Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
In-fibre diffraction grating based beam steering for full duplex optical wireless communication

A novel approach to achieve wavelength controlled optical beam steering using a 45° tilted fiber grating (TFG) for full-duplex indoor optical wireless transmission is proposed and experimentally demonstrated for the first time. The 45° TFG functions as an in-fiber passive diffraction device for wavelength steered light emission and reception, which enables full-duplex optical wireless transmission. The unique advantages of using an in-fiber TFG device for beam steering include high diffraction efficiency, low cost, compactness and inherent compatibility with existing fiber links. In a proof-of-concept experiment, 1.4 m freespace full-duplex transmission has been demonstrated with data rate of 9.6 Gb/s per beam using 2.4 GHz bandwidth signals.
Microbiological and Pharmaco-toxicological Profile of Nifuratel and its Favourable Risk/Benefit Ratio for the Treatment of Vulvo-vaginal Infections

Summary Nifuratel (CAS 4936-47-4) is a furane-de-rivative provided with a strong tricho-monicidal activity equivalent to that of metronidazole (CAS 443-48-1); it has a broad antibacterial spectrum of action, including both Gram-negative and Gram-positive organisms. It is active against Chlamydia trachomatis and Mycoplasma spp. and has also some degree of activity against Candida spp. and mycetes. Its broad spectrum of action, confirmed by in vitro and in vivo studies, covers virtually all the micro-organisms responsible for the infections of the genito-urinary tract. Nifuratel has a very safe toxicological profile. It is practically non-toxic in acute tests in mice and rats and is also well tolerated after repeated oral and intravaginal administrations. Nifuratel is devoid of teratogenic effects. The comparison among past and recent clinical studies confirms that, in contrast to metronidazole, no resistance phenomena to the treatment with nifuratel are reported. The drug can be used during pregnancy due to the absence of teratogenic effects. In conclusion, nifuratel shows a very favourable risk/benefit ratio for the treatment of patients with vulvovaginal infections.
Revisiting Stereotypes of Non-White Politicians’ Ideological and Partisan Orientations

This research revisits when and how voters use race as a cue for politicians’ ideological and partisan orientations. Using an embedded survey experiment that manipulates the race and policy positions of a (fictitious) Member of Congress, I provide a more comprehensive view of the role of ideological and partisan stereotypes in impression formation. Voters perceive non-White politicians as more liberal and more likely to be Democrats than otherwise-identical White politicians. This stereotyping persists even when the politician takes counter-stereotypical positions (e.g., a Black or Hispanic politician with a conservative record), and shapes non-White legislators’ approval ratings in significant ways.
Requirement for olfactory axons in the induction and stabilization of olfactory glomeruli in an insect

The role of antennal sensory axons in the induction and stabilization of olfactory glomeruli has been explored in the moth Manduca sexta. First, we asked the question: how many axons are necessary to induce glomerulus formation within the first‐order olfactory neuropil of the brain? Axons from as few as 10 of the normal 70–80 repeating antennal segments were sufficient to induce glomeruli. However, there was a dose dependence in the number of glomeruli that developed in partially innervated lobes. When only 11 segments of the antenna were allowed to provide innervation to the lobe, only 37 of the normal 59 ± 2 glomeruli developed; over 20 segments were necessary to induce the normal number of glomeruli. In a second set of experiments, we asked: for how long must antennal axons be present to stabilize newly formed glomeruli? We found that antennal axons must be intact for at least 2 to 4 stages (roughly equivalent to 2 to 4 days) for glomeruli to be stable even if the axons are subsequently severed. This finding, taken in the light of other recent findings in our laboratory, suggests that the formation of synapses may be a crucial element in the stabilization of glomerular structure. All together, the results of the present study indicate that induction and stabilization of glomeruli are separable events with different underlying cellular bases.
Evaluation of Underlying Causes of Death in Patients with Dementia to Support Targeted Advance Care Planning.

BACKGROUND Insight in causes of death in demented patients may help physicians in end-of-life care. OBJECTIVES To investigate underlying causes of death (UCD) in demented patients stratified by age, sex, dementia subtype [Alzheimer's disease (AD), vascular dementia (VaD)] and to compare them with UCD in the general population (GP). METHODS A nationwide cohort of 59,201 patients with dementia (admitted to a hospital or visiting a day clinic) was constructed [38.7% men, 81.4 years (SD 7.0)] from 2000 through 2010. UCDs were reported and compared to the GP by calculating relative risks (RRs). RESULTS During follow up [median follow up time 1.3 years (IQR 0.3- 3.0)], 64.2% of women and 69.3% of men died. Leading UCDs were dementia (17.5% in men and 23.7% in women) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) (18.7% and 19.2%, respectively). When compared to the GP, dementia was a more common UCD (RR in men 4.65, 95% CI 4.43-4.88), while CVD (RR in men 0.67, 95% CI 0.65-0.68) and cancer (RR 0.40, 95% CI 0.39-0.41) were less common. These differences were more pronounced in patients aged between 60-69 as compared to those aged≥90 years. Patients with AD died less often of cerebrovascular diseases as compared to VaD (RR in men 0.53, 95% CI 0.47-0.59). CONCLUSION UCDs in patients with dementia differs from that of the GP, as dementia is more often and cancer less often an UCD. Although less frequent compared to the GP, CVD also is one of the leading UCDs in patients with dementia. This information is valuable for targeted advance care planning.
Are Osha Health Inspections Effective? a Longitudinal Study in the Manufacturing Sector

We examine the impact of OSHA health inspections on compliance with agency regulations in the manufacturing sector, with a unique plant-level dataset of inspection and compliance behavior during 1972-1983, the first twelve years of OSHA enforcement operations. Two major findings are robust across the range of linear and count models estimated in the paper: (1) the number of citations and the number of violations of worker exposure restrictions decrease with additional health inspections in manufacturing plants; and (2) the first health inspection has the strongest impact. The results suggest that prior research focusing on the limited impact of OSHA safety regulations may under-estimate OSHA's total contribution to reducing workplace risks.
RIBONUCLEASE ACTIVITY IN SOME TRANSPLANTABLE RAT HEPATOMAS.

Several parameters of ribonuclease activity have been determined in a series of transplantable rat tumors and liver from the host rats. These include ribonuclease inhibitor activity, pH activity curves, and the distribution and specific activity of acid and alkaline ribonuclease in subcellular fractions. For those hepatomas studied, compared with liver from the tumor-bearing animal, the following changes were observed: ribonuclease inhibitor in all hepatomas was lower (two exceptions); the percentage of acid and alkaline ribonuclease in the mitochondrial fraction was greatly lowered; the percentage of acid or alkaline ribonuclease in the nuclear fraction was either unchanged or elevated; the percentage of alkaline ribonuclease in the microsomal fraction was nearly doubled, and this was accompanied by a large increase in specific enzyme activity; and acid ribonuclease was considerably increased in the supernatant fraction. Many other changes were found but they were not observed in all the tumors.
Hyperbolic Illusion of the Mid-Holocene Turning Point

Using the growth of population in Australia in the past 10,000 years it is illustrated here how an illusion created by hyperbolic distributions may lead easily to incorrect conclusions. Contrary to the published claim, there was no change in the mechanism of growth of the ancient human population in Australia around 5000 years before present (BP). Data for the number of rock-shelter sites, interpreted as reflecting the growth of human population, are analysed. They are shown to be monotonically increasing with time without any sign of intensification in the past 10,000 years. The growth of human population in Australia is in excellent agreement with the similar pattern describing the growth of the world population.
Electronic structure and spin trapping in LiMnAs and LiFeAs:Mn

The electronic structure of insulating antiferromagnetic LiMnAs is investigated using soft x-ray spectroscopy and compared to the electronic structure of metallic LiFeAs. Our calculations support the experimentally observed insulating antiferromagnetic order in LiMnAs. The x-ray absorption and resonant inelastic x-ray scattering spectra in LiFeAs and LiMnAs are adequately explained by the electronic structure alone, although it is possible that LiMnAs has significant electronic correlations driven by Hund's J coupling. Finally, we show evidence of a possible spin trap in Li(Fe0.95Mn0.05)As.
Educational reforms in Nigeria: The potentials of information and communication technology (ICT)

The Nigerian educational reform act of 2007 provides information on wide ranging reforms for the country’s education sector. While the conceptual ideas and provisions are laudable, the issue of implementation becomes a matter of concern. This theoretical paper examines the potentials of information and communication technology in the implementation of the reforms. It explores the basic concepts of educational reforms, the nature of the reform, the implementation of previous education reform programmes, and information and communication technology (ICT) in the Nigerian school curriculum. The paper concludes on the need to systematically use ICT to implement the Nigerian educational reforms
Perceptions towards Online Shopping: Analyzing the Greek University Students' Attitude

The sharp increase of Internet usage, as well as, the systematic progress of Information Technology have transformed the way goods are bought and sold, resulting to the exponential growth in the number of online shoppers. However, a lot of differences regarding online purchases have been revealed due to the various consumers’ characteristics and the types of provided products and services. Therefore, understanding who are the ones consuming and why they choose to use or avoid the Internet as a distribution channel, is a vital issue for both e-commerce managers and consumer theorists. The scope of this paper is to examine the perceptions of Greek university students’ adopters and non-adopters of online shopping in terms of demographic profile, expectations of online stores, advantages and problems related to online purchases. Moreover, the reasons for using or avoiding online shopping, as well as, the types of preferred products were studied. The research provides interesting insights on the online consumer behaviour, as the results show significant differences between the two groups of respondents.
Changing Households' Investment Behaviour Through Social Interactions with Local Leaders: Evidence from a Randomised Transfer Programme

This article analyses the role of interactions with local leaders in amplifying poor households' investment response to a social programme. The causal effect of social interactions is identified through the randomised assignment of leaders and other beneficiaries to three different interventions aimed at increasing human capital and productive investments. Social interactions are found to augment programme impacts on households' investments in education, nutrition and income-generating activities and to affect households' attitudes towards the future.
CEO Compensation in Private Family Firms

Although classical agency theorists claim that pay-for-performance is not relevant in the context of private family firms, the authors provide empirical evidence of the opposite, using a sample of 529 privately held U.S. family firms. The results suggest that objective performance-based measures play a significant role in CEO compensation. Additionally, the authors find that in private family firms CEO compensation is more responsive to firm performance in firms with low ownership dispersion and in the controlling-owner stage. Furthermore, the positive pay-for-performance relation is slightly stronger for nonfamily CEOs than for family CEOs.
Maintaining Market Position: Team Performance, Revenue and Wage Expenditure in the English Premier League

This paper investigates the relationship between playing success and commercial success in team sports. Utilizing a data set relating to the English Premier League that combines both financial measures and indicators of playing skills and performances, our empirical analysis is based on three behavioural equations. Our analysis indicates that on‐field success can be directly related to players’ skills and abilities and that revenue is positively related to on‐field success. Wage expenditure is also shown to systematically reflect player skills and performances. One interpretation of this evidence is that investment in players’ skills and ability buys on‐field success, with richer teams becoming ever richer and able to maintain or even build upon success by spending more on players than less successful clubs. To the extent that richer clubs are successful in their objective there is a causal link between revenue earned and competitive imbalance via investments in players. The implications of this tendency within a league are discussed in our conclusion, which also considers the potentially wider implications of our study as they relate to the evolution of firm size and issues of market share.
Currency Returns, Skewness and Crash Risk

I identify a global currency skewness risk factor. Currency portfolios that have higher average excess returns co-vary more positively with this risk factor. They suffer losses in bad times for currency investors when high interest rate investment currencies have a greater tendency to depreciate sharply as a group relative to low interest rate funding currencies. Consequently, they earn higher average excess returns as reward for exposure to this risk. I create three sets of sorted currency portfolios reflecting three distinct sources of variation in average excess currency returns. The first set sorts currencies based on interest rate differentials. The second set sorts currencies based on currency momentum. The third set sorts currencies based on currency undervaluedness relative to the benchmark purchasing power parity (PPP) implied exchange rates. Within these sets of sorted currency portfolios, currencies with higher interest rates earn higher average excess returns. Secondly, currencies that are higher momentum currencies (currencies with higher recent excess returns) earn higher average excess returns. Thirdly, currencies that are more undervalued relative to the PPP implied level earn higher average excess returns. I find that differences in exposure to the global currency skewness risk factor can explain the systematic variation in average excess currency returns within all three groups of portfolios much better than existing foreign exchange risk factors in the literature.
Association between long working hours and sleep problems in white‐collar workers

The purpose of this study is to examine the association between long work hours and sleep disturbance among white‐collar workers. We evaluated 1510 male white‐collar full‐time employees, between the ages of 18 and 59 years, using a comprehensive sleep quality questionnaire, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). All subjects worked in a light metal products factory in Japan. The mean number of monthly overtime work hours was determined using data from the previous 6 months from timecard records. Subjects were divided into five groups based on quintiles of the mean number of monthly overtime work hours: <26 h month−1; ≥26 but <40; ≥40 but <50; ≥50 but <63; and >63. Leisure time physical activity, drinking habits just before sleep, presence of family/partner and health status were used as confounding factors in the multiple regression model. The prevalence of short sleep hours, impairment of sleep efficiency and daytime dysfunction among seven components of PSQI increased, in a dose–response relationship, with overtime work hours. The prevalence of high global score (>5.5 points) was highest in workers with overtime hours ≥50 h week−1. The odds ratios after adjustment for confounding factors for high global score using less than 26 h as a reference group were 1.67 for workers with ≥50 h and <63 h, and 1.87 for workers with 63 h and more. To conclude, the present results suggest that long work hours correlate with reduced sleep quality in a dose–response manner.
Inflation and the Constant Growth Model: Reconciling the Literature

We formulate a generalized constant growth valuation model incorporating inflation and capital maintenance. We find that in general there are two sources of growth: growth due to capital maintenance and growth due to net new investments. The generalized version of the constant growth model allows the reconciliation of the existing literature, particularly the works of Gordon and Shapiro (1956), Lally (1988), and Bradley and Jarrell (2008), which all employ particular definitions of capital maintenance. Evaluating the practical relevance of either model we find that each model is best suited for a very particular company set-up, which does not necessarily correspond to the commonly observed business models. The generalized version of the constant growth valuation model, however, presents a flexible approach that is capable of capturing various conceptions of capital maintenance.
The Role of Resource Flexibility in Leveraging Strategic Resources

Recent advances in resource-based theory suggest that the ways managers use strategic actions to leverage resources has important influences on firms' resulting competitive advantages. However, theory dealing with the nature of leveraging remains underdeveloped. We develop the notion that strategic actions that successfully leverage one resource might not leverage another resource. In particular, our theorizing distinguishes between flexible resources that can be leveraged in new markets and rigid resources that must be leveraged in their current market. Using data from the restaurant industry, we find evidence that top management team experience (a flexible resource) can be profitably leveraged by franchising, but that attempting to leverage specific knowledge (a rigid resource) through either franchising or multi-chaining weakens performance. Our theory and results help explain how different types of resources can be leveraged using different strategic actions.
Multiple Borrowing through Microcredit and Its Impact on Loan Repayment: Study in Bangladesh

This descriptive research on the microcredit industry of Bangladesh is an attempt to explore the multiple borrowing scenarios and its impact, especially on the loan repayments of the borrowers. This study is mainly a primary data-based descriptive research based on 150 sample respondents from Khulna region of Bangladesh. Convenient sampling method was used and one structured questionnaire had been used to collect response of the respondents. Data was collected through face to face interview. A noticeable portion of the microcredit borrowers (71% of the survey respondents) are somehow involved in multiple borrowing. The main reason for multiple borrowing is the small size of loans from MFIs. About 69% of the respondents admit of being late somehow in their loan repayments. People with multiple loans are having more trouble in timely repayments. Keywords: Micro-credit, MFIs, Bangladesh, Multiple borrowings
Mixed Tenure Communities and Neighbourhood Quality

This paper examines the policy of promoting ‘mixed communities’ in the UK context. It describes the various policy instruments available for the pursuance of this goal and sets out the assumed benefits and underlying mechanisms intended to deliver beneficial outcomes, especially for disadvantaged areas. It goes on to analyse the effects of housing tenures and of housing tenure mix upon the incidence of serious problems and of the desire for local service improvements within neighbourhoods in England, using the Survey of English Housing. The findings indicate that the level of social renting is a more important influence upon neighbourhood conditions than the degree of tenure mixing. Furthermore, the findings provide more support for tenure dispersal policies than for tenure dilution strategies such as promoting a modest degree of owner occupation on social housing estates.
A systematic review on the patient perception of periodontal treatment using air polishing devices.

OBJECTIVES Air polishing devices are used as an alternative to traditional instrumentation of the root surface. The objective of the systematic review was to analyse patient perception, that is pain and discomfort during treatment with air polishing devices in periodontal therapy. METHODS The electronic databases MEDLINE, EMBASE and the Cochrane library were screened for studies published through 18th November 2013. Patient perception served as primary outcome. RESULTS Of the 1266 abstracts screened, nine studies reporting data on patient perception using a visual analogue scale or a patient interview were included in the analysis. Different air polishing powders consisting of sodium bicarbonate, glycine or erythritol were used. Reported discomfort of non-surgical periodontal therapy was consistently equal or lower when air polishing powders consisting of glycine or erythritol were applied compared with root surface instrumentation using hand instruments or ultrasonic devices. CONCLUSION Air polishing with powders consisting of glycine seems to be associated with less discomfort during non-surgical periodontal therapy, that is supra- and subgingival air polishing.
The use of an antagonist 5-HT2a/c for depression and motor function in Parkinson' disease.

OBJECTIVE To test the ability of a 5HT2a/c (trazodone) antagonist, to improve depression and motor function in Parkinson' disease (PD). METHOD Twenty PD patients with and without depression were randomly assigned to receive trazodone (group 1) or not (group 2). They were evaluated through UPDRS and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D). RESULTS For the UPDRS the mean score of group 2 was 33.1 +/- 19.7 and 37.1 +/- 18.0 at the end. For the group 1, the corresponding scores were 31.4 +/- 11.3 and 25.9 +/- 13.7. The variations in the Mann-Whitney test were 0.734 at the initial moment and 0.208 at the final moment. The variation in the comparison of the initial moment with the final moment was 0.005 providing statistical significance. For the HAM-D, the mean score went up 4 points in group 2, contrary to a 5.5 points decrease in group 1. CONCLUSION Data analysis shows that this agent significantly improves depression, but the motor function improved only in the depressed patients. Because of the known anti-dopaminergic property of the 5-HT2c receptors, a possible approach for depression in PD could be the use of 5-HT2c antagonists, similarly to the use of atypical neuroleptics in case of psychotic symptoms.