Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessing the Transmission Expansion Cost With Distributed Generation: An Australian Case Study

Distributed generation (DG) is rapidly increasing its penetration level worldwide and is expected to play a more important role in providing power. An important benefit of DG is its ability to defer transmission investments. In this paper, a simulation model is implemented to conduct quantitative analysis on the effect of DG on transmission investment deferral. The transmission expansion model is formulated as a multi-objective optimization problem with comprehensive technical constraints, such as AC power flow and system reliability and/or security. The case study that was selected is the Queensland electricity market in Australia. Simulation results show that DG can reduce transmission investments significantly. This ability however is greatly influenced by a number of factors, such as the location of DG, the network topology, and power system technical constraints.
Local Twitter Activity and Stock Returns

In this study, we use geographic proximity as a measure of private information and examine the informational role of social media in stock markets. Using a large sample of individual messages (tweets) collected from Twitter during the period July 2011–March 2012, we find that local Twitter users are more likely to tweet about firms with high information asymmetry, and their Twitter activity in turn increases the trading volume of local stocks. More importantly, we find that the negative tone of local tweets predicts future stock returns and subsequent earnings announcement returns, while nonlocal tweets present no such predictability. These results suggest that local social media activity reflects new information, contributing to price discovery. We also find that the negative tone of local tweets is associated with higher bid-ask spreads and lower market depths. This finding suggests that social media – in contrast to traditional news media, which reduce firms’ information asymmetry – serve to share information with an audience in their networks and therefore increase information asymmetry among investors. Overall, our findings suggest that local social media contain value-relevant information and affect firms’ information environments.
Modeling employee-based brand equity (EBBE) and perceived environmental uncertainty (PEU) on a firm’s performance

Purpose This paper aims to examine the impact of employee-based brand equity (EBBE) and perceived environmental uncertainty (PEU) on firm performance. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected through an e-mail survey from fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) firms in the UK and UAE. Sample sectors included cosmetics and toiletries, household care products, packaged food, soft drinks and tobacco firms. Quantitative data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings The results suggest strong support for the hypothesized relationships, thereby providing strong validation for the proposed model. One interesting finding was that the PEU affected employee brand equity significantly stronger in the UK than in the UAE. This phenomenon is explained in the discussion section. Research limitations/implications Although several studies have indicated several other elements for EBBE, such as brand commitment and brand citizen behavior, the authors borrowed King et al.’s (2012) EBBE concept and limited their variables on EBBE for brand endorsement, brand allegiance and brand consistent behavior. Practical implications Knowledge is expanded through an empirical study validating the proposed model, which provides meaningful insights for developing training tools for internal brand management. Firms have to increase the brand manager’s commitment to increase the employee brand equity, which in turn increases the firm’s performance. Originality/value This paper makes three imperative contributions to the branding literature: expanding the existing brand equity literature to incorporate employee brand equity; being the first known empirically tested PEU on employee brand equity; and empirically testing employee brand equity, which has been ignored in branding literature on firm performance.
Original Research Article Consumer Antibacterial Soaps: Effective or Just risky? Examination of the evidence

Much has been written recently about the potential hazards versus benefits of antibacterial (biocide)- containing soaps. The aim of this study was to evaluate the Bar soap from 20 different Dental clinics for microbial contamination, while it was "in-use". This prospective study was performed with 40 samples between November and December 2015, at Dental clinic at Vellore in Tamilnadu, India. Of the 40 samples obtained from the bar soap, 100% yielded positive culture. This study was designed to determine the colonization of the in-use hand washing soaps in clinic settings. Swabs from surfaces of bar soaps via their applicator tips; at the working stations of the clinic were taken. Conventional microbiologic methods were used for culture of the swabs and identification of the isolates. Of the 40 samples obtained from the bar soap, 100% yielded positive culture. A total of 10 different genera of organisms were isolated. Each bar soap was found to harbor 2-5 different genera of micro organisms. Heavily used soap had more micro organisms compared to less used soap. The microbial load of the "in-use" bar soap constituted a mixed flora of gram positive, gram negative, aerobes, anaerobes, and fungi. The results indicate that the bar soap under "in-use" condition is a reservoir of microorganisms and hand washing with such a soap may lead to spread of infection. Hand hygiene has the potential to prevent diseases and reduce health care-associated infections. The proper drying of hands after washing
Financial Crisis Interventions

This paper develops a model of an economy where bank credit supports both productive investment and individual consumption smoothing in the face of idiosyncratic income risk. Bank credit is constrained by bank equity capital. When policy-makers inject equity capital during financial crises, they trade off stimulating credit supply immediately against long-term distortions related to funding equity injections. I calibrate my model and show that the bank equity capital injection that maximizes average utilitarian welfare redistributes from the poor to the wealthy. While wealthy savers benefit immediately from an increased supply of safe assets, less affluent borrowers and savers suffer from long-term distortions.
The receptor tyrosine kinase EphA 2 promotes mammary adenocarcinoma tumorigenesis and metastatic progression in mice by amplifying ErbB 2 signaling

1Department of Medicine, Division of Rheumatology and Immunology, 2Department of Cancer Biology, and 3Department of Pathology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee, USA. 4MedImmune Inc., Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA. 5Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, Department of Genetics and Radiation Oncology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA. 6Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, and 7Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee, USA.
Significantly Improved Accuracy of Diagnosis of Early Lyme Disease by Peptide Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay Based on the Borreliacidal Antibody Epitope of Borrelia burgdorferi OspC

ABSTRACT Highly specific borreliacidal antibodies are induced by infection with Borrelia burgdorferi, and the immunodominant response during early Lyme disease is specific for an epitope within the 7 amino acids nearest the C terminus of OspC. We evaluated the ability of an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) based on a synthetic peptide (OspC7) that matched the region to detect the response and compared the sensitivity during early Lyme disease to that for an FDA-approved Western blot. When the optical density value was adjusted to 98% specificity based on the results from testing normal or uncharacterized sera (n = 236) or sera from patients with blood factors or illnesses that commonly produce antibodies that cross-react with B. burgdorferi antigens (n = 77), 115 (73%) of 157 sera from patients likely to have early Lyme disease were positive for immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibodies and 17 (11%) also had IgG antibodies. In addition, the IgM ELISA reactivities and the titers of antibodies detected by a flow cytometric borreliacidal antibody test correlated closely (r = 0.646). Moreover, the IgM ELISA was significantly more sensitive (P < 0.001) than the Western blot procedure. The findings therefore confirmed that the peptide IgM ELISA detected OspC borreliacidal antibodies and provided strong evidence that the test can eliminate the necessity for confirming early Lyme disease by a supplementary test such as Western blotting.
The Influence of Customer Satisfaction, Trust and Information Sharing on Customer Loyalty of Professional Services Company: An Empirical Study on Independent Surveyor Services Industry in Indonesia

The independent surveyor service company in Indonesia is growing due to a commodity business transaction in Indonesia is very attractive in the global market situation. Therefore, creating long-term relationships between independent surveyor company and their customers through customer satisfaction, trust, and information sharing that affect customer loyalty becomes very important to win the competition. The independent surveyor services are very valuable for sellers and buyers to assure their trade transactions. This research aims to develop a model of the relationship between customer satisfaction, trust, and information sharing to customer loyalty in professional services of independent surveyor to inspect coal export using relationship marketing approach. Testing of the hypothesis made on three variables on customer loyalty. The data is collected from 51 exporters and coal trading company in Indonesia and the analysis is using Structural Equation Models (SEM). Results from this study show that customer satisfaction, trust, and information sharing influence the customer loyalty of independent surveyor company. Every variable has a significant influence.
Submitted Article Emergency Vaccination to Control Foot-and- mouth Disease: Implications of its Inclusion as a U.S. Policy Option

Emergency animal vaccination has been used in recent international foot-and-mouth disease outbreaks, but current USDA policy favors emergency vaccination use only if standard culling practices alone may not be enough to control spread of the disease. Using simulation modeling, we examine implica- tions of standard culling plus emergency ring vaccination strategies on animal loss and economic welfare loss compared to a standard culling base. Additionally, breakeven risk aversion coefficient analysis is used to examine emer- gency vaccination as a risk management strategy. Results indicate that response enhanced with emergency vaccination is inferior to standard culling under short diagnostic delays because it causes, on average, greater animal and national economic welfare losses. We find that emergency vaccination does have merit as a risk management strategy, as it can reduce the likelihood of an "extreme" outbreak.
The interplay between organizational culture and the use of quality tools, and its impact on performance

This study analyzes the relationships between and among quality techniques, organizational culture, and performance. The research models and hypotheses proposed are tested using data collected from 250 manufacturing companies. The findings indicate that 1) some cultural profiles predict the use of some quality techniques better than others, and 2) quality techniques contribute to improve performance, provided they are supported by appropriate cultural characteristics.
Innate immune responses regulate trypanosome parasite infection of the tsetse fly Glossina morsitans morsitans

Tsetse flies transmit the protozoan parasite African trypanosomes, the agents of human sleeping sickness in sub‐Saharan Africa. Parasite transmission in the insect is restricted by a natural resistance phenomenon (refractoriness). Understanding the mechanism of parasite resistance is important as strengthening fly’s response(s) via transgenic approaches can prevent parasite transmission and lead to the development of novel vector control strategies. Here, we investigated the role of one of the two major pathways regulating innate immunity in invertebrates, the immunodeficiency (Imd) pathway, for Glossina morsitans morsitans’s natural defence against Trypanosoma brucei spp. infections. We determined the molecular structure of the Imd pathway transcriptional activator Relish (GmmRel), which shows high amino acid identity and structural similarity to its Drosophila homologue. Through a double‐stranded RNA‐based interference approach, we showed that the pathogen‐induced expression profile of the antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) attacin and cecropin is under the regulation of GmmRel. Unexpectedly, the AMP diptericin appears to be constitutively expressed in tsetse independent of the presence of the Rel factor. Through GmmRel knock‐down, we could successfully block the induction of attacin and cecropin expression in the immune responsive tissues fat body and proventriculus (cardia) following microbial challenge. The midgut and salivary gland trypanosome infection prevalence, as well as the intensity of midgut parasite infections were found to be significantly higher in flies when attacin and relish expression were knocked down. Our results provide the first direct evidence for the involvement of antimicrobial peptides in trypanosome transmission in tsetse.
Comparison of trophic structure of the benthic macroinvertebratesin three Bulgarian riverine water bodies

The trophic structure of benthic macroinvertebrates in three different types of running water bodies subjected to varying degrees of anthropogenic pressure was analyzed. A seasonal survey was conducted at three Bulgarian rivers in 2011. An adapted version of the multihabitat sampling method was applied along with measuring physical and chemical variables. The ecological status was defined by means of biotic and trophic indexes. Distribution of the functional feeding groups shows that the most sensitive groups, shredders and scrapers, dominate the trophic structure of the mountain river types. In contrast, groups of deposit feeders and filterers prevail at the foothill and plain rivers. Multidimensional scaling plot and redundancy analysis demonstrated that anthropogenic impact and altitude are the main factors determining the distribution of the benthic macroinvertebrates by different functional groups. Seasonality has no leading role in the trophic structure formation of the benthic communities. Our results showed a difference between the trophic composition of the macrozoobenthos found in the mountain sections and those found in the foothill/plain stretches of the rivers. A comparison between the last two areas demonstrated that there was no clear distinction between the trophic composition of the functional feeding groups.
Adaptation to speaker's voice in right anterior temporal lobe

Little is known on how voices are represented in the brain. We used fMRI to investigate whether parts of auditory cortex would be sensitive to the repetition of a speaker's voice. Subjects were scanned while passively listening to spoken syllables, presented in blocs in which either syllable or speaker were repeated. Only one cortical region, located in the anterior part of the right superior temporal sulcus (STS), responded differently to the two conditions: activation relative to the silent baseline was significantly reduced when syllables were spoken by a single voice than when they were spoken by different voices. This result suggest that the right anterior STS plays an important role in the representation of individual voices.
Effect of walking velocity on hindlimb kinetics during stance in normal horses.

The objectives of this study were to measure the effect of walking velocity on net joint moments and joint powers in the hindlimb during stance and to use the data to predict these variables at different walking velocities. Videographic and force data were collected synchronously from 5 sound horses walking over a force plate at a range of velocities. Force and kinematic data from 56 trials were combined using an inverse dynamic solution to determine net joint moments and joint powers. Analysis by simple regression and correlation (P < 0.05, r2 > or = 0.30, r > 0.50) showed that, in early stance, there were significant velocity-dependent increases in the peak magnitudes of the following variables: extensor moment and positive power at the hip, flexor moment and positive power at the stifle, extensor moment, negative and positive power at the tarsus, and flexor moment and negative power at the fetlock. In late stance, there were significant velocity-dependent increases in the peak magnitudes of the following variables: flexor moment at the hip, negative power at the stifle and flexor moment and positive power at the tarsus. As velocity increased, the hip showed an increase in energy generation, whereas the tarsus showed increases in both energy generation and absorption. It is concluded that an increase in walking velocity is associated with increases in peak magnitudes of the net joint moments and joint powers in the hindlimb; and that energy generation at the hip makes the largest contribution to the increase in velocity.
Suppression of Quadrupole and Octupole Modes in Red Giants Observed by Kepler *

Abstract An exciting new theoretical result shows that observing suppression of dipole oscillation modes in red giant stars can be used to detect strong magnetic fields in the stellar cores. A fundamental facet of the theory is that nearly all the mode energy leaking into the core is trapped by the magnetic greenhouse effect. This results in clear predictions for how the mode visibility changes as a star evolves up the red giant branch, and how that depends on stellar mass, spherical degree, and mode lifetime. Here, we investigate the validity of these predictions with a focus on the visibility of different spherical degrees. We find that mode suppression weakens for higher degree modes with a reduction in the quadrupole mode visibility of up to 49%, and no detectable suppression of octupole modes, in agreement with theory. We find evidence for the influence of increasing mode lifetimes on the visibilities along the red giant branch, in agreement with previous independent observations. These results support the theory that strong internal magnetic fields cause suppression of non-radial modes in red giants. We also find preliminary evidence that stars with suppressed dipole modes on average have slightly lower metallicity than normal stars.
Influence of Youth Access to Farm Products Markets on Their Participation in Agriculture in Kajiado North Sub-County

Agriculture in Kenya has great untapped potential for providing employment opportunities for youth that would enable them exploit their creativity, economic innovation and access to agricultural product markets in order to spur faster national economic growth. Reducing cereal importation in Kenya through local investment and expanding of markets for agricultural products can effectively create youth employment. A number of youth took part in agriculture in Kajiado North SubCounty with maize being the most preferred crop while poultry keeping the most preferred livestock activity by youth The influence of youth access to markets for agricultural products on their participation in agriculture in Kajiado North SubCounty was poorly understood and hence the need for this study, which used a cross-sectional design to collect data from 397 randomly, selected youth and 22 youth and agricultural officers. Content validity of the youth and agricultural officers’ questionnaires was ascertained by extension experts while reliability was determined through a pilot test involving 30 respondents. The reliability coefficient were 0. 86α and 0. 80α respectively, which were above the 0.70 threshold for acceptable reliability. The results showed a statistically significant positive relationship (r=.330, p=.01) between youth access to markets and their participation in agriculture. It also showed that youth access to markets influenced their participation in agriculture with 57.4% of the respondents indicating that poor infrastructures and limited knowledge on market prices reduced their access to markets for agricultural commodities. Youth with easy access to markets for their products had higher participation rates in agricultural activities than those with minimal access to markets. The government and other actors should support formation of organizations that can give youth the necessary bargaining power to interact on equal terms with other market actors in order to reduce transaction costs through economies of scale when buying inputs and selling produce.
The Perceived Urgency of Speech Warnings: Semantics versus Acoustics

The relationship between the semantics of words and the acoustics of the way they are spoken is explored. Actors spoke warning signal words in urgent, nonurgent and monotone style, and participants rated the urgency of the words. Results showed effects for signal word and style of presentation. Acoustic analysis showed that the urgent words were spoken at higher frequency with a broader pitch range and were louder than the nonurgent or monotone words. These acoustic differences were used to synthesize artificial versions of signal words in urgent and nonurgent formats. The urgent words were rated as more urgent than the nonurgent words, a finding attributable to their differing acoustics. Within each speaking style the words were acoustically the same, yet effects for signal word were found, suggesting that semantics is also important in urgency perception. This research has implications for the design and implementation of speech warning systems, particularly those in which urgency mapping is required.
Demand management at congested airports : how far are we from Utopia?

DEMAND MANAGEMENT AT CONGESTED AIRPORTS: HOW FAR ARE WE FROM UTOPIA? Loan Thanh Le, PhD George Mason University, 2006 Dissertation Director: George L. Donohue Dissertation Co-Director: Chun-Hung Chen The aim of this research is to help solve the airport congestion problem. The returned air traffic growth is putting pressure on airport infrastructure. We identify the causes of congestion to include (i) the High-Density-Rule (HDR) with grandfather rights allocating the limited number of airport slots to incumbent carriers, (ii) weight-based landing fees that do not incentivize airlines to use larger aircraft, (iii) slot exemptions granted to small markets served by 70-seat or less aircraft, and (iv) the 80%-use-it-lose-it requirement forcing airlines to fly low load-factor flights. With HDR at New York LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy International airports scheduled to end in January 2007, appropriate demand management measures are critically needed to avoid overscheduling and severe congestion. Conventional economic wisdom suggests that market-based mechanisms such as congestion pricing and auctions are an efficient way to allocate scarce resources. Congestion pricing and auctions have had successful applications in many fields. In air transportation however, the complexity of airline network synergy, the influence of market power, and airport public goals require