Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Estimating the Economic Value of Mount Buffalo National Park with the Travel Cost and Contingent Valuation Models

The Mount Buffalo National Park is the oldest national park in Victoria, Australia. There has been a rapid increase in the number of visitors to the park during the last decade and park management has been a concern, especially in the light of declining budgetary allocations and potential damage due to the increased visitor numbers. Policy options to increase park revenue remain unclear because of a lack of information on demand parameters and user costs. This study estimates the economic value of the park using the travel cost method (TCM) and the contingent valuation method (CVM). The TCM gives higher consumer surplus (CS) than the CVM. The CS shows that the economic value of the park is high and that there are opportunities to introduce innovative fee schemes to enhance its revenue. Present entry fee systems do not capture the economic value of the park.
Origin, Ideology and Transformation of Political Parties: East-Central and Western Europe Compared

Two decades have passed since the transition to democracy began in Eastern Europe. Today, West and East-Central European countries share a common political space - the European Union. This has created a fascinating opportunity for analysis of the similarities and differences between these countries. In this book, Vit Hlousek and Lubomir Kopecek critically apply the party families approach to political parties in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia. With chapters devoted to social democrats, greens, the far right and left amongst many others, this book charts the parties origins, ideologies, and international ties alongside their Western European counterparts. By examining the political relevance of different party families, Hlousek and Kopecek are able to assess the validity of this typology in the analysis of the transformation of political parties in this region.
Pivot Approach for Extracting Paraphrase Patterns from Bilingual Corpora

Paraphrase patterns are useful in paraphrase recognition and generation. In this paper, we present a pivot approach for extracting paraphrase patterns from bilingual parallel corpora, whereby the English paraphrase patterns are extracted using the sentences in a foreign language as pivots. We propose a loglinear model to compute the paraphrase likelihood of two patterns and exploit feature functions based on maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) and lexical weighting (LW). Using the presented method, we extract over 1,000,000 pairs of paraphrase patterns from 2M bilingual sentence pairs, the precision of which exceeds 67%. The evaluation results show that: (1) The pivot approach is effective in extracting paraphrase patterns, which significantly outperforms the conventional method DIRT. Especially, the log-linear model with the proposed feature functions achieves high performance. (2) The coverage of the extracted paraphrase patterns is high, which is above 84%. (3) The extracted paraphrase patterns can be classified into 5 types, which are useful in various applications.
Dissolving Ambiguities in UML Whole-Part Relationships

The Unified Modeling Language is the software industry standard for OO graphical modeling languages. However, it does not adequately encompass the meronymic (whole-part) relationships. This paper provides an extension to the UML definition to include the excluded meronymic relationships in a formalized notation and remove the ambiguity of the aggregation definition in UML. Common design patterns are then translated into the ‘extended’ UML to show its clarity. The translations are analyzed to determine the complexity added to UML using the formal notation. This paper concludes that six historical meronymic relationships are actually design patterns based upon the formalized primary and secondary characteristics of whole-part relationships. Introduction Meronymic (whole-part) relationships are an essential part to Object-Orientated Programming and Design because it is one of the primary methods that human beings attempt to relate objects in the world. Correctly depicting these relationships in a modeling language, following the natural cognitive process further facilitates the design of software by assisting the selection of design patterns. Uniformed Modeling Language (UML) is one of the most common tools for the development of software. UML provides graphical representation of ObjectOrientated designs (OOD) and has become the de facto standard modeling language for industry. It has achieved this status primarily from its pragmatic nature of adopting the best modeling ideas from other graphical OO modeling languages [1]. UML’s graphical nature communicates the design information in a concise visual method but not necessarily with precision. This imprecision is due to the informality of its definitions. [2] This shows primarily in its definition and representation in the relationships known as aggregation and association. Aggregation and association are two of the three primary ways that a class can be related to another in UML. Aggregation can be depicted in two different ways. Strong aggregation is similar to the meronymic composite relationship, which is one of the six types of meronymic relationships defined in literature. [3] Weak aggregation does not correspond to any of the other meronymic relationships. UML does not adequately express the cognitive relationships, which can lead to miscommunication of the system design and defects in the product. Design patterns use modeling languages such as UML to express their solution to a design problem. Design patterns are an extension of the reuse concept in the architecture design of software. They express the structure of a solution shown in a graphical modeling and a description of the pattern’s properties as shown in Figure 1. [4] [5] Design patterns have a pragmatic background and their descriptions have been largely informal. [6] As a result of their impreciseness in definition, there is some ambiguity on which design pattern to implement, especially coupled with the whole-part relationship definitions in UML. Figure 1: Example of a Generic (Façade) Design Pattern Client Class Client Class
Foreign Direct Investments and Technology Transfers in Development: A Perspective on Recent Literature

Flows of foreign direct investment (FDI) are increasingly being seen as a very important channel for the transfer of technology, capital and entrepreneurship. Developing countries compete vigorously among themselves to attract greater volumes of FDI with a variety of policy instruments. This paper provides a selective review of the growing body of literature on the determinants of FDI and other forms of technology transfer and on their developmental impact, with a view to deriving policy implications and an agenda for further research.
A Low Complexity Simulation Algorithm for TH-UWB MMSE RAKE Receiver in NLOS Channel

In this work, we implement a MMSE RAKE receiver for ultra-wideband (UWB) system in a presence of a reach multipath environment, using an enhanced time-hopping system simulator. It is known that MMSE receiver has the best performance in terms of signal-to-noise-plus-interference-ratio (SINR) at the expense of high computational complexity. In addition, in order to process ultra-wideband signals, an extremely large sampling rate is mandatory. Therefore, in order to compute bit error rate (BER) curves, simulation time can be very long. Since the transmitted waveform is "hidden" in transmitted-distorted-received waveform (TDR), as it will be shown in this work, a typical multiuser structure does not exist and the implementation of any multiuser detector in this algorithm might be a difficult issue. Therefore, applying this method, it is not necessary to operate with a signal sample in every simulation and it is possible to reduce the simulation process significantly. This algorithm takes advantage of some of the properties of time-hopping ultra-wideband (TH-UWB) systems in order to improve all the previous designs by several orders of magnitude, independently of the sampling rate, in terms of a very straightforward and fast processing. Additionally, we derived a theoretical formula of the performance of the MMSE detector for PPM IR-TH-UWB based on this new approach.
You say potato, I say tŭdòu: How speakers of different languages share the same concept

When a speaker of English and a speaker of Chinese think about the same object, their brains are representing a shared concept. However, we don’t know how similarity in the concepts evoked by words is manifested in the brains of speakers of different languages. We have previously shown that neural similarity relations are strongly conserved across subjects, allowing across-subject decoding (Raizada & Connolly, 2012). Here we extend that result to translating word-elicited activations across groups of speakers of Chinese and English. Specifically, by matching the neural similarity relations elicited by a set of seven Chinese words, presented to Chinese speakers, with the neural similarities elicited by the equivalent English words presented to English speakers, we are able to translate between the English and Chinese words with 100% accuracy, based only on the patterns of functional activity that they elicit. This demonstration provides evidence for the conservation of semantic relations between concepts across different languages.
X-ray spectral analysis of optically faint sources in the Chandra deep fields

We present the results of a detailed spectral analysis of optically faint hard X-ray sources in the Chandra deep fields selected on the basis of their high X-ray to optical flux ratio (X/O). The stacked spectra of high X/O sources in both Chandra deep fields, fitted with a single power-law model, are much harder than the spectrum of the X-ray background (XRB). The average slope is also insensitive to the 2-8 keV flux, being approximately constant around Γ ≃ 1 over more than two decades, strongly indicating that high X/O sources represent the most obscured component of the XRB. For about half of the sample, a redshift estimate (in most of the cases a photometric redshift) is available from the literature. Individual fits of a few of the brightest objects and of stacked spectra in different redshift bins imply column densities in the range 10 22 -10 23.5 cm -2 . A trend of increasing absorption towards higher redshifts is suggested.
Spatial Configuration of Drought Disturbance and Forest Gap Creation across Environmental Gradients

Climate change is increasing the risk of drought to forested ecosystems. Although drought impacts are often anecdotally noted to occur in discrete patches of high canopy mortality, the landscape effects of drought disturbances have received virtually no study. This study characterized the landscape configuration of drought impact patches and investigated the relationships between patch characteristics, as indicators of drought impact intensity, and environmental gradients related to water availability to determine factors influencing drought vulnerability. Drought impact patches were delineated from aerial surveys following an extreme drought in 2011 in southwestern Australia, which led to patchy canopy dieback of the Northern Jarrah Forest, a Mediterranean forest ecosystem. On average, forest gaps produced by drought-induced dieback were moderate in size (6.6 ± 9.7 ha, max = 85.7 ha), compact in shape, and relatively isolated from each other at the scale of several kilometers. However, there was considerable spatial variation in the size, shape, and clustering of forest gaps. Drought impact patches were larger and more densely clustered in xeric areas, with significant relationships observed with topographic wetness index, meteorological variables, and stand height. Drought impact patch clustering was more strongly associated with the environmental factors assessed (R2 = 0.32) than was patch size (R2 = 0.21); variation in patch shape remained largely unexplained (R2 = 0.02). There is evidence that the xeric areas with more intense drought impacts are ‘chronic disturbance patches’ susceptible to recurrent drought disturbance. The spatial configuration of drought disturbances is likely to influence ecological processes including forest recovery and interacting disturbances such as fire. Regime shifts to an alternate, non-forested ecosystem may occur preferentially in areas with large or clustered drought impact patches. Improved understanding of drought impacts and their patterning in space and time will expand our knowledge of forest ecosystems and landscape processes, informing management of these dynamic systems in an uncertain future.
Cholinergic Machinery as Relevant Target in Acute Lymphoblastic T Leukemia

Various types of non-neuronal cells, including tumors, are able to produce acetylcholine (ACh), which acts as an autocrine/paracrine growth factor. T lymphocytes represent a key component of the non-neuronal cholinergic system. T cells-derived ACh is involved in a stimulation of their activation and proliferation, and acts as a regulator of immune response. The aim of the present work was to summarize the data about components of cholinergic machinery in T lymphocytes, with an emphasis on the comparison of healthy and leukemic T cells. Cell lines derived from acute lymphoblastic leukemias of T lineage (T-ALL) were found to produce a considerably higher amount of ACh than healthy T lymphocytes. Additionally, ACh produced by T-ALL is not efficiently hydrolyzed, because acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity is drastically decreased in these cells. Up-regulation of muscarinic ACh receptors was also demonstrated at expression and functional level, whereas nicotinic ACh receptors seem to play a less important role and not form functional channels in cells derived from T-ALL. We hypothesized that ACh over-produced in T-ALL may act as an autocrine growth factor and play an important role in leukemic clonal expansion through shaping of intracellular Ca2+ signals. We suggest that cholinergic machinery may be attractive targets for new drugs against T-ALL. Specifically, testing of high affinity antagonists of muscarinic ACh receptors as well as antagomiRs, which interfere with miRNAs involved in the suppression of AChE expression, may be the first choice options.
GEOMETRICAL AND OPERATIONAL ASPECTS OF IRREVERSIBILITY

In the statistical description of dynamical systems, an indication of the irreversibility of a given state change is given geometrically by means of a (pre-)ordering of state pairs. Reversible state changes of classical and quantum systems are shown to be represented by isometric state transforma- tions. An operational distinction between reversible and irreversible dynamics is given and related to the geometric characterisation of the associated state transformations.
Secretin Facilitates GABA Transmission in the Cerebellum

Secretin was the first hormone discovered in human history, and yet, its function as a neuropeptide has been overlooked in the past. The recent discovery of the potential use of secretin in treating autistic patients, together with the conflicting reports on its effectiveness, urges an in-depth investigation of this issue. We show here that in the rat cerebellar cortex, mRNAs encoding secretin are localized in the Purkinje cells, whereas those of its receptor are found in both Purkinje cells and GABAergic interneurons. Immunoreactivity for secretin is localized in the soma and dendrites of Purkinje cells. In addition, secretin facilitates evoked, spontaneous, and miniature IPSCs recorded from Purkinje cells. We propose that secretin is released from the somatodendritic region of Purkinje cells and serves as a retrograde messenger modulating GABAergic afferent activity.
Adsorption Properties of Low-Cost Biomaterial Derived from Prunus amygdalus L. for Dye Removal from Water

The capability of Prunus amygdalus L. (almond) shell for dye removal from aqueous solutions was investigated and methyl orange was used as a model compound. The effects of operational parameters including pH, ionic strength, adsorbent concentration and mesh size, dye concentration, contact time, and temperature on the removal of dye were evaluated. The adsorption kinetics conformed to the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The equilibrium data pointed out excellent fit to the Langmuir isotherm model with maximum monolayer adsorption capacity of 41.34 mg g−1 at 293 K. Thermodynamic analysis proved a spontaneous, favorable, and exothermic process. It can be concluded that almond shell might be a potential low-cost adsorbent for methyl orange removal from aqueous media.
Adipose Tissue Inflammation and Increased Ceramide Content Characterize Subjects With High Liver Fat Content Independent of Obesity

OBJECTIVE— We sought to determine whether adipose tissue is inflamed in individuals with increased liver fat (LFAT) independently of obesity. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS— A total of 20 nondiabetic, healthy, obese women were divided into normal and high LFAT groups based on their median LFAT level (2.3 ± 0.3 vs. 14.4 ± 2.9%). Surgical subcutaneous adipose tissue biopsies were studied using quantitative PCR, immunohistochemistry, and a lipidomics approach to search for putative mediators of insulin resistance and inflammation. The groups were matched for age and BMI. The high LFAT group had increased insulin (P = 0.0025) and lower HDL cholesterol (P = 0.02) concentrations. RESULTS— Expression levels of the macrophage marker CD68, the chemokines monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 and macrophage inflammatory protein-1α, and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 were significantly increased, and those of peroxisome proliferator–activated receptor-γ and adiponectin decreased in the high LFAT group. CD68 expression correlated with the number of macrophages and crown-like structures (multiple macrophages fused around dead adipocytes). Concentrations of 154 lipid species in adipose tissue revealed several differences between the groups, with the most striking being increased concentrations of triacylglycerols, particularly long chain, and ceramides, specifically Cer(d18:1/24:1) (P = 0.01), in the high LFAT group. Expression of sphingomyelinases SMPD1 and SMPD3 were also significantly increased in the high compared with normal LFAT group. CONCLUSIONS— Adipose tissue is infiltrated with macrophages, and its content of long-chain triacylglycerols and ceramides is increased in subjects with increased LFAT compared with equally obese subjects with normal LFAT content. Ceramides or their metabolites could contribute to adverse effects of long-chain fatty acids on insulin resistance and inflammation.
New directions for equity in mathematics education

Part I. Introduction: 1. The Quasar project: equity concerns meet mathematics education reform in the middle school 2. Can equity thrive in a culture of mathematical excellence? 3. Equity and mathematics education 4. Making mathematics meaningful in multicultural contexts 5. Social and critical dimensions for equity in mathematics education 6. Equity in mathematics education: class in the world outside the class 7. Economics, equity, and the national mathematics assessment: are we creating a national tollroad? Part II. Equity Inside the Mathematics Classroom: Fact or Artefact? : 8. Redefining the 'girl problem in mathematics' 9. Gender and mathematics from a feminist standpoint 10. Attitudes, persistence, and mathematics achievement: qualifying race and sex differences Part III. Making Inequality: Issues of Language and Meanings in Mathematics Teaching with Hispanic Students: 11. Equity in the future tense: redefining relationships among teachers, students, and science in linguistic minority classrooms 12. Taking power seriously: new directions in equity in mathematics education and beyond.
Applying ‘Options Thinking’ To R&D Valuation

OVERVIEW:There are situations in which options pricing theory provides a better basis for the valuation of R&D projects than the traditional discounted cash flow techniques used in most business cases. R&D managers need to be able to recognize those situations in which the two approaches are likely to give different answers, and they need to be aware of the different computational techniques that can be used for an options valuation of R&D projects. It is also important to understand the implications of an options approach for the formulation of both business and R&D strategy. “Options thinking” represents a practical way to apply the lessons from options pricing theory to some of the central problems of R&D management.
Coming to terms with fear

Significance Research on Pavlovian fear conditioning has been very successful in revealing what has come to be called the brain’s fear system. The field has now matured to the point where a sharper conceptualization of what is being studied could be very useful as we go forward. Terms like “fear conditioning” and “fear system” blur the distinction between processes that give rise to conscious feelings of fear and nonconscious processes that control defense responses elicited by threats. These processes interact but are not the same. Using terms that respect the distinction will help focus future animal research on brain circuits that detect and respond to threats, and should also help clarify the implications of this work for understanding how normal and pathological feelings of fear come about in the human brain. The brain mechanisms of fear have been studied extensively using Pavlovian fear conditioning, a procedure that allows exploration of how the brain learns about and later detects and responds to threats. However, mechanisms that detect and respond to threats are not the same as those that give rise to conscious fear. This is an important distinction because symptoms based on conscious and nonconscious processes may be vulnerable to different predisposing factors and may also be treatable with different approaches in people who suffer from uncontrolled fear or anxiety. A conception of so-called fear conditioning in terms of circuits that operate nonconsciously, but that indirectly contribute to conscious fear, is proposed as way forward.