Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Skill Acquisition and Data Sales

We develop a data-sales model to study the implications of alternative data for financial markets. Investors acquire skills to process the purchased raw data, and developing such skills is costly and involves considerable uncertainty. The data vendor controls the size of the data sample to influence the precision of the information investors can extract from the purchased data. Price informativeness is hump-shaped in skill-acquisition costs although the cost of capital and return volatility are U-shaped in skill-acquisition costs. Similar patterns can arise for skill mean and volatility. Our analysis suggests that the funds and data industries foster each other. This paper was accepted by Agostino Capponi, finance.
Covalent modification of reduced flavin mononucleotide in type-2 isopentenyl diphosphate isomerase by active-site-directed inhibitors

Evidence for an unusual catalysis of protonation/deprotonation by a reduced flavin mononucleotide cofactor is presented for type-2 isopentenyl diphosphate isomerase (IDI-2), which catalyzes isomerization of the two fundamental building blocks of isoprenoid biosynthesis, isopentenyl diphosphate and dimethylallyl diphosphate. The covalent adducts formed between irreversible mechanism-based inhibitors, 3-methylene-4-penten-1-yl diphosphate or 3-oxiranyl-3-buten-1-yl diphosphate, and the flavin cofactor were investigated by X-ray crystallography and UV-visible spectroscopy. Both the crystal structures of IDI-2 binding the flavin-inhibitor adduct and the UV-visible spectra of the adducts indicate that the covalent bond is formed at C4a of flavin rather than at N5, which had been proposed previously. In addition, the high-resolution crystal structures of IDI-2-substrate complexes and the kinetic studies of new mutants confirmed that only the flavin cofactor can catalyze protonation of the substrates and suggest that N5 of flavin is most likely to be involved in proton transfer. These data provide support for a mechanism where the reduced flavin cofactor acts as a general acid/base catalyst and helps stabilize the carbocationic intermediate formed by protonation.
Structural and Kinetic Analyses of the Protease from an Amprenavir-Resistant Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Mutant Rendered Resistant to Saquinavir and Resensitized to Amprenavir

ABSTRACT Recent drug regimens have had much success in the treatment of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected individuals; however, the incidence of resistance to such drugs has become a problem that is likely to increase in importance with long-term therapy of this chronic illness. An analysis and understanding of the molecular interactions between the drug(s) and the mutated viral target(s) is crucial for further progress in the field of AIDS therapy. The protease inhibitor amprenavir (APV) generates a signature set of HIV type 1 (HIV-1) protease mutations associated with in vitro resistance (M46I/L, I47V, and I50V [triple mutant]). Passage of the triple-mutant APV-resistant HIV-1 strain in MT4 cells, in the presence of increasing concentrations of saquinavir (SQV), gave rise to a new variant containing M46I, G48V, I50V, and I84L mutations in the protease and a resulting phenotype that was resistant to SQV and, unexpectedly, resensitized to APV. This phenotype was consistent with a subsequent kinetic analysis of the mutant protease, together with X-ray crystallographic analysis and computational modeling which elucidated the structural basis of these observations. The switch in protease inhibitor sensitivities resulted from (i) the I50V mutation, which reduced the area of contact with APV and SQV; (ii) the compensating I84L mutation, which improved hydrophobic packing with APV; and (iii) the G-to-V mutation at residue 48, which introduced steric repulsion with the P3 group of SQV. This analysis establishes the fine detail necessary for understanding the loss of protease binding for SQV in the quadruple mutant and gain in binding for APV, demonstrating the powerful combination of virology, molecular biology, enzymology, and protein structural and modeling studies in the elucidation and understanding of viral drug resistance.
Small crater modification on Meridiani Planum and implications for erosion rates and climate change on Mars

A morphometric and morphologic catalog of ~100 small craters imaged by the Opportunity rover over the 33.5 km traverse between Eagle and Endeavour craters on Meridiani Planum shows craters in six stages of degradation that range from fresh and blocky to eroded and shallow depressions ringed by planed off rim blocks. The age of each morphologic class from <50–200 ka to ~20 Ma has been determined from the size‐frequency distribution of craters in the catalog, the retention age of small craters on Meridiani Planum, and the age of the latest phase of ripple migration. The rate of degradation of the craters has been determined from crater depth, rim height, and ejecta removal over the class age. These rates show a rapid decrease from ~1 m/Myr for craters <1 Ma to ~ <0.1 m/Myr for craters 10–20 Ma, which can be explained by topographic diffusion with modeled diffusivities of ~10−6 m2/yr. In contrast to these relatively fast, short‐term erosion rates, previously estimated average erosion rates on Mars over ~100 Myr and 3 Gyr timescales from the Amazonian and Hesperian are of order <0.01 m/Myr, which is 3–4 orders of magnitude slower than typical terrestrial rates. Erosion rates during the Middle‐Late Noachian averaged over ~250 Myr, and ~700 Myr intervals are around 1 m/Myr, comparable to slow terrestrial erosion rates calculated over similar timescales. This argues for a wet climate before ~3 Ga in which liquid water was the erosional agent, followed by a dry environment dominated by slow eolian erosion.
Why Is Illegal Gold Mining Activity so Ubiquitous in Rural Ghana

Abstract: Notwithstanding its prolonged existence, little research has hitherto been undertaken to determine why illegal artisanal and small-scale mining is a widespread phenomenon in the developing world. This paper profiles the case of Ghana, where clandestine gold mining activity is now ubiquitous throughout many rural areas. Despite having passed a series of industry-specific laws and regulations, and implementing an array of support services under the guidance of Gesellschaft Technische Zusannebarbeit (GTZ) and the World Bank, the Ghanaian government is widely regarded as having failed in its attempts to regulate the sector and bring it into the public domain. Combining findings from the literature, indigenous reports and government documents, with feedback from interviews with key government personnel and miners, this paper attempts to explain why a disproportionate percentage of resident artisanal and small-scale gold miners continue to operate illegally. Marked improvements can only be achieved in this area if the government prospects and demarcates land for small-scale gold miners; improves the quality of industry support services; and re-skills miners for work in other professions. Resume: Malgre sa existence prolongee, peu de recherche a ete jusqu’ici entreprise pour determiner pourquoi l’artisanal illegal et l’exploitation de petite taille est un phenomene repandu dans le monde en voie de developpement. Cet article profile le cas du Ghana, ou l’activitee d’extraction d’or clandestin est maintenant omnipre sente dans tous beaucoup de secteurs ruraux. En de pit de avoir passe une se rie de lois et de re glements industrie-spe cifiques, et mettant en application un choix de services de support sous les conseils de GTZ et de la banque mondiale, le gouvernement ghane en est largement considere comme apre s avoir eteechoue dans ses tentatives de re gler le secteur et de l’introduire dans le public domain. Combinant des re sultats de la litte erature, les rapports indige nes, et le gouvernement documente, avec la re troaction des entrevues avec le personnel de gouvernement et les mineurs principaux, tentatives de cet article d’expliquer pourquoi un pourcentage disproportionne de l’artisanal re sident et des mineurs de petite taille d’or continuent a fonctionner illegalement. Des ameliorations marquees peuvent seulement etre reealisees dans ce secteur si le gouvernement prospecte et delimite la terre pour les mineurs de petite taille d’or; ameliore la qualitedes services de support d’industrie; et mineurs de re-competences pour le travail dans d’autres professions.
Does Corporate Governance Influence the Utilisation of Proceeds from External Financing? Evidence from Equity and Debt Issuance Activities

This paper investigates the effect of corporate governance quality on firms' security issuance decisions between equity and debt and the subsequent use of proceeds from the issuance. We use a new governance proxy from Datastream ESG - Asset 4 to directly measure firms' corporate governance quality. We find that good governance firms are more likely to issue debt rather than equity. In addition, weakly-governed firms tend to engage in acquisitions after the new issuance. Furthermore, corporate governance does not influence dividend payouts after seasoned equity issuance. Strong governance, however, has a positive effect on dividend payouts after debt issuance, indicating good interest alignment between managers and shareholders. Finally, cash holdings for discretionary motives are not affected by the joint effect of security issuance and corporate governance.
Achievement as Gift and Prestige: Formulating Anticipated Emotion of Others as New Determinant of Consumer Motivation

Emotion is central component of consumer behavior. This concept, that is borrowed from psychology, is now widely and applied studied in marketing. Two major approaches used by marketing researchers are, first, behavior causes emotions and second, emotions cause behavior. In the second approach, marketing researchers study anticipated emotions of the actors and their consequences on the actor's behavior. The interesting question, how is anticipated emotion of others on the actor's behavior? This study is purposed to answer that question. The author studies potential emotions of others that accompany future individuals' achievement when achievement is considered as gift to significant others or prestige source for the individuals. In doing so, the author develops anticipated emotion of others concept, conceptual model, and related propositions. Discussion, direction for further research, and the contributions of the study to the academic and practical worlds are also presented.
EFFECT OF COBRA VENOM-INDUCED INHIBITION OF COMPLEMENT ACTIVITY ON ALLOGRAFT AND XENOGRAFT REJECTION REACTIONS1

Venom-induced C' inhibition had no demonstrable effect on survival of wattle allografts in the chicken or of renal allografts in the dog; however, it led to markedly prolonged survival of rabbit renal xeno-grafts in the dog. Complement seems to be one of multiple effector systems through which foreign tissues can be rejected. These experiments support the hypothesis that C' exerts its immunopathologic effects through the bursal-dependent (classical antibody), but not the thymus-dependent (small lymphocyte), immune recognition system.
Touch Sensor Array With Integrated Drivers and Comparator Using a-IGZO TFTs

Integration of an amorphous indium–gallium–zinc–oxide thin-film transistor (TFT)-based self-capacitive touch sensor array with its peripheral drivers and readout circuits is reported. Each pixel consists of one touch electrode and five TFTs that enable a pixel-by-pixel driving scheme via integrated row and column drivers made of shift registers. Outputs from all sensor pixels are fed into an integrated comparator and compared with a reference voltage to generate a more readable low or high output level. A ~7 V difference between the touch and untouched states could be detected, making the proposed touch sensor a promising candidate for flexible electronics.
Assessment of Post Abortion Contraceptive Intention and Associated Factors among Abortion Clients in Gondar Town, North West Ethiopia, 2013

Unintended pregnancies continue to be a major global tragedy for millions of women and abortion is an issue which affects every country in the world. The World Health Organization estimates that 20 million unsafe abortions take place each year, in which 80,000 maternal deaths occur due to complications. Cross- sectional study was employed to assess post abortion contraceptive intention and associated factors among abortion clients in Gondar town, Northwest Ethiopia 2013. Six hundred thirty study subjects were included in the study by using a simple random sampling technique. The collected data entered and analyzed by using SPSS version 20.0 software packages. The degree of association between independent and dependent variables were assessed using odds ratio with 95% confidence interval and p-value ≤0.05. The data analyzed using bivariate and multivariate logistic regression. A total of 630 study participants with abortion were assessed. The extent of the post abortion contraceptive intention among 630 clients was (73.5%). Divorced/widowed women (AOR: 0.277, 95% CI :( 0.151, 0.508). ) was a factor negatively associated with the post abortion contraceptive intention whereas married women (AOR: 1.747, 95% CI :( 1.046, 2.916)), abortion from unintended pregnancy (AOR: 3.430, 95% CI (1.597, 7.366) and post abortion contraceptive counseling (AOR: 2.627, 95% CI: (1.366, 5.049)) were factors positively associated with post abortion contraceptive intention. Generally, the post abortion contraceptive intention found in this study was low as compared with others study. Variables like married women, divorced/widowed, abortion from unintended pregnancy and post abortion contraceptive counseling were significant predictors of the post abortion contraceptive intention.
Childhood lichen planus

occurred in this patieni. In (boscpalienis where a thrombosis occurs in a fistula which is still required for haemodialysis, aggressive intervention is aimed at salvaging the fistula because of the finite siies of \ascular access for haemodialysis. '' Some auihors suggest routine angiographv prior to fislula surgery to detect other possible defects besides occlusion such as aneurysms and stenotic venous outflow intimal fibroplasia. '' Tbis patient has reasonable graft ftmction and thus only had a thrombectomy performed. This report draws attention to the rare complication of cutaneous ulceraiion in a paiicnt wbo bad a fistula created 5 years previously. Altbough all patients witb a fistula have some degree of iscbaemia, frank iscbaemic ulcers are rare.
Patterns of DNA methylation in the normal colon vary by anatomical location, gender, and age

Alterations in DNA methylation have been proposed to create a field cancerization state in the colon, where molecular alterations that predispose cells to transformation occur in histologically normal tissue. However, our understanding of the role of DNA methylation in field cancerization is limited by an incomplete characterization of the methylation state of the normal colon. In order to determine the colon’s normal methylation state, we extracted DNA from normal colon biopsies from the rectum, sigmoid, transverse, and ascending colon and assessed the methylation status of the DNA by pyrosequencing candidate loci as well as with HumanMethylation450 arrays. We found that methylation levels of repetitive elements LINE-1 and SAT-α showed minimal variability throughout the colon in contrast to other loci. Promoter methylation of EVL was highest in the rectum and progressively lower in the proximal segments, whereas ESR1 methylation was higher in older individuals. Genome-wide methylation analysis of normal DNA revealed 8388, 82, and 93 differentially methylated loci that distinguished right from left colon, males from females, and older vs. younger individuals, respectively. Although variability in methylation between biopsies and among different colon segments was minimal for repetitive elements, analyses of specific cancer-related genes as well as a genome-wide methylation analysis demonstrated differential methylation based on colon location, individual age, and gender. These studies advance our knowledge regarding the variation of DNA methylation in the normal colon, a prerequisite for future studies aimed at understanding methylation differences indicative of a colon field effect.
Modern surgical treatment of otosclerosis

The modern unilateral surgical treatment of otosclerosis started in 1956. Simultaneous bilateral surgery has not been reported in stapes surgery and in case of bilateral otosclerosis ears are operated in two different sessions. Simultaneous surgery would give the patient the opportunity to gain advantages of bilateral hearing within one session, with less time spent in hospital and on sick leave. The mechanism for vestibular symptoms and the exact end organ affected after surgery is still unveiled. This thesis presents the results of experimental simultaneous bilateral stapes surgery, and vestibular symptoms and findings before and after unilateral stapes surgery. In addition, we explore reasons for outpatient failures in otosclerosis surgery. – Study I examines the outcome of simultaneous bilateral surgery. Hearing was evaluated with standard pure tone and speech audiograms and vestibular apparatus with visual feedback posturography (VFP) during the one-year follow-up. Subjective symptoms and quality of life were assessed with questionnaires. In study II, reasons for outpatient failures in stapes surgery were explored. Forty-seven consecutive stapedotomies and stapedectomies performed by the same surgeon were included, and the effect of failures on hearing results were analysed. Vestibular symptoms and the end organ(s) affected after stapes surgery were investigated in studies III and IV. With video-oculography (VOG), nystagmus was measured preoperatively, and at one week, one month and 3 months postoperatively in the first phase (III). In the second phase (IV), recordings were obtained some hours postoperatively. The hearing results of the simultaneous bilateral surgery were comparable with unilateral surgeries reported. Recovery from the surgery was fast. Significant improvement in performance and quality of life was noted already month after operation in subjective evaluations. Based on these results, simultaneous bilateral surgery is a suitable approach in bilateral otosclerosis Significantly more outpatient failures occurred for medical reasons in the stapedectomy group (13%) than in the stapedotomy group (2%). Stapedotomy should be favoured if outpatient surgery is planned. However, unplanned admission did not worsen the prognosis. VOG measurements in study III did not show any specific type of nystagmus in patients having vestibular symptoms postoperatively. However, VOG measurements immediately after surgery (IV) revealed nystagmus consistent with a minor disturbance of the semicircular canals in 33% of the patients. Subjectively, half of the patients reported vestibular symptoms that were probably of diverse origin, and could have originated from both otolith and semicircular canal parts of the vestibular organ. Since vestibular symptoms and signs are mild, patients may be safely discharged some hours after stapes surgery. %%%%Otoskleroosi on sairaus, joka aiheuttaa johtumistyyppisen kuulonlaskun. Merkittava edistysaskel leikkaushoidossa tapahtui 1956, jolloin Shea poisti ensimmaista kertaa…
Imaging Neurotensin Receptor in Prostate Cancer With 64Cu-Labeled Neurotensin Analogs

Introduction: Neurotensin receptor 1 (NTR-1) is expressed and activated in prostate cancer cells. In this study, we explore the NTR expression in normal mouse tissues and study the positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of NTR in prostate cancer models. Materials and Methods: Three 64Cu chelators (1, 4, 7, 10-tetraazacyclododecane-1, 4, 7, 10-tetraacetic acid [DOTA], 1,4,7-triazacyclononane-N,N′,N″-triacetic acid [NOTA], or AmBaSar) were conjugated to an NT analog. Neurotensin receptor binding affinity was evaluated using cell binding assay. The imaging profile of radiolabeled probes was compared in well-established NTR+ HT-29 tumor model. Stability of the probes was tested. The selected agents were further evaluated in human prostate cancer PC3 xenografts. Results: All 3 NT conjugates retained the majority of NTR binding affinity. In HT-29 tumor, all agents demonstrated prominent tumor uptake. Although comparable stability was observed, 64Cu-NOTA-NT and 64Cu-AmBaSar-NT demonstrated improved tumor to background contrast compared with 64Cu-DOTA-NT. Positron emission tomography/computed tomography imaging of the NTR expression in PC-3 xenografts showed high tumor uptake of the probes, correlating with the in vitro Western blot results. Blocking experiments further confirmed receptor specificity. Conclusions: Our results demonstrated that 64Cu-labeled neurotensin analogs are promising imaging agents for NTR-positive tumors. These agents may help us identify NTR-positive lesions and predict which patients and individual tumors are likely to respond to novel interventions targeting NTR-1.
AN E-SATISFACTION MODEL - APPLICATION TO INTERNET INFORMATION SEARCH AND PURCHASE

This study is an empirical investigation which proposes and tests an “e-satisfaction” model. The sample data was collected from Internet users and consumers (Telepac service clients), obtained through an electronic survey. The Servqual scale, which was adapted to electronic services, identifies six dimensions representing Internet information search satisfaction (i.e. information search reliability; convenience; entertainment; assurance; site design and virtual environment) and three dimensions representing satisfaction with Internet purchase experience (i.e. security, product offer and convenience). The e-satisfaction model results demonstrate that “entertainment”, “convenience”, “reliability” and “assurance” are, in this order, the principal determinants of satisfaction with the Internet use for information search and “security”, “product offer” and “convenience” are the determinants of consumer’s satisfaction with Internet purchase experience. Most of the results and conclusions are consistent with other antecedent research reviews. Finally, some strategic recommendations and suggestions for further investigation are presented.
The Role of Human Capital for National Innovation Capability in Eu Countries

Abstract Innovation is essential for economic growth in developed countries. One of the most important sources of innovation is human capital. In this article, state of human capital in EU countries is investigated in order to show the relationship between human capital and national innovation performance. In the first part, theoretical assumptions of human capital importance for innovation processes are analysed. Secondly, measures of human capital are analysed and a measurement model is presented. This model is applied for investigation of state of human capital in 26 EU countries during 2002-2012. Results showed that quality of human capital is the most important factor for innovation performance. Quality indicators have even higher correlation with innovation in countries with low share of innovative enterprises (enterprises with high-level of new technology acceptance and usage). The aim of research is to analyse the theoretical importance of human capital investment for national innovation capability in EU countries, and to determine human capital aspects that foster innovation performance. Therefore, objectives are as follows: to analyse theoretical assumptions of human capital importance for innovation processes and to present the current state of research; to analyse available human capital measures and create a human capital measurement model; and to analyse state of human capital in EU countries as well as its relationship with national innovation capability.