Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Musculoskeletal morphology of the pelvis and pelvic fins in the lungfish Protopterus annectens

The West African lungfish (Protopterus annectens) performs benthic, pelvic fin‐driven locomotion with gaits common to tetrapods, the sister group of the lungfishes. Features of P. annectens movement are similar to those of modern tetrapods and include use of the distal region of the pelvic fin as a “foot,” use of the fin to lift the body above the substrate and rotation of the fin around the joint with the pelvis. In contrast to these similarities in movement, the pelvic fins of P. annectens are long, slender structures that are superficially very different from tetrapod limbs. Here, we describe the musculoskeletal anatomy of the pelvis and pelvic fins of P. annectens with dissection, magnetic resonance imaging, histology and 3D‐reconstruction methods. We found that the pelvis is embedded in the hypaxial muscle by a median rostral and two dorsolateral skeletal projections. The protractor and retractor muscles at the base of the pelvic fin are fan‐shaped muscles that cup the femur. The skeletal elements of the fin are serially repeating cartilage cylinders. Along the length of the fin, repeating truncated cones of muscles, the musculus circumradialis pelvici, are separated by connective tissue sheets that connect the skeletal elements to the skin. The simplicity of the protractor and retractor muscles at the base of the fin is surprising, given the complex rotational movement those muscles generate. In contrast, the series of many repeating segmental muscles along the length of the fin is consistent with the dexterity of bending of the distal limb. P. annectens can provide a window into soft‐tissue anatomy and sarcopterygian fish fin function that complements the fossil data from related taxa. This work, combined with previous behavioral examination of P. annectens, illustrates that fin morphologies that do not appear to be capable of walking can accomplish that function, and may inform the interpretation of fossil anatomical evidence. J. Morphol. 275:431–441, 2014. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Masalah Penentuan Kombinasi Terminal dan Rute Kapal

SAEPUDIN HIDAYATULLOH. Problems of Combining Terminal and Shipping Route. Supervised by FARIDA HANUM and DONNY CITRA LESMANA. Delivery problem from company to its customers is a very important issue. However, there are constraints in this occasion such as the available number of delivery routes from the factory to the customers and the availability of terminals as transit points. Because it involves a large number of ships, routes and terminals, the company must determine the combination of routes and terminal facilities that minimize the delivery cost to the customers, both local and foreign customers. The above cost minimization problem can be regarded as a mixed integer programming problem (MIP). The problem can be solved using branch and bound method. Optimal value is obtained using Lingo 8.0 software. Finally, the optimal terminal and shipping route combinations have been obtained, so that the cost of delivering product is minimized. In addition, the quantity of goods that minimize the cost via the optimal route has also been obtained.
Modification of eukaryotic initiation factor 4F during infection by influenza virus

Influenza virus infection of cells is accompanied by a striking shutoff of cellular protein synthesis, resulting in the exclusive translation of viral mRNAs. The mechanism for control of cellular protein synthesis by influenza virus is poorly understood, but several translation properties of influenza virus mRNAs which are potentially involved have been described. Influenza virus mRNAs possess the surprising ability to translate in the presence of inhibitory levels of inactive (phosphorylated) eukaryotic initiation factor 2 (eIF-2). In addition, influenza virus mRNAs were shown to be capable of translating in cells during the late phase of adenovirus infection but not in cells infected by poliovirus. Since both adenovirus and poliovirus facilitate virus-specific translation by impairing the activity of initiation factor eIF-4F (cap-binding protein complex) but through different mechanisms, we investigated the translation properties of influenza virus mRNAs in more detail. We show that influenza virus infection is associated with the significant dephosphorylation and inactivation of eIF-4E (cap-binding protein), a component of eIF-4F, and accordingly that influenza virus mRNAs possess a moderate ability to translate by using low levels of eIF-4F. We also confirm the ability of influenza virus mRNAs to translate in the presence of high levels of inactive (phosphorylated) eIF-2 but to a more limited extent than reported previously. We suggest a potential mechanism for the regulation of protein synthesis by influenza virus involving a decreased requirement for large pools of active eIF-4F and eIF-2.
Financial Leverage Interaction with Firm's Strategic Behavior: An Empirical Analysis

New connections between firm's financial policy, stakeholder theory, and firms' strategic behavior have emerged. First, according to the stakeholder theory, firm's non-financial stakeholders should be taken into account as claimants to the firm's cash flow because they affect debt level. Second, the view that firm's debt will affect firms' strategic behavior is adopted. Nonetheless, foresighted firms would anticipate output market consequences of financial decisions; thus, output market conditions will influence leverage level. Therefore, we are faced by a two-direction effect, which is the aim of this paper. We estimate a simultaneous equations model with a sample of 2,112 Spanish manufacturing firms between 1993 and 1999. We specify a financial leverage equation that depends on stakeholder theory and firm's strategic behavior. Moreover, we specify a second equation to analyze how firm's strategic behavior is affected by financial leverage. Finally, leverage level is empirically showed to affect and be affected by firm's strategic behavior.
Modélisation en Interaction Homme-Machine et en Système d'Information : A la croisée des chemins

Les recherches presentees dans ce memoire visent a inventer des methodes de conception ou des composants de methodes (c'est-a-dire des modeles de produits, de processus, et des outils) de nature a soutenir le developpement de Systemes d'Information (SI) innovants, beneficiant des avancees technologiques pour assurer a l'utilisateur une qualite en tout contexte d'usage. Elles se situent ainsi a la croisee de trois communautes, introduisant chacune une preoccupation : l'Interaction Homme-Machine (IHM) pour la prise en compte de l'utilisateur final ; les Systemes d'Information (SI) pour la consideration du contexte organisationnel ; et le Genie Logiciel (GL) pour l'etude et l'invention des techniques et outils supports. Les contributions s'articulent autour de trois axes : 1) la mise en commun des pratiques des domaines de l'IHM et des SI pour favoriser la prise en compte des specificites de ces deux domaines ; 2) l'etude conjointe de l'auto-explication pour avancer, avec les specificites de chacun, vers le defi commun des modeles interactifs ; 3) les pratiques et outils de gestion de modeles au dela des domaines de l'IHM et des SI.
Inventory of social entrepreneurial methods/tools for PC3implementation: the business perspective

This thesis tries to identify the factors contributing to succesfully operating in BoP markets. Literature review was used to identify success factors for traditional businesses, this revealed several factors in 4 different categories. A working definition for social entrepreneurship was introduced and used as a tool to identify social entrepreneurs and invite them to participate in an online survey. A total of 53 social entrepreneurs were invited to participate of which 8 completed the survey. The survey contained 29 questions in the 4 different categories as were found in literature review. The survey was used to test if these factors would also apply to social entrepreneurship. Most factors as found in the literature review, that applied to tradtitional entrepreneurship, also apply to social entrepreneurs. A second goal of this thesis was to contribute to the development of a viable business model for social entrepreneurs. This research showed that existing business models mostly lack the social mission of the social entrepreneurs. In order to develop a viable business model for social entrepreneurship the empathy should move towards the social mission. In order to get a permanent place in the world, social entrepreneurship needs to keep developing itself.
Ownership Structure and Endogenous Quality Choice

This paper examines how ownership structure affects quality choice and the subsequent equilibrium outcomes within a duopoly framework. Specifically, investor owned firms and cooperatives are analyzed in a closed market setting where these firms may coexist in the economy. The conditions under which ownership structure matters are identified. We conclude that ownership structure matters if the cost of quality at farm level is fixed or if there is a variable cost exhibiting non-constant returns to scale. Two farm level cost functions, a fixed cost function that is increasing and convex in quality, and a variable cost function that is increasing and convex in quantity are analyzed. The two processing firms play a two-stage game where each of the firms produces either high or low quality goods. In the first stage they decide the level of quality to produce, and in the second stage they compete in prices. In the case of a fixed cost function only cooperatives consider the costs incurred at farm level in the first stage of the game. Hence, investor owned firms produce higher levels of qualities at lower prices and generates a larger consumer surplus than cooperatives. The high quality market share is constant in all scenarios. In the case of a variable cost function at farm level, the cooperative has a cost advantage, as the investor owned processor has to pay farm level marginal cost for all farm inputs. It is found that cooperatives generate higher levels and larger quantities of the high quality good at lower prices. This results in higher profits and a larger market share of the high quality good. The cooperative structure also generates a larger consumer surplus and a higher total welfare than the investor owned structure.
The Achilles Heel of the Dual Income Tax. The Norwegian Case

The dual income tax provides the self-employed individual with large incentives to participate in tax minimizing income shifting. The present paper analyses the income shifting incentives under the Norwegian split model when real capital investments are risky. It concludes that high-income self-employed individuals can incorporate and use the legal form of a widely held corporation as a tax shelter. In addition, real capital investments with a low risk profile are means to shift income from the labor income tax base to the capital income tax base for the highincome self-employed.
University of Dundee The relationship between the markup and inflation in the G 7 economies and Australia

An I(2) analysis of inflation and the markup is undertaken for the G7 economies and Australia. We find that the levels of prices and costs are best described as I(2) processes and that except for Japan a linear combination of the log levels of prices and costs cointegrate to the markup that is integrated of order 1. It is also shown that the markup in each case cointegrates with inflation and that higher inflation is associated with a lower markup in the long-run.
Affective and physiological correlates of the perception of unimodal and bimodal emotional stimuli

Background: Despite the multisensory nature of perception, previous research on emotions has been focused on unimodal emotional cues with visual stimuli. To the best of our knowledge, there is no evidence on the extent to which incongruent emotional cues from visual and auditory sensory channels affect pupil size. Aims: To investigate the effects of audiovisual emotional information perception on the physiological and affective response, but also to determine the impact of mismatched cues in emotional perception on these physiological indexes. Method: Pupil size, electrodermal activity and affective subjective responses were recorded while 30 participants were exposed to visual and auditory stimuli with varied emotional content in three different experimental conditions: pictures and sounds presented alone (unimodal), emotionally matched audio‐visual stimuli (bimodal congruent) and emotionally mismatched audio‐visual stimuli (bimodal incongruent). Results: The data revealed no effect of emotional incongruence on physiological and affective responses. On the other hand, pupil size covaried with skin conductance response (SCR), but the subjective experience was partially dissociated from autonomic responses. Conclusion: Emotional stimuli are able to trigger physiological responses regardless of valence, sensory modality or level of emotional congruence. Resumen Correlatos afectivos y fisiológicos de la percepción de estímulos emocionales unimodales y bimodales. Antecedentes: a pesar de la naturaleza multisensorial de la percepción, la investigación que se ha hecho hasta el momento sobre las emociones se ha centrado en las señales emocionales típicamente unimodales. Según nuestro conocimiento, no existen estudios previos sobre cómo las señales emocionales incongruentes pueden afectar el tamaño de la pupila. Objetivos: investigar los efectos de la percepción de la información emocional audiovisual incongruente sobre las respuestas de tipo fisiológico y afectivo. Método: el tamaño pupilar, la actividad electrodérmica y las respuestas subjetivas afectivas de 30 participantes fueron registradas mientras ellos veían y escuchaban estímulos con contenido emocional que fueron expuestos en tres condiciones experimentales diferentes: imágenes y sonidos presentados aisladamente (unimodal); estímulos audiovisuales emocionalmente coincidentes (congruente bimodal); y estímulos audiovisuales emocionalmente no coincidentes (incongruente bimodal). Resultados: el estudio no reveló un efecto de la incongruencia emocional sobre las respuestas fisiológicas y afectivas. De otra parte, se encontró que el tamaño pupilar presenta una covariación con la actividad dérmica. Sin embargo, la experiencia subjetiva se mostró parcialmente disociada de las respuestas autónomas. Conclusión: los estímulos emocionales tienen la capacidad de desencadenar reacciones fisiológicas, independientemente de la valencia, modalidad sensorial o nivel de congruencia.
Pore dynamics induced by nsPEFs: A comparison between experimental and theoretical results

Starting from experimental data where plasma membrane permeabilization has been demonstrated in human lymphoblastoid Jurkat T-cells exposed to a single 60ns, 2.5 MV/m pulsed electric field, a 2D numerical model has been exploited in order to describe the dynamics of pore formation and induced transmembrane voltage. The adopted approach, employed here for the first time for nanosecond duration pulses, represents an useful tool to give insight into the involved physical phenomena and drive the experimental design in addressing mechanistic understanding and applications.
A Demonstration of Stella: A Crowdsourcing-Based Geotagging Framework

This paper demonstrates Stella; an efficient crowdsourcing-based geotagging framework for any types of objects. In this demonstration, we showcase the effectiveness of Stella in geotagging images via two different scenarios: (1) we provide a graphical interface to show the process of a geotagging process that have been done by using Amazon Mechanical Turk, (2) we seek help from the conference attendees to propose an image to be geotagged or to help us geotag an image by using our application during the demonstration period. At the end of the demonstration period, we will show the geotagging result.
Does Cost Sharing Really Reduce Inappropriate Prescriptions?

This paper explores different empirical strategies to examine the effect of cost sharing for prescription drugs in some dimensions of medication-related quality, namely the probability of inappropriate prescription drug use among United States seniors. Using data from 1996 to 2005, we explore various specifications that correct for sample selection, endogeneity¸ and unobserved heterogeneity. We find a small, but measurable, negative price elasticity for inappropriate drug use with respect to self-reported average out-of-pocket costs for all drugs consumed. That is, user fees reduce the use of potentially inappropriate medications, however the elasticity of cost sharing is lower than that of drugs in general and the price elasticity is relatively close to zero, suggesting that any quality improvements from co-payments are small.
Maintaining Generation Adequacy in a Restructuring U.S. Electricity Industry

Historically, decisions on the amounts, locations, types, and timing of investments in new generation have been made by vertically integrated utilities with approval from state public utility commissions. As the U.S. electricity industry is restructured, these decisions are being fragmented and dispersed among a variety of organizations. As generation is deregulated and becomes increasingly competitive, decisions on whether to build new generators and to retire, maintain, or repower existing units will increasingly be made by unregulated for-profit corporations. These decisions will be based largely on investor assessments of future profitability and only secondarily on regional reliability requirements. In addition, some customers will choose to face real-time (spot) prices and will respond to the occasionally very high prices by reducing electricity use at those times. Market-determined generation levels will, relative to centrally mandated reserve margins, lead to: (1) more volatile energy prices; (2) lower electricity costs and prices; and (3) a generation mix with more baseload, and less peaking, capacity. During the transition from a vertically integrated, regulated industry to a deintegrated, competitive industry, government regulators and system operators may continue to impose minimum-installed-capacity requirements on load-serving entities. As the industry gains experience with customer responses to real-time pricing and with operation of competitive intrahour energy markets, these requirements will likely disappear. We quantitatively analyzed these issues with the Oak Ridge Competitive Electricity Dispatch model (ORCED). Model results show that the optimal reserve margin depends on various factors, including fuel prices, initial mix of generation capacity, and customer response to electricity prices (load shapes and system load factor). Because the correct reserve margin depends on these generally unpredictable factors, mandated reserve margins might be too high, leading to higher electricity costs and prices. Absent mandated reserve margins, electricity prices and costs decline with increasing customer response to prices during high-demand periods. The issues discussed here are primarily transitional rather than enduring. However, the transition from a highly regulated, vertically integrated industry to one dominated by competition is likely to take another five to ten years.
Perpetual Conservation Easements in the 21st Century: What Have We Learned and Where Should We Go from Here?

The public is investing billions of dollars in conservation easements, which now protect an estimated 40 million acres throughout the United States. But all is not well. Uncertainties in the law and abusive practices threaten to undermine public confidence in and the effectiveness of conservation easements as a land protection tool. This short article is part of a series of articles published in the law review discussing conservation easements, with a focus on what we have learned thus far and where we should go from here. This article sets the stage by describing the dramatic growth in the use of conservation easements, the various laws that impact easement creation and administration, a timeline of important legal and policy developments, and the recent surprising lack of certainty and consensus regarding what it means to protect land “in perpetuity” or “forever” with a conservation easement. The article concludes by discussing how the perpetuity issue might be productively resolved.
First Self

It is blue with small white flowers, and the tail is tucked firmly into the elastic waistband of her salmon-pink pants. Beginning at the top and moving down, she works carefully at each of the small plastic buttons. “Mother,” I plead with her, “you don’t need to do that. ” She smiles at me and continues unfastening buttons. Her padded cotton and elastic bra begins to appear. Her breasts swell pallidly above it. The room is not well lit. The curtains are drawn, as they always are, against the sun. But I can see more of my mother than I wish to. My father, sitting here with me, says nothing. My wife, Gina, and two other women in the room also sit silently as my mother undresses herself. I smell her perfume as she works at her blouse, her perfume and the lotion she lathers herself with every morning. I see the wrinkles beneath her arms, the flaps of skin at the elbows. She pulls off the blouse and stands before us with it in her right hand. Her gray hair sprays in every direction. Her back is littered with small brown moles, her skin like ice over an old pond. And her dark eyes, fallen far back in the sockets of her skull, flutter from face to face like moths. This is not, of course, my mother. My mother would never have bared this much of herself in front of strangers and certainly never in front of her son. My mother was quiet, shy, prudent. And this is, of course, my mother, her face, her hands, her dried out, fungus-ruined feet. But things have changed. The nondescript, nappy, brown carpet is just as it always has been. The counters are still lined with the detritus of middle-class life. The cheap fan still chops at the air overhead, and the draining board with its plastic dish rack still drips dishwater into the same stainless steel sink. The clock with its three golden balls spools out the hours like kites, just as it always has. But my mother is mad. And the six of us have gathered today to evaluate her for custodial care. Custodial care! It sounds as though we might turn her over to the janitors at the university where I work. As though they might know what to do with her since we don’t. Appalled or not, though, we have no more time to twist our tales.
A new very low-voltage, low-power CMOS RF mixer

A new very low power RF mixer is introduced. The proposed mixer is based on two techniques: A CMOS transistor pair is applied to the four cross-coupled commutating transistor (the first technique), and current boosted technique, as described in the paper. The CMOS mixer is simulated in 0.18 mum CMOS technology. The mixer has an input signal of 0.2 V and operates on a single 3.3 V supply with transistor threshold voltages of 0.57 V for all NMOS transistors and - 0.52 V for all PMOS transistors, and has a power dissipation of 2.66 mW.
Online shoppers vs non-shoppers: A lifestyle study of Malaysian Internet users

This study is among the few to study whether there is any difference in the internet oriented lifestyles between online Malaysian shoppers and non-shoppers. It was found that most online shoppers are young males who were professionals, managers or had their own businesses. They are less concerned about online security, are competent internet users and shop online because they find it fun, easy and convenient. The study also revealed some fundamental satisfied and dissatisfies of shopping online. It is recommended that those companies involved in e-commerce activities should take steps to reduce the fears of the consumers with regards to online shopping.