Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Improved Narrow-Wall Short Slot Coupler Design Exhibiting Significant Increased Bandwidth and Low Cost Production

A novel `short-slot' coupler design variant is introduced to provide high performance over a substantial increased operating bandwidth compared with the state-of-the-art. It is based on an optimised overmoded coupling region that is associated with appropriate waveguide transformers to match the dedicated standard rectangular waveguide ports. The established single acting structure is supported by the design capability of effective EM CAD methods and facilitates low cost production by standard milling techniques. Theoretical and experimental results of 3dB couplers at 26GHz - covering a frequency band of 25% with a coupling variation of less than ±0.25dB - and at 30GHz covering 20% bandwidth (with a coupling variation of less than ±0.1dB) prove the validity of the approach.
NK Lytic-Associated Molecule, Involved in NK Cytotoxic Function, Is an E3 Ligase1

NK lytic-associated molecule (NKLAM) is a protein involved in the cytolytic function of NK cells and CTLs. It has been localized to the cytolytic granules in NK cells and is up-regulated when cells are exposed to cytokines IL-2 or IFN-β. We report in this study that NKLAM contains a cysteine-rich really interesting new gene (RING) in between RING-RING domain, and that this domain possesses strong homology to the RING domain of the known E3 ubiquitin ligase, Dorfin. To determine whether NKLAM functions as an E3 ligase, we performed coimmunoprecipitation binding assays with ubiquitin conjugates (Ubcs) UbcH7, UbcH8, and UbcH10. We demonstrated that both UbcH7 and UbcH8 bind to full-length NKLAM. We then performed a similar binding assay using endogenous NKLAM and UbcH8 expressed by human NK clone NK3.3 to show that the protein interaction occurs in vivo. Using the yeast two-hybrid system, we identified uridine kinase like-1 (URKL-1) protein as a substrate for NKLAM. We confirmed that NKLAM and URKL-1 interact in mammalian cells by using both immunoprecipitation and confocal microscopy. We demonstrated decreased protein expression and enhanced ubiquitination of URKL-1 in the presence of NKLAM. These data indicate that NKLAM is a RING finger protein that binds Ubcs and has as one of its substrates, URKL-1, thus defining this cytolytic protein as an E3 ubiquitin ligase.
Prophets in another land: utilizing psychological expertise from foreign jurisdictions.

Psychological experts often express surprise, even disbelief, when told they cannot perform a forensic evaluation and testify thereto in another state or province without being licensed or certified in that state. In recent years, mental health professionals have argued that "just one case" does not amount to the "practice of psychology," that evaluations for the courts "don't count" because they are exempt from licensure or certification requirements, and that other state boards have "no right" to regulate the activities of psychologists properly qualified in their home jurisdictions.1 By contrast, medical experts are typically better informed about "foreign" licensure issues in the forensic context. Physician practice statutes tend to be less ambiguous. Moreover, the American Medical Association (AMA) adheres to the perspective that even when doctors are testifying in court, as opposed to performing evaluations, they are still practicing medicine and subject to peer review.2 This article reviews licensure and certification issues regarding evaluations performed and testimony given by psychologists from "foreign" jurisdictions. It also identifies ways in which attorneys may be able to obtain permission for these experts to practice in a fashion that does not mn afoul of state psychology boards.
‘Travelling workers’ and ‘working tourists’: variations across the interaction between work and tourism

Tourism and work are usually perceived as two contradicting fields of human activity. Nevertheless, the study of tourism contains a few references to situations in which work-related and tourist-oriented activities are combined. A review of this narrow and sporadic literature suggests that the interaction between work and tourism, although mentioned in various contexts, has been hardly discussed as a distinct phenomenon. This paper aims to provide a coherent descriptive basis to further the study of this phenomenon by setting up a typology of travellers who combine work-related with tourist-oriented pursuits. Based on their work-related and tourist-oriented motivations, four types of such travellers are depicted: ‘travelling professional workers’; ‘migrant tourism workers’; ‘non-institutionalised working tourists’; and ‘working-holiday tourists’. Whereas members of the two former types of travellers are referred to as ‘travelling workers’, members of the two latter types of travellers were defined as ‘working tourists’. In addition, the typology points to the differences between these types of travellers in terms of their work characteristics and their demographic profile. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Industrial Change and Regional Development: The Case of the US Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Industries

We examine the arguments surrounding the location and organization of innovative firms and examine the prospects for industry renewal and regional rejuvenation. We examine the effect of technological breakthroughs in the biotechnology industry on the organization and location of production with respect to mature and emergent regions. We find that, despite losing much of their preeminence in research and development, traditional firms in mature regions have managed to ‘capture’ a substantial amount of manufacturing and marketing. The drug-development experience, manufacturing capabilities, and marketing channels of more established companies in mature regions are turning out to be major sources of competitive advantage.
Volatility Spillovers between World Oil Market and Sectors of BIST

Nowadays, enormous increase of production and service sectors leads to increase in demand for energy consumption. Therefore, energy and oil consumption in a variety of countries are considerably effected by energy and oil prices. International oil prices are crucial for both oil exporting countries and capital market investors as a means of volatility spillovers. This paper aims to analyze whether volatility spillovers exist between world oil market and several sector indices operating in Borsa Istanbul (BIST) 100 including energy, non-metal mineral products, and transportation using bivariate GARCH (1, 1) model. Estimation results suggest that except for non-metal mineral products sector, there are interactions between oil returns and the underlying sectors in terms of both shocks and conditional variance.
Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors in Programmed Cell Death and Cancer Therapy

Histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors, such as suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA), are targeted anticancer agents that have significant anticancer activity at doses well tolerated by patients.1 Recently, we found that HDAC inhibitors can trigger both mitochondria-mediated apoptosis and caspase-independent autophagic cell death, indicating potential benefit of HDAC inhibitors in treating cancers with apoptotic defects.2 We also found that thioredoxin (TRX) might play a significant role in HDAC inhibitor-induced cell death, and HDAC inhibitors increase TRX levels in normal cells but not transformed cells, which is likely to be one of the reasons why HDAC inhibitors preferentially kill cancer cells.3 In this review, we discuss the study of HDAC inhibitors in cell death and cancer research, the implications of our recent findings, and some outstanding questions that need to be addressed.
Reforms and Entry: Some Evidence from the Indian Manufacturing Sector

Traditional research in the context of product market entry has explored the strategic reactions of incumbent firms when threatened by the possibility of entry, and have identified industry-specific factors that affect entry rates. However, following de Soto (1989), there has been increasing emphasis on regulatory and institutional factors governing entry rates, especially in the context of developing countries. Using three-digit industry-level data from India, for the 1984–97 period, we examine the phenomenon of entry in the Indian context. Our empirical results suggest that during the 1980s industry-level factors largely explained variations in entry rates, but that, following the economic federalism brought about by the post-1991 reforms, variations in entry rates during the 1990s were explained largely by state-level institutional and legacy factors. Past productivity growth affects net entry rates as well.
Bank Loan Loss Provisions: A Reexamination of Capital Management, Earnings Management and Signaling Effects

This paper exploits the 1990 change in capital adequacy regulations to construct more powerful tests of capital and earnings management effects on bank loan loss provisions. We find strong support for the hypothesis that loan loss provisions are used for capital management. We do not find evidence of earnings management via loan loss provisions. We also document the reasons for the conflicting results on these effects observed in prior studies. Additionally, we find that loan loss provisions are negatively related to both future earnings changes and contemporaneous stock returns contrary to the signaling results documented in prior work.
Imprecise Preferences and Survey Design in Contingent Valuation

During recent years, the contingent valuation (CV) method has been widely used to value non-marketed goods and services. We present the results of a CV study of the value of road safety. We find that stated preferences for road safety exhibit considerable imprecision, appear subject to various systematic biases, and are insensitive to variations in the quantity and quality of the safety improvements concerned. One broad implication of these findings may be that, for an important class of goods (of which safety is one example), standard assumptions about the structure of people's preferences may be much too strong. A more specific implication, concerning the design and conduct of CV surveys, is that the NOAA Panel's widely cited blueprint for ‘good CV practice’ may rely far too heavily on assumptions about the precision and sensitivity of people's preferences.
What Really Matters for Increasing Transit Ridership: Understanding the Determinants of Transit Ridership Demand in Broward County, Florida

In 2004, Broward County Transit, located in Broward County, Florida, had among the highest ridership per capita and lowest cost per passenger kilometre of all-bus systems in US metropolitan areas with between 1 million and 5 million people. Broward County has few land use attributes thought necessary for transit success. This (2000) study seeks to understand its performance despite its transit-unfriendly urban environment by estimating a transit ridership demand model that differs from most by including generalised price of transit travel from origin to destination. The hypothesis, which the study confirms, is that price (time to reach employment) is more important than land use variables for explaining transit patronage, at least for a bus-only transit system with a large number of transit-dependent riders. The results of this study give further empirical support to recent transit system initiatives to focus more service on decentralised employment centres using multidestination transit network structures.
On Optimal Head Starts in All-Pay Auctions

We consider a two-player all-pay auction with symmetric independent private values that are uniformly distributed. The designer chooses the size of a head start that is given to one of the players. The designer’s objective is to maximize a convex combination of the expected highest effort and the expected aggregate effort. Unless the weight on the highest effort is one, small head starts are always worse than no head start. Moreover, the optimal head start is strictly positive if and only if the weight on the highest effort is large enough.
Place as a Source of Identity in Colonizing Societies: Israeli Settlements in Gaza

ABSTRACT. The tendency to reduce the role of places in the formation of sociospatial identities and to emphasize the impact of sociopolitical structures on place making is growing. We argue that, under certain conditions, places may become salient sources of identity formation. In addition, we suggest viewing different types of places on a continuum from mythical “big places,” to everyday‐life places, to parochial “little places. ” We further suggest a distinction between mythical and everyday‐life senses of place. Following Zali Gurevitz, who describes the characteristics of West Bank Jewish settlers' mythical sense of place, we demonstrate how Gaza settlers only partially internalized their conception of place, adopting an everyday‐life conception of thereof. Yet place became a main source of identity for Gaza settlers, who viewed their experience in the settlements as an empowering process that helped them escape their marginality and join the national elite.
Self-Employment and Health Care Reform: Evidence from Massachusetts

We study the e ect of the Massachusetts health care reform on the uninsured rate and the self-employment rate in the state. The reform required all individuals to obtain health insurance, required most employers to o er health insurance to their employees, formed a private marketplace that o ered subsidized health insurance options and ex- panded public insurance. We examine data from the Current Population Survey (CPS)for 1994-2012 and its Annual Social and Economic (ASEC) Supplement for 1996-2013. We show that the reform led to a dramatic reduction in the state's uninsured rate due to increased enrollment in both public and private health insurance. Estimation results from di erence-in-di erences models and the synthetic control method indicate that the aggregate self-employment rate was higher in the state after the implementation of the reform. We conclude that easier access to health insurance encouraged self-employment in Massachusetts. There are many similarities between the Massachusetts health care reform and the national health care reform, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). Based on Massachusetts' experience, the PPACA will lower the national uninsured rate and may lead to a higher self-employment rate in the nation.
Financial Intermediation and Economic Performance: Historical Evidence from Five Industrialized Countries

This paper examines the nature of links between the intensity of financial intermediation and economic performance that operated in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Norway, and Sweden over the 1870-1929 period. After describing the coevolution of the financial and real sectors in these countries, vector error correction models (VECMs) establish the quantitative importance of long-run relationships among measures of financial intensity and real per capita levels of output and the monetary base. Granger causality tests then suggest a leading role for the intermediation variables in real sector activity, while feedback effects are largely insignificant. The results suggest an important role for intermediation in the rapid industrial transformations of all five counries.
Mechanical Basis of Osmosensory Transduction in Magnocellular Neurosecretory Neurones of the Rat Supraoptic Nucleus

Rat magnocellular neurosecretory cells (MNCs) release vasopressin and oxytocin to promote antidiuresis and natriuresis at the kidney. The osmotic control of oxytocin and vasopressin release at the neurohypophysis is required for osmoregulation in these animals, and this release is mediated by a modulation of the action potential firing rate by the MNCs. Under basal (isotonic) conditions, MNCs fire action potentials at a slow rate, and this activity is inhibited by hypo‐osmotic conditions and enhanced by hypertonicity. The effects of changes in osmolality on MNCs are mediated by a number of different factors, including the involvement of synaptic inputs, the release of taurine by local glial cells and regulation of ion channels expressed within the neurosecretory neurones themselves. We review recent findings that have clarified our understanding of how osmotic stimuli modulate the activity of nonselective cation channels in MNCs. Previous studies have shown that osmotically‐evoked changes in membrane potential and action potential firing rate in acutely isolated MNCs are provoked mainly by a modulation of nonselective cation channels. Notably, the excitation of isolated MNCs during hypertonicity is mediated by the activation of a capsaicin‐insensitive cation channel that MNCs express as an N‐terminal variant of the transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (Trpv1) channel. The activation of this channel during hypertonicity is a mechanical process associated with cell shrinking. The effectiveness of this mechanical process depends on the presence of a thin layer of actin filaments (F‐actin) beneath the plasma membrane, as well as a densely interweaved network of microtubules (MTs) occupying the bulk of the cytoplasm of MNCs. Although the mechanism by which F‐actin contributes to Trpv1 activation remains unknown, recent data have shown that MTs interact with Trpv1 channels via binding sites on the C‐terminus, and that the force mediated through this complex is required for channel gating during osmosensory transduction. Indeed, displacement of this interaction prevents channel activation during shrinking, whereas increasing the density of these interaction sites potentiates shrinking‐induced activation of Trpv1. Therefore, the gain of the osmosensory transduction process can be regulated bi‐directionally through changes in the organisation of F‐actin and MTs.
The Influence of Hotel Website Factors on E-Loyalty in a B2C Context

The Internet allows firms to serve customers more effectively than ever before. In a B2C (business-to-consumer) context, the authors examine the interrelationships among hotel website factors, e-satisfaction, e-trust, e-loyalty and switching costs. They extend prior research by incorporating these constructs into a more comprehensive conceptual framework. This study answers three research questions. First, will the three components of website factors (communication, transaction and customization) have a significant effect on e-loyalty through e-satisfaction and e-trust? Second, do e-satisfaction and e-trust mediate e-loyalty? Third, do switching costs have a moderating effect between e-satisfaction, e-trust and e-loyalty? The authors examine data compiled from customers who have booked hotel accommodation online. The results support their hypotheses and confirm both the mediation role of e-satisfaction and e-trust and the moderation role of switching costs. Conceptually, this study provides an empirical validation of website factors, e-satisfaction, e-trust and loyalty linkage. At the managerial level, the research provides insights into the critical drivers of loyalty in the emerging online marketplace.
A study of the ion selectivity and the kinetic properties of the calcium dependent slow inward current in mammalian cardiac muscle.

1. A voltage‐clamp method combining a single surcose gap and two intracellular micro‐electrodes was used to measure membrane currents in ventricullar myocardial fibres. 2. The adequacy of the voltage‐clamp method is demonstrated by comparing the total current, It, across the gap with the voltage difference, delta V, between the two intracellular micro‐electrodes, i.e. another independent way of measuring membrane currents. With both current measurements the slow inward current, Is, shows the same voltage‐ and time‐dependences. 3. The sensitivity of the slow inward current to variation in external Ca and Na concentrations was investigated systematically. The reversal potential of the slow inward current was sensitive to variation of both ion species. 4. From the reversal potential measurements relative permeabilities of the conductance channels of the slow inward current were estimated as PCa/PNa approximately 1/0‐01 and PCa/PK approximately 1/0‐01 by means of the constant field equation. 5. The activation and inactivation kinetics of the slow inward current were explored in detail and related to the plateau of the action potential.
Ad Lib: When Customers Create the Ad

Consumers are now generating, rather than merely consuming advertising. The consequences for brands, marketers, and senior executives are significant. Advertising was traditionally generated by, or on behalf of, the firm and broadcast to relatively passive consumers. With the rise of digital media, the Internet, and inexpensive media software, considerable creative and distributive power has been handed to the consumer. Liberated from the exclusive control of the firm, ads now express a myriad of different voices. Some ads are subversive, others laudatory, but the fact remains that the firm is no longer in exclusive control of the message. Using a number of high profile cases, this article explores the motivations that drive consumers to create their own ads and develops a typology of the ads created. It develops a model for the various strategic stances that a firm can adopt in response to this phenomenon so that managers can anticipate and thus deal more effectively with some of the extreme consequences of liberated advertising.
Economic analysis of agricultural projects.

Increasing the growth and efficiency of the agricultural and rural sectors of the developing countries is of prime concern to the international community. The large quantities of scarce resources, both people and money, that will be required for progress in this area must be used efficiently. In view of this, the book presents a sound, careful methodology for project analysis. The process is interactive, going back and adjusting earlier decisions based on what is learned. The sequence of topics presented generally follows the order of the analytical process in preparing a financial, and then an economic, analysis of an agricultural project. It does not consider in detail the technical, institutional, social, or commercial aspects. The following topics are examined: (i) costs and benefits; (ii) finding market prices; (iii) transforming these prices into accounts; (iv) preparing and projecting farm budgets; (v) preparing and projecting budgets for agricultural processing industries; (vi) estimating the effect on government revenue; (vii) adjusting market prices; (viii) aggregation of economic values; and (ix) estimating returns to be realized by individuals and by society. A set of generalized guidelines is included.
Paracrine action of FGF4 during periimplantation development maintains trophectoderm and primitive endoderm

Summary: FGF4, a member of the fibroblast growth factor (FGF) family, is absolutely required for periimplantation mouse development, although its precise role at this stage remains unknown. The nature of the defect leading to postimplantation lethality of embryos lacking zygotic FGF4 is unclear and little is known about downstream targets of FGF4‐initiated signaling within the various cellular compartments of the blastocyst. Here we report that postimplantation lethality of Fgf4−/− embryos is unlikely to reflect strictly mitogenic requirements for FGF4. Rather, our results suggest that FGF4 is required to maintain trophectoderm and primitive endoderm identity at embryonic day 4.5. This result is consistent with the reported in vitro activity of FGF4 in maintaining trophoblast stem cells and with the requirement for receptor tyrosine kinase signaling in primitive endoderm formation. Thus, postimplantation lethality of Fgf4−/− embryos likely results from the failure of proper differentiation and function of extraembryonic cell types. genesis 36:40–47, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.