Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The atomic structure of protein-protein recognition sites.

The non-covalent assembly of proteins that fold separately is central to many biological processes, and differs from the permanent macromolecular assembly of protein subunits in oligomeric proteins. We performed an analysis of the atomic structure of the recognition sites seen in 75 protein-protein complexes of known three-dimensional structure: 24 protease-inhibitor, 19 antibody-antigen and 32 other complexes, including nine enzyme-inhibitor and 11 that are involved in signal transduction.The size of the recognition site is related to the conformational changes that occur upon association. Of the 75 complexes, 52 have "standard-size" interfaces in which the total area buried by the components in the recognition site is 1600 (+/-400) A2. In these complexes, association involves only small changes of conformation. Twenty complexes have "large" interfaces burying 2000 to 4660 A2, and large conformational changes are seen to occur in those cases where we can compare the structure of complexed and free components. The average interface has approximately the same non-polar character as the protein surface as a whole, and carries somewhat fewer charged groups. However, some interfaces are significantly more polar and others more non-polar than the average. Of the atoms that lose accessibility upon association, half make contacts across the interface and one-third become fully inaccessible to the solvent. In the latter case, the Voronoi volume was calculated and compared with that of atoms buried inside proteins. The ratio of the two volumes was 1.01 (+/-0.03) in all but 11 complexes, which shows that atoms buried at protein-protein interfaces are close-packed like the protein interior. This conclusion could be extended to the majority of interface atoms by including solvent positions determined in high-resolution X-ray structures in the calculation of Voronoi volumes. Thus, water molecules contribute to the close-packing of atoms that insure complementarity between the two protein surfaces, as well as providing polar interactions between the two proteins.
Defining Best Practice Carbon Management in an Australian context

The adoption of the Clean Energy Legislative Package by the Australian Government has created a ‘jolt’ to the environmental compliance requirements of many of Australia's largest firms. The way these Australian organisations adapt to the introduction of a price on carbon is yet to be seen. Impacted organisations will experience both risks and opportunities that, dependent on their management choices, may affect their profitability and potential to create a competitive advantage. This paper argues that the adoption of a set of attributes, defined herein as Best Practice Carbon Management (BPCM), may facilitate the adaptation of firms to the introduced emissions trading scheme. The implications for carbon management, firm carbon strategy and further research are also discussed.
European unilateralism and involuntary burden-sharing in global climate politics: A public opinion perspective from the other side

Powerful political actors in the international system quite frequently adopt unilateral policies whose implications extend beyond their respective borders. Examples include financial market regulation as well as taxation, trade and environmental policies. They do so to avoid lowest common-denominator outcomes in areas where they desire more ambitious international policies, and to motivate or coerce other countries to shoulder a part of the burden associated with problem solving. This article explores whether and how such unilateralism affects public opinion in other countries, arguing that such analysis can point to external constraints on unilateralism and is worthwhile also for normative reasons. Empirically, we examine the effect of a major unilateral European Union (EU) climate policy initiative, which regulates emissions from aircraft, on public opinion in India and the United States, the two largest democracies outside the EU. Based on survey experiments, we study the effects of cost and sovereignty considerations on people’s evaluation of the EU’s new policy. The results show that both types of concern play a significant role and may act as a constraint on unilateral European climate policy.
Optimal monopolist pricing under demand uncertainty in dynamic markets

We examine pricing policy for a monopolist facing uncertain demand in a market characterized by dynamics on the demand side (such as diffusion or saturation effects) and/or on the cost side (experience curve effects). Our model explicitly incorporates the impact of demand uncertainty, and thus allows us to analyze the implications of uncertainty on the optimal price path, by contrasting the stochastic policy with the corresponding deterministic policy. We begin with an analysis of the general model and then focus on several special cases based on well known demand specifications to gain more specific insights and to suggest directional guidelines for dynamic pricing decisions in an uncertain environment. In general, the interaction among uncertainty, demand and/or cost dynamics, and firm's discount rate. Thus, farsighted firms operating under dynamic market conditions with high demand uncertainty, such as high tech companies with innovative products for consumer or industrial markets, should attach particular importance to the formal consideration of uncertainty in their long term pricing decisions.
Stability of niosomes with encapsulated vitamin D3 and ferrous sulfate generated using a novel supercritical carbon dioxide method

Abstract Niosomes were prepared using a novel supercritical carbon dioxide based method to simultaneously encapsulate ferrous sulfate and vitamin D3 as hydrophilic and hydrophobic cargo, respectively. Vesicle particle size was determined to be bimodal with peak diameters of 1.44 ± 0.16 μm and 7.21 ± 0.64 μm, with the smaller peak comprising 98.8% of the total niosomal volume. Encapsulation efficiency of ferrous sulfate was 25.1 ± 0.2% and encapsulation efficiency of vitamin D3 was 95.9 ± 1.47%. Physical stability of the produced niosomes was assessed throughout a storage period of 21 days. Niosomes showed good physical stability at 20 °C, but storage at 4 °C showed an initial burst release, indicating possible rupture of the niosomal membrane. The Korsmeyer–Peppas equation was used to model the release of ferrous sulfate over time at both storage temperatures.
Actual and Preferred Working Hours

We use British panel data to investigate whether or not subjective data on desired labour supply provide information on future labour market behaviour. We find that, although men and women are able to adjust their work hours in line with preferences, this is greatly facilitated through within- and between-employer job changes. We also find that hours constraints are significant determinants of leaving the labour market and within- and between-employer mobility. We conclude that rigidities in the labour market exist and that these rigidities impair the welfare of employees.
Turbo-like synchronization for UWB-IR links

This contribution deals with the Turbo-like noncoherent data-aided (e.g., no blind) synchronization of Ultra-Wideband Impulse-Radio (UWB-IR) terminals operating over broadband channels affected by multipath fading with ¿a priori¿ unknown number of paths. The synchronizer we develop achieves the data-aided joint estimate of the number of paths and their arrival times without requiring any a priori knowledge of the amplitude (module and sign) of the channel-gains. The ultimate performance of the proposed synchronizer is evaluated by considering the number of pilots needed to estimate the channel delays and, more, the Bit Error Rate achievable on the basis of delays and amplitude estimation. The idea behind this approach is to use a turbo-like structure to improve performance so to allow a SNR gain even if channel models are considered in the presence of Inter Pulse Interference (IPI).
Getting rid of Keynes? A survey of the history of macroeconomics from Keynes to Lucas and beyond

The aim of this paper is to recount the ebbs and flows of Keynesianism over the history of macroeconomics. The bulk of the paper consists of a discussion of the main episodes of the unfolding of macroeconomics (Keynesian macroeconomics, monetarism, new classical macroeconomics, real business cycle models and new neoclassical synthesis models) against the background of a distinction between Keynesianism as a ‘moderately conservative’ (Keynes’s words) vision about the working of the market system and as a conceptual apparatus. Particular attention is given to the contrast between Keynesian and Lucasian macroeconomics. The paper ends with a few remarks about the impact of the present crisis on the development of macroeconomic theory.
Buying Behavior on Daily-Deal Sites: The Role of Face Value, Product Involvement, Information, and Website Quality

The aim of this research is to identify factors that may have an effect on e-voucher sales, in the context of daily-deal sites. While previous research has focused on purchase intentions as the dependent variable and on fictitious coupons and/or brands, this article extends previous work by investigating what actually impacts vouchers sales, using real voucher data, as basic research units of analysis. Using content analysis, researchers analyzed 596 vouchers from different daily-deal websites. Taking the inherent capability of Bayesian Networks for reasoning under conditions of uncertainty into account, a series of learning and simulation processes reveal the influential degree that website and information quality, face value, and product involvement exert on vouchers sales. The results of the study provide management with specific guidelines for setting the right prices in vouchers and designing effective promotional messages.
Determinants of audit report lag: further evidence from Hong Kong

Abstract This study examines whether the audit report lag (ARL) of Hong Kong companies is associated with auditor business risk and audit firm technology. The study is based on a sample of 393 Hong Kong companies for the 1991–1993 period. Financial condition and family ownership/control of a company are used as proxies for auditor business risk, and the structured/unstructured audit approach is used as a proxy for audit firm technology. Other variables, such as the number of subsidiaries, nature of client's business, company size, unexpected positive earnings news and nature of audit opinion, are included as control variables. Regression results show that there is a positive association between the audit report lag and the financial risk index for Hong Kong companies, suggesting that companies with a weak financial condition are associated with longer audit delays. The results also show that companies audited by audit firms using the structured audit approach have longer audit delays. The findings on the .
Exploiting bilosomes for delivering bioactive polysaccharide isolated from Enteromorpha intestinalis for hacking hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract Bile salts containing vesicles (bilosomes) represent a portentous vesicular carrier that showed prosperous results in delivering active moieties in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT). In this study, bilosomes were exploited to deliver sulfated polysaccharide–protein complexes of Enteromorpha intestinalis (EHEM) and enhance its activity against hepatocellular carcinoma as well as resist harsh GIT conditions. Bilosomes were prepared using the sodium salt of three different bile acids (cholic, deoxycholic, taurodeoxycholic) and two different nonionic surfactants (Span 40 and 65). The effects of experimental variables were thoroughly studied to obtain an optimum formulation loading EHEM. The selected formulation (EH-Bilo-2) prepared with sodium cholate and Span 65 displayed nano-sized (181.1 ± 16.80 nm) spherical vesicles with reasonable entrapment efficiency (71.60 ± 0.25%) and controlled release properties; and thus was investigated as anti-hepatocarcinogenic candidate for in vivo studies. Treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) bearing rats with EH-Bilo-2 experienced significant decrease in serum α-fetoprotein, endoglin, lipocalin-2, and heat shock protein 70 levels vs. the untreated counterparts. Furthermore, the photomicrographs of their liver tissue sections showed focal area of degenerated pleomorphic hepatocytes with fine fibrosis originating from the portal area. Thus, the optimized bilosomal formulation is a promising delegate for tackling hepatocellular carcinoma owing to its powerful anti-cancer and anti-angiogenic activity.
Optical–SZE scaling relations for DES optically selected clusters within the SPT-SZ Survey

We study the Sunyaev–Zel'dovich effect (SZE) signature in South Pole Telescope (SPT) data for an ensemble of 719 optically identified galaxy clusters selected from 124.6 deg^2 of the Dark Energy Survey (DES) science verification data, detecting a clear stacked SZE signal down to richness λ ∼ 20. The SZE signature is measured using matched-filtered maps of the 2500 deg^2 SPT-SZ survey at the positions of the DES clusters, and the degeneracy between SZE observable and matched-filter size is broken by adopting as priors SZE and optical mass–observable relations that are either calibrated using SPT-selected clusters or through the Arnaud et al. (A10) X-ray analysis. We measure the SPT signal-to-noise ζ–λ relation and two integrated Compton-yY_500–λ relations for the DES-selected clusters and compare these to model expectations that account for the SZE–optical centre offset distribution. For clusters with λ > 80, the two SPT-calibrated scaling relations are consistent with the measurements, while for the A10-calibrated relation the measured SZE signal is smaller by a factor of 0.61 ± 0.12 compared to the prediction. For clusters at 20 < λ < 80, the measured SZE signal is smaller by a factor of ∼0.20–0.80 (between 2.3σ and 10σ significance) compared to the prediction, with the SPT-calibrated scaling relations and larger λ clusters showing generally better agreement. We quantify the required corrections to achieve consistency, showing that there is a richness-dependent bias that can be explained by some combination of (1) contamination of the observables and (2) biases in the estimated halo masses. We also discuss particular physical effects associated with these biases, such as contamination of λ from line-of-sight projections or of the SZE observables from point sources, larger offsets in the SZE-optical centring or larger intrinsic scatter in the λ–mass relation at lower richnesses.
Does Public Financial News Resolve Asymmetric Information?

I use uniquely comprehensive data on financial news events to test four predictions from an asymmetric information model of a firm's stock price. Certain investors trade on information before it becomes public; then, public news levels the playing field for other investors, increasing their willingness to accommodate a persistent liquidity shock. Empirically, I measure public information using firms' stock returns on news days in the Dow Jones archive. I find four patterns in postnews returns and trading volume that are consistent with the asymmetric information model's predictions. Some evidence is, moreover, inconsistent with alternative theories in which traders interpret news differently for rational or behavioral reasons. The Author 2010. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Society for Financial Studies. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org. , Oxford University Press.
Understanding the Impact of Ecotourism Resort Experiences on Tourists’ Environmental Attitudes and Behavioural Intentions

This study explored the conservation benefits of environmental management practices and nature experiences provided at a major Australian ecotourism resort. To achieve this purpose the study investigated changes in tourists’ environmental knowledge, awareness, attitudes and behavioural intentions between pre-visit and post-visit stages. Overall, there were few statistically significant differences between the pre-visit and post-visit samples. This study found, however, significant effects of (1) visitor awareness of, and (2) involvement in, the environmental management practices, and (3) participation in nature tour activities on environmental attitudes and behaviours. It is suggested that awareness of in-resort environmental practices and satisfying experiences in ecotourism accommodation may lead to reinforcing visitors’ favourable environmental attitudes, thus increasing their interest in further ecotourism experiences. Through these cumulative effects, ecotourism accommodation could achieve its educative goal.
A Framework to Compare Environmental Policies

This paper builds a single model that can be used to show efficiency and distributional effects of eight different types of environmental policies (including taxes, subsidies, regulations, permits, and legal liability). All eight approaches can be designed to have the same efficiency effects, even while they have different distributional effects. For further evaluation of these policies, the paper discusses other criteria outside the simple model (including administrative efficiency, enforcement capabilities, and political feasibility). The paper ends with a discussion of likely trade-offs among these often-competing objectives of environmental policy.
Alternative Tests of Independence between Stochastic Regressors and Disturbances

IN TESTING HYPOTHESES on the coefficients of a linear regression model with stochastic regressors it is well known that the usual t test and F test are applicable if the stochastic regressors are statistically independent of the disturbances [3, p. 268; 5, pp. 27-28]. Also, there are cases in which economic hypotheses can be stated in terms of the independence of stochastic regressors and disturbances, the best known examples being the current versus the permanent income hypotheses and the recursiveness hypothesis in a simultaneous equations model. Therefore, it is desirable to develop a procedure that can be used to test the hypothesis that the stochastic regressors and disturbances are independent. In this paper, we examine four alternative tests of independence between the stochastic regressors and disturbances. In the rest of this section we specify the stochastic model and state the hypotheses to be tested. In Section 2 we present two finite sample tests. In Section 3 two alternative asymptotic tests are given and asymptotic power functions of all four tests are examined. In Section 4 we give examples of applications of the test in econometrics. We consider the following linear model:
Entropy Measure of Diversification and Corporate Growth

During the past decade or more, a number of authors have proposed (and applied) a number of measures of corporate diversification. These have ranged from simple counts of the number of products to measures which assign various weights to the relative importance of each product within the corporation's total product mix.1 For the most part, these measures have direct counterparts in familiar measures of industrial structure. For example, Michael Gort [5] defined, as one measure of corporate diversification, the ratio of the firm's sales within the firm's primary industry to the firm's total sales. This is the equivalent (within the firm) of the primary product specialization ratio reported for 4-digit industries by the Bureau of the Census. A variation of Orris Herfindahl's index of industrial concentration-the sum of the squared shares of each product's contribution to the firm's total output-has been used by one of the authors of this paper [i], [2]. Others have suggested the application to corporate diversification of what has come to be called the entropy measure of industrial concentration.2 There is no axiomatic analysis or general model of diversification which suggests the advantage of any single index; at this stage it is therefore appropriate to ask which particular index performs best empirically. This note outlines a theme common to all these measures, identifies a major advantage of the entropy measure in the analysis of corporate diversification, and provides some comparative applications of the entropy measure and of the Herfindahl index to 460 of the largest US manufacturing corporations.
Quality Uncertainty and the Performance of Online Sponsored Search Markets: An Empirical Investigation

Online sponsored search advertising has emerged as the dominant online advertising format largely due to their "pay-for-performance" nature, wherein advertising expenditures are closely tied to outcomes. While the pay-for-performance format substantially reduces the "wastage" incurred by advertisers compared to traditional "pay-per-exposure" advertising formats, the reduction of such wastage also carries the risk of reducing the signaling properties of advertising. Lacking a separating equilibrium, low quality firms in these markets may be able to mimic the advertising strategies of high quality firms. This study examines this issue in the context of online sponsored search markets. Using data gathered from sponsored search auctions for keywords in an unregulated market we find evidence of adverse selection for products/services characterized by high uncertainty. On the other hand, there is no evidence of adverse selection for similar products in a regulated sponsored search market, suggesting that intervention by the search intermediary can have a significant impact on the market outcomes and consumer welfare.
The Influence of Economic Freedom on the Likelihood of Self-Employment: A Multilevel Analysis

Recent research has examined the relationship between economic freedom and measures of entrepreneurship. This paper extents on that research by using multilevel modeling, also known as random coefficient modeling (RCM), to examine how both country-level economic freedom and individual characteristics influence the likelihood of an individual being self-employed. Also, this paper examines the robustness of these relationships by running separate analyses using scores from both the Economic Freedom of the World index and the Index of Economic Freedom. Individual-level data obtained from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor are used. Surprisingly, the results show a positive relationship between the government size/taxation level in a country and the likelihood of individual self-employment. A positive relationship is also found between the level of trade freedom in the country in which an individual resides and the likelihood that they are engaged in self-employment. Some support is also found for a negative relationship between both property rights and the level of business regulations in the country in which an individual resides and the likelihood that they are self-employed.
Point cloud registration using MSSIR: Maximally stable shape index regions

Range image registration is one of the fundamental tasks in 3D computer vision and robotics which is gaining more attention with availability of affordable range cameras. Existing recent research has considered application or extension of well known point features like SIFT to the range data; examples include Shape index SIFT and 2.5D SIFT. Compared to RGB image, the quality of range measurement is much worse in sensors like Kinect. This is expected and inherent due to the exploited structured light technique. Therefore, point features may easily mismatched as a result of higher noise level. In this paper we show how using region based features may overcome this challenge. MSER features are extracted from shape index image obtained from the input range image. A SIFT-like descriptor is then proposed to encode major smooth regions of the scene as stable features invariant to scale, rotation and affine transformations. Experimental results are obtained using range image databases of Ohio State University and Stuttgart University which show improvement on the percentage of correct matched features and stability of detected features.