Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ultra-Stable Non-Isolated Brillouin Fiber Laser Using Real-Time Control

We present and demonstrate a highly stabilized non-isolated single-mode Brillouin fiber laser utilizing a novel, simple, and inexpensive approach for locking the cavity length. Our scheme is based on an intuitive control algorithm programmed into an embedded microcontroller and is characterized by smooth control signals. The laser cavity length is controlled in real-time using a piezoelectric actuator according to the pump level inside the cavity. Using this control scheme, we demonstrate ultra-stable, non-isolated, Brillouin fiber laser with power variations of ~4% and lasing frequency drift of few hundreds of kilohertz. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first comprehensive report on the frequency stability properties of controlled BFLs. We compare the stability of our laser to non-controlled cavities, investigate the impact of minimal isolation and discuss various parameters that affected the achievable stability and govern the laser short and long term stabilities. The demonstrated approach is highly attractive for real-life, out-of-the-lab applications where sufficient thermal and mechanical isolation is difficult and expensive to obtain.
How Do Investors Trade When Actual Earnings Are Reported with Management Forecasts

We use trade size to distinguish between individuals and institutions and then examine their trading behaviors around earnings announcements using data from the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Japanese listed firms have a distinctive financial reporting system in that they report actual earnings for prior and current years, and in addition, almost all of them release management earnings forecasts for the next year. Under this unique setting, we test whether individuals respond differently from institutions to the same earnings news. We document the following results: (1) With regard to current earnings, individuals (institutions) strongly respond to simplistic random walk forecast errors (analyst forecast errors), while do not always respond to analyst forecast errors (simplistic random walk forecast errors). (2) With regard to management earnings forecasts, both individuals and institutions use them, but individuals react to them literally. In contrast to na¨ive trading by individuals, institutions rationally respond to them with their predicted optimistic bias in mind. Overall, our results suggest that individuals' trading is so na¨ive as if they use nothing other than the information released at the time of earning announcement, while institutions' trading is so sophisticated.
Formation of HfrH-type donor cells as a result of integrative suppression by R-F recombinant plasmids

Three recombinant plasmids, resulting from recombination between an R plasmid of the FI incompatibility group and the F of HfrH, were introduced in a temperature-sensitive dnaA mutant to isolate Hfr-type-donors. All of the temperature-insensitive clones isolated from two of the three recombinant plasmids had the same origin and transfer pattern as the parental HfrH strain.
Chordomas of the base of the skull and upper cervical spine. One hundred patients irradiated by a 3D conformal technique combining photon and proton beams

To define the prognostic factors for local control and overall survival among 100 consecutive patients with chordoma of the base of skull or upper cervical spine treated by fractionated irradiation combining proton and photon beams. Between December 1993 and August 2002, 100 patients (median age: 53 years [8 – 85], M/F sex ratio: 3/2) were treated by a combination of high-energy photons and protons. The proton component was delivered at the Centre de Protonthérapie d'Orsay (CPO) by a 201 MeV beam. The median total dose delivered to the tumor volume was 67 GyECo. With a median follow-up of 31 months [range: 0 – 87], 25 tumours relapsed locally. The 2- and 4-year local control rates were 86.3% (±3.9%) and 53.8% (±7.5%), respectively. According to multivariate analysis, at least 95% of the tumor volume encompassed by the 95% isodose (p = 0.048; RR: 3.4 95%CI [1.01 – 11.8]) and a minimal dose delivered into the tumor volume <56 GyECo (p = 0.042; RR: 2.3 95%CI [1.03 – 5.2]) were independent prognostic factors of local control. Ten patients died. The 2- and 5-year overall survival rates were 94.3% (±2.5%) and 80.5% (±7.2%), respectively. According to multivariate analysis, local tumor control (p = 0.005; RR: 21 95%CI [2.2 – 200]) was a prognostic factor of overall survival. For chordomas of the base of the skull and upper cervical spine treated by surgery and irradiation combining photons and protons, the quality of irradiation, reflected by homogeneity of the dose into the tumor volume, is a major factor of local control. Close attention must be paid to minimize the underdosed areas close to critical organs. The role of surgical resection remains paramount, and a trial of dose escalation would have to consider an increase in the dose to critical organs, especially as current results indicate the low toxicity of this treatment.
Efficiency of butyl rubber sorbent to remove the PAH toxicity

Large amounts of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have been released to the marine environment as a result of oil spills and from other sources including wastewaters, surface runoff, industrial processes, atmospheric deposition, biosynthesis, and natural events such as forest fires. PAHs have been known to affect a variety of biological processes and can be potent cell mutagens/carcinogens and toxic. In this study, PAH toxicity removal was investigated by using a novel macroporous butyl rubber (BR) sorbent. To find out the toxicity removal efficiency of the sorbents, the toxicity tests with Vibrio fisheri (luminescence bacteria) and Phaeodactylum tricornutum (marine algae) were applied to the acenaphthene (Ace) and phenanthrene (Phen) solutions in seawater (Ace: 500– 1000 μg/L; Phen; 100–1000 μg/L) before and after sorbent applications. Additionally, lysosomal stability and filtration rate biomarker techniques were applied to the mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis) exposed to 1000 μg/L Phen solution and bioaccumulation was measured. The results showed that the toxicity of the PAH solutions decreased 50–100 percent depending on the concentration of the solutions and organisms. Phaeodactylum was found as the most sensitive organism to Phen and Ace. Since the application of BR sorbent removed the Phen from the solution, the bioaccumulated Phen amount in the mussels decreased accordingly.
Vertical Mammaplasty and Liposuction of the Breast

Since 1989, I have used vertical mammaplasty without a submammary scar for all breast reductions. This technique uses adjustable markings, an upper pedicle for the areola, and a central breast reduction with limited skin undermining. The shape of the breast is created by suturing the gland and does not rely on the skin. A personal series of 100 consecutive patients (192 breasts) operated on from 1990 through 1992 is reviewed. Mastopexy was performed in 39 breasts. Among the 153 breasts that required reduction, liposuction was attempted as a complementary procedure before the surgical reduction in the 120 fattest breasts. Between 100 and 1000 cc of fat (mean 300 cc) could be suctioned in 86 breasts. This figure represents 50 percent of the large breasts in patients under 50 years of age and 100 percent of the breasts in patients older than 50 years. In these cases, liposuction made modeling of the gland easier and produced breasts with more useful and stable components. When liposuction was performed, surgical resection was adjusted to obtain the desired breast volume. The amount excised ranged from 120 to 1600 gm per breast (mean 480 gm). There were few complications, none of which required early reoperation. These complications were related to the weight of the breasts and not to the patient's obesity or to the liposuction procedure. In 10 percent of the patients, mostly those with very large and ptotic breasts, some skin redundancy was excised at the lower extremity of the scar after several months to improve the final result. This series proves that vertical mammaplasty can be used in all cases of breast reduction, producing consistently good, stable results with limited scars. The adjunctive use of liposuction in fatty breasts can be considered safe and efficient.
Herpes B Virus Utilizes Human Nectin-1 but Not HVEM or PILRα for Cell-Cell Fusion and Virus Entry

ABSTRACT To investigate the requirements of herpesvirus entry and fusion, the four homologous glycoproteins necessary for herpes simplex virus (HSV) fusion were cloned from herpes B virus (BV) (or macacine herpesvirus 1, previously known as cercopithecine herpesvirus 1) and cercopithecine herpesvirus 2 (CeHV-2), both related simian simplexviruses belonging to the alphaherpesvirus subfamily. Western blots and cell-based enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) showed that glycoproteins gB, gD, and gH/gL were expressed in whole-cell lysates and on the cell surface. Cell-cell fusion assays indicated that nectin-1, an HSV-1 gD receptor, mediated fusion of cells expressing glycoproteins from both BV and CeHV-2. However, herpesvirus entry mediator (HVEM), another HSV-1 gD receptor, did not facilitate BV- and CeHV-2-induced cell-cell fusion. Paired immunoglobulin-like type 2 receptor alpha (PILRα), an HSV-1 gB fusion receptor, did not mediate fusion of cells expressing glycoproteins from either simian virus. Productive infection with BV was possible only with nectin-1-expressing cells, indicating that nectin-1 mediated entry while HVEM and PILRα did not function as entry receptors. These results indicate that these alphaherpesviruses have differing preferences for entry receptors. The usage of the HSV-1 gD receptor nectin-1 may explain interspecies transfer of the viruses, and altered receptor usage may result in altered virulence, tropism, or pathogenesis in the new host. A heterotypic cell fusion assay resulting in productive fusion may provide insight into interactions that occur to trigger fusion. These findings may be of therapeutic significance for control of deadly BV infections.
An Elicitation Study on Gesture Preferences and Memorability Toward a Practical Hand-Gesture Vocabulary for Smart Televisions

With the introduction of new depth-sensing technologies, interactive hand-gesture devices (such as smart televisions and displays) have been rapidly emerging. However, given the lack of a common vocabulary, most hand-gesture control commands are device-specific, burdening the user into learning different vocabularies for different devices. In order for hand gestures to become a natural communication for users with interactive devices, a standardized interactive hand-gesture vocabulary is necessary. Recently, researchers have approached this issue by conducting studies that elicit gesture vocabularies based on users' preferences. Nonetheless, a universal vocabulary has yet to be proposed. In this paper, a thorough design methodology for achieving such a universal hand-gesture vocabulary is presented. The methodology is derived from the work of Wobbrock et al. and includes four steps: 1) a preliminary survey eliciting users' attitudes; 2) a broader user survey in order to construct the universal vocabulary via results of the preliminary survey; 3) an evaluation test to study the implementation of the vocabulary; and 4) a memory test to analyze the memorability of the vocabulary. The proposed vocabulary emerged from this methodology achieves an agreement score exceeding those of the existing studies. Moreover, the results of the memory test show that, within a 15-min training session, the average accuracy of the proposed vocabulary is 90.71%. Despite the size of the proposed gesture vocabulary being smaller than that of similar work, it shares the same functionality, is easier to remember and can be integrated with smart TVs, interactive digital displays, and so on.
Motor resonance facilitates movement execution: an ERP and kinematic study

Action observation, simulation and execution share neural mechanisms that allow for a common motor representation. It is known that when these overlapping mechanisms are simultaneously activated by action observation and execution, motor performance is influenced by observation and vice versa. To understand the neural dynamics underlying this influence and to measure how variations in brain activity impact the precise kinematics of motor behavior, we coupled kinematics and electrophysiological recordings of participants while they performed and observed congruent or non-congruent actions or during action execution alone. We found that movement velocities and the trajectory deviations of the executed actions increased during the observation of congruent actions compared to the observation of non-congruent actions or action execution alone. This facilitation was also discernible in the motor-related potentials of the participants; the motor-related potentials were transiently more negative in the congruent condition around the onset of the executed movement, which occurred 300 ms after the onset of the observed movement. This facilitation seemed to depend not only on spatial congruency but also on the optimal temporal relationship of the observation and execution events.
Ionization steps and phase-space metamorphoses in the pulsed microwave ionization of highly excited hydrogen atoms.

As the peak electric field of the microwave pulse is increased, steps in the classical microwave ionization probability of the highly excited hydrogen atom are produced by phase-space metamorphosis. They arise from new layers of Kolmogorov-Arnold-Moser (KAM) islands being exposed as KAM surfaces are destroyed. Both quantum numerical calculations and laboratory experiments exhibit the ionization steps, showing that such metamorphoses influence pulsed semiclassical systems. {copyright} {ital 1996 The American Physical Society. }
PERCEIVED COERCION AND TREATMENT OUTCOMES 1 THE IMPACT OF PERCEIVED COERCION ON EATING DISORDER TREATMENT OUTCOMES

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Copyright Statement The copy of this thesis is protected under the U.S. Copyright Act. This thesis may be consulted by you, provided you comply with the provisions of the Act, including those governing fair use, and the following conditions of use: • Any use you make of these documents or images must be for research or private study purposes only, and you may not distribute copies to others. • Authors control the copyright of their thesis. You will recognize the author's right to be identified as the author of this thesis, and due acknowledgement will be made to the author where appropriate.
Behavioral influence on operational performance

The use of teams in operations is a well-established way of structuring an organization with the purpose to perform tasks more effectively and improve operational performance and competitive advantage. There has been a great deal of research on teams and team performance in the academic literature (Tversky & Kahneman, 1974; Hayes et al., 1988; Boudreau et al. 2003). The results of this research and practice showed that team performance is not only influenced by operational factors but also by human behavior, in particular behavioral biases. It is argued that behavioral biases systematically affect (and often distort) a person’s judgment and decision-making (Gino & Pisano, 2008). This study focuses on the anchoring & adjustment bias.
A review of intended and unintended consequences of the use of automated speed cameras to reduce road crash: lessons learnt

The pandemic of road traffic deaths and injuries is a public health issue which needs to be addressed in both developing and developed countries. The WHO report (2009) highlights that by 2030 Road traffic injuries will have moved from ninth (in 2004) to fifth in the world leading causes of deaths. Reviews of the mean cost of road traffic crashed in developed countries amount to 2-3% of GDP. Most public safety officials agree that speed limit enforcement measures including automated speed cameras are an effective intervention in reducing road crash. While it must be agreed that the issue of road crash in developing and developed countries cannot be compared, yet, international efforts should be made to share experiences and lessons learnt in developed countries to developing countries to successfully reduce the injury burden from road traffic crashes in developing countries. This paper examines the relationship between speeding, road crash and injury rate. Then, it reviews studies on the use of automated speed cameras to reduce road crash and its unintended consequences. Based on the above, the discussion will address some of the lessons learnt in the use of automated speed cameras in developed countries.
A Short Note on the ATP Fund of Denmark

The Danish ATP (Arbejdmarkedets TillaegsPension or Labor Market Supplementary Pension) fund is a public pension fund that was created in 1964 to complement the universal pension benefit that is financed from general tax revenues and is paid to all old-age residents. When it was created, participation in ATP was compulsory on most working people. But over the last decade or so compulsory coverage has been expanded to most recipients of transfer income. Contribution amounts are set in absolute terms, but are low relative to earnings (less than 1 percent of average earnings). ATP has benefited from scale economies and compulsory worker participation and has been able to operate with high efficiency and low costs. Its investment performance has been uneven over the years, reflecting the applied investment policies and rules as well as prevailing financial conditions. In recent years, it has been a leader among Danish pension institutions in adopting innovative investment policies and has enjoyed an enviable record of high investment returns and low operating costs. In addition, it has long offered deferred group annuities with guaranteed benefits and periodic bonuses (with profits policies). However, ATP also suffers from several weaknesses and shortcomings. It has a cumbersome governance structure, rooted in labor market relations and the role of social partners, while its group annuities have been based on rather 'idiosyncratic' risk-sharing arrangements. Nevertheless, it took the lead in using long-dated interest-rate swaps in euro markets and recently created a department that specializes in hedging its pension liabilities. And it is in the process of adopting a new plan for guaranteed benefits that aims to enhance the management of both investment and longevity risks.
Dopaminergic modulation of synaptic transmission and neuronal activity patterns in the zebrafish homolog of olfactory cortex

Dopamine (DA) is an important modulator of synaptic transmission and plasticity that is causally involved in fundamental brain functions and dysfunctions. We examined the dopaminergic modulation of synaptic transmission and sensory responses in telencephalic area Dp of zebrafish, the homolog of olfactory cortex. By combining anatomical tracing and immunohistochemistry, we detected no DA neurons in Dp itself but long-range dopaminergic input from multiple other brain areas. Whole-cell recordings revealed no obvious effects of DA on membrane potential or input resistance in the majority of Dp neurons. Electrical stimulation of the olfactory tracts produced a complex sequence of synaptic currents in Dp neurons. DA selectively decreased inhibitory currents with little or no effect on excitatory components. Multiphoton calcium imaging showed that population responses of Dp neurons to olfactory tract stimulation or odor application were enhanced by DA, consistent with its effect on inhibitory synaptic transmission. These effects of DA were blocked by an antagonist of D2-like receptors. DA therefore disinhibits and reorganizes sensory responses in Dp. This modulation may affect sensory perception and could be involved in the experience-dependent modification of odor representations.
Do Islamic Banks Have Higher Credit Risk?

This research is undertaken to answer the question whether Islamic banks have higher or lower credit risk than that of their counterpart conventional banks. Since the onset of the financial crisis, researchers have debated over this issue and a growing literature has provided empirical evidence by comparing the stability or the credit risk of Islamic and conventional banks. One of the fundamental drawbacks of previous research that investigated the level of credit risk between these two banking systems is that methodologies used to calculate credit risk or stability of banks, are mostly based on accounting information only such as Z score, NPL ratio and loan loss reserve ratio. Deriving a conclusion whether Islamic banks have higher or lower credit risk based on solely accounting information could be misleading, since accounting based credit risk measurements have a number of limitations. This research contributes in this debate by using Merton’s distance to default model, a market based credit risk measurement technique, to measure the credit risk of 156 conventional and 37 Islamic banks from 13 economies between 2000 and 2012. For a comparative purpose, we also use both the Z score and the non-performing loan (NPL) ratio along with distance to default model to measure the credit risk across both banking systems. Our results show that, in general Islamic banks have significantly lower credit risk than conventional banks when credit risk is measured by DD and NPL ratio. In contrast, Islamic banks have higher credit risk when it is measured by Z score. Therefore, it is hard to draw a simple conclusion about whether Islamic banks have higher or lower credit risk than their counterparts’ conventional bank. This also implies that methodology used to measure credit risk plays an important role in deciding which banking system is safer.
Surveillance and regulating code: An analysis of graduated response in France

This paper analyzes a recent policy initiative in France to deter copyright infringement. In 2009, France passed two laws aimed at fighting online piracy through graduated response, a warning and sanction system. Graduated response depends on surveillance of internet uses and encourages technological regulation (code), such as internet filtering and blocking. We analyze the rationales advocated for copyright and the internet and the argumentation for surveillance and technical protection measures. In the French debate on graduated response, much attention was given to the policy goal – reducing piracy, while the means of reaching the policy goal – surveillance and code, were rarely discussed. Graduated response deals with much more than copyright. It promotes informational control by copyright holders and contributes to the normalization of surveillance and to an increase of centralized control on the internet.
Strategic management implications for the adoption of technological innovations in agricultural tractor: the role of scale factors and environmental attitude

Technological innovations in agricultural tractors have revolutionised farming, increased labour productivity and reduced operator's hazards. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the relation between agricultural tractors’ technological innovations and farm size, as well as users’ attitude on environmental impact of agricultural tractors according to their age and years of activity in the farm. Results, concerning Italy, highlight that high technological innovations of tractors are associated to larger farms, which are managed professionally by more efficient and sophisticated agricultural machineries. Empirical evidence also shows that the older the tractor adopters are and the longer they have been working in agriculture, the higher is their commitment to environment protection and safe working conditions. These results could be important for critical strategic management implications to spur technological innovation in agricultural tractors that better satisfy farmer's needs and to support the fruitful adoption of innovations for an efficient and safe modern agriculture.