Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Economic Analysis of Perennial Crop Systems in Dak Lak Province, Vietnam

Dak Lak province, Central Highlands, Vietnam presents an interesting case in perennial crop systems, of which coffee and black pepper are the two premier commodities and contribute a large part to economic growth provincially and at the national level. In recent years, in addition to mono-cropping systems, intercropping systems for diversification have developed quickly. This paper focuses on (1) comparing the economic efficiency of mono-coffee systems (MCSes), mono-pepper systems (MPSes), and coffee and pepper intercropping (CPI) by analyzing startup cost, annual cost, and profits; and (2) identifying the main factors affecting farmers’ decisions to convert their crop systems. The study was carried out by investigating 90 perennial crop samples using the three perennial crop systems (MCSes, MPSes, and CPI) in 2017–2018. Additionally, in-depth interviews and focus group discussion (FGD) methods were applied to collect more information about the operations of each system. Another survey with 37 samples (new plantations) was carried out to compute the startup cost. The findings showed evidence that MCSes had the lowest startup and annual costs, whereas MPSes had the highest costs of the three perennial crop systems. MCSes used less manure or compost in the initial setup and overused chemical fertilizer in annual production. Similarly, MPSes had high pesticide-stimulant costs in the production process to sustain crop development. The study indicated that CPI not only had the highest economic efficiency, but also created the best family employment opportunities of the three systems. Additionally, the study found some social factors that strongly influenced farmers’ decisions to shift their cropping system: These included ethnicity, education, training, and crop failure, in addition to economic factors (profits).
Comparative efficacy of insect repellents against mosquito bites.

BACKGROUND The worldwide threat of arthropod-transmitted diseases, with their associated morbidity and mortality, underscores the need for effective insect repellents. Multiple chemical, botanical, and "alternative" repellent products are marketed to consumers. We sought to determine which products available in the United States provide reliable and prolonged complete protection from mosquito bites. METHODS We conducted studies involving 15 volunteers to test the relative efficacy of seven botanical insect repellents; four products containing N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide, now called N,N-diethyl-3-methylbenzamide (DEET); a repellent containing IR3535 (ethyl butylacetylaminopropionate); three repellent-impregnated wristbands; and a moisturizer that is commonly claimed to have repellent effects. These products were tested in a controlled laboratory environment in which the species of the mosquitoes, their age, their degree of hunger, the humidity, the temperature, and the light-dark cycle were all kept constant. RESULTS DEET-based products provided complete protection for the longest duration. Higher concentrations of DEET provided longer-lasting protection. A formulation containing 23.8 percent DEET had a mean complete-protection time of 301.5 minutes. A soybean-oil-based repellent protected against mosquito bites for an average of 94.6 minutes. The IR3535-based repellent protected for an average of 22.9 minutes. All other botanical repellents we tested provided protection for a mean duration of less than 20 minutes. Repellent-impregnated wristbands offered no protection. CONCLUSIONS Currently available non-DEET repellents do not provide protection for durations similar to those of DEET-based repellents and cannot be relied on to provide prolonged protection in environments where mosquito-borne diseases are a substantial threat.
Institutions and economic growth in Africa: Evidence from panel estimation

There is growing emphasis on the role of institutions on explaining Africa’s economic growth ahead of the traditional factors such as capital accumulation. However, it is not clear which of the institutions and governance indicators namely control of corruption, government effectiveness, political stability, regulatory quality, rule of law and voice and accountability matter most. This paper empirically examines the impact of institutions on economic growth in Africa. The paper uses a sample of 48 countries for the1996-2016 period. The overall number of observations is 912. The paper applied generalized methods of moment (GMM), fixed effects (FE) and random effects (RE) models. However, due to the fact that GMM is well suited to deal with potential endogeneity problems in the model, inferential statistics of this paper are drawn from GMM regression results. Results of the FE and RE regressions are presented in appendix. Empirical results show that institutions really matter for Africa’s economic growth. Among the institutional quality indicators political stability appears to be the most significant factor in explaining real GDP per capita growth in Africa. However, it is worth noting that, the quality of institutions alone may not be sufficient. Along with institutions, the paper reveals that structural factors such as liberalization of trade, fixed capital formation, labour force and foreign direct investment have a significant effect on Africa’s economic growth. The implication is that, a policy mix with the aim of improving the quality of institutions as well as reducing trade restrictions, enhancing both domestic and foreign investment and improving the quality of labour force would enhance economic growth in Africa.
Working memory and attention in pediatric brain tumor patients treated with and without radiation therapy

ABSTRACT Children are at risk for cognitive difficulties following the diagnosis and treatment of a brain tumor. Longitudinal studies have consistently demonstrated declines on measures of intellectual functioning, and recently it has been proposed that specific neurocognitive processes underlie these changes, including working memory, processing speed, and attention. However, a fine-grained examination of the affected neurocognitive processes is required to inform intervention efforts. Radiation therapy (RT) impacts white matter integrity, likely affecting those cognitive processes supported by distributed neural networks. This study examined working memory and attention in children during the early delayed stages of recovery following surgical resection and RT. The participants included 27 children diagnosed with pediatric brain tumor, treated with (n = 12) or without (n = 15) RT, who completed experimental and standardized measures of working memory and attention (n-back and digit span tasks). Children treated with radiation performed less well than those who did not receive radiation on the n-back measure, though performance at the 0-back level was considerably poorer than would be expected for both groups, perhaps suggesting difficulties with more basic processes such as vigilance. Along these lines, marginal differences were noted on digit span forward. The findings are discussed with respect to models of attention and working memory, and the interplay between the two.
Thermo and pH stable ATP-independent chaperone activity of heat-inducible Hsp70 from Pennisetum glaucum

Heat shock proteins (Hsps) are a class of molecular chaperones that play an essential role in preserving cellular functions under stressful conditions. The over production of recombinant proteins often causes cellular stress that results in aggregation /misfolding of proteins, which sometimes leads to the formation of inclusion bodies. Here we report the cloning and characterization of heat-inducible PgHsp70 from Pennisetum glaucum, a heat and drought tolerant plant that showed stability and chaperone activity at elevated temperatures. The predicted amino acid sequence of PgHsp70 revealed a high homology with Hsp70 from other plants, and the overall 3D structure homology modeling is similar to that of the constitutively expressed bovine cytosolic Heat Shock Cognate (HSC)-70. The purified recombinant protein had an apparent molecular mass of 70 kDa and displayed optimal chaperone activity at 50oC, and pH 8.0. Under these conditions, the T1/2 of PgHsp70 increased from 10 to 15 h in the presence of glycerol. The PgHsp70 exhibited a higher chaperone activity towards glutamate dehydrogenase than alcohol dehydrogenase. The expression of recombinant carbonic anhydrase (CA) in E. coli in a catalytically active soluble form rather than in inclusion bodies was made feasible by co-expression of PgHsp70. Circular dichroism (CD) studies of the recombinant PgHsp70 did not reveal any discernible changes in the α-helix content, with increase in temperature from 35 to 85oC, thus suggesting a critical role of α-helix content in maintaining the chaperone activity.
ARIMAX and ARX Models with Social Media Information to Predict Unemployment Rate

—To keep current with trends in the society, social media has been actively used for understanding issues and moods of real world. In this paper, we suggest the method using the social media to predict the unemployment rate based on natural language processing and statistical modelling. We adopted AutoRegressive Integrated Moving Average with eXogenous variables (ARIMAX) and AutoRegressive with eXogenous variables (ARX) model to predict the unemployment rate and compared our model to a Google Index based model. Our model derived 27.8% and 27.9% improvements in error reduction compared to an existing model in mean absolute error and mean absolute percentage error metrics, respectively. 
Bacterial Artificial Chromosome-Based Comparative Genomic Analysis Identifies Mycobacterium microti as a Natural ESAT-6 Deletion Mutant

ABSTRACT Mycobacterium microti is a member of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex that causes tuberculosis in voles. Most strains of M. microti are harmless for humans, and some have been successfully used as live tuberculosis vaccines. In an attempt to identify putative virulence factors of the tubercle bacilli, genes that are absent from the avirulent M. microti but present in human pathogen M. tuberculosis or Mycobacterium bovis were searched for. A minimal set of 50 bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) clones that covers almost all of the genome of M. microti OV254 was constructed, and individual BACs were compared to the corresponding BACs from M. bovis AF2122/97 and M. tuberculosis H37Rv. Comparison of pulsed-field gel-separated DNA digests of BAC clones led to the identification of 10 regions of difference (RD) between M. microti OV254 and M. tuberculosis. A 14-kb chromosomal region (RD1mic) that partly overlaps the RD1 deletion in the BCG vaccine strain was missing from the genomes of all nine tested M. microti strains. This region covers 13 genes, Rv3864 to Rv3876, in M. tuberculosis, including those encoding the potent ESAT-6 and CFP-10 antigens. In contrast, RD5mic, a region that contains three phospholipase C genes (plcA to -C), was missing from only the vole isolates and was present in M. microti strains isolated from humans. Apart from RD1mic and RD5mic other M. microti-specific deleted regions have been identified (MiD1 to MiD3). Deletion of MiD1 has removed parts of the direct repeat region in M. microti and thus contributes to the characteristic spoligotype of M. microti strains.
Long-term stable sub-femtosecond synchronization of microwave signals with mode-locked Er-fiber lasers

We present a fiber-based optical-microwave phase detector that detects the phase error between optical pulse trains and microwave signals with sub-fs resolution over 1 MHz bandwidth. The proposed phase detector is used to synchronize microwave signals from VCO with optical pulse trains from mode-locked Er-fiber lasers. The residual phase noise between the optical pulse trains and the synchronized microwave signals is -133 dBc/Hz (-154 dBc/Hz) at 1 Hz (5 kHz) offset frequency, which results in 838 as integrated rms timing jitter [1 Hz-1 MHz]. The long-term residual phase drift is 847 as (rms) measured over 2 hours. We also used the phase detector and the low-jitter Er-fiber laser to measure the phase noise of a microwave signal synthesizer.
Threshold Effects of Inflation on Economic Growth: Evidence from Dynamic Panel Threshold Regression Analysis for 18 Developed Economies

Inflation and growth nexus still a main focus in many studies as the existence of trade-off issue in inflation-growth relationship. The objective of this study is to estimate inflation threshold and its impact on inflation-growth relationship. This panel data study involves 18 developed countries over the period 1980–2016 with Consumer price index (CPI) and Gross domestic product (GDP) as variables associated with other determinants such as producer price, exchange rate, tradeopenness, interest rate and population growth rate. Dynamic Panel Threshold Regression (DPTR) model that suggested by Kremer et al. (2013) is employed to estimate the threshold of inflation and its effects on economic growth. Our study extended the non-dynamic panel threshold model of Hansen (1999). Our results confirmed that the targeted inflation rate 2% by many central banks is a wise decision if compare to 4% as the impact of inflation on growth in lower inflation regimes is positive and statistically significant at the 5% level. For higher inflation regime, we estimate that inflation rates exceeding 1.44% are associated with lower economic growth, inflation and growth is negatively correlated and statistically significant at 1%. Trade-off relationship only exists at lower regime. By using GMM and Pooled OLS estimation, DPTR model results are proven robust where there is a U-shaped exist.
Predictability of Impending Online Auction Business Failure: A P-Chart Analysis

On February 2, 2006, the Internet community was shocked by the news that one of the largest and most successful eBay businesses had seemingly just disappeared. With no warning, Glacier Bay DVD was suddenly listed as “not a registered user” of eBay. Many speculated about what this event meant for eBay and other auction houses, because Glacier Bay DVD had long been touted as a great eBay success story. Its sudden disappearance was a warning to many, particularly because hundreds of buyers had paid for, but not received, their merchandise. Building upon previous quality research that relates quality to business success, the authors postulate that quality also should be related to business failure, and this relationship should made it possible to foresee Glacier Bay DVD's collapse. In this article the authors examine the customer feedback Glacier Bay DVD received in the two months leading up to its collapse, and through p-chart analysis the authors find strong support for their proposition that Glacier Bay DVD's demise was predictable.
Knowledge exchange and management research: barriers and potentials

The growing involvement of management researchers in knowledge exchange activities and collaborative research does not seem to be reflected in a growing academic output. The purpose of this paper is to explore barriers for the limited academic output from these activities as well as the potential for ‘interesting’ papers. ,The paper uses secondary data and statistics as well as an illustrative case study to trace knowledge exchange activities and barriers for academic output based on these activities. ,The paper identifies a number of barriers for the turning of data derived from knowledge exchange activities into academic papers such as low priority of case study research in leading management journals, a growing practice orientation in the research funding systems, methodological challenges because of limited researcher control and disincentives for researcher involvement in knowledge exchange activities. The paper also identifies a potential for ‘interesting’ research and discoveries through collaborative research. ,Diminishing the barriers for collaborative and case-based research and exploring the potential for ‘interesting’ discoveries has the potential to increase the number of published papers with a high level of scientific rigor as well as a high level of relevance for practice. ,An outcome focus on the relationship between knowledge exchange activities and management research is to the author’s knowledge new in the debate about weak practical relevance of management research.
Conversational Engagement Recognition Using Auditory and Visual Cues

Automatic prediction of engagement in human-human and human-machine dyadic and multiparty interaction scenarios could greatly aid in evaluation of the success of communication. A corpus of eight face-to-face dyadic casual conversations was recorded and used as the basis for an engagement study, which examined the effectiveness of several methods of engagement level recognition. A convolutional neural network based analysis was seen to be the most effective.
Osteoclastic Potential of Human CFU‐GM: Biphasic Effect of GM‐CSF

Human osteoclasts can be efficiently generated in vitro from cord blood mononuclear cells and derived CFU‐GM colonies. However, CFU‐M colonies are poorly osteoclastogenic. Short‐term (2–48 h) treatment with GM‐CSF stimulates osteoclast formation by proliferating precursors, whereas longer exposure favors dendritic cell formation.
Ultrasound‐guided regional blockade for lipoma excision: a new approach to an old technique

Local anesthesia for lipoma excision can be feasible with anesthetic injection in the fascial plane between the lipoma and the surrounding soft tissues under real‐time ultrasonography [ultrasound‐ guided lipoma plane (ULP) block]. The advantage of targeting a single anesthetic injection plane under ultrasound guidance may allow for technically easier block placement and long‐term analgesic effects.
Melatonin and its metabolites as copper chelating agents and their role in inhibiting oxidative stress: a physicochemical analysis

The copper sequestering ability of melatonin and its metabolites cyclic 3‐hydroxymelatonin (3OHM), N1‐acetyl‐N2‐formyl‐5‐methoxykynuramine (AFMK), and N1‐acetyl‐5‐methoxykynuramine (AMK) was investigated within the frame of the Density Functional Theory. It was demonstrated that these compounds are capable of chelating copper ions, yielding stable complexes. The most likely chelation sites were identified. Two different mechanisms were modeled, the direct‐chelation mechanism (DCM) and the coupled‐deprotonation‐chelation mechanism (CDCM). It is proposed that, under physiological conditions, CDCM would be the main chelation route for Cu(II). It was found that melatonin and its metabolites fully inhibited the oxidative stress induced by Cu(II)‐ascorbate mixtures, via Cu(II) chelation. In the same way, melatonin, AFMK, and 3OHM also prevented the first step of the Haber–Weiss reaction, consequently turning off the ˙OH production via the Fenton reaction. Therefore, it is proposed that, in addition to the previously reported free radical scavenging cascade, melatonin is also involved in a concurrent ‘chelating cascade’, thereby contributing to a reduction in oxidative stress. 3OHM was identified as the most efficient of the studied compounds for that purpose, supporting the important role of this metabolite in the beneficial effects of melatonin against oxidative stress.
Cross-Reactivity between Schistosoma mansoni Antigens and the Latex Allergen Hev b 7: Putative Implication of Cross-Reactive Carbohydrate Determinants (CCDs)

IgG antibodies produced by rabbits immunized against S. mansoni antigens cross-reacted with aqueous soluble constituents of a variety of allergens. The antibody cross-reactivity was largely sensitive to degradation by treatment of the target antigens with sodium meta-periodate, suggesting the cross-reactivity was due to carbohydrate determinants that were common to both the schistosome and the allergens (CCDs). The reaction between the rabbit antibodies and a 43 kDa molecule in a rubber latex extract was analysed further: tandem mass spectrometry identified the latex molecule as allergen Hev b 7. Rabbit anti-schistosome IgG antibodies purified by acid-elution from solid-phase latex Hev b 7 reacted with the S. mansoni egg antigens IPSE/alpha-1 and kappa-5 and cercarial antigens SPO-1 and a fatty acid-binding protein. Moreover, purified anti-S. mansoni egg, latex cross-reactive antibodies reacted with antigenic constituents of some fruits, a result of potential relevance to the latex-fruit syndrome of allergic reactions. We propose that IgG anti-schistosome antibodies that cross-react with allergens may be able to block IgE-induced allergic reactions and thus provide a possible explanation for the hygiene hypothesis.
End to end jitter control on AFDX network

Avionics full duplex switched Ethernet network (AFDX), based on IEEE802.3, has been developed as a cost-effective avionic network to replace the low-speed ARINC 429 which has limited bandwidth and limited addressing capability. For avionic real-time electronic system, delay and delay jitter are the most important parameters that must be guaranteed for some data such as the data for piloting plane. But the competition of the resource of the scheduler between multiple Virtual Links will result in delay and jitter in the AFDX network and the jitter would become unacceptable when the data flow passes through multiple-hops. In this paper, we introduce a jitter-EDD mechanism into the AFDX network. It can regulate the data flows on the AFDX network components and significantly reduce the end-to-end jitter. In order to assure that every frame can be sent to the physical link before its deadline, we also do schedulability analysis for the schedulers.
Murder in the shadows: evidence for an institutional legitimacy theory of crime

ABSTRACT The focus on the institutional control of violent crime has increased over the past few decades, stimulated largely by Messner and Rosenfeld’s “institutional anomie theory. ” A related theory, referred to as “institutional legitimacy theory” in this study, has received considerably less attention. This theory, originating in the social control theoretical tradition, is tested in an analysis of homicide rates (circa 2012) across 108 nations. Overall, institutional legitimacy theory receives support as economic, political, familial, and religious institutional legitimacy assist in reducing homicide rates across societies. Most notably, homicide is positively associated with the size of the shadow economy (the measure of waning economic institutional legitimacy), consistent with the hypothesis that parties lacking institutional redress are more likely to use unilateral violence to resolve grievances.
Lay Explanations of Type 2 Diabetes in Bangkok, Thailand

The increasing incidence of and mortality associated with type 2 diabetes in Thailand, and the lack of knowledge of lay understandings of diabetes, are the starting points of this paper. Ethnographic research was undertaken in an inner zone district of Bangkok, with participant observation, interviews and case studies conducted with individuals who had lived with type 2 diabetes for at least three years. Culturally specific explanations exist for the aetiology, pathology and course of illness, and responses to biomedical treatment. The notion of kam—the negative effects of past behaviour—underpinned participants’ explanations of the cause of diabetes. The presentation and development of the disease derive from Thai traditional medical theory, but its management, aimed at controlling blood glucose levels and preventing complications, involves both cosmopolitan and traditional medicines. This syncretic approach to cause, diagnosis and management suggests the value of a more comprehensive approach in health education, diagnosis and treatment.