Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Is ASEAN Ready for Banking Integration? Evidence from Interest Rate Convergence

Convergence in prices or returns of assets with similar characteristics indicates that the financial market is integrated with regional markets. This paper is the first that test of the movements of interest rates in ASEAN banking sector for the period 1990 - 2012. The empirical analysis is based on a yearly panel of commercial bank interest rate data from 5 ASEAN countries, namely, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. We assessed the degree and speed of interest rate convergence using beta and sigma convergence method. The findings show that the difference and the dispersion in the interbank rates have reduced since the Asian financial crisis and this trend has become stronger after the Global financial crisis. The findings of this study confirm that interest rates in the ASEAN banking sector are converging. This provides evidence that the ASEAN banking sector is ready for financial integration.
OXA-258 from Achromobacter ruhlandii: a Species-Specific Marker

ABSTRACT A new bla OXA-258 gene is described as a species-specific taxonomic marker for Achromobacter ruhlandii isolates (all recovered from cystic fibrosis patients). Even though OXA-258 differs from OXA-114 variants, isolates could be misidentified as A. xiloxosidans by the amplification of an inner fragment from the OXA-coding gene. A robust identification of A. ruhlandii can be achieved by sequencing this single OXA gene, as well as by a more laborious recently proposed multilocus sequence-typing (MLST) scheme.
A pedigree-based proxy measure of genetic predisposition of drinking and alcohol use among female sex workers in China: a cross-sectional study

ABSTRACT Scientific evidence has suggested that genetic factors accounted for more than half of the vulnerability of developing alcohol use problems. However, collecting genetic data poses a significant challenge for most population-based behavioral studies. The aim of this study was to assess the utilities of a pedigree-based proxy measure of genetic predisposition of drinking (GPD) and its effect on alcohol use behaviors as well as its interactions with personal and environmental factors. In the current study, cross-sectional data were collected from 700 female sex workers (FSW) in Guangxi, China. Participants provided information on a pedigree-based proxy measure of GPD and their alcohol use behaviors. Chi-square and independent t-test was applied for examining the bivariate associations between GPD and alcohol use behaviors; multivariate and ordinal regression models were used to examine the effect of GPD on alcohol use. This study found that women with a higher composite score of GPD tended to have a higher risk of alcohol use problem compared to their counterparts (p < .05). GPD was a significant predictor of alcohol use problems (p < .05), especially among women who had mental health issues or lack of health cares. The pedigree-based measure provided a useful proxy of GPD among participants. Both FSW’s mental health and health care access interact with GPD and affect their drinking patterns. By understanding the genetic basis of alcohol use, we can develop scalable and efficacious interventions that will take into consideration the individual risk profile and environmental influences.
Possible association of segregated lipid domains of Mycoplasma gallisepticum membranes with cell resistance to osmotic lysis

Freeze-fracturing of cholesterol-rich Mycoplasma gallisepticum membranes from cells grown in a medium containing horse serum revealed particle-free patches. The patches appeared in cells quenched from either 4 or 37 degrees C. Particle-free patches also occurred in membranes of cells grown in a serum-free medium supplemented with egg-phosphatidylcholine but not in membranes of cells grown with dioleoylphosphatidylcholine. The appearance of particle-free patches was attributed to the presence of disaturated phosphatidylcholine (PC) molecules in M. gallisepticum membranes, which were synthesized by the insertion of a saturated fatty acid at position 2 of lysophosphatidylcholine derived from exogenous PC present in the growth medium. Consequences of the synthesis of the disaturated PC also included a decrease in osmotic fragility and the ability of the cells to be permeated by K+. Electron paramagnetic resonance and fluorescence polarization measurements revealed that the fluidity of the lipid domain in the protein-rich M. gallisepticum membranes was almost identical to that of an aqueous dispersion of M. gallisepticum membrane lipids. Furthermore, the electron paramagnetic resonance spectra of the membranes were single-component spectra showing no indication of immobilized regions. The possibility that the osmotic resistance of M. gallisepticum cells is associated with the particle-free patches rather than with a restricted membrane fluidity caused by membrane proteins is discussed.
Age‐Dependent Striatal Excitotoxic Lesions Produced by the Endogenous Mitochondrial Inhibitor Malonate

Abstract: Intrastriatal injection of malonate, a reversible inhibitor of succinate dehydrogenase (SDH), produced age‐dependent striatal lesions, which were significantly greater in 4‐and 12‐month‐old animals than in 1‐month‐old animals. Both histologic and neurochemical studies showed that the lesions were significantly attenuated by administration of the noncompetitive NMDA receptor antagonist MK‐801. Water‐suppressed chemical shift magnetic resonance imaging showed that malonate produces increased striatal lactate concentrations and striatal lesions on T2‐weighted scans that were attenuated by MK‐801. Neurochemical characterization of the lesions showed significant decreases in markers of medium‐sized spiny neurons (GABA and substance P), whereas a marker of medium‐sized aspiny neurons (somato‐statin) was not different from control values, consistent with an NMDA receptor‐mediated mechanism. The effects of intrastriatal injections of malonate on ATP concentrations were compared with those of the irreversible SDH inhibitor 3‐nitropropionic acid (3‐NP). The ATP depletions following an equimolar injection of malonate were less marked and more transient than those of 3‐NP. These results show that the competitive SDH inhibitor malonate produces more transient and milder bioenergetic defects than 3‐NP, which are associated with selective activation of NMDA receptors. The results strengthen the possibility that a subtle impairment of energy metabolism may play a role in the pathogenesis of Huntington's disease.
Comparison of standard automated perimetry, frequency-doubling technology perimetry, and short-wavelength automated perimetry for detection of glaucoma.

PURPOSE To compare the performance of standard automated perimetry (SAP), frequency-doubling technology (FDT) perimetry, and short-wavelength automated perimetry (SWAP) in detecting glaucoma. METHODS One hundred thirty-two eyes of 95 glaucoma patients and 37 normal subjects had retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) imaging and visual field testing by SAP, Matrix FDT perimetry, and Swedish interactive thresholding algorithm (SITA) SWAP at the same visit (all perimeters by Carl Zeiss Meditec, Inc., Dublin, CA). Visual field defects were confirmed with two or more consecutive examinations by the same types of perimetry. Glaucoma was defined with the reference to the RNFL thickness deviation map score (≥ 4, glaucomatous; ≤ 2, normal). The sensitivity, specificity, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of MD (mean deviation) and PSD (pattern standard deviation) of the perimetries were compared. RESULTS Taking all glaucoma patients into consideration, the sensitivity was highest for Matrix FDT perimetry (69%), followed by SAP (68%), and then SITA SWAP (59%). When the analysis included only patients with early glaucoma, the sensitivity decreased to 52%, 46%, and 34%, respectively, with a significant difference detected between Matrix FDT perimetry and SITA SWAP (P = 0.034). The specificity was ≥ 97% for all perimetries. The AUCs of MD and PSD followed a similar order, with Matrix FDT perimetry having the greatest AUC (0.89-0.94), followed by SAP (0.87-0.94), and then SITA SWAP (0.69-0.90). There were significant differences in sensitivities at 90% specificity between Matrix FDT perimetry and SITA SWAP (P ≤ 0.005 for MD; P ≤ 0.039 for PSD). CONCLUSIONS The performance for glaucoma detection was comparable between FDT perimetry and SAP. FDT perimetry had a higher sensitivity for detecting glaucoma than did SWAP at a comparable level of specificity.
Mechanochemical ATPases and transcriptional activation

Transcriptional activator proteins that act upon the σ54‐containing form of the bacterial RNA polymerase belong to the extensive AAA+ superfamily of ATPases, members of which are found in all three kingdoms of life and function in diverse cellular processes, often via chaperone‐like activities. Formation and collapse of the transition state of ATP for hydrolysis appears to engender the interaction of the activator proteins with σ54 and leads to the protein structural transitions needed for RNA polymerase to isomerize and engage with the DNA template strand. The common oligomeric structures of AAA+ proteins and the crea‐tion of the active site for ATP hydrolysis between protomers suggest that the critical changes in protomer structure required for productive interactions with σ54‐holoenzyme occur as a consequence of sensing the state of the γ‐phosphate of ATP. Depending upon the form of nucleotide bound, different functional states of the activator are created that have distinct substrate and chaperone‐like binding activ‐ities. In particular, interprotomer ATP interactions rely upon the use of an arginine finger, a situation reminiscent of GTPase‐activating proteins.
Optimizing Some HMM Model Parameters in an Isolated Speech Recognition System

Hidden Markov models (HMMs) are stochastic models. They have been applied with great success in the field of speech recognition during the last three decades. It has been shown that the performance of a recognizer based on HMM modeling may be affected by a bad choice of the type of acoustic feature parameters in the acoustic front end module. For these reasons, we proposed in this paper a speech recognition system based on word-level HMMs built on the platform HTK (Hidden Markov model Toolkit Ver. 3.2) and we investigated its performance using an acoustic front end module based on Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC). For better recognition rates, we tried through our experiments to modify the number of state in each HMM. Some system's recognition rates are evaluated with different kind of MFCC derived coefficients. Results showed that a best recognition rate of 99.77% is obtained with, MFCC appended with the 0 order cepstral parameter and the first and second order regression coefficients, 1 Gaussian mixture and 6 states.
How Does Surgery Affect Sexual Desire and Activities in Patients With Lumbar Disc Herniation?

Study Design. A retrospective survey using privacy-conscious questionnaires. Objective. To determine the quality and frequency of sexual activities in patients with lumbar disc herniation before and after surgery. Summary of Background Data. Patients and health care professionals often hesitate to talk about the effects of disease, illness, or surgery on sexuality, but it is imperative that sexuality issues be addressed. Methods. Of 90 consecutive patients, 64 who had surgically-treated lumbar disc herniation participated in this survey after informed consent. There were 43 males and 21 females with mean age of 36 years. Duration of symptom was averaged 42 weeks. The patients were asked to complete questionnaires concerning sexual desire, activity, adjustment, and satisfaction. About 83% of the patients had sexual desire, and 89% achieved satisfaction during sexual activities in presick period. Results. Lumbar disc herniation decreased sexual desire in 50% and frequency of sexual activity in 59% of the patients. About 67% of males and 81% of females felt discomfort during sexual activity; satisfaction decreased in 28% of male and 41% of females. Adjustment in sexual position was required in 54% of males and 86% of females. Surgery improved sexual desire, frequency of sexual activity, and satisfaction in 85%, 88%, and 94%, respectively. However, 31% of females did not regain sexual desire and 46% still felt discomfort during sexual activity (the rates were 7% and 17% in males, respectively). Sexual activity was resumed within 2 postoperative weeks in 23% (27% in males and 14% in females), and 4 weeks in 53%. Males resumed sexual activity earlier than females. Conclusion. Lumbar disc herniation largely impacted sexual desire, activity, and satisfaction. Adjustment in sexual position was required in large number of patients to avoid discomfort during sexual activities. Surgical treatment improved quality of sexual activities, but more females did not regain sexual desire, felt sexual discomfort, and thereby resumed sexual activities later than males after surgery.
When Do Online Consumers Shop in an Offline Store: The Moderating Effects of Product Characteristics

This study serves as an initial attempt to demonstrate empirically how online consumers react to the offline channel extensions (i.e., opening physical stores) of e-tailers. Specifically, we examine how the attributes of offline channels influence consumer intentions to switch to offline channels and how they also lead to incremental demands on online channels. We investigate how these effects vary across highly complex utilitarian and hedonic products. The results of the study indicate that although store openings encourage online consumers to shop there when purchasing highly complex utilitarian products, the addition of offline stores results counterintuitively in incremental patronage of the online channels when consumers shop for highly complex hedonic products. This study validates the guiding role of product characteristics in designing offline channels for e-tailers and suggests that incorporating product type and complexity into the design is likely to contribute to the development of stores tailored to specific consumer segments.
Reconfigurable floating point arithmetic components for DSP applications

This paper presents the reconfigurable floating point design of addition, subtraction, and Multiplication units which are used to design two blocks namely Fused Addition Subtraction (FAS) unit and Fused Dot Product (FDP) unit. The reconfigurable floating point addition and multiplication units are applied in the design of a Discrete Hilbert Transform Computation Unit and the FAS, FDP units are used in the design an 8-point complex Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) unit and Inverse Discrete Fourier Transform (IDFT) unit based on the Radix-2 Decimation in Frequency (DIF) Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) algorithm. Discrete Hilbert Transform (DHT) is one of those Digital Signal Processing Transformations, which is applied on real valued sequences in order to obtain the analytical representation of the same. Reconfigurable architectures are designs, which can be employed for all the precision formats (Single Precision, Double Precision and Extended Precision etc.) given by the IEEE 754 standard by making minimal changes to register sizes. These components are implemented in Verilog on Virtex-6 FPGA. The synthesis results show that the reconfigurable systems designed are faster when used in DHT units and occupy significantly less area about 65% in terms of Slices compared to counterparts when used in DFT/IDFT units designed with FAS and FDP units.
Efficient, all-solid-state, Raman laser in the yellow, orange and red.

We report efficient operation of a KGd(WO(4))(2) Raman laser pumped by a small, 1 W, 532 nm laser module. By changing the output coupler and Raman crystal orientation, more than 8 wavelengths in the yellow-to-red spectral region were generated including 555 nm, 559 nm, 579 nm, 589 nm, 606 nm, 622 nm, 636 nm and 658 nm, ie. , the first 4 Stokes orders on the two orthogonal high-gain Raman shifts of KGd(WO(4))(2). We have also demonstrated spectrally pure output (typically >90% pure) for selected Stokes order with output power up to 400 mW. High slope efficiency (up to 68%) and high beam quality (M(2)~1.5) of Stokes output are obtained even at the highest pump power.
A privacy-aware compliance tracking system for skilled nursing facilities

In this paper, we report our experiences in designing, deploying, and making continuous improvements of a Privacy-Aware Compliance Tracking System (PACTS) at a skilled nursing facility. The purpose of PACTS is to help state tested nursing assistants (STNAs) get into the habit of using proper body mechanics when performing bedside cares. The system has been deployed in six resident rooms and seven STNAs have been participating our study for over ten weeks. This study makes the following contributions: (1) A registration mechanism that enables an STNA to register with any of the rooms that have PACTS installed, which is essential to protect the privacy of patients and non-participating persons; (2) A wrong activity detection mechanism that is robust against occlusions due to furniture and against temporary inability of floor determination; (3) A lease-based mechanism to improve the usability of PACTS, which allows an STNA to be continuously monitored without having to register with PACTS repeatedly when she/he goes in and out of the view of the Kinect sensor for the duration of the lease.
Rck2 Kinase Is a Substrate for the Osmotic Stress-Activated Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Hog1

ABSTRACT Exposure of yeast cells to increases in extracellular osmolarity activates the Hog1 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK). Activation of Hog1 MAPK results in induction of a set of osmoadaptive responses, which allow cells to survive in high-osmolarity environments. Little is known about how the MAPK activation results in induction of these responses, mainly because no direct substrates for Hog1 have been reported. We conducted a two-hybrid screening using Hog1 as a bait to identify substrates for the MAPK, and the Rck2 protein kinase was identified as an interactor for Hog1. Both two-hybrid analyses and coprecipitation assays demonstrated that Hog1 binds strongly to the C-terminal region of Rck2. Upon osmotic stress, Rck2 was phosphorylated in vivo in a Hog1-dependent manner. Furthermore, purified Hog1 was able to phosphorylate Rck2 when activated both in vivo and in vitro. Rck2 phosphorylation occurred specifically at Ser519, a residue located within the C-terminal putative autoinhibitory domain. Interestingly, phosphorylation at Ser519 by Hog1 resulted in an increase of Rck2 kinase activity. Overexpression of Rck2 partially suppressed the osmosensitive phenotype of hog1Δ and pbs2Δ cells, suggesting that Rck2 is acting downstream of Hog1. Consistently, growth arrest caused by hyperactivation of the Hog1 MAPK was abolished by deletion of the RCK2 gene. Furthermore, overexpression of a catalytically impaired (presumably dominant inhibitory) Rck2 kinase resulted in a decrease of osmotolerance in wild-type cells but not in hog1Δ cells. Taken together, our data suggest that Rck2 acts downstream of Hog1, controlling a subset of the responses induced by the MAPK upon osmotic stress.
Measurement of nonlinear 2nd-order kernels using Gaussian and natural inputs

We implemented and investigated two frequency-domain based methods for measuring the nonlinear kernels of homogeneous 2nd-order 2D Volterra systems. For Volterra systems excited by Gaussian noise, there exists a closed-form solution L. Tick (1961). In the present work, however, we are interested in measuring the kernels of visual cortical neurons, which empirically show only weak responses to white Gaussian noise. Hence, we also implemented a technique based on an algorithm developed in K. Kim et al., (1988) that measures kernels with generalized inputs. We evaluate the results regarding noise-stability and convergence properties using Gaussian and naturalistic stimuli for nonlinear models of cortical cells.
Analytical Modeling of Wrap-Gate Carbon Nanotube FET With Parasitic Capacitances and Density of States

A computationally efficient analytical model to accurately predict the electrical characteristics of wrap-gate carbon nanotube FETs (CNTFETs) is proposed and described in this paper. A wrap-gate structure offers an ideal geometry with minimum body thickness and maximum control over the channel as well as improved device scalability. The parasitic effects present in a real device are incorporated into an ideal wrap-gate device model, and the Poisson-Schrödinger equations are solved self-consistently to obtain the potential and carrier density at the top of the barrier. Exact analytical expressions, such as CNTFET density-of-states are used for approximately evaluating the integral expressions. Finally, the drain current is obtained for near-ballistic transport in the device. The electrical characteristics from our model are validated with recently reported experimental results from the literature, demonstrating good accuracy when the device is on. The subthreshold characteristics are underestimated and offer scope for improvement. Various performance metrics, including threshold voltage and subthreshold swing, and on-current are within 2-11% error. The proposed model can thus be used to study the performance of wrap-gate CNTFETs under various parametric conditions, and extended to circuit simulation models, such as SPICE.
Intensity of chronic cerebral hypoperfusion determines white/gray matter injury and cognitive/motor dysfunction in mice

We sought to establish a mouse model of subcortical ischemic vascular dementia (SIVD) that develops predominant white matter (WM) injury and cognitive dysfunction induced by chronic cerebral hypoperfusion. Adult C57Bl/6 male (n = 48) mice were subjected to bilateral common carotid artery stenosis with external microcoils (inner diameters: 0.16 mm, left; 0.18 mm, right). Mice were categorized according to left‐side cerebral blood flow (CBF) value on day 6 into those with severe cerebral hypoperfusion (SCH; n = 16, < 30% of preoperative CBF baseline value) or moderate cerebral hypoperfusion (MCH; n = 21, 30–50% of preoperative value). Another 15 mice were sham operated. Neurological dysfunction was evaluated by Morris water maze, rotating rod, and open field tests. Histopathological examination was performed on day 35 after surgery. MCH animals showed persistent hyperlocomotion with reduced anxiety and spatial reference memory dysfunction. Rarefaction and small necrotic lesions were predominantly confined to the WM, with reactive astrocytosis, microglial infiltration, axonal loss, and myelin disruption, and these changes were dominant on the left side. SCH animals had persistent hyperlocomotion and motor dysfunction, and their ischemic lesions extended from the WM to the hippocampus and cortex. In MCH animals, myelin basic protein and neurofilament fiber densities in the WM were correlated with the time spent in the correct area in the water maze probe trials. Our MCH mouse model with the development of several types of neurological dysfunction with high reproducibility would be useful for investigating the pathomechanisms of WM injury in human SIVD. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.