Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Microstructure and superconductivity of highly ordered YBa2Cu3O7−δ nanowire arrays

In order to explore the fundamental properties of one-dimensional nanostructured high-temperature superconductors and enhance their promising applications, a universal and general method for the synthesis of high-quality YBa2Cu3O7−δ (YBCO) nanowire arrays is developed, which involves the combination of a novel sol–gel process to lower the crystallization temperature of YBCO, and porous anodic alumina (PAA) as an effective morphology-directing hard template. Field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) results indicate that the as-prepared YBCO nanowires have average diameters of about 50 nm and lengths up to several microns. The structures of the samples were analysed by x-ray diffraction (XRD), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and inductively coupled plasma (ICP) analysis, which indicate that the nanowires are well crystallized with orthorhombic YBCO-123 structure. The magnetization measurement under zero-field-cooled (ZFC) mode indicates that the superconducting transition temperature (Tc) of the nanowires is about 92 K, which is in agreement with that of a bulk YBCO sample.
Dynamic changes of the luminal and mucosa-associated gut microbiota during and after antibiotic therapy with paromomycin

Gut microbiota play a key role in the host's health system. Broad antibiotic therapy is known to disrupt the microbial balance affecting pathogenic as well as host-associated microbes. The aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of antibiotic paromomycin on the luminal and mucosa-associated microbiota at the DNA (abundance) and RNA (potential activity) level as well as to identify possible differences. The influence of antibiotic treatment on intestinal microbiota was investigated in 5 healthy individuals (age range: 20–22 years). All participants received the antibiotic paromomycin for 3 d. Fecal samples as well as sigmoidal biopsies were collected before and immediately after cessation of antibiotic treatment as well as after a recovery phase of 42 d. Compartment- and treatment status-specific indicator operational taxonomic units (OTUs) as well as abundance- and activity-specific patterns were identified by 16S rRNA and 16S rRNA gene amplicon libraries and high-throughput pyrosequencing. Microbial composition of lumen and mucosa were significantly different at the DNA compared to the RNA level. Antibiotic treatment resulted in changes of the microbiota, affecting the luminal and mucosal bacteria in a similar way. Several OTUs were identified as compartment- and/or treatment status-specific. Abundance and activity patterns of some indicator OTUs differed considerably. The study shows fundamental changes in composition of gut microbiota under antibiotic therapy at both the potential activity and the abundance level at different treatment status. It may help to understand the complex processes of gut microbiota changes involved in resilience mechanisms and on development of antibiotic-associated clinical diseases.
in Economics : 1889 DISTRIBUTIONAL EFFECTS OF LOCAL MINIMUM WAGE HIKES : A SPATIAL JOB SEARCH APPROACH

This paper develops and estimates a spatial general equilibrium job search model to study the effects of local and universal (federal) minimum wage policies. In the model, firms post vacancies in multiple locations. Workers, who are heterogeneous in terms of location and education types, engage in random search and can migrate or commute in response to job offers. I estimate the model by combining multiple databases including the American Community Survey (ACS) and Quarterly Workforce Indicators (QWI). The estimated model is used to analyze how minimum wage policies affect employment, wages, job postings, vacancies, migration/commuting, and welfare. Empirical results show that minimum wage increases in local county lead to an exit of low type (education<12 years) workers and an influx of high type workers (education≥12 years), which generates negative externalities for workers in neighboring areas. I use the model to simulate the effects of a range of minimum wages. Minimum wage increases up to $14/hour increase the welfare of high type workers but lower welfare of low type workers, expanding inequality. Increases in excess of $14/hour decrease welfare for all workers. I further evaluate two counterfactual policies: restricting labor mobility and preempting local minimum wage laws. For a certain range of minimum wages, both policies have negative impacts on the welfare of high type workers, but beneficial effects for low type workers.
Obstacle Avoidance through Deep Networks based Intermediate Perception

Obstacle avoidance from monocular images is a challenging problem for robots. Though multi-view structure-from-motion could build 3D maps, it is not robust in textureless environments. Some learning based methods exploit human demonstration to predict a steering command directly from a single image. However, this method is usually biased towards certain tasks or demonstration scenarios and also biased by human understanding. In this paper, we propose a new method to predict a trajectory from images. We train our system on more diverse NYUv2 dataset. The ground truth trajectory is computed from the designed cost functions automatically. The Convolutional Neural Network perception is divided into two stages: first, predict depth map and surface normal from RGB images, which are two important geometric properties related to 3D obstacle representation. Second, predict the trajectory from the depth and normal. Results show that our intermediate perception increases the accuracy by 20% than the direct prediction. Our model generalizes well to other public indoor datasets and is also demonstrated for robot flights in simulation and experiments.
Fc receptor genes and the systemic lupus erythematosus diathesis

Fc receptors represent a distinct group of hematopoeitic cell surface glycoproteins that have a characterized role in affecting the efficiency of the mononuclear phagocyte system to clear IgG immune complexes. Functional genetic variatins in this family of receptors have been identified as heritable susceptibility factors for SLE and lupus nephritis across diverse populations. In this review, we describe the roles of the classical Fc receptors for IgG (Fcγ) and non-classical Fc-like receptors (FCR1-FCRL6L), Fc receptors for IgE (FcεRI) and IgA and IgM (Fcα/μR) in SLE diathesis. The combined effects of these genes on SLE pathogenesis, either via linkage disequilibrium or epistasis with additional genetic or environmental factors, provide a challenge for future investigations. The pursuit of a polygenic SLE-profile that includes longitudinal evaluations of SLE and markers involved in the protean clinical manifestations associated with SLE will facilitate our understanding of the cascade of inflammatory events associated with the diathesis.
Gazelles and muppets in the City: Stock market listing, risk sharing, and firm growth quantiles

Financialization is persuading academics and policy-makers that the growth of SMEs can be unleashed by promoting their quotation on stock markets. Is that true? Answering this can give clues on the functions that stock markets actually perform in the financialized world. The market may allow collecting finance for productive investments, or mainly provide firms with opportunities for value extraction. It may work as a selection device or as a risk-sharing mechanism. In this paper, we test hypotheses linking the shape of the firm growth rates distribution to stock market functions, through quantile regressions. We use a sample of UK manufacturing companies listed on AIM, a junior segment of the London Stock Exchange, and comparably small and young unlisted companies. We find that the operating revenues and total assets of AIM-listed gazelles grow faster than for their unlisted peers, after controlling for lagged values of size, age, and growth. Yet, there is a loss reinforcing effect for companies listed on the AIM. After controlling for endogeneity by estimating instrumental variable quantile treatment effect (IVQTE), our findings dismiss the existence of a treatment effect of public quotation and are consistent with the stock market attracting relatively risky companies.
Search Among Queues Under Quality Differentiation

Customers looking for service providers often face search frictions and have to trade off quality and availability. To understand customers’ search behavior when they are confronted with a large collection of vertically differentiated, congested service providers, we build a model in which arriving customers conduct a costly sequential search to resolve uncertainty about service providers’ quality and queue length and select one to join by optimal stopping rules. Customers search, in part, because of variations in waiting time across service providers, which, in turn, is determined by the search behavior of customers. Thus, an equilibrium emerges. We characterize customers’ equilibrium search/join behavior in a mean field model as the number of service providers grows large. We find that reducing either the search cost or customer arrival rate may increase the average waiting time in the system as customers substitute toward high-quality service providers. Moreover, with lower search costs, the improved quality obtained by customers may not make up for the prolonged wait, therefore degrading the average search reward and, more importantly, decreasing customer welfare; when customers search, their welfare can even be lower than if they are not allowed to search at all. This paper was accepted by Gad Allon, operations management.
A comment

TO THE EDITOR: In the recent study by Erichsen et al (‘Ferrous fumarate deteriorated plasma antioxidant status status in patients with Crohn disease’, Scand J Gastroenterol 2003;38: 543–8) and in C. Gasche’s editorial entitled ‘Believe in iron’, in the same issue), evidence was found that a 1-week treatment with ferrous fumarate decreased plasma antioxidant status in patients with active Crohn disease but not in normal controls. The data presented are very interesting and need further study to evaluate the clinical importance of these findings. It is speculated by the authors of this study, and in the accompanying editorial, that the use of ferric compound may have advantages compared with ferrous iron, because ferric iron has no pro-oxidant activities. A modern compound “ferric trimaltol” is mentioned which had shown in one study to be effective in patients with inflammatory bowel disease. Readers should be informed, however, that ‘ferric trimaltol’ is not a licensed pharmaceutical drug and could cause serious side effects because of its iron chelator behavior and content of ‘maltoi’. It should also be mentioned that all ferric iron drugs on the market, including the soluble iron (III) hydroxyl-polymaltose complex, have to be confronted with well-accepted findings of a very low bioavailability (Nielsen et al., Bioavailability of iron from oral ferric polymaltose in humans. Arzneim Forsch 1994;44:743–8). At the moment, we are witnessing a renaissance of ferric compounds in oral iron treatment in different countries. In some countries, these non-effective iron drugs are even market leaders. However, in days of limited resources in health care systems these drugs have to be regarded with skepticism. Treatment of iron deficiency in Crohn disease could be one of the rare indications for these compounds, but this has to be clarified in further studies. Low amounts (not 120 mg Fe/d as in the Erichsen study) of a ferrous iron compound or a parental iron administration could also be a better and much cheaper alternative.
Case control study in the treatment of obstructive sleep-disordered breathing with an intraoral protrusive appliance.

BACKGROUND Mandibular protrusive appliances have long been used to treat obstructive sleep apnea/hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS). Their efficacy regarding respiration during sleep varies greatly and remains difficult to predict. In this study the efficacy of a two-splint appliance on nocturnal breathing disorders, sleep profile, and daytime sleepiness were evaluated according to a specially-designed treatment process. PATIENTS AND METHODS In this study 42 consecutive OSAHS patients who had been fitted with a mandibular protrusive appliance according to a preset treatment regimen were included in a follow-up analysis. The diagnosis and the degree of severity of OSHAS were determined by polysomnography in the sleep laboratory. The treatment regimen was established with the sleep laboratory physician. Treatment regimen included the diagnostic procedure in the sleep laboratory, each patient's dental requirements, the fabrication of the appliance used, and the titration of the mandibular protrusion. After having grown accustomed to the appliance for 24.5 +/- 7.8 days, 34 patients underwent overnight polysomnography. RESULTS The mean apnea/hypopnea index decreased significantly from 19.6 +/- 12.8 to 3.3 +/- 7.8 events per hour to 83%; the apnea index also improved significantly, as did minimal oxygen saturation and the desaturation index. Changes in sleep profile did not reach statistical significance; the arousal index (p < 0.02) and the subjectively-assessed daytime sleepiness (p < 0.02) decreased significantly. A therapeutically-required AHI of below 5 events per hour was achieved in 88.2% of the patients. CONCLUSION A significant improvement in the respiratory situation of the vast majority of OSAHS patients, particularly in their AHI, can be achieved when one applies the procedural steps and employs the mandibular protrusive appliance we describe herein.
Microsatellite Instability Statuses and Clinicopathological Characteristics of Colorectal Carcinomas in a Sub-Saharan African Population

Context: Colorectal carcinomas (CRC) in Africans tend to occur at an earlier age and have unique clinicopathologic as well as putatively distinctive molecular characteristics. We recently undertook a study of the microsatellite instability (MSI) analysis of a cohort of colectomies in our practice to examine this issue further. Methods: Fifty-five (55) colectomies done for colorectal carcinoma were evaluated. The pathological features of the tumours were recorded. Microsatellite Instability (MSI) analysis was carried out using immunohistochemistry for the DNA mismatch repair proteins, MLH1 and MSH2. Results: The average age was 49.2 years and the highest number of cases was seen in the 6th decade of life. Nineteen (34.5%) of the tumours in this study were found to be MSI-positive. Fourteen (73.7%) of the MSI tumours were found in patients below 50 years of age. There was a significant statistical association between age and MSI-status (p=0.004). Eleven (58%) out of the MSI tumours were located in the right colon while 8 (42%) were located in the left. On the other hand, 24 (77%) of the tumours with a normal MMR immuno profile were located on the left and 10 (23%) on the right. There was a statistically significant association between the site of tumour and microsatellite instability status (p=0.012). Adenocarcinoma was the commonest histological type making up 65.5% of all the tumours. This is closely followed by mucinous carcinomas (32.7%) and signet ring carcinomas (1.8%). Eleven of the 18 mucinous carcinomas were found in patients under 50 years of age. Nine (50%) of the mucinous carcinomas were MSI-positive although this was not statistically significant. There was no case of generalised polyposis found in this study. Conclusion: Our findings is consonant with a lower average age (49.2 years) for colorectal carcinomas in similar settings as ours and contrasts with high-incidence CRC in Caucasians in who the reported average age is consistently above 60 years. A significant number of tumours where deficient in mismatch repair proteins and these tumours tended to be right-sided, mucinous and to occur at an earlier age. These findings signal the need for further investigation of alternative pathways for the aetiology and pathogenesis of colorectal carcinomas in our region. Research Article
Homogeneity Measure Impact on Target and Non-Target Trials in Forensic Voice Comparison

It is common to see mobile recordings being presented as a forensic trace in a court. In such cases, a forensic expert is asked to analyze both suspect and criminal’s voice samples in order to determine the strength-of-evidence. This process is known as Forensic Voice Comparison (FVC). The Likelihood ratio (LR) framework is commonly used by the experts and quite often required by the expert’s associations “best practice guides”. Nevertheless, the LR accepts some practical limitations due both to intrinsic aspects of its estimation process and the information used during the FVC process. These aspects are embedded in a more general one, the lack of knowledge on FVC reliability. The question of reliability remains a major challenge, particularly for FVC systems where numerous variation factors like duration, noise, linguistic content or. within-speaker variability are not taken into account. Recently, we proposed an information theory-based criterion able to estimate one of these factors, the homogeneity of information between the two sides of a FVC trial. Thanks to this new criterion, we wish to explore new aspects of homogeneity in this article. We wish to question the impact of homogeneity on reliability separately on target and non-target trials. The study is performed using FABIOLE, a publicly available database dedicated to this kind of studies with a large number of recordings per target speaker. Our experiments report large differences of homogeneity impact between FVC genuine and impostor trials. These results show clearly the importance of intra-speaker variability effects in FVC reliability estimation. This study confirms also the interest of homogeneity measure for FVC reliability.
Attitudes Toward Rape and Victims of Rape

This study explores the usefulness of the feminist theory in explaining attitudes toward rape and victims of rape in Ghana. The feminist theory of rape posits, inter alia, that patriarchy and gender inequality are major factors in the aetiology of rape and attitudes toward rape and that underlying patriarchy and gender inequality are gender stereotypes and false beliefs (myths) about rape, rapists, and victims of rape. Thus, the theory suggests a relationship between rape myths and less favorable attitudes toward rape and victims of rape. Results from a survey conducted in Ghana show some support for the feminist theory of rape: There is evidence of rape myth acceptance in Ghana; gender is significant in predicting levels of rape myth acceptance; and finally, education or profession and age, but not religion, are associated with levels of rape myth acceptance in a predictable way.
Systematic description of the effect of particle shape on the strength properties of granular media

In this paper, we explore numerically the effect of particle shape on the mechanical behavior of sheared granular packings. In the framework of the Contact Dynamic (CD) Method, we model angular shape as irregular polyhedral particles, non-convex shape as regular aggregates of four overlapping spheres, elongated shape as rounded cap rectangles and platy shape as square-plates. Binary granular mixture consisting of disks and elongated particles are also considered. For each above situations, the number of face of polyhedral particles , the overlap of spheres, the aspect ratio of elongated and platy particles, are systematically varied from spheres to very angular, non-convex, elongated and platy shapes. The level of homogeneity of binary mixture varies from homogenous packing to fully segregated packings. Our numerical results suggest that the effects of shape parameters are nonlinear and counterintuitive. We show that the shear strength increases as shape deviate from spherical shape. But, for angular shapes it first increases up to a maximum value and then saturates to a constant value as the particles become more angular. For mixture of two shapes, the strength increases with respect of the increase of the proportion of elongated particles, but surprisingly it is independent with the level of homogeneity of the mixture. A detailed analysis of the contact network topology, evidence that various contact types contribute differently to stress transmission at the micro-scale.
INNOVATIVE ASSETS AND INTER-ASSET LINKAGES-A RESOURCE-BASED APPROACH TO INNOVATION

The paper proposes a framework for analyzing assets and inter-asset linkages associated with technological innovation. The framework is consistent with a Penrosian view of the firm and draws on recent contributions from both the more general resource-based perspective and the innovation and technology perspective of the firm. Three broad categories of firm assets are distinguished: tradeable resources, technical/functional capabilities and managerial competences. Assets for technological innovation are defined as resources, technical capabilities and managerial competences for developing new products and processes. A taxonomy of generic innovative assets is proposed that distinguishes four generic categories of innovative assets: Scientific research assets, process innovative assets, product innovative application assets and aesthetic design assets. Critical inter-asset linkages are analyzed in terms of inter-asset specificity. It is argued that high degrees of inter-asset specificity provide greater scope for innovation and make higher demands on the innovative assets and their coordination than low degrees of inter-asset specificity. It is moreover suggested that complementary assets not only play the role of assuring proper commercialization of given innovations; they may also play a critical role as a "focusing device" for directing the innovative process. Finally, some implications for strategy in innovative firms are indicated. Thus, the proposed inter-asset framework may help to specify the notion of core competences and provide a more differentiated perspective on innovation strategy and first-mover advantages.
Two aspects of the clinical and humanistic burden of systemic lupus erythematosus: mortality risk and quality of life early in the course of disease.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate mortality risk and predictors among recently diagnosed systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients. METHODS The vital status of 265 SLE patients and 355 controls enrolled in the Carolina Lupus Study (median time since diagnosis 13 months) was determined approximately 5 years after enrollment. We also assessed the utility of an 8-item quality of life instrument, derived from the standard 36-item Medical Outcomes Study Short Form 36, as an additional measure of disease impact. RESULTS Five years after diagnosis, 9.7% of patients compared with 0.3% of controls had died (P < 0.0001). Increased mortality risk was seen among older patients (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] 1.03, 95% confidence interval [95% CI] 1.01-1.06 per 1-year increment in age) and among men, African Americans, patients with lupus nephritis, and patients with anti-double-stranded DNA antibodies (adjusted HR approximately 2.0 for each of these factors). In addition, patients who did not provide a blood sample at study enrollment experienced increased mortality risk (age-, sex-, and race-adjusted HR 3.7, 95% CI 1.5-9.1). Similar results were seen in analyses limited to time from study enrollment. Physical component scores of the quality of life measure were 7.7 points lower (P < 0.0001) and mental component scores were 1.8 points lower (P = 0.07) in patients compared with controls. CONCLUSION The mortality risk among SLE patients is significant, particularly among African Americans, even early in the disease process and even with currently available treatments. Differences between cases and controls in health-related quality of life using the Short Form 8 also demonstrate the multidimensional burden of SLE.