Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Cross-cultural Analysis of Tourism and Quality of Life Perceptions

Models of sustainable tourism consider not only the aspects of the physical environment but also the dimensions of the social and cultural environment of destinations. During the past two decades a number of researchers have made the case that local residents must be involved in tourism development decisions if support for, and thereby sustainability of, the industry is to be maintained. Minority ethnic and racial groups, however, are often differentially influenced by tourism within a community. This study investigates the differences between Hispanic and Anglo residents with respect to their perceptions of tourism and quality of life framed with the context of ethnicity marginality theory.
The relationship between job satisfaction and national culture

Purpose – This paper aims to focus on the relationship between job satisfaction and national culture. Many studies have reported differences in job satisfaction between countries but none has included national culture as a mediating variable. The paper seeks to attempt to do exactly that by relating data from the European Employee Index™ to Hofstede's national scores on five dimensions of national culture.Design/methodology/approach – The analysis covers 22 nations with a job satisfaction sample size of more than 25,000 respondents. The satisfaction data are subsequently related to Hofstede's national scores on five dimensions of national culture.Findings – The analysis demonstrates that national culture does influence the result of job satisfaction studies.Research limitations/implications – It is important to note that the managerial implications of these findings are limited to some extent. A multinational company conducting job satisfaction studies in different national settings cannot influence the s.
Thyroid morphology in lethal non-thyroidal illness: a post-mortem study.

OBJECTIVE Non-thyroidal illness (NTI) is associated with alterations in thyroid hormone metabolism. Whether morphological changes of the thyroid gland accompany NTI is unknown. The aim of the present study was to describe thyroid morphology in patients with lethal non-thyroidal disease. DESIGN In an autopsy study 267 cases have been examined. METHODS Clinical data were obtained from medical records. Subjects were patients with chronic disease (group A), intensive care patients (group B) or persons who had died suddenly without pre-existing illnesses (group C). Patients (n = 93) who did not fit into one of these categories and subjects with pre-existing thyroid disorders were excluded. Thyroid histology was assessed semi-quantitatively: grade I <25%, grade II 25--50% or grade III >75% occupation of the thyroid gland by follicles with a diameter <200 microm. RESULTS Mean thyroid weight was 19.9 g in group A (n=75, age 19--96 (median 75) years, 48 males); 25.7 g in group B (n=64, age 24--93 (median 69) years, 43 males); and 26.0 g in group C (n=35, age 31--89 (median 69) years, 22 males) (P<0.0005, A vs B/C). Grade I thyroid histology was present in 6 out of 75 patients with chronic illness, in 3 out of 64 intensive care patients and in 33 out of 35 sudden-death subjects. Grade III thyroid histology occurred in 30 out of 75 chronically ill patients, in 17 out of 64 intensive care patients and in 0 out of 35 sudden-death subjects (P<0.0005, C vs A/B). CONCLUSIONS NTI is associated with reduced thyroid follicular size that is accompanied by lower thyroid weight in chronically ill patients but not significantly in intensive care patients.
MODIFIED LAY OPEN FISTULOTOMY ( INCISION , CURETTAGE , PARTIAL LATERAL WALL EXCISION AND MARSUPIALIZATION ) V / S TOTAL PROPER FISTULECTECTOMY – ( A PROSPECTIVE RANDOMIZED CLINICAL TRIAL OF 150 PATIENTS WITH A COMPLETE 2 YEARS FOLLOWS UP )

Fistula in Ano has been treated with many procedures in clinical practice from a long time. Recent studies show that fistulotomy with marsupialization can reduce operating time, healing time, bleeding and infection etc. A randomized clinical trial was conducted in Mahatma Gandhi hospital to compare the efficacy of fistulotomy v/s fistulectomy in treatment of low fistula in Ano. Patients were randomized in two groups, namely group one for fistulotomy and group two for fistulectomy with each group had 75 pts. Both groups were comparable for age, sex ration, duration of symptoms, type of fistula etc. Operating time was statistically not significant in both groups. The mean healing time was statistically significantly higher in group two. In our study we found that recurrence was major factor in group one fistulotomy patients. On behalf of our study we concluded that the most important criteria for fistulotomy are careful selection of patient. It also depends on the experience of surgeon and technique adopted by the surgeon. The most likely cause of recurrence was failure to identify the secondary tract and excise the fistulous tract in total on fistulotomy.
The size of RNA as an ideal branched polymer.

Because of the branching arising from partial self-complementarity, long single-stranded (ss) RNA molecules are significantly more compact than linear arrangements (e.g., denatured states) of the same sequence of monomers. To elucidate the dependence of compactness on the nature and extent of branching, we represent ssRNA secondary structures as tree graphs which we treat as ideal branched polymers, and use a theorem of Kramers for evaluating their root-mean-square radius of gyration, ̂R(g)=√R(g)(2). We consider two sets of sequences--random and viral--with nucleotide sequence lengths (N) ranging from 100 to 10,000. The RNAs of icosahedral viruses are shown to be more compact (i.e., to have smaller ̂R(g)) than the random RNAs. For the random sequences we find that ̂R(g) varies as N(1/3). These results are contrasted with the scaling of ̂R(g) for ideal randomly branched polymers (N(1/4)), and with that from recent modeling of (relatively short, N ≤ 161) RNA tertiary structures (N(2/5)).
The meat market in Brazil: a partial equilibrium model

A partial equilibrium model for the meat market is fit to Brazilian data by three stages least squares. The model is consistent with the data and may be used for simulation purposes. In this context we compare model simulations for the near future with the OECD/ Aglink outlook. To illustrate using the model for simulations in policy assessments, we investigate the effect of a relative increase in corn price on the poultry and pork markets, coeteris paribus.
The Gender Pay Gap in the ICT Labour Market: Comparative Experiences from the UK and New Zealand

This paper addresses the issues surrounding gender pay gaps focusing on the Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector of the labour market. Reporting on research conducted in the UK and New Zealand (NZ) we adopted a mixed method approach using comparable qualitative and quantitative research techniques to investigate pay issues amongst women working in ICT in the UK and NZ. Our findings reveal commonalities of experience and some interesting differences. Unlike with the UK sample, for example, in NZ women working in ICT do not believe that their pay reflects their workload, skills and their position within their own organisation. Our study found that non‐transparent pay and reward systems and salary secrets exacerbate inequality and discrimination in the UK and NZ. The paper concludes by offering some policy directions to encourage a narrowing of the gender pay gap and reflects on the benefits of doing cross‐national research.
Gendering professions : an analysis of peer effects

Professional identity is important both to professionals and to the professions of which they are members. In addition to being crucial for professional success at an individual level, and for the maintenance of professional boundaries and autonomy at the collective level, professional identity is an important contributor to the career decisions of professionals including persistence in the profession and specialization choices. When professional identities within a profession differ systematically by sex, these identity-dependent decisions contribute to the sex-segregation of professions or their specialties. Research often implicates professional identity as contributing to the segregation and related gender inequalities documented in numerous professions. Efforts to address these gender inequalities must be informed by the gender dynamics of professional identity formation processes. Despite copious theory, the literature on professional identity formation suffers from being under-tested. In decades of research, there has been little conclusive evidence as to which socialization mechanisms contribute to professional identity formation or how these mechanisms may be gendered. This dissertation provides conclusive evidence for peer influence and gendered peer influence on professional identity formation in engineering. After surveying the literature on identity formation theories, my first study investigates a host of professional identity indicators to establish which aspects of professional identity are associated with gendered persistence in the engineering profession. I identify a role-specific efficacy-related measure as a potential source of gendered persistence in the profession. My second study conducts a causal test of peer influence on the development of the efficacy-related measure identified in the previous study. Using the quasi-experiment of roommate assignment, I address the methodological and analytical hurdles that have stymied previous research in this area. I find evidence that men are influenced by their male peers, and find no such influence among women. This result is replicated in a similarly-structured third study from a different professional setting. I conclude that men's informal professional socialization via peers serves a resource for professional identity formation that is not available to women. These studies provide the first conclusive evidence for the role of peers in professional identity formation, and how this peer influence mechanism is gendered. Thesis Supervisor: Roberto M. Fernandez Title: William F. Pounds Professor of Management
The Efficiency of the Anderson-Darling Test With Limited Sample Size: An Application to Back-Testing Counterparty Credit Risk Internal Models

This work presents a theoretical and empirical evaluation of Anderson-Darling test when the sample size is limited. The test can be applied in order to backtest the risk factors dynamics in the context of Counterparty Credit Risk modelling. We show the limits of such test when backtesting the distributions of an interest rate model over long time horizons and we propose a modified version of the test that is able to detect more efficiently an underestimation of the model's volatility. Finally we provide an empirical application.
Bone density reduction in patients with Crohn disease and associations with demographic and disease variables: cross-sectional data from a population-based study.

BACKGROUND The extent of bone density reduction in patients with Crohn disease is still being debated. The aim of this study was to examine bone mineral density (BMD) and factors associated with reduced BMD in a representative population of patients with Crohn disease aged between 20 and 70 years. METHODS BMD (using dual energy X-ray absorptiometry) was measured in spine and hip in 55 patients with Crohn disease recruited from the entire Crohn population (n = 96) in a defined area of southern Norway. Demographic and clinical data were also collected. The patients were compared with 52 age- and gender-matched healthy controls. Potential demographic and disease-related factors associated with BMD reduction were statistically tested with bi- and multivariate analyses. RESULTS The BMD reduction in patients with Crohn disease was 7.1% (P = 0.02) in spine L1-4, 6.1% (P = 0.08) in femoral neck and 8.4% (P = 0.02) in total hip as compared with the controls. In total hip and femoral neck, age, body weight and gender were independently associated with reduced BMD, but in the spine only body weight. Among the disease-related variables, only ever use of prednisolone was independently associated with reduction in BMD but this only in the femoral neck. CONCLUSIONS The spine and hip BMD reduction of 6%-8% is similar to that found in a comparable population-based study performed in another area in Norway. Among the disease-related variables tested for, only the use of prednisolone was independently associated with BMD reduction. However, the BMD reduction measured in this study indicates that disease-related mechanisms are involved.
Other People's Schools: The Challenge of Building New Schools in New Jersey's Urban Districts: 2000-2010.

SCHOOLS IN NEW JERSEY’S URBAN DISTRICTS: 2000—2010 by ROBERT S. DANIEL A Dissertation submitted to the Graduate School-Newark Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey & New Jersey Institute of Technology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Joint Graduate Program in Urban Systems-Educational Policy Written under the direction of Dr. Alan R. Sadovnik, Rutgers University Chair and approved by
The effects of globalisation on OECD income inequality : a static and dynamic analysis

Using the World Income Inequality Database and a static and dynamic panel data analysis, this paper analyses the correlation between income inequality in the OECD countries and economic globalization, measured by trade openness and foreign direct investment, for the period 1995-2007. The static analysis, conducted by means of the fixed-effects estimator, suggests that trade openness reduces inequality, whereas FDI is positively linked to inequality. Some control variables, such as unemployment and inflation, also have a positive effect on inequality. When we control for endogeneity, using the system GMM estimator with the Windmeijer correction for small samples, the results also show that trade openness decreases income inequality and that the FDI effect on inequality is not significant. The country’s economic growth causes inequality to increase, according to the findings of both our static and dynamic analyses.
Structured prediction with short/long-range dependencies for human activity recognition from depth skeleton data

One of the main abilities that the robots need to maintain is to efficiently communicate with people in a humanly manner. Thus, human activity recognition (HAR) would be an integral part of such a human-robot interaction system. One of the major challenges in HAR is that the individuals perform their activities in different manners. Furthermore, there is a very wide range of different types of activities that the robots would require to understand. Some activities are simple, quick and short (e.g., sit down), while many others are complex, have many details and span through a long range of time (e.g., wearing contact lens). In this paper, we model the recognition of activities into a sequence-labeling problem and propose a new probabilistic graphical model (PGM) that can recognize both short/long-range activities, by introducing a hierarchical classification model and including extra links and loopy conditions in our PGM. To optimize the PGM and obtain its parameters during training, we use a structured prediction technique, a general framework that involves latent structured support vector machines (LSSVM) and hidden-state conditional random fields (HCRF). We evaluate our method on two widely used datasets (CAD-60 & UT-Kinect) that contain both activity types. Our obtained results are promising and show that our method can recognize both types of activities effectively, while most of the previous works only focused on one of these two major types. We further explore distributed processing techniques, since our method can easily be distributed over processing nodes. We also propose an efficient divide-and-merge technique to further speedup the training step.
Weak-form efficiency of European Union emission trading scheme – evidence from variance ratio tests

In this paper, we applied single period and multiple period variance ratio (VR) tests to European Union allowance (EUA) spot and futures data since their availability in June 2005 and April 2005 respectively up to the end of January 2010. Comparing Phase 1 (2005-2007) and Phase 2 (2008-2012), we find that the products traded in Phase 2 show weaker rejection against the random walk hypothesis than the products traded in Phase 1. We further divide the two phases into four sub periods, 2005/06/24 for spots and 2005/04/25 for futures to 2006/04/26, 2006/04/27 to 2007/12/31 as Phase 1, 2008/02/26 for spots and 2008/01/03 for futures to 2008/12/15 and 2008/12/16 to 2010/01/28 as Phase 2. It is revealed that even the products traded in the later stage in Phase 1 after the price adjustment on 26th April 2006 showed much weaker rejection than the primary stage of the market. Thus, it is proven that the market efficiency is improving from Phase 1 to Phase 2 and the market has turned more efficient after the adjustment on 26th April 2006.
The critically ill avian influenza A (H5N1) patient*

Objective:This review examines perspectives of human infection with avian influenza A H5N1 (AI H5N1), specifically focusing on the presentation, diagnosis, and management of those critically ill with AI H5N1. Data Source:PubMed (1966–2006), PubMed “related articles,” publications and Web sites of the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, personal files, abstract proceedings, and reference lists. Study Selection:We reviewed English-language publications pertaining to clinical presentation, diagnosis, and management of AI H5N1 and infection control expressly relating to the intensive care setting. Data Synthesis:The majority of reported patients with AI H5N1 are critically ill and require intensive care management. These patients progress rapidly to severe acute respiratory distress syndrome. Multiorgan failure occurs in a large proportion. Because of the nonspecific clinical, laboratory, and radiologic features, it is critical to seek a history of exposure to poultry or wild birds in suspected cases. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction performed on nasopharyngeal aspirate is the most reliable method for the laboratory diagnosis of AI H5N1. Treatment includes starting neuraminidase inhibitor oseltamivir as early as possible in addition to the standard supportive management. Aerosol generating procedures should be minimized to avoid nosocomial transmission. Strict infection control procedures are paramount to staff safety, although human-to-human transmission is rare as of this time. Conclusions:Many patients with AI H5N1 are critically ill either at presentation or shortly thereafter. Intensivists and intensive care units are therefore at the front line for this new cause of severe lung injury. Practitioners must be familiar with the nonspecific presentation of AI H5N1 and its diagnostic and therapeutic options. Although treating the infected patient with AI H5N1 is a priority, safeguarding healthcare workers and other patients must be considered of equal priority.
Will the Smart Institutional Investor Always Drive Prices to Fundamental Value?

We study gains to momentum trading from 1946 through 2002. Past papers assume a zero-investment strategy where short sales of losers fund the purchase of winners. In practice, the broker holds the cash from the short sale as collateral, and the investor funds long positions with his own or borrowed capital. To estimate implementation costs, we assume that the investor borrows through securing other investments, pays margin costs on the borrowings, and earns the rebate rate on the cash from the short sale. We find that the difference between the call money and rebate rates is 1.4% per year over the full sample, but in more recent years, this cost approaches 2%. This zero-investment friction and trade costs restrict arbitrage and smart-investor trades. Also trade costs change over time and allow us to look at the effects of trade cost changes and momentum returns. Congress deregulated trade commissions on May 1, 1975. Commissions fell dramatically for large stocks but did not materially change for small stocks. The commission change sets up a natural experiment to test if momentum fell after commissions fell. We find that large-stock momentum fell but standard momentum strategies, which use a substantial number of smaller stocks, did not materially change.
Airbnb: disruptive innovation and the rise of an informal tourism accommodation sector

This article explores the emergence of Airbnb, a company whose website permits ordinary people to rent out their residences as tourist accommodation. The company was just recently established, but it has grown extremely rapidly and is now selling many millions of room nights annually. This rise is examined through the lens of disruptive innovation theory, which describes how products that lack in traditionally favoured attributes but offer alternative benefits can, over time, transform a market and capture mainstream consumers. The concepts of disruptive innovation are used to consider Airbnb's novel business model, which is built around modern internet technologies, and Airbnb's distinct appeal, which centres on cost-savings, household amenities, and the potential for more authentic local experiences. Despite Airbnb's growing popularity, many Airbnb rentals are actually illegal due to short-term rental regulations. These legality issues and their corresponding tax concerns are discussed, with an overview of the current state of regulatory flux and a possible path for resolution. Thereafter, the article considers Airbnb's potential to significantly disrupt the traditional accommodation sector, and the positive and negative impacts Airbnb may have on destinations. Finally, numerous questions for future research are proposed.
Variation in the load of the horn fly, Haematobia irritans, in cattle herds is determined by the presence or absence of individual heifers

Abstract. The distribution of horn flies, Haematobia irritans (L.) (Diptera: Muscidae), in herds of Danish Holstein‐Friesian cattle was investigated in two studies conducted during two field seasons. In the first study, highly significant differences in fly distribution between the most and the least fly‐susceptible heifers were observed. In one herd, the mean difference between the most fly‐susceptible and the most fly‐resistant heifers was 268 Ha. irritans specimens. The highest ratio between upper and lower mean fly number was 64.1:1, whereas the lowest was 3.1:1. In the second year, it was demonstrated that the heifers kept their rank in fly attraction over time. The trial clearly demonstrated that some heifers were attracting flies, whereas others, even in the same herd, only carried a few. In the second study, heifers were moved in and out of herds in an attempt to manipulate fly loads in the herds. In year 1, one herd (herd A) received four fly‐resistant heifers from another herd (herd B), resulting in a drop in the mean number of flies, whereas herd B received four fly‐susceptible heifers from herd A, resulting in an elevation of the mean number of flies. In year 2, a similar pattern emerged using herds C and D, and when the cattle were later returned to their original herds, the fly loads returned to their original distribution. The data presented here show unequivocally that, for horn flies, there can be considerable differences in fly loads for individual heifers within the Holstein‐Friesian breed. Furthermore, the overall fly load within herds can be manipulated, and can be reversed. Thus, the distribution in the number of flies within a herd appears to depend on the number of fly‐resistant or fly‐susceptible heifers. The possible role of chemical factors emitted by heifers, i.e. volatile semiochemicals, in determining differences in fly loads is discussed, whereby attractants are emitted by fly‐susceptible heifers and enable flies to locate their host, and repellents are emitted by fly‐resistant heifers such that the flies are actively repelled from the herd.