Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Novel Method to Assess the Risk of Dam Failure

A new flexible, rapid and affordable risk assessment procedure was developed and verified for dams based on case studies in Scotland (UK) and the region of Baden (Germany). A database of six different sustainable flood retention basin (SFRB) types with varying flood control potential has been developed. In Scotland, there are a relatively high number of current and former large drinking water reservoirs which could contribute to flood management control. In comparison, purpose-built and relatively small SFRB, which are predominantly used for flood control, dominate the landscape in Baden. Moreover, 13 out of 149 SFRB have recently been upgraded, and 11 new SFRB have been built since 2006. Both the estimated hazard and risk are small in comparison to those found in the flood infrastructure in Scotland. The study assesses a rapid screening tool developed to estimate the Dam Condition and the corresponding Dam Failure Hazard and Dam Failure Risk. Most SFRB in Baden have a relatively poor Dam Condition, high Dam Failure Hazard but low Dam Failure Risk compared to those in Scotland. Findings show that Baden is more advanced in flood defence management as well as adaptation to climate change. Deutscher Titel: Neue Methode zur Beurteilung des Risikos eines Dammbruches Zusammenfassung: Eine neue, flexible, schnelle und preisgunstige Methode zur Risokobeurteilung von Dammen wurde entwickelt und getestet, die auf Fallbeispielen in Schottland (Vereinigtes Konigreich) und der Region Baden (Deutschland) basiert. Eine Datenbank von sechs verschiedenen Typen nachhaltiger Hochwasserruckhaltebecken (NHRB) mit unterschiedlichem Hochwasserruckhaltevermogen wurde entwickelt. Eine relativ hohe Anzahl von gegenwartigen und ehemaligen grosen Trinkwassertalsperren, die zur Hochwasserschutzkontolle verwandt werden konnten, befinden sich in Schottland. Zweckmasig gebaute und relativ kleine NHRB, die hauptsachlich fur den Hochwasserschutz verwendet werden, dominieren hingegen die Landschaft in Baden. Daruber hinaus wurden 13 von 149 NHRB kurzlich renoviert und seit 2006 wurden 11 neue NHRB gebaut. Sowohl die geschatzte Gefahr als auch das Risiko sind im Vergleich zu den Parametern, die fur die Hochwasserschutzinfrastruktur in Schottland gefunden worden sind, klein. Die Studie untersucht ein zeitsparendes Instrument zur Beurteilung des Dammzustandes, der Dammbruchgefahr und des Dammbruchrisikos. Die meisten NHRB in Baden haben relativ geringe Werte bezuglich des Dammzustandes, hohe Werte fur Dammbruchgefahr und niedrige Werte bezuglich des Dammbruchrisikos im Vergleich zu NHRB in Schottland. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass Baden im Hochwasserschutz vorne liegt und daher dem Klimawechsel besser angepasst ist.
Access to the agricultural market for small farmers in Southern Africa: The farmer support programme

Two recent events have led to a re‐evaluation of the appropriate approach to agricultural development in the self‐governing and independent national states in Southern Africa. First, the support and establishment of private farmers is generally emphasized in the agricultural development policies of these states. Although no clear‐cut strategies for implementation have emerged, greater attention is being given to research on the small farmer approach which is prominent in the literature on agricultural development. Second, an investigation into the financing of agriculture in the self‐governing and independent national states has recently been concluded within the system for multilateral co‐operation between the SATBVC states. The proposals emanating from this investigation also conform with the principles of the small farmer approach. The purpose of this paper is to motivate the need for a small farmer approach, and to show how the principles of this approach can be transformed into operational policy. In.
Sponsorship and fund‐raising in public libraries: American and British perceptions

At a time of increasing cutbacks, libraries are under pressure to investigate alternative sources of funding. Compares American and British practice and strategies. Finds that US methods of raising funds are: government grants; endowment funds; donations from individuals, corporations and foundations; foundations/trusts specially established for public library projects; Friends of the Library groups; and special events and positive merchandising; while UK methods of raising funds are: sponsorship; grants; donations; Friends of the Public Library; and various joint ventures. Concludes that British libraries should take a good look at the American picture and learn some of its lessons.
An Investigation of the Relation between Cooperation Intensity and the Innovative Success of German Regions

Abstract Concepts like regional innovation systems, innovative milieu and learning regions emphasise the positive contribution of intra-regional cooperation to firms’ innovation performance. This claim is, however, primarily backed by qualitative evidence, as few studies test this issue with quantitative approaches. Using data on co-application and co-invention of patents for 270 German labour market regions, this study shows that cooperation intensity and regions’ innovation efficiency are empirically associated in a negative way. This particularly concerns missing or very extensive inter-regional cooperation. In contrast, medium intensities of regional cooperation have rather positive effects.
Perinatal Asphyxia Exerts Lifelong Effects on Neuronal Responsiveness to Stress in Specific Brain Regions in the Rat

Background Perinatal asphyxia (PA) causes irreversible damage to the brain of newborns and can produce neurologic and behavioral changes later in life. To identify neuronal substrates underlying the effects of PA, we investigated whether and how neuronal responsiveness to an established stress challenge is affected. Methods We used Fos expression as a marker of neuronal activation and examined the pattern of Fos expression in response to acute swim stress in 24-month-old rats exposed to a 20-minute PA insult. Results Swim stress produced a similar pattern of Fos expression in control and asphyxiated rats in 34 brain areas. Asphyxiated rats displayed a higher number of stress-induced Fos-positive cells in the nucleus of the solitary tract, parabrachial nucleus, periaqueductal gray, paraventricular hypothalamic nucleus, nucleus accumbens, caudate-putamen, and prelimbic cortex. No differences in the Fos response to stress were observed in other regions, including the locus ceruleus, amygdala, hippocampus, or septum. Conclusion These data provide functional anatomic evidence that PA has lifelong effects on neuronal communication and leads to an abnormal, augmented neuronal responsiveness to stress in specific brain areas, particularly in the main telencephalic target regions of the mesencephalic dopamine projections, as well as in a functionally related set of brain regions associated with autonomic and neuroendocrine regulation.
Cardiac hypertrophy and cardiac renin–angiotensin system in Dahl rats on high salt intake

Objective On high salt intake, Dahl salt-sensitive rats develop cardiac hypertrophy disproportionate to the degree of hypertension. In the present studies, we assessed whether the cardiac hypertrophy induced by high salt depends on the development of hypertension per se, and leads to over-activity of the cardiac renin–angiotensin system (RAS). Methods Cardiac angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) mRNA and activity, cardiac and plasma angiotensin I and II (AngI, II), as well as plasma renin activity (PRA) were assessed in Dahl salt-sensitive (Dahl S) and salt-resistant (Dahl R) rats on high (1370 μmol/g food) or regular salt (120 μmol/g food) diet for 2–5 weeks. Cardiac ACE and hypertrophic response in Dahl S on high salt were also assessed after central blockade of sympathetic hyperactivity and hypertension. Results In Dahl S rats, ACE mRNA and activity of the left ventricle (LV) increased markedly after 4–5 weeks of high salt diet compared with Dahl S on the control diet and Dahl R on either diet. Chronic intra-cerebroventricular treatment with Fab fragments blocking brain ‘ouabain’ prevented the hypertension by high salt in Dahl S rats but did not affect the salt-induced increases in LV weight or in LV ACE mRNA and activity. On regular salt diet, Dahl S rats demonstrated significantly lower cardiac AngI and AngII than Dahl R rats. However, high salt intake did not cause significant changes in cardiac AngI and II in either strain. On regular salt diet, PRA, plasma AngI and II were all significantly lower in Dahl S versus R. In Dahl S rats, high salt did not cause further decreases of the already low PRA or plasma AngI and II. Conclusions These data indicate a low activity of both circulatory and cardiac RAS in Dahl S versus R rats. The marked cardiac hypertrophy and increase in cardiac ACE mRNA and activity induced by high salt in Dahl S do not depend on the increase in blood pressure. High salt intake did not increase cardiac AngII in Dahl S, suggesting that the increase in ACE mRNA and activity may be relevant for non-angiotensinergic mechanisms involved in cardiac hypertrophy.
Apprentissage Actif avec une Méthode de Réordonnancement pour l'Indexation et la Recherche de Vidéos

Video retrieval can be done by ranking the samples according to their probability scores that were produced by classifiers. It is often possible to improve the retrieval performance by re-ranking the samples. In this paper, we proposed such a method and we combined this method with active learning for video indexing. Experimental results showed that the proposed re-ranking method was able to improve the system performance with about 16-22\% in average on TRECVID 2010 semantic indexing task. Furthermore, it improved significantly the performance of the video indexing system based active learning; by considering the Area Under Curve (AUC) as a metric measure for the performance of the active learning, our re-ranking method improved the performance with about 20\% in average on TRECVID 2007.
Community Foundations: A Growing Resource for Community Development

Like many nonprofit organizations, community development corporations (CDCs) rely on various sources of funding and support for their activities in poor and distressed neighborhoods. Funders often include the federal government, state and local government agencies, financial institutions, and philanthropic organizations. The author explains how community foundations are different from other philanthropic organizations and describes the various mechanisms that community foundations use to support community development. She suggests that there is a natural fit between the purpose of community foundations and the philosophy of community development, concluding that it is important for CDCs, as well as other nonprofit organizations, to understand how community foundations are different from other philanthropic organizations so that they may better position themselves to take advantage of the many resources that community foundations bring to their communities.
Part-time Work, Job Satisfaction and Well-being: Evidence from a Developing OECD Country

Abstract We estimate the effects of part-time work on job and life satisfaction using new data for Chile. While part-time work is being promoted to increase female labour participation in many countries, there are concerns about its quality and the overall effect on well-being of such policies. We estimate models for job and life satisfaction addressing for endogeneity and selectivity bias. We found that part-time work has a negative effect on job satisfaction and well-being for men; however, when looking at just women, the negative effect is reversed. This should be considered when designing public policies oriented at increasing female labour participation through part-time work.
Time-Varying Effects of Recall Expectation, a Reemployment Bonus, and Job Counseling on Unemployment Durations

A simple search model that includes the possibility of recall provides predictions as to the changing effects of recall expectations, a bonus offer, and job counseling on new job finding rates over time. Using data from the New Jersey Unemployment Insurance Reemployment Demonstration Project (NJUIRDP), I find evidence for an initial positive effect of the bonus offer, which diminishes over time. New job-finding rates are found to be negatively affected by higher initial recall expectations. This effect also diminishes over time, and evidence suggests that job counseling is successful in speeding up this process.
Adaptive responses of TRPC1 and TRPC3 during skeletal muscle atrophy and regrowth

Introduction: We assessed the time‐dependent changes of transient receptor potential canonical type 1 (TRPC1) and TRPC3 expression and localization associated with muscle atrophy and regrowth in vivo. Methods: Mice were subjected to hindlimb unloading for 7 or 14 days (7U, 14U) followed by 3, 7, or 14 days of reloading (3R, 7R, 14R). Results: Soleus muscle mass and tetanic force were reduced significantly at 7U and 14U and recovered by 14R. Recovery of muscle fiber cross‐sectional area was observed by 28R. TRPC1 mRNA was unaltered during the unloading‐reloading period. However, protein expression remained depressed through 14R. Decreased localization of TRPC1 to the sarcolemma was observed. TRPC3 mRNA and protein expression levels were decreased significantly during the early phase of reloading. Conclusions: Given the known role of these channels in muscle development, changes observed in TRPC1 and TRPC3 may relate closely to muscle atrophy and remodeling processes. Muscle Nerve 49: 691–699, 2014
An Electrophysiologic Study of the Digoxin—Quinidine Interaction

Abstract: To study the electrophysiologic mechanisms responsible for the digitalis—quinidine interaction, 27 mongrel dogs were given either quinidine alone, digoxin alone, or digoxin followed by the digoxin—quinidine combination, via the oral route for sufficient time to permit accumulation of steady‐state plasma levels. As anticipated, digoxin levels increased significantly in the presence of quinidine (P < 0.05). Whereas digoxin alone had no significant effect on the ECG, quinidine alone prolonged the Q—T interval (P < 0.05), and the combination prolonged both the QRS complex and the Q—T interval (P < 0.05). Digoxin alone had no significant effect on the Purkinje fiber transmembrane potential, whereas quinidine reduced action potential (AP) amplitude and maximum upstroke velocity (V̇max) significantly. The combination significantly reduced AP amplitude, V̇max, and maximum diastolic potential and prolonged AP duration. The changes induced by the drug combination appeared to be the sum of changes induced by each drug alone.
Whirlwind before the storm: The origins and development of the uprising in Soweto and the rest of South Africa from June to December 1976

Policies relating to and controlling African urbanization have been central to the maintenance of apartheid. Rapid social and economic changes in the 1970s, however, aggravated the sufferings of urban blacks and led to the 1976 uprising, which is the subject of this superb book. Prepared at roughly the same time as the two other major books on Soweto 1976 by J. Kane-Burman and Baruch Hirson, Whirlwind provides a vivid record of events in South Africa from the beginning of the uprising in June 1976 to December of that year. In the first part of the book the authors analyse the spread of the revolt from Soweto, the largest African city (dormitory suburb) south of the Equator, to the other major urban areas, concentrating on the Western Cape, and then to the rural areas. The Eastern Cape and Natal are neglected owing to sparse information. The crisis in the education system is rigorously analysed and followed by a close examination of the student movement; their ideology, organization, attitude to their parents, old and new tactics of struggle and their links with the wider liberation movement. In the second part the authors place the revolt in a wider perspective. Here the form of administration of African townships from the early 1970s is central to an understanding of the uprising. By 1976 the BAABs (Bantu Affairs Administration Boards) were the main administrative authority for over nine million Africans, one third of the entire South African population. Without a direct government grant or a rateable revenue base, the BAABs, as self-financing authorities, relied on rents and township liquor monopolies. Rising rentals, services and transport costs, combined with an acute housing shortage, created the structural pre-conditions for a revolt in Soweto. The successful attempts to convert the student revolt into political strikes, through three stay-at-homes in August and September, is examined in detail. And finally, the forces of repression are assessed and, in less depth, the responses of white rulers and large capital. The strength of the book lies in the recording and analysis of what actually happened in the first six months of the uprising, based on a mass of interviews and an exhaustive reading of all forms of South African newspapers. For this alone, it must remain essential reading. In addition, the analysis is perceptive, succinct and illuminating. The authors recognize the absence of a full account of the economic roots of the uprising and need only be upbraided for the sparseness and brevity of their conclusion. -
BASIC AND TRANSLATIONAL—ALIMENTARY TRACT Neuroticism Influences Brain Activity During the Experience of Visceral Pain

TR A N SL A TI O N A L A T BACKGROUND & AIMS: One particularly important individual dynamic known to influence the experience of pain is neuroticism, of which little is known about in visceral pain research. Our aim was to study the relationship between neuroticism, psychophysiologic response, and brain processing of visceral pain. METHODS: Thirty-one healthy volunteers (15 male; age range, 22–38 years) participated in the study. The Eysenck Personality Questionnaire was used to assess neuroticism. Skin conductance level, pain ratings, and functional magnetic resonance imaging data were acquired during anticipation of pain and painful esophageal distention. The effect of neuroticism was assessed using correlation analysis. RESULTS: There was a wide spread of neuroticism scores (range, 0 –22) but no influence of neuroticism on skin conductance level and pain tolerance or pain ratings. However, a positive correlation between brain activity and neuroticism during anticipation was found in regions associated with emotional and cognitive pain processing, including the parahippocampus, insula, thalamus, and anterior cingulate cortex. These regions showed a negative correlation with neuroticism during pain (P .001). CONCLUSIONS: This study provides novel data suggesting higher neuroticism is associated with engagement of brain regions responsible for emotional and cognitive appraisal during anticipation of pain but reduced activity in these regions during pain. This may reflect a maladaptive mechanism in those with higher neuroticism that promotes overarousal during anticipation and avoidance coping during pain.
Image formation, information sources and an iconic Australian tourist destination

Tourist destination brand image is a major influencing factor in traveller destination choice. This exploratory research into the information sources from which destination brand image evolves provides insights which have the potential to improve tourism destination brand development strategies. In-depth interviews with 21 international backpackers on Australia’s northern New South Wales coast indicate that mainstream media play little or no part in the formation of respondents’ image of the coastal destination of Byron Bay. Rather, word of mouth and autonomous independent information sources were the key media through which respondents formed their image of this iconic Australian tourist destination. Findings also show the importance of destination experience in the image formation process and suggest that destination marketing organizations (DMOs) can and should go beyond traditional mainstream media to communicate their brand message. Additionally, findings suggest the need for DMOs to provide leadership within the destination’s tourism industry to improve service delivery and exceed the ‘brand promise’.
Private Chinese Investment in Africa: Myths and Realities

Private Chinese outbound investment, not as well-known as government-led investment, offers special opportunities and challenges for Africa today. The significance of Chinese private-sector investment is already visible in the burgeoning manufacturing sector in some parts of Africa, and the trend will continue to grow in the near future. The underlying force behind this trend is the increased pressure of industrial restructuring in coastal China, a force that drives some labor-intensive firms to relocate to other parts of the developing world, including Africa. African host country governments can respond to this phenomenon with proactive development policies and strategies to maximize private Chinese investment for the benefit of their own economies.
The causal correlations among market structure, conduct, and performance of the CPA industry

This study uses the structure–conduct–performance theory to explore causal correlations among the market structure of the certified public accountant industry, the conduct, and the operation performance of accounting firms. The study uses stepwise regression analysis to find out important factors of these three dimensions. The empirical results confirm that there exist causal correlations among market structure, conduct, and operation performance of accounting firms, not just a single direction relationship. This study hopes that the findings can provide researchers and practitioners with the more complete and useful references for policy and decision-making.
Statistical language learning: computational, maturational, and linguistic constraints

abstract Our research on statistical language learning shows that infants, young children, and adults can compute, online and with remarkable speed, how consistently sounds co-occur, how frequently words occur in similar contexts, and the like, and can utilize these statistics to find candidate words in a speech stream, discover grammatical categories, and acquire simple syntactic structure in miniature languages. However, statistical learning is not merely learning the patterns presented in the input. When their input is inconsistent, children sharpen these statistics and produce a more systematic language than the one to which they are exposed. When input languages inconsistently violate tendencies that are widespread in human languages, learners shift these languages to be more aligned with language universals, and children do so much more than adults. These processes explain why children acquire language (and other patterns) more effectively than adults, and also may explain how systematic language structures emerge in communities where usages are varied and inconsistent. Most especially, they suggest that usage-based learning approaches must account for differences between adults and children in how usage properties are acquired, and must also account for substantial changes made by adult and child learners in how input usage properties are represented during learning.