Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sustained motion perception deficit following optic neuritis

Objective: To assess the recovery process in patients after an acute optic neuritis (ON) attack, comparing static and dynamic visual functions. Methods: In this prospective controlled study, 21 patients with unilateral, first-ever ON were followed over the course of 1 year. Standard visual tests, visual evoked potentials, and optical coherence tomography were assessed repeatedly. In addition, we developed a novel set of motion perceptual tasks to test dynamic visual deficits. fMRI examinations were performed to study the neuronal correlates for the behavioral findings. Results: Four months after the acute phase, the affected eyes had returned to normal performance levels in the routine visual testing. However, motion perception remained impaired throughout the 12-month period. In agreement with the clinical findings, fMRI studies showed recovery in cortical activation during static object recognition, as opposed to sustained deficit in tasks that require motion perception. Conclusions: Sustained motion perception deficit following ON may explain the continued visual complaints of patients long after recovery of visual acuity. Cortical activation patterns suggest that if plastic processes in higher visual regions contribute to the recovery of vision, this may be limited to static visual functions. Alternatively, cortical activation may reflect the visual percept (intact for visual acuity and impaired for motion perception), rather than demonstrating plastic processes. We suggest that motion perception should be included in the routine ophthalmologic tests following ON.
Embedded diasporas: ethnic prejudice, transnational networks and foreign investment

Abstract Ethnic diasporas are important actors in the global economy. Thanks to their transnational networks and cultural skills, migrants help to deepen economic ties between nations. Existing research, however, overlooks that diaspora communities are ethnic minorities embedded in potentially hostile social environments, as they often face social exclusion and discrimination. This article studies the economic implications of international migration by focusing on the relationship between migrant minorities and indigenous majorities. It argues that ethnic prejudice against entrepreneurial diasporas may constrain their ability to foster international economic integration, as it lowers public support for international flows. Empirical support for this hypothesis is found in a survey experiment leveraging on the case of Indonesia, a Muslim-majority society in which a small Chinese minority has long played a key role in domestic and international business. The findings have implications for research on migrant networks, international political economy and diaspora policy.
Relational parametricity and local variables

J. C. Reynolds suggested that Strachey's intuitive concept of “parametric” (i.e., uniform) polymorphism is closely linked to representation independence, and used logical relations to formalize this principle in languages with type variables and user-defined types. Here, we use relational parametricity to address long-standing problems with the semantics of local-variable declarations, by showing that interactions between local and non-local entities satisfy certain relational criteria. The new model is based on a cartesian closed category of “relation-preserving” functors and natural transformations which is induced by a suitable category of “possible worlds” with relations assigned to its objects and morphisms. The semantic interpretation supports straightforward validations of all the test equivalences that have been proposed in the literature, and encompasses standard methods of reasoning about data representations; however, it is not known whether it is fully abstract.
Roles of Fe Superoxide Dismutase and Catalase in Resistance of Campylobacter coli to Freeze-Thaw Stress

ABSTRACT We demonstrated that oxidative stress plays a role in freeze-thaw-induced killing of Campylobacter coli following analysis of mutants deficient in key antioxidant functions. Superoxide anions, but not H2O2, were formed during the freeze-thaw process. However, a failure to detoxify superoxide anions may lead to spontaneous disproportionation of the radicals to H2O2.
Field effectiveness of live attenuated measles-containing vaccines: a review of published literature.

BACKGROUND Information on measles vaccine effectiveness (VE) is critical to help inform policies for future global measles control goals. METHODS We reviewed results of VE studies published during 1960-2010. RESULTS Seventy papers with 135 VE point estimates were identified. For a single dose of vaccine administered at 9-11 months of age and ≥12 months, the median VE was 77.0% (interquartile range [IQR], 62%-91%) and 92.0% (IQR, 86%-96%), respectively. When analysis was restricted to include only point estimates for which vaccination history was verified and cases were laboratory confirmed, the median VE was 84.0% (IQR, 72.0%-95.0%) and 92.5% (IQR, 84.8%-97.0%) when vaccine was received at 9-11 and ≥12 months, respectively. Published VE vary by World Health Organization region, with generally lower estimates in countries belonging to the African and SouthEast Asian Regions. For 2 doses of measles-containing vaccine, compared with no vaccination, the median VE was 94.1% (IQR, 88.3%-98.3%). CONCLUSIONS The VE of the first dose of measles-containing vaccine administered at 9-11 months was lower than what would be expected from serologic evaluations but was higher than expected when administered at ≥12 months. The median VE increased in a subset of articles in which classification bias was reduced through verified vaccination history and laboratory confirmation. In general, 2 doses of measles-containing vaccine provided excellent protection against measles.
The Shifts of Fortune Test the Reliability of Friends - The Brittle Nature of Signal Reliability in Cloud Service Markets

Signaling theory has compellingly demonstrated that embedding internet signals (i.e., web assurance seals, privacy policies, consumer feedback) by cloud service providers can be considered as credible indicators of provider’s attributes, thereby reducing uncertainties and information asymmetries in cloud service markets. However, cloud service providers are operating in a dynamic environment characterized by fast technology life cycles, ongoing service improvements, and a steady emergence of new environmental vulnerabilities. Those dynamics might threaten the long-term reliability of embedded internet signals. We believe that traditional assumptions of signaling theory might not be necessarily applicable to cloud service markets, and thus try to investigate how signal reliability can be ensured in the long run in dynamic environments. In particular, we argue that signal reliability will decline over time as cloud service providers constantly have to cope with emerging changes in the market environment resulting in a low signaling fit or low signaler’s honesty.
On the need to compensate the compensating variation in CGE modeling

ABSTRACT The message of this research is that in the standard calibrated setting of Computational General Equilibrium (CGE) models, the welfare measures typically used to compare benchmark with counterfactuals are numéraire dependent. This evaluation bias affects the compensating variation and the Konüs index of cost of living. We show that the equivalent variation is neutral regarding the choice of value units in calibrated models but would be affected as well in uncalibrated CGE models. We illustrate with a simple example and propose an even simpler theoretical solution to overcome these biases; all that is required to have correct welfare estimates is to compensate normalizing with a suitable price index. This type of correction is necessary to overcome the sometimes blind implementation of welfare measures in numerical general equilibrium analysis. We show that the induced quantitative errors may be substantial providing biased welfare estimates and misleading results.
Psychiatric, neurological and medical aspects of misidentification syndromes: a review of 260 cases

SYNOPSIS Two hundred and sixty case reports of misidentification syndromes were evaluated. One hundred and seventy-four patients had a Capgras syndrome misidentifying other persons, 18 a Fregoli syndrome, 11 intermetamorphosis, 17 reduplicative paramnesia and the rest had other forms or combinations of mistaken identification. Schizophrenia (127 cases), mostly of paranoid type, affective disorder (29), and organic mental syndromes including dementia (46) were the most common diagnoses in patients who misidentified others or themselves. The patients with reduplicative paramnesia more frequently suffered from head trauma or cerebral infarction and showed more features of right hemisphere lesions on neuropsychological testing or CT scan than the patients with other misidentification syndromes. Forty-one case-reports implicated underlying medical conditions. Forty-six of the patients were reported to show violent behavioaur. The misidentification of persons can be a manifestation of any organic or functional psychosis, but the misidentification of place is frequently associated with neurological diseases, predominantly of the right hemisphere. Misidentification syndromes show a great degree of overlap and do not represent distinctive syndromes nor can they be regarded as an expression of a particular disorder. These patients deserve special diagnostic and therapeutic attention because of the possible underlying disorders and their potentially dangerous behavioura.
Cystathionine β‐synthase regulates endothelial function via protein S‐sulfhydration

Deficiencies of the human cystathionine β‐synthase (CBS) enzyme are characterized by a plethora of vascular disorders and hyperhomocysteinemia. However, several clinical trials demonstrated that despite reduction in homocysteine levels, disease outcome remained unaffected, thus the mechanism of endothelial dysfunction is poorly defined. Here, we show that the loss of CBS function in endothelial cells (ECs) leads to a significant down‐regulation of cellular hydrogen sulfide (H2S) by 50% and of glutathione (GSH) by 40%. Silencing CBS in ECs compromised phenotypic and signaling responses to the VEGF that were potentiated by decreased transcription of VEGF receptor (VEGFR)‐2 and neuropilin (NRP)‐1, the primary receptors regulating endothelial function. Transcriptional down‐regulation of VEGFR‐2 and NRP‐1 was mediated by a lack in stability of the transcription factor specificity protein 1 (Spl), which is a sulfhydration target of H2S at residues Cys68 and Cys755. Reinstating H2S but not GSH in CBS‐silenced ECs restored Sp1 levels and its binding to the VEGFR‐2 promoter and VEGFR‐2, NRP‐1 expression, VEGF‐dependent proliferation, and migration phenotypes. Thus, our study emphasizes the importance of CBS‐mediated protein S‐sulfhydration in maintaining vascular health and function. —Saha, S. , Chakraborty, P. K. , Xiong, X. , Dwivedi, S. K. D. , Mustafi, S. B. , Leigh, N.R. , Ramchandran, R. , Mukherjee, P., Bhattacharya, R. Cystathionine β‐synthase regulates endothelial function via protein S‐sulfhydration. FASEB J. 30, 441‐456 (2016). www.fasebj. org
Enabling the language of accessible tourism

ABSTRACT The growing body of literature on “accessible tourism” lacks a critical scholarly debate around its specific language use and nomenclatures. To fill this gap, this paper provides a first examination of language. Language provides a unique capability to resist, strengthen and reframe identities of individuals and groups, yet can also reinforce, weaken and perpetuate dominant worldviews of disability. A content analysis examined previous accessible tourism literature with results illustrating that diversity exists amongst the varying terminologies adopted by scholars. Terms were employed loosely, inconsistently and interchangeably, euphemistically with erroneous understandings and nuances. The paper concludes with critical discussion about the power of researchers to (re) produce oppression through language that maligns and misrepresents, or to (re) conceptualise and (re) construct the world we live in with liberating language that facilitates positive social change.
Cascading Second-Order Microring Resonators for a Box-Like Filter Response

We demonstrate an optical filter using multistage of second-order microring resonators (2nd-order MRRs) for a box-like filter response. All stages have identical structure parameters elaborately designed to obtain a flat-top spectrum. The maximally flat condition is deduced in consideration of loss and compared with those reported in literature. We present the insertion loss, extinction ratio, bandwidth, and roll-off rate of the maximally flat response. We find that for the flat response of a 2nd-order MRR, the product of bandwidth and roll-off rate is constant. We compare the cascading 2nd-order MRRs with single-stage high-order filters with the same number of ring cavities. We find that the cascading structure has comparable performances in the aspects of insertion loss and roll-off rate for small radius. This cascading structure relaxes the fabrication tolerance and mitigates the difficulty of electrical wiring difficulty since there are only two ring cavities in each stage. As a proof of concept, we fabricate this kind of optical filter with ten stages on silicon-on-insulator platform, with each ring cavity tunable and each stage measurable. We obtain five flat-top responses corresponding to one to five cascading stages. The five-stage filter response has a 3 dB bandwidth of ∼17 GHz, a roll-off rate of ∼−5 dB/GHz at −3 dB point, and an on-chip insertion loss of ∼−6 dB.
Has Forest Certification Reduced Forest Degradation in Sweden?

This paper estimates the effects of certification of nonindustrial private forest owners on forest degradation in Sweden—one of the countries with the largest total area of certified forests. We rely on official forest inventory data, information on certification status, and impact evaluation methods to identify the causal effect of certification on three key environmental outcomes. We find that certification has not halted forest degradation in that it has not improved any of the environmental outcomes. Moreover, for forest certification to have an effect, the standards should be tightened and the monitoring and enforcement of forest certification schemes strengthened. (JEL Q23, Q28)
Overexpression of MexCD-OprJ Reduces Pseudomonas aeruginosa Virulence by Increasing Its Susceptibility to Complement-Mediated Killing

ABSTRACT We evaluated the resistance to complement-mediated killing of a collection of isogenic Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains expressing different antimicrobial resistance phenotypes. Only the nfxB mutant demonstrated increased susceptibility to complement compared with that for the wild-type strain. This increment was due to the overexpression of MexCD-OprJ, which led to increased C3 opsonization and a reduced ability to infect the lungs of mice. Our results show that the acquisition of antibiotic resistance may alter the interplay of P. aeruginosa with the host immune system.
Motor control in drumming: Influence of movement pattern on contact force and sound characteristics

Whereas wind instrumentalists and string players have a continuous control of the acoustic sound parameters during playing, a percussionists' direct contact with the instrument is limited to a few milliseconds. The player has no possibilities to adjust grip or dampening during the actual contact. Whatever timbre and sound level the player is aiming for therefore has to be integrated in the entire striking gesture. How can the player control the complex interaction between drumstick and drumhead? In order to investigate how the players' grip and striking gestures influence the sound characteristics of drum strokes we recorded movements, audio, contact time and contact force during drumming. Different instructions were given with the intention to influence how the player's grip controlling the drumstick. "Normal" strokes were allowed to freely rebound from the drumhead. For "controlled" strokes the player was asked to control the ending position of the drumstick, stopping it as close as possible to the drum.
Resource synergies for on-farm water management: a study of New Zealand agribusinesses

ABSTRACT What are the key resources that farmers use to improve the impact of their operations on water resources? In what combinations are these resources applied to farms? This research adopted the natural resource-based view to interview nationally awarded New Zealand livestock farmers, and observe the operations on their farms, with the aim of finding out which key resources they use to achieve their sustainable water management objectives. While the extant literature suggests that human resources are key, our findings reveal that the farmers in this study do not apply human resources in isolation: they operationalise these resources in combination with other resources. Financial and intellectual resources seem to enhance the effectiveness of on-farm human and physical resources. We infer that the best description of these resource interactions is as a ‘synergy’ of resources, rather than simply a ‘combination’ or ‘bundle’. This is because the combined effect of these synergies on the farmers’ understanding and development of natural resource management capabilities (specifically, networking, consensus building and technology capabilities) appears to be greater than if applied on their own or in smaller combinations.
The marginalisation of racism : a study of a local education authority project on multicultural education

The study originated from an independent evaluation of a Local Education Authority (LEA) project on multicultural education undertaken by a team of four teachers in two schools; a predominantly white, co-educational rural grammar school and a multi-racial, co-educational urban secondary modern. The thesis examines some key aspects of the conceptualisation, establishment, management and operationalisation of the project. The concepts of multicultural and antiracist education and the related research literature on their initiation in schools are considered. The procedures for the recruitment and selection of the project team are also examined along with the selection of the project schools, their organisation and ethos. The study focuses on the work of the team and their attempt to facilitate and initiate change at departmental and whole-school levels. The difficulty of the team's task and the complexity of racism are highlighted through a senior teacher's life history which examines his perspectives on 'race' and education. The research findings question the adoption of low-key multicultural approaches suggesting that they might marginalise the ability to address the issue of racism in schools and thus be counter-productive. Variables are also identified, in particular the occupational culture of teachers, which might have restricted the team's access to departments, the facilitation of collaborative teaching strategies and the implementation of whole-school policy. It is suggested that a team approach needs to be planned, executed and continually re-evaluated according to clear goals and shared objectives. It is also suggested that it might be advantageous for a team to possess subject-specific expertise and an ability to relate it to racism in the departmental curriculum. Moreover, throughout the process of change the issue of racism needs to remain explicit and, whenever possible, involve the black community in the decision-making process.
Examining users' intention to continue using business intelligence systems from the perspectives of end-user computing satisfaction and individual performance

End-user computing satisfaction (EUCS) and individual performance have been recognised by many researchers as critical determinants influencing users' intention to use information systems. Even though a great deal of attention has been paid to the practical decision-making benefits of BI system adoption, there is still a lack of research to explore the nature of EUCS with BI systems and to investigate factors that affect users' intention to continue using BI systems after adopting the systems. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to empirically investigate the relationships between EUCS, continuance intention, and individual performance with BI systems. The empirical data collected from 330 users in the Taiwanese electronics industry showed that higher levels of EUCS can lead to increased BI continuance intention and improved individual performance and that higher levels of individual performance will lead to higher levels of BI continuance intention.
Determinants of Bank Stability: A Financial Statement Analysis of Turkish Banks

Bu calismada, Turk bankalarinin mali tablo analizi ve takipteki kredilerin belirleyicileri incelenmektedir. 2007-2015 yillari icin 27 adet Turk bankasinin yillik verileri kullanilmistir. Sistem GMM yontemiyle dinamik panel veri analizi metodolojisi kullanilmistir. Bulgulara gore, bankalara ozgu belirleyiciler aktif kârlilik, krediler-varlik toplami orani, verimsizlik endeksi, faiz disi gelir orani ve kredi zarari karsiliklari orani olarak belirlenmistir. Bu calisma ile endojenite spesifikasyon ve dogrulama testleri uygun bir sekilde kontrol edilerek literature katkida bulunmak amaclanmaktadir.
Genetic Advances in Ophthalmology: The Role of Melanopsin-Expressing, Intrinsically Photosensitive Retinal Ganglion Cells in the Circadian Organization of the Visual System

Abstract Daily changes in the light-dark cycle are the principal environmental signal that enables organisms to synchronize their internal biology with the 24-hour day–night cycle. In humans, the visual system is integral to photoentrainment and is primarily driven by a specialized class of intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs) that express the photopigment melanopsin (OPN4) in the inner retina. These cells project through the retinohypothalamic tract (RHT) to the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) of the hypothalamus, which serves as the body’s master biological clock. At the same time, the retina itself possesses intrinsic circadian oscillations, exemplified by diurnal fluctuations in visual sensitivity, neurotransmitter levels, and outer segment turnover rates. Recently, it has been noted that both central and peripheral oscillators share a molecular clock consisting of an endogenous, circadian-driven, transcription–translation feedback loop that cycles with a periodicity of approximately 24 hours. This review will cover the role that melanopsin and ipRGCs play in the circadian organization of the visual system.
The Burden of Glory: Competing for Nonmonetary Incentives in Rank‐Order Tournaments

In an environment in which elite, highly paid professionals compete for nonmonetary rewards, we find evidence of underperformance. Our analysis suggests that choking under pressure from highâ€ stakes nonmonetary rewards is behind the underperformance. This implies that high stakes nonmonetary rewards can create meaningful pressure on individuals and lead to worse performance, a distinct issue that has yet to be adequately examined. These findings come from an examination of the behavior of top U.S. golfers competing to earn a place on the U.S. Ryder Cup team via their performance in PGA Tour tournaments with differing allocations of Ryder Cup qualifying points.