Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Active Management vs. Passive Management in the Colombian Private Pension Open Mutual Fund Industry: A Performance Analysis Using Proxy ETFs as Market Benchmarks (Borrador de administración No. 18)

The purpose of the present study is to find evidence that if actively managed Colombian private pension open mutual funds can outperform a specific market benchmark such as a passively managed ETF. After doing a review of the existing literature on the subject, the data form thirty (30) Colombian private pension open mutual funds along with the data of thirty (30) Exchange Traded Funds was used to obtain a set of common portfolio performance measures. The results obtained indicated that only two of the thirty portfolios under study were able to beat their respective market benchmarks on a risk-adjusted basis. The results indicate that in average a Colombian investor can obtain superior returns by investing in a passively managed product such as ETFs than in actively managed ones, such as the Colombian private pension open mutual funds. These results are consistent with the results of previous researchers and the existing body of literature on the subject of market efficiency.
Ameliorative effect of grape seed extract on metabolic disorders caused by high fat diet induced obesity in rats by reversing the increase in hepatic miR-33a and miR-122

MiR-33a and miR-122 are major regulators of lipid metabolism in the liver and their deregulation has been linked to the development of metabolic diseases such as obesity and metabolic syndrome. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the level of miR-33a and miR-122 in rat liver correlate with obesity and potential anti-obesity effect of grape seed extract (GSE) and calorie restricted diet with special emphasis on dyslipidemia, oxidative stress and inflammation. Rats received high fat diet (HFD) for four months to induce obesity. Animals which had ≥30% increase in body weight were selected in this study. Obese rats were divided into 4 groups (n=12/each) and treated for 8 weeks with caloric restriction, GSE (30 mg/kg daily orally) alone or in combined form. Obese rats developed increased body weight and up-regulation of miR-33a and mir-122 in the liver. Also obesity provoked dyslipidemia, oxidative stress and inflammatory status. Importantly, GSE alleviated all deleterious effects of HFD especially when administered with calorie restricted diet. They counteracted the increase of these two miRNAs with improvement in dyslipidemia, oxidative and inflammatory processes. The results reported suggested that beneficial metabolic effects of GSE in combination with dietary treatment could be useful to treat obesity and metabolic disorders.
Measuring lexical diversity among L2 learners of French: an exploration of the validity of D, MTLD and HD-D as measures of language ability

In this study two new measures of lexical diversity are tested for the first time on French. The usefulness of these measures, MTLD (McCarthy and Jarvis (2010 and this volume) ) and HD-D (McCarthy and Jarvis 2007), in predicting different aspects of language proficiency is assessed and compared with D (Malvern and Richards 1997; Malvern, Richards, Chipere and Duran 2004) and Maas (1972) in analyses of stories told by two groups of learners (n=41) of two different proficiency levels and one group of native speakers of French (n=23). The importance of careful lemmatization in studies of lexical diversity which involve highly inflected languages is also demonstrated. The paper shows that the measures of lexical diversity under study are valid proxies for language ability in that they explain up to 62 percent of the variance in French C-test scores, and up to 33 percent of the variance in a measure of complexity. The paper also provides evidence that dependence on segment size continues to be a problem for the measures of lexical diversity discussed in this paper. The paper concludes that limiting the range of text lengths or even keeping text length constant is the safest option in analysing lexical diversity.
Challenges in Retention of People living with HIV/AIDS, along Continuumof Care and Treatment in Pakistan

Retention of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) during HIVcare and treatment is vital for success of antiretroviral therapy (ART) interventions. ART health care services are planned to reduce HIVrelated morbidity and mortality, associated with HIV infection and prevention of appearance of drug resistance [4]. PLHIV may be lost along the care and treatment cascade pathway firstly; HIV testing to enrolment into care services; secondly, enrolment in care to ART eligibility; thirdly, eligibility to initiation of ART, and lastly, initiation to lifelong ART [4].
The Spiral Structure of the Galaxy: Something Old, Something New...

I review some of the old difficulties in determining the spiral structure of the Galaxy using kinematic distances, and present some of the new results on the stellar spiral structure of the Galaxy which do not suffer from the same systematic difficulties. I conclude the discussion with something borrowed (spiral structure studies in other galaxies) and discuss how it relates to something blue (massive star formation). 1. Something Old: Kinematic Methods for Mapping the Galaxy From the very beginning, one of the chief goals of 21-cm mapping of neutral hydrogen was a global map of the spiral structure of the Galaxy. To get a sense of this history, I recommend starting with a meeting summary by Simonson (1970). Participants arrived filled with enthusiasm for converting HI surveys into maps, but left somewhat deflated due to lack of convergence in maps produced with the same data. Liszt (1985) describes the same state of affairs over a decade later. His Figure 7 collects several distinctly different maps, leading him to worry that ongoing CO surveys of the Galaxy would yield a similar impasse. The review of CO results by Combes (1991) shows that these concerns were not unfounded. Similarly, attempts to map the HII region distribution, most famously by Georgelin & Georgelin (1976), continue to suffer from significant ambiguities, e.g., Sewilo et al. (2004). Part of the problem is demonstrated in Fig. 1, which shows how, by assuming circular rotation and adopting a rotation curve, one can assign a radial velocity to every parcel of gas in the Galaxy. The Galaxy can be mapped, in principal, by converting the velocity back to position. The fundamental difficulties with this method are well known: (1) assuming circular rotation, the velocity-to-distance relation is double valued in the first (0 <l< 90◦) and fourth (270 <l< 360◦) quadrants. Additional information is needed to resolve the near-far distance ambiguity; (2) the distance accuracy depends upon the model dvrad/dr, which varies with longitude. Near l = 0 ◦ or l = 180◦, one loses all distance resolution; (3) gas has ”random” velocity (whose origin is poorly, or perhaps multiply, understood) of order 7-10 km s, producing distance uncertainties that are longitude dependent; and (4) significant non-circular motion is expected near spiral arms and near any non-axisymmetric structures in the inner galaxy, i.e., bars. In this case, the velocity-to-distance relation can be multiply valued, e.g., Gomez (2006). A thorough review of all of these issues is provided in Burton et al. (1992).
“Sunshade World”: A fully coupled GCM evaluation of the climatic impacts of geoengineering

Sunshade geoengineering ‐ the installation of reflective mirrors between the Earth and the Sun to reduce incoming solar radiation, has been proposed as a mitigative measure to counteract anthropogenic global warming. Although the popular conception is that geoengineering can re‐establish a ‘natural’ pre‐industrial climate, such a scheme would itself inevitably lead to climate change, due to the different temporal and spatial forcing of increased CO2 compared to reduced solar radiation. We investigate the magnitude and nature of this climate change for the first time within a fully coupled General Circulation Model. We find significant cooling of the tropics, warming of high latitudes and related sea ice reduction, a reduction in intensity of the hydrological cycle, reduced ENSO variability, and an increase in Atlantic overturning. However, the changes are small relative to those associated with an unmitigated rise in CO2 emissions. Other problems such as ocean acidification remain unsolved by sunshade geoengineering.
Satellite evidence of substantial rain-induced soil emissions of ammonia across the Sahel

Abstract. Atmospheric ammonia (NH3) is a precursor to fine particulate matter formation and contributes to nitrogen (N) deposition, with potential implications for the health of humans and ecosystems. Agricultural soils and animal excreta are the primary source of atmospheric NH3, but natural soils can also be an important emitter. In regions with distinct dry and wet seasons such as the Sahel, the start of the rainy season triggers a pulse of biogeochemical activity in surface soils known as the Birch effect, which is often accompanied by emissions of microbially produced gases such as carbon dioxide and nitric oxide. Field and lab studies have sometimes, but not always, observed pulses of NH3 after the wetting of dry soils; however, the potential regional importance of these emissions remains poorly constrained. Here we use satellite retrievals of atmospheric NH3 using the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) regridded at 0.25∘ resolution, in combination with satellite-based observations of precipitation, surface soil moisture, and nitrogen dioxide concentrations, to reveal substantial precipitation-induced pulses of NH3 across the Sahel at the onset of the rainy season in 2008. The highest concentrations of NH3 occur in pulses during March and April when NH3 biomass burning emissions estimated for the region are low. For the region of the Sahel spanning 10 to 16∘ N and 0 to 30∘ E, changes in NH3 concentrations are weakly but significantly correlated with changes in soil moisture during the period from mid-March through April when the peak NH3 concentrations occur (r=0.28, p=0.02). The correlation is also present when evaluated on an individual pixel basis during April (r=0.16, p<0.001). Average emissions for the entire Sahel from a simple box model are estimated to be between 2 and 6 mg NH3 m−2 d−1 during peaks of the observed pulses, depending on the assumed effective NH3 lifetime. These early season pulses are consistent with surface observations of monthly concentrations, which show an uptick in NH3 concentration at the start of the rainy season for sites in the Sahel. The NH3 concentrations in April are also correlated with increasing tropospheric NO2 concentrations observed by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (r=0.78, p<0.0001), which have previously been attributed to the Birch effect. Box model results suggest that pulses occurring over a 35-day period in March and April are responsible for roughly one-fifth of annual emissions of NH3-N from the Sahel. We conclude that precipitation early in the rainy season is responsible for substantial NH3 emissions in the Sahel, likely representing the largest instantaneous fluxes of gas-phase N from the region during the year.
Do Foreign Investors Crowd Out or Crowd In Domestic Investment? A Panel Analysis for OECD Countries

The studies of the relationship between foreign direct investment and domestic invest- ments indicate that the findings are mixed and controversial. This study argues that some of the conflicting evidence may be related to the ignorance of financing structure of for - eign direct investments in the host market. Foreign investment can be financed as a mix ture of three components (equity capitals, reinvested earnings, and intra-company loans). Thus, crowding out or crowding in effect of foreign investments on local investments may be determined by the choice of investors to finance the foreign capital in the host country. The main objective of this study is to find out the impact of foreign investment inflows on domestic investments for 30 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries from 2006 to 2013 by employing one-step Generalized Method of Moments system. We have empirically confirmed that while total foreign direct investment inflows do not have a significant effect on overall domestic invest ments, intra-company loans as sub-component of total foreign direct investments, do indeed, have a positive effect on domestic capital formations.
Gelatin/Oxide-Dextran Cryogels: In-Vitro Biocompatibility Evaluations

Bir dokunun geliştirilmesi uygun bir destek/matriks dokusuna uygun hücreler ve sinyal moleküllerinin implantasyonuna gereksinim duyar. Doku ex-vivo doku oluşumunda destek malzemeleri olan doku iskeleleri biyolojik olarak uygun yapılar oluşturmak için belirli özelliklere sahip olmaları gereklidir. Bu çalışmada 3B’lu polimer jelatin/okside dekstran doku iskeleleri kriyojelasyon tekniği ile hazırlanmıştır. Hücre-doku iskelesi etkileşimleri Taramalı Elektron Mikroskobu ve Konfokal Lazer Mikroskobisi ile incelenmiştir. Doku iskelelerinin biyo ve kan uyumlulukları ile olası sitotoksik etkileri ayrıca incelenmiştir. Olası genotoksik etkileri DNA parçalanması be kırılması ile analiz edilmiştir. Sonuçlarımız göstermektedir ki, kriyojelasyon ile hazırlanan bu jelatin/ok-dekstran doku iskeleleri sitotoksik ve genotoksik etki göstermemişlerdir ve yüksek biyouyumluluk ve kan uyumluluğu ve kondrosit hücre etkileşimi göstermişlerdir.
Excitation of spiral density waves by convection in accretion discs

Motivated by the recent results of Lesur & Ogilvie on the transport properties of incompressible convection in protoplanetary discs, in this paper we study the role of compressibility and hence of another basic mode – spiral density waves – in convective instability in discs. We analyse the linear dynamics of non-axisymmetric convection and spiral density waves in a Keplerian disc with superadiabatic vertical stratification using the local shearing box approach. It is demonstrated that the shear associated with Keplerian differential rotation introduces a novel phenomenon, it causes these two perturbation modes to become coupled: during evolution the convective mode generates (trailing) spiral density waves and can therefore be regarded as a new source of spiral density waves in discs. The wave generation process studied here owes its existence solely to shear of the disc’s differential rotation, and is a special manifestation of a more general linear mode coupling phenomena universally taking place in flows with an inhomogeneous velocity profile. We quantify the efficiency of spiral density wave generation by convection as a function of azimuthal and vertical wavenumbers of these modes and find that it is maximal and most powerful when both these length-scales are comparable to the disc scaleheight. We also show that unlike the convective mode, which tends to transport angular momentum inwards in the linear regime, the spiral density waves transport angular momentum outwards. Based on these findings, we suggest that in the non-linear regime spiral density waves generated by convection may play a role in enhancing the transport of angular momentum due the convective mode alone, which is actually being changed to outward by non-linearity, as indicated by above-mentioned recent developments.
Density and temperature dependent feeding rates in an established and an alien freshwater gammarid fed on chironomid larvae

We compared feeding rates of the well-established, non-invasive amphipod Gammarus roeselii with those of the invasive Dikerogammarus villosus at different prey densities and different temperatures in laboratory experiments using chironomid larvae as prey. Feeding rates were very variable in both species but higher in the invader species than in the well-established non-invasive species. These results were age independent. At high temperature (18-20 °C) and high prey density (≥1000 prey m-2) one large adult D. villosus consumed 6-9 prey day-1 on average while one G. roeselii consumed 4-7 prey d-1 and one smaller D. villosus of a length of 8-10 mm consumed 2-5 prey d-1 while one G. roeselii of the same length consumed 3 prey d-1. Predation rate decreased considerably from high (18-20 °C) to low temperature (3±2 °C), from 9 to 4 prey predator-1 d-1 in D. villosus and from 7.5 to 2.5 prey predator-1 d-1 in G. roeselii. We conclude that both gammarids consumed a biomass in the range of 1/2 to 1/3 to their own biomass and that low predation/feeding rate at low temperature could be a reason why, in some places, indigenous gammarids can re-colonize their former habitats for a short period of time in cold winter and early spring in spite of the presence of the invasive. We further conclude that differences in weight between the species in particular in the experiments with adults can have influenced feeding rates; possibly differences in weight- specific feeding rates are small.
Evaluation of antifungal activity of aqueous extracts of two asteraceous plant species

The antifungal activities of shoot and root extracts of two Asteraceous plants species viz. Parthenium hysterophorus L. and Ageratum conyzoides were determined against Macrophomina phaseolina (Tassi) Goid. , the cause of charcoal rot disease of sunflower (Helianthus annus L.). A measured reduction in M. phaseolina biomass was observed due to aqueous extracts of different concentrations. Lowest concentration of 2% of both root and shoot extract of P. hysterophorus markedly suppressed the biomass. Whereas in case of A. conyzoides 4% of both root and shoot extract was proved most effective.
Does Housing Wealth Make Us Less Equal? The Role of Durable Goods in the Distribution of Wealth

We study the role an illiquid durable consumption good plays in determining the level of precautionary savings and the distribution of wealth in a standard Aiyagari model (i.e. a model with heterogeneous agents, idiosyncratic uncertainty, and borrowing constraints). Transactions costs induce an inaction region over which the durable stock and the associated user cost are not adjusted in response to changes in income, increasing, on average, the volatility of non-durable consumption. The volatility of total consumption is then a function of the share of the durable good in the utility function and the width of the inaction region. We are particularly interested in parameterizations which increase the precautionary motive for saving through an increase in "committed expenditure risk". We find, for an empirically relevant share of durable consumption and for all transaction costs below an upper threshold, that the level of precautionary savings is increasing in the transaction costs. Transaction costs have only a modest impact on the degree of wealth dispersion, as measured by the Gini index, as the associated increase in savings is close to linear in wealth. While we are unable to match the dispersion of wealth in the data, we increase the dispersion over a single asset model (Gini index of .71 for financial assets and .37 for total wealth) and we are able to match the relative dispersion of financial to durable assets, i.e. we find financial assets much more unequal than durable assets. We also match the ratio of housing wealth to total wealth for the median agent. We calibrate the model to data from the PSID, the CES, and the SCF
An algorithm for routing optimization in DiffServ-aware MPLS networks

This paper addresses the constrained-based routing problem in DiffServ-aware MPLS networks. We consider a dynamic context in which new requests appear over time, asking for reconfigurations of the previous allocation. In the classical approach, a multi-phase heuristic procedure is adopted: the new requests are evaluated considering available bandwidth; if the bandwidth is not sufficient, preemption and rerouting of one or more connections are performed in sequence. As an alternative, we propose a single-phase approach that simultaneously takes into account both preemption and rerouting. In contrast with the standard approach, we always find an optimal solution when enough bandwidth is available. Otherwise, we apply a heuristic post-processing procedure in order to minimize unsatisfied commodities. The routing problem is modeled as a Multicommodity Flow Problem (MCFP) with side constraints, which is solved by a Column Generation approach. Namely, a sequence of restricted MCFPs is solved, by including new routing paths only if necessary. When new requests are routed, the use of existing paths is preferred in order to reduce preemption. Computational experience on real networks shows that the overall approach is able to (i) obtain a good exploitation of the network resources, (ii) achieve a remarkable acceptance rate and, (iii) hold down the impact of rerouting.
Isolation and characterization of octadecanoic acid from the ethyl acetate root extract of Trigonella foneum graecum L. by using hydroponics method.

The octadecanoic acid (OA), methyl ester was isolated and characterized from root of fenugreek (T. foenumgraecum) using ethyl acetate (EAC) in hydroponics method. The OA was characterized by TLC & HPTLC and purified by HPLC. The structure and molecular weight (298) of OA was confirmed by GC-MS. The Rf value of sample (peak 4) was matched with standard. OA has strong anti-bacterial activity in B. subitlis and P. aeruginousa, where as weak activity in S. aureus and E. coli. Among the tested concentration of in vitro anti-oxidant activity of OA was maximum in 40Âµl and minimum in 20Âµl.
Abstract. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small 19- to 22-nucleo- tide sequences of RNA that participate in the regulation of cell differentiation, cell cycle progression and apoptosis. Although single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in miRNA regions are considered unlikely to be functionally important, nucl

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small 19to 22-nucleotide sequences of RNA that participate in the regulation of cell differentiation, cell cycle progression and apoptosis. Although single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in miRNA regions are considered unlikely to be functionally important, nucleotide variations within the sequences of primary (pri)or precursor (pre)-miRNAs may affect miRNA processing and ultimately result in the modification of miRNA expression. The aim of this study was to investigate associations between four SNPs in pre-miRNA genes and the survival of colorectal cancer patients. A total of 407 colorectal patients were consecutively enrolled. DNA was extracted from blood specimens, and the hsa-mir-146aC>G, hsa-mir-149C>T, hsa-mir-196a2C>T and hsa-mir-499A>G polymorphisms were genotyped by PCR-RFLP. We were unable to identify independent prognostic SNPs for colorectal cancer. However, the heterozygous TC genotype of the 196a2C>T polymorphism was a significant risk factor for the overall survival of rectal cancer patients (HR=3.554, 95% CI 1.296-9.747, p=0.014). Further largepopulation studies are warranted to define the 196a2C>T polymorphism as a prognostic factor of rectal cancer.