Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Glutamate on Exogenous Citrate Catabolism of Neisseria meningitidis and of Other Species of Neisseria

Resting cell suspensions of Neisseria meningitidis group B (strain 2091) do not catabolize citrate as the sole substrate to an appreciable degree. When another substrate, such as glutamate, is also present to furnish energy for transport, citrate metabolism is greatly stimulated. Within limits, the amount of CO2 produced from citrate is proportional to the amount of glutamate added. When the cells are disrupted, citrate is degraded at a rapid rate and the stimulatory effect of glutamate is completely eliminated. Pronounced stimulation of citrate metabolism by glutamate was demonstrated in 12 of 13 strains of N. meningitidis tested and only 1 of 6 strains of N. lactamicus. The remaining strains of N. lactamicus and one each of N. gonorrhoeae, N. flavescens, and N. flava did not utilize significant amounts of citrate in the absence or presence of glutamate. N. catarrhalis shared with Mima polymorpha and Moraxella glucidolytica a capability to catabolize citrate at a rapid rate without added glutamate. It is concluded that tests of glutamate-stimulated citrate metabolism may contribute to species characterization in the genus Neisseria.
Philosophical Counseling as Psychotherapy: An Eclectic Approach

Contrary to current belief among many philosophers, I attempt to show that philosophical counseling is a form of psychotherapy that is in need of structure and guidance in order for it to prosper as a viable approach to mental health treatment. Methodological approaches are examined including dialectical, solution-oriented, and long-term considerations that comprise the nature of meaning analysis and procedural inquiry. If philosophical counseling is to gain recognition among the helping professions, it will need to embrace a philo-psychological paradigm of theory and practice that emphasizes philosophical eclecticism. Philosophical Counseling (PC) is a controversial discipline offering several competing approaches to philosophical self-investigation, guidance, intervention, and personal adjustment that address life concerns which have typically been treated by mental health professions. It is controversial in that it alleges to offer a unique and divergent alternative to the array of traditional existent psychotherapies, is largely based on theoretical propositions rather than on tested practice, has no defined training criteria, is (with qualifications) potentially ethically questionable in some contexts, and apart from a
Hedge Fund Return Predictability in the Presence of Model Uncertainty and Implications for Wealth Allocation

This paper studies hedge fund return predictability in a multivariate setting. Our research design and analysis is motivated by the empirical observations that a specific forecasting model that is going to perform well is not known ex-ante and that modelling time varying return covariances/correlations improves our ability to construct optimal hedge fund portfolios. We employ a multivariate GARCH specification to model time-varying covariances/correlations of hedge fund returns and we develop a stochastic search algorithm to compute posterior model probabilities for alternative predictive specifications. Our empirical analysis indicates that introducing dynamic covariance/correlation modeling improves the out-of-sample performance of optimal hedge fund portfolios. Moreover, introducing predictive factors provides incremental additional portfolio outperformance.
Working memory binding of visual object features in older adults

ABSTRACT Accurate mental representation of visual stimuli requires retaining not only the individual features but also the correct relationship between them. This associative process of binding is mediated by working memory (WM) mechanisms. The present study re-examined reports of WM-related binding deficits with aging. In Experiment 1, 31 older and 31 younger adults completed a visual change detection task with feature–location relations presented either simultaneously or sequentially; the paradigm was also designed specifically to minimize the impact of lengthy retention intervals, elaborative rehearsal, and processing demands of multi-stimulus probes. In Experiment 2, 38 older and 42 younger adults completed a modified task containing both feature–location relations and feature–feature conjunctions. In Experiment 1 although feature–location binding was more difficult with sequential compared with simultaneous presentation, the effect was independent of age. In Experiment 2 while older adults were overall slower and less accurate than young adults, there were no age-specific deficits in WM binding. Overall, after controlling for methodological factors, there was no evidence of an age-related visual WM binding deficit for surface or location features. However, unlike younger adults, older adults appeared less able to restrict processing of irrelevant features, consistent with reported declines with age in strategic capacities of WM.
Mapping Sustainable Structural Dimensions for Managing the Brazilian Biodiesel Supply Chain

It has been widely discussed in Brazil that the production of biodiesel should look for ways for increasing competitiveness considering the balance among economic growth, environmental quality and social well-being through the rational use of resources. The main purpose of this paper is to identify structural dimensions influencing sustainability and competitiveness of the Brazilian biodiesel production chain and, thereby, contribute to the current debate as well as to the process of formulating policy and strategies regarding this important supply chain. As starting point, a number of publications were reviewed allowing the identification of main issues and its combination into relevant factors. Eventually, the factors were put together, resulting in a set of structural dimensions: biodiesel supply chain environment, institutional framework, market conditions, monitoring systems and technological innovation. Then, the structural dimensions were summarized in a conceptual model showing the relationship between them. The structural dimensions may be seen as critical points in which stakeholders would pay attention to ensure successful performance and sustainable competitiveness of the biodiesel production chain. The objective of the entire system is to deliver biodiesel as a clean energy with focus on social inclusion, mitigation of environmental impacts and viability.
Party Types, Organisation and Functions

This paper deals with the classification and functions of political parties. It argues that the central concept involved in classifying parties is that of the organisational network, which goes beyond the party itself to include the space that the party occupies. Historical types and sequences of party organisation and organisational development are then explored, as is the central concept of the ‘mass party’. Finally, while many different functions can be ascribed to parties, the functions which are central to the notion of party, and which are essentially irreplaceable, are those of participation, electioneering and expression. The Structural-Organisational Approach The Classifications of Duverger Party numbers are relevant for the analysis of party systems, but they tell us nothing about party types. There are numerous kinds and varieties of parties, and the query now is, how should we proceed in classifying them? As Avery Leiserson (1958) puts it, parties can be observed as organisational groups, as idea groups and as social groups. One may add that parties are also ‘functional’ groups that can be classified according to their functional patterns of performance. Furthermore, and in a chronological sense primarily, we also have to account for the concrete types, that is, for a historical typology of parties. However, here I shall be concerned only with three criteria of classification: historical, organisational and functional. The reply to our initial question is, then, that parties can be classified (without getting involved in too many intricacies) according to their historical development, or to their structural characteristics, or to their functional performance – with the understanding that the three criteria are not mutually exclusive. The most obvious order of Party Types, Organisation and Functions 5
Identification of the mcrD gene product and its association with component C of methyl coenzyme M reductase in Methanococcus vannielii

A mcrD-lacZ gene fusion has been constructed and expressed under lacP control in Escherichia coli. Antibodies raised against the product of this gene fusion have been used in Western blotting (immunoblotting) to demonstrate the gene product of mcrD (gpmcrD) in Methanococcus vannielii. The alpha, beta, and gamma subunit polypeptides of component C of methyl coenzyme M reductase (MR) were coprecipitated with gpmcrD when bound by antibodies raised either against MR or against gpmcrD-lacZ. This association of MR and gpmcrD did not withstand polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis under nondenaturing conditions.
Pharmacological Removal of Human Ether-à-go-go-Related Gene Potassium Channel Inactivation by 3-Nitro-N-(4-phenoxyphenyl) Benzamide (ICA-105574)

Human ether-à-go-go-related gene (hERG) potassium channel activity helps shape the cardiac action potential and influences its duration. In this study, we report the discovery of 3-nitro-N-(4-phenoxyphenyl) benzamide (ICA-105574), a potent and efficacious hERG channel activator with a unique mechanism of action. In whole-cell patch-clamp studies of recombinant hERG channels, ICA-105574 steeply potentiated current amplitudes more than 10-fold with an EC50 value of 0.5 ± 0.1 μM and a Hill slope (nH) of 3.3 ± 0.2. The effect on hERG channels was confirmed because the known hERG channel blockers, N-[4-[[1-[2-(6-methyl-2-pyridinyl)ethyl]-4-piperidinyl]carbonyl]phenyl]methanesulfonamide, 2HCl (E-4031) and BeKm-1, potently blocked the stimulatory effects of ICA-105574. The primary mechanism by which ICA-105574 potentiates hERG channel activity is by removing hERG channel inactivation, because ICA-105574 (2 μM) shifts the midpoint of the voltage-dependence of inactivation by >180 mV from −86 to +96 mV. In addition to the effects on inactivation, greater concentrations of ICA-105574 (3 μM) produced comparatively small hyperpolarizing shifts (up to 11 mV) in the voltage-dependence of channel activation and a 2-fold slowing of channel deactivation. In isolated guinea pig ventricular cardiac myocytes, ICA-105574 induced a concentration-dependent shortening of action potential duration (>70%, 3 μM) that could be prevented by preincubation with E-4031. In conclusion, we identified a novel agent that can prevent the inactivation of hERG potassium channels. This compound may provide a useful tool to further understand the mechanism by which hERG channels inactivate and affect cardiac function in addition to the role of hERG channels in other cell systems.
A novel genetic algorithm based on circles for larger-scale traveling salesman problem

The Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) is one of the most well-known NP-hard combinatorial optimization problems and Genetic Algorithm (GA) is an effective method for solving it. Nevertheless, the Classical Genetic Algorithm (CGA) has poor effect on larger-scale TSP. In order to solve this problem, in this paper, two novel improvement strategies were proposed and applied to the larger-scale instances of the TSPLIB benchmark. One strategy is Matrix-Circle (MC), which is used to improve the quality of the initial population. The other one is Self-Refresh Operation (SRO), based on a Sequence among Outer-Circles (SOC), which is a new designed operation for Classical Genetic Algorithm. At last, we did a trial run of a set of experiments on benchmark instances in various sizes to test the performance of the proposed GA, that we called MCSRO-GA. Through an extensive simulation showed that the MCSRO-GA achieves better performance comparing to the state-of-the-art solutions in terms.
Dynamic in vivo mapping of model moisturiser ingress into human skin by GARfield MRI

We describe the development of in vivo one‐dimensional MRI (profiling) using a GARField (Gradient At Right angles to Field) magnet for the characterisation of side‐of‐hand human skin. For the first time and in vivo, we report measurements of the NMR longitudinal and transverse relaxation parameters and self‐diffusivity of the upper layers of human skin with a nominal spatial resolution better than 10 µm. The results are correlated with in vivo confocal Raman spectroscopy measurements of water concentration and natural moisturiser factors, and discussed in terms of known skin biology and microstructure of the stratum corneum and viable epidermis. The application of model moisturiser solutions to the skin is followed and their dynamics of ingress are characterised using the MRI methodology developed. Selected hydrophilic and lipophilic formulations are studied. The results are corroborated by standard in vivo measurements of transepidermal water loss and hydration status. A further insight into moisturisation mechanisms is gained. The effect of two different penetration enhancers on a commonly used skin care oil is also discussed, and different timescales of oil penetration into the skin are reported depending on the type of enhancer. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Fine pitch micro-bump forming by printing

We have examined printing technology which is adaptable to 3DIC bump-forming for (both front-side bump and back-side bump. The materials for bumping require several features for TSV process circumstances and 3DIC stacking followed by reflow. We chose Nano-Function material for the purpose which was initially developed for power semiconductor attachment. The result shows good possibility. 20μm bump pitch capability was confirmed.
Can Type-Token Ratio be Used to Show Morphological Complexity of Languages?*

ABSTRACT Type-token ratio (TTR), also known as vocabulary size divided by text length (V/N) is a simple measure of lexical diversity. It has been used in literary studies, studies in child language and even psychiatry. The basic problem of TTR is that it is affected by the length of the text sample. Several suggestions for improving this fault have been given, including standardizing the length of text samples, using logarithms in the basic formula, etc. We show in this paper that simple TTR and its more elaborate calculation MATTR can be used for approximation of morphological complexity of languages. This usage of TTR has been notified by Juola with analysis of six languages. We analyse text material with TTR and MATTR from two differing sources: firstly, text of the EU constitution with 21 languages and secondly with 16 of the same languages with available non-parallel random data from the Leipzig corpus. We compare the automatic analysis results to two independent linguistic measures of morphological complexity. Firstly, we use number of non-homographic noun forms in a language’s inflectional paradigms, the paradigm size. Secondly we use available inflectional synthesis figures of verbs produced by the AUTOTYP project. We enrich our corpus findings with data from information retrieval (IR) results. It has been suggested that improvements in achieved IR effectiveness with usage of word form variation management depend on the morphological complexity of the languages. Thus this IR gain data can be used to give independent evidence to evaluation of morphological complexity. Our results show that earlier Juola complexity figures and TTR and MATTR calculations correlate moderately in the EU constitution data. Figures given by TTR and MATTR correlate highly with each other in both corpora, and they also correlate highly with the number of non-homographic noun forms in a language. Correlation to inflectional synthesis of the verbs was found weakly positive in most cases, but the data was scarce. All the three computed measures are able to order the languages quite meaningfully in a morphological complexity order that at least groups most of the languages with same kind of languages and the most and least complex languages are clearly separated. It seems also that TTR and MATTR order the languages quite consistently with both corpora. In the conclusion we discuss how the complexity figures can be utilized.
The Dynamic Relationship between Price and Trading Volume: Evidence from Indian Stock Market

This study investigates the nature of relationship between price and trading volume for 50 Indian stocks. Firstly the contemporaneous and asymmetric relation between price and volume are examined. Then we examine the dynamic relation between returns and volume using VAR, Granger causality, variance decomposition (VD) and impulse response function (IRF). Mixture of Distributions Hypothesis (MDH), which tests the GARCH vs. Volume effect, is also studied between the conditional volatility and volume. The results show that there is positive and asymmetric relation between volume and price changes. Further the results of VAR and Granger causality show that there is a bi-directional relation between volume and returns. However, the results of VD imply weak dynamic relation between returns and volume which becomes more evident from the plots of IRF. On MDH, our results are mixed, neither entirely rejecting the MDH nor giving it an unconditional support.
Firm-specific stock return variation and capital structure decisions

We evaluate the association between the pace of the adjustment toward target capital structure and the extent to which equity prices reflect firm-specific information. The evidence indicates that firm-specific stock return variation explains significantly the pace of the adjustment toward target capital structure. We also show that the financing decisions of most Taiwanese firms support trade off theory. Only the samples of high (low) firm-specific stock return variation support pecking order (market timing) theory. Our findings suggest that firm-specific stock return variation provides considerable insight to capital structure decisions. In other words, corporate financing decisions cannot divorce from the efficiency of capital markets.
New approach for laboratory exercises for students in major electric power engineering

To obtain bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, every student besides the pure theory needs to have certain practical experience in order to feel comfortable at the beginning of his career. Throughout the years in the university, this practical education is conducted in two different ways. The first one is during the mandatory specialized internship in real electric power plants and substations. The other possibility for the students is on the grounds of the university and includes classes, dedicated to practical activities and the classical laboratory exercises on different engineering subjects. This report presents a hybrid approach for doing exercises combining the elements of design and assemble of electrical circuits which are very close to real-world problems students would encounter during their careers.
An Empirical Examination Of The Determinants Of Audit Delay In Hong Kong

Abstract The timeliness of corporate financial reports has been an issue of paramount importance. The recognition that the length of the audit is one of the single most important determinants of the timeliness of the earnings announcement has motivated recent research on audit delay in different countries. This paper is the first-time study in Hong Kong to examine the determinants of 'audit delay', the length of time from a company's financial year-end to its audit report date, on a sample of 292 and 260 listed companies for 1991 and 1990 respectively. A multiple regression analysis is used, modelling audit delay as a function of ten explanatory variables. Besides using seven variables which are found related to audit delay in prior research, we include three additional variables in our study. The result indicates that two variables included in the model are significant across the 2 years examined. Two other variables significantly affect audit delay for one of the 2 years examined. Similar to the findings of prior studies, the adjusted R 2 of the model is relatively low in each of the 2 years. Further theoretical and empirical research in different countries are necessary for a better understanding of the determinants of audit delay.
A self-organised middleware architecture for Wireless Sensor Network management

In this paper, we propose a lightweight middleware system that supports Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) to handle real-time network management using a hierarchical framework. The primary objective of this middleware is to provide standard management services for sensor applications to maintain network service quality with minimal human intervention. Middleware of sensor node also reconfigures its functionality autonomously to reflect changes of node resources expenditure or network environment. In addition, we propose an alternate power management solution to achieve energy efficiency of sensor networks via controlling management performance of sensor nodes. This approach reduces node energy consumption without frequent reconfiguration of network management structure.
Human platelet alloantigen typing: PCR analysis is not a substitute for serological methods

SUMMARY. Currently, five platelet alloantigen (alloAg) systems have been established (HPA‐1, ‐2, ‐3, ‐4, ‐5). Three of these are expressed on the glycoprotein (GP) IIb‐IIIa complex, HPA‐1, HPA‐3 and HPA‐4, inherited in an autosomal codominant mode. Recent investigations of the molecular basis of these platelet alloantigen systems have shown that only one nucleic acid base substitution in the genes encoding for GP IIb and GP IIIa is responsible for the polymorphism. This substitution is reflected in a difference in restriction enzyme recognition allowing platelet alloantigen typing by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of DNA amplified by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). To validate the PCR technology for platelet typing, we have compared PCR‐RFLP with monoclonal‐antibody‐specific immobilization of platelet antigens (MAIPA). For this purpose, we have studied different Glanzmann thrombasthenic families and particularly heterozygous individuals, who are not lacking GP IIb‐IIIa, as a model to detect the occurence of discrepancies between these two technologies. In two families, we have found differences between molecular biology and serological methods with the lack of expression of one antigen on the platelet membrane surface. In the first family, the abnormality is related to the HPA‐1 alloantigen system with three informative members; in the second, the HPA‐3 alloantigen system is concerned with two informative members. Considering these results, there may not always be a perfect correlation between molecular biology and serological methods, as an unknown molecular defect could interfere with the PCR results and lead to false platelet typing. In cases of suspected post‐transfusion purpura (PTP) or fetuses at risk for neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia (NAITP), great care must be taken in the interpretation of the results if only PCR‐RFLP techniques are used.