Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An economic analysis of kinnow cultivation and marketing in Fazilka district of Punjab.

The recent re-emergence of agrarian crises in Punjab has again drawn the attention of policy makers towards the viability of alternative crops. In this context, the study attempts production and marketing of one of the alternative and viable crops (i.e kinnow) considered for the farmers in the state. The study has been carried out in a newly carved Fazilka district of Punjab with a sample of 100 farmers selected equally from four villages in two tehsils of the district. The study points that kinnow is profitable crop as benefit-cost ratio, net present value and internal rate of return at 10 per cent rate of discount were worked out to be 2.04, 302289.78 and 40 per cent respectively. The study also reveals that the channel with least number of intermediaries was most efficient as compared with the channels with more number of middlemen. However, the farmers faced various problems such as inefficient marketing process, fluctuations in price, low price, lack of storage facility, etc. The study suggested that in order to realize the benefits of such new crops, there is need to regulated markets with better marketing facilities so that farmers are not only able to reduce their transportation costs but they will also be realize better prices for their produce. Besides, linking the fresh produce with agro-processing industries can go a long way in ensuring the returns from this crop.
A Continuable Political Administration System for World Countries （II）

In this work all the political/non-political ideologies, 168 religions/beliefs/sects, nearly 1,600 ethnic origin groups are synthesized to define continuable political construction. It is found that all the past federations, confederations, empires, ideologies, political administration systems, thoughts and senses, doctrines, etc. are in fact each reflects a special functional processes within a general system of where the kinds of services, subjects of services, way of services, service types and persons are considered and placed as a factor in it and where these factors are arranged through different priorities, weights, and also taken under record with some rules. It is evaluated that each groups, communities, societies, countries are separate models, but at the same time each of them are factors which owns different beginning points to reach a correct country structure with five new separate groups (New Era Group, Progression of The Country Group, Unity of The Country Group, Values of The Country Group, Social Progression Group). The continuable political administration system is defined here by considering the all possible parts and by considering the other systems connected for a country. Possible forceful factors which can effect political system administration are given. To realize political construction, some political construction methods are defined: Political construction by putting together the values, political construction based on different value, Political construction based on the new defined values, Political construction which considers stepped transition and Ideal political construction which will carry the political points of views and other standards of judgement, points of views of persons to a same line are expressed. New ideologies are put forwarded and ideal political construction for a world country is given with details. Integration of the political groups, political ideologies to the new system is explained. Some methods of politics are mentioned. Persons related with politics are classified simply.
Shifting Our Thinking About Uncommon Disease Trials: The Case of Methotrexate in Scleroderma

Objective. Randomized trials for uncommon diseases suffer from methodological challenges: difficulty in recruiting sufficient numbers of patients and low power to detect important treatment effects. Using traditional (frequentist) analysis, p values > 0.05 mean investigators are unable to reject the null hypothesis (of no treatment effect). The medical community often labels trials with p values > 0.05 as “negative. ” Our study demonstrates how Bayesian analysis conveys more relevant information to clinicians — using the example of methotrexate (MTX) in systemic sclerosis (SSc). Methods. Data from 71 patients with diffuse SSc (n = 35 MTX, n = 36 placebo) in the trial were reanalyzed using Bayesian models. We examined 3 primary outcomes: modified Rodnan skin score (MRSS), University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) skin score, and physician global assessment of overall disease activity. Using noninformative prior probability distributions, the probability of beneficial treatment effects for each outcome and the probability of simultaneous benefit in outcomes were computed. Results. The probability that treatment with MTX results in better mean outcomes than placebo was 94% for MRSS, 96% for UCLA skin score, and 88% for physician global assessment. There was 96% probability that at least 2 of 3 primary outcomes were better on treatment. Conclusion. Bayesian analysis of uncommon disease trials allows for more flexible and clinically relevant interpretations of the data. From the trial data, clinicians can infer that MTX has a high probability of beneficial effects on skin score and global assessment.
China's Growing Government Debt in a Computable Overlapping Generations Model

This paper simulates the effects of China's growing government debt in a computable equilibrium model of overlapping generations. Our model assumes that the government increases debt to finance its spending in the short run, and then increases taxes or cuts spending to keep the debt–GDP ratio constant. The spending‐driven government debt increases public capital and output in the short run, but decreases private investment, total capital stock, output, and net exports in the long run, and makes the future generations worse off. Among various means of debt control, a decrease in government spending seems to be the least harmful to private investment, capital stock, and output while an increase in capital taxation is most detrimental.
Failure-to-Pursue Rescue: Explaining Excess Mortality in Elderly Emergency General Surgical Patients with Preexisting “Do-Not-Resuscitate” Orders

Objective:To describe the outcomes of elderly patients with do-not-resuscitate (DNR) status who undergo emergency general surgery and to improve understanding of the relationship between preoperative DNR status and postoperative mortality. Background:Preoperative DNR status has previously been shown to predict increased postoperative mortality, although the reasons for this association are not well understood. Methods:Patients 65 years or older undergoing emergency operation for 1 of 10 common general surgical diagnoses were extracted from the 2005–2010 National Surgical Quality Improvement database. Propensity score techniques were used to match patients with and without preoperative DNR orders on indication for procedure, patient demographics, comorbid disease burden, acute physical status at the time of operation, and procedure complexity. The postoperative outcomes of this matched cohort were then compared. Results:A total of 25,558 patients were included for analysis (DNR, n =1061; non-DNR, n =24,497). DNR patients seemed to be more acutely and chronically ill than non-DNR patients in the overall study sample but did not seem to be treated less aggressively before or during their operations. Propensity-matching techniques resulted in the creation of a cohort of DNR and non-DNR patients who were well matched for all preoperative and intraoperative variables. DNR patients from the matched cohort had a significantly higher postoperative mortality rate than non-DNR patients (36.9% vs 22.3%, P < 0.0001) despite having a similar rate of major postoperative complications (42.1% vs 40.2%, P = 0.38). DNR patients in the propensity-matched cohort were much less likely to undergo reoperation (8.3% vs 12.0%, P = 0.006) than non-DNR patients and were significantly more likely to die in the setting of a major postoperative complication (56.7% vs 41.4%, P = 0.001). Conclusions:Emergency general surgery in elderly patients with preoperative DNR orders is associated with significant rates of postoperative morbidity and mortality. One reason for the excess mortality in these patients, relative to otherwise similar patients who do not have preoperative DNR orders, may be their greater reluctance to pursue aggressive management of major complications in the postoperative period.
Astrocyte Differentiation of Fetal Neuroepithelial Cells by Interleukin‐11 via Activation of a Common Cytokine Signal Transducer, gp130, and a Transcription Factor, STAT3

Abstract: The interleukin (IL)‐6 family cytokines utilize membrane glycoprotein gp130 in common as a critical signal‐transducing receptor component. IL‐11, a cytokine initially identified as a plasmacytoma growth factor, belongs to this family. We show here that IL‐11 and its cognate receptor components are expressed in fetal mouse neuroepithelial cells. We also show that after 4 days of culture with IL‐11, cells with typical astrocytic morphologies expressing glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP; a marker for astrocytes) come out. This differentiation process is totally dependent on the gp130‐mediated signal‐transduction pathway involving activation of a latent cytoplasmic transcription factor, STAT3 (for signal transducer and activator of transcription 3), because (a) IL‐11‐induced astrocyte differentiation is not observed when neuroepithelial cells prepared from gp130‐deficient mice were used, (b) stimulation of neuroepithelial cells by IL‐11 rapidly induces tyrosine‐phosphorylation of STAT3, and (c) transfection of neuroepithelial cells with a dominant‐negative form of STAT3 inhibits IL‐11‐induced activation of the GFAP gene promoter. We have further identified, in the GFAP promoter region, a STAT3 site at which nucleotide substitutions almost completely abolished the IL‐11‐induced GFAP promoter activation. Taken together, it is suggested that IL‐11 contributes to astrocytogenesis in fetal brain via activation of gp130 and STAT3.
Schizophrenia: glutathione deficit in cerebrospinal fluid and prefrontal cortex in vivo

Schizophrenia is a major psychiatric disease, which affects the centre of the personality, with severe problems of perception, cognition as well as affective and social behaviour. In cerebrospinal fluid of drug‐free schizophrenic patients, a significant decrease in the level of total glutathione (GSH) by 27% (P < 0.05) was observed as compared to controls, in keeping with the reported reduced level of its metabolite γ‐glutamylglutamine. With a new non‐invasive proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy methodology, GSH level in medial prefrontal cortex of schizophrenic patients was found to be 52% (P = 0.0012) lower than in controls. GSH plays a fundamental role in protecting cells from damage by reactive oxygen species generated among others by the metabolism of dopamine. A deficit in GSH would lead to degenerative processes in the surrounding of dopaminergic terminals resulting in loss of connectivity. GSH also potentiates the N‐methyl‐d‐aspartate (NMDA) receptor response to glutamate, an effect presumably reduced by a GSH deficit, leading to a situation similar to the application of phencyclidine (PCP). Thus, a GSH hypothesis might integrate many established biological aspects of schizophrenia.
Reversal of Gender Disparity in Journalism Education- Study of Ghana Institute of Journalism

Journalism has practically become a feminine profession across the world. To understand the root of the flow of women into the Journalism profession it is pertinent to begin at the university education level. Gallagher’s 1992 worldwide survey of female students in 83 journalism institutions reveals a significant increase in number of female students. Djerf-Pierre (2007) and others argue along Bourdieu’s conception of education as a form of social capital which empowers, enables and enhances women’s competitiveness in a pre-dominantly androgynous social arena. The study analyses 16 years of enrolment data of the Academic Affairs Unit of the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ), a leading Journalism, and Communication University in Africa, to understand the growing feminization of the journalism profession in Ghana. To this end the study, employs the UNESCO gender parity index model (GPI) to ascertain the gender parity ratio of male to female students enrolled at the University. Findings indicate a significant shift in the gender parity ratio in favour of women in the journalism education.
Acute effects of passive smoking on the coronary circulation in healthy young adults.

CONTEXT Recent studies have shown that passive smoking is a risk factor for ischemic heart disease and may be associated with vascular endothelial dysfunction. The acute effects of passive smoking on coronary circulation in nonsmokers are not known. OBJECTIVE To determine the acute effects of passive smoking on coronary circulation using coronary flow velocity reserve (CFVR), assessed by noninvasive transthoracic Doppler echocardiography. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Cross-sectional study conducted from September 2000 to November 2000 among 30 Japanese men (mean age, 27 years; 15 healthy nonsmokers and 15 asymptomatic active smokers) without history of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, or hyperlipidemia. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Coronary flow velocity reserve, calculated as the ratio of hyperemic to basal coronary flow velocity induced by intravenous infusion of adenosine triphosphate and measured in each participant before and after a 30-minute exposure to environmental tobacco smoke. RESULTS Heart rate and blood pressure responses to adenosine triphosphate infusion were not affected by passive smoking exposure in either group. Passive smoking exposure had no effect on basal coronary flow velocity in either group. Mean (SD) CFVR in nonsmokers was significantly higher than that in active smokers before passive smoking exposure (4.4 [0.91] vs 3.6 [0.88], respectively; P =.02), while CFVR after passive smoking exposure did not differ between groups (P =.83). Passive smoking exposure significantly reduced mean (SD) CFVR in nonsmokers (4.4 [0.91] vs 3.4 [0.73], respectively; P<.001). CONCLUSIONS Passive smoking substantially reduced CFVR in healthy nonsmokers. This finding provides direct evidence that passive smoking may cause endothelial dysfunction of the coronary circulation in nonsmokers.
Long‐lasting modulation of the induction of LTD and LTP in rat hippocampal CA1 by behavioural stress and environmental enrichment

Behavioural experience (e.g. chronic stress, environmental enrichment) can have long‐lasting effects on cognitive functions. Because activity‐dependent persistent changes in synaptic strength are believed to mediate memory processes in brain areas such as hippocampus, we tested whether behaviour has also long‐lasting effects on synaptic plasticity by examining the induction of long‐term potentiation (LTP) and long‐term depression (LTD) in slices of hippocampal CA1 obtained from rats either 7–9 months after social defeat (behavioural stress) or 3–5 weeks after 5‐week exposure to environmental enrichment. Compared with age‐matched controls, defeated rats showed markedly reduced LTP. LTP was even completely impaired but LTD was enhanced in defeated and, subsequently, individually housed (during the 7–9‐month period after defeat) rats. However, increasing stimulus intensity during 100‐Hz stimulation resulted in significant LTP. This suggests that the threshold for LTP induction is still raised and that for LTD lowered several months after a short stressful experience. Both LTD and LTP were enhanced in environmentally enriched rats, 3–5 weeks after enrichment, as compared with age‐matched controls. Because enrichment reduced paired‐pulse facilitation, an increase in presynaptic release, facilitating both LTD and LTP induction, might contribute to enhanced synaptic changes. Consistently, enrichment reduced the number of 100‐Hz stimuli required for inducing LTP. But enrichment may also actually enhance the range of synaptic modification. Repeated LTP and LTD induction produced larger synaptic changes in enriched than in control rats. These data reveal that exposure to very different behavioural experiences can produce long‐lasting effects on the susceptibility to synaptic plasticity, involving pre‐ and postsynaptic processes.
Stochastic Particle Acceleration by Helical Turbulence in Solar Flares

Flaring release of magnetic energy in solar corona is only possible if the magnetic field deviates from a potential one. We show that the linear MHD modes excited on top of the non-potential magnetic field possess a nonzero kinetic helicity. Accordingly, this necessarily results in a noticeable kinetic helicity of the turbulence, composed of these linear modes with various scales and random phases, generated at the flare site by the primary energy release, which may be important for many applications. In particular, a nonzero turbulence helicity has a potentially strong effect on the particle acceleration because the helical component of the turbulence induces a mean regular large-scale (DC) electric field capable of directly accelerating the charged particles in addition to the commonly considered stochastic turbulent electric field. In this paper, we derive the kinetic helicity density of the linear MHD modes excited on top of a twisted large-scale magnetic field, estimate the corresponding turbulence helicity and take its effect on stochastic particle acceleration by the turbulence into consideration; in particular, we compare this induced mean electric field with the electron and estimated effective ion Dreicer fields. We have discovered that this, so far missing but highly important, ingredient of the turbulence at the flare site can be responsible for the thermal-to-nonthermal energy partition in flares by controlling the process of particle extraction from the thermal pool and formation of the seed particle population to be then stochastically accelerated to higher energies. In addition, it is naturally consistent with such puzzling flare manifestations as spatial separation of electron and proton emission sites, electron beam formation, and enrichment of the accelerated particle population by 3 He and other rare ions.
An Optimized Vapor Phase Doping Process to Fabricate Large Core Yb-Doped Fibers

The paper demonstrates a standardized process of vapor phase doping to fabricate large core Yb-doped preforms with longer useful length in reproducible manner. The optimization of the process led to successful achievement of Yb-doped core thickness of 4.5 mm (in 14.8 mm of preform diameter) by depositing up to 30 number of core layers with controlled amount of generated precursor vapors. The influence of the process parameters was studied rigorously to enhance the useful preform length up to 380 mm. A combination of Yb and Al in different proportions was doped into the core with uniform dopant concentration along the length by adjusting few process parameters efficiently. The Al2O3 concentration up to the level of 17.8 mol% has been achieved successfully which resulted in NA of 0.31. This is the highest ever doping of Al in passive fibers by any modified chemical vapor deposition process. The Yb2O3 content in the active fibers is as high as 0.47 mol%.
Testing the Random Walk Theory on Share Prices At the Nairobi Stock Exchange

This study examine whether share prices of companies trading at the Nairobi Stock Exchange follow a random walk trend. We provide evidence that expert analysis can not be used to earn investors an abnormal profit at the exchange. The autocorrelation model was used to test the random walk hypothesis. A sample of sixteen stocks was drawn from companies that comprised the NSE 20 share index during the five year period between September 2003 and August 2007. Weekly average prices are shown to exhibit significant random walk behavior in the sense that the autocorrelation coefficient was less than 0.5 but more than -0.5 throughout the period. The results of the study confirmed that stock prices followed a random walk and that one cannot predict future prices based on the past price trends.
Computing with Bees: Attacking Complex Transportation Engineering Problems

The Bee System (an artificial bee swarm) is introduced in this paper. The proposed approach is applied to the Traveling Salesman Problem. The obtained results are very promising. The potential applications of the developed Bee System in the field of transportation engineering are discussed. The Bee System represents the new, successful application of emergent techniques based on natural metaphors, such as simulated annealing, genetic algorithms, and neural networks, to the complex engineering and management problems.
Damage Caps and the Labor Supply of Physicians: Evidence from the Third Reform Wave

Nine states adopted caps on non-economic damages during the third medical malpractice reform wave from 2002–05, joining twenty-two other states with caps on non-economic or total damages. We study the effects of these reforms on physician supply. Across a variety of difference-in-differences (DiD), triple differences, and synthetic control methods, in both state- and county-level regressions, we find, with tight confidence intervals, no evidence that cap adoption leads to an increase in total patient care physicians, or in specialties that face high liability risk (with a possible exception for plastic surgeons), or in rural physicians.
Identifying suicidal ideation in general medical patients.

OBJECTIVES To describe characteristics of general medical patients with suicidal ideation and to develop an efficient clinical strategy for identifying these patients. DESIGN Cross-sectional analysis of data without intervention. SETTING A representative sample of community respondents interviewed as part of the National Institute of Mental Health Epidemiologic Catchment Area surveys. SUBJECTS A total of 6041 individuals who reported receiving care in general medical settings in the 6 months preceding the baseline interview. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Suicidal ideation within the year preceding the baseline interview. RESULTS A total of 154 patients (2.6%) had experienced suicidal thoughts within the previous year. In multivariate analyses, the following sociodemographic factors were significantly associated with having suicidal ideation: being white (odds ratio [OR], 2.8; P < .001) relative to African American, separated or divorced (OR, 1.8; P = .03) relative to married, and aged 18 to 30 years (OR, 2.3; P = .02) or aged 31 to 50 years (OR, 2.1; P = .03) relative to those older than 65 years. Gender, educational level, and socioeconomic status were not statistically associated with suicidal ideation. Psychiatric disorders significantly associated with suicidal ideation were major depression (OR, 10.3; P < .001), panic disorder (OR, 5.2; P < .001), alcohol disorder (OR, 2.0; P = .04), and phobic disorder (OR, 1.6; P = .02) within the previous year. However, only 34% of respondents with suicidal ideation met criteria for major depression. With the aid of stepwise logistic regression, a four-item screening questionnaire, the Suicidal Ideation Screening Questionnaire, was developed to predict patients with suicidal ideation. Likelihood ratios for suicidal ideation increased from 0.21 to 32.8 with more positive responses to questions concerning symptoms of hopelessness, guilt, depressed mood, and sleep disturbances. CONCLUSIONS If the results from the four-item screen are reproduced in a clinical setting, general medical patients with a high likelihood for suicidal ideation may be identified with a brief screening questionnaire. This screen would have greater sensitivity than would be achieved by assessing suicidal ideation only in those patients who meet criteria for a distinct psychiatric disorder.