism and social realism
Characterizing cognitive aging of recognition memory and related processes in animal models and in humans

Analyses of complex behaviors across the lifespan of animals can reveal the brain regions that are impacted by the normal aging process, thereby, elucidating potential therapeutic targets. Recent data from rats, monkeys, and humans converge, all indicating that recognition memory and complex visual perception are impaired in advanced age. These cognitive processes are also disrupted in animals with lesions of the perirhinal cortex, indicating that the the functional integrity of this structure is disrupted in old age. This current review summarizes these data, and highlights current methodologies for assessing perirhinal cortex-dependent behaviors across the lifespan.
Genetic Variability within Borrelia burgdorferi Sensu Lato Genospecies Established by PCR-Single-Strand Conformation Polymorphism Analysis of the rrfA-rrlB Intergenic Spacer in Ixodes ricinus Ticks from the Czech Republic

ABSTRACT In Europe the Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato complex is represented by five distinct genospecies: Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto, Borrelia afzelii, Borrelia garinii, Borrelia valaisiana, and Borrelia lusitaniae. These taxonomic entities are known to differ in their specific associations with vertebrate hosts and to provoke distinct clinical manifestations in human patients. However, exceptions to these rules have often been observed, indicating that strains belonging to a single genospecies may be more heterogeneous than expected. It is, therefore, important to develop alternative identification tools which are able to distinguish Borrelia strains not only at the specific level but also at the intraspecific level. DNA from a sample of 370 Ixodes ricinus ticks collected in the Czech Republic was analyzed by PCR for the presence of a ∼230-bp fragment of the rrfA-rrlB intergenic spacer of Borrelia spp. A total of 20.5% of the ticks were found to be positive. The infecting genospecies were identified by analyzing the amplified products by the restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) method with restriction enzyme MseI and by single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) analysis. The two methods were compared, and PCR-SSCP analysis appeared to be a valuable tool for rapid identification of spirochetes at the intraspecific level, particularly when large samples are examined. Furthermore, by using PCR-SSCP analysis we identified a previously unknown Borrelia genotype, genotype I-77, which would have gone unnoticed if RFLP analysis alone had been used.
Resistance of surface fluorinated epoxy resin to corona discharge in SF<inf>6</inf> gas

Our previous results have shown that direct fluorination can modulate surface electrical properties and suppress surface charge accumulation of epoxy insulators, and thus has potential applications for improving the flashover performance of epoxy spacers in gas-insulated equipment. In this study, to investigate the resistance of the fluorinated epoxy surface layer to partial discharge in SF<inf>6</inf> gas, surface fluorinated epoxy samples together unfluorinated (virgin) ones were corona treated using a multi-needle-to-plate electrode system. ATR-IR analyses and SEM surface and cross section images show that the corona discharge caused the chemical modification and chain scission at some weak points in the fluorinated layer and the crosslinking reaction, and thus led to the formation of nodules on the corona treated fluorinated surface. However, the corona treatment did not change the fluorinated layer thickness. In contrast with this, severe degradation, most likely in the form of etching, occurred for the virgin surface layer during the same treatment. Measurements of surface potential decay and water contact angle indicate that the corona discharge obviously reduced surface conduction of the fluorinated sample, and rendered the surface conduction insensitive to humidity although the corona treatment almost did not change surface wettability of the fluorinated sample. On the contrary, the measurements show that surface conduction of the virgin sample increased and became sensitive to humidity after the corona treatment.
The Neural Locus of Temporal Structure and Expectancies in Music: Evidence From Functional Neuroimaging At 3 Tesla

The neuroanatomical correlates of temporal structure and expectancies in music were investigated using a unique stimulus manipulation involving scrambled music. The experiment compared brain responses (using functional magnetic resonance imaging) while participants listened to classical music and scrambled versions of that same music. The scrambled versions disrupted musical structure while holding low-level musical attributes constant, including such psychoacoustic parameters as pitch, loudness, and timbre. Comparing music to its scrambled counterpart, we found focal activation in the pars orbitalis region (Brodmann Area 47) of the left inferior frontal cortex, a region that has been previously closely associated with the processing of linguistic structure in spoken and signed language, and additional activation in the right hemisphere homologue of that area. We speculate that this particular region of inferior frontal cortex may be more generally responsible for processing fine-structured stimuli that evolve over time, not merely those that are linguistic.
21 Pattern Search Algorithms for Surface Wave Analysis

In recent years Rayleigh waves have been used increasingly as a nondestructive tool to obtain near-surface S-wave velocity, one of the key parameters in environmental and engineering applications (Miller et al., 1999a, 1999b; Park et al., 1998, 1999; Xia et al., 1999, 2003; Foti et al., 2002; Beaty and Schmitt, 2003; Tian et al., 2003; Zhang and Chan, 2003; Lin and Chang, 2004; O’Neill et al., 2003; Ryden et al., 2004; and Song et al., 2006). Utilization of surface wave dispersive properties may be roughly divided into three steps: field data acquisition, dispersion-curve picking, and inversion of phase velocities (Xia et al., 2004). Inversion of Rayleigh wave dispersion curves is one of the key steps in surface wave analysis to obtain a shallow subsurface S-wave velocity profile (Rix, 1988; Lai et al., 2002). However, inversion of high-frequency Rayleigh wave dispersion curves, as with most other geophysical optimization problems, is typically a nonlinear, multiparameter inversion problem. Dal Moro et al. (2007) have demonstrated the high nonlinearity and multimodality by a synthetic model. Consequently, local optimization methods, e.g. matrix inversion, steepest descent, conjugate gradients, are prone to being trapped by local minima, and their success depends heavily on the choice of a good starting model (Boschetti et al., 1996) and the accuracy of the partial derivatives. Thus, global optimization methods that can overcome this limitation are particularly attractive for surface wave analysis (e.g., Meier and Rix, 1993; Yamanaka and Ishida, 1996; and Beaty et al., 2002). Pattern search algorithms are a direct search method well suitable for the global optimization of highly nonlinear, multimodal objective functions (Lewis and Torczon, 1999). Pattern search algorithms have recently been used and tested to optimize complex mathematical problems characterized by the large numbers of local minima and/or maxima (Lewis and Torczon, 2000). However, few attempts have been made to address real-world geophysical problems, especially for the inversion of surface wave data. In this chapter, In this chapter, I first implemented and tested a Rayleigh wave dispersion curve inversion scheme based on GPS Positive Basis 2N, a commonly used pattern search algorithm. Incorporating complete poll and complete search strategies based on GPS Positive Basis 2N into the inverse procedure greatly enhances the performance of pattern search algorithms because the two steps can effectively locate the promising areas in the solution space containing the global minima and significantly reduce the computation cost, respectively. The calculation efficiency and stability of the inversion scheme are tested on three synthetic models. Secondly, effects of the number of data points, the reduction of the frequency range
A Lagrangian Stochastic Model for the concentration fluctuations

A Lagrangian Stochastic Model for the two- particles dispersion, aiming at simulating the pollutant con- centration fluctuations, is presented. Three model versions (1-D, 2-D and 3-D) are tested. Firstly the ability of the model to reproduce the two-particle statistics in a homoge- neous isotropic turbulence is discussed, comparing the model results with theoretical predictions in terms of the probabil- ity density function (PDF) of the particles separation and its statistics. Then, the mean concentration and its fluctuations are considered and the results presented. The influence of the PDF of the particle separation on the concentration fluctua- tions is shown and discussed. We found that the separation PDF in the inertial subrange is not gaussian and this fact in- fluences the predicted concentration fluctuations.
NGF signaling in PC 12 cells : the cooperation of p 75 NTR with TrkA is needed for the activation of both mTORC 2 and the PI 3 K signalling cascade

PC12-27, a PC12 clone characterized by high levels of the transcription repressor REST and by very low mTORC2 activity, had been shown to be unresponsive to NGF, possibly because of its lack of the specific TrkA receptor. The neurotrophin receptor repressed by high REST in PC12-27 cells, however, is shown now to be not TrkA, which is normal, but p75, whose expression is inhibited at the transcriptional level. When treated with NGF, the PC12-27 cells lacking p75 exhibited a defective TrkA autophosphorylation restricted, however, to the TrkA(Y490) site, and an impairment of the PI3K signaling cascade. This defect was sustained in part by a mTORC1-dependent feed-back inhibition that in wtPC12 cells appeared marginal. Transfection of p75 to a level and surface distribution analogous to wtPC12 did not modify various high RESTdependent properties of PC12-27 cells such as high b-catenin, low TSC2 and high proliferation rate. In contrast, the defective PI3K signaling cascade and its associated mTORC2 activity were largely rescued together with the NGF-induced neurite outgrowth response. These changes were not due to p75 alone but required its cooperation with TrkA. Our results demonstrate that, in PC12, high REST induces alterations of NGF signaling which, however, are indirect, dependent on the repression of p75; and that the well-known potentiation by p75 of the TrkA signaling does not concern all the effects induced by NGF but primarily the PI3K cascade and its associated mTORC2, a complex known to play an important role in neural cell differentiation.
A conception of tumor autonomy based on transplantation studies: a review.

idea of independence with respect to two different particulars. One of these relates to freedom from the laws restraining and co-ordinating normal tissue growth, and the other concerns release from the necessity of a continued stimulus. The results of a long series of transplantation studies suggest that the concept of autonomy has a broader ap plication to the field of cancer than is indicated by these attributes, and accordingly a brief review of the experience is presented. It was observed early in the work of this labora tory that the transplantability of spontaneous rabbit tumors varied in relation to their duration (7, 19, 21, 23). Early tumors could not be trans ferred to normal animals, whereas tumors ob tained after metastasis were readily transplantable. The occurrence of a large number of spon taneous tumors, particularly of the uterus and breast, made investigation of this relationship possible (4-6, 10, 22, 24). Biopsy specimens ob tained at monthly intervals throughout the course of disease were subjected to morphological study and to various types of transplantation. In general, four types of transplantation were attempted: autologous, or transfer back elsewhere in the same individual; homologous, or transfer to an unrelated animal of the same species; transfer to other tu mor-bearing animals; and heterologous, or trans fer to normal animals of a different species. Autologous transfer was almost always suc cessful, even in the case of the very earliest tumors. In distinction, homologous transfer was only suc-
Joint power/rate congestion control optimizing packet reception in vehicle safety communications

In Vehicle Safety Communications (VSC) based on IEEE 802.11p, vehicles establish a mutual awareness of their presence by periodically broadcasting status messages, aka beacons. If vehicle density is high and beaconing is not regulated, the channel can become congested, impairing reception performance and safety benefit. As a countermeasure, a number of congestion control approaches have been suggested, adapting transmit (Tx) power, beacon generation rate (Tx rate), or both. However, in general these approaches did not show what the optimal outcome for congestion control would be and how and why their solution would lead to the desired result. In this work, we analyze answers to the first question and provide a methodology for the second. We systematically derive a joint power/rate control strategy for VSC which optimizes reception performance for a targeted sender-receiver distance. We start by laying out why we consider average (or percentile of) packet Inter-Reception Time (IRT) at the targeted awareness distance to be a suitable metric for our purpose. Then, we analyze a wide range of Tx parameters to identify which combinations optimize reception in a homogeneous scenario. We show that for each sender-receiver distance, there is an optimal Tx power which, unlike the corresponding Tx rate, is independent of node density. In addition, we analyze the Pareto optimal Tx parameter combinations for two groups of vehicles with different target distances adapting at the same time. We show that the majority of these combinations use the same Tx power as identified in the homogeneous case. We conclude that a simple and efficient strategy to optimize reception performance is to select Tx power w.r. t. the targeted distance and to adapt Tx rate w.r. t. channel load.
Sex Differences in Sport Spectator Involvement

Among 107 male and 166 female college students, the present study examined sex differences in involvement with sports as spectators. A 14-item Likert-type scale was used to measure the subjects' emotional, cognitive, and behavioral involvement in sports as spectators. Confirming prior findings, male subjects exhibited higher involvement with sport spectating than did females. The current data also provide support for the unidimensionality, reliability, and validity of the Sport Spectator Involvement Scale.