Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Dynamic Spatial Model of Rural-Urban Transformation with Public Goods

This paper develops a dynamic model that explains the pattern of population and production allocation in an economy with an urban location and a rural one. Agglomeration economies make urban dwellers benefit from a larger population living in the city and urban firms become more productive when they operate in locations with a larger labor force. However, congestion costs associated with a too large population size limit the process of urban-rural transformation. Firms in the urban location also benefit from a public good that enhances their productivity. The model predicts that in the competitive equilibrium the urban location is inefficiently small because households fail to internalize the agglomeration economies and the positive effect of public goods in urban production.
Activity-Dependent Regulation of the Dopamine Phenotype in the Adult Substantia Nigra: Prospects for Treating Parkinson's Disease

The motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD) are caused by degeneration of dopamine (DA) neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) and the resulting depletion of DA signaling in their target structure, the dorsal striatum (the nigrostriatal pathway). PD motor symptoms are successfully alleviated by systemic administration of a blood-brain barrier permeable DA precursor (levodopa) or DA receptor agonists (Olanow et al. 2001), however these treatments are marred by side-effects in some patients (Wood 2010), and increasingly unreliable response and shortened duration of effect coupled with the emergence of dyskinesias in most patients (Stocchi et al. 2010, Stocchi & Marconi 2010). These problems probably arise from loss of physiological storage, release and reuptake of nigrostriatal DA and ensuing down-stream changes in post-synaptic signaling, and from increased DA signaling in structures outside the nigrostriatal pathway, especially when D2 agonists are used. Targeted (nigrostriatal) reconstruction of physiological DA signaling, aimed at restoring nigrostriatal DA transmission to at least the level at disease outset, ought to alleviate PD motor symptoms without side-effects. However, attempts to achieve this by replacing SNc DA cells through transplantation or endogenous repair are often hampered by poor acquisition and maintenance of the DA phenotype in the microenvironment of the adult SNc (Brundin et al. 2000, Courtois et al. 2010, Torres et al. 2005, Bauer et al. 2000).
Enhancing learning through

This study investigated whether there was a significant difference between multiple intelligence instruction (MII) and traditionally designed science instruction (TDSI) on fourth grade students' understanding of concepts associated with the ‘Diversity of Living Things’ unit. Students' intelligence types were also examined. There were two randomly-selected classes of 35 students of between 9 and 10 years old. The experimental group was instructed through Multiple Intelligence strategies while the control group employed traditional methods. The assessment tools were the Diversity of Living Things Concepts Test (DLTCT) and the Teele Inventory of Multiple Intelligences (TIMI). Before treatment, no statistically significant difference between the groups was found in terms of understanding of diversity of living things concepts. After treatment, independentt-test analysis indicated that MII produced significantly greater achievement in the understanding of diversity of living things concepts (p<0.05) and on students' retention of knowledge (p<0.05). The results of TIMI revealed that fourth grade students' most dominant intelligence was logical-mathematical intelligence both before and after treatment. However, after treatment, some variations were observed.
Comparative assessment of microbiological safety of fresh and parboiled Engraulicypris sardella (Usipa) from selected selling points in the city of Mzuzu, Malawi

Due to the soft tissues due to the aquatic environment, fish are vulnerable to microbial contamination.1 The microbial load is a reflection of quality of the processing methods as well as the hygiene of the processors and sellers.2 According to Kapute,3 fish processing methods and quality control in Malawi are poor and have remained traditional, thereby resulting in high post-harvest fish loss. SADC4 reported that Malawi produced 144,315tons of fish annually from capture fisheries and 5, 000tons from aquaculture. According to Banda et al.,5 fish provides about 30% of dietary protein in Malawi. However, researchers have estimated that about 40% of the catch is lost to spoilage,4 although some of this is consumed by humans, albeit at risks to their health. When fish die the defence system collapses resulting in microbial attack.6 The spoilage depends on several factors such as nutrient content, pH, water activity, relative humidity, temperature, gaseous exchange, implicit and microbial factors.7 Therefore, rough handling and any bruising will result in more spoilage as damaged fish would easily be attacked by the microbes. Quick perishability has been a problem in fish preservation.8,9 Jakhar et al.10 states that sometimes even the preserved fish like the dried fish have higher bacterial load than the fresh fish due to high humidity compounded by unhygienic processing, handling and poor storage. During the rainy season, humidity levels are usually high and the drying processes are compromised resulting in spoilage by microbial organisms.8 Engraulicypris sardella is an endemic species in Lake Malawi and one way of prolonging its shelf life that has been employed over many years is by parboiling. This process allows for lengthening preservation by reducing moisture and partially cooking, which affects the growth of microorganisms. Parboiling process involves heating followed by sun drying. This form of processing sometimes provides little protection against microorganisms because of the nature of hygienic standards during processing, handling, storage and little caring given to selling benches at the open markets. There is no study which has been conducted to quantify the total bacterial load in fresh and parboiled E. Sardella with respect to seasons. It is against this background that this study was conducted to assess the safety to human consumption of fresh and parboiled E. Sardella during cold, dry and rainy seasons and also to identify some of the common bacteria species that contaminate the fish during the handling, processing and marketing processes. This study will also serve to inform more safety conscious consumers and the market acceptability of exported fish.
DNA Detection Technology Using Zinc Finger Protein

With recent advances in nanotechnology and sequencing technology, DNA diagnostic technology is becoming practical and is advancing at a fast pace. In these detection systems, mainly PCR (particularly real-time PCR) and DNA probe hybridization techniques are used. We suggest that detecting PCR products using double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) is more convenient and powerful compared with DNA probe hybridization technique. Zinc finger protein is the major DNA binding protein in nature and it recognizes dsDNA with sequence specific manner. Additionally, by changing its amino acids sequence, we can design it to recognize the desired DNA sequence to some extent. Using zinc finger protein for DNA detection element, simple, accurate and sensitive DNA detection can be achieved. In this review, dsDNA detection using zinc finger protein is described and compared with recent advanced technology.
A Simple Method for Classification of Endemic Plants in Sri Lanka by Herbarium Images

In this paper, we describe an automatic detection system for plant classification for endemic plants in Sri Lanka. Stemonoporus a genus of Dipterocarpaceae family which has about 17 species of plants had been selected for the proposed system. Images of National Herbarium specimen samples were used. Digital pictures of leaves were enhanced, segmented, and a set of features were extracted. Features were then used as inputs to a Probabilistic Neural Network which is used in MATLAB classifier and tests were performed to identify the best classification model. Several classification models were assessed via cross-validation. The results of this study suggested that: leaf width, length, perimeter and area related features might be used as factors for prediction; and that machine vision systems might lead to the successful prediction of targets when fed with appropriate information. The overall classification accuracy utilizing the proposed technique is 85%, whereas using feature obtained 95% accuracy. The results obtained showed that this proposed technique is effective in performing plant species classification by herbarium samples.
The Vertical and Horizontal Spatial-Temporal Conceptual Metaphor Representation of Chinese Temporal Words

People rely on spatial-temporal metaphor when they talk and think about abstract temporal concept. The purpose of this study is to further investigate the mechanism of the multi-dimensional spatial-temporal conceptual metaphor in Chinese. Using the spatial cuing paradigm, we examined the cognitive impact of the Chinese vertical and horizontal spatial-temporal metaphor, and explored the dominant dimension between the two metaphors in context. The results showed that the processing of temporal concepts for Chinese speakers involved not only the horizontal spatial-temporal metaphor, but also the vertical spatial-temporal metaphor. The horizontal dimension was the dominant dimension of spatial-temporal metaphor in the processing of temporal concepts in Chinese. The findings demonstrated that representation of time depends on representation of space, supporting the Metaphorical Structuring View.
CORRELATION BETWEEN NEURAL RESPONSE TELEMETRY (NRT) MESUREMENT LEVEL AND BEHAVIORL (T-LEVEL AND C-LEVEL) IN PRELINGUAL COCHLEAR IMPLANT PATIENTS

Objectives: To study the correlation between Neural Response Telemetry (NRT) measurement level and behavioral (Threshold level and Comfort level) in pre lingual cochlear implant patients age between 2 -10 years old at one and three months post implant. Methods: A cross sectional study conducted at University Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Center from September 2010 to January 2012. Total numbers of hundred patients were involved in this study. All recipients implanted with Nucleus 24 cochlear implant and had full insertion and normal activation of the electrode array. Comparison between intra-operative NRT measurement level and behavioral (T-level and C-level) in cochlear implant patients at one month and three months post implantation were obtained respectively. Results: This study showed the intra-operative NRT levels were seen to fall between the T and C levels in one and three months respectively. There was also a positive correlation between NRT value measurements and both T and C value measurements in both one and three months (p value 0.01). There is a fair strength of the linear relationship between NRT and behavioral level in both one and three month post implant as shown by the r value (0.4 at one month, 0.2 at three months) Conclusion: It is useful to use the NRT values to predict the behavioral T and C values in prelingual children and an additional tool for the mapping.
Mentoring and Diversity

This paper studies the forces which determine how diversity at a firm evolves over time. We consider a dynamic model o a single firm with two levels of employees, the entry level and the upper level. In each period, the firm selects a subset of the entry-level workers for promotion to the upper level. The members of the entry-level worker pool vary in their initial ability as well as in their type,' where type could refer to gender or cultural background. Employees augment their initial ability by acquiring specific human capital in mentoring interactions with upper level employees. We assume that an entry-level worker receives more mentoring when a greater proportion of upper-level workers match the entry-level worker's type. In this model, it is optimal for the firm to consider type in addition to ability in making promotion decisions, so as to maximize the effectiveness of future mentoring. We derived conditions under which firms attain full diversity, as well as conditions under which there are multiple steady states, so that the level of diversity depends on the firm's initial conditions. With multiple steady states, temporary affirmative action policies can have a long-run impact on diversity levels.
Social Competitive Intelligence

This article introduces the notion of social competitive intelligence, meaning competitive intelligence (CI) for the networking organization. A novel socio-technical framework called the Social CI Framework (SCIF) is presented, intended for analysis and design of social CI processes, methods and tools. By using a socio-technical perspective, both social and technical aspects are considered together in SCIF. The framework is founded on theory related to enterprise 2.0 and wikinomics, and is intended to be used to study social CI using principles such as openness, participation, sharing and co-creation. The presented results are based on a literature review and an exploratory study with interviews of CI experts from Swedish organizations. SCIF explicitly distinguishes between task-oriented models and collaboration models, and models of different socio-technical perspectives. Moreover, SCIF uses the mechanisms of socio-technical themes and a socio-technical value map that relate the theoretical and empirical characteristics with the SCIF modeling method.
Design and Parametric Analysis of a Dual-Band Frequency Reconfigurable Planar Dipole Using a Dual-Band Artificial Ground Plane

ABSTRACT This paper presents the design of dual-band frequency reconfigurable fork shape planar dipole in the industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) band (2.4 and 5.2 GHz). The proposed antenna can be used for wireless local area network (WLAN) applications. Antenna operates in dual-band as well as single-band mode depending on switching combination. The proposed antenna gives bandwidth of 12.5% and 6.7% for 2.4 GHz and 5.2 GHz, respectively, in dual-band mode while 15.5% for 2.4 GHz in single-band mode. The performance of the antenna is analysed with a ground-free substrate and traditional perfect electric conductor (PEC) ground plane. The same antenna is mounted on a dual-band slotted mushroom-type electromagnetic bandgap (EBG) surface which improves the return loss of the antenna in both bands by –25 dB w. r. t. the PEC-based dipole antenna. The proposed antenna can be used in WLAN applications. The simulations were carried out in SEMCAD and CST MWS.
Diabetes and health ’ Nutrition interventions for the prevention of type 2 diabetes

Diabetes mellitus is escalating globally and it is predicted that 200 million individuals worldwide will have diabetes by 2010 and 300 million by 2025. However, there is compelling evidence from many studies that for subjects with impaired fasting glucose or impaired glucose tolerance the presentation of type 2 diabetes can be delayed by lifestyle modification. The aim of the present review is to present a summary of lifestyle modification interventions that have included a dietary component in their overall diabetes prevention programme. Medline, allied health literature and diabetes journals were searched for peer-reviewed literature using the terms ‘diet*’ and ‘diabetes’ and ‘intervention’. Inclusion criteria were: peer-reviewed studies from 1975 to 2008; a sample of at least fifty subjects; a healthy eating and/or physical activity component; prevention of diabetes as a primary goal. Generally, the participants were in a high-risk category for the development of diabetes. Outcomes were evaluated at two points in time (preand post-intervention) in terms of knowledge, behaviour change and clinical improvement, which included weight, blood pressure, BMI, body fat, waist circumference, waist :hip ratio and physiological and/or biochemical measures. Findings indicate that the most successful interventions combine individual dietary counselling with an activity component. Further factors predicting success are weight loss achieved, duration and intensity of the intervention and dietary compliance.
LONG-RUN IMPACT OF EARLY DEVELOPMENT

We study the role of institutional development as a causal mechanism of history affecting current economic performance. Several indicators capturing different dimensions of early development in 1500 AD are used to remove the endogenous component of the variations in institutions. These indicators are adjusted with large-scale movements of people across international borders using the global migration matrix of Putterman and Weil (2010) to account for the fact that the ancestors of a population have facilitated the diffusion of knowledge when they migrate. The exogenous component of institutions due to historical development is found to be a significant determinant of current output. By demonstrating that the relationship between early development and current economic performance works through the channel of institutions and that better institutions can be traced back to historical factors, the results of this paper shed some light on how history has played a role in shaping long-run comparative development.
Effects of Increasing Inclusion of Wet Distillers GrainsPlus Solubles With and Without Oil Extractionon Finishing Performance

A 147-day finishing experiment was conducted using 336 crossbred, yearling steers (initial BW = 774 ± 42 lb) in a randomized block design, with a 2x3+1 factorial arrangement of treatments. Steers were limit-fed for five days at 2% of BW prior to the initiation of the trial and weighed on two consecutive days (0 and 1) to determine initial BW. Steers were implanted on day1 with Revalor-XS. Steers were blocked by BW, stratified by BW within each block, and assigned randomly to pen. Pens were then assigned randomly to one of seven treatments with six pens per treatment and eight steers per pen. The control diet contained a 1:1 blend of dry-rolled and high-moisture corn with 12% corn silage (Table 1). The remaining diets contained WDGS with inclusions of 35% de-oiled or normal oil WDGS, 50% de-oiled or normal oil WDGS, and 65% de-oiled or normal WDGS (DM basis). Wet distillers grains plus solubles was sourced from the same plant (KAAPA Ethanol, Minden, Neb.) and received approximately every three weeks throughout the experiment. Samples of WDGS were collected at each delivery as well as monthly composites of weekly feed ingredients and analyzed for DM, fat, CP, and S. Fat concentration was analyzed using the biphasic lipid extraction procedure. All diets contained 5% supplement, which was formulated for 30 g/ton of DM and provided approximately 380 mg/steer daily of Rumensin® as well as formulated to provide 90 mg/steer daily of Tylan®. All animals were harvested on day 148 at a commercial abattoir (Greater Omaha Packing, Omaha, Neb.) with hot carcass weights (HCW) and liver scores recorded at slaughter. Carcass 12th rib fat, LM area, and USDA marbling score were recorded after a 48-hour carcass chill. Yield grade was calculated using the USDA YG equation [YG = 2.5 + 2.5 (fat thickness, in) – 0.32 (LM area, in2) + 0.2 (KPH fat, %) + 0.0038 (HCW, lb)]. Final BW, ADG, and F:G were calculated using HCW adjusted to a common dressing percentage of 63%. Data were analyzed using the GLIMMIX procedure of SAS (SAS Institute, Inc., Cary, N.C.) as a randomized block design with pen as the experimental unit. The PROC IML was used to determine coefficients due to unequal spacing of inclusion level of WDGS. The 2x3 factorial design was analyzed for an oil (de-oiled, Melissa L. Jolly Brandon L. Nuttelman Dirk Burken Cody J. Schneider Terry J. Klopfenstein Galen E. Erickson1
Brain structural imaging of receptive speech and beyond: a review of current methods

ABSTRACT This review provides an overview of brain structural imaging methods for examining neural correlates of performance, skill and learning in the domain of language and beyond. We first provide a historical overview of structural imaging, followed by an overview of brain structural measures/variables, assumptions regarding their neurophysiological basis, a description of the challenges and solutions for using structural imaging for studying receptive speech, a review of key empirical contributions in the field, and finally, some future directions for this research approach. Studies having examined multiple structural measures and modalities in parallel are still sparse. However, recent methodological advances which allow the non-invasive estimation of regional distribution of histological properties such as myelination, along with the increasing resolution of in vivo structural imaging are opening new and exciting avenues which will enable a better understanding of the brain structural underpinnings of language, and of the physiological relevance of these structural features.
On mass conservation for ice sheets

A new continuum-mechanical formulation is proposed which encompasses all material processes within and surrounding an ice sheet. Using this formulation, the balance of mass and free-surface relations for ice sheets are derived and elaborated upon. The resulting mass-balance relation is then integrated vertically to produce an ice-sheet quasi-mass-balance relation in the horizontal plane, and is demonstrated to reduce errors in regions with high magnitude surface gradients. The correction to the free-surface equation derived here is shown to have the effect of significantly increasing the rate of change of the upper-surface height over the majority of the ice sheet, thereby demonstrating the fact that ice-sheet mass-balance models heretofore have significantly underestimated the effects of accumulation and ablation. Finally, an analytic velocity satisfying the corrected mass-balance relation is formulated as a means to verify future numerical ice-sheet models.
Surface characterization of chemically modified wood: dynamic wettability

Dynamic wettability of chemically modified yellow-poplar veneer was investigated with sessile water droplets in this study. Dynamic contact angle, decay ratio, spreading ratio, and their changing rates (the wetting slope and K value) were used to illustrate the dynamic wetting process. Dynamic contact angle (α) and droplet height decay ratio ( DR h ) followed the first order exponential decay equation, whereas the droplet base-diameter spreading ratio ( SR φ) fitted the Boltzmann sigmoid model. Wetting behavior of Epolene G-3015 [a maleated polypropylene (MAPP) copolymer with a high molecular weight]-treated wood surface was independent of the retention and wetting time. The retention effect on wetting slopes of >, DR h , and SR φ on poly(ethylene and maleic anhydride) (PEMA)-treated specimens was opposite to that on Epolene E-43 (a MAPP copolymer with a low molecular weight)-treated specimens. Based on these two models, the wetting slope and K value were used to interpret the kinetics of wetting. Therefore, these methods were helpful to characterize the dynamic wettability of wood surfaces modified with different coupling agents.