Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
IMMUNODIAGNOSIS OF HAEMONCHUS CONTORTUS INFECTION IN SHEEP BY INDIRECT ENZYME LINKED IMMUNOSORBENT ASSAY (ELISA)

Summary Indirect plate enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was standardized and evaluated for its effectiveness in immunodiagnosis of haemonchosis in experimental and clinical cases in sheep by using somatic whole adult antigen of H. contortus. Plate ELISA was standardized using 5 µg/well antigen concentration with 1:100 and 1:1000 of sera and conjugate dilution. Indirect plate ELISA was able to demonstrate the antibody titre at different weeks post infection in experimental sheep. A comparison of plate ELISA on suspected field sera and faecal sample examination by floatation method revealed that 74 samples were found to be positive by ELISA but only ten by faecal examination. Sensitivity of plate ELISA was found to be 80.0%, whereas specificity was 21.42% indicating that this test is quite sensitive for clinical cases; an early diagnosis, however, lacks specificity.
Overeducation in Developing Economies: How Can We Test for It, and What Does It Mean?

A worker is said to be overeducated if he/she has acquired more education than is required to perform his/her job. In the absence of data measuring the number of years of schooling required to perform particular jobs, we propose a new approach to testing for overeducation. Overeducation is confirmed by rising education levels in jobs that offer very low returns to education and underwent little technological change. We find evidence of overeducation in technologically stagnant unskilled jobs in the Philippines, mild evidence in Mexico, and little evidence in India and Thailand. We show that a job’s mean and modal years of schooling are poor proxies for required education. We also show that overeducation sometimes increases within technologically stagnant unskilled jobs, even while skill biased technological change pulls other workers into jobs offering higher returns to schooling. This may be because the quality of education segments the labor market.
Human Capital Investment In The Presence Of Unemployment: Application To University Enrolment In Spain

This paper explores the effects of unemployment on the school enrolment decisions. A few studies that have taken up this issue in the past have produced results that are seemingly contradictory with each other. We build a model of the enrolment decision that is capable of explaining these results in a unified manner. In this model, unemployment affects the enrolment decision both through changing costs of and returns to education (investment effect) and through changing parental wealth and thus affecting intergenerational transfers (wealth effect). We develop an empirical framework that allows us to test presence of these two effects separately, and apply this to panel data of Spanish regions on university enrolment. We find that both effects are present.
On (Ultra) Rationality and the Corporate and Government Veils

The idea of (ultra) rationality in the context of changes in corporate and/or government savings stimulating offsetting responses in household savings has been the subject of theoretical and empirical controversy. This paper provides fresh evidence of the (ultra) rationality hypothesis, in the context of a generalized version of the life-cycle hypothesis of saving, for the case of the UK. The results suggest partial personal savings adjustment to government and corporate saving changes in the short and (to a lesser extent) the long run. This has important implications on the issues of 'rationality', 'fiscal policy' and financial capital accumulation. Copyright Blackwell Publishing Ltd and The Victoria University of Manchester, 2004.
Realtime ECG baseline removal: An isoelectric point estimation approach

This paper presents a novel method for ECG baseline drift removal while preserving the integrity of the ST segment. Baseline estimation is achieved by tracking 3 isoelectric points within the ECG waveform as fiducial markers used in an interpolation filter. These points are determined relative to the QRS complex, which is extracted using a known method (Pan-Tompkins algorithm). The proposed algorithm has been tested extensively using synthetic signals and also validated with real data. The synthetic signals assume a 2mV p-p ECG signal and 300 μV p-p baseline drift in the presence of noise artefacts including EMG pickup (20 dB - max. 200 μV), and residual power-line interference (50 μV p-p). The results show a maximum (worst-case ST-segment distortion) error of 34.7 μV (mean), 27.8 μV (median) and 21.2 μV (std. dev.) across 50 randomly generated synthetic ECG signals each containing 100 heartbeats. Validation of the algorithm applied to signals from the MIT-BIH arrhythmia databases reveals maximum error per P-T interval with mean, median and std. dev. of 34.4 μV, 35.2 μV and 9.6 μV respectively with suppressed motion artefacts.
Effect of electrical conductivity on the ion mobility in dielectric liquids

Conduction process in dielectric liquids has been studied for many years because of its importance in understanding the process of dielectric breakdown. As a key parameter in conduction process, ion mobility has been measured by various methods. The reversal polarity method has been widely used to accurately measure the ion mobility in the dielectric liquids. In this paper, the effect of electrical conductivity of dielectric liquids on the ion mobility measured by the reversal polarity method is studied via the ion drift model based on the Poisson's Equation. The observed results indicate that ion mobility of dielectric liquids with high conductivity decrease with the increasing of the applied electric field. On the contrary, the ion mobility of those with the low conductivity nearly keeps constant. It is revealed that in dielectric liquids with high conductivity, it is easier to cause electric field distortion at the low voltage side, making the TOF (Time of Flight) value inaccurate and leading to a larger value of ion mobility than the actual one. Therefore, when measuring the ion mobility of nonpolar dielectric liquids, the distortion influence should be considered carefully. And the effect of the different conductivity on the ion mobility should be taken into account.
Strategic corporate social responsibility: the struggle for legitimacy and reputation

Companies face the pressure to differentiate themselves from other companies, while simultaneously facing the pressure to work by the same standards as other companies in order to maintain their legitimacy. Firms that want to gain a differentiation advantage through their CSR activities need to match the practices of other firms, innovate and communicate their own CSR practices, and protect their CSR achievements from mimicry by other firms. An interview study among CSR directors of large industrial companies with high CSR ambitions was conducted in order to shed light on how CSR directors navigate this cycle of CSR innovation, CSR communication, and CSR mimicry. The findings suggest that companies should seek to foster relationship building within the organisation in order to speed up the execution of CSR ideas, build coopetitive networks for knowledge sharing with other companies, critically examine the organisation's culture, and optimise the effectiveness of CSR communication.
Voltage stability index based on standard deviation-mean ratio for identification of weak nodes

In electric power systems, it is important to Identify weak buses for operational and planning purposes. The conventional methods for assessing voltage stability are time consuming because they are based on schemes that vary the reactive power at a load bus one at time, while keeping reactive power at all other buses constant. In this paper, a framework that uses the ratio of standard deviation to mean of the magnitude of voltage at load buses to identify weak buses is proposed. In the framework, reactive powers atl load buses are generated simultaneously based on probability distribution functions. The 39-Bus New England test system is used to test the framework in DigSilent Power-Factory in conjunction with Python programming language. The result shows that weak buses can be identified with the proposed framework.
Occupational Choice and Multiple Job Holding in Rural Gujarat

This paper analyses the occupational choice behaviour of individuals in rural Gujarat in Western India. It examines the economic rationale for holding single or multiple jobs and undertaking self or wage employment. The analysis suggests that persons who undertake multiple jobs are younger, less educated, are faced with lower wage rates and live further away from towns. The influence of the value of physical capital on job choices is complex. The polychotomous logit model suggests that higher value of land and other assets encourage diversification into a second activity, except at very high value of land, among the self-employed. Further disaggregation, however, reveals that while this is true for self-employed men with land, landless self-employed men prefer to specialise in a single activity.
Using Hybrid Particle Swarm Optimization Based on the Generating Capacity Adjustment Mechanism to Solve Economic Dispatch Problems of Cogeneration Systems

This paper presents a computer technology called hybrid particle swarm optimization (HPSO) algorithm, to solve the economic dispatch (ED) problem of cogeneration systems. First outlined the status of the power system development and technical discussion, followed by test cases from the literature are used to evaluate the accuracy and validity of the algorithm. The HPSO algorithm combines genetic algorithm-specific mutation factor (MF) characteristics and the disturbance mechanism (DM), then used the exponential function to control the MF. A generating capacity adjustment mechanism (GCAM) is designed help the algorithm effectively identify the global optimum, effectively enhance the performance of the algorithm, the advantages of reducing computation time and the search range is reached.
Purification and characterization of protein H, the major porin of Pasteurella multocida

Protein H (B. Lugtenberg, R. van Boxtel, D. Evenberg, M. de Jong, P. Storm, and J. Frik, Infect. Immun. 52:175-182, 1986) is the major polypeptide of the outer membrane of Pasteurella multocida, a bacterium pathogenic for humans and animals. We have purified this protein to homogeneity by size exclusion chromatography after selective extraction with surfactants and demonstrated its pore-forming ability after reincorporation into planar lipid bilayers. In these experiments, the current through the pores was a linear function of the applied voltage in the range of -50 to +50 mV. Voltages beyond +/- 50 mV tended to partially close the channels, giving rise to apparent negative resistances. These observations suggest that protein H channels are probably not voltage regulated in vivo. With the patch clamp technique, single-channel conductance fluctuations of 0.33 nS were recorded in 1 M KCl. Electrophoretic and circular dichroism analyses showed that protein H forms homotrimers stable in sodium dodecyl sulfate at room temperature, with a high content of beta-sheet secondary structure. Upon boiling, the trimers were fully dissociated into monomers with an increase of alpha helix and irregular structure, at the expense of beta sheets. The apparent molecular mass of fully denatured monomers ranged between 37 and 41.8 kDa, depending on the electrophoretic system used for analysis. The trimeric arrangement of protein H was confirmed by image analysis of negatively stained, two-dimensional crystal arrays. This morphological study revealed, in agreement with electrophoretical data, a trimeric structure with an overall diameter of 7.7 nm. Each monomer appeared to contain a pore with an average diameter of 1 nm. Quantitative comparisons revealed that the amino acid composition (hydropathy index of -0.40) and the N-terminal sequence (determined over 36 residues) of protein H are similar to those of bacterial general porins, notably porin P2 of Haemophilus influenzae. We conclude from this set of structural and functional data that protein H of P. multocida is a pore-forming protein related to the superfamily of the nonspecific bacterial porins.
Errata for Game Theory : An Introduction , by

v = min j max i ai,j ≤ max i ai,j∗ ≤ ai∗,j∗ ≤ min j ai∗,j ≤ max i min j ai,j = v −. p. 12 in proof of Lemma 1.1. 3,“Let i∗ be such that . j = 1, 2,m. Should be: “Let j∗ be such that v+ = maxi ai,j∗ and i ∗ such that v− = minj ai∗,j . Then ai∗,j ≥ v− = v ≥ ai,j∗ , for any i = 1, 2, , n, j = 1, 2, ,m. 4. p. 16, line 6, v+ = minx∈C maxy∈D f(x, y), and v − = maxy∈D minx∈C f(x, y), should be v = min y∈D max x∈C f(x, y), and v− = max x∈C min y∈D f(x, y).
Family Matters

This study explores the impact of publicly traded founding family firms (FFFs) on their propensity for corporate political activity (CPA) and their choice of political approaches. Based on the behavior and characteristics of publicly traded FFFs, the author expected a positive association between FFFs and corporate political activity and a preference for relational, or long-term, over transactional, or short-term, corporate political activity. It was found that publicly traded FFFs are more likely to engage in CPA only when the firm's founder is in an executive position. Furthermore, publicly traded FFFs show a preference for relational versus transactional corporate political activity. These findings are examined in light of FFF and corporate political strategy literatures.
Autoimmunohistochemistry: a new method for the histologic diagnosis of infective endocarditis.

BACKGROUND Although the pathologic examination of cardiac valves remains the reference standard for the diagnosis of infective endocarditis, the detection of microorganisms often poses a challenge for pathologists. This can be done by use of nonspecific histochemical stains or by immunohistochemical analysis, but specific antibodies are often not available. We describe a novel method for the detection of microorganisms in valve specimens from patients with infective endocarditis. METHODS Detection of microorganisms was performed in valve specimens from patients with endocarditis caused by gram-positive cocci (25 specimens), blood culture-negative endocarditis (15 specimens: 6 cases caused by Coxiella burnetii, 5 caused by Tropheryma whipplei, and 4 caused by Bartonella species), or noninfective degenerative damage (30 specimens, used as negative controls), using the patients' own serum. This technique, called "autoimmunohistochemistry," is an immunohistochemical peroxidase-based method that we compared with results of culture and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay. RESULTS Bacteria were detected by autoimmunohistochemistry in 20 (80%) specimens from patients with endocarditis caused by gram-positive cocci and in 15 (100%) specimens from patients with blood culture-negative endocarditis but in no control specimens. The rate of detection of bacteria by autoimmunohistochemistry was significantly higher than that by culture but was similar to that by PCR. CONCLUSIONS Autoimmunohistochemistry may be useful for the detection of microorganisms in samples of valves from patients with infective endocarditis. This new diagnostic tool may be particularly useful in cases of blood culture-negative endocarditis.
Hypomorphic mutation of ZAP70 in human results in a late onset immunodeficiency and no autoimmunity

Complete lack of function of the tyrosine kinase ZAP70 in humans results in a severe immunodeficiency, characterized by a lack of mature CD8+ T cells and non‐functional CD4+ T cells. We report herein an immunodeficiency with an inherited hypomorphic mutation of ZAP70 due to a single G‐to‐A substitution in a non‐coding intron. This mutation introduces a new acceptor splice site and allows low levels of normal alternative splicing and of WT ZAP70 expression. This partial deficiency results in a compromised TCR signaling that was totally restored by increased expression of ZAP70, demonstrating that defective activation of the patient T cells was indeed caused by the low level of ZAP70 expression. This partial ZAP70 deficiency was associated with an attenuated clinical and immunological phenotype as compared with complete ZAP70 deficiency. CD4+ helper T‐cell populations including, follicular helper T cells, Th1, Th17 and Treg were detected in the blood. Finally, the patient had no manifestation of autoimmunity suggesting that the T‐cell tolerogenic functions were not compromised, in contrast to what has been observed in mice carrying hypomorphic mutations of Zap70. This report extends the phenotype spectrum of ZAP70 deficiency with a residual function of ZAP70.
Banks, Distances and Firms' Financing Constraints

Bank deregulation and progress in information technology altered the geographical diffusion of banking structures and instruments, and reduced operational distance between banks and local economies. Although, the consolidation of the banking industry promoted the geographical concentration of banking decision-making centres and increased functional distance between local banking systems and local borrowers. This paper focuses on the impact that these spatial diffusion-concentration phenomena had on the financing constraints of Italian firms over the period 1996--2003. Our findings show that greater functional distance stiffened financing constraints, especially for small firms, while smaller operational distance did not always enhance credit availability. Copyright 2009, Oxford University Press.
Evaluation of the impact of ionospheric asymmetry on GNSS Radio Occultation inversion products using NeQuick and IRI

`Onion-peeling' algorithm is a very common technique used to invert Radio Occultation (RO) data in the ionosphere. Because of the implicit assumption of spherical symmetry for the electron density distribution in the ionosphere, the standard Onion-peeling algorithm could give erroneous concentration values in the retrieved electron density profile. In particular, this happens when strong horizontal ionospheric electron density gradients are present, like for example in the Equatorial Ionization Anomaly (EIA) region during high solar activity periods. In this work, using simulated RO TEC data computed by means of the NeQuick2 and IRI2012 ionospheric electron density models and ideal RO geometries, we tried to formulate and evaluate an asymmetry level indicator for quasi-horizontal radio occultation observations. This asymmetry index is based on the electron density variation that a ray may experience along its propagation path (satellite to satellite link) in a RO event. This index is dependent on the occultation geometry and on the azimuth of the occultation plane. Our qualitative assessment shows a good correlation between our asymmetry index and Onion-peeling retrieval errors; i.e. errors produced by Onion-peeling in the retrieval of NmF2 and VTEC are larger at the geographical locations where our asymmetry index indicates high asymmetry in the ionosphere.
Federal Budget Deficits, Interest Rates, and Inflation: Their Implication for Growth

The persistence of large federal government deficits has stimulated interest in investigating the impact of deficits on the U.S. economy. The present paper analyzes two related theoretical issues. First, it examines the direction of causal flows in the deficit-nominal interest rate relationship. Second, it investigates the effects of deficits on the two components of nominal interest rates, namely the inflation rate and the real rate of interest. The causality test results indicate that deficits affect both of these components in the case of the long-term nominal interest rate. Deficits have adverse effects on economic growth because of reduced capital formation at higher real rates of interest.
High Frequency Electricity Spot Price Dynamics: An Intra-Day Markets Approach

In this paper we develop a new approach to understanding the behavior of high frequency electricity spot prices. It treats electricity delivered at different times of the day as different commodities while recognizing that these commodities may be traded on a small number of intra-day markets. We first present a detailed analysis of the high frequency dynamics of prices at a key New Zealand node. Our analysis which includes the use of a periodic autoregression model supports the treating of electricity as multiple commodities and also reveals intrinsic correlation properties that indicate the existence of distinct intra-day markets. Conventional models cannot adequately capture properties that have important implications for derivative pricing and real options analysis. We therefore extend the literature by introducing a state space model of high frequency spot prices that preserves this intra-day market structure.
Inhibition or Ablation of p21-activated Kinase (PAK1) Disrupts Glucose Homeostatic Mechanisms in Vivo*

Background: P21-activated kinase (PAK1) is a downstream effector of the GTPase Cdc42. Results: Inhibition of Cdc42-PAK1 signaling in human islets inhibited insulin secretion. PAK1 knock-out mice showed defects in insulin release and skeletal muscle insulin action, underlying impaired whole body glucose homeostasis. Conclusion: Attenuated PAK1 abundance/activation may contribute to type 2 diabetes susceptibility. Significance: Cdc42-PAK1 signaling is crucial for regulating glucose homeostasis in vivo. The p21-activated kinase PAK1 is implicated in tumorigenesis, and efforts to inhibit PAK1 signaling as a means to induce tumor cell apoptosis are underway. However, PAK1 has also been implicated as a positive effector of mechanisms in clonal pancreatic beta cells and skeletal myotubes that would be crucial to maintaining glucose homeostasis in vivo. Of relevance, human islets of Type 2 diabetic donors contained ∼80% less PAK1 protein compared with non-diabetics, implicating PAK1 in islet signaling/scaffolding functions. Mimicking this, islets from PAK1−/− knock-out mice exhibited profound defects in the second/sustained-phase of insulin secretion. Reiteration of this specific defect by human islets treated with the PAK1 signaling inhibitor IPA3 revealed PAK1 signaling to be of primary functional importance. Analyses of human and mouse islet beta cell signaling revealed PAK1 activation to be 1) dependent upon Cdc42 abundance, 2) crucial for signaling downstream to activate ERK1/2, but 3) dispensable for cofilin phosphorylation. Importantly, the PAK1−/− knock-out mice were found to exhibit whole body glucose intolerance in vivo. Exacerbating this, the PAK1−/− knock-out mice also exhibited peripheral insulin resistance. Insulin resistance was coupled to ablation of insulin-stimulated GLUT4 translocation in skeletal muscle from PAK1−/− knock-out mice, and in sharp contrast to islet beta cells, skeletal muscle PAK1 loss was underscored by defective cofilin phosphorylation but normal ERK1/2 activation. Taken together, these data provide the first human islet and mammalian in vivo data unveiling the key and crucial roles for differential PAK1 signaling in the multi-tissue regulation of whole body glucose homeostasis.
Self-Discovery in a Development Strategy for El Salvador

We study the causes of low growth in El Salvador, a country with an impressive record of political, macroeconomic, and structural reform. We apply a growth diagnostic methodology and conclude that market failures in the process of self-discovering" the country´s productive potential is a main obstacle to investment and growth. We propose a set of policies to tackle this constraint. "