Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Atomic force microscopy imaging of actin cortical cytoskeleton of Xenopus laevis oocyte

In this study we report an atomic force microscopy (AFM) investigation of the actin cortical cytoskeleton of Xenopus laevis oocytes. Samples consisted of inside‐out orientated plasma membrane patches of X. laevis oocytes with overhanging cytoplasmic material. They were spread on a freshly cleaved mica surface, subsequently treated with Triton X‐100 detergent and chemically fixed. The presence of actin fibres in oocyte patches was proved by fluorescence microscopy imaging. Contact mode AFM imaging was performed in air in constant force conditions. Reproducible high‐resolution AFM images of a filamentous structure were obtained. The filamentous structure was identified as an actin cortical cytoskeleton, investigating its disaggregation induced by cytochalasin D treatment. The thinnest fibres showed a height of 7 nm in accordance with the diameter of a single actin microfilament. The results suggest that AFM imaging can be used for the high‐resolution study of the actin cortical cytoskeleton of the X. laevis oocyte and its modifications mediated by the action of drugs and toxins.
Ownership structure, control and firm performance: the effects of vote-differentiated shares

This article contributes to the literature on ownership, control and performance by exploring these relationships for Swedish listed companies (1997–2002). We find that firms, on average, are making inferior investment decisions and that the use of dual-class shares have a negative effect on performance. Marginal q is used as a measure of economic performance. It was presented in an article by Mueller and Reardon in 1993 and has recently been used in empirical studies of ownership and performance by, among others, Gugler and Yurtoglu (2003). Frequently Tobin's q is used in studies of this type, but Tobin's q has a number of disadvantages which can be circumvented by employing a marginal q. This study adds to earlier studies by investigating how the separation of vote and capital shares’ creates a wedge between the incentives and the ability to pursue value-maximization. The relationships between the performance and different ownership characteristics like ownership concentration and foreign ownership are also investigated.
Multivalued Robust Tracking Control of Lagrange Systems: Continuous and Discrete-Time Algorithms

The robust trajectory tracking of fully actuated Lagrange systems is studied. Exogenous perturbations as well as parameter uncertainties are taken into account. A family of set-valued passivity-based controllers is proposed, including first-order sliding-mode schemes. The existence of solutions and the stability of the closed-loop system are established in continuous time. An implicit discretization approach is proposed and the well posedness and the stability of the closed-loop system are studied. Numerical simulations illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed discrete-time controller.
The Origins of Nonliberal Capitalism: Germany and Japan in Comparison

The German and Japanese economies are more socially and politically regulated, and in this sense less liberal, than their Anglo-American counterparts. In The Origins of Nonliberal Capitalism, an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars explains why and how Germany and Japan developed nonliberal types of capitalism, looking at the institutional histories of the welfare state, the financial system, corporate governance and skill formation. Similarities and differences are traced in relation to attempts at conservative social reform during late 19th century industrialization and subsequent political pathways to democratization. The book's analysis of the historical dynamics of institutional change, particularly the political and organizational challenges of adapting and integrating new institutional repertoires, suggests new insights on how nationally distinct forms of capitalism will respond to current and future challenges of internationalization.
The Cost of Regulation: OSHA, EPA and the Productivity Slowdown

The slowdown in productivity growth in the U.S. economy during the 1970's has been a matter of great concern to policymakers, associated as it is with inflation, unemployment, and declining real wage growth. This paper examines the impact on productivity growth of government regulation, specifically worker health and safety regulation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and environmental regulation by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Looking at data for 450 manufacturing industries between 1958 and 1978, the study finds a large, negative relationship between such regulation and productivity growth. Using these results, about 30 percent of the decline in productivity growth in manufacturing during the 1970's may be attributed to such regulation. Several previous studies have looked at the contribution of regulation to the productivity slowdown. Many of these have inferred that the contribution must be small, on the basis of the relatively small amount spent on complying with such regulations. Edward Denison (1979) estimates that only about 16 percent of the productivity slowdown in the 1972-75 period was due to regulation (.35 percentage points out of a slowdown of 2.17 percentage points). Paul Portney (1981) notes that little of GNP is spent on pollution control (under 2 percent), concluding that therefore pollution regulations could have little effect on productivity growth. Norsworthy et al. (1979) also find a small impact of pollution-abatement capital expenditures on productivity growth. Studies based on econometric estimation of the regulation-productivity relationship have found a wide range of results. Gregory Christainsen and Robert Haveman (1981) find regulation reduced labor productivity growth by . 27 percentage points, using time-series data and measures of total federal regulation. Robert Crandall (1981) finds a strong relationship between pollution-abatement capital and productivity growth, but this relationship disappears when a measure of energy intensity is included. Robin Siegel (1979) observes a significant contribution (.5 percentage points) from pollution control expenditures to the productivity slowdown for 1965-73, but not for later years. Finally, Frank Gollop and Mark Roberts (1983) examine data for a set of electric utilities and find that regulation of emissions had a large impact on total factor productivity growth, lowering it for regulated firms by . 59 percentage points. Many other factors might help to explain the productivity slowdown, including the rise in energy prices, the long and severe recession, and declines in research and development expenditures. There have been a variety of studies examining the contributions of each factor to the slowdown. They generally conclude that many factors contributed to the slowdown, but that a sizable fraction of the slowdown remains unexplained by the estimated contributions of all the factors considered. '
Normally-off AlGaN/GaN HFETs using NiOx gate with recess

The normally-off AlGaN/GaN HFETs on Si substrate were fabricated. To realize normally-off characteristic, recess was formed under the gate electrode and NiOx was formed as a gate electrode. As a result, the fabricated AlGaN/GaN HFET with a gate width of 157 mm exhibited a threshold voltage of +0.8 V, a breakdown voltage of more than 800 V, an on-resistance of 72 mΩ, and a maximum drain current of more than 20 A. The on-resistance-area product (Ron×A) was 0.28 Ω· mm2. This value is approximately 1/28 compared with that of conventional Si MOSFETs. The gate leakage current was decreased about four orders of magnitude smaller than the conventional normally-on HFETs. The NiOx gate electrode operates as a p-type material.
Enhancement of quasi yagi antenna design for Ka-band application

A quasi-yagi antenna Ka-band frequency range has been proposed and simulated. It consists of three directors, a driver, a stripline feed, a substrate and a ground plane. Optimasion is obtained by modifying components design parameters' value. From simulation results, the designed quasi-yagi antenna has small and compact size and works well on Ka- band, mainly at 28 GHz. At 28 GHz, its return loss, gain and beamwidth are −18 dB, 8.12 dB and 57.2 degree, respectively. Based on its performance at 28 GHz, the designed antenna can be implemented for 5G application.
'Irrational exuberance' and capital flows for the us new economy : A simple global model

In a stylized and analytically tractable model of the global economy, we first calculate the Pareto improvement when a country experiencing a favourable supply side shock consumes more against expected future output and spreads the risk by selling shares. With capital inflows to finance the 'New Economy' significantly exceeding the current account deficit, we then show that selling shares globally at inflated prices-due to 'irrational exuberance' and|or distorted corporate incentives-can generate significant international transfers when the asset bubble bursts. Our analysis complements econometric studies showing how much the European economy was affected when the US asset boom ended. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Simplified Kalman filter for a wireless inertial-magnetic motion sensor

In this paper, a group of new multi-axis MEMS sensors including triaxial gyroscope (ITG-3200), triaxial accelerometer (ADXL345) and triaxial magnetometer (HMC5843) are incorporated to develop a nine degrees of freedom (9D) motion sensor, which can communicate with personal computer through a Bluetooth wireless module. A simplified Kalman filter is proposed in this paper to implement real-time estimation of triaxial orientation. To test accuracy of the new sensor system, validation experiments by using reference measurements of a commercially available measurement system were performed in a gait laboratory. Experiment results supported that the wireless 9D sensor can be used to measure 3D orientations with an acceptable precision.
Functional Activation-Informed Structural Changes during Stroke Recovery: A Longitudinal MRI Study

Objective Neuroimaging studies revealed the functional reorganization or the structural changes during stroke recovery. However, previous studies did not combine the functional and structural information and the results might be affected by heterogeneous lesion. This study aimed to investigate functional activation-informed structural changes during stroke recovery. Methods MRI data of twelve stroke patients were collected at four consecutive time points during the first 3 months after stroke onset. Functional activation during finger-tapping task was used to inform the analysis of structural changes of activated brain regions. Correlation between structural changes in motor-related activated brain regions and motor function recovery was estimated. Results The averaged gray matter volume (aGMV) of contralesional activated brain regions and laterality index of gray matter volume (LIGMV) increased during stroke recovery, and LIGMV was positively correlated with Fugl-Meyer Index (FMI) at initial stage after stroke. The aGMV of bilateral activated brain regions was negatively correlated with FMI during the stroke recovery. Conclusion This study demonstrated that combining the stroke-induced functional reorganization and structural change provided new insights into the underlying innate plasticity process during stroke recovery. Significance This study proposed a new approach to integrate functional and structural information for investigating the innate plasticity after stroke.
Rule-Based Sensor Data Aggregation System for M2M Gateways

To reduce the server load and communication costs of machine-to-machine (M2M) systems, sensor data are aggregated in M2M gateways. Aggregation logic is typically programmed in the C language and embedded into the firmware. However, developing aggregation programs is difficult for M2M service providers because it requires gatewayspecific knowledge and consideration of resource issues, especially RAM usage. In addition, modification of aggregation logic requires the application of firmware updates, which are risky. We propose a rule-based sensor data aggregation system, called the complex sensor data aggregator (CSDA), for M2M gateways. The functions comprising the data aggregation process are subdivided into the categories of filtering, statistical calculation, and concatenation. The proposed CSDA supports this aggregation process in three steps: the input, periodic data processing, and output steps. The behaviors of these steps are configured by an XML-based rule. The rule is stored in the data area of flash ROM and is updatable through the Internet without the need for a firmware update. In addition, in order to keep within the memory limit specified by the M2M gateway’s manufacturer, the number of threads and the size of the working memory are static after startup, and the size of the working memory can be adjusted by configuring the sampling setting of a buffer for sensor data input. The proposed system is evaluated in an M2M gateway experimental environment. Results show that developing CSDA configurations is much easier than using C because the configuration decreases by 10%. In addition, the performance evaluation demonstrates the proposed system’s ability to operate on M2M gateways. key words: M2M gateway, sensor data aggregation, in memory processing, IoT (the Internet of Things)
Profiles and motives of adults in Flemish continuing higher education

Abstract The present paper explores the profiles and motives of adults in Flemish continuing higher education based on a dataset gathered in the Sixth Framework project LLL2010 ‘Towards a lifelong learning society in Europe: the contribution of the education system’. Educational offers in continuing higher education are highly imbalanced with offers only present in social sciences and humanities. Adult learners in these types of courses often have already obtained a degree in the past and mainly study because of an intrinsic interest in the course subject, although obtaining a degree and getting a job is an important motive for lower educated adults without a job too.
Treatment of Rapid-Cycling Bipolar Disorder

Abstract Approximately 40% of bipolar patients experience rapid cycling, and half of these suffer from ultra-rapid or ultradian cycling. These patterns are also common in children. Rapid-cycling bipolar disorder is difficult to bring to remission and often requires treatment with four or more classes of psychotropic medications. Lithium, even in combination with anticonvulsants or antidepressants, is often associated with residual episodic depressions. Concerns with adjunctive antidepressant treatment include their low response and remission rates and their tendency to cause switch into mania. Atypical antipsychotics and selected agents within the anticonvulsant class are becoming increasingly important in the treatment of rapid cycling. In the absence of clear treatment guidelines, the use and sequencing of drugs in complex combination treatment remains exploratory, but should be individualized based on careful prospective mood charting by the patient. Use of several drugs below their side-effect thresholds may prevent certain side effects. In children, long-term safety considerations are particularly important in the absence of a strong controlled clinical trials database.
Shielded channel double-gate MOSFET: a novel device for reliable nanoscale CMOS applications

In this paper, the unique features exhibited by a novel double-gate (DG) metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) in which the front gate consists of two side gates to 1) electrically shield the channel region from any drain voltage variation and 2) act as an extremely shallow virtual extension to the source/drain are presented. This structure exhibits significantly reduced short-channel effects (SCEs) when compared with the conventional DG MOSFET. Using two-dimensional (2-D) and two-carrier device simulation, the improvement in device performance focusing on threshold voltage dependence on channel length, electric field in the channel, subthreshold swing, and hot carrier effects, all of which can affect the reliability of complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) devices, was investigated.
STRATEGIC PLANNING AND ENTERPRISE ZONES

State policy makers are concerned about costs of past policies whose benefits are often difficult to determine. Some have recommended a strategic approach to state economic policy making in order to eliminate ad hoc incentives. Lessons derived from the literature on state enterprise zones are used to assess the 1993 Federal Empowerment Zone and Enterprise Community initiative. States can expand policy alternatives by fostering the growth of a marketplace of economic development ideas at the local level. Strategic plans should focus on development of competing, bottom-up solutions, rather than packages of specific incentives. Copyright 2000 by The Policy Studies Organization.
Hospitality Managers' Perception of Corporate Social Responsibility: An Explorative Study

In recent years, many factors have influenced the hotel industry to identify areas of social concern most beneficial to it. Staff incentives, rewards, community involvement, and charitable activities, coinciding with increased management and staff education concerning internal and external social responsibilities, have increased. The objective of this study is to investigate how hotel leaders from Hong Kong in high-tier and medium-tier hotels attempt to influence employees' behaviour to act in a more socially responsible manner towards their companies and communities. It highlights both leaders' perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) behaviour of their employees and the instruments used to influence that behaviour. As a first step, this study aims to determine hotel managers' perception of leadership styles and their interpretation of the CSR role in the industry and community. Managers differ in leadership styles, thereby influencing their employees' perception of the CSR role in industry and community. Findings have shown that CSR awareness is deeply incorporated into high-tier Hong Kong hotels where community involvement is particularly strong.
Overcoming the Intrinsic Difference between Hydrophilic CH3NH3PbI3 and Hydrophobic C60 Thin Films to Improve the Photovoltaic Performance

Dimethylformamide/dimethyl sulfoxide solvent mixtures were used as the CH3NH3PbI3 (MAPbI3) precursor solvent in a one-step spin coating method to fabricate smooth and hydrophilic crystalline MAPbI3 thin films on top of hydrophobic carbon-60 (C60) thin film for highly efficient photovoltaics. The structural, optical, and excitonic characteristics of the resultant MAPbI3 thin films were analyzed using X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic-force microscopy, absorbance spectroscopy, photoluminescence (PL) spectrometry, and nanosecond time-resolved PL. There was a trade-off between the crystallinity and surface roughness of the MAPbI3 thin films, which strongly influenced the device performance of MAPbI3-based photovoltaics. The high power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 17.55% was achieved by improving the wettability of MAPbI3 precursor solutions on top of the C60 thin films. In addition, it was predicted that the fill factor and PCE could be further improved by increasing the crystallinity of the MAPbI3 thin film while keeping it smooth.
Sovereign Risk Ratings: Biased Toward Developed Countries?

Sovereign credit ratings are widely used measurements for "country risk" in international capital markets. However, they have been exposed to increasing criticism in the aftermath of the recent global financial crises. Many international authorities proposed new frameworks for the regulation and supervision of the credit rating sector, in which many countries have taken various steps in this respect. Yet the reliability of sovereign credit ratings has not been criticized in the literature. Using random effects ordered probit modeling, this study explores the reliability of credit ratings. Separate analyses of developed and developing countries suggest that the consistency of credit ratings differs by favoring the developed country group.
Monetary and banking policy transmission through interest rates: an empirical application to the USA, Canada, the UK and the Eurozone

The main purpose of this paper is an examination of the pass‐through interest rate transmission from the wholesale rates (central bank and/or money market rates) to the retail rates (deposit and lending rates) of the banking system. Knowledge of the transmission substantially helps us to calculate the pass‐through interest rate margin or mark‐up in the banking systems under examination (USA, Canada, the UK and the Eurozone). The selection of the wholesale interest rate is also an important part of this pass‐through transmission framework because it is related to the money supply process and therefore the central bank's policy capabilities. In the empirical part, a Johansen (1988) cointegration based error‐correction procedure (ECM‐GE) is implemented for the wholesale interest rate selection. Then an LSE–Hendry general‐to‐specific model (GETS) is applied, for the revelation of the banking sector pass‐through interest rate behaviour. In the empirical part, on the issue of the wholesale interest rate selection, the USA and the Eurozone seem to favour the Money Market rate while the UK and Canada favour the central bank policy rate. The results indicate two types of interest rate pass‐through behaviour, with market structure implication – namely, the US and UK banking systems contrasted with Canada–Eurozone.
Gamma stochastic volatility models

This paper presents gamma stochastic volatility models and investigates its distributional and time series properties. The parameter estimators obtained by the method of moments are shown analytically to be consistent and asymptotically normal. The simulation results indicate that the estimators behave well. The in-sample analysis shows that return models with gamma autoregressive stochastic volatility processes capture the leptokurtic nature of return distributions and the slowly decaying autocorrelation functions of squared stock index returns for the USA and UK. In comparison with GARCH and EGARCH models, the gamma autoregressive model picks up the persistence in volatility for the US and UK index returns but not the volatility persistence for the Canadian and Japanese index returns. The out-of-sample analysis indicates that the gamma autoregressive model has a superior volatility forecasting performance compared to GARCH and EGARCH models. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley l Sons, Ltd.
International marketing in an enlarged European Union: Some insights into cultural heterogeneity in Central Europe

We inhabit a global village in which international marketers are encouraged to think and act with both global and local interests in mind. The enlargement of the European Union (EU) in January 2007 has created a 27 member state EU with a population of nearly half a billion. The purpose of this article is therefore to examine the nature of these differences in so far as they impact on the segmentation decisions made by international marketers. This article examines the literature on culture, identity, and self-concept and presents empirical results showing the diversity of these concepts within three countries that are now full EU members - the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland.