Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The effect of technological, commercial and human resources on the use of new technology

Our objective in this paper is to analyze the determinants of the use of process technologies among in manufacturing firms. We go beyond more traditional approaches and consider the role of complementarities in technology adoption at two levels. First, we adapt Teece’s (1986) framework study the incentives to use new technology that stem from investments in the knowledge base of the firm and in marketing assets. We also take into account the quality of the services provided by employees. Second, we analyze whether technology use is conditioned by a system effect that arises from the use of related technologies. We test our hypotheses on a representative sample of manufacturing firms.
Globalisation, financial markets and the operation of monetary policy in India

Monetary policy in India underwent significant changes in the 1990s as the Indian economy became increasingly open and financial sector reforms were put in place. In the 1980s, monetary policy was geared towards controlling the quantum, cost and direction of credit flow in the economy. The quantity variables dominated as the transmission channel of monetary policy. Reforms during the 1990s enhanced the sensitivity of price signals from the central bank, making interest rates the increasingly dominant transmission channel of monetary policy in India.
Will an observer advise higher risk taking after hearing a discussion of the decision problem?

If debate over a decision results in higher risk taking on the part of group members, will physically separate observers be affected in the same way? In this study a series of hypothetical decision situations—the Choice Dilemmas task devised by Wallach and Kogan—was used to measure S's risk-taking propensity. The group members as well as the noninteracting "viewers" (placed behind a one-way mirror) and "listeners" (in a separate room with a loudspeaker) were found to shift toward higher risk. The evidence supports the theory of information exchange as the explanation of the risky shift rather than the theory of responsibilit y diffusion. It has been shown in a number of studies that groups tend to take higher risks than individuals. Risk-taking level has in most cases been measured through a Choice Dilemmas instrument (Wallach & Kogan, 1Q59) containing brief descriptions of 12 hypothetical decision problems. The subject is asked to indicate the minimum odds of success he would demand before recommending the choice of the more attractive but riskier alternative among two possible courses of action. Brown (196S) and Kogan and Wallach (1967) have reviewed the relevant research and advanced differing explanatory approaches. According to the latter authors, the source of the risky shift lies in a process of responsibilit y diffusion. This concept was first proposed by Wallach, Kogan, and Bern (1962), when they reported a confirmation of the original finding by Stoner (1961) of the group risky shift. In a more recent study, Wallach and Kogan (1965) found no risky shift when subjects were asked to disclose their positions (Choice Dilemmas responses), and reach consensus through repeated rounds of public balloting without discussion. Shifts occurred in the discussion condition even when no group decision (consensus) was required. This finding necessitated a broader conceptualization of responsibilit y diffusion. Whereas first (Wallach et al, 1962) the idea was that the subject felt his responsibility reduced because the decision was no more his alone, it is 1 Financial support for this study came from the Office of Naval Research, Contract No. 18s8-(12), Harold M. Schroder, prinicipal investigator. The author thanks H. M. Schroder, J. L. Kennedy, N. Kogan, and B. L. Koslin for their generous advice and helpful criticisms. This article is based on part of the author's doctoral dissertation at Princeton University.
Electromagnetics optimization using an evolutionary algorithm with a mixed-parameter self-adaptive mutation operator

Applications of evolutionary programming (EP) in electromagnetics to date have been mainly in continuous parameter optimizations. EP, however, can directly work with continuous or discrete parameters. We present an implementation of EP with a mixed continuous-discrete parameter representation. In our approach the mutation operator consists of a hybrid combination of Gaussian mutation, for the continuous parameters, and Poisson mutation, for the discrete parameters. The implementation uses self-adaptive schemes for updating the standard deviation of the Gaussian distribution and the mean of the Poisson distribution during the evolution. As an example, the mixed-parameter EP algorithm is applied to the design of a multi-layer filter structure.
Treatment of unresectable malignant rhabdoid tumor of the orbit with tandem high‐dose chemotherapy and gamma‐knife radiosurgery

Malignant rhabdoid tumor (MRT) is a rare and highly aggressive tumor that primarily occurs in very young children. We report here a patient with a primary MRT of the orbit who received tandem high‐dose chemotherapy and gamma‐knife radiosurgery. Although the tumor was not completely removed, and the initial chemotherapy failed, the patient achieved long‐term survival after this modality of treatment. This approach may be one to be further considered in patients with MRT. Pediatric Blood Cancer 2006;47:846–850. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Virtual View Rendering Based on Self-adaptive Block Matching Disparity Estimation

Virtual view rendering is one of the key techniques of interactive 3D video systems, and is analogue expression to the real world in virtual reality systems. This paper proposes a new algorithm of virtual view rendering between two views taken in the same scene at the same time, which is based on self-adaptive block matching disparity estimation. This algorithm outputs any view between the two origin views. In order to gain accurate dense disparity field, a method of self-adaptive block matching is proposed in disparity estimation according to the information of texture and gray scale. Image interpolation is used to render certain virtual view and reverse mapping is adopted to fill up holes formed in interpolation. Satisfying visual effect is shown in experimental result.
Stock Market Impact of Sovereign Credit Rating Announcements: The Case of GIIPS and BRIC Countries During the European Sovereign Debt Crisis of 2009-2013

In this study, we analyze the effects of sovereign credit rating reviews on national stock market performances in GIIPS and BRIC countries during the European Sovereign Debt Crisis of 2009-2013. Through an event study, we test the Null Hypothesis that cumulative abnormal returns on national stock market indices are zero and find that sovereign debt downgrades produce negative cumulative abnormal returns for GIIPS countries, the effect being larger for small economies compared to big economies. Negative reviews are found to have more impact than actual downgrades; positive reviews are not proven to be of influence in this study. Furthermore, we find that S&P’s announcements carry more weight in the stock markets than competing Credit Rating Agencies. The analysis also shows an evolution of the Credit Rating Agencies’ impact throughout the crisis, with decreasing effects towards the second half of the period of interest.
Estimates of the Economic Return to Schooling from a New Sample of Twins

This paper uses a new survey to contrast the wages of genetically identical twins with different schooling levels. Multiple measurements of schooling levels were also collected to assess the effect of reporting error on the estimated economic returns to schooling. The data indicate that omitted ability variables do not bias the estimated return to schooling upward, but that measurement error does bias it downward. Adjustment for measurement error indicates that an additional year of schooling increases wages by 16%, a higher estimate of the economic returns to schooling than has been previously found.
Effects of residence in Alzheimer disease special care units on functional outcomes.

CONTEXT Alzheimer disease special care units (SCUs) in nursing homes are increasingly prevalent, but little is known about their effects on residents' outcomes. OBJECTIVE To analyze the effect of SCU residence on the rates at which residents decline in functional status. DESIGN A cohort of nursing home residents assessed at multiple points during about 1 year. Facility staff completed all assessments using the Minimum Data Set for Nursing Home Resident Assessment and Care Screening (MDS). SETTING Medicare- or Medicaid-certified nursing facilities. PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS All nursing home residents in 1993 and early 1994 in Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, and South Dakota. Serial MDS assessments of 77337 residents in more than 800 facilities, including 1228 residents in 48 facilities with SCUs. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Decline in locomotion, transferring, toileting, eating, dressing, and a summary activities of daily living index; decline in urinary and bowel continence; and significant weight loss. RESULTS No statistically significant difference was observed in the speed of decline for residents in SCUs and traditional units in any of the 9 outcomes. Residents were matched on a variety of characteristics, and subgroup analyses were performed. In none did we observe a pattern of better outcomes among SCU residents. CONCLUSIONS Although SCUs may have provided unmeasured benefits to families and residents, it does not appear that those benefits included any slowing in the rates of functional decline experienced by individuals with dementia.
MAP-Based Iterative Channel Estimation for OFDM With Multiple Transmit Antennas Over Time-Varying Channels

This paper investigates iterative channel estimation (ICE) for orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) with multiple transmit antennas. To improve performance of channel estimation, we exploit the soft information of unknown data symbols on both the expected transmit antenna and the interfering transmit antenna. Maximum a posteriori (MAP)-based ICE is derived and is implemented using the fixed-point iteration (FPI). For an OFDM system with multiple transmit antennas, the proposed MAP-based ICE suggests a harmonic-average-based soft symbol on the expected transmit antenna while an arithmetic-average-based soft symbol on the interfering transmit antennas. Similar to an OFDM system with a single transmit antenna, MAP-based ICE can achieve the Cramer-Rao bound (CRB) within only one iteration, when the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is large enough.
MAT1, cdk7 and cyclin H form a kinase complex which is UV light‐sensitive upon association with TFIIH.

MAT1, cyclin H and cdk7 are part of TFIIH, a class II transcription factor which possesses numerous subunits of which several have been shown to be involved in processes other than transcription. Two of them, XPD (ERCC2) and XPB (ERCC3), are helicases involved in nucleotide excision repair (NER), whereas cdk7, cyclin H and MAT1 are thought to participate in cell cycle regulation. MAT1, cyclin H and cdk7 exist as a ternary complex either free or associated with TFIIH from which the latter can be dissociated at high salt concentration. MAT1 is strongly associated with cdk7 and cyclin H. Although not strictly required for the formation and activity of the complex, it stimulates its kinase activity. The kinase activity of TFIIH, which is constant during the cell cycle, is reduced after UV light irradiation.
A HMM-based system for real-time gesture recognition in movie sequences

In the paper there is presented an efficient system for dynamic gesture recognition in movie sequences based on hidden Markov models. The system uses colour-based image segmentation methods and introduces high-dimensional feature vectors to more accurately describe hand shape in the picture. It also utilizes a-priori knowledge on gestures construction in order to allow effective dimensionality reduction, hand posture classification and detection schemes. The system has demonstrated a reliable recognition properties both for static hand postures and dynamic gestures in movie sequences.
Ecdysone-controlled expression of transgenes

Inducible expression systems show great potential for use in human gene therapy and systems based on insect ecdysone receptors are particularly promising candidates. This article describes such systems and reviews actual and potential uses of ecdysone-controlled transgenes in vitro and in vivo. The ligand specificity of ecdysone receptor-based systems is considered, along with the safety and efficacy of the ecdysteroid and non-steroidal compounds used to activate them.
De novo exon 1 deletion of AUTS2 gene in a patient with autism spectrum disorder and developmental delay: A case report and a brief literature review

Exonic deletions disrupting the autism susceptibility candidate 2 (AUTS2) gene have been demonstrated as causal variants leading to neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and developmental delay (DD). Here, we report on 830 kb de novo deletion at chromosome 7q11.22 in a 4‐year‐old male patient with ASD and DD. This deletion disrupts the promoter region and exon 1 of AUTS2, potentially leading to complete haploinsuffiency of the gene. In addition, we discuss the clinical presentation of the de novo deletion in the light of the previous studies describing deletions of AUTS2 in NDDs. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Network on Chip Interface for Scalable Distributed Shared Memory Architectures

A Network Interface (NI) architecture has been investigated and developed to optimize the run-time management of communication resources in Network on Chip-based manycore systems. The presented NI design also offers dedicated hardware support for reducing synchronization overhead and latencies between communicating software instances. The proposed concepts bring a throughput improvement of up to 38% when compared with state of the art methods via SystemC simulation and FPGA prototyping.
Activation of glucose transport and AMP‐activated protein kinase during muscle contraction in adenylate kinase‐1 knockout mice

Aim: Recently it was reported that adenylate kinase‐1 knockout mice (AK−/−) exhibit elevated rates of glucose uptake following repeated contractions and hypoxia, but the mechanism was not investigated. The purpose of the present study was to measure the changes in glucose transport and AMP‐activated protein kinase (AMPK) phosphorylation/activity following repeated contractions in isolated muscles from AK−/− mice.
Why Do Analysts Continue to Provide Favorable Coverage for Seasoned Stocks?

Research has documented that the first report an investment bank affiliated analyst issues on a newly listed stock tends to be favorable. Our analysis of 16,824 relationships between analyst teams and established listed companies during 1995-2003 indicates that analyst coverage decisions of seasoned stocks are influenced by their affiliations with investment banks and mutual funds. Controlling for market returns, stock characteristics, and a variety of performance indicators, we find analysts are more likely to issue favorable reports when the stock is held by affiliated mutual funds. The more invested by affiliated mutual funds, the more optimistic the analyst rating compared to the consensus.
Gene expression confirms a potentially receptive endometrium identified by histology in fertile women.

BACKGROUND To use contemporary biochemical markers to characterize mRNA/gene expression in the potentially fertile secretory endometrium to confirm its identification based on histological characteristics in order to develop a clinically applicable test. METHODS Nine, fertile, cycling Caucasian women were sampled from one IVF clinic. Endometrial samples were collected from them in two to four menstrual cycles at 2 and 7 days post first significant rise in blood LH. Separate endometrial glands and stroma populations were obtained by laser microdissection. Linear polymerase chain reaction amplified mRNAs which were hybridized to both Affymetrix U133 Plus2 and Agilent 4 × 44K microarrays followed by gene set analysis. Four histopathologists reviewed the sample set using the same histological criteria to date and characterize the non-receptive and potentially receptive samples. RESULTS mRNA expression of microdissected glands and stroma provided molecular signatures that characterized the two specific phases of the cycle with distinct clustering patterns. Cell proliferation and five other associated biological pathways were significantly down-regulated when the endometrium is considered potentially receptive accompanied by an increase in secreted glycoproteins mRNAs in the potentially receptive glands. Reported histological findings identified the presence of one histological feature characteristic of each phase: glandular mitoses indicated a non-receptive endometrium, whereas a potentially receptive endometrium was distinguished by supranuclear vacuolation. CONCLUSIONS This study defined a transcriptome characteristic of active cell proliferation in the non-receptive samples with a marked overall down-regulation of this pathway in potentially receptive samples-suggesting a transitional state associated with receptivity but not implantation. However, microarrays involve expensive, specialized testing and require significant post-data analysis. Sampling according to endocrinological and molecular prediction improved the consistency of histological assessment and allowed reliable histological markers of glandular mitosis in the non-receptive phase and supranuclear vacuolation of the potentially receptive endometrium to be identified. Thus, histology can provide an affordable, clinically applicable test in the context of reproduction.
The accuracy and efficacy of real-time continuous glucose monitoring sensor in patients with type 1 diabetes.

BACKGROUND The accuracy and efficacy of the Medtronic Diabetes (Northridge, CA) Real-Time (RT)-Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) sensor were analyzed in 72 subjects with type 1 diabetes. METHODS This was a retrospective analysis of 60,050 temporally paired data points (sensor and glucose meter values) obtained during the course of an outpatient ambulatory study evaluating the efficacy of a sensor-augmented pump system in adults and adolescents. Subjects uploaded sensor values and self-monitoring blood glucose data to the CareLink Clinical Application (Medtronic Diabetes) via the Internet, every 2 weeks during the course of the study. RESULTS The overall percentage of sensor readings within +/-20% or +/-30% agreement of reference glucose readings was 75.6% and 86.8%, respectively. The highest rate of agreement occurred in the 240-400 mg/dL range, where 79.9% of sensor readings were within +/-20% of meter values and 91.5% of sensor readings were within 30% of meter values. The mean absolute relative difference for all subjects was 15.8%, and the median absolute relative difference was 10.9%. The bias was -2.13 mg/dL. Paired glucose measurements from the RT-CGM and meter demonstrated that 95.9% of paired points in the overall subject population fell in zones A and B of the Clarke Error Grid. Consensus Error Grid Analysis established that 99.2% of paired data points were in zones A and B. CONCLUSIONS This study reports the accuracy of a continuous glucose sensor with a large number of paired data points (60,050). RT-CGM is safe and well tolerated and provides readings that are in close agreement with glucose meter values.
Detecting Switching Strategies in Equity Hedge Funds

Equity hedge funds are thought to effectively operate market timing by implementing switching strategies conditional on market circumstances. In this paper we use only the reported monthly returns on a set of funds to infer the type of switching strategies they follow, if any, as well as their switching times. A set of regime-switching models for each equity hedge funds' returns against various benchmarks are estimated; subsequently we answer the following general questions: What proportion of equity funds seem to have switching strategies in place? Which are the most popular instruments for switching strategies? And what is the relationship between the switching times of different funds? The general methodology applied in this paper may be useful to investors that wish to detect, from only from their reported returns, whether and when a particular fund has been timing the market.
Isomeric sn-1-octadecenyl and sn-2-octadecenyl analogues of lysophosphatidylcholine as substrates for acylation and desaturation by plant microsomal membranes.

To provide supporting and independent evidence for lipid-linked desaturation of acyl groups in plant microsomal membranes, ether-analogous substrates were synthesized and used for in-vitro desaturation studies. The substrates included 1-O-(9-cis-octadecenyl)-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine and 2-O-(9-cis-octadecenyl)-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine as well as labelled 1-O-(9-cis-[9,10-3H2]octadecenyl)-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine. In experiments with microsomal membranes from developing fruits of sunflower, it was shown that both isomeric alkenyl ether phospholipids were acylated with [14C]oleoyl-CoA and [14C]palmitoyl-CoA. In the presence of O2 and NADH, the oleoyl groups incorporated into both compounds, i.e. at the sn-1 and sn-2 positions of the glycerol backbone of the substrate, were desaturated to linoleoyl residues in similar proportions. Under the same conditions, an additional double bond, but not an enol-ether double bond, was introduced into the ether-linked side chain of acylated 1-O-(9-cis-[9,10-3H2]octadecenyl)-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine. This represents the first demonstration of this type of desaturation with an alkenyl ether phospholipid and confirms previous conclusions that plants introduce second and further double bonds into lipid-linked acyl groups.
Activation mechanism of retinal rod cyclic GMP phosphodiesterase probed by fluorescein-labeled inhibitory subunit.

The cyclic GMP phosphodiesterase (PDE) of vertebrate retinal rod outer segments (ROS) is kept inactive in the dark by its gamma subunits and is activated following illumination by the GTP form of the alpha subunit of transducin (T alpha-GTP). Recent studies have shown that the stoichiometry of the inhibited holoenzyme is alpha beta gamma 2. T alpha-GTP and gamma act reciprocally. We have investigated the activation mechanism using fluorescein-labeled gamma subunit (gamma F) as a probe. gamma F containing a single covalently attached fluorescein was prepared by reaction of PDE with 5-(iodoacetamido)fluorescein and purification by reversed-phase high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC). gamma F, like native gamma, inhibits the catalytic activity of trypsin-activated PDE and transducin-activated PDE. Inhibition by gamma F was overcome by further addition of T alpha-GTP. gamma F binds very weakly to ROS membranes stripped of PDE and other peripheral membrane proteins. gamma F added to ROS membranes became incorporated into a component that could be extracted with a low ionic strength buffer. HPLC gel filtration showed that gamma F became part of the PDE holoenzyme. Incorporation occurred in less than 1 min in the presence of light and GTP, but much more slowly (t1/2 approximately 500 s) in the absence of GTP. This result indicates that transducin activates PDE by binding to the holoenzyme and accelerating the dissociation of gamma from the inhibitory sites. The binding of gamma F to trypsin-activated PDE alpha beta was monitored by steady-state emission anisotropy measurements and compared with PDE activity. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)