Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Metallic photonic crystals at optical wavelengths

We theoretically study three-dimensional metallic photonic-band-gap ~PBG! materials at near-infrared and optical wavelengths. Our main objective is to find the importance of absorption in the metal and the suitability of observing photonic band gaps in this structure. For that reason, we study simple cubic structures and the metallic scatterers are either cubes or interconnected metallic rods. Several different metals have been studied ~aluminum, gold, copper, and silver! Copper gives the smallest absorption and aluminum is more absorptive. The isolated metallic cubes are less lossy than the connected rod structures. The calculations suggest that isolated copper scatterers are very attractive candidates for the fabrication of photonic crystals at the optical wavelengths. There has been growing interest in the development of easily fabricated photonic-band-gap ~PBG! materials operating at the optical frequencies; 1 these are periodic dielectric materials exhibiting frequency regions where electromagnetic ~EM! waves cannot propagate. The reason for the interest in PBG materials arises from the possible applications of those materials in several scientific and technical areas such as filters, waveguides, optical switches, cavities, design of more efficient lasers, etc. 1 Most of the research effort has been concentrated on the development of two-dimensional and three-dimensional PBG materials consisting of positive and frequency-independent dielectrics 1 because, in that case, one can neglect the possible problems related to the absorption.
The Pepper 9-Lipoxygenase Gene CaLOX1 Functions in Defense and Cell Death Responses to Microbial Pathogens1[C][W][OA]

Lipoxygenases (LOXs) are crucial for lipid peroxidation processes during plant defense responses to pathogen infection. A pepper (Capsicum annuum) 9-LOX gene, CaLOX1, which encodes a 9-specific lipoxygenase, was isolated from pepper leaves. Recombinant CaLOX1 protein expressed in Escherichia coli catalyzed the hydroperoxidation of linoleic acid, with a Km value of 113. 9 μm. Expression of CaLOX1 was differentially induced in pepper leaves not only during Xanthomonas campestris pv vesicatoria (Xcv) infection but also after exposure to abiotic elicitors. Transient expression of CaLOX1 in pepper leaves induced the cell death phenotype and defense responses. CaLOX1-silenced pepper plants were more susceptible to Xcv and Colletotrichum coccodes infection, which was accompanied by reduced expression of defense-related genes, lowered lipid peroxidation, as well as decreased reactive oxygen species and lowered salicylic acid accumulation. Infection with Xcv, especially in an incompatible interaction, rapidly stimulated LOX activity in unsilenced, but not CaLOX1-silenced, pepper leaves. Furthermore, overexpression of CaLOX1 in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) conferred enhanced resistance to Pseudomonas syringae pv tomato, Hyaloperonospora arabidopsidis, and Alternaria brassicicola. In contrast, mutation of the Arabidopsis CaLOX1 ortholog AtLOX1 significantly increased susceptibility to these three pathogens. Together, these results suggest that CaLOX1 and AtLOX1 positively regulate defense and cell death responses to microbial pathogens.
Credit Rating Agencies in Capital Markets: A Review of Research Evidence on Selected Criticisms of the Agencies

This study assesses the validity of widespread criticisms of the large, “nationally recognized” credit rating agencies (CRAs). The accounting scandals of 2000-02, in particular the highly publicized failure of Enron in December 2001, led many to question their competence and the value of their ratings. This paper evaluates important criticisms of the CRAs discussed in a recent Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) staff report by using evidence from empirical research studies, and suggests many promising subjects for future research. The analysis given in this paper, and the results of the suggested research (when available), should be of particular interest to lawmakers and regulators who are responsible for determining whether and to what extent the credit rating industry should be subject to statutory and regulatory oversight. Although little rigorously gathered empirical evidence supports the criticisms, many issues remain unresolved. Powerful tests related to potential conflicts of interest and alleged unfair practices are exceptionally difficult to design, and the alleged deficiencies of rating agencies' disclosure practices have yet to be analyzed. Finally, many criticisms are based on subjective benchmarks that are difficult to quantify and open to question. To date, however, accounting researchers have played only a minor role in the debate. Because they are well-versed in such areas as disclosure analysis, capital market tests, and the operation of financial intermediaries and external auditors, these researchers potentially have much to add in this regard.
The perceived risks and benefits of quitting in smokers diagnosed with severe mental illness participating in a smoking cessation intervention: gender differences and comparison to smokers without mental illness.

INTRODUCTION AND AIMS This study aimed to examine the perceived risks and benefits of quitting in smokers diagnosed with psychosis, including potential gender differences and comparisons to smokers in the general population. DESIGN AND METHODS Data were collected from 200 people diagnosed with psychosis participating in a randomised controlled trial testing the effectiveness of a multi-component intervention for smoking cessation and cardiovascular disease risk reduction in people with severe mental illness. Results were compared with both treatment and non-treatment seeking smokers in the general population. RESULTS Male and female smokers with psychosis generally had similar perceived risks and benefits of quitting. Females rated it significantly more likely that they would experience weight gain and negative affect upon quitting than males diagnosed with psychosis. Compared with smokers in the general population also seeking smoking cessation treatment, this sample of smokers with psychosis demonstrated fewer gender differences and lower ratings of perceived risks and benefits of quitting. The pattern of risk and benefit ratings in smokers diagnosed with psychosis was similar to those of non-treatment seeking smokers in the general population. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS These results increase our understanding of smoking in people with severe mental illness, and can directly inform smoking interventions to maximise successful abstinence for this group of smokers. For female smokers with psychosis, smoking cessation interventions need to address concerns regarding weight gain and negative affect. Intervention strategies aimed at enhancing beliefs about the benefits of quitting smoking for both male and female smokers with psychosis are necessary.
The Dynamic Relation Between Stock Returns, Trading Volume, and Volatility

We examine the dynamic relation between returns, volume, and volatility of stock indexes. The data come from nine national markets and cover the period from 1973 to 2000. The results show a positive correlation between trading volume and the absolute value of the stock price change. Granger causality tests demonstrate that for some countries, returns cause volume and volume causes returns. Our results indicate that trading volume contributes some information to the returns process. The results also show persistence in volatility even after we incorporate contemporaneous and lagged volume effects. The results are robust across the nine national markets.
The Effect of 8-Week Plyometric Training on Leg Power, Jump and Sprint Performance in Female Soccer Players

Abstract Ozbar, N, Ates, S, and Agopyan, A. The effect of 8-week plyometric training on leg power, jump and sprint performance in female soccer players. J Strength Cond Res 28(10): 2888–2894, 2014—The aim of this study was to determine the effect of 8-week plyometric training (PT) on the leg power and jump and sprint performance in female soccer players. Eighteen female soccer players from Women Second League (age = 18.2 ± 2.3 years, height = 161.3 ± 5.4 cm, body mass = 56.6 ± 7.2 kg) were randomly assigned to control (n = 9) and plyometric (n = 9) groups. Both groups continued together with regular technical and tactical soccer training for 4 days a week. Additionally, the plyometric group underwent PT for 8 weeks, 1 day per week, 60-minute session duration. During the 8-week period, the control group was hindered from any additional conditioning training. All players' jumps (triple hop, countermovement jump, and standing broad jump), running speed (20 m), and peak power were evaluated before and after 8 weeks. No significant difference was found between the groups at pretest variables (p > 0.05). Significant improvements were found in the posttest of both the groups (p ⩽ 0.05), except for 20-m sprint test in the control group (p > 0.05). Triple hop distance, countermovement jump, standing broad jump, peak power, and 20-m sprint test values were all significantly improved in the plyometric group, compared with the control group (p ⩽ 0.05). We concluded that short duration PT is an improved important component of athletic performance in female soccer players. The results indicate that safe, effective, and alternative PT can be useful to strength and conditioning coaches, especially during competition season where less time is available for training.
THREE DIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS OF THE ERRATIC MOVEMENT OF A FLOAT SERVE IN VOLLEYBALL

INTRODUCTION In volleyball, in order for a serve to be effective it must be difficult for the opposition to receive, and therefore pass to a teammate. This can be achieved by optimizing the parameters that limit the amount of time a receiver has to react to the ball or by executing a serve that has an unpredictable trajectory. A serve that meets both these criteria is the jump float serve, and when executed properly the ball will float through the air with an irregular flight path [1]. Traditionally this knuckle ball effect has been attributed to a phenomenon known as the drag crisis, a region defined by a sharp drop in the drag coefficient [2]. In volleyball, this occurs at speeds of roughly 14.5 m/s [1]. However, it’s been shown that the forces exerted on nonspinning volleyballs, which produce the irregular flight, fluctuate randomly by large magnitudes at velocities outside of the drag crisis region [3]. Nevertheless, the movement of a high speed float serve has not been quantified. Therefore the aim of this study was to quantify this random movement, determine the range of velocities it occurs in, and validate a 3D mathematical model used to simulate a jump float serve.
Determinants and Size of the Shadow Economy – A Structural Equation Model

The main objective of this paper is to analyze the determinants of the shadow economy within a coherent Structural Equation Model using a data set of 11 latent variables with 58 indicators from 35 countries. The shadow economy is closely connected to its determinants; a higher wealth and development level, a better administrative system, lower taxes and social security payments and the extent of labor market regulations determine the level of shadow economy. Germany ranks 16th of 35 countries by shadow economy, with a score of 3.6, with the best being New Zealand, 1.0, and the worst Romania, 10.
Unobtrusive heart rate estimation during physical exercise using photoplethysmographic and acceleration data

Photoplethysmography (PPG) is a non-invasive, inexpensive and unobtrusive method to achieve heart rate monitoring during physical exercises. Motion artifacts during exercise challenge the heart rate estimation from wrist-type PPG signals. This paper presents a methodology to overcome these limitation by incorporating acceleration information. The proposed algorithm consisted of four stages: (1) A wavelet based denoising, (2) an acceleration based denoising, (3) a frequency based approach to estimate the heart rate followed by (4) a postprocessing step. Experiments with different movement types such as running and rehabilitation exercises were used for algorithm design and development. Evaluation of our heart rate estimation showed that a mean absolute error 1.96 bpm (beats per minute) with standard deviation of 2.86 bpm and a correlation of 0.98 was achieved with our method. These findings suggest that the proposed methodology is robust to motion artifacts and is therefore applicable for heart rate monitoring during sports and rehabilitation.
Technological Change, Inequality and Work Sharing

The effects of technological change on wage inequality are usually studied under the assumption of exogenous supplies of skilled and unskilled workers. Moreover, in these studies there is no distinction between the stock (number of workers) and the flow (hours of work) dimension of labour services. In the present paper, we construct a model in which hours of work and technological change affect both the (relative) demand and supply of unskilled workers. The labour supply of unskilled workers (numbers of persons) is derived from a model of household labour supply in which households differ regarding the disutility suffered when both household members work. Combining together the (relative) supply and demand parts of the model we are able to establish technological change (either biased or neutral) as a plausible explanation of recent trends in wage inequality.
Effects of Label Information on Consumer Willingness‐To‐Pay for Food Attributes

Choice experiments (CEs) are often used to elicit consumer willingness-to-pay (WTP) for food attributes. A concern about these approaches is that food attributes provided to respondents are assumed independent of attributes not provided. We use surveys containing a series of CEs to investigate effects of adding beef steak attributes. WTP for important attributes in the CEs decrease when the number of attributes increases from three to four, while WTP increases when the number of attributes increases from four to five. Changes in WTP for attributes depend on their relationships with newly added attributes and the number of attributes presented. Copyright 2007, Oxford University Press.
Detecting ADHD children using symbolic dynamic of nonlinear features of EEG

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) in children and adolescents is characterized by excessive restlessness and extremely poor concentration span, resulting in impulsive and disruptive behavior. Using a time series obtained from the electroencephalogram of ADHD children in visual task, we show that continuity of attention in ADHD and Control group children is different. In this study we extract nonlinear feature of EEG time series of ADHD and control group then using symbolic dynamic we obtain to a relative reliable accurate classification. Classification accuracy is 86%. This method is reliable for classification between ADHD and control group.
Amplitude modulation of all three velocity components in turbulent boundary layers

Abstract A combination of cross-wire probes with an array of flush-mounted skin-friction sensors are used to study the three-dimensional conditional organisation of large-scale structures in a high-Reynolds-number turbulent boundary layer. Previous studies have documented the amplitude modulation of small-scale motions in response to conditionally averaged large-scale events, but the data are largely restricted to the streamwise component of velocity alone. Here, we report results based on all three components of velocity and find that the small-scale spanwise and wall-normal fluctuations ( $v$ and $w$ ) and the instantaneous Reynolds shear stress ( $-{uw}$ ) are modulated in a very similar manner to that previously noted for the streamwise fluctuations ( $u$ ). The envelope of the small scale fluctuations for all velocity components is well described by the large-scale component of the $u$ fluctuation. These results also confirm the conditional existence of roll modes associated with the very large-scale or ‘superstructure’ motions.
An inquiry into openness in international trade

The ratio of exports plus imports to gross national product may be viewed as a measure of openness in international trade. Constructs indexes for 1967, 1980 and 1988, using this ratio for cross‐country comparison of trade patterns. Analysis of variance and regression reveal that the patterns among countries differ according to levels of income, and that there was a trend towards convergence of the index in the late 1980s reversing an earlier trend towards divergence.
Bivariate Non-Normality in the Sample Selection Model

Abstract Since the seminal paper by [Heckman, J. J. 1974. “Shadow Prices, Market Wages, and Labor Supply. ” Econometrica 42: 679–694], the sample selection model has been an essential tool for applied economists and arguably the most sensitive to sources of misspecification among the standard microeconometric models involving limited dependent variables. The need for alternative methods to get consistent estimators has led to a number of estimation proposals for the sample selection model under non-normality. There is a marked dichotomy in the literature that has developed in two conceptually different directions: the bivariate normality assumption can be either replaced, by using copulae, or relaxed/removed, relying on semi- and non-parametric estimators. This paper surveys the more recent proposals on the estimation of the sample selection model that deal with distributional misspecification giving the practitioner a unified framework of both parametric and semi/non-parametric options.
Studying the Organizational Culture and its impact on the Job Performance of personnel in General Directorate of Cooperatives, labor and social welfare in Markazi province

Organizational culture, as an appropriate basis for stimulation and employment of personnel's talents and abilities, can play an important role in improving their occupational performance. This is a survey in descriptive-causative method aiming to study the organizational culture and its impact on the performance of personnel in General Directorate of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare in Markazi Province. The number of 301 employees in central department and those of other cities were the population of this study from which the number of 199 people were selected through one-stage stratified sampling. The research tools are two questionnaires of Denison's organizational culture with the reliability of 97.3% and that of Patterson's job performance with the reliability of 93.9%. The mentioned reliabilities were obtained from Cronbach's alpha method and validity was confirmed by professors and referring to similar researches. Finally, the data was analyzed by SPSS16.0 and LISREL8.80 software. This study shows a positive and significant relation between all aspects of organizational culture (Involvement, consistency, adaptability and mission) and staff performance in this organization. The results of Structural Equation Modeling also revealed that organizational culture with the path coefficient of 0.40 and t-value of 6.27 has a positive and significant effect on job performance of employees in this organization. Therefore, it can be said that organizational culture can explain 40% of changes in staff performance of this organization.
Responsiveness of free surface flow to M-EMS exciting frequency

In order to improve steel quality in the continuous casting process, it is necessary to make the dynamic behavior of the free surface flows in a mold clear. The estimation of influences of in-mold electromagnetic stirring (M-EMS) electromagnetic force is especially important. We examined the difference of free surface flows by the different M-EMS exciting frequencies, using numerical experiment (magnetohydrodynamic calculation). We introduce a new index, the responsive ratio, to evaluate it. As a result, the free surface flow has different behavior according to exciting frequency and its responsive ratio is higher in low-frequency zone. The free surface flow has also high resonate-ability with natural frequency of the mold.
Radiographic abnormalities among construction workers exposed to quartz containing dust

Background: Construction workers are exposed to quartz containing respirable dust, at levels that may cause fibrosis in the lungs. Studies so far have not established a dose-response relation for radiographic abnormalities for this occupational group. Aims: To measure the extent of radiographic abnormalities among construction workers primarily exposed to quartz containing respirable dust. Methods: A cross sectional study on radiographic abnormalities indicative of pneumoconiosis was conducted among 1339 construction workers mainly involved in grinding, (jack)-hammering, drilling, cutting, sawing, and polishing. Radiological abnormalities were determined by median results of the 1980 International Labour Organisation system of three certified “B” readers. Questionnaires were used for assessment of occupational history, presence of respiratory diseases, and symptoms and smoking habits. Results: An abnormality of ILO profusion category 1/0 and greater was observed on 10.2% of the chest radiographs, and profusion category of 1/1 or greater on 2.9% of the radiographs. The average duration of exposure of this group was 19 years and the average age was 42. The predominant type of small opacities (irregularly shaped) is presumably indicative of mixed dust pneumoconiosis. The prevalence of early signs of nodular silicosis (small rounded opacities of category 1/0 or greater) was low (0.8%). Conclusions: The study suggests an elevated risk of radiographic abnormalities among these workers with expected high exposure. An association between radiographic abnormalities and cumulative exposure to quartz containing dust from construction sites was observed, after correction for potentially confounding variables.
Progression through Meiosis I and Meiosis II in Arabidopsis Anthers Is Regulated by an A-Type Cyclin Predominately Expressed in Prophase I1

Meiosis is often described as a special case of cell division since it differs from mitosis in having two nuclear divisions without an intervening S-phase. It will be of great interest to uncover what molecular mechanisms underlie these special features of meiosis. We previously reported that the tardy asynchronous meiosis (tam) mutant of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) is slower in cell cycle progression in male meiosis. Here we report that TAM encodes the A-type cyclin, CYCA1;2. The point mutation in tam replaced a conserved threonine with an isoleucine in the linker region between the α4 and α5 helices of the first cyclin fold. By studying the dynamics of a CYCA1;2-green fluorescent protein fusion protein under the control of the CYCA1;2 promoter, we found that the fusion protein was most abundant at pachytene, but was undetectable from late prophase I until telophase II. Nonetheless, cell cycle progression in tam was delayed in both pachytene and meiosis II. We conclude either that the CYCA1;2 produced in prophase I indirectly regulates meiosis II progression, or that a very low level of CYCA1;2 directly regulates meiosis II progression. Either of these scenarios is a deviation from the typical mode of action of mitotic cyclins in mitosis and meiosis I, in which each nuclear division is coupled with a peak of expression of mitotic cyclins.
Remittances and labor participation in a Developing Country

This article discusses the effects of remittances on the labor force participation. The remittances reduce the probability of participation in labor martket because increase the relative price of the leisure. Using the 2008 National Household Survey of Colombia, we found that remittances reduce the probability of participation in the Colombian labor market. We also consider the possibility of that the remittances received by households are potentially endogenous to labor participation and make a IVProbit and FIML estimates and discuss the effects of censored remittances.