Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Can behavior douse the fire of climate warming?

Rising air temperatures around the globe are affecting organismal abundance, distribution, and evolution (1, 2). Not surprisingly, biologists are endeavoring to assess and anticipate further impacts of warming. What is usually overlooked in these efforts is the fact that mobile organisms are not prisoners of climate warming: they can use behavioral adjustments (“behavioral thermoregulation”) either to buffer the impact of warming air temperatures or sometimes even to take advantage of them (3–5). However, an evaluation of behavior's roles in modifying organismal responses to climate warming has never been attempted, at least on a large spatial scale. A new study in this issue of PNAS (6) develops a biophysically (heat transfer)-based approach (7–9) that does just that. Kearny et al. (6) quantify whether a diurnal ectotherm's use of behavioral adjustments (e.g., use of shade or burrows) alters the ecological impact of climate warming, and they do so on local, continental, and global scales. For us the key take-home lesson is that behavioral flexibility is critical for organismal survival in a warming world; behavior can buffer the negative consequences of warming, or it can enhance the benefits of warming! The outcome depends on an organism's physiology, availability of shade, and local microclimates, all of which vary with latitude. Many temperate-zone ectotherms live in environments that are considerably cooler than their optimum, and so becoming warmer is now their highest thermoregulatory priority. Warming will be beneficial to them, especially if they can use basking to take advantage of warming temperatures. In contrast, the priority for many tropical and continental-desert ectotherms is staying cool. Climate warming will place them at risk, especially if shade is scant.
What’s in a name? Tony Lawson on neoclassical economics and heterodox economics

In this article I respond to Tony Lawson’s ‘What is this ‘School’ called neoclassical economics? ’ Lawson’s paper is provocative because it reformulates neoclassical economics, based on Veblen’s original intent, as a mismatch created by recognising the value of an evolutionary approach to the economy whilst remaining over-reliant on elements of a ‘taxonomic’ approach. For Lawson many heterodox economists may be neoclassical under this description. I argue that there is clearly a case to be heard but that the reformulation of the neoclassical raises a number of issues. There are issues concerning the specific critique of the current usage of the term ‘neoclassical’—regarding genealogy and meaning. There are specific issues regarding the further development of the new (old Veblen) definition of the neoclassical: how clear is the definition in a practical context as a way to identify a ‘neoclassical group’, based on the commitments of the critique and the definition, what does it mean to be ‘more realistic’, and what is the strategic value of such a provocation for heterodoxy? I argue that the combination of these are reasons for more consideration of issues of social ontology not less insofar as the terms of the argument are incomplete, and this invites both Lawson and those he is criticising to progress the argument, particularly on method.
Determinants of neurological dysfunction in first episode schizophrenia

Background. Although it is well recognized that individuals with schizophrenia display evidence of subtle neurological impairment, its aetiopathological and clinical significance continues to be unclear. Methods. Patients presenting with a first episode of schizophrenia or schizophreniform psychosis (DSM-IV criteria) were examined using two previously validated neurological examinations. The majority (N = 35) were examined prior to their ‘first ever’ dose of neuroleptic while the remaining patients (N = 21) had been medicated for less than one month. The manner in which neurological functioning is influenced by symptomatology and handedness was ascertained. Results. The majority of patients who were examined neuroleptic-naive displayed evidence of neurodysfunction. A combination of relative hand preference and symptomatology explained a significant proportion of the variance in neurological functioning. Mixed handedness among adults at the time of first presentation with schizophrenia was associated with more severe neurological impairment and a history of poorer scholastic attainment and pre-morbid social adjustment. Conclusions. Neurological soft signs are an intrinsic part of schizophrenia rather than a direct consequence of treatment. Early developmental processes are associated with the level of subsequent neurological impairment in first episode schizophrenia. However, symptomatology appears to have an influence on the apparent severity of neurological impairment.
The Diversification Effects of Initial Public Offerings

A firm's stock becomes publicly tradable through an initial public offering (IPO). This study suggests a portfolio diversification perspective to explore IPOs. We examine whether investors can gain diversification benefits by adding an IPO portfolio to a set of benchmark portfolios sorted by firm size and book-to-market ratio. Using US IPOs from 1980-2002, we find that adding a value-weighted IPO portfolio does lead to a statistically and economically significant enlargement of the investment opportunity set for investors relative to investing solely in a set of benchmark portfolios. Specifically, the Sharpe ratio of the tangency portfolio increases by 5.50% on average after including IPO stocks. Furthermore, IPOs associated with prestigious lead underwriters are the main source of this augmentation of the mean-variance investment opportunity set. Finally, our study implies that issuing IPO exchange traded funds or similar products can provide diversification gains to investors. Copyright (c) 2009 The Authors Journal compilation (c) 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Cloning and characterization of hemolytic genes from Helicobacter pylori

Strains of Helicobacter pylori, the bacterium associated with gastritis, peptic ulcer disease, and gastric cancer in humans, express different degrees of hemolysis on agar containing erythrocytes (RBC). Here we report the isolation and characterization of six recombinant clones from a genomic library of H. pylori ATCC 49503 that confer on Escherichia coli the ability to lyse sheep RBC. DNA hybridizations indicated no sequence homology among these hemolytic clones. Hybridization mapping of them to an ordered H. pylori cosmid library identified their separate chromosomal locations. One clone hybridized to two regions separated by approximately 200 kb. The specificities of the hemolytic activities of these clones were tested with RBC from humans, monkeys, cattle, horses, guinea pigs, rabbits, and chickens as well as with RBC from sheep. One clone conferred the ability to lyse RBC from five species, a second clone allowed the lysis of RBC from four of these species, three other clones allowed the lysis of RBC from three of these species, and the sixth clone allowed the lysis of RBC from just two species. We propose that some or all of the genes that confer these various hemolytic activities contribute to pathogen-host tissue interactions and that the different specificities seen here are important for H. pylori infections of humans of different genotypes or disease states.
A micromachined gyroscope with piezoresistance for both high performance Coriolis-effect detection and torsional vibration monitoring

A micromachined vibrating gyroscope with a novel piezoresistive scheme is designed, fabricated and tested. A piezoresistive sensing method for Coriolis-acceleration detection is used with both high sensitivity and high resonant frequency. A four-terminal piezoresistive element is used to monitor and stabilize the vibration amplitude of the driving mode through a feedback loop. With the same loop, temperature drift of the gyro's piezoresistive output can be on-chip compensated effectively. The gyro performance is measured, with the following results: resonance frequency in detection mode is 989 Hz; angular rate measurement range is /spl plusmn/ 300/spl deg//s; noise-limited angular rate resolution is 0.33/spl deg//s.
A Note on Education-Led Economic Growth Hypothesis Pakistan

This study visits the relationship between education and economic growth using Pakistani data over the period of 1972-2012. In doing so, we have applied the bounds testing approach in examining the cointegration between the variables. The VECM Granger causality approach is used to test the causal relationship between education and economic growth. Our empirical exercise indicated the presence of long run relationship between both variables. Education triggers economic growth and economic growth drives education. The causality analysis reveals the presence of feedback effect between the variables.
The Performance of Immigrants in the United Kingdom: Evidence from the GHS

This paper assesses the performance of immigrants in the U.K. labour market. After reviewing the changes in the source countries of immigration using data from the GHS [General Household Surveys] over the period 1973-92 we document the significantly higher level of schooling attained by immigrants relative to natives. This education gap has risen over successive cohorts primarily because of changes in the national origin of immigrants. Our analysis of relative wages shows that the main group of disadvantaged immigrants are blacks who have significant foreign work experience. However there are strong assimilation effects for this group so that this disadvantage is reduced significantly as duration in the United Kingdom increases. (EXCERPT)
Automatic detection of transmission towers

The detection of electrical transmission towers in digital images is an essential component of future, automated power networks inspection solutions. In this paper, a novel detection method is proposed. It is composed of two phases: training and detection. In the training phase, the characteristic model of transmission towers is learned from a training set. The training set consists of images with known locations for all transmission towers. In the detection phase, meaningful image features are compared with the model in order to detect likely locations of transmission towers. Experimental results with images downloaded from the Internet show accurate detection even in the presence of background clutter and multiple objects.
Combining Multiple Metadata Types in Movies Recommendation Using Ensemble Algorithms

In this paper, we analyze the application of ensemble algorithms to improve the ranking recommendation problem with multiple metadata. We propose three generic ensemble strategies that do not require modification of the recommender algorithm. They combine predictions from a recommender trained with distinct metadata into a unified rank of recommended items. The proposed strategies are Most Pleasure, Best of All and Genetic Algorithm Weighting. The evaluation using the HetRec 2011 MovieLens 2k dataset with five different metadata (genres, tags, directors, actors and countries) shows that our proposed ensemble algorithms achieve a considerable 7% improvement in the Mean Average Precision even with state-of-art collaborative filtering algorithms.
Role of ledipasvir/sofosbuvir combination for genotype 1 hepatitis C virus infection

Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is one of the most common etiologies of liver-related mortality throughout the world. Among the six HCV genotypes, genotype 1 was significantly more aggressive when utilizing the combination of pegylated interferon and ribavirin, as genotype 1-infected patients had the lowest likelihood of achieving cure (40%–50%) and required twice as long duration of treatment, as compared to genotypes 2 and 3. Recently, however, significant advances have been made with the advent of all-oral direct-acting antiviral agents, which have significantly improved the safety, efficacy, and tolerability of the treatment of HCV genotype 1. Among the available treatments for HCV genotype 1, the combination therapy of ledipasvir/sofosbuvir provides several advantages compared to other regimens, including use of a single-pill regimen, possibility to shorten the duration of treatment to 8 weeks, efficacy in patients exposed to protease inhibitors, safety in decompensated cirrhosis, and potential to avoid ribavirin. In this review, we discuss the pharmacotherapy of the combination of ledipasvir/sofosbuvir therapy and summarize the results of the Phase III clinical trials for this treatment in HCV genotype 1 patients. We will also discuss the data for special populations, including decompensated cirrhosis, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) coinfected patients, African-Americans, the elderly, and those who failed sofosbuvir-containing regimens.
Load balancing in open access femtocell based two-tier cellular networks

Femtocell base station (BS) is a low-power, low-price BS based on cellular communication technology. It is expected to become a cost-effective solution for improving the communication performance of indoor users, whose traffic demands are large in general. There are mainly two access strategies for femtocell, i.e., closed and open access strategies. While it has been known that open access femtocells contribute more to enhancing the system-wide performance than closed access femtocells, the performance of open access femtocell owners can be potentially degraded when sharing their BSs with other macrocell users. To prevent this potential problem, we develop a load balancing scheme which maximizes the average throughput of macrocell users while guaranteeing some degree of benefits to femtocell owners. To achieve this goal, we jointly optimize the ratio of dedicated resources for femtocells as well as the femtocell service area via an analytic model, which proves that the optimization is a convex optimization problem in the typical environments. Our analysis and simulation results show that the proposed load balancing scheme significantly enhances the system-wide performance.
A New 3/2-Approximation Algorithm for the b-Edge Cover Problem

We describe a 3/2-approximation algorithm, LSE, for computing a b-Edge Cover of minimum weight in a graph with weights on the edges. The b-Edge Cover problem is a generalization of the better-known Edge Cover problem in graphs, where the objective is to choose a subset C of edges in the graph such that at least a specified number b(v) of edges in C are incident on each vertex v. In the weighted b-Edge Cover problem, we minimize the sum of the weights of the edges in C. We prove that the LSE algorithm computes the same b-Edge Cover as the one obtained by the Greedy algorithm for the problem. However, the Greedy algorithm requires edges to be sorted by their effective weights, and these weights need to be updated after each iteration. These requirements make the Greedy algorithm sequential and impractical for massive graphs. The LSE algorithm avoids the sorting step, and is amenable for parallelization. We implement the algorithm on a serial machine and compare its performance against a collection of approximation algorithms for the b-Edge Cover problem. Our results show that the LSE algorithm is 3× to 5× faster than the Greedy algorithm on a serial processor. The approximate edge covers obtained by the LSE algorithm have weights greater by at most 17% of the optimal weight for problems where we could compute the latter. We also investigate the relationship between the b-Edge Cover and the b-Matching problems, show that the latter has a faster implementation since edge weights are static in this algorithm, and obtain a heuristic solution for the former from the latter.
Differential diagnosis between intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm with an associated invasive carcinoma and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma on ultrasonography: the utility of echo intensity and contrast enhancement

Purpose The aim of this study was to investigate the utility of echo intensity and contrast enhancement in the differential diagnosis between intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm with an associated invasive carcinoma (IPMN-IC) and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) on ultrasonography. Methods This study included eight and 37 patients who had pathologically confirmed IPMN-IC and PDAC, respectively, and were enrolled for a comparative analysis of the sonographic features of the tumors. In the quantitative echo intensity evaluation, the two groups were compared with respect to the difference between the tumor intensity and the pancreatic intensity (TI-PI) and between the tumor intensity and the vascular intensity (TI-VI). In the quantitative contrast enhancement evaluation, the increase in echo intensity (ΔTI) and increase in echo intensity per unit of time (slope) were compared between the groups. The echo intensity and contrast enhancement were also compared between the two groups in patients with T3-T4 disease. In addition, the correlations of the histological type, tumor size, stromal type, and T factor with echogenicity and contrast enhancement were analyzed. Results IPMN-IC had significantly greater echo intensity and contrast enhancement than PDAC (TI-PI, P=0.004; TI-VI, P=0.001; ΔTI, P=0.012; slope, P=0.002). In T3-T4 disease, IPMN-IC also showed greater echo intensity and faster enhancement than PDAC. Echo intensity and contrast enhancement were correlated with histological type (TI-PI, P=0.003; TI-VI, P<0.001; ΔTI, P=0.007; slope, P<0.001). Conclusion IPMN-IC and PDAC can be differentiated by the quantitative evaluation of echo intensity and contrast enhancement.
Market Segmentation Based on Tourists’ Dining Preferences

Managerial benefits of market segmentation have been justified; however, incorporation of this concept into restaurant management philosophy is limited, particularly in tourist resorts. A factor analytic approach undertaken in this article revealed that there were different tourist dining segments, developing their restaurant selection decisions based on different aspects of restaurant services, which requires segment-specific marketing and management strategies. The analysis identified five distinct tourist dining segments that take different sets of elements into account when making their restaurant selection decision. Marketing implications of the study findings are discussed.
Spectral Analysis of Category-specific Knowledge in the Intact Brain

This paper implements spectral analysis of scalp EEG recordings during a language naming and visualisation task. The method offers new frontier to explore spatio-temporal features of the organisation of conceptual knowledge in the intact brain. Our findings tallies with results reported in the literature using other techniques such as fMRI. The method introduced in this paper provides new perspective for understanding and possibly diagnosing category specific semantic deficits
A discrete-time hazard model of the adoption of legislative television: evidence from the US Congress, 1961–1986

The present study examines the probability of the adoption of legislative television over time (1961–1986) in the US Congress using a discrete-time hazard model. Against a theoretical construct where political services are modelled as search/experience goods, evidence is provided suggesting that constituent homogeneity, relative power struggles involving the legislative branches of Congress and the White House, and the potential prowess of legislators in Congress regarding skilful use of television are all important facets in this probability model. Use of alternative data sources and statistical techniques, such as those presented here, works to provide a greater foundation of knowledge regarding the relationship between representative democracy and modern means of communication.
Body-swapping Experiment with an Android: Investigation of the Relationship Between Agency and a Sense of Ownership toward a different Body

The experiment described in this paper is performed within a system that provides a human with the possibility and capability to be physically immersed in the body of an android robot, Geminoid HI-2. The participant, through the swapped body of Geminoid HI-2, is able to see his/her own body in front of themselves like a reflection in a mirror -- then they can touch their own body by the hands of the Geminoid HI-2. We are investigating how the sense of body-ownership is generated during visual and tactile tests and how the presence of agency impacts one's body-ownership.
Cell Death and Mechanoprotection by Filamin A in Connective Tissues after Challenge by Applied Tensile Forces*

Cells in mechanically challenged environments must cope with high amplitude forces to maintain cell viability and tissue homeostasis. Currently, force-induced cell death and the identity of mechanoprotective factors are not defined. We examined death in cultured periodontal fibroblasts, connective tissue cells that are exposed to heavy applied forces in vivo. Static tensile forces (0.48 piconewtons/μm2 cell area) were applied through magnetite beads coated with collagen or bovine serum albumin. There was a time-dependent increase of the percentage of propidium iodide-permeable cells in force-loaded cultures incubated with collagen but not bovine serum albumin beads, indicating a role for integrins. Cells exhibited reduced mitochondrial membrane potential, increased caspase-3 activation, nuclear condensation, terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase nick end labeling staining, and detachment from the culture dish. The caspase-3 inhibitor acetyl-Asp-Glu-Val-Asp-aldehyde reduced detachment 3-fold. There was a rapid (<10-s) decrease in plasma membrane potential after force application, which, in filamin A-deficient melanoma cells, contributed to irreversible cell depolarization. In fibroblast cultures, cells with increased permeability to propidium iodide exhibited ∼2-fold less filamin A content than impermeable cells. Fibroblasts transfected with antisense filamin A constructs or with filamin A constructs without an actin-binding domain exhibited 2–3-fold increased proportions of dead cells relative to controls. We conclude that high amplitude forces delivered through integrins can promote apoptosis in a proportion of cells and that filamin A confers mechanoprotection by preventing membrane depolarization.
Detection of a calcium-activated protein kinase in mougeotia by using synthetic Peptide substrates.

By using a synthetic peptide, KM-14, a protein kinase was detected and partially purified from Mougeotia sp. The peptide contains the sequence of the regulatory light chain of smooth muscle myosin that is phosphorylated by calcium-calmodulin-dependent myosin light chain kinase (MLCK). The Mougeotia kinase was stimulated 40-fold by calcium with half-maximal stimulation occurring at 1.5 micromolar. The enzyme was fractionated from calmodulin and was depleted of calmodulin based on enzyme activator analysis. The calmodulin-depleted enzyme was fully active and calcium dependent, and was not stimulated further by exogenous calmodulin nor by the calcium effectors phosphatidylserine and diacylglycerol. The enzyme phosphorylated intact chicken gizzard myosin light chain as well as the KM-14 substrate. KM-13, a peptide analog of KM-14 with a deletion of a glutamine at position 5, was a poor substrate with a V(max)/K(m) ratio 200-fold lower than KM-14. Thus, similarly to vertebrate MLCK, the Mougeotia enzyme is very sensitive to changes in sequence surrounding the phosphorylation site. Calcium-dependent KM-14 kinase activity also was detected in two other algae, Mesotaenium caldariorum and Spirogyra sp. , as well as in pea seedlings. The data suggest that plant and algal tissues possess an enzyme with a substrate specificity similar to MLCK, but unlike MLCK, does not appear to require calmodulin for activity.