Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Economic Determinants and Consequences of Political Institutions

The presence of a state is one of the most reliable historical predictors of social and economic development. In this article, we complete the coding of an extant indicator of state presence from 3500 BCE forward for all countries in the world. We outline a theoretical framework, set in a Malthusian growth model, where accumulated state experience increases fiscal capacity but might have a negative effect on productivity when centralized power becomes excessive. The predictions of the model are tested in an empirical analysis where we introduce our extended state history variable. Our key finding is that, both as early as 1500 and today, the level of economic development is a concave not a linear function of accumulated state history. JEL Codes: O11, O43, O50, N00
Mitigation of oscillations due to changing the reference signal of the excitation system using a Posicast controller

Changing the reference signal of the excitation and AVR systems is one of the excitation control methods in controlling the terminal voltage of the generator and reactive power. In most cases the aforementioned method results in transient oscillations in the output voltage of the generator that must be damped as quickly as possible. This paper offers a Posicast controller for damping the oscillations caused by changing the reference signal of the excitation system. Extensive time domain simulations and a performance index are used to validate the performance of the proposed controller. To evaluate the robustness of the designed controller, impacts of change in the operating conditions and the use of an inaccurate model of the process in the controller design stage, on performance of the proposed controller are also investigated.
Prevalence of Impaired Glucose Regulation in Asymptomatic Kuwaiti Young Adults

Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of impaired glucose regulation in a young, asymptomatic Kuwaiti population. Subjects and Methods: A cross-sectional study of 484 Kuwaitis (females: 311, and males: 173, aged 17–24 years), students at a public college for basic education, was conducted. Each participant underwent a 75-gram oral glucose tolerance test, and biochemical testing for hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), total cholesterol and triglyceride levels. Physical examinations were performed to measure body mass index (BMI), waist circumference and blood pressure. Results: The prevalence of impaired glucose regulation (impaired fasting glucose, impaired glucose tolerance, and elevated HbA1c levels) was 32%, including 4% with newly diagnosed diabetes. Of the 484 participants, 47 (10%) of the population had hypertension and 52 (11%) had dyslipidemia. A total of 244 (50%) were classified as overweight/obese (BMI >25 kg/m2) and 201 (42%) had an elevated waist circumference (≧88 cm in females; ≧102 cm in males). Impaired glucose regulation was significantly related to increased waist circumference (p = 0.021) but not to increased BMI (p = 0.181). Those with impaired glucose regulation also had a higher prevalence of hypertension (p = 0.05), particularly systolic hypertension (p = 0.023). Conclusion: Kuwaiti youth have a high prevalence of impaired glucose regulation and overweight/obesity. Waist circumference, rather than BMI, may be a more appropriate screening tool to predict impaired glucose regulation in Kuwaiti youth.
Evaluation of emotional state of a person based on facial expression

In this paper an overview about the methods and approaches used in the past to achieve facial expression recognition as well as an approach that involves the use of neural networks that proves to be very efficient are presented. The possibility to achieve up to 70% accuracy even without extraction of facial features is substantiated. Achievements related to the latest improvements in the field of robotic emotional intelligence are summarized.
Rights to nature : ecological, economic, cultural, and political principles of institutions for the environment

Property rights are a tool humans use in regulating their use of natural resources. Understanding how rights to resources are assigned and how they are controlled is critical to designing and implementing effective strategies for environmental management and conservation.Rights to Nature is a nontechnical, interdisciplinary introduction to the systems of rights, rules, and responsibilities that guide and control human use of the environment. Following a brief overview of the relationship between property rights and the natural environment, chapters consider: ecological systems and how they function the effects of culture, values, and social organization on the use of natural resources the design and development of property rights regimes and the costs of their operation cultural factors that affect the design and implementation of property rights systems coordination across geographic and jurisdictional boundaries The book provides a valuable synthesis of information on how property rights develop, why they develop in certain ways, and the ways in which they function. Representing a unique integration of natural and social science, it addresses the full range of ecological, economic, cultural, and political factors that affect natural resource management and use, and provides valuable insight into the role of property rights regimes in establishing societies that are equitable, efficient, and sustainable.
Identification of RBC and WBC Count in Human Blood Using ARM Based Instrumentation

— The rapid growth in microelectronics and crunching RISC in the field of bio-medical sciences incorporated of soft tools to diagnose various parameters of human fluids. Conventional method of blood sample analysis makes use of laboratory technique of titration, which is operator-dependent and results in lot of errors depending on the skill of the technician. In order to eliminate the human errors involved in the conventional method, in this paper an attempt has been made to present a capillary centrifuge technique driven by high speed DC motor fed by Morgan chopper and controlled by powerful ARM processor. It results in accurate analysis of the blood samples. The various techniques involved in accurate sensing of speed using timer and generation of firing pulses to thyristor in the Morgan chopper is judiciously achieved. This paper clearly brings out the advantages of the proposed blood measurement technique which effectively gives blood analysis faster and at a low cost.
Short-Term Influence of the Oil Price on Stock Prices from the Bucharest Stock Exchange

In the last decades, several studies revealed the significant impact of oil price variation not only on the real economic activity but also on the financial markets evolutions. Such relations are affected by some particularities of the national economies. In this paper we examine the impact of the oil price on the Romanian capital market evolution from January 2000 to February 2013. In our analysis we employ daily values of the Brent oil price and of BET C, one of the main indexes of Bucharest Stock Exchange. A GARCH model allows us to investigate the effects of the oil price fluctuations on returns and volatility of the stock prices. We split our samples of data in three sub-samples in order to capture the influence of three major processes that affected the Romanian economy: the last stage of transition to a capitalist system, the transformations induced by the adhesion to European Union and the global crisis. Our results revealed significant changes on the relation between oil price and stock prices that occurred during these three periods of time.
Adult Children and Their Parents' Expectations of Future Elder Care Needs

Objective: Lifestyle changes and medical advances warrant an investigation into perceptions of elder care needs held by today's adult children (AC) and their parents. Method: Surveys were distributed to 200 AC. Eighty AC and 102 of their parents responded. Results: Paired sample t tests revealed that AC (M = 10.61, SD = 4.5) and parents (M = 10.4, SD = 4.60) did not differ in their own expectations of future care needs. However, ACs' expectations of their parents' needs (M = 15.82, SD = 5.77) were significantly higher than both self-expectations. In addition, among six caregiving tasks minimal but significant differences were found in expected receipt of assistance. Discussion: Consistent with Weinstein's (1980) theory of unrealistic optimism, results demonstrated the tendency for AC and parents to underestimate their own future care needs. Such underestimation may in turn, lead to inadequate planning for future care needs.
Mucosal Immunization with Recombinant Fusion Protein DnaJ-ΔA146Ply Enhances Cross-Protective Immunity against Streptococcus pneumoniae Infection in Mice via Interleukin 17A

ABSTRACT Pneumolysin (Ply) and its variants are protective against pneumococcal infections in animal models, and as a Toll-like receptor 4 agonist, pneumolysin has been reported to be a mucosal adjuvant. DnaJ has been approved as a useful candidate vaccine protein; we therefore designed novel fusion proteins of DnaJ with a form of Ply that has a deletion of A146 (ΔA146Ply-DnaJ [the C terminus of ΔA146Ply connected with the N terminus of DnaJ] and DnaJ-ΔA146Ply [the C terminus of DnaJ connected with the N terminus of ΔA146Ply]) to test whether they are protective against focal and lethal pneumococcal infections and their potential protective mechanisms. The purified proteins were used to intranasally immunize the animals without additional adjuvant. Immunization with DnaJ-ΔA146Ply or DnaJ plus ΔA146Ply (Ply with a single deletion of A146) could significantly reduce S. pneumoniae colonization in the nasopharynx and lung relative with DnaJ alone. Additionally, we observed the best protection for DnaJ-ΔA146Ply-immunized mice after challenge with lethal doses of S. pneumoniae strains, which was comparable to that achieved by PPV23. Mice immunized with DnaJ-ΔA146Ply produced significantly higher levels of anti-DnaJ IgG in serum and secretory IgA (sIgA) in saliva than those immunized with DnaJ alone. The production of IL-17A was also striking in DnaJ-ΔA146Ply-immunized mice. IL-17A knockout (KO) mice did not benefit from DnaJ-ΔA146Ply immunization in colonization experiments, and sIgA production was impaired in IL-17A KO mice. Collectively, our results indicate a mucosal adjuvant potential for ΔA146Ply and that, without additional adjuvant, DnaJ-ΔA146Ply fusion protein exhibits extensive immune stimulation and is effective against pneumococcal challenges, properties which are partially attributed to the IL-17A-mediated immune responses.
Gallium-Nitride-Based Submodule Integrated Converters for High-Efficiency Distributed Maximum Power Point Tracking PV Applications

Distributed maximum power point tracking (MPPT) photovoltaic (PV) systems have drawn increased attention since the inhomogeneous irradiance on PV modules can significantly deteriorate the effectiveness of solar energy harvest. To address the issue, this paper focuses on developing a highly efficient submodule integrated converter (subMIC), which is connected across each submodule of a PV panel. Gallium nitride (GaN) field-effect transistors are utilized in the synchronous buck converter topology to achieve high conversion efficiency and reduced size. A converter prototype, which is digitally controlled using a microcontroller for MPPT, is developed and tested, considering various irradiation conditions. The peak efficiency of the proposed GaN-based subMIC is measured to be higher than 99% at 400-kHz switching frequency, whereas the accuracy of MPPT is above 99% considering low-power conditions.
Functional Specialization in the Human Frontal Cortex Observed during Task Anticipation

The purpose was to evaluate whether a scalp-recorded slow potential will show specificity during the anticipation of different types of visual tasks. One of the tasks required the comparison of pairs of familiar faces, and the other was the comparison of abstract dotted patterns. Each trial began with one of the two cues (S1) followed by consecutive pictures (S2 and S3). Faces and patterns were superimposed, and the switching between tasks depended on the cue. The ERP analysis was done for the time window between S1 (cue) and S2 presentations. The major differences between tasks were found in the anterior scalp regions starting at 700 ms from S1 onset. During Pattern task anticipation, the proposed sources in the right frontal area were more anterior, inferior and lateral than those in Face task. The task-specific slow electric potentials may indicate the functional specialization for attentive anticipation in the human frontal lobe.
Visceral adiposity index and prognosis among patients with ischemic heart failure

ABSTRACT CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVES: The obesity paradox has already been established in relation to heart failure, but it is not known which obesity indicator best reflects this phenomenon. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between obesity indexes and mortality among patients with heart failure. DESIGN AND SETTING: Cohort study conducted in the Department of Cardiology of Hospital Nossa Senhora da Conceição (Brazil). METHODS: Clinical, demographic, socioeconomic, biochemical and anthropometric data on 116 patients aged 30 to 85 years with a diagnosis of heart failure were evaluated. Arm fat area, body mass index, body surface area, body adiposity index, lipid accumulation product (LAP) and visceral adiposity index (VAI) were calculated. Cox regression was used to perform survival analyses. RESULTS: At baseline, the individuals with ischemic heart failure who remained alive showed higher VAI (3.60 ± 3.71 versus 1.48 ± 1.58; P = 0.04) and a trend towards higher LAP, in comparison with the individuals who died. After an average follow-up of 14.3 months, ischemic heart failure patients who had VAI > 1.21 showed 78% lower risk of death (HR 0.12; 95% CI: 0.02-0.67; P = 0.02) and the Kaplan-Meier survival curves showed better prognosis for these individuals (P = 0.005; log-rank test). CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that VAI is a good predictor of better prognosis among ischemic heart failure patients.
Ammon's Horn Sclerosis: A Maldevelopmental Disorder Associated with Temporal Lobe Epilepsy

Ammon's horn sclerosis (AHS) is the major neuropathological substrate in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). Histopathological hallmarks include segmental loss of pyramidal neurons, granule cell dispersion and reactive gliosis. Pathogenetic mechanisms underlying this distinct hippocampal pathology have not yet been identified and it remains to be resolved whether AHS represents the cause or the consequence of chronic seizure activity and pharmacoresistant TLE. Whereas the clinical history indicates an early onset in most patients, ie, occurrence of febrile seizures at a young age, surgical treatment is usually carried out at an end stage of the disease. It has, therefore, been difficult to analyse the sequential development of hippocampal pathology in TLE patients. Recent molecular neuropathological studies focusing on developmental aspects of hippocampal organization revealed 2 intriguing findings in AHS specimens: i) The persistence of Cajal‐Retzius cells in AHS patients points towards an early insult and an altered Reelin signaling pathway and ii) increased neurogenesis in and abnormal architectural organization of the dentate granule cell layer can be observed in young patients with early hippocampal seizure onset. These findings would be compatible with a model that involves a neurodevelopmental component in the formation of AHS. Its association with a lowered seizure threshold and an increased susceptibility for segmental cell loss in the hippocampus during the long course of the disease may constitute additional elements in a pathogenic cascade.
Can We Leave Road Pricing to the Regions? The Role of Institutional Constraints

Many countries still use federal fuel taxes as the main instrument to charge for road use. Recently, urban road pricing and regional distance charging have gained momentum, increasing opportunities for future decentralized decision-making. However, whether leaving road pricing decisions to regional authorities is a good idea is not a priori clear. Previous political economy models have suggested that in the large majority of cases decentralization yields higher welfare than federal pricing decisions. In this paper, we extend a political economy model of a two-region federation to show that this conclusion does not hold once we allow for commonly observed institutional constraints on federal decision making. We show that requiring user prices to be uniform across regions greatly improves the efficiency of centralized decision making. The same holds when federal decisions are the result of a legislative bargaining process among elected regional representatives. Under these institutional constraints, federal decisions may easily outperform decentralization, even when the opposite would hold in the absence of the constraints. The model also explains under what conditions such constraints will automatically be embedded in the federal constitution. Specifically, if regions are symmetric and drivers have a majority in both regions, they will voluntarily transfer power to the federal level, provided the relevant policy restrictions (uniform pricing or legislative bargaining) are constitutionally imposed. However, if drivers have a majority in one region only, the region where non-users have a majority will never agree to transfer decision power to the federal level.
Novel photodefined polymer-clad through-silicon via technology integrated with endpoint detection using optical emission spectroscopy

Silicon interposers with through-silicon vias (TSVs) have been widely explored to obtain high density and high bandwidth communication between chips. To reduce TSV electrical loss and stress, novel photodefined polymer-clad TSVs are fabricated. Moreover, to reduce via under or over etching during TSV fabrication and accurately predict the endpoint for TSV etching, a hybrid partial least squares-support vector machine (PLS-SVM) model of optical emission spectroscopy (OES) data is successfully demonstrated. Accurate endpoint detection results are shown for 80 μm diameter TSVs.
Firing rates of motor units during strong dynamic contractions

Muscle behavior is usually studied during isometric contractions but many tasks include contractions that involve changes in muscle length. Our aim was to record motor unit action potentials and surface electromyograms (EMGs) from triceps brachii muscles during rhythmic dynamic contractions (3‐s concentric, 3‐s eccentric; 40°/s; four subjects) performed at the highest voluntary forces subjects could exert (maximal concentric contraction) and at various submaximal intensities. Mean unit firing rates and surface EMG increased significantly with contraction intensity in both concentric and eccentric contractions, but at each intensity mean concentric values were significantly higher than eccentric values. In contrast, mean unit firing rates and surface EMGs were similar during maximal concentric and maximal isometric contractions. These data suggest muscles were activated maximally during the strongest concentric contractions but submaximally during the strongest eccentric efforts. After estimated eccentric contraction intensity was adjusted using surface EMG data, mean unit firing rates during eccentric contractions were still lower than the concentric values. Thus, protective mechanisms may limit motor unit firing rates during forceful lengthening contractions to minimize damage. Muscle Nerve, 2005
The Economics of Poverty: History, Measurement, and Policy

While there is no denying that the world has made huge progress against absolute poverty over the last 200 years, until recent times the bulk of that progress had been made in wealthy countries only. The good news is that we have seen greater progress against poverty in the developing world in recent times-indeed, a faster pace of progress against extreme poverty than the rich world saw over a period of 100 years or more of economic development. However, continuing progress is far from assured. High and rising inequality has stalled progress against poverty in many countries. We are seeing generally rising relative poverty in the rich world as a whole over recent decades. And even in the developing world, there has been less progress in reaching the poorest, who risk being left behind, and a great many people in the emerging middle class remain highly vulnerable to falling back into poverty. The Economics of Poverty strives to support well-informed efforts to put in place effective policies to assure continuing success in reducing poverty in all its dimensions. The book reviews critically the past and present debates on the central policy issues of economic development everywhere. How much poverty is there? Why does poverty exist? What can be done to eliminate poverty? Martin Ravallion provides an accessible new synthesis of current knowledge on these issues. It does not assume that readers know economics already. Those new to economics get a lot of help along the way in understanding its concepts and methods. Economics lives though its relevance to real world problems, and here the problem of global poverty is both the central focus and a vehicle for learning. Available in OSO:
Polychlorinated naphthalenes, biphenyls, dibenzo‐p‐dioxins, and dibenzofurans as well as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and alkylphenols in sediment from the Detroit and Rouge Rivers, Michigan, USA

Sediment from the upper Detroit and lower Rouge Rivers in southeastern Michigan, USA, were analyzed to examine the distribution of polychlorinated naphthalenes (PCNs), biphenyls (PCBs), dibenzo‐p‐dioxins (PCDDs), and dibenzofurans (PCDFs) as well as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and alkylphenolic compounds such as butylphenol, octylphenol, and nonylphenol (NP). Sediments from a non–point source location in Lake Michigan were also analyzed for target compounds. Concentrations of target compounds in the upper Detroit and lower Rouge Rivers varied considerably among locations, and notable spatial variation existed. Concentrations of PCNs and PCDDs/PCDFs in sediments from the upper Detroit and lower Rouge Rivers ranged from 0.08 to 187 ng/g and 69 to 1420 pg/g dry weight, respectively. Total PCBs, PAHs, and NP concentrations ranged from 8 to 25,000, 17 to 44,000, and <10 to 60,000 ng/g dry weight, respectively. Concentrations of all target compounds except PCNs were significantly correlated with total organic carbon content of sediments. Similarly, concentrations of PCBs, PCDDs, and PCDFs were significantly correlated with each other. The distribution of organic contaminants in the upper reaches of the Detroit River and lower Rouge River suggested the presence of localized, but multiple, sources of contamination for each compound class. Conners Creek combined sewer overflow has been identified as one of the potential sources for the upper Detroit River, where the highest concentrations PCBs and PCDDs/PCDFs were found. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon and NP concentrations were consistently high in sediment from the lower Rouge River. Analysis of data from selected locations suggested that PCNs contributed a greater proportion of the dioxin‐like activity than PCBs and PCDDs/PCDFs contributed.