Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Skilled Birth Attendance Across Geographical Regions in India: Rural-Urban Differentials, 1992-2006

Large numbers of women die globally due to pregnancy and childbirth-related causes, especially in less developed countries. Most of them die because they have no access to skilled birth attendance (SBA) and emergency care during pregnancy complications. This study assesses the inequality in the coverage of SBA during 1992-2006 in six regions of India. Data from all three rounds of National Family Health Survey conducted in 1992-93, 1998-99 and 2005-06 were used. The bi-variate analysis predicted probability obtained from logistic regression and concentration index were performed (a) to examine the trends and patterns, and (b) to show the within-group inequality in SBA in the six regions of India. The analysis of change over fifteen year period (1992-2006) shows considerable inequality in the coverage of SBA across regions. East, West and South regions have experienced a higher rate of increase in SBA than North and Central regions. The study suggests that periodic monitoring of the progress of SBA is vital to assess the differential between and within the group beyond average improvement.
Designing an Assessment to Measure Students' Inferential Reasoning in Statistics: The First Study, Development of a Test Blueprint

Accompanied with ongoing calls for reform in statistics curriculum, mathematics and statistics teachers purposefully have been reconsidering the curriculum and the content taught in statistics classes. Changes made are centered around statistical inference since teachers recognize that students struggle with understanding the ideas and concepts used in statistical reasoning. Despite the efforts to change the curriculum, studies are sparse on the topic of characterizing student learning and understanding of statistical inference. Moreover, there are no tools to evaluate students' statistical reasoning in a coherent way. In response to the need for a research instrument, in a series of research study, the researcher developed a reliable and valid measure to assess students’ inferential reasoning in statistics (IRS). This paper describes processes of test blueprint development that has been conducted from review of the literature and expert reviews.
Cloning and characterization of the Argonaute-1 gene from Macrobrachium rosenbergii

RNA interference (RNAi) is a post-transcriptional gene silencing process mediated by a unique family of RNA-binding proteins named Argonaute (Ago). In this study, we identified and characterized the gene encoding Argonaute-1 from the giant freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii . The complete open reading frame of M. rosenbergii Ago1 gene ( MrAgo1 ) consisted of 2823 nucleotides encoding a polypeptide of 840 amino acids with a predicted molecular weight of 105 kDa and an isoelectric point of 9.36. Analysis of the deduced amino acid sequence of MrAgo1 revealed the presence of two signature domains of Ago proteins, PAZ and PIWI. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that MrAgo1 is classified into Ago subfamily and shared the highest amino acid sequence identity (91%) with Marsupenaeus japonicus Ago1. MrAgo1 was highly expressed in lymphoid organ and gills. Further studies elucidating the mechanism of action of MrAgo1 will be benefit in understanding the mechanism of RNAi in this economically important species.
The Spiral-Tuck Model: Promoting Creative Thinking with a Sharing and Reflecting System in Creating Activity

Recently, classes and workshops using GUI-programming-environment have been being introduced in ele- mentary education. As a model for promoting creative thinking, a process consisting of Imagine, Create, Play, Share and Reflect is proposed. However, it is difficult to perform processes such as Share and Reflect which are essential in the model. In this paper, we propose a model on which children perform Share and Reflect in creative activity, and describe the development of a system to support achieving the model in workshops. To consider developing the system, we need to clarify what kind of Share and Reflect children perform will produce good effect on study. To satisfy this need, we developed a system to share with other children drawn pictures or constructed scripts, and made an experiment to clarify what kind of Reflect occurred using this system.
Sublethal effects of deltamethrin and propoxur on longevity and reproduction of German cockroaches, Blattella germanica

The effects of sublethal doses of deltamethrin and propoxur, applied topically at LD10, LD30 and LD50 on German cockroaches, were studied by reciprocal crossing. Male and female longevities decreased curvilinearly with increasing sublethal doses of deltamethrin, and decreased linearly with increasing sublethal doses of propoxur. Fecundity of females treated with deltamethrin and propoxur was reduced with increasing sublethal doses of both insecticides. Oothecal production, oothecal hatchability and nymphal production also declined with increasing doses of deltamethrin and propoxur. Preoviposition and incubation periods were not affected by sublethal doses of deltamethrin and propoxur, although some significant differences were observed at certain oothecal numbers. Two‐way analysis of variance indicated that only treated females showed an effect on oothecal production while oothecal hatch and nymphal production were governed by both treated females and males. Insecticide susceptibility tests on the progeny of parents treated with sublethal doses demonstrated that these doses did not increase insecticidal tolerance in the F1 generation.
Hydrologic system complexity and nonlinear dynamic concepts for a catchment classification framework

The absence of a generic modeling framework in hydrology has long been recognized. With our current practice of developing more and more complex models for specific individual situations, there is an increasing emphasis and urgency on this issue. There have been some attempts to provide guidelines for a catchment classification framework, but research in this area is still in a state of infancy. To move forward on this classification framework, identification of an appropriate basis and development of a suitable methodology for its representation are vital. The present study argues that hydrologic system complexity is an appropriate basis for this classification framework and nonlinear dynamic concepts constitute a suitable methodology. The study employs a popular nonlinear dynamic method for identification of the level of complexity of streamflow and for its classification. The correlation dimension method, which has its base on data reconstruction and nearest neighbor concepts, is applied to monthly streamflow time series from a large network of 117 gaging stations across 11 states in the western United States (US). The dimensionality of the time series forms the basis for identification of system complexity and, accordingly, streamflows are classified into four major categories: low-dimensional, medium-dimensional, high-dimensional, and unidentifiable. The dimension estimates show some "homogeneity" in flow complexity within certain regions of the western US, but there are also strong exceptions.
Evaluating the Effects of Fertilizers on Bioavailable Metallic Pollution of soils, Case study of Sistan farms, Iran

Present study determines not only the total amounts of metals (Cr, Cu and Pb) in superficial agricultural soil of Sistan area in Eastern Iran, but also the chemical partitioning of these elements in seven statistically selected cases. The analysis was run for local soil, soil treated by non-contaminated organic, compost and chemical fertilizers as well as soil treated by metal-contaminated fertilizers. The sampling campaign was done in Zabol University research farm in 2009. The grab samples were taken from seven different cases, the chemical partitioning analysis was performed and metallic concentrations were detected using FAAS. It may be concluded that the bioaccessibility of metals Cu and Cr would be increased in case of imposed contamination where the soil is treated with all three kinds of fertilizers. Although a relatively similar distribution pattern is seen between anthropogenic and geopogenic portions of bulk concentration in all three kinds of fertilizers, chemical fertilizer seems to manifest a more risky condition. According to the results achieved by cluster analysis, a close correlation exists between Cu and Cr behavior which may be attributed to the geological texture of the study area. In accordance with the results gained by partitioning analysis, IPOLL index values also show contaminated chemical fertilizer as the most risky case for all three metals in comparison with others.
THE IMPACT OF PUSH, PULL, AND MOORING TO CUSTOMER SWITCHING BEHAVIOR (CASE STUDY ON CUSTOMER INDOVISION IN MANADO)

ABSTRACT A development of broadcasting business occurs very rapidly entire parts of the world. The purpose of this study is to find out the impact of push, pull, and mooring to customer switching behavior on customer of indovision in Manado. This research is causal type of research and used quantitative method. The population in this research were people living in Manado who use subscription television, especially those using I ndovision and other operators in the house as well as the switch from another operator to operator I ndovision. This research has used sampling technique and the sample of this research is 100 respondents. The result of this study shows that Push Pull, and Mooring have significant influence on Customer switching behavior. Indovision company must consider about the importance of satisfaction, attractive alternative and switching cost for more attention and enhanced as display quality, service and price. Keywords : Push, Pull, Mooring, Customer Switching Behavior.
Can We Rely Upon Fiscal Policy Estimates in Countries with Unreported Production of 15 Per Cent (or More) of GDP?

This paper analyzes the effects of fiscal policy in Italy by employing a database containing two statistical novelties: quarterly fiscal variables on accrual basis and a time series estimate of tax evasion for the period 1981:1-2006:4. Following Revenue Agency suggestions, we use in a VECM the time series of the concealed VAT base as a proxy for the size of “unreported production”, and define a regular GDP measure constructed as GDP net of government expenditure and evaded VAT base. The results reveal that we cannot rely upon the estimates of fiscal policy multipliers in countries with a sizeable unreported production unless the dynamics of the hidden and regular components of the GDP are disentangled. Changes in public spending and the tax rate generate a reallocation from underground to the regular economy which contributes to obscure the spending and tax effect on total GDP. In this setup the spending multiplier shows large long-run effects, considerably stronger than those registered in a model with no attention paid to unreported production. The drop in regular output, after an increase in the effective tax rate, tends to be considerable after one year, producing long-lasting effects and a significant increase in unreported production and tax evasion.
The 21st Century Scandal Must Be Prevented: Keynes vs Hazlitt

This paper shows that the return to Keynes’s irrelevant and incorrect doctrines from his General Theory has begun; hence, it must be prevented. This paper shows: 1) Hazlitt’s criticism of Keynes’s concept of the investment multiplier is entirely correct, revealed and based on Keynes’s fundamental flaw using throughout of the General Theory, namely replacement between cause and effect; 2) Hazlitt correctly criticized Keynes’s extremely vague and incomplete definition of involuntary unemployment and full employment; however, he incorrectly stated that involuntary unemployment couldn’t be equilibrium phenomenon; 3) Hazlitt successfully demonstrated that Keynes’s monetary theory was confusing, incomplete, and even incorrect.
Microbial defense systems in foods and feeds

Bacteriocins are proteinaceous substances having antigenic and developed by some microbial strains having the ability and effectiveness against pathogenic bacteria and spoilage, harmless to the consumer, and have no adverse effect on the organoleptic product quality. Bacteriocins are rendered inactive by the action of proteolytic enzymes present in the gastrointestinal tract, thy can resist high temperatures, are non-toxic and does not compromise the immune system in experimental animals. Bacteriocins as microbial defense systems has been widely researched and documented. However, though the diversity and abundance of bactrocins is very high, indicating their use as microbial weapons, research on ecological and evolutionary significance needs elaborate studies. More advanced studies are needed to unfold reasons for their success as toxins.
Research on Nuclear Sewage Diffusion of Fukushima in Japan

March 11, 2011, the Richter 9.0 earthquake (defined by Japan Meteorological Agency) occurred in the east of Japan, the epicentre was located at 38.1° N, 142.6° E. tsunami triggered by the Earthquake is claimed up to 23 meters. The combination effect of earthquake and tsunami lead to the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident. Some water with nuclear sewage is dumped into the sea near Fukushima during the accident. This paper studies the propagation path of nuclear pollutants through ocean circulation. Climate state circulation data, assimilation re-analysis products, surface drifting buoys trajectories, three-dimensional numerical model prediction products are used in this research. The results show that nuclear pollutants have little effect on China marine environment in short time, but may cause influence in long-term.
CFS Working Paper No . 2010 / 03 A Call on Art Investments *

The art market has seen boom and bust during the last years and, despite the downturn, has received more attention from investors given the low interest environment following the financial crisis. However, participation has been reserved for a few investors and the hedging of exposures remains dificult. This paper proposes to overcome these problems by introducing a call option on an art index, derived from one of the most comprehensive data sets of art market transactions. The option allows investors to optimize their exposure to art. For pricing purposes, non-tradability of the art index is acknowledged and option prices are derived in an equilibrium setting as well as by replication arguments. In the former, option prices depend on the attractiveness of gaining exposure to a previously non-traded risk. This setting further overcomes the problem of art market exposures being dificult to hedge. Results in the replication case are primarily driven by the ability to reduce residual hedging risk. Even if this is not entirely possible, the replication approach serves as pricing benchmark for investors who are significantly exposed to art and try to hedge their art exposure by selling a derivative. JEL Classification: G11, G13, Z11
Pressure Waves in a Far-field Repetitive Pulse Laser Thruster *

* Copyright © 2001 by the Electric Rocket Propulsion Society. All rights reserved. Plasma expansion and resulting pressure wave propagation were investigated by experiments. A 10-J-CO2 pulse laser beam was focused in the quiescent atmospheric air, and plasma was generated. The density discontinuity around plasma was visualized using the shadowgraphs and the pressure imparted on a flat plate was measured using a pressure gauge. It was found that the Mach number and the blast wave pressure in the far-field can be predicted by the Mach number at the characteristic point in the near-field. By applying an explosion source model to CFD simulations, the impulse of RP laser thruster will be predicted easily.
Sigma 1 receptor modulators as a new weapon against multiple sclerosis

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a disabling immune-mediated neurological disease, affecting more than 2.5 million people worldwide. Regardless of the broad arena of pharmaceutical strategies against MS, up to now a concrete cure is still missing. The drugs against MS currently used in the clinical practice are mainly biological immunomodulatory therapeutics, which are effective and safe during the short-term treatment. Nevertheless, they are suitable only for systemic administration and fairly expensive, hence academic and industrial environments are still addressing their efforts towards the development of new drugs Chamberlain et al. (2016). Considering that neurodegeneration is a contributory factor in the onset of MS, Sigma 1 Receptor (S1R) could play a crucial role in MS Collina et al. (2013), Peviani et al. (2014). During the years, our interdisciplinary research group identified compound (R)-RC-33, as a new selective S1R agonist with an excellent S1R affinity (Ki= 1.8 nM) along with high selectivity over other receptors, including S2R, and good in vitro metabolic stability Rossi et al. (2010), Rossi et al. (2013), Marra et al. (2016). On the bases of these results, (R)RC-33 has been selected as lead compound for MS preliminary biological assay. A pilot study was performed to evaluate the effect of the S1R agonist (R)-RC33 on rat Dorsal Root Ganglia (DRG) experimental model. Our encouraging results support the idea that S1R ‡ ‡ ‡ ‡ ‡ § § § © Collina S et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. represents a novel appealing target for the treatment of neurodegeneration and a promising protein for the development of new drugs against MS.
INFERENCES ON THE GEOMETRY OF THE NAZCA PLATE IN NORTHWESTERN PERÚ BASED ON DATA COLLECTED BY A LOCAL SEISMOGRAPH NETWORK

In Central and Southern Peru, local and teleseismic data allow having insights on the Wadati-Benioff zone (WBZ) geometry. In the region of Northern Peru, only rough estimates of the WBZ geometry have beenproposed, and were obtained using teleseismic data due to the reduced number of mb≥4.0-magnitude earthquakes available. The installation of a local seismic network in the NW border of Northern Peru, allowedthe recording of a large number of earthquakes with magnitudes ranging from 1.8 to 4.1 ML, and maximum depths of 120 km. , distributed over the area where the occurrence of earthquakes with magnitudes > 4.0 isscarce. In a vertical section, oriented N70˚E earthquakes are distributed along a 10° dipping plane from the trench. Landwards from the coastline, the dip angle increases to 28°. These results allow a high resolutiondefinition of the Nazca plate geometry in NW Peru. Focal mechanisms computed for 22 earthquakes located between 50 and 120 km depth beneath the network suggest the development of deformation processes in direction parallel to the convergence Nazca plate direction.
Influence of flavonoids isolated from Satureja hortensis L. on hypercholesterolemic rabbits

Satureja hortensis L. (summer savory) is an annual herb with oval leaves and pink flowers widely distributed in Georgia, and locally named as ‘Qondari‘. Leaves and flowers of this plant are frequently used as tea or additive in commercial spice mixtures for many foods to offer aroma and flavor. S. hortensis L. has also been used as a folk remedy to treat various diseases and disorders such as cramps, muscle pain, indigestion, diarrhea, and infections, due to its antispasmodic, antidiarrheal as well as antimicrobial properties. Hypertension and hyperlipidemia are often the two coexisting risk factors in coronary artery disease. It has been well established that hypercholesterolemia is associated with various pathological processes such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus, atherosclerosis, and thromboembolic disorders. The effect of flavonoids from S. hortensis L. on serum cholesterol of rabbits was investigated in the present study. The experiments were carried out for 8 weeks in 20 male, albino, New Zealand rabbits weighing between 2.1 and 2.5 kg. Rabbits were housed individually in stainless steel cages in an air-conditioned room (23 ± 1 C) under a 12 h light/dark cycle and were acclimated for 2 weeks. One hundred and 50 g of regular rabbit chow was provided to each rabbit every day for a fixed duration of time. Water was given ad libitum. Animals were randomly divided into four groups of five rabbits each. (1) The standard diet group (Control), (2) high cholesterol diet group (Chol)-cholesterol, dissolved in sunflower-seed oil, administered daily p.o. 0.3 g/kg B.W; (3) flavonoids group (F) flavonoids fraction, dissolved in distilled water, administered daily intramuscularly in a dose of 10 mg/kg of B.W. Flavonoids fraction was received from the air-dried plant material of S. hortensis L. by the method of Zaprometov. (4) high cholesterol diet plus flavonoids group (Chol+F): 0.3 g/kg, cholesterol p.o. + 10 mg/kg, flavonoids fraction i.m. Blood was collected from marginal ear vein from each animal and after clotting, centrifuged at 1000 X g for 10 min at 4 °C to obtain serum. The serum cholesterol was estimated before starting (basal value) and at the end of 8 weeks of treatment by standard method using “Lachema” kits (Czech Republic). The results are expressed as mean±SD. Inter-group comparisons among the 4 groups were determined by oneway ANOVA followed by Scheffe’s ‘F’ test. All analyses were performed using the GraphPad Prism software version 4.01; P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Mean serum cholesterol values at basal and at the end of 8 weeks of all groups of rabbits are shown in Figure 1. The difference in preand post-experiment serum cholesterol in control and F group was not statistically significant (P>0.05). Influence of flavonoids isolated from Satureja hortensis L. on hypercholesterolemic rabbits Research Letter
A FOURIER PHASE MODE APPROACH FOR CHEBYSHEV PATTERN SYNTHESIS IN CIRCULAR ANTENNA ARRAY

In this article, a novel phase mode analysis for a circular antenna array is discussed. This proposition experiments on the synthesis of Dolph-Chebyshev pattern for circular geometry employing directional element 1 + cos(φ). Here, for pattern synthesis a modified uniform sampling method is proposed, and for investigation of continuous current excitation in a circular array, a Fourier phasemode approach is proposed. The synthesis process permits generation of complex weights for each element to produce the Chebyshev pattern with a desired beamwidth or Side Lobe Level (SLL). The radius is a key factor for a circular geometry and also decides the pattern synthesis, which is determined by using the phase mode concept. Also, this article contributes to the formulation of a mathematical relationship between the number of phase modes (P ) and the number of antenna elements in the array (N) such as N = 2(P − 1).
Adaptive Three-Dimensional RMS Envelope Simulation in the SAD Accelerator Modeling Environment

The capability for three-dimensional RMS envelope simulation, including space charge, has been implemented in the SAD (for Strategic Accelerator Design) [5] accelerator modeling environment used at KEK. The dynamics within the model are similar to that used by Trace3D [3] and TRANSPORT [1]. Specifically, the matrix of all second-order beam moments is propagated using a linear beam optics model for the beamline. However, the current simulation employs an adaptive space-charge algorithm. It maintains the integration step size as large as possible while enforcing a given error tolerance. We concentrate on the adaptive nature of the RMS simulation, since this is the novel feature. BACKGROUND