Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Predictive Role of CD 40 L in The Development of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms in A Murine Model : A Pilot Study

The mechanism behind the incidence and the development of infrarenal aortic aneurysm and the factors affecting the rate of aortic dilatation remain largely unknown. The need for a biomarker capable to facilitate the diagnosis and the timed repair of an aortic aneurysm could reduce overall mortality. The aim of this study is to report on the potential predictive role of CD40L in aortic diameter growth and the development of AAA. The study group of 16 Wistar rats underwent a laparotomy and an infusion of porcine pancreatic elastase of the infrarenal aorta under hydrostatic pressure. The control group (n=16) underwent a sham procedure. At an interval of seven days, the animals of both groups underwent a laparotomy and the aortic dimension was measured. Blood samples were obtained at the same intervals. No significant change of the animals’ weight was recorded. AAA was formed in all animals and aortic diameters differed significantly between the two groups. After the intervention, CD40L demonstrated a gradual increase in the study group and CD40L serum levels in this group were significantly higher compared to the control group; in parallel with the trend of aortic dilatation. CD40L could potentially act as biomarkers of the presence and development of infrarenal aortic aneurysms, but further studies with a larger number of animals are necessary.
Application of horse-derived placental peptides in cosmetics

The placenta is a tissue mass formed in the uterus. It is an indispensable organ that is responsible for the transportation of blood required for fetal growth. Horse placenta has been used in the health food and cosmetic fields in recent years. We enzymatically treated horse placenta and obtained placental peptides with molecular weights < 3,000 Da. We mainly performed the in vitro experiments using human fibroblasts. We confirmed that placental peptides primarily activate the mitochondria of human fibroblasts and promote the production of type I collagen. Therefore, we suggest the use of placental peptides as materials that contribute to the improvement of skin elasticity and reduction of wrinkles in the cosmetic field. *Correspondence to: Koji Wakame, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Hokkaido University of Science, 15-4-1,Maeda 7-jo, Teine-ku, Sapporo-shi, Hokkaido 006-0085, Japan, Tel: +81(11) 676 8682; Fax: +81 (11) 676 8666; E-mail: wakame-k@hus.ac. jp
Sprouting: A Key to Unifying Japanese Sluicing

There are two subtypes of sluicing, merger and sprouting. This paper investigates the structure of matrix sprouting in Japanese, which has not been studied in literature. The previous studies of matrix sluicing have looked at only merger-type sluicing and argue that matrix sluicing is derived differently from embedded sluicing in Japanese (Abe 2015; Hasegawa 2008). It has been argued that embedded sluicing is derived from cleft by CP-deletion, while matrix sluicing is derived by TP-deletion. However, this study shows that matrix sprouting is derived by cleft like embedded sluicing. In addition, I argue that even matrix merger should be analyzed under the cleft-based approach. Thus, I attempt to unify Japanese sluicing under the cleft-based approach. Furthermore, I argue that Japanese sprouting is derived by PFdeletion, not by LF-copying (Chung et al. 1995, 2010; Oku 1998; Saito 2007; Sakamoto 2017) based on the novel finding that the remnant wh-phrase in sluicing cannot drop its morphological case. This working paper is available in University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics: https://repository.upenn. edu/pwpl/vol26/iss1/11
Investor Heterogeneity and Trading

We examine the impact of institutional investor heterogeneity on the firm’s information environment and trading. We argue that treating institutional investors as a single group of sophisticated investors masks fundamental differences in investor ability to gather and analyze information, which play a crucial role in the firm’s information environment. We find that heterogeneity in characteristics of institutional investors related to their informedness about the firm (proxied by investor size, general, stock-specific and local expertise, investor type, and portfolio focus, as well as ex post portfolio performance) increases abnormal trading volume around corporate news, above and beyond the effects of the average level of investor information about the firm.
Numerical Sensitivity Analysis on Anatomical Landmarks with regard to the Human Knee Joint

For determining kinematical landmarks of the human knee joint, anatomical conventions and reference frame conventions are used by most of research teams. Considering the irregular shapes of the femur and the tibia, the anatomical coordinate systems can be positioned with 1-2 mm and 2-4 degree position deflections. However, most of the anatomical landmarks do not appear as a dot, rather as a small surface. For this reason, the optical positioning of anatomical landmarks can only be achieved by additional 1-2 mm position deflection. It has already been proven by other authors that the application of reference frames with different positions and orientations cause significant differences in the obtained kinematics (specific anatomical landmarks and angles) of human knee joint. The goal of this research is to determine the relationship between certain anatomical landmarks and reference frames having different positions and orientations. The investigations were carried out on cadaver knees by means of actual measurements and numerical processing.
Epidemiology of Suicide/Suicide Attempt and Its Association with Individual, Family, and Social Factors in Eastern Part of Iran: A Historical Cohort Study

Background: Suicide/suicide attempt, as a major public health problem, has been included among anti-social behaviors. We aimed to investigate the epidemiology of suicide and some associated individual, family, and social factors. Methods: A historical cohort study was conducted among all cases (748 persons) reports related to suicide/suicide attempt that register in hospital reporting system and health care center in Gonabad and Bajestan, Iran, from 2009 to 2014. The required data were extracted through a checklist. Descriptive (mean and standard deviation) and analytic statistics (t-test, Chi-square, and logistic regression) applied to analyzed data. All data were analyzed using SPSS software. Results: Of the 748 reported suicide attempters, 17 cases (2.3%) had completed suicide. The annual average incidence rate of suicide was 110.03 per 100,000 populations. The mean age of suicide attempt had significantly decreased during the time (P=0.007). Furthermore, a significant association was observed between outcome of suicide and place of residence (P=0.019), history of physical illnesses (P=0.002), and method of suicide (P=0.001). Conclusion: Due to trend of age among suicide attempters, considering intervention programs of suicide prevention for school pupils and university students especially individuals residing in rural areas, as well as individuals suffering from physical illness would be effective to reduce the rate of suicide.
Rubric Reliability and Annotation of Content and Argument in Source-Based Argument Essays

We present a unique dataset of student source-based argument essays to facilitate research on the relations between content, argumentation skills, and assessment. Two classroom writing assignments were given to college students in a STEM major, accompanied by a carefully designed rubric. The paper presents a reliability study of the rubric, showing it to be highly reliable, and initial annotation on content and argumentation annotation of the essays.
English language learning in CLIL and EFL classroom settings: a look at two primary education schools

This dissertation examines the English language learning experience of primary school learners in Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom settings. It focuses, on the one hand, on learners’ oral language production during whole class and pair/group work and, on the other hand, it also explores the amount and type of teacher corrective feedback to address language form in each instructional setting. The data include audio and video recordings of the implementation of a CLIL and an EFL teaching unit in two classes of 5th year primary education students with the same teacher teaching both subjects in two different schools. The main findings show there is not a big gap between the oral production of learners in the CLIL context and the EFL context in the two schools, but there is a subtle tendency for learners in the CLIL context to produce longer strings of language in both schools. In addition, it has been shown that this learner production is predominantly based on the pre-defined model sentences presented by the teacher as language support in the two instructional contexts in both schools. Therefore, there is little room for spontaneous learner-created L2 production in the two instructional contexts. It has also been shown that the presence of the L1 production is greater in the CLIL context than in the EFL context in the two schools but bearing in mind that the role of the L1 is rather different. As for the provision of teacher feedback, the present results also indicate that there is space to focus on form not only in the EFL context but also in the CLIL context in the two schools under investigation. Different types of teacher corrective feedback have been identified throughout the implementation of the CLIL and the EFL teaching units. Recasts have been shown to outnumber prompts in the two learning contexts though the number of prompts is greater in the EFL context than in the CLIL content. Differences across instructional settings have been examined in relation to variables like teaching approach, context familiarity and teacher profile. This investigation sheds some new light on what is actually going on in CLIL and EFL classes with evidence to be used in teacher training schemes to make the most of the two instructional contexts in order to provide a rich English language learning experience.
URINARY ANTIGEN SCREENING IN PNEUMOCOCCAL INFECTIONS IN CHILDREN

Streptococcus pneumoniae is a leading cause of meningitis, bacteremia, pneumonia and otitis media in childhood. The diagnosis of pneumococcal infections still remains problematic. Binax NOW® is a rapid immunochromatographic test (ICT) that detects S. pneumoniae C-polysaccharide antigen in the urine. We evaluated the usefulness of ICT in the diagnosis of pneumococcal infections in children in our study. Fifty children with sepsis, pneumonia, otitis or meningitis (patient group) and 50 healthy children (control group) were enrolled in the study. Urine samples and nasopharyngeal cultures were obtained from all cases. Blood, transtracheal aspirate, urine and CSF (cerebrospinal fluid) cultures were also taken from the patient group when possible. We found urinary antigen positivity in 7 cases in the control group and 10 cases in the patient group. All the children who carried S. pneumoniae in their nasopharynx (1 in the control group and 2 in the patient group for a total of 3 cases) had positive ICT. We detected S. pneumoniae in 3 patients (1 blood culture and 2 CSF cultures) and ICT was positive in all. There was no effect of antimicrobial treatment, vaccination and acute phase reactant levels on the urinary antigen detection test. We concluded that this test is not useful in the diagnosis of pneumococcal infections in children as high carrier rates cause false positivity. This test can only be used with other conventional microbiological tests as a supplementary method.
An Images Analysis Technique for Recognition of Brown Leaf Spot Disease in Cassava

An automated computer vision system to monitor epidemic development of plant pathogens is important in site-specific crop protection. The objective of this study was to develop an image analysis technique for the detection of brown leaf spot (BLS) disease caused by Cercosporidium henningsii Allesch in cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz). Color images of healthy and diseased cassava leaves were captured in fields with a resolution of 640×480 pixels and further cropped into blocks of 80×80 pixels. Several color indices including red, green, and blue chromatic coordinates (rgb), contrast indices r – g, g – b, (g – b)/r – g and 2g – r – b, and hue, saturation, and intensity (HSI) were used as color descriptors. An artificial neural network was used in classification between the healthy and BLS-infected plants. The algorithm correctly recognized 79.23% of diseased leaves and 89.92% of healthy plants. Influence of the neural network architecture on the identification accuracy was also observed.
Is There a Long Run Relationship Between Stock Prices and Monetary Variables ? Evidence from Jamaica .

This paper employed a Vector Error Correction model (VECM) to investigate the interrelationship between stock prices and monetary indicators for Jamaica. The Johansen cointegration test was used to determine the existence of a long term relationships between stock prices and monetary variables such as money supply, interest rate, inflation rate and the exchange rate. The variables were found to be co-integrated with significant relationships in line with apriori expectations. Coefficients from the co-integrating vector, normalized on the stock price, suggest that the JSE Main Index is positively influenced by the inflation rate and M3 and negatively by the exchange rate, interest rate and M2. Furthermore, the Granger-causality tests show that only M2 is a predictor of stock prices. This suggests that equity investors show greater responsiveness to M2, as changes in this variable are indicative of underlying liquidity conditions and growth in economic activity. As such, regulators have greater impact on the stock market through the money supply channel. Impulse response functions show that shocks to all the variables affect the stock price. Moreover, the short run interactions are similar to the long run relationships for all variables, except the exchange rate and the inflation rate
Characterization of Yeast Species Isolated from Local Fruits used for Bakery Industrial Application Article Information

This study focused on characterization of the Yeast species isolated from local fruits. A total of nine yeasts were characterized for its temperature tolerance, ethanol tolerance, and carbohydrate fermentation, hydrogen sulfide production and leavening ability. Results showed that the yeast species namely S. cerevisae, S. blourdeous, Z. fermentatii, C. sorboxylosa, C. apicola and I. orientalis were tolerate different ranges of temperatures up to 370c and concentration of alcohols up to 14%. Only S. cerevisae was tolerating 15% alcohol and grow well at 45oc and ferment dextrose, sucrose and fructose. The leavening ability of the identified yeast species were examined by fermenting flour dough. Fermentation test was carried out at room temperature and 30°C for 12 hours. S. cerevisae, S. blourdeous, Z. fermentati, C. sorboxylosa and commercial yeast, were able to leaven the highest specific volume of flour dough 230/210cm, 210/191cm, 189/193cm, 184/200cm/g and 180 /182cm respectively at room temperature and 30oc for 12 hours. Thus, wild yeast species namely S. cerevisae, S. blourdeous and Z. fermentati showed much superior on flour dough leavening ability compared to commercial yeast. Thus, indicates that the local fruit could be a potential source of indigenous yeast species for leavening agent.
Working Paper Series Subsidization and Privatization in a Mixed Duopoly with Managerial Delegation

This paper provides a theoretical analysis related to the issue of optimal subsidization in a mixed duopolistic model that involves homogeneous goods and composes a public firm and a private firm where the owner within each firm provides his /her managerial delegation to a manager. Similar to existing literature, this study shows that optimal subsidies attain the first-best allocation in Cournot mixed and private duopolies and in mixed duopolies wherein the public firm acts as the leader with respect to the decision of the quantity level or the weight of each firm’s output in the delegation contract. Further, this study shows that the optimal subsidy with respect to social welfare is lower in a mixed duopoly with public output leadership than in other situations, even though although the first-best production allocation is also achieved in this case. This result implies that in that case where a mixed oligopolistic industry composes managerial firms, the authority that provides unit output subsidies to firms must carefully consider to the order of firms’ moves because the excessive subsidies may leads to needless welfare loss. JEL Classification: D21, L13, L33
AN AUTOMATED METHODOLOGY FOR THE IDENTIFICATION OF IMPERVIOUS SURFACES FROM HIGH SPATIAL RESOLUTION MULTISPECTRAL IMAGERY AND LIDAR A

The accurate measurement of impervious surfaces is increasingly becoming necessary as communities seek to mitigate flood risks, improve runoff water quality, and develop community stormwater management plans. An attempt to delineate impervious surfaces for a 9,000,000 square foot study area within the City of Scottsbluff was made using four-band multispectral high-resolution imagery and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data. An ISODATA classification was performed on the multispectral imagery and classified into six land-cover categories that were aggregated into the two parent classes of impervious and pervious. Rules were then generated in a Knowledge Based Expert System (KBES) to apply the LiDAR data to the ISODATA classification with the objective of determining if LiDAR could facilitate a more accurate impervious surface delineation. Both the ISODATA classification and the KBES classification were referenced to a 200 point random sample set. The ISODATA classification yielded an overall accuracy of 91.0% with a Kappa of 82.0%, while the KBES classification yielded an overall accuracy of 94.0% with a Kappa of 87.9%. It was therefore concluded that LiDAR data has some potential for facilitating the accurate delineation of impervious surfaces, and a call for more research is made.
A BIVARIATE SPLINE SOLUTION TO THE HELMHOLTZ EQUATION WITH LARGE WAVE NUMBER

We explain how to use bivariate splines to numerically solve the Helmholtz equation with large wave number, e.g. wave number = 1000 or larger. Although there are many computational methods, e.g. hp finite element methods available, numerical solution of the Helmholtz equation with large wave number still poses a challenge. It is known that there is a so-called pollution error which complicates generation of an accurate solution from the current conventional methods. For example, for linear finite elements, asymptotic error estimates rely on the wave number k and the size h of triangulation satisfying k2h ≤ C <∞. That is, when k = 1000, the size of underlying triangulation has to be extremely small which leads to an infeasible numerical computation. In this paper, we use the ideas in [3] for using bivariate splines of arbitrary degree and arbitrary smoothness over arbitrary triangulation to provide a new computational method for the Helmholtz equation. We shall demonstrate numerically that the bivariate spline method enables us to find very accurate solution for large wave number, e.g., k = 1500. The accuracy of our numerical experiments does not appear to be affected by the pollution phenomenon. In addition, we shall establish the existence, uniqueness and stability of the weak solution to the Helmholtz equation under the assumption that k2 is not an eigenvalue of Dirichlet boundary value problem of the Poisson equation. Under this assumption, the standard requirement of strictly star-shaped domain for the well-posedness of the Helmholtz equation is no longer needed.
Capital Inflows , Credit Growth , and Financial Systems by Deniz Igan and

Exploiting a granular panel dataset that breaks down capital inflows into FDI, portfolio and other categories, and distinguishes between credit to the household sector and to the corporate sector, we investigate the association between capital inflows and credit growth. We find that non-FDI capital inflows boost credit growth and increase the likelihood of credit booms in both household and corporate sectors. For household credit growth, the composition of capital inflows appears to be more important than financial system characteristics. In contrast, for corporate credit growth, both the composition and the financial system matter. Regardless of sectors and financial systems, net other inflows are always linked to rapid credit growth. Firm-level data corroborate these findings and hint at a causal link: net other inflows are related to more rapid credit growth for firms that rely more heavily on external financing. Further explorations on how capital flows translate into more credit indicate that both demand and supply side factors play a role. JEL Classification Numbers: E51, E44, F32
Effect of Thiobencab and Penoxsulam Herbicides on Soil Microbial Population and Weed Control in Transplanted Rice

day after treatment, control of weeds and crop yield of transplanted rice. From each plot, five soil subsamples were collected randomly and thoroughly mixed to form one composite sample. Results showed that the counts of total aerobic bacteria dramatically decreased with lapse of time after treatment which decreased from 4 th days (6.01 log CFU ml -1 ), to 28 th days (5.72 log CFU ml -1 ), during 2016 season, and from 4 th days (6.39 log CFU ml -1 ), to 28 th day (5.41 log CFU ml -1 ), during 2017 seasons. Also, the higher enumeration of N2-fixing bacteria, N2-fixing cyanobacteria and sulphate reducing bacteria were recorded from 4 th to 12 th , then decreasing to 28 th days after treatment. Also, the counts of nitrifies bacteria, showed increased up to 16 th days after treatment, then decreased thereafter. Also, high significantly affected by weed control treatments. Application of penoxsulam recorded the lowest value of Echnochlo crus-galli, Echnochlo colona and total weeds dry weight and achieved the highest number of panicles and grain yield as compared to weedy check, which gave the highest value of total weeds dry weight and the lowest rice yield characters. penoxsulam was observed to be less toxic than thiobencarb against microbial enumeration, control of weeds and increase crop yield of rice plant.
Impact of illegal livestock grazing on the density and trap success of rodents in the Web Valley of the Bale Mountains National Park , Ethiopia

The present study revealed the effects of livestock grazing on the density and trap success of rodents in the Web Valley of the Bale Mountains National Park, Ethiopia. Six study grid sites were identified and marked to collect the rodent fauna. These were three from exclosure and three from control sites. Twenty-five Sherman live traps were used to capture the rodents. Semi structured interviews were also held with the local people (64 households) to assess impacts and attitude of human towards the protected area. A total of 462 individuals of rodents were captured. The density of species varied between exclosure and control sites, and between seasons. Overall population density of rodent was 101.8/ha in the study area. The trap success of rodents also varied between seasons. Livestock grazing in the area was the major problem encountered affecting the rodent population. Most respondents had negative attitude towards conservation areas. Therefore, appropriate conservation actions have to be put into practice to resolve the problems in the study area.