Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Developing High‐Affinity Boron‐Based Receptors for Cell‐Surface Carbohydrates

Humans have sought inspiration from nature since the beginning of recorded history. For today’s scientists, biological systems are replete with molecular recognition events of awe-inspiring specificity. Contrary to amino and nucleic acids, carbohydrates tend to behave as elusive ligands toward their natural receptors, such as the lectin family. Nature has overcome the generally modest affinity of proteins for monosaccharides through multivalent binding mechanisms. Not only does this provide an increase in the association constant of binding, but it also amplifies selectivity among structurally similar carbohydrates. The design of synthetic receptors for specific sugar structures presents a daunting challenge that we have yet to master.
CLASSIFICATION OF ECG SIGNALS USING HERMITE FUNCTIONS AND MLP NEURAL NETWORKS

Classification of heart arrhythmia is an important step in developing devices for monitoring the health of individuals. This paper proposes a three module system for classification of electrocardiogram (ECG) beats. These modules are: denoising module, feature extraction module and a classification module. In the first module the stationary wavelet transform (SWF) is used for noise reduction of the ECG signals. The feature extraction module extracts a balanced combination of the Hermit features and three timing interval feature. Then a number of multi-layer perceptron (MLP) neural networks with different number of layers and eight training algorithms are designed. Seven files from the MIT/BIH arrhythmia database are selected as test data and the performances of the networks, for speed of convergence and accuracy classifications, are evaluated. Generally all of the proposed algorisms have good training time, however, the resilient back propagation (RP) algorithm illustrated the best overall training time among the different training algorithms. The Conjugate gradient back propagation (CGP) algorithm shows the best recognition accuracy about 98.02% using a little amount of features.
Multiple pathways of apolipoprotein E signaling in primary neurons

Apolipoprotein E is a genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease, and the apoE protein is associated with β‐amyloid deposits in Alzheimer's disease brain. We examined signaling pathways stimulated by apoE in primary neurons in culture. ApoE and an apoE‐derived peptide activated several intracellular kinases, including prominently extracellular signal‐regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2). ERK1/2 activation by apoE was blocked by an inhibitor of the low‐density lipoprotein receptor family, the specific NMDA glutamate receptor antagonist MK 801 and other calcium channel blockers. Activation of apoE receptors also induced tyrosine phosphorylation of Dab1, an adaptor protein of apoE receptors, but experiments in Dab1 knockout neurons demonstrated that Dab1 was not necessary for ERK activation. In contrast, apoE treatment of primary neurons decreased activation of c‐Jun N‐terminal kinase, a kinase that interacts with another apoE receptor adaptor protein, c‐Jun N‐terminal kinase‐interacting protein. This change also depended on interactions with the low‐density lipoprotein receptor family but was independent of calcium channels. c‐Jun N‐terminal kinase deactivation by apoE was blocked by γ‐secretase inhibitors and pertussis toxin. These results demonstrate that apoE affects several signaling cascades in neurons: increased disabled phosphorylation, activation of the ERK1/2 pathway (dependent on calcium influx via the NMDA receptor) and inhibition of the c‐Jun N‐terminal kinase 1/2 pathway (dependent on γ‐secretase and G proteins).
Co‐Creation with Customers: An Evolving Innovation Research Field

The Journal of Product Innovation Management (JPIM) reflect on the shifts in research orientations and thinking about customer co-creation. An important theme in the customer co-creation debate is the identification of appropriate customer co-creators for specific outcomes. JPIM studies put attention to the firm as the co-creation beneficiary. A major value for the firm is better fulfillment of customer needs that increases the likelihood of new product/service success. The study of Fuchs and Schreier suggests that customer co-creation for idea generation and selection has a positive effect on a firm's reputation (in terms of customer orientation) in the marketplace. Al-Zu'bi and Tsinopoulos show that collaboration with lead users contributes to high product variety. Over time, customer co-creation has been conceptualized as a process in which customers consciously and actively engage in a firm's innovation process, taking over innovation activities traditionally executed by the firm. Other literature on customer co-creation tends to emphasize the (potential) benefits and neglect the costs. These costs do not only relate to costs for the company but also to costs for the co-creating customer. Furthermore, these costs should not only be interpreted in terms of direct resources, such as those associated with identifying appropriate customers and managing the customer co-creation process, but also in terms of more long-term costs.
Do Rights Issues Really Protect Minorities? Empirical Evidence on the Italian Case

This paper discusses the use of rights issues in a context where interest conflicts between controlling shareholders and minorities are due to the existence of private benefits that the former can extract from the value of a traded company. While the literature considers the issue of preemptive rights as an essential tool to protect minorities from expropriation, we propose a model where rights are used to enforce the subscription of seasoned equity issues, even at negative conditions for the market. We define an abuse condition, that allows a controlling shareholder to choose discretionally an issuing price, granting a discount with respect to the market price, so that minorities either undertake the issue or place the rights, minimizing an exit cost that is, in this case, greater than zero. As the rights issue never fails under these condition, we define this phenomenon as enforced subscription. An analysis of rights issues in Italy over the decade 1996-2005 follows, providing evidence of an abuse of rights issues carried out by companies in financial distress. As rights issues at a high discount often involve an abuse of power by the controlling shareholder, we argue that their use should be carefully regulated.
Better differential diagnosis of iron deficiencyanemia from beta-thalassemia trait.

OBJECTIVE Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) and ß- Thalassemia Trait (ß-TT) are the most common forms of microcytic anemia. This study was conducted to compare the validity of these discrimination indices in differentiating ß- Thalassemia Trait (β-TT) from IDA by calculating their sensitivity, specificity and Youden's index. METHODS Totally 323 subjects (173 children and 150 adult) with microcytic anemia were involved in this study. We calculated 10 discrimination indices in all patients with IDA and β-TT. We divided the patients into two different groups as younger and older than 10 years. RESULTS None of indices showed sensitivity and specificity of 100% in the patients older than 11 years, but only Shine and Lal Index showed sensitivity close to 90% and specificity of 100% in the patients younger than 10 years. The most accurate discriminative index for patients younger than 10 years was Shine & Lal and in case of patients older than 11 years it was RDWI. Youden's index for Shine & Lal & RBC Count and for RDWI & RBC Count indices has most diagnostic value for younger and older than 10 years, respectively. CONCLUSION None of the indices was completely sensitive and specific in differentiation between β-TT and IDA. MCHD mean and median were very close to normal values for both IDA and β-TT patients, but in case of MHDL we have found mean and median were significantly higher than normal values in β-TT and lower than those in IDA patients. In our study, Youden's index of RBC and S & L were the highest and the most reliable discrimination indices in differentiating β-TT from IDA in the patients younger than 10 years and for patients older than 11 years, the most reliable discrimination indices were RBC and RDWI.
Isolation of nonsense mutants of lipid-containing bacteriophage PRD1

We isolated nonsense mutants of bacteriophage PRD1, a lipid-containing polyhedral virus capable of infecting many genera of gram-negative bacteria. These mutants were grouped into 19 classes on the basis of genetic complementation and sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoretic analysis. PRD1 infection led to the synthesis of at least 25 viral proteins, 17 of which were components of mature virions. The synthesis of proteins fell into the following three classes: very early, middle early, and late. Two of the very early proteins, P1 and P8, had an effect on DNA synthesis, host protein synthesis shutoff, and the turning on of middle and late protein synthesis. Another very early protein, P12, was involved in the shutoff of early protein synthesis. Two genes were identified as affecting lysis of the host. One appeared to be a lysin, whereas the other was an accessory lytic factor.
Active Ageing Beyond the Labour Market: Evidence on Work Environment Motivations

“Active Ageing” strategies aim to foster the participation of seniors in the society. Although economic literature has extensively studied the incentives for seniors to increase their labour supply, little is known about the motivations for older people to complement labour with other forms of social participation. Using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, this article provides empirical evidence of the motivational role of the work environment in the supply of formal and informal productive activities of 50 to 65 year old workers. The results show that intrinsic rewards received at work, such as skill development opportunities and decision latitude, form an incentive for older workers to invest time in social activities outside the labour market. Extrinsic rewards on the other hand, like advancement perspectives, job security and pay, appear independent from non-market outcomes. Therefore, the opportunity for work time arrangements but also intrinsic rewards in the work environment should be developed if one aims to foster participation of older workers in the society.
Efficacy of garlic (Allium sativum) extract applied as a therapeutic immersion treatment for Neobenedenia sp. management in aquaculture.

Garlic, Allium sativum L. , extract administered as a therapeutic bath was shown to have antiparasitic properties towards Neobenedenia sp. (MacCallum) (Platyhelminthes: Monogenea) infecting farmed barramundi, Lates calcarifer (Bloch). The effect of garlic extract (active component allicin) immersion on Neobenedenia sp. egg development, hatching success, oncomiracidia (larvae) longevity, infection success and juvenile Neobenedenia survival was examined and compared with freshwater and formalin immersion. Garlic extract was found to significantly impede hatching success (5% ± 5%) and oncomiracidia longevity (<2 h) at allicin concentrations of 15.2 μL L(-1) , while eggs in the seawater control had >95% hatching success and mean oncomiracidia longevity of 37 ± 3 h. At much lower allicin concentrations (0.76 and 1.52 μL L(-1)), garlic extract also significantly reduced Neobenedenia infection success of L. calcarifer to 25% ± 4% and 11% ± 4%, respectively, compared with 55% ± 7% in the seawater control. Juvenile Neobenedenia attached to host fish proved to be highly resistant to allicin with 96% surviving 1-h immersion in 10 mL L(-1) (15.2 μL L(-1) allicin) of garlic extract. Allicin-containing garlic extracts show potential for development as a therapy to manage monogenean infections in intensive aquaculture with the greatest impact at the egg and larval stages.
Assurance of corporate stand-alone reporting : evidence from the UK

Since the early 1990’s the number of corporate stand-alone reports produced by various organisations worldwide has increased considerably (Kolk, 2004; Owen, 2006). It is argued that introducing an assurance statement with the stand-alone report may contribute to enhancing the credibility of the reported information (FEE, 2002; Dando and Swift, 2003; ACCA and AccountAbility, 2004). This thesis reports on a multi-level analysis of assurance statements attached to standalone reports that were produced by the UK FTSE100 companies during the reporting years 2000-2004. Drawing on a research instrument (which itself has been informed by previous literature, namely O’Dwyer and Owen, 2005) as well as the most recent assurance guidelines and standards (such as FEE, 2002; GRI, 2002, AA1000AS, 2003; and ISAE3000, 2004), this thesis examines the extent to which assurance statements disclose information about crucial elements of the assurance engagement, the amount of disclosure as well as factors associated with the information disclosed. In this context, particular attention is given to issues of independence of the assurance provider; the methodology used to conduct the assurance engagement; the degree to which stakeholders have been engaged and their issues taken account of within the assurance process; and assurance results (namely presentation of the assurance opinion, findings and recommendations). The research results suggest that, despite the increased amount and quality of information disclosed within the assurance statements over the years, engagement of stakeholders and taking adequate account of their issues within the assurance process is still lacking compared to other dimensions of assurance. In the absence of generally accepted standalone reporting criteria and assurance standards for this type of reporting, various assurance approaches have emerged and these correspond to the nature of the assurance provider (for example, accountancy, consultancy and certification body). The FTSE100 companies (in almost in two-thirds of the conducted engagements) rely most heavily on
Exploring the influence of trust and culture on mobile payment adoption

vi Chapter 1: Introduction 1 1.1 Background to the Study 1 1.2 Motivation and Research Questions 2 Chapter 2: Literature Review and Research Model 5 2.1 Literature Review 5 2.2 Proposed Research Model 9 Chapter 3: Methodology 20 Chapter 4: Results 22 4.1 Demographics 22 4.2 Measurement Model Validation 22 4.3 Common Method Bias 25 4.4 Structural Model 25 4.5 Post-hoc Analyses 29 Chapter 5: Discussion 36 Chapter 6: Conclusion 41 References 44 Appendices 51
A Credible Bayesian-Based Trust Management Scheme for Wireless Sensor Networks

With the rapid development of wireless sensor networks (WSNs), the security of WSNs is an important issue in this field because of their vulnerabilities to attacks. Designing a reasonable trust management scheme that can evaluate the trust relationships among sensor nodes accurately is a challenging but meaningful task. In this paper, a credible Bayesian-based trust management scheme (BTMS) is proposed. The overall trust value is aggregated by both direct and indirect trust information. The former is calculated by a modified Bayesian equation and updated by a sliding window. The latter is computed by recommendations from a third party. Moreover, the indirect trust computation is invoked conditionally according to the uncertainty of direct trust calculated via Entropy Theory and malicious feedbacks are excluded. Meanwhile, different recommendations are appropriately weighted in light of the trust levels of recommenders. Simulations are conducted and the results show that, compared with existing approaches, the proposed trust model performs better in defeating attacks.
Share Issuance Effects in the Cross-Section of Stock Returns

Previous research describes the net share issuance anomaly in U.S. stocks as pervasive, both in size-based sorts and in cross-section regressions. As a further test of its pervasiveness, this paper undertakes an in-depth study of share issuance effects in the Australian equity market. The anomaly is observed in all size stocks except micro stocks. For example, equal weighted portfolios of non-issuing big stocks outperform portfolios of high issuing big stocks by an average of 0.84% per month over 1990–2009. This outperformance survives risk adjustment and appears to subsume the asset growth effect in Australian stock returns.
Enhancing health policymakers' information literacy knowledge and skill for policymaking on control of infectious diseases of poverty in Nigeria

Background In Nigeria, one of the major challenges associated with evidence-to-policy link in the control of infectious diseases of poverty (IDP), is deficient information literacy knowledge and skill among policymakers. There is need for policymakers to acquire the skill to discover relevant information, accurately evaluate retrieved information and to apply it correctly. Objectives To use information literacy tool of International Network for Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP) to enhance policymakers' knowledge and skill for policymaking on control of IDP in Nigeria. Methods Modified "before and after" intervention study design was used in which outcomes were measured on target participants both before the intervention is implemented and after. This study was conducted in Ebonyi State, south-eastern Nigeria and participants were career health policy makers. A two-day health-policy information literacy training workshop was organized to enhance participants" information literacy capacity. Topics covered included: introduction to information literacy; defining information problem; searching for information online; evaluating information; science information; knowledge sharing interviews; and training skills. Results A total of 52 policymakers attended the workshop. The pre-workshop mean rating (MNR) of knowledge and capacity for information literacy ranged from 2.15-2.97, while the post-workshop MNR ranged from 3.34-3.64 on 4-point scale. The percentage increase in MNR of knowledge and capacity at the end of the workshop ranged from 22.6%-55.3%. Conclusion The results of this study suggest that through information literacy training workshop policy makers can acquire the knowledge and skill to identify, capture and share the right kind of information in the right contexts to influence relevant action or a policy decision.
Molecular epidemiology of aminoglycoside resistance in Acinetobacter spp.

Most aminoglycoside resistance in Acinetobacter spp. involves production of aminoglycoside-modifying enzymes. Previous studies have shown that the genes encoding these enzymes can be present on plasmids, transposons or within integron-type structures. To determine whether particular mechanisms of aminoglycoside resistance have developed in strains from specific geographical locations (with subsequent clonal spread), or whether common mechanisms have been acquired by genotypically distinct clinical isolates of Acinetobacter spp. throughout the world, a genotypically heterogeneous collection of 24 multiresistant clinical isolates of Acinetobacter spp. from 15 hospitals in 11 countries worldwide was studied. All were resistant to two or more aminoglycoside antibiotics. The full aminoglycoside resistance profile was determined for each isolate, allowing a putative enzyme content to be inferred, with subsequent confirmation of enzyme content and genetic location by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and hybridisation techniques. All produced at least one aminoglycoside-modifying enzyme, most commonly AAC(3)-I and ANT(3'')-I in various combinations. Other enzymes found were AAC(3)-II, AAC(6')-I, ANT(2''), APH(3')-I and APH(3')-VI. None was confined to strains from a particular geographical area. Nine isolates transferred resistance mediated by AAC(3)-I, ANT(2'')-I, APH(3')-I or APH(3)'-VI by conjugation to a sensitive strain of A. baumannii, but most resistance was non-transferable. PCR mapping revealed an integron location in six isolates for the aac(3)-Ia gene and in three isolates for the ant(3'')-Ia gene. Overall, the study demonstrated that similar aminoglycoside-modifying enzymes are found in unrelated isolates of Acinetobacter spp. , and that particular genes are not restricted to specific areas of the world. The demonstration of certain genes on plasmids and integrons emphasises the probable importance of these structures in the dissemination of certain types of aminoglycoside resistance in Acinetobacter spp.
ECONOMIC PAPERS

This paper evaluates the rent control policy implemented in Germany in 2015. Like many countries around the world, German cities and metropolitan areas have experienced a strong increase in rental prices during the last decade. In response, the politicians aimed to dampen the rise in rental prices by limiting the landlords’ freedom to increase rents for new contracts. To that end, the rent control was introduced. To evaluate the effectiveness of the rent control with respect to rental prices, we take advantage of its restricted scope of application. First, it is applied only in a selected number of municipalities, thereby generating regional variation. Second, the condition of rental objects generates an additional dimension of variation since new and modernised objects are exempt from rent control. Based on data for rental offers in Germany, we apply a triple-difference framework with regionspecific time trends as well as flat type-specific ones. Despite the high political expectations, our estimates indicate that the German rent control dampens rental price by only 2.5 %. This effect varies across object characteristics and seems to be larger for lower-quality dwellings and in the lower price segment. Nevertheless, the application of an event-study indicates that these effects are not persistent over time. JEL Classification: C23, R31
Monetary Incentives in U. S. Government Surveys

Many studies have successfully used incentives to increase response rates (Ferber and Sudman 1974, Armstrong 1975, Kanuk and Berensen 1975, Linsky 1975, Heberlein and Baumgartner 1978, Hansen 1980, Kerachsky and Maller 1981, Yu and Cooper 1983; Goyder 1985, Berry and Kanouse 1987, Fox and Kim 1988, Hopkins, Hopkins, and Schon 1988, James and Bolstein 1990, Brennan 1992, Brennan, Hoek, and Astridge 1991, Groves, Cialdini, and Couper 1992, James and Bolstein 1992, Brennan 1992, Church 1993, Perneger, Etter, and Rougement 1993, Willimack, Schuman, and Lepkowski 1995, Baumgartner and Rathbun 1996, Dillman 1996, Groves and Couper 1998). Why incentives motivate greater participation has been explored through several theoretical perspectives. Dillman (1978) explains their effectiveness using social exchange theory. A small monetary incentive sent as a token of appreciation is viewed as placing the survey into a social context in which trust prevails and completing the survey is part of a social In this article we examine the impacts of using a monetary incentive in a government mail survey on the following factors: (1) Response Rate; (2) Nonresponse Bias; (3) Data Quality; (4) Indicators of Respondents' Views of Incentives; and (5) Cost-effectiveness. The article contrasts two experimental groups differing only in terms of whether sample members received a small (5.00 USD) monetary incentive in the ®rst mailing of a lengthy mail survey of moderate saliency. On the basis of the information in this study and the literature reviewed, the authors conclude that incentives can provide a cost-effective survey tool for use in government surveys when moderately high response rates are needed. Small monetary incentives in government surveys do not appear to increase nonresponse bias, decrease data quality, or create respondent ill will.