Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Exports from the Brazilian automotive sector to the Southern Common Market: Trade diversion or cost reduction?

The automotive sector is one of the sectors in which trade between mercosur countries has grown most strongly. This article examines the possibility that trade diversion occurred in that sector during the period 1991-2010, assuming that product costs fell as a result of market expansion. The analysis is based on the concepts of “cost reduction” and “trade suppression” coined by Corden (1972), which capture the effects of economies of scale. Indices of regional orientation and revealed comparative advantages are used in combination to assess whether the trade bloc is evolving in line with comparative advantages. The results suggest efficiency gains for automotive-sector products, exports of which from Brazil to mercosur grew more vigorously because the expanded and relatively protected market made it possible to exploit the economies of scale that are characteristic of the automotive industry.
The Limits of Design and Engineering Outsourcing: Performance Integration and the Unfulfilled Promises of Modularity

Outsourcing design and engineering tasks in product development is increasingly popular. However, firms that outsource design and engineering tasks often experience problems. So far, no satisfactory answer exists regarding the question to what extent design and engineering tasks can be outsourced before negative consequences occur. We address this gap. This paper identifies the limits of design and engineering outsourcing in product development, and the sources of these limits. To do so, it investigates the organizational challenges that a major European automotive manufacturer faced when it decided to adopt an extreme form of design and engineering outsourcing. Based on an in-depth case study, we identify the sources of problems with outsourcing design and engineering tasks in product development, and shed light on the limits of design and engineering outsourcing in product development.
Local Willingness-to-Pay Estimates for the Remediation of the Sydney Tar Ponds in Nova Scotia

The Sydney Tar Ponds and Coke Ovens site in Nova Scotia, Canada, is among the most toxic hazardous waste sites in North America. This study presents hedonic estimates of the willingness-to-pay for remediation of the site using housing sales data from urban Sydney. Negative impacts are estimated with a maximum likelihood spatial autoregressive model of property values. Premiums on homes farther from the site are found to be substantial, and, when aggregated into a community willingness-to-pay measure ($169.2 million), cover a large proportion of the estimated remediation costs.
Biomonitoring of heavy metals pollution in Lake Burullus, Northern Delta, Egypt

Aquatic macrophytes and benthos are unchangeable biological filters and they carry out purification of the water bodies by accumulating dissolved metals and toxins in their tissues. In view of their potential to entrap several toxic heavy metals, 3 groups of benthos and 6 macrophytes (submerged species: Potamogeton pectinatus, Ceratophyllum demersum and Najas armata); (floating species: Lemna gibba and Eichhornia crassipes root and shoot) and (emergent species: Phragmites australis shoot) were collected from 15 different locations on Lake Burullus and analyzed for determination of 6 heavy metals (Fe, Zn, Ni, Cu, Pb and Cd) contenets. The study was aimed at understanding the importance of these benthos and macrophytes in accumulation of toxic metals and suggesting preservation and restoration of Lake Burullus ecosystem. The distribution of the investigated metals in water, sediments, benthos and aquatic plants of the lake showed that, the eastern and eastern southern parts of the lake have generally higher concentrations of heavy metals than the western and middle one. Potamogeton pectinatus showed high contents of Pb, Cd and Zn respectively. On the other hands Eichhornia crassipes showed high level of copper while in Ceratophyllum demersum high concentration of Iron was detected. The present study reveals that the aquatic macrophytes and benthos play a very significant role in removing of the different metals from the aquatic environments and they probably reduced the effect of high concentrations of these metals on the lake ecosystem. Bioaccumulation factor values showed that the trend of accumulation of most metals in the benthos was as follows: Mullusca > Arthropoda > Annelida > and in aquatic plants as: Lemna gibba> Potamogeton pectinatus > Ceratophyllum demersum > Eichhornia crassipes Root > Najas armata>phragmites australis shoot> Eichhornia crassipes shoot, which make them suitable candidates to be used in biomonitoring surveys as a good tools for heavy metal pollution markers, in the biological treatment of the polluted water and in sustainable development of Lake Burullus. Key words: Biofilter, bioaccumulation, sustainable developments, biological treatment, macro benthos, aquatic plants, sustainable management.
The Interrelationship between Corporate Ownership Structure and Leverage

Previous studies on the agency model of the firm extensively recognize the managerial ownership and external debt as important tools in mitigating agency conflicts and enhancing firm value. They also find that increase in the external monitors, for example the institutional investors, can actually play a useful role in limiting agency problems in the firm. This paper, using 1351 companies from UK between 2004 and 2008 explores the impact of institutional holdings on managerial ownership and debt policy in an integrated framework by using a simultaneous equations estimation procedure (2SLS). The findings show that there is a significant negative relationship between institutional ownership and corporate leverage. This escalates the agency costs of debt because debt holders increase the rate of borrowing when they realize that institutional ownership increases in such a way as to jeopardize their wealth because using the control power they accumulate from their ownership, institutional shareholders may engage in riskier projects.In addition, corporate leverage is also governed by managerial ownership and revealed a statistically significant negative relationship. At the same time, debt appears as a key governance variable as it moderates private benefits extraction from corporate free cash flows as reported in the results of this paper that companies with higher average debt ratios accumulate less free cash flows as opposed to companies with lower average debt ratios.
The Effect of Cost of Living on Employee Wages in the Hospitality Industry

This study examines the effect of cost of living (COL) on employee wages in the hotel industry. Although prior research clearly indicates that COL and wages are positively related, there is a lack of research explicitly considering the specific nature of the relationship between COL and wages, and potential moderators to the relationship. Using a dataset containing information on 97 jobs over 67 cities, our study shows that while there is a positive effect of COL on wages, the adjustment is not equal in magnitude to the difference that the COL levels would indicate. Furthermore, the effect of COL decreases as the average wage for the given job increases. We also show differences in COL’s effects for full-service versus limited-service hotels. We illustrate the implications of our findings by showing predicted wage rates for four jobs in five different cities, at both full-service and limit-service hotels. The study has implications for research, particularly for future work on COL and compensation. The findings also have important implications for practice, and may be particularly useful when managers need to set pay levels when local market data are unavailable.
The Outcome of Treatment of Postoperative Enterocutaneous Fistula using High Negative Pressure Vacuum and Some Modified Normal Oral Diet: A Review of 51 Cases Over a 4 - Year Period, Iraq

Enterocutanaeous fistula mean connection between stomach, small or large bowel and skin with loss of gut content, about 75 90% are postoperative following any laparotomy especially of trauma and previous laparotomy of other procedures, may be classified depending on etiological, physiological and anatomical factors, on this classification the management of ECFs closure rate depend. The morbidity and mortality related to fluid and electrolytes losses, sepsis and malnutrition. So treatment include after diagnosis to correct fluid and electrolytes deficit with other elements by controlling fistula output by a lot of things, prevention and treatment of malnutrition by oral diet, enteral or parenteral nutrition accordingly with control of sepsis and great care and strict follow up of patients that mean conservatively, if closure of fistula not occurred after 4 6 weeks, so prepare for surgical closure after improvement of general condition and nutrition of patients. To assess the outcome of using high negative pressure vacuum with foley cather and some modified normal oral diet in closure of postoperative enterocutaneous fistulas. Between a period from 2012 to 2016 in a medical city of AL-sadder teaching hospital in AL-Najaf, Iraq, treated prospectively with recently developing postoperative enterocutaneous fistulas using vacuum method with Foley catheter to close the fistula tract and change the contents daily for 14-21 days as necessary after exclusion of intra-abdominal infection, distal bowel obstruction, abdominal malignancy, abdominal irradiation and inflammatory bowel disease by abdominal imaging, all patients allowed to eat some modified normal diet with some simple drugs and IV fluid and even with home care program accordingly. A 51 patients with age 45 ± 22 years were 40 men and 11 women, all of them developed postoperatively were treated by vacuum method, the moderate and low output fistulas had the best results of 34 cases (94.4%) were closed and 13 cases (86.6 %) of high output were closed at the end of study. 35 (68.6%) cases closed after 7 days, 10 cases (10.6%) after 14 days and 2 cases (3.9%) after 21 days of this vacuum method of a successful vacuum closure rate of 47. Treatment failed in remaining 4 cases (7.8%), 2 patients of low and moderate and 2 of high outputs were subsequently did for them surgery. The prognostic factors were used are serum albumin and hemoglobin levels were showed significantly higher levels at the end of than at the beginning of this study. No patient died. The vacuum method showed best results in spontaneous fistula closure with it's simplicity, low cost, short hospital stay even at home, no skin breakdown, on normal oral diet with some modification, some simple drugs and fluid with good nutrition and usual daily activity. KEYWORDS
Flow cytometry evaluation of HeLa S3 cell death induced by gamma-radiation

Summary: In this study we followed the effects of radiation on human uterin cervix HeLa S3 cells viability, morphology and DNA structure 2’96 hours after treatment with 2’10 Gy from 60Co gamma radiation source. Staining of cells with Annexin V-FITC and propidium iodide showed very low degree of radiation-induced apoptosis. The prevailing form of HeLa S3 cell death according to flow-cytometry, DNA fragmentation and fluorescent microscopy, was necrosis. The gamma-radiation dose necessary to induce 50% of necrosis (termed DD50) was twice higher compared to dose that induced 50% inhibition of cell proliferation (LD50). These in vitro data suggested, that the increase in radiation dose might eradicate tumour cells, rather than just control their proliferation and growth.
A Comparative History and the Importance of Chamber Music

This capstone presentation focuses on the role of chamber music in both social and academic contexts. Using examples from the past five centuries and including local examples, parallels and divergences are drawn to points of most import. The spotlight is upon three areas: a) what the role of chamber music was in the past, compared to today; b) why it is an important genre, to both musicians, as well as non-musicians, and c) in what ways more exposure to the form can be built. Much of the focus is on composers and their influence, but the impact of and upon performers is noted at length. The theme of chamber music as progressive in nature appears frequently throughout the research, and is shown to be one of the most essential aspects of the genre. Much of the research and argument is centered around instruction and through education; however, emphasis is also placed on societal and behavioral impacts. These topics were researched through a variety of media, including scholarly literature, first-hand interviews with local instructors and chamber musicians, and through analysis of programs and repertoire. This exploration of chamber music will help to change the perception many hold toward the genre, and the contents will be applicable to both music education and within society.
Proximate and ultimate causes of low fruit production in Asclepias exaltata

In Asclepias exaltata L. , a hermaphroditic milkweed, fruit production is constrained primarily by the availability of nutrient resources, as shown by the increased survival of fruits after removal of competing fruits and after application of fertilizer. The results of other tests exclude genetic-developmental incompatibilities, fruit herbivory, and insufficient pollination as major causes of low fruit production. Removal of half the flowers in each inflorescence had little effect on fruit production but decreased pollinarium removals by half, suggesting that one reason why few flowers mature fruits is that many flowers are produced primarily to enhance male reproduction. It also raises the possibility that fruit abortion is an adaptation that allows plants to invest resources more profitably in male reproduction, but tests of this hypothesis were inconclusive.
Investigations on cytosolic nucleic acid fragment induced innate immune functions of keratinocytes

In this study, we characterized the dsRNA and dsDNA induced immune responses in human keratinocytes by studying pre- and posttranscriptional regulation of cytokine expression. • We compared the dsRNA and dsDNA induced cytokine expression in three keratinocyte cell types: NHEKs, HaCaT cells and HPV-KER cells. We found that transfection by the synthetic dsRNA and dsDNA analogue poly(I:C) and poly(dA:dT) induce the expression of IL-6 and TNF-α with notable kinetic differences and rate of induction. • We found that poly(I:C) and poly(dA:dT) induce the same inflammatory signaling pathways in keratinocytes, albeit with different kinetics and magnitude of activation. Our data revealed that transfection with poly(I:C) and poly(dA:dT) induced activation of NF-κB and STAT signaling, which along with p38 signaling were also shown to be functional in inducing cytokine mRNA expression. We also showed the negative regulatory role of ERK1/2 signaling in nucleotide-induced IL-6 mRNA expression in keratinocytes, which seems to be a celltype specific event. • By studying the expression pattern of PRINS lncRNA, we found decreased expression upon poly(dA:dT) transfection in NHEKs, while poly(I:C) did not led to altered expression of PRINS. • We have identified a potential negative regulatory role for PRINS lncRNA in poly(dA:dT) induced IL-6 and CCL-5 expression. In-depth analysis of this phenomenon revealed the sequence specific interaction between PRINS and the mRNA of IL-6 and CCL-5, which might be responsible for the posttranscriptional control of the mRNA expression. These results led us to hypothesize, that elevated PRINS expression in psoriatic uninvolved epidermis may contribute to downregulation of the inflammatory functions in psoriatic keratinocytes and maintenance of the normal phenotype.
Effects of ocean acidification and increased temperature on skeletal growth of two scleractinian corals , Pocillopora meandrina and Porites

For tropical corals, the projected decreases in seawater pH due to increasing atmospheric pCO2 are predicted to reduce calcification by 8% to 40%, but little is known of the interactions with other physical conditions, or the effects on other biological processes. This study tested for the interactive effects of pH and temperature on the photosynthesis and calcification of corals using experiments in which pH was reduced (7.8), simulating year 2100 pCO2 levels, and was crossed with two temperatures (27 oC and 29 oC). In 14-day incubations with Pocillopora meandrina and Porites rus, calcification was depressed ≥ 50% at 27 oC and 700 ppm CO2, compared to 27 oC and 395 ppm CO2, but was not depressed by high pCO2 at 29 oC; dark-adapted maximum quantum yield of PSII (Fv/Fm) was unaffected by the same treatments of temperature and pCO2. Thus, while Fv/Fm in P. meandrina and P. rus is resilient to slight increases in temperature and high pCO2, calcification shows temperature-dependent sensitivity to high pCO2, notably with high temperature apparently conferring resistance against the short-term effects of high pCO2.
Non-ideal solid-solution in garnet: crystal-structure evidence and modelling

Crystal-chemical characterization of 281 gamets, representative of most geologic environments, has allowed distortion of the X, Y and Z polyhedra to be examined as a function of chemical composition, allowing us to understand the reasons for compositional preferences in nature. Pyralspites [with E(Mg,Fe,Mn) as the dom­ inant X cationsl and ugrandites (with Ca as the dominant X-cation) are separated by a significant compositional gap (1.5 to 2.1 Ca apfu). The existence and width of this gap have been explained on the basis of two different configurations for the X and Y polyhedra, corresponding to mainly ionic and mainly covalent bonding schemes, respectively. In the former configuration, occurring in pyralspitic gamets, the shared X-X and X-Y edges are shorter than the unshared ones; in the latter configuration, occurring in ugrandites, the opposite situation is present. Most structural parameters within (Mg,Fe,Mn) Ca gamet solid-solutions show non-linear variations: this fact, together with spectroscopic (XANES) data, rules out the presence of domains with either pyralspitic or grossular configurations; thus, the same X cation shows a different bonding behaviour, depending on the gamet structure (pyralspitic or ugranditic) in which it occurs. The unit-cell edge and the fractional coordinates of the oxygen atom have been modelIed along the PYR-ALM, ALM-GRO and PYR-GRO joins. Positive excess volumes of mixing (L'! . V) are present along all three solid-solu­ tions. The L'! V value increases, and its compositional dependence is progressively more symmetric, with increasing size difference between the component X cations. The maximum calculated L'! V of mixing along the PYR-GRO join (7.5 A3 per unit cell) is mainly due to the excess volume increase of the XOg polyhedron with increasing Ca substitution (5.5 A3 per unit cell). The Y06 octahedron also shows an excess volume, but its contribution to the L'! V of mixing is just enough to compensate for the negative L'! V shown by the Z04 tetrahedron (0.3 A3 per unit ce1I). Key-words: gamet, crystal-chemistry, excess volume of mixing, non-ideal behaviour, structure modelling
An Introduction to Deviance-Regulation Theory: The Effect of Behavioral Norms on Message Framing

The authors introduce a social judgment framework they term deviance-regulation theory. This theory proposes that people self-regulate more on the basis of the perceived social consequences of deviating from behavioral norms than on the basis of the perceived social consequences of conforming to behavioral norms. The implications of this model were explored in the context of persuasive health communication. Four studies demonstrated that health communication had its greatest effects on behavioral intention and behavioral willingness when it associated images with deviant behavioral alternatives. Thus, when participants believed their peers made healthy decisions, they were most influenced by negatively framed communication that emphasized the undesirable attributes of people who made unhealthy decisions. In contrast, when they believed their peers made unhealthy decisions, they were most influenced by positively framed communication that emphasized the desirable attributes of people who made healthy decisions.
Influence of the 5-min oscillations on solar photospheric layers I. Quiet region

Time series of 1D spectrograms are used to study the influence of the 5-min oscillations on intensity and velocity fields of different layers of the quiet solar photosphere. We study the continuum intensity field along with intensity and corresponding velocity patterns of the mid and upper photosphere, obtained from two Fe lines. Oscillations seem to dominate the intensity and velocity fields of the higher atmospheric layers. Our results confirm the fast decay of the granular intensity structure with height. From correlations of temperature structures at three different photospheric levels we conclude that there are rapid changes of the structures in the lower photosphere, which are valid for the duration of the time series, while for the upper levels changes of the stuctures are fainter and show significant periodic character. The velocity pattern, on the other hand, shows a periodic propagation through the photosphere. The tests of the influence of seeing conditions on the data are considered.
Work-Family Enrichment: Its Mediating Role in the Relationships Between Workplace Support Factors and Teachersâ Job Satisfaction

The role of work-family enrichment in the relationships between workplace support factors and employee attitudes at work has not been given much attention. This paper aims to examine whether work-family enrichment mediates the relationships between workplace social support, namely supervisor support and co-worker support and job satisfaction. Self-administered questionnaires were employed to collect data from 280 teachers working in Malaysian public secondary schools. The data were analyzed using structural equation modelling analyses. Work-family enrichment correlates significantly with supervisor support, co-worker support and job satisfaction. Work-family enrichment functions as a mediator in the relationships between the support factors and job satisfaction. The results indicate that workplace social support enhances work-family enrichment, whereby the skills, knowledge, values and confidence gained at work benefit the family and this enrichment brings about greater job satisfaction. The results underscore the significant role of work-family enrichment in improving job satisfaction.