Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Chapter 2. Fragility: Drivers and Consequences

Definitions of fragility and fragile states in the literature are diverse and cover a wide range of countries and conceptual territory, as Chapter 1 briefly recalled. Overall, most definitions suggest that state fragility is directly related to lack of institutional capacities. There is some consensus that fragile countries have governments characterized by authority, service entitlements and legitimacy failures (see for instance Stewart et al. 2009; Brinkerhoff, 2007). The concept of " fragility " is is " broad " , in the sense that it groups together countries that are difficult to compare (Faria and Magalhaes-Ferreira, 2007). Furthermore, country classifications are not fully coincident not only because they refer to different underlying definitions, but also because they are based on alternative multidimensional indicators with ambiguous and largely arbitrary thresholds that are used to label a country as fragile. Most definitions classify fragility according to a scale of values ranging from weak/strong fragility on the one side to state failure and state collapse on the other (Faria and Magalhaes-Ferreira, 2007) A common methodology – illustrated in Figure 1-classifies countries according to two-dimensions: capacity and political will. Figure 1. State Categories Willingness Weak Strong Weak At risk or failed Weak but willing Capacity Strong Strong but unresponsive Good performer Source: Brinkerhoff (2007b) adapted from DFID (2005). Except for the good performers, who " retain the capacity and the political will to sustain a development partnership with the international community " (DFID, 2005), the other three types are considered to be " fragile states " .
Skin Detail Analysis for Face Recognition

This paper presents a novel framework to localize in a photograph prominent irregularities in facial skin, in particular nevi (moles, birthmarks). Their characteristic configuration over a face is used to encode the person's identity independent of pose and illumination. This approach extends conventional recognition methods, which usually disregard such small scale variations and thereby miss potentially highly discriminative features. Our system detects potential nevi with a very sensitive multi scale template matching procedure. The candidate points are filtered according to their discriminative potential, using two complementary methods. One is a novel skin segmentation scheme based on gray scale texture analysis that we developed to perform outlier detection in the face. Unlike most other skin detection/segmentation methods it does not require color input. The second is a local saliency measure to express a point's uniqueness and confidence taking the neighborhood's texture characteristics into account. We experimentally evaluate the suitability of the detected features for identification under different poses and illumination on a subset of the FERET face database.
An optimal parameter estimation method for soft tissue characterization

This paper presents a gradient-free direct search estimation method by using genetic algorithm to model and predict the elastic stress response of ligament based on quasi-linear viscoelastic (QLV) theory. An improved genetic algorithm is developed to simultaneously fit the ramping and relaxation experimental data to the QLV constitutive equation for obtaining soft tissue parameters in a time-saving process. Experiments and comparison analysis with the existing methods for two exponential and polynomial QLV models are conducted, demonstrating that the proposed method can accurately estimate soft tissue parameters and satisfy the time-saving requirement of intra-operative soft tissue characterization.
ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY: A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON LEARNING AND INNOVATION

Discusses the notion that the ability to exploit external knowledge is crucial to a firm's innovative capabilities. In addition, it is argued that the ability to evaluate and use outside knowledge is largely a function of the level of prior related knowledge--i.e., absorptive capacity. Prior research has shown that firms that conduct their own research and development (R&D) are better able to use information from external sources. Therefore, it is possible that the absorptive capacity of a firm is created as a byproduct of the firm's R&D investment. A simple model of firm R&D intensity is constructed in a broader context of what applied economists call the three classes of industry-level determinants of R&D intensity: demand, appropriability, and technological opportunity conditions. Several predictions are made, including the notions that absorptive capacity does have a direct effect on R&D spending and spillovers will provide a positive incentive to conduct R&D. All hypotheses are tested using cross-sectional survey data on technological opportunity and appropriability conditions--collected over the period 1975 to 1977 for 1,719 business units--in the American manufacturing sector from Levin et al. (1983, 1987) and the Federal Trade Commission's Line of Business Program data on business unit sales, transfers, and R&D expenditures. Results confirm that firms are sensitive to the characteristics of the learning environment in which they operate and that absorptive capacity does appear to be a part of a firm's decisions regarding resource allocation for innovative activity. Results also suggest that, although the analysis showing a positive effect of spillovers in two industry groups do not represent a direct test of the model, positive absorption incentive associated with spillovers may be sufficiently strong in some cases to more than offset the negative appropribility incentive. (SFL)
Interactions Between Airflow and Valley Topography with Implications for Aeolian Sediment Transport

The local topography of a landscape can have a profound influence on airflow characteristics and cause modifications to broader synoptic scale winds. This paper reports the results of a preliminary field study examining the effects of a valley on wind velocity and direction. Anemometers and wind vanes were used to measure airflow characteristics upwind, within and downwind of a 20 m deep and 175 m wide dry valley in the central Namib desert. The field data indicate an upwind region of flow acceleration, a minimum in flow velocity in the center of the valley, flow acceleration toward a maximum at the downwind valley edge and subsequent deceleration toward starting velocities downwind of this edge. The development of a flow separation region at the leading edge of the valley and the range of flow distortion are affected by the incident angle of the approaching wind to the axis of the valley. A conceptual model indicating the potential implications of these findings for aeolian sediment transport processes in the vicinity of dryland valleys is presented.
Anticipatory Governance Practical Upgrades: Equipping the Executive Branch to Cope with Increasing Speed and Complexity of Major Challenges

Abstract : If we are to remain a well-functioning Republic and a prosperous nation, the U.S. Government cannot rely indefinitely on crisis management, no matter how adroit. We must get ahead of events or we risk being overtaken by them. That will only be possible by upgrading our legacy systems of management to meet today s unique brand of accelerating and complex challenges. Anticipatory Governance responds to this need by introducing three critical elements to existing Executive Branch functions: foresight fused to policy analysis; networked governance for mission-based management and budgeting; and feedback to monitor and adjust policy relative to initial expectations. This report suggests practical upgrades to Executive Branch systems that are light on resources, compatible with the existing structures and processes of government, and fully executable under customary Presidential authorities (requiring no congressional action). The Problem. A well-functioning Republic needs time for deliberation, and the U.S. Constitution was designed to make sure that this time would be protected. On the other hand, challenges presenting themselves today are increasingly fast-moving complex: they involve concurrent interactions among events across multiple dimensions of governance; they have no regard for our customary jurisdictional and bureaucratic boundaries; they cannot be broken apart and solved piece by piece; and rather than stabilizing into permanent solutions, they morph into new problems that have to be continually managed. This pattern profoundly challenges the adaptive capacity of our legacy systems of government, which are essentially modeled on the early industrial period: vertical, hierarchical, segmented, mechanical, and sluggish. Our 19th-century government is simply not built for the nature of 21st-century challenges.
Association of self-reported race with AIDS death in continuous HAART users in a cohort of HIV-infected women in the United States

Objective:To assess the association of race with clinical outcomes in HIV-positive women on continuous HAART. Design:Prospective study that enrolled women from 1994 to 1995 and 2001 to 2002. Setting:Women's Interagency HIV Study, a community-based cohort in five US cities. Participants:One thousand, four hundred and seventy-one HIV-positive continuous HAART users. Main outcome measures:Times to AIDS and non-AIDS death and incident AIDS-defining illness (ADI) after HAART initiation. Results:In adjusted analyses, black vs. white women had higher rates of AIDS death [adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) 2.14, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.30, 3.50; P = 0.003] and incident ADI (aHR 1.58, 95% CI 1.08, 2.32; P = 0.02), but not non-AIDS death (aHR 0.91, 95% CI 0.59, 1.39; P = 0.65). Cumulative AIDS death incidence at 10 years was 17.3 and 8.3% for black and white women, respectively. Other significant independent pre-HAART predictors of AIDS death included peak viral load (aHR 1.70 per log10, 95% CI 1.34, 2.16; P < 0.001), nadir CD4+ cell count (aHR 0.65 per 100 cells/&mgr;l, 95% CI 0.56, 0.76; P < 0.001), depressive symptoms by Center for Epidemiology Studies Depression score at least 16 (aHR 2.10, 95% CI 1.51, 2.92; P < 0.001), hepatitis C virus infection (aHR 1.57, 95% CI 1.02, 2.40; P = 0.04), and HIV acquisition via transfusion (aHR 2.33, 95% CI 1.21, 4.49; P = 0.01). In models with time-updated HAART adherence, association of race with AIDS death remained statistically significant (aHR 3.09, 95% CI 1.38, 6.93; P = 0.006). Conclusion:In continuous HAART-using women, black women more rapidly died from AIDS or experienced incident ADI than their white counterparts after adjusting for confounders. Future studies examining behavioral and biologic factors in these women may further the understanding of HAART prognosis.
Expression of Nucleolin Affects Microtubule Dynamics

Nucleolin is present in diverse cellular compartments and is involved in a variety of cellular processes from nucleolar structure and function to intracellular trafficking, cell adhesion and migration. Recently, nucleolin has been localized at the mature centriole where it is involved in microtubule nucleation and anchoring. Although this new function of nucleolin linked to microtubule regulation has been identified, the global effects of nucleolin on microtubule dynamics have not been addressed yet. In the present study, we analyzed the roles of nucleolin protein levels on global microtubule dynamics by tracking the EB3 microtubule plus end binding protein in live cells. We have found that during microtubule growth phases, nucleolin affects both the speed and life time of polymerization and by analyzing catastrophe events, we showed that nucleolin reduces catastrophe frequency. This new property of nucleolin was then confirmed in a cold induced microtubule depolymerization experiment in which we have found that cold resistant microtubules were totally destabilized in nucleolin depleted cells. Altogether, our data demonstrate a new function of nucleolin on microtubule stabilization, thus bringing novel insights into understanding the multifunctional properties of nucleolin in healthy and cancer cells.
The effect of endurance exercise on the morphology of muscle attachment sites

SUMMARY The morphology of muscle attachment sites, or entheses, has long been assumed to directly reflect in vivo muscle activity. The purpose of this study is to examine whether variations in muscle activity that are within normal physiological limits are reflected in variations in external attachment site morphology. This study tests the hypothesis that increased muscle activity (magnitude, number and frequency of loading cycles) results in the hypertrophy of muscle attachment sites. The attachment sites of six limb muscles and one muscle of mastication (control) in mature female sheep were measured and compared in exercised (weighted treadmill running for 1 h per day for 90 days) and sedentary control animals. Attachment site surface morphology was assessed by quantifying the size (3D surface area) and complexity (fractal dimension parallel and perpendicular to soft tissue attachment) of the surfaces. The results of this study demonstrate no effect of the exercise treatment used in this experiment on any measure of enthesis morphology. Potential explanations for the lack of exercise response include the mature age of the animals, inappropriate stimulus type for inducing morphological change, or failure to surpass a hypothetical threshold of load for inducing morphological change. However, further tests also demonstrate no relationship between muscle size and either attachment site size or complexity in sedentary control animals. The results of this study indicate that the attachment site morphological parameters measured in this study do not reflect muscle size or activity. In spite of decades of assumption otherwise, there appears to be no direct causal relationship between muscle size or activity and attachment site morphology, and reconstructions of behavior based on these features should be viewed with caution.
Manifold Regularization: A Geometric Framework for Learning from Labeled and Unlabeled Examples

We propose a family of learning algorithms based on a new form of regularization that allows us to exploit the geometry of the marginal distribution. We focus on a semi-supervised framework that incorporates labeled and unlabeled data in a general-purpose learner. Some transductive graph learning algorithms and standard methods including support vector machines and regularized least squares can be obtained as special cases. We use properties of reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces to prove new Representer theorems that provide theoretical basis for the algorithms. As a result (in contrast to purely graph-based approaches) we obtain a natural out-of-sample extension to novel examples and so are able to handle both transductive and truly semi-supervised settings. We present experimental evidence suggesting that our semi-supervised algorithms are able to use unlabeled data effectively. Finally we have a brief discussion of unsupervised and fully supervised learning within our general framework.
Lecithin-Linker Microemulsion Gelatin Gels for Extended Drug Delivery

This article introduces the formulation of alcohol-free, lecithin microemulsion-based gels (MBGs) prepared with gelatin as gelling agent. The influence of oil, water, lecithin and hydrophilic and lipophilic additives (linkers) on the rheological properties and appearance of these gels was systematically explored using ternary phase diagrams. Clear MBGs were obtained in regions of single phase microemulsions (μEs) at room temperature. Increasing the water content in the formulation increased the elastic modulus of the gels, while increasing the oil content had the opposite effect. The hydrophilic additive (PEG-6-caprylic/capric glycerides) was shown to reduce the elastic modulus of gelatin gels, particularly at high temperatures. In contrast to anionic (AOT) μEs, the results suggest that in lecithin (nonionic) μEs, the introduction of gelatin “dehydrates” the μE. Finally, when the transdermal transport of lidocaine formulated in the parent μE and the resulting MBG were compared, only a minor retardation in the loading and release of lidocaine was observed.
Design, Synthesis and Biochemical Evaluation of Novel Selective Estrogen Receptor Ligand Conjugates Incorporating an Endoxifen-Combretastatin Hybrid Scaffold

Nuclear-receptors are often overexpressed in tumours and can thereby be used as targets when designing novel selective chemotherapeutic agents. To date, many conjugates incorporating an estrogen receptor (ER) ligand have been synthesised in order to direct chemical agents to tissue sites containing ERs. A series of ER ligand conjugates were synthesised incorporating an antagonistic ER ligand scaffold based on endoxifen, covalently-bound via an amide linkage to a variety of combretastatin-based analogues, which may act as antimitotic agents. These novel endoxifen-combretastatin hybrid scaffold analogues were biochemically evaluated in order to determine their antiproliferative and cytotoxicity effects in both the ER-positive MCF-7 and the ER-negative MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cell lines. ER competitive binding assays were carried out to assess the binding affinity of the lead conjugate 28 towards both the ERα and ERβ isoforms. In results from the NCI 60-cell line screen, the lead conjugate 28 displayed potent and highly selective antiproliferative activity towards the MCF-7 human cancer cell line (IC50 = 5 nM). In the ER-binding assays, the lead conjugate 28 demonstrated potent ER competitive binding in ERα (IC50 value: 0.9 nM) and ERβ (IC50 value: 4.7 nM). Preliminary biochemical results also demonstrate that the lead conjugate 28 may exhibit pure antagonism. This series makes an important addition to the class of ER antagonists and may have potential applications in anticancer therapy.
Conflicting paths to wellbeing: Raramuri and Mestizo inter-ethnic relations in Northern Mexico

Indigenous people in Mexico have historically been subjected to subordinate positions in relation to dominant non-indigenous groups. Indigenous people continue to face political exclusion, social discrimination and economic disadvantages compared to the non-indigenous population. Most studies use a universalising approach to conceptualise wellbeing in order to account for these differences among groups, neglecting to consider local indigenous understandings of wellbeing, and how such understandings may be obscured by inter-ethnic power relations at the local level. This research contributes to the larger debate of how asymmetries among social groups are formed, how they are contested through the articulation of discourses, and the implications of mobilising discourses as a political tool at the local level. The dissertation focuses on the case of the Raramuri indigenous people of Northern Mexico, and uses detailed ethnographic evidence to explore how discourses of wellbeing are constructed by the Raramuri people in their daily interactions with the non-indigenous population and how power asymmetries between these groups form and persist. It does so by pursuing three main objectives. The first is to document local understandings of wellbeing which emerge for the Raramuri people in contexts of ethno-political oppression. The second is to uncover underlying power relations that hinder wellbeing and reproduce ethnically differentiated vulnerabilities. Examples of this are land conflicts and institutional arrangements behind land management schemes. The third objective is to analyse resulting mechanisms of resistance employed by the Raramuri indigenous people in order to seek control of practices and customs that promotes ethnic distinction. These three pillars provide a novel framework to explore the formation and perpetuation of asymmetrical social, economic and political relations at the local level. The study finds that the Raramuri people, like other minority groups living in the margins of nation states and global markets, are constrained to act strategically to face political, economic and social exclusion, while at the same time, taking the opportunity of this position to articulate culturally embedded discourses and mechanisms to reinforce their identity and self-definition. It is in the marginal context that the Raramuri discourse of living well develops and makes sense; fluctuating between the tension of having the right to live differently and the need to be part of the larger society. As a result, this discourse, by stressing ethnic membership and differentiation from other groups, appeals to culturally deep-seated homogenising and idealised elements of ethnicity. Consequently, Raramuri people articulate a recurrent strategy of resistance that allows them to consolidate their cultural identity and the internal cohesion of the group. However, this strategy limits political influence and their capacity to challenge the asymmetric power relations they face from dominant, non-indigenous spheres.
Asymptotic Prediction of Energetic-Statistical Size Effect from Deterministic Finite-Element Solutions

An improved form of a recently derived energetic-statistical formula for size effect on the strength of quasibrittle structures failing at crack initiation is presented and exploited to perform stochastic structural analysis without the burden of stochastic nonlinear finite-element simulations. The characteristic length for the statistical term in this formula is deduced by considering the limiting case of the energetic part of size effect for a vanishing thickness of the boundary layer of cracking. A simple elastic analysis of stress field provides the large-size asymptotic deterministic strength, and also allows evaluating the Weibull probability integral which yields the mean strength according to the purely statistical Weibull theory. A deterministic plastic limit analysis of an elastic body with a through- crack imagined to be filled by a perfectly plastic "glue" is used to obtain the small-size asymptote of size effect. Deterministic nonlinear fracture simulations of several scaled structures with commercial code ATENA based on the crack band model suffice to calibrate the deterministic part of size effect. On this basis, one can calibrate the energetic-statistical size effect formula, giving the mean strength for any size of geometrically scaled structures. Stochastic two-dimensional nonlinear simulations of the failure of Malpasset Dam demonstrate good agreement with the calibrated formula and the need to consider in dam design both the deterministic and statistical aspects of size effect. The mean tolerable displacement of the abutment of this arch dam is shown to have been approximately one half of the value indicated by the classical deterministic local analysis based on material strength.