Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Experimental studies on the trabecular meshwork in primates.

There is a considerable amount of information about the normal structure of the trabecular meshwork. * However, little is known about its pathological reactions.2,12,39,40This paper is an attempt to study the morphological behavior of chamber angle tissue under 3 different conditions: (1) after perfusion of the anterior chamber with various solutions; (2) after autologous implantation into the anterior chamber, and (3) after experimentally elevated intraocular pressure. Material and Methods Because of great differences in the structure of the trabecular meshwork between primates and other mammals described previously,37,41human and monkey eyes only were used in this study. A total of 28 eye-bank eyes and 43 freshly enucleated monkey eyes (Macaca mulatta and Cercopithecus aethiops) were studied. 1. Perfusion Experiments. —Eighteen monkey and 28 autopsy eyes were perfused with a polyethylene tube fixed to a hypodermic needle. It was thrust through the anterior chamber so that a double perforation
Market efficiency in emerging economies – case of Vietnam

The objective of this paper is to test whether the Vietnamese equity markets are weak form efficient or not using ADF unit root test of non-stationarity. The research used data on daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly returns from HCMSE since its inception as a trading centre in 2000 until 2012. The analysis considered the influence of the global financial crisis period on the market efficiency of the Vietnam's stock market by considering data on pre-crisis, crisis and post-crisis periods. The research found that Vietnam's stock market is weak form efficient, at least in the later period. This may suggest that Vietnam's market is progressing towards weak form efficiency but the speed of transmission of information is slow. Thin trading in the market may also influence the speed of price adjustment in the stock market. Like most studies on market efficiency, results of this research should be considered with caution.
TAKEOVERS, MANAGEMENT REPLACEMENT, AND POST-ACQUISITION OPERATING PERFORMANCE: SOME EVIDENCE FROM THE 1980s

In their study of 197 U.S. takeovers from the 1980s, the authors find that the most important determinant of superior post-merger operating performance is whether the target company's management is replaced or retained. When the target CEO is replaced, the post-merger firm's annual cash flow returns outpace industry standards by 2 to 3%. In contrast, when target top management remains after the merger, operating returns do not exceed industry averages. 1999 Morgan Stanley.
Uplink TCP traffic control with monitoring downlink buffer for throughput fairness over wireless LANs

TCP uplink flow over wireless LANs is well known to cause two serious throughput-unfairness issues. The first is TCP throughput unfairness among uplink flows. The second is unfairness between uplink and downlink flows. Several approaches addressing these serious issues have been proposed. While they improve performance, there are difficulties in cases of legacy wireless LAN MAC stations, large numbers of stations, and encrypted packets. In this paper, we propose a simple and scalable traffic control method that can easily be applied to all of the above cases. The main idea is for access points to discard TCP uplink packets, with the discard probability determined on the basis of downlink buffer occupancy. Our proposal has the advantage that only access points require modification, not wireless stations. Simulation results show that proposed method can improve two kinds of fairness with small degradation of aggregated throughput due to the intentional uplink packet discard.
Understanding the Meaning African-American Men Give to Their Student Leadership Involvement and Engagement Activities in College.

The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study was to explore and gain a deeper understanding of the lived experiences and perceptions of African-American (A-A) men who are persisting in college and who demonstrate participation in co-curricular activities defined as student leadership involvement and engagement activities (SLIEA). The study was designed to gain a better understanding of the meaning actively engaged A-A men make of their college experiences and how these experiences serve to guide their actions toward persistence in college. Ten A-A men from three different institutions participated in individual open-ended interviews. Results and findings indicate that regardless of students’ pre-college experiences, participation in SLIEA supported the integration of AA men to the college environment. Upon arriving to campus, immediate participation in SLIEA supports the adjustment of A-A men to college by exposing students to successful peers, college resources, and support system that encourage academic success. Research participants were able to identify beneficial outcomes, practical competencies, and personal gains that were the result of experiences supported by SLIEA. These include networking, time management, access to available resources, enhanced interpersonal communication, public speaking skills, and challenging oneself to set goals. Although participants expressed a challenge with balancing their academic workload alongside their commitments to SLIEA, these types of involvements served to support student learning and educational focus in college. Students were able to translate the influence of SLIEA on their classroom experiences, which contributed to their personal motivation and expectations for pursuing and achieving academic success, often supporting college persistence choices and behaviors.
Essays on identification and estimation of structural parametric and semiparametric models in microeconomics.

This thesis focuses on identification and estimation of structural parametric and semi-parametric models in microeconometrics. The analysis of the conditions under which in the context of an econometric model-data can be informative about the parameters of interest of an economic process is essential and must be of high priority in any econometric work. When considering models with which to identify interesting features, emphasis should be placed on imposing the minimum set of restrictions in order to achieve identification, since inappropriate restrictions may lead to inconsistent estimates of the parameters of interest. For this reason in the literature one finds that some attention has been paid to relaxing parametric distributional assumptions on the unobservables or functional forms of the relationships between observables and unobservables. To begin with, I examine how the parameters of interest of a general class of models can be identified and then estimated when not all of the relevant variables are jointly observed in the same dataset. To do so, the existence of an additional data set with information on both the missing variables and on some common variables in the original data set is necessary. I then move on to an analysis of the identification of the preference parameters in a discrete choice demand model in which individuals only derive utility from the characteristics of the goods they consume. I discuss how this particular model makes the estimation of these parameters feasible without imposing distributional assumptions in the errors even if the number of goods in the choice set is very large. Finally, I consider the comparison of nonparametric regression curves between different samples. I propose to estimate the parameters that explain these differences between the conditional mean functions by using an estimator developed in the semiparametric literature which avoids the computational problems faced by the previously proposed estimators.
Human resource development and managing diversity in South Africa

Discusses structural and labour market issues associated with the processes of employment equity and diversity management in South African organizations. Argues that effective individual and organizational change are most likely to occur when human resource development and diversity management approaches are adopted simultaneously. Contends that appropriate information is a critical component for planning, monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of HRD and diversity management.
Reasons for Inconsistent Condom Use Found as Answers to a Multiple Response Question: A National Survey of Iranian Adults, 2013

Background: The use of condoms is important for preventing Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs). However, the prevalence of condom use is not satisfactory. The aim of this study was to assess the reasons for inconsistent condom use in Iranian adults. Study design: Cross-sectional study. Methods: Data were gathered through multi-stage sampling. Participants were enrolled from 13 provinces in Iran aged between 19 and 29 years. They had ever-extramarital sex and did not use condoms regularly in their sexual contacts, asked the reasons for inconsistent condom use. Results: We had 3,246 adults, from which 635 (19.5%) had ever-extramarital sex. Among them, 495 (77.96%) did not use condoms with regularity. The reason frequently chosen for inconsistent condom use was ‘that it is not accessible’ (49.3%). The differences between the categories of some variables, according to the choice of reasons for inconsistent condom use, were significant (P<0.05): age, gender, knowledge of HIV, attitude towards HIV, knowing infected HIV person and alcohol or stimulant(s) used before sexual contact. According to multivariate multilevel logistic, the effect of gender was significant on most of reasons for inconsistent condom use (P<0.05). Conclusions: Most of the reasons that were selected for inconsistent condom use were inaccessibility and not knowing that its use is essential. Hence, it is important to improve the knowledge of adults regarding STI/HIV and extend the locations of condom distribution. We should try to promote the culture of condom use as a routine.
A Dynamic Model of Teacher Labor Supply

The labor supply decisions of certified elementary and high school teachers are examined using data from a general longitudinal survey. A significant decrease in the teaching participation rate takes place over time after teacher certification. Previously unavailable marital and fertility variables provide new insight into reasons for this decrease. Descriptive statistics indicate that high‐ability teachers choose to teach a smaller proportion of time than other teachers. A dynamic, discrete‐choice model, which accommodates Serial Correlation in the wage process for teachers, is used to analyze responsiveness of the overall sample and different types of teachers to two potential types of wage increases.
Sp1‐mediated transcriptional regulation of NFBD1/MDC1 plays a critical role in DNA damage response pathway

NFBD1/MDC1 is a large nuclear protein with an anti‐apoptotic potential which participates in DNA damage response. Recently, we have demonstrated that NFBD1 has an inhibitory effect on pro‐apoptotic p53 and DNA damage‐induced transcriptional repression of NFBD1 plays an important role in p53‐dependent apoptotic response. In this study, we have found that NFBD1 promoter region contains canonical Sp1‐, STAT‐1‐ and NF‐Y‐binding sites and finally we have identified Sp1 as a transcriptional activator for NFBD1. The 5′‐RACE and bioinformatic analyses revealed that NFBD1 encodes at least four transcriptional variants arising from distinct transcriptional start sites. Luciferase reporter assays using a series of NFBD1 promoter deletion mutants demonstrated that the proximal Sp1‐binding site is required for the transcriptional activation of NFBD1. Indeed, the endogenous Sp1 was recruited onto the proximal Sp1‐binding site as examined by chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assay and siRNA‐mediated knockdown of the endogenous Sp1 in HeLa cells reduced the expression levels of NFBD1, which renders cells sensitive to adriamycin (ADR). In support of this notion, mithramycin A (MA, Sp1 inhibitor) treatment resulted in a significant down‐regulation of NFBD1. Taken together, our present findings suggest that Sp1‐mediated transcriptional regulation of NFBD1 plays an important role in the regulation of DNA damage response.
Does Governance Impact on the Foreign Direct Investment-Growth Nexus in Sub-Saharan Africa?

The central question this paper sought to tackle was "does the quality of institutions mat- ter for the relationship between Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and economic growth? " Using macroeconomic data on 27 Sub Saharan African (SSA) economies and six distinct measures of governance the fi ndings showed that control of corruption, political stability and government effectiveness matter for the infl uence of FDI on economic growth in SSA. This key fi nding was found to be robust even in models where these three governance indicators were interacted with FDI. Furthermore, the results from threshold-type sample splitting showed that in the sample containing countries with a higher level of governance, the positive impact of FDI on growth has larger magnitude vis-a-vis the comparator group with poorer governance indicators. This signifi cant threshold effects remained robust across specifi cations.
High-Spatial-Diversity Imaging Receiver Using Fisheye Lens for Indoor MIMO VLCs

This letter proposes an imaging receiver scheme for an indoor multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) visible light communication (VLC), in which a fisheye lens with ultrawide field-of-view is used for high-quality imaging, so it can realize omnidirectional receiving and provide high-spatial diversity for decoding of the MIMO signals. In addition, the fisheye lens projects planar and small-sized images, which means that the integration with compact planar receiver array is feasible. Using the polynomial projection model, the optical intensity on the receiving plane is obtained, which is in accordance with the experimental result and shows that the images of the light-emitting diodes are clearly separated. The simulation results indicate that low correlations of the channel matrix are achieved, so high spectral efficiency is realized with various receiver positions under indoor circumstance. Consequently, this fisheye-lens-based imaging receiver is a potential candidate for high-performance indoor MIMO VLC applications.
A Full-Capacity Local RoutingArchitecture for FPGAs (Abstract Only)

Reconfigurable systems employ highly-routable local routing architecture to interconnect generic fine-grain logic blocks. Commercial FPGAs employ 50% sparse crossbars rather than fully-connected crossbars in their local routing architecture to trade off between the area and routability of the Logic Blocks (LBs). While the input crossbar provides good routability and logic equivalence for the inputs of the LB, the outputs of the LBs are typically assigned to a physical location. This lack of flexibility brings strong constraints to the global net router. Here, we propose a novel local routing architecture that guarantees full logic equivalence on all input and output pins of the LBs. First, we introduce full-capacity crossbars to interconnect the outputs of the fine-grain Logic Elements (LEs) to the output pins of the LBs. Second, in the local routing, we use a combination of fully-connected and full-capacity crossbars. The full-capacity crossbars are used for the feedback connections in place of the standard fully-connected crossbars to ensure a full routability while reducing the area footprint. Fully-connected crossbars are still employed for the input connections to maintain the logic equivalence of the inputs. As a result, the novel local routing architecture enhances the routability of the LB clusters without any area overhead. By granting the outputs with logic equivalence, the proposed local routing architecture unlocks the full optimization potential of FPGA routers. Architectural simulations show that without any modification on Verilog-to-Routing (VTR) tool suites, when a commercial FPGA architecture is considered and over a wide set of benchmarks, the novel local routing architecture can reduce 10% channel width and 11% routing area with 10% less area×delay×power on average. Therefore, the novel local routing architecture enhances the routability of FPGA, and brings opportunities in realizing larger implementations on a single FPGA chip.
Indoxyl sulfate promotes vascular smooth muscle cell calcification via the JNK/Pit-1 pathway

Abstract We determined the effect of indoxyl sulfate (IS) on Pit-1 expression and the role of Pit-1 in IS-induced osteoblastic differentiation and calcification of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). To assess osteoblastic differentiation and Pit-1 expression, VSMCs were incubated with various concentrations of IS for different durations. Phosphonoformic acid (PFA), a competitive inhibitor of Pit-1, was used to verify the role of Pit-1. Western blot analysis and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) were performed to assess Pit-1 protein and mRNA levels, respectively. To evaluate calcification, calcium content was measured. After IS treatment, we observed osteoblastic differentiation and calcification of VSMCs and up-regulation of Pit-1 expression. Moreover, the effect of IS on osteoblastic differentiation and Pit-1 expression was partly dose- and time-dependent. PFA abrogated the IS-induced osteoblastic differentiation and calcification of VSMCs to a certain extent. The c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) pathway was activated after treatment with IS, whereas inhibition of the JNK pathway partially attenuated the effect of IS on both the stimulation of Pit-1 expression and calcium deposition. Our study is the first to demonstrate that IS promotes Pit-1 expression in part by activation of the JNK pathway that is involved in the mechanism of IS-induced osteoblastic differentiation and matrix mineralization.
Modified shock index and mortality rate of emergency patients.

BACKGROUND This study aimed to determine whether modified shock index (MSI) is associated with mortality that is superior to heart rate, blood pressure, or the shock index (SI) in emergency patients. METHODS A retrospective database review was performed on 22 161 patients who presented to Peking Union Medical College Hospital Emergency Department and received intravenous fluids from January 1 to December 31, 2009. We gathered data of the patients on age, gender, vital signs, levels of consciousness, presenting complaints, and SI and MSI were calculated for all patients. RESULTS Multivariate regression analysis was performed to determine the correlation between risk factors and outcome. There is a significant correlation between emergency patient mortality rate and patient's vital signs obtained at the triage desk (HR>120 beats/min, systolic BP<90 mmHg, diastolic BP<60 mmHg). MSI is a stronger predictor of emergency patient mortality compared to heart rate and blood pressure alone, whereas SI does not have a significant correlation with emergency patient mortality rate. CONCLUSION MSI is a clinically significant predictor of mortality in emergency patients. It may be better than using heart rate and blood pressure alone. SI is not significantly correlated with the mortality rate of the emergency patient.
Consensus of time-varying nonlinear non-autonomous networks with application to field sampling by mobile robots

The paper presents new results on asymptotic consensus for continuous time non-autonomous nonlinear networks under almost-periodic interactions. We treat consensus variables that are different than those affecting network's connectivity and allow the former to track an estimate of the average magnitude of a measured field despite the presence of limited agents' interaction (herein represented by almost periodic connectivity). To this end, a suitable notion of integral connectivity is introduced, frozen in state variables, and of simple verification, without requiring monotonicity of interactions (viz. network's cooperativity). An application of the proposed results is illustrated considering a representative example in the scenario of autonomous sampling by mobile robots.
Influence of auxins in direct in vitro morphogenesis of Euphorbia nivulia, a lectinaceous medicinal plant

SummarySomatic embryo (bipolar) or shoot (monopolar) morphogenesis in mesophyll cells of Euphorbia nivulia Buch. -Ham in vitro was dependent on the type of auxin supplementing Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium containing benzyladenine. Direct in vitro morphogenesis, i.e., organogenesis, and somatic embryogenesis were significantly influenced by seasonal growth of the donor plant, explant position (proximal, mid, and distal), and light. Explants collected in march/April were superior to July/August material. Proximal explants underwent morphogenesis more readily than mid- and tip-derived explants. Incubation in the light favored morphogenesis while darkness was inhibitory. Kinetin (Kn) was also inhibitory to morphogenesis. MS medium enriched with different levels of N6-benzyladenine (BA) alone, or in combination with α-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) or indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), induced adventitious shoots directly. Explants collected in March/April cultured on medium with 13.3 μM BA and 2.69 μM NAA developed the highest number of shoots, a mean of 15.2 shoots per proximal explant. Developed shoots rooted the best on half-strength MS medium with 2.46 μM indole-3-butyric acid, which developed a mean of 5.2 roots per shoot. Rooted healthy shoots could be transplanted to small pots, with an 80% survival rate. Addition of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2.4-D) to BA-supplemented medium was obligatory to develop somatic embryos. MS medium containing 2.26 μM 2,4-D and 4.44 μM BA induced a mean of 44.8 somatic embryos per proximal explant. The embryos passed through distinct stages of embryogenesis, namely globular, heart, torpedo, and early cotyledonary. The embryos (88%) underwent maturation on half-strength MS medium with 2.89 μM gibberellic acid (GA3), and its subsequent transfer on half-strength MS basal medium in light conditions facilitated 80% conversion of embryos to plantlets. Direct shoots or embryos were originated from the mesophyll cells. Somatic embryo development was concurrent with the independent origin of vasculature in the bulbous basal portion. The survival rate of embryo-derived plants was 90%.
Complex Tax Incentives

How does complexity affect people's reaction to tax changes? To answer this question, we conduct an experiment in which subjects work for a piece rate and face taxes. One treatment features a simple tax system, the other a complex one. Subjects' economic incentives are identical across treatments. We introduce the same sequence of additional taxes in both treatments. Subjects in the complex treatment underreact to new taxes; some ignore new taxes entirely. The underreaction is stronger for subjects with lower cognitive ability. Contrary to predictions from models of rational inattention, subjects are equally likely to ignore large or small incentive changes (JEL D14, H24, H31)