Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessing a farm's sustainability: insights from resilience thinking

Research on sustainability in agriculture often focuses on reducing the environmental impacts of production systems. However, environmentally friendly production methods may not be sufficient to ensure the long-term economic and social sustainability of a farm. Taking a systems approach to sustainable farming, we turn to resilience thinking with its focus on the interdependence of social and ecological systems. We apply this approach to farming by conceptualizing a farm as being part of a set of systems spanning several spatial scales and including agro-ecological, economic and political-social domains. These subsystems interact and are subjected to their own complex dynamics. Within such a complex adaptive system, farm sustainability can only be achieved through adaptability and change. To be ready for the inevitable periods of turbulent change, a farmer needs to retain diversity and redundancy to ensure adaptability. Resilience is thus more likely to emerge when farmers hone the capacity to transform the farm, when farm production is attuned to the local ecological carrying capacity, and when learning and innovation are targeted outcomes. This article shows how resilience theory applied to farming may provide a more comprehensive route to achieving sustainability and offers rules of thumb as guides to building farm resilience.
Comparing Implicit and Explicit Water Prices During the Early Years of Water Trading in Australia

Abstract This paper examines aspects of changes to explicit and implicit water prices during the early years of water trading along the River Murray. Focusing on the mid to late 1990s, it traces price changes that occurred during the transition from an ‘immature’ market, where the supply of unused water influenced sales, to an early maturing stage where sales of water from inefficient to more efficient users begins to increase. Importantly, the time period used precedes the date at which land and water rights were formally separated in title and therefore covers a period where land was transacted with the value of the water embedded in the price. Hedonic functions are used to analyse the transactions of irrigated farmland to identify the implicit price of water when sold together with irrigated farmland and compare these to the explicit price paid for water entitlements in the water market. This comparison is conducted separately for three states. There is tentative evidence to suggest that: 1) prices in the two markets tended to converge; 2) the convergence process varies between states depending on how long the entitlement market has been in operation and the type of major water use; and 3) the more capital intensive the production and the more it is based on permanent crops, the more the implicit price is linked to investments in water dependent improvements.
Identification of a Reactivating Factor for Adenosylcobalamin-Dependent Ethanolamine Ammonia Lyase

ABSTRACT The holoenzyme of adenosylcobalamin-dependent ethanolamine ammonia lyase undergoes suicidal inactivation during catalysis as well as inactivation in the absence of substrate. The inactivation involves the irreversible cleavage of the Co-C bond of the coenzyme. We found that the inactivated holoenzyme undergoes rapid and continuous reactivation in the presence of ATP, Mg2+, and free adenosylcobalamin in permeabilized cells (in situ), homogenate, and cell extracts of Escherichia coli. The reactivation was observed in the permeabilized E. coli cells carrying a plasmid containing the E. coli eut operon as well. From coexpression experiments, it was demonstrated that the eutA gene, adjacent to the 5′ end of ethanolamine ammonia lyase genes (eutBC), is essential for reactivation. It encodes a polypeptide consisting of 467 amino acid residues with predicted molecular weight of 49,599. No evidence was obtained that shows the presence of the auxiliary protein(s) potentiating the reactivation or associating with EutA. It was demonstrated with purified recombinant EutA that both the suicidally inactivated and O2-inactivated holoethanolamine ammonia lyase underwent rapid reactivation in vitro by EutA in the presence of adenosylcobalamin, ATP, and Mg2+. The inactive enzyme-cyanocobalamin complex was also activated in situ and in vitro by EutA under the same conditions. Thus, it was concluded that EutA is the only component of the reactivating factor for ethanolamine ammonia lyase and that reactivation and activation occur through the exchange of modified coenzyme for free intact adenosylcobalamin.
Glycerol monolaurate inhibits the production of beta-lactamase, toxic shock toxin-1, and other staphylococcal exoproteins by interfering with signal transduction

Glycerol monolaurate (GML) is a naturally occurring surfactant that is used widely as an emulsifier in the food and cosmetics industries and is generally regarded as lacking in important biological activities. The recent observation that it inhibits the production of staphylococcal toxic shock toxin-1 (P. M. Schlievert, J. R. Deringer, M. H. Kim, S. J. Projan, and R. P. Novick, Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 36:626-631, 1992) is therefore rather surprising and raises the interesting question of how such a compound might interact with cells. In this report, we show that GML inhibits the synthesis of most staphylococcal toxins and other exoproteins and that it does so at the level of transcription. We find that GML blocks the induction but not the constitutive synthesis of beta-lactamase, suggesting that it acts by interfering with signal transduction.
Primary and Secondary Cutaneous Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphomas: A Multiparameter Analysis of 25 Cases Including Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization for t(14;18) Translocation

Although primary cutaneous diffuse large B-cell lymphomas (DLBCLs) except for those of the leg are grouped together with primary cutaneous follicle center cell lymphoma in the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer classification of primary cutaneous lymphomas, they typically lack the usual phenotypic profile of follicular lymphoma. Whether they are truly of follicular center cell origin, have a molecular pathogenesis similar to nodal follicular lymphoma, or have any biologic features that distinguish them from secondary DLBCL involving skin remains uncertain. To address these issues, a retrospective multiparameter study of 25 patients including clinical, histologic, immunophenotypic, and cytogenetic analyses was performed. A classic CD10+, bcl-6+ follicular center cell profile was found in 10 (40%) cutaneous DLBCL (2 of 11 primary, 5 of 8 secondary, 3 of 6 unclassified) with bcl-2 expression seen only in the nonprimary cases. Of the remaining cases, 14 cases (56%) were CD10−, bcl-6+, bcl-2± (9 primary) and one case (4%) was CD10−, bcl-6−, bcl-2+ (0 primary). Fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis showed a t(14;18) in 0 of 9 primary and 3 of 5 secondary cases. Primary cases were frequently found in the head/neck region, whereas secondary cases were more common on the trunk and extremities. Patients with primary disease were all alive, usually having received only local therapy, at a median follow-up of 19 months. Most secondary cases were treated with chemotherapy with only one untreated patient dead of disease at a median follow-up of 5 months. Primary cutaneous DLBCLs therefore appear to be distinctive as they have fewer features of follicular lymphoma than do secondary cases. Nevertheless, some appear to be of follicular center cell origin, even though they probably have a different molecular pathogenesis than most nodal follicular lymphomas.
Pathologic correlates of bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome in pulmonary retransplant recipients.

RATIONALE The main hindrance to long-term success of lung transplantation is bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome (BOS), generally thought to be a manifestation of chronic allograft rejection. BOS is associated histologically with epithelial injury, bronchocentric mononuclear inflammation, and fibrosis of small airways known as bronchiolitis obliterans (BO). Few studies have directly compared clinical, radiographic, and histologic findings of BOS and BO, particularly in the era of improved immunosuppression and infection prophylaxis. Patients undergoing pulmonary retransplantation for BOS provide a unique opportunity to investigate these relationships. METHODS All patients who underwent pulmonary retransplantation for BOS from 1992 to 2004 at Duke University Medical Center were reviewed. Pathology findings in explanted lung allografts were compared with clinical, radiographic, and transbronchial biopsy data. RESULTS Over the 12-year study period, 12 patients underwent pulmonary retransplantation for BOS. The median time to BOS was 517 days (intraquartile range, 396 to 819.8 days). BOS scores prior to retransplantation were 2 in 2 patients and 3 in 10 patients. We developed a semiquantitative scoring system for epithelial, inflammatory, and fibrotic changes in affected airways to permit better comparison between BO and BOS. Somewhat surprisingly, only 50% (6 of 12 patients) had severe fibrotic changes, although all had some degree of epithelial injury, fibrosis, or inflammation centered around the bronchi and bronchioles. Furthermore, pathology findings other than BO were present in most explanted allografts and included cholesterol clefts (n = 4), focal invasive aspergillosis (n = 1), interstitial fibrosis (n = 2), and chronic vascular rejection (n = 1). CONCLUSIONS In this series of patients with advanced BOS undergoing retransplantation, at least some degree of BO was present in all explanted allografts. However, the degree of epithelial changes, fibrosis, and inflammation present among affected bronchi varied considerably. Furthermore, a wide range of pathologic processes of potential clinical significance were evident in half of the patients. We conclude that significant histologic heterogeneity exists among patients undergoing retransplantation for BOS, potentially contributing to the variability of patient responses to treatment.
Frequency modulation sound parameter identification using novel hybrid evolutionary algorithms

The frequency modulation sound parameter identification is a complex multimodal optimization problem. In this paper, we proposed four evolutionary hybrid algorithms to solve this problem. First we combine genetic algorithm (GA) and queen-bee algorithm (QB) with a random optimization method (RO) and generate memetic and QB-memetic hybrid algorithms, respectively; then modified Nelder-Mead simplex algorithm (MNM) combine with particle swarm optimization (PSO) and differential evolution (DE) algorithms and generate MNM-PSO and MNM-DE hybrid algorithms, respectively. The proposed algorithms are compared in terms of three measures: success rate, average values of the cost function in all successful runs, and the minimum cost in 20 runs. The obtained results demostrate the proposed hybrid algorithms have the better performance than their non-hybrid competitors in the most times. Also The PSO has the best minimum and average value of the cost function and the MNM-PSO has the best success rate.
Evaluation of five extraction protocols for quantification of endotoxin in metalworking fluid aerosol.

OBJECTIVES Occupational exposures to endotoxin-contaminated, water-based metalworking fluids (MWFs) are thought to contribute to cases of respiratory illness. Before occupational exposure limits for endotoxin can be proposed, accuracy and reproducibility of laboratory measurements must be established. The method most commonly used to quantify endotoxin is the Limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL) assay and this is the basis for the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) method E2144-01. This study was conducted to generate multiple samples with similar mass and endotoxin loading in order to compare four alternative extraction methods with the ASTM method. METHODS Using an exposure chamber system that provides a uniform distribution of MWF mist, aerosols with three concentrations of endotoxins (4.5, 350 and 1141 EU/m(3)) were collected simultaneously on multiple filter samples. The filters were examined for endotoxin concentration using five different extraction protocols: extraction with 1 h shaking at 25 degrees C in 30 ml pyrogen-free water (PFW) (protocol 1) or in PFW with 0.05% Tween-20 (protocol 2); or shaking at 68 degrees C in 30 ml PFW (protocol 3) or PFW with Tween-20 (protocol 4); or extraction into 20 ml PFW with sonication at 25 degrees C and pH adjustment to 7.5 (ASTM protocol). RESULTS The uniformity of the aerosol mass yielded coefficients of variation of 12.7, 7.7 and 1.4% for the low, medium and high exposure groups, respectively. The variance in the endotoxin extraction protocols was highest for the ASTM method for the low, medium and high concentration trials. Low, medium and high endotoxin groups were statistically different (P < 0.001), but there were no statistical differences between extraction protocols within these exposure levels. CONCLUSIONS ASTM method E2144-01 yielded comparable estimations of MWF endotoxin aerosol concentrations but with higher variability than the four other extraction methods. This study shows that extraction into PFW at 25 degrees C with or without Tween-20 was an improvement over the ASTM method in that the estimation was more precise and the method is simpler.
Comparison of Simplexa HSV 1 & 2 PCR with Culture, Immunofluorescence, and Laboratory-Developed TaqMan PCR for Detection of Herpes Simplex Virus in Swab Specimens

ABSTRACT The Simplexa HSV 1 & 2 direct PCR assay was compared with conventional cell culture, cytospin-enhanced direct fluorescent antibody (DFA), and a laboratory-developed real-time TaqMan PCR (LDT HSV PCR) using extracted nucleic acid for the detection of herpes simplex virus (HSV) in dermal, genital, mouth, ocular, and other swab samples. One hundred seventy-one swabs were tested prospectively, and 58 were positive for HSV (34 HSV-1 and 24 HSV-2). Cytospin-DFA detected 50 (86.2%), conventional cell culture 51 (87.9%), Simplexa direct 55 (94.8%), and LDT HSV PCR 57 (98.3%) of 58 true positives. Simplexa direct detected more positives than DFA and culture, but the differences were not significant (P = 0.0736 and P = 0.3711, respectively, by the McNemar test). Samples that were positive by all methods (n = 48) were strong positives (LDT cycle threshold [CT ] value, 14.4 to 26.1). One strongly positive sample was falsely negative by LDT HSV PCR due to a failure of TaqMan probe binding. Three samples falsely negative by Simplexa direct had high CT values by LDT HSV PCR (LDT CT , 35.8 to 38.2). Omission of the DNA extraction step by Simplexa direct led to a drop in sensitivity compared to the sensitivity of LDT HSV PCR using extracted samples (94.8% versus 98.3%, respectively), but the difference was not significant (P = 0.6171). Simplexa HSV 1 & 2 direct PCR was the most expensive but required the least training of the assays used, had the lowest hands-on time and fastest assay time (75 min, versus 3 h by LDT HSV PCR), and provided the HSV type.
National culture and cultural orientations of owners affecting the innovation–growth relationship in five countries

This study tests the cross-cultural validity of the relationship between innovation and growth in a sample of 857 business owners from five different countries: China, Germany, the Netherlands, Peru and Russia. We found that innovation is effective in each country, suggesting universal relationships. In addition, cultural variables moderated the innovation–growth relationship. Finally, our cross-level operator analysis revealed that both cultural orientations of owners and national culture explain variance in innovation–growth relationships. Thus, we found interactions across difference levels of culture, which have theoretical and practical implications for cross-cultural entrepreneurship research.
The Pricing of Equity Swaps and Swaptions

This article adds to the literature on equity swaps by refining the valuation formulas derived elsewhere and by presenting new formulas for the cases of a variable notional principal, two-sided equity payments, cross-currency equity swaps, capped equity swaps, and barrier equity swaps. Thefrdmework demonstrates the dflerence in importance between current equity values and interest rates on swap pricing. It shows how the current equity price relative to the equity price on the previous reset date and the current shape and level of the term structure relative to the shape and level on the swap initiation date are important. The article also examines the pricing of equity swaptions, demonstrating that, perhaps somewhat surprisingly, an equity swaption bears no relationship to an equity option but is infdct identical to an option on a bond.
Internet Use Among Turkish Adolescents

The aim of this study was to investigate Internet use habits and problematic Internet use (PIU) in Turkish adolescents. Participants were 3,975 undergraduate students, 7.6% of whom used the Internet for more than 12 hours weekly. The Online Cognition Scale (OCS) was used. The most common purpose for using the Internet was playing games, followed by general information search. Female users mostly preferred searching for general information; male users preferred playing games (p < 0.001, gamma = 995.205). The most preferred type of game was violent games. While preference for strategy and fantasy role-play (FRP) games increased with age, preference for other games decreased (p < 0.0001, gamma = 283.767). Participants who used the Internet mostly for general information searches and school-related searches had lower OCS scores (p < 0.0001). The highest OCS scores were related to violent games, followed by FRP, strategy, and sports and motor racing games. Computers and the Internet are useful, important inventions, but like other inventions, if used improperly, they may be harmful. Risk of harm raises concerns about who should use the Internet and computers, and where, when, and why the Internet and computers should be used.
Social protection, redistribution and economic growth

Social protection has conventionally been associated with redistribution and equity. This paper examines the effects of different types of social protection on economic growth. It looks at the possible effects on human capital formation, on physical investment and innovation, on the local economy and on the macroeconomy, discusses these effects in theory and reviews empirical evidence of such effects. It considers the widely varying impacts that different types of social protection can have on the distribution of incomes and on economic growth. The paper concludes that, in analysing, assessing and planning social protection, it is crucially important to consider the potential drawbacks – and the benefits.
Design of SIW Cavity-Backed Circular-Polarized Antennas Using Two Different Feeding Transitions

Two circular-polarized circular patch antennas which have novel feeding structures such as a substrate integrated waveguide (SIW), a cavity-backed resonator and two different feeding transitions, are proposed and experimentally investigated in terms of electrical performances, including reflection coefficients, optimized parameter values, circular polarized antenna gain, axial ratios and radiation patterns. By inserting asymmetrical inductive via arrays into the interface region between the circular patch and SIW feeding structure, it is found that an enhancement of input impedance bandwidth has been achieved. In addition, in order to check the effects of feeding transition types on the electrical performances of the main radiator, two different feeding transitions, namely microstrip-to-SIW and coax-to-SIW, have been studied by considering reflection coefficients, gain, axial ratios and radiation patterns. As a result, it is experimentally proved that a broadband impedance bandwidth of 17.32% and 14.42% under the criteria of less than VSWR 2:1 and 1.5:1, respectively, have been obtained and an RHCP axial ratio of 2.34% with a maximum gain of 7.79 dBic has been accomplished by using the proposed antenna with coax-to-SIW transition operating at the X-band of 10 GHz center frequency.
The survival of patients with inoperable lung cancer: a large-scale randomized study of radiation therapy versus placebo.

The death toll from lung cancer, particularly for the American male in the prime of life, is beginning to approach the dimensions of a national calamity. This year we may expect 55,000 new cases and 50,000 deaths, of which 42,000 will be in males and 8,000 in females (1). Lung cancer is already responsible for 1 out of 4 deaths from cancer in men. It is imperative, therefore, that a dependable assessment be made of the patient's outlook for survival according to the stage of the disease and the therapeutic modality employed. Guide lines for such an assessment may be drawn from retrospective long-range survival studies in a single institution or center. More dependable answers can be derived from planned, prospective large-scale studies involving many patients, strict randomization with concurrent controls, and strong biostatistical support. In the hospital system of the Veterans Administration (VA), which supports 170,000 beds, nearly all the patients are males, and a large percentage are cigarette smoker.
Effects of long-distance running on serum opsonic activity measured by chemiluminescence.

Exhaustive exercise such as long-distance running has been shown to increase susceptibility to infection. In order to investigate whether serum opsonic activity plays a role in such conditions, we utilized luminol-dependent and lucigenin-dependent chemiluminescence (LmCL and LgCL). We took serum samples from 24 male marathon runners before and after running 30 km. Neutrophils were isolated from the peripheral blood of healthy volunteers. Serum opsonic activity was examined by measuring neutrophil ROS stimulated with zymosan particles opsonized by the serum samples. Immunoglobulin and complement levels in the serum were also measured. After a 30 km run, the maximum light emission was increased and the time to reach the maximum light emission was shortened significantly (p < 0.05) in LmCL. However, there were no significant changes in the immunoglobulin and complement levels. The increase of ROS production may suggest that serum opsonic activity is accelerated after running 30 km. Thus, serum opsonic activity might not play a significant role in the susceptibility to infection after long-distance running.
Making the most of corporate social responsibility reporting: disclosure structure and its impact on performance

Purpose – Examining a three‐year disclosure experience of a sample of Fortune 100 global companies, the paper aims to propose and test a model that relates the structure of CSR disclosure to corporate social performance. Based on the results obtained, it proposes to draw implications for emerging economies.Design/methodology/approach – Combining content analysis of CSR reports and corporate social performance data, the paper built a longitudinal dataset starting from the population of worldwide companies included in the AccountAbility Rating between 2004 and 2007. Longitudinal regression analysis is performed on a final sample size of 114 firm‐year observations involving 38 firms over a three‐year period.Findings – The paper finds evidence that the level of disclosure does not improve firm ability to manage stakeholders. However, a finer‐grained analysis of the structure of disclosure shows that better social performers are those who increased the breadth of their disclosure to stakeholders and uniformly .