Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A community based cross-sectional study: increasing prevalence of type 2 diabetes among rural adult population of Karnataka, India.

A community based cross-sectional study in the age group 25 years and above conducted at the field area of primary health centre Chakenahalli, Hassan district, Karnataka, India. The population was similar in characteristics regarding occupation, socio-economic status and food habits. Total of 626 subjects were included by multi-stage sampling. Information collected by the interviewers through face to face interview, after informed consent. The individuals were assessed on anthropometric parameters and screening was done by Random Blood Glucose (RBG) with a standardized technique; diagnosis of type 2 diabetes done by WHO criteria. Prevalence of diabetes was found in 11.3% males and 15% females, altogether the total prevalence was 13.09% with 8.79% self reported cases of diabetes . Hypertension was associated with 25.6% diabetic subjects. It was also observed that 28.1% of study population had BMI ≥ 25.
The Influence of Superstars on Organizational Identification of External Stakeholders: Empirical Findings from Professional Soccer

This paper examines the effect of superstars on external stakeholdersâ€™ organizational identification through the lens of sport. Drawing on social identity theory and the concept of organizational identification, as well as on role model theories and superstar economics, we develop several hypotheses regarding the influence of soccer stars on their fansâ€™ degree of team identification. Using a proprietary dataset including archival data on professional German soccer players and clubs as well as survey data of more than 1,400 soccer fans, we find evidence for a positive effect of superstar characteristics and role model perception. We further find that players who measure up to the definition of a superstar are more important to fans of established teams than to fans of unsuccessful teams. The playerâ€™s club tenure, however, seems to have no influence on fansâ€™ team identification. We argue that the effect of soccer stars on their fans is comparable to that of CEOs on their organizationsâ€™ external stakeholders and consequently apply our results to the business domain. Our results contribute to organizational identification research by extending the list of determinants related to individual persons.
T H E RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INTERFERON A N D VIRUS VIRULENCE I N I N F L U E N Z A VIRUS INFEC-

Enders (1962) and De Maeyer and Enders (1965) observed that an attenuated strain of measles virus induced larger amounts of interferon than did a virulent strain, but considered that the poorer growth of the attenuated strain was probably not due to the increased production of interferon. Ruiz-Gomez and Isaacs (1963a) studied a number of different viruses and reported that the more virulent ones induced the least amounts of interferon. Similar results were obtained for strains of Semliki Forest, measles and Japanese encephalitis viruses (Finter, 1964; Mirchamsy and Rapp, 1969; Rokutanda, 1969). Vilikk (1964), however, found that the amount of interferon produced in mice infected with Sindbis virus was directly related to virus multiplication and he concluded that interferon formation was more probably a secondary response to, rather than a determining factor in, virus replication. Experiments with influenza virus (Link, BlagkoviC and Raus, 1965), Mengo virus (Campbell and Colter, 1967), Sindbis virus (Postic et al., 1969) and Newcastle disease virus (Lomniczi, 1970) have also shown that virulence is not necessarily related to poor induction of interferon. The results obtained by different workers who have attempted to relate virulence to the sensitivity of the viruses to inhibition by interferon have also been contradictory. RuizGomez and Isaacs (1963b), in studies of arboviruses, myxoviruses and poxviruses, found that, with some exceptions, sensitivity to interferon was inversely related to virulence. Similar results have been reported for strains of foot-and-mouth disease virus (Sellers, 1963) and Semliki Forest virus (Finter, 1964). On the other hand, Campbell and Colter found that three variants of Mengo virus which possessed different degrees of virulence for mice had the same sensitivity to interferon; Rokutanda had similar findings with strains of Japanese encephalitis virus. The present study compares the virulence of influenza viruses for mice with the amount of interferon induced by them in the lungs of infected mice and with their in-vitro sensitivity to inhibition by interferon. The findings do not agree with the theory that virus virulence is determined by the properties of poor induction of interferon and low sensitivity to the inhibitory action of interferon, but indicate rather that the amount of interferon induced is determined by the degree of virus replication.
INFLATION AND GROWTH: A NON-MONOTONIC RELATIONSHIP IN AN INNOVATION-DRIVEN ECONOMY

This paper investigates the effects of monetary policy on long-run economic growth via different cash-in-advance (CIA) constraints on R&D in a Schumpeterian growth model with vertical and horizontal innovations. The relationship between inflation and growth is contingent on the relative extents of CIA constraints and diminishing returns to two types of innovation. This model can generate a mixed (monotonic or non-monotonic) relationship between inflation and growth, given that the relative strength of monetary effects on growth between different CIA constraints and that of R&D-labor-reallocation effects between different diminishing returns vary with the nominal interest rate. In the empirically relevant case where horizontal R&D is subject to larger diminishing returns than vertical R&D, inflation and growth can exhibit an inverted-U relationship when the CIA constraint on horizontal R&D is sufficiently larger than that on vertical R&D. Finally, we calibrate the model to the US economy and find that the growth-maximizing rate of inflation is around 2.4%, which is consistent with the recent empirical estimates.
The effect of salinity on morphological and molecular characters and physiological responses of Nostoc sp. ISC 101

Taking into account the high potential of cyanobacteria to tolerate salinity stress, researches have evaluated the morphological and physiological behavior of these microorganisms in recent years. This study is conducted to investigate the impact of different concentrations of NaCl on the morphological and physiological traits of Nostoc sp. ISC 101. Biometrical and morphological observations are carried out by light and scanning electron microscopy. Results indicated that vegetative cells and heterocysts were wider in control treatment in comparison with samples under different amounts of salinity. Akinete formation began in 3% NaCl and reached to highest level in 5%. The relative degeneration of structure of the cells in 5% salt was demonstrated. According to physiological impresses of salt it was found that growth rate decreased with increasing salinity. Total chlorophyll content stimulated in 1% salinity, but in the higher concentration it decreased vice versa. The rate of APC, PE, PC increased in 1% salinity, although in high level concentration they would be diminished. Photosynthesis rate was also decreased with increasing salinity but it was stimulated slightly in 1% NaCl. All in consequence, despite of acclimation of this strain to marine environment, not much tolerance was seen in the mentioned treatments, and increasing salinity to upper than 1% NaCl had destructive effects, and cyanobacterium maintained its growth rate at slightly saline environments.
Artificial Neural Network-Genetic Algorithm Prediction of Heavy Metal Removal Using a Novel Plant-Based Biosorbent Banana Floret: Kinetic, Equilibrium, Thermodynamics and Desorption Studies

In this study, the biosorption performance of banana floret was assessed as a new biosorbent for the removal of Cu(II) ions (a model heavy metal) from aqueous solutions. Batch experiments were conducted to assess the effects of agitation, particle size, pH, temperature and initial concentration. Kinetic and equilibrium data were modeled, and mass transfer studies were conducted to elucidate the mechanisms of biosorption. Kinetic data were best simu- lated using the diffusion-chemisorption model while equilibrium data were best represented by the Sips isotherm. The dominant transport mechanism was attributed to intraparticle diffusion while the dominant attachment mechanism was chemical sorption. A predictive model was successfully developed using an artificial neural network (ANN) and optimized using a genetic algorithm (GA). The accuracy of the ANN-GA prediction was validated by laboratory experiments, which revealed a residual error of 1.3% and thus underscores the applicability of the model. This new biosorbent exhibited a remarkable affinity for the heavy metal ion and compared well to other reported biosorbents in the literature.
Empirical Estimates of Reaction Functions for the Euro Area

This study contains a set of estimates of reaction functions for the euro area based on a monthly data set starting in 1985. The main aim is to assess the performance of Taylor rules and to evaluate whether alternative specifications based, inter alia, on the inclusion of additional variables not contained in the original specification proposed by Taylor or the use of different measures of the output gap and the inflation term, can better track the interest rate setting in the euro area. An interesting result is that monetary developments (in the form of a money growth gap indicator derived as the deviation of M3 growth from its estimated reference value) enter significantly as an additional variable in a Taylor-like policy rule specification for the euro area.
Adjustment and testing comparison of absolute gravimeters in November 2013

This paper is focused on a comparison measurement processing of absolute gravimeters in 2013. The comparison deals with a number of various types of absolute gravimeters and includes also an absolute gravimeter from Geodetic observatory Pecný. Comparative measurements are performed to detect systematic errors of gravimeters. A result of processing is most likely value of a gravity and a systematic error of individual devices. Measured values are input to a adjustment with condition a sum of systematic errors is zero. A part of this process is also verification following output: (i) value of a posteriori standard deviation, (ii) size of corrections and (iii) statistical significance of systematic errors. The results of adjustment are 15 gravity values on the reference places and 25 systematic errors of measuring instruments. Result shows that the presence of systematic errors in measurements is not statistically provable because the systematic errors are similarly sized as their standard deviation.
Production and characterization of Chitosan from shrimp shells waste.

This research aims to study the production of chitosan from shrimp shell waste origin and characterize the chitosan quality of shrimp shell waste that includes parameters yield, solubility, intrinsic viscosity, molecular weight and deacetylation degree. Results showed that the treatment of heating temperature and heating time in the process of deacetylation caused significant (P≤0.01) influence on yield, solubility, intrinsic viscosity, molecular weight and deacetylation degree of produced chitosan. Whereas, the interaction between heating temperature and heating time on the process of deacetylation gave no significant effect on yield, solubility, intrinsic viscosity, molecular weight and deacetylation degree of chitosan produced. The best results in this study were obtained from heating temperature of 100 C and 80 min heating time.
Retinal Ischemia: MMP-9; Its Relation to Resveratrol, Baicalein, S-allyl L-cysteine and Chi Ju Di Huang Wan

Ischemia has been reported to be related to matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) level upregulation. Neovascular glaucoma (NVG) (in proliferative diabetic retinopathy and central/branch retinal vein occlusion) and age-related macular degeneration are known visionthreatening retinal ischemic disorders. In this review, an extensive discussion has been made into how MMP-9 is related to retinal ischemia and what the underlying mechanisms of various traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) compounds and combinations are. High intraocular pressure-induced retinal ischemic changes were characterized by decreased electroretinogram (ERG) b-wave amplitudes, a loss of choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) immunopositive amacrine neurons/processes, increased Müller’s vimentin immunoreactivity, and profound retinal ganglion cell (RGC) death. It has also been observed hypoxia inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α), MMP-9 and vascular endothelium growth factor (VEGF) upregulation at the protein/mRNA levels. After ischemia, both the p38 mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs)-stimulated MMP-9 upregulation and HIF-1α-triggered VEGF overexpression might result in neovascularization. Conclusively, baicalein seems to have neuroprotection via antioxidation, antiapoptosis, HO-1 upregulation and HIF-1α, VEGF, and/or MMP-9 downregulation. Furthermore, baicalein inhibition on retinal ischemia-induced MMP-9 upregulation seems to be “partly” associated with its antioxidation. Additionally, retinal ischemia, oxidative stress, and/or kainate excitotoxicity could be protected by resveratrol: “via MMP-9 and inducible nitric oxide synthetase (iNOS) downregulation, and heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) upregulation,” S-allyl L-cysteine (SAC): “through iNOS, HIF-1α, VEGF inhibition and/or MMP-9 downregulation, and antiapoptosis,” Chi Ju Di Huang Wan: “by means of antiapoptosis, antioxidation, MMP-9 downregulation and p38 MAPK inhibition. ”
Active engagement with assessment and feedback can improve group-work outcomes and boost student confidence

Abstract This study involves evaluation of a novel iterative group-based learning task developed to enable students to actively engage with assessment and feedback in order to improve the quality of their written work. The students were all in the final semester of their final year of study and enrolled on either BSc Zoology or BSc Marine and Freshwater Biology at a mainstream UK university, but the findings of this research can be generalised to a wider student body. The main findings are that in a group work context, individual students can use provided assessment criteria to accurately assess the work produced by their group and that their ability to produce and recognise work of a higher quality improves as a result of a social dialogue around self/peer assessment and self/tutor generated feedback. The study also reveals that producing poorer work over-assess and those achieving the highest marks under-assess. Over-assessing students focus to a greater extent upon the superficial deficiencies in their work, whereas under assessing students are more likely to focus on more significant issues. High-achieving under-assessing students lack confidence in their own abilities, but believe feedback provides a confidence boost.
The relationship between corporate governance Index and value of the firm: evidence from Taiwan

Accurately evaluating the value of a firm is very important for investors. Also, many factors affect a firm’s value. Previous literature confirmed that a company’s high transparency and public disclosure is associated with lower market risks and higher value. Therefore, firms have to follow a high standard in information disclosure as well as abide by IFRS and US GAAP in preparing their financial statements in order to respond to the competitiveness of capital market enhancement and protect shareholder rights. Following Braga-Alves and Shastri (2011), this study modifies and constructs a composite corporate governance index with high correlation to Taiwanese corporate governance criteria. In addition to examining the correlation between market valuation and our corporate governance index, the author also considers another factor (cid:237) director and officer liability insurance (cid:237) and studies its correlation with firm valuation in a sample of Taiwan 50 component stocks. The author finds that a corporate governance index that includes an indicator for the presence of an independent director and the director and officer liability insurance factor both are significantly and positively correlated with firm value. A trading strategy based on author’s index also generates abnormal returns.
Military Expenditure, Endogeneity and Economic Growth

Abstract While not always a concern for the general economic growth literature, the debate over the effects of military spending on growth continues to develop, with no consensus, but a deepening understanding of the limitations of previous work. One important issue that has not been adequately dealt with is the endogeneity of military spending in the growth equation, mainly because of the difficulty of finding any variables that would make adequate instruments. This paper considers this issue, using an endogenous growth model estimated on a large sample of 109 non-high-income countries for the period 1998–2012. The empirical analysis is framed within an instrumental variable setting that exploits the increase in military spending that occurs when unrest in a country escalates to turmoil. The estimation results show that endogeneity arising from reverse causality is a crucial issue, with the instrumental variable estimates providing a larger significant negative effect of military spending on growth than OLS would. This result is found to be robust to different sources of heterogeneity and different time periods.
On the dynamics of rocking motion of single rigid‐block structures

This paper describes the behavior of single rigid‐block structures under dynamic loading. A comprehensive experimental investigation has been carried out to study the rocking response of four blue granite stones with different geometrical characteristics under free vibration, and harmonic and random motions of the base. In total, 275 tests on a shaking table were carried out in order to address the issues of repeatability of the results and stability of the rocking motion response. Two different tools for the numerical simulations of the rocking motion of rigid blocks are considered. The first tool is analytical and overcomes the usual limitations of the traditional piecewise equations of motion through a Lagrangian formalism. The second tool is based on the discrete element method (DEM), especially effective for the numerical modeling of rigid blocks. A new methodology is proposed for finding the parameters of the DEM by using the parameters of the classical theory. An extensive comparison between numerical and experimental data has been carried out to validate and define the limitations of the analytical tools under study. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Examining the strategy-performance link of Latin American businesses – a configurational approach

This study examines the sales performance of agribusinesses based in the humid tropics of Latin America. Its focus is on strategic positioning and specific functional areas, ranging from marketing to human resources and purchasing. This paper contributes to the literature through a novel methodological approach, a configurational angle, which allows for the identification of multiple causal explanations for consistently good sales performance. It also advances the research agenda on Latin American businesses by studying the strategic recipes of agribusinesses. The findings have both theoretical and managerial implications.
Deformation and Breakup of an Axisymmetric Falling Drop under Constant Body Force

The secondary breakup of liquid drops, accelerated by a constant body force, is examined for small density differences between the drops and the surrounding fluid. a density ratio of ten has been studied. We used Volume of Fluid (VOF) method to simulate the breakup. The breakup is controlled by the Eotvos number (Eo), the Ohnesorge number (Oh), and the viscosity and density ratios. If viscous effects are small (small Oh), the Eotvos number is the main controlling parameter. At a density ratio of ten, as Eo increases the drops break up in a backward facing bag, transient breakup, and a shear breakup mode. Similar breakup modes have been seen experimentally for much larger density ratios. Although a backward facing bag is seen at low Oh, where viscous effects are small, comparisons with simulations of inviscid flows show that the bag breakup is a viscous phenomenon, due to boundary layer separation and the formation of a wake. At higher Oh, where viscous effects modify the evolution, the simulations show that the main effect of increasing Oh is to move the boundary between the different breakup modes to higher Eo. The results are summarized by “breakup maps” where the different breakup modes are shown in the Eo–Oh plane for different values of the viscosity and the density ratios.
Sharp parameter ranges in the uniform anti-maximum principle for second-order ordinary diﬀerential operators

We consider the equation ( pu (cid:48) ) (cid:48) − qu + λwu = f in (0 , 1) subject to homogenous boundary conditions at x = 0 and x = 1 , e.g., u (cid:48) (0) = u (cid:48) (1) = 0 . Let λ 1 be the ﬁrst eigenvalue of the corresponding Sturm-Liouville problem. If f ≤ 0 but (cid:54)≡ 0 then it is known that there exists δ > 0 (independent on f ) such that for λ ∈ ( λ 1 ,λ 1 + δ ] any solution u must be negative. This so-called uniform anti-maximum principle (UAMP) goes back to Cl´ement, Peletier [4]. In this paper we establish the sharp values of δ for which (UAMP) holds. The same phenomenon, including sharp values of δ , can be shown for the radially symmetric p -Laplacian on balls and annuli in R n provided 1 ≤ n < p . The results are illustrated by explicitly computed examples.
VICARIANCE AND DISPERSAL IN CARIBBEAN BIOGEOGRAPHY

The species diversity and phylogenetic relationships of West Indian vertebrates are incompletely known, but several lines of evidence support a dispersal origin for most of the fauna. Crother and Guyer have contested much of that evidence, claiming a far greater role for vicariance. However, it is shown here that none of their criticisms can be substantiated and their paper is dominated by inconsistencies. They have used the irrelevant evidence from intra-Caribbean vi- cariance events to address the origin of the fauna, failed to discriminate between old and new geologic syntheses by the same authors, chosen molecular estimates of divergence time randomly rather than with respect to phylogeny, attempted to diminish the consequences of a catastrophic event in Earth history (the K-T bolide impact), and have claimed to have discovered a congruent pattern of area relationships when in fact their proposed phylogenetic pattern is present in only a THE West Indies harbors a rich biota that has intrigued biogeographers for over a century. The numerous islands, some of which are of great age, and the complex geologic history of the region are factors that have influenced the evolutionary his- tories of these organisms to varying de- grees. In the two decades since Rosen (1975) proposed a vicariance model for Caribbean biogeography, attention has fo- cussed on determining the relative roles of vicariance and dispersal in the origin of the West Indian biota. The vicariance model proposes that the present biota rep- resents the fragmented remnants of an an- cient proto-Antillean biota that was con- tinuous with those of North and South America in the late Cretaceous. The al- ternative explanation is that over-water dispersal has been responsible for the or- igin of the West Indian biota (e.g., Pregill, 1981; Simpson, 1956). Hedges et al. (1992) tested these two hypotheses using estimates of amino acid sequence divergence in the protein serum albumin across a broad array of West In- dian terrestrial vertebrates: bufonid, hylid, eleutherodactyline, and leptodactyline frogs; anoline, iguanine, sphaerodactyline, tropidurine, teiid, and anguid lizards; am- phisbaenians; and alsophine and tropido- phiid snakes (inter-island divergences also