Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Struktura i uwarunkowania kapitału społecznego lokalnych grup działania

Ksiązka sklada sie z pieciu rozdzialow. W rozdziale pierwszym przedstawiono zalozenia metodologiczne badan wlasnych, poprzedzone przeglądem literatury przedmiotu. Rozdzial drugi obejmuje charakterystyke badanej zbiorowości – zarowno opis spoleczno-demograficznych cech respondentow, ich czlonkostwa w LGD, jak i aktywności politycznej. W rozdziale trzecim dokonano prezentacji danych dotyczących struktury kapitalu spolecznego lokalnych grup dzialania, z uwzglednieniem jego roznych aspektow. Rozdzial czwarty poświecony jest charakterystyce wybranych czynnikow potencjalnie warunkujących kapital spoleczny lokalnych grup dzialania. Wnioski zawarte w rozdziale piątym zamykają cześc merytoryczną ksiązki.
Unequal economic development and migrations: Analytical speculations about the next hundred years

In the period following World War II, the less-developed countries have experienced significant progress toward modernization, development, and explosive rates of population growth. In the medium to long run these trends are bound to have a major impact over the worldwide distribution of political and military power (Fucks [12], Organski [25, p. 484 ff.], Rostow [32, p. 409 ft.]). In particular, as the large, densely populated, less-developed countries modernize they will acquire a political and military power incomparably larger than they possess at present. The technology for the production and delivery of atomic weapons is a segment of the stock of scientific and technological knowledge that societies learn to assimilate and use in the process of development. The proliferation of the ability to produce atomic weapons is just one of the many processes of diffusion of technology. As such, it can perhaps be slowed down but not arrested, and it would not be reasonable to expect that the large contemporary less-developed countries will not acquire full atomic capability as their political and military power increases. The twin impact of economic development and population growth will produce tremendous population pressures on the resources of the large, densely populated, less-developed countries. At the same time huge regions, both in the developed and in the less-developed parts of the world, are and will remain by comparison almost empty. Which brings us to the focal point of this paper. Can we really expect that in the not-too-distant future overcrowded countries with superpower status and atomic arsenals would find it acceptable to be denied access to the resources and territories of thinly populated areas? Consider the contrast between the population densities in Africa, the Americas, the Soviet Union, and Australia, and those of India and China. When India and China will have political and military power as well as population densities far larger than at present and full atomic capabilities, will they be content to accept the real and perceived hardships associated with inordinately high population pressure on resources while looking across their boundaries at huge territories, almost empty by comparison? This paper will explore the possible role of three developments with a potential for alleviating the tensions and conflicts that can arise from economic development and population growth in large densely populated countries of the contemporary world. These developments are (a) accelerated modernization, (b) effective population control policies, and (c) migrations.
Regime Changes and Dynamic Linkages in Major Securitized Real Estate Markets

This paper is a contribution to the literature in international real estate market volatility dynamics and linkages from an alternative perspective. We analyzes the dynamics and transmission of conditional volatilities with multiple structural changes in mean returns and volatility using the Bai and Perron (2003) methodology, across five major securitized real estate markets, employing a multivariate regime-dependent asymmetric dynamic covariance model (MRDADC) that allows the conditional matrix to be both time- and state-varying. Important contributions of this study are the findings of statistically significant variables that represent the multiple regime changes. When taken into consideration, they influence the return-volatility transmission across markets as well as time-varying asymmetric variances and covariance dynamics in our MRDADC representation.
Sex Trafficking in Edo State, Nigeria: Causes and Solutions

Edo State, the 'Heartbeat of Nigeria', has been labeled as “the most endemic source of human trafficking in Nigeria”. As a result of this negative label, a number of international organizations and non-governmental organizations have intervened to combat sex trafficking in the region. Despite these interventions, sex trafficking is still rife in Edo State. This article argues that political, economic, religious, social and cultural factors contribute to the difficulties in curbing sex trafficking in Edo State. To eradicate it, a joint effort between the government, traditional leaders, religious institutions/NGOs and members of the public is needed.
Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)‐based metabolomics for cancer research

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) has emerged as an effective tool in various spheres of biomedical research, amongst which metabolomics is an important method for the study of various types of disease. Metabolomics has proved its stronghold in cancer research by the development of different NMR methods over time for the study of metabolites, thus identifying key players in the aetiology of cancer. A plethora of one‐dimensional and two‐dimensional NMR experiments (in solids, semi‐solids and solution phases) are utilized to obtain metabolic profiles of biofluids, cell extracts and tissue biopsy samples, which can further be subjected to statistical analysis. Any alteration in the assigned metabolite peaks gives an indication of changes in metabolic pathways. These defined changes demonstrate the utility of NMR in the early diagnosis of cancer and provide further measures to combat malignancy and its progression. This review provides a snapshot of the trending NMR techniques and the statistical analysis involved in the metabolomics of diseases, with emphasis on advances in NMR methodology developed for cancer research.
Housing, Neighbourhoods and Development Outcomes of Children in Canada

We use data from Cycles 1 to 3 of the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth to examine whether and how much housing and neighbourhood quality affect child outcomes. Home ownership, housing assistance, the need for major repairs, residential stability, underhousing, and neighbourhood quality are used as explanatory variables in population-averaged panel data and endogenous treatment models to estimate the impact of these variables on child cognitive, behavioural, and emotional outcomes. We find positive impacts of home ownership on reading scores, and positive impacts of housing subsidies on boys' behavioural scores, but negative impacts of subsidies on girls' emotional scores after controlling for other factors. Both girls and boys fare worse in housing requiring major repairs, but boys are negatively affected by housing instability, while girls are negatively affected by poor neighbourhood quality.
Neutrino Pair Annihilation in the Gravitation of Gamma-Ray Burst Sources

We study semianalytically the gravitational effects on neutrino pair annihilation near the neutrinosphere and around the thin accretion disk. For the disk case, we assume that the accretion disk is isothermal and that the gravitational field is dominated by the Schwarzschild black hole. General relativistic effects are studied only near the rotation axis. The energy deposition rate is enhanced by the effect of orbital bending toward the center. However, the effects of the redshift and gravitational trapping of the deposited energy reduce the effective energy of the gamma-ray burst's source. Although each effect is substantial, the effects partly cancel one another. As a result, the gravitational effects do not substantially change the energy deposition rate for either the spherically symmetric case or the disk case.
The association between substance use and sub-optimal HIV treatment engagement among HIV-infected female sex workers in Lilongwe, Malawi

ABSTRACT Female sex workers (FSW) have a high prevalence of substance use and HIV, but the impact of substance use on HIV treatment engagement is not well established. We evaluated the association between alcohol and marijuana use and sub-optimal HIV treatment engagement outcomes among HIV-infected FSW in Lilongwe, Malawi. We enroled FSW using venue-based recruitment into a cross-sectional evaluation assessing substance use and HIV treatment engagement. Seropositive FSW, identified through HIV rapid testing, received rapid CD4 count and viral load testing. We used Poisson regression with robust variance estimates to ascertain associations of alcohol and marijuana use with sub-optimal HIV treatment outcomes: (1) lack of ART use among previously diagnosed, ART-eligible FSW and (2) viral nonsuppression among FSW on ART. Of previously diagnosed, ART-eligible FSW (n = 96), 29% were not using ART. Patterns of hazardous drinking were identified in 30%, harmful drinking in 10%, and alcohol dependence in 12%. ART-eligible FSW with harmful drinking or alcohol dependency were 1.9 (95% CI: 1.0, 3.8) times as likely to not use ART compared to FSW without harmful or dependent drinking. Among those on ART, 14% were virally nonsuppressed. The prevalence ratio for viral nonsuppression was 2.0 (95% CI: 0.6, 6.5) for harmful drinkers and alcohol-dependent FSW. Over 30% of ART-eligible FSW reported using marijuana. Marijuana-using FSW were 1.9 (95% CI: 0.8, 4.6) times as likely to not use ART compared to FSW who were not using marijuana. Given the high prevalence of alcohol use and its association with lack of ART use, ART uptake and alcohol reduction strategies should be tailored for alcohol-using FSW in Malawi.
A Greedy-Based Method for Modified Condition/Decision Coverage Testing Criterion

During software regression testing, the code coverage of target program is a crucial factor while we perform test case reduction and prioritization. Modified Condition/ Decision Coverage (MC/DC) is one of the most strict and high-accuracy criterion in code coverage and it is usually considered necessary for adequate testing of critical software. In the past, Hayhurst et al proposed a method to implement the MC/DC criterion that complies with regulatory guidance for DO-178B level A software. Hayhurst's MC/DC approach was to find some test cases which are satisfied by MC/DC criterion for each operator (and, or, not, or xor) in the Boolean expression. However, there could be some problems when using Hayhurst's MC/DC approach to select test cases. In this paper, we discuss how to improve and/or enhance Hayhurst's MC/DC approach by using a greedy-based method. Some experiments are performed based on real programs to evaluate as well as compare the performance of our proposed and Hayhurst's approaches.
Improving the performance of End-to-End single rate Multicast Congestion Control

End-to-end multicast congestion control (MCC) is a complex problem. There exist two categories of multicast congestion control. The first category is single rate MCC, where the source adjusts its rate according to the slowest receiver within the session. The second category is multi-rate MCC, where the source has to disseminate the data in multiple layers and each receiver could subscribe to the required layers according to their own capacities. Among the recently proposed multicast congestion control protocols is TFMCC, which is an equation based single rate protocol. In TFMCC, at each RTT, each receiver estimates its throughput using an equation that estimates the steady-state throughput of a TCP source. The receiver with the lowest such value is declared as the current limiting receiver (CLR). The source then adjusts its rate to that of the CLR. Our objections to TFMCC are with respect to the equation adopted as well as to the slow reaction of the sender to congestion conditions. In this paper we propose two modifications to TFMCC. First, each receiver estimates its throughput using an equation that models the steady state throughput of a multicast source controlled according the additive increase multiplicative decrease (AIMD) approach. The second modification consists of monitoring RTT variations at the source side in order to rapidly adjust the sending rate to network conditions. Simulation results show that these two modifications results in remarkable performance improvement with respect to throughput, time to react, and magnitude of oscillations.
The Feasibility of Laparoscopic Surgery in Gynecologic Oncology for Obese and Morbidly Obese Patients

Background Surgical interventions are the mainstay of treatment for many gynecological cancers. Although minimally invasive surgery offers many potential advantages, performing laparoscopic pelvic surgery in obese patients remains challenging. To overcome this, many centers have shifted their practice to robotic surgery; however, the high costs associated with robotic surgery are concerning and limit its use. Objective This study aimed to examine the feasibility of performing laparoscopic gynecologic oncology procedures in obese and morbidly obese patients. Materials and Methods This retrospective study evaluated patients who underwent laparoscopic surgeries by a gynecologic oncologist from January 2012 to June 2016 at a designated gynecologic oncology center. Patients were categorized as nonobese (body mass index [BMI] < 30 kg/m2), obese (BMI 30–39.9 kg/m2), and morbidly obese (BMI ≥ 40 kg/m2). Intra and postoperative complications and outcomes were recorded. Group differences were computed with Kruskal-Wallis nonparametric test (continuous) or Fisher exact test (categorical). Results Of 497 patients, 288 were nonobese (58%), 162 obese (33%), and 47 morbidly obese (9%). Complex surgical procedures were performed in 57.4% of obese patients and 55.3% of morbidly obese patients. Although morbidly obese and obese patients had longer operative times (mean of 181 and 166 minutes vs 144 minutes, P = 0.014), conversion from laparoscopy to laparotomy occurred in 9.05% of all patients, with no group differences. Low intraoperative (9%–11%) and severe postoperative (2.41%) complication rates were observed overall, with no group differences. There was no statistically significant difference in the rate of emergency room visits 30 days postoperation between the 3 BMI groups (P = 0.6108). Average length of postoperative stay was statistically significant (P = 0.0003) but was low overall (1–2 days). Hospital readmission rates were low, with the lowest rate among morbidly obese patients (2.13%). Conclusions Our data suggest that laparoscopic gynecologic-oncology procedures for obese patients are feasible and safe.
Genome Sequences of Two Cyanobacterial Strains, Toxic Green Microcystis aeruginosa KW (KCTC 18162P) and Nontoxic Brown Microcystis sp. Strain MC19, under Xenic Culture Conditions

ABSTRACT Bloom-forming cyanobacteria pose concerns for the environment and the health of humans and animals by producing toxins and thus lowering water quality. Here, we report near-complete genome sequences of two Microcystis strains under xenic culture conditions, which were originally isolated from two separate freshwater reservoirs from the Republic of Korea.
Is Seeing Believing? The Process of Change During Cognitive-behavioural Therapy for Distressing Visual Hallucinations.

UNLABELLED People with psychosis often report distressing visual hallucinations (VH). In contrast to auditory hallucinations, there is little empirical evidence on effective interventions. The effectiveness of a novel-focused cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) intervention for VH was explored using a multiple baseline single case design with four participants. Change to individual appraisals, emotional and behavioural responses to VH were measured with daily diaries kept throughout the baseline and intervention phase lasting up to 16 sessions. Maintenance of change was tracked during a follow-up period of one month. Changes in appraisals, distress and response in accordance with the theory was evident in two out of four of the cases. However, change occurred within the baseline phase that limited the conclusions that change could be attributed to CBT alone. There was some evidence of clinically significant change and reliable change for two out of four of the cases at follow-up on one of the standardized psychiatric assessments. The research reported here has theoretical and clinical implications for refinement of the model and interventions for distressing VH. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. KEY PRACTITIONER MESSAGE Distressing visual hallucinations (VH) are a relatively common symptom of psychosis. Visual hallucinations seem to be associated with greater impairment and disability. We have no specific treatment for VH. The appraisal of the visual experience and the behavioural response is important in maintaining the distress. Cognitive-behavioural therapy for VH at present has limited value.
Preliminary investigation on CAD system update: effect of selection of new cases on classifier performance

When a computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) system is used in clinical practice, it is desirable that the system is constantly and automatically updated with new cases obtained for performance improvement. In this study, the effect of different case selection methods for the system updates was investigated. For the simulation, the data for classification of benign and malignant masses on mammograms were used. Six image features were used for training three classifiers: linear discriminant analysis (LDA), support vector machine (SVM), and k-nearest neighbors (kNN). Three datasets, including dataset I for initial training of the classifiers, dataset T for intermediate testing and retraining, and dataset E for evaluating the classifiers, were randomly sampled from the database. As a result of intermediate testing, some cases from dataset T were selected to be added to the previous training set in the classifier updates. In each update, cases were selected using 4 methods: selection of (a) correctly classified samples, (b) incorrectly classified samples, (c) marginally classified samples, and (d) random samples. For comparison, system updates using all samples in dataset T were also evaluated. In general, the average areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUCs) were almost unchanged with method (a), whereas AUCs generally degraded with method (b). The AUCs were improved with method (c) and (d), although use of all available cases generally provided the best or nearly best AUCs. In conclusion, CAD systems may be improved by retraining with new cases accumulated during practice.
Relationship of causative factors in spontaneous regression of cancer to immunologic factors possibly effective in cancer

In a book written by Everson and Cole (1966) on spontaneous regression 176 examples of the phenomenon were encountered in the medical literature from 1900 to 1964, supplemented by cases referred by friends. No common denominator of explanations were found. Various types of trauma (e.g., biopsy, incomplete excision), transfusions, infection, hormone changes, drugs, etc were encountered as possible causative factors. Most significant of all factors was encountered in the 13 examples of spontaneous regression of the bladder; in this series regression of the tumor occurred in 10 after transplantation of the ureters out of the bladder.
On the Optimal Pricing Policy of a Monopolist

The paper presents a simple explanation of price dispersion by a monopolist assuming only that consumers arrive in a random order and are served on a first-come-first-served basis. A firm can sometimes increase its profits by charging two different prices for the same good and rationing sales at the lower price. However, it is never necessary to charge more than two prices, and a single price is sufficient as long as either the marginal revenue curve is everywhere downward sloping or the marginal cost of production is constant.
TLR2 Regulates Gap Junction Intercellular Communication in Airway Cells1

The innate immune response to inhaled bacteria, such as the opportunist Pseudomonas aeruginosa, is initiated by TLR2 displayed on the apical surface of airway epithelial cells. Activation of TLR2 is accompanied by an immediate Ca2+ flux that is both necessary and sufficient to stimulate NF-κB and MAPK proinflammatory signaling to recruit and activate polymorphonuclear leukocytes in the airway. In human airway cells, gap junction channels were found to provide a regulated conduit for the movement of Ca2+ from cell to cell. In response to TLR2 stimulation, by either lipid agonists or P. aeruginosa, gap junctions functioned to transiently amplify proinflammatory signaling by communicating Ca2+ fluxes from stimulated to adjacent, nonstimulated cells thus increasing epithelial CXCL8 production. P. aeruginosa stimulation also induced tyrosine phosphorylation of connexin 43 and association with c-Src, events linked to the closure of these channels. By 4 h postbacterial stimulation, gap junction communication was decreased indicating an autoregulatory control of the connexins. Thus, gap junction channels comprised of connexin 43 and other connexins in airway cells provide a mechanism to coordinate and regulate the epithelial immune response even in the absence of signals from the immune system.
Altered budding site of a pantropic mutant of Sendai virus, F1-R, in polarized epithelial cells

A protease activation mutant of Sendai virus, F1-R, causes a systemic infection in mice, whereas wild-type virus is exclusively pneumotropic (M. Tashiro, E. Pritzer, M. A. Khoshnan, M. Yamakawa, K. Kuroda, H.-D. Klenk, R. Rott, and J. T. Seto, Virology 165:577-583, 1988). Budding of F1-R has been observed bidirectionally at the apical and basolateral surfaces of the bronchial epithelium of mice and of MDCK cells, whereas wild-type virus buds apically (M. Tashiro, M. Yamakawa, K. Tobita, H.-D. Klenk, R. Rott, and J. T. Seto, J. Virol. 64:3627-3634, 1990). In this study, wild-type virus was shown to be produced primarily from the apical site of polarized MDCK cells grown on permeable membrane filters. Surface immunofluorescence and immunoprecipitation analyses revealed that transmembrane glycoproteins HN and F were expressed predominantly at the apical domain of the plasma membrane. On the other hand, infectious progeny of F1-R was released from the apical and basolateral surfaces, and HN and F were expressed at both regions of the cells. Since F1-R has amino acid substitutions in F and M proteins but none in HN, the altered budding of the virus and transport of the envelope glycoproteins might be attributed to interactions by F and M proteins. These findings suggest that in addition to proteolytic activation of the F glycoprotein, the differential site of budding, at the primary target of infection, is a determinant for organ tropism of Sendai virus in mice.