Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Perspectives on the Sources of Heterogeneity in Indian Industry

The authors examine technical efficiency variation across four industrial sectors in India, using a stochastic production frontier technique. The results are comparable to technical efficiency distribution patterns obtained in other countries. The authors examine heterogeneity in firm-level efficiency against internal, firm-level characteristics and against external characteristics (industry and location). The results suggest that managerial effectiveness significantly influences efficiency and that considerable benefits derive from location within established industrial clusters for particular industries. The methodology and findings indicate that the study of industry-specific technical efficiency patterns is a useful analytical tool for tracking domestic firms' response to liberalization and the advance of market forces. An important policy implication of the authors' results: There is considerable room for efficiency gains through better organization and management of production processes and improved supply chain management, even in the highly organized corporate sector. These gains could be achieved by purely internal learning processes with no extra investment in physical plant or equipment, or with the help of outside consultants, or through business alliances with partners from industrial countries (a rising trend). The results also show that greater technical efficiency correlates with better energy use and higher investments in plant management. How firms can be induced to undertake such investments in the "software" of production is an important issue. Liberalization and globalization are likely to bring significant productivity gains even in low-technology industries as managers gear up to meet the challenges of competition.
An N = 2 worldsheet approach to D-branes in bihermitian geometries: II. The general case

We complete the investigation of N = (2,2) supersymmetric nonlinear σ-models in the presence of a boundary. We study the full bihermitian geometry parameterized by chiral, twisted chiral and semi-chiral superfields and identify the D-brane configurations preserving an N = 2 worldsheet supersymmetry. Combining twisted with semi-chiral superfields leads to a clearly defined notion of lagrangian and coisotropic branes generalizing lagrangian and coisotropic A-branes on Kahler manifolds to manifolds which are not necessarily Kahler (but still bihermitian). Adding chiral fields complicates the picture and results in hybrid configurations interpolating between lagrangian/coisotropic branes and branes wrapping around a holomorphic cycle. Even here the branes can be viewed as coisotropic submanifolds albeit in a generalized sense. All supersymmetric D-brane configurations are characterized in the context of generalized complex geometry. Duality transformations interchanging the various types of superfields while preserving all supersymmetries are explicitly constructed and provide for a powerful technique to construct various highly non-trivial D-brane configurations. Several explicit examples are given.
Factors increasing the risk for stone formation in adult patients with cystic fibrosis.

BACKGROUND Patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) are at high risk of nephrolithiasis (NL), but controversy still exists in terms of causes, including low urine output, hypercalciuria, hyperoxaluria, hyperuricosuria and hypocitraturia. Moreover, heterozygotes (H-CF), which may exhibit altered renal concentrating and diluting ability, have never studied so far. We, therefore, evaluated the metabolic and physicochemical data of adult CF and H-CF patients, comparing them to controls (C). METHODS Twenty-nine CF patients (16 females, aged 28.4 +/- 7.1 years), 20 H-CF (12 females, aged 58.6 +/- 6.3 years) and 30 C (19 females, aged 39.1 +/- 11.5 years) underwent kidney ultrasound and metabolic evaluation to assess stone risk profile. RESULTS There was a 21% prevalence of NL in CF vs 15% in H-CF. The CF group had elevated uric acid, but no other serological differences compared with the H-CF and C group. Conversely, the citrate and oxalate content in the urine differed significantly, being lower and higher, respectively. These changes held after correction for urine creatinine. Consequently, urine specimens were more supersaturated with calcium oxalate, despite exhibiting no differences for other relevant constituents. Uric acid increased only after normalization for the body weight and urine creatinine. Lower urine volume and more acidic pH produced mild supersaturation with uric acid in samples from CF, while urine from both H-CF and C remained undersaturated. H-CF had only minor increases in both urine oxalate and calcium oxalate supersaturation. CONCLUSIONS This study confirms a high prevalence of kidney stones among CF patients associated with supersaturated urine. Their longer survival justifies diets and/or medications aimed at reducing the risk of forming stones.
Reduced order distributed particle filter for electric power grids

The paper develops a fusion-based, reduced order, distributed implementation of the unscented particle filter (FR/DUPF) for state estimation in complex nonlinear electric power grids (EPG). Based on partitioning the overall EPG system into nsub localized but dynamically coupled subsystems, the near-optimal FR/DUPF provides a computational saving of up to a factor of nsub over the centralized particle filter. In our Monte Carlo simulations of the IEEE 14-bus test system, the FR/DUPF state estimates are close to the actual values and virtually indistinguishable from the centralized particle filter.
Constraints of Drug Resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis - Prospects for Pharmacological Reversion of Susceptibility to Antibiotics

Emergence of multidrug resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MDR-TB) threatens humanity. This problem was complicated by the crisis in development of new anti-tuberculosis antibiotics. Induced reversion of drug resistance seems promising to overcome the problem. Successful clinical trial of a new anti-tuberculosis nanomolecular complex FS-1 has demonstrated prospectively of this approach in combating MDR-TB. Several clinical MDR-TB cultures were isolated from sputum samples prior and in the process of the clinical trial. Every isolate was tested for susceptibility to antibiotics and then they were sequenced for comparative genomics. It was found that the treatment with FS-1 caused an increase in the number of antibiotic susceptible strains among Mtb isolates that was associated with a general increase of genetic heterogeneity of the isolates. Observed impairing of phthiocerol dimycocerosate biosynthesis by disruptive mutations in ppsACD subunits indicated a possible virulence remission for the sake of persistence. It was hypothesized that the FS-1 treatment eradicated the most drug resistant Mtb variants from the population by aggravating the fitness cost of drug resistance mutations. Analysis of distribution of these mutations in the global Mtb population revealed that many of them were incompatible with each other and dependent on allelic states of many other polymorphic loci. The latter discovery may explain the negative correlation between the genetic heterogeneity of the population and the level of drug tolerance. To the best of our knowledge, this work was the first experimental confirmation of the drug induced antibiotic resistance reversion by the induced synergy mechanism that previously was predicted theoretically.
Wireless distributed network key-agreement protocol based on discrete logarithm

Because of the limited processing ability of wireless distributed network devices, most of the equipment are using symmetric encryption algorithm to encrypt the data, both communications need a shared secret key and it should be changed regularly in the service. But the key agreement process is vulnerable to eavesdropping attack, modification attack, man-in-the-middle attack, and so on. This paper proposes a wireless distributed network key agreement protocol based on discrete logarithm problem. It is used to prevent above attacks.
A simplified PCR assay for fast and easy mycoplasma mastitis screening in dairy cattle

A simplified polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay was developed for fast and easy screening of mycoplasma mastitis in dairy cattle. Species of major mycoplasma strains [Mycoplasma (M.) bovis, M. arginini, M. bovigenitalium, M. californicum, M. bovirhinis, M. alkalescens and M. canadense] in cultured milk samples were detected by this simplified PCR-based method as well as a standard PCR technique. The minimum concentration limit for detecting mycoplasma by the simplified PCR was estimated to be about 2.5 × 103 cfu/mL and was similar to that of the standard PCR. We compared the specificity and sensitivity of the simplified PCR to those of a culture method. Out of 1,685 milk samples cultured in mycoplasma broth, the simplified PCR detected Mycoplasma DNA in 152 that were also positive according to the culture assay. The sensitivity and specificity of the simplified PCR were 98.7% and 99.7%, respectively, for detecting mycoplasma in those cultures. The results obtained by the simplified PCR were consistent with ones from standard PCR. This newly developed simplified PCR, which does not require DNA purification, can analyze about 300 cultured samples within 3 h. The results from our study suggest that the simplified PCR can be used for mycoplasma mastitis screening in large-scale dairy farms.
An Adaptive Recommendation System for Personalized Stock Trading Advice Using Artificial Neural Networks

This paper describes an adaptive recommendation system that provides real-time personalized trading advice to the investors based on their profiles and trading information environment. A proposed system integrates Stochastic technical analysis and artificial neural network that incorporates an adaptive user modeling. The user model is constructed and updated based on initial user profile and recorded user interactions with the system. The information presented to each individual user is also tailor- made to fit the user's behavior and preference. A system prototype was implemented in JAVA. Experiments used to evaluate the system's performance were done on both human subjects and synthetic users. The results show our proposed system is able to rapidly learn to provide appropriate advice to different types of users.
Problems with Measurement of Trust and Trustworthiness. What Best Predicts Trust Game Outcomes

The study (N = 156) explored the predictive power of attitudinal measures of trust and trustworthiness commonly used in surveys, as well as the possibility of replacing them with other instruments. Secondly, it aimed at replicating previous findings (e.g. Gleaser et al., 2000) that cues to other person’s group membership affect trusting and trustworthy behaviour. Subjects filled in a number of questionnaires and took part in the Trust Game in which information about partner’s nationality was manipulated. Analyses demonstrated the lack of correspondence between attitudinal and past behaviour measures of trust and trustworthiness and behaviour in the Trust Game. Trustworthiness was predicted by social desirability measure. No effects of other person’s out-group membership were found in the current study. Cues to identity made participants more trustful and trustworthy towards the other person in comparison to the control condition. The interpretation of the obtained results, as well as the limitations of the study are discussed.
Cystatin C in the anterior segment of rat and mouse eyes.

PURPOSE Cystatin C is a mammalian cysteine protease inhibitor. This study describes the localization of cystatin C in the anterior segment of normal rat and mouse eyes. Cysteine proteases play an important role in protein degradation (e.g. of photoreceptor outer segments in the retinal pigment epithelium) and the balance between these proteases and their specific inhibitors is therefore of great interest. METHODS Cells containing cystatin C were identified by immunohistochemistry and quantified by ELISA. Messenger RNA levels were analysed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS Cystatin C is present at biologically significant levels in the corneal epithelium, endothelium and stromal keratinocytes, lens epithelium, epithelial cells in the ciliary processes, aqueous humour and iris stromal cells. In the rat anterior segment, the highest cystatin C concentrations were found in the ciliary epithelium. CONCLUSIONS Cystatin C is present in several cell types and is probably locally produced. The inhibitor is likely to be an important regulator of cysteine proteases in the retinal pigment epithelium, ciliary epithelium, aqueous humour, lens epithelium and in the corneal endothelium and epithelium.
State of the Art in Global Illumination for Interactive Applications and High‐quality Animations

Global illumination algorithms are regarded as computationally intensive. This cost is a practical problem when producing animations or when interactions with complex models are required. Several algorithms have been proposed to address this issue. Roughly, two families of methods can be distinguished. The first one aims at providing interactive feedback for lighting design applications. The second one gives higher priority to the quality of results, and therefore relies on offline computations. Recently, impressive advances have been made in both categories. In this report, we present a survey and classification of the most up‐to‐date of these methods.
Do We Really Need Lexical Information? Towards a Top-down Approach to Sentiment Analysis of Product Reviews

Most of the current approaches to sentiment analysis of product reviews are dependent on lexical sentiment information and proceed in a bottom-up way, adding new layers of features to lexical data. In this paper, we maintain that a typical product review is not a bag of sentiments, but a narrative with an underlying structure and reoccurring patterns, which allows us to predict its sentiments knowing only its general polarity and discourse cues that occur in it. We hypothesize that knowing only the review’s score and its discourse patterns would allow us to accurately predict the sentiments of its individual sentences. The experiments we conducted prove this hypothesis and show a substantial improvement over the lexical baseline.
Seasonal trends of light‐saturated net photosynthesis and stomatal conductance of loblolly pine trees grown in contrasting environments of nutrition, water and carbon dioxide

Repeated measures analysis was used to evaluate the effect of long-term CO2 enhancement on seasonal trends of light-saturated rates of net photosynthesis (Asat) and stomatal conductance to water vapour (gsat) of 9-year-old loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) trees grown in a 2 × 2 factorial experimental design of nutrition and water. A significant interaction effect of CO2 and nutrition on mean Asat was observed for juvenile foliage. Also, juvenile foliage exposed to +350 μmol mol−1 CO2 had a higher rate of increase of Asat between late summer and early autumn. This would lead to a greater potential for recharging carbohydrate reserves for winter. Mature foliage was affected by COsat, water and nutrient treatments in two ways. First, Asat was significantly increased as a result of elevated CO2 in January, a period when stomatal conductance was only 47% of the maximum observed rate. Secondly, the rate of increase of Asat from winter to early spring was accelerated as a result of both nutrient + water and + 350 μmol mol−1 CO2 treatments. This accelerated response resulted in a greater potential for photosynthate production during the period when growth initiation occurred. Nutrient, water or carbon dioxide treatments did not significantly alter trends in gsat for mature or juvenile foliage. A significant nutrition × CO2 interaction was observed for the mature foliage, suggesting that gsat increased with increasing CO2 and nutrition. These results may have important consequences for the determination of the water use efficiency of loblolly pine. In spite of low gsat in the winter to early spring period, there was a substantial gain in Asat attributable to elevated CO2 concentrations.
An iterative scheme for motion-based scene segmentation

We present an approach for dense estimation of motion and depth of a scene containing a multiple number of differently moving objects with the camera system itself being in motion. The estimates are used to segregate the image sequence into a number of independently moving objects by assigning the object hypothesis with maximum a posteriori (MAP) probability to each image point. Different to previous approaches in 3-dimensional (3D) scene analysis, we tackle this task by first simultaneously estimating motion and depth for a salient set of feature points in a recursive manner. Based on the evolving set of estimated motion profiles, the scene depth is recovered densely from spatially and temporally separated views. Given the dense depth map and the set of tracked motion estimates, the likelihood of each image point to belong to one of the distinct motion profiles can be determined and dense scene segmentation can be performed. Within our probabilistic model the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm is used to solve the inherent missing data problem. A Markov Random Field (MRF) is used to express our expectations on spatial and temporal continuity of objects.
Calculating equilibrium probabilities for &lgr;(n)/Ck/1/N queues

Equilibrium state distributions are determined for queues with load-dependent Poisson arrivals and service time distributions representable by Cox's generalized method of stages. The solution is obtained by identifying a birth-death process that has the same equilibrium state distribution as the original queue. Special cases of two-stage (C2) and Erlang-k (Ek) service processes permit particularly efficient algorithms for calculating the load - dependent service rates of the birth-death process corresponding to the original queue. Knowing the parameters of the birth-death process, the equilibrium state probabilities can be calculated straight-forwardly. This technique is particularly useful when subsystems are reduced to flow-equivalent servers representing the complementary network.
Clarity, Covenants, and Calvin’s Divine Accommodation

This article argues that the doctrine of the clarity of Scripture strengthens the pedagogical example provided by progressive covenantalism, as articulated by Stephen Wellum, and the concept of divine accommodation, as articulated by John Calvin. The intersection of these theological concepts provides a mutually reinforcing vision for the pattern and practice of pedagogy as revealed through the clear teaching of Scripture.
Myocardial proteome analysis reveals reduced NOS inhibition and enhanced glycolytic capacity in areas of low local blood flow

In the heart, in situ local myocardial blood flow (MBF) varies greater than 10‐fold between individual areas and displays a spatially heterogeneous pattern. To analyze its molecular basis, we analyzed protein expression of low and high flow samples (300 mg, <50% or >150% of mean MBF, each n=30) of six beagle dogs by 2‐D polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (380±78 spots/gel). In low flow samples, dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase (DDAH1) was increased greatly (+377%, compared with high flow samples). This increase resulted in a 75% reduction of asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA), the potent endogenous inhibitor of NO synthase, whereas eNOS showed no difference. Low flow samples exhibited enhanced expression of GAPDH (+89%) and phosphoglycerate kinase (+100%), whereas hydroxyacyl‐CoA dehydrogenase, electron transfer flavoprotein, myoglobin, and desmin were decreased. Assessing local MBF on different days within 2 weeks revealed a high degree of MBF stability (r2 > 0.79). Thus, stable differences in local MBF are associated with significant differences in local gene and protein expression. In low flow areas, the increased DDAH1 reduces ADMA concentration and NOS inhibition, which strongly suggests enhanced NO formation. Low flow areas are also characterized by a higher glycolytic and a lower fatty acid oxidation capacity. Both the shift in substrate utilization and the rise in NO may contribute to the known lower oxygen consumption in these areas.
FAST NONLINEAR MODEL PREDICTIVE CONTROL : OPTIMIZATION STRATEGY AND INDUSTRIAL PROCESS APPLICATIONS

With the widespread availability of model predictive control (MPC), nonlinear MPC provides a natural extension to include nonlinear models for trajectory tracking and dynamic optimization. NMPC can include first principle models developed for off-line dynamic studies as well as nonlinear data-driven models, but requires the application of efficient large-scale optimization strategies to avoid computational delays and to ensure stability, robustness and superior performance. This study presents the application of the recently developed advanced step NMPC (asNMPC) strategy. This approach solves the detailed optimization problem in background and applies a sensitivity-based update on-line. Two large-scale process case studies: detailed distillation control and multi-step operation for steam generation in a power plant. In both cases, efficient and robust controller performance is achieved with nonlinear dynamic optimization.
Computational mapping reveals dramatic effect of Hoogsteen breathing on duplex DNA reactivity with formaldehyde

Formaldehyde has long been recognized as a hazardous environmental agent highly reactive with DNA. Recently, it has been realized that due to the activity of histone demethylation enzymes within the cell nucleus, formaldehyde is produced endogenously, in direct vicinity of genomic DNA. Should it lead to extensive DNA damage? We address this question with the aid of a computational mapping method, analogous to X-ray and nuclear magnetic resonance techniques for observing weakly specific interactions of small organic compounds with a macromolecule in order to establish important functional sites. We concentrate on the leading reaction of formaldehyde with free bases: hydroxymethylation of cytosine amino groups. Our results show that in B-DNA, cytosine amino groups are totally inaccessible for the formaldehyde attack. Then, we explore the effect of recently discovered transient flipping of Watson–Crick (WC) pairs into Hoogsteen (HG) pairs (HG breathing). Our results show that the HG base pair formation dramatically affects the accessibility for formaldehyde of cytosine amino nitrogens within WC base pairs adjacent to HG base pairs. The extensive literature on DNA interaction with formaldehyde is analyzed in light of the new findings. The obtained data emphasize the significance of DNA HG breathing.
Effective leadership practices leading to distributed leadership

Abstract Leadership within the early childhood education (ECE) sector in New Zealand is both positionally assigned and a required practice of all teachers. Within this context, distributed leadership – where all team members have the opportunity to lead – is increasingly seen as an effective leadership model. This article reports on a study whose aim was to discover practices of effective positional leaders in facilitating distributed leadership. A nationwide survey was carried out in Aotearoa New Zealand to capture a picture of current perceptions of ECE teachers and positional leaders about distributed leadership for professional learning. Subsequently, leadership practices for distributed leadership in three previously-identified high quality ECE services were investigated through individual and group interviews. The analysis of literature, survey and interview findings from this study led to a framework of effective leadership practice, consisting of: mentoring and coaching; fostering relational trust; and creating vision and designing supportive structures.