Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On the secure optimized link state routing (SOLSR) protocol for MANETs

A plethora of routing protocols are available for effective and efficient data dissemination in MANETs. But due to broadcast nature of wireless communications, these protocols are prone to diverse security attacks. In this work, the Secure Optimized Link State Routing (SOLSR) protocol is proposed to fill the breach for security attacks while finding path(s) from source to destination by including message authentication code (MAC) value that is appended to message as a signature, followed by encryption and Global secret key in both HELLO messages and Topology control (TC) messages. Timestamp mechanism is used to avoid replay attacks because authentication and encryption cannot prevent replay attacks. This paper also presents the NS-2 simulation results to assess the SOLSR protocol and the achieved performance comparison between SOLSR and OLSR over different network scenarios. It is shown that the proposed SOLSR outperforms the OLSR in terms of the achieved security, data overhead, packet loss and delay.
Partisan Politics in Regional Redistribution

The current debate on the role of regional politics in the Euro pean Union (EU) is dominated by approaches that focus upon either intergovernmental bargaining or multi-level govern ance. Because Structural Funds are the main EU-wide redis tributive policy, we propose to apply the traditional literature on partisan politics and national redistribution to the case of the EU. We use a new data set on both the distribution of Structural Funds across regions and the distribution of vote shares for different factions of the European Parliament. These data provide empirical details for some of the partisan competition that takes place at the regional level. Specifically, we show that the traditional left vs. right cleavage can have an impact on the size of regional transfers.
Duality-Based Analysis of Residential Gas Demand under Decreasing Block Rate Pricing

This paper discusses a novel estimation method for the residential gas demand function in Japan where the price per unit decreases as the demand exceeds certain thresholds. Such a price system is known as decreasing block rate pricing. The demand function under decreasing block rate pricing is derived by using the well-known discrete/continuous choice approach. However, because of the nonconvex budget set, the conventional approach imposes highly nonlinear constraints on the model parameters, thus making the maximization of the likelihood function under such constraints difficult to implement. To overcome this difficulty, we first apply the duality relationship in consumer theory, and approximate the conditional expenditure in order to linearize these nonlinear constraints. Then, we adopt a Bayesian approach with the Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation in order to estimate the model parameters under linear constraints. Our proposed method is illustrated by a numerical example and is adopted to analyze the demand for residential gas in Japan.
Characterizing Information Processing With a Mobile Device: Measurement of Simple and Choice Reaction Time

Information processing is typically evaluated using simple reaction time (SRT) and choice reaction time (CRT) paradigms in which a specific response is initiated following a given stimulus. The measurement of reaction time (RT) has evolved from monitoring the timing of mechanical switches to computerized paradigms. The proliferation of mobile devices with touch screens makes them a natural next technological approach to assess information processing. The aims of this study were to determine the validity and reliability of using of a mobile device (Apple iPad or iTouch) to accurately measure RT. Sixty healthy young adults completed SRT and CRT tasks using a traditional test platform and mobile platforms on two occasions. The SRT was similar across test modality: 300, 287, and 280 milliseconds (ms) for the traditional, iPad, and iTouch, respectively. The CRT was similar within mobile devices, though slightly faster on the traditional: 359, 408, and 384 ms for traditional, iPad, and iTouch, respectively. Intraclass correlation coefficients ranged from 0.79 to 0.85 for SRT and from 0.75 to 0.83 for CRT. The similarity and reliability of SRT across platforms and consistency of SRT and CRT across test conditions indicate that mobile devices provide the next generation of assessment platforms for information processing.
Purification of his-tagged proteins in non-denaturing conditions suggests a convenient method for protein interaction studies.

Studies of protein-protein interactions are of increasing interest in many areas of biological and biochemical research. Dimerization and other protein—protein interaction motifs that have recently been identified and shown to be important in many regulatory pathways include, for example, the leucine—zipper (1), helix-loop-helix (2), and SH2 and SH3 domains (3). Commonly used analytical methods involve immunoprecipitation or DNA-binding of one of the polypeptides or centrifugation or cross-linking. Protein-affinity chromatography has also been used to identify and purify proteins transiently associated with known polypeptides (4, 5). For proteins whose cDNAs are available the material desirable for protein affinity columns can be obtained most conveniently with the combined use of bacterial T7 RNA polymerase-mediated expression systems and various one-step affinity purification systems (6). The GST fusion system (7) especially, has recently become a popular tool not just for one step purification of the fusion protein but also as a tool to study protein-protein interactions (e.g. 8). In this report we describe a purification method for histidine-tagged recombinant proteins, which would allow the his-tagging system to be used for similar protein interaction studies.
Optimal inductor design for 3-phase voltage-source PWM converters considering different magnetic materials and a wide switching frequency range

In this paper, an optimization regarding volume, efficiency and costs of AC boost inductors in 3-phase PWM converters based on detailed multi-domain models is presented. The optimization is performed for a wide switching frequency range of 5-80 kHz and a wide current ripple range of 5-100 %, considering ferrite, amorphous and powder core materials in combination with round, litz, foil and flat wire windings. The shown analysis and optimization identifies the best core material/winding type combinations for both thermally and efficiency-constrained inductor designs. Furthermore, the investigations reveal that simplified scaling assumptions, e.g. a proportional relationship between the inductor volume and the inverse of the frequency or the stored energy, are only accurate in special cases.
Generating High Strength Test Suites for Combinatorial Interaction Testing Using ZDD-Based Graph Algorithms

Combinatorial interaction testing is a well practiced method for detecting faults for various computing systems. This method requires that any t-wise parameter interactions must be exercised by at least one test case. The value of t is usually referred to as strength. A large body of research exists about constructing test suites of small or moderate strength, typically t = 2 or 3, but very few techniques are known for constructing those of very high strength. This paper proposes the use of ZDD-based graph algorithms to construct a very high strength combinatorial test suite. Constructing high strength test suites is challenging because of the large number of interactions that must be handled during test suite construction. A ZDD is a data structure that can be used to enumerate a very large number of paths in an undirected graph and to perform operations on large sets of graphs. In our approach test cases and interactions are represented as subgraphs of the same graph. Using a ZDDbased graph library to operate on the graphs, we succeeded in constructing test suites of high strength up to t = 11 for some problem instances.
Tourism industry for poverty reduction in Iran

This article attempts to illustrate the status of tourism and its barriers to poverty reduction in Parseh, Iran. Tourism is certainly a major contributor to poverty reduction in many countries. But, there are significant numbers of barriers to effectively using tourism industry as a tool for poverty reduction in developing countries. The findings through focus group discussion indicated that there negative attitudes towards tourism development on poverty reduction. The result of this study also found that there are some organizational and community barriers in tourism development for poverty reduction. The finding can assist the local organizations for remove this problem in face of tourism for poverty reduction. Key words: Tourism, poverty reduction, barriers on poverty reduction.
Flexible Working and the Gender Pay Gap in the Accountancy Profession

The relationship between flexible working arrangements and the gender pay gap is explored in this article, based on a study of flexible working arrangements among Chartered Accountants in Britain. Individual interviews with 50 participants provided details on working patterns, flexibility policies and practices, and experiences of flexible working.The article considers whether gender-neutral discourses of flexible working succeed in encouraging more men and non-parents to use flexible working arrangements, thereby potentially reducing the gender pay gap. The study highlighted gendered patterns of take-up of flexible working. Women who worked flexibly or part time typically did so to combine working with caring commitments, in ways that damaged their career prospects. In contrast, men typically deferred working flexibly to a later stage when their career had progressed further. There was therefore a clear impact on current and future salary for women taking up flexible working arrangements, which was not equivalent for the men who did so. In this context, the promotion of flexible working arrangements is reinforcing the gender pay gap.
Loading rat heart myocytes with Mg2+ using low‐[Na+] solutions

The objective of our study was to investigate how Mg2+ enters mammalian cardiac cells. During this work, we found evidence for a previously undescribed route for Mg2+ entry, and now provide a preliminary account of its properties. Changes in Mg2+ influx into rat ventricular myocytes were deduced from changes in intracellular ionized Mg2+ concentration ([fMg2+]i) measured from the fluorescence of mag‐fura‐2 loaded into isolated cells. Superfusion of myocytes at 37°C with Ca2+‐free solutions with both reduced [Na+] and raised [Mg2+] caused myocytes to load with Mg2+. Uptake was seen with solutions containing 5 mm Mg2+ and 95 mm Na+, and increased linearly with increasing extracellular [Mg2+] or decreasing extracellular [Na+]. It was very sensitive to temperature (Q10 > 9, 25‐‐37°C), was observed even in myocytes with very low Na+ contents, and stopped abruptly when external [Na+] was returned to normal. Uptake was greatly reduced by imipramine or KB‐R7943 if these were added when [fMg2+]i was close to the physiological level, but was unaffected if they were applied when [fMg2+]i was above 2 mm. Uptake was also reduced by depolarizing the membrane potential by increasing extracellular [K+] or voltage clamp to 0 mV. We suggest that initial Mg2+ uptake may involve several transporters, including reversed Na+–Mg2+ antiport and, depending on the exact conditions, reversed Na+–Ca2+ antiport. The ensuing rise of [fMg2+]i, in conjunction with reduced [Na+], may then activate a new Mg2+ transporter that is highly sensitive to temperature, is insensitive to imipramine or KB‐R7943, but is inactivated by depolarization.
Giardia lamblia-Induced Changes in Gene Expression in Differentiated Caco-2 Human Intestinal Epithelial Cells

ABSTRACT The parasitic protozoan Giardia lamblia is a worldwide cause of diarrhea, but the mechanism of disease remains elusive. The parasite colonizes the small intestinal epithelium, known to be a sensor for the presence of enteric pathogens, without invading or causing severe inflammation. In this study we investigated the epithelial cell response to G. lamblia. Differentiated Caco-2 cells were infected with G. lamblia isolate WB-A11, and the transcriptome of the intestinal cells was analyzed after 1.5, 6, and 18 h of interaction, using oligonucleotide microarrays. A large number of genes displayed changed expression patterns, showing the complexity of the interaction between G. lamblia and intestinal cells. A novel chemokine profile (CCL2, CCL20, CXCL1, CXCL2, and CXCL3) was induced that was different from the response induced by enteric pathogens causing intestinal inflammation. Several genes involved in stress regulation changed their expression. These findings indicate that the intestinal epithelium senses the G. lamblia infection, and this is important for induction of innate and adaptive immunity. The induced stress response can be important in the pathogenesis.
Life Cycle Cost: An Examination of Its Application in the United States, and Potential for Use in the Australian Defense Forces

Abstract : This research has two objectives: firstly, to examine the application of life cycle costing in the United States; and secondly, to discuss its potential for use in the decision making of the Australian Defense Forces. It has been found that despite almost 30 years of application in the United States, life cycle cost for the most part, is given little real attention in decision making. Reasons for this include: an institutional emphasis that accords greater attention to acquisition cost than life cycle cost; and the dominance of a budgeteers view of life cycle cost as a technique for affordability analysis, an approach which the current state of the data does not readily support. Life cycle cost's greatest potential is as a criteria to evaluate and tradeoff design and logistics issues, but it receives comparatively little emphasis in the U.S. in these areas. For Australia to avoid the problems experienced in the U.S., there needs to be acceptance at all levels of the concept of life cycle cost, and what it is trying to achieve. Since the cornerstone of the techniques of life cycle cost analysis is the data, an accounting system capable of capturing direct and indirect costs is needed. This study contains seven broad points for Australia to consider in implementing the techniques and concept of life cycle cost.
Africa 2060: what could be driving the good news from Africa?

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to better understand the good news coming from Africa and reflect on ideas discussed at the “Africa 2060: Good News from Africa” conference in April 2010 organized by Boston University's Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer‐Range Future.Design/methodology/approach – Africa's performance over the last 50 years has been akin to a roller coaster ride of good news followed by bad news, with the bad news dominating. However since the dawn of the millennium Africa's outlook has increasingly become optimistic. As one looks at Africa's future, several questions emerge: which of these gains can be consolidated? Which of the positive trends will be sustained? Has this recent period of global attention provided the continent with a real institutional scaffolding on which a positive future can be built? And what needs to be done to ensure that the dangers of chronic poverty, conflict, and institutional collapse that still lurk in the shadows will be contained long .
Serine Protease PrtA from Streptococcus pneumoniae Plays a Role in the Killing of S. pneumoniae by Apolactoferrin

ABSTRACT It is known that apolactoferrin, the iron-free form of human lactoferrin, can kill many species of bacteria, including Streptococcus pneumoniae. Lactoferricin, an N-terminal peptide of apolactoferrin, and fragments of it are even more bactericidal than apolactoferrin. In this study we found that apolactoferrin must be cleaved by a serine protease in order for it to kill pneumococci. The serine protease inhibitors were able to block killing by apolactoferrin but did not block killing by a lactoferrin-derived peptide. Thus, the killing of pneumococci by apolactoferrin appears to require a protease to release a lactoferricin-like peptide(s). Incubation of apolactoferrin with growing pneumococci resulted in a 12-kDa reduction in its molecular mass, of which about 7 to 8 kDa of the reduction was protease dependent. Capsular type 2 and 19F strains with mutations in the gene encoding the major cell wall-associated serine protease, prtA, lost much of their ability to degrade apolactoferrin and were relatively resistant to killing by apolactoferrin (P < 0.001). Recombinant PrtA was also able to cleave apolactoferrin, reducing its mass by about 8 kDa, and greatly enhance the killing activity of the solution containing the apolactoferrin and its cleavage products. Mass spectroscopy revealed that PrtA makes a major cut between amino acids 78 and 79 of human lactoferrin, removing the N-terminal end of the molecule (about 8.6 kDa). The simplest interpretation of these data is that the mechanism by which apolactoferrin kills Streptococcus pneumoniae requires the release of a lactoferricin-like peptide(s) and that it is this peptide(s), and not the intact apolactoferrin, which kills pneumococci.
Does Mandatory Adoption of IFRS improve Accounting Quality? Preliminary Evidence

We provide evidence on the preliminary effects of mandatory adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) on accounting quality for a relatively broad set of firms from 20 countries that adopted IFRS in 2005 relative to a benchmark group of firms from countries that did not adopt IFRS matched on the strength of legal enforcement, industry, size, book-to-market, and accounting performance. Relative to these benchmark firms, we find that IFRS firms exhibit significant increases in income smoothing and aggressive reporting of accruals, and a significant decrease in timeliness of loss recognition; however we do not find significant differences across IFRS and benchmark firms in meeting or beating earnings targets. Our findings contrast with findings in earlier studies which suggest that IFRS adoption leads to increased accounting quality. Our findings primarily hold for firms in strong enforcement countries, which suggests that enforcement mechanisms in these countries were not able to counter the initial effects of greater flexibility in IFRS relative to domestic GAAP.
Displacement effects : the case of Greece

Abstract In this paper, we tested the Displacement Effect Hypothesis for the case of Greece, in the Post World War II Period, using mainly the global dummy variables approach. The motive for the research was the resurgent debate among scientists and politicians concerning the large size of the public sector and its causes. To us, this development was mainly caused by certain exogenous distortions, which do not have sufficiently been analyzed in Greek literature. Two major disturbances were historically detected and subjected to statistical testing. The results support the thesis of a permanent shift in government spending, i.e. the presence of a displacement effect, although not necessarily of the same magnitude.
Evaluating Quality-Adjusted Life Years

Quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) are well recognized as a valid measure for outcomes in cost-effectiveness analyses. A summary health utility score is necessary to evaluate QALYs. The objective of this study was to predict a summary utility score (represented by the Health Utility Index [HUI2]) from scores on the SF-36. Methods. A structural equation framework was applied to longitudinal data collected from 1992 to 1995 on a sample of patients insured by Southern California Kaiser Permanente (N= 6921). An ordinary least squares (OLS) method was used to estimate the HUI2. Results. The OLS model on cross-sectional data predicted 50.5% of the observed variance in HUI2 scores. Parameter estimates of all SF-36 components showed statistical significance at the P < 0.05 level. Conclusions. Results of this study provide a quantitative link between two important measures of health status. The present model can be used to estimate health utility summary scores in studies that have collected SF-36 data.
WHO INFLUENCED INFLATION PERSISTENCE IN CHINA? A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE STANDARD CIA MODEL AND CIA MODEL WITH ENDOGENOUS MONEY

In this paper, we examine the influencing factors of inflation persistence in China’s economy using the DSGE approach. Two monetary DSGE models are estimated, namely, a standard CIA model and a CIA model with a Taylor rule. This article uses the Bayesian method to estimate the model, and the estimated and inferred results are credible due to the Markov chain reaching convergence. The results show that the augmented model outperforms the standard CIA model in terms of capturing inflation persistence. Further studies show that inflation persistence mainly comes from the persistence of the money supply, while money supply uncertainty, the reaction coefficient of monetary growth to productivity, productivity persistence and productivity uncertainty have a smaller impact on inflation persistence. Changes of monetary policy have little effect on inflation persistence.
THE EVA REVOLUTION

Stern Stewart's EVA framework for financial management and incentive compensation is the practical application of both modern financial theory and classical economics to the problems of running a business. It is a fundamental way of measuring and motivating corporate performance that encourages managers to make decisions that make economic sense, even when conventional accounting-based measures of performance tell them to do otherwise. Moreover, EVA provides a consistent basis for a comprehensive system of corporate financial management-one that is capable of guiding all corporate decisions, from annual operating budgets to capital budgeting, strategic planning, and acquisitions and divestitures. It also provides companies with a "language" for communicating their goals and achievements to investors-a language that the market is increasingly coming to interpret as a sign of superior future performance. 1999 Morgan Stanley.
The NS1 Protein of Influenza A Virus Blocks RIG-I-Mediated Activation of the Noncanonical NF-κB Pathway and p52/RelB-Dependent Gene Expression in Lung Epithelial Cells

ABSTRACT Influenza A virus (IAV) infection of epithelial cells activates NF-κB transcription factors via the canonical NF-κB signaling pathway, which modulates both the antiviral immune response and viral replication. Since almost nothing is known so far about a function of noncanonical NF-κB signaling after IAV infection, we tested infected cells for activation of p52 and RelB. We show that the viral NS1 protein strongly inhibits RIG-I-mediated noncanonical NF-κB activation and expression of the noncanonical target gene CCL19.
Empirical Comparison of Parametric and Nonparametric Trade Gravity Models

A systematic comparison is made of parametric (i.e., ordinary least-squares regressions and related generalizations) and nonparametric (i.e., kernel regressions and regression trees) log-linear gravity models for reproducing international trade. Experiments were conducted to estimate a log-linear gravity model reproducing import and export trade flows in quantity between Italy and 13 world economic zones, based on a panel estimation data set. The best parametric regression model was estimated to define a baseline reference model. Some specifications of nonparametric models, belonging to the categories of kernel regressions and regression trees, were also estimated. The performance of parametric and nonparametric models is contrasted through a comparison of goodness-of-fit measures (R2, mean absolute percentage error) both in estimation and in hold-out sample validation. To assess the differences in model elasticity and forecasts, both parametric and nonparametric models are applied to future scenarios and the corresponding results compared.