Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The effects of salt stress on seed germination of some maize (Zea mays L.) genotypes.

Maize (Zea mays L.) is the plant which has high seed capacity for seed germination but germination ability under salt stress is scarce. To study effect of salt stress on maize seed germination ability experiment with 2 hybrids and 2 local maize population was conducted. It was analyzed the effect of different NaCl concentrations of 50 , 100 , 200 and 400 mM NaCl, and 50 100, 200 and 400 mM CaCl2. The experimental design was random block with four replications and four treatments. Maize seeds were prepare for these purposes and after that they are located in seed germinator in temperature 22-25 °C. For each genotype were placed 25 seeds for each treatment with the double filter paper in 125 mm. The seed germination has varied depending on the treatments. The lowest germination was determined in high concentration on 400 mM for both salts (NaCl and CaCl2). At all maize genotypes high salinity of 200, 400 mM of both NaCl and CaCl2 caused decrease in seed germination. Hybrid genotypes and local maize populations treated by 400mM showed significantly (LSDp=0.01) lower germination ability.
Economic inequality and social class

This thesis is about social class and economic inequality, using the Goldthorpe class schema. It tests theories claiming that social class is increasingly irrelevant to inequality and people's life-chances with data on incomes and material living standards from the British Household Panel Survey. It covers the period over which the survey ran, i.e. 1991-2008. During this time many prominent social theories dismissed class analyses while others sought to retain the class concept but dismissed its economic foundations, seeking to ground it in culture instead. Economic inequality has not figured highly on the agenda of class analysts, at least not those working with the Goldthorpe class schema. There is a substantial body of work on mobility, voting behaviour, income poverty and material deprivation, but inequality in a broader sense has for the most part been neglected. This thesis is a step towards rectifying this situation. Thus it provides new information about within-career social mobility as well as income inequality within and between classes, on whether income mobility reduces class inequalities over time, and cast light on class inequalities in material living standards. The findings suggest that class is far from irrelevant to economic inequality. Class differences in incomes are persistent, between class inequalities contribute more to inequality overall than within-class inequalities, and while income mobility does reduce class inequalities over time it is not to the extent that supports the hypothesis that class is irrelevant to people's economic fortunes.
Evaluating Links Among Shyness, Peer Relations, and Internalizing Problems in Chinese Young Adolescents.

This study evaluates a model linking shyness, aspects of peer relations, and internalizing problems among young adolescents in the People's Republic of China. Participants were 547 young adolescents from Shanghai, China (46% boys; Mage = 10.35 years, SD = 0.77 years) who completed peer nominations of shyness, rejection, and victimization, and self-report measures of loneliness, depression, and friendship support. Analyses demonstrated that peer difficulties (rejection, victimization) mediated the associations between shyness and internalizing problems. However, moderated mediation analyses revealed a protective effect for highly supportive friendships, especially for boys. Findings highlight the importance of considering different types of peer experiences in studies of shy young adolescents and are discussed in terms of importance to theory and intervention in China and elsewhere.
Differential Contributions of Default and Dorsal Attention Networks to Remembering Thoughts and External Stimuli From Real-Life Events

Episodic memories are typically composed of perceptual information derived from the external environment and representations of internal states (e.g., one's thoughts during prior episodes). To date, however, research has mostly focused on the remembrance of external stimuli, such that little is known about how internal mentation is represented within episodic memory. In the present fMRI study, we examined the neural correlates of these 2 components of episodic memories using a novel method of cuing memories from photographs taken during real-life events. We found that, compared with corresponding semantic memory tasks, memories for internal thoughts and external elements were associated with activity in brain areas supporting episodic recollection. Most importantly, however, the 2 kinds of memories also showed differential activation in large-scale brain networks: the remembrance of external elements was associated with greater activity in the dorsal attention network, whereas memories of internal thoughts mainly recruited default network areas. These findings shed new light on the representation of internal and external aspects of prior experience within episodic memory. The default network may contribute to the reinstatement of thoughts experienced during past events, whereas the dorsal attention network may support the allocation of attention to visuospatial features within episodic memory representations.
Bendamustine plus rituximab is effective and has a favorable toxicity profile in the treatment of mantle cell and low-grade non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

PURPOSE The aim of this multicenter-study was to evaluate the progression-free survival, response rate and toxicity of the combination of bendamustine and rituximab (BR) in patients with mantle cell or low-grade lymphomas in first to third relapse or refractory to previous treatment. PATIENTS AND METHODS A total of 245 courses (median, four courses per patient) were administered to 63 patients. Bendamustine was given at a dose of 90 mg/m2 as a 30-minute infusion on days 1 and 2, combined with 375 mg/m2 rituximab on day 1, for a maximum of four cycles every 4 weeks. Histologies were 24 follicular, 16 mantle cell, 17 lymphoplasmacytoid, and six marginal zone lymphoma. RESULTS Fifty-seven of 63 patients responded to BR, corresponding to an overall response rate of 90% (95% CI, 80% to 96%) with a complete remission rate (CR) of 60% (95% CI, 47% to 72%). The median time of progression-free survival was 24 months (range, 5 to 44+ months), and the median duration of overall survival has not yet been reached. In mantle cell lymphomas, BR showed a considerable activity, achieving a response rate of 75% (95% CI, 48% to 93%) with a CR rate of 50%. Myelosuppression was the major toxicity, with 16% grade 3 and 4 leukocytopenia. Thrombocytopenia was rare, with only 3% grade 3 and 4. CONCLUSION These results demonstrate that the BR combination is a highly active regimen in the treatment of low-grade lymphomas and mantle cell lymphomas.
Schools of the Future in Hawai`i: Networked learning communities and teaching innovation

Networked learning communities have the potential to improve teacher practice more effectively than traditional professional development models by expanding the pool of ideas to draw upon and engaging participants in mutual problem solving (Little, 2005). The intent of this descriptive, quantitative study was to better understand how network factors and benefits relate to teaching innovation in a networked learning community, part of the Hawai’i Schools of the Future Initiative in Hawai’i. Forty-one teachers from 10 schools took a customized 50 item Levels of Teaching Innovation Digital Age Survey to generate ratings in three key areas, Personal Computer Use, Current Instructional Practices, and Levels of Teaching Innovation. Existing data regarding type of professional learning community and intensity of professional development was also utilized. Results were analyzed descriptively and inferentially in order to better understand the nature of participation in the networked learning community as it relates to digital age teaching practices. The researcher concluded that: • Teachers with higher levels of network participation demonstrate higher fluency with digital tools and learner-based methodologies. • Teachers who collaborated more often with higher quality collaboration and established more new professional relationships demonstrate higher fluency with digital tools. • The type of professional learning community in place at the school level does not bear a relationship to levels of teaching innovation. • The intensity of professional development offerings in place at the school level does not bear a relationship to levels of teaching innovation.
Competitive pricing with dynamic asymmetric price effects

We model the temporal pricing strategies for two firms with asymmetric costs and differing market power (i.e. big-box retailer versus smaller local merchant). A firm's demand is a function of its price, a reference price and its competitor's price. Price effects may be asymmetric, i.e. consumers respond differently if they perceive a good to be over-priced versus under-priced. We derive analytical results for optimal prices. We show through a series of numerical examples under what settings firms choose various pricing strategies as well as profit implications for firms with differing costs.
How Meat Demand Elasticities Vary with Price, Income, and Product Category

As US beef and pork prices approached record high levels in 2014, industry analysts expressed surprised at consumer response. Because the relative price swings have occurred only recently, traditional approaches to demand analysis that rely on historical data series may be less useful than is typically the case. Employing one of the largest and longest-running choice experiments, we analyze data on 110,295 choices made by 12,255 consumers observed over a year-long time period coinciding with historically high meat prices. Our findings reveal nonlinear demands for meat products, with demand being more inelastic at higher prices. Ground beef, steak, and pork chop demands are more sensitive to changes in chicken breast price than the reverse. Moreover, cross-price elasticities between disaggregate meat products shrink as prices rise. Consumers' incomes significantly affect demand inter-relationships. Higher income consumers are more likely to choose steak and chicken breasts and are less likely to choose ground beef, chicken wings, and deli ham than are lower income consumers. High-income consumers tend to be less responsive to own-price changes and more responsive to cross-price changes than lower income consumers. This analysis provides estimates of structural demand parameters that help explain current meat expenditure patterns, and the results have implications for the assumption of linearity often invoked in policy analyses.
Return, Volume, and Volatility Analysis in Indian Stock Market

This paper examines the empirical relationship between return, volume, and volatility in Indian stock market. GARCH (1, 1) and EGARCH (1, 1) are estimated for Nifty index. The empirical results indicate inefficiency and information asymmetry in the market. The persistence of variance over time partly declines if one includes trading volume as a proxy for information arrivals in the equation of conditional volatility. Causality test further supports the sequential arrival of information hypothesis, which implies that new information is not simultaneously available to all traders and it takes time to absorb, which hampers the price discovery efficiency of the market.
Clinical evaluation of Morgellons disease in a cohort of North American patients

Morgellons disease (MD) is a dermatological condition characterized by aberrant production of keratin and collagen fibers in skin. Although infection with Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease (LD), has been associated with MD, relatively few studies have hitherto provided epidemiological evidence regarding this association. A cohort of 1000 seropositive North American LD patients was evaluated for the presence of MD. Patients were diagnosed with MD based on detection of microscopic fibers in skin lesions or under unbroken skin. Demographic and clinical features of MD patients were analyzed, and laboratory testing for tickborne coinfections and other infectious agents, was performed. Subjective and objective features of MD were analyzed using statistical methods. Of 1000 seropositive LD patients, 60 (6%) were diagnosed with MD. Of these 60 patients, 75% were female and 78% presented in the late disseminated stage of MD. All 60 patients (100%) were seropositive for B. burgdorferi infection. Tickborne coinfections in these patients included Babesia spp (62%), Bartonella and Rickettsia (25% each), Ehrlichia (15%) and Anaplasma (10%). Helicobacter pylori was detected in 12% of MD patients. In all, 77% of MD patients had one or more coinfections. This study confirms recent findings that MD occurs in a limited subset of LD patients. The clinical and genetic determinants of MD in LD patients require further study.
Shame and Guilt: Relationships of Test of Self-Conscious Affect Measures With Psychological Adjustment and Gender Differences in Iran

In numerous studies conducted in Western societies, shame as measured by the Test of Self-Conscious Affect (TOSCA) has correlated with maladjustment whereas the TOSCA Guilt Scale has predicted adjustment. The present investigation sought to determine if such linkages would also appear in the Muslim cultural context of Iran. Iranian university students (N = 132) responded to Shame and Guilt Scales from the third version of the TOSCA, along with an array of personality measures. Shame correlated negatively with adjustment and positively with maladjustment. Guilt displayed an opposite pattern of relationships. As in previous Western investigations, women scored higher than men on guilt, but the expected female elevation in shame failed to appear. Shame, nevertheless, interacted with gender to predict relationships with poorer psychological functioning in women, but not in men. These data most importantly confirmed that the TOSCA Shame and Guilt Scales in Iran display implications similar to those observed in the West and that gender differences in Iran may deserve additional research attention.
Power-efficient self-cleaning hydrophilic condenser surface for portable exhaled breath condensate (EBC) metabolomic sampling

In this work, we present a hydrophilic self-cleaning condenser surface for the collection of biological and environmental aerosol samples. The condenser is installed in a battery-operated hand-held breath sampling device. The device performance is characterized by the collection and analysis of exhaled breath samples from a group of volunteers. The exhaled breath condensate is collected on a subcooled condenser surface, transferred into a storage vial, and its chemical content is analyzed using mass spectrometric methods. The engineered surface supports upon it a continuous condensation cycle, and this allows the collection of liquid samples exceeding the saturation mass/area limit of a plain hydrophilic surface. The condenser surface employs two constituent parameters: a low surface energy barrier to enhance nucleation and condensation efficiency, and a network of surface microstructures to create a self-cleaning mechanism for fluid aggregation into a reservoir. Removal of the liquid condensate from the condenser surface prevents the formation of a thick liquid layer, and thus maintains a continuous condensation cycle with a minimum decrease in heat transfer efficiency as condensation occurs on the surface. The self-cleaning condenser surfaces may have a number of applications in the collection of biological, chemical, or environmental aerosol samples. Sample phase conversion to liquid can facilitate sample manipulation and chemical analysis of matrices with low concentrations. Here, we demonstrate the use of a self-cleaning microcondenser for the collection of exhaled breath condensate with a hand-held portable device. All breath collections with the two devices were performed with the same group of volunteers under UC Davis IRB protocol 63701-3.
Electroencephalogram-based brain-computer interface for the Chinese spelling system: a survey

Electroencephalogram (EEG) based brain-computer interfaces allow users to communicate with the external environment by means of their EEG signals, without relying on the brain’s usual output pathways such as muscles. A popular application for EEGs is the EEG-based speller, which translates EEG signals into intentions to spell particular words, thus benefiting those suffering from severe disabilities, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Although the EEG-based English speller (EEGES) has been widely studied in recent years, few studies have focused on the EEG-based Chinese speller (EEGCS). The EEGCS is more difficult to develop than the EEGES, because the English alphabet contains only 26 letters. By contrast, Chinese contains more than 11 000 logographic characters. The goal of this paper is to survey the literature on EEGCS systems. First, the taxonomy of current EEGCS systems is discussed to get the gist of the paper. Then, a common framework unifying the current EEGCS and EEGES systems is proposed, in which the concept of EEG-based choice acts as a core component. In addition, a variety of current EEGCS systems are investigated and discussed to highlight the advances, current problems, and future directions for EEGCS.
Economy Wide Impact of the Trade Integration between Japan and India: A Computable General Equilibrium Analysis

Japan and India signed the much-awaited Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) on 16th February 2011. The CEPA will eliminate tariff on goods that account for 94% of their two way trade over ten years and will boost bilateral trade and investment. Indian exports which were subject to rigid standards will find it easier to enter Japanese markets. On the other hand, reduction of tariffs would help Japanese exports to exploit the growing Indian market. In this background, the study evaluates the economy wide impact of the proposed CEPA between India and Japan at 2020. The study has used a widely recognized global Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model. Results show a marginal increase in output growth for India and Japan in 2020 after tariff reduction compared to Business as Usual (BAU) scenario. A marginal export growth is expected for both the countries compared to BAU 2020. A fair amount of trade creation within these two countries is expected to occur. India would likely to increase its export to Japan by I8.25%, while for Japan it will be only 4.65% by 2020. The proposed CEPA will also improve the welfare of both the countries at 2020. An important finding of the study is that in spite of tariff liberalization in agriculture sector which is protected through stringent tariff and non-tariff barriers, Japan will witness considerable welfare gain. On the whole, it reflects that compared to Japan, India is expected to gain more during the 2010-2020 from the successful implementation of CEPA. The triple disasters (earthquake, Tsunami and radiation leaks) in Japan in March 2011 will have short-term negative impacts on the economy but is unlikely to affect the expected gains from CEPA between India and Japan. The short negative impact may be significant but in the long-run Japanese economy will expand through reconstruction efforts and return to productive activities— leading towards enhanced economic cooperation between the two countries.
Hepatitis C Virus Core Protein Interacts with Cellular Putative RNA Helicase

ABSTRACT The nucleocapsid core protein of hepatitis C virus (HCV) has been shown to trans-act on several viral or cellular promoters. To get insight into the trans-action mechanism of HCV core protein, a yeast two-hybrid cloning system was used for identification of core protein-interacting cellular protein. One such cDNA clone encoding the DEAD box family of putative RNA helicase was obtained. This cellular putative RNA helicase, designated CAP-Rf, exhibits more than 95% amino acid sequence identity to other known RNA helicases including human DBX and DBY, mouse mDEAD3, and PL10, a family of proteins generally involved in translation, splicing, development, or cell growth. In vitro binding or in vivo coimmunoprecipitation studies demonstrated the direct interaction of the full-length/matured form and C-terminally truncated variants of HCV core protein with this targeted protein. Additionally, the protein’s interaction domains were delineated at the N-terminal 40-amino-acid segment of the HCV core protein and the C-terminal tail of CAP-Rf, which encompassed its RNA-binding and ATP hydrolysis domains. Immunoblotting or indirect immunofluorescence analysis revealed that the endogenous CAP-Rf was mainly localized in the nucleus and to a lesser extent in the cytoplasm, and when fused with FLAG tag, it colocalized with the HCV core protein either in the cytoplasm or in the nucleus. Similar to other RNA helicases, this cellular RNA helicase has nucleoside triphosphatase-deoxynucleoside triphosphatase activity, but this activity is inhibited by various forms of homopolynucleotides and enhanced by the HCV core protein. Moreover, transient expression of HCV core protein in human hepatoma HuH-7 cells significantly potentiated the trans-activation effect of FLAG-tagged CAP-Rf or untagged CAP-Rf on the luciferase reporter plasmid activity. All together, our results indicate that CAP-Rf is involved in regulation of gene expression and that HCV core protein promotes thetrans-activation ability of CAP-Rf, likely via the complex formation and the modulation of the ATPase-dATPase activity of CAP-Rf. These findings provide evidence that HCV may have evolved a distinct mechanism in alteration of host cellular gene expression regulation via the interaction of its nucleocapsid core protein and cellular putative RNA helicase known to participate in all aspects of cellular processes involving RNA metabolism. This feature of core protein may impart pleiotropic effects on host cells, which may partially account for its role in HCV pathogenesis.