Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Measuring the effect of bi-directional migration remittances on poverty and inequality in Nicaragua

This article examines the impact of migrants’ remittances on poverty and income distribution in Nicaragua. Nicaraguan emigrants are fairly evenly distributed between the US and Costa Rica. Poorer migrants overwhelmingly migrate to Costa Rica; richer migrants favour the US. This bi-directional flow provides an opportunity to examine the distributional impacts of remittances in a situation that offers distinct opportunities to different groups of prospective migrants. To this end, we use Heckman's (1979) sample selection method to predict counterfactual ‘no-migration’ consumption figures for Nicaraguan households whose members have emigrated. Using these estimates, we are able to compare the current situation to one in which migration had not occurred. We find that migration to Costa Rica results in increased per capita household consumption for poor households, while migration to the US leads to increase in middle class households. The rate, depth and severity of poverty as measured by the Foster, Greer, Thorbecke Indices (Foster et al., 1984) decrease, though only slightly. However, inequality appears to increase, likely because the middle class benefits from US migration, while the poor tend to make it no farther than Costa Rica.
High Performance and Privacy for Distributed Energy Management: Introducing PrivADE+ and PPPM

Distributed Energy Management (DEM) will play a vital role in future smart grids. An important and often overlooked factor in this concept is privacy. This paper presents two privacy-preserving DEM algorithms called PrivADE+ and PPPM. PrivADE+ uses a round-based energy management procedure for switchable and dynamically adaptable loads. PPPM utilises on the market-based PowerMatcher approach. Both algorithms apply homomorphic encryption to privately gather aggregated data and exchange commands. Simulations show that PrivADE+ and PPPM achieve good energy management quality with low communication requirements and without negative influences on robustness.
Multiplexed Long-Base Flexible Optical Fiber Extensometers and Temperature Bragg Sensors Interrogated by Low-Coherence Interferometry

We present a novel concept of quasi-distributed flexible optical fiber extensometers fully compensated from thermal variations. Developed for structural health monitoring applications, the sensors are composed of a combination of intrinsic Fabry-Perot cavities as long-base extensometers, and point-like Bragg gratings inserted along the same fiber used as temperature sensors. This configuration enables a high degree of multiplexing, thus quasi-distributed sensing, and very efficient temperature compensation. Both types of sensors are read by a fiber-optic low-coherence interferometer, used in an original way to measure simultaneously the length variations of the cavities and the wavelength shifts of the Bragg gratings. Finally, we present the experimental validation of the whole measurement system, suitable for concrete structures instrumentation, as it includes an original optical fiber sheath packaging the optical fiber as a flexible sensor.
Monetary Policy and Inflation in the 1980s: A Personal View

This paper, which was written as a part of the NBER project on American economic policy in the 1980s, reviews some of the major changes in monetary policy during that period. The paper tries to explain why policies changed in the way that they did and looks particularly at the role of economists and economic analysis in shaping those developments.
Quantitation of herpes simplex virus type 1 RNA in infected HeLa cells

We have quantitatively analyzed the size and amount of herpes simplex virus (HSV)-specific RNA synthesized in HeLa cells using DNA and RNA excess hybridization. At 2 h after infection (early), transcripts from 20% of the total HSV DNA are present on polyribosomes as poly(A+) RNA. At this time, viral poly(A+) RNA comprises 60 to 75% of the newly synthesized poly(a+) mRNA on polyribosomes. By 6 h after infection (late), poly(A+) HSV RNA transcribed from 35 to 40% of the viral DNA is found on polyribosomes. These viral poly(A+) transcripts comprised as much as 90% of newly synthesized poly(A+) mRNA and are measurably larger than viral poly(A+) transcripts isolated early. Some but not all of this size difference is due to the fact that the poly(A) tails on early transcripts are shorter than those found on transcripts made late. Even late after infection, a small but readily measurable amount of cellular poly(A+) RNA is still being made and entering polyribosome complexes. In the nucleus, late after infection, poly(A+) HSV RNA is complementary to 50% of the total HSV DNA. Both early and late after infection, total nuclear viral transcripts are, on the average, larger than viral transcripts found on polyribosomes; however, nuclear HSV poly(A+) RNA is not measureably larger than the corresponding cytoplasmic viral poly(A+) sequences at either time. A major portion (30 to 40%) of the polyribosomal HSV RNA made either early or late after infection is not polyadenylated. This HSV poly (A-) RNA is transcribed from the same sequences as HSV poly(A+) RNA but, when labeled and isolated either early or late after infection, both nuclear and polyribosomal viral poly(A-) RNA molecules sediment faster in sucrose-formaldehyde gradients than their polyadenylated counterparts.
Women in “Reformasi” Aspects of Women's Activism in Jakarta

ABSTRACT This article documents and analyses the role of women's groups in the events of May 1998 in Jakarta, Indonesia. It argues that the May crisis, especially the gang rapes of Indonesian women of Chinese descent, forced activist women's groups in Jakarta to unite and develop common strategies and arguments. The emerging Indonesian women's movement focusses on two key issues: violence against women and the use of international agreements, especially United Nations instruments, to pressure the Indonesian government. The article suggests that the energetic activities of organized women's groups have put the women's movement in a position where it can have a significant impact on the policies and practices of the new Indonesia. The article is based on both field work and formal and informal written data.
Power sharing of parallel operated DC-DC converters using current-limiting droop control

In this paper, a nonlinear current-limiting droop controller is proposed to achieve accurate power sharing among parallel operated DC-DC boost converters in a DC micro-grid application. In particular, the recently developed robust droop controller is adopted and implemented as a dynamic virtual resistance in series with the inductance of each DC-DC boost converter. Opposed to the traditional approaches that use small-signal modeling, the proposed control design takes into account the accurate nonlinear dynamic model of each converter and it is analytically proven that accurate power sharing can be accomplished with an inherent current limitation for each converter independently using input-to-state stability theory. When the load requests more power that exceeds the capacity of the converters, the current-limiting capability of the proposed control method protects the devices by limiting the inductor current of each converter below a given maximum value. Extensive simulation results of two paralleled DC-DC boost converters are presented to verify the power sharing and current-limiting properties of the proposed controller under several changes of the load.
Wagner's law in 19th century Greece: a cointegrtion and causality analysis

The validity of Wagner’s law, which states that the growth of public expenditure can be explained as a result of the increase in economic activity, is tested for Greece during the period 1833-1938. This represents a period of growth, industrialisation and modernisation of the economy, conditions which should be conducive to Wagner’s law. In addition, the long data sample ensures the reliability of the results in terms of economic significance and statistical inference. Cointegration analysis provides positive evidence for the existence of a long-run relationship between government expenditure and national income, and Granger causality tests indicate that causality runs from income to government expenditure. The results support Wagner’s hypothesis, in line with other empirical studies examining the validity of the hypothesis in 19th century economies.
Compact Quiescent Galaxies in the DEEP2 Redshift Survey

Compact quiescent galaxies in the redshift range 0.5 < z < 1.1 are the missing link needed to complete the evolutionary histories of these objects from the high-redshift z 2 Universe to the local z ⇠ 0 Universe. We identify a sample of 52 intermediateredshift compact quiescent galaxies, with sizes at most half of the size of their z ⇠ 0 counterparts of the same mass, by searching the DEEP2 Redshift Survey in conjunction with derived spectroscopic and structural properties. The compact quiescent galaxies have half-light radii ranging from 0.45  Re,c  5.01 kpc (mean Re,c = 1.62 kpc) and dynamical masses ranging from 1.20⇥10  Mdyn  2.45⇥10 M (mean Mdyn = 1.35⇥10 M ). In addition to having structural properties that bridge the gap between their highand low-redshift counterparts, our sample of intermediateredshift quiescent galaxies spans a large range of ages but is drawn from two distinct epochs of star formation quenching: quenching at z > 2 which suggests these objects may be the predecessors of the observed high-redshift compact galaxies and quenching at z  2 which suggests there is an additional population of more recently formed quiescent compact galaxies. Furthermore, initial comparisons of the stellar and dynamical masses of these compact quiescent objects suggest that a bottomheavy initial mass function (IMF) is unphysical for these galaxies. This is in tension with recent IMF developments that claim the IMF for massive, early-type galaxies becomes increasing bottom-heavy as velocity dispersion increases.
Proline‐mediated enhancement of hepatocyte function in a collagen gel sandwich culture configuration

Isolated rat primary hepatocytes were cultured between two layers of gelled collagen in a sandwich configuration that reinstates the cellular polarity necessary for long‐term function in vitro. Maintenance of hepatocyte function, as measured by the secretion of albumin, was shown to be dependent on both the sandwich gel configuration and the continued presence of l‐proline in the culture media. Cis‐hydroxyproline, an analog of proline known to prevent the proper folding of triple helical collagen molecules, inhibited the response of sandwiched hepatocytes to proline in a dose‐dependent and reversible manner. The addition of cis‐hydroxyproline to cultures established for 7 days also resulted in the inhibition of hepatocyte function. These data support the hypothesis that continued collagen synthesis by hepatocytes is critical for hepatocyte function in the sandwich gel configuration. —Lee, J., Morgan, J. R. , Tompkins, R. G. , Yarmush, M. L. Proline‐mediated enhancement of hepatocyte function in a collagen gel sandwich culture configuration. FASEB J. 7: 586‐591; 1993.
Repeat Consumption Recommendation Based on Users Preference Dynamics and Side Information

We present a Coupled Tensor Factorization model to recommend items with repeat consumption over time. We introduce a measure that captures the rate with which the preferences of each user shift over time. Repeat consumption recommendations are generated based on factorizing the coupled tensor, by weighting the importance of past user preferences according to the captured rate. We also propose a variant, where the diversity of the side information is taken into account, by higher weighting users that have more rare side information. Our experiments with real-world datasets from last.fm and MovieLens demonstrate that the proposed models outperform several baselines.
Green tea polyphenol treatment attenuates atherosclerosis in high-fat diet-fed apolipoprotein E-knockout mice via alleviating dyslipidemia and up-regulating autophagy

Background: Green tea polyphenol (GTP) is a polyphenol source from green tea that has drawn wide attention owing to epidemiological evidence of its beneficial effects in the prevention of cardiovascular disease; the underlying molecular mechanisms of these effects are not well understood. This study aimed to investigate the effects of GTP treatment on autophagy regulation in the vessel wall and lipid metabolism of HFD-fed male ApoE-knockout mice. Methods: Adult male ApoE-knockout mice (n = 30) fed with a high-fat diet (HFD) were treated with either vehicle or GTP (3.2 or 6.4 g/L) administered via drinking water for 15 weeks, and C57BL/6J mice fed with standard chow diet (STD) were used as the control group. Metabolic parameters, expression of key mRNAs and proteins of hepatic lipid metabolism and autophagy in the vessel wall of mice were determined after the 15-week treatment. Results: A HFD induced atherosclerosis formation and lipid metabolism disorders as well as reduced autophagy expression in the vessel wall of ApoE-knockout mice, but GTP treatment alleviated the lipid metabolism disorders, decreased the oxLDL levels in serum, and increased the mRNA and protein expressions of hepatic PPARα and autophagy markers (LC3, Beclin1 and p62) in the vessel wall of ApoE-knockout mice. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that GTP supplementation showed marked suppression of atherogenesis through improved lipid metabolism as well as through a direct impact on oxLDL and autophagy flux in the vessel wall.
Conceptual and Policy Issues in Rules of Origin: Implications for SAPTA and SAFTA

Rules of origin are applied in both preferential and non-preferential trading regimes. The system of rules of origin has been a very useful mechanism in identi fying the origin of goods for the adoption of various commercial policies such as anti-dumping duties, countervailing duties and voluntary restraint arrangements. It has also been used in preventing trade deflection in regional trading arrange ments. The present article argues that it also plays a developmental role in a coun try or region. However, rules of origin should be designed in a manner that is not trade restricting. They should not become trade barriers due to their complex methods of implementation. The countries of SAARC have been making progress on various fronts of regional economic cooperation. In this context, the present study weighs the pros and cons of relaxation of the rules of origin requirements under the SAPTA regime. As SAARC countries progress from SAPTA to SAFTA, an efficacious sys tem of granting originating status to products would be required. The article also tries to evolve an approach for setting in place a SAFTA rules of origin system by taking into account various SAARC region-specific characteristics. It further takes into consideration the present status of WTO negotiations on non-preferential rules of origin.
Asymmetries in Policy between Exportables and Import-Competing Goods

This paper reexamines current understanding of the political economy of protection. To date, work has centered on determinants of the height of protection and its form - tariffs, quantitative restrictions, and voluntary export restraints. It is argued that examining the structure of protection misses one important piece of evidence - why import-competing industries tend to be more highly protected than industries producing exportables. When the question is cast in this light, a number of new insights emerge, including the importance of earlier protective measures in influencing current protectionist pressures. "Identity bias", whereby political decisions can be asymmetric between winners and losers, depending on whose identity is known, is introduced.
Early Life Recorded in Archean Pillow Lavas

Pillow lava rims from the Mesoarchean Barberton Greenstone Belt in South Africa contain micrometer-scale mineralized tubes that provide evidence of submarine microbial activity during the early history of Earth. The tubes formed during microbial etching of glass along fractures, as seen in pillow lavas from recent oceanic crust. The margins of the tubes contain organic carbon, and many of the pillow rims exhibit isotopically light bulk-rock carbonate δ13C values, supporting their biogenic origin. Overlapping metamorphic and magmatic dates from the pillow lavas suggest that microbial life colonized these subaqueous volcanic rocks soon after their eruption almost 3.5 billion years ago.
Coliform mastitis.

Gram-negative bacteria that commonly cause bovine mastitis are classified as environmental pathogens. The point sources of coliform bacteria that cause infections include bedding materials, soil, manure and other organic matter in the environment of cows. Rates of coliform mastitis increase during climatic periods that maximize populations in the environment. The portal of entry into the mammary gland for Gram-negative bacteria is the teat canal. Once in the gland, bacteria must utilize available substrates in the mammary secretion to replicate and evade host defenses. Rates of coliform mastitis are greater during the transitional phases of the non- lactating period than during lactation. The ability to infect the non-lactating gland is directly related to the ability of bacteria to acquire iron from the mammary secretion. The primary host defense against coliform mastitis during lactation is the elimination of bacteria by neutrophils migrating into the gland in response to inflammation. Damage to the host is mediated by the release of endotoxin. The severity and duration of clinical signs associated with coliform mastitis are reduced by the use of core-antigen bacterins.
Effect of increasing levels of wasted date palm on digestion, rumen fermentation and microbial protein synthesis in sheep

This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of increasing levels of wasted date (WD) in sheep (initial body weight 50 ± 2.3 kg) diets on apparent diet digestibility, rumen fermentation and microbial protein synthesis. The experimental diets contained 0 (0 WD), 9% (9 WD), 18% (18 WD) or 27% (27 WD) of wasted dates. These diets were evaluated through a 4 × 4 Latin square design with four 28-day periods. Sheep were individually housed in metabolic cages and were fed diets ad libitum. To keep the diets isoenergetic and isonitrogenous, increasing partial replacement of WD for barley grain was used with increasing levels of soya bean meal. Increasing the amount of WD in diets of sheep did not influence (p > 0.05) diet intake and digestibility of nutrients. Inclusion of WD in diets of sheep did not affect (p > 0.05) ruminal pH but decreased (p < 0.05) NH3 -N concentration and blood urea nitrogen. Also there was no effect (p > 0.05) of the WD provision on N intake and faecal N loss of experimental animals, but urinary nitrogen excretion and retained nitrogen were affected (p < 0.05) by dietary treatments. Purine derivatives and microbial protein synthesis increased (p < 0.05) linearly with the level of WD in the diet. In conclusion, the increase in microbial protein synthesis and concomitant reduction in ruminal NH3 -N concentration and blood urea nitrogen in response to wasted date supply suggest improved efficiency of ruminal nitrogen metabolism without adverse effects on fermentation characteristics and animal performance.
Characterization of Newcastle disease viruses isolated in Italy in 2000

Thirty-two Newcastle disease virus isolates from the 2000 Italian epidemic were characterized by monoclonal antibody binding pattern and nucleotide sequencing of approximately 400 base pairs of the fusion gene. In addition, the pathogenicity of six of these isolates was assessed by means of the intracerebral pathogenicity test (ICPI). The strains tested exhibited an ICPI ranging from 1.6 to 2.0. On the basis of the monoclonal antibody binding pattern, all isolates could be classified as belonging to group C1. Both monoclonal antibody and genomic analysis revealed a very high degree of homology, indicating a common source of infection. On the basis of the phylogenetic analysis, it appears that the Italian isolates are closely related to the recent isolates from the UK, Scandinavia and South East Europe, thus suggesting the circulation of this viral strain in Europe during the past 5 years.
Under What Conditions Can Inflation Targeting Be Adopted?: The Experience of Emerging Markets

While there have been numerous studies of inflation targeting in industrial countries, there has been much less analysis of the effects of inflation targeting in emerging market countries. Based on a new and detailed survey of 31 central banks, this paper shows that inflation targeting in emerging-market countries brings significant benefits to the countries that adopt it relative to other strategies, such as money or exchange rate targeting. Indeed, by comparing the performance of the inflation-targeting countries with a sample of countries that pursue other regimes we show that there are significant improvements in anchoring both inflation and inflation expectations with no adverse effects on output. In addition, under inflation targeting interest rates, exchange rates, and international reserves are less volatile, and the risk of currency crises relative to money or exchange rate targets is smaller. Interestingly, IT seems to outperform exchange rate pegs—even when only successful pegs are chosen in comparison. The survey evidence indicates that it is unnecessary for countries to meet a stringent set of institutional, technical, and economic “preconditions” for the successful adoption of inflation targeting.
Facial Expression Recognition System using Case Based Reasoning

We present a new method for recognizing facial expressions for applications such as intelligent desktops. This system deals with different users in a profile based manner. Hence, response is specific to a particular user. The facial expression recognition module uses a case-based reasoning system for user-specific output. The results of our system become more and more accurate with learning over time as the system adapts itself to a particular user. In this paper we focus on the techniques utilized for embedding case based reasoning system for facial expression recognition.
A Stairway Detection Algorithm based on Vision for UGV Stair Climbing

In the paper, we present a vision based algorithm used to guide the unmanned ground vehicles (UGV) for autonomous stairways climbing and implement it on UGV successfully. The reliability of guiding UGV to climb stairs requires evaluating two offset parameters: the position of vehicle on stairs and the orientation angle to stairs. The intention of our algorithm is to estimate these two parameters through extracting the stair edges robustly. To achieve this goal, we apply the Gabor filter to eliminate the influence of the illumination and keep edges, and propose a fast method to remove small lines. Finally we link stair edges, and estimate the offset parameters used to steer the vehicle by RANSAC algorithm. Experiments on various stairways including indoor and outdoor are given in various light conditions. The results validate our algorithm.