Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Avoiding Blame—A Comprehensive Framework and the Australian Home Insulation Program Fiasco

It is widely acknowledged in the literature that the study of blame avoidance behavior (BAB) exhibited by public officials is scattered and unconcentrated, and that, for the most part, it neglects both contextual factors and comparative research. These deficits inhibit the production of the kind of generalized findings necessary to better understand potential consequences for the policy process and the workings of political systems. We address these deficits by developing a framework that takes stock of blame avoidance research, clarifies the explanatory potential of contextual factors, and allows for a systematic context-sensitive cross-case analysis. For illustrative purposes, the framework is applied to the Home Insulation Program in Australia as a critical case. This case reveals the explanatory potential of contextual factors for the understanding of BAB and the consequences thereof. We conclude by stating the advantages of our framework and explain how it can be used for comparative research.
Impact of acute radiation induced toxicity of glutamine administration in several hypofractionated irradiation schedules for head and neck carcinoma

Aim The aim of this study was to investigate the treatment efficacy, acute and late toxicity using a hypofractionated irradiation schedule combined with oral administration of glutamine (GLN) in elderly patients with advanced squamous cell carcinoma of head and neck (SCCHN). Methods In a retrospective manner, we studied 31 patients with advanced SCCHN treated with hypofractionated radiotherapy and administration of GLN. The irradiation schedules consisted of three hypofractionated schedules. The first schedule consisted of 21 irradiation fractions (56.7 Gy) within 29 days by using intensive modulated radiation therapy technique or 3D conformal radiotherapy. The second and the third schedules were performed with 3D conformal techniques by 49.5 Gy in 18 daily fractions and 59.8 Gy in 26 daily fractions. All patients received 30 g powdered GLN daily as soon as oral mucositis was presented. The median follow-up was 18 months (range: 9–24). The severity of skin toxicity and oral mucositis was graded according to the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group/European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (RTOG/EORTC) criteria. Results Overall complete response was seen in 12 patients (38.7%), while 5 patients (16.1%) had partial response, 7 patients (22.6%) had stable disease and 7 patients (22.6%) had progressive disease. The median relapse-free survival was 14 months. Three patients (9.7%) experienced grade III acute skin toxicity. Twenty-one (67.7%) and seven (22.6%) patients experienced grade II and grade I acute skin toxicity, respectively. A significant decrease was noted in the incidence of toxicity after the administration of GLN (P < 0.01, chi-square test). The mean score of dysphagia-related pain and oral mucositis regressed significantly (P < 0.01, Wilcoxon test) in the last week of irradiation after GLN administration. Conclusion In elderly patients suffering from SCCHN with co-morbitities and unsuitable for daily irradiation and chemotherapy, an alternative schedule of hypofractionation is possible when combined with GLN administration.
Examining retail customer experience and the moderation effect of loyalty programmes

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the construct of retail customer experience (CE) and its links to satisfaction and loyalty; and to test whether loyalty programmes perform a moderating effect on those links. Design/methodology/approach – A variety of retail attributes are integrated to develop a holistic CE construct using formative measures, with four in-built, differentiated replication studies conducted in the supermarket and department store sectors in China. Findings – The empirical results confirm the model of CE’s impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty; but reveal that loyalty programmes perform an insignificant moderating role in enhancing the linkages in the model. Research limitations/implications – Further studies may examine whether our findings hold true for each individual loyalty programme. The paper calls for more studies based on multiple, in-built, differentiated replication studies and measures to encourage publication of negative empirical results so as to ensure .
Comparative Evaluation of Environmental Impact of Selected Ethoxylate Fatty Alcohols and Ethoxylate Fatty Acid Methyl Esters as Nonionic Surfactants

This work presents a comparative ecological assessment of dodecanolethoxylates and rapeseed acid methyl ester ethoxylates as nonionic surfactants. It was found that ethoxylated rapeseed acid methyl esters show higher biodegradability and lower aquatic toxicity compared to 1-dodecanol ethoxylates. A prognostic model for environmental impact of the studied series of surfactants was developed using the data from biodegradation and aquatic toxicity tests combined with estimated concentration of the surfactants in a wastewater stream. It is shown that an ecological risk of bulk application of dodecanolethoxylates can be expected over a longer term, while significant reduction of environmental fate would occur by the alternative use of ethoxylated rapeseed acid methyl esters. We concluded that ethoxylated rapeseed acid methyl esters can be considered as environmentally superior surfactants.
Changes in Microstructure of Air Plasma Sprayed M-CrAlY Coatings After Short Thermal Exposure in Argon Atmosphere

the microstructure of resulting coatings. The oxide scale was formed by internal oxidation in a coating region primarily at higher temperatures. In this case, aluminium was depleted from the NiAl phase within the coating region and the Ni, Co, Cr solid solutions and the aluminium oxide started to form rapidly. No interaction was observed after the short thermal exposure below the substrate surface. The microstructure of coatings was recorded by scanning electron microscope. Coating thickness, amount of voids and oxide scale were measured by means of image analysis. The concentration of phases was estimated by energy dispersive microanalysis. PACS: 81.15. Rs
A Rent Extraction View of Employee Discounts and Benefits

We examine how firms can use employee discounts and perks to extract information rents from employees who have private information about their preferences and outside opportunities. The firm creates different bundles of the perk and salary in response to different employee characteristics and marginal costs of the perk. Strategic bundling can lead firms to provide perks even without a cost advantage over the outside market and to deviate from the marginal cost pricing. We characterize how optimal perk provision depends on the set of feasible contracts, on the perk’s marginal cost, and on the perk’s price in the outside market.
First record of Hydrolagus melanophasma James, Ebert, Long & Didier, 2009 (Chondrichthyes, Chimaeriformes, Holocephali) from the southeastern Pacific Ocean

The eastern Pacific black ghost shark, Hydrolagus melanophasma is reported from deep waters off Chile and is described from specimens collected off Valdivia at depths of 1150 to 1720 m. This species is distinguished from all other members of the genus by its large, curved dorsal fin spine, which extends beyond the dorsal fin apex; a second dorsal fin of uniform height along the caudal peduncle; large pectoral fins extending beyond the pelvic fin insertion; and a uniform black color of the body. Catch records of this species in Chile suggest a discontinuous distribution along the continental slope of the eastern Pacific Ocean, restricted to the Middle America and Atacama trenches. These observations elevate the number of chimaeroid fishes inhabiting Chile to five species.
TORSIONAL EFFECTS AND REGULARITY CONDITIONS IN RC BUILDINGS

1 DAPS, Universita degli Studi di Napoli ‘Federico II’, Via Claudio n°21, 80125, Napoli, Italy. E.mail:: cosenza@unina.it 2 DAPS, Universita degli Studi di Napoli ‘Federico II’, Via Claudio n°21, 80125, Napoli, Italy. email: gamanfre@unina.it 3 DAPS, Universita degli Studi di Napoli ‘Federico II’, Via Claudio n°21, 80125, Napoli, Italy. email: robrealf@unina.it TORSIONAL EFFECTS AND REGULARITY CONDITIONS IN RC BUILDINGS
Investigation of Learning Behaviors and Achievement of Simple Pendulum for Vocational High School Students with Ubiquitous-Physics App

In this study, Ubiquitous-Physics was designed and proposed for facilitating students to learn simple pendulum concepts. U-Physics can facilitate collecting experimental data and drawing the corresponding graphs during the experiment, whereby students can focus on how to interpret graphs and solve problems through applying formulas. The participants were second grade female vocational high school students who are fewer interests in physics, while hopefully using U-Physics in the physical experiment can motivate their interests and help their learning in physics. The findings showed that significant correlations existed among hypothesis-making, interpreting graphs, applying formulas, conclusion-making, conceptual understanding, and post-test. After an in-depth investigation, we found that interpreting graphs and conceptual understanding were the two most important factors to affect learning achievement. Additionally, students perceived that U-Physics was beneficial to their physics learning.
On the pro fi tability and welfare e ff ects of downstream mergers ∗

We consider an upstream firm selling an input to several downstream firms through observable, non-discriminatory two-part tariff contracts. Downstream firms can alternatively buy the input from a less efficient source of supply. We show that downstream mergers lead to lower wholesale prices. They translate into lower final prices only when the alternative supply is inefficient enough. Concerning profitability of downstream mergers, we find that monopolization is the equilibrium outcome of a merger game even for very unconcentrated markets whenever the alternative supply is inefficient enough.
Further experiments on collisional tribocharging of cosmic grains

We experimentally investigated tribocharging in bouncing dust grain collisions under conditions which are relevant for the early solar nebula. We used silica, diamond, graphite, and silicon carbide grains and cm-sized targets of aluminum, iron, and graphite. We varied particle size around 1 µm, collision velocity between 38 to 106 m s −1 , and target temperature between 240 K and 360 K. Generally, the grains acquire something in the order of hundreds or thousands of negative ele- mentary charges, which is at the upper end of the range previously discussed in astrophysical research. Mainly, a temperature difference caused by the dissipation of collisional energy or by initial temperatures determines the amount of charge transfer. It suggests a thermally diffusive charge transfer process of negative charge carriers. Nevertheless, also other processes of sec- ondary importance were effective. Material-dependent contact charging is ruled out as the dominant charge transfer process in our experiments. For most particle-target combinations, the charge transfer can be described by an empirical function of collision energy which we propose for future astrophysical applications, especially for applications on the sticking efficiency in the preplanetary dust aggregation process, on the particle motion in the solar nebula, and on the possibility of nebular lightning.
Magnitude and characteristics of Road Traffic Accidents in Kashmir Valley

1 ExPost Graduate Student, Department of Community Medicine SKIMS Soura Srinagar 2 Additional Professors Department of community Medicine SKIMS Soura Srinagar 3 Ex –SR. Department of community Medicine SKIMS Soura Srinagar Corresponding Author Rohul jabeen Shah Email: rjsskims@gmail.com Abstract An alarming increase in morbidity and mortality owing to road traffic accidents over the past few decades is becoming a routine and matter of great concern globally. Road traffic crashes account for one fourth of the total deaths related to injury across the globe. In India it is the 6th leading cause of death with a greater share of hospitalizations, deaths, disabilities and socioeconomic loses in young and middle aged population. Methods: This prospective cross sectional study was conducted with objectives to assess the magnitude and characteristics of road traffic accidents in Kashmir valley. Results: Records reveal that valley had witnessed 2164 Road traffic accidents (RTAs) during 2011 in which 3439 victims were involved (3113 were injured and 326 got killed) with accident risk of 31.3 and fatality risk of 4.7, Fatality rate of 10and severity index of 15.1 . Most (87.9%), of the accident victims were less than 55 years of age, 81.7 % were males, 52.2% were literate, 21.3% were students.50. 6% of the victims were passengers, 24.8% pedestrians and 23.4% drivers. In 46.8% victims only one body part was injured. In 60.1% four wheeled vehicles were responsible for accidents followed by two wheeled vehicles in 10.5%. In 82.5% of RTA’s the accident had taken place on straight road and majority (62.9%) of accidents were of longitudinal collision type.
Further experimental results on nonlinear control of flexible joint manipulators

We focus on the experimental comparison of feedback controllers for flexible joint manipulators. It completes a previous set of experimental results presented by Brogliato et al. (1998), on a 2 degree-of-freedom (DOF) manipulator with a stiff second joint (50 Nm/rad). The process considered is quite different since it consists of a 1-DOF flexible joint manipulator (i.e. a 4th order linear system) with a high flexibility (3.4 Nm/rad). The main goal of the present work is to apply a systematic way of tuning the gains of backstepping- and energy shaping-like controllers, using a method developed for LQ controllers by De Larminat. It is shown that although other linear controllers could be applied to the process tested in this paper, we restrict ourselves to those control laws that extend to the nonlinear general case of flexible joint manipulators, and yield global stability results.
Dentistry as an Organization and Institution

This essay discusses American dentistry as an organizational system and as a culture of several interrelated, historical, occupational groups. The analysis is general by necessity and omits small exceptions and minor trends. It also runs the risk of being overly programmatic inasmuch as dentistry is an organization and culture largely unknown to American social science, and interesting ideas and fruitful research might go in any direction. However, this institutional approach may not be inappropriate: the study of occupations has been named by Everett Hughes as American ethnology. The paper is organized into two parts. Part one sketches how dentistry is organized today in America. Part two speaks to some of its peculiar cultural themes by way of explaining that organization. In America, dentistry is an independent, autonomous health service, a world to itself. It has its own social structure and is not a part of American medicine, although it presently has benign and legitimate relations with it.
Bark traits and life-history strategies of tropical dry- and moist forest trees

Summary 1. Bark is crucial to trees because it protects their stems against fire and other hazards and because of its importance for assimilate transport, water relationships and repair. We evaluate size-dependent changes in bark thickness for 50 woody species from a moist forest and 50 species from a dry forest in Bolivia and relate bark thickness to their other bark characteristics, species life-history strategies and wood properties. 2. For 71% of the evaluated species, the allometric coefficient describing the relationship between bark thickness and stem diameter was significantly <1 (average 074; range 038–120), indicating that species attain an absolute increase in bark thickness with increasing stem diameter but invest relatively less in bark thickness at larger diameters. 3. We hypothesized that in response to more frequent fires, dry-forest species should have thicker barked trees. Contrary to this prediction, dry- and moist-forest tree species were similar in allometric bark coefficients and bark thickness. 4. In both forest types, about 50% of the species never developed bark thick enough to avoid fire damage to their vascular cambia. Recent increases in fire frequency and extent may therefore have potentially large effects on the composition of these forests. 5. Within each forest, coexisting species displayed a diversity of bark investment strategies, and bark thickness of trees 40 cm stem diameter varied up to 15-fold across species (ranging from 1 7t o 257 mm). 6. In both forests, sapling bark thickness was positively related to adult stature (maximum height) of the species, possibly because trees of long-lived species are more likely to experience fire during their life span, whereas for species that are characteristically small or short-lived, it may not pay off to invest heavily in bark and they may follow a resprouter strategy instead. Sapling bark thickness was not related to species’ shade tolerance. 7. Bark and wood traits were closely associated, showing a trade-off between species with tough tissues (high densities of bark and wood) on the one hand vs. species with watery tissues (high water contents of bark and wood) and thick bark on the other hand. 8. Species with different bark investment strategies coexist in both the moist and the dry tropical forest studied. Bark and wood fulfil many functions, and the observed trade-offs may reflect different plant strategies to deal with fire, avoidance and repair of stem damage, avoidance and resistance of drought stress, and mechanical stability.
THE REMSDB MACROECONOMIC DATABASE OF THE SPANISH ECONOMY

This paper presents a new macroeconomic database for the Spanish economy, REMSDB. The construction of this database has been oriented to conducting medium-term simulations for policy evaluation with the REMS model, a large Rational Expectations Macroeconomic Model for Spain. The paper provides a detailed description of the data and documents its main statistical properties. The database is thought to be of major interest to related applications, whether strictly associated with the REMS model or, rather, with empirical macroeconomic studies.
Development and large scale violence

A single equation model is inadequate to capture the various transmission channels linking civil war to per-capita income. Therefore, this paper uses a system of four equations to estimate the economic cost of civil conâ€i ict. In the system, conâ€i is allowed ict to aÂ¤ect per-capita income both directly and indirectly through its eÂ¤ect on a set of â€œdeep determinantsâ€ of income. Estimates indicate that the income loss associated with conâ€i is ict economically sizeable and that slightly less than half of this loss arises from the deterioration of institutions. Eventually, the economy rebounds, recovering about one half of the initial loss.
An analysis of income polarisation in rural and urban China

The purpose of this article is to contribute to the analysis of Chinese income inequality by focusing more specifically on income polarisation, which captures both alienation (i.e. heterogeneity between income groups) and identification (i.e. homogeneity within groups). The empirical investigations conducted as part of this research are based on the China Health and Nutrition Survey data from 1989 to 2006 and indicate that Chinese household income is strongly polarised. After a period of stagnation between 1989 and 1997, the degree of polarisation increased significantly between 1997 and 2006, indicating the constitution of identified groups in middle and upper income ranges. Although the level of income polarisation is higher in rural areas, the increase in polarisation is far more conspicuous in urban areas, suggesting that the risk of social tensions is more pregnant in Chinese cities. The analysis of the sources of income polarisation in rural areas shows that the increase in polarisation is closely linked to non-agricultural opportunities. In urban areas the emergence of identified groups in middle and upper income classes can be explained both by the sharp decline in subsidies and by the liberalisation of the urban labour market and state enterprises.
Beyond the Theoretical Dichotomy in Islamic Finance: Analytical Reflections on Murābaḥah Contracts and Islamic Debt Securities

Islamic finance had been originally considered as the financial system based on the notion of profit-sharing and participatory finance due to the fact that ribā (interest) is forbidden in Islam. However, since the rise in the practice of Islamic finance in the 1970s, mainly two discussions relating to the legitimacy of the modes of financing have been raised: one pertains to murābaḥah contracts and the other, to Islamic debt securities. These discussions have led to divergence in the practice of Islamic finance. Existing literatures on the historical overview in Islamic economics and financial studies appear to opine that these discussions have roots in the dichotomy between those who attach greater importance to the ideal of Islamic finance and those who deem it desirable to respond to the practical demands of Islamic finance. Subsequently, each discussion tends to result in convergence after many arguments. This paper primarily aims to trace several arguments in each discussion and summarize them into a framework of theoretical divergence and convergence, which is premised by many works, regardless of whether the framework is described explicitly or implicitly. However, the divergence/convergence framework reviewed in this paper appears to lack certain crucial points pertaining to the relationship among theoretical standpoints and the structure of discussions. Therefore, this paper examines these points by using as examples the discusisons on murābaḥah contracts and Islamic debt securities and aims to present an advanced picture of the framework beyond mere dichotomy. Furthermore, based on the overview, this paper also attempts to explore the underlying and essential features of Islamic finance that have been commonly shared by the scholars who participated in each discussion. The following two chapters deal with the overviews of the discussions on murābaḥah and Islamic debt securities. The fourth chapters discusses the divergence/convergence framework within which the theoretical discussions on Islamic finance can be located and it also presents an advanced picture of the framework beyond mere dichotomy. Then, the underlying features of islamic finance are outlined.
Testing the Pecking Order Theory of Capital Structure in FTSE 350 Food Producers Firms in United Kingdom between 2001 and 2005

This paper tests the Pecking Order Theory to see if it best explains the financing behaviour of FTSE 350 UK Food producer firms from the time period of 2001 to 2005. A multiple case study design was used. However, the study approach was retrospective in nature. The Pecking order model as proposed by Shyam-Sunder and Myers, Frank and Goyal; and Rajan and Zingales, was followed in this research. The empirical analysis of firm-year data was compared to a generalised view of the literature to enable an assessment of the commonalities and differences observed. The results suggest that although there is some form of Pecking order behaviour amongst FTSE 350 UK food producer firms, especially when it comes to managers’ preference for the different sources of finance, their financing behaviour is best explained by the trade-off theory of capital structure.