Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Escherichia coli protein, Fis: specific binding to the ends of phage Mu DNA and modulation of phage growth

We show, using gel retardation, that crude Escherichia coli cell extracts contain a protein which binds specifically to DNA fragments carrying either end of the phage Mu genome. We have identified this protein as Fis, a factor involved in several site‐specific recombinational switches. Furthermore, we show that induction of a Mucte62 prophage in a fis lysogen occurs at a lower temperature than that of a wild‐type strain, and that spontaneous induction of Mucfs62 is increased in the fis mutant. DNasel footprinting using either crude extracts or purified Fis indicate that binding on the left end of Mu occurs at a site which overlaps a weak transposase binding site. Thus, Fis may modulate Mu growth by influencing the binding of transposase, or other proteins, to the transposase binding site(s), in a way similar to its influence on Xis binding in phage λ.
A region of the Yersinia pseudotuberculosis invasin protein enhances integrin‐mediated uptake into mammalian cells and promotes self‐association

Invasin allows efficient entry into mammalian cells by Yersinia pseudotuberculosis. It has been shown that the C‐terminal 192 amino acids of invasin are essential for binding of β1 integrin receptors and subsequent uptake. By analyzing the internalization of latex beads coated with invasin derivatives, an additional domain of invasin was shown to be required for efficient bacterial internalization. A monomeric derivative encompassing the C‐terminal 197 amino acids was inefficient at promoting entry of latex beads, whereas dimerization of this derivative by antibody significantly increased uptake. By using the DNA‐binding domain of λ repressor as a reporter for invasin self‐interaction, we have demonstrated that a region of the invasin protein located N‐terminal to the cell adhesion domain of invasin is able to self‐associate. Chemical cross‐linking studies of purified and surface‐exposed invasin proteins, and the dominant‐interfering effect of a non‐functional invasin derivative are consistent with the presence of a self‐association domain that is located within the region of invasin that enhances bacterial uptake. We conclude that interaction of homomultimeric invasin with multiple integrins establishes tight adherence and receptor clustering, thus providing a signal for internalization.
A comparison of the technical efficiencies of health districts and hospitals in Botswana

An attempt is made here to construct and present relative efficiency indices for the services rendered by health districts and specific hospitals in Botswana, using Stochastic Frontier Regression analysis and Data Envelopment Analysis. The analysis indicated that three districts - Kweneng East, Kgalagadi and Boteti - have efficiency scores below the optimum level. Among the 13 hospitals considered, Tsabong Primary Hospital was found to have an efficiency score of less than one. Since the health services involve a number of factors, these indices ought to serve as indicators for further scrutiny of those units (health districts and hospitals) that fall below the optimum efficiency level. The data used for the analysis are from the published material by the Central Statistics Office, Botswana for the year 1997. Health is considered one of the major concerns of the government of Botswana. As a consequence, the authors feel that this study will be useful to policy makers and health planners in giving them some kind of relative ranking among health districts and hospitals.
Voices of Women in Rural India: Empowerment, Entrepreneurship, and Education

Women self-help group participants in rural northern India described living with social and economic challenges, including persistent poverty and discrimination. Self-help group participants, teachers, administrators, and parents discussed rural education. Stakeholders talked with a social work student serving an intensive internship in a grassroots non-governmental organization. A grounded theory approach guided data collection, coding, and analysis. Self-help group participant data themes included the empowerment of women and development of entrepreneurship. Education stakeholders revealed a need for increased access to education, especially for girls and young women. Therefore, recommendations centered on “3 E’s” – empowerment, entrepreneurship, and education. American and Indian social workers, community organizers, and social work educators have much to learn from each other in the quest for social and economic justice. Keywords: India, women, rural, community organization, social work
When Corporate Social Responsibility Matters: An Empirical Investigation of Contingencies

Rather than re-examine the question of whether doing good generally helps a company to do well, this study draws on contingency theory to empirically examine when doing good helps a company do as well as possible. Using panel data, we examine the effects of industry life cycle, munificence, and instability on the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate financial performance (CFP). Our findings indicate that life cycle has a significant impact on the CSR-CFP relationship, as does industry instability. These findings suggest that CSR helps the bottom line considerably – if it is applied at the right time.
Magnetic Induction-Based Simultaneous Wireless Information and Power Transfer for Single Information and Multiple Power Receivers

Magnetic induction (MI)-based communication systems have gained increased attention in recent years. Typical applications for these systems lie in the area of wireless power transfer, near-field communication (NFC), and wireless sensor networks in challenging environments. In this paper, a system for simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) using MI-based signal transmission is designed for supporting one data stream and multiple parallel power streams. One of the possible applications for this scheme is an NFC-based access point. The overall system is optimized to guarantee a certain quality-of-service for the data stream as well as a maximum sum receive power for all power receivers (max-sum problem) or a maximum receive power for the worst power receiver (max-min problem), respectively. Both optimization problems turn out to be non-convex, such that the optimum solution cannot be found with limited computational complexity. Hence, we provide efficient suboptimal solutions. In this context, a convex approximation of the transmit power constraint in MI-based multiple-input multiple-output systems turns out to be very useful. A very high achievable power efficiency renders the proposed MI-based SWIPT system very promising.
Estimating civil aircraft's research and manufacture cost by using grey system model and neural network algorithm

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose novel civil aircraft cost parameters’ selection method and novel cost estimation approach for civil aircraft so as to effectively simulate or forecast civil aircraft cost under poor information and small sample. Design/methodology/approach – Based on existent cost estimation indexes, this paper summarized civil aircraft research and manufacturing cost impact index system and adopted grey relational model to select most important impact factors. Consider civil aircrafts’ cost information could not be easily collected, the author must estimate their costs with limited sample and poor information. A combination model of GM (0, N) model and BP neural network algorithm is proposed. Both advantages of simulation of BP neural network algorithm and poor information generation of GM (0, N) were effectively combined. Then steps of combined model were given out. Finally, nine types of aircrafts were used to test the validity of proposed model. As comparing with the t.
A comparative study of middle cerebral pressure in dogs and macaques

1. A comparison has been made of the pressures recorded from pial branches of the middle cerebral artery in dogs and macaques. This pressure has been shown to be between 88 and 95% of femoral arterial pressure in dogs under chloralose anaesthesia, and between 80 and 90% of femoral arterial pressure in macaques similarly anaesthetized.
Purchasing Power Parity: Further Evidence and Implications

This study tests the validity of the purchasing power parity (PPP) theory using a panel of ten Arab countries. It also measures the speed of convergence for the panel and for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), including Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates which follow a hard dollar peg. The test is conducted using nine base currencies. The main findings are first on the validity of PPP. (1) The null of unit root is rejected using each of the nine currencies as a numeraire—the result appears to be invariant to the choice of the base currency. (2) The result appears to be stronger when the estimation is based on heterogeneous rather than homogeneous serial correlations among panel units. Secondly, on persistence. (3) The estimated average half-life of a shock to the real exchange rate in the full panel is 2.19 years. (4) The study reveals that for the GCC economies deviation from PPP will be more persistent due to the hard peg, the dollar volatility and the weak goods market arbitrage. Clearly, the GCC countries will need to move to a more stable peg to be able to achieve the benefits they hope by engaging in a monetary union by 2010.
Governmental Accounting Reform: Evolution of the Implementation in Flemish Municipalities

Some studies measured the success of adopting governmental accounting reforms revealing conceptual and practical problems. However, these empirical studies only consider the starting point assuming that implementation difficulties are just transition problems that will disappear automatically in time. This study concentrates on how implementing a governmental reform evolves after a number of years. Looking at 1995, 1997 and 1999, it reveals that the level of compliance in Flemish municipalities increased only slightly in 1997 and remained unchanged in 1999. It evidences that there is no self-regulating effect of implementing governmental reforms, even after a period of almost 5 years of experience.
Project Location Analysis Using the Goals Achievement Method of Evaluation

Abstract This article describes how an analytical method was developed and applied in a Washington community to aid in selecting neighborhoods for rehabilitation loan assistance. Other locational problems involving multiple objectives can also be addressed using this evaluation procedure. The evaluation method employed is an adaptation of the Goals Achievement Matrix, which itself is reviewed. The empirical test of the method demonstrates its usefulness in a political decision making context. Use of available data sources, presentation of the analysis procedure, and ways of making the procedure popularly understandable should encourage planners to apply variants of this method in their practice.
Day-ahead emission-aware resource planning for data center considering energy storage and batch workloads

With the rapid development of data centers around the world, energy consumption of data centers has become a non-ignorable constituent of total energy consumption. Considering its unique characteristics, the optimal energy management of data center has become the principal concern of most data centers, especially for those processing batch workloads. In this paper, a grid-connected microgrid composed of conventional generators, renewable resources and energy storage system(ESS) is considered to provide power for a data center. A day-ahead resource planning problem considering conventional generator fuel cost and carbon emission cost is proposed and a MILP model is formulated to solve it. The numerical analysis is also provided and corresponding results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Micromagnetic simulation on dynamics of spin transfer torque magnetization reversal

I study the magnetization dynamics induced by spin transfer torque in CoFe/Ru/CoFe/Cu/NiFe nano-pillars using LLG micromagnetic simulations. The required current for spin transfer torque magnetization reversal was investigated with the switching speed and the temperature. The required current in rectangular nanopillars is much larger than that in elliptical nanopillers. The temperature dependence is pretty complicated. The antiparallel to parallel magnetization reversal at 77 K requires a smaller current than at 300 K. The parallel to antiparallel magnetization reversal at 77 K requires a smaller current than at 300 K only when the pulse duration time is very short.
Indoor channel measurements and characterization at 60 GHz for wireless local area network applications

This work presents propagation measurement results at 60 GHz in order to determine the characteristics of indoor radio channels between fixed terminals. Path loss measurements are reported for line-of-sight (LoS) and non-line-of-sight (NLoS) cases, fading statistics in a physically stationary environment are extracted and a detailed investigation of the people movement effect on the temporal fading envelope is performed. Models that presented to predict path loss provide excellent fitting with errors of 1.13 and 3.84 dB for LoS and NLoS topographies, respectively. The dynamic range of fading in a quiescent environment is 8.8 dB and increased to 35 dB when a person moves between the fixed terminals with the channel becoming extremely nonstationary. Temporal variations induced by the moving people depend on the speed, the number of individuals the body sizes and the environment. Slow fading is observed as well as a quasi-wide-sense stationary (QWSS) behavior of the fading, but up to 50 ms of time.
Estimates of the Impact of Labour Market Attachment and Attitudes on the Female Wage

This paper estimates the returns to full-time and part-time experience and the impact of career interruptions on the female wage using detailed labour market history data from the British Household Panel Survey, 1991-97. We show that the effect of time out of the labour market varies across activity undertaken while out, gender and degree of male occupational domination. Estimates of the unexplained portion of the gender wage differential are shown to reduce by almost 40 per cent when these detailed measures of labour market experience are used. Finally, we show that labour market attitudes have a significant impact on the female wage. Copyright © 2007 The Author; Journal compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and The University of Manchester.
The Impacts of Market Liberalization on Innovation Processes in the Electricity Sector

Market liberalization has triggered fundamental changes in the electricity sector with far-reaching economic, technical, organizational and ecological consequences. The paper examines how electricity market liberalization has influenced innovation processes at the level of electric utilities and in the electricity sector as a whole. The results are based on an empirical survey including two case studies, green power and fuel cells, in which utility innovation strategies were analysed. From the similarities in both cases and the aggregated effects of innovation strategies, we identify several indications for a general change of innovation processes in the sector: The innovation activity has increased, there is a greater variety of innovation projects, product innovations and organizational innovations have gained importance, innovation networks have become smaller and more specific, and the professionalism of innovation management is improving.
The influence of the accruals generating process on earnings persistence

In this paper we categorise accruals on the basis of how they are generated, and empirically evaluate whether this categorisation provides additional insights into future earnings and is relevant to the estimation of firm value. Specifically, we categorise accruals on the basis of whether the underlying cash flows lead or lag earnings recognition, and whether the accruals are initiating or reversing (i.e. a four-way categorisation). We demonstrate that these accrual categories are not homogeneous, have differing implications for earnings persistence and are relevant for firm valuation. Significantly, where cash flows lag earnings recognition (e.g. sales made on credit) they have greater implications for future earnings than where cash flows lead earnings (e.g. unearned revenues) and depreciation. Similarly, initiating accruals have greater implications for the persistence of earnings than reversing accruals. Paradoxically, while depreciation exhibits high persistence, it has less of an implication for the persistence of earnings than either lag or initiating earnings categories. These findings enhance our understanding of the properties of accounting income and how it is impounded into share prices.
Field and Laboratory Study of the Mn/DOT Precast Slab Span System

The Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT) Precast Slab Span System was initially designed by Mn/DOT with input from University of Minnesota researchers and local fabricators. The bridge system consisted of a series of precast, prestressed concrete inverted tee bridge elements which also served as stay-in-place formwork for the cast-in-place portion of the deck placed in the field. One of the Mn/DOT implementations, located in Center City, MN, was instrumented. The bridge has been monitored for reflective cracking and continuity over the piers since the deck was cast. Transverse load distribution was evaluated with a static truck test. In addition, a two-span test specimen was constructed to investigate effects of variations in flange thickness, bursting reinforcement, horizontal shear reinforcement, and flange surface treatment. The data obtained from the field study indicated that cracking had initiated in the bridge at the locations of some of the gages at midspan and near the support. The cracking was determined to be the result of environmental loads and shrinkage rather than due to vehicular loads. The data from the truck tests indicated that the design assumption of a monolithic slab system was valid for the determination of load distribution factors. The results of the laboratory study showed that positive restraint moments developed in the precast system for which continuity was made at a young age (i.e., seven days), and that these moments could be reasonably well predicted by existing models. It has also been found that current American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials bursting requirements require unnecessary transverse reinforcement in the end zones of slab span systems.
The Unknown Spatial Quality of Dense Point Clouds Derived From Stereo Images

Is it possible to use stereo images to generate point clouds and to compute rigorous uncertainty maps? Currently, neither modern commercial photogrammetric software nor state-of-the-art algorithms are able to provide a spatial distribution of uncertainty. In this letter, we explain why this is the case, despite a high demand from the user community. Many applications would indeed benefit from the availability of error bars on each point, as uncertainties on derived models and quantities could be accurately predicted. For instance, change detection could be performed rigorously since the statistical significance of observed changes could be computed. In this letter, we focus on dense stereo methods. We first explain that it is not possible to derive reliable predictive uncertainties mainly due to matching and modeling errors. Our research shows that both intrinsic and practical limitations of the algorithms lead to unpredictable artifacts. Then, we focus on the use of empirical errors, showing that, despite the redundancy brought by multiview stereo, there is a fundamental limitation due to the unknown density of independent measurements. We think that these problems will represent a big challenge for the future, as these limitations cannot be addressed by algorithmic design, computational power, or imaging sensor technology.
A new high-order compact scheme for American options under jump-diffusion processes

Jump-diffusion option pricing models have the ability to fit various implied volatility patterns observed in market option prices. In the partial differential equations framework, pricing an American put when the underlying follows a jump process requires the solution of a partial integro-differential equation. For this problem, second-order finite difference discretisations have been commonly employed. This work develops a new scheme which is based on a high-order compact discretisation of the spatial terms of the equation and a fourth-order time integration scheme. We demonstrate that the scheme is highly accurate for at-the-money American options and oscillation-free greeks are computed.
A new wavelet-neural network-ARIMA shares index combination forecast model

To improve the accuracy of forecasting stock prices, a new stock index prediction approach is proposed, which based on wavelet analysis combines the autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) and artificial neural network. The non-stationary share price index series are decomposed and reconstructed into one low frequency signal and several high frequency signals by wavelet; the approximate stationary low frequency signal is predicted using ARIMA forecasting model, and the high frequency signals are forecasted using Elman neural network models; the prediction result of each layer are mixed by the radial basis function(RBF)neural network and the result is the final prediction. Examples show that the prediction of the combined forecasting model is precise.
Stability analysis of surface ion traps

Motivated by recent developments in ion trap design and fabrication, we investigate the stability of ion motion in asymmetrical, planar versions of the classic Paul trap. The equations of motion of an ion in such a trap are generally coupled due to a nonzero relative angle θ between the principal axes of RF and DC fields, invalidating the assumptions behind the standard stability analysis for symmetric Paul traps. We obtain stability diagrams for the coupled system for various values of θ, generalizing the standard q-a stability diagrams. We use multi-scale perturbation theory to obtain approximate formulas for the boundaries of the primary stability region and obtain some of the stability boundaries independently by using the method of infinite determinants. We cross-check the consistency of the results of these methods. Our results show that while the primary stability region is quite robust to changes in θ, a secondary stability region is highly variable, joining the primary stability region at the special case of θ = 45◦, which results in a significantly enlarged stability region for this particular angle. We conclude that while the stability diagrams for classical, symmetric Paul traps are not entirely accurate for asymmetric surface traps (or for other types of traps with a relative angle between the RF and DC axes), they are “safe” in the sense that operating conditions deemed stable according to standard stability plots are in fact stable for asymmetric traps, as well. By ignoring the coupling in the equations, one only underestimates the size of the primary stability region.
The Estimation of 1910-1989 Per Capita GDP in Croatia

In Croatia, the record of national income is rather poor in the nineteenth century as well as in the twentieth century. Therefore the goal of this paper is to estimate GDP per capita in Croatia during 1910-1989. The methodology is based on ‘backcasting’ technique that has resulted in ten statistically significant estimates of GDP per capita of Croatia during 1910-1989. Furthermore, obtained data is combined with Good’s and Maddison’s data for the purpose of cross-country comparison of GDP per capita throughout 1870-2000.