Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fast Bits Recording in Photoisomeric Polymers by Phase-Modulated Femtosecond Laser

High storage capacity and recording-access rate are two critical factors that the current optical storage technology pursues. Efforts on shortening the laser wavelength, increasing the numerical aperture of objective, and increasing the optical drive speed have been made to reach this end. However, these methods have run their full course because of many existing difficulties on the physical and manufacturing aspect. People have to explore innovative ways to satisfy the requirement of both mass data and high rate. Multidimensional optical storage and holographic recording are two promising technologies to increase the capacity of memory and recording rate by orders of magnitude. We report on the fast bits recording in bisazobenzene functional polymer film by femtosecond laser holographic recording. The mechanism of the photo-induced anisotropy of the material is reviewed and discussed. The demonstration of multidimensional holographic recording is presented. Some influence factors in the holographic processing are discussed.
Hunting for a Bogeyman? In Search of Statistical Evidence of Direct Competition between Firms

Although inter-firm competition is frequently mentioned in industrial organization discussions, it has received limited empirical support. Recently, however, Sutton (2007) has shown that the growth rates of the largest and second largest firms in an industry are essentially statistically independent. This seems incompatible with claims of intense inter-firm competition. We begin by computing correlation coefficients for the growth profiles of firms, but the highest correlation coefficients appear to have random rather than economic explanations. We then present scatterplots of the growth rates of the largest vs. second largest firms in specific industries, but observe that the growth dynamics of these firms are largely independent. Finally, for each industry we calculate a correlation coefficient between the annual growth rates of the two largest firms over 9 years, and observe a bimodal shape in the distribution of these correlation coefficients (one positive mode and one negative mode). This suggests that firms either share common fates (positive correlation), or experience different fates (negative correlation).
Association of IMMP2L deletions with autism spectrum disorder: A trio family study and meta‐analysis

IMMP2L, the gene encoding the inner mitochondrial membrane peptidase subunit 2‐like protein, has been reported as a candidate gene for Tourette syndrome, autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and additional neurodevelopmental disorders. Here we genotyped 100 trio families with an index proband with autism spectrum disorder in Han Chinese population and found three cases with rare exonic IMMP2L deletions. We have conducted a comprehensive meta‐analysis to quantify the association of IMMP2L deletions with ASD using 5,568 cases and 10,279 controls. While the IMMP2L deletions carried non‐recurrent breakpoints, in contrast to previous reports, our meta‐analysis found no evidence of association (P > 0.05) between IMMP2L deletions and ASD. We also observed common exonic deletions impacting IMMP2L in a separate control (5,971 samples) cohort where subjects were screened for psychiatric conditions. This is the first systematic review and meta‐analysis regarding the effect of IMMP2L deletions on ASD, but further investigations in different populations, especially Chinese population may be still needed to confirm our results.
Strategic human resource management effectiveness and firm performance

This study tests whether strategic human resource management (SHRM) effectiveness significantly affects organizational level outcomes. Using the resource-based view of the firm, this study examines the effective use of human capital on organizational performance. Further, the role that a contextual factor - capital intensity - plays in modelling is explored. Results show that SHRM effectiveness significantly reduces employee turnover and increases overall market performance assessment. However, SHRM effectiveness affected both firm productivity and return on equity only when moderated by capital intensity.
High-voltage pulse generator with variable delay for ultrafast gating of single photon detector

In this paper we have developed an ultrafast pulse generator to turn on a Single Photon Avalanche Diode (SPAD) sensor with picosecond resolution, at specific time windows. The pulse amplitude and duration is user tunable to provide a variable excess bias voltage to the detector. The transition times (rise and fall time) of the pulse is in the range of 250 to 550 ps depending on the amplitude. The generator was designed to be applied in reflectance optical spectroscopy measurements where the diffusive medium is illuminated from a point source and diffused photons are collected at a given distance from the source. To increase the sensitivity to higher penetration depth of investigation, the source and the detector separation should be small which in turn increases the number of unwanted early arriving photons. This system will keep the detector off for the first 500-600ps, thus rejecting the early arriving photons, and will only turn-ON the detector when it is expected to detect the late photons coming from the deeper regions. The proposed fully CMOS integrated system is the first of its kind to be introduced for the ultra-fast gating of the single photon detectors.
Personal use of hair dyes and risk of leukemia: a systematic literature review and meta‐analysis

The objective of this study was to examine the association between personal use of hair dyes and the risk of leukemia. We conducted a systematic literature review of epidemiology studies reporting leukemia‐specific cancer risks among hair dye users, and estimated the meta‐relative risk (meta‐RR) and corresponding 95% confidence interval (95% CI) of leukemia, comparing hair dye users to nonusers. When data from all 20 studies that met the inclusion criteria were combined, ever use of hair dye was associated with a nonstatistically significant increased risk of leukemia, meta‐RR = 1.09 (95% CI: 0.97–1.22). When restricted to studies that adjusted for smoking, ever use of hair dye was not associated with leukemia, meta‐RR = 0.99 (95% CI: 0.76–1.29). A statistically significant increased risk of leukemia was associated with permanent hair dye use (meta‐RR = 1.19 [95% CI: 1.07–1.33]), dark hair dye use (meta‐RR = 1.29 [95% CI: 1.11–1.50]), hair dye use among males (meta‐RR = 1.42 [95% CI: 1.01–2.00]), hair dye use pre‐1980 (meta‐RR = 1.49 [95% CI: 1.21–1.83]), and hair dye use for ≥15 years (meta‐RR = 1.35 [95% CI: 1.13–1.62]). Overall, findings suggest that ever use of hair dye is not a significant risk factor for leukemia. Certain hair dye use characteristics were associated with a statistically significant increased risk, but further research is required to determine whether these associations truly reflect a risk of leukemia due to methodological limitations in the underlying studies.
Freshman and Sophomore Business Students' Perception of Global Forces

The purpose of this article is to describe the perception on global forces of business major freshman and sophomore undergraduate students in the United States. As global forces deeply impact business life around the world, educators are looking for ways to provide necessary knowledge and skills in business education curricula to develop competitive and competent students who are prepared for the global economy. Although such efforts focus on the end result in education, understanding students’ initial perceptions can help educators better shape their curricula and courses. The findings in this article are categorized into individual impacts, organizational impacts, and personal solutions. Emerging themes in individual impacts of globalization include increasing individual competition around the world, loss of individuality and new lifestyle with technology, and the Internet and social networks. Students identified organizations as winners of global forces and described organizational impacts more positively. Meanwhile, emerging themes in organizational impacts of globalization included more, cheaper, and better qualified employees as well as off shoring American jobs to developing countries, more customers, and new business practices on the Internet and social networking sites. Personal solutions to cope with global trends were focused on improving qualifications through education to stand out among global competition.
Analysis of differences in the recognized and realized costs of stock options and the implications for studies of tax avoidance

Analysis of differences in the recognized and realized costs of stock options and the implications for studies of tax avoidance. ii This thesis is dedicated to my parents, Jeff and Anne Campbell. Without their love, endless support, and encouragement throughout my life this work would not be possible. I also lovingly dedicate this thesis to my husband, Ryan Austin, for the encouragement he gave and the sacrifices he made during this doctoral program. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A review of techniques in optimal sizing of hybrid renewable energy systems

This paper presents a review of techniques usedin recent published works on optimal sizing of hybrid renewable energy sources. Hybridization of renewable energy sources is an emergent promising trend born out of the need to fully utilize and solve problems associated with the reliability of renewable energy resources such as wind and solar. Exploitation of these resources has been instrumental in tackling or mitigating present day energy problems such as price instability for fossil based fuels, global warming and climate change in addition to being seen as way of meeting future demand for power. This paper targets researchers in the renewable energy space and the general public seeking to inform them on trends in methods applied in optimal sizing of hybrid renewable energy sources as well as to provide a scope into what has been done in this field. In reviewing previous works, a two prong approach has been used focusing attention on the sizing methods used in the reviewed works as well as the performance indices used to check quality by these works. In summary there is a clear indication of increased interest in recent years in optimal sizing of hybrid renewable energy resources with metaheuristic approaches such as Genetic Algorithms and Particle Swarm Optimization coming out as very interesting to researchers. It has also been observed that resources being hybridized are those with complementary regimes on specific sites. Index Terms - Energy storage, hybrid power systems, optimization methods, renewable energy sources, reviews, solar energy, wind energy.
Thermus thermophilus Nucleoside Phosphorylases Active in the Synthesis of Nucleoside Analogues

ABSTRACT Cells extracts from Thermus thermophilus HB27 express phosphorolytic activities on purines and pyrimidine nucleosides. Five putative encoding genes were cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli, and the corresponding recombinant proteins were purified and studied. Two of these showed phosphorolytic activities against purine nucleosides, and third one showed phosphorolytic activity against pyrimidine nucleosides in vitro, and the three were named TtPNPI, TtPNPII, and TtPyNP, respectively. The optimal temperature for the activity of the three enzymes was beyond the water boiling point and could not be measured accurately, whereas all of them exhibited a wide plateau of optimal pHs that ranged from 5.0 to 7.0. Analytical ultracentrifugation experiments revealed that TtPNPI was a homohexamer, TtPNPII was a monomer, and TtPyNP was a homodimer. Kinetic constants were determined for the phosphorolysis of the natural substrates of each enzyme. Reaction tests with nucleoside analogues revealed critical positions in the nucleoside for its recognition. Activities with synthetic nucleobase analogues, such as 5-iodouracil or 2,6-diaminopurine, and arabinosides were detected, supporting that these enzymes could be applied for the synthesis of new nucleoside analogs with pharmacological activities.
Separable equilibrium distributions for systems with unreliable wireless links

Performance evaluation of systems including, among others, components based on wireless links plays an important role both in the software and hardware engineering. In both cases the earlier evaluation of performance characteristics has been proved to be a key-factor for a successful design of new systems. However, most of the quantitative analysis methods suffers the problem of not being scalable with respect to the number of system components, due to the state space explosion problem. In this paper we address the problem of the quantitative modelling of system with some unreliable wireless links (i.e., where packet loss and retransmissions must be considered) using a set of results of product-form theory. Product-form models present separable equilibrium distributions of the state probabilities thus making the derivation of the desired performance indices (e.g., mean number of customers or mean response time) computationally tractable. This work exploits recent advances in this field, e.g., the Reversed Compound Agent Theorem, to efficiently evaluate the performance of systems with unreliable wireless links.
Neural Network Based Simplified Clipping and Filtering Technique for PAPR Reduction of OFDM Signals

Many iterative clipping and filtering (ICF) based techniques have been proposed that achieve similar peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) reduction of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signals as the original ICF, but with lower complexity, such as the simplified clipping and filtering (SCF) technique. However, these low complexity methods require numerous complex fast Fourier transform (FFT) operations and parameter calculations. In this letter, we introduce a novel ICF method that uses an optimized mapper based on artificial neural network and SCF techniques. Compared to the conventional ICF based methods, the proposed scheme offers desirable cubic metric (CM) and bit error rate (BER) simulation results with significantly reduced computational complexity.
Crystal structure of calcium‐free human sorcin: A member of the penta‐EF‐hand protein family

Sorcin is a 22 kD calcium‐binding protein that is found in a wide variety of cell types, such as heart, muscle, brain and adrenal medulla. It belongs to the penta‐EF‐hand (PEF) protein family, which contains five EF‐hand motifs that associate with membranes in a calcium‐dependent manner. Prototypic members of this family are the calcium‐binding domains of calpain, such as calpain dVI. Full‐length human sorcin has been crystallized in the absence of calcium and the structure determined at 2.2 Å resolution. Apart from an extended N‐terminal portion, the sorcin molecule has a globular shape. The C‐terminal domain is predominantly α‐helical, containing eight α‐helices and connecting loops incorporating five EF hands. Sorcin forms dimers through the association of the unpaired EF5, confirming this as the mode of association in the dimerization of PEF proteins. Comparison with calpain dVI reveals that the general folds of the individual EF‐hand motifs are conserved, especially that of EF1, the novel EF‐hand motif characteristic of the family. Detailed structural comparisons of sorcin with other members of PEF indicate that the EF‐hand pair EF1–EF2 is likely to correspond to the two physiologically relevant calcium‐binding sites and that the calcium‐induced conformational change may be modest and localized within this pair of EF‐hands. Overall, the results derived from the structural observations support the view that, in sorcin, calcium signaling takes place through the first pair of EF‐hands.
Fair Demographic Risk Sharing in Defined Contribution Pension Systems

In this article we formulate and solve the optimal design problem of a defined contribution public pension fund, in a highly stylized but still rather general non-stationary framework. We adopt the viewpoint of a benevolent social planner who aims at treating in a fair manner the successive overlapping generations participating to such a long-term mandatory system. Using the approach of El Karoui and Jeanblanc (1998) for the optimal consumption and portfolio choice problem with random income in a complete market, we exhibit a solution to our intertemporal stochastic control problem where each generation receives a fair (lumpsum) retirement benefit: it is proportional to the contributions she has paid during her active worklife and follows a fixed common rule (although her pension value itself may depend on variables only observable at her retirement time). We next relax the assumption that the collective pension system is mandatory and investigate the performance of individual investment plans in the market. Comparing the outcomes of both alternatives, we derive a condition under which the collective fund can be expected to overperform the individual plan. In the special case of a stationary economy, such a possibility has been pointed out by Gollier (2008). In fact this effect results from the possibility for the collective fund to borrow today against contributions of future generations, which allows to implement riskier strategies and may improve its performance.
Electromagnetically induced transparency : Optics in coherent media

Coherent preparation by laser light of quantum states of atoms and molecules can lead to quantum interference in the amplitudes of optical transitions. In this way the optical properties of a medium can be dramatically modified, leading to electromagnetically induced transparency and related effects, which have placed gas-phase systems at the center of recent advances in the development of media with radically new optical properties. This article reviews these advances and the new possibilities they offer for nonlinear optics and quantum information science. As a basis for the theory of electromagnetically induced transparency the authors consider the atomic dynamics and the optical response of the medium to a continuous-wave laser. They then discuss pulse propagation and the adiabatic evolution of field-coupled states and show how coherently prepared media can be used to improve frequency conversion in nonlinear optical mixing experiments. The extension of these concepts to very weak optical fields in the few-photon limit is then examined. The review concludes with a discussion of future prospects and potential new applications.
Genotype-specific RNA probes for direct identification of wild polioviruses by blot hybridization

We have developed RNA probes for the direct identification of wild poliovirus isolates by blot hybridization. The probes are complementary to sequences of the first 30 to 32 codons of VP1, which evolve more extensively (approximately 1.5-fold) than the rest of VP1. To illustrate our general approach, we describe the design of probes specific to each of four major genotypes recently endemic (1981 to 1991) to the Americas: Andean type 1, Brazil type 1, Brazil type 3, and Central America-Mexico type 3. A wild isolate of each genotype was selected according to molecular and epidemiologic criteria to be representative of the principal lineages in circulation. Variable VP1 sequences of the representative isolates were amplified by the reverse transcriptase PCR and were inserted into a plasmid vector containing a T7 promoter. The in vitro transcripts, labeled with digoxigenin, served as probes. These formed stable hybrids only with RNAs of isolates of the corresponding genotypes. Hybrids were detected by a sensitive chemiluminescence assay, capable under normal diagnostic conditions of detecting specific wild poliovirus sequences in samples containing up to a 100-fold excess of Sabin vaccine strain-related sequences of the same serotype.
Interplay of Foreign Aid, External Debt and Economic Growth: The Nigeria Experience

This work studied the interplay of foreign aid, external debt and economic growth. Given the likely simultaneity between foreign aid, external debt and economic growth, we used the seemingly unrelated regression estimation (SURE) model to examine the interplay between these variables using Nigerian data. We found that foreign aid has positive impact on growth and that external debt has negative impact on economic growth in Nigeria. A novelty in this study is that there is evidence of complex interplay between the level of external debt and aid inflows. These findings, therefore, have some policy implications as discussed in the work.
Vigna pandeyana (Fabaceae), a new species from northern Western Ghats, India

Abstract Background Vigna subg. Ceratotropis (Piper) Verdc. represents a homogenous and distinct group of species with highly specialized complex floral characters. It is most diverse in Asia. India, with 24 species, represents a secondary center of species diversity of the subgenus. New information A new species, Vigna pandeyana RD Gore, SP Gaikwad & SD Randive, is described from hill slopes of the northern Western Ghats of India. It resembles Vigna yadavii Gaikwad et al. and Vigna dalzelliana (Kuntze) Verdc. but differs from the latter in its dimorphic shoots (some subterranean, with cleistogamous flowers) and densely hairy pods, from the former by its curved style, flattened style beak, foveolate seed coat and absence of standard protuberance and horn-like keel pocket in cleistogamous flowers.
Success breeds success in mating male reed frogs (Hyperolius marmoratus)

Studies of the distribution of mating success among males in frog choruses typically seek to identify specific phenotypic attributes that confer a higher mating success on certain individual males. These attributes invariably relate to competition among males: either direct competition in the form of aggression, or competition to attract and be chosen by females. In this paper, we present evidence that an additional factor may operate in frog choruses. We show that individual males who mate on a given night enjoy a higher probability of being successful on the next night, and we suggest that this is because successful mating enables males to conserve energy.
The Social Impact of Home Rehabilitation in Low-Income Neighborhoods

While economists and others have studied the impact of abandoned foreclosed homes on nearby home prices and crime, very few scholars have attempted to understand the impact of abandonment and rehabilitation on neighborhood social conditions. The foreclosure crisis of 2005-2010 led to a concentration of abandoned foreclosed homes in disadvantaged neighborhoods and these neighborhoods became the targets of a policy intervention, the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. This study employs a mixed-method longitudinal approach to investigate the impact of this foreclosed home rehabilitation policy on neighborhood social conditions and physical conditions in a highly disadvantaged neighborhood. We compared this to a quasi-control group of similar abandoned, foreclosed neighborhood homes not selected for the program. Results indicated that the rehabilitation of a foreclosed home had marginally significant negative impact on social conditions and no impact on the physical conditions of nearby homes. There were no differences between the program properties and the control properties, except that the control properties were rehabilitated more quickly. To further explore the quantitative findings, we divide the qualitative results into four major themes emerging from the data: indifference to foreclosures, threats to the neighborhood, call for community cohesion, and the importance of homeownership. These results indicate that the affected residents believe that neighborhood stabilization efforts would have benefitted more from programs that aimed to improve homeownership opportunities and increase neighborhood levels of social cohesion and social capital.