Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A four-party view of US environmental concern

Research on US public concern about environmental issues finds ideology or political party are the most consistent background predictors. Party is commonly defined by three groups: Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. Here, using statewide New Hampshire survey data, we elaborate this approach to distinguish a fourth group: respondents who say they support the Tea Party movement. On 8 out of 12 science- or environment-related questions, Tea Party supporters differ significantly from non–Tea Party Republicans. Tea Party supporters are less likely than non–Tea Party Republicans to trust scientists for information about environmental issues, accept human evolution, believe either the physical reality or the scientific consensus on anthropogenic climate change, or recognise trends in Arctic ice, glaciers, or CO2. Despite factual gaps, Tea Party supporters express greater confidence in their own understanding of climate change. Independents, on the other hand, differ less from non–Tea Party Republicans on most of these questions—although Independents do more often accept the scientific consensus on climate change. On many science and environmental questions, Republicans and Tea Party supporters stand farther apart than Republicans and Independents.
Neurotrophin receptor immunostaining in the vestibular nuclei of rats

The distribution of high-affinity neurotrophin receptors in cells of the vestibular nuclear complex and its subnuclei of adult rats was examined. We noted a high density of tyrosine kinase (Trk) A- and B- and a lower density of TrkC-immunostained cells. In particular, long, intensely labelled immunostained-TrkB fibres formed networks in the neuropil. Both TrkA- and TrkB-immunostained cells were widely distributed in the lateral, medial and spinal vestibular nuclei, and were less frequently seen in the superior vestibular nucleus, x and y subnuclei. However, immunostaining for TrkC was weak in many cells within the vestibular nuclei. The widespread and abundant neuronal distribution of Trk receptors predicts that their associated neurotrophins exert significant effects on individual cells within the vestibular nuclei.
Partnership and organizing: An empirical assessment of two contrasting approaches to union revitalization in the UK

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) in Britain has been advocating two contrasting approaches to union revitalization namely: ‘labour—management partnership’ and ‘union organizing’. Using a case study of a public services union this article examines empirically the prospects of union revival offered by these two contrasting approaches. Public services with relatively high union density should offer better prospects for union revival through partnership. However, the authors’ findings indicate that even in public services, partnership was not associated with management’s support for union recruitment, better facility time provisions for union representatives, lower worker grievances or union membership gains. Rank-and-file organizing, on the other hand, was associated with lower worker grievances, greater worker satisfaction with the union, higher worker involvement in union activities and union membership gains. Overall, the findings question the ‘mutual gains’ assertions of partnership advocates and lend support to the critics of partnership who propose an alternative organizing approach to union revitalization.
Applications of sensory feedback in motorized upper extremity prosthesis: a review

Dexterous hand movement is possible due to closed loop control dependent on efferent motor output and afferent sensory feedback. This control strategy is significantly altered in those with upper limb amputation as sensations of touch and movement are inherently lost. For upper limb prosthetic users, the absence of sensory feedback impedes efficient use of the prosthesis and is highlighted as a major factor contributing to user rejection of myoelectric prostheses. Numerous sensory feedback systems have been proposed in literature to address this gap in prosthetic control; however, these systems have yet to be implemented for long term use. Methodologies for communicating prosthetic grasp and touch information are reviewed, including discussion of selected designs and test results. With a focus on clinical and translational challenges, this review highlights and compares techniques employed to provide amputees with sensory feedback. Additionally, promising future directions are discussed and highlighted.
University Policies for the Knowledge Society: Global Standardization, Local Reinvention

Although the ideas of the knowledge society and knowledge-based economy originate from the 1960s and 1970s, they became popular as a policy idea especially at the end of the twentieth century. Developed and less developed countries alike portray the path towards the knowledge society as the way forward, bringing economic prosperity and social advancement. In adapting to this move towards knowledge societies, universities apply specific organizational forms that have gradually evolved into global models. This spread of globalized models shows an inherent tendency towards processes of convergence, isomorphism, or homogenization. On the surface, a convergence of higher education and science policies seems to have occurred in the past decade or so. A closer look at organizational practices, however, might reveal more local variation in the adoption of these global university models for the knowledge society.
Accelerometer and Fuzzy Vault-Based Secure Group Key Generation and Sharing Protocol for Smart Wearables

The increased usage of smart wearables in various applications, specifically in health-care, emphasizes the need for secure communication to transmit sensitive health-data. In a practical scenario, where multiple devices are carried by a person, a common secret key is essential for secure group communication. Group key generation and sharing among wearables have received very little attention in the literature due to the underlying challenges: 1) difficulty in obtaining a good source of randomness to generate strong cryptographic keys, and 2) finding a common feature among all the devices to share the key. In this paper, we present a novel solution to generate and distribute group secret keys by exploiting on-board accelerometer sensor and the unique walking style of the user, i.e., gait. We propose a method to identify the suitable samples of accelerometer data during all routine activities of a subject to generate the keys with high entropy. In our scheme, the smartphone placed on waist employs fuzzy vault, a cryptographic construct, and utilizes the acceleration due to gait, a common characteristic extracted on all wearable devices to share the secret key. We implement our solution on commercially available off-the-shelf smart wearables, measure the system performance, and conduct experiments with multiple subjects. Our results demonstrate that the proposed solution has a bit rate of 750 b/s, low system overhead, distributes the key securely and quickly to all legitimate devices, and is suitable for practical applications.
Paridad del Poder Adquisitivo en el Tipo de Cambio Argentino (Peso/Dólar)

The article develops for the Argentine case the model of the determination of the exchange rate known as “Purchasing Power Parity” (PPP), adopting as reference the exchange rate with the US dollar. The PPP hypothesis is analyzed utilizing annual data from 1948 through 2006. A bivariate and trivariate model of cointegration is employed, and an error correction mechanism is used in order to estimate the adjustment velocity towards PPP. Positive evidence is found favorable to cointegration and we verify the PPP hypothesis in its absolute version. Moreover, we note that the average velocity of adjustment is around 3 years.
Crop Water Stress Under Climate Change Uncertainty: Global Policy and Regional Risk

Fourty percent of all crops grown in the world today are grown using irrigation, and shifting precipitation patterns due to climate change are viewed as a major threat to food security. This thesis examines, in the framework of the MIT Integrated Global System Model, the potential impacts of climate change on crop water stress and the risk implications for policy makers due to underlying uncertainty in climate models. This thesis presents the Community Land Model Agriculture module (CLM-AG) that models crop growth and water stress. It is a global generic crop model built in the framework of the Community Land Model and was evaluated for maize, cotton and spring wheat. A full climate model, the IGSM-CAM, was first used to force CLM-AG and show the regional disparity of the response to climate change. Some areas like the Midwest or Equatorial Africa benefit from the higher precipitations associated to climate change while others like Europe or Southern Africa see the irrigation need for crops increase. The effect of a mitigation policy appeared contrasted, as water-stress for some areas (including Europe and Africa) is increased if greenhouse gases emissions are limited while for other areas (Central Asia, United States) it is reduced. A second analysis was carried in Central Zambia using uncertainty ensembles. The ensembles demonstrate the notable extent of the uncertainty stemming from different climate sensitivities and different regional patterns in climate models. Crops are impacted differently but a consistent result is that climate mitigation policies reduce uncertainty in crop water stress, making it easier to plan for any anticipated future climate change. Thesis Supervisor: C. Adam Schlosser Title: Principal Research Scientist, MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change Thesis Reader: Kenneth M. Strzepek Title: Research Scientist, MIT JPSPGC Professor Emeritus of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering, University of Colorado at Boulder
The Interest Rate Algebra

This article considers the structure of interest rate, applied for discounting of risky cash flows. The purpose of the article is a presentation of ways of reflecting inflation and risks in the calculation of risk discount rate. In introduction on base of well-known dependences is shown that risk premium depends on inflation rate and (for multiplicative-type models) risk free rate. In the first part of the article three Interest rate algebras are presented. They describe the attitude between nominal discount rate, risk free rate, inflation rate and risk-premium. This algebras can presents in additive-type or multiplicative-type versions and have given risk premium value without detailed description the structure of risk premium. The second part of the paper has more detailed attitude between risk premium, risk free rate and mathematical expectation of losses because of bankruptcy/default. It is shown that the obtained dependences are slightly different and depends on the initial preconditions calculation: the principle of arbitration or the principle of certainly equivalent.
The impact of the gender pay gap on post-retirement earnings

This article examines the factors affecting women's earnings during their working years that go on to affect their earnings in retirement. In particular, it argues that factors relating to part-time working, career patterns and types of occupation and employment contribute not only to keeping women's income lower than men's during their working life, but also to a reduced entitlement to benefits from occupational pension schemes after retirement. When the effects of women's greater longevity are also taken into account, a picture emerges of an increasing number of women facing poverty either in old age or in extreme old age. Using data from the Labour Force Survey, the variations in pay between men and women are analysed, providing results which in turn help to explain the differences in post-retirement income. It is argued that occupational pension schemes, most of which were constructed with the needs of the long-serving male breadwinner in mind, could be made more appropriate to the very different needs of female employees in a much more mobile and flexible pattern of employment.
The rich and the destitute in Sweden, 1805‐1855: a test of Tocqueville's inequality hypotheses

In his Democracy in America, published in i835, Alexis de Tocqueville viewed the United States as a country experiencing decreasing economic inequality during the two generations after independence. ' In this study, which drew comparisons between America and Europe, he focused mainly on the reduced influence of the rich, and especially of the landed aristocracy, and made general statements concerning decreasing inequality or, rather, increasing equality in France and elsewhere over a long period. Tocqueville presented a somewhat contrasting view in a paper, also dated i835, dealing with the destitute of Europe. Here he remarked that I7 per cent of the English, but only 4 per cent of the Portuguese, were destitute, and that the wealthier nations and the more advanced areas within countries suffered most from the problems of destitution. Tocqueville also sketched a hypothesis of polar equality, where societies begin with equality in the hunting stage of development and experience increased inequality with the rise of private property. In the later stages of development a more democratic and egalitarian society evolves, producing a U-shaped pattern of changes in equality over time. He placed greater emphasis on the decreasing impact of the rich on the distribution than on the increasing influence of the rising destitute group.2 Because Tocqueville made rather explicit statements about groups located at the tails of the distributions both in different countries and in different areas within the same country, his assertions can be tested statistically. By far the most impressive data sets that can be used for this type of testing are the censuses of wealth in Sweden, beginning in i805. In them, each family was classified as being rich, moderately rich, poor, or destitute, and the results tallied for each parish and town in Sweden and Finland.3
Pharmacokinetics of antimicrobial agents in the elderly.

Many elderly individuals are treated with antibiotics, but knowledge of the pharmacokinetic performance of the compounds in these patients is limited. Advanced age is accompanied by many physiologic alterations that may have secondary effects on absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion of drugs. Information on absorption and metabolism in the elderly is scarce and conflicting. Because renal excretion of penicillins and cephalosporins decreases with the physiologic signs of the kidneys, dose reduction is advisable in elderly patients. Monitoring of serum drug levels is recommended for the selection of correct dosages of renally eliminated antibiotics with a narrow therapeutic range--e.g., aminoglycosides and vancomycin. There is a considerable need for additional studies of the influence of age on the kinetics of antimicrobial agents.
Quality Choice, Sales Restriction and the Mode of Competition

A regulator imposing sales restrictions or capacity limitation on firms competing in oligopolistic markets may enhance quality provision by these firms. The instrument amounts to protecting entrants or low-quality firms; this in turn makes it profitable to sink money into quality upgrades. Moreover, for most restrictions levels, the impact on quality selection is invariant to the mode of competition.
Topographic anatomy of bronchial arteries in the pig: a corrosion cast study

The anatomy of porcine bronchial circulation has not been fully described. The purpose of this study was to investigate the extrapulmonary topographic anatomy of bronchial arteries in pig. Ten pigs weighing 15–25 kg were studied. Between one and four bronchial arteries were found in each pig. The bronchoesophageal artery (BEA), tracheobronchial artery (TBA), inferior bronchial artery (IBA) and accessory bronchial artery (ABA) were present in 10/10, 8/10, 6/10 and 2/10 animals, respectively. The trunk of BEA had a diameter of about 3 mm, a length of 1–7 mm, and originated from the anterior and medial aspect of the descending thoracic aorta at the level between the 2nd and 4th thoracic vertebrae (T2–T4) in all animals. The extrapulmonary topographic anatomy of bronchial arteries in pigs exhibits similarities to that of humans. BEA is the main blood supplier of the porcine tracheobronchial tree with a relatively constant location of origin and a sufficient size for anastomosis. These characteristics render BEA the ideal vessel for bronchial revascularization in pigs.
Comparing the effects of two teaching methods on healing of diabetic foot ulcer.

INTRODUCTION Some studies have reported that diabetic patients do not adhere well to the foot care recommendations. Reasons for non-adherence are less evident and the methods used in education programs may have an effect. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to compare the effects of lecture method and combined method of education on foot care of patients and healing rates of diabetic foot ulcers. METHODS A matched controlled trial study was conducted on a sample of 45 diabetic patients with foot ulcers. The two intervention groups were taught with similar content but different methods. Patients' foot care and healing rates of diabetic foot ulcers were assessed at the beginning of study and after 3 months in the two training groups as well as the control group. RESULTS Ulcer surface was decreased by 46%, 61% and 81.6% in the control, lecture group and com-bined group, respectively. The ulcer depth was also decreased by 66.7%, 97.5% and 69.1% in the three groups respectively. A significant relationship was observed between the group adherence of the self-care program and the amount of decrease in the ulcer surface area (r = 0.36, p = 0.04). CONCLUSION The foot care education could significantly affect the healing of diabetic foot ulcer, especially in terms of the ulcers' surface area. Therefore, a self-care education program should be integrated in the health system to empower those living with diabetes to manage their own foot appropriately.
Chemically synthesized pathogen‐associated molecular patterns increase the expression of peptidoglycan recognition proteins via toll‐like receptors, NOD1 and NOD2 in human oral epithelial cells

Peptidoglycan recognition proteins (PGRPs), a novel family of pattern recognition molecules (PRMs) in innate immunity conserved from insects to mammals, recognize bacterial cell wall peptidoglycan (PGN) and are suggested to act as anti‐bacterial factors. In humans, four kinds of PGRPs (PGRP‐L, ‐Iα, ‐Iβ and ‐S) have been cloned and all four human PGRPs bind PGN. In this study, we examined the possible regulation of the expression of PGRPs in oral epithelial cells upon stimulation with chemically synthesized pathogen‐associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) in bacterial cell surface components: Escherichia coli‐type tryacyl lipopeptide (Pam3CSSNA), E. coli‐type lipid A (LA‐15‐PP), diaminopimelic acid containing desmuramyl peptide (γ‐ d‐glutamyl‐meso‐DAP; iE‐DAP), and muramyldipeptide (MDP). These synthetic PAMPs markedly upregulated the mRNA expression of the four PGRPs and cell surface expression of PGRP‐Iα and ‐Iβ, but did not induce either mRNA expression or secretion of inflammatory cytokines, in oral epithelial cells. Suppression of the expression of Toll‐like receptor (TLR)2, TLR4, nucleotide‐binding oligomerization domain (NOD)1 and NOD2 by RNA interference specifically inhibited the upregulation of PGRP mRNA expression induced by Pam3CSSNA, LA‐15‐PP, iE‐DAP and MDP respectively. These PAMPs definitely activated nuclear factor (NF)‐κB in the epithelial cells, and suppression of NF‐κB activation clearly prevented the induction of PGRP mRNA expression induced by these PAMPs in the cells. These findings suggested that bacterial PAMPs induced the expression of PGRPs, but not proinflammatory cytokines, in oral epithelial cells, and the PGRPs might be involved in host defence against bacterial invasion without accompanying inflammatory responses.
Inter multi processor communication scheme and shared memory control in HDTV decoder SOC design

With the improvement of integration degree, more and more systems that originally implemented on PCB board are integrated into one chip, becoming a SOC (system on a chip). Also with the increasing demand for programmable performance, the use of multi microprocessors structure in SOC designs is becoming much more popular. For the complex real-time systems such as HDTV decoder, it is generally easier with multiple CPUs to provide instant response time and meet the demand of real-time and function complexity. In this paper, based on introduction of the HDTV SOC architecture we designed, a communication and control scheme between master-slave mode dual-processors in the SOC is proposed, as well as a shared memory control method among multi IP function modules in the SOC.
The Model Structure of Discount Window Borrowing

This article investigates the specification of discount window borrowing. The author establishes empirically that the borrowing function is heteroskedastic and nonlinear. Subsequently, he proceeds to propose a simple theoretical framework that generates endogenously these anomalies. In particular, the author demonstrates that such phenomena are precipitated by the response of depository institutions to discount credit rationing and Federal Reserve collateral limitations. Copyright 1991 by Ohio State University Press.
Influence of the Ga content on the optical and electrical properties of CuIn1−xGaxSe2 thin-film solar cells

Thin-film solar cells that are based on Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) absorbers with Ga/(Ga+In)-ratios from 0 to 1 are fabricated, and their optical and electrical properties are investigated by macroscopic (current density-voltage, external quantum efficiency) and microscopic (Kelvin probe force microscopy on untreated cross sections of solar cells) measurements. Combining all results, the diffusion voltages of individual solar cells are deduced and compared with the directly measured open-circuit voltages. An increasing splitoff between the diffusion voltage and the opencircuit voltage is observed forGa addition,which indicates a higher recombination rate of photogenerated charge carriers in solar cells with higher Ga content.