Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Politics of Oil and Gas in Ghana

The discovery of oil should transform economies, since oil revenues can be invested in infrastructure and the non-oil sector. Whilst oil discovery has transformed the economy of countries such as Indonesia, Norway and UK, the story is different in Sub-Saharan Africa. Available evidence in countries like Angola, Equatorial Guinea, and Nigeria suggests that economic growth has an inverse relationship with oil production. Some researchers have attributed this to lack of quality institutions and the politics surrounding oil production. In this study, we take a critical look at the politics of oil production in Ghana and its potential implications for the oil sector and national development.
Raised Proinflammatory Cytokine Production Within Cerebrospinal Fluid Precedes Fever Onset in Patients With Neurosurgery-Associated Bacterial Meningitis*

Objective: The objective of the present study was to determine whether selective inflammatory cytokine concentrations within cerebrospinal fluid are useful markers for the differential diagnosis of aseptic and bacterial meningitis within neurosurgical patients. Design: Prospective, open-label, observational, cohort study. Setting: Neurosurgical ICU, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital. Patients: Thirty-two consecutive neurosurgical patients who had postoperative fever following external ventricular drain insertion for the treatment of brain injury underwent serial cerebrospinal fluid cytokine analysis pre and post fever to determine the value of such markers in ascertaining the differential diagnosis of meningitis. Intervention: Cerebrospinal fluid samples were collected on the day of fever onset, as well as on day 2 and 4 pre and post fever development. Tumor necrosis factor-&agr;, interleukin-1&bgr;, interleukin-6, interleukin-8, transforming growth factor-&bgr;, and procalcitonin were subsequently analyzed using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay analysis techniques. Measurement and Main Results: Inflammatory marker levels were compared among febrile aseptic, bacterial, and nonmeningitis patients to determine cerebrospinal fluid inflammatory changes over time. Significant increases in cerebrospinal fluid tumor necrosis factor -&agr;, interleukin-1&bgr;, interleukin-6, and interleukin-8 levels were observed within patients with bacterial meningitis at fever onset, which was not evident in aseptic or nonmeningitis patients. Furthermore, significant increases in cerebrospinal fluid tumor necrosis factor-&agr;, interleukin-1&bgr;, interleukin-6, and interleukin-8 levels were detected as early as 4 days prior to fever onset within patients with bacterial meningitis when compared with both aseptic and nonmeningitis groups. Interestingly, procalcitonin was only significantly increased in patients with bacterial meningitis on the fourth day post fever. Conclusion: The present study suggests that raised cerebrospinal fluid tumor necrosis factor -&agr;, interleukin-1&bgr;, and interleukin-8 in a temporal manner may indicate early bacterial meningitis development in neurosurgical patients, enabling earlier diagnostic certainty and improved patient outcomes.
Molecular Determinants of Human T-lymphotropic Virus Type 1 Transmission and Spread

Human T-lymphotrophic virus type-1 (HTLV-1) infects approximately 15 to 20 million people worldwide, with endemic areas in Japan, the Caribbean, and Africa. The virus is spread through contact with bodily fluids containing infected cells, most often from mother to child through breast milk or via blood transfusion. After prolonged latency periods, approximately 3 to 5% of HTLV-1 infected individuals will develop either adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL), or other lymphocyte-mediated disorders such as HTLV-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP). The genome of this complex retrovirus contains typical gag, pol, and env genes, but also unique nonstructural proteins encoded from the pX region. These nonstructural genes encode the Tax and Rex regulatory proteins, as well as novel proteins essential for viral spread in vivo such as, p30, p12, p13 and the antisense encoded HBZ. While progress has been made in the understanding of viral determinants of cell transformation and host immune responses, host and viral determinants of HTLV-1 transmission and spread during the early phases of infection are unclear. Improvements in the molecular tools to test these viral determinants in cellular and animal models have provided new insights into the early events of HTLV-1 infection. This review will focus on studies that test HTLV-1 determinants in context to full length infectious clones of the virus providing insights into the mechanisms of transmission and spread of HTLV-1.
Dynamic changes in neuronal autophagy and apoptosis in the ischemic penumbra following permanent ischemic stroke

The temporal dynamics of neuronal autophagy and apoptosis in the ischemic penumbra following stroke remains unclear. Therefore, in this study, we investigated the dynamic changes in autophagy and apoptosis in the penumbra to provide insight into potential therapeutic targets for stroke. An adult Sprague-Dawley rat model of permanent ischemic stroke was prepared by middle cerebral artery occlusion. Neuronal autophagy and apoptosis in the penumbra post-ischemia were evaluated by western blot assay and immunofluorescence staining with antibodies against LC3-II and cleaved caspase-3, respectively. Levels of both LC3-II and cleaved caspase-3 in the penumbra gradually increased within 5 hours post-ischemia. Thereafter, levels of both proteins declined, especially LC3-II. The cerebral infarct volume increased slowly 1–4 hours after ischemia, but subsequently increased rapidly until 5 hours after ischemia. The severity of the neurological deficit was positively correlated with infarct volume. LC3-II and cleaved caspase-3 levels were high in the penumbra within 5 hours after ischemia, and after that, levels of these proteins decreased at different rates. LC3-II levels were reduced to a very low level, but cleaved casp-ase-3 levels remained high 72 hours after ischemia. These results indicate that there are temporal differences in the activation status of the autophagic and apoptotic pathways. This suggests that therapeutic targeting of these pathways should take into consideration their unique temporal dynamics.
The Big Four - What We Did Wrong in Advanced Persistent Threat Detection?

As both the number and the complexity of cyber-attacks continuously increase, it is becoming evident that current security mechanisms have limited success in detecting sophisticated threats. Stuxnet, Duqu, Flame and Red October have troubled the security community due to their severe complexity and their ability to evade detection - in some cases for several years. The significant technical and financial resources needed for orchestrating such complex attacks are a clear indication that perpetrators are well organized and, likely, working under a state umbrella. In this paper we perform a technical analysis of these advanced persistent threats, highlighting particular characteristics and identifying common patterns and techniques. We also focus on the issues that enabled the malware authors to evade detection from a wide range of security solutions and propose technical countermeasures for strengthening our defenses against similar threats.
Architectonics of crayfish ganglia

The central nervous system of crayfish consists of a chain of segmental ganglia that are linked by cables of intersegmental axons. Each ganglion contains a highly‐ordered core of longitudinal tracts, vertical tracts, commissures, and synaptic neuropils. We review from a technical perspective the history of the description of these ganglia, and recognize four episodes of progress. Each major innovation in anatomical methods has led to new insight into the structure and function of this nervous system, and new awareness of the structural patterns that are common to the CNS of all arthropods. Ganglia in different segments of the body differ in size, and appear to differ in anatomy. From a comparison of the structures of the cores of abdominal, thoracic, and subesophageal ganglia, we argue that this apparent difference is illusory. Rather, each of these ganglia is organized on the same plan, a plan also found in insect segmental ganglia. The apparent differences follow from longitudinal compression during development and from allometric growth of particular neuropils associated with innervation of the walking legs. Different authors have described the internal organization of ganglia in different segments, so we provide a cross‐reference to the nomenclatures they have introduced. We compare the locations of cell bodies of motor neurons and accessory neurons that innervate different peripheral structures, and demonstrate double‐labeling of certain GABAergic peripheral inhibitory neurons. Finally, we describe the construction of digital movies of serial sections of these ganglia, and discuss their utility. Microsc. Res. Tech. 60:253–265, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Fault Detection and Accommodation for Nonlinear Systems Using Fuzzy Neural Networks

A fault detection and accommodation method based on fuzzy neural networks was presented for nonlinear systems. The fault parameters was designed to detect the fault, adaptive updating method was introduced to estimate and tracking fault, fuzzy neural networks was used to adjust the fault parameters and construct automated fault diagnosis, and the fault compensation control force, which given by fault estimation, was used to realize fault accommodation. This framework leaded to a simple structure and an accurate detection. The simulation results in brushless DC motor showed that it was still able to work well with high dynamic performance and control precision under the condition of motor parameters' variation fault and load torque disturbance
Mitigating Ferroresonance in Voltage Transformers in Ungrounded MV Networks

In this paper, it is shown that ferroresonant oscillations involving voltage transformers (VTs) may be initiated by switching transients in ungrounded medium-voltage networks. It was demonstrated that various modes of ferroresonant oscillations may exist for the same VT type depending on the initial conditions and on the network capacitance. As the ferroresonant oscillations pose a risk to the VTs due to large overcurrents in the primary windings, the VTs operating in ungrounded networks should be protected against this phenomenon. The analysis of the classic method of protecting the VTs by means of connecting the damping resistor to the open-delta-arranged auxiliary winding has shown that often a very low ohmic value of the resistor is required to provide reliable protection. A new method of protecting the VTs against ferroresonance with a compact active load was thus developed.
Improving Long-Term Financial Risk Forecasts using High-Frequency Data and Scaling Laws

This chapter uses the abundance of high frequency data to estimate scaling law models and then apply appropriately scaled measures to provide long-term market risk forecasts. The objective is to analyse extreme price movements from tick-by-tick real-time data to trace the footprints of traders that eventually form the overall movement of market prices (price coastline) and potential bubbles. The framework is applied to empirical limit order book data from the London Stock Exchange. The sample period ranges from June 2007 to June 2008 and covers the start of the subprime crisis that later escalated into the economic crisis. After extracting the scaling exponent and checking its robustness with bootstrap simulations, the authors investigate longer term price movements in more detail, making use of the scale invariance property of the scaling law. In particular, they provide financial risk forecasts for a testing period and compare these with the popular Value-at-Risk and expected tail loss measures, showing the outperformance of the scaling law approach. Finally, a set of simulations are run to explore which scaling exponent is more likely to trigger market turbulence.
Transnational Environmental Agreements with Heterogeneous Actors

This paper explores transnational environmental agreements on climate change. As the Paris agreement of 2015 contains no binding emission reduction targets for nation states, understanding other forms of cooperation as complements to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) process becomes increasingly important. We thus aim to identify directions for further research on agreements with heterogeneous contracting parties. By building on empirical examples of emerging transnational environmental agreements, and on insights from the global governance literature, we discuss the scope and limits of the current economic literature on international environmental agreements. We argue that further game theoretical research would benefit from extending the analysis (i) to consider actors that are not nation state governments, and (ii) to consider multiple environmental agreements that are in force at the same time. We underpin this claim by suggesting two proposals for economic models that analyze climate clubs and city alliances. The results show that transnational environmental agreements can be individually rational and can improve the effectiveness of climate policies.
Low‐Strength Wastewater Treatment Using an Anaerobic Baffled Reactor

A 14.7‐L, three‐chamber anaerobic baffled reactor (ABR) was used to evaluate the treatment of low‐strength synthetic wastewater (chemical oxygen demand [COD] of 300 to 400 mg/L) and assess process reactivation after a prolonged period of inactivity. The reactor was inoculated with anaerobic seed and start‐up was immediate. At 26 °C and hydraulic retention times (HRTs) of 24 and 12 hours, COD removal averaged 87.2 and 91.0%, respectively, and biogas yield for methane (CH4) was 0.184 and 0.102 m 3 CH4/kg COD removed, respectively. The ABR was reactivated after two years without feeding. Response was prompt and removal averaged 85.3% even during the initial 10‐day period. Lowering temperature to 16 °C did not impair removal efficiency at HRTs of 24 and 12 hours. However, biogas release decreased by 30% and apparent COD conversion to methane dropped by 24 and 31%, respectively. At the end of the study, biomass was mostly in the bottom of the reactor and had moved from the first to the second chamber, while organic stabilization was occurring essentially in the first two chambers (56.1 and 22.4%, respectively, in terms of COD).
UAVSAR PolInSAR and tomographic experiments in Germany

The NASA/JPL UAVSAR system was deployed to Europe in the May-June 2015 to collect data in support of experiments in Iceland, Norway and Germany. The deployment in Germany was focused on PolInSAR and tomographic data collections at the Traunstein Forest and in the Munich urban area. In addition data were collected at Kaufbeuren, the DLR calibration site, where several surveyed corner reflectors were available for imaging. We describe the experiment design, data collections and present some preliminary results from these experiments.
A three-center European external quality control study of PCR for detection of cytomegalovirus DNA in blood

The presence of cytomegalovirus (CMV) in the blood has important consequences for patient management, and an external quality control study of its detection by the PCR was conducted by the Infectious Disease Working Party of the European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation. Forty-eight coded peripheral blood samples from bone marrow transplant recipients were processed in parallel in three European centers by using the routine in-house PCR assay. Protocols varied in choice of primers, specificity and amplificability controls, and sample processing. Results for 38 of 47 samples agreed, 35 being negative and 3 positive. Of the 12 samples reported as positive by a least one center, only 3 were found to be positive by all three centers, 1 was found to be positive by two centers, and the remaining 8 were found to be positive by one center only. The nine discrepant samples appeared to contain around 1,000-fold less viral DNA than the three concordant positive samples. CMV detection was affected both by the number of leukocytes from which DNA was extracted and by the number of cell equivalents added per PCR. External quality control schemes for CMV PCR are clearly necessary in order to compare data from different centers, and recommendation for standardizing the PCR detection of CMV in blood leukocytes are made.
Rituximab therapy leads to rapid decline of serum IgG4 levels and prompt clinical improvement in IgG4-related systemic disease.

OBJECTIVE Patients with IgG4-related systemic disease (IgG4-RSD) frequently show an incomplete response to treatment with glucocorticoids and traditional disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs). B lymphocyte depletion is a therapeutic strategy known to be effective for pemphigus vulgaris, an autoimmune condition mediated by IgG4 autoantibodies. This study was performed to assess the clinical and serologic responses to B lymphocyte depletion therapy with rituximab in patients with IgG4-RSD. METHODS Four patients with IgG4-RSD were treated with 2 intravenous doses (1 gram each) of rituximab. Clinical improvement was assessed by monitoring the tapering/discontinuation of prednisone and DMARDs, and by measuring the serum concentrations of B lymphocytes, immunoglobulins, and IgG subclasses before and after therapy. RESULTS Clinical features of IgG4-RSD in these 4 patients included autoimmune pancreatitis, sclerosing cholangitis, lymphoplasmacytic aortitis, salivary gland involvement, orbital pseudotumor, and lacrimal gland enlargement. The 3 patients with elevated serum IgG and IgG4 levels at baseline had a mean IgG concentration of 2,003 mg/dl (normal range 600-1,500 mg/dl) and a mean IgG4 concentration of 2,160 mg/dl (normal range 8-140 mg/dl). Among these patients, the serum IgG4 concentrations declined by a mean of 65% within 2 months of rituximab administration. All 4 patients demonstrated striking clinical improvement within 1 month of the initiation of rituximab therapy, and tapering or discontinuation of their treatment with prednisone and DMARDs was achieved in all 4 patients. A decrease in IgG concentration was observed for the IgG4 subclass only. CONCLUSION Treatment with rituximab led to prompt clinical and serologic improvement in these patients with refractory IgG4-RSD, and is a viable treatment option for this condition. The decline in serum IgG4 concentrations was substantially steeper than that of the autoantibody concentrations in immune-mediated conditions in which rituximab is effective, such as in rheumatoid arthritis. In addition, the reduction in IgG-subclass levels appeared to be specific for IgG4. The swift improvement of IgG4-RSD suggests that rituximab achieves its effects in IgG4-RSD by depleting the pool of B lymphocytes that replenish short-lived IgG4-secreting plasma cells.
Intraneuronal amyloid‐β plays a role in mediating the synergistic pathological effects of apoE4 and environmental stimulation

The allele E4 of apolipoprotein E4 (apoE4), which is the most prevalent genetic risk factor of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), inhibits synaptogenesis and neurogenesis and stimulates apoptosis in brains of apoE4 transgenic mice that have been exposed to an enriched environment. In the present study, we investigated the hypothesis that the brain activity‐dependent impairments in neuronal plasticity, induced by apoE4, are mediated via the amyloid cascade. Importantly, we found that exposure of mice transgenic for either apoE4, or the Alzheimer’s disease benign allele apoE3, to an enriched environment elevates similarly the hippocampal levels of amyloid‐β peptide (Aβ) and apoE of these mice, but that the degree of aggregation and spatial distribution of Aβ in these mice are markedly affected by the apoE genotype. Accordingly, environmental stimulation triggered the formation of extracellular plaque‐like Aβ deposits and the accumulation of intra‐neuronal oligomerized Aβ specifically in brains of apoE4 mice. Further experiments revealed that hippocampal dentate gyrus neurons are particularly susceptible to apoE4 and environmental stimulation and that these neurons are specifically enriched in both oligomerized Aβ and apoE. These findings show that the impairments in neuroplasticity which are induced by apoE4 following environmental stimulation are associated with the accumulation of intraneuronal Aβ and suggest that oligomerized Aβ mediates the synergistic pathological effects of apoE4 and environmental stimulation.
Ectomycorrhizal fungal response to warming is linked to poor host performance at the boreal‐temperate ecotone

Rising temperatures associated with climate change have been shown to negatively affect the photosynthetic rates of boreal forest tree saplings at their southern range limits. To quantify the responses of ectomycorrhizal (EM) fungal communities associated with poorly performing hosts, we sampled the roots of Betula papyrifera and Abies balsamea saplings growing in the B4Warmed (Boreal Forest Warming at an Ecotone in Danger) experiment. EM fungi on the root systems of both hosts were compared from ambient and +3.4 °C air and soil warmed plots at two sites in northern Minnesota. EM fungal communities were assessed with high‐throughput sequencing along with measures of plant photosynthesis, soil temperature, moisture, and nitrogen. Warming selectively altered EM fungal community composition at both the phylum and genus levels, but had no significant effect on EM fungal operational taxonomic unit (OTU) diversity. Notably, warming strongly favored EM Ascomycetes and EM fungi with short‐contact hyphal exploration types. Declining host photosynthetic rates were also significantly inversely correlated with EM Ascomycete and EM short‐contact exploration type abundance, which may reflect a shift to less carbon demanding fungi due to lower photosynthetic capacity. Given the variation in EM host responses to warming, both within and between ecosystems, better understanding the link between host performance and EM fungal community structure will to clarify how climate change effects cascade belowground.
FDI Technology Spillover,Knowledge Innovation and Competitive Advantage——Moderating Effect of Absorptive Capacity and Internal Control Mechanism

It digged function paths of FDI technology spillover on competitive advantages of enterprises to help enterprises absorb FDI technology spillover and enhance competitive advantages. It established the theory framework of relationships among absorptive capacity,internal control mechanism,FDI technology spillover,knowledge innovation and competitive advantages,and used projection pursuit and hierarchical regression to identify the theory framework. Results show that FDI technology spillover has inverted U-shaped relationships among knowledge innovation and competitive advantages; various dimensions of knowledge innovation have full or partial moderating effects among FDI technology spillover and competitive advantages; absorptive capacity and behavior control positively regulate the relationships between knowledge innovation and competitive advantage respectively,meanwhile outcome control negatively regulates the relationships between knowledge innovation and competitive advantage.