Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
KRANNERT GRADUATE SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

We develop a general procedure to construct pairwise meeting processes characterized by two features. First, in each period the process maximizes the number of matches in the population. Second, over time agents meet everybody else exactly once. We call this type of meetings “absolute strangers. ” Our methodological contribution to economics is to offer a simple procedure to construct a type of decentralized trading environments usually employed in both theoretical and experimental economics. In particular, we demonstrate how to make use of the mathematics of Latin Squares to enrich the modeling of matching economies.
Response to Comment on "The Southern Ocean Biological Response to Aeolian Iron Deposition"

Net community production in the Southern Ocean is correlated with simulated local dust deposition, and more so with modeled deposition of soluble iron. Model simulations of the latter two properties are consistent with observations in both hemispheres. These results provide strong evidence that aerosol iron deposition is a first-order control on net community production and export production over large areas of the Southern Ocean.
KURAM VE UYGULAMADA EĞİTİM BİLİMLERİ EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES: THEORY & PRACTICE

Based on the upper echelons theory and stakeholder theory, and applying the System GMM method, this paper empirically analyzes the impact of executives’ educational level and corporate social responsibility (CSR) on “de-noising” financial performance, with the research samples collected from the A-share listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges that disclosed their social responsibility information reports within the period of 2009 to 2015. Research results show that the corporate social responsibility lagging two phases has a significant positive effect on the current financial performance, the executives’ educational level lagging two phases has a significant positive effect on the current corporate social responsibility and executives’ education level plays no regulatory role in the impact of corporate social responsibility on financial performance.
On the Influence of 3-D structures in the Interpretation of transient electromagnetic sounding data

The limitations of a standard 1-D inversion applied to multidimensional (synthetic) data are investigated. Simple correction procedures for interpreting field data distorted by 3-D structures are suggested. Two different transmitter/receiver configurations of the transient electromagnetic (TEM) sounding method are examined: a central loop configuration for the near zone (sometimes called short offset) and a fixed transmitter/moving receiver configuration for the far zone (long offset). The 3-D models are structural depressions and highs in both resistive and conductive basements. The fixed transmitter (grounded dipole) in the long offset TEM configuration is located at a distance significantly greater than both the size and depth of the structure. In all cases, 1-D interpretation of the central loop soundings recovers geoelectric parameters of the section with good reliability, although fictitious layers may appear near vertical boundaries. The 1-D interpretation of long offset soundings does not, in most.
A Novel Tracking Scheme for Galileo BOC(1,1) System

The delay lock loop with early minus late discriminator (EL-DLL) is the most widely used tracking scheme in direct sequence spread spectrum (DS/SS) systems. In multipath environments, it has tracking bias, which is a residual error after fine code synchronization. The correlation function of the binary offset carrier (BOC) modulated spreading signal has several time corresponding to the several local minimum and maximum correlation values. This paper will present a novel tracking scheme for the Galileo BOC(1,1) system using this characteristic and will show its performance via simulation.
Basslink HVDC interconnector-system design considerations

The Basslink HVDC interconnector is a major Australian energy initiative that will allow the exchange of electricity between the island of Tasmania and the mainland of Australia. This paper highlights some key aspects of the project starting from its rationale, describing critical system design criteria, how the stringent power quality requirements (frequency control, harmonics, flicker etc) were addressed and further portrays related considerations for vital components.
Studies on the Bcl-2 Family of Apoptosis Regulators in the Nervous System

Hamnér, S. 2000. Studies on the Bcl-2 Family of Apoptosis Regulators in the Nervous System. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Medicine 977 66 pp. Uppsala. ISBN 91-554-4870-4 Apoptosis is a type of cell death with a specific morphology and molecular program, which is essential for the development of the nervous system. However, inappropriate cell death has been implicated in several neurodegenerative diseases. The Bcl-2 protein family is a class of proteins, which can regulate the cell death program in either a positive (pro-apoptotic family members) or a negative (anti-apoptotic family members) way. This thesis further elucidates the role of Bcl-2 family members in the nervous system. Special focus has been put on the anti-apoptotic family member Bcl-w, whose function in the nervous system was previously unknown, and the pro-apoptotic family member Bad which serves as a link between growth factor signalling and apoptosis. Bcl-w mRNA was found to be upregulated during rat brain development suggesting increasing importance of Bcl-w with age in the nervous system. In contrast, mRNA levels encoding the anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-x were downregulated during development. Bcl-w was also found to have an anti-apoptotic function in neurons, rescuing sympathetic neurons from cell death after nerve growth factor deprivation. To further elucidate the mechanism by which Bcl-w exerts its function, we screened a yeast two-hybrid library for proteins interacting with Bcl-w. Two of the isolated positive clones encoded the pro-apoptotic protein Bad and a novel splice variant of Bad with a different carboxyterminal sequence. Both isoforms of Bad induced cell death in sympathetic neurons, which could be counteracted by Bcl-w, indicating that Bcl-w and Bad can interact both physically and functionally. Further studies on the genomic structure of the Bad gene suggested the presence of an additional splice variant, not expressing the first exon. Immunohistochemical analysis indicates that the isoform(s) not expressing the first exon is more widely expressed in adult rat brain than the known forms. Finally, we show that high cell density can enhance survival of cerebellar granule neurons and that bcl-2 and bcl-x mRNA levels are upregulated in high density cultures.
A New Institutional Economics Approach to Contracts and Cooperatives

Our purpose in this paper is to highlight the role of organizational structure and incentives in the design of contracts between buyers and sellers of agricultural products. In particular, we consider how differences between investor-owned (IOF) and producer-oriented (POF) firms, and differences between alternate types of POFs, may affect the types of contract terms those respective organizations are likely to prefer in their contracts with agricultural producers. New institutional economics theories of contracting, agency and property rights allocation suggest that cooperative contractors may be able to design contracts that enhance economic efficiency that IOFs cannot easily replicate. Keywords: Contracting, cooperatives, organizational structure
Births and deaths: preliminary data for July 1997-June 1998.

OBJECTIVES This report presents preliminary data on births and deaths in the United States from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) for the 12 months ending June 1998. U.S. data on births are shown by age, race, and Hispanic origin of mother. Natality data on marital status, prenatal care, cesarean delivery, and low birthweight are also presented. Mortality data presented include leading causes of death and infant mortality. METHODS Data in this report are based on more than a 99-percent sample of births and on more than an 89-percent sample of deaths in the United States for the 12 months ending June 1998. The records are weighted to independent control counts of births, infant deaths, and deaths 1 year and over received in State vital statistics offices from July 1997 to June 1998. Unless otherwise indicated, comparisons are made with final data for the 12-month period ending June 1997. RESULTS For the period July 1997-June 1998, the birth rate for teenagers dropped 4 percent to 51.5 births per 1,000 women aged 15-19 years, the lowest level since 1987. Birth rates for teenagers have been declining since 1991. Birth rates for women aged 20-29 years changed very little, whereas rates for women in their thirties and forties rose 2 to 4 percent. The birth rate for unmarried women declined slightly, but the number of births to unmarried women was up about 1 percent because of an increase in the number of unmarried women. The rate of prenatal care utilization continued to improve. The percent of births delivered by cesarean section rose from 20.7 percent to 20.9 percent as the result of a slight increase in the primary cesarean rate and a substantial decline in the rate of vaginal births after previous cesarean (VBAC). The overall low birthweight rate was unchanged at 7.5 percent. Age-adjusted death rates reached a record low, 2 percent below the rate for the previous 12-month period. The largest declines in estimated age-adjusted death rates among the leading causes of death were for Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection (37 percent) and homicide (9 percent). Smaller declines were noted for most of the other leading causes of death, but no increases occurred. Mortality also decreased for firearm injuries and alcohol-induced deaths. The infant mortality rates for all races and white and black infants were about the same as the corresponding rates for the previous 12-month period.
Openness, Sustainability, and Public Participation: New Designs for Transboundary River Basin Institutions

The world's transboundary environmental institutions typically are driven from the top, function behind closed doors, disregard sustainability, and rely on technical fixes or regulatory mechanisms. This article compares those approaches, as manifested in various river basin commissions, to a new, more democratic model being tested in the U.S.-Mexico border region. Water factors into many transboundary environmental problems. More than 300 river basins are shared by two or more countries. The authors examine seven international river basin compacts, sketch four common conceptual paradigms, and argue that these models mostly ignore local needs and public inputs and sometimes also fail in their explicit objectives. The border between the United States and Mexico offers a more promising design. There, as a result of the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement, a new, innovative authority, the Border Environmental Cooperation Commission (BECC), has emerged. This institution has been fashioned to protect local interests and to sustain its activities environmentally and financially. We examine how well the BECC has fulfilled its promise of openness, transparency, and binationality, and conclude that properly adapted, the model's roots—openness, transparency, capacity building, bottom-up design, and sustainability—could take hold in other transboundary areas.
Respones to Reviewer Comments: “On the role of soil water retention characteristic on aerobic microbial respiration”

Soil water status is one of the most important environmental factors that control microbial activity and rate of soil organic matter (SOM) decomposition. Its effect can be partitioned into effect of 10 water energy status (water potential) on cellular activity, effect of water volume on cellular motility and aqueous diffusion of substrate and nutrients, as well as effect of air content and gas-diffusion pathways on concentration of dissolved oxygen. However, moisture functions widely used in SOM decomposition models are often based on empirical functions rather than robust physical foundations that account for these disparate impacts of soil water. The contributions of soil water content and water potential vary from soil 15 to soil according to the soil water characteristic (SWC), which in turn is strongly dependent on soil texture and structure. The overall goal of this study is to introduce a physically based modelling framework of aerobic microbial respiration that incorporates the role of SWC under arbitrary soil moisture status. The model was tested by comparing it with published datasets of SOM decomposition under laboratory conditions. 20
Surface Energy Balance in the Accumulation Zone of the Laohugou Glacier No.12 in the Qilian Mountains during Ablation Period

Little is known about the surface energy balance in the accumulation zone of glaciers during the ablation period.In this paper,the characteristics of the components of the surface energy balance are analyzed,and the compositions of energy balance are estimated based on observed meteorological data from June 21 to July 31,2006,at an elevation of 5 040 meters of the Laohugou Glacier No.12 in the Qilian Mountains.It is found that during the ablation period,the net radiation is the principal energy source(82.1%) on the glacier surface,followed by the sensible heat flux(17.9%),whereas the main energy expenditure is the heat flux for snow/ice melting(70.8%),followed by the latent heat flux(29.2%). The daily mean of evaporation and sublimation is 0.8 mm w.e. ,and there is less difference between calculated and observed mass loss.The calculated accumulative mass loss is agreed well with the observed one.
Do Democracies Have Different Public Policies than Nondemocracies

Estimates of democracy's effect on the public sector are obtained from comparisons of 142 countries over the years 1960-90. Based on three tenets of voting theory -- that voting mutes policy preference intensity, political power is equally distributed in democracies, and the form of voting processes is important -- we expect democracy to affect policies that redistribute, or economically favor the political leadership, or enhance efficiency. We do not find such differences. Instead democracies are less likely to use policies that limit competition for public office. Alternative modeling approaches emphasize the degree of competition, and deemphasize the form or even existence of voting processes.
Rapid and simultaneous detection of Campylobacter spp. and Salmonella spp. in chicken samples by duplex loop-mediated isothermal amplification coupled with a lateral flow biosensor assay

Development of a simple, rapid and specific assay for the simultaneous detection of Campylobacter spp. and Salmonella spp. based on duplex loop-mediated isothermal amplification (d-LAMP), combined with lateral-flow biosensor (LFB) is reported herein. LAMP amplicons of both pathogens were simultaneously amplified and specifically differentiated by LFB. The specificity of the d-LAMP-LFB was evaluated using a set of 68 target and 12 non-target strains, showing 100% inclusivity and exclusivity. The assay can simultaneously detect Campylobacter and Salmonella strains as low as 1 ng and 100 pg genomic DNA per reaction, respectively. The lowest inoculated detection limits for Campylobacter and Salmonella species in artificially contaminated chicken meat samples were 103 CFU and 1 CFU per 25 grams, respectively, after enrichment for 24 h. Furthermore, compared to culture-based methods using field chicken meat samples, the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of d-LAMP- LFB were 95.6% (95% CI, 78.0%-99.8%), 71.4% (95% CI, 29.0%-96.3%) and 90.0% (95% CI, 73.4%-97.8%), respectively. The developed d-LAMP-LFB assay herein shows great potentials for the simultaneous detection of the Campylobacter and Salmonella spp. and poses a promising alternative approach for detection of both pathogens with applications in food products.
Coeliac disease presenting as chronic cough in an 8-year-old child

Patients with the ‘classical’ gastrointestinal symptoms of coeliac disease (CD) are usually readily diagnosed and treated with a gluten exclusion diet. However, the advent of sensitive serological investigations has revealed that over half of childhood CD remains asymptomatic or presents with more subtle non-gastrointestinal symptoms, with a significant risk to the health of undiagnosed children. In view of its changing presentation there is an increasing need for clinicians to have a low threshold to investigate patients for this disease. Rare cases of CD associated with respiratory symptoms have been reported. The authors report an interesting case presenting as chronic cough in an otherwise asymptomatic 8-year-old girl. As a result of having a low threshold of suspicion for underlying CD, a diagnosis has been made and the long-term health risks of undiagnosed disease have been improved in both the patient and her immediate family.
Crucial role of OX40/OX40L signaling in a murine model of asthma

The aim of the present study was to explore the roles of OX40/OX40 ligand (OX40L) signaling and OX40+ T cells in ovalbumin (OVA)-induced mouse asthma model. Asthma was induced by OVA exposure and subsequent co-treatment with OX40L protein, neutralizing anti-OX40L blocking antibody, OX40+ T cells or PBS. The protein expression levels of interleukin (IL)-4, IL-6, IL-13, IL-17, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and interferon (IFN)-γ in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) were examined using murine cytokine-specific ELISA. Eosinophil accumulation as well as proliferation and apoptosis of T cells in BALF were detected by Cell Counting kit-8 and flow cytometric assays. Expression of the apoptosis-related protein cleaved caspase-3 was examined in OX40+ T cells using western blot assay. Flow cytometric analysis revealed that OVA-treated mice that were co-treated with OX40L or OX40+ T cells exhibited higher eosinophil infiltration compared with control mice treated only with OVA, whereas neutralizing anti-OX40L blocking antibody inhibited eosinophil infiltration. ELISA assays demonstrated that the expression of IL-4, IL-6, IL-13, IL-17, TNF-α and IFN-γ in BALF in OX40L-treated and OX40+ T cell-treated mice was increased compared with expression levels in control mice. Treatment with OX40L protein effectively reduced apoptosis of T cells and the expression of cleaved caspase-3 in T cells. OX40L-treated and OX40+ T cell-treated mice exhibited increased asthma through OX40/OX40L signaling, which probably promoted inflammatory factor expression, eosinophil infiltration and T cell proliferation.
Interactive Online Learning with Incomplete Knowledge

Interactive online learning is vital in modern information service systems. Despite the recent progress in online learning, many challenges, which are brought by the complex practical scenarios of online learning, remain unsolved. The key challenges can be summarized from the following perspectives. First, from the user-user interaction perspective: to capture user heterogeneity, personalized online learning is needed, while on the other hand, the existence of user dependency calls for collaborative online learning across users, such that the learning process can be accelerated through information propagation. Second, from users’ temporal behavior perspective: information service systems are highly dynamic, which is reflected in the fact that users’ preferences change over time due to various internal or external factors [21], and item popularity vary due to fast emerging events/contents. Failing to model such dynamics may lead to sub-optimal decisions. Third, from the user-system interaction perspective: learning to interact with users and discover their preferences from repeated interactions is central in most information service systems. Instead of passively waiting for users’ feedback, proactive information acquisition should be encouraged. In addition, user feedback in online systems can be implicit. For example, user clicks, although abundant in online information1service systems, can be biased and incomplete due to position bias [34]. The proposed research aims at developing online learning solutions, and more specifically multiarmed bandit solutions, to conquer the aforementioned challenges. Firstly, I propose to perform contextual bandit learning in a collaborative manner, which enables information sharing across users, and thus expedites the learning process in a dynamic environment. Secondly, I propose to study bandit learning in a more realistic non-stationary environment such that the learning algorithm can automatically detect the potential changes and adapt its decision making strategy accordingly. Finally, I propose to improve the effectiveness of user-system interaction by: (1). learning from implicit user feedback and (2). proactively choosing the most representative users or information to initiate or incentivize the interaction for the most beneficial feedback, which further improves the system’s utility in the long run. By combining the proposed research, an information service system can provide right information to the right user at the right time, so as to improve users satisfaction in the long run. This will become a new paradigm for human-machine interaction: both systems and users win in this interactive game. More importantly, the proposed solutions can be applied to a wide spectrum of applications including not only the aforementioned information service systems, but also crowdsourcing, human-machine interactions in cyber physical systems, clinical trials in healthcare, sequential treatment design in psychology and many more.
A FAMILY OF TERM‐STRUCTURE MODELS FOR LONG‐TERM RISK MANAGEMENT AND DERIVATIVE PRICING

In this paper we propose a new family of term‐structure models based on the Flesaker and Hughston (1996) positive‐interest framework. The models are Markov and time homogeneous, with correlated Ornstein‐Uhlenbeck processes as state variables. We provide a theoretical analysis of the one‐factor model and a thorough emprical analysis of the two‐factor model. This allows us to identify the key factors in the model affecting interest‐rate dynamics. We conclude that the new family of models should provide a useful tool for use in long‐term risk management. Suitably parameterized, they can satisfy a wide range of desirable criteria, including:
SEISMIC AND ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES OF UNCONSOLIDATED PERMAFROST1

A model has been developed to relate the velocities of acoustic waves Vp and Vs in unconsolidated permafrost to the porosity and extent of freezing of the interstitial water. The permafrost is idealized as an assemblage of spherical quartz grains embedded in a matrix composed of spherical inclusions of water in ice. The wave-scattering theory of Kuster and Toksoz is used to determine the effective elastic moduli, and hence the acoustic velocities. The model predicts Vp and Vs to be decreasing functions of both the porosity and the water-to-ice ratio. The theory has been applied to laboratory measurements of Vp and Vs in 31 permafrost samples from the North American Arctic. Although no direct measurements were made of the extent of freezing in these samples, the data are consistent with the predictions of the model. Electrical resistivity measurements on the permafrost samples have demonstrated their essentially resistive behaviour. The ratio of resistivity of permafrost in its frozen state to that in its unfrozen state has been related to the extent of freezing in the samples. Electromagnetic and seismic reflection surveys can be used together in areas of permafrost: firstly an EM survey to determine the extent of freezing and then the acoustic velocity model to predict the velocities in the permafrost. The necessary transit time corrections can thus be made on seismic reflection records to compensate for the presence of permafrost.