Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
GHz dynamics of a single nanoparticle-substrate contact probed by femtosecond intrinsic common-path interferometry

This paper reports on an all-optical and femtosecond time-resolved technique to investigate in the GHz range the adhesion between a single gold nanoparticle and a substrate, with particle radii ranging from 60 nm to 700 nm. Experiments rely on a usual femtosecond pump-probe method in a transient reflectivity configuration. This scheme allows not only to detect the known breathing mode of the nanoparticle but also to unravel for the first time in optical femtosecond spectroscopy the existence of an axial oscillation of the nanoparticle through an intrinsic common-path interferometer. The eigenfrequency and the lifetime of this vertical motion, which are related to the contact stiffness and hysteresis, and to the acoustic leakage at the nanoparticle-substrate interface, are measured. The particle radius dependence of the vertical oscillation frequency is in strong agreement with classical adhesion theories. Experiments have been performed with single gold particles deposited either on a silica substrate or on a sapphire substrate.
Electrophysiologic Signs of Attention Versus Distraction in a Binaural Listening Task

Effects of active versus passive listening on the N1 and P2 components of the late auditory evoked potential were examined in 20 young adults following instructions to ignore and later to attend to different trains of frequent and deviant tones presented to one or both ears. To distinguish monaural from binaural neural refractory or recovery effects, monaural test runs were used to control for differences in stimulus-onset asynchronies (SOAs) between monaural and binaural runs. As expected, selective attention and monaural neuronal refractory effects were found. When attending the tones, listeners exhibited significantly larger P2, but not N1, amplitudes. During test runs with shorter monaural SOAs, listeners exhibited smaller N1 and P2 amplitudes than they did with longer SOAs. However, whether attending or nonattending, P2 amplitudes were smaller during binaural than monaural test runs, which suggests the possible existence of some form of “binaural” neuronal refractory or recovery effect. However, the absence of this binaural effect with the N1 component would suggest that binaural refractoriness, if it exists, involves different physiologic processes than monaural refractoriness.
Safety and tolerability of zoster vaccine in adults ≥60 years old

Objective To evaluate the general safety of zoster vaccine (ZV) in adults ≥60 years old. Patients/Methods Subjects were enrolled in a 1:1 ratio to receive 1 dose of ZV or placebo. Subjects were followed for serious adverse experiences (SAEs) for 42 days (primary follow-up period) and 182 days (secondary follow-up period) postvaccination. Relative-risks (ZV/placebo) for SAEs during both safety periods were calculated. Study period: 17-Sep‑2007 to 09-Jan-2009. Results Overall, 5,983 subjects received ZV and 5,997 received placebo. Within the primary 42-day follow-up period, 84 ZV subjects and 67 placebo subjects reported SAEs. The estimated risk of SAEs within 42 days was 1.41% for ZV versus 1.12% for placebo, with a relative-risk of 1.26 (95% CI 0.91,1.73); indicating no statistically significant difference between groups, meeting the pre-specified success criterion. During the 182-day follow-up period, 340 ZV subjects and 300 placebo subjects reported SAEs. The estimated risk of SAEs within 182 days was 5.68% for ZV versus 5.01% for placebo, with a relative-risk of 1.13 (95% CI 0.98,1.32), indicating no statistically significant difference between groups. Two subjects in the ZV group reported SAEs deemed by the investigator to be vaccine-related (uveitis and sciatica; onset Day 5 and 4, respectively). One subject in the placebo group reported a SAE deemed by the investigator to be vaccine-related (lumbar radiculopathy; onset Day 51). There were 24 fatal SAEs in the ZV group and 17 in the placebo group (relative risk = 1.41; CI: 0.77, 2.60); 6 and 5, respectively, with SAE onset during the primary 42-day follow-up period. No deaths were deemed vaccine-related. Conclusions ZV and placebo groups had similar safety profiles in terms of SAEs during the primary (Day 1 to 42) and secondary (Day 1 to 182) follow-up periods.
International Knowledge Spillovers

How important is foreign knowledge for domestic innovation outcomes? How is this relation shaped by globalization and the attendant intensification of international competition? Our empirical approach extends the previous literature by analyzing a large panel comprising industries in both advanced and emerging economies over the past two decades. We find that barriers to the domestic diffusion of foreign knowledge have fallen significantly for emerging economies. For all countries, and especially for emerging economies, inflows of foreign knowledge have a growing and quantitatively important impact on domestic innovation. Controlling for the amount of domestic R&D, we find evidence that increases in international competitive pressure at the industry level had a positive effect on domestic innovation outcomes
Between Regulatory Field Structuring and Organizational Roles: Intermediation in the Field of Sustainable Urban Development

Recent contributions in the domains of governance and regulation elucidate the importance of rule-intermediation (RI), the role that organizations adopt to bridge actors playing regulatory or “rule-making” (RM) roles, and those adopting target or “rule-taking” (RT) roles. Intermediation not only enables diffusion and translation of regulatory norms, but also allows for the representation of different actors in policy-making arenas. While prior studies have explored the roles that such RIs adopt to facilitate their intermediation functions, we have yet to consider how field-level structuring processes influence (and are influenced by) the various and changing roles adopted by RIs. In this study, we focus on the mutually constitutive relations between field-level change processes and the evolving roles of RIs by studying the rise of ICLEI (International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives/Local Governments for Sustainability), an RI serving as a bridge for sustainable urban development policies between the United Nations and urban authorities. Using ICLEI as an illustrate case, we theorize four different processes of regulatory field consolidation and fragmentation including: problematization, role specialization, marketization and orchestrated decentralization. We discuss their implications for the RI roles in the field and further theorize the changing dynamics of trickle-up intermediation processes as an RI gains power and influence. This is the pre-peer reviewed version of the following article: Bothello, J. and Mehrpouya, A. (2018), Between regulatory field structuring and organizational roles: Intermediation in the field of sustainable urban development. Regulation & Governance, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/rego.12215. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.
Is School Out for the Summer? The Impact of Year-Round Pell Grants on Academic and Employment Outcomes of Community College Students

Despite having been the largest source of financial aid to low-income college students in the United States, the traditional Pell Grant had one major limitation: If students enrolled in two semesters full-time, they would not have had any tuition support for the summer term of the same academic year. The year-round Pell (YRP) was implemented in the academic years 2009–10 and 2010–11 to provide a second Pell Grant to students who enrolled in more than twenty-four credits prior to the third semester and in at least six credits during the summer term. Using a state administrative dataset from a community college system, this paper uses a difference-in-differences approach to examine the credit, credential completion, and labor market outcomes resulting from the YRP. The study finds that for each $1,000 of additional YRP grant funding, summer enrollment increases by 28 percentage points, diploma completion rates increase by 1.6 percentage points, and third-year earnings from college entry increase by $200. For YRP-eligible students who started in a short-term program, the gains are a 2 percentage point higher certificate attainment rate, 3.6 percentage point increase in associate degree completion, and no effect on four-year transfer rates.
Shared strategic cognition in Flemish city councils: the relevance of political and demographic group characteristics

ABSTRACT A shared understanding of strategic priorities within decision-making teams is important for strategy implementation. However, although upper echelons theory argues that group diversity has a negative impact on shared strategic cognition, research on the impact of group diversity measures based on political characteristics is lacking. Consequently, this study uses data from 1,740 city councillors to assess the impact of political group diversity on shared strategic cognition within Flemish city councils. The study results underline the importance of tailoring research to the contingencies of public organizations: political diversity measures are stronger related to shared strategic cognition than ‘traditional’ demographic diversity measures.
Persistence of immunoreactive insulin, glucagon and pancreatic polypeptide in the plasma of depancreatized chickens.

The present study evaluates the possibility that an extra-pancreatic source of insulin exists in chickens. The effect of pancreatectomy on plasma levels of immunoreactive insulin (IRI), glucagon (IRG) and pancreatic polypeptide (IRAPP) was examined . Plasma levels of IRI, IRG and IRAPP were measured both in the basal state and after an i.v. challenge with known secretogogues at several times after pancreatectomy. The nature of the avian plasma immunoreactivity was further characterized by gel filtration. Results indicated that plasma IRI and IRG persisted for 5 h, 24 h and 5 days after pancreatectomy. Furthermore, plasma levels of IRI and IRG remained responsive to the stimulus of i.v. arginine. The Sephadex G-50 elution profiles for IRI and IRG were similar for plasma obtained from both depancreatized and intact chickens. Postmortem tissue analyses indicated that the persistence of IRI and IRG in the depancreatized animals was not due to the presence of pancreatic remnants. Plasma IRAPP decreased to undetectable levels 5h after pancreatectomy. Although plasma IRAPP was measurable 1 and 5 days after pancreatectomy, these levels were not responsive to i.v. pentagastrin. Furthermore, gel filtration experiments indicated that the only form of IRAPP remaining after pancreatectomy had an apparent mol. wt of greater than 100 000. Such a compound was not secreted by the pancreas in vitro. Evidence presented herein indicates that pancreatic polypeptide is the only pancreatic hormone to be eliminated from the circulation after pancreatectomy in chickens. It is suggested that the depancreatized chicken might be useful as a model of a 'selective pancreatic polypeptide deficiency.
Longitudinal study of neuropathy, microangiopathy, and autophagy in sural nerve: Implications for diabetic neuropathy

The progression and pathophysiology of neuropathy in impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) and type 2 diabetes (T2DM) is poorly understood, especially in relation to autophagy. This study was designed to assess whether the presence of autophagy‐related structures was associated with sural nerve fiber pathology, and to investigate if endoneurial capillary pathology could predict the development of T2DM and neuropathy.
Effects of temperature and larval diet on development rates and survival of the dengue vector Aedes aegypti in north Queensland, Australia

Immature development times, survival rates and adult size (wing‐lengths) of the mosquito Aedes aegypti (L.) (Diptera: Culicidae) were studied in the laboratory at temperatures of 10–40°C. The duration of development from egg eclosion (hatching of the first instar) to adult was inversely related to temperature, ranging from 7.2 ± 0.2 days at 35°C to 39.7 ± 2.3 days at 15°C. The minimum temperature threshold for development (t) was determined as 8.3 ± 3.6°C and the thermal constant (K) was 181.2 ± 36.1 day‐degrees above the threshold. Maximum survival rates of 88–93% were obtained between 20 and 30°C. Wing‐length was inversely related to temperature. The sex ratio (♀:♂) was 1 : 1 at all temperatures tested (15, 20, 25 and 35°C) except 30°C (4 : 3).
Lobbying, learning and policy reinvention: an examination of the American States’ drunk driving laws

Abstract Scholars have consistently shown that learning of successful policies in other states leads to higher likelihood of policy adoption. This study extends this finding two ways. First, policy learning can also lead to more comprehensive adoption of successful policies. Second, the effect of policy learning on policy comprehensiveness is conditional on lobbying by interest groups, an alternative source of information about policy success. To test these hypotheses, we conduct a directed dyad-year analysis using a dataset on American state drunk driving regulations from 1983 to 2000. The results show that more comprehensive policy adoption by states is positively related to policy success in other states when lobbying by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) is relatively low. Moreover, lobbying by MADD increases policy comprehensiveness when policy success is relatively low. This study advances the literature by examining the conditional effects of lobbying on the relationship between policy learning and policy reinvention.
Don't Judge a Book by its Cover: A Study of the Social Acceptance of NAO vs. Pepper

In an explorative study concerning the social acceptance of two specific humanoid robots, the experimenter asked participants (N = 36) to place a book in an adjacent room. Upon entering the room, participants were confronted by a NAO or a Pepper robot expressing persistent opposition against the idea of placing the book in the room. On average, 72% of participants facing NAO complied with the robot's requests and returned the book to the experimenter. The corresponding figure for the Pepper robot was 50%, which shows that the two robot morphologies had a different effect on participants' social behavior. Furthermore, results from a post-study questionnaire (GODSPEED) indicated that participants perceived NAO as more likable, intelligent, safe and lifelike than Pepper. Moreover, participants used significantly more positive words and fewer negative words to describe NAO than Pepper in an open-ended interview. There was no statistically significant difference between conditions in participants' negative attitudes toward robots in general, as assessed using the NARS questionnaire.
Scan based process parameter estimation through path-delay inequalities

A novel technique that estimates on-chip process parameters, such as threshold voltages or channel length, is proposed. The proposed method is particularly useful as process condition estimator for reliability and yield enhancement techniques such as adaptive delay test or post-fabric performance compensation. Test paths consisting of a flip-flop and designated delay circuit, which is sensitive to individual process parameters, are inserted to obtain simultaneous delay inequalities. Then, the inequalities are solved for process parameters. The test path insertion is only on short paths to reduce delay and area overhead. Through numerical experiments, the proposed estimation flow using 150 paths achieve 10mV accuracy in estimating threshold voltages.
Consumers indirectly increase infection risk in grassland food webs

Most pathogens exist within complicated food webs of interacting hosts, vectors, competitors, and predators. Although theory has demonstrated a variety of mechanisms by which predation and competition in food webs can indirectly control infection risk in hosts, there have until now been no experimental tests of this theory. We sampled the effect of long-term exclusion of large vertebrate herbivores on the prevalence of infection by a group of aphid-vectored viruses that infect grasses (barley and cereal yellow dwarf viruses) in an oak savannah in central California. We found that pathogen prevalence was ≈4-fold higher in the presence of consumers than in areas where they were excluded. Vertebrate consumers did not directly alter infection rates by this aphid-vectored pathogen group, but rather increased infection risk by increasing the relative abundance of highly-competent hosts in the grassland community. This large-scale experiment, measuring changes in host abundance and infection risk in response to altered consumption rates, confirms theoretical predictions that consumers can indirectly increase infection risk by altering the composition of whole communities. Most importantly, these results demonstrate that, even in complex natural communities, alterations to food web composition such as consumer invasion or extinction can lead to significant impacts that cascade throughout entire communities, including changes in infection risk.
Sustainability through Self-Restriction: Livelihood Strategies of Urban Households in Kazakhstan

Urban life is characterized by rapid changes and high influence of market institutions on livelihood strategies of households to get sustainability, especially in countries of former Soviet Union challenged transformation of economy to the market type. Moving from socialistic worldviews to capitalistic ones which as usual regulated by free markets has been enough big challenge for households in urban area, which have to face with adaptation to new systems. Influence of market institutions on everyday life and planning system of households can destroy traditional household dispositions of the sustainable managing of a family budget. New changes of economy system can lead to splitting up large social networks and appearing new risky livelihood strategies of households. Urban households from Astana that is the capital city of Kazakhstan were interviewed within international research project “Livelihoods Strategies of Private Households in Central Asia. A Rural-Urban Comparison in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan”, which enables to explore urgent issues of livelihood strategies of urban households in current Kazakhstan under influence of the spreading of market institutions from the micro level research focus of their everyday life. Keywords—Market institutions, Sustainability, Transformation economy, Urban households.
When the Going gets Tough, the Tough Get Going!: The Role of Banks' Specialists on Banks Profitability

A bank’s lending decision is affected by the amount of information it can access and by its capability to manage this information. The latter aspect implies that the bank has to decide whether borrowers should be managed in a local branch of the bank or in its headquarters. By looking at a sample of Finnish banks, the present research investigates a bank’s capability to extract profitability from both locally and centrally managed firms. We find that banks are able to properly discriminate between firms: those which should be managed by loan managers with expert knowledge in the bank’s headquarters due to their complexity, and those firms which should be managed in the bank’s local branch because they are simpler and need standard products and services. As a result, banks are able to extract risk-adjusted profitability (RAP) from both centrally and locally managed customers. Our findings clearly support the argument that the decision to centralise or decentralise the lending decision process is not an either/or decision: banks should implement both approaches and apply according to the type of firm they serve.
Covered Interest Arbitrage: Then vs. Now

We introduce a new weekly database of spot and forward US-UK exchange rates as well as interest rates to examine the integration of forward exchange markets during the classical gold standard period (1880-1914). Using threshold autoregressions (TAR), we estimate the transactions cost band of covered interest differentials (CIDs) and compare our results to studies of more recent periods. Our findings indicate that CIDs for the US-UK rate were generally larger during the classical gold standard than any period since. We argue that slower information and communications technology during the gold standard period led to fewer short-term financial flows, higher transactions costs, and larger CIDs.
Sensorimotor cortex excitability and connectivity in Alzheimer's disease: A TMS‐EEG Co‐registration study

Several studies have shown that, in spite of the fact that motor symptoms manifest late in the course of Alzheimer's disease (AD), neuropathological progression in the motor cortex parallels that in other brain areas generally considered more specific targets of the neurodegenerative process. It has been suggested that motor cortex excitability is enhanced in AD from the early stages, and that this is related to disease's severity and progression. To investigate the neurophysiological hallmarks of motor cortex functionality in early AD we combined transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) with electroencephalography (EEG). We demonstrated that in mild AD the sensorimotor system is hyperexcitable, despite the lack of clinically evident motor manifestations. This phenomenon causes a stronger response to stimulation in a specific time window, possibly due to locally acting reinforcing circuits, while network activity and connectivity is reduced. These changes could be interpreted as a compensatory mechanism allowing for the preservation of sensorimotor programming and execution over a long period of time, regardless of the disease's progression. Hum Brain Mapp 37:2083–2096, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP)‐positive radial‐like cells are present in the vicinity of proliferative progenitors in the nucleus tractus solitarius of adult rat

The dorsal vagal complex (DVC), an integrative center of autonomic functions located dorsally in the caudal brainstem, comprises the nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS), the area postrema (AP), and the dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus nerve (DMNX). Recently, this area of the brainstem was shown to retain, during adulthood, the expression of developmental markers, which is consistent with several forms of morphological and functional plasticity. These data led us to attempt to determine the structural organization and phenotypical characteristics of the astroglial compartment in the adult DVC. We report a strikingly high density of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) immunoreactive cells in the NTS and the DMNX compared to other brainstem structures. Furthermore, we observed a subpopulation of atypical GFAP+ cells in the NTS. These cells expressed vimentin and nestin and displayed unbranched processes that radiate rostrocaudally from cuboid cell bodies located in the 4th ventricle wall. Interestingly, these radiating cells were found in close association with neural progenitors whose proliferation was stimulated by intracerebroventricular injection of epidermal growth factor / basic fibroblast growth factor or lesion of the vagus nerve. Newly born neurons in the NTS identified by doublecortin (DCX) immunolabeling were also preferentially found in the vicinity of the radiating cells. Altogether, these results indicate that the adult NTS retains, during adulthood, astroglial cells that display morphological and phenotypical features seen during development. The overlap in the distribution of proliferative neural progenitors, newborn neurons, and radiating GFAP‐positive cells suggest a possible role of the glial compartment of the NTS in functional plasticity in this structure. J. Comp. Neurol. 501:353–368, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.