Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The pan-European holiday effect

The construction of a single European block in the context of financial markets has caused the different national stock exchanges of the euro area to converge towards one common trading calendar that allows to study whether the holiday effect is a pan-European calendar anomaly or country-specific. By applying simulation methods, we provide evidence of the existence of statistically and economically abnormal positive pre- and post-holiday returns in the Eurozone which are not related to higher than average levels of volatility, but which can be explained by the preference of investors to avoid selling around European holidays.
Evaluation of two school‐based HIV prevention interventions in the border city of Tijuana, Mexico

This research project examined the individual and combined effectiveness of an HIV prevention workshop and a free condom distribution program in four high schools in Tijuana, Mexico. Adolescents (N = 320) completed baseline measures on sexual practices and theoretical correlates and participated in a two‐part study. In Study I, students were randomly assigned to an HIV prevention workshop or a control condition, with a 3‐month follow‐up assessment. Results indicate three significant workshop benefits regarding HIV transmission by altering sexual initiation, access to condoms, and traditional beliefs regarding condoms. In Study 2, we set up a condom distribution program at two of the participating schools, and students completed a 6‐month follow‐up assessment. Results indicate that exposure to the workshop followed by access to the condom distribution program yielded two beneficial results for reducing HIV transmission: moderating sexual initiation and increasing condom acquisition. Access to the condom distribution program alone had no effects on behavioral and psy‐chosocial correlates of HFV transmission. We discuss implications of these results.
Double-Blind Controlled Study on the Effects of Dietary Diacylglycerol on Postprandial Serum and Chylomicron Triacylglycerol Responses in Healthy Humans

Objective: The effects of dietary diacylglycerol (DG) on postprandial lipemia in healthy humans were investigated. Methods: Forty normolipidemic male volunteers ingested fat emulsions containing either DG oil or triacylglycerol (TG) oil, at different doses: 10 g (n = 13), 20 g (n = 10) and 44 g (n = 17). Two test emulsions were given at seven-days intervals in random order. Fatty acid compositions of the test oils had been adjusted to be equal. Fasting and postprandial serum lipid concentrations in each group and plasma lipoprotein lipids in the 20 g-fat ingestion group were measured during the postprandial intervals. Results: When DG emulsion was ingested, serum TG concentrations were significantly lower (p < 0.05) in the late postprandial phase, i.e., 4 hours, 6 hours as compared to the TG emulsion. The magnitude of postprandial lipemia (the area bounded by the curve above the fasting concentration) after ingestion of 44 g-DG emulsion was significantly less than that of 44 g-TG emulsion (6.54 ± 5.12 and 8.45 ± 7.54 mmol · h/L, mean ± SD, respectively). Chylomicron TG, cholesterol, and phospholipid concentrations at 4 hours after ingestion of DG emulsion were significantly lower (p < 0.05) than those after the ingestion of TG emulsion at the same time point. No marked differences were observed for VLDL, LDL and HDL lipids between the test emulsions. Conclusion: In the usual range of fat intake (10–44 g), postprandial response after ingestion of DG emulsion was significantly less than that after ingestion of TG emulsion in healthy human subjects.
Revisiting Disrupted-in-Schizophrenia 1 as a scaffold protein

Abstract Disrupted-in-Schizophrenia 1 (DISC1) is a widely-accepted genetic risk factor for schizophrenia and many other major mental illnesses. Traditionally DISC1 has been referred to as a ‘scaffold protein’ because of its ability to bind to a wide array of other proteins, including those of importance for neurodevelopment. Here, we review the characteristic properties shared between established scaffold proteins and DISC1. We find DISC1 to have many, but not all, of the characteristics of a scaffold protein, as it affects a considerable number of different, but related, signaling pathways, in most cases through inhibition of key enzymes. Using threading algorithms, the C-terminal portion of DISC1 could be mapped to extended helical structures, yet it may not closely resemble any of the known tertiary folds. While not completely fitting the classification of a classical scaffold protein, DISC1 does appear to be a tightly regulated and multi-faceted inhibitor of a wide range of enzymes from interrelated signaling cascades (Diverse Inhibitor of Signaling Cascades), which together contribute to neurodevelopment and synaptic homeostasis. Consequently, disruption of this complex regulation would be expected to lead to the range of major mental illnesses in which the DISC1 gene has been implicated.
Sectoral Labor Adjustment and Monetary Policy in a Small Open Economy

This paper studies the welfare implications of sectoral labor adjustment cost in a two-sector small open economy model with sticky prices. We find that, when the economy faces external shocks, if monetary policy can stabilize the real economy, then sectoral labor market adjustment cost will lead to welfare loss. However, if monetary policy such as fixed exchange rates cannot stabilize real variables, then some degree of labor market friction will improve welfare instead and the gain will be significant. As a result, the welfare gap between flexible exchange rates and fixed exchange rates decreases with sectoral labor market friction. This is because the friction can offset some of the nominal rigidity and become a substitute for monetary policy to stabilize the real economy.
Coercive and Cooperative Intergovernmental Mandates: A Comparative Analysis of Florida and New Zealand Environmental Plans

Through analysis of two sets of regional plans prepared under cooperative and coercive intergovernmental mandates in Florida and New Zealand, this study examines variation in mandate design features and their influence on plan quality. New Zealand's cooperative mandate has greater flexibility and permits more discretionary action to regional councils, while Florida's coercive mandate emphasizes technical capacity building, strong but limited use of coercion and financial support. Key policy implications of this study concern the design of regulatory mandates, and how the two approaches can learn from one another. Florida's approach leads to stronger plan fact basis and regulatory policies in plans, but could benefit from New Zealand's key mandate strength of building subnational political commitment to advance plan-making. New Zealand's approach leads to strong goals, but lacks strengths of specificity in setting goals, technical capacity building, selected use of strong coercion and funding which are emphasized in Florida's mandate. Thus mandates that lead to high quality regional plans would represent a combination of the two approaches.
Systems Engineering requirements for legacy DoD hardware upgrade and sustainment requirements definition, analysis, and validation

Modernization and sustainment efforts for legacy Department of Defense (DoD) electronic systems present Systems Engineers with unique challenges and opportunities to potentially increase or optimize legacy system performance. These efforts sometimes take the form of complete, top-level system replacement, but significant effort is often expended in updating and/or upgrading subsystems and circuits via replacement of specific obsolete components. This paper will present the motivation for applying systems engineering (SysE) efforts during the course of sustainment, discuss specific, relative engineering approaches, and provide examples of systems engineering applied to military electronic systems.
Jump on the Post–Earnings Announcement Drift (corrected)

The authors examined the potential profitability of a strategy that exploits the post–earnings announcement drifts contingent on jump dynamics identified in stock prices around earnings announcements. With long positions in positive-jump stocks and short positions in negative-jump stocks, their hedge portfolio achieved an annualized abnormal return of 15.3% and an annualized Sharpe ratio of 1.52 over the last four decades. Neither conventional risk factors nor common company characteristics explain the abnormal return.
Vacuolar‐ATPase isoform a2 regulates macrophages and cytokine profile necessary for normal spermatogenesis in testis

a2V is required for maturation of sperm. The decreased expression of a2V at the feto‐maternal interphase causes poor pregnancy outcome. The present study examined the role of a2V in spermatogenesis and inflammatory network in the testis. A single dose of anti‐a2V mouse IgG or mouse IgG isotype (3 μg/animal) was injected i.p. into male mice on alternate days for 10 days. Anti‐a2V‐treated males exhibit severe deficiencies of spermatogenesis, which is indicated by the presence of less numbers of postmeiotic cells. Sperm counts and sperm motility were reduced significantly in anti‐a2V‐treated males. The release of the cleaved a2NTD was significantly lower in anti‐a2V‐treated testes. The TMs were identified as M2‐like macrophages, and this population and the expression of various cytokines/chemokines (Tgf‐β, Il‐6, Nos2, Tnf, Lif, Mcp1, Ccl5) were decreased significantly in anti‐a2V‐treated testis compared with control testis. Moreover, the cleaved a2NTD acts as a key mediator of TMs and significantly up‐regulates the secretion of testicular cytokines/chemokines, which are associated with normal spermatogenesis. When these anti‐a2V‐treated males were used for mating with normal females, the number of implantation sites was decreased significantly in the females mated with anti‐a2V‐treated males than the females mated with control males. These observations suggest that a2V plays a crucial role in spermatogenesis by regulating testicular immune responses, and its inhibition in males leads to poor pregnancy outcome in females.
Bilateral Blue Noise Sampling: Additional Algorithms and Applications

Blue noise sampling is an important component in many graphics applications, but most of the prior techniques consider mainly the spatial positions of samples, making them less effective when handling features, such as image color and surface geometry. We apply the bilateral blue noise dart throwing method in [Chen et al. 2013] to graphics applications including image/video stippling and non-linear ﬁltering. We also propose a bilateral Lloyd relaxation method which works comparably with the kernel based bilateral relaxation method in [Chen et al. 2013].
An Unusually Late Presentation of Recurrent Cardiac Syncope in Kearns Sayre Syndrome

Background: Kearns Sayre Syndrome (KSS) is a rare mitochondrial disorder with systemic involvement characterised by skeletal, smooth and cardiac muscle dysfunction; pigmentary retinal changes; neurological and endocrine dysfunction. KSS arise from a large-scale deletion of mitochondrial DNA which typically occurs as a sporadic event. Recurrent cardiac syncope is one way of the initial presentation of this syndrome due to involvement of cardiac conduction system. Case presentation: A 51-year-old male, previously well apart from having stable angina for which he was on aspirin and statin, presented to medical casualty with recurrent syncopal episodes with loss of consciousness lasting 3 minutes to 5 minutes and spontaneous recovery after each event. On ocular examination he was found to be have poor vision (best corrected visual acuity in both eyes was 6/60), bilateral posterior subcapsular cataract and both eyes fundus revealed features of retinitis pigmentosa with cystoid macular oedema. A 12 lead electrocardiography (ECG) on admission showed evidence of atrial flutter with variable heart block leading to significant pauses and the patient underwent permanent pacemaker insertion as he was severely symptomatic. Patient was referred to visual rehabilitation. Conclusion: Mitochondrial myopathy is an important differential diagnosis which needs to be considered in a patient presenting with recurrent cardiac syncope in the context of multisystem involvement.
Appraising the Promises of Minimum Wage in Sectoral Determination 7: Domestic Worker Sector

In order to strengthen the protection of domestic workers in South Africa, the government promulgated, in addition to the existing labour laws and other laws governing and regulating labour services, Sectoral Determination 7: Domestic Worker, specifically for domestic workers. This was done in view of the vulnerability of the workers and their job descriptions. This paper appraises the minimum wage aspect of the law with regard to whether it has started impacting positively on the conditions and standards of living of the domestic workers or not. It also looks at the impact of economic dynamisms such as inflation on the domestic workers’ minimum wage since it was introduced and comes up with a proposal on what can be done to ensure compliance by employers. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014. v5n10p679
Ceramide Changes the Mediator of Flow-Induced Vasodilation From Nitric Oxide to Hydrogen Peroxide in the Human Microcirculation

Rationale: Mitochondrial-derived hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) regulates flow-induced dilation (FID) in microvessels from patients with coronary artery disease. The relationship between ceramide, an independent risk factor for coronary artery disease and a known inducer of mitochondrial reactive oxygen species, and FID is unknown. Objective: We examined the hypothesis that exogenous ceramide induces a switch in the mediator of FID from nitric oxide to H2O2. Methods and Results: Internal diameter changes of resistance arterioles from human adipose and atrial tissue were measured by video microscopy. Mitochondrial H2O2 production was assayed in arterioles using mito peroxy yellow 1. Polyethylene glycol–catalase, rotenone, and Mito-TEMPO impaired FID in healthy adipose arterioles pretreated with ceramide, whereas N&ohgr;-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester had no effect. Mitochondrial H2O2 production was induced in response to flow in healthy adipose vessels pretreated with ceramide, and this was abolished in the presence of polyethylene glycol–catalase. Immunohistochemistry demonstrated ceramide accumulation in arterioles from both healthy patients and patients with coronary artery disease. N&ohgr;-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester reduced vasodilation to flow in adipose as well as atrial vessels from patients with coronary artery disease incubated with GW4869, a neutral sphingomyelinase inhibitor, whereas polyethylene glycol–catalase had no effect. Conclusions: Our data indicate that ceramide has an integral role in the transition of the mediator of FID from nitric oxide to mitochondrial-derived H2O2 and that inhibition of ceramide production can revert the mechanism of dilation back to nitric oxide. Ceramide may be an important target for preventing and treating vascular dysfunction associated with atherosclerosis.
Molecular basis for insecticide‐enhanced thermotolerance in the brown planthopper Nilaparvata lugens Stål (Hemiptera:Delphacidae)

Climate change is likely to have marked ecological effects on terrestrial ecosystems, including the activities of insect pests. Most attention has focused on the increasing geographical ranges of pests; however, if extrinsic factors enhance their thermotolerance, populations may express increased voltinism and longer daily and annual activity periods. These changes in pest populations have the potential for severe consequences, including increased crop losses and decreased food security at the global level. The brown planthopper (BPH) Nilaparvata lugens Stål (Hemiptera: Delphacidae) is a serious pest of rice crops in temperate and tropical regions of Asia. It is often present in rice microclimates at temperatures close to its maximum thermotolerance. Recent BPH outbreaks in tropical Asia are considered to be associated with excess use of pesticides and increasing temperature. This study tested whether exposure to sublethal concentrations of triazophos (tzp), an insecticide widely used in Asian rice production, enhances thermotolerance of BPH. Tzp exposure (40 ppm at 40 °C) significantly decreased mortality (from 94% in controls to 50% at 48 h post‐treatment) and increased lethal mean time (LT50) of adults by 17.2 h. To investigate the underlying molecular mechanism of this tzp‐enhanced thermotolerance, we selected Hsp70 and Arginine kinase (Argk) for detailed study. Transcripts encoding both proteins in third‐instar nymphs and brachypterous adult females were up‐regulated, compared with controls, after exposure to tzp. RNAi silencing of both genes demonstrated that Hsp70 and Argk are essential for survival and tzp‐increased thermotolerance. We propose that tzp induces thermotolerance in BPHs by increasing the expression of genes that act in cell protection mechanisms. The significance of our proposal relates to the importance of understanding the influence of sublethal concentrations of insecticides on pest biology. In addition to its influence on thermotolerance, tzp also enhances BPH reproduction. We infer that exposure to a pesticide stressor can produce cross‐tolerance, that is, increased tolerance to one stressor also increases tolerance to other stressors, including temperature. Aside from needing a better understanding of these effects in nature and in other pest/cropping systems, we suggest that pest management programmes can be improved with better understanding of the influences of stressors, including increased environmental temperatures and sublethal concentrations of insecticides, on pest biology.
Inventory rationing in a make-to-stock production system with several demand classes and lost sales

This paper considers the stock rationing problem of a single-item, make-to-stock production system with several demand classes and lost sales. For the case of Poisson demands and exponential production times, we show that the optimal policy can be characterized by a sequence of monotone stock rationing levels. For each demand class, there exists a stock rationing level at or below which it is optimal to start rejecting the demand of this class in anticipation of future arrival of higher priority demands. A simple queueing model is analyzed to compute the operating cost of a rationing policy. In a numerical study, we compare the optimal rationing policy with a first-come first-served policy to investigate the benefit of stock rationing under different operating conditions of the system.
The forces shaping local planning policy on high voltage electricity installations

Local planning authorities in England and Wales are turning increasingly to development plan policy as a means of expressing their concerns about the planning implications of high voltage electricity installations. This body of policy provides a well-defined focus for the study of local environmental policy making. This article presents an analysis of policy formation that gives attention to external forces and local conditions, and the ways in which these impinge on policy makers preparing development plans. Local policy activity is found to be connected closely to heightened sensitization to high voltage installations in areas that are being attributed greater environmental worth. Broader questions are also raised about the changing nature of the relationship between planning authorities and privatized utilities.
Design Optimization of a Heavy-Load High-Temperature Superconducting Maglev System With Multiseeded YBaCuO Bulks

Multiseeded YBaCuO bulk crystallized by melt growth process is usually employed as the levitated magnet in high-temperature superconducting (HTS) maglev system. However, to the state of art, the intergrain supercurrent between different domains in the multiseeded bulk superconductor is much harder to simulate than the intragrain supercurrent in the single-seeded bulk, hindering the numerical study of multiseeded bulks. In this paper, we first discussed how to simulate the electromagnetic response of multiseeded bulk superconductor levitated above permanent magnetic guideway (PMG) through treating the multiseeded bulk as magnetically coupling but electric uncoupling domains, discriminating from assuming it as a single-seeded bulk superconductor. This model was validated through experiments of a three-seeded bulk levitated at different positions above a Halbach-derived PMG, comparing with a single-seeded bulk with the same geometrical dimensions. To realize a heavy-load HTS maglev system that can carry over a ton per meter length of levitation constituent, we introduced the feasible paths to increase the load, increasing the volumes of superconductors and PMs. We also optimized the selective configurations of the HTS maglev system by the genetic algorithm to reduce the total cost. The final summarized rules for designing the heavy-load HTS maglev system applied multiseeded bulk superconductors and Halbach-derived PMGs are deemed important to industrial-level application.
Evaluation of regression methods for the continuous decoding of finger movement from surface EMG and accelerometry

The reconstruction of finger movement activity from surface electromyography (sEMG) has been proposed for the proportional and simultaneous myoelectric control of multiple degrees-of-freedom (DOFs). In this paper, we propose a framework for assessing decoding performance on novel movements, that is movements not included in the training dataset. We then use our proposed framework to compare the performance of linear and kernel ridge regression for the reconstruction of finger movement from sEMG and accelerometry. Our findings provide evidence that, although the performance of the non-linear method is superior for movements seen by the decoder during the training phase, the performance of the two algorithms is comparable when generalizing to novel movements.
High-Calcium Milk Prevents Overweight and Obesity among Postmenopausal Women

Background The Sixth National Nutrition Survey 2003 revealed that the highest prevalence of overweight and obesity among Filipino female adults (30.8%) was found in the age group from 40 to 59 years. Obesity is associated with a number of chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and diabetes. Low calcium intake has been identified as a potential contributing factor to overweight and obesity. Objective To assess the effect of a high-calcium, fortified, low-fat milk drink with added vitamin D versus a low-calcium placebo drink on anthropometric measurements of postmenopausal women. Methods Women who were at least 5 years postmenopausal were invited to participate in the study. Potential participants underwent three stages of screening: initial interview, dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry, and blood testing for biochemical screening. Anthropometric indices were measured at baseline and the end of the study. Sixty women were qualified to participate in the study. The women were randomly assigned to two groups, one of which received 400 ml of the high-calcium milk daily for 16 weeks while the other received the placebo drink. Results No significant increases were observed in the anthropometric indices of the subjects receiving the high-calcium fortified milk at the end of the study. However, there were significant increases in the weight (p = .008), body mass index (p = .007), and waist (p = .018) and hip (p = .003) circumferences of the subjects receiving the placebo drink. Conclusions A change in dietary calcium intake may be a useful measure as part of an overall approach to prevent the occurrence of overweight and obesity among postmenopausal women.