Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Doing Business Below the Line: Screening, Mafias and Public Funds

In 2013, the Italian government reinforced a screening mechanism to detect mafia-connected firms and ensure that their applications for subsidies over 150,000 euros are unsuccessful. We exploit this discontinuity to test whether (and how many) firms self-select below the threshold to avoid the screening after the law was strengthened. We find a large increase in subsidies just below the threshold and after the approval of the law, suggesting that about 3.8% of firms applying for subsidies reduced rent seeking to avoid police screening. In line with this interpretation, sorting is larger in mafia-affected cities and firms sorting at the 150,000 euros threshold display typical features of criminal firms. These findings shed light on (i) the extent to which mafia-connected firms misappropriate public funds; (ii) their strategic behavior in avoiding anti-corruption policies; (iii) the effectiveness of the new law at screening mafia-related firms out of the application process; (iv) the leverages policymakers can use to identify crime displacement.
The Characteristics Board of Directors, Family Ownership and Accounting Conservatism: Evidence from Family Public Firms in Indonesia

This study attempt to identify whether family ownership can strengthen the relationship between board of directors on conservatism. Our main hypothesis are tested on a sample of 99 Indonesia firms that list on Indonesian Stock Exchange (IDX). The result show that there is positive relationship between audit comitee on conservatism. This study also show that there is no relationship between proportion of independent directors on conservatism. Our result also suggest the existence of family ownership weaken the impact between the proportion of independent directors and conservatism; while family ownership does not weaken or strengthen the audit committee relationship to conservatism. The evidence deepen the emperical evidence of Agency Coflict Type II and entrenchment effect among indonesian firms that owned by family. Accounting Conservatism in concentrated ownership is under control of family ownership through the hand of board of directors. Keywords : Agency conflict Type II, Characteristics of Board of Directors, Family Ownership, Accounting Conservatism
Swimming Pools as Indicator of Urban Sprawl: an Exploratory Analysis in a Mediterranean City

Studies relating form and functions of cities indicate sprawl as an intriguing research issue, especially for certain typologies of cities. Although with inherent differences on a local scale, Mediterranean cities offer a kaleidoscopic overview of sprawl morphologies that require dedicated monitoring tools. The present study provides an original assessment of recent urbanization processes in the Mediterranean region by considering swimming pools as a ‘sprawl landmark’. Two indicators (‘pools per population’ and ‘pools per area’) are derived from digital interpretation of Google Earth diachronic imagery at two points in time (early 2000s and early 2010s) in a compact Mediterranean city (Athens, Greece) which is actually evolving towards urban scattering. The spatial distribution of swimming pools in Athens is strongly polarized with the ‘pools per population’ indicator being associated to low-density, isolated settlements and the ‘pools per area’ indicator growing in medium-low density, discontinuous settlements. Both indicators were validated through correlation with independent variables assessing sprawl patterns on a municipal scale. The indicators proposed respond to basic criteria such as easy computation and graphical representation, flexibility, cheapness and comprehensibility to non-technical stakeholders.
Wake of super-hydrophobic falling spheres: influence of the air layer deformation

We report an experimental investigation of the wake of free falling super-hydrophobic spheres. The mutual interaction between the air layer (plastron) encapsulating the super-hydrophobic spheres and the flow is emphasised by studying the hydrodynamic performance. It is found that the air plastron adapts its shape to the flow-induced stresses which compete with the surface tension. This competition is characterised by introducing the Weber number ${\mathcal{W}}e$ , whilst the plastron deformation is estimated via the aspect ratio $\unicode[STIX]{x1D712}$ . While noticeable distortions are locally observed, the plastron becomes more and more spherical on average (i.e. $\unicode[STIX]{x1D712}\rightarrow 1$ ) as far as ${\mathcal{W}}e$ increases. The study of the falling motion reveals that the plastron compliance has a sizeable influence on the wake development. Investigating the lift force experienced by the super-hydrophobic spheres, the onset of wake instabilities is found to be triggered earlier than for smooth spheres used as reference. Surprisingly, it is also observed that the early promotion of the wake instabilities is even more pronounced beyond a critical Weber number, ${\mathcal{W}}e_{c}$ , which corresponds to a critical aspect ratio $\unicode[STIX]{x1D712}_{c}$ . Furthermore, the magnitude of the hydrodynamic loads is found to be dependent on the average deformation of the gas/liquid interface. Indeed, in comparison to the reference spheres, the high deformation achieved for $\unicode[STIX]{x1D712}>\unicode[STIX]{x1D712}_{c}$ (oblate shape) leads to lift and drag increase, whereas the low deformation obtained for $\unicode[STIX]{x1D712}<\unicode[STIX]{x1D712}_{c}$ (spherical shape) yields lift and drag mitigation. Accordingly, taking into account the plastron deformation provides an attractive way to explain the somehow discordant results reported in other studies at comparable Reynolds numbers. These results suggest that the amount of vorticity produced at the body surface and then released in the wake is strongly impacted by the plastron compliance. If confirmed by additional studies and extrapolated to other flow configurations, our findings would imply that plastron compliance and its feedback on the flow, which are currently neglected in most theoretical works and numerical simulations, must be accounted for to design super-hydrophobic surfaces and/or predict their performance.
Risk Analysis of Organic Cropping Systems in Minnesota

When all strategies received conventional market prices, 4-year cropping sequences had greater net returns than 2-year sequences, and the organic input, 4-year strategy had the highest net return. Adding 50% of the estimated organic premium, the 4-year, organic strategy dominated all low- and high-purchased input strategies.
Adaptive Diurnal Prediction of Ambient Dry-Bulb Temperature and Solar Radiation

This paper presents a new adaptive weather-prediction model that can be used for on-line control of HVAC and thermal storage systems. The model can predict external dry-bulb temperature and solar radiation over the next 24 h. Because a building with a fabric thermal storage system has a slow response to thermal loads, a predictive controller is essential to operate the building and associated plant installation to respond effectively to external climatic conditions ahead of time. Three prediction methods are investigated in the paper: a pure stochastic method, a combined deterministic-stochastic method, and an expanded method for short-term temperature forecast. It has been found that the combined deterministic-stochastic method is simpler and gives the smallest prediction errors. For the prediction of solar radiation, a deterministic model is proposed. The proposed prediction algorithms for temperature and radiation are simple and efficient to conduct on a supervisory PC to predict hourly temperature and radiation profiles over the next 24 h. Updating temperature forecasts using observations available with time is also investigated in this paper.
Productive and reproductive performances of Santa Inês ewes fed diets supplemented with protected fat in the postpartum

The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of the inclusion of protected fat in the concentrate on the productive and reproductive performances of Santa Inês ewes in feedlot, up to 60 days after parturition. Thirty-six pregnant Santa Inês ewes, with an average age of 24 months and initial weight of 46.54±7.87 kg, were used. A completely randomized experimental design was used, with three treatments: CS, concentrated supplement; G5, concentrated supplement with 5.5% protected fat (PF); and G10, concentrated supplement with 13.5% PF. The productive performance parameters were evaluated every two weeks. At 60 days after parturition, the chemical composition of milk and the reproductive parameters were determined. The inclusion of PF in the concentrate did not affect the following variables: body weight, body condition score, service period, lambing to first estrus interval, and chemical composition of milk. The supplementation with or without PF allowed ewes to keep body weight until 60 days after parturition, which improved their body condition score. The inclusion of PF in the concentrate does not change the productive performance of confined Santa Inês ewes; however, it affects reproduction by resulting in lower probability rates of pregnancy.
RACE, ETHNICITY, AND THE QUALITY OF LIFE IN AMERICA, 1972-2006 by CARLOS A. LOPEZ

by CARLOS A. LOPEZ (Under the Direction of James E. Coverdill) ABSTRACT Using data from the 1972-2006 General Social Surveys, this study extends and elaborates research on ascription and the quality of life. I examine how subjective measures such as happiness, health status, trust, and financial well-being are related to race, ethnicity, social class, and time. The results show that blacks assess their quality of life more negatively than whites. Over time, the prevailing pattern suggests a declining but still discernable significance of race. Notably, the racial gap persists with the introduction of class and demographic controls. The inclusion of Latino self-identification in the analyses shows a lower quality of life for Latinos compared to non-Latinos. That difference rarely remains when controls for class and demographics are considered. The use of partial proportional odds models that consider the nature of ordinal dependent variables corroborates previous quality of life research that use standard regression, a technically-inappropriate method for ordinal dependent variables.
Dimethylsulfide (DMS) production in polar oceans may be resilient to ocean acidification

Emissions of dimethylsulfide (DMS) from the polar oceans play a key role in atmospheric processes and climate. Therefore, it is important we increase our understanding of how DMS production in these regions may respond to environmental change. The polar oceans are particularly vulnerable to ocean acidification (OA). However, our understanding of the polar DMS response is limited to two studies conducted in Arctic waters, where in both cases DMS concentrations decreased with increasing acidity. Here, we report on our findings from seven summertime shipboard microcosm experiments undertaken in a variety of locations in the Arctic Ocean and Southern Ocean. These experiments reveal no significant effects of short term OA on the net production of DMS by planktonic communities. This is in contrast to identical experiments from temperate NW European shelf waters where surface ocean communities responded to OA with significant increases in dissolved DMS concentrations. A meta-analysis of the findings from both temperate and polar waters (n=18 experiments) reveals clear regional differences in the DMS response to OA. We suggest that these regional differences in DMS response reflect the natural variability in carbonate chemistry to which the respective communities may already be adapted. Future temperate oceans could be more sensitive to OA resulting in a change in DMS emissions to the atmosphere, whilst perhaps surprisingly DMS emissions from the polar oceans may remain relatively unchanged. By demonstrating that DMS emissions from geographically distinct regions may vary in response to OA, our results may facilitate a better understanding of Earth's future climate. Our study suggests that the way in which processes that generate DMS respond to OA may be regionally distinct and this should be taken into account in predicting future DMS emissions and their influence on Earth's climate.
A new generalized AOR iterative method for solving linear systems

In this paper, based on a block splitting of the coe‐cient matrix, we present a new generalized iterative method for solving the linear system Ax = b. This method is well-deflned even when some elements on the diagonal of A are zero. Convergence analysis and comparison theorems of the proposed method are provided. Specially, the results show that our new generalized AOR iterative method also, converges when A is an H-matrix. And for L-matrices, our new generalized Jacobi iterative method is faster than the classical Jacobi. The Numerical examples are also given to illustrate our results.
The development of codas in Catalan

Aquest article enfoca el desenvolupament de les consonants finals de sil·laba en catala. Dades evolutives de quatre nens que adquireixen catala (del corpus Serra-Sole de CHILDES) han posat en evidencia que les codes apareixen ja amb les primeres produccions de mots. El paper dels factors seguents per al desenvolupament de l’adquisicio de les codes ha estat analitzat sistematicament: posicio dins del mot, accent, contingut morfologic i composicio segmental. L’article presenta evidencia empirica a favor de l’estatus privilegiat de les sil·labes metricament prominents (o nuclis i marges de peus) en la legitimacio de les consonants de la coda en catala: els resultats mostren que les sil·labes accentuades inclouen codes mes aviat que les sil·labes atones, independentment de la posicio dins el mot o del contingut morfologic. Igualment, les posicions finals de mot son privilegiades i les codes en posicio final de mot s’adquireixen abans que les que apareixen en posicio medial de mot. Els nostres resultats contribueixen tambe a la discussio sobre el paper potencialment facilitador de la morfologia en l’adquisicio fonologica. Mentre Freitas, Miguel & Hub Faria (2001) troben que les marques de plural (expressades per la coda fricativa [-ʃ] final de mot) apareixen aviat en portugues europeu, Lleo (2003) troba adquisicio tardana de les marques de plural (coda fricativa [-s] final de mot) en castella. Les dades del catala, com les del castella, mostren que les codes morfologiques s’adquireixen relativament tard.
Influence of Maltodextrin on Physicochemical Characteristics of Lyophilized Mangaba Pulp

The use of lyophilization has increased because of the quality attributes exhibited by dehydrated products, which can be directly consumed or added in formulations of high nutritional value. The objective of this study was to obtain mangaba powder through the lyophilization of the formulations F1 - 0%, F2 - 10%, F3 - 20% and F4 - 30%, chosen based on the percentage of the carrier agent, for the characterization of its water content, titratable acidity, pH and color, represented by the parameters luminosity (L*), intensity of red (+a*) and intensity of yellow (+b*). The results showed that the addition of maltodextrin positively altered the characteristics of the product, favoring a reduction in the parameters of acidity (5.36 to 1.5), pH (3.71 to 4.13), water activity (0.230 to 0.075) and moisture (11.44 to 1.16), as well as an increase in luminosity L*, which varied from 52.16 to 72.5, and reduction in the chromaticity a* and b*, showing results that express a lower intensity of red and yellow colors, approaching zero for a* and b*, respectively, and also that the production of mangaba powder can be a viable alternative for its industrialization and a choice for the development of the crop with generation of employment and income to farmers.
Electronically steerable Yagi-Uda microstrip patch antenna array

Summary form only given. The article describes a four microstrip Yagi-Uda antenna array. The array consists of four Yagi-Uda antennas arranged around a common reflector patch. This array is electronically steerable, having one antenna active at a time while the remaining three elements are earthed with pin diodes at their feed points. During tests the switching was done by manually swapping the feed and shorting stubs. The linear polarised radiation pattern from the array (single active antenna) at an elevation of 26 degrees above the planar array is presented.
Interactive comment on “ Thermal conductivity of anisotropic snow measured by three independent methods ” by F . Riche and M .

Concerning the general comments, and the novelty of the manuscript: to our knowledge, it is the first time that the three main methods used to measure effective thermal conductivity in snow are compared with the same snow (i.e. the same microstructure), except from the differences in sampling volume. We believe that this is an essential step to clarify the precision and uncertainties introduced by the different methods and to exclude the effects caused by variable microstructure. This sheds new light on the C2120
Impact of Extreme Land Surface Heterogeneity on Micrometeorology over Spring Snow Cover

AbstractThe melting mountain snow cover in spring typically changes from a continuous snow cover to a mosaic of patches of snow and bare ground, inducing an extreme heterogeneity of the land surface. A comprehensive measurement campaign, the Dischma experiment, was conducted during three entire ablation seasons. The aim of this study was to experimentally investigate the small-scale boundary layer dynamics over a melting snow cover with a gradually decreasing snow cover fraction and the associated heat exchange at the snow surface. This study presents a unique dataset combining eddy covariance measurements at different atmospheric levels with maps of snow surface temperatures and snow cover fractions. The experiments evidence diurnal mountain wind systems driving the diurnal cycle of turbulent sensible heat fluxes over snow and the formation of katabatic flows over long-lasting snow patches strongly affecting the temporal evolution of snow surface temperature patterns. The snow cover distribution is also .
A Spectral Element Version of CAM2

The authors describe a recent development and some applications of a spectral element dynamical core. The improvements and development include the following: (i) the code was converted from FORTRAN 77 to FORTRAN 90; (ii) the dynamical core was extended to the generalized terrain-following, or hybrid , vertical coordinates; (iii) a fourth-order Runge–Kutta (RK4) method for time integration was implemented; (iv) moisture effects were added in the dynamical system and a semi-Lagrangian method for moisture transport was implemented; and (v) the improved dynamical core was coupled with the Community Atmosphere Model version 2 (CAM2) physical parameterizations and Community Land Model version 2 (CLM2) in such a way that it can be used as an alternative dynamical core in CAM2. This spectral element version of CAM2 is denoted as CAM-SEM. A mass fixer as used in the Eulerian version of CAM2 (CAM-EUL) is also implemented in CAM-SEM. Results from multiyear simulations with CAM-SEM (coupled with CLM2) with climatology SST are also presented and compared with simulations from CAMEUL. Close resemblances are shown in simulations from CAM-SEM and CAM-EUL. The authors found that contrary to what is suggested by some other studies, the high-order Lagrangian interpolation (with a limiter) using the spectral element basis functions may not be suitable for moisture and other strongly varying fields such as cloud and precipitation.
An Investigation of the Relationship between Sources of Meaning of Life and Mental Health

Since Frankl (1985) has introduced the role of meaning in life in mental health, some psychologists tried to operationalize this concept and study in this field (Crumbaugh and Maholic, 1964; Batista & Almond, 1973; Steger et al., 2006). By development of new instrument in the domain of life's meaning by Schnell (2009), the wider investigation of mental health and meaning in life has been provided. The present study aims at determining the relationship between four sources of life including life meaningfulness, the crisis of life's significance, spirituality, and religiosity and indices of mental health. Therefore, a sample comprising 126 participants (53= female; 73= male) among the students of University of Tehran carried out the questionnaire for investigating the sources of life's meaning (SoMe) and a brief form for the scale of depression, anxiety, and stress (DASS-21). The results were analyzed by Pearson Correlation. Among the variables of life's meaning, the crisis of life's meaning showed the highest positive correlation with depression (r = 0.62, p ˂ 0.01) and stress (r = 0.39, p ˂ 0.01). Also, the life meaningfulness showed the highest negative relationship with depression (r = -0.52, p ˂ 0.01) and stress (r = 0.34, p ˂ 0.01). In conclusion, considering the meaning of life as an important associate of mental health seems essential in order to decrease the depression and stress, and improving the general health of society.
Use of Aspergillus niger for improving the feeding value of rice offal

Undegraded and degraded rice offals (RO) were used to compound rations for broiler birds for eight weeks. The undegraded was used at 7% inclusion level and the degraded was used at 3, 5 and 7% inclusion levels. A hundred and sixty five (165) day old chicks were randomly selected and allotted to five (5) treatments. Each treatment had three replicates and each replicate had eleven birds. Aspergillus niger was inoculated into RO through solid state fermentation for a period of seven (7) days and this was used as the degraded sample. There was improvement in the crude protein and ether extract of the degraded sample, while the crude fibre content reduced. The crude protein increased from 8.79 to 12.24% while the crude fibre reduced from 15.89 to 10.82% after biodegradation. The results from the feeding trials showed significant (P< 0.05) differences in the average feed intake and average body weight gain at the starter phase. The highest feed consumption was found in treatment 5 which contained 7% degraded RO (DRO) and it was 65.11 g/b/d. At the finisher phase, there were significant (P<0.05) differences in both the average feed intake and the average body weight gain of the birds. The highest feed intake was found in treatment 5 and it was 201.84 g/b/d. The highest body weight gain was also found in treatment 5 and it was 75.52 g/b/d. The relative cost benefit (RCB) showed that economically, the birds placed on degraded rice offal (DRO) gave better profit margin than the ones placed on the undegraded rice offal (URO). The results reveal that A. niger was able to improve the energy, crude protein and other nutrients in rice offal which will bring economic benefits to farmers. Keywords : Aspergillus niger , rice offal, degraded, undegraded, nutrient contents, feed improvement African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(20), pp. 3083-3087