Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
From Economic Considerations to Social Implications? A Case Study of Female Workers in Norwegian Industry, Jiangsu Province, China

An increasing number of companies are relocating from developed to developing countries. The recent years, China has emerged as one the largest recipients of foreign direct investment in the world. The reason for the relocation is mainly to save costs on production, where labour is one of the main factors. Many of these workers are female and much literature has focused on bad working conditions and exploitation. Through a case-study of some female blue- and white-collar workers in a Norwegian company in a rural town in Jiangsu province, China, this study seeks to find what impact economic globalization has on their lives. Through in-depth interviews, some of the experiences of working in the Norwegian company are tried captured. Key-informants in the company and the local government are also interviewed. The interviews are supplemented with observation and secondary literature to contextualize the answers. The analytical framework is the capability approach, to see if foreign industry can lead to capacitation and potentially empowerment of the female workers. Both material and immaterial achievements are considered. The focus is on the women in the context of the household and the changes the Norwegian company represents compared to the earlier places the women have worked. The industrialization of the area where the women lived meant expanded employment opportunities. Most of the women had worked in different Asian or Chinese companies before and the change to the Norwegian company represented generally a shift to the better in terms of working conditions and wages. This had enhanced their capabilities to a certain degree. Paid employment can potentially give women a stronger bargaining position in the household. The women controlled their income and were responsible for the daily shopping. Larger expenditures were discussed with their husbands and decisions were apparently jointly made. There were no significant changes in the gender division of labour, suggesting that traditional gender roles are resistant to change. Thus, the women were better off in the Norwegian company in terms of wages, working hours and welfare, but their lives in general did not change significantly. There were considerable differences between the white- and blue-collar workers though, indicating the role of education.
Identification of protein phosphatase 1 in synaptic junctions: dephosphorylation of endogenous calmodulin-dependent kinase II and synapse-enriched phosphoproteins

A calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase termed CaM-kinase II is a major component of synaptic junctions from forebrain and constitutes approximately 12% of total synaptic junction protein. CaM-kinase II phosphorylates at least seven polypeptides that are enriched in synaptic junctions, of which two represent the 50- and 60-kilodalton subunits of the protein kinase. In this report the nature of endogenous protein phosphatases which dephosphorylate each of the seven synaptic junction phosphoproteins was examined. Assays of synaptic junctions and other subcellular fractions from rat forebrain for type-1 and type-2 protein phosphatases revealed that protein phosphatase 1 (PrP-1) was specifically enriched in synaptic junctions with respect to cytosolic fractions. The activity of type-2 protein phosphatases was very low in synaptic junctions. Homogeneous PrP-1 from rabbit skeletal muscle was found to dephosphorylate each of the seven phosphoproteins in synaptic junctions. Inhibitors-1 and -2 were found to inhibit endogenous protein phosphatase activity by 70 to 80%. Since inhibitors-1 and -2 are specific inhibitors of PrP-1, these results indicate that this enzyme accounts for the majority of endogenous protein phosphatase activity in synaptic junctions. Approximately 15% of the protein phosphatase activity in synaptic junctions was type 2A, whereas PrP-2B and PrP-2C accounted for little, if any, of the activity toward endogenous or exogenous phosphoproteins. These results indicate that PrP-1 may be important in controlling the state of phosphorylation of synaptic junction proteins.
Best Anesthetics for Assessing Left Ventricular Systolic Function by Echocardiography in Mice

Reviewing the literature of the major cardiovascular journals for the past three years, revealed that of all the studies using anesthesia for mouse echocardiography, the predominant anesthetic was isoflurane, which was used in 76% of the articles. The goal of this investigation was to determine if isoflurane is indeed the best anesthetic. Accordingly, we compared this anesthetic with tribromoethanol, ketamine/xylazine, and ketamine on different days in the same mice also studied in the conscious state. A randomized crossover study design was employed to compare the effects on left ventricular (LV) systolic function and heart rate of the 4 different anesthetic agents assessed by echocardiography and compared with values obtained in the conscious state. Fourteen mice (C57BL/6J, 129SVJ, FVB/N) underwent high resolution echocardiography. As expected each anesthetic depressed LV ejection fraction and heart rate compared with values in conscious mice. Surprisingly, isoflurane was not the best, but actually second to last in maintaining normal LV function and heart rate. The anesthetic with the least effect was ketamine alone at a dose of 150 mg/kg, which induced a surgical level of anesthesia, followed by tribromoethanol, 290 mg/kg, isoflurane, 3% induction and 1‐2% maintenance, and lastly ketamine/xylazine, 100/10 mg/kg.In summary, these results indicate that ketamine alone exerts the least depressant effects on LV function and heart rate, with avertin second; suggesting that these anesthetics should be used, when it is not feasible to study the animals in the conscious state, as opposed to the most commonly used anesthetic, isoflurane.
Modelling the Rand-Dollar Future Spot Rates: The Kalman Filter Approach

This paper provides an estimation of the relationship between the forward exchange rate and the future spot rate under the hypothesis of adaptive parameter updating. The Kalman filter technique is used for this end. The better performance of the Kalman filter technique over the random walk and the ordinary least square (OLS) techniques in out-of-sample forecasts confirms that a recursive technique with time-varying coefficients is relevant for forecasting the rand-dollar future spot rates
Intravoxel Incoherent Motion Diffusion Weighted MR Imaging for Monitoring the Instantly Therapeutic Efficacy of Radiofrequency Ablation in Rabbit VX2 Tumors without Evident Links between Conventional Perfusion Weighted Images

Objective To investigate the intravoxel incoherent motion diffusion weighted imaging (IVIM-DWI) as a potential valuable marker to monitor the therapy responses of VX2 to radiofrequency ablation (RF Ablation). Methods The institutional animal care and use committee approved this study. In 10 VX2 tumor–bearing rabbits, IVIM-DWI examinations were performed with a 3.0T imaging unit by using 16 b values from 0 to 800 sec/mm2. The true diffusion coefficient (D), pseudodiffusion coefficient (D*) and perfusion fraction (f) of tumors were compared between before and instantly after RF Ablation treatment. The differences of D, D* and f and conventional perfusion parameters (from perfusion CT and dynamic enhanced magnetic resonance imaging, DCE-MRI) in the coagulation necrosis area, residual unablated area, untreated area, and normal control had been calculated by compared t- test. The correlation between f or D* with perfusion weighted CT including blood flow, BF (milliliter per 100 mL/min), blood volume, BV (milliliter per 100 mL/min), and capillary permeability–surface area, PMB (as a fraction) or from DCE-MRI: transfer constant (Ktrans), extra-vascular extra-cellular volume fraction (Ve) and reflux constant (Kep) values had been analyzed by region-of-interest (ROI) methods to calculate Pearson’s correlation coefficients. Results In the ablated necrosis areas, f and D* significantly decreased and D significantly increased, compared with residual unblazed areas or untreated control groups and normal control groups (P < 0.001). The IVIM-DWI derived f parameters showed significant increases in the residual unablated tumor area. There was no significant correlations between f or D* and conventional perfusion parameters. Conclusions The IVIM-DW derived f, D and D* parameters have the potential to indicate therapy response immediately after RF Ablation treatment, while no significant correlations with classical tumor perfusion metrics were derived from DCE-MRI and perfusion-CT measurements.
Tag Sources for Recommendation in Collaborative Tagging Systems

Collaborative tagging systems are social data repositories, in which users manage resources using descriptive keywords (tags). An important element of collaborative tagging systems is the tag recommender, which proposes a set of tags to each newly posted resource. In this paper we discuss the potential role of three tag sources: resource content as well as resource and user profiles in the tag recommendation system. Our system compiles a set of resource specific tags, which includes tags related to the title and tags previously used to describe the same resource (resource profile). These tags are checked against user profile tags - a rich, but imprecise source of information about user interests. The result is a set of tags related both to the resource and user. Depending on the character of processed posts this set can be an extension of the common tag recommendation sources, namely resource title and resource profile. The system was submitted to ECML PKDD Discovery Challenge 2009 for "content-based" and "graph-based" recommendation tasks, in which it took the first and third place respectively.
Efficient self-assembly of DNA-functionalized fluorophores and gold nanoparticles with DNA functionalized silicon surfaces: the effect of oligomer spacers

Although strategies for the immobilization of DNA oligonucleotides onto surfaces for bioanalytical and top-down bio-inspired nanobiofabrication approaches are well developed, the effect of introducing spacer molecules between the surface and the DNA oligonucleotide for the hybridization of nanoparticle–DNA conjugates has not been previously assessed in a quantitative manner. The hybridization efficiency of DNA oligonucleotides end-labelled with gold nanoparticles (1.4 or 10 nm diameter) with DNA sequences conjugated to silicon surfaces via hexaethylene glycol phosphate diester oligomer spacers (0, 1, 2, 6 oligomers) was found to be independent of spacer length. To quantify both the density of DNA strands attached to the surfaces and hybridization with the surface-attached DNA, new methodologies have been developed. Firstly, a simple approach based on fluorescence has been developed for determination of the immobilization density of DNA oligonucleotides. Secondly, an approach using mass spectrometry has been created to establish (i) the mean number of DNA oligonucleotides attached to the gold nanoparticles and (ii) the hybridization density of nanoparticle–oligonucleotide conjugates with the silicon surface–attached complementary sequence. These methods and results will be useful for application with nanosensors, the self-assembly of nanoelectronic devices and the attachment of nanoparticles to biomolecules for single-molecule biophysical studies.
Information theoretic feature extraction to reduce dimensionality of Genetic Network Programming based intrusion detection model

Intrusion detection techniques require examining high volume of audit records so it is always challenging to extract minimal set of features to reduce dimensionality of the problem while maintaining efficient performance. Previous researchers analyzed Genetic Network Programming framework using all 41 features of KDD cup 99 dataset and found the efficiency of more than 90% at the cost of high dimensionality. We are proposing a new technique for the same framework with low dimensionality using information theoretic approach to select minimal set of features resulting in six attributes and giving the accuracy very close to their result. Feature selection is based on the hypothesis that all features are not at same relevance level with specific class. Simulation results with KDD cup 99 dataset indicates that our solution is giving accurate results as well as minimizing additional overheads.
Corruption, Economic Growth, and Income Inequality: Evidence from Ten Countries in Asia

This study utilizes the panel vector error correction model (PVECM) to examine the relationship among corruption, economic growth, and income inequality experienced within ten Asian countries over the 1995 to 2010 period. According to the empirical results, we do not support the common perception that corruption decreases economic growth. On the contrary, we found that corruption increases economic growth. Meanwhile, an increase in economic growth will cause an increase in income inequality, although the effect is insignificant. Similarly, an increase in income inequality will cause an increase in economic growth but a decrease in corruption, although the effect is also insignificant. Keywords—Corruption, economic growth, income inequality, panel vector error correction model
Accountants and Technologies: Knowledge Management Model

This study aims to investigate how accountants as professional intellects working in a public sector accounting organization perceived the importance of knowledge management in their knowledge sharing process within and across the organization. The Accountant General’s Department of Malaysia is selected for an indepth study of KM in a public sector accounting organization because it is a knowledge nexus of public sector accounting and it has a large pool of public sector accountants. This paper presents the integrated KM model that interconnects KM enablers, knowledge sharing process and KM performance in the Accountant General’s Department. A survey questionnaire was used to collect data and through factor and multiple regression analysis, the results provide support for knowledge management model for the public sector accountants. When both KM enablers and knowledge sharing process are regarded as antecedents of organizational performance, knowledge sharing process and technology resources are among those of highly significant KM enablers.
Characterization of L1 retrotransposition with high-throughput dual-luciferase assays

Recent studies employing genome-wide approaches have provided an unprecedented view of the scope of L1 activities on structural variations in the human genome, and further reinforced the role of L1s as one of the major driving forces behind human genome evolution. The rapid identification of novel L1 elements by these high-throughput approaches demands improved L1 functional assays. However, the existing assays use antibiotic selection markers or fluorescent proteins as reporters; neither is amenable to miniaturization. To increase assay sensitivity and throughput, we have developed a third generation assay by using dual-luciferase reporters, in which firefly luciferase is used as the retrotransposition indicator and Renilla luciferase is encoded on the same or separate plasmid for normalization. This novel assay is highly sensitive and has a broad dynamic range. Quantitative data with high signal-to-noise ratios can be obtained from 24- up to 96-well plates in 2–4 days after transfection. Using the dual-luciferase assays, we have characterized profiles of retrotransposition by various human and mouse L1 elements, and detailed the kinetics of L1 retrotransposition in cultured cells. Its high-throughput and short assay timeframe make it well suited for routine tests as well as large-scale screening efforts.
Speaker recognition system with good generalization properties

This paper presents speaker recognition system possessing very good generalization properties. Relatively low equal error rate for speaker verification and high identification rate for identification are achieved for very short training and testing sequences. This behaviour is achieved for the kernel modification of a classic Ho-Kashyap linear classifier. Achieved results for the new approach are compared with results for the classic GMM and VQ techniques. Speech of a moderately good quality from the Polish speech corpus was used for development of recognition system.
Proactive interference and the dynamics of free recall.

Proactive interference (PI) has long been recognized as a major cause of forgetting. We conducted two experiments that offer another look at the subject by providing a detailed analysis of recall latency distributions during the buildup of and release from PI. These functions were accurately characterized by the convolution of the normal and exponential distributions (viz., the ex-Gaussian), which previously has been shown to describe recognition latency distributions. Further, the fits revealed that the increase in recall latency associated with the buildup of PI results from a slowing of the exponential retrieval stage only. The same result was found even when a short retention interval was used (and recall probability remained constant). These findings suggest that free-recall latency may be a sensitive index of the increased search set size that has often been assumed to accompany the buildup of PI. A central insight emerging from the memory literature of the 1950s and 1960s was that previously learned information can result in the rapid forgetting of more recently learned information. Underwood (1957) argued that this phenomenon, termed proactive interference (PI), was by far the major cause of forgetting in everyday life. Indeed, even in laboratory experiments, the degree of retroactive interference encountered over the course of hours or days was assumed to pale in comparison with the degree of proactive interference resulting from years of prior learning. Although its preeminent (and still unexplained) role in the process of forgetting continues to be recognized, interest in the subject of PI has waned in recent years. The present article contributes a new empirical analysis of this important subject and pursues a detailed theoretical exploration into its underlying nature. In a typical PI experiment, subjects receive blocks of Brown-Peterson trials involving words from a single category (Wickens, 1972). Within a block, free-recall performance declines with each successive trial (the buildup of PI) but recovers each time a new category is introduced (release from PI). In most cases, the dependent variable used in these experiments was the percentage of correct free-recall responses. However, in the research to be presented here, we focus on latency to free recall. Research on free-recall latency in any context is very limited, and in the study of PI it is almost nonexistent. Why might free-recall latency be an interesting variable to investigate? Because such a measure provides important information about the process of retrieval that is likely to be missed by static measures, such as probability of recall. Before addressing the question of exactly what that information might be, we review the scant literature pertaining to the more general and purely empirical question of whether these
Impact of video quality and wireless network interface on power consumption of mobile devices

During the last years, many improvements were made to the hardware capability of mobile devices. As mobile software also became more interactive and data processing intensive, the increased power demand could not be compensated by the improvements on battery technology. Adaptive systems can help to balance the demand of applications with the limitations of battery resources. For effective systems, the influence of multimedia quality on power consumption of the components of mobile devices needs to be better understood. In this paper, we analyze the impact of video quality and wireless network type on the energy consumption of a mobile device. We have found that the additional power consumption is up to 38% higher when a movie is played over a WiFi network instead from internal memory and 64% higher in case of a mobile network (3G). We have also discovered that a higher movie quality not only affects the power consumption of the CPU but also the power consumption of the WiFi unit by up to 58% and up to 72% respectively on mobile networks.
An Artificial Neural Network System of Leading Indicators

We construct an artificial neural network to act as a system of leading indicators. We focus on radial basis functions as the architecture and forward selection as the method for determining the number of basis functions in the network. A brief review is given of the advantages of this as a strategy. Using common heuristics to determine scaling, radii and centre population, we find that the results for output growth prediction for six European countries are promising.
The Performance Evaluation of Bellman-Ford and ZRP Routing Protocols in MANETs Using QualNet 5.0 Simulator

Mobile Ad-Hoc Network (MANET) is a collection of mobile wireless nodes, which communicate to each other using a wireless physical medium without having a route to a pre- existing network infrastructure. Mobile means moving and Ad Hoc means temporary without any fixed infrastructure, so mobile ad hoc networks are a kind of temporary networks in which nodes are moving without any fixed infrastructure or centralized administration. The highly dynamic nature of MANET coupled with limited bandwidth and battery power imposes severe restrictions on routing protocols especially on achieving the routing stability. Due to all these constraints, designing of a routing protocol is still a challenging task for researchers. Many protocols are reported in this field but it is difficult to decide which one is efficiently best. In this paper an attempt has been made to evaluate and compare the performance of Proactive routing protocols (Bellman-Ford) and Hybrid routing protocols (ZRP) on different parameters using QualNet 5.0 Simulator. The results show that neither of the protocol is better in all situations. For some parameters one outperforms the other and vice-versa as reported in the paper.
Molecular Cloning, Characterization and mRNA Expression of a Chitin Synthase 2 Gene from the Oriental Fruit Fly, Bactrocera dorsalis (Diptera: Tephritidae)

Chitin synthase (CHS), a potential target for eco-friendly insecticides, plays an essential role in chitin formation in insects. In this study, a full-length cDNA encoding chitin synthase 2 (BdCHS2) was cloned and characterized in the oriental fruit fly, Bactrocera dorsalis. The BdCHS2 cDNA had 4417 nucleotides, containing an open reading frame of 4122 nucleotides, which encoded 1373 amino acid residues with a predicted molecular weight of 158.5 kDa. Phylogenetic analysis with other insect CHSs suggested that BdCHS2 belongs to insect CHS2. The BdCHS2 transcript was predominately found in midgut but was detected at low levels in fat body, Malpighian tubules, integument, and trachea. Moreover, BdCHS2 was expressed in all developmental stages, and highly expressed in the feeding stages. There was a positive relationship between BdCHS2 expression and total chitin content during development. Furthermore, both the gene expression and chitin content in midgut decreased when the insect was fed for 24 h, then starved for 24 h, while they increased dramatically and rapidly under the condition of starvation for 24 h then feeding for 24 h. These results suggest that BdCHS2 may play an important role in regulating chitin content of the midgut, and subsequently affect the growth and development of B. dorsalis.