Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
New Institutional Economics and Agrocredit Markets in Agrarian Economies: A Theoretical Perspective

In this paper we outline the relevance of the New Institutional Economics (NIE) approach in analysing the current behaviour of suppliers of agrocredit in remote areas of developing economies. The paper covers the definition of NIE and its relevancy in modern economics, basic features of NIE, transaction cost economics (TCE) and modelling of transaction costs, application of transaction cost economics in agriculture sector, and review of empirical research using TCE theory. The application of NIE theory in advancing understanding of the development path of agrocredit market and other related markets has proved very relevant particularly in less developed areas of the developing world. Key words : New Institutional Economics, Transaction Cost Economics, Agrocredit SuGood day managers,
Hidden long-range memories of growth and cycle speed correlate cell cycles in lineage trees

Cell heterogeneity may be caused by stochastic or deterministic effects. The inheritance of regulators through cell division is a key deterministic force, but identifying inheritance effects in a systematic manner has been challenging. Here, we measure and analyze cell cycles in deep lineage trees of human cancer cells and mouse embryonic stem cells and develop a statistical framework to infer underlying rules of inheritance. The observed long-range intra-generational correlations in cell-cycle duration, up to second cousins, seem paradoxical because ancestral correlations decay rapidly. However, this correlation pattern is naturally explained by the inheritance of both cell size and cell-cycle speed over several generations, provided that cell growth and division are coupled through a minimum-size checkpoint. This model correctly predicts the effects of inhibiting cell growth or cycle progression. In sum, we show how fluctuations of cell cycles across lineage trees help in understanding the coordination of cell growth and division.
(-)-Verrucosan-2β-ol from the phototrophic bacterium Chloroflexus aurantiacus: first report of a verrucosane-type diterpenoid from a prokaryote

(-)-Verrucosan-2β-ol (C20H34O), a rare diterpene with a 3,6,6,5-tetracyclic ring system, has been isolated and identified for the first time from the phototrophic bacterium Chloroflexus aurantiacus. Furthermore, an unsaturated diterpenoid hydrocarbon (C20H32) with a similar carbon skeleton was found in the same organism. This prokaryote, naturally occurring in hot spring microbial mats, is considered to be one of the oldest bacterial life forms on earth. Verrucosane-type diterpenoids had previously been detected only in some liverworts (Hepaticae), forming a unique group in the plant kingdom.
Numerical and Experimental Identification of the Aerodynamic Power Losses of the ISWEC

The wave energy sector is experiencing lively years of conceptual innovation and technological advances. Among the great variety of candidates, only a few are going to be able to reach maturity and, eventually, industrial feasibility and competitiveness. The essential requisite for success is the continuous innovation in response to the incremental experience gained during the design and prototyping stages. In particular, the ability to generate detailed mathematical models, representative of every phenomenon involved in the system, is crucial for informing the design and control stages, allowing to maximize productivity while minimizing costs, and inspiring technological breakthrough and innovation. This papers considers the case of the ISWEC (Inertial Sea Wave Energy Converter), where a technological leap is tightly linked with the modelling of aerodynamic losses around its spinning flywheel, the core of the energy conversion chain. Two mathematical models of increasing complexity are considered, one semi-empiric and one based on computational fluid dynamics, which are successfully validated against experimental data. Such models are used to quantify the benefits of a technological innovation consisting of enclosing the flywheel in a sealed container, allowing pressure regulation to reduce aerodynamic friction. Compared to the free configuration, power losses with the enclosed configuration are about half already at atmospheric pressure, and about one third at half the atmospheric pressure.
Of Mice and Merchants: Connectedness and the Location of Economic Activity in the Iron Age

Abstract We study the causal relationship between geographic connectedness and development using one of the earliest massive trade expansions: the first systematic crossing of open seas in the Mediterranean during the time of the Phoenicians. We construct a geography-based measure of connectedness along the shores of the sea. We relate connectedness to economic activity, which we measure using the presence of archaeological sites. We find an association between better-connected locations and archaeological sites during the Iron Age, at a time when sailors began to cross open water routinely on a large scale. We corroborate these findings at the world level.
Bayesian Method with Clustering Algorithm for Credit Card Transaction Fraud Detection

Card transaction fraud is prevalent anywhere. Even with current preventive measures like the Europay, MasterCard and Visa (EMV) chips, possible weaknesses or loopholes can be exploited by fraudsters. This paper explores Naive Bayes Classifier and clustering algorithms to detect fraud in credit card transactions. Data on fraud labels and arrival times of transactions were simulated by the Markov Modulated Poisson Process. Amounts of transactions for genuine and fraud transactions were simulated based on two Gaussian distributions. Kinds of spenders and types of fraudsters serve as the bases for the parameters used in the simulation of the data. Using the simulated data, EM clustering algorithm with three different initializations and K-means were applied to cluster transaction amounts into high, medium and low. The Naive Bayes classifier algorithm was then applied to classify the transactions as good or fraud for the simulated data of 9 types of fraudsters across all clustering algorithms. Simulations and analyses were done using R software. Results include comparisons of true positive rates, false positive rates, and detection accuracies among the nine types of fraudsters across all clustering algorithms. For 3 clusters, (high, medium, low transaction amounts), the Naive Bayes Method with clustering algorithms resulted to an average of 76% true positive (TP) detection, 18% false positive (FP) detection, with an overall accuracy of 81%. The same averages of TP, FP, and overall accuracy were obtained using 2 clusters (high, and low). EM clustering algorithm generated TP, FP, and overall accuracy of 80%, 16%, and 83% respectively.
A Natural Language and Interactive End-to-End Querying and Reporting System

Natural language query understanding for unstructured textual sources has seen significant progress over the last couple of decades. For structured data, while the ecosystem has evolved with regard to data storage and retrieval mechanisms, the query language has remained predominantly SQL (or SQL-like). Towards making the latter more natural there has been recent research emphasis on Natural Language Interface to DataBases (NLIDB) systems. Piggybacking on the rise of 'deep learning' systems, the state-of-the-art NLIDB solutions over large parallel and standard benchmarks (viz, WikiSQL and Spider) primarily rely on attention based sequence-to-sequence models. Building industry grade NLIDB solutions for making big data ecosystem accessible by truly natural and unstructured querying mechanism presents several challenges. These include lack of availability of parallel corpora, diversity in underlying data schema, wide variability in the nature of queries to context and dialog management in interactive systems. In this paper, we present an end-to-end system Query Enterprise Data (QED) towards making enterprise descriptive analytics and reporting easier and natural. We elaborate in detail how we addressed the challenges mentioned above and novel features such as handling incomplete queries in incremental fashion as well as highlight the role of an assistive user interface that provides a better user experience. Finally, we conclude the paper with observations and lessons learnt from the experience of transferring and deploying a research solution to industry grade practical deployment.
A Comparison of Two Different Types of High Intensity Interval Training on Cardiometabolic Health in Overweight/Obese Women

of a dissertation at the University of Miami. Dissertation supervised by Professor Arlette Perry. No. of pages in text. (35) The purpose of the study was to compare the effects of aerobic high intensity interval training (A-HIIT) and resistance-high intensity interval training (R-HIIT) to that of a control group (CON) on physical characteristics, cardiometabolic health, and self-reported well-being. A total of 48 overweight/obese women met the criteria for possessing one or more metabolic syndrome (MetS) risk factors and were randomly assigned to one of three groups. Following eight weeks of training, a total of 31 women completed the intervention and were included in the statistical analysis: A-HIIT (n=10), R-HIIT (n=10), and CON (n=11). Both experimental groups trained three times a week for 25 minutes throughout the eight-week protocol. Both A-HIIT and R-HIIT groups improved aerobic fitness compared to CON (p=0.029 for both groups). Only R-HIIT group showed increases in upper body power over CON (p=0.002). R-HIIT group also showed statistically significant reductions in fasting insulin levels (p=0.036) and insulin resistance (p=0.046) compared to CON. Furthermore, β-cell function scores were lower in R-HIIT compared to CON (p=0.017) and A-HIIT (p=0.002) groups. R-HIIT also had significantly higher scores on the physical function domain of Patient Reported Outcome Measurement System (PROMIS®)-57 well-being questionnaire compared to the CON group (p=0.035). Our study showed that R-HIIT can be considered as part of an optimal worksite-wellness strategy for improving physical characteristics, cardiometabolic health, and well-being in women at risk for or possessing MetS seeking an expeditious form of training.
Aalborg Universitet An Empirical Airto-Ground Channel Model Based on Passive Measurements in LTE

In this paper, a recently conducted measurement campaign for unmanned-aerial-vehicle (UAV) channels is introduced. The downlink signals of an in-service long-time-evolution (LTE) network which is deployed in a suburban scenario were acquired. Five horizontal and five vertical flight routes were considered. The channel impulse responses (CIRs) are extracted from the received data by exploiting the cell specific signals (CRSs), and the underlying physical propagation mechanisms are interpreted by exploiting the propagation graph modeling (GM) approach. Based on the CIRs, the parameters of multipath components (MPCs) are estimated by using a high-resolution algorithm derived according to the space-alternating generalized expectation-maximization (SAGE) principle. Based on the SAGE results, channel characteristics including the path loss, shadow fading, fast fading, delay spread and Doppler frequency spread are thoroughly investigated for different heights and horizontal distances, which constitute a stochastic model.
Marketing Strategies for the Social Good

Social network sites (SNS) have proven to be a good environment to promote and sell goods and services, but marketing is more than creating commercial strategies. Social marketing strategies can also be used to promote behavioral change and help individuals transform their lives, achieve well-being, and adopt prosocial behaviors. In this chapter, we seek to analyze with a netnographic study, how SNS are being employed by nonprofits and nongovernment organizations (NGOs) to enable citizens and consumers to participate in different programs and activities that promote social transformation and well-being. A particular interest is to identify how organizations are using behavioral economic tactics to nudge individuals and motivate them to engage in prosocial actions. By providing an understanding on how SNS can provide an adequate environment for the design of social marketing strategies, we believe our work has practical implications both for academicians and marketers who want to contribute in the transformation of consumer behavior and the achievement of well-being and social change.
Mineral chemistry, geothermobarometry and pre-Alpine high-pressure metamorphism of eclogitic amphibolites and mica schists from the Schobergruppe, Austroalpine basement, Eastern Alps

Abstract Alternating eclogitic amphibolites, mica schists and orthogneisses in the Schobergruppe to the south of the Tauern Window suffered a post-Upper-Ordovician progressive deformation D1-D2 which produced parallel planar-linear structures in all the rocks. Zoned garnets, preferentially oriented zoned clinopyroxenes (Jd 35-42%) and albite (An 7-9%) give evidence of high-pressure metamorphism (550-650°C 14-16 kbar) of the metabasites. Ca-amphiboles crystallized during subsequent decompression. In a kyanite-staurolite-garnet mica schist 300 metres below the metabasites, garnetbearing assemblages grew synchronous with the development of foliations S1 and S2. Garnets are zoned with increasing XMg and decreasing-increasing-rcdecreasing Xca from cores to rims. Albitic plagioclase (An 1-3%) and micas are enclosed in garnet cores and rims, are in contact with garnet, and occur with garnet in microlithons. When these minerals are used for geothermobarometry, a prograde P-T evolution (460 to 680°C with coeval pressure variations which reach high-pressure conditions can be estimated. This suggests that garnet-plagioclase geobarometry with albitic plagioclase works in the relevant P-T field. Similar garnet zonation trends and a similarly shaped P-T path from mica schists of an adjacent region with late-Variscan cooling ages, points to an eady-Variscan age of the syn-D1-D2 high-pressure and subsequent amphibolite-facies metamorphism.
Kobe University Repository : Kernel タイトル Tit le Ident ificat ion of a Novel Subpopulat ion of Tumor-Init iat ing Cells from Gemcitabine-Resistant Pancreat ic Ductal Adenocarcinoma

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma is highly resistant to systemic chemotherapy. Although there are many reports using pancreatic cancer cells derived from patients who did not receive chemotherapy, characteristics of pancreatic cancer cells from chemotherapy-resistant patients remain unclear. In this study, we set out to establish a cancer cell line in disseminated cancer cells derived from gemcitabine-resistant pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma patients. By use of in vitro co-culture system with stromal cells, we established a novel pancreatic tumor-initiating cell line. The cell line required its direct interaction with stromal cells for its in vitro clonogenic growth and passaging. Their direct interaction induced basal lamina-like extracellular matrix formation that maintained colony formation. The cell line expressed CD133 protein, which expression level changed autonomously and by culture conditions. These results demonstrated that there were novel pancreatic tumor-initiating cells that required direct interactions with stromal cells for their in vitro cultivation in gemcitabine-resistant pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. This cell line would help to develop novel therapies that enhance effects of gemcitabine or novel anti-cancer drugs. Citation: Shimizu K, Chiba S, Hori Y (2013) Identification of a Novel Subpopulation of Tumor-Initiating Cells from Gemcitabine-Resistant Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma Patients. PLoS ONE 8(11): e81283. doi:10.1371/journal.pone. 0081283 Editor: Jonathan R Brody, Thomas Jefferson University, United States of America Received August 16, 2013; Accepted October 18, 2013; Published November 21, 2013 Copyright: © 2013 Shimizu et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Funding: This study was supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research from The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan to K.S. (23592007) and Y.H. (21591773). This work was performed in part under the Cooperative Research Program of Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences, Kyoto University, Japan. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. * E-mail: horiy@people.kobe-u.ac. jp
Uncertainty bounds for gramian-based interaction measures

Bounds of two Gramian-based Interaction Measures (IM:s) induced by model uncertainty are presented in this paper. The connection between the considered IM:s (the Hankel Interaction Index Array (HIIA) and the Participation Matrix (PM)) is explored, showing that it is possible in certain cases to translate the bounds of one into bounds of the other. The first method is a tightening of previously suggested uncertainty bounds for the HIIA. The second method is based on a novel exploration of the relationship between the PM and the area enclosed by the Nyquist diagram. The latter method is a numerical approximation of the analytical bounds of the PM, whilst the former one provides very loose bounds for the examples presented here.
Omega-3/6 Fatty Acids and Learning in Children and Young People: A Review of Randomised Controlled Trials Published in the Last 5 Years

Helping children to learn and focus is a central part of educational pedagogy. Given that the human brain is around 60 per cent fat the present review sets out to evaluate the role of omega-3/6 fatty acids in relation to aspects of classroom learning. This is particularly relevant in modern day given that there has been a shift in children’s fatty acids profiles, with movement towards an increased ratio of omega-6 to 3. Using the National Centre for Biotechnology Information PubMed database, a search was made for all studies published between 2012 and 2017 that met defined inclusion criteria. A total of 29 Randomised Controlled Trials (RCT) were identified which used Omega 3/6 fatty acids as interventions. Twenty-two studies (n=3,336) showed overall benefits, ranging from improvements in blood fatty acid levels to improved sleep. Eight trials (n=768) recruiting children and young people with ADHD at baseline reported specific improvements in ADHD symptoms. Six studies (n=1092) showed that omega 3/6 fatty acids can support learning (improved reading ability, spelling, behaviour, attention and reduced hyperactivity and aggression). Strongest benefits are seen amongst those with: 1) ADHD or comorbid learning conditions, 2) suboptimal omega-3 status or 3) who underperform at baseline. RCTs focusing on vulnerable groups such as Looked After Children (LAC) and those with specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia and dyscalculia who could also potentially benefit from omega-3/6 fatty acids warrant further investigation.
Family storytelling about hereditary cancer: Framing shared understandings of risk

Family communication about the family's health history (FHH) is an important step in alerting individuals to their hereditary disease risks and facilitating prevention. Individuals often communicate about the FHH of hereditary cancer as a story, which highlights the importance of analyzing family narratives of hereditary cancer to better understand their relation to psychological and physical well‐being. This study investigates the content of family stories by examining how narrative tone and framing relate to coping, perceptions of risk, and medical decision‐making. The current study recruited 42 family dyads with a prevalent FHH of hereditary cancer to participate in dyadic phone interviews to jointly tell their family narrative of hereditary cancer. Using an iterative analysis, findings examine how families create a shared understanding of FHH and hereditary risk. Narrative tone reflects participants' psychological well‐being and contributed to the way families framed their experiences. Common frames to family narratives of hereditary cancer included empowerment, adversity, laissez faire, and discrepant. Each frame gave insight into how families were coping, their perceptions of risk, and how they make medical decisions to manage those risks. Developing a better understanding of how families communicate about their hereditary cancer risks can aid in designing clinical interventions to help families re‐frame their stories to promote improved health outcomes.
AutoRhythmGuitar: Computer-aided Composition for Rhythm Guitar in the Tab Space

We present AutoRhythmGuitar, a simple computer-aided composition model which algorithmically composes realistic rhythm guitar tablature. AutoRhythmGuitar takes as input a downbeat-synchronised chord sequence and generates a digital score in both traditional notation and tablature. Our model is data-driven, trained from digital tablatures obtained from the internet. By varying this training data, we are able to model individual rhythm guitarists’ rhythmic and melodic styles. Algorithmic evaluation of our system reveals that it effectively models style, whilst a qualitative analysis by the authors confirms that the resulting tablatures are realistic and, for the most part, playable.
Construction Techniques for Electrically Conductive Heated Pavement Systems

Ice and snow accumulation on airport paved surfaces has the potential to cause fatal accidents and monetary loss due to flight delays and cancellations. Traditional de-icing methods involving the application of chemicals or salt and employing large machines can create negative environmental and structural impact on airport infrastructure systems. These methods are also considered to be labor intensive and a safety hazard, especially in congested areas such as aprons. Heated pavement systems using electrically conductive concrete (ECON) have been proposed as a promising alternative technology for preventing ice accumulation and mitigating the adverse effects of using traditional snow removal methods. The objective of this study is to present information and experience about the design, construction procedures, and performance of heated pavement systems using jointed plain concrete pavements for the construction of large-scale heated airport pavements. It is based on detailed field demonstration of the electrically conductive concrete (ECON) heated pavement system (HPS) at the north general aviation (GA) apron of the Des Moines International Airport (DSM) in Iowa, in collaboration with contractors, and airport staff representatives. The expected outcome of this study will help the construction industry to better understand optimal ECON construction methods.