Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Turbulence underneath the big calm? Exploring the micro-evidence behind the flat trend of manufacturing productivity in Italy

Italy ranked last in terms of manufacturing productivity growth according to OECD estimates over the last decade with a flat, if not declining, trend. In this work we investigate the underlying firm-level dynamics of enterprises on the grounds of a database developed by the Italian Statistical Office (ISTAT) covering the period 1989-2004 and containing information on more than 100,000 firms. Over the period not only the indicators of central tendency of the distribution of labour productivities have not significantly changed, but also the whole sectoral distributions have remained relatively stable over time, with their support at least not shrinking or even possibly widening over time. This is even more surprising if one takes into consideration the 'Euro' shock that occurred during the period of investigation. On the contrary we observe that inter-decile differences in productivity have been increasing. Further, heterogeneous firms' characteristics (i.e. export activity and innovativeness) appear to have contributed to boost such intra-industry differences. Given such wide heterogeneities we resort to quantile regressions to identify the impact of a set of regressors at different levels of the conditional distribution of labor productivity. One phenomenon that we observe is what we call a tendency toward 'neo-dualism' involving the co-existence of a small group of dynamic firms with a bigger ensemble of much less technologically progressive ones.
Cvar Model for Optimizing Crop Insurance Under Climate Variability

This paper studies the application of the Conditional Value-at-Risk (CVaR) in the crop insurance industry under climate variability. We designed a model to help farmers decide about buying crop insurance products to reduce climate and price risks. The objective is to minimize farmers' return losses, while using CVaR to control the risk aversion level. We illustrate the application of the model by studying a farm with two crops (cotton and peanut) in Jackson Co., Fl. Crop insurance contracts with the greatest expected return were: for peanut, 75% actual production history (APH) during El Nino and Neutral years, and 65% APH during La Nina years; and for cotton, 75% APH in all El Nino Southern Oscillation phases. Risk averse farmers could select 75% APH for peanut during La Nina years.
Fast cloud adjustment to increasing CO2 in a superparameterized climate model

Two‐year simulation experiments with a superparameterized climate model, SP‐CAM, are performed to understand the fast tropical (30S‐30N) cloud response to an instantaneous quadrupling of CO2 concentration with SST held fixed at present‐day values. The greenhouse effect of the CO2 perturbation quickly warms the tropical land surfaces by an average of 0.5 K. This shifts rising motion, surface precipitation, and cloud cover at all levels from the ocean to the land, with only small net tropical‐mean cloud changes. There is a widespread average reduction of about 80 m in the depth of the trade inversion capping the marine boundary layer (MBL) over the cooler subtropical oceans. One apparent contributing factor is CO2‐enhanced downwelling longwave radiation, which reduces boundary‐layer radiative cooling, a primary driver of turbulent entrainment through the trade inversion. A second contributor is a slight CO2‐induced heating of the free troposphere above the MBL, which strengthens the trade inversion and also inhibits entrainment. There is a corresponding downward displacement of MBL clouds with a very slight decrease in mean cloud cover and albedo. Two‐dimensional cloud‐resolving model (CRM) simulations of this MBL response are run to steady state using composite SP‐CAM simulated thermodynamic and wind profiles from a representative cool subtropical ocean regime, for the control and 4xCO2 cases. Simulations with a CRM grid resolution equal to that of SP‐CAM are compared with much finer resolution simulations. The coarse‐resolution simulations maintain a cloud fraction and albedo comparable to SP‐CAM, but the fine‐resolution simulations have a much smaller cloud fraction. Nevertheless, both CRM configurations simulate a reduction in inversion height comparable to SP‐CAM. The changes in low cloud cover and albedo in the CRM simulations are small, but both simulations predict a slight reduction in low cloud albedo as in SP‐CAM.
Transcriptional and translational regulation in Arc protein network of Escherichia coli's stress response

Recently, there has been a lot of effort in understanding sRNA mediated regulation of gene expression and how this mode of regulation differs from transcriptional regulation.In E.coli, in the presence of oxidative stress, the synthesis of sigma^s is regulated through an interesting mechanism involving both transcriptional and sRNA-mediated translational regulation. The key regulatory factors involved in transcriptional and translational regulation are ArcA and ArcB proteins and ArcZ sRNA, respectively. Phosphorylated ArcA, in a feedforward mechanism, represses the transcriptions sigma^s and ArcZ sRNA with the latter being a post-transcriptional activator for sigma^s. Through a feedback mechanisms, ArcZ sRNA destabilises ArcB mRNA and regulates the level of ArcB protein, a kinase that phosphorylates ArcA. The oxygen and energy availability is expected to influence the ArcA phosphorylation rate and, as a consequence, in equilibrium, the system is likely to be in either a high ArcB (low ArcZ) or a low ArcB (high ArcZ) state. Kinetic modelling studies suggest that the rate of destabilisation of ArcB mRNA by ArcZ sRNA must be appropriately tuned for achieving the desired state. In particular, for a high phosphorylation rate, the transition from a low to a high ArcZ synthesis regime with the increase in sRNA-mRNA interaction is similar to the threshold-linear response observed earlier. Further, we show that the mRNA destabilisation by sRNA might be, in particular, beneficial in the low phosphorylation state for having the right concentration levels of ArcZ and ArcB. Stochastic simulation results suggest that as the ArcZ-ArcB binding affinity is increased, the probability distribution for the number of ArcZ molecules becomes flatter indicating frequently occurring transcriptional bursts of varying strengths.
Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation over the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex a¡ects strategic decision-making

Although decision-making is typically seen as a rational process, emotions play a role in tasks that include unfairness.Recently, activation in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex during oiers experienced as unfair in the Ultimatum Game was suggested to subserve goalmaintenance in this task.This is restricted to correlational evidence, however, and it remains unclear whether the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is crucial for strategic decision-making.Thepresent study usedrepetitive transcranialmagnetic stimulation in order to investigate the causal role of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in strategic decision-making in the Ultimatum Game. The results showed that repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation over the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex resulted in an altereddecision-making strategycomparedwith sham stimulation. We conclude that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is causally implicated in strategic decision-making in healthy human study participants. NeuroReport 16:1849^1852 c 2005 Lippincott Williams &Wilkins.
Understanding and Predicting Electronic Commerce Adoption: An Extension of the Theory of Planned Behavior

This paper extends Ajzen's (1991) theory of planned behavior (TPB) to explain and predict the process of e-commerce adoption by consumers. The process is captured through two online consumer behaviors: (1) getting information and (2) purchasing a product from a Web vendor. First, we simultaneously model the association between these two contingent online behaviors and their respective intentions by appealing to consumer behavior theories and the theory of implementation intentions, respectively. Second, following TPB, we derive for each behavior its intention, attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control (PBC). Third, we elicit and test a comprehensive set of salient beliefs for each behavior. A longitudinal study with online consumers supports the proposed e-commerce adoption model, validating the predictive power of TPB and the proposed conceptualization of PBC as a higher-order factor formed by self-efficacy and controllability. Our findings stress the importance of trust and technology adoption variables (perceived usefulness and ease of use) as salient beliefs for predicting e-commerce adoption, justifying the integration of trust and technology adoption variables within the TPB framework. In addition, technological characteristics (download delay, Website navigability, and information protection), consumer skills, time and monetary resources, and product characteristics (product diagnosticity and product value) add to the explanatory and predictive power of our model. Implications for Information Systems, e-commerce, TPB, and the study of trust are discussed.
ATM Alters the Otherwise Robust Chromatin Mobility at Sites of DNA Double-Strand Breaks (DSBs) in Human Cells

Ionizing radiation induces DNA double strand breaks (DSBs) which can lead to the formation of chromosome rearrangements through error prone repair. In mammalian cells the positional stability of chromatin contributes to the maintenance of genome integrity. DSBs exhibit only a small, submicron scale diffusive mobility, but a slight increase in the mobility of chromatin domains by the induction of DSBs might influence repair fidelity and the formation of translocations. The radiation-induced local DNA decondensation in the vicinity of DSBs is one factor potentially enhancing the mobility of DSB-containing chromatin domains. Therefore in this study we focus on the influence of different chromatin modifying proteins, known to be activated by the DNA damage response, on the mobility of DSBs. IRIF (ionizing radiation induced foci) in U2OS cells stably expressing 53BP1-GFP were used as a surrogate marker of DSBs. Low angle charged particle irradiation, known to trigger a pronounced DNA decondensation, was used for the defined induction of linear tracks of IRIF. Our results show that movement of IRIF is independent of the investigated chromatin modifying proteins like ACF1 or PARP1 and PARG. Also depletion of proteins that tether DNA strands like MRE11 and cohesin did not alter IRIF dynamics significantly. Inhibition of ATM, a key component of DNA damage response signaling, resulted in a pronounced confinement of DSB mobility, which might be attributed to a diminished radiation induced decondensation. This confinement following ATM inhibition was confirmed using X-rays, proving that this effect is not restricted to densely ionizing radiation. In conclusion, repair sites of DSBs exhibit a limited mobility on a small spatial scale that is mainly unaffected by depletion of single remodeling or DNA tethering proteins. However, it relies on functional ATM kinase which is considered to influence the chromatin structure after irradiation.
Targeted Deletion of Sox10 by Wnt1-cre Defects Neuronal Migration and Projection in the Mouse Inner Ear

Sensory nerves of the brainstem are mostly composed of placode-derived neurons, neural crest-derived neurons and neural crest-derived Schwann cells. This mixed origin of cells has made it difficult to dissect interdependence for fiber guidance. Inner ear-derived neurons are known to connect to the brain after delayed loss of Schwann cells in ErbB2 mutants. However, the ErbB2 mutant related alterations in the ear and the brain compound interpretation of the data. We present here a new model to evaluate exclusively the effect of Schwann cell loss on inner ear innervation. Conditional deletion of the neural crest specific transcription factor, Sox10, using the rhombic lip/neural crest specific Wnt1-cre driver spares Sox10 expression in the ear. We confirm that neural crest-derived cells provide a stop signal for migrating spiral ganglion neurons. In the absence of Schwann cells, spiral ganglion neurons migrate into the center of the cochlea and even out of the ear toward the brain. Spiral ganglion neuron afferent processes reach the organ of Corti, but many afferent fibers bypass the organ of Corti to enter the lateral wall of the cochlea. In contrast to this peripheral disorganization, the central projection to cochlear nuclei is normal. Compared to ErbB2 mutants, conditional Sox10 mutants have limited cell death in spiral ganglion neurons, indicating that the absence of Schwann cells alone contributes little to the embryonic survival of neurons. These data suggest that neural crest-derived cells are dispensable for all central and some peripheral targeting of inner ear neurons. However, Schwann cells provide a stop signal for migratory spiral ganglion neurons and facilitate proper targeting of the organ of Corti by spiral ganglion afferents.
Facile Synthesis, Characterization, and Cytotoxic Activity of Europium-Doped Nanohydroxyapatite

The objective of this study was to synthetize europium-doped nanohydroxyapatite using a simple aqueous precipitation method and, thereafter, characterize and impregnate selected samples with 5-fluorouracil in order to explore the properties and the releasing capacity of this material. The nanohydroxyapatite was doped with 3, 5, 10, and 20 wt% of europium. The obtained samples were characterized after they were dried at 80°C and hydrothermal treated at 120°C by 2 hours. The samples were analyzed by transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and photoluminescence. Also, impregnation and release of 5-fluorouracil were assessed in PBS. The toxicity effects of all samples were studied using viability assays on human fibroblasts cells (HGF-1) in vitro. The sizes of the crystallites were about 10–70 nm with irregular morphology and present the phase corresponding to the JCPDS card 9–0432 for hydroxyapatite. The results of the toxicity experiments indicated that doped and undoped powders are biocompatible with fibroblasts cells. Hydroxyapatite samples doped with 5% of europium and loaded with 5-fluorouracil release almost 7 mg/L of the drug after 60 minutes in PBS and decrease the viability of HeLa cells after 24 hours.
Developing Learning Scenarios to Foster Children's Handwriting Skills with the Help of Social Robots

Social robots are being used to create better educational scenarios, boosting children's motivation and engagement. The focus of the research is to explore new ways to support children in acquisition of their handwriting skills with the help of a social robot. With this perspective, three studies are discussed to investigate aspects related to the learning modes of child-robot interaction, children's impression of a social robot and classification of children's common handwriting difficulties.
Solving Integer Programming Problems Using Genetic Algorithms

There are many methods to find solutions for Integer Programming problems (IPs) such as the Branch-Bound philosophy or the Cutting Plane algorithm. However, most of them have a problem that is the explosion of sets in the computing process. In addition, GA is known as a heuristic search algorithm for solutions of optimization problems. It is started from a random initial guess solution and attempting to find one that is the best under some criteria and conditions. The paper will study an artificial intelligent method to solve IPs by using Genetic Algorithms (GAs). The original solution of this was presented in the papers of Fabrício Olivetti de Françaand and Kimmo Nieminen [2003]. However, both have several limitations which causes could be operations in GAs. The paper proposes a method to upgrade these operations and computational results are also shown to support these upgrades.
Microstructural status of ipsilesional and contralesional corticospinal tract correlates with motor skill in chronic stroke patients

Greater loss in structural integrity of the ipsilesional corticospinal tract (CST) is associated with poorer motor outcome in patients with hemiparetic stroke. Animal models of stroke have demonstrated that structural remodeling of white matter in the ipsilesional and contralesional hemispheres is associated with improved motor recovery. Accordingly, motor recovery in patients with stroke may relate to the relative strength of CST degeneration and remodeling. This study examined the relationship between microstructural status of brain white matter tracts, indexed by the fractional anisotropy (FA) metric derived from diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data, and motor skill of the stroke‐affected hand in patients with chronic stroke. Voxelwise analysis revealed that motor skill significantly and positively correlated with FA of the ipsilesional and contralesional CST in the patients. Additional voxelwise analyses showed that patients with poorer motor skill had reduced FA of bilateral CST compared to normal control subjects, whereas patients with better motor skill had elevated FA of bilateral CST compared to controls. These findings were confirmed using a DTI‐tractography method applied to the CST in both hemispheres. The results of this study suggest that the level of motor skill recovery achieved in patients with hemiparetic stroke relates to microstructural status of the CST in both the ipsilesional and contralesional hemispheres, which may reflect the net effect of degeneration and remodeling of bilateral CST. Hum Brain Mapp, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Addressing Business Agility ChAllenges with enterprise systems 1

It is clear that systems agility (i.e., having a responsive IT infrastructure that can be changed quickly to meet changing business needs) has become a critical component of organizational agility. However, skeptics continue to suggest that, despite the benefits enterprise system packages provide, they are constraining choices for firms faced with agility challenges. The reason for this skepticism is that the tight integration between different parts of the business that enables many enterprise systems’ benefits also increases the systems’ complexity, and this increased complexity, say the skeptics, increases the difficulty of changing systems when business needs change.
Gender Equity in Science and Engineering: Advancing Change in Higher Education. Routledge Studies in Management, Organizations and Society.

1. Gender Equity and Institutional Transformation in Academic Science and Engineering 2. State of Knowledge about the Workforce Participation, Equity and Inclusion of Women in Academic Science and Engineering 3. Study Sample and Methods 4. Factors Facilitating Institutional Transformation 5. Institutional Transformation Initiatives 6. Institutionalization of Transformation 7. Gender Diversity Outcomes: Changes in the Academic Workforce Participation of Women Faculty in STEM 8. Equity and Inclusion Outcomes for Women Faculty in Science and Engineering 9. Gender Diversity (Workforce Participation) Outcomes by Discipline 10. Conclusions
Transient T cell accumulation in lymph nodes and sustained lymphopenia in mice treated with FTY720

FTY720 (2‐amino‐2‐[2‐(4‐octylphenyl)ethyl]propane‐1,3‐diol hydrochloride) is an orally available immunomodulatory agent that induces severe peripheral blood lymphopenia. Most studies of these lymphopenic effects have been limited to short‐term exposure to FTY720. FTY720 alters the ability of lymphocytes to respond to sphingosine‐1‐phosphate (S1P) through S1P receptors, particularly S1P1. FTY720 affects different leukocyte populations and their trafficking through major lymphoid organs. We show the dynamics of CD4 T, CD8 T, and B lymphocyte recirculation in all major lymphoid compartments during 21‐day FTY720 treatment of normal C57BL/6 mice. Following a transient increase in peripheral lymph nodes and Peyer's patches, lymphocyte recirculation reaches a new steady state. Other lymphoid organs show transient changes in lymphocyte composition with various patterns. At 21 days of FTY720 treatment, total body lymphocyte content is reduced by 20% and blood lymphocytes by 80%. Modeling suggests that the new steady state is due to a combination of reduced naive lymphocyte release from the thymus and a transient reduction of lymphocyte egress from lymph nodes. Our data indicate that the commonly held belief that FTY720 blocks lymphocyte egress from lymph nodes cannot fully explain the lymphocyte dynamics observed with prolonged treatment.
An approach for detecting spam in arabic opinion reviews

For the rapidly increasing amount of information available on the Internet, little quality control exists, especially over the user-generated content. Manually scanning through large amounts of user-generated content is time-consuming and sometime impossible. In this case, opinion mining is a better alternative. Although, it is recognized that the opinion reviews contain valuable information for a variety of applications, the lack of quality control attracts spammers who have found many ways to draw their benefits from spamming. Moreover, the spam detection problem is complex because spammers always invent fresh methods that can't be easily recognized. Therefore, there is a need to develop a new approach that works to identify spam in opinion reviews. We have some in English; we need one in Arabic language in order to identify Arabic spam reviews. To the best of our knowledge, there is still no published study to detect spam in Arabic reviews. In this research, we propose a new approach for performing spam detection in Arabic opinion reviews by merging methods from data mining and text mining in one mining classification approach. Our work is based on the state-of-the-art achievements in the Latin-based spam detection techniques keeping in mind the specific nature of the Arabic language. In addition; we overcome the drawbacks of the class imbalance problem by using sampling techniques. The experimental results show that the proposed approach is effective in identifying Arabic spam opinion reviews. Our designed machine learning achieves significant improvements. In the best case, our F-measure is improved to 99.59%.
Female Physical Estimation and Attraction to Physical Activity

The Psychological Model for Physical Activity Participation and the Physical Estimation and Attraction Scales (PEAS) were developed by Sonstroem using adolescent male subjects. This study investigated the adequacy of the model and instrument for explaining the involvement of college-age females in physical activity. Results indicated that although the model worked similarly for both sexes, there were important differences. Attraction to physical activity, as measured by the Attraction scale, does not contribute to the model for the females in this study, but it does for males. Physical estimation emerged as a key factor, particularly for females, in its relationship with self-esteem, fitness, and physical activity levels. The Estimation Scale appears to be a reliable and powerful instrument for assessing this construct. Future application and development of the model and scales is discussed.