Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Consumer Acceptance of Biotechnology: Lessons From the rbST Experience

The controversial introduction of rbST, a laboratory version of bST, a growth hormone that stimulates milk production in cows, may provide hopeful lessons for other foods produced by biotechnology. Milk sales remained steady after rbST became available to dairy farmers, even though a multitude of public opinion surveys documented widespread concern about food safety and biotechnology, and some analysts predicted a drop in milk consumption of up to 20 percent. The undiminished consumer demand for milk may indicate that consumers will also accept other animal food products from biotechnology. The rbST experience suggests that, while scientific evidence of food safety will not prevent controversy over biotech foods, controversy will not necessarily inhibit consumer demand for the food.
Characteristics of Older People Who Fall, Cannot Get Up, and Call Emergency Services For Help

To the Editor: Falls accounted for more than 1.3 million patient days in Australian hospitals in fiscal year 2009 to 2010 and caused more injury-related deaths than motor vehicle crashes in 2012. One in three people aged 65 and older living in the community fall each year, and if they are left lying on the floor for longer than 1 hour, half of those, even without injury, die within 6 months. Helping older adults off the floor in a timely manner is essential to their long-term health and longevity. In the United Kingdom, emergency (ambulance) services assisted more than 650,000 older people off the floor, costing the UK health system £75.5 million, this is estimated to grow to £118.9 million by 2030. In Australia, the proportion of older people using emergency services to help them up off the floor is currently unknown, as are the characteristics of these people. To begin to fill this gap in knowledge, a study was conducted to identify the proportion of older community care clients who had fallen over 12 months, the proportion of the fallers who called an ambulance to assist them up off the floor but needed no medical treatment, and the characteristics of this latter group.
Ocean shipping deregulation restructures the liner shipping industry

Significant pro-competitive changes were made to the Shipping Act by the Ocean Shipping Reform Act (OSRA). The most notable of these was the shift away from public tariffs and publicly available contract rates to confidential rates using individually negotiated service contracts. The number of individual member service contracts has risen dramatically since OSRA went into effect in 1999. These statistics support the argument that OSRA was able to bring more competition to the industry. However, the theory and empirical evidence of the Act’s success in improving the performance of the liner industry serving the Transatlantic and Transpacific trade routes, which are two major trunk roads subject to the jurisdiction of the US, are not so compelling. This article employs the theory of joint product to assess the impact of OSRA on the shipping market structure and competition of two major east–west arteries after 1999. This article considers head haul and backhaul container shipments as joint products. Two simple statistical equations are derived to reinterpret Smith’s condition of joint product. The empirical results confirm that the market structure of Transatlantic and Transpacific trade lanes are competitive.
Prenatal active or passive tobacco smoke exposure and the risk of preterm delivery or low birth weight.

We examined the association of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke with birth weight and gestational age in a large, prospective study. We also compared these endpoints between infants of active maternal smokers and those of non-smoking, non-ETS exposed women. Pregnant women were interviewed by telephone during the first trimester, and pregnancy outcome was determined for 99%. Among the 4,454 singleton live births that could be linked to their birth certificate, we confirmed increased risks of low birth weight and small for gestational age with heavier maternal smoking (> 10 cigarettes/day), as well as noting an increased risk for "very preterm" birth (< 35 weeks). These associations were generally stronger among infants of older (> or = 30 years) than those of younger mothers, as well as among non-whites. High environmental tobacco smoke exposure (> or = 7 hours/day in non-smokers) was moderately associated with low birth weight (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 1.8, 95% confidence limits (95% CL) = 0.82, 4.1), preterm birth (AOR 1.6, 95% CL = 0.87, 2.9), and most strongly with very preterm birth (AOR 2.4, 95% CL = 1.0, 5.3). These associations were generally greater among non-whites than whites. The data support earlier studies suggesting that prenatal environmental tobacco smoke exposure, in addition to maternal smoking, affects infant health.
Neurobeachin, a protein implicated in membrane protein traffic and autism, is required for the formation and functioning of central synapses

The development of neuronal networks in the brain requires the differentiation of functional synapses. Neurobeachin (Nbea) was identified as a putative regulator of membrane protein trafficking associated with tubulovesicular endomembranes and postsynaptic plasma membranes. Nbea is essential for evoked transmission at neuromuscular junctions, but its role in the central nervous system has not been characterized. Here, we have studied central synapses of a newly generated gene‐trap knockout (KO) mouse line at embryonic day 18, because null‐mutant mice are paralysed and die perinatally. Although the overall brain architecture was normal, we identified major abnormalities of synaptic function in mutant animals. In acute slices from the brainstem, both spontaneous excitatory and inhibitory postsynaptic currents were clearly reduced and failure rates of evoked inhibitory responses were markedly increased. In addition, the frequency of miniature excitatory and both the frequency and amplitudes of miniature inhibitory postsynaptic currents were severely diminished in KO mice, indicating a perturbation of both action potential‐dependent and ‐independent transmitter release. Moreover, Nbea appears to be important for the formation and composition of central synapses because the area density of mature asymmetric contacts in the fetal brainstem was reduced to 30% of wild‐type levels, and the expression levels of a subset of synaptic marker proteins were smaller than in littermate controls. Our data demonstrate for the first time a function of Nbea at central synapses that may be based on its presumed role in targeting membrane proteins to synaptic contacts, and are consistent with the ‘excitatory–inhibitory imbalance’ model of autism where Nbea gene rearrangements have been detected in some patients.
School Fees and Access to Primary Education: Assessing Four Decades of Policy in Sub-Saharan Africa

In this article, we examine the relationship between primary school fees and education quality and access over the past forty years in seven sub-Saharan African countries. School fees were introduced as a means for revenue-constrained governments to fund the improvement and expansion of primary education. Recently there has been a move towards their abolition. We find that the introduction of fees decreased primary school enrolment, without achieving significant quality improvements. We also discuss the impact on quality of the major increases in enrolment following the abolition of school fees and identify the government funding shortfall amplified by this policy change.
Detection prevalence of H5N1 avian influenza virus among stray cats in eastern China

Since 1997, more and more cases of the infectious H5N1 avian influenza virus (AIV) in humans have been reported all over the world but the transmission of H5N1 avian influenza virus to stray cats has been little demonstrated. The objective of this pilot investigation was to determine the prevalence of H5N1 AIV antibodies in stray cats in eastern China where is the dominant enzootic H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HP AIV). A total of 1,020 nasal swab and 1,020 serum samples were collected and tested. Evidence of HPAI H5N1 virus antibodies was present in two of the 1,020 serum samples that were positive by HI assay and NT assay, respectively. The results imply little transmission and that the Clade 2.3. 2 HPAIV H5N1 infections in poultry did not significantly affect the rural animal shelters or suburban environment in eastern China. In future studies, these results can be used as baseline seroepidemiological levels for H5N1 AIV among cats in China. J. Med. Virol. 87:1436–1440, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The equity premium in the long-run

A new approach to the study of stock returns is proposed. A simple model is developed to show that, in the long run, the average rate of return on the market portfolio equals the average growth rate of income plus an average payout rate measuring the quantity of financial resources distributed or absorbed by quoted firms. This framework is exploited to calculate expected returns using US stock market data.
Privatization and Poverty: The Distributional Impact of Utility Privatization

This article examines the effects on poverty of privatization, an impact to which donors have given little attention in their concern with efficiency and markets. The analysis of the distributional impact of privatization activities draws on empirical cases in the utilities sector in a wide range of developing economies, principally in Africa and Latin America. After a critical consideration of the World Bank position on privatization strategies, and the arguments presented by donors on the pro-poor effects of these economic reforms, the article turns to the negative distributional effects. It is argued that privatization has demonstrably damaged the poor, whether through loss of employment and income, or through exclusion from, or reduced access to, basic services. This is mainly because private firms are principally concerned with profits, prices and costs, and are highly selective as to sectors and types of consumer. Meanwhile, the weakness of governance and regulatory capacity in many developing countries lead to poor control of market abuses. The article concludes by proposing that donors should take more account of local variations in state-market relations, and be prepared to give consideration to alternative economic strategies where privatization is not working as intended. Copyright 2002 CIRIEC.
Agricultural Abandonment in the North Eastern Iberian Peninsula: The Use of Basic Landscape Metrics to Support Planning

Land abandonment is an important cause of changes in landscape patterns in the Mediterranean area. There is a need to monitor land use and land cover changes in order to provide quantitative evidence of the relationship between land abandonment and the formation of new landscape patterns. Appropriate management policies to encourage sustainable development can then be developed. This paper describes how to monitor landscape dynamics using different temporal land use and land cover data generated from field survey and airborne information. The results showed that the abandonment of agricultural land generally results in an increase of vegetation biomass. This process leads to homogenization of the landscape. In addition, abandonment promotes fragmentation of agricultural land. Based on these results, the paper discusses the implications for rural management policies concerning the abandonment of agricultural land and suggests recommendations for the development of such policies.
Nonmonetary Sanctions and Rewards in an Experimental Coordination Game

A growing body of experimental research documents that nonmonetary sanctions and rewards may be important instruments for enforcing efficient behavior. This study contributes to this literature by reporting results from a laboratory experiment. The experiment is designed to test whether nonmonetary sanctions or rewards alone can yield the optimal level of efficiency in a game with Pareto-ranked equilibria. Performance based disapproval and approval ratings, assigned by group members, are used as proxies for nonmonetary sanction and reward, respectively. Although these ratings are costless and payoff neutral, results show that expression of disapproval facilitates coordination on the most efficient equilibrium. In contrast, statement of approval induces subjects to converge towards the most inefficient outcome. We conclude that induced approval and disapproval ratings have asymmetric behavioral effects on coordination.
Effects of neighborhood resources on aggressive and delinquent behaviors among urban youths.

OBJECTIVES We sought to identify neighborhood-level resources associated with lower levels of aggression and delinquency among youths aged 9-15 years at baseline after accounting for risk factors and other types of resources. METHODS Data were derived from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, which focused on 2226 ethnically diverse, urban youths, their caregivers, and the 80 neighborhoods in which they resided at baseline. RESULTS Living in a neighborhood with a higher concentration of organizations or services serving young people and adults was associated with lower levels of aggression (odds ratio [OR]=0.9; 95% confidence interval [CI]=0.8, 1.0); living in such a neighborhood also moderated family, peer, and mentor resources. For example, the presence of well-behaved peers was associated with lower levels of aggression among youths living in neighborhoods where the concentration of organizations and services was at least 1 standard deviation above the mean; the association was less strong among youths living in neighborhoods with organizations and services 1 standard deviation below the mean or less. CONCLUSIONS Certain family, peer, and mentoring resources may confer benefits only in the presence of neighborhood resources. Increasing neighborhood resources should be considered in interventions designed to reduce urban youths' involvement in violence.
Surgical treatment of primary lung cancer in patients less than 40 years of age.

PURPOSE AND METHODS The major purpose of this study was to determine whether the survival rate in young lung cancer patients after surgical treatment differs from that in older patients. An analysis was performed for all patients with bronchogenic carcinoma who underwent surgery at Mie University Hospital from 1965 to 1990. RESULTS Of 803 patients, 24 (2.99%) were 33 to 39 years old. At the time of surgery, the disease was diagnosed as stage I in seven patients (29%), stage II in four (17%), stage IIIa in seven (29%), stage IIIb in two (8%), and stage IV in four (17%), while 46.3% of the patients older than 40 years of age had either stage IIIa, IIIb, or IV disease. All of the 24 patients less than 40 years of age underwent thoracotomy: curative resection in 14 cases, palliative resection in sex, and probe-thoracotomy in four. The 5-year survival rate for all stages of disease was 31.4% in these 24 patients, and 41.9% in 603 patients greater than 40 years of age. The 5-year survival rate for stage I disease was 35.7% in the seven younger patients and 78.0% in the 207 older patients; for stage II, it was 25.5% in the four younger patients and 40.6% in the 98 older patients; for stage III, it was 33.3% in the nine younger patients and 15.6% in the 250 older patients; and for stage IV, it was 25% in the four younger patients and 6.6% in the 48 older patients. There were no significant differences in survival rate between the two age groups for all patients or for those with each stage of disease. CONCLUSION Although younger patients tended to have more advanced disease, long-term survival in these patients did not differ from that of older patients.
Incentives and Social Norms: A Motivation-Based Economic Analysis of Social Norms

Abstract It is now commonplace to regard social norms as a subject of growing interest in the economic literature (e.g. game theoretical approaches based on ‘other-regarding’ individual preferences, the analysis of the impact of rewards or punishment on individuals’ behaviour through experimental economics as well as field experiments, the revival of the institutionalist tradition spurred on by the influential work of Douglas North and followed by many others and the growing influence of neuroeconomics). In this paper, we focus on the relationship between incentives and social norms and survey the literature that could constitute the foundations of a motivation-based economic analysis of social norms. Our main findings are that (1) the interaction between incentives and social norms is far from obvious since taking social norms into account involves the introduction of supplementary motives, in addition to self-interest, into the economic analytical framework; (2) the analysis of the interaction between incentives and social norms resists an approach exclusively in terms of crowding-in and -out effects because it is sensitive to whether it concerns behaviours driven by honour or by social stigma; (3) as a result, it is difficult to precisely evaluate the policy implication of the interactions between incentives and social norms.
Encouraging participation in public discourse through online writing in ESL instruction

In recent years, writing instructors have started to adopt pedagogies that integrate classroom writing with happenings outside the classroom (see Weisser, 2001; Flower, 2008; Mathieu, 2005). The goal of writing instruction is no longer limited to competence in terms of language, style and techniques, but is expanded to encompass civic literacy. This orientation of writing especially at university level intertwines with the aim of higher education to produce individuals who are empowered to contribute towards a better world through participation in public discourse. In a study conducted at Universiti Putra Malaysia, 1,400 students were required to write publicly in an online forum on issues that affect the lives of the students and the community in which they belong. At the end of the course, the students completed a survey aimed at identifying the extent to which the writing course that adopted a public orientation was effective in socialising students towards becoming independent participants of online discussion. Specifically, the study sought to uncover the students‘ perceptions on whether they had improved in their writing skills, their confidence to write in English in the public sphere, the effect of audience on their writing, the value of participation in online public discussions, their intention to participate in the future, and the reasons for future participation or non-participation. This paper presents the results of the study and discusses the contribution of a public orientation in ESL writing instruction in fostering ability and motivation to participate in public discourse among university students.
An intricate relationship between pain and depression: clinical correlates, coactivation factors and therapeutic targets

Introduction: An apparent clinical relationship between pain and depression has long been recognized, which makes an enormous impact on the individual health care. At present, the practical implication of such overlapping symptomatology between pain and depression is not clear, but the prevalence estimates for depression are substantially inflated among patients with chronic pain and vice versa. This interaction has been labeled as the depression–pain syndrome or depression–pain dyad. Areas covered: This article discusses the neurobiological substrates and neuroanatomical pathways involved in pain–depression dyad along with newer therapeutic targets. Expert opinion: Several key themes emerged from our review of the relationship between depression and pain. First, the diagnosis of depression in pain or vice versa is particularly challenging, and the development of better diagnostic framework that involves both pain and depression is particularly required. Secondly, the entwined relationship between pain and depression supports the possibility of common coactivating factors that results in their neurophysiological overlap. A broad understanding of the role played by the central nervous system (CNS) in the processing of pain and depression may eventually lead to the introduction of triple reuptake inhibitors, agomelatine, vilazodone and ketamine with novel mechanism of action, hence appear to be of promising potential for pain with depression.
Distance-based Self-Attention Network for Natural Language Inference

Attention mechanism has been used as an ancillary means to help RNN or CNN. However, the Transformer (Vaswani et al., 2017) recently recorded the state-of-the-art performance in machine translation with a dramatic reduction in training time by solely using attention. Motivated by the Transformer, Directional Self Attention Network (Shen et al., 2017), a fully attention-based sentence encoder, was proposed. It showed good performance with various data by using forward and backward directional information in a sentence. But in their study, not considered at all was the distance between words, an important feature when learning the local dependency to help understand the context of input text. We propose Distance-based Self-Attention Network, which considers the word distance by using a simple distance mask in order to model the local dependency without losing the ability of modeling global dependency which attention has inherent. Our model shows good performance with NLI data, and it records the new state-of-the-art result with SNLI data. Additionally, we show that our model has a strength in long sentences or documents.
The Sinorhizobium meliloti stringent response affects multiple aspects of symbiosis

Sinorhizobium meliloti and host legumes enter into a nitrogen‐fixing, symbiotic relationship triggered by an exchange of signals between bacteria and plant. S. meliloti produces Nod factor, which elicits the formation of nodules on plant roots, and succinoglycan, an exopolysaccharide that allows for bacterial invasion and colonization of the host. The biosynthesis of these molecules is well defined, but the specific regu‐lation of these compounds is not completely understood. Bacteria control complex regulatory networks by the production of ppGpp, the effector molecule of the stringent response, which induces physiological change in response to adverse growth conditions and can also control bacterial development and virulence. Through detailed analysis of an S. meliloti mutant incapable of producing ppGpp, we show that the stringent response is required for nodule formation and regulates the production of succinoglycan. Although it remains unknown whether these phenotypes are connected, we have isolated suppressor strains that restore both defects and potentially identify key downstream regulatory genes. These results indicate that the S. meliloti stringent response has roles in both succinoglycan production and nodule formation and, more importantly, that control of bacterial physiology in response to the plant and surrounding environment is critical to the establishment of a successful symbiosis.