Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Workers' remittances, economic growth and poverty in developing Asia and the Pacific countries

This paper examines the impact of workers’ remittances on growth and poverty reduction in developing Asia-Pacific countries using panel data over the period 1993-2003. The results suggests that, while remittances do have a significant impact on poverty reduction through increasing income, smoothing consumption and easing capital constraints of the poor, they have only a marginal impact on growth operating through domestic investment and human capital development. JEL Classification Numbers: O10, O40, O53
Combining Evidence for Information Retrieval

This study investigates the effect on retrieval performance of two methods of combination of multiple representations of TREC topics. Five separate Boolean queries for each of the 50 TREC routing topics and 25 of the TREC ad hoc topics were generated by 75 experienced online searchers. Using the INQUIRY retrieval system, these queries were both combined into single queries, and used to produce five separate retrieval results. In the former case, results indicate that progressive combination of queries leads to progressively improving retrieval performance, significantly better than that of single queries, and at least as good as the best individual query formulations. In the latter case, data fusion of the ran ked lists also led to performance better than of any single list
Return Dispersion, Size, and the Cross-Section of Stock Returns - Evidence from the German Stock Market

This paper investigates whether return dispersion (RD), proxied by the cross-sectional standard deviation of stock returns, captures variation in returns across German stocks between 1989 and 2010. I address existing evidence based on U.S. equity data that RD may serve as a proxy economic state variable. In the out-of-sample test I confirm the countercyclical character of RD and show that it loads significantly negatively on future equal-weighted average market return. Sorting stocks by their absolute loadings on RD, I uncover the negative pattern in simple average portfolio returns. Further analysis indicates that the negative relationship between absolute loadings on RD and future returns is present only in micro stock subgroup. This finding casts doubt on the RD as proxy for state variable. Instead, it suggests its relation to mispricing and idiosyncratic risk components. As a secondary results I confirm the existence of reversed size effect in German stock market over the considered period.
Carbonic anhydrase in the adult mosquito midgut

SUMMARY We have previously demonstrated the involvement of carbonic anhydrase (CA) in larval mosquito midgut physiology. In this study, we used Hansson's histochemistry to examine the distribution of the enzyme in the midgut of Aedes aegypti, Aedes albopictus, Culex quinquefasciatus, Culex nigripalpus, Ochlerotatus taeniorhynchus, Anopheles albimanus and Anopheles quadrimaculatus adult mosquitoes. Additionally, we quantitated CA content in the anterior and posterior midgut of adult males and females from these species using the 18O isotope exchange method coupled to mass spectrometry. We also tested the effect of CA inhibitors such as methazolamide and acetazolamide in the alkalization of the midgut in females from these species. Our results indicate that CA is present in the midgut of adults from the species studied and that it appears to be preferentially associated with the posterior midgut in both males and females. CA inhibitors appear to have a profound effect on midgut pH indicating that this enzyme might play a key role in the maintenance of this pH.
MRI Analysis of the Lumbar Spine: Can It Predict Response to Diagnostic and Therapeutic Facet Procedures?

ObjectivesTo determine the correlation between magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) pathology and the response to diagnostic facet medial branch block (MBB) and L5 dorsal ramus medial branch block and radiofrequency (RF) denervation of lumbar facet joints. MethodsThe medical records of 127 consecutive patients who underwent MBB for suspected zygapophysial joint pain were reviewed. The lumbar spine MRI of these patients was systematically graded by 2 musculoskeletal radiologists for loss of disc height, spinal stenosis, facet joint degeneration, and other forms of spinal pathology. ResultsPatients with central or foraminal spinal stenosis had statistically significant correlation with positive outcome of RF (P=0.02), but not with MBB (P=0.08). The presence of facet joint degeneration or hypertrophy was positively correlated with response to MBB (71% vs. 51%; P=0.04), but not RF. Loss of disc height did not correlate with outcome of MBB (P=0.08) and RF (P=0.29). For other spinal pathology, no significant differences were noted for either the response to diagnostic blocks or the RF denervation. Younger patients were more likely to fail MBB (P<0.01) but not RF denervation (P=0.38). DiscussionWhereas some relationships were noted between MRI findings and the response to lumbar facet joint interventions, many of these correlations tended to be weak. However, this study does suggest the possibility that patients with spinal stenosis, often considered an exclusion criterion for facet interventions, may respond to RF denervation of facet joints. Prospective studies are needed to confirm these observations.
Children speech pauses as markers of different discourse structures and utterance information content

This study reports on the cross-modal analysis (video and audio) of spontaneous narratives produced by children (9 plus-minus 3 months years old) and is aimed to test the role of empty speech pauses of different duration in children discourse organization. Video analysis was necessary to assess the association between utterance’s meaning and pauses. Empty speech pauses were divided into three categories according to their duration: a) short from 0.150 up to 0.500 s long; b) medium from 0.501 up to 0.900 s long; c) long more than 0.900 s long. Results show that each category plays a different role in the discourse organization, with short pauses and medium pauses preceding utterances containing new added information and long pauses identifying changes in scene, time and event structures, with the functional role of delimitating paragraphs. Chafe (1987) and O’Shaughnessy (1995) hypothesized a similar discourse organization for adult narratives. Interestingly, our results show that such organization is also exploited in spontaneous children’s speech, which use specific pauses durations to mark different discourse structures. Moreover, we found that such different pause durations are a function of the amount of new information contained in the utterances and signal the cognitive effort required to convey such new information. Although the present data may be relevant in assessing the system of rules that underlie pausing means, it should be emphasized that this is a pilot study and that more data are needed to make such a determination.
Bayesian VARs: Specification Choices and Forecast Accuracy

In this paper we examine how the forecasting performance of Bayesian VARs is affected by a number of specification choices. In the baseline case, we use a Normal-Inverted Wishart prior that, when combined with a (pseudo-) iterated approach, makes the analytical computation of multi-step forecasts feasible and simple, in particular when using standard and fixed values for the tightness and the lag length. We then assess the role of the optimal choice of the tightness, of the lag length and of both; compare alternative approaches to multi-step forecasting (direct, iterated, and pseudo-iterated); discuss the treatment of the error variance and of cross-variable shrinkage; and address a set of additional issues, including the size of the VAR, modeling in levels or growth rates, and the extent of forecast bias induced by shrinkage. We obtain a large set of empirical results, but we can summarize them by saying that we find very small losses (and sometimes even gains) from the adoption of specification choices that make BVAR modeling quick and easy. This finding could therefore further enhance the diffusion of the BVAR as an econometric tool for a vast range of applications.
Expert Judgements in Risk Analysis: a Strategy to Overcome Uncertainities

There is a need for a risk analysis technique specific for academic research laboratories. Since accurate accident data, normally required for quantitative risk analysis, are not available for this environment, expert judgements are often used to describe risks. However, these judgements are afflicted with linguistic, lexical or informal uncertainties. As a consequence, analyses made by different experts can lead to different results, which make risks incomparable. The purpose of this work is to analyse the effect of these uncertainties and to test strategies to improve the accuracy of the risk estimation based on expert judgements. Different calculation methods were used to compare the obtained risk scores. Results show that a multiplication-based formula, as used, for example, in the Failure Mode, Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA), has an inconsistent variance of the risk score distribution. Another approach, using a logarithm-sum-based formula, gives more consistent results but introduces other drawbacks. An estimation method based on Bayesian networks is giving more consistent variances, which are crucial for the risk estimation. With a higher precision of the risk score results, the prioritization of risks can be enhanced and resources can be better allocated to improve the level of occupational safety in academic research laboratories.
Expression Profile of Developmentally Important Genes in preand peri-Implantation Goat Embryos Produced In Vitro

Background: Little is understood about the regulation of gene expression during early goat embryo development. This study investigated the expression profile of 19 genes, known to be critical for early embryo development in mouse and human, at five different stages of goat in vitro embryo development (oocyte, 8-16 cell, morula, day-7 blastocyst, and day 14 blastocyst). Materials and Methods: In this experimental study, stage-specific profiling using real time-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) revealed robust and dynamic patterns of stage-specific gene activity that fall into four major clusters depending on their respective mRNA profiles. Results: The gradual pattern of reduction in the maternally stored transcripts without renewal thereafter (cluster-1: Lifr1, Bmpr1, Alk4, Id3, Ctnnb, Akt, Oct4, Rex1, Erk1, Smad1 and 5) implies that their protein products are essential during early cleavages when the goat embryo is silent and reliant to the maternal legacy of mRNA. The potential importance of transcription augment at day-3 (cluster-2: Fzd, c-Myc, Cdc25a, Sox2) or day- 14 (cluster-3: Fgfr4, Nanog) suggests that they are nascent embryonic mRNAs which intimately involved in the overriding of MET or regulation of blastocyst formation, respectively. The observation of two expression peaks at both day-3 and day-14 (cluster-4: Gata4, Cdx2) would imply their potential importance during these two critical stages of preand periimplantation development. Conclusion: Evolutionary comparison revealed that the selected subset of genes has been rewired in goat and human/goat similarity is greater than the mouse/goat or bovine/goat similarities. The developed profiles provide a resource for comprehensive understanding of goat preimplantation development and pluripotent stem cell engineering as well.
IN-SITU CHARGED PARTICLES AND X-RAY DETECTION IN Pd THIN FILM-CATHODES DURING ELECTROLYSIS IN Li2SO4/H2O

Measurements of energetic charged particle and soft X-ray emissions have been performed using calibrated CR-39 plastic track and LiF/Al2O3:C-Thermo-Luminescent (TLD) detectors. It was found that during the electrolysis of thin Pd-film cathodes on the dielectric substrates, the alpha-particles ranging from 11.0-16.0 MeV and protons near 1.7 MeV are emitted. No significant X-ray emission with upper dose limit of ~ 1 mrem (corresponding to ~ 5.0 X-ray photon/s×cm with Ex=10 keV) was detected.
Principal Curves on Riemannian Manifolds

Euclidean statistics are often generalized to Riemannian manifolds by replacing straight-line interpolations with geodesic ones. While these Riemannian models are familiar-looking, they are restricted by the inflexibility of geodesics, and they rely on constructions which are optimal only in Euclidean domains. We consider extensions of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to Riemannian manifolds. Classic Riemannian approaches seek a geodesic curve passing through the mean that optimizes a criteria of interest. The requirements that the solution both is geodesic and must pass through the mean tend to imply that the methods only work well when the manifold is mostly flat within the support of the generating distribution. We argue that instead of generalizing linear Euclidean models, it is more fruitful to generalize non-linear Euclidean models. Specifically, we extend the classic Principal Curves from Hastie & Stuetzle to data residing on a complete Riemannian manifold. We show that for elliptical distributions in the tangent of spaces of constant curvature, the standard principal geodesic is a principal curve. The proposed model is simple to compute and avoids many of the pitfalls of traditional geodesic approaches. We empirically demonstrate the effectiveness of the Riemannian principal curves on several manifolds and datasets.
Negotiating the work-family nexus: Examining identity work in the lives of lone parents

This thesis offers a critical analysis of the everyday experiences and identity work of employed lone parents. Research on lone parents has been dominated by studies which focus on their experiences of unemployment (Haux, 2010; Chambaz, 2001; Speak, 2000). In comparison, the experiences of those lone parents whose histories are more likely to reflect time in work, rather than time out of work, have continued to be marginalised (Coyne, 2002; Ridge and Millar, 2011). Lone parents face the burden of childcare responsibilities without the support of a second parent, yet, they are still expected to engage with employment (Davies, 2012). A greater understanding of how they negotiate their work and family responsibilities is therefore required. In this study, the concept of ‘identity’ was utilised to explore and analyse the experiences of employed lone parents. Both family and employment discourses provide critical (often contradictory) resources for identity construction (Thomas and Davies, 2005; Haynes, 2008), suggesting that an examination of how lone parents construct a sense of self is crucial in considering their everyday experiences. As concerns regarding inequality were found to be significant in previous studies on lone parents (Wallbank, 1998; May, 2003; 2004b; 2008b), a conceptual framework was required that could help identify experiences of marginalisation, as well as the influences of dominant discourses. ‘ Identity’ was considered to be a “practice of improvisation within a scene of restraint” (Butler, 2004: 1), with the notion of identity work used to investigate this practice. An in-depth qualitative approach, including semi-structured interviews and daily diaries, was utilised to collect data from fifteen participants from the South West of England and the London/Greater London areas. Based on the analysis and findings of this research, the lone parent participants were seen to be positioned awkwardly within discourses concerning work and family. Because of this, the process by which they constructed a coherent sense of identity was complex. Participants were seen to engage with different types of identity work in order to negotiate the paradox they faced as primary carers and providers. Considering the findings of this research, a number of implications were drawn in how this type of family may be supported more effectively within the workplace.
On memetic Differential Evolution frameworks: A study of advantages and limitations in hybridization

This paper aims to study the benefits and limitations in the hybridization of the differential evolution with local search algorithms. In order to perform this study, the performance of three memetic algorithms employing a differential evolution as an evolutionary framework and several local search algorithms adaptively coordinated by means of a fitness diversity logic have been analyzed. The performance of a standard differential evolution whose parameter setting has been executed only after fine tuning has also been taken into account in the comparison. The comparative analysis has been performed on a set of various test functions. Numerical results show that the memetic algorithms without any extensive parameter tuning are still competitive with the finely tuned plain differential evolution.
A MATE-Family Efflux Pump Rescues the Escherichia coli 8-Oxoguanine-Repair-Deficient Mutator Phenotype and Protects Against H2O2 Killing

Hypermutation may accelerate bacterial evolution in the short-term. In the long-term, however, hypermutators (cells with an increased rate of mutation) can be expected to be at a disadvantage due to the accumulation of deleterious mutations. Therefore, in theory, hypermutators are doomed to extinction unless they compensate the elevated mutational burden (deleterious load). Different mechanisms capable of restoring a low mutation rate to hypermutators have been proposed. By choosing an 8-oxoguanine-repair-deficient (GO-deficient) Escherichia coli strain as a hypermutator model, we investigated the existence of genes able to rescue the hypermutable phenotype by multicopy suppression. Using an in vivo-generated mini-MudII4042 genomic library and a mutator screen, we obtained chromosomal fragments that decrease the rate of mutation in a mutT-deficient strain. Analysis of a selected clone showed that the expression of NorM is responsible for the decreased mutation rate in 8-oxoguanine-repair-deficient (mutT, mutY, and mutM mutY) strains. NorM is a member of the multidrug and toxin extrusion (MATE) family of efflux pumps whose role in E. coli cell physiology remains unknown. Our results indicate that NorM may act as a GO-system backup decreasing AT to CG and GC to TA transversions. In addition, the ability of NorM to reduce the level of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) in a GO-deficient strain and protect the cell from oxidative stress, including protein carbonylation, suggests that it can extrude specific molecules—byproducts of bacterial metabolism—that oxidize the guanine present in both DNA and nucleotide pools. Altogether, our results indicate that NorM protects the cell from specific ROS when the GO system cannot cope with the damage.
The Effects of Induction, Mentoring and Local School Culture on Retention of Beginning Special Education Teachers

THE EFFECTS OF INDUCTION, MENTORING AND LOCAL SCHOOL CULTURE ON RETENTION OF BEGINNING SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHERS Nancy J. Morrison, Ph.D. George Mason University, 2010 Dissertation Director: Dr. Margo Mastropieri A mixed-methods study was conducted to determine the effects of induction, mentoring and local school supports on the retention of beginning special education teachers. A random nationwide sample of 477 elementary and secondary special education teachers with five years experience or less completed a web-based survey of 35 open and forced choice items to determine their perceptions of the effectiveness of supports from induction programs, mentors, and local schools. A representative subsample of respondents participated in follow-up interviews. Respondents were 86% white, 84% female, median age 33, and were representative of previous research with respect to race/ethnicity, gender, age, and teacher preparation programs. Respondents taught students from a wide range of disability groups in a variety of teaching settings. Respondents reported induction programs and mentors to be somewhat effective, although induction activities and frequency of participation varied. The majority of respondents had special education teacher mentors. Job design and working conditions were identified as areas of concern because of heavy student caseloads, paperwork demands, lack of planning time, and numbers of daily class preparations. Administrative support was perceived as somewhat effective, and colleague support most often came from other special education teachers or mentors. Respondents reported equivocal views of collaborating with general education teachers. Local school cultures were generally viewed as positive, but were sometimes perceived as less inclusive for special education teachers and students. Statistically significant differences were found between mentoring effectiveness and secondary teachers, between administrative support and elementary teachers, and between job satisfaction and teachers’ intent to remain in teaching 15 years or longer. No statistically significant differences were found for induction effectiveness. Recommendations from respondents for supporting beginning special education teachers included improved professional development, administrators with knowledge of special education, reduced student caseloads and paperwork demands, and inclusion of special educators in the schoolwide learning community. Additionally, respondents described the many reasons they like being special education teachers. Findings are discussed with respect to policy and practice implications as well as implications for future research.
Knee kinematics and kinetics during locomotor activities of daily living in subjects with knee arthroplasty and in healthy control subjects.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Knee kinematics and kinetics have not been quantitatively studied during gait, stair negotiation, and rising from a chair in the same subjects, either among healthy control subjects or among subjects with knee joint impairments. Despite this paucity of data, rehabilitation goals often include achieving a specific peak knee torque at a specific, fixed angular velocity. SUBJECTS We compared the kinematic and kinetic performance of the knees in 15 subjects (19 knees) who had undergone knee arthroplasty (KA group) and 11 healthy subjects (22 knees) who served as a control group. The KA group subjects ranged in age from 61 to 78 years, and the control group subjects ranged in age from 26 to 88 years. The KA group subjects had had knee osteoarthritis, were > or = 1 year postsurgery, and were considered fully rehabilitated. METHODS All subjects were analyzed during barefoot paced walking, stair ascent and descent, and arising from a chair. RESULTS Compared with the control subjects, the KA group subjects had significantly different knee sagittal range of motion, angular velocities, and maximum knee moments during loaded knee extension. Vertical ground reactions did not differ significantly between groups. Both groups' maximum extension angular velocity exceeded 350 degrees/s during the swing phase of gait, but the maximum loaded extension velocity averaged only 140 degrees/s (during rising from a chair). Maximum knee flexion moments were approximately 10 to 15 N.m/%BW (knee moments normalized to percentage of body weight in newtons). CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION We concluded that locomotor ADLs demand relatively slow loaded angular velocities and low knee torques, a factor that should be considered in knee postarthroplasty exercise prescription.