Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Are we explaining the movement of hotel room rates correctly?

Demand function, inverse demand function or market equilibrium condition has been used to estimate the empirical models that explain the movement of hotel room rates. However, hotels generally face excess supply of rooms. Th is research paper develops a simple theoretical model to link hotel room rates to excess supply of hotel rooms. Th e annual data of Singapore from 1991 to 2017 is used to test this framework. Due to small sample size, with only 27 observations, the bounds testing approach to cointegration is applied on the annual data of hotel industry in Singapore because the obtained estimators are super-consistent. It is found that average hotel room rate and average hotel occupancy rate are cointegrated to confi rm hotel room rates and excess supply of hotel rooms are inversely correlated. In order to avoid model mis-specifi cation, major crises are captured by dummy variables which are treated as fi xed regressors in the bounds testing approach to cointegration. Th e empirical and theoretical frameworks used in this study suggest that when hotel occupancy rate is used as an independent variable in modelling the determination of hotel room rates, a researcher is adopting excess supply framework developed in this paper. Furthermore, this framework teaches students in tourism a simplifi ed way to explain the movement of hotel room rates, while still reminding students about the complexity of hotel industry.
UTILIZATION OF LACTIC ACID RICH MEDIUM AND CASSAVA STARCH WASTEWATER FOR BIOLOGICAL HYDROGEN PRODUCTION

H2 production from lactic acid rich medium and H2 production from cassava starch wastewater by isolated bacteria were investigated. The isolation of H2 producing bacteria from heat treated sludge was carried out. The H2 production from lactic acid rich medium which used 1.5 g/L sodium acetate, 1.5 g/L sodium lactate and 1 g/L sucrose as carbon sources. The effects of inoculums size of 10, 20, 30 and 40 % (v/v) and incubation temperature of 35, 45 and 55oC using cassava starch wastewater as the substrate on H2 production by isolation strains were investigated. Results showed 6 isolated strains i.e. isolation code of MK01to MK06 indicated the H2 production capability when cultured in lactic acid rich medium. However, 3 isolated strains i.e. MK01, MK04, and MK06 were preferred to use as seed inoculums for further experiments depend on a high H2 production capacity obtained. Results indicated that the optimal condition of H2 production from cassava starch wastewater was 30% (v/v) inoculum size of MK06 under 35oC of incubation temperature. The maximum H2 production potential, H2 yield and H2 production rate of 4.20 L H2/L medium, 1.47 L H2/g substrate consumed, and 14.00 mL H2/L/h was obtained. Identification and characterization of MK06 were investigated using 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis followed by phylogenetic analysis. The 100% similarity of 16S rDNA compare with closely related species was indicated Klebsiella pneumoniae subsp. pneumoniae DSM 30104(T).
Maternal Western Diet Overrides Genetic Resistance to Obesity: : Role of TRH-DE

The dramatic rise in obesity rates in the United States over the last 30 years is likely a result of a combination of genetic and environmental factors. Genetic background can predispose an individual to obesity, while an environment rich in energy dense foods can promote overconsumption. Working in conjunction, genes and environment alter the regulatory systems responsible for maintaining energy balance. It has become increasingly clear that environmental factors can affect energy homeostasis beginning in utero. Exposure to a high-fat, high-carbohydrate diet in the perinatal period increases obesity risk. Maternal overnutrition and obesity or associated complications putatively mediate the obesogenic effects of perinatal energy-dense diet on developing offspring. It remains unclear whether energy-dense diets promote offspring obesity even if the mother remains slim and does not overeat. The work described in this dissertation uses an animal model of genetic obesity risk and resistance to determine the relative contributions of genes and environment and the importance of maternal diet per se in obesity susceptibility, to identify novel hypothalamic genes overexpressed in association with increased genetic or environmental obesity risk, and to determine the functional significance of those genes. Results showed that a high-fat, high-carbohydrate Western diet developmental environment promotes obesity not only in offspring from obesity-prone (DIO) mothers, but also in those from obesity-resistant (DR) dams, implicating a deleterious role for Western diet in and of itself. DR dams did not overeat or become obese while eating a Western diet during pregnancy and lactation, yet their offspring had increased body weight and adiposity as early as one day after birth, and decreased energy expenditure and increased fat gain in response to high-fat diet in adulthood. Microarray analysis of gene expression in the lateral hypothalamus identified TRHDE, which codes for thyrotropin-releasing hormone degrading enzyme (TRH- DE), as being overexpressed in both DIO and DR-Western offspring, indicating it may play a role in increased obesity susceptibility. In vivo behavioral studies showed that the thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) system may be dysfunctional in DR-Western offspring, and normal TRH function is restored with administration of a TRH-DE inhibitor. This indicates that the overexpression of TRHDE in DR-Western offspring may be functionally related to increased obesity risk, providing a novel target for obesity treatment research
Impact of 25 years of grazing exclusion and shrub removal on plant community structure and soil characteristics in a xerophytic rangeland

Aim of study: We tested the hypothesis that long periods of grazing exclusion in areas with a history of high grazing intensity will have a positive impact on soil nutrient conditions and favor soil infiltration, increase biomass and lead to a recovery in vegetation.Area of study: Noria de Guadalupe, Zacatecas, Mexico.Material and methods: We analyzed the impact of grazing exclusion on biomass, species richness, evenness, soil nutrient content and soil water infiltration after 25 years of exclusion during each of the four seasons by excluding two 15 × 15 m plots of grazing and compared with two control plots.Main results: Exclusion management did not lead to biomass increases; however, it did lead to an important recovery in the plant community. Moreover, soil nutrient content was more affected by the seasonality of rainfall in the study site than by 25 years of exclusion. The elimination of dominant shrubs in the excluded area led to a faster recovery in palatable shrubs and shortgrass vegetation, which was improved by better infiltration values during the end of spring and summer explaining some of the differences in nutrient avaibility.Research highlights: In our study, exclusion management can lead to an important recovery in vegetation without affecting the growth of Atriplex canescens, a valuable source of fodder. Although biomass presented a higher dependence on seasonality and was not related to the treatment, the impact on the forage quality is evident by the different plant communities established after 25 years of exclusion.
Laboratory, field, mast-borne and airborne spectral reflectance measurements of boreal landscape during spring

Abstract. We publish and describe a surface spectral reflectance data record of seasonal snow (dry, wet, shadowed), forest ground (lichen, moss) and forest canopy (spruce and pine, branches) constituting the main elements of the boreal landscape. The reflectances are measured with spectro(radio)meters covering the wavelengths from visible (VIS) to short-wave infrared (SWIR) (350 to 2500 nm). In this paper, we describe the instruments used and how the spectral observations at different scales along with the concurrent in situ reference data have been collected, processed and archived. Information on the quality of the data and factors causing uncertainty are discussed. The main experimental site is located in the Sodankyla Arctic Space Centre in northern Finland (67.37 ∘ N, 26.63 ∘ E; 179 m a.s.l) and the surrounding region. The collection includes highly controlled snow and conifer branch laboratory spectral measurements, portable field spectroradiometer observations of snow and snow-free ground at different locations, and continuous mast-borne reflectance time series data of a pine forest and forest opening. In addition to the surface level spectral reflectance, data from airborne imaging spectrometer campaigns over the Sodankyla boreal forest and Saariselka fell region at selected spectral bands are included in the collection. All measurements of the data record correspond to a typical polar-orbiting satellite observation event in the high-latitude spring season regarding their Sun or illumination source (calibrated lamp) zenith angle and close-to-nadir instrument viewing angle. For all measurement geometries, observations are given in surface reflectance quantity corresponding to the typical representation of a satellite observation quantity to facilitate their comparison with other data sources. The openly accessible spectral reflectance data at multiple scales are suitable to climate and hydrological research and remote sensing model validation and development. To facilitate easy access to the data record the four datasets described here are deposited in a permanent data repository ( http://www.zenodo.org/communities/boreal_reflectances/ ) (Hannula et al., 2019). Each dataset of a distinct scale has its own unique DOI – laboratory: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3580078 (Hannula and Heinila, 2018a); field: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3580825 (Heinila et al., 2019a); mast-borne: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3580096 (Hannula and Heinila, 2018b); and airborne: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3580451 (Heinila, 2019a) and https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3580419 (Heinila, 2019b).
NMR Determination of Free Fatty Acids in Vegetable Oils

The identification and quantification of free fatty acids (FFA) in edible and non-edible vegetable oils, including waste cooking oils, is a crucial index to assess their quality and drives their use in different application fields. NMR spectroscopy represents an alternative tool to conventional methods for the determination of FFA content, providing us with interesting advantages. Here the approaches reported in the literature based on 1H, 13C and 31P NMR are illustrated and compared, highlighting the pros and cons of the suggested strategies.
The Tune Viking Ship Reconsidered

Abstract The Tune Viking ship has been a riddle for more than 150 years, since being found within a burial in the Oslo fjord area in 1867. It was long thought that the ship's freeboard was too low for it to have crossed the North Sea. Advances in documentation methods and a detailed study of the preserved parts of the ship have provided new data, and this article outlines a new proposal for how the ship looked when it was built in the early 10th century AD. The Tune ship is reinterpreted as a seagoing vessel, in no way inferior to the Oseberg or Gokstad Viking ships.
A measure of the implicit value of privacy under risk

Many online transactions and digital services depend on consumers’ willingness to take privacy risks, such as when shopping online, joining social networks, using online banking or interacting with e-health platforms. Their decisions depend on not only how much they would suffer if their data were revealed but also how uncomfortable they feel about taking such a risk. Such an aversion to risk is a neglected factor when evaluating the value of privacy. The aim of this paper is to propose an empirical method to measure both privacy risk aversion and privacy worth and how those affect privacy decisions. ,The authors let individuals play privacy lotteries and derive a measure of the value of privacy under risk (VPR) and empirically test the validity of this measure in a laboratory experiment with 148 participants. Individuals were asked to make a series of incentivized decisions on whether to incur the risk of revealing private information to other participants. ,The results confirm that the willingness to incur a privacy risk is driven by a complex array of factors, including risk aversion, self-reported value for private information and general attitudes to privacy (derived from surveys). The VPR does not depend on whether there is a preexisting threat to privacy. The authors find qualified support for the existence of an order effect, whereby presenting financial choices prior to privacy ones leads to less concern for privacy. ,Attitude to risk in the domain of privacy decisions is largely understudied. In this paper, the authors take a first step toward closing this empirical and methodological gap by offering (and validating) a method for the incentivized elicitation of the implicit VPR and proposing a robust and meaningful monetary measure of the level of aversion to privacy risks. This measure is a crucial step in designing and implementing the practical strategies for evaluating privacy as a competitive advantage and designing markets for privacy risk regulations (e.g. through cyber insurances). ,The present study advances research on the economics of consumer privacy – one of the most controversial topics in the digital age. In light of the proliferation of privacy regulations, the mentioned method for measuring the VPR provides an important instrument for policymakers’ informed decisions regarding what tradeoffs consumers consider beneficial and fair and where to draw the line for violations of consumers’ expectations, preferences and welfare. ,The authors present a novel method to measure the VPR that takes account of both the value of private information to consumers and their tolerance for privacy risks. The authors explain how this method can be used more generally to elicit attitudes to a wide range of privacy risks involving exposure of various types of private information.
Electoral cycles, stock market volatility and exchange rate: The indissoluble trivet

This paper seeks to unravel the connectivity between stock market volatility and exchange rate within the political cycles of sovereign states presidential election years between 2000-2016 using the dynamic system GMM estimation and VECH technique data source from Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI). A significant positive relationship between market volatility and exchange rate manifests in the studied countries, more in Nigeria and South Africa. A significant shift in a conditional correlation of the variances of most markets exists except for Kenya, Japan, and Hong Kong. This perhaps is indicative of weak institutional and democratic culture within the financial system; hence independence of public institutions would guarantee non-interference that ensures policy consistency. Financial, economic and behavioral finance barometers need to integrate both local and international political development for effective and result-driven investment. As a result of the significant opportunistic business cycle effect that manifested with a significant shift in the conditional correlations of the variances of some of the markets we strongly believe that a truly independent central bank would not only guarantee political non-interference but also will ensure policy consistency.
Src Family Kinases Control Neural Development and Function

The mammalian brain constitutes an enormous neural network and regulates various behaviors such as locomotion, sense, recognition, emotion, memory and learning. The question is how these neural networks are systematically formed during development and how they regulate behaviors. Most of the networks and behaviors are genetically conserved in species, which makes genetics a powerful tool for answering this question. Using Drosophila genetics is providing much insight into the relationships between genes and neural development or behaviors (15, 18). These relationships have been limited in mammal, however, because genetic analysis of the mammal has been restricted by the scale. The technique of gene targeting has recently been developed as “reverse genetics” (from gene to phenotype) in mice (9). We have also been successful in creating specific gene disrupted mice using diphtheria toxin A fragment gene in the targeting vector for negative selection of homologous recombinants (43, 45), and in establishing a new embryonic cell line called TT2 (44). These techniques are good agents for analyzing the development and functions of the mammalian brain in molecular terms. Formation of the neural networks occurs by the processes of extension, direction, adhesion, recognition, synaptogenesis, and epigenetic modification of synaptic connections in neurons. These elements are described in molecular terms as cell-to-cell interaction. Of the many candidate molecules, we focused on Src family kinase in the non-receptor type protein-tyrosine kinase. The Src family kinase exists under the cellular membrane by myristoylating at its amino terminus; it functions in cellular transduction from outside to inside and is highly expressed in the neural cells. In our hypothesis, the Src family kinase which regulates cell-to-cell interaction might control the formation of the neural networks and behaviors. We therefore attempted to produce mutant mice lacking the Src family kinase. Gene targeting revealed that the Src family kinase, especially Fyn, does have a significant role in development of these networks and in regulation of behaviors.
OPTIMIZATION OF FORMULATION OF SOLID DISPERSION OF FUROSEMIDE BY FACTORIAL DESIGN

Objective: The present study aimed to improve the rate of dissolution of furosemide by solid dispersion technique. Methods: Solid dispersion of furosemide was prepared by using hydrogel isolated from the seeds of Lepidium sativum as a novel carrier by the solvent evaporation method. Solid dispersion was evaluated to study the improvement in the rate of dissolution. Molecular dispersion of furosemide in the novel carrier was studied by DSC and FTIR studies. Solid dispersion was filled in capsules after stability studies and the formulation was optimized by adopting factorial design. Results: Solid dispersion of furosemide exhibited dissolution improvement from 13.54 % (plain furosemide) to 69.12% (solid dispersion) in the first 60 min. Improvement in dissolution efficiency was found to be retained after stability studies. Capsules were filled with the formulation of solid dispersion using two different grades of lactose-α lactose monohydrate and anhydrous lactose and were found stable after stabilization studies. Conclusion: The dissolution improvement of furosemide was attributed to its molecular dispersion in the novel carrier selected for this study. The recrystallization of furosemide was prevented due to intermolecular interaction between the novel carrier and furosemide. This was confirmed by FTIR. Evaluation of the dissolution data of factorial batches was analyzed by ANOVA. Analysis of the data revealed that selected levels of α lactose monohydrate and anhydrous lactose would be useful to navigate design space.
Functional characterization of Arabidopsis genes changing expression during cyst nematode Heterodera schachtii infection

Compatible plant-nematode interactions involve the formation of an elaborate feeding site within the host root that requires the evasion of plant defense mechanisms by the parasite. Little is known regarding plant defense signaling pathways that limit nematode parasitism during a compatible interaction. Therefore, we utilized Arabidopsis thaliana mutants perturbed in salicylic acid (SA) biosynthesis or signal transduction to investigate the role of SA in inhibiting parasitism by the beet cyst nematode Heterodera schachtii. We determined that SA-deficient mutants (sid2-1, pad4-1, and NahG) exhibited increased susceptibility to H. schachtii. In contrast, SA-treated wild-type plants showed decreased H. schachtii susceptibility. The npr1-2 and npr1-3 mutants, which are impaired in SA signaling, also showed increased susceptibility to H. schachtii, whereas the npr1-suppressor mutation sni1 showed decreased susceptibility. Constitutive pathogenesis-related (PR) gene-expressing mutants (cpr1 and cpr6) did not show altered susceptibility to H. schachtii; however, constitutive PR gene expression was restricted to cpr1 shoots with wild-type levels of PR-1 transcript present in cpr1 roots. Furthermore, we determined that H. schachtii infection elicits SA-independent PR-2 and PR-5 induction in wild-type roots, while PR-1 transcript and total SA levels remained unaltered. This was in contrast to shoots of infected plants where PR-1 transcript abundance and total SA levels were elevated. We conclude that SA
Intrinsic fracture behavior of Mg–Y alloys

Pure magnesium (Mg) is an attractive metal for structural applications due to its low density, but also has low ductility and low fracture toughness. Dilute alloying of Mg with rare earth elements in small amounts improves the ductility, but the effects of alloying on fracture are not well-established. Here, the intrinsic fracture of a model Mg-3at%Y solid solution alloy is studied using a combination of anisotropic linear elastic fracture mechanics and atomistic simulations applied to a comprehensive set of crack configurations under mode I loading. The competition between brittle cleavage and ductile dislocation emission at the crack tip in Mg is improved slightly by alloying, because local fluctuations of the random solutes enable dislocation emission rather than cleavage fracture for a number of configurations where the differences in critical load for cleavage and emission are small. However, basal-plane cleavage remains strongly preferred, as in pure Mg. The alloys do show higher fracture toughness for all configurations due to local solute-induced deformation phenomena at the crack tip. Thus, alloying with Y is expected to improve the fracture toughness of Mg, but the persistence of basal cleavage prevents the alloy from becoming intrinsically ductile for all orientations.
Safety and Toxicity Evaluation of Bronopol in Striped Catfish (Pangasianodon hypophthalmus)

The study was performed to evaluate the safety and toxicity of bronopol in striped catfish Pangasianodon hypophthalmus. Bronopol product is licensed in Thailand and Vietnam for control of aquatic fungi and ciliated protozoa in scaleless fish at the daily dosage of 10 mg/l, 2-hour static immersion, for 5 consecutive days. Safe concentrations were evaluated in fish exposed to bronopol at the therapeutic dosage (10 mg/l, 2 hours, 5 consecutive days) and 2 and 3 times overdose (20 and 30 mg/l, 2 hours, 5 consecutive days). Fish treated with 10-30 mg/l bronopol for 2 hours daily for 5 consecutive days appeared clinically healthy and no adverse effects were found throughout the test period and for 30 days post treatment. These results show that the concentrations of bronopol of up to 3 times the therapeutic concentration are safe at 2-hour exposure. 24-hour median lethal concentrations tested in 3.5 g (SD ± 0.6) and 6.7 g (SD ± 1.2) fish were 11.04 and 11.18 mg/l, respectively, indicating that continuous immersion at the therapeutic dose can induce toxic effects. Therefore, bronopol is safe for use on striped catfish when it is administered at the therapeutic dosage.