Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Implications of Infrastructural Development on Cameroon’s Economic Emergence

Coming at the wake of the quest for emergence in the country, this paper examines the implications of infrastructural development on the emergence of Cameroon. The paper uses secondary data from 1990 to 2012 collected from the World Development Indicators. Through the adoption of the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and subsequent application of the single equation Instrumental Variable General Method of Moments (IVGMM) and the VECM methodology and associated Impulse-Response predictions, the study finds that all strands of infrastructure (economic, social and financial) positively and significantly affect economic growth in Cameroon. Moreover, the study finds that in the class of economic infrastructure, telephone network, road infrastructure and energy (electricity) production are the most significant forms of infrastructure worth emphasizing in the growth process; education and health infrastructure are the main growth-promoting social infrastructures while the mobilizations of savings and granting of domestic credits are more profound in the class of financial infrastructures that promote economic growth in the country. Based on the forecasts provided by the Impulse-Response graphs, the paper further finds that the current state of infrastructural development would slowly plunge the economy to emergence as solicited by 2035. On the basis of this, the study recommends that while security infrastructure expenditures are being reduced, there should be a joint and simultaneous provision of economic, social and financial infrastructures to drive Cameroon towards the highly solicited emergence. Key Words: Infrastructure, Economic Growth, Principal Component Analysis, Cameroon, Emergence.
The Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm – Prognosis, Treatment, Screening and Cost-Effectiveness

Mass screening is claimed for finding a disease in which symptoms are not yet occurred. The indication for such an examination is given if the early detection of the disease allows treatment with lower morbidity and mortality than treatment at an advanced stage. In addition, the long-term prognosis of the patients must be considered. Screening makes only sense if the overall mortality of a specific population can be diminished by the diagnostic and therapeutic measures. In assessing the screening for an asymptomatic abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) that has to be treated surgically to avoid the rupture of the AAA with its associated high fatality rate, the expected extension of life should be weighed against the risk of surgery. It must be ensured that the untreated disease would progress to rupture of the AAA with fatal outcome. The benefits of screening and subsequent prophylactic operation must be contrasted its risk and cost. It is the objective of the following remarks to outline the value of screening for AAA on the basis of studies on the prevalence of AAA, risk of rupture, and the results of surgical treatment. Meanwhile, two different approaches are available for the treatment of AAA, open repair and endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR). The considerations for prophylactic repair of AAA must therefore also include morbidity and mortality of the two interventions and the evaluation of cost-benefit ratio. This will be shown in the following.
Growth and Physiological Changes of Averrhoa carambola as Influenced by Water Availability

Utilizing an integrated soil moisture stress approach, two different experiments were conducted simultaneously to investigate the effects of water stress o.n growth and related physiological characteristics of Averrhoa carambola. The first experiment clearly indicated a high correlation between soil water availability and a reduction in plant vegetative growth. In the second experiment, there was a significant correlation between leaf water potential and a reduction in stomata conductance, transpiration rate and photosynthesis rate. The inhibition of photosynthesis mte was only apparent when leaf water potential was reduced to -0.85 MFa. However, chlorophyll content was only affected by a further reduction in water availability. The Telationship between physiological characteristics and vegetative growth is discussed.
Decreased potassium fertilization in sugarcane ratoons grown under straw in different soils

The presence of straw from sugarcane (Saccharum ssp.) left on the soil surface after mechanical harvest has contributed to increase productivity of this crop and reduce potassium fertilization due to release of this nutrient and increased soil organic matter. Thus, the present study sought to evaluate the response of the second sugarcane ratoon cultivated under sugarcane straw resulting from harvest of the first ratoon, in function of potassium doses, in dystrophic Red Yellow Latosol (dRYL) and eutrophic Red Yellow Agirsol (eRYA). For this, two field experiments were conducted for the second sugarcane ratoon grown in the conservation system, where one experiment was developed in dRYL (variety SP81-3250) and the other in eRYA (variety RB855453). The treatments in both soil consisted of doses of 32.5, 65.0, 130.0 and 195.0 kg ha -1 of K2O in the form of potassium chloride, and a control treatment, arranged in a randomized block design with five repetitions. Potassium fertilizer was applied alongside the row of ratoons, without incorporation. We evaluated the biometric variables (height, tiller number and diameter), potassium contents in the soil, leaf and straw, K accumulation in the straw, stalk and shoot, production of straw and stalks, and technological quality. Potassium doses resulted in a productivity increase of about 75 and 22 Mg ha -1 in the dRYL and eRYA, respectively. The dose of 65 kg ha -1 of K2O, corresponding to 50% of the recommended dose for the conventional crop, promoted the acquisition of 88 and 95% of the maximum sugarcane crop yield in dRYL and eRYA, respectively. Potassium fertilization increases production and accumulation of this nutrient in sugarcane straw, potentially benefiting the upcoming crops.
Mock-suspects' Decisions to Confess: The Accuracy of Eyewitness Evidence is Critical

SUMMARY Forty participants were asked to commit a mock-crime that involved them stealing a cell-phone. Later the mock-offenders were questioned and evidence was presented to them from a witness who was said to have seen the offence. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions in which they were presented with a witness statement that either contained detailed information concerning their description and their actions, or not-detailed information. For half the participants in each condition the information was correct, while for the other half some of the information was incorrect. The results show that participants were more likely to confess if the evidence against them was accurate, but the level of detail of the evidence made no difference. Participants who had accurate evidence presented against them felt more guilty than those who had less accurate evidence against them. The results are discussed in relation to police interviewing techniques. Copyright # 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The road towards RegCM4

The RegCM model system was originally developed in the late 1980s, and it was the first limited area model applied to climate studies. Over the last 25 yr, the system has been im proved through successive model versions (RegCM1 to RegCM4), incorporating increasingly comprehensive physics packages and interactively coupled components of the climate system (chemistry/aerosol, ocean, lake, biosphere). The present Climate Special includes studies using RegCM3 and the latest version RegCM4. The papers illustrate that RegCM is a flexible and versatile system which can be used for different regions of the World and for a wide range of applications. Plans for the development of the next non-hydrostatic version RegCM5 are also described.
The effect of increasing zinc concentration on the growth rate of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

Zinc is an essential nutrient required by organisms to survive, however, it can be toxic at high concentrations. Since zinc is also a common water pollutant, the objective of this study was to determine how increasing zinc concentration affects the growth rate of a common unicellular green alga species, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii . The experiment was conducted by exposing equal concentrations of C. reinhardtii cells to four different zinc concentrations (4.0 mg/L, 6.4 mg/L, 7.0 mg/L, and 10.0 mg/L) to see how this would influence their growth over time. Over a two week period we periodically counted the number of cells from our samples to see if there was a change in growth rate. Using a one-way ANOVA analysis we found the p-value to be less than 0.05, which supports our alternate hypothesis that increasing zinc concentration would increase the growth rate of C. reinhardtii . However, at our highest zinc concentration of 10.0 mg/L, a decline in growth was observed, therefore we were unable to support our alternate hypothesis. We proposed between 7.0 mg/L to 10.0 mg/L a toxic threshold concentration was reached, resulting in the decline in growth rate.
Sub-percent constraints on cosmological temperature evolution

The redshift dependence of the cosmic microwave background temperature is one of the key cosmological observables. In the standard cosmological model one has T (z) = T0(1 + z), where T0 is the present-day temperature. Deviations from this behavior would imply the presence of new physics. Here we discuss how the combination of all currently available direct and indirect measurements of T (z) constrains the common phenomenological parametrization T (z) = T0(1 + z)^(1−β) , and obtain the first sub-percent constraint on the temperature growth index 1 − β. Specifically, we find β = (7.6 ± 8.0) × 10^(−3) at the 68.3% confidence level.
The Shift from High to Liquid Ideals: Making Sense of Journalism and Its Change through a Multidimensional Model

Abstract By reading qualitative studies, surveys, organisational histories, and textbooks, one can claim that the ethos of journalists has undergone fundamental changes in recent decades. The “high modern” journalistic ethos of the 1970s and 1980s was committed to the core values of the journalistic profession: objectivity, public service, consensus maintenance, gate-keeping, and recording of the recent past. After the millennium, these central ideals have become more ambivalent and “liquid”: subjectivity, consumer service, the watchdog role, agenda-setting, and forecasting the future seem to be more tempting alternatives than before. This article develops an analytic framework that elaborates the simple narrative from “high modern” to “liquid modern” journalism. Five key elements, namely, (1) knowledge, (2) audience, (3) power, (4) time, and (5) ethics, are discussed and problematized to suggest a more nuanced view of the changing professional ethos of journalism.
A note on the neutrality of profit taxes and tax compliance with imperfect detection

In a tax-evasion model with profit tax, we reexamine and clarify the issues of neutrality and separability with imperfect detection of tax fraud. With this more realistic setting, we show that the profit tax is not necessarily neutral and the separability conclusion may not hold. Furthermore, the property of non-neutrality may coexist with that of separability or inseparability. However, in contrast to the traditional conclusion, raising the audit probability may reduce the tax compliance when the property of inseparability is present.
Techniques for reducing exposures to volatile organic compounds associated with new construction and renovation - eScholarship

TECHNIQUES FOR REDUCING EXPOSURES TO VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS ASSOCIATED WITH NEW CONSTRUCTION AND RENOVATION A.T. Hodgson 1 and D.A. Shimer 2 E.O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA California Environmental Protection Agency, Air Resources Board, USA ABSTRACT Chamber experiments were conducted with a combination of latex paints and new carpet and vinyl flooring assemblies. The first objective was to characterize the emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from the assemblies at simulated residential conditions. The second objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of techniques that homeowners and building managers might employ during new construction or renovation to reduce concentrations of VOCs and exposures to these VOCs. The techniques included: increased ventilation for three days following installation (each source); airing out of materials for two days prior to installation (carpet and vinyl flooring); and mild heating for three days following installation (combined sources). Short-term ventilation typically reduced VOC concentrations in room air only during the period of increased ventilation. Airing out of materials generally reduced the emissions of VOCs from carpet materials but was ineffective for VOCs emitted by vinyl flooring. Heating applied after materials were installed had mixed results. INTRODUCTION Paints and many materials used to finish the interiors of houses and other buildings emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including toxic air contaminants (TACs). These emissions result in exposures to occupants. The California Air Resources Board (ARB) is required to consider such indoor exposures in assessing risks from TACs to public health. Thus, it is necessary for the ARB to identify indoor sources of VOCs and to characterize their emissions. The ARB also provides information to the public regarding ways to reduce both indoor and outdoor exposures to TACs. Numerous techniques for reducing occupant exposures to indoor sources of VOCs have been proposed. The California Department of Health Services developed guidelines for reducing exposures to VOCs from construction materials used in office buildings [1]. Tichenor and Sparks employed an indoor air quality model to predict occupant exposures for different source scenarios, building parameters and occupant activity patterns [2]. The current study was designed to evaluate selected exposure reduction techniques in environmental chambers. Emphasis was placed on practical techniques that homeowners and building managers might use to reduce occupant exposures to VOCs associated with new construction or renovation. The study is fully described in a recent report [3]. METHODS A variety of interior latex paints, carpets, carpet cushions, and vinyl floor installation materials widely used by California homeowners were selected for study. Newly manufactured specimens of 24 materials were individually screened for emissions of VOCs in
The Composition of Knowledge and Long-Run Growth

Technologies differ in their scopes of applications. The types of knowledge a country possesses have important implications on its growth. This paper develops a multi-sector model of innovation, trade and growth, in which knowledge in one sector is applicable to innovation in another sector in various degrees and a country’s composition of knowledge is endogenously determined. We find that lower trade costs improve aggregate innovation efficiency through the within-country allocation of R&D towards sectors with higher knowledge applicability, demonstrating a “composition effect”. We construct measures quantifying the sectoral knowledge applicability using cross-sector patent citations. Based on this index, we present cross-country evidence that broadly supports the model’s implications.
Effect of whey protein purity and glycerol content upon physical properties of edible fi lms manufactured therefrom

This manuscript describes the detailed characterization of edible films made from two different protein products e whey protein isolate (WPI) and whey protein concentrate (WPC), added with three levels of glycerol (Gly) e i.e. 40, 50 and 60%(w/w). The molecular structure, as well as barrier, tensile, thermal, surface and optical properties of said films were determined, in attempts to provide a better understanding of the effects of proteinaceous purity and Gly content of the feedstock. WPI films exhibited statistically lower (p < 0.05) moisture content (MC), film solubility (S), water activity, water vapor permeability (WVP), oxygen and carbon dioxide permeabilities (O2P and CO2P, respectively) and color change values, as well as statistically higher (p < 0.05) density, surface hydrophobicity, mechanical resistance, elasticity, extensibility and transparency values than their WPC counterparts, for the same content of Gly. These results are consistent with data from thermal and FTIR analyses. Furthermore, a significant increase (p < 0.05) was observed in MC, S, WVP, O2P, CO2P, weight loss and extensibility of both protein films when the Gly content increased; whereas a significant decrease (p < 0.05) was observed in thermal features, as well as in mechanical resistance and elasticity e thus leading to weaker films. Therefore, fundamental elucidation was provided on the features of WPI and WPC germane to food packaging e along with suggestions to improve the most critical ones, i.e. extensibility and WVP. 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Unimodular Roots of Special Littlewood Polynomials

Abstract We call $\alpha \left( z \right)={{a}_{0}}+{{a}_{1}}z+\cdot \cdot \cdot +{{a}_{n-1}}{{z}^{n-1}}$ a Littlewood polynomial if ${{a}_{j}}=\pm 1$ for all $j$ . We call $\alpha \left( z \right)$ self-reciprocal if $\alpha \left( z \right)={{z}^{n-1}}\alpha \left( 1/z \right)$ , and call $\alpha \left( z \right)$ skewsymmetric if $n=2m+1$ and ${{a}_{m+j}}={{\left( -1 \right)}^{j}}{{a}_{m-j}}$ for all $j$ . It has been observed that Littlewood polynomials with particularly high minimum modulus on the unit circle in $\mathbb{C}$ tend to be skewsymmetric. In this paper, we prove that a skewsymmetric Littlewood polynomial cannot have any zeros on the unit circle, as well as providing a new proof of the known result that a self-reciprocal Littlewood polynomial must have a zero on the unit circle.
Confidence intervals for the difference of two normal population means with one variance unknown

Motivated by the recent work of Maity and Sherman (2006). The two-sample ttest with one variance unknown. The American Statistician 60, 163-166], we investigate, in this paper, confidence intervals for the difference between the means of two normal populations with one variance unknown. Asymptotic coverage probabilities and expected lengths of confidence intervals are derived. Monte Carlo simulations results indicate that the new confidence interval, based on Maity and Sherman, for the difference between two normal means with one variance unknown gives a shorter expected length than that of the well-known Welch-Satterthewaite confidence interval when the ratio of their population variances is large; otherwise, the Welch-Satterthewaite confidence interval is preferable.
Testing the well-posedness of characteristic evolution of scalar waves

Recent results have revealed a critical way in which lower order terms affect the well-posedness of the characteristic initial value problem for the scalar wave equation. The proper choice of such terms can make the Cauchy problem for scalar waves well posed even on a background spacetime with closed lightlike curves. These results provide new guidance for developing stable characteristic evolution algorithms. In this regard, we present here the finite difference version of these recent results and implement them in a stable evolution code. We describe test results which validate the code and exhibit some of the interesting features due to the lower order terms.
Preservice Elementary Teachers’ Reflective Insights from Teaching Mathematics during an Authentic Early Practicum Experience

This content analysis examined 1,710 statements made in post-lesson reflections of elementary education preservice teachers (N=120) after their first and second unassisted lessons during an early practicum experience that accompanied a mathematics methods course. The activities constituted authentic learning experiences in which preservice teachers planned and executed two appropriate mathematics lessons featuring hands-on materials and open-ended problem solving for elementary students. Predominant reflection themes focused on elementary student motivation, student learning, improvement of lessons, student skill levels, student behaviors and feelings. The authentic learning format allowed preservice teachers to develop professionally, taking responsibility for their own learning with the support of their mathematics methods instructor, host teacher, and peers. Reflections showed that preservice teachers had become aware of the complexity of teaching, analyzing problems from many viewpoints.
Award Number: W81XWH-06-1-0762 TITLE: Stroma-Derived SDF-1 Confers Chemoresistance to CXCR4-Expressing Breast Cancer Cells

The chemokine receptor CXCR4 is functionally expressed on the cell surface of various cancer cells, and plays a role in cell proliferation and migration of these cells. Specifically, in breast cancer cells the CXCR4/CXCL12 axis has been implicated in cell migration in vitro and in metastasis in vivo, but the underlying signaling mechanisms are incompletely understood. The xenograft-derived MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell line (231mfp), which was shown previously to grow more aggressively than the parent cells, showed increased CXCR4 expression at the mRNA, total protein and cell surface expression level. This correlated with an enhanced response to CXCL12, specifically in augmented and prolonged Akt activation in a Gi, Src family kinase and PI-3 kinase dependent fashion. 231mfp cells migrated towards CXCL12—in contrast to the parent cell line—and this chemotaxis was blocked by inhibition of Gi, Src family kinases, PI-3 kinase and interestingly, Akt itself, as could be shown with two pharmacological inhibitors, a dominant negative Akt construct and with Akt shRNA. Collectively, we have demonstrated that prolonged Akt activation is an important signaling pathway for breast cancer cells expressing CXCR4 and is necessary for CXCL12-dependent cell migration.
Soil nitric oxide emissions after nitrogen and phosphorus additions in two subtropical humid forests

[1] Soil nitric oxide (NO) emissions after the addition of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) were studied at a broadleaf forest and a pine forest in Dinghushan Biosphere Reserve, south China. N was applied at 5 g N m−2 (or 50 kg N ha−1) and P was applied at 4 g P m−2 as NH4Cl (AN), NaNO3 (NN), NH4Cl + Na2HPO4 (AP), NaNO3 + Na2HPO4 (NP), and Na2HPO4 (P) in water solutions, respectively, in comparison with water and blank controls. Enhancement of NO emission by N addition alone was greater than that by combined addition of N and P in both forests due to the P-limiting soil nutrient status. In both forests, temporal pattern of NO emission after adding NO3−-N was different with that after adding NH4+-N. NO3−-N addition resulted in immediate NO fluxes for the broadleaf and to a lesser extent the pine forest site. In both forests, nitrification contributed more than denitrification to NO production although denitrification also played an important role in the broadleaf forest. N addition induced greater NO emission in the mature broadleaf forest than in the primary pine forest. Over the 50-day experimental period, averaged NO fluxes in plots adding AN, NN, AP, and NP were 3.3, 2.3, 1.9, and 1.8 times that in the water control plots, respectively, for the broadleaf forest and 2.7, 1.6, 1.5, and 1.3 times that in the water control plots, respectively, for the pine forest. Applied N loss as NO-N in AN, NN, AP, and NP plots were 2.8%, 1.6%, 1.1%, and 1.0%, respectively, in the broadleaf forest; and 2.6%, 1.0%, 0.8% and 0.4%, respectively, in the pine forest. On the average, N loss as NO from the forest floors was approximately 2% of the applied N as NH4+ or NO3− alone, quite similar to that measured by Hall and Matson (1999) from forest floors in the Hawaiian Islands.