Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Observation of hot-hole injection in NMOS transistors using a modified floating-gate technique

A modified floating-gate technique for measuring small gate currents in MOSFET's with very high resolution (0.01 fA) is described. Using this technique, gate oxide currents due to hot-carrier injection are measured in n-channel MOSFET's. The conventional negative channel hot-electron gate oxide current is observed nearV_{g} = V_{d}and a small positive gate current occurs at low Vg. We argue that the dependencies of this small positive current on Vgand gate length, together with results from a separate floating-source experiment, are consistent only with hot-hole injection.
PINdb: a database of nuclear protein complexes from human and yeast

SUMMARY Proteins Interacting in the Nucleus database (PINdb) is a database of protein complexes purified from the nucleus of human and yeast cells. It is compiled from the published literature and existing databases. Currently, PINdb contains mostly protein complexes that may be involved in gene transcription. To facilitate comparative analyses and identification of protein complexes, the compositional information is integrated with standardized gene nomenclature, annotation and protein sequences from public databases. The PINdb web interface provides a number of tools for (1) comparison of protein complexes, (2) search for a protein complex by its published name or by a partial list of its components and (3) browsing specific subsets or a functional classification of the complexes. Availablity: http://pin.mskcc. org
Vacuum encapsulation of resonant devices using permeable polysilicon

This paper reports on a novel manufacturable, in situ vacuum micropackaging technology. Permeable polysilicon etch-access windows enable rapid removal of sacrificial material from beneath the shell (e.g., 1 mm wide shells cleared of PSG within 2 minutes) and practically eliminate internal deposition of the sealing film. Inside the vacuum encapsulation shells were lateral microresonators. These devices were selected for packaging because they are well characterized vacuum probes. Measured mechanical quality factors four months after sealing have been shown to be above 3000. These quality factors indicate a cavity pressure near 600 mTorr four months after vacuum encapsulation.
Effects of Audit Quality on Earnings Management and Cost of Equity Capital: Evidence from India

This study examines the effect of audit quality on earnings management and cost of equity capital of listed companies in India. Our results show that companies employing a high quality auditor have a lower degree of earnings management and lower cost of equity capital. The results also show that companies belonging to business groups have a lower degree of earnings management and lower cost of equity capital than do stand-alone companies but that they benefit less from employing a high quality auditor. Our results are based on a large sample of 7,303 company-year observations on listed companies in India and are robust to alternative measures for our main variables – audit quality, earnings management, and cost of capital – and to tests for endogeneity and the impact of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). Given the distinctive and unique institutional features of the Indian market such as the dominant role of family business groups in the national economy, large market share of domestic audit firms, less litigious environment, and less effective professional accounting bodies in checking audit failure, our findings make a significant contribution to the literature on the role of audit quality as a corporate governance monitoring mechanism as reflected in the impact on earnings management and cost of equity capital.
Seeing is (Not) Believing: How Viewing Pornography Shapes the Religious Lives of Young Americans

Abstract:Pornography has become increasingly accessible in the United States, and particularly for younger Americans. While some research considers how pornography use affects the sexual and psychological health of adolescents and emerging adults, sociologists have given little attention to how viewing pornography may shape young Americans' connection to key social and cultural institutions, like religion. This article examines whether viewing pornography may actually have a secularizing effect, reducing young Americans' personal religiosity over time. To test for this, we use data from three waves of the National Study of Youth and Religion. Fixed-effects regression models show that more frequent pornography viewing diminishes religious service attendance, importance of religious faith, prayer frequency, and perceived closeness to God, while increasing religious doubts. These effects hold regardless of gender. The effects of viewing pornography on importance of faith, closeness to God, and religious doubts are stronger for teenagers compared to emerging adults. In light of the rapidly growing availability and acceptance of pornography for young Americans, our findings suggest that scholars must consider how increasingly pervasive pornography consumption may shape both the religious lives of young adults and also the future landscape of American religion more broadly.
Evaluation of neuromuscular electrical stimulation on fibre characteristics and oxidative capacity in equine skeletal muscles.

REASONS FOR PERFORMING STUDY Neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) is used to increase or maintain muscle strength during rehabilitation. Human studies investigating different protocols show that some treatments induce changes in muscle characteristics. Despite the frequent use of NMES in horses, no studies have been published describing its efficacy. OBJECTIVES To investigate the effects of a NMES protocol on equine fibre types and areas, glycogen concentrations and enzyme activities. METHODS NMES was administrated to m. gluteus medius and m. longissimus dorsi, on one side of 6 healthy Standardbred horses. The contralateral side of each muscle served as a nonstimulated control. The horses were stimulated at 50 Hz a day, with 21-39 mA, for 45-60 min, 5 days a week for 4 weeks. Needle biopsies were obtained from the muscles on both sides before and after the experimental period. Muscle samples were analysed for fibre type proportions and area using histochemical methods and for glycogen and enzyme activities (citrate synthase, 3-OH-acyl CoA dehydrogenase, hexokinase and lactate dehydrogenase) using biochemical methods. Muscle contractions at the location and depth of the muscle biopsy were confirmed by diagnostic ultrasound. Nonparametric tests (Mann-Whitney, Wilcoxon sign-rank) were used for statistical analysis. RESULTS No significant differences were observed in the percentage of types I, IIA or IIX fibres, fibre areas, glycogen levels or enzyme activities either when comparing stimulated and nonstimulated muscles before and after the NMES treatment, or when comparing the left and right muscle samples. CONCLUSIONS The NMES treatment was well tolerated by the horses, but the present protocol did not induce significant muscle adaptations. Further studies are needed to describe the effect of more intense and/or prolonged NMES treatment protocols on muscles of healthy horses, and to describe if stimulation protocols induce positive changes in atrophied muscles.
Assessment of the Delayed Neurotoxicity of Tributyl Phosphate, Tributoxyethyl Phosphate, and Dibutylphenyl Phosphate

There industrial organophosphorus compounds were tested for their ability to cause organophosphorus compound-induced delayed neurotoxicity (OPIDN) in the adult hen. The compounds tested were tributyl phosphate (TBP), tributoxyethyl phosphate (TBEP), and dibutylphenyl phosphate (DBPP). The acute oral LD50 of TBP and DBPP were estimated to be 1,863 and 1,500 mg/kg, respectively, and the dose equal to the LD50 was used as a test dose. The acute oral LD50 of TBEP was greater than 5,000 mg/kg and 5,000 mg/kg was used as a test dose. An oral dose of 750 mg tri-o-cresyl phosphate (TOCP) was used as a positive control. For the acute delayed neurotoxicity test, hens were given two test doses of the test materials 21 days apart and killed 21 days after the second dose. None of the hens given TBP, TBEP, or DBPP exhibited nerve damage or clinical signs which distinguished them from untreated control animals. A single dose of TOCP resulted in paralysis and a histopathological profile typical of a distal neuropathy. For the assay of the inhibition of esterases, hens were killed 24 hours after a single dose equal to the greater of either the LD50 or 5000 mg/kg. TOCP administration resulted in over 90% inhibition of brain neurotoxic esterase (NTE), but none of the other three compounds inhibited NTE to an extent (<70%) which would be expected to result in OPIDN. Administration of TOCP, TBEP, or DBPP resulted in approximately a 70% decrease in plasma butyrylchol-inesterase (BuChE) activity. TBP caused a 2–3 fold increase in BuChE activity. TBEP administration resulted in about 45% inhibition of acetycholinesterase (AChE) in brain. These results indicate that TBP, TBEP, and DBPP are all unlikely to cause OPIDN with any single sublethal dose.
Spatial strategies for managing visitor impacts in National Parks

Resource and social impacts caused by recreationists and tourists have become a management concern in national parks and equivalent protected areas. The need to contain visitor impacts within acceptable limits has prompted park and protected area managers to implement a wide variety of strategies and actions, many of which are spatial in nature. Tlus paper classifies and illustrates the basic spatial strategies for managing visitor impacts in parks and protected areas. A typology of four spatial strategies was proposed based on the recreation and park management literature. Spatial segregation is a common strategy for shielding sensitive resources from visitor impacts or for separating potentially conflicting types of use. Two forms of spatial segregation are zoning and closure. A spatial containment strategy is intended to minimize the aggregate extent of visitor impacts by confining use to limited designated or established locations. In contrast, a spatial dispersal strategy seeks to spread visitor use, reducing the frequency of use to levels that avoid or minimize permanent resource impacts or visitor crowding and conflict. Finally, a spatial configuration strategy minimizes impacting visitor behavior through the judicious spatial arrangement of facilities. These four spatial strategies can be implemented separately or in combination at varying spatial scales within a single park. A survey of national park managers provides an empirical example of the diversity of implemented spatial strategies in managing visitor impacts. Spatial segregation is frequendy applied in the form of camping restrictions or closures to protect sensitive natural or cultural resources and to separate incompatible visitor activities. Spatial containment is the most widely applied strategy for minimizing the areal extent of resource impacts. Spatial dispersal is commonly applied to reduce visitor crowding or conflicts in popular destination areas but is less frequendy applied or effective in minimizing resource impacts. Spatial configuration was only minimally evaluated, as it was not included in the survey. The proposed typology of spatial strategies offers a useful means of organizing and understanding the wide variety of management strategies and actions applied to managing visitor impacts in parks and protected areas. Examples from U.S. national parks demonstrate the diversity of these basic strategies and their flexibility in implementation at various spatial scales. Documentation of these examples helps illustrate their application and inform managers of the multitude of options. Further analysis from the spatial perspective is needed to extend the applicability of this typology to other recreational activities and management issues.
Generation of influenza A virus from cloned cDNAs — historical perspective and outlook for the new millenium

Influenza virus reverse genetics has reached a level of sophistication where one can confidently generate virus entirely from cloned DNAs. The new systems makes it feasible to study the molecular mechanisms of virus replication and pathogenicity, as well as to generate attenuated live virus vaccines, gene delivery vehicles, and possibly other RNA viruses from cloned cDNAs. During the next decade, one can anticipate the translation of influenza virus reverse genetics into biomedically relevant advances. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Employee perceptions in multinational companies : a case study of the Saudi Arabian basic industries corporation

This thesis discusses perceptions of work environment and job satisfaction among the employees of the multinational companies which make up the Saudi Arabian Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC); and also the impact of multinational companies (MNC's) on human resource development in Saudi Arabia in general. Chapter 1 outlines the research contents. Chapter 2 describes and analyses Saudi economic planning and development, in order to gain an understanding of economic growth over the major planning periods and of how oil income has been used to improve the economic sectors, as well as to point to some problems which still exist in the economy. Chapter 3 analyses and discusses industrial and petrochemical development, in order to assess the government's role and policy in such development. Chapter 4 reviews the literature on MNCs in developing countries, in order to gain the information required for an assessment of the role MNCs play in the economy. Chapter 5 is concerned with Saudi Arabian culture and working practices, an important topic from the point of view of judging the role of MNCs on the economies of host countries such as Saudi Arabia. Chapter 6 discusses the research methodology and techniques used in the study and their rationale. Chapters 7, 8, 9 and 10 discuss and interpret the data obtained. The main objective is to examine SABIC's and its foreign partnerships' attitudes towards attracting and keeping local labour, and to examine whether local employees are satisfied on various matters such as training, salaries, promotion opportunities and participation in decision-making. The study findings indicate that the majority of SABIC employees are Saudi nationals and that SABIC activities have helped in creating job opportunities directly and indirectly. The findings indicate that MNCs do not participate effectively in training local employees in their home countries. However, most employees of all nationalities were satisfied with the management system from the point of view of participation in decision-making, relations with manager or supervisor and job evaluation. Chapter 11 examines the impact of MINCs on capital investment and concludes that foreign companies have been unable to transfer large financial resources to the Saudi economy, but have increased the mobility of local money and have attracted greater local investment. The Saudi balance of payments has benefited from the production of various goods for export and for import substitution. Regarding transfer of technology, the study found that great benefits have accrued from using advanced technology which has made hydrocarbons more productive and valuable products. However, foreign partnerships have not participated in R & D activities, and this has represented a lost opportunity. Finally, the study found that economic sovereignty has not been harmed by the activities of MINCs owing to the joint ownership of capital.
catena-Poly[[diaquabis(diphenylacetato)zinc(II)]-μ-4,4′-bipyridine]

In the title compound, [Zn(C14H11O2)2(C10H8N2)(H2O)2]n, the ZnII ion lies on a crystallographic inversion center and is in a slightly distorted octahedral coordination enviroment. 4,4′-Bipyridine ligands act as bridging ligands, connecting ZnII ions into a chain along the b-axis direction. In the crystal structure, these chains are linked by intermolecular O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds to form a two-dimensional network parallel to the ab plane.
Global output feedback stabilisation for a class of upper triangular stochastic nonlinear systems

This paper investigates the problem of global output feedback stabilisation for a class of upper triangular stochastic nonlinear systems which are neither necessarily feedback linearisable nor affine in the control input. Based on the adding of a power integrator technique and homogeneous domination approach, an output feedback controller is explicitly constructed to ensure that the equilibrium at the origin of the closed-loop system is globally asymptotically stable in probability. A simulation example is provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the design scheme.
Foreground Segmentation for Moving Cameras under Low Illumination Conditions

A foreground segmentation method, including image enhancement, trajectory classification and object segmentation, is proposed for moving cameras under low illumination conditions. Gradient-field-based image enhancement is designed to enhance low-contrast images. On the basis of the dense point trajectories obtained in long frames sequences, a simple and effective clustering algorithm is designed to classify foreground and background trajectories. By combining trajectory points and a marker-controlled watershed algorithm, a new type of foreground labeling algorithm is proposed to effectively reduce computing costs and improve edge-preserving performance. Experimental results demonstrate the promising performance of the proposed approach compared with other competing methods.
The Shadow Banking System and the Financial Crisis:A securities production function view

There is no doubt that the shadow banking system played an important role in the global financial crisis. What is in question is whether it played a causal or merely amplifying role. This paper argues in favour of the latter. Focusing specially on the process of the production of CDOs through the shadow banking system, we argue that it was non-bank financial institutions, most notably hedge funds but also pension and mutual funds and insurance companies, which had causal primacy in the financial crisis. The insatiable demand for assets exercised by these institutions compelled the shadow banks to accelerate the production of CDOs to a scale of sufficient proportions as to be able to cause the money and interbank markets to seize up in August 2007. The conclusion that follows from this argument is that tight regulation of the shadow banking system will not suffice to prevent a future financial crisis. For this objective to be met banking regulation needs to be accompanied by wider policy measures aimed at reducing the pressures on the banking system to create the type of toxic securities that triggered the last financial crisis.
A French Corpus for Distant-Microphone Speech Processing in Real Homes

We introduce a new corpus for distant-microphone speech processing in domestic environments. This corpus includes reverberated , noisy speech signals spoken by native French talkers in a lounge and recorded by an 8-microphone device at various angles and distances and in various noise conditions. Room impulse responses and noise-only signals recorded in various real rooms and homes and baseline speaker localization and enhancement software are also provided. This corpus stands apart from other corpora in the field by the number of rooms and homes considered and by the fact that it is publicly available at no cost. We describe the corpus specifications and annotations and the data recorded so far. We report baseline results.
Improving software reliability growth model selection ranking using particle swarm optimization

Reliability of software always related to software failures and a number of software reliability growth models (SRGMs) have been proposed past few decades to predict software reliability. Different characteristics of SRGM leading to the study and practices of SRGM selection for different domains. Appropriate model must be chosen for suitable domain in order to predict the occurrence of the software failures accurately then help to estimate the overall cost of the project and delivery time. In this paper, particle swarm optimization (PSO) method is used to optimize a parameter estimation and distance based approach (DBA) is used to produce SRGM model selection ranking. The study concluded that the use of PSO for optimizing the SRGM’s parameter has provided more accurate reliability prediction and improved model selection rankings. The model selection ranking methodology can facilitate a software developer to concentrate and analyze in making a decision to select suitable SRGM during testing phases. i? ½ 2005 - 2017 JATIT & LLS.
Optimal preview control of dual-stage actuators system for triangular reference tracking

This paper proposes an optimal preview control law for a dual-stage actuators (DSA) system to track triangular references, which is essential in many raster scan motion control applications. The main difficulty of tracking triangular reference is to follow the waveform fast and accurately when its slope switches. For this goal, we first present a non-preview time optimal control for the primary stage, which is proved to have the minimal overshoot. This result is a new contribution to DSA control because it leads to a minimal reference profile for secondary stage to follow and thus significantly prevents the saturation of the secondary actuator. Next, we propose an optimal preview control with the use of the information of the future references to further reduce the settling time and the overshoot. Finally, the secondary actuator controller is also given. Simulated results are shown to verify the effectiveness of the proposed control design.
Antecedents and Outcomes of the Investment in Internal Auditing and the Moderating Role of Family Business Culture

This essay extends agency theory into the area of privately held family businesses to add to the extant, conflicting research concerning family involvement and related agency costs. This research examines three unique characteristics of privately held family businesses that could influence the existence of an internal auditing function (IAF); family involvement in ownership, in top management and on the board. Statistical significance was identified in the association with family involvement on the board and the existence of an IAF, however the association was positive as opposed to negative. The study also develops a family business culture construct and investigates the potential moderating effect of the construct in these relationships. Results indicate that the control variables of the existence of an audit committee and having an external audit conducted within the last two fiscal years have more influence than family involvement on the existence of an IAF. In addition, family business culture was not determined to moderate the relationships between family involvement in these three unique areas of family businesses and the existence of an IAF. This research is the first step in gaining more knowledge of the influence of family involvement and the impact of that influence on the desire for a governance mechanism, such as an IAF.