Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Peak-load pricing with stochastic demand

A peak-load model using two rationing schemes analyzes peak-load pricing under conditions of uncertainty and the appropriateness and equity of charging different prices to consumers. Two major points are made. First, with realistic rationing schemes and multiplicative demand, operating policies that maximize surplus to society are found to involve nonnegative profits and a price above long-run marginal costs in contrast to previous findings. For many situations, multiplicative demand uncertainty seems more relevant than additive uncertainty. If a competitive market is possible, then competition, perhaps with taxation, can achieve the social optimum. The second point emphasizes that using expected surplus as welfare function and charging the same price to all consumers may both be undesirable. The probability of obtaining a good is a characteristic of the good for which consumers have preference. 5 references.
Youth Gangs, Violence and Social Respect: Exploring the Nature of Provocations and Punch-Ups

1. Doing Gangs Research 2. Gangs and Identity 3. Groups and Networks 4. Fluidity and Continuity 5. Gangs and the Transnational 6. Indigenous Gangs and Family 7. Provocations and Punch-Ups 8. The Body and Violence 9. Gang Interventions 10. Beyond Gangs Notes
Anthropometric indices and selected nutrient intakes of young children in Kwangju, Korea

The assessment of children's nutritional intakes is important because any nutritional inadequacies or toxicities may have adverse consequences. Studies on the nutritional intakes of Korean children are limited. The aims of this study were to determine anthropometric indices, estimate selected nutrient intakes of young Korean children, and compare these intakes with current Dietary Reference Intakes for Koreans. This study included 136 healthy children (65 boys, 71 girls), 2-6 y old, living in Kwangju, Korea. Weights and heights were measured. Three consecutive 24-h food recalls were obtained. According to International Obesity TaskForce BMI cutoffs, 8% were overweight and 2% were obese. The energy intakes of 40% were < Korean Estimated Energy Requirements, while all subjects consumed ≥ Korean Estimated Average Requirement (EAR) for protein. The majority of the children consumed > Korean EAR for iron, zinc, vitamin B1, vitamin B2, vitamin B6, and niacin. Vitamin E intakes of 65% of the Korean children were < Korean Adequate Intake, and approximately half of the subjects had < Korean EAR for calcium and for folate. Many young children in Kwangju, Korea, likely have inadequate status of calcium, folate, and vitamin E.
Elections in cyberspace : toward a new era in American politics

The proliferation of candidate Web pages and other politically oriented Internet sites during the 1996 campaign foreshadows the potential impact that new communications and information technologies will have on the American political process in the future. Will they enhance the democratic spirit of America or further exacerbate the sense of alienation within the electorate? This book describes the new political uses of technology and addresses the adequacy of current election laws and regulations in coping with campaigns and elections in cyberspace. A Communications and Society Program Book
Prevalence of Metabolic Syndrome and Its Clinical and Angiographic Profile in Patients With Naive Acute Coronary Syndrome in North Indian Population

Background Data of isolated metabolic syndrome as risk factor in patients presenting with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) especially in context to Indian subcontinent are sparse. Therefore, we studied the prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS), and its clinical and angiographic profile in naive ACS patients in North Indian population. Methods A single-center, prospective, observational study of 324 patients was conducted at LPS Institute of Cardiology, G.S. V.M. Medical College, Kanpur, India with newly diagnosed ACS patients with MetS, as per modified NCEP-ATP III criteria. They were divided into two groups with and without MetS, and their clinical and angiographic profiles were studied. Results Prevalence of MetS in our study was 37.65%. Patients with MetS were significantly older than without MetS (60.3 ± 8.4 vs. 57.6 ± 7.9), and had females preponderance (35.24% vs. 24.25%), less tobacco abuse (30.32% vs. 42.57%), more non-ST-segment elevation ACS (58.19% vs. 36.14%), less ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) (41.80% vs. 63.86%), more cardiogenic shock (27.04% vs. 17.32%), recurrent ischemia (14.75% vs. 7.42%) and on angiogram, lesser single vessel disease (21.13% vs. 53.96%), more double vessel disease (39.34 vs. 24.26%), triple vessel disease (19.67% vs. 10.39%), left main (13.11% vs. 4.45%) and complex coronary lesions (tubular 40.98% vs. 31.68%; diffuse 26.23% vs. 18.32%). However, there was a trend of lower but insignificant mortality with MetS (5.44% vs. 6.55%). Conclusion There was high prevalence of MetS among patients with ACS in North Indian population with more advanced coronary artery disease. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study from North India documenting clinical and angiographic profile of patients with MetS and ACS.
Adaptive Toolbars: An Architectural Overview

Applications today are ‘Packed’ with toolbars. If we take a count of the number of toolbars in some of today’s application, we see that MS-Word has 9 toolbars, MS-Excel has 13, and MSPowerPoint has 7. One obvious question to ask is; do users really use all of the toolbar items available in each application, or are they just cluttering the screen? This paper presents a technique for automatically adapting the toolbar to user needs. For example as users work through a document in MS-Word, they may select BOLD from the format menu and not use the toolbar, or the toolbar with the BOLD icon is not displayed. As the user continues to use the command repeatedly from the menu bar the software should detect this usage and display the appropriate toolbar. A system for adapting the toolbars for MS-Word has been designed, implemented and preliminary evaluation carried out. The result of the evaluation showed that on average most subjects prefer the adaptive version of Word. These subjects were mainly from the novice and expert group of users.
Chagga elites and the politics of ethnicity in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania

The focus of this thesis is on elite members of the Chagga ethnic group. Originating from the fertile yet crowded slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro, this group is amongst the most entrepreneurial and best educated in Tanzania. In the literature on ethnicity, elites are usually understood as playing a key role in the imagining of ethnicities, while at the same time usually being venal and manipulating ethnicity for purely instrumental means. Yet this approach not only risks misrepresenting elites; it also clouds our understanding of ethnicity itself. This thesis interrogates themes of elites, politics and ethnicity through an examination of the trajectories of Chagga experience from the 1850s to the present. Any discussion of Chagga ethnicity must have at its centre place - the landscape of Kilimanjaro, and the kihamba banana garden. Ideas of Chagga ethnicity were shaped by how the very first European explorers and missionaries saw the landscape of the mountainside. This formed how the colonial Tanganyikan state treated the Chagga people, placing them in an advantageous position through education, and a wealthy one through the growing of coffee. In the 1950s, the Chagga ethnic group came under a single political leadership for the first time with the introduction of a Paramount Chief. This decade marked a period of Chagga nationalism. The role of intellectuals in the articulation and imagination of Chagga ethnicity is examined through two Chagga authored ethnohistories. After independence in 1961, the advantages of the colonial period placed Chagga elites in key roles in the new state. However, as Tanzania moved towards Julius Nyerere’s ujamaa socialism, the policies of the state began to clash with the more capitalist outlook of the Chagga elite. Nevertheless, through educational achievement and international migration, members of the Chagga elite were able to remain influential and powerful. As such, they were in an ideal position to take advantage of the political and economic liberalisation, even as new challenges emerged from within Kilimanjaro itself. The thesis concludes with an analysis of the role of ethnicity in the 2005 Presidential elections in Tanzania. This thesis makes a contribution to the literature on ethnicity in Africa by providing an account of elites that is more nuanced than in much of the existing literature. Even though Kilimanjaro saw one of the strongest manifestations of ethnic nationalism during the colonial period, Chagga elites contributed greatly to the nation-building project in postcolonial Tanzania. Tanzanian nationalism, however, did not destroy a Chagga identity, but rather enabled a new imagining of Chagga ethnicity which today continues to have a role and saliency within the Tanzanian nation.
SERVICE QUALITY, CORPORATE IMAGE AND CUSTOMER'S SATISFACTION TOWARDS CUSTOMERS PERCEPTION: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON TELECOM CUSTOMERS IN BANGLADESH

The purpose of this paper is to find out the determinants that are significantly influencing telecom customer’s perception in Bangladesh. The study surveyed 450 telecom customers in Bangladesh from Dhaka city to determine the key influential factors that significantly influence on their perception. The data analyses were conducted by exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling to test the hypothesis. The results of the statistical analysis reflected that most of the telecom customers are highly concerned about service quality followed by corporate image. Few studies have explored over the years under this market regarding this research issue. Moreover, this is a relatively new issue that remains largely undiscovered by researchers under underdeveloped country’s telecom operator’s perspective. It is hoped that the findings may assist the mobile phone operators in production of their services and
Perception of Weight and Health Status among Women Working at Health Centres of Tehran

Perception of body-weight status is an important determinant of weight-related behaviours and may affect the burden of weight disturbances as a public-health problem. No study has assessed self-perception of the weight status regarding body-fat distribution among health workers to date. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association of the perception of weight and health status among 542 women working at health centres of Tehran. We assessed their perceived body-weight and health status and measured waist- and hip-circumference, weight, and height to calculate waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) as a measure of fat distribution and body mass index (BMI, kg/m2). Women reported their sociodemographic information, and the perceived weight and health status were compared with their actual fatness status, defined based on WHR and BMI, to determine misperception of weight status. Multivariate logistic regression models were performed to assess the predictive effects of various sociodemographic factors and actual fatness on the perception of weight and health status. The results showed that more than 40% of women with normal BMI overestimated their body-weight status while only 15.8% of these women had central obesity. BMI was the most important variable associated with misperceived weight status as normal-weight women had significantly more misperception (OR 8.16, 95% CI 4.82-13.82) than overweight/obese women. WHR did not show any significant relationships with perceived weight status. In addition, perception of health status was not associated with actual fatness indices. It is concluded, BMI was the main predictor of the perception of weight status in female employees. The importance of using body-fat distribution in the perceptions of weight and health status should be emphasized.
Efficacy and Safety of Everolimus in Korean Patients with Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma Following Treatment Failure with a Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor-Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor

Purpose The purpose of this study is to assess the efficacy and safety of everolimus in Korean patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) for whom initial treatment with a vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-tyrosine kinase inhibitor (VEGFr-TKI) has failed. Materials and Methods Eligible patients with mRCC (any histology) who had progressed on or were intolerant of VEGFr-TKI therapy received oral everolimus (10 mg dose once daily). Tumor response was reassessed according to Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST). Results This study included 100 patientswith a median follow-up duration of 10.2 months, a median progression-free survival (PFS) of 4.2 months (95% confidence interval [CI], 3.4 to 5.0 months), and an overall survival of 10.1 months (95% CI, 6.9 to 13.3 months). The most common grade 3 or greater adverse events (AEs) overall were anemia (13%), pneumonitis (9%), hyperglycemia (8%), and stomatitis (6%). While the incidence of pneumonitis was similar (26 cases, 26%) to the reported incidence in Western patients, the Korean presentations were more severe: 10 patients permanently discontinued everolimus due to pneumonitis, including two deaths on treatment. Statistically significant relationships were established between biologic toxicities, hyperglycemia and anemia, and PFS (hyperglycemia vs. non-hyperglycemia: hazard ratio [HR], 0.61; p=0.055 and anemia vs. non-anemia: HR, 0.51; p=0.021). Conclusion Everolimus was effective in Korean patients with mRCC who had failed initial VEGFr-TKI therapy. While everolimus was well tolerated in general and the AE incidence of this study was similar to those of previous reports, severe pneumonitis was common. Hyperglycemia and anemia showed significant correlation with PFS and thus may be potentially useful as prognostic indicators.
Factor bias , sector bias , and the effects of technical progress on relative factor prices *

The effects of technical progress on relative factor prices in the two-country, two-good, two-factor Heckscher-Ohlin model are investigated. Technical progress is classified according to factor-augmenting bias, factor-using bias, and sector bias. A complete set of relations between technical progress parameters and relative factor prices, depending on the elasticities of substitution in demand and in production, are worked out. The relative importance of factor bias and sector bias of technical change in determining relative factor prices are examined.  2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Entanglement Sampling and Applications

A natural measure for the amount of quantum information that a physical system E holds about another system A = A1, . , An is given by the min-entropy Hmin(A|E). In particular, the min-entropy measures the amount of entanglement between E and A, and is the relevant measure when analyzing a wide variety of problems ranging from randomness extraction in quantum cryptography, decoupling used in channel coding, to physical processes such as thermalization or the thermodynamic work cost (or gain) of erasing a quantum system. As such, it is a central question to determine the behavior of the minentropy after some process M. is applied to the system A. Here, we introduce a new generic tool relating the resulting min-entropy to the original one, and apply it to several settings of interest. A simple example of such a process is the one of sampling, where a subset S of the systems A1, . , An is selected at random. Our tool allows us to quantify the entanglement that E has with the selected systems AS, i.e., Hmin(AS|ES) as a function of the original Hmin(A|E). We give two applications of this result. First, it directly provides the first local quantum-to-classical randomness extractors for use in quantum cryptography, as well as decoupling operations acting on only a small fraction AS of the input A. Moreover, it gives lower bounds on the dimension of k-out-of-n fully quantum random access encodings. Another natural example of such a process is a measurement in, e.g., BB84 bases commonly used in quantum cryptography. We establish the first entropic uncertainty relations with quantum side information that are nontrivial whenever E is not maximally entangled with A. As a consequence, we are able to prove optimality of quantum cryptographic schemes in the noisy-storage model. This model allows for the secure implementation of two-party cryptographic primitives under the assumption that the adversary cannot store quantum information perfectly. A special case is the bounded-quantum-storage model (BQSM), which assumes that the adversary's quantum memory device is noise free but limited in size. Ever since the inception of the BQSM, it has been a vexing open question to determine whether the security is possible as long as the adversary can only.
Beyond Change Management: How to Achieve Breakthrough Results Through Conscious Change Leadership

Preface. Acknowledgments. Introduction. SECTION ONE A CALL FOR CONSCIOUS CHANGE LEADERS. Chapter 1 Achieving Breakthrough Results from Change. Chapter 2 The Drivers of Change. Chapter 3 Three Types of Organizational Change. Chapter 4 Two Leadership Approaches to Transformation. Chapter 5 Building Organizational Change Capability. SECTION TWO PEOPLE DYNAMICS. Chapter 6 Human Dynamics: From Resistance to Commitment. Chapter 7 The Role and Impact of Mindset. Chapter 8 The Role and Impact of Culture. SECTION THREE PROCESS DYNAMICS. Chapter 9 Conscious Process Thinking. Chapter 10 Change Process Models. SECTION FOUR ANSWERING THE CALL TO CONSCIOUS CHANGE LEADERSHIP. Chapter 11 Answering the Call. Bibliography. About the Authors. Index.
Level‐shifts and non‐linearity in US financial ratios: Implications for returns predictability and the present value model

Purpose - The recent unprecedented levels reached by financial ratios have led to a re-examination of their time-series properties, with evidence of long memory and nonlinearity reported. The purpose of this paper is to re-examine the nature of these series in the light of potential time-variation in the unconditional mean. Design/methodology/approach - The paper uses econometric techniques designed to capture fractional integration, nonlinearity and time-variation in the unconditional mean level of a series. Findings - Reported results support such time-variation, with cyclical behaviour evident in the unconditional mean of each ratio. Evidence of nonlinearity is still apparent in the mean-adjusted series. Research limitations/implications - A key result that arises is that accounting for this time-variation appears to provide improved long horizon returns predictability. Originality/value - The paper demonstrates that a nonlinear model incorporating a time-varying mean improves returns predictability. This is of interest to market participants.
Fate of Lymphocytes after Withdrawal of Tofacitinib Treatment

Tofacitinib (Tofa) is an inhibitor of Janus Kinase 3, developed for the treatment of autoimmune diseases and for the prevention of transplant rejection. Due to its selective action on proliferating cells, Tofa can offer a way to block T cell activation, without toxic effects on resting cells. However, few studies have investigated the effects of Tofa on lymphocyte activation in vitro. Our aim was to study the action of Tofa on different lymphocyte subsets after in vitro stimulation and to track the behaviour of treated cells after interruption of the treatment. Peripheral blood lymphocytes were stimulated in vitro with mitogen and treated with two concentrations of Tofa. After a first period in culture, cells were washed and further incubated for an additional time. Lymphocyte subsets, activation phenotype and proliferation were assessed at the different time frames. As expected, Tofa was able to reduce the activation and proliferation of lymphocytes in the first four days of treatment. In addition the drug led to a relative decrease of Natural Killer, B cells and CD8 T cells compared to CD4 T cells. However, treated cells were still viable after the first period in culture and begun to proliferate, strikingly, in a dose dependent manner when the drug was removed from the environment by replacing the culture medium. This novel data does not necessarily predict a similar behaviour in vivo, but can warn about the clinical use of this drug when a discontinuation of treatment with Tofa is considered for any reason.
Understanding the Role of Culture in Developing Inclusive Schools: A Case Study from Cyprus

Over the last few years, there has been considerable debate regarding the ways in which the different educational systems in the world should develop more inclusive practices in their schools. An important aspect of this discussion revolves around the question of what schools can do to become more inclusive in terms of maximizing the participation of all children in their cultures, curricula, and communities. The Cyprus educational system, in responding to international developments, has made certain efforts to provide equal educational opportunities. These initiatives are undertaken centrally by the Ministry of Education and Culture without paying much attention to individual schools, their cultures, and the relations between schools and their communities. Given these efforts, this study examined how school cultures influence the development of inclusive practices, using case study in a rural primary school in Cyprus with 115 students, and through the analysis of our data, we spotted certain elements of the school's culture that contributed to the success of inclusive education. The provided examples, as well as the way that the leaders led the school under investigation toward an inclusive culture, might be helpful for educators in other contexts who struggle to develop inclusive schools.
Air Pollution and Postneonatal Infant Mortality in the United States, 1999–2002

Objective Our goal was to evaluate the relationship between cause-specific postneonatal infant mortality and chronic early-life exposure to particulate matter and gaseous air pollutants across the United States. Methods We linked county-specific monitoring data for particles with aerodiameter of ≤ 2.5 μm (PM2.5) and ≤ 10 μm (PM10), ozone, sulfur dioxide, and carbon monoxide to birth and death records for infants born from 1999 to 2002 in U.S. counties with > 250,000 residents. For each infant, we calculated the average concentration of each pollutant over the first 2 months of life. We used logistic generalized estimating equations to estimate odds ratios of postneonatal mortality for all causes, respiratory causes, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), and all other causes for each pollutant, controlling for individual maternal factors (race, marital status, education, age, and primiparity), percentage of county population below poverty, region, birth month, birth year, and other pollutants. This analysis includes about 3.5 million births, with 6,639 postneonatal infant deaths. Results After adjustment for demographic and other factors and for other pollutants, we found adjusted odds ratios of 1.16 [95% confidence interval (CI), 1.06–1.27] for a 10-μg/m3 increase in PM10 for respiratory causes and 1.20 (95% CI, 1.09–1.32) for a 10-ppb increase in ozone and deaths from SIDS. We did not find relationships with other pollutants and for other causes of death (control category). Conclusions This study supports particulate matter air pollution being a risk factor for respiratory-related postneonatal mortality and suggests that ozone may be associated with SIDS in the United States.