Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
African monkeys are infected by Plasmodium falciparum nonhuman primate-specific strains

Recent molecular exploration of the Plasmodium species circulating in great apes in Africa has revealed the existence of a large and previously unknown diversity of Plasmodium. For instance, gorillas were found to be infected by parasites closely related to Plasmodium falciparum, suggesting that the human malignant malaria agent may have arisen after a transfer from gorillas. Although this scenario is likely in light of the data collected in great apes, it remained to be ascertained whether P. falciparum-related parasites may infect other nonhuman primates in Africa. Using molecular tools, we here explore the diversity of Plasmodium species infecting monkeys in Central Africa. In addition to previously described Hepatocystis and Plasmodium species (Plasmodium gonderi and Plasmodium sp DAJ-2004), we have found one African monkey to be infected by a P. falciparum-related parasite. Examination of the nuclear and mitochondrial genomes of this parasite reveals that it is specific of nonhuman primates, indicating that P. falciparum-related pathogens can naturally circulate in some monkey populations in Africa. We also show that at least two distinct genetic entities of P. falciparum infect nonhuman primates and humans, respectively. Our discoveries bring into question the proposed gorilla origin of human P. falciparum.
Analysis of a fiber bragg grating writing process using low coherence interferometry and layer-peeling

We demonstrate accurate measurements ofthe longitudinal refractive index profile of a fiber Bragg grating (FBG). We measure the impulse response o f a FBG with a low-coherence interfrometer, calculate the complex spectrum from a Fourier transform of the interfrogram. and then apply a layer-peeling algorithm to find the index profile ofthe measured FBG. We use our results to calibrate and identify systematic errors in a scanning beam/dithered phase mask FBG writing system.
Hotel innovation and performance in times of crisis

Purpose – This paper aims to analyze the influence of innovation-based orientation on hotel performance, how the management’s perception of market turbulence moderates this relationship and the effect of an atmosphere of crisis. Design/methodology/approach – The research carried out used an on-line survey among four-star hotel managers in 52 Spanish cities. Findings – The results obtained indicate that the tendency of a hotel to innovate does not contribute directly and positively on short-term performance. However, it does confirm its importance when improving hotel performance in the medium- and long-term. This work discusses how the perception of technological turbulence influences the willingness to innovate, together with the effect that an economic-crisis-related-pessimistic management view has on marketing performance and long-term results. Originality/value – Reliable and valid scales, applicable to the hotel sector and useful both for researchers and managers, are provided to measure the tendency.
Multimethod analysis of three measures of six common personality traits.

Summary Three measures of each of six traits (locus of control (I-E), extraversion, neuroticism, cultural estrangement, social desirability, and guilt) were administered to 43 male and 57 female college students. Multimethod analysis of the resulting multitrait-multimethod matrix revealed eight traits, although informal examination of the matrix revealed only weak evidence for convergent and discriminant validity. The results were interpreted as supporting the construct validity of most of the measures but indicating the multifactorial nature of the I-E scale.
Effects on birthweights of maternal education, socio-economic status, and work-related characteristics

Birthweights of 3,451 infants of women registered for antenatal care in Uppsala County, Sweden, were analyzed using three different maternal socio-economic indicators; education, socio-economic status and work environment exposure characteristics. Other explanatory variables were maternal age, parity, height, smoking habits, and length of gestation. Mean birthweights increase with longer education and higher socio-economic status. No general pattern was seen for work environment characteristics. When smoking habits are controlled for, social differences in birthweight decrease to non-significant values. A regression model with a socio-economic indicator alone explains only a minor part, less than 1%, of the variation in birthweight. When smoking is included, adding a socio-economic indicator does not significantly improve the model. Practically all social differences in birthweight are related to the differences in maternal age, parity, height, and smoking habits. If a socio-economic indicator is to be included in the analysis of birthweights (for other reasons like international comparisons), we recommend education.
Women's Decision-Making Needs regarding Place of Care at End of Life

Little is known about the decision-making needs of terminally ill women who are considering options for place of care at the end of life. A pilot study was conducted with a sample of 20 terminally ill women with advanced cancer to identify factors taken into consideration in making this decision. Participants were interviewed using a semistructured questionnaire incorporating the domains of quality of end-of-life care and based on the Ottawa Decision Support Framework. Results suggested a gap between the preferred (home, n=13) and the actual (palliative care unit, n=16) place of care. Discrepancies about place of care may be related to conflicting subjective factors such as being a burden to family versus having the opportunity to strengthen relationships with family and friends. Participants who were actively engaged in making the decision scored the highest levels of decisional conflict. Previous studies have shown an association between high decisional conflict scores and decision delay. Although findings from this small study are preliminary, they suggest that the decision regarding place of terminal care is complex with multiple competing factors being considered.
The impact of monetary policy on banking and finance stock prices in China

In this study, we examine the impacts of changes to the required reserve ratio (RRR) on banking and finance stock prices in China from 2007 to 2012 using multiple variance ratio tests and vector error correction models. The efficient market hypothesis is rejected during the earlier increases in required reserve ratio (2007–2008) in the Shanghai A-market, and A-share prices negatively respond to increases in RRR. In contrast, both Shanghai A- and Hong Kong H-markets are efficient, and negative effects of RRR are not clearly observed during periods of stable RRR (2009–2010) and during a recent increase in RRR (2010–2012).
Politique fi scale et positionnement des Etats dans une économie globalisée

A B S T R A C T A B S T R A C T ■ ■ ■ In this paper we discuss how globalisation affects tax policy setting. The is a general consensus that the removal of non tax barriers, the increase of FDI flows and other components of globalisation have resulted in increased tax competition. A distinction has however to be made between the usual form of tax competition, by which governments try to attract mobile tax bases by lowering taxes, and yardstick competition or tax mimicking. The country reviews that are conducted by international organisation and, more formally, the open coordination method in the EU give a strong impetus to governments to consider developments in other countries and (un)formal supranational guidelines when they make their decision on tax policies. Governments are more and more inclined to position themselves in an attractive way. We concentrate on how this process has affected direct taxes. Countries used to rely on preferential tax regimes targeted to mobile activities to position themselves, until the EU and OECD codes of conduct put an end to such a strategy that was considered as harmful tax competition. Now that those regimes have been rolled back, competition on rates has increased but this does not seem to result in revenue loss. Part of the explanation of the revenue paradox comes from base broadening and in an increase of the size of the corporate sector. These processes are not open-ended and further tax cuts might be more difficult to be financed.
Comparisons of Peak Ground Reaction Force and Rate of Force Development During Variations of the Power Clean

Comfort, P, Allen, M, and Graham-Smith, P. Comparisons of peak ground reaction force and rate of force development during variations of the power clean. J Strength Cond Res 25(5): 1235-1239, 2011-The aim of this investigation was to determine the differences in vertical ground reaction forces and rate of force development (RFD) during variations of the power clean. Elite rugby league players (n = 11; age 21 ± 1.63 years; height 181.56 ± 2.61 cm; body mass 93.65 ± 6.84 kg) performed 1 set of 3 repetitions of the power clean, hang-power clean, midthigh power clean, or midthigh clean pull, using 60% of 1-repetition maximum power clean, in a randomized order, while standing on a force platform. Differences in peak vertical ground reaction forces (Fz) and instantaneous RFD between lifts were analyzed via 1-way analysis of variance and Bonferroni post hoc analysis. Statistical analysis revealed a significantly (p < 0.001) greater peak Fz during the midthigh power clean (2,801.7 ± 195.4 N) and the midthigh clean pull (2,880.2 ± 236.2 N) compared to both the power clean (2,306.24 ± 240.47 N) and the hang-power clean (2,442.9 ± 293.2 N). The midthigh power clean (14,655.8 ± 4,535.1 N·s−1) and the midthigh clean pull (15,320.6 ± 3,533.3 N·s−1) also demonstrated significantly (p < 0.001) greater instantaneous RFD when compared to both the power clean (8,839.7 ± 2,940.4 N·s−1) and the hang-power clean (9,768.9 ± 4,012.4 N·s−1). From the findings of this study, when training to maximize peak Fz and RFD the midthigh power clean and midthigh clean pull appear to be the most advantageous variations of the power clean to perform.
Demand Forecasting within Montenegrin Tourism Using Box-Jenkins Methodology for Seasonal ARIMA Models

The purpose of this paper is to construct adequate seasonal ARIMA models, using Box-Jenkins methodology, and to implement them in order to forecast short run flows of tourist arrivals and tourist overnight stays in Montenegro. Time scope covers ten years, from 2001/01 to 2010/12, while twelve months of 2011 are out-of-sample forecasts. Close inspection of related time series was applied which revealed no extreme and unusual specificities in the data. Therefore, only economic impacts have been affected the time series. This was important because econometric intervention analysis was excluded from models designing and building. As a result, our approach was based on time series modelling without need to take care of any structural breaks. Modified Box-Pierce and Jarque-Bera test statistics confirmed good quality of the models. Further, the results show excellent forecasting performances of specified models. According to forecasting output, Montenegro can expect upgrowth in terms of tourist arrivals as well as in terms of tourist overnight stays. The model has shown around 7,25% rise in arrivals, which is about 91 thousands tourists more in 2011 compared with the previous year. On the other hand, the calculated rise of overnight stays is around 8,42%, or about 670 thousands more than the year before.
Vehicle Safety Communications - Protocols, Security, and Privacy

Provides an up-to-date, in-depth look at the current research, design, and implementation of cooperative vehicle safety communication protocols and technologyImproving traffic safety has been a top concern for transportation agencies around the world and the focus of heavy research and development efforts sponsored by both governments and private industries. Cooperative vehicle systemswhich use sensors and wireless technologies to reduce traffic accidentscan play a major role in making the world's roads safer.Vehicle Safety Communications: Protocols, Security, and Privacy describes fundamental issues in cooperative vehicle safety and recent advances in technologies for enabling cooperative vehicle safety. It gives an overview of traditional vehicle safety issues, the evolution of vehicle safety technologies, and the need for cooperative systems where vehicles work together to reduce the number of crashes or mitigate damage when crashes become unavoidable.Authored by two top industry professionals, the book:Summarizes the history and current status of 5.9 GHz Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) technology and standardization, discussing key issues in applying DSRC to support cooperative vehicle safetyFeatures an in-depth overview of on-board equipment (OBE) and roadside equipment (RSE) by describing sample designs to illustrate the key issues and potential solutionsTakes on security and privacy protection requirements and challenges, including how to design privacy-preserving digital certificate management systems and how to evict misbehaving vehiclesIncludes coverage of vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications like intersection collision avoidance applications and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications like extended electronic brake lights and intersection movement assistVehicle Safety Communications is ideal for anyone working in the areas ofor studyingcooperative vehicle safety and vehicle communications.
Coronary Heart Disease Prevention: Views on Women's Gender‐Based Perceptions and Meanings

The construct of gender is typically differentiated from that of sex on the basis that it is socioculturally created rather than biophysically endowed. There has been some investigation regarding the relationship of gender to coronary heart disease prevention and risk factor management. However, mechanisms underlying the influence of gender on these important outcomes have not yet been fully examined or explained. There is a complex interplay among and between the sociocultural environments in which women live and the biophysical outcomes they experience. Funding agencies need to advance a research agenda aimed at prospectively examining the issues surrounding gender and development of coronary heart disease, as well as developing and testing practical and sustainable gender-specific interventions.
Reducing Harmonic Eddy-Current Losses in the Stator Teeth of Interior Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machines During Flux Weakening

Interior permanent magnet (IPM) synchronous machines can experience large harmonic eddy-current losses in the stator teeth under flux-weakening operation, significantly depressing the efficiency of these machines at high operating speeds. This paper presents a new analytical/finite-element hybrid design approach to reduce the harmonic eddy-current losses in IPM machine stator teeth during flux-weakening operation. The proposed technique achieves this objective by three steps: 1) developing an analytical index for the harmonic eddy-current losses in IPM machine stator teeth; 2) designing the spatial distribution of the rotor MMF to minimize the analytical index; and 3) synthesizing the rotor geometry to implement the desired rotor MMF function while maintaining the basic machine characteristics unchanged. It will be shown that two-layer rotors, if properly optimized, are significantly more effective than one-layer rotors for the purpose of reducing the harmonic eddy-current losses in IPM machine stator teeth during flux-weakening operation at high speeds.
Dynamic Replication Management for Object-Based Storage System

Data replication has been widely used as a mean of increasing the data availability of large-scale storage systems where failures are normal. Aiming to provide cost-effective availability, and improve performance and load-balancing of large-scale storage cluster, this paper presents a dynamic replication management scheme referred to as DRM. A model is developed to express availability as function of replica number. Based on this model, minimal replica number to satisfy availability requirement can be determined. DRM further places these replicas among Object-Based Storage Devices (OSD) in a balance way, taking into account different capacity and blocking probability of each OSD in heterogeneous environment. Proposed DRM can dynamically redistribute workloads among OSD cluster by adjusting replica number and location according to workload changing and OSD capacity. Our experiment results conclusively demonstrate that DRM is reliable and can achieve a significant average response time, and load balancing for large-scale OSD cluster.
Diversity of the Cronobacter Genus as Revealed by Multilocus Sequence Typing

ABSTRACT Cronobacter (previously known as Enterobacter sakazakii) is a diverse bacterial genus consisting of seven species: C. sakazakii, C. malonaticus, C. turicensis, C. universalis, C. muytjensii, C. dublinensis, and C. condimenti. In this study, we have used a multilocus sequence typing (MLST) approach employing the alleles of 7 genes (atpD, fusA, glnS, gltB, gyrB, infB, and ppsA; total length, 3,036 bp) to investigate the phylogenetic relationship of 325 Cronobacter species isolates. Strains were chosen on the basis of their species, geographic and temporal distribution, source, and clinical outcome. The earliest strain was isolated from milk powder in 1950, and the earliest clinical strain was isolated in 1953. The existence of seven species was supported by MLST. Intraspecific variation ranged from low diversity in C. sakazakii to extensive diversity within some species, such as C. muytjensii and C. dublinensis, including evidence of gene conversion between species. The predominant species from clinical sources was found to be C. sakazakii. C. sakazakii sequence type 4 (ST4) was the predominant sequence type of cerebral spinal fluid isolates from cases of meningitis.
Impact of genetic polymorphisms of the renin–angiotensin system and of non‐genetic factors on kidney transplant function – a single‐center experience

Abstract: Renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system (RAAS) polymorphisms such as the angiotensinogen‐gene‐M235T‐, the angiotensin‐conversion enzyme (ACE)‐gene I/D‐ and the angiotensin‐II‐type 1‐receptor‐(AT1R)‐A1166C‐polymorphism have been implicated in renal insufficiency and hypertension. We studied the association of these RAAS genotypes and non‐genetic factors with transplant function and hypertension after renal graft transplantation (NTX). A total of 229 renal graft recipients, transplanted at a single center, were monitored up to 54 months and genotyped using polymerase chain reaction. The prevalence of the genotypes was comparable to a control group of healthy volunteers. Genotype and clinical outcome was analyzed using anova, while the k‐nearest neighbor method was used for a pattern recognition analysis of the complete database. Hypertension after NTX was not influenced by the RAAS polymorphisms. The DD‐genotype of the ACE‐I/D‐polymorphism was associated with significantly deteriorated renal transplant function during the months 18 to 30 after transplantation according to anova at p < 0.05, as were non‐genetic factors like long hospitalization, poor primary transplant function, and frequent rejections. Pattern recognition identified, the use of cyclosporine (odds ratio of 4.25) and the use of Ang II‐receptor‐blockers at discharge indicating the need of effective antihypertensive treatment (odds ratio of 3.26) as risk factors for transplant function loss. Altogether, the significant impact of the DD‐genotype on the outcome after renal transplantation emphasizes the early identification of RAAS genotypes.
Social Capital and Income Generation in South Africa, 1993-98

The goal of this paper is to determine the nature of the causal relationship between "social capital," as measured by household membership in formal and informal groups and household welfare in South Africa. Using a recently collected panel data set in South Africa's largest province, we estimate per capita expenditure functions and find a positive and significant impact of household-level social capital. For example, after controlling for fixed effects, social capital has no impact on per capita expenditure in 1993 but positive and significant effects in 1998. We interpret this as reflecting structural changes in the South African economy as it removes the many restrictions that underlay apartheid.
MR imaging enhancement and segmentation of tumor using fuzzy curvelet

Medical image segmentation is a very important issue in medical imaging. An automatic brain MR image segmentation method has been proposed for tumor detection in this paper. Discretize local window and wrapping based Curvelet transform has been used to remove rician noise. A modified fuzzy C-mean algorithm is used for segmentation of brain MR image. Proposed system has been tested on different datasets of MR Images. Proposed system performs well on all types of MR images including T1, T2 and PD brain MR images. Key words:
Sources of Housing Price Fluctuations: An Analysis Using Sign-restricted VAR *

This article investigates the role of potential disturbances behind the housing market fluctuations in Korea using a VAR model with sign-restriction. Specifically, we identify four structural shocks, namely, i) monetary policy shock, ii) lending shock, iii) housing market shock, and iv) expectations shock, and estimate their effects on housing price and other macro variables. The overall results from impulse responses and forecast error variance decomposition indicate that development in housing sectors is closely interrelated to other macro variables/factors, including monetary policy. When we decompose the historical contribution of each shock for the actual time series movements in housing price, non-monetary policy shocks, such as lending shock and housing market shock, seem to be mainly accountable for since 2000. In this time period, loose monetary policy also partly contributed, whose role seems to be relatively minor however.
Testing the Effect of a Short Cheap Talk Script in Choice Experiments

The application of stated preference methods rests on the assumption that respondents act rationally and that their demand for the non-market good on the hypothetical market is equal to what their real demand would be. Previous studies have shown that this is not the case and this gap is known as hypothetical bias. The present paper attempts to frame the description of the hypothetical market so as to induce more “true market behaviour” in the respondents by including a short Cheap Talk script. The script informs respondents that in similar studies using stated preference methods, people have a tendency to overestimate how much they are willing to pay compared to their actual (true) willingness to pay. Applying a two-split sample approach to a Choice Experiment study focusing on preferences for reducing visual disamenities from offshore wind farms, the Cheap Talk script is found to be a preference mover, but does not affect preferences significantly. Significant effects are found when relating the effect of the Cheap Talk script to the cost levels of the alternatives, in that female respondents are found to choose higher cost alternatives less frequently when presented with the Cheap Talk script, while male respondents are not affected.