Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Colony stage and not facultative policing explains pattern of worker reproduction in the Saxon wasp

Inclusive fitness theory predicts that in colonies of social Hymenoptera headed by a multiple‐mated queen, workers should benefit from policing eggs laid by other workers. Foster & Ratnieks provided evidence that in the vespine wasp Dolichovespula saxonica, workers police other workers’ eggs only in colonies headed by a multiple‐mated queen, but not in those headed by a single‐mated one. This conclusion, however, was based on a relatively small sample size, and the original study did not control for possible confounding variables such as the seasonal colony progression of the nests. Our aim, therefore, was to reinvestigate whether or not facultative worker policing occurs in D. saxonica. Remarkably, our data show that in the studied Danish population, there was no correlation between worker–worker relatedness and the percentage of worker‐derived males. In addition, we show that variability in cuticular hydrocarbon profiles among the workers did not significantly correlate with relatedness and that workers therefore probably did not have sufficient information on queen mating frequency from the workers’ cuticular hydrocarbon profiles. Hence, there was no evidence that workers facultatively policed other workers’ eggs in response to queen mating frequency. Nevertheless, our data do show that the seasonal progression of the nest and the location in which the males were reared both explain the patterns of worker reproduction found. Overall, our results suggest that the earlier evidence for facultative worker policing in D. saxonica may have been caused by accidental correlations with certain confounding variables, or, alternatively, that there are large interpopulation differences in the expression of worker policing.
Self Employment Wage Employment Choice and Returns to Education for Urban Men and Women in Turkey

Issues relating to self employment in developed and developing countries alike have been attracting the attention of researchers recently. This paper examines several aspects of self and wage employment in Turkey. For this purpose, individual level data from the April and October rounds of the 1989 Household Labor Force Survey of the State Institute of Statistics are used. First, the employment status profiles against age and earnings are examined for men and women and evaluated within the framework of dualistic labor market models. Next, earning equations are estimated for self and wage employed men and women together with a probit equation of sector choice. Finally, private returns to education for self and wage employed men and women are estimated and evaluated.
A Reference Proteomic Database of Lactobacillus plantarum CMCC-P0002

Lactobacillus plantarum is a widespread probiotic bacteria found in many fermented food products. In this study, the whole-cell proteins and secretory proteins of L. plantarum were separated by two-dimensional electrophoresis method. A total of 434 proteins were identified by tandem mass spectrometry, including a plasmid-encoded hypothetical protein pLP9000_05. The information of first 20 highest abundance proteins was listed for the further genetic manipulation of L. plantarum, such as construction of high-level expressions system. Furthermore, the first interaction map of L. plantarum was established by Blue-Native/SDS-PAGE technique. A heterodimeric complex composed of maltose phosphorylase Map3 and Map2, and two homodimeric complexes composed of Map3 and Map2 respectively, were identified at the same time, indicating the important roles of these proteins. These findings provided valuable information for the further proteomic researches of L. plantarum.
Determinants of corporate reporting on the internet

Purpose - The primary objective of this study is to investigate the utilization of the internet by the Turkish companies listed on the Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) for corporate reporting; to determine the company characteristics that influence the information disclosure level on the internet; and to investigate whether there is a significant difference between the firms listed in the Corporate Governance Index of the ISE and those that are not, in terms of level of disclosure on the corporate web sites. Design/methodology/approach - The methodology of the study was content analysis of corporate web sites of corporations listed on the ISE. Findings - Firms, which are listed in the ISE Corporate Governance Index (XCORP), disclose significantly more information on corporate web sites compared to the firms that are not listed in the XCORP. In addition, the results indicate that firm size and being listed in the XCORP are significant explanatory variables for the total disclosure score on the corporate web sites, while industry and profitability are not. Research limitations/implications - Since the study was conducted on a sample of listed companies on the ISE, the findings are not necessarily representative of non-listed companies. Originality/value - The study contributes to the scarce literature on internet reporting in developing countries and it incorporates the XCORP in the predictors of information disclosure level on corporate web sites.
INFSO-ICT-247733 EARTH Deliverable D 2 . 3 Energy efficiency analysis of the reference systems , areas of improvements and target breakdown

Disclaimer: This document reflects the contribution of the participants of the research project EARTH. The European Union and its agencies are not liable or otherwise responsible for the contents of this document; its content reflects the view of its authors only. This document is provided without any warranty and does not constitute any commitment by any participant as to its content, and specifically excludes any warranty of correctness or fitness for a particular purpose. The user will use this document at the user's sole risk. Abstract: In order to quantify the energy savings in wireless networks, a holistic view of the power consumption of the entire system needs to be captured. This requires an appropriate energy efficiency evaluation framework. In this deliverable, we present the necessary enhancements over existing performance evaluation frameworks for the wireless networks. The main objective is to capture the factors affecting the energy efficiency at component, node and network level. The most important additions to the existing frameworks include: (1) a sophisticated power model for various BS types, that maps the RF output power radiated at the antenna elements to the total supply power necessary to operate the network; (2) an approach to quantify the energy efficiency of large geographical areas by using the existing small scale deployment models along with long term traffic models; (3) a suitable set of metrics that allows quantifying the amount of energy savings capturing the most important trade-offs between energy savings and maintaining the system capacity, network coverage and quality of service parameters. After presenting the framework and necessary components of the framework, the proposed evaluation framework is applied to quantify the base station energy efficiency of 3GPP LTE. The overall promise of energy efficiency improvement is further investigated qualitatively for different possible areas of improvement in the system and some fundamental technology potential limits are also identified. The document provides the main outline and requirements for the evaluation framework along with the other useful components that will enable overall evaluation of the energy efficiency like the traffic and deployment models, power model for the base station and the suitable metrics to be used for such evaluations. It then provides an example of using the framework to evaluate the performance of a baseline system and also highlights the important areas for the improvement in energy efficiency. For the quantification of energy savings in wireless networks, the power consumption of the …
Analysis of Genetic Variation and Potential Applications in Genome-Scale Metabolic Modeling

Genetic variation is the motor of evolution and allows organisms to overcome the environmental challenges they encounter. It can be both beneficial and harmful in the process of engineering cell factories for the production of proteins and chemicals. Throughout the history of biotechnology, there have been efforts to exploit genetic variation in our favor to create strains with favorable phenotypes. Genetic variation can either be present in natural populations or it can be artificially created by mutagenesis and selection or adaptive laboratory evolution. On the other hand, unintended genetic variation during a long term production process may lead to significant economic losses and it is important to understand how to control this type of variation. With the emergence of next-generation sequencing technologies, genetic variation in microbial strains can now be determined on an unprecedented scale and resolution by re-sequencing thousands of strains systematically. In this article, we review challenges in the integration and analysis of large-scale re-sequencing data, present an extensive overview of bioinformatics methods for predicting the effects of genetic variants on protein function, and discuss approaches for interfacing existing bioinformatics approaches with genome-scale models of cellular processes in order to predict effects of sequence variation on cellular phenotypes.
Output, the Stock Market, and Interest Rates

This paper develops a simple model of the determination of output, the stock market and the term structure of interest rates. The model is an extension of the IS-LM model and borrows from it the assumption that output is determined by aggregate demand and that the price level can only adjust over time to its equilibrium value. However, whereas the IS-LM emphasizes the interaction between "the interest rate" and output, this model emphasizes the interaction between asset values and output. Asset values, rather than the interest rate, are the main determinants of aggregate demand and output. Current and anticipated output and income are in turn the main determinants of asset values. It is this interaction that the model intends to capture; its goal is to characterize the joint response of asset values and output to changes in the environment, such as changes or announcement of changes in monetary and fiscal policy. As the above brief description makes clear, anticipations are central to the story; the assumption made in this paper will be one of rational expectations. The paper is organized as follows. Section I describes the model, and Sections II-IV characterize the behavior of the economy under the extreme but convenient assumption that prices are fixed forever. Sections V and VI extend the analysis to the case where prices adjust over time to their equilibrium value.
Equity in access to higher education revisited

No progress has been made over the past decade in improving equity of access to higher education for young people from low socio-economic backgrounds. New evidence indicates that both family income and cultural factors explain this situation. The cultural factor is particularly strong for boys from blue collar backgrounds. Current Government equity policy ignores these findings. Copyright. Monash University and the author/s
Tracking control of nonholonomic mobile robots with velocity and acceleration constraints

This paper studies the tracking control of nonholonomic mobile robots with bounded velocities and accelerations. Two first-order filters driven by the tracking errors are developed to produce bounded and uniformly continuous feedback signals for the tracking controller. The feedback signals and their time derivatives are directly constrained by two filter parameters. A set of four inequality conditions on the filter parameters and a feedback parameter is derived to guarantee the satisfaction of the velocity and acceleration constraints. The system stability is proved by the Lyapunov stability theory. Simulation results are provided to verify the effectiveness of our proposed tracking controller.
SOLUTIONS FOR SINGULAR VOLTERRA INTEGRAL EQUATIONS

0 gi(t, s)[Pi(s, u1(s), u2(s), · · · , un(s)) + Qi(s, u1(s), u2(s), · · · , un(s))]ds, t ∈ [0, T ], 1 ≤ i ≤ n where T > 0 is fixed and the nonlinearities Pi(t, u1, u2, · · · , un) can be singular at t = 0 and uj = 0 where j ∈ {1, 2, · · · , n}. Criteria are offered for the existence of fixed-sign solutions (u∗1, u ∗ 2, · · · , u ∗ n) to the system of Volterra integral equations, i.e., θiu ∗ i (t) ≥ 0 for t ∈ [0, 1] and 1 ≤ i ≤ n, where θi ∈ {1,−1} is fixed. We also include an example to illustrate the usefulness of the results obtained.
Increased Hyaluronan Levels in HABP1/p32/gC1qR Overexpressing HepG2 Cells Inhibit Autophagic Vacuolation Regulating Tumor Potency

Tumor growth and development is influenced by its microenvironment. A major extracellular matrix molecule involved in cancer progression is hyaluronan (HA). Hyaluronan and expression of a number of hyaladherin family proteins are dramatically increased in many cancer malignancies. One such hyaladherin, hyaluronan-binding protein 1 (HABP1/p32/gC1qR) has been considered to be a biomarker for tumor progression. Interestingly, overexpression of HABP1 in fibroblast has been shown to increase autophagy via generation of excess reactive oxygen species (ROS) and depletion of HA leading to apoptosis. Cancerous cells are often found to exhibit decreased rate of proteolysis/autophagy in comparison to their normal counterparts. To determine if HABP1 levels alter tumorigenicity of cancerous cells, HepR21, the stable transfectant overexpressing HABP1 in HepG2 cell line was derived. HepR21 has been shown to have increased proliferation rate than HepG2, intracellular HA cable formation and enhanced tumor potency without any significant alteration of intracellular ROS. In this paper we have observed that HepR21 cells containing higher endogenous HA levels, have downregulated expression of the autophagic marker, MAP-LC3, consistent with unaltered levels of endogenous ROS. In fact, HepR21 cells seem to have significant resistance to exogenous ROS stimuli and glutathione depletion. HepR21 cells were also found to be more resilient to nutrient starvation in comparison to its parent cell line. Decline in intracellular HA levels and HA cables in HepR21 cells upon treatment with HAS inhibitor (4-MU), induced a surge in ROS levels leading to increased expression of MAP-LC3 and tumor suppressors Beclin 1 and PTEN. This suggests the importance of HABP1 induced HA cable formation in enhancing tumor potency by maintaining the oxidant levels and subsequent autophagic vacuolation.
Congenital Hyperinsulinism Caused by a De Novo Mutation in the ABCC8 Gene - A Case Report

Congenital hyperinsulinism (CHI) is a rare genetic disorder characterized by inappropriate insulin secretion and severe hypoglycaemia. There are two histological subtypes: diffuse and focal form. Diffuse form is most common in autosomal recessive mutations in ABCC8/KCNJ11 gene, while focal CHI is caused a paternally inherited mutation and a somatic maternal allele loss. Here we report a case of a term male infant presented with severe hyperinsulinaemic hypoglycaemia. Gene panel testing was performed to give rapid genetic diagnosis. We detected the c.4415-13G>A heterozygous mutation in the ABCC8 gene. Targeted genetic testing of the parents proved the de novo origin of the mutation. The mutation has been previously described. The infant received octreotide treatment and is prepared for 18-fluoro-dopa PET-CT examination in order to localize the lesion. Rapid genetic testing might be crucial in the clinical management strategy, with decision algorithms taking into account of the genetic status of the patient.
Moral Hazard and Nonmarket Institutions: Dysfunctional Crowding Out or Peer Monitoring?

The authors examine a situation in which insurance is characterized by moral hazard. When market insurance is provided, supplementary mutual assistance between family and friends (unobservable to market insurers) will occur. When nonmarket insurers have no better information than market insurers, the mutual assistance not only crowds out market insurance, but is also harmful and, therefore, dysfunctional. Alternatively, when nonmarket insurers can observe each other's effort perfectly, mutual assistance is beneficial. These results point to the potential importance of peer-monitoring mechanisms in mitigating moral hazard. Copyright 1991 by American Economic Association.
Complete classification of one-dimensional gapped quantum phases in interacting spin systems

Quantum phases with different orders exist with or without breaking the symmetry of the system. Recently, a classification of gapped quantum phases which do not break time reversal, parity or on-site unitary symmetry has been given for 1D spin systems in [X. Chen, Z. -C. Gu, and X. -G. Wen, Phys. Rev. B \textbf{83}, 035107 (2011); arXiv:1008.3745]. It was found that, such symmetry protected topological (SPT) phases are labeled by the projective representations of the symmetry group which can be viewed as a symmetry fractionalization. In this paper, we extend the classification of 1D gapped phases by considering SPT phases with combined time reversal, parity, and/or on-site unitary symmetries and also the possibility of symmetry breaking. We clarify how symmetry fractionalizes with combined symmetries and also how symmetry fractionalization coexists with symmetry breaking. In this way, we obtain a complete classification of gapped quantum phases in 1D spin systems. We find that in general, symmetry fractionalization, symmetry breaking and long range entanglement(present in 2 or higher dimensions) represent three main mechanisms to generate a very rich set of gapped quantum phases. As an application of our classification, we study the possible SPT phases in 1D fermionic systems, which can be mapped to spin systems by Jordan-Wigner transformation.
Trade patterns and global value chains in East Asia : from trade in goods to trade in tasks

The increasing internationalization of supply chains is challenging our interpretation of conventional trade statistics, as traditional concepts such as country of origin or the distinction between goods and services become blurred. This publication, jointly produced by the WTO and the Institute of Developing Economies-Japan External Trade Organization (IDE-JETRO), focuses on the factors that have helped to shape global productions.
Essays on market dynamics in the presence of learning

ESSAYS ON MARKET DYNAMICS IN THE PRESENCE OF LEARNING Xi Weng George Mailath I investigate how the presence of learning affects the market dynamics in three different market settings. The first chapter studies how the interplay of individual and social learning affects price dynamics. I consider a monopolist selling a new experience good over time to many buyers. Buyers learn from their own private experiences (individual learning) as well as by observing other buyers’ experiences (social learning). Individual learning generates ex post heterogeneity, which affects the buyers’ purchasing decisions and the firm’s pricing strategy. When learning is through good news signals, the monopolist’s incentive to exploit the known buyers causes experimentation to be terminated too early. After the arrival of a good news signal, the price could instantaneously go down in order to induce the remaining unknown buyer to experiment. When learning is through bad news signals, experimentation is efficient, since only the homogeneous unknown buyers purchase the experience good. The second chapter is based on the observation that workers learn at different rates about their productivity and therefore expect different wage paths across firms. We show that under strict supermodularity there is always positive assortative matching: differential learning is always dominated by the impact of productivity. Surprisingly, this holds even if learning is faster in the low type firm. The key assumption driving this result is that this is a pure Bayesian learning model.We also derive a new equilibrium condition in this class of continuous time models in addition to the common smooth-pasting and value-matching conditions. This no-deviation condition captures sequential rationality and results in a restriction on the second derivative of the value function. The third chapter develops a continuous-time war of attrition model with learning to investigate whether learning is possible to make it easier to reach an agreement. I show that with exogenous private learning, it may be easier to
Subparallel thrust and normal faulting in Albania and the roles of gravitational potential energy and rheology contrasts in mountain belts

The active tectonics of Albania and surrounding regions, on the eastern margin of the Adriatic Sea, is characterized by subparallel thrust and normal faulting which, we suggest, is likely to be related to gravitational potential energy contrasts between the low-lying Adriatic Sea and the elevated mountainous areas inland. We calculate the magnitude of the force which the mountains and lowlands exert upon each other as a result of this potential energy contrast. It is likely that this force is largely supported by shear stresses on faults, and if so, the average stresses are less than ∼20 MPa. Alternatively, if the mountains are supported by stresses in the ductile part of the lithosphere, the stresses are likely to be ∼80–240 MPa in magnitude. The mountains of Albania are significantly lower than other ranges, such as the Peruvian Andes, which are thought to be extending in response to potential energy differences, and we discuss the relation between Albania and these other, higher, mountain belts from the perspective of differences in lithosphere rheology. We suggest that the lowlands of western Albania and the Adriatic Sea may have been weakened through time as a result of the deposition of large thicknesses of sediment, which lead to heating of the crystalline basement, a reduction in the potential energy contrast that could be supported by the lowlands, and so normal faulting in the mountains of eastern Albania.
Split-and-merge EM for vine image segmentation

With the goal of recovering the 2D tree structure present on grape vine binary images, in this paper we propose to use Mixture of Gaussians for canes segmentation. The main idea behind our approach is to use information criteria from model selection theory to guide directly the split-and-merge steps for learning Mixture of Gaussians via Expectation Maximization. A novel information criteria we found experimentally is able to adapt to canes at different image scales. We show results of cane segmentation using our criteria in comparison to standard ones as Akaike and Bayesian information criteria. Finally we provide directions on how this work could be extended in the future.