Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Internet‐Based Employer Search and Vacancy Duration: Evidence from Finland

This study investigates the effect of the introduction of the public employment agency's Internet-based service on the duration of employer search. The analysis exploits the introduction of a web-based service by the Finnish Employment Agency in October 2002. The results, based on information on job vacancies announced via the public employment agency between 2002 and 2003, indicate that the introduction of the web service, in general, shortened the duration of employer search. However, we find that the introduction of the web-based service shortened the average duration of vacancies in some regions but not in others. In addition, employers in urban areas were more likely to benefit from the introduction of the online service.
Examining the overseas staffing options utilized by Australian headquartered multinational corporations

MNCs need to use a range of options to manage their international operations. The aim of this study was to enhance understanding of how MNCs staff international management positions using a sample of top Australian MNCs across a range of industries. The rationales executives gave for their MNCs' staffing of international management supported selecting managers with higher competency levels for complex overseas assignments. Staffing options were chosen to reduce risks from cultural friction, divergent goals, and asymmetry in knowledge between the parent company and the host operation, chiefly through staffing by parent country nationals (i.e. long-term expatriates, Australians or Westerners already living in the host country or abroad, domestic international managers). Host country managers were used to reduce risks that arose from not being responsive to the host environment and to avoid costs, and when they were least risky to the firm. By contrast, the staffing options also served practical purposes, including deploying expatriate managers to provide skills (competencies) and, less frequently, to develop managers for future management positions in the organization.
Cluster randomised controlled trial of a consumer behaviour intervention to improve healthy food purchases from online canteens: study protocol

Introduction School canteens represent an opportune setting in which to deliver public health nutrition strategies given their wide reach, and frequent use by children. Online school canteen ordering systems, where students order and pay for their lunch online, provide an avenue to improve healthy canteen purchases through the application of consumer behaviour strategies that impact on purchasing decisions. The aim of this study is to assess the efficacy of a consumer behaviour intervention implemented in an online school canteen ordering system in reducing the kilojoule, saturated fat, sugar and sodium content of primary student lunch orders. Methods and analysis The study will employ a cluster randomised controlled trial design. Approximately 1040 students (aged 5–12 years) from 10 primary schools in New South Wales, Australia, currently using an online canteen ordering system will be invited to participate. Schools will be randomised in a 1:1 ratio to receive either the intervention (enhanced system) or control (standard online ordering only). The intervention will include evidence-based strategies shown to influence healthy food purchasing (strategies targeting availability, menu labelling, placement and prompting). The primary outcomes of the trial will be the mean content per student online lunch order of (1) energy (kJ), (2) saturated fat (g), (3) sugar (g) and (4) sodium (mg). The impact of the intervention will be determined by between-group assessment of the nutritional content of lunch purchases over a 2-month period postintervention initiation. Ethics and dissemination The study was approved by the Hunter New England Human Research Ethics Committee, University of Newcastle Human Research Ethics Committee and New South Wales Department of Education and School Communities. Study findings will be disseminated widely through peer-reviewed publications and relevant presentations in international conferences and to stakeholders. Trial registration number ACTRN12616000499482.
Neighbourhood socioeconomic status and maternal factors at birth as moderators of the association between birth characteristics and school attainment: a population study of children attending government schools in Western Australia

Background: This article investigates whether reading and writing skills among children of equivalent perinatal characteristics differ by neighbourhood socioeconomic status and maternal factors. Methods: Notifications of births for all non-Aboriginal singletons born in 1990–7 in Western Australia subsequently attending government primary schools were linked to the State literacy tests in grade three and with information on socioeconomic status of the school and the residential area. Using multilevel modelling, the associations between birth characteristics (gestational age, intrauterine growth, birth order and Apgar score at 5 minutes) and literacy attainment in grade three were examined in models that included socioeconomic and demographic factors of the child, mother and community. Results: Higher percentages of optimal head circumference and birth length and term birth were positively and independently associated with literacy scores. A higher percentage of optimal birth weight was associated with higher reading scores especially for children born to mothers residing in educationally advantaged areas. First birth was positively associated with reading and writing attainment: this association was stronger for children born to single mothers and additional advantage in writing was also associated with first birth in children living in disadvantaged areas. Conclusions: These findings suggest that having suboptimal growth in utero or an older sibling at birth increases vulnerability to poor literacy attainment especially among children born to single mothers or those in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. These data provide evidence for advocating lifestyles compatible with optimum fetal growth and socioeconomic conditions conducive to healthy lifestyles, particularly during pregnancy.
Quality changes and shelf-life extension of ready-to-eat fish patties by adding encapsulated citric acid.

BACKGROUND Citric acid is commonly used as a flavoring and preservative in food and beverages. The effect of adding citric acid directly or encapsulated (each at 1 and 2 g kg-1 ) on the quality and shelf-life of ready-to-eat sea bass patties was evaluated during storage at 4 °C in vacuum skin packaging. RESULTS Microbial growth and total basic volatile nitrogen were maintained at relatively low levels up to 8 weeks of storage. With respect to oxidative stability, the addition of encapsulated citric acid minimized secondary oxidation values more efficiently than its direct addition, regardless of the concentration. This is in agreement with the decreased fishy odor observed in those patties containing encapsulated citric acid. Accordingly, sensory analysis showed that the addition of encapsulated citric acid at 1 g kg-1 resulted in lower scores in fish aroma compared to that of the control. Sourness is dependent on the amount of citric acid added, regardless of the form (direct or encapsulated). CONCLUSIONS The form of citric acid addition, rather than the amount of citric acid added, caused changes in texture. Therefore, the use of encapsulated citric acid represents a suitable strategy that is of great interest in the seafood industry. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.
How Much Income Mobility Is There in Britain

Using the first four waves of the British Household Panel Survey (1991-94) and a variety of methods, the authors show that there is much mobility in household net income from one year to the next in Britain. However, most income changes from one year to the next are not very large and, when incomes are longitudinally averaged so that transitory variations are smoothed out, substantial 'permanent' income differences are revealed. There is some evidence of greater mobility for those in the tails of the income distribution relative to the middle and for elderly persons compared to nonelderly persons.
The Connection Between Race and Called Strikes and Balls

We investigate potential racial bias by Major League Baseball umpires. We do so in the context of the subjective decision as to whether a pitch is called a strike or a ball, using data from the 1989-2010 seasons. We find limited, and sometimes contradictory, evidence that umpires unduly favor or unjustly discriminate against players based on their race. Potential mitigating variables such as attendance, terminal pitch, the absolute score differential, and the presence of monitoring systems do not consistently interact with umpire/pitcher and umpire/hitter racial combinations. Most evidence that would first appear to support racially connected behaviors by umpires appears to vanish in three-way interaction models. Overall, our findings fall well short of convincing evidence for racial bias.
Power Kills: Democracy as a Method of Nonviolence

This volume, newly published in paperback, is part of a comprehensive effort by R. J. Rummel to understand and place in historical perspective the entire subject of genocide and mass murder, or what he calls democide. It is the fifth in a series of volumes in which he offers a detailed analysis of the 120,000,000 people killed as a result of government action or direct intervention. In Power Kills, Rummel offers a realistic and practical solution to war, democide, and other collective violence. As he states it, "The solution.is to foster democratic freedom and to democratize coercive power and force. That is, mass killing and mass murder carried out by government is a result of indiscriminate, irresponsible Power at the center. " Rummel observes that well-established democracies do not make war on and rarely commit lesser violence against each other. The more democratic two nations are, the less likely is war or smaller-scale violence between them. The more democratic a nation is, the less severe its overall foreign violence, the less likely it will have domestic collective violence, and the less its democide. Rummel argues that the evidence supports overwhelmingly the most important fact of our time: democracy is a method of nonviolence.
The concept of social capital : a critical review

In about 10 years,an impressive quantity of literature has developed, starting in the United-States, on and about the concept of "social capital". Its promoters build on the idea that social relations, shared norms and values and trust facilitate coordination and cooperation between individuals or groups. The idea is not new. What is new is to consider sociability and associational participation, norms, shared values and trust, as a stock of capital at the macro-social level, and to raise it as a unique principle able to explain multiple economic and social phenomenon. The promotion of the "concept", first taken in charge by Robert Putnam, relayed by the World Bank and the OECD, praises the positive - even decisive - impact of "high levels" of social capital on well-being, economic growth, health, educational performance, government efficiency, security and so on. If the concept remains rather vague, the outlines, combining the promise of a capital which is costless and benefits to all, and the idea that the "social" has a value, may seem attractive. Nevertheless, problems appear when empirical studies show that social capital can have contradictory effects at different levels, or according to the indicators used as its measures; in the perspective of public policies, the unfortunate consequence is that it leads to conficting prescriptions. But if we are to follow the promoters, this is only one more good reason for the research to go on, especially in order to find the right indicators of social capital. This paper proposes to discuss the interest of an implementation of the concept as an analytical category and as a statistical category. The views expressed in this paper are those of its author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of INSEE.
Light in power

We present in this paper a generic and parameter-free algorithm to efficiently build a wide variety of optical components, such as mirrors or lenses, that satisfy some light energy constraints. In all of our problems, one is given a collimated or point light source and a desired illumination after reflection or refraction and the goal is to design the geometry of a mirror or lens which transports exactly the light emitted by the source onto the target. We first propose a general framework and show that eight different optical component design problems amount to solving a light energy conservation equation that involves the computation of visibility diagrams. We then show that these diagrams all have the same structure and can be obtained by intersecting a 3D Power diagram with a planar or spherical domain. This allows us to propose an efficient and fully generic algorithm capable to solve these eight optical component design problems. The support of the prescribed target illumination can be a set of directions or a set of points located at a finite distance. Our solutions satisfy design constraints such as convexity or concavity. We show the effectiveness of our algorithm on simulated and fabricated examples.
Option Games in Water Infrastructure Investment

AbstractThis paper proposes the use of option games as a tool to evaluate trade-offs between flexibility and strategic commitment in industrial water infrastructure projects. Option games meet the challenge of balancing competitive pressure to commit to big-budget projects against a more flexible approach that keeps investment options open. This hybrid approach, which combines real options and game theory, overcomes the shortcoming of traditional investment valuation methods, such as net present value or real option analysis, which do not resolve the challenge. The option games are enumerated by combining a real-options binomial tree and a payoff matrix under conditions of two investment competitors with four strategic scenarios. The calculated results are compared with traditional net present value and real option analysis to show the final value of investment. The application methodology is illustrated through the case of Government of Thailand (GoT) investments in tap and industrial water supplies and/.
Bacterial vaginosis in threatened preterm, preterm and term labour.

OBJECTIVE To present the prevalence of bacterial vaginosis in threatened preterm, preterm, and term labor and results after treatment. MATERIAL AND METHOD Forty-four, 50, and 56 pregnant women with threatened preterm, preterm, and term labor respectively were participated. Bacterial vaginosis was diagnosed by Amsel's criteria. Treatment by metronidazole or clindamycin was used. A case record form recorded maternal age, obstetric history, gestational age at admission and delivery, examination data, the route of delivery, and the newborn birth weight and conditions. RESULTS The patients in threatened preterm labor group had significantly positive bacterial vaginosis when compared to those in the term labor group. CONCLUSION Prevalence of bacterial vaginosis in threatened preterm, preterm, and term labor were presented The prevalence of bacterial vaginosis in both preterm labor groups was higher than in the term labor group.
Mitofusins 1/2 and ERRα expression are increased in human skeletal muscle after physical exercise

Mitochondrial impairment is hypothesized to contribute to the pathogenesis of insulin resistance. Mitofusin (Mfn) proteins regulate the biogenesis and maintenance of the mitochondrial network, and when inactivated, cause a failure in the mitochondrial architecture and decreases in oxidative capacity and glucose oxidation. Exercise increases muscle mitochondrial content, size, oxidative capacity and aerobic glucose oxidation. To address if Mfn proteins are implicated in these exercise‐induced responses, we measured Mfn1 and Mfn2 mRNA levels, pre‐, post‐, 2 and 24 h post‐exercise. Additionally, we measured the expression levels of transcriptional regulators that control mitochondrial biogenesis and functions, including PGC‐1α, NRF‐1, NRF‐2 and the recently implicated ERRα. We show that Mfn1, Mfn2, NRF‐2 and COX IV mRNA were increased 24 h post‐exercise, while PGC‐1α and ERRα mRNA increased 2 h post‐exercise. Finally, using in vitro cellular assays, we demonstrate that Mfn2 gene expression is driven by a PGC‐1α programme dependent on ERRα. The PGC‐1α/ERRα‐mediated induction of Mfn2 suggests a role of these two factors in mitochondrial fusion. Our results provide evidence that PGC‐1α not only mediates the increased expression of oxidative phosphorylation genes but also mediates alterations in mitochondrial architecture in response to aerobic exercise in humans.
SUICIDE IDEATION IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN POLICE SERVICES IN THE NORTH WEST PROVINCE

The South African Police Service (SAPS) shows relatively high numbers of suicide. However, little is known about the suicide ideation of members within the SAPS. The objective of this research was to determine the relationship between sense of coherence, job satisfaction and suicide ideation among police personnel. The study population consisted of 120 police personnel in the NorthWest Province.The results show that sense of coherence is related to suicide ideation in the case of white police members. Sense of coherence and satisfaction with independence, social status and supervision explained 55,30% of the variance in the suicide ideation scores of white police members. OPSOMMING ’n Relatiewe hoe« getal selfmoorde kom in die Suid-Afrikaanse Polisiediens (SAPD) voor. Min inligting oor die selfmoorddenkbeeldvorming van lede van die SAPD is egter bekend. Die doelstelling van hierdie navorsing was om te bepaal of daar ’n verband bestaan tussen koherensiesin en werkstevredenheid enersyds en selfmoorddenkbeeldvorming by polisiepersoneel andersyds. Die ondersoekgroep het bestaan 120 lede van die SAPD in die Noordwes-Provinsie. Die resultate toon aan dat koherensiesin by wit polisiebeamptes verband hou met selfmoorddenkbeeldvorming. Koherensiesin en ontevredenheid met onafhanklikheid, sosiale status en toesighouding het 55,30% variansie in die selfmoorddenkbeeldvorming van wit polisiepersoneel verklaar. There is a growing emphasis on identifying police members at risk of suicidal behaviour. This emphasis is attributable to the increasing incidence of suicide among police members worldwide, but also in the South African Police Service (SAPS). Suicide rates in 1994 were higher in the SAPS (60 out of 100 000) than in the general population of South Africa (5 out of 100 000) (Nel, 1994). Incidences of suicide in the SAPS increa
Spatial Econometric Analysis of Foreign Direct Investment Determinants in Russian Regions

Using a spatial autoregressive model of cross-sectional and panel data, we study the determinants and dominant strategies of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into Russia before and after the 1998 financial crisis. The important determinants of FDI inflows into Russian regions since the start of transition appear to be market size, the presence of large cities and sea ports, oil and gas availability, proximity to European market, and political and legislative risks. Since 1998, it appears the importance of big cities, the Sakhalin region, oil and gas resources, proximity to European markets, and legislation and political risks has increased. Our results also reveal a shift from horizontal FDI strategy to vertical FDI strategy in the post-crisis period. Using a multiple spatial lags approach, we show that neighbouring port-endowed regions tend to have emerged in the post-crisis era as competitors for FDI.
Called to Account: Analyzing the Origins and Spread of State Performance-Accountability Policies for Higher Education

Employing a theoretical framework derived from the policy innovation and diffusion literature, this research examines how variations over time and across state sociopolitical systems influence states’ adoption of accountability policies in higher education. Specifically, factors influencing the adoption of three kinds of performance-accountability policies for public higher education in the period 1979–2002 were investigated. Findings from the event history analysis supported the authors’ original hypotheses only in part; the primary drivers of policy adoption were legislative party strength and higher-education governance arrangements, but the direction of these influences varied across the policies studied.
A Rare Midfoot Injury Pattern: Navicular—Cuneiform and Calcaneal—Cuboid Fracture—Dislocation

A rare midfoot injury pattern of navicular—cuneiform and calcaneal—cuboid fracture—dislocation is presented with two typical cases and a systematic review of the literature. This injury usually occurs as a result of high-energy crushing trauma and most often causes plantarly directed dislocation of the midfoot. Initial diagnosis includes a thorough physical examination and adequate radiological imaging, comprising anteroposterior, oblique and lateral X-radiography and computed tomography with three-dimensional reconstruction. Care should be taken to determine any injury to adjacent midfoot joints, in particular the Lisfranc joint. Intrasurgical protection of soft tissue is essential. Open reduction using two parallel incisions with minifragment plate fixation is recommended in more comminuted injuries. The navicular—cuneiform and calcaneal—cuboid joints play important roles in maintaining the arch of the foot and in weight-bearing during locomotion. Without proper therapy in the immediate post-traumatic phase, the long-term results are generally unsatisfactory.
SC Johnson builds business at the base of the pyramid

SC Johnson's sustainability strategy has led it to a unique partnership in Nairobi with a local community organization and groups of Kenyan youths. Together, they are pioneering a new business model, a product of field testing the Base of the Pyramid protocol, to create mutual value in Kenya's largest slums. The venture's first year produced many surprises, lessons, successes, and disappointments—and reinforced SC Johnson's commitment to drive social change and economic empowerment by partnering with communities at the bottom of the economic pyramid. © 2007 SC Johnson & Son, Inc.
Identifying and Ranking the Determinants of Tourism Performance

After a prolonged period of growth, driven, in part, by an increasing number of affluent consumers, the international tourism industry is now suffering the effects of a weaker world economy. These tougher market conditions have, in turn, led to increasing competition. As a result, countries, their tourism industries, and tourism businesses seek to improve the performance of the tourism industry and its constituents by vigorously promoting themselves to international tourists, cutting costs, and identifying synergies in their tourism endeavors. In seeking to improve the tourism industry, the determinants that affect tourism performance are of key interest to the stakeholders. A key obstacle toward improving performance is the multitude of determinants that can affect tourism performance. The literature has yet to provide concrete insights into the determinants of tourism performance and their relative importance. The present study addresses this important gap. We identify and rank the determinants of tourism performance. We also provide performance measures of international tourism destinations. The results are derived using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and bootstrap truncated regression models. The study also discusses the implications of the findings and highlights their importance to both the academic literature and the international tourism industry.