Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impact des produits forestiers non ligneux (PFNL) sur l’économie des ménages et la sécurité alimentaire : cas de la République du Congo

Les produits forestiers non ligneux (PFNL) font partie des ressources naturelles dont la population congolaise a recours pour diversifier ses activites productives et ameliorer ses revenus. Ces produits font partie essentielle des differents menus ; ils garantissent la diversite, la qualite et l’accessibilite des aliments a une grande majorite de la population. Le manque d’information systematique permettant d’evaluer la contribution des PFNL au revenu des menages et a l’amelioration de la securite alimentaire, l’absence des programmes officiels de gestion et de promotion de ces produits constituent un des obstacles a la prosperite du secteur des PFNL et a l’amelioration du niveau de vie de la population.Le present travail analyse de maniere globale et pour la premiere fois en Republique du Congo la contribution des PFNL a la securite alimentaire. Il couvre les aspects lies aux definitions des PFNL, a leur classification en PFNL d’origine vegetale et en PFNL d’origine animale, au contexte institutionnel ; il identifie les principaux acteurs notamment le groupe d’acteurs socio-economiques impliques dans l’exploitation et la gestion des PFNL au niveau local, les modes d’exploitation et leurs impacts sur le milieu naturel ; les filieres de commercialisation permettant de cerner les produits d’exportation ont ete tour a tour analysees. Une partie importante de l’etude est consacree a l’analyse de la contribution des PFNL au regime alimentaire de la population congolaise. Ce travail releve les principales difficultes et obstacles d’ordre social, institutionnel, commercial et de gestion qui freinent le developpement normal du secteur des PFNL.
Accreditation: does it enhance quality?

Accreditation, considered to be the one formal mechanism for assessing quality in the postsecondary environment, focuses on determining and encouraging acceptable levels of educational quality. In particular, specialized program accreditation is purported to enhance program quality. This exploratory study used a nationwide mail questionnaire to a stratified random sampling of 100 department heads of the units administering baccalaureate Computer Science programs. The purpose was to gain an understanding of how Computer Science programs and departments were related to selected indicators of faculty and program quality. Several differences and some similarities exist between the accredited and non-accredited groups. The median of the data for each indicator suggested a quality breakpoint to be used in defining two indices. It was found that for each of the two indices, the accredited group outperformed the non-accredited group by thirty percent. The implication is that Computer Science programs that follow accreditation guidelines have the potential for increasing their quality indicators.
Bayes and Blickets: Effects of Knowledge on Causal Induction in Children and Adults

People are adept at inferring novel causal relations, even from only a few observations. Prior knowledge about the probability of encountering causal relations of various types and the nature of the mechanisms relating causes and effects plays a crucial role in these inferences. We test a formal account of how this knowledge can be used and acquired, based on analyzing causal induction as Bayesian inference. Five studies explored the predictions of this account with adults and 4-year-olds, using tasks in which participants learned about the causal properties of a set of objects. The studies varied the two factors that our Bayesian approach predicted should be relevant to causal induction: the prior probability with which causal relations exist, and the assumption of a deterministic or a probabilistic relation between cause and effect. Adults' judgments (Experiments 1, 2, and 4) were in close correspondence with the quantitative predictions of the model, and children's judgments (Experiments 3 and 5) agreed qualitatively with this account.
Efficacy and Residual Activity of Two Systemic Insecticides for Control of Hemlock Woolly Adelgid on Young Eastern Hemlocks

The hemlock woolly adelgid, Adelges tsugae Annand, is an exotic pest of eastern, Tsuga canadensis (L.) Carr. , and Carolina, T. caroliniana Engelm. , hemlock in the eastern United States. Adelges tsugae, alone or in combination with other stressors such as the hemlock borer, Melanophila fulvoguttata (Harris), drought, and windthrow, are adversely affecting the distribution and abundance of this ecologically and aesthetically valuable tree. Until widespread and effective biological control programs become operational, chemical control is the only tool available to pest managers to save trees doomed by A. tsugae infestations. We report results of a systemic insecticide trial initiated in 2000 to compare the dose rate, efficacy, and residual activity of thiamethoxam, currently unregistered for operational use against A. tsugae, with that of the commercially available systemic insecticide, Merit®. Results indicate the lowest dosage of thiamethoxam (0.74 g active ingredient/2.5 cm tree diameter), applied in the spring, works as well at the middle and high rates. Thiamethoxam affects A. tsugae populations faster than Merit®. Although remnant HWA populations remain on treated trees, the distal 30 cm of sample branches remains uninfested 19 months after injections. Suggestions for further study and implications of these results for pest managers is discussed.
Bmi-1 induces radioresistance by suppressing senescence in human U87 glioma cells

Radiotherapy is the main locoregional control modality for a number of types of malignant tumors, including glioblastoma. However, radiotherapy fails to prevent recurrence in numerous patients due to the intrinsic radioresistance of cancer cells. Cell senescence is significant in tumor suppressor mechanisms and is closely associated with the radioresistance of cancer cells. Bmi-1 has been proposed to be an oncogene that can induce anti-senescence in tumor cells. The present study investigated the response of U87 glioma cells to radiation exposure and the role of Bmi-1 in the response following radiotherapy. Cell apoptosis and cell cycle distribution were assessed using flow cytometry, and a SA-β-Gal stain was used to observe the senescence ratio of U87 cells following radiation. The expression of Bmi-1 in U87 cells exposed to different doses of radiation was evaluated by western blot analysis. X-ray radiation was found to inhibit U87 cell proliferation through the induction of senescence rather than apoptosis. Following exposure to radiation, the cell cycle distribution was dysregulated, with an increased number of cells in the G2/M phase, and the expression of Bmi-1 was upregulated, particularly when a dose of ≥6 Gy was administered. The results indicated that senescence is the main mechanism by which U87 cell growth is inhibited following radiation. In addition, Bmi-1 may be significant in increasing the radioresistance of glioma cells by enabling cell senescence.
Fibronectin from chicken embryo fibroblasts contains covalently bound phosphate

Fibronectin isolated from cultures of chicken embryo fibroblasts (CEF) contains phosphorus linked to serine and threonine by monoester bonds. Normal and Rous sarcoma virus (RSV)-transformed cells were incubated with [32P]orthophosphate, and fibronectin was isolated from the cell surfaces and conditioned media. 32P was stably associated with fibronectin during immunoprecipitation, SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, phospholipid solvent extraction, and hot acid but not alkaline treatment. After a limited acid hydrolysis of fibronectin, both phosphoserine and phosphothreonine were found. The specific radioactivity of the 32P-labeled fibronectin from the conditioned medium of normal CEF was higher than that from the cultures of transformed CEF.
DWARF GALAXIES IN THE COMA CLUSTER. II. PHOTOMETRY AND ANALYSIS

We use the data set derived in our previous paper (Secker & Harris 1997) to study the dwarf galaxy population in the central ≃ 700 arcmin2 of the Coma cluster, the majority of which are early-type dwarf elliptical (dE) galaxies. Analysis of the statistically-decontaminated dE galaxy sequence in the color-magnitude diagram reveals that the mean dE color at R = 18.0 mag is (B-R) ≃ 1.4 mag, but that a highly significant trend of color with magnitude exists (Delta (B-R)/Delta R = -0.056±0.002 mag) in the sense that fainter dEs are bluer and thus presumably more metal-poor. The mean color of the faintest dEs in our sample is (B-R) ≃ 1.15 mag, consistent with a color measurement of the diffuse intracluster light in the Coma core. This intracluster light could then have originated from the tidal disruption of faint dEs in the cluster core. The total galaxy luminosity function (LF) is well modeled as the sum of a log-normal distribution for the giant galaxies, and a Schechter function for the dE galaxies with a faint-end slope alpha = -1.41±0.05. This value of alpha is consistent with those measured for the Virgo and Fornax clusters. The spatial distribution of the faint dE galaxies (19.0 < R ≤ 22.5 mag) is well fit by a standard King model with a central surface density of Sigma0 = 1.17 dEs arcmin-2 and a core radius Rc = 22.15 arcmin ( ≃ 0.46h-1 Mpc). This core is significantly larger than the Rc = 13.71 arcmin ( ≃ 0.29h-1 Mpc) found for the cluster giants and the brighter dEs (R ≤ 19.0 mag), again consistent with the idea that faint dEs in the dense core have been disrupted. Finally, we find that most dEs belong to the general Coma cluster potential rather than as satellites of individual giant galaxies: An analysis of the number counts around 10 cluster giants reveals that they each have on average 4± 1 dE companions within a projected radius of 13.9h-1 kpc.
Robotics Inspired Opportunistic Routing for Cognitive Radio Using Potential Fields

Potential field based routing is proposed for cognitive radio networks. This approach is inspired by the analogy between packet routing in cognitive radio networks and robot navigation in the presence of obstacles. Using this analogy a general framework for packet routing using potential fields is introduced, in which desired communication destinations can be considered as attractive forces and sources of interference as repulsive forces. Furthermore, three examples of how to construct such potential fields are proposed. Two optimal potential field models with respect to delay and energy and one suboptimal, but computationally simple, potential field based on virtual forces are derived. The potential field approach facilitates using physics-based models of propagation in interference modeling. This paper shows that potential field techniques from robotics can provide an attractive solution to routing in a cognitive radio network and that they can achieve good performance in terms of end-to-end delay and energy consumption.
The scavenger receptor cysteine-rich superfamily (SRCR-SF). Structure and function of group B members

105 RESUMEN La recientemente descrita superfamilia de re c e p t o re s con dominios extracelulares ricos en cisteína tipo scavenger (SF-SRCR) incluye un grupo diverso de algo más de 20 p roteínas integrales de membrana y/o secretadas pre s e n t e s en un amplio espectro de especies animales (desde los invertebrados más primitivos hasta los mamíferos más evolucionados). Sus miembros se caracterizan por la pre s e ncia de uno o múltiples dominios ricos en cisteína denominados SRCR (Scavenger Receptor Cysteine-Rich), que fueron identificados por vez primera en el receptor scavenger t i p o I de los macrófagos (SR-AI). Estos dominios SRCR tienen a p roximadamente 110 residuos y poseen 6 ó 8 cisteínas (dependiendo de si pertenecen al grupo A ó B, re s p e c t i v amente) que forman puentes disulfuro con una distribución intradominio muy bien definida. A pesar de la presencia de estos dominios altamente conservados, los miembros de la SF-SRCR parecen poseer ligandos y funciones difere n t e s . No obstante, la mayoría están expresados en células asociadas con funciones de reconocimiento o de defensa por lo que se piensa que el papel principal de la SF-SRCR es el de regular el desarrollo y la función del Sistema Inmunitario, tanto innato como específico. En este trabajo pasamos revista a los conocimientos actuales sobre la e s t ructura y la función de los 9 miembros conocidos del g rupo B de la SF-SRCR. Este heterogéneo grupo incluye moléculas expresadas en linfocitos (CD5, CD6, T19/WC1) y macrófagos (M130/CD163, Spα/AIM) de mamíferos, así como en órganos no linfoides de mamíferos (CRP-ductin/DMBT1/Ebnerin/Hensin, Gall-gladder mucin) y otras especies inferiores (Pema-SREG, MAP-GEOCY).
The Impact of the Geologic History and Paleoclimate on the Diversification of East African Cichlids

The cichlid fishes of the East African Great Lakes are the largest extant vertebrate radiation identified to date. These lakes and their surrounding waters support over 2,000 species of cichlid fish, many of which are descended from a single common ancestor within the past 10 Ma. The extraordinary East African cichlid diversity is intricately linked to the highly variable geologic and paleoclimatic history of this region. Greater than 10 Ma, the western arm of the East African rift system began to separate, thereby creating a series of rift basins that would come to contain several water bodies, including the extremely deep Lakes Tanganyika and Malawi. Uplifting associated with this rifting backponded many rivers and created the extremely large, but shallow Lake Victoria. Since their creation, the size, shape, and existence of these lakes have changed dramatically which has, in turn, significantly influenced the evolutionary history of the lakes' cichlids. This paper reviews the geologic history and paleoclimate of the East African Great Lakes and the impact of these forces on the region's endemic cichlid flocks.
Preservice Elementary Science Teacher Attitudes Matter: A New Instrument on Positive Affect Toward Science

ABSTRACT This article is focused on the creation of a new scale for measuring preservice teachers’ positive affect for science, the Preservice Elementary Teacher Affect Scale for Science (PETAS–S). This new instrument is designed specifically to measure the level of positive affect toward the subject of science in preservice elementary teachers. Confirmatory factor analysis reveals the instrument loads on a single factor, positive affect. Reliability is robust, with Cronbach’s alpha of . 96. Positive affect has been shown to predict future levels of engagement in domain-specific academic subjects and is expected to aid preservice teachers in understanding the complex relationship between their students’ interest and enjoyment of science with their own. This research contributes to the important role of emotion in preservice teachers’ attitudes toward the subject of science and how it might affect the way they teach their future students.
A study on blood lipid profiles, aluminum and mercury levels in college students

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES College students are in a period of transition from adolescence to adulthood, in which proper dietary habits and balanced nutritional intake are very important. However, improper dietary habits and lifestyles can bring several health problems. This study was performed to investigate blood lipid profiles, blood aluminum and mercury in college students and the relationships among them. SUBJECTS/METHODS The subjects were 80 college students (43 males and 37 females) in Gyeonggi-do. General characteristics, anthropometric measurements, blood pressure, blood lipids, SGOT, SGPT, and blood aluminum and mercury of the subjects were measured and analyzed, and their relationship was studied. RESULTS The BMI was significantly higher in males, 23.69 ± 3.20 kg/m2, than in females, 20.38 ± 2.37 kg/m2 (P < 0.001). The blood pressure was significantly higher in males with 128.93 ± 12.92 mmHg systolic pressure and 77.14 ± 10.31 mmHg diastolic pressure compared to females with 109.78 ± 11.97 mmHg and 65.95 ± 6.92 mmHg, respectively (P < 0.001). HDL cholesterol in males, 61.88 ± 13.06 mg/dl, was lower than 64.73 ± 12.16 mg/dl in females, but other blood lipid levels were higher in males. Blood aluminum was significantly higher in males, 9.12 ± 2.11 µg/L, than in females, 8.03 ± 2.14 µg/L (P < 0.05), and blood mercury was higher in males, 3.08 ± 1.55 µg/L, than in females, 2.64 ± 1.49 µg/L. The blood lipids showed positive correlation with obesity and blood pressure. CONCLUSIONS The degree of obesity, blood pressure, triglycerides, and LDL cholesterol were higher in males, suggesting possible association with chronic disease incidence such as hyperlipidemia and hypertension. Thus, it is considered that a systematic health education is needed for college students, especially for males.
Globular Clusters in the dE,N Galaxy NGC 3115 DW1: New Insights from Spectroscopy and Hubble Space Telescope Photometry

The properties of globular clusters in dwarf galaxies are key to understanding the formation of globular cluster systems and in particular in verifying scenarios in which globular cluster systems of larger galaxies formed (at least partly) from the accretion of dwarf galaxies. Here, we revisit the globular cluster system of the dE,N galaxy NGC 3115 DW1—a companion of the nearby S0 galaxy NGC 3115—adding Keck/LRIS spectroscopy and Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 imaging to previous ground-based photometry. Spectra for seven globular clusters reveal normal abundance ratios with respect to the Milky Way and M31 clusters, as well as a relatively high mean metallicity ([Fe/H] ≈ -1.0 ± 0.1 dex). Crude kinematics indicate a high velocity dispersion within 10 kpc that could be caused either by dark matter–dominated outer regions or by the stripping of outer globular clusters by the nearby giant galaxy NGC 3115. The total galaxy mass out to 3 and 10 kpc lies between 1 × 1010 and 1 × 1011 M⊙ and 2 × 1010 and 4 × 1011 M⊙, respectively, depending on the mass estimator used and the assumptions on cluster orbits and systemic velocity. The HST imaging allows measurement of sizes for two clusters, returning core radii around 2.0 pc, similar to the sizes observed in other galaxies. Spectroscopy allows an estimate of the degree of contamination by foreground stars or background galaxies for the previous ground-based photometry but does not require a revision of previous results: NGC 3115 DW1 hosts around NGC = 60 ± 20 clusters, which corresponds to a specific frequency of SN = 4.9 ± 1.9, on the high end for massive dE's. Given its absolute magnitude (MV = -17.7 mag) and the properties of its cluster system, NGC 3115 DW1 appears to be a transition between a luminous dE and low-luminosity E galaxy.
A Stability Analysis of Tropical Ocean–Atmosphere Interactions: Bridging Measurements and Theory for El Niño

Abstract Interactions between the tropical oceans and atmosphere permit a spectrum of natural modes of oscillation whose properties—period, intensity, spatial structure, and direction of propagation—depend on the background climatic state (i.e., the mean state). This mean state can be described by parameters that include the following: the time-averaged intensity τ of the Pacific trade winds, the mean depth (H) of the thermocline, and the temperature difference across the thermocline (ΔT). A stability analysis by means of a simple coupled ocean–atmosphere model indicates two distinct families of unstable modes. One has long periods of several years, involves sea surface temperature variations determined by vertical movements of the thermocline that are part of the adjustment of the ocean basin to the fluctuating winds, requires a relatively deep thermocline, and corresponds to the delayed oscillator. The other family requires a shallow thermocline, has short periods of a year or two, has sea surface tempe.
Essays in asset pricing: on testing asset-pricing anomalies and modeling stock returns using model pools

In this dissertation, I consider a range of topics in cross-sectional asset pricing. The primary research focus is twofold. First, I provide new insights on analyzing and testing capital market “anomalies” or patterns in equity returns that are not well explained by the traditional models used in the finance literature. Second, I propose and examine a methodology for pooling asset-pricing models to better characterize the cross section of stock returns. The first chapter offers an explanation for the financial distress anomaly, i.e., the previously documented poor stock-price performance for financially distressed firms. I first show that market betas for distressed firms are highly volatile and tend to be low during bad economic times. After properly controlling for exposure to market risk, the low historical returns on these stocks are consistent with the conditional Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM). I then explain these findings through a theoretical model in which a levered firm’s equity beta is negatively related to uncertainty about the unobserved value of its underlying assets. Empirical tests support the main predictions of the theory. The second chapter proposes a hierarchical Bayes approach for evaluating and testing asset-pricing anomalies using individual firms as test assets. The empirical results indicate that much of the anomaly-based evidence against the CAPM is overstated. Anomalies are primarily confined to small stocks, few characteristics are robustly associated with CAPM alphas out of sample, and most firm characteristics do not contain unique information about abnormal returns.
The sulfonylurea glyburide induces impairment of glucagon and growth hormone responses during mild insulin-induced hypoglycemia.

OBJECTIVE The sulfonylurea (SU) glyburide may cause severe and prolonged episodes of hypoglycemia. We aimed at investigating the impact of glyburide on glucose counterregulatory hormones during stepwise hypoglycemic clamp studies. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We performed stepwise hypoglycemic clamp studies in 16 healthy volunteers (7 women and 9 men aged 44 +/- 10 years). We investigated counterregulatory hormonal and symptom responses at arterialized venous plasma glucose levels (PG) of 3.8, 3.2, and 2.6 mmol/l, comparing 10 mg glyburide orally and placebo in a double-blind, randomized crossover fashion. RESULTS The increase in plasma glucagon with time from PG = 3.8 onward was smaller for glyburide than for placebo (P = 0.014). Plasma glucagon area under the curve (AUC)(60-180) was lower after glyburide than after placebo (1,774 +/- 715 vs. 2,161 +/- 856 pmol. l(-1). min, P = 0.014). From PG = 3.8 onward, plasma growth hormone (GH) levels with placebo were nearly two times (1.9 [95% CI 1.2-2.9]) as high as with glyburide (P = 0.011). AUC(60-180) for GH was lower after glyburide than after placebo (geometric mean [range] 665 [356-1,275] and 1,058 [392-1,818] mU. l(-1). min, respectively; P = 0.04). No significant differences were observed for plasma cortisol, epinephrine and norepinephrine, or incremental symptom scores. CONCLUSIONS The SU glyburide induces multiple defects in glucose counterregulatory hormonal responses, notably decreases in both glucagon and GH release.
Socioeconomic inequalities in health : exploring new psychosocial pathways in middle-aged and older people.

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