Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tight Junction in Blood‐Brain Barrier: An Overview of Structure, Regulation, and Regulator Substances

Blood‐brain barrier (BBB) is a dynamic interference that regulates the nutrition and toxic substance in and out of the central nervous system (CNS), and plays a crucial role in maintaining a stable circumstance of the CNS. Tight junctions among adjacent cells form the basic structure of BBB to limiting paracellular permeability. In the present review, the constituents of tight junction proteins are depicted in detail, together with the regulation of tight junction under stimulation and in pathological conditions. Tight junction modulators are also discussed.
The San Francisco Chinese Food Security Module: Validation of a Translation of the US Household Food Security Survey Module

There are no validated scales for measuring the prevalence of food insecurity among U.S. Chinese speakers. We validated the newly developed SF Chinese Food Security Module (a translation of the U.S. Household Food Security Survey Module) among 483 Chinese-speaking adults at a street fair. Most (8/10) of the translated items performed well compared to national statistics. Food insecure households had lower income and higher financial stress and used more food coping strategies. We conclude that the translated scale successfully identifies food insecure households in a community-based sample of Chinese-speaking adults. The module is suitable for use among Chinese American immigrants, although further development is needed to assess severe food insecurity.
The fine structure of mitochondria

membrane. The numerous oval or circular profilcs (m2, m3, mJ correspond to mitochondria cut obliquely or transversely. They show that the eristac, vlien viewed on their face, have rather irregular profiles that can be crescentic (mJ, rounded f? )i,l, or triangular (na,, m4). They also show that a channel is generally left free along the long axis of the mitochondrion even when the cristae protrude from as many as two (m,) or 4 (m4) directions at a time. Note that the mitochondria1 matrix appears less dense than the ground substance of the cytoplasm. I n the lattrr, numcrous vesicular elcnients of the eIidopIasniic reticulum (er) arc risible.
The corporate governance of Benedictine abbeys What can stock corporations learn from monasteries?

Purpose – This paper aims to analyse the governance structure of monasteries to gain new insights and apply them to solve agency problems of modern corporations. In an historic analysis of crises and closures it asks, if Benedictine monasteries were and are capable of solving agency problems. The analysis shows that monasteries established basic governance instruments very early and therefore were able to survive for centuries. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses a dataset of all Benedictine abbeys that ever existed in Bavaria, Baden-Wu¨rttemberg, and German-speaking Switzerland to determine their lifespan and the reasons for closures. The governance mechanisms are analyzed in detail. Finally, it draws conclusions relevant to the modern corporation. The theoretical foundations are based upon principal agency theory, psychological economics, as well as embeddedness theory. Findings – The monasteries that are examined show an average lifetime of almost 500 years and only a quarter of them dissolved as a result of agency problems. This paper argues that this success is due to an appropriate governance structure that relies strongly on internal control mechanisms. Research limitations/implications – Benedictine monasteries and stock corporations differ fundamentally regarding their goals. Additional limitations of the monastic approach are the tendency to promote groupthink, the danger of dictatorship and the life long commitment. Practical implications – The paper adds new insights into the corporate governance debate designed to solve current agency problems and facilitate better control. Originality/value – By analyzing monasteries, a new approach is offered to understand the efﬁciency of internal behavioral incentives and their combination with external control mechanisms in corporate governance.
Thermal infrared emission spectroscopy of the pyroxene mineral series

The thermal infrared emissivity spectra of coarse particulate samples of compositions in the pyroxene series display reststrahlen features (absorptions) that distinguish not only orthorhombic from monoclinic structures, but also major end-members within the two structural groups, as well as minerals within solid solution series. The exact number of reststrahlen features observed and their positions are dependent on mineral structure and cation occupancy of the M1 and M2 sites. End-member quadrilateral pyroxenes (Mg2Si2O6-Fe2Si2O6-Ca[Mg, Fe]Si2O6) are easily distinguished from each other and from minerals in the nonquadrilateral series (NaFeSi2O6-Na[Al, Fe]Si2O6-LiAlSi2O6). Furthermore, among quadrilateral pyroxenes, variations in Mg/(Mg + Fe) are linearly correlated with several band locations, as are variations in Ca content in high-Ca clinopyroxenes. In both quadrilateral and nonquadrilateral compositions, Christiansen feature positions are also diagnostic. No correlations with minor constituents (of the order of 0.05 atoms per formula unit) were observed. The detailed spectral characteristics of pyroxenes and their variability as a function of structure and cation occupancy are presented here with determinative curves for the identification of pyroxene composition. These data have important implications for the interpretation of spectral data from both laboratory and remote sensing instruments because they should permit a more detailed determination of pyroxene composition in measured unknown pure mineral and bulk compositions dominated by surface scattering, i.e., all particulates greater than ∼65 μm, and solid samples.
Integrating elementary functions for autonomous navigation of a mobile robot

This paper describes an implementation of autonomous navigation for a mobile robot in an indoor environment. Autonomous navigation requires map building, localization, path planning, obstacle detection, obstacle avoidance, path following, and so on. For the map building, ICP(Iterative Closest Point) builds floor map represented as occupancy grids. MCL(Monte Carlo Localization) updates robot location by comparing range data from LRF(Laser Range Finder) with the range information calculated using the floor map and robot location. Dijkstra algorithm selects way points connecting the current robot location to the goal location with the shortest path length. Two artificial force contribute to obstacle avoidance. Artificial potential field force repulses the robot path away from obstacles while artificial elastic force contracts the robot path. These methods are integrated and implemented in a robot, and resulted in reliable autonomous navigation in a building.
Survey of Editors and Reviewers of High-Impact Psychology Journals: Statistical and Research Design Problems in Submitted Manuscripts

ABSTRACT The authors surveyed 21 editors and reviewers from major psychology journals to identify and describe the statistical and design errors they encounter most often and to get their advice regarding prevention of these problems. Content analysis of the text responses revealed themes in 3 major areas: (a) problems with research design and reporting (e.g., lack of an a priori power analysis, lack of congruence between research questions and study design/analysis, failure to adequately describe statistical procedures); (b) inappropriate data analysis (e.g., improper use of analysis of variance, too many statistical tests without adjustments, inadequate strategy for addressing missing data); and (c) misinterpretation of results. If researchers attended to these common methodological and analytic issues, the scientific quality of manuscripts submitted to high-impact psychology journals might be significantly improved.
Population genetic structure of Biomphalaria glabrata in a schistosomiasis-endemic region in Brazil

The population genetic structure of the freshwater snail, Biomphalaria glabrata, was assessed in the municipality of Virgem das Gracas (Minas Gerais, Brazil), a schistosomiasis-endemic area. The seven microsatellite loci that were used to genotype 326 individuals from 17 collection sites within a 3-km radius revealed high genetic variability. However, we found a deficit of heterozygotes relative to Hardy- Weinberg expectations for most of the loci and in many collection sites, indicating a high level of inbreeding. This may be the result of founder effects and sib-mating. A high level of overall population genetic differentiation among B. glabrata collection sites suggested low gene flow at this rela- tively small spatial scale in this region. However, subsequent analyses also indicated that these patterns may also result from founder events and that an exchange of individuals between particular collection sites does exist. The isolation-by-distance correlation between collection sites of B. glabrata was found to be significant. However, only approximately 6% of the variance in FST was explained by geographic distances suggesting that there are other factors affecting genetic differentiation among these collection sites. It is likely that the current population genetic structure reflects patterns of both migration and founder events. Results from this study are important for understanding the potential for local adaptation between schistosomes and their snail hosts at this epidemiologically relevant scale.
Employer Perceptions of Skills Deficiencies in the UK Labour Market: A Subregional Analysis

Past research on labour-market skills shortages indicates that employers report skills shortages or hard-to-fill vacancies for a variety of different reasons. Nevertheless, there is some consensus that skills-shortages analysis needs to examine such shortages within the context of the local labour market in order to understand the labour-market dynamics and structural factors that affect the propensity for unemployed people to fill ‘skills shortage’ vacancies. The traditional approach has been to utilise qualitative analysis and case studies. In contrast, in this paper we undertake a multivariate probit analysis of employer perceptions of skills shortages utilising a subregional dataset from a survey of Dorset employers undertaken in 1998. On a general level, we demonstrate the complexity involved in attempting to measure skills problems using the responses of employers to standard surveys. The key findings of the probit analysis are that: firm size is a significant determinant in skills-deficiency perception, growing firms have a higher skills-shortage perception, and reported perceptions of skills deficiencies vary significantly according to the position of the respondent in the organisation. This reinforces the message that great care needs to be taken when analysing measures of skills deficiencies that are derived solely from employer surveys at national or subregional level.
Regret for Expected Improvement over the Best-Observed Value and Stopping Condition

Bayesian optimization (BO) is a sample-efficient method for global optimization of expensive, noisy, black-box functions using probabilistic methods. The performance of a BO method depends on its selection strategy through the acquisition function. Expected improvement (EI) is one of the most widely used acquisition functions for BO that finds the expectation of the improvement function over the incumbent. The incumbent is usually selected as the best-observed value so far, termed as ymax (for the maximizing problem). Recent work has studied the convergence rate for EI under some mild assumptions or zero noise of observations. Especially, the work of Wang and de Freitas (2014) has derived the sublinear regret for EI under a stochastic noise. However, due to the difficulty in stochastic noise setting and to make the convergent proof feasible, they use an alternative choice for the incumbent as the maximum of the Gaussian process predictive mean, μmax. This modification makes the algorithm computationally inefficient because it requires an additional global optimization step to estimate μmax that is costly and may be inaccurate. To address this issue, we derive a sublinear convergence rate for EI using the commonly used ymax. Moreover, our analysis is the first to study a stopping criteria for EI to prevent unnecessary evaluations. Our analysis complements the results of Wang and de Freitas (2014) to theoretically cover two incumbent settings for EI. Finally, we demonstrate empirically that EI using ymax is both more computationally efficiency and more accurate than EI using μmax.
Investigating Early Adopters' Use of Location-based Social Networks: Implications for Local Businesses and Service Providers

Social media has been defined by what happens on people’s computer screens. But what happens when people turn off their computers and take social media to the real, physical world? Now, with recent advancements in mobile technology, early adopters build communities around the concept of ‘check-ins’. They broadcast their location to friends, learn about other people’s whereabouts, and share location-based information about bars, parks, cities, and virtually any kind of location. We present a study of 63 early adopters who use location-based social networks in their daily lives and analyze their behavior with respect to the impact on local businesses as well as service providers. Our results show that users derive real value from connecting information to location and indicate significant potential for customer-to-customer marketing. Further, our findings provide support for claims to include privacy and context-related constructs into technology acceptance theory.
Classification of melodic structures using fuzzified n-gram matching scores

This paper reports classification of classical Indian melodic structures (Ragas) using a Fuzzy Multi Attribute Decision Model constructed using string matching scores. Sixteen clippings belonging to four different Ragas were matched with standard templates of the Ragas with an aim to detect the occurrences of subsets of the standard templates within a test string. Matching score obtained with subsets of varying lengths (n-grams) have been analyzed using Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (FAHP). Matching scores were first fuzzified by assigning them fuzzy memberships. Subsequently, 2, 3 and 4 gram scores were chosen as criteria/attributes against which four alternatives were evaluated. This paper proposes the use of fuzzy entropy for calculating the relative weights for each fuzzy set in the FAHP model. It was observed that classification success rate improved significantly when the n-gram scores were fuzzified and the proposed technique was applied.
Efficiency in banking: a meta-regression analysis

Abstract One learns two main lessons from studying the great quantity of banking efficiency literature. These lessons regard the heterogeneity in results and the absence of a comprehensive review aimed at understanding the reasons for this variability. Surprisingly, although this issue is well-known, it has not been systematically analyzed before. In order to fill this gap, we perform a Meta-Regression-Analysis (MRA) by examining 1661 efficiency scores retrieved from 120 papers published over the period 2000–2014. The meta-regression is estimated by using the Random Effects Multilevel Model (REML) because it controls for within- and between-study heterogeneity. The analysis yields four main results. First, parametric methods yield lower levels of banking efficiency than nonparametric studies. This holds true even after controlling for the approach used in selecting the inputs and outputs of the frontier. Secondly, we show that banking efficiency is highest when using the value-added approach, followed by estimates from studies based on the intermediation method, whereas those based on the hybrid approach are the lowest. Thirdly, efficiency scores are also determined by the quality of studies and the number of observations and variables used in the primary papers. As far as the effects of sample size, dimension and quality of papers are concerned, there are significant differences in sign and magnitude between parametric and nonparametric studies. Finally, cost efficiency is found to be higher than profit efficiency. Interestingly, MRA results are robust to the potential outliers in efficiency and sample size distributions.
Lung Solute Permeability and Lung Liquid Absorption in Premature Ventilated Fetal Goats

Summary: In 21 premature fetal goats ventilated at low tidal volumes, measurements were made of alveolar surfactant activity by bubble stability tests on alveolar liquid, lung epithelium solute permeability using radiolabeled tracer molecules, lung liquid absorption from wet and dry lung weights, effectiveness of lung gas exchange, and lung mechanics. Arterial pO2 and residual gas volume were higher and arterial pCO2 and specific compliance were lower in animals whose bubble stability test was >1:5 on alveolar liquid aspirated following one hr of ventilation. Animals without detectable surfactant in fetal lung liquid before ventilation had transfer of all size tracer solutes between alveolar liquid and blood, whereas those with detectable surfactant did not allow tracers 14 Å or larger in radius to cross the lung epithelium. Lung liquid absorption rate in animals without lung liquid surfactant in fetal lung liquid before ventilation averaged 25%/hr, whereas those with surfactant absorbed liquid at only 2%/hr in this protocol. All differences in solute permeability and lung liquid absorption were related to preventilation surfactant levels in fetal lung liquid, and not to postventilation surfactant levels or to lung function.Speculation: These studies demonstrate that initiation of aeration of surfactant deficient fetal lungs at low tidal volumes causes abnormalities in the lung epithelium's normal barrier to large solutes. This may be the mechanism that allows plasma proteins to enter air spaces in human respiratory distress. Monotonous low tidal volume ventilation in animals with surfactant in fetal lung liquid resulted in retention of large volumes of alveolar liquid and suggested that occasional breaths of high tidal volumes are essential for normal lung liquid absorption.
Evaluating the Tourism Potential of Public Museums in Hangzhou: A Supply-Side Perspective

ABSTRACT This is a qualitative study to evaluate the tourism potential of public museums from a supply-side perspective. Nine specialized public museums in Hangzhou were evaluated based on six criteria: cultural, physical, product, experiential, marketing, and leadership. The overall tourism potential was rated as moderate for the museums in Hangzhou. Poor accessibility, isolation from tourism nodes, lack of complementarity with peripheral attractions, and limited carrying capacity impair the museums' appeal to tourists. The local government's proactive intention to develop cultural tourism and the innovative marketing efforts adopted by a few museums certainly help to enhance the museums' tourism potential.
The failure of antitrust and regulation to establish competition in long-distance telephone services

This text argues that governmental antitrust actions and regulatory activities have failed to bring true competition to long-distance telephone services in the USA, to the detriment of consumers seeking prices in line with the costs of providing those services. Although other long-distance telephone companies have emerged since the 1984 antitrust decree forced the monopoly AT&T to divide into smaller independent companies, the author shows how the three major long-distance telephone companies - AT&T, MCI and Sprint - have used the regulatory system to tacitly collude in setting prices and to bar entry into the market of potentially competitive alternative sources of services. The consequence, he claims, is an excessive cost to long-distance telephone customers conservatively estimated in the tens of millions of dollars.
Was the 2000 Presidential Election Predictable?

In late August 2000, at APSA's Annual Meeting, a panel of political scientists offered forecasts for the 2000 presidential election. Although they differed in particulars, most of the forecasters' models incorporated a measure of economic growth plus the president's approval rating. Because the economy was prospering and President Clinton enjoyed phenomenal approval numbers for the eighth year of office, the consensus prediction was a Democratic (Gore) victory by upwards of 6 percentage points. Although political scientists had offered forecasts before previous presidential elections, these political scientists' predictions for 2000 attracted more interest than usual. Their predictions drew exceptional interest both during the campaign, when nobody knew for sure how the election would turn out, and after, when the forecasters had to account for their mistakes.
Joining the international fight against doping

We develop a simple two-country model to trace out conditions under which countries join the international fight against doping. We show that the support for an internationally coordinated anti-doping policy depends on the extent to which the rules of the anti-doping fight, as formulated by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), account for national preferences and on the cross-country substitutability of sporting performance.
Revisiting the Trade-Migration Nexus: Evidence from New OECD Data

International migrants contribute to bilateral trade creation if their presence reduces information costs or entails additional demand for goods from their source countries. Using new data on stocks of foreign-born individuals by skill class, we try to separately quantify those two channels. We assume that improved information affects host countries’ imports and exports symmetrically, while the preference channel matters for imports only. On average, for differentiated goods, both channels contribute evenly toward the total trade-creating effect of migration. In line with expectations, the relative importance of the trade cost channel is largest for homogeneous goods and for high-skilled migrants.
Comment on: “Melanisation of Aspergillus terreus—Is Butyrolactone I Involved in the Regulation of Both DOPA and DHN Types of Pigments in Submerged Culture? Microorganisms 2017, 5, 22”

A recent article by Palonen et al. describes the effect of butyrolactone I on the expression of a secondary metabolite biosynthesis gene cluster from Aspergillus terreus that shows similarities to fusarubin biosynthesis gene clusters from Fusarium species. The authors claim that two different types of pigments are formed in Aspergillus terreus conidia, whereby one pigment is termed a DOPA-type melanin and the second a DHN-type melanin. Unfortunately, the terminology of the classification of melanin-types requires revision as Asp-melanin present in A. terreus conidia is clearly distinct from DOPA-melanins. In addition, some hypotheses in this manuscript are based on questionable data published previously, resulting in incorrect conclusions. Finally, as biochemical data are lacking and metabolite production is only deduced from bioinformatics and transcriptomic data, the production of a second pigment type in A. terreus conidia appears highly speculative.