Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Has the medium (roast) become the message

Purpose – This paper examines the ethics of marketing both fair trade products and the movement's message of change, as fair trade shifts from a distribution system that relied on alternative distribution channels to one that is increasingly reliant on the commercial mainstream. The marketing of fair trade through mainstream commercial distribution channels has been the major success and the major challenge for the fair trade movement over the past decade.Design/methodology/approach – A conceptual approach and discussion are taken.Findings – First, we introduce the term “Clean‐wash” to describe a range of ways in which marketing fair trade through mainstream distribution channels creates opportunities for commercial businesses to appropriate and regulate the terrain. Second, the paper illustrates how mainstream marketing of fair trade has shifted the message of fair trade from participation in an international programme of trade reform to one about “shopping for a better world”. Finally, the paper explore.
Methicillin- and vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus colonization.

Goud et al 1 , in their very interesting article regarding the prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus in their community, state that “the anterior nares are the most common site for colonization”. Recent data suggest that the oropharynx could be more frequently colonized by S. aureus than the anterior nares 2-4 . Furthermore, even in some populations where nasal colonization is more common than oropharyngeal colonization, the use of a throat swab would increase significantly the rate of detection of the carriers 5 . In addition, another matter of discussion would be the chosen screening method for vancomycin resistance. The authors used disk-diffusion, which is not considered accurate and reliable enough for the detection of decreased susceptibility of S. aureus to this antimicrobial agent. It is of paramount importance to remember that, according to the current guidelines issued by the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI, formerly NCCLS), minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) tests should be performed to determine the susceptibility of all isolates of staphylococci to vancomycin. The disk test, although detecting accurately S. aureus containing vanA (vancomycin resistant isolates), does not differentiate vancomycin-susceptible from vancomycin-intermediate isolates 6 .
Proportional Transaction Costs in Rice Marketing: Estimation and Distribution by Institutional Arrangement

Agricultural commercialisation is emerging as an important option for achieving agricultural development and reducing poverty in developing countries. However, this option faces a number of barriers, including high fixed and proportional transaction costs. Proportional transaction cost lowers the efficiency of agricultural marketing system, but its measurement remained a challenge and its distribution under different institutional arrangement is not widely explored. Using a transport model, estimated based on data collected from Northern Uganda, proportional transaction cost was estimated and its distribution was also assessed. The estimation found that low proportional transaction costs are incurred by rice producers in Northern Uganda, mainly because of subsidisation of transport cost by rice millers. A lower proportional transaction costs are also incurred under contract institutional arrangement than under spot market and personalised arrangement. These observations reveal useful information about rice milling as one of the points along the rice value chains that policy intervention for improving market access of rice producers can be made, and confirm the importance of contract farming in reducing transaction cost and enhancing access to market.
Business Cycle Interdependence and the Role of FDI: Study on the US and the BRIC economies

Due to globalization business cycles are getting more interdependent. During the process of globalization, emerging countries have gained economic importance. The new structure of the world economy brings important implications for business cycles around the world. One source that might contribute to business cycle interdependence between emerging and developed economies are Foreign Direct Investments (FDI‟s). Since the mid 80‟s FDI flows have grown severely. The aim of this thesis is to answer whether the business cycles of the emerging BRIC countries and the US are interdependent and to investigate the influence FDI has on this interdependency. The findings reveal that there is a structural break towards more business cycle interdependence between the BRIC countries and the US. The results also indicate that when FDI linkage becomes stronger, there is more business cycle synchronization.
Lactococcin A, a new bacteriocin from Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris: isolation and characterization of the protein and its gene

A new bacteriocin, termed lactococcin A (LCN-A), from Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris LMG 2130 was purified and sequenced. The polypeptide contained no unusual amino acids and showed no significant sequence similarity to other known proteins. Only lactococci were killed by the bacteriocin. Of more than 120 L. lactis strains tested, only 1 was found resistant to LCN-A. The most sensitive strain tested, L. lactis subsp. cremoris NCDO 1198, was inhibited by 7 pM LCN-A. By use of a synthetic DNA probe, lcnA was found to be located on a 55-kb plasmid. The lcnA gene was cloned and sequenced. The sequence data revealed that LCN-A is ribosomally synthesized as a 75-amino-acid precursor including a 21-amino-acid N-terminal extension. An open reading frame encoding a 98-amino-acid polypeptide was found downstream of and in the same operon as lcnA. We propose that this open reading frame encodes an immunity function for LCN-A. In Escherichia coli lcnA did not cause an LCN-A+ phenotype. L. lactis subsp. lactis IL 1403 produced small amounts of the bacteriocin and became resistant to LCN-A after transformation with a recombinant plasmid carrying lcnA. The other lactococcal strains transformed with the same recombinant plasmid became resistant to LCN-A but did not produce any detectable amount of the bacteriocin.
Emergency Evacuation Planning for Highly Populated Urban Zones: A Transit-Based Solution and Optimal Operational Strategies

Natural and man-made disasters (e.g. hurricanes, floods, terrorist attacks) could cause huge economic loss and society damage. In many hazardous events, the best option is to relocate threatened populations to safer areas, which is commonly referred as emergency evacuation. During the process of evacuation, people would usually use their own vehicles to evacuate from the impacted area. However, there are some cases where people may not have access to reliable personal vehicles or using personal cars are not possible; then they need to rely on other forms of transportation. There are different modes of transportation that can be used to evacuate people, such as public transit, school buses, charter buses, demand-responsive vans, rail, and ambulances.
Millimeter-wave device-to-device multi-hop routing for multimedia applications

Millimeter-wave (mm-wave) communication is a promising technology for the next generation cellular networks. Motivated by the huge available bandwidth at these bands, it can be used to support the fastest-growing demands for the mobile data traffic such as multimedia applications. However, there are some challenges on the network connectivity at the mm-wave frequency bands. The high path loss, the limited diffraction capability due to the short wavelength, and having difficulties in penetrating through solid materials necessitate the line-of-sight and multi-hop communication in mm-wave networks. In this paper, we develop a multi-hop routing protocol which maximizes the sum quality of the uncompressed high-definition video applications for the device-to-device connections. The quality is measured as a function of the rate in this paper. We take into account the unique characteristics of the mm-wave propagation in our model. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm achieves the optimal solution for high cooperation probability. It is also verified by the simulation that our algorithm outperforms the max-min flow routing protocol solution.
Constructive Interaction: An Analysis of Verbal Interaction in a Usability Setting

This paper focuses on the interaction between teams of participants in the constructive interaction (CI) method. We analyzed transcripts and video recordings from five CI sessions in order to determine the types and frequencies of communicative acts performed as well as their usefulness to usability testers. In addition, we examined the contribution of the individual team members to the interaction and investigated whether the interaction took place according to a pattern of cooperation. Our analysis showed that team interaction in the CI test is highly task-oriented and hardly descriptive. For the most part, the five CI sessions contained communicative acts that are (potentially) useful to usability testers. The contribution of the team members to the interaction was largely similar in terms of types/frequencies of communicative acts, but the teams' cooperation pattern revealed that this equal contribution was no immediate guarantee for successful cooperation. To address this issue, we suggest several ways to improve the CI method
Cytokine signal regulation and autoimmune disorders

Understanding of biological activities of cytokines and exquisite mechanism to regulate their functions has facilitated the therapeutic concept to restore the disequilibrium between pro-inflammatory cytokines and anti-inflammatory cytokines or cytokine inhibitors in some autoimmune inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and Crohn's disease. The application of molecular biology techniques to design monoclonal antibodies, soluble receptors, or receptor antagonists as therapeutic biologic agents made it possible to regulate the cytokine signals for the treatment of the diseases refractory to conventional therapies. Japanese researchers have contributed considerably to the establishment of cytokine signal regulation in autoimmune diseases. In this article, Japanese studies of cytokine signal regulation, particularly for Interleukin-6 (IL-6) in autoimmune diseases are reviewed.
Spatial Risk Analysis of Hydraulic Fracturing near Abandoned and Converted Oil and Gas Wells

Interaction between hydraulically generated fractures and existing wells (frac hits) could represent a potential risk to groundwater. In particular, frac hits on abandoned oil and gas wells could lead to upward leakage into overlying aquifers, provided migration pathways are present along the abandoned well. However, potential risk to groundwater is relatively unknown because few studies have investigated the probability of frac hits on abandoned wells. In this study, actual numbers of frac hits were not determined. Rather, the probability for abandoned wells to intersect hypothetical stimulated reservoir sizes of horizontal wells was investigated. Well data were compiled and analyzed for location and reservoir information, and sensitivity analyses were conducted by varying assumed sizes of stimulated reservoirs. This study used public and industry data for the Eagle Ford Shale play in south Texas, with specific attention paid to abandoned oil and gas wells converted into water wells (converted wells). In counties with Eagle Ford Shale activity, well‐data analysis identified 55,720 abandoned wells with a median age of 1983, and 2400 converted wells with a median age of 1954. The most aggressive scenario resulted in 823 abandoned wells and 184 converted wells intersecting the largest assumed stimulated reservoir size. Analysis showed abandoned wells have the potential to be intersected by multiple stimulated reservoirs, and risks for intersection would increase if currently permitted horizontal wells in the Eagle Ford Shale are actually completed. Results underscore the need to evaluate historical oil and gas activities in areas with modern unconventional oil and gas activities.
LISP - notes on its past and future

LISP has survived for 21 years because it is an approximate local optimum in the space of programming languages. However, it has accumulated some barnacles that should be scraped off, and some long-standing opportunities for improvement have been neglected. It would benefit from some co-operative maintenance especially in creating and maintaining program libraries. Computer checked proofs of program correctness are now possible for pure LISP and some extensions, but more theory and some smoothing of the language itself are required before we can take full advantage of LISP's mathematical basis.
Determining Appropriate Prices for Recreation on Public Lands

Price is regarded by some to be the most important element of a service provider’s marketing mix. In the context of leisure services, which often provide intangible experiences, price is often used by participants and visitors as an indicator of service quality. For many public leisure services, however, price has been a distant concern. In particular, the recent implementation of the Fee Demonstration Program by public land management agencies has highlighted the inexperience of these service providers in implementing pricing strategies. Confounding the issue of setting prices for public land recreation are a variety of normative issues that touch upon the holistic value of public land and social welfare concerns of visitors’ ability to pay. The purpose of this study was to demonstrate a method of formulating a pricing program for public land recreation that attempts to balance the opposing objectives of maintaining access and generating revenue. Data were collected from the Mono Basin Scenic Area (MBSA), California, in the Summer of 1998. Following Richer and Christensen’s (1999) survey design, respondents were asked to report an estimate of both what they would be willing to pay (WTP), at maximum, and an appropriate price (AP) for an individual week-long pass to MBSA. A $2 entrance fee had been in place at two sites within MBSA since 1997. Results showed that the maximum amount visitors were willing to pay was greater than the price they considered appropriate for about two-thirds of the respondents. The data shows that while estimated revenues would be maximized with a substantial price increase, the cost of such a change would be a substantial drop in visitation. Smaller price increases would yield nearly as much revenue with smaller impacts on rates of participation. These results illustrate the utility of using the appropriate price criteria to determine how much to charge for public land recreation. Given the dual and often opposing objectives of generating revenue and maintaining public access, managers of public lands face a difficult pricing decision. While analyzing maximum willingness to pay enables one to model the tradeoff between revenue and access, it stops short of suggesting a specific fee level; one that would satisfy both management objectives. Broadening the focus of pricing decisions to include normative concerns improves the likelihood that the fee levels chosen for public recreation will be considered appropriate in the eyes of the recreating public, while still generating substantial revenue to support the management efforts of public recreation agencies.
Mortality following inpatient addictions treatment. Role of tobacco use in a community-based cohort.

OBJECTIVE To determine the impact of tobacco- and alcohol-related deaths on overall mortality following inpatient treatment for alcoholism and other nonnicotine drugs of dependence. DESIGN Population-based retrospective cohort study. SETTING Olmsted County, Minnesota (the Rochester Epidemiology Project), and the Inpatient Addiction Program (IAP) at Mayo Clinic, Rochester. PATIENTS All 845 Olmsted County residents admitted to an inpatient addiction program for treatment of alcoholism and other nonnicotine drugs of dependence during the period 1972 through 1983. METHODS Patients were followed up through the medical record linkage system of the Rochester Epidemiology Project through December 1994 to obtain vital status, and death certificates were obtained for those who died. The underlying cause of death was classified as alcohol related, tobacco related, both, or neither based on the classification from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The observed number of deaths by underlying cause were compared with the expected number using cause-specific 1987 death rates for the white population of the United States. All-cause mortality was also compared with that expected for persons in the West North Central Region of the United States of like age, sex, and year of birth. Univariate and multivariate assessments were made to identify predictors of all-cause mortality from baseline demographic information. RESULTS At admission, the mean (SD) age of the 845 patients was 41.4 (14.5) years, and 35% were women. Altogether, 78% had alcohol as their only nonnicotine drug of dependence and 18% had alcohol and other nonnicotine drugs of dependence, while 4% were classified as having a nonalcohol, nonnicotine drug dependence alone. At admission, 75% were current and 8% former cigarette smokers, 3% were current cigar or pipe smokers, and 2% were current users of smokeless tobacco. Follow-up after the index IAP admission totaled 8913 person-years (mean [SD] of 10.5 [5.6] years per patient). Death certificates were obtained for 96% (214) of the 222 patients who died. Of these 214 deaths, 50.9% (109) had a tobacco-related and 34.1% (73) had an alcohol-related underlying cause (P<.001). The cumulative mortality significantly exceeded that expected (P<.001); at 20 years, the observed mortality was 48.1% vs an expected 18.5%. Multivariate predictors of mortality, even after adjusting for expected mortality, were older age at admission (P<.001) and male sex (P<.001). CONCLUSIONS Patients previously treated for alcoholism and/or other nonnicotine drug dependence had an increased cumulative mortality that was due more to tobacco-related than to alcohol-related causes. Nicotine dependence treatment is imperative in such high-risk patients.
An empirical investigation of credit card users in China: Evidence from Shijiazhuang consumers

Since the first credit card issued by the Bank of China in 1985, the domestic banks has issued 140 million credit cards in 2008, and by the end of 2011, the total number of credit cards issued reached 285 million, an increase of 24.3% from 2010. Further, 79.41% of the consumers have more than 3 credit cards, 35.12% have only one credit card while 1.35% have more than 10 credit cards. The total transaction reached 756 million RMB, which was 47.95% higher than the transaction volume in 2010. The number of the domestic credit card merchants has increased at the end of 2011 and the number of domestic acceptance merchants reached 3.18 million, a 45.68% increase compared to 2010 (Peng, 2012). This paper seeks to investigate the factors that influence consumers’ decision to use credit cards and level of credit card limit. In particular, this research seeks to determine which consumers’ characteristics have the greatest influence on the respondents’ decision to have a credit card. For example, as the age increases, does the probability of consumer to holding a credit card decrease? The results show convenience, interest rate, application process, size of household, reward program, marital status, credit limit and age impact the respondent’s likelihood of owning a credit card. Further, the results show the number of credit card, credit card use duration, monthly spending, and bachelor degree are statistically significant and positively related to different levels of credit limit. JEL Classifications: E0, E4, E5
The functional significance of arm movements in neonates

Arm movements made by newborn babies are usually dismissed as unintentional, purposeless, or reflexive. Spontaneous arm-waving movements were recorded while newborns lay supine facing to one side. They were allowed to see only the arm they were facing, only the opposite arm on a video monitor, or neither arm. Small forces pulled on their wrists in the direction of the toes. The babies opposed the perturbing force so as to keep an arm up and moving normally, but only when they could see the arm, either directly or on the video monitor. The findings indicate that newborns can purposely control their arm movements in the face of external forces and that development of visual control of arm movement is underway soon after birth.
Spreading excellence in allergy and asthma: the GA2LEN (Global Allergy and Asthma European Network) project

Allergic diseases and asthma pose an important and increasing problem for populations and health care systems around the world (1). European research groups have been at the forefront of investigations into the early life influences on the causes of these conditions and management of allergy and asthma (2, 3). Moreover, initiatives from the European Commission have led to a greater collaboration between the European countries and beyond in tackling these problems. It has been shown to be both practical and rewarding to exploit the wide variations in culture, environment and health care systems within Europe to study these issues (4). Collaborative projects such as the European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS), the International Study of Asthma and Allergy in Childhood (ISAAC), and many other, funded by the European Commission, have clearly demonstrated the ability and advantages of European groups working together (1, 5, 6). Although allergy and asthma represent a burden in all countries and regions in Europe there is still a lack of permanent structures to support this type of work. The collaboration between European groups so far has often had a relatively narrow methodological focus and has therefore produced only short-term collaborations without a formal enduring structure. The basic idea of the European Research Area (ERA) is that the aims and goals of future research cannot be met without much greater integration of Europe’s research efforts and capacities. The sixth framework programme is a key instrument of ERA with a budget of 17 500 million. For this reason the sixth framework programme introduces new instruments like networks of excellence from which joint strategies can be developed. These networks have clearly defined thematic objectives and will be directed towards advancing scientific and technological knowledge, within mediumto long-term time-frames (7, 8). P. Van Cauwenberge, J. B. Watelet, T. Van Zele, J. Bousquet, P. Burney, T. Zuberbier, on behalf of the GALEN partners* Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium; University Hospital and INSERM U454, Montpellier, Institut Pasteur Paris, France; Department of Public Health Sciences, Guy's, King's and St Thomas School of Medicine, King's College, London, UK; Department of Dermatology and Allergy, Charit , Berlin, Germany *GALEN partners are given in Appendix.
The Finnish Competition State and Entrepreneurial Policies in the Helsinki Region

7 Preface . 9 List of original publications. 12