Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Trade Liberalization and MSME Framework: Impact on Firm Productivity and Markups

This paper examines the effects of tariff and non-tariff reductions on firm-level productivity and markups of large as well as Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in India’s manufacturing sector for the 1999-2009 period. We calculate input and final goods tariffs, effective rates of protection (ERP) and non-tariff barriers (NTBs) for broad product groups using information from India’s Exim Policy of 1997-2003 and 2004-09 to examine this impact. We use a balanced as well as unbalanced firm-level panel data set, while taking into account firm, industry, state and time-specific factors. By using fixed effect models and Heckman’s two-step estimation procedure, we find that trade liberalization is associated with improved firm-level productivity for large firms whereas this is not the case for MSMEs. We posit that this might be due to the relative disadvantages that Indian MSMEs face which prevent them from benefiting from trade liberalization. We also find that productivity gains arising from the sourcing of imported inputs have been greater than those arising from increased product competition and that NTB liberalization has had a greater impact compared to tariff liberalization on firm-level productivity. Markups are found to have declined due to increased final goods competition. Changes in MSME legislation and classification of firms are also found to have a bearing on firm performance.
Heat Resistance of Listeria monocytogenes in Dairy Matrices Involved in Mozzarella di Bufala Campana PDO Cheese

The presence of Listeria monocytogenes in Mozzarella di Bufala Campana Protected Designation of Origin cheeses may depend on curd stretching conditions and post contaminations before packaging. To avoid cross-contamination, thermal treatment of water, brines and covering liquid may become necessary. The present study aimed to improve knowledge about L. monocytogenes thermal resistance focusing on the influence of some cheese making operations, namely curd stretching and heat treatment of fluids in contact with cheese after molding, in order to improve the safety of the cheese, optimize efficacy and sustainability of the processes. Moreover, the role that cheese curd stretching plays in L. monocytogenes inactivation was discussed. The 12 tested strains showed a very heterogeneous heat resistance that ranged from 7 to less than 1 Log10 Cfu/mL reduction after 8 min at 60°C. D-values (decimal reduction times) and z-values (thermal resistance constant) calculated for the most heat resistant strain among 60 and 70°C were highly affected by the matrix and, in particular, heat resistance noticeably increased in drained cheese curd. As cheese curd stretching is not an isothermal process, to simulate the overall lethal effect of an industrial process a secondary model was built. The lethal effect of the process was estimated around 4 Log10 reductions. The data provided may be useful for fresh pasta filata cheese producers in determining appropriate processing durations and temperatures for producing safe cheeses.
CircRNAs Dysregulated in Juvenile Myelomonocytic Leukemia: CircMCTP1 Stands Out

Juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML), a rare myelodysplastic/myeloproliferative neoplasm of early childhood, is characterized by clonal growth of RAS signaling addicted stem cells. JMML subtypes are defined by specific RAS pathway mutations and display distinct gene, microRNA (miRNA) and long non-coding RNA expression profiles. Here we zoom in on circular RNAs (circRNAs), molecules that, when abnormally expressed, may participate in malignant deviation of cellular processes. CirComPara software was used to annotate and quantify circRNAs in RNA-seq data of a “discovery cohort” comprising 19 JMML patients and 3 healthy donors (HD). In an independent set of 12 JMML patients and 6 HD, expression of 27 circRNAs was analyzed by qRT-PCR. CircRNA-miRNA-gene networks were reconstructed using circRNA function prediction and gene expression data. We identified 119 circRNAs dysregulated in JMML and 59 genes showing an imbalance of the circular and linear products. Our data indicated also circRNA expression differences among molecular subgroups of JMML. Validation of a set of deregulated circRNAs in an independent cohort of JMML patients confirmed the down-regulation of circOXNAD1 and circATM, and a marked up-regulation of circLYN, circAFF2, and circMCTP1. A new finding in JMML links up-regulated circMCTP1 with known tumor suppressor miRNAs. This and other predicted interactions with miRNAs connect dysregulated circRNAs to regulatory networks. In conclusion, this study provides insight into the circRNAome of JMML and paves the path to elucidate new molecular disease mechanisms putting forward circMCTP1 up-regulation as a robust example.
Applying Single-Cell Technology in Uveal Melanomas: Current Trends and Perspectives for Improving Uveal Melanoma Metastasis Surveillance and Tumor Profiling

Uveal melanoma (UM) is the most common primary adult intraocular malignancy. This rare but devastating cancer causes vision loss and confers a poor survival rate due to distant metastases. Identifying clinical and molecular features that portend a metastatic risk is an important part of UM workup and prognostication. Current UM prognostication tools are based on determining the tumor size, gene expression profile, and chromosomal rearrangements. Although we can predict the risk of metastasis fairly accurately, we cannot obtain preclinical evidence of metastasis or identify biomarkers that might form the basis of targeted therapy. These gaps in UM research might be addressed by single-cell research. Indeed, single-cell technologies are being increasingly used to identify circulating tumor cells and profile transcriptomic signatures in single, drug-resistant tumor cells. Such advances have led to the identification of suitable biomarkers for targeted treatment. Here, we review the approaches used in cutaneous melanomas and other cancers to isolate single cells and profile them at the transcriptomic and/or genomic level. We discuss how these approaches might enhance our current approach to UM management and review the emerging data from single-cell analyses in UM.
Rutting Performance of Semi-Rigid Base Pavement in RIOHTrack and Laboratory Evaluation

Through a simple performance dynamic modulus test (SPT), standard rutting test, Hamburg rutting test, French rutting test and asphalt pavement analyzer rutting test, the rutting resistance of asphalt mixtures in the middle and lower courses of three semi-rigid base asphalt pavement of Beijing full-scale test track road in China was evaluated. The test results show that the rutting resistance of asphalt mixtures of the middle and lower courses can be greatly improved by using low-grade asphalt, especially 30# asphalt. The rutting resistance of SBS modified asphalt mixtures is also better. The SPT dynamic modulus test can indirectly characterize the rutting performance of the asphalt mixture. The rutting test results of a laser road detection vehicle and 3 m ruler show that the asphalt grade has a significant impact on the rutting performance of semi-rigid base asphalt pavement. Compared with 70# asphalt used in the middle and lower courses, the rutting resistance of the pavement structure can be improved by more than 20%. The result also show that the APA rutting test results can closely characterize the full-scale test track results, which is an optimal test method for evaluating the rutting performance of semi-rigid base asphalt pavement. The research results can provide a theoretical basis and reference for the rational design and rutting evaluation of semi-rigid base asphalt pavement.
C-Terminal Binding Proteins Promote Neurogenesis and Oligodendrogenesis in the Subventricular Zone

C-terminal binding proteins (CtBPs) are transcriptional modulators that can regulate gene expression through the recruitment of a corepressor complex composed of chromatin-modifying enzymes and transcriptional factors. In the brain, CtBPs have been described as regulators of cell proliferation, differentiation, and survival. Nevertheless, the role of CtBPs on postnatal neural stem cells (NSCs) fate is not known yet. Herein, we evaluate the expression and functions of CtBPs in postnatal NSCs from the subventricular zone (SVZ). We found that CtBPs were expressed in immature/progenitor cells, neurons and glial cells in the SVZ niche. Using the CtBPs modulator 4-methylthio 2-oxobutyric acid (MTOB), our results showed that 1 mM of MTOB induced cell death, while 5, 25, and 50 μM increased the number of proliferating neuroblasts, mature neurons, and oligodendrocytes. Interestingly, it also increased the dendritic complexity of immature neurons. Altogether, our results highlight CtBPs putative application for brain regenerative applications.
Children Only 3 Years Old Can Succeed at Conditional “If, Then” Reasoning, Much Earlier Than Anyone Had Thought Possible

That conditional, if-then reasoning does not emerge until 4–5 years has long been accepted. Here we show that children barely 3 years old can do conditional reasoning. All that was needed was a superficial change to the stimuli: When color was a property of the shapes (line drawings of a star and truck) rather than of the background (as in all past conditional discrimination [CD] testing), 3-year-olds could succeed. Three-year-olds do not seem to use color to inform them which shape is correct unless color is a property of the shapes themselves. While CD requires integrating color and shape information, the dimensional change card sort (DCCS) task requires keeping those dimension cognitively separate – inhibiting attention to one (e.g., shape) when sorting by the other (e.g., color). For DCCS, a superficial change to the stimuli that is the inverse of what helps on CD enables 3-year-olds to succeed when normally they do not until ∼4⁤12 years. As we and others have previously shown, 3-year-olds can succeed at DCCS when color is a property of the background (e.g., a white truck on a red background), instead of a property of the stimulus (e.g., a red truck on a white background, as in standard DCCS). Our findings on CD and DCCS suggest that scaffolding preschoolers’ emerging conceptual skills by changing the way stimuli look (perceptual bootstrapping) enables 3-year-olds to demonstrate reasoning abilities long thought beyond their grasp. Evidently, children of 3 years have difficulty mentally separating dimensions (e.g., color and shape) of the same object and difficulty mentally integrating dimensions not part of the same object. Our present CD findings plus our earlier DCCS findings provide strong evidence against prominent cognitive complexity, conditional reasoning, and graded memory theories for why 3-year-olds fail these two tasks. The ways we have traditionally queried children may have obscured the budding reasoning competencies present at 3 years of age.
Building resilience in the Stronglinks program: exploring experiences of stress, coping, and resilience for Latina adolescents in a school-based program.

Using a Participant Action Research model, this study explores the experiences of stress, coping, and resilience in a group of Latina adolescent girls participating in Stronglinks, a strengths-focused, school-based girls program. This project aims to understand how girls defined and understood the constructs of stress and coping, ways they coped with stress, and whether aspects of the Stronglinks program they experienced as helpful were associated with factors and/ or systems implicated in resilience development. Both qualitative interview data from preand post-Stronglinks participation and scores from a coping checklist were used to explore the girls’ experiences. Findings suggest that different types of relationships, including friendships, family relationships, and relationships with boys, were particularly stressful for girls. However, girls in this group also sought support from these very relationships as a primary coping strategy. Other coping strategies included distraction, emotional expression, and daydreaming. Relationship building with both peers and with adult leaders, learning new coping skills, improving self-esteem, and increasing self-knowledge were aspects of the Stronglinks program experienced as most helpful by participants. Ways these identified factors are aligned with resilience development, particularly in the context of the Positive Youth Development (PYD) model are discussed. In conclusion, implications of this project from a relational-cultural and ecological framework are explored and directions for future research are identified.
Resilience in the Endurance Runner: The Role of Self-Regulatory Modes and Basic Psychological Needs

Endurance sports certainly require an important and delicate task of mental and physical reintegration from the impact of the fatigue induced by the exertion of the sport performance. The topic of the resilience of athletes has been the theme of numerous studies, however, there are few specific works on the psychological resilience of runners. Our study aimed to investigate Resilience in Endurance Runner related to the role of Self-Regulation Modes and Basic Psychological Needs. Especially, the aim of our work was presenting a model where the gratification of the Needs of Autonomy and Competence and the level of Locomotion were the predictors of the two main components of Richardson’s resilience: Homeostatic and Resilient Reintegration. The present study involved 750 endurance runners, members of the Fidal (Italian Athletics Federation). A SEM analysis was performed combining into one explanatory model the following variables: Autonomy and Competence Satisfaction, Self-Regulatory Locomotion Mode, Homeostatic and Resilient Reintegration. The model showed overall acceptable fit measurements: χ2 = 872.152; CFI = 0.966; TLI = 0.952; RMSEA = 0.058. Results indicated that BPNs and SRMs are predictors of the level of resilience in endurance running athletes. In particular, Resilient Reintegration was mainly affected by Locomotion Mode (β = 0.379 for p < 0.005), which in turn received a major influence from Autonomy Satisfaction (β = 0.574 for p < 0.001). Homeostatic Recovery was found to be affected by Competence Satisfaction (β = 0.489 for p < 0.001). The study pointed out the importance of supporting in endurance runners the gratification of the needs of Autonomy and Competence as key factors capable of enhancing perseverance, timely recovery and psychophysical balance.
Hope, gratitude, meaningfulness and well-being in Czechstudents

The study focuses on examining of the moderating role of particular character strengths (hope, gratitude, meaningfulness) in subjective well-being in Czech students. The main aim of the study was to identify the relationships between psychological well-being and hope, gratitude and meaningfulness of life. The other aim was to analyze the correlation rate between hope, gratitude and meaningfulness of life, and also to compare the results of Secondary School students and University students. The Czech version of the PWBS, Hope Scale, GQ-6 and PIL were administred to the sample of 350 respondents. The sample consisted of 175 Secondary school students and 175 University students. Cronbach's alfa was calculated to prove reliability and internal consistency of the methods. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, regression and correlation analysis. There are differences between Secondary school students and University students in rates of well-being and hope. The results of this study on positive relationships among variables are similar but not identical with the results of foreign studies.
Changes in industrial leadership and catch-up by latecomers in shipbuilding industry†

This study considers the shipbuilding industry to explain the successive changes in leadership from the Schumpeterian perspective. The window of opportunity for Japan to forge ahead of the UK was the arrival and employment of new technologies, a method referred to as welding block. The Japanese firms also adopted path-creation, a strategy that involves the use of innovations more promptly than the incumbent UK, which had delayed adoption due to the opposition of labour unions. The leadership shift from Japan to Korea also represents path-creation given that Korean firms responded quickly to the rise of a new window of opportunity (i.e. systematised 3D computer-aided design technologies) and met the newly rising demand in large vessels that was the second window of opportunity. Both of these cases of path-creation are an adoption and follow-on innovation mode because the latecomers not only adopted new technologies, but also reinvented them further into a new system of production. This study also finds the unique, institutional nature of the source of the incumbent trap in the shipbuilding industry, which is different from that associated with the relative costs and benefits of new versus old technologies. In addition, this study identifies the peculiarity of the technological regimes of the shipbuilding sector and the associated unique nature of the technological window of opportunity, which are not merely competence-destroying innovations of component technologies but a consolidation of a new systematised technology that has changed the entire process of shipbuilding.
Emerging youth tourism: fostering young travelers’ conservation intentions

ABSTRACT Greening is one of the most important issues faced by the tourism industry today. Nevertheless, theoretical and empirical research on young travelers’ sustainable behaviors is scarce. This study developed a conceptual framework involving biospheric value, environmental concern, environmental awareness, ascribed responsibility, and moral norm in order to better explain young travelers’ pro-environmental decision-making process. A total of seven hypotheses were proposed and tested using structural equation modeling. Results revealed that the postulated theoretical model satisfactorily accounted for three dimensions of young tourists’ environmentally responsible intentions; the study variables are all significantly related; and the mediating impact of moral norm and environmental concern was evident. Moreover, the prominent role of moral norm in forming intentions was noteworthy. Our findings from the invariance test further indicated that environmental awareness and ascribed responsibility acted as moderators. The implications of these results are discussed.
WATER HYACINTH AS A BIOLOGICAL TREATMENT FOR SEWAGE WASTE WATER IN AQUACULTURE EARTHEN PONDS

field study was applied at Shader Azam ,while the laboratory analysis was conducted at Central Laboratory for Aquaculture Research (CLAR), Abbassa Abou-Hammad, Sharkia Governorate. This study was designed to investigate the effect of water hyacinth cultivation in earthen pond on removal of different pollutatnts such as heavy metals, nitrogen compounds and their effect on growth performance of Nile tilapia and Mullet. The removal of heavy metals from sewage wastewater in aquaculture earthen ponds by the water hyacinth, Eichhorma crassipes (Mart.) was investigated. Results showedthat water hyacinth adsorbed organic compounds, improved pH, NHs, DO, nitrogen compound and SD. Also, water hyacinth absorbed phosphorous from sewage wastewater. The reduction of heavy metals from sewage wastewater ranged from 24 to 82.5%. The cultivation of water hyacinth in ponds decreased growth performance of Nile tilapia and Mullet, but the accumulation of heavy metals in fish organs was sharply decreased with increasing water hyacinth cultivation in ponds. The highest concentrations of heavy metals were found in liver tissues followed by gills then muscles. Only gutted fish with removed gills would be recommended for consumption due to the heavy metals concentrations in gills, liver and kidney tissues. The accumulation of heavy metals in the plant roots was higher than in leaves. Water hyacinth was found to remove about 90% of different pollutants from sewage wastewater. A
Response to reviewers

This manuscript describes new nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) cycling processes that have been added to a new version of the UVic ESCM intermediate complexity Earth system model. The new processes are well justified, clearly described and well supported by citations to relevant literature, data syntheses, and 10 theory. The new model functions are evaluated using global datasets of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus pools and/or fluxes and the level of agreement and areas for improvement in the model are described clearly and fairly. Overall, this is a well-written model description paper.
Firm Life Cycle, Expectation Errors and Future Stock Returns

I study the return predictability of firm life cycle, originally documented by Dickinson (2011). I show that a hedge portfolio strategy going long on mature firms and short on introduction firms generates a significant hedge portfolio return of 1.4% per month in return-weighted portfolios and 0.75% in value-weighted portfolios. The returns to firm life cycle are related to investors’ and analysts’ expectation errors, are driven by market-wide investor sentiment, and are more pronounced among stocks with low institutional ownership and high idiosyncratic volatility. Quantile regressions show that introduction firms have considerably greater uncertainty and skewness in future earnings growth outcomes than mature firms, such that analysts are better able to justify optimistically biased forecasts for introduction firms compared to mature firms.
Magnetic and Newtonian noises in Advanced Virgo: evaluation and mitigation strategies

In the present study, I table the first detailed estimation of the magnetic noise contribution to the Advanced Virgo sensitivity to gravitational waves. I tackle the topic by performing experimental assessments and numerical finite element simulations, all accompanied by careful data analysis. Results suggest that the magnetic noise impact for Advanced Virgo is not dramatic, but it will eventually be a considerable issue once the detector will approach its final design. In anticipation of that, I propose a mitigation strategy based on passive magnetic field shielding. In the second part, I deal with seismic newtonian noise, focusing on two crucial aspects involving the noise cancellation pipeline. These are the choice of the subtraction filter and the optimization of the seismic sensor array placement. The former issue required the definition of a machine learning algorithm based on deep neural networks, and its fine tuning. Results give some indication of good performances compared to the standard Wiener filter approach. The problem of the sensors deployment is instead addressed with the finite element analysis of the actual Virgo infrastructure and underground soil layers surrounding the test masses.