Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Limbic circuitry in patients with autism spectrum disorders studied with positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance imaging.

OBJECTIVE Cytoarchitectonic changes in the anterior cingulate cortex, hippocampus, subiculum, entorhinal cortex, amygdala, mammillary bodies, and septum were reported in a postmortem study of autism. Previously, the authors found smaller cingulate volume and decreased metabolism of the cingulate in seven autistic patients. In this study, they measured the volume and glucose metabolism of the amygdala, hippocampus, and cingulate gyrus in an expanded group of 17 patients with autism spectrum disorders (autism [N=10] or Asperger's disorder [N=7]) and 17 age- and sex-matched healthy volunteers. METHOD Subjects performed a serial verbal learning test during (18)F-deoxyglucose uptake. The amygdala, hippocampus, and cingulate gyrus were outlined on magnetic resonance imaging scans, volumes of the structures were applied to matching coregistered positron emission tomography scans, and three-dimensional significance probability mapping was performed. RESULTS Significant metabolic reductions in both the anterior and posterior cingulate gyri were visualized in the patients with autism spectrum disorders. Both Asperger's and autism patients had relative glucose hypometabolism in the anterior and posterior cingulate as confirmed by analysis of variance; regional differences were also found with three-dimensional significance probability mapping. No group differences were found in either the metabolism or the volume of the amygdala or the hippocampus. However, patients with autism spectrum disorders showed reduced volume of the right anterior cingulate gyrus, specifically in Brodmann's area 24'. CONCLUSIONS Compared with age- and sex-matched healthy volunteers, patients with autism spectrum disorders showed significantly decreased metabolism in both the anterior and posterior cingulate gyri.
Connecting Student Employment, Involvement, and Alumni Affinity

Previous research indicates that student employment serves as a means of campus involvement. Additional literature indicates that campus involvement promotes alumni affinity. This study proposes that the missing link between student employment as involvement and alumni affinity lies in the students' perceptions of involvement. Therefore, this study explored whether student employees view their employment as an involvement opportunity and the factors that influence those perceptions. Understanding the factors that contribute to perceptions of involvement allows campus recreation professionals to structure employment experiences that are recognized by students as involvement, thereby promoting long-term affinity for the institution. The findings indicate that students perceive their employment as involvement, though to varying degrees. The factors contributing to those perceptions include a) time spent in the work environment, b) alignment with personal interests, c) relationships with coworkers, d) relationships with supervisors, e) affiliation to program area, and f) interaction with the campus community.
Unusual finding in a nipple discharge of a female dog: Dirofilariasis of the breast

We report a case of dirofilariasis of the breast occurring in a 6‐yr‐old Bernese female dog living in central Italy presenting with a breast lump, diagnosed on cytological examination of nipple secretion fluid smears. The direct smears of nipple discharge revealed clusters of glandular cells characterized by mild pleomorphic appearance and the presence of some nematodes of about 350 μm in length in the background. The smears also contained several inflammatory cells, including eosinophils. Both the Knott and the antigen tests were negative for Dirofilaria immitis. The morphological features of this round worm is compatible with that of Dirofilaria repens. The case describes an unusual finding of dirofilariasis presenting as a breast lump, simulating an inflammatory breast carcinoma. Diagn. Cytopathol. 2005;32:108–109. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Opportunistic disclosure in press release headlines

This paper examines managerial, self-serving, disclosure practices in the headlines of press releases announcing annual results. Headlines are a framing feature that can be used to capture and retain attention with the ultimate intention of affecting the thoughts and feelings of readers, thus influencing their opinions. Therefore, headlines have a key role in a company's communication strategy. Using a large sample of Spanish listed companies for the years 2005 and 2006, we provide evidence of persistent impression management in press release headlines. Companies, irrespective of whether they perform well or badly, are inclined to stress good news and downplay bad news. Companies with very small profits report surprising amounts of good news. We provide evidence that companies are selective in the performance figures they include in the headlines of press releases. In particular, the disclosure of profits or sales figures in press release headlines is also associated with earnings performance. Finally, we find that larger firms are more likely to issue press releases than smaller ones, consistent with the theory that highly visible firms face a greater demand for information transparency.
Comparison of regular and floating bulk transistors in ultra-wideband CMOS T/R switches

This work presents the theoretical analysis, circuit realization and characterization of two types of CMOS T/R switches based on the conventional NMOS and floating bulk NMOS transistors. An improved biasing circuit for floating bulk has been proposed. Two DC to 30 GHz CMOS T/R switches have been fabricated and measured in a 130 nm CMOS process. The regular switch has an insertion loss of 3.6 dB and an isolation of 28 dB up to 30 GHz while the floating bulk switch has an insertion loss of 2.8 dB and an isolation of 19 dB up to 30 GHz. The chip sizes are only 0.01 mm2. The obtained results compare the state-of-the-art realizations.
Applied sustainability in services and operations in higher learning institutions: a case study

In the recent years, sustainability has become a slogan for raising social, economic and environmental awareness. Higher education institutions play an important role in promoting sustainable development principles and practices. In addition to educating students on sustainability topics, these institutions should take on a leadership role in incorporating sustainable practices into their services and operations and in transforming their local and regional communities into more sustainable communities. Grand Valley State University (GVSU) has been very successful in the implementation of sustainability principles. Among many recognitions and awards, the university has received national recognition for Sustainability Innovation in 2008 and 2009. In this paper, we discuss how GVSU successfully integrated sustainability principles into its services and operations. We hope that the initiatives discussed herein provide insights for universities that are in the process of incorporating sustainability practices into their operations.
WELFARE IMPLICATIONS OF WASHINGTON WHEAT BREEDING PROGRAMS

Abstract We calculate the welfare effects of the Washington State University (WSU) wheat breeding programs for producers and consumers in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and the United States, and for importers of U.S. wheat. We develop a partial equilibrium multiregion, multiproduct, multivariety trade model for wheat that provides consumer, producer, and total surplus for each wheat class and region. Our results provide evidence suggesting that WSU wheat breeding programs have increased welfare for the state of Washington, the United States, and importers of U.S. wheat.
Taking Up Space? How Customers React to Health Information and Health Icons on Restaurant Menus

Eating out at restaurants has been identified as a major contributor to the epidemic of obesity in America. Prior quantitative research has demonstrated that health information on menus leads to healthier food choices, but not enough is known about the decision-making process behind these choices. Further insight into what happens when health information or health icons are included on menus was explored using focus groups. Health information was found to have a stronger effect on restaurant food choices than health icons, but icons did not provoke any serious negative reactions. Certain segments of people (e.g., dieters) strongly desired health information on menus, specifically calories, fat grams, and sodium levels.
"Changing the Way We Talk": Developing Librarians' Competence in Emerging Technologies through a Structured Program

This article reports on the implementation of a professional development program in emerging technologies for librarians at the University of Western Australia. Set up in 2008 to address a lack of pedagogically grounded training in this area, it has now graduated three cohorts. A qualitative analysis of participants’ online contributions and course projects, complemented by quantitative survey data, reveals that most librarians acquired new understandings of both pedagogy and technology; many were able to apply newly gained skills in the workplace; and some went on to create pedagogically grounded, technologically enabled resources of ongoing value to the library. A more intangible change in the discourse around new technologies was also observed. Limitations and challenges are identified and discussed.
A Signaling Cascade from miR444 to RDR1 in Rice Antiviral RNA Silencing Pathway1

Micro-RNA miR444 and its MADS-box targets directly alter RNA-dependent RNA polymerase transcription in antiviral defense. Plant RNA-DEPENDENT RNA POLYMERASE1 (RDR1) is a key component of the antiviral RNA-silencing pathway, contributing to the biogenesis of virus-derived small interfering RNAs. This enzyme also is responsible for producing virus-activated endogenous small interfering RNAs to stimulate the broad-spectrum antiviral activity through silencing host genes. The expression of RDR1 orthologs in various plants is usually induced by virus infection. However, the molecular mechanisms of activation of RDR1 expression in response to virus infection remain unknown. Here, we show that a monocot-specific microRNA, miR444, is a key factor in relaying the antiviral signaling from virus infection to OsRDR1 expression. The expression of miR444 is enhanced by infection with Rice stripe virus (RSV), and overexpression of miR444 improves rice (Oryza sativa) resistance against RSV infection accompanied by the up-regulation of OsRDR1 expression. We further show that three miR444 targets, the MIKCC-type MADS box proteins OsMADS23, OsMADS27a, and OsMADS57, form homodimers and heterodimers between them to repress the expression of OsRDR1 by directly binding to the CArG motifs of its promoter. Consequently, an increased level of miR444 diminishes the repressive roles of OsMADS23, OsMADS27a, and OsMADS57 on OsRDR1 transcription, thus activating the OsRDR1-dependent antiviral RNA-silencing pathway. We also show that overexpression of miR444-resistant OsMADS57 reduced OsRDR1 expression and rice resistance against RSV infection, and knockout of OsRDR1 reduced rice resistance against RSV infection. In conclusion, our results reveal a molecular cascade in the rice antiviral pathway in which miR444 and its MADS box targets directly control OsRDR1 transcription.
TOLERANCE REQUIRES THE RIGHT SMELL: FIRST EVIDENCE FOR INTERSPECIFIC SELECTION ON CHEMICAL RECOGNITION CUES

The integument of insects is generally covered with cuticular hydrocarbons (CHC). They serve multiple functions, most prominent among them waterproofing and—especially among social insects—as communication signal. CHC profiles are incredibly diverse within and across species. However, the causes for CHC variation between species, and potential selection pressures that may shape CHC profiles, are hardly understood. Here, we investigated potential selection pressures on ant CHC. We tested the hypotheses that living in association with another species (e.g., parabiosis), and the climate of the ant's habitat, affect CHC composition. We conducted a large‐scale comparison of 37 Camponotus species from five continents. Our results demonstrate that closely associated ant species possess significantly longer hydrocarbons and higher proportions of methylbranched alkenes and alkadienes than non‐ or loosely associated species. In contrast, climatic factors had no effects. This study shows that the need to be tolerated by another species greatly affects CHC profiles.
A Complete Analysis of Full Pareto Efficiency in Financial Markets for Arbitrary Preferences

This paper provides a complete analysis of the necessary and sufficient conditions for financial markets to achieve fully Pareto-efficient allocation of aggregate wealth through trade in economies with arbitrary preferences. We show that full Pareto efficiency obtains only if the market structure of contingent claims spans the information partition of a minimal aggregate wealth statistic and a Halmos-Savage sufficient statistic for the beliefs of the traders. All the known allocation efficiency results in the literature due to Arrow, Hakansson, John, Ross, and others are unified by this result. A SECURITY IS A certificate that entitles the holder to a stream of cash flows
Flexible Backhauling With Massive MIMO for Ultra-Dense Networks

One of the main challenges for wide-scale deployment and timely adoption of ultra-dense networks (UDNs) in future 5G is the backhaul. Typically, mmW technologies for backhaul require line-of-sight conditions while high-capacity wired-based solutions need a significant investment in infrastructure. Such limitations pose practical constrains on the scalability of UDNs and increase the deployment cost of dense networks. In this paper, we consider in-band backhaul for UDNs based on massive MIMO systems in sub-6 GHz. In particular, we propose a scheme for allowing simultaneous downlink transmissions in backhaul and access network on a single frequency band that exploits a novel combination of the state-of-the-art practical transmit and receive beamforming techniques. A novel frame structure for allowing a co-existence between massive MIMO-based backhaul and UDNs is also proposed. Moreover, a solution for in-band uplink transmissions that exploits time-division-duplex (TDD) and spatial multiple-access is also provided. Extensive numerical results using a realistic system-level simulator are given. Results show that the performance of a UDN with the proposed in-band backhaul scheme reaches ~58% of the throughput of a similar access network with ideal (e.g., wired) backhaul. Our results also show that the proposed scheme provides an increase in the throughput of ~30% compared with a TDD scheme for in-band backhaul. Further advantages of the proposed massive MIMO-based in-band backhaul scheme for UDNs include reusing both the (scarce) spectrum in sub-6 GHz and acquired macro-sites, thus providing a seamless transition from LTE to 5G networks.
Trade, money and employment in intertemporal optimizing models of growth

This paper unites elements of Sidrauski's (1967) monetary model of growth, Ventura's (1997) analysis of the effects of international trade on growth, and some work on the labour market implications of growth by Barro and Sala-i-Martin (1995). It was shown by Ventura that, for a small economy, free international trade leads to an increase of the de facto elasticity of substitution between the domestic factors of production. The first part of the paper analyses how such an increase in the elasticity of substitution influences the steady state and the speed of convergence. From the Sidrauski model we know that money is super-neutral in the long-run but that monetary policy can have real effects along the transition path as long as the intertemporal elasticity of substitution is not equal to one. In the second part of this paper, it is shown how these results also depend on the elasticity of substitution between factors of production. The results give some important insights into possible interactions between monetary and trade policy in the long and short run. The last part of the paper deals with a modified version of the monetary growth model, which includes endogenous labour supply as in Klump (1993) or Barro and Sala-i-Martin (1995). In this context, international trade, by increasing the elasticity of substitution, leads to lower domestic employment in the long run whereas monetary policy may be able to increase employment at least in the short run. Thus, under certain circumstances, trade and monetary policy can be regarded as complementary with respect to their labour market effects.
Self-reconfigurable secure file system for embedded Linux

With the growth of the portable electronic devices market, not only the protection of the data for the users but also the security of the designs themselves has grown significantly in importance. A solution is presented where a Linux kernel running on a PowerPC processor included in the Virtex-II Pro FPGA family is upgraded to support hardware acceleration on the ciphering tasks. In this way all the programs running on the PPC that make use of the Linux CryptoAPI can be accelerated by hardware in a transparent way without having the programmer to rewrite the applications. To provide more flexibility, the FPGA's self-reconfiguration capability can be used to reprogram any cryptographic algorithm demanded by the Linux CryptoAPI by just including a new software driver for the operating system, thus allowing the internal configuration access port (ICAP) of the FPGA to manage any cryptographic coprocessor at any time. The approach is validated on a real application using the Linux CryptoAPI: a ciphered file system that stores the system data in a secured way.
Bidder CEO and Other Executive Compensation in UK M&As

"This paper investigates the impact of M&As on bidder (CEO and other) executive compensation employing a unique sample of 100 completed bids in the UK over the 1998-2001 period. Our findings indicate that less independent and larger boards award CEOs significantly higher bonuses and salary following M&A completion both for the full sample and for the UK and US sub-samples. UK CEOs and executives are rewarded more for the effort exerted in accomplishing intra - industry or large mergers than for diversifying or small mergers and their cash pay is unaffected by other measures of their managerial skill or performance. US bidders are rewarded at higher levels than their UK counterparts and their remuneration is related only to measures of CEO dominance over the board of directors. Overall our findings offer support for the managerial power rather than the agency theory perspective on managerial compensation. " Copyright 2006 The Authors Journal compilation (c) 2006 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Interactions with e-government, new digital media and traditional channel choices: citizen-initiated factors

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the factors that can predict citizen-initiated contact with e-government as an attempt to identify important differences between service channel selections. Although more than two decades have passed since the initiation of e-government, digital channel choice is still being questioned, compared to traditional channels, and the level of selection with channels is being investigated. Design/methodology/approach – This study states three research questions that are answered through a literature review and statistical analysis of a survey in a developed country. More specifically, it identifies the factors that impact channel choice and validates them with survey results. To this end, this paper utilizes data from a national Canadian survey, where citizens empirically evaluated their channel choice – e-government, new digital media and traditional service channels – for government contacts. Findings – Statistical analysis over this data return valuable findings such as th.
A model for evaluating the potential impact of integrating ERP systems with BI systems on organisational performance: an empirical study of the semiconductor industry

There is currently a trend towards the integration of Business Intelligence (BI) systems with existing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems in order to improve organisational decision-making capabilities. Although much attention has been paid to the decision-making benefits of integrated systems, limited research has examined the business value of BI systems. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to examine the impact of integrated ERP and BI (hereafter ERPBI) systems on organisational performance. This study develops a multidimensional measurement for assessing organisational performance. Data collected from 139 companies in the Taiwan’s semiconductor industry were tested using partial least squares approach. Our results suggest that ERPBI system usage in organisations results in significant and sustained organisational performance gains. The theoretical implication of the work is the development of multidimensional measurement scales for assessing the impact of ERPBI system usage on organis.
Dynamics within tetraspanin pairs affect MHC class II expression

Late endosomal multivesicular bodies (MVBs) are complicated organelles with various subdomains located at the limiting membrane and the internal vesicles (ILVs). ILVs accumulate tetraspanins such as CD63 and CD82 that might form protein assemblies, including major histocompatibility complex class II (MHC-II) and its chaperone human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DM. Here, we studied the effect of four late endosomal tetraspanin proteins on MHC-II expression. Silencing CD9, CD63 and CD81 enhanced MHC-II expression whereas silencing CD82 did not. No effect on peptide loading was observed. Using confocal FRET technology, we measured the dynamics of CD63 and CD82 interaction with MHC-II and its chaperone HLA-DM. CD63–CD82 interactions remained unaltered in the two MVB subdomains whereas the interactions between CD63 or CD82 homologous pairs changed. CD63 stably associated with MHC-II, and CD82 with HLA-DM, on both MVB subdomains whereas the CD82–MHC-II and CD63–HLA-DM interactions changed. These data visualize for the first time the protein dynamics of tetraspanin assemblies in MVB subdomains. CD63, unlike CD82, stably interacts with MHC-II at both MVB subdomains and controls MHC-II expression.
Differences in Macrophage Activation by Bacterial DNA and CpG-Containing Oligonucleotides1

Bacterial DNA activates mouse macrophages, B cells, and dendritic cells in a TLR9-dependent manner. Although short ssCpG-containing phosphodiester oligonucleotides (PO-ODN) can mimic the action of bacterial DNA on macrophages, they are much less immunostimulatory than Escherichia coli DNA. In this study we have assessed the structural differences between E. coli DNA and PO-ODN, which may explain the high activity of bacterial DNA on macrophages. DNA length was found to be the most important variable. Double-strandedness was not responsible for the increased activity of long DNA. DNA adenine methyltransferase (Dam) and DNA cytosine methyltransferase (Dcm) methylation of E. coli DNA did not enhance macrophage NO production. The presence of two CpG motifs on one molecule only marginally improved activity at low concentration, suggesting that ligand-mediated TLR9 cross-linking was not involved. The major contribution was from DNA length. Synthetic ODN >44 nt attained the same levels of activity as bacterial DNA. The response of macrophages to CpG DNA requires endocytic uptake. The length dependence of the CpG ODN response was found to correlate with the presence in macrophages of a length-dependent uptake process for DNA. This transport system was absent from B cells and fibroblasts.