Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
CAMEROON: A COUNTRY UNITED BY ETHNIC AMBITION AND DIFFERENCE

This paper attempts an answer to the question: What keeps Cameroon together despite widespread instability in Africa, despite the turbulence of the subregional environment in which it finds itself, and despite its own internal contradictions? The main argument is that the politics of regional and ethnic balance, the chronic lack of vision as a country, the lack of real commitment to democracy, the propensity to vacillate on most issues of collective interest, together with an infinite ability to develop survival strategies, have acted to counter all meaningful attempts to pursue common interests and aspirations. All that appears to unite Cameroonians is a common ethnic or regional ambition to preserve their differences under the delusion of maximizing opportunities. However, as the 'national cake' diminishes with the worsening economic crisis, corruption, mass misery and ethnicity, making it more illusive for the bulk of small people to claim the same benefits from their connections with the big—or the not so big—men and women of power, one can legitimately wonder just how much longer the system can continue to deflate the disaffected. IN SEPTEMBER 1998 Cameroon was, according to criteria adopted by Transparency International, the most corrupt country in the world. This declaration came shortly after a month-long anti-corruption campaign initiated by the Cameroonian government itself, and barely two months before the French newspaper Liberation published a story about a Cameroonian 'money doubler' of international notoriety, Donatien Koagne, detained in Yemen since 1995 in connection with 3 million dollars which he had offered to multiply to 9 millions. These developments lead me to revisit a topic that has always fascinated me: Cameroon as a social scientific curiosity. Francis B. Nyamnjoh is Head, Department of Sociology & Anthropology, University of Buea, Cameroon. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the workshop entitled 'Cameroon: Biography of a Nation' organized at Amherst College, USA, 20-23 November 1997. 1. See Ubimtum of 14 and 15 November 1998, p. 18 for Karl Laske's articles on 'Koagne, liiomine qui mulu'pliait les dollars' and 'Ce Camerounais qui escroquait des chefs d'Etat est detenu au Yemen'.
Optimization of medium composition for thermostable protease production by Bacillus sp . HS08 with a statistical method

4fullfactorial central composite design (CCD) was chosen to explain the combined effects of the four medium constituents; corn starch, soybean meal, glucose and yeast extract. The optimized values obtained by the statistical analysis showed that corn starch at 19.8 g/l, soybean meal at 9.7 g/l, glucose at 3.6 g/l and yeast extract at 3.9 g/l gived maximum protease activity of 6804 U/ml.
Episodic modulations in supernova radio light curves from luminous blue variable supernova progenitor models

Context. Ideally, one would like to know which type of core-collapse supernovae (SNe) is produced by different progenitors and what channels of stellar evolution lead to these progenitors. These links have to be very well known to use the observed frequency of different types of SN events for probing the star formation rate and massive star evolution in different types of galaxies. Aims. We investigate the link between luminous blue variables (LBVs) as SN progenitors and the appearance of episodic light curve modulations in the radio light curves of the SN event. Methods. We use the 20 Mand 25 Mmodels with rotation at solar metallicity, which are part of an extended grid of stellar models computed by the Geneva team. At their pre-SN stage, these two models have recently been shown to have spectra similar to those of LBV stars, and they possibly explode as Type IIb SNe. Based on the wind properties before the explosion, we derive the density structure of their circumstellar medium. This structure is used as input for computing the SN radio light curve. Results. We find that the 20 Mmodel shows radio light curves with episodic luminosity modulations similar to those observed in some Type IIb SNe. This occurs because the evolution of the 20 Mmodel terminates in a region of the HR diagram where radiative stellar winds present strong density variations, caused by the bistability limit. Ending its evolution in a zone of the HR diagram where no change of the mass-loss rates is expected, the 25 Mmodel presents no such modulations in its radio SN light curve. Conclusions. Our results reinforce the link between SN progenitors and LBV stars. We also confirm the existence of a physical mechanism for a single star to have episodic radio light curve modulations. In the case of the 25 Mprogenitors, we do not obtain modulations in the radio light curve, but our models may miss some outbursting behavior in the late stages of massive stars.
The higher-level phylogeny of Archosauria (Tetrapoda: Diapsida)

Crown group Archosauria, which includes birds, dinosaurs, crocodylomorphs, and several extinct Mesozoic groups, is a primary division of the vertebrate tree of life. However, the higher-level phylogenetic relationships within Archosauria are poorly resolved and controversial, despite years of study. The phylogeny of crocodile-line archosaurs (Crurotarsi) is particularly contentious, and has been plagued by problematic taxon and character sampling. Recent discoveries and renewed focus on archosaur anatomy enable the compilation of a new dataset, which assimilates and standardizes character data pertinent to higher-level archosaur phylogeny, and is scored across the largest group of taxa yet analysed. This dataset includes 47 new characters (25% of total) and eight taxa that have yet to be included in an analysis, and total taxonomic sampling is more than twice that of any previous study. This analysis produces a well-resolved phylogeny, which recovers mostly traditional relationships within Avemetatarsalia, places Phytosauria as a basal crurotarsan clade, finds a close relationship between Aetosauria and Crocodylomorpha, and recovers a monophyletic Rauisuchia comprised of two major subclades. Support values are low, suggesting rampant homoplasy and missing data within Archosauria, but the phylogeny is highly congruent with stratigraphy. Comparison with alternative analyses identifies numerous scoring differences, but indicates that character sampling is the main source of incongruence. The phylogeny implies major missing lineages in the Early Triassic and may support a Carnian-Norian extinction event.
The Economic Value of Corporate Eco‐Efficiency

This study adds new insights to the long-running corporate environmental-financial performance debate by focusing on the concept of eco-efficiency. Using a new database of eco-efficiency scores, we analyse the relation between eco-efficiency and financial performance from 1997 to 2004. We report that eco-efficiency relates positively to operating performance and market value. Moreover, our results suggest that the market's valuation of environmental performance has been time variant, which may indicate that the market incorporates environmental information with a drift. Although environmental leaders initially did not sell at a premium relative to laggards, the valuation differential increased significantly over time. Our results have implications for company managers, who evidently do not have to overcome a tradeoff between eco-efficiency and financial performance, and for investors, who can exploit environmental information for investment decisions.
NUMERICAL SIMULATION FOR HEAT AND FLUID FLOW THROUGH POROUS MEDIA

Heat and Fluid flow through infinite porous media is numerically studied. The pore structure considered is body-centered cubic (BCC) and face-centered cubic (FCC) whose porosity is ranged 0.93–0.98 by changing the pore diameter. For the thermal condition, a constant heat flux from the porous wall is considered. The heat and fluid flow simulations are carried out separately by the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM). It is confirmed that the LBM can simulate them properly and the permeability depends on the pore structure compared at the same porosity. The heat transfer coefficient is found to be affected not only by the permeability but also the pore structure. That is, even at the same permeability, the Nusselt number depends on the structure.Copyright © 2011 by ASME
Implications of Unprofitable Horizontal Mergers: A Positive External Effect Does Not Suffice to Clear a Merger!

We demonstrate that the popular Farrell-Shapiro-framework (FSF) for the analysis of mergers in oligopolies relies regarding its policy conclusions sensitively on the assumption that rational agents will only propose privately profitable mergers. If this assumption held, a positive external effect of a proposed merger would represent a sufficient condition to allow the merger. However, the empirical picture on mergers and acquisitions reveals a significant share of unprofitable mergers and economic theory, moreover, demonstrates that privately unprofitable mergers can be the result of rational action. Therefore, we extend the FSF by explicitly allowing for unprofitable mergers to occur with some frequency. This exerts a considerable impact on merger policy conclusions: while several insights of the original FSF are corroborated (f.i. efficiency defence), a positive external effect does not represent a sufficient condition for the allowance of a merger anymore. Applying such a rule would cause a considerable amount of false positives. We thank all participants of the 29th HOS Conference (Marburg, November 2007), the 35th EARIE Conference (Toulouse, September 2008) and the Annual Meeting of the Verein fur Socialpolitik (Graz, September 2008) for a valuable and helpful discussion of this paper. Furthermore, we thank Barbara Guldenring for editorial assistance.
Intravenous Glucocorticoid Pulse Therapy in Active, NSAID Refractory Axial An

Objective: High dose intravenous glucocorticoid (IVGC) pulse therapy is known to effectively reduce inflammatory signs and symptoms in patients with active inflammatory conditions. However, the efficacy of IVGC in ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is not clearly established. Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis with repeated measurements including patients with active, NSAID refractory axial AS (n=15) who underwent high dose IVGC pulse therapy. Parameters of clinical and humoral disease activity were compared to active AS patients (n=14) under continuous anti-TNF treatment. Patients were seen every 3 months and followed up for a total period of 12 months. Results: Both IVGC pulse and anti-TNF therapy lead to a significant and sustained reduction of the mean bath ankylosing spondylitis disease activity index (BASDAI 7.4 ± 1.5 at baseline vs. 5.4 ± 2.1 at 12 months in the pulse group and 6.9 ± 1.2 at baseline vs. 5.0 ± 2.7 at 12 months in the anti-TNF group, p<0.001), CRP (p=0.018), ESR (p=0.028), morning stiffness (p<0.001), and finger-to-floor-distance (p=0.001; within group comparison). Conclusions: Patients with active axial AS treated with one IVGC pulse show a substantial decrease in disease activity over a period of 12 months in this retrospective analysis.
Effects of the Chromosome Region Including the Gpc‐B1 Locus on Wheat Grain and Protein Yield

Author(s): Brevis, JUANCARLOS; Dubcovsky, JORGE | Abstract: The recent cloning of the Gpc-B1 gene from Triticum turgidum ssp. dicoccoides (Korn. ex Asch. and Graebn.) Thell. (DIC hereafter) chromosome 6BS revealed that modern wheat varieties have a nonfunctional allele. The DIC allele accelerates senescence and increases grain protein concentration (GPC) relative to the nonfunctional allele, but its effect on yield is not known. Here we describe the effect of Gpc-B1 on grain yield, grain weight, protein yield (grain yield by GPC), and N harvest index (NHI) of common (T. aestivum L.) and durum [T. turgidum ssp. durum (Desf.) Husn. ] wheat using BC6F3 near-isogenic lines (NILs, g99% identical) with and without the DIC Gpc-B1 allele. Six hexaploid and three tetraploid pairs of NILs were tested in three California locations (2005–2007) and all showed higher GPC when the functional Gpc-B1 allele was present (P l 0.0001). Hexaploid NILs with the DIC Gpc-B1 allele showed a significant decrease in grain weight (2.8%, P = 0.0004) and a similar trend was observed between tetraploid NILs, although the differences were marginally not significant (P = 0.08). In spite of this reduction, the differences in grain yield between NILs with different Gpc-B1 alleles across genotypes and environments were not significant. Protein yield was increased in the Gpc-B1 NILs of both hexaploid (P l 0.0001) and tetraploid (P = 0.06) wheat. The Gpc-B1 introgression in hexaploid NILs resulted in significantly (P l 0.01) lower straw N concentration at maturity and higher NHI, which suggests that the functional Gpc-B1 allele improves N remobilization.
A New Species of Orthoprotella (Crustacea : Amphipoda : Caprellidea) from Amakusa, Western Kyushu, Japan

A new caprellid amphipod, Orthoprotella spinigera, is described and illus trated based on the specimens from Amakusa, western Kyushu, Japan. The new species, which is the second representative of the genus from Japan, differs from its congeners in the arrangement of projections of the body.
Various causes related to Dead-in-shell Embryos of Kamrupa and Dahlem Red bird’s egg

The present study was undertaken to study the etiopathology of dead-in-shell embryos of chicken egg collected from the Kamrupa and Dahlem Red bird being maintained at the experimental poultry farm of “All India Co-ordinated Research Project on Poultry Breeding”, Guwahati-22 during the period from February, 2014 to March, 2014. In total 2270 numbers of egg were incubated of which 1250 nos. from Kamrupa and 1020 nos. from Dahlem Red bird. Out of which 184 (58.97 %) and 143 (47.35 %) nos. of egg were found dead-in-shell in case of Kamrupa and Dahlem Red bird, respectively. Various abnormalities detected in the dead-in-shell embryos of Kamrupa and Dahlem Red bird were malposition, malformation, dehydration, adhesion, pathological condition. Out of 37 nos. and 33 nos. of dead-in-shell embryos of Kamrupa and Dahlem Red bird, respectively 13 nos. of embryos in each of the breeds showed septicemia. The organism isolated from the embryos of both the variety was Streptococcus. spp, Staphylococcus spp. and Escherichia coli.
Technical efficiency, technological change and total factor productivity growth in Malaysian manufacturing sector

The manufacturing sector is becoming more important for the Malaysia economy. The contribution of output and employment from this sector is continuously increasing since the 1980 an, except for certain period when an economy experiences recession. Viewing from its capacity to spearhead economic growth the government has given emphasis to the manufacturing sector in achieving industrialized nation by year 2020. It is a claim that productivity for this sector had not yet achieved optima level and in certain years, the growth of productivity was smaller than the growth of wages. Even though the concept of productivity usually referred to labour productivity, this concept is very much related to total factor productivity (TFP). This paper attempts to analysis trend of, technical efficiency, technological change and TFP growth in the Malaysian manufacturing sector. The analysis is based on data from the Industrial Manufacturing Survey of 1985 to 2000 collected by the Department of Statistics Malaysia using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The results show that during the period under study, TFP growth is increasing and the major contribution of TFP growth in technical efficiency. Nevertheless, technological change show increasing trend over time. The industries that experienced high technical efficiency are food, wood, chemical and iron products. However, for food and wood industries technical progress is higher than technical progress. The other industry that shows larger technical progress than technical efficiency is textile industry but both values are below unity.
Experimental investigation of a new spiral wingtip

Experiments on the relative merits and demerits of slotted wingtips mimicking a bird’s primary feathers have been performed. The real emargination length of feather tips, their flexibility and curved shapes during cruise are considered in the present study. The experiments were performed at a Reynolds number of 3.7 x 105 on a symmetric flat plate half wing of aspect ratio 3. Lift, drag and pitching moments were measured using a six component aerodynamic balance. Four different shapes inspired by bird primary feathers have been analysed. The rigid curved tip performed the best increasing the L/D ratio by 20%. This improvement has been compared with forty different wingtips model available in the literature which shows that rigid curved tip provide better L/D performance. Based on this improvement the key performance indicator of Jet and propeller airplane has been calculated that shows a 7.8% and 9% increase in range for propeller and Jet airplane, respectively.
Relative role of bed roughness change and bed erosion on peak discharge increase in hyperconcentrated floods

River floods are usually featured by a downstream flattening discharge peak whereas a downstream increasing discharge peak is observed at a rate exceeding the tributary discharge during highly silt-laden floods (hyperconcentrated floods) in China’s Yellow River. It entails a great challenge in the downstream flood defence and the underlying mechanisms need to be unravelled. Previous study on this issue only focuses on one possible mechanism, while the present work aims to reveal the relative importance of bed roughness change and bed erosion in the hyperconcentrated flood. Using a newly developed fully coupled morphodynamic model, we have conducted a numerical study for the 2004 hyperconcentrated flood in the Xiaolangdi-Jiahetan reach of the Lower Yellow River. In order to focus on the physical mechanism and to reduce uncertainty from low-resolution topography data, the numerical modeling was carried out in a schematized 1-D channel of constant width. The basic understanding that bed roughness decreases with concentration at moderate concentrations (e.g. several 10 s to 100 s g L? 1) was incorporated by a simple power-law relation between Manning roughness coefficient and sediment concentration. The feedback between the bed deformation and the turbid flow, however, was fully accounted for, in the constituting equations as well as in the numerical solutions. The model successfully reproduced the downstream flood peak increase for the 2004 flood when considering the hyperconcentration-induced bed roughness reduction. As the hyperconcentration lags shortly behind the flood peak, later parts of the flood wave may experience less friction and overtake the wave front, leading to the discharge increase. In comparison, bed erosion is much less important to the discharge increase, at least for hyperconcentrated flood of moderate sediment concentration.
Viscosity and density of Fe–S liquids at high pressures

High P, T measurements of viscosity and density of Fe–S liquids are reported. Viscosity was measured using Stokes method and synchrotron radiographic techniques for real-time imaging of a falling/rising composite sphere in Fe–S liquids. For P up to 4 GPa and T up to 1523 K, measured viscosities are of the order of 10−2–10−3 Pa s. Density of Fe–10 wt% S liquids was measured using the sink/float method with composite spheres. The high P density data indicate a density increase of 29% between 1 atm and 15 GPa at 1923 K.
Tobacco Chewing, Smoking and Health Knowledge: Evidence from Bangladesh

Unlike the substance abuse studies in developed countries, tobacco consumption and its adverse effects in developing countries are poorly studied. The objective of this paper is to identify which factors influence individuals' decision to smoke cigarettes, chew tobacco and their knowledge about the health hazards of tobacco use. To allow for the potential correlation among smoking tobacco, chewing tobacco, and health knowledge, we estimate a trivariate probit regression model using household survey data from Bangladesh. For both chewing tobacco and smoking, the results show how the probabilities of uninformed tobacco user and uninformed nonuser vary across different demographic groups.
Mediating Effects of Psychological Empowerment on the Relationship between Nurse’s Self Leadership and Organizational Commitment

This study aims to investigate the relationship between self leadership (SL) and nurses’ organizational commitment (NOC) with psychological empowerment (PE) as a mediator using a sample of 157 nurses from healthcare organizations in Pusan in Korea. The study also looked at SL as antecedents to PE, and PE(meaning, competence, self-determination, and impact) as antecedents to NOC. The scales were proven to have reliability through the results based on Wortzel’s idea (1979) arguing that the result is highly reliable if the Cronbach α value is between . 70 and . 98. The results show that SL is positively related to NOC while PE also produces some significant moderating effects on the relationship between SL and NOC. An important implication of this study’s findings is, consequently, that SL should be positively enhanced for the purpose of increasing the level of NOC through using the mediating role of PE.
Carnot efficiency at divergent power output

The widely debated feasibility of thermodynamic machines achieving Carnot efficiency at finite power has been convincingly dismissed. Yet, the common wisdom that efficiency can only be optimal in the limit of infinitely slow processes overlooks the dual scenario of infinitely fast processes. We corroborate that efficient engines at divergent power output are not theoretically impossible, framing our claims within the theory of Stochastic Thermodynamics. We inspect the case of an electronic quantum dot coupled to three particle reservoirs to illustrate the physical rationale.
Physical Capital, Human Capital, and Social Capital: The Changing Roles in China’s Economic Growth

This paper examines the roles of physical capital, human capital, and social capital in China's economic growth during the reform period 1981–2010. Empirical estimation confirms that physical capital and human capital contribute to the economic growth, probably due to the capital accumulation and the improvement of labor productivity. The impact of social capital turns from being insignificant in the 1980s and the 1990s to be positive in the 2000s, suggesting its rising importance in recent decades. A declining role of physical capital in the economic growth in China from 1990s to 2000s is also found. The findings hold for several additional robustness checks, including focusing on longer term determinants of the economic growth, subregional analysis, and endogeneity. Furthermore, the foreign direct investment inflows and adjustment of economic ownership structure are also important for economic growth in China.