Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Deconcentrating Poverty With Housing Programs

Problem: Housing programs of the past have exacerbated the problems of concentrated poverty. Current housing programs serving very low-income households, including homebuyers as well as renters, should be examined to determine the extent to which they help households make entry into neighborhoods with low concentrations of poverty. Purpose: This research is designed to assist planners in understanding how well various approaches to resolving housing affordability problems can facilitate the poverty deconcentration process. Methods: Administrative data from the Department of Housing and Urban Development are used to assess the degree to which federal housing programs help lowincome homebuyers and renters locate in neighborhoods where less than 10% of the population is below poverty. Results and conclusions: Subsidizing households ought to be more effective than subsidizing housing units at helping lowincome households locate in low-poverty areas, and whether a household rents or buys should not matter to whether a program succeeds at deconcentration of the poor. Yet, analysis of national datasets across several housing programs finds neither of the previous propositions to be true. Housing vouchers suppliedto households are not helping renters locate in low-poverty areas any more effectively than are current project-based subsidies. It also turns out that tenure matters; a disproportionately higher share of low-income homebuyers are locating in low-poverty neighborhoods than are lowincome renters. Takeaway for practice: I recommend that housing planners seeking to make poverty deconcentration more effective use housing placement counselors, administer programs at the metropolitan scale, lease and broker market-rate housing directly, promote mixed-income LIHTC developments, practice inclusionary zoning, and monitor the impacts of these efforts. Research support: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Bacterial pathogens in wild birds: a review of the frequency and effects of infection

The importance of wild birds as potential vectors of disease has received recent renewed empirical interest, especially regarding human health. Understanding the spread of bacterial pathogens in wild birds may serve as a useful model for examining the spread of other disease organisms, both amongst birds, and from birds to other taxa. Information regarding the normal gastrointestinal bacterial flora is limited for the majority of wild bird species, with the few well‐studied examples concentrating on bacteria that are zoonotic and/or relate to avian species of commercial interest. However, most studies are limited by small sample sizes, the frequent absence of longitudinal data, and the constraints of using selective techniques to isolate specific pathogens. The pathogenic genera found in the gut are often those suspected to exist in the birds’ habitat, and although correlations are made between bacterial pathogens in the avian gut and those found in their foraging grounds, little is known about the effect of the pathogen on the host, unless the causative organism is lethal. In this review, we provide an overview of the main bacterial pathogens isolated from birds (with particular emphasis on enteropathogenic bacteria) which have the potential to cause disease in both birds and humans, whilst drawing attention to the limitations of traditional detection methods and possible study biases. We consider factors likely to affect the susceptibility of birds to bacterial pathogens, including environmental exposure and heterogeneities within the host population, and present probable avenues of disease transmission amongst birds and from birds to other animal taxa. Our primary aim is to identify gaps in current knowledge and to propose areas for future study.
How much alcohol and how often? Population based case-control study of alcohol consumption and risk of a major coronary event

Abstract Objective:To quantify the effects of quantity and frequency of alcohol consumption on risk of acute myocardial infarction and coronary death. Design:Case-control study. Setting:Lower Hunter region of New South Wales, Australia, 1983-94. Subjects:Men and women aged 35-69 years. Main outcome measure:Acute myocardial infarction or coronary death. Results:Alcohol consumption patterns were compared between 11 511 cases of acute myocardial infarction or coronary death and 6077 controls randomly selected from the same study population. After adjusting for the effects of age, smoking, and medical history, men and women who consumed one or two drinks of alcohol on five or six days a week had a reduction in risk of a major coronary event compared with men and women who were non-drinkers (odds ratios: men 0.31 (95% confidence interval 0.22 to 0.45); women 0.33 (0.18 to 0.59)). A similar reduction in risk was found after excluding non-drinkers who were formerly moderate to heavy drinkers. An acute protective effect of alcohol consumption was also found for regular drinkers who consumed one or two drinks in the 24 hours preceding the onset of symptoms (odds ratios: men 0.74 (0.51 to 1.09); women 0.43 (0.20 to 0.95)). Conclusions:Frequency and quantity of alcohol consumption are important in assessing the risk of a major coronary event. Risk is lowest among men who report one to four drinks daily on five or six days a week and among women who report one or two drinks daily on five or six days a week.
Structural Unemployment and Technological Change in Canada, 1990-1999

In this paper we examine the impact of technological change on unemployment and employment in Canada. We focus in particular on the argument that an increase in the pace of technological change has been responsible for Canada’s poor employment performance in the 1990s. We outline some economic models in which such a possibility could arise, and then examine a variety of labour market data for Canada to see whether the predictions from these models match the Canadian experience. We find that there is in fact little evidence that technological change had an important negative impact on overall unemployment and
The use of duplex-specific nuclease in ribosome profiling and a user-friendly software package for Ribo-seq data analysis

Ribosome profiling is a technique that permits genome-wide, quantitative analysis of translation and has found broad application in recent years. Here we describe a modified profiling protocol and software package designed to benefit more broadly the translation community in terms of simplicity and utility. The protocol, applicable to diverse organisms, including organelles, is based largely on previously published profiling methodologies, but uses duplex-specific nuclease (DSN) as a convenient, species-independent way to reduce rRNA contamination. We show that DSN-based depletion compares favorably with other commonly used rRNA depletion strategies and introduces little bias. The profiling protocol typically produces high levels of triplet periodicity, facilitating the detection of coding sequences, including upstream, downstream, and overlapping open reading frames (ORFs) and an alternative ribosome conformation evident during termination of protein synthesis. In addition, we provide a software package that presents a set of methods for parsing ribosomal profiling data from multiple samples, aligning reads to coding sequences, inferring alternative ORFs, and plotting average and transcript-specific aspects of the data. Methods are also provided for extracting the data in a form suitable for differential analysis of translation and translational efficiency.
Paclitaxel-Induced FasL-Independent Apoptosis and Slow (Non-Apoptotic) Cell Death

Microtubule-active drugs, including paclitaxel (Taxol, PTX), cause mitotic arrest, and this can result in apoptosis. A recently study has reported that PTX mediates apoptosis by upregulating FasL in Jurkat and MDA-231 cells. In contrast to the previous report, we found that anti-FasL antibodies failed to inhibit PTX-induced apoptosis in Jurkat cells. In MDA-231 cells, neither FasL nor PTX induced apoptosis. In these cells, PTX caused slow cell death without activation of caspase-3 or -8 or PARP cleavage. Doxorubicin at cytostatic concentrations did not affect FasL-induced apoptosis but inhibited PTX-induced apoptosis in Jurkat cells. Following PTX-induced mitotic arrest Jurkat cells undergo apoptosis, whereas MDA-MB-231 cells exit mitosis and form multinucleated cells which then die in a slower non-apoptotic manner.
Life on The Edge: Adaptation Versus Environmentally Mediated Gene Flow in The Snow Buttercup, Ranunculus Adoneus

We used experimental transplant studies to understand how dispersal and habitatspecific selection interact to influence plant populations occupying heterogeneous environments. The snow buttercup (Ranunculus adoneus) occupies a steep ecological and flowering time gradient caused by persistent snowmelt differences within its snow bed habitat. We transplanted seeds, seedlings, and adults to learn about the potential interactions between dispersal and selection. We found that adaptive differentiation is not occurring along the snowmelt gradient, despite striking differences in microhabitat conditions and reproductive phenology between early‐ and latemelting sites. Instead, our results imply that environmentally based differences in seed quality are contributing to directional gene flow from early‐melting locations toward latemelting locations. Emergence and early survival of seedlings is greater in late‐melting sites in some years, but the larger seeds produced by maternal plants in early‐melting locations consistently have a fitness advantage in all parts of the snow bed. Larger seeds survive longer in the soil and have a second peak of seedling emergence in their third year, but these late‐emerging seedlings are successful only if dispersed to less vegetated, late‐melting destinations. The longer growing season in earlymelting sites enhances vegetative growth at all life‐history stages and increases fecundity of seedling transplants but also limits the opportunity for establishment from seed. Our demographic analysis suggests that maternal environmental effects on propagule quality can lead to directional gene flow from benign to marginal sites in populations occupying heterogeneous habitats.
Variable Selection in Tourism Market Segmentation Models

This study segments a zoological park market by vacationers versus nonvacationers and in-state versus out-of-state visitors. As predicted by using the level of discourse theory, the segments differed little in demographic characteristics; however, several differences appeared in trip characteristics, motives, satisfaction, and factors affecting enjoyment. Results suggest marketing strategies to implement.
The importance of experimental time when assessing the effect of temperature on toxicity in poikilotherms

Temperature is an important factor affecting toxicity, determining chemical toxicokinetics and toxicodynamics in poikilothermic organisms. Because metabolic rates are also affected by temperature, interactions between the emergence of toxic effects and time are very likely. The aim of the present study was to investigate how temperature affects the toxicity of copper toward the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans when measured during short, fixed time frames compared with full life cycles. Copper toxicity was tested in 2 experiments at 4 or 6 temperatures in the range of 11 °C to 24 °C, with Cu concentrations spanning from 1 mg Cu/L agar to 40 mg Cu/L agar, respectively. Reproduction and mortality were determined across the entire life cycle, and the time to production of first egg and the population growth rate were calculated. The results showed that the 50% effect concentrations (EC50s) of Cu increased 1.5‐fold to 2.5‐fold with increasing temperature within the tested range, depending on endpoint. When calculating EC50 on reproduction after 24 h or 96 h, the typical setup for temperature‐chemical interaction studies, results ranged from no temperature effect to effects much larger than those for the full life cycle. Studies of temperature effects on toxicity must therefore be carefully designed in relation to the research question being investigated. Environ Toxicol Chem 2014;33:1363–1371. © 2014 SETAC
Violence or Economics: What Drives Internal Migration in Guatemala?

Politically motivated violence has plagued Guatemala since 1966. The first wave of terror coincided with an antiguerilla offensive launched by the government in late 1966. 2 waves of terror began in 1969 and 1970. The 4th wave of terror began in 1978 with the highest level of political violence ever. 1524 individuals were killed by the guerrillas the military and death squads during the 1966-76 period but a recent study estimated that in 1986 100000-250000 individuals had moved within Guatemala to escape political violence. Another 150000-360000 had fled guatemala to live in other countries between 31. and 7.5% of the national population. The analytical core of Harris-Todaro-type model was modified to analyze the effect of violence on the migration decision. The most common dependent variable used in reduced-form migration equations was the probability of migrating from one location to another. Source and destination unemployment were entered into the migration equation from the 1981 census. Per capita government spending was entered into the migration equation to test whether governments contribution to aggregate demand was important in attracting migrants. The first measure of violence used in the regressions was the number of politically motivated killings carried out in a department from 1966-1976. The second violence measure was per capita corpses found of individuals who had been killed for some political end. Violence did have an impact on migration flows at least when measured by assassinations. The percentage difference between per capita assassinations in origin and destination areas was statistically significant. The sign and 5-statistic on the assassinations-squared variable suggested that higher levels of violence might cause the migration response to intensify but this variable was significant only at the 20% level. Both violence variables were statistically significant and increased origin violence did spur out-migration.
An over-67-GHz-bandwidth 2 Vppd linear differential amplifier with gain control in 0.25-µm InP DHBT technology

In this report, a differential linear amplifier for high-symbol-rate multilevel transmission is presented. We designed and fabricated the amplifier IC by using newly developed in-house 0.25-μm InP DHBT technology, which yields peak ft and fmax of over 400 GHz. This amplifier consists of lumped variable-gain amplifier and distributed output buffer for achieving large gain control range and ultra-broadband performance. The -3 dB bandwidth and the differential gain are over 67 GHz and 10.7 dB, respectively. Output return loss is better than -10 dB up to 63 GHz. In addition to the ultra-broadband characteristics, nearly 10-dB variable gain range are obtained. The amplifier provides clear output waveform at a symbol rates up to 100 Gbaud with NRZ signal, and up to 56 Gbaud with PAM4 signal respectively.
Trend of age at first calving.

Mean ages at first calving were computed from over 6 million cow records from 1960 through 1982 for six breeds. Average Jerseys first calved at 26.18 mo compared with 28.75 mo for Ayrshires. Other breed means were intermediate: Holsteins, 27.52 mo; Guernseys, 27.72 mo; Brown Swiss, 28.04 mo; and Milking Shorthorns, 28.11 mo. Mean age at first calving in 1982 was . 16 to . 32 mo less than for all data. Standard deviations of annual mean ages were similar and ranged from 3.23 to 3.67 mo for the 138 breed-year means. Frequency distributions for calving ages were skewed to the left. Cows born from January through March were about . 5 mo older at first calving than those born in August and September for most breeds. Annual means did not show a significant trend although all breeds had highest means around 1976 and regressions of age on year of -. 075 to -. 111 mo per year for 1976 through 1982. Heifer fertility as indicated by age at first calving did not appear to change over 23 yr.
The internationalization of industrial relations? Japanese and US multinational companies in Vietnam

This study examines the interaction between ‘home’ and ‘host’ country in influencing the industrial relations (IR) of multinational company (MNC) subsidiaries. Using US and Japanese MNCs in Vietnam, we investigate the transfer of their IR into a developing host country where the environment is centralized, highly regulated, but weak. Investigating the IR reform, trade union structure, leadership, resources, expected roles and responsibilities and the constraints trade unions meet, we point out that the roles of Vietnamese trade unions are limited to administrative functions and the provision of welfare-type services for employees. Given this, MNCs drop their home practices and cooperate with unions and paternalistic strategies towards employees.
Brain-to-brain hyperclassification reveals action-specific motor mapping of observed actions in humans

Seeing an action may activate the corresponding action motor code in the observer. It remains unresolved whether seeing and performing an action activates similar action-specific motor codes in the observer and the actor. We used novel hyperclassification approach to reveal shared brain activation signatures of action execution and observation in interacting human subjects. In the first experiment, two "actors" performed four types of hand actions while their haemodynamic brain activations were measured with 3-T functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The actions were videotaped and shown to 15 "observers" during a second fMRI experiment. Eleven observers saw the videos of one actor, and the remaining four observers saw the videos of the other actor. In a control fMRI experiment, one of the actors performed actions with closed eyes, and five new observers viewed these actions. Bayesian canonical correlation analysis was applied to functionally realign observers' and actors' fMRI data. Hyperclassification of the seen actions was performed with Bayesian logistic regression trained on actors' data and tested with observers' data. Without the functional realignment, between-subjects accuracy was at chance level. With the realignment, the accuracy increased on average by 15 percentage points, exceeding both the chance level and the accuracy without functional realignment. The highest accuracies were observed in occipital, parietal and premotor cortices. Hyperclassification exceeded chance level also when the actor did not see her own actions. We conclude that the functional brain activation signatures underlying action execution and observation are partly shared, yet these activation signatures may be anatomically misaligned across individuals.
SYMPOSIUM on forecasting the state of the public finances

The level of public borrowing plays a central role in UK government policymaking, especially in the run-up to each Budget. Accurate forecasts of the overall fiscal stance are crucial in assessing the general health of the economy, the direction of tax policy and the volume of public services that can be supplied. But these forecasts have a relatively poor record in the UK in recent years. The government’s last Financial Statement and Budget Report noted that ‘The budget deficit is the difference between two large aggregates of spending and receipts and forecasts of it are inevitably subject to a wide margin of error. Over the past five years the average absolute errors have been around 1 per cent of GDP, or plus or minus £8 billion in today’s prices’.
Early Failures in Total Knee Arthroplasty

Total knee arthroplasty is a predictable operation. Unfortunately, there is a subset of patients who do not do well and require revision surgery within the first 5 years. The purpose of the current study was to analyze the mechanisms of failure in patients who had revision surgery within 5 years of their index arthroplasty. Between 1986 and 1999, 440 patients with total knee arthroplasties were referred for revision surgery. An analysis of patients in whom the arthroplasties failed within 5 years of the index arthroplasty and the reasons for early failure were documented. Of the 440 patients who had revision surgery, 279 (63%) had revision surgery within 5 years of their index arthroplasty: 105 of the 279 patients with early failures (38%) had revision surgery because of infection; 74 (27%) had revision surgery because of instability; 37 (13%) had revision surgery because of failure of ingrowth of a porous-coated implant; 22 (8%) had revision surgery because of patellofemoral problems; and 21 (7%) had revision surgery because of wear or osteolysis. Only eight of the 279 patients with early failures (3%) had revision surgery because of aseptic loosening of a cemented implant. The remaining 12 patients had revision surgery because of miscellaneous problems. Host factors may prevent infection from ever being eradicated totally. The two other major patterns of failure in this series were failure of cementless fixation and instability. If all of the arthroplasties in the patients in this early failure group would have been cemented routinely and balanced carefully, the total number of early revisions would have decreased by approximately 40%, and the overall failures would have been reduced by 25%.
Climate change and water resources in the Lower Mekong River Basin: putting adaptation into the context

Adaptation to climate change has become one of the focal points of current development discussion. This article summarises the findings from a multidisciplinary research project looking at climate change impacts and adaptation in the Mekong River Basin in Southeast Asia. The research highlights the central role that the hydrological cycle has in mediating climate change impacts on ecosystems and societies. The findings indicate that climate change should not be studied in isolation, as there are several other factors that are affecting the hydrological cycle. In the Mekong, the most important such factor is the on-going hydropower development that is likely to induce changes at least as radical as climate change, but with shorter timescales. The article concludes that climate change adaptation should broaden its view to consider environmental changes likely to occur due to different factors at various spatial and temporal scales. It is also important to recognise that climate change adaptation is a dynamic, development-orientated process that should consider also broader socio-political context. To enable this, we propose that an area-based adaptation approach should be used more actively to complement the dominant sector-based approaches.