Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Functional Equivalency Trajectories of the Restored Gog‐Le‐Hi‐Te Estuarine Wetland

Assessing performance of restored and created wetlands for compensatory mitigation and restoration poses a mismatch between long-term processes and the short- term expediency of management decisions. If they were predictable, patterns in the temporal development of important wetland processes could reduce long-term uncertainty of the outcome of restoration projects. To test our ability to predict long-term trends and patterns in the development of a restored wetland based on the first 7 yr of its development, we analyzed 16 ecosystem functional attributes of the Gog-Le-Hi-Te Wetland, in the Puyallup River estuary, Puget Sound, Washington, USA. This estuarine wetland system was restored to tidal inundation in 1986. Only a few of the 16 ecosystem attributes analyzed showed functional trajectories toward equivalency with natural wetlands, and many were incon- clusive or suggested disfunction relative to reference wetlands. Natural variability among reference sites also inhibited our ability to interpret an expected asymptote in developmental trajectories. The ability of wetland managers to assess compensatory-mitigation success over short- term (e.g., regulatory) timeframes depends upon the selection of wetland attributes that can predict long-term trends in the development of the restored/created system. However, we are hampered by a basic lack of long-term data sets describing the patterns, trends, and variability in natural wetland responses to disturbance, as well as natural variability in wetland attributes in presumably mature wetland communities. Ultimately, it may be nec- essary to supplant our descriptive means of assessing functional equivalency with simple, controlled manipulative experiments or assays, standardized across restoration/mitigation and reference sites.
Evaluation of the African Youth Alliance program in Ghana Tanzania and Uganda. Impact on sexual and reproductive health behavior among young people. Summary report.

Results from the evaluation show that a significant number of young people in AYA implementation areas were reached by AYA programs and were able to recall ASRH messages although the degree of exposure varied by country and by type of intervention. Results further demonstrated a significant positive impact of AYA on several variables most notably condom use contraceptive use partner reduction and several self-efficacy and knowledge antecedents. Overall the impact of AYA on ASRH behaviors and their antecedents was greater for young women than for young men especially in Ghana and Uganda. The evidence from this impact evaluation suggests that multicomponent programs can be an effective approach to addressing young peoples ASRH needs when the programs combine strategies such as the following: BCC that would address risk behaviors YFS (for HIV and other sexually transmitted infection counseling and testing and for use of modern contraceptives including condoms) and outreach services such aspeer education and other activities in the community. The results of this three-country study are intended to contribute to a better understanding of ASRH in general and specifically in the context of youth programs in Ghana Tanzania and Uganda programs that should lead to improved future programming and ultimately to improved sexual and reproductive health among the youth populations of those countries. (excerpt)
Constructing near-Hadamard designs with (almost) D-optimality by general supplementary difference sets

We propose a new and unified construction method, general supplementary difference sets (GSDS)s, for near-Hadamard designs when the run sizes are n ≡ 2 (mod 4). These designs possess high D-efficiencies. Ehlich (1964) derived an upper bound for the determinant of matrices of order n ≡ 2 (mod 4) achievable only if 2n − 2 is a sum of two squares. Between 1 to 100, there are 6 parameters, 22, 34, 58, 70, 78, and 94, that do not fulfill this condition. We formulate a class of near-Hadamard designs whose determinants are very close to Ehlich’s upper bound, and construct these designs for many values of n.
Loose Knots: Strong Versus Weak Commitments to Save for Education in Uganda

Commitment devices offer an opportunity to restrict future choices. However, if severe restrictions deter participation, weaker restrictions may be a more effective means of changing behavior. We test this using a school-based commitment savings device for educational expenses in Uganda. We compare an account fully-committed to educational expenses to an account in which savings are available for cash withdrawal but intended for educational expenses. The weaker commitment generates increased savings in the program accounts and when combined with a parent outreach program, higher expenditures on educational supplies. It also increases scores on an exam covering language and math skills by 0.14 standard deviations. We find no effect for the fully-committed account, and we find no effect for either account on attendance, enrollment, or non-cognitive skills.
Ontology-Based Data Access to Big Data

Recent approaches to ontology-based data access (OBDA) have extended the focus from relational database systems to other types of backends such as cluster frameworks in order to cope with the four Vs associated with big data: volume, veracity, variety and velocity (stream processing). The abstraction that an ontology provides is a benefit from the enduser point of view, but it represents a challenge for developers because high-level queries must be transformed into queries executable on the backend level. In this paper, we discuss and evaluate an OBDA system that uses STARQL (Streaming and Temporal ontology Access with a Reasoning-based Query Language), as a high-level query language to access data stored in a SPARK cluster framework. The development of the STARQL-SPARK engine show that there is a need to provide a homogeneous interface to access both static and temporal as well as streaming data because cluster frameworks usually lack such an interface. The experimental evaluation shows that building a scalable OBDA system that runs with SPARK is more than plug-and-play as one needs to know quite well the data formats and the data organisation in the cluster framework.
Federal Reserve Bank of New York First Draft : October 2002 This Version : February 2003

This paper studies the optimal monetary policy response to persistent changes in the growth rate of productivity. To this end, we formulate a sticky price model in which agents are uncertain about the persistence of observed productivity shocks. In this environment, trend shocks are initially perceived as transitory, causing wage demands to lag behind realized productivity. As a result, marginal costs and inßation fall after a positive shock, consistent with the dataand with conventional wisdom. From a positive standpoint, the models dynamics in response to a productivity shock are in line with the main features of available VAR estimates. They also provide a remarkably accurate account of the observed evolution of output and inßation in the wake of the recent productivity pickup. From a normative perspective, we Þnd that the adjustment in the real wage required by a positive productivity shock should be shared between an increase in the nominal wage and a reduction in the price level, in proportions that depend on the relative stickiness of the two prices. Finally, the model lends formal support to the popular idea that the Federal Reserve reacted appropriately to the productivity resurgence of the late 1990s. JEL ClassiÞcation: E31, E52, E58
Mineral dust aerosols over the Sahara: Meteorological controls on emission and transport and implications for modeling

Atmospheric mineral dust has recently become an important research field in Earth system science because of its impacts on radiation, clouds, atmospheric dynamics and chemistry, air quality, and biogeochemical cycles. Studying and modeling dust emission and transport over the world's largest source region, the Sahara, is particularly challenging because of the complex meteorology and a very sparse observational network. Recent advances in satellite retrievals together with ground‐ and aircraft‐based field campaigns have fostered our understanding of the spatiotemporal variability of the dust aerosol and its atmospheric drivers. We now have a more complete picture of the key processes in the atmosphere associated with dust emission. These cover a range of scales from (1) synoptic scale cyclones in the northern sector of the Sahara, harmattan surges and African easterly waves, through (2) low‐level jets and cold pools of mesoscale convective systems (particularly over the Sahel), to (3) microscale dust devils and dusty plumes, each with its own pronounced diurnal and seasonal characteristics. This paper summarizes recent progress on monitoring and analyzing the dust distribution over the Sahara and discusses implications for numerical modeling. Among the key challenges for the future are a better quantification of the relative importance of single processes and a more realistic representation of the effects of the smaller‐scale meteorological features in dust models. In particular, moist convection has been recognized as a major limitation to our understanding because of the inability of satellites to observe dust under clouds and the difficulties of numerical models to capture convective organization.
Social Roles, Social Control and Biases in Social Perception

To make accurate social judgments, an individual must both recognize and adequately correct for the self-presentation advantages or disadvantages conferred upon actors by their social roles. Two experiments examined social perceptions formed during an encounter in which one participant composed difficult general knowledge questions and another participant attempted to answer those questions. It was found, as predicted, that perceivers fail to make adequate allowance for the biasing effects of these "questioner" and "answerer" roles in judging the participants' general knowledge. Questioners, allowed to display their personal store of esoteric knowledge in composing questions, were consistently rated superior to their partners, who attempted to answer the questions. This bias was stronger for the answerers and the uninvolved observers than for the questioners. Some implications of these results for our understanding of the biased perceptions of the powerful and the powerless in society are noted. More general implications for an understanding of the shortcomings of the "intuitive psychologist" are also discussed.
cDNA cloning and expression analyses of phytoene synthase 1 , phytoene desaturase and-carotene desaturase genes from Solanum lycopersicum KKU-T 34003

We report on the cloning of Psy1, Pds and Zds cDNAs encoding the enzymes responsible for lycopene biosynthesis, namely phytoene synthase 1 (PSY1), phytoene desaturase (PDS) and -carotene desaturase (ZDS), respectively, from highlycopene tomato cultivar, Solanum lycopersicum KKU-T34003. DNA sequence analyses showed that the complete open reading frames of Psy1, Pds and Zds cDNAs were 1,239, 1,752 and 1,767 base pairs in length and encoded proteins of 412, 583 and 588 amino acids, respectively. Phylogenetic and the conserved domain analyses suggest that PSY1, PDS and ZDS from S. lycopersicum KKU-T34003 potentially have similar structures and biological functions to the corresponding proteins from other plants. Gene expression studies showed that Psy1 was expressed only in the petal and the breaker fruit, whereas the expressions of Pds and Zds were observed in the petal, the breaker fruit and the leaf. The highest expression level for all genes was detected in the breaker-stage fruit, suggesting that carotenoid accumulation was developmentally regulated in the chromoplast-containing tissues.
A Case-Series Evaluation of a Brief, Psycho-Social Approach Intended for the Prevention of Relapse in Psychosis

There is a wealth of research into relapse prevention in psychosis; however, specific research into the effectiveness of short-term, self-management strategies aimed to prevent relapse is lacking. This pilot study aimed to evaluate the effects of Sorensen’s ‘Relapse Prevention in Schizophrenia and Other Psychoses’ manual-based therapy (Sorensen, 2006b) with 11 participants in one UK National Health Service Trust. The intervention was delivered over four sessions and interviews were conducted pre and post intervention. The effect of the intervention on measures of hopelessness, perceived control over internal states, and satisfaction were recorded using validated questionnaires at one week, one month and two months follow-up, supported by measures taken from visual analogue scales. Data analysis revealed significant improvements on hopelessness, perceived control over internal states, and satisfaction at one week follow-up, although these results were not maintained at one and two months follow-up. Additionally, the attrition rate meant that results lacked statistical power at one and two months follow-up. The study also considered the clinical significance of the research findings with the Jacobson-Truax (Jacobson & Truax, 1991) method for measuring reliable change. A substantial number of clients attained clinically significant changes with regards to hopelessness and perceived control over internal states. Future research is required in order to evaluate the use of self-management strategies to prevent relapse. It would be valuable to repeat the current study with the additional use of booster sessions in order to assess whether the positive impacts on hopelessness and perceived control over illness can be maintained at the longer term follow up.
Bioaccumulation of Pb, Cd, Cu, and Cr by Porphyridium cruentum (S.F. Gray) Nägeli

The red microalgae Porphyridium cruentum (S.F. Gray) Nageli usually was used as feeds, a pigment for food and cosmetic, and antiviral activity that might be became industrial interest. Similar to another microalgae, P. cruentum has an ability to remediate heavy metals pollution, however research on it still limited. This research was conducted in order to find out the accumulation of Pb, Cd, Cr, and Cu on the P. cruentum. A laboratory experiment were developed with different concentrations. Based on this research, P. cruentum with the treatment of 1 mg/L had reduced higher Cu, Pb, Cd, and Cr concentrations rather than 3 and 5 mg/L concentrations, respectively. This was also similar to the BCF, that in day 8 in order of Cu > Cr > Cd > Pb, respectively; however, in day 15 was Cu > Pb > Cd > Cr. The length of treatment influenced BCF value. P. cruentum was good for bioremediation of heavy metal pollution, with the advantage of the short of accumulation time. Keywords Bioaccumulation; Heavy metal; Porphyridium cruentum; Microalgae; Bioremediation; BCF
Tunable light trapping for solar cells using localized surface plasmons

Effective light management is imperative in maintaining high efficiencies as photovoltaic devices become thinner. We demonstrate a simple and effective method of enhancing light trapping in solar cells with thin absorber layers by tuning localized surface plasmons in arrays of Ag nanoparticles. By redshifting the surface plasmon resonances by up to 200 nm, through the modification of the local dielectric environment of the particles, we can increase the optical absorption in an underlying Si wafer fivefold at a wavelength of 1100 nm and enhance the external quantum efficiency of thin Si solar cells by a factor of 2.3 at this wavelength where transmission losses are prevalent. Additionally, by locating the nanoparticles on the rear of the solar cells, we can avoid absorption losses below the resonance wavelength due to interference effects, while still allowing long wavelength light to be coupled into the cell. Results from numerical simulations support the experimental findings and show that the fraction .
RESISTANCE Escherichia coli ISOLATES TO ANTIBIOTICS FROM THE ORGAN SAMPLES ORIGINATING FROM SWINE FARMS

Bacteria Escherichia coli (E.coli) is a ubiquitous microorganism with a different serotypes, that cause septicemia in neonatal piglets, diarrhea in suckling piglets, diarrhea and edemic disease in weaned piglets. Vaccination and antibiotic treatment are less effective ways in solving the problem, especially when the category of pig is not taken into consideration, as well as feed safety and chemical composition of feed. The resistance of pathogens depends on the farm size, production type and pigs category raised on the farm. In addition, the antibiotics used for veterinary purposes reduce their effectiveness in human medicine. Analyzing the antibiograms results obtained from the isolates of dead piglets with E. coli infection in last two years (2007-2009), it can be concluded that E. coli strains developed resistance to most chemotherapeutics. Applying bacteriological examination it was detected that the isolates of E. coli are highly sensitive to the following chemotherapeutics: Floron (86.36%), Cobactam (71%), Enrofloxacin (54.84%), Neomycin (38.71%), Gentamicin (38.71%), Lincospectin (29%), Flumequine (29%), Amoxicillin (26.66%), Colistin (17.39%), Penicillin (9.67%), Tiamulin (6.45%), Tetracycline (6.45%), Doxycycline (6.45%), Streptomycin (3.22%). Intermediate degree of sensitivity was found with: Flumequin (38.71%), Colistin (34.78%), Cobactam (30%), Tilozin (29.17%), Gentamicin (25%). E. coli strains were the least resistant to Cobactam (not detected), Floron (4.54%), Neomycin (12.9%), Colistin (13.04%), Flumequin (19.35%).
Type I and type III collagen metabolites and peritoneal cells in predicting the clinical outcome of epithelial ovarian cancer patients

Malignant tissue growth induces marked biochemical and structural changes in the extracellular matrix of the tumour and its surrounding tissues. In the present study, we evaluated the prognostic value of the serum concentration of the markers of synthesis of type I collagen (PICP, PINP) and type III collagen (PIIINP) as well as the marker of type I collagen degradation (ICTP) and compared them with the conventional indicators of prognosis (clinical stage, grade of differentiation, histological subtype, residual tumour load and the age of the patient). The prognostic value of peritoneal cytological findings at operation was an additional object in our studies. High preoperative serum ICTP (> 5.6 μg/L) and PIIINP (> 3.2 μg/L) concentrations and a low PICP:PINP ratio ( > 2) correlated with poor prognosis in ovarian carcinoma in univariate analysis and in multivariate analysis when each variable was analyzed separately with the conventional factors. However, ICTP concentration was the only prognostic variable in multivariate analysis including PIIINP, PINP, ICTP and CA125. When analyzed with conventional prognostic factors (clinical stage, grade, residual tumour, presence of ascites, histology), clinical stage and ICTP were independent indicators of prognosis. In addition, malignant cells in the peritoneal fluid aspirate at primary operation, grade and the age of the patient predicted poor prognosis in multivariate analysis. Postoperative serum ICTP concentration 9-months after the operation was the strongest prognostic factor as compared to the preoperative ICTP and CA125 values and clinical variables. These results indicate that serum collagen metabolites, especially ICTP, are indicators of prognosis in epithelial ovarian cancer. The present ICTP-test does not detect the degradation products of immature type I collagen, the dominating form in ovarian cancer tissue. Therefore, the excess ICTP in invasive ovarian cancer might originate through the degradation of trivalently matured collagens in non-malignant tissues surrounding the malignancy. ICTP may thus be an indicator of invasive properties of the tumor and its determination opens up new perspective to predict the clinical outcome
Consumer Protection Laws and the Mortgage Market: Evidence from Ohio

Consumer protection laws intended to improve consumer outcomes are widespread and becoming more common, particularly in mortgage markets after the 2008 recession. Little empirical evidence exists about the effects of these laws to consumer outcomes. This project studies the effect of two common types of consumer protection laws: seller standards of conduct, enforced through ex post lawsuits by prosecutors and consumers, and mandated disclosures, which require sellers to provide consumers with information to help them make better decisions. Using a natural experiment in Ohio, which introduced the Homebuyer’s Protection Act in 2007, I study the impact of both seller standards of conduct and mandated disclosures on the near-universe of mortgage loans originated between 2000 and 2013. I find that imposing standards of conduct on lenders that increases their potential legal liability decreases foreclosure rates and borrower bankruptcies. The evidence suggests that the effect is driven by a drop in the number of risky loan originations, and by lenders being more lenient with delinquent borrowers. Mandated disclosures appear to decrease loan sizes and encourage more responsible borrower repayment behavior. Taken together, the Ohio law provides a lesson in designing consumer protection laws. Mandated disclosures can have modest effects on consumers, but exposing firms to uncertain levels of liability can effectively discipline firm behavior over time.
Achieving Security using Honeyword

An expose of the password file is a serious security problem. The research shows that system uses encrypted form to store the original password. Jewels and Rivest proposed “Honeyword” to detect attacks against the hashed password database. Authorized password is stored with several honeywords for every user. The attacker who has stolen hash password file cannot be sure whether it is the real password or a Honeyword for an account, even if honeyword is selected properly. Entering a Honeyword to login will notify the administrator by sending the message about the breach of the password file. As the admin receives the message of the breach, the IP gets blocked for a particular time and also tries to find the location of the IP address. For the generation and encryption of the Honeyword, two encryption techniques are used such as the Salt method for encryption and “sha256” algorithm. Although the approach selects the honeywords from existing user passwords in the system.