Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The job demands–resources model and counterproductive work behaviour: The role of job-related affect

The Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) model postulates that job demands and job resources constitute two processes: the health impairment process, leading to negative outcomes, and the motivational process, leading to positive outcomes. In the current research we extended the JD-R model by including both counterproductive work behaviour (CWB) as a behavioural stress-reaction and job-related affect as a mediator in both processes. In a sample of 818 public-sector employees we found support for a model where job demands (workload, role conflict, and interpersonal demands) were associated with abuse/hostility CWB, whereas job resources (decision authority, social support, and promotion prospects) were associated with work engagement. Furthermore, job-related negative affect mediated the relationship between job demands and abuse/hostility CWB, whereas job-related positive affect mediated the relationship between job resources and work engagement. We also found that the impact of job demands on negative affect was attenuated by job resources.
The late Triassic and early Jurassic fissure faunas from Bristol and South Wales: Stratigraphy and setting

The famous vertebrate-bearing fissures of the Bristol area in southwest England and in south Wales were traditionally referred to “upland” environmental settings, and assigned an overall time range of some 60 Myr; we reject both of these viewpoints. In terms of the environmental setting, based upon the evidence of palaeogeography, sediments, and fossils, we show that all the Triassic-aged fissures were near-coastal and embedded in karst formed on palaeo-islands in a subtropical archipelago. Further, the dates of these fissure fills in both regions do not span the Carnian to Rhaetian, as commonly supposed, but instead they are probably all Rhaetian. We update information on the Charles Moore Holwell “Microlestes” fissure assemblage and demonstrate that the marine fauna confirms a Rhaetian age. As proposed by previous authors, younger fissure fills around the St. Brides area of South Wales were also formed on an island, but during the Hettangian–Sinemurian. The youngest fissure deposit in the region is Pliensbachian. The age range of the fissures thus shrinks to c. 20 Myr, and the first episode of tetrapod fissure infilling shifts from the time of the Carnian “pluvial” episode, to the early Rhaetian, when western Europe was undergoing major rifting associated with the beginning of the opening of the North Atlantic, and when the Rhaetian sea flooded over landscapes that had long been purely terrestrial and arid. We recognise clear changes in the faunal composition of the terrestrial vertebrate biota from the early Rhaetian, dominated by reptile taxa, with some mammaliamorphs, that then declined rapidly in diversity before the Hettangian. This herpetofauna was followed by three faunal assemblages in the Early Jurassic of St. Brides which became increasingly diverse following the end-Triassic mass extinction; each had prominent mammaliamorphs as well as high numbers, but few species, of rhynchocephalians.
Self-efficacy, physical competence and self-esteem in athletes with and without disability

Na medida em que todas as obras da UC Digitalis se encontram protegidas pelo Código do Direito de Autor e Direitos Conexos e demais legislação aplicável, toda a cópia, parcial ou total, deste documento, nos casos em que é legalmente admitida, deverá conter ou fazer-se acompanhar por este aviso. Self-efficacy, physical competence and self-esteem in athletes with and without disability Autor(es): Ferreira, José P.; Gaspar, Pedro Publicado por: Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra URL persistente: URI:http://hdl.handle. net/10316.2/32242 DOI: DOI:http://dx.doi. org/10.14195/978-989-26-0474-9_6
Evaluation of Genotoxicity in Pesticide Distributors of Punjab

Abstract Since before 2000 BC humans have utilized pesticides to protect their crops. From that time the pesticides have become an important tool as a plant protection agent for boosting food production. Punjab is a major zone of consumption of pesticides in India and therefore this state has a large group of population which is exposed directly or indirectly to pesticides. Amongst these the workers involved in the pesticide distribution are least considered. So the present study has been undertaken for investigating 50 pesticide distributors from different cities of Punjab and similar number of control individuals using micronuclei assay in buccal epithelial cells. Significant increase in the frequency of micro nucleated and binucleated cells was found in pesticide distributors as compared to controls. Increasing trend in genetic damage was observed between the workers with increasing years of exposure as revealed by ANOVA. The effect of age, diet and alcohol drinking habits was also studied.
Protection of photosynthesis in coastal salt marsh plants Aster tripolium and Hydrocotyle vulgaris in conditions of increased soil salinity

The aim of the present study was to investigate if plants native to habitats with fluctuating soil salinity levels induce a higher level of photosynthesis protection in conditions of elevated salinity. Two plant species from a coastal salt marsh were used in the experiments – Aster tripolium and Hydrocotyle vulgaris. Changes in photosystem II photochemistry and protection under the effect of NaCl at different light intensities were characterized by chlorophyll a fluorescence and ascorbate peroxidase activity. NaCl-treated A. tripolium plants grown at moderate light tended to have higher maximum quantum use efficiency of photosystem II (F v /F m ) over the control level. Relative electron transport rate (ETR) decreased in NaCl-treated plants. In contrast, thermal dissipation of excess energy measured as non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) increased. Treatment with 25 mM NaCl led to relatively small changes in F v /F m in H. vulgaris plants at all light intensities. At 100 mM NaCl a pronounced decrease of F v /F m was evident, which was more severe at moderate and high light. NaCl significantly inhibited ETR at both low and moderate light. However the decrease of ETR was only temporal. Similary, the treatment caused an increase of NPQ. Concentration-dependent increase of ascorbate peroxidase activity was found in leaves of A. tripolium treated with NaCl. In contrast, ascorbate peroxidase activity decreased in leaves of H. vulgaris. The data are discussed in respect to different strategies of adaptation of salt marsh plants to high soil NaCl.
One-Loop Amplitudes in Perturbative Quantum Field Theory

We review methods for calculation of higher order corrections in perturbative quantum field theory. After laying the foundation with several traditional methods we turn to more recent developments. A particular method, proposed by Ossola, Papadopoulos and Pittau, reduces tensor integrals from one-loop diagrams with many external particles to known scalar integrals. This is achieved by a highly efficient algebraic algorithm, thereby opening the window to more precise predictions for collider processes. We describe the method and present an algebraic implementation in FORM. In the field of soft corrections, some spectacular progress has been made as well. Processes can be calculated to all orders in perturbation theory through exponentiation of a certain set of diagrams. We investigate properties of such diagrams by applying the unitarity method.
The Kelly Criterion Portfolio and Fractional Kelly Strategies in the Merton World 2 . 1 The Kelly Criterion Portfolio in the Merton Model

The Kelly criterion and fractional Kelly strategies hold an important place in investment management theory and practice. Both the Kelly criterion and fractional Kelly strategies, e.g. invest a fraction f of one’s wealth in the Kelly portfolio and a proportion 1 − f in the risk-free asset, are optimal in the continuous time setting of the Merton [33] model. However, fractional Kelly strategies are no longer optimal when the basic assumptions of the Merton model, such as the lognormality of asset prices, are removed. In this chapter, we present an overview of some recent developments related to Kelly investment strategies in an incomplete market environment where asset prices are not lognormally distributed. We show how the definition of fractional Kelly strategies can be extended to guarantee optimality. The key idea is to get the definition of fractional Kelly strategies to coincide with the fund separation theorem related to the problem at hand. In these instances, fractional Kelly investment strategies appear as the natural solution for investors seeking to maximize the terminal power utility of their wealth.
The Usage of Credit Cards: An Empirical Analysis on Italian Households Panel Data

Credit cards, both as mean of payment and borrowing, rise many economic issues. The credit card services can be viewed as a two-sided network platform affected by indirect network externalities. The distribution of prices faced by the two sides influences market participation and the overall volume of demand. Consumers may hold or use credit cards from multiple networks leads to a ‘multi-homing’ effect that is of great importance in determining the outcome of the industry. Moreover, some studies show that the multiple credit cards can be seen as a device to access to more financing, making family bankruptcy more likely. In this paper we model the number of credit cards held by a panel of Italian household over the period 1991-2010 using demographic, socio-economic and geographical variables as potential predictors and panel data techniques for count data. The reached results can be of interest for implementing market strategies in credit card industry and, in particular, to investigate peculiar effect such as “multihoming” and “co-holding”. Keywords: Credit cards, Panel data, Count-data models
Thermal properties of cubic zincblende thallium-phosphide from quasi-harmonic Debye model approximation

The thermal properties of cubic zincblende (B3) thallium - phosphide (TlP) compound under high pressure up to 12 GPa have been studied using the quasi-harmonic Debye model approximation. The relative unit cell volume, the isothermal bulk modulus, the first order derivative isothermal bulk modulus, the Debye temperature and the Gruneisen parameter are studied at zero-temperature and at standard ambient temperature (298 K) respectively. Our obtained values of the different previous quantities are in general in agreement compared to other theoretical data of the literature.
Bias and e ffi ciency loss in regression estimates due to duplicated observations : a Monte Carlo simulation

Francesco Sarracino Institut National de la Statistique et des Études Économiques du Grand-Duché du Luxembourg (STATEC) Luxembourg, Luxembourg and LCSR National Research University Higher School of Economics Moscow, Russian Federation Małgorzata Mikucka Mannheimer Zentrum für Europäische Sozialforschung (MZES) Mannheim, Germany and LCSR National Research University Higher School of Economics Moscow, Russian Federation
Genome wide association studies of maternal behaviour in sheep

Maternal behaviour is vital for the offspring survival. In animal production, improvement of maternal behaviour is becoming increasingly important in order to improve lamb survival particularly in extensive systems. Breed differences in maternal behaviour and genetic variation within breed have previously been described in several farm species. However, no studies have so far investigated genetic loci underlying such behaviour in sheep. The aim of this study was to identify QTL associated with maternal behaviours in sheep using genotypes from the ovineSNP50 beadchip. Ewes reared outside were genotyped and individually phenotyped (n=470) after lambing for maternal behaviours in two standardized behavioural tests. QTL detection was performed by linkage, association and joint linkage and association analyses. Six main QTL regions identified on chromosomes 4, 13, 16, 21, and 23 that showed significant associations with ewe vocalizations. Four main QTL regions identified on chromosomes 4, 9, and 23 showed significant associations with maternal behaviour scores. Some of these QTLs contained interesting candidate genes, previously described to be associated with behaviours, which may explain a substantial amount of the genetic variation in maternal behaviours in sheep.
Quantitative magnetization transfer of white matter tracts correlates with DTI indices in predicting the conversion from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer’s disease

word count: 193 Text word count: 4445 No. Figures: 3 No. of Tables: 3 Title characters count: 22 Abstract Patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) have higher probability to develop Alzheimer’s disease (AD) than elderly controls. The detection of subtle changes in brain structure associated with disease progression and the development of tools to identify patients at high risk for dementia in a short time is crucial. Here, we used probabilistic WM tractography to explore microstructural alterations within the main association, limbic and commissural pathways in aMCI patients who converted to AD after 1 year follow-up (MCIconverters) and those who remained stable (MCIstable). Both diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and quantitative magnetization transfer (qMT) parameters have been considered for a comprehensive pathophysiological characterization of the WM damage. Overall, specific tractspecific parameters derived from qMT and DTI at baseline were able to differentiate aMCI patients who converted to AD from those who remained stable in time. In particular, the qMT exchange rate, RM0, of the right uncinate fasciculus was significantly decreased in MCIconverters, whereas fractional anisotropy (FA) was significantly decreased in the bilateral superior cingulum in MCIconverters compared to MCIstable. These results confirm the involvement of WM and particularly of association fibers in the progression of AD, highlighting disconnection as a potential mechanism.Patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) have higher probability to develop Alzheimer’s disease (AD) than elderly controls. The detection of subtle changes in brain structure associated with disease progression and the development of tools to identify patients at high risk for dementia in a short time is crucial. Here, we used probabilistic WM tractography to explore microstructural alterations within the main association, limbic and commissural pathways in aMCI patients who converted to AD after 1 year follow-up (MCIconverters) and those who remained stable (MCIstable). Both diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and quantitative magnetization transfer (qMT) parameters have been considered for a comprehensive pathophysiological characterization of the WM damage. Overall, specific tractspecific parameters derived from qMT and DTI at baseline were able to differentiate aMCI patients who converted to AD from those who remained stable in time. In particular, the qMT exchange rate, RM0, of the right uncinate fasciculus was significantly decreased in MCIconverters, whereas fractional anisotropy (FA) was significantly decreased in the bilateral superior cingulum in MCIconverters compared to MCIstable. These results confirm the involvement of WM and particularly of association fibers in the progression of AD, highlighting disconnection as a potential mechanism.
DEVELOPMENT OF A MERCURY CYCLING MODEL FOR THE BAY OF FUNDY/GULF OF MAINE REGION

A scrambled transmission system for transmitting a digital data containing variable length coding conforming to a MPEG standard includes a scramble key generator for generating a scramble key at a timing of each GOP head. A GOP head detector detects each GOP head and causes the scramble key generator to refresh the scramble key. A seed generator generates a scramble seed based on said scramble key at a timing of each slice head. A slice head detector detects each slice head and causes the seed generator to refresh the scramble seed. A random number generator scrambles the digital data based on the scramble seed. A multiplexer embeds the scramble key in the extension-and-user-data of the scrambled data.
Frequency Domain Compressive Sampling for Ultrasound Imaging

Compressed sensing or compressive sampling is a recent theory that originated in the applied mathematics field. It suggests a robust way to sample signals or images below the classic Shannon-Nyquist theorem limit. This technique has led to many applications, and has especially been successfully used in diverse medical imaging modalities such as magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography, or photoacoustics. This paper first revisits the compressive sampling theory and then proposes several strategies to perform compressive sampling in the context of ultrasound imaging. Finally, we show encouraging results in 2D and 3D, on high- and low-frequency ultrasound images.
Local Structure of Multiferroic MnWO4 and Mn0.7Co0.3WO4 Revealed by the Evolutionary Algorithm

A novel reverse Monte Carlo/evolutionary algorithm scheme was applied to the analysis of the W L3-edge and Mn(Co) K-edges EXAFS spectra from multiferroic MnWO4 and Mn0.7Co0. 3WO4. A 3D structural model, consistent with the experimental data, was obtained, and the influence of composition and temperature on the local structure of tungstates is discussed.
Comparison of Abdominal and Lumbar Multifidus Muscle Activity During Unilateral Hip Extension in Prone Position on the Floor and on a Round Foam Roll

The purpose of this study was to compare the muscle activity of the abdominal and lumbar multifidus during unilateral prone hip extension on the floor and on a round foam roll. Fifteen healthy participants were recruited. They were instructed to perform a unilateral hip extension on the floor and on a round foam roll in the prone position. Surface electromyography (EMG) signals were recorded from bilateral lumbar multifidus (LM), external oblique (EO), and internal oblique (IO) muscles. A paired t-test was used to compare muscle activity, with the level of significance set at a=. 05. The results showed that bilateral LJVI, EO, IO EMG activity during right-hip extension on a round foam roll was greater than that on the floor, and EMG activity of bilateral LJVI, right EO, and left IO during left-hip extension on a round foam roll was greater than that on the floor (p<.05). These findings suggest that the unilateral hip-extension exercise on a round foam roll can be used to activate the lumbar multifidus and abdominal oblique muscles and causes a different increasing pattern between the two lifting sides.
Title Monitoring Local Regional Hemodynamic Signal Changes during MotorExecution and Motor Imagery Using Near-Infrared Spectroscopy

Right (c) 2016 Iso, Moriuchi, Sagari, Kitajima, Iso, Tanaka, Kikuchi, Tabira and Higashi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. NAOSITE: Nagasaki University's Academic Output SITE
The Effects of Electronic Banking on Financial Services in Ghana

Electronic banking has redefined the way banking is conducted across the globe and Ghana was not left out. Electronic banking has created a financial supermarket where many different financial services like insurance, investment, loans and current and savings accounts could be provided. Over the last three decades banks have designed and rolled out many different electronic banking products and services in Ghana. In this study an attempt is made to examine the effects of electronic banking products and services on financial services delivery in Ghana. The study was conducted using the case study approach. Data was collected from the administration of open ended questionnaires to customers and staff of banks in Ghana. Additional data was also collected through interviews conducted with customers and staff of case study institutions. A purposive and simple sampling technique was used to select the case study banks, customers and staff who participated in the study.Results of the study revealed that electronic banking has successfully transformed banking in Ghana. Banks now provide a one stop-shop for various financial services thereby creating what can be termed as financial shopping mall. Electronic banking has made banking easier and convenient. Customers can now transact banking business from the comfort of their homes and offices. Other benefits of electronic banking include; increased customer base, reduced cost in accessing and using the banking services, increased comfort and time saving-transactions can be made 24-hours a day, without requiring the physical interaction with the bank, quick and continuous access to information. Customers have easier access to information as they can check their accounts at the click of a button.Despite these benefits electronic banking also creates its own problems including; additional cost to acquire computer, internet connectivity and absence of human touch, Keywords : Electronic-business, electronic commerce, electronic banking, and electronic banking products and services
MODERN QUANTITATIVE TECHNIQUES USED IN THE MANAGEMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH POLICY

The objective of this paper is rather positive than normative. We employ modern managerial techniques in order to support the development of public policy aimed at promoting healthy nutritional and physical activity practices in adolescent population. In particular this paper uses econometric analysis to model the determinants of overweight and obesity. Understanding the determinants of overweight and obesity is paramount to an effective national public health policy and fortunately modern managerial techniques provide the appropriate scientific framework to address this problem.
Genetic trends in the performance and reproductive traits of pigs

The selection and evaluation of breeds and purebred lines to be used as the parental stock is an important step for the success of any animal breeding program. In this study, the feed:gain ratio, backfat thickness corrected for 100 kg, age to 100 kg, average daily gain, and age of sow at first farrowing were used to evaluate the genetic trends for direct and maternal additive genetic values in Large White pigs. The total number of piglets born or born alive and the litter weight at birth were used as indicators of the genetic trends for the direct additive values. The genetic trends were calculated by regression of the average predicted genetic values per year for each trait versus the offspring's year of birth (for performance traits) or versus the dam year of birth (for reproduction traits). The genetic trend estimates for direct effects showed that selection decisions made during the breeding program effectively improved the performance traits. However, for reproductive traits, the regression estimates showed no definite trend. The genetic trends for the maternal effects were generally positive but of low magnitude.