Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reef communities in the Dry Tortugas (Florida, USA): Baseline surveys for the new no-take area

To understand the current community structure on reefs in the Dry Tortugas, we conducted specieslevel surveys of macroalgae, coral diversity, herbivorous and game fishes, urchins, and substratum composition (e.g., rugosity) in shallow (3to 5-m depth) low-relief reef and hardbottom habitats in October 2007. We had particular interest in the ecological process of herbivory inside and outside of the “no-take” Research Natural Area (RNA) designated by the U.S. National Park Service in 2007, and establishing a baseline to assess future changes to trophic functioning. Diadema antillarum and herbivorous fish abundance, percent cover of macroalgae, and species richness of corals and gorgonians at the 18 randomly selected survey sites were not significantly different inside vs. outside of the RNA. Mean densities of D. antillarum ranged from 0.01 to 0.54 individuals m, with 11 of the 18 sites having densities above 0.10 individuals m. Both D. antillarum density and coral species richness were positively correlated to rugosity of the substratum. Diadema antillarum density was also positively related to percentage of the substratum composed of Acropora cervicornis rubble. Improved trophic functioning and increases in D. antillarum can improve reef condition in the Dry Tortugas, and the RNA is an important management tool to achieve increases in reef resilience to global-scale stressors.
Unravelling the link between knowledge management and supply chain integration: an empirical study

This study examines the link between knowledge acquisition and dissemination and supply chain integration and the contingent effects of cost and innovation orientation on the link in the context of Chinese manufacturers by using the moderated regression analysis. The results suggest that knowledge acquisition and dissemination exert significant effects on supply chain integration between manufacturers and their suppliers. It is also suggested that strategic organisational behaviours (i.e. cost and innovation orientation) moderate the relationship between knowledge management and supply chain integration. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed and an agenda for future research is addressed.
Single cell immune profiling by mass cytometry of newly diagnosed chronic phase chronic myeloid leukemia treated with nilotinib

Monitoring of single cell signal transduction in leukemic cellular subsets has been proposed to provide deeper understanding of disease biology and prognosis, but has so far not been tested in a clinical trial of targeted therapy. We developed a complete mass cytometry analysis pipeline for characterization of intracellular signal transduction patterns in the major leukocyte subsets of chronic phase chronic myeloid leukemia. Changes in phosphorylated Bcr-Abl1 and the signaling pathways involved were readily identifiable in peripheral blood single cells already within three hours of the patient receiving oral nilotinib. The signal transduction profiles of healthy donors were clearly distinct from those of the patients at diagnosis. Furthermore, using principal component analysis, we could show that phosphorylated transcription factors STAT3 (Y705) and CREB (S133) within seven days reflected BCR-ABL1IS at three and six months. Analyses of peripheral blood cells longitudinally collected from patients in the ENEST1st clinical trial showed that single cell mass cytometry appears to be highly suitable for future investigations addressing tyrosine kinase inhibitor dosing and effect. (clinicaltrials.gov identifier: 01061177)
T-cell depletion and graft survival induced by anti-human CD3 immunotoxins in human CD3epsilon transgenic mice.

BACKGROUND Anti-CD3 immunotoxins are broad-spectrum immunosuppressive agents in a wide range of organ transplantation animal models with potential use in eliciting antigen-specific tolerance. However, the anti-CD3 immunotoxins used in animal studies do not cross-react with human T cells, limiting extrapolation to humans and hindering clinical development. METHODS Three anti-human CD3-directed immunotoxins, DT389-scFv(UCHT1), scFv(UCHT1)-PE38, and UCHT1-CRM9, were compared in vitro and in transgenic mice, tg(epsilon)600+/-, that have T cells expressing both human and murine CD3epsilon antigens. RESULTS These immunotoxins were extraordinarily potent in vitro against human or transgenic mouse T cells, with IC50 values in cellular assays ranging from pM to fM. Systemic administration of these immunotoxins dose-dependently depleted >99% of tg(epsilon)600+/- lymph node and spleen T cells in vivo. Depletion was specific for T cells. The loss of the concanavalin A-induced, but not the lipopolysaccharide-induced, splenic proliferative response from immunotoxin-treated animals further demonstrated specific loss of T-cell function. Immunotoxin treatment prolonged fully allogeneic skin graft survival in tg(epsilon)600+/- recipients to 25 days from 10 days in untreated animals. T-cells recovered to approximately 50% of normal levels after approximately 22 days in animals with or without skin grafts; T-cell recovery correlated with skin graft rejection. All three immunotoxins elicited >100 day median survival of fully allogeneic heterotopic heart grafts. By 100 days, T cells recovered to normal numbers in these animals, but the grafts showed chronic rejection. CONCLUSION These immunotoxins profoundly deplete T cells in vivo and effectively prolong allogeneic graft survival.
The Process of Familization of Migration in China

Based on clear definitions of major concepts,and drawing on nationally representative and timely data,this paper depicts the process of familization of migration.Findings suggest that both non-family migration and family migration co-exist,and that members of nuclear family tend to arrive at the place of destination sequentially.However,such national pattern disguises regional differences: it has been discovered that central provinces and inter-prefecture migration are associated with a higher proportion of family migration,a fewer times and shorter time span for all family member to reunion,while in east and westprovinces,the pattern is the opposite.The lower proportion of familization of migration in more developed areas may reflect a higher threshold for family reunion andexpensive living cost,preventingfamily reunion in receiving society,while inadequate resources in underdeveloped areas discourage migrants to bring in family members to the place of destination.
A role theoretic view of product‐market strategy execution: an investigation of mid‐level marketing managers

Mid‐level marketing managers (MLMMs) have an important contribution to make toward the successful execution of strategy and it is argued that the focus of management research should be broadened to include the unique contributions of middle management. This article employs the locus‐of‐control concept to examine the performance of MLMMs in their product‐market strategy execution role. Two dimensions related to internal locus‐of‐control (role self‐determination and role commitment) and two dimensions related to external locus‐of‐control (role clarity and role significance) are identified and all four variables are modelled against MLMMs' role performance. Our findings suggest that in firms whose product‐market strategy is highly effective (ineffective), MLMMs role performance is explained by an external locus‐of‐control (internal locus‐of‐control). These findings are discussed and several implications are provided.
Application of in vitro soft agar techniques for growth of tumor cells to the study of colon cancer

An in vitro assay to measure the clonogenic or colony‐forming capability of cancer cells present in biopsy samples has recently been applied to study the biology and drug‐sensitivity of a variety of human neoplasms. This approach appears to be suitable for study of the tumor stem or progenitor cells present in malignant effusions from patients with colonic carcinoma. In our preliminary studies, morphology of the tumor colonies by inverted microscopy and with Papanicolaou staining of dried agar plating layers as well as immunofluorescent localization with a specific antiserum to human carcinoembrionic antigen have been used as markers of the neoplastic origin of colon tumor colony‐forming cells. Successful application of this assay to colonic solid tumors will require improvement in techniques for disaggregation of viable clonogenic cells. We anticipate that short term clonal assays will have increasing use for clinical and biological studies of human colon cancer.
Detecting clinically relevant EEG anomalies using discrete wavelet transforms

An EEG is a recording of the electrical signals produced by activity within the brain. A variety of cognitive and pathologies yield specific EEG signatures, which are diagnostic of the condition. As a clinical EEG may contain non-stationary signals, we have employed a Daubechies wavelet to automatically detect embedded signals that vary both in their frequency and magnitude from a clinical EEG dataset. The experimental results indicate that our system is able to identify anomalous signals embedded in a standard EEG data-stream that have frequencies within the range of 0.5-30 Hz.
Financial Reports Based Proxies for Bargaining Power of Buyers and Sellers

The objective of this exploratory analysis is to introduce proxies for the bargaining power of buyers (suppliers) and provide some initial evidence regarding their ability to account for cross sectional variations in profitably measures. We leverage information that is readily available to modern analysts and managers, i.e., SEC filed statements, in order to generate a count of buyers (suppliers) of a focal firm. We argue that as this number is rising the bargaining power of the focal firm’s buyers (suppliers) is declining. Preliminary results based on univariate non-parametric tests indicate that firms ranked high in terms of the suggested proxies, i.e., their buyers (suppliers) have low bargaining power, perform better than their peers which are ranked low on the same proxies.
Three essays on mutual funds

In essay one, for an actively managed equity mutual fund, style dispersion describes how widely fund stockholdings are dispersed along size, value, and momentum dimensions. A simple benefit-cost analysis suggests that style dispersion can reflect a fund manager’s investment ability and predict fund performance. Our empirical analysis confirms this. We have two major findings. First, style dispersion, especially that along size dimension, is significantly positively related with fund performance. Second, a high-size-dispersion fund manager exhibits significantly better stock selection skill than a low-size-dispersion fund manager does, especially when investing in stocks with different size characteristics from the average fund size style. We also conduct various robustness tests to show that size dispersion is distinct from all existing predictors of fund performance. Essay two shows that family-level M&As have a negative impact on mutual fund performance. Specifically, in family-level M&As, the acquiring families keep most of the acquired funds intact, and merge the rest with a few incumbent funds. The intact acquired funds have a performance deterioration for up to 20 months. The intact incumbent funds have a performance deterioration, which is particularly pronounced in complete acquisitions, for up to 12 months. We also rule out some alternative explanations for the performance change. Finally, we show that consistent with agency theory, family-level M&As are likely to be motivated by family management’s own incentives. In essay three, using equity mutual fund data, previous studies show that teammanaged funds underperform solo-managed funds, suggesting that a team is a poor incentive mechanism. In this article, we take a deeper look into the composition of mutual fund management teams. Our major finding is that not all team-managed funds underperform. Only those with poor accountability of fund managers for fund performance do. A plausible explanation for this is that poor accountability disincentivizes fund managers from
Temperature measurement of Joule heated silicon micro/nanowires using selectively decorated quantum dots

We developed a novel method to measure local temperature at micro/nano-scale regions using selective deposition of quantum dots (QDs) as a sensitive temperature probe and measured the temperature of Joule heated silicon microwires (SiMWs) and silicon nanowires (SiNWs) by this method. The QDs are selectively coated only on the surface of the SiMWs and SiNWs by a sequential process composed of selective opening of a polymethyl methacrylate layer via Joule heating, covalent bonding of QDs, and lift-off process. The temperatures of the Joule-heated SiMWs and SiNWs can be measured by characterizing the temperature-dependent shift of photoluminescence peak of the selectively deposited QDs even with far-field optics. The validity of the extracted temperature has been also confirmed by comparing with numerical simulation results. The proposed method can potentially provide micro/nanoscale measurement of localized temperatures for a wide range of electrical and optical devices.
Dual-microphone phase-difference-based SNR estimation with applications to speech enhancement

This paper introduces novel two-channel a priori Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) estimators for use in frequency-domain speech enhancement algorithms. The SNR estimation is based on statistics of the noisy phase difference between two microphones in each frequency bin. Namely, the corresponding probability distribution is derived assuming a complex Gaussian model, and is written in terms of the SNR only. This shifts the two-channel SNR estimation problem into a classical statistical parameter estimation problem, which we propose to solve via an online version of the Method of Moments. The usefulness of the resulting approach is demonstrated in a realistic speech enhancement experiment, where a simple Wiener-based solution is objectively found to perform competitively when compared with other recent two-channel noise reduction techniques.
Classification of Emotional Signals from the DEAP dataset

A Brain Computer Interface (BCI) is a useful instrument to support human communication, frequently implemented by using electroencephalography (EEG). Regarding the used communication paradigm, a very large number of strategies exist and, recently, self-induced emotions have been introduced. However, in general the actual emotion-based BCIs are just binary, since they are capable of recognizing just a single emotion. A crucial node is the introduction of more than a single emotional state for improving the efficiency of a BCI. In order to be used in BCIs, signals from different emotional states have to be collected, recognized and classified. In the present paper, a method for mapping several emotional states was described and tested on EEG signals collected from a publicly available dataset for emotion analysis using physiological signals (DEAP). The proposed method, its experimental protocol, and preliminary numerical results on three different emotional states were presented and discussed. The method, based on multiple binary classification, was capable of optimizing the most discriminative channels and the features combination for each emotional state and of recognizing between several emotional states through a polling
Compact Constant Bandwidth Tunable Wideband BPF With Second Harmonic Suppression

A compact tunable wideband bandpass filter (BPF) having constant absolute bandwidth (CABW) with tunable selectivity and second harmonic suppression is presented in this letter. The BPF is designed using non-uniform quarter-wave spiral resonators loaded with varactor diodes and a capacitively coupled stub. The BPF consists of combline coupled section also. It is shown that the inherent transmission zeros (TZs) of a combline coupled section and coupling-coefficient are controlled using varactor diodes which results a CABW response with improved upper stopband suppression level near the passband. The tunability has been controlled by varactors loaded at the end of combline coupled section. A tunable BPF having tunable band of 0.9-1.5 GHz is designed and fabricated with a CABW of 290 ± 10 MHz. Along with tunable passband, tunable selectivity also has been achieved by controlling the TZs. The results of a compact BPF having size of 0. 065λg ×0. 065λg, show a wideband filtering responses having 3.4% bandwidth (BW) variations.
Risk and Return in Retail Forex

Retail Forex as an online CFD market is generally known as a high risk area for traders. This study is focused on existing risks and return possibilities in this market. Risks which may threat traders are surveyed through Liquidity, Credit, and Control, plus Market risks. Value at Risk and Moving Standardizations are applied due to market risk and risk of loss, while Momentum and Reversal effects on hourly, 4 hour and daily horizons during last 10 years are examined. Findings are indicating that Market Risk is the main risk in Retail Forex, while market risk is mostly depended to market volatilities. Also results are suggesting about the considerable performance of Reversal effect in hourly time frame of Last ten years, while studding Value At Risk measures have shown that risk of loss is related to the size of positions, not initial deposit. As a result, risk of loss of Retail FX traders can be bigger than initial deposit, since VaR measures in Retail FX can be equivalent with none levered standard contracts in foreign exchanges.
Multiple Stakeholder Perspectives on Cultural Events: Auckland's Pasifika Festival

Cultural festivals can assist local communities in showcasing cultural attributes and can offer the chance to strengthen a sense of identity. The Pasifika Festival, held annually in Auckland, New Zealand, is a celebration of the city's Pacific Island communities. Drawing on audience and stallholder surveys, and interviews/meetings with festival organizers, this article provides a multiple stakeholder perspective on the festival experience and what it means to those who are part of it. The article also addresses the important question of how to conduct robust, cost-effective research in large festival settings, focusing on the use of online survey tools.
Improvement of an emulator-based platform for design of photovoltaic converters and controllers

Platforms based on emulators have become extremely useful in designing the development of static converters and controllers. The Solar Explorer Kit is one of the most used commercial platforms with a photovoltaic panel emulator. This paper presents relevant improvements made in the setup of the mentioned platform. First, the curves for the photovoltaic emulator were modified, since the curves originally used by the platform do not represent the voltage x current relationship of a real photovoltaic panel. Also, a maximum power point tracking (MPPT) technique based on Fuzzy logic was included in the platform for a comparison to the original ones: “perturb and observe” and “incremental conductance”. The three techniques are compared using computer simulations and experimental implementation in the platform mentioned above. The simulation of the system was made using the software PSIM®, and practical implementation was made using the Solar Explorer Kit. Results demonstrate the improvement of the proposed modifications.
Conceptualizing consumers' experiences of product‐harm crises

Purpose – Consumers are constantly confronted with negative information on defective or dangerous products (product‐harm crisis): the car does not stop at the red light due to faulty brakes or the t‐shirt causes the skin to itch. This research aims to provide a holistic picture of consumers' experience of product‐harm crises (p‐h c). The study sets out to investigate under which conditions consumers are impacted by the crisis and how they experience p‐h c in real‐life.Design/methodology/approach – The study draws on in‐depth interviews with both experts and consumers in order to investigate factors influencing consumers' experience in crisis situations.Findings – Based on in‐depth interviews, a theoretical model is developed that captures the impact of p‐h‐c on consumers. Impact consists of personal relevance and perceived severity of the crisis and is a prerequisite for consumers' response. The study finds evidence that the personal impact and the consumer response to crisis situations are influenced by .
In vivo MRI of cancer cell fate at the single‐cell level in a mouse model of breast cancer metastasis to the brain

Metastasis (the spread of cancer from a primary tumor to secondary organs) is responsible for most cancer deaths. The ability to follow the fate of a population of tumor cells over time in an experimental animal would provide a powerful new way to monitor the metastatic process. Here we describe a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique that permits the tracking of breast cancer cells in a mouse model of brain metastasis at the single‐cell level. Cancer cells that were injected into the left ventricle of the mouse heart and then delivered to the brain were detectable on MR images. This allowed the visualization of the initial delivery and distribution of cells, as well as the growth of tumors from a subset of these cells within the whole intact brain volume. The ability to follow the metastatic process from the single‐cell stage through metastatic growth, and to quantify and monitor the presence of solitary undivided cells will facilitate progress in understanding the mechanisms of brain metastasis and tumor dormancy, and the development of therapeutics to treat this disease. Magn Reson Med, 2006. Published 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
CLEF eHealth 2017 Multilingual Information Extraction task Overview: ICD10 Coding of Death Certificates in English and French

This paper reports on Task 1 of the 2017 CLEF eHealth evaluation lab which extended the previous information extraction tasks of ShARe/CLEF eHealth evaluation labs. The task continued with coding of death certificates, as introduced in CLEF eHealth 2016. This large-scale classification task consisted of extracting causes of death as coded in the International Classification of Diseases, tenth revision (ICD10). The languages offered for the task this year were English and French. Participant systems were evaluated against a blind reference standard of 31,690 death certificates in the French dataset and 6,665 certificates in the English dataset using Precision, Recall and F-measure. In total, eleven teams participated: 10 teams submitted runs for the English dataset and 9 for the French dataset. Five teams submitted their systems to the reproducibility track. For death certificate coding, the highest performance was 0.8674 F-measure for French and 0.8501 for English.
Has GPRA Increased the Availability and Use of Performance Information?

The underlying logic of the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) suggests that federal programs should be evaluated based on empirical evidence that they actually produce the intended outcomes. This study applies the same logic to GPRA itself, investigating empirically whether GPRA may have increased the availability and use of performance information in federal agencies. Better GPRA performance reporting is correlated with greater availability and use of several kinds of performance information by federal managers in the programs and operations they supervise. The results are statistically significant and relatively large. Correlations are especially significant for types of activities GPRA sought to encourage, such as output and outcome measures and use of performance information to allocate resources, set priorities, and develop measures and goals. These findings are consistent with the theory that GPRA has indeed prompted improvements in the availability and use of performance information in the federal government.