Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prespawning Behavior, Spawning, and Development of the Brooding Starfish Leptasterias polaris.

Our study focused on the precise reproductive behavior of the starfish Leptasterias polaris (Muller and Troschel) before and during spawning--a subject of much speculation and evident ecological importance. Between the third week of December 1992 and mid-January 1993, we observed spawning in the laboratory that roughly corresponded to field observations in the Lower St. Lawrence Estuary. In experimental tanks provided with natural environmental conditions, the spawning was preceded by 7 to 8 weeks of complex aggregative interactions among the starfish. The individuals, which usually avoid each other, began to make discreet arm contact, which intensified with time and eventually led to the superposition of two or more starfish, independently of sex. The interactions seem to be associated with decreasing temperature, because aggregative and spawning behaviors were not observed under stable temperature conditions. Male spawning is first initiated when the temperature falls to about 2{deg}C during minimum daylength (<9 h.d-1). In seawater, the spermatozoa are negatively buoyant and tend to deposit as a sticky film on the substrate, where they enter a state of low activity. Stimulated by male spawning, females spawn on the layer of sperm, which is reactivated by contact with the oocytes, ensuring fertilization. In the laboratory, the fertilized eggs undergo first cleavage in 45 h, become brachiolaria in 40 days, and form fully developed young starfish within 5.5 to 6 months, synchronously with populations in the field. The embryos develop at the same rate even when not brooded, suggesting that the brooding behavior in L. polaris serves mainly to keep the eggs clean, healthy, and protected against predation.
Commodity currencies and commodity prices: modelling static and time-varying dependence

ABSTRACT This article employs the copula approach to study the relationship between exchange rates and commodity prices for large commodity exporters. Using data for the nominal exchange rates of four commodity currencies (Australian, Canadian and New Zealand dollars, and Norwegian krone) against the US dollar and the relevant country-specific commodity price indices, constructed on a daily basis, we find (1) a positive dependence between the values of commodity currencies and commodity indices, i.e. a commodity index increases when a respective currency appreciates and provides several explanations for this finding; (2) no major asymmetries in the tail dependence for most pairs of exchange rates and commodity indices and (3) a pronounced increase in the time-varying tail dependence following the global financial crisis.
Monitoring ocular hypertension, how much and how often? A cost-effectiveness perspective

Objective To assess the efficiency of alternative monitoring services for people with ocular hypertension (OHT), a glaucoma risk factor. Design Discrete event simulation model comparing five alternative care pathways: treatment at OHT diagnosis with minimal monitoring; biennial monitoring (primary and secondary care) with treatment if baseline predicted 5-year glaucoma risk is ≥6%; monitoring and treatment aligned to National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) glaucoma guidance (conservative and intensive). Setting UK health services perspective. Participants Simulated cohort of 10 000 adults with OHT (mean intraocular pressure (IOP) 24.9 mm Hg (SD 2.4). Main outcome measures Costs, glaucoma detected, quality-adjusted life years (QALYs). Results Treating at diagnosis was the least costly and least effective in avoiding glaucoma and progression. Intensive monitoring following NICE guidance was the most costly and effective. However, considering a wider cost–utility perspective, biennial monitoring was less costly and provided more QALYs than NICE pathways, but was unlikely to be cost-effective compared with treating at diagnosis (£86 717 per additional QALY gained). The findings were robust to risk thresholds for initiating monitoring but were sensitive to treatment threshold, National Health Service costs and treatment adherence. Conclusions For confirmed OHT, glaucoma monitoring more frequently than every 2 years is unlikely to be efficient. Primary treatment and minimal monitoring (assessing treatment responsiveness (IOP)) could be considered; however, further data to refine glaucoma risk prediction models and value patient preferences for treatment are needed. Consideration to innovative and affordable service redesign focused on treatment responsiveness rather than more glaucoma testing is recommended.
A 16 Mfps 165kpixel backside-illuminated CCD

In 2002, we reported a CCD image sensor with 260×312 pixels capable of capturing 103 consecutive images at 1,000,000 frames per second (1Mfps) [1]. We named the sensor “ISIS-V2”, for In-situStorage Image Sensor Version 2. 103 memory elements are attached to every pixel; generated image signals were instantly and continuously stored in the in-situstorage without being read out of the sensor. The ultimate high-speed recording was enabled by this parallel recording at all pixels. In 2006, the color version, ISIS-V4, was reported [2]. In 2009, we developed ISIS-V12, a backside-illuminated image sensor mounting the ISIS structure and the CCM, charge-carrier multiplication, on the front side [3]. The CCM is a CCD-specific efficient signal-amplification device. CCM, combined with the BSI structure and cooling, achieved very high sensitivity. The ISIS-V12 was a test sensor intended to prove the technical feasibility of the structure. The maximum frame rate was 250kfps for a charge-handling capacity of Qmax=10,000e− and 1Mfps for a reduced Qmax. The pixel count was 489×400 pixels. For backside-illuminated (BSI) image sensors, metal wires can be placed on the front surface to increase the frame rate without reducing fill factor or violating uniformity of the pixel configuration. It has been proved by simulations that 100Mfps is achievable by introducing innovative technologies including a special wiring method [4]. We now report on ISIS-V16, developed by incorporating technologies to increase the frame rate with those to achieve very high sensitivity, which was confirmed by evaluation of ISIS-V12. The performance specification of ISIS-V16 is summarized in Fig. 23.4. 1.
The Central Role of the Alternative Complement Pathway in Human Disease1

The complement system is increasingly recognized as important in the pathogenesis of tissue injury in vivo following immune, ischemic, or infectious insults. Within the complement system, three pathways are capable of initiating the processes that result in C3 activation: classical, alternative, and lectin. Although the roles that proinflammatory peptides and complexes generated during complement activation play in mediating disease processes have been studied extensively, the relative contributions of the three activating pathways is less well understood. Herein we examine recent evidence that the alternative complement pathway plays a key and, in most instances, obligate role in generating proinflammatory complement activation products in vivo. In addition, we discuss new concepts regarding the mechanisms by which the alternative pathway is activated in vivo, as recent clinical findings and experimental results have provided evidence that continuous active control of this pathway is necessary to prevent unintended targeting and injury to self tissues.
Randomized Trial of Single-Dose Versus Divided-Dose Rabbit Anti-Thymocyte Globulin Induction in Renal Transplantation: An Interim Report

Background. The optimal dosing protocol for rabbit anti-thymocyte globulin (rATG) induction in renal transplantation has not been determined, but evidence exists that rATG infusion before renal allograft reperfusion improves early graft function. Infusing a large rATG dose over a short interval has not previously been evaluated for its effect on renal function and allograft nephropathy in a prospective, randomized comparison against conventional rATG induction. Methods. Between April 20, 2004 and December 26, 2007 we enrolled renal transplant patients into a prospective, randomized, nonblinded trial of two rATG dosing protocols (single dose, 6 mg/kg vs. divided doses, 1.5 mg/kg every other day×4; target enrollment=160) followed after 6 months by calcineurin-inhibitor withdrawal. Primary endpoints are renal function by calculated glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and chronic allograft nephropathy at protocol biopsy. We now present the early GFR data of all 160 patients and safety and efficacy data of the first 142 patients with 6 months follow up and before calcineurin inhibitor withdrawal (average follow up=23.3±11.6 months). Results. There were no differences between groups in rATG-related adverse events, patient and graft survival, acute rejection, or chronic allograft nephropathy rate at 6 months. Calculated &Dgr;GFR (POD 1–4) was significantly better in the single-dose group (P=0.02), with a trend toward improved renal function from months 2 to 6 in recipients of deceased donor kidneys (P=0.08). Conclusions. This study demonstrates that administering 6 mg/kg of rATG over 24 hr is safe and is associated with improved early renal function compared with administering rATG in alternate-day doses.
Surface Morphology of the Human Endometrium: Basic and Clinical Aspects

Abstract: The human endometrium is an extremely sensitive target for steroid hormones. During the menstrual cycle, this tissue undergoes dynamic changes that are reflected on the surface morphology of the epithelium and that can be followed by scanning electron microscopy. The morphologic changes peak at the midsecretory phase, with the formation of the so‐called pinopodes. Increasing evidence suggests that these pinopodes are accurate markers for endometrial receptivity, and their detection may be of high clinical utility in the preparation of endometrium before embryo transfer. This article recapitulates published figures of endometrial ultrastructure and presents some unpublished data from ongoing studies.
Effects of Informal Institutions on the Relationship between Accounting Measures of Risk and Bank Distress

ABSTRACT We investigate the effects of informal institutions on the relationship between accounting-based risk measures and bank distress. We conduct our analysis in two stages. In the first stage, we extend the prior literature by documenting a link between accounting-based risk measures and bank distress during the 2008–2009 financial crisis. In particular, given the environment characterized by rapid growth in financial innovation and complex financial transactions prior to the crisis, simple accounting-based risk measures continue to predict bank distress during this crisis period. In the second stage, we address our main research question related to the effects of selected informal institutions (societal trust, religiosity, and the media) in enhancing the predictive ability of accounting-based risk measures. As hypothesized, we find that these informal institutions enhance the predictive ability of accounting-based risk measures. Our results inform regulators that the focus on strengthening formal in.
Die Perzeption von Marginalisierung in länderspezifischen Kontexten

Empfohlene Zitierung / Suggested Citation: Böhnke, Petra: Die Perzeption von Marginalisierung in länderspezifischen Kontexten. In: Rehberg, Karl-Siegbert (Ed.) ; Deutsche Gesellschaft für Soziologie (DGS) (Ed.): Die Natur der Gesellschaft: Verhandlungen des 33. Kongresses der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie in Kassel 2006. Teilbd. 1 u. 2. Frankfurt am Main : Campus Verl. , 2008. ISBN 978-3-593-38440-5, 4261-4273. https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-154983
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PRICE COMPETITATION AND TAX EVASION OR AVOIDANCE

In order to find, if the companies that cause the evasion and avoidance, make it, only to survived from the competition with other companies in the market, to make competition on other companies or to increase their profits without impact of competitive, in this case we found that From 239 answers, there are 95 or 39.76% answer of the respondents think, that avoidance and fiscal evasion, become because they have the motivation to cheat the state, only to increase their profits; continuing 58 or 24.26% from the respondents think, that avoidance and fiscal evasion, become because, to dominate with lower prices to their own competition and 86 or 35.98% from the respondents think, that avoidance and fiscal evasion become, for protected from competition, because their competitors have hit the market with cheaper prices .
Physiological adjustments and transcriptome reprogramming are involved in the acclimation to salinity gradients in diatoms

Salinity regimes in estuaries and coastal areas vary with river discharge patterns, seawater evaporation, the morphology of the coastal waterways and the dynamics of marine water mixing. Therefore, microalgae have to respond to salinity variations at time scales ranging from daily to annual cycles. Microalgae may also have to adapt to physical alterations that induce the loss of connectivity between habitats and the enclosure of bodies of water. Here, we integrated physiological assays and measurements of morphological plasticity with a functional genomics approach to examine the regulatory changes that occur during the acclimation to salinity in the estuarine diatom Thalassiosira weissflogii. We found that cells exposed to different salinity regimes for a short or long period presented adjustments in their carbon fractions, silicon pools, pigment concentrations and/or photosynthetic parameters. Salinity-induced alterations in frustule symmetry were observed only in the long-term (LT) cultures. Whole transcriptome analyses revealed a down-regulation of nuclear and plastid encoded genes during the LT response and identified only a few regulated genes that were in common between the ST and LT responses. We propose that in diatoms, one strategy for acclimating to salinity gradients and maintaining optimal cellular fitness could be a reduction in the cost of transcription.
Distribution of N‐ and O‐linked oligosaccharides on surface of spermatozoa from normal and infertile subjects

Sperm glycocalyx modifications are very important for gamete recognition and fertilisation in mammals. These processes may be associated with specific changes in the content and distribution of surface carbohydrates. The purpose of this study was to determine the distribution of surface carbohydrates in human spermatozoa from normal and oligospermic subjects. Fifteen ejaculates each from normal fertile and oligospermic individuals were analysed. N‐linked and O‐linked surface carbohydrates were detected by fluorescence microscopy using fluorescein isothiocynate‐conjugated lectins. Triticum vulgaris agglutinin (WGA)‐binding sites were found to be decreased on acrosomal domain in spermatozoa from oligospermic individuals, while no changes were observed in the binding sites of Concanavalin ensiformis, Peanut agglutinin and Lens clunaris agglutinin. A reduction in binding sites for soyabean agglutinin and Ricinus communis agglutinin was observed on the acrosomal domains in spermatozoa from oligospermic individuals. Changes in sperm glycocalyx observed in this study provide new insights into molecular rearrangement of sperm membrane in infertility.
A first step towards high-level cost models for the implementation of SDRs on multiprocessing reconfigurable systems

VLSI technological advances provide designers with more and more powerful and flexible platforms such as reconfigurable heterogeneous multiprocessing systems based on FPGAs. At the same time, the applications which are to be implemented onto such platforms are increasingly more and more complex, such as within the field of wireless communications, in particular for software defined radios. Mapping such applications onto such platforms typically results in a very large design space, i.e. a large numbers of candidate implementation solutions. Given the time-to-market pressure faces by many companies, it is generally desirable that designers have access to methods and tools that enable them to explore such large design space rapidly, especially during the initial phases of the design flow so as to prune the design space and then refine the exploration of a reduced number of candidate solutions. In this Work-In-Progress paper we introduce our set of high-level estimation models for Area-Time costs of applications mapped onto FPGA-based multiprocessing reconfigurable architectures. In particular, we suggest models for static and dynamic implementations, taking various internal and external architectural elements into account. We believe that such models could be used for rapidly comparing implementation alternatives at a high level of abstraction and for guiding the designer during the (pre)analysis phase of the design flow for the implementation of e.g. SDR platforms.
Neurotoxicity of Dietary Supplements from Annonaceae Species

Dietary supplements containing plant materials of Annonaceae species (Annona muricata L., A. squamosa L., A. mucosa JACQ., A. squamosa × cherimola Mabb.) were extracted by hot, pressurized ethyl acetate and analyzed for their effect in vitro on Lund human mesencephalic neurons. Cell viability was measured by the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay, and cell death was determined by lactate dehydrogenase levels. Three supplements strongly decreased the cell viability at extract concentrations of 1 µg/mL, of which 1 decreased cell viability at 0.1 µg/µL. Also, strong neuronal toxicities of these supplements were found. Cell death was observed at concentrations of 10 µg/mL. The degree of toxicity was comparable to the ones found in Annonaceous fruit extracts. Two fruit pulps of Annonaceae (A. muricata and A. squamosa) showed a reduction in cell viability at lower concentrations. The fruit pulp extract of A. muricata revealed the strongest neurotoxic effect, with 67% cell death at a concentration of 1 µg/mL. A high reduction in cell viability coupled with pronounced cell death was found at 0.1 µg/mL for an Annonaceous seed extract. These results demonstrate that the intake of dietary supplements containing plant material from Annonaceae may be hazardous to health in terms of neurotoxicity.
Pouvoir et économie politique. L'apport de François Perroux à l'analyse positive de la firme

This article is a contribution to the economics of the firm that aims at showing the theoretical relevance of the arguments and conceptualizations proposed by the French economist Francois Perroux to analyze the capitalist firms in a positive perspective. At the opposite of the mainstream economics, the social and political dimensions constitute in the Perrouxian thought the two crucial ingredients that allow to accurately analyze the power relationships that characterize the dynamics and the government regime of firms. The Janus relationship between agonism and cooperation seems to be at the heart of intra-firm power processes.
Helicobacter pylori eradication with either 7-day or 10-day triple therapies, and with a 10-day sequential regimen.

BACKGROUND Helicobacter pylori eradication rates achieved by standard seven-day triple therapies are decreasing in several countries, while a novel 10-day sequential regimen has achieved a very high success rate. A longer 10-day triple therapy, similar to the sequential regimen, was tested to see whether it could achieve a better infection cure rate. METHODS Patients with nonulcer dyspepsia and H pylori infection were randomly assigned to one of the following three therapies: esomeprazole 20 mg, clarithromycin 500 mg and amoxycillin 1 g for seven days or 10 days, or a 10-day sequential regimen including esomeprazole 20 mg plus amoxycillin 1 g for five days and esomeprazole 20 mg, clarithromycin 500 mg and tinidazole 500 mg for the remaining five days. All drugs were given twice daily. H pylori eradication was checked four to six weeks after treatment by using a 13C-urea breath test. RESULTS Overall, 213 patients were enrolled. H pylori eradication was achieved in 75.7% and 77.9%, in 81.7% and 84.1%, and in 94.4% and 97.1% of patients following seven-day or 10-day triple therapy and the 10-day sequential regimen, at intention-to-treat and per protocol analyses, respectively. The eradication rate following the sequential regimen was higher than either seven-day (P=0.002) or 10-day triple therapy (P=0.02), while no significant difference emerged between the latter two regimens (P=0.6). CONCLUSIONS The 10-day sequential regimen was significantly more effective than both triple regimens, while 10-day triple therapy failed to significantly increase the H pylori eradication rate achieved by the standard seven-day regimen.
Assessment of the impacts of demand curtailments in the DAMs: issues in and proposed modifications of FERC Order No. 745

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), in its initiative to incentivize demand response resources (DRRs) to participate in the day-ahead markets (DAMs), enacted Order No. 745. The Order mandated each ISO/RTO to perform a monthly cost-effectiveness test, the so-called net benefits test (NBT), that determines the monthly threshold price that serves as the economic signal for the dispatch of DRRs. The determination of the threshold price without explicit consideration of the grid and its associated constraints prompted the motivation for our investigation. Analytical considerations of the issues were accompanied by extensive numerical studies based on simulation. In our studies, we identify the two key unintended consequences emanating from the DRR participation in the DAMs. One is the existence of instances where the dispatch of DRRs increases the purchase payments of loads not participating in curtailment provision so that those buyers are worse off due to the DRR demand curtailments presence in the DAMs. The second set of unintended consequences consists of the cases where the participation of DRRs results in higher prices to their remaining loads under the FERC compensation rules. The NBT fails to test for these unintended consequences and based on our simulations studies, such events may occur frequently. iii In light of the results of these investigations, we propose specific modifications to the NBT. The modifications are in three principal areas – data usage, explicit consideration of transmission system in the determination of the threshold price and an additional test to guarantee that no buyer is worse off in the post-curtailment state than in the pre-curtailment state. We propose to limit the data to on-peak LMPs instead of the representative offer curve data based on data from all the hours of the month. We propose the replacement of the system-wide threshold price by node-specific threshold prices at each node to explicitly account for transmission considerations. To ensure that no post-curtailment load is worse off than in the pre-curtailment conditions, we propose the introduction of a simple test to verify that this criterion is met. The proposed modifications result in nodal threshold prices and this explicit transmission consideration is effective in avoiding the issues we identified with the FERC NBT. We illustrate the ability of the proposed modifications to address these issues by presenting a representative sample of simulation studies from the testing we performed. The results of the testing we performed indicate that the instances of higher …