Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Investment Development Path of Austria

We explore some empirical properties of Austria's "Investment Development Path" (IDP) on the macro level as well as on the structural and the bilateral level. Three dimensions are analyzed, namely the growth, the stability, and the sign of the Net Outward Investment Position (NOIP). While the NOIP on the macro level has been negative throughout the last two decades, there is considerable variation on the industry and the bilateral level. Given the small domestic market size, the NOIP of Austria does not reflect the high level of development in terms of GDP. Several explanations for the below-average NOIP of Austria are provided.
A Critical Exploration of Face-to Face Interviewing vs. Computer-Mediated Interviewing

Since the early 1990s, the internet has dominated the attention of the media, academics and business organisations. It has the potential of being a revolutionary way to collect primary and secondary data, although much more research is needed to learn how to better harness its strengths. This project compares depth interviews collected online with depth interviews conducted face-to-face. Advantages and disadvantages are highlighted, as well as suggested strategies for successfully collecting online data. Major points are illustrated using data from a project in which both data collection techniques are employed. The online interview dataset included some of the strongest and some of the weakest interviews in the investigation. This paper argues that under some conditions online depth interviews can provide a useful complement to the traditional face-to-face interview. Sampling frame problems of non-representativeness, endemic in quantitative online data collection, is not problematic if the researcher is conducting an interpretive investigation. When the researcher's goal is not to quantify or generalise but instead to better understand a particular population, online data collection can complement other datasets, allow data triangulation and strengthen the trustworthiness of the findings.
Crystal structure of azilsartan methyl ester ethyl acetate hemisolvate

The title compound, C26H22N4O5 (systematic name: methyl 2-ethoxy-1-{4-[2-(5-oxo-4,5-dihydro-1,2,4-oxadiazol-3-yl)phenyl]benzyl}-1H-1,3-benzodiazole-7-carboxylate ethyl acetate hemisolvate), was obtained via cyclization of methyl (Z)-2-ethoxy-1-{(2′-(N′-hydroxycarbamimidoyl)-[1,1′-biphenyl]-4-yl)methyl}-1H-benzo[d]imidazole-7-carboxylate with diphenyl carbonate. There are two independent molecules (A and B) with different conformations and an ethyl acetate solvent molecule in the asymmetric unit. In molecule A, the dihedral angle between the benzene ring and its attached oxadiazole ring is 59.36 (17); the dihedral angle between the benzene rings is 43.89 (15) and that between the benzene ring and its attached imidazole ring system is 80.06 (11)°. The corresponding dihedral angles in molecule B are 58.45 (18), 50.73 (16) and 85.37 (10)°, respectively. The C—O—C—Cm (m = methyl) torsion angles for the ethoxy side chains attached to the imidazole rings in molecules A and B are 93.9 (3) and −174.6 (3)°, respectively. In the crystal, the components are linked by N—H⋯N and C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, generating a three-dimensional network. Aromatic π–π stacking interactions [shortest centroid–centroid separation = 3.536 (3)Å] are also observed.
Are Trade Linkages Important Determinants of Country Vulnerability to Crises?

This paper measures whether trade linkages are important determinants of a country's vulnerability to crises that originate elsewhere in the world. It explains that trade can transmit crises internationally via three distinct, and possible counteracting, channels: a competitiveness effect (when changes in relative prices affect a country's ability to compete abroad); an income effect (when a crisis affects incomes and the demand for imports); and a cheap-import effect (when a crisis reduces import prices and acts as a positive supply shock). Next, the paper develops a series of statistics measuring each of these trade linkages for a sample of 58 countries during 16 crises from 1994 through 1999. Of particular interest is the competitiveness statistic, which uses 4-digit industry information to calculate how each crisis affects exports from other countries. Empirical results suggest that countries which compete with exports from a crisis country and which export to the crisis country (i.e. the competitiveness and income effects) had significantly lower stock market returns. Although trade linkages only partially explain stock market returns during recent crises, they are significant and economically important.
COCOON: Crowdsourced Testing Quality Maximization Under Context Coverage Constraint

Mobile app testing is challenging since each test needs to be executed in a variety of operating contexts including heterogeneous devices, various wireless networks and different locations. Crowdsourcing enables a mobile app test to be distributed as a crowdsourced task to leverage crowd workers to accomplish the test. However, high test quality and expected test context coverage are difficult to achieve in crowdsourced testing. Upon distributing a test task, mobile app providers neither know who to participate nor predict whether all the expected test contexts can be covered in the task. To address this problem, we put forward a novel research problem called Crowdsourced Testing Quality Maximization Under Context Coverage Constraint (Cocoon). Given a mobile app test task, our objective is to recommend a set of workers, from available crowd workers, such that the expected test context coverage and a high test quality can be achieved. We prove that the Cocoon problem is NP-Complete and then introduce two greedy approaches. Based on a real dataset from the largest Chinese crowdsourced testing platform, our evaluation shows the effectiveness and efficiency of the two approaches, which can be potentially used as online services in practice.
“Voxel-Based Morphometry” Should Not Be Used with Imperfectly Registered Images

John Ashburner and Karl Friston (2000) introduced a standardized method of "voxel-based morphometry" (VBM) for comparisons of local concentrations of gray matter between two groups of subjects. Segmented images of gray matter from grossly normalized high-resolution images are smoothed and their group differences analyzed by the now-conventional voxelwise Worsley approach to Gaussian random fields of differences. This comment concerns an unfortunate interaction between the algorithm's spatial normalization and voxelwise comparison steps, whereby several obvious quantitative confounds are injected at the core of the inference engine the authors put forward. Specifically, the statistics of the resulting voxelwise comparisons are uninformative about group differences wherever the spatial normalization algorithm has failed to register on any robustly appearing image gradient. The method of Ashburner and Friston is defensible only far from all image gradients.
The relation between questions indicating transient ischaemic attack and stroke in 20 years of follow up in men and women in the Renfrew/Paisley Study

STUDY OBJECTIVE Transient ischaemic attack (TIA) is often a precursor to stroke, so identification of people experiencing TIA could assist in stroke prevention by indicating those at high risk of stroke who would benefit most from intervention for other stroke risk factors. The objective of this study was to investigate whether answers to a simple questionnaire for TIA could predict the occurrence of stroke in the following 20 years. DESIGN Prospective cohort study, conducted between 1972 and 1976, with 20 years of follow up. SETTING Renfrew and Paisley, Scotland. PARTICIPANTS 7052 men and 8354 women aged 45–64 years at the time of screening completed a questionnaire and attended a physical examination. The questionnaire asked participants if they had ever, without warning, suddenly lost the power of an arm, suddenly lost the power of a leg, suddenly been unable to speak properly or suddenly lost consciousness. These four questions were taken as indicators of TIA and were related to subsequent stroke mortality or hospital admission. MAIN RESULTS For women, each question was significantly related to stroke risk, whereas for men only the question on loss of power of arm was significantly related to stroke risk. Men and women answering two or more questions positively had double the relative rate of stroke compared with men and women answering none of the questions positively, even after adjusting for other risk factors for stroke. CONCLUSIONS A simple questionnaire for TIA could help predict stroke over 20 years of follow up. Targeting men and women who report TIA with early treatment could help to prevent strokes from occurring.
Cardiomyocyte grafting for cardiac repair: graft cell death and anti-death strategies.

M. Zhang, D. Methot, V. Poppa, Y. Fujio, K. Walsh and C. E. Murry. Cardiomyocyte Grafting for Cardiac Repair: Graft Cell Death and Anti-Death Strategies. Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology (2001) 33, 907-921. Recent studies indicate that cardiomyocyte grafting forms new myocardium in injured hearts. It is unknown, however, whether physiologically significant amounts of new myocardium can be generated. Pilot experiments showed that death of grafted rat neonatal cardiomyocytes limited formation of new myocardium after acute cryoinjury. Time-course studies showed that, at 30 min after grafting, only 1.8(+/-0.4)% of graft cells were TUNEL-positive. At 1 day, however, TUNEL indices increased to 32.1(+/-3.5)% and remained high at 4 days, averaging 9.8(+/-3.8)%. By 7 days, TUNEL decreased to 1.0(+/-0.2)%. Electron microscopy revealed that dead cells had features of both irreversible ischemic injury and apoptosis. To test whether ischemia contributed to poor graft survival, grafts were placed into vascularized 2-week-old cardiac granulation tissue or normal myocardium. TUNEL indices were reduced by 53% and 86%, respectively. Adenoviral infection of graft cells with the cytoprotective kinase Akt, or constitutively active Akt, reduced TUNEL indices by 31% and 40%, respectively, compared to beta -gal-transfected controls. Neither treatment reached statistical significance compared to untreated controls, however. Heat shock reduced cardiomyocyte death in vitro in response to serum deprivation, glucose depletion, and viral activation of the Fas death pathway. When cardiomyocytes were heat shocked prior to grafting, graft cell death in vivo was reduced by 54% at day 1. Therefore, high levels of cardiomyocyte death occur for at least 4 days after grafting into injured hearts, in large part due to ischemia. Death can be limited by activating the Akt pathway and even more effectively by heat shock prior to transplantation.
Effects of biofilm treatments on the multi-species Lubbock chronic wound biofilm model.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the efficacy of several biofilm effectors in inhibiting biofilm formation in an in vitro multi-species chronic wound biofilm model. METHOD The Lubbock Chronic Wound Biofilm (LCWB) model has been described in detail elsewhere. Pathogens used in the model are Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterococcus faecalis and Staphylococcus aureus. These are three of the most important species associated with biofilms. Here, the model was exposed to the following biofilm effectors: xylitol, salicylic acid, farnesol, erythritol and two proprietary, semi-solid, wound-dressing formulations currently under development (Sanguitec gels). RESULTS Biofilm formation was completely inhibited in the LCWB model following treatment with 20% xylitol, 10% erythritol, 1,000 microg/ml farnesol, 20mM salicylic acid or 0.1% of either of the two Sanguitec gel formulations. Salicylic acid specifically inhibited S. aureus (p<0.01) at 10mM and 20mM, consequently increasing the ratios of P. aeruginosa and E. faecalis within the biofilm. Xylitol had an increasing inhibitory effect on P. aeruginosa (p<0.01) at all concentrations evaluated. Erythritol had an inhibitory effect on P. aeruginosa and S. aureus growth (p<0.01) at over 5% concentrations. The inhibitory effect of both Sanguitec gel formulations was more broadly effective, with an increasingly inhibitory effect on all LCWB species (p<0.01). CONCLUSION The LCWB model provides a multi-species format with which to evaluate the effect of biofilm effectors on wound flora in a biofilm phenotype. These results suggest that different treatments can target specific populations within a biofilm. Salicylic acid preferentially targeted S. aureus, xylitol preferentially targeted P. aeruginosa, while erythritol preferentially targeted both P. aeruginosa and S. aureus. In contrast, the two Sanguitec gel formulations provided a broad, less preferential, inhibition of biofilm development. DECLARATION OF INTEREST Research and Testing Laboratory is a for-profit enterprise that develops molecular methods and performs service research work on biofilms. Sanguitec gel was developed by JPK and CEJ.
Observation of Covalent Intermediates in an Enzyme Mechanism at Atomic Resolution

In classical enzymology, intermediates and transition states in a catalytic mechanism are usually inferred from a series of biochemical experiments. Here, we derive an enzyme mechanism from true atomic-resolution x-ray structures of reaction intermediates. Two ultra–high resolution structures of wild-type and mutantd-2-deoxyribose-5-phosphate (DRP) aldolase complexes with DRP at 1.05 and 1.10 angstroms unambiguously identify the postulated covalent carbinolamine and Schiff base intermediates in the aldolase mechanism. In combination with site-directed mutagenesis and1H nuclear magnetic resonance, we can now propose how the heretofore elusive C-2 proton abstraction step and the overall stereochemical course are accomplished. A proton relay system appears to activate a conserved active-site water that functions as the critical mediator for proton transfer.
Simulation and Gait-Pattern Adaptation of an Exoskeleton for Lower Limbs

This paper deals with modeling and simulation of an exoskeleton for lower limbs based on a commercially available orthosis. Exoskeletons are powered orthosis developed for power augmentation, for helping physically weak or injured people increase their mobility, or for rehabilitation. The main dynamic characteristics of the orthosis-patient system are considered in a MatLab-based environment simulation. Also, two gait-pattern adaptation algorithms are implemented in the proposed model, allowing patients to change the gait-pattern according to their degree of voluntary locomotor capability. In the first one, based on the inverse dynamics, the trajectory adaptation is performed by computing joint trajectories that leads to a reduction of the estimated interaction forces between the human and the robot. In the second, based on the direct dynamics, the human-robot interaction forces are translated into a desired change in the trajectory accelerations. The implementation of the gait-pattern is achieved by changing the parameters of the reference trajectories of the hip, knee, and torso joints.
Investigating the Link between Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Effectiveness and Supply Chain Management

This study aims to investigate the link between Enterprise Resource planning (ERP) Effectiveness and Supply Chain Management. The study population consists of staff in the Electrical Industrial companies. For this purpose, a questionnaire was developed and distributed to (306) employees. Number of (283) questionnaires were returned which comprises 92% of the target sample. Statistical tools were used to test the hypothesis. The finding of this study indicates that there are significant relationship between Enterprise Resource planning Effectiveness and the Supply Chain Management; the study also we can find negative and no significant relationship between (User Satisfaction, Individual Impact) and Supply Chain Management. The study made some recommendations regarding future research is therefore required to extend these results in other geographical areas and among managerial employees at these companies. For example, the concept could be extended to other Arab countries in order to validate the model and findings. Keywords: Enterprise Resource planning, Supply Chain Management, Electrical Industrial
Abundant 5S rRNA-Like Transcripts Encoded by the Mitochondrial Genome in Amoebozoa

ABSTRACT 5S rRNAs are ubiquitous components of prokaryotic, chloroplast, and eukaryotic cytosolic ribosomes but are apparently absent from mitochondrial ribosomes (mitoribosomes) of many eukaryotic groups including animals and fungi. Nevertheless, a clearly identifiable, mitochondrion-encoded 5S rRNA is present in Acanthamoeba castellanii, a member of Amoebozoa. During a search for additional mitochondrial 5S rRNAs, we detected small abundant RNAs in other members of Amoebozoa, namely, in the lobose amoeba Hartmannella vermiformis and in the myxomycete slime mold Physarum polycephalum. These RNAs are encoded by mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), cosediment with mitoribosomes in glycerol gradients, and can be folded into a secondary structure similar to that of bona fide 5S rRNAs. Further, in the mtDNA of another slime mold, Didymium nigripes, we identified a region that in sequence, potential secondary structure, and genomic location is similar to the corresponding region encoding the Physarum small RNA. A mtDNA-encoded small RNA previously identified in Dictyostelium discoideum is here shown to share several characteristics with known 5S rRNAs. Again, we detected genes encoding potential homologs of this RNA in the mtDNA of three other species of the genus Dictyostelium as well as in a related genus, Polysphondylium. Taken together, our results indicate a widespread occurrence of small, abundant, mtDNA-encoded RNAs with 5S rRNA-like structures that are associated with the mitoribosome in various amoebozoan taxa. Our working hypothesis is that these novel small abundant RNAs represent radically divergent mitochondrial 5S rRNA homologs. We posit that currently unrecognized 5S-like RNAs may exist in other mitochondrial systems in which a conventional 5S rRNA cannot be identified.
Exchange Rate Volatility and Trade

This paper provides an extensive survey of the literature on exchange rate volatility and trade, examining both the theory that underlies the work in this area and the results of empirical studies published since 1988. Despite the widespread view that an increase in volatility will reduce the level of trade, this review reveals that the effects of volatility are ambiguous. There is no real consensus on either the direction or the size of the exchange rate volatility - trade level relationship. Overall, a larger number of studies find that volatility tends to reduce the level of trade, but when the effect is measured, it is found to be relatively small. Several reasons can explain this tenuous relationship: (i) even for risk-averse businesses, an increase in risk does not necessarily lead to a reduction in the risky activity, (ii) the availability of hedging techniques makes it possible for traders to avoid most of exchange risk at little cost, (iii) exchange rate volatility may actually offset some other forms of business risk, and (iv) exchange rate volatility can create profitable trading and investment opportunities.
High‐Resolution 3D Quantitative Analysis of Caveolar Ultrastructure and Caveola–Cytoskeleton Interactions

Caveolae are characteristic invaginations of the mammalian plasma membrane (PM) implicated in lipid regulation, signal transduction and endocytosis. We have employed electron microscope tomography (ET) to quantify caveolae structure–function relationships in three‐dimension (3D) at high resolution both in conventionally fixed and in fast‐frozen/freeze‐substituted (intact) cells as well as immunolabelled PM lawns. Our findings provide a detailed quantitative comparison of the average caveola dimensions for different cell types including tissue endothelial cells and cultured 3T3‐L1 adipocytes. These studies revealed the presence of a spiked caveolar coat and a wide caveolar neck open to the extracellular milieu that is sensitive to conventional fixation; the neck region appeared to form a specialized microdomain with associated cytoplasmic material. In endothelial cells in situ in pancreatic islets of Langerhans, the diaphragm spanning the caveolar opening was clearly resolved by ET, and the involuted 3D topology of the cell surface mapped to measure the contribution of caveolar membranes to local increases in the surface area of the PM. The complexity of connections among caveolae and to the actin cytoskeleton and microtubules suggests that individual caveolae may be interconnected through a complex filamentous network to form a single functional unit.
The Influence of Insiders and Institutional Owners on the Value, Transparency, and Earnings Quality of Chilean Listed Firms

In 1980, Chile privatized its social security system, and currently there are five private pension funds managing approximately US$83 billion worth of retirement investments. The regulations provide for pension funds to appoint a member to the board of directors, and influence the appointment of auditors. Thus, institutions are playing a major role in Chile's transition a market-based financial system. The study uses data from 70 firms from 1995-2005 to test the impact of these institutional changes on firm value, transparency levels and earnings quality. The study finds that insider ownership levels and institutional ownership positively affects firm value but these factors, and the pension fund representation on firm boards negatively affects the transparency index. Further, institutional ownership levels also encourage the entrenched owners to use positive discretionary accrual to manage earnings. Using agency theory, we suggest that high insider ownership levels are an equilibrium that helps managers co-opt institutions by providing access to information, which bestows private benefits control to stakeholders aligned with entrenched insiders' interests.
Low-Complexity MPPT Technique Exploiting the PV Module MPP Locus Characterization

This paper proposes a method for tracking the maximum power point (MPP) of a photovoltaic (PV) module that exploits the relation existing between the values of module voltage and current at the MPP (MPP locus). Experimental evidence shows that this relation tends to be linear in conditions of high solar irradiation. The analysis of the PV module electrical model allows one to justify this result and to derive a linear approximation of the MPP locus. Based on that, an MPP tracking strategy is devised which presents high effectiveness, low complexity, and the inherent possibility to compensate for temperature variations by periodically sensing the module open circuit voltage. The proposed method is particularly suitable for low-cost PV systems and has been successfully tested in a solar-powered 55-W battery charger circuit.
Capillary Blood Glucose and Lactate Levels as Indices of Physical Workload.

Abstract : Capillary and venous blood levels of glucose and lactate were analyzed after periods of varied exercise. Nine subjects were used, divided into three equal subgroups determined by their exercise habits. Lactate levels can be used to distinguish between mild degrees of physical exercise for two of the subgroups. More studies are required before capillary data can be used in place of venous data, however simple the sampling procedures may be. Neither venous nor capillary levels of glucose are reliable guides to the levels of mild physical exercise. Venous and capillary glucose levels are poorly correlated. (Author)