Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Monetary Policy Transmission in Italy: A BVAR Analysis with Sign Restriction

In this paper, we propose a Bayesian VAR model to examine the short term effects of monetary policy shocks on the Italian economy. Firstly, our BVAR model uses the Cholesky decomposition to identify four kinds of macroeconomic shocks, namely, supply, demand, interest rate and monetary shocks. Then, from the theoretical model, we derive and impose a minimum set of robust sign restrictions to identify the transmission mechanism of monetary tightening. The outcomes from the sign identification confirm the micro evidence on inflation persistence. Moreover, our results show a greater persistence of inflation to monetary restriction than Cholesky identification presents. Overall, we find that a monetary innovation brings a decline of 30 basis point of GDP, this result is almost invariant across both prior and identification technique.
Lifetime Performance of Nili-ravi Buffaloes in Pakistan

Data on 1,037 Nili-Ravi buffaloes from four institutional herds were used to study lifetime milk yield, herd life, productive life and breeding efficiency. A general linear model was used to study the environmental effects while an animal model having herd, year of birth and age at first calving (as covariate) along with random animal effect was used to estimate breeding values. The lifetime milk yield, herd life, productive life and breeding efficiency averaged 7,723 + 164 kg, 3,990±41 days, 1,061±19 days and 64 percent, respectively. All the traits were significantly (p<0.01) affected by the year of birth and herd of calving, while the herd life was also affected (p<0.01) by the age at first calving. The heritabilities for lifetime milk yield, herd life, productive life and breeding efficiency were 0.093±0.056, 0.001±0.055, 0.144±0.079 and 0.001, respectively. The definition for productive life, where each lactation gets credit upto 10 months had slightly better heritability and may be preferred over the definition where no limit is placed on lactation length. The genetic correlation between productive life and lifetime milk yield was low but high between productive life and herd life. The selection for productive life will increase herd life while lifetime milk yield will also improve. The overall phenotypic trend during the period under the study was negative for lifetime milk yield (-280 kg/year), herd life (-93 days), productive life (-42 days/year) and breeding efficiency (-0.36 percent/year), whereas the genetic trend was positive for lifetime milk yield (+15 kg/year) and productive life (+4 days/year).
Good Governance in the Post-Soviet South: Testing Theories of the Resource Curse in Azerbaijan

The theory that there may be a fundamental link between resource abundance and stalled development in developing states has gained increased traction in recent times, with the assorted understandings of this phenomenon grouped together under labels such as the paradox of plenty and the resource curse. The objective of this paper is therefore to demonstrate the extent to which resource curse theories can account for the deficient development of the state of Azerbaijan. This analysis shall take place through testing the various sub-theories that constitute the resource curse against the experience of the state of Azerbaijan, thereby gauging the extent to which both pre-determined models and unique country specific factors account for the demonstrably stalled social, political and economic progress. It shall, however, be argued that resource curse theories alone cannot entirely account for Azerbaijan’s failure to take significant steps towards good governance, and that various structural, historical and cultural factors are also at work.
An empirical analysis of remittance – inflation relationship in Bangladesh: post-floating exchange rate scenario

Workers’ remittance inflows have been rising significantly over the past decade for Bangladesh. They have become one of the most stable sources of foreign exchange earnings and emerged as a crucial issue for monetary and fiscal policy. In 2012, remittances contributed to 12.3% of GDP of Bangladesh while the contribution was 6.4% in 2003. Besides lowering poverty and stimulating economic growth through different microeconomic and macroeconomics channels, remittances like other massive capital inflows can induce inflation and appreciate the real exchange rate and thereby hurt the competitiveness of the tradable sector along the lines of the Dutch Disease phenomenon. In this paper, we have empirically tested whether growing remittances cause an inflation (Model 1) as well as food inflation (Model 2) in Bangladesh using monthly data over the time period July 2003- July 2013 (post - floating exchange rate scenario). We have considered two models as the pattern of expenditure varies by consumption categories suggesting that the effect of remittances may also vary across them. Monthly data is used to better represent the changes in inflation as it is well known that inflation changes occur very quickly in response to shocks. The reason for specifically concentrating on the post-floating exchange rate scenario comes from the fact that the impact of remittances on a economy depends on the exchange rate regimes and studies not controlling for regimes may be biased as suggested by Ball, Lopez & Reyes (2013). Johansen (1988) and Johansen & Juselius (1990) cointegration technique is used to determine the long run relationship between remittances and inflation. Then, a Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) approach is applied for estimating the direction, extent and significance of the relationship. The results of both the models show that remittance inflows cause an inflationary pressure in Bangladesh while the responsiveness of food inflation is almost two and half times higher than general inflation.
Evaluation of the mental foramen position in pediatric patients.

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the location of the mental foramen, using panoramic x-rays from children with ages among ten to 12 years. In a first moment, the radiographs were digitalized and measures were accomplished in the Image Tool 1.27 software, being verified the distance between the mandible border and the mental foramen inferior portion, the total height of the alveolar ridge, and also the distance between the medium portion of the mental foramen and a traced line of the nasal spine previously to a point located in the most inferior portion of the mentus. In children with ages among ten and 11 years, the percentage occurrence of the mental foramen location was in the inferior third of the alveolar ridge and, in the 12 years age group, it was in the medium third. Authors concluded that the position of the mental foramen modifies with the increase of the age, being important the analysis of the precisely location of the mental foramen in Pediatric Dentistry.
The Cost-Effectiveness of Five Policies for Improving Student Achievement

Comparisons of student achievement effect sizes suggest that systems in which student performance in math and reading is rapidly assessed between 2 and 5 times per week are 4 times as effective as a 10% increase in per pupil expenditure, 6 times as effective as voucher programs, 64 times as effective as charter schools, and 6 times as effective as increased accountability. Achievement gains per dollar from rapid assessment are even greater—193 times the gains that accrue from increasing preexisting patterns of educational expenditures, 2,424 times the gains from vouchers, 23,166 times the gains from charter schools, and 57 times the gains from increased accountability. Two sensitivity analyses suggest that the relative advantage for rapid assessment is not sensitive to the particular parameter estimates.
An empirical validation of FindBugs issues related to defects

Background: Effective use of bug finding tools promise to speed up the process of source code verification and to move a portion of discovered defects from testing to coding phase. However, many problems related to their usage, especially the large number of false positives, could easily hinder the potential benefits of such tools. Aims: Assess the percentage and type of issues of a popular bugfinding tool (FindBugs) that are actual defects. Method: We analyzed 301 Java Projects developed at a university with FindBugs, collecting the issues signalled on the source code. Afterwards, we checked the precision of issues with information on changes, we ranked and validated them using both manual inspection and validation with tests failures. Results: We observed that a limited set of issues have high precision and conversely we identified those issues characterized by low precision. We compared findings first with our previous experiment and then to related work: results are consistent with both of them. Conclusions: Since our and other empirical studies demonstrated that few issues are related to real defects with high precision, developers could enable only them (or prioritize), reducing the information overload of FindBugs and having the possibility to discover defects earlier. Furthermore, the technique presented in the paper can be adopted to other tools on a code base with tests to find issues with high precision that can be checked on code in production to find defects earlier.
Psycho-oncology best practice guidelines and a service perspective: conceptualising the fit and towards bridging the gap

The purpose of this paper is two-fold. Firstly, it provides a summary of psycho-oncology best practice guidelines from the UK, US, Australia and Canada. The second aim of this paper is the examination of how a service in Ireland has progressed in adopting these best practice guidelines. A Working Model of Psychology in Action is presented to illustrate the interplay of components currently influencing psycho-oncology in context. The benchmarking process delineates efforts aimed at realising the best practice principles and is helpful in understanding the strengths and also the limitations of the service. The exploration of the challenges in applying non-national guidelines also highlights systemic dimensions such as contextual, organisational, professional and cultural dynamics. With a view to the future, gaps in the guidelines as well as current and potential aims in service development in psycho-oncology in the broader field are discussed.
Emergence and early development of seedlings of Mimosa ophthalmocentra Mart. ex Benth.) irrigated with brackish water = Emergencia e desenvolvimento inicial de plântulas de jurema-imbira irrigadas com água salobra

The species Jurema-imbira ( Mimosa ophthalmocentra ) is typical of the Caatinga of Northeast Brazil and has medicinal properties; besides being also used by timber industry. The study aimed at assessing effects of irrigation water salinity on emergence and early development of seedlings of jurema-imbira ( Mimosa ophthalmocentra Mart. ex Benth.). For this, seeds were manually extracted from the pods of matrix plants and sown under greenhouse conditions in polystyrene trays and irrigated with brackish solutions calibrated to electrical conductivity of 1.5, 2.5, 3.5, 4.5 and 5.5 dS m -1 ; and a treatment with tap water with salinity level of 0.5 dS m -1 was used as control. The experiment was conducted in October 2013. Parameters assessed were: seedling emergence, emergence speed, seedling height, root length, stem diameter, dry mass of shoots, dry mass of roots and total dry mass of seedling. A completely randomized design was used with six treatments, and four replications each consisting of of 25 seeds per treatment. Adjustment of nonlinear and polynomial regression curves, which was used to estimate behavior of variables assessed was performed with aid of software Sigmaplot®. Salinity negatively affects all variables directly proportional to its increase in the irrigation water, with the greatest seedling development at a dose of 1.5 dS m -1 .
The Implementation and Outcomes of Exercise Is Medicine on Campus

Widespread implementation of Exercise Is Medicine® on Campus (EIM-OC) has the potential to address college student physical inactivity; however, limited research has comprehensively assessed how EIM-OC is operationalized at campuses. Purpose This study aimed to assess EIM-OC implementation and outcomes at various academic institutions. Methods A survey was developed in consultation with key EIM-OC stakeholders and administered online among EIM-OC representatives. Data collected included institutional information; promotion, education, and healthcare system integration; partnerships; challenges; and goals. Descriptive statistics were used to explore institution characteristics and other variables. Thematic analysis was conducted to identify the dominant themes and subthemes in qualitative data collected from open-ended questions. Results Forty-one responses were received from a diverse group of academic institutions ranging in size (<10,000 to >50,000 students) and type (public and private). Campus recreation departments, campus health providers, and student organizations/clubs emerged as the most important partners. Student involvement was critical to the success of many EIM-OC programs, with students involved in a range of roles from promotion (n = 20), leadership/organization/planning (n = 18), education (n = 16), implementation (n = 14), and data collection (n = 10). Implementing the physical activity vital sign emerged as a common challenge, with many institutions having no protocol in place for arranging a follow-up between students and physical fitness professionals after referral acceptances, and no protocol existing for referral declinations. Finally, social media was underused, with no social media platforms used by over a third of programs. Conclusion EIM-OC programs at various institutions experienced similar challenges. This research will serve to inform and improve on the implementation and outcomes of EIM-OC programs and ultimately contribute to helping academic institutions increase the physical activity of students and their local communities.
Interactive comment on “Robust uncertainty assessment of the spatio-temporal transferability of glacier mass and energy balance models” by Tobias Zolles et al

The paper proposed a two-step procedure to assess the uncertainties in a widely used distributed glacier mass and energy balance models. First the global sensitivity analysis identifies the sensitivity of the parameters. The reduction of parameters through sensitivity test and the optimization of model by allowing a wider range in parameter variation yields promising results. Then the best setting parameters are determined by a Monte Carlo multi-objective optimization. The transferability is investigated by applying the optimal pareto solutions to other summer seasons and another glacier.
Children’s access to pre‐school education in Bangladesh

Using the Education Watch household survey database, this paper explores children’s access to pre‐school education in Bangladesh. Participation in pre‐school education has been increasing in Bangladesh at the rate of 0.6% per year and the net enrolment rate was found to be 13.4% in 2005. Enrolment of over‐aged children in pre‐school education made the gross enrolment ratio as high as 30.5%. However, over half of the four to five year olds at school were actually enrolled in primary school and not in pre‐school. Moreover, 71% of the four‐ to five‐year group were out of school. Only a third of the four‐ to five‐year‐old children enrolled in schools had the opportunity to attend the English‐medium kindergartens or NGO‐run non‐formal schools, both of which provide better quality pre‐school education. Urban children, especially those with educated parents and from more privileged socio‐economic backgrounds, were more likely to have access to pre‐school education. The lack of a common pre‐school curriculum seems to have created further inequity among children at this very early age. An educational policy targeting poor and socially disadvantaged children with support from both the state and current pre‐school providers is urgently needed to provide four‐ to five‐year‐old children appropriate education for their needs.
Does trust influence consumer behaviour

Against the background of diverse food scandals this article investigates the role of trust as a determinant of consumer behaviour in Germany. As empirical analyses indicate, the impact of trust on consumer behaviour in a quotidian and presumably safe setting is to be neglected. In the environment of a food scandal, however, trust proves to be a crucial element with regard to a more in-depth understanding of consumer behaviour under uncertainty. Moreover, it is analysed whether different values of trust allow for deriving coherent population segments and whether these can likewise be identified on the basis of consumersâ€™ socio-economic features.
PHYSICAL AND NUMERICAL MODELING OF DELTAIC SEDIMENTATION IN LAKES AND RESERVOIRS

Deltas form where rivers meet standing bodies of water such as lakes and reservoirs. A delta is composed of a coarse-grained fluvially-deposited topset, a coarse-grained prograding foreset deposited by grain avalanching and a fine-grained bottomset deposited from a surface sediment plume or a plunging turbidity current. Here the case of a 1D delta in a body of fresh water with a bottomset emplaced by a plunging turbidity current is considered. The authors have previously developed a moving-boundary numerical model pertaining to such deltas. In that model the coarse-grained material is characterized with a single sand size and the finegrained material is characterized with a single mud (silt-clay) size that drives the plunging turbidity current. Here the analysis is extended to the case for which the turbidity current is driven by two agents: mud and dissolved salt. Salt serves as a surrogate for a mud so fine that its fall velocity can be neglected. The results of the numerical model are tested against an experiment.
The Roles of Emotional Intelligence , Interpersonal Skill , and Transformational Leadership in Improving Construction Safety

Due to the characteristics of the construction industry, human skills are essential for working with and through others in managing safety. Previous research has shown that emotional intelligence, interpersonal skill, and transformational leadership are human skill components that generate superior performance in today’s workplace. The aim of this research is to investigate the influence of project management personnel’s human skills (in terms of emotional intelligence, interpersonal skill and transformational leadership) on the implementation of safety management tasks and development of safety climate in construction projects. The structural equation modelling (SEM) method was applied to analyse the quantitative data collected via surveys and to establish interrelationship among the research variables. The results indicate that emotional intelligence is a key factor for developing interpersonal skill and transformational leadership, and for implementing safety management tasks which leads to the development of safety climate. This research also found that interpersonal skill is needed for becoming transformational leaders who contribute to the development of safety climate.
Recent Development of High Quality LCDTV

The production technologies of the flat panel display in the large-size liquid crystal TVs have been developed remarkably. The importance of evaluation method of the display has been also increased. Using the new indexes for evaluations of the motion picture quality and the viewing angle characteristic of the liquid crystal TVs, we review the developments of the recent liquid crystal television technology . 大型液晶TVにおいて,平面ディスプレイの生産技術が飛躍的に発展しています。 同時にディ スプレイの評価方法の重要性も益々高まっています。 本論文では,液晶TVの応答特性と視野角 特性について,新しい評価法を提案し,その評価結果に基づき,最近の液晶TV技術の進展状況 をレヴューします。
Fixed Points for -Graphic Contractions with Application to Integral Equations

The aim of this paper is to define modified weak --contractive mappings and to establish fixed point results for such mappings defined on partial metric spaces using the notion of triangular -admissibility. As an application, we prove new fixed point results for graphic weak -contractive mappings. Moreover, some examples and an application to integral equation are given here to illustrate the usability of the obtained results.
Effect of mulching on soil environment, microbial floraand growth of potato under field conditions

Mulches modify hydrothermal regime, recycles plant nutrients, promote crop development and increase yields. The impact of straw mulch and different doses of recommended nitrogen was studied on soil microbial flora, soil physico-chemical properties and plant growth parameters of potato at different time intervals under field conditions. Maximum bacterial population (75× 107 cfu g-1 soil), plant growth promoting rhizobacteria count (63× 105 cfu g-1 soil) and fungal population (69× 103 cfu g-1 soil) were observed with the treatment having rice straw mulch @ 6 tonnes/ha and 100% N-level while diazotrophic count (42× 105 cfu g-1 soil) was found with treatment having mulch (6t) but no nitrogen fertilizer at 30 DAS. Mulched soil samples gave statistically higher microbial population. The soil pH and the electrical conductivity of soil were not significantly affected by the different applications. A slight improvement in soil organic content was observed in mulched (0.32%) over unmulched (0.24%) soil samples at 90 DAS. The mineral nitrogen content of soil i.e. ammonical (235.2 kg/ha) and nitrate (156.8 k/ha) nitrogen were greatly affected at 90 DAS by mulching and higher doses of nitrogen fertilization. The altered microbial population helps in improving the various growth parameters of potato plants. Maximum chlorophyll content (1.84 mg/g), maximum dry root-shoot biomass (0.7 g/pl and 5.8 g/pl) and maximum yield (366.8 q/ha) were observed with the treatment having mulch and 100% N-level. It is also concluded that mulch increased the minimum soil temperature by 2-30C and lower down the maximum by 2 to 80C.
THE z < 1.2 ?> OPTICAL LUMINOSITY FUNCTION FROM A SAMPLE OF ∼410,000 GALAXIES IN BOÖTES

Using a sample of ∼410,000 galaxies to a depth of I AB = 24 ? > over 8.26 deg2 in the Boötes field (∼10 times larger than the z ∼ 1 ? > luminosity function (LF) studies in the prior literature), we have accurately measured the evolving B-band LF of red galaxies at z < 1.2 ? > and blue galaxies at z < 1.0 . > In addition to the large sample size, we utilize photometry that accounts for the varying angular sizes of galaxies, photometric redshifts verified with spectroscopy, and absolute magnitudes that should have very small random and systematic errors. Our results are consistent with the migration of galaxies from the blue cloud to the red sequence as they cease to form stars and with downsizing in which more massive and luminous blue galaxies cease star formation earlier than fainter less massive ones. Comparing the observed fading of red galaxies with that expected from passive evolution alone, we find that the stellar mass contained within the red galaxy population has increased by a factor of ∼3.6 from z ∼ 1.1 ? > to z ∼ 0.1 . > The bright end of the red galaxy LF fades with decreasing redshift, with the rate of fading increasing from ∼0.2 mag per unit redshift at z = 1.0 to ∼0.8 at z = 0.2. The overall decrease in luminosity implies that the stellar mass in individual highly luminous red galaxies increased by a factor of ∼2.2 from z = 1.1 to z = 0.1.