Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Saving, growth, and age dependency for OECD countries

Using threshold effects we find that as countries experience an increase in old-age dependency rates, countries with lower domestic saving rates, moderate current account deficits, and are more open to trade can actually experience an increase in GDP growth rates. These countries have greater access to capital markets which will allow them to sustain economic growth in light of substantial increases in their old-age dependency rates. Countries with a lower savings rate are able to rely on domestic consumption and more importantly can rely on foreign investment to offset the decline in worker productivity caused by exodus of domestic workers. Although the effects of an increase in the old-age dependency rate on GDP growth rates are smaller for countries with lower saving rates, these countries also have significantly lower growth rates prior to the increase in the old-age dependency rate. We conclude the effects of population ageing for many high saving countries will depend on their desire to reduce saving rates at old-age dependency rates begin to increase. The ability for lower saving countries to maintain stable growth rates hinges on their ability to sustain current account deficits.
The ABCs of Bank PBRs

Price-to-book ratios have been unusually low for many banks since the Great Financial Crisis. Ratios below one, in particular, have been seen as reflecting market concerns about banks' health and profitability as well as the need for shifts in business models. But what drives these valuations globally? What explains consistently low levels for some banks and jurisdictions? This special feature proposes an empirical valuation methodology based on the intangible value attached to bank assets and liabilities. Our model fits the data well across time and banks, suggesting that measures targeting traditional drivers of profitability, such as the proactive management of non-performing loans, remain essential in enhancing bank valuations.
Differentiation in Higher Education: The Impact of Parental Education

The widening of participation in higher education in recent decades has been heralded as a means toward the reduction of social class inequalities in higher education. Research findings indicate, though, that simply increasing the number of people attending higher education does not mean that social inequalities have been substantially reduced. The mass expansion of higher education has existed alongside a differentiated and stratified higher education. Students from more privileged socioeconomic backgrounds usually study in prestigious higher education institutions and departments which offer more ambitious occupational trajectories, while those from less privileged socioeconomic backgrounds usually attend lower status institutions and courses of study. Using official quantitative data, in this article we explore the correlation between familial cultural capital and distribution in higher education in Greece. The research findings show that the Greek higher education sector is differentiated, since students with parents who are higher education graduates are overrepresented in prestigious higher education departments and courses of study. Based on the research findings, we argue that initiatives to reduce social class inequalities in higher education need to tackle the issue of social class stratification in higher education and the unequal representation of people from different socioeconomic backgrounds in prestigious fields of study.
The Effects of Verbal Interactions on Individual and Team Performance in Engineering Design

Problem solving and decision-making, especially in team settings, is a critical but a challenging skill for engineering students. Discourse within groups can influence decision quality and learning outcomes. To investigate the relationship between individual contributions to discourse and team performance, this study explored the role of individual and team level factors as predictors of learning outcomes in a problem focused on sustainability. Audio and video data of engineering student teams have been coded for question, conflict, and reasoning episodes to explore the connection between team dynamics, quality of collaboration, and individual learning outcomes. These data were analyzed using a quantitative discourse analysis approach. We found that question type episodes has a significant impact on learning outcomes.
A study of the risk factors related to ectopic pregnancy in intrauterine device users

Objectives: Analysis of the risk factors related to ectopic pregnancy (EP) among intrauterine device (IUD) users in order to reduce the risk of EP from IUD users and to safeguard women’s health. Methods: A total of 29 EP cases were collected and 1:1 matched controls in IUD users by case-control study. Results: The data showed that pregnancies had significant association with EP, two pregnancies and three or more pregnancies were increased the risk of EP, adjusted odds ratio AOR = 14.39, 95% CI : 2.37, 87.49 and AOR = 14.87, 95% CI : 2.27, 97.38 respectively. The risk of EP in women of previous abdominal or pelvic surgery was also significantly increased ( AOR = 4.43, 95% CI : 1.04, 18.92). While no significant association have been seen with age, first or second time use IUD, periods of insertion, types of IUD, and copper surface area of IUD. Conclusion: The results suggest that the number of pregnancies significantly increase the risk of EP, there is no significant association between the risk of EP and copper surface area or shape of IUD used. Therefore, a woman’s individual risk factors will lead to a rise in the risk of EP, there is a need to the suitability of her contraceptive. It is beneficial to reduce the risk of EP by the prevention of unwilling pregnancy and induced abortion.
Network of Bee-plant Interactions and Recognition of Key Species in Semideciduous Forest

Bees are the most effective pollinators of native plants, contributing to forest maintenance. Obtaining information about networks of bee-plant interactions is critical for conservation and habitat management of native pollinators. This study aimed to determine the richness of flower-visiting bees in a fragment of Semideciduous Forest (SF) in Uberlândia-MG, identify the plants visited by them and build a network of bee-plant interactions in this fragment. The study was conducted between October 2010 and September 2011 in a transect of 200 meters on the edge of the forest, with monthly collections performed from 8:00 am to 2:30 pm. We constructed the network of bee-plant interactions and calculated the NODF index and betweenness centrality. We collected 70 bee species and 25 plant species. The network of interactions was nested (NODF = 10.97, P = 0:03). Apis mellifera Linnaeus and Merremia macrocalyx (Ruiz & Pav.) O'Donell showed the highest centrality. The nestedness of the network of bee-plant interactions gives it stability, demonstrating its importance to the fragment’s conservation. It is suggested that M. macrocalyx is a key species in this network, since this plant attracted the highest number of bee species and showed the highest centrality, contributing to network cohesion.
Quantity Theory of Money: True or False

I convert F=ma into m=F÷a arithmetically as economists convert V=PY÷M into MV=PY. m=F÷a predicts absurdly that there is no mass if acceleration is zero. For example, you do not have mass when you sleep. Similarly, MV=PY predicts ridiculously that there is no aggregate income if there is no money. In fact, barter economy operates. As force is scalar in F=ma calculated as mass multiply acceleration so that force is not cause to determine mass in m=F÷a, income velocity is scalar in V=PY÷M calculated as ex-post nominal aggregate income is divided by ex-post quantity of money stock so that aggregate income does not depend on income velocity. Since the symbol V in V=PY÷M is scalar and the symbol V in MV=PY is cause so that MV=PY is not equivalent to V=PY÷M, arithmetical conversion is an invalid method to prove MV=PY. In other words, it is computation that MV=PY is equivalent to V=PY÷M as exactly as m=F÷a is equivalent to F=ma while it is thinking that MV=PY and V=PY÷M are different. Hence, quantity theory of money is false.
Demand Systems from Cross Section Data: An Experiment for Indonesia

A linear version of the Almost Ideal Demand System and the Multinomial Linear Logit Model are used to estimate Indonesia's food demand system in order to support policy analysis for Indonesia's five-year plan. The resulting estimated elasticities vary significantly across economic levels. These elasticities are evaluated and compared with other studies in Indonesian and other selected Asian countries. Policy reforms targeted to changing food prices will cause predictable results.
Low grade chondrosarcoma: Is long-term follow-up necessary?

Low grade chondrosarcoma is currently followed up with the same schedule as all other chondrosarcoma patients. When treated adequately, low grade chondrosarcoma appears to have a very benign follow up course. Patients and Methods: A retrospective study of follow ups was done on fifty six patients treated for chondrosarcoma at the Pretoria musculoskeletal tumour unit from 1987–2009, evaluating the outcome and presence of local recurrence. The lesions were divided into four histological grades; atypical enchondroma (grade 0), low grade chondrosarcoma (grade 1), intermediate grade chondrosarcoma (grade 2), and high grade chondrosarcoma (grade3). Results: Biopsy revealed forty-six patients with low grade chondrosarcoma (82%), nine cases of grade 2 chondrosarcoma (16%), and one patient with a metastatic mesenchymal chondrosarcoma. The femur and humerus were the commonest sites involved, while the axial skeleton was only affected in three cases, all of whom had more aggressive lesions. Forty-nine patients had no recurrence after a mean period of 57.5 months follow up. Forty- two of those had low grade lesions, and seven patients had grade 2 lesions. Two patients with low grade lesions were lost to follow up. Three patients involved in the study presented with local recurrence, but no metastases were detected radiographically. Two patients died, one with metastatic mesenchymal chondrosarcoma involving the scapula, and the other with a grade 2 lesion of the pelvis. Conclusion: We believe that adequately treated low grade chondrosarcomas have a very low local recurrence rate. When faced with recurrence, it rarely presents with distant metastases. A revised schedule of visits at 3 and 6 months followed by yearly visits for five years appears to be adequate for timely detection and treatment of any local recurrence.
Theory of Diversification and Cross-subsidy for Eurobonds

In the face of excessive yield spreads on sovereign bonds in the European Monetary Union, the issuance of joint debt commonly known as Eurobonds has been proposed to ease the access to credit for fiscally struggling countries. This paper is the first to consider Eurobonds in terms of diversification and cross-subsidy benefits. It shows that the risk-sharing nature of Eurobonds lowers sovereign default probability in a non-replicable way for investors thereby lowering investment losses on a macro-level. Countries benefit as well from lower default probability that prevents sovereign bankruptcy costs. On a micro-level, fiscally strong countries have to weigh the benefits of Eurobonds against the two-fold costs of higher interest payments and financial support for defaulting countries. With further research, the argument brought forward in this paper will contribute to a more comprehensive debate about the benefits and costs of Eurobonds.
Macroinvertebrates, Heavy Metals and PAHs in Urban Watercourses

Good quality stream water and sediments are crucial for the support of healthy stream flora and fauna but urban runoff degrades watercourses leaving a legacy of pollution in the stream sediments. The sediment pollution load influences the development of macroinvertebrates which, as the lowest member of the food chain, influences the whole ecological structure. This review focuses on defining the sources and impacts of zinc, nickel, copper and oil derivative polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) contaminants in urban runoff. The impact of pollutants as measured by laboratory, field and modelling procedures are considered. Land use, position and connectivity of the runoff and sediment are seen to have an effect on the ecological integrity of the watercourse but case examples are sparse. The literature indicates that while reduced species diversity has been identified at a number of sites the dynamics are not well understood nor well modelled. These results are compared with field evidence from a study of 62 headwater streams with urban industrial and motorway land uses. From the review and field results it is evident that there is still an important need for process-based field measurements of urban water quality parameters. Forecasting the ecological status of watercourses would seem to benefit from data on sediment chemistry that considers the interaction effects of metals and PAHs.
Neotethys closure history of Anatolia: insights from 40Ar–39Ar geochronology and P–T estimation in high‐pressure metasedimentary rocks

The multiple high‐pressure (HP), low‐temperature (LT) metamorphic units of Western and Central Anatolia offer a great opportunity to investigate the subduction‐ and continental accretion‐related evolution of the eastern limb of the long‐lived Aegean subduction system. Recent reports of the HP–LT index mineral Fe‐Mg‐carpholite in three metasedimentary units of the Gondwana‐derived Anatolide–Tauride continental block (namely the Afyon Zone, the Ören Unit and the southern Menderes Massif) suggest a more complicated scenario than the single‐continental accretion model generally put forward in previous studies. This study presents the first isotopic dates (white mica 40Ar–39Ar geochronology), and where possible are combined with P–T estimates (chlorite thermometry, phengite barometry, multi‐equilibrium thermobarometry), on carpholite‐bearing rocks from these three HP–LT metasedimentary units. It is shown that, in the Afyon Zone, carpholite‐bearing assemblages were retrogressed through greenschist‐facies conditions at c. 67–62 Ma. Early retrograde stages in the Ören Unit are dated to 63–59 Ma. In the Kurudere–Nebiler Unit (HP Mesozoic cover of the southern Menderes Massif), HP retrograde stages are dated to c. 45 Ma, and post‐collisional cooling to c. 26 Ma. These new results support that the Ören Unit represents the westernmost continuation of the Afyon Zone, whereas the Kurudere–Nebiler Unit correlates with the Cycladic Blueschist Unit of the Aegean Domain. In Western Anatolia, three successive HP–LT metamorphic belts thus formed: the northernmost Tavşanlı Zone (c. 88–82 Ma), the Ören–Afyon Zone (between 70 and 65 Ma), and the Kurudere–Nebiler Unit (c. 52–45 Ma). The southward younging trend of the HP–LT metamorphism from the upper and internal to the deeper and more external structural units, as in the Aegean Domain, points to the persistence of subduction in Western Anatolia between 93–90 and c. 35 Ma. After the accretion of the Menderes–Tauride terrane, in Eocene times, subduction stopped, leading to continental collision and associated Barrovian‐type metamorphism. Because, by contrast, the Aegean subduction did remain active due to slab roll‐back and trench migration, the eastern limb (below Southwestern Anatolia) of the Hellenic slab was dramatically curved and consequently teared. It therefore is suggested that the possibility for subduction to continue after the accretion of buoyant (e.g. continental) terranes probably depends much on palaeogeography.
Late-Twentieth-Century Climatology and Trends of Surface Humidity and Temperature in China

Abstract Climatological surface temperature and humidity variables for China are presented based on 6-hourly data from 196 stations for the period of 1961–90. Seasonal and annual means for daytime, nighttime, and the full day are shown. The seasonal cycle of moisture is primarily controlled by the east Asia monsoon system, with dominant factors of temperature change in northern and western China and of moisture advection associated with monsoon circulations in the southeast. Trends during 1951–94 are estimated for each station and for four regions of the country, with attention paid to the effects of changes in instrumentation, observing time, and station locations. The data show evidence of increases in both temperature and atmospheric moisture content. Temperature and specific humidity trends are larger at nighttime than daytime and larger in winter than summer. Moisture increases are observed over most of China. The increases are several percent per decade for specific humidity, and several tenths of a.
Adding value and HRM practice: evidence-based HR

We argue that although HR has a lot of tools and practices, it still lacks an overarching decision science that defines how organizations can obtain strategic success through their human resources. In order to support companies’ informed HRM decision-making, we recommend establishing a tradition of evidencebased HR practices. Evidence-based HR is a family of practices, combining research evidence with contextual information and individual judgment of HR professionals as essential sources of information. After having reviewed implications for HR practice from scholarly work, economic and societal trends as well as business tools from other managerial domains, we discuss the potential of Talentship as an evidence-based decision science and as a first step towards a general way of thinking to support HR decisions. As such, we believe the present chapter provides a significant contribution to the insights of practitioners and scholars into the further development towards evidencebased HR.
Formation dynamics of subsurface hydrocarbon intrusions following the Deepwater Horizon blowout

Hydrocarbons released following the Deepwater Horizon (DH) blowout were found in deep, subsurface horizontal intrusions, yet there has been little discussion about how these intrusions formed. We have combined measured (or estimated) observations from the DH release with empirical relationships developed from previous lab experiments to identify the mechanisms responsible for intrusion formation and to characterize the DH plume. Results indicate that the intrusions originate from a stratification‐dominated multiphase plume characterized by multiple subsurface intrusions containing dissolved gas and oil along with small droplets of liquid oil. Unlike earlier lab measurements, where the potential density in ambient water decreased linearly with elevation, at the DH site it varied quadratically. We have modified our method for estimating intrusion elevation under these conditions and the resulting estimates agree with observations that the majority of the hydrocarbons were found between 800 and 1200 m.
The Mediating Role of Involvement and Values on Wine Consumption Frequency in France

The objective of this research is to give an insight into wine consumption frequency in France, a key factor in understanding the decreasing tendency of wine consumption during the last 40 years. A representative sample of 4010 households has been surveyed, and measures of product involvement and personal values have been introduced, with usual measures of consumption and attitudes towards wine. Involvement and values have been considered as mediators of attitudes constructs and drinking behaviours. Cluster analysis reveals that there are two groups of regular users and two groups of occasional drinkers, who differ not only in terms of involvement and values, but also in their perceptions of wine attributes (health, price, taste for wine etc.). The authors concludes with strategic recommendations to wine marketers.
Diversification, Propping and Monitoring - Business Groups, Firm Performance and the Indian Economic Transition

The industrial landscape of many emerging economies is characterized by diversified business groups. Given the well-known costs of diversification, their prevalence in emerging economies is a puzzle that has not been completely resolved. While there is evidence that business groups in emerging economies confer diversification benefits on group affiliated firms by substituting for missing institutions and markets, whether such benefits persist over the economic transition as institutions and markets develop is unclear. We investigate this issue in the context of the wide-ranging transformation of the Indian economy over the past decade. We find that business group affiliation continues to generate higher market valuation vis--vis standalone firms ten years into the transition, but diversification is not the source of these benefits. Instead, we find that propping through profit transfers among firms within a group and better monitoring through group level directorial interlocks explains the higher market valuation of business group affiliated firms. The effect of propping and directorial interlocks on firm value depends on the equity stakes of the controlling shareholders. Propping appears to be the source of group affiliation benefits in firms with below median cash flow rights of the controlling shareholders, while director interlocks are the primary source of the group effect for firms where the controlling shareholders have above median cash flow rights.
Biocontrol potentiality of plant growth promoting bacteria (PGPR) - Pseudomonas fluorescens and Bacillus subtilis: A review

Plant growth in agricultural soils is influenced by many abiotic and biotic factors. There is a thin layer of soil immediately surrounding plant roots that is an extremely important and active area for root activity and metabolism which is known as rhizosphere. The rhizosphere concept was first introduced by Hiltner to describe the narrow zone of soil surrounding the roots where microbe populations are stimulated by root activities. A large number of microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, protozoa and algae coexist in the rhizosphere. Bacteria are the most abundant among them. Plants select those bacteria contributing most to their fitness by releasing organic compounds through exudates creating a very selective environment where diversity is low. Since, bacteria are the most abundant microorganisms in the rhizosphere, it is highly probable that they influence the plants physiology to a greater extent, especially considering their competitiveness in root colonization. The present review deals with the following topics: Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR), occurrence of PGPR, nitrogen fixation by PGPR, Bacillus species, Pseudomonas species, Production of plant growth promoting substances by PGPR isolates, PGPR as biocontrol agent and antagonistic activity of PGPR isolates against phytopathogens. Key words: Biocontrol, plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR), Pseudomonas fluorescens, Bacillus subtilis.