Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Predacious Yeasts

Haustorium‐mediated predation was observed in seven yeast species. Arthroascus javanensis, Botryoascus synnaedendrus, Guilliermondella selenospora, Saccharomycopsis fibuligera, and three hitherto unknown species penetrate and kill other yeasts. These yeasts share an unusual requirement for organic sulphur. One isolate recovered from Australian Hibiscus was studied in detail and found to attack a broad range of prey species, including ascomycetous and basidiomycetous yeasts as well as moulds. Predation was most effective when growth was on a solid surface and the medium was poor in complex nutrients. Organic sulphur (exemplified by methionine) was identified as a key factor. It serves as a nutritional benefit to the predator and, depending on the concentration, acts as either an inhibitor of predation or possibly a signal for detection of prey. Sampling of a yeast habitat with a medium selective for selenium‐resistant yeasts indicated that auxotrophic and predacious yeasts might be more widespread than anticipated. ©1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Toward efficiency in the crude-oil market

The ‘official’ (OPEC) prices of crude oil before the collapse in the oil market in the mid-1980s can be interpreted as contract prices and analysed on the basis of the theory of futures (or forward) markets. This paper uses the generalized method of moments estimation technique to test for efficiency in the relationship between the official prices and the ex-post spot prices at the time of delivery. Efficiency is rejected for the sample period 1978–1985 as a whole, but evidence is found of improvements over time. Further, the GMM Wald and Hansen tests, although asymptotically equivalent, are shown to differ greatly when applied to a small sample of monthly oil price data.
A Study of Asian Immigrants in Global City Tokyo

Based on a ten-year research project, this paper examines the process of Asian immigration in Tokyo's inner city areas. Between 1988 and 1998, Asian immigrants have changed from sojourners to settlers. Three distinct stages of Asian immigration had been observed. The first stage was marked by the growing concentration of Asian immigrants in the inner city, the majority of whom were young, unmarried Chinese. During the second stage, those already in Japan started to send for other family members and friends to join them. In the process, ethnic communities spilled over to the adjoining suburbs; social services and support systems also developed to meet the needs of the growing communities. Some of the processes observed during the third stage are increasing diversification of the inner city and the acquisition of Japanese citizenship for some groups such as the Chinese and Taiwanese. New phases of Asian immigration are likely to emerge which may imply further changes for Japanese urban society.
Neuropsychological Outcome Following Unilateral Stereotactic Pallidotomy in Intractable Parkinson's Disease

Neuropsychological functioning was examined at baseline and 2- to 3-month follow-up in 40 subjects with advanced Parkinson's disease (PD) who underwent unilateral posteroventral pallidotomy. Most subjects demonstrated improved verbal learning, visual memory, confrontation naming, and figural fluency at follow-up. Right pallidotomy was associated with decreased cognitive flexibility and increased verbal fluency, whereas Left pallidotomy uniquely resulted in a decline in verbal fluency. Significant motor improvement was demonstrated in both groups. Pallidotomy appears to be an effective treatment for advanced PD, providing a significant improvement in motor functioning, while resulting in few deleterious neurocognitive changes in most cases.
Construction of knowledge about teaching practice and educating students from diverse cultures in an online induction program

Beginning teachers in both urban areas and geographically isolated rural areas often do not have access to a mentor teacher of the same content area or grade level in their school or district. This project is a study of learning in the online e-Mentoring for Student Success (eMSS) program, which provides induction for science and mathematics teachers in Montana and California. The study centered on a particular segment of eMSS called the Diversity Module. Two examinations were conducted: 1) Analysis of discourse by all participants in the Diversity Module, and 2) case study of five beginning teachers with diverse student populations. Analysis of learning by cases was conducted by examining discourse in the Diversity Module, private online discussions with their assigned mentors during a twoyear period, and pre and post Diversity Module interviews and interviews of their mentors. Three frameworks were developed to aid understanding of findings: 1) discourse analysis, 2) competencies of multicultural teachers, and, 3) competencies of pedagogical and pedagogical content knowledge. Cases developed their knowledge of teaching along a continuum of needs over two years of participation in the eMSS program. Initial needs expressed by mentees were in areas such as classroom management and general methods of instruction. Cases increased their knowledge in virtually all aspects of pedagogical knowledge, changing their expressed needs to pedagogical content knowledge concerns such as adapting and differentiating instruction for particular content and individual students, and building their repertoire of instructional representations. Through online discussion, teachers developed or advanced awareness of student culture and learning characteristics, and adapted their practice to foster a climate of student respect. Findings provided little evidence of adapting instruction for diverse student learning. Teachers who had a strong awareness of their own and their students’ cultures advanced their understanding of multicultural teaching competencies further than those who did not. Interview results indicated that learning sometimes takes place in a non-visible manner. Growth in multicultural teaching knowledge, as well as several aspects of pedagogical and pedagogical content knowledge, was clearly evident for participants who posted few messages, but read and actively reflected on thoughts of others.
The relevance of information scent to information seeking on the Web

Based on information foraging theory, the study addressed four research questions and five hypotheses. Participants (N=24, randomly assigned to one of four groups of six participants each) searched for information about different content (skin cancer and heart disease) within two different Websites, one containing high scent links and one containing low scent links. This experiment demonstrated that high information scent Websites significantly decreased perceived task complexity and time on task and increased task accuracy. Conversely, perceived task complexity was not found to be significantly lower in Websites with high information scent. User preference was not significantly higher in Websites with high information scent.
Determinants of Agricultural and Land Management Practices and Impacts on Crop Production and Household Income in the Highlands of Tigray, Ethiopia

This paper investigates the land management practices used in the highlands of Tigray, northern Ethiopia, the factors influencing them and their implications for crop production and income. Several factors commonly hypothesised to have a major impact on land management and agricultural production--including population pressure, small landholdings, access to roads and irrigation and extension and credit programmes--are found to have limited direct impact on crop production and income, though most affect the intensity of production. The increase in farming intensity due to these factors has limited impact on value of crop production and income due to low marginal product of labour in crop production, limited productivity impact of inputs such as fertiliser in the moisture-stressed environment of Tigray and limited adoption of such inputs. We find that profitable opportunities exist to increase agricultural production and achieve more sustainable land management in the highlands of Tigray. These opportunities include improvement of crop production using low-external input investments and practices such as stone terraces, reduced tillage and reduced burning. The comparative advantage of people in the Tigray highlands is apparently not in input-intensive cereal crop production but more in such low-input approaches and in alternative livelihood activities such as improved livestock management and non-farm activities. As a result, greater emphasis on developing these alternatives in agricultural extension--as the government of Tigray has been pursuing more recently with its extension programme--and other development programmes is needed. Food crop production should not be ignored in the development strategy, but more prudent use of external inputs such as fertiliser and improved seeds, and greater emphasis on low external input sustainable land management practices, would be helpful. Copyright 2008 The author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Centre for the Study of African Economies. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org, Oxford University Press.
JNK and p38 MAP kinases in CD4+ and CD8+ T cells

Summary: The c‐Jun aminoterminal kinase (JNK) and p38 mitogen‐activated protein (MAP) kinase signaling pathways have been associated with cell death, differentiation and proliferation. CD4+ and CD8+ T cells have different effector functions after antigen stimulation and control specific aspects of the immune response. The studies carried out in our group indicate that the role of JNK and p38 MAP kinases in CD4+ T cells is different from their role in CD8+ T cells. Moreover, these two pathways are not redundant in either T cell population. We have also shown that p38 MAP kinase regulates early stages of T cell development in the thymus. It is therefore important to consider the specific function of these kinases in each T cell population when pharmacological inhibitors of JNK and p38 MAP kinases are used for therapeutic purposes to control the immune response.
Testing for sheepskin effects in earnings equations: evidence for five countries

Using a dataset that allows consistent cross-country comparisons the non-linearity in a conventional earnings equation is tested with respect to schooling. The findings suggest that the assumption of linearity is not robust and that there are well-determined positive returns to the completion of educational levels. However, inferences are sensitive to the choice of functional form.
Crisis events in tourism: subjects of crisis in tourism

The global financial and economic downturn that affected tourism from 2007 through to 2010 and beyond has cast substantial attention on the role that crisis events play in tourism. These concerns have only been exacerbated by natural disasters, such as the 2010 Icelandic volcanic plume, pandemics, and the potential of future global change. The potential effects of crisis events on international tourism are likely to increase in both size and frequency as tourism becomes increasingly hypermobile and the global economy even more interconnected. A review of the literature on tourism and crisis suggests that economic and financial crises receive the most research attention, with these crises events often being linked to other events such as terrorism and increased energy costs. This article concludes that the discourse on crisis in tourism raises fundamental concerns about the way that the notion of crisis is conceptualised and what constitutes normality.
Locals’ Attitudes toward Mass and Alternative Tourism: The Case of Sunshine Coast, Australia

This study examines local residents’ attitudes toward two different types of tourism development, mass tourism and alternative tourism, using data collected from residents of Sunshine Coast, Australia. The study findings reveal that host community support is affected directly and/or indirectly by the level of community concern, community attachment, ecocentric values, use of the tourism resource base, state of the local economy, and the perceived impacts of tourism development. Findings suggested that even though some of the factors influence attitudes toward both mass and alternative tourism, attitudes toward each form of development is likely to be formed based on the perceptions of different factors.
Energy detector using adaptive-fixed thresholds in Cognitive Radio systems

Cognitive radio systems offer the opportunity to improve spectrum utilization by detecting unused spectrum bands while avoiding the interference to primary users. In this paper, we propose a new algorithm for spectrum sensing, which is energy detector using both adaptive and fixed threshold, in order to compensate the weak points of the existing energy detector in the distorted communication channel environment. The simulation results show that the performance of the proposed scheme is much better than the existing scheme. Additionally, the performance is described in terms of the complementary ROC curve. It is shown that the proposed algorithm makes the detector highly robust against fading, shadowing, and interference by simulation results.
Utility Functions and Global Regularity of Fractional Demand Systems

Fractional demand systems are utility derived demands having quantities or budget shares proportional to ag + bf, where g and f are functions of income and a and b vary across goods and are functions of prices. Many known demand systems that have large regular regions are fractional. This paper derives the indirect utility functions that generate all fractional demand systems, shows that these systems can all have large regular regions, and provides sufficient conditions for their global or nearly global regularity. An extension to rank three fractional demands is provided. Copyright 1995 by Economics Department of the University of Pennsylvania and the Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association.
Sudden Stops in Emerging Markets: How to Minimize Their Impact on GDP?

Since the beginning of the 1990s, capital flows to emerging markets soared to historically high levels. However, many countries suffered sudden stops in these capital flows. These sudden stops affected simultaneously several countries with different economic characteristics. Taking into account the sudden stop episodes that occurred after 1990, this work attempts to analyze in an empirical manner which characteristics and policies helped reduce the cost of the different crises on GDP. The countries with a lower level of external debt had a less costly crisis. Additionally, a countercyclical fiscal policy and the sale of international reserves to counter the domestic currency´s depreciation also helped reduce the cost of the sudden stops on output. On the other hand, the level of exports and the changes in the central bank´s interest rate did not have statistically significant effects.
Optimization and Scale Economies in Urban Bus Transportation

THIS PAPER SHOWS THAT DECLINING MASS TRANSIT QUALITY IS AN EXAMPLE OF WHAT HAPPENS WHEN DEMAND DECLINES FOR A COMMODITY WHOSE PRODUCTION INVOLVES INCREASING RETURNS TO SCALE, AND SUGGESTS THE MAGNITUDE OF MASS TRANSIT SCALE ECONOMIES AND HENCE THE LOWER BOUND FOR AN OPTIMAL TRANSIT SUBSIDY POLICY. THE INTERRELATIONSHIPS AMONG SHORT- AND LONG-RUN COST SCHEDULES, THE NATURE OF THE SUBSIDY REQUIRED IF SHORT-RUN MARGINAL COST PRICING IS TO BE PRACTICED BY AN INCREASING RETURNS ACTIVITY, AND THE NATURE OF INCREASING RETURNS IN BUS OPERATIONS ARE DISCUSSED. THIS DEVELOPMENT IS USED AS A BASE TO PRESENT COST MODELS FOR "STEADY STATE" AND "FEEDER" BUS ROUTES. A SUBSIDY TO URBAN MASS TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS REFLECTING THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN AVERAGE AND MARGINAL COSTS WOULD PROBABLY NOT ELIMINATE THE DECLINE IN MASS TRANSIT USAGE THAT HAS BEEN EXPERIENCED IN VIRTUALLY ALL URBAN AREAS. STILL, A WELFARE MAXIMIZING SUBSIDY POLICY WOULD UNDOUBTEDLY SLOW THIS MOVEMENT AND MIGHT EVEN HASTEN THE ADOPTION OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES THAT PROMISE VASTLY IMPROVED SERVICE CHARACTERISTICS.
Land tenure and payment for environmental services. Challenges and opportunities for REDD

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:. 0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} This article highlights the land tenure implications of payment for environmental services (PES) mechanisms to reduce carbon emissions and enhance carbon sequestration, and offers suggestions for incorporating tenure into PES strategies. The first section begins with an overview of PES in the context of carbon-based approaches, focusing on one mechanism: REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation of Forest Resources). The second section discusses the myriad of tenure challenges associated with effective implementation of carbon-based PES schemes. These challenges are often found in countries where more complex forms of tenure prevail and exist alongside civil law systems; yet, many such countries host some of the world’s largest forest carbon stocks. The third section presents options for addressing tenure challenges, focusing on legal and governance measures but also stressing practical strategies that nurture the effectiveness of normative reforms. We conclude by emphasizing the importance of clarifying and securing resource users’ rights to land and other natural resources to the ultimate success of climate change mitigation goals.
Prolonged survival of fetal pig islet xenografts in mice lacking the capacity for an indirect response

Abstract: Background: Xenografts of islets from organ‐cultured fetal pig pancreases transplanted into non‐immunosuppressed mice are rejected within 10 days. Immunosuppression with anti‐T cell (anti‐CD4) monoclonal antibody alone delays rejection of these xenografts for about 28 days, but rejection eventually occurs despite marked depletion of T cells. To determine if the critical CD4+ T cells responsible for xenograft islet rejection function through the direct or indirect pathway, selective class II‐deficient mice that express class II antigens only on their thymic epithelium (not on peripheral cells) with normal numbers of CD4+ T cells, (class II‐, CD4+), were used as recipients of xenograft islets to test if rejection occurs in the absence of an indirect response.
STRUCTURED OBSERVATION OF THE DECISION-MAKING ENVIRONMENT: A RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY ASSESSMENT

Information analysts gather and interpret information regarding organizational decision making. One source of information is the physical environment of the decision maker. A system for structured observation of the environment (STROBE) was developed and was used to gather information on administrators and medical directors of regional blood service organizations in the United States and Canada. Our results suggest that the reliability of STROBE is high and validity is acceptable, suggesting that STROBE may be useful in gathering data usually obtained through interviewing or observing behavior of decision makers.
Maintaining diversity in America's transit-rich neighborhoods: tools for equitable neighborhood change

In some newly transit-rich neighborhoods (TRNs), a new station can set in motion a cycle of unintended consequences in which core transit users—such as renters and low-income households—are priced out of the neighborhood in favor of higher-income, car-owning residents who are less likely to use public transit. The authors describe these patterns and present policy tools for shaping equitable neighborhood change.
Combining boolean method with delay times for determining behaviors of biological networks

Boolean functions have been used to analyze the molecular networks of cells. For example, A → B represents if A becomes active B will be activated. This method is effective for qualitatively analyzing networks but is not suitable for studies of kinetic behaviors of networks. In the present paper, a dynamic Boolean method was developed by combining Boolean operations with molecular interaction parameters (delay or response times). The Boolean operations characterize the discrete interactions among biological components. The delay times describe the quantitative kinetics. The combination of the two characterizes the discrete biological interactions of networks. For example, A → B represents that if A becomes active B will be activated after an activation time t → By using this dynamic logic method, we achieved the following results: we proved the general theorems to determine bistable states and oscillation behaviors of networks, we showed that time delays are essential for oscillation behaviors, we proved that single variable networks are either bistable or oscillatory, and we explained why a signal can have multiply responses from different networks. In addition, we analyzed the mitosis cycle of budding yeast cells. We showed that the mitosis cycle is not only robust against structural changes but also robust against fluctuation in kinetic parameters (e.g. delay times).
Quality and Pricing in the Hotel Industry

Abstract Quality is a price determinant in most products. However, establishment of a quality evaluation for the consumer is not an easy proposition. In the hospitality industry, fortunately, room quality evaluation and price information are readily available for consumers from published consumer guides. The Mobil Travel Guide is one of the more popular sources of hotel information available to consumers. The Mobil Travel Guide awards “stars” based on the level of quality their investigators deem appropriate. To investigate the relationship between quality and price in the hospitality industry, this study analyzes hotel managements' pricing behavior before and after a quality rating change by the Mobil Travel Guide. Data is gleaned from the Guide in several provinces and states in Canada and the United States from the relatively stable economic growth period of 1991 through 1999. The results reveal that hotel organizations raised prices before gaining a “star” and lowered prices before losing a “star. ” The study concludes with a discussion of the implications of this pricing pattern.