Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Positive perceptions of green and open space as predictors of neighbourhood quality of life: implications for urban planning across the city region

The provision of green and open space in the face of wider development pressure is a key urban challenge. Despite this, few studies have critically investigated the quality of life implications of such provision. This paper focuses on perceptions of built environment factors and their influence on neighbourhood quality of life. Data are drawn from a household survey questionnaire completed by 483 residents living in three neighbourhoods in Dublin, Ireland – an inner city neighbourhood, a suburb and a peri-urban settlement. Positive perceptions of green and open space were identified as important predictors of high levels of neighbourhood satisfaction, surpassed only by dwelling characteristics. This suggests that development strategies which fail to provide for properly planned green and open spaces may be detrimental to neighbourhood quality of life. Furthermore, the results suggest a need for design solutions which consider neighbourhood typology in achieving improved neighbourhood quality of life.
FORECASTING TOURISM DEMAND – THE CASE OF THE CITY OF RIJEKA

Tourism demand, as a set of goods and services people consume during their travels, greatly affects tourism development in a destination. Hence, forecasting tourism demand is the subject of numerous studies in the field of tourism. Many of these studies use a time series analysis approach to examine tourism demand, foremost through tourist arrivals but also through the number of overnights and tourist expenditure. The purpose of this paper is twofold: to examine trends in tourist arrivals in the city of Rijeka, Croatia over the last ten-year period and to forecast tourist arrivals in the near future. The time series analysis method is applied to this end, with tourism demand being measured by the overall number of tourist arrivals. The research findings provide deeper insights into, and a better understanding of, tourism demand forecasting as a factor of efficient tourism planning.
Alexa, What Should We Do about Privacy? Protecting Privacy for Users of Voice-Activated Devices

: Alexa, Amazon’s digital voice assistant, and devices like it, are increasingly common. With this trend comes growing problems, as illustrated by a murder investigation in Bentonville, Arkansas. Police wanted Amazon to turn over data associated with the su spect’s Echo device, hoping it had overheard something on the night of the murder. The case sparked wide-spread interest in the privacy implications of in-home devices that record audio of users. But the biggest threat to user privacy is not that Alexa may overhear a crime — it is that law enforcement will use such devices in new ways that users are not prepared for during investigations. Thus, a solution is needed for users to have the confidence and certainty that bringing these devices into their homes will not erode their privacy. This Comment proposes that companies should ensure privacy protections are engineered into their devices, and that legislatures should adopt forward-looking statutes to ensure protections for users.
Tunnel Ventilator Variable-Frequency Control In Fuzzy PID Algorithm

For the problem of time-varying, nonlinear and time-delay in ventilation system, this paper addressed variable-frequency fuzzy PID control for highway tunnel ventilator, which has disadvantages both dynamic performance of fuzzy control and the steady performance of the PID algorithm. Fuzzy PID algorithm depends on export's experience and fuzzy reasoning, and it can carry out Energy-saving from enhancing ventilator dynamic performances and decreasing the start-up times. The result of simulations shows the effective of proposed approach.
Performance enhancement via RAT association control in multi-RAT cellular networks

From the perspective of a single user, occupying all available radio access technologies (RAT) is always beneficial for increasing data rate. However, due to the interactions among the users, occupying multiple RATs at each user might not be optimal in a network view point. This paper studies the optimal association strategy to maximize the system throughput in multi-RAT cellular networks. To this end, with stochastic geometry, we derive the network sum rates by considering two association modes; single RAT association (altruistic association) and multiple RATs association (selfish association). By comparing the network sum rates for the two association modes, we show that optimally balancing the number of users between two association modes is necessary to improve the performances. With some numerical examples, we investigate how various system parameters, such as the number of carrier components, user density, and density of access points, etc, affect on the optimal portion of the users between two association modes.
Metabolism of d-Aminoacyl-tRNAs inEscherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae Cells*

In Escherichia coli, tyrosyl-tRNA synthetase is known to esterify tRNATyr with tyrosine. Resulting d-Tyr-tRNATyr can be hydrolyzed by ad-Tyr-tRNATyr deacylase. By monitoring E. coli growth in liquid medium, we systematically searched for other d-amino acids, the toxicity of which might be exacerbated by the inactivation of the gene encodingd-Tyr-tRNATyr deacylase. In addition to the already documented case of d-tyrosine, positive responses were obtained with d-tryptophan, d-aspartate,d-serine, and d-glutamine. In agreement with this observation, production of d-Asp-tRNAAspand d-Trp-tRNATrp by aspartyl-tRNA synthetase and tryptophanyl-tRNA synthetase, respectively, was establishedin vitro. Furthermore, the two d-aminoacylated tRNAs behaved as substrates of purified E. coli d-Tyr-tRNATyr deacylase. These results indicate that an unexpected high number of d-amino acids can impair the bacterium growth through the accumulation ofd-aminoacyl-tRNA molecules and thatd-Tyr-tRNATyr deacylase has a specificity broad enough to recycle any of these molecules. The same strategy of screening was applied using Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the tyrosyl-tRNA synthetase of which also producesd-Tyr-tRNATyr, and which, like E. coli, possesses a d-Tyr-tRNATyr deacylase activity. In this case, inhibition of growth by the various 19d-amino acids was followed on solid medium. Two isogenic strains containing or not the deacylase were compared. Toxic effects ofd-tyrosine and d-leucine were reinforced upon deprivation of the deacylase. This observation suggests that, in yeast, at least two d-amino acids succeed in being transferred onto tRNAs and that, like in E. coli, the resulting twod-aminoacyl-tRNAs are substrates of a samed-aminoacyl-tRNA deacylase.
Stopping enteral feeding for arbitrary gastric residual volume may not be physiologically sound: results of a computer simulation model.

BACKGROUND During tube feeding, it is a common practice to check gastric residual volume frequently for indications of pathologic impairment of gastric emptying. The volume threshold standards for holding feedings are applied nonselectively, disregarding slowing of gastric emptying by nutrient-triggered intestinogastric inhibitory feedback. We developed a computer simulation model considering this feedback to test the hypothesis that gastric residual volume increases with slower gastric emptying and faster formula delivery but reaches a plateau volume (equilibrium between input and output) at volumes commonly seen in the postprandial stomach. METHODS A computer simulation model using Microsoft Excel 4.0 calculated the cumulative gastric residual volume over time when the input volume into the stomach is 125 mL/h (endogenous secretions)+ 0 to 125 mL/h (formula delivery rate) and the output volume out of the stomach is equal to gastric emptying rates that varied between 0% and 50%/h. The model simulated nasogastric feeding with nine different rates of gastric emptying and six different rates of formula delivery. Measurements consisted of the cumulative gastric residual volume at the end of each hour for a minimum of 48 hours. RESULTS (1) Gastric residual volumes 1.5 to 6 times the commonly applied "stop feeding" threshold volume of 150 mL are encountered at gastric emptying rates of 20% to 50%/h; (2) gastric residual volume stabilizes to a plateau of 225 to 900 mL between 3 and 13 hours after start of formula delivery at these rates; and (3) at 0% gastric emptying, gastric residual volume does not reach a plateau. CONCLUSIONS At gastric emptying rates expected with nutrient-triggered inhibitory feedback and at formula delivery rates common in nutrition support, gastric residual volume reaches a plateau rapidly and at volumes commonly encountered in normal postprandial stomachs. On the basis of the results of this model, the current practice of stopping enteral feeding when gastric residual volume exceeds an arbitrarily selected volume threshold may not be physiologically sound. Clinical studies are needed to verify this model.
Road transport energy demand in West Africa: a test of the consumer-tolerable price hypothesis

ABSTRACT This study estimates road transport energy demand (both aggregate energy fuel and gasoline energy fuel) in West Africa using the Pooled Mean Group Estimate and the Panel FMOLS. Primarily, we test for the nonlinearity in the price effects (hereafter referred to as the consumer-tolerable price hypothesis), which is motivated by Adom (2017. “The long-run Price Sensitivity Dynamics of Industrial and Residential Electricity Demand: The Impact of Deregulating Electricity Prices” Energy Economics 62: 43–60). First, for the baseline model, we find that, in the long-run, the energy conservation potency of pricing tools is restrained due to the presence of a rebound effect. Similar result is obtained in the short-run with evidence of cross-sectional differences. Second, in the long-run, we find that the demand–price relation is an inverted U-shaped, but we could only confirm this for Nigeria and Ghana; this suggests that, in the long-run, price disincentive tools have to be higher than a required price threshold in order to induce energy conservation behaviours in these economies.
Real exchange rate and export performance in Argentina, 2002–2008

ABSTRACTBetween 2002 and 2008, Argentina experienced a phase of very high and sustained economic growth. During this period, macroeconomic policy aimed to preserve a stable and competitive real exchange rate (SCRER). There is controversy on whether the SCRER policy was a key factor fostering growth and, even more, on whether it helped promote the expansion of tradable activities and exports. We use a methodology to detect episodes of export surges among Argentina’s export industries and find that labor-intensive industries—especially low- and medium-technology manufactures—experienced the highest proportion of export surges within this period. We also find that between 1980 and 2015, the highest proportion of surges in total exports occurred during the 2003–8 period. The performance of export of services was also particularly dynamic during this period. This evidence suggests that the SCRER policy was instrumental for export surges in Argentina during 2002–8.
Generating learning through the crowd: the role of social media practices in supporting students as producers at scale

Social media and higher education pedagogy have enjoyed a chequered relationship with significant debates about the efficacy of social media as a site of student centred learning, the manager/host of an individual’s learning trajectory and as a tool of facilitating collaborative learning at scale. This paper presents the findings from the evaluation of Constitution UK, an innovative civic engagement and open learning project run by the London School of Economics and Political Science (UK). This was the lead initiative in an institution-wide shift in pedagogical approach, designed to transform the learning experience through supporting students to be co-producers of knowledge. We argue that some of the behaviours inherent in social media learning (centred on fleeting connections, digital identity and discontinuous engagement) can create the conditions for effective learning through experience and practice, both at scale in open, online modes as well in the face-to-face delivery environment. Challenging the dominant pedagogical approaches of other massive online programmes, Constitution UK brought together a civil community of people engaging in the process of digital citizenship that produced a crowdsourced constitution for the United Kingdom. The learning design of the project successfully engineered both learning and problem solving at scale. The key aspects of the project arising from how social media can facilitate critical thinking, engagement, peer and crowd learning have informed pedagogical change within the mainstream provision of the School for initiatives such as Students as Producers, civic engagement over Brexit and games-based learning.
Effects of 2% Dehydration on Lactate Concentration During Constant-Load Cycling

Abstract Green, JM, Miller, B, Simpson, J, Dubroc, D, Keyes, A, Neal, K, Gann, J, and Andre, T. Effects of 2% dehydration on lactate concentration during constant-load cycling. J Strength Cond Res 32(7): 2066–2071, 2018—The lactate [La] threshold (LT) can predict endurance performance potential. Dehydration may alter LT. This study examined effects of dehydration on [La] response during constant-load cycling. Recreationally fit (V[Combining Dot Above]O2peak = 48.7 ± 5.2 ml·kg−1·min−1) male participants (n = 9) completed 2 × 40-minute constant-load cycling trials; euhydrated (HYD) and after previous evening passive (water bath) dehydration (2% body weight, DEH) (HYD and DEH counterbalanced). Lactate, heart rate (HR), 10-point Omni ratings of perceived exertion (RPE), and rectal temperature (Trec) were measured after warm-up (WU) and at 10, 20, 30, and 40 minutes. Before cycling, urine specific gravity (USG) was measured and participants estimated perceived recovery status (PRS). Urine specific gravity DEH (1.027 ± 0.004) was significantly greater than HYD (1.013 ± 0.007). After WU, [La] was significantly greater (all time points) for DEH (∼4.1 mmol·L−1) vs. HYD (∼3.5 mmol·L−1) with similar results for HR (DEH: ∼167, HYD: ∼158 b·min−1). For DEH, RPE was significantly greater (∼1 unit) at 20, 30, and 40 minutes, and Trec was significantly greater at 30 and 40 minutes (∼0.4° C). DEH (vs. HYD) also resulted in significantly different resting HR (93 ± 6, vs. 85 ± 7 b·min−1), significantly greater session RPE (7.7 ± 1.1 vs. 5.3 ± 1.1), and significantly lower subjective feelings of recovery (PRS = 6.4 ± 2.9, vs. 9.0 ± 1.5). Current results indicate systematic changes in [La] and associated physiological responses result from previous day dehydration. Hydration status should be a concern in paradigms where [La] assessment is used.
‘Neoliberalism and Political Crisis’: A Postulate of the Causal Dialectics Behind the Unfolding Trumpian Crisis

Neoliberalism is theorized by Marxist polymath David Harvey as a set of political economic practices—predicated upon the teological restoration of economic elite class power through policies of financial deregulation, capital liberalization, and privatization—entailing the intellectual de-legitimization of Keynesian economics, the axiomatization of neoclassical ontological and epistemological precepts regarding the primacy of the self-regulating market, and the retrenchment of the embedded welfare state. Neoliberalism has failed dramatically in its purported goal of reviving global capital accumulation since its inception in the late 20th century. Rather, its main substantive economic achievement has been to redistribute, rather than to generate, wealth and income. Furthermore, within academia, the neoliberal political-economic meta-structure is considered to have eroded the Western socio-cultural ethos writ large, thus irrevocably producing a combustible political environment in which an emergent proto-fascist insurgency—reified currently throughout the contemporary Western polity by the likes of Donald Trump and Marine Le Pen—may unfold. These conditions were effectuated by myriad mechanisms, however, most prominently by those which fall under the prescript of ‘accumulation by dispossession’. This pertains to the continuation and proliferation of capital accumulation practices which Marx had deemed as ‘primitive’ or ‘primal’ during the emergence of the capitalist mode of production. Broadly, these entail the commodification and privatization of land; transmutation of various forms of property rights (common, collective, state, etc.) into exclusive property rights (and the subsequent extraction of rents in the case of patents and intellectual property rights); erasure of many common property rights (e.g. state pensions, paid vacations, and access to education and health care); commodification of labor power and suppression of indigenous forms of production and consumerism; imperial procedures of appropriation of assets; liquidation of exchange and taxation; and usury, the national debt and the use of the credit system as a means for accumulation by dispossession. The neoliberal state assumes the central role of both supporting and promulgating these practices, by way of its possessing a monopoly over violence and definitions of legality. The purpose of this paper lies in the task of further elucidating these mechanisms, within the context of the contemporary Western political crisis.
Protective local and systemic antibody responses of swine exposed to an aerosol of Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae serotype 1

The isotype-specific antibody responses in serum and in nasal and pulmonary lavage fluids of swine following aerosol immunization with an attenuated strain of Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae serotype 1, strain CM5A, was investigated. The presence of immunoglobulin G (IgG), IgA, and IgM with specificities for capsular polysaccharide, lipopolysaccharide, and hemolysin was determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay by using purified antigens. Strain CM5A induced serum antibodies of each isotype to the three antigens. The serum antibody response was sustained and typical of persistent antigenic stimulation. The specific IgM response decreased and the specific IgG response increased after challenge with strain CM5. IgA specific for the three antigens was detected in nasal secretions from all immune pigs, whereas specific IgG could only be detected in samples contaminated with blood. Both IgA and IgG specific for each of the antigens were detected in pulmonary lavage samples. There was no significant increase in specific IgA in nasal secretions; however, levels of lipopolysaccharide-specific and hemolysin-specific IgG and IgA in pulmonary secretions rose after aerosol challenge with strain CM5. Passive transfer of immune swine serum resulted in protection against pleuropneumonia and in levels of specific serum IgG which were similar to those in actively immunized pigs. It is concluded that specific serum IgG antibodies are important in protection from porcine pleuropneumonia.
In vivo induction of neutrophil extracellular traps by Mycobacterium tuberculosis in a guinea pig model

In 2004, a novel mechanism of cellular death, called ‘NETosis’, was described in neutrophils. This mechanism, different from necrosis and apoptosis, is characterized by the release of chromatin webs admixed with microbicidal granular proteins and peptides (NETs). NETs trap and kill a variety of microorganisms. Diverse microorganisms, including Mycobacterium tuberculosis, are NET inducers in vitro. The aim of this study was to examine whether M. tuberculosis can also induce NETs in vivo and if the NETs are bactericidal to the microorganism. Guinea pigs were intradermally inoculated with M. tuberculosis H37Rv, and the production of NETs was investigated at several time points thereafter. NETs were detected as early as 30 min post-inoculation and were clearly evident by 4 h post-inoculation. NETs produced in vivo contained DNA, myeloperoxidase, elastase, histones, ROS and acid-fast bacilli. Viable and heat-killed M. tuberculosis, as well as Mycobacterium bovis BCG were efficient NET inducers, as were unilamellar liposomes prepared with lipids from M. tuberculosis. In vitro, guinea pig neutrophils also produced NETs in response to M. tuberculosis. However, neither the in vivo nor the in vitro-produced NETs were able to kill M. tuberculosis. Nevertheless, in vivo, neutrophils might propitiate recruitment and activation of more efficient microbicidal cells.
Opportunistic Behaviour and Trust: Experimental Results from Broccoli Farmers in Ecuador

Linking smallholder farmers to high‐value markets through contract farming has become an important strategy to increase farm incomes in developing countries. However, various forms of opportunistic behaviour have been reported, threatening the sustainability of inclusive supply chains. When formal institutions are weak, informal codes of conduct like trust can be important complements to facilitate market transactions. We explore the effect of opportunistic behaviour on farmers’ trust, using a field‐framed trust experiment with prior signaling with small‐scale farmers in Ecuador. These farmers are linked to different types of markets, including high‐value export chains, and have been exposed to varying levels of opportunistic behaviour in the past. Our unique dataset allows us to control for self‐selection of game participants. We find that a positive signal triggers a positive response increasing trust, while a negative signal has no effect – possibly reflecting very low overall trust levels. In settings where market linkages have failed previously, ex‐ante credible positive signals could help to build trust and encourage small farmers’ participation in sustainable value chains.
Nonegalitarian Social Responsibility for Health: A Confucian Perspective on Article 14 of the UNESCO Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights

ABSTRACT: This essay offers a Confucian evaluation of Article 14 of the UNESCO Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights, with a focus given to its statement that “the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being. ” It indicates that “a right to health” contained in the statement is open to two different interpretations, one radically egalitarian, another a decent minimum. It shows that Confucianism has strong moral considerations to reject the radical egalitarian interpretation, and argues that a Confucian nonegalitarian health distribution ethics of differentiated and graded love and obligation can reasonably be supported with a right to the decent minimum of health at the international level.