Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
1 BRANDING IN FINANCIAL SERVICES

In this chapter, we propose a new conceptual model of branding in financial services. We argue that the financial crash in 2008, which has been followed by revelations of corporate misdeeds in the sector offer the opportunity to take a new approach to branding. We draw on contemporary marketing theories such as service and service dominant logic, social media and corporate social responsibility to propose a fresh approach to branding which addresses the strategies overly reliant on marketing communications.
Role of Womanism Perceived Sexist Events and Psychological Distress of Sexual Minority Women of Color : The Moderating

Scholars have argued that much of the sexism literature has not acknowledged diversity among women, and they have called for more attention to the intersectionality of the multiple marginalized identities of sexual minority women of color (WOC) in particular. With a sample of 182 sexual minority WOC, we examined (a) the links between perceived lifetime and recent sexist events and psychological distress and (b) the potential moderating role in these relations of womanism (a perspective of feminism that recognizes the roles of both gender and race/ethnicity in the lives of WOC). Findings from our Internet survey indicated that lifetime and recent sexism were related significantly and positively to psychological distress. Womanism was also associated positively with both forms of sexism and psychological distress. In partial support of study hypotheses, womanism moderated the relationship between perceived lifetime sexist events, but not recent sexist events, and psychological distress. More specifically, the link between lifetime sexist events and psychological distress was significant and positive for sexual minority WOC with lower levels of womanism and not significant for those with higher levels of womanism. With regard to practice implications, assessing and exploring sexist events, placing these experiences in a larger sociocultural context of oppression, connecting with the legacy of social activism of marginalized groups, and encouraging supportive networks may diminish distress.
FLOW THROUGH AND OVER GRAVEL GABION WEIRS

Gravel and Rockfill gabions are commonly used in hydraulic structures such as self-spillway dams, cofferdams, and head regulators for water distribution or other purposes. A laboratory experiments were conducted to study the influence of gravel mean size, which consists of gabion, length and height of gabion on its upstream water depth. The present study included two cases of flow regimes, through and transient flow. In this study, different gravel gabion weir models were tested in horizontal laboratory flumes of 10m length, 0.3m width, and 0.5m depth, for various weir lengths and heights using a wide range of discharges. Monosized gravel was used as filling material for the weir models. The gravel samples used in this study were three monosized gravel samples with diameters (-14+10), (-20+14), and (-25+20) mm. The results showed that for throughflow regime; upstream water depth of the gabion weir increases by decreasing the gravel mean size for the same weir length. In addition, for same gravel size, upstream water depth of the gabion increases by increasing the weir length. The results indicated that the relation between upstream water depth and unit discharge passing through gabion weir is linear for through and transient flow regimes. A positive and significant correlation was found between upstream water depth and unit discharge with an average R 2 of 0.99 and 0.97 for through and transient flow regimes respectively. Based on dimensional analysis concept, multiple regression analysis equations were developed for computing the upstream water depth of the gabion weir at throughflow and transition flow regimes.
Determination of Some Vitamins in Three Selected African Green Leafy Vegetables

Increased alertness of the usefulness of vegetable additions in human nutrition has enhanced their consumption as part of the daily diet. The remedial potential of the vegetables is usually ascribed to the high content of crucial vitamins contents. The aim of this study is to determine the presence of vitamins A, E, K, B1, B2, B6, B12 and C in Telfairia occidentalis, Amaranthus cruentus and Mucuna pruriens leaves The vitamins were determined using a standard method and these findings show that all the assayed vitamins were present in the selected vegetables in different amounts. The results show that among the green leafy vegetables studied, the amount of vitamin C (57.450+2.150 mg/100g) was higher compared to other vitamins in T. occidentalis than the other leafy vegetables while vitamin C (38.250+4.900mg/100g), B12 (37.340+1.780mg/100g) and B6 (25.020+2.667) were higher in A. cruentus leaves. Also, M. pruriens had the highest amount of vitamin B6, B2, B1 and E which are 15.493+0.733, 14.990+0.035, 12.530+0.975 and 11.652+0.018 (mg/100g) respectively. Based on the widely reported health benefits of the selected vitamins and the amount found in this study, these vegetables might thwart the incidence of the diverse ailments. Thus, the amounts of variety of vitamins in these vegetables are of great importance on nutritional value of human diet.
A novel approach of synthesizing 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate embedded hydroxyapatite composites for dentistry applications

This research focused to find out chemical and structural suitability of novel Hydroxyapatite composite synthesized using Chloroapatite and 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate as Dental filling material. For that, Solid State Sintering technique was used to produce Hydroxyapatite using Sri Lankan Chloroapatite and Calcium hydroxide. After reinforcing it with 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate, physical and chemical properties were examined via comparing and contrasting it with the human tooth and commercially available Glass Ionomer cement (GIC), used in the field of Dentistry. Results show there is a close similarity between the synthesized product and the human tooth. Therefore, the study concluded that synthesized Hydroxyapatite composite can be used directly as a substitution for commercial dental filling material.
Model Checking of UDP-based Distributed Applications

An extension to the software model checker Java Pathfinder for verifying networked applications using the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is presented. UDP maximizes performance by omitting flow control and connection handling. For instance, media-streaming services often use UDP to reduce delay and jitter. However, because UDP is unreliable (packets are subject to loss, duplication, and reordering), verification of UDP-based applications becomes an issue. Even though unreliable behavior occurs only rarely during testing, it often appears in a production environment due to a larger number of concurrent network accesses. Our tool systematically tests UDP-based applications by producing packet loss, duplication, and reordering for each packet. We have evaluated the performance of our tool in a multithreaded client/server application and detected incorrectly handled packet duplicates in a file transfer client.
Environmental Conservation 1-2019 Evaluating Myopic Loss Aversion of Forestland Owners

Attracting forestland owners to participate in carbon markets can be challenging for several reasons including offset price volatility, legislative uncertainties, high costs of offset project development, long contract lengths, and landowners’ risk preferences. In this article, we elicit risk preferences and investigate Myopic Loss Aversion (MLA) of forestland owners using an economic experiment. The economic experiment is a betting game and we find that forestland owners exhibit MLA because they bet higher when returns from their investments are evaluated less frequently. Our results provide valuable information for developing carbon market protocols, especially in setting optimal evaluation periods of forest carbon offset projects.
Title Performance Management ’ s Role in the Steering of Executive Agencies : Layered , Imbedded , or Disjointed ?

The article analyses the Norwegian state administration’s performance management practices, based on a study of performance contracts between 77 Norwegian executive agencies and their parent ministries. The results show that most performance objectives target agencies’ outputs and outcomes, suggesting that the “right version” of performance management is practiced. Two perspectives are developed to hypothesize about performance management’s relationship to legal, fiscal, legal and direct behavioral steering. The layering perspective assumes ministries use performance management to repair gaps left by limitations in the other control instruments. The imbedding perspective assumes ministries develop performance management practices that uphold intentions for delegated autonomy. The layering perspective receives some support, but overall, it seems decisions about how to use each governance instrument are quite disjointed, without much concern for harmony with how other instruments are used. The article also shows that performance management practices are influenced by contextual factors like the number of tasks an agency performs, organizational heterogeneity, and whether an agency was established before or after the general introduction of performance management.
Corporate Social Performance and Employees : Construed Perceptions , Attributions and Behavioral Outcomes

One of the greatest knowledge gaps in the extant Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) literature appears to be related to issues addressing how employees assess and respond to CSR programs. Against this background, this study draws upon attribution theory to examine how employee skepticism towards CSR initiatives relates to Corporate Social Performance (CSP) perceptions and consequently to important work outcomes. Moreover, we integrate social identity and perceived external prestige perspectives to examine whether CSR-induced attributions are related to construed customer CSR-induced attributions. Finally, we investigate whether construed customer CSP perceptions moderate the CSP perceptions-work outcomes linkage. Based on a sample of 438 employees, we find that (a) employees’ CSP perceptions are related to their CSR-induced attributions, which are, in turn, related to construed customer CSR-induced attributions; (b) employees’ CSP perceptions are linked to affective organizational commitment and this relationship gets stronger with higher levels of construed customer CSP perceptions; and (c) CSP perceptions relate to work outcomes – at least partially – though affective organizational commitment.
Demographic Change and the German Current Account Surplus

This paper shows that demographic change plays an important role in the formation of a country&apos;s net foreign asset position. An ageing population both lowers the demand and increases the supply of capital in an economy. Fewer workers reduce the required capital stock. As a longer life span leads to a longer retirement phase individuals save more. Simultaneously, necessary adjustments of pay-as-you-go pension systems to an ageing society affect aggregate savings. Taking Germany as an example, this paper applies a two-region model with endogenous savings and labour supply that is augmented with demographic data projections for OECD countries. It shows that demographic change in Germany is an important determinant of the current account. Counterfactual pension reform simulations show that a fixed pension level increases the current account while a fixed pension contribution rate lowers it. An increase in the retirement age results in a strong negative effect on the current account as it reduces the capital supply and increases the capital demand in an economy.
Fatal Adenovirus Pneumonia Despite Extracorporeal Life Support Treatments

Adenovirüs alt solunum yolu enfeksiyonlarının tüm yaşlarda önemli bir etkenidir. Klinik ve laboratuvar olarak diğer virüs ve bakteriyel enfeksiyonlardan ayrımı oldukça zordur. Akut solunum sıkıntısı sendromuna nadiren sebep olsa da diğer etkenlerle karşılaştırıldığında daha yüksek morbidite ve mortaliteye sahiptir. Bu makalede klinik ve laboratuvar bulguları ile bakteriyel pnömoni ön tanısı alan ve hızlı bir şekilde akut solunum sıkıntısı sendromuna ilerleyen çocuk hastada, vücut dışı destek tedavilerine rağmen ölümcül seyreden adenovirüs enfeksiyonundan bahsedilmiştir.
Multi-Teacher Knowledge Transfer for Optimal CRN Spectrum Handoff Control with Hybrid Priority Queueing

In this work, we target an optimal spectrum handoff design in cognitive radio networks (CRNs). It has two innovative designs: (1) Hybrid, rule-based priority queueing model for spectrum handoff : To overcome the drawbacks of preemptive or non-preemptive resume priority queueing model used by the secondary users (SUs), we propose a hybrid queueing model with discretion rule to characterize the spectrum access priority among SUs. Such a hybrid queueing model is then used to calculate the channel waiting time for spectrum handoff decision. (2) Multiteacher knowledge transfer for intelligent spectrum handoff : Unlike existing CRN cognition engine designs that focus on spectrum adaptation through SU self-learning (i.e., a SU learns how to adapt to the dynamical CRN radio conditions), we propose the concept of multi-teacher knowledge transfer, which allows multiple SUs that already have mature spectrum adaptation strategies to transfer their learning results to an inexperienced SU. We will solve who and how issues, that is, who should be the teachers and how multiple teachers can transfer the knowledge to a student SU. Our simulation results show that the proposed new designs can improve the spectrum handoff accuracy under complex CRN radio contexts.
Continuous Optimization On a Feasible – Infeasible Two-Population ( FI-2 Pop ) genetic algorithm for constrained optimization : Distance tracing and no free lunch

We explore data-driven methods for gaining insight into the dynamics of a two-population genetic algorithm (GA), which has been effective in tests on constrained optimization problems. We track and compare one population of feasible solutions and another population of infeasible solutions. Feasible solutions are selected and bred to improve their objective function values. Infeasible solutions are selected and bred to reduce their constraint violations. Interbreeding between populations is completely indirect, that is, only through their offspring that happen to migrate to the other population. We introduce an empirical measure of distance, and apply it between individuals and between population centroids to monitor the progress of evolution. We find that the centroids of the two-populations approach each other and stabilize. This is a valuable characterization of convergence. We find the infeasible population influences, and sometimes dominates, the genetic material of the optimum solution. Since the infeasible population is not evaluated by the objective function, it is free to explore boundary regions, where the optimum is likely to be found. Roughly speaking, the No Free Lunch theorems for optimization show that all blackbox algorithms (such as Genetic Algorithms) have the same average performance over the set of all problems. As such, our algorithm would, on average, be no better than random search or any other blackbox search method. However, we provide two general theorems that give conditions that render null the No Free Lunch results for the constrained optimization problem class we study. The approach taken here thereby escapes the No Free Lunch implications, per se. 2007 Published by Elsevier B.V.
Appraisal ‘ Embodied ’ and ‘ Embedded ’ ?

Emotion theories in present philosophical discussion propose different models of relationship between feeling and appraisal. The multicomponent model considers appraisal as separate component and distinguishes it from feeling and physiological body changes thus presupposing what may be called ‘disembodied’ and ‘disembedded’ appraisal as representational. The recently emerged concept of enactment, in contrast, argues that appraisal is closely linked to feeling and physiological body changes presupposing what can be called ‘embodied’and ‘embedded’appraisal as relational. The aim of the paper is to investigate which concept of appraisal, the ‘disembedded’ or the ‘embedded’ one, is better compatible with current neuroimaging data on emotion processing and thus neurophilosophically more tenable. The ‘disembodied’ and ‘disembedded’ concept implies distinct and independent brain regions underlying feeling and appraisal whereas ‘embodied’ and ‘embedded’ appraisal implies overlapping and dependent brain regions. Recent neuroimaging studies demonstrate that medial and lateral prefrontal cortical regions are involved in both feeling and appraisal and that there seems to be reciprocal modulation between these regions. Though preliminary, these data suggest that feeling and appraisal are associated with different patterns of neural activity across overlapping and interdependent brain regions. I therefore conclude that current neuroscientific evidence is rather in favor of the ‘embodied’ and Journal of Consciousness Studies, 15, No. ? , 2008, pp. ? –? Correspondence: Georg Northoff, Dept. of Psychiatry, University of Magdeburg, Leipziger Strasse 44, 39120 Magdeburg, Germany. Email: georg.northoff@medizin.uni-magdeburg ‘embedded’concept of appraisal as relational than the one of ‘disembodied’ and ‘disembedded’ appraisal as representational that is presupposed in current multicomponent theories of emotions.
OXIDATIVE STRESS-INDUCED VASCULAR DYSFUNCTION: MECHANISTIC PERSPECTIVES AND PREVENTIVE STRATEGIES

In this mini review we discuss the importance of various oxidative stress promoting agents like oxidized- LDL, iron homeostasis, hyperhomocysteinemia, diabetes and inflammation in inducing endothelial dysfunction leading to the cardiovascular abnormalities. It is now clear that nitric oxide plays a significant role in vascular protection through its radical scavenging abilities and also via inducing intracellular signaling cascades mediated by cGMP/cAMP pathways. The NO/cGMP/cAMP signaling pathway mitigates transferrin-iron-mediated oxidative stress and apoptosis in endothelial cells through induction of immunoproteasomes resulting in increased proteolysis. Herein, we also comment up on the usefulness of mitochondria-targeted therapies in maintaining endothelial functions and also utilizing certain caloric restriction mimics to prevent age-associated vascular disorders.
INSTITUTE OF ECONOMIC STUDIES WORKING PAPER SERIES W 07 : 10 October 2007 Aging and job security

We model a firm’s choice as to the age composition of dismissed workers for different assumptions about the level of firing costs. We fin d that when the cost of firing is independent of age, a higher level of firing costs will induce firms to fire their younger workers while lower costs induce them to fire the o lder ones. A corresponding effect is not found in the age dimension of the hiring dec ision. It follows that job protection favours more senior workers even when the cost of f iring is independent of age and seniority.
Effect of Decreasing Saponin Levels to Nutrition of Extracted Moringa Leaf Powder

Moringa oleifera leaves have been used as food material because it has high nutritional value. Many research have been conducted on moringa leaves extract as functional food and the additional material of nutrient for some food products (biscuit, bread, jelly drink), which it looked that adding moringa leaves extract above 5% decrease the consumer acceptance level toward the product because of the strongest unpleasant aroma and bitter taste, which is caused by saponins content in moringa leaves extract is still high enough.This study aimed to obtain the optimal temperature and time of blanching process to reduce saponin level, and the appropriate solvents to extract nutrients from Moringa oleifera leaves so that Moringa leaves flour is obtained with no bitter taste (low saponin) and nutritious (water, protein, optimal vitamin C and vitamin A) as fortification ingredients for various food products. The results showed that the blanching treatment at 75 ° C for 5 minutes (T1W1) combined with 70% ethanol (P1) solvent was able to produce Moringa leaves flour with the lowest saponin content of 0.790%, but with nutrients that still met the requirements, namely water 6.508%, protein 28.705%, Vitamin C 90.77 mg 100 g-1 and Vitamin A 3590 µg 100 g-1.
New species of Leporinus ( Characiformes : Anostomidae ) from the highlands of the Guiana Shield in Venezuela

A new species of Leporinus is described using morphological data and compared to all other species of the family. Specimens were illustrated using digital photograph, measured using digital calipers, and had teeth, scales, and fin rays counted under a stereomicroscope. The new species is distinguished from all other Anostomidae, except Anostomus anostomus, A. brevior, A. ternetzi, Hypomasticus despaxi, Leporinus arcus, and L. striatus, by having four dark longitudinal stripes on body. The new species is distinguished from aforementioned species by having terminal mouth with four teeth on the premaxilla, 12 series of scales around caudal peduncle, and 34 to 36 scales in the lateral line. The new species is remarkably similar to Leporinus arcus, which occurs on the opposite side of Guyana Shield highlands. The new species and L. arcus are possibly closely related to Leporinus gomesi, L. granti, L. lebaili, L. melanostictus, L. nijsseni, and L. santosi.
Spatial Aggregation Bias in Implicit Prices of Environmental Amenities

Applications of hedonic price functions aimed at eliciting implicit prices of environmental goods generally rely on spatially aggregated measures to proxy for micro-level perceptions of these amenities. This paper provides empirical evidence of the bias that arises in the elicitation of these implicit prices due to spatial aggregation. Cross-sectional data on more than 12,000 rental homes is used to derive implicit prices of air quality, using households' perceptions of air pollution aggregated at different spatial levels. Results show that higher aggregation levels add a downward bias to marginal willingness-to-pay measures for air quality improvements, increasing point estimates of the price of air quality. These findings suggest caution when interpreting implicit prices elicited from spatially aggregated measures of environmental amenities. Email: nmrivera@alaska.edu. Part of this work was done during Rivera's doctoral studies at Michigan State University. Citation: Nathaly M Rivera, (2019) ''Spatial Aggregation Bias in Implicit Prices of Environmental Amenities'', Economics Bulletin, Volume 39, Issue 2, pages 1184-1194 Contact: Nathaly M Rivera nmrivera@alaska.edu. Submitted: December 14, 2018. Published: May 15, 2019.
Impurity transport and confinement in the TJ-II Stellarator

Abstract. In this study, performed by injecting impurities using the laser ablation method, we address impurity transport in the TJ-II stellarator for a broad range of experimental situations in electron cyclotron heated plasmas (ECRH): i.e. for a density scan, a magnetic configuration scan, a power scan and its dependence with power deposition profile. An analysis of impurity relaxation, defined by means of a stretched exponential, is presented in order to search for systematic behaviour in the tau and beta parameters of this function.