Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mitochondrial function, fibre types and ageing: new insights from human muscle in vivo

Mitochondrial changes are at the centre of a wide range of maladies, including diabetes, neurodegeneration and ageing‐related dysfunctions. Here we describe innovative optical and magnetic resonance spectroscopic methods that non‐invasively measure key mitochondrial fluxes, ATP synthesis and O2 uptake, to permit the determination of mitochondrial coupling efficiency in vivo (P/O: half the ratio of ATP flux to O2 uptake). Three new insights result. First, mitochondrial coupling can be measured in vivo with the rigor of a biochemical determination and provides a gold standard to define well‐coupled mitochondria (P/O ≈ 2.5). Second, mitochondrial coupling differs substantially among muscles in healthy adults, from values reflective of well‐coupled oxidative phosphorylation in a hand muscle (P/O = 2.7) to mild uncoupling in a leg muscle (P/O = 2.0). Third, these coupling differences have an important impact on cell ageing. We found substantial uncoupling and loss of cellular [ATP] in a hand muscle indicative of mitochondrial dysfunction with age. In contrast, stable mitochondrial function was found in a leg muscle, which supports the notion that mild uncoupling is protective against mitochondrial damage with age. Thus, greater mitochondrial dysfunction is evident in muscles with higher type II muscle fibre content, which may be at the root of the preferential loss of type II fibres found in the elderly. Our results demonstrate that mitochondrial function and the tempo of ageing varies among human muscles in the same individual. These technical advances, in combination with the range of mitochondrial properties available in human muscles, provide an ideal system for studying mitochondrial function in normal tissue and the link between mitochondrial defects and cell pathology in disease.
A hybrid "k-means, VSS LMS" learning method for RBF network in short-term load forecasting

In this paper we investigate the performance of a hybrid learning algorithm for RBF network in the application of short-term load forecasting. In this method the algorithm for finding radial basis function centers of hidden layer is k-means and the algorithm for training the weights of output layer is adaptive variable step-size algorithm. We proved this method is both accurate and fast in comparison with other presented schemes. Also we demonstrated that this method requires less computational processing and can perform well when amount of the input data is large. Our simulation results show there is up to 30 percent improvement in processing time and 37% improvement in prediction accuracy when compared with previously improved k-means learning.
Product Market Competition and Financial Decisions During a Financial Crisis

We find that in the presence of the “flight to quality” during the 2007-2008 financial crisis, firms that depended less on external financing (or internal finance dependent (IFD) firms) prior to the crisis were able to secure additional financing and increased investments, while external finance dependent (EFD) firms significantly contracted their external financing and investments. IFD firms’ increased investments during the crisis were associated with higher market share growth, while EFD competitors lost their market share. The results indicate that firms’ financial decisions during the financial crisis are interrelated with their product market dimensions. © 2015 Financial Management Association International.
Behavioral Capital Structure: Is the Neoclassical Paradigm Threatened? Evidence from the Field

We show that capital structure decisions and financial behavior in general seems to deviate from the traditional neoclassical paradigm. Behavioral finance and the post Keynesian financial behavior approach provide better explanations in “decoding” financial managers' opinions and behavior. Specifically, our starting point is the analysis of qualitative corporate data from the Greek market. The data come from the answers in a detailed questionnaire, and in this paper we analyze capital structure determination and the relationship between capital structure and stock price. Results are in favor of the market timing approach and the managers' opinions and behavior on issues concerning capital structure determinants, and the relationship between capital structure and stock price seem to be better explained under the behavioral finance proponents and within the post Keynesian paradigm.
The HOOK region of β subunits controls gating of voltage-gated Ca2+ channels by electrostatically interacting with plasma membrane

ABSTRACT Recently, we showed that the HOOK region of the β2 subunit electrostatically interacts with the plasma membrane and regulates the current inactivation and phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PIP2) sensitivity of voltage-gated Ca2+ (CaV) 2.2 channels. Here, we report that voltage-dependent gating and current density of the CaV2.2 channels are also regulated by the HOOK region of the β2 subunit. The HOOK region can be divided into 3 domains: S (polyserine), A (polyacidic), and B (polybasic). We found that the A domain shifted the voltage-dependent inactivation and activation of CaV2.2 channels to more hyperpolarized and depolarized voltages, respectively, whereas the B domain evoked these responses in the opposite directions. In addition, the A domain decreased the current density of the CaV2.2 channels, while the B domain increased it. Together, our data demonstrate that the flexible HOOK region of the β2 subunit plays an important role in determining the overall CaV channel gating properties.
A facile fabrication technique for stretchable interconnects and transducers via laser carbonization

This paper presents a facile, low-cost approach for fabricating highly-porous conductive carbon patterns on elastomeric substrates using laser carbonization of polyimide and its subsequent transfer onto a PDMS sheet. Using this technique, we fabricated stretchable interconnects and an array of piezoresistive tactile sensors. Raman spectra of pyrolyzed carbon regions revealed that under optimal laser settings, one can obtain highly porous carbon particles, nanotubes, and graphite sheets with sheet resistances as low as 50 Ω/. Characterizations of the stretchable patterns showed linear sensitivities of 8.912 kΩ/ε% and 518Ω/N in response to strain and normal force, respectively.
The effect of marketing capability, financing resource and spatial configuration on market-focused flexibility

In spite of the normative appeal of flexibility, the concept has rarely been considered from strategic marketing perspective. Without being market focused, flexibility will not result in superior value creation and sustainable competitive advantage. In the light of the above shortcomings, this study examined a firm's flexibility with reference to a specified export venture market. Based upon the strategic marketing perspective, this study identified three sets of antecedents of market-focused flexibility: marketing capabilities, financing resources and spatial configurations. The empirical evidences showed reasonable support for the proposed model. In addition, this study brought clear evidences demonstrating the powerful effect of market-focused flexibility on competitive advantages and performance in the corresponding markets. As a whole, this study helps scholars and managers to better conceptualise and measure market-focused flexibility, understand how it develops in the firm and how it works together with other important resources and capabilities to affect outcomes.
International Publishing Patterns: An Investigation of Leading UK and Us Accounting and Finance Journals

Research quality is often measured by the quality of the journals in which articles are published. This article looks at 1,867 articles published in six highly-rated UK and six highly-rated US academic journals from 1996 to 2000. The authors publishing in the UK journals come mainly from UK and US institutions, but just over a third come from other countries. However, almost ninety per cent of authors publishing in top US journals come from US institutions. Contributions from authors from institutions in non-English speaking countries in these top journals are rare. The implications of this research are that although accounting is growing increasingly international, academic research, especially in the top US journals remains stubbornly nationally-orientated.
Metabolic modelling of microbes: the flux-balance approach.

One area of active research in this area has focused on bacterial metabolism (van Gulik and Heijnen, 1995; Liao et al., 1996; Lee et al., 1997; Sauer et al., 1998; Edwards and Palsson, 1999; Sauer and Bailey, 1999; Schilling et al., 1999; Edwards and Palsson, 2000a, b; Schilling et al., 2000; Edwards et al., 2001a, b). Genomic information, coupled with biochemical and strain-specific information, has been used to reconstruct whole-cell metabolic networks for sequenced organisms (Edwards and Palsson, 1999; Schilling and Palsson, 2000) (Fig. 1). However, this information is not sufficient to specify completely the metabolic phenotypes that will be expressed under given environmental conditions. Metabolic phenotypes can be defined in terms of flux distributions through a metabolic network. Interpreting and predicting metabolic flux distributions requires the application of mathematical modelling and computer simulation. There exists a long history of quantitative metabolic modelling (Bailey, 1998) that will not be detailed here. Currently, several well developed mathematical approaches exist for the dynamic analysis of cellular metabolism and its regulation (Shuler and Domach, 1983; Liao, 1993; Palsson and Lee, 1993; Fell, 1996; Barkai and Leibler, 1997; Bailey, 1998; Novak et al., 1999; Tomita et al., 1999; Varner and Ramkrishna, 1999; Vaseghi et al., 1999). Most of these methods require detailed kinetic and concentration information about enzymes and various cofactors. Even though biological information is growing rapidly, we still do not have enough information to describe cellular metabolism in mathematical detail for a single cell (Bailey, 2001). The human red blood cell remains the only exception (Holzhutter et al., 1985; Schuster et al., 1988; Joshi and Palsson, 1989; Rae et al., 1990; Lee and Palsson, 1991; Mulquiney and Kuchel, 1999)
The Effect of Noisy Fair Value Measures on Bank Capital Adequacy Ratios

SYNOPSIS: Fair value accounting has been a hotly debated topic during the recent financial crisis. Supporters argue that fair values are more relevant to investors, while detractors point to the measurement error in the estimation of the reported fair values to attack its reliability. This study examines how noise in reported fair values impacts bank capital adequacy ratios. If measurement error causes reported capital levels to deviate from fundamental levels, then regulators could misidentify a financially healthy bank as troubled (type I error) or a financially troubled bank as safe (type II error), leading to suboptimal resource allocations for banks, regulators, and investors. We use a Monte Carlo simulation to generate our data, and find that while noise leads to both type I and type II errors around key Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) capital adequacy benchmarks, the type I error dominates. Specifically, noise is associated with 2.58 (2.60) [1.092], 5.67 (6.44) [1.94], and 10.60 (26.83.
Modeling Price and Quantity Relations for Danish Manufacturing Exports

This article develops a structural econometric model for Danish manufacturing exports. The cointegrating relations of the model are determined to be a markup pricing relation and an export demand relation, whereas the short-run structure shows pricing-to-market effects. Both long-run and short-run pricing relations are found to be empirically constant during a period of large exchange-rate variations. The model isolates the main interactions between the foreign-trade sector, the exchange rate, and domestic variables, which played a key role in the external adjustment of the economy during the sample period.
The Unfavorable Economics of Measuring the Returns to Advertising

Twenty-five large field experiments with major U.S. retailers and brokerages, most reaching millions of customers and collectively representing $2.8 million in digital advertising expenditure, reveal that measuring the returns to advertising is difficult. The median confidence interval on return on investment is over 100 percentage points wide. Detailed sales data show that relative to the per capita cost of the advertising, individual-level sales are very volatile; a coefficient of variation of 10 is common. Hence, informative advertising experiments can easily require more than 10 million person-weeks, making experiments costly and potentially infeasible for many firms. Despite these unfavorable economics, randomized control trials represent progress by injecting new, unbiased information into the market. The inference challenges revealed in the field experiments also show that selection bias, due to the targeted nature of advertising, is a crippling concern for widely employed observational methods. JEL Codes: L10, M37, C93.
Writing Errors of a Cantonese Dysgraphic Patient and their Theoretical Implications

This paper reports a case study of a Cantonese-speaking dysgraphic patient. Among his written errors were phonologically plausible errors that were mostly homophonous or differed only in tone from their target. They occurred not only in writing-to-dictation but also in written naming. Since his lexico-semantic system is hypothesized to be largely preserved, as evidenced by normal performance on non-verbal semantic tests and word-picture matching, the presence of homophone and tonal errors strengthened previous claims about the existence of a lexically-mediated non-semantic pathway of writing Chinese and access from the phonological output lexicon to the orthographic output lexicon. In addition, his non-character responses, particularly those involving substitution of constituent(s), almost always maintained the configuration of their target. This observation implies that orthographic representations contain not only information on the identity of components but also structural information. The latter may, among other possibilities, take the form of a template indicating the internal organization of the character or specification for position of occurrence for each constituent within the character.
Locating ground fault in distribution systems using smart meter

Ground fault location and isolating the fault location is very challenging in compensated distribution systems because of the fact that the fault current is very small to be measured. Considering that the massive intelligent electronic devices and Smart meter are installed in the distribution networks with the development of the “smart grid”, in this paper proposes a fault location method using the high voltage side smart metering unit recorded data. In the developed method uses the faulted negative sequence voltage and locates the faulted sections by applying the relationship between fault distance and measurement groups. The method is tested using three bus distribution systems and results give that it is suitable for system with both passive loads and distributed generations and it is not influenced by the system harmonic distortions, measurement noises and the loss of communication from one or even more of metering units. The proposed method uses the wide-area measured data but does not require any synchronization method. Accompanied with the less cost contactors, the method can locate and isolate the fault sections without interrupting the good system operations and makes it feasible for industry application.
Hedonic modelling, housing submarkets and residential valuation

Implicit in the comparative method of valuation is the concept of housing submarkets yet little attempt has been made to link research into housing market areas with the valuation process. Hedonic models based on price data from Belfast infer that submarkets may be identified over a wider spatial scale than previously considered. Implications for the valuation process relate to the selection of comparable evidence and the quality of variables that the valuer may need to consider.
Soil characterization in a subtropical forest crossed by highways (Cantareira State Park, SP, Brazil)

Foram analisadas onze amostras de solo do Parque Estadual da Cantareira para avaliar a influencia do trafico veicular. Determinou-se para todos os solos a concentracao total, parcial e biodisponivel de (Na, Al, Ca, Mg, K, Si, Ti, Mn, Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Cd, Pb). Ate a data da amostragem nao foram observadas influencias das rodovias sobre a concentracao dos metais no solo. A unica excecao ocorreu no solo do ponto 3 (alta porcentagem de argila 64% e materia orgânica 6,4%) onde se encontrou a mais alta concentracao de Cr (74,5 e 94,5 mg kg-1), Ni (22,5 e 54,8 mg kg-1), Cu (83,8 e 121 mg kg-1), Cd (1,28 e 1,74 mg kg-1) e As (2,04 e 2,67 mg kg-1) na fracao A (0-20 cm) e B (20-40 cm) respectivamente, do que nos demais solos, provavelmente estes elementos provem de outra fonte poluidora. A sequencia dos microelementos biodisponiveis na fracao A do solo foi As > Cd > Zn > Cu > Pb > Ni > Cr.
A WCS-PSTD Method for Solving Electromagnetic Problems Both With Fine and Electrically Large Structures

A time domain method which is based on the hybrid implicit explicit difference technique and pseudospectral (PS) scheme is presented for solving 3D Maxwell's equations. The maximum time-step size in this method is only determined by one spatial discretization and the spatial discretization only needs two cells per wavelength. The 3D formulations of this method are presented and the time stability condition is demonstrated. This method is mainly useful for the simulations of electromagnetic problems where both fine and electrically large structures are employed. Compared with the conventional finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method and weakly conditionally stable (WCS)-FDTD method, this method has higher computational efficiency and less memory requirement, which is demonstrated through numerical examples.
The Target Zone Model, Non-linearity and Mean Reversion: Is the Honeymoon Really Over?

The authors estimate a target zone model for three ERM exchange rates for 1983-86 and 1987-91 by the method of simulated moments, taking account of the continuous time specification by using daily data with the interruptions of holidays and weekends. Specification tests are unable to reject the model. The estimates imply, however, an essentially linear relationship between the exchange rate and the fundamentals, with a very limited honeymoon effect. Using Monte Carlo simulations, calibrated on the estimates, the authors find that standard tests for mean reversion of the exchange rate would largely reject the target zone model when, in fact, it held.
Quality nursing care in Australian paediatric hospitals: a Delphi approach to identifying indicators.

AIM To identify indicators of quality nursing care by identifying structures, processes and outcomes perceived as valid, feasible, reliable and suitable for Australian paediatric hospitals by nursing experts. BACKGROUND Although measuring the quality of nursing care in acute care settings is being practised, there are few indicators validated for use in paediatric nursing. Using adult indicators for quality care measures in children's nursing has inherent problems. To contribute to quality improvement and safety in the paediatric population, it is essential to identify and validate indicators that will be useful in this context. DESIGN A modified Delphi technique. METHOD Fifty-seven indicators that potentially measure the quality of nursing care in paediatrics were identified following a review of the literature. Three online surveys where panellists rated these indicators for perceived validity in paediatric nursing, feasibility of data collection, reliability based on existing documentation and suitability in the paediatric context were completed between March-May 2010. RESULTS Fifty-two nurses contributed to the expert panel. Consensus of 75% for validity in paediatric nursing was reached on 42 indicators, which were then ranked for suitability of use. Nineteen indicators were deemed inappropriate, which included indicators commonly used in adult settings. CONCLUSION Face and content validity were reached for 42 indicators identified as potential valid measures of quality care in paediatric nursing. Further work is required to solve issues of reliability and feasibility of data collection and to ascertain whether the indicators occur frequently enough within Australian hospitals to be clinically useful. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE Identification of nursing-sensitive indicators that are valid in the paediatric setting is the first step in measuring the quality of care provided to children. Once established, measurement of the indicators may lead to improved patient safety and care in hospitals.
The Credit Rating Industry: An Industrial Organization Analysis

The June 1999 and January 2001 proposals by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Basel Committee on Banking Supervision to include borrowers' credit ratings in assessments of the adequacy of banks' capital have heightened general interest in the credit rating industry: Who the industry's firms are; what they do; how they do it; and what the consequences of their actions are. This paper uses the structure-behavior-performance paradigm of "industrial organization" to shed light on the credit rating industry and to provide a framework for arranging initial observations and developing questions for further analysis. A striking fact about the structure of the industry in the U.S. is its persistent fewness of incumbents. There have never been more than five general-purpose bond rating firms; currently there are only three. Network effects - users' desires for consistency of rating categories across issuers - are surely part of the explanation. But, for the past 25 years, regulatory restrictions (by the Securities and Exchange Commission) on who can be a "nationally recognized statistical rating organization" (NRSRO) have surely also played a role. A curious part of the behavior of the rating firms is their coverage and their pricing. Hypotheses to explain this behavior are explored. Although only limited information on profitability is available, it appears that bond rating is quite profitable. A growing regulatory demand for ratings (for safety-and-soundness regulation by bank regulators, insurance regulators, pension fund regulators, and securities regulators) and a regulatory limitation on supply surely are contributory factors. The BIS proposals, if adopted, will accentuate these trends for the U.S. and other industrial countries. There is an alternative to these growing regulatory pressures. It would involve the safety-and-soundness regulators' becoming more directly involved in regulatory judgments, rather than abdicating these judgments to private-sector bond rating firms. The SEC, and its counterparts abroad, could then vacate their roles as the certifier of credit rating firms. These suggestions do not mean that the credit rating firms should be prevented from playing a continuing role in helping issuers and investors pierce the fog of asymmetric information in financial markets. But that role should be determined by the market participants themselves, not by additional regulation that artificially increases demand and restricts supply. The latter is a recipe for shortages, rents, and distortions. This is not a welcome prospect.