Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Demography Dynamics: Factors Affecting Number of Offspring and Male to Female Ratio in Greece

Background : Population models assume that parents make investment decisions that maximize reproductive success in the face of limited resources. Aim : The aim of the current study was to investigate the dynamics of offspring and the patterns of male to female ratio in the urban area of Athens. In addition, the role of socioeconomic factors to their dynamics was examined. The study was conducted in the urban area of Athens. The target group consisted of children in the area’s kindergartens. A total of 435 single parents or parent couples were investigated with respect to their socioeconomic background and the number of children. Result : The main factors affecting the number of children included the income which was influenced by both education and nationality. At the same time, nationality appeared to play a significant role in the male to female ratio with mixed couples manifesting the largest ratio. Conclusions : To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work in the literature examining the dynamics of offspring by calculating the effects of socioeconomic factors such as education, income and nationality. At the same time, such works are extremely important both towards the understanding of population dynamics but also towards policy making, which includes both demographical and fiscal policies.
ASSESSMENT OF THE VALUE OF TRAVEL TIME FROM STATED CHOICE SURVEYS : THE IMPACT OF LEXICOGRAPHIC ANSWERING

Stated Preference surveys have been conducted in many countries all over the world as an important tool to assess the value of travel time (VOT). Such surveys collect information about the travel behaviour as well as the socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents. In some surveys the respondents are asked to express their preferences in terms of ratings or judgments (e.g. Richardson 2002), although Stated Choice surveys, where the respondents are asked to choose from a series of choice sets, are common practice (e.g. Caussade et al. 2005). These are often bi-optional and contain alternatives that are described with attributes like trip duration and monetary cost, compared to some reference trip (e.g. Burge et al. 2004).
The EU enlargement and economic growth in the CEE new member countries

This paper analyses whether EU enlargement contributed to economic growth and real convergence in the ten new member countries from Central and Eastern. In this paper, we aim to check whether the EU enlargement contributed to economic growth of ten new member countries from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE-10), including their real convergence towards the EU-15 development level. To this end, we econometrically test the relationships between selected macroeconomic variables linked to the EU enlargement and the rate of economic growth of the CEE-10 countries over the period 1996-2007. The variables comprise: (i) the progress of market or structural reforms, (ii) economic freedom, (iii) foreign aid, and (iv) the FDI inflow. Â In the first part of the study, we test the convergence hypothesis (both beta and sigma) for the CEE-10 group towards the EU-15 countries. In the subsequent parts, we build an econometric model and carry out the correlation and regression analyses, with a view to find out the possible effect of the EU membership on economic growth of the CEE countries. The last part of the paper develops possible scenarios of the real convergence of the CEE countries towards the EU-15. Â Our results indicate that the EU enlargement significantly contributed to economic growth of the CEE-10 countries and their catching up with the EU-15 development level. This conclusion has been supported by both the convergence analysis and the econometric test of economic growth determinants. According to our projections, the actual process of real convergence between individual CEE-10 economies and the EU-15 may take between 8 and 33 years.
Effects of Different Aerobic Exercise Programs with NutritionalIntervention in Primary Hypertensive and Overweight/Obese Adults:EXERDIET-HTA Controlled Trial

Background: Both exercise training and diet are recommended to prevent and control primary hypertension (HTN) and overweight/obesity. Aerobic exercise is firmly established as an effective measure for lowering blood pressure (BP) and reducing cardiovascular risk. However, there is no agreement about the optimal dose of frequency, intensity, time and type of exercise. This study is a randomized control trial to investigate the effectiveness of different aerobic exercise programs and diet for reducing BP, for improving body composition, cardiorespiratory fitness, biochemical profile, physical activity and sedentary behavior and health-related quality of life in adults with primary HTN and overweight or obesity. Methods/Design: One hundred sixty-four overweight or obese participants (18-70 yr old) diagnosed with primary HTN will perform different assessments to evaluate BP, physical, biochemical and nutritional condition, sedentary behavior and quality of life before and after 16-week of follow-up. All participants will receive an energy-hypocaloric diet based on 25% of measured resting metabolic rate and will be randomly assigned to control group (only diet) or exercise groups (diet plus aerobic exercise). Participants assigned to an exercise group will train 2 days/week under supervision (treadmill and bike protocol). There will be three aerobic exercise groups: (1) moderate continuous exercise and high volume (MCT) group, (2) high-intensity interval training and high-volume (HV-HIIT) group, and (3) high-intensity interval training and low-volume (LV-HIIT) group. The measurements used in the protocol will be taken before and after the intervention period (16-weeks), and after a six-month period in all participants (i.e., 6 months with only recommendations and no supervision). Discussion: The results of this intervention will help to better understand the potential of non-pharmacological treatment for improving the well-being of people with primary HTN and overweight or obesity.
Simulating Ion Transport with the NP+LEMC Method. Applications to Ion Channels and Nanopores.

Abstract We describe a hybrid simulation technique that uses the Nernst-Planck (NP) transport equation to compute steady-state ionic flux in a non-equilibrium system and uses the Local Equilibrium Monte Carlo (LEMC) simulation technique to establish the statistical mechanical relation between the two crucial functions present in the NP equation: the concentration and the electrochemical potential profiles (Boda, D., Gillespie, D., J. Chem. Theor. Comput., 2012 8(3), 824–829). The LEMC method is an adaptation of the Grand Canonical Monte Carlo method to a non-equilibrium situation. We apply the resulting NP+LEMC method to ionic systems, where two reservoirs of electrolytes are separated by a membrane that allows the diffusion of ions through a nanopore. The nanopore can be natural (as the calcium selective Ryanodine Receptor ion channel) or synthetic (as a rectifying bipolar nanopore). We show results for these two systems and demonstrate the effectiveness of the NP+LEMC technique.
Knowledge-based enterprises: an overview

have knowledge assets they do not exploit and they buy in expertise that they possess, since they do not know what they know. This article addresses recent developments in management theory whilst noting the social context in which knowledge management takes place. Prevailing management trends and techniques which have a bearing on the needs of knowledge workers are discussed to gain insights into knowledge management. The impact of the theory of knowledge management on the transformation of an enterprise to a knowledge-based business model are also discussed. Die meerderheid ondernemings bestuur nie kennis in die onderneming doeltreffend nie en benut dus nie die potensiele voordele van kennisbestuur nie. Hulle beskik oor kennisbates wat nie ontgin word nie en kundigheid word ingekoop omdat hulle nie bewus is van die kundigheid beskikbaar in die onderneming nie. Hierdie artikel bespreek onlangse ontwikkelings in die bestuursteorie met die klem op die sosiale konteks waarin kennisbestuur plaasvind. Algemene bestuurstendense en tegnieke wat 'n invloed het op die behoeftes van kenniswerkers word bespreek om sodoende 'n insig in kennisbestuur te verkry: Die impak van die teorie van kennisbestuur op die transformasie van 'n onderneming tot 'n kennisgebaseerde besigheidsmodel word ook bespreek.
Non-Borrowing Students’ Perceptions of Student Loans and Strategies of Paying for College

With the notable shift from grants to loans over the past several decades, many researchers have argued the positive impact of financial aid on student college choice, enrollment, and persistence. However, literature indicates that students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds are less likely to take loans to finance postsecondary education than those from affluent conditions. Qualitative research on the reasons for non-borrowers’ aversion to loans and strategies for college payment is rather scant. This study explores 30 lower-or lower-middle-class non-borrowing students’ lived experiences surrounding student loans from a qualitative phenomenological research lens. Data are collected from semi-structured interviews. Data analysis shows four main reasons that the participants generally avoid borrowing as they decide where to attend and how to pay for college: parental influence, fear of economic burden, underestimation of the value of college education, and lack of information about the loan system. The strategies they employ for college payment include scholarships and grants, family support, part-time jobs, and prepaid college tuition programs. This study uses peer debriefing to ensure its trustworthiness. Limitations of this study and implications for future research and practice are discussed.
Enhanced sputtering from nanoparticles and thin films: Size effects

Sputtering of gold nanoparticles and nanometer-thin films under 25 keV gallium-ion bombardment is shown, using molecular-dynamics simulations, to be significantly enhanced compared to bulk. The highest yield, about three times that of bulk gold, occurs for particles of about 8 nm in diameter. For thin films, the maximal yield is obtained for roughly 3 nm thick films. A model based on the work of Sigmund is presented to explain the size-dependence.
Mass Transfer in Infrared Drying of Gel-Coated Seeds

In order to contribute for a better understanding of mass transfer in drying of shrinking particles, in this study shrinkage and drying characteristics of sorghum seeds encapsulated into gel-based polymeric matrix were experimentally determined by using infrared (IR) radiation. IR drying of gel coated seeds was carried out at three different temperatures (65℃, 80℃ and 93℃). The shrinkage of the individual particles during drying was quantified by means of the volume and surface area changes evaluated from geometric measurements. The product quality was evaluated in terms of the changes of particle density and percent of cracks in gel coating incurred during drying. Surface area and volume of the gel-seed system decreased about 65% and 80% until the end of the process, respectively, stressing the need to take into account the surface area changes to calculate water flux density as function of moisture content and obtain an accurate interpretation of the drying mechanisms well as to include the volume shrinkage in mass transfer models to determine reliable values of moisture diffusivity. The IR drying behavior of gel-coated seeds was then characterized by the presence of three drying periods: heating up, constant moisture flux and falling moisture flux. Accelerated drying of gel coated seeds was obtained by applying higher IR radiation intensities. The effect of IR source temperature on the particle shrinkage was more pronounced at the constant moisture flux period and practically negligible at the decreasing moisture flux period. Neglecting shrinkage of individual coated-seeds during IR drying led to an erroneous absence of constant flux period and overestimation of the mass transfer by diffusion. Apparent density of the particles was greater at low-temperature IR drying than at high-temperature IR drying. Coated particles keep their original geometry, but a significant cracking of gel coating was observed at rapid drying rate conditions.
Noise-Modulated Effects of Anisotropy and Position Dependent Effective Mass on the Oscillator Strength of Impurity Doped Quantum Dots

We study the modulation of oscillator strength (OS) of impurity doped quantum dot (QD) under the influence of geometrical anisotropy and position-dependent effective mass (PDEM) in presence and absence of noise. The OS profiles are monitored as a function of anisotropy and dopant location considering PDEM and fixed effective mass (FEM). Noise considered here is Gaussian white noise which has been administered to the system additively and multiplicatively. Always a comparison has been attempted between FEM and PDEM to understand the role of the latter on OS profiles. Application of noise has been found to affect the OS profiles only over some particular domains of anisotropy and dopant location. And use of PDEM promotes greater contribution from noise than FEM in fabricating the OS profiles. The observations reveal sensitive interplay between noise and anisotropy/PDEM to tailor the features of OS profiles which bear substantial technological importance in the study of nonlinear optical properties of doped QD systems.
Annoni, Andrea and Guglielmi, Emanuele and Carminati, Marco and Grillanda, Stefano and Ciccarella, Pietro and Ferrari, Giorgio and Sorel, Marc and Strain, Michael and Sampietro, Marco and Melloni, Andrea and Morichetti, Francesco (2016) Automated routing and control of silicon

Automatic reconfiguration and feedback controlled routing is demonstrated in an 8×8 silicon photonic switch fabric based on Mach-Zehnder interferometers. The use of non-invasive Contactless Integrated Photonic Probes (CLIPPs) enables realtime monitoring of the state of each switching element individually. Local monitoring provides direct information on the routing path, allowing an easy sequential tuning and feedback controlled stabilization of the individual switching elements, thus making the switch fabric robust against thermal crosstalk, even in the absence of a cooling system for the silicon chip. Up to 24 CLIPPs are interrogated by a multichannel integrated ASIC wirebonded to the photonic chip. Optical routing is demonstrated on simultaneous WDM input signals that are labelled directly on-chip by suitable pilot tones without affecting the quality of the signals. Neither preliminary circuit calibration nor lookup tables are required, being the proposed control scheme inherently insensible to channels power fluctuations.
Deterioration and Recovery of Draw-A-Person IQ Scores in the Repeated Assessment of the Naglieri Draw-A-Person Test in 6-to 12-Year-Old Children

The study investigated whether mental age in children, as assessed by the IQ in the Draw-A-Person (DAP) test (Naglieri, 1988), can be improved by practice. In addition, it was tested whether children needed novel content to keep up their performance level during test repetition. The DAP test was given to 6-, 8-, 10-, and 12-year-old children (N 80) 3 times. In addition, they drew a police figure 2 times, with task sequence counterbalanced. Repeated drawings resulted in significant omission of detail and deterioration of scores, but the novel task instruction temporarily recovered the IQ scores. This did not occur in the reverse sequence of the tasks, with the less specified DAP instruction given in the 2nd half of the drawing series. Furthermore, structural regressions in the human figure drawing could be observed in individual cases. However, 12-year-olds did not need the external introduction of novel content to maintain their IQ score. Correlations showed that this age group redefined their drawing plan on each repetition, and often created unique figures on each occasion, even if the instruction had stayed the same.
Do Private Tutoring Expenditures Raise Academic Performance? Evidence from Middle School Students in South Korea

To shed light on the effectiveness of educational inputs for student outcomes, this paper examines the effect of private tutoring expenditures on the academic performance of middle school students in South Korea. To address endogeneity, the paper uses instrumental variables, first-difference, propensity-score matching and nonparametric bounding methods. We apply these methods to a panel dataset from South Korea, the Korea Education Longitudinal Study. The results show that the true effect of private tutoring remains, at most, modest. Instrumental variables (first-difference) estimates suggest that a 10-percent increase in expenditure raises a test score by 0.03 standard deviations or 1.1 percent (0.002 standard deviations or 0.08 percent). Matching estimates imply that the same amount of increase in expenditure leads to a 0.33 to 0.72 percent higher average test score. The tightest bounds of the effect of tutoring reveal that a 10-percent increase in expenditure improves the test score by a low of 0 to a high of 2.01 percent, while statistical tests fail to rule out zero effects. The modest effects of private tutoring found in the present study are comparable to the effects of public school expenditures on test scores and earnings estimated in previous studies.
Alteration of Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein Immunoreactivity in Astrocytes of the Cerebellum of Diabetic Rats and Potential Effect of Insulin and Ginger

Background: Diabetes causes increased oxidative stress and changes in vascular reactivity in the brain. Ginger has a wide range of pharmacological properties including anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, antioxidant, and antitumour effects. Aim of the work: The purpose of this study was to clarify the effect of induced type I diabetes on the cerebellum of albino rat and whether these changes could be prevented by insulin and ginger. Material and methods: Forty albino rats were divided randomly into 4 groups; control non-diabetic rats; untreated diabetic rats; insulin-treated diabetic rats and combined insulin-ginger treated diabetic rats. After 8 weeks of treatment, animals were sacrificed; cerebellum was dissected, processed and stained with H&E and immunohistochemistry for Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein (GFAP). Results: Diabetes caused decrease in the body and cerebellum weights, degeneration of Purkinje cells and decreased expression of GFAP in the astrocytes. Treatment with insulin and ginger decreased the blood glucose level, prevented the loss of body and cerebellar weights and protected the cerebellum against diabetic induced changes. Insulin-ginger treatment prevented the changes of Purkinje cells and increased the expression of GFAP. The combined effect of both insulin and ginger increased the GFAP expression more than each of them separately. Conclusion: The current results suggested that consumption of ginger together with insulin protected purkinji and glial cells against diabetic induced changes and improved GFAP expression. Thus, ginger could attenuate the neurodegeneration observed in the cerebellum of diabetic rats.
Internal Consistency of Reliability Assessment of the Persian version of the 'Home Falls and Accident Screening Tool'

Introduction: Falling is a common problem among the elderly. Falling indoors and outdoors is highly prevalent among the Iranian elderly. Therefore, identification of the contributing factors at home and their modification can reduce falls and subsequent injuries in the elderly. The goal of this study was to identify the elderly at risk of fall, using the ‘Home Falls and Accident Screening Tool’ (HOME FAST), and to determine the reliability of this tool. Method: Sixty old people were selected from five geographical regions of Tehran through the Local Town Councils. Participants were aged 60 to 65 years, and HOME FAST was used to assess inter rater and test- retest reliability. Results: Test-retest reliability in the study showed that agreement between the items of the Persian version of HOME FAST was over 0.8, which is a very good reliability. The agreement between the domains was 0.65-1.00, indicative of moderate to high reliability. Moreover, the Inter rater reliability of the items was over 0.8, which is also very good. The correlation of each item between the domains was 0.01-1.00, which shows poor to high reliability. Discussion: This study showed that the reliability of the Persian version of HOME FAST is high. This tool can therefore be used as an appropriate screening tool by professionals to take necessary preventive measures for the Iranian elderly population.
What Are We Meeting For? The Consequences of Private Meetings with Investors

Regulation Fair Disclosure was passed in 2000 in response to the concern that certain investors were gaining selective access to privileged firm information. In spite of the passage of this regulation, some investors continue to meet privately with executives. Using a unique set of proprietary records of all one-on-one meetings between senior management and investors for a New York Stock Exchange-traded firm, we investigate the impact of private meetings on investor decisions. We find that when investors meet privately with management they make more informed trading decisions. This improvement in trading is concentrated in hedge funds, but is not present for investment advisors or pension funds. Overall, our results suggest that private meetings help a select group of investors make more informed trading decisions.
Influence of environmental conditions on radial patterns of sap flux density of a 70-year Fagus crenata trees in the Naeba Mountains, Japan

Influences des conditions environnementales sur les patrons radiaux de densites de flux de seve de Fagus crenata âges de 70 ans dans les montagnes de Naeba au Japon. La densite de flux de seve (SFD) a ete mesuree en continu pendant l'annee 1999 avec la methode de dissipation de chaleur dans une foret naturelle de Fagus crenata Blume (hetre du Japon) situee a 900 m d'altitude sur un versant nord pres de la mer du Japon. Les variations radiales journalieres de SFD (SFD jour ) de trois arbres ont ete etudiees pendant la saison de croissance. Le patron radial de SFD jour atteint un maximum juste derriere la couche du cambium et puis decroit de facon exponentielle et est decrit par la fonction Weibull sur la base des mesures des capteurs a des intervalles de temps de 20 mm. Le rapport de 20 a 40 mm (la valeur de 0 a 20 mm etait egale a 100 %) s'est accru de 10 a 32 % a cause du dessechement du sol. Le pic de la valeur de la fonction Weibull passe de 2 a 10 % par ces changements de valeur relative de l'epaisseur du xyleme. La variation du patron radial de SFD jour sous differentes conditions environnementales etait exprimable par le deplacement de la position du pic de la fonction Weibull.