Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Regional GDP in OECD countries: How has inequality developed over time?

This paper surveys the state and evolution of GDP per capita in 281 regions of OECD countries for the time period 1995 – 2013. It puts a special focus on the disparities between the regions. These can be substantial: In 2013, GDP per capita of the least and most developed region varied by a factor of roughly ten. Using standard inequality measures like the coefficient of variation or the Gini coefficient, it is found that inequality has been decreasing between countries, while within-country disparities have often widened. Furthermore, transition matrices reveal that mobility within the distribution over time is higher in countries with larger degrees of fiscal decentralisation. This suggests that decentralisation allows regions to “take matters into their own hands”. Implications of other factors that correlate with the level of economic development are also discussed. Le PIB regional dans les pays de l'OCDE : comment les inegalites ont-elles evolue au fil du temps ? Nous etudions dans ce document l'etat et l'evolution du produit interieur brut (PIB) par habitant dans 281 regions de pays de l'OCDE au cours de la periode 1995-2013. Nous mettons l'accent sur les disparites entre regions, qui peuvent etre substantielles. En 2013, le PIB par habitant variait d'un facteur de 1 a 10 environ entre les regions les moins developpees et les plus developpees. A partir de mesures classiques des inegalites telles que le coefficient de variation ou le coefficient de Gini, nous parvenons a la conclusion que les inegalites ont diminue entre les pays, tandis que les disparites se sont souvent accentuee a l'interieur de chaque pays. En outre, des matrices de transition montrent que la mobilite a l'interieur de la distribution au fil du temps est plus forte dans les pays caracterises par un degre relativement eleve de decentralisation budgetaire. Cela laisse a penser que la decentralisation permet aux regions de « prendre les choses en mains ». Nous examinons egalement les implications d'autres facteurs correles au niveau de developpement economique.
The Role of Herbicides in Preserving Biodiversity

No data exist for private land, but the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) estimates that the United States is losing 6.000 acres of public land every day to invasive non-native plants (4,600 acres a day in the west alone), rendering land economically useless and biologically impoverished. The technologies for weed containment haven’t keep pace with the advent and spread of rampant exotics, which have mushroomed because of a mobile and burgeoning human population. The upward trend of weed invasions and spread will likely cause loss of biological diversity and landscape homogenization-biological sameness on a global scale and at an ever-increasing rate. Apathy in the face of the weed threat may be more apparent than real: nevertheless public awareness is well behind the curve. The need for education and changes in resource management is crucial. In the frequently polarized debate over the use of herbicides in battling aggressive weeds, the subject of biodiversity is too often lost. Herbicides per se have become the focus of the debate. This is backwards biological diversity should be front and center. This is the pivot on which the California Native Plant Society (CNPS) policy must turn. Does proper use of herbicides work for or against biodiversity? Herbicide critics usually isolate the subject. They neglect the differences between herbicides and fail to address the serious weed problem confronting the California flora. I am a proponent of judicious herbicide use, and favor their employment as a vital part of a weed management strategy.
Iron homeostasis and post-hemorrhagic hydrocephalus: a review

Iron physiology is regulated by a complex interplay of extracellular transport systems, coordinated transcriptional responses, and iron efflux mechanisms. Dysregulation of iron metabolism can result in defects in myelination, neurotransmitter synthesis, and neuronal maturation. In neonates, germinal matrix-intraventricular hemorrhage (GMH-IVH) causes iron overload as a result of blood breakdown in the ventricles and brain parenchyma which can lead to post-hemorrhagic hydrocephalus (PHH). However, the precise mechanisms by which GMH-IVH results in PHH remain elusive. Understanding the molecular determinants of iron homeostasis in the developing brain may lead to improved therapies. This manuscript reviews the various roles iron has in brain development, characterizes our understanding of iron transport in the developing brain, and describes potential mechanisms by which iron overload may cause PHH and brain injury. We also review novel preclinical treatments for IVH that specifically target iron. Understanding iron handling within the brain and central nervous system may provide a basis for preventative, targeted treatments for iron-mediated pathogenesis of GMH-IVH and PHH.
A Comparative Study of the Legal Frameworks Facilitating Indigenous Land Management in Postcolonial Societies: Indigenous Australia and Indonesian Adat Law

Indigenous Land Management (ILM) encompasses traditional philosophies and practices of Indigenous people with contemporary scientific techniques to help improve the management and conservation of ecosystems. An effective legal framework for ILM promotes environmental justice by “protecting and fulfilling of human rights through legal empowerment of people” [1] through meaningful participation in environmental decision making from a regional to an international scale, acknowledgment of cultural differences and the equal distribution of environmental benefits [2] . Both Indonesia and Australia were colonised by European powers with devastating effects on the Indigenous people. Since the 1980’s there has been increasing international attention surrounding the lack of environmental justice accessible to Indigenous peoples around the world. Regional, national and international legal frameworks are in place in both Australia and Indonesia to promote globally recognised concepts of ILM, however there is a need for more cohesive and integrated approach at all levels of environmental governance. Although there are historical, cultural and economic differences between Australia and Indonesia as well as different legal ideologies, a comparative study of the different legal frameworks surrounding ILM will provide an insight into the benefits and limitations of divergent policy strategies and the best way forward for Indigenous peoples in the Asian-Pacific region.
Outcomes of a Near-Peer Intern Orientation Boot Camp

Background: Interns experience challenges in their transition from medical school to residency. Orientation is traditionally delivered by faculty and administrators and often does not address practical skills needed by interns during the transition. Objectives: The objective is to address traditional orientation gaps and improve incoming interns’ transition experience. Methods: We identified opportunities with our intern orientation using a quality improvement methodology. Plan Do Study Act (PDSA) cycle 1 consisted of a pilot boot camp. PDSA cycle 2 was conducted over two weeks, June 9-23, 2021, at the Detroit Medical Center, Detroit, MI. Participation was voluntary. Residents were assigned incoming interns on a 1:1 basis. Five virtual sessions were conducted addressing: daily workflow, documentation, presentation skills, and utilization of the Electronic Health Record (EHR). All participants received pre- and post-program surveys. Results: Twenty-two rising second- and third-year residents (26%) and 22 incoming interns (58%) participated. There was a significant improvement in the understanding of daily workflow (mean improvement 0.957, p=0.003), and most tasks associated with EHR including comfort with the sign-out process (mean improvement 1.21; p=0.002), accessing specific team lists (mean improvement 1.75, p=0.001), writing orders (mean improvement 1.41; p=0.002), composing documentation (mean improvement 1.23; p=0.001). Writing notes improved significantly (mean improved by 0.52; p=0.04). Nearly all (93.2%) stated the program achieved its overall goals and believed (92.9%) the program should be continued for incoming intern classes. Conclusion: A targeted orientation bootcamp led by near-peers positively impacted the intern experience improving understanding of day-to-day responsibilities and comfort utilizing the electronic health record.
Development and Evaluation of Biochips Specialized for Cell Counting

Cell counters, which are dedicated cell analyzers, can be used to analyze cellular status. Cell counters are smaller and less expensive (about $13,000) than other cell analysis devices such as flow cytometers (FACS), real-time PCR, and sequencers, and can discriminate between life and death of fluorescently stained cells. Cell death can be roughly divided into two types: apoptosis and necrosis, but Cell counters cannot distinguish between apoptosis and necrosis in cells. This study developed a biochip system for inexpensive, simple, and capable of distinguishing between live, apoptotic, and necrotic cells. This biochip system (70 x 150 x 80 mm) comprises a slide into which fluorescently stained cells are injected, an LED light source, and a camera system. When cells stained with a fluorescent reagent are irradiated at the excitation wavelength, they fluoresce. By changing the combination of fluorescent reagent and excitation wavelength, live, apoptotic, and necrotic cells can be photographed. Then they are processed by a cell counting program using existing methods to determine numbers of live, dead, and necrotic cells. To demonstrate the effectiveness of this system, we conducted live cell, apoptosis, and necrosis detection experiments using colon cancer cells. Results of each experiment using the biochip system were compared with visual cell counts made by an operator. The novel biochip system successfully distinguishes between live, apoptotic and necrotic cells. Detection time was <1 s, and the detection error was 9%, compared to visual inspection.
Regulation of Inhomogeneous Drilling Model With a P-I Controller

In this paper, we demonstrate that a proportional integral controller allows the regulation of the angular velocity of a drill-string despite unknown frictional torque and measuring only the angular velocity at the surface. Our model is an one-dimensional damped inhomogeneous wave equation subject to an unknown dynamic at one side while the control and the measurement are in the other side. After writing this system of balance laws into the Riemann coordinates, we design a Lyapunov functional to prove the exponential stability of the closed loop and show how it implies the regulation of the angular velocity.
Recombination in the wheat stem rust pathogen mediated by an indigenous barberry species in Spain

The comeback of wheat stem rust in Europe, caused by Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici, and the prevalence of the alternate (sexual) host in local areas have recently regained attention as a potential threat to European wheat production. The aim of this study was to investigate a potential epidemiological link between the aecia found on an indigenous barberry species and stem rust infections on nearby cereals and grasses. Aecial infections collected from Berberis vulgaris subsp. seroi were inoculated on a panel of susceptible genotypes of major cereal crop species. In total, 67 stem rust progeny isolates were recovered from wheat (51), barley (7), and rye (9), but none from oat, indicating the potential of barberry derived isolates to infect multiple cereals. Molecular genotyping of the progeny isolates and 20 cereal and grass stem rust samples collected at the same locations and year, revealed a clear genetic relatedness between the progeny isolated from barberry and the stem rust infections found on nearby cereal and grass hosts. Analysis of Molecular Variance indicated that variation between the stem rust populations accounted for only 1%. A Principal Components Analysis using the 62 detected multilocus genotypes also demonstrated a low degree of genetic variation among isolates belonging to the two stem rust populations. Lastly, pairwise comparisons based on fixation index (Fst), Nei’s genetic distances and number of effective migrants (Nm) revealed low genetic differentiation and high genetic exchange between the two populations. Our results demonstrated a direct epidemiological link and functionality of an indigenous barberry species as the sexual host of P. graminis in Spain, a factor that should be considered when designing future strategies to prevent stem rust in Europe and beyond.
High-Resolved Near-Field Sensing by Means of Dielectric Grating With a Box-Like Resonance Shape

In the last ten years, advances in diagnosis and treatment have played a significant role in counteracting the growth of dangerous diseases. Recently, several studies have demonstrated that monitoring proteins in the human body helps predictive monitoring of human health conditions and disease progress. In this context, bio-recognition techniques with high resolution are crucial. Evanescent-field biosensors have been widely investigated and successfully developed thanks to their ultrahigh sensitivity. However, their resolution is mitigated by the nature of the Lorentzian spectral line shape that shows inevitable significant spectral overlap among similar concentration-related resonances. To overcome this problem, a novel ultra-compact photonic biosensor with a tailored resonance shape is proposed. The device consists of 1-D photonic crystal (PhC) with engineered defects to achieve resonance with a box-like shape, a very large roll-off (=−10.50 dB/oct.), within a small footprint ( $\approx {1}\cdot {10}^{-{2}}\,\,\mu \text{m}^{{2}}$ ), enabling single wavelength interrogation. The strong biosensor–analyte interaction is associated with a larger transmission change with respect to biosensors with Lorentzian shape (> 4 versus > 0.5 dB for proteins Immunoglobulin-G (IgG) concentration from 1 to 500 pg/mL), drastically decreasing the read errors.
SeCT-CLOUD - SECURITY CERTIFICATE BASED SECURE GROUP DATA SHARING IN CLOUD

— Secure data sharing among a group having more problems like insider threats as legitimate and malicous users from outsiders. In this project, propose SeCt-Cloud – Security Certificate based Secure Group Data sharing in Cloud. The SeCt-Cloud methodology uses the group certificate for data sharing in cloud. Each group have an individual signature certificate for secure data sharing within the group. The certificate less malicious users cant able to access the file. Also the insider threats cant access the file without the updated certificate. This (SeCt-Cloud) methodology that provides: Certificate Generation; Certificate Access Control List Maintainance, Certicate Verification; Data confidentiality and integrity; Access control; Data sharing (forwarding) without using compute-intensive re-encryption; Insider threat security; Forward and backward access control. The SeCt-Cloud methodology encrypts a file with a single encryption key.
Social assessment for the Wenatchee National Forest wildfires of 1994: targeted analysis for the Leavenworth, Entiat, and Chelan Ranger Districts.

A purposive social assessment across three communities explored reactions of local residents to wildfires in the Wenatchee National Forest in north-central Washington. Research concentrated on identifying the diversity of fundamental beliefs and values held by local residents about wildfire and forest management. Particular emphasis was given to investigating community social structures and potential conflict dynamics surrounding fire recovery efforts. Semistructured interviews were conducted with people representing a diverse set of values, attachments to the National Forest, and beliefs about forest management. Complexity of the social context emerged through induc-tive methods of qualitative analysis. Twenty-six social entities were categorized as political coalitions, stakeholder groups, residency tenure distinctions, geographic divisions , or ethnic communities. For each of the three communities, an indepth discussion described social dynamics surrounding fire recovery in the National Forest by juxtaposing the various value orientations and beliefs across 15 fire recovery issues. Conclusions targeted improving public involvement processes in the aftermath of severe ecological disturbances and traumatic human experiences. Abstract My natural science training has served me well in the Forest Service, but I am increasingly aware of the need to rely on social science training in all that we do as a public natural resource management agency. People and their values guide our decision-making processes. We are natural scientists first, yet we produce goods and services that are defined and measured by society's values. The Chelan County fires in 1994 were of devastating proportion. Large areas of the county were burned black and unrecognizable. People's homes and private property, as well as their favorite places in the Wenatchee National Forest, were lost. Our rehabilitation and recovery challenge was not only for the physical and biological resources but also for the recovery and well-being of our communities and the people. I understood , as I watched the last smoke die, that we could not move forward without a clear understanding of our communities and a concerted effort for public involvement in the decisionmaking process. Social assessments like this one may seem expensive and beyond our reach; however, assumptions about community expectations and needs that are based on personal observations and perceptions can be misguided. The truth is that our public is so diverse and multifaceted that we can no longer depend solely on this level of confidence. A social assessment can provide the context for a planning process that will lead to a better understanding of the compelling …
A Faster and Robust Artificial Neural Network Based Image Encryption Technique With Improved SSIM

A robust image encryption process is still one of the most challenging tasks in image security owing to massive degree and sensitivity nature of information in the form of pixels. The hurdles include greater computational difficulty, information loss during encryption, universality, applicability of the approach, and less scalability. Many image encryption methods existing in literature merely encrypt a portion of the data. Therefore, we propose a robust, dynamic, and sophisticated technique to enhance the encryption process to make it difficult for an attacker to gain unauthorized access to the pixel data. The proposed system uses a novel analytical research methodology through dynamically harnessing the potential of neural network that offers better forward and backward secrecy, dynamic control, and automatic management unlike any existing system. The encryption procedure comprises of two levels, first level is confusion- permutation of input image and second level is diffusion by Bit XOR operation for secure transmission and storage of images. Finally, the encrypted image is used as a target for training the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model. ANN trained values are used for final level of encryption to develop a Neural Network (NN)-based cryptosystem, where the crypto analyst or the cracker need to know the number of adaptive iterations and the final weights for the encryption and decryption systems to crack the system which offers higher degree of resiliency towards potential threats. Results and security analysis show that our algorithm has good encryption effect, ability of resisting exhaustive attack, statistical attack, and differential attack. The system performance after implementing the proposed method is compared with existing methods present in literature with respect to processing time and Structural Similarity Index Measure (SSIM). Our proposed method offers significant reduction in encryption time and is approximately 10-15% faster than others with SSIM of 0.002165, close to zero after encryption. It also successfully balances the image quality with higher image security and lower computational complexity.
Analyzing Three Types of Design Methods for 5G N41 Band Acoustic Wave Filters

This paper presents three design methods for acoustic wave (AW) filters: the direct conversion design method, the slope parameter method, and the band edge fitting method (BEFM). Since the conventional BVD model consists only of lumped elements and has accuracy only near the resonance frequency, an NM-BVD model capable of broadband modeling is proposed in this paper and used to design the filter. In the proposed BEFM, a systematically optimal filter method is used to design the AW filter, and each AW resonator is tuned to the filter prototype value to meet the desired specifications. Thus, the filter design time and the number of resonators can be efficiently improved, and the filter design time can be reduced compared with the direct conversion and slope parameter methods commonly used in filter design. To demonstrate the effectiveness of these design methods, the proposed methods were used to design and fabricate an N41 filter using scandium-doped aluminum nitride (ScAlN) resonators. The broadband capabilities of the filter were verified using BEFM. The design, fabrication, and measurement of a broadband filter that meets the requirements of the 5G N41 frequency band centered at 2.593 GHz with a bandwidth of 196 MHz have verified the filter fabricated using the proposed design method. The insertion loss is less than -3 dB in the target band and more than 30 dB out of band. In summary, the proposed BEFM provides an efficient and accurate method for designing AW filters.
Case report: meningeal lymphangiogenesis around ependymoma forming along the dura matter

Recently, there has been growing interest in the presence and function of meningeal lymphatic vessels, with no direct evidence linking these vessels to primary brain tumors. We report a unique case of recurrent ependymoma in the dura mater, showing histopathological signs of lymphatic proliferation at the tumor attachment site. The patient initially presented with a headache, and was diagnosed with ZFTA fusion-positive supratentorial ependymoma, central nervous system WHO Grade 3. Following multiple dura mater recurrences and surgery, the fifth procedure revealed numerous tumors contralateral to the original site, with genetic testing confirming ZFTA fusion positivity, indicating recurrent ependymoma. Immunohistochemical analysis showed D2-40+ lymphatic vessel proliferation around tumor attachment sites within the dura mater. Elevated expression of ZEB1, which is an epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition factor, was also observed, implicating potential involvement in the unique pathophysiology. The present case suggests a new process of metastasis through meningeal lymphatic vessels, although we were unable to visually confirm tumor cell infiltration into the lymphatic vessels. This case is the first report suggesting ependymoma metastasis through dural lymphatic vessels, underlining the need for further case accumulation and study to understand the mechanisms of this phenomenon.