Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The living wage as an income range for decent work and life

Purpose A “living” wage (LW) is conventionally defined as enabling meaningful participation in society above subsistence through, for example, recreation, supporting a family, and savings. There is increasing debate over LWs due to growing inequality, rising living costs and welfare reform but this remains largely framed by the econometric cost-benefit parameters that apply to minimum wage regulation. The capabilities approach advocated by Sen (1999) offers a different perspective that is inclusive of choice, contingencies and the inter-connections between quality of (paid) work and private life. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach The paper adopts this framework and utilises a qualitative exploration of the narratives of 606 New Zealand employees to understand perceived wage effectiveness. The results suggest that a focus on a specific LW rate might be conceptually limiting, in comparison to a LW range. Findings First, the findings indicate that there is a pivot range in which people move from self-assessed “survival” to “decent” income. Second, a LW may have more than a simply monetary effect in better meeting employees’ living costs; it can also improve well-being through subjective perceptions of valued freedoms to do with job satisfaction, equity and security. Originality/value The results thus draw attention to a wider notion of a LW in terms of personal and family well-being, utilising a capabilities approach, with implications for organisational practice, policy and theory concerning sustainable livelihood and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Effects of NG‐nitro‐l‐arginine methyl ester on vasodilator responses to adrenaline or BRL 38227 in conscious rats

1 Conscious, Long Evans rats, chronically instrumented for the measurement of regional haemodynamics, were used to assess responses to 3 min infusions of the potassium channel opener, BRL 38227 (1 and 10 μg kg−1 min−1) or adrenaline (0.05 and 0.5 μg kg−1 min−1) in the absence and in the presence of NG‐nitro‐l‐arginine methyl ester (l‐NAME; 3 mg kg−1 h−1), an inhibitor of nitric oxide biosynthesis. 2 In the absence of l‐NAME, the low dose of BRL 38227 caused slight hypotension and tachycardia, accompanied by small increases in mesenteric and hindquarters blood flow only. However, there were increases in renal, mesenteric and hindquarters vascular conductances. l‐NAME had no effect on any of these responses. 3 The high dose of BRL 38227 caused substantial hypotension and tachycardia. Renal and hindquarters flows did not change significantly, but there was a marked increase in mesenteric flow. There were only modest increases in renal and hindquarters vascular conductances but a substantial mesenteric vasodilatation. In the presence of l‐NAME, there was a slight reduction of the latter but no other changes in the responses to BRL 38227. 4 In the absence of l‐NAME, the low dose of adrenaline caused slight hypotension but a marked tachycardia. There were no changes in renal or mesenteric blood flow but a clear‐cut increase in hindquarters flow. Renal and mesenteric vascular conductances showed only small rises, in contrast to the substantial hindquarters vasodilatation. In the presence of l‐NAME, there was significant attenuation of the tachycardia and of the increases in hindquarters flow and vascular conductance in response to adrenaline. 5 The high dose of adrenaline caused marked hypotension and tachycardia. Renal flow did not change, but there was a fall in mesenteric and a marked rise in hindquarters flow. Renal vascular conductance showed a slight increase but mesenteric vascular conductance did not change significantly, whereas there was a substantial hindquarters vasodilatation. In the presence of l‐NAME, adrenaline caused an increase in blood pressure but no significant change in heart rate; the renal vasodilatation was abolished, there was a mesenteric vasoconstriction, and the hindquarters vasodilatation was markedly reduced. l‐NAME also attenuated the tachycardia induced by adrenaline in animals with no cardiac baroreflexes. 6 The present results indicate that l‐NAME‐sensitive mechanisms are involved in the vasodilator and tachycardic effects of adrenaline. The relative lack of effect of l‐NAME on responses to BRL 38227 indicates that the changes in the responses to adrenaline were not non‐specific or due to changes in haemodynamic status caused by l‐NAME. The results raise the possibility that the ‘hypertensinogenic’ properties of endogenous adrenaline could be amplified when nitric oxide biosynthesis is impaired.
The Effect of Collective Rights-Based Management on Technical Efficiency: The Case of Chile’s Common Sardine and Anchovy Fishery

This article analyzes the initial effect of introducing a cooperative catch shares allocation system (CCS) on the technical efficiency of artisanal vessels operating in pelagic fisheries in south-central Chile. The voluntary nature of the system implies that some fishermen adopted the CCS and others did not, generating in the latter a natural control group for evaluating the effect of the regulation. We used the stochastic frontier model to estimate technical inefficiency and a difference-in-difference approach to identify the effect of the regulatory change on the performance of vessels that joined the CCS, while controlling for the behavior of the vessels that remained in the “common pool system. ” The introduction of cooperative catch shares in the sardine and anchovy fishery reduced technical efficiency in the vessels that adopted the CCS, on average. However, the impact on fisherman’s technical efficiency was heterogeneous depending on the characteristics of the fishermen’s organization. This suggests that the way in which fishermen organized affected their performance. Organizations that showed evidence of cooperation among members improved the technical efficiency of its members’ vessels.
Intermittent heat instabilities in an air plume

Abstract. We report the results of heating experiments carried out in an abandoned limestone quarry close to Paris, in an isolated room of a volume of about 400 m3. A heat source made of a metallic resistor of power 100 W was installed on the floor of the room, at distance from the walls. High-quality temperature sensors, with a response time of 20 s, were fixed on a 2 m long bar. In a series of 24 h heating experiments the bar had been set up horizontally at different heights or vertically along the axis of the plume to record changes in temperature distribution with a sampling time varying from 20 to 120 s. When taken in averages over 24 h, the temperatures present the classical shape of steady-state plumes, as described by classical models. On the contrary, the temperature time series show a rich dynamic plume flow with intermittent trains of oscillations, spatially coherent, of large amplitude and a period around 400 s, separated by intervals of relative quiescence whose duration can reach several hours. To our knowledge, no specific theory is available to explain this behavior, which appears to be a chaotic interaction between a turbulent plume and a stratified environment. The observed behavior, with first-order factorization of a smooth spatial function with a global temporal intermittent function, could be a universal feature of some turbulent plumes in geophysical environments.
Referral Patterns, Demographic and Clinical Features, and Visual Prognosis of Turkish Patients with Sarcoid Uveitis

The purpose of this study was to investigate the referral patterns, demographic and clinical features, and visual prognosis of patients with sarcoid uveitis seen at 2 tertiary eye care centers in Turkey. A retrospective study was made of 44 patients with uveitis associated with biopsy-confirmed or presumed sarcoidosis. Thirty-four patients (77%) were female and 10 (23%) were male. The mean age at onset of uveitis was 39.8 years. Twenty-seven patients (61%) were referred without a diagnosis of sarcoidosis and 17 (39%) patients were referred with a diagnosis of systemic sarcoidosis. The duration of uveitis prior to referral was 2–15 years in 52% of the patients in the former group. At presentation, 37 patients (84%) had bilateral and 7 patients (16%) had unilateral uveitis, and 17 patients (39%) had only anterior uveitis. The most common ocular findings were granulomatous keratic precipitates, persistent posterior synechiae, and snowball vitreous opacities. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis estimated the risk of recurrence as 30% at 6 months and 61% at 5 years. New complications developed in 18 patients. Potential visual acuity was better than 0.4 in 80% of eyes. The estimated risk of losing potential visual acuity by at least 2 lines was 7% at 6 months and 43% at 5 years. None of the eyes lost useful vision (> 0.1) under the authors' care. The referral patterns suggest underrecognition of sarcoidosis as a cause of uveitis in Turkey. The demographic and clinical features of these patients were mostly similar to those reported from other countries, suggesting that the diagnosis may not be difficult in Turkish patients but requires an increased awareness of the disease in this population.
New trends in intellectual capital reporting

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore a new way to disclose intellectual capital (IC) in universities through their websites. Going beyond traditional tools used for intellectual capital disclosure (ICD), this study aims at identifying possible determinants of ICD via the web. Design/methodology/approach This paper analyses the institutional websites of a sample of Italian universities adapting the theoretical framework developed by Low et al. (2015) to the peculiarities of the Italian university system. Moreover, the relationship between certain explanatory factors identified in previous research and the extent of online ICD represented by two disclosure indexes was tested through an ordinary least squares regression model. Findings The analysis reveals the extensive use of ICD via websites, especially regarding human and internal capital, while the disclosure of external capital through this means is still limited. Internationality and online visibility both positively affect the extent of a university’s ICD. Research limitations/implications The paper represents the first study investigating online ICD and its determinants in universities, contributing new knowledge to help answer the how and what of the matter. Practical implications The results can serve as encouragement to university managers to enhance online ICD to meet the information needs of a wider audience. Originality/value This is the first study to provide evidence about online ICD in universities and to reveal some of the possible determinants to improve this disclosure.
How Does Public Deficit Affect Public Investment in Senegal?

Purpose: This paper proposes an assessment of the non-linear relationship between public deficit and public investment in debt situation.Methodology: We use an endogenous growth model, with productive public spending, that we test empirically using the interaction model of Brambor et al. (2002), over the period 1980-2015, in Senegal.Results: The results of the estimates show a change in the regime of the relationship between public investment and public deficit for public debt level equal to 80% of GDP. When public debt is below this threshold, any increase in the deficit has an expansive effect on public infrastructure spending. When public debt is above the threshold of 80% of GDP, an increase in the deficit has a recessive effect on public investment.Policy recommendation: An important contribution of this study is to show that the PCSCS implemented in the WAEMU zone cannot register only in a nominal sense to inking with the euro. The budgetary rules laid down in the Stability Pact should be studied in depth. The study would benefit from further study. One of the extensions of this study would be to determine the impact of this debt threshold of 80% on long-term economic growth in Senegal.
On Rigid Matrices and Subspace Polynomials

We introduce a class of polynomials, which we call subspace polynomials and show that the problem of explicitly constructing a rigid matrix can be reduced to the problem of explicitly constructing a small hitting set for this class. We prove that small-bias sets are hitting sets for the class of subspace polynomials, though their size is larger than desired. Furthermore, we give two alternative proofs for the fact that small-bias sets induce rigid matrices. Finally, we construct rigid matrices from unbalanced expanders, with essentially the same size as the construction via small-bias sets. ∗Sackler School of Mathematics and Blavatnik School of Computer Science, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel. Email: nogaa@tau.ac. il. Research supported in part by an ERC Advanced grant, by a USA-Israeli BSF grant and by the Israeli I-Core program. †Department of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel. Email: gil.cohen@weizmann.ac. il. Research supported by Israel Science Foundation (ISF) grant.
Productividad potencial del SAF cacao asociado con árboles forestales

El objetivo de la investigación fue estimar el ingreso económico en un sistema cacaotal a partir de la sustitución de árboles de sombra muertos por árboles de pimienta y pronosticar el comportamiento del agroecosistema cacaotal al enriquecimiento con especies de alto valor comercial. Se realizó la investigación en los predios El Cometa y La Ceiba ubicados en el municipio de Comalcalco, Tabasco. En el sitio El Cometa, se registró la cantidad de árboles de pimienta, en cada una de ellas se midieron el diámetro a la altura del pecho, altura total, fuste limpio y se registró la cantidad de producción por árbol. Además, se registró la última producción de la cosecha obtenida para el cacao. En el segundo sitio, La Ceiba, se registró la cantidad de árboles forestales asociadas con el sistema agroforestal cacao. Para cada árbol se midió el DAP, altura total y fuste limpio. Con esto se obtuvo el área basal por individuo, para luego calcular el volumen comercial (vc) total de cada especie. Obtenido el vc (m3r) se obtuvo el precio de cada especie para ser colocado en el mercado. Cedrela odorata (L.) Gaertn, Swietenia macrophylla King y Ceiba pentandra (L.) Gaertn. , estas fueron las especies que registran un mejor valor en el mercado de la madera nacional e internacional.
CEO-to-worker Pay Disparity and the Cost of Debt

Prior research on intra-firm pay disparity suggests intra-firm pay disparity at various hierarchy levels affects firm performance and executive-level pay disparity is related to investment risk in the credit and the equity market. However, none of the studies examine the relationship between CEO-to-worker pay disparity and credit investment risk. The purpose of this study is to investigate the association between CEO-to-worker pay disparity on credit investors’ risk assessments. Large CEO-to-worker pay disparity could suggest CEO rent extraction which increases credit risk or effective labor cost management that decreases credit risk. Overall results in this study indicate increased CEO-to-worker pay disparity is associated with a lower cost of debt (a higher probability of credit rating upgrades). This association weakens as the growth rate of average employee pay increases and is more pronounced for labor-intensive firms than for capital-intensive firms, suggesting credit investors incorporate the information about the effectiveness of labor cost management in CEO-to-worker pay disparity in their risk assessments. In addition, the negative relationship between the change in CEO-to-worker pay disparity and the change in the cost of debt is less salient when CEO compensation increases rapidly. Further analysis shows the association is attenuated by increased excessive CEO compensation. The findings indicate credit investors also consider the risk arising from CEO rent extraction when they evaluate CEO-to-worker pay disparity. CEO-to-worker Pay Disparity and the Cost of Debt
Are All Dividends Created Equal? Australian Evidence Using Dividend‐Increase Track Records

Recent research indicates that the signal sent by a dividend change is more powerful for longer histories of unchanged dividends. We study the dividend history of Australian firms to investigate whether the signalling power of a dividend increase varies with the frequency of repetition. We find that the first three consecutive dividend increases are associated with significantly positive abnormal returns, and subsequent increases are generally not significant, even after controlling for the interaction effect with the simultaneously announced earnings information. Our results support the hypothesis that repeating a dividend increase eventually leads to a reputation for further increases and weakens the value of subsequent increases as a means of disseminating management's private information.
Brain Regions Influencing Implicit Violent Attitudes: A Lesion-Mapping Study

Increased aggression is common after traumatic brain injuries and may persist after cognitive recovery. Maladaptive aggression and violence are associated with dysfunction in the prefrontal and temporal cortex, but such dysfunctional behaviors are typically measured by explicit scales and history. However, it is well known that answers on explicit scales on sensitive topics—such as aggressive thoughts and behaviors—may not reveal true tendencies. Here, we investigated the neural basis of implicit attitudes toward aggression in humans using a modified version of the Implicit Association Task (IAT) with a unique sample of 112 Vietnam War veterans who suffered penetrating brain injury and 33 healthy controls who also served in combat in Vietnam but had no history of brain injury. We hypothesized that dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) lesions, due to the crucial role of the dlPFC in response inhibition, could influence performance on the IAT. In addition, we investigated the causal contribution of specific brain areas to implicit attitudes toward violence. We found a more positive implicit attitude toward aggression among individuals with lesions to the dlPFC and inferior posterior temporal cortex (ipTC). Furthermore, executive functions were critically involved in regulating implicit attitudes toward violence and aggression. Our findings complement existing evidence on the neural basis of explicit aggression centered on the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. These findings highlight that dlPFC and ipTC play a causal role in modulating implicit attitudes about violence and are crucially involved in the pathogenesis of aggressive behavior. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Maladaptive aggression and violence can lead to interpersonal conflict and criminal behavior. Surprisingly little is known about implicit attitudes toward violence and aggression. Here, we used a range of techniques, including voxel-based lesion–symptom mapping, to examine the causal role of brain structures underpinning implicit attitudes toward aggression in a unique sample of combat veterans with traumatic brain injury. We found that damage to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) led to a more positive implicit attitude toward violence that under most normal situations would be considered inappropriate. These results suggest that treatments aimed at increasing cognitive control using cognitive behavioral therapies dependent on the intact dlPFC could treat aggressive and violent behavior.
Customer satisfaction and ISO 9001 improvement requirements in the supply chain

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of ISO 9001 quality improvement requirements in ISO 9001:2008, i.e. the corrective and preventive actions and internal audit, on customer satisfaction.Design/methodology/approachFor the purposes of the study, data were collected via a survey on 200 aerospace and transportation companies that belong to a Canadian multinational company supply chain. The relationships between the corrective and preventive actions and internal auditing, on the one hand, and customer satisfaction, on the other, were examined via the structural equation modeling technique.FindingsThe major contribution of this study is that it has identified internal audit as the most influential continual improvement ISO 9001 requirement prior to the ISO 9001 transition phase, along with the corrective actions, while the preventive actions in the present formulation do not significantly influence customer satisfaction.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is based on a cross-sectional survey conducted on the supply chain level in the aerospace and transportation sector; hence, a longitudinal study is possible as a future research avenue. The generalizability of this study’s findings is limited to similar supply chains around a multinational company consisted of companies that have at least ISO 9001 standard, but also fulfill other industry-specific requirements. Also, findings are based mainly on quality managers’ attitudes, so future studies are recommended to examine other positions’ views, too.Practical implicationsThis research contributes to the literature and bridges the gap between theory and practice. It could be of value to both the certification bodies and the organizations that are interested in improving customer satisfaction by implementing ISO 9001 in the multinational supply chains context such as the aerospace and transportation sector.Originality/valueWhile the influence of the ISO 9001 standard on customer satisfaction has been the subject of prior research, this is the first time that the simultaneous effect of the corrective and preventive actions and internal auditing on customer satisfaction has been studied. The validity of the removal of preventive actions from ISO 9001:2015 has also been analyzed.
Fluorosis and periostitis deformans as complications of prolonged voriconazole treatment

We describe a case of development of painful periostitis deformans in a 39-year-old woman who was receiving long-term voriconazole treatment for Aspergillus infection as a complication of orthotopic liver transplant. Measurement of fluoride levels strongly supports fluorosis to be the mechanism of the voriconazole-induced periostitis deformans and supports the concept that such measurements might be of use in predicting this complication of long-term voriconazole treatment.
Voltage profile improvement in distribution networks using the whale optimization algorithm

An important requirement of a distribution network is that the voltage variations at the end user terminals should be as low as possible. This paper investigates a particular approach that highlights the influences which the connection of shunt capacitors may have over the solutions for voltage control in distribution networks. The problem of optimal capacitor allocation for the minimization of bus voltage deviation was solved using an intelligent computation approach, the so-called Whale Optimization Algorithm (WOA), in order to find the near-optimal solutions for the capacitor allocation problem in electric distribution systems. For validating the feasibility of the algorithm, a real distribution network was used and the results were compared with those obtained using the well-known Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm.