Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Distributional Impact of Agricultural Technology Adoption on Rice Farmers' Expenditure: The Case of Nerica in Benin

In this paper, we assess the impact of Nerica, a family of high-yielding hybrid rice varieties, on welfare in Benin. Our empirical analysis utilizes instrumental variable and quantile treatment effects methods to estimate the impacts of cultivating Nerica on welfare along the income distribution. We find that Nerica adoption increases households' expenditure across the entire distribution of income. The quantile treatment effects are statistically different from the average treatment effects, suggesting substantial heterogeneity in the impacts of the adoption of Nerica on welfare. We also find that, in absolute terms, the impact for farmers located in the upper half of the income distribution is the largest. However, farmers at the bottom of the income distribution also experienced large proportional increase in welfare. Altogether, our results suggest that the adoption of improved rice seeds reduces poverty and has the potential to contribute to the reduction of income inequality among farmers.
HOMA-IR Values are Associated With Glycemic Control in Japanese Subjects Without Diabetes or Obesity: The KOBE Study.

BACKGROUND Several studies have reported that insulin resistance was a major risk factor for the onset of type 2 diabetes mellitus in individuals without diabetes or obesity. We aimed to clarify the association between insulin resistance and glycemic control in Japanese subjects without diabetes or obesity. METHODS We conducted a community-based cross-sectional study including 1083 healthy subjects (323 men and 760 women) in an urban area. We performed multivariate regression analyses to estimate the association between the homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) values and markers of glycemic control, including glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c), 1,5-anhydroglucitol (1,5-AG), and fasting plasma glucose (FPG) levels, after adjustment for potential confounders. RESULTS Compared with the lowest tertile of HOMA-IR values, the highest tertile was significantly associated with HbA1c and FPG levels after adjustment for potential confounders, both in men (HbA1c: β = 1.83, P = 0.001; FPG: β = 0.49, P < 0.001) and women (HbA1c: β = 0.82, P = 0.008; FPG: β = 0.39, P < 0.001). The highest tertile of HOMA-IR values was inversely associated with 1,5-AG levels compared with the lowest tertile (β = -18.42, P = 0.009) only in men. CONCLUSIONS HOMA-IR values were associated with markers of glycemic control in Japanese subjects without diabetes or obesity. Insulin resistance may influence glycemic control even in a lean, non-diabetic Asian population.
(cid:98) -Cell-specific inactivation of the mouse Ipf1/Pdx1 gene results in loss of the (cid:98) -cell phenotype and maturity onset diabetes

To study the late (cid:98) -cell-specific function of the homeodomain protein IPF1/PDX1 we have generated mice in which the Ipf1/Pdx1 gene has been disrupted specifically in (cid:98) cells. These mice develop diabetes with age, and we show that IPF1/PDX1 is required for maintaining the (cid:98) cell identity by positively regulating insulin and islet amyloid polypeptide expression and by repressing glucagon expression. We also provide evidence that IPF1/PDX1 regulates the expression of Glut2 in a dos-age-dependent manner suggesting that lowered IPF1/ PDX1 activity may contribute to the development of type II diabetes by causing impaired expression of both Glut2 and insulin. (cid:109) mutants the number of Ins + cells was reduced by ~ 40%, and of the remaining Ins + cells only 17% ( n = 96/559) coexpressed IPF1/PDX1 (Figs. 1G and 2A), indicating that Cre/ loxP -mediated recombination of the Ipf1/Pdx1 gene had occurred in at least 80% of (cid:98) cells.
Distribution of neuropeptide S receptor mRNA and neurochemical characteristics of neuropeptide S‐expressing neurons in the rat brain

Neuropeptide S (NPS) and its receptor (NPSR) constitute a novel neuropeptide system that is involved in regulating arousal and anxiety. The NPS precursor mRNA is highly expressed in a previously undescribed group of neurons located between the locus coeruleus (LC) and Barrington's nucleus. We report here that the majority of NPS‐expressing neurons in the LC area and the principal sensory trigeminal nucleus are glutamatergic neurons, whereas many NPS‐positive neurons in the lateral parabrachial nucleus coexpress corticotropin‐releasing factor (CRF). In addition, we describe a comprehensive map of NPSR mRNA expression in the rat brain. High levels of expression are found in areas involved in olfactory processing, including the anterior olfactory nucleus, the endopiriform nucleus, and the piriform cortex. NPSR mRNA is expressed in several regions mediating anxiety responses, including the amygdaloid complex and the paraventricular hypothalamic nucleus. NPSR mRNA is also found in multiple key regions of sleep neurocircuitries, such as the thalamus, the hypothalamus, and the preoptic region. In addition, NPSR mRNA is strongly expressed in major output and input regions of hippocampus, including the parahippocampal regions, the lateral entorhinal cortex, and the retrosplenial agranular cortex. Multiple hypothalamic nuclei, including the dorsomedial and the ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus and the posterior arcuate nucleus, express high levels of NPSR mRNA, indicating that NPS may regulate energy homeostasis. These data suggest that the NPS system may play a key role in modulating a variety of physiological functions, especially arousal, anxiety, learning and memory, and energy balance. J. Comp. Neurol. 500:84–102, 2007. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Cluster Analysis of Mass Spectrometry Data Reveals a Novel Component of SAGA

ABSTRACT The SAGA histone acetyltransferase and TFIID complexes play key roles in eukaryotic transcription. Using hierarchical cluster analysis of mass spectrometry data to identify proteins that copurify with components of the budding yeast TFIID transcription complex, we discovered that an uncharacterized protein corresponding to the YPL047W open reading frame significantly associated with shared components of the TFIID and SAGA complexes. Using mass spectrometry and biochemical assays, we show that YPL047W (SGF11, 11-kDa SAGA-associated factor) is an integral subunit of SAGA. However, SGF11 does not appear to play a role in SAGA-mediated histone acetylation. DNA microarray analysis showed that SGF11 mediates transcription of a subset of SAGA-dependent genes, as well as SAGA-independent genes. SAGA purified from a sgf11Δ deletion strain has reduced amounts of Ubp8p, and a ubp8Δ deletion strain shows changes in transcription similar to those seen with the sgf11Δ deletion strain. Together, these data show that Sgf11p is a novel component of the yeast SAGA complex and that SGF11 regulates transcription of a subset of SAGA-regulated genes. Our data suggest that the role of SGF11 in transcription is independent of SAGA's histone acetyltransferase activity but may involve Ubp8p recruitment to or stabilization in SAGA.
Conflict Between Nursing Home Staff and Residents’ Families

Objective: In this study, the authors examine the influence of conflict between nursing home staff and family members of residents on staff burnout. Method: Data were collected from interviews with a representative sample of 655 nursing home nurses and nursing assistants. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling. Results: Results indicate that conflict with family members increases staff burnout and decreases staff satisfaction. Staff and family conflict increases when staff members feel they do not have enough time to complete required tasks. Level of conflict decreases when staff perceive that family members have care expectations that are similar to their own. Interestingly, staff who have personal experience as family caregivers are more likely to report conflict with family members of residents, a result that necessitates further study. Discussion: Staff burnout and dissatisfaction affects both individuals and organizations. Policy that addresses staff and family interaction can have an important place in the design and delivery of long-term care.
Turn‐induced isotachophoretic focusing in microfluidic channels

Multifunctional microfluidic platforms that use ITP for sample stacking require the use of serpentine channels. When ITP is carried out in serpentine passages, the sample band shows dramatically different behavior than that observed in conventional on‐chip CE. The band skew, defined as the distance between the leading and trailing edge of the band, is reduced and the sample is focused on the outside wall of the turn. This effect is explained using a simplified analytical model for the infinite Peclet number limit and the predicted trends are compared to full numerical simulations and experimental measurements. The outward focusing is driven by a wall‐normal electric field that results from the skewed leading buffer‐trailing buffer (LB‐TB) interface. The results indicate that the degree of outward focusing is controlled by the ratio of the LB and TB conductivities, the ratio of the channel width to turn radius, and the Peclet number. Increasing the band skew, which shows a complex dependence on the nondimensional parameters, maximizes the outward focusing effect.
A neural network based human identification framework using ear images

This paper presents a framework that uses ear images for human identification. The framework makes use of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) for ear image feature extraction and Multilayer Feed Forward Neural Network for classification. Framework are proposed to improve recognition accuracy of human identification. The framework was tested on an ear image database to evaluate its reliability and recognition accuracy. The experimental results showed that our framework achieved higher stable recognition accuracy and over-performed other existing methods. The recognition accuracy stability and computation time with respect to different image sizes and factors were investigated thoroughly as well in the experiments.
Scalable Adaptive NUMA-Aware Lock

Scalable locking is a key building block for scalable multi-threaded software. Its performance is especially critical in multi-socket, multi-core machines with non-uniform memory access (NUMA). Previous schemes such as in-place locks and delegation locks only perform well under a certain level of contention, and often require non-trivial tuning for a particular configuration. Besides, in large NUMA systems, current delegation locks cannot perform satisfactorily due to lack of optimized NUMA policies. In this work, we propose SANL, a locking scheme that can deliver high performance under various contention levels by adaptively switching between in-place locks and delegation locks. To optimize the performance of delegation locks, we introduce a new NUMA policy that jointly considers node distances and server utilization when choosing lock servers. We have implemented SANL and evaluated it with four popular multi-threaded applications (Memcached, Berkeley DB, Phoenix2 and SPLASH-2), on a 40-core Intel machine and a 64-core AMD machine. The comparison results with seven other representative locking schemes show that SANL outperforms them in most contention situations. For example, in one group test, SANL is 3.7 times faster than RCL lock and 17 times faster than POSIX mutex.
A mathematical model for the growth of mycelial fungi in submerged culture

A new kinetic model is developed which provides a simple quantitative description of the growth of mycelial organisms. The main concept of this model is that the fungal hypha can be regarded as a form of self‐extending tubular reactor. Nutrients are absorbed along the length of the “reactor,” converted into cell envelope precursors and transported forward to the growth tip where they become consumed in the process of extension; Michaelis–Menten kinetics are assumed to operate at this point. The model is capable of predicting changes in the rates of hyphal extension, branching, and fragmentation during mycelial growth in submerged culture and consequently variations in the hyphal growth unit. Simulation studies using the model are presented and the results are evaluated with reference to data from an industrial‐type fed‐batch penicillin fermentation.
A Unified Willow Tree Framework for One-Factor Short-Rate Models

The familiar binomial model allows the stock to move from the current node to just two possible prices in the next time step, which seriously limits the model’s ability to handle many realistic problems efficiently. The trinomial adds a branch and gains a lot more flexibility. The “willow tree” structure allows many branches at each node, and recent work has shown that it can produce significant improvements in performance for some classes of problems. Modeling interest rate behavior is an extremely important case. A viable short-rate model must allow stochastic volatility, and for practical use it must be arbitrage-free, meaning it can be calibrated to match the observed term structure of forward rates in the market. In this article, Wang and Xu show how to construct willow tree lattice models for eleven of the most common single-factor interest rate models, including those designed to be arbitrage-free. Unlike some of these models, the willow tree approach can handle interest rates that go negative, which is essential in the current environment.
A characterization of the problem of new, out-of-vocabulary words in continuous-speech recognition and understanding

This thesis is directed toward the characterization of the problem of new, out-of-vocabulary words for continuous-speech recognition and understanding. It is motivated by the belief that this problem is critical to the eventual deployment of the technology, and that a thorough understanding of the problem is necessary before solutions can be proposed. The first goal of this thesis is to demonstrate the magnitude of the problem. By examining a wide variety of speech and text corpora for multiple languages, we show that new words will always occur, even given very large system vocabularies, and that their frequency depends on the type of recognition task. We classify potential new words in terms of their phonological and syntactic characteristics. The second goal of this thesis is to characterize recognizer behavior when new words occur. We demonstrate that not only are new words themselves misrecognized, but their occurrence can cause misrecognition of in-vocabulary words in other parts of an utterance due to contextual effects. To perform our recognition study of new words, we developed an algorithm for efficiently computing word graphs. We show that word graph computation is relatively insensitive to the position of new words within an utterance. Further, we find that word graphs are an effective tool for speech recognition in general, irrespective of the new-word problem. The third and final goal of this thesis is to examine the issues related to learning new words. We examine the ability of the (context-independent) acoustic models, the pronunciation models, and the class n-gram language models of the SUMMIT system to incorporate, or learn, new words; we find the system's learning effective even without additional training. Overall, this thesis offers a broad characterization of the new-word problem, describing in detail the magnitude and dimensions of the problem that must be solved. (Copies available exclusively from MIT Libraries, Rm. 14-0551, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307. Ph. 617-253-5668; Fax 617-253-1690.)
Climbing the Steps toward a Successful Cooperating Teacher/Student Teacher Mentoring Relationship.

Agricultural education cooperating teachers (mentors) are idealized as seasoned professionals, proficient in their craft, and able to transmit tacit knowledge to pre-service teachers (mentees) through demonstration, conversation, and coaching. When the relationship is successful both parties experience positive outcomes that may last a lifetime. Agricultural educators report that cooperating teachers are one of the most important influences on the development of new teachers. The research reported here used instrumental case study design to identify three steps that underpin successful mentoring relationships between cooperating teachers and student teachers in school-based agricultural education. The steps are personality, community and access, and trust and communication. Subthemes of personality included compatibility, similar values, mutual interest in growth, successful conflict resolution, and appreciation of differences. Subthemes of community and access included feelings of belonging and having access to cooperating teachers. Subthemes of trust and communication were based on delegating responsibility, providing accurate feedback, and supporting student teachers to assume the role of teacher. Based on the findings, it is recommended that university-based teacher educators increase opportunities for informal mentoring pairs to emerge. Future research could explore the impact of informal pairing on the development of new teachers compared to formal pairings.
Gas trapping in normal infants and in infants with cystic fibrosis

Two different methods for estimating trapped gas volume have been described in the literature. The purpose of this study was to use both of these methods to estimate and compare trapped gas volumes in normal infants and infants with cystic fibrosis (CF). Thirty normal infants and 29 infants with CF, ages 1 month to 3 years, were studied. Pulmonary function tests, including raised volume forced expiratory flows, plethysmographic functional residual capacity (FRCpleth), and fractional lung volumes, were measured. Then functional residual capacity was measured by nitrogen washout (FRCnitrogen). Following nitrogen washout, lungs were then inflated three times to 30 cm H2O, using 100% oxygen. This process was repeated until no further nitrogen could be washed from the lungs. The volume of trapped gas (tg) was calculated from the total additional amounts of nitrogen expired following lung inflations. The difference between FRCpleth and FRCnitrogen provided a second estimate of trapped gas volume (delta V). Mean tg and delta V values for normal infants were 2.5 ± 3.5 ml and 15.6 ± 30.4 ml, respectively. Mean tg and delta V values for infants with CF were 5.8 ± 7.7 ml and 33.2 ± 43.8 ml, respectively. Both tg and delta V did not differ significantly between normal infants and infants with CF. Measured following raised volume forced expiratory maneuvers, delta V and tg do not distinguish infants with CF from normal infants as well as do other currently available tests of infant lung function. Pediatr Pulmonol. 2004; 37:461–469. © 2004 Wiely‐Liss, Inc.
Use of Immortalized Human Hepatocytes to Predict the Magnitude of Clinical Drug-Drug Interactions Caused by CYP3A4 Induction

Cytochrome P4503A4 (CYP3A4) is the principal drug-metabolizing enzyme in human liver. Drug-drug interactions (DDIs) caused by induction of CYP3A4 can result in decreased exposure to coadministered drugs, with potential loss of efficacy. Immortalized hepatocytes (Fa2N-4 cells) have been proposed as a tool to identify CYP3A4 inducers. The purpose of the current studies was to characterize the effect of known inducers on CYP3A4 in Fa2N-4 cells, and to determine whether these in vitro data could reliably project the magnitude of DDIs caused by induction. Twenty-four compounds were chosen for these studies, based on previously published data using primary human hepatocytes. Eighteen compounds had been shown to be positive for induction, and six compounds had been shown to be negative for induction. In Fa2N-4 cells, all 18 positive controls produced greater than 2-fold maximal CYP3A4 induction, and all 6 negative controls produced less than 1.5-fold maximal CYP3A4 induction. Subsequent studies were conducted to determine the relationship between in vitro induction data and in vivo induction response. The approach was to relate in vitro induction data (Emax and EC50 values) with efficacious free plasma concentrations to calculate a relative induction score. This score was then correlated with decreases in area under the plasma concentration versus time curve values for coadministered CYP3A4 object drugs (midazolam or ethinylestradiol) from previously published clinical DDI studies. Excellent correlations (r2 values >0.92) were obtained, suggesting that Fa2N-4 cells can be used for identification of inducers as well as prediction of the magnitude of clinical DDIs.
Determinants of Graduates' Start‐Ups Creation across a Multi‐Campus Entrepreneurial University: The Case of Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education*∗

Individual and organizational entrepreneurial activity varies across regions/countries. Universities have increasingly become knowledge‐intensive environments that support entrepreneurship. Extant studies demonstrate the need to explore graduate start‐ups using different levels of analysis an across economies. This paper explores individual and university determinants of graduates' start‐ups creation from a multi‐campus entrepreneurial university in a transition economy. A proposed model was tested with 11,569 graduates from 30 campuses across 21 Mexican cities. Results show that specific individual determinants are the most relevant determinant of graduate entrepreneurship as well as that some university mechanisms (incubators and research parks) have limited impact on graduates' entrepreneurship.
An integrated framework of hybrid evolutionary computations

There are various kinds of evolutionary computations (ECs) and they have their own merits and demerits. For example, PSO (Particle Swarm Optimization) shows high ability during initial period in general, whereas DE (Differential Evolution) shows high ability especially in the latter period in search to find more accurate solutions. This paper proposes a novel and integrated framework to effectively combine the merits of several evolutionary computations. There are five distinctive features in the proposed framework. 1) There are several individual pools, and each pool corresponds to one EC. 2) Parents do not necessarily belong to the same EC: for example, a GA type individual can be a spouse of a PSO type individual. 3) Each incorporated EC has its own evaluated value (EV), and it changes according to the best fitness value at each generation. 4) The number of individuals in each EC changes according to the EV. 5) All of the individuals have their own lifetime to avoid premature convergence; when an individual meets lifetime, the individual reselect EC, and the probability of each EC to be selected depends on the EV. In the proposed framework, therefore, more individuals are allotted to the ECs which show higher performance than the other at each generation: effective usage of individuals is enabled. In this way, this framework can make use of merits of incorporated ECs. Original GA, original PSO and original DE are used to construct a simple proposed framework-based system. We carried out experiments using well-known benchmark functions. The results show that the new system outperformed there incorporated ECs in 9 functions out of 13 functions.