Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
: The Pinch . How the baby boomers took their children ’ s future – and why they should give it back

avid Willetts’ book The Pinch could have hardly been published more timely. The context of the current euro-zone crisis over debt management and the election of David Cameron to the office of Prime Minister in the United Kingdom, based on a programme of deficit reduction, have all drawn attention to the alleged excesses of older generations. As suggested by the subtitle, How the baby boomers took their children’s future and why they should give it back, the aim of the book is to explain the dues of different generations since the Second World War from a perspective of intergenerational cooperation and equity. This appears to be a novel justification for public policy, but it remains to be discussed how justified or convincing his argumentation is.
Atmospheric boundary layer wind profile at a flat coastal site – wind speed lidar measurements and mesoscale modeling results

Abstract. Wind profiles up to 600 m height are investigated. Measurements of mean wind speed profiles were obtained from a novel wind lidar and compared to model simulations from a mesoscale model (WRF-ARW v3.1). It is found that WRF is able to predict the mean wind profile rather well and typically within 1–2 m s−1 to the individual measured values. WRF underpredicts the normalized wind profile, especially for stable conditions. The effect of baroclinicity on the upper part of the wind profile is discussed.
Distributional ecology of shallow south-western Beaufort Sea (Arctic Ocean) bivalve Mollusca

Benthic macrofauna was sampled off the northern coast of Alaska to determine whether the shallow-water Arctic sublittoral fauna is uniformly distributed among stations as suggested by MacGinitie (1955), or whether it is distributed in ecological assemblages. During the study 5.000 living individuals of bivalve molluscs were collected of 31 species. Analysis revealed that there are no general patterns of total numerical density, species richness, or species composition from 5 to 25 m depth across the southwestern Beaufort Sea. There was, however, a greater similarity of bivalve fauna1 composition among stations than would be expected by stochastic processes alone. An analysis of feeding types demonstrated that there is a tendency toward functional groupings of suspension and deposit feeders. Sedimentary features (interacting with depth) appear to influence the bivalve fauna: more deposit feeding bivalves are associated with finer sediments at the deeper stations. The relatively high species richness in shallow Arctic waters more closely resembles bivalve assemblages in protected temperate environments than it does those of the open coast. The lack of major disturbance of sediments by waves in the ice-dominated Beaufort Sea appears to be ecologically important.
Grounded theory and management research: a lack of integrity?

Purpose – This paper aims to analyse the manner in which “objectivist” grounded theory methodology has progressively developed since 1967 and how it has been employed by management researchers.Design/methodology/approach – The paper traces the methodological development of grounded theory with particular emphasis on the variations, contradictions and modifications to the methodology both between and within the Glaserian and Straussian Schools. Totally 32 empirical grounded theory studies published in the management literature since 2002 are analysed in order to gauge the impact of these variations on the manner in which researchers have employed the grounded theory methodology.Findings – It is argued that grounded theory in management research is in danger of losing its integrity. The methodology has become so pliant that management researchers appear to have accepted it as a situation of “anything goes” “Grounded theory” is now loosely used as a generic term to refer to any qualitative approach in which .
The E conomics of H ealth A research report prepared for emda

This work, with the exception of logos, photographs and images and any other content marked with a separate copyright notice, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 UK: England & Wales License The use of logos in the work is licensed for use only on non-derivative copies. Under this licence you are free to copy this work and to make derivative works as long as you give the original author credit. The copyright is owned by Nottingham Trent University.
Triterpenoids from Azorella trifurcata (Gaertn.) Pers and their effect against the enzyme acetylcholinesterase

The inhibition of the enzyme acetylcholinesterase is considered as a strategy for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, senile dementia, ataxia, and myasthenia gravis. Three lanostane- and two cycloartane-type triterpenes, together with two mulinane-type diterpenes were isolated from petroleum ether extract of the whole shrub of Azorella trifurcata (Gaertn.) Pers. Their effect on the enzyme acetylcholinesterase was assessed as well. In addition, this is the first report of these triterpenes in the genus Azorella .
Towards a Comprehensive Definition and Typology of Consumer Switching Behaviour: Unearthing research gaps

The paper proposes a global definition of consumer switching behaviour (CSB) and presents a comprehensive conceptualization of CSB typology that require future research attention. The paper discusses research gaps emerging from the object of switching behaviour, bi-directionality of CSB, context of switching, voluntariness of switching, partiality of switching behaviour, time dimensions in switching, segments of switching behaviour, switching as an outcome and a process, consciousness and complexity of the switching process, cognitive and affective dimensions of switching process, and intentions and actual switching phenomena. The paper contributes to the body of knowledge in the area of consumer switching behaviour.
Gaia and VLT astrometry of faint stars: Precision of Gaia DR1 positions and updated VLT parallaxes of ultracool dwarfs

We compared positions of the Gaia first data release (DR1) secondary data set at its faint limit with CCD positions of stars in 20 fields observed with the VLT/FORS2 camera. The FORS2 position uncertainties are smaller than one milli-arcsecond (mas) and allowed us to perform an independent verification of the DR1 astrometric precision. In the fields that we observed with FORS2, we projected the Gaia DR1 positions into the CCD plane, performed a polynomial fit between the two sets of matching stars, and carried out statistical analyses of the residuals in positions. The residual RMS roughly matches the expectations given by the Gaia DR1 uncertainties, where we identified three regimes in terms of Gaia DR1 precision: for G = 17-20 stars we found that the formal DR1 position uncertainties of stars with DR1 precisions in the range of 0.5-5 mas are underestimated by 63 +/- 5\%, whereas the DR1 uncertainties of stars in the range 7-10 mas are overestimated by a factor of two. For the best-measured and generally brighter G = 16-18 stars with DR1 positional uncertainties of <0.5 mas, we detected 0.44 +/- 0.13 mas excess noise in the residual RMS, whose origin can be in both FORS2 and Gaia DR1. By adopting Gaia DR1 as the absolute reference frame we refined the pixel scale determination of FORS2, leading to minor updates to the parallaxes of 20 ultracool dwarfs that we published previously. We also updated the FORS2 absolute parallax of the Luhman 16 binary brown dwarf system to 501.42 +/- 0.11 mas
Exploring women’s perceptions regarding successful investment planning practices

Background: Compared to men, women are not as confident and knowledgeable about financial and investment matters. As a result, women often do not conduct investment planning until it is too late, and they are confronted with a financial crisis or a life predicament such as a divorce or death. In addition, limited scientific research exists on the investment planning practices of women in South Africa. This study contributes to the body of knowledge on investment planning by better understanding the unique financial needs and challenges of women. Recommendations made by this study will assist women and financial planners to make more informed investment decisions as they progress through life. Aim: Therefore, the primary objective of this research was to investigate the factors that influence women’s perceived successful investment planning in the Nelson Mandela Bay area. After conducting a comprehensive literature study, six factors (independent variables), namely, values, attitudes, time horizon, personal life cycle, risks and returns, and investment knowledge , were identified as influencing the perceived successful investment planning (dependent variable) of women. Setting: As this study focussed on the perceptions of women concerning the factors that influence successful investment planning, the target population was all women in the Nelson Mandela Bay area older than 20 years with some investment experience. Methods: A quantitative research methodology was followed, and data were collected from 207 women using a structured self-administered questionnaire. Results: The results of the multiple regression analysis revealed that only one independent variable emerged as having a significant influence on perceived successful investment planning of women, namely, investment knowledge . Conclusion: Based on the empirical results of this study, several recommendations have been made in an attempt to assist women to make more informed investment decisions and manage their investment planning more effectively as they progress through life.
MINIMUM SWIMMING SPEED OF ALBACORE, THUNNUS ALALUNGA

ABSTRACf Measurements of density and pectoral lifting area of albacore, Thunnus alalunga, were made and compared with those previously described for'yellowfin tuna, Thunnus albacares; bigeye tuna, Thunnus obesus; and skipjack tuna, Katsuwonus pelamis. Albacore have densities within the range of yellowfin tuna of similar size. The pectoral lifting area of albacore was always greater than skipjack tuna but similar to yellowfin tuna and bigeye tuna for fish less than 70 cm long. Larger albacore had increasingly larger fins than did the other species. Minimum speed necessary for hydrostatic equilibrium of albacore was calculated and compared at 50 and 80 cm fork lengths to values calculated for the species above. Albacore minimum speeds were slower than those for skipjack tuna, similar to those of yellowfin tuna, and greater than those of bigeye tuna. Density variations of albacore, attributed to fat content and gas bladder volume, significantly affected estimates of minimum speed. Calculated speeds were slower than those estimated for albacore tracked at sea or estimated from tag returns.
Flexibility: demand and resource? How does flexible working influence work-nonwork conflict and job satisfaction?

Veranderungen in der modernen Arbeitswelt, besonders in Bezug auf verstarkten Gebrauch von Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien, haben es ermoglicht, immer flexibler zu arbeiten. Sowohl bezuglich des Arbeitsortes, als auch in Hinblick auf die Arbeitszeit. Die bisherige Forschung in diesem Bereich erzielte keine konsistenten Ergebnisse in Bezug auf die Auswirkungen von erhohter Flexibilitat am Arbeitsplatz. Es wurde angenommen, dass eine genauere Konzeptualisierung der Flexibilitat Klarheit daruber verschaffen konnte, wo der Ursprung dieser widerspruchlichen Studienergebnisse liegt. Deshalb wurden im Zuge dieser Arbeit vier neue Skalen, auf Basis etablierter arbeitspsychologischer Theorien und aktueller Forschung, zur Erhebung von zeitlicher und ortlicher Flexibilitat erstellt. Das erste Ziel dieser Arbeit war es zu untersuchen, ob zeitliche und ortliche Flexibilitat in je eine Anforderung und Ressource unterschieden werden kann. Das zweite Ziel war, die Zusammenhange zwischen Arbeitsanforderungen, sowie personlichen- und arbeitsbezogenen Ressourcen mit Arbeits-nicht Arbeitskonflikt und Arbeitszufriedenheit zu untersuchen. Die Analyse der Skalen zeigte, dass zeitliche Flexibilitat als eine Anforderung (zeitliche Begrenzung) sowie als eine Ressource (zeitliche Autonomie) im Arbeitsleben wahrgenommen wird. Dies konnte fur die ortliche Flexibilitat nicht bestatigt werden. Die Ergebnisse zeigten, dass zeitliche Begrenzung einen positiven Effekt auf Arbeits-nicht Arbeitskonflikt hat, dieser Zusammenhang wurde von Arbeitsressourcen moderiert. Die Arbeitsressourcen zeitliche Autonomie und Handlungsspielraum zeigten einen positiven Zusammenhang mit Arbeitszufriedenheit.
Quantitative study on reading attitude: A Meta-Analysis of Quantitative Result

This study employed meta-analysis procedures to summarize thirty six experimental and quasi- experimental studies and ten descriptive studies from 1990 to 2011 which covered 7080 participants. Twenty six experimental and quasi-experimental studies employed twenty two intervention programs on reading attitude in elementary, secondary and high schools. Sample size and number of treatment between experimental and control groups from twenty six independent studies were analyzed by meta-analysis software. Furthermore, sample size; mean and standard deviation were analyzed by meta-analysis software for ten descriptive studies. Odds ratio between control and treatment groups from 26 independent studies, investigating the effect of intervention program on the outcomes for students with reading attitude. Average total sample size ranged between 27 and 251 for experimental studies and 58-4018 for ten descriptive studies. The overall intervention programs show a significant improvement on reading attitude. (Zeinab Mihandoost, Azad University of Ilam. Quantitative study on reading attitude: A Meta-Analysis of
GH-releasing hormone promotes survival and prevents TNF-α-induced apoptosis and atrophy in

Skeletal muscle atrophy is a consequence of different chronic diseases, including cancer, heart failure, and diabetes, and also occurs in aging and genetic myopathies. It results from an imbalance between anabolic and catabolic processes, and inflammatory cytokines, such as TNF ‐α , have been found elevated in muscle atrophy and implicated in its pathogenesis. GHRH, in addition to stimulating GH secretion from the pituitary, exerts survival and antiapoptotic effects in different cell types. Moreover, we and others have recently shown that GHRH displays antiapoptotic effects in isolated cardiac myocytes and protects the isolated heart from ischemia/reperfusion injury and myocardial infarction in vivo. On these bases, we investigated the effects of GHRH on survival and apoptosis of TNF ‐α‐ treated C2C12 myotubes along with the underlying mechanisms. GHRH increased myotube survival and prevented TNF ‐α‐ induced apoptosis through GHRH receptor ‐ mediated mechanisms. These effects involved activation of phosphoinositide 3 ‐ kinase/Akt pathway and inactivation of glycogen synthase kinase ‐ 3 β , whereas mammalian target of rapamycin was unaffected. GHRH also increased the expression of myosin heavy chain and the myogenic transcription factor myogenin, which were both reduced by the cytokine. Furthermore, GHRH inhibited TNF ‐α‐ induced expression of nuclear factor ‐κ B, calpain, and muscle ring finger1, which are all involved in muscle protein degradation. In summary, these results indicate that GHRH exerts survival and antiapoptotic effects in skeletal muscle cells through the activation of anabolic pathways and the inhibition of proteolytic routes. Overall, our findings suggest a novel therapeutic role for GHRH in the treatment of muscle atrophy ‐ associated
Algorithmes de recommandation musicale

This thesis is composed of three papers which unite under the general theme of large-scale music recommendation. The first paper presents a recommendation technique that works by collecting text descriptions of items and using this textual aura to compute the similarity between them using techniques drawn from information retrieval. We show how this representation can be used to explain the similarities between items using terms from the textual aura and further how it can be used to steer the recommender. Because our system is content-based, it is not victim of the usual problems associated with collaborative filtering recommenders like the cold start problem. The second paper presents a machine learning model which automatically applies tags to music. The model uses features extracted from the audio files and was trained on a very large data set constructed with social data from the online community Last.fm. The third paper presents an approach to generating steerable playlists. We first demonstrate a method for learning song transition probabilities from audio features extracted from songs played in professional radio station playlists. We then show that by using this learnt similarity function as a prior, we are able to generate steerable playlists by choosing the next song to play not simply based on that prior, but on a tag cloud that the user is able to manipulate to express the high-level characteristics of the music he wishes to listen to.
Political Parties and Foreign Aid

The influence of partisan politics on public policy is a much debated issue of political science. With respect to foreign policy, often considered as above parties, the question appears even more problematic. This comparison of foreign aid policies in 16 OECD countries develops a structural equation model and uses LISREL analysis to demonstrate that parties do matter, even in international affairs. Social-democratic parties have an effect on a country's level of development assistance. This effect, however, is neither immediate nor direct. First, it appears only in the long run. Second, the relationship between leftist partisan strength and foreign aid works through welfare state institutions and social spending. Our findings indicate how domestic politics shapes foreign conduct. We confirm the empirical relevance of cumulative partisan scores and show how the influence of parties is mediated by other political determinants.
When does knowledge acquisition in R & D alliances increase new product development ? The moderating roles of technological relatedness and product-market competition

In studying the performance consequences of research and development (R&D) alliances, one stream of research has concentrated on the acquisition of partners’ technological knowledge whereas another has focused on firms’ new product development outcomes. Bridging these two research streams, this study directly connects knowledge acquisition through R&D alliances to new product development and examines when R&D alliances enable firms to apply acquired technological knowledge in the product domain. Using unique longitudinal data on a sample of firms engaged in R&D alliances in the information technology industry, I find that knowledge acquisition is on average positively associated with firms’ numbers of new products. However, I also find that knowledge acquisition is substantially more beneficial for new product development both when firms and their partners are active in similar technology domains and when they operate in distinct product markets.
CFR-Working Paper NO. 11-03 Short Sale Constraints, Divergence of Opinion and Asset Value: Evidence from the Laboratory

The overvaluation hypothesis (Miller 1977) predicts that a) stocks are overvalued in the presence of short selling restrictions and that b) the overvaluation increases in the degree of divergence of opinion. We design an experiment that allows us to test these predictions in the laboratory. The results indicate that prices are higher with short selling constraints, but the overvaluation does not increase in the degree of divergence of opinion. We further find that trading volume is lower and bid-ask spreads are higher when short sale restrictions are imposed. JEL classification: C92, G14
Gas Electron Multiplier foil holes: a study of mechanical and deformation effects

The GEM detectors will be installed at the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment during Long Shutdown II of the LHC in 2018. The GEM foil is a basic part of the detector which consists of a composite material, i.e. polyimide coated with copper and perforated with a high density of micro holes. In this paper the results of the GEM foil material characterization are reported, and a campaign of tensile and holes deformation tests is performed. During the tests, the complex radiation environment at CMS is taken into account and samples are prepared accordingly to see the impacts of the radiation on the GEM foil, i.e. non-irradiated samples are used as the reference and compared with neutrons- and gamma- irradiated. These studies provide the information necessary to optimize the stress level without damaging the foil and holes during the detector assembly in which the GEM foils stack is stretched simultaneously to maintain the uniform gap among the foils in order to get the designed performance of the detector. Finally, an estimate of the Young's modulus of the GEM foil is provided by using the tensile test data.
Risk Attitudes, Job Mobility and Subsequent Wage Growth During the Early Career

Job change is a decision under uncertainty: It is associated with costs whereas the decision is made without full knowledge about future benefits. In order to investigate the relationship between willingness to take risks and job mobility, we first extend a model for on-the-job search with nonwage job characteristics by including heterogeneity in risk attitudes. Second, we empirically test the model's implications showing that individuals who are more risk-averse choose to change their jobs less often than more risk-tolerant individuals. This difference in the job changing behaviour leads to only moderate differences wage growth during early career: Risk-averse individuals tend to have on average higher wage gains from each job change and have obtained higher overall wage growth at the end of the early career phase.
Financial Market Regulation, Country Governance, and Bank Efficiency: Evidence from East Asian Countries

This paper examines the relationship between financial market regulation, country governance and efficiency of commercial banks in East Asian economies during the period 2001-2008 using a twostage estimation technique. In the first stage, we employ a non-parametric approach — Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) — to estimate the banks’ cost and profit efficiency scores and then Tobit estimation to analyze the impact of financial market regulations and country governance on bank efficiency. The results suggest that commercial banks in East Asia are relatively profit efficient rather than cost efficient. The findings show that countries with more financial freedom and independence are more cost efficient. Moreover, government effectiveness is found to be positively related to bank efficiency. Consistent with economic theory, corruption is negatively related to bank efficiency. Therefore, this study reveals the importance of financial market regulations and country governance as catalysts for efficient banking operations in East Asian economies.