Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pertussis Toxin–Sensitive G Protein Mediation of PGE2 Inhibition of cAMP Metabolism and Phasic Glucose-Induced Insulin Secretion in HIT Cells

Although prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) is known to inhibit glucose-induced insulin secretion, it is uncertain whether PGE2 actions on the β-cell are direct, whether they are equipotent for both phases of hormone secretion, and whether the same mechanism of action prevails throughout. Study of the HIT cell, a clonai line of pancreatic β-cells, provides answers to these questions because perifusion with glucose and 3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine stimulates biphasic insulin secretion. Perifusion with PGE2 decreased both the first and second phases of glucose-induced insulin release to 47 ± 4% of controls. Pretreatment with pertussis toxin partly prevented PGE2 inhibition to 80 ± 4% of controls for first phase and 79 ± 4% of controls for second phase. To evaluate whether the partial prevention of PGE2 inhibition seen with pertussis toxin pretreatment was caused by G1 heterotrimer association between the preincubation period and the end of perifusion, PGE2 actions were also examined during continuous treatment with pertussis toxin. Under these conditions, PGE2 inhibition of both phases was totally prevented. However, no difference was observed in membrane protein ADP ribosylation when cells were examined by sodium dodecyl sulfate–polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis after pretreatment or continuous treatment with pertussis toxin. Cyclic AMP (cAMP) accumulation was inhibited by PGE2 (from 3263 ± 153 to 1549 ± 158 fmol/106 cells) but less so after pretreatment with pertussis toxin (correlation between insulin release and cAMP accumulation during perifusion; n = 18, r = .85, P < .001). Thus, PGE2 equally inhibits both phases of glucose-induced insulin secretion and cAMP generation through a pertussis toxin–sensitive G protein–mediated direct effect on the pancreatic β-cell.
A CAMEL Rating's Shelf Life

How quickly do the CAMEL ratings regulators assign to banks during on-site examinations become "stale"? One measure of the information content of CAMEL ratings is their ability to discriminate between banks that will fail and those that will survive. To assess the accuracy of CAMEL ratings in predicting failure, Rebel Cole and Jeffery Gunther use as a benchmark an offsite monitoring system based on publicly available accounting data. Their findings suggest that, if a bank has not been examined for more than two quarters, off-site monitoring systems usually provide a more accurate indication of survivability than its CAMEL rating. The lower predictive accuracy for CAMEL ratings “older” than two quarters causes the overall accuracy of CAMEL ratings to fall substantially below that of off-site monitoring systems. The higher predictive accuracy of off-site systems derives from both their timeliness—an updated off-site rating is available for every bank in every quarter—and the accuracy of the financial data on which they are based. Cole and Gunther conclude that off-site monitoring systems should continue to play a prominent role in the supervisory process, as a complement to on-site examinations.
Credit Risk Transfer and the Forecasting of Bank Defaults

The current financial crisis has brought into sharp focus the need for robust empirical analysis of bank default prediction models. The contagion currently affecting the banking sector has its roots in traditional banking crises, i.e. inflated asset valuations and poor risk management. The difference, however, between past crises and that which appears to have began in earnest in August 2007 is the presence of the credit derivatives (CDs) market. The transmission of credit risk via these types of instruments appears, according to international financial regulators, to have amplified the current global financial crisis by offering a direct and unobstructed mechanism for channeling defaults between financial institutions of a variety of types. This paper proposes a default risk model, in the vain of the classic Merton-type, which incorporates forward-looking measures of market and credit risk using the credit default swaps (CDS) market as a latent variable for forecasting asset volatility. We present a robust set of empirical tests to illustrate the effectiveness of this model over alternative specifications.
Diet and Exercise and Serum Markers of Oxidative Stress—Response

We would like to thank Tsikas and colleagues for their comments on our article Dietary Weight Loss, Exercise, and Oxidative Stress in Postmenopausal Women: A Randomized Controlled Trial ([1][1]). In their letter, they state, in our view, erroneously, that the utility of 8-isoprostaglandin F2α,
A generalized processor sharing approach to flow control in integrated services networks-the multiple node case

Worst-case bounds on delay and backlog are derived for leaky bucket constrained sessions in arbitrary topology networks of generalized processor sharing servers. When only a subset of the sessions are leaky bucket constrained succinct per-session bounds that are independent of the behavior of the other sessions and also of the network topology are given. However, these bounds are only shown to hold for each session that is guaranteed a backlog clearing rate that exceeds the token arrival rate of its leaky bucket. When all of the sessions are leaky bucket constrained, a much larger class of networks called consistent relative session treatment networks is analyzed. The session i route is treated as a whole, yielding tighter bounds than those that result from adding the worst-case delays (backlogs) at each of the servers in the route. The bounds on delay and backlog for each session are computed and shown to be achieved by staggered regimes when an independent sessions relaxation holds. Propagation delay is also incorporated into the model. <<ETX>>
Quick travel planning and travel book editing system

Travel planning systems are among the most popular recommendation systems, due to the assistance they provide in planning trips of interest to users, particularly in locations with which users are unfamiliar. A comprehensive view of existing travel planning systems has revealed that most relevant studies on this topic have focused on the development of internal recommendation algorithms, rather than on the design of the system. As a result, many travel planning systems are ill-suited to the specific needs of individual users. In this study, we developed a travel planning system that includes systems for the recommendation of attractions, the browsing of candidate itineraries, and the automated editing of the resulting guide book. This system greatly enhances the usefulness of travel planning systems and increases the likelihood that such systems will eventually be commercialized.
Words over an ordered alphabet and suffix permutations

Given an ordered alphabet and a permutation, according to the lexicographic order, on the set of suffixes of a word w , we present in this article a linear time and space method to determine whether a word w' has the same permutation on its suffixes. Using this method, we are then also able to build the class of all the words having the same permutation on their suffixes, first of all the smallest one. Finally, we note that this work can lead to a method for generating a Lyndon word randomly in linear time or for computing the set of Lyndon words of length n .
The upper temperature limit for eukaryotic organisms.

An upper temperature limit near 60 degrees for eukaryotic organisms is documented by results of a systematic search for fungi able to grow at higher temperatures. Samples from hot springs, thermal soils, self-heating coal waste piles, and other natural and man-made heated habitats did not yield fungi when enrichments were done at 62 degrees , whereas fungi able to grow at 55-60 degrees can be readily isolated from such habitats. Earlier work had shown that eukaryotic algae are also absent from environments with temperatures above 55-60 degrees . It is suggested that the failure of eukaryotes to evolve members able to grow at higher temperatures is due to their inability to form organellar membranes that are both thermostable and functional.
Do Auditors Play a Positive Role in the Resolution of Debt Covenant Violations?

We investigate whether auditors exercise closer monitoring and thus charge higher fees in response to debt covenant violations. Using a hand-collected sample focusing on initial covenant violations, we document that audit fees experience an average increase of about 20 percent in the year immediately following the violation year and continue to stay at a high level until three years after the initial violation. Difference-in-differences analysis shows that the increase in audit fees in response to covenant violations is more (less) pronounced when the benefit (cost) of closer auditor monitoring is likely to be higher. Further analysis links the observed increase in audit fees with the improvement in audit committee independence and diligence in response to covenant violations. Our findings provide new evidence that auditors play a positive role in the resolution of debt covenant violations and highlight the importance of corporate governance factors in the audit process.
Final Report : Rapid Human-Computer Interactive Conceptual Design of Mobile and Manipulative Robot Systems Report Title

Number of Papers published in peer-reviewed journals: Number of Papers published in non peer-reviewed journals: Final Report: Rapid Human-Computer Interactive Conceptual Design of Mobile and Manipulative Robot Systems Report Title This project consists of the development of a software application for the user-guided design of a robotic system in conjunction with a computer-automated optimization system (Fig. 1). In Year 1 (Feb, 2011 Feb 2012) we demonstrated an initial system for allowing a human user to configure a robot, its environment and to specify a task. In addition, we also demonstrated a paradigm for allowing a human-user to guide an automated optimization / machine learning system to collaborate in solving a problem. In Year 2 (Feb 2012 Feb 2013) we integrated these two parts into a prototype desktop application and concluded the year with testing the effectiveness of this approach. In year 3 we extended our system so that it can support the crowd-sourcing of robotics by non-expert users: multiple users collectively influence an optimization method (Fig. 2). This final report is organized as follows. Section 2 is an overview of this project and summarizes its goals. Section 3 describes the successful crowdsourcing of robotics: we have shown that, when two non-experts interact with our robotics system, robot controllers are developed more rapidly compared to two users acting independently, or one user working alone. The main new deliverables are the submission of two manuscripts that documents the design, deployment and results from crowdsourcing robotics. Work described in the first manuscript was summarized in the previous QPR. Worked described in the second manuscript are summarized in this Report. (a) Papers published in peer-reviewed journals (N/A for none) Enter List of papers submitted or published that acknowledge ARO support from the start of the project to the date of this printing. List the papers, including journal references, in the following categories: (b) Papers published in non-peer-reviewed journals (N/A for none) (c) Presentations Received Paper
Overexpression of Glycerol-3-Phosphate Acyltransferase from Suaeda salsa Improves Salt Tolerance in Arabidopsis

Glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase is the first acyl esterifying enzyme in phosphatidylglycerol (PG) synthesis process. In this study, we isolated and characterized the glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase (GPAT) gene from Suaeda salsa (S. salsa) and obtained the full length of the GPAT gene from S. salsa (SsGPAT) by 5′ and 3′ RACE. The clone contained an open reading frame (ORF) of 1167 bp nucleotides that comprised of 388 amino acid residues. Real-time PCR revealed that the mRNA accumulation of GPAT in S. salsa was induced by salt stress. The highest expression levels were observed when S. salsa leaves were exposed to 300 mM NaCl treatment. At the germination stage, the germination rate and root length of overexpressed Arabidopsis strains were significantly higher than WT under different concentrations of NaCl treatments, while the inhibitory effect was significantly severe in T-DNA insertion mutant strains. In the seedling stage, chlorophyll content, the photochemical efficiency of PSII, PSI oxidoreductive activity (ΔI/Io), and the unsaturated fatty acid content of PG decreased less in overexpressed strains and more in mutant strains than that in WT under salt stress. These results suggest that the overexpression of SsGPAT in Arabidopsis enhances salt tolerance and alleviates the photoinhibition of PSII and PSI under salt stress by improving the unsaturated fatty acid content of PG.
A Hierarchical Magnification Approach for Enhancing the Insight in Data Visualizations

Non-linear deformations are useful for applications where users face highly cluttered visual displays, either due to large datasets, or visualizations on small screens, or a combination of both, that increases the density of the data and makes the perception of patterns difficult. Non-linear deformations have been used to magnify significant/cluttered regions in data visualization, for the purpose of reducing clutter and enhancing the perception of patterns. General deformation methods (e.g. logarithmic scaling and fish-eye views) suffer from several drawbacks, since they do not consider the prominent features that must be preserved in the visualization. This work introduces a hierarchical approach for non-linear deformation that aims to reduce visual clutter by magnifying significant regions, and lead to enhanced visualizations of two/three-dimensional datasets on highly cluttered displays. The proposed approach utilizes an energy function, which aims to determine the optimal deformation for every local region in the data, taking the information from multiple single-layer significance maps into account. The problem is subsequently transformed into an optimization problem for the minimization of the energy function under specific spatial constraints. The proposed hierarchical approach for the generation of the significance map, surpasses current methods, and manages to efficiently identify significant regions and achieve better results.
NCRYPTION A ND S TEGANOGRAPHY

The art of information hiding has become an important issue in the recent years as security of information has become a big concern in this internet era. Cryptography and Steganography play major role for secured data transfer. Steganography stands for concealed writing; it hides the message inside a cover medium. Cryptography conceals the content of a message by encryption. QR (Quick Response) Codes are 2-dimensional bar codes that encode text strings. They are able to encode information in both vertical and horizontal direction, thus able to encode more information. In this paper a novel approach is proposed for secret communication by combining the concepts of Steganography and QR codes. The suggested method includes two phases: (i) Encrypting the message by a QR code encoder and thus creating a QR code (ii) Hiding the QR code inside a colour image. This hiding process embeds the quantised QR code so that it will not make any visible distortion in the cover image and it introduces very minimum Bit Error Rate (BER). Experimental result shows that the proposed method has high imperceptibility, integrity and security.
Corporate Social Responsibility and Reference Shareholders: An Analysis of European Multinational Firms

Abstract This paper is the analysis of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities of European multinational firms, focusing on the ability of large shareholders to delineate CSR policy. It bases on this analysis on the Dow Jones Sustainability STOXX Index as a measure of a firm's concern for labor conditions, environmental issues, and other aspects of sustainability. Using data from 1,248 firms from five major European Union countries (United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain) for 2000–2004, it finds that institutional investors and other reference shareholders, relative to their ability to contest the largest shareholder, act as a pressure mechanism to improve the firm's commitment to socially responsible actions. In addition, it provides evidence that firms with a multinational dimension show increased concern for CSR.
Stock Market Overreaction to Management Earnings Forecasts

I hypothesize that the stock market overreacts to management earnings forecasts because of the uncertainty surrounding them. I find that negative management forecast surprises lead to a –5.9% abnormal return around the forecast and a 1.9% correction in the 2-month period after earnings are announced. Positive surprises work in the opposite direction, with a 1.9% abnormal return and a –1.7% correction. The level of the stock market overreaction varies with the forecast and firm characteristics, but the marginal impact remains the same: a 1% change in the stock market reaction around the forecast is associated with a 0.4% correction.
Is underpricing a deliberate choice? Evidence from Germany

This study tests whether underpricing is subject to the controlling shareholder group's discretion in a sample of German IPOs from 1997 to 2002. This question is important since previous researchers (Allen and Faulhaber (1989), Welch (1998), Grinblatt and Hwang (1989), Brennan and Franks (1997) and others) have relied on the assumption that underpricing is a deliberate choice. Regression results indicate that control by insiders has a positive impact on underpricing. Additionally, if insiders are in control, the relative marginal costs of underpricing that are borne by them have a negative impact on the extent of underpricing. In contrast, for outside block holders, no significant relation exists. This paper introduces the issuer's insurance hypothesis as a potential explanation for this result. These findings are robust to a 3SLS estimation of underpricing and relative marginal cost of underpricing, and are also robust to different definitions of control. Furthermore, underpricing has a simultaneous negative impact on the marginal cost of underpricing at the IPO, suggesting that insiders adapt to an expected level of underpricing. Overall, the results indicate that insiders are trading off the extent of underpricing with its potential costs, which implies that underpricing is a deliberate choice and that ownership and control issues matter for the extent of underpricing.
The Effect of CEO’s Risk-Taking Incentives on Relationship-Specific Investments by Customers and Suppliers

A firm’s customers and suppliers make relationship-specific investments (RSI) whose value reduces if the firm undertakes risky investments. We hypothesize that the risk-taking incentives in the firm CEO’s compensation will lower the RSI by firms up and down in the vertical channel. We provide significant evidence that customer/supplier RSI declines with the risk-taking incentives of the firm’s CEO. Moreover, we find that RSI is more sensitive to the CEO’s risk-taking incentives when they are more likely to increase the firm’s cash flow volatility. Our findings are robust to correcting for endogeneity and several measures for RSI and risk taking.
Internationalising Family Run Business: Overcoming Conflict, Embracing Cohesion and the role of Entrepreneurship

Family run businesses, despite their importance to both local economies and at a broader national level have traditionally received significantly less attention in business research than either Small to Medium Enterprises (SMES) or new venture business start-ups. The study proposes to examine the internationalisation of family run businesses with a focus on cohesion, leadership and the role of entrepreneurship, both during and directly thereafter the critical interim of expanding operations across international borders. Proposing a multiple case study methodology, we intend to explore the practicalities of how family run enterprises expand beyond their national borders and embrace wider, international markets. Further, the study proposes to examine the unique idiosyncracries inherent in the context of family run businesses; notably the importance of succession planning, managing paternal relationships and overcoming internal human resourcing conflicts through collective negotiation.
Loan Syndicate Structure: Evidence from Ex Post Data

Because loan syndication involves a repeated game between lead banks and syndicate members we predict that lead banks do not use their private information to exploit participating banks in lending syndicates but rather focus on accurately certifying loan quality to build reputation for future deals. Examining the borrower's debt rating changes (and shifts in Altman's Z scores), we uncover evidence that the lead bank syndicates a larger proportion of loans subsequently not downgraded. Modeling the proportion of a loan syndicated, we find that lead banks employ covenant design and reputation to mitigate conflicts with syndicate participants. Both results support the certification view of the role of lead banks.
Tutorial on Fixed Rank Kriging ( FRK ) of CO 2 data

In this document, we describe Fixed Rank Kriging (FRK), an approach to the analysis of very large spatial datasets. Such datasets now arise in many fields; our focus is on satellite measurements of CO2. FRK predictors and standard errors can be computed rapidly, even for datasets with a million or more observations. FRK relies on a so-called spatial random effects (SRE) model, which assumes that the process of interest can be expressed as a linear combination of spatial basis functions, plus a fine-scale-variation component. Here, we describe in detail all steps involved in the analysis of a spatial dataset using FRK, we illustrate the steps using a synthetic dataset, and we provide Matlab code on an accompanying website.
Inhibitory action of gonadotropin‐inhibitory hormone on the signaling pathways induced by kisspeptin and vasoactive intestinal polypeptide in GnRH neuronal cell line, GT1–7

Gonadotropin‐inhibitory hormone (GnIH) acts as a negative regulator of reproduction by acting on gonadotropes and gonadotropin‐releasing hormone (GnRH) neurons. Despite its functional significance, the molecular mechanism of GnIH action in the target cells has not been fully elucidated. To expand our previous study on GnIH actions in gonadotropes, we investigated the potential signal transduction pathway that conveys the inhibitory action of GnIH in GnRH neurons by using the GnRH neuronal cell line, GT1–7. We examined whether GnIH inhibits the action of kisspeptin and vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP), positive regulators of GnRH neurons. Although GnIH significantly suppressed the stimulatory effect of kisspeptin on GnRH release in hypothalamic culture, GnIH had no inhibitory effect on kisspeptin stimulation of serum response element and nuclear factor of activated T‐cell response element activities and ERK phosphorylation, indicating that GnIH may not directly inhibit kisspeptin signaling in GnRH neurons. On the contrary, GnIH effectively eliminated the stimulatory effect of VIP on p38 and ERK phosphorylation, c‐Fos mRNA expression, and GnRH release. The use of pharmacological modulators strongly demonstrated the specific inhibitory action of GnIH on the adenylate cyclase/cAMP/protein kinase A pathway, suggesting a common inhibitory mechanism of GnIH action in GnRH neurons and gonadotropes. —Son, Y. L. , Ubuka, T. , Soga, T. , Yamamoto, K. , Bentley, G. E. , Tsutsui, K. Inhibitory action of gonadotropin‐inhibitory hormone on the signaling pathways induced by kisspeptin and vasoactive intestinal polypeptide in GnRH neuronal cell line, GT1–7. FASEB J. 30, 2198–2210 (2016). www.fasebj. org