Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ISSUE OF QUALITY IN A QUALITATIVE RESEARCH: AN OVERVIEW

ing and Indexing services COBISS, International Political Science Abstracts, CSA Worldwide Political Science Abstracts, CSA Sociological Abstracts, PAIS International, DOAJ. Publication Data: CEOs d.o. o. Innovative issues and approaches in social sciences, 2015, vol. 8, no. 1
Infiltration and sediment production as affected by soil surface conditions in a shrubland of Patagonia, Argentina.

Infiltration and sediment production of eroded and uneroded shrub interspace soils were evaluated in December 1986 in a severely grazed, arid range site in northeastern Patagonia. A rainfall simulator and small plots were used to collect the data. A desert pavement embedded in a vesicular crust characterized the surface soil of the eroded areas that occupy the lowest position in the microtopographic pattern. A granular, fine, and weak structured A horizon characterized the soil of uneroded areas. Slopes were similar for the eroded and uneroded areas. Surface soil bulk density, electrical conductivity, clay and organic matter content were significantly greater for the eroded than for the uneroded soils. Litter cover was significantly higher for the uneroded soils. Plant cover, although higher for the uneroded areas, was low (& 5%) for both eroded and uneroded areas. Mean infiltration rate at the end of 35 min, with the soil initially dry, was 0.8 and 6.1 cm/hr for the eroded and uneroded soils. respectively. For the soil initially at field capacity, infiltration decreased to 0.6 cm/hr and 4.1 cm/hr. Soil losses were higher from the eroded areas (606 kg/ha and 687 kg/ha) than for the uneroded areas (291 kg/ha and 556 kg/ha) when the soils were initially dry and at field capacity, respectively. Regression analysis indicated infiltration rate was positively related to litter cover and negatively related to gravel cover, whereas sediment production was negatively related to bulk density, plant, and gravel cover characteristics of the site.
The Economics of "Radiator Springs:" Industry Dynamics, Sunk Costs, and Spatial Demand Shifts

The construction of the U.S. Interstate Highway System during the second half of the 20th century changed tra¢ c patterns in many local markets, increasing the growth rate of through tra¢ c and shifting it spatially. The size of the spatial shift was small when the new highway was built on top of the intercity route it replaced but large when it was built miles away. The local impact of these tra¢ c changes is a familiar theme in American popular culture. For example, the Interstate's eect on the …ctional town "Radiator Springs"forms the background of the 2005 Disney/Pixar …lm "Cars. "It has also been a theme of many academic studies; including most recently work in urban economics on the causes of suburbanization (Baum-Snow (2007)). The periodic opening of new segments of the Interstate Highway System -and the concomitant changes in tra¢ c patterns -oers an analytically ad- vantageous opportunity for a systematic study of industry dynamics. From the perspective of service stations and other businesses that serve highway travelers, the opening of highway segments represents observable, anticipated changes in the level of demand and consumers'tastes over locations. To exploit this op- portunity, we have collected and combined (a) highly detailed data on when narrowly-de…ned Interstate highway segments opened, (b) county-level data from 1964-1992 describing the number, employment, and size distribution of service stations, and (c) hand-collected measurements of the distance between Interstate highways and the intercity routes they replaced. With these obser- vations, we can observe the timing and spatial taste changes associated with hundreds of localized demand shifts taking place throughout the rural United States and relate these to changes in the number and size of service stations in local areas. Casual empiricism reveals obvious ways that new Interstate Highways ultimately aected industry structure: many exits have nearby ser- vice stations whose location can clearly be explained by the highway's presence. However, the industry dynamics associated with the opening of these highways are less clear: How large are the supply-side changes, when and along what
The Economics of Online Postsecondary Education: Moocs, Nonselective Education, and Highly Selective Education

I consider how online postsecondary education, including massive open online courses (MOOCs), might fit into economically sustainable models of postsecondary education. I contrast nonselective postsecondary education (NSPE)in which institutions sell fairly standardized educational services in return for up-front payments and highly selective postsecondary education (HSPE) in which institutions invest in students in return for repayments much later in life. The analysis suggests that MOOCs will be financially sustainable substitutes for some NSPE, but there are risks even in these situations. The analysis suggests that MOOCs will be financially sustainable substitutes for only a small share of HSPE and are likely to collapse the economic model that allows HSPE institutions to invest in advanced education and research. I outline a non-MOOC model of online education that may allow HSPE institutions both to sustain their distinctive activities and to reach a larger number of students.
Simulating tumor growth in confined heterogeneous environments

The holy grail of computational tumor modeling is to develop a simulation tool that can be utilized in the clinic to predict neoplastic progression and propose individualized optimal treatment strategies. In order to develop such a predictive model, one must account for many of the complex processes involved in tumor growth. One interaction that has not been incorporated into computational models of neoplastic progression is the impact that organ-imposed physical confinement and heterogeneity have on tumor growth. For this reason, we have taken a cellular automaton algorithm that was originally designed to simulate spherically symmetric tumor growth and generalized the algorithm to incorporate the effects of tissue shape and structure. We show that models that do not account for organ/tissue geometry and topology lead to false conclusions about tumor spread, shape and size. The impact that confinement has on tumor growth is more pronounced when a neoplasm is growing close to, versus far from, the confining boundary. Thus, any clinical simulation tool of cancer progression must not only consider the shape and structure of the organ in which a tumor is growing, but must also consider the location of the tumor within the organ if it is to accurately predict neoplastic growth dynamics.
Use of Advanced In-Vehicle Technology By Young and Older Early Adopters: Survey Results on Headlamp Systems

This document describes the results of survey research undertaken by the Automobile Club of Southern California. Ten thousand questionnaires were mailed to insurance customers who own vehicles that may have high-intensity discharge (HID) headlamps or directionally adaptive headlamps as standard or optional original equipment. Half of the questionnaires were mailed to vehicle owners who were younger than 65, and half of the questionnaires were mailed to owners who were 65 or older. Approximately 21 percent of the questionnaires were returned, including 1,117 from HID headlamp owners. Follow-up telephone interviews were conducted with 34 respondents. Survey items addressed topics such as learning to use the system, behavioral adaptation, system effectiveness, and perceived safety of the system. Several differences in responses between younger and older respondents were noted. Other response differences were related to vehicle manufacturer and experience with the vehicle (miles driven). Study limitations and implications of the results are discussed.
Heat‐flow values from eastern Australia

Heat flows have been measured at seven sites in eastern Australia. The values confirm high heat flow in eastern Australia—about 2.0 μcal/cm2 sec. The values are in the range 2.0 to 2.9 μcal/cm2 sec, with the exception of values of 1.0 and 1.2 from two oil wells on the eastern edge of the Great Artesian Basin. The full significance of the latter values can only be assessed as part of a comprehensive geothermal survey of the Basin.
Biogeographic Distributions of Selected North American Grassland Plant Species

It is unclear how the environmental heterogeneity of the prairie biome of North America contributes to the biogeographic ranges of vascular plant species, particularly herbaceous taxa. We examined the spatial distributions of 30 abundant plant species of the grasslands of North America distributed among four functional groups: C4 grasses, C3 grasses, forbs, and woody species. For each species, we mapped its distribution using occurrence data from georeferenced herbarium specimens and a species distribution model (MAXENT). We then assessed which of several climate, soil, and elevation variables contribute to determining its range. On average, these 30 plant species are distributed over large areas, with an average range size of 1,989,750 km2. Temperature variables contribute the most to the MAXENT model for 27 of the 30 species. Size of range, abruptness of boundary edges, and location of range vary among all 30 species. Functional groups differ primarily in range size and the centroid of the ranges. Conservation of tallgrass, mixed-grass, and shortgrass prairie biomes will require a flexible strategy with widely distributed habitat over the Great Plains along both north-south and east-west gradients.
Human cytomegalovirus UL141 promotes efficient downregulation of the natural killer cell activating ligand CD112

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) UL141 induces protection against natural killer cell-mediated cytolysis by downregulating cell surface expression of CD155 (nectin-like molecule 5; poliovirus receptor), a ligand for the activating receptor DNAM-1 (CD226). However, DNAM-1 is also recognized to bind a second ligand, CD112 (nectin-2). We now show that HCMV targets CD112 for proteasome-mediated degradation by 48 h post-infection, thus removing both activating ligands for DNAM-1 from the cell surface during productive infection. Significantly, cell surface expression of both CD112 and CD155 was restored when UL141 was deleted from the HCMV genome. While gpUL141 alone is sufficient to mediate retention of CD155 in the endoplasmic reticulum, UL141 requires assistance from additional HCMV-encoded functions to suppress expression of CD112.
Asymptotic properties of diffusions in random environment

In this thesis we study asymptotic properties of a specific class of random motions evolving in an inhomogeneous medium, the so-called diffusions in random environment. The nature of these movements differs from many others by an interplay of random effects at two levels: on one hand the environment, in which the diffusion evolves, is random and on the other hand the diffusion itself is characterized by a stochastic equation of motion. The law of the diffusion in a randomly chosen but fixed environment is the so-called quenched law. It is also convenient and sometimes more pertinent to consider the annealed law which is, roughly speaking, the quenched law averaged over all possible environments. In the first part of this work we consider a special class of diffusions that are Brownian motions which are perturbed by environment-dependent drifts. For this family of processes we derive a law of large numbers and show that an invariance principle holds for almost every environment (a quenched functional central limit theorem). In particular, we provide examples of diffusive behavior beyond present knowledge. The proofs of these results are very much inspired by an analogous work in the discrete space-time setting done by Bolthausen, Sznitman and Zeitouni, see [5], and are based on the existence of cut times for Brownian motion. The second part of this work is dedicated to the construction of examples of diffusions in random environment showing that the naive guess that the asymptotic velocity is very similar to the expected local drift is wrong, even for small perturbations of Brownian motion. Indeed, we provide examples with non-vanishing expected local drift but where the limiting velocity vanishes or even points to an opposite direction to the local drift. Furthermore, we also find examples with vanishing expected local drift which exhibit ballistic behavior (i.e. the limiting velocity is non-degenerate). The main tool
Systemic restoration of UBA1 ameliorates disease in spinal muscular atrophy

The autosomal recessive neuromuscular disease spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is caused by loss of survival motor neuron (SMN) protein. Molecular pathways that are disrupted downstream of SMN therefore represent potentially attractive therapeutic targets for SMA. Here, we demonstrate that therapeutic targeting of ubiquitin pathways disrupted as a consequence of SMN depletion, by increasing levels of one key ubiquitination enzyme (ubiquitin-like modifier activating enzyme 1 [UBA1]), represents a viable approach for treating SMA. Loss of UBA1 was a conserved response across mouse and zebrafish models of SMA as well as in patient induced pluripotent stem cell–derive motor neurons. Restoration of UBA1 was sufficient to rescue motor axon pathology and restore motor performance in SMA zebrafish. Adeno-associated virus serotype 9–UBA1 (AAV9-UBA1) gene therapy delivered systemic increases in UBA1 protein levels that were well tolerated over a prolonged period in healthy control mice. Systemic restoration of UBA1 in SMA mice ameliorated weight loss, increased survival and motor performance, and improved neuromuscular and organ pathology. AAV9-UBA1 therapy was also sufficient to reverse the widespread molecular perturbations in ubiquitin homeostasis that occur during SMA. We conclude that UBA1 represents a safe and effective therapeutic target for the treatment of both neuromuscular and systemic aspects of SMA.
New Presence of China in Africa

China’s economic and political presence in Africa has expanded drastically over the past decade, especially in the sub-Saharan region. Convinced that Western attempts at providing aid to Africa have failed, Chinese officials have sought new forms of aid and invested billions to push further development in Africa. But some in the United States and around the word fear that China’s interest in sub-Saharan Africa could threaten previous efforts to protect human rights and to promote democracy in the region. The New Presence of China in Africa takes on this controversial issue, offering an overview of the Chinese model and evaluating whether it might serve as an example for future Western endeavors.
Credit Derivatives, Leverage, and Financial Regulation’s Missing Macroeconomic Dimension

Of all OTC derivatives, credit derivatives pose particular concerns because of their ability to generate leverage that can increase liquidity - or the effective money supply - throughout the financial system. Credit derivatives and the leverage they create thus do much more than increase the fragility of financial institutions and increase counterparty risk. By increasing leverage and liquidity, credit derivatives can fuel rises in asset prices and even asset price bubbles. Rising asset prices can then mask mistakes in the pricing of credit derivatives and in assessments of overall leverage in the financial system. Furthermore, the use of credit derivatives by financial institutions can contribute to a cycle of leveraging and deleveraging in the economy.This Article argues for viewing many of the policy responses to credit derivatives, such as requirements that these derivatives be exchange traded, centrally cleared, or otherwise subject to collateral or 'margin' requirements, in a second, macroeconomic dimension. These rules have the potential to change – or at least better measure – the amount of liquidity and the supply of credit in financial markets and in the 'real' economy. By examining credit derivatives, this Article illustrates the need to see a wide array of financial regulations in a macroeconomic context. Understanding credit derivatives’ macroeconomic effects has implications for macroprudential regulatory design. First, regulations that address financial institution leverage offer central bankers new tools to dampen inflation in asset markets and to fight potential asset price bubbles. Second, even if these regulations are not used primarily as monetary or macroeconomic levers, changes in these regulations, including changes in the effectiveness of these regulations due to regulatory arbitrage, can have profound macroeconomic effects. Third, the macroeconomic dimension of credit derivative regulation and other financial regulation argues for greater coordination between prudential regulation and macroeconomic policy.
An Update on "Paraíba" Tourmaline from Brazil

260 “PARAÍBA” TOURMALINE GEMS & GEMOLOGY WINTER 2001 Milisenda 2001; Smith et al., 2001; Zang et al., 2001). The colors of some cuprian elbaites can be changed by heat treatment, and some are fracturefilled to improve their apparent clarity. During the 1990 Tucson gem show, prices for this material skyrocketed from a few hundred dollars to over $2,000 per carat in just four days (Federman, 1990; Reilly, 1990). Restricted availability due to limited production over much of the past decade has only added to the value and mystique of these cuprian elbaites. In recent years, 3+ ct finequality blue to green-blue faceted tourmalines from the São José da Batalha area have sold for $20,000 per carat in Japan (R. Van Wagoner, pers. comm., 2001). Until recently, difficulties involving legal ownership caused restricted access to the Mina da Batalha. In August 2000, however, the authors were able to visit the locality and gather first-hand information on the geology, current mining activities, and tourmaline production. During this same trip, we also By James E. Shigley, Brian C. Cook, Brendan M. Laurs, and Marcelo de Oliveira Bernardes
ABSTRACT: Unique Horizontal-Well Designs Boost Primary and EOR Production, Prudhoe Bay Field, Alaska

U sing horizontal wells and an unprecedented enhanced oil-recovery (EOR) process, ARCO Alaska, Inc., capitalized on structural, stratigraphic, sedimentologic, and fluid-distribution complexities in the Triassic Ivishak Sandstone of Prudhoe Bay field to recover untapped or bypassed reserves. Millions of barrels of reserves reside in a basal, 120 ft(37 m-) thick succession of en echelon, offlapping, deltaic wedges. Distributary-mouth bar and distributary-channel sandstones are targeted. Onlapping, retrogradational mudstones form laterally extensive flow barriers that impede the gravity-drainage
The Earned Income Tax Credit: Targeting the Poor but Crowding out Wealth

In this paper, we quantify the effects of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) from a macroeconomic perspective. We use an incomplete markets model to analyze jointly the labor supply and saving responses to changes in tax credit generosity and their aggregate and distributional implications. In line with existing literature, our results show that the EITC is an effective policy instrument to raise labor force participation and provide insurance to working poor households. However, we show that the EITC also disincentivizes private savings for a large part of the population, except for the poorest transfer recipients. Furthermore, since unskilled labor supply reacts more strongly than skilled workers’ labor supply, wages for low skilled workers fall relative to high skilled workers. Whilst reducing post-tax earnings inequality, the EITC contributes to both a higher skill premium and wealth inequality. Finally, our welfare analysis suggests that EITC expansions are welfare improving for the majority of the population, both ex ante and when accounting for transitional dynamics.
Collaborative Care for patients with severe personality disorders

The presence of a comorbid borderline personality disorder (BPD) may be associated with an increase of suicidal behaviours in patients with depressive and anxiety disorders. The aim of this study is to examine the role of borderline personality traits on recurrent suicide attempts. Methods The Netherlands Study on Depression and Anxiety included 1838 respondents with lifetime depressive and/or anxiety disorders, of whom 309 reported at least one previous suicide attempt. A univariable negative binomial regression analysis was performed to examine the association between comorbid borderline personality traits and suicide attempts. Univariable and multivariable negative binomial regression analyses were performed to identify risk factors for the number of recurrent suicide attempts in four clusters (type and severity of axis-I disorders, BPD traits, determinants of suicide attempts and socio-demographics).
The Evolution of Income, Consumption, and Leisure Inequality in The US, 1980-2010

Recent research has documented that income inequality in the United States has increased dramatically over the prior three decades. There has been less of a consensus, however, on whether the increase in income inequality was matched by an equally large increase in consumption inequality. Most researchers have studied this question using data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE) and some studies have suggested that the increase in consumption inequality has been modest. Unfortunately ,there is now mounting evidence that the CE is plagued by serious non-classical measurement error, which hinders the extent to which definitive conclusions can be made about the extent to which consumption inequality has evolved over the last three decades. In this paper, we use a variety of different techniques to overcome the measurement error problems with the CE. First, we use data from the diary component of the CE, focusing on categories where measurement error has been found to be less of an issue. Second, we explore inequality measures within the CE using the value of vehicles owned, a consumption component that is considered to be measured well. Third, we try to account directly for the non-classical measurement error of the CE by comparing the spending on luxuries (entertainment) relative to necessities (food). This is similar to the recent approach taken by Browning and Crossley (2009) and Aguiar and Bils (2011). Finally, we use expenditure data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to explore the dynamics of alternative measures of consumption inequality. All of our different methods yield similar results. We find that consumption inequality within the U.S. between 1980 and 2010 has increased by nearly the same amount as income inequality.
PENGGUNAAN MEDIA AUDIO VISUAL DALAM PEMBELAJARAN ANAK USIA DINI

Anak usia dini merupakan usia emas. Pada usia ini diperhatikan tugas perkembangannya. Media pembelajaran akan membantu keefektifan proses pembelajaran dalam penyampaian pesan dan isi pelajaran. Terkadang guru mengabaikan dalam penggunaan media, padahal dengan menggunakan media pembelajaran khususnya media audio visual. Bertujuan untuk motivasi belajar anak sehingga mudah penangkapan isinya oleh anak. Langkah dalam pembelajaran menggunakan media audio visual, mempersiapkan laptop, sound, kabel dan video yang akan ditayangkan, memperhatikan posisi duduk peserta didik dalam keadaan nyaman dan pada saat akan mengajak peserta didik menyimak video, guru menyampaikan tujuan pembelajaran dan teknis pembelajaran, kemudian peserta didik siap menyaksikan tayangan video dan diberikan tindak lanjut berupa pertanyaan berkaitan dengan isi video.