Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Econometric Analysis of Relationship between Economic Growth and Petroleum Consumption in India

The objective of this study is to examine empirically the relationship between the petroleum consumption which is a non-renewable and fast-depleting natural resource and economic growth for India for the period 1980–2014. The results obtained thereof act as the tools for the proper resource management and the environmental planning for sustainability. The study found that economic growth and petroleum consumption are cointegrated and hence there is a long-run relationship between the petroleum consumption and economic growth; conversely speaking, petroleum consumption has a significant impact on the economic growth of India in the long run. So the reduction of petroleum consumption if undertaken will have the serious repercussions on economic growth of India in the long run. The Granger causality test confirms that there is unidirectional causality running from petroleum consumption to economic growth in the short run but not vice versa. Hence, the study found that to achieve the dual goal of economic growth and environmental sustainability, the policymakers should focus on conserving the non-renewable petroleum resources. But at the same time, the investment in the renewable energy sector ought to be pursued so as to maintain the same level of energy consumption as well as achieve the sustainable development.
The plasma glucose lowering action of tetrandrine in streptozotocin‐induced diabetic rats

The effect of tetrandrine, an active principle of Stephaniae tetrandrae, on the plasma glucose level in streptozotocin‐induced diabetic rats (STZ‐diabetic rats) was investigated. A single intravenous injection of tetrandrine decreased the plasma glucose in a dose‐dependent manner in STZ‐diabetic rats. Moreover, tetrandrine (1.0 mg kg−1) significantly attenuated the rise in plasma glucose induced by the intravenous glucose challenge test in normal rats. A stimulatory effect of tetrandrine on glucose uptake was obtained in soleus muscles isolated from STZ‐diabetic rats with a concentration‐dependent manner from 0.01 to 10.0 μmol L−1. The increase in glucose utilization by tetrandrine was further characterized using the enhancement of glycogen synthesis in the hepatocytes of STZ‐diabetic rats. These results suggest that tetrandrine has the ability to enhance glucose utilization in peripheral tissue, resulting in the lowering of plasma glucose in diabetic rats lacking insulin.
Water right seniority, economic efficiency and land allocation decisions

The doctrine of prior appropriation, used throughout the western United States to administer water rights based on seniority, introduces heterogeneity in the risk of a water shortage among otherwise similar agricultural irrigators. This heterogeneity in risk potentially gives rise to an economic inefficiency by constraining the land-allocation decisions of irrigators with less secure property rights to water. Using a fine-scale dataset of spatially referenced surface water rights for the Eastern Snake River Plain in Idaho, we find empirical evidence that those farms with the most secure (senior) rights choose a land allocation that involves less extensive fallowing and the choice of more drought-sensitive crops than those with less secure (junior) rights. We find that ownership of a portfolio of water rights that diversifies across seniority is associated with a more profitable land allocation but does little to mitigate this seniority effect. In contrast, a portfolio providing access to correlative water rights, such as those held by irrigation districts, mitigates the effect of seniority nearly entirely. This is likely due to numerous reasons, including more homogeneous risk sharing in correlative systems and access to informal water markets. (JEL codes: Q15, Q12, C35)
Background Ionosphere Effects on Geosynchronous SAR Focusing: Theoretical Analysis and Verification Based on the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS)

Due to the ultra-long aperture time and large coverage characteristics of geosynchronous synthetic aperture radar (GEO SAR), the ionosphere freezing model in the traditional low earth orbit synthetic aperture radar (LEO SAR) imaging is assumed to fail in the GEO SAR, thus it should take the effects of the temporal-spatial variation (TSV) background ionosphere on the GEO SAR imaging into account. Meanwhile, owing to the curved trajectory effects caused by the ultra-long synthetic aperture time of GEO SAR, and the complex geometric kinematic relations between the GEO SAR satellite and the Earth's rotation, the LEO SAR ionospheric effect analysis method based on the traditional kinematic model will be no longer suited to GEO SAR. Moreover, as there are no GEO SAR satellites operating in orbit, how to obtain the real-time ionospheric TEC values on the signal propagation path of GEO SAR satellite has become a great challenge. In this paper, through the establishment of a curved trajectory GEO SAR signal model for long aperture time under the influence of TSV background ionosphere, it has first derived the two-dimensional (2-D) spectrum of GEO SAR signal in the context of background ionosphere, and probed into the GEO SAR 2-D image shift and image defocusing phenomena caused by the background ionosphere, as well as analyzed and summarized the boundary conditions of relevant effects. Concurrently, this paper proposed an approach to equivalently retrieve TEC values on the GEO SAR propagation path based on the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) IGSO satellites and combined with the Klobuchar model, which was utilized to equivalently acquire the GEO SAR ionospheric TEC retrieved data. In addition, the retrieved data were used to perform the GEO SAR imaging simulation in the context of the background ionosphere, and verified the correctness of the proposed analysis method.
The tactile perception of stimulus orientation

Studies of the visual system suggest that, at an early stage of form processing, a stimulus is represented as a set of contours and that a critical feature of these local contours is their orientation. Here, we characterize the ability of human observers to identify or discriminate the orientation of bars and edges presented to the distal fingerpad. The experiments were performed using a 400-probe stimulator that allowed us to flexibly deliver stimuli across a wide range of conditions. Orientation thresholds, approximately 20° on average, varied only slightly across modes of stimulus presentation (scanned or indented), stimulus amplitudes, scanning speeds, and different stimulus types (bars or edges). The tactile orientation acuity was found to be poorer than its visual counterpart for stimuli of similar aspect ratio, contrast, and size. This result stands in contrast to the equivalent spatial acuity of the two systems (at the limit set by peripheral innervation density) and to the results of studies of tactile and visual letter recognition, which show that the two modalities yield comparable performance when stimuli are scaled appropriately.
An Approach for Selection of Health Care Personnel Handwashing Agents

Abstract Given the wide range of available health care personnel handwashing agents, selection of an appropriate product may be difficult. This decision may be made on the basis of user preference, cost, or other factors unrelated to product effectiveness. Four criteria—efficacy, safety, cost, and acceptability—are appropriate for systematic evaluation of handwashing products. These criteria are applied to para-chloro-meta-xylenol (PCMX), a compound used with increasing frequency in health care personnel handwashing agents. Published data regarding the biochemical properties, efficacy, and safety of PCMX are summarized. We conclude that the substance appears to be safe and efficacious. However, the activity of PCMX is highly formula-dependent and many of the studies available in scientific literature have been conducted in Europe using a variety of testing conditions and formulations different from those currently available in the US. Clinical studies of marketed formulations are beginning to appear in the literature. Such studies will provide the data needed for adequate product evaluation.
A controlled trial of Chinese herbal medicine for premenstrual syndrome

Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is a common disorder troubling many women during their reproductive years. The Chinese have been using herbal medicines to treat menstrual cycle related symptoms for centuries. The present study examined the effectiveness of Chinese herbal medicine for the treatment of PMS among Australian women within the theoretical framework of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Sixty-one women were assigned randomly into two groups within different TCM patterns. Herbal medicine and placebo were provided sequentially for a period of three months. There were significant differences (p < 0.01) in scores after three months of treatment between Chinese herbal medicine and placebo in premenstrual physical and psychological symptoms, depression, anxiety and anger favoring herbal medicine, but with no difference in perceived stress (p > 0.05). There were highly significant reductions (p < 0.001) between baseline and the end of the third herbal treatment month in all assessments in both groups except that a significant result (p < 0.05) was recorded on perceived stress only in the herbs-first group. No adverse effects were reported by any participant. The results support the hypothesis that the symptoms occurrence and severity of PMS can be effectively reduced by the use of Chinese herbal medicine.
Downlink Vertical Beamforming Designs for Active Antenna Systems

In this paper, we study a vertical beamforming technique for multiple-input multiple-output downlink multi-user systems. In general, the transmit antenna gain is controlled by adjusting the boresight of antennas in directional antennas, and thus the cell average rate varies according to the angle of the boresight. First, we compute the tilting angles for directional antenna systems which maximize the cell average rate. To this end, the probability density function of a three-dimensional user distribution is derived. Based on the result, we analyze the average rate gain of active antenna systems over passive antenna systems for a single user case. Furthermore, for a multi-user active antenna system, beamforming designs to maximize the weighted sum rate are proposed by optimizing the transmit antenna gain and power allocation. Since finding joint optimal parameters requires prohibitively high computational complexity, we separate the optimization problem into two sub-problems of the vertical beamforming and the power allocation. Then a simple vertical beamforming algorithm based on a high signal-to-noise ratio assumption is presented. Also, for a multi-user passive antenna system, we provide a beamforming scheme based on a multi-sector concept. Simulation results show that the proposed beamforming schemes outperform the conventional beamforming schemes.
Diversity and phylogenetic relationships of Wolbachia in Drosophila and other native Hawaiian insects

Wolbachia is a genus of parasitic alphaproteobacteria found in arthropods and nematodes, and represents on of the most common, widespread endosymbionts known. Wolbachia affects a variety of reproductive functions in its host (e.g., male killing, cytoplasmic incompatibility, parthenogenesis), which have the potential to dramatically impact host evolution and species formation. Here, we present the first broad-scale study to screen natural populations of native Hawaiian insects for Wolbachia, focusing on the endemic Diptera. Results indicate that Wolbachia infects native Hawaiian taxa, with alleles spanning phylogenetic supergroups, A and B. The overall frequency of Wolbachia incidene in Hawaiian insects was 14%. The incidence of infection in native Hawaiian Diptera was 11% for individuals and 12% for all species screened. Wolbachia was not detected in two large, widespread Hawaiian dipteran families—Dolichopodidae (44 spp screened) and Limoniidae (12 spp screened). Incidence of infection within endemic Hawaiian lineages that carry Wolbachia was 18% in Drosophilidae species, 25% in Caliphoridae species, > 90% in Nesophrosyne species, 20% in Drosophila dasycnemia and 100% in Nesophrosyne craterigena. Twenty unique alleles were recovered in this study, of which 18 are newly recorded. Screening of endemic populations of D. dasycnemia across Hawaii Island revealed 4 unique alleles. Phylogenetic relationships and allele diversity provide evidence for horizontal transfer of Wolbachia among Hawaiian arthropod lineages.
High Step-Up Interleaved Forward-Flyback Boost Converter With Three-Winding Coupled Inductors

A novel high step-up interleaved converter for high-power high-voltage applications is proposed in this paper. Through three-winding coupled inductors, a high step-up conversion with high efficiency is obtained. The proposed converter not only reduces the current stress, but also constrains the input current ripple, which decreases the conduction losses and lengthens the life time of input source. In addition, due to the lossless passive clamp performance, leakage energy is recycled to the output terminal. Hence, large voltage spikes across the main switches are alleviated and the efficiency is improved. Even, the low-voltage stresses on semiconductor components are substantially lower than the output voltage. Finally, the prototype circuit with input voltage 48 V, output voltage 380 V, and output power 2 kW is operated to verify its performance. The highest efficiency is 96.5%, and the full-load efficiency is 92.6%.
Evaluating innovation in higher education teaching and learning to improve quality: an experience of blended learning at the Universita Roma Tre

Why are the effects of the innovative practices in higher education teaching and learning activities worth evaluating? As it seems higher education is no longer able to carry out ambitious objectives, if it uses only traditional tools. The present contribution regards the analysis of the impact of a particular innovative way of teaching, a blended learning experience that is performed at the Universita Roma Tre (Italia). The study, carried out by a research unit at the Department of Educational Sciences, is part of a national project that was funded by the government (a Project of National Relevant Interest or PRIN), which aimed to define the role of e-learning within higher education environments. In the framework, the Universita Roma Tre has developed its own inquiry, carrying out an experiment in the Experimental Pedagogy and Measurement module of the Faculty of Primary Education.
Characterization and Function in Vivo of Two Novel Phospholipases B/Lysophospholipases fromSaccharomyces cerevisiae *

The yeast genome contains two genes, designated as PLB2 and PLB3, that are 67% and 62% identical, respectively, to PLB1, which codes for a phospholipase B/lysophospholipase in yeast (Lee, S. K., Patton, J. L., Fido, M., Hines, L. K., Kohlwein, S. D., Paltauf, F., Henry, S. A., and Levin, D. E. (1994) J. Biol. Chem. 269, 19725–19730). Deletion and overexpression studies andin vivo and in vitro activity measurements suggest that both genes indeed code for phospholipases B/lysophospholipases. In cell free extracts of a plb1 plb2 plb3 triple mutant, no phospholipase B activity was detectable. Upon overexpression of PLB2 in a plb1 plb3mutant background, phospholipase B activity was detectable in the plasma membrane, periplasmic space extracts and the culture supernatant. Similar to Plb1p, Plb2p appears to accept all major phospholipid classes, with a preference for acidic phospholipids including phosphatidylinositol 3′,4′-bisphosphate and phosphatidic acid. Consistent with a function as an extracellular lysophospholipase,PLB2 overexpression conferred resistance to lyso-phosphatidylcholine. Deletion of Plb2p function had no effect on glycerophosphoinositol or glycerophosphocholine releasein vivo, in contrast to a deletion of Plb3p function, which resulted in a 50% reduction of phosphatidylinositol breakdown and glycerophosphoinositol release from the cells. In vitro, Plb3p hydrolyzes only phosphatidylinositol and phosphatidylserine and, to a lesser extent, their lyso-analogs. Plb3p activity in a plb1 plb2 mutant background was observed in periplasmic space extracts. Both Plb3p and Plb2p display transacylase activity in vitro, in the presence or absence, respectively, of detergent.
The UK national institute for health and clinical excellence public health guidance on behaviour change: A brief introduction

In October 2007, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) published ‘Guidelines for Behaviour change at population, community and individual levels’ (National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence. Behaviour change at population, community and individual levels (Public Health Guidance 6), 2007, from http://www.nice. org.uk/Guidance/PH6). This article provides a brief overview of, and introduction to, the guidance focussing on three of its recommendations. First, the guidance outlines skills and competencies required by those involved in the design and evaluation of behaviour change interventions (BCIs). Second, it specifies a series of key psychological change targets which should be considered in interventions intended to change individual behaviour. Third, it highlights the need to plan intervention design and evaluation so that intervention components or techniques are linked directly to causal process which account for change. In addition, the guidance outlines a research agenda. Based on an analysis of the limitations of the available evidence base, research recommendations advise researchers on how to improve the quality of research into BCIs (including evaluations) and thereby advance the science of behaviour change.
Biomarkers of antioxidant status and lipid peroxidation in elderly patients with hypertension

ABSTRACT Objective: The objective of the present study was to examine selected parameters of the blood redox system in elderly patients with hypertension.examine selected parameters of the blood redox system in elderly patients with hypertension. Methods: We analyzed differences in redox-associated molecules and enzymes among elderly hypertensive subjects (age above 65 years, n = 49) and two groups of normotensive subjects (<65 years old – Control group I; n = 27, and >65 – Control group II; n = 30). Results: Decreased activity of antioxidant enzymes, increased lipid peroxidation and reduced production of nitric oxide were observed in hypertensive subjects, compared to healthy younger controls, or those of the same age. In healthy controls, an age-related decrease in the production of nitric oxide and the activities of SOD-1 and GPx-1 was also evident. The pathology of hypertension was characterised by further, significant decreases in the values of these parameters. When the subgroups of females and males were compared to their respective controls, a compromised redox balance was observed that was more evident in female hypertensives. Discussion: Hypertension in elderly patients is accompanied by changes in biomarkers of antioxidant status and lipid peroxidation status, which significantly differ from those observed in healthy ageing subjects. Our study also suggests that the relationship of gender and changes in redox balance with regard to hypertension should be further explored.
Identification and characterization of a tachykinin-containing neuroendocrine organ in the commissural ganglion of the crab Cancer productus

SUMMARY A club-shaped, tachykinin-immunopositive structure first described nearly two decades ago in the commissural ganglion (CoG) of three species of decapod crustaceans has remained enigmatic, as its function is unknown. Here, we use a combination of anatomical, mass spectrometric and electrophysiological techniques to address this issue in the crab Cancer productus. Immunohistochemistry using an antibody to the vertebrate tachykinin substance P shows that a homologous site exists in each CoG of this crab. Confocal microscopy reveals that its structure and organization are similar to those of known neuroendocrine organs. Based on its location in the anterior medial quadrant of the CoG, we have named this structure the anterior commissural organ (ACO). Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization Fourier transform mass spectrometry shows that the ACO contains the peptide APSGFLGMRamide, commonly known as Cancer borealis tachykinin-related peptide Ia (CabTRP Ia). Using the same technique, we show that CabTRP Ia is also released into the hemolymph. As no tachykinin-like labeling is seen in any of the other known neuroendocrine sites of this species (i.e. the sinus gland, the pericardial organ and the anterior cardiac plexus), the ACO is a prime candidate to be the source of CabTRP Ia present in the circulatory system. Our electrophysiological studies indicate that one target of hemolymph-borne CabTRP Ia is the foregut musculature. Here, no direct CabTRP Ia innervation is present, yet several gastric mill and pyloric muscles are nonetheless modulated by hormonally relevant concentrations of the peptide. Collectively, our findings show that the C. productus ACO is a neuroendocrine organ providing hormonal CabTRP Ia modulation to the foregut musculature. Homologous structures in other decapods are hypothesized to function similarly.
Design of a beneficial product for newborn calves by combining Lactobacilli, minerals, and vitamins

ABSTRACT Diarrhea is one of the most frequent diseases affecting newborn calves in intensive systems. Several strategies were proposed to protect and improve health, such as probiotics. This work was directed to design a product containing freeze-dried bacteria, vitamins, and minerals, as well as to optimize conditions with lyoprotectors, combine strains and add vitamins, minerals, and inulin to the product. The lyoprotectors were milk, milk-whey, and actose, and products were stored for 6 months at 4°C. Combined bacteria were freeze-dried in milk and the final products were added with minerals, vitamins, and insulin. The viable cells were determined by the plate count assay and antibiotic profiles to differentiate strains. Lactobacillus johnsonii CRL1693, L. murinus CRL1695, L. mucosae CRL1696, L. salivarius CRL1702, L. amylovorus CRL1697, and Enterococcus faecium CRL1703 were evaluated. The optimal conditions were different for each strain. Milk and milk whey maintained the viability during the process and storage after 6 months for most of the strains, except for L. johnsonii. Lactose did not improve cell’s recovery. L. murinus was viable for 6 months in all the conditions, with similar results in enterococci. In strains combined before freeze-dried, the viability decreased deeply, showing that one-step process with bacteria mixtures, vitamins, and minerals were not adequate. Freeze-dried resistance depends on each strain and must be lyophilized individually.