Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Understanding civil war : evidence and analysis

The two volumes of "Understanding Civil War" build upon the World Bank's prior research on conflict and violence, particularly on the work of Paul Collier and Anke Hoeffler, whose model of civil war onset has sparked much discussion on the relationship between conflict and development in what came to be known as the "greed" versus "grievance" debate. The authors systematically apply the Collier-Hoeffler model to 15 countries in 6 different regions of the world, using a comparative case study methodology to revise and expand upon economic models of civil war. The book concludes that the "greed" versus "grievance" debate should be abandoned for a more complex model that considers greed and grievance as inextricably fused motives for civil war.
The present and future mass of the Milky Way halo

A simple model for the Milky Way halo is presented. It has a flat rotation curve in the inner regions, but the density falls off sharply beyond an outer edge. This truncated, flat rotation curve (TF) model possesses a rich family of simple distribution functions which vary in velocity anisotropy. The model is used to estimate the total mass of the Milky Way halo using the latest data on the motions of satellite galaxies and globular clusters at Galactocentric radii greater than 20 kpc. This comprises a data set of 27 objects with known distances and radial velocities, of which six also possess measured proper motions. Unlike earlier investigations, we find entirely consistent maximum likelihood solutions unaffected by the presence or absence of Leo I, provided both radial and proper motion data are used. The availability of the proper motion data for the satellites is crucial as, without them, the mass estimates with and without Leo I are inconsistent at the 99 per cent confidence level. All these results are derived from models in which the velocity normalization of the halo potential is taken as ∼220 km s−1. A detailed analysis of the uncertainties in our estimate is presented, including the effects of the small data set, possible incompleteness or correlations in the satellite galaxy sample and the measurement errors. The most serious uncertainties come from the size of the data set, which may cause a systematic underestimate by a factor of 2, and the measurement errors, which cause a scatter in the mass of the order of a factor of 2. We conclude that the total mass of the halo is , while the mass within 50 kpc is . In the near future, ground-based radial velocity surveys of samples of blue horizontal branch (BHB) stars are a valuable way to augment the sparse data set. A data set of ∼200 radial velocities of BHB stars will reduce the uncertainty in the mass estimate to ∼20 per cent. In the coming decade, microarcsecond astrometry will be possible with the Space Interferometry Mission (SIM) and the Global Astrometry Interferometer for Astrophysics (GAIA) satellites. For example, GAIA can provide the proper motions of the distant dwarfs like Leo I to within ±15 km s−1 and the nearer dwarfs like Ursa Minor to within ±1 km s−1. This will also allow the total mass of the Milky Way to be found to ∼20 per cent. SIM and GAIA will also provide an accurate estimate of the velocity normalization of the halo potential at large radii.
LIM Domains Target Actin Regulators Paxillin and Zyxin to Sites of Stress Fiber Strain

Contractile actomyosin stress fibers are critical for maintaining the force balance between the interior of the cell and its environment. Consequently, the actin cytoskeleton undergoes dynamic mechanical loading. This results in spontaneous, stochastic, highly localized strain events, characterized by thinning and elongation within a discrete region of stress fiber. Previous work showed the LIM-domain adaptor protein, zyxin, is essential for repair and stabilization of these sites. Using live imaging, we show paxillin, another LIM-domain adaptor protein, is also recruited to stress fiber strain sites. Paxillin recruitment to stress fiber strain sites precedes zyxin recruitment. Zyxin and paxillin are each recruited independently of the other. In cells lacking paxillin, actin recovery is abrogated, resulting in slowed actin recovery and increased incidence of catastrophic stress fiber breaks. For both paxillin and zyxin, the LIM domains are necessary and sufficient for recruitment. This work provides further evidence of the critical role of LIM-domain proteins in responding to mechanical stress in the actin cytoskeleton.
Actions of Estrogenic Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals on Human Prostate Stem/Progenitor Cells and Prostate Carcinogenesis

Substantial evidences from epidemiological and animal-based studies indicate that early exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) during the developmental stage results in a variety of disorders including cancer. Previous studies have demonstrated that early estrogen exposure results in life-long reprogramming of the prostate gland that leads to an increased incidence of prostatic lesions with aging. We have recently documented that bisphenol A (BPA), one of the most studied EDCs with estrogenic activity has similar effects in increasing prostate carcinogenic potential, supporting the connection between EDCs exposure and prostate cancer risk. It is well accepted that stem cells play a crucial role in development and cancer. Accumulating evidence suggest that stem cells are regulated by extrinsic factors and may be the potential target of hormonal carcinogenesis. Estrogenic EDCs which interfere with normal hormonal signaling may perturb prostate stem cell fate by directly reprogramming stem cells or breaking down the stem cell niche. Transformation of stem cells into cancer stem cells may underlie cancer initiation accounting for cancer recurrence, which becomes a critical therapeutic target of cancer management. We therefore propose that estrogenic EDCs may influence the development and progression of prostate cancer through reprogramming and transforming the prostate stem and early stage progenitor cells. In this review, we summarize our current studies and have updated recent advances highlighting estrogenic EDCs on prostate carcinogenesis by possible targeting prostate stem/progenitor cells. Using novel stem cell assays we have demonstrated that human prostate stem/progenitor cells express estrogen receptors (ER) and are directly modulated by estrogenic EDCs. Moreover, employing an in vivo humanized chimeric prostate model, we further demonstrated that estrogenic EDCs initiate and promote prostatic carcinogenesis in an androgen-supported environment. These findings support our hypothesis that prostate stem/progenitor cells may be the direct targets of estrogenic EDCs as a consequence of developmental exposure which carry permanent reprogrammed epigenetic and oncogenic events and subsequently deposit into cancer initiation and progression in adulthood.
Ethical Dilemmas and Decisions in Criminal Justice

Packed with current, real-world examples, ETHICAL DILEMMAS AND DECISIONS IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE, 9th Edition offers comprehensive, balanced, and practical coverage of ethics across all three arms of the criminal justice system: the police, the courts, and corrections. Readers find coverage of the philosophical principles and theories that are the foundation of ethical decision-making, as well as the latest challenges and issues in criminal justice -the militarization of the police, mass imprisonment, wrongful convictions, the misuse of power by elected officials and/or other public servants, and more. The text provides a wealth of hands-on exercises as well as such insightful features as In the News boxes spotlighting recent examples of misconduct. For those studying or contemplating a career in criminal justice, reallife cases and situations demonstrate the significance of ethics in today's criminal justice arena. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version. Download ebook, read file pdf Ethical Dilemmas and Decisions in Criminal Justice
Antigen from Tumor Cells to NK Cells Intercellular Transfer of Carcinoembryonic

The inhibition of NK cell killing is mainly mediated via the interaction of NK inhibitory receptors with MHC class I proteins. In addition, we have previously demonstrated that NK cells are inhibited in a class I MHC-independent manner via ho-mophilic carcinoembryonic Ag (CEA) cell adhesion molecules (CEACAM1)-CEACAM1 and heterophilic CEACAM1-CEA interactions. However, the cross-talk between immune effector cells and their target cells is not limited to cell interactions per se, but also involves a speciﬁc exchange of proteins. The reasons for these molecular exchanges and the functional outcome of this phenomenon are still mostly unknown. In this study, we show that NK cells rapidly and speciﬁcally acquire CEA molecules from target cells. We evaluated the role of cytotoxicity in the acquisition of CEA and demonstrated it to be mostly killing independent. We further demonstrate that CEA transfer requires a speciﬁc interaction with an unknown putative NK cell receptor and that carbohydrates are probably involved in CEA recognition and acquisition by NK cells. Functionally, the killing of bulk NK cultures was inhibited by CEA-expressing cells, suggesting that this putative receptor is an inhibitory receptor. The Journal of Immunology, 2007, 179: 4424–4434.
Zebrafish stat3 is expressed in restricted tissues during embryogenesis and stat1 rescues cytokine signaling in a STAT1‐deficient human cell line

Transcription factors of the STAT family are required for cellular responses to multiple signaling molecules. After ligand binding‐induced activation of cognate receptors, STAT proteins are phosphorylated, hetero‐ or homodimerize, and translocate to the nucleus. Subsequent STAT binding to specific DNA elements in the promoters of signal‐responsive genes alters the transcriptional activity of these loci. STAT function has been implicated in the transduction of signals for growth, reproduction, viral defense, and immune regulation. We have isolated and characterized two STAT homologs from the zebrafish Danio rerio. The stat3 gene is expressed in a tissue‐restricted manner during embryogenesis, and larval development with highest levels of transcript are detected in the anterior hypoblast, eyes, cranial sensory ganglia, gut, pharyngeal arches, cranial motor nuclei, and lateral line system. In contrast, the stat1 gene is not expressed during early development. The stat3 gene maps to a chromosomal position syntenic with the mouse and human STAT3 homologs, whereas the stat1 gene does not. Despite a higher rate of evolutionary change in stat1 relative to stat3, the stat1 protein rescues interferon‐signaling functions in a STAT1‐deficient human cell line, indicating that cytokine‐signaling mechanisms are likely to be conserved between fish and tetrapods. Dev Dyn 1999;215:352–370. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Blind image quality assessment using subspace alignment

This paper addresses the problem of estimating the quality of an image as it would be perceived by a human. A well accepted approach to assess perceptual quality of an image is to quantify its loss of structural information. We propose a blind image quality assessment method that aims at quantifying structural information loss in a given (possibly distorted) image by comparing its structures with those extracted from a database of clean images. We first construct a subspace from the clean natural images using (i) principal component analysis (PCA), and (ii) overcomplete dictionary learning with sparsity constraint. While PCA provides mathematical convenience, an overcomplete dictionary is known to capture the perceptually important structures resembling the simple cells in the primary visual cortex. The subspace learned from the clean images is called the source subspace. Similarly, a subspace, called the target subspace, is learned from the distorted image. In order to quantify the structural information loss, we use a subspace alignment technique which transforms the target subspace into the source by optimizing over a transformation matrix. This transformation matrix is subsequently used to measure the global and local (patch-based) quality score of the distorted image. The quality scores obtained by the proposed method are shown to correlate well with the subjective scores obtained from human annotators. Our method achieves competitive results when evaluated on three benchmark databases.
A primate model of nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy.

PURPOSE Nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION) is an optic nerve (ON) stroke and a leading cause of sudden ON-related vision loss. A primate (p)NAION model is crucial to further understanding of the clinical disorder and can provide information regarding the pathophysiology of other central nervous system (CNS) ischemic axonopathies. In the current study, a primate model of NAION was developed, and short-and long-term responses to this condition were characterized. METHODS pNAION was induced with a novel photoembolic mechanism. Short-and long-term responses were evaluated by minimally invasive testing (electrophysiology, fundus photography, indocyanine green and fluorescein angiography, and magnetic resonance imaging) and compared with histologic and immunohistochemical findings. RESULTS Optic disc edema, similar to that observed in cases of human NAION was seen 1 day after induction, with subsequent resolution associated with the development of optic disc pallor. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) performed 3 months after induction revealed changes consistent with ON atrophy. Electrophysiological studies and vascular imaging suggest an ON-limited infarct with subsequent axonal degeneration and selective neuronal loss similar to that seen in human NAION. ON inflammation was evident 2 months after induction at the site of the lesion and at distant sites, suggesting that inflammation-associated axonal remodeling continues for an extended period after ON infarct. CONCLUSIONS pNAION resembles human NAION in many respects, with optic disc edema followed by loss of cells in the retinal ganglion cell (RGC) layer and ON remodeling. This model should be useful for evaluating neuroprotective and other treatment strategies for human NAION as well as for other ischemic processes that primarily affect CNS white-matter tracts.
Part-of-speech tagging in French text-to-speech synthesis: experiments in tagset selection

Part-of-speech tagging is needed for French Text-to-Speech (TTS) synthesis to disambiguate the pronunciation of homograph heterophones, liaison instances, and eventually to model intonational contours. A core problem in the part-of-speech tagging in French TTS is to decide on the tagset used for the tagger and the tagset needed by TTS. We carried out a number of experiments on several sizes of tagsets as well as on several algorithms to investigate this problem. Our experiment results suggest that there may be an optimal tagset to be used for the part-of-speech disambiguation in French TTS. This optimal tagset contains a slightly larger number of tags than the tagset that is needed by TTS for pronunciation disambiguation and intonational modeling purposes. In our experiments, the optimal tagsetgives a 98.4% tagging accuracyfor TTS, when a trigram Hidden Markov Model tagger is used.
Consequences of BSE disease outbreaks in the Canadian beef industry

This study examines farm to wholesale prices spreads to measure the impact of the BSE disease outbreak on the Canadian beef industry. The study uses structure break tests developed by Gregory and Hansen (1996) and Hansen (1992) examine possible breaks within co integrating relationships. The study finds evidence that the industry began realignment as a result of the UK BSE disease outbreak, and the Canadian BSE disease outbreak was simply the largest realignment of the process beginning with the UK disease outbreak. However, the only statistically significant break was the BSE disease outbreak itself in May 2003. Stability was not restored until the border was reopened in 2005. Specific results indicated that the processing sector exploited the border closure in May 2003 to enhance its market power and that the system returned to a competitive one after the border re-opened in July 2005.
Validation of Circumferential Notched Tensile (CNT) Test Procedure for KISCC Determination

—It is well known that a great proportion of failures of industrial structures operating in a corrosive environment occur by stress corrosion cracking (SCC). Life prediction of such components involves the application of linear elastic fracture parameters such as stress intensity factor, K I that is a measure of material's resistance to crack propagation. K ISCC is the threshold value of the stress intensity factor below which a present crack stays stationary under the stress corrosion conditions. Therefore, determination of the threshold stress intensity (K ISCC) is essential during material selection for any mechanical engineering design. K ISCC has traditionally been determined using specimens of fracture mechanics with geometries named as compact tension (CT) and double cantilever beam (DCB) test specimens. Such specimens are generally expensive to manufacture and test, requiring relatively expensive testing systems. A rapid and cost-effective determination of KISCC is of great interest to design engineers. Recently in literature alternative test piece geometry called Circumferential Notch Tensile (CNT) specimen has been proposed for producing K ISCC data. Smallness of CNT specimens reduces the cost of the test because of requirement of small loading devices to obtain the desired stress intensities and small amounts of testing material. In this study, for constant loading, a setup has been designed and manufactured. CNT specimens were produced from AISI 4140 steel after austenizated at 850°C; water quenched and tempered 450°C. The corrosive environment was 33% NaOH (caustic) at 80oC. Specimens were loaded under constant loads until they are broken. Results showed that K ISCC of AISI 4140 was determined as 55 MPa√m. In literature this value in the same environment was given as 59 MPa√m for compact tension specimen produced from the same steel where crack growth was monitored by the potential drop method. Thereby results validate the CNT testing technique for determination of K ISCC .
ACCURACY COMPARISON OF THE SRTM, ASTER, NED, NEXTMAP® USA DIGITAL TERRAIN MODEL OVER SEVERAL USA STUDY SITES

Accurate digital terrain models (DTMs) are necessary for a wide variety applications. National-scale mediumresolution elevation data have been acquired for the conterminous United States under the USGS National Elevation Data (NED; 10 m and 30 m), the Shuttle Radar Topographic Mapping (SRTM; 30 m), and the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER; 30 m) programs. Intermap’s STAR technology offers an improvement over the NED and SRTM datasets with its high-resolution (5 m) bare-ground and firstsurface elevation data and coincident orthorectified radar imagery over the conterminous United States and 17 Western European countries. SRTM, ASTER, NED and NEXTMap® elevation data over several study sites across the United States were compared to in-situ barren land elevation measurements and National Geodetic Survey (NGS) verification check points. The range of study sites represent various terrain types (slope range 0 o - 30 o
Observation of Microvascular Perfusion in the Hegu (LI4) Acupoint Area after Deqi Acupuncture at Quchi (LI11) Acupoint Using Speckle Laser Blood Flow Scanning Technology

The aim of this study was to investigate the traditional meridian theory using speckle laser blood flow scanning technology to observe microcirculation of the Hegu acupoint area after acupuncture stimulation on distant points. An observational study was conducted to observe the microvascular perfusion of Hegu (LI4) and control points after acupuncturing Quchi (LI11). Thirty healthy volunteers (mean age 31.6 ± 8.7 years) received deqi acupuncture on Quchi (LI11, right side), and simultaneously changes in microvascular perfusion of Sanjian (LI3), Hegu (LI4), Yangxi (LI5), and two control points were observed before, during, and after needling using a MOOR speckle laser. The results showed that the changes in microvascular perfusion of the observed points are not regular. After correction, the experiment showed that the blood perfusion on 3 meridian acupoints was increased while the perfusion on 2 control points was decreased following acupuncture stimulation, the changes at Hegu (LI4) being the statistically most significant ones. Deqi acupuncture can help in regulating the body's blood flow, with a certain degree of meridian specificity.
Adjustment Costs in Factor Demand

This study discusses the nature of adjustment costs, which underpin the dynamic theory of input demand. We examine the implications of the conventional assumption that they are quadratic-symmetric. A recent rapidly-growing literature based on microeconomic data shows that this assumption is inferior to many alternatives. We demonstrate the importance of this new knowledge for predicting macroeconomic fluctuations in employment and investment. We indicate its relevance for constructing general equilibrium simulation models, drawing inferences about the likely impacts of labour market and investment policies, and analysing firms’ dynamic behaviour in factor markets.
The Compromise of Liberal Environmentalism

The most significant shift in environmental governance over the last thirty years has been the convergence of environmental and liberal economic norms toward "liberal environmentalism"-which predicates environmental protection on the promotion and maintenance of a liberal economic order. Steven Bernstein assesses the reasons for this historical shift, introduces a socio-evolutionary explanation for the selection of international norms, and considers the implications for our ability to address global environmental problems. The author maintains that the institutionalization of "sustainable development" at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) legitimized the evolution toward liberal environmentalism. Arguing that most of the literature on international environmental politics is too rationalist and problem-specific, Bernstein challenges the mainstream thinking on international cooperation by showing that it is always for some purpose or goal. His analysis of the norms that guide global environmental policy also challenges the often-presumed primacy of science in environmental governance.
Organizational Ambidexterity Through the Lens of Paradox Theory

The organizational ambidexterity literature conceptualizes exploration and exploitation as conflicting activities, and proposes separation-oriented approaches to accomplish ambidexterity; namely, structural and temporal separation. We argue that viewing ambidexterity from the lens of paradox theory enables us to move beyond separation-oriented prescriptions toward synthesis or transcendence of paradoxical poles; as well as toward longitudinal explorations of how paradoxical poles dynamically interrelate over time. In this way, the conceptual repertoire of ambidexterity theory is enriched and empirical research can more closely and pragmatically track practice.
Chemopreventive effect of selenium and Chinese medicinal herbs on N-nitrosobis(2-oxopropyl)amine-induced hepatocellular carcinoma in Syrian hamsters

Background/Aims: Oxidative DNA damage by reactive oxygen species is involved in the process of liver carcinogenesis. To test the hypothesis that a remedy containing Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi (Sb) and Bupleurum scorzonerifolfium Willd (Bs) (Sb/Bs remedy) modulates hepatic neoplastic growth, BOP (N‐nitrosobis(2‐oxopropyl)amine)‐induced liver cancers in hamsters were established.