Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reduction of Soluble Iron and Reductive Dissolution of Ferric Iron-Containing Minerals by Moderately Thermophilic Iron-Oxidizing Bacteria

ABSTRACT Five moderately thermophilic iron-oxidizing bacteria, including representative strains of the three classified species (Sulfobacillus thermosulfidooxidans, Sulfobacillus acidophilus, and Acidimicrobium ferrooxidans), were shown to be capable of reducing ferric iron to ferrous iron when they were grown under oxygen limitation conditions. Iron reduction was most readily observed when the isolates were grown as mixotrophs or heterotrophs with glycerol as an electron donor; in addition, some strains were able to couple the oxidation of tetrathionate to the reduction of ferric iron. Cycling of iron between the ferrous and ferric states was observed during batch culture growth in unshaken flasks incubated under aerobic conditions, although the patterns of oxidoreduction of iron varied in different species of iron-oxidizing moderate thermophiles and in strains of a single species (S. acidophilus). All three bacterial species were able to grow anaerobically with ferric iron as a sole electron acceptor; the growth yields correlated with the amount of ferric iron reduced when the isolates were grown in the absence of oxygen. One of the moderate thermophiles (identified as a strain of S. acidophilus) was able to bring about the reductive dissolution of three ferric iron-containing minerals (ferric hydroxide, jarosite, and goethite) when it was grown under restricted aeration conditions with glycerol as a carbon and energy source. The significance of iron reduction by moderately thermophilic iron oxidizers in both environmental and applied contexts is discussed.
Regulation of the MEF2 Family of Transcription Factors by p38

ABSTRACT Members of the MEF2 family of transcription factors bind as homo- and heterodimers to the MEF2 site found in the promoter regions of numerous muscle-specific, growth- or stress-induced genes. We showed previously that the transactivation activity of MEF2C is stimulated by p38 mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase. In this study, we examined the potential role of the p38 MAP kinase pathway in regulating the other MEF2 family members. We found that MEF2A, but not MEF2B or MEF2D, is a substrate for p38. Among the four p38 group members, p38 is the most potent kinase for MEF2A. Threonines 312 and 319 within the transcription activation domain of MEF2A are the regulatory sites phosphorylated by p38. Phosphorylation of MEF2A in a MEF2A-MEF2D heterodimer enhances MEF2-dependent gene expression. These results demonstrate that the MAP kinase signaling pathway can discriminate between different MEF2 isoforms and can regulate MEF2-dependent genes through posttranslational activation of preexisting MEF2 protein.
A Planar, Differential, and Directive Ultrawideband Antenna

A novel planar differential ultrawideband antenna is described and both numerically and experimentally characterized. The proposed antenna is formed by two disc monopoles fed by 50-Ohm microstrip lines with a structured ground plane. Simulations and measurements demonstrate that it is possible to achieve a huge increase in directionality with respect to conventional monopoles by carefully engineering the ground plane and by exploiting the array effect.
Low-Power DT $\Delta \Sigma$ Modulators Using SC Passive Filters in 65 nm CMOS

A comparative design study of ultra-low-power discrete-time ΔΣ modulators (DT ΔΣMs) suited for medical implant devices is presented. Aiming to reduce the analog power consumption, the objective is to investigate the effectiveness of the switched-capacitor passive filter. Two design variants of 2nd-order ΔΣMs are analyzed and compared to a power-optimized standard active modulator (ΔΣM<sub>AA</sub>). The first variant (ΔΣM<sub>AP</sub>) employs an active filter in the 1st stage and a passive filter in the less critical 2nd stage. The second variant (OTA-less ΔΣM<sub>PP</sub>) makes use of passive filters in both stages. For practical verification, all three modulators are implemented on a single chip in 65 nm CMOS technology. Designed for 500-Hz signal bandwidth, the ΔΣM<sub>AA</sub>, ΔΣM<sub>AP</sub>, and ΔΣM<sub>PP</sub> achieve 76 dB, 70 dB and 67 dB peak SNDR, while consuming 2.1 μW, 1.27 μW, and 0.92 μW, respectively, from a 0.9 V supply. Furthermore, the ΔΣM<sub>PP</sub> can operate at a supply voltage reduced to 0.7 V, achieving a 65 dB SNDR at 430 nW power and 0.296 pJ/step.
The Gender Wage Gap: A Study of Paid Work in Cyprus

The gender wage gap in paid employment was studied using data from the 1991 Survey of Household Expenditure and Income for Cyprus, a country which aspires to join the European Union. Selection from a sample which includes more than paid employees was taken into account. It was found that average weekly wages for women are about 60 percent of those for men. Approximately 60 percent of the observed gender gap can be explained by differences in average characteristics but much of this explanation includes the results of industry and occupation choices, and opportunities in these populations. Copyright Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini and Blackwell Publishers Ltd 2000.
A middleware for intelligent environments in ambient assisted living

The increasing elderly population is changing the demography of many countries, becoming a major issue for society. As a direct consequence of this demographic phenomenon, allied to technological developments and pressure to reduce healthcare costs, new healthcare technologies for proactive health and elder care is needed. However, interoperability issues among different levels of available technologies restricts a wider deployment among intermediate and end-users. This work presents a service-oriented middleware that was developed to provide access to the functionality offered by virtually any existing device, or application, in a residential setting, in a transparent and intuitive form. The proposed middleware abstracts the communication technologies involved, allowing to seemingly integrate different communication protocols, making possible the distributed cooperation of devices that were built as stand-alone products. As a test case, an application was built with the middleware to monitor blood pressure and electromyography signal using typical health devices.
Errors in Estimating Accruals: Implications for Empirical Research

This paper examines the impact of measuring accruals as the change in successive balance sheet accounts, as opposed to measuring accruals directly from the statement of cash flows. Our primary finding is that studies using a balance sheet approach to test for earnings management are potentially contaminated by measurement error in accruals estimates. In particular, if the partitioning variable used to indicate the presence of earnings management is correlated with the occurrence of mergers and acquisitions or discontinued operations, tests are biased and researchers are likely to erroneously conclude that earnings management exists when there is none. Additional results show that the errors in balance sheet accruals estimation can confound returns regressions where discretionary and non‐discretionary accruals are used as explanatory variables. Moreover, we demonstrate that tests of market mispricing of accruals will be understated due to erroneous classification of “extreme” accruals firms.
Learning from Abroad: The Role of Policy Transfer in Contemporary Policy‐Making

In recent years there has been a growing body of literature within political science and international studies that directly and indirectly uses, discusses and analyzes the processes involved in lesson-drawing, policy convergence, policy diffusion and policy transfer. While the terminology and focus often vary, all of these studies are concerned with a similar process in which knowledge about policies, administrative arrangements, institutions and ideas in one political setting (past or present) is used in the development of policies, administrative arrangements, institutions and ideas in another political setting. Given that this is a growing phenomenon, it is something that anyone studying public policy needs to consider. As such, this article is divided into four major sections. The first section briefly considers the extent of, and reasons for, the growth of policy transfer. The second section then outlines a framework for the analysis of transfer. From here a third section presents a continuum for distinguishing between different types of policy transfer. Finally, the last section addresses the relationship between policy transfer and policy “failure. ”
An improved way to measure thermal impedance of insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) module for power electronic packaging

Recently, silver paste, silver epoxy, and solders were commonly used as die-attach materials for power electronic packaging. Thermal performance of these materials should be paid attention to since reliability of sintered or soldered jointsis highly dependent on the thermal performance. To accurately investigate the transient thermal behavior of sintered or soldered joints in electronic applications, an improved way and system for thermal impedance measurement were developed in this paper. A series of measurements utilized gate-emitter voltage as temperature-sensitive parameter at varies heating time and heating power were conducted. Significantly, through changing the heat input, the specific thermal impedance of any layer could be obtained with high accuracy, repeatability, and stability. In this way, it would be useful to understand how thermal performance of power modules varies with architecture and materials for power electronic packaging.
An Exploratory Examination of Supervisor Undermining, Employee Involvement Climate, and the Effects on Customer Perceptions of Service Quality in Quick-Service Restaurants

Customer retention has become a continuous focus of service organizations and is especially salient in the quick-service restaurant industry due to the short time with the consumer. Restaurant employees being part of the product play imperative role in keeping customers happy and coming back. However, there is no complete understanding of factors that make employees perform their best and satisfy customers. The aim of this article is to explore how employee involvement climate, a construct composed of power, information, rewards and knowledge, and supervisor undermining are related to customer perceptions of service quality. Additionally, the interaction between employee involvement climate and supervisor undermining is tested. Results suggest that a significant interaction exists between these two constructs and are key predictors in increasing or decreasing customer perceptions of service quality.
How efficient are real estate and construction companies in Iran's close economy?

This paper empirically explores various efficiency aspects of real estate and construction companies in Iran in light of their remarkable growth in recent years. The technique used to measure the efficiency is DEA and the sample is taken from the construction and real estate companies in Iran. Results from our analysis reveal that most of the real estate and construction companies in Iran are generally technical, scale and mix efficient. However, they are less cost efficient due to increasing higher cost of production. The sensitivity analysis results also suggest that the real estate and construction companies are experiencing diseconomies of scale. As Iran is an underdeveloped market and is currently one of the most interesting frontier markets in the world, this research contributes substantially to investors and multinationals (who have growing desire to gain exposure in this market) by providing current information about the efficiencies of real estate and construction companies in Iran. In addition, this research also provides some institutional voids on how to penetrate market environment in Iran through real estate development.
Power Quality Improvement Using PI and Fuzzy Logic Controllers Based Shunt Active Filter

— In recent years the large scale use of the power electronic equipment has led to an increase of harmonics in the power system. The harmonics results into a poor power quality and have great adverse economical impact on the utilities and customers. Current harmonics are one of the most common power quality problems and are usually resolved by using shunt active filter (SHAF). The main objective of this work is to develop PI and Fuzzy logic controllers (FLC) to analyze the performance of Shunt Active Filter for mitigating current harmonics under balanced and unbalanced sinusoidal source voltage conditions for normal load and increased load. When the supply voltages are ideal (balanced), both PI and FLC are converging to the same compensation characteristics. However, the supply voltages are non-ideal (unbalanced), FLC offers outstanding results. Simulation results validate the superiority of FLC with triangular membership function over the PI controller.
Rapid and efficient purification of native histidine-tagged protein expressed by recombinant vaccinia virus.

Vaccinia virus has been used as a vector to express foreign genes for the production of functional and posttranslationally modified proteins. A procedure is described here that allows the rapid native purification of vaccinia-expressed proteins fused to an amino-terminal tag of six histidines. Extracts from cells infected with recombinant vaccinia virus are loaded onto Ni2+. nitrilotriacetic acid (Ni2+.NTA)-agarose and histidine-tagged proteins are selectively eluted with imidazole-containing buffers. In the case of the human serum response factor (SRF), a transcription factor involved in the regulation of the c-fos protooncogene, the vaccinia-expressed histidine-tagged SRF (SRF-6His) could be purified solely by this step to greater than 95% purity. SRF-6His was shown to resemble authentic SRF by functional criteria: it was transported to the nucleus, bound specifically the c-fos serum response element, interacted with the p62TCF protein to form a ternary complex, and stimulated in vitro transcription from the serum response element. Thus, the combination of vaccinia virus expression and affinity purification by Ni2+. NTA chromatography promises to be useful for the production of proteins in a functional and posttranslationally modified form.
The Art of the Macchia and the Risorgimento: Representing Culture and Nationalism in Nineteenth-Century Italy

During the 1860s and '70s, more than a decade before the development of French Impressionism, Italy produced a group of avant-garde artists whose fervently nationalist paintings anticipated some of Impressionism's theoretical concerns. These artists were called "Macchiaioli" because they based their technique on a quickly rendered "macchia," or sketch. In the first extended sociopolitical interpretation in English of this important group, Albert Boime places the Macchiaioli in the cultural context of the Risorgimento the political movement that unified Italy, freed from foreign rule, under a secular, constitutional government. Anglo-American art criticism has generally neglected these painters (probably because of their overt political affiliation and nationalist expression), but Boime shows that these artists, while deeply political, nevertheless created aesthetically superior work. Boime's study departs from previous research on the Macchiaioli by systematically investigating the group's writings, sources, and patronage in relation to the Risogimento. The book also examines both contemporary and later critical responses, revealing how French art criticism has obscured the achievements of Macchiaioli art. Richly illustrated, "The Art of the Macchia and the Risorgimento" will appeal to anyone interested in nineteenth-century European art or the history of Italy. "
Practical Monetary Policy: Examples from Sweden and the United States

In the summer of 2010, the Federal Reserve's and the Swedish Riksbank's inflation forecasts were below the former's mandate-consistent rate and the latter's target, respectively, and their unemployment forecasts were above sustainable rates. Conditions in both countries clearly called for policy easing. The Federal Reserve maintained a minimum policy rate, soon started to communicate possible future easing, and in the fall launched QE2. In contrast, the Riksbank started a period of rapid tightening. I find the arguments against the Federal Reserve's easing and the arguments for the Riksbank's tightening unconvincing. Although the Swedish economy subsequently performed better than expected, probably an important reason was that the market implemented much easier financial conditions than were consistent with the Riksbank's policy rate path. Without the policy tightening, performance would have been even better. The U.S. economy meanwhile performed worse than expected because of factors other than monetary policy. Without the policy easing, performance would have been even worse. In short, the Riksbank did the wrong thing but was lucky, whereas the Federal Reserve did the right thing but was unlucky.
Rewards and Performance of Swedish Real Estate Firms

DOI: 10.1177/0886368709337924 t is now well documented in the research literature that longterm business survival depends on consistent value creation. Up to two thirds of organizational value is perceived to derive from firms’ intellectual capital base, and more than 50% of this intellectual capital value is perceived to be primarily people dependent. Others argue that it is workforce management rather than technology, patents or strategic position that ensures a company’s continued enjoyment of competitive advantage. Quite rightly, value creation has been cited as the real estate sector’s goal in investment and related activities. In real estate and elsewhere, value creation is thus essentially a people-dependent process. In spite of the growing importance of human resource management (HRM) in business success, a survey of property research priorities in the United Kingdom, United States and Australia shows that the property sector has overlooked the relative importance of research into how to use total rewards as part of a HRM strategy. Nevertheless, a number of researchers have carried out studies with HRM implications. There is growing research into the impact of corporate real estate and new workspace arrangements on firms’ human resources and performance. Investments in workplace configuration have an impact on a firm’s ability to recruit and retain top-quality talent. A significant relationship has been found between executive compensation and measures of financial performance, firm size, and age of the highest paid executive. An investigation of the relationship between increases in sales and REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) manager rewards reveals a positive link between reward and revenue. Firm size (measured as the market value), property type (retail Equity REIT), the fraction of manager ownership and the numbers of years since the EREIT’s initial public offering have also been found to explain EREIT executive compensation. Before the advent of empirical research into this area, decades of qualitative research into workforce management and motivation has been common knowledge, with several landmark studies and theories of how to motivate employees. Rewards and Performance of Swedish Real Estate Firms
Uncertainty with STOS: Intelligent solution for uncertain navigation problems

Traffic direction systems in addition to other Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are becoming more popular every day. Applications like Yahoo maps, MapQuest, and Google Earth are online examples of such systems designed to help users locate their destinations or reach it. The need of Vehicles Global Positioning Systems (GPS) is also increasing. Calculating the best driving path (shorter in distance or faster in time) between two addresses is subject to many factors like distances, road situation, road traffic, road legal rules and others. Knowing whether we can make it to our destination on time is also a hard question and subject to additional factors like car situation, arrival time, moving time, traffic at destination, and others. In this paper we present our smart system STOS, which uses an intelligent algorithm and intelligent graph structure. We also extend STOS and use it with uncertainty factors that may affect our trip to give a logical answer of whether we can reach our destination on time.
The Long‐Run Performance of REIT Stock Repurchases

This study investigates the long-horizon performance of open-market stock repurchases for real estate investment trusts (REITs). We develop a new methodology to model the autocorrelation of monthly returns into long-horizon buy-and-hold abnormal return estimators. Serial correlation can introduce bias (autocorrelation bias) because the bid-ask bounce may affect monthly returns for sample firms and non-sample firms in a different fashion. Previous long-horizon event studies have overlooked this source of bias. There is compelling evidence that the market underreacts to the stock repurchase announcements. The evidence holds for different measures of the variance and the effects of cross-correlation of abnormal returns. Results are also robust to the traditional buy-and-hold abnormal return and the wealth relative estimators. We investigate the nature of the underreaction and find strong support for the undervaluation hypothesis. Copyright 2005 by the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association
Mass Production of Early-Stage Bone-Marrow-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells of Rat Using Gelatin-Coated Matrix

Although preparation of early-stage bone-marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) is critical for successful cell transplantation therapy, no culture system offers a sufficient number of early-stage BM-MSCs for cell transplantation. Accordingly, we developed a culture system capable of producing a large number of early-stage BM-MSCs by using gelatin-coated matrix. The greatest retrieval and proliferation rates of the earliest-stage rat BM-MSCs were detected in bone-marrow-derived cells cultured on 1% (wt/v) gelatin-coated matrix, which showed significantly greater colony forming unit-fibroblast number, diameter, and total cell number. Moreover, continuous culture of the earliest-stage BM-MSCs on 1% (wt/v) gelatin-coated matrix resulted in a maximum of 21.2 ± 2.7 fold increase in the cumulative total number of early-stage BM-MSCs at passage 5. BM-MSCs generated in large quantities due to a reduced doubling time and an increased yield of cell population in S/G2/M phase showed typical fibroblast-like morphology and no significant differences in BM-MSC-related surface marker expression and differentiation potential, except for an increased ratio of differentiation into a neurogenic lineage. The use of gelatin-coated matrix in the retrieval and culture of BM-MSCs contributes greatly to the effective isolation and mass production of early-stage BM-MSCs.
Multi-beam transmission diversity with hybrid beamforming for MIMO-OFDM systems

The ever-increasing traffic crunch for the wireless communication has drawn attention to the large spectrum available in the millimeter-wave bands as a potential means to achieve several fold mobile data traffic increase. While the channel characteristics at the millimeter-wave bands are known to be unfavorable for the mobile wireless communication purpose, the high gain available from massive array antenna facilitated by the short wavelength makes it possible to overcome the large path-loss. In this paper, we propose a hybrid beamforming architecture that combines an analog beamforming with array antennas and a digital precoding with multiple RF chains. Furthermore, we propose a multi-beam transmission diversity scheme for single stream transmission for single user MIMO operation. It is shown through various simulation results that the proposed hybrid beamforming scheme leads to considerable performance improvements even with limited feedback.