Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Farmers' Willingness to Pay for a Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) Vaccine in Thua Thien Hue Province, Vietnam

Vietnam is a major pork producing country, but the livelihood of pig farmers is threatened by the pig disease Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS). Although vaccination is the most practical method of choice for PRRS control, the vaccination percentage is very low in Vietnam. To help inform PRRS vaccine development and policy, our research employed the choice experiment method to assess pig farmers’ attitudes toward and willingness to pay (WTP) for a PRRS vaccine. The results found a high positive WTP value for the PRRS vaccination program in Vietnam. This study provides insight into the possibility of increasing the PRRS vaccination percentages.
Technical Efficiency of Land Tenure Contracts in West Java Province, Indonesia

Obtaining land tenure contracts for rice farms is a major problem faced by farmer tenants in the province of West Java. This study aimed to analyze the type of land tenure contracts in this region and the levels of technical efficiency of each contract system. Data were collected through a survey, with respondents randomly selected from the Karawang and Subang districts of West Java. The stochastic frontier was used to determine the efficiency of each system. Results showed that the average area being tilled was higher than land owned due to land tenure arrangements that increased farmers’ access to land. Three common land tenure contracts in this region are fixed rental, sharecropping, and mortgage. Sharecropping and mortgage coefficients were found to be less efficient, while fixed rental was more efficient compared to owner-cultivated plots. These results provided evidence to support the view that sharecropping is inefficient for the tenants. However, sharecropping is still a common type of land transaction in West Java. To improve efficiency, the local government can help farmers by enabling them to lease land through fixed rental or other more favorable arrangements.
Use of genomic fingerprinting techniques for revealing DNA polymorphism in Ginkgo biloba L., a medicinal woody species

The main goal of our study was to use two DNA fingerprinting techniques (RAPD and AFLP) for revealing the possible intraspecific genetic variation between Ginkgo biloba individuals grown in different sites. Ten of the twenty RAPD (Random Amplification of Polymorphic DNA ) decamer primers yielded scorable amplification patterns and generated polymorphic bands among the genotypes studied. Of the 165 AFLP (Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism) primer combinations used, Ecs-AGG+MCG have revealed the largest number of polymorphic bands (96) among samples of Ginkgo biloba originating from Romania and Denmark. The least number of polymorfic bands (74) was detected using primer combination Ecs-AGG+MGA. Individuals of Ginkgo, analyzed by the techniques mentioned above, clustered into two main groups and the values of genetic similarity coefficients between data shows some differences at DNA molecular level.
Acceleration of Photon Mapping : Adaptive Sampling of Irradiance Cache by Components

— Photon mapping is a two-pass method of ray tracing that makes the computation of caustics and soft indirect illumination relatively fast. Besides, the irradiance cache is a method to further speed up the computation of indirect illumination in a Monte Carlo ray tracer. This paper presents a method that uses the concept of irradiance cache in multi-resolution to cache the irradiance of each light component in photon maps. Our method can not only make the computation more efficient but also preserve the details of scene.
Divisionalization, Franchising, or Mixing： A Market Competition Perspective

This paper considers strategic delegation for analyzing the optimal retail-organizational form for a firm. Our results indicate that expansion by a mix of divisions and franchises is possible, provided that there exists hierarchical conflict, the market is medium-sized, and the products are imperfect substitutes. The sales maximization for divisionalization plays an important role in the choice of retail-organizational form. This stems from the fact that the equilibrium outcome of profit delegation is more competitive than that of market share delegation, which itself is more competitive than that of sales delegation, where firms rely on expansion by a mix of divisions and franchises. Consequently, firms do not franchise to avoid a cost disadvantage, provided that top managers are guided by profit maximization. When the objective of each top manager is market share maximization, all top managers expect their rivals will retaliate, and this reduces the temptation to be aggressive in the first place. Accordingly, firms do not divisionalize to relax interbrand competition.
Yang-Mills solutions on de Sitter space of any dimension

For gauge groups SO$(n{+}1)$, SU$(m{+}1)$ and Sp$(\ell{+}1)$, we construct equivariant Yang-Mills solutions on de Sitter space in $n{+}1$, $2(m{+}1)$ and $4(\ell{+}1)$ spacetime dimensions. The latter is conformally mapped to a finite cylinder over a coset space realizing an appropriate unit sphere. The equivariance condition reduces the Yang-Mills system to an analog Newtonian particle in one or two dimensions subject to a time-dependent friction and a particular potential. We analyze some properties of the solutions such as their action and energy and display all analytic ones. Beyond dS$_4$ all such configurations have finite energy but infinite action.
Risk Stratification and Prognosis of Human Immunodeficiency Virus–Infected Patients With Known or Suspected Coronary Artery Disease Referred for Stress Echocardiography

Background—Patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection are at increased risk of accelerated coronary artery disease (CAD) and cardiovascular events. Stress echocardiography (SE) is routinely used for risk stratification and prognosis of patients with known or suspected CAD. The prognostic value of SE in this high-risk group is unknown. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prognostic value of SE in HIV-infected patients with known or suspected CAD. Methods and Results—We evaluated 311 patients (age, 52±9 years; 74% men; left ventricular ejection fraction, 54±12%) with history of HIV, undergoing SE (56% dobutamine). Left ventricular wall motion was evaluated on a 16-segment model, 5-point scale. An abnormal SE was defined by a fixed (infarction), biphasic, or new (ischemia) wall motion abnormality on stress. Follow-up for cardiac death and myocardial infarction was obtained. Seventy-nine (26%) patients had an abnormal SE. After 2.9±1.9 years, 17 confirmed myocardial infarction and 14 cardiac deaths occurred. SE risk-stratified patients into normal versus abnormal subgroups (event rate, 0.6% per year versus 11.8% per year; P<0.0001). Both abnormal SE (hazard ratio, 28.2; 95% confidence interval, 6.2 to 128.0; P<0.0001) and the presence of any ischemia on SE (hazard ratio, 3.4; 95% confidence interval, 1.3 to 8.6; P=0.009) were independent predictors of cardiac events. On a forward conditional Cox proportional hazards regression model, SE provided incremental prognostic value over clinical, stress ECG, and resting echocardiographic variables (global &khgr;2 increased from 17.8 to 24.5 to 65 to 109, P<0.05 across all groups). Conclusions—SE can effectively risk-stratify and prognosticate patients with HIV. The presence of ischemia and scar during SE provides independent and incremental prognostic value over traditional variables. A normal SE response portends a benign prognosis even in this high-risk subset.
Isolation and transplantation of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs).

1. Four B6 mice are sacrificed and dissected to obtain tibias, femurs, hip and spine. 2. During the dissections, the limbs and the bones are kept in PBS 2%FCS heat inactivated (optional 2mM EDA dissection medium). 3. The clean bones are crushed with mortar and pestle in dissection medium. An efficient way to do it is to crush tibias, femurs and hips of each mouse, then 2 spines at a time. 4. The cell mixture obtained from each mouse is kept separate and filtered through a 40μm filter into a 50ml falcon tube. In this way, each tube contains the cell mixture obtained out of all the leg bones of a mouse, and half of the mixture obtained from 2 spines. At this stage, the filter is used to separate bone debris. 5. It is usually advisable to crush the leg bones twice to obtain white (with no bone marrow) bone fragments, and the spine fragments 2 or 3 times. 6. Fill up the tubes to have them balanced, and spin 5 min 1200rpm. 7. Aspirate the supernatant and loosen the pellet by dragging the tubes on the tube rack (this step is important after each centrifugation to minimize clump formation and cell loss). Resuspend each tube in 1 ml PBS 2% FCS (NO EDTA from now on) if you are doing lineage depletion, or in whatever volume is otherwise convenient for you.
Simulation of multigrain thin film growth

In [28], Russo and Smereka presented a level set method for the growth of fully faceted grains. This method produced interesting results, but it is not applicable to typical grain growth where the operating temperature is well below that which would produce fully faceted grains during deposition. In this lower temperature regime, the deposition rate and the diffusion rate are in competition to determine the ultimate texture of the film, and which grain orientation is preferred. In this paper, we present a new technique coupling the level set method with the marker particle method to study multigrain thin film growth. The resulting method is designed for more realistic temperature ranges where grains are not typically fully faceted.
National Review of Asthma Deaths (NRAD).

While I agree with David Jewell that GPs are generalists, I don’t agree with the way he has apparently written off the recommendations, and I would urge against complacency with regard to the findings of the National Review of Asthma Deaths (NRAD). 1 He suggests the report and recommendations emanated from …
Inspection of Steel Tendons in Concrete Using Guided Waves

The use of ultrasonic guided waves to inspect concrete reinforcing tendons is complicated by energy leakage into the embedding material. Previous work has shown that high frequency, low‐leakage guided waves can be used to minimise the leakage, but the maximum inspection range has not yet been determined. This paper presents the results of experiments designed to evaluate the effect of important factors such as leakage and defect geometry, enabling conclusions on the maximum inspection range to be reached.
Random polymers and generalized urn processes

We describe a microcanonical approach for polymer models that combines atmospheric methods with urn theory. We show that Large Deviation Properties of urn models can provide quite deep mathematical insight by analyzing the Random Walk Range problem in $\mathbb{Z}^{d}$. We also provide a new mean field theory for the Range Problem in $d\geq4$ that is exactly solvable by analogy with the Bagchi-Pal urn model.
Title Novel Time Asynchronous NOMA schemes for Downlink Transmissions Permalink

In this work, we investigate the effect of time asynchrony in non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) schemes for downlink transmissions. First, we analyze the benefit of adding intentional timing offsets to the conventional power domain-NOMA (P-NOMA). This method which is called Asynchronous-Power Domain-NOMA (AP-NOMA) introduces artificial symbol-offsets between packets destined for different users. It reduces the mutual interference which results in enlarging the achievable rate-region of the conventional P-NOMA. Then, we propose a precoding scheme which fully exploits the degrees of freedom provided by the time asynchrony. We call this multiple access scheme TNOMA which provides higher degrees of freedom for users compared to the conventional P-NOMA or even the modified AP-NOMA. T-NOMA adopts a precoding at the base station and a linear preprocessing scheme at the receiving user which decomposes the broadcast channel into parallel channels circumventing the need for Successive Interference Cancellation (SIC). The numerical results show that T-NOMA outperforms AP-NOMA and both outperform the conventional P-NOMA. We also compare the maximum sum-rate and fairness provided by these methods. Moreover, the impact of pulse shape and symbol offset on the performance of AP-NOMA and T-NOMA schemes are investigated.
A comparative analysis of anxiolytic activity of Arnica montana and alprazolam in rats using open field test

Anxiety is defined as a subjective sense of unease, dread or foreboding. It is an emotional state which is seen in response to a significant stress or perceived threat. Anxiety, apprehension, fear and worry are all completely natural human feelings. If these feelings occur in response to seemingly natural stimuli and endure for an extended period, it affects both physical and mental health and leads to clinical anxiety disorders and can indicate a primary psychiatric condition or can be a component of or reaction to a primary medical disease. Anxiety affects around 7.3% of the total population worldwide and has become a very important area of research interest in psychopharmacology.
Does the London Stock Exchange require an upstairs market? Evidence from block trades

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to test if the empirical relationship between the size of trades and market liquidity can be pooled across different block sizes on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). Design/methodology/approach – The authors use pooling and non-pooling econometric tests in a panel framework. Findings – When the authors differentiate between various block sizes, the authors find that for trades in excess of 50,000 shares, there is a positive association between the size of the trade and the bid-ask spread, due to a lack of liquidity in the financial market. The results provide strong evidence that an upstairs market may be required in order to provide liquidity for large block trades on the LSE. Originality/value – This is the first study to directly test if the LSE requires an upstairs market to provide liquidity for large trade transactions.
Bimodal multicast

There are many methods for making a multicast protocol “reliable. ” At one end of the spectrum, a reliable multicast protocol might offer tomicity guarantees, such as all-or-nothing delivery, delivery ordering, and perhaps additional properties such as virtually synchronous addressing. At the other are protocols that use local repair to overcome transient packet loss in the network, offering “best effort” reliability. Yet none of this prior work has treated stability of multicast delivery as a basic reliability property, such as might be needed in an internet radio, television, or conferencing application. This article looks at reliability with a new goal: development of a multicast protocol which is reliable in a sense that can be rigorously quantified and includes throughput stability guarantees. We characterize this new protocol as a “bimodal multicast” in reference to its reliability model, which corresponds to a family of bimodal probability distributions. Here, we introduce the protocol, provide a theoretical analysis of its behavior, review experimental results, and discuss some candidate applications. These confirm that bimodal multicast is reliable, scalable, and that the protocol provides remarkably stable delivery throughput.
Form-finding of topologically complex shells using isogeometric analysis and trimmed surfaces

For form-finding of topologically complex or trimmed shells, the domain needs to be handled with multiple untrimmed patches due to the characteristic of tensor product form of NURBS surface in the conventional isogeometric analysis. In the present research, the form-finding of topologically complex shells using trimmed surface analysis (TSA) [1] is performed. The trimmed surface analysis is the isogeometric analysis utilizing the information of trimmed surface from CAD programs directly into the analysis. With this approach, a topologically complex geometry can be handled efficiently without constructing multiple untrimmed patches. Additionally, the model geometry and field variable can be preserved their continuities within the domain. The 2D trimmed surface analysis is extended and appropriately modified for structural analysis and form-finding of shells. The shell surface is expressed by the untrimmed NURBS surface, and the inner boundaries and trimmed outer boundaries are described by the trimming curves. For the form-finding, not only the coordinates of surface control points, but also the coordinates of trimming curve control points are set as design variables so that the surface curvature and trimming curves can change during the optimization. The shape sensitivities are formulated with respect to the coordinates of surface control points and trimming curve control points. The gradient based optimization algorithm MMA [2] is applied for updating design variables. A number of examples for form-finding of topologically complex shells are handled by the proposed method.
A New Species of Xestomyza Wiedemann, 1820 from South Africa, with a Key to the Genera of Xestomyzinae (Diptera: Therevidae)

ABSTRACT A new species, Xestomyza stuckenbergi sp. n. , is described from the Western Cape Province, South Africa. The new species differs from the only previously described species of this genus, Xestomyza lugubris Wiedemann, 1820, being smaller and entirely covered in white pubescence and also having differences in the male terminalia. A third species of this genus is briefly described, but because there is only one female specimen available it is not formally named. Identification keys are provided to genera of the subfamily Xestomyzinae and to species of Xestomyza Wiedemann.
Helping the Less Fortunate: The Interaction Between Cultural and Economic Conservatism

by Jeffrey Allen Brooks Do conservatives take less action for the unfortunate than liberals? We tested this claim by assessing two types of conservatism, economic and cultural, and their relations to just world beliefs, social justice motives, empathy, and taking action for the unfortunate. Students, faculty, and staff (n = 317) from several universities took a survey online. Economic conservatism scores related to higher just world beliefs and lower social justice motives, empathy, and ultimately, taking less action for the unfortunate. Cultural conservatism was positively related to social justice and taking action for the unfortunate. The interaction between economic and cultural conservatism was negatively related to just world beliefs and positively related to empathy and helping the unfortunate. Analyses suggest that cultural conservatism moderates the impact that economic conservatism has on these variables. Religious beliefs and commandments to help the unfortunate that characterize cultural conservatism worldview may temper economic conservatism’s focus on self-interest
A phenomenology of children exposed to the violent conflict in Jos Nigeria.

Intermittently, the Jos violent conflict has lingered for over a decade, seemingly insurmountable with dire consequences. Research inquiry reveals little or no attention is given to the plight and concern of children exposed to the violence. Using typical case purposive and multiple case sampling techniques, sixty school children within age 14-17 years from six secondary schools were sampled in Jos South and North local government areas for the study. Findings indicate that the children are acutely exposed to the violence as direct victims and witnesses. A new patterned system of relationship involving discrimination and intolerable existence on the basis of identity affiliation has emerged therefrom. High suspicion, fear of and living in fear of getting attacked are among the direct consequences of this violence. The future of this society with children socialised into viewing violence, rivalry, distrust and enmity as a normative pattern of relationship and association is a conundrum for exploration.
REGISTRATION OF LIVE BIRTHS IN MARANHÃO STATE, BRAZIL

Data on births are important, both for demographic and health aspects since they allow the construction of several indicators, such as birth and fecundity rates, and the analysis of the health situation (IBGE, 2009). This way aimed to characterize the live birth numbers in the 217 municipalities in the state of Maranhao through search of secondary data in the public domain, available in Live Births Information System - SINASC, the Ministry of Health for the number of live births in the 217 municipalities of Maranhao state, in the years 2000, 2010 and 2014. From the analysis of the data can be observed that a number of live births in Maranhao is more pronounced in the central Maranhao mesoregion and in some points of the western, eastern and northern mesoregions of the State of Maranhao, with a mean between 101 and 600 births per year. There was a significant variation between the years 2010 and 2000 when comparing births by a period. The data on live births are needed for directing public health policies that come to contribute to social improvement. Key words : birth, Maranhense, population.
The use of the »Brainwashing« Theory by the Anti-cult Movement in the United States of America, pre-1996

Das Thema »Sekten« (engl.: »cults«) oder »Neue Religiose Bewegungen« (NRMs) wird in der Offentlichkeit seit Jahrzehnten kontrovers diskutiert. Im Kontext der massiven kulturellen Transformationsprozesse der 1960er Jahre erschien die Debatte um das »Sektenproblem« haufig im Lichte einer Theorie der »Gehirnwasche«. Dieser Artikel beschaftigt sich zunachst mit dem Inhalt und der zentralen These dieser Theorie. Dann zeigt er auf, dass sie nicht dafur geeignet ist zu erklaren, warum Menschen sich »Neuen Religiosen Bewegungen« anschliesen. Ihre Geschichte bis zu ihrer Entstehung im Kontext von Ermittlungsmethoden von Geheimdiensten in den USA und Nazi-Deutschland zuruckverfolgend, wird die Theorie in diesem Artikel falsifiziert. Die »Anti-Sekten-Bewegung« (engl. »anti-cult movement«; ACM) in den USA koppelte die Konzepte »Sekte« und »Gehirnwasche« in den 1960er Jahren aneinander. Sie werden zu Beginn des Artikels erlautert. Sodann wird die Geschichte der »Anti-Sekten-Bewegung« nachgezeichnet. Die Bewegung warf den »Neuen Religiosen Bewegungen« in Amerika den Gebrauch von »Gehirnwasche«-Techniken vor, um Anhanger/-innen zu gewinnen. Zudem entwickelte sie rabiate und gefahrliche Techniken zur »Deprogrammierung« vermeintlicher Sekten-Opfer, die 1996 schlieslich zu einem Verbot der Bewegung fuhrten. Die Autorin zeigt Parallelen auf zwischen den Techniken, welche die »Anti-Sekten-Bewegung« den »Neuen Religiosen Bewegungen« unterstellte, und den Techniken, die sie zur »Deprogrammierung« selbst anwendete.