Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Disentangling the complexities of vertebrate sex allocation: a role for squamate reptiles?

Sex allocation is an important field in evolutionary biology, both historically and currently. However, while sex allocation theory has successfully predicted sex ratio bias in some taxa, most notably parasitic wasps, vertebrates are notorious for their poor fit to theoretical models. We argue that this arises from the use of very complex model systems to test relatively simple theoretical models. We further argue that squamate reptiles lizards and snakes have unduly been neglected in sex allocation studies and in fact may conform more readily to the underlying assumptions of existing theoretical models than many other vertebrates. We provide a five-point argument in favor of the use of squamates as model systems in sex allocation based on their diversity in sex determining mechanisms, life history biology, and ease of experimental manipulations.
Effects of lentivirus-mediated endostatin on endothelial progenitor cells

Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) are candidates for gene therapies against retinal neovascularization (NV). The aim of present study was to investigate the effects of endostatin transfection on EPC function. In the present study, the EPCs were infected with lentivirus overexpressing endostatin. The transfection effects of endostatin overexpression on the proliferation, migratory, differentiation, apoptosis and the cell cycle of this cell line were determined. The real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) and western blot assays showed high expression levels of endostatin. A cell counting kit-8 assay showed that endostatin overexpression inhibited EPC proliferation. The transwell assay indicated that endostatin overexpression could suppress EPC migration. Furthermore, endostatin overexpression enhanced apoptosis (as showed by AnnexinV-FITC/propidiumiodide staining analysis), induced differentiation and blocked the cell cycle. As compared with negative control group, EPC viability significantly decreased in gene transfection group. In conclusion, present study determined the feasibility of lentivirus-mediated endostatin gene transfer, and indirectly proved the effect of endostatin secretion on EPCs. Also our study provided a new opportunity for the potential application of gene therapy in retinal NV.
Earlier onset of hematopoietic differentiation after expansion of the endogenous stem cell pool.

In previous studies of growth and differentiation of endogenous hematopoietic spleen colonies (E-CFU), the time of resumption of differentiation after irradiation was increasingly delayed, but the rate of growth of the E-CFU compartment was not affected as the radiation dose was increased. These results suggested that differentiation might not occur until a critical stem cell pool size was attained. To further study this question, mice were injected prior to irradiation with substances which increase the E-CFU compartment; foreign plasma and endotoxin. Mice were injected daily for 4 days with human plasma or once with S. typhosa endotoxin 1 day prior to exposure to 580, 670, 770, 860, or 960 rads, and killed 3 to 10 days after irradiation. Plasma injection hastened the resumption of erythropoiesis, as measured by increased iron uptake, by about 5 days and endotoxin injection by about 3 days. Spleen weight and colony counts also increased earlier in treated mice. For each increment of 100 rads the time of onset of erythropoiesis was delayed an average of 1.5 days. The data are in accord with the concept that onset of differentiation after irradiation is geared to stem cell pool size.
Simultaneous Displacement and Force Estimation of Piezoelectric Stack Actuators Using Charge and Voltage Measurements

This article is devoted to simultaneous displacement and force self-sensing using a single piezoelectric stack actuator. Values of displacement and force are estimated from measurements of charge and applied voltage. To calibrate the self-sensing algorithm, a parameter identification procedure is presented that accounts for hysteresis under varying displacement and force conditions using a standard Prandtl–Ishlinskii hysteresis operator. Quasi-static validation experiments are carried out on a custom-built test rig that shows low average estimation errors of <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$0.5 \%$</tex-math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$-0.4\%$</tex-math></inline-formula> with standard deviations of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2.7\%$</tex-math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX"> $3.1\%$</tex-math></inline-formula> in displacement and force, respectively.
AN OVERVIEW OF THE AUSTRALIAN ROAD FREIGHT TRANSPORT INDUSTRY

This paper provides an overview of the Australian road freight transport industry. Key findings are: growth of the road freight task slowed down; freight vehicles have become larger, limiting the growth of the freight vehicle stock and easing the pressures of growing driver shortages; take-up of ICT and e-commerce has varied with firm size; the trend toward out-sourcing by the ancillary transport sector is continuing. Competition remains dominant and profit margins are becoming much tighter; owner drivers/small freight operators account for less than 12 percent of the industry's operating income, but they represent nearly two thirds of the total number of operating businesses. The financial situation of many owner drivers/small operators continues to be difficult due to intense competition. Greater integration is being observed within the road freight transport industry, with the road freight sector undertaking more forwarding activities and the road freight forwarding sector undertaking more freight tasks. There has been an increase in trucks running empty on the road since the early 1990s; and a looming driver shortage could have a significant impact on the road freight industry. (a)
Design and Operation Simulation of a Direct-Drive In-Wheel Motor for EV

This paper presents a redundant PMSM system topology based on four sub-motors for electric vehicle applications. The sub-motors have separate three-phase stator windings and share the only rotor. The sub-motors can be controlled independently, so that the failure in one sub- motor has little influence on the others, which makes the whole system having good fault tolerance performance. In the paper, the hybrid motor of two different sub-stator structures are designed by FEM, and the operating performance are simulated. The simulation results show that the hybrid motor can achieve higher efficiency and smaller torque ripples.
Evaluating UK Intra-National Outsourcing to North Staffordshire

Outsourcing is a widespread practice in the modern global economy, with decisions motivated by expectation of various advantages of which cost reduction is often the primary factor. Recent trends have been towards Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and offshore outsourcing, and more recently Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) has emerged as an established area of the market. Despite the potential attractions, there are a range of risks associated with outsourcing, and these are demonstrated by the substantial number of arrangements that fail to meet expectations. For example, Glick (2004) cites research by Gartner that indicated £4bn was wasted on poorly managed contracts by European businesses in the previous year. This highlights the business significance of outsourcing decisions and shows that the impact of major outsourcing decisions is likely to be strategic in that the competitive position of a company is influenced by the outcomes. The argument for use of a systematic decision support system to assist with outsourcing decisions is persuasive. The Holistic Approach Business, Information, Organisation (HABIO) Framework offers a holistic approach which takes account of interrelated strategies and complex considerations that may vary according to the circumstances and priorities of the decision-maker. It also facilitates monitoring decisions over the life of the outsourcing arrangements, thereby supporting timely anticipation and response to significant changes in the economic, political, or social environment. The HABIO model could be used in consideration of intra-national outsourcing decisions to areas such as North Staffordshire where decline in industries traditionally associated with the locality created needs and opportunities for regeneration.
The Trading Costs of Early Earnings Release: The Case of Hewlett-Packard Company

Hewlett-Packard Company scheduled to announce its 2014 second quarter earnings after the market closed on May 22, 2014. However, its second quarter earnings report was accidently released earlier than scheduled. The lower than-expected revenue news dropped Hewlett-Packardâ€™s stock price by 5% within 6 minutes. The rare occurrence of an early earnings announcement during trading hours provides an opportunity to investigate the influence of early earnings release on trading costs of market participants. The results show that Hewlett-Packardâ€™s stock trading costs, measured by bid-ask spreads increased and its information asymmetry decreased after the early earnings release.
Influence of Chronotype, Season, and Sex of Subject on Sleep Behavior of Young Adults

The aim of this study was to investigate whether sex, season, and/or chronotype influence the sleep behavior of university students. Detailed data were collected on activity/rest patterns by wrist actigraphy combined with diaries. Thirty‐four medical students (19 female and 15 male) were monitored by Actiwatch® actometers for 15 consecutive days in May and again in November. The data of a modified Horne and Östberg chronotype questionnaire, which were collected from 1573 female and 1124 male medical school students surveyed in the spring and autumn over an eight‐year period, were evaluated. Actiwatch® sleep analysis software was used to process the activity data with statistical analyses performed with ANOVA. We found no significant sex‐specific differences in sleep efficiency, sleep onset latency, or actual sleep‐time duration. However, we did find a difference in sleep efficiency between morning and evening types, with morning types having a higher sleep efficiency (87.9%, SD=1.3) than evening types (84.3%, SD=0.87%; p=0.007). Seasonal differences were also detected: the actual sleep‐time duration in autumn was significantly longer (mean 6.9 h, SD=0.13 h) than in spring (6.6 h, SD=0.1 h; p=0.013). Evaluation of the chronotype questionnaire data showed that individuals with no special preference for morningness or eveningness (i.e., so‐called intermediates) were most common. The distribution of chronotypes was related to the sex of subject. Men displayed eveningness significantly more often than women (28.9% males vs. 20.8% females; p<0.001), while females exhibited greater morningness (20.3% females vs.15.6% males; p<0.001). Sex influences chronotype distribution, but not actual sleep time‐duration, sleep onset latency, or sleep efficiency. The latter, however, differed among chronotypes, while actual sleep‐time duration was affected by season.
A ZigBee-based elderly health monitoring system: design and implementation

Internet of Things and its associated innovative technologies such as ZigBee, wireless sensor network, radio frequency identification, smart technologies (robotics), distributed databases and energy saving technologies have huge potentials in remote healthcare monitoring system and medical services to augment aging citizens' living style, safety, healthcare services and also reshape the future of our healthcare environments. This paper explores the intended system to achieve elderly health monitoring system. The designed system obtains, transmits, stores and analyses the elderly physiological conditions for healthcare providers exactly in real time intrusive or non-intrusively through tiny human wearable multi-hop sensor network. Hence collaborative remote healthcare services to identify common or critical health problems, sickness symptoms and remote diagnosis. It also provides supportive healthcare service with indigenous assimilation and booming out efficient service to prevent chronic disease and edifice a robust elderly healthcare monitoring system with appraisal, inspiration and assurance, etc. It guarantees the elderly life of integrated care and comprehensive remote health information management. The proposed system primarily depends on Internet of Things, ZigBee, wireless sensor network, body sensors, web applications and databases.
High-frequency transduction of c-erbB in avian leukosis virus-induced erythroblastosis

Twenty-one cases of Rous-associated virus type 1-induced erythroblastosis have been analyzed for novel restriction endonuclease fragments of c-erbB. Twenty of the erythroleukemias contained novel c-erbB fragments; 10 of these were found to contain a proviral insertion in c-erbB, and 10 were found to have a new transduction of c-erbB. Each of the proviral insertions was in the same transcriptional orientation as c-erbB, and most appeared to have retained both long terminal repeats as well as 5' viral sequences that signal packaging of RNA into virions. Each of the new c-erbB transducing viruses had a characteristic EcoRI fragment that contained a spliced form of c-erbB sequences. When inoculated into 1-week-old chickens, the new transducing viruses caused rapid-onset erythroblastosis.
Food culture and waste management in the food service sector: lessons for tourism and hospitality

Globally, tourism and hospitality sectors are being encouraged to move towards a more sustainable business model. However, the uptake of sustainable practice will be determined by a number of business factors not the least of which is consumer demand. This paper views the conundrum facing these sectors in relation to the almost opposing positions of; food and travel culture, arguably founded on indulgence and hedonism; and the fundamentals of sustainable business practice. Based on a review of the literature and the experiences from the field, the study promotes discussion on the implications of sustainable development on these service based sectors. It is concluded that the issue of ‘responsibility’ lies not only with the firm but also with the consumer and provision of supporting infrastructure services.
Expression of the 22 nucleotide let‐7 heterochronic RNA throughout the Metazoa: a role in life history evolution?

Summary The 22 nucleotide let‐7 small temporal RNA has been found consistently in samples from diverse bilateria but not from sponge or cnidarians. Here we further examine the phylogenetic distribution of this regulatory RNA by sampling representatives of diverse metazoan lineages. The 22 nucleotide let‐7 RNA is detectable in triclad and polyclad platyhelminths, nemertean, and chaetognath but not ctenophore or acoel metazoans. These results support recent arguments that acoels are distinct from other acoelomate platyhelminths. We argue that let‐7 is not a bilaterian or triploblast synapomorphy but instead evolved later in metazoan evolution, perhaps in association with complex life history traits.
Innovation and Entrepreneurship: A First Look at the Linkage Data of Japanese Patent and Enterprise Census

This paper presents the results of a comprehensive analysis of the innovative activities of the entire population of Japanese firms by using a linked dataset of Establishment and Enterprise Census and the IIP Patent Database (JPO patent application data). As of 2006, it was found that about 1.4% of about 4.5 million firms filed patents, and substantial patenting activities were found not only in the manufacturing field but also in a wide range of fields such as B2B services and financial sectors. In addition, a firm's survival and growth are regressed with patenting and open innovation (measured by joint patent application with other firms and universities), and it is shown that innovative activities measured by patenting are positively correlated with such firm performance. It is also found that the relationship between patents and the survival rate is stronger for larger firms, while that between patents and firm growth is stronger for smaller firms.
Development and persistence of local and systemic antibody responses in adults given live attenuated or inactivated influenza A virus vaccine

An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to measure nasal-wash and serum isotype-specific hemagglutinin antibody responses in 109 seronegative (hemagglutination-inhibiting titer less than or equal to 1:8) adults vaccinated intranasally with live attenuated A/Washington/897/80 (H3N2) or A/California/10/78 (H1N1) cold-adapted (ca) virus or with licensed subvirion vaccine subcutaneously. Live and inactivated virus elicited serum immunoglobulin A (IgA) responses in 83 and 96% of vaccinees, respectively, and elicited serum IgG responses in 72 and 100% of vaccinees. Inactivated virus induced higher titers of serum antibodies than did live virus and stimulated a nasal-wash IgG response more often than did live virus (94 versus 59%, P less than 0.01). In contrast, only 38% of inactivated virus vaccinees had local IgA responses compared with 83% of live virus vaccinees. Serum IgA and IgG and nasal IgG antibody titers remained elevated above prevaccination levels for at least 6 months in most of the live and inactivated vaccine responders, but the mean level of local IgA antibody induced by infection with live virus vaccine, in particular, decreased substantially. Considered in the context of previous work, the finding that live virus vaccine induced relatively long-lasting antibody in both local and serum compartments suggested that this vaccine may be a suitable alternative to inactivated vaccine for use in healthy persons.
125-km Long Cavity Based on Self-Seeded RSOAs Colorless Sources for 2.5-Gb/s DWDM Networks

The laser behavior of reflective semiconductor optical amplifier self-seeded sources is investigated. 2.5-Gb/s transmission is realized with optical cavities of 10, 26, 100, and 125 km for access and metropolitan networks, realizing the longest amplified self-seeded external cavity laser. Moreover, Gigabit Ethernet, common public radio interface, and 2.5-Gb/s transmissions are experimented using amplified self-seeded reflective semiconductor optical amplifier wavelength division multiplexing passive optical networks systems. A field trial setup is exploited to test the system performance in terms of reach and optical budget.
Cointegration and Asset Allocation: A New Fund Strategy

Many recent papers have documented the existence of periodicities in returns, return volatility, bid-ask spreads and trading volume, in both equity and foreign exchange markets. In this paper, we propose and employ a new test for detecting subtle periodicities in financial markets based on a signal coherence function. The technique is applied to a set of seven half-hourly exchange rate series. Overall, we find the signal coherence to be maximal at the 8 hour and 12 hour frequencies. Retaining only the most coherent frequencies for each series, we implement a trading rule based on these observed periodicities. Our results demonstrate in all cases except one that, in gross terms, the rules are able to generate returns considerably greater than those of a buy-and-hold strategy. We conjecture that this methodology could constitute an important tool for market microstructure researchers, which will enable them to better detect, quantify and rank the various periodic components in financial data.
Anomaly detection of spacecraft based on least squares support vector machine

Anomaly detection is to identify abnormal behaviors of a system. It plays an important role in Prognostics and System Health Management (PHM) which is applied to monitor spacecraft's performance, detect faults, identify the root cause of the fault, and predict the remaining useful life (RUL) in order to increase safety and reduce downtime of spacecraft in—orbit.
Robot-assisted rehabilitation of hand function.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW Initial work on robot-assisted neurorehabilitation for the upper extremity aimed primarily at training, reaching movements with the proximal sections of the upper extremity. However, recent years have seen a surge in devices dedicated to hand function. This review describes the state of the art and the promises of this novel therapeutic approach. RECENT FINDINGS Numerous robotic devices for hand function with various levels of complexity and functionality have been developed over the last 10 years. These devices range from simple mechanisms that support single joint movements to mechanisms with as many as 18 degrees-of-freedom (DOF) that can support multijoint movements at the wrist and fingers. The results from clinical studies carried out with eight out of 30 reported devices indicate that robot-assisted hand rehabilitation reduces motor impairments of the affected hand and the arm, and improves the functional use of the affected hand. SUMMARY The current evidence in support of the robot-assisted hand rehabilitation is preliminary but very promising, and provides a strong rationale for more systematic investigations in the future.
Comparative Evaluation of String Similarity Measures for Automatic Language Classification

Historical linguistics, the oldest branch of modern linguistics, deals with language-relatedness and language change across space and time. Historical linguists apply the widely-tested comparative method [Durie and Ross, 1996] to establish relationships between languages to posit a language family and to reconstruct the proto-language for a language family. Although historical linguistics has parallel origins with biology [Atkinson and Gray, 2005], unlike the biologists, mainstream historical linguists have seldom been enthusiastic about using quantitative methods for the discovery of language relationships or investigating the structure of a language family, except for Kroeber and Chretien [1937] and Ellegard [1959]. A short period of enthusiastic application of quantitative methods initiated by Swadesh [1950] ended with the heavy criticism levelled against it by Bergsland and Vogt [1962]. The field of computational historical linguistics did not receive much attention again until the beginning of the 1990s, with the exception of two noteworthy doctoral dissertations, by Sankoff [1969] and Embleton [1986].