Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
RECONCILING INTERESTS AMONG WILDLIFE, LIVESTOCK AND PEOPLE IN EASTERN AFRICA: A SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOODS APPROACH

From the perspective of local livelihoods this paper explores the complex interactions between wildlife, livestock and people, and options for integrated wildlife and livestock management in the semi-arid rangelands of eastern Africa. The paper draws on the sustainable livelihoods approach which explicitly considers whether households have access to the assets required to engage in an activity, and how that activity ‘fits’ with existing livelihood activities. • Appraisal and evaluation of integrated conservation and development projects have proven problematic because conventional methods fail to capture both direct and indirect impacts on rural livelihoods and their distribution across households. • In the semi-arid rangelands of eastern Africa, where ‘plains game’ is concentrated in and around protected areas, the costs of living with wildlife cannot simply be compensated by income generation from wildlife management. • Efforts to promote integrated wildlife and livestock management (IWLM) need to ensure access for pastoralists to seasonal grazing and water, and limit the negative aspects of wildlife integration (such as disease transmission, predation and crop damage). • The value of income generated by wildlife management can be enhanced, not only by enabling local people to realise their share, but also by ensuring that the timing of income flows fits with seasonal income and expenditure patterns and by extending individual household control over this income. • Incentives for integrating wildlife management into existing livelihood strategies are likely to be greater for pastoralists than agro-pastoralists, although institutional aspects may favour agro-pastoralists.
W-Band Wireless Data Transmission by the Integration of a Near-Ballistic Unitraveling-Carrier Photodiode With a Horn Antenna Fed by a Quasi-Yagi Radiator

We demonstrate a novel W-band photonic transmitter mixer, which is composed of a planar quasi-Yagi radiator for feeding a WR-10 waveguide-based horn antenna and a near-ballistic unitraveling-carrier photodiode. The module demonstrates reasonable coupling loss in terms of the millimeter-wave (MMW) power launched from the integrated radiator into the WR-10 waveguide. With the bias-modulation technique and an optical MMW source, we can successfully achieve a wireless data transmission of 2.5-Gb/s quadrature phase shift keying at a carrier wave frequency of 102.5 GHz with a transmission distance of over 2.3 m.
Dynamics of a Lamella in a Capillary Tube

The dynamics of a lamella being driven through a capillary tube is studied here. The lamella is modeled as a thin liquid film which makes a finite contact angle with the tube walls. Only two-dimensional solutions are considered. The effect of Van der Waals forces is also included. By considering the thin film limit, we are able to reduce the problem to studying a system of partial differential equations for the film interfaces. This system is studied both numerically and analytically. The stability of the lamella as a function of the physical parameters is determined.
A Unified Framework for Authenticating Privacy Preserving Location Based Services

An important class of location-based services (LBSs) is information queries that provide users with location information of nearby point of interests such as a restaurant, a hospital or a gas station. To access an LBS, a user has to reveal her location to the location-based service provider (LSP). From the revealed location, the LSP can infer private information about the user's health, habit and preferences. Thus, along with the benefits, LBSs also bring privacy concern to the users. Hence, protecting the privacy of LBSs users is a major challenge. Another major challenge is to ensure the reliability and correctness of the provided LBSs by the LSP, which is known as authentication. We develop a novel authentication technique that supports variants of privacy preserving LBSs with less storage and communication overhead. More importantly, we present a unified framework that can handle authentication for a wide range of privacy preserving location-based queries, range, nearest neighbor, and group nearest neighbor queries. We conduct experiments to show the efficiency and effectiveness of our approach in comparison with the state-of-art techniques.
Papers in Philosophical Logic: Probabilities of conditionals and conditional probabilities II

A dams's thesis about indicative conditionals is that their assertIlability goes by the conditional subjective probability of the consequent given the antecedent, in very much the same way that assertability normally goes by the subjective probability of truth. ' The thesis is well established; the remaining question is how it may best be explained. The nicest explanation would be that the truth conditions of indicative conditionals are such as to guarantee the equality
Aqueous solutions next to phospholipid membrane surfaces: insights from simulations.

It is well established that water plays a very important role in the functioning of biological molecules and their assemblies. Among such molecular assemblies are biological membranes. The self-assembly of these membranes is driven by the hydrophobic effect sa clear consequence of their aqueous environment. Water contributes to the mechanism responsible for membrane/membrane interaction and contributes to the assisted passage of ions and other molecules across biomembranes through special membrane-embedded proteins. Since natural biomembranes represent complicated assemblies of molecules, their study is extremely involved. To simplify the task, the properties of biomembranes are often probed using model membranes containing one type of phospholipid molecule or a simple mixture of lipid molecules. Different experimental techniques are used to study properties of model membranes and their hydration water. The structural properties of membranes and the positions of lipid fragments and hydration water can be measured with the help of X-ray and neutron scattering techniques. 1,2
The marketised university and the politics of motherhood

ABSTRACT In this paper, we offer a critique of neoliberal power from the perspective of the gendered, sexualised, raced and classed politics of motherhood in English universities. By using dialogical auto-ethnographic methods to examine our own past experiences as full-time employed mother–academics, we demonstrate how feminist academic praxis can not only help make the gendered workings of neoliberal power more visible, but also enable us to nurture and sustain alternative ways of being and working in, against and outside the university. Far from desiring greater inclusion into a system which enshrines repressive logics of productivity and reproduces gendered subjectivities, inequalities, silences and exclusions, we aim to refuse and transgress it by bringing feminist critiques of knowledge, labour and neoliberalism to bear on how we understand our own experiences of motherhood in the academic world.
Distributed multi-agent coordination: A comparison lemma based approach

In this paper, we focus on the study of distributed multi-agent coordination, including leaderless consensus and consensus tracking, by using a comparison lemma based approach. First, we investigate and present general comparison lemmas for vector differential equations that are represented in terms of upper right-hand derivatives. By using the general comparison lemmas, the stability of linear/nonlinear closed-loop systems can be guaranteed given that some properly designed linear/nonlinear systems are stable. This provides an important tool in the stability analysis of linear/nonlinear closed-loop systems by making use of known results in linear/nonlinear systems. Second, we apply the general comparison lemmas in the stability analysis of two distributed multi-agent coordination problems, namely, leaderless consensus and consensus tracking. We propose general nonlinear distributed algorithms and derive mild conditions to guarantee convergence by using the general comparison lemmas.
Imbalanced expression of functional surface molecules in regulatory and effector T cells in systemic lupus erythematosus

Regulatory T (TREG) cells play an important role in maintaining immune tolerance and avoiding autoimmunity. We analyzed the expression of membrane molecules in TREG and effector T cells in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). TREG and effector T cells were analyzed for the expression of CTLA-4, PD1, CD28, CD95, GITR, HLA-DR, OX40, CD40L, and CD45RO in 26 patients with active disease, 31 with inactive disease, and 26 healthy controls. TREG cells were defined as CD25+/highCD127Ø/lowFoxP3+, and effector T cells were defined as CD25+CD127+FoxP3Ø. The ratio of TREG to effector T cells expressing GITR, PD1, HLA-DR, OX40, CD40L, and CD45RO was determined in the three groups. The frequency of TREG cells was similar in patients with SLE and controls. However, SLE patients had a decreased frequency of CTLA-4+TREG and CD28+TREG cells and an increased frequency of CD40L+TREG cells. There was a decrease in the TREG/effector-T ratio for GITR+, HLA-DR+, OX40+, and CD45RO+ cells, and an increased ratio of TREG/effector-T CD40L+ cells in patients with SLE. In addition, CD40L+TREG cell frequency correlated with the SLE disease activity index (P=0.0163). In conclusion, our findings showed several abnormalities in the expression of functionally critical surface molecules in TREG and effector T cells in SLE that may be relevant to the pathogenesis of this disease.
Spoiling to Survive: Why Terrorist Violence Escalates After a Government Concession

Why does terrorist violence escalate after a government concession? This study examines three theoretical explanations of why terrorist violence escalates after a government concession: the Spoiling, Factioning, and Concession Maximizing theories. The Spoiling Theory contends that terrorism escalates because a government concession poses an existential threat to a terrorist organization and terrorism escalates to spoil the implementation of a concession. The Factioning Theory contends that terrorism escalates because a government concession causes a terrorist organization to split with moderates accepting the concession and extremists remaining active and more prone to violence. The Concession Maximizing Theory contends that terrorism escalates because a government concession emboldens a terrorist organization to escalate in order to gain additional concessions. A special methodology, a Threshold Auto-Regressive (TAR) process, was developed to provide a data-determined process to identify periods of terrorist escalation. The TAR methodology provides a neutral method to identify periods of terrorist escalation in order to systematically compare the three theories. The methodology and theoretical models were applied to four case studies where terrorist violence escalated after a government concession. The analysis of the escalation of violence after a concession in the Algeria, El Salvador, Israel-Palestine, and Spain cases demonstrate that when terrorist violence escalates after a government concession, the intent is to spoil the implementation of a government concession. Thus, this study concludes that the Spoiling Theory provides the best theoretical understanding of why terrorist violence escalates after a government concession.
Co-Creation of Value in a Platform Ecosystem: The Case of Enterprise Software

It has been argued that platform technology owners cocreate business value with other firms in their platform ecosystems by encouraging complementary invention and exploiting indirect network effects. In this study, we examine whether participation in an ecosystem partnership improves the business performance of small independent software vendors (ISVs) in the enterprise software industry and how appropriability mechanisms influence the benefits of partnership. By analyzing the partnering activities and performance indicators of a sample of 1,210 small ISVs over the period 1996-2004, we find that joining a major platform owner's platform ecosystem is associated with an increase in sales and a greater likelihood of issuing an initial public offering (IPO). In addition, we show that these impacts are greater when ISVs have greater intellectual property rights or stronger downstream capabilities. This research highlights the value of interoperability between software products, and stresses that value cocreation and appropriation are not mutually exclusive strategies in interfirm collaboration.
Examining the Relationship between Virtual Reality Driving and Cognitive Demands of Driving after Brain Injury

This study examined the relationship between driving performance measures generated by a clinical virtual reality driving simulator (VRDS) and driving performance determined by a) a behind-the-wheel driving (BTW) evaluation and b) cognitive tasks relevant to driving. This study was conducted at an outpatient research setting and included twenty eight individuals: 18 with acquired brain injury (BI) and 10 healthy controls (HC). Individuals underwent cognitive testing, participated in the VRDS, and some received a BTW evaluation. Driving performance on the BTW was examined both at the global level (i.e., pass/fail) and specific level (i.e., rating on individual behaviors) VRDS variables were consistent with BTW measures and included both specific behaviors and three global measures: 1) VRDS lane management, 2) VRDS speed control and 3) VRDS turning/tracking. Cognitive tests specific to driving performance included: TMT, Visual Cancellation Test, PASAT, Block Design. Bivariate correlations between VRDS measures and cognitive tests revealed significant relationships. However, after a Hommel correction, only VRDS ‘lane management’ was significantly correlated with a measure of working memory (PASAT; p=.025). Due to the small sample size, only an exploratory analyses was conducted examining the relationship between VRDS and BTW measures. Bivariate correlations revealed no significant relationship between the global VR and BTW measures, though significant relationships existed between the VR and BTW subcomponents. VR speed control was significantly related to BTW speed control (p<.05). Additionally, the BTW ‘road law’ subcomponent was significantly (p<.05) related to the VR lane deviation, head turning standard deviation, average distance from stop sign, and deceleration. Discussion: Although exploratory the current findings may be suggestive of the possible sensitivity that is offered by VR driving performance measures. Although additional research is needed, the use of VR driving simulators may offer clinicians a new method to better define and assess the components of driving following brain injury.
Nash Equilibrium Seeking with Non-doubly Stochastic Communication Weight Matrix

A distributed Nash equilibrium seeking algorithm is presented for networked games. We assume an incomplete information available to each player about the other players’ actions. The players communicate over a strongly connected digraph to send/receive the estimates of the other players’ actions to/from the other local players according to a gossip communication protocol. Due to asymmetric information exchange between the players, a non-doubly (row) stochastic weight matrix is defined. We show that, due to the non-doubly stochastic property, there is no exact convergence. Then, we present an almost sure convergence proof of the algorithm to a Nash equilibrium of the game. Moreover, we extend the algorithm for graphical games in which all players’ cost functions are only dependent on the local neighboring players over an interference digraph. We design an assumption on the communication digraph such that the players are able to update all the estimates of the players who interfere with their cost functions. It is shown that the communication digraph needs to be a superset of a transitive reduction of the interference digraph. Finally, we verify the efficacy of the algorithm via a simulation on a social media behavioral case.
Detection of Carotid Adventitial Vasa Vasorum and Plaque Vascularization With Ultrasound Cadence Contrast Pulse Sequencing Technique and Echo-Contrast Agent

Background and Purpose— Adventitial vasa vasorum and plaque vascularization have been established as predictors of unstable atheromasic lesions in cerebro- and cardiovascular patients. Ultrasound contrast agents provide reliable information on tissue perfusion and microcirculation. We used contrast ultrasound duplex scanning to identify carotid plaque vascularization. Methods— Contrast carotid duplex scanning was performed in 23 patients with plaques of different degree of stenosis and echogenicity. Results— Plaque vascularization was detected in the fibrous and fibro-fatty tissue and not observed in the calcific nor in the necrotic and hemorrhagic tissue. Constantly, a small vessel was observed under ulcerations. Conclusions— Carotid contrast ultrasound imaging appears to be an emerging technique for identifying plaque angiogenesis. Further studies are needed to clarify the role of plaque angiogenesis for assessing cerebrovascular risk and to monitor effects of therapies aimed to plaque remodelling.
Biliverdin Protects the Isolated Rat Lungs from Ischemia-reperfusion Injury via Antioxidative, Anti-inflammatory and Anti-apoptotic Effects

Background: Biliverdin (BV) has a protective role against ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI). However, the protective role and potential mechanisms of BV on lung IRI (LIRI) remain to be elucidated. Thus, we aimed to investigate the protective role and potential mechanisms of BV on LIRI. Methods: Lungs were isolated from Sprague-Dawley rats to establish an ex vivo LIRI model. After an initial 15 min stabilization period, the isolated lungs were subjected to ischemia for 60 min, followed by 90 min of reperfusion with or without BV treatment. Results: Lungs in the I/R group exhibited significant decrease in tidal volume (1.44 ± 0.23 ml/min in I/R group vs. 2.41 ± 0.31 ml/min in sham group; P < 0.001), lung compliance (0.27 ± 0.06 ml/cmH2O in I/R group vs. 0.44 ± 0.09 ml/cmH2O in sham group; P < 0.001; 1 cmH2O=0.098 kPa), and oxygen partial pressure (PaO2) levels (64.12 ± 12 mmHg in I/R group vs. 114 ± 8.0 mmHg in sham group; P < 0.001; 1 mmHg = 0.133 kPa). In contrast, these parameters in the BV group (2.27 ± 0.37 ml/min of tidal volume, 0.41 ± 0.10 ml/cmH2O of compliance, and 98.7 ± 9.7 mmHg of PaO2) were significantly higher compared with the I/R group (P = 0.004, P < 0.001, and P < 0.001, respectively). Compared to the I/R group, the contents of superoxide dismutase were significantly higher (47.07 ± 7.91 U/mg protein vs. 33.84 ± 10.15 U/mg protein; P = 0.005) while the wet/dry weight ratio (P < 0.01), methane dicarboxylic aldehyde (1.92 ± 0.25 nmol/mg protein vs. 2.67 ± 0.46 nmol/mg protein; P < 0.001), and adenosine triphosphate contents (297.05 ± 47.45 nmol/mg protein vs. 208.09 ± 29.11 nmol/mg protein; P = 0.005) were markedly lower in BV-treated lungs. Histological analysis revealed that BV alleviated LIRI. Furthermore, the expression of inflammatory cytokines (interleukin-1&bgr;, interleukin-6, and tumor necrosis factor-&bgr;) was downregulated and the expression of cyclooxygenase-2, inducible nitric oxide synthase, and Jun N-terminal kinase was significantly reduced in BV group (all P < 0.01 compared to I/R group). Finally, the apoptosis index in the BV group was significantly decreased (P < 0.01 compared to I/R group). Conclusion: BV protects lung IRI through its antioxidative, anti-inflammatory, and anti-apoptotic effects.
Investor Irrationality and the Nasdaq Bubble

We exploit the information in the options market to study the risk and risk premium variations around the Nasdaq bubble period. In particular, we investigate whether the dramatic rise and fall of the Nasdaq can be justified by changes in return risk, or there were corresponding unusual shifts in how investors price risks. We specify a model that accommodates fluctuations in both risk levels and market prices of different sources of risks, and we estimate the model using time-series returns and option prices on the Nasdaq 100 index. Our analysis reveals three key pieces of evidence that foretell the arrival and burst of a bubble. First, during the Nasdaq bubble period, return volatility increased together with the rising index level, even though the two tend to move in opposite directions in general. Second, while the market price of volatility risk is strongly negative historically as investors dislike high volatility levels and volatility risk, the market price of volatility risk declined in absolute magnitude and approached zero at the end of 1999. In contrast to the average risk premium at normal market conditions, aversion to volatility risk completely disappeared during the height of the bubble period. Third, the options market showed an increasing market price of downside jump risk that peaked three month prior to the bursting of the bubble, highlighting the increasing demand for hedging against the potential crash of the Nasdaq market valuation. On the other hand, the market price of the downside jump risk dropped suddenly three months prior to the burst, pointing to capital flight from the Nasdaq market and the unwinding of the associated option hedging positions. Our approach suggests that having options on the bubble asset provides a window into investor behavior unavailable from earlier bubbles.
Klotho Up-regulates Renal Calcium Channel Transient Receptor Potential Vanilloid 5 (TRPV5) by Intra- and Extracellular N-glycosylation-dependent Mechanisms*

Background: Klotho is a putative sialidase that modifies the extracellular N-glycan of TRPV5 to increase its surface expression. Results: Intracellular expression of Klotho increased TRPV5 via an N-glycosylation-dependent mechanism that requires the sialidase activity of Klotho. Conclusion: Klotho up-regulates TRPV5 surface abundance by intra- and extracellular mechanisms. Significance: We investigate a novel function of Klotho to regulate intracellular protein trafficking via enzymatic activity. The anti-aging protein Klotho is a type 1 membrane protein produced predominantly in the distal convoluted tubule. The ectodomain of Klotho is cleaved and secreted into the urine to regulate several ion channels and transporters. Secreted Klotho (sKL) up-regulates the TRPV5 calcium channel from the cell exterior by removing sialic acids from N-glycan of the channel and inhibiting its endocytosis. Because TRPV5 and Klotho coexpress in the distal convoluted tubule, we investigated whether Klotho regulates TRPV5 action from inside the cell. Whole-cell TRPV5-mediated channel activity was recorded in HEK cells coexpressing TRPV5 and sKL or membranous Klotho (mKL). Transfection of sKL, but not mKL, produced detectable Klotho protein in cell culture media. As for sKL, mKL increased TRPV5 current density. The role of sialidase activity of mKL acting inside is supported by findings that mutations of putative sialidase activity sites in sKL and mKL abrogated the regulation of TRPV5 but that the extracellular application of a sialidase inhibitor prevented the regulation of TRPV5 by sKL only. Mechanistically, coexpression with a dominant-negative dynamin II prevented the regulation of TRPV5 by sKL but not by mKL. In contrast, blocking forward trafficking by brefeldin A prevented the effect with mKL but not with sKL. Therefore, Klotho up-regulates TRPV5 from both the inside and outside of cells. The intracellular action of Klotho is likely due to enhanced forward trafficking of channel proteins, whereas the extracellular action is due to inhibition of endocytosis. Both effects involve putative Klotho sialidase activity. These effects of Klotho may play important roles regarding calcium reabsorption in the kidney.