Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Next Global Crisis: Greatest Recession in the History of Capitalism is at the Doorstep

The main purpose of this paper is to warn academia and general public about the inevitability of the impending global economic recession. Heuristically paper introduces concept of macroeconomic gambling trap within the wider context of global economic history. Macroeconomic gambling trap is then applied to the current situation. The underlying cause for the impending crisis is the growth of debt in the West. Primary progenitor of debt problem is the world’s largest debtor nation, United States. Since the 1970s and the unilateral destruction of the golden standard US political and military power guarantee status of the dollar as world reserve currency despite absence of its backing in gold. Debt explosion caused alienation of financial sector from the real economy in most western countries. The impending crisis is foreshadowed by a Great Recession (Financial crisis of 2007/2008). The Great Recession was only temporally stopped by means of unorthodox monetary policy – with quantitative easing programs and by keeping interest rates at record low, even negative, levels. However, this will make forthcoming collapse only more severe. After analysis of the influence of gold standard collapse on the outcome of the Cold War the paper utilizes specific economic indicators, such as velocity of money M2 for USD, growth in total debt, CAPE ratio for aggregate US stock market, US labour force participation and index of the Shanghai Stock Exchange to indicate the immediacy and the inevitability of the next global recession.
Reducing mold changing time by implementing Lean Six Sigma

Six Sigma is a well‐structured methodology that focuses on reducing variation, measuring defects and improving the quality of products, processes and services. Lean Production is an approach that focuses on reducing the cycle time and eliminating waste in processes. Combining the principles of Six Sigma and Lean can achieve synergistic results that neither system can achieve alone. This paper presents a case study at a printed circuit board company in China illustrating how the company effectively applied a Lean Six Sigma project. The mold changing time in In‐circuit test process is examined. Numerous improvement actions and a control plan are developed and implemented to sustain and enhance the efficiency of the mold changing process. Finally, the benefits, experience and extensions of the Lean Six Sigma project are also discussed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
ACCOUNTING FOR STEWARDSHIP

What is meant by the objectives of an economic activity like financial reporting? One possibility is to define objectives as the reasons that the output of the activity is demanded. ' Since financial statements are not usually thought of as consumption goods, asking for the reason they are in demand is not trivial. Two apparently different answers may be suggested to this question.2 (1) Financial statements may be of value to investors (in a broad sense) making investment decisions. I shall call this, decision-making demand. (2) Investors usually delegate decision making to managers. Then there may be a demand for information about the actions that are taken for the purpose of controlling them. This I shall call stewardship demand. Statement (1) is easily demonstrated as a proposition of information economics. The theory of decision-making demand for information is fairly well developed-at least for the case of a single decision makerand its implications for financial reporting have been extensively explored
A key process of natural state modeling: 3D Geological model of Jaboi Geothermal field, Nangro Aceh Darussalam, Indonesia

This project aims to develop a new natural state model of Jaboi geothermal area to obtain an improved understanding of the subsurface conditions and behavior of the reservoir. This paper describes the progress that has been made in the project so far which includes a new geological model developed in LEAPFROG Geothermal and the reservoir model setup and definition. The new geological model provides a very useful 3D visualization tool and compiles all of the exploration data. Jaboi geothermal field has been explored since the 1970’s until today. However, no research has gone as far as creating a 3D model of the area. The construction process of the new 3D geological model of Weh Island was carried out using a compilation of geoscientific data derived from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources exploration activities within 2005-2006. The 3D geological model assigns the related features such as the geological structures, water level, rock types, and surface manifestations and the model will be used as the basis for developing the new reservoir model. A description of the new reservoir model’s setup and definition is given, and details of the proposed mode calibration are outlined. The simulations will be run using AUTOUGH2.
V-ATPase of Thermus thermophilus Is Inactivated during ATP Hydrolysis but Can Synthesize ATP*

The ATP hydrolysis of the V1-ATPase of Thermus thermophilus have been investigated with an ATP-regenerating system at 25 °C. The ratio of ATPase activity to ATP concentration ranged from 40 to 4000 μm; from this, an apparent K m of 240 ± 24 μm and a V max of 5.2 ± 0.5 units/mg were deduced. An apparent negative cooperativity, which is frequently observed in case of F1-ATPases, was not observed for the V1-ATPase. Interestingly, the rate of hydrolysis decayed rapidly during ATP hydrolysis, and the ATP hydrolysis finally stopped. Furthermore, the inactivation of the V1-ATPase was attained by a prior incubation with ADP-Mg. The inactivated V1-ATPase contained 1.5 mol of ADP/mol of enzyme. Difference absorption spectra generated from addition of ATP-Mg to the isolated subunits revealed that the A subunit can bind ATP-Mg, whereas the B subunit cannot. The inability to bind ATP-Mg is consistent with the absence of Walker motifs in the B subunit. These results indicate that the inactivation of the V1-ATPase during ATP hydrolysis is caused by entrapping inhibitory ADP-Mg in a catalytic site. Light-driven ATP synthesis by bacteriorhodopsin-VoV1-ATPase proteoliposomes was observed, and the rate of ATP synthesis was approximately constant. ATP synthesis occurred in the presence of an ADP-Mg of which concentration was high enough to induce complete inactivation of ATP hydrolysis of VoV1-ATPase. This result indicates that the ADP-Mg-inhibited form is not produced in ATP synthesis reaction.
BB84 analysis of operation and practical considerations and implementations of quantum key distribution systems

Nowadays cryptography is applied in more and more applications. Most often asymmetric or hybrid systems are used, which are based on mathematical concepts. However, a promising family of quantum solutions tries to take over control. This article describes a technique of quantum key distribution called BB84. It gives an insight into quantum physics governing the proper operation of any system in quantum cryptography and then presents the detailed analysis of BB48 system. Its operation and security it provides are discussed. Next aspect that is covered is dedicated to practical considerations of quantum cryptography. All basic problems encountered while implementing BB84 or any other quantum system are explained.
Annealing Effect of Sol-Gel TiO2 Thin Film on pH-EGFET Sensor

In this study, a sol-gel titanium dioxide (TiO2) was spin-coated on indium tin oxide (ITO) substrate as a sensing membrane for the extended-gate field-effect transistor (EGFET). To improve its sensing properties, the resultant films were thermal annealed at various temperatures. It shows that, as TiO2 was post-annealed at Ta=200°C for 30 min, a highest pH sensitivity of 79.9 μA/pH was derived. As Ta > 500°C, the pH sensitivity was declined substantial to 70.1 μA/pH. The sensitivity would further deteriorate to 61.8 μA/pH as the annealing time extended to 90 min under identical Ta. These phenomena could be attributed to the less surface hydroxyl sites of TiO2 thin film at elevated Ta. X-ray diffractograms indicates that an amorphous titania resides as Ta <; 200°C which presents more surface hydroxyl sites than those of crystalline structures at elevated Ta. It reveals that the pH sensitivity of EGFET was relied on the density of the surface hydroxyl structures. To employ to the portable sensing devices with desirable pH sensitivity, the post annealing of the asdeposited TiO2 film is a crucial process.
A Solution to Optimize Multi-Operand Adders in CNN Architecture on FPGA

Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) is a very popular method in recent times to solve many computer vision tasks. However, CNN is becoming computationally intensive as time is progressing which requires a dedicated hardware for real time implementation. Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) and Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) are two hot choices to execute and accelerate the CNN network. FPGA has an advantage over GPU due to its flexible architecture and it can also provide high performance per unit watt of power. These benefits make FPGA a suitable candidate for CNN acceleration. However, optimization is required for FPGA based accelerator design to accommodate more computations. One of the challenges in accelerator design is to perform addition of intermediate results generated in a process of convolution. Therefore, Multi-Operand Adders (MOAs) are necessary in the accelerator design of CNN on FPGA but consume most of the area. Optimization strategy based on WALLACE tree architecture is proposed in this article to replace the typical binary adder tree in CNN accelerator design. Experimental results show an improvement in terms of area optimization and performance in comparison with the previous implementation.
Design and implementation of non-autonomous mobile wireless sensor for debris flow monitoring

This demo presents a mobile wireless sensor system for debris flow monitoring. The objective of this system is to realize long-term and effective debris flow surveillance using low cost wireless sensors. In the system, a set of robust wireless sensors are designed to deploy on riverbed and cooperatively observe the moving debris flows. Our mobile sensors are intended to be carried along by the debris flow. As the sensors move along, they are able to measure the internal parameters, such as vibration frequency, amplitude, moving direction and velocity, of the debris flow. By utilizing the proposed energy-saving mechanism on the WSN platform, the mobile sensors can continuously operate up to six months with merely two alkaline D cell batteries. The proposed system provides the abilities to collect high-fidelity data for civil engineering applications to analyze and determine the occurrence of debris flows, as well as estimate the damage.
Quality Evaluation of Functional Chicken Nuggets Incorporated with Ground Carrot and Mashed Sweet Potato

This study was envisaged to evaluate the effect of ground raw carrot (0%, 5%, 10% and 15%) and mashed sweet potato (0%, 5%, 10% and 15%) as functional ingredients on the quality of chicken meat nuggets. The products were evaluated for physicochemical quality, proximate composition, nutritive value, sensory quality as well as color and texture profile analyses. Additions of either raw carrot or mashed sweet potato represent an improvement in the nutritional value and have some beneficial effects due to the presence of dietary fibers and β-carotene. They were also found to be effective in sustaining the desired cooking yield and emulsion stability. Treated samples showed lower (p > 0.05) protein, fat and ash contents but higher (p < 0.05) moisture content than control. There were differences among the nugget samples with respect to sensory qualities, and control samples as well as samples with 10% added carrot/sweet potato had higher overall acceptability scores. Hunter color values (L*, a* and b* values) were higher (p < 0.05) for both the formulated products, while their textural parameters were nearly unchanged. In conclusion, carrot and sweet potato at 10% added level have greater potential as good source of dietary fibers and β-carotene and may find their way in meat industry.
Bioluminescence and Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Macrophage Homing to Experimental Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms

Macrophage infiltration is a prominent feature of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) progression. We used a combined imaging approach with bioluminescence (BLI) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to study macrophage homing and accumulation in experimental AAA disease. Murine AAAs were created via intra-aortic infusion of porcine pancreatic elastase. Mice were imaged over 14 days after injection of prepared peritoneal macrophages. For BLI, macrophages were from transgenic mice expressing luciferase. For MRI, macrophages were labeled with iron oxide particles. Macrophage accumulation during aneurysm progression was observed by in situ BLI and by in vivo 7T MRI. Mice were sacrificed after imaging for histologic analysis. In situ BLI (n = 32) demonstrated high signal in the AAA by days 7 and 14, which correlated significantly with macrophage number and aortic diameter. In vivo 7T MRI (n = 13) at day 14 demonstrated T2* signal loss in the AAA and not in sham mice. Immunohistochemistry and Prussian blue staining confirmed the presence of injected macrophages in the AAA. BLI and MRI provide complementary approaches to track macrophage homing and accumulation in experimental AAAs. Similar dual imaging strategies may aid the study of AAA biology and the evaluation of novel therapies.
Importance of forkhead transcription factor Fkhl18 for development of testicular vasculature

Forkhead transcription factors are characterized by a winged helix DNA binding domain, and the members of this family are classified into 20 subclasses by phylogenetic analyses. Fkhl18 is structurally unique, and is classified into FoxS subfamily. We found Fkhl18 expression in periendothelial cells of the developing mouse fetal testis. In an attempt to clarify its function, we generated mice with Fkhl18 gene disruption. Although KO mice developed normally and were fertile in both sexes, we frequently noticed unusual blood accumulation in the fetal testis. Electron microscopic analysis demonstrated frequent gaps, measuring 100–400 nm, in endothelial cells of blood vessels. These gaps probably represented ectopic apoptosis of testicular periendothelial cells, identified by caspase‐3 expression, in KO fetuses. No apoptosis of endothelial cells was noted. Fkhl18 suppressed the transcriptional activity of FoxO3a and FoxO4. Considering that Fas ligand gene expression is activated by Foxs, the elevated activity of Foxs in the absence of Fkhl18 probably explains the marked apoptosis of periendothelial cells in Fkhl18 KO mice. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 75: 1361–1371, 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Piketty’s Elasticity of Substitution: A Critique

ABSTRACT This article examines Thomas Piketty’s explanation of a falling wage share. Piketty explains rising income inequality between labor and capital as a result of one parameter of a production function: an elasticity of substitution, σ, between labor and capital greater than one. This article reviews Piketty’s elasticity argument, which relies on a non-standard definition of capital. In light of the theory of land rent, it discusses why the non-standard capital definition is a measure of wealth, not capital and is problematic for estimating elasticities. It then presents simple long-run estimates of σ in constant elasticity of substitution functions for Piketty’s data as well as for a subset of his capital measure that comes closer to the standard definition of productive capital. The estimation results cast doubt on Piketty’s hypothesis that σ is greater than one.
Expression of the Polyubiquitin Gene Early in the Buprenorphine Hydrochloride-induced Apoptosis of NG108-15 Cells

To clone genes expressed early in the buprenorphine hydrochloride (Bph)-induced apoptosis of NG108-15 nerve cells, we adopted a previously reported rapid and simple differential display (DD) cloning procedure. Complementary DNA was generated from differentially expressed mRNAs by reverse transcription (RT) using a fully degenerate 6-mer oligonucleotide as the primer. PCR amplification was then conducted using a combination of three arbitrary but defined 10-bp nucleotide primers. The differentially generated DNA fragments were detected by agarose gel electrophoresis, and 9 were excised from the gel and subcloned into a sequencing vector. Three DNAs that were specifically expressed upon Bph-induced apoptosis of NG108-15 cells were sequenced. Their specific expression was then confirmed by reverse-transcription PCR. One was identified as the mouse polyubiquitin gene c, and the others remain unidentified. Northern and western blots indicated the transcription and translation of polyubiquitin early in Bph-induced apoptosis. The polyubiquitination of apoptotic cellular proteins was also confirmed.
Signal motif-dependent ER export of the Qc-SNARE BET12 interacts with MEMB12 and affects PR1 trafficking in Arabidopsis

ABSTRACT Soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive fusion protein attachment protein receptors (SNAREs) are well-known for their role in controlling membrane fusion, the final, but crucial step, in vesicular transport in eukaryotes. SNARE proteins contribute to various biological processes including pathogen defense and channel activity regulation, as well as plant growth and development. Precise targeting of SNARE proteins to destined compartments is a prerequisite for their proper functioning. However, the underlying mechanism(s) for SNARE targeting in plants remains obscure. Here, we investigate the targeting mechanism of the Arabidopsis thaliana Qc-SNARE BET12, which is involved in protein trafficking in the early secretory pathway. Two distinct signal motifs that are required for efficient BET12 ER export were identified. Pulldown assays and in vivo imaging implicated that both the COPI and COPII pathways were required for BET12 targeting. Further studies using an ER-export-defective form of BET12 revealed that the Golgi-localized Qb-SNARE MEMB12, a negative regulator of pathogenesis-related protein 1 (PR1; At2g14610) secretion, was its interacting partner. Ectopic expression of BET12 caused no inhibition in the general ER-Golgi anterograde transport but caused intracellular accumulation of PR1, suggesting that BET12 has a regulatory role in PR1 trafficking in A. thaliana. Summary: Efficient targeting of the Qc-SNARE BET12 is dependent on two distinct signal motifs. BET12 interacts with the Qb-SNARE MEMB12 and regulates trafficking of pathogenesis-related protein 1 in the early secretory pathway in Arabidopsis.
Guest Editorial: Special Issue on Corruption at the Grassroots-level

Corruption research has centered on three fundamental questions: What determines corruption? What effects does corruption have? And finally, what can we do to reduce corruption effectively and efficiently? Corruption has been, and continues to be researched so intensively that it is hard to keep abreast of all the latest developments in the various subfields of corruption research. Recent surveys of the vast literature include Aidt (2003), Svensson (2005), Lambsdorff (2007), Pande (2007), Olken and Pande (2011), and KisKatos and Schulze (2013). Instead of adding yet another survey, we focus on the main challenges of empirical corruption research and show by example how the literature has tried to address these challenges.1 The first and foremost challenge of empirical corruption research is that corruption is not directly observable, at least not in any systematic fashion as it is illegal and therefore clandestine. Thus, proxies for actual corruption levels need to be found or controlled situations need to be created in which corruption is observable. Proxies frequently used are corruption perceptions, stated corruption experiences, audit results of public expenditure tracking analyses or quantitative service delivery surveys, corruption incidents registeredwith law enforcement agencies, and corruption convictions. Controlled situations include laboratory and field experiments.2 Moreover, there are some natural experiments as well.
Osteoporotic fractures may impair life as much as the complications of diabetes

RATIONALE, AIMS, AND OBJECTIVES To compare the effect of osteoporotic fractures and complications of diabetes mellitus on quality of life (QoL). METHOD A cross-sectional study was performed in 840 patients with osteoporosis and in 943 patients with diabetes in Hungary to estimate the effect of osteoporotic fractures and microvascular and macrovascular complications of diabetes on QoL using the EQ-5D questionnaire. Ordinary least-squares regression was performed for the analysis to control for age and gender. RESULTS The effects of certain of osteoporotic fractures and diabetes complications were similar in size measured by the EQ-5D. Patients with hip fractures and compressions of the vertebrae suffered more than 0.2 drop in their QoL, which is comparable in size to the most severe complications of diabetes, such as vision loss and amputations. CONCLUSIONS The use of mortality and premature mortality as the traditional measures of disease burden in public health policy making means that diseases which strongly affect QoL but less survival might not get the necessary priority. This is especially the case in low-income and middle-income countries where studies on QoL are scarce. Our comparative analysis, which showed that osteoporotic fractures reduce QoL as much as major complications of diabetes, highlights the need for comprehensive disease burden assessment, including losses in functionality and QoL, to support decision making.
Intermolecular Cross-linking between the Periplasmic Loop3–4 Regions of PomA, a Component of the Na+-driven Flagellar Motor of Vibrio alginolyticus *

PomA and PomB form a complex that conducts sodium ions and generates the torque for the Na+-driven polar flagellar motor of Vibrio alginolyticus. PomA has four transmembrane segments. One periplasmic loop (loop1–2) connects segments 1 and 2, and another (loop3–4), in which cysteine-scanning mutagenesis had been carried out, connects segments 3 and 4. When PomA with an introduced Cys residue (Cys-PomA) in the C-terminal periplasmic loop (loop3–4) was examined without exposure to a reducing reagent, a 43-kDa band was observed, whereas only a 25-kDa band, which corresponds to monomeric PomA, was observed under reducing conditions. The intensity of the 43-kDa band was enhanced in most mutants by the oxidizing reagent CuCl2. The 43-kDa band was strongest in the P172C mutant. The motility of the P172C mutant was severely reduced, and P172C showed a dominant-negative effect, whereas substitution of Pro with Ala, Ile, or Ser at this position did not affect motility. In the presence of DTT, the ability to swim was partially restored, and the amount of 43-kDa protein was reduced. These results suggest that the disulfide cross-link disturbs the function of PomA. When the mutated Cys residue was modified withN-ethylmaleimide, only the 25-kDa PomA band was labeled, demonstrating that the 43-kDa form is a cross-linked homodimer and suggesting that the loops3–4 of adjacent subunits of PomA are close to each other in the assembled motor. We propose that this loop region is important for dimer formation and motor function.