Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of Kefir Fermentation on Antioxidation Activities (in vitro) and Antioxidative Stress (in vivo) of Three Thai Rice Milk Varieties Prepared by Ultrasonication Technique

Aims: The effects of kefir fermentation were investigated on antioxidation activities (in vitro) and antioxidative stress (in vivo) for different Thai rice; Hawm Nil rice, Red Hawm rice and Khao Dawk Mali 105 rice. Methodology: Antioxidant activity (in vitro) was investigated using ferric reducing antioxidant power and 2, 2 ́-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl assays. In addition, antioxidative stress (in vivo) was performed using colitis rat models to study nitric oxide (NO), lipid peroxidation (LPO) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) compared with rats treated with prednisolone and cow’s milk kefir. Results: Antioxidant activity of rice kefir powder from both assays had higher antioxidant activity than cow’s milk kefir powder. NO levels of colitis rats received Hawm Nil rice kefir powder (HNKP) was reduced when compared to phosphate buffered saline (PBS) group. Moreover, colitis rats received HNKP did not differ in NO levels from colitis rats that received prednisolone and non-colitis rats. The result of LPO product malondialdehyde (MDA) indicated that colitis rats treated with HNKP had reduced TBARS compared to PBS group, and did not differ in TBARS levels from rats that received prednisolone and non-colitis rats. Surprisingly, increase in SOD activity was observed in colitis rats that received HNKP compared to PBS, with similar results of increased SOD in rats that received prednisolone and cow’s milk kefir powder. Conclusion: Hawm Nil rice kefir may offer a protective effect for antioxidative stress resulting from chemical induction; it has potential as a supplementary food with high antioxidant activity and is regarded as safe for consumer health.
Informal Insurance and Income Inequality

This paper examines the effects of income inequality in a risk sharing model with limited commitment, that is, when insurance agreements have to be self-enforcing. In this context, numerical dynamic programming is used to examine three questions. First, I consider heterogeneity in mean income, and study the welfare effects when inequality together with aggregate income increases. Second, subsistence consumption is introduced to see how it affects consumption smoothing. Finally, income is endogenized by allowing households to choose between two production technologies, to look at the importance of consumption insurance for income smoothing.
Natural Disaster and Bank Stability: Evidence from the U.S. Financial System

We document that natural disasters significantly weaken the stability of banks with business activities in affected regions. This is reflected, among others, in higher probabilities of default and foreclosure ratios. The effects are economically relevant and suggest that insurance payments and public aid programs do not sufficiently protect bank borrowers against financial difficulties. We also find that the adverse effects dissolve after some years if no further disasters occur in the meantime.
Managing Joint Production Motivation: The Role of Goal Framing and Governance Mechanisms

We contribute to the microfoundations of organizational performance by proffering the construct of joint production motivation. Under such motivational conditions individuals see themselves as part of a joint endeavor, each with his or her own roles and responsibilities; generate shared representations of actions and tasks; cognitively coordinate cooperation; and choose their own behaviors in terms of joint goals. Using goal-framing theory, we explain how motivation for joint production can be managed by cognitive/symbolic management and organizational design.
EFFECT OF FIRST-LINE ANTIRETROVIRAL TREATMENT IN HIV-POSITIVE PATIENTS ON CD4 CELL COUNT RESPONSE IN BORU MEDA HOSPITAL, AMHARA REGIONAL STATE, DEISSE, ETHIOPIA, 2013–2018

In limited resource countries, the effectiveness of first-line antiretroviral treatment in HIV-positive patients could be measured by its strong predictor, the CD4 count for the initiation of antiretroviral therapy and proper management of disease progress. Even though, in addition to HIV, there are many factors which can influence the CD4 cell count considered to be constant. Methods : A retrospective cohort study was conducted to examine the response of first-line antiretroviral treatment on CD4 count in HIV-positive patients at 0, 6, 12 and 24 months, who enrolled in the first month of 2013 and followed up to begining-2018.The covariance components model was employed to determine the CD4 count changes over time. Results : A total of 320 ART attendants were used to analyze their data. The majority 294(92.4%) of the respondents were started AZT based ART regimens, but there was no a significance difference among ART regimens for CD4 cell count. The mean baseline of CD4 cell count (166 cells/ mm 3 ) was positive associated (p<0.001) with CD4 count increment at time of follow ups and was increased to 274 cells/mm 3 significantly (p<0.001) at six months of initiation of ART. Working functional status and younger age, also contribute for CD4 count significant change. Conclusion : The change in CD4 count was high at the first 6 month than 12 and 24 month. All ART regimens without significance difference that increased mean CD4 count at the study period. Hence, it can be concluded that ART is effective enough in improving the immune system and slowing the progression of HIV infection to AIDS. Keywords : CD4 count, ART, Boru meda hospital
STAR FORMATION RATES IN MOLECULAR CLOUDS AND THE NATURE OF THE EXTRAGALACTIC SCALING RELATIONS

In this paper, we investigate scaling relations between star formation rates and molecular gas masses for both local Galactic clouds and a sample of external galaxies. We specifically consider relations between the star formation rates and measurements of dense, as well as total, molecular gas masses. We argue that there is a fundamental empirical scaling relation that directly connects the local star formation process with that operating globally within galaxies. Specifically, the total star formation rate in a molecular cloud or galaxy is linearly proportional to the mass of dense gas within the cloud or galaxy. This simple relation, first documented in previous studies, holds over a span of mass covering nearly nine orders of magnitude and indicates that the rate of star formation is directly controlled by the amount of dense molecular gas that can be assembled within a star formation complex. We further show that the star formation rates and total molecular masses, characterizing both local clouds and galaxies, are correlated over similarly large scales of mass and can be described by a family of linear star formation scaling laws, parameterized by fDG, the fraction of dense gas contained within the clouds or galaxies. That is, the underlying star formation scaling law is always linear for clouds and galaxies with the same dense gas fraction. These considerations provide a single unified framework for understanding the relation between the standard (nonlinear) extragalactic Schmidt–Kennicutt scaling law, that is typically derived from CO observations of the gas, and the linear star formation scaling law derived from HCN observations of the dense gas.
Owning versus Renting: Do Courts Matter?

We develop a legal contract enforcement theory of the decision to own or lease. The allocation of ownership rights will minimize enforcement costs when the legal system is inefficient. In particular, when legal enforcement of contracts is costly, there will be a shift from arrangements that rely on such enforcement (such as a rental agreement) toward other forms that do not (such as direct ownership). We then test this prediction and show that costly enforcement of rental contracts hampers the development of the rental housing market in a cross section of countries. We argue that this association is not the result of reverse causation from a developed rental market to more investor protective enforcement and is not driven by alternative institutional channels. The results provide supportive evidence for the importance of legal contract enforcement for market development and the optimal allocation of property rights.
Multilinear estimates and fractional integration

and the pi are additionally restricted by the requirement r > 23 (instead of r > 12 ). The condition r > 2 3 is a consequence of the methods used in their proof, and may not be necessary; these methods are intricate and at a crucial point rely on L estimates. Returning to the fractional integration case K(y) = |y|−n+α, we shall prove below — by very elementary considerations — that I maps L1 ×Lp2 → L for the full range: i.e., when 1 < pi ≤ ∞, i = 1, 2, and
Use of chemosynthetic biomass by large, mobile, benthic predators in the Gulf of Mexico

The Gulf of Mexico supports communities of chemoautotrophic and heterotrophic fauna associated with hydrocarbon seeps. The chemoautotrophic invertebrates, mostly dense epifaunal assemblages of mussels and tubeworms, derive their nutrition from symbiotic relationships with sulfide- or methane-oxidizing bacteria. The extent to which benthic predatory fauna feed on the chemoautotrophic assemblages has been an open question. Owing to differences in stable isotope values between chemosynthetic- and photosynthetic-derived biomass, isotopic characterization of predatory fauna would be useful in determining their dependence upon chemoautotrophs for food. Carbon and sulfur stable isotope analyses reveal that fishes with similar feeding strategies (rat tail [Nezumia sp.] and eels [Synaphobranchus sp., Ophicthus cruentifer and Dysomma rugosa]) have similar δ 13 C values (-32.7 and -42.5%o, respectively), reflecting chemoautotrophic carbon. Large vagrant predators/scavengers such as isopods Bathynomus giganteus, hagfish Eptatretus sp. and spider crabs Rochina crassa, have isotope values closer to oceanic ranges (δ 13 C: -20 to -18‰; δ 34 S: 18 to 20%o), although some individual Eptatretus sp. and R. crassa show a chemosynthetic component. Colonist invertebrates, such as the sea star (Sclerasterias cf. tanneri) and a predatory snail Buccinum canetae, have greatly depleted δ 13 C and δ 34 S values, indicating an almost 100% reliance on seep production. Nitrogen isotope ratios are depleted (-19%o) in some seep areas, and B. canetae and Synaphobranchus sp. reflect the 15 N depletion (-10 and -3%o respectively). On a species-specific basis, some mobile benthic predators from the background fauna obtain close to 100% of their nutrition from seep production, indicating that they are residents of the seeps. There is a high degree of movement in and out of the seep habitat by vagrant benthic predators, and although the majority derive most of their nutritional needs from photosynthetic production, the incorporation of chemosynthetic production is substantial.
Age Differences in Experience and Regulation of Affect

Bjalkebring, P. (2014). Age Differences in Experience and Regulation of Affect. Department of Psychology, University of Gothenburg, Sweden The overall aim of the thesis is to investigate differences in how younger and older adults view and control affect. Study I and Study II investigate how participants view their happiness and what factors influence their perception of happiness. In Study I we found weak negative association between age and happiness. In addition, we found a negative association between age and both positive and negative affect. Younger adults anticipated higher levels of happiness in older age compared to their current happiness, while older adults rated their past happiness as higher than their current happiness. The results indicate that people are likely to believe that happiness changes over the lifespan. In Study II an experiment was conducted to elaborate on the finding that younger adults have a more positive view of the future compared with older adults. The analyses show that a difference in wording influenced ratings of happiness differently for older and younger adults. The results suggest that older adults prefer low arousal happiness to high, which is preferred in younger ages. In Study III we investigated the occurrence of regret, as well as regret regulation in the context of everyday life decision-making. Using a webbased diary method, daily life decisions were sampled over eight days. Younger adults reported more experienced and anticipated regret than older adults. Although regret regulation strategies were used by all age groups, older adults more often used strategies to reduce the intensity of experienced as well as anticipated regret. The results suggest that lower levels of regret in older adults, can be accounted for, at least in part, by regret prevention and other regulation strategies. In Study IV we investigated the influence of charitable giving in two experiments. We found support for an age-related positivity bias in monetary donations. This is true for the motivation to make a future donation, as well as affective thinking about a previous donation. We concluded that older adults draw more positive affect from both the planning and outcome of monetary donations and hence benefit more from engaging in monetary charity than their younger counterparts. Together, these studies show that there are systematic differences in how younger and older adults perceive and regulate affect due to various uses of motivation and active emotion regulation strategies. Older adults seem to compensate for an age related decline in deliberate processes, which makes it possible to maintain well-being at old age.
On t-conformal measures and Hausdorff dimension for a family of non-uniformly hyperbolic horseshoes

Abstract In this paper we consider horseshoes with homoclinic tangencies inside the limit set. For a class of such maps, we prove the existence of a unique equilibrium state μt, associated to the (non-continuous) potential −tlog Ju. We also prove that the Hausdorff dimension of the limit set, in any open piece of unstable manifold, is the unique number t0 such that the pressure of μt0 is zero. To deal with the discontinuity of the jacobian, we introduce a countable Markov partition adapted to the dynamics, and work with the first return map defined in a rectangle of it.
How Homogeneous is the Boreal Forest? Characteristics and Variability of Old-Growth Forest on a Hylocomium—Myrtillus Site Type in the Pallas-Yllästunturi National Park, Northern Finland

An adequate understanding of an old-growth forest structure and its variability is needed for forest conservation and restoration. We studied the local scale structural variability of boreal old-growth forests on a Hylocomium—Myrtillus site type in the Pallas-Yllästunturi National Park in northern Finland. Principal component analysis (PCA) revealed that the main directions of structural and compositional variability were related to variables describing the total volume of coarse woody debris (CWD), volumes of living and dead Pinus sylvestris and volume of deciduous CWD. An average, living tree volume was 141.5 m3 ha-1, varying among the 252 sample plots from 15.3 to 442.0 m3 ha-1. The mean CWD volume was 30.0 m3 ha-1 (0–99.3 m3 ha-1). Downed and standing CWD comprised on average 64.6% and 35.4% of the total CWD volume, respectively. In general, the diameter distributions of living, standing and downed dead trees followed a negative exponential shape. Our results demonstrate high variability in structure and composition of old-growth forests on a northern boreal mesic Hylocomium—Myrtillus site type. This natural variability should be taken into account in forest restoration and management at landscape level.
Do African Countries Pay More for Imports? Yes

The debt crisis and declining living standards require careful husbanding of critically scarce foreign exchange in most African countries. But economic theory suggests that smaller countries, which import from only a few international suppliers and cannot support competitive markets and infrastructure, would be likely to pay more rather than less for imports. Analysis of import unit values for 1962-87 shows that the twenty African former French colonies paid a price premium of 20-30 percent on average over other importers for iron and steel imports from France. The losses associated with these adverse prices totaled approximately 2 billion dollars by 1987. The study also finds that similar price premia (of 20-30 percent) were paid by former Belgian, British, and Portuguese colonies in Africa for imports of these products from their former rulers. The author is an economist in the International Economics Department of the World Bank. He would like to thank Azita Amjadi for assistance with much of the empirical analysis and Paul Meo for many helpful comments and suggestions.
Transformational Leadership Plans.

Higher education institutions are aware of the need to incorporate learning-driven assessment artifacts into their doctoral programs to ensure successful leadership development. However, in attempting to integrate learning into students’ future performance, it appears that there is no general agreement upon the most effective assignments. The plethora of leadership tasks makes it difficult for scholars and instructors to guarantee that doctoral learners will use their leadership skills in their current or future workplaces. One way to incorporate current learning into professional performance is to translate course learning into personal leadership development plans. This article describes a short-term transformational leadership development plan rooted in the Scholar/Practitioner/ Leader Model, University of Phoenix, U.S.A. , educational model. The plan is a culminating learning task of a Transformational Leadership and Innovation course. Upon completion of this course, doctoral learners would be prepared to incorporate the principles of transformational leadership into their leadership plans when completing them in specific academic contexts. The plan proposed defines a strategy for maximizing leadership effectiveness and spells out learning from doctoral courses.
The Effects of Parental Support, Best Friend Support, and Parental Psychological Control on Loneliness in Latino Adolescents

Effects of Parental Support, Best Friend Support, and Parental Psychological Control on Loneliness in Latino Adolescents Denhi Chaney Department of Marriage and Family Therapy Masters of Science The current study examined the relationship of parental support, parental psychological control, and best friend support among Latino adolescents and loneliness using self-esteem as a mediating variable. The sample included 839 Hispanic (primarily Mexican) 9 – 12 graders from west Texas area school districts who were given a self-reported survey to assess parental behaviors and adolescent depression. Using structural equation modeling (SEM), findings indicated that neither maternal nor paternal support was found to be significantly related to loneliness in girls. Only maternal support was found to be significantly related to loneliness in boys. On the other hand, neither maternal nor paternal support was found to be significantly related to self-esteem in boys, while maternal support was found to be significantly related to self-esteem for girls. Results also indicate an interesting cross-gender relationship for loneliness with maternal psychological control significantly related to loneliness for boys but not for girls, and paternal psychological control significantly related to loneliness in girls but not for boys. Best-friend (peer support) was found to be significantly related to loneliness for girls but not for boys. Results indicate that maternal psychological control was significantly related to self-esteem for boys and girls. Results also indicate that paternal psychological control was significantly related to self-esteem for boys and girls. Results also indicate that family structure was found to be significant for girls and its relationship with loneliness. Results are discussed along with implications for therapists working with Latino populations.
LINEAR STABILITY OF A FREE VISCOUS FILM UNDER THE VAN-DER-WAALS FORCE ACTION

Thin liquid films have many applications in biophysics, physics, engineering, nature. If the films are subjected to some mechanical or thermal actions, they could become unstable and eventually could rupture. In the present work a free viscous film, attached on a rectangular frame surrounded by an ambient gas is considered. The film is assumed to be under the action of the capillary and intermolecular van-der-Waals forces and to be symmetric to a middle plane. The film linear stability is analyzed, when small perturbations of its shape and lateral velocity are imposed on its steady state. A non-linear system for the disturbances is obtained, which is solved numerically by the method of differential Gauss elimination. The numerical results are obtained for different values of the problem parameters: Reynolds number (Re), Weber number (We), the dimensionless Hamaker constant (A) and the wetting angle. It is found that when the van-der-Waals forces are not active (A = 0), the film steady shapes are stable for a large range of Re. However, the inclusion of van-der-Waals forces (A > 0) at some combinations of the other process parameters creates unstable film steady shapes, while at other combinations the film steady shapes remain stable. These results are confirmed by the non-linear analysis previously obtained by the authors.
To Disclose or Not to Disclose: Cheap Talk with Uncertain Biases

I study strategic information transmission when biases are uncertain. A perfectly informed expert advises a decision maker. The expert has biases with direction unknown to the decision maker. I show that all equilibria are of partitional form as identified by Crawford and Sobel (1982). It never benefits the decision maker or the expert to have the bias of the expert disclosed. The decision maker is better off when the bias distribution is more balanced or when the bias size is smaller.
Criss-crossing Cognitive Flexibility Theory based research in Portugal: an overview

This article addresses research conducted in Portugal on the application of Rand Spiro’s Cognitive Flexibility Theory, describing work developed in the last decade. The studies presented range from the theory itself and the pedagogical and technological principles it defends as applied to learning, to how teachers interpret and translate it in the development of teaching materials, or even on how it can be used for setting up communities of learning an practice. Still other studies address how CFT can be used as a cognitive tool for deconstructing knowledge and lead students to reflect upon this process in distributed learning environments.
Development of Motorized Oil Palm Fruit Rotary Digester

A motorized oil palm fruit rotary digester comprising of a feed hopper, hammers, axle, screening plate, v-belt, 2hp electric motor, digesting chamber and frame was designed and developed using standard and locally sourced materials. The performance test analysis showed that its throughput capacity is 117.93kg/hr with a performance efficiency of 64.88% at an optimum operational speed of 621.4rpm. Rate of digestion increased with the mass of the digesting palm fruit while the efficiency of the oil palm fruit digesting machine decreased with increase in mass of the digesting palm fruit in some cases.