Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Larval keys to the genera of Ixodidae (Acari) and species of Ixodes (Latreille) ticks established in California

In California, hard (Ixodidae) ticks transmit at least 8 zoonotic disease agents (1 virus, 6 bacteria, 1 protozoan) to humans or other animals. The correct taxonomic identification of all 3 parasitic stages (larvae, nymphs, adults) of ticks is integral to understanding host-tick associations and disease dynamics, but immature ticks, especially the larvae, can be difficult to identify. Here, we present larval keys to the 4 genera of Ixodidae (Dermacentor Koch 1844; Haemaphysalis Koch 1844; Ixodes Latreille 1795; Rhipicephalus Koch 1844) and to the 18 species of Ixodes known to be established in California. Several new diagnostic features, as well as photographs of microscopic structures, are provided to facilitate identification. Non-exclusive characters are utilized to separate the subgenera Ixodiopsis Filippova 1957 and Pholeoixodes Schulze 1942.
Global Leadership Education: developing emerging young leaders for community service in Missouri and Thailand

The 2009–2010 experiential Global Leadership Education program emphasized inclusive community engagement processes within and among diverse social, economic, ethnic, and geographic young professionals working in Missouri and Thailand communities to build leadership capacity for volunteerism, community service, and multicultural understanding. Key tenets of the program, supported by US Department of State funding, included mutual commitment to sustainable community development, collaborative program development, and evaluation. The experiential program included orientation, local workshops, experiential learning, and social networking to foster increased learning and continuation of relationships. Quantitative analysis indicated Thai and Missourian delegates reported significant learning of key community service leadership, volunteerism, and community development competencies. Analysis of qualitative data provided understanding of cultural differences and the program’s impact. The discussion provides context for how community development international experiential learning programs can be developed or strengthened.
Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Preconditioning Attenuates Apoptosis and Differentially Regulates TLR4 and TLR7 Gene Expression after Ischemia in the Preterm Ovine Fetal Brain

Acute exposure to subclinical infection modulates subsequent hypoxia-ischemia (HI) injury in a time-dependent manner, likely by cross-talk through Toll-like receptors (TLRs), but the specific pathways are unclear in the preterm-equivalent brain. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that repeated low-dose exposure to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) before acute ischemia would be associated with induction of specific TLRs that are potentially neuroprotective. Fetal sheep at 0.65 gestation (term is ∼145 days) received intravenous boluses of low-dose LPS for 5 days (day 1, 50 ng/kg; days 2-5, 100 ng/kg) or the same volume of saline. Either 4 or 24 h after the last bolus of LPS, complete carotid occlusion was induced for 22 min. Five days after LPS, brains were collected. Pretreatment with LPS for 5 days decreased cellular apoptosis, microglial activation and reactive astrogliosis in response to HI injury induced 24 but not 4 h after the last dose of LPS. This was associated with upregulation of TLR4, TLR7 and IFN-β mRNA, and increased fetal plasma IFN-β concentrations. The association of reduced white matter apoptosis and astrogliosis after repeated low-dose LPS finishing 24 h but not 4 h before cerebral ischemia, with central and peripheral induction of IFN-β, suggests the possibility that IFN-β may be an important mediator of endogenous neuroprotection in the developing brain.
Association of serum albumin concentration with mortality, morbidity, CD4 T-cell reconstitution among tanzanians initiating antiretroviral therapy.

BACKGROUND Prospective studies of serum albumin concentration measurement as a low-cost predictor of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease progression are needed for individuals initiating antiretroviral therapy (ART) in resource-limited settings. METHODS Serum albumin concentration was measured at ART initiation for 2145 adults in Tanzania who were enrolled in a trial examining the effect of multivitamins on HIV disease progression. Participants were prospectively followed for mortality, morbidity, and anthropometric outcomes at monthly visits (median follow-up duration, 21.2 months). Proportional hazard models were used to analyze mortality, morbidity, and nutritional outcomes, while generalized estimating equations were used to analyze CD4(+) T-cell counts. RESULTS Individuals with hypoalbuminemia (defined as a serum albumin concentration of <35 g/L) at ART initiation had a hazard of death that was 4.52 times (95% confidence interval, 3.37-6.07; P < .001) that of individuals with serum albumin concentrations of ≥ 35 g/L, after multivariate adjustment. Hypoalbuminemia was also independently associated with the incidence of pulmonary tuberculosis (P < .001), severe anemia (P < .001), wasting (P = .002), and >10% weight loss (P = .012). Secondary analyses suggested that serum albumin concentrations of <38 g/L were associated with increased mortality and incident pulmonary tuberculosis. There was no association between serum albumin concentration and changes in CD4(+) T-cell counts (P = .121). CONCLUSIONS Serum albumin concentrations can identify adults initiating ART who are at high risk for mortality and selected morbidities. Future research is needed to identify and manage conditions that reduce the serum albumin concentration.
Rural Industrialization and Increasing Inequality: Emerging Patterns in China's Reforming Economy

This paper′s goal is to increase the understanding of the inequality trends during the postreform period in China. It uses a rigorous, inference-based procedure to demonstrate that inequality among the counties in an east coast province registered statistically significant increases between 1984 and 1989. Decomposition analysis reveals that the changing patterns of inequality were closely associated with the changes in the structure of the rural economy. In particular, policies that increased the importance of agriculture in the economy led to a reduction in inequality; those that stimulated the expansion of rural industry gave rise to greater inequality. One explanation is that barriers keep outputs, inputs, and information from flowing among regions, leading to higher inequality. J. Comp. Econom. , December 1994, 19(3), pp. 362-391. Food Research Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-6084.
The three‐dimensional folding of the tRNA‐like structure of tobacco mosaic virus RNA. A new building principle applied twice

The structure of the tRNA‐like 3′ terminus of tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) RNA has been studied. A 3′ ‐terminal fragment possessing the tRNA‐like properties was probed with chemical modification and enzymatic digestions. A model of the secondary structure is proposed for the last 105 nucleotides. The corresponding region of other tobamoviral RNAs can be folded in an identical secondary structure. A three‐dimensional model for the tRNA‐like structure is given which is compared with those proposed earlier for the tRNA‐like 3′ termini of turnip yellow mosaic virus (TYMV) RNA and brome mosaic virus (BMV) RNA. A new building principle which we discovered previously by studying the latter RNAs appears to be applied twice in the tRNA‐like structure of TMV RNA. The determination of the minimal length requirement for recognition of CTP, ATP:tRNA nucleotidyl‐transferase reveals a size of ˜100 nucleotides in agreement with the models proposed.
Model-free jump measures and interest rates: common patterns in US and UK monetary policy around major economic events

We employ model-free jump measures to study monetary policy operations in the UK and USA around major economic events by exploiting the relationship between jumps, interest rates, and macroeconomic news releases related to monetary policy. In our analysis, we explicitly account for the timing of jumps in UK and US interest rates and the correlation across jumps in the same two interest rates and whether these match Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC)/Monetary Policy Committee news releases. We find that FOMC news releases lag jumps in US interest rates, but lead jumps in UK Gilt rates. Overall, our analysis suggests that US Treasury Bills react to information in the aforementioned news releases before their announcement while UK Gilt yields react after them and that the Fed and Bank of England react similarly around major economic events.
The Effects of Reducing Firing Costs in Spain: A Lost Opportunity?

Abstract In the mid 80's, many European countries liberalized the use of fixed-term (temporary) contracts in order to lower firm's non-wage labor costs, instead of reducing firing costs associated with indefinite duration (permanent) contracts. This policy generated segmented labor markets. The Spanish case is the most striking, with a share of temporary employment of 33% by the mid 90's. Since then, several reforms have been suggested and in this paper I quantify some of their effects. First, I build a model of job creation and destruction of the search and matching type that is able to generate the main properties of a segmented labor market like the Spanish one. Then, I use his model to quantify the effects of removing procedural wages, and further reductions in firing costs associated with permanent contracts. The main results are: (i) a small increase in permanent job destruction, (ii) a significant reduction in temporary job destruction, mainly driven by the increase in job conversions from temporary contracts into permanent ones, and (iii) a significant reduction in labor market segmentation measured as the reduction in the wage gap of temporary versus permanent workers.
Going organic in viticulture: a case-study comparison in Clare Valley, South Australia

Long-term studies of organic and conventional viticulture are rare, and there has been little published comparison of the two systems in Australia. This study compares and contrasts yields, grape quality, grape prices, variable costs, worker benefits, soil carbon and biodiversity of organic and conventional viticultural production in Penfolds Clare Valley Estate, South Australia, from the 1990s to the late 2000s. Comparisons are made between overall farming systems, red and white grape varieties and individual grape varieties. Evidence over a number of years was found for: (1) an overall yield penalty per hectare for organic blocks of around 10 per cent but no yield penalty between similar grape varieties; (2) an overall cost penalty per hectare of 10 per cent for organic blocks, owing to higher costs in areas such as soil management and pest and disease; and (3) an overall higher grade quality (and higher prices paid) for organic red grape varieties but a lower overall grade quality (and lower prices paid) for white grape varieties. There was limited evidence from one year to suggest that there were higher soil arthropod and mite populations in the organic blocks, but no differences were found in soil organic carbon between systems. In addition, there was evidence of positive externality influences from the presence of organic farming on the estate on surrounding conventional management.
Broad-based stock options: before and after the market downturn

We examine labour productivity in small, medium and large firms that broadly distribute stock options under starkly different market conditions – during the bull (1995–7) and bear (2000–2) stock markets. We find greater labour output in both upward and downward markets in all firm size categories, with the exception of small firms in a declining market, where the productivity is also greater, but the statistical significance of the result is weak.
Decisions Under Uncertainty: Comment

In a symposium on "Decisions under Uncertainty" in this Journal 1 a phenomenon was discussed which is described as the "slanting down" of subjective probabilities when laying bets. A subject who exhibits this phenomenon would prefer to lay a bet on picking a red ball from an urn containing equal proportions of red and black balls to laying the same bet on picking a red ball from another urn containing unknown proportions of red and black balls, no balls of other colors being present in either case. He would, moreover, still prefer to pick from the urn of known composition when invited to bet on black. Of the three contributors to the symposium, Fellner defends this attitude as rational and Raiffa attacks it as irrational, while Ellsberg is principally concerned to demonstrate that the phenomenon exists and is prepared for the most part, to leave the question of rationality open. He does, however, in a footnote to his description of the urn experiment, mention one of the conditions under which this experiment is carried out, and this condition is the crux of the whole issue. The footnote, on page 651, reads:
Estimation of discrete/continuous choice model: application of Bayesian approach using Gibbs sampling

The paper suggests a different model for estimating a discrete/continuous choice framework using Gibbs sampling. The basic idea of using Gibbs sampling for the multinomial probit model is extended to the case of a discrete/continuous framework. To check the applicability of this method, it was applied to estimate the parameters of a ‘vehicle ownership and use’ model in Seoul, Korea. Also estimated was the price elasticity of gasoline demand, calculated to be -0.7601.
Scheduled Tribes and the Politics of Inclusion in India

As the identification of Scheduled Tribes (STs) is left to the state government – which bases decisions on political considerations rather than the established criteria for identification of STs – there are bound to be emerging demands for inclusion in the list of STs. Meanwhile, in the name of extending welfare projects and affirmative action to tribal people, the state is legitimizing its control over tribal resources. For STs, the important issue is not integration into mainstream society, nor development by any outside agency, but recognition as peoples in their own right, treatment as equal partners, and control over their lands and livelihoods and, through this, the ability to develop themselves.
An Adaptive Offset Tracking Method with SAR Images for Landslide Displacement Monitoring

With the development of high-resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) systems, researchers are increasingly paying attention to the application of SAR offset tracking methods in ground deformation estimation. The traditional normalized cross correlation (NCC) tracking method is based on regular matching windows. For areas with different moving characteristics, especially the landslide boundary areas, the NCC method will produce incorrect results. This is because in landslide boundary areas, the pixels of the regular matching window include two or more types of moving characteristics: some pixels with large displacement, and others with small or no displacement. These two kinds of pixels are uncorrelated, which result in inaccurate estimations. This paper proposes a new offset tracking method with SAR images based on the adaptive matching window to improve the accuracy of landslide displacement estimation. The proposed method generates an adaptive matching window that only contains pixels with similar moving characteristics. Three SAR images acquired by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) system are selected to estimate the surface deformation of the Slumgullion landslide located in the southwestern Colorado, USA. The results show that the proposed method has higher accuracy than the traditional NCC method, especially in landslide boundary areas. Furthermore, it can obtain more detailed displacement information in landslide boundary areas.
EFFECTS OF ELASTASE INHIBITOR ON THE EPITHELIAL CELL APOPTOSIS IN BLEOMYCIN-INDUCED PULMONARY FIBROSIS

Alveolar epithelial cell injury and apoptosis is consistent findings in human idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Epithelial cell apoptosis is known to be induced by leukocyte elastase in vitro. The authors hypothesized that synthetic neutrophil elastase inhibitor, sivelestat (ONO-5046), can inhibit the bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis in rats by blocking the apoptotic pathways in epithelial cells. Adult rats were injected with intratracheal bleomycin. Sivelestat was given for 13 days intraperitoneally after bleomycin treatments. Similar experiments were carried out in which A549 cells, a human alveolar type II epithelial cell line, were treated with bleomycin or neutrophil elastase. In rats, sivelestat decreased neutrophil counts and the cytokine-induced neutrophil chemoattractant (CINC)-1 in the bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid of bleomycin-treated rats. Sivelestat also decreased the bleomycin-induced lung inflammatory cell apoptosis by decreasing caspase-3 and -9 activities. In A549 cells, sivelestat decreased the elastase-induced epithelial cell apoptosis but not the bleomycin-induced epithelial cell apoptosis. Similarly, sivelestat inhibited the elastase-induced cell death but not the bleomycin-induced cell death in MTT assays. Sivelestat also inhibited the elastase-induced caspase-3 and -9 activities and cytochrome c release from the mitochondria but did not inhibit the bleomycin-induced caspase activities in A549 cells. In conclusion, bleomycin caused the lung inflammatory cell apoptosis through the caspase-9 and -3 pathways in rats. Sivelestat inhibited pulmonary fibrosis by blocking these mitochondria-mediated apoptotic pathways in bleomycin-treated rats and in elastase-treated A549 cells. These findings suggest that sivelestat can suppress the bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis by blocking neutrophil chemotaxis and by inhibiting the neutrophil elastase–induced lung cell apoptosis in rats.
Antiproliferative and antimicrobial activity of traditional Kombucha and Satureja montana L. Kombucha.

PURPOSE To carry out a preliminary investigation of the biological activity of Kombucha beverages from Camellia sinensis L. (black tea) and Satureja montana L. (winter savory tea), that have consuming acidity. MATERIALS AND METHODS Cell growth effect was measured by sulforhodamine B colorimetric assay on HeLa (cervix epithelioid carcinoma), HT-29 (colon adenocarcinoma), and MCF-7 (breast adenocarcinoma). Antimicrobial activity to bacteria, yeasts and moulds was determined by agar-well diffusion method. RESULTS Consuming Kombuchas had the most expressive antimicrobial activity against all investigated bacteria, except Sarcina lutea, while unfermented tea samples had no activity. Traditional Kombucha showed higher activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli than acetic acid, while both neutralized Kombuchas had bacteriostatic activity on Salmonella enteritidis. Examined Kombuchas did not stimulate cell proliferation of the investigated cell lines. Antiproliferative activity of winter savory tea Kombucha was comparable to that of traditional Kombucha made from black tea. Furthermore, in HeLa cell line Satureja montana L. Kombucha induced cell growth inhibition by 20% (IC20) at lower concentration compared to the activity of water extract of Satureja montana L. obtained in our previous research. CONCLUSION Presence of more active antiproliferative component(s) in Satureja montana L. Kombucha compared to Satureja montana L. water extract and antimicrobial component(s) other than acetic acid in both Kombuchas is suggested.
Portfolio optimisation models

In this thesis we consider three different problems in the domain of portfolio optimisation. The first problem we consider is that of selecting an Absolute Return Portfolio (ARP). ARPs are usually seen as financial portfolios that aim to produce a good return regardless of how the underlying market performs, but our literature review shows that there is little agreement on what constitutes an ARP. We present a clear definition via a three-stage mixed-integer zero-one program for the problem of selecting an ARP. The second problem considered is that of designing a Market Neutral Portfolio (MNP). MNPs are generally defined as financial portfolios that (ideally) exhibit performance independent from that of an underlying market, but, once again, the existing literature is very fragmented. We consider the problem of constructing a MNP as a mixed-integer nonlinear program (MINLP) which minimises the absolute value of the correlation between portfolio return and underlying benchmark return. The third problem is related to Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs). ETFs are funds traded on the open market which typically have their performance tied to a benchmark index. They are composed of a basket of assets; most attempt to reproduce the returns of an index, but a growing number try to achieve a multiple of the benchmark return, such as two times or the negative of the return. We present a detailed performance study of the current ETF market and we find, among other conclusions, constant underperformance among ETFs that aim to do more than simply track an index. We present a MINLP for the problem of selecting the basket of assets that compose an ETF, which, to the best of our knowledge, is the first in the literature. For all three models we present extensive computational results for portfolios derived from universes defined by S&P international equity indices with up to 1200 stocks. We use CPLEX to solve the ARP problem and the software package Minotaur for both our MINLPs for MNP and an ETF.
Predicting Consumers' Locations in Dynamic Environments via 3D Sensor-Based Tracking

Brick-and-mortar stores for non-food items allow customers to quickly try items and take them home, but lack certain convenient features of online shopping, such as personalised offers and recommendations for items of possible interest. Mobile in-store shopping applications would allow to combine these advantages if they would derive current customer needs from customer activities. A natural way to infer interests of shops' visitors is to analyse their motion and places where they stop. This paper presents a low-cost depth sensor -- based people tracking system and a method to predict future customer locations, developed for environments where items are frequently re-located and customer routes change accordingly. The tracking system employs adaptive background modelling approach, allowing to quickly distinguish between moving humans and re-located objects. Similarity-based location predictions use fairly small datasets of recent tracks of other customers and allow predicting locations of future stops very soon after monitoring starts: after just a few minutes. Therefore this approach also provides for imperfect tracking, e.g., due to occlusions. In the tests with the data, acquired in a real clothing and cosmetics department during 50 days, future places of customers' interest were predicted with an average accuracy 60% and an average distance error half a metre.