Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Does Democracy Increase Bilateral Trade in MENA Region

This paper aims to analyze the effects of democracy to the trade of countries in MENA Regions. The Gravity Model used to test the effects of democracy on trade. Estimation is done with several models, that is FE, RE, MLE, and PPML. From this estimation can be detected endogenity problem that is caused by simultaneity between export and democracy. The FE model with the infant mortality rate as instrumental variable was chosen to address the problem. After controlling endogenity, it can be concluded that democracy positively affects (3-4 per cent) of trade in MENA Regions, especially democracy in partner countries.
Regional Assessment of Groundwater Recharge in the Lower Mekong Basin

Groundwater recharge remains almost totally unknown across the Mekong River Basin, hindering the evaluation of groundwater potential for irrigation. A regional regression model was developed to map groundwater recharge across the Lower Mekong Basin where agricultural water demand is increasing, especially during the dry season. The model was calibrated with baseflow computed with the local-minimum flow separation method applied to streamflow recorded in 65 unregulated sub-catchments since 1951. Our results, in agreement with previous local studies, indicate that spatial variations in groundwater recharge are predominantly controlled by the climate (rainfall and evapotranspiration) while aquifer characteristics seem to play a secondary role at this regional scale. While this analysis suggests large scope for expanding agricultural groundwater use, the map derived from this study provides a simple way to assess the limits of groundwater-fed irrigation development. Further data measurements to capture local variations in hydrogeology will be required to refine the evaluation of recharge rates to support practical implementations.
The Awareness of Referential Cohesion in Children With and Without Language / Learning Disabilities La conscience de la coherence referentielle d ' enfants atteints ou non de troubles du langage

This study investigated the metalinguistic abilities of school-aged children with and withoutlanguageJIearning disabilities, specifically their reactions to anomalies in referential cohesion resulting from inadequate referent introduction in three tasks: retelling stories, repealing individual sentences of stories, and judging the adequacy of stories. Although children in the languagellearning disabilities group exhibited some metalinguislic awareness of referential cohesion, fewer explicitly objected to the use of definite determiners for referent introduction in comparison 10 children with no disabilities. Such a difference in awareness might account for differences in referential cohesion previously reported in the literature. However, the fact that some children in the languagellearning disabilities group detected inadequate pronominal referent introductions suggests that they are in the process of developing metalinguislic awareness of discourse cohesion. ABREGE Dans cette etude, on a etudie les competences metalinguistiques d'enfants d'age scolaire atteints ou non de troubles du langage ou d'apprentissage, en particulier leurs reactions a des anomalies de coherence referentielle attribuables a I'introduction inappropriee de referents dans trois taches : repeter des histoires, repliter des phrases isolees dans des histoires et juger de la pertinence des histoires. Bien que les enfants du groupe ayant des troubles du langage ou d'apprentissage alent manifeste une certaine conscience metalinguistique de la coherence referentielle, peu d'entre eux s'opposaient a I'utilisation de facteurs determinants precis pour introduire des referents par comparaison avec les enfants n'ayant aucun trouble. Celle difference en maliere de conscience pourrait correspondre aux differences a regard de la coherence referentielle precedemment signa lees dans la lilterature. Le fait que certains enfants du groupe ayant des troubles du langage ou de I'apprentissage aient decele des introductions inappropriees de referents pronominaux laisse toutefois presager qu'ils sont en train d'acquerir une conscience metalinguistique de la coherence du discours.
Rosuvastatin Does Not Affect Fasting Glucose, Insulin Resistance, or Adiponectin in Patients with Mild to Moderate Hypertension

The effects of statins on insulin resistance and new-onset diabetes are unclear. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of rosuvastatin on insulin resistance and adiponectin in patients with mild to moderate hypertension. In a randomized, prospective, single-blind study, 53 hypertensive patients were randomly assigned to the control group (n=26) or the rosuvastatin (20 mg once daily) group (n=27) during an 8-week treatment period. Both groups showed significant improvements in systolic blood pressure and flow-mediated dilation (FMD) after 8 weeks of treatment. Rosuvastatin treatment improved total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol, and triglyceride levels. The control and rosuvastatin treatment groups did not differ significantly in the change in HbA1c (3.0±10.1% vs. -1.3±12.7%; p=0.33), fasting glucose (-1.3±18.0% vs. 2.5±24.1%; p=0.69), or fasting insulin levels (5.2±70.5% vs. 22.6±133.2%; p=0.27) from baseline. Furthermore, the control and rosuvastatin treatment groups did not differ significantly in the change in the QUICKI insulin sensitivity index (mean change, 2.2±11.6% vs. 3.6±11.9%; p=0.64) or the HOMA index (11.6±94.9% vs. 32.4±176.7%; p=0.44). The plasma adiponectin level increased significantly in the rosuvastatin treatment group (p=0.046), but did not differ significantly from that in the control group (mean change, 23.2±28.4% vs. 23.1±27.6%; p=0.36). Eight weeks of rosuvastatin (20 mg) therapy resulted in no significant improvement or deterioration in fasting glucose levels, insulin resistance, or adiponectin levels in patients with mild to moderate hypertension.
Hierarchical Implicit Models and Likelihood-Free Variational Inference

Implicit probabilistic models are a flexible class of models defined by a simulation process for data. They form the basis for theories which encompass our understanding of the physical world. Despite this fundamental nature, the use of implicit models remains limited due to challenges in specifying complex latent structure in them, and in performing inferences in such models with large data sets. In this paper, we first introduce hierarchical implicit models (HIMs). HIMs combine the idea of implicit densities with hierarchical Bayesian modeling, thereby defining models via simulators of data with rich hidden structure. Next, we develop likelihood-free variational inference (LFVI), a scalable variational inference algorithm for HIMs. Key to LFVI is specifying a variational family that is also implicit. This matches the model's flexibility and allows for accurate approximation of the posterior. We demonstrate diverse applications: a large-scale physical simulator for predator-prey populations in ecology; a Bayesian generative adversarial network for discrete data; and a deep implicit model for text generation.
Image Segmentation for Intensity Inhomogeneity in Presence of High Noise

Automated segmentation of fine objects details in a given image is becoming of crucial interest in different imaging fields. In this paper, we propose a new variational level-set model for both global and interactive\selective segmentation tasks, which can deal with intensity inhomogeneity and the presence of noise. The proposed method maintains the same performance on clean and noisy vector-valued images. The model utilizes a combination of locally computed denoising constrained surface and a denoising fidelity term to ensure a fine segmentation of local and global features of a given image. A two-phase level-set formulation has been extended to a multi-phase formulation to successfully segment medical images of the human brain. Comparative experiments with state-of-the-art models show the advantages of the proposed method.
Measurements of ocean derived aerosol off the coast of California

[1] Reliable characterization of particles freshly emitted from the ocean surface requires a sampling method that is able to isolate those particles and prevent them from interacting with ambient gases and particles. Here we report measurements of particles directly emitted from the ocean using a newly developed in situ particle generator (Sea Sweep). The Sea Sweep was deployed alongside R/V Atlantis off the coast of California during May of 2010. Bubbles were generated 0.75 m below the ocean surface with stainless steel frits and swept into a hood/vacuum hose to feed a suite of aerosol instrumentation on board the ship. The number size distribution of the directly emitted, nascent particles had a dominant mode at 55–60 nm (dry diameter) and secondary modes at 30–40 nm and 200–300 nm. The nascent aerosol was not volatile at 230°C and was not enriched in SO4=, Ca++, K+, or Mg++above that found in surface seawater. The organic component of the nascent aerosol (7% of the dry submicrometer mass) volatilized at a temperature between 230 and 600°C. The submicrometer organic aerosol characterized by mass spectrometry was dominated by non-oxygenated hydrocarbons. The nascent aerosol at 50, 100, and 145 nm dry diameter behaved hygroscopically like an internal mixture of sea salt with a small organic component. The CCN/CN activation ratio for 60 nm Sea Sweep particles was near 1 for all supersaturations of 0.3 and higher indicating that all of the particles took up water and grew to cloud drop size. The nascent organic aerosol mass fraction did not increase in regions of higher surface seawater chlorophyll but did show a positive correlation with seawater dimethylsulfide (DMS).
Prognostic Significance of E-Cadherin Expression in Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A Meta-Analysis

Backgrounds Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignancy of liver and HCC-related morbidity and mortality remains at high level. Researchers had investigated whether and how reduced E-cadherin expression impacted the prognosis of patients with HCC but the results reported by different teams remain inconclusive. Methods A systematic literature search was performed in all available databases to retrieve eligible studies and identify all relevant data, which could be used to evaluate the correlation between reduced E-cadherin expression and clinicopathological features and prognosis for HCC patients. A fixed or random effects model was used in this meta-analysis to calculate the pooled odds ratios (OR) and weighted mean differences (WMD) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Results Total 2439 patients in thirty studies matched the selection criteria. Aggregation of the data suggested that reduced E-cadherin expression in HCC patients correlated with poor 1-, 3- and 5-year overall survival. The combined ORs were 0.50 (n = 13 studies, 95% CI: 0.37–0.67, Z = 4.49, P<0.00001), 0.39 (n = 13 studies, 95% CI: 0.28–0.56, Z = 5.12, P<0.00001), 0.40 (n = 11 studies, 95% CI: 0.25–0.64, Z = 3.82, P = 0.0001), respectively. Additionally, the pooled analysis denoted that reduced E-cadherin expression negatively impacts recurrence-free survival (RSF) with no significant heterogeneity. The pooled ORs for 1-, 3- and 5- year RSF affected by down-regulated E-cadherin were 0.73 (n = 6 studies, 95% CI: 0.54–1.00, Z = 1.95, P = 0.05), 0.70 (n = 6 studies, 95% CI: 0.52–0.95, Z = 2.32, P = 0.02), 0.66 (n = 5 studies, 95% CI: 0.48–0.90, Z = 2.64, P = 0.008). And what’s more, reduced E-cadherin expression tended to be significantly associated with metastasis (OR = 0.31, 95% CI: 0.16–0.60, Z = 3.50, P = 0.0005), vascular invasion (OR = 0.76, 95% CI: 0.59–0.98, Z = 2.14, P = 0.03), advanced differentiation grade (OR = 0.31, 95% CI: 0.21–0.45, Z = 6.04, P<0.00001) and advanced TMN stage (T3/T4 versus T1/T2) (OR = 0.61,95% CI:0.38–0.98, Z = 2.05, P = 0.04). Conclusions Reduced E-cadherin expression indicates a poor prognosis for patients with HCC, and it may have predictive potential for prognosis of HCC patients.
Master of Puppets: How Narcissistic CEOs Construct Their Professional Worlds

We explore how narcissistic CEOs address two powerful and conflicting needs: the need for acclaim and the need to dominate others. We argue that narcissistic CEOs address their need for acclaim by pursuing celebrity in the media and affiliating with high-status board members, and they address their need to dominate others by employing lower-status, younger, and less experienced top management team members who will be more deferential to and dependent on them. They manage each group differently through the use of different rewards, punishments, and influence tactics. We extend prior theory on CEO narcissism by exploring the mediating constructs that can link CEO narcissism and firm performance, offer a greater understanding of corporate governance by exploring how CEO personality traits influence governance structures, and demonstrate how a CEO’s personality characteristics can affect the acquisition of social approval assets.
Willingness to pay for organic food in Argentina: Evidence from a consumer survey

Most food markets do not count on complete information about food quality for consumers. Quality has become a key concept in the new approaches of the Demand Theory (Lancaster, 1966; Antle, 1999), and, therefore, food quality information has turned into a crucial factor when explaining the existing differences between demand profiles. Throughout these last years, organic agriculture has undergone a notorious expansion due, among other things, to the greater interest shown by consumers aware of food safety concerns involving real or potential quality risks perceptions. (Henson, 1996) This paper aims to estimate consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) for organic food products available in the Argentinean domestic market, with a view to providing useful evidence to the government, and thus gain support in the promotion of organic production, regulation processes and labelling programs. The Contingent Valuation Method (Hanemann, 1984) was selected to estimate WTP. Data derives from a food consumption survey conducted in Buenos Aires city in April 2005. The parameters estimates for the selected products were obtained by applying a Binomial Multiple Logistic Regression. The results indicate that Argentinean consumers are willing to pay a price premium to acquire better quality products. Indeed, this is conditioned by the effective prices in the domestic market, in which price premiums range from 6% to 200%, thereby restricting their acquisition. Besides, the scarce availability of these healthy products has also become another meaningful obstacle for domestic consumption expansion in Argentina.
Characterization of bioglass electrospun nanofibers and influence of RGD binding motifs on stem cell activity

The development of bone scaffolds with osteogenic potential is extremely relevant for stem cell-based bone engineering. In this study we developed a bioactive glass nanofibers (BAGN) scaffold, by electrospinning (ESP), without sodium on its chemical composition, which is known for its potential as bone scaffold due to the ability to stimulate osteogenesis and induce bone formation. These nanofibers were also functionalized with arginyl glycyl aspartic acid (RGD) peptides that promote cell adhesion and proliferation. For that, (3-aminopropyl) triethoxysilane (APTES) was used as surface modifier. In vitro, osteogenic potential of BAG electrospun fibers was determined using hMSCs. Basic medium was applied and revealed a rapid induction of bone minerallike apatite over the surface of both types of fibers. DNA assays proved that cells adhered well onto the not functionalized fibers, unlike what happened to the fibers with RGD. The metabolic activity of cells was measured using the PrestoBlue reagent. DAPIPhalloidin staining was applied to hMSCs cultured on top of both BAGN and the respective data were analyzed with the CellProfiler software (imaging analysis) in order to quantify the temporal evolution of the adhesive/spreading area of the cells.
Public Relations in the Public Sector. The Role of Strategic Communication in the Italian Public Administration

Purpose of the paper : The aim of this study is to examine the level of strategic management of public administrations and information and communication programs by public communication officers in Italy. Methodology : The study is quantitative in nature. It was constructed according to the findings of the Excellence Project in Public Relations and thus applies a research instrument similar to that used in other international scholarly investigations in public relations. The population comprises civil servants working in information and communication activities for Italian public administrations. Findings : The majority of public communication officers in the Italian public administration are not involved in the strategic management of public administrations but rather contribute to operational activities. They report directly to the senior manager of their department/unit and they use a mixed model of public relations. Research limitations : Due to a lack of information on the exact number of public communication officers working in the Italian public administration and a too small number of respondents in one of the respondent groups, it is not possible to draw inferences or general conclusions from the findings. The study also suffers from the limits of a quantitative research approach, which provides less elaborate accounts of public communication officers’ perceptions of the strategic role of communication in the public sector. Originality/value of paper : This study contributes to the existing knowledge on strategic public relations and public communication by offering a specific analysis of the strategic management of information and communication programs in the Italian public administration.
Cryptosporidium testudinis sp. n., Cryptosporidium ducismarci Traversa, 2010 and Cryptosporidium tortoise genotype III (Apicomplexa: Cryptosporidiidae) in tortoises.

Understanding of the diversity of species of Cryptosporidium Tyzzer, 1910 in tortoises remains incomplete due to the limited number of studies on these hosts. The aim of the present study was to characterise the genetic diversity and biology of cryptosporidia in tortoises of the family Testudinidae Batsch. Faecal samples were individually collected immediately after defecation and were screened for presence of cryptosporidia by microscopy using aniline-carbol-methyl violet staining, and by PCR amplification and sequence analysis targeting the small subunit rRNA (SSU), Cryptosporidium oocyst wall protein (COWP) and actin genes. Out of 387 faecal samples from 16 tortoise species belonging to 11 genera, 10 and 46 were positive for cryptosporidia by microscopy and PCR, respectively. All samples positive by microscopy were also PCR positive. Sequence analysis of amplified genes revealed the presence of the Cryptosporidium tortoise genotype I (n = 22), C. ducismarci Traversa, 2010 (n = 23) and tortoise genotype III (n = 1). Phylogenetic analyses of SSU, COWP and actin gene sequences revealed that Cryptosporidium tortoise genotype I and C. ducismarci are genetically distinct from previously described species of Cryptosporidium. Oocysts of Cryptosporidium tortoise genotype I, measuring 5.8-6.9 µm × 5.3-6.5 µm, are morphologically distinguishable from C. ducismarci, measuring 4.4-5.4 µm × 4.3-5.3 µm. Oocysts of Cryptosporidium tortoise genotype I and C. ducismarci obtained from naturally infected Russian tortoises (Testudo horsfieldii Gray) were infectious for the same tortoise but not for Reeve's turtles (Mauremys reevesii [Gray]), common garter snake (Thamnophis sirtalis [Linnaeus]), zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata [Vieillot]) and SCID mice (Mus musculus Linnaeus). The prepatent period was 11 and 6 days post infection (DPI) for Cryptosporidium tortoise genotype I and C. ducismarci, respectively; the patent period was longer than 200 days for both cryptosporidia. Naturally or experimentally infected tortoises showed no clinical signs of disease. Our morphological, genetic, and biological data support the establishment of Cryptosporidium tortoise genotype I as a new species, Cryptosporidium testudinis sp. n. , and confirm the validity of C. ducismarci as a separate species of the genus Cryptosporidium.
Mean platelet volume and solitary parathyroid adenoma

Background: Hyperparathyroidism (HPT) is a common endocrine disorder. 85% of patients with primary HPT harbor a single adenoma and cured by excision of the incident gland. Mean platelet volume (MPV) shows the average size of platelets and reflects the platelet production rate and stimulation. We decided to investigate whether MPV would be a useful biomarker in patients with parathyroid adenoma. Materials and Methods: Fourty-four patients with solitary parathyroid adenoma (Adenoma group) and 56 people with normal serum PTH and calcium levels (Control group) were included in the study. The differences in pre-treatment MPV between adenoma group and healthy control group were investigated. The differences between pre-operative and post-operative MPV, PTH, and calcium levels in adenoma group were also analyzed. Results: There was no statistically significant difference between the adenoma group and healthy control group regarding age; gender; smoking status; and white blood cell, hemoglobin, and platelet count (P > 0.05). Post-operative MPV, PTH, and serum calcium levels in patients with solitary parathyroid adenoma (SPA) were found to be significantly lower when compared with pre-operative MPV, PTH, and serum calcium level (P = 0.001). Pre-operative MPV levels in patients with SPA were found to be significantly higher when compared with healthy control group (P = 0.0001). For the diagnosis of SPA, ROC analysis revealed 76.1% sensitivity and 80.4% specificity for a cut-off value of 9.015 fl of MPV whereas positive predictive was 76.1% and negative predictive value was 83.3%. Conclusion: In this study, a significant correlation of MPV level with parathyroid adenoma was found. Therefore, detecting MPV level would be useful for the diagnosis of SPA.
A study on flicker frequency noise of piezoelectric aluminum nitride resonators as a function of electrode design

This paper presents experimental studies of flicker frequency (1/f) noise of 1 GHz aluminum nitride (AlN) contour mode resonators (CMR) as a function of electrode design. AlN CMRs with various electrode dimensions and different top electrode materials of Al, Au, and Pt are fabricated to give a wide range of thermoelastic damping (TED), which directly impacts the flicker noise of CMRs. We have measured the flicker noise of a total of 64 devices and the results show that flicker noise decreases with increasing Q, with a power law dependence which ranges from 1/Q3.2 to 1/Q3.8. Interestingly, the noise level also depends on the type of electrode materials, where the devices with Pt top electrode demonstrate the best noise performance. Our results indicate that a careful selection of the electrode material and dimensions could further reduce 1/f noise not only in AlN CMRs, but also in various classes of resonators, and thus enable ultra-low noise MEMS resonators for sensing and RF applications.