Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modelling the interacting effects of nutrient uptake, light capture and temperature on phytoplankton growth

A model of phytoplankton growth developed by analogy with chemical kinetics (CR model) in Baird and Emsley (J. Plankton Res., 21, 85‐126, 1999) is explored further. The CR model parameterizes all biochemical reactions involved in phytoplankton growth by one parameter: the maximum growth rate. Phytoplankton growth rate is then calculated from an interaction of the maximum growth rate, and the physical limit to extracellular nutrient uptake rates and light capture. In this paper, the CR model was re-derived, with two corrections and a number of modifications to increase its generality. During derivation, the model’s behaviour was compared with chemostat cultures at a variety of dilution rates, nutrient inputs and temperatures. Model output was then plotted against observations of a semi-continuous culture of Isochrysis galbana. Finally, the CR model was used to predict the growth rate of phytoplankton communities extracted from two temperate lakes under varying nutrient, light and temperature regimes. The CR model explained 37% of the variability of phytoplankton growth rate in cultures at environmental conditions similar to those of the lakes, compared with 25% explained by a non-linear best fit to 324 growth experiments. The following paper in this issue develops the CR model further, using it to predict stable carbon isotope fractionation.
Entry Threat and Entry Deterrence: The Timing of Broadband Rollout

Past empirical literature provides strong evidence that competition increases when new firms enter a market. However, rarely have economists been able to examine how competition changes with the threat of entry. This paper uses the evolution of the zip code level market structure of facilities-based broadband providers from 1999 to 2004 to investigate how a firm adjusts its entry strategy when facing the threat of additional entrants. We identify the potential entrant into a local market as threatened when a neighboring market houses more than firms providing broadband services. We first document that such a market is more likely to accommodate more than firms in the long run. Taking account of endogeneity of entry into neighboring markets, we find that the first 1 to 3 entrants significantly delay their entrance into an open local market facing entry threat. We do not find evidence of delayed entry for firms following the 3rd entrant. The evidence suggests that the mere threat of entry may curb market power associated with oligopolistic market structure.
Comparison of the Effect of Diuretics on Carotid Blood Flow in Stroke Patients

Objectives Indapamide (IND) and bendroflumethiazide (BDZ) are both widely used in the management of blood pressure after stroke. There are theoretical reasons why these agents may differ with regard to their cardiovascular effects. We compared the effect of these agents on blood pressure and cerebral blood flow in a group of stroke patients. Methods In a prospective, randomized, double-blinded study we investigated the effect of 28 days' treatment with BDZ 2.5 mg od or IND 2.5 mg od on blood pressure and cerebral blood flow in a group patients with recent first-ever ischemic stroke. Using extracranial carotid and transcranial ultrasound we assessed carotid blood flow and intracranial hemodynamics. Results All data are expressed as mean (SD). Twenty-five patients completed the protocol (age 68.8±10.6 y). Groups I (IND) and B (BDZ) comprised 13 and 12 patients, respectively. Groups were well matched for demography and baseline characteristics. Percent change in mean arterial pressure reduction from baseline was (I=−14.7±12.5, P<0.001 vs. B=−7.7±9.16 mm Hg, P=0.02). There was a trend toward increased carotid blood flow in both groups (I=+10%±47, P=0.4 vs. B=+33%±47, P=0.12). No significant change in middle cerebral artery mean flow velocity or pulsatility index was observed. There was no significant difference between the 2 drugs with regard to change in blood pressure (95% confidence interval for difference –2.5 to 16.3 mm Hg, P=0.14) or carotid blood flow (95% confidence interval for difference –58 to 27 mL/s, P=0.45). Conclusions Both diuretics reduced blood pressure to a similar and significant degree. There was no evidence of an adverse effect on cerebral blood flow or intracranial hemodynamics induced by either agent. No significant difference between the effect of IND and BDZ was observed.
Harnessing Preclinical Molecular Imaging to Inform Advances in Personalized Cancer Medicine

Comprehensive molecular analysis of individual tumors provides great potential for personalized cancer therapy. However, the presence of a particular genetic alteration is often insufficient to predict therapeutic efficacy. Drugs with distinct mechanisms of action can affect the biology of tumors in specific and unique ways. Therefore, assays that can measure drug-induced perturbations of defined functional tumor properties can be highly complementary to genomic analysis. PET provides the capacity to noninvasively measure the dynamics of various tumor biologic processes in vivo. Here, we review the underlying biochemical and biologic basis for a variety of PET tracers and how they may be used to better optimize cancer therapy.
Smallholder Incomes, Vegetable Marketing and Food Safety: Evidence from China

Great changes have taken place in China’s agricultural and food markets in the past several decades. However, the impact of the transformation brought by modern supply chains on the welfare of farmers in China is unclear. This paper attempts to understand whether or not the recent changes in China’s food economy have contributed to an improvement in the welfare of small, poor farmer. It also seeks to identify whether or not the main marketing institutions in China’s horticultural economy are consistent with a system that can deliver food safety. To achieve our objectives, we use a data set collected in 2007 by ourselves which includes representative tomato- and cucumber-production farmers in Shandong Province. We use the information from the survey to describe the emergences of production systems and marketing structures. The data are also used to examine whether the small or large farmers (or rich or poor ones) are participating in the expanding horticultural economy, and if so through which different types of marketing channels. We also examine several indicators of producer-trader behavior to understand whether China’s horticultural marketing channels is able to guarantee a safe and traceable vegetable product. The results show that despite the dramatic evolution of the downstream segment of China’s horticultural economy, most Shandong tomato and cucumber-producing farmers are selling through traditional marketing channels. Moreover, small/poor farmers are not being excluded.
The Parahippocampal Region and Auditory‐Mnemonic Processing

A. ENGELIEN,a,b E. STERN,b N. ISENBERG,b,d W. ENGELIEN,b C. FRITH,c AND D. SILBERSWEIGb bFunctional Neuroimaging Laboratory, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, 525 East 68th Street, New York, New York 10021, USA cWellcome Department of Cognitive Neurology, Institute of Neurology, University College London, 12 Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK dNew Jersey Neuroscience Institute, JFK Medical Center, 65 James Street, Edison, New Jersey 08818, USA
To love and to work: The next major mental health reform goals

Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 47(8) Amongst all the criticisms of public mental health services and the debates about early intervention for psychosis it is easy to lose sight of improvements in the mental health service landscape that have occurred over the last 50 years or so. How many now would have first-hand recollections of the asylum era that extended into the 1960s and 70s? Who recalls the large stand-alone hospitals with their dehumanising practices, their bare halls and squalid bathrooms where the mentally ill smoked, paced or shuffled endlessly? With the accelerated closure of beds in the 1980s and 90s, and the failure to shift resources to community-based services we saw the mentally ill exploited in sub-standard boarding houses, homeless and untreated, or accommodated in overcrowded hospitals and in prisons. The first Australian national survey of psychosis (Jablensky et al., 2000) provided a snapshot of people with psychotic disorders at the tail end of that period. Over 10 years later the second national psychosis survey (Morgan et al., 2012) has given us a contemporary picture in the wake of a number of mental health reforms. In the past decade inpatient admissions, both voluntary and involuntary, declined by 36% overall; use of outpatient or community clinics increased by 23%; access to community rehabilitation or day programmes rose by 61%; non-government organisations (NGOs) extended their role from 19% to 27% of people with psychosis; general practitioner visits went from 77% to 88%; the proportion using supported accommodation doubled to 10.9% (homelessness more than halved, down from 13% to 5%), while the proportion living in rented accommodation had gone up from 34% to 49% (Morgan et al., 2011). Many of these changes reflect an increased investment in community-based delivery of ambulatory care in accordance with policy directives of the National Mental Health Strategy, and increased investment in NGO services with the Third National Mental Health Plan. Investment in supported accommodation, while heading in the right direction, still has some distance to travel.
The status of migrant workers in the Maldives: 'Precarious workers' or 'labour aristocrats'?

The purpose of this paper is to examine the status and experience of migrant workers in the Maldives. The paper explores how migrant workers are treated in the Maldives by applying the theoretical concepts: 'precariousness', 'vulnerability', and 'labour aristocracy'. The paper is based on interviews conducted with migrant workers and other stakeholders from various industry sectors and occupational levels, and data collected from various documentary sources. The theoretical scope is the debate on migrant workers and their vulnerability. The paper reveals that employers across the sectors of the economy prefer to recruit migrant workers for various reasons, including the perceived usefulness of migrant workers, to save labour costs and as a result of the negative stereotype of local workers. The paper uncovers that migrant workers in general are subject to 'precariousness' or 'vulnerability' in varying degrees. However, both unskilled and professional migrant workers in resorts receive preferential treatment in several aspects of their employment, and the professional migrant workers in resorts can be regarded as 'labour aristocrats'.
Barriers to utilization of cataract surgical services in Ekiti State, South Western Nigeria

Objective: To ascertain the barriers to utilization of cataract surgery in Ekiti State, south western Nigeria. Methods: A semistructured questionnaire was used to extract relevant data from cataract patients seen during six episodes of free eye screening conducted quarterly across the three senatorial districts of the state for a 15-month period. The questionnaire contains relevant biodata and reasons why the patients did not utilized facilities for routine cataract surgery prior to the screening exercise. The data obtained were coded and analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 15. Results: A total of 132 patients were analyzed for the study, The study group comprised 64 males (48.5%) and 68 females (51.5%). Age range 16-95 years with a mean of 64.8 years ± SD 16.5. Forty of them (30.3%) were bilaterally blind, whereas 92 (69.7%) were uniocularly blind from cataract. The most common reason for not utilizing routine cataract surgical services was financial constraint as claimed by 65 (49.2%) of them; other reasons include ignorance 38 (28.8%), medical illness 24 (18.2%), and fear 5 (3.8%). Conclusion: Financial constraint is the most common barrier to utilization of routine cataract surgery in Ekiti, State. Ignorance is also a significant factor in our environment.
The change of direction of maximum Goos-Hanchen shift on the interface of centrosymmetric antiferromagnet in an external constant electric field

The conditions, under which on the interface of the non-magnetic dielectric and the optically less dense antiferromagnet in a constant external electric field changes the sign of the Goos-Hanchen shift, as well as it becomes possible its maximum increase, was defined. The vector of the electric field lies in the sagittal plane normal to the interface between the media and the easy magnetic axis.
Accidental near degeneracy of the order parameter for superconducting UPt3.

UPt 3 appears to have a tetracritical point in the H-T plane for all orientations H of H. Such a point can exist only if the Ginzburg-Landau (GL) «Hamiltonian» has a conserved quantity Q. It is shown that the model of a two-component vector order parameter admits a Q for H∥c, but has no tetracritical point. Hence, accidentally nearly degenerate order parameters are examined, particularly the model where one behaves as an A and the other as a B representation of D 6h . This model can yield a tetracritical point for all H. Its physical properties are calculated and GL parameters are fitted to experiment
Forecasting sudden changes in environmental pollution patterns

The lack of reliable forecasts for the spread of oceanic and atmospheric contamination hinders the effective protection of the ecosystem, society, and the economy from the fallouts of environmental disasters. The consequences can be dire, as evidenced by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. We present a methodology to predict major short-term changes in environmental contamination patterns, such as oil spills in the ocean and ash clouds in the atmosphere. Our approach is based on new mathematical results on the objective (frame-independent) identification of key material surfaces that drive tracer mixing in unsteady, finite-time flow data. Some of these material surfaces, known as Lagrangian coherent structures (LCSs), turn out to admit highly attracting cores that lead to inevitable material instabilities even under future uncertainties or unexpected perturbations to the observed flow. These LCS cores have the potential to forecast imminent shape changes in the contamination pattern, even before the instability builds up and brings large masses of water or air into motion. Exploiting this potential, the LCS-core analysis developed here provides a model-independent forecasting scheme that relies only on already observed or validated flow velocities at the time the prediction is made. We use this methodology to obtain high-precision forecasts of two major instabilities that occurred in the shape of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. This is achieved using simulated surface currents preceding the prediction times and assuming that the oil behaves as a passive tracer.
In Vivo Immobilization of Fusion Proteins on Bioplastics by the Novel Tag BioF

ABSTRACT A new protein immobilization and purification system has been developed based on the use of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs, or bioplastics), which are biodegradable polymers accumulated as reserve granules in the cytoplasm of certain bacteria. The N-terminal domain of the PhaF phasin (a PHA-granule-associated protein) from Pseudomonas putida GPo1 was used as a polypeptide tag (BioF) to anchor fusion proteins to PHAs. This tag provides a novel way to immobilize proteins in vivo by using bioplastics as supports. The granules carrying the BioF fusion proteins can be isolated by a simple centrifugation step and used directly for some applications. Moreover, when required, a practically pure preparation of the soluble BioF fusion protein can be obtained by a mild detergent treatment of the granule. The efficiency of this system has been demonstrated by constructing two BioF fusion products, including a functional BioF-β-galactosidase. This is the first example of an active bioplastic consisting of a biodegradable matrix carrying an active enzyme.
Food Scares and Consumer Behaviour: A European Perspective

In this paper a consumer food choice model based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) is extended to account for risk perception and trust. The data are from a nationally representative European survey of 2 725 respondents from five countries, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The model relates the intention to purchase chicken in an extended TPB framework, which incorporates risk perceptions, and trust in alternative sources of food safety information. This model was run for two behaviours of interest: the standard likelihood of intention to purchase and the likelihood of intention to purchase conditional on news about a salmonella incident. The model has good predictive power and shows distinct country differences. Only in the case of a food scare do risk perceptions and trust come into play. The findings suggest that the government policy priority should be on building and maintaining trust in food and health authorities, and research institutions, while food chain actors could eliminate many of the adverse consequences of a food scare if they could build public trust. Interestingly there is no relationship between socio-demographic variables and the trust placed by consumers in food safety information.
An Empirical Investigation to the Factors Influencing Buying Decision of Luxury Goods: A Study of Y Generation

This study aims to explore the main reasons of consumption of luxury branded goods. The research also gives an insight upon the main motivational values towards purchasing luxury branded products. The method chosen for analyzing the raw data collected through offline and online questionnaire survey, through snowball sampling technique, was quantitative models namely descriptive statistics and one way ANOVA, that was run through the help of SPSS. The study analyzes the four major motivational values, which motivate people to purchase and consume luxury branded goods, namely; personal values, functional values, individual values and social values. As a result, we find out that functional values were the most significant motivator in purchase decision-making followed by personal values, individual values and social values respectively. One-way ANOVA analysis interprets that four of these values are significant in term of decision-making process while purchasing luxury branded goods. Post Hoc tests showed us the relationship between these values. The social values and fundamental values were highly significant in all the purchase decisions criteria.
Repressor binding to a regulatory site in the DNA coding sequence is sufficient to confer transcriptional regulation of the vir-repressed genes (vrg genes) in Bordetella pertussis

Five TnphoA fusions to vir-repressed genes (vrg genes) have been identified in the respiratory pathogen Bordetella pertussis. A comparison of vrg DNA sequences suggests a consensus DNA element within the coding regions of four of five vrg genes. To determine the role of this DNA sequence in vrg regulation, a nucleotide substitution mutation in the conserved region of vrg-6 was isolated. This mutant showed constitutively high levels of expression in the absence of antigenic modulators, MgSO4 and nicotinic acid, suggesting that this DNA element may be a control site for vrg repression. Moreover, Northern (RNA) analysis and transcriptional fusion analysis suggest that vrg genes are regulated at the transcriptional level. To determine whether sequences in the coding region were sufficient to respond to antigenic modulation, a vrg-6::TnphoA promoter deletion plasmid that contained a heterologous promoter driving the expression of vrg-6 coding sequences from the vrg-6 translation start site to the TnphoA fusion junction was constructed. This heterologous construct responded to modulators in a vir-dependent fashion, indicating that sequences upstream of the coding sequence are not required for antigenic modulation. Southwestern (DNA-protein) analysis and mutational studies suggest that the vrg consensus DNA sequence is specifically recognized by a 34-kDa vir-activated gene (vag) product, whose binding results in down-regulation of vrg transcript levels. We conclude, at least for the vrg::TnphoA fusion strains, that a site on the DNA that corresponds to a consensus sequence located in the vrg coding region is sufficient to confer the transcriptional regulation (repression) of vrg genes when B. pertussis strains are grown under nonmodulating conditions.
EFFECTS OF SHIFTWORK ON SLEEP AND MENSTRUAL FUNCTION IN NURSES

Evidence suggests that shiftwork is associated with menstrual irregularities, reproductive disturbances, risk of adverse pregnancy outcome, and sleep disturbances in women, yet little has been done to evaluate the effects of shiftwork on menstrual function and fertility. The purpose of this study was to evaluate menstrual function, fertility, and pregnancy outcome in nurses working shiftwork, and to examine the relationship of sleep to menstrual function. Sixty-eight nurses < 40 years old completed a survey evaluating sleep, menstrual function, and pregnancy outcome. Fifty-three percent of the women noted menstrual changes when working shiftwork. Women noting menstrual changes reported more physiological symptoms ( p < 0.003), slept approximately one hour less when working nights, and reported lengthened time to fall asleep ( p < 0.01) when working nights. Findings suggest that sleep disturbances may lead to menstrual irregularities, and changes in menstrual function may be a marker of shiftwork intolerance.
The Role of Business and Social Ties in Organizational Knowledge Sharing:A Case Study of a Financial Institution

This thesis is built on the assumption that organizations are in important respect social networks whereby knowledge is socially constructed and shared. Social network analysis (SNA) was employed to investigate the strength of inter-unit ties among twenty two units within a financial organization. The association of these ties with the sharing of different types of knowledge was measured by a specifically created and developed web survey that was provided to twenty two units in the organization. Multiple Regression Quadratic Assignment Procedure (MRQAP) was used to examine two main questions and hypothesis. First and foremost, was to determine if there were associations between the strength of business and social ties and the sharing of different types of knowledge, i.e. public (noncodified vs. codified) and private (noncodified vs. codified). Second, to establish which of the two dimensions of strength -- closeness of a relationship, or the frequency of interaction - served as a stronger predictor for sharing of the four different kinds of knowledge the thesis delineated. Results showed that the strength of the business relationships rather than the strength of the social relationships contributed most significantly to the sharing of public and private knowledge in this organization. Specifically, the frequency of business interactions predicted the sharing of public noncodified knowledge, while the closeness of the business relationship predicted the sharing of private noncodified knowledge and the sharing of public codified knowledge. Curiously, neither business nor social ties predicted the sharing of private codified knowledge. The results also indicated that closeness of ties is a stronger predictor for sharing of more kinds of knowledge than frequency of interaction. By using new variable configuration and dichotomies for tie strength and knowledge types, the thesis generated new insights concerning the effects of tie strength on knowledge sharing.