Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Longitudinal Monitoring of DNA Viral Loads in Transplant Patients Using Quantitative Metagenomic Next-Generation Sequencing

Introduction Immunocompromised patients are prone to reactivations of multiple latent DNA viruses. Viral load monitoring by single-target quantitative PCRs (qPCR) is the current cornerstone for virus quantification. In this study, a metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) approach was used for identification and load monitoring of transplantation-related DNA viruses. Methods Longitudinal plasma samples from six patients that were qPCR-positive for cytomegalovirus (CMV), Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), BK polyoma virus (BKV, adenovirus (ADV), parvovirus B19 (B19V), and torque teno-virus (TTV) were sequenced using the quantitative metagenomic Galileo Viral Panel Solution (Arc Bio, LLC) reagents and bioinformatics pipeline combination. Qualitative and quantitative performance was analysed with focus on viral load ranges relevant for clinical decision-making. Results All pathogens identified by qPCR were also identified by mNGS. In addition, BKV, CMV, and HHV6B were detected by mNGS which were not ordered initially but could be confirmed by qPCR. Viral loads determined by mNGS correlated with the qPCR results, with inter-method differences in viral load per virus ranging from 0.19 log10 IU/ml for EBV to 0.90 log10 copies/ml for ADV. TTV, analysed by mNGS in a semi-quantitative way, showed a mean difference of 3.0 log10 copies/ml. Trends over time in viral load determined by mNGS and qPCR were comparable, and clinical thresholds for initiation of treatment were equally indicated by mNGS. Conclusion The Galileo Viral Panel for quantitative mNGS performed comparable to qPCR with regard to detection and viral load determination, within clinically relevant ranges of patient management algorithms.
MODERN CONTRACEPTIVE USE AMONG WOMEN IN ZAMBIA: A DESCRIPTIVE SURVEY

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to describe the modern contraceptive use by women of childbearing age in Zambia. METHODS: The study was retrospective descriptive observational design. Secondary data of 13,683 women aged 15 - 49 who participated in the ZDHS 2018 were analysed. Data were extracted using a data extraction tool and analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics 26. Since the ZDHS 2018 used numeric data, the study was quantitative research. The study examined the association between demographic and socioeconomic characteristics and modern contraceptive use using Pearson, Chi-Square and multiple logistic regression. RESULTS: In Zambia, the most used type of modern contraception were injectables (52%). Female condom is the most known type of modern contraceptives (55%). The significant factors associated with the use of modern contraceptives were age group 25-29 and 45-49 (AOR=1.41 95% CI=1.05, 1.90) and (AOR=0.41, 95% CI 0.28, 0.62), respectively. Being married and widowed (AOR=2.18, 95% CI 1.75, 2.71), and (AOR=0.50, 95% CI 0.31, 0.78), respectively. The likelihood utilization varied across the gradient of parity, educational attainment, and wealth. Educated and wealthy women were more likely to use modern methods compared to women with no education and in the poor category, respectively. CONCLUSION: The study established that factors such as age, marital status, the number of living children (parity), religion, and education level and wealth index remain significant issues in determining modern contraceptive use among childbearing women aged 15 to 49 in Zambia. Therefore, concerted efforts are required to increase use of modern methods of contraception by addressing these determinants.
EFFECT OF CULTIVATION ON HYDRAULIC PROPERTIES OF AN IOWA SOIL USING TENSION INFILTROMETERS1

The potential for groundwater contamination at a given location is influenced strongly by the hydraulic properties (K) of the soils. The objective ofthis study was to investigate the effect offield cultivation in a no-till soil on the variability of infiltration rates, fractional porosity distribution, and soil hydraulic conductivity during the growing season. Infiltration rates were measured at different tensions using tension infiltrometers in two no-till plots with cultivation (cultivated) and two no-till plots without cultivation (uncultivated) at two different depths (soil surface and 0.15-m depth). Tension infiltrometer readings were taken at four soil water tensions (0-, 30-, 60-, and 90-mm) and at three different times during the growing season july, August, and September). Results of this study showed that infiltration rates at 0-mm water tension were significantly larger than infiltration rates at the three other tensions for all plots. The data on infiltration rates show that under saturated flow conditions, macropore flow is a significant pathway for water infiltration. For the cultivated plots, 70 to 80% of the saturated flux at the soil surface occurred though macropores. At 0.15-m depth for the same plots, there was a decrease in macropore flow during the growing season (from 69% in July to 44% in September). However, in the uncultivated plots, macropore flow increased (by almost 52%) at the soil surface during the growing season. In the uncultivated plots, macroporosity increased with time at the soil surface. During the latter part of the growing season, macroporosity values for no-till plots with cultivation were very similar to those of no-till plots without cultivation. The effect of cultivation disappeared with time during the growing season. Although there was great variability in the saturated K values, K values at the surface remained constant in the cultivated plots at the beginning ofthe growing season and increased during the latter part of the growing season. In the plots without cultivation, there was an increase in the surface-saturated K values from July through September.
Correlating the Data on the Mechanical Damage to Mung Bean Seeds under Impact Loading

Mechanical damage of seeds due to harvest, handling, and other processes is an important factor that affects the quality and quaintly of seeds. This study evaluated impact damage to the mung bean seeds with moisture contents of 9.54 to 25% wet basis and subject to impact velocities from 10 to 25 m/s using a laboratory impact damage assessment device. The results showed that impact velocity, moisture content, and the interaction effects of these two variables significantly influenced the percentage physical damage in mung ban seeds (p<0.01). Increasing the impact velocity from 10 to 25 m/s caused a significant (pâ<â0.05) increase in the mean values of damage from 0.53 to 31.78%. The mean values of physical damage decreased significantly (pâ<â0.05) by a factor about two (from 22.41 to 11.24%), with increase in the moisture content from 9.54 to 20%. However, by a higher increase in the moisture from 20 to 25%, the mean value of damage showed a non-significant increasing trend. There was an optimum moisture level of 20%, at which seed damage was minimized. An empirical model composed of seed moisture content and velocity of impact developed for accurately describing the percentage of physical damage to mung beans. It was found that the model has provided satisfactory results over the whole set of values for the dependent variable.
Information Exposure, Opportunity Evaluation and Entrepreneurial Action: An Investigation of an Online User Community

We study how an individual’s exposure to external information regulates the evaluation of entrepreneurial opportunities and entrepreneurial action. Combining data from interviews, a survey, and a comprehensive web log of an online user community spanning eight years, we find that technical information shaped opportunity evaluation, and social information about user needs drove individuals to entrepreneurial action. Our empirical findings suggest that reducing demand uncertainty is a central factor regulating of entrepreneurial action, an insight that received theories of entrepreneurial action have so far overlooked.
Spruce Hemicellulose for Chemicals Using Aqueous Extraction: Kinetics, Mass Transfer, and Modeling

Pressurized hot water extraction of hemicelluloses from spruce sapwood was studied at 120–170 °C using a batchwise-operated cascade reactor, which enables precise sampling as well as very accurate and rapid temperature control. The extraction was performed under identical conditions for two different chip sizes, a 1.25–2.0-mm sieved fraction and handmade 10-mm cubic blocks, to evaluate the influence of chip size on the overall extraction kinetics. The results showed that the extraction rate increases significantly with temperature and that the pH decreases during the extraction, as a result of the liberation of acid groups. The concentration of hydronium ions in the liquid phase was observed to have a linear correlation with conversion depending, however, on the chip size, which shows that the mass transfer of the acid groups differs significantly from that of the bulky hemicelluloses. It also shows that significant amounts of acetyl groups are liberated inside the chips before the hemicelluloses enter th.
Does Sunlight Kill Germs? Stock Market Listing and Workplace Safety

Abstract This study highlights the positive impact of a stock market listing on workplace safety. We find that workplace injuries in publicly listed firms are lower than those in comparable private firms, and this effect relates to heightened monitoring by the media and regulators. The media pays more attention to public firms’ safety issues than to those of private firms, and the reduced media scrutiny due to local newspaper closures leads to greater increases in injuries in public firms. Regulators also monitor public firms more strictly, evidenced by a higher likelihood of nonroutine inspections and larger penalties for detected violations.
Platformizing the Economy? Building and Regulating Chinese Digital Platforms

[The online platform economy in China has grown to become one of the largest in the world, with several Chinese platform firms rivaling their American counterparts in size, revenue, and market capitalization. Their rise has challenged existing businesses and forced governments to find new ways to regulate the sector without stifling economic growth and innovation. In this paper, we present a structured explanation of the changes in governance of these private firms by the Chinese government as they grew from startups to powerful and indispensable actors in China’s political economy. We explore the relationship between the party-state and these platforms, as the former has pursued its core goals of economic growth, technological self-sufficiency, and maintenance of single-party rule. The interactions between the platform economy, the market power of the platform firms, and the Chinese government’s goals have led to changes in the governance of the Chinese platform economy.
Charitable Giving: Framing and the Role of Information

We study the impact of information on the effectiveness of a taking frame in the context of charitable giving. In our laboratory experiment, either the decision maker (giving frame) or the recipient (taking frame) receives an endowment. In both cases, the decision maker can freely decide the final allocation of the money. In addition to the frame, we vary the level of information that we provide about the worthiness of the receiving charity. In keeping with our theoretical prediction, participants donate significantly more, when the decision is framed as taking rather than as giving. However, this framing effect is smaller, the more information we provide on the charity.
Tax Threat and the Disruptive Market Power of Foreign Portfolio Investors

We investigate the equity trading behaviour of foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) and the potential stock market implications during a period of tax treatment uncertainty in the Indian emerging market. Theoretical arguments predict that the trading reactions (entry and exit) of FPIs not only depend on the severity and credibility of the tax reforms, but also on FPIs' ability to harm the host capital market by their actions. FPIs may promptly and materially exit the host capital market in response to tax policy reforms that impose potential additional costs. Economic arguments also posit that these withdrawals may carry significant negative implications for the host stock market. Further, given FPIs' experience regarding the questionable credibility of the host country's tax reforms and lingering uncertainty on future tax changes, FPIs may not re-enter the market with the same speed and volume as they exited, once the tax threat has been removed. The findings of our quasi-experimental set-up, exploiting a significant exogenous tax reform and using unique FPIs' transaction-level data, are consistent with these theoretical expectations.
Asset Variance Risk and Compound Option Prices

We evaluate the empirical validity of the compound option framework. In a model where corporate securities are options on a firm's assets, option contracts on these can be viewed as options on options, or compound options. We estimate a model with priced asset variance risk and find that it jointly explains the level and time variation of both equity index (SPX) and credit index (CDX) option prices well out-of-sample. This suggests that the two options markets are priced consistently, contrary to recent findings. We show that variance risk is important for establishing pricing consistency between equity, credit, and related derivatives. <br>
Forecasting the Long-Term Equity Premium for Asset Allocation

Abstract Long-term country equity premium forecasts based on a cross-sectional global factor model (CS-GFM), where factors represent compensation for risks proxied by valuation and financial variables are superior, statistically and economically, to forecasts based on time-series prediction models commonly used in academia and practice. CS-GFM equity premium forecasts produce significant utility gains compared to long-term asset allocation strategies based on eighteen commonly used prediction models, consistently across the US and eleven developed equity markets.
Network Externalities and Consolidation in the Dating Website Industry

Network externalities—i.e., effects on consumers' alternative-specific pay-offs of other consumers' decisions—arise in many economic settings. This paper considers the identification of discrete-choice models featuring network externalities and then uses such a model to analyze how network externalities in the market for dating websites in the United States contribute to the effects of consolidation in that industry. My identification analysis shows that discrete-choice models with network externalities are generally not identified with market-level data alone, but that microdata allows the researcher to construct instrumental variables that identify the model. Using rich online browsing data, I estimate a model of consumer choice of dating website and find evidence of considerable network externalities. In my preferred specification, an inframarginal user of a site values a 10% increase in the site's usership at $11.11/month, which is about one third of the most popular site's price. I use my estimates to assess whether the observed extent of network externalities imply that increased market concentration would benefit consumers. I find that welfare losses from decreased variety and increased prices outweigh the gains from network externalities associated with a move from the observed market structure to monopoly. Platform differentiation may explain why platform integration has not followed consolidation in the dating websites industry.
The Influence of Season on the Cow Milk Quantity, Quality and Hygiene

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of season of collection on the quantity, quality and hygienicproperties of the raw milk delivered from one dairy farm. The studied traits were: bulk tank milk yield, chemicalcomposition (fat, protein, lactose, and total solids), freezing point, density, total bacteria count, coliform bacteriacount and somatic cell count, during years 2010 and 2011. A total of 727 samples were drawn and analysed in twolaboratories, using the standard methods. Average milk production per day per head in the farm was 13.58 kg,obtained from 252 cows. Year of collection had a significant effect on the bulk tank raw milk yield, quality andhygiene, except for freezing point and total bacteria count. The raw milk yield and chemical composition improved(p<0.05) from year 2010 to year 2011, as well as the hygienic quality. Season of collection had a significant (p<0.05)influence on the milk yield and chemical composition, the highest milk yield with the lowest concentration beingobtained during summer, while the lowest milk yield with the highest chemical composition was obtained in winter.Physical properties of the raw milk were less affected by the season of collection, with the lowest freezing point inthe winter and the highest density in the autumn. The highest somatic cell count and coliform bacteria count wasobtained during the spring and the lowest total bacteria count was obtained in winter season. There was a significant(p<0.05) interaction between year and season of production for all raw milk traits.
Face-Raised Octahedral Co3O4 Nanocrystals and Their Catalytic Activity in the Selective Oxidation of Alcohols

Face-raised Co3O4 octahedral crystals were successfully constructed through a carbon-assisted method using cellulose as carbon resource and used for a catalyst for selective oxidation of alcohols. The face-raised Co3O4 octahedra are about 200 nm in edge length and assembled to microtubes with a length of ca. 10 μm and a width of 2–3 μm. Our analysis showed that the thermal decomposition and carbonization of cellulose has contributed to the generation of the octahedral structure and the assembled process. Moreover, compared with normal Co3O4 octahedra, the face-raised Co3O4 octahedral crystals have higher remanence and saturation magnetization, which is attributed to their more uniform small grain sizes. In particular, the face-raised Co3O4 octahedra gave both higher activity and higher selectivity than the normal Co3O4 octahedra in the catalytic oxidation reactions of alcohols. More importantly, after eight cycles, the face-raised Co3O4 octahedral crystals still exhibited considerably high catalytic activ.
Laminar heat transfer to viscous non-Newtonian fluids in non-circular ducts

A computational and experimental study was made of the steady developing laminar convective heat transfer to viscous non-Newtonian fluids described by the power law model flowing in straight channels of circular and several non-circular cross-sections. In the numerical study the governing conservation equations in three dimensions subject to suitable boundary conditions were solved after appropriate discretization, using the Galerkin finite element method. Fourteen different cross-sectional geometries were studied numerically. Effects of temperature-dependent apparent viscosity, viscous dissipation as well as Prandtl number were included in the model. The thermal boundary conditions tested were: uniform wall temperature and uniform wall heat flux on the entire duct surface. Predicted velocity fields, pressure drop, and heat transfer distributions were compared with available data and simulation results as appropriate. Results are presented on the comparative thermal performance of various cross-sectional ducts.
Hydrogen fermentation of organic municipal wastes

Hydrogen gas is recognized as a promising energy resource in the future. Microbial hydrogen fermentation would be an attractive process for hydrogen recovery. In particular, hydrogen production using fermentative bacteria has some advantages such as a high rate of hydrogen production without light. In this study, the hydrogen production from organic wastes was investigated using batch experiments. Bean curd manufacturing waste, rice bran and wheat bran were used as the organic wastes. The effects of solid concentration on the hydrogen production potential and the characteristics of substrate decomposition were investigated. The percentages of hydrogen in the produced gas were between 54–78%, 43–68% and 42–72% for bean curd manufacturing waste, ricebran and wheat bran, respectively. The hydrogen production potentials of bean curd manufacturing waste, rice bran and wheat bran were 14–21, 31–61 and 10–43 ml.g VS −1 , respectively. The hydrogen yields from carbohydrate degradation were 2.54, 1.29 and 1.73 mol of H 2 mol −1 of hexose for bean curd manufacturing waste, rice bran and wheat bran, respectively. The carbohydrate was rapidly consumed just after inoculation. On the other hand, soluble protein was hardly degraded for each substrate, indicating that carbohydrate was the main source of the hydrogen production.
Reduction methods for feedback stabilization of fluid flows

This dissertation deals with reduction of two classes of dynamical systems in order to make them suitable for control design using linear systems theory. The first class consists of the large-dimensional systems governing fluid flows, for which we employ dimension reduction techniques for stabilization of unstable steady states. The second class consists of systems with a continuous symmetry, for which we use a template-based symmetry reduction method for stabilization of unstable relative equilibria. Model reduction has opened the world of linear control techniques to flow control. Linear control methods involve large matrix computations and are limited to dimensions of O(102−4), while discretized fluid equations are typically of O(105−8), making model reduction essential. A method that has been shown to accurately capture dynamics is the snapshot-based approximate balanced truncation, in which the governing equations (linearized about a steady state) are projected onto a small number (typically ≤ 100) of dynamically important modes. The reduced models obtained using this method accurately capture the input-output (actuation to sensing) behavior. However, a limitation is that this method is restricted to systems linearized about stable steady states. In this work, we extend its applicability to unstable steady states, assuming a small number of unstable modes. The unstable dynamics is treated exactly while the (large dimensional) stable dynamics is modeled. We show a theoretical equivalence between approximate balanced truncation and an experimental system identification technique called eigensystem realization algorithm (ERA). We extend ERA to simulations and obtain an orderof-magnitude cost reduction over balanced truncation. With the motivation of designing micro-air vehicles inspired by bird flight, the reduction techniques are applied to a model problem of the 2D flow past a flat plate at a low Reynolds number and a large angle of attack. The natural (uncontrolled) flow is periodic vortex shedding, though there also exists an unstable steady state that we seek to stabilize. The control actuation is modeled using a localized body-force actuator close to either the leading or the trailing edge of the plate and velocities are measured at two near-wake sensor locations. We obtain reduced models of the input-output dynamics linearized about the unstable steady state and provide time and frequency domain comparisons to show that 20-30 order models accurately capture the full system dynamics. We develop sensor-based feedback controllers and include them in the full nonlinear simulations. Even though the models are valid in a local neighborhood of the steady state, we show that they are even capable of suppressing the periodic vortex shedding, which is a nonlinear phenomenon. We also consider systems with a continuous symmetry and use a template-based approach to reduce the equations to a frame in which the symmetry is factored out. Relative equilibria are steady states in the symmetry-reduced frame; an example is