Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Performance of reduced-tillage cropping systems for sustainable grain production in Maryland.

Sustainable production systems are needed to maintain soil resources and reduce environmental contamination on erodible lands that are incompatible with tillage-intensive operations. A long-term cropping systems comparison was established at Beltsville, Maryland, on a site with 2 to 15% slope to evaluate the efficacy of sustainable strategies compatible with reduced-tillage systems. All systems followed a 2-year rotation of corn the first year and winter wheat followed by soybean the second year. Treatments included (1) no-tillage system with recommended fertilizer and herbicide inputs, (2) crownvetch living mulch system with similar inputs to the no-tillage system, (3) cover crop system including a hairy vetch cover crop before corn and a wheat cover crop before soybean with reduced fertilizer and herbicide inputs, and (4) manure system including crimson clover green manure plus cow manure for nutrient sources, chisel plow/disk for incorporating manure, and rotary hoe plus cultivation for weed control. Results from the initial 4 years demonstrated the relative productivity of these systems. Corn yields were similar in the no-tillage and cover crop systems in each year; both systems averaged 7.8 Mg ha -1 compared to 5.7 Mg ha -1 in both the crownvetch and manure systems. Wheat yields were highest in the manure system in the first 2 years and in the crownvetch system in the last 2 years. Soybean yields were highest in the cover crop system in all years. The manure system usually had lower yields than the highest yielding systems, partly because of competition from uncontrolled weeds. Several measures of the efficiency of grain production were evaluated. The no-tillage system produced the most grain per total vegetative biomass throughout the rotation. The cover crop system produced the most grain per unit of external nitrogen input and, along with the no-tillage system, had the highest corn water-use efficiency. The cover crop system also recycled the most vegetative residues and nutrients of all systems. No single system performed best according to all measures of comparison, suggesting that trade-offs will be required when choosing production systems.
A Review of Suicide within the State Hospital, Carstairs 1972–1996

This retrospective case note review describes the demographic, forensic and psychiatric backgrounds of 14 in-patient suicides in a maximum secure hospital. The majority were schizophrenic with chronic treatment-resistant illnesses, who had committed proportionally more violent offences, had a history of serious self-injury but no recognized clear depressive episodes. This profile is markedly different from that reported in general psychiatric inpatients, out-patients and suicides in prison, but is similar to that described in a maximum secure hospital in the United States and in long-stay patients in Canada. Many of the patients had continued to experience significantly subjective distress over many years. The clinical relevance of this series is discussed in the context of the assessment of suicidal intent in psychotic patients. We speculate that the decrease in in-patient suicides in the State Hospital may be due to a less restrictive ward milieu, increased staff/patient ratios, or the introduction of Clozapine.
The Economics of Nonpoint Pollution Control

A timely literature on the design of economic incentives for nonpoint pollution control has been emerging. We describe the nonpoint pollution control problem, some of the peculiar challenges it poses for policy design, and the policy-related contributions of the theoretical and empirical literature on the economics of nonpoint pollution. Copyright 2001 by Blackwell Publishers Ltd
Rescue of embryonic stem cells from cellular transformation by proteomic stabilization of mutant p53 and conversion into WT conformation

Significance Mutations in p53 lead to cell transformation through the elimination of the WT tumor suppressor activities and the gain of oncogenic ones. In contrast, mouse embryos develop normally, despite the expression of mutant p53. Here, we report that, in ES cells, mutant p53 conformation is shifted to a WT form, leading to transcriptionally active p53 and increased genomic integrity of these cells. Using MS-based proteomics, we were able to isolate a network of interacting proteins that bind mutant p53 and stabilize it to the WT form. These results can serve as a potential platform for p53-based cancer therapy development in the future. p53 is a well-known tumor suppressor that is mutated in over 50% of human cancers. These mutations were shown to exhibit gain of oncogenic function compared with the deletion of the gene. Additionally, p53 has fundamental roles in differentiation and development; nevertheless, mutant p53 mice are viable and develop malignant tumors only on adulthood. We set out to reveal the mechanisms by which embryos are protected from mutant p53–induced transformation using ES cells (ESCs) that express a conformational mutant of p53. We found that, despite harboring mutant p53, the ESCs remain pluripotent and benign and have relatively normal karyotype compared with ESCs knocked out for p53. Additionally, using high-content RNA sequencing, we show that p53 is transcriptionally active in response to DNA damage in mutant ESCs and elevates p53 target genes, such as p21 and btg2. We also show that the conformation of mutant p53 protein in ESCs is stabilized to a WT conformation. Through MS-based interactome analyses, we identified a network of proteins, including the CCT complex, USP7, Aurora kinase, Nedd4, and Trim24, that bind mutant p53 and may shift its conformation to a WT form. We propose this conformational shift as a novel mechanism of maintenance of genomic integrity, despite p53 mutation. Harnessing the ability of these protein interactors to transform the oncogenic mutant p53 to the tumor suppressor WT form can be the basis for future development of p53-targeted cancer therapy.
Orbitofrontal and anterior cingulate cortex neurofibrillary tangle burden is associated with agitation in Alzheimer disease

Few studies evaluate neuropathological correlates of behavioral changes in Alzheimer disease (AD). We identified 31 autopsy patients with a diagnosis of definite AD. Behavioral changes were assessed with the Neuropsychiatric Inventory. Brain sections were collected from bilateral orbitofrontal and left anterior cingulate, superior temporal, inferior parietal, occipital, and hippocampal cortices for quantification of neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) and diffuse and neuritic plaques. Sections from frontal, cingulate, and hippocampal cortices were reviewed for the presence of Lewy bodies (LBs). Hypothesis‐driven correlational analyses were performed by the bootstrap method. Subgroup analyses contrasted a group with high scores of one specific behavior to a group with low scores after equating groups for other behaviors. NFT burden in the left orbitofrontal cortex across all 31 patients significantly correlated with agitation scores (r = 0.41, p < 0.015) and NFTs correlated significantly (r = 0.66, p = 0.004) with higher agitation scores in the subgroup analysis. Left anterior cingulate NFTs, although not within our hypotheses, also showed a significant relationship to agitation within the subgroups (r = 0.76, p = 0.0003; Bonferroni p = 0.02). Seven patients, including three in the agitation subgroup, had cortical LBs. Aberrant motor behavior and NFT density in the left orbitofrontal cortex showed a significant relationship for the entire group (r = 0.38, p < 0.03) and for subgroups (r = 0.49, p = 0.04), whereas apathy and left anterior cingulate NFTs showed a significant relationship only for the entire group (r = 0.25, p ≤ 0.01). These observations suggest that agitation and aberrant motor behavior are correlates of greater NFT pathology in the orbitofrontal cortex in AD, whereas increasing apathy may relate to greater NFT burden in the anterior cingulate. Ann Neurol 2001;49:355–361
Interdealer Inference and Price Discovery

Futures floor dealers are investigated in terms of their joint product of price discovery. A vector error correction model is estimated using floor trader proprietary prices, examining the resulting information shares and common factor components. More active dealers are significant price leaders, with only one fifth of the traders responsible for a significantly higher degree of price discovery. Price leadership is more significant in both volatile and falling markets, when information is perhaps more valuable. It is also found that the most active floor traders generally trade at the same time and in the same direction. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 28: 131–154, 2008
Supporting multicast and broadcast traffic for groups of connected devices

In order to secure the Internet of Things, we have proposed to split connected devices into groups, called communities of devices. Each of those communities connects devices authorized to communicate with each other using a defined set of applications. To isolate information exchanged within each community, the network can be “sliced”, with each slice being dedicated to a community. However, such a network architecture is challenging to the control of multicast and broadcast traffics, especially when each of the devices can pertain to several communities simultaneously. This paper exposes specific issues regarding multicast and broadcast traffic within the described IoT environment. It proposes an appropriate and innovative solution to work around those issues.
HIV type 1 fitness evolution in antiretroviral-experienced patients with sustained CD4+ T cell counts but persistent virologic failure.

BACKGROUND Over recent years, treatment guidelines for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection have evolved from monotherapy to combination regimens that include > or = 3 active drugs, resulting in a sharp decrease in morbidity and mortality. In the present article, we evaluated changes in HIV type 1 viral fitness associated with the sequential introduction of antiretroviral treatment strategies in 4 chronically infected patients with sustained CD4 cell count despite having a persistently detectable viral load. METHODS Plasma samples were obtained before and during treatment to construct recombinant virus containing the 3'-end of gag, the protease and the reverse-transcriptase coding region. Drug susceptibility phenotype was evaluated with a panel of multiple reverse-transcriptase and protease inhibitors. Replicative capacity (RC) and infectivity were measured, and production of p24 was monitored after transfection. RESULTS Multidrug-resistant (MDR) viruses selected during long-term antiretroviral therapy were less fit and infectious than their wild-type or monotherapy-selected counterparts, with the exception of viruses recovered from patient B. In 3 of 4 cases, p24 kinetics after transfection showed a delay in viral production of recombinant viruses containing MDR mutations. Data from the RC and infectivity assays showed good correlation (P < .03) and corroborated the p24 kinetics data. CONCLUSIONS This study shows that accumulation of MDR mutations during long-term antiretroviral treatment results, albeit not in all cases, in reductions of viral fitness.
‘AK47/M16 Rifle – Rs. 15,000 each’: what price peace on the Indo-Burmese frontier?

One of the key tools for achieving India's stated ambition of stopping national fragmentation in the Northeast is the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (1958) (AFSPA). This article assesses Indian Government efforts to manage the parts of the Indo-Burmese borderlands that are subject to this law. It compares the approaches of governments on the Burmese and Indian sides of the frontier and interrogates the financial incentives that complement security policies in their shared borderlands. Economic incentives for ceasefire and disarmament are, I argue, part of a portfolio of pacification and reintegration strategies that are premised on the controlled ambiguities of the borderlands. As such, I argue that the impunities allegedly at the heart of the AFSPA are matched by the freedom of the Indian Government to funnel resources into paying off its enemies. In the Indian case, the wider environment in which the AFSPA is implemented cannot be ignored if a full analysis of its 50 years of operation is to be offered. The implementation of surrender agreements in the ambiguous space of the Indo-Burmese borderlands exemplifies how the Indian Government has prioritised national cohesion above legal, political or economic consistency.
The Structure, Function, and Evolution of a Regional Industrial Ecosystem

A framework has been developed to assess the structure, function, and evolution of a regional industrial ecosystem that integrates insights from industrial ecology and economic geography dimensions with complex systems theory. The framework highlights the multilayered landscape of natural ecosystem functions, economic transactions, policy contexts, and social interactions in which interfirm collaboration evolves. Its application to a single case study on the island of Puerto Rico revealed changes in the system's institutional context, its resource flows, and the composition of its industrial community. It illustrated that external forces and interactions among actors at multiple levels can cause permanent changes—but not necessarily system collapse—as policy choices and interfirm cooperation can be used to organize resources in ways that retain system functionality.
Monetary Regime Change and Business Cycles

This paper analyzes to what extent changes in monetary policy regimes influence the business cycle in a small open economy and investigates the impact of policy breaks on the estimation procedure. We estimate a DSGE model on Swedish data, explicitly taking into account the monetary regime change in 1993, from exchange rate targeting to inflation targeting. The results suggest that monetary policy reacted strongly to exchange rate movements in the former, and mostly to inflation in the latter. The external sector plays an important role in the economy and the international transmission mechanism is significantly affected by the choice of exchange rate regime. A counterfactual experiment that applies the inflation targeting policy rule on the disturbances from the exchange rate targeting period suggests that such a policy would have led to higher output and employment, but also to a depreciated currency, higher inflation and a more volatile economy. We also show evidence that ignoring the break in the estimation leads to spurious results for both the parameters associated with monetary policy as well as those that are policy-independent.
Disparités en matière de santé en cancérologie : exploration de perspectives canadiennes, américaines et internationales

Selon sa vision, l’ACIO/CANO « joue un role de premier plan au niveau national et exerce une influence internationale quant a la promotion de l’excellence des soins infirmiers dans tous les domaines de la lutte contre le cancer ». Toujours selon elle, « les Canadiens, peu importe ou ils en sont dans le continuum du cancer, accedent en temps opportun a des soins infirmiers de haute qualite » (ACIO/CANO, p. 8*). C’est dans cette optique qu’un groupe d’experts representant toute une gamme de perspectives nationales et internationales a ete forme en vue d’explorer les iniquites en matiere de sante dans le domaine de la cancerologie lors de la 25 e conference annuelle de l’ACIO/CANO tenue a Vancouver en octobre 2013. Le groupe se composait des experts suivants en recherche sur les disparites en matiere de sante (Colleen Varcoe et Christina Sinding), anciennes presidentes de l’Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) (Mary Gullatte) et de l’International Society of Nurses in Cancer Care (ISNCC) (Greta Cummings) et, une experte du Partenariat canadien contre le cancer (Margaret Fitch). Les infirmieres et infirmiers en oncologie sont exceptionnellement bien places pour exercer une influence positive sur l’equite dans les soins de sante en cancerologie et ce, aux niveaux national et international. Les presentations des membres du groupe sont resumees ci-dessous.
Urban Development with Lags

Abstract This paper specifies a model of urban development under uncertainty when there is a lag between the decision to begin a project and its completion. These lags have three important effects. First, the deterrent effect of uncertainty on development is smaller with lags than without them. Second, in some cases, development occurs later under uncertainty than with certainty. Third, lags may lead to leapfrog development, when distant land is developed prior to nearby land.
Partial adherence to antipsychotic medication impacts the course of illness in patients with schizophrenia: a review.

OBJECTIVE Although many clinicians acknowledge the occurrence of adherence problems with medication regimens among patients with schizophrenia, the problem shows no sign of improving. This may be because, in thinking about the issue, clinicians have tended to focus on patients who openly refuse or repeatedly discontinue treatment. While this description applies to only a minority of patients, in our experience, full adherence is rare; most patients are only partially adherent at best. This article examines the issue of adherence behavior in schizophrenia, focusing on the impact of partial adherence on treatment outcomes, particularly early in the course of illness. We also review potential strategies for managing the problem. DATA SOURCES Original research and review articles published in English from 1980 to 2008 were identified using the PubMed database, with the search terms schizophrenia or psychosis combined with compliance, noncompliance, partial compliance, adherence, nonadherence, or partial adherence. STUDY SELECTION Articles were selected by the authors on the basis of the hypotheses and/or data described. DATA SYNTHESIS Failure to adhere to medication as prescribed can have a major impact on the course of illness and treatment outcomes in patients with schizophrenia. Even relatively short gaps in medication coverage increase the risk of relapse. Problems with adherence are common early in the course of illness, when the consequences of relapse can be particularly devastating. CONCLUSION Clinicians in primary care and psychiatric settings need to be vigilant for signs of adherence problems among their patients and to act when necessary to prevent or alleviate the consequences of inadequate medication cover. Relapse prevention strategies, particularly for patients with early psychosis, should include ensuring that medication lapses are minimized or eliminated.
Inflation targeting and Keynes's political economy

This paper argues that inflation targeting, in the manner proposed by the "new consensus" in macroeconomics, is not a socially desirable monetary policy strategy and is not compatible with Keynes's political economy. Inflation targeting is likely to cause distributional changes that benefit rentiers, which, in turn, might operate as a source of deficient demand, unemployment, and low growth rates of gross domestic product. The econometric analysis that appears in this paper uses panel data for a sample of 13 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries and assesses the relevance of some of Keynes's monetary hypotheses. The findings provide support that rentiers' income influences negatively both the aggregate demand growth and the unemployment rate.
Outback Steakhouse in Korea

Outback Steakhouse Korea has proven to be a successful casual-dining transplant from the United States. Highlighting the company's competitive advantages and core competencies, this study describes the critical success factors for this restaurant company. Key among the success factors is a decentralized structure that takes advantage of the business acumen of managing partners. A flexible approach that allowed the Korean chain to respond to the country's cultural patterns and market preferences is balanced with a strict approach to hiring and training.
Participation, Decentralization, and Civil Society

This article examines Australian indigenous participation in environmental planning to challenge some of the claims made by advocates of more participatory modes of planning. Calls for the enhanced participation of civil society in planning are associated with an international trend toward the decentralization and devolution of many areas of natural resource policy and state responsibility. Democratic decentralization has been widely advocated as being more efficient and equitable than state control. These claims are examined with reference to three stories involving environmental planning and Australian indigenous peoples. The stories suggest that rather than a “new political economy of planning” whereby the spaces for democracy are enlarged by the activities of civil society, the participation of civil society and decentralization can result in political processes whereby public deliberation is suborned by interest group politics.
The Impact of Taxation and Valuation Practices on the Timing and Efficiency of Land Use

It is generally assumed that a tax on land ownership is always neutral toward resource allocation. Where land rentals change over time it is shown that the tax is neutral only where the tax base is current income as distinct from current market value. Taxes based on current market value are shown to favor investment projects with a short gestation period and to involve significant resource costs. These costs are considerably reduced if property appraisers, in assessing current market value, interpret the "highest and best use" of a property as that use which offers the greatest current income as opposed to its future income.
Biochar use in forestry and tree-based agro-ecosystems for increasing climate change mitigation and adaptation

This study reviews the potential use of biochar as soil amendment in afforestation, reforestation, agroforestry, fruit tree orchards, and bio-energy plantations. Implementing this practice could sequester large amounts of carbon (C) over the long-term, potentially offsetting anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide, and mitigating climate change. On a global scale, this practice could sequester between 2 and 109.2 Pg biochar-C in 1.75 billion ha of degraded and deforested lands and agroforestry systems. An additional considerable amount could be sequestered in the soil of fruit tree orchards and bio-energy plantations. The anticipated improvement in the quality of the biochar-amended soils is expected to enhance resilience to these land uses, increasing their adaptation capacity to climate change. Yet, specific questions still need to be addressed, for example, the impact of biochar on the availability of nitrogen and potassium for plants in acidic soils and under humid conditions, as well as the impact of biochar on soil and trees in alkaline soils and under Mediterranean or drier conditions. Also, a full assessment of health hazards and environmental risks related to the production of biochar and its application in soil is required. Other questions relate to the environmental and economic costs of biochar application. Therefore, life cycle assessments and economic calculations should be conducted on a site-specific basis and include the practices of feedstock collection, transportation, processing, and spreading. International actions should regulate biochar practice as an eligible means for funding under the C finance mechanism. Specifically, payments should be provided to landowners for accomplishing ecosystem services.
People's empowerment from the people's perspective

Empowerment of poor people is the declared aim of many NGOs and official development agencies. However, the failure to recognise the culture of poor people, and to use their own forms of organisation as a point of departure, means that many such programmes are in fact counter-productive. This article argues that NGOs which wish to support people's empowerment need to demonstrate their faith in poor people by respecting and supporting their own decisions.