Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Patterns of Firm Growth in the Turkish Manufacturing Industry

The main objectives of this study are three-fold: First, to discover the patterns of firm growth by using a novel statistical approach; second, to analyze the determinants of patterns of firm growth; and finally, to investigate the pattern-specific determinants of firm growth by taking into account the pattern selectivity. Our approach attempts to capture the significant factors that affect the patterns of firm growth and to examine the firm growth process based on the pattern selection and to investigate how the determinants affect firm growth with respect to different patterns. The results show that despite the fact that it is difficult to classify firms into those patterns through observable variables, patterns of firm growth exist and can be identified by statistical techniques. Dynamics of growth differ across patterns because the pattern selection matters for firm growth. Our analysis shows that the analysis of growth patterns provides better insights to understand the dynamics of growth. This implies that policy-makers should pay attention to the growth patterns and life-cycles of firms.
Protecting Girls from Droughts with Social Safety Nets

Abstract This paper revisits the relationship between agricultural productivity shocks and the infant sex ratio in India and investigates how this relationship changes when households have access to government-provided employment opportunities outside of agriculture. When a household’s preference for sons coincides with adverse agricultural productivity shocks, previous research shows that households tend to disproportionately reduce investments (prenatal and postnatal) in their female children. This behavior leads to a relatively more balanced sex ratio in good rainfall years and a more skewed sex ratio (in favor of boys) in low rainfall years. In a deviation from past work, we find evidence of this effect primarily through prenatal channels in modern India. More importantly, we show that a workfare program that decouples both wages and consumption from rainfall attenuates the relationship between rainfall and the infant sex ratio. Using a back-of-the-envelope calculation, we find that the program could have saved at least 0.7 million girls – relative to boys – if the government had implemented it from 2001 to 2005. Suggestive evidence also indicates that the program may have attenuated the positive effect of birth year productivity shocks on girls’ longer-term height-for-age.
Climate Forcing and Trends of Organic Aerosols in the Community Earth System Model (CESM2)

The Community Earth System Model version 2 (CESM2) includes three main atmospheric configurations: the Community Atmosphere Model version 6 (CAM6) with simplified chemistry and a simplified organic aerosol (OA) scheme, CAM6 with comprehensive tropospheric and stratospheric chemistry representation (CAM6‐chem), and the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model version 6 (WACCM6). Both, CAM6‐chem and WACCM6 include a more comprehensive secondary organic aerosols (SOA) approach using the Volatility Basis Set (VBS) scheme and prognostic stratospheric aerosols. This paper describes the different OA schemes available in the different atmospheric configurations of CESM2 and discusses differences in aerosol burden and resulting climate forcings. Derived OA burden and trends differ due to differences in OA formation using the different approaches. Regional differences in Aerosol Optical Depth with larger values using the comprehensive approach occur over SOA source regions. Stronger increasing SOA trends between 1960 and 2015 in WACCM6 compared to CAM6 are due to increasing biogenic emissions aligned with increasing surface temperatures. Using the comprehensive SOA approach further leads to improved comparisons to aircraft observations and SOA formation of ≈143 Tg/yr. We further use WACCM6 to identify source contributions of OA from biogenic, fossil fuel, and biomass burning emissions, to quantify SOA amounts and trends from these sources. Increasing SOA trends between 1960 and 2015 are the result of increasing biogenic emissions aligned with increasing surface temperatures. Biogenic emissions are at least two thirds of the total SOA burden. In addition, SOA source contributions from fossil fuel emissions become more important, with largest values over Southeast Asia. The estimated total anthropogenic forcing of OA in WACCM6 for 1995–2010 conditions is −0.43 W/m2, mostly from the aerosol direct effect.
Online Activism and Dyadic Representation: Evidence from the UK E‐Petition System

By making it easier for citizens to communicate their preferences, online forms of political participation have the potential to strengthen the representational link between politicians and voters. However, we know little about the effects of online advocacy on politicians’ behavior. using new data from an epetition system in the united Kingdom, i show that support for a petition among a Member of Parliament’s constituents is associated with a substantial increase in the probability that the MP advocates for the petition in parliamentary debate, even when compared to MP behavior in counterfactual non-petition debates which focus on the same policy issues. However, MP responsiveness is conditioned both by party discipline and electoral competition. these findings have important implications for our understanding of dyadic representation in parliamentary systems.
Experimental and Numerical Study on Wave-Impact on Buildings

Unsteady flows such as tsunamis, impulse waves and dam-break waves can lead to damages and human losses. Hence, specific research to limit casualties and reconstruction costs is needed. The complexity of the phenomena involved suggests that a hybrid experimental-numerical approach should be used to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the process. This paper presents an explorative study on the comparison of SPH numerical simulations using a highly effective parallel computing technique with large scale experimental data for dry bed surges and wet bed bores impacting free-standing buildings with and without openings. These preliminary results showed a relatively good agreement between the two approaches in the estimation of water depths around the buildings, which represents a key parameter for the design of vertical shelters. Nevertheless, some differences observed during the impact phase may be attributed to the incapability of the SPH numerical simulations to fully capture the turbulent nature of the process and its air-entrainment. These validation tests with detailed experimental data are a promising approach to improve the numerical models toward the development of reliable numerical tools for a safer design of resilient structures.
The family meal in Europe.

Dinner is a label mostly associated with sharing food with others, and especially with family members, in the late afternoon or evening. During recent decades, food researchers have shown an increasing interest in people’s meal frequency, and irregular eating, characterized by skipping traditional regular main meals in favour of discontinuous snacking. The arguments about grazing being a late modern phenomenon are based on the notion that a regular eating pattern in the presence of all family members was more or less a natural behaviour in the past and that it may soon be a phenomenon of the past. In Europe, ‘grazing’ has not been found to be a major trend in the beginning of the 21st century; on the contrary, a structured meal pattern is still common all over Europe. Sharing meals in a family context seems also to be a lively and present activity all over Europe. It is also an activity that European family members value as important. We can say that those people living together as a family most likely also eat together, and this is true mostly concerning the evening meal or dinner. The family meal seems to be a precursor of both nutritional and mental health. Thus, it is not the question of eating together that is a problem for European families in the beginning of the 21st century, but of what foods they decide to share together in everyday life.
Acute Effects of Tolvaptan on Renal Hemodynamics in Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease —A Randomized, Cross-Over, Double Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study of Renal Plasma Flow and Glomerular Filtration Rate

Background: Previous studies have shown that reduced renal plasma flow (RPF) may play a role in progression of renal disease in autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD). Tolvaptan, a vasopressin 2 antagonist, reduces growth of total kidney volume and slows the decrease in estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) in ADPKD. The purpose of this randomized, cross-over, double-blind, placebo-controlled study was to investigate if acute tolvaptan treatment increases RPF in ADPKD patients. Methods: Eighteen ADPKD patients (chronic kidney disease stages I-III) were investigated twice (min. 10 days apart) after acute treatment with either tolvaptan 60 mg or placebo. Two hours after treatment RPF and GFR were estimated by Technetium-99m diethylenetriamine penta-acetic acid (99-mTc-DTPA) renography. During the examination day, central and brachial blood pressures (BP) were measured using Mobil-O-Graph® PWA. We also measured plasma concentrations of vasopressin (p-AVP), renin (PRC), angiotensin II (p-AngII) and aldosterone (p-Aldo), urine excretion of aquaporin 2 (u-AQP2), urine output (OU), urine osmolality (u-Osm) and fractional excretion of sodium (FENa). Results: 99-mTc-DTPA renography showed a similar RPF (673 ± 262 ml/min after tolvaptan vs. 650 ± 209 ml/min after placebo, p = 0.571) and GFR (78 ± 26 ml/min after tolvaptan vs. 79 ± 21 ml/min after placebo p = 0.774) after tolvaptan and placebo treatment. P-AVP and UO increased and u-Osm decreased after tolvaptan and remained unchanged during placebo. Systolic BP tended to decrease during renography during tolvaptan. Very small or insignificant changes were seen in PRC, p-AngII and p-Aldo. Conclusions: Acute tolvaptan treatment did not change renal hemodynamics in ADPKD.
Hidrocistoma écrino e apócrino na pálpebra - Casuística na Faculdade de Medicina de Botucatu- São Paulo

Os hidrocistomas palpebrais podem ser ecrinos ou apocrinos. O objetivo era observar a ocorrencia do hidrocistoma ecrino e apocrino de localizacao palpebral, bem como a relacao entre os diagnosticos clinico e histopatologico. Quarenta e dois pacientes, apresentando 52 lesoes, atendidas no periodo de janeiro de 1990 a abril de 1999, no Hospital de Clinicas da Faculdade de Medicina de Botucatu - Sao Paulo, com diagnostico histopatologico confirmado de hidrocistoma, foram avaliados quanto as variaveis sexo, idade, leocalizacao da lesao, tempo decorrido entre o aparecimento da lesao e o diagnostico clinico, numero de lesoes e relacao entre diagnostico clinico e histopatologico. O hidrocistoma em suas duas formas foi responsavel por 0,07 por cento das lesoes removidas e examinadas histopatologicamente nesse servico. Tanto o hidrocistoma apocrino, como o ecrino, foram mais comuns em mulheres com idade superior a 40 anos. A maioria das lesoes apresentava tempo de evolucao variando entre um e cinco anos, estavam localizadas principalmente na palpebra inferior, ocorrendo como lesao unica. Os diagnosticos clinico e anatomopatologico foram concordantes em 67,31 por cento dos hidrocistomas apocrinos e 9,62 por cento dos ecrinos. O hidrocistoma palpebral mais frequente foi o apocrino (82,69 por cento), para o qual a concordância entre os diagnosticos clinico e histopatologico foi alta
WST 49.10-T15 CORR

Anaerobic degradation of sludge amended with linear alkylbenzene sulfonates (LAS) was tested in a one stage continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) and a two stage reactor system consisting of a CSTR as first step and upflow anaerobic sludge bed (UASB) reactor as the second step. Anaerobic removal of LAS was only observed at the second step but not at the first step. Removal of LAS in the UASB reactors was approx. 80% where half was due to absorption and the other half was apparently due to biological removal as shown from the LAS mass balance. At the end of the experiment the reactors were spiked with 14C-LAS which resulted in 5.6% CO2 in the produced gas. Total mass balance of the radioactivity was however not achieved. In batch experiments it was found that LAS at concentrations higher than 50 mg/l is inhibitory for most microbial groups of the anaerobic process. Therefore, low initial LAS concentration is a prerequisite for successful LAS degradation. The results from the present study suggest that anaerobic degradation of LAS is possible in UASB reactors when the concentration of LAS is low enough to avoid inhibition of microorganisms active in the anaerobic process.
A Proposed Framework of University to Industry Knowledge Transfer

University to industry knowledge transfer (UIKT) has becomes one of many interesting issue in knowledge transfer literature and has generated a conceptual and empirical results debates between two contrasting views concerned on the positive and negative effects of UIKT on organizational performance. The inconsistent results so far show that there are still many variables to be considered in explaining the effect of knowledge transfer on the alliance performance. The difference culture and mission between university and industry lead to another problem to solve the alliance performance of university and industry alliance in the level of dyadic analysis. This paper discusses a proposed conceptual model of antecedents (knowledge attributes, organizational attributes, network attributes) and consequent of university to industry knowledge transfer and the role of uncertainties as moderating variable that might affect the relationship between UIKT and the alliance performance. Transaction cost economics, resource-based, and knowledge-based perspectives are used to develop some proposition to explain the relationships between variables in the proposed framework of university to industry knowledge transfer.
Bovine brucellosis: Seroprevalence and its potential risk factors in smallholder dairy farms in Hawassa Town, Southern Ethiopia

Bovine brucellosis is an infectious zoonotic disease causing significant economical loses in dairy industry. A cross-sectional study was carried out between October 2017 and July 2018 to estimate the seroprevalence and its associated risk factors in smallholder dairy farms in Hawassa town, Southern Ethiopia. A total of 370 blood samples were collected from cross-bred and local indigenous dairy cattle of above six months of age. One stage cluster sampling technique was used to get the sample of interest. Rose Bengal Plate Test (RBPT) was used as a screening, while serum samples testing positive to RBPT were subjected for complement fixation test (CFT) to confirm. Consequently, RBPT detected 18 of the 370 samples positive for brucellosis exposure. The positive sera when further retested using CFT, 10 out of the 18 RBPT positive sera were confirmed to be positive. The individual animal level prevalence of bovine brucellosis in the study area was 2.7% and the herd-level prevalence was 25.8%. Higher prevalence was observed in larger herd sizes than the small and medium herds (p<0.05). Likewise, parity number greater than six had more positive animals (p<0.05) than the corresponding group with lower parity number. Multivariable logistic regression anlysis revealed that herd sizes (OR: 9.13, 95% CI: 1.87-28.65, p<0.05), number of parity (OR: 11.6: 95% CI: 1.54-36.08, p<0.05), absence of separate parturition pen (OR: 7.9, 95% CI: 1.63- 38.4, p<0.05) and stages of abortion (OR: 7.6, 95% CI: 1.89-31.36, P<0.05) were identified as the potential risk factors of bovine brucellosis . The results of this study showed that bovine brucellosis is not highly spread in dairy herds of Hawassa town. Therefore, in order to control spread of bovine brucellosis practicing better management is recommended. Keywords : Bovine brucellosis ; Dairy farms; Hawassa town; intensive; Risk factor
Perianal Paget's Disease: The 17-Year-Experience of a Single Institution in Taiwan

Aim To determine the incidence, prognosis, and immunophenotypes (CK7, CK20, CDX2, and GCDFP-15) of primary or secondary perianal Paget's diseases (PPDs). Methods Twenty-three PPD patients were recruited, including 10 primary and 13 secondary PPDs. Immunophenotypes of PPD were analyzed. Results In 23 PPD patients, 14 (60.9%) were male and the median age was 75 years. Three (13.0%, 2 primary and 1 secondary PPDs) had recurrence and two (8.7%, both primary PPDs) had invasive PPDs. The colorectal cancers (CRCs) in secondary PPD cases were located in anorectal area for 9 patients while 4 were located in the rectum; 5, 2, 4, and 2 were in stages I, II, III, and in uncertain stage, respectively. The distant metastasis rates of CRC in the secondary PPD patients during follow-up were 40% (2/5), 0% (0/2), and 50% (2/4) for stages I, II, and III, respectively. Other synchronous or metachronous malignancies included cholangiocarcinoma, urothelial carcinoma, anorectal small-cell carcinoma, and unknown hepatic malignancy. One primary PPD patient died from the metastases of invasive Paget's disease while 3 secondary PPD patients died from the metastases of CRCs during follow-up. Immunohistochemical staining showed CK7 (7/10 and 6/13), CK20 (6/10 and 10/13), CDX2 (6/10 and 12/13), and GCDFP-15 (3/10 and 0/13) positivities in primary and secondary PPD patients, respectively. The immunophenotypes were not statistical significantly related to synchronous CRC (P = 0.402, 0.650, 0.127, and 0.068 for CK7, CK20, CDX2, and GCDFP-15, respectively). Conclusions The incidence of concurrent CRC in PPD patients is not low. An adequate survey for CRC should be considered for PPD patients at initial diagnosis. In this series of study, stage I CRC with PPD would have a higher metastatic rate, thus indicating aggressive treatment and follow-up. The CK7, CK20, CDX2, and GCDFP-15 immunostaining results for the PPD patients were not predictive of primary or secondary type.
Reducing nitrate leaching from the urine patch – a plant based approach

Reducing nitrate leaching from urine patches created in intensive grazing systems is becoming important with the aim of improving water quality. Genotypes of Plantago lanceolata offer a plant-based solution for reducing nitrate leaching from the urine patch by reducing the nitrogen load in the urine patch and by reducing the speed of nitrification in the soil, although not all plantain cultivars are effective. Including plantain in the forage base does not appear to adversely affect either pasture DM production or milk solids production of dairy based production systems.
Alteration in serum levels of copper, iron, zinc, vitamin C and lipid profile in patients with oral cancer and oral sub-mucous fibrosis

In human race the most prevalent oro-dental diseases include; dental caries, pulpal and peri-apical inflammation, periodontal problems and many more conditions. Among these conditions cancer of the oral cavity in India has the uncertainly peculiarity among the world. Cancer of the oral cavity secures first rank among all cancers in male patients in India. Globally, Cancer of the oral cavity is 3 most common cancer in males and 4 in females. Timely recognition of oral cancers and pre-cancers improves quality of life for affected patients. Aim of this study is to evaluate Serum levels of lipids, copper, iron, Zinc, vitamin C in patients with oral Cancer (Squamous cell carcinoma) and oral sub-mucous fibrosis (OSMF) associated with habit of tobacco consumption in any form and its comparison patients with oral habit of tobacco consumption in any form but without any lesion and with the patients among control group i.e. without any habit / lesion and in the patients having habit of tobacco but no lesion. After obtaining ethical clearance from the Institution and informed written consent from participants, 30 individuals with physical status ASA I and ASA II are included in this study. It can be concluded from the present study that levels of trace elements and lipids could be used as a prospective prognostic and diagnostic markers in patients with oral cancer / pre-cancerous lesions.
SIMULATION OF HORIZONTALLY HOMOGENEOUS ATMOSPHERE BOUNDARY LAYER BASED ON K-Ε VARIANT MODELS COMBINED WITH MODIFIED WALL FUNCTIONS

K-Εvariant models are the most popular turbulence models widely applied in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations of the atmosphere boundary layer (ABL) flow issues, especially for flow around large-span structures and cluster of high-rise buildings. When performing these analysis, it is mandatory to set a horizontally homogeneous empty fetch firstly. This paper adopts the standard k-ε, RNG, and Realizable models to computationally simulate the equilibrium ABL by the modified wall function based on profiles of mean wind velocity and turbulence quantities from AIJ recommendation. It shows the CFD simulation results by comparison of the flow quantities profiles with several different locations in the flow domain. The mean wind velocity, turbulence quantities give well agreement at different positions. Also the problems still unsolved and suggestions to mitigate that are discussed.
Outdoor characterisation of Concentrating Photovoltaic (CPV) systems

The host institution for my 6-month fellowship (March to August 2015) was the Center of Sustainable Energy Systems of Fraunhofer USA in Albuquerque New Mexico (NM). Albuquerque is situated in the central part of New Mexico state (Fig.1). Fig. 2 shows the outdoor test field of CSE Fraunhofer; this is a state-of-the-art photovoltaic test center and it also hosts CFV which is jointly owned by Fraunhofer ISE from Germany, Fraunhofer CSE and the CSA Group. Albuquerque offers 310 days of sunshine annually combined with relatively high ambient temperatures and therefore, it is an ideal place to test and account for the effect of spectral variations and air temperature on the photovoltaic’s performance.