Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Observation on induced voltages on overhead distribution lines caused by natural lightning

This paper carries out a summary and analysis on the observation result of induced voltage waveforms caused by nearby natural lightning on 220-V rated low-voltage overhead distribution lines in Guangzhou Field Experiment Site for Lightning Research and Testing (GFESLRT) during Summer 2008. It can be observed that when surge protective device (SPD) is not connected, the maximum peak value of induced voltages caused by seven lightning return strokes reaches 6.12 kV. When SPD is connected to the test line, the positive and negative peak values of lightning induced voltages on the live conductor and neutral conductor are less than 1.3 kV. Despite that induced voltages on two wires erected at the same height of an overhead line are almost the same, although some peak values of the induced voltages are not exactly the same. Lines with SPD connected can be protected effectively, while the waveforms are greatly different from the residual voltage waveforms of the SPD under impulse current obtained in laboratory. Measured peak values of induced voltages in this paper are much smaller than estimated values by the Rusck theory.
From optical bench to cageside: intravital microscopy on the long road to rational vaccine design

Summary: No antiviral vaccine is perfect. For some important pathogens, there are no effective vaccines. Many current vaccines are based on the working principles of Jenner and Pasteur, that is, empiric administration of attenuated or inactivated forms of the pathogen. Tapping the full potential of vaccination requires a thorough understanding of the mechanism of immune activation by pathogens and their individual components. Though the rate of discovery continues to accelerate, the complexity of the immune system is daunting, particularly when integrated into the overall physiology of the host. Here, we review the application of multiphoton microscopy to examine host‐pathogen interactions, focusing on our recent efforts to understand mouse CD8+ T‐cell responses to viruses at the level of cellular interactions in lymph nodes draining the infection site. We also discuss our recent efforts to understand the influence of the sympathetic nervous system on antiviral immunity, with the ultimate goal of appreciating the traditional elements of immunity as just one facet of the total organismal response to infection and immunization.
DELLA Proteins and Gibberellin-Regulated Seed Germination and Floral Development in Arabidopsis1[w]

RGA (repressor of ga1-3) and GAI (gibberellin insensitive) are negative regulators of plant hormone gibberellin (GA) signaling in Arabidopsis. The GA-deficient mutant ga1-3 is a nongerminating, extreme dwarf that flowers late and produces male-sterile flowers. The rga and gai null alleles interact synergistically to rescue vegetative growth and floral initiation in ga1-3, indicating that RGA and GAI are major repressors for these processes. However, rga and gai in combination cannot rescue seed germination or floral development in ga1-3. RGA and GAI belong to the DELLA subfamily within the GRAS family of plant regulatory proteins. Three additional DELLA proteins RGL1, RGL2, and RGL3 are present in Arabidopsis. Previous studies provided evidence that RGL2 and possibly RGL1 control seed germination. To investigate further the function of the RGL genes, we examined the expression profiles of all 5 DELLA protein genes by real-time PCR. RGA and, to a lesser extent, GAI mRNAs were expressed ubiquitously in all tissues, whereas RGL1, 2, and 3 transcripts were present at high levels only in germinating seeds and/or flowers and siliques. Using the newly isolated rgl1, rgl2, and rgl3 T-DNA insertion mutants, we demonstrated that RGL2 is the major repressor in seed germination. We further provided evidence that RGA, RGL1, and RGL2 are all involved in modulating floral development. Interestingly, RGL2 expression is regulated not only at the transcript level. We showed that RGL2 protein in imbibed seeds is rapidly degraded by GA treatment and that the F-box protein SLY1 is required for RGL2 degradation to occur.
Patents, Profits & Power: How Intellectual Property Rules the Global Economy

The wealth of many of today's businesses comprises the collective knowledge and innovation of their employees and leaders. In the global economy, innovation has become as valuable as gold. Consequently intellectual property protection has become the focus of considerable legal and regulatory attention, at both an international and national level. Theft, piracy, and infringements on IP can be revealed at every level, from the state to the individual. Patents, Profits and Power examines the less desirable players on the world stage, why they choose to defy the law, and how the rest of the world is responding. The book also examines how the internet is changing the rules of intellectual property protection. It is packed with international case studies and examples to illustrate the impact of the internet on the development, control and protection of valuable ideas, products and services. This title will prove an invaluable reference source for anyone who is involved in protecting intellectual property.
Immunomodulation and Safety of Topical Calcineurin Inhibitors for the Treatment of Atopic Dermatitis

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic or chronically relapsing inflammatory skin condition that primarily affects children. Topical corticosteroids have been the mainstay of treatment since the late 1950s. While providing excellent short-term efficacy, topical corticosteroid usage is limited by potential adverse effects, including impairment of the function and viability of Langerhans cells/dendritic cells. The recently introduced topical calcineurin inhibitors pimecrolimus cream 1% (Elidel®) and tacrolimus ointment 0.03 and 0.1% (Protopic®) exhibit a more selective mechanism of action and do not affect Langerhans cells/dendritic cells. For the immune system of young children ‘learning’ to mount a balanced Th1/Th2 response, this selective effect has particular benefits. In clinical experience, topical calcineurin inhibitors have been shown to be a safe and effective alternative to topical corticosteroids in almost 7 million patients (>5 million on pimecrolimus; >1.7 million on tacrolimus). Topical pimecrolimus is primarily used in children with mild and moderate AD, whereas tacrolimus is used preferentially in more severe cases. None of the topical calcineurin inhibitors have been associated with systemic immunosuppression-related malignancies known to occur following long-term sustained systemic immunosuppression with oral immunosuppressants (e.g., tacrolimus, cyclosporine A, and corticosteroids) in transplant patients. Preclinical and clinical data suggest a greater skin selectivity and larger safety margin for topical pimecrolimus.
A Comparison of Creative Behaviours in Online Communities Across Cultures

In this study we shed light on the impact of cultural differences on creative processes and innovation creation in online communities. Analysing English‐ and Chinese‐speaking online basketball communities, we investigate how innovations develop in virtual consumer groups and what motives drive members to engage in joint innovation creation. Similarly to findings from creativity research in offline contexts, we find that culture does have an influence on creative processes and expressions. While English‐ and Chinese‐speaking online communities are similar in their high quality and quantity of creative outputs, they differ with regard to innovation patterns and the kinds of emerging innovations. From a practical perspective the findings suggest that companies that aim to collaborate with communities across cultures have to align the interaction with the members' different expectations and routines. Further, what communities consider as creative and innovative may depend on culture.
Teacher reflection and theories of learning online

Many universities have pursued the development of online offering of their subjects with enthusiasm, with a perception that ultimately such offerings will increase the availability of the subject and be a cost-effective enterprise. As yet, little attention has been paid to the potential for online subjects to encourage deep learning in students who undertake them. This paper considers some current understandings of studentsâ€™ approaches to learning and examines the potential for online subjects to provide a positive teaching/learning environment. It concludes that, as in the lecture theatre or tutorial room, the virtual classroom can succeed through reflective teaching underpinned by the solid application of theories of learning.
SOCIAL CAPITAL AND WORK AMONG RURAL-TO-URBAN MIGRANTS IN CHINA

This research provides a fine-grained analysis of the link between social capital and work-related outcomes among rural-to-urban migrants in China. Using data from the Shanghai Rural-to-Urban Migrant Worker Survey, the authors examine various kinds of social networks, the types of social capital they produce and their effects on migrant workers. While kinship networks and pre-existing social capital tend to provide migrants with job security and stability, they are negatively associated with migrants’ earnings and work satisfaction. By contrast, newly established friendship networks with local urbanites indicate new forms of social capital from the destination city, which are positively associated with higher satisfaction with income and work environment, and a higher likelihood of landing a permanent job.
Iontophoretic Administration of Dexamethasone Sodium Phosphate for Acute Epicondylitis: A Randomized, Double-Blinded, Placebo-Controlled Study

Background: A better treatment modality is needed to control the pain of medial or lateral epicondylitis (tennis elbow). Hypothesis: Dermal iontophoretic administration of dexamethasone sodium phosphate will be significantly more effective in controlling pain than a placebo in patients with medial or lateral elbow epicondylitis. Study Design: Randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled study. Methods: On six occasions, 1 to 3 days apart within 15 days, 199 patients with elbow epicondylitis received 40 mA-minutes of either active or placebo treatment. Results: Dexamethasone produced a significant 23-mm improvement on the 100-mm patient visual analog scale ratings, compared with 14 mm for placebo at 2 days and 24 mm compared with 19 mm at 1 month. More patients treated with dexamethasone than those treated with placebo scored moderate or better on the investigator's global improvement scale (52% versus 33%) at 2 days, but the difference was not significant at 1 month (54% versus 49%). Investigator-rated pain and tenderness scores favored dexamethasone over placebo at 2 days. Patients completing six treatments in 10 days or less had better results than those treated over a longer period. Conclusions: Iontophoresis treatment was well tolerated by most patients and was effective in reducing symptoms of epicondylitis at short-term follow-up.
Restaurant Food Safety: The Influence of Employee Outlooks on Transfer of Training

This exploratory case study hypothesized that improvements in food safety transfer of training were linked to employees' outlooks on key behavioral factors. Employee perceptions of 6 theorized, latent behavioral variables were analyzed to see if they had a relationship with health inspection outcomes of a casual-theme restaurant concept in the Southeastern U.S. A total of 15 restaurants were sampled, yielding 210 observations, which represented a 40% response rate. The results advocate that the employees' outlook played a significant role in the transfer of food safety knowledge and skills gained in training. There was also evidence that the employee's self-efficacy and sense of social responsibility had positive relationships with restaurant inspection scores.
Dividend policy in South Africa

Over 50 years ago John Lintner (1956) published a study of corporate dividend policy in which he found that firms typically set long-term target dividend payout ratios and that dividend changes tend to lag earnings changes in order to give management time to assess the permanence of any earnings rises. Five years later Miller and Modigliani (1961) demonstrated that in perfect, frictionless markets investors should be indifferent to receiving their returns in the form of dividends or price appreciation. During the intervening four decades much effort was put into developing a theory of dividend policy and into an associated body of empirical work. In 2005 Brav, Graham, Harvey and Michaely published a comprehensive survey of US corporate dividend policy. Their objective was to establish whether Lintner's findings remained relevant at the start of the 21st century and to shed light on the consistency between modern theories and the practice of corporate dividend policy. In this paper we review the work done on dividend policy in South Africa over the past 25 years and compare and contrast the results obtained in applying Brav et al. (2005)'s questionnaire to a sample of South African listed companies.
Perturbed Adaptive Dynamics in Coalition Form Games

Players adaptively learn how to bargain. A characteristic function describes the available surplus. The underlying bargaining game extends the Nash demand game by allowing subcoalitions to reach an agreement. Players' demands must be multiples of a money unit. We show that stochastically stable allocations (SSA) (i.e., allocations that are most stable to unlikely errors) are a subset of the core. Uniqueness does not obtain even when the money unit becomes arbitrarily small. Nonetheless, every SSA is related to the allocation that maximizes the product of players' utilities over the core; i.e., constrained egalitarian solution for TU-games.
A fuzzy-model-based variable structure control for robot arms: theory and experiments

This paper was related to a robot arm with uncertainties approximated by N fuzzy-based linear state-space subsystems accomplished from its linearization about a representative trajectory. Under the same fuzzy sets of the plant rule, the reference models with desired amplitude and phase features were also designed to track a trajectory dominated by a specific frequency. Based on the sinusoidal responses of robot arm and Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy model, a suitable fuzzy model for the robot arm was obtained. According to the established fuzzy model, a fuzzy-model-based variable structure control (FMBVSC), including a fuzzy equivalent control and a fuzzy switching control, was then designed. The fuzzy equivalent control was employed to obtain the desired control behavior; the fuzzy switching control was applied to reinforce system performance. Finally, the experiments of two-joint robot arm in the horizontal plane with (or without) payload were carried out to verify the usefulness of the proposed control.
SITA standard in optic neuropathies and hemianopias: a comparison with full threshold testing.

PURPOSE To compare visual sensitivity, fatigue effect, and probability plot data between Full Threshold (FT) Humphrey automated perimetry and Swedish Interactive Threshold Algorithm (SITA) standard strategies in patients with optic neuropathies and hemianopias. METHODS Twenty-four patients with nonglaucomatous optic neuropathies and 18 patients with a relative homonymous or bitemporal hemianopia were tested with both conventional perimetry (Humphrey 24-2 program) and "back to back" SITA standard tests (SITA 1, SITA 2) to approximate the test time of the FT test conditions. Also, 28 normal subjects between the ages of 20 and 80 were tested with this protocol. The visual field quadrants with the most damage were used to evaluate any fatigue effect (i.e., possible lack of fatigue effect with SITA standard due to the shorter test time) and to compare probability plot data between FT, SITA 1, and SITA 2. Pointwise total and pattern deviation probability plot defects were weighted by degree of significance and summed. RESULTS Test times for normal subjects were 45 seconds longer for FT than for the combined test time of SITA 1 + SITA 2. Patients' test times were 40 seconds longer for hemianopias and 90 seconds longer for optic neuropathies with FT than the combined times for two SITA tests. There were higher sensitivities found with SITA 1 compared with Full Threshold (1.06 dB, P< 0.001) and SITA 2 with Full Threshold (0.73 dB, P< 0.001) in the most damaged quadrant for the optic neuropathy patients; for the hemianopia patients the difference in values were between SITA 1 and Full Threshold (0.96 dB, P = 0.07) and between SITA 2 and Full Threshold (0.11 dB, P = 0.87). The second SITA standard test had lower sensitivity than the first SITA standard test by 0.82 dB in hemianopias and by 0.71 dB in optic neuropathy patients. Analysis of the total and pattern deviation probability plot data showed slightly more defects (number and magnitude) with SITA 1 compared to FT for both groups, but the differences were not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS Sensitivities were higher in patients with hemianopias or optic neuropathies using SITA standard compared with FT by approximately 1 dB. The probability plot comparison suggests SITA standard is at least as good as FT for detection of visual loss in individual examinations. However, efficacy of SITA standard for serial examinations has not yet been evaluated.
Implications of Coupling in Quantum Thermodynamic Machines

We study coupled quantum systems as the working media of thermodynamic machines. Under a suitable phase-space transformation, the coupled systems can be expressed as a composition of independent subsystems. We find that for the coupled systems, the figures of merit, that is the efficiency for engine and the coefficient of performance for refrigerator, are bounded (both from above and from below) by the corresponding figures of merit of the independent subsystems. We also show that the optimum work extractable from a coupled system is upper bounded by the optimum work obtained from the uncoupled system, thereby showing that the quantum correlations do not help in optimal work extraction. Further, we study two explicit examples; coupled spin- 1 / 2 systems and coupled quantum oscillators with analogous interactions. Interestingly, for particular kind of interactions, the efficiency of the coupled oscillators outperforms that of the coupled spin- 1 / 2 systems when they work as heat engines. However, for the same interaction, the coefficient of performance behaves in a reverse manner, while the systems work as the refrigerator. Thus, the same coupling can cause opposite effects in the figures of merit of heat engine and refrigerator.
Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulators 4-Hydroxytamoxifen and Raloxifene Impact the Stability and Function of SRC-1 and SRC-3 Coactivator Proteins

ABSTRACT Proteasome-mediated protein degradation has been implicated in playing a role in nuclear receptor-mediated gene expression; inhibition of the proteasome impairs the transcriptional activity of estrogen receptor α (ERα) and most other nuclear receptors. This coincides with blockage of agonist-dependent degradation of the receptor and elevation of the steady-state levels of SRC family coactivators and CBP. Here, we examined the effects that different ERα ligands have on coactivator protein steady-state levels and demonstrate that the selective ER modulators (SERMs) 4-hydroxytamoxifen (4HT) and raloxifene are able to elevate SRC-1 and SRC-3 protein levels. Using the HeLa cell line, we show that this effect is ERα dependent. Consistent with the observed increase in coactivator protein levels, we were also able to observe an increase in the transcriptional activity of other nuclear receptors in SERM-treated cells. Information presented here demonstrates an unexpected consequence of SERM treatment, which could help further define the complex tissue responses to 4HT and raloxifene, and suggests that these ligands can have a broad biological action, stimulating the transcriptional activity of other nuclear receptors.
A Comparison of Wage Determination in New South Wales and Queensland (Australian) Clubs

ABSTRACT Australia's industrial relations framework has undergone substantial change since the 1990s. This has involved federal and state governments attempting to replace the centralised system, based on awards, to a decentralised system based on formalised enterprise and individual bargaining. The move to a decentralised system will supposedly, according to critics of the centralised system, provide significant improvements in flexibility, especially for the hospitality industry. This article examines the results from two studies of registered clubs, one undertakenin New South Wales (NSW)in 1996 and the other in Queensland in 2003, to examine the impact of regulatory changes on wage determination and associated variables in the sector. The findings indicate that despite the rhetoric of proponents of decentralisation, very few clubs have moved from the centralised system to the decentralised one. However, within the centralised system, clubs have undertaken a high level of informal bargaining, both in 1996 and 2003. Despite the level of informal bargaining club managers felt relatively restricted by awards and trade unions.
Dimensions of Performance Effectiveness In High‐Involvement Work Organisations

Sharon Parker, Sean Mullarkely and Paul Jackson, who are researchers in the MRC/ESRC Social and Applied Pyschology Unit at the University of Sheffield, draw on detailed case study evidence to consider the substantial changes to the shop floor roles entailed in high involvement work organisations. They argue that specification of the performance requirements of such roles will facilitate employees taking on appropriate behaviours, reduce role confusion, and enable consistency in human resource practices. They discuss the use of repertory grids to explore the models of effective performance held by production managers and derive nine critical dimensions of shop floor employee performance from the analysis. These contain specific behavioural examples and are grouped around four higher-order dimensions: ‘process ownership’, ‘social skills’, ‘personal style’, and loss prevention’. These dimensions form the basis of a broader specification of the skills, knowledge and general orientations required by shopfloor employees in high involvement roles.
Infectious Keratitis Caused by Aspergillus tubingensis

Purpose: To report 2 cases of keratomycosis caused by Aspergillus tubingensis. Methods: The therapeutic courses were recorded for 2 male patients, 52 and 78 years old, with fungal keratitis caused by black Aspergillus strains. Morphological examination of the isolates was carried out on malt extract agar plates. A segment of the β-tubulin gene was used for molecular identification. Antifungal susceptibilities were determined by the E test method for molds and the broth microdilution technique National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards M38-A. Results: A 52-year-old man presented with complaints of pain and redness in the right eye. The patient was successfully treated with natamycin and econazole eyedrops, itraconazole eye ointment, and oral ketoconazole. A 78-year-old man presented with total corneal necrosis in the right eye. A therapeutic keratoplasty was performed, and topical natamycin and econazole were applied. At the postoperative visit after 3 weeks, almost the full corneal graft was clear with formed anterior chamber. Black Aspergillus strains were isolated from the corneal scrapings of both cases and initially identified as Aspergillus niger based on culture characteristics. Sequence analysis of a segment of the β-tubulin gene revealed that the isolates are representatives of A. tubingensis. Conclusions: Aspergillus tubingensis is closely related with A. niger, the differentiation of these 2 species is difficult by classical morphological criteria. To our knowledge, the presented cases of fungal keratitis are the first reports on ocular infection caused by A. tubingensis.