Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Video background tracking and foreground extraction via L1-subspace updates

We consider the problem of online foreground extraction from compressed-sensed (CS) surveillance videos. A technically novel approach is suggested and developed by which the background scene is captured by an L1- norm subspace sequence directly in the CS domain. In contrast to conventional L2-norm subspaces, L1-norm subspaces are seen to offer significant robustness to outliers, disturbances, and rank selection. Subtraction of the L1-subspace tracked background leads then to effective foreground/moving objects extraction. Experimental studies included in this paper illustrate and support the theoretical developments.
Overexpression and Down-Regulation of Barley Lipoxygenase LOX2.2 Affects Jasmonate-Regulated Genes and Aphid Fecundity

Aphids are pests on many crops and depend on plant phloem sap as their food source. In an attempt to find factors improving plant resistance against aphids, we studied the effects of overexpression and down-regulation of the lipoxygenase gene LOX2.2 in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) on the performance of two aphid species. A specialist, bird cherry-oat aphid (Rhopalosiphum padi L.) and a generalist, green peach aphid (Myzus persicae Sulzer) were studied. LOX2.2 overexpressing lines showed up-regulation of some other jasmonic acid (JA)-regulated genes, and antisense lines showed down-regulation of such genes. Overexpression or suppression of LOX2.2 did not affect aphid settling or the life span on the plants, but in short term fecundity tests, overexpressing plants supported lower aphid numbers and antisense plants higher aphid numbers. The amounts and composition of released volatile organic compounds did not differ between control and LOX2.2 overexpressing lines. Up-regulation of genes was similar for both aphid species. The results suggest that LOX2.2 plays a role in the activation of JA-mediated responses and indicates the involvement of LOX2.2 in basic defense responses.
Consequences of deterministic and stochastic modeling of a promoter

For an engineered genetic oscillator, deterministic analysis indicates sustained oscillations and stochastic simulations show irregular or absent oscillations. Since the major difference is in the modeling of the promoters, we have performed a detailed analysis of a generic repressible promoter system. Deterministic, stochastic, thermodynamic, and hybrid models were developed for the promoter. The average behavior of the stochastic model converged to the thermodynamic model. The deterministic model is a special case of the thermodynamic model. The hybrid model could lock into the off state. Adding an unrelated background reaction allowed it to exit that state. Increasing the background rate allowed the hybrid model to converge to thermodynamic and stochastic model. Adding a background reaction to the stochastic oscillator simulation noticeably improved its performance.
Ex-Effects: An Empirical Reassessment of the Clientele Effect Using UK Data

This paper deals with two empirical aspects of the Elton and Gruber tax-induced clientele hypothesis. The first is the extent to which estimates of the central location of the ‘ex-dividend’ statistic, or marginal capitalisation of the dividend due, is influenced by different methods of estimation. The second is the degree to which the widely reported ‘dividend yield’ effect is a robust feature of the data, or whether its origins lie in aggregation effects or thin trading. The results suggest that the yield effect is much weaker than is generally claimed, bringing into question the simple tax-induced clientele hypothesis as the main explanation of cum-div to ex-div market value transitions.
Bone marrow transplantation corrects haemolytic anaemia in a novel ENU mutagenesis mouse model of TPI deficiency

ABSTRACT In this study, we performed a genome-wide N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea (ENU) mutagenesis screen in mice to identify novel genes or alleles that regulate erythropoiesis. Here, we describe a recessive mouse strain, called RBC19, harbouring a point mutation within the housekeeping gene, Tpi1, which encodes the glycolysis enzyme, triosephosphate isomerase (TPI). A serine in place of a phenylalanine at amino acid 57 severely diminishes enzyme activity in red blood cells and other tissues, resulting in a macrocytic haemolytic phenotype in homozygous mice, which closely resembles human TPI deficiency. A rescue study was performed using bone marrow transplantation of wild-type donor cells, which restored all haematological parameters and increased red blood cell enzyme function to wild-type levels after 7 weeks. This is the first study performed in a mammalian model of TPI deficiency, demonstrating that the haematological phenotype can be rescued. Summary: In a novel ENU mutagenesis mouse model of TPI deficiency, bone marrow transplantation was conducted to demonstrate that haemolytic and red blood cell glycolytic defects can be effectively rescued.
Very Long Term Equity Investment Strategies

Recent popular research has suggested that it is possible to time the U.S. equity market over long investment horizons by looking at the real value of the aggregate stock market index relative to an average of the recent past levels. This article shows that this is not the case and that a simple buy-and-hold equity strategy dominates for nearly all time periods for both the U.S. and the U.K. in the 20th century. However, the aggregate real stock price is a more useful long-run valuation metric than incorporating dividend and earnings information, a result that has potential value for investment managers, given the problems with definitions and consistency of these variables.
CLIMATE MATCHING AS A TOOL FOR PREDICTING POTENTIAL NORTH AMERICAN SPREAD OF BROWN TREESNAKES

Climate matching identifies extralimital destinations that could be colonized by a potential invasive species on the basis of similarity to climates found in the species’ native range. Climate is a proxy for the factors that determine whether a population will reproduce enough to offset mortality. Previous climate matching models (e.g., Genetic Algorithm for Rule-set Prediction [GARP]) for brown treesnakes (Boiga irregularis) were unsatisfactory, perhaps because the models failed to allow different combinations of climate attributes to influence a species’ range limits in different parts of the range. Therefore, we explored the climate space described by bivariate parameters of native range temperature and rainfall, allowing up to two months of aestivation in the warmer portions of the range, or four months of hibernation in temperate climes. We found colonization area to be minimally sensitive to assumptions regarding hibernation temperature thresholds. Although brown treesnakes appear to be limited by dry weather in the interior of Australia, aridity rarely limits potential distribution in most of the world. Potential colonization area in North America is limited primarily by cold. Climatically suitable portions of the United States (US) mainland include the Central Valley of California, mesic patches in the Southwest, and the southeastern coastal plain from Texas to
The Usefulness of Current Cost Information for Identifying Takeover Targets and Earning Above-Average Stock Returns

Prior studies constructed takeover prediction models using financial variables that incorporated historical cost data. The studies report conflicting findings concerning the models' abilities to identify future takeover targets and to earn above-average returns by investing in shares of the targets. Other research has shown that financial ratios that incorporate asset replacement cost (i.e., current cost) data are useful for differentiating between takeover targets and nontargets; however, the ability to earn above-average returns was not examined. This study combines the two tines of research by constructing a takeover prediction model in which predictor variables are constructed from current cost data. A model having similar variables was constructed from historical cost data. The models were estimated from takeovers occurring between 1981 and 1984, and the models separately identified takeover targets during the year 1985 based on a prediction sample. Stock returns were cumulated over the year 1985 for the two portfolios of predicted targets. The results show that current cost data were useful for identifying future takeover targets and earning above-average stock returns. The current cost portfolio earned risk-adjusted returns that exceeded the returns of the entire prediction sample and the returns of the historical cost portfolio. Additionally, the models' explanatory power exceeds that which was reported for models in prior research.
Sleep in athletes and the effects of Ramadan

Abstract Sleep is now considered as a new frontier in performance enhancement. This article presents background content on sleep function, sleep needs and methods of sleep investigation along with data on the potential effects of Ramadan fasting on sleep in normal individuals and athletes. Accumulated sleep loss has negative impacts on cognitive function, mood, daytime sleepiness and performance. Sleep studies in athletes fasting during Ramadan are very rare. Most of them have demonstrated that during this month, sleep duration decreased and sleep timing shifted. But the direct relation between sleep changes and performance during Ramadan is not yet elucidated. Objective sleep patterns can be investigated using polysomnography, actigraphy, and standardised questionnaires and recorded in daily journals or sleep logs. The available data on sleep indicate that team doctors and coaches should consider planning sleep schedule and napping; implementing educational programmes focusing on the need for healthy sleep; and consider routine screening for sleep loss in athletes of all age groups and genders.
Population Growth and Agricultural Employment in Latin America, with Some U.S. Comparisons

Policy makers usually assume that the industrial sector will expeditiously absorb the growth of the labor force. But urbanization in Latin America is so far ahead of industrialization that continued advocacy of the type of agricultural modernization that encourages speedy off-farm migration may merely add to urban unrest. The hacienda system seems to be near the root of the problem and it has an institutional parallel in the sharecropper South of the United States. The campesino and the cropper are, in some sense, analogous; and evidence is presented to show that latifundia-type farming systems are not as able as family farms to (1) provide security of employment or adequate income necessary to keep workers in farming until a late enough stage of development, and (2) support an educational system that is capable of developing the skills needed for urban employment or for upgrading the rural labor force. The seriousness of the current movement to the cities in Latin America is accentuated since slums—the outward manifestation of underemployment and idleness —are growing faster than ours ever did. An agrarian reform policy of "contrived dualism" is briefly outlined; it may be the most inexpensive way to provide employment and increase effective demand, thus "buying time" for the industrial sector to catch up.
Operational performances in manufacturing andservice industries: conceptual framework andresearch agenda

This paper deals with measurement practices and expertises in both manufacturing and service industries. It states that the issue of 'what to measure' still needs further research and discussion, even though there is a general acceptance that the key operational performances of a production system are quality, time, cost and flexibility. Borrowing control system's design principles outlined by the accounting and by the control theory literatures, the paper proposes a conceptual framework suitable to classify manufacturing and services industries; then, it presents a review of the main contributions on performance measurement practices peculiar of each typology. Finally, it argues that a gap between measurement expertises and control requirements can be observed in some industries. On the basis of such evidence, we propose a research agenda for performance measurement in manufacturing and service industries.
Rationale for randomized controlled trials and for intention‐to‐treat analysis in transfusion medicine: are they one and the same?

Articles on the appropriateness of intention‐to‐treat (ITT) vs. as‐treated (AT) analyses of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have highlighted issues relevant to drug trials, such as approaches suitable for ‘explanatory’ vs. ‘pragmatic’ RCTs. These considerations are less relevant to transfusion medicine RCTs, especially those of red blood cell transfusion therapies where the main issue is whether to include in the analysis randomized patients who did not receive transfusion. This article discusses issues pertinent specifically to transfusion medicine RCTs, and the thesis presented here is that the primary analysis of any transfusion medicine RCT must be based on the ITT principle. This is because the rationale for randomization is to avoid selection bias and to generate experimental arms that are comparable with respect to all, known and unknown, confounding factors. Only the entire arms produced by random allocation of subjects are so comparable, and only an ITT analysis of these entire arms fulfills the purpose of randomization. Withdrawals of randomized patients compromise the comparability of the groups and the rationale for randomization. Deviations from the ITT principle may be valid only when other conditions are met to ensure that non‐adherence to ITT will not bias the results. For RCTs of red blood cell transfusion therapies, such conditions include that the RCTs be double‐blind and that transfusion criteria should be applied consistently. Nonetheless, the rationale for ITT can be reversed in equivalence and non‐inferiority trials where the finding of no difference is the objective of the research; thus, both ITT and AT analyses should be presented in these settings.
On Theodore W. Schultz's Contributions to Economics

phasized his contributions to the understanding of economic development and his concern for economic changes that would benefit the poor of the world. His interest in the "puzzles" of economic growth stimulated and has grown with his work on investments in human beings. Furthermore, he came early to the study of development from a background of work in agricultural economics. Today these elements of his work, enriched over the years, are joined in his analysis of development problems and policies. His work in agricultural economics and his contributions to the economics of human resources remain distinct nevertheless; their evolution can be traced back to his earlier experiences and the challenges he has found in a changing world. With the maturation of his thinking, Schultz has placed progressively more emphasis on the economics of human learning for adaptation to and the generation of change in productive activities. Throughout he has been a statesman in his commitment to the welfare of people, and he has been a leader and catalyst in the stimulation of research on fundamental problems.
Institutions and economic volatility: democracy versus risk of expropriation

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to decompose the effects of democracy and risk of expropriation on economic volatility. Design/methodology/approach - The authors follow Acemouglu Findings - The authors present empirical evidence that the economic performance of more centralized former European colonies is not more volatile than that of democratic ones, once the exogenous variation of expropriation risk across countries is included in the model Originality/value - The paper investigates the role of a spectrum of different institutions on economic stability. In this sense, the paper contributes to the literature analyzing the effect of property-rights protection, as measured by a risk-of-expropriation index, on the relation between democracy and economic stability.
Estimation of Penetration Depth from Soil Effective Temperature in Microwave Radiometry

Soil moisture is an essential variable in Earth surface modeling. Two dedicated satellite missions, the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) and the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP), are currently in operation to map the global distribution of soil moisture. However, at the longer L-band wavelength of these satellites, the emitting behavior of the land becomes very complex due to the unknown deeper penetration depth. This complexity leads to more uncertainty in calibration and validation of satellite soil moisture product and their applications. In the framework of zeroth-order incoherent microwave radiative transfer model, the soil effective temperature is the only component that contains depth information and thus provides the necessary link to quantify the penetration depth. By means of the multi-layer soil effective temperature (Lv’s T e f f ) scheme, we have determined the relationship between the penetration depth and soil effective temperature and verified it against field observations at the Maqu Network. The key findings are that the penetration depth can be estimated according to Lv’s T e f f scheme with the assumption of linear soil temperature gradient along the optical depth; and conversely, the soil temperature at the penetration depth should be equal to the soil effective temperature with the same linear assumption. The accuracy of this inference depends on to what extent the assumption of linear soil temperature gradient is satisfied. The result of this study is expected to advance understanding of the soil moisture products retrieved by SMOS and SMAP and improve the techniques in data assimilation and climate research.
Schizosaccharomyces pombe spPABP, a homologue of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Pab1p, is a non‐essential, shuttling protein that facilitates mRNA export

Poly(A)‐binding proteins play important roles in mRNA metabolism in eukaryotic cells. We examined the role of the Schizosaccharomyces pombe homologue of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae poly(A)‐binding protein, Pab1p, in cellular growth and mRNA export. In contrast to PAB1, the sppabp gene is not essential for cellular viability. Like the human hPABP1 protein, spPABP is cytoplasmically localized and can shuttle between the nucleus and the cytoplasm. We found that a spPABP–GFP fusion protein expressed from a multicopy plasmid could suppress the growth and mRNA export defect of rae1‐16 7 nup184‐1 synthetic lethal mutations. However, about 20–25% of cells in the population exhibited a pronounced nuclear accumulation of poly(A)+ RNA. The same cells also localized the spPABP–GFP fusion to the nucleus, suggesting that the shuttling ability of spPABP is related to its function in mRNA export. When a heterologous nuclear export activity from spMex67p was fused to spPABP–GFP fusion protein, it overcame the nuclear retention but did not increase nuclear mRNA export. We discuss the implications of these observations in relation to how spPABP could function in mRNA export. Published in 2002 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Antigen B from Echinococcus granulosus enters mammalian cells by endocytic pathways

Cystic hydatid disease is a zoonosis caused by the larval stage (hydatid cyst) of Echinococcus granulosus (Cestoda, Taeniidae). The hydatid cyst develops in the viscera of intermediate host as a unilocular structure filled by the hydatid fluid, which contains parasitic excretory/secretory products. Antigen B (AgB) is the major component of E. granulosus metacestode hydatid fluid. Functionally, AgB has been implicated in immunomodulation and lipid transport. However, the mechanisms underlying AgB functions are not completely known. In this study, we investigated AgB interactions with different mammalian cell types and the pathways involved in its internalization. AgB uptake was observed in four different cell lines, NIH-3T3, A549, J774 and RH. Inhibition of raft-mediated endocytosis causes about 50 and 69% decrease in AgB internalization by RH and A549 cells, respectively. Interestingly, AgB colocalized with the raft endocytic marker, but also showed a partial colocalization with the clathrin endocytic marker. The results indicate that raft-mediated endocytosis is the main route to AgB internalization, and that a clathrin-mediated entry may also occur at a lower frequency. Cellular internalization could be a requirement for AgB functions as a lipid carrier and/or immunomodulatory molecule, contributing to create a more permissive microenvironment to metacestode development and survival. Author summary Antigen B (AgB) is an oligomeric lipoprotein highly abundant in Echinococcus granulosus hydatid fluid. AgB has already been characterized as an immunomodulatory protein, capable of inducing a permissive immune response to parasite development. Also, an important role in lipid acquisition is attributed to AgB, because it has been found associated to different classes of host lipids. However, the mechanisms of interaction employed by AgB to perform its functions remain undetermined. In this study, we demonstrate that mammalian cells are able to internalize E. granulosus AgB in culture and found that specific mechanisms of endocytosis are involved. Our results extend the understanding of AgB biological role indicating cellular internalization as a mechanism of interaction, which in turn, may represent a target to intervention.
In situ and in vitro comparative study on the bioproductivity of Arnicae folium et caulis from the northern area of the Romanian eastern carpathians

Arnica montana L. is an important plant bioresource, being traditionally used as medicinal plant, for which the scientific and economic interest remains at a high level. The aim of our study was to evaluate the bioproductivity for Arnicae folium et caulis in terms of biomass and content in biological active compounds originating from the wild populations and in vitro experimental cultures – under controlled environment. In situ biomass production registered variations, probably due to the different environmental features and also to the management strategies for each site. The development of in vitro cultures had as purpose the evaluation of the biomass production and production of plant material for the phytochemical screening. The Arnicae folium et caulis samples harvested from the wild populations have a higher content in phenolic acids than the Arnicae flos from the same area, but the total content in sesquiterpen-lactones was significantly lower. In contrast, the samples originating from the in vitro cultures had a low content in phenolic compounds and a high content in sesquiterpen-lactones, comparable with Arnicae flos.
Do educational systems affect earnings? A comparative analysis across countries and gender

The aim of this paper is to investigate the effect of education on workers’ earnings and its role in creating inequality between and within educational levels. The comparative analysis involves the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy in the light of institutional variety in the design of their schooling systems. A series of two-stage probit models with latent variable is tested and quantile regression (QR) is adopted in the second stage to estimate log-earnings equations by employment status. Country-specific patterns of QR returns to education along the conditional earnings distribution are argued.