Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Community-based Tourism Enterprises Development in Kenya: An Exploration of Their Potential as Avenues of Poverty Reduction

The United Nations World Tourism Organization endorses tourism for economic development and poverty reduction in developing countries, emphasising the role of micro-, small- and medium-sized tourism enterprises. In Kenya, community-based enterprises (CBEs) are preferred. This paper evaluates CBE potential and challenges for poverty reduction in Kenya. Reviewing literature on Kenyan tourism development, it uses case studies of six Kenyan CBEs spread across Kenya's tourism-focused community-based initiatives selected using opportunistic and snowball sampling. The case studies used individual in-depth semi-structured interviews with community leaders, CBE managers, tourism academics, support organisations and government officials, and focus groups with community members. The paper develops a detailed understanding of the CBEs, identifying the catalyst for their establishment and the role and degree of external intervention. It explores critical success factors, the extent to which CBEs alleviate poverty, and factors making communities welcome CBEs (or not). The results emphasise the conservation orientation of CBEs, with support agencies preferring partnership approaches involving white investment which inadequately addresses community priorities. Through foreign resource control and heavy reliance on donor funding, CBEs promote neocolonialism and reinforce dependency. An urgent review of the support framework for community tourism development in Kenya integrating the principles of sustainable development is advocated.
The Efficient Liability Sharing Factor for Environmental Disasters: Lessons for Optimal Insurance Regulation

Using a structural model of the interactions between governments, firms and insurance companies, we characterize the distortions in environmental liability sharing between firms and insurance companies that the imperfect implementation of government policies implies. These distortions stem from three factors: the presence of moral hazard, the non-congruence between firms/insurers’ objectives and social welfare, and the courts’ imperfect assessment of safety care levels exerted by firms. We characterize cases where the efficient liability sharing factor is above or below its full information perfect implementation level. We derive comparative statics results indicating how sensitive the liability sharing factor is to changes in parameters (parameters that underlie the firm profit level and volatility, the cost of safety care, the monitoring cost, the social cost of public funds, the effectiveness of care in reducing the probability of accident) that are relevant for the characterization of optimal policies (liability sharing, safety care standards) toward environmental protection or the prevention of industrial accidents. We derive policy implications regarding environmental disaster insurance policies.
Distinct Role of Pyk2 in Mediating Thromboxane Generation Downstream of Both G12/13 and Integrin αIIbβ3 in Platelets*

Background: Pyk2 is abundantly expressed in platelets. Results: Pyk2 regulates thromboxane A2 generation induced by both 2-methylthio-ADP and AYPGKF. Conclusion: Pyk2 is an important functional tyrosine kinase that is activated by both G12/13 and integrin αIIbβ3 in platelets. Significance: Understanding the mechanism of activation of Pyk2 enhances our understanding of the platelet inside-out and outside-in signaling events. Proline-rich tyrosine kinase 2 (Pyk2) is activated by various agonists in platelets. We evaluated the signaling mechanism and the functional role of Pyk2 in platelets by using pharmacological inhibitors and Pyk2-deficient platelets. We found that platelet aggregation and secretion in response to 2-methylthio-ADP (2-MeSADP) and AYPGKF were diminished in the presence of Pyk2 inhibitors or in Pyk2-deficient platelets, suggesting that Pyk2 plays a positive regulatory role in platelet functional responses. It has been shown that ADP-, but not thrombin-induced thromboxane (TxA2) generation depends on integrin signaling. Unlike ADP, thrombin activates G12/13 pathways, and G12/13 pathways can substitute for integrin signaling for TxA2 generation. We found that Pyk2 was activated downstream of both G12/13 and integrin-mediated pathways, and both 2-MeSADP- and AYPGKF-induced TxA2 generation was significantly diminished in Pyk2-deficient platelets. In addition, TxA2 generation induced by co-stimulation of Gi and Gz pathways, which is dependent on integrin signaling, was inhibited by blocking Pyk2. Furthermore, inhibition of 2-MeSADP-induced TxA2 generation by fibrinogen receptor antagonist was not rescued by co-stimulation of G12/13 pathways in the presence of Pyk2 inhibitor. We conclude that Pyk2 is a common signaling effector downstream of both G12/13 and integrin αIIbβ3 signaling, which contributes to thromboxane generation.
Multiple Spectral Kernel Learning and a Gaussian Complexity Computation

Multiple kernel learning (MKL) partially solves the kernel selection problem in support vector machines and similar classifiers by minimizing the empirical risk over a subset of the linear combination of given kernel matrices. For large sample sets, the size of the kernel matrices becomes a numerical issue. In many cases, the kernel matrix is of low-efficient rank. However, the low-rank property is not efficiently utilized in MKL algorithms. Here, we suggest multiple spectral kernel learning that efficiently uses the low-rank property by finding a kernel matrix from a set of Gram matrices of a few eigenvectors from all given kernel matrices, called a spectral kernel set. We provide a new bound for the gaussian complexity of the proposed kernel set, which depends on both the geometry of the kernel set and the number of Gram matrices. This characterization of the complexity implies that in an MKL setting, adding more kernels may not monotonically increase the complexity, while previous bounds show otherwise.
Experimenting with new combinations of old ideas

Economic experiments have challenged traditional assumptions about, and increased our understanding of, human behavior, resulting in more realistic models. Specialization, both in terms of methods and of situations studied, has contributed considerably to the success of this research program. At the same time specialization makes predicting behavior difficult when many different elements play a role. This dissertation combines four papers which try to relieve this problem by combining ideas from several specialization. The focus lies on linking ideas from social preferences with ideas on decision making under risk. Chapter two shows that a social reference point can influence risky decisions in unexpected ways. Chapter three uses individual risky decisions to distinguish between different social preference models. The last two chapters combine other ideas. Chapter four combines the strategy method with evolutionary simulations to study the minority game. Chapter five applies the idea that prior experiences can influence decisions to libertarian paternalism.
The maturation of human gene therapy

Human gene therapy is two things. It is the concept that human disease might be treated at the level of underlying genetic targets rather than at the level of aberrant metabolism, and it is the implementation of that concept toward a clinical reality. The conceptual aspect is established gene therapy has become an accepted central driving force in medicine. The second aspect—that of converting the concepts into practical tools for human gene therapy—is maturing rapidly. Over the past several years, the level of expectation had risen to unrealistic proportions and recent initial clinical trials produced disappointment. These early clinical results should, however, be viewed not as failures, but rather as deliberate progress along the learning curve in this new and difficult field of biomedical science.
Citizenship as Capital: The Distinction of Migrant Labor

As subordinate workers, migrants and foreigners are an essential labor force for industrialized economies. The author extends Pierre Bourdieu's ideas of capital to suggest that citizenship constitutes a key mechanism of distinction between migrant and nonmigrant workers. From this perspective, citizenship is a strategically produced form of capital, which manifests itself in formal (legal and institutional) as well as informal (practiced and cultural) aspects. Both aspects of citizenship can render migrant labor more vulnerable than nonmigrant labor and often channel migrants into the secondary labor market or the informal economy. The author presents examples from Germany and Canada to illustrate how legal and cultural processes associated with citizenship facilitate economic subordination and exploitation of migrant labor. The value of conceptualizing citizenship as a form of capital lies in integrating processes of inclusion and exclusion into a framework of distinction and in locating the strategic nature of citizenship with the motivation of reproduction. Based on the situation of migrants in the labor market, the author proposes that the logic of distinction and reproduction is an important underlying force in the construction and transformation of the concept of citizenship.
Overexpression of Slug is associated with malignant progression of esophageal adenocarcinoma.

AIM To characterise expression of known E-cadherin repressors; Snail, Slug and Twist in the development of esophageal adenocarcinoma. METHODS E-cadherin, Slug, Snail and Twist mRNA expression in Barrett's metaplasia and esophageal adenocarcinoma specimens was examined by real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Semi-quantitative immunohistochemistry was used to examine cellular localisation and protein levels. The effect of Slug on epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) markers was examined by transfection of Slug into an adenocarcinoma line OE33. RESULTS Cellular localisation of Slug in Barrett's metaplasia was largely cytoplasmic whilst in adenocarcinoma it was nuclear. Semi-quantitative analysis indicated that Slug was more abundant in adenocarcinoma compared to matched Barrett's metaplastic specimens. Snail and Twist were expressed in adenocarcinoma but were cytoplasmic in location and not induced compared to Barrett's mucosa. These observations were supported by mRNA studies where only Slug mRNA was shown to be over-expressed in adenocarcinoma and inversely correlated to E-cadherin expression. Overexpression of Slug in OE33 mediated E-cadherin repression and induced the mesenchymal markers vimentin and fibronectin. CONCLUSION Progression to adenocarcinoma is associated with increased Slug expression and this may represent a mechanism of E-cadherin silencing.
What is Good for Goldman Sachs is Good for America The Origins of the Present Crisis

Robert Brenner outlines the long-term causes of the present economic crisis. Rather than understanding the current downturn as merely a function of financial incompetence and miscalculation, he demonstrates that the US economy and that of the G7 has been slower growth in most of the major indices with each passing business cycle since the 1970s. In the last two cycles, asset bubbles inclined US consumers to take on more debt in order to spend and achieve limited GDP growth. Brenner outlines in detail how and why the financial sector played a key role in the creation and inflation of debt bubbles with new financial instruments. The implications for the US and the global economy are also outlined including the US current account deficit, trade imbalances, the rise of China and the East Asian economies as well as declining investment in the real economy and overcapacity in manufacturing worldwide.
Signal detection improvement using Unbalanced Haar Wavelet transform for digital receivers

In this paper, a new block is proposed for denoising of the digital QAM receiver signal before the detection stage. The denoising block acts such so as to improves the SNR of signal at the A/D stage without any band-width consumption. The proposed method exploits Unbalanced Haar Wavelet (UHW). Simulations results show that the proposed denoising block could provide an improvement of 14dB in the SNR of the received signal before detection process. 14db improvement in Snr not only for assumed value in simulation is true but also for any initial value of Snr is true. This method may easily overcome the noisy channels and can effectively render the receiver operation even in the input SNR of 0dB without any coding overloads. The proposed algorithm can be implemented through an on-line system which appears to be operational in real-time conditions.
Components of successful total quality management

Purpose – According to the literature, quality management consists of a set of components: critical factors, tools, techniques and practices. The purpose of this paper is: to identify the components of total quality management (TQM), in order to make them known to managers and thus facilitate successful quality management implementation, and to show the situation of 106 ISO 9000 certified firms concerning these components.Design/methodology/approach – In order to achieve this objective, a literature review and a survey based on 106 ISO 9000 certified firms in Spain were developed.Findings – The results reflect that certified firms must develop their people orientation 1and use techniques and tools to a higher extent in order to progress towards total quality.Originality/value – The value of the paper is point out which TQM components are important to successfully implement TQM and identify the situation of these components in ISO 9000 certified firms in a particular area.
Using Market Prices to Guide Sector Rotation

Economic analysis is based on certain assumptions about human behavior and the operation of markets. It can add value to the work of investment managers, but only if it provides a consistent conceptual and analytical framework that is based on realistic, not conventional Keynesian, assumptions. Market prices contain forecasts; thus, they can reliably anticipate the economy and the performance of asset classes, investment styles, and sector rotation. This presentation comes from the Economic Analysis for Investment Professionals conference held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on November 19, 1996.
Phylogenetic analysis identifies many uncharacterized actin‐like proteins (Alps) in bacteria: regulated polymerization, dynamic instability and treadmilling in Alp7A

Actin, one of the most abundant proteins in the eukaryotic cell, also has an abundance of relatives in the eukaryotic proteome. To date though, only five families of actins have been characterized in bacteria. We have conducted a phylogenetic search and uncovered more than 35 highly divergent families of actin‐like proteins (Alps) in bacteria. Their genes are found primarily on phage genomes, on plasmids and on integrating conjugative elements, and are likely to be involved in a variety of functions. We characterize three Alps and find that all form filaments in the cell. The filaments of Alp7A, a plasmid partitioning protein and one of the most divergent of the Alps, display dynamic instability and also treadmill. Alp7A requires other elements from the plasmid to assemble into dynamic polymers in the cell. Our findings suggest that most if not all of the Alps are indeed actin relatives, and that actin is very well represented in bacteria.
Antibody profiles for the diagnosis of antiphospholipid syndrome

Summary Among the so called‘antiphospholipid antibodies’, the presence of Lupus Anticoagulant (LA) is associated with thrombosis-related events and defines the antiphospholipid syndrome. The role of anti-cardiolipin (aCL) antibodies and anti-human β2-glycoprotein I (aβ2GPI) antibodies is less striking. Since the problem of standardization for these tests is far from resolved, we evaluated whether the combination of results (antiphospholipid laboratory profiles) could help to better classify these patients. Over a 6-year period, 618 consecutive subjects (55% of whom had previous documented thrombosis-related events) were referred to our clinic for Antiphospholipid antibody detection. LA was detected according to internationally accepted recommendations. ACL and aβ2GPI antibodies were detected by Enzyme-Linked-Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). Patients’ records were reviewed for the presence of previous thromboembolic events or obstetric complications according to Sapporo’s clinical criteria for the diagnosis of antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) and each patient underwent a physical examination. When individual tests were considered in a multivariate analysis which took into account age, gender, the presence of SLE or other autoimmune diseases and established risk factors for venous and arterial thromboembolism, LA (Odds Ratio 4.4, Confidence Interval 1.5–13.3) and aβ2GPI antibodies (Odds Ratio 2.9, Confidence Interval 1.1–7.5) but not aCL antibodies (Odds Ratio 1.2, Confidence Interval 0.5–2.7) were found to be independent risk factors for thrombosis-related events. When antiphospholipid antibody profiles instead of individual test positivity were analyzed in the above mentioned model, triple positivity resulted a strong independent risk factor (Odds Ratio 33.3, Confidence Interval 7.0–157.6), retaining its significance when the association with venous or arterial thromboembolism was considered. Double positivity with negative LA was close to significance for thrombosis-related events (Odds Ratio 2.2, Confidence Interval1.0–5.2, p=0.056) and highly significant risk factor for obstetric complications (Odds Ratio 10.8, Confidence Interval 2.9–40.8). Other combinations did not reach statistical significance. The mean level of IgG aβ2GPI antibodies was statistically higher in triple positive profile and might account for positive LA. As compared to a single test, the analysis of a complete antiphospholipid antibody profile can better determine patients at risk.
Transforming the Danish Film Field Via Professionalization, Penetration and Integration

Using a qualitative case study of the transformations of the infrastructure of the Danish film field by the Danish Film Institute and its CEO, three basic questions about entrepreneurial agency are raised. The first deals with the relationship between the institutional environment and the personal backgrounds of entrepreneurial actors. The study finds that certain actors can be seen as possessing extreme or unique levels of legitimacy resulting in being rewarded with tremendous resources and opportunities for strategic action. The second question has to do with how, and what sort of role transformations can take place from a structurally central, but static position in a field. Here "intermediary entrepreneurialism" was used to penetrate and integrate the field in such a way as to turn a structurally fixed position from a weak to a strong nexus. The third question deals with how transformations can be effected by an organization that straddles three prominent institutional fields and logics - the state, market and artistic expression. Here, the key role of the term "professionalization" is emphasized, arguing that this term proved evocative and compelling in each institutional field. The case also adds to our understanding of institutional and transformation processes in creative industries by focusing on two less-studied contexts - the role and strategies of centrally placed actors in initiating and leading transformational activities, and the role that entrepreneurial "bureaucrats" can play in transforming creative industries.
A computational model for inventory management and planning

The objective of the study is to determine the factors of the optimal level of merchandizing inventory. The study is based on a mathematical model. The results revealed some interesting findings. The most important conclusion is that the 'Usage of Material' or the Sales Volume is not the real determinate of the inventory volume. It is concluded in the model that the volume of inventories depends on the difference between the return on investment in the inventories and the rate of interest on short-term deposits. The traditional methods in cost accounting - Buffer Stock and Economic Order Quantity - have been reconciled with the profit maximization hypothesis.
Survival and prognostic stratification of 670 patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma.

PURPOSE To identify prognostic factors and a model predictive for survival in patients with metastatic renal-cell carcinoma (RCC). PATIENTS AND METHODS The relationship between pretreatment clinical features and survival was studied in 670 patients with advanced RCC treated in 24 Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center clinical trials between 1975 and 1996. Clinical features were first examined univariately. A stepwise modeling approach based on Cox proportional hazards regression was then used to form a multivariate model. The predictive performance of the model was internally validated through a two-step nonparametric bootstrapping process. RESULTS The median survival time was 10 months (95% confidence interval [CI], 9 to 11 months). Fifty-seven of 670 patients remain alive, and the median follow-up time for survivors was 33 months. Pretreatment features associated with a shorter survival in the multivariate analysis were low Karnofsky performance status (<80%), high serum lactate dehydrogenase (> 1.5 times upper limit of normal), low hemoglobin (< lower limit of normal), high "corrected" serum calcium (> 10 mg/dL), and absence of prior nephrectomy. These were used as risk factors to categorize patients into three different groups. The median time to death in the 25% of patients with zero risk factors (favorable-risk) was 20 months. Fifty-three percent of the patients had one or two risk factors (intermediate-risk), and the median survival time in this group was 10 months. Patients with three or more risk factors (poor-risk), who comprised 22% of the patients, had a median survival time of 4 months. CONCLUSIONS Five prognostic factors for predicting survival were identified and used to categorize patients with metastatic RCC into three risk groups, for which the median survival times were separated by 6 months or more. These risk categories can be used in clinical trial design and interpretation and in patient management. The low long-term survival rate emphasizes the priority of clinical investigation to identify more effective therapy.
Hedgehogs, Foxes, Leadership Renewal and Succession Planning

This article examines the intellectual history of The Uses of the University, including the influence of Jose Ortega y Gasset’s ideas about higher education, with a view to exploring Clark Kerr’s vision for the university and how that vision might be expanded to take account of present challenges, in particular, diversity. The paper, which calls for leadership renewal and succession planning, pays special attention to the two types of administrators defined by Kerr--the visionary hedgehog and the shrewd fox. We need to identify the hedgehogs and foxes of the future, who must be as diverse as possible if they are to raise the “multiversity” to “the height of the times. ”
Fifty Years on: Research on the European Parliament

This introductory article reviews our current state of knowledge about the European Parliament (EP). First, we review the major accomplishments of previous studies of the EP, highlighting four principal areas of work: general studies of the chamber, work on EP elections, studies of the internal politics of the Parliament, and research on the EP's institutional relations with the Council and Commission. Second, we consider what has yet to be learnt: what are the major unanswered questions about the EP, and how do the articles in this special issue respond to this agenda?