Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Foreign reserve holdings: an extended study through risk-inspired motives.

This paper examines the demand for foreign reserve holdings for the Albanian small open economy. The model is estimated through the Vector Error Correction Model approach. Results provide supportive evidence that reserve accumulation is more sensitive to precautionary motives rather than mercantilist ones. Other results reconfirm that current account patterns and fiscal imbalances are the main driving forces behind reserve holding. By contrast, reserve was yet again found less sensitive regarding the opportunity cost and mercantilist motives.
New Onset On-Medication Freezing of Gait After STN-DBS in Parkinson's Disease

Freezing of gait (FoG) is commonly observed in advanced Parkinson's disease (PD) and it is associated with reduced mobility, recurrent falls, injuries, and loss of independence. This phenomenon typically occurs as the effect of dopaminergic medications wears off (“off” FoG) but on rare occasions, it can also be observed during peak medication effect (“on” FoG). In this report, we present the case of a 65-year-old female with a 13-year history of akinetic-rigid idiopathic PD who developed recurrent episodes of “on” FoG after bilateral subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS). She underwent STN-DBS for management of motor fluctuations, which resulted in a marked improvement in her motor symptoms. Within the next 6 months and after several programming sessions, the patient reported “on” FoG occurring regularly 1 h after taking levodopa and lasting a few hours. Accordingly, a repeated levodopa challenge showed that FoG resolved with either levodopa administration or STN stimulation alone, but the combination of both therapies induced recurrence of FoG in our patient. Subsequent management was complex requiring adjustments in levodopa dose and formulation along with advanced DBS programming.
Biochemical responses of Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) cultivars subjected to NaCl salinity stress

This investigation was conducted to determine NaCl salinity effects on antioxidant enzymes activities, reducing sugar contents and lipid peroxidation in two alfalfa cultivars. Plants grown in solution cultures were subjected to 0, 100, 150 and 200 mM solutions of sodium chloride. Yazdi and Diabolourde alfalfa were used as tolerant and sensitive cultivars, respectively, in a germination experiment under similar conditions. Results show that the amount of reducing sugars and the activities of peroxidase (POD), catalase (CAT), ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) enzymes increased with the increase in salt concentration. However, SOD activities decreased at high salt concentrations. The increase in the activities of antioxidant enzymes in response to salt treatments was higher in the tolerant cultivar. The results also show that salt treatment provoked an oxidative stress in both cultivars, as shown by the increase in lipid peroxidation. However, the level of lipid peroxidation was higher in the sensitive cultivar. The increase in antioxidant activities could also be a response to the cellular damage induced by NaCl. It seems that the tolerant cultivar has a better mechanism to cope with the deleterious effects ROS produced under salt stress.
Phthalate Exposures, DNA Methylation and Adiposity in Mexican Children Through Adolescence

Phthalates are a class of endocrine disrupting chemicals with near ubiquitous exposure to populations around the world. Phthalates have been associated with children's adiposity in previous studies, though discrepancies exist across studies that may be due to timing of exposure or outcome assessment and population differences (i.e., genetics, other confounders). DNA methylation, an epigenetic modification involved in gene regulation, may mediate the effects of early life phthalate exposures on health outcomes. This study aims to evaluate the mediating effect of DNA methylation at growth-related genes on the association between phthalate exposure and repeat measures of adiposity (BMI-for-age z-score, waist circumference, and skinfolds thickness) in Mexican children. Urinary phthalate metabolite concentrations were quantified in mothers at each of the three trimesters of pregnancy and in children at the first peri-adolescent study visit. Blood leukocyte DNA methylation at H19 and HSD11B2 was quantified during the first peri-adolescent visit, and adiposity was measured at the first visit and again ~3 years later among participants (n = 109 boys, 114 girls) from the Early Life Exposure in Mexico to Environmental Toxicants (ELEMENT) project. Associations between phthalates or DNA methylation and repeat outcome measures were assessed separately in boys and girls using generalized estimating equation models including covariates (urinary specific gravity, maternal education, and child's age). Sobel tests were used to assess DNA methylation as a mediator in models adjusting for the same covariates. Associations between phthalates and adiposity varied by phthalate and timing of exposure. Early gestation MBP, MIBP, and MBzP were associated with adiposity among girls. For example, among girls first trimester maternal urine concentrations of MIBP were associated with increases in skinfold thickness, BMI-for-age, and waist circumference (p < 0.01). Second trimester and adolescent MBzP were associated with adiposity among boys in opposite directions. In girls, H19 methylation was positively associated with skinfold thickness. No significant mediation of phthalate exposure on adiposity by DNA methylation of H19 or HSD11B2 was observed (Sobel p > 0.05). However, the mediation analysis was underpowered to detect small to medium effect sizes, and the role of DNA methylation as a mediator between phthalates and outcomes merits further study.
Exploitative Learning and Entrepreneurial Orientation Alignment in Emerging Young Firms: Implications for Market and Response Performance

We examine exploitative learning and entrepreneurial orientation (EO) in emerging young high technology firms located within business incubators. In the last five years, the UK government has invested approximately £125m in incubation activities. The rationale for supporting business incubation is to maximize knowledge sharing across firms with an expectation that it will leverage performance. This represents exploitative learning – the acquisition of established knowledge that carries clear known value and outcomes. Paradoxically, research into EO has repeatedly emphasized the value of knowledge created through exploratory learning mechanisms (‘play, discovery and experimentation’) in securing advantage. Theoretical and empirical questions are raised herein with regard to the value of exploitative learning within a network context which might negatively influence the impact of EO on the firm. Using configuration theory, we demonstrate that firms cannot sustain dual-dominant orientations of exploitative learning and EO. A strongly configured EO generates high performance returns. However, multi-group analysis reveals that these effects are particularly strong for those firms whose exploitative learning is weak. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.
An Image Defogging Approach Based on a Constrained Energy Functional under Bayesian and Variation Theories

Hazy images produce negative influences on visual applications in the open air since they are in poor visibility with low contrast and whitening color. Numerous existing methods tend to derive a totally rough estimate of scene depth. Unlike previous work, we focus on the probability distribution of depth that is considered as a scene prior. Inspired by the denoising work of multiplicative noises, the inverse problem for hazy removal is recast as deriving the optimal difference between scene irradiance and the airlight from a constrained energy functional under Bayesian and variation theories. Logarithmic maximum a posteriori estimator and a mixed regularization term are introduced to formulate the energy functional framework where the regularization parameter is adaptively selected. The airlight, another unknown quantity, is inferred precisely under a geometric constraint and dark channel prior. With these two estimates, scene irradiance can be recovered. The experimental results on a series of hazy images reveal that, in comparison with several relevant and most state-of-the-art approaches, the proposed method outperforms in terms of vivid color and appropriate contrast.
Design for Sustainable Behaviour in Design Education

This paper reports on how Design for Sustainable Behaviour has been integrated in a design course. Based on a teaching philosophy aiming to provide students with a holistic view on design, and encouraging them to use user-centred investigative and analysis tools, it is discussed to what extend 3rd year design students are able to use such tools, in a context that is largely unfamiliar to them. Experience and reflection tells that most students find it challenging to combine behavioural and sustainability aspects in combination with an analysis oriented and open-problem course approach. But eventually, with a course-customised guide and intensive supervision this teaching philosophy does appear to result in an understanding and consequent enthusiasm about the topic studied, unleashing a spur of creativity and an appreciation for research and analysis as a complementary activity in the design process.
Impaired Motor Skill Acquisition Using Mirror Visual Feedback Improved by Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) in Patients With Parkinson’s Disease

Recent non-invasive brain stimulation techniques in combination with motor training can enhance neuroplasticity and learning. It is reasonable to assume that such neuroplasticity-based interventions constitute a useful rehabilitative tool for patients with Parkinson’s Disease (PD). Regarding motor skill training, many kinds of tasks that do not involve real motor movements have been applied to PD patients. The purpose of this study is to elucidate whether motor skill training using mirror visual feedback (MVF) is useful to patients with PD in order to improve untrained hand performance dependent on the time course of training; and whether MVF combined with anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over primary motor cortex (M1) causes an additional effect based on increased motor cortical excitability. Eighteen right-handed patients with PD in the off-medication state and 10 age-matched healthy subjects (HS) performed four sessions of right-hand ball rotation using MVF (intervention) on two separate days, 1 week apart (day 1 and day 2). HS subjects received only sham stimulation. The intervention included four sessions of motor-skill training using MVF for 20 min comprised of four sets of training for 30 s each. PD patients were randomly divided into two intervention groups without or with anodal tDCS over the right M1 contralateral to the untrained hand. As the behavior evaluation, the number of ball rotations of the left hand was counted before (pre) and immediately after (post) intervention on both days (pre day 1, post day 1, pre day 2, and post day 2). Motor evoked potential (MEP), input-output function, and cortical silent period were recorded to evaluate the motor cortical excitatory and inhibitory system in M1 pre day 1 and post day 2. The number of ball rotations of the left hand and the facilitation of MEP by intervention were significantly impaired in patients with PD compared to HS. In contrast, if anodal tDCS was applied to right M1 of patients with PD, the number of ball rotations in accordance with I-O function at 150% intensity was significantly increased after day 1 and retained until day 2. This finding may help provide a new strategy for neurorehabilitation improving task-specific motor memory without real motor movements in PD.
Study Reliability of the Information About the CPA and TCPA Indicated by the Ship's AIS

According to the International Maritime Organization (IMO) recommendation when the target data from automatic identification system (AIS) and radar tracking are both available and the association criteria are fulfilled such that the AIS and radar information are considered as for one physical target, then as a default condition in radar equipment, the AIS target symbol and the alphanumerical AIS target data should be automatically selected and displayed only. The article presents research conducted in real conditions on the reliability of information presented by the ship's AIS about the passing distance with the other vessel equipped with AIS and time to pass it by comparing data from the AIS with that presented by ARPA.
Introduction of insect pathogenic nematode, Steinernema feltiae from Iran

A survey of entomopathogenic nematodes was conducted in the Iran. Out of a total of 194 soil samples, 9 were positive for an isolate of entomopathogenic nematodes from Steinernema genus . Morphological and molecular studies as well cross hybridization tests were undertaken to characterization . This isolate identified as Steinernema feltiae. ITS sequences confirmed this. 16S rRNA sequenc and phenotypic characters of its symbiotic bacterium were determined and used for identification.In phylogenetic analysis, relationship among different isolates of native Steinernema were indicated.Laboratory test on Spodoptera exigua showed high pathogenecity of thise entomopathogen.
Post-2001 corporate collapses: Is earnings quality more closely associated with various dimensions of corporate governance?

We investigate the association between a number of dimensions of corporate governance and the earnings quality of financial statements for Australian companies in 2000 and 2002, before and after a number of large corporate collapses. We create four dimensions of corporate governance, board, committee, ownership and audit quality, using fifteen individual corporate governance attributes. The results indicate that only the corporate governance dimension, audit quality, consisting of the presence and independence of the audit committee, its meeting frequency, the use of a big 6 auditor and the auditor's independence, appears to improve the quality of financial reports and only in 2002. Higher quality firms are more prominent in 2002, than in 2000, indicating an improvement in the reporting quality of firms across time. However the control variables persist in returning statistically significant results across 2000 and 2002. In particular, a positive relationship is found between earnings quality and firm size in 2000 and 2002. A positive association also exists between a company's earnings quality and its information environment for both years. A persistent negative relationship between earnings quality and firm leverage is also identified for 2000 and 2002, indicating that more highly leveraged firms have a significant association with lower quality accruals. This is an interesting result when you consider the recent debt problems with Centro.
Effect of Fusarium culmorum infection on survivability of a T-DNA tagged mutant of Arabidopsis thaliana harboring a mutation in the peptide transporter gene At5g46050

Previously, we have reported a T-DNA tagged mutant (TAG_009) of Arabidopsis thaliana exhibiting a significant sensitivity to biotic stresses. We have also cloned and analyzed the tagged gene At5g46050. Based on bioinformatic and molecular characterization, we proposed that At5g46050 is involved in the transport of peptides participating in plant defense against biotic stresses. To provide further evidence for supporting our proposal, this time we exposed this mutant to Fusarium culmorum, a potential fungal pathogen. Besides TAG_009 line, in our investigations we included two SALK insertion mutants (SALK_003119 and SALK_145209), two wild-type ecotypes (WT_C24 and WT_Col-0) and an additional T-DNA tagged mutant (TAG_197-6) of A. thaliana. We have found that the highest degree of leaf damage was exhibited by TAG_009 line (damage score 4.37), whereas the lowest was observed in WT_Col-0 ecotype (damage score 3.43). The highest rate of mortality after eight weeks of inoculation with F. culmorum was also observed in TAG_009 line (85.24%), while the lowest was in WT_Col-0 line (37.22%). We have also found that plants of SALK_145209 line, despite being infected with Fusarium, produced the highest number of leaves (average 14.17 leaves per plant), whereas the lowest number of leaves was produced by plants of TAG_197-6 line ( average 9.5 leaves per plant). Statistical analyses showed that the differences between the T-DNA tagged line TAG_009 and WT_Col-0 were significant, whereas in comparison with wild-type control plants WT_C24, they were insignificant. Based on these results, we can conclude that the gene we have tagged by using T-DNA-mediated in vivo gene fusion is indeed involved in the plant defense against Fusarium infection.
Sparsely Preserving Based Semi-supervised Dimensionality Reduction

Sparse subspace learning has drawn more and more attentions recently. However, most of the sparse subspace learning methods are unsupervised or supervised, which cannot utilize the information offered by unlabeled data. In this paper, a new sparse subspace learning algorithm called Sparsely Preserving Based Semi-Supervised Dimensionality Reduction (SPSSDR) is proposed by adding the sparsely information into liner discriminant analysis. SPSSDR not only preserves the sparse relationship among samples, but also preserves the category structure of data; furthermore, it also utilizes some information offered by unlabeled data. The conducted experiments on challenging benchmark datasets validate the SPSSDR.
Effect of postharvest period on disease progression and proximate composition of Irvingia species fruit waste

Irvingia species are important fruit trees. Although the microbial postharvest quality of its fruits have been studied, the potential relationship between postharvest disease and the proximate composition of its fruit are yet unknown. Hence in this research, changes that occur in postharvest Irvingia fruit wastes on the 0 th , 3 rd and 6 th days after harvest (DAH) was assessed with respect to brownish-black rot disease and proximate components. Results showed that brownish-black rot disease advanced significantly (P≤ 0.05) as DAH increased. Mean weighted percentage brownish-black rot disease on 0 th , 3 rd and 6 th DAH were 2.37%, 22.24% and 87.86% respectively. Mean percentage moisture was 82.99% followed by dry matter (16.91g), Carbohydrate (15.00g), fibre (0.67g), protein (0.63g), ash (0.49g) and lipids (0.10g). Whilst differences in % moisture, dry matter and lipid with respect to DAH were not significant (P=0.05), differences in protein, ash, fibre, and carbohydrate contents were significant. Brownish-black rot disease was significantly, positively related to carbohydrate (r2 = 0.69; Pearson correlation coefficient = 0.83) whilst being significantly, negatively related to fibre (r2 = 0.92; Pearson correlation coefficient = -0.82), ash (r2 = 0.68; Pearson correlation coefficient = -0.96) and protein (r2 = 0.73; Pearson correlation coefficient = -0.86), respectively. Postharvest holding periods led to nutritive degradation of Irvingia fruits' proximate composition. Fruits should either be consumed soon after harvest or processed under infection-free conditions to lengthen their storage life
Analysis and Modeling of Rat Gait Biomechanical Deficits in Response to Volumetric Muscle Loss Injury

There is currently a substantial volume of research underway to develop more effective approaches for the regeneration of functional muscle tissue as treatment for volumetric muscle loss (VML) injury, but few studies have evaluated the relationship between injury and the biomechanics required for normal function. To address this knowledge gap, the goal of this study was to develop a novel method to quantify the changes in gait of rats with tibialis anterior (TA) VML injuries. This method should be sensitive enough to identify biomechanical and kinematic changes in response to injury as well as during recovery. Control rats and rats with surgically-created VML injuries were affixed with motion capture markers on the bony landmarks of the back and hindlimb and were recorded walking on a treadmill both prior to and post-surgery. Data collected from the motion capture system was exported for post-hoc analysis in OpenSim and Matlab. In vivo force testing indicated that the VML injury was associated with a significant deficit in force generation ability. Analysis of joint kinematics showed significant differences at all three post-surgical timepoints and gait cycle phase shifting, indicating augmented gait biomechanics in response to VML injury. In conclusion, this method identifies and quantifies key differences in the gait biomechanics and joint kinematics of rats with VML injuries and allows for analysis of the response to injury and recovery. The comprehensive nature of this method opens the door for future studies into dynamics and musculoskeletal control of injured gait that can inform the development of regenerative technologies focused on the functional metrics that are most relevant to recovery from VML injury.
Interactive comment on “Terpenylic acid and related compounds: precursors for dimers in secondary organic aerosol from the ozonolysis

Re: A broader introduction will be provided for the general reader in an additional introductory paragraph: “The formation of higher-molecular weight (MW) products is considered as a driving force for secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation and growth, because their formation leads to products with a substantially decreased vapor pressure that is several orders of magnitude lower than the precursor hydrocarbons. HigherMW products either correspond to non-covalent dimers between monomeric carboxylic acids that are held together by hydrogen bonds (e.g., Hoffmann et al., 1998; Claeys et al., 2009) or to covalent dimers between monomeric carboxylic acids that are linked together through covalent bonds such as esters (e.g., Hamilton et al., 2006; Szmigielski et al., 2007; Müller et al., 2008), and oligomers formed through gem-diol intermediates (e.g., Gao et al., 2004; Iinuma et al., 2004; Tolocka et al., 2004; Docherty et al., 2005) or aldol condensation reactions (e.g., Tolocka et al., 2004). Heterogeneous processes such as these are consistent with the observation that sulfuric acid seed aerosol catalyzes the formation of SOA (e.g., Jang et al., 2002; 2003; Czoschke et al., 2003; Iinuma et al., 2004). ” Additional references: Jang, M. S. , Czoschke, N. M. , Lee, S. , and Kamens, R. M. : Heterogeneous atmospheric aerosol production by acid-catalyzed particle-phase reactions, Science, 298, 814–817, 2002. Jang, M. , Lee, S. , and Kamens, R. M. : Organic aerosol growth by acid-catalyzed heterogeneous reactions of octanal in a flow reactor, Atmos. Environ. , 37, 2125–2138, 2003. Czoschke, N. M. , Jang, M. , and Kamens, R. M. : Effect of acidic seed on biogenic secondary organic aerosol growth, Atmos. Environ. , 37, 4287-4299, 2003.
Investment Policies to Extend the Life of Expressways in Japan

This study examines the macroeconomic effects of investment policies aimed at extending the life of expressways in Japan based on a stochastic Ramsey model. The results of numerical analysis suggest that the benefits of life-extension investment in expressways can be increased by raising the level of maintenance intensity of expressways. The benefits of life-extension investment in expressways can be decomposed into the stock effect and the smoothing effect. Decomposition of life-extension benefits shows that the contribution of the stock effect is more than 90 percent, while that of the smoothing effect is less than 10 percent. The implementation of life-extension investment policies regarding expressways offers advantages in terms of reducing economic fluctuations and user charges. In addition, if relative risk aversion is high, efficiency is low and intergenerational equity is high. Furthermore, a higher level of technology leads to greater efficiency and intergenerational equity.