Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An endogenous circannual rhythm of reproduction in a tropical bat, Anoura geoffroyi, is not entrained by photoperiod.

Most species of mammals live in the tropics, and many breed seasonally, but little is known about the regulation of their seasonal cycles. Males of a tropical bat, Anoura geoffroyi (Order Chiroptera, Family Phyllostomidae), from 10 degrees latitude in Trinidad, were studied to test the role of photoperiod in regulating seasonal reproduction in the deep tropics. Groups of males were subjected to five treatments: 1) constant photoperiod; 2) a 12-mo cycle of civil twilight photoperiods mimicking those occurring at 10 degrees latitude; 3) civil twilight photoperiods of 10 degrees latitude, but accelerated to a 9-mo cycle; 4) civil twilight photoperiods characteristic of 30 degrees latitude, but accelerated to a 9-mo cycle; and 5) constant photoperiod, but with the timing of dark onset varied to match the timing of darkness at 10 degrees latitude, and accelerated to a 9-mo cycle. In all treatments, the first cycle of testis growth and regression matched that expected in the wild population, as reported previously for some of these groups. Subsequently, the testis cycle of bats in constant conditions free-ran for 20 mo with a peak-to-peak period of 7.3 +/- 0.3 mo. Period lengths in the four nonconstant groups, 7.2-7.7 mo, were not significantly different from that under constant conditions. Bats failed to entrain to any photoperiod cycle, including those mimicking changes at 10 degrees or 30 degrees latitude. They also failed to entrain to the cycle in which day length was held constant while time of sunset was varied, as occurs at the equator. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Characterization of BiFeO3 thin film for tactile sensor using microcantilevers with piezoelectric capacitor and strain-gauge

Lead-free BiFeO3 thin films for tactile sensor using microcantilevers have been prepared on Pt and SrRuO3/Pt thin films on a SiO2/Si substrate by RF sputtering, and the electrical characteristics have been optimized by controlling the substrate temperature, gas pressure, and oxygen partial pressure in deposition process. The BiFeO3 thin film (thickness: 300 nm) deposited on SrRuO3 (thickness: 80 nm) deposited at substrate temperature of 500°C in gas pressure of 0.6 Pa and oxygen partial pressure of 0.24 Pa has good crystallinity, ferroelectricity, and piezoelectric property. Therefore, it is demonstrated that BiFeO3 thin film can be a good sensing material as a detection part of tactile sensor. Furthermore, a cantilever structure with piezoelectric capacitor and strain gauge has been fabricated and different time-dependent outputs from them can be obtained.
A polymorphism in intron D of the chinook salmon growth hormone 2 gene.

Chromosome location: The location of the canine gene is unknown; the corresponding human gene maps to 17q21 (Law et a1. 1986). or to 17ql1.1-q12 (Xu et a1. 1988). Acknowledgement: This work was supported by a grant from the American Kennel Club. References Hogg D. et a1. (1986J JBioI Chern 261,12420-7. Law M.L. et al. (1986J Cytogenet Cell Genet 42,202-7. Xu W. et al. (1988J Proc Nat! Acad Sci USA 85, 8563-7.
Endobronchial Ultrasound-Guided Transbronchial Needle Aspiration for Lymph Node Staging in Patients with Non-small Cell Lung Cancer in Nonoperable Patients Pursuing Radiotherapy as a Primary Treatment

Introduction: Carbon ion radiotherapy (CIRT) is a promising modality with excellent localization and significant biologic effects on tumors. Nevertheless, success depends primarily on accurate staging before radiotherapy. Surgical interventions should be avoided in patients considered for CIRT because they usually have multiple comorbidities. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA) for lymph node staging in patients with non-small cell lung cancer before CIRT. Methods: From April 2005 to December 2007, 49 patients with non-small cell lung cancer considered for CIRT with abnormal positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) accumulations in the mediastinum and/or hilum were evaluated by EBUS-TBNA. The convex probe EBUS was used for EBUS-TBNA. Results: There were 38 men and 11 women. Their mean age was 75.2 years (range: 55–87). Based on PET-CT, clinical staging was four with N1 disease, 42 with N2 disease, and three with N3 disease. By histology, 26 patients had adenocarcinoma, 19 had squamous cell carcinoma, and four had other histologies. All positive lymph nodes on PET-CT were aspirated (range: 1–5; average 2.55 lymph nodes/patient). EBUS-TBNA diagnosed 43 cases as N0 disease and as a result underwent CIRT. Forty of the 43 cases remained in stable condition without local recurrences (follow-up 6–46 months). The diagnostic accuracy of EBUS-TBNA for lymph node staging was 93.9%. Conclusions: EBUS-TBNA offers accurate minimally invasive lymph node staging in patients who are candidates for CIRT. EBUS-TBNA can be safely performed with a high diagnostic accuracy before CIRT.
Firing on all cylinders ? CEO retention and firm performance , a learning approach

The decision a board makes to dismiss or retain their manager is the most important one it faces. This paper utilises real options analysis to develop a new learning based model of this decision. The model presents new implications for optimised CEO survival and termination thresholds through time. Empirical evidence is found to indicate a CEO is more likely to be publicly fired after poor recent stock performance and privately fired when the manager’s average accounting performance falls. This suggests that when a firm’s current stock performance is poor, the board is forced to act publicly due to shareholder pressure. When this pressure does not occur, there is indication that the board evaluates the manager’s performance through time and makes rational retention decisions. This is consistent with the view that boards are sensitive to the threat (real or perceived) of shareholder outrage (when their job is threatened), and that boards may be trying to optimise long run firm value, whereas powerful shareholders (such as blockholders) have short term incentives in stock returns. This may indicate that powerful shareholders do not have incentives that are aligned with small shareholders in maximising firm value.
A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF BIOCHEMICAL AND IMMUNOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF TRIOSEPHOSPHATE ISOMERASE FROM TAENIA SOLIUM AND SUS SCROFA

We produced the Taenia solium triosephosphate isomerase (TPI) in Escherichia coli and compared its biochemical and immunological properties with those of the commercial TPI from Sus scrofa. Taenia solium TPI is a homodimer composed of two 27-kDa monomers, with a specific activity of 5,683 U/mg and a Km value of 0.758, and S. scrofa TPI is also dimeric with similar monomeric molecular weight, specific activity of 4,227 U/mg, and a Km value of 0.51. The catalytic parameters for the isomerization of glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate, affinity between TPI monomers, and kinetic thermal denaturation and inactivation were similar for both enzymes. Anti–T. solium TPI antibodies cross-react weakly with Schistosoma mansoni TPI but do not cross-react with S. scrofa, human, or protozoan TPIs. These antibodies inhibited T. solium TPI activity but did not affect S. scrofa enzymatic activity. Immunizations with 1 μg of the T. solium TPI reduced 52% of cysticerci in a mouse–Taenia crassiceps model 1 mo after challenge. Our findings show that T. solium and S. scrofa TPIs possess similar biochemical and enzymatic properties but do not share immunological properties because anti–T. solium TPI antibodies did not recognize S. scrofa TPI. Inhibition of enzyme activity by anti-TPI antibodies suggests that they can be used as inhibitors of the enzyme.
The function of OmpA in Escherichia coli.

Outer membrane protein A (OmpA) is a major protein in the Escherichia coli outer membrane. In this study, the function of OmpA in E. coli stress survival was examined. An E. coli K1 ompA-deletion mutant was significantly more sensitive than that of its parent strain to sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), cholate, acidic environment, high osmolarity, and pooled human serum. A number of amino acid changes at the extracellular loops of OmpA did not affect the viability of E. coli, while short peptide insertions in the periplasmic turns of the OmpA beta-barrel decreased E. coli resistance to environmental stresses. Moreover, ompA mutants were found to survive much better within brain microvascular endothelial cells than the wild-type strain, supporting that OmpA is a major target in mammalian host cell defense. These results indicated that OmpA plays a vital structural role in E. coli, and suggested that a perfect beta-barrel structure of OmpA is important for outer membrane stability. Based on these results and the published OmpA structural analyses, I propose that OmpA is composed of three functional domains including a hydrophilic extracellular mass, a beta-barrel transmembrane structure, and a peptidoglycan binding domain.
Structure and internal mobility of proteins: A molecular dynamics study of hen egg white lysozyme

The structure and internal motions of the protein hen egg white lysozyme are studied by analysis of simulation and experimental data. A molecular dynamics simulation and an energy minimization of the protein in vacuum have been made and the results compared with high‐resolution structures and temperature factors of hen egg white lysozyme in two different crystal forms and of the homologous protein human lysozyme. The structures obtained from molecular dynamics and energy minimization have root‐mean‐square deviations for backbone atoms of 2.3 Å and 1.1–1.3 Å, respectively, relative to the crystal structures; the different crystal structures have root‐mean‐square deviations of 0.73–0.81 Å for the backbone atoms. In comparing the backbone dihedral angles, the difference between the dynamics and the crystal structure on which it is based is the same as that between any two crystal structures. The internal fluctuations of atomic positions calculated from the molecular dynamics trajectory agree well with the temperature factors from the three structures. Simulation and crystal results both show that there are large motions for residues involved in exposed turns of the backbone chain, relatively smaller motions for residues involved in the middle of helices or β‐sheet structures, and relatively small motions of residues near disulfide bridges. Also, both the simulation and crystal data show that side‐chain atoms have larger fluctuations than main‐chain atoms. Moreover, the regions that have large deviations among the x‐ray crystal structures, which indicates flexibility, are found to have large fluctuations in the simulation.
Hepatitis C virus RNA and core protein in kidney glomerular and tubular structures isolated with laser capture microdissection

The role of hepatits C virus (HCV) in the production of renal injury has been extensively investigated, though with conflicting results. Laser capture microdissection (LCM) was performed to isolate and collect glomeruli and tubules from 20 consecutive chronically HCV‐infected patients, namely 6 with membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis, 4 with membranous glomerulonephritis, 7 with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis and 3 with IgA‐nephropathy. RNA for amplification of specific viral sequences was provided by terminal continuation methodology and compared with the expression profile of HCV core protein. For each case two glomeruli and two tubular structures were microdissected and processed. HCV RNA sequences were demonstrated in 26 (65%) of 40 glomeruli, but in only 4 (10%) of the tubules (P < 0·05). HCV core protein was concomitant with viral sequences in the glomeruli and present in 31 of the 40 tubules. HCV RNA and/or HCV core protein was found in all four disease types. The immunohistochemical picture of HCV core protein was compared with the LCM‐based immunoassays of the adjacent tissue sections. Immune deposits were detected in 7 (44%) of 16 biopsy samples shown to be positive by extraction methods. The present study indicates that LCM is a reliable method for measuring both HCV RNA genomic sequences and HCV core protein in kidney functional structures from chronically HCV‐infected patients with different glomerulopathies and provides a useful baseline estimate to define the role of HCV in the production of renal injury. The different distribution of HCV RNA and HCV‐related proteins may reflect a peculiar ‘affinity’ of kidney microenvironments for HCV and point to distinct pathways of HCV‐related damage in glomeruli and tubules.
Effect of Channel Dopant Profile on Difference in Threshold Voltage Variability Between NFETs and PFETs

The mechanism behind the threshold voltage VT variability difference between n- and p-type field-effect transistors (NFETs and PFETs, respectively) is investigated from the viewpoint of the channel dopant profile. First, the effect of the depth profile is investigated by comparing the VT variability among FETs with various depth channel profiles. It is clarified that the VT variability of NFETs is larger than that of PFETs with similar depth profiles. The effect of the lateral channel profile is also examined. As one of the causes of the modulation of the lateral channel profile, the effect of halo implantation is evaluated. It is confirmed that VT variability is enhanced with halo implantation. However, the VT variability of NFETs is still larger than that of PFETs even without halo implantation. Without halo implantation, the reverse short-channel effect appears in NFETs but not in PFETs. From this result, we find that lateral channel profile nonuniformity appears in NFETs even without halo implantation because of the transient-enhanced diffusion (TED) of the channel dopant of boron in NFETs. Since arsenic or phosphorus, which shows no TED characteristic, is used as the channel dopant in PFETs, lateral channel profile nonuniformity does not appear in PFETs without halo implantation. Channel profile nonuniformity, which is caused by boron TED, is thought to be the origin of the VT variability difference between NFETs and PFETs.
Nonstationarity and Its Consequences in Modeling the Southern Timber Market

Nianfu Songand Sun Joseph Chang Abstract: This paper uses the Augmented Dickey-Fuller test to examine time series data of the southern timber market. Results indicate that nonstationary time series exist widely in timber market data. Econometric models estimated with such data are invalid and misleading. Examples show that level data timber market models are quite possibly misleading. Most existing models for the southern timber market are likely to overestimate model coefficients and need to be reevaluated in light of stationarity and corrected for further application.
JRC: jitter-based rate control scheme for wired-wireless hybrid network

Purpose – Emerging real‐time multimedia services over IP have penetrated into the daily lives of normal people with the advent of advanced broadband communications and innovated interconnection technologies. To protect shared Internet from unfairness and further congestion collapse, rate control plays a crucial role for many multimedia services such as streaming applications. Streaming applications such as video on demand (VoD) or voice over IP (VoIP) services face some critical problems such as insufficient bandwidth and improper performance of transmission protocols. Besides, the new generation networks are anticipated to integrate all heterogeneous wired and wireless networks and offer seamless customized multimedia services anywhere, anytime. However, wireless networks usually with low and variable bandwidth, and non‐congestion related loss do bring the challenge to the existing transport protocol, such as TCP, TFRC etc.Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses simulations and compares other method.
The effects of verbalisation on cognitive performance in schizophrenia: A pilot study using tasks from the Delis Kaplan Executive Function System

Cognitive impairment is common in schizophrenia, and has adverse effects on functional outcome. Cognitive remediation strategies in which people with schizophrenia speak aloud (verbalise) during task performance have demonstrated some success in improving performance on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. This study extends previous research by assessing whether verbalisation also improves performance on tasks selected from the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS). Twenty two subjects with schizophrenia participated in the study. We used a within subjects design to compare performance on the D-KEFS Tower Test and Trail Making Test when participants (a) produced concurrent verbalisation, or (b) remained silent. Results demonstrated selective benefits of verbalisation on a neuropsychological task requiring multiple executive functions (number-letter switching task), while performance on tasks requiring simpler single-component cognitive functions (visual scanning and motor speed tasks) was adversely affected. The effects of verbalisation on the cognitive task performance of patients with schizophrenia differ depending on the nature of the task. Benefits are seen in tests of executive skills but performance worsens in single component cognitive tasks. When developing cognitive remediation strategies for people with schizophrenia, consideration should be given to the nature and cognitive demands of each task before recommending verbalisation strategies.
Development of remote controlled mobile robot for planet research simulation laboratory

In this study, a remote controlled mobile robot is developed for the educational studies at the Planet Researches Simulation Laboratory in the Anadolu University Yunusemre Gozlemevi. The main objective of the study is to increase the interest of students for the technologies developed within the scope of planetary researches. In this context, the mobile robot system has been developed considering the international standards for the autonomous mobile robots. It has a web-based control and management interface. With the developed mobile robot system, many scenarios could be conducted similar to Mars real environment tasks such as remote photograph shooting, drilling and delayed calibration & analysis. Tests are conducted with the developed system for showing usability of the system.
Simulating streamer discharges in 3D with the parallel adaptive Afivo framework

We present an open-source plasma fluid code for 2D, cylindrical and 3D simulations of streamer discharges. The code is based on the Afivo framework, which features adaptive mesh refinement on quadtree/octree grids, geometric multigrid methods for Poisson’s equation, and OpenMP parallelism. We describe the numerical implementation of a fluid model of the drift-diffusion-reaction type, combined with the local field approximation. Then we demonstrate its functionality with 3D simulations of long positive streamers in nitrogen in undervolted gaps. Three examples are presented. The first one shows how a stochastic background density affects streamer propagation and branching. The second one focuses on the interaction of a streamer with preionized regions, and the third one investigates the interaction between two streamers. The simulations use up to 108 grid cells and run in less than a day; without mesh refinement they would require more than 1012 grid cells.
Interledger: Creating a Standard for Payments

The web has enabled free and open information exchange for a vast number of users around the world. However, it has so far failed to do the same for payments. Instead of finding the cheapest route for each payment from a competitive network of providers, we rely on a small number of proprietary operators with global reach. The work happening at the Web Payments Working Group at W3C is attempting to remove some of the friction in performing payments on the Web by defining a standard payment API and messaging in browsers. This will make payments on the Web easier but not entirely frictionless or integrated. As active participants in the W3C's Web Payments Working Group we present a browser polyfill of one of the prosed payment APIs and will walk the audience through the goals of the WG and vision of how payments will work on the Web in the future. Building on this, we will introduce the Interledger Protocol (ILP), a new neutral payments protocol being incubated in the Interledger Payments Community Group, also at the W3C. We will demonstrate how, in the future, the combination of the W3C's Web Payments APIs and the power of ILP payments will not only be frictionless but fully integrated into how we use the Web. Ubiquitous payments in an Internet of Value.
Diffusion tensor imaging of the hippocampus and verbal memory performance: The RUN DMC Study

Background: Cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) and hippocampal atrophy are related to verbal memory failures and may ultimately result in Alzheimer's disease. However, verbal memory failures are often present before structural changes on conventional MRI appear. Changes in microstructural integrity of the hippocampus, which cannot be detected with conventional MRI, may be the underlying pathological substrate. With diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), we investigated the relation between the microstructural integrity of the hippocampus and verbal memory performance in 503 nondemented elderly with SVD. Methods: The Radboud University Nijmegen Diffusion tensor and Magnetic resonance imaging Cohort study is a prospective cohort study among 503 nondemented elderly with cerebral SVD aged between 50 and 85 years. All participants underwent T1 MPRAGE, fluid‐attenuated inversion recovery, DTI scanning and the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test. After manual segmentation of the hippocampi, we calculated the mean diffusivity (MD) and fractional anisotropy in both hippocampi. The relation between memory performance and hippocampal DTI parameters was adjusted for age, sex, education, depressive symptoms, hippocampal, and white‐matter lesions volume and lacunar infarcts. Results: We found inverse relations between hippocampal MD and verbal memory performance (β = −0.22; P < 0.001), immediate recall (β = −0.22; P < 0.001), delayed recall (β = −0.20; P < 0.001), and forgetting rate (β = −0.13; P = 0.025), most pronounced in participants with a normal hippocampal volume. Conclusion: Microstructural integrity of the hippocampus assessed by DTI is related to verbal memory performance in elderly with SVD, also in participants with an intact appearing hippocampus. Changes in hippocampal microstructure may be an early marker of underlying neurodegenerative disease, before macrostructural (i.e., volumetric) changes occur. Hum Brain Mapp, 2012. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.