Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Market integration and price leadership: The U.S. Atlantic salmon market

Abstract When markets are integrated and the law of one price holds, prices confronted by different producers should tend to uniformity, in the long run, allowance is made for differences in quality and transportation costs. However, how producers coordinate to align prices is not obvious and probably the answer will vary between markets. In this article, we investigate this question using salmon prices differentials, for the main export countries—Canada, Chile, Norway, and the United Kingdom—of farmed Atlantic salmon in the United States market. The results indicate that there is a single common stochastic trend for the prices of the main suppliers of farmed Atlantic salmon in the United States market. Moreover, the Law of One Price cannot be rejected, implying that farmed Atlantic salmon from the different producers are perfect substitutes for U.S. consumers and that markets are fully integrated. Finally, testing for price leadership, we find that the main exporters follow the lead of the least cost-efficient producer, the United Kingdom.
Building on a Sequential Mixed-Mode Research Design in the Monitoring the Future Study.

Given the promise of the web push plus e-mail survey design for providing cost-effective and high-quality data (Patrick et al. 2018, 2019) as an alternative to a paper-and-pencil mailed survey design for the longitudinal Monitoring the Future (MTF) study, the current study sought to further enhance the web push condition. The MTF sample is based on US nationally representative samples of 12th grade students surveyed annually. The MTF control group for the current study included participants who completed the in-school baseline survey in the 12th grade and were selected to participate in their first follow-up survey in 2017 via mailed surveys (N = 1,222). A supplementary sample (N = ∼2,450) was assigned to one of the two sequential mixed-mode conditions. Those in condition 1 (N = 1,198), or mail push, were invited to complete mailed surveys and later given a web survey option. Those in condition 2 (N = 1,173), or enhanced web push, were invited to complete a web survey (the same as in the 2014 study, but with the addition of text messages and quick response (QR) codes and the web survey was optimized for mobile devices) and then later given a mailed survey option. Research aims were to examine response rates across conditions, as well as how responses were distributed across mode (paper, web), devices (computer, smartphone, table), and method of accessing the web survey (hand-entered URL, QR code, e-mail link, SMS link). Response rates differed significantly: the MTF control group was 34.2 percent, mail push was 35.4 percent, and enhanced web push was 42.05 percent. The higher response rate in the enhanced web push condition suggests that the additional strategies were effective at bringing in more respondents. Key estimates produced by the enhanced web push condition did not differ from those of the MTF control group.
Using Virtual Learning Environment as a Medium of Instruction in EFL Context: College Teachers’ Attitudes

Virtual learning is a kind of learning that is mainly web-based e-learning platform. It needs online portfolios, learning management system, systematic use of assessment, and course content in order to provide students with regular feedback. The present study deals with Iraqi college teachers’ attitudes towards using virtual learning as a medium of instruction in EFL teaching context. It attempts to see college teachers’ opinions concerning exchanging the traditional face to face teaching by totally online virtual courses. To gain the aim of the study, a questionnaire of two parts that is constructed by the researcher is used. Fifty college teachers have been chosen randomly to represent the main study sample. Based on the results gained, specific conclusions and implications are put forward.
CD33 Targeting Primary CAR-NK Cells Generated By CRISPR Mediated Gene Insertion Show Enhanced Anti-AML Activity

Human peripheral blood natural killer (NK) cells have intense antitumor activity and have been used successfully in several clinical trials. Modifying NK cells with a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) can improve their targeting and increase specificity. Recently, we described an efficient method for gene targeting in NK cells using Cas9/ribonucleoprotein complexes (PMID: 29985369 and 32603414). Here we combined this approach with single-stranded (ss) or self-complementary (sc) Adeno-associated virus (AAV)-mediated gene delivery for gene insertion into a safe-harbor locus using a wide variety of homology arms for homology repair (HR) and non-homologous directed CRISPR-assisted insertion tagging (CRISPaint) approaches. We demonstrated that expansion of NK cells on feeder cells (CSTX002) expressing membrane-bound IL21 increases expression of HDR-related genes and provides optimum biological condition for targeted gene insertion. For proof-of-concept, we successfully generated stable mCherry-expressing primary NK cells (up to 89% mCherry+) and determined that sc vectors with 300bp homology arms were optimal. Then, we generated CD33-targeting CAR NK cells with differing transmembrane and signaling domains (CD4/4-1BB+CD3ζ and NKG2D/2B4+CD3ζ), which continued to show robust expansion on CSTX002 and stably maintained their CAR expression. This resulted in CAR-NK-cells of high number and purity (mean 68% CAR+) that demonstrated enhanced antileukemic activity against acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cell lines. This efficient method for site-directed insertion of genetic materials into primary NK cells has broad potential for fundamental discovery and therapeutic applications. Keywords: CRISPR, NK, Cas9/RNP, AAV6, CRISPaint, HR, CD33CAR-NK Figure Naeimi Kararoudi: Kiadis Pharma Netherlans B.V: Patents & Royalties. Lee:Kiadis Pharma Netherlands B.V: Consultancy, Current equity holder in publicly-traded company, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Patents & Royalties.
Quality of groundwater used for poultry production in the Western Cape

Water samples were collected from 35 boreholes at poultry producers in the Western Cape and were analysed for 43 mineral and trace element constituent inclusion levels. Bicarbonates, chlorides, fluoride, nitrates, phosphates, sodium, cadmium, iron, lanthanum, lead, manganese, mercury, titaniu m and zirconium were identified as potentially hazardous constituents (PHC) in some areas and bicarbonates, chloride, sodium, lanthanum, lead, mercury and zirconium were identified as constituents of concern (COC) in some areas.
Comparative efficacy and safety of bortezomib, thalidomide, and dexamethasone (VTd) without and with daratumumab (D‐VTd) in CASSIOPEIA versus VTd in PETHEMA/GEM in transplant‐eligible patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma, using propensity score matching

Traditional bortezomib, thalidomide, and dexamethasone (VTd) regimens for patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma (NDMM) include doses of thalidomide up to 200 mg/day (VTd‐label). Clinical practice has evolved to use a lower dose (100 mg/day) to reduce toxicity (VTd‐mod), which was evaluated in the phase III CASSIOPEIA study, without or with daratumumab (D‐VTd; an anti‐CD38 monoclonal antibody). We used propensity score matching to compare efficacy and safety for VTd‐mod and D‐VTd with VTd‐label.
Every loser wins: leveraging ‘unsuccessful’ Olympic bids for positive benefits

ABSTRACT Research Question In what ways can cities leverage an unsuccessful Olympic Games bid to bring them positive benefits? Research Methods A multiple case study approach using the bids of Cape Town and Toronto for the 2004 and 2008 Olympic Games, respectively. Interviews were conducted with 31 stakeholders across both bids; including 19 members of the respective bid teams and a further 12 interviews with external stakeholders. This data is supplemented by documentary analysis of candidate files, promotional materials and city/council documents. Results and Findings Despite the differing political and social contexts of the two cities studied, both utilized similar leveraging strategies. The Olympic bid process focuses those in a city, bringing together coalitions, forcing a city to take stock of its current situation and brings national interest. The bid teams utilized the threat of not being successful to lever national government funding and created leveraging bodies to deliver the strategies. Implications The implications of this study are twofold. First, it provides cities with insight into how even an unsuccessful Olympic bid can provide benefits. Crucially, only legitimate bidders contributing to already existing plans can access government funding. Second, this research contributes to the bidding literature, providing new empirical material derived using a diverse case study approach, and to the leveraging literature through adapting, extending and updating Chalip’s (2004) conceptual model of event leverage.
Estimating Soil Water Content and Evapotranspiration of Winter Wheat under Deficit Irrigation Based on SWAP Model

Deficit irrigation strategy is essential for sustainable agricultural development in arid regions. A two−year deficit irrigation field experiment was conducted to study the water dynamics of winter wheat under deficit irrigation in Guanzhong Plain in Northwest China. Three irrigation levels were implemented during four growth stages of winter wheat: 100%, 80% and 60% of actual evapotranspiration (ET) measured by the lysimeter with sufficient irrigation treatment (CK). The agro−hydrological model soil−water−atmosphere−plant (SWAP) was used to simulate the components of the farmland water budget. Sensitivity analysis for parameters of SWAP indicated that the saturated water content and water content shape factor n were more sensitive than the other parameters. The verification results showed that the SWAP model accurately simulated soil water content (average relative error (MRE) < 21.66%, root mean square error (RMSE) < 0.07 cm3 cm−3) and ET (R2 = 0.975, p < 0.01). Irrigation had an important impact on actual plant transpiration, but the actual soil evaporation had little change among different treatments. The average deep percolation was 14.54 mm and positively correlated with the total irrigation amount. The model established using path analysis and regression methods for estimating ET performed well (R2 = 0.727, p < 0.01). This study provided effective guidance for SWAP model parameter calibration and a convenient way to accurately estimate ET with fewer variables.
Chloride‐to‐sulfate mass ratio: Practical studies in galvanic corrosion of lead solder

The effect of the chloride‐to‐sulfate mass ratio (CSMR) on lead leaching from 50:50 lead–tin solder galvanically coupled to copper in stagnant conditions was examined using bench‐scale testing and data from water utilities. The CSMR was significantly altered by coagulant changeover, blending of desalinated seawater, anion exchange, and NaCl brine leaks from onsite hypochlorite generators. Consistent with previous experiences, increasing the CSMR to the range of 0.1 to 1.0 produced dramatic increases in lead leaching from lead–tin solder galvanically coupled to copper. Before implementing any treatment changes that could increase the CSMR, utilities may want to use the protocol described in this article to ascertain the relative effect of the changes on lead corrosion.
From growing bubbles and dendrites to biological forms

We first describe how some ingenious experiments performed by Yves Couder illuminated the physics of viscous fingering and dendritic growth in solidification. We then recall the analogy he stressed between leaf venation and fractures in drying gels and how this and other results obtained by Yves, greatly contributed to highlight the role of mechanical forces in biological development. Finally, we briefly describe the recently appreciated role of phase separation, a topic with many important contributions of Yves, for the description of membraneless intracellular organelles. Résumé. Ce court texte est dédié à la mémoire d’Yves Couder. Nous commençons par décrire brièvement comment quelques expériences qu’il a menées ont mis en évidence des mécanismes fondamentaux à l’oeuvre dans la croissance de digitations visqueuses en mécanique des fluides et, de dendrites cristallines en solidification. Nous rappelons ensuite l’analogie qu’il a soulignée entre les formes des veines sur les feuilles végétales et celles des fractures apparaissant à la surface de gels se desséchant, et comment ces expériences, et d’autres qu’il a conduites, ont souligné le rôle important des forces mécaniques dans le développement biologique. Nous concluons sur l’importance, récemment appréciée, du phénomène de séparation de phase, que les contributions d’Yves ont permis de mieux comprendre, pour l’existence d’organelles intracellulaires
Coronavirus and Halal Tourism and Hospitality Industry: Is It a Journey to the Unknown?

Coronavirus (COVID-19) gained and will continue to gain a lot of global attention over the coming months (and maybe the coming few years). Since its outbreak in Wuhan (China), it has turned into one of the major challenges affecting the whole world. In a comparatively short time, the virus outbreak turned into a pandemic that led to massive negative impacts not only on people health and well-being, but also on the global economy, travel industry, pharmaceutical industry, tourism industry, and many other industries. This research paper aims to investigate the different effects of coronavirus on the global Halal tourism and Halal hospitality industry and whether the coronavirus pandemic is the end of Halal tourism and hospitality as we know it or not. The paper offers an in-depth theoretical examination of the different aspect of the pandemic on Halal tourism and hospitality industry and provides guidance on how to address these different aspects. The current paper is one of very few research papers addressing coronavirus on the tourism and hospitality industry.
Feature screening for case‐cohort studies with failure time outcome

Case‐cohort design has been demonstrated to be an economical and efficient approach in large cohort studies when the measurement of some covariates on all individuals is expensive. Various methods have been proposed for case‐cohort data when the dimension of covariates is smaller than sample size. However, limited work has been done for high‐dimensional case‐cohort data which are frequently collected in large epidemiological studies. In this paper, we propose a variable screening method for ultrahigh‐dimensional case‐cohort data under the framework of proportional model, which allows the covariate dimension increases with sample size at exponential rate. Our procedure enjoys the sure screening property and the ranking consistency under some mild regularity conditions. We further extend this method to an iterative version to handle the scenarios where some covariates are jointly important but are marginally unrelated or weakly correlated to the response. The finite sample performance of the proposed procedure is evaluated via both simulation studies and an application to a real data from the breast cancer study.
The Prevalence and its determinants of Low Back Pain among Female Secondary School Teachers in Eastern region at Makkah city, Saudi Arabia, January 2020

Background: Low back pain (LBP) is a major cause of disability, interfere with quality of life and work performance. Very limited studies have been carried in Saudi Arabia among teachers. Objectives: To estimate the prevalence and identify the determinants of LBP among female secondary school teachers in Eastern region at Makkah city. Subjects and methods: A cross-sectional analytic study was conducted among female secondary school teachers in Makkah city (eastern region) throughout the scholastic year 2019-2020 (December- January). A self- administered valid Arabic questionnaire was used in data collection. Results: The study included 207 female teachers. Most of them (60.4%) aged between 40 and 49 years. History of having low back pain during the last week (Point prevalence) was 62.8% whereas total prevalence of LBP during the last 12 months was77.8%. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that married teachers were 86% at lower risk for LBP compared to singles (Adjusted odds ratio “AOR”:0.14, 95% confidence interval “CI”: 0.02-0.83, p=0.030. Teachers with more number of teaching hours/week (>20) were at almost double-risk for having LBP compared to those with 1-10 hours/week (AOR: 2.13, 95%CI: 1.63-24.02, p=0.036). Teachers with history of chronic diseases were at greater risk for developing LBP compared to those without chronic diseases (AOR: 4.21, 95%CI: 1.03-17.19, p=0.045). Feeling anxious within the last two weeks was accompanied by significant increased risk for LBP (AOR: 3.77, 95%CI: 1.46-9.75, p=0.006). Similarly, complaining of upper back pain, neck pain, throat infection was significantly associated with greater risk of LBP (AOR: 5.62, 95%CI: 2.18-14.48, p<0.001). Considering normal BMI subjects as a reference category, obese teachers were at 6-folded risk for LBP (AOR: 6.41, 95%CI: 1.83-22.43, p=0.004). Conclusion: Low back pain is a very common problem, affecting most of female secondary school teachers in Eastern Region of Makkah city, with adverse impact on sleeping quality and work performance. Such a common medical problem needs to be further studied in our community.
Thin Layer Drying Kinetics of By-Products from Pomegranate Juice Processing

Drying of pomegranate by-products that are formed at the instance of pomegranate juice processing was studied at 50, 60, 70 and 80C while air velocity was 2 m/s. The results obtained show that moisture content of the by-product decreases with time and temperature. The drying process takes place mainly in the falling rate period. Several thin-layer drying models were selected to describe experimental drying kinetics data. The models were compared based on their coefficients of determination (R2), reduced chi-square (χ2) and root mean square error (RMSE) between experimental and predicted moisture ratios. Consequently, the Midilli et al. model was selected as the best mathematical model for describing the drying kinetics of the pomegranate by-products. The effective moisture diffusivity of pomegranate by-product varied from 1.22 × 10−10 m2/s to 4.29 × 10−10 m2/s. The activation energy was calculated as 39.66 kJ/mol using Arrhenius-type equation. Practical Applications Pomegranate is an important commercial fruit crop that is extensively cultivated all over the world in tropical, subtropical and temperate zones. It is mainly consumed as a raw staple food and used to mix in jams, jellies, teas, beverages, and concentrated in syrups and liqueurs. The process of pomegranate juice production remains large quantities of pomegranate by-products such as peels and seeds. The by-products due to high initial moisture content are very sensitive to microbial spoilage. Drying is one of the preservation methods applied to agricultural products. The basic objective in drying agricultural products is the removal of water in the solids up to a certain level, at which microbial spoilage and deterioration chemical reaction are greatly minimized. Besides, knowledge of drying characteristics is important in the design, simulation and optimization of drying process.
Optimal CAR T-cell Immunotherapy Strategies for a Leukemia Treatment Model

CAR T-cell immunotherapy is a new development in the treatment of leukemia, promising a new era in oncology. Although so far, this procedure only helps 50–90% of patients and, like other cancer treatments, has serious side effects. In this work, we have proposed a controlled model for leukemia treatment to explore possible ways to improve immunotherapy methodology. Our model is described by four nonlinear differential equations with two bounded controls, which are responsible for the rate of injection of chimeric cells, as well as for the dosage of the drug that suppresses the so-called “cytokine storm”. The optimal control problem of minimizing the cancer cells and the activity of the cytokine is stated and solved using the Pontryagin maximum principle. The five possible optimal control scenarios are predicted analytically using investigation of the behavior of the switching functions. The optimal solutions, obtained numerically using BOCOP-2.2. 0, confirmed our analytical findings. Interesting results, explaining, why therapies with rest intervals (for example, stopping injections in the middle of the treatment interval) are more effective (within the model), rather than with continuous injections, are presented. Possible improvements to the mathematical model and method of immunotherapy are discussed.
Spillovers and portfolio optimization of agricultural commodity and global equity markets

ABSTRACT We investigate the portfolio allocation and risk contribution characteristics of agricultural commodities, and the volatility spillovers between agricultural commodities and global and regional equity markets. We draw our results by applying a directional spillover index and a nonlinear portfolio optimization method. We find that the largest transmission and reception of spillovers occur among wheat, corn and soybeans, and between sugar cane and sugar beets. All global and regional stock market indices considered most largely spillover on cotton and cocoa. The global and Americas stock market indices are most largely spillovered by corn and soybeans. Also, while the European stock market index is most largely spillovered by cotton, the Asia Pacific stock market index is most largely spillovered by wheat and coffee. The portfolio optimization shows that sugar cane, followed by wheat and corn, are the largest risk contributors to total portfolio risk, whereas, cocoa, followed by lumber and cotton, are the lowest risk contributors to total portfolio risk. Cocoa and lumber are the most desirable for investment. Implications of the results are discussed.
Nudges to Increase Completion of Welfare Applications: Experimental Evidence from Michigan

The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program provides cash assistance to very-low-income families with children. Application procedures to receive TANF benefits, however, often involve substantial transaction costs likely to reduce take-up. We estimate, through a randomized controlled trial design, the effects of a detailed telephone-call reminder to increase TANF application completion in southwest Michigan, where applicants must visit a regional public employment office at least four times to be eligible for benefits. We do not find that personalizing reminder calls increased participation in the initial appointment at the public employment office. However, conditional on attending the initial session, applicants who received reminder calls before additional appointments were more likely to complete all application requirements, compared to those who did not receive reminders. Evidence suggests that reminder calls increase attendance at public employment office appointments but that personalizing such calls has limited impact.