Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Two-Sector Approach to Modeling U.S. NIPA Data

The one-sector Solow–Ramsey model is the most popular model of longrun economic growth. This paper argues that a two-sector approach, in which technological progress in the production of durable goods exceeds that in the rest of the economy, provides a far better picture of the longrun behavior of the U.S. economy. The paper shows how to use the twosector approach to model the real chain-aggregated variables currently featured in the U.S. National Income and Product Accounts. It is shown that each of the major chain-aggregates—output, consumption, investment, and capital stock—will tend in the long run to grow at steady, but different, rates. Implications for empirical analysis based on these data are explored.
Towards Random Uniform Sampling of Bipartite Graphs with given Degree Sequence

In this paper we consider a simple Markov chain for bipartite graphs with given degree sequence on $n$ vertices. We show that the mixing time of this Markov chain is bounded above by a polynomial in $n$ in case of half-regular degree sequence. The novelty of our approach lies in the construction of the multicommodity flow in Sinclair's method.
Proposal for a New Hierarchic Classification System, Actinobacteria classis nov.

A new hierarchic classification structure for the taxa between the taxonomic levels of genus and class is Proposed for the actinomycete line of descent as defined by analysis of small subunit (16S) rRNA and genes coding for this molecule (rDNA). While the traditional circumscription of a genus of the actinomycete subphylum is by and large in accord with the 16S rRNA/rDNA-based phylogenetic clustering of these organisms. most of the higher taxa proposed in the past do not take into account the phylogenetic clustering of genera. The rich chemical, morphological and physiological diversity of phylogenetically closely related genera makes the description of families and higher taxa so broad that they become meaningless for the description of the enclosed taxa. Here we present a classification system in which phylogenetically neighboring taxa at the genus level are clustered into families, suborders, orders, subclasses, and a class irrespective of those phenotypec characteristics on which the delineation of taxa has been based in the past. Rather than being based on a listing of a wide array of chemotaxonomic, morphological, and physiological properties, the delineation is based solely on 16S rDNA/rRNA sequence-based phylogenetic clustering and the presence of taxon-specific 16S rDNA RNA signature nucleotides.
Formulation and Evaluation of a Vitamin C Multiple Emulsion

Multiple phase emulsions are increasingly used as alternatives to simple emulsions in personal care products. One of the major advantages of these emulsions over simple emulsions is slow and controlled release of their ingredients. Other favorite cosmetic characteristics of multiple emulsions include occlusivity (in O/W/O emulsions), esthetics and consumer acceptance. Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) has been widely used in formulations of skin care products. Due to its effects on collagen biosynthesis, it is considered as moisturizing and anti-aging active ingredient. Instability problems such as oxidation susceptibility have made incorporating vitamin C in topical formulations a challenging issue. The O/W/O emulsions have been formulated using two-step procedure, to investigate vitamin C stability and its release profile. By using different surfactant types and ratios, volume ratio of phases, multiple emulsions containing vitamin C were prepared. Different parameters and formulation factors such as temperature of phases, duration and speed of mixing were evaluated. Based on our results, more stable emulsions were prepared from non-ionic siliconized surfactants, sorbitan derivatives and co–surfactants such as polyglyceryl derivatives. Physical stability was determined by microscopic examination, centrifugation and incubating emulsions in different temperatures. Vitamin C in vitro release studies from O/W and O/W/O emulsions were conducted using Franz diffusion cell (at room temperature) and UV spectrophotometry. The results showed that in the first four-hour period, about 14% of vitamin C released from O/W/O emulsions. It appears that in multiple emulsions the profile of release follows zero-order kinetics. Our data indicate that incorporating vitamin C in multiple emulsions significantly increased its stability possibly attributed to the formation of reverse micelles of surfactants (and/or co-surfactants), which entrapped vitamin C inside the micelles surrounded by hydrophilic heads of surfactant. Moreover, vitamin C was released from multiple emulsions in a zero order slow and controlled release manner.
Evidence of Coat Color Variation Sheds New Light on Ancient Canids

We have used a paleogenetics approach to investigate the genetic landscape of coat color variation in ancient Eurasian dog and wolf populations. We amplified DNA fragments of two genes controlling coat color, Mc1r (Melanocortin 1 Receptor) and CBD103 (canine-β-defensin), in respectively 15 and 19 ancient canids (dogs and wolf morphotypes) from 14 different archeological sites, throughout Asia and Europe spanning from ca. 12 000 B.P. (end of Upper Palaeolithic) to ca. 4000 B.P. (Bronze Age). We provide evidence of a new variant (R301C) of the Melanocortin 1 receptor (Mc1r) and highlight the presence of the beta-defensin melanistic mutation (CDB103-K locus) on ancient DNA from dog-and wolf-morphotype specimens. We show that the dominant KB allele (CBD103), which causes melanism, and R301C (Mc1r), the variant that may cause light hair color, are present as early as the beginning of the Holocene, over 10 000 years ago. These results underline the genetic diversity of prehistoric dogs. This diversity may have partly stemmed not only from the wolf gene pool captured by domestication but also from mutations very likely linked to the relaxation of natural selection pressure occurring in-line with this process.
Shrinkage estimators for a composite measure of quality conceptualized as a formative construct.

OBJECTIVE To demonstrate the value of shrinkage estimators when calculating a composite quality measure as the weighted average of a set of individual quality indicators. DATA SOURCES Rates of 28 quality indicators (QIs) calculated from the minimum dataset from residents of 112 Veterans Health Administration nursing homes in fiscal years 2005-2008. STUDY DESIGN We compared composite scores calculated from the 28 QIs using both observed rates and shrunken rates derived from a Bayesian multivariate normal-binomial model. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Shrunken-rate composite scores, because they take into account unreliability of estimates from small samples and the correlation among QIs, have more intuitive appeal than observed-rate composite scores. Facilities can be profiled based on more policy-relevant measures than point estimates of composite scores, and interval estimates can be calculated without assuming the QIs are independent. Usually, shrunken-rate composite scores in 1 year are better able to predict the observed total number of QI events or the observed-rate composite scores in the following year than the initial year observed-rate composite scores. CONCLUSION Shrinkage estimators can be useful when a composite measure is conceptualized as a formative construct.
Moonshine for Rudvalis's sporadic group II

We introduce the notion of vertex operator superalgebra with enhanced conformal structure, which is a refinement of the notion of vertex operator superalgebra. We exhibit several examples, including a particular one which is self-dual, and whose full symmetry group is a direct product of a cyclic group of order seven with the sporadic simple group of Rudvalis. We thus obtain an analogue of Monstrous Moonshine for a sporadic group not involved in the Monster. Two variable analogues of the usual McKay--Thompson series are naturally associated to the action of the Rudvalis group on this object, and we provide explicit expressions for all the series arising.
Chronic myeloid leukemia: ESMO Clinical Practice Guidelines for diagnosis, treatment and follow-up.

The incidence of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) ranges between 10 and 15 cases/10/year (age adjusted) without any major geographic or ethnic differences [1]. The median age at diagnosis ranges between 60 and 65 years in Europe, but is considerably lower in countries where the population is younger. The prevalence of CML is steadily rising due to the very substantial prolongation of survival that has been achieved with targeted therapy [2].
Evaluation of an ethanol detector for stale cane identification at Noodsberg.

Previous work has shown that there is a relationship between the degree of deterioration of cane and the amount of ethanol present. The use of an ethanol detector for identifying stale cane was investigated at Noodsberg. This tool will enable the cane quality controller to identify areas where cane delays occur and implement appropriate action. The detector uses the infrared absorbance of ethanol to measure the concentration of ethanol present in the air drawn through the instrument. Although this technique was shown to work exceptionally well in the laboratory, in a factory many practical problems can arise. The cane must be shredded, since little or no ethanol is released through the rind of the cane. Shredding releases moisture that, if not separated from the air sample, will accumulate on the optics and cause drift in the readings. The measurement is actually ethanol per unit volume; consequently, any pressure drop in the sampling system will cause a drop in the reading. Small pieces of fibre accumulating in the piping may allow fermentation of the sugar and lead to false ethanol readings. Temperature has a marked effect on the evaporation rate, and hence the ethanol present in the air sample. Compensation functions had to be included. This paper examines the test data that was collected to verify the detector’s ability to indicate ethanol in cane. The techniques used to prepare the air sample for the detector in continuous operating conditions are also discussed. The application of the detector will allow the prediction of problems in the processing of deteriorated cane and also give an early alert to cane quality monitors so that speedy corrective action can be taken along the supply chain.
Myosin II directly binds and inhibits Dbl family guanine nucleotide exchange factors: a possible link to Rho family GTPases

Cell migration requires the coordinated spatiotemporal regulation of actomyosin contraction and cell protrusion/adhesion. Nonmuscle myosin II (MII) controls Rac1 and Cdc42 activation, and cell protrusion and focal complex formation in migrating cells. However, these mechanisms are poorly understood. Here, we show that MII interacts specifically with multiple Dbl family guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs). Binding is mediated by the conserved tandem Dbl homology‐pleckstrin homology module, the catalytic site of these GEFs, with dissociation constants of ~0.3 microM. Binding to the GEFs required assembly of the MII into filaments and actin‐stimulated ATPase activity. Binding of MII suppressed GEF activity. Accordingly, inhibition of MII ATPase activity caused release of GEFs and activation of Rho GTPases. Depletion of bPIX GEF in migrating NIH3T3 fibroblasts suppressed lamellipodial protrusions and focal complex formation induced by MII inhibition. The results elucidate a functional link between MII and Rac1/Cdc42 GTPases, which may regulate protrusion/adhesion dynamics in migrating cells.
DNA methylation‐dependent chromatin fiber compaction in vivo and in vitro: requirement for linker histone

Dynamic alterations in chromatin structure mediated by postsynthetic histone modifications and DNA methylation constitute a major regulatory mechanism in DNA functioning. DNA methylation has been implicated in transcriptional silencing, in part by inducing chromatin condensation. To understand the methylation‐dependent chromatin structure, we performed atomic force microscope (AFM) studies of fibers isolated from cultured cells containing normal or elevated levels of m5C. Chromatin fibers were reconstituted on control or methylated DNA templates in the presence or absence of linker histone. Visual inspection of AFM images, combined with quantitative analysis of fiber structural parameters, suggested that DNA meth‐ylation induced fiber compaction only in the presence of linker histones. This conclusion was further substantiated by biochemical results. —Karymov, M. A. , Tomschik, M. , Leuba, S. H. , Caiafa, P., Zlatanova, J. DNA methylation‐dependent chromatin fiber compaction in vivo and in vitro: requirement for linker histone. FASEB J. 15, 2631–2641 (2001)
Increasing the efficiency of quicksort

A method is presented for the analysis of various generalzotions of quicksort. The average asymptotic number of comparisons needed is shown to be ozn log2 (n). A formula is derived expressing o~ in terms of the probability distribution of the "bound" of a partition. This formula assumes a partcdarly simple form for a generalization already considered by Hoare, namely, choice of the bound as median of a random sample. The main contribution of this paper is another generaization of quicksort, which uses a bounding interval instead of a single element as bound. This generalization turns c,~t to be easy to implement in a computer program. A numerical approximation shows that a = 1.140 for this version 0f qvicksort compared with 1.386 for the original. This implies a decrease in number of comparisons of 18 percent; actual tests showed about 15 percent saving in computing time.
Did You Know?!… Cultivating Online Public Voice in Youth

Abstract Drawing on a mixed methods study of a district-wide initiative to integrate civic learning practices into the high school humanities curriculum in an urban school district in Northern California, this article examines the relationship between face-to-face versus online civic learning opportunities and students’ motivation for engaging in practices related to online public voice, the affordances of online civic learning opportunities for the expression of public voice, and the features of online civic learning opportunities that optimize the expression of public voice. The findings provide insight as to whether and under what conditions digitally mediated civic learning opportunities promote the expression of public voice.
INDONESIAN PRE-SERVICE ENGLISH TEACHERS’ PERCEIVED CHALLENGES IN IMPROVING ENGLISH ORAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS

The study investigates perceived challenges that pre-service teachers (henceforth refers to PSTs) majoring in an English Education Program of a state university in the Province of Gorontalo, Indonesia, experience in improving their English oral proficiency level. Data from the PSTs were collected mainly using individual semi-structured interviews, and then corroborated with the interview results collected from several lecturers who participated voluntarily. Informed by a thematic analysis approach, the study shows that the PSTs reported three main areas of challenges; linguistic proficiency, socio-culture, and English language engagement opportunity. Recommendations seeking to assist PSTs as well as the English Education Program in anticipating such challenges are also addressed.
Augmenting descriptors for fine-grained visual categorization using polynomial embedding

Fine-grained visual categorization (FGVC), which is a relatively new research area, distinguishes conceptually and visually similar categories such as plant and animal species. While FGVC is expected to lead to many task-specific practical applications, it is known as an extremely difficult problem because interclass variations are often quite subtle. We believe that the key to FGVC is improving local descriptors to enhance discriminative power at the local patch-level. While the pooling strategy of descriptors has been intensively improved for bag-of-visual-words (BoVW) based image representations, the descriptors themselves are often untouched. In this paper, we propose a descriptor augmentation method that utilizes polynomial embedding and supervised dimensionality reduction. Since our method provides moderate-sized compressed descriptors, it can be naturally integrated with off-the-shelf BoVW techniques. In experiments, we show that our method achieves state-of-the-art performance on standard FGVC datasets, Caltech-Birds, and Oxford-Flowers.
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas: Critical Analysis of a Film Depiction of the Holocaust

Abstract Film depictions of the Holocaust have become a ubiquitous part of social studies education, as many states have mandated Holocaust or genocide curricula in recent years; however, the quality of such curricula varies greatly, as does the level of teacher preparation for Holocaust-based instruction. Given the increase in mandates and the lack of more rigorous content knowledge expertise, many teachers turn to films, such as The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, to represent, for students, the horrors of the Holocaust. The film, however, is deeply problematic in several ways—historical inaccuracy, questions of agency and gender, and an overarching message that represents a potentially dangerous interpretation of responsibility for the greatest crime in human history. This article explores the failings of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and proposes strategies that teachers may use to mitigate the film’s shortcoming and to provide for a valuable learning experience for students.
Data Gathering Algorithms in Sensor Networks Using Energy Metrics

Gathering sensed information in an energy efficient manner is critical to operating the sensor network for a long period of time. The LEACH protocol presented by Heinzelman et al. (2000) is an elegant solution where clusters are formed to fuse data before transmitting to the base station. In this paper, we present an improved scheme, called PEGASIS (power-efficient gathering in sensor information systems), which is a near-optimal chain-based protocol that minimizes energy. In PEGASIS, each node communicates only with a close neighbor and takes turns transmitting to the base station, thus reducing the amount of energy spent per round. Simulation results show that PEGASIS performs better than LEACH. For many applications, in addition to minimizing energy, it is also important to consider the delay incurred in gathering sensed data. We capture this with the energy /spl times/ delay metric and present schemes that attempt to balance the energy and delay cost for data gathering from sensor networks. We present two new schemes to minimize energy /spl times/ delay using CDMA and non-CDMA sensor nodes. We compared the performance of direct, LEACH, and our schemes with respect to energy /spl times/ delay using extensive simulations for different network sizes. Results show that our schemes perform 80 or more times better than the direct scheme and also outperform the LEACH protocol.
Pulmonary–Hepatic vascular Disorders (PHD)

⇓“The tantalizing problem of the connective link in cirrhotic patients between oxygen unsaturation and possible arteriovenous shunting in the lungs remains unsolved, and any relation between arterial unsaturation and pulmonary vasodilation remains obscure. ” Fig. 1. — Working model of molecular alterations in the pulmonary microcirculation in experimental hepatopulmonary syndrome (HPS). a) In the normal microvasculature, a balance of vasoconstrictive and vasodilatory factors, including paracrine endothelin (ET)-1-mediated vasoconstriction through the ETA receptor (▪) on smooth muscle cells (SMCs) and ET-1-mediated vasodilatation mediated through the ETB receptor (□) linked to endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) in endothelial cells (ECs), maintain tone. b) During the development of HPS, a number of alterations, both directly and indirectly related to hepatic injury and portal hypertension, result in the production or release of mediators into the venous circulation, where they influence the pulmonary microcirculation. Increased expression of pulmonary endothelial ETB receptors and increased hepatic production and release of ET-1 contribute to an increase in eNOS expression and enhanced nitric oxide (NO) production in the microvascular endothelium during the initiation of HPS. Tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α-mediated accumulation of intravascular macrophage-like cells also occurs after chronic common bile duct ligation. Haem oxygenase (HO)-1 and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) expression increase in these cells and contribute to the progression of HPS. CO: carbon monoxide. Fig. 2. — Algorithm for screening and therapeutic decisions in hepatopulmonary syndrome (HPS). OLT: orthotopic liver transplantation; P a,O2: arterial oxygen tension; P A–a,O2: alveolar–arterial oxygen tension difference; CEE: contrast-enhanced echocardiography; PFT: pulmonary function test; MAA: macroaggregated albumin. #: high-resolution thoracic computed tomographic scanning is highly recommended in order to exclude chronic respiratory comorbid conditions; ¶: high risk for post-operative OLT mortality. 1 mmHg=0.133 kPa. Fig. 3. — Plot demonstrating the relationship between cardiac output ( Q ') and transpulmonary pressure gradient (TPG; mean pulmonary arterial …
Safety and impact on cardiovascular events of long-term multifactorial treatment in patients with metabolic syndrome and abnormal liver function tests: a post hoc analysis of the randomised ATTEMPT study

Introduction Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), a hepatic manifestation of metabolic syndrome (MetS), is common and accounts for 80% of cases of elevated liver function tests (LFTs). We assessed the long-term effects of multifactorial intervention on LFTs and their association with cardiovascular disease (CVD) events in patients with MetS without diabetes mellitus or CVD. Material and methods This prospective, randomized, open label study included 1,123 patients (aged 45-65 years). Patients received intensive lifestyle intervention and pharmacotherapy: atorvastatin in all patients (low density lipoprotein cholesterol [LDL-C] targets of<100 mg/dl [group A] or<130 mg/dl [group B]), inhibitors of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone axis for hypertension, metformin for dysglycaemia and orlistat for obesity. Results Among participants, 326 had modestly elevated LFTs and ultrasonographic (US) evidence of NAFLD (165 patients in group A2 and 161 patients in group B2). The NAFLD resolved during the 42-month treatment period in 86% of patients in group A2 and in 74% of patients in group B2 (p<0.001). In both groups nearly 90% of patients attained lipid goals. Mean LDL-C and TG levels were higher in group B2 than in group A2 (p<0.001). There were no CVD events in group A2 whereas 5 non-fatal events occurred in group B2 (log-rank-p = 0.024). There were no major side-effects. Conclusions Attaining multiple treatment targets is safe and beneficial in primary prevention patients with MetS and NAFLD. Lipid levels and LFTs normalized, US findings associated with NAFLD resolved and no CVD events occurred in patients with LDL-C levels<100 mg/dl (group A2). Resolution of NAFLD might have contributed to the prevention of CVD events.