Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impact of WASDE reports on implied volatility in corn and soybean markets

This study investigates the impact of U.S. Department of Agriculture World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimate (WASDE) reports on implied volatility in corn and soybean markets over 1985 to 2002. If WASDE reports resolve uncertainty, implied volatility should drop immediately after release of the reports. Results show that WASDE reports lead to a statistically significant reduction of implied volatility that averages 0.7 percentage points for corn and 0.8 percentage points for soybeans. The magnitude of the reduction is largest for the group of WASDE reports containing both domestic and international situation and outlook information. This group of reports reduces implied volatility by an average of 1.1 percentage points in corn and by almost 1.5 percentage points in soybeans. Results also reveal that the market impact of WASDE reports is strongest in the most recent 1996 to 2002 subperiod. Overall, the results indicate that WASDE reports provide valuable information to corn and soybean market participants. lJEL classifications: Q100, Q110, Q130r. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Concept Verification of Three-Layer DOI Detectors for Small Animal PET

Improved spatial resolution without sacrificing sensitivity is one of the most challenging developmental goals for small animal PET scanners. The 3-layer configuration that we propose here utilizes relative offsets of half a crystal pitch in x- and y-directions, and pulse shape discrimination to obtain depth of interaction (DOI). Three layers of crystals with a dimension 1.5 x 1.5 x 7.0 mm3 were composed of a L0.2 GSO (Lu0.4 Gd1.6 SiO4: Ce) crystal layer and a L0.9 GSO (Lu1.8 Gd0.2 SiO4 Ce) crystal layer aligned with each other, and a L0.9 GSO crystal layer offset at half a crystal pitch in x- and y-directions. The L0.9 GSO crystal layer was attached to a Hamamatsu H9500 flat-panel PMT. The devised small animal PET scanner has a diameter of 84 mm with one detector ring, and can be upgraded to two detector rings. GEANT4 Monte-Carlo simulation was used to estimate sensitivities of ~12% and ~20%, respectively, at the center of one and two PMT ring system with an energy window of 350~750 keV. We present flood images with peak-to-valley ratios of about 5-6 obtained using 22Na and layer identification capability of ~99 % with pulse shape analysis, and verified the basic concepts of multi-layer small animal PET.
Systematic liquidity in the long run

In this article we develop a long-run systematic liquidity measure by augmenting the standard model with a lagged dependent variable. Our empirical application involves a large sample of Australian equities and we find pervasive evidence of long-run commonality in liquidity. We also find evidence of a mean reversion tendency for time-varying liquidity beta. This result implies that the liquidity movement in the stock market maybe more influenced by noise traders’ activity rather than informed traders' activity.
Cyclooxygenase-2 Is Involved in S100A2-Mediated Tumor Suppression in Squamous Cell Carcinoma

S100A2 is considered a putative tumor suppressor due to its loss or down-regulation in several cancer types. However, no mechanism has been described for the tumor suppressor role of S100A2. In this study, ectopic expression of S100A2 in the human malignant squamous cell carcinoma cell line KB resulted in a significant inhibition of proliferation, migration, and invasion. Moreover, S100A2 significantly reduced the number of colonies (≥0.5 mm) formed in semisolid agar and decreased tumor growth and burden in nude mice. cDNA microarray analysis was used to compare mRNA expression profiles of vector- and S100A2-expressing isogenic cells. Among the genes deregulated by S100A2, the expression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) mRNA was significantly suppressed by S100A2 (2.4-fold). Western blot analysis confirmed that S100A2 reduced the expression of COX-2 protein in stably and transiently transfected KB and RPMI-2650 cells. COX-2 is frequently overexpressed in various types of cancer and plays an important role in tumor progression. Partial restoration of COX-2 expression attenuated the antitumor effect of S100A2 both in vitro and in vivo. Although the interplay between S100A2 and COX-2 remains to be clarified, these findings first showed a potent antitumor role of S100A2 in squamous cell carcinoma partly via reduced expression of COX-2. (Mol Cancer Res 2006;4(8):539–47)
Species measurements in the beam of an ionic liquid ferrofluid capillary electrospray source under magnetic stress

Three solutions of an ionic liquid ferrofluid (ILFF) using 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide (EMIM-NTf2) as the carrier liquid were emitted from a capillary electrospray source and the resulting beam was measured using a time-of-flight mass spectrometer (TOF-MS). The solutions had 3.04, 5.98, and 8.80 wt% iron oxide nanoparticles making them susceptible to magnetic fields. A Helmholtz coil was used to impose a gradientfree magnetic stress onto the electrospray source. Mass spectra were collected in the spray from each of the solutions, with and without the imposed magnetic field. The magnetic stress caused an increase in the peak intensity of distinct ion species (n = 0 or n = 1) at lower energy defects suggesting that the stress causes ions to be born at higher energy. The ratio of the ion peak intensity with magnetic field to ion peak intensity at zero magnetic field was proportional to the concentration of nanoparticles. The magnetic stress did not significantly affect the large mass distributions until the nanoparticle concentration reached 8.80 wt% in the fluid.
Availability of lysine in protein concentrates as determined by the slope-ratio assay with growing pigs and rats and by chemical techniques

1. A slope-ratio assay was developed with growing pigs to determine the availability of lysine in five protein concentrates. The basal diet contained 5.2 g lysine/kg and six levels of lysine, in 500 mg/kg increments, were used to determine the pig's response to standard lysine. The protein concentrates were incorporated into the basal diet to provide five levels of total lysine, again in 500 mg/kg increments, at the expense of wheat starch. A daily feeding scale based on live weight was used to ensure similar nutrient intakes. Pigs were fed at three-hourly intervals to ensure the utilization of free amino acids in the diets. Four pigs were allotted to each dose level and response was assessed over the 20--45 kg growth phase. 2. Potency estimates for available lysine in the five protein concentrates varied, depending on whether live-weight gain or carcass gain was used as the criterion of response. Carcass gain was considered more appropriate as it was not influenced by variation in gut fill. Availability of lysine in the five proteins, using carcass gain/d were (proportion of total) cottonseed meal 0.39,fish meal 0.89, meat-and-bone meal 0.50, skim-milk powder 0.88 and soya-bean meal 0.87. 3. Rat slope-ratio assay results for available lysine in the five protein concentrates were in general agreement with those from the pigs. In contrast, the differences in available lysine were not detected by the chemical Silcock available-lysine test (Roach et al. 1967) nor by the direct fluorodinitrobenzene procedure (Carpenter, 1960).
THE PUBLIC MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES OF CONTRACTING WITH NONPROFITS for SOCIAL SERVICES

ABSTRACT States and municipalities increasingly pursue privatization as a way to deliver public goods and services because of two expected outcomes, reduced costs and quality improvements. Several reasons are frequently cited for these anticipated benefits ranging from market competition to increased management flexibility and discretion to fewer rules and regulations. One policy area in which government has privatized many services through contracting with nonprofit organizations is social services. Contracted services are as diverse as providing shelters for the homeless, vocational education and job retraining, domestic violence services, refugee esettlement, child and elder abuse services, and food banks. A proliferation of public administration and nonprofit organizational scholarship has examined a range of issues associated with the government-nonprofit social service contracting relationship, not the least of which are topics related to management, measurement, and accountability. This article exa.
Trajectory representation and landmark projection for continuous-time structure from motion

This paper revisits the problem of continuous-time structure from motion, and introduces a number of extensions that improve convergence and efficiency. The formulation with a C 2 -continuous spline for the trajectory naturally incorporates inertial measurements, as derivatives of the sought trajectory. We analyze the behavior of split spline interpolation on SO ( 3 ) and on R 3 , and a joint spline on SE ( 3 ) , and show that the latter implicitly couples the direction of translation and rotation. Such an assumption can make good sense for a camera mounted on a robot arm, but not for hand-held or body-mounted cameras. Our experiments in the Spline Fusion framework show that a split spline on R 3 and SO ( 3 ) is preferable over an SE ( 3 ) spline in all tested cases. Finally, we investigate the problem of landmark reprojection on rolling shutter cameras, and show that the tested reprojection methods give similar quality, whereas their computational load varies by a factor of two.
Salmonella type III effectors PipB and PipB2 are targeted to detergent‐resistant microdomains on internal host cell membranes

The intracellular pathogen, Salmonella enterica, translocates type III effectors across its vacuolar membrane into host cells. Herein we describe a new Salmonella effector, PipB2, which has sequence similarity to another type III effector, PipB. In phagocytic cells, PipB2 localizes to the Salmonella‐containing vacuole (SCV) and tubular extensions from the SCV, Salmonella‐induced filaments (Sifs). We used the specific targeting of PipB2 in macrophages to characterize Sifs in phagocytic cells for the first time. In epithelial cells, PipB2 has a unique localization pattern, localizing to SCVs and Sifs and additionally to vesicles at the periphery of infected cells. We further show that the N‐terminal 225‐amino‐acid residues of PipB2 are sufficient for type III translocation and association with SCVs and Sifs, but not peripheral vesicles. Subcellular fractionation demonstrated that both PipB and PipB2 associate with host cell membranes and resist extraction by high salt, high pH and to a significant extent, non‐ionic detergent. Furthermore, PipB and PipB2 are enriched in detergent‐resistant microdomains (DRMs), also known as lipid rafts, present on membranes of SCVs and Sifs. The enrichment of Salmonella effectors in DRMs on these intracellular membranes probably permits specific interactions with host cell molecules that are concentrated in these signalling platforms.
Fairness of scheduling algorithms for real-time UMTS traffic in case of IP link congestion

In order to achieve end-to-end Quality of Service for next generation of mobile phones that will be all-IP based, IP QoS mechanism such as DiffServ should be applied to UMTS technology. A mapping of UMTS classes to DiffServ Code Points can be used in order to get efficient PHB configurations. DiffServ have limitation problems regarding implementation of PHB groups and choosing the appropriate traffic scheduling algorithm. This paper presents evaluation results of a simulation based study on the fairness of traffic scheduling algorithms for UMTS real time traffic that passes through UMTS core network and external IP backbone network, based on DiffServ. In this paper link congestion effect on critical performance metrics of conversational and streaming traffic classes is investigated in case that WFQ, WRR, PQ and LLQ are implemented as schedulers at network nodes. The aim of simulation is to determine which scheduling algorithm has the best performances and provides IPTD, IPDV and IPLR for conversational and streaming traffic classes below standard defined values, but not to completely exhaust bandwith for interactive and background traffic classes.
Voltage mode SMC of DC-DC buck converters

This paper presents an output-feedback continuous SMC with integral action for voltage regulation of a buck DC-DC converter in continuous-conduction mode (CCM). The averaged state-space model is first transformed to normal form, with the new states being the output and its derivative. A continuous state-feedback SMC with “conditional integral action”, that is active only inside the boundary layer, is designed, and the output derivative approximated using a high-gain observer (HGO). For this relative degree two system, the design we present is simply a saturated PID control with anti-windup. Even without the conditional integrator, i.e., saturated PD control, the voltage error can be practically stabilized, while asymptotic stability is achieved with integral (i.e. PID) control. Moreover, the use of the “conditional integrator” guarantees that the design retains both the transient performance as well as asymptotic error regulation of ideal SMC. A baseline LQR design is used to design the sliding surface parameters, and the design is experimentally verified using the Power Pole board designed by Hirel Systems and the University of Minessota configured as a buck converter, the dSPACE DS1104 board used for the control implementation. The controller's performance is compared against the baseline LQR PID design (without windup compensation). Simulation and experimental results show that the proposed control method results in satisfactory voltage regulation performance under widely varying input voltage variations and load changes.
Historic façade easements and single‐family home value: a case study of Savannah, Georgia (USA)

Purpose - Several pending court cases regarding the valuation of historic facade easements and the associated tax credit have generated interest in the valuation of such preservation tools. The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of facade easements on the value of single-family home sales. Design/methodology/approach - The hedonic method, initially applied to real estate economics by Rosen in 1974, is used to analyze the data. Findings - Results contradict established theory and research on other property types, showing no observable impact. Research limitations/implications - The paper is limited to a single historic district in the USA, though it is the largest and arguably one of the most important. Facade easements, however, are used in many cities, making the study relevant in other geographic areas. Originality/value - Little empirical work has been conducted on facade easements, and none in the context of single-family homes, making this research an important contribution to real estate valuation literature.
Effects of 12- and 24-week multimodal interventions on physical activity, nutritional behaviors, and body mass index and its psychological predictors in severely obese adolescents at risk for diabetes.

BACKGROUND Although 7% of US adolescents have impaired fasting glucose, a precursor of type 2 diabetes, research has suggested that few interventions for obese adolescents at risk for diabetes have been effective. Therefore, pediatricians seek effective behavioral treatments for referral for this age group. OBJECTIVE We wanted to determine the effects of two different durations of nutritional and exercise treatments on changes in nutrition, physical activity, body mass index (BMI), and psychological predictors of BMI change in overweight and obese adolescents at risk for type 2 diabetes. METHODS We obtained data from 64 pediatrician-referred patients with diabetes risk factors (mean age, 14.1 years; BMI, ≥99th percentile.) Study participants were assigned to nutrition and exercise treatments for 12 weeks (n = 35) or 24 weeks (n = 29). A specific weight-loss goal was given only for the 24-week group. RESULTS Both treatments demonstrated significant within-group changes over 12 weeks in days per week of physical activity of at least 60 minutes, physical self-concept, general self, and overall mood. However, they failed to demonstrate significant 12-week increases in fruit and vegetable intake, decreases in sweetened-beverage consumption, or decreases in BMI. Between-group differences were found only in mood changes in favor of the 12-week treatment. In the 24-week treatment, BMI change from week 12 to week 24 was significantly better than corresponding normative data (d = 0.37). Physical self-concept, general self, and mood scores at week 12 explained a significant portion of the variance in BMI change (R2 = 0.13, p = 0.04). CONCLUSION Nutrition education alone may be insufficient for nutrition behavior change. Behavioral treatment lasting longer than 12 weeks and having a specific weight-loss goal may be useful for BMI improvements, and attention to participants' self-concept and mood may be important treatment considerations.
Broadband Eight-Port Forward-Wave Directional Couplers and Four-Way Differential Phase Shifter

We propose a broadband eight-port forward-wave directional coupler (FWDC) with the dually symmetric structure. The novel coupler approximately achieves broadband impedance matching of the four modes. In addition, it can also provide almost constant phase differences among the four modes over a wide frequency range. Therefore, an eight-port FWDC with a broad bandwidth can be expected. Based on the Bloch–Floquet theorem, we build the equivalent models to predict the propagation properties. Also, a complete design procedure for the arbitrary power division is provided. Two samples are fabricated on Duroid substrate. Both measured and simulation results are shown for comparison and have good consistency. The achieved FBW is 47% for 0.5-dB variation. We also introduce a novel four-way phase shifter, composed of the proposed broadband eight-port FWDC with 0 dB through level and four delay transmission lines. It can support four independent pairs of the phase-shifting routes at the same time. The unique property can be applied to the three-layer broadband <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$8 \times 8$ </tex-math></inline-formula> Butler Matrix, as shown in this paper. It not only avoids the design of the complex crossovers, but also reduces the number of the needed phase shifters and the total size. A test sample is fabricated and measured. The obtained FBW is 36%. By properly choosing other broadband components, a compact and broadband <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$8 \times 8$ </tex-math></inline-formula> Butler matrix can be expected.
Investigation of Single-Bit and Multiple-Bit Upsets in Oxide RRAM-Based 1T1R and Crossbar Memory Arrays

In this paper, the susceptibility of oxide-based resistive switching random memory (RRAM) to heavy ion strikes is investigated. A physics-based SPICE model calibrated with HfOx RRAM is employed for circuit and array-level simulations. The RRAM state-flipping is attributed to the transient photocurrents at neighboring transistors. Single-bit-upset (SBU) caused by either single-event upset (SEU) or multiple-event upset (MEU) is modeled and simulated in the one-transistor and one-resistor (1T1R) array, which corroborates with experimental observations. In addition, circuit simulation is performed to investigate the impact of transient-induced soft errors in a 1024 ×1024 crossbar array. The sensitive locations in crossbar arrays are the driver circuits at the edge of the array. The simulations show that the crossbar array with HfOx RRAM is of high radiation tolerance thanks to the V/2 bias scheme. However, multiple-bit upset (MBU) may occur if using other oxide materials with lower operation voltage. Voltage spikes generated at the edge of the array may propagate along rows or columns as there is no isolation between cells in the crossbar array.
Entrepreneurial Orientation and External Technology Acquisition: An Empirical Test on Performance of Technology-Based New Ventures

This research investigates the effects of entrepreneurial orientation and external technology acquisition on the performance of technology-based new ventures in the context of a transitional economy. An analysis of the cross-sectional data from 123 Chinese technology-based new ventures was conducted. The results of the analysis support the contention that both the acquisition of external technology and entrepreneurial orientation improve new ventures' performance. Additionally, the interaction of entrepreneurial orientation and external technology acquisition positively moderates the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and performance of technology-based new ventures. Overall, this study contributes to our enhanced understanding of the complex relationship among entrepreneurial orientation, external technology acquisition and firm performance under transitional economic conditions. Firms from emerging economies, especially technologybased new ventures, may find the study findings useful in guiding their decision on external technology acquisition.
An Escherichia coli Nitrogen Starvation Response Is Important for Mutualistic Coexistence with Rhodopseudomonas palustris

ABSTRACT Microbial mutualistic cross-feeding interactions are ubiquitous and can drive important community functions. Engaging in cross-feeding undoubtedly affects the physiology and metabolism of individual species involved. However, the nature in which an individual species' physiology is influenced by cross-feeding and the importance of those physiological changes for the mutualism have received little attention. We previously developed a genetically tractable coculture to study bacterial mutualisms. The coculture consists of fermentative Escherichia coli and phototrophic Rhodopseudomonas palustris. In this coculture, E. coli anaerobically ferments sugars into excreted organic acids as a carbon source for R. palustris. In return, a genetically engineered R. palustris strain constitutively converts N2 into NH4+, providing E. coli with essential nitrogen. Using transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq) and proteomics, we identified transcript and protein levels that differ in each partner when grown in coculture versus monoculture. When in coculture with R. palustris, E. coli gene expression changes resembled a nitrogen starvation response under the control of the transcriptional regulator NtrC. By genetically disrupting E. coli NtrC, we determined that a nitrogen starvation response is important for a stable coexistence, especially at low R. palustris NH4+ excretion levels. Destabilization of the nitrogen starvation regulatory network resulted in variable growth trends and, in some cases, extinction. Our results highlight that alternative physiological states can be important for survival within cooperative cross-feeding relationships. IMPORTANCE Mutualistic cross-feeding between microbes within multispecies communities is widespread. Studying how mutualistic interactions influence the physiology of each species involved is important for understanding how mutualisms function and persist in both natural and applied settings. Using a bacterial mutualism consisting of Rhodopseudomonas palustris and Escherichia coli growing cooperatively through bidirectional nutrient exchange, we determined that an E. coli nitrogen starvation response is important for maintaining a stable coexistence. The lack of an E. coli nitrogen starvation response ultimately destabilized the mutualism and, in some cases, led to community collapse after serial transfers. Our findings thus inform on the potential necessity of an alternative physiological state for mutualistic coexistence with another species compared to the physiology of species grown in isolation.