Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Too Many Cooks Spoil the Broth? Geographic Concentration, Social Norms, and Knowledge Transfer

A long tradition in social science research emphasizes the potential for knowledge to flow among firms co-located in dense areas. Scholars have suggested numerous modes for these flows, including the voluntary transfer of private knowledge from one firm to another. Why would the holder of valuable private knowledge willingly transfer it to a potential and closely proximate competitor? In this paper, we argue that geographic concentration has an effect on the expected compliance with norms governing the use of transferred knowledge. The increased expected compliance favors trust and initiates a process of reciprocal exchange. To test our theory, we use a scenario-based field experiment in gourmet cuisine, an industry in which property rights do not effectively protect knowledge and geographic concentration is common. Our results confirm our conjecture by showing that the expectation that a potential co-located firm will abide by norms mediates the relationship between geographic concentration and the willingness to transfer private knowledge.
Neurotoxicological Evaluation of Ethyl Tertiary‐Butyl Ether Following Subchronic (90‐day) Inhalation in the Fischer 344 Rat

The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether repeated 6‐h exposure (65 exposures over a 14‐week period) of male and female Fischer‐344 rats (n = 12 rats/sex/concentration) to ethyl tertiary‐butyl ether (ETBE) atmospheres at 500, 1750, or 5000 ppm would result in neurotoxicity. Neurotoxicity was assessed by a blinded functional observational battery (FOB), motor activity, and terminal neuropathology. Motor activity was assessed 4 days prior to ETBE exposure and following 20, 42, and 65 days of exposure. The FOB was assessed 4 days prior to ETBE exposure and following 1, 6, 10, 20, 42, and 65 days of exposure. Transient ataxia, a sign of narcosis, was noted in male rats immediately following the 6‐h exposure to 5000 ppm ETBE. Statistically significant treatment effects on motor activity were not observed. Minor changes in grip strength and hindlimb splay were observed; however, none demonstrated a dose–response relationship or a consistent pattern of neurological dysfunction. No gross or microscopic abnormalities were observed in the central, peripheral, or autonomic nervous systems of rats exposed to 5000 ppm ETBE. No statistically significant differences in brain weight or size were observed in ETBE‐exposed rats. A statistically significant increase in body weight was observed in female rats exposed to 5000 ppm following 42 and 65 exposure days. Although ataxia was a common feature of acute ETBE neurotoxicity in rats following high‐level exposure, adverse neurological effects are not expected in the general public at the anticipated exposure levels associated with automotive refueling. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Evidence-based priority-setting: what do the decision-makers think?

Objectives: Resource scarcity dictates the need for health organisations to set priorities. Although such activity should be based, at least in part, on evidence, there are limited examples in the literature of decision-makers reflecting on their use of evidence in priority-setting. Methods: A participatory action-research project was conducted in a single health authority in Alberta. It included in-depth interviews and focus groups with senior decision-makers both before and after development and implementation of a macro-level priority-setting framework (programme budgeting and marginal analysis, PBMA). Data were thematically coded and information on the use of evidence in priority-setting is reported. Results: Barriers to the use of evidence in priority-setting identified by decision-makers included crisis-orientated management, time constraints and a lack of skills. Decision-makers suggested using a mix of 'soft' and 'hard' forms of evidence in priority-setting. Following PBMA implementation, decision-makers wanted better information on capacity to benefit, but preferred to do this pragmatically from multiple sources of information rather than using a single metric. Conclusion: In examining the perspectives of decision-makers in using evidence to support priority-setting, valuable information was derived which should provide insight for such processes in other jurisdictions. The main finding of a desire for pragmatic assessment of benefit is informative for those involved in both decision-making and research.
Plasmid Vector-Linked Maturation of Natural Killer (NK) Cells Is Coupled to Antigen-Dependent NK Cell Activation during DNA-Based Immunization in Mice

ABSTRACT Plasmid DNA vaccines serve in a wide array of applications ranging from prophylactic vaccines to potential therapeutic tools against infectious diseases and cancer. In this study, we analyzed the mechanisms underlying the activation of natural killer (NK) cells and their potential role in adaptive immunity during DNA-based immunization against hepatitis B virus surface antigen in mice. We observed that the mature Mac-1+ CD27− NK cell subset increased in the liver of mice early after DNA injection, whereas the number of the less mature Mac-1+ CD27+ NK cells in the liver and spleen was significantly reduced. This effect was attributed to bacterial sequences present in the plasmid backbone rather than to the encoded antigen and was not observed in immunized MyD88-deficient mice. The activation of NK cells by plasmid-DNA injection was associated with an increase in their effector functions that depended on the expressed antigen. Maturation of NK cells was abrogated in the absence of T cells, suggesting that cross talk exists between NK cells and antigen-specific T cells. Taken together, our data unravel the mechanics of plasmid vector-induced maturation of NK cells and plasmid-encoded antigen-dependent activation of NK cells required for a crucial role of NK cells in DNA vaccine-induced immunogenicity.
Environmental efficiency measures for ports: an application of RAM-Tobit-RAM with undesirable outputs

ABSTRACT In this paper, the environmental efficiency of the ports is measured. Labour, fund and infrastructure input are selected as the inputs, container throughput, cargo throughput and main business income are selected as the outputs, CO2 emission is chosen as the undesirable output. A new model—RAM-Tobit-RAM (Range Adjusted Measure) with undesirable outputs is built to evaluate the environmental efficiency. Ten Chinese ports from 2004 to 2013 are taken as the samples to verify its rationality. The results suggest that it is not necessarily beneficial for environmental efficiency to expand the port scale.
Effects of disengagement coping with HIV risk on unprotected sex among HIV-negative gay men in New York City.

OBJECTIVE This study examined how disengagement coping with HIV risk mediated the association between internalized homophobia and unprotected anal intercourse (UAI) and how sexual encounters in public venues (public sex) and drug use moderated the association between disengagement coping and UAI among HIV-negative gay men. Disengagement coping included fatalistic beliefs about maintaining HIV-negative seronegative serostatus (fatalism), optimistic attitudes toward medical seriousness of HIV infection and reduced concern about HIV risk due to highly active anti-retroviral therapies (optimism), and negative affective states associated with sexual risk (anxiety). DESIGN A survey was conducted among 285 HIV-negative gay men at an HIV prevention counseling program in New York City. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Sexual risk was defined as having had UAI with nonprimary partners in the past 6 months. RESULTS In addition to the positive association between internalized homophobia, disengagement coping, and UAI, fatalism mediated the association between internalized homophobia and UAI; and optimism mediated the association between anxiety and UAI. A significant moderation effect of public sex was found between fatalism and UAI. CONCLUSIONS The findings highlight the importance of understanding disengagement coping as it affects sexual risk practices among HIV-negative gay men in the continuing epidemic.
Estimation of metabolite concentrations from localized in vivo proton NMR spectra

The LCModel method analyzes an in vivo spectrum as a Linear Combination of Model spectra of metabolite solutions in vitro. By using complete model spectra, rather than just individual resonances, maximum information and uniqueness are incorporated into the analysis. A constrained regularization method accounts for differences in phase, baseline, and lineshapes between the in vitro and in vivo spectra, and estimates the metabolite concentrations and their uncertainties. LCModel is fully automatic in that the only input is the time‐domain in vivo data. The lack of subjective interaction should help the exchange and comparison of results. More than 3000 human brain STEAM spectra from patients and healthy volunteers have been analyzed with LCModel. N‐acetylaspartate, cholines, creatines, myo‐inositol, and glutamate can be reliably determined, and abnormal levels of these or elevated levels of lactate, alanine, scyllo‐inositol, glutamine, or glucose clearly indicate numerous pathologies. A computer program will be available.
Low-Cost Digital Beacon Receiver Based on Software-Defined Radio

In this paper, we present a low-cost digital beacon receiver based on software-defined radio. A free software toolkit, GNU radio, was used to develop the beacon receiver's functionality. The hardware used was a parabolic antenna, a low-noise block converter, an Ettus universal software-radio peripheral, a Linux PC, and a Global Positioning System receiver. The total hardware cost of the developed beacon receiver was low compared to commercially available analog receivers. To validate the receiver, we compared the measured preliminary results of amplitude scintillation at 11.2 GHz with reported theoretical models. Comparisons between the measured values and the ITU-R model for the amplitude-scintillation distribution showed that the ITU-R model somewhat underestimated the statistic. The measured probability density function was also compared with the Moulsley-Vilar model. For small log-amplitude values, the Moulsley-Vilar model fit the measured statistic well, but slightly overestimated the statistic for large log-amplitude values. Good agreement was found between the measured and theoretical power spectral density of amplitude scintillation. The diurnal variation of the amplitude scintillation's standard deviation was calculated. It was largest at noontime, which was consistent with previously reported measurement results. To some extent, this may validate the performance of the developed receiver. The developed software is available from a software repository (http://www.sourceForge.net). enabling collaboration, development, and use of the software.
Cardiac involvement in mitochondrial diseases. A study on 17 patients with documented mitochondrial DNA defects.

BACKGROUND Mutations of mitochondrial DNA have been demonstrated as causes of human mitochondrial diseases. While these disorders typically involve multiple organs, the effect of mitochondrial mutations on the heart has not been systematically studied. METHODS AND RESULTS We studied mitochondrial mutations and cardiac changes in 17 patients with Kearns-Sayre syndrome; ocular myopathy; myoclonus epilepsy with ragged red fibers (MERRF); and mitochondrial myopathy, encephalopathy, lactic acidosis, and strokelike episodes (MELAS). Cardiac involvement was evaluated by chest radiograph, ECG, His-bundle electrogram, and echocardiogram. All 3 patients with Kearns-Sayre syndrome had large deletions of mitochondrial DNA and disturbances in cardiac conduction. ECG abnormalities were found in 2 of 6 patients with ocular myopathy who showed large deletions of mitochondrial DNA. All 3 patients with MERRF had an A-to-G mutation at nucleotide position 8344; 2 had cardiomegaly, asymmetrical septal hypertrophy, and diffuse hypokinesis of the left ventricle. One patient with asymmetrical septal hypertrophy developed dilated cardiomyopathy 2 years later. All 5 patients with MELAS had an A-to-G mutation at nucleotide position 3243, and 2 had symmetrical left ventricular hypertrophy with or without abnormal wall motion. CONCLUSIONS The clinical features of cardiac involvement in mitochondrial diseases vary in the different subgroups of these disorders. Particular mitochondrial mutations can cause characteristic cardiac abnormalities.
Failure of a Midnocturnal Insulin Infusion to Suppress the Increased Insulin Need for Breakfast in Insulin-dependent Diabetic Patients

Insulin requirements for meals were measured in eight insulin-dependent diabetic patients, using a closed-loop insulin infusion system. Patients required more insulin for breakfast than for an isocaloric lunch (35.7 ± 5.5 mU/kcal/3 h versus 26.9 ± 5.1 mU/kcal/3 h, P < 0.02) or an isocaloric supper (35.7 ± 5.5 mU/kcal/ 3 h versus 26.6 ± 6.6 mU/kcal 3 h, P = 0.05). To determine whether this insulin resistance at breakfast might be due to low basal insulin levels overnight, the insulin needs for breakfast were compared after an overnight fast (day 1) and after a midnocturnal (0200 h–0500 h) insulin infusion (day 2). Breakfast insulin requirements were similar on both days (35.7 ± 5.5 mU/kcal/3 h versus 37.7 ± 5.1 mU/kcal/3 h, P = NS). Whereas nonobese diabetic patients required approximately 60% more insulin for breakfast than for other meals, obese diabetic patients in this study did not demonstrate insulin resistance at breakfast. These findings provide a basis for the common clinical practice of allocating more insulin for breakfast than for other meals. The absence of an increased insulin need at breakfast in our obese patients cautions against a similar algorithm for obese diabetic patients. We postulate that growth hormone may be a cause for morning insulin resistance.
Germination properties of a spore coat-defective mutant of Bacillus subtilis

The presence of the gerE36 mutation in strains of Bacillus subtilis 168 resulted in poor germination of their spores in a range of germinants, as measured by the fall in absorbance of spore suspensions. Although resistant to heat and organic solvents, spores were sensitive to lysozyme; electron microscopy revealed that their coat structure was incomplete. These spores responded to germinants by losing heat resistance and changing from phase bright to phase gray. The release of dipicolinic acid and the fall in absorbance of spore suspensions reached only 75 and 50% of wild-type levels, respectively, but followed the same time course as the loss of heat resistance. Although the germination response was incomplete, the concentration of L-alanine required to elicit it was the same for the mutant as for the wild type. The properties of mutant spores suggest that an intact spore coat is not required for the initial interaction between germinant and spore, but that the coat layers may contain molecules important in later stages of germination. In transduction with phage SPP1, the gerE36 mutation mapped between citF and ilvB and was 90% cotransduced with citF2. The gerE mutation identifies the location of a gene important for the progress of late stages of spore formation.
Learning Remotely: R&D Satellites, Intra‐Firm Linkages, and Knowledge Sourcing

Firms venture abroad not only to access resources and markets but also to learn. Yet there remains limited empirical evidence that headquarters can access geographically remote knowledge by establishing a presence in the remote location. Using U.S. patent data, I show that firm headquarters disproportionately source knowledge from third parties in remote locations where they have an R&D satellite. This “satellite effect” on knowledge flow is economically significant, representing up to 60% of the knowledge-flow premium associated with collocation. Furthermore, the effect seems to be stronger for recent knowledge, as well as in areas of satellite technological specialization, suggesting that firms can target cutting-edge knowledge in specific sectors. In addition, the results show that firms with stronger internal linkages between headquarters and satellites, and those that staff satellites with inventors that previously patented while at other local firms, experience a larger satellite effect on knowledge acquisition.
Growth, physiology, and chemistry of mycorrhizal and nonmycorrhizalTypha latifolia seedlings

We investigated the impact of arbuscular mycorrhizae fungi on common cattails (Typha latifolia), a ubiquitous wetland plant species. The mycorrhizal relationship, which involves the exchange of fungal-acquired nutrients and plant-produced carbon, has been shown to elicit a range of physiological and biochemical responses in host plants. Growth, photosynthetic activity, biomass accumulation, and nutrition were compared between seedlings inoculated with viable mycorrhizal fungal spores and control seedlings given a sterilized inoculum. Plants were grown in inundated soils at three levels of phosphorous availability under glasshouse conditions for 11 weeks. The presence of arbuscules and hyphae was confirmed in all inoculated plants with levels of infection reaching 23.1 and 34.1%, respectively. Control plants were taller and had greater above- and below-ground biomass. Photosynthetic rates measured at week 11 of the experiment were significantly higher in mycorrhizal plants than in control plants. Mycorrhizal plants had higher concentrations of N, P, and C in their shoots and higher concentrations of N in their roots. Our results suggest that under greenhouse conditions, the fungus acts to reduce host plant growth despite increased mineral nutrition and photosynthetic activity.
Construction, institutions and economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa

The construction sector in developing countries has propelled economic growth in the most recent period, yet analysis of growth performance has failed to take this into account. This article is a comparative analysis of the relationship between the construction sector and aggregate output for a panel of sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries using a panel generalized methods of moments (GMM). After accounting for the effects of institutional set up, cross sectional heterogeneity and non-linearity, our results revealed that the construction sector affects growth positively and most importantly, developing the right institutions could further enhance this impact. The intrinsically non-linear relationship between construction and output growth is very mute in our sample, suggesting that, SSA countries have not yet reached the stage of development where construction growth becomes trivial. We further show that East Africa experienced a robust impact of construction on economic growth compared to West and Southern Africa.
Developmental expression and organisation of fibrinogen genes in the zebrafish

Summary The zebrafish is a model organism for studying vertebrate development and many human diseases. Orthologues of the majority of human coagulation factors are present in zebrafish, including fibrinogen. As a first step towards using zebrafish to model human fibrinogen disorders, we cloned the zebrafish fibrinogen cDNAs and made in situ hybridisations and quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reactions (qRT-PCR) to detect zebrafish fibrinogen mRNAs. Prior to liver development or blood flow we detected zebrafish fibrinogen expression in the embryonic yolk syncytial layer and then in the early cells of the developing liver. While human fibrinogen is encoded by a three-gene, 50 kilobase (kb) cluster on chromosome 4 (FGB-FGA-FGG), recent genome assemblies showed that the zebrafish fgg gene appears distanced from fga and fgb, which we confirmed by in situ hybridisation. The zebrafish fibrinogen Bβ and γ protein chains are conserved at over 50% of amino acid positions, compared to the human polypeptides. The zebrafish Aα chain is less conserved and its C-terminal region is nearly 200 amino acids shorter than human Aα. We generated transgenic zebrafish which express a green fluorescent protein reporter gene under the control of a 1.6 kb regulatory region from zebrafish fgg. Transgenic embryos showed strong fluorescence in the developing liver, mimicking endogenous fibrinogen expression. This regulatory sequence can now be used for overexpression of transgenes in zebrafish hepatocytes. Our study is a proof-of-concept step towards using zebrafish to model human disease linked to fibrinogen gene mutations.
A Single-Chip Bluetooth EDR Device in 0.13μm CMOS

A low-power single-chip Bluetooth EDR device is realized using a configurable transformer-based RF front-end, a low-IF receiver and direct-conversion transmitter architecture. It is implemented in a 0.13mum CMOS process and occupies 11.8mm2. Sensitivity for 1, 2 and 3Mb/s rates is -88, -90, and -84dBm and transmitter differential EVM is 5.5% rms.
Low power digital signal processing scheme via stochastic logic protection

In this paper, we proposed a low power digital signal processing (DSP) scheme with stochastic logic protection. The reduction of supply voltage will reduce the power consumption effectively. However, the timing violation will be happened when the voltage overscaling (VOS) is applied. Fortunately, the stochastic logic has simple hardware structure, and the critical path is short. Thus, we can use stochastic logic as the error control (EC) module to mitigate the soft error by the VOS. Compared with traditional EC based low power DSP, the proposed method can achieve higher energy efficiency with high performance. According to the case study of a 26-tap FIR filter, the stochastic logic based EC module can achieve 65% power saving within 2.5dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) loss, which outperforms 6dB than traditional RPR method. When the soft error for each logic gate is considered, the advantage of SFIR based system is more obvious than traditional method.
No Longer Business as Usual

Not so long ago, bribing public officials in foreign countries to obtain business deals was, if not an acceptable, at least a tolerated business practice in many OECD countries. Today, corruption has moved to the top of the global political agenda as its dramatic impact on economic development and its corrosive effect on political stability and democratic political institutions has become increasingly obvious.