Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Physical Market Determinants of the Price of Crude Oil and the Market Premium

We analyze the determinants of the real price of crude oil by means of an equilibrium correction model over the last two decades where we focus on the aspects of the physical market that impact on the clearing price. We find that two cointegrating relations affect the changes in prices: one refers to OPEC's behavior, attempting to control prices using its market power and quotas; the other to the coverage rate of OECD expected future demand using inventory behaviors. We derive a forecasting equation for the change in oil prices which we use to assess the speculative elements of the price increases of the period 2000-05. We show that worries alien to the physical markets were the causes of the increase in oil prices and we quantify their overall impact.
How to internalize congestion costs through a pricing scheme in the metropolitan area of madrid

Following the EU policy oriented to implement a tolling system based on social marginal costs, Spain is studying the implementation of an interurban road pricing scheme. In particular, a main result from the Spanish Road Pricing Model suggests that a road pricing scheme based on the congestion costs makes sense only in the reduced number of metropolitan highways and can be used to manage the travel demand in an urban and metropolitan context. In consequence, the analysis of this paper is focused on the results of the simulation of a toll-ring defined as a combined toll (access and distance toll based scheme) applied on the one of the more congested ring of the Madrid Metropolitan Area, the M40. The results are analyzed in terms of efficiency and equity criteria. Finally, the results of the implementation of a toll-ring pricing policy show a clear increasing level of socio-spatial inequalities. In fact, when the users have a viable road alternative, the burden of the toll-ring is equally distributed, if not, the burden of toll ring affects more the less wealthy people.
The Impact of Woody Plants Encroachment on Soil Organic Carbon and Total Nitrogen Stocks in Yabello District, Borana Zone, Southern Ethiopia

in the top 025 cm and from 2.59 to 3.42 t N ha -1 in the lower layer. A general decrease of STN was observed with an increase in soil depth under all the three species. Both SOC and STN stocks were in the order of A. mellifera, P. mezianum, and A. drepanolobium.
Two-Stage Dynamics of in Vivo Bacteriophage Genome Ejection

Biopolymer translocation is a key step in viral infection processes. The transfer of information-encoding genomes allows viruses to reprogram the cell fate of their hosts. Constituting 96% of all known bacterial viruses [A. Fokine and M. G. Rossmann, Molecular architecture of tailed double-stranded DNA phages, Bacteriophage 4, e28281 (2014)], the tailed bacteriophages deliver their DNA into host cells via an "ejection" process, leaving their protein shells outside of the bacteria; a similar scenario occurs for mammalian viruses like herpes, where the DNA genome is ejected into the nucleus of host cells, while the viral capsid remains bound outside to a nuclear-pore complex. In light of previous experimental measurements of in vivo bacteriophage λ ejection, we analyze here the physical processes that give rise to the observed dynamics. We propose that, after an initial phase driven by self-repulsion of DNA in the capsid, the ejection is driven by anomalous diffusion of phage DNA in the crowded bacterial cytoplasm. We expect that this two-step mechanism is general for phages that operate by pressure-driven ejection, and we discuss predictions of our theory to be tested in future experiments.
Utilization of constrained spectral clustering for clustering of graph nodes containing record data

Clustering is one of the most common and most widely used methods of data mining. Many clustering algorithms can be utilized for various purposes, but most of these methods can only deal with one data type at a time. There are few methods in existence that can deal with data of different origins and/or different types simultaneously, but most of these are iterative [1], which means that they consume large amounts of computation time, and therefore refreshing the clustering can be a serious issue as well. However, by using the method of constrained spectral clustering, which was originally established to define graph nodes that surely fall into the same cluster or surely not, we can incorporate the influence of the similarities of regular record data associated to the nodes without using complex iterative methods. Furthermore, using this system, we can also introduce different “constraint matrices” that can represent different aspects of the objects, or different subsets of their attributes grouped together based on importance, etc. and incorporate them in the forming of the final clustering without the need for an even lengthier iteration, or serious alterations to the original system. The original constrained spectral clustering method in [2] can also be weighted to determine whether the constraints or the graph edges will be of higher importance in the resulting clustering, thus we can say that the method is customizable in many aspects.
A Non-local Approach to Tree Peak Detection in LIDAR Data

The majority of existing methods for delineating trees from LIDAR point cloud data use a region growing approach. Seed points which are meant to represent the highest point of the trees (or simply tree peak ) are detected in the input point cloud. The remaining points are iteratively assigned to one of the seed points, thus growing the region representing individual trees. Hence accurate detection of the tree peaks plays a crucial role in tree delineation. Current methodologies for tree peak detection are all based on local geometry analysis, identifying locally highest points within some appropriately sized neighborhood as tree peaks, where the neighborhood size is often chosen based on some empirical observations. Such local approaches often result in false positives over a tree with a large crown possessing multiple local peaks and false negatives when multiple trees are in close proximity. In this work, we advocate the use of non-local approaches to tree peak detection which look beyond height values of individual points. Specifically, we propose a method which takes into account point distribution, sidedness, along with height values and also analyzes mutual relation between points in the input point cloud. Our method starts with a conservative local analysis to extract a superset of local peaks. Then it executes a series of filters and attempts to eliminate false positives, namely branch tips and false central peaks. Eventually, we show superior results obtained by our method over the state of the art.
North Sea storm surge statistics based on projections in a warmer climate: How important are the driving GCM and the chosen emission scenario?

Climate models, simulating the effect of plausible future emission concentrations (scenarios), describe for the future an increase of high wind speeds over Northwest Europe during winter. With the help of a hydrodynamic model of the North Sea, these atmospheric future conditions are used to project storm surge heights for the Northwest European Shelf Sea. Four different projections are presented, all generated with the same Regional Climate Model, which itself is driven with two different Global Climate Model scenarios both exposed to two different emission scenarios. The analyses are carried out for a 30‐year time‐slice at the end of the 21st century. All four ensemble members point to a significant increase of storm surge elevations for the continental North Sea coast of between 15 and almost 25 cm. However, the different storm surge projections are not statistically distinguishable from each other but can provide a range of possible evolutions of surge extremes in a warmer climate.
The three amigos: the role of actor-networks, boundary objects and strategic uncertainties in the rise and fall of three innovations in a single company

This study reports on attempts to introduce management accounting innovations over a two year period in several plants at a manufacturing site of a multinational company. The study follows the efforts of three individuals (the amigos) to introduce different management accounting innovations at three different plants on the site. Although two of the attempts “failed”, one innovation was “successful” to the extent that efforts were subsequently made to introduce it into two other plants. Consequently, five stories account for the different outcomes that can best be explained using a theoretical framework that combines actor-network theory, boundary objects and strategic uncertainties. In a number of ways this study complements previous research by Briers and Chua (2001) who also used actor-network theory and boundary objects to explain the process of innovation but, importantly, this paper also introduces Simons (1990) notion of strategic uncertainties to explain how different boundary objects wax and wane in importance over time, along with the networks attached to them.
Heterogeneity of porcine bone marrow-derived dendritic cells induced by GM-CSF

In vitro generation of dendritic cells (DCs) is advantageous for overcoming the low frequency of primary DCs and the difficulty of applying isolation techniques for studying DC immunobiology. The culture of bone marrow cells with granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) has been used extensively to generate bone marrow-derived dendritic cells (BMDCs). Studies have reported the heterogeneity of cells grown in murine GM-CSF culture based on the levels of MHCII expression. Although porcine DCs are generated by this classical method, the exact characteristics of the BMDC population have not yet been defined. In this study, we discriminated GM-CSF-grown BMDCs from gnotobiotic miniature pigs according to several criteria including morphology, phenotype, gene expression pattern and function. We showed that porcine BMDCs were heterogeneous cells that differentially expressed MHCII. MHCIIhigh cells displayed more representative of DC-like morphology and phenotype, including costimulatory molecules, as well as they showed a superior T cell priming capacity as compared to MHCIIlow cell. Our data showed that the difference in MHCIIhigh and MHCIIlow cell populations involved distinct maturation states rather than the presence of different cell types. Overall, characterization of porcine BMDC cultures provides important information about this widely used cellular model.
Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment Growth: Kenya’s Manufacturing Sector

The FDI indicators in Kenya show a mixed signal and although institutional indexes for Kenya have been worsening over the years, foreign direct investment inflows (FDI) though sluggish has been on the rise. While many theories of FDI have been put forward, mostly ownership, location and internationalization (OLI), the extent to which institutional determinants influence growth of FDI in the Kenyan manufacturing sector has not gotten adequate attention. The combination of institutional determinants and OLI framework in determining flows of FDI has been avoided in this sector. This study using FDI inflows in the Kenyan manufacturing sector and governance indicators data performed a cross-sectional analysis for the period 2009-2013. The findings indicated significant positive relationship between governance and FDI growth which implies that governance determines growth of FDI in the Kenyan manufacturing sector. The evidence presented confirms that a good political climate and good corporate governance are important for foreign investment to flow into a Country. Keywords: foreign direct investment; corporate governance; political risk; manufacturing sector
Aluminum Metasurface with Hybrid Multipolar Plasmons for 1000-Fold Broadband Visible Fluorescence Enhancement and Multiplexed Biosensing.

Aluminum (Al)-based nanoantennae traditionally suffer from weak plasmonic performance in the visible range, necessitating the application of more expensive noble metal substrates for rapidly expanding biosensing opportunities. We introduce a metasurface comprising Al nanoantennae of nanodisks-in-cavities that generate hybrid multipolar lossless plasmonic modes to strongly enhance local electromagnetic fields and increase the coupled emitter's local density of states throughout the visible regime. This results in highly efficient electromagnetic field confinement in visible wavelengths by these nanoantennae favoring real-world plasmonic applications of Al over other noble metal. Additionally, we demonstrate spontaneous localization and concentration of target molecules at metasurface hotspots, leading to further improved on-chip detection sensitivity and a broadband fluorescence-enhancement factor above 1000 for visible wavelengths with respect to glass chips commonly used in bioassays. Using the metasurface and a multiplexing technique involving three visible wavelengths, we successfully detected three biomarkers, insulin, vascular endothelial growth factor, and thrombin relevant to diabetes, ocular and cardiovascular diseases, respectively, in a single 10-μL droplet containing only 1 fmol of each biomarker.
Sewage sludge application for spontaneous plant restoration of a New Caledonian Ferralsol

Soils from New Caledonia typically present poor nutrient content and large quantities of heavy metals such as nickel, chromium and cobalt, resulting in slow plant development. We evaluated the impact of sewage sludge application (0–30 t dry weight (DW) ha–1) on the passive revegetation of a former pine plantation. The spontaneously regenerated plant cover was mainly represented by the dominant Pinus caribaea, a shrub (Sannantha leratii), and a grass (Costularia comosa). The density of pine seedlings was significantly higher in the moderately amended zone (1.2 and 0.2 pines m–2 for 0.5 and 30 t DW ha–1 respectively). The same tendency was observed for S. leratii, but for C. comosa, no net change was observed. With no amendment, after 5 years many species were present, although aboveground biomass (0.3 kg m–2) was low, whereas, with sludge amendment, aboveground biomass was high (5 kg m–2) but diversity low. Amendment increased pine tree heights from 0.15 to 3.92 m with increased amendment from 0 to 30 t DW ha–1. The uptake of nitrogen (N) by pine trees was also improved with sludge supply, as was the uptake of phosphorus (P). Regarding S. leratii, N and P levels were highest at the sludge dosage of 2 t DW ha–1. Carbon storage in P. caribaea biomass increased from 0.40 to 180 kg m–2 with increased amendment applied. Five years after spreading at the highest amendment levels, available soil P remained enhanced. For heavy metal uptake by pine trees, no significant effect of sewage sludge was observed. The optimal dosage to stimulate biodiversity was 0.5–2 t DW ha–1 but maximal biomass was reached at 8–30 t DW ha–1.
Food Addiction in Eating Disorders and Obesity: Analysis of Clusters and Implications for Treatment

Food addiction (FA) has been associated with greater psychopathology in individuals with eating disorders (ED) and obesity (OBE). The current study aims to provide a better phenotypic characterization of the FA construct by conducting a clustering analysis of FA in both conditions (ED and OBE). The total sample was comprised of 234 participants that scored positive on the Yale Food Addiction Scale 2.0. (YFAS-2) (119 bulimia nervosa (BN), 50 binge eating disorder (BED), 49 other specified feeding or eating disorder (OSFED) and 16 OBE). All participants completed a comprehensive battery of questionnaires. Three clusters of FA participants were identified. Cluster 1 (dysfunctional) was characterized by the highest prevalence of OSFED and BN, the highest ED severity and psychopathology, and more dysfunctional personality traits. Cluster 2 (moderate) showed a high prevalence of BN and BED and moderate levels of ED psychopathology. Finally, cluster 3 (adaptive) was characterized by a high prevalence of OBE and BED, low levels of ED psychopathology, and more functional personality traits. In conclusion, this study identified three distinct clusters of ED-OBE patients with FA and provides some insight into a better phenotypic characterization of the FA construct when considering psychopathology, personality and ED pathology. Future studies should address whether these three food addiction categories are indicative of therapy outcome.
Sir Marc Armand Ruffer, MD: The early years, 1878–1896

A founder of paleopathology, the study of disease in ancient human remains, Sir Marc Armand Ruffer, MD (1859–1917) served in Egypt, from 1896 to 1917, as a public-health administrator, epidemiologist, and pathologist. He was professor of Bacteriology at the Cairo Medical School, President of the Sanitary, Maritime, and Quarantine Council, member of the Indian Plague Commission, and author or co-author of 40 papers in palaeopathology. However, little is known of his early professional life, which encompassed his education, medical training, and research in England and France. The pre-Egyptian period, 1878 to 1896, was a time of extraordinary activity. Acquiring four academic Degrees at Oxford University and clinical experience at the University College Hospital, London (1878–1889), he was the clinical assistant of Louis Pasteur during the anti-rabies campaign (autumn 1889), interim President of the British Institute of Preventive Medicine (1893–1896), and immunology researcher (1890–1895), in London and Paris, under the guidance of Élie Metchnikoff (1845–1916). Ruffer developed the diphtheria antitoxin in Britain. In addition to a dissertation on hydrocephalus, he composed or co-authored 34 papers. A prolific writer, linguist, clinician, and administrator, he explored several medical sub-disciplines before concentrating on palaeopathology.
Dynamic status of lysosomal cathepsin in bovine oocytes and preimplantation embryos

Lysosomal cathepsin, in particular cathepsin B (CTSB), plays an important role in implantation, pregnancy, and embryonic development. However, little is known about the mechanism related to the dynamic status of lysosomal cathepsins in bovine oocytes and preimplantation embryos. In the present study, we investigated the dynamics of gene expression, activity, and immunolocalization of CTSB, as well as the activities of lysosome, in bovine oocytes and preimplantation embryos. After gene expression analysis of several cathepsin-related genes, transcript levels of CTSB, CTSD and CTSZ were highest in Metaphase II (MII) oocytes followed by a significant decrease from the 8-cell embryo stage. Activity of CTSB showed a significant increase in 1-cell and morula stage embryos. Lysosomal activity was also significant higher in 1-cell and morula stages, which was consistent with CTSB activities. However, immunolocalization of CTSB did not show the similar pattern of CTSB and lysosomal activities. We also found significantly higher expression levels of CTSB transcript in the trophectoderm (TE) compared to inner cell mass (ICM), whereas activity and immunolocalization of CTSB showed an opposite pattern, i.e. significantly higher in ICM than TE. These patterns were confirmed by the same analysis using separated ICM and TE. Our results suggest that lysosomal CTSB has a pivotal role during embryonic development and differentiation, especially fertilization and the differentiation period.
Concentrations of some metals in kidneys and liver of goats slaughtered at Atakpa Abattoir, Calabar South, Cross Rivers State, Nigeria

The aim of this study was to determine the concentrations of some metals: Cadmium (Cd), Cobalt (Co), Chromium (Cr), Mercury (Hg), Iron (Fe), Copper (Cu), Manganese (Mn), Nickel (Ni), Lead (Pb) and Zinc (Zn) in two organs (Kidneys and Liver) of Goats slaughtered at Atakpa abattoir in order to ascertain if they are within the permissible limits set out by WHO, FAO and ANZFA for meat consumption. The study was carried out within a period of four months, September-December 2014. The samples were taken to Chemistry Department Laboratory where they were digested with 20ml of Nitric acid (HNO3) and analysed for metals using Perkin-Elmer Analyst Atomic Absorption Spectrophotoscopy. The Mean concentrations of metals in the kidneys were: Cd, 0.015±0.029mg/kg; Co, 0.00±0.00mg/kg; Cr, 0.040±0.027mg/kg; Cu, 0.050±0.011mg/kg; Fe, 0.084±0.023mg/kg; Hg, 0.00±0.00mg/kg; Mn, 0.054±0.006mg/kg; Ni, 0.038±0.027mg/kg; Pb, 0.00±0.00mg and Zn, 0.099±0.019mg/kg while the mean concentrations of metals in the liver were: Cd, 0.014±0.029mg/kg; Co, 0.00±0.00mg/kg; Cr, 0.046±0.030mg/kg; Cu, 0.062±0.009mg/kg; Fe, 0.107±0.015mg/kg; Hg, 0.00±0.00mg/kg; Mn, 0.061±0.008mg/kg; Ni, 0.044±0.030mg/kg; Pb, 0.00±0.00mg/kg and Zn, 0.110±0.029mg/kg. The concentrations of the metals did not vary statistically (p > 0.05) in the organs and therefore were not statistically significant. Total rank score assessment showed that liver had higher levels of metals than the kidneys, although the concentrations of metals in the two organs were within the tolerance limits set out by WHO, FAO and ANZFA. Therefore the buying and selling of these goats at Atakpa abattoir for consumption is recommended but continuous monitoring of these metals is necessary since metals can bio-accumulate in goats over a period of time. Citation: Okorafor KA and Amadiali P (2015). Concentrations of some metals in kidneys and liver of goats slaughtered at Atakpa Abattoir, Calabar South, Cross Rivers State, Nigeria. Biosciences Research in Today’s World 1(1): 90-96. Received October 21, 2015; Accepted October 27, 2015; Published November 4, 2015. Copyright: © 2015 Okorafor and Amadiali. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. BRTW is the official journal publication of BRSF. Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. * E-mail: okoraforka@yahoo.com
Natural Rubber Latex Biomaterials in Bone Regenerative Medicine

Natural rubber latex (NRL) is a white and milky solution that exudes from Hevea brasiliensis bark when perforated, and it has been appointed as a new promising biomaterial. NRL has been proven to be a very biocompatible material, and several new biomedical applications have been proposed. NRL has been proven to stimulate angiogenesis, cellular adhesion and formation of extracellular matrix, besides promoting replacement and regeneration of tissue. NRL also can be used as an occlusive membrane for guided bone regeneration (GBR) with promising results. Therefore, the aim of this chapter is to review NRL studies and to present NRL membrane as a promising biomembrane for use in bone trauma and injury.