Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Competition and well-being: Does market competition make people unhappy?

Empirical research on the role of economic institutions for subjective well-being is still widely lacking, while recent economic-experimental outcomes suggest that experienced utility may depend on the intensity of market competition. This paper is the first to empirically analyze the implication of market competition for subjective well-being using real-life survey data on 80,000 individuals in more than 60 countries from the World Values Survey 1997-2001. In support of our hypothesis, we find that market competition aggravates the impact of individual’s bargaining position in economic transactions on her subjective well-being – compared to the least powerful in society. Put differently, we find that market competition enlarges the happiness differences caused by cleavages in socio-economic position. Our results also suggest that competition induced welfare changes are not gender-specific, while a stronger rule of law appears to prevent the generation of such additional benefits or losses. Particularly the latter results call for further economic-experimental corroboration in the laboratory, but also bear important policy implications.
Is Consumer's Rooming Behavior Good or Bad for Retailers? - Focusing on Shopping Value of Global Consumers -

This study aims to investigate consumers' rooming behaviors, which are referred to showrooming, web-rooming, and morooming, and also to investigate whether rooming behavior is a factor that would reduce the competence of the retailers. In order to achieve the research purpose, the analytical methods were used, including exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, correlation analysis, group mean analysis and path analysis. As a result, it was found that there is a difference in shopping value affected by consumers’ nationality out of global consumers who have experiences of rooming behaviors. Also, there is a difference in the shopping value by groups; one with high familiarity to rooming behaviors and the other with low familiarity with rooming behaviors. In addition, the shopping value of consumers showed more favorable attitude under mediating effect of high familiarity, and it also showed positive influence on purchase intention. In conclusion, consumers' rooming behavior does not weaken corporate profitability, but rather, it activates transactions between consumers and companies, providing various benefits to consumers and enhancing company growth. Rooming behavior is a natural phenomenon that can appear in the consumer purchasing decision making process, and it can be seen from this study that large amount of bi-directionality of purchase decision making through rooming behavior can help the company growth. The results of this study can provide useful suggestions to channel manager and practitioners in establishing penetration strategies for global consumer markets.
Long-Term Health-Related Quality of Life After Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage: Relationship With Psychological Symptoms and Personality Characteristics

Background and Purpose— Many patients who survive an aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage experience decreased health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Physical factors have been identified as determinants of HRQoL. We describe long-term HRQoL and assessed whether psychological symptoms and personality characteristics determine HRQoL after subarachnoid hemorrhage. Methods— In a cross-sectional study in 141 patients living independently in the community 2 to 4 years after subarachnoid hemorrhage, we assessed whether HRQoL, evaluated by the Stroke Specific Quality of Life scale, was related to psychological symptoms (mood disorders, fatigue, and cognitive complaints), personality characteristics (neuroticism and passive coping style), demographic characteristics, and subarachnoid hemorrhage disease characteristics. Results— Best Stroke Specific Quality of Life scale scores were found in the physical domain and worst in the emotional and social domains. Thirty-two percent reported anxiety, 23% depression, and 67% fatigue. Mood (beta between −0.42 and −0.18), fatigue (beta between −0.40 and −0.24), and cognitive complaints (beta between −0.46 and −0.16) were strongly associated with Stroke Specific Quality of Life scale scores in multivariate regression analyses. Conclusion— Depression, anxiety, and fatigue were present in a substantial proportion of patients and were strongly related to decreased HRQoL. These symptoms identified are helpful to tailor rehabilitation to the needs of patients in the chronic phase after subarachnoid hemorrhage.
The Effect Of Thickness On Some Physical Properties Of Cdse Thin Films

In the present paper, cadmium selenide (cd0.5 se0.5) Thin films were fabricated on to well cleaned glass substrates by thermal evaporation under vacuum method with optimized deposition parameters at a various thickness, the as-deposited films are subjected to various microscope studies such as SEM and AFM , and the results were reported in this research, the hall effect measurements show that CdSe films exhibit ntype semiconductor and its resistivity decreased by increasing thickness . Keywords— Cadmium Selenide, Thermal Evaporation, AFM, SEM, Electrical Properties.
Diversity and composition of vaginal microbiota of pregnant women at risk for transmitting Group B Streptococcus treated with intrapartum penicillin

Background Administering intravenous antibiotics during labor to women at risk for transmitting Group B Streptococcus (GBS) can prevent infections in newborns. However, the impact of intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis on mothers’ microbial community composition is largely unknown. We compared vaginal microbial composition in pregnant women experiencing preterm birth at ≤ 32 weeks gestation that received intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis with that in controls. Methods Microbiota in vaginal swabs collected shortly before delivery from GBS positive women that received penicillin intravenously during labor or after premature rupture of membranes was compared to controls. Microbiota was analyzed by 16S rRNA sequencing using the PGM Ion Torrent to determine the effects of penicillin use during hospitalization and GBS status on its composition. Results Penicillin administration was associated with an altered vaginal microbial community composition characterized by increased microbial diversity. Lactobacillus sp. contributed only 13.1% of the total community in the women that received penicillin compared to 88.1% in the controls. Streptococcus sp. were present in higher abundance in GBS positive woman compared to controls, with 60% of the total vaginal microbiota in severe cases identified as Streptococcus sp. Conclusions Vaginal communities of healthy pregnant women were dominated by Lactobacillus sp. and contained low diversity, while Group B Streptococcus positive women receiving intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis had a modified vaginal microbiota composition with low abundance of Lactobacillus but higher microbial diversity.
Evaluation of Immunomodulatory Activity of Protocatechuic Acid

Several drugs such as anti-cancer drugs and important antibiotics such as linezolid pose the serious disadvantage of causing myelosuppression. Cyclophosphamide, a known anti neoplastic agent of the alkylation class suppresses T-lymphocyte activity, leading to a suppressed immune function. It is used experimentally to mimic an immunodeficient condition. Protocatechuic acid is water soluble monomeric phenolic acid with strong free radical scavenging effects. The immunity system play main role in protection of body from infection. The system is divided into two major types. • Innate immune system • Adaptive immune system Rational behind this study was to investigate Protocatechuic Acid for its Immunomodulatory activity in laboratory animals using different preclinical screening models and Antibody molecules secreted by plasma cells mediate humoral response, increase in Hemagulation indicates immunostimulant activity. Different groups of animals receiving PCA at 10 mg/kg, 30 mg/kg, and 100 mg/kg, and of the normal control group that did not receive cyclophosphamide indicating that PCA restored the TLC back to the baseline values. The evaluation parameters are Haemagglutinating Antibody (HA) titre value. Neutrophil adhesion test Delayed Hypersensitivity reaction (DTH). The estimation of study parameter here we can conclude that the highest dosed animals i.e. 100 mg/kg shown significant effect.
THE POST-SECONDARY NETWORKED CLASSROOM: RENEWAL OF TEACHING PRACTICES AND SOCIAL INTERACTION

The application and use of telelearning technologies in post-secondary education is evolving from peripheral activities to central approaches. Educators are re-discovering collaborative education as they understand how electronic conferencing can support and empower teaching and learning. As students build knowledge collaboratively, asynchronous conferencing elevates engagement and participation, and increases thinking and understanding. This article presents the teaching practices of post-secondary educators who integrated asynchronous electronic conferencing in over one hundred mixed-mode courses at eight North American institutions between 1996 and 1999. Quantitative and qualitative research methods were applied to assess their practices and to further understand the correlation between the use of electronic conferencing and the degree of collaboration achieved. Based on the findings, pedagogical approaches for the use of electronic conferencing are provided, and are grouped according to the level of collaboration. As a result of this study, the authors present a suggested model for the networked classroom to foster and guide the transformation of pedagogical practice.
PMT vulnerability to measurement errors : Evidence from a survey experiment in Tanzania

Proxy Means Testing (PMT) is a popular method to target the poor in developing countries. PMT usually relies on survey-based consumption data and assumes that they are measured with random errors—even though this assumption has been challenged by recent literature. This paper brings causal evidence on the impact of non-random errors in consumption on PMT performances. I rely on a survey experiment conducted in Tanzania in which eight alternative consumption questionnaires were randomly distributed across households, and compare the performances of PMT relying on error-prone consumption data with those of a PMT using gold standard consumption data. Results consistently show that non-random errors in consumption data reduce both the predictive and targeting performances of PMT. Specifically, I find that the rate of targeting error increases by a magnitude ranging from 13 to 33%, depending on how consumption data are collected and how the poverty line is defined. I argue that this reduction in PMT performances is non trivial and has the potential to influence assessments of PMT performances and their comparisons with other targeting methods. JEL Codes: I32, I38, O12, O20
Correcting Forecasts with Multifactor Neural Attention

Automatic forecasting of time series data is a challenging problem in many industries. Current forecast models adopted by businesses do not provide adequate means for including data representing external factors that may have a significant impact on the time series, such as weather, national events, local events, social media trends, promotions, etc. This paper introduces a novel neural network attention mechanism that naturally incorporates data from multiple external sources without the feature engineering needed to get other techniques to work. We demonstrate empirically that the proposed model achieves superior performance for predicting the demand of 20 commodities across 107 stores of one of America's largest retailers when compared to other baseline models, including neural networks, linear models, certain kernel methods, Bayesian regression, and decision trees. Our method ultimately accounts for a 23.9% relative improvement as a result of the incorporation of external data sources, and provides an unprecedented level of descriptive ability for a neural network forecasting model.
Core/Shell/Shell Nanomaterials of NayF4: Yb, Er/Silica/Polystyrene with High Thermal Stability

Citation: Zhang M, Herrera M, Patten TE, Augustine M, Lin-Dong S, et al. (2015) Core/Shell/Shell Nanomaterials of NaYF4: Yb, Er/Silica/Polystyrene with High Thermal Stability. Int J Nanoparticles Nanotech 1:003 Copyright: © 2015 Zhang M. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. *Corresponding author: Gang-yu Liu, Department of Chemistry, University of California, Davis, California 95616, United States, E-mail: gyliu@ucdavis.edu VIBGYOR ISSN: 2631-5084
Pricing of CDO Tranches by Means of Implied Expected Tranched Loss

In this thesis an approach to CDO tranche valuation is described. This approach allows to check market quotes for arbitrage opportunities, to obtain expected portfolio losses from the market quotes and to price CDO tranches with non-standard maturities and attachment/detachment points. A significant advantage of this approach is the possibility to avoid the necessity of construction of a correlation structure between names in the reference basket. Standard approaches to CDO valuation, based on copula functions are also considered.
Does IQ predict total and cardiovascular disease mortality as strongly as other risk factors? Comparison of effect estimates using the Vietnam Experience Study

Objective: To compare the strength of the relation of two measurements of IQ and 11 established risk factors with total and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality. Methods: Cohort study of 4166 US male former army personnel with data on IQ test scores (in early adulthood and middle age), a range of established risk factors and 15-year mortality surveillance. Results: When CVD mortality (n = 61) was the outcome of interest, the relative index of inequality (RII: hazard ratio; 95% CI) for the most disadvantaged relative to the advantaged (in descending order of magnitude of the first six based on age-adjusted analyses) was: 6.58 (2.54 to 17.1) for family income; 5.55 (2.16 to 14.2) for total cholesterol; 5.12 (2.01 to 13.0) for body mass index; 4.70 (1.89 to 11.7) for IQ in middle age; 4.29 (1.70 to 10.8) for blood glucose and 4.08 (1.63 to 10.2) for high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (the RII for IQ in early adulthood was ranked tenth: 2.88; 1.19 to 6.97). In analyses featuring all deaths (n = 233), the RII for risk factors most strongly related to this outcome was 7.46 (4.54 to 12.3) for family income; 4.41 (2.77 to 7.03) for IQ in middle age; 4.02 (2.37 to 6.83) for smoking; 3.81 (2.35 to 6.17) for educational attainment; 3.40 (2.14 to 5.41) for pulse rate and 3.26 (2.06 to 5.15) for IQ in early adulthood. Multivariable adjustment led to marked attenuation of these relations, particularly those for IQ. Conclusions: Lower scores on measures of IQ at two time points were associated with CVD and, particularly, total mortality, at a level of magnitude greater than several other established risk factors.
Nucleation Mechanisms and Grain Refining of Weld Metal

A microstructural study was carried out to better understand one of the most important aspects of weld metal solidification, i.e., nucleation and grain refining. The microstructure in the welding zone was preserved by quenching during welding and was examined afterward. Heterogeneous nuclei in the weld pool, as well as partially melting grains along the leading portion of the weld pool boundary and growing dendrites along the trailing portion of the weld pool boundary, were clearly revealed. Based on the microstructure observed, three different mechanisms of weld metal nucleation and grain refining were discussed, i.e., dendrite fragmentation, grain detachment and heterogeneous nucleation. The interaction between weld pool convection and the microstructure around the weld pool boundary was described, and its effect on weld metal 5. KOU is a Professor and Y. LE is a Graduate Student in the Department of Metallurgical and Mineral Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis. nucleation and grain refining was discussed. A method was presented for identifying the nucleation and grain refining mechanism of the weld metal, by changing the microstructure around the weld pool boundary and dissolving heterogeneous nuclei through overlap welding, and by examining the grains of the weld metal with electron microscopy. Welds of commercial 6061 aluminum alloy were used as an example for demonstrating this mechanism identification method.
RESPONSE OF SILICON ON MEMBRANE STABILITY , PLANT WATER STATUS AND YIELD OF RICE GENOTYPES UNDER DROUGHT

A field experiment was conducted during kharif season of 2017 to study the effect of silicon on membrane stability, plant water status and yield of rice genotypes under drought at Department of Rice, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore. It is observed from the present study, Maximum membrane stability index (MSI) (93.1) was observed in CB06803 and minimum (86.2) in CB08702 under the control, when drought influenced, Sahbhagidhan retained the maximum MSI (79.8) with lower Malondialdehyde (MDA) content (0.68 μmol g-1) and IR64 fetched the lower MSI (67.6) with lower (MDA) (1.75 μmol g-1). Foliar spray of Silicon (Silixol 0.6 %) under drought increased the MSI to maximum (88.4) in Sahbhagidhan wherein minimum (78.7) was observed in CB13805. In the aspect of plant water status, a greater decrease of 18% in RWC under drought, with lower the reduction in drought tolerant check Sahbhagidhan (14.5%). Foliar spray of silicon (Silixol 0.6%) under drought increased the RWC by 12% with greater the increase in genotype CB13805 (16.3%). However, under drought had greater adjustment in osmotic potential was observed in genotype CB12702 (0.674) while, foliar spray of silicon (Silixol 0.6%) under drought had reduced the osmotic adjustment with higher change in genotype CB06803 followed by susceptible check IR64.The grain yield per plant was observed with 30% under drought, a minimal reduction (1.9%) was observed in genotype CB13804. Foliar spray of silicon (Silixol 0.6%) under drought increased per plant yield by 23% with higher the increase (43%) in genotype CB12702. Irrespective of the genotypes, the foliar spray of silicon (Silixol 06 %) under drought enhanced the membrane stability and plant water status in the above genotypes indicating its importance for reducing the effects of drought and improves the drought tolerance mechanism rice.
Resilience in healthcare and clinical handover

Background: Understanding and applying human factors in healthcare provides significant opportunities for improving patient safety. A key human factors concept is “resilience,” which investigates how individuals, teams and organisations monitor, adapt to and act on failures in high-risk situations. Although it is a new concept to healthcare, it is well accepted in other high-risk industries. Resilience moves the focus away from “What went wrong? ” to “Why does it go right? ”, that is, it moves from simplistic reactions to error making toward valuing a proactive focus on error recovery. Resilience is a better match for healthcare settings than the principles for high reliability because it more effectively addresses the unique complexities of healthcare. Objective: This article introduces the concept of resilience and how it applies to healthcare using clinical handover as an exemplar. Clinical handover and the risks it presents to patient safety are used to illustrate the key principles of resilience to healthcare professionals. The overall aim of this paper is to motivate research which focuses on understanding how frontline staff “fix” mistakes. Researching resilience in healthcare needs to focus on developing measurement, improvement and prediction tools. Conclusion: Resilience can benefit patient safety efforts because it represents a change in emphasis from a traditional, reactive focus on errors to seeing humans as a defence against failure. Translating this concept into practice requires identifying and testing mechanisms for measuring and building resilience within complex healthcare processes.
Environmental Isolation of Balamuthia mandrillaris Associated with a Case of Amebic Encephalitis

ABSTRACT This report describes the first isolation of the ameba Balamuthia mandrillaris from an environmental soil sample associated with a fatal case of amebic encephalitis in a northern California child. Isolation of the ameba into culture from autopsied brain tissue confirmed the presence of Balamuthia. In trying to locate a possible source of infection, soil and water samples from the child's home and play areas were examined for the presence of Balamuthia. The environmental samples (plated onto nonnutrient agar with Escherichia coli as a food source) contained, in addition to the ameba, a variety of soil organisms, including other amebas, ciliates, fungi, and nematodes, as contaminants. Presumptive Balamuthia amebas were recognized only after cultures had been kept for several weeks, after they had burrowed into the agar. These were transferred through a succession of nonnutrient agar plates to eliminate fungal and other contaminants. In subsequent transfers, axenic Naegleria amebas and, later, tissue cultures (monkey kidney cells) served as the food source. Finally, the amebas were transferred to cell-free axenic medium. In vitro, the Balamuthia isolate is a slow-growing organism with a generation time of ∼30 h and produces populations of ∼2 × 105 amebas per ml. It was confirmed as Balamuthia by indirect immunofluorescence staining with rabbit anti-Balamuthia serum and human anti-Balamuthia antibody-containing serum from the amebic encephalitis patient. The environmental isolate is similar in its antimicrobial sensitivities and identical in its 16S ribosomal DNA sequences to the Balamuthia isolate from the deceased patient.
SERVICE LIFE PREDICTION OF FAÇADE PAINT COATINGS IN TRADITIONAL BUILDINGS Methodology based on the inspection of in-use buildings

In the current conjuncture, the financial resources available for infrastructure maintenance and rehabilitation are very limited, creating a need for efficient resource management and for the ability to predict and plan maintenance actions throughout the infrastructure’s service period. The existence of service life prediction methodologies of building materials and components is essential to such goals. The research presented here proposes and tests a service life prediction methodology, based on the inspection of in-use buildings, applied to the service life prediction of façade paint coatings. This methodology comprises the quantification of defects, with the paint peeling defect quantification being considered. Additionally, the influence of five degradation factors was considered in the performance over time of the paint coatings. The result analysis was made through the use of degradation graphs and deterministic models.
Dual Metal Gates with Band-Edge Work Functions on Novel HfLaO High-K Gate Dielectric

In this work, by using a novel HfLaO high-kappa (HK) gate dielectric, we show for the first time that with a thermal budget of 1000 degC, Fermi-Pinning in the HK-metal gate (MG) stack can be released. The effective metal work function (EWF) can be tuned by a wide range more than the requirement of bulk CMOSFETs, and also fits the future UTB-SOI CMOSFETs when Si body thickness is approaching 3 nm or less. As prototype examples, TaN gate with EWF ~3.9-4.4 eV and TaN/Pt gate with EWF ~5.5 eV are shown. In addition, by replacing HfO2 with HfLaO, high k value and low gate tunneling are maintained, BTI Vth instability is improved by one order. These new findings are correlated to the enhanced thermal stability and significantly reduced oxygen vacancy density in HfLaO compared to HfO 2 as estimated by the first-principles calculations