Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
THE IMPACT OF TRADE REFORM ON HOUSEHOLD WELFARE IN A GENERAL EQUILIBRIUM FRAMEWORK: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM INDIA

This paper estimates the distribution of welfare gains to households due to trade reforms within a general equilibrium framework using household level data from India. Household welfare is affected by trade liberalization through labor income and consumption channels. Cost of consumption for each household is affected by domestic price changes while wage incomes adjust to changes in equilibrium. First, I estimate price transmission mechanisms in rural and urban India to understand the extent to which trade reforms are able to effect domestic prices of traded goods. Second, in order to assess the distributional effects, I use a nonparametric regression that provides an estimate for average welfare gains at each point in the support of income levels. I use three rounds of Indian National Sample Survey spanning 1988 to 2000 for the analysis. The coverage of household level data and the nature of substantial trade liberalization in India that took place in 1991 allow for the identification of the effects of the trade reform on household welfare and poverty. I find that market imperfections partially isolate households from the effects of trade policies. Households at all income levels experienced welfare gains as a result of trade liberalization in both rural areas and urban areas except high-income urban households. Overall, trade reform in India has diverse effects on welfare across households with different income levels. In rural areas, low-to-middle income households benefited the most from increase in wage incomes and experienced the highest welfare gains. In urban areas, the middle-income households experienced highest welfare gains from trade liberalization.
A preliminary clinical trial using flowable glass-ionomer cement as a liner in proximal-ART restorations: the operator effect

Aim: This in vivo study was carried out to assess the influence of the operator experience on the survival rate of proximal-ART restorations using a two-layer technique to insert the glass-ionomer cement (GIC). Methods: Forty five proximal cavities in primary molars were restored in a school setting according to the ART technique. The cavities were restored by two operators with Ketac Molar Easymix, and received a flowable layer of GIC prior to a second GIC layer with a regular consistency. The operators had different clinical experience with ART (no experience or two years of experience), but both completed a one-week training to perform the restorations and the GIC mixing in this study. Results: After a 12-month follow-up, 72% of the restorations survived; the main reason for failure was bulk fracture or total loss of the restoration. There was no operator influence (long-rank test p=0.2). Conclusion: The results encourage future well designed controlled clinical trials using the two-layer technique for insertion of GIC in proximal-ART restorations, after training the operators.
Cloning, Characterization and Expression Analysis of the Phosphate Starvation Response Gene, ClPHR1, from Chinese Fir

The study on the function and sequence of PHR1 (Phosphate Starvation Response gene 1) gene, which plays a central role in plant phosphorus (Pi) signal regulatory network, is of great significance to further study response mechanisms to Pi deficiency. In this work, the previously selected Pi-efficient Chinese fir clone M32 was used as research material to obtain the full-length sequence of ClPHR1 transcription factors in Chinese fir by RACE (Rapid Amplification of cDNA Ends) full-length cloning technique, and the structure, function and subcellular localization of ClPHR1 gene encoding protein were analyzed. The temporal and spatial expression characteristics of ClPHR1 transcription factors in Chinese fir under low Pi stress were also analyzed, and the overexpression of ClPHR1 gene in transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana was obtained to verify the function of ClPHR1 gene under low Pi stress. The results showed that the length of the ClPHR1 gene obtained by rapid amplification of cDNA ends technique was 1954 bp, of which 1512 bp was an open reading frame. ClPHR1 was predicted to be an unstable hydrophilic protein with only one possible transmembrane domain. The ClPHR1 gene had a highly conserved MYB-CC domain, which is similar to the PHR1 gene of other plants. Phylogenetic tree analysis showed that the sequence had high homology with PHR1 genes in the Prunus species. The ClPHR1 was expressed in all organs of Chinese fir, with the highest expression in the roots, followed by the leaves with the lowest expression in stems. ClPHR1 expression in roots was reduced dramatically at the beginning of Pi stress treatment and followed by an increase at 7days; in leaves, it increased dramatically at the beginning of Pi starvation treatment and showed a decreasing trend after 3 days; in stems, the expression level of ClPHR1 increased after 7 days of Pi stress treatment. The transient expression vector was introduced into plant cells, and it was found that ClPHR1 was located in the nucleus and was a MYB-CC transcription factor expressed in the cell nucleus. The ClPHR1 overexpression vector was constructed, and then introduced into Arabidopsis thaliana by agrobacterium infection inflorescence method. The expressions of Pi transporter genes, AtPHT1;1, AtPHT1;2, AtPHT1;8 and AtPHT1;9, was significantly higher in the overexpressing strain than that in the wild type strain. The results suggest that the ClPHR1 transcription factor could regulate the regulation of downstream Pi transporter gene and increase Pi utilization efficiency of the Chinese fir under Pi stress.
Short Barriers for Lowering Current-Density in Terahertz Quantum Cascade Lasers

Scattering due to interface-roughness (IR) and longitudinal-optical (LO) phonons are primary transport mechanisms in terahertz quantum-cascade lasers (QCLs). By choosing GaAs/Al0.10Ga0. 90As heterostructures with short-barriers, the effect of IR scattering is mitigated, leading to low operating current-densities. A series of resonant-phonon terahertz QCLs developed over time, achieving some of the lowest threshold and peak current-densities among published terahertz QCLs with maximum operating temperatures above 100 K. The best result is obtained for a three-well 3.1 THz QCL with threshold and peak current-densities of 134 A/cm2 and 208 A/cm2 respectively at 53 K, and a maximum lasing temperature of 135 K. Another three-well QCL designed for broadband bidirectional operation achieved lasing in a combined frequency range of 3.1–3.7 THz operating under both positive and negative polarities, with an operating current-density range of 167–322 A/cm2 at 53 K and maximum lasing temperature of 141 K or 121 K depending on the polarity of the applied bias. By showing results from QCLs developed over a period of time, here we show conclusively that short-barrier terahertz QCLs are effective in achieving low current-density operation at the cost of a reduction in peak temperature performance.
Deep learning for quantitative image analysis of positron emission tomography

Positron emission tomography (PET) is a popular imaging technique that produces a 3D image volume capturing functional processes within the body. In cancer studies, PET is increasingly used for diagnosis and evaluation of tumor extension, treatment planning and disease follow-up. Although PET has several limitations, including low spatial resolution and relatively low signal-to-noise ratio, it remains the modality of choice for its high sensitivity to tracer uptake in lesions. With the adoption of PET imaging, accurate segmentation and quantification of metabolic activities, specially tumor activities, is crucial and challenging because of the large variations of shape and intensity of tumor uptake patterns. In this thesis, we make two main contributions on automated tumor lesion detection and segmentation in PET. To automate segmentation, it is important to distinguish between normal active organs and activity due to abnormal tumor growth. In our first contribution, we propose a deep learning method to localize and detect normal active organs in 3D PET. Our method adapts the object detection deep convolutional neural network architecture of YOLO to detect multiple organs in 2D slices and aggregates the results to produce semantically labeled 3D bounding boxes. We evaluate our method on 479 18F-FDG PET scans and show promising results compared to the state-of-the-art organ localization methods. The second contribution addresses the challenge of creating accurate ground truth segmentation maps for training machine learning approaches for tumor delineation. We propose a fully convolutional network model to automatically delineate tumor regions in PET (i.e., indicates the border of cancerous lesions) while relying on weak bounding boxes annotations. To achieve this, we propose a novel loss function that dynamically combines a supervised component, designed to leverage the training bounding boxes, with an unsupervised component, inspired by the Mumford-Shah piecewise constant level-set image segmentation model. The model is trained end-to-end with the proposed differentiable loss function and is validated on a public clinical of 57 PET scans of head and neck tumors. Using only bounding box annotations as supervision, our model achieves results competitive with state-of-the-art supervised and semi-automatic segmentation approaches.
Determinants of Knowledge Sharing Behaviour of Information and Communication Technology Personnel in Selected Nigerian Tertiary Institutions

Knowledge sharing is known to be an integral component of knowledge management. Several studies have shown the acquisition of knowledge to be an important source of success in any field of human endeavour. This study examined some of the factors that influence knowledge sharing among ICT personnel of tertiary institutions in Nigeria. Two tertiary institutions were purposively selected for the study. Survey research design was adopted using complete enumeration survey. Questionnaire consisting both closed and open ended questions was used to collect data from 85 ICT personnel. Data analysis was performed using SPSS for descriptive statistics, independent sample test, Spearman rank and regression analyses. Findings showed that attitude (β = 0.284, p = 0.007), subjective norm (β = 0.148, p = 0.029) and self-efficacy (β = 0.409, p = 0.000) significantly influenced ICT personnel’s intention to engage in knowledge sharing, while ICT usage (β = 0.251, p = 0.004) significantly influenced knowledge sharing behaviour. These personnel’s intention to share knowledge (β = 0.329, p = 0.001) significantly influenced their knowledge sharing behaviour. Trust and controllability were not significant predictors. Also, while there was no significant relationship between age and knowledge sharing behaviour, there was also no significant difference in knowledge sharing based on gender. The study recommends that management and heads of department in these institutions should create an environment that encourages knowledge sharing so that it will further enhance ICT personnel’s efficiency in discharging their duties.
Matrix Metalloproteinase-13 (MMP-13): A proposed Tumor Marker in Breast Carcinoma

Breast cancer is estimated to account for 31% new onset female cancers. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are extracellular zinc-dependent endopeptidases involved in the degradation and remodeling of extracellular matrix in physiological and pathological processes. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the use of matrix metalloproteinase-13 (MMP-13) as a potential tumor marker in breast cancer and we also aimed to investigate the role of infection as a cause of carcinogenesis by estimating the incidence of anti-cytomegalovirus IgG antibodies in breast cancer patients. Subjects and Methods: Serum CA15.3, anti-CMV IgG and MMP-13 were measured in 50 breast cancer female patients, 20 female patients with fibroadenoma of breast and 20 healthy age-matched female volunteers. Results: MMP-13 levels showed no significant difference between breast cancer patients and controls; on the other hand MMP-13 levels were significantly higher in fibroadenoma patients compared to controls. CA15.3 levels were significantly higher in breast cancer cases compared to both fibroadenoma and healthy controls. Conclusion: The results of this study show that MMP-13 level is highest among control group, while fibroadenoma group had the lowest MMP-13 level. CA15.3 is still the most useful serum tumor marker in patients with breast cancer.
Distribution of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Traditional Dry Cured Smoked Ham Slavonska Šunka

Slavonska šunka is a traditional dry-cured smoked ham. Smoking with open fire commonly results in the accumulation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) molecules in tissues. The objective of this research was to assess the types and concentrations of 16 PAHs in 30 samples of traditional dry-cured smoked ham Slavonska šunka. In general, all samples had high values of anthracene while higher levels of acenaphthylene were present in some samples. In sample SS1, the maximal value for anthracene reached 228.03 µg/kg, while sample SS28 had the lowest value of this PAH—33.38 µg/kg. SS1 had increased values for several other PAHs: benzo[a]anthracene (54.03 µg/kg), acenaphtene (19.90 µg/kg) and phenanthrene (27.11 µg/kg). Cancerogenic benzo[a]pyrene content was below the limit of quantification for all samples. PAH4 (benzo[a]anthracene, chrysene, benzo[b]fluoranthene and benzo[a]pyrene) concentrations were above legislative recommendation (>30 µg/kg) in seven samples. All the samples of Slavonska šunka had significant PAH16 concentrations, with the lowest value of 61.30 µg/kg (SS28) and the highest 462.83 µg/kg (SS1). The highest concentrations of PAHs were determined in the Vukovar–Srijem county samples. Another conclusion from this research is that samples smoked with elm tree showed high PAH concentrations in comparison to the ones smoked with beech and hornbeam.
KitcheNette: Predicting and Ranking Food Ingredient Pairings using Siamese Neural Network

As a vast number of ingredients exist in the culinary world, there are countless food ingredient pairings, but only a small number of pairings have been adopted by chefs and studied by food researchers. In this work, we propose KitcheNette which is a model that predicts food ingredient pairing scores and recommends optimal ingredient pairings. KitcheNette employs Siamese neural networks and is trained on our annotated dataset containing 300K scores of pairings generated from numerous ingredients in food recipes. As the results demonstrate, our model not only outperforms other baseline models, but also can recommend complementary food pairings and discover novel ingredient pairings.
Study on the Mechanical Characterization of Composite Materials forAutomotive Wheel Application

Nowadays the development of using fiber-reinforced polymer composites in the field of aviation, defense, automotive, and marine industry is growing due to their lower density as compared with conventional materials. In the automotive industry, the requirements of reduction of weight and fuel consumption have become an essential study without losing any mechanical strength. Fiber-reinforced polymer composite materials are an alternative automotive wheel materials having outstanding mechanical properties via lower density, high fatigue resistance, flexibility of design, stability of dimension, better resistance of corrosion, the resistance of high temperature, high mechanical strength and light in weight, etc. To determine the mechanical properties of fiber-reinforced carbon epoxy composite material using quasi-isotropic orientation having [45/0/0/0/0/-45/90/90/90/90/-45/0/0/0/0/45]s stacking sequences with a total number of 32 plies was prepared and mechanical characterization was performed. To quantify this analysis tensile and compression tests were performed by fabricating the samples through hand layup as per ASTM standards. From the result, fiberreinforced carbon epoxy composite material has excellent tensile strength in the longitudinal direction and moderate compressive strength in the transversal direction.
Analysis of Ring Compression Test by Upper Bound Theorem as Special Case of Non-symmetric Part

The ring compression test is considered one of the most reliable ways to obtain the friction shear factor existing in a plastic deformation process, particularly in open die forging processes. The test is performed on a ring-shaped specimen, so that the whole workpiece is axisymmetric. The application of the upper bound theorem with a triangular rigid zones model was initially developed with regard to plane strain and symmetrical geometric configurations. In this paper, the application to the ring faces consider that the neutral radius that defines the reversal of the flow of the material establishes two areas of different section and therefore the possibility of addressing the study considering not symmetrical sections. © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Committee of MESIC 2015.
A Critical Perspective on Heterodox Production Modeling

Production and distribution needs a proper place in heterodox economics. It has recently been suggested that the construction of production models needs to be empirically grounded. Also it has been stated that empirically grounded production models must be circular production models. This argument then marginalizes the contributions of important economists in heterodox thought. The paper will argue that heterodox production models need not be perfectly circular to make important contributions for heterodox production theory. Furthermore, it will be argued that models which consist of elements of hierarchial structures of production put emphasis on out of equilibrium traverse processes and historical time. JEL Classification Codes B50, B51 ∗Prepared for the Union of Radical Political Economy sessions at the 2011 ASSA Meetings, Denver Colorado, January 2011.
Determinants of Non-Timber Forest Product Planting, Development, and Trading: Case Study in Central Vietnam

Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) play an active role in economic development, improving household livelihoods, raising the value of forestry production, and supporting sustainable forest management. This study involved a comprehensive assessment of the growth, development, and trade of NTFPs in Vietnam by combining logistic and tobit methods. Surveys were used to interview 400 households in three regions of Central Vietnam. Results showed that the planting, development, and trading of NTFPs are shaped by forestry production experience, the number of laborers, the percentage of wage earners, agricultural income, timber income, per capita income, the presence of bank deposits, the distance between forest and house, an understanding of forestry economic policies, and participation in technical training. Each factor had a different level of influence. Among the six NTFP groups, the groups generating yarn and medicines produced the highest income and had a strong impact on household reliance on NTFPs. This was followed by NTFPs used to generate food, oil, and plastic. The proportion of people with wages, and the income variable system, negatively impacted NTFP planting and income generation, which reduced household reliance on NTFPs. This means that there is a trade-off between NTFPs and other income generating activities. In the future, the government should develop specific plans, policies, and strategies for developing each type of NTFP suitable to each region’s natural conditions. The policies should include supporting people with low-interest bank loans; expanding the number of training courses to increase their understanding of forestry economic policies; and implementing cultivation techniques and forest care to improve the productivity, quality, and efficiency of NTFP products.
Marine Ecology Progress Series 621:33

Waters of the Southern Ocean are characterized by high macronutrient concentrations but limited availability of trace metals and light, often making it difficult for phytoplankton to achieve maximum growth rates. One strategy employed by Southern Ocean phytoplankton in culture to cope with low light and low dissolved iron (DFe) is to enhance light absorption by increasing their antenna size rather than the number of reaction centers, thereby reducing their Fe demand. Here we provide physiological evidence that natural populations of Southern Ocean phytoplankton employ a similar photoacclimation strategy to cope with low ambient DFe concentrations. During a research cruise to the Ross Sea in 2013–2014, we conducted 4 bioassay experiments in which we manipulated light and DFe concentrations and measured changes in phytoplankton biomass, growth rate, photosynthetic parameters, fluorescence parameters, and pigment composition. Phytoplankton responded strongly to DFe additions, exhibiting significantly higher biomass, growth rates, and photosynthetic competency. At low light, the maximum photosynthetic rate (P*max) was significantly reduced and the photosynthetic efficiency (α*) was unchanged compared to the high light treatment, regardless of phytoplankton species composition or DFe concentration. Our data suggest that Southern Ocean phytoplankton have evolved an Fe-saving strategy whereby they photoacclimate to low light by increasing their photosynthetic unit size, rather than photosynthetic unit number, even when DFe is available. It appears this Fe-saving strategy is characteristic of both Phaeocystis antarctica and diatoms, suggesting that it is a common adaptation among phytoplankton taxa that grow under Fe limitation in the Southern Ocean.
Earnings quality, earnings management and religiosity: A literature review

Objective: The variety of proxies for earnings quality (EQ) induces us to concentrate on the review of existing literature. We identify the research gap related to the link between moral attitudes and behaviour proxied by religiosity and the EQ. Our objective is to assess the relationship between the EQ and the religiosity and hence build the foundation for future empirical research. Our main thesis is that religiosity influences managerial behaviour, thus potentially may have an impact on earnings management. Research Design & Methods: The research method is based on critical and synthetic literature review. We conducted keywords based review of accounting literature related to earnings quality, earnings management and proxies for religiosity. Recommendations for future empirical research are presented. Findings: There is no clear and widely accepted definition of the elusive construct of EQ. There exist over a dozen measures of earnings quality but none of them is universal. They measure various aspects of the broad notion of the EQ. From a decision-usefulness perspective, it seems that further research should focus on discretionary accruals, but the existing literature does not show without any ambiguity the superiority of any model for these accruals. Religion and religiosity influence managerial behavior, but the impact of religion on earnings management differs across religion denominations. The proxy for religious commitment is a serious challenge for empirical research, either in the case of single- or multi-country and multi-religion settings. Contribution & Value Added: Investigation of the measures and determinants of earnings quality gives insight into the relationship between earnings management behavior and religiosity.