Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Workforce Diversity and Stock Returns

This paper examines if firms with the most racially diverse employees enjoy superior benefits and performance above the market average. The problem of the study is to analyze risk premiums and risk-adjusted excess returns of a portfolio of firms with most diverse employees in the United States from 2006 to 2011. The results show that the portfolio average risk premiums are positive and greater than the market risk premiums in 2006 and from 2009 to 2011. The portfolio average risk-adjusted excess returns from the single-index model and factor-model are positive, although not statistically significant, for the 5-year holding period intervals.
Novel designs of digital detection analyzer for intelligent detection and analysis in digital microfluidic biochips

A second generation lab-on-chip device termed as digital microfluidic biochip is developed as a time-multiplexed reconfigurable device capable of executing multiple bioassay protocols simultaneously on a single 2D planar array. They combine biology with electronics and integrate various bioassay operations namely sample preparation, analysis, separation and detection. Optical detection, processing and analysis are considered to be of major significance as these may influence the decisions on diagnosis, detection and testing. In this paper we initially propose two separate circuit designs of digital detection analyzer to be coupled with a biochip for execution of prescheduled bioassay protocols. The two types of analyzers enable automated detailed analysis of the optical detection results based on the data acquired at the detection site through successful Biochip operation for a) homogeneous droplet samples and b) heterogeneous droplet samples. A third circuit that integrates the previous two designs for dual mode operation is also proposed. Synthesis and simulation of all the three proposed designs are carried out using pre-characterized reference data for measurement of different parameters of human blood samples and the corresponding final detection results are displayed and verified successfully.
On a psychophysical transformed-rule up and down method converging on a 75% level of correct responses

Tranformed-rule up and down psychophysical methods have gained great popularity, mainly because they combine criterion-free responses with an adaptive procedure allowing rapid determination of an average stimulus threshold at various criterion levels of correct responses. The statistical theory underlying the methods now in routine use is based on sets of consecutive responses with assumed constant probabilities of occurrence. The response rules requiring consecutive responses prevent the possibility of using the most desirable response criterion, that of 75% correct responses. The earliest transformed-rule up and down method, whose rules included nonconsecutive responses, did not contain this limitation but failed to become generally accepted, lacking a published theoretical foundation. Such a foundation is provided in this article and is validated empirically with the help of experiments on human subjects and a computer simulation. In addition to allowing the criterion of 75% correct responses, the method is more efficient than the methods excluding nonconsecutive responses in their rules.
Non-market interaction in primary equity markets: evidence from France and Germany

This paper provides micro-econometric evidence on the relevance of non-market interaction for the timing of initial public offerings (IPOs) in the French and German primary equity markets. The surge of IPO volume in the late 1990s appears to be consistent with rational expectations, not with adaptive expectations derived from the performance of past IPOs. This finding tends to support the hypothesis that hot issue markets are endogenous and that they may generate large welfare gains by boosting the incentives for technological innovation in start-up firms, potentially creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. A variety of empirical approaches and policy implications are discussed.
Nanobiomaterials: a review of the existing science and technology, and new approaches

Nanotechnology has made great strides forward in the creation of new surfaces, new materials and new forms which also find application in the biomedical field. Traditional biomedical applications started benefiting from the use nanotechnology in an array of areas, such as biosensors, tissue engineering, controlled release systems, intelligent systems and nanocomposites used in implant design. In this manuscript a review of developments in these areas will be provided along with some applications from our laboratories.
Characterization of Pseudomonas maltophilia Isolates from Fleece Rot

A total of 286 isolates of Pseudomonas maltophilia was collected from sheep exhibiting brown or yellowish fleece rot and from fly-strike lesions. Enzyme activities for 10 of the isolates were examined by plate tests and with the API ZYM system and compared with the enzymatic profile of a human type strain of P. maltophilia. The fact that ovine isolates of P. maltophilia are biochemically similar to pathogenic human strains suggests there may be an association between this organism and the brown to yellow type of fleece rot.
Poverty and malaria morbidity in the Jirapa District of Ghana: A count regression approach

Abstract Malaria potentially affects everyone in the tropics and sub-tropics, however, the poor and vulnerable are worse affected mainly due to the socio-economic constraints that confront them. In Ghana, the Upper West Region, which is the poorest, is one of the worse affected in terms of malaria burden. Given social and economic factors directly relate to malaria morbidity, global malaria control strategy unfortunately has not particularly targeted the effects of socio-economic deprivation on the disease morbidity and control. This study investigates the linkages between poverty and malaria morbidity using count data models, with Jirapa District in the Upper West Region of Ghana as the study area. Empirical results confirm the presence of poverty in the study area as more than half of households depend on heads whose incomes are below the poverty line of US$1 per day and that significant relationships exist between poverty and education on the one hand and malaria morbidity on the other, since gender and level of education of household head, and household poverty situation are significant determinants of malaria morbidity. The study thus recommends that policies aimed at reducing and/or eradicating malaria should include measures to increase income earning capacity of households in the study area.
Review of chart recognition in document images

As an effective information transmitting way, chart is widely used to represent scientific statistics datum in books, research papers, newspapers etc. Though textual information is still the major source of data, there has been an increasing trend of introducing graphs, pictures, and figures into the information pool. Text recognition techniques for documents have been accomplished using optical character recognition (OCR) software. Chart recognition techniques as a necessary supplement of OCR for document images are still an unsolved problem due to the great subjectiveness and variety of charts styles. This paper reviews the development process of chart recognition techniques in the past decades and presents the focuses of current researches. The whole process of chart recognition is presented systematically, which mainly includes three parts: chart segmentation, chart classification, and chart Interpretation. In each part, the latest research work is introduced. In the last, the paper concludes with a summary and promising future research direction.
Influences of the stream groundwater hydrology on nitrate concentration in unsaturated riparian area bounded by an intermittent Mediterranean stream

Stream aquifer hydrology and nitrate removal were studied, over a period of 2 years, in an unsaturated riparian zone, bounded by an intermittent Mediterranean stream, (Fuirosos, northeastern Spain). The riparian groundwater system is characterized by drastic hydrological changes and by mixing of stream water with hillslope groundwater. The hillslope groundwater flowed through a medium with low hydraulic conductivity (9.6 10−3 < ks < 0.1 m d−1) and low specific discharges (1.7 10−3 < qhll < 15 10−3 m d−1). In contrast, stream water infiltrated through the near stream porous medium with relatively high hydraulic conductivity (4.8 < ks < 19 m d−1) and variable specific discharges (i.e., 0.03 < qst < 1.5 m d−1). An intense and short stream discharge period occurred in autumn, when stream water infiltrated a maximum of 10 m into the riparian zone. Nitrate concentration and nitrate removal spatial rates (ηNO3) showed wide spatial heterogeneity. Higher nitrate concentrations (3.4 NO3‐N mg L−1) and effective nitrate removal (ηNO3 = 0.098 ± 0.04 m−1) were found in the deep groundwater of hillslope zone associated to low water fluxes. In contrast, in the stream edge zone (with higher water fluxes), nitrate release predominated over depletion (ηNO3 = −0.13 ± 0.04 m−1) during the stream discharge period. This opposite pattern of nitrate removal observed in the study area suggests that the depletion of diffuse nitrate inputs in riparian zones bounded by intermittent streams requires careful consideration.
Deadenylation—a piece of PANcake

Pan is a poly(A)‐specific 3′ exoribonuclease that, together with the CCR4‐NOT complex, is responsible for initiating and controlling mRNA decay by degradation of the poly(A) tail. Now, more than twenty years after the enzyme's discovery, a surge of recent papers, including one in this issue of The EMBO Journal (Wolf et al, ) has revealed details of its unusual asymmetric structure and aspects of its mode of substrate binding.
Effects of Workplace Friendship on Employee Job Satisfaction, Organizational Citizenship Behavior, Turnover Intention, Absenteeism, and Task Performance

Today’s hospitality employees spend a large portion of their lives at work. Accordingly, friendships between/among employees are often formed at work. Findings of prior studies have suggested that workplace friendship has a variety of positive functions for both individuals and organizations. Workplace friendship facilitates increased communication, respect, securities, and trust among employees. These rewarding benefits have meaningful implications for the employees’ job-related outcomes in the hospitality industry. Thus, this study will examine the direct effect of workplace friendship on hotel employees’ attitude toward their job and its direct and indirect effect on organizational citizenship behavior, turnover intention, absenteeism, and task performance.
Triple modular redundancy used in field programmable neural networks

This paper presents the concepts of FPNA and FPNN, used for the approximation of artificial neural networks in FPGAs and discusses the usage of TMR technique in order to reach a fault tolerance. The diagrams of the FPGA implementation are presented. The results of experiments determining the FPGA resources utilization with different usage of the TMR technique are provided.
Independent steroid control of the fates of motoneurons and their muscles during insect metamorphosis

The metamorphosis of insects is controlled by the blood titers of a small number of developmental hormones including a class of steroids, the ecdysteroids. We have studied the developmental fates of several muscles and their motoneurons during the larval-pupal transformation of the tobacco hornworm, Manduca sexta. The endocrine events which trigger pupal development are first, a fall in the blood titer of juvenile hormone, followed by two subsequent elevations of blood ecdysteroids. The small “commitment pulse” of ecdysteroids commits tissues to pupal development, whereas the sustained “prepupal peak” causes the new pupa to be formed (Riddiford, L. M. (1980) In Progress in Ecdysone Research, J.A. Hoffmann, ed., pp. 409–430, Elsevier/North-Holland Biomedical Press, Amsterdam). In the present experiments we were able to correlate specific aspects of the changing blood steroid titers with the degeneration of larval muscles, and with the dendritic regression and death of their motoneurons. The abdominal prolegs, which are the principal locomotory appendages of the caterpillar, are lost during the larval-pupal transformation. We have followed the fates of a proleg retractor muscle, PPRM, and its single motoneuron, PPR. Two other differently fated abdominal muscles not associated with the proleg were also studied. Surgical and endocrinological manipulations showed that PPRM degenerates in response to the rising phase of the prepupal ecdysteroid peak and that interactions with its motoneuron are not involved in the muscle's death. Motoneuron PPR responds to the rising prepupal peak by first reducing its dendritic arbor by 40% and then dying. Other proleg motoneurons regress but do not die, indicating that dendritic regression is programmed separately from neuronal death. Neither the dendritic reduction nor the death of PPR involves interactions with its target muscle. These results indicate that ecdysteroids have independent and parallel effects in the periphery, where they cause muscle degeneration, and in the central nervous system, where they cause dendritic regression and death of motoneurons.
Topic detection based on K-means

Essential difference between topic detection and text clustering is distribution of news corpus and time characteristics of news corpus. So we should study topic detection according to the news corpus, and it is necessary for news corpus to be in-depth and extensive research. Vector space model (VSM) is one of the most simple and effective topics representation model. And K-means is a well-known and widely used partitional clustering method. Therefore, we do a topic detection experiment to study how news corpus and K-means affect topic detection. Then we get the variation law that they affect topic detection, and add up their optimal values in topic detection. Finally, TDT evaluation methods prove that the optimal topic detection overall performance in topic detection experiment based on large-scale corpus enhances by 38.378% more than topic detection based on small-scale corpus. This experiment shows that topic detection based on K-means is suited to deal with large-scale data.
Dynamic contact angles and hydrodynamics near a moving contact line.

The contact angle is an important boundary condition needed to predict the shape of menisci. However, its measurement and use under dynamic conditions are not well understood. We have measured the shape of menisci very close to moving contact lines over a suite of geometric shapes for the macroscopic menisci. The excellent agreement between theory and experiment establishes that the proposed boundary condition characterizes only the materials of the system. Implications for the microscopic physics controlling the dynamic contact angle are explored
Internet Traffic Matrix Structural Analysis Based on Multi-Resolution RPCA

The Internet traffic matrix plays a significant roll in network operation and management, therefore, the structural analysis of traffic matrix, which decomposes different traffic components of this high-dimensional traffic dataset, is quite valuable to some network applications. In this study, based on the Robust Principal Component Analysis (RPCA) theory, a novel traffic matrix structural analysis approach named Multi-Resolution RPCA is created, which utilizes the wavelet multi-resolution analysis. Firstly, we build the Multi-Resolution Traffic Matrix Decomposition Model (MR-TMDM), which characterizes the smoothness of the deterministic traffic by its wavelet coefficients. Secondly, based on this model, we improve the Stable Principal Component Pursuit (SPCP), propose a new traffic matrix decomposition method named SPCP-MRC with Multi-Resolution Constraints, and design its numerical algorithm. Specifically, we give and prove the closed-form solution to a sub-problem in the algorithm. Lastly, we evaluate different traffic decomposition methods by multiple groups of simulated traffic matrices containing different kinds of anomalies and distinct noise levels. It is demonstrated that SPCP-MRC, compared with other methods, achieves more accurate and more reasonable traffic decompositions.
Single/dual-band CSRR-loaded differential-fed square patch antenna with monopolar radiation pattern

A Complementary Split Ring Resonator (CSRR)-loaded differential-fed microstrip square patch antenna with monopolar radiation pattern is proposed. The antenna is based on the TM11 mode of patch antennas. Single band and dual band designs are proposed. The antennas operate at 2.4 GHz Band for Wireless Body Area Networks (WBAN) applications with quasi omni-directional radiation pattern in the antenna plane. The areas of the two antennas are 4.5 cm × 4.5 cm and they have reflection coefficients better than -10 dB.
EARLY WARNING, DATABASE, AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS FOR AVIAN INFLUENZA SURVEILLANCE 1

Early warning systems rapidly detect the introduction or sudden increase in incidence of any disease of livestock which has the potential to develop epidemic proportions and/or cause serious socioeconomic consequences or public health concerns. Early warning activities, mainly based on disease surveillance, reporting, and epidemiological analysis, are supported by information systems that enable integration, analysis, and sharing of animal health data combined with relevant layers of information such as socioeconomic, production, and climatic data. Information systems represent the backbone of early warning systems. Disease analysis and integration provide better understanding of underlying ecological and epidemiological mechanisms responsible for the maintenance and spread of a given disease. This also leads to the definition and implementation of cost-effective control strategies. The FAO Early Warning System for worldwide monitoring of avian influenza highlights the potential for better integration and exchange of information among key stakeholders, and better understanding of the disease. It also provides member countries the tools necessary to protect national flocks of domestic poultry and to keep the disease out of their national boundaries.
A new basic unit for cascaded multilevel inverters with reduced number of power electronic devices

In this paper, a new topology for asymmetrical cascaded multilevel inverter is proposed. The proposed topology consists of series connection of several basic units. Reduction of number of power switches, driver circuits, IGBTs and dc voltage sources are some advantages of the proposed topology in comparison with the conventional cascaded multilevel inverters. In order to generate all output voltage levels, a new algorithm to determine the magnitudes of dc voltage sources is proposed. Finally, to verify the performance of the proposed inverter, the simulation results by using PSCAD/EMTDC software on a 33-level single-phase inverter are used.
Structure and Enzymatic Functions of Human CD38

CD38 is a novel multifunctional protein that serves not only as an antigen but also as an enzyme. It catalyzes the metabolism of cyclic ADP-ribose and nicotinic acid adenine dinucleotide phosphate, two structurally and functionally distinct Ca2+ messengers targeting, respectively, the endoplasmic reticulum and lysosomal Ca2+ stores. The protein has recently been crystallized and its three-dimensional structure solved to a resolution of 1.9 Å. The crystal structure of a binary complex reveals critical interactions between residues at the active site and a bound substrate, providing mechanistic insights to its novel multi-functional catalysis. This article reviews the current advances in the understanding of the structural determinants that control the multiple enzymatic reactions catalyzed by CD38.
Dose-dense temozolomide for newly diagnosed glioblastoma: a randomized phase III clinical trial.

PURPOSE Radiotherapy with concomitant and adjuvant temozolomide is the standard of care for newly diagnosed glioblastoma (GBM). O(6)-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) methylation status may be an important determinant of treatment response. Dose-dense (DD) temozolomide results in prolonged depletion of MGMT in blood mononuclear cells and possibly in tumor. This trial tested whether DD temozolomide improves overall survival (OS) or progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with newly diagnosed GBM. PATIENTS AND METHODS This phase III trial enrolled patients older than age 18 years with a Karnofsky performance score of ≥ 60 with adequate tissue. Stratification included clinical factors and tumor MGMT methylation status. Patients were randomly assigned to standard temozolomide (arm 1) or DD temozolomide (arm 2) for 6 to 12 cycles. The primary end point was OS. Secondary analyses evaluated the impact of MGMT status. RESULTS A total of 833 patients were randomly assigned to either arm 1 or arm 2 (1,173 registered). No statistically significant difference was observed between arms for median OS (16.6 v 14.9 months, respectively; hazard ratio [HR], 1.03; P = .63) or median PFS (5.5 v 6.7 months; HR, 0.87; P = .06). Efficacy did not differ by methylation status. MGMT methylation was associated with improved OS (21.2 v 14 months; HR, 1.74; P < .001), PFS (8.7 v 5.7 months; HR, 1.63; P < .001), and response (P = .012). There was increased grade ≥ 3 toxicity in arm 2 (34% v 53%; P < .001), mostly lymphopenia and fatigue. CONCLUSION This study did not demonstrate improved efficacy for DD temozolomide for newly diagnosed GBM, regardless of methylation status. However, it did confirm the prognostic significance of MGMT methylation. Feasibility of large-scale accrual, prospective tumor collection, and molecular stratification was demonstrated.
Correlations among morphology, beta-sheet stability, and molecular structure in prion peptide aggregates.

The misfolding of proteins into beta-sheets and the subsequent aggregation of these sheets into fibrous networks underlies many diseases. In this paper, the role of peptide structure in determining the ordering of beta-sheet aggregates and the morphology of fibrils and protofibrils is dissected. Using a series of peptides based on residues 109-122 of the Syrian hamster prion protein (H1) with a range of substitutions at position 117, the link between side chain interactions and beta-sheet thermal stability has been investigated. The thermal stability of beta-sheets is associated with the peptides' ability to adopt the same alignment as wild-type H1, with residue 117 in register across all beta-strands [Silva, R. A. G. D. , Barber-Armstrong, W. , and Decatur, S. M. (2003) J. Am. Chem. Soc. 125, 13674-13675]. These aligned strands are capable of forming long, rigid, and twisted fibrils (as visualized by atomic force microscopy) which are thermostable. Peptides which do not adopt this strand alignment aggregate to form thin, flexible, and smooth protofibrils. The ability to form ordered aggregates, and thus to form twisted fibrils, is modulated by the structure of the side chain of residue 117.
5.8GHz circularly polarized rectennas using schottky diode and LTC5535 rectifier for RF energy harvesting

5.8GHz circularly polarized single element patch antenna and 2×2 antenna array for RF energy harvesting were designed and fabricated. A comparison between Schottky diode and LTC5535 for RF energy harvesting rectenna (rectifying antenna) was analyzed at WLAN frequency of 5.8GHz. Both rectennas are printed on Rogers 4003C substrate. Maximum gain at boresight tip was measured to be 3.4dBi and 8.0dBi for circular polarized single element patch antenna and array patch antenna respectively. And the measured return loss of the two types of antennas was measured to be −10.3dB and −20.3dB respectively. The maximum output DC voltage reading is 72.5mV for Schottky diode and 428.3mV for the LTC5535 rectifier, at a distance of 15cm from the transmitting reference antenna.