Global Malmquist indices of productivity change in Egyptian wheat production

This study aims to measure the total factor productivity of the main governorates of wheat production in Egypt during the time period 1990-2012 and decompose it into technical change, efficiency change and scale change. We used Global Malmquist TFP index as a non-parametric approach. The results indicated that the contribution of technical change component is more important than the efficiency change component. In fact technical change rose, 25.7%, while efficiency change presented a little decline, 3.7%. The decomposition of efficiency change indicated that the main problem of wheat production in Egypt was scale efficiency that worsened by 5.5%

A multiple scale model for tumor growth

We present a physiologically structured lattice model for vascular tumor growth which accounts for blood flow and structural adaptation of the vasculature, transport of oxygen, interaction between cancerous and normal tissue, cell division, apoptosis, vascular endothelial growth factor release, and the coupling between these processes. Simulations of the model are used to investigate the effects of nutrient heterogeneity, growth and invasion of cancerous tissue, and emergent growth laws

“We Are Asking Why You Treat Us This Way. Is It Because We Are Negroes?” A Reparations-Based Approach to Remedying the Trump Administration’s Cancellation of TPS Protections for Haitians

This Article places the Trump Administration’s decision to cancel TPS for Haitians within the longer history of U.S. racism and exclusion against Haiti and Haitians, observes the legal challenges against this decision and their limitations, and imagines a future that repairs the harms caused by past and current racist policies. First, this Article briefly outlines the history of exclusionary, race-based immigration laws in the United States, and specifically how this legal framework, coupled with existing anti-Black ideologies in the United States, directly impacted Haitians and Haitian immigrants arriving in the United States. Next, the Article provides an overview of the TPS decision-making process, the Trump Administration’s openly racist comments against Haitians and other people of color before and during the decision-making process to cancel TPS, and the departure from the established administrative process for TPS cancellation. The Article then reviews the legal challenges against TPS cancellation and the arguments that the decision violated the Equal Protection Clause and how such efforts reveal the limitations of litigation as a tool to achieve social justice. Looking towards the future, this Article discusses reparations and remittances as creative ways to repair some of the damage wrought by the United States’ history of racial discrimination in immigration and foreign policy against Haitians. Specifically, this Article explores three solutions: (1) recognizing the harms caused specifically to Haitians by the United States’ exclusionary foreign affairs and immigration policies; (2) using material and non-material forms of reparations, including extending TPS, offering a pathway for citizenship for TPS holders, or offering Haitian TPS recipients benefits to public programs; and (3) valuing the role remittances play in affirming Haitians’ autonomy and working towards eroding decades of imperialistic treatment of Haitians

Evidence for globular cluster collapse after a dwarf-dwarf merger: A potential nuclear star cluster in formation

Direct observational evidence for the creation of nuclear star clusters (NSCs) is needed to support the proposed scenarios for their formation. We analysed the dwarf galaxy UGC 7346, located in the peripheral regions of the Virgo Cluster, to highlight a series of properties that indicate the formation of a NSC caught in its earlier stages. First, we report on remnants of a past interaction in the form of diffuse streams or shells, suggesting a recent merging of two dwarf galaxies with a 1:5 stellar mass ratio. Second, we identify a number of globular cluster (GC) candidates that are broadly compatible in colour with the main component that is both more extended and more massive. Strikingly, we find these GCs candidates to be highly concentrated towards the centre of the galaxy (R$_{GC}$ = 0.41 R$_{e}$). We suggest that the central concentration of the GCs is likely produced by the dynamical friction of this merger. This would make UGC 7346 a unique case of a galaxy caught in the earlier stages of NSC formation. The formation of NSCs due to collapse of GCs by dynamical friction in dwarf mergers would provide a natural explanation of the environmental correlations found for the nucleation fraction for early-type dwarf galaxies, whereby denser environments host galaxies with a higher nucleation fraction.Comment: Matching published version in A&A Letter

El proceso de adopción de innovaciones en el cultivo del arroz en Ecuador

El arroz es un cultivo que contribuye notablemente tanto a la seguridad alimentaria como a garantizar unos niveles adecuados de renta a los agricultores. Esto motiva los esfuerzos que se realizan por difundir técnicas que aumentan la producción, y son respetuosas con el medio ambiente y asequibles a pequeños agricultores. El objetivo de este trabajo es estudiar el proceso de adopción de innovaciones en el cultivo del arroz en Ecuador. Se han seleccionado cuatro prácticas que incrementan el rendimiento y mejoran la gestión del agua y otros recursos naturales: nivelación del terreno, semilla certificada, siembra de plántulas mediante el trasplante con distanciamiento y uso de maquinaria para cosechar. Para cada una de ellas se estudian factores que inciden en su adopción: capital humano, capital social y apoyo institucional a la agricultura. Además, se analiza la interrelación de unas prácticas con otras. La estimación de modelos probit multivariantes muestra que la educación es el principal factor que aumenta la probabilidad de adoptar estas prácticas. Y con incidencia desigual se encuentran el asociacionismo, el acceso al crédito y la contratación de seguro agrario. Las complementariedades encontradas entre distintas prácticas apuntan a la conveniencia de fomentarlas de forma conjunta para aprovechar sus sinergias

AC-KBO Revisited

Equational theories that contain axioms expressing associativity and commutativity (AC) of certain operators are ubiquitous. Theorem proving methods in such theories rely on well-founded orders that are compatible with the AC axioms. In this paper we consider various definitions of AC-compatible Knuth-Bendix orders. The orders of Steinbach and of Korovin and Voronkov are revisited. The former is enhanced to a more powerful version, and we modify the latter to amend its lack of monotonicity on non-ground terms. We further present new complexity results. An extension reflecting the recent proposal of subterm coefficients in standard Knuth-Bendix orders is also given. The various orders are compared on problems in termination and completion.Comment: 31 pages, To appear in Theory and Practice of Logic Programming (TPLP) special issue for the 12th International Symposium on Functional and Logic Programming (FLOPS 2014

Evidence of suppression of onchocerciasis transmission in the Venezuelan Amazonian focus.

BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization (WHO) has set goals for onchocerciasis elimination in Latin America by 2015. Most of the six previously endemic countries are attaining this goal by implementing twice a year (and in some foci, quarterly) mass ivermectin (Mectizan®) distribution. Elimination of transmission has been verified in Colombia, Ecuador and Mexico. Challenges remain in the Amazonian focus straddling Venezuela and Brazil, where the disease affects the hard-to-reach Yanomami indigenous population. We provide evidence of suppression of Onchocerca volvulus transmission by Simulium guianense s.l. in 16 previously hyperendemic Yanomami communities in southern Venezuela after 15 years of 6-monthly and 5 years of 3-monthly mass ivermectin treatment. METHODS: Baseline and monitoring and evaluation parasitological, ophthalmological, entomological and serological surveys were conducted in selected sentinel and extra-sentinel communities of the focus throughout the implementation of the programme. RESULTS: From 2010 to 2012–2015, clinico-parasitological surveys indicate a substantial decrease in skin microfilarial prevalence and intensity of infection; accompanied by no evidence (or very low prevalence and intensity) of ocular microfilariae in the examined population. Of a total of 51,341 S. guianense flies tested by PCR none had L3 infection (heads only). Prevalence of infective flies and seasonal transmission potentials in 2012–2013 were, respectively, under 1 % and 20 L3/person/transmission season. Serology in children aged 1–10 years demonstrated that although 26 out of 396 (7 %) individuals still had Ov-16 antibodies, only 4/218 (2 %) seropositives were aged 1–5 years. CONCLUSIONS: We report evidence of recent transmission and morbidity suppression in some communities of the focus representing 75 % of the Yanomami population and 70 % of all known communities. We conclude that onchocerciasis transmission could be feasibly interrupted in the Venezuelan Amazonian focus. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13071-016-1313-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Erythropoiesis-stimulating Agent Use among Patients with Lupus Nephritis Approaching End-stage Renal Disease

Objectives: Little is known about erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs) utilization among lupus nephritis (LN) patients with incipient ESRD. We aimed to identify sociodemographic and clinical factors associated with ESA use among incident LN ESRD patients. Methods: Among all individuals age ≥18 with incident ESRD from 1995-2008 in the U.S. Renal Data System (USRDS), we identified those with systemic lupus erythematosus (ICD-9 code 710.0) as the cause of ESRD. ESA use at ESRD onset was ascertained from the Medical Evidence Report. Year of onset, age, sex, race/ethnicity, medical insurance, employment status, residential region, clinical factors and comorbidities were considered potentially associated with ESA use in multivariable-adjusted logistic regression analyses. Results: We identified 12,533 individuals with incident LN ESRD (1% of entire population). Of those, 4,288 (34%) received an ESA preceding ESRD. In multivariable-adjusted models, ESA users had higher serum albumin and hemoglobin concentrations, were more likely to be women, and to live in the Northeast. Conversely, Medicaid beneficiaries, the uninsured, unemployed, African Americans, Hispanics, and those with IV drug use, congestive heart failure and obesity had lower ESA use. Conclusion: Among all U.S. patients and those with LN who developed ESRD, approximately one third received ESAs. Patient sex, race, age, medical insurance, residential region and clinical factors were significantly associated with ESA therapy. While there are no guidelines for ESA use in LN patients approaching ESRD, there has been wide sociodemographic variation, raising questions about ESA prescription practices

Selectable Nanopattern Arrays for Nanolithographic Imprint and Etch-Mask Applications

A parallel nanolithographic patterning method is presented that can be used to obtain arrays of multifunctional nanoparticles. These patterns can simply be converted into a variety of secondary nanopatterns that are useful for nanolithographic imprint, plasmonic, and etch-mask applications

Epstein-Barr Virus–Associated Gastric Carcinoma: The Americas’ Perspective

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection has been associated with different malignancies, and compelling evidence has shown that it may have a causative or at least contributing role in gastric carcinogenesis. EBV-associated gastric cancers have a unique molecular signature, which has defined this group of tumors as a distinctive molecular subtype of gastric cancer. This subtype has shown a greater incidence in the Americas than in the Asian countries. This chapter discusses about possible factors underlying these differences and the emerging roles of epigenetics in the pathogenesis of Epstein-Barr virus–associated gastric cancer