Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparing the Explanatory Capacity of Three Constructs in the Prediction of Engineers’ Proficiency, Adaptivity, and Proactivity

Advances in the research of work performance have been due in large part to the conceptualization of performance as a multidimensional construct. Recently, Griffin, Neal, and Parker (2007), have identified three different dimensions of work role performance: proficiency, adaptivity, and proactivity. Social effectiveness constructs (i.e., political skill) have been receiving increased attention in research and there have been recent calls for further research in the area. This study compares the explanatory capacity of political skill, professional experience and intrinsic motivation in the prediction of engineers' proficiency, adaptivity, and proactivity. The relationships were tested with structural equations analysis of 180 supervisor-engineer dyad data. Results indicate that the three dimensions of individual work performance are significantly influenced by political skill and professional experience, but not by intrinsic motivation. The results also indicate that political skill is the strongest predictor
Organizing Non-Union Workers as Trade Unionists in the ‘New Economy’ in Britain

Focusing on Britain, this article examines the combined processes by which workers in the ‘new economy’ have sought to unionize and by which trade unions have attempted to organize these workers in the collective struggle for organizational rights within non-union organizations. It considers the genesis and progress of these struggles and campaigns, suggesting that a combination of employer hostility and worker non-engagement explains the limited advances to date.
Expression of Genes for Si Uptake, Accumulation, and Correlation of Si with Other Elements in Ionome of Maize Kernel

The mineral composition of cells, tissues, and organs is decisive for the functioning of the organisms, and is at the same time an indicator for understanding of physiological processes. We measured the composition of the ionome in the different tissues of maize kernels by element microanalysis, with special emphasis on silicon (Si). We therefore also measured the expression levels of the Si transporter genes ZmLsi1, ZmLsi2 and ZmLsi6, responsible for Si uptake and accumulation. Two weeks after pollination ZmLsi1 and ZmLsi6 genes were expressed, and expression continued until the final developmental stage of the kernels, while ZmLsi2 was not expressed. These results suggest that exclusively ZmLsi1 and ZmLsi6 are responsible for Si transport in various stages of kernel development. Expression level of ZmLsi genes was consistent with Si accumulation within kernel tissues. Silicon was mainly accumulated in pericarp and embryo proper and the lowest Si content was detected in soft endosperm and the scutellum. Correlation linkages between the distribution of Si and some other elements (macroelements Mg, P, S, N, P, and Ca and microelements Cl, Zn, and Fe) were found. The relation of Si with Mg was detected in all kernel tissues. The Si linkage with other elements was rather specific and found only in certain kernel tissues of maize. These relations may have effect on nutrient uptake and accumulation.
Why Reforms do not Always Have to “Work” to Succeed

New public management introduces reforms with both specific and overarching goals. Managed competition is an example. In these initiatives, governments set up competitions between public and private service producers as a way of privatizing production. Effective competition, with an overall victor, is the direct goal, whereas efficient production is the overarching aim. The current article provides an analysis of two cases of managed competition that differed in terms of the direct goal (one had competitions and the other did not) but managed to achieve similar overarching results because of the intrinsic quality of the details of reform. The article’s message is that reformers should concentrate on reform detail and the overarching goal of reform, rather than its direct manifestation.
Multi-agent bio-inspired algorithms for wireless sensor network design

The process of designing a wireless sensor network (WSN) is rather complicated. This process is not formalized in the form of a hard set of rules, algorithms and standards that guarantee the construction of WSN satisfying different requirements of the designer. This paper discusses the problem of constructing a WSN structure. In the proposed functional diagram of the WSN design we can allocate the place of synthesis WSN structure functional block. Bio-inspired algorithms simulate natural processes of self-organization and evolution. The author proposes to use several multi-agent bio-inspired algorithms for synthesis of WSN structure. Fitness function performs multi-objective fuzzy expert evaluation of various WSN parameters. All considered algorithms modify the global pheromone memory. The work shows the results of the synthesis of WSN topology on an object with space constraints. The results illustrate the possibility of using different self-organization animal models to solve some problems arising in the process of building self-organizing wireless sensor networks.
Neuromodulation at Single Presynaptic Boutons of Cerebellar Parallel Fibers Is Determined by Bouton Size and Basal Action Potential-Evoked Ca Transient Amplitude

Most presynaptic terminals in the brain contain G-protein-coupled receptors that function to reduce action potential-evoked neurotransmitter release. These neuromodulatory receptors, including those for glutamate, GABA, endocannabinoids, and adenosine, exert a substantial portion of their effect by reducing evoked presynaptic Ca2+ transients. Many axons form synapses with multiple postsynaptic neurons, but it is unclear whether presynaptic attenuation in these synapses is homogeneous, as suggested by population-level Ca2+ imaging. We loaded Ca2+-sensitive dyes into cerebellar parallel fiber axons and imaged action potential-evoked Ca2+ transients in individual presynaptic boutons with application of three different neuromodulators and found that adjacent boutons on the same axon showed striking heterogeneity in their strength of attenuation. Moreover, attenuation was predicted by bouton size or basal Ca2+ response: smaller boutons were more sensitive to adenosine A1 agonist but less sensitive to CB1 agonist, while boutons with high basal action potential-evoked Ca2+ transient amplitude were more sensitive to mGluR4 agonist. These results suggest that boutons within brief segment of a single parallel fiber axon can have different sensitivities toward neuromodulators and may have different capacities for both short-term and long-term plasticities.
Adaptive fair spectrum usage with overloading cancellation for OFDM multihop cellular networks

The distributed wireless communications system is a new architecture for wireless access with multiple distributed relay stations (RSs). Instead of the traditional cellular system, the multihop cellular network for executing their data transmission can potentially augment coverage, data rates, and quality of service (QoS) performance. However, in the multiuser environment the multihop cellular system has a competition problem among users so that fair spectrum usage for all users becomes an important index of QoS. On the other hand, the system overloading matter of RSs may cause a system malfunction. In this paper, the RS overloading problem is considered, and we propose an adaptive fair spectrum usage algorithm for enhancing capacity and QoS of multiuser OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) multihop cellular systems. Furthermore, an overloading cancellation algorithm also presented to cope with the RS overloading problem.
Dietary Shifts in Relation to Fruit Availability among Masked Palm Civets (Paguma larvata) in Central China

Abstract The spatial and temporal distribution of food resources can profoundly affect foraging decisions and prey selection, potentially resulting in shifts in diet in response to changes in resource availability. The masked palm civet (Paguma larvata) has long been regarded as a dietary generalist that feeds primarily on fruits and small mammals. Both types of food resources may vary spatially and temporally and the diet of P. larvata is expected to change in response to variation in the availability and distribution of these resources. To address the effects of such variation on foraging by masked palm civets, we studied a population of P. larvata inhabiting a highly heterogeneous habitat in central China consisting of primary forest, selectively logged forest, logged forest, broad-leaved and coniferous forest plantations, and cultivated farmland. Available food resources included wild fruits, cultivated fruits, leaves, plant cortexes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, small mammals, molluscs, and arthropods. The abundance of these food categories varied significantly among seasons and habitats and civets altered consumption of these categories according to their temporal and spatial availability. The diversity of items consumed also varied significantly among seasons and habitats. From June to October, wild fruits were the main food of civets in forest habitats, whereas cultivated fruits were the main food in farmland. In contrast, from November to May, civets in forested habitats consumed primarily rodents and birds. Concordant with these changes was a shift from foraging in primary forest (November–May) to foraging in logged forest and farmland (June–October) that appeared to be associated with the availability of fruits. These results demonstrate the ability of civets to change their diet, both spatially and temporally, in response to changing food resources. To better understand how foraging behavior of civets varies with resource availability, similar studies should be conducted in tropical environments characterized by year-round availability of fruit.
An Inventory Depletion Overbooking Model For the Hotel Industry

Travelers who have no intention of showing up often fail to cancel their hotel reservations in a timely manner. Because of this tendency, hotels in turn protect their revenue-generating but highly perishable inventory of rooms by overbooking in anticipation of no-shows and late cancellations. Unfortunately, the literature and a recent survey of hotels indicate that hotel overbooking levels are largely set by trial and error and may lead either to oversales and displaced guests or to an unprofitably high number of empty rooms and lost revenues. This study examines the institutional parameters and operating constraints of the hotel industry and treats overbooking as an inventory problem of fixed supply and variable demand, and proposes a statistically derived inventory depletion overbooking model that judiciously balances the opportunity cost of empty rooms with the adverse consequences of oversales. The model thus allows hotel managers to systematically establish optimal booking levels.
High accuracy virtual electronic fence management technique based on GNSS

As bike-sharing has been emerging, it does not only satisfy people's large amounts of requirements of short distance travel, but also assists in eliminating URBAN ILLS, such as traffic congestion, environment contamination and so on. Its convenience of usage has been greatly promoted when getting rid of parking piles, but some newly situations, such as irregular parking behaviors lead to traffic environmental problems, which has an impact on the sustainable development of the bike-sharing. In this paper, high precision virtual electronic fence technology based on GNSS, intelligent terminal and precision orientation algorithm was proposed. Moreover, the bike-sharing's regular parking management and the accuracy of intelligent scheduling come true via BDS (compatible with GPS s GLONASS and GALILEO). Sub-meter positioning precision was achieved in the virtual electric fence technique, and the accuracy rate of lairaging of the bike-sharing has been more than 90%.
Surfing the wave, cycle, life history, and genes/proteins expressed by testicular germ cells. Part 1: Background to spermatogenesis, spermatogonia, and spermatocytes

Spermatogenesis, a study of germ cell development, is a long, orderly, and well‐defined process occurring in seminiferous tubules of the testis. It is a temporal event whereby undifferentiated spermatogonial germ cells evolve into maturing spermatozoa over a period of several weeks. Spermatogenesis is characterized by three specific functional phases: proliferation, meiosis, and differentiation, and it involves spermatogonia, spermatocytes, and spermatids. Germ cells at steps of development form various cellular associations or stages, with 6, 12, and 14 specific stages being identified in human, mouse, and rat, respectively. The stages evolve over time in a given area of the seminiferous tubule forming a cycle of the seminiferous epithelium that has a well‐defined duration for a given species. In this part, we discuss the proliferation and meiotic phase whereby spermatogonia undergo several mitotic divisions to form spermatocytes that undergo two meiotic divisions to form haploid spermatids. In the rat, spermatogonia can be subdivided into several classes: stem cells (As), proliferating cells (Apr, Aal), and differentiating cells (A1–A4, In, B). They are dependent on a specific microenvironment (niche) contributed by Sertoli, myoid, and Leydig cells for proper development. Spermatogonia possess several surface markers whereby they can be identified from each other. During meiosis, spermatocytes undergo chromosomal pairing, synapsis, and genetic exchange as well as transforming into haploid cells following meiosis. The meiotic cells form specific structural entities such as the synaptonemal complex and sex body. Many genes involved in spermatogonial renewal and the meiotic process have been identified and shown to be essential for this event. Microsc. Res. Tech., 2010. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Generalization of Features in the Assembly Neural Networks

The purpose of the paper is an experimental study of the formation of class descriptions, taking place during learning, in assembly neural networks. The assembly neural network is artificially partitioned into several sub-networks according to the number of classes that the network has to recognize. The features extracted from input data are represented in neural column structures of the sub-networks. Hebbian neural assemblies are formed in the column structure of the sub-networks by weight adaptation. A specific class description is formed in each sub-network of the assembly neural network due to intersections between the neural assemblies. The process of formation of class descriptions in the sub-networks is interpreted as feature generalization. A set of special experiments is performed to study this process, on a task of character recognition using the MNIST database.
Cell Function and Viability in Glucose Polymer Peritoneal Dialysis Fluids

Objective To investigate the biocompatibility profile of a new peritoneal dialysis fluid containing glucose polymer (GPF). Design Viability and function of peripheral neutrophils (PMN) from healthy donors and cultured human peritoneal mesothelial cells were assessed in vitro after exposure to dialysis fluids. Phagocytosis, leukotriene B4 synthesis, and respiratory burst activation were measured following stimulation with serum-treated zymosan (STZ) or opsonized Staphylococcus epidermidis (S. epidermidis). Bacterial growth in the fluids was also investigated. In vivo pH equilibration of GPF and subsequent respiratory burst activation following incubation in spent dialysate were studied. Results For all the host defense parameters measured, commercial dialysis fluids (Dianeal; 1.36% and 3.86% glucose) and GPF (pH 5.2) were significantly more inhibitory than the control buffer (pH 7.3). Mesothelial cell viability was reduced by all the fluids tested irrespective of pH. Glucose polymer fluid was significantly more inhibitory than DianeaI 1.36% for STZ phagocytosis and respiratory burst activation. In contrast, it was less suppressive than DianeaI3.86% for L TB4 synthesis. For all parameters tested, except LTB4 generation, there was a marked effect of pH, with GPF being significantly more inhibitory at pH 5.2 than at pH 7.3. None of the fluids tested supported the growth of S. epidermidis, although the viable counts in GPF were significantly higher than in Dianeal. Fluid inhibition of PMN respiratory burst activation and cytotoxicity were reduced in a time-dependent manner following increasing dwell time in vivo. Conclusions GPF does not appear to be significantly different from Dianeal as far as host defense parameters are concerned. However, the cell viability and bacterial survival data suggest some possibly negative aspects of this fluid formation.
The Phillips Curve Under State-Dependent Pricing

This paper is related to a large recent literature studying the Phillips curve in sticky-price equilibrium models. It differs in allowing for the degree of price stickiness to be determined endogenously. A closed-form solution for short-term inflation is derived from the dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model with state-dependent pricing originally developed by Dotsey, King and Wolman. This generalised Phillips curve encompasses the New Keynesian Phillips curve (NKPC) based on Calvo-type price-setting as a special case. It describes current inflation as a function of lagged inflation, expected future inflation, and current and expected future real marginal costs. The paper demonstrates that inflation dynamics generated by the model for a broad class of time and state-dependent price-setting behaviours are well approximated by the popular hybrid NKPC (with one lag of inflation) in a low-inflation environment. This provides an explanation of why the hybrid NKPC performs well in describing inflation dynamics across industrial countries. It implies, however, that the reduced-form coefficients of the hybrid NKPC may not have a structural interpretation.
Risk factors associated with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and its relationship with the hepatic histological changes

Objective The objective of this study is to determine the association between risk factors and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and to establish the relationship between risk factors and hepatic histological changes in obese women. Methods A case-control design study. Women with NAFLD (cases) were compared with a control group of obese women without NAFLD matched by age, body mass index, waist circumference, and body fat. Irrespective of serum aminotransferases levels, diagnosis of NAFLD was established by the presence of type II diabetes, hypertriglyceridemia, and ultrasonographic changes of hepatic steatosis. Diagnosis of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis was performed by a liver biopsy. Women with an aspartate aminotransferase/alanine aminotransferase (ALT) ratio of at least 1 underwent liver biopsy. Alcohol consumption, hepatitis, and drugs that promote cholestasis or liver injury were the exclusion criteria. Multiple regression analysis was used to compute the association between the risk factors and NAFLD, and Spearman's analysis was used to examine its relationship with histological hepatic changes. Results A total of 108 obese women were enrolled. The frequency of high blood pressure, hypertriglyceridemia, and diabetes was similar between the groups. ALT (54.4±33.3 and 39.8±29.8, P=0.03) but not aspartate aminotransferase (45.4±23.1 and 36.7±21.2, P=0.06) was significantly higher in the women with NAFLD. The multivariate regression analysis showed a significant association of ALT (odds ratio 2.7; 95% confidence interval, 1.3–10.4), but not other variables with NAFLD. Type II diabetes was strongly correlated with ballooning and inflammation, and ALT with inflammation and fibrosis. Conclusion Obese women with similar metabolic alterations exhibit different hepatic outcomes. Elevation of ALT, but not other risk factors, was associated with NAFLD. Diabetes and ALT correlate with histological hepatic changes.
Differential and extrapolation techniques for extracting dielectric loss of printed circuit board laminates

The experiment-based differential and extrapolation techniques to extract frequency-dependent dielectric loss of printed circuit board laminates are proposed. Separation of dielectric loss from conductor loss on substantially rough copper foils is based on the analysis of frequency (ω) components in dielectric and conductor losses. Smooth conductor loss behaves as √ω, while dielectric loss behaves as ω and ω<sup>2</sup>. However, conductor roughness behaves as √ω, ω, and ω<sup>2</sup>, and these contributions may be lumped into the dielectric loss. A few examples of extracting the unique dielectric loss parameters for PCB test striplines with the same dielectric, but with either different types of foils, or with different widths of the signal traces, are presented.
Identification and characterization of proteinase K-resistant proteins in members of the class Mollicutes

Proteins resistant to proteinase K are rare because of the potency, wide pH optimum, and low peptide bond specificity of this enzyme. Previously, only the prion proteins associated with transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, possibly related proteins in the mollicute Spiroplasma mirum, and proteinase K itself have been reported. We identified a new proteinase K-resistant protein, p40-pr, in two strains of Mycoplasma hyorhinis and in extracts of these organisms. p40-pr's are similar to prion proteins in their resistance to high doses of proteinase K and in the reversal of this resistance by strong denaturing conditions. However, p40-pr's were distinct immunologically, in relative molecular mass, and in their method of extraction. Two immunologically related forms of p40-pr were identified on sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) gels and Western immunoblots, a 40-kDa species in boiled samples and a 120-kDa species dissociable by boiling in SDS. Reduction with 2-mercaptoethanol did not affect the mass of p40-pr's or the 120-kDa forms. The development of proteinase K resistance of p40-pr correlated to age-dependent increases in organism protein-lipid ratios. p40-pr-like proteinase K-resistant proteins of 46 to 50 kDa were identified in four of eight additional species of the class Mollicutes but not in S. mirum. However, these mycoplasmal proteins did not react with antibody to the denatured 40-kDa form of M. hyorhinis p40-pr purified by electroelution. The chromatographically purified 46-kDa proteinase K-resistant protein of Mycoplasma orale was an arginine deiminase.
Joblessness and Poverty in America's Central Cities: Causes and Policy Prescriptions

Two paradigms pervade the policy debate on the causes of urban joblessness and poverty: (1) a structural, nonvoluntaristic perspective emphasizing the roles of urban economic change, residential segregation, and spatial and skills mismatches, and (2) a rational-choice, voluntaristic perspective contending that the generosity and ready availability of welfare programs have removed the incentive for poor persons to accept low-paying jobs. This article brings together propositions of each paradigm into a comprehensive theoretical model. The study measured and tested key causal operators of the model for a sample of 67 large U.S. cities, with special attention to race and gender. Results show that structural and welfare disincentive perspectives are not in conflict but rather operate side by side to reinforce joblessness and poverty. Race and gender, especially the role of urban space for women’s work, are important. The article raises pertinent policy issues derived from the two perspectives and from the analysis.