Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Labour-Market Insecurity and Risk in the Owner-Occupied Housing Market

The author explores the extent to which labour-market insecurity affects behaviour in the owner-occupied housing market. Drawing on related qualitative and quantitative survey evidence, the author first argues that owner-occupiers have experienced and also perceive considerable labour-market insecurity. However, analysis of the large-scale survey suggests only weak linkages between indicators of insecurity and the choices that owners make in the housing market. This apparent inconsistency is explored with the aid of the qualitative data which suggest that perception of insecurity and attitude to risk intersect to create strategies that may not bear any direct connection to measurable and objective labour-market characteristics or risks. The author concludes by arguing that this evidence suggests that the current policy aim of leaving owners to insure themselves against labour-market risk will leave some owners unprotected, and that this gap is likely to persist in the long term.
Private Sponsorship of Public Policing

As fiscal constraints on public police agencies intensify, law enforcement agencies in many jurisdictions will become receptive to donations in cash or in kind by private individuals or organizations. This paper seeks to develop a framework for analysing the balance of advantage derived from private sponsorship of public police. It discusses a number of risks posed by private sponsorship, including capture by the donor, inequality in the provision of service, and the erosion of legitimacy. Creative thinking about the future funding of public police will include consideration of the limits of private sponsorship, and of the management of sponsorship programs that are introduced.
Functional aptamers and aptazymes in biotechnology, diagnostics, and therapy.

Aptamers are single-stranded nucleic acid molecules that possess properties comparable to those of protein monoclonal antibodies, and thus are clear alternatives to long established antibody-based diagnostic or biotechnological products for research, diagnostics, and therapy. 1-4 This class of functional nucleic acids can fold into complex three-dimensional shapes, 5-7 forming binding pockets and clefts for the specific recognition and tight binding of any given molecular target, 8-10 from metal ions and small chemicals to large proteins and higher order protein complexes, whole cells, viruses, or parasites. Aptamers can be isolated in Vitro from vast combinatorial libraries that comprise trillions of different sequences, by a process called “ in Vitro selection”, or “SELEX”, an acronym for “systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment”. An in Vitro selection experiment comprises a number of sequential steps, the first of which is the generation of a nucleic acid library of random sequences. This starting pool of mainly nonfunctional RNA or DNA sequences is generated using a standard DNA-oligonucleotide synthesizer. 11 The design of such libraries involves the synthesis of a short defined sequence, followed by a random region of variable length and another defined sequence at the 5 ′-end. This pool of synthetic single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) is amplified in the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), generating several copies of each DNA in its double-stranded form. By in Vitro transcription, a corresponding library of RNA molecules can be generated which can then be used for the in Vitro selection. If the transcription reaction contains nucleoside triphosphate derivatives that are chemically modified but still are substrates for RNA polymerases, libraries of modified RNAs can be generated in which sequences are equipped with a broad variety of additional chemical functionalities, normally not present in natural nucleic acids. 12-14 Aptamers selected from chemically modified libraries can, in some cases, be completely resistant toward degradation by nucleases. The additional functional groups can lead to ligands with novel * To whom correspondence should be addressed: telephone, +49-228735661; fax,+49-228-735388; e-mail, m.famulok@uni-bonn.de. † LIMES Institute. ‡ University of Konstanz. Volume 107, Number 9
Secrecy Energy Efficiency in Wireless Powered Heterogeneous Networks: A Distributed ADMM Approach

This paper investigates the physical layer security in heterogeneous networks (HetNets) supported by simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT). We first consider a two-tier HetNet composed of a macrocell and several femtocells, where the macrocell base station (BS) serves multiple users in the presence of a malicious eavesdropper, while each femtocell BS serves a couple of Internet-of-Things (IoT) users. With regard to the energy constraint of IoT users, SWIPT is performed at the femtocell BSs, and IoT users accomplish the reception of information and energy in a time-switching manner, where information secrecy is to be protected. To enhance the secrecy performance, we inject artificial noise (AN) into the transmit beam at both macrocell and femtocell BSs, and for the sake of achieving green communications, we formulate the problem of maximizing secrecy energy efficiency while considering the fairness in a cross-tier multi-cell coordinated beamforming (MCBF) design. To handle this resulting nonconvex max–min fractional program problem, we propose an iterative algorithm by applying successive convex approximation method. Then, we further develop a decentralized solution based on alternative direction multiplier method (ADMM), which reduces the overhead of information exchange among coordinated BSs and achieves good approximation performance. Finally, simulation results demonstrate the performance of the proposed AN-aided cross-tier MCBF design and verify the validity of distributed ADMM-based approach.
The Linkage Between Competitive and Operational Advantage and Entrepreneurship within Australian Real Estate Franchises

Abstract Out of 37,000 enterprises operating within the Australian real estate industry, well over 50% of those are franchised outlets suggesting franchising popularity. The study collectively extends the franchising literature through semi-structured interviews with six leading real estate stakeholders, specifically focussing on three distinct yet interdependent areas of interest. Bound together in a contractual agreement, the franchisor and the franchisee form a strategic alliance which benefits both parties and enables each to be entrepreneurial. The study highlights the relevance of ownership potential as a key motivational force behind entrepreneurs choosing to franchise and stresses the importance of development of culture as a key consideration in brand strength for franchisors and nurturing good managerial talent to provide strong leadership for franchisees. For the franchise to be successful, the research points to linkage between competitive advantage and efficiency arising out of correct implementation of business systems, training systems, recruitment of good operators and adoption of innovative strategies. The use of technology and specifically internet has revolutionised the real estate industry however, in acknowledging this, the study concludes that its scope of use and correct application are the keys to reaping greatest benefits. There is evidence to suggest that divergence in formation of franchise models to adopt a less formal approach to franchising is on the rise in some areas of Australian states. It is envisaged that this research will enhance an understanding of the rationale behind the insurgence of hybrid franchise models and thus bear great significance to the industry.
Do Men and Women Differ in Their Retirement Planning? Testing a Theoretical Model of Gendered Pathways to Retirement Preparation

Previous literature has situated retirement and retirement planning within the male’s domain by positioning women as unconcerned and therefore ill prepared for retirement. However, women’s increasing representation in the workforce requires a reexamination of their retirement plans and the factors that enable them. In this study, a subsample of 2,277 working men and women from the New Zealand Health, Work, and Retirement Survey provides the basis for a structural equation model examining the effects of socioeconomic status, work involvement, and retirement perceptions on retirement planning. This model also tests for gender differences to assess the extent to which women are disadvantaged in terms of their retirement planning and the factors that may affect retirement plans. Results indicated that perceptions of retirement and economic living standards were associated with financial preparedness. However, women were still economically disadvantaged compared to men and this impacted negatively on their financial preparations. Retirement and retirement planning is now of greater concern for women. Future promotional initiatives should be aimed at these groups to assist their financial preparations for the future.
An Investigation Into The Demand For Broad Money In South Africa

A stable money demand function plays a vital role in the planning and implementation of monetary policy. With the use of Johansen co-integration and error correction model estimates, this study examines the existence of a stable long-run relationship between real broad money demand ( RM3) and its explanatory variables in South Africa for the period 1990-2009. In contrast to previous analyses, this study augments the co-integration and vector autoregression (VAR) analysis with impulse response and variance decomposition analyses to provide robust long-run effects and short-run dynamic effects on the real money demand. In addition, this study introduces a foreign interest rate to capture the impact of capital mobility on money demand in South Africa. Results from the Johansen test suggest that real broad money demand (RM3) and its all explanatory variables are cointegrated.
Nanomaterials for Advancing the Health Immunosensor

Nanotechnology has exerted a significant impact in the development of biosensors allowing more sensible analytical methods. In health applications, the main challenge of the immunoassay is to reach the suitable limit of detection, recognizing different analytes in complex samples like whole blood, serum, urine, and other biological fluids. Different nanomaterials, including metallic, silica and magnetic nanoparticles, quantum dots, carbon nanotubes, and graphene, have been applied, mainly to improve charge electron transfer, catalytic activity, amount of immobilized biomole‐ cules, low-background current, signal-to-noise ratio that consequently increase the sensitivity of immunosensors. Given the great impact of nanotechnology, this chapter intends to discuss new aspects of nanomaterials relating to immunosensor advance‐
Quality Management of Surveillance Multimedia Streams Via Federated SDN Controllers in Fiwi-Iot Integrated Deployment Environments

Traditionally, hybrid optical-wireless networks (Fiber-Wireless - FiWi domain) and last-mile Internet of Things edge networks (Edge IoT domain) have been considered independently, with no synergic management solutions. On the one hand, FiWi has primarily focused on high-bandwidth and low-latency access to cellular-equipped nodes. On the other hand, Edge IoT has mainly aimed at effective dispatching of sensor/actuator data among (possibly opportunistic) nodes, by using direct peer-to-peer and base station (BS)-assisted Internet communications. The paper originally proposes a model and an architecture that loosely federate FiWi and Edge IoT domains based on the interaction of FiWi and Edge IoT software defined networking controllers: the primary idea is that our federated controllers can seldom exchange monitoring data and control hints the one with the other, thus mutually enhancing their capability of end-to-end quality-aware packet management. To show the applicability and the effectiveness of the approach, our original proposal is applied to the notable example of multimedia stream provisioning from surveillance cameras deployed in the Edge IoT domain to both an infrastructure-side server and spontaneously interconnected mobile smartphones; our solution is able to tune the BS behavior of the FiWi domain and to reroute/prioritize traffic in the Edge IoT domain, with the final goal to reduce latency. In addition, the reported application case shows the capability of our solution of joint and coordinated exploitation of resources in FiWi and Edge IoT domains, with performance results that highlight its benefits in terms of efficiency and responsiveness.
Initial investigation into computer scoring of candidate essays for personnel selection.

[Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported in Vol 101(7) of Journal of Applied Psychology (see record 2016-32115-001). In the article the affiliations for Emily D. Campion and Matthew H. Reider were originally incorrect. All versions of this article have been corrected. ] Emerging advancements including the exponentially growing availability of computer-collected data and increasingly sophisticated statistical software have led to a "Big Data Movement" wherein organizations have begun attempting to use large-scale data analysis to improve their effectiveness. Yet, little is known regarding how organizations can leverage these advancements to develop more effective personnel selection procedures, especially when the data are unstructured (text-based). Drawing on literature on natural language processing, we critically examine the possibility of leveraging advances in text mining and predictive modeling computer software programs as a surrogate for human raters in a selection context. We explain how to "train" a computer program to emulate a human rater when scoring accomplishment records. We then examine the reliability of the computer's scores, provide preliminary evidence of their construct validity, demonstrate that this practice does not produce scores that disadvantage minority groups, illustrate the positive financial impact of adopting this practice in an organization (N ∼ 46,000 candidates), and discuss implementation issues. Finally, we discuss the potential implications of using computer scoring to address the adverse impact-validity dilemma. We suggest that it may provide a cost-effective means of using predictors that have comparable validity but have previously been too expensive for large-scale screening. (PsycINFO Database Record
Highly Promiscuous Oxidases Discovered in the Bovine Rumen Microbiome

The bovine rumen hosts a diverse microbiota, which is highly specialized in the degradation of lignocellulose. Ruminal bacteria, in particular, are well equipped to deconstruct plant cell wall polysaccharides. Nevertheless, their potential role in the breakdown of the lignin network has never been investigated. In this study, we used functional metagenomics to identify bacterial redox enzymes acting on polyaromatic compounds. A new methodology was developed to explore the potential of uncultured microbes to degrade lignin derivatives, namely kraft lignin and lignosulfonate. From a fosmid library covering 0.7 Gb of metagenomic DNA, three hit clones were identified, producing enzymes able to oxidize a wide variety of polyaromatic compounds without the need for the addition of copper, manganese, or mediators. These promiscuous redox enzymes could thus be of potential interest both in plant biomass refining and dye remediation. The enzymes were derived from uncultured Clostridia, and belong to complex gene clusters involving proteins of different functional types, including hemicellulases, which likely work in synergy to produce substrate degradation.
Multimodal Medical Image Registration Based on Feature Spheres in Geometric Algebra

Multi-modal image registration in medical image analysis is very challenging as the appearance of body structures in images from different imaging devices can be very different. In this paper, we propose a new method [GA-speeded up robust features (SURF)], which incorporates the geometric algebra (GA) into SURF framework, to detect features from images. We model the volumetric data and register the multi-modal medical images using feature spheres formulated in conformal geometric algebra (CGA). Specifically, we first extract features from medical images using GA-SURF. Second, we construct the feature spheres using the feature points and find the correspondence of feature spheres in the two images using CGA. With that, we can register the images based on the correspondence of the feature spheres. The experimental results evaluated by RIRE have shown that our method can register the multi-modal images with high accuracy. The maximum registration error is less than $4mm$ .
Digitization protocol for scoring reproductive phenology from herbarium specimens of seed plants

Premise of the Study Herbarium specimens provide a robust record of historical plant phenology (the timing of seasonal events such as flowering or fruiting). However, the difficulty of aggregating phenological data from specimens arises from a lack of standardized scoring methods and definitions for phenological states across the collections community. Methods and Results To address this problem, we report on a consensus reached by an iDigBio working group of curators, researchers, and data standards experts regarding an efficient scoring protocol and a data‐sharing protocol for reproductive traits available from herbarium specimens of seed plants. The phenological data sets generated can be shared via Darwin Core Archives using the Extended MeasurementOrFact extension. Conclusions Our hope is that curators and others interested in collecting phenological trait data from specimens will use the recommendations presented here in current and future scoring efforts. New tools for scoring specimens are reviewed.
Integrin β 1 overexpression protects nucleus pulposus cells from apoptosis and attenuates intervertebral disc degeneration

Intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration is a chronic pathologic process characterized by excessive apoptosis of intervertebral disc cells. The purpose of the current study was to detect the effect of integrin β1 on apoptosis of NP cells and IVD degeneration. Integrin β1 overexpressing lentivirus vector (LV-ITG β1) was constructed and transduced to NP cells, and its effect on cell apoptosis were studied in vitro. The underlying mechanism was subsequently studied. In addition, the in vivo effect of integrin β1 on IVD degeneration was studied by intradiscal injection of LV-ITG β1 in a rat IVD degeneration model. In vitro study showed that integrin β1 overexpression protected NP cells from levofloxacin-induced apoptosis, and LV-ITG β1 could significantly upregulate the expression of both FAK and p-FAK and downregulate the expression of P53 measured by western blot. Intradiscal injections of LV-ITG β1 suppressed NP cell apoptosis tested by TUNEL staining, and attenuated disc degeneration assessed by histological and MRI examination. Our findings suggested that integrin β1 could be used as an effective gene therapy target for IVD degeneration due to its significant effect on preventing NP cell apoptosis both in vitro and in vivo, and FAK-P53 signaling axial was involved in the protective effect of integrin β1 on NP cells.
Opinion mining of hotel customer-generated contents in Chinese weblogs

Customer-generated contents in weblogs provide tourism organisations with valuable market intelligence and ongoing market research opportunities. In this study, an opinion mining method based on feature-based sentiment classification is proposed to extract the online electronic word-of-mouth on weblogs in Taiwan. For opinion extraction, a supervised semantic orientation using the point-wise mutual information (SO_PMI) algorithm based on the extension of Turney's unsupervised SO_PMI algorithm is proposed to extract the opinion words. In addition, a heuristic n-phrase rule is proposed to find out customer opinions about hotel attributes, including hotel image, services, price/value, food and beverage, room, amenities, and location. The experimental results show that the proposed approach mixed with supervised SO_PMI algorithm and heuristic n-phrase rule can demonstrate its effectiveness with acceptable classification and forecasting performances. Furthermore, a perceptual map based on correspondence analysis visually presents opinions comparison to provide the insight of competitive positions.
Macrophage Scavenger Receptor A Mediates Adhesion to Apolipoproteins A-I and E†

Macrophage scavenger receptor A (SR-A) is a multifunctional, multiligand pattern recognition receptor with roles in innate immunity, apoptotic cell clearance, and age-related degenerative pathologies, such as atherosclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease. Known endogenous SR-A ligands are polyanionic and include modified lipoproteins, advanced glycation end products, and extracellular matrix proteins. No native plasma ligands have been identified, but it is known that SR-A recognition of unidentified serum components mediates integrin-independent macrophage adhesion, which may drive chronic local inflammation. In this study, we used a high-throughput fractionation and screening method to identify novel endogenous SR-A ligands that may mediate macrophage adhesion. SR-A was found to recognize the exchangeable apolipoproteins A-I and E (apo A-I and apo E, respectively) in both lipid-free and lipid-associated form, suggesting the shared amphipathic α-helix as a potential recognition motif. Adhesion of RAW 264.7 macrophages to surfaces coated with apo A-I and apo E4 proved to be integrin-independent and could be blocked by anti-SR-A antibodies. The presence of apo A-I and apo E in pathological deposits, such as atherosclerotic lesions and neurotoxic Alzheimer’s plaques, suggests a possible contribution of SR-A-dependent adhesion of macrophages to an inflammatory microenvironment.
The Informational Efficiency of Weekly Money Announcements: An Econometric Critique

Studies of the weekly money announcement have found markets to be informationally efficient. We demonstrate that this result apparently is related to one or more sources of bias and measurement error that have been introduced to the estimating equations of previous studies. After correcting for these sources of bias and estimating the modified model over the samples employed in earlier studies, we still find evidence to reject the hypothesis of informational efficiency. An alternative explanation is that auxiliary assumptions imposed for empirical convenience introduce measurement error that affects standard tests of the efficient-markets hypothesis.
Inflammatory myopathies in a patient with Darier disease, a possible association

Background: Darier disease (DD) is an autosomal dominant genetic disorder which develops from a mutation in the ATP2A2 gene. Inflammatory myopathies (IM) are the largest group of potentially treatable myopathies. In this case, we report development of IM in a patient with DD for the second time in the literature. Case presentation: The patient is a 59-year-old female, a known case of DD, who developed proximal muscle weakness 2 weeks prior to admission. Elevated muscle-enzymes, as well as typical electromyographic and radiologic confirmed the diagnosis of IM. Conclusions: Abnormalities in intracellular calcium homeostasis may explain the association between DM and DD, therefore it is noteworthy to keep this association in mind and conduct more research regarding this issue.