Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Interactions Among Italian Preschool-Age Children: Aggression, Victimization, and Sociometric Status

PEER INTERACTIONS AMONG ITALIAN PRESCHOOL-AGE CHILDREN: RELATIONAL AND PHYSICAL AGGRESSION, VICTIMIZATION, AND SOCIOMETRIC STATUS Shawna Jean Marshall Department of Marriage, Family, and Human Development Master of Science This study examined social interactions between Italian preschoolers based upon sociometric status groupings. The sample consisted of 267 Italian preschoolers (mean age 64 months) taken from early childhood classrooms in southern Italy. Drawing on previous research, preschoolers’ physical and relational aggression and physical and relational victimization as measured by peer nominations were analyzed. Structural equation modeling using Mplus was used to test the model, and SPSS 15 was used to run analyses of variance (ANOVAs) to examine the interaction between sociometric status and preschoolers’ behaviors toward peers. Findings generally support previous research with American children as well as cross-cultural research regarding physical and relational aggression, victimization, sociability, and sociometric status groupings. Results indicate that popular children displayed high levels of social behavior, low levels of aggression, and experienced little victimization, while rejected children demonstrated high levels of aggression and victimization and low levels of social behavior. The most striking finding was that controversial children, similar to rejected children, showed high levels of aggression and victimization. Gender differences indicated that boys were more relationally and physically aggressive and victimized than girls, with the exception of controversial status girls.
Cirrhotic Cardiomyopathy - a significant complication of Chronic Liver Disease Patients

Cirrhosis is very serious condition and associated with a range of cardiac abnormalities. However scanty information is available about the cardiac changes in cirrhotic patients in Indian setup, like increased resting cardiac output, blunted response to stress, left ventricular diastolic dysfunction and increased wall thickness of all cardiac chambers. These concomitant cardiac abnormalities in patients with cirrhosis have been termed as 'Cirrhotic Cardiomyopathy which may be a major cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with cirrhosis and liver transplant patients. With the advent of increased liver transplantation in India, this entity may have its impact on the transplantation success.
EFFECT OF ANNEALING TIME AND TEMPERATURE ON STRUCTURAL , OPTICAL AND ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES OF CdS FILMS DEPOSITED BY CBD

Cadmium sulphide (CdS) thin films were deposited onto glass substrates by chemical bath deposition (CBD) from a bath containing cadmium acetate, ammonium acetate, thiourea and ammonium hydroxide. The CdS films were annealed in air at various temperatures (350, 400 and 450 °C) for 60 minutes, and times (5, 15, 30, 45 and 60 minutes) at constant temperature (400 °C) in order to investigate the influence of post-deposition annealing treatments on the structural, optical and electrical properties. The various structural parameters such as grain size, lattice constant and strain, were investigated using XRD. The as-deposited films have the mixed (cubic and hexagonal) phase. The grain size increases due to annealing and grain growth is a function of annealing temperature and time duration. The band gap of the films was calculated from the transmittance data. In general the results showed that the structural, optical and electrical properties of CdS depends on the post-deposition annealing duration and temperatures.
Seroprevalence of Hepatitis C Virus Infection among Blood Donors in General Dipumba Hospital in Mbujimayi, Democratic Republic of Congo

Hepatitis C virus is one of the blood borne transmissible infections of public healthsignificance. It can be transmitted to a wider population through transfusion of contaminatedblood or blood products. The aim of this study was to determine the seroprevalence of HCV antibodies amongst potential blood donors in Dipumba’s hospital in Mbujimayi. Retrospective cross-sectional descriptive study of seroprevalence of hepatitis C were conducted from consented blood donors in the study area and were examined for anti-HCV antibody using HCVSCAN test. Results were analyzed using SPSS version, 23.0 statistical software Package of the 1584 blood donors examined in the study population 1, 9 % (n= 30) were sero-positive to Hepatitis C Virus (HCV), 77.8% were male (sex ratio M/F 3.5 and familial donors were 50.4%. No statistical significant association with the seroprevalence of Hepatitis C Virus and general characteristics of blood donors in Mbujimayi (age, sex, marital status, blood donation category). Our findings further confirm the presence of hepatitis C virusinfection among blood donors in Mbujimayi. Routine HCV screening of blood donors is therefore recommendedin order to reduce the risk of post transfusion hepatitis C. Keyword: Seroprevalence; hepatitis C; blood donors; Mbujimayi
Labor Market Institutions, Education and Elites in Flexicurity Societies

In this introductory section we consider brieﬂy some basic features, but also problems,which have to be solved in a ﬂexicurity economy through appropriate combinations ofaspects of economic ﬂexibilityand social security. In the nextsection, where we provide amodelingproposal for the ﬂexicuritydebate inthe European Union, thebudget equationsand the economic behavior within these equations are presented. We then brieﬂy providesome sustainability results for such a ﬂexicurity model.We consider the suggested labor market reforms as representing one central pillar fora ﬂexicurity society, to be supplemented however by two further essential pillars: theschooling system and the role of political and economicelites, whichwe will investigateindetail in the remainderof the paper. The proper working of these two further pillars is inour view a necessary precondition for the success of the proposed labor market reforms.It is to be stressed however in this context that we only discuss an ideal economy andsociety in this paper and not at all the progress path that may lead us to such a newsocial structure of accumulation.
Evaluation of the sub-lethal toxicity of Cu, Pb, bisphenol A and polychlorinated biphenyl to the marine dinoflagellate Cochlodinium polykrikoides

Algae are sensitive to a wide range of pollutants, and are effective bioindicators in ecotoxicity assessments. Here, we evaluated the sub-lethal sensitivity of the marine dinoflagellate Cochlodinium polykrikoides upon exposure to copper (Cu), lead (Pb), bisphenol A (BPA), and Aroclor 1016 (polychlorinated biphenyl, PCB). Toxic effects were assessed by observations of the reduction in cell counts and chlorophyll a levels after exposure to each toxicant. C. polykrikoides displayed dose-dependent, sigmoidal responses when exposed to the tested chemicals. EC 50 -72 h values for Cu, Pb, BPA, and PCB were 12.74, 46.70, 68.15, and 1.07 mg L -1 , respectively. PCB, which is an endocrine-disrupting chemical, was the most sensitive, proving its toxic effect on the dinoflagellate. This study provides baseline data on the toxic effects of commonly used heavy metals and endocrine-disrupting chemicals to a marine dinoflagellate.
Galizzi What is really behavioral in behavioral health policy ? And does it work ?

Across health systems, there is an increasing interest in applying behavioral economics insights to health policy challenges. Policy decision-makers have recently discussed a range of diverse health policy interventions that are commonly brought together under a ‘behavioral’ umbrella. These include, among others: randomized controlled trials, comparison portals, information labels, financial incentives, sin taxes, and nudges. A taxonomy is proposed to classify such ‘behavioral’ interventions. In the context of risky health behavior, each cluster of policies is then scrutinized under two respects: i) What are its genuinely ‘behavioral’ insights? ii) What evidence does exist on its practical effectiveness? The discussion highlights the main challenges in drawing a clear mapping between how much each policy is ‘behaviorally’ inspired and its effectiveness.
Aerodynamic Investigation of an Exit Guide Vane Followed by a Curved Duct: A Numerical Study

Curved exhaust ducts are used in aero engine applications for different purposes, including thrust vectoring, shielding of parts from the exhaust or improving stealth properties. Their integration, however, regularly represents a design problem due to flow separation and high aerodynamic losses occurring in the bend. Curved duct flows for both compressible and incompressible conditions have been studied extensively in the past. However, no experimental results of a high Reynolds number flow through a turbine exit guide vane (EGV) followed by a curved duct have yet been published. An in-depth CFD analysis of the aerodynamic effects is therefore carried out, using the RANS solvers TRACE (at MTU Aero Engines) and SU2, to analyze the flow field and geometric sensitivities of a high Reynolds number flow through an EGV followed by a 90 degree bent duct. The geometry of interest is investigated at a Reynolds number of Re=10^6 and a ratio of bend radius to duct diameter of one. The inflow conditions are prescribed to closely resemble typical flow conditions at the low pressure turbine exit plane of a turbojet engine. After validating the solver with experimental data using the test case of a 90 degree bent duct, an initial CFD analysis of the combined exit guide vane geometry with curved duct is carried out to identify the dominant flow phenomena and mutual effects of the EGV and the bend. Three zones of flow separations are found, each at the convex and concave sides of the bend and one at the lower side of the plug. Secondary flows caused by the bend are found to have an effect on the flow upstream of the EGV, leading to a non-uniform flow inlet angle and aerodynamic loading of the individual blades. Separation downstream of the EGV is influenced by the presence of low velocity wakes from the EGV. Subsequently, a sensitivity study is carried out to find the effect of different geometrical parameters on the flow field. Main investigated parameters are the ratio of bend radius to diameter (R_c/D) and the distance between EGV and bend (l/D). Additionally, the aerodynamic effects of the circumferential EGV positioning, swirl and the plug shape are investigated. It is found that an increase in both bend radius and distance between bend and EGV improves aerodynamic efficiency, while swirl can decrease pressure losses in the duct for small bend radii of R_c/Dl0.8. Improving the plug shape and rotating the EGV allows to further increase the aerodynamic efficiency without weight increase. For further optimization of the geometry, it is recommended to include duct geometries with a non-constant bend radius and outer duct diameter to increase the design space.
Effect of season and stocking density during transport on carcass and meat quality of suckling lambs.

Many factors related to transport to abattoir affects meat quality, but scarce information is available in suckling lambs. Thus, the aim of this work was to evaluate the effects of season and stocking density on carcass and meat quality of suckling lambs during commercial transport to the abattoir. A factorial design (2 × 3) was used: two seasons (winter and summer) and three stocking densities (SD; 0.08, 0.12 and 0.20 m2 animal-1). Meat quality variables were measured in the M. longissimus at 24 h post-mortem and after 5 days of refrigerated storage. Lambs transported in summer showed lower liver weight (p<0.001), h* (p<0.05), deoxymyoglobin content (p<0.001), pressed juice (p<0.01), shear force (p<0.001) and firmness (p<0.001), and higher initial pH (p<0.001), L*, b*, C* (p<0.001) and a* (p<0.01), as well as metmyoglobin and oxymyoglobin content (p<0.001), than those transported in winter. The effect of season was dependent on storage time, being colour changes more evident at 24 h than after 5 days of storage, whereas lipid oxidation was only observed in stored meat, which may be explain because the natural antioxidative system decreases with time after slaughter. Scarce effect of SD was found on the carcass and meat quality parameters, thus under our experimental conditions the three SD studied appear to be suitable for suckling lambs transport. However, both carcass and meat quality were within the normal commercial range.
Who or what are you?: Facial orientation and person construal

An extensive literature has documented the cognitive benefits that accrue from a categorical conception of others. While informative, this work has overlooked the fact that, prior to the application of categorical thinking as an economizing cognitive tool, perceivers must first extract category-triggering information from available facial cues. What this suggests is that an impetus to construe others categorically may reside in the perceptual operations that guide the preliminary stages of person understanding. This possibility was explored in three experiments that investigated the effects of stimulus rotation on the efficiency of identity-based and category-based construal. In the first experiment, sex categorization was compared directly to identity-based construal. Subsequent experiments then investigated the efficiency of sex (Experiment 2) and race (Experiment 3) categorization when critical category-specifying facial cues were present and absent. The results demonstrated that categorical responding is driven by the extraction of featural information from faces, a finding that informs recent theoretical accounts of person perception. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Leprosy type 1 reactions and erythema nodosum leprosum

Leprosy reactions are a major cause of nerve damage and morbidity in a significant proportion of leprosy patients. Reactions are immunologically mediated and can occur even after successful completion of multi-drug therapy. This review focuses on the epidemiology, pathology and treatment of leprosy type 1 reactions, erythema nodosum leprosum and silent neuropathy.
Population structure and impact of supportive breeding inferred from mitochondrial and microsatellite DNA analyses in land‐locked Atlantic salmon Salmo salar L.

Four tributaries of Lake St‐Jean (Québec, Canada) are used for spawning and juvenile habitat by land‐locked Atlantic salmon. Spawning runs have drastically declined since the mid‐1980s, and consequently, a supportive‐breeding programme was undertaken in 1990. In this study, we analysed seven microsatellite loci and mtDNA, and empirically estimated effective population sizes to test the hypotheses that (i) fish spawning in different tributaries form genetically distinct populations and (ii) the supportive breeding programme causes genetic perturbations on wild populations. Allele frequency distribution, molecular variance and genetic distance estimates all supported the hypothesis of genetic differentiation among salmon from different tributaries. Gene flow among some populations was much more restricted than previously reported for anadromous populations despite the small geographical scale (40 km) involved. Both mtDNA and microsatellites revealed a more pronounced differentiation between populations from two tributaries of a single river compared with their differentiation with a population from a neighbouring river. The comparison of wild and F1‐hatchery fish (produced from breeders originating from the same river) indicated significant changes in allele frequencies and losses of low‐frequency alleles but no reduction in heterozygosity. Estimates of variance and inbreeding population size indicated that susceptibility to genetic drift and inbreeding in one population increased by twofold after only one generation of supplementation.
Persistent Contrails and Contrail Cirrus. Part I: Large-Eddy Simulations from Inception to Demise

AbstractLarge-eddy simulations with size-resolved microphysics are used to model persistent aircraft contrails and contrail-induced cirrus from a few wing spans behind the aircraft until their demise after many hours. Schemes for dynamic local ice binning and updating coupled radiation dynamically as needed in individual columns were developed for numerical efficiency, along with a scheme for maintaining realistic ambient turbulence over long times. These capabilities are used to study some of the critical dynamics involved in contrail evolution and to explore the simulation features required for adequate treatment of different components. A “quasi 3D” approach is identified as a useful approximation of the full dynamics, reducing the computation to allow a larger parameter space to be studied. Ice crystal number loss involving competition between different crystal sizes is found to be significant for both young contrails and aging contrail cirrus. As a consequence, the sensitivity to the initial number o.
Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous: Mission Summary

On February 14, 2000, the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous spacecraft (NEAR Shoemaker) began the first orbital study of an asteroid, the near-Earth object 433 Eros. Almost a year later, on February 12, 2001, NEAR Shoemaker completed its mission by landing on the asteroid and acquiring data from its surface. NEAR Shoemaker’s intensive study has found an average density of 2.67 ± 0.03, almost uniform within the asteroid. Based upon solar fluorescence X-ray spectra obtained from orbit, the abundance of major rock-forming elements at Eros may be consistent with that of ordinary chondrite meteorites except for a depletion in S. Such a composition would be consistent with spatially resolved, visible and near-infrared (NIR) spectra of the surface. Gamma-ray spectra from the surface show Fe to be depleted from chondritic values, but not K. Eros is not a highly differentiated body, but some degree of partial melting or differentiation cannot be ruled out. No evidence has been found for compositional heterogeneity or an intrinsic magnetic field. The surface is covered by a regolith estimated at tens of meters thick, formed by successive impacts. Some areas have lesser surface age and were apparently more recently disturbed or covered by regolith. A small center of mass offset from the center of figure suggests regionally nonuniform regolith thickness or internal density variation. Blocks have a nonuniform distribution consistent with emplacement of ejecta from the youngest large crater. Some topographic features indicate tectonic deformations. Several regional-scale linear features have related orientations, suggesting a globally consolidated internal structure. Structural control of crater shapes hints that such internal structure is pervasive. From the bulk density, inferred composition, and evidence for global structure, Eros is interpreted to be largely intact but extensively fractured.
Does it pay off to ‘ buy ’ well ?

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) offer a framework to shed a new light on whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance enhances corporate financial performance (CFP). Using ASSET4 data as a measurement of CSR performance in a sample of worldwide deals for the period 2004-2017, I find evidence that the environmental performance of target firms enhances acquirers’ shareholder wealth. No influence is found for different value implications in different institutional contexts. Additionally, shareholders reward (disvalue) acquirers even stronger if the target is outperforming (underperforming) the acquirer in environmental performance. These findings suggest that shareholders reward the acquirer for making environmental investments and support the stakeholder view, which indicates that fulfilling stakeholder interests can be combined with shareholder wealth creation.
Tensile and Morphological Properties of Bacterial Cellulose Nanowhiskers Reinforced Polylactic Acid Nanocomposites

In this study, bacterial cellulose nanowhiskers (BCNW) reinforced polylactic acid (PLA) nanocomposites were prepared using solution casting technique. The BCNW nanofiller was first isolated from bacterial cellulose (BC) using acid hydrolysis treatment. PLA/BCNW nanocomposites were prepared by the addition of various amounts of BCNW [1–4 parts per hundred parts of polymer (phr)] into PLA matrix. The produced PLA/BCNW nanocomposites were then investigated using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, tensile testing and atomic force microscopy (AFM). FTIR spectra analysis indicates that the acid hydrolysis of BC did not altered the chemical structure of isolated BCNW. The tensile testing was revealed that the addition of BCNW into PLA improved the tensile properties of PLA/BCNW nanocomposites. The highest tensile strength of PLA/BCNW was obtained with the addition of 3 phr BCNW which dedicated to approximately 27 MPa. The Young’s modulus of the PLA/BCNW nanocomposites increased with increasing the BCNW content due to the stiffening effect of the high modulus BCNW reinforcement. However, elongation at break of PLA/BCNW nanocomposites decreased with the addition of BCNW compared to neat PLA. AFM images of PLA/BCNW nanocomposites indicates the presence of BCNW in PLA/BCNW nanocomposites. The relatively good tensile properties of PLA/BCNW shows its suitability in a wide range of applications such as packaging.
Terrestrial record of methane hydrate dissociation in the Early Cretaceous

Reconstruction of changing C isotopic composition of Early Cretaceous atmospheric CO2 from fossilized C3 vascular land-plant tissue revealed a brief and striking negative excursion (D 25‰) in atmospheric d 13 C, followed by a rapid positive compensation (D 15‰) during the Aptian (ca. 117 Ma). Mass-balance calculations show that dissociation of a small amount of methane gas hydrate is the most tenable cause of the negative excursion; this would also result in an increased CO2:O2 mixing ratio as O2 is consumed during CH4 oxidation to CO2, spurring the exponential phase of angiosperm biogeographic expansion.
Standardization of recipe for preparation of guava jelly bar

Firm ripe guava fruits of Lucknow-49 harvested from college farm were used for the study. Jelly bar of 2 cm x 7 cm pieces were made and packed in LDPE and laminated aluminium foil pouches. Storage study was conducted in ambient and refrigerated conditions for two months. Among different treatment combinations, the recipe with 50 % sugar, 0.3% citric acid and 0.5 % pectin added to pulp extract recorded highest organoleptic score. Physico-chemical characteristics like total sugars and TSS increased while acidity, pectin content, ascorbic acid, and organoleptic scores decreased in the jelly bar stored in ambient condition while the changes are negligible for the jelly bar in refrigerated storage. Jelly bar packed in laminated aluminium foil and stored in refrigerated condition has better quality till consumption.
Chitosan-properties and applications in dentistry

Biomaterials are those non-living materials used in the medical, biomedical and other fields, aiming to interact with the biological system [1]. Many of these materials, such as chitosan, are used as effective alternatives for the replacement of tissues, including bone tissue, since they do not present risks of disease transmission or immune rejection, as well as unlimited availability and low cost [2]. Recently, several researches have been carried out aiming at new materials capable of being associated with other substances that promote bone formation, especially biopolymers, in particular chitosan, which presents great potential in the repair of bone defects, in relation to the limitations of other biomaterials [3].