Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rapid song divergence leads to discordance between genetic distance and phenotypic characters important in reproductive isolation

Abstract The criteria for species delimitation in birds have long been debated, and several recent studies have proposed new methods for such delimitation. On one side, there is a large consensus of investigators who believe that the only evidence that can be used to delimit species is molecular phylogenetics, and with increasing numbers of markers to gain better support, whereas on the other, there are investigators adopting alternative approaches based largely on phenotypic differences, including in morphology and communication signals. Yet, these methods have little to say about rapid differentiation in specific traits shown to be important in reproductive isolation. Here, we examine variation in phenotypic (morphology, plumage, and song) and genotypic (mitochondrial and nuclear DNA) traits among populations of yellow‐rumped tinkerbird Pogoniulus bilineatus in East Africa. Strikingly, song divergence between the P. b. fischeri subspecies from Kenya and Zanzibar and P. b. bilineatus from Tanzania is discordant with genetic distance, having occurred over a short time frame, and playback experiments show that adjacent populations of P. b. bilineatus and P. b. fischeri do not recognize one another's songs. While such rapid divergence might suggest a founder effect following invasion of Zanzibar, molecular evidence suggests otherwise, with insular P. b. fischeri nested within mainland P. b. fischeri. Populations from the Eastern Arc Mountains are genetically more distant, yet share the same song with P. b. bilineatus from Coastal Tanzania and Southern Africa, suggesting they would interbreed. We believe investigators ought to examine potentially rapid divergence in traits important in species recognition and sexual selection when delimiting species, rather than relying entirely on arbitrary quantitative characters or molecular markers.
Fascism: A Very Short Introduction

What is fascism? Is it revolutionary? Or is it reactionary? This book argues that it is both: fascism unleashes violence against the left and ethnic minorities, but also condemns the bourgeoisie for its 'softness'. Kevin Passmore opens his book with a series of 'scenes from fascist life' - a secret meeting of the Romanian Iron Guard; Mussolini meeting the king of Italy; a rally of Hungarian doctors calling for restrictions on the number of Jews entering the profession; the shooting of 1800 Jews by Reserve Police Battalion 101 at Jozefow in Poland in July 1942. He then looks at the paradoxes of fascism through its origins in the political and social crisis of the late nineteenth century, the history of fascist movements and regimes in Italy and Germany, and the fortunes of 'failed' fascist movements in Romania, Hungary and Spain. He shows how fascism used and uses propaganda and popular culture to propagate itself and how it exported its ideas outside Europe, through Nazi and Spanish post-war escape routes to Latin America, for instance. The book concludes with a discussion of the recent revival of the extreme right in Austria, Italy, France, and Russia.
Association between tumor heterogeneity and progression-free survival in non-small cell lung cancer patients with EGFR mutations undergoing tyrosine kinase inhibitors therapy

For non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations, current staging methods do not accurately predict the risk of disease recurrence after tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) therapy. Developing a noninvasive method to predict whether individual could benefit from TKI therapy has great clinical significance. In this research, a radiomics approach was proposed to determine whether the tumor heterogeneity of NSCLC, which was measured by the texture on computed tomography (CT), could make an independent prediction of progression-free survival (PFS). A primary dataset contained 80 patients (median PFS, 9.5 months) with positive EGFR mutations and a validation dataset contained 72 NSCLC (median PFS, 10.2 months) patients were used for prognosis trial. The experiment results indicated that the features: “Cluster Prominence of Gray Level Co-occurrence” (hazard ratio [HR]: 2.13, 95% confidence interval [CI]: (1.33, 3.40), P = 0.010) and “Short Run High Gray Level Emphasis of Run Length” (HR: 2.43, 95%CI: (1.46, 4.05), P = 0.005) were significantly associated with PFS in the primary dataset, and these two texture features also make a consistent performance on the validation cohort. Our study further supported that the quantitative measurement of tumor heterogeneity can be associated with prognosis of NSCLC patients with EGFR mutation.
Market-Seeking Motives and Market-Related Promises and Actions in Foreign Direct Investment Privatization in Central and Eastern Europe

ABSTRACT The process of privatization through foreign direct investment (FDI) in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has been organized around interactions of three legally entitled parties, i.e., foreign investor, host government, and host company. The triadic nature of those interactions is addressed in studying the relationship initiation and development. The FDI privatization relationships and the attempts of the three parties to satisfy their objectives have become critical for the survival and successful development of the privatized entity post-privatization. This paper adopts the analytical concept of the interface between motives, promises and actions in the process of relationship development focusing on the role of market seeking motives and market-related promises and actions in the FDI privatization process. Seven cases from Bulgaria are used to unveil the relative significance of the analyzed interface. When assessing FDI investments in CEE foreign investors should assess not only the macro- and microenvironmental conditions, but also pay particular attention to what parties want to gain and what they say they would bring to the venture. The complementarity, compatibility and congruity of motives, promises and actions are suggested to be essential in the successful development of FDI privatization relationships.
Backpacker tourism: sustainable and purposeful? Investigating the overlap between backpacker tourism and volunteer tourism motivations

Alternative tourism, particularly backpacker and volunteer tourism, has developed significantly in recent times. This rapid development has contributed to criticism of potential negative effects, notably of the environmental, cultural, economic and social impacts associated with backpacker tourism. Volunteer tourism, by contrast, has been seen in positive terms as more sustainable, combining altruistic motivations with the travel concept. This paper explores backpacker interest in volunteer tourism and identifies overlaps in motivations between the two forms of tourism; 249 self-administered questionnaires were collected from backpackers within backpacker hostels in central Melbourne, Australia. The findings of this study suggest that a motivational overlap exists between backpacker and volunteer tourists, indicating potential for the creation of volunteer tourism products catering specifically for the backpacker market. This may encourage more sustainable tourism experiences within the burgeoning backpacker market, thus addressing some of the negative criticism of the latter. This paper also discusses the implications of these findings for the marketing and development of volunteer tourism products for both the backpacker and volunteer tourism markets.
A practical bump mapping technique in scene simulation

The display of third dimension graphics is the most crucial tache in scene simulation, and bump mapping plays an important role in the synthesization of third dimension graphics. Bump mapping is a normal-perturbation rendering technique for simulating lighting effects caused by patterned irregularities on otherwise locally smooth surfaces. In this paper, the current mathematic theory of bump mapping in computer graphics (CG) was introduced. One of the three representations of bump mapping, normal maps, generated from height fields, was applied in a scene simulation system. The bump mapping was realized by the light-reflection calculations program, and achieved excellent result both in rendering time and rendering quality. It leaded to the great improvement of real-time performance, based on the third dimension of the diversified and scene.
Welfare Impact of the Global Economic Crisis of 2008-2009 on Turkish Households: Evidence from a Specialized Monitoring Survey in 7 Provinces

This paper looks at how the macro shock from the 2008 financial crisis has translated into income and welfare shocks in the form of reduced earnings and consumption at the household level in Turkey. Using a specialized household level Welfare Monitoring Survey implemented in May-June 2009 in 7 provinces of Turkey, the paper estimates the impact of the macro-shock on food, education and health related expenditures. The paper first establishes a link between the macro level shock in the financial sector in the province and the changes in earnings at the household level and then using an instrumental variables strategy, establishes the link between the earnings shock and changes in consumption. The main findings in the paper are that the informally employed workers, and those with lower levels of education (lower than university level) were more likely to be hurt by the Crisis in the provinces where the survey was collected. Food expenditures acted as the main adjustment mechanism in the face of the income shock, while education and health expenditures remained relatively stable. The probability of reducing food consumption (and the amount of food provided to children) was highest among the poor that initially had low levels of household assets.
Co-evolutionary Dynamics Within and Between Firms: From Evolution to Co-evolution

The extensive selection-adaptation literature spans diverse theoretical perspectives, but is inconclusive on the role of managerial intentionality in organizational adaptation. Indeed, this voluminous literature has more to say about selection and sources and causes of structural inertia than about self-renewing organizations that might counteract such inertia. In this introductory essay, we identify four co-evolutionary generative mechanisms (engines) - naive selection, managed selection, hierarchical renewal and holistic renewal - which illustrate the extensive range of evolutionary paths that can take place in a population of organizations. In particular, the managed selection engine provides the foundations of the underlying principles of co-evolving self-renewing organizations: managing internal rates of change, optimizing self-organization, and balancing concurrent exploration and exploitation. However, it is altogether clear that empirical co-evolution research represents the next frontier for empirically resolving the adaptation selection debate. The essay concludes with a discussion of requirements for co-evolutionary empirical research and introduces the empirical papers in this Special Research Symposium.
Ethnic differences in labour market transitions: an exploration using the British household panel survey

The paper uses the first five waves of the British Household Panel Survey to explore the dynamics of the labour market experience of Britain's ethnic minorities relative to the white majority. The issue to be explored is labour market transitions. Ethnic minorities are shown to exhibit greater volatility. Only panel data can reveal this important labour market effect. Overall, the British Household Panel Survey should be seen as a useful addition to increasing our knowledge of Britain's ethnic minorities.
THE EUROPEAN SYNCHROTRON RADIATION FACILITY HYDROSTATIC LEVELING SYSTEM -TWELVE YEARS EXPERIENCE WITH A LARGE SCALE HYDROSTATIC LEVELING SYSTEM

This paper will discuss the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) Hydrostatic Leveling Systems (HLS) composed over 500 sensors. Note that in this discussion an HLS instrument will generally be referred to as a captor or sensor. This generic term refers to the capacitive sensor, the vessel and the temperature sensor ensemble. Refer to figure 1 for a schematic of the ESRF HLS instrument as well as its situation in the Storage Ring. We will dwell principally on the performance of the two main systems, the so-called first generation and second generation HLS, The main effort will be made to discuss how to qualify a large scale HLS.
NITROUS OXIDE POLLUTION: A GEOSTATISTICAL METHOD TO ASSESS SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF ANAESTHETIC GASES AND HOSPITAL STAFF EXPOSURE

In this study we evaluated the diffusion of nitrous oxide in a few operating rooms, using spatial data modelling techniques, in order to assess hospital staff exposure and to promote risk management. Indoor air sampling was carried out, during routine operating activity, by means of transportable infrared spectrometer, with geostatistical techniques. We detected high average concentrations of nitrous oxide (from 8 ppm to 445 ppm, with a peak of 1345 ppm). Linear geostatistical iso-value maps of the anaesthetic gas expected values showed an evident nitrous oxide-rising trend near the anaesthetic machines, near walls and doors, near HVAC opening, etc. Operators’ attention to maintenance procedures of the anaesthetic machines, and to hazard management of the operating room, can reduce health risks of the hospital staff exposed. To conclude, we have to underline that an assessment performed only on “mean” samples and calculated through descriptive statistics, would not allow any inferences in the complex spatial structure and physical kinetics evidenced by geostatistical methods.
Leveraging Open Innovation Using Intermediary Networks

Open innovation, fuelled by the rise of the Internet, has made it feasible and cheaper for firms to open themselves up to a wide range of external sources of innovative ideas. The explosive growth of open innovation intermediary networks, such as InnoCentive or Linked‐in, enables the rapid pairing of firms seeking knowledge to address a wide range of business challenges (seekers) with other firms or individuals who already have relevant knowledge (solvers or knowledge brokers). These intermediary networks allow procurement departments to source codified and un‐codified knowledge from firms or individuals outside their traditional supplier networks using one‐off transactional relationships. Although sourcing ideas in this way theoretically poses problems for knowledge search and transfer, we have found that companies can draw on processes and integration mechanisms developed by procurement and design engineering to develop effective organizational learning routines. These routines are strategically vital to source new ideas through open innovation using intermediary networks and create competitive advantage.
Natural origin biodegradable systems in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine: present status and some moving trends

The fields of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine aim at promoting the regeneration of tissues or replacing failing or malfunctioning organs, by means of combining a scaffold/support material, adequate cells and bioactive molecules. Different materials have been proposed to be used as both three-dimensional porous scaffolds and hydrogel matrices for distinct tissue engineering strategies. Among them, polymers of natural origin are one of the most attractive options, mainly due to their similarities with the extracellular matrix (ECM), chemical versatility as well as typically good biological performance. In this review, the most studied and promising and recently proposed naturally derived polymers that have been suggested for tissue engineering applications are described. Different classes of such type of polymers and their blends with synthetic polymers are analysed, with special focus on polysaccharides and proteins, the systems that are more inspired by the ECM. The adaptation of conventional methods or non-conventional processing techniques for processing scaffolds from natural origin based polymers is reviewed. The use of particles, membranes and injectable systems from such kind of materials is also overviewed, especially what concerns the present status of the research that should lead towards their final application. Finally, the biological performance of tissue engineering constructs based on natural-based polymers is discussed, using several examples for different clinically relevant applications.
Multilateral and Bilateral Loans Versus Grants: Issues and Evidence

This paper examines a wide range of issues relating to the mix between loans and grants as well as the degree of concessionality of loans. A number of empirical tests are carried out based on annual panel data over 1970 to 1999 for 22 donor countries and 72 recipient countries. Based on the tests, we observe that for bilateral donors, past grant-loan mix (and, hence, reflows from past transfers) do not influence the volume of current resource transfers. Our tests also show that the rate of official borrowing by the recipients (and, by deduction, the extent of their past debt burden) is positively influenced by the extent of the concessionality of such loans - irrespective of whether it is in the form of subsidised interest rates or longer grace periods. The paper concludes with a review of the circumstances in which grants, soft loans and non-concessional loans might have their respective comparative advantage, as well as a discussion of the need, so as to overcome the negative incentive problems of soft loans, for a typical concessional loan package to be separated into two constituent parts. This would enable the recipient to be given the grant component and the option to take from the non-concessional loan component as much as desired. Copyright Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2004.
Multi-Wavelength Thulium-Doped Fiber Laser Using a Fiber-Based Lyot Filter

A multi-wavelength thulium-doped fiber laser using a fiber-based Lyot filter is proposed in 2-μm band for the first time. In the laser cavity, the fiber-based Lyot filter is used as the comblike wavelength selection component. By adjusting two polarization controllers, a stable multi-wavelength operation is obtained at room temperature, 17 output channels within 10-dB bandwidth from 1982 to 1998 nm are achieved. The flattened spectrum of multi-wavelength operation can obtained by using the 10% output coupling ratio. The different wavelength spacing of the fiber laser can be controlled by adjusting the polarization maintaining fiber lengths of the Lyot filters.
Hedonic analysis of housing markets

This chapter examines the hedonic analysis of housing markets. These techniques have been widely applied in studies of the demand for housing attributes and environmental amenities. The chapter discusses the theoretical foundation of such analysis, the use of hedonic estimates of demand for welfare analysis, the empirical difficulties that arise in such studies, and some of the methods for overcoming these difficulties. The chapter has been prepared for the forthcoming Handbook of Applied Urban Economics.
Exchange Rate Volatility and Trade Flows in Zambia

The study examines the impact of exchange rate volatility on trade flows in Zambia over the period 1980–2008. Import and export demand equations capturing aggregate and sectoral data are estimated using the Johansen cointegration method. Empirical estimates confirm the significance of exchange rate volatility in trade in Zambia and underscore the necessity of disaggregating trade data not previously studied in Zambia as export commodities exhibit varied sensitivity to exchange rate risk. The results suggest that a stable exchange rate is important in order to sustain the growth of trade as persistence in exchange rate volatility may influence the reallocation of resources to the non-tradable sector.
An Empirical Test of an Updated Relevance-Accessibility Model of Advertising Effectiveness

Abstract The Relevance-Accessibility Model provides a framework for studying advertising effects on brand choice. To do this, it shifts the focus of study from the time of advertising exposure to the time of brand choice. The model is motivationally based. Consumers' motivation to deliberate at the time of brand choice influences consumers' preferred choice process. Three choice processes; optimizing, satisficing and indifference, are associated with the preferred use of three different types of information: evidence of performance superiority, evidence of credibility and evidence of liking, respectively. The model predicts that an advertising message appeal is most likely to influence brand choice when it is both relevant and accessible. The message appeal that can most easily achieve the choice objective is the most relevant appeal. A message appeal is most likely to be accessible when consumer involvement at the time of advertising exposure leads to its efficient encoding in memory. The major contributions of this paper are the updating of the model's theoretical framework and the empirical test of the model's predictions about message appeal effectiveness in different motivational scenarios.
Tissue proteome profiling of preeclamptic placenta using recombinant antibody microarrays

Purpose: Preeclampsia (PE) is a severe, multi‐system pregnancy disorder of yet unknown cause, missing means of treatment, and our fundamental understanding of the disease is still impaired. The purpose of this discovery study was to define candidate placenta tissue protein biomarker signatures to further decipher the molecular features of PE.
Multiple Familial Keratoacanthoma of Witten and Zak – A Report of Three Siblings

Three out of 11 siblings of a nonconsanguineous marriage suffering from biopsy-proven multiple small eruptive keratoacanthoma (KA) of Grzybowski as well as large nodular KA of Ferguson-Smith are reported. The response to oral methotrexate was not encouraging. Intravenous 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) at a dose of 12 mg/kg/day in isotonic saline given in weekly 5-day cycles resulted in almost complete resolution of small eruptive lesions and signs of involution in older large agglomerate noduloulcerative KA after 6 cycles. Thus, intravenous 5-FU was found to be an effective therapeutic modality for the Witten and Zak type of KA.