Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Whitepaper : Role of the Combat Power Monitor in Zonal Electrical Distribution in the NGIPS

The choice of future shipboard power system and the associated zonal electrical distribution system (ZEDS) will have a fundamental impact on the literal shape and configuration of future naval architectures. We propose, during a new phase of ESRDC work, to continue our development and study of ZEDS, and condition based maintenance and control techniques through ZEDS. We also propose to explore electric propulsion machinery that may ease the complexity and reduce the expense of future electric propulsion plants.
Single-channel mechanosensitive currents.

Morris and Horn (1) describe ion channel activity, elicited by mechanical stimulation, in both membrane patches and in whole neurons from the snail Lymnaea stagnalis. In whole-cell recordings, mechanical stimulation did not elicit the large macroscopic mechanosensitive currents (IMs) that were anticipated from studies of single mechanosensitive (MS) channels in membrane patches. These negative results led Morris and Horn to suggest that single-channel mechanosensitivity is an artifact of patch recording. In contrast to snail neurons, MS channel currents in spheroplasts of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae were found in both patch and whole-cell recordings (2). Morris and Horn offer two explanations for this difference. IMS could result from activation of only a few MS channels near the pipette-tomembrane seal, possibly as a result of the vigorous suction needed to form a seal on the yeast membrane. They also point out that IMS in yeast showed nonselectivity and did not saturate at high pressures (2). They suggest that these properties would be consistent with mechanically induced leaks through nonchannel pathways. Both explanations seem untenable for several reasons. Morris and Horn say that, "on the basis of yeast channel density. , the maximum Ims (at -60 mV) corresponds to recruitment of <2% of the population. ' This calculation
Social curation of content : measurements and models

Social curation is a new trend which has emerged following on the heels of the information glut created by user-generated content revolution. Rather than create new content, social curation allows users to categorise content created by others, and thereby creating and resharing their personal taxonomies of the Web. In this dissertation, we collect a large dataset from Pinterest, arguably the most popular image curation service, and seek to understand the trend on three levels: content, friends and crowds. We first take an empirical look at social curation by mining its content usage. Our data reveals that curation tends to focus on niche items that may not rank highly in popularity and search rankings. Yet, curated items exhibit their own skewed popularity, although most users, or curators, act for personal reasons. At the same time, it also shows that curators with consistent activity and diversity of interests show more social value in attracting followers. This drives us to explore the role of social networks on social curation. We find that social users are more active and are more likely to return soon in Pinterest, indicating a bonding effect enabled by social networks. Then we divide the social network into two subgraphs, according to whether they are created natively or copied from some other established social networks (e.g., Facebook) via a social bootstrapping method. It shows that, when users just join the service, copied network can promote more social interaction, as it initiates a stronger and denser social structure than native network. However, social networks are not critical for information seeking, as a non-trivial number of users’ content are curated from strangers with high interest matching. In fact, this trend also holds for social interaction: Users tend to wean from copied friends to interact more with interest-based native friends over a long-term view. Finally, we understand social curation as a distributed computation process, and examine the relationship between curators and crowds. We show that despite being categorised by individual actions, there is generally a global agreement in implicitly assigning content into a coarse-grained global taxonomy of categories, and furthermore, users tend to specialise in a handful of categories. By exploiting these characteristics, and augmenting with image-related features drawn from a state-of-the-art deep convolutional neural network, we develop a cascade of predictors that together automate a large fraction of curation actions with an end-to-end accuracy of 0.69 (Accuracy@5 of 0.75).
Corporate Tax Burden and Financial Attributes of Fraud Firms and Non-Fraud Firms

The goal of this study was to examine corporate tax burdens and the financial attributes of fraud firms (FF) and non-fraud firms (NFF) in Malaysia. This study used the company’s effective tax rate (ETR) to determine the level of corporate tax burden. The sample of fraud firms was obtained from the Enforcement Release reported by the Securities Commissions focusing on criminal prosecutions from the year 2001 to 2010. The fraud firms were then matched with the non-fraud firms on the basis of size, time period and industry. The investigation period of this study covered a period of four years, i.e., a fraud year and the three years prior to the companies being prosecuted for fraud. Using a total of 264 firm-years from 33 fraud firms and 33 non-fraud firms, this study examined the level of corporate ETR, the variation of corporate ETR from Statutory Tax Rate (STR), and the association between companies’ financial attributes and their ETR. Five financial attributes were examined; firm size, leverage, return on assets, capital intensity and inventory intensity. The statistical results revealed that both the mean ETR for fraud firms (50.14%) and non-fraud firms (36.07%) were higher than the mean STR (27.67%) imposed by the government during the period under study. The findings indicate that fraud firms paid higher tax expense than the non-fraud firms. Further, the findings also indicate that return on assets and capital intensity were significantly associated with the variability of the corporate ETR. The study has provided empirical evidence that both fraud firms and non-fraud firms paid higher effective tax rate than the statutory tax rate. Thus, the findings imply that the sample fraud firms were not tax-motivated. Hence, the study has contributed to the tax literature on the financial attributes of fraud firms which could assist relevant authorities, specifically in selecting cases for the tax audit and investigation.
Academic success among students at risk for school failure.

A sample of 1,803 minority students from low-income homes was classified into 3 groups on the basis of grades, test scores, and persistence from grade 8 through Grade 12; the classifications were academically successfully school completers ("resilient" students), school completers with poorer academic performance (nonresilient completers), and noncompleters (dropouts). Groups were compared in terms of psychological characteristics and measures of "school engagement. " Large, significant differences were found among groups on engagement behaviors, even after background and psychological characteristics were controlled statistically. The findings support the hypothesis that student engagement is an important component of academic resilience. Furthermore, they provide information for designing interventions to improve the educational prognoses of students at risk.
High resolution Cerenkov light imaging of induced positron distribution in proton therapy.

PURPOSE In proton therapy, imaging of the positron distribution produced by fragmentation during or soon after proton irradiation is a useful method to monitor the proton range. Although positron emission tomography (PET) is typically used for this imaging, its spatial resolution is limited. Cerenkov light imaging is a new molecular imaging technology that detects the visible photons that are produced from high-speed electrons using a high sensitivity optical camera. Because its inherent spatial resolution is much higher than PET, the authors can measure more precise information of the proton-induced positron distribution with Cerenkov light imaging technology. For this purpose, they conducted Cerenkov light imaging of induced positron distribution in proton therapy. METHODS First, the authors evaluated the spatial resolution of our Cerenkov light imaging system with a (22)Na point source for the actual imaging setup. Then the transparent acrylic phantoms (100 × 100 × 100 mm(3)) were irradiated with two different proton energies using a spot scanning proton therapy system. Cerenkov light imaging of each phantom was conducted using a high sensitivity electron multiplied charge coupled device (EM-CCD) camera. RESULTS The Cerenkov light's spatial resolution for the setup was 0.76 ± 0.6 mm FWHM. They obtained high resolution Cerenkov light images of the positron distributions in the phantoms for two different proton energies and made fused images of the reference images and the Cerenkov light images. The depths of the positron distribution in the phantoms from the Cerenkov light images were almost identical to the simulation results. The decay curves derived from the region-of-interests (ROIs) set on the Cerenkov light images revealed that Cerenkov light images can be used for estimating the half-life of the radionuclide components of positrons. CONCLUSIONS High resolution Cerenkov light imaging of proton-induced positron distribution was possible. The authors conclude that Cerenkov light imaging of proton-induced positron is promising for proton therapy.
A fast and accurate 3-D rangefinder using the Biris technology: the TRID sensor

In many industrial applications such as autonomous vehicle guidance and robotic manipulations, reliable 3-D informations must be extracted from the scene in order to provide a robust description of the environment in which the system evolves. This paper presents the TRID sensor, a simple, fast, robust and accurate 3-D sensing device based on the Biris technology. TRID is limited to a lateral resolution of one point. Experimental results show that an accuracy better than 0.15% can be obtained for the depth component (Z) of 3-D points at a distance of 1.3 meter from a wooden black painted beam surface with an acquisition rate of 8.5 points/s.
Cognitive behavioral training reverses the effect of pain exposure on brain network activity

Abstract Repeated sensory exposures shape the brain's function and its responses to environmental stimuli. An important clinical and scientific question is how exposure to pain affects brain network activity and whether that activity is modifiable with training. We sought to determine whether repeated pain exposure would impact brain network activity and whether these effects can be reversed by cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)-based training. Healthy subjects underwent 8 experimental sessions on separate days on which they received painful thermal stimuli. They were randomly assigned to groups receiving either CBT-based training (regulate group, n = 17) or a non–pain-focused treatment (control group, n = 13). Before and after these sessions, participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during painful stimulation and at rest. The effect of repeated pain over time in the control group was a decrease in the neurotypical pain-evoked default mode network (DMN) deactivation. The regulate group did not show these DMN effects but rather had decreased deactivation of the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (R vlPFC) of the executive control network. In the regulate group, reduced pain-evoked DMN deactivation was associated with greater individual reduction in pain intensity and unpleasantness over time. Finally, the regulate group showed enhanced resting functional connectivity between areas of the DMN and executive control network over time, compared with the control group. Our study demonstrates that trainable cognitive states can alter the effect of repeated sensory exposure on the brain. The findings point to the potential utility of cognitive training to prevent changes in brain network connectivity that occur with repeated experience of pain.
Blockchain Approach for Smart Health Wallet

: Health being a very important issue nowadays, a major problem facing health care systems throughout the world is how to share medical records/data with more collaborator for more purposes, and we also ensure about data integrity and protecting patient privacy. With our study hospitals and the clinic will be able to give all control of medical records to patients and increasing accessibility of medical records and also enhancing the security of records through the power of Blockchain and cloud structure. Each and every patient will have its own secure manageable cloud space. Patients can store and manage medical records in their cloud health wallet anytime anywhere. The patient can replace hardcopy of medical records with their cloud medical wallet.
Complete Genome Sequence of Veillonella atypica OK5, the First Transformable Strain in the Species

ABSTRACT The Veillonella atypica strain OK5 was isolated from a human saliva sample and was the first strain shown to be genetically transformable in the Veillonella genus. Genetic studies using this strain have helped us gain much insight into the ecology of human oral biofilms. Here, we report the complete genome sequence of V. atypica OK5.
Functional Interaction Trap

Protein tyrosine phosphorylation controls diverse signaling pathways, and disregulated tyrosine kinase activity plays a direct role in human diseases such as cancer. Because activated kinases exert their effects by phosphorylating multiple substrate proteins, it is difficult or impossible to assess experimentally the contribution of a particular substrate to a cellular response or activity. To overcome this problem, we have developed a novel approach termed the “functional interaction trap,” in which two proteins are induced to interact in a pairwise fashion through an engineered, highly specific binding interface. We show that the functional interaction trap can be used to direct a modified tyrosine kinase to specifically phosphorylate a single substrate of choice in vivo, permitting analysis of the resulting biological output. This strategy provides a powerful tool for validating the functional significance of tyrosine phosphorylation and other post-translational modifications identified by proteomic discovery efforts.
Leverage and Capital Structure Determinants of Chinese Listed Companies

Total debt in the People’s Republic of China has increased significantly in recent years, mostly on account of nonfinancial corporate debt. Earning and the financial performance of corporate firms have weakened, and so has the asset quality of the financial sector. This paper assesses the financial fragility of the Chinese economy by looking at risk factors in the nonfinancial sector. We apply quantile regressions to a rich dataset of Chinese listed companies contained in Standard & Poor’s IQ Capital database. We find higher sensitivity over time of corporate leverage to some of its key determinants, particularly for firms at the upper margin of the distribution. In particular, profitability increasingly acts as a curb on corporate leverage. At a time of falling profitability across the Chinese nonfinancial corporate sector, this eases the brake on leverage and may contribute to its continuing increase.
Sequences within RNA coding for HIV‐1 Gag p17 are efficiently targeted to exosomes

HIV budding requires the interaction with cell factors involved in the biogenesis of exosomes. This implies the possibility that viral products undergo exosome incorporation. While this has been already described for both Gag and Nef HIV‐1 proteins, no conclusive results on HIV genome have been produced so far. Here, we report that unspliced, but not single or double spliced, HIV‐1 RNA species are incorporated in exosomes. Deletion mutant analysis indicated that the presence of a stretch of sequences within the 5′ end of the Gag p17 open reading frame is sufficient for HIV‐1 RNA exosome incorporation. These sequences were found associating with exosomes also out of the HIV‐1 context, thus indicating that the diversion towards the vesicular compartment can occur without need of additional HIV‐1 sequences. Finally, the incorporation of genomic HIV‐1 RNA in exosomes significantly increased when producer cells express HIV‐1 defective for viral genome packaging. Manipulating infected cells to favour the selective incorporation in exosomes of genomic HIV‐1 RNA might have therapeutic implications.
Selective Harmonic Elimination control for AC-DC-AC regulated converter

Static power converters are used for many applications, such as general power supplies. This paper analyzes the performance of single phase AC-DC-AC converter, where the converter consists of two parts, an AC to DC controlled rectifier cascaded with a DC to AC multilevel inverter, so as to increase the number of voltage levels of the inverter to reduce the filter size of the output voltage of the DC-AC converter. Multilevel converter technology has recently emerged as an important alternative in the area of high-power applications. The topology configuration consists of multilevel three single-phase H-bridge inverters connected in series each of which is fed from an unequal DC voltage through a multi-limb output transformer via full controlled thyristor bridges, whose control signals are generated from a closed loop control circuit to maintain constant load voltage for different load conditions. In the literature, several modulation methods have been applied to multilevel inverters where higher switching frequency reduces filter size but increases switching losses. The Selective Harmonic Elimination, SHE modulation method is presented where additional notches are introduced in the multilevel output voltage. These notches eliminate harmonics at the low order/frequency and shifts it a higher order/frequency and hence the filter size is reduced without increasing the switching losses and cost of the system. The proposed modulation method is verified through simulation and also validated practically.
Exogenous factors dictate the quality of relationship between franchisee and franchisor: A Malaysian franchising experience

Franchising has often been widely accepted as an effective way to conduct and expand businesses. However a franchise system does not guarantee success in business and depends on a good relationship between both parties namely, franchisor and franchisee.These franchise relationships are unique and differ from the conventional business operations which require mutual co-existence and symbiotic relationship. Nevertheless without a good understanding between franchisor and franchisee, this relationship may have disputes that may require legal action for resolution.The success and failure of any franchise business are closely related to both the franchisor and franchisee and to what extent can they fulfill their responsibilities in order to maintain the level of franchise relationship quality (FRQ). Even though previous empirical researchers had viewed FRQ as a major indicator for the success of franchising system, the literature review showed that there was a lack of such research in identifying the exogenous factors that determine the FRQ.Thus, this qualitative research was conducted to identify the exogenous factors that influence the FRQ between franchisee and franchisor.This process involved the integration between an existing literature reviews and industry practices which emphasized on the gaps to solve the problem statement.Semi-structured interviews were conducted in this research to answer the four (4) main issues, ten (10) dimensions of FRQ, fourteen (14) exogenous factors that influenced the FRQ had been identified.
High-resolution mass spectrometry of viral assemblies: Molecular composition and stability of dimorphic hepatitis B virus capsids

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a major human pathogen. In addition to its importance in human health, there is growing interest in adapting HBV and other viruses for drug delivery and other nanotechnological applications. In both contexts, precise biophysical characterization of these large macromolecular particles is fundamental. HBV capsids are unusual in that they exhibit two distinct icosahedral geometries, nominally composed of 90 and 120 dimers with masses of ≈3 and ≈4 MDa, respectively. Here, a mass spectrometric approach was used to determine the masses of both capsids to within 0.1%. It follows that both lattices are complete, consisting of exactly 180 and 240 subunits. Nanoindentation experiments by atomic-force microscopy indicate that both capsids have similar stabilities. The data yielded a Young's modulus of ≈0.4 GPa. This experimental approach, anchored on very precise and accurate mass measurements, appears to hold considerable potential for elucidating the assembly of viruses and other macromolecular particles.
Reframing replicative research in advertising

Given the espoused importance of replication by researchers, there is still surprisingly little evidence of its practice in advertising research. In this paper, we apply Berthon et al.’s (2002) replicative research framework to advertising. A conceptualisation of the relationship between replication, extension and generation in advertising research is offered. The framework delineates eight possible research strategies. These are discussed in turn and illustrated with examples from the advertising literature. The paper concludes with a discussion of the factors that influence the selection of a research strategy.
Ranging behavior of female and male Shiny Cowbirds and Screaming Cowbirds while searching for host nests

ABSTRACT Brood-parasitic cowbirds are hypothesized to search for and locate host nests within a relatively constant area, as this is presumed to facilitate the monitoring of nests over time and the synchronization of parasitism with host laying. We tested this hypothesis in Shiny Cowbirds (Molothrus bonariensis) and Screaming Cowbirds (M. rufoaxillaris), two cowbird species that differ in host specificity and, apparently, in social mating system, by radio-tracking females and males for 3–6 consecutive days and determining individual daily morning ranges and cumulative morning ranges. In Shiny Cowbirds, the mean size of morning daily ranges and cumulative morning ranges was larger for males than for females, but we did not find a difference between the sexes in range size for Screaming Cowbirds. In both species, there was extensive overlap in the morning ranges of individual females between consecutive days, and the addition of new area to their ranges decreased over time. For both Shiny and Screaming cowbirds, morning ranges of conspecific females radio-tracked the same day overlapped, indicating lack of territoriality. Male and female Screaming Cowbirds that were trapped together were also spatially associated during radio-tracking, indicating social monogamy. Most radio-tracked Shiny and Screaming cowbirds used mainly one roost, relatively close to their morning ranges, which was maintained throughout the breeding season. Our results show that Shiny and Screaming cowbird females use relatively constant areas for nest searching and that Screaming Cowbirds are socially monogamous.