Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Importance of Multiple Cropping in Increasing World Food Supplies

Multiple cropping describes forms of cropping practices where total production from a unit area of land in a farming year is achieved through growing crops simultaneously, sole crops in sequence, or a combination of mixed and sole crops in sequence. Multiple cropping for food production is in widespread use by farmers in the warmer parts of the world at all levels of agricultural technology. However, the form of multiple cropping varies from area to area depending on the farmers' total resources. Under conditions of "low level equilibrium" farming, as exists in much of the developing world (e.g., Africa, Latin America, parts of India), farmers operate with difficulties arising from low capital, unfavorable price relations, unsophisticated markets, and rudimentary infrastructure. Multiple cropping involving the growing of rain-fed crops in mixtures matches well the total resources available to these farmers in maintaining low but often adequate and relatively steady production. In conditions of "high level equilibrium" farming, as exists in areas such as the U. S. , Taiwan, and parts of India, on-farm agricultural technology is geared towards commercial production. Here multiple cropping mostly involves the growing of sole crops in sequence, but in some cases where farming is both capital and labor intensive due to a high population and an absolute land shortage, growing crops in mixtures has become economically more attractive. In the future much of the food needed by the world's rural and urban population in the areas presently under conditions of low level equilibrium farming will have to be produced by farming communities under conditions of change in agricultural technology. While efforts by governments to improve institutional and administrative structures and support facilities will
Retrospective analysis of autoimmune hepatitis-primary biliary cirrhosis overlap syndrome in Korea: characteristics, treatments, and outcomes

Background/Aims Overlap syndrome of autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) and primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) (AIH-PBC overlap syndrome) is a rare disease that has not been clearly characterized in Korean patients. This study investigated the clinical features of AIH-PBC overlap syndrome compared with those of AIH and PBC alone. Methods This retrospective cohort study included 158 consecutive patients who were diagnosed as AIH (n=61), PBC (n=81), or AIH-PBC overlap syndrome (n=9) based on the Paris and the International Autoimmune Hepatitis Group (IAIHG) criteria from 2001 to 2011 in Korea. We compared the clinical features of these three groups retrospectively, including their biochemical characteristics, treatments, responses, and clinical outcomes. Results The AIH-PBC overlap syndrome patients exhibited biochemical characteristics of both AIH and PBC, and showed a similar response to ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) monotherapy as for the PBC patients. However, the response of AIH-PBC overlap syndrome patients to UDCA and steroid combination therapy was worse than the response of AIH patients to steroid-based therapy (P=0.024). Liver cirrhosis developed more rapidly in AIH-PBC overlap syndrome patients than in AIH patients group (P=0.013), but there was no difference between AIH-PBC overlap syndrome patients and PBC patients. The rates of developing hepatic decompensation did not differ significantly between the groups. Conclusions The AIH-PBC overlap syndrome patients exhibited a worse response to UDCA and steroid combination therapy and a faster cirrhotic progression compared with AIH patients.
A relay selection scheme based on link states for cooperative communication

The cooperative communication makes wireless transmission reliable utilizing special diversity, where the relay selection is one of important issues. In this paper, we propose a relay selection scheme exploiting SNR and success probability of the link between nodes in network, especially focus in the link between the source and the relay. Proposed scheme is compared with previous schemes by the simulation. The simulation results show that our scheme perform better than other schemes in terms of BER and throughput.
The impact of fiscal decentralization and market transition on local public finance in China: fiscal inadequacy and unmet social security needs

One of the frequently observed issues related to fiscal decentralisation in developing and transition countries is that subnational governments may not have adequate resources to finance the expenditure responsibilities decentralised to them. This often results in expenditure needs not being met in poorer areas. In China, fiscal decentralisation has taken place in an extreme form, where the social security responsibility, a conventional central government function, has been devolved to subnational governments during the fiscal reforms. While existing studies have anatomised the problem of unmet fiscal needs in poorer areas of China using economic and political economy theories of fiscal federalism, they tend to under-estimate or neglect the fiscal needs induced by market transition—the increasing demand for social security by workers from state and non-state sectors since the mid-late 1990s. This research illustrates that excess fiscal decentralisation, as in the case of China, could also create serious fiscal burdens for relatively affluent local areas and generate unmet social security needs in these localities. It is discovered that in response to the emerging social security burdens, even the relatively affluent local governments are forced to adopt measures that may counter the intent of social benefit programs or produce other detrimental consequences. In addition, this dissertation applies statistical analysis to ascertain a few inconclusive issues raised by the China-specific literature. It is perceived that the negative correlation between the share of consolidated provincial budgetary spending on social security and health sector has become stronger and more significant in more recent time. This suggests that the expansion of social security expenses at subnational levels might have bid away budgetary resources for health. The result from the multiple regression analysis indicates that the degree of market transition has explanatory power on the size of provincial government, even when a number of other independent variables are controlled for. However, the explanatory power of market transition on the size of central-provincial fiscal transfer is not robust.
Overcoming Adverse Selection: How Public Intervention Can Restore Market Functioning

The paper provides a first analysis of market jump starting and its two-way interaction between mechanism design and participation constraints. The government optimally overpays for the legacy assets and cleans up the market of its weakest assets, through a mixture of buybacks and equity injections, and leaves the firms with the strongest legacy assets to the market. The government reduces adverse selection enough to let the market rebound, but not too much, so as to limit the cost of intervention. The existence of a market imposes no welfare cost. (JEL D82, D83, G01, G31, H81)
Satisfaction with social role participation in adults living with chronic conditions: Comparison to a US general population sample

Abstract Purpose Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of adults living with a chronic condition or disease is an important patient-reported outcome. There is a need to better understand the social health dimension of HRQOL among adults living with a chronic condition (with or without physical/mental disability). This study examined self-reported satisfaction with participation in social roles (SPSR) in adults, grouped by different age groups, living with a chronic condition relative to the US general population. Materials and methods This cross-sectional survey study included a convenience sample of 1,822 community-dwelling adults living with one of four chronic conditions. Participants completed the self-report Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Satisfaction with Participation in Social Roles v1.0—Short Form 7a (SPSR-SF). PROMIS SPSR-SF scores were compared with a US general population using normative data collected by PROMIS (n = 2,555). Results Participants self-reported significantly lower SPSR (M = 45, SD = 8.3) than the US general population (M = 50, SD = 10), t(1821) = −25.65, p > . 001. A regression analysis indicated that physical function explained more variance of PROMIS SPSR-SF scores than age. Conclusions Relative to the PROMIS national sample, adults living with a chronic condition reported lower levels of SPSR. Decreased physical function was associated with lower SPSR.
Omega-3 Fatty Acids in Inflammation and Autoimmune Diseases

Among the fatty acids, it is the omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) which possess the most potent immunomodulatory activities, and among the omega-3 PUFA, those from fish oil—eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)—are more biologically potent than α-linolenic acid (ALA). Some of the effects of omega-3 PUFA are brought about by modulation of the amount and types of eicosanoids made, and other effects are elicited by eicosanoid-independent mechanisms, including actions upon intracellular signaling pathways, transcription factor activity and gene expression. Animal experiments and clinical intervention studies indicate that omega-3 fatty acids have anti-inflammatory properties and, therefore, might be useful in the management of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. Coronary heart disease, major depression, aging and cancer are characterized by an increased level of interleukin 1 (IL-1), a proinflammatory cytokine. Similarly, arthritis, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis and lupus erythematosis are autoimmune diseases characterized by a high level of IL-1 and the proinflammatory leukotriene LTB4 produced by omega-6 fatty acids. There have been a number of clinical trials assessing the benefits of dietary supplementation with fish oils in several inflammatory and autoimmune diseases in humans, including rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, psoriasis, lupus erythematosus, multiple sclerosis and migraine headaches. Many of the placebo-controlled trials of fish oil in chronic inflammatory diseases reveal significant benefit, including decreased disease activity and a lowered use of anti-inflammatory drugs.
PSCA polymorphisms and gastric cancer susceptibility in an eastern Chinese population

The prostate stem cell antigen (PSCA) gene, which encodes a prostate-specific antigen (PSA), was identified as a gene involved in cell adhesion and proliferation. The associations between the PSCA rs2294008 and rs2976392 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and gastric cancer (GCa) susceptibility were still controversial. To derive a more precise estimation of the associations, we conducted a case-control study of 1,124 cases and 1,192 controls in an eastern Chinese population. We found that the rs2294008T variant genotypes were associated with an increased GCa risk in this study population (CT vs CC, OR=1.59, 95% CI=1.33-1.89 and CT+TT vs CC, OR=1.38, 95% CI=1.17-1.62). For SNP rs2976392, the variant A genotypes were also associated with an increased GCa risk (AG vs GG, OR=1.61, 95% CI=1.35-1.91 and AG+AA vs GG, OR=1.47, 95% CI=1.25-1.74). The results were further validated by a meta-analysis. In conclusion, the results indicated that the PSCA rs2294008 T and rs2976392 A alleles were low-penetrate risk factors for GCa in this study population. However, large and well-designed studies are warranted to validate our findings.
Higher education governance and management: An Australian study by V. Lynn Meek; Fiona Q. Wood - Book Review

This book reprots the survey findings of Australian university managers self perceptions of how they are handling governance and management changes. The study was done as part of the Evaluations and Investigations Program of the Higher Education Division of the Department of Employment, Education, Training, and Youth affairs. Besides reporting survey results, the volume includes a comprehensive analysis of the changes in Australian higher education governance and management and the challenges facing the system.
A Convolutional Autoencoder for Multi-Subject fMRI Data Aggregation

Finding the most effective way to aggregate multi-subject fMRI data is a long-standing and challenging problem. It is of increasing interest in contemporary fMRI studies of human cognition due to the scarcity of data per subject and the variability of brain anatomy and functional response across subjects. Recent work on latent factor models shows promising results in this task but this approach does not preserve spatial locality in the brain. We examine two ways to combine the ideas of a factor model and a searchlight based analysis to aggregate multi-subject fMRI data while preserving spatial locality. We first do this directly by combining a recent factor method known as a shared response model with searchlight analysis. Then we design a multi-view convolutional autoencoder for the same task. Both approaches preserve spatial locality and have competitive or better performance compared with standard searchlight analysis and the shared response model applied across the whole brain. We also report a system design to handle the computational challenge of training the convolutional autoencoder.
Rational Choice, Collective Decision And Social Welfare (位相幾何学と経済学)

Left freely to themselves, a group of rational individuals often fail to cooperate even when the product of social cooperation is beneficial to all. Hence, the author argues, a rule of collective decision making is clearly needed that specifies how social cooperation should be organised among contributing individuals. Suzumura gives a systematic presentation of the Arrovian impossibility theorems of social choice theory, so as to describe and enumerate the various factors that are responsible for the stability of the voluntary association of free and rational individuals. Among other topics covered are an axiomatic characterisation of the concept of a rational choice, the simple majority decision rule and its extensions, the social choice implications of the concept of equity as nonenvy, the constrained majoritarian collective choice rules and the conflict between the Paretian ethics and the libertarian claims of individual rights.
Disrupted Junctional Membrane Complexes and Hyperactive Ryanodine Receptors After Acute Junctophilin Knockdown in Mice

Background— Excitation-contraction coupling in striated muscle requires proper communication of plasmalemmal voltage-activated Ca2+ channels and Ca2+ release channels on sarcoplasmic reticulum within junctional membrane complexes. Although previous studies revealed a loss of junctional membrane complexes and embryonic lethality in germ-line junctophilin-2 (JPH2) knockout mice, it has remained unclear whether JPH2 plays an essential role in junctional membrane complex formation and the Ca2+-induced Ca2+ release process in the heart. Our recent work demonstrated loss-of-function mutations in JPH2 in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Methods and Results— To elucidate the role of JPH2 in the heart, we developed a novel approach to conditionally reduce JPH2 protein levels using RNA interference. Cardiac-specific JPH2 knockdown resulted in impaired cardiac contractility, which caused heart failure and increased mortality. JPH2 deficiency resulted in loss of excitation-contraction coupling gain, precipitated by a reduction in the number of junctional membrane complexes and increased variability in the plasmalemma–sarcoplasmic reticulum distance. Conclusions— Loss of JPH2 had profound effects on Ca2+ release channel inactivation, suggesting a novel functional role for JPH2 in regulating intracellular Ca2+ release channels in cardiac myocytes. Thus, our novel approach of cardiac-specific short hairpin RNA–mediated knockdown of junctophilin-2 has uncovered a critical role for junctophilin in intracellular Ca2+ release in the heart.
The Effect of GPBL (Generative and Problem Based Learning) Models on Self Efficacy of Students

The background of this study is the real facts, namely the low self-efficacy of students. This problem is because the learning process is still dominated by the teacher's role in learning. Besides that, the low ability of students when doing assignments. As a result, it will give a negative impact on students and make student’s self-efficacy will be low. The type of research is quantitative research with the research design of Nonequivalent Control Group Design. Based on the results of the data obtained after the homogeneity test calculation showed that the samples have the same variant or homogeneous. Based on the test of the Mann-Whitney U Test, it shows that the Asymp value is obtained. Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000 5 0.05 therefore, it can be concluded that H1 is accepted and H0 is rejected. These results can be concluded that there is an effect of the GPBL learning model on student’s self-efficacy. Keywords—GPBL learning model, students’ self-efficacy
Transformational Leadership Characteristics of College and University Presidents of Private, Title III and Title V-Eligible Institutions

iv Acknowledgements. vi Dedication. viii Table of
Distributed under Creative Commons Cc-by 4.0 the Influence of Flight Style on the Aerodynamic Properties of Avian Wings as Fixed Lifting Surfaces

The diversity of wing morphologies in birds reflects their variety of flight styles and the associated aerodynamic and inertial requirements. Although the aerodynamics underlying wing morphology can be informed by aeronautical research, important differences exist between planes and birds. In particular, birds operate at lower, transitional Reynolds numbers than do most aircraft. To date, few quantitative studies have investigated the aerodynamic performance of avian wings as fixed lifting surfaces and none have focused upon the differences between wings from different flight style groups. Dried wings from 10 bird species representing three distinct flight style groups were mounted on a force/torque sensor within a wind tunnel in order to test the hypothesis that wing morphologies associated with different flight styles exhibit different aerodynamic properties. Morphological differences manifested primarily as differences in drag rather than lift. Maximum lift coefficients did not differ between groups, whereas minimum drag coefficients were lowest in undulating flyers (Corvids). The lift to drag ratios were lower than in conventional aerofoils and data from free-flying soaring species; particularly in high frequency, flapping flyers (Anseriformes), which do not rely heavily on glide performance. The results illustrate important aerodynamic differences between the wings of different flight style groups that cannot be explained solely by simple wing-shape measures. Taken at face value, the results also suggest that wing-shape is linked principally to changes in aerodynamic drag, but, of course, it is aerodynamics during flapping and not gliding that is likely to be the primary driver.
Essential Pages

Results to Web search queries are ranked using heuristics that typically analyze the global link topology, user behavior, and content relevance. We point to a particular inefficiency of such methods: information redundancy. In queries where learning about a subject is an objective, modern search engines return relatively unsatisfactory results as they consider the query coverage by each page individually, not a set of pages as a whole. We address this problem using essential pages. If we denote as $\mathbb{S}_Q$ the total knowledge that exists on the Web about a given query $Q$, we want to build a search engine that returns a set of essential pages $E_Q$ that maximizes the information covered over $\mathbb{S}_Q$. We present a preliminary prototype that optimizes the selection of essential pages; we draw some informal comparisons with respect to existing search engines; and finally, we evaluate our prototype using a blind-test user study.
The Frequency and Costs of Individual Price Adjustment

How often do the nominal prices of individual goods change? What is the nature and magnitude of costs of price adjustment? Economists seeking to construct macroeconomic models useful for monetary policy analysis must know the answers to these questions. The empirical literature reveals that many prices change infrequently, in part because of physical costs of price adjustment. However, infrequent price adjustment also seems to be related to long-term buyer-seller relationships in ways that are not yet well understood.
Assessing Cognitive Fatigue in Multiple Sclerosis: A Multidimensional Approach

Cognitive fatigue (CF) presents a considerable challenge for individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS) often negatively impacting quality of life. CF can be defined as a decrease in, or inability to sustain, optimal task performance throughout the duration of a continuous cognitive task. The following dissertation presents three original research reports which evaluate CF in MS in three distinct ways using a multidimensional approach. The objective of this dissertation was to comprehensively evaluate and quantify this frequently misunderstood symptom of the disease. The first report examines four theoretical models of CF in MS which evaluate the interrelatedness of disease severity, fatigue, depression, and sleep quality in order to determine their predictive roles with regard to CF. The second report assesses CF longitudinally by examining whether or not the ability to perform optimally on a continuous cognitive task changes as the disease progresses across a three-year time interval. The final report objectively quantifies CF in MS by evaluating changes in global and regional cerebral blood flow during a task of sustained attention using arterial spin labeling perfusion fMRI. Results of all three reports are further discussed in terms of clinical and research implications. CF is a symptom of MS not readily apparent to outside observers but presents a very real burden for people with the disease that negatively impacts their ability to lead active and productive lives. These individuals may be discriminated against because CF has thus far been a largely unverifiable subjective experience. The totality of these three studies allows for a multidimensional quantification of CF. By providing objective support to the self-reports of individuals with MS, not only can they achieve much needed validation, but this can also lead to interventions that may provide further direct benefit to their health-related quality of life.
The MISLEM Project : developing meta-level quality indicators for establishing a systematic linkage between educational institutions and the labour market: education, employment and graduate employability: project manual

The MISLEM Project comprised representatives from Higher and Vocational Education in four partner countries, Austria, Romania, Slovenia and the UK. In addition to this, representatives from a major UK graduate employment agency and the Austria Quality Assurance Agency were also involved. At the inaugural meeting of the Project, partner teams discussed and agreed upon appropriate methodological processes with which to carry the Project forward.